For Robert Campbell, a new TruBlue Home Service Ally franchisee in North Carolina, business has never been about transactions. It has always been about transformation.

“I have always wanted to give back,” Campbell said. “I grew up in Missouri in poverty. I joined the Marine Corps and served in two wars. I spent over 20 years and retired as a major with a master’s degree. It wasn’t easy.”

After retiring from the military, Campbell moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he became a pastor at a small church. Under his leadership, that church grew significantly and eventually built a multi-million-dollar complex. But even as the church expanded, his focus remained the same: serve people who need opportunity.

“Since I got here, I’ve always been trying to help people,” he said.

That commitment led him beyond ministry and into community development. Campbell built affordable housing for senior citizens using low-income tax credits. He purchased and renovated multifamily properties to lower rent. He developed a nonprofit, New H.O.P.E. CDC, centered around helping “ordinary people excel.” He is currently building 34 units of permanent housing for chronically homeless veterans, an $8 million project funded through grants he personally wrote.

In every chapter of his life, service has been the through line. So when Campbell began exploring a workforce development program that would train people to repair homes and give them stable jobs, he assumed he would build it from scratch.

“In trying to buy housing and build affordable housing, I was looking to start workforce development. I thought I would train people to fix houses and give them jobs,” he said. “But as I started writing up the program, it was so hard.”

Then he saw TruBlue, the senior handyman and home maintenance franchise. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is a business with a purpose,’” Campbell said. “You can merge service and community, that is my sweet spot.”

A Five-Star Standard of Service

Campbell didn’t just see a handyman business. He saw alignment with his values, his experience and his vision for impact. “I decided to look into TruBlue and I really liked the ethos, the integrity, all of those things,” he said. “We decided to go ahead and invest in the franchise.”

For Campbell, the brand’s premium positioning was especially important. Years earlier, when building his church in Wilmington’s inner city, he faced skepticism from people who doubted what the space could become.

“When I was starting our church, we were in the inner city and had bars in the windows. People were afraid to come there at night,” he said. “But I shared with our people that we were going to build a five-star church.”

That same philosophy applies to his TruBlue business today. “TruBlue is a five-star premium service,” Campbell said. “We go a step above. We sweat the details and we come into people’s homes and we respect it. It’s not finished until we do our five-star walkaround.”

For him, the service model is not just about repairs. It is about dignity. “What’s going to determine how the client feels about the job is how they feel about you,” he said. “That is why I teach five-star service. It’s about relationships. If we make good relationships, we can bring in repeat customers.”

Serving the Silver Tsunami

A major factor in Campbell’s decision to join TruBlue was its focus on seniors and aging in place. “TruBlue did a great job of helping us understand that a ‘silver tsunami’ is coming,” he said. “I am a baby boomer myself, and I know that 65 is just getting in the game nowadays.”

As both a senior and a real estate investor, he owns personal real estate in five states, Campbell deeply understands the needs of aging homeowners.

“As a senior, we sometimes forget that we are not 21 anymore,” he said. “So many people know about the risk of falling, yet they still get on ladders.”

He recalls a recent moment that reinforced that reality. “I went to change a lightbulb the other day, on a step ladder, but when I was coming down, I almost broke my neck,” he said. “We don’t age in our minds as much as we age in our bodies. It just isn’t worth it. Sometimes you can have a fall and get those types of injuries that you never recover from.”

Through quarterly maintenance plans and proactive home safety services, Campbell sees TruBlue as a way to help seniors avoid those risks and remain safely in their homes.

A Business That Creates Opportunity

For Campbell, TruBlue’s mission extends even further. It connects directly to his nonprofit work and long-term community development vision. “I get to give back. I love seniors,” he said. “I not only get to give them an awesome place to live, but now with TruBlue, I can offer premium services to other seniors as well.”

In that way, TruBlue becomes more than a franchise, it becomes infrastructure for opportunity. “I thought that I would buy this business for myself and use it for hope,” he said.

Campbell’s ambitions do not stop at a single territory. “My goal is to expand with TruBlue into other states,” he said. “I believe that when I talk to them this time next year, we are going to outperform most franchisees. I’m an overachiever. I stuttered as a kid, but I still gave the graduation speech.”

That drive, shaped by adversity, service and vision, fuels everything he builds. “We are a home service ally for people. One call does it all,” Campbell said. “This is my life and who I am, and I love it.”

For more information on franchising with TruBlue, visit: https://1851franchise.com/trubluehomeserviceally/info.