Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:00):
Welcome to the Palm
Harbor Local the podcast
dedicated to building communityand sharing inspiring stories
from the heart of Palm Harbor.
I'm your host, donnie Hathaway,and today we are joined by
Anthony Santiago, who's theowner and founder of First Class
Detailing.
Now, palm Harbor Local is allabout spotlighting individuals
and businesses who are making adifference, overcoming
challenges and fosteringconnections right here in our
(00:21):
hometown.
If you're passionate aboutgrowing together, getting
involved and celebrating theindividuals who make Palm Harbor
thrive, you're exactly whereyou need to be.
In today's episode, you'lldiscover why Anthony got started
detailing at such a young ageand some of the challenges that
go along with running asuccessful detailing business,
and we'll also talk about howAnthony balances work while
(00:42):
being present for his family.
Now don't forget to connectwith us on Instagram at
Palmharborlocal for behind thescenes highlights, and join our
weekly newsletter atpalmharborlocalcom.
Now let's dive in and buildcommunity together, anthony.
Welcome to the podcast man.
Thanks, donnie.
Appreciate you, dude.
I'm excited to chat with you.
(01:03):
Obviously, we've known eachother.
Appreciate you, dude.
I'm excited to chat with you.
Obviously, we've known eachother.
I don't know when we first metor how old, but long time Little
kids.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, I played ball
with your brother, yeah, right,
and that was probably fifthsixth grade.
Your dad was my coach.
Yeah, so what are you?
12-ish in fifth grade, sixthgrade?
That sounds about right.
So 12-ish in fifth grade, sixthgrade?
That sounds about right.
So 12 minus 30 something?
Yeah, it's about 20 years.
Yeah, crazy 25 or something.
Yeah, 25 years.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You're old.
I'm a couple years older thanyou.
That's crazy.
I was, what was it?
We had our 20-year reunion fromhigh school recently, and
that's just like wild to think.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It makes you
conceptualize time.
Yeah, like with the stamp,about 20 years.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
That's fucking crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, if it's not
your reunion, or your kids, or
your gray hairs, like it tellsyou hey, time's passing by, yeah
.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, for sure.
Gray hairs.
The gray hairs have come inyour beard is.
Yeah, yeah.
So let's talk about yourbusiness first.
Yeah.
First class detailing.
That's right.
When did you start that?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I started well.
I opened my business in 2008.
I graduated in 07.
I opened it in 08.
It was originally called CarCleaning Concepts.
Okay, for the first, I thinktwo years or three years, which
I felt was kind of limiting,because there's RVs, there's
(02:46):
boats and when you think carcleaning concepts, I thought it
was a good little ring to it CCC, make a logo out of it.
And I didn't really have adirection.
And then I figured out fast andquick that I wanted to work on
fancy stuff, nice cars, richpeople, and so I was like man, I
got to switch this around.
(03:06):
So I think, on like year numbertwo or three, I went from car
cleaning concepts to first classdetailing.
But you know, the hustlestarted in 08, you know when
things were bad.
08 was a bad time for theeconomy and I was 19 at the time
.
Time had no idea what I wasdoing yeah just went for it why
(03:29):
why?
did you want to do that?
Well, I've always been in thecars, ever since I was this tall
.
Okay, I've always been ocd,neat, freak, clean, organized
and so, and I wanted to work oncars at some capacity, but like
I didn't want to turn wrenches,you know, I like the aspect of
making a car look cool, makingit look nice, and so, you know,
(03:55):
I think, at 19, there's notreally a whole lot of thought
process, and so what you'redoing which can be both good and
bad, yeah, but at least in agood way, you don't talk
yourself out of it in a bad way,you just have no clue what
you're actually doing.
But putting the three traitstogether OCD, loving cars,
wanting to work on cars but notturn wrenches, detailing sounded
(04:17):
like the route to go, and so Igave it a shot.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Did you do any of
that in high school, or just for
your own?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
No, you know, did you
do any of that in high school,
or just just for your own?
No, you know, it's funny.
I I applied at like during highschool.
I applied at like two or threedetail shops.
Never got the job.
Everybody wanted somebody withexperience.
I had none, which is a youngkid wanted to work.
Yeah, and you know, I kept mycar clean my, my personal car
and, um, I enjoyed keeping itclean.
Like it was fun to me.
So why not get paid for it?
(04:44):
And so I applied at a fewplaces.
A few friends of mine worked ata few detail shops, couldn't
get in anywhere.
I was like you know what?
Just do it myself, buy a van,throw some equipment in there
water tank, generator, pressurewasher, let's go at it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Ready to roll?
Has the business changed sinceyou got into it?
Oh yeah, absolutely not justyour business, but just you know
like detailing so, yeah, Ithink my industry has changed.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, um, the
automotive industry has changed,
business itself has changed,people have changed the dynamic
of, uh, consumer spending andshopping has changed.
I mean, like it's you know,business five years ago was
different than 10 years ago,versus 15.
You know, I'm going on year 17,headed towards 18, so like it's
(05:42):
not the same you know, and thenfor me personally too, inside
of my business.
I originated as a drivewaymobile wash guy, kid, young, kid
, and so you know those are allsmall tickets Back in 08, those
are $40 washes, $80 washes, youknow.
And then, as I've evolvedinside the business, you start
(06:04):
to offer protection services,window tint, paint protection
film, ceramic coatings, show carstuff, wet sanding, and so now
at the shop back in the day wehad $50, $75 average ticket and
now it's a $2,000 average ticket.
(06:27):
It's a $2,000 average ticket,you know, somebody could spend I
mean, if you wanted to, youcould spend 30 grand at the shop
.
Yeah, at a detail shop, yeah,you know.
So, yeah, going from drivewaywash kid to full-blown
protection and restyling shopfrom 08 to 25, everything's
different.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Did you?
At what point did you?
Did you know like you would endup where you're at now, like
doing what you're doing rightnow, as far as, like the, the
type of cars you're working on,like the type of you know, the
protection services youmentioned, like, did you have
(07:07):
that foresight to be like, yeah,that's what I want to get to?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, I was the kid
who had 20 model cars, you know,
on the dresser.
You know like that was my thing.
I loved cars as a kid, probablyfrom like five all the way up
to when I got my license.
You know like cars were.
Just I loved cars and so I knewI loved cars and then nice cars
(07:34):
on top of that.
So I knew what I wanted to workon.
But, like, as I got intodetailing, you know my
preconceived notion back thenwas wash, wax, buff.
You know I had no idea whatpaint protection film was.
I had no idea what window tintwas.
I had no idea what restorationlevel car detailing was.
(07:56):
I had no idea.
It was just a natural evolutionof getting into something that
has many different subsetsinside of it.
You know, similar like to you,in real estate there's
short-term rentals, long-termrentals, commercial.
You know, once you get intoit's like wow, look at all this.
You know, and that's kind ofhow uh detailing is.
(08:19):
You know it could be as simpleas a wash and wax or we could
have a car completelydisassembled, changing the color
and doing everything to it.
But I feel like you don'treally know that stuff until
you're exposed to it.
So I didn't know, but it wasjust a natural growth process of
how do we make it look better,how do we make more money, how
(08:42):
do we make this more fun, and soyou go from small ticket to
large ticket.
It wasn't intentionally, it wasjust slow and steady over 15
years or so Just doing thethings that you wanted to do.
Yeah, yeah focusing on that, Allthe stuff I used to do on a
video game.
Yeah, Make a car from white topurple, put these wheels, you
(09:04):
know it just kind of it justwent the way that now that I
look back on it it's like I wassupposed to do this stuff.
Yeah, you know, likesubconsciously I was already
doing it as a kid, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, so you've been
in could be valuable for
somebody who is early on intheir business journey or at
some point they want to starttheir own business.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I mean quite honestly
, it's all the cliche stuff that
you hear.
It really is.
You know it's live a life ofservitude.
You come last, everybody comesfirst.
You know everybody's got aproblem.
They want your resolve.
You know, on the likeinterpersonal side of it, like
(10:04):
nobody gives a fuck how you feel, what you got going on, they
just want the service.
You know people, whether yousell houses, whether you sell
details, whether you sellwatches, whatever, people just
want what they want.
And so if you're having a badday, if things are messed up in
(10:26):
your life, or if things are evengreat, nobody cares.
They just want the service.
And I think for me that wasprobably.
You know it's not natural, Ithink, to human biology to be in
business.
Everything is delayedgratification, everything is do
(10:47):
it now, now, reap the benefitlater.
You know everything is peoplebefore you right and like, I
think internally, butbiologically, you would want to
be taken care of first.
So I think I think a lot ofentrepreneurship and especially
when you start something fromzero, you know no funding small
(11:09):
business, you know a lot of itis simply just put yourself to
the side and do what needs to bedone.
It doesn't matter if it's 100degrees outside, it doesn't
matter if it's 20 degreesoutside, it doesn't matter if
the economy is booming or if theeconomy is tanking.
You just have to do what yougot to do, period.
(11:32):
But I think you know you takeall that, you put it into a box
and it's just serving people atany capacity If it's health care
, if it's selling cars, cleaningcars.
You know it's what you're doingright now.
Yeah, you're just talking topeople.
(11:52):
Yeah, networking sharing thismake
somebody laugh, connect at sometype of level.
You know whether that's a quickfive minute quote on the phone
or if it's a 15 minute drop inat the shop or somebody's
picking up their car or you'retalking to them about.
You know how to like profilesomebody to find a house for
them to buy.
Yeah, the more you know aboutsaid said prospect, potential
(12:15):
client, the more you can helpserve them.
Yeah, right, and so I think atthe core of it, it's a lot of it
is just take care of people.
Yeah, period Simple.
Yeah, simple when said, butwhen done, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It's simple in the
concept, right, and then it's
like how do you?
And then you internally, yougot to reflect on like okay, how
do I want to serve people, like, what do I want?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
to do yeah.
There's different styles ofdoing so yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And like serve people
.
Like what do I want?
Yeah, yeah, there's differentstyles of doing so, yeah.
And like what business do Iwant?
What like?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
what speaks to me
like cars spoke to you yeah, you
know yeah.
So I think it's important, forif somebody is starting a
business, I think they have tounderstand and don't get me
wrong, there's always outliers,yeah but I think for the most
part, people have to understandwhether you're starting
something for passion, that youlove and you enjoy, or you're
(13:10):
doing something for profit,because there are certain
industries that are just hard tomake a lot of money in period
and there's other industriesthat are easy to make a lot of
money in.
You could be a half-assedbusiness owner and still be very
much successful, and someindustries are just not like
that.
You can be all the way composed, all the way put together, run
(13:30):
a tight ship, and you're stillnot going to be rewarded in the
same aspect of other industries.
And so I think if somebody isjust getting started, you got to
come to terms and kind ofevaluate is this a passion thing
because I enjoy it and I loveit, or is this a profit thing
because I want to enjoy and lovethe money?
(13:51):
Because it's very, very rare,very rare that you love the
money and love the thing at thesame time, like how many people
you know that absolutely lovewhat they do and are making a
million bucks a year.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I know a lot of
people who hate what they do and
are making a million bucks ayear.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I know a lot of
people who hate what they do
make a lot of money.
Yeah, I know a lot of peoplewho love what they do and they
take care of their family yeah,you know.
Not bad, but how many people doyou know that are in love with
their occupation or business orwhatever it is, and also are
killing it?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
that's like the lotto
, in my opinion yeah, what do
you, what do you think goes intothat, though?
Is it just like they're justdialed in to like who they are
and like what they're passionateabout, and they've they've
locked in so much on that, um,that passion, that they've been
able to to make a lot of moneydoing it?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Well, yeah, I mean
like, do you?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
think everybody has
the ability to to do that.
So, like you know, I'mpassionate about this and I'm so
passionate about it I'm goingto make a lot of money doing it
as well.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I don't, I don't.
Well, I don't think everybodyhas the ability to make a lot of
money.
Yeah, I think every industryhas the ability.
There's somebody making amillion dollars a year right now
recycling cans.
Who would have thought?
There's somebody making amillion dollars a year right now
picking up dog poop?
Yeah, who would have thought?
(15:18):
Yeah, right, but that takes aspecial individual to push it
there, and I don't thinkeverybody has that.
True, you know, but that takesa special individual to push it
there, and I don't thinkeverybody has that.
Some people might not agree withme, but I think I mean listen,
I'm five foot seven.
On a good day, I'm not dunkinga basketball, it's not happening
.
It might if I put my wholeentire soul and effort into it.
(15:40):
And I think that's the samething with entrepreneurship
(16:04):
no-transcript years, you know,because it's like man, I'm
putting in so much and I'm notgetting anything back.
It's like, well, for how longcan you sustain that?
Yeah, you know.
So I think the right person canmake a million dollars a year
doing anything.
I don't think everybody canmake a million dollars a year
(16:25):
doing anything.
I don't think everybody canmake a million dollars a year,
even in the easiest industry.
Yeah, I think entrepreneurshipis um.
Essentially, I think, deep downin my heart, I think it's a
lifestyle.
You, you live in a state ofbusiness, right, and you figure
out how to live your life insideof that.
(16:45):
You know, I really do.
And you know, obviously, if youhave the right staff, you
compose the right team, you dothe right thing, you can remove
yourself in due time.
But that's incredibly hard todo that.
Yeah, it's like puttingtogether an all-star team, like
that's why there's not very manyof them, you know yeah, that is
it.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
That is interesting.
Yeah, I would agree.
It is um, it is a, a lifestyleright and it's.
It could be fun, but it canalso be yeah, difficult.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, at one
point in time I hated working
100 hours a week.
Now you know, technically I'm atext away at all times, no
matter what day it is.
It's not a big deal anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, you know is
there a mindset shift that you
had to go through to like,appreciate that and absolutely,
yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I mean I started when
I was 19.
I also moved out of my mom'shouse at the same time, so, like
full court pressure at thatpoint you know, and you know who
I was then was a different manthan I am today, and as much as
I had to learn how to just growup as a human, I also had to
(17:57):
learn how to grow up running abusiness, which was tough.
And so, yeah, I think there'sseasonality to business, there's
seasonality to getting older.
Right now, there's things thatare important to you, that were
never once important before.
Right now, there's things thatyou may have never even thought
(18:18):
about, that are on the front ofyour list to do today.
Same thing with business, thefront of your list to do today.
You know, same thing withbusiness, you know so yeah it's
season, you know it's, it's not.
Uh, you're not just gonna wakeup and be the guy who you need
to be, yeah or the woman youneed to be.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, the the whole
seasonality thing, I think I I
heard that.
Um, I think he said seasonslike from from nick barry used
to listen to some of hispodcasts.
Um, and what do you call themsprints?
Right, like you go throughsprints in life, or sometimes
you got to give it like 110percent yeah, that's relevant.
Sometimes you can dial it backright, and I think, like, like,
(19:04):
just grasping that concept likeallows you, um, the the freedom
to like, okay, this is I andjust enjoy it too, right,
because it's you know, yeah,it's hard, life is hard,
(19:28):
business is hard, and it'salways going to be hard, like
none of that's going to change.
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(19:49):
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financial year yet I think Iheard this somewhere.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
But like, the only
constant is all the variables.
Yeah, it's never solidified.
You know if you make, you knowfacebook or tesla, or you know
that's different.
But even those things they comeand go.
You know how many bigtechnology companies you see
that are around for five or tenyears.
They don't innovate and thenit's gone yeah right and like
(21:00):
it's forever changing.
Yeah forever.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I mean look at what I
mean.
Yeah, just like facebook andtesla, like what they're you
know, constantly having to adaptand change.
Reiterate yeah, version 2796.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Right, you know, it's
like that's season number 2000.
You know, it's a constant.
You know you always got to.
That's the other tough thing Ithink about owning a business
too is I guess you're operatingin this three month season, so
to speak, but really your headas a business owner you're out
(21:33):
two or three seasons in front ofactive time, right, and so like
you're constantly computingwhat's going on and then what's
about to take place, you know,and like of stressful a little
bit.
I mean just a little bit.
Yeah, you know, especially likeI only have three guys who work
(21:53):
for me, but I I often thinktimes, you know, I've got some
customers of mine that have oneor 200 employees, you know, or
you think about a company like,uh, for GM or Amazon, like
100,000, 200,000 employees,mm-hmm, yeah, how do you even do
(22:17):
that?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
yeah, you know they
start.
You start like, where you're atright, you get a couple
employees and you get a couplemore wasn't jeff bezos in.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Uh yeah, one man in
an office doing coding or
something you know, and here heis.
Amazon's been around a longtime, but right now, look at it.
Yeah, you know, pretty mucheveryone uses amazon.
Again, another cliche thingit's one foot in front of the
other.
You know the million milejourney starts with the first
(22:49):
step cliche it's all cliche.
Yeah, once you go through itand you experience all the stuff
, all the hardship and all thestuff, it's all that cliche
stuff your grandpa told you oryou heard on the internet.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It really is, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
It really is, it's so
true.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
What have been some
challenges for you as far as
from the business standpoint?
Some things that you've had ahard time with.
People and money.
People like managing people.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
And just funding.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean customer people like
managing people, yeah, and justfunding like yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean customer calls you have topinpoint who they are, what
they need.
Employee asks for a job youhave to pinpoint who they are
and what they need and thenbetween those two variables you
got to figure out how to pull adollar out of it, you know, and
so like that's easy, especiallyin a service industry which we
(23:39):
sell, ultimately we just sellwork, ethic.
I sell labor.
I don't sell a bottle of water,I don't sell a hat, where I'm
just selling you a product.
It still requires ethic andstuff, but our end result is a
byproduct of how good our ethicis, and so it's hard.
(24:03):
In the service world HVAC,plumbing, detailing, lawn care,
anything that is a tradebusiness I think it's extremely
tough because every customer isdifferent, every employee is
different.
You have to manage.
I've got a book of five or6,000 customers.
I've had 80 something employeesover the years and so you know
(24:27):
it's adult babysitting for money.
You know, and I mean thatbecause that's truthfully what
it is Now.
You know it's not like I'minconvenienced by it, right, you
know, like that's is my job,that's my role is to make sure I
hire the right people to do theright thing for the right
person, paying the right dollaramount.
But that's been the hardestpart is understanding how to
(24:50):
handle clients and understandinghow to handle employees,
because and then sometimes, notall the time, but sometimes
those two things bash, theyclash.
Yeah.
This employee doesn't like goingto this customer's house, this
customer doesn't like thisemployee and it's like, okay,
how do I tiptoe around this anddon't lose anything out of it?
(25:11):
Definitely the hardest thing, Ithink, specific to what I do.
Finding the right clients orthe right type of clients is
easy.
You can find rich people if youlook for them.
They're not hard to find.
Selecting services not hard.
Finding the right equipment,the right SOPs, everything, the
(25:34):
right structure to run yourbusiness, payroll, all that
stuff Not hard.
But bringing a young guy inthrough the door, because my
demographic for staff is 25 to35.
You bring those in through thisdoor.
You have to tune them up andsend them off to the right
client who is happy with thatindividual.
(25:55):
So yeah, hardest thing for mehas been people management and
money management.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, it's almost.
Um, I had a broker.
Did you ever do anything withlike personality types, like
understanding?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
You know I did Um
what's that called again.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
There's like there's
a bunch of them right, but um
yeah, yeah, I forget what it'scalled Like.
Myers-briggs is one.
There's True Colors is anotherone, I think that's what we use.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Myers-briggs Okay,
but I forget what that's called.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's like a term that
they call it Like a wheel, like
a personality wheel orsomething, something like that.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
But yeah, I tried it
and I'm about to get deep on
this here.
So I tried that, but I don'tthink personality types is
really like what you're after,because you could have a certain
(26:49):
personality type but have adifferent goal than your team.
I think if you can get multiplepersonality types, because one
can complement another, for sure.
One can fill in for anotherright be outgoing, somebody may
not, somebody might like to worklong hours, somebody may not.
And those things go hand inhand.
You need them.
It's yin and yang.
But if you can get the rightpeople assembled with the right
(27:15):
vision, the right objective, theright goal, I think that's more
important than who those peopleare.
In my opinion, you know, aslong as you're hiring good,
decent people, I'm not sayingyou can just hire anybody.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Do you think like
those?
Yeah, I, I think, yeah I.
I hear you saying right, likethey can.
There can be a combination ofdifferent personality types that
still fit like your ultimategoal as a business owner,
correct?
Yeah yeah, but from from aperspective of the business
owner, like understandingpersonality types I think allows
(27:50):
you to.
Yeah, it's the most importantthing, because you because your
employees, like you, gottaunderstand them, like what makes
them tick and how you can helpthem.
Yeah, you know operate and howyou can help them operate to the
level that you want them tooperate at, absolutely.
And then, same thing,understanding your clients'
needs and how to handle their,how to service them.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
It's one big HR EQ
play.
It's all it is.
Yeah, I mean, you don't evenhave to be the smartest guy, you
just have to be able to dealwith multiple personality types.
Yeah, ask the right questions,extract the right data, analyze
the data, figure out what thisguy wants, how he wants it and
for what price, find the rightguy to give that to him and make
(28:38):
a profit out of it.
Yeah, you know, I think eq issuper important people skills.
Listen.
If you're, if you're not, apeople person, I don't think
business is gonna work.
No, I don't think so at all.
If you can't converse withsomebody at the bar in an
elevator for no reason, for 30minutes, like, it's probably not
(28:59):
going to work out.
And that's just a startingpoint.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
You know it's it's uh
, it's a necessity of, of
entrepreneurship, for sure, andI didn't start out that way
either.
You know I am um, I'm what youwould refer to as a
tradesman-built business.
I didn't come into businessunderstanding business
(29:23):
whatsoever.
I came into businessunderstanding that I wanted to
do what I was doing, no matterwhat.
Then I got really good at doingwhat I do five, seven years
later, and because I was so goodat what I do, it was easy to
scale it and drive demand, butnot in terms of doing it
(29:43):
structurally as a businessmarketing, strategic
partnerships, like all of thatstuff came at the end like
backwards, you know.
But when you, when you deliver agood service, people ask for it
, people want it, it, no matterwhat it is.
If the value is there, they'llbuy it.
But I didn't.
I didn't start out being a goodpeople person.
(30:05):
It was like I was a kid.
You know, give me your keys.
I'm gonna make this thing lookgood for you.
I'm gonna give it back to you.
You're gonna be happy like.
I don't want to know what's yourwife's name, your husband's
name, how many kids you got,what you do for a living.
I just i't want to know what'syour wife's name, your husband's
name, how many kids you got,what you do for a living.
I just I just want to do thecar and make sure you're happy.
Yeah, you know.
But as I got older and as I gotfurther into business, I
(30:26):
realized and I don't mean thisin a bad way but sometimes
quality is not paramount.
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it'sjust service.
You know, like if I gosomewhere and it's got really
really good food but the serviceis shitty, I probably might not
come back.
No, but if I go somewhere wherefood is decent, it's pretty
(30:50):
good and the service is amazing,because I was taken care of,
I'll be back.
I'll spend more money there.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I think that's a
really good point that you just
made, because I couldn't agreemore.
I think that's the mostimportant thing and I say it all
the time in real estate toobecause there's so many
different people involved in atransaction and there has to be
clear communication, constantcommunication, throughout the
transaction process, and anytime we've had a deal go south
(31:18):
or there's been someone getupset about one thing or another
, it's because there's been alack of communication.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yeah.
Lack of service, yeah.
And there's a lot of people whotouch one deal in what you do.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know what is thereSellers agent, buyers agent, the
finance people.
Yeah, title the title Homeinspector.
Yeah, I finance people.
Yeah, the uh title inspectoryeah, I mean you know it's got
to go through seven or eightpeople.
(31:43):
Smooth, yeah, insurance, yeah,I mean it's it's.
You know that's tough, yeah,and that's all.
All that is is hr.
Yeah, managing people, that'sit yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
So it's almost like,
if you can just master that like
you, it's like what business doyou want to do?
What are you passionate about?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
yeah I think the best
way to get exposure, you know,
let's say somebody listening islike on the fence about man, do
I want to start my own thing ornot?
Two things I would first assessis do I have a risk tolerance?
Do I have a stress tolerance?
Okay, that's like important.
Three can I deal with people?
(32:20):
Okay.
And then the best way like sayyou're borderline about that
stuff I think the best way toget exposure is going into
something that requires sales.
Yeah, that's how you get themost exposure.
Yeah, think there's reallyanother occupation outside of a
sales role, where you'llcommunicate with 10, 20, 40, 80,
(32:50):
160 people in a day, you know,and repetition creates mastery,
right.
So the more you do it, thebetter you get at it.
And if you can do it forsomebody else doing, example, a
hundred cold calls a day,getting 80 no's before you get
20 maybes, getting 20 maybesbefore you get two yeses if you
can do it for somebody else, youcould do it for yourself.
Like that's like you got to getthat out the way.
Sometimes I think to myself Ishould have not started my
(33:12):
business so early.
But then other times I'm likeit's probably a good thing that
I went in everything on zero.
I flipped pizza before Istarted my business.
That's what it was.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Did you flip pizza?
Were you involved with?
Were you just cooking?
So no customer service Dude, Ican spin a pizza, like you
wouldn't believe, dude.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I can throw it in the
air, roll it down my shoulders.
I'm nasty with the pizza dough,I'm not even lying.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
My next, I want to
get a pizza oven at the house
and I love making pizza andstuff, dude.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
One day I got to my
um customer's house yeah they
had a.
My buddy sean.
He owns a uh Black Label andwe're pulling up to clean their
Range Rover and he's droppingoff a 7,000-pound brick pizza
(34:06):
oven to my customer's house.
I'm like who the hell?
Buys a real no, dropping it off, oh wow, I'm like who the hell
buys a real?
I don't even know what that'scalled.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, like a brick
oven pizza.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, a brick oven
Like what you would see in a
pizza restaurant.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Like literally a
brick oven At their house.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, they got like
six guys trying to move this
thing.
Everybody's struggling.
I feel like it's going to knockdown a wall.
I'm like who buys a pizza ovenlike that?
Yeah, you gotta love pizza forthat, but you can cook, uh.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
So I got into this
like a couple years ago.
Oh, that's what it was.
I was trying to make pizzadough like my own pizza dough,
and um so I I got it.
I did try to do a littlesourdough once, but before it
was pizza before I was justtrying to make the dough and
stuff, and so I made a couplebatches, um, but it's just, it's
just, it's a lot of work yeah,yeah, my wife went on like a six
(35:03):
month run of sourdough bread.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and I
I had no idea what making dough
was about.
And then, yeah, she wentthrough it.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Dude it was it's
pretty cool, like if you can a
lot of attention and love.
Yeah, for sure so I I watched abunch of videos on on making
pizzas or whatever, and gosney,that's the name of the pizza
oven, like a little portablepizza oven, and they have bigger
ones and stuff, um, but they, Imean they're, they're cooking
like steaks and all this otherfood and stuff in these ovens.
(35:34):
I'm like oh yeah, it's totallyworth it.
Real food yeah, yeah, I love it.
Do you eat pizza a lot?
Speaker 3 (35:43):
I wouldn't say a lot.
I mean, we eat pizza.
We try to eat real healthy, butI might eat pizza maybe a
couple times a month.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Oh, okay, that's not
bad.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Yeah, Not often.
I love it though.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
What's your favorite
pizza spot around here?
What Not often I love it though.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
What's your favorite
pizza spot around here?
What is this Fireside over here?
I love Fireside.
Yeah.
It's good Fireside.
I also really like Anthony'sCold Fire Pizza.
Oh yeah, yeah, the franchise,they're all over the place.
They're really good.
They got good wings too.
Those are like the two pizzaspots that I'll order pizza from
(36:22):
or go eat pizza at Yep and then, if it's like, at the house.
I don't know if you've ever hadAmy's Pizza frozen pizza.
No, they got bought out by abig company so they're not as
clean as they used to be.
Oh okay, but it used to be areally really clean frozen pizza
, organic.
You could just take it out thefreezer, put in the oven and
(36:44):
it's fire yes, it's awesome,interesting, yeah, I could
probably eat three of them.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I love um fireside
fireside's awesome.
Have you been to corvo bianco?
Speaker 3 (36:56):
oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, them too they have
amazing fries too.
I don't know if you've triedtheir fries.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I mean easy on the carbs, buthey, the fries are awesome yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
All in a brick oven.
That's pretty sweet.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Yeah, I like that
place a lot.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Yeah, yeah.
So growing up.
So, speaking of like all thespots around here growing up
here, did you ever think aboutlike moving to a different state
?
Like you grew up in Florida,like your entire life?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
I was born in New
York Okay, and then we moved to
Orlando when I was two Okay, andthen we moved to Clearwater
when I was about nine.
Okay.
So I've been here since I waslike nine or ten.
This is home, yeah, you know,you like this area, obviously
yeah, it's what I know.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, do you ever
think about going elsewhere?
Speaker 3 (37:44):
by the time I could
conceptualize moving, I was
already a few years into mybusiness yeah yeah, and like my
wife you know she's mentioned afew times be cool to live here,
live there.
Like, yeah, if I could distancemyself from my business, that'd
be cool, but currently the wayI'm structured, I'm not
distanced.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Could you open up
multiple locations Like?
Is that an easy thing to?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
I mean hypothetically
.
Yeah, you know, I could hirelike a franchising company and
get me all structured and tunedup to multiply Cost some money
to do it.
But I'll be honest, I got iteasy right now I got three guys.
It's low overhead, I make goodmoney.
I've got a awesome group ofclients.
(38:29):
You know I've been ever sincethings got weird with the
economy.
We'll say, let's just say twoyears ago.
Yeah, you know, like, know,like 23-ish, I finally have been
able to breathe because wehaven't been so busy.
So it's been 15 years ofhustling, grinding, and then,
when things got slow, I lookedat Lena.
(38:50):
I'm like you know, if this isthe first time I'm going to be
slow, I'll just take it.
Enjoy it still good,everything's fine, but we're
just slower than we were.
Um, and I'm gonna be honest,man, it's uh, I've been trying
(39:12):
to rally myself up to go grindagain.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah, and it's hard
like I your grind is is a lot
harder than than other people'sgrind right.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
It's like physical
and well, yeah, for for my staff
.
Yeah, yeah, I jump in and out,you know of out of the labor.
I'm not always required to be infor labor, but I am
forward-facing to the client.
I make all the sales, all theappointments, swipe, every card
collect.
Often these days that I'm in asquatted position, you know.
But you know if the guys needhelp, if they need alleviation,
(39:55):
or if somebody's out on vacation, I jump right in there.
You know, back to working hardis fielding every call, fielding
every text, every online lead,calling everybody five times.
You know sales flow.
Where are we at procurement?
Push, push, push, push, push.
(40:16):
Okay, it didn't work.
How's the discount?
You know, like that's the newform of of grinding and I've
been telling myself that weshould do that and I I just
can't bring myself to do it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
You're in a different
season right now.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I'm really enjoying
being a dad.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, that's what it
is.
How old are your kids?
Speaker 3 (40:36):
My daughter's four
and a half, my son's two and a
half and it's amazing.
So we're like, right there,we're five and three.
Yeah, yeah.
And growing up, growing up, Ididn't really have the whole
homey, lovey life, household,and so now that, and neither did
my wife, and so now that thetwo of us together can create
that, it's like we're in loveall over again, you know.
(40:59):
So, like it's, I look forwardto going home.
Yeah, like I used to lovegetting after it, working like
nobody else would you know, 16hours.
I did it because you won't youknow, like that was my mentality
.
But now having kids is likelike I just came from swim
practice Right Left the shop.
I'm like swim practice podcast.
(41:19):
Yeah.
Yeah, there you go.
That sounds good yeah.
So, like I'm just it's adifferent season, you it's, it's
working, but I do want to getback to uh, building and pushing
and getting uncomfortable again.
You know it's, it's.
It needs to happen at somepoint here once the economy
(41:40):
starts to trend back up andthings aren't so weird anymore.
Yeah, once the automotiveindustry turns around yeah, I
think that's cool, man.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I I would agree with
you that there is um, they're at
this age too, right, likethey're only this age for you
know, a short period of time,right, and they're only going to
be there for a short period oftime before they want to do
other things besides spend timewith with mom and dad.
So, yeah, it's like, yeah, soakup all of that.
You can't.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
I've heard a lot of
people say it's like up till 10.
Yeah, At 10, you're no longercool for your kid you know.
So, like, every time they ask meto pick them up, I pick them up
.
Yeah, you know, every time theyask for a kiss, I give them a
kiss.
Every time they ask me to puttheir shoes on, I put them
Because, again, it's cliche, butyou never know when that's
(42:26):
going to be the last time theyask you to pick them up, that
you never know when it's thelast time they ask you to put
their shoes on.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, speaking of
that, my daughter now our oldest
when we take her into school,we walk into the building and
then her classroom is a littlebit further back, a couple doors
back.
And now she this was a coupleweeks ago she was like I want
you to drop me off, I think, asone of other classmates do it.
She's like I want you to dropme off at the door.
So we walk in the first doorand then she walks like the back
(42:53):
of the building, like where herclassroom is, and it's like
that's her routine now, like weused to have to like walk her
into the, into the classroom,help her put her stuff up, and
now we're already getting kickedyeah, as a dad, it's a happy
and sad moment all rolled intoit.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
You don't know how to
feel about it.
I know it makes me emotional,but being a dad's cool.
Your preconceived notion ofparenthood before you're a
parent is way different thanwhen you're actually in it.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
No idea, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
I was stressed out
when my wife was pregnant.
I'm like man, how are we goingto do this?
What's going to happen?
Like oh my gosh, down to asingle income household and like
you know what is about tohappen.
And then you get into it.
You know, you put your boots on, you go stomping around and
it's like this is nice.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
You know, I kind of
like this.
You know, yeah, how long did ittake you to like settle in and
be like, oh, this is like I gotthis, Like I enjoy this.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
I'd say probably the
first time that my daughter
called me and we had a fullconversation.
Oh yeah, like open topic, topicclose yeah, conversation.
Yeah, you know, and it's, youknow, it's a two and a half year
old conversation but it's like.
She asked her mom to call me.
(44:16):
I talked to her on the phone.
There's a subject you know wetalked about what was going on.
Okay, daddy, love you.
Bye, you know, and like at thatpoint I was like this is worth
it yeah, like this is so coolyeah yeah and then the next
level to that was having twokids.
and then when you see theminteract together, you know like
(44:40):
, uh, my daughter can't read.
She's four, four now she'slearning her letters and her
numbers, but she can't read.
And she'll'll grab my son,they'll grab a book, they'll sit
down together, lean against thewall and she'll just thumb
through the pages and explainwhat the pictures are.
And one day I came home fromwork.
They didn't know I came homeand they're in the room and the
(45:02):
door's cracked.
They're playing in her room bythemselves mom's in the kitchen.
And so I'm just looking throughthe crack of the door and she's
reading to him and I'm like,yeah, brothers, I don't think
there's anything that could pissme off.
I've got everything.
You know, yeah, and I thinkthat's when I was like you know,
whatever happens happens, yeah.
(45:23):
Whatever business wise, workwise, whatever.
Well, whatever business-wise,work-wise, whatever.
I've got love in my house andthat's primary to me at this
point.
And growing, building abusiness, chasing dreams.
As much as I am an A-typepersonality Capricorn I'm pretty
much supposed to be a businessowner, much supposed to be a
(45:50):
business owner.
Like as much as I want to beall that the love in my house is
far, far more influential thanbeing successful you know, and
for some, some people, it's theopposite.
You know, like some people chasemoney and then they're distant
from their kids, which is fine,you know, do what works for you,
but for me this is the seasonof like man.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
I'm a dad, you know
and I think you can have both
right.
There's just, there's balancethere and and I think there's
also, like you said, there'sseasonalities to it, right?
Yeah, like you've, you've growna business to to this point now
and and now you're enjoying thelife that you've built so far,
and then at some point, like,you'll get back into like okay,
(46:29):
let's, we're in the growingseason now and we're going to
grow the business.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
Yeah, yeah, I uh,
Lena and I, we we conversed
about this topic and, like youknow where I should be
positioning my efforts, andwe're on the same page.
We both feel like the kids areimportant right now.
My industry and the economyright now there's a lot of
abrasion for an upward growthcycle and so, like grinding is
(46:57):
one thing when all the variablesare correct, yeah.
Right Right now, for me all thevariables are not correct, so
if I'm going to go grind, it'sgoing to be an extra grind.
And so you know, you might couldsay I'm going to go grind, it's
going to be an extra grind, andso you might could say I'm
getting lazy or I'm being smart,I don't know which one to call
it but I'm cherry picking thework, cherry picking the clients
, taking it for what it is,trying to soak up as much kid
(47:24):
time as I can and basically juststalling out waiting for things
to turn around.
So that way growth isn't sostrenuous.
Because I'm watching there's.
There's another shop in town.
They came in maybe three yearsago, four years ago, and man,
they're just, they're workinghard as hell to make it happen.
You know, and like I did that along time ago, yeah, I paid my
(47:46):
dues, not really interested inthat.
Yeah, you know.
And like I did that a long timeago, yeah, I paid my dues, not
really interested in that.
Yeah, you know yeah, that's coolman but when, when things go
back to how they were yeah, I'mgonna get after you're ready to
go, yeah, and some people mightsay, oh, you shouldn't wait.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Okay, whatever, I'm
waiting you do I mean that's
cool, like you know, just justto be able to recognize that and
just be accepting of it andokay with that.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
You know, yeah, I
mean, you know, as a young
business owner, sometimes it isreally difficult to talk to
somebody.
Hey, chill out.
Yeah, things aren't right.
Yeah, stay the course.
Do what you got to do to keepthe doors open.
Yeah.
(48:33):
Do what you got to do to takecare of the family.
But right now it's not aboutpushing forward and that's like
a internal mind fuck, so tospeak, because it's it's
counterintuitive to what abusiness owner wouldn't actually
want to do 100 you know.
But I did it, uh, about a yearago I did give it a nice push
and I just saw that the ad spendwasn't returning.
Um, consumer habits arechanging inside of my industry
and it's like it's very it's.
(48:55):
It's a lot of abrasion rightnow to to have a busy detail
protection restyling shop it'stough yeah, cars aren't selling.
Interest rates are high sopeople aren't going to come
spend, willingly come spend$2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $5,000
(49:15):
on their new car at the shop.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Yeah, makes sense.
So where can people find yourbusiness online?
And then, what do you wantpeople to know about what you
offer?
Speaker 3 (49:27):
Well, url is
firstclassdetailingcom.
Business uh, online.
And then what do you wantpeople to know about what you
offer?
Well, url isfirstclassdetailingcom.
Instagram isfirstclassdetailingllc.
Facebook is firstclassdetailing.
You can find me.
Oh, youtube too.
Youtube, I believe, is afirstclassdetailing08.
I believe is our youtube.
I believe is our YouTube.
(49:49):
But yeah, I mean, if you weregoing to, I'll talk to the mic
in terms of if you were apotential client, what would you
want to know?
And I mean you already know Iuse the best products.
I pride myself on usingtop-notch stuff.
My work ethic is incredible.
(50:11):
I have a great group of guyswho work for me.
We're all aligned, we're all onthe same page.
All of us are family men and Ithink it's different when you
buy a product from somebody whois two, three, four years into
it and they're money oriented,versus buying something from
(50:31):
somebody who's 15, 16, 17 yearsinto it, and they're people
oriented.
And so you know it's an owneroperator shop.
I own the shop, I run the shop.
Some other places are not likethat.
They're operated by employeesor an investor owns the shop and
(50:54):
somebody's a small partner whomanages the shop.
But that's a big, tangibledifference that you can feel as
a potential client of.
Like, this is my life, you know.
Yeah, this is what I do A lotmore pride in what you're doing
pride and I mean listen, I've,I've cleaned more cars than I've
brushed my teeth in perspective, yeah, you know, that's crazy.
(51:14):
I've, I've, I'm a better, I'mbetter at cars than I am being a
father.
I've done it for four times aslong.
Yeah right, I'm better attaking care of cars and clients
and I am sadly to say, being ahusband, I've done it for longer
.
I have more time underattention doing this than
anything else in my life.
(51:36):
My whole adult life has beendoing cars.
So, like for you to know I gotyou, I'd take care of it the
right way.
I promise For sure I got youI'd take care of it the right
way.
I promise you know for sure.
And if we have issues out ofethics and morale and principles
if there ever is any issues,which very rarely you know I
(51:57):
stand behind all of our servicesand products and everything
that we do.
So I have to live to the name.
Right, first class detailing.
It sounds like you're gettingtaken care of.
Yeah.
Damn it, You're getting takencare of you know, you got it.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
Yeah, I like that man
yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
Thanks for being here
, dude.
Absolutely, bro.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
Thank you so much for
tuning in to another episode of
Palm Harbor Local.
You know we are incrediblygrateful for our sponsors who
make this show possible.
Jake with Roadmap Money, Besure to check them out and
support other local businessesin our community and keep Palm
Harbor thriving.