Unlock the secrets of turning a fiery passion into a thriving business with the awe-inspiring journey of Oakley Inkersell, our latest guest on Business Bytes Social Media Uncovered. Oakley's not your average 20-year-old; he's a TikTok sensation who transformed his love for car detailing into an entrepreneurial victory lap. In this episode, we're not just talking about shining cars—we're talking about a shining example of how to channel your energy and social media savvy into tangible success.
Risk is the game's name, and Oakley played it like a pro. Drawing from Alex Hormozi's wisdom, he bet on his skills to build a business that's now racing ahead of the curve. The thrill of expansion, the trials of hiring, and the struggle against the traditional academic grind—Oakley has navigated through it all, and he's here to tell us how. His story is a beacon for young go-getters everywhere, proving that the road less traveled might just be your shortcut to success.
Education is changing gears, and Oakley's riding shotgun, showing us that the school of YouTube and the university of online entrepreneurship can be just as valuable as a degree. We'll explore the strategic use of social media that's not just about getting likes, but about creating trust and establishing a brand that stands out in a crowded marketplace. Buckle up for an episode that details not just cars but a blueprint for driving your business forward, no matter your age or experience.
Oakleys Social Media
Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cleanercars.nz
Website - https://cleanercars.nz/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cleanercars.nz/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alright, so welcome back to the BusinessBike Social
Media Uncovered podcast, wherewe dive deep into the stories of
those who are cutting throughthe digital noise and making a
real impact with their brands.
I'm your host, matt McKay, andtoday we're going through a
story that is nothing short ofinspiring, a journey that is
going to light a fire underevery business owner listening
in.
In the spotlight today, oakleyIngersell is a name that has
been buzzing in the businessworld across social media
(00:20):
platforms.
At the age of 20, oakley hasnot only become the talk of the
town but a sensation on TikTokwith over 500,000 likes, 36,000
followers who cannot get enoughof his car detailing videos.
Just the likes and the followsthat make his story compelling.
It's the hustle, the bolddecisions and the vision for
something greater.
Each of the notable publicationslike the Otago Daily Times and
Making Headlines in the Sun inthe UK.
(00:41):
Oakley's journey fromuniversity student to owner and
founder of cleaner cars is onefor the books.
Oakley is a new car-validatingbusiness that has been booked
out for weeks in advance, allthrough the power of word of
mouth in the savvy TikTokmarketing.
For every listener out therethinking about taking the leap,
wondering if it's worth the risk.
Oakley Ingersell's story is aresounding yes From quitting
(01:06):
university to becoming aself-made or tributary.
Oakley Ingersell is a newcar-validating business that has
been built in the past.
Oakley Ingersell's story is aresounding yes, from quitting
university to becoming aself-made or tributary.
Oakley embodies the spirit ofinnovation, resilience and the
shared joy of following one'spassion.
Oakley, welcome to the show.
It's an absolute pleasure tohave you here today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Thank you very much, matt.
What an introduction Awesome.
I've never had an introductionlike that, so thank you very
much.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I've been really excited to have you since we
were talking because I justthink if anyone can resonate
with this story, it's going tobe so many of those younger
generation that feel likethey're kind of lost in the
world and feel like universityor traditional ways of
communicating is really the onlyway that they can go.
But I think, with the platformsout there like TikTok, with
(01:54):
social media and just the hustleand bustle of actually owning
your own business, I feel likethis episode is going to be
really, really cool andhopefully inspiring to everyone
listening.
So I wanted to start with thebasics.
So it's incredible to see whatyou've achieved and I think I've
commented on a few videosbefore we even messaged via
TikTok.
I feel like the way that youcan transition a simple or
(02:16):
simple in your eyes, a way thatyou can clean a car most
probably hard for most people tocomprehend about how to take a
car that's extremely dirty andturn it into a masterpiece, but
I feel like your storytellingability is phenomenal.
So can you tell me it's such ayoung age.
Can you walk us through whatinspired the initial idea and
what were the first steps youtook to turn that into reality?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So I've kind of been entrepreneurial my whole life.
I grew up in a family business.
My grandparents owned acatering business down in Timaru
so I've been working with themfor generations in the family in
that business for since I waslike 10 years old and I did
entrepreneurial stuff sellingdonuts, selling loom bands at
that business.
And in high school I competedin the Young Enterprise Scheme,
(02:58):
which is like a businessdevelopment sort of course in
high school, and I did reallywell in that.
That got me my business placefirst in Canterbury for that and
that was an educational cardgame teaching kids about what's
in their food, so like toptrumps.
And while I was doing this Iwas also running an Instagram
page for forward driving becauseI liked forward driving and
(03:20):
trucks and I grew that to 40,000on TikTok and 10,000 Instagram
and I monetized it by sellingrooftop tents and awnings that
are imported from China.
So I've kind of been doing theTikTok thing for a while and
I've always liked business.
And then out of high school Iwent to university, studied
(03:42):
business, found out it wasn't mything.
I'd rather run a business thanlearn about business, because
I've already been running abusiness for years, just at a
smaller scale.
So I went to university, foundout I didn't like it, left after
my first year and went all inon car cleaning Because I knew
(04:02):
how to clean cars and I knewthat if I did what I know how to
do on social media andconsistently keep doing it for
months and months, it would haveto work out because it was my
only option.
If it's your only option, Ithink you just got to make it
work and I did.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, I mean it's crazy that you just casually say
that you grew an account to40,000 and monetized it and did
all of your things and thendecided to do a different
business.
I feel like that you'veencapsulated most people's
lifetime in about five, sixyears, right?
Like so many people areguaranteed you're going to be
watching this or listening tothis and being like I've tried
(04:40):
that so many times and it hasn'tworked.
So what do you feel like for Imean pulling everything back
again to that first account?
What do you feel like for yougets a video from zero views or
zero followers to X amount ofviews, like I mean views of
Vanity Metrics?
What I'm obsessed about is howmany followers you can get on
those accounts, becausefollowers, especially on TikTok,
(05:02):
are very, very hard, right,yeah.
So what do you think spikedthat community with that first
page?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So my first page it was called NZ4x4 Club and I just
posted pictures of otherpeople's trucks that they were
really proud of and I postedvideos of them doing cool,
stupid stuff in the trucks.
And this was when I was like 16, I think I started this.
I was working at the freezingworks down in Temeru over my
school holidays and during mysmogo and lunch break I would
(05:34):
just post, I would make the post, queue posts and post about
three, four times a day and justconsistently doing that every
day.
And also I would follow peopleback.
The maximum amount of followersin a day I think it was like a
hundred interactions you couldhave I would just follow
everyone back on the page biggerthan mine and then that some of
(05:56):
them would follow me back.
So it just slowly grows you.
It was honestly just a grindand a hustle and consistency.
When I went back to schoolafter the holidays, I was still
posting in my morning tea andlunch break while my friends
were playing and talking to eachother.
I'd just be on my phone.
So it is honestly just a hustleand a grind and consistency.
(06:17):
If you do anything really wellor pretty good for a long amount
of time, you'll see results.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, and it's crazy that, like such a young age like
I know I keep puffing on aboutthe age thing, but there's so
many people that I see that arejust like taking advantage of
their smoke goes or their breaksand just sitting down and doing
nothing.
Where, like, there's so muchtime left in a day if you
actually want to do somethingfor yourself Like you talked
(06:44):
about your business schoolversus creating a business for
yourself, but even you going andgetting a job in your holidays
takes that initiative around,like I don't want to just sit
around and do nothing and I feellike that's that's that's
inspiring to hear.
So when you started thinkingabout that next step and I know
you talked about cars, like andobviously being the first page
(07:05):
is around cars and forwarddriving and stuff like that when
was it when you realized thatyou could take the everyday
cleaning your own car to thenmaking a business out of it,
like, where did you feel likethat next step was?
Because everyone starts toenjoy cleaning the car that they
like driving, but then itbecomes a chore at some point.
So how did you turn that, Iguess, chore in most people's
(07:28):
eyes into something that youabsolutely are obsessed with and
created probably one of thebiggest businesses you could
look for in terms of scaling,that sort of things.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So the reason I started a car detailing business
or car cleaning business wasbecause I knew how to clean cars
.
I had worked at Espresso carwash the school holidays after I
finished high school for acouple of months and I learned
the skills.
And then I was watching an AlexHormozzi video one day when I
was leading up to knowing that Iwas going to drop out of uni.
(07:58):
What am I going to do?
I have to do something.
I don't want to get a job, Iwant to start my own business
and make it work.
And Alex Hormozzi I heard fromhim what do you know how to do?
What do you know how to do?
Turn it into a business?
And what I thought I knew howto do was car cleaning at the
time.
(08:19):
And another thing Alex Comozzisaid trade your time.
Your time is worth nothing, andmy time was worth nothing at
the point.
So what could I do with my time?
I could clean cars and then athome, when I'm done cleaning
cars, I could make TikToks,because I also knew how to do
that and then put them on socialmedia.
And here we are it's a yearlater and I couldn't have
(08:39):
imagined that this is allhappened.
I've got an employee workingright now.
If you told me this a year ago,I wouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's just consistency , that's it.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So in terms of I guess also before we turn into
the employee and all of thatstuff because I definitely want
to talk about that, because Ifeel like that's a cool step
into the next evolution ofbusiness, which is like another
scary thing you're bringingsomeone on, you've got all these
responsibilities, you've alsothen got a forecast and all this
other stuff.
But when you walked or when youmade that decision to, I mean,
(09:14):
not drop out of uni, but to makethe decision to go into a
business that you're going tothrive in, how was that
conversation?
Because I think a lot oflisteners will go and say the
scary thing for them is thatthey have to then go to their
parents and go.
I don't want to do thistraditional thing that they've
grown up thinking about.
Well, your parents might be adifferent because they've owned
their businesses before, but howwas that conversation?
You don't have to share everydetail, but how was that
(09:36):
conversation when you tried topitch that idea?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well, it's just me and my mom and my grandparents
as well.
So I'm very close with my momside of the family and they have
always been supportive of me.
They've seen me have success inmy businesses throughout high
school so they obviously knewthat I had it in me and if I was
confident in something, I thinkthey would have trusted me.
And also, throughout the year,they saw me hate uni.
(10:01):
They knew I didn't go to uni.
They saw me ball my eyes outmultiple times over tests and
stupid stuff that I just I hated.
I honestly just hated it, hated.
Studying for a test to justforget about it when you have to
learn about the next test.
I just couldn't compare.
It doesn't make sense.
(10:22):
Why would you do that?
And it upset me because I knewwhat I wanted to do and I wanted
to learn and get better andgrow a business and grow myself,
and through a business you cangrow yourself.
But I think anyone in theposition that is scared of
judgment from peers or yourfamily in 10, five years down
(10:43):
the time, if you have asuccessful business, and even if
you don't, will you be proud ofyourself for making that
decision and taking that risk.
I think at this age.
If anyone's my age or evenbelow 30, come on just, you've
got nothing to lose.
It's the best time.
The longer you go on, the morefearful you will be that you
(11:03):
will fail.
And I'm not really afraid offailing at my age because, at
the end of the day, if I go backto having nothing, I am like
most people, my age.
It doesn't really matter if yougo back to having nothing.
Yeah, it's a lot less scarywhen you're younger.
I think people should take morerisks.
That's it.
Just take the risk.
It's always going to be scary.
(11:24):
You never know, gonna know, butI think just do it.
Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Take the risk.
What?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
do you think people your age have they probably have
the capability of doing whatthey imagine to do.
They've probably got this idea.
They're probably trying topitch it to their parents or
formulating in a way ofexplaining it even to themselves
, about not going down thistraditional route which, in New
Zealand, the traditional routeis you go from high school to
(11:52):
university.
I have no idea why, andhopefully that shift changes in
the next 15 or 20 years.
But what do you think isstopping them?
Like I know that, the risk andthe fear, but do you think it's
because they don't surroundthemselves with the right people
?
Do you feel like it's becausethey don't?
Let's say, the Alex Samosysituation like that clearly
indicates to me that you've doneyour research outside of
(12:15):
traditional mediums of gettinginformation.
So you're going to the likes ofYouTube, you're going to the
likes of different pages ordifferent content.
So what do you think they haveto do to kind of navigate that
hill that they're trying toclimb?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
YouTube videos, and not just YouTube videos
education.
Why would not be taking therisks that I would be taking or
let's call them calculated risksnow?
Because I know the risks andI've assessed the situation,
because I've been educated bypeople who know more than me,
who are online and give all thisinformation away completely for
free.
(12:47):
10, 20 years ago, if you couldhave found a billionaire or
future billionaire like AlexSamosy to give you all of his
advice and wisdom and help youget rich like people wouldn't be
able to comprehend that.
And now you can go onto YouTubeand learn from not just one
(13:07):
billionaire, hundreds ofbillionaires, hundreds of
thousands of millionaires thathave done what you want to do
and have blueprints on how to doit and lots of advice.
Like I would not be who I amtoday if I hadn't consumed all
the content that I have online100%.
(13:29):
That has been the biggestcontributor, I think, to the
position that I'm in.
Of course, you've got to takerisks, but you've got to be
educated, of course, and knowstuff.
Like I don't know nothing, Idon't know everything, but I try
and learn as much as I can andyou can learn anything online
for free.
If you want to pay, feel free.
(13:50):
It'll probably fast-track theprocess, but I have not paid for
a single piece of informationthat I've got online and I don't
think I will, because youshouldn't.
It's all there.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
An interesting caveat today is.
do you feel like there will besome sort of shift towards I
guess, not self-learning, butthat self-educational learning
because of, I mean, the risingcosts of universities, but also
that the one train or one trackthinking when it comes to
university like you went into abusiness school that you felt
(14:23):
wasn't educating you enough, tothe point where you felt like
you were being sustained and Ifeel like there's this trend at
the moment that people arestarting to really understand
how powerful being self-employedis.
You know, when I was self-siderbeing self-employed in 2015, it
was the biggest risk you couldever take, but now, thankfully,
you know close to 10 plus yearsor whatever how many years it is
(14:44):
people are starting to takethose risks and it's like an
everyday occurrence now.
So do you feel like there willbe this like paradigm shift
between people actually going Iwant to educate myself without
the burden of a student loanversus going to university just
going through the motions,getting a degree that you don't
end up using?
Do you think there'll be somesort of shift like that?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
100%.
Yeah, because it's simple.
Why would you pay with averagethree-year degree, first year's
free uni minus 10 grand 20, 30kto get a uni degree in New
Zealand and that is really cheapAmerica.
You'd be paying hundreds ofthousands.
So in New Zealand you're luckyyou might pay 30,000 for a
(15:27):
degree.
If you spend a third of that10,000 on education, even a
1,000 on education, you couldlearn probably similar, if not
more, and also on this side withthe university degree, I feel
like it's very localized, likeyou'll get a localized a
professor in Christchurch thatmaybe owned a business or
(15:47):
studied business in university.
Compared to you might haveoptions of hundreds of different
people to learn from, or youcould learn from five, 10
different people at the sametime and pull all their
resources into one and get allthe best things out of it and
learn from them, and until thenit's just a better ROI.
You can learn for eight hours aday from this person that knows
(16:10):
less from them, or learn fourhours a day from people that
know double as much or canchange your business double as
much.
Yeah, it allows you to havecontrol over what you learn.
That's one of the things Ididn't like about uni.
You'd learn stuff that you.
Why am I learning this?
(16:31):
I don't need to learn this, Idon't need to know this and
everything on YouTube.
Youtube is an algorithm.
It sends you the best videosthat have been watched that
YouTube knows are really greatvideos that have educated other
people, or people have watchedthis video till the whole way.
(16:51):
Maybe they've shared it, maybethey've commented, maybe they've
liked it.
Let's push this out to otherpeople, because this is a great
video and this can teach otherpeople.
Yeah, learn online 100%.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, no, it is crazy , when you start thinking about
it, the amount of informationthat's available versus the
small amount of information thatis out.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
It's disgusting.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
And the thing that I was thrown away with.
When you look at universitygoing through it myself and
stuff like that it's alwayscompact into seven weeks.
You're learning six months,seven months worth of
information to seven weeks, andyou end up just rope learning it
With YouTube and theself-learning.
You can actually listen to itas many times as you want, but
(17:31):
you can listen to it indifferent areas, different
mediums, day and night.
It doesn't matter how manytimes.
You can just relearn and keepgoing and actually learn that
process Cool.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
It doesn't feel like learning if you're watching a
YouTube video.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
No, no, and you can have it on the background, what
I found with the podcast side ofthings is that you end up
learning so much by justlistening to it and absorbing it
, when you're not actuallyswitching on and focusing too
much on it.
You're actually just learning somany different things.
When you took that plunge, didyou have some sort of roadmap in
(18:04):
your business to then hire thatfirst employee, which his
name's Jack, right, yeah, yeah,first employee was Jack.
So when that roadmap justbecause again, the other kind of
system or the other demographicthat I'm assuming is going to
be listening to this is theyneed to have everything planned
out.
They need to have the nextseven years, because the next
thing I like exploring is thatevery business, school or
(18:26):
business thing oh, you have tohave a business plan, you have
to have this plan.
You have to have 17 differentdocuments to state exactly what
you want to do.
But, as we've experienced overthe last like four years, and
you would have experienced thislaunching your businesses and
going through the differentsocial media channels every day
is different.
You cannot plan a single day tobe the same.
So therefore, like when youstarted this business, did you
(18:48):
have a plan or like a roadmap,at least in terms of where you
felt like the business was going, or did you just adapt to the
oncoming demand of what you wereexperiencing?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I had goals, of course, and I obviously wanted
this to be a business that Icould work on for years to come
and grow as the business that Ikind of get known for and that
can be my successor.
But in terms of a road like anexact roadmap, of course not.
As you said, business is neverthe same.
(19:21):
Every week is different.
Some weeks, like it's not asbusy as the last week, and other
weeks will be double as busy,like you just can't plan.
So it was more of just I needto start this, I need to keep
doing this and see where ittakes me, because at that point,
dropping out of uni, I didn'thave a Clark Island business.
(19:41):
I had cleaned a neighbor's carand then I posted on the
neighborhood community page andthat booked me out for a couple
of weeks and then I made someTikTok videos of those cars and
then they booked me out foranother couple of weeks from the
TikToks and then kept makingTikToks and it just kept
snowballing.
And as it kept snowballing,obviously you started making
(20:03):
more money and demand goes up.
And when demand goes up andwhen it's only me to cope with
the demand, I had to put theprice up to dissipate the supply
, hopefully, and it did.
And then, as it kept going onand I kept getting booked out
with this new, the price wasstill at now.
Then I brought Jack on, becausewhat I can do cleaning a car I
(20:27):
thought I can just teach someoneelse to do.
And I trusted Jack.
Jack respected me.
That was the one thing that Iwanted when I had someone,
someone that respects me as ayoung person being their boss,
because most people wouldn'treally respect me, I don't think
.
So I got Jack.
I taught him.
Jack was working for mepart-time, as it was just me
(20:49):
working up to making it a realbusiness.
This was before the firstofficial tax year.
We had a couple of months ofjust being a hobby business and
then, once April 1st came, westarted business and nearly end
of April 1st now.
So we're nearly at the end ofthe first financial year and one
of the goals I had.
So of course I had goals.
(21:11):
One of the first goals I hadwas 100K in the first financial
year and, fingers crossed, wewill just get over it.
So that's awesome.
And another goal was actuallyto hire someone, make it a
semi-passive business.
Business is never going to bepassive.
I have found this out.
You've always got to be thereand be the boss and be a leader
(21:34):
for your guys, of course, andwork on the business as well as
in the business.
But yeah, I've hired someone.
Ticked off that goal.
We should hit 100K ticked offthat goal.
The signed written businesscards that was one of them was a
goal at the start.
If I get a sign that was alwayswhen I was in high school If I
have a signed written businesscard in my business, I've got a
(21:56):
business and then I got one likea couple of months and now I've
got two signed written businesscards rolling around
Christchurch.
It's awesome seeing people whohaven't seen in a while and
they'll say I've seen your carsaround it.
I tell my mum about you andit's real cool.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, I mean, what a milestone to hit in your first
financial year.
The stats are crazy when youlook at the amount of businesses
that don't.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I didn't think I was going to do that.
I thought it was unachievable.
And that just shows have highgoals even if you're full short.
You got close to your huge goal.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I have some awesome congratulations on that as well.
I feel like a lot of businessesthat don't realize how big that
milestone is because of howmany people talk about it.
They talk about how this 100Kis.
You can make it in a month orwhatever, but for a business
what you're doing.
I think that's a really, reallycool achievement.
So hopefully you go away andcelebrate that after the end of
(22:55):
the financial year.
So there's a lot to unpack overthat kind of period, which is
cool.
It gives me a little bit moreto dive into.
So when you thought aboutbringing on that first employee
and I say employee, but I feellike the relationship you guys
have is a really cool dynamic,especially on social media as
well, because that's againsomething I want to just touch
(23:15):
on before so when you made thatdecision because, again, I think
one of the sticking points forbusiness owners is they're too
scared to scale and bring peoplein because they're worried
about the whole respect thing,they're worried about the age in
which they are at that business.
They're also worried about theextra income that they now have
to generate because of that.
So when you started making thatdecision, was it a very easy
(23:38):
decision to do?
Like, regardless of the factthat you knew him already?
Was it a very easy decision tomake or was it a very?
You know?
Was it fair?
Was there fear around thatbringing someone on into the
business?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Of course there was fear no-transcript.
I knew it was a step that I hadto take if I eventually wanted
to get the business to where Iwant to go Like.
If it's not just going to be meforever, I have to hire someone
eventually.
And why not just hire them now?
If the business is doing morethan enough to just sustain me
(24:11):
and I don't pay myself a wage,the business in the 100k web,
the business will barely profitbecause obviously just reinvest
bought lots of vehicles, lots ofequipment, lots more chemicals,
jacks on a full time wage.
But yeah, it was a huge risk.
I didn't know if it would work.
I didn't know if I'd have tohire Jack in three months, but I
(24:33):
didn't and it's purely down tome and Jack.
Jack does great work and hekeeps the customers happy and I
do great work too, and we'vekept posting on social media,
we've kept running great ads andwe've kept getting referrals
due to our good work and it'sall kept working.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
And when you looked at the way that, the cool thing
that I found with that is thatyou actually pretty much
introduced them on social mediarelatively quickly, and I feel
like that again is a tool thatbusinesses don't do.
They're so scared of showingtheir team because there's some
fear of them might be moving on.
They're fear of being on cameraand stuff like that.
So was that intentional to openup to the audience around how
(25:21):
you hired someone?
Or was that just because you'reso used to the way that you
create social media?
It was just a byproduct of that?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, it would have made a good video hiring someone
at 20 years old and also 100%want to be open and share
everything with my audience.
I'm not that consistent withTikTok at the moment.
I kind of went off makingTikTok videos just because
TikTok is a draining game.
If you're making the fast-pacedcontent and getting views, it's
(25:58):
draining.
So I want to go to more YouTubestyle video, like film, like a
weekly, what we do in a week andthen cut that down so it's less
so, it's more personable andmore us and it's more real and
authentic.
But obviously I will still bedoing the like storytelling
style TikTok videos because it'sawesome and the transformation
(26:20):
style videos we do.
It works really well becauseyou literally have a before and
a before looks like this andthen after.
So it makes people want to stayto the before, stay to the
after and also the storytellingaspect, as you said, it's
actually fun and it works reallywell.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, I think that the one that resonates with me
the most is that I think it'sthe turner's detail.
You did so, like we did thebefore and after it was just
like it's just crazy when peoplethink their car's clean and
then you do that and you're likeI guarantee people watch that
video.
Went to their car and said mycar is now dirty.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, exactly, and like it's funny because you hop
into like people's cars and yourcar's pretty dirty and they're
like no, it's not.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
You feel bad?
No, I could imagine.
Yeah, I'm pretty, prettypedantic when it comes to car
cleaning in terms of, like, Ilike that around it.
I mean, I'm not no goodcleaning my own car.
I have someone that cleans that, but unfortunately you're not
in Wellington yet.
I'm pretty sure I commented onone of your TikToks saying that.
But however, you got doing yours, you got got to come, so it's
not this really cool kid that'sbuilding a business similar to
(27:28):
in the way that he's not so muchon social media, but he was
just posting community pages andwhat resonated with me was that
he was relatively the same age.
He's putting all his work outthere and I said, hey, I've got
two cars that need cleaning.
I'm too busy to clean themmyself.
Here you go.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And he also comes to the house as well, which I'm a
fan of kind of stems from myoriginal.
What's his name?
I know two guys in Wellington.
There's clean car collector,that I know, and also attention
to detail.
They're two guys in Wellington,yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, have you got the Tesla's?
Yeah, so, yeah, so I've got twoTesla's that he cleans every
week and every.
I wish it was every week, buthe's packed out so he can't do
it every week, but I'm trying toconvince him to do more videos
because I'm like it is a videois just it's more ROI than photo
and texts.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's easy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Videos where it's at.
Yeah yeah, but yeah, he'sawesome, he comes and cleans
those, so yeah.
So coming back to, I guess, thefinancial year, one thing that
I want to experience kind ofdive a little bit deeper into is
when you see that income.
I think a lot of businessowners get caught in the whole
income profit loss tax situation.
(28:41):
So when you started yourbusiness, did you, did you kind
of nail that from the get go ordid you use different softwares,
countants like all of thosethings, like whatever you need,
you can divulge, you can divulge.
But it's an interesting questionwhere I think a lot of people,
including myself, when I started, I went down the traditional
roads of accounting and all ofthat stuff and attended not to
(29:01):
be the best in terms of the waythat it was presented, because,
again, the same between businessschool and self-employment
accountants versus the likes ofHenry and zero and stuff like
that, there's such a big divide.
Now you can have yourflexibility on what you want to
choose.
So was there any kind of planaround what you wanted to do
there?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, so when we went to being a real business on
April 1st, I just went straightto the accountant before April
1st and just said I want you tosort all my numbers on my
accounting because I just don'twant to even think about it or
have to worry about it.
So, yeah, I did that.
I went with SBA, small BusinessAccounting, one of the biggest,
one of the bigger firms.
(29:41):
They're national.
They've got quite a few inChristchurch.
One's real close to me and theguy that I meet up with he gives
me great advice and I reallylike him so I'll be sticking
with them for as long as I can.
Really, I'm happy with them andthrough them we use zero and
that just does most stuffautomatically.
(30:02):
But you obviously have to codesome stuff yourself, but it's
real easy In terms of hiringsomeone.
I went to the accountant andthey just set up a smartly
payroll system which is allautomatically done, sort of
through that app.
And when I told him I wasstarting real business, he also
(30:23):
got me set up with ASB F-PostMachine, mobile F-Post Machine,
which is like $40 a month.
So that's real easy.
Yeah, it was all quitestraightforward.
I just went to the accountantto do it because I figured there
and it was easier.
(30:43):
And also I went to the bank andwhen you start a business, you
have to start a new businessbank account.
I went to the bank, went to theaccountant and that was it.
Yeah, yeah.
That was as simple as that youthought it'd be harder, but no.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
No, no, it is pretty simple.
When you have that plan, it'swhen people start thinking they
can do their own tax returns andthey can do their own GSTs and
stuff like that, because,because they want to save some,
save some money around someaccounting is supposed to save
you money.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool,okay.
And then and then, when youthink about the, the brand, you
talked about the vehicles, youtalked about the sign wrapping.
(31:21):
You talked about thecohesiveness between your
uniform, the color scheme andall of that stuff.
Was there an intentional way ofthinking about the logo and the
color scheme when you started,or was it just kind of a thought
that this looks cool, this iswhat I wanted to do, or do you,
do you have any story behindthat?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
It was always yellow and blue.
I don't really know why it justyellow and blue came to mind
and my girlfriend at the timeshe had a black Toyota Aqua and
I was like these cars are soeconomical and they're great to
drive.
And then I saw a light blue onedrive past one day and just the
(31:59):
light bulb went and I knew thatI had to get a light blue
Toyota Aqua because I'd alreadymade the business logo at this
point and the light blue wasexactly that color and I started
well, this fit here.
Well, this fit here, this fithere.
Oh, I'd say the seats are likea shelving system.
Oh, let's just do it, it'llwork.
And I got him to that Aqua.
It worked.
(32:21):
And got the light blue uniform,which means Jack, we've got the
yellow hats, which we haven'tall the time.
Yeah, I try to keep thebranding pretty, or use it,
because obviously it needs to bea professional brand.
I've got the light bluedirectors uniform on right now.
But yeah, of course brandinghas to be, as I'm trying to make
(32:46):
a professional business.
At the end of the day, if themore cohesive and more
professional you look, the morevalue you have to see.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, and I think the cool thing is is that the
little golden piece ofinformation in that whole entire
sphere was that you looked at acar and said I need to take the
seats out, I need to make thosesystems fit, where someone
might have looked at that carand said, oh, you know, like a
Hilux or a truck would have beenbetter, you know where.
Like you looked at from aneconomical standpoint which I
feel like again is years andyears and years ahead of where a
(33:18):
traditional person your agewould have been thinking around
because they would have justbeen like yep, it's my time to
look like a cool car and stufflike that and the economics
behind your.
On the road all the time you'regoing to different places,
you're doing two or three cars aday, so you know you've got to
be economical there, and to lookat that and say I can make that
work rather than I need to goget a bigger car is a really
(33:40):
cool piece of information there,because a car is an expensive
cost.
You know you've got two of themright.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
You've got to get it signed written.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You've got to get it fueled.
You've got to get it Warren andfitness.
You've got to get it regoed.
Then you've got to get it,probably in the next year or so
If they bring it out.
You've got to get it road usercharged and all of those things
that that are looking to comeout for businesses.
So there is a lot of ongoingcosts and obviously all of the
insurances and stuff like thatas well.
So there is a lot of costs orhidden costs that you don't
(34:09):
think about when you've got awork vehicle log books as well,
which accountants will needeventually.
So to have that kind offoresight is a really good piece
of information that peopleshould should focus on there
when they're looking to build abusiness.
So we you feel like the brandis now and I say brand because I
think you truly have built abrand Do you, do you feel like
(34:33):
you have that brand because ofthe, the community that you've
built on social media, or do youfeel like it's because, also,
at the same time, the way thatyou've done that, you've let the
community in to the storybehind the brand, like you're
almost documenting it like acool series on YouTube.
That sparked my interest ofbehind the, behind the brand,
and you just document the wholeprocess around that sort of
(34:53):
thing.
So that would be a cool YouTubeseries that I think a lot of
people underestimate that peoplewant to know about.
But do you, when you're, whenyou're building the brand, do
you feel like anything stood inyour way, or did you have any
challenges building that brand,or do you feel like when you
were building it it was quiteseamless?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
I think it is.
My age is definitely a part ofthe brand and I think the
hardworking sort of nests ofyoung people is going to be a
part of the brand too, as I lookon to bring more young people
on the team and I definitely, asyou said, the journey is a part
of it too and I'm going tocontinue to grow it and bring on
(35:38):
more young people and Ihopefully, hopefully I'll get
more young people, althoughprobably the age of 25, to
potentially manage some storesand work independently.
And if we're known Nationwideor even Christchurch wide, I
think one of the things that hewas so set with our brand is
hardworking young people anddefinitely have my story be a
(36:01):
part of it and I hope to inspirelots of other people to do
similar through that and I thinkthat's going to be really big
part of it.
Yeah, as you said, documentingthe journey and the kind of
behind the brand aspect is 100%going to contribute to it as
well because, say, in five, tenyears time, if we've got a store
(36:22):
in each city and we're workingon like thousands of cars over
New Zealand and people know ourbrand and we'll be able to look
back at this video or my tiktoksfrom the first year or some
YouTube videos that might becoming out over this next period
, and just see the growth in theprogress.
(36:43):
That will definitely be a partof it and that will be cool.
Like listen.
I've watched this happengrowing up.
I've grown up watching theSidemen and everyone on YouTube.
I've been watching Alex Homozisince he had 200,000 subscribers
, so I've just seen all thisgrowth and all these people
(37:03):
transition from being a YouTuberand then having a personal
brand and now havingmulti-million dollar businesses
and having prime behind you abillion dollar business from
making content online, justgrowing yourself and making
yourself known.
Yeah, it's so cool.
(37:23):
Everyone should do stuff.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It's interesting that you talk about those brands
because I feel like those brandsare those brands and they have
that success because theyinfluence a lead and I say
influence with a grain of salt,because influences have
different interpretations fordifferent people.
They think of the KimKardashian influences, but what
I'm trying to streamline theinfluencer is is that content
(37:46):
creator or that business ownerthat lets the community in to
see what actually the businessis about, or the brand is about
behind the scenes podcasting,tiktok, youtube, all of that
stuff and to bring yourcommunity over this whole entire
journey with you, I think makesyou different in a very crowded
market space.
So, similar to the social mediamarket space that I'm in, I
think car detailing is a verysaturated market.
(38:09):
You've got different brandsthat offer different types of
veleting or detailing.
So do you think you could be inan era where you could be one of
the content creator lead or thecontent lead businesses in your
niche?
Because I feel like and I could, you know, I feel like you are
the one that is making that,that change.
(38:30):
I feel like hopefully peoplelistening will start seeing that
.
But I feel like a lot of thesuccess has become apparent
because you've let people intothe areas where most people
wouldn't.
So do you feel like that is thetrajectory that your business
is going to take?
In terms of the way that you'regoing to be this brand?
The way that you stand out andthe way you differentiate
yourself is both in quality carcleaning and detailing but also,
(38:54):
at the same time, the way thatyou can scale that quickly or
quicker than the everydaybusiness that's in the same
niche is because you have thatsocial media, you have that
content creation and, mostimportantly, you know how to
make a video where most of thosepeople don't.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Exactly Now.
That is exactly the plan Builda business with the backing of
the content and social media andpushing it for free.
If we continue making contentfor years and years every day
and get up on social media andjust grow their awareness.
At the end of the day,marketing and advertising is
(39:32):
making oneself known.
If half a Christ Church even ifI can just get the kids of
TikTok to know about my businessin Christ Church, maybe they'll
tell their parents, maybe theirparents will tell their family,
maybe then they will tell them.
Word of mouth is the mostpowerful, but social media can
(39:53):
start it off and 100%.
I plan to grow my business andbe the number one in the car
detailing industry through thebacking of social media, because
you can get a lot of value fromsocial media videos and I plan
to educate people about cardetailing and car care from my
(40:14):
videos too.
So it'll be not only the kindof behind the brand perspective
but also the education andcombining the two and getting
the trust and and yeah, thetrust from you and being out and
people have got 50 to 100,000,$200,000 cars.
They want to know who they cantrust with their vehicle and if
(40:37):
I am gonna sorry, I'm gonna tellthe world that Espresso car
wash washes the cars terriblyand is scratching all your cars,
then maybe they're gonna makethe decision to bring it to
someone that cares about theircar and isn't gonna scratch it
and gonna take care of it andemploy people that actually
aren't idiots and aren't gonnasteal stuff out of your cars,
(40:59):
crash the curb their rims.
I haven't.
I didn't see that at Espresso.
But yeah, social media isreally powerful and I think
everyone should be incorporated.
If you've got a business andyou're not incorporating social
media, I'm sorry you're an idiot.
You will agree.
It's so silly the ROI you canmake a video and get views for
(41:21):
$0.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Exactly, and all you're exchanging is time, and
majority of the people listeninghave plenty of time, just no
money or no infrastructure to beable to pay for traditional
paid advertising.
So you've heard it from the manhimself If you want to get
reach and you want to get yourbusiness out there, you need to
start posting on social media.
Just a highlight, though I sawthis video quite recently.
(41:42):
You had quite a goodachievement in detailing quite
an expensive car.
Do you want to touch on thatcar that you detailed?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yep.
So we did a $400,000 AstonMartin that just came through
the email inbox.
One day, 2023, aston Martin DBX.
Had a quick Google searched onTrademey $400,000.
This can't be right.
This car's in Christchurch andbooked them in as assistant
(42:10):
booked it in, of course, went tothe house on a Saturday morning
Meet him.
He was an awesome man.
Turns out to be the guy thatsponsors the Christchurch
Stadium, so he's a big guy andhe was awesome and he commented
on my LinkedIn post and weconnected.
So, all through car cleaning,who would have thought?
And that is one of the like myfavorite things that I never
(42:31):
would have even thought aboutwhen I started this business is
that I get to meet so manybusiness owners and learn about
their business and just meetcool people that work really
hard.
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, I mean, it's a phenomenal car but at the same
time, I feel like that's such acool milestone that people are
either going to understand orthey're not going to understand.
But I just wanted to touch onthat because that was a cool
video and a cool milestone.
So, wrapping up, I know thatyou're short on time today, so,
wrapping up, do you have anyadvice for aspiring business
owners that are really close tomaking that decision to build a
(43:07):
business and do you feel likewhat could they do in order to
get over that hump or jump overthat hurdle that they're facing
at the moment?
Speaker 2 (43:17):
I think a lot of people, me included, struggle
with perfection.
I've got a mate who worksreally hard.
He always has lots of differentbusiness ideas, but he can do
something really well.
Also, he's a barber and he's agood barber.
But he always has thesedifferent ideas and he's jumping
(43:38):
one thing to the other.
But if he just did what he didand made his own business, he
could do really well.
Or even if he didn't want to dothat.
But if he just did one thingand stuck with it, started it
and stuck with it and just keptworking really hard on that for
who knows six months a year,just do it for a long enough
period of time that you'd beproud of yourself and you
(44:00):
wouldn't feel like I half-assthis, never half-ass it.
Put everything into it and ifby the end of it you haven't had
success and you really feellike I put my everything into
this, there is nothing more Icould have done, there's no
other way I could have made thiswork.
Then pivot on to something else.
But until you haven't done that, you haven't exhausted every
(44:20):
option, then you could probablystill make it work.
You can make anything work.
It's on you to work hard and doit consistently.
It is as simple as that.
I think I remember a quote.
I'd probably butcher it, butDenzel Washington said dreams
are just dreams without goalsand goals are just goals without
(44:45):
consistency and hard work.
You can have goals, but withoutconsistency and hard work and
discipline to work hard and beconsistent you'll get nowhere.
I think that's it.
It's a formula to successConsistency, hard work and
discipline.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
That's it.
It's just really justconsistency, hard work and
discipline.
That's awesome.
This episode has been ablueprint for anyone that's
listening that they want tofollow in your footsteps.
You've literally laid it outthe whole entire episode for
them.
I think there's going to beabout 2% that actually
understand how to do that andthen the rest are going to go.
(45:23):
Still too hard.
I still don't want to post onsocial media.
I don't want to put my face onthere, which we get.
I understand that from anagency myself.
We understand that completelyand easily through and through.
But hopefully, this episode iswhy I'm so excited, because I
feel like your story is.
You're the age, you've got thefollowing, you've got the
business, you've shown that itworks, you've let everyone in,
(45:44):
you've built this community.
So, yeah, your reallycongratulations on all the
success you've had and I can'twait to see the next five years
for you and just be in thebackground and encouraging and
cheering you on.
So, finally, to tee up the orfinish up the whole episode let
the followers, let the listenersknow where they can find you
and if you want to plug anything, you can go for gold Cleaner
cars.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
That's it.
We're on TikTok, instagram,facebook.
That's it.
Yeah, go support Cleaner Cars.
We're in Christchurch, newZealand.
Thank you guys for watching.
It's been really fun.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Not a problem.
Yeah, no, it's awesome.
Thank you so much.
I hope we're in and wish youall the best for the future.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Thank you.
Alright, so welcome back to the BusinessBike Social
Media Uncovered podcast, wherewe dive deep into the stories of
those who are cutting throughthe digital noise and making a
real impact with their brands.
I'm your host, matt McKay, andtoday we're going through a
story that is nothing short ofinspiring, a journey that is
going to light a fire underevery business owner listening
in.
In the spotlight today, oakleyIngersell is a name that has
been buzzing in the businessworld across social media
(00:20):
platforms.
At the age of 20, oakley hasnot only become the talk of the
town but a sensation on TikTokwith over 500,000 likes, 36,000
followers who cannot get enoughof his car detailing videos.
Just the likes and the followsthat make his story compelling.
It's the hustle, the bolddecisions and the vision for
something greater.
Each of the notable publicationslike the Otago Daily Times and
Making Headlines in the Sun inthe UK.
(00:41):
Oakley's journey fromuniversity student to owner and
founder of cleaner cars is onefor the books.
Oakley is a new car-validatingbusiness that has been booked
out for weeks in advance, allthrough the power of word of
mouth in the savvy TikTokmarketing.
For every listener out therethinking about taking the leap,
wondering if it's worth the risk.
Oakley Ingersell's story is aresounding yes From quitting
(01:06):
university to becoming aself-made or tributary.
Oakley Ingersell is a newcar-validating business that has
been built in the past.
Oakley Ingersell's story is aresounding yes, from quitting
university to becoming aself-made or tributary.
Oakley embodies the spirit ofinnovation, resilience and the
shared joy of following one'spassion.
Oakley, welcome to the show.
It's an absolute pleasure tohave you here today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Thank you very much, matt.
What an introduction Awesome.
I've never had an introductionlike that, so thank you very
much.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I've been really excited to have you since we
were talking because I justthink if anyone can resonate
with this story, it's going tobe so many of those younger
generation that feel likethey're kind of lost in the
world and feel like universityor traditional ways of
communicating is really the onlyway that they can go.
But I think, with the platformsout there like TikTok, with
(01:54):
social media and just the hustleand bustle of actually owning
your own business, I feel likethis episode is going to be
really, really cool andhopefully inspiring to everyone
listening.
So I wanted to start with thebasics.
So it's incredible to see whatyou've achieved and I think I've
commented on a few videosbefore we even messaged via
TikTok.
I feel like the way that youcan transition a simple or
(02:16):
simple in your eyes, a way thatyou can clean a car most
probably hard for most people tocomprehend about how to take a
car that's extremely dirty andturn it into a masterpiece, but
I feel like your storytellingability is phenomenal.
So can you tell me it's such ayoung age.
Can you walk us through whatinspired the initial idea and
what were the first steps youtook to turn that into reality?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So I've kind of been entrepreneurial my whole life.
I grew up in a family business.
My grandparents owned acatering business down in Timaru
so I've been working with themfor generations in the family in
that business for since I waslike 10 years old and I did
entrepreneurial stuff sellingdonuts, selling loom bands at
that business.
And in high school I competedin the Young Enterprise Scheme,
(02:58):
which is like a businessdevelopment sort of course in
high school, and I did reallywell in that.
That got me my business placefirst in Canterbury for that and
that was an educational cardgame teaching kids about what's
in their food, so like toptrumps.
And while I was doing this Iwas also running an Instagram
page for forward driving becauseI liked forward driving and
(03:20):
trucks and I grew that to 40,000on TikTok and 10,000 Instagram
and I monetized it by sellingrooftop tents and awnings that
are imported from China.
So I've kind of been doing theTikTok thing for a while and
I've always liked business.
And then out of high school Iwent to university, studied
(03:42):
business, found out it wasn't mything.
I'd rather run a business thanlearn about business, because
I've already been running abusiness for years, just at a
smaller scale.
So I went to university, foundout I didn't like it, left after
my first year and went all inon car cleaning Because I knew
(04:02):
how to clean cars and I knewthat if I did what I know how to
do on social media andconsistently keep doing it for
months and months, it would haveto work out because it was my
only option.
If it's your only option, Ithink you just got to make it
work and I did.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, I mean it's crazy that you just casually say
that you grew an account to40,000 and monetized it and did
all of your things and thendecided to do a different
business.
I feel like that you'veencapsulated most people's
lifetime in about five, sixyears, right?
Like so many people areguaranteed you're going to be
watching this or listening tothis and being like I've tried
(04:40):
that so many times and it hasn'tworked.
So what do you feel like for Imean pulling everything back
again to that first account?
What do you feel like for yougets a video from zero views or
zero followers to X amount ofviews, like I mean views of
Vanity Metrics?
What I'm obsessed about is howmany followers you can get on
those accounts, becausefollowers, especially on TikTok,
(05:02):
are very, very hard, right,yeah.
So what do you think spikedthat community with that first
page?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So my first page it was called NZ4x4 Club and I just
posted pictures of otherpeople's trucks that they were
really proud of and I postedvideos of them doing cool,
stupid stuff in the trucks.
And this was when I was like 16, I think I started this.
I was working at the freezingworks down in Temeru over my
school holidays and during mysmogo and lunch break I would
(05:34):
just post, I would make the post, queue posts and post about
three, four times a day and justconsistently doing that every
day.
And also I would follow peopleback.
The maximum amount of followersin a day I think it was like a
hundred interactions you couldhave I would just follow
everyone back on the page biggerthan mine and then that some of
(05:56):
them would follow me back.
So it just slowly grows you.
It was honestly just a grindand a hustle and consistency.
When I went back to schoolafter the holidays, I was still
posting in my morning tea andlunch break while my friends
were playing and talking to eachother.
I'd just be on my phone.
So it is honestly just a hustleand a grind and consistency.
(06:17):
If you do anything really wellor pretty good for a long amount
of time, you'll see results.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, and it's crazy that, like such a young age like
I know I keep puffing on aboutthe age thing, but there's so
many people that I see that arejust like taking advantage of
their smoke goes or their breaksand just sitting down and doing
nothing.
Where, like, there's so muchtime left in a day if you
actually want to do somethingfor yourself Like you talked
(06:44):
about your business schoolversus creating a business for
yourself, but even you going andgetting a job in your holidays
takes that initiative around,like I don't want to just sit
around and do nothing and I feellike that's that's that's
inspiring to hear.
So when you started thinkingabout that next step and I know
you talked about cars, like andobviously being the first page
(07:05):
is around cars and forwarddriving and stuff like that when
was it when you realized thatyou could take the everyday
cleaning your own car to thenmaking a business out of it,
like, where did you feel likethat next step was?
Because everyone starts toenjoy cleaning the car that they
like driving, but then itbecomes a chore at some point.
So how did you turn that, Iguess, chore in most people's
(07:28):
eyes into something that youabsolutely are obsessed with and
created probably one of thebiggest businesses you could
look for in terms of scaling,that sort of things.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So the reason I started a car detailing business
or car cleaning business wasbecause I knew how to clean cars
.
I had worked at Espresso carwash the school holidays after I
finished high school for acouple of months and I learned
the skills.
And then I was watching an AlexHormozzi video one day when I
was leading up to knowing that Iwas going to drop out of uni.
(07:58):
What am I going to do?
I have to do something.
I don't want to get a job, Iwant to start my own business
and make it work.
And Alex Hormozzi I heard fromhim what do you know how to do?
What do you know how to do?
Turn it into a business?
And what I thought I knew howto do was car cleaning at the
time.
(08:19):
And another thing Alex Comozzisaid trade your time.
Your time is worth nothing, andmy time was worth nothing at
the point.
So what could I do with my time?
I could clean cars and then athome, when I'm done cleaning
cars, I could make TikToks,because I also knew how to do
that and then put them on socialmedia.
And here we are it's a yearlater and I couldn't have
(08:39):
imagined that this is allhappened.
I've got an employee workingright now.
If you told me this a year ago,I wouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's just consistency , that's it.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So in terms of I guess also before we turn into
the employee and all of thatstuff because I definitely want
to talk about that, because Ifeel like that's a cool step
into the next evolution ofbusiness, which is like another
scary thing you're bringingsomeone on, you've got all these
responsibilities, you've alsothen got a forecast and all this
other stuff.
But when you walked or when youmade that decision to, I mean,
(09:14):
not drop out of uni, but to makethe decision to go into a
business that you're going tothrive in, how was that
conversation?
Because I think a lot oflisteners will go and say the
scary thing for them is thatthey have to then go to their
parents and go.
I don't want to do thistraditional thing that they've
grown up thinking about.
Well, your parents might be adifferent because they've owned
their businesses before, but howwas that conversation?
You don't have to share everydetail, but how was that
(09:36):
conversation when you tried topitch that idea?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well, it's just me and my mom and my grandparents
as well.
So I'm very close with my momside of the family and they have
always been supportive of me.
They've seen me have success inmy businesses throughout high
school so they obviously knewthat I had it in me and if I was
confident in something, I thinkthey would have trusted me.
And also, throughout the year,they saw me hate uni.
(10:01):
They knew I didn't go to uni.
They saw me ball my eyes outmultiple times over tests and
stupid stuff that I just I hated.
I honestly just hated it, hated.
Studying for a test to justforget about it when you have to
learn about the next test.
I just couldn't compare.
It doesn't make sense.
(10:22):
Why would you do that?
And it upset me because I knewwhat I wanted to do and I wanted
to learn and get better andgrow a business and grow myself,
and through a business you cangrow yourself.
But I think anyone in theposition that is scared of
judgment from peers or yourfamily in 10, five years down
(10:43):
the time, if you have asuccessful business, and even if
you don't, will you be proud ofyourself for making that
decision and taking that risk.
I think at this age.
If anyone's my age or evenbelow 30, come on just, you've
got nothing to lose.
It's the best time.
The longer you go on, the morefearful you will be that you
(11:03):
will fail.
And I'm not really afraid offailing at my age because, at
the end of the day, if I go backto having nothing, I am like
most people, my age.
It doesn't really matter if yougo back to having nothing.
Yeah, it's a lot less scarywhen you're younger.
I think people should take morerisks.
That's it.
Just take the risk.
It's always going to be scary.
(11:24):
You never know, gonna know, butI think just do it.
Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Take the risk.
What?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
do you think people your age have they probably have
the capability of doing whatthey imagine to do.
They've probably got this idea.
They're probably trying topitch it to their parents or
formulating in a way ofexplaining it even to themselves
, about not going down thistraditional route which, in New
Zealand, the traditional routeis you go from high school to
(11:52):
university.
I have no idea why, andhopefully that shift changes in
the next 15 or 20 years.
But what do you think isstopping them?
Like I know that, the risk andthe fear, but do you think it's
because they don't surroundthemselves with the right people
?
Do you feel like it's becausethey don't?
Let's say, the Alex Samosysituation like that clearly
indicates to me that you've doneyour research outside of
(12:15):
traditional mediums of gettinginformation.
So you're going to the likes ofYouTube, you're going to the
likes of different pages ordifferent content.
So what do you think they haveto do to kind of navigate that
hill that they're trying toclimb?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
YouTube videos, and not just YouTube videos
education.
Why would not be taking therisks that I would be taking or
let's call them calculated risksnow?
Because I know the risks andI've assessed the situation,
because I've been educated bypeople who know more than me,
who are online and give all thisinformation away completely for
free.
(12:47):
10, 20 years ago, if you couldhave found a billionaire or
future billionaire like AlexSamosy to give you all of his
advice and wisdom and help youget rich like people wouldn't be
able to comprehend that.
And now you can go onto YouTubeand learn from not just one
(13:07):
billionaire, hundreds ofbillionaires, hundreds of
thousands of millionaires thathave done what you want to do
and have blueprints on how to doit and lots of advice.
Like I would not be who I amtoday if I hadn't consumed all
the content that I have online100%.
(13:29):
That has been the biggestcontributor, I think, to the
position that I'm in.
Of course, you've got to takerisks, but you've got to be
educated, of course, and knowstuff.
Like I don't know nothing, Idon't know everything, but I try
and learn as much as I can andyou can learn anything online
for free.
If you want to pay, feel free.
(13:50):
It'll probably fast-track theprocess, but I have not paid for
a single piece of informationthat I've got online and I don't
think I will, because youshouldn't.
It's all there.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
An interesting caveat today is.
do you feel like there will besome sort of shift towards I
guess, not self-learning, butthat self-educational learning
because of, I mean, the risingcosts of universities, but also
that the one train or one trackthinking when it comes to
university like you went into abusiness school that you felt
(14:23):
wasn't educating you enough, tothe point where you felt like
you were being sustained and Ifeel like there's this trend at
the moment that people arestarting to really understand
how powerful being self-employedis.
You know, when I was self-siderbeing self-employed in 2015, it
was the biggest risk you couldever take, but now, thankfully,
you know close to 10 plus yearsor whatever how many years it is
(14:44):
people are starting to takethose risks and it's like an
everyday occurrence now.
So do you feel like there willbe this like paradigm shift
between people actually going Iwant to educate myself without
the burden of a student loanversus going to university just
going through the motions,getting a degree that you don't
end up using?
Do you think there'll be somesort of shift like that?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
100%.
Yeah, because it's simple.
Why would you pay with averagethree-year degree, first year's
free uni minus 10 grand 20, 30kto get a uni degree in New
Zealand and that is really cheapAmerica.
You'd be paying hundreds ofthousands.
So in New Zealand you're luckyyou might pay 30,000 for a
(15:27):
degree.
If you spend a third of that10,000 on education, even a
1,000 on education, you couldlearn probably similar, if not
more, and also on this side withthe university degree, I feel
like it's very localized, likeyou'll get a localized a
professor in Christchurch thatmaybe owned a business or
(15:47):
studied business in university.
Compared to you might haveoptions of hundreds of different
people to learn from, or youcould learn from five, 10
different people at the sametime and pull all their
resources into one and get allthe best things out of it and
learn from them, and until thenit's just a better ROI.
You can learn for eight hours aday from this person that knows
(16:10):
less from them, or learn fourhours a day from people that
know double as much or canchange your business double as
much.
Yeah, it allows you to havecontrol over what you learn.
That's one of the things Ididn't like about uni.
You'd learn stuff that you.
Why am I learning this?
(16:31):
I don't need to learn this, Idon't need to know this and
everything on YouTube.
Youtube is an algorithm.
It sends you the best videosthat have been watched that
YouTube knows are really greatvideos that have educated other
people, or people have watchedthis video till the whole way.
(16:51):
Maybe they've shared it, maybethey've commented, maybe they've
liked it.
Let's push this out to otherpeople, because this is a great
video and this can teach otherpeople.
Yeah, learn online 100%.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, no, it is crazy , when you start thinking about
it, the amount of informationthat's available versus the
small amount of information thatis out.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
It's disgusting.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
And the thing that I was thrown away with.
When you look at universitygoing through it myself and
stuff like that it's alwayscompact into seven weeks.
You're learning six months,seven months worth of
information to seven weeks, andyou end up just rope learning it
With YouTube and theself-learning.
You can actually listen to itas many times as you want, but
(17:31):
you can listen to it indifferent areas, different
mediums, day and night.
It doesn't matter how manytimes.
You can just relearn and keepgoing and actually learn that
process Cool.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
It doesn't feel like learning if you're watching a
YouTube video.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
No, no, and you can have it on the background, what
I found with the podcast side ofthings is that you end up
learning so much by justlistening to it and absorbing it
, when you're not actuallyswitching on and focusing too
much on it.
You're actually just learning somany different things.
When you took that plunge, didyou have some sort of roadmap in
(18:04):
your business to then hire thatfirst employee, which his
name's Jack, right, yeah, yeah,first employee was Jack.
So when that roadmap justbecause again, the other kind of
system or the other demographicthat I'm assuming is going to
be listening to this is theyneed to have everything planned
out.
They need to have the nextseven years, because the next
thing I like exploring is thatevery business, school or
(18:26):
business thing oh, you have tohave a business plan, you have
to have this plan.
You have to have 17 differentdocuments to state exactly what
you want to do.
But, as we've experienced overthe last like four years, and
you would have experienced thislaunching your businesses and
going through the differentsocial media channels every day
is different.
You cannot plan a single day tobe the same.
So therefore, like when youstarted this business, did you
(18:48):
have a plan or like a roadmap,at least in terms of where you
felt like the business was going, or did you just adapt to the
oncoming demand of what you wereexperiencing?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I had goals, of course, and I obviously wanted
this to be a business that Icould work on for years to come
and grow as the business that Ikind of get known for and that
can be my successor.
But in terms of a road like anexact roadmap, of course not.
As you said, business is neverthe same.
(19:21):
Every week is different.
Some weeks, like it's not asbusy as the last week, and other
weeks will be double as busy,like you just can't plan.
So it was more of just I needto start this, I need to keep
doing this and see where ittakes me, because at that point,
dropping out of uni, I didn'thave a Clark Island business.
(19:41):
I had cleaned a neighbor's carand then I posted on the
neighborhood community page andthat booked me out for a couple
of weeks and then I made someTikTok videos of those cars and
then they booked me out foranother couple of weeks from the
TikToks and then kept makingTikToks and it just kept
snowballing.
And as it kept snowballing,obviously you started making
(20:03):
more money and demand goes up.
And when demand goes up andwhen it's only me to cope with
the demand, I had to put theprice up to dissipate the supply
, hopefully, and it did.
And then, as it kept going onand I kept getting booked out
with this new, the price wasstill at now.
Then I brought Jack on, becausewhat I can do cleaning a car I
(20:27):
thought I can just teach someoneelse to do.
And I trusted Jack.
Jack respected me.
That was the one thing that Iwanted when I had someone,
someone that respects me as ayoung person being their boss,
because most people wouldn'treally respect me, I don't think
.
So I got Jack.
I taught him.
Jack was working for mepart-time, as it was just me
(20:49):
working up to making it a realbusiness.
This was before the firstofficial tax year.
We had a couple of months ofjust being a hobby business and
then, once April 1st came, westarted business and nearly end
of April 1st now.
So we're nearly at the end ofthe first financial year and one
of the goals I had.
So of course I had goals.
(21:11):
One of the first goals I hadwas 100K in the first financial
year and, fingers crossed, wewill just get over it.
So that's awesome.
And another goal was actuallyto hire someone, make it a
semi-passive business.
Business is never going to bepassive.
I have found this out.
You've always got to be thereand be the boss and be a leader
(21:34):
for your guys, of course, andwork on the business as well as
in the business.
But yeah, I've hired someone.
Ticked off that goal.
We should hit 100K ticked offthat goal.
The signed written businesscards that was one of them was a
goal at the start.
If I get a sign that was alwayswhen I was in high school If I
have a signed written businesscard in my business, I've got a
(21:56):
business and then I got one likea couple of months and now I've
got two signed written businesscards rolling around
Christchurch.
It's awesome seeing people whohaven't seen in a while and
they'll say I've seen your carsaround it.
I tell my mum about you andit's real cool.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, I mean, what a milestone to hit in your first
financial year.
The stats are crazy when youlook at the amount of businesses
that don't.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I didn't think I was going to do that.
I thought it was unachievable.
And that just shows have highgoals even if you're full short.
You got close to your huge goal.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I have some awesome congratulations on that as well.
I feel like a lot of businessesthat don't realize how big that
milestone is because of howmany people talk about it.
They talk about how this 100Kis.
You can make it in a month orwhatever, but for a business
what you're doing.
I think that's a really, reallycool achievement.
So hopefully you go away andcelebrate that after the end of
(22:55):
the financial year.
So there's a lot to unpack overthat kind of period, which is
cool.
It gives me a little bit moreto dive into.
So when you thought aboutbringing on that first employee
and I say employee, but I feellike the relationship you guys
have is a really cool dynamic,especially on social media as
well, because that's againsomething I want to just touch
(23:15):
on before so when you made thatdecision because, again, I think
one of the sticking points forbusiness owners is they're too
scared to scale and bring peoplein because they're worried
about the whole respect thing,they're worried about the age in
which they are at that business.
They're also worried about theextra income that they now have
to generate because of that.
So when you started making thatdecision, was it a very easy
(23:38):
decision to do?
Like, regardless of the factthat you knew him already?
Was it a very easy decision tomake or was it a very?
You know?
Was it fair?
Was there fear around thatbringing someone on into the
business?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Of course there was fear no-transcript.
I knew it was a step that I hadto take if I eventually wanted
to get the business to where Iwant to go Like.
If it's not just going to be meforever, I have to hire someone
eventually.
And why not just hire them now?
If the business is doing morethan enough to just sustain me
(24:11):
and I don't pay myself a wage,the business in the 100k web,
the business will barely profitbecause obviously just reinvest
bought lots of vehicles, lots ofequipment, lots more chemicals,
jacks on a full time wage.
But yeah, it was a huge risk.
I didn't know if it would work.
I didn't know if I'd have tohire Jack in three months, but I
(24:33):
didn't and it's purely down tome and Jack.
Jack does great work and hekeeps the customers happy and I
do great work too, and we'vekept posting on social media,
we've kept running great ads andwe've kept getting referrals
due to our good work and it'sall kept working.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
And when you looked at the way that, the cool thing
that I found with that is thatyou actually pretty much
introduced them on social mediarelatively quickly, and I feel
like that again is a tool thatbusinesses don't do.
They're so scared of showingtheir team because there's some
fear of them might be moving on.
They're fear of being on cameraand stuff like that.
So was that intentional to openup to the audience around how
(25:21):
you hired someone?
Or was that just because you'reso used to the way that you
create social media?
It was just a byproduct of that?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, it would have made a good video hiring someone
at 20 years old and also 100%want to be open and share
everything with my audience.
I'm not that consistent withTikTok at the moment.
I kind of went off makingTikTok videos just because
TikTok is a draining game.
If you're making the fast-pacedcontent and getting views, it's
(25:58):
draining.
So I want to go to more YouTubestyle video, like film, like a
weekly, what we do in a week andthen cut that down so it's less
so, it's more personable andmore us and it's more real and
authentic.
But obviously I will still bedoing the like storytelling
style TikTok videos because it'sawesome and the transformation
(26:20):
style videos we do.
It works really well becauseyou literally have a before and
a before looks like this andthen after.
So it makes people want to stayto the before, stay to the
after and also the storytellingaspect, as you said, it's
actually fun and it works reallywell.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, I think that the one that resonates with me
the most is that I think it'sthe turner's detail.
You did so, like we did thebefore and after it was just
like it's just crazy when peoplethink their car's clean and
then you do that and you're likeI guarantee people watch that
video.
Went to their car and said mycar is now dirty.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, exactly, and like it's funny because you hop
into like people's cars and yourcar's pretty dirty and they're
like no, it's not.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
You feel bad?
No, I could imagine.
Yeah, I'm pretty, prettypedantic when it comes to car
cleaning in terms of, like, Ilike that around it.
I mean, I'm not no goodcleaning my own car.
I have someone that cleans that, but unfortunately you're not
in Wellington yet.
I'm pretty sure I commented onone of your TikToks saying that.
But however, you got doing yours, you got got to come, so it's
not this really cool kid that'sbuilding a business similar to
(27:28):
in the way that he's not so muchon social media, but he was
just posting community pages andwhat resonated with me was that
he was relatively the same age.
He's putting all his work outthere and I said, hey, I've got
two cars that need cleaning.
I'm too busy to clean themmyself.
Here you go.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And he also comes to the house as well, which I'm a
fan of kind of stems from myoriginal.
What's his name?
I know two guys in Wellington.
There's clean car collector,that I know, and also attention
to detail.
They're two guys in Wellington,yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, have you got the Tesla's?
Yeah, so, yeah, so I've got twoTesla's that he cleans every
week and every.
I wish it was every week, buthe's packed out so he can't do
it every week, but I'm trying toconvince him to do more videos
because I'm like it is a videois just it's more ROI than photo
and texts.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's easy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Videos where it's at.
Yeah yeah, but yeah, he'sawesome, he comes and cleans
those, so yeah.
So coming back to, I guess, thefinancial year, one thing that
I want to experience kind ofdive a little bit deeper into is
when you see that income.
I think a lot of businessowners get caught in the whole
income profit loss tax situation.
(28:41):
So when you started yourbusiness, did you, did you kind
of nail that from the get go ordid you use different softwares,
countants like all of thosethings, like whatever you need,
you can divulge, you can divulge.
But it's an interesting questionwhere I think a lot of people,
including myself, when I started, I went down the traditional
roads of accounting and all ofthat stuff and attended not to
(29:01):
be the best in terms of the waythat it was presented, because,
again, the same between businessschool and self-employment
accountants versus the likes ofHenry and zero and stuff like
that, there's such a big divide.
Now you can have yourflexibility on what you want to
choose.
So was there any kind of planaround what you wanted to do
there?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, so when we went to being a real business on
April 1st, I just went straightto the accountant before April
1st and just said I want you tosort all my numbers on my
accounting because I just don'twant to even think about it or
have to worry about it.
So, yeah, I did that.
I went with SBA, small BusinessAccounting, one of the biggest,
one of the bigger firms.
(29:41):
They're national.
They've got quite a few inChristchurch.
One's real close to me and theguy that I meet up with he gives
me great advice and I reallylike him so I'll be sticking
with them for as long as I can.
Really, I'm happy with them andthrough them we use zero and
that just does most stuffautomatically.
(30:02):
But you obviously have to codesome stuff yourself, but it's
real easy In terms of hiringsomeone.
I went to the accountant andthey just set up a smartly
payroll system which is allautomatically done, sort of
through that app.
And when I told him I wasstarting real business, he also
(30:23):
got me set up with ASB F-PostMachine, mobile F-Post Machine,
which is like $40 a month.
So that's real easy.
Yeah, it was all quitestraightforward.
I just went to the accountantto do it because I figured there
and it was easier.
(30:43):
And also I went to the bank andwhen you start a business, you
have to start a new businessbank account.
I went to the bank, went to theaccountant and that was it.
Yeah, yeah.
That was as simple as that youthought it'd be harder, but no.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
No, no, it is pretty simple.
When you have that plan, it'swhen people start thinking they
can do their own tax returns andthey can do their own GSTs and
stuff like that, because,because they want to save some,
save some money around someaccounting is supposed to save
you money.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool,okay.
And then and then, when youthink about the, the brand, you
talked about the vehicles, youtalked about the sign wrapping.
(31:21):
You talked about thecohesiveness between your
uniform, the color scheme andall of that stuff.
Was there an intentional way ofthinking about the logo and the
color scheme when you started,or was it just kind of a thought
that this looks cool, this iswhat I wanted to do, or do you,
do you have any story behindthat?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
It was always yellow and blue.
I don't really know why it justyellow and blue came to mind
and my girlfriend at the timeshe had a black Toyota Aqua and
I was like these cars are soeconomical and they're great to
drive.
And then I saw a light blue onedrive past one day and just the
(31:59):
light bulb went and I knew thatI had to get a light blue
Toyota Aqua because I'd alreadymade the business logo at this
point and the light blue wasexactly that color and I started
well, this fit here.
Well, this fit here, this fithere.
Oh, I'd say the seats are likea shelving system.
Oh, let's just do it, it'llwork.
And I got him to that Aqua.
It worked.
(32:21):
And got the light blue uniform,which means Jack, we've got the
yellow hats, which we haven'tall the time.
Yeah, I try to keep thebranding pretty, or use it,
because obviously it needs to bea professional brand.
I've got the light bluedirectors uniform on right now.
But yeah, of course brandinghas to be, as I'm trying to make
(32:46):
a professional business.
At the end of the day, if themore cohesive and more
professional you look, the morevalue you have to see.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, and I think the cool thing is is that the
little golden piece ofinformation in that whole entire
sphere was that you looked at acar and said I need to take the
seats out, I need to make thosesystems fit, where someone
might have looked at that carand said, oh, you know, like a
Hilux or a truck would have beenbetter, you know where.
Like you looked at from aneconomical standpoint which I
feel like again is years andyears and years ahead of where a
(33:18):
traditional person your agewould have been thinking around
because they would have justbeen like yep, it's my time to
look like a cool car and stufflike that and the economics
behind your.
On the road all the time you'regoing to different places,
you're doing two or three cars aday, so you know you've got to
be economical there, and to lookat that and say I can make that
work rather than I need to goget a bigger car is a really
(33:40):
cool piece of information there,because a car is an expensive
cost.
You know you've got two of themright.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
You've got to get it signed written.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You've got to get it fueled.
You've got to get it Warren andfitness.
You've got to get it regoed.
Then you've got to get it,probably in the next year or so
If they bring it out.
You've got to get it road usercharged and all of those things
that that are looking to comeout for businesses.
So there is a lot of ongoingcosts and obviously all of the
insurances and stuff like thatas well.
So there is a lot of costs orhidden costs that you don't
(34:09):
think about when you've got awork vehicle log books as well,
which accountants will needeventually.
So to have that kind offoresight is a really good piece
of information that peopleshould should focus on there
when they're looking to build abusiness.
So we you feel like the brandis now and I say brand because I
think you truly have built abrand Do you, do you feel like
(34:33):
you have that brand because ofthe, the community that you've
built on social media, or do youfeel like it's because, also,
at the same time, the way thatyou've done that, you've let the
community in to the storybehind the brand, like you're
almost documenting it like acool series on YouTube.
That sparked my interest ofbehind the, behind the brand,
and you just document the wholeprocess around that sort of
(34:53):
thing.
So that would be a cool YouTubeseries that I think a lot of
people underestimate that peoplewant to know about.
But do you, when you're, whenyou're building the brand, do
you feel like anything stood inyour way, or did you have any
challenges building that brand,or do you feel like when you
were building it it was quiteseamless?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
I think it is.
My age is definitely a part ofthe brand and I think the
hardworking sort of nests ofyoung people is going to be a
part of the brand too, as I lookon to bring more young people
on the team and I definitely, asyou said, the journey is a part
of it too and I'm going tocontinue to grow it and bring on
(35:38):
more young people and Ihopefully, hopefully I'll get
more young people, althoughprobably the age of 25, to
potentially manage some storesand work independently.
And if we're known Nationwideor even Christchurch wide, I
think one of the things that hewas so set with our brand is
hardworking young people anddefinitely have my story be a
(36:01):
part of it and I hope to inspirelots of other people to do
similar through that and I thinkthat's going to be really big
part of it.
Yeah, as you said, documentingthe journey and the kind of
behind the brand aspect is 100%going to contribute to it as
well because, say, in five, tenyears time, if we've got a store
(36:22):
in each city and we're workingon like thousands of cars over
New Zealand and people know ourbrand and we'll be able to look
back at this video or my tiktoksfrom the first year or some
YouTube videos that might becoming out over this next period
, and just see the growth in theprogress.
(36:43):
That will definitely be a partof it and that will be cool.
Like listen.
I've watched this happengrowing up.
I've grown up watching theSidemen and everyone on YouTube.
I've been watching Alex Homozisince he had 200,000 subscribers
, so I've just seen all thisgrowth and all these people
(37:03):
transition from being a YouTuberand then having a personal
brand and now havingmulti-million dollar businesses
and having prime behind you abillion dollar business from
making content online, justgrowing yourself and making
yourself known.
Yeah, it's so cool.
(37:23):
Everyone should do stuff.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It's interesting that you talk about those brands
because I feel like those brandsare those brands and they have
that success because theyinfluence a lead and I say
influence with a grain of salt,because influences have
different interpretations fordifferent people.
They think of the KimKardashian influences, but what
I'm trying to streamline theinfluencer is is that content
(37:46):
creator or that business ownerthat lets the community in to
see what actually the businessis about, or the brand is about
behind the scenes podcasting,tiktok, youtube, all of that
stuff and to bring yourcommunity over this whole entire
journey with you, I think makesyou different in a very crowded
market space.
So, similar to the social mediamarket space that I'm in, I
think car detailing is a verysaturated market.
(38:09):
You've got different brandsthat offer different types of
veleting or detailing.
So do you think you could be inan era where you could be one of
the content creator lead or thecontent lead businesses in your
niche?
Because I feel like and I could, you know, I feel like you are
the one that is making that,that change.
(38:30):
I feel like hopefully peoplelistening will start seeing that
.
But I feel like a lot of thesuccess has become apparent
because you've let people intothe areas where most people
wouldn't.
So do you feel like that is thetrajectory that your business
is going to take?
In terms of the way that you'regoing to be this brand?
The way that you stand out andthe way you differentiate
yourself is both in quality carcleaning and detailing but also,
(38:54):
at the same time, the way thatyou can scale that quickly or
quicker than the everydaybusiness that's in the same
niche is because you have thatsocial media, you have that
content creation and, mostimportantly, you know how to
make a video where most of thosepeople don't.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Exactly Now.
That is exactly the plan Builda business with the backing of
the content and social media andpushing it for free.
If we continue making contentfor years and years every day
and get up on social media andjust grow their awareness.
At the end of the day,marketing and advertising is
(39:32):
making oneself known.
If half a Christ Church even ifI can just get the kids of
TikTok to know about my businessin Christ Church, maybe they'll
tell their parents, maybe theirparents will tell their family,
maybe then they will tell them.
Word of mouth is the mostpowerful, but social media can
(39:53):
start it off and 100%.
I plan to grow my business andbe the number one in the car
detailing industry through thebacking of social media, because
you can get a lot of value fromsocial media videos and I plan
to educate people about cardetailing and car care from my
(40:14):
videos too.
So it'll be not only the kindof behind the brand perspective
but also the education andcombining the two and getting
the trust and and yeah, thetrust from you and being out and
people have got 50 to 100,000,$200,000 cars.
They want to know who they cantrust with their vehicle and if
(40:37):
I am gonna sorry, I'm gonna tellthe world that Espresso car
wash washes the cars terriblyand is scratching all your cars,
then maybe they're gonna makethe decision to bring it to
someone that cares about theircar and isn't gonna scratch it
and gonna take care of it andemploy people that actually
aren't idiots and aren't gonnasteal stuff out of your cars,
(40:59):
crash the curb their rims.
I haven't.
I didn't see that at Espresso.
But yeah, social media isreally powerful and I think
everyone should be incorporated.
If you've got a business andyou're not incorporating social
media, I'm sorry you're an idiot.
You will agree.
It's so silly the ROI you canmake a video and get views for
(41:21):
$0.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Exactly, and all you're exchanging is time, and
majority of the people listeninghave plenty of time, just no
money or no infrastructure to beable to pay for traditional
paid advertising.
So you've heard it from the manhimself If you want to get
reach and you want to get yourbusiness out there, you need to
start posting on social media.
Just a highlight, though I sawthis video quite recently.
(41:42):
You had quite a goodachievement in detailing quite
an expensive car.
Do you want to touch on thatcar that you detailed?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yep.
So we did a $400,000 AstonMartin that just came through
the email inbox.
One day, 2023, aston Martin DBX.
Had a quick Google searched onTrademey $400,000.
This can't be right.
This car's in Christchurch andbooked them in as assistant
(42:10):
booked it in, of course, went tothe house on a Saturday morning
Meet him.
He was an awesome man.
Turns out to be the guy thatsponsors the Christchurch
Stadium, so he's a big guy andhe was awesome and he commented
on my LinkedIn post and weconnected.
So, all through car cleaning,who would have thought?
And that is one of the like myfavorite things that I never
(42:31):
would have even thought aboutwhen I started this business is
that I get to meet so manybusiness owners and learn about
their business and just meetcool people that work really
hard.
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, I mean, it's a phenomenal car but at the same
time, I feel like that's such acool milestone that people are
either going to understand orthey're not going to understand.
But I just wanted to touch onthat because that was a cool
video and a cool milestone.
So, wrapping up, I know thatyou're short on time today, so,
wrapping up, do you have anyadvice for aspiring business
owners that are really close tomaking that decision to build a
(43:07):
business and do you feel likewhat could they do in order to
get over that hump or jump overthat hurdle that they're facing
at the moment?
Speaker 2 (43:17):
I think a lot of people, me included, struggle
with perfection.
I've got a mate who worksreally hard.
He always has lots of differentbusiness ideas, but he can do
something really well.
Also, he's a barber and he's agood barber.
But he always has thesedifferent ideas and he's jumping
(43:38):
one thing to the other.
But if he just did what he didand made his own business, he
could do really well.
Or even if he didn't want to dothat.
But if he just did one thingand stuck with it, started it
and stuck with it and just keptworking really hard on that for
who knows six months a year,just do it for a long enough
period of time that you'd beproud of yourself and you
(44:00):
wouldn't feel like I half-assthis, never half-ass it.
Put everything into it and ifby the end of it you haven't had
success and you really feellike I put my everything into
this, there is nothing more Icould have done, there's no
other way I could have made thiswork.
Then pivot on to something else.
But until you haven't done that, you haven't exhausted every
(44:20):
option, then you could probablystill make it work.
You can make anything work.
It's on you to work hard and doit consistently.
It is as simple as that.
I think I remember a quote.
I'd probably butcher it, butDenzel Washington said dreams
are just dreams without goalsand goals are just goals without
(44:45):
consistency and hard work.
You can have goals, but withoutconsistency and hard work and
discipline to work hard and beconsistent you'll get nowhere.
I think that's it.
It's a formula to successConsistency, hard work and
discipline.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
That's it.
It's just really justconsistency, hard work and
discipline.
That's awesome.
This episode has been ablueprint for anyone that's
listening that they want tofollow in your footsteps.
You've literally laid it outthe whole entire episode for
them.
I think there's going to beabout 2% that actually
understand how to do that andthen the rest are going to go.
(45:23):
Still too hard.
I still don't want to post onsocial media.
I don't want to put my face onthere, which we get.
I understand that from anagency myself.
We understand that completelyand easily through and through.
But hopefully, this episode iswhy I'm so excited, because I
feel like your story is.
You're the age, you've got thefollowing, you've got the
business, you've shown that itworks, you've let everyone in,
(45:44):
you've built this community.
So, yeah, your reallycongratulations on all the
success you've had and I can'twait to see the next five years
for you and just be in thebackground and encouraging and
cheering you on.
So, finally, to tee up the orfinish up the whole episode let
the followers, let the listenersknow where they can find you
and if you want to plug anything, you can go for gold Cleaner
cars.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
That's it.
We're on TikTok, instagram,facebook.
That's it.
Yeah, go support Cleaner Cars.
We're in Christchurch, newZealand.
Thank you guys for watching.
It's been really fun.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Not a problem.
Yeah, no, it's awesome.
Thank you so much.
I hope we're in and wish youall the best for the future.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Thank you.
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