Ep #8-Drafting Success: Crafting a Future in Design through Grit and Grace

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When Mariano Ramirez swapped his warehouse ID for an architect's drafting table, he and Yvette, his partner in life and business, embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure that's nothing short of a blueprint for success. On CV Hustle, we're thrilled to welcome the founders of M Design Group, who share the exhilarating tale of their transformation from clocking in at a nine-to-five to crafting a flourishing residential design firm in Coachella Valley. They reveal the fortitude it takes to pivot passions into a thriving enterprise and the importance of a robust support network cheering you from the sidelines.

Ever wondered what it takes to sketch your way from community college to the hallowed halls of architecture school? Mariano and Yvette take us through their educational odyssey, emphasizing the foundational importance of hand drafting and the character it builds. They recount the dedication needed to create a standout portfolio and the pivotal role networking plays within the architectural community, all while balancing the demands of academia and personal growth. Their story is a masterclass in perseverance, illustrating that with the correct measurements of grit and grace, one can draft their own future.

As the architectural lines from paper to real-world projects begin to take shape, our guests map out the journey from employment to entrepreneurship with the precision of a finely calibrated compass. They recount how responses to a Craigslist ad laid the foundation for M Design Group and share the vision required to grow a business from a humble garage outfit to a corner office enterprise. Through their narrative, they convey the significance of cultivating client relationships, navigating the design process, and the art of balancing business growth with creative control. It's a conversation that constructs a framework of inspiration and practical advice for anyone looking to erect their entrepreneurial dreams.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate,
inform and inspireentrepreneurship here in our
Coachella Valley.
Welcome everybody, I'm RobertMraz.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
And I'm Fina Mraz.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And this is CV Hustle , the podcast dedicated to
educating, informing andinspiring local entrepreneurship
here in the Coachella Valley.
And you know, on this podcastour goal is to sit down and talk
to the best entrepreneurs herein the Coachella Valley and kind
of pick their brains.
So today we've got a reallyspecial guest nothing but
illustrious guests on this show,that's right.

(00:42):
Today we've got Mr MarianoRamirez and Yvette Ramirez of M
Design Group.
They're, you know,architectural graphic design
group, right guys?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, residential design firm, you're in Coachella
Valley.
So anything from remodels tonew construction to commercial
TIs, just to get specific.
Yeah, I mean, that's what we'reall about we construction to
commercial TIs, so that's justto get specific.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, I mean, that's what we're all about.
We want to get into specifics.
So if you're into you know,architect and plans and drawing
plans, or maybe in school forplans this is the episode for
you.
You want to check it outbecause these guys started, you
know, probably just like you,you know from working a nine to
five and built their ownbusiness.
So and we want to start withthe beginning, with you too, I
want to take it way back.
So, are you guys, a CoachellaValley natives?

(01:28):
Are you, are you from from hereoriginally?
We?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
are yeah.
Before, before we start, thebrought you guys a little gift
Got some hats for you, I get thegray one.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Any alcohol too.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Not today, so Fina gets her first pick there.
Very nice.
Well, thanks guys.
Yeah, no thanks for having us.
It's quite exciting that youguys started this up.
We're happy for you guys.
Congratulations, thank you.
Yeah, yeah, definitely, I thinkI consider myself a native.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Were you born and raised here?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I was actually born in Torrance, california, the
ghetto of LA County, but nothingI can remember.
I mean, I was four or fiveyears old when my parents
decided to move down here andI've just been here ever since,
so I consider myself a native.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
So what school did you go to growing up in?

Speaker 3 (02:18):
California, cat City, yeah.
And so I did Cahuilla.
Actually, that's Palm Springsand then Landau, what is that?
What's the Bighorn MiddleSchool, james Workman?
Oh, I don't know.
And then we did Cat City High.
We did it from Cat City, catCity High here You're a native,
basically 2005.
Oh yeah, like I said, I wasfour or five years old.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
You've been here since.
Yeah, that's you killing me Ilike you.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, I mean it's kind of similar to my story.
I have very small memories ofvery little memories of living
out in LA but, yeah, mostlyeverything that I can remember
is here, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Okay, so tell us a little bit about how your
business started.
So, after high school, what didyou end up doing or what kind
of led you in that path?
Or did you always have an ideathat was something that you
wanted to get into, or was itsomething you stumbled upon and
really liked?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
you know, after high school I I got a job at a um, a
shipping uh, shipping warehouseum out in palm springs and at
that time, 2005, I was making9.50 an hour, which was Mad loot
right there.
That was good man, that wasgood.
So, you know, I told my parents, hey, I think I'm going to try
this out for a couple years.

(03:30):
And you know now, as a you know, growing up, I guess that's not
what you want to hear.
You know what I mean.
You want your kid to gostraight to, you know higher
education and whatnot.
So I did that for a coupleyears.
I didn't know I was going to dothis.
To be honest, I've always beeninto art.
You know the arts drawing,painting.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
So is there somebody in your family that has an art
gene?

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, my older sister .
She is four years older than Iam.
She's fantastic man Really.
Yeah, she's great at what shedoes, so she was very inspiring
to me.
She did a lot of art before Iwas even good at it.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
So yeah, if anybody in the gene, it's definitely her
.
And then I come to find outlater in life that my father is
actually musically inclined.
So you know a little bit of thecreative, the art in the blood,
huh, everything.
So I I knew it was going to besomething with, you know
creativity, but I don't knowwhat you know yeah, just had to

(04:33):
come, come to you and we haven'theard from yvette.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
So are you a native or where?
Where are you from?

Speaker 4 (04:41):
listen, I was just trying to say here but y'all
really want me?
To oh, you're in front of themic, so you gotta give a little
back yeah, born and raised herein the valley, born and raised
my entire life, east Valley.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Come see me, hello yeah born and raised in the
valley no, but Yvette is mybiggest supporter, so and
probably one that.
I'm amazing probably the onethat um definitely pushed me to
start my own business when, whenthe time came.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
So so okay, so the, but how did that get started?
So, like you were working atthe warehouse thing, right, and
then what did the next?
Did you say, hey, I want tostart going to school?
Do you start doodling and say,I'll, I'll work at this lead,
like you're.
What do you think?
And you know?

Speaker 3 (05:30):
I mean it was, it was all party mode back then.
You know as it should be.
Yeah, I mean, you know you'reyoung and, like I said, making
nine, fifty.
I mean I had cash in my pocketat the time and you know, um, I
just started, you know effing up, you know started getting into
trouble and um, just there onenight, you know, my dad, my

(05:51):
stepdad or um sat me down andsaid hey, the, can I cuss on
this yeah, please do it.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
It's a podcast man there's uh, you talk where you
can talk about whatever you wanthere.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Here's, uh, those Spanish speaking guys.
This is what he told me.
He said no, te quiero decir queestas valiendo verga, porque yo
vali verga, pero estas valiendoverga.
And he's from Sinaloa.
So the word verga is justthrown around for everything,
but it means, hey, you're a fuckup.
You know like what are youtrying to do.

(06:23):
I don't want to say you're afuck-up.
You know, like what are youtrying to do.
I don't want to say you're afuck-up because I was a fuck-up,
but you're a fuck-up Wow,pretty much.
And it was an eye-opener.
I mean, yeah, you know, I comefrom a divorced household where,
you know, my mom didn't havetoo much authority over me and I
just needed somebody to say it,you know.
And when he said it, it kind ofreally hit home.
And I think probably that week Isigned up at COD and just, you

(06:48):
know, hey, what do they got tooffer?
I went to go see the counselorsand I got one of those little
pamphlets on the wall, andarchitecture was one of them.
So I looked it up and saw thestuff you could do with it and I
said, well, let's give it ashot.
You know, the program was twoyears, took me more than three
to complete it.
You know, the program was twoyears, took me more than three
to complete it.
That's okay, you know.

(07:10):
But yeah, I mean take your time.
You know it's, it's everythingwill kind of settle in place
like it did, man and and yeah,that's that's kind of how it
played out.
And I got into the architectureprogram.
Cod actually has a fantasticarchitectural program.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
What's the, what's the name of the guy there?

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Burt Batanga.
Yeah, he's been there forever,right, he's great.
He's the architectural directorthere and he is an architect, I
believe, and he's done a lot ofgreat stuff here in the Valley.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
A super respected guy .

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, he's fantastic and he's super down to
earth.
I mean, got classic cars in hisgarage and he'll sit down and
just chat with you if you needto.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Well and he'll sit down and just chat with you if
you need to.
Well, I was like yeah, Two oryear three we met.
Two, no, probably year threeyeah, that's where we met at COD
.
Oh, really.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Okay.
Well, you know what, though,you got to think about when your
stepfather said that to you?
You could have just rushed itoff and said whatever Like most
teenagers.
Right, and so that had to havebeen something that you really
needed to hear.
That you probably already knewin your own head and was, like
you know what, all right enough.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, I think you need to want it.
You know what I mean.
You need to have that want andthat need and you know some
people need that and some peoplejust don't want it.
You know some people need thatand some people just don't want
it.
You know some people just wantto cruise it and do the nine to
fives and do part times andwhatever it might be, you know.
But if you really want it andyou know you get that, one

(08:34):
person in life that just kind ofgives you the right nudge.
I think that's all you need.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, and it sounds like you probably respected him
enough too, because you know,you, when you know, we always
say, like the, the opinions ofothers don't really matter
unless you respect them, right.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
So otherwise, yeah, a hundred percent.
I mean that guy's, he's, he'sstill in my life and and you
know I love him as as my fatherand and he he did a lot of stuff
that you know he continues tosee, still does.
But, yeah, he, he was, he wasin a, in a place, uh, at the
right time.
You know, growing up as as ayoung male, um, he just kind of

(09:11):
filled in the blanks, you knowwhat I mean.
So, um, I gained a lot ofrespect from him and still do
and still look up to him and hestill gives me good, good advice
.
You know so, and I think Ithink you never stop learning no
matter how old you are, youcan't, you can't.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
You just always grow and grow.
So when you go take theseclasses at COD, what does that
look like?
Is that a 9 to 5, monday toFriday?
What does it look?

Speaker 3 (09:36):
like Super flexible.
The program only offers acertain amount of classes per
semester, so they split it uppretty good to be able to get a
part-time job.
Whatever it is you want to do.
Pick up some more GE classes,so it's very flexible.
They got multiple hours foreach class.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
What do you start learning about in the beginning?
Because you know it's the wholenew world out there, right,
learning architecture and howthings are built and why they're
built the certain way you camefrom no background at all.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
right, you were just hey, take a cool class to take
You're starting from.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Oh well, you know, yeah, I mean they, they have um,
it's not all just methods ofconstruction.
I mean they definitely throw in, I'd say probably 80% creative,
20% technical as far asconstruction goes.
So you go in there and I thinkthey still offer hand drafting
classes, even though it's notreally what the field is using

(10:32):
currently.
It's all computer based now.
But I just saw one of ourfriends, our friends, um is
taking the, the program now andthey're still doing roof plans
by with pencil, which I think isgood.
You know, you gotta, you gotta,you gotta learn that stuff.
I think you do.
I think I think they make youget real down and dirty.
You know, um start from thebasics and then you build.

(10:52):
I think they build them upthere, which, I said, it's a
great program here in the valley.
You don't have to go far for itand it's uh, it's a good.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
It's a good starting point because from there you do
your transfer to whatever uhuniversity or private school
that you want you know, when yousaid about the hand drafting,
like I, you know, we, I own atile store and when I'm working
with people and they don't, alot of people aren't visual.
So when, when you just sitthere and go you know what let
me just sketch this up and Istarted drawing, like you get

(11:21):
mesmerized, even something.
So just when you do that andyou're putting, you know, pen to
paper, it just is somethingabout it.
That's just really, really cool.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
It is, it is, and and I mean it's, it's you know,
kind of a reflectiveness of yourcharacter too.
You know the way that yousketch and the way that you draw
and how you kind of put ideason paper.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
I think it's crucial in this career path to be kind
of in touch with the basics andthe free hand.
So you're going through theclass and you're taking tests,
I'm assuming and you're passingthis test and things like what
you said, that it took you.
It's supposed to take two years, but it took you three.
So like what was that extrayear?
How did that?
How did that pan out?

Speaker 3 (12:08):
It has to do with your scheduling.
You know how, how, how intenseyou want to load yourself up per
semester On top of you know howyour GEs look's.
Look.
You know if you come out ofhigh school barely like I did um
, you know you don't have ap,you don't have extra, extra
credit you're already behind theeight ball, yeah, big time man.
So I mean, and you can tell thisseriously.

(12:31):
So I mean you can tell kidsnowadays that are in, you know
sophomores or seniors, and say,hey, dude, you know it's time to
pick it up, and they won'tlisten until until, dude, it's
time to pick it up and theywon't listen until you go
through this.
So it's too late.
Right, it's too late, yeah, butfortunately there's places like
COD that you can make up thestuff pretty quickly and, yeah,
it all has to do with, like Isaid, super flexible.

(12:52):
So you load yourself how youthink you can handle it, because
if you set yourself up forfailure too, that could be
discouraging.
You know what I mean.
You do too much too fast, yeah,and you start, you know, not
making the cut and you got torepeat the year after and so
Pain and, like I said, it's upto you Get your feet wet and you
know, get a couple of classesper semester and take your time.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
So were you taking a class in architecture?
How did you do?
Hell, no.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
I studied nursing.
I got pretty close.
Didn't finish Pretty close, butI guess one of his GEs was
speech, as was mine.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Which I got a better grade at, by the way.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
But I was better at he cheated off my notes here.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
He's like super like to like public speaking, like
it's not like his, it doesn'tcome easily, like he has to like
do all the like, practice, likeall the points, like walk this
way, walk that way.
And I was like, so what are wetalking about?
Like, oh, you're supposed to,you know, come up with a speech
about X, y, z.
And I was like, give me 10minutes, I got this, I got this.
And I and he would like, uh,get better grades.

(14:01):
I guess, because he wouldfollow like, oh, you're supposed
to do this, that the third isto walk this way, walk that way.
Yeah, but I was able to likeI'm not scared.
You want me to go up in frontof the class?
No, that's fine.
And that's where we were likecomplete opposites, like he's
like super strategic and I'mlike winging, get somebody else,
we know right.
You're saying yeah, he's prettyshy, honestly, yeah, I'm real.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Um, I mean, I don't think it's shy, I think it's um,
I kind of overthink things andand like things to be more
structured.
So, um, and she's kind of moreimprov I don't free, free
flowing, you know.
So she's more of the, she'smore of the hand sketching.
I'm more of the computer, youknow, you know draft.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
He said.
He sent me like a meme theother day on instagram and said
um, why did?
Why do the quiet guys alwaysdate the fiery women, or why are
they attracted to the fierywomen?
And the response was becausesomeone has to tell the waiter
that I ordered mashed potatoes,not a baked potato.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Damn yeah it's okay, it's okay, all right, so so walk
us through.
You, you graduated, and COD.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Now you've got to go to the four.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a process.
You know it's a process and youknow what I used to get.
I get a lot of shit from frommy cousins and be like dude, how
many fucking years did you?
do in school like 10 years like,and now they're.
It is what it is, man, webought some money.
Yeah, once, once you do theprogram at cod, you, uh, you're

(15:27):
able to build enough, um, kindof a, an academic portfolio and
you're able to now apply atdifferent universities, whether
it's Cal Polys I went theprivate university route it's a
lot less expensive than the CalPolys or Cal States.
Yeah, so definitely look intothat.

(15:49):
And yeah, you, you, you buildthis portfolio on top of you
know just grades and andcurriculum.
You build in actualarchitectural portfolio, so you
show your work, you show your 3dmodels, youd models, you show
your that you can actually yeah,that you can pull it off.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Why would you what?

Speaker 3 (16:01):
you've learned, and then they'll accept you and
they'll, they'll, they'll bypassthe first or second year and
then you, you're, you're aheadof the game now how you should
have been in high school.
You know um, and then, and thenyou get into the program that
typically it's a four-yearprogram, four or five-year
program so where did you end upgoing?
I went to san diego, but I wentto a private university.
It's called new school ofarchitecture and design and so

(16:24):
you moved out to san diego wedid.
Yeah, we ended up moving outthere.
We stayed out there for aboutfive years really, and we almost
stayed not know that really Ididn't know that we weren't.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
We weren't dating for very long.
And he he's like so listen, Iwant to go to San Diego, you
want to come with me?
And I was like fuck it.
Like literally, I'm like, yeah,let's go.
And my mom's like what?

Speaker 1 (16:44):
How long have you known each other at this?

Speaker 4 (16:45):
point Like a year oh my God, like you're Okay.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
What Mom's like yeah.
So you guys went out oneweekend and said let's go look
for a place to stay.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Oh, no, it's crazy how everything kind of just
falls into place.
It falls into place.
So Burbatinga at thearchitectural program here at
COD, he's really big on CalPolys.
So there's two Cal Polys, onein Pomona and one in San Luis
Obispo, but it's just freakingexpensive, you know, a semester

(17:19):
is.
I think by now it's probablywell over 40,000 a semester or a
year or something.
Whatever that may be.
It's insane.
It's insane.
And New School was kind of thatnew, kind of the new one that
was starting to get talked aboutin the program, because
everybody kind of knows eachother.
At that time that you're aboutto transfer, everybody knows

(17:40):
each other.
And they're like, oh, newschool, new school.
I'm like, what is that?
You know what's new school andyou look it up and it's $20,000.
So it's half the price.
So you're like, heck, yeah,this is good, it's the same
accreditation.
And what was the question?
I forgot the question.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
The question was did you go out there and look for a
place ahead of time?

Speaker 3 (17:59):
So you know, you go through this two or three year
program at COD.
So you know people.
And one of my buddies took offa year ahead of me and he went
to New School.
So when we heard about NewSchool and it was $20,000, I
reached out to him and said hey,you know, what do you think of
New School?
And I'm about to take a tour.

(18:24):
And he's like dude, it's legit.
Um, come check it out.
And, by the way, if you need aspot, I got a room for rent.
Wow.
So we're like that works likeyeah, dude.

Speaker 4 (18:28):
And he's like you get the homie discount, blah blah,
I was working at JFK herelocally still in that time.
It turned out so that guy's momwas a nurse at JFK in Hawaii.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
You guys know it's a small valley.
This freaking valley is small,so don't burn yourself, guys.
Don't burn bridges.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Burn bridges because you never know what's that about
me today.
That's a little bonus coverage.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, it's a bonus.
Uncut, Watch it later.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah.
So we did the tour and made adeal with the homie and you know
the rest is history.
We went out there and weactually I graduated in 2014 15
started working out there at afirm and shit, we almost stayed
out there.
I mean, I took, I ended uptaking over the apartment or the

(19:26):
condo and the homie ended uptaking out uh, taking off to la
and doing his own thing.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
So okay, but so let's talk a little bit about new
school suit.
How many, how many kids arethere like?
Is it a big school?

Speaker 3 (19:38):
it's, it's, uh, it's.
It's about as big as a half asan diego block, if you can
picture that.
Okay, so it's a, it's abuilding, it's, it's two stories
then mine went to little italyyeah, they think of that.
Uh, you know, half um, half ablock wide, on the whole street,
a two-story building, supersmall, um, but the way that they

(19:59):
set it up, it's, it's, it's,it's fantastic.
It's a 24-hour studio, um, yeah, 24 hours.
They give you your little yourlittle card right?

Speaker 1 (20:08):
yeah, like I've worked nights and I can go in at
night and do their security.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
You get to, you get uh, you get to meet all the bums
out there, you make friendswith them and shit, and it's a
different lifestyle, differentlifestyle.
But the setup they have thereis legit and you just do your
thing.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
You work as much as you want you so how did what did
this school and how is itdifferent from COD?
In like what way?

Speaker 3 (20:40):
It gets about 100 times faster.
So COD is a good program, goodentry, but they give you a
project and they're like youknow, design a two-bedroom house
, and you have four months to doit yeah, I'm just exaggerating
right.
And you get to new school andthey're like you have to do a

(21:01):
full-on case study of AlbertFrey and Palm Springs and you
have until tomorrow to do it, ortwo days, and they just had you
your.
It's not even a whole coursecurriculum, it's just one
project curriculum that's likethree pages and they just
briefly explain it and they letyou go and they say you're

(21:21):
presenting it's Monday andyou're presenting Wednesday at 5
pm and we're going to have twoarchitects from so-and-so and
they're going to critique theshit out of you.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
And that's all it is.
You're just getting bashed onfor four years.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
He's just like nitpick at everything.
He's like I'm all stressed.
He's like I'm going to fart.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
And here's where the COD public speaking, you know
came into play, because I wasable to structure my
presentations really well.
Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, so thatall kind of lined up it all.
It's all full fucking circle.
Man, Everything, everything.
And yeah, I mean the longnights, the 24-hour studio kind
of gets you ready for real lifeand real deadlines and they just

(22:01):
really mold you into a machineman.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Right.
So are they teaching you CAD?
Are they teaching you Rivet?
Are they teaching you software?

Speaker 1 (22:14):
I mean I would think right, you guys all work on
software, right yeah?

Speaker 3 (22:18):
it's.
I mean there's in the industrythere's multiple software
programs.
There's Rhino, there's Revit,autocad, and every office is
different.
You know there's offices thatare Revit, only Revit, and
there's some that are onlyAutoCAD.
But yeah, the program teachesyou all the software that are
available.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
They go through the softwares with you guys, all of
them.
That's pretty cool.
That's real important, right?
Because you can immediately geta job.
Exactly.
Oh, I know how to do that.
I don't think the four-yearuniversities do that very well.
You could have a real smart kidcome in out of college and I
know how to use Excel or word.
You know basic stuff that yougot to use in the office.

(22:59):
So that's, I mean, that's,that's great.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, I mean and and um, because it's a private
school, it's, it's, it's, it'sjust all driven behind
architecture and design.
So you don't have to I mean,you do have to do your
trigonometry and all that crap,you know, but um, there's no
fluff to it, you know.

(23:21):
And they just like said theyjust build you into this, this
architecture machine, and thenyou get out of school and you
have this fantastic resume.
That's just like shit you coulddo.
You could do it all you know.
And where do you want to go?
And and that's the point, right, it's the point to pay 20 G's
I'm impressed with myself.
Yeah, I mean, you're paying 20G's a year for this shit, so you
better come out with something.
And yeah, I mean, I mean Ieverything that I learned there.

(23:41):
They gave me a broad set oftools that you know are just
great for when, when she getstough, you know.
And yeah, it's all aroundeverything, All programs that
are there in the in the fieldcurrently.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
So you graduated in what?
2014,?

Speaker 1 (23:56):
you said 15, I think so still in san diego what were
you doing at that time?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
were you?
Were you working at thehospital?

Speaker 4 (24:04):
um, yeah, so I worked um at here in india at jfk.
I worked there for a total of10 years actually so you were
still here.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Well, I was in san diego well, I worked.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
I worked 12 hour shifts, so I would group my
three days together, crash up mymom's and then, as soon as I
got out of my last shift, take anap and head back.
So I was off four days in sandiego and three days working
here and just crashing at mymom's when you're in love,
you're in love, that's rightbaby, what you will do for love
we'll try again.

(24:36):
Wow, it worked out great for me.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Well, you were young, you could handle it.
You could handle it.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
She could, but the Toyota Corolla didn't.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
No, that's why you bought me your brand new car.
And he continues.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
It was fun.
You know what it was.
An experience.
I mean, we talked about it allthe time.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
We're like fuck we were so young, so dumb, I'm like
it was fun.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
It was tough.
It was tough, yeah, it wastough Life at that age you know
life at a university.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
God, we felt so grown up.
And then, when you really thinkback, I'm like fuck, we were
kids, what were we doing?

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Okay, so you were in school and were you working,
because you're a worker.
Oh, yeah, so you were working.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah, it started off, I mean, obviously, when we went
out there and did the big move,it was strictly school,
full-time, I mean that's why youcall it full-time student.
And after a while, I mean, youkind of get the hang of it, you
know.
And then you figure out thatyou can move your workloads with
the 24 hour studio to make roomfor work or whatever.

(25:42):
Yeah, have a social life, youknow.
And yeah, eventually I ended upgetting a job out there at a
firm that I worked after Igraduated as well.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
At an architecture firm yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
Nice, and then that final year I finally was like
like listen, like this drive islike that's enough, like I think
it was like five years no, yeah, we're at the five years of
commuting and I was like I'mdone like there.
We said until you graduated, yougraduated.
So either I quit my job and andfind something here.
Are we settling down here orare we coming back home.

(26:16):
And then we started like, okay,well, it kind of like like um,
like uh, looking at the pricesfor the area, oh, compared to
like here, it's a no-brainer,yeah, compared to here.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
And he was like yeah, babe, we're going home well,
not only that, you know, we, wewere, it's, it's fun, you know,
san diego, I mean, you know thatplace is legit the weather is
beautiful mission beach, youknow.
You know it's legit out thereDowntown.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
So much to do all the time.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
You know, gaslamp Padres, like it was.
I mean, it was party mode tooout there.
So you're a Padres fan?
No, no, but it was.
That was like a couple blocksaway.
You know, you got fucking livebaseball going on, so it's like
like it's legit, you know, yougot.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
You got the beach, you got.
Coronado school was in downtownsan diego, so there was like
yeah it's like hustle and bustle, always something to do, just
even around the school so wewere pretty dead set at that
time.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
You know, I had had a full-time job at a firm I just
got, I just got out of school.
Um, she actually got a job atsharp hospital after the five, I
believe so we were.
But every damn weekend we werecoming back to the Valley and
coming back for family partiesand after a while you know it
was it was.
You know we'd go every other twoweeks and then every other

(27:29):
three weeks, and then we startedmissing out on a lot.
You know, parents got older,your nieces and nephew got older
.
And then you know, on top ofthe cost of living and um,
everything we just kind of, youknow we had to come to Jesus
moment.
Yeah, like what, what?
What do you want?
You know, if we leave out herewe're by ourselves and then back

(27:49):
home, you know we got family,that's that's getting older and
we're missing out on a lot ofshit.
And we decided to make the move, we jumped back and it was just
too fast-paced, it was too farfrom home, um, it was expensive
we wanted to start a family andwe were like, how are we gonna
do it by ourselves?
I think we need like, we needour, that's our village, like
absolutely there's somethingabout the valley it just keeps,

(28:10):
keeps bringing you back, yourlittle, drag your ass back
that's true.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
It does nothing wrong with it and I was when I was
young.
I used to hate this placeBecause I'm a little older than
you guys, so there was nothingout here.
There's no social scene.
You had to drive to Riversideto go to a club back in the day.
I mean, there was one club andthat was it.
The casinos were barely gettingpopping.
But now it's like it changedcompletely.

(28:36):
We got a hockey professionalhockey team.
It's growing fast we were justtalking about that.
We have rush hour traffic now.
Our little valley has explodedin the last 10 years, you guys
have seen.
That's why we live in theoutskirts.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
It's great love it, okay, so let's go, let's get
back to the.
So tell me so.
You started with anarchitecture from here in the
valley yeah, yeah, we ended upuh it was residential.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah, after, after we , we had that come to jesus
moment that she calls it um.
You know, I applied out hereand, like I said, the resume
that that we build was was greatand it was.
You know, um, you got a jobimmediately, immediately.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
You weren't making 9.50 an hour anymore I wasn't,
but I was still.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
It was still a um.
It's a standard paying job.
You know it's a.
It's an entry-level position atan architectural firm.
I was at a press fuchsicarchitects great, great company
out here architectural firm anduh, those guys are great, you
know they, they um, taught me alot.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
I was there for two years and then got laid off,
unfortunately, you know, and Iremember that because you do,
you do and you get tell thestory about yvette working, so
how we know I'm their favoriteguys okay, I pay is the all-time
employee of the year.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
Ooh, he said it.
Someone get Elizabeth.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
No well, sorry, Ellie , it's on the record now dude.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
It's on the record now.
Edit that out.
Do not edit that out.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
But yeah, so we know Yvette and Mariano, because
Yvette was the first goldenemployee, oh gee.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
He was working out of the Tiles showroom.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
I remember that she took a chance with us.
We would always be in debt toher because she busted her ass
for it.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
I left the hospital and then he got that firm job
and then literally down thestreet was Ipay just starting.
They were looking for someone.
He was like, just do it.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
How many clients did we have when you first started?

Speaker 3 (30:37):
like 25, you know, like nothing yeah, I remember
the story, though when, when shegot hired tell us the story,
tell us I remember the storywhen she got hired that, um, it
was between yvette and a sec.
Can I say that?
Yeah, all right, okay, good,good, I, or yes, you how about
you?
How about you tell?
You tell if you know how ithappened that it?

Speaker 2 (30:58):
was.
We interviewed two girls andone of the girls just rubbed me
the wrong way.
I did not like her, and that's,of course, the one that bobby
wanted to hire, but I reallyliked, you bet.
So I called her after hours andhey, what the job?

Speaker 4 (31:14):
yeah, okay well you need to call.
What did I say now?
She was like, and, mind you, Iwas literally at home with mario
like, oh, I'm gonna send athank you email, thank you for
the interview, them all.
Help me word it, because he'slike always so professional,
right.
And then I get this call, thistitle designs, and I was like,
and I answered and she's like doyou want the job?
And I'm like am I hired?
And she's like this is what yougotta do.

(31:36):
Wow, she's like this is whatyou got to do.
She's like go ahead and sendRobert an email and say thank
you, but make sure you say andthen I don't know she told me
exactly what to say to get himto say yes, because you know, we
know our men.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Get played all the time, man.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
And here we are.
I'm the number one.
Everybody loves me.
It was a total setup.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
It was, it was a total setup.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
And did I not know better?
I'm the best thing that everhappened to I-Pay.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, here we are 10 years
later and Yvette and Mariela arestill in our lives.
There you go.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, it worked out.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
That's a good sign, right, it was so much fun in
your bag you know, come, come,come deal with your clients.
You bet they want to talk toyou, bet?
No, it's fine.
So and then the first time Icame back one of the clients I
answered the phone and I waslike, oh yeah, you know, I paid.
See that, how can I help you?
Oh my god, you guys must bereally busy if you're answering

(32:28):
phones.
And I had been gone for liketwo, three years and I was like
sure, whatever you want, thewhole time yeah I've been here
the whole time, okay, so whatyear was that?

Speaker 1 (32:38):
because you started your business in 2017 yeah, so
he was so kind of take us to theprogression.
You, you're not working at thatarchitect?

Speaker 2 (32:46):
yeah, I think I think they came in and said um, do
you want me to cry?

Speaker 1 (32:51):
I'm kidding, I'm kidding no, it's your stepping
stone.
It's better right?

Speaker 3 (32:56):
this is what happened to all of us, right.
Well, here's what happened andI think it goes back to why I'm
here now is, you know, like Isaid, it's a great company, you
got nothing to complain about,but I always wanted more.
You know, I was a job captainat the firm and I wanted to do

(33:17):
more.
I wanted to be a projectmanager, and project manager I
was doing some of the projectmanagement roles already, with
some supervision.
But, you know, I felt like Icould do it, you were ready.
I felt like I was ready.
But obviously every system hasits own structure.
Every, every company has theirown structure and you know, your
employees are going to tell youhow to do it.

(33:38):
If, if this company has beenaround for over 20 years, um,
they have their own system andand I just wasn't wasn't the
right fit for the company, um,at least that's that's what I
think.
And I wanted more pay, andobviously that's not good for a
company either.
So it just didn't work out andthey sat me down and said, hey,

(34:01):
there's not going to be enoughwork to maintain you, so you're
getting laid off.
But I think it was good becausethat did me a favor.
It allowed me to getunemployment, right, to figure
out some income.
Yeah, yeah, you figure out whatthe next, what the next step is
, and and it was, either, youknow, uh, look for another firm

(34:22):
job, or or whatever the hellcomes next.
I didn't know at that time, youknow, um, but what I did know
is that if I go to a firm, I'mnot going to be happy because
I'm going to be in the samefucking position that I was in,
um, not making enough and notgetting the responsibility that
I wanted, right.
So, um, luckily, you know, thegovernment gives you

(34:43):
unemployment and it allows youto at least get some sort of
income while you figure thewhole thing out.
And I think, I think we, even uh, did some work for you for a
little bit.
You wanted some help, uh, 3dmodeling, uh, right, when I got
laid off I don't know if youremember that yeah, I think,
really, you want to learnsketchup, and I think I think
yvette told you hey, well, myhusband I don't know xyz and

(35:03):
then you said, well, have himcome in and help me.
You know, build, learn sketchup.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
I think this is what yeah, and then my adhd said no
girl, you can't under, you can'tand then, and then you ended up
paying us to to do some of yourdrawings.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
So, um, yes, you know , it's, it's little little
things that that and you I was.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
That's when I was also like getting my tile line
off the ground right and I didmy little that was way later,
yeah, but but it was like yeah,not bad, like he was super
bummed.
I remember you coming in goingman mario's like super bummed
and then so we and then likewhere, where did it come from?

Speaker 1 (35:43):
like I can just go out and do this did somebody
contact where did the light bulbgo off and say, hey, I can just
do this myself.
You know well, here's here'sthe thing.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, you know, you
lose your full-time income right, which is pretty drastic.
I don't think we had our ownplace at that time, did we?

Speaker 4 (36:04):
No.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
So I think we were living at her parents' house.
We moved in with my parents.
The goal was to live with herparents for a certain amount of
time to save up for our ownplace Kind of the typical you
know kid story, can I come?
It's kind of good though thatthat happened, yeah, yeah, so

(36:35):
you know, I was expecting tomake, you know, $30, $40 an hour
with my 10 years of school, andthe whole time I said my
cousins would bash on me hey,how long did you go to school?
What are you making?
I'd be like dude, like I thinkI ended up making 25 an hour at
the most there, um, which wasnot bad, you know, not bad um.
But but you had kids in in inthe same field or even in
construction that were makingover 30 an hour and I was like
how the fuck did I spend youknow forty thousand dollars,
sixty thousand dollars, inschool and and um wasted so much
time?
So it was.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
It was pretty depressing at that point, um,
you couldn't see, you couldn'tsee the flip side quite yet.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Nothing, nothing.
I was just like what the?
You know?
What was that about?
You know, like some fuckingkind of joke, you know.
And, uh, yeah, it sucks, itsucks, you know.
But, um, but I think I think inthe midst of all that it was, it
was just time, it was a perfectopportunity, you know, as the
alignment of all the planets, todo something.

(37:20):
So I ended up putting an ad outfor design work and drafting on
freaking Craigslist, and it wasfree back then.
Right now, they charge you fivebucks.
Five bucks on that.
We have a reoccurringCraigslist ad, um, and that's
just, we just left it alone andwe still get business from there
.
Um, but, um, yeah, I ended upputting my, my ad in there and I
said you know drafting andconstruction documents, because

(37:41):
I knew how to do everything.
I said I was, I was doingproject management, I was
talking to consultants, I was,uh, doing construction
administration.
I mean everything frombeginning to end.
I knew how to do and I knew howto talk to people, I knew the
terminology and so I said, fuckit, I'm getting unemployment.
Let's see what happens.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
Unemployment was starting to run out, I think.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
No, no, and it was sick.
I was getting $900 every twoweeks, so it's like it was sick.
I was getting $900 every twoweeks, so it's like it was legit
.
And I was getting little jobslike yours and draft this for me
and I'd be like $80 or whatever, and it's like the money was
not bad.
It's just supplemental incomeand, like I said, we were at our
parents so I didn't have toworry about rent.
We didn't have kids, and so itwas a little bit easier on us to

(38:28):
kind of try this thing out andand so it was a little bit
easier on us to kind of try thisthing out, and you know,
somebody called you from that ad.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Yeah, I think things started rolling Like I really
think I want to branch out on myown, and I think it was like a
few months into that ad when Iwas like do it, go for it.
He's like, but what if I'm all?
But what if you don't?

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Well, here's, here's what happened.
And shout out to ShieldsResidential they're a
construction company out hereand you know, do you know
Shields Residential?
They do all the Modernism Week.
They did what are those homes?
You guys?
Do you guys spend so much timeand then present them on
Modernism Week?

Speaker 4 (39:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Anyways, we can cut that out.
He's a modernism week home.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Yeah, you do one.
It's always like a big.
You do all the trial for them.
What's it called?
What do they call those homes?

Speaker 4 (39:13):
Modernism week.
Right yeah, it's just modernismweek.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
All right, yeah, so this guy calls me, right, and
he's remodeling his house.
I think that's how it playedout.
He's remodeling his house and Igo and sit and talk to him and
you know, it's the first meetingthat we have in person with
somebody off the Craigslist adand he's like okay, cool, like,

(39:36):
send me a proposal for your workand I'll make the check out to
you.
And I said oh.
I said hey, I'm gettingunemployment right now.

(39:57):
I said, uh, I can give you cash, he's like, but I want a
discount.
No, no, I mean no, not the time.
So, um, he's like I can giveyou cash.
Honey, I would trade secrets.
You give you cash somewherealong the lines where I can give
you cash, but, um, I probablywon't get you for the next one
somewhere along those lines,like, I have to be able to write
this shit off.
Like, you better get him, youbetter get him.
He need to get legit.
Yeah, because he writes all hisstuff off.
And obviously, now that we'rebusiness owners, I understand

(40:17):
right.
So he's like we could do this.
I'll give you cash or whateveryou do, I can give you a check
legit, and then I'll give youmore work.
After this, I was like and we'llsee where it takes us, well,
you know.
And then um, that was the firstjob that I ended up taking.

(40:37):
I said I think I talked to herfor a little bit.
I said, hey, this is what'sgoing on, but it's going to cut
the 900 a week, or 900 bi-weeklyfrom the government.
I said the fuck do we do?
You know, and you can, you cango, you know, do some cricket
shit and start getting you know,so it's not reported and all
that.
But we don't want to do that.
And uh, we, we made thedecision say you know what,

(40:58):
let's do it, let's stopreporting unemployment and get
this job, and then we'll seewhat happens so how did you know
how to price his job out?
Because I mean I've been doingthis, for I mean before.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Did you deal with the pricing?

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Yeah, I did everything.
You already had an idea whatsomething.
Yeah, I mean, you're in theindustry long enough and you see
the proposals and you see thedeposits and all that.
And then it's all time basedtoo.
You know how long is it goingto take you to draw it up and
and what?
One thing that I was kind ofcalculating and one thing that I
suggest for for people tryingto jump into this game, is

(41:39):
figure out what your bi-weeklyincome was, and then, or let's
just say the month you knowyou're making X amount a month.
If you can match that on yourown, then you're solid.
Go, go to the next month and goto the next month, like you,
yeah.
And then after a while I meanthat that monthly turns times 10
and you're like what the fuck?

Speaker 4 (41:59):
like hell, yeah, dude I think you did soul prop for
like yeah and then and then.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
That's when you guys came in.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
I mean what.
I turned to robert and was likehey, so how do we do this
corpse stuff?
And I think we took you guyscame in and what.
I turned to Robert and was likehey, so how do we do this
corpse stuff?

Speaker 3 (42:11):
I think we took you guys out to sushi.
We took you out to dragon sushito pick your brains To dragon
sushi, yep, and then we became acorpse, picked you guys to the
game man, and it's kind of likemy roommate from San Diego, you
know, it's just all the piecesjust kind of they're all laid
out, is just kind of they're alllaid out.
It's just how do you put themall together?
And, um, you know, we'refortunate, for you guys were

(42:33):
there, you know, with the wholehiring of yvette, and then you
know it all it's all crazy, youknow.
It's funny how the universeworks.
It is man, if it's, if it'smeant to be, it's meant to be,
and and she's just got a longplace.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
We went to dinner and then you were like you did, you
wanted to incorporate.
So, bob, did you help them getan einIN?
And then you have to go open abank account under that name.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
To do the setup.
It was a show.
It was a show and you guysimmediately saw the benefit,
right.
I mean, at first you're like,oh shit, I got to pay all these
personal taxes.
But in the long run when you goturn in that W-2 instead of
that 1099, you realize, hey,okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not
owing all that 22% of this 1099.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
And it's a freaking learning curve, man.
I mean we get it all you know.
We're still learning too.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
We've been doing this 10, 12 years and we're still
learning every day.
There's not a day gone by,right, that we got to kind of
put fire out.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah, but I mean, like I said, there's definitely
you know, definitely riskinvolved in all this shit and I
think if you just have enoughtools to chip away at all those,
you'll be fine.
You got it, man.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
So you were a sole proprietor for a little bit.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Okay, yeah, we did the same thing and then it was
like, oh my God, our first taxbill.
Was it hurt?
Yeah, don't do what we did.
Don't do what we did.
But, like I told them, thereason we did that was because
it was like $800 and somedollars to incorporate at that
time and we were like we don'tgot that money, so we just did
that.
But I'm glad that you ended upincorporating.
Yeah, yeah.

(44:02):
It's just so much better andyou're protected, right.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Yeah, you can't go after your assets.
You know, it's all you work forthe corporation.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
You're not, that's right, you're just the president
.
You know, I'm just thepresident, here I don't.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
If M Design Group's going on there, it's M Design
Group, not Leagues.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, they're you know, I mean that's what thing
that the corporation kind ofdoes, yeah, um, so where do you
see m design?
I mean m designs is kickingbutt now.
I mean you guys are up andrunning.
You got a couple employees now.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Yeah how did that all come about?
Like did you?
Were you working out of yourhome first, or how did what?

Speaker 3 (44:45):
yeah you know what?
Um, yeah, we got.
We got our first home.
Yeah, this is our second homeand obviously I always had an
office.
I had my system set up and itwas always one of the bedrooms
would be converted to the officespace and after a while, I mean
, you start making pretty gooddarn income.

(45:07):
You know your monthly income isa lot better than your
full-time job.
Yeah Right, oh yeah, so you canstart to afford things that can
help you structure yourbusiness.
So, yeah, for a while we hiredwe've hired some help.
I got an office manager and weset up the whole system.

(45:27):
I mean, we set up our folderdrives, we set up kind of the
templates, we did all ourmarketing.

Speaker 4 (45:36):
Any other firm.
You did everything.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
Yeah, everything, I mean physical archives.
We set everything up.
It was legit and she wasworking from home and I was
working from home.
And then they offered us someoffice space some of the people
that we work with and I said,hey, it's X amount per month,
Could we afford it?
And then we looked at our booksand, yeah, let's fucking go for

(45:59):
it.
And it was, you know, like,let's try it out, let's give it
a shot.
And I mean, after a while itjust kind of becomes second
nature, it just becomes part ofthe business, you know.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
And I always tell Bobby I think what we did and I
think what you guys also did,was you never bit off more than
you could chew, right?

Speaker 1 (46:16):
You didn't go out and immediately get this get a huge
office, hire employees and youknow baby steps, baby steps,
baby steps.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Know you, you think you could do it all right.
So, um, I was like, how muchdoes, uh, does my own office
cost?
And then when, when they comeback and say it's xmi, you're
like, oh, never mind, you know.
But then then, then your, your,your connects and all that your
contacts start to hey, I'mlooking for office space.
You know, you start askingaround.
You know, you got, you got tospeak what you wanted to
existence, and then the word'sgonna get around and around.

(46:47):
And then they offered us someoffice space at a fraction of
the price.
And now we had an address.
That's fucking crazy,legitimized, and that counts a
lot too.
If a client looks you up andit's a house on X street, then
it's going to seem a littlesketchy.
Some are special, like that.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Bobby, tell them about where you used to work
with payroll company.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Yvette knows we're in the back of your show.
No, I'm talking about.
Christy and Vicky's.
Oh, when I first started, whenI first started in the industry,
yeah, I was working in thegarage.
Basically I was working in thegarage and as soon as they hired
me they wanted to get legit, sothey got an office.
And then when you get an officelike it's just legitimizes the

(47:31):
whole thing and we probablydoubled in two years.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
And if you can't afford it there's I mean, I did
this for a while too before wegot our office you can pay for
an address.
So if you got like, I got my,my good buddies over at GLS in
Palm Desert, I said, hey, I needan address.
So, um, I said hey, I need anaddress.
So it looks like name droppingleft and right.
Yeah, I got it, shout out to my, to my boys, you know, and I

(47:54):
said, hey, um, I want an, uh, anaddress that looks legit.
He's like dude for sure, likeum, and you and I was able to
use the conference room.
So that was the first baby step.
And and now my plans have offof joni drive in palm desert.
You know it's and it's legit.
I mean it's.
You don't have to, you don'thave to do a full office.
You know you got to fake thefunk while you can.
You know.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Well, and you got to know too, like, as long as
you're producing your work andyou're giving them what they've
paid for, why not?
Right, right, you know.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
But, like I said, some clients are picky.
I mean, I remember a client wewere doing a project and he's
like, well, send me the addressand it better not be a peel box.
That's what he said and, like Isaid, it's it's.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
you know you might get those clients that you know
it's no-transcript after youworked with this first guy who

(49:01):
answered your, is he still aclient?
You're still working with him,are you?
How did you?
How did you find more clients?

Speaker 3 (49:07):
yeah, we still got a few projects with uh shields,
residential um in constructionright now and um I think a lot
like in the beginning.
A lot of it was word of mouth,like so-and-so told me yeah,
yeah and and again, I mean thecraigslist ad was still up there
, so you know you'd still getpeople in.
And then, um, fortunately, uh,some of those uh hits from

(49:29):
craigslist were, um, eithercontractors that have worked,
you know, year round, every year, so I would get uh returning
clients, and then those clientsbecame kind of my, my regulars,
you know so.
And then those guys obviouslyare in the field and, um, hey, I
need this, do you know anybody?
And then, oh, yeah, I use myguy, my guy.
And then it's just word ofmouth is the number one thing

(49:55):
that that will bring in thebusiness reputation, right, when
the reputation's good.
Yeah, I mean, I, I was, I wasworking when I was first
starting off.
You know, uh, there's a lot ofpeople that would, like I said,
burn themselves.
You know they, they would getthe money and then not produce.
And then that was the, that wasthe end of the line.
You know what I mean for.
And then you have to gosomewhere else to look for it.
It's a small valley, I meanit's going to catch up to you
later.
Eventually it will.
So I think if you'restraightforward and legit and

(50:20):
honest and honest, you'll befine.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
And what I love is, like you know, in my business,
like you said, you get yourregulars and because and you
already know how to work witheach other, and so it's just
like, ok, I know, you know, likeI know a particular designer
that I work with, I already knowwhat she likes, I already know
what she's looking for, so I andI'll get new product and I'll
go oh my God, you got to come inand see this because I know

(50:44):
she's going to love it.
So you, you, you establish thatrapport with your clients.
So right, you know, that's kindof priceless.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Yeah, I mean, I mean I have, I have new clients that
will call me and say, hey, thisis M design group.
Like, yeah, I got your numberfrom you know so-and-so, and I
haven't worked like in over fouror five years with this guy but
the one project that we did forhim, he kept my number and then
five years later down the line,this is like, hey, do you know

(51:11):
anybody?
He's like, yeah, call, callmari from m design group, you
know, so it's, it's you knowshows that you do good work.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
You know, five years later remembering hey, this guy
knocked it out of the park, callhim thank you.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Now I think I think I think what, um, what m M Design
Group offers and what we kindof drive ourselves, is we create
a relationship with people.
You know it's not speaking to arobot or an office manager or a
receptionist, it's a directline with me.
Whatever is going on, it's goodand bad.

(51:44):
It's good and bad, but hey, Imean, it's what I want to do.
It builds the business.
It's how it's been running.
So my cell phone has been thesame and that's how people get a
hold of me.
I'm not changing my number allthe time and you can shoot me a
text at 7 or 8 pm if you want,and I get in trouble for it, but
I'll be like, but if it's quickyou can just answer, of course.

(52:11):
Yeah, well, we're at dinner.
I'm like you're not answeringemails right now, you're not
answering text messages.
I've never, I've never, I'venever been that guy that's like
oh, it's 5 pm, I'm shutting myphone off like no dude.
There's people that are.
They run into some shit or atough pickle and and if you
don't respond to them, they'regoing to go to the next guy and
then they're never going to callyou again.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
You know what I mean so being dramatic, it's 9 pm.
They're texting you.
They can't wait until themorning no, that's, that's
extreme.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
At 9, 9, 10 pm I won't respond, but you know, if
it's 7, 30 or something and andsometimes you know we've, we've
gotten people out of you knowtough pickles because of that
and um, I think, I think thatgoes a long way and I think
that's that's how we kind ofbuild our clientele.
Yeah, it's definitely abalancing act, right.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
You don't want to upset wifey too much, you don't.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
You don't After 9 pm.
Like I said, that's a littleextreme.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
So I have a question because, for people that don't
know exactly what you do, whatis, what is a typical client
come to you with and what do youhelp them with?

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Typical client comes back from the season right, you
get this what they call thesnowbirds or whatever and
they're going to expand theirhouse.
Right, they got X amount tospend for a new project at home
and they need to add 400 squarefeet to the house.

(53:20):
So they'll call us and thenkind of walk through what they
want to do.
Is it a bigger master bedroom?
Is it a bigger kitchen?
We want to blow out the kitchento the back and make it you
know.
So you'll go out to the projectyou almost always have to yeah,
we'll get the initial call and,like I said, hey, I got your
number from so-and-so and we'rethinking about this project.

(53:43):
Well, tell me a little bitabout your project and then
they'll kind of walk me througha scope of work, Um, and if
necessary, I'll do.
I'll do a site visit.
A lot of times clients want usto do a site visit, Um, some.
I can say, hey, that's enoughinfo, I can get you some pricing
.
Give me a couple of days, Um,but if not, we'll go out there
and and in person and say youknow, what is it that you want

(54:05):
to do?
They walk us through theprocess and then we build our
proposal and our pricing basedoff of that scope of work.
And then we build our team, ourappropriate team, whether it's
going to be structural, involved, whatever it might take to get
a permit.
Are you the one pulling permits?

Speaker 2 (54:25):
We can you know, are you going?
Hey, you're giving this to thecontractor here's your drawings.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
The majority it is us dealing with the city.
It's kind of a whole otherconversation the permit process.
But permit it's got to bespecific people that pull the
permit.
But we're the ones that get itapproved in order for the city
to release a permit.
So we do the initial drop offat the city, we deal with the
city correspondence, we'll paythe fees, all that stuff.
So the client just gets to kickback and wait for the permit.

(54:59):
In the meantime they can huntfor their contractor, their
builder, and when the permit isready, after we go through our
process with the city, thenwe'll contact the owner with the
good news, says, hey, yourpermit's ready to be issued, and
then their, their builder, willgo and pull it okay, and then
are you out of it at that point,or you're doing project
management like you wanted to atthe very first place.

(55:22):
You know what, um, how Imentioned that at the firm job I
was was doing everything fromtalking to consultants to
construction administration.
It's not necessary for us to doall that stuff after we get the
permit.
I mean, we could easily say,hey, our job's done.
You know, good luck with theproject.

(55:42):
But that's not how we want ourcompany to run, so we'll stick
around for the constructionaspect of it.
Um, in case there's anyquestions, yeah, yeah, and and
if, if, um, if they don'tcontact us, um, the builders
will, you know, because there'salways something that happens in
the construction um, so they'llneed responses for any issues
that come up.
And we're the guys that they'llreach out to, because we're the

(56:03):
ones kind of quarterbacking thewhole um construction document
phase, you know.
So, um, and this happened onthe site who, who, who do we
contact?
And then I'll look at my teamand I'll say, okay, we got to
contact the structural engineeror my title 24 guy.
So we're kind of the guys, um,you know, with the ball, you
know.
So see, where do we go?

(56:24):
Yeah, of course, you know it'sum, it's very, very challenging,
you know, but, um, I think, Ithink that's that's why I like
this field.
It's, it's, it's hard, it'sreally good you know, and, um,
like I said, it's there's,there's something under pressure
and stress, there's somethingnew every day.
You know, every project is new,it's new challenges and, um, it
just kind of builds our arsenalof tools.

(56:44):
Like, like I said, it's reallyimportant to build your tools
because, whether it's in thefield or just in life in general
, I mean those problem-solvingskills that you learn, I mean
you can use them anywhere.
You know what I mean, just tokind of get you out of a muddy
situation.
Full service over there huhyeah.
Making the extra mile, andthat's customer service,

(57:06):
everything, the extra mile manover there, huh yeah, making the
extra mile, and that's customerservice.
Everything.
The extra mile, man.
The extra mile is why you getreferrals five years later.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
So we're kind of running up against time here, so
there's a couple of questionswe wanted to kind of close with.
Where do you see M Designs infive years from now?
Do you see it expanding?
What's your vision for thefuture, for your company?

Speaker 3 (57:24):
You know what, we did expand for a while and I felt
it was taking a direction that Ididn't like.
Um, because it it takes me outof kind of that.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
That you can't, you can't you can't manage
everything.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
It's hard and and you know what, some, some, some
people like that, some peoplewant to be able to just, you
know, get up in the morning andhave the whole team run the
business, which is fine, and youcan't.
You can't do it.
I mean, we're getting to apoint where I mean I wasn't even
drawing anymore.
You know, I was just talking tothe client and then making the

(58:02):
numbers out, and then that wasit, and I wasn't, I wasn't
producing anymore, I wasn'tdrawing, I wasn't.
It took, it, took the creativeaspect out of it, which is why I
got into the industry.
Um, so, um, do I see ourselvesexpanding?
No, I think I think we kind oflearned our threshold.
I think a team of maybe threeor four is where we want to be.
It's sweet, yeah.
Anything bigger than that, itgets expensive and it gets a lot

(58:23):
more stressful, and then itkicks me out of the creative.
Three or four is where we wantto be.
It's sweet, yeah.
Anything bigger than that, itgets expensive and it gets a lot
more stressful, and then itkicks me out of the creative
process.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Perfect Cause.
You found that out early, rightwhen you're, where you're most
profitable and where you want togrow to.
And if you grow too much, thenyou're not making as much money
and it's more stress, morestrain on the business.
And you, you know, since you're, you know and it's all.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
It's all, it's all about profit.
I mean, I mean, let's, let'sget down to it, man, the top
line does not matter, it's notthe bottom line.
Bottom line is we want to makemore fucking money and we got to
make living.
You know it's.
It's um, how do you bring morevalue for the time in your day?
And yeah, whatever, how muchtime we have left?
You know, let's, let's make itcount.

(59:08):
It's no commodity you can buyit's time.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
Right, that's right.
So a couple questions.
We always close with ourentrepreneurs is what's the best
business advice you got comingup and and going into this thing
?

Speaker 3 (59:21):
best business advice?
Um, I think I think it's justpulling the trigger.
I think is number one pull thedamn trigger.
If it's meant to happen, it'sgoing to happen if you really
want it.
From the beginning you've kindof been laying out all these

(59:41):
pieces that I'm talking aboutand it's kind of just destiny
pieces of the puzzle.
If something gets a little bithard or you don't know something
about it, that I'm talkingabout and it's kind of just
destiny Pieces of the puzzlewhenever you run together.
If something gets, you know, alittle bit hard or you don't
know something about it, thatone piece is going to come into
play.
You know it's going to beRobert from MyPaceSolutions or
Fina from.
You don't know who it is, youdon't know what it is but just

(01:00:13):
pull place.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
It will let the universe I promise let's do its
work right yeah, don't, don't,don't be scared to pull the
triggers.

Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
And last one what's the worst business advice you
got?
Jesus, talk about right, yeah,you, I know, you got something,
I know you got.
Uh, the worst business advice Ithink would be, um, not taking
something on that you don'tfully understand.
So, um, just just take it on.
And you don't fully understand,so just take it on and you'll
figure out how to do it.
So a lot of I know a lot ofpeople that are either in the
industry or trying to get intothe industry, and then they'll
say, oh, I'm not ready yetbecause I don't know this.

(01:00:39):
Or you know it's a wholebusiness, but you don't grow
from A to F, but you't know what, what c is or how to do.
C is like you'll figure it out,dude, you know, but so the
worst thing is to not do itbecause you don't know one
aspect of the whole thing andyou're never not going to know
the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
No, you know too much yeah, so things are always
evolving in, in, in, design andbuilding everything it's
something new all the time, yeah, so you just kind of got to go
with the flow.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Yeah.
So the worst advice is just,you know, letting one of those
things stop you is probably theworst, because then you're never
going to know how to do it, ifyou don't want to try to figure
it out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
There you go.
You got to crawl before you canwalk.
Yeah, thank you so much forcoming on this.
I appreciate you guys makingthe time to come.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I learned a lot about you guys.
This is a lot of good nuggetsin there for all our aspiring
entrepreneurs.
You know, one lesson I did takeaway from this?
What To all you fuck-ups outthere there's a chance.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
There is a chance.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
You're saying there's a chance, right, mariano.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
I never saw him take a backpack to school.
I don't know how he graduated.
I was like, oh bro.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
I mean, we could talk for hours about this man.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
From fuck up to business leading entrepreneur.
It's right here in front of myface.
It can happen, guys.
So you life.
Hey, you still got plenty oftime, baby, you were smart
enough to do it.
Absolutely, man.
It's not whether you fail, it'show you respond to the failure.
Exactly, work that wise guys.
Thanks for coming in.

(01:02:14):
If you found some value today,like, subscribe and follow and
we'll talk to you guys next time.
Thank you, guys.