Navigating Life's Waters: A Deep Dive into Personal and Professional Journeys

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Yo, yo, yo, what's up?
Can you hear me okay?
Yes sir, I can.
Can you hear me?
Yes sir.
How you doing?
Oh, I'm burnt out.
I ain't gonna lie.
Just life, relationships, work.
It's all taking its toll this spring.

(00:22):
Yeah, yeah, it happens man.
It sure does.
Yeah.
Listen man, I don't know if Iwant to get it.

(01:13):
Yeah, that's what I was justthinking about.
What are we gonna talk abouton this podcast?
Because life sucks.
But yeah, I mean it's not bad.
I mean we just, we just boughtthe kid a car and it's a little bit
more money than I was thinkingwe'd spend, but this is, there's

(01:33):
just nothing out there likeyou know, that you can get anymore
that's cheap.
So.
No, I was looking like a yearago and you remember the 500000 cars,
they're all like four or fivethousand dollars now.
It's ridiculous.
The, the little thousanddollar beaters just ain't out there
anymore.
Yeah, no, no, and that's,that's the thing.

(01:54):
I mean, you know, I mean weobviously want her to have something
that's reliable and, and everything.
And you know, we, we haveAudis, so she's used to driving,
driving the wife's SQ5, so youknow, like the sporty utility.
Yeah.
And she, she prefers thatversus my car because it sits too

(02:18):
low.
So you know, we were lookingat a Q3, getting her to use Q3 and
you know, we just, we couldn'treally find one that was like under
25, you know, without ithaving crazy miles on it, you know.
Right.
And so the, the dealership upthe street where we get, where we
bought all our cars becauseour, one of my buddies works there,

(02:41):
they had, they had one, it wasa 24.
I mean it's got like 30000miles, so it's high for a 24.
But it was like a lease turn in.
Yeah, but like they droppedthe price like like almost three
grand.
And so we were like man, likereally don't want to spend, you know,
that money for it.
But it was like it'spractically a brand new car.

(03:04):
Like it still has warranty on it.
Like it's in really nice shape.
Like so.
Yeah.
So how many, how many miles are.
On it has 30000 which sucks.
I mean now these Audi's,Audi's warranties to like 50.
And honestly dude, we can, wecan, we can buy the extended Warranty
for like $2,000.
It'll take it to like 75 orsomething like that.

(03:25):
So, you know, we'll probablyjust wait a little bit, buy the extended,
get it to like 75 and thenshe'll have a car that, you know,
can last her 10 years.
You know, realistically.
So is this the cheerleader?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's my only one, so.

(03:46):
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I didn't know if you had morethan one.
No, no, no.
Well, she did good in thecheerleading stuff, so little reward.
Yeah, I mean, that's, that'sthe thing.
I mean, she's, she does reallywell in school.
She does good with thecheerleading stuff.
And my parents had beenputting money away for her to, to
help us out by the car.

(04:08):
So like my parents gave us abig chunk of it.
So at the end of the day itwasn't, you know, too much on us
to be able to buy.
So.
Yeah, so.
Yeah, so that.
But that's just been my, likeyesterday and today is realizing
that I just bought a 15 yearold, a newer car than I have technically

(04:29):
because mine's a 23, 24.
It's crazy.
My nephews, they starteddriving and the cars they got.
It's like, ma' am, you guysdidn't even have to work for these.
My, my first car, I had to buy.
I had to.
You buy it from grandma andthen everything else from there,

(04:50):
There was no more deals.
Grandma didn't give it to me.
I had to work for it.
And then that was the, thatwas the last free one.
They got it easy nowadays.
Yeah, I know.
It's a, It's a differentworld, man.
I mean, I remember totally.
I remember when I turned, whenI turned 16 and started driving,
I got my, my parents old car.

(05:10):
It was a 78 Dodge Colt, youknow, so like, yeah, this was like.
And this was, let's see whatI, I turned 16, would have been,
would have been like, yeah, wedon't want to say it.
Everybody knows I'm old.

(05:31):
Yeah.
When I turned 16, it was late.
It would have been like 89, I think.
89?
Yeah, because I graduated in91, so I would have been like 89.
So, you know, I got a 10 yearold car that, you know, was.
Had a bunch of miles on itbeat and everything.
So yeah, I was rolling around.

(05:53):
I was rolling around in an 84 Skylark.
Oh.
Thought I was God's gift ofwomen in that car.
I remember one of my buddies,his first car when we were in high
school, he had a Chevette andI remember he used to, he used to
walk around all the time.
Like, like boys taking the vetout this weekend.

(06:16):
I had a buddy that had one too.
He.
He didn't have that really anyshocks in the front of it and it
was a stick shift, so he'd dothe clutch and it looked like he
had hydraulics in the frontevery time he left school.
Those were fun cars though.
Yeah, well, those, those andthe Omnis.

(06:37):
Yeah.
Remember that?
Yeah, those were.
Those were fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean that was when you couldbeat on cars a little bit and do
stupid in the parking lot whenyou're a teenager, you know.
Now, now you can't do any ofthat stuff, so.
Which is good.
Well, you gotta live a little.
I mean some of the stuff youcan get out of hand, like them takeovers

(06:59):
and stuff, but little burnoutsnever hurt.
Nobody teaches you how tohandle your car.
Yeah.
There's too many.
There's too many cameras andKarens around nowadays.
I know, I know.
I couldn't imagine even theinnocent stuff.
Well, innocent stuff that we did.
Yeah.
Back in the day, man.
Nowadays.

(07:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's no way you could dothat stuff now.
And it's hard too because Imean, you know, all three of our
cars are Audi, so they're,they're Quattro, so you can't, you
can't peel out or do burnoutsor, you know, any of that stuff.
Not at all.
There's no way to turn thatstuff off.
Nah, nah.
Mine, my.
Well, I can't do a burnout,but so my RS3, you can actually like

(07:46):
change.
There's a torque differentialselect, so you can actually switch
it and.
And it'll actually kind of gointo like what they call a drift
mode so that you couldtechnically like drift the car.
Like the ASIN could get alittle happy, but you're not, you're
not spinning tires or doingburnouts or whatever.

(08:07):
So.
Yeah, is what it is.
Culture is all.
At least it's safe.
At least she'll.
She'll have.
Right.
All four wheels firmly plantedon the ground when she's driving.
At least.
So.
Yeah.
Where do you, where do youlive at?
You got winter.
No, I mean snow.
So dude, we, we have summerand then we have more summer and

(08:32):
then we have extra summerbecause I'm.
I'm in Orlando.
So.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh.
So watch out.
Summer all year long.
Did.
I got in the car.
We went grocery shopping.
Me and the wife went groceryshopping today.
Dude, it was 5:30 and I got inthe car and the thermal, the, the
temperature reading on the caris at 100 degrees.

(08:57):
It's June here.
And we.
We got to 71 today.
And it lasted for like 30 seconds.
The summer.
Summer has not come toMichigan yet.
I'm.
I'm jealous because it.
I don't think it.
I don't.
It might have been like 71 atlike 3am or something like that.
That's how it was in Houston.

(09:17):
I liked it, though.
And the breeze picked up.
It was great.
But I.
I can't.
I can't do this weather anymore.
Yeah.
How was that, by the way?
Because you went to the shinetime thing, right?
Yeah, yeah, it was good.
Was it cool that.
That location?
That location is awesome.
That's a nice place to ask.
I saw some of the videos.

(09:37):
It was really cool with, like,all the planes and.
And stuff that they were having.
It's funny, like, when Italked to Bob Rasman like a month
ago or whatever, he wastalking about, like, a big car show.
And I never saw anybody postanything about the car show.
It was all the planes.
They didn't.
I guess I.

(09:59):
I don't know if it was thecars and coffee or whatever, but
it ended up having such a bigturnout the first day.
They thought everybody wouldcome the next day, and they didn't.
You know, it's one of thethings that happens.
When I had my open house,nothing went right.
None of the food trucks showedup, you know, so you can't plan everything
they had.
I don't remember how many itwas, but, you know, you could take

(10:21):
the rides in the planes.
Yeah.
When it came down to theevent, there were only two planes
available, but.
Okay, I didn't do it.
I.
With the way things have beengoing, you don't even want to know.
The week leading up to thatshow, I almost didn't go.
I thought it was gonna be badluck if I got on the plane.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's how last week was.

(10:42):
And, you know, before that, itstarted that this whole spring launch
season sucked.
But last week, just marinas,they don't forget plugs and boats.
It hasn't happened here in 15 years.
At least that I know.
The last time it happened was12 years ago, and it was a wood boat.
They didn't leave it in thehoist long enough.

(11:04):
But that wasn't even themarina's fault.
The owner said, yeah, it'sready, and it wasn't.
But, oh, everything.
Just.
Just countless things.
And then they put the boat in.
They didn't come and get me.
Sorry.
Eclipse was walking by.
They didn't come and get me.
They.
They come in and I'm.

(11:25):
I'm cleaning up the tires onthe jet skis that were in here, and
they're like, we launched aboat for you.
Like, great, I'll get to it,you know, when I get to it.
Well, luckily, my nephewshowed up and around lunchtime, and
we shot the.
I was like, while you're here,give me a hand moving the boat.
We walk out there, and the sunk.

(11:45):
Oh, my.
Yes.
Yes.
Of all the.
Everything else that could goon, something that never happens
in this industry happens to meand my client.
All this is the Right before aplane's taken off for Houston.
Yeah.
Oh, I almost.
I was like, there's.
There's no way I should get onthis plane.
This is turning into final destination.

(12:08):
And.
And as soon as the plane liftsoff, man, it sounds like the timing
chain fell off of it.
I don't know if the motordropping vibrant.
I was like, oh, I just rolledmy eyes.
Oh, man, here we go.
So.
Yeah.
So how did they get the boat out?
Well, I caught.
I mean, it wasn't a total loss ahead.
I got it out.

(12:30):
The.
The engine wasn't under.
Cabin wasn't full of wateryet, so.
But it sat out there for 20,25 minutes.
We can water out of bothvillages and the drain in the back.
But it's, you know, it's like,how do you miss it?
I had it sitting there, sothey don't miss it, but that's something
they check anyway.
It was right there on the outdrive.

(12:51):
You couldn't miss it.
When they were lifting thatback out, I went to the shop and
grabbed my pliers because Iknew exactly where that plug was
going to be.
And as the boat came.
Came up, I held the pliers,and I was like.
And the one guy whose job isto check it, I held the plug.
Once I grabbed it, he wouldn'tlook me in the eyes.
So.
Wow.
It's all good.
I talked to the landlord whenwe got back, and I had a meeting

(13:14):
with him.
If anything's wrong with theboat, it's all covered.
No, I kept it quiet, Alex.
It was literally, if that.
If I decided to do that, atthe end of the day, I'm on a busy
river, and I got a bar acrossthe river.
There would have been boatsgoing up and down.
I would have saw that boat on Facebook.

(13:35):
Like, look, somebody's boatsinking on the Clinton River.
Oh, what?
Yeah, that's how I would havefound out about it.
So, yeah, there was A big talkwhen we got back here.
Just.
Yeah, one.
I should have been president.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, at least itsounds like it wasn't terrible.
At least.
I mean, no, but, but they'reboats, man, you know, and if something

(13:58):
on the inside wasn't supposedto get wet and it got wet, that can
just add up.
So I wanted to make surebecause, you know, some things like
that don't poke their headright away.
Right?
Yeah, it takes, take some time.
Yeah.
You get that water and alittle bit of grease and let it wear
through.
So it's all good.
I got a good relationship withthe, the owner of this place.

(14:19):
But the marina yard guys, man,there's no respect.
And that just proved it right there.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So, so you, you primarily workout of a marina?
Yeah, I'm in marina.
Okay.
I, it, I, long story short,2006, I think it was, I got a shop

(14:43):
down the road right by myhouse, kind of across the street
from the river and all the marinas.
But I was so excited, I was soexcited about it.
I didn't measure the doors or anything.
I couldn't get nothing.
I couldn't get nothing but jetboats and bass boats in there.
Right.
Anything with a tower or anarch wasn't coming in.
Anything slightly over eightand a half wasn't coming in.

(15:06):
So I, I partnered up with acar guy and he did the cars.
And here's the shop I'mrenting and I'm doing them all outside.
So 08 economy crash and allthat went back to just mobile and
that's how I was gonna retireout of this.
But the shop opened up in amarina with hoist.

(15:27):
I got everything here.
Oh, nice to get the boats inand out.
So there's, there's no holdups now when I started doing the
coatings and the seriouscorrection, I would book them all
for mid to late summer whenall the fiberglass shops, when everybody
else is slow and their shopsare empty, I would rent a shop space
from them.
Okay.

(15:51):
One of, one of the clientsthat had to do that, it bounced between
three shops because they wouldchange it on me and then it was a
two week delay ultimately.
And she, she's like, you justgotta do it.
Because she, she seen thehassle it was trying to get indoor
space.
Doing it the way I was doing it.
She's like, just do it.
You know, See what happened.

(16:12):
I didn't, I didn't want theoverhead and all that.
I was real scared.
And I shit you not, two monthsafter the first two months were great.
June comes.
Not one call, one text, oneemail, one Facebook message.
Nothing about actual work.
And I was like, now what do I do?
A whole month goes by phone,don't ring.
And I just opened up.

(16:34):
Wow.
You know, so, yeah.
You know, it is.
I mean I, I found a littleshop that's perfect for me.
It's a little 600 square foot shop.
You know, the door is likenine foot wide, so I can get, you
know, just about, you know,anything up, you know, dualies and

(16:54):
stuff in there.
You know, I can't get like bigthings because it's not a tall, you
know.
So I always tell people, like, it's.
If it can fit in my shop, I'lldo it because anything that's too
big to fit in my shop, Ireally don't want to do anyways.
Right.
Boats, buses and.
Yeah, but dude, that's, that'skind of how I am.
Like, you know, like I, Ididn't really ever want the big overhead

(17:18):
because you know, what if.
And, and I always tell peoplewith having a small shop and having.
It's, it's.
It.
The brand is super cheap.
And I always tell people the,the beauty of keeping my overhead
so low is I don't have to makea lot of money to make money.

(17:39):
Right?
Like, because I'm not like, ohmy God, I've got a, you know, I've
got like $5,000 in overhead,so I need to make $10,000 plus like
I have 2500 dollars in overhead.
So, you know, I have a seventhousand dollar month and I'm golden,
you know, like.
Right.
You know, I'm good, right.
You know, so I, I'm.

(18:00):
I'm the same way.
It, it's a.
Well, people that have seenit, I, I don't think it's that big
because I'm always in the, youknow, the buildings that hold boats.
But everybody, it's a reallygood shop and I'm.
Same way.
It's cheap.
It's cheap.
You would if you knew how muchI paid for this.
Yeah, it.
One boat full correction andcoding will cover this and I'll have

(18:23):
money in my pocket, so.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got, I got lucky.
And, and it's all utilities,which you know how important that
is.
Yep, all utilities are included.
That's how my, that's how mine is.
So like I, I've said itbefore, so I don't have any problem
saying it.
Dude.
I pay 400amonth, includingutilities for my Little garage space,
you know.
Yeah.

(18:43):
You know, dude, you know, you.
One, One interior detailcovers that, you know, like.
Right.
And that's.
And that's the other thing.
Like I set it up to.
I've got like six or seven ofmy clients that I set them up on
monthly services.
So like every.
Every Friday I go and I takecare of their cars.

(19:04):
So every, Every first Fridayof the month, I'm collecting checks
from them.
And that, that first Fridaycovers probably half of my overhead,
you know.
So like first Friday of themonth, I've got half of my bills
for the month paid for, you know.
And then.
Yeah, I.
I have almost a similar.

(19:25):
I do weekly maintenance on.
On the boats.
Okay.
And it's pretty much now Ibuild a monthly.
When just them washes fromThursday, it depends.
They're mainly on Friday, butwe'll say Thursdays and Fridays.
Just the washes from thatright now cover when I.
What I need to be covered.

(19:46):
And those aren't.
I'm backing out.
You know, they're all scheduled.
You're getting billed regardless.
Yeah.
The only way it doesn't getwashed is if they're going out on
it or it's raining.
When it's raining, they expectyou to come back.
So, yeah, I got a good relationship.
I don't do thousands of boat washes.
It's mainly just my customers.
But I finally got it where,yes, nothing else needs to come in

(20:10):
now.
It's not going to bring in alot of money.
But everything's covered justfrom the washes that are scheduled
each month.
That part's covered.
The reoccurring stuff now hasreoccurring income.
Yep.
And it's great too, becausethose are the people that you build
the relationship with the most.
So, you know, you're seeing iton a regular basis.
Like, you know, for me, whenit's cars and most of them are.

(20:32):
Are.
Have already been ceramiccoated by me, you know.
But the, the beauty of it is,is it's like, you know, hey, it's
been a while since we.
Since last time we did theinside, you know, like, you know,
why don't we get you scheduledin the shop for the inside.
So I just had one of myclients today.
He's like, he's like, hey, man.
He's like, he's like, it'sbeen two years since I got this.

(20:53):
And he goes, he goes, wehaven't done the interior in a while.
And at first I was like, two years.
Like, you just, you just gotthis thing.
He goes, yeah, two years agoin June 23.
And I'm like, my God, has itbeen two years already?
And he goes, yeah, you know,and so he's like.
He's like, it's been a whilesince we've done the inside.
He's like, can we get the inside?

(21:13):
I'm like, let's do it.
Like, you know, what day next week?
He's like, going to the beach,you know, this weekend.
You know, like, let's do itlater in the week.
I was like, perfect.
I got.
I got Thursday open.
He goes, awesome.
So, like, that's the thing Ilike about it is you see them on
a regular enough basis, youbuild that.
That, you know, friendshiprepertoire with them.
And it's easier to sell themon interior services.

(21:37):
It's easier to, you know, hey,your other cars look like they need
to be done, like, why don't weget those scheduled in?
You know, and it's, you know.
You know, like you said, thereoccurring business makes reoccurring
business.
So.
Yeah, I think.
I think that's a.
That's one of the smartestthings I think I did, you know, kind
of stealing that.
That model from when I leftthe car wash, because, you know,

(21:59):
when we were selling monthlyservices at the car wash, I remember
the.
The owner, because him and I were.
We're pretty good friends, andwe'd worked together over many, many
years.
And, you know, I remember whenthat whole business model started
in the car wash game.
And.
And we were doing it, he's like.
He's like, look, man, he'slike, we sell, like, X amount of

(22:22):
these.
And he goes, you know, becauseit's all credit card charges or whatever.
He goes, the first, rightbefore we even open the doors.
We've already covered, youknow, the month of, you know, the
months, overhead, the payroll,the insurance, the.
The mortgage on the build.

(22:42):
Like, he's like, we've doneall that before.
We turned the first.
So that was one of the things.
Once I got kind of establishedand people were asking me about,
you know, doing regularwashes, I was like, like, I can't
do the car wash, where you cancome every day if you want.
But I was like, we'll do it asa monthly service.
I'll do.
I'll do it all on Friday, sothe cars are clean for the weekend.

(23:05):
You know, I'll charge you Xamount of dollars, you know, for
the month.
And.
And it's awesome, dude.
Like, you know, again, like Isaid, most of the cars are coated
already.
They're they're, you know,empty nesters.
So they don't have, you know,little kids in the back with food
and glitter and all that stuff.
So, you know, like, I pull upto the house and I'm like 35, 40

(23:28):
minutes from the time I pullup to the time I'm driving away,
you know, making 50 bucksevery, every Friday off of them,
you know, so like.
Right.
I'm not gonna complain about that.
And I, you know, line.
Line seven of them up through,through the, through the Friday,
like, you know, I'm makinglike 16, $1700 at the beginning of
the month, you know.

(23:49):
Yeah.
For easy, you know.
Right.
So that, that's just it.
Yep.
Get the easy work.
Well, I, I got it now.
I'm not like today I didn't goout and wash boats.
Yeah.
I got trained them, they cango out and watch.
You know, we're not dealingwith all the coatings and stuff.
It's just washing boats.
So show them how now I don'thave to go out and do that on my

(24:12):
Friday.
Thursdays and Fridays.
No, that's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Get somebody else to do it for you.
Yeah, yeah.
I just.
It takes up a lot of time whenyou have boats in the shop and you
got to go out and wash, youknow, so.
Yeah, well, intend to do it.
I saw the, I saw one of yourvideos today.
I don't know if it was.
I don't know if it's that boatyou're working on behind you, but

(24:33):
you were doing like a fullsand job on the side of, of the boat
in that one video.
You, you like I said, I don'tknow if you posted that.
That.
Yeah, it's.
It's the one behind me.
It's done now.
I, I don't.
I've been trying to catch upon some of the content.
The phone's full.
Said I can't do anymore, so Ihad to lift them up together earlier,

(24:54):
but I'd say 80 of everythingthat comes out of here sanded.
Oh, really?
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No bullshit.
We're going for perfection.
And what I'm getting, what I'mselling them on is we don't.
We're not doing this everyyear anymore.
Okay.
And when they sign up for the,the maintenance, I will honor my

(25:15):
own.
It don't matter the coding.
I'm using my own 12 month,like 12 month in water.
So if you do six months thisyear and six in the water, as long
as I'm maintaining it minimummonthly and it's the Same as the
weekly say, say it's 100 bucksa week to wash your boat.
You do it monthly.
Well, it's 400.

(25:36):
It's, it's not 100 hours.
Once a month, it's 400 becauseit's just, it takes four times as
long.
I learned that a long time ago.
It's been sitting, gettingdirty all that time.
Actually it almost takes longer.
So either way, if you want awarranty and I, I will probably because
I'm on your boat constantly.
I see if something's failingor whatever that's part of the deal,

(25:57):
I'll fix it there.
So they're getting the lifeout of the boat and I'm getting the,
the guaranteed income on ituntil they cancel the wash.
But I, it don't matter whatcode on a boat.
Any coding can say so and somany years.
The real world's different.
And I, if I'm not on itconstantly, I don't know what they're

(26:18):
doing or what.
We got Air Force base rightright here next to the water and
the marinas along the, theflight path for the Runway and the
other marina where they do alltheir bank turns them, them boats
are covered with soot from the jets.
Yeah, it's.
Yeah.

(26:38):
People don't realize that, butit's a real thing.
Those, those boats in themspots, they get, they get beat on.
So the one marina I won'teven, I won't offer coding if you're
in that marina.
It's.
I did it once and it'sconstant failure.
It's always clogged and youknow, you can't charge people thousands

(26:58):
of dollars and have issueslike that.
So I just not going to do itin that marina.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
It is what it is.
And one of the things thatI'm, I'm kind of learning, you know,
with, with Aquatech as.
Because we, we're kind oflike, you know, because like you
reached out right.
Like, hey, do you guys have a marine?
Like we get, we get peoplethat are asking that and I mean we

(27:20):
have our, our singular can beused on marine and it will hold up
and everything.
But like we've started lookinginto like the possibility of, of
doing a marine coating.
And the one thing I've kind oflearned, learning that's different
with marine coatings is a lotof them go seasons versus years because

(27:41):
in the, the marine world it,it is a season that the boats either
in the water, on the waterversus years.
Right.
And right.
So like that's another thing.
Like we, we've been kind oflooking at is like, okay, like, you
know, so if we do come outwith something now we have to figure
out like do we say years or dowe say seasons?

(28:03):
And if we say seasons, likehow long is a season?
Yeah, that's, I mean, it'sstill the same approach, but I, I
think they're a little morerealistic with how Stark says their,
their longevity.
They do it by months, like 12to 18 months, which if you ask them

(28:24):
more, breaks it down into likesix month seasons.
Yeah, but they're, they're inFlorida and the salt water and all
the sun, you know, it beatsthe boat so that they, they don't
even really say how long it lasts.
But that's their general.
They don't do the whole years.
They go by months.
Yeah, yeah.
It's more realistic with boats.

(28:45):
Right?
Yeah.
And that's one of the things,like I was talking with Rasheed,
which actually, by the way, hetexted me earlier when we started
this, so he said to tell you.
Hey, hey, hey, Rashid.
Yeah, if he's listening.
I love him, man.
I do too.
But yeah, I mean, I, you know,I've been kind of picking his brain
a little bit, just gettingsome feedback and then, and then
also I have a real goodrelationship with Angela out and,

(29:09):
and where's Angela?
Out in the Pacific Northwest,you know, so I've been talking to
her about it, trying to getsome info, you know, if it's something
we do.
And yeah, it's, it's, it'sdefinitely like, I think, I think
it kind of depends on the detailers.
Some of them are, you know, aseason is six months, some of them
is a season is all year, youknow, so whatever.
Right.

(29:29):
So, yeah, it's, it's, it'sinteresting, you know, when you get
into, to the different typesof, of coatings and everything and,
and how things work and, andit's crazy too because like, I never
really paid attention much to,to marine detailing, you know, and
then, you know, becomingfriends with Rasheed and, and Angela,

(29:50):
you know, talking to you alittle bit.
I've got another buddy thatdoes some boats, you know, not, not,
not all the time, but he doesthem, you know, pretty regularly.
And it's just, you know.
Yeah, it's a different worldbecause I don't do this like, you
know, I don't, I don't do them.
I don't choose to do them.
I don't really want to dothem, you know, but if somebody calls
me, he's like, hey, I got A boat.

(30:11):
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that's how.
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(31:41):
Yeah, that's how I can do this.
Yeah.
Because I'm exactly the opposite.
This is all I've been doing.
Cars are the other way.
My back hurts after I do a carand you know, oh God, I gotta do
an interior and oh, now, yeah,I'm the same way.
I throw me a 60 foot Sunseekerand I'll smile.

(32:01):
Yeah, dude, show me a blackSuburban and I'm like, come on, you
know.
What made you, what made youwant to like go the marine route?
I mean, did you grow up morearound boats and, and dealing with
boats than cars or like, youknow, how.
Was that growing up?
My, my grandparents, they hadboats and my uncle.

(32:24):
So I, I grew up around it.
But I was so young, I don'tremember it much, but I'm right by
the water.
They're all around and I got aHonda Spree and then I got a little
15 foot boat.
I got the boat before I got myfirst car and I've been, I've been

(32:45):
hooked ever since.
It used to be just a littleisland hopper.
Somebody buy us beer and we'dgo out and spend a weekend there.
But late teens, early 20s, gota boat that is worth waxing now.
So we, I used to buildlowriders and all that stuff and

(33:07):
we all had paint jobs and wewould take care of them.
Couple buddies worked at theAuto one, or was it Auto one, Auto
one and Z Barts and Stuff.
So we.
We were always throwing aroundthe polishers and stuff.
But I called around, notrealizing the gel coat paint difference.
I was just assumed it'scompletely different.

(33:29):
So I called around to see howmuch it was to get the boat done.
And I said, nah, I'll do it myself.
And a couple people said, itlooks good.
I did a couple more boats andstarted doing it strictly bolts full
time around 97.
Started Mike's Marine Care in 98.
Yeah.
Wow.
So you've been doing it for aminute then.

(33:50):
17 is when I.
I.
Well, 17 is the first boat.
I did 18, got my first jobdoing it.
So.
Okay.
I'm 48.
Yeah.
It's been a long time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it is literally the onlything I stuck with that I'm good

(34:14):
at in my life.
Even with drinking and allthat stuff.
I never.
I never tarnished my name inthis industry because I'm always
out on the water.
I run into my customers.
You know, you see them in thebays and stuff.
And, you know, when I drank, Imean, that's where the captain sure
get.
Everybody used to call meShorgasm or Captain Shasm, because

(34:37):
that was a whole differententity out there.
So, I mean, everybody knew the face.
I kind of fell down the holethere, Put myself trying to find
rock bottom and just couldnever find.
Find the right one, you know.
Wow.
Each.
Each bottom I found had moreto dig in.
Wow.
So finally I got pulled overwith Calypso and in January of 2020,

(35:03):
and it was for a DUI at atechnical issue with the truck, and
cops pulled up behind me, andshe gave me a dirty look, and I said,
no more.
No more drinking, whateverhappens, no more.
And I've been done since.
Dude, that's awesome, man.
I'm glad.
It used to be a crutch.

(35:25):
That's.
That's why everything now withthe business and stuff is like, I
don't have that fallback.
And this is the first time I'mreally dealing with real pressures,
you know, of like.
Like leading up the last five years.
I guess every time you runinto a new thing, it's like, oh,
I've never been tested likethis, but from all angles this time,

(35:45):
it's just hit me.
And I'm proud that the onlydrinking I thought about is that
I'm not thinking about drinking.
It's not like there's an out,because I know what will happen.
I.
I was not the one that Ineeded it to function.
I was the one if.
If it hit my lips, I Didn't stop.
And who knows what happens,you know, blacking out.

(36:09):
That I would drink the blackout, basically.
Oh, wow.
I could maintain it.
I could go out with mycustomers, have a couple beers at
whatever, lunch or dinner oron the dock with them.
It's, it just wasn't enough.
So by the time I get home, youknow, bring a bottle home and just
drink it.
And that was a vicious cycle.

(36:29):
And that's essentially why Ican't, I can't drink no more anymore.
I don't have another restartin me.
It's, that's all gone.
Five years ago.
Five years ago, I was.
This started in 16.
I went to rehab and met thewrong woman, let's just say.
And we've all been there, thatI just.

(36:51):
We've all been.
Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't somuch her.
I'm not blaming her.
It's just the lifestyle.
It turned right back into theparty mode, and there was no escaping
it.
And we, we got to, I, well, Igot to a point.
Hell, my truck had just broke down.
The alternator went onChristmas Eve, and I knew I had to

(37:13):
get out of that situation.
So I packed everything in inmy Navigator, packed the dog up,
and we stayed in that foralmost four months with no alternator.
I, I, I could go about 20minutes or 20 miles per charge, that
I did.
And that's what we did.
And we would.
Yeah, but that was the onlyway I could get sober.
I was facing court and jailtime and, you know, you name it.

(37:37):
So we, we did what we had to do.
And then they put me away fora little bit.
I got out.
I was on the water within fivehours of getting out of jail.
And summer's here now, so Istarted captaining jobs.
I had an alcohol tether on.
Everybody wanted me as theircaptain because they knew I wasn't

(37:57):
gonna drink.
I, I thought it was going tobe a hindrance.
I had more captain jobs thatsummer than I have ever.
And since, I mean, that's good.
It's amazing.
It's silver linings, I guess,you know, like, you know.
Yeah, so.
Well, you know the same thing.
Everybody's like, oh, you'reon the water around all that alcohol,

(38:18):
you're going to relapse.
I'll be honest with you, Alice.
It was the best thing for mebecause I live out there.
That's my life.
And one, to know I can do itwithout the beer.
That's great to know.
2.
I never, I've never enjoyedboating or hanging out in the base
as much as I do sober.
It's fun.
It's still fun without drinking.
And I remember it all.

(38:40):
I can remember what happened.
I'm.
I'm happy for you, man.
I'm glad that.
Thank you.
You had a turnaround and.
And thankfully it didn't take,like, something extremely drastic
or deadly.
Well, whatever.
Five DUIs, that's pretty drastic.

(39:00):
Well, yeah, that last one wasnumber five.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
I'm grateful of that every day.
Yeah.
The only.
The only real damage I didwith all was to myself.
Right.
I didn't hurt nobody, youknow, and.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That I'm thankful for.
Yeah, that's good.

(39:21):
That's good.
Hang on a second.
Can you move?
Can you move, please?
Like, the cat is all over my stuff.
It's because we're doing this.
Calypso never walks right infront of me in the coffee table.
But because this is here, ofcourse she has to.
Yeah, she passed out now.

(39:44):
The.
I.
I guess I didn't close thedoor all the way.
So she came in here before Icame in the podcast.
So when I came in the podcast,she likes to.
There's a little window rightover here to my right, and she likes
just sitting in the windowsilland watching the bugs or the lizards
or, you know, whatever.
And so when I came in, I waslike, close the door.

(40:07):
And I'm like, all right, well,you're stuck in here with me.
So now she's like, keepscrawling all over the.
The table here, and I justdon't want her to step on something
and mute or disconnect this orwhatever, you know, she was.
She was like.
Like, right when I said that,she was kind of stepping over my

(40:27):
mixing board, and so I wantedto make sure she didn't knock anything
or pull anything out or whatever.
She's a.
She's a good kitty.
But, yeah, dude, that.
I mean, that's.
That's awesome, man, for you.
Like I.
Like I said, man, I'm really,really happy for you that you had
that, you know, turn aroundand it's been super positive for

(40:48):
you and everything.
That's.
That's cool, man.
So.
And.
And it's.
It's good that you're actuallybeing able to enjoy being on the
water now so much.
So much more.
It.
It's one of.
You hear it in rehab or whatever.
I mean, with the Internet,people have seen memes are about

(41:09):
it, but you always hear peopledo it.
It's easy one day at a time.
But when you're in that spotyou can't picture.
You can't picture a year downthe road, five years down the road.
Like I would never picturedI'd actually have a shop again.
Yeah.
You know that, that actuallyhad work and I know, I know none

(41:34):
of this would have happened ifI kept drinking.
Actually I.
I probably wouldn't even be here.
It was getting to that point.
If I didn't do.
So yeah.
If I didn't do something dumbto kill myself.
I was so miserable.
I probably would have offmyself because I thought about it
a couple times.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Addiction and depression, man.

(41:54):
They're no joke.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So do you, do you like havesupport with it now or.
I mean, is it one of thosethings that's kind of like cold turkey
and you just.
It was cold.
Cold turkey.
I mean I.
I was facing.
And over the years from allthe other court ordered stuff.

(42:17):
I know that AA don't work me.
I have my own way.
I've never liked being tired.
Told what to do.
So you're telling me not to drink.
I just want to do it more this.
And I.
I've come.
I've realized that the onlyway you're gonna quit an addiction
is if you.

(42:38):
You yourself truly want to.
Because 20 years I've donequarter this court ordered that.
Appeasing mom appeasing thegirlfriend doing it.
You know, I didn't want to.
I.
I did stop.
I have plenty of times.
I had nine months like.
But it wasn't for me.
It's like.
Right.
You wanted me to quit drinkingand you know, slipped up this time.

(43:02):
I.
I just, I said I'm not gonna.
I'm done with this.
And yeah.
It's just that mindset and it actually.
Yeah.
I don't even think about it.
I really, you know, goinganywhere that had a pool table, like.
Oh, never played that sober.
And I.
And I don't.
And I don't.
I hit a lot better when I gota buzz.

(43:23):
Go figure.
I can't play full sober for.
But it's you.
You get the right mindset andit, it doesn't even bother you.
But I understand the wholeaddiction thing because I can't get
rid of cigarettes, man.
I've tried so many times.
I'm not gonna stop trying.
One day it'll kick, but itain't been easy.

(43:45):
I can't just say I'm done withthese and put them down.
They got a hold on me.
I wish I never picked these up.
Yeah, I mean, I.
Listen man, I.
I hope for your sake you youdo one day put them down.
I mean, I, I've, I've seen,you know, plenty of people who didn't
and, you know, lose theirlives kind of early to cancer or

(44:06):
whatever.
You know, I've seen my dad wasa smoker, you know, his whole life,
you know, and, and, you know,I've seen, like, how it's really
affected his, his health and,and his decline, you know, now that
he's getting older and, youknow, he's, he's had a bunch of,

(44:27):
you know, heart attacks andthings like that.
And a lot of that was, youknow, attributed to, you know, the
smoking, you know, some of itto just, you know, kind of unhealthy
eating habits and whatnot.
But, you know, as, as he'sgotten older and, and everything
because of the smoking, thedoctors are like, you know, your

(44:49):
heart just really isn'tproducing as much.
You know, I mean, like, hecan't go five steps and he's got
to, like, stop, and he's outof breath.
He's, you know, on oxygen now, so.
And we know that that's allfrom smart smoking.
So, you know, I, I, I, I seepeople who smoke, and I'm just like,
man, like, you know, I wish Icould stop, you know, so I, I hope

(45:13):
for your sake one day you canso that, you know, maybe you don't
have, you know, those issueslater on or don't, you know, get
a cancer or something like that.
The hardest to get to kick it.
And all the stuff that theyteach you about the chemicals, it's
the most addictive.

(45:34):
Yeah.
Chemical that's known.
And, and I get that, but I, Iheard you talk about your dad on
another podcast.
How's he doing?
I mean, he's all right, but,you know, like I said, I mean it.
I mean, I think, like, I thinkthe last time my mom was talking

(45:56):
about it, like, they went tothe doctor, like, his, his heart
is basically, like, working at25 capacity.
So that's, that's why, like,he can't, you know, walk very far.
And then, of course, my dad'sjust, you know, typical stubborn
male.
You know, he's got a walker.
You know, he's got a walker.

(46:17):
But anytime, like, we goanywhere, you know, go anywhere with
them, or he comes over herelike he refuses to use the walker.
You know, like, we'll go to.
They'll come over here andwe'll go to dinner.
You know, my mom's, like,telling the hostess, like, you know,
you got a table real close,because he can't walk far.
And I'm like, go get hiswalker out of the car.
Then, you know, like, stopbeing macho man.
Like, you know, at home whennobody's around, he.

(46:41):
You know, he uses his oxygen and.
And all that stuff because of.
Because he just doesn'tbreathe very well, like, his lung
capacity, his heart and allthat stuff.
But, you know, like, he comesover here and he won't put his oxygen
on.
He won't wear it.
You know, he doesn't want to,like, show, I guess, that weakness
or whatever.
So, like, he just sits thereand he's just like, you know, you

(47:01):
just can't catch his breath.
Dad, Just put your oxygen on.
Like, you know, like, youdon't have to, like, you know, be
Superman anymore.
You know, like, I understand you're.
You're not well.
So, you know, I mean, I.
I think it's one of thosethings where, you know, I hate to
say it, and.
And.
And hopefully I don't get tooemotional this.
But I mean, like, you know, it's.

(47:23):
It's tough, dude, because, youknow, he's my dad, you know, And
I mean, like, we went out todinner with them, like, two weeks
ago.
I think it was like, they came.
They came to Haley'scheerleading and.
Or, like, one of her practices.
And.
And.
And so we all went to dinner,and me and my dad were kind of talking

(47:45):
afterwards, and he's like, youknow, he's like, I go to bed every
night and, like, is this thenight that I don't wake up?
I'm like, dude, like, don't.
Don't tell me that.
Like, you know, like, youknow, so.
I don't know.
I mean, the.
The doctor.
The doctor says he's probablystill got, you know, at least one
or two years left, but I don't know.

(48:05):
He acts like, you know, theend is near.
So, you know, we try to.
We try to do.
We try to make more time now to.
To spend time with my parentsbecause they're not really that far
away.
They're only, like, maybe 40minutes away.
But it's just.
We're just busy between, youknow, jobs and Haley's cheerleading

(48:29):
and, you know, running errandsand this and that.
It's.
It's just.
Sometimes it's hard to findthe time to.
To get over there and.
And spend.
So we're trying.
We're trying to make.
Make it to where we spend thattime now with them, just because.
Don't.
Don't ever know, you know, so.
Yeah, so it's One of those things.

(48:52):
It's tough, man.
But, you know, like, I.
You know, I.
I cherish every phone call now.
Whereas sometimes before, youknow, my dad would kind of call me,
you know, and just for nothing.
And I just feel like, okay,dad, you know, because I gotta go.
That's, you know, now it'slike, you know, I don't have that
attitude anymore, like.
Because I know, like, one daythe phone calls will stop coming,

(49:14):
you know?
So, like, I try to cherishmore of the time even.
Like, they came over here for,what was it, Memorial Day?
That was the last holiday wehad, right?
Yeah, they came over MemorialDay, you know, and.
And everybody was in the pooland everything like that.
And.
And, you know, Michelle'slike, you're gonna get in the pool.

(49:34):
You're gonna get in the pool.
And I was like.
I mean, I will, but I waslike, I just.
I want to sit on the porchwith dad, you know, for a little
bit and talk, you know?
So, like, I try to, like, takethat time of, you know, sitting on
the porch and talking with hima little bit more, you know, not
worried about jumping in thepool and cooling off.
Right.
You know, with everybody else.
So.

(49:55):
So, yeah, I mean, it's.
It's just one of those things, man.
You know, life.
Can you give me one second?
I gotta grab the cord.
My.
My headphones are beeping.
Oh, okay.
You're gonna.
You're gonna die on me.
No, no.

(50:27):
Oh, come on.
Excuse me.
Calypso big butts in the way.
There.

(50:51):
There we go.
Still gotcha.
Yep, yep, I'm here.
All right.
Perfect.
Good deal.
So.
Yeah, so, yeah, man, I mean, it's.
You know, it's one of those things.
It just makes you appreciate,you know, And.
And, yeah, you got.

(51:12):
My mom.
She got diagnosed June 27thwith cancer in October 17th.
Yeah, October 17th, she passed.
They weren't that quick.
Wow.
And that's why, man, I.
I felt what she said when, youknow, the phone rings and you're
like, yeah.
And then.
And then you get.

(51:32):
Something like that happens, and.
And hers went so quick.
Yeah.
God, there's guilt of all the thing.
You know, the times.
Incidents like that, when youdidn't know it was going to be that
fast.
Right, right.
It's just the.
The day she ended up passingbecause I've always had my own business

(51:53):
and she needed care.
When they did the chemo andstuff, which they told her it was
terminal and they wanted to dothe chemo to prolong it.
That chemo, man, that.
That made the last part ofwhat she had left.
Horrible.
If they tell me I'm terminal,I am not going to do chemo.
Just let it ride.

(52:14):
But, yeah, it was just amazinghow quick that it progressed.
And it's.
Wow.
You, you, you don't realizehow much a person means in your life.
Yeah.
Until they're gone like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And still this October will be18 years.
And still I like now thatbeing sober and having the shop and

(52:38):
stuff, I.
I wish she could see it.
Yeah, that's.
That's my only regret of thewhole drinking thing is that she
didn't get to see me soberbecause I, you know, she might not
have said it and her time, shemight have enabled it.
Wanting to go out on the boat,showing up at the door with a case
of beer, like, let's go, I'llput gas in it.

(52:59):
But.
Right.
I know deep down that thatbecause my dad was drunk, he took
off.
I don't really remember him, but.
Okay.
I wish he could have saw that.
So that, that's like my oneregret out all the drinking.
Yeah.
I didn't hurt nobody andanything like that, but my mom never
got to see it.

(53:19):
Right.
Yeah, that.
That's when I wish that she did.
You know, I, I know she, shesees it now, but it's not.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I mean, that's thething is you want to, you want your,
you, you want your parents toat least, you know, know that you
succeeded or that you made itor you did it right, that, you know,

(53:39):
they did a good job and, andeverything, you know, so.
Yeah.
And, And I'll tell you what, man.
I mean, it, it's.
It's kind of opened my eyes alittle bit.
I mean, I never, I neverdrank, I never smoked, you know.
You know, but obviously theolder that I've gotten, you know,
I've.
I have put on some weight.

(54:00):
So, like, it's, it's made melike, kind of realize, like, I try
not to eat stupid anymore orjust eat to eat, you know, Like,
I try to.
I'm trying to, you know, shedsome of the pounds.
You know, Michelle and I, wetry to do if it's not raining or
we don't have one of thenights when we have to take Haley

(54:21):
to cheer.
We have a three mile loop thatwe go and we walk and, you know,
we're trying to make sure thatwe stay active and, you know, make
sure that, you know, that wedon't as we get older, we don't,
you know, just Kind of give upor not be active enough, you know.

(54:41):
So, you know, we're trying to.
We're trying to, like, okay,you know, we see like, all the mistakes
people made.
So, like, how can we try to,you know, make sure that when we
get into our 70s, you know,that we're not just two bumps on.
On a log.
Like, we're still active, youknow, and one of our biggest motivations
is, is our neighbor that, thatlives Caddy corner across the street.

(55:07):
I think he'll be 92 or 93 thisyear or something like that.
And like, dude, you.
You look at him and youwouldn't think he was a day over,
like 80, you know, I mean,like, he's out there, mows his yard,
he's tinkering on the, on the trucks.
Like, he's always fidgeting inhis workshop.
Like, he's, he's active.

(55:28):
He's just.
He's always doing something,you know.
So, like, we kind of use himas, as our motivation.
You know, we're like, we wantto be like Mr.
Bill when we're in our 90s,and we can still, like, get up and
move around and drive and dothis and do that.
So, yeah, we, we've kind oftaken that, you know, we, we.
We walk, you know, as much aswe can.

(55:48):
You know, I, I posted a thingthe other day because I thought it
was kind of funny, you know,that the, you know how the old tomagotchis,
you know, you had to keep theanimal alive with the Tomagotchis.
And it's like, yeah, the, thenew smart watches of the Tachi.
The new Tachi, the animalyou're trying to keep alive is yourself.

(56:10):
And it's true, like, I try to,yeah, wear my watch as much as I
can.
So, like, I know, like, okay,it's time to stand up.
I need to move around.
I need to, you know, I need todo the things, you know, and I track
my steps now and I track, youknow, my activity and, and all this.
So, like, it's, it's made melike, you know, try to be a little

(56:32):
more, you know, healthconscious so that I, I'm not in that
situation.
By.
One of my buddies passed a fewyears ago, and I, I've known his
mom when I knew him, but webecame close because she's.
She was turning 80 back then,and so help her out and stuff, and

(56:56):
all that, but we, we becomereal close and she's.
She'll be turning 85 and it'sthe same thing out there.
Doing her leaves, cutting the lawn.
You know, there's leaves inthe gutter.
She's trying to climb up aladder to go do it.
And she's motivation.
Like, I hope when I'm evenclose to that age, I'm still getting

(57:16):
around doing.
Even if I don't want to cut mylawn, I want to at least have the.
The mobility to do it, you know?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the.
The shop extended it a littlebit, but when I got some.
Have you ever heard of theGreat Loop?
The.
You go down to Mississippi,around Florida, up the east coast,

(57:37):
through the Great Lakes.
It's a big circle.
No, no.
People do it.
And usually when they retireand they say, if you want to enjoy
it, it takes a year.
There's.
People have done it.
I think the fastest was like,33 days that there's two people doing
it on pontoon boats right now.
Oh, wow.
I don't.
I haven't seen any updatesfrom them, but in the past, there

(58:00):
were two on jet skis trying todo it.
But I've always wanted to do that.
Always wanted to do it.
When I.
I joined the power squadronway back in the day, and one of the
old boaters was talking, theyhad just come back from us, like,
what is that?
At that time, I didn't evenknow you could take the Mississippi
all the way down to the Gulf.

(58:22):
So that was cool.
And I look more into it, andI've been talking about it ever since.
So I got sober, and I said,when I turn 50, I'm taking off and
I'm gonna do it.
Because the whole point I madestarted making content and an online
presence.
So I'm gonna supplement myincome on the boat, and if I got

(58:42):
a little name out there whenI'm coming down to Mississippi and
I'm gonna be in a b Marina.
Yeah, you'll know who's comingin, and I'll try and line up some
work, but I don't know ifthat's gonna happen now because just,
you know, life changes.
And I found I.
I do so much boating.
I couldn't find that when wewere down in Florida, Alice, I.

(59:03):
I went back to the Keys, and Ihaven't been on land in the Keys
in a very long time.
We used to run poker runs down there.
Okay.
And I.
My truck got really, reallytrashed in Miami.
I couldn't find a car wash.
A couple of the mobiles that Ifound online.
Yeah, we'll come out.
And they never did while wewere down there.

(59:24):
So there's no market down there.
And I was like, there's wateron both sides.
Yeah, just get a decent boat,a small house.
When the work comes, I don'tneed to go travel.
I got it all around here.
We'll get a camper and we'llgo travel that way.
Yeah, that's really, that'sreally sounding like the plan now.

(59:45):
But, yeah, who knows?
I'll worry about it when it comes.
Because one thing I've learnedin all this is you can plan as much
as you want.
Life happens and it might notwork out that way.
So that's what I try and justride the wave with most things.
You know, I'm, I'm the sameway too.
Like, I mean, I'm.
I like my structured ways, youknow, like, if I'm doing this, I,

(01:00:09):
you know, I, I gotta kind ofdo it that way or whatever.
But at the same time, youknow, Michelle will be like, well,
what do you think about, youknow, spring break next year?
Like, we do this?
And I'm like, I mean, sure, I guess.
I mean, like, that's so farahead, you know, she's like, she's
like, why don't you ever,like, planning things?
And I'm like, because I don'tknow what's gonna happen tomorrow,

(01:00:30):
you know, I mean, like,exactly, you know, Like, I, you know,
nothing's.
Nothing's prom, you know, it'slike, you know, tomorrow's not promised,
right?
You know, and, and, but at thesame time, like, like you said, right,
like, like life changes.
Like, things happen, you know,things come up, you know, I don't
know.
I mean, we could be in asituation next year where like, yeah,

(01:00:54):
you know, we're, we're makingmore money than we ever had.
Sure, let's go take a vacationon spring break.
Or it might be like, you know,know that, you know, the shops closed
down.
I'm, I'm looking for a jobsomewhere, you know, like, you know,
whatever, right?
I don't know what, you know.
So I always tell her, like, Imean, sure, whatever, you know, and

(01:01:14):
she's just like, ah, you neverhave a say in it.
I'm like, because I, I reallydon't know what's going to happen
next year, you know, or, or,or in two weeks, you know, I told
the, the eye doctor, you know,that when I went to the eye doctor
a couple months ago.
And then like, okay, so wehave, we'll have you come back next
year.
Is this day good?

(01:01:35):
And I'm like, lady, I don'tknow where I'll be tomorrow.
Like, yeah, exactly.
I guess put it down and thenwhen we get.
If, if we get there, thenwe'll figure it out.
But yeah, I try not to do morethan like a month, two at the most
out.
Because.
Because after that, man,there's just too many variables that

(01:01:56):
are going to change.
Especially something like, isthis date gonna work for you?
It's like, I don't know.
Well, and two, in our, in ourbusiness too, right?
You could be like, oh, yeah,like, I don't have anything scheduled
next year shop.
But like, you know, then liketwo weeks before, you know, you get
somebody that's, you know,wants a coding job or something like

(01:02:17):
that.
Yeah, I'm booking that.
Like, my eyes, you know, like,I got confidence.
Like, you know, let's do thejob first.
So.
So yeah, I mean, that's,that's the other thing I always tell
people.
I'm like, look, like, I don't know.
I mean, my.
You know, I could have nothingbooked tomorrow and I get a phone

(01:02:39):
call and then I'm.
I'm booked out the week.
Like, you know, I can't.
It's hard for me to make planslike that, you know?
Yeah.
And.
And I, I.
A lot of people, if this evercomes up, don't seem to have that
problem.
Except people who are in thedetailing world.
Yeah.
It seems like our lives arebased like that because that's how

(01:02:59):
the work is sometimes.
Yeah, I mean, a lot ofdetailers say that.
Yeah.
I mean, I got somebodyknocking at the door.
Alex, I'll be right back.
Yeah, go ahead, man.
It's a little late for customers.

(01:03:24):
Should we.
Should we put a commercial here?
Put a commercial here.
Everybody's listening.
We didn't go.
We didn't go dead.
All right, okay.
Somebody.
Somebody's girl that they'rehaving on their boat.
Can't find the bathroom.

(01:03:44):
Apparently my door looks likethe bathroom.
Listen, there's a bathroom.
It might be a show in here,but it's not for.
It's amazing how many peoplethis shop, even on the outside.
The outside looks just aseccentric as me, but it does not

(01:04:08):
look like a boat mechanic shop.
And you would be surprised howmany people walk in here and that's
what they're looking for.
You don't want me doing thatwork on your boat.
Trust me.
It's like, I'll clean up.
I'm too.
I'm too tall to be a mechanicon boats.
Yeah, you gotta be almost likejockey size.

(01:04:29):
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Them engine.
Them engine compartments are tight.
Yeah, I, that's not like it was.
Yeah, I.
Many, many, many, many yearsago in, In a different life, I worked
for.

(01:04:50):
In the detail shop for one ofthe boat dealerships here in Orlando.
And I'll tell you what, that was.
That was not a fun job.
I, I think that's where.
I think that's where I, Irealized I didn't like detailing
boats.
Is that place.
The only ones I like doing waslike, the brand new ones.

(01:05:11):
When they come in, like, withall the, all the, the Saran Wrap,
you know, coverings over them.
Yeah.
You know, take those off andjust kind of like gently wipe down
the interiors and everything.
But, man, those, those usedboats that would come in with the
moldy seats and all thatstuff, we'd have to scrub and clean
down.
It was.

(01:05:32):
That was not for me.
That's like, in a lot of the,the boat trainings, the, the examples
that you train on aren't real world.
Yeah.
I'm doing a shrink wraptraining in the fall, and I think
they're.
It might end up being.
Becoming bigger.
And if it is, I got a wholeboneyard across the street.

(01:05:54):
Nice.
Plus a couple people that I know.
I, I've got real world examples.
Yeah, it would be one of themclasses where if you want to do both,
you're gonna do them, but ifyou're not really sure, you're not
gonna want to after thisclass, because it's gonna be the
real world example of whatshows up at your door.

(01:06:15):
Right.
Yeah, I remember.
Go ahead.
No, I was, I was just gonnasay I remember one time at one of
the car washes that I ran, youknow, we had somebody bring in.
I don't remember what it was like.
I don't know.
I mean, it was a decent sizedboat, I want to say, maybe probably

(01:06:37):
like a little, little bit lessthan a 30 footer, you know, but between
like a 24 and a 30, I wouldsay, because it was, it was decent
size, but I mean, it was likeit had just sat out underneath a
tree for a year.
I mean, the, the thing waslike, green, you know, like, the
interior was nasty.

(01:06:58):
And yeah, it was definitelyone of those ones that I said, all
right, detailers, this is yourjob now.
I sold it, so go to it.
They hated me for it, but Imean, I got up there, I got up there
and worked with them.
You know, I, I did.
I did the work with them andeverything, helped them out.
But, you know, and I, I, Dude,I, I think, I think we charged the

(01:07:22):
guy like 800 bucks orsomething like that, which nowadays
might be stupid cheap, but youknow, this would have been like mid
like 2005ish or so, you know,So I don't know, it's probably good
money for back then.
Yeah, probably.

(01:07:43):
It's all relative.
My buddy, I've known him sincehigh school, and he had his own painting
company.
He doesn't do it anymore.
But we.
We were talking, and sometimesI have a problem telling somebody
the price to do their boatbecause I've been doing it so long,
it's sounds like crazyexpensive when back in the day I

(01:08:04):
was doing stuff for 400 bucks,you know what I mean?
I got that.
Them old prices in my head andlike, like 400 all day long.
800 was nuts.
But nowadays, 800 ain't nothing.
And I still have that.
Oh, they're gonna trip when Itell them 800.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So, I mean, that's.

(01:08:24):
That's the same.
I mean, when I was at the carwash, dude, we had like $199.99 for
a full detail, full interiorextraction, leather cleaning and
conditioning, rotary cut and polish.
And, you know, and I'm justlike, you know, because I remember
when I.
When I started doing ceramiccoatings, I was like, man, these
people like about 200 bucks,like ceramic coating, like, you know,

(01:08:48):
and.
And I was one of those idiotsthat didn't know any better, was
charging like 400, 400, 500,$600 for ceramic coating.
And dude, thinking I was likemaking all the money in the world,
right?
Everybody's like, dude, like,you got to be thousand dollars plus
or whatever.
And I'm like, what?
Like that?
You know, that's what Ithought too.

(01:09:09):
Yeah.
But wait, do you do manyexotics or any at all?
No, not really, man.
I mean, I've done a few.
But honestly, like, my breadand butter is kind of like that 60
to 100 price range, you know,like the, the kind of cars that we

(01:09:31):
have, like the, you know, thesports or the, or the, the rss, you
know, between, you know, the Mcars, you know, BMW, Mercedes, Audi.
Yeah.
You know, like that, thathigher end 60 to $100,000 is.
Is really, really like mybread and butter.
And I.
And I like those because tome, those are the.

(01:09:52):
Those are the people that, youknow of like, okay, I've spent good
money on a car.
I want to spend good money tokeep it clean, you know, or.
Or keep it protected.
Right.
Like, I feel like, you know,the people that are, you know, buying
you know, twenty thousand,thirty thousand dollar cars really

(01:10:12):
don't get give enough, don't,don't give a.
About them.
Right?
It's just like that's, that'sa cheap car these days, you know,
unfortunately.
And then people that arespending 150k plus like they're not
driving those cars enough tolike need them detailed or want them
detailed or you know, thattype of stuff.
So I like that 60 to 100krange man, like where I can just

(01:10:35):
you know, take care of peopleand, and they're, they're willing
to pay for it.
They know how much it's goingto cost them.
You know, they're, they're,you know, keeping them up, you know,
keeping them cleaner longer.
So not that bad when I doclean them.
Yeah.
And I don't know man, I meanmy, my viewpoint on exotics has changed.

(01:11:01):
I mean obviously when I gotinto this I was like, I want to do
all the front Ferraris andLamborghinis and yeah, like I'm like
bro, I don't, I don't care aslong as you pay me.
Like, I don't, I don't look atthe badge, I don't look at the badge,
I just look at the check.
Right.
Like yep.
You know, I've always beenthat way.
If you're a Ferrari and a fourman, I treat them the same.

(01:11:21):
But where I was going withthat is the price of the, the toys.
And yeah, you got in therethat, that's what gets me.
Boats, the low end, they're,they're outrageous now but a decent
middle ground boat is 3 to$500,000 nowadays.
Yeah, they don't take care of them.

(01:11:42):
That's what, that's why I wasasking to view the, the exotics.
Like you ever seen one ofthose completely wrecked?
That's, that's how boats arewhen, when they're spending that
kind of money, they don't takecare of them.
And it just amazes me.
Yeah, it amazes me.
Me.
Yeah, that's.
And it's crazy too becauselike you know, I mean obviously there's
a lot of water down here inFlorida so there's a lot of people.

(01:12:04):
Especially now, you know,Sunday morning, Saturday mornings
you see like everybody on the,like, you know, with their boats
on the trailer behind thetrucks, like heading out, you know,
either going, going to get onthe river, going out on lakes or
whatever.
And like you see some of thesefriggin boats man, and you're just
like God, like How, like, howdo you have the money for that?

(01:12:26):
Like.
Like.
Yep.
I mean, it's.
I see them all the time.
I'm right on the river on aTuesday with a 300, 000 boat.
It's like, why aren't you atyour job?
Well, even the little guys ontheir bass boats, Those are all 60
and $80,000 now they're outthere all during the week.
It's like, what do you guys dofor work?

(01:12:47):
You're never working.
Working new truck, pulling it.
Yeah.
I mean, the only thing I canthink of, and I don't know, I could
be completely wrong, but theonly thing I can think of is maybe.
Maybe boat payments go a lotlonger than car payments do.
Oh, yeah.
You know, so you can go 30.
You can go 30 years on a boat.
Yeah, so that's.
That's different, you know,with mo.
With cars, you know,especially with the exotic or something

(01:13:11):
like that.
I mean, even if you went fiveyears or seven years, you're still
at like 2500, $3000 a month ona car payment for, For a, you know,
car, Ferrari or whatever, you know.
Yeah, I don't, I don't know, man.
Like, you know, and that's myother thing.
Like, the older, the older Iget now, like, you know, don't get

(01:13:32):
me wrong, I wouldn't mindhaving, you know, a badass Porsche
or, you know, being an audiguy in R8 or Ferrari or something
like that.
But like, I'm like, man,there's no way in hell I'd pay $2,500
a month or $3,000 a month for,For a car that I can't really drive.
Because most of those cars,you know, as soon as you put miles

(01:13:55):
on, they're worth nothing, youknow, like, you.
Know, so, yeah, some of the,Some of the dealers here at the boat
shows will put like themonthly payment formulas they do
and 20 down on a 1.1 milliondollar boat.
And it's only 4, 500amonth or whatever.
It's like 4, 500.

(01:14:15):
And you know that the peoplethat are buying them boats, they're
going in Memorial and they'recoming out Labor Day.
So nine months out of theyear, you're paying for that and
you're not even using it.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Boats.
Boats are one of those thingsthat amaze me.
Like, they're.
They're really.
They're really cool.

(01:14:36):
Like some of the things that,you know, especially, like when you
get into the, the yachtstyles, you Know.
Yeah.
The crazy that they can do onthese boats or do with these boats
or whatever.
But then it's like, you know,like, Jesus Christ.
I mean, you got a $200 million yacht.
Like, are you really on thatall the time?
Like, you know, like when,when you.

(01:14:58):
Got a boat like that, though,that boat's making money because
when you're not using it, it'sgetting chartered.
That's what I would do.
Yeah.
It's like having a privatejet, you know.
You chartered.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I get that, but it'sstill like, it's so expensive.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, when you, you know,you see, it's like, oh, Jeff Bezos,
you know, 500 million dollarboat and it costs like 20 million

(01:15:20):
dollars a year just to operateit or, you know, some crazy like
that.
That's probably just for the staff.
They say a good rule of thumbis 10 of the purchase prices, the
yearly operating loss.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's.
It's like buying a big house, everybody.
Oh, I'd love to have a.
Yeah.
Until the heating bill comesand the electric bill comes, you

(01:15:41):
know, it's not so much fun anymore.
I, I, well, the boat I wasgonna do the loop on, I had a 38
Chris and I figured it out.
Even being real easy on thethrottles, that trip would have been
probably 50 to 55, 000 in fuel alone.

(01:16:05):
Yeah.
And it's like, well, how isthat retirement?
I'm not, I'm not a baller.
I'm literally gonna be workingmy ass off just to move that boat
along the, on the, the loop.
So that didn't work out.
What you do is you get about10 people, you charge them $5,000
a pop for to go on the loopwith you.
Right.
Like you're gonna captain the boat.

(01:16:28):
The whole point is to get awayfrom people.
I'm bringing more than I wanton land.
No, there's always ways to do it.
If it comes down to it, and Ireally want to do it, I got a jet
boat.
People are doing it on jet skis.
I'll rig the jet boat.
I, I'll do it.
If I set myself to it.
It was a bucket list item.

(01:16:50):
But I don't know, man.
Coming down there and gettinga nice little place on the, somewhere
in the Keys and then get acamper and camper travel.
I don't know, it seems more,more my speed now.
Plus it's cheaper.
A lot cheaper.
Exactly.
One one of even, even comingdown for MTE I, I think the whole

(01:17:15):
Time I was down there and wewent all over Florida after it ended.
I'm coast to coast and up and down.
I, I think total fuel bill forthat whole trip was like 4:30 in
the truck.
It's like that's, that's goingout for a day on the weekend in a
boat.
In the gas, though.
Yeah, yeah.
Things change.

(01:17:35):
Get a little, little shackdown in the Keys, but, you know,
then, then everything's moreexpensive than the key.
So where are you really winning?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Everything's got his plusesand minuses.
It's just finding the, thebalance that you want to deal with.
Yeah, that's, that's the thingis, is, you know, especially down

(01:17:57):
here, anywhere near water isgoing to be stupid expensive.
Expensive.
Yeah.
Anywhere out in the middle ofnowhere is going to be cheap as you
know, it's trying to find thathappy medium of not being completely
out in the middle of nowhereand not being right on a lake or
on the river or on the ocean,you know, to, to, to, you know, be

(01:18:22):
able to live, you know, affordsomething comfortably.
I'm glad, I'm glad we did whatwe did.
I mean, we, we bought our landand built our house.
It's been 22 years ago nowbecause it was 2003 and, and we're
kind of like in, in a wooded,wooded area.

(01:18:44):
It's, it's more agricultural,but there wasn't a lot around us.
And now everything started togo grow around us.
They're putting in more neighborhoods.
They built a, a big town parklike, I don't know, 14, 15 years
ago or, or whatnot.

(01:19:05):
Right.
Like just a mile or two downthe street that's, you know, got
a movie theater andrestaurants and shopping and grocery
store and that type of stuff.
And so like, everything overthe past 23 years has started growing
towards us.
And so, you know, this littlehouse that, you know, we paid next
to nothing for is now, youknow, worth five times what we paid

(01:19:29):
for it.
Right.
Everything's growing to us andthe property value is going up so
much.
So that's the one thing I cansay, like, we kind of did, right?
You know, like we, we foundthis perfect little piece of land
in the middle of the woods,built a house on it, got, you know,
built the house really cheapand it just waited for everything
to come to us.

(01:19:49):
So.
Yeah, that's, that's good.
You.
How far out of like the, theactual city of Orlando are you?
Because you say, you said Wood Woods.
That was MTE was my first timein Orlando.
So I don't know how far yougot to go to.
So I mean like when I say wow, woods.

(01:20:10):
I mean there's like woodsaround us, but I mean there's still
a bunch of houses.
I mean they just built.
Yeah.
A toll road expansionextension that, that goes.
Okay through the woods.
So a bunch of the woods gotknocked down.
But so like I'm in Sanford,which is like it's considered north
Orlando, whatever they call it.

(01:20:31):
So I mean like to actualdowntown Orlando, like the main city
of Orlando, depending ontraffic on, on the interstate, it's.
It's maybe a 20, 25 minute drive.
Like okay for me to go to MTE, which.
Which was at the Gaylord thisyear, which is like way south Orlando.

(01:20:52):
Like it only took me like 40minutes to get down there, you know,
and that's basically goingfrom the top of Orlando to the bottom
of Orlando kind of.
So I mean, it's.
Where I'm at is the greatgreater Orlando areas.
What like north GreaterOrlando area.
So you're out of the traffic.
I mean, kind of.

(01:21:14):
But you know, that was a lotof trick.
I don't know if it was thetime of year, but there was a lot
of traffic down in Orlando.
Seemed like every two milesyou wanted to go took 20 minutes.
Well, and, and where the,where MTE was held this year, the
Gaylord was right across the.
Across from Disney.
So you get all the dis.
That's why it was okay.
Yeah, yeah.
And especially on the weekend.

(01:21:35):
Right.
Like everybody's going toDisney at night for the.
Or what is it?
Disney Springs.
They're going down to DisneySprings, you know, for the, the restaurants
and the bars and the stufflike that.
Or you know, a lot of peoplewith annual passes will wait and
go.
Especially in Florida becauseit's so hot.

(01:21:56):
They'll wait and go, you know,afternoons, evening times to the
parks and then, you know, theparks are open until midnight or
something like that, you know,so you can go, especially if you
got an annual pass, you gofive or six o' clock in the evening
time and hang out for, youknow, four or five hours in the evening,
do the parks or whatever.
So.
So yeah, it.

(01:22:17):
Down there, down there in theDisney area, the traffic is crazy.
Pretty much no time, you know,all times of the day.
It's also that, that's thetourist area too, you know, so.
Right.
You know, you got all thetourist traffic and then, you know,
and then really I.4 is theonly artery to get to Tampa.

(01:22:38):
So, you know, you're Goingthrough Disney to get to.
To go to Tampa, like, orcoming from Tampa to Orlando, you
got to go through that wholelittle area.
So, yeah, dude, it's.
I try to avoid that whole areaaltogether if I can.
That was the only forewarningI got about going to Orlando from

(01:22:58):
anybody that had previouslywent to mtv.
They're like, have fun withthe traffic.
Yeah.
And they were.
They weren't kidding.
As soon as I saw a sign thatsaid Orlando, we stopped.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, in, like.
So next year, when it goesback to the Rosen, it'll be.
It'll be just as bad becausethe Rosen is over on I Drive, and

(01:23:21):
that's, like an.
The huge tourist area.
So that's, like, where all themain hotels are.
And an I Drive is kind of like.
Like, right across fromUniversal Studios.
It's got, you know, all thelittle souvenir shops and.
And restaurants and.

(01:23:42):
And clubs and bars and everything.
So when it gets down there, it's.
It's even.
Oh, and then the conventioncenter is down there.
And of course, it's Orlando,so there's always a convention going
on.
So.
Everybody seems excited thatit's moving back to the old location.
Yeah.
The Rosen, was it a better.
Better facility or just moreto do an area?

(01:24:05):
So I think what most peoplelike about it is because it is on
I Drive, so there's more.
There's more hotels.
So, like, you.
You know, the Rosen is.
Is kind of like the Gaylord,you know, it's.
It's a kind of expensiveresort, you know?
Yeah.
And so a lot of people willbook one of the hotels down the street

(01:24:27):
because it's, you know, it'swalking distance or it's a quick
Uber Uber ride or whatever.
And then.
And then.
And then there are morerestaurants that you can go to.
You know, like, at theGaylord, it was just like, what was
it?
The.
The breakers, little sportsbar kind of kind of thing.

(01:24:49):
There was, like, that fancyhouse, and then.
And then, like, the cafeteriawas all they really had.
So at least at the Rosen,there's, like, the Rose, and actually
inside has, like, three orfour restaurants that are pretty
nice or pretty decent, like amixture of foods, like, like, you

(01:25:13):
know, burgers and bar food.
There's, like, a taco place.
There's a nice steakhouse kindof thing or whatever.
But on I drive, there's, youknow, a handful or more restaurants.
You know, a Friday is aChili's, a McDonald's, a, you know,
pizza place of this place, ofthat place, you know, so there's

(01:25:35):
more variety closer to.
So that's, that's what I thinkeverybody likes about the Rosen better
than the Gaylord.
Was that there, there is moreto do around the Rose and.
Than at the Gaylord.
So was it only at the Gaylordfor the last two years?

(01:25:55):
So it was at the Gaylord three years.
Okay.
I believe.
And then.
Or no, no, I'm sorry.
Yeah, yeah, the gate.
Yeah, the Gaylord.
I'm sorry, the Gaylord was thelast two years.
It was at the Rose in like thethree years before that or four years
before that.
But I think, I can't rememberexactly when I, when I was talking

(01:26:18):
with Sheldon.
I think there was a schedulingconflict at the Rosen.
So he had to book the Gaylord,but in booking the Gaylord, he had
to book it like two years in arow or something like that.
And then he was able to get itback to the, to the Rosen.
So I think, I think we're atthe Rosen for the next two years.
And then he said at that pointhe's gonna have to make a call to

(01:26:44):
where maybe they actually moveto the convention center.
Because MTE is growing so much.
It's probably going to outgrowthe Rosen in, in a couple of years,
which would be cool to see itgo to the convention center and,
and be in a bigger place and,and, you know, bigger area and bigger

(01:27:06):
everything.
But I, I like it when it'seither at the Rosen or at the Gaylord
because then everybody's rightthere, right?
Like everybody hangs out afterwards.
It's at the hotel.
Like, they go to the bars,they go to the restaurants or whatever.
Like, that's the one thing Ialways say is really cool about MTE
compared to sema, because,like, you go to SEMA and you're on,

(01:27:28):
you know, you walk the floorall day long, you talk to everybody.
But then, like, you know, it'sat the convention center.
So then when it's done, youknow, everybody goes back to their
different hotels and then youkind of like lose everybody, you
know, Whereas, yeah, at theroad, when MT's at the Rosen or MT's
at the Gaylord, like, like, you.

(01:27:49):
Know, everybody's still there afterwards.
75 to 80 of the people arestaying there.
And if they're not stayingthere, like, there's so much going
on on there that everybodystays until, you know, nine or ten
o' clock before everybody goeshome or go or goes back to their
hotels or whatever.
I just like that it's, youknow, everybody in one place for

(01:28:10):
the whole weekend and.
And it's easier to talk topeople and hang out.
Network and everything, so.
So I don't know.
I'm kind of.
I would.
I would be excited for it togrow big enough to be in the convention
center for, but then it's kindof like you.
You might lose that.
That, you know, this of it, so.
Yeah, so we'll see, man.

(01:28:31):
You know, Sheldon said it'll.
It'll at least be two yearsbefore he has to make that decision.
And, like.
Like we talked about earlier.
Right.
Like, who knows what we'll allbe doing.
Right?
Y.
I mean, that's.
That's just it.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, part of meis kind of hoping maybe I'm not detailing
anymore in two years.
You know, I mean, maybe I'mstill with Aquatech or a business,

(01:28:54):
like, in the industry, or who knows?
Maybe I'm out completely anddoing something different and.
Right.
You never know.
Yeah.
I don't care where MTE is orSEMA is or.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So be out on your boat.
Be out on your boat drivingthe sunset somewhere instead.

(01:29:15):
So.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
It'll be interesting to see.
It's.
It's fun.
I mean, you know, it was.
It was cool.
You.
You had a good time.
I think it.
At least it seemed like.
Yeah, it was.
It was the first.
I didn't even.
I didn't even know about mte.
The Round Table.
The Round Table was getting a house.
Yeah.
For.
For it in Orlando, and that'sright around the time we usually

(01:29:38):
wanted to get out of Michigan.
So I was like, well, let's gostay with them for the weekend.
And then I found out moreabout what MTE was, and then.
Cool.
We're doing that and all that.
And then got nominated forboat detailer of the year.
And then the paint competition.
It's like all that just rolled in.

(01:29:59):
When.
Whenever the dates were announced.
I'm assuming that's when theRoundtable said they were getting
a house.
Probably October.
No, no, no, no.
I was down in Orange beach, sothat was September.
Yeah.
No.
Could.
No clue about mt, but beforejust over a year ago, I didn't know

(01:30:20):
this whole other world existedout there.
It's always just been our.
Yeah.
Sema.
The IDA Roundtable training events.
Yeah.
I had no clue.
None of any of that stuff went on.
Yeah.
Yeah, go ahead.
No, I was gonna say.
So like, how has that changedyour, like, your vision or your knowledge

(01:30:46):
or whatever of.
Of the industry?
Like, you know, having, like,realizing, like, hey, there are all
these other things out there.
The biggest thing has been the networking.
It's.
It's helped out.
I've a lot of collaborationgoing on around here.
I.
Everybody sees me and Timmy on Facebook.

(01:31:08):
He comes up and does a lot ofboats with me.
But there's even just.
Just from that exposure andthen me putting myself out, there's
more local ones where we'regetting a little.
We just had a.
I didn't put it on, but one ofthe younger guys around here, we've
talked and he's coming to theshop, but he hit me up right before

(01:31:29):
we went to Houston.
He's like, next Thursday,dinner here.
A couple detailers ended upbeing seven of us last night, so
it's nice to see it.
Yeah, I don't know what happened.
Everybody used to come to mefor advice and stuff on boats until
I opened the shop.
And it's like I became enemynumber one once I opened place.

(01:31:50):
I don't know what happened.
Became.
You became competition.
I guess enemy is to become competition.
But if.
If you did a Google satelliteof this area, there's literally one
marina.
Could put all of the boatdetailers in that one marina, and

(01:32:11):
we still wouldn't have to compete.
There are that many boatsaround here.
There's no reason.
Yeah, yeah.
It's ridiculous the amount ofboats, but this is what it is.
I.
I don't know.
I.
I got over it as quick as I could.
It sucked.
I mean, there were a coupletimes last year, you.
You see three differentcompany vans all grouped together

(01:32:32):
over in this corner at themarina, and they're all looking over
at me, and it's like, Jesus,what are they saying?
I felt attacked.
But, you know, a lot of peoplesend me that whole.
People get like that becausethey're jealous of what you got.
So.
Yeah, I just.
I just rolled with the punches then.
It's turning around now.
Yeah, but it's the same withthe cars, dude.
There are so many cars on theroad, everybody could eat.

(01:32:58):
And that's.
That's the thing that I don'tget is.
Is, you know, all thesedetailers are just trying to get
work so they'll undercut jobs.
Like, they'll.
They'll.
They'll, you know, oh, thatguy's doing it for that much.
Well, I'll do it for this muchto earn your business or whatever.
And it's like, if everybodyjust charged the same price, you
know, like, we'd all.

(01:33:19):
We'd all have the same amountof work, you know, Right.
I mean like when you go to buya tv, you know, whether you go to
Walmart or you go to Target oryou go to Best Buy, like the TV is
the same price, you know,like, yeah, I mean you might get
like the, the dollar days atWalmart or something where it's a
little bit cheaper, but it'snot like, you know, drastically cheaper.

(01:33:41):
And that's, and that's the,that's the thing I don't get is,
you know, you know,everybody's always like, oh, there's
plenty of cars for everybodyto eat.
But then everybody'sundercharging because, because they
want, they want all the work.
You know, I mean, dude, I, I,I've said it before and I'll say
it again and I'll continue tosay it.
Like, I mean, when I left thecar wash, you know, and we were doing

(01:34:02):
full service at the time, it'sdifferent now because not a lot of
car washes are doing full service.
But you know, I mean like aslow day for us would be 350, 400
cars, you know, and I'm like,dude, just, just give me one day
cars from the car wash for mywhole year.
Right.
Like, I probably, I probablywouldn't even be able to do that

(01:34:23):
many because I don't work.
Yeah.
Every day, you know.
So like, you know, even if yougave me half, just give me 150, 200
of those cars for my whole year.
Right.
You know, now, hey, detailernext door to me, you take tomorrow's
cars, you take the Wednesday'scars, you take Thursday's car.
You know, I mean there's,there's so many, you know, like that's

(01:34:45):
the way I look at it is like,man, just, just give me the cars
that are going to the car wash.
Like I'd be set for the wholeyear off of one day's worth of, of
stuff.
So I mean, if there's not manycars out there and the car washes
are doing that and we're doingit and they're doing it and he's
doing it and she's doing itlike, you know, stop undercutting,
just everybody charge the sameprice and we'll all make money and

(01:35:06):
we'll all be a lot happier.
And yeah, I, I think there should.
Be like an industry agreed pricing.
Oh, they're absolutely.
That, that would be amazing.
Yeah, yeah.
Especially like with boats,there should be like no more or no
less than this per foot.

(01:35:26):
You know what I mean?
There should be just some kindof guideline out there.
The same with cars.
Well, I think, I think the, Ithink the biggest thing is, I mean,
we've talked about it a bunchbefore is, is, you know, and it's,
it's been talked about a lotin the industry too, is that there's
just a low bar of entry.
Right.
Like, there's no, there's no qualifications.

(01:35:47):
There's no, you know, youdon't have.
It's, it's the long cutters ofthe, the working world.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, I mean, you look at alot of other, A lot of other, Other
industries and you have to,you know, not only go to a training,
but you have to put in certainamount of time before you can whatever,
you know, plumbers,electricians, you know.

(01:36:09):
Right.
Contractors, like, on and onand on, you know, and it's like.
But, you know, here, here we are.
You can go to Walmart tomorrowand buy a, you know.
Yeah.
The other guys, as my buddyGreg Masterson says, the other guy's
bucket of, you know, wash andtire shine and window cleaner and,
and a towel and whatever, andyou can, you know, start a business

(01:36:32):
and say you're a dude.
Yeah.
Yep.
I know.
I.
I see it every year withshrink wrap and.
And then in the spring, theygo and work for somebody for a couple
months in the summer.
And then next, next year, yousee them, they're out there out of
the trunk of their car.
They're boat detailers now.
Yeah, it happens every year.

(01:36:53):
And then they're the ones thatare, you know, two, $300.
Yeah, well, so, and so's doing it.
Well, you know, call me in twoweeks when the boats faded back.
Yeah, yeah, it's gonna happen.
Yeah.
Listen.
Yeah.
I'm gonna put all the boatdetailers at ease here.
Like, you don't have to worryabout me.
I'm not.

(01:37:16):
I was hoping when you gottired of that Florida heat, you come
up here, you said the weathersounds nice.
I got a couple boats you canwork on.
I'll take you out on it atleast afterwards.
Listen, it doesn't like that.
It doesn't.
The weather doesn't sound that nice.
Okay.
Okay.
No sharks in the water.
Yeah, no sharks.

(01:37:38):
No alligators.
Right?
Like.
No, no.
That'S the thing.
Yeah.
No, I love, though, I lovehearing people that say stuff like
that because I honestly, Icouldn't picture doing anything else.
I don't know how to do.
Do anything else.
So it makes me feel good thatat least I'm not as nutty as I thought

(01:37:58):
I was at Least it's, it's askill other people don't want to
do.
Listen, and I at least found something.
Yeah, I mean, listen, like Isaid earlier on, right, I mean, if
somebody calls me, like, I, Ireally don't want to turn down the
work if it's good money, butat the same time, like, you know,
I, I said earlier it, Boatswon't fit in my shop, so if I'm doing

(01:38:20):
it, I have to do it outside.
And I, I.
It's got to be really goodmoney for me to be, you know, Florida
heat, you know, outside the shop.
I mean, not that the shop'sthat much cooler, but, you know,
still.
So.
Yeah, you know, like, I just,it's just not my thing, so I don't,
I don't advertise for it, so Idon't get a lot.
Usually the only times I getcalls for it is, like, for my customers

(01:38:43):
that I'm doing their cars, right?
And they're like, hey, like,you know.
That'S where I get my cars from.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're like, yeah.
So I'm like, I mean, like,what do you.
What are you trying to do?
You know?
Like, I mean, how crazy are wetrying to get here?
You know?
So, like, yeah, the last, thelast one I did was last year.

(01:39:06):
Yeah, it was.
It was probably a year ago or whatever.
And it, and it wasn't too bad.
It was a 26 foot, like, skiboat, wakeboarding boat, whatever
you want to call them these days.
And it's a good size.
Yeah.
Not too much.
No, it wasn't too bad.
I mean, I had a little bit offade to it, but it wasn't, it wasn't

(01:39:29):
terrible.
And it's one of my real good clients.
So he's like, look, dude.
He's like, we clean the inside.
So, like, I just need theoutside buffed.
And he goes, you know, nothing crazy.
Just put a good sealant on itor whatever.
So it was.
It was a few months after Ihad Ken on the podcast from Stark.

(01:39:51):
So I reached out to Ken.
I was like, hey, man, like, Igot this boat coming in.
Like, you know, is there anyway, like, you know, you'd send me
some samples?
Like, you know, like, I don'twant to buy boat compound because
I'm not going to use it.
Like, send me some samples.
He's like, oh, dude.
He's like, I'll send you morethan samples.
Like, I.
I'll just send you some stuffor whatever, you know, like, hit
it up.

(01:40:11):
And I was like, oh, that's cool.
If you, if you send it to me,like, I'll take a bunch of pictures,
a bunch of videos.
I'll put it on the podcast, Instagram.
I'll tag you guys in it.
Like, I'll give you, you know,I'll show you some love or whatever.
And he's like, yeah, man, absolutely.
So, like, it was really coolbecause, like, he sent me.
He sent me their cut.
I don't remember the name of it.
Something R, I think.

(01:40:33):
Level R.
Yeah, level R.
And then he sent me the polish.
And then he sent me their,their spray wax, which.
That, that was legit, no joke.
The hydro.
Yeah, yeah, that stuff.
Yeah, that stuff's no joke.
Yeah.
And then he sent me a coupleof their pads to try out.
And it was cool because he waslike, hey, call me if you have any

(01:40:54):
questions or whatever.
And, you know, I was like, allright, you know?
And he's like, make sure youuse a rotary.
And I'm like.
I was like, dude, all I gotsaid rotary, you know.
He's like, ah, it doesn't haveenough ass end in it, you know.
He's like, you need to go getyou at the wall.
Yeah, like, bro, like, I mean,like, you know, I mean, I, I feel
like I, I was charging good money.
I, I, I charged a guy like,1200 bucks to do it, which Rashid

(01:41:18):
was the one that told me to,to how much per foot, to quote.
So I was charging him 1200 bucks.
But I'm like, dude, I'm notgoing to go out and buy a $300 rotary
for this one, this one thing,you know, Like, I was like, I, the,
the rupes has got to work.
And he's like, well, just.
He's like, do me a favor then.
And I was like, what?
He goes, don't use any ofthose, you know, he goes, don't use

(01:41:42):
any of the rupes wool pads.
He goes, go out and get you abig boy, you know, wool pad, you
know, the 7 inch, 8 inches orwhatever, right?
He's like, at least cut itwith that.
And I was like, oh, okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
No, you know, I could do that.
So my, my buddy is Simonizedrep down here, and, and his, his

(01:42:03):
warehouse space is right inthe, in the building next to mine.
So he comes rolling up, and Iwas like, hey, man, you got wool
pads?
He's like, hell, yeah, I gotwool pads.
He's like, what do you needone for?
You don't do any of that.
I was like, I got that boatdown There, I got a rotary.
Give me a wool pad.
He's like, all right, here you go.
So I got a wool pad off of him and.
And went to it, man.
And yeah, I mean, it was.

(01:42:25):
Listen, it was one of thosethings, like it was fun to do once
last year.
That's.
Yeah, yeah.
That's why it was last year.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And again, I.
I would imagine it's probablylike anything else.
The more you do it, the moreyou get used to it, the easier, like,

(01:42:47):
you start figuring things out.
Like, okay, like, I can cut.
I can cut time here.
I can be a more efficient.
This.
I can do that, you know, and it's.
It.
So.
Yeah.
You know, you just have to getout there and do it.
I guess so.
Yeah.
And that's what I've always done.
And when I got into it, therewas nobody training you how to do
it.
So nowadays, like at any ofthe trainings or even events, people.

(01:43:13):
I'm not, I'm not the train.
I don't know how to get it out.
My friends process.
It's just, it's.
It's muscle memory now.
I have a very hard timeexplaining how I do it.
Just watch and I'll try.
Yeah.
I don't know how to explainit, but it's been so long since I've
done just.
It just was self learned andit's in here.

(01:43:33):
I don't know how to teach it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's how I am.
That's why, like, I don't wantto do trainings.
Like, a couple of people haveasked me.
I was like, bro, like, I don't.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, like, I just do it,you know, like, right.
I.
I tried that with Nicole.
Yeah.
You know, but.
Yeah, I can show you.

(01:43:54):
Yeah.
I don't know how to say, like,you know, it's this much arm pressure.
It's this much whatever.
I mean, like, you know, thank you.
I've been enough to.
To Noxy's trainings and like,the way that he explains everything,
I'm like, okay, I get it.
But there's no way I couldtell you how I do it, you know?
Like when I see Rashid or Rainwhen they do it, it's like, yeah,

(01:44:18):
I get what you're telling.
I don't know how to do it.
Yeah.
I push this hard one onethrough five.
I'm pushing three.
Just go up and down and backand forth a couple times.
Like, whatever, you know.
Oh, God, you sound exactlylike me.
Training somebody.
I'm not gonna just do thatthree times.
Yeah.
The scratches gone.
Yeah.
All right.
You did, you know, y.

(01:44:39):
You get us.
Oh, there's probably a couplepeople watching this right now, laughing.
They're like, that's exactlyhow he taught me, and I didn't learn.
Yeah, that's.
That's been My hardest thingis, Is, you know, with the.
With the move to.
To Aquatech, is, you know,trying to be.

(01:45:02):
Trying to, like.
I know how the works.
I know how to put a coating on.
I know what to look for.
I know, like, because I.
Because I experience it.
Right?
But it's like, trying to golike, okay, so here's.
Here's what you're gonna do.
Here's how you're gonna look,you know, like, that's where I'm
trying to, like, figure myselfout, because that is something that
I have to not necessarilytrain people on, because we don't.

(01:45:26):
We don't really do, like, atraining, you know, to get certified
kind of thing.
But, like, I.
I do realize I have to be ableto tell people, like, okay, this
is.
This is how you need to.
You know, how much you need toapply on the applicator.
This is how you need to do it.
This is what you need to lookfor in the flash.
You know, this is wipe off, whatever.

(01:45:46):
So I'm.
I've tried to start gettingbetter with that, but I feel like
codings are a little biteasier to explain than.
Than polishing, because a.
No.
No paint.
No two paints are alike, you know?
You know, it could be heavilyswirled and scratched and tore up,
or it could be really light.
You know, you don't need to goheavy with it.

(01:46:09):
You know, it's.
You know, it's so hard to,like, you know.
Right.
And when I look at it, I know.
Or my fingernail will tell me.
I can't tell you how I do.
Just knew that, you know, it's.
I don't know how to explain it.
That's.
That's.
I.
I try and pay attention whenI'm at any training or event like

(01:46:29):
that to see how they do it.
So.
Because I'm having a problemwith help trying to train help in
here.
Okay.
It's not even about.
For classes and actuallytraining people.
It's to train people to that.
Work with me.
Yeah.
To work with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think Nicole divorced metwice this spring trying to explain

(01:46:53):
it.
Yeah, man.
So it's difficult.
I.
I never.
Nobody ever told me how to doit, so I don't have, like, that Base.
Like, here's how you canexplain it.
I.
I'm one of them ones.
Like, you should.
I assume you should know thispart, you know, I can't.
Yeah.
I feel like that's a lot of it is.

(01:47:14):
Is you just gotta try it.
Yeah.
You gotta.
Yeah.
Pick a pad.
Pick a.
Pick a compound and do a test.
I mean, that's.
That's the whole reason why wehave test spots, you know?
Yeah.
Did it work?
No.
Okay.
Does it need a more aggressivepad, A least aggressive pad?
Or does it need a moreaggressive compound?
Or a least aggressive compound?

(01:47:35):
Like, you know, once you.
That's the part I can help you with.
With.
Yeah.
I could tell you, but I can'tteach you.
I can tell you to go this wayand that way, but you got to kind
of figure it out.
So it went by.
I mean, all the work got done,so it happened.
But I.
I know it wasn't very smooth.

(01:47:58):
At the end of the day, as longas the work got done in the cat and
the checks got cash, likeeverything else can be, you know,
a spaghetti, hopefully.
Right.
Like, there's no.
Sometimes there's no straightlines to getting it done, but as
long as you got.
As long as you got there isall that matters.
Yep.
Yeah.
Yep.

(01:48:19):
I'm happy with that.
It's.
I don't.
I don't know.
I think you're an hour behindme, but it's.
No.
We're the same time, are we?
Okay.
Yeah.
9:44, quarter to 10.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that tells you how much Iknow about my time zones in the country.
Yeah.
I mean, listen, man, I'mhaving an awesome time talking with

(01:48:39):
you.
I don't want to cut thisshort, but I got just to get up early
tomorrow and go do some work.
I got.
I got the sanding done and allthat, so now it's time to pick up
the wheel and start compounding.
So you're gonna work, too?
How late you gonna stay?
Who knows?
Who knows?

(01:48:59):
That's the joys of having myown shop.
Yeah.
That's why I got all the discolights in here.
Get bored.
What are you seeing?
Come on.
I end up in a pirate outfit,wearing a life jacket.
Sometimes the fumes get to youin this place.
Sometimes I gotta entertain myself.
The dog falls asleep and theentertainment's gone.

(01:49:20):
I don't know.
That drunk girl knocking onthe door for the bathroom might still
be out there.
There you go.
Friday night, man.
Never know what's going on outside.
Exactly.
Listen, dude, if.
If anybody wants to you know,learn more about you or, or maybe
hit you up and pick your brainabout marine detailing or something
like that.
Like where, where can peopleget a hold of you at.

(01:49:43):
On socials or.
Yeah, social, I'm, I'm on them all.
Tick tock, Instagram,Facebook, I don't have website or
none.
So Mike's Marine Care at Gmail.
But Facebook, that is usuallyhow most people get a hold of me
through messenger and stuff orthey just text me.
Yeah, gotcha.

(01:50:04):
Listen, dude, this has been ablast, man.
Thanks for, thanks, thanks forvolunteering to, to no problem.
Put yourself on the side.
I follow, I follow your show,so thanks.
Yeah, I knew it wasn't goingto be 100 all work and polish and
compounds, you know, I knewit'd be a good, real chat and I needed

(01:50:24):
that.
No, I, I, you know, I, I, Irealized last year that it just needed
to be conversation.
It, yeah, it doesn't always happen.
It's, it's the break we need.
It's the break we need.
Yeah, it's nice filling it inwith a little bit about the.
But you know, and that's whenit's 24 7, man, it just gets too

(01:50:45):
much.
Right?
And the whole, the wholepurpose, the whole reason I started
this podcast years ago was,was to get to know other detailers,
you know, And I just for thefirst three and a half, four years
or whatever, I just kind ofwent about it wrong.
I was asking detailers aboutdetailing instead of just talking
to detailers, you know.

(01:51:05):
So like, yeah, you know, Imade that change, change and just
made it conversation and wetalk about detailing.
Great.
If we don't talk aboutdetailing, even better.
You know, it's, it's just the,the best way to learn about people
is just to have a conversationwith them.
And, and that's, that's,that's what I enjoy the most.

(01:51:26):
So, I mean it was, it wasgreat because I, I know you and I
have talked a little bit, youknow, here and there, but not, not
a whole lot.
And so this man.
So I, I, I, I reallyappreciate this.
It was, it was a blast to talkto you and you know, get a little,
get a little deep about ourparents a little bit, you know, and
it's something I, I haven'ttalked about a lot.

(01:51:46):
So I mean, that was, that was interesting.
I, you know, didn't cry.
So that's a good thing becauseI thought I was going to start talking.
Like when you said that, whenyou said that, I was like, oh brother.
Because I'm not gonna lie.
There's been a lot of tearsthe last two, three weeks around
here.
Hell, even before, when mysister picked us up to go to the

(01:52:08):
airport for Houston, I was intears because just.
It was non stop.
It was a mess up to that.
The real id.
I thought I might be drivingthere because mine didn't come in
time.
It came.
It came the day before.
Okay.
It was sitting on my keyboardin the envelope.
Somebody called me.
I thought regarding Houston.

(01:52:28):
It wasn't.
Girlfriend was leaving orwhatever, but I opened it while I'm
packing and everything.
Cool.
I got my new id.
An hour and a half later, sheshows up and it's gone.
It's like.
That's what I mean.
That's how that week was allthe way down to the wire.
That's why I said I should notbe getting on this plane.
Yeah.

(01:52:50):
So.
All right, Alex, I appreciateit, man.
Thank you.
Yeah, man.
No, no, it was a blast, dude.
It was great.
I look forward to, you know,seeing you in more places and talking
to you more and, you know, don't.
Don't stay too late working onthat boat, man.
Go home and get some rest.
No, no, I.
I got the dog.
See, the dog.
The dog was my excuse to get sober.

(01:53:10):
She's my excuse to go homebecause she ran out of food here.
We gotta go home and get foodfor her.
So maybe another hour.
I'll make it.
I'll make it right early.
There you go.
All right, buddy.
Thanks for giving me thebreak, though.
Thanks for giving me a break.
This is perfect timing.
It was a blast, dude.
You have a great.
Take care.
You too.
Enjoy your weekend.

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