008 | Building My Tinting Business | Advanced Tinting by Caesar - Local Business Breakthrough

Episode Transcript
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Caesar Robledo (00:00):
When I started my business, I started with a

(00:03):
lot of, I would say,disadvantages, disadvantages, to
give you a little bit moredetails, I didn't have a way to
really get a lease from a shop.
I couldn't get a lease in ashop. Yeah? Why not? Because my
legal status was not accordingto law at that time. Yeah, I

(00:28):
didn't have a Social SecurityThus, I didn't have a checking
account, thus, I didn't have alot of things that they are
required,

Brian Davis (00:39):
yeah, so you just, you couldn't, there's the system
set up that is correct, and thenyou couldn't, just, you couldn't
enter into this. But let's, butit's back up a little bit, and
let's just share, you know, thewhat company it is that, or what
it is that you're talking about,that you're doing, the company
that you started?

Yeah, my company is called advanced teaching by
Caesar LLC. And when I started,I started in Moorpark, 30 years
ago, about 1995 something likethat, maybe earlier, but I'm not
sure I'm I don't recall exactlythe time. What I recall is the

(01:20):
circumstances under which mycompany started. I was, I was
fired from my job doing windowtinting, which is what my
company does. So

how long? So you can't you came over here to say,
How long were you in thecountry? Seven years. So you
were in the country for seven

years, for seven years working, working for a
company, then, then you getfired, correct? We had a
conflict of interest,

okay, and what was that? Can you go into it?

Yes, yes, I was hired by another company who
did, didn't do window tinting,but lower trucks, they sold the
equipment you bring, bring inyour SUV and your truck or your
SUV, and they lower. They putall the equipment to make it

(02:12):
lower and really, reallystylish. That's what they did.
And they needed someone who dothe window changing. So somebody
referred me to that person, andthat person contacted me. And
after work, I used to finish atabout five o'clock, which to me
back in the in the at that timewas really early. I was like, Oh

(02:34):
my God, in United States, youfinished working at five.

So were you doing?
Were you doing window tinting inNo, no, this

is something I learned from the ground anyway.
So I used to go to this companyafter work and just do one or
two cars that they had there.
Okay, yeah, so that way I couldsupply myself with with extra
income. And I thought it was notgoing to be a problem because I
was working after hours. I do mymy due diligence, working in my

(03:04):
company where I work, and thenafterwards, after hours, I do
something on the side. Thiscompany became really essential
in me getting my own shop oncethey move out, when they were
moving out of their location,which is where my shop is
located. Now, he talked with theproperty manager and convinced

(03:28):
him to let me continue the leasewithout paperwork. So I was
continuing the lease without myname being there. Thus it gives
me a chance of me to do my own,my own production, my own, my
own shop. Yeah, that was youropportunity. Correct. After the

(03:50):
lease finish, the propertymanager was convinced that I was
reliable enough that he signedme a lease on my name without
all the requirements per se. Hewas, he was very, very generous,
and he was really nice, reallynice. And that's how it started.

(04:10):
I started. It was verychallenging to me, because
everybody told me my locationwas not very good my location,
to use an American vernacular,he said, your location sucks.

What did you think?
I thought,

well, this provides me with a very low
rent. And who is not going tofollow quality? Oh, I get it. If
I do quality, reliable work,people will go, I don't care if
I'm in the middle of anywhere.
They will follow somebody who isreliable and does good job. And

(04:57):
you know. Are affordable prices,not not cheap, but, you know,

yeah, they were saying that because, I mean,
you're tucked way, way in theback. Like, I remember the first
time that I went over there, andI brought my car over there to
go, because I asked around, andI got referred to you. And like,
you know, I just, I heard thatyou were the only place to take
the cars to get window tintedand it, you know, I did. I had
to drive through with, yeah, thebusiness park in order to find

(05:25):
your place. Is that what theywere talking about? Like, oh,
you're not on the

I'm not gonna get three people because, you
know the formula, location,location, location, yeah. Well,
I can tell you if there's onething that destroys Location,
location, location is quality ofwork in real reliability, really
reliability. We just have have ahard time pronouncing means when
a customer has a problem, I havea problem, and I'm not going to

(05:51):
let my customer carrying aproblem when I can fix it, so I
always go to the limit in orderto provide my customer with
customer satisfaction that hewas looking at the first place.
We all make mistakes. Sometimesthings don't go exactly how we
we we expect. But a very goodpractice in business is always

(06:16):
take responsibility of that andpeople respect that. And
although the initial feeling iscomfort, once you take care of
something, the customer pays youwith their trust, and the trust
is the most difficult thing tokeep, because it requires that

(06:37):
you will always be there always.
When customers trust you, theydon't question your prices. They
just ask you, when can you doit? And you know, they

know that you're going to solve the problem
correct, and you know thatyou're not, not only are you
going to solve the problem, butyou're also not going to create
additional problems in thefuture when that's what they're
looking for.

One of the things that sometimes people get
surprised is when they bring menew cars, and customers are
nervous because they're gonnabring this brand new car, this
location that is kind of in theback of everything, and this guy
who has a weird accent, youknow, and they asked me, have
you ever done this car? And Isaid, No, I never done this car.

(07:20):
But if I was you, and I will belooking for the person who
probably will have the mostexperience and the skills to do
this kind of card that nobodyhas done, because it's brand
new, it's just a new design, Iwould look for me because, you
know, I've been doing this forover 30 years, and I have a lot

(07:41):
of skills that take time inorder to achieve many
techniques. If this doesn'twork, then this works, and it
only takes me about 15 to 20minutes to figure it out. So I
told the customer, why don't youstay here? Why don't you watch
us work? Because I noticed theguy was a little bit

Unknown (07:58):
nervous, of course.

Yeah. And he brought me, it was a very
expensive vehicle. It was$150,000 yeah, vehicle. And I
said, let me give you a chair.
And I sat him inside the shop,observing what we were doing.
And he was paying very closeattention. So I played a little
bit also. I was just likegrabbing and, you know, and

(08:24):
pressing here, I startedlaughing, and the guy knew that
I was kidding, and I said, yeah,just I can tell immediately what
technique I'm gonna use. I said,got it. Just watch us work. And
he did, and when, when wefinished, he was very happy,
because he saw the entireprocess from the beginning to

(08:50):
the end of something that I havenever done before. And it just
took me, as I said, 15 to 20minutes to figure it out. So
that kind of experience is hardto convey, if you you haven't
been doing the same thing forall these years, and then the
fact that we are in a difficultto find location provides me

(09:14):
with something that is reallyimportant, which is low
overhead. My Location, if it wasin the middle of the avenue
where people go by all the time,would cost me, let's say, $3,000
and it cost me $1,000 where I amthus in when times are

(09:36):
difficult, which every year wehave the winter time. In the
winter time, we don't get asmany customers, but then people,
but then we just survive. Yeah,okay, we already know how
cyclical This is, therefore wepay attention to save and make

(09:56):
as much money when. Where, wherewe have a lot of work, and then
we save and make sure we justsurvive for the winter time.
Yeah, yeah, you got to packaway, yeah. And that's how we do
it. But the location, thelocation i is, is has been, to
me, one of my biggest assets,because everybody else around me

(10:18):
has gone out of business becausethey pay a high price to be in a
more visible, visible way. Butword of mouth is any

word of mouth. I mean, you know, I was, I was
thinking that you're thesituation that you're in, you've
grown your business. You haven'tgrown your business by, you
know, being the biggestbillboard out there, so that
anybody that sees you is justcoming in and they're highly
skeptical of whatever it is thatyou're going to do. They're
probably also shopping bottomdollar, you know, not the ideal

(10:57):
customer that you want, but theway that it sounds like you've
grown your business is byproviding the best service with
quality materials and reallygiving your customer an amazing
experience so that they then thenext car that they bring.
There's no question like, I'mbringing it to Caesar, or if

(11:19):
they hear any of their friendssay, hey, we need some we need
some window 10. They're justlike, Dude, don't even look at
any other places. Just call upCaesar, go to him. He's going to
take care of you. And so now thequality of customer that you're
getting right is a customer justlike what you're saying is a
customer that trusts you. Andthen your new customers that

(11:39):
have been referred to you, theyalready have buy in, you know,
so like the customers that arecoming in your door, much higher
quality than the customers thatare coming into the door that of
the shop that is on the mainboulevard, and people are just
driving by and and and cruisingin,

yeah, honesty is a very important factor as well.
Yeah, I had had customers whocome by to me, and they went to
a different shop, and they said,Well, you know, I have this
problem. And I look and I seethe problem, and this is my
first answer to that is, I'lltell you what. I'm going to give

(12:16):
you directions, what to say. Yougo back with the person who did
the job originally, and ask him,please to do this. Please
replace it, and this time, makesure to clean the rails. For
instance, if I see that dirt onthe edges was the problem, or I

(12:40):
say, do so. And so I given thesolution of the problem, and all
they have to do is go back andsay, This is what is happening.
Can you please fix it? I saidany, any honest or genuine
business person will say,Absolutely, let me change it for

(13:01):
you, because the fact thatyou're telling them what is
wrong, you know that they wentsomewhere else and they told you
how to fix the problem, and theygo back and the other person
gets angry because they don'tWant to replace it. But it makes

(13:21):
business sense that whensomething is wrong, just replace
it. This is not like painting acar. It's very simple replacing
film. I always was surprised howpeople didn't want to do that.
When it's so easy, just removeit, clean it and do it again.
You're not going to spend a lotof money either or time. Now

(13:42):
it's very easy to keep acustomer happy, but they don't,
and then they come back to me. Ido what they were asking the
other shop to do. I remove itand clean it and do do the
process that I'm telling them,that I did, telling them to
communicate with the other shop.
I show them, and then I they seethe results. And I said, you see

(14:04):
how easy it was? Why didn't hewanted to do it for you? I don't
take away business from anothercustom, other window tinting
shops, because I don't thinkthat's ethical. Yeah, I take the
business once they reject takingcare of their own customer, and
by doing that, that customer,that it was not my customer, now

(14:26):
has become my customer. Andguess what? Now it carries with
him a big amount of trust, andthat's what you lose when you
don't take a customer and takecare of the customer. Have I
have customers that they havebeen unhappy with me, yes, but I
can tell you that is not beingbecause quality of work of or

(14:46):
anything else except personaldifferences. They didn't like
how I talked to him, or, youknow,

you can't please everybody. Yeah, everybody's
unique. But like, where did,where did the. Does this sense
of integrity or the value forintegrity come from for you
personally?

Yeah, my father was a business owner for many
years. He had a upholstery shopwhen we were growing up in his
household in Guadalajara. I'moriginally from Guadalajara,
Jalisco, Mexico, and he was verywell regarded, and he was very
well known in the city becausehe was really, really good and

(15:29):
what he did, but also he was, hehad a high integrity into his
work. And I remember him tellingus that, that for him, how much
you were making, it didn'tcompare of if it didn't matter
if you compromise your workethics. For him, one thing was,

(15:54):
work ethic was more importantthan money. For me, more money
is more important than workethics, but it doesn't exclude
themselves. You can have abalance with both. And that's
where I learned

it. That's where I learned you saw it. You saw it
in your dad. I saw it in

my dad. I never had my own business until I came
to

United States. Are there any stories that you
remember where like your dad,just like really

my dad had a customer? Now, an upholstery man
reupholsters The seats in yourcar and carpet and everything,
doors and all that. And thiscustomer, he brought in a
specific material that he wantedto place in the seat. And my

(16:43):
father said, I'm gonna tell youthat is not gonna work. And the
guy said, why? He said, Becauseit's gonna rip. He didn't
believe him. He said, Well, youdo it anyway. He said, Okay,
well, I'm just telling you. Areyou sure? Yes, okay, so my
father did it. And he said,Wait, here it is. Look at it. Do

(17:05):
you like it? Do you like what Idid? Oh, yeah. And he looked,
it's very thorough, okay? Andthe customer was very happy. And
he said, Well, you know it'sgoing to be this much. And the
guy pay him, my father give thekeys to him. And when he sat
down on the seat, it ripped, andmy father said, I told you that

(17:27):
it's gonna rip. Why? Because thematerial you give me is very
thin. You needed a moreresilient material, but you
didn't listen. I'm sorry, but hemade sure I did a good job, and
he made sure the customer reviewchecked that everything was

(17:48):
fine, and then he sat down, asmy father said from the
beginning, when you sit down,it's gonna rip so that's the
kind of thing, even Though hetold him, even though the
customer didn't listen, myfather replace with Correct,
correct material, and he onlycharged him for the material. He

(18:13):
couldn't charge him for thelabor of removing everything and
doing everything again, becausehe felt bad that the guy didn't
really trust him, but had tolearn hands on, experience.

Yes, learn his own way. Yeah, it sounds like your
your dad really cared aboutpeople. He did. He did really.
He was valued

people. Yeah, and remember, he raised 12
children, family, six brothersand six sisters. Wow. My mom was
mainly in charge of the girls,but my father was in charge of
our education, and he's still inus all those principles, whether
we understood them or acceptthem or not, I actually

(18:56):
understood better my father'sconcepts once I started doing
business on my own,

did you feel them kind of like naturally coming
out? Well, I

remember, okay, oh, my father did this. It comes
to you when you encounter orface a similar problem, a
similar problem, but it's aprocess. It's a process. So for
other people who see obstaclesand whatever they want to do,
whether open a business orkeeping a business floating. I'm

(19:30):
telling you, resilience is isthe best you can do life. Always
push you back whatever you do.
They just keep on just keep ongoing. I learned, I learned,
very recently, the word entropy.
Yeah, entropy. Okay, so nature,naturally is entropic, which

(19:53):
means it destroys things. Thecreative world has a tendency
of. Of destroying, thingsdisappearing or deteriorate.
Things Fall Apart, grossentropy. So in order for us to
survive in whatever endeavor wedo, we encounter entropy. We
encounter entropy all the time,even even in relationships with

(20:17):
your wife and your children,they're not harmonious. So
everywhere you look, there'salways problems. So that's
nature, pushing back entropy,pushing entropy into you. Your
job is to fight against entropy.
So when did you fight entropy?

(20:39):
When you move in, into a newplace, and everything looks
looks disorganized, and then youfight against entropy, and you
organize everything. You bringorder to chaos. Okay, starting a
business is the same thing.
You're going to encounterentropy, chaos and everything.
Your first job that you did,something went wrong. You can be

(21:02):
discouraged and say, I shouldnot do window tinting anymore.
Just because you encounter anobstacle you have to push and
overcome that you have to fightentropy. And then, and this
happened to me, one of my mymentors, my good friend, Phil.
He came over when I opened theshop, and I was so, so proud of

(21:25):
the shop, and I said, Come, cometake a look at it. And he looked
at and he looked around, and Isaid, What do you think? And he
brought his wife with him, andturned his head to her and ask,
How long do you give him? Whoa.

(21:48):
And she replied with the coldestvoice, six months. What he was
saying, this was one of yourmentors. Yes. What? What he was
saying is that in their fromtheir perspective, from their
point of view, yeah, myoperation for the location I
had, regardless of what I wasgoing to do, it will only have a

(22:14):
life expectancy of six months,according to Everything that
they thought. You know about

business? Yeah, correct was, was that something
that was discouraging, or just,like, lit a fire discouraging?
Okay, how did you handle that?

Because I figured this guy has so this
whole many years in business,and he looks at what I have
done, and he gives me sixmonths. He knows what he's
talking about,

but that's, you know, like, I think that, I
think that words have influenceover people. And like, if you
believed that, right, like, youcould have only had six months,
but you've had 30 years. So howdid, how did you not adopt that
belief, okay, that you only havesix months, another

belief have to supersede that, yeah, because
your beliefs destroy fears. Ifyou believe that you can jump
from one building to another andthat you're not gonna fall and
if you believe that nonsense,you're gonna fall into the
crown. But that's, that's, ofcourse, it's like

ridiculous, limited, correct? But unless
these buildings are really closetogether, but

in this particular case, I figure I have
no room to fail. Yeah, I havetoo much invested. And I
thought, What is the worst?
Worst, worst case. I'm sorry,what is the worst case scenario?
You work longer hours. You openwhen nobody else open. Thus you
open weekends. Let's say themajority people want to work

(23:54):
Monday through Friday. Well, ifI open Saturday and nobody else
does Guess what I'm gonna getall those customers. What if I
open Sunday Hmm? I thought,okay, in times of struggle, I
will open Sundays. And I did. Idon't struggle anymore. That's

(24:15):
why I don't open Sundays. Do youthink? Do you

think that you would have had that thought
process if your mentor hadn'tcome and said, I only give him
six months. I

didn't do it.
No, I didn't do it to prove himwrong. Well, not wrong, but when
he said that, he make me realizean awareness, maybe I was not in
the best position to to open abusiness and make it successful.
But I always knew, maybe this isthe reason why I knew this, that

(24:49):
if I really push it and Isustain this rhythm, if I keep
on going, that I will besuccessful is because. Because
for one year, I work out of mygarage. Now, where I lived was
hard to find, and yet thecustomers found a way. Now

(25:10):
thinking, Okay, this guy isbringing me a brand new car. He
has to go through all the mazeof the streets where I live, and
then he finds me, and now hesees that I'm gonna work out of
my garage. How much trust thisguy has to have to leave his car

(25:31):
for half a day in somebodyelse's garage? This is not even
established business. It's just,I was just doing it out of my
garage. If they find my place,then this is an industrial area.
This is where people come hereall the time. They're gonna find

(25:52):
me. And what was the reason whythey brought it to me when I was
there, reliability and quality.
I was very thorough. I'm alwaysbeen very thorough with every
every single one, every singlejob that I do to me is me taking
my car to get it tinted withsome guy with the weird accent I

(26:16):
won. I don't care anything elseexcept you do a good job, and if
something goes wrong, you fixit. That's all I care. And if I
give that to my customers, Iwill keep that. I will keep
them. They will come. And that'sthat's a formula that is work to
me for all these long years.
Thus, I was not discouraged. Ithought, Huh, no, if I think, if

(26:39):
I notice things start gettingdifficult, I'm gonna work
Sundays, because nobody worksSundays. And how many people
really, they don't have anyother day to bring their car to
get fixed?

Yeah, a lot of people are working themselves.

So that's what I did when I was when I was
starting. I work seven days aweek.

Do you had, you had a prior experience where you
knew that this could work? Well,

when I was, when I was when I was working at the
place, when I was an employee?
Yeah, we worked Monday toFriday, okay? And I, I was
there, and I, I remember, I, Istarted learning English
immediately. When I came toUnited States, I the first thing
I did, I went to night schoolbecause I couldn't express
myself. I couldn't communicatewith anybody else. But that

(27:29):
time, in 1988 and I was in 1000Oaks area, there were very few
Latinos that I could just webasically knew each other. We
wave at each other when we saweach other. So I went to night
school to learn English in orderto communicate my boss and
everybody around spoke English.

(27:52):
There's therefore for me, it wasvery important to learn that,
and once I felt comfortablecommunicating, then I just knew
it's matter of practice and selfimprovement after that. Why am I
telling you that? Because to me,it was always a way of
advancing, whether it's English,whether it's analyzing how

(28:20):
business goal. Oh, I remember sowhen I was noticing, when I was
listening, overhearing customersapproaching my boss and said,
Hey, can you do it in aSaturday? And he said, No, we
don't work Saturdays. I thought,why not? Why not? Oh, we want
two days off. You mean Saturdayand Sunday, you know? Because

(28:42):
Saturday, whatever, they wake upand Sunday, they go to the lake.
My boss used to have a boat, andthat was, that was his thing. He
went to the lake, and I thought,I don't have a boat. I don't
mind working, because I'm gonnamake 50 bucks in the day. You
know what I mean, I rather workthe day. That's how much money I

(29:03):
make for a day, $50 now to yourAmerican ears, that sounds Oh,
my God, very little to me, was atreasure. It allowed me to buy
meat for the whole week. And youknow, it just was so I was so
appreciative this. I have make alot of money in this business,

(29:25):
but I can tell you, none of themoney that I have made ever
tasted the way $50 per daytasted back then. Because to me,
was such an improvement in sucha motivating amount.

Because it was, it was, it was such a change for
you,

correct, correct, and that this does very
motivating anyway. So when Inoticed that people were asking
and they were rejected becausethey want to work in Saturday
and we didn't work Saturdays, Ifigure, hmm, if I ever. Open my
own window Tintin shop. That'swhat I'm gonna do. I'm gonna

(30:04):
work on the weekends. And then Istarted thinking, What? What?
What prevents me from opening mywindow Tintin shop? And I
started noticing, hmm, it's nota really big investment. You
don't need 1000s and 1000s ofdollars to do this. What? What
can go wrong? You don't getcancer because you're spraying

(30:27):
what soapy water, hmm, what isthe worst thing that can happen
to you when you are doing it?
Oh, you're ruining a piece offilm, and you replace it. Hmm,
what kind of injuries can youget by doing this job cutting
your finger with a razor blade,I thought, oh my gosh, this is a
very easy thing to make money,and thus I pursued that goal, to

(30:50):
once have my own operation.

So how long since from having that realization to
having your own shop. How longwas it? Oh,

several years. I realized that within the first
year I was working on windowtinting, yeah, so you're like,
I'm gonna do this. And then,yeah, and then I pay attention
in, you know, what kind of toolswe need? What do you buy? The
film I was paying attention, andafter seven years of working for
the for the same person,remember I told you we had a

(31:30):
conflict of interest, becauseafter after hours, I was working
for this other company that endup giving me the lease take over
the lease of their location,okay that my boss said that was
a conflict of interest. I needto let go of that account or

(31:50):
integrate it to to our ourbusiness, to his business. So I
understand now, because Iprobably will do the same when I
refuse. And he said, Well, youknow, I'm gonna have to let you
go. And then, since the momenthe let me go, I was working out
of my garage. And then I used togo to other window Tintin shops

(32:14):
and not actually ask for a job.
But I gave him my my my number,and I said, whenever you have an
overflow of cars, let's say youcan only handle three, but you
get four or five, call me andI'll do the other two for you,
and you just give me apercentage, and that's what I
start doing. So I was all over.
I went here and I went there,yeah. So that, that that period

(32:39):
of struggle to me, give me a lotof practice in how to work under
extreme conditions, extremecondition, or I would, I would
not say stream. For instance,when, when, when I work out of
my shop, I have everythingcontrol. The water that I use is
filtrated very, very pure water.
If it's a little bit windy. Iclose the doors. I control the

(33:01):
environment. But when you workfor other people or control, you
don't have control. Yeah, Iremember I used to, I used to
take customers who wanted me togo and do my tinting in their
garage, not knowing that theirgarage was full of stuff

(33:22):
everywhere in the car, in thecar barely fit. So I start
saying, Okay, if you need me todo your car in your garage,
you're gonna have to have agarage where I can open the
doors.

Might have to do that so we

didn't have so much control, but I had to work
against those odds. And you knowwhat that does in life? When you
have to overcome struggles, itmakes you stronger. It does it
gives you more skills you haveto be resilient and you have to

(34:04):
be creative in order to overcomeobstacles. Yeah, that's a
problem solve, yeah. And that'sDoes, does. Those are, I would
call personal growth skills thatyou acquire every time you
struggle. And I hear peoplesaying, oh, you know, I struggle
a lot, but I don't want my kidsto struggle. And I'm thinking,

(34:27):
you are gonna make your kidsvery weak. You know, don't,
don't be afraid of struggles.
You have to overcome it,overcome them. So it's a
blessing when you havestruggles. Nobody likes
struggling, but the end resultis really good.

Yeah, you become a better, more capable, stronger
person to able to do more foryou, and then also more for the
people that are around you.

So once my business was established and it
was surviving to. Just by wordof mouth. Right now, I go to the
shop. I have no appointments. Idon't worry about it. We just go
over there, open the door,somebody will show up. Today is
an example today. I thought,okay, it's raining. Nobody's

(35:16):
gonna show up. I'm gonna do somecleaning. I you know, I had, I
had some, some projects that Iwanted to do at the shop to
improve. And some guy showed up,and I said, Why are you not
home? He said, today is my onlyday off, but it's raining now.

(35:37):
Keep in mind, I was trying tosend him away in a very subtle
way, you know, why are you here?
Why aren't you home drinkingsome chocolate or some hot tea?
Like, I suppose it's my only dayoff and this, but it's raining.
And he said, Didn't you say thatwhen rains? Do you get the
better installation? I said,Yes, I did. It's true. When it
rains, your installation is evenmore because all the moisture,

(36:01):
dust is

subtle. Ah, the dust, yeah, it settle. Cleans
the air. It cleans the air. Youhave a cleaner air.

So, like, Okay, well, whatever. I'm cold, but
I'm gonna do it. And it was, itwas a great experience, a great
experience, but I couldn't do mylittle project. But you have to
do that. The customer has to bealways the most important thing
for you. And we did

that today. That's awesome, yeah. What about take
me back to your transition frombeing in Mexico to being in in
the United States. Because, Imean, my grand, my great
grandparents, came over fromMexico, yeah, you know, and I, I
didn't get, I didn't get to hearmuch of their story. You know,
both of them passed away when Iwas very, very young, like my

(36:52):
great grandmother, before I waseven speaking, and then my great
grandfather, I think, when Iwas, like, 10, or something like
that. But I would have loved toknow more about like, what that
what that was like for them. Sowhat was that like for you?

Okay, well, at that time, it's different now,
but at that time, I had a wifeand two kids, and I felt this
big responsibility in I wasworking for a construction
company. We build houses andbuildings, and I was charged of
getting all the permits. So Iused to go to the governmental

(37:30):
agency and get permission forthis, or this, this, this. And
of course, you have to bribeeverybody, okay? But I couldn't
see a future in any of that.
When I wanted that, I wanted thefuture for my kids. I wanted my
kids to experience things that Iwish I I did, for instance, to
tell you, ever go to Disneyland?

(37:52):
For me, going to Disneyland willbe the equivalent to you as
saying, you know, in about fiveyears, we are going to be able
to go to the moon wasimpossible. I can I could never
do that. Can never do that, andnever bring my kids to do to
visit such a place. I never seensuch a place, and I would like

(38:15):
to do it anyway, when thingsstart accumulating, I thought,
okay, I can go to United States,and I can work for six months,
make enough money, come back,purchase a car, and then our
quality of life will go higher.
That was my whole plan. So Iasked for a visa, and

(38:42):
surprisingly enough, they gaveme a visa, tourist visa. So I
came in a tourist visa, and Ionly had a week. That's all.
They gave me, just seven days.
Of course, I overstayed my visa,but once I landed in United
States, this is the first thingI did. I look around and I

(39:06):
thought, My country is nevergoing to be like this for the
next 50 years. Yeah. So if I'mable to, and I'm able to stay,
I'm going to definitely bring myfamily here to I was going to
adapt United States as mycountry. That was my initial
wall from the beginning. Once Iwas here, I thought, it's no

(39:30):
way. I'm just gonna stay sixmonths and come back. No way.
Yeah,

with it, with that first impression, what? What was
it that that struck you withthat first impression of getting
into the United States and justthinking like there's no way
that my my country is going tobe like this ever I thought, No
way. So what? What was it aboutthe US that struck you like
that,

very simple things that we take for granted?
Okay, my brother went to pick meup, and when he picked me up,
the first thing he did he.
Pulled over into the drivethrough of McDonald's, and I
thought, I expect I spoke someEnglish because I at school, I
learned some English. And Icouldn't believe my brother with

(40:11):
the flawless English that itsounded into my ears, he ordered
a Big Mac meal when I never beenin McDonald's in my life, okay?
He just pulled in roll the winddown order, and when they give
us the food, it was the biggestdrink I ever seen. It was a

(40:33):
humongous one. I thought, Oh, myGod, this just exuded wealth
everywhere. And the hamburgerwas delicious the french fries.
It was enamored with the Frenchfries. Immediately my physio was
I Know What Love at first sightis. McDonald's is, to me, a

(40:56):
treat. I don't eat McDonald'svery often, but every time I do,
I remember the first impression.
It's called in psychology, iscalled in pronta in Spanish, in
pronto is is a memory associatedwith emotion. And those don't

(41:23):
disappear. You always when youdo the same thing, you kind of
get taste that it was before,the same, the same, the same
situation. So I was veryimpressed. And then my brother
driving a car, when I didn'teven have a car. And I remember
my brother was here for sixmonths before me, he's already

(41:46):
driving a car. Are you kiddingme? So everywhere I saw it, just
ex suited wealth, exuded wealth.

What did that? What did that do in you? I mean, I
know that you said that it madeyou like I don't want to stay
here for six months and then goback. No, you know, but like,
what did? What? How are you? Howare you making

me feel really poor? Make me feel really poor.
And then we went to the placewhere my brother was leaving,
yeah, can I describe you thehouse where he was living? Okay?
And this is gonna be, is gonnasound for you like, very normal,
okay, seem single house, youknow, one two levels, single

(42:29):
house, two levels in more Parkand more Park in 1000 looks,
1000 looks. That means thishouse had a front yard in the
lawn around and he had adriveway, and he had an

(42:54):
automatic garage, garage door,yeah, and it didn't, it was not
fenced. It was not fenced aroundand next door. And this is
something I noticed. The nextdoor, children left their bikes
on their lawn. I will never dosuch a thing, because somebody

(43:18):
will steal them, right? So Icame from a place where house
was next to another one andthere was no lawn around. It was
house, and then the next house.
When I see Gaza, yeah, it kindof remind me, like, Oh, my God.
You know, that looks kind oflike the neighborhood that we
had. That's the kind of shockingcultural shock that I had. I'm

(43:43):
like, oh my god, this is this sonice? See green lawn and not,
not one house, just next toanother one. But you know, you
have space in between. Yeah? Sothe more within 24 hours, I'm
thinking, I'm not gonna go back.

(44:04):
I'm not gonna go back. No way.
You know, I all I need to do isjust to improve and adapt and
fit in and just just integrate,which a lot of people don't. A
lot of people don't integrate.
It seems like integration is notsomething they want. Yeah. Well,
how can, how can even people whoUnited States, people from

(44:27):
United States, who live inMexico, they integrate. They
learn the language they theyare, you know, involved. They
are just living there. But ifyou don't integrate, you always
what is the word set aside?

You don't fit in.
You don't fit in the outside.

They call it's called ostracize. Yeah. So when
people saying to me, oh, youknow we're alienated, well, you
don't want to be alienatedFirst, learn the learn the
language. Learn to Learn. Whichlearn our cultural differences
and adapt to the new culturaldifferences. If here is not

(45:08):
social acceptable that you drinkand drive, don't drink and
drive, you're in the newcountry. Learn the things from
the new country. You know, ifit's not socially accepted that
you and your house, you have,you know, music, very loud music
after 10pm don't have loud musicafter 10pm it, to me, is a very

(45:28):
simple thing when you had thementality of integration, when
they people don't do that, thenew the newcomers, I don't care
from where they seem to come andtry to recreate the place they
came from. But why do you camefrom that place? If you're gonna
just recreate it, wouldn't it bebetter to stay in the place if

(45:53):
you if that's what you like, butif you come to a new place, you
learn the new things, and youintegrate into the new things.

So how long? How long did it take you to feel
like you were integrated, tofeel like you were like that?
This was your place. Now,

the moment I became a citizen, yeah, all the
time before to me, was apractice in survival, I post
this question to Thomas, to myToastmaster members. I said,

(46:31):
what happened if you don't havea driver license? How much your
insurance will cost for yourcar? And they said, Well, you
can't have an insurance for yourcar, correct? So you have to
drive without a driver license.
Driver licenses less.

That's the stakes, right? I mean, the stakes were
much higher for you, absolutely,like, with everything that you
did and all the helps peopletaking, taking for granted the
fact that they could get out onthe car in vehicles, because if
they got in an accident or gotpulled over, like no big

deal. So you don't have a driver license, so
you cannot have insurance. Hmm,what happened when you're
driving a car without a driverlicense and without insurance?
Tell me when you get pulled overby the police for any reason,
where's your driver's license? Idon't have a driving license.
Hmm, where's your insurance? Idon't have insurance. The next
step is they impound your car.
Now, once the car is impounded,how are you going to get it out?

(47:36):
Do you need a way to prove thatyou are the owner, means you
need the drive license or an ID.
You can have an ID, no, so yourcar is gone, yeah, so back back
then the people who were intheir my situation, they could
only buy or purchase or get aclunker, yeah, very low, low

(48:03):
investment vehicle, because youknew sooner or later it's gonna
end up in the pound. You'regonna lose it. Yeah, you're
gonna lose sooner or later.
Okay? And then one of myclassmates, mates asked me,
well, how come you didn't have adrive license? You know what?
You need to have a driverlicense. You need a social
security number. Hmm, how comeyou don't have a social security

(48:29):
number because you're not legal.
Wait, wait, wait. Therefore, ifyou don't have a social security
number, you don't have a bankaccount. How are you going to
catch the checks that they aregoing to pay? You go to those
cash check cashing stores, yeah,and they take what, 10% 5% Yeah,

(48:54):
out of your paycheck. But that'swhat you do. How you going to
pay your utilities? You go tothe post office and buy money
orders. So you have to jump allthose hoops in order to but you
know what that makes you? Makesyou strong, makes you resilient.
That's what that makes you. Whenyou don't have obstacles, you

(49:15):
don't develop good legs to jumpthem, and that's what we do when
you born with all thoseadvantages that immigrants don't
have, you don't appreciate them.
You cannot understand why thesepeople don't do that, because
they can't. Now, you think if Ihad a, let's say, a bad year, a

(49:37):
not a successful year, a badyear in my business, what do you
think I'm going to do? Am Igoing to close the shop? No, I'm
just next year. I'm going towork harder, because I know that
that's the only way that I'mgoing to survive. Yeah. Mm.

(49:57):
Don't get deter by littleproblems. I don't cry about
small inconveniences. You know?
I'm used to tackle biggerproblems my I'm used things not
going my way. And that's onething you will never see, that I

(50:19):
will cry and then, oh, why me? Idon't, and I owe all that
resilience to that time when Iwas in United States. Why not
before? Because before I wasliving in the country with
everybody spoken Spanish, yeah,I have friends. I, you know,
just I knew how to navigate in asociety that didn't see me

(50:43):
differently, because everybody'sMexican, all my friends are
Mexicans, and when I came to adifferent country, that's when I
developed all those resilienceskills.

So how long did it?
Did it take you to get your wifeand your kids

six months, I save every penny, and I did the
same. They got a visa, a touristvisa, and that's how I got him.
I tell you that because Iprobably you probably don't know
this, but when you overstayedyour visa, your process of
becoming a citizen, it's wayeasier, way easier. It's not

(51:26):
penalized as much because youdidn't enter illegally. You
enter legally, although youoverstate your your visa. So we
have to pay a fine for overstateour visa, about $1,500 per
person, so it's a fine, like aticket, yeah? But it's not in

(51:47):
the same regard as when youcross illegally, then you're
violating the law willingly. Idon't know. It's just that's how
it is. Just different. Yeah,it's different. I didn't know
this. I just didn't want myfamily, you know, running
across. Because I didn't runacross. I came in a plane. My

(52:08):
family came in the plane, yeah,when I went to pick them up to
McDonald's,

what do they think?
What was it like for you to seeyour family

back then, after six months of, you know, going
to school and everything, I wasable to say, give me please,

did you put, did you put on a little weight from
all that McDonald's?

No, not really, because I work. I work a lot.
Yeah, no, but I was able toorder, order the meal English,
and my wife was very impressed.
I bet she's like, Oh my God,this guy speaks English. I would
just, I just practiced that alot, yeah, yeah. And then I

(52:52):
brought him in, yeah. And now mymy expenditures when and what I
did is adapt, adapt, and Iadapt. I work extra. I convince
my boss, hey, why don't we justwork Saturdays? Well, nobody

(53:15):
wants to work Saturdays. And doyou want to work Saturdays? He
said, Yeah, but nobody wants towork and say, I work with you.
Just pay me for the day and Iwork with you really. You're not
gonna get tired after a coupleweeks. And I said, I have not I
never had two days off in myentire life. I don't even what
that is like, until I'm workingwith you now, we have two days

(53:38):
off. I don't know what to do.
You know, one day is sufficientfor me that I'm just antsy. The
next day we start, we startworking Saturdays, yeah, and
then everybody start joining usbecause, but they everybody
blame me. Oh, it's your phone.
Anyway, since since then, and Ican tell you exactly, was 1988

(53:59):
and the first six months, then Ibrought my family. Once my
family was here, I thought, Ineed more money, and this is the
way to do it. So we startedworking Saturday. So was was in
1988 but in June 1988 since thatday, I had never stopped working

(54:21):
Saturdays. I worked Mondaythrough Saturdays every single
week, and when I had my slowesttimes, then I worked Monday
through Sunday. Thus I nevertook vacations, vacations now
that my boys, my family, grow,grew, and now they are adults.

(54:45):
Then I took my first trip toTaiwan. Why Taiwan? But I was, I
was what I was, 55, years old.
I. Thank you, my son. My sonwent there to teach English. He

(55:07):
went to teach English. He wantedto to go out, out of United
States, yeah, and he went toTaiwan. He loved it. And he
loved it so much that he, likeDad, you gotta come. You gotta
come. And I I didn't want to go.
No, you know, if I go, How longam I going to have to shut the
shop? No, two weeks. I can dotwo weeks. You know, just never

(55:27):
done it. Never done it in mylife.

Did you almost feel like guilty, yes, like Yes.

And I used to tell him, I said, It's not how
much money I'm going to spend,it's how much money I'm gonna
stop earning every time you stopdoing let's say you work for a
week. Let's say you don't getpaid for that week. Vacations.
That's that's the Yeah, I'm aself employed. I don't even know

(55:58):
what that means vacation, so Iclosed the shop for two weeks,
and I went there, and it justopened my eyes. It's so
advanced, so nice, so utterlydifferent than United States,
that I started getting upset,angry. I thought, Hmm, how is it

(56:22):
that we land in Taipei, it'scalled taiyon, tai chi on
International Airport, and youso clean, so beautifully white.
Everything is really bright,okay? And then you, you go to
customs and five minutes, you'rein, especially if you're

(56:43):
American. Yeah, American.
Welcome. I had a blue passport,so I enter, and then you go and
get your luggage, and you justfollow everybody walking, and
you go through a door, and thereis right. There is the the
subway, Subway. Yeah, doesn'tcost anything. You just go in.

(57:06):
Well, just go in, then youdecide in what in which station
you are gonna exit. So we weregoing to the main train station,
main train station. That's whatmy son said. We're exiting the
main train station. Very clean.

(57:26):
Everybody very quiet. There's nopeople talking on the phone.
There's no music there. Youdon't see any people don't even
eat. You're not supposed to eator drink anything. And then we
arrive to the main trainstation, and we exit, and we
walk through corridors full ofpeople, people, and all this is
underground. Okay? Nothing isabout. Ground is underground.

(57:50):
And we walk and we arrive to theHSR, high speed rail. High speed
rail. Why? Because from Taipei,we're gonna go all the way to
Kaohsiung, which is at the end

of the island, and that's where your son was.
That's

where he lives.
So from here to the end of theisland is about six to seven
hours in train, and it'sprobably a little similar or a
little bit longer, on car, okay,but we're taking the HSR high
speed rail. It took us twohours. Oh, my God, from here to

(58:28):
the end, I have never seenexperience Road, road a high
speed range rail. I don't knowwhat what that is, yeah, you
know, it's just this veryfuturistic train, and you're
waiting, and then these peoplego in with mask and clean

(58:50):
everything. I'm like, What arethey doing? My son said they're
cleaning before you enter. Soeverything is sanitized, no
COVID or anything. Just just,this is just what they just what
they do really quick. It's just,it's like little ants they go to
and then it's done. So we enter,and I'm expecting to feel a lot

(59:15):
of movement, nothing, wow. It'slike, even more stable than
riding a plane. It's really,really stable. I mean, you don't
feel anything, and you just, youjust see the speed by looking at
the post,how fast are we going? And it

(59:38):
says 250 miles per hour, and hefeel nothing. I was so
impressed. I'm like, why don'twe have something like that in
United States? And my son said,Oh, and United States is
different, because somethingthat is what did he call a. Um,
I don't remember the fact thatthe government cannot take your

(01:00:04):
land and built on upon, upon it.
In Taiwan, you can own a house,but you don't own the land. Let
me say that again, you own thehouse but you don't own the
land. So the government said,you know, we're going to make

(01:00:24):
train lane here, and we're goingto have to relocate you, yeah,
and they move you away. They payyou whatever the cost of the
house is you, or maybe they getyour new house, but the land is
theirs. So there's noopposition. There's no some old
lady filing a lawsuit because,you know, three generations have

(01:00:47):
been living there, and there'sno way I'm going to give up my
house so they can really rapidlydo public public works. Yeah,
public so it's amazing how fastthey work. But they work because
they have no opposition whateverwhatsoever.

Brian Davis (01:01:08):
Then they can take your land Absolutely.

Caesar Robledo (01:01:12):
What would you?
What would you? Would you tradeyour, your your your your
personal, uh, rights or yourproperty, yeah, to the
convenience of the governmentbeing able to build stuff for
public entry, public interestreally quick. No, no, not me,
yes, this will never work inUnited States. That's why

(01:01:36):
building that, uh, high speedrail from San Francisco to Los
Angeles is taking so long and somany, and it's plagued with with
corruption, yeah, and soexpensive, yeah, yeah, because
they don't just through theroom. They don't have that. We
don't have that, but we have ourrights and our which we we

(01:01:57):
appreciate a lot, especiallywhen you didn't have them. Yeah.
So thus my very stream, feelingsor or convictions about what
your civil civil rights are andwhy I don't want the government

(01:02:21):
to infringe upon those becauseI've seen the other side.

Unknown (01:02:29):
See what happens. I've seen

it, yes, so yeah, that that experience was
eye opening. And from there, Ihad a I'm grateful that I didn't
have the experience of travelingso much until later, because now
I appreciate it.

Brian Davis (01:02:49):
Thanks so much for sitting down with thank you for
sharing your story, man. Thankyou and it whoever, whoever
wants to get in touch with youabsolutely, you know what?
What's what's the best way thatthey could get in touch, just
our company,

look for me and the internet. Just type window
Tintin, Caesar, Moorpark, windowtesting, yeah, more window
tinting, because that's whatyou're looking for. Where am I
located? More Park. What is myname? Caesar. And then it will
guide you directly to my mywebsite. Now it might land other
people who advertise more. Theygo, they call it organic. They

(01:03:29):
go on top. I don't care, youknow, just you can go through a
couple, a couple guys, and thenyou finally will be with me
where it says Advanced thinkingby Caesar LLC, and that's it.
There's no two scissors. There'sjust one. Awesome. If you
encounter any Caesar in hisyounger then that's not me. If

(01:03:50):
it doesn't have white hair,that's not me. Awesome. Thanks,
brother. Thank you very much forhaving me.

Unknown (01:03:57):
Of course, you

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