June 24, 2025 • 50 mins
Fernando Melo shares his incredible journey from Brazilian immigrant to successful business owner with M&M Home Exteriors, providing roofing, siding, gutters, windows, doors, painting and deck services throughout Atlanta.
• Fernando's dream to visit America and Disney World as a child led to his immigration in 2000
• Started with zero English skills, sleeping on a stranger's couch while attending ESL classes
• Discovered natural talent for exterior construction work, particularly siding installation
• Founded his first business just five years after arriving in America
• Survived the 2008 housing crisis by downsizing from four crews to just himself and a helper
• Expanded into M&M Home Exteriors in 2015, now running multiple specialized crews
• Customer service philosophy influenced by Disney's approach to creating experiences
• Values treating crews with respect and refuses to work with clients who disrespect his team
• Balances business ambitions with family time, building a legacy for his two young sons
• Emphasizes quality workmanship and taking pride in transforming homes
Visit sidingatlanta.com or search M&M Home Exteriors on social media platforms to learn more about Fernando's services.
#siding#love#atlanta#fernandomelo#M&Mhomeexteriors#disney#brazil#america#ESL#deck#exterior#home
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So before you get into the business, I got to ask
you've got kids right?
I do.
Have you taken them to Disney?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I have.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
And what was that like?
Being a kid growing up inBrazil and just dreaming about
that and then actually takingyour kids?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
to Disney.
It's fascinating, it's you know.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Was it everything you thought it'd be?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It was.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It was, it was, I agree.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You know the train, the futuristic.
You know we grew up withAmerican cartoons in Brazil,
right, and so all the you knowLulitoons and things like that.
So we had a little bit of theculture.
You know, I had a little bit ofa culture growing up and I was
just so proud, you know, soproud and amazed how you know
(00:45):
they can build such a structure.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
And it's just for fun , it's just for dreamers, just
for kids.
Welcome to the Small BusinessSafari, where I help guide you
to avoid those traps, pitfallsand dangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
(01:13):
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
Born in the usa, alan, what thehell am I doing?
(01:36):
You are such an ass I am.
I'll tell you what you know.
I thought you were gonna saybonjourno, huh I.
I got my only other word I doin portuguese.
I actually screwed that up, asI found out earlier.
Yeah, you did.
We got a great guest todaybecause I will tell you what's
going on right now is in theworld, here, and especially in
the us.
It's all about protectionismand the borders and where we're
all.
And you know, if you listen tothe media, you get all angsty
and you're like oh right, yeah,we don't want other people
(01:58):
coming to our country.
And you know what?
Back that.
Truck up, brother.
I wait a minute.
You guys don't get caught up inall this media bullshit.
You know what?
Because I've said this over andover again.
You guys have heard me say this.
You know who has built all thehomes since the US has been
started.
We are all from another country.
We're all from another country.
My brothers and my sisters, weall are, and I would tell you.
(02:20):
This is why I think today'sguest is incredible for me,
because I got to meet Fernandoand when you listen to his story
, he is the immigration successstory in today's world and I
just sat there and went.
You know, this is the story weshould be talking about.
Yeah, we want people in ourcountry.
We need people in our countrybecause, guess who was building
(02:42):
all these homes?
Man, they're immigrants.
I mean, all of us were buildinghomes in the italians when we
came over.
We were building homes.
Why do you think I got into thebuilding business?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I thought you were in the import export business.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Well, olive oil I was not, I was, um, I was in the
vegetable distribution business,but that's a different story.
Um, let's just say, we, we, webranched out a little bit from
the building.
Uh, we found it.
Uh, that moving product was alittle bit easier.
Uh, those are vegetables, bythe way, vegetables from miami
to new york but we won't talkabout where where they came from
(03:14):
I don't know that's right,that's a different side of the
family la lomia trucking, it waswhat it was called, by the way.
Uh, so we have fernando mellowhere.
Uh, m and m home exiors.
But this is a great story, guys, because I got a chance to meet
Fernando and we started talkingand then I heard his story and
I was like you know, we don'tget to hear this story right now
(03:35):
, especially in this America.
You know, make America greatagain means oh, we don't want
anybody here.
I think that's how some peopleare taking it.
I think, god, you're missing.
You're missing who's yourneighbor.
You're missing who yourgrandparents were, maybe your
great grandparents.
You're missing the part of thisand you're getting so focused
on the bad people.
You forgot about the greatpeople who are here.
And Fernando is here and he isthat great success story.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And not only that he's here in person and he
brought us a gift, and the giftwas a bottle of a very special
rum that his brother made.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That's correct.
It's called.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Cachaça.
And so, Fernando, we'll getinto your business in a minute,
but what does your brother do,and what has he made?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So my brother owns a chain of restaurants, brazilian
steakhouses, and, um and um, thebrand that I brought to you,
the, is his own brand.
They come up with the, with thelogo and all of that, and it's
uh, it's the most popular drinkin brazil.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It's the cachaca, it's basically rum made from
sugar cane, and uh is uh, it'svery delicious it is delicious
and it's it's different, likewhen he said rum, you know,
certain captain morgan's comesto mind.
Right, and this was verysophisticated very sophisticated
.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
In fact, it blew us away in our palate and when we
we tasted it.
Guys, I'm telling you go try itout.
I you can't find it here in theStates, is that right?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
There's imports, you can probably find.
Well, if you know a guy.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, if you know a guy.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
If you know the guy that transports.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So we can.
Actually, I consider that avegetable.
So, yes, we can do that,because that will go with the
other vegetables that wetransport here in the La Llamia
trucking business, that wetransport here in the La Llamia
trucking business.
But we don't do that, Fernando.
So I teased the story a littlebit.
But let's talk a little bitabout what your business is
today, and then we're going tobacktrack on how you got there.
So what do you guys do todayhere in Atlanta?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, first of all, happy to be here.
Thanks for the invite.
I really appreciate theinvitation and just happy to be
here.
So a little bit of the story.
We're a home improvementcompany.
We provide exterior homeservices siding, roofing,
gutters, windows, doors,painting, decks, roofs.
(05:54):
Did I miss anything?
All exteriors under one roof,under one umbrella, under one
contractor, and we've been inbusiness for a little over.
We're getting to 20 years nowhow about that?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
and?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
uh, with mellow construction, which is my first
company, and uh, we also providethe same services in the
multi-family world.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
A little bit more commercial side, if you will
yeah, so he's built an empire,alan, protecting the homes,
building the homes.
But I want to go back to thebeginning.
So, uh, fernando is, if youhaven't figured it out, uh has
an accent.
Uh, and it's not canadian, uh,and it's not midwest and it's
not oregon, uh and uh, itdefinitely ain't my southern
(06:39):
bullshit accent.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And the worst southern accent.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Thank you right so you're, you're from, you're from
brazil originally originallyfrom brazil, born and raised, uh
moved to the us.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
In the year 2000 uh went to kennesaw, attended um
esl classes there and uh fromthere just uh hustle, you know
with jobs.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
So why did you make the move?
I mean mean that's, that's abig move.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Big move, right.
I always wanted to come toAmerica, you know, since as a
kid- I had never visited before.
Always wanted to come and visitand go to Disney, right as a
kid.
I dreamed to go to Disney worldRight, and I had the chance to,
you know, to come and, you know,didn't plan to stay, wanted to
(07:28):
stay for a few months a yearmaybe, and, you know, end up
just falling in love with thecountry you know and really
identify myself with a lot ofthe things in the country.
So, uh and uh stayed in and,you know, start to to work in in
(07:49):
, you know, flipping burgers,painting houses, working in uh
well shops, so why atlanta?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I mean, did you have family here?
How did you know?
You said you'd never been herebefore I didn't have a
connection.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
A family I I knew knew a friend who had some
friends here, who I wasintroduced.
I said well, you can stay withthem while you go to school and
hang out and get a job, pay foryour stay.
And so I didn't know thesepeople, so I slept on their
couch for a few months and, as aknow, as a roommate, sleeping
(08:24):
on the couch and it didn't, youknow, didn't really fit.
So I had to move on, get anapartment and start working side
jobs and to pay for before youget into the business I gotta
ask you've got kids right?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I do.
Have you taken them to disney?
I have and what was that like?
Being a kid growing up inbrazil and just dreaming about
that and then actually takingyour kids?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
it's, it's fascinating, it's it's you know
was it everything you thoughtit'd be?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
it was it was, it was , it was you know the, the train
, the futuristic.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You know we grew up with american cartoons in brazil
, right and so all the you knowl.
We grew up with Americancartoons in Brazil, right and so
all the.
You know Lulitoons and thingslike that.
So we had a little bit of theculture.
You know, I had a little bit ofa culture growing up and I was
just so proud, you know, soproud and amazed how you know
they can build such a structureand it's just for fun, it's just
(09:23):
for dreamers, just for kids,you know.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, I think the uh, the Disney thing and I don't
know if we've talked about that,but so I didn't know that he
had would tie it into that.
But, uh, you know, that's onethat even in my business world
I'll never forget, uh, thatDisney uh has so many elements
to it.
Now they actually have thedisney institute to tell people
(09:51):
how to train people and how toget your, your team, to deliver
a great customer service,because that's what they're
about, right?
Um, and I'll never forget whenI had a, a consulting team, uh,
when I first got started, wasone of my first teams.
They were all younger than meand it was a team of three and I
said one of the things we'll dofor team building is every
Monday when we get together isthat you have to present
something that will help therest of the team build their
business acumen.
And so one of the ladies hadbeen an intern at Disney and she
(10:13):
came back and all of us gotDream Believe Do the book from
Disney.
All of them get that when theywent to intern at the time.
This is back in the 90s.
Turn at the time.
This is back in the 90s.
And she, she took us throughthe program about how she was
trained on how to dream, believeand do, delivering customer
service in the most excellentdisney way.
And I would tell you from thereon out, I was like, wow, I can't
(10:34):
wait to go back now.
Um, now that I'm older and I'vetaken my kids there, I'm like,
yeah, I'm good with that.
I mean, I love disney, I loveeverything it's about.
When it comes to the park andthe experience, um, it's just
all those people that are there.
If they were on out there, I'dbe so much happier.
It's all the other.
It's all the other, all theother guests coming.
I'm not really excited aboutyou, you just need to rent out
(10:55):
disney I need to.
You know what I think you're abig baller.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You're not a big baller until you can rent out
disney all right, I got a newgoal.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I'm'm going to be renting out Disney.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
And you're right about that.
The experience that we had withmy kid and we're getting a
piece of cake and a couplepastries and just the way that
they treat and went back andwent around and treat my kid
like special, you know that'sthe cost of that care.
It's key.
You know the experience.
(11:23):
What's that?
That cost-perceptive that care?
It's key.
You know the experience, whatthey call right, that just the
experiences is.
It's what makes Disneydifferent.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So you got to experience and I think that is
amazing.
You know, I did the cruise toowith the kids.
I'll never forget that and Iloved it so much that I said
later on I was like we're goingto do that.
And then I looked at the priceand I went, no, we, we're going
to do that.
And then I looked at the priceand I went, no, we'll go on two
Royal Caribbean cruises and I'llbuy a Mickey mouse, but we're
not going back.
But it was so cool.
I just again.
(11:53):
You know I'm not, we're notgetting into politics and all
the other stuff that's going onthere.
When you go there with a family, they do it right.
And if you ever go into anotherone, another park and not
putting them down, it just notthe same.
It isn't now these guys have itdown, but it's all about, you
know, and it comes back.
Even in engineering, right,they call them imagineers, right
.
So I know engineers who havegone down there to work and they
won't leave for big bucks.
(12:15):
They could left and gone tonasa and they're like they
stayed because they just lovethe environment they worked in
so much.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I mean, if you think about it just from a business
perspective, how disney can havesuch a strong culture that I
mean, how many thousands ofemployees must they have?
And it's people who are takingout the trash, and people
serving you food and getting youon the rides, and then the you
know all the character actorsand stuff and they all have that
same vibe they do.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
They and she talked about that and I've had to
reinforce.
In fact, my general managermoved here from Orlando to take
this position to work with mehere at the Trusted Toolbox, and
he had a Disney pass and he hasa Disney file and he'll talk
about the experience.
There is just second to noneand the way that they treat you
and the way that they do serve,because he picked up a lot of
service habits that hetranslates into our own business
(13:05):
, uh, which you can tellfernando has as well, and that's
why we'll get into his businessand why it's been so successful
.
It's just those little thingsmake the big difference we did
digress a little bit, didn't we?
no, but, but it, but it all tiesback into business yeah, it
does go check it out, dream,believe, do uh again.
It's not a political thing.
And if you want to get on thatbed, good for you.
You blew it because you'remissing what the underlying
(13:26):
thing was, what walt disney wastrying to build and had built.
It has built, uh, and that isan incredible customer service
and new world environment.
You talked about the futurism.
You're like, you're looking atyou're on a monorail.
You're like, oh my gosh, Idon't know.
We we actually do have it.
We call it murder here in atland you're like, oh my God,
these guys had this figured outthen.
But then you can also get offthat and go on a Model T and
(13:49):
drive.
You'll see that thing drivingaround.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
You're like oh yeah, even today, right, you go to the
monorail and you're like, Imean, they thought of this 50
years ago.
You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, so I mean think that's amazing.
All right, so we get back to it, but but it all does tie back
into business and you can tell,that's definitely how I did it.
So you came here you didn'tknow anybody, um, and we're
gonna go back to it.
Right, you did it the right way.
You got here uh.
You said I'm gonna learn, uh,english, you use it, esl, that's
, that's english as a secondlanguage.
For those of you who don't knowwhat that is, and that is going
(14:20):
to learn english.
And if you haven't figured itout already, uh, obviously, he
obviously was probably topson'sclass or he's pretty good at it.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
He did a really good job.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
He speaks a lot better than I can do.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Portuguese boom we learned that.
All right, yeah, we alreadyfigured that out so you, you got
into, were you all?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
radio, the tv, all you know.
Turn off everything, justenglish, english.
That's so you immersed yourselfin it.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I did yeah, which is another great point uh, that's
one of the way my, one of theways my son was, uh, now fluent
in spanish is that even at home,when he was here, he would not
watch, uh tv in english.
He would watch it in spanish,and I'd have to have the
captions up, because I wastrying to go with him too,
because I felt like I knewspanish pretty well.
Yeah, how'd that go?
Uh, I love the captions a lot,and it made a pause.
(15:05):
So, all right, you immersedyourself, you did your thing,
you kept going, did you think?
I, this is my one shot.
I'm gonna keep, keep doing it.
I'm gonna find a job, I'm gonnamove back home you know, I
thought to move back home.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I didn't came with the first initial idea to come
and stay right.
I had a little girl at home,you know, wanted to learn
english, take a break, maybeearn some money, go back home,
right.
So but you know, you make plansand god laughs at you and
throws a different way on yourpath.
Right and so and uh, yeah.
(15:39):
So I just, I stayed and, uh, uh, worked jobs, jobs, moved back
to Brazil a couple, you know, acouple of years after that and
then moved back to the US andyou know, three years couldn't
readapt to Brazil.
You know, always when I wasthere, thinking of the United
States and missing, you know,all the things here, you know,
(16:03):
it's just, it's funny becauseit's like when you're here
you're always thinking I wasutilizing back home, and when
you're you're there, you'realways thinking of of united
states.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
That's home so you always like the other place.
So you're here in the us.
You're like, oh, I miss homeyes back in brazil.
You're like, oh, I miss theunited so much so much, so much,
yeah, and that's.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I think that's the reason that I end up coming back
.
I end up coming back and, uh,you know, and I'm here today, so
all right, so, uh, so you gotit.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
You got an exterior home business.
You take it all, take care ofall things on the exterior.
Um, is that where you were?
Was that a passion?
Was that a family business?
Was that?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
it was never a passion, even though I think I
was always thought to be myself,to be an engineer.
Growing up, going to school, Iwas very good in math, but doing
all those sorts of jobscleaning and flooring and then
one day this guy said, oh, weneed some help here, help here
(17:04):
to to to hang out some somesiding.
And then so got a hammer, got abelt, went to a job site,
started putting some nails onthe wall and just just felt good
, just felt natural, you know,had good talents with my hands,
and from that on I just stayhelping this guy and learning.
You know, the siding businessback then vinyl siding was a
(17:26):
real big in Atlanta and and justI guess couldn't, you know, did
some flooring and you got towork on your knees.
Cleaning was not my thing, youknow painting, deliver pizzas
and all of that.
But I found myself very good,feeling good, you know,
accomplished on the end of theday with, uh, you know, working
(17:46):
outside.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I love the outdoors, so I think that's part of it I
think you hit on something Ithink is so key because that's
where you hit your passions,that's where you start to pick
it up is that you know I candeliver pizzas and I could
become the dominoes guy.
I could have been the papajohn's, but that was.
But when I was outside and Idid something and I sat back at
the end of the day, I had awhole side of a house decided,
(18:09):
or I'd have two sides done,especially vinyl side.
You can pop that stuff up quickand it looks good when you're
done.
You're like you took somethingthat looks like crap and made it
look really good.
You're an artist all of asudden, which is what we talk
about and that's and that andthat's that's.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You've said something that it's true.
You know you start working onone wall or in a house and it
takes a day, two, three, four aweek and when it's done and you
look at that that I did this.
You know it really touched youand I think that's you know,
without realizing there wassomething that you know it was
(18:42):
one of my passions, I guess takepride on getting something from
nothing and then buildsomething from my hands right.
So I think that's probably oneof the reasons that I stayed
with the trade.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Now I'm talking back and, you know, revisiting that
memory, you know.
So I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Fernando can come here to Chris's consulting shop.
Fernando, the reason I'm sogood at this is because I've
gone through a lot of therapymyself, but not because of this.
Because of many other things,including anger issues, alan,
please say nothing.
So all right, so you?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
start doing this, I won't say anything because I
might get slapped.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Shut up, alan.
Sorry, guys, I had to put thaton mute.
Cindy, take that out.
I did not hit Alan.
He has a little red streakacross his face now but that's
because of the lighting.
It's lighting, it's okay.
I do it for love, alan.
I do it all for love.
I know this hurt me more thanit hurt you.
Have you ever used that light?
(19:38):
I'm not going to say, all right,we're going to keep going.
All right, back to Fernando,shall we let's?
All right, fernando, so you'redoing the signing.
Do you say, oh my gosh, I canmake a business out of this?
Or were you thinking, no, I'mjust really proud of what I'm
doing.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
At the time I just, I guess you know getting paid by
the day and felt good, and itwas good money at the time and I
just had to make it right, justhad to make it right, just had
to make it.
There was no other choice.
And uh, I just, you know,jumped on it and didn't think
about uh, anything else, justthat one particular yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
But there had to be a moment where you're like you
know what, instead of workingfor this guy, I can do this on
my own.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Tell us about that true, true, yeah, yeah, well,
came later, came, came yearsafter that, because, you know,
as we did, we did jobs and, asyou know, clients or builders
liked our service and madecompliments to us.
I guess that felt good too.
Right, you're being recognized,you take pride in what you do,
(20:40):
so, uh, and then, as we startgrowing, I said, well, you know
this, this might be it.
So yeah, you're right.
Um, at some point during thatbeginning, I thought that this
could be something was there aperson that pushed you there?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
was there a person who, like, planted that seed in
your head?
Was there a mentor?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
No, I don't.
As far as starting a businessand just pushing for the
business, I always had.
You know, I think I'm always, Ialways had in me to be an
entrepreneur, because I couldn'tsit in a desk and work for
somebody else and take ordersfrom somebody else else.
(21:26):
So I guess naturally I take thelead on the crew and on
learning.
I said I need to learn this, Ineed to learn English, I need to
learn the trade, and then Ineed to put my crew together and
then I need to build my nameand reputation, do things right,
and you know, just brick perbrick right, piece per piece.
And along the way from there tothen, I had some people, some
great people, that gave me goodadvice and were mentors and I
(21:47):
probably would not be here ifwe're not for their advice.
And then so that was key, butnot at that initial moment.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I think we've had over three and a half years,
alan.
We've had a lot ofentrepreneurs on and
entrepreneurs and people gotinto, and so some people got
laid off and had to, and somepeople had a mentor that just
said hey, have you ever thoughtabout going this way?
And they went, they were, andthey were kind of accidental, if
you will, or or had to, orpushed into it.
But you see, fernando has apath that I haven't heard before
(22:14):
, where you know, I was kind ofdoing it, kind of doing it, kind
of kind of good at it.
You know what I?
I think I'm entrepreneurial andhe's being very humble about
his skills and what he's doing,but but he's like no, I can
figure this out, I got this man,we're gonna go do it.
I mean that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Did you come from an entrepreneurial family, though?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
I.
I have my dad, yeah, my uncles.
They all had business growingup, so I guess that's part of it
too where was that in thetrades as well?
No, my uh not in the trades.
Had no one in the trades in myfamily restaurant business.
Uh, yeah, a lot of restaurantbusiness that's the hardest
business, yeah, and I had partof my family.
(22:51):
There were, uh, you knowteachers and you know attorneys,
and things started what do youthink is harder running a
restaurant or running yourbusiness?
oh, lordy, running restaurantspart harder, harder, harder,
harder, harder yeah, and mybrother's doing it, so you know
he's doing well.
yeah, you know, I think, uh, forme, looking back today, I was
(23:12):
lucky to had found this, thislittle path, and learn and liked
the path and and saw that was afuture.
Because, you know, as mybrother, he started working in
restaurants.
He started to work for FoggyDeschamps, worked for 12, 13
years and learned all the insand outs and he's successful.
(23:33):
But you know, restaurants,restaurant business, is very
demanding of your time yourfamily time, right, your 7 to 4
job, your construction business,monday to Friday, monday to
Saturday.
Then you have time for yourfamily in the evenings or on the
weekends, right On therestaurant.
You know, on the holidays,where everybody's enjoying their
families, you're working, oryou're working at nighttime.
(23:55):
The money is good, right, butthat's that side.
That for me, I think it's thehardest part.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
And I've had so many people tell me how hard
construction is and, uh, I amen,uh, it is.
Uh.
And I've had a lot of peoplemake fun of me and say, boy,
it's you know.
Garage door guy, window guy,that's all I do.
Uh, go look at me and go, wow,your business is so hard.
Uh, I'm glad I'm not you.
I'm like I'm glad you're not meeither and I wish I.
(24:28):
I'm like I'm glad you're not meeither and I wish I wasn't me.
But then again I look atrestaurants and go never, ever,
never, ever, never.
And I've had two opportunitiesto start restaurants with
buddies and I, um, I, I reallyheld to it.
We all want to.
Why, when is our?
I'm not gonna lie.
Uh, I actually had it.
Man, I was gonna do mama lala,mia's.
I mean I, I love cooking, Ilove doing it, uh, but no, it
doesn't ring.
Got a ring to it, yeah, right,and I was like I had some great
recipes that I felt like myfamily's Italian sauce and some
(24:49):
of the breads that we made wereeven better.
So we all think that.
But you know what?
It's still a joy for me and Ithink if I did a restaurant and
then, of course, eventually itwould have sucked the life out
of me and probably would havenot done well.
Uh, and then I would.
I would have not liked cookinganymore.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah well, restaurant business is fun, right.
You get to meet a lot of people, you get to do I mean, I love
to cook and you get to servepeople.
You get to meet people and it'sfun.
But that's that other part.
That's very demanding, right.
Construction is hard too I meanyou know?
I think every business in itssense has.
You know some way, some way oranother that they're hard on
(25:26):
some way or another.
But if you find a niche, youfind a way and you know you have
to be built.
Not everybody's built to be adoctor, right.
Not everybody's built to be acook.
Not everybody's built to be upon the sun.
You know 8, 10, 12 hours a day,right.
You know eight, 10, 12 hours aday, right.
But you know I learnedsomething interesting that you
(25:47):
learn to love.
You don't choose something thatyou love.
You love what you do, and thenyou know you get.
You love the fruits of that, ofthat.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yeah, you know.
No, I think I think you'reright.
You get to see so manybeautiful things, like your
teams when they're out there andthey're done.
It's what I tell my guys.
All're right.
You get to see so manybeautiful things Like your teams
when they're out there andthey're done.
It's what I tell my guys allthe time.
You know, when you're workingin corporate America and you're
working behind a desk or you'reworking on a computer, you don't
get to see tangibly what you'vedone.
It's all knowledge worker stuff.
We've talked about it on otherpodcasts.
But in construction you get tosee that wall that's been built.
(26:20):
You get to see that beautifulbathroom that somebody's going
to enjoy and love and you go.
You know what I made thathappen.
You get to see drywall that wascompletely wrecked and now it's
perfect in your case.
You get to see siding.
You know a house that'scompletely racked with bad wood
rot and now it looks beautifulbig sense of fulfillment and and
pride.
For sure, 100 yeah so youstarted your business.
(26:41):
Let's talk about the leap.
You said all right, I'm an LLC,I was a subcontractor probably,
you probably did thesubcontractor and now I'm an LLC
, I'm going to do my ownbusiness.
Here I go, you start, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Started a business but registered the business in
2005.
And get insurance, get all thatgood stuff and start to push in
it.
Get, you know, all that goodstuff and start to push in it
and um, um, you know just startto make phone calls,
subcontracting so you did.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
You did two things that I think are really
important.
We've talked about this, but wehaven't really talked about it.
You started as mellowsexteriors, because that was your
name, and now you've morphedinto eminem home exteriors.
Why did you do that and talkabout that arc and why you got
away from it?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So my first business was Mellow right, and we
subcontractor a lot for a lot ofbig names in town.
You know a lot of big GCs, alot of builders.
And you know 2008 happened.
You know it was pretty bad.
We had four crews running andso we ended up having to sell
everything and just persistingright, persisting, and end up
(27:49):
being me a helper and my toolson a Ford Ranger just doing all
sorts of work after 2008.
And then rebuild.
You know, when the economystarted to turn back in 10, 11,
12.
You know things started to moveback on.
I already had a bunch ofcontacts builders, contractors,
(28:10):
gcs that we had a goodrelationship and started to call
me back and build back on.
And then so that commercial,bigger, larger job took off.
But then I also had my clientson a residential portion of you
know portion that was startingto have more demand on that, and
that's what I did is I opened anew business.
(28:30):
I partnered up with a friend,mark, M&M Mello and Mark.
That's how we started thebusiness in 15.
And then we said, well, let'sfocus M&M only on the
residential, let's do the sameonly on the residential, let's
do same same, same services on aresidential and then mellow.
I kept that uh separate, butthat more on a commercial and
(28:51):
multifamily.
Uh, you know field and uh, andyeah, man, just uh, you know
that moment we kind of separatedifferent teams, different, you
know, different approach.
One, residential, you'releading with homeowners, the
other one more architects, newconstruction, and so a little
(29:13):
bit two separate operations, ifyou will.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
So M&M took off.
So you had one, two crews, youhad a partner.
Do you still have your partnerstoday?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
No, he ended up moving on and bought the
business from him and, rightbefore, covid oh right 2020 yes
yeah, he, he's a very goodfriend, he's a great guy, he has
his window business.
He had a window business, um,and uh, his window business was
taken off too, and you know hehad small kids and said well,
(29:42):
I'm going to focus on mybusiness and my family.
And uh, you know, we're stillgood friends today, and and so
he moved on.
I moved on and just jumped onhim and I'm from from all my gut
and all my my knowledge and soall right, so you've been at
this for a while.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
let's talk about the residential side and and talk
about the growth that you've had, and so how many crews do you
have today and how many you?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
obviously started with one, but how many?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
crews do you have today and what's the operation
look like?
Yeah.
So you know we have a lot ofmoving parts right.
So 2020, we had that COVID.
Obviously world different today.
You know, and then after yes,and the big demand after that, a
big demand more special, a bigdemand more special for outdoor
(30:29):
environments, outdoor decks,patios.
You know people are spendingmore time on their homes so they
want more outdoors.
So we grew a lot of ourbusiness on that and we brought
people in that are more, youknow, oriented for the, you know
, residential part, projectmanagers and all of that.
And you know the whole teamthat we have is people that are
(30:53):
veterans that have been in theindustry on those sections,
right, and I mean I couldn'tcount how many crews we have
running because we do five orsix trades, right.
So we have four or fivepainters, we have three or four
siding crews, we have one guttercrew, we have two window crews
(31:13):
uh, that are kind of moving jobsfor us, um, what else?
And that's we have two.
I have my dad guy my main dadguy has been with me for 11
years now, great guy.
And then we have three DAXcrews now, and so those are the
usual suspects.
They're there on the monthlybase, weekly base, that we try
(31:36):
to keep them busy, and so it's alot of moving parts.
It's not a simple window job orpaint job that you come in two,
three days.
You paint a house or installwindows in one, two days, or a
roof that you install in one,two, three days, right.
So when we approach the project, and it's beneficial to us, but
it's also hard because theclient wants to deal with one
(31:59):
contractor, and then we have aroof, you have windows and you
have painting siding, so it's alot of moving parts, so the
project takes a little bitlonger.
So it's a lot more involved.
We're more hands-on.
The projects, or projectmanagers, have to be trained on
all trades, right, and so, uh,but it's, it's, you know, it's
fun.
It's fun because, uh, we get tosee the big transformation, we
(32:21):
get to see homes that arecompletely, you know, like brand
new homes, so so that, that, uh, that sense of accomplishment
is it's, it's great so how muchtime passed from you coming to
the states to go to college andyou starting your own business
(32:41):
so five years.
So because I started mellow in2005, can you?
Speaker 1 (32:47):
imagine uh, let's say , you just went to china, right,
didn't know the language.
And then, five years later, she, she yeah he probably said that
wrong too, I did and I wouldhave too.
Right that is.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
I mean, that is such an amazing story I mean so many
hurdles to overcome to do this.
This is the great Americanstory, and that's I go back to
where I started.
You brought it up again Fiveyears.
He got here.
He did it the right way, didn't?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
know the language and so you know, he learns a trade,
and then he has to figure out.
However, in our system, youstart a business, like you said,
insurance and everything else,but then you got to figure out
how to hire people, you got tofigure out how to sell, you got
to figure out how to provide theservice and you got to figure
(33:34):
out how to follow up.
You got all the back end stuff,the accounting, I mean.
That is amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, looking back, it's been a journey.
It's been a journey I enjoy.
I enjoy building, I enjoylearning, I enjoy building
myself, I enjoy serving otherpeople and one of the biggest
things for me too, when they,when they call home of the free
(34:05):
and of the brave, I mean I thinkat some some reason I have to
be a brave to leave my family.
I have to be brave to leave myfamily, you know, and come and
and learn.
But I had nothing but greatexperience in this country,
nothing but great experiencewith people with, uh, you know,
identifying with the values youknow.
(34:28):
I don't know because the way Iwas raised, you know, and and
all of that, and I think that'sand so you know there's a
political statement right there.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Stop what the media is telling you.
Go talk to your neighbors.
Go talk to your friends, go goonce once again.
Just go back to your circle ofpeople.
You know, is it really that bad?
In fact, go talk to somebodywho you don't even think
identifies, like you do withtheir the political scheme.
You're going to find out.
You got more in common than youdon't, and I think that's where
we're missing out, because youhear all this rhetoric right now
(34:58):
about closing the borders, ofdoing this and uh and I was at
the National Convention for Narytalking about this, excuse me
that we're going to have lesslaborers again, because if we
don't let people in, who buildshomes, who works on homes,
immigrants they always have.
That's just what happens, andwe want them to be here because
a lot of the people here in theUS don't want to go do it.
(35:20):
Let's face it.
I want to get more kids in thetrades that live here and right
now, uh, the more we push andnarrate to do it, uh, more of
them are going.
Uh, believe or not, it'sactually starting to happen.
Is it pretty cool?
I'm seeing in welding, I'mseeing it in electrical, I'm
seeing in plumbing all theskilled trades, uh, carpentry,
painting, putting up siding.
(35:40):
Not so much, no, not yet yeah,why did I tell you.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And it pays good, you know, if the kids you know
doesn't have the status of you,have a college degree, go work
for a bank teller or you know,in a suit, uh, but you can raise
a family, you can build yourlife, you know, on the trade, as
you were saying, yeah sothere's a, you know, it's just.
I think it's a mindset, it's aculture that has to change
(36:05):
because, as you said, we'reshort on the field.
It's always.
You know.
My only recollection was in2008, what we had when we had
the big you know housing crisis,that you know we're short and
in work and uh, but uh, man,since that has been demand,
demand, demand demand.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
You brought that up.
Uh, and so in 2008, when thathappened there, the trades were
rising and what happened was thetrades fell apart.
Remember it was two, it was ayear and a half yeah, I don't
remember 2008 also so you do.
But uh, we won't bring it up,but bring it up in the trades.
What?
What kids were told from theirparents were don't get in
anything related to homes,because the homes of what
(36:47):
brought us down real estate hasbrought us down.
The whole world was broughtdown because of people who built
homes and people who live inhomes.
Oh wait, what do you do?
So the 2008 kids who are nowgone and they're in their late
twenties, right and in theworkforce now, the next kids
coming up, haven't seen that yetthey're saying wait a minute.
You mean, uh, you mean aplumber can make a hundred
(37:09):
thousand dollars a year.
Uh, yeah, as a matter of fact.
You mean a handyman can make 90grand a year.
As a matter of fact, I havefive.
That's how you can say, whoa,that's pretty good money.
You're like, yeah, but I can bean it guy and make, uh, 90, 100
, whatever.
So we're making the same money,but you get to go do something
that people see and go, wow, youjust solved my problem.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Make a difference.
Yeah, I'm with you there, 100%.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
So, fernando, we're coming to the end and, man, this
has been great.
I love the story.
I also know you've been growingyour business.
Where do you want it to be?
What's a great success plan foryou?
Where are you at now, as you'regrowing your business and doing
your things?
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I was asked this question, you know, and my
answer is always whenever thegood Lord allows me to be, I
don't want to lose control of mybusiness, I don't want to be a
slave of my business, I don'twant to lose my time with my
family, but I want to grow andso, you know, with those
(38:09):
parameters in line, I'm justgoing to keep pushing and I
don't want to lose my reputationbecause I think my, I have two
boys.
I have two boys, five or six.
He just turned six May 1st andsoon to be nine.
So you know, I'm building forthem.
I'm building for me, you know,for my reputation.
If they want one day to take upon, great.
(38:31):
If not, you know I'll keepdoing what I do.
I really enjoy it.
I really enjoy, you know, seepeople successful.
You know that started to workfor us and grow.
Um, you know, and I reallyenjoy.
See the homeowners sometimeswhen they see the result and the
reviews and and what they sayto the, you know, to the crews
(38:53):
or to to our manager, about thecrews, you know that truly, that
truly gives you joy it does.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
It does when you get that great review when somebody
comes to like?
I had one of my guys come to methe other day and say, chris, I
just got a $200 tip.
Cause I uh should I?
I said he started to stammer.
I'm like cause he realized youjust told the boss that he got a
$200 tip.
I'm like where's my cut, bro?
But no, I said absolutely, mattslept on the back.
(39:19):
I'm like isn do and keep doingit.
So I just that gives me themost joy as a business owner is
to watch my team perform in thein the uh, hopefully in the
environment that I presentedthem in uh, to go out there and
make that artistry happen.
So I amen to you doing that.
I think that's hard to dobecause you said, uh, some
(39:41):
things early on.
Let's see, I've uh sold myself.
I sold my soul.
Um, I was like no, no, no ohwait, I did not do it like
fernando, but here I am anyway,alan, what should we do next?
Should we go for questions?
Let's do it, yeah, all right,but before we do that, fernando,
everybody needs to know how togo out and see you guys.
You guys are on social, you'reon the website.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Go out there and hit that up there, because you gotta
go check out what m&m homemysterious doing yeah, so we're
all social media facebook,instagram, tiktok, youtube, at
sidingalantacom, and the companyname is eminem home exteriors.
We just google and you can findus nice.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
All right, let's do it.
Fernando, hopefully you've beenstudied up on this because we
know, yeah, here we go what is abook you you'd recommend to all
of our?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
so I taught a lot about that because I'm not a big
reader.
But you know, recently, with mykids growing up, we got a lot
of little kids' Bibles and Iread the Bible stories to them.
My kids go to a Christianschool, as you did, and so I
think Bible for me is number one.
It's my to-go you-go book forguidance and for everything.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Heavy.
I like it, and there's actuallya lot of good business
principles.
There are you?
Speaker 3 (40:59):
know what.
In fact, I probably would havemore fun reading the kid's Bible
.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
They have pictures for you Because they have
pictures.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
You could read it and they dumb it down for this kid.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
They simplify and we absorb the message and you're at
8 pm long day of work and thenyou're reading that little story
and your kid asks you aquestion and then it hits you oh
, that's what they meant by thepassage right.
That's what ethics looks like.
That's what being good lookslike.
(41:28):
That's what doing right lookslike.
That's what doing right lookslike.
So it's been great for me.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I love that one.
That's a great one.
All right, Number two what'sthe favorite feature of your
home?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
We spend a lot of time on our backyard Surprise,
backyard exactly.
Love to grill.
Love to grill steaks.
Play soccer with the boys, butmostly cook for them how do you
do your steaks?
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I want to hear some good tips from a guy from Brazil
medium rare baby what do youput on it?
The?
Speaker 2 (42:01):
secret is charcoal and rock salt or sea salt.
That's it for us.
You have to's some, some.
You have to add a little bit offat meat and wear and let that
fat melt on the steak.
You know, someday I have tocook for you guys.
I'm coming over.
Are you kidding me?
Listen, we're doing a home andhome, we're bringing it over
(42:23):
eminem home exteriors and he'sgonna cook for us, all right.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
And mama lalamia, ah, mama la la mia's, all right,
guys, I got my sauce, okay, mysuku, all right.
So, uh, fernando, one of thethings that ellen and I talk
about all the time is customerservice.
You brought it up, you broughtup disney, but one of the things
we kind of are, we're kind ofcustomer service freaks.
What's a customer service petpeeve of yours when you're out
and you're the customer?
Speaker 2 (42:47):
You know, when you're talking to someone and they
just roll the eyes and you knowdisconcern, that boils my brain,
you know.
Just, you know disconcerting ofyour.
You know, if I don't understandwhat's going on, explain to me,
right?
(43:07):
So communication is based onthat, because a lot it's just
communication.
Right, we were in that, notPanama city the other day and we
had some issues with our hoteland you know we talked to this
front desk, you know, associate,and he was not helpful, let's
say this way, disregarding to us, right?
Speaker 3 (43:25):
He's saying it nicely because the Bible told him to
do that.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Chris who, regarding to us, right.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
He's saying it nicely because the bible told him to
do that.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Chris, who hasn't read the bible in a little bit,
especially not the kids versionwould have said like hey, bro,
pull your head out of your assor I'm gonna pull it out for you
no, you want to say that youwant, even if they can't give
you the answer you want.
If they care about the problemas much as you do, then then
you're okay that's it, that's itcare about we talked to
somebody else and she wasexactly exactly that.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
She showed that she cared, she showed that she
understood, and sometimesthere's no remedy for the
situation, right, there's not agood remedy for the situation,
but she made me, she made usfeel good, and that's.
I think that's a big one, rightthere.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
How about that?
That's a good one.
All right, two for two.
All right, fernando, here we go, oh boy All right Two for two.
All right, fernando, here we go.
Oh boy, we want a DIY nightmarestory.
Now you're a contractor, you'vedone some stuff, you've done
siding.
I'll give you.
Before you even get started,I'll give you one.
I didn't do, but I was therewhile my crew did it.
And that is.
We're at the house.
(44:22):
I'm asking the customer how'severything going Great?
He customer how's everythinggoing great?
I said he goes.
I do have a project I want todo inside the house.
I'm like, great, let's go thereand look.
He goes yeah, I'd like to refacade my, uh, my, my, my hearth
.
I want the stone away and Iwant to do a marble.
I'm like, great, right, as he'ssaying that we watch a nail
come flying through the drywallbecause they're doing the siding
(44:43):
right above there.
And I'm like, yeah, not gonnawin this one, am I?
Speaker 1 (44:48):
oh my god there's so many my friends.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Oh my god, I was sitting right there.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
I'm like yep, uh, I can't remember if we won that
job.
I will tell you we dideverything right.
We got it fixed, because I wentflying back out.
I'm like yeah, I think youmissed it, bro.
Yeah, that thing went flyingright through that is key, right
there.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
That is key, chris, because you know, on the end of
the day, you only have so muchcontrol off the um of the site
or of your crew.
Right, sometimes things happenand all you can do is fix them
as your best ability.
But, uh, this one client inroswell not say a name uh, she
(45:27):
was very difficult and very uh,you know we didn't do anything
wrong.
And she started yelling ourguys, we had, you know, we had
plans, we have the whole project, we're building a deck.
And then she starts raisinghell, you're not doing this
right, this is not too cold.
And yada, yada, yada.
And then she ended up, you know, kicking the crew out.
(45:49):
Well, my crew said we're, we'renot working on this job anymore
and they left.
And so I went, talked to her,explained to her.
They came back, she all up thenagain, I don't even know where
her concerns were because shecouldn't articulate.
So we got the city of roswellinvolved, the county, you know,
we had plant, we had businesspermit, we had a building permit
(46:09):
, we had architectural plans, wewere following the plans, and
we got the building inspectorand he's like no, that's the
code, that they're buildingeverything through code and then
she let us finish the job.
She let us finish the job.
She was very, you know, you cansee that she was still not
(46:33):
satisfied, you know.
But once she, you know, once wefinished the job, we cleaned
everything and we finished thedeck, she was amazed.
She left good reviews for useverywhere, you know.
And so, yeah, I, I don't accept,you know, I don't accept, even
if we had made a mistake, right,that you're going to yell at at
(46:56):
our team, because, at the endof the day, I see that we, the
success that I have, or ourcompany has, is because of our
group, it's because of ouremployees, our crews, from the
salespeople, the consultants,from our manager, from our phone
, the person answering thecustomer service, from the
(47:20):
project manager, from the peoplethat execute the job.
And if you do something wrong,you go back back, you fix it,
you pay for it, you remedy, butdon't disrespect, right, there's
no right to disrespect our crew, and you know that's I, I guess
that's the, you know there'smany, like I said, but that's
(47:42):
that's one that, uh, I was verymild to describe this client I
like what you just said.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
That's been awesome.
You can tell you've been humble.
All right, guys, we learnedsomething.
We learned that you know whatthe true american immigrant.
It's a sex story, the horatioalter story.
That's what we talked about.
That's what we all got to see.
He saw disney.
He says I'm going to, I'm goingto, I'm going, I'm just gonna
go do it.
He did it.
He did it and he's living by acode that is amazing.
(48:10):
He's living by the bible.
He's teaching his young boyswhat, what it takes to be a real
good person in this world,doing what we're doing and takes
joy, and what he's doing eachand every day.
Take some lessons from thisstuff.
You learn something that's onyou.
Hey, by the way, don't beafraid to go out there and tell
some people about us, becausealan, I don't like the whining
chris.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Don't be whining chris.
Hey, put your boy britches onput your big boy britches on.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Let's go right up and say we gotta get going.
Get out there, tell everybodyabout us because we're the
freaking bomb baby.
You gotta go.
Cheers everybody.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the small business
safari.
Remember your positive attitudewill help you achieve that
higher altitude you're lookingfor in the wild world of small
business ownership.
And until next time, make it agreat day.
So before you get into the business, I got to ask
you've got kids right?
I do.
Have you taken them to Disney?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I have.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
And what was that like?
Being a kid growing up inBrazil and just dreaming about
that and then actually takingyour kids?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
to Disney.
It's fascinating, it's you know.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Was it everything you thought it'd be?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It was.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It was, it was, I agree.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You know the train, the futuristic.
You know we grew up withAmerican cartoons in Brazil,
right, and so all the you knowLulitoons and things like that.
So we had a little bit of theculture.
You know, I had a little bit ofa culture growing up and I was
just so proud, you know, soproud and amazed how you know
(00:45):
they can build such a structure.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
And it's just for fun , it's just for dreamers, just
for kids.
Welcome to the Small BusinessSafari, where I help guide you
to avoid those traps, pitfallsand dangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
(01:13):
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
Born in the usa, alan, what thehell am I doing?
(01:36):
You are such an ass I am.
I'll tell you what you know.
I thought you were gonna saybonjourno, huh I.
I got my only other word I doin portuguese.
I actually screwed that up, asI found out earlier.
Yeah, you did.
We got a great guest todaybecause I will tell you what's
going on right now is in theworld, here, and especially in
the us.
It's all about protectionismand the borders and where we're
all.
And you know, if you listen tothe media, you get all angsty
and you're like oh right, yeah,we don't want other people
(01:58):
coming to our country.
And you know what?
Back that.
Truck up, brother.
I wait a minute.
You guys don't get caught up inall this media bullshit.
You know what?
Because I've said this over andover again.
You guys have heard me say this.
You know who has built all thehomes since the US has been
started.
We are all from another country.
We're all from another country.
My brothers and my sisters, weall are, and I would tell you.
(02:20):
This is why I think today'sguest is incredible for me,
because I got to meet Fernandoand when you listen to his story
, he is the immigration successstory in today's world and I
just sat there and went.
You know, this is the story weshould be talking about.
Yeah, we want people in ourcountry.
We need people in our countrybecause, guess who was building
(02:42):
all these homes?
Man, they're immigrants.
I mean, all of us were buildinghomes in the italians when we
came over.
We were building homes.
Why do you think I got into thebuilding business?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I thought you were in the import export business.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Well, olive oil I was not, I was, um, I was in the
vegetable distribution business,but that's a different story.
Um, let's just say, we, we, webranched out a little bit from
the building.
Uh, we found it.
Uh, that moving product was alittle bit easier.
Uh, those are vegetables, bythe way, vegetables from miami
to new york but we won't talkabout where where they came from
(03:14):
I don't know that's right,that's a different side of the
family la lomia trucking, it waswhat it was called, by the way.
Uh, so we have fernando mellowhere.
Uh, m and m home exiors.
But this is a great story, guys, because I got a chance to meet
Fernando and we started talkingand then I heard his story and
I was like you know, we don'tget to hear this story right now
(03:35):
, especially in this America.
You know, make America greatagain means oh, we don't want
anybody here.
I think that's how some peopleare taking it.
I think, god, you're missing.
You're missing who's yourneighbor.
You're missing who yourgrandparents were, maybe your
great grandparents.
You're missing the part of thisand you're getting so focused
on the bad people.
You forgot about the greatpeople who are here.
And Fernando is here and he isthat great success story.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And not only that he's here in person and he
brought us a gift, and the giftwas a bottle of a very special
rum that his brother made.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That's correct.
It's called.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Cachaça.
And so, Fernando, we'll getinto your business in a minute,
but what does your brother do,and what has he made?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So my brother owns a chain of restaurants, brazilian
steakhouses, and, um and um, thebrand that I brought to you,
the, is his own brand.
They come up with the, with thelogo and all of that, and it's
uh, it's the most popular drinkin brazil.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It's the cachaca, it's basically rum made from
sugar cane, and uh is uh, it'svery delicious it is delicious
and it's it's different, likewhen he said rum, you know,
certain captain morgan's comesto mind.
Right, and this was verysophisticated very sophisticated
.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
In fact, it blew us away in our palate and when we
we tasted it.
Guys, I'm telling you go try itout.
I you can't find it here in theStates, is that right?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
There's imports, you can probably find.
Well, if you know a guy.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, if you know a guy.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
If you know the guy that transports.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So we can.
Actually, I consider that avegetable.
So, yes, we can do that,because that will go with the
other vegetables that wetransport here in the La Llamia
trucking business, that wetransport here in the La Llamia
trucking business.
But we don't do that, Fernando.
So I teased the story a littlebit.
But let's talk a little bitabout what your business is
today, and then we're going tobacktrack on how you got there.
So what do you guys do todayhere in Atlanta?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, first of all, happy to be here.
Thanks for the invite.
I really appreciate theinvitation and just happy to be
here.
So a little bit of the story.
We're a home improvementcompany.
We provide exterior homeservices siding, roofing,
gutters, windows, doors,painting, decks, roofs.
(05:54):
Did I miss anything?
All exteriors under one roof,under one umbrella, under one
contractor, and we've been inbusiness for a little over.
We're getting to 20 years nowhow about that?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
and?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
uh, with mellow construction, which is my first
company, and uh, we also providethe same services in the
multi-family world.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
A little bit more commercial side, if you will
yeah, so he's built an empire,alan, protecting the homes,
building the homes.
But I want to go back to thebeginning.
So, uh, fernando is, if youhaven't figured it out, uh has
an accent.
Uh, and it's not canadian, uh,and it's not midwest and it's
not oregon, uh and uh, itdefinitely ain't my southern
(06:39):
bullshit accent.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And the worst southern accent.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Thank you right so you're, you're from, you're from
brazil originally originallyfrom brazil, born and raised, uh
moved to the us.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
In the year 2000 uh went to kennesaw, attended um
esl classes there and uh fromthere just uh hustle, you know
with jobs.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
So why did you make the move?
I mean mean that's, that's abig move.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Big move, right.
I always wanted to come toAmerica, you know, since as a
kid- I had never visited before.
Always wanted to come and visitand go to Disney, right as a
kid.
I dreamed to go to Disney worldRight, and I had the chance to,
you know, to come and, you know,didn't plan to stay, wanted to
(07:28):
stay for a few months a yearmaybe, and, you know, end up
just falling in love with thecountry you know and really
identify myself with a lot ofthe things in the country.
So, uh and uh stayed in and,you know, start to to work in in
(07:49):
, you know, flipping burgers,painting houses, working in uh
well shops, so why atlanta?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I mean, did you have family here?
How did you know?
You said you'd never been herebefore I didn't have a
connection.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
A family I I knew knew a friend who had some
friends here, who I wasintroduced.
I said well, you can stay withthem while you go to school and
hang out and get a job, pay foryour stay.
And so I didn't know thesepeople, so I slept on their
couch for a few months and, as aknow, as a roommate, sleeping
(08:24):
on the couch and it didn't, youknow, didn't really fit.
So I had to move on, get anapartment and start working side
jobs and to pay for before youget into the business I gotta
ask you've got kids right?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I do.
Have you taken them to disney?
I have and what was that like?
Being a kid growing up inbrazil and just dreaming about
that and then actually takingyour kids?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
it's, it's fascinating, it's it's you know
was it everything you thoughtit'd be?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
it was it was, it was , it was you know the, the train
, the futuristic.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You know we grew up with american cartoons in brazil
, right and so all the you knowl.
We grew up with Americancartoons in Brazil, right and so
all the.
You know Lulitoons and thingslike that.
So we had a little bit of theculture.
You know, I had a little bit ofa culture growing up and I was
just so proud, you know, soproud and amazed how you know
they can build such a structureand it's just for fun, it's just
(09:23):
for dreamers, just for kids,you know.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, I think the uh, the Disney thing and I don't
know if we've talked about that,but so I didn't know that he
had would tie it into that.
But, uh, you know, that's onethat even in my business world
I'll never forget, uh, thatDisney uh has so many elements
to it.
Now they actually have thedisney institute to tell people
(09:51):
how to train people and how toget your, your team, to deliver
a great customer service,because that's what they're
about, right?
Um, and I'll never forget whenI had a, a consulting team, uh,
when I first got started, wasone of my first teams.
They were all younger than meand it was a team of three and I
said one of the things we'll dofor team building is every
Monday when we get together isthat you have to present
something that will help therest of the team build their
business acumen.
And so one of the ladies hadbeen an intern at Disney and she
(10:13):
came back and all of us gotDream Believe Do the book from
Disney.
All of them get that when theywent to intern at the time.
This is back in the 90s.
Turn at the time.
This is back in the 90s.
And she, she took us throughthe program about how she was
trained on how to dream, believeand do, delivering customer
service in the most excellentdisney way.
And I would tell you from thereon out, I was like, wow, I can't
(10:34):
wait to go back now.
Um, now that I'm older and I'vetaken my kids there, I'm like,
yeah, I'm good with that.
I mean, I love disney, I loveeverything it's about.
When it comes to the park andthe experience, um, it's just
all those people that are there.
If they were on out there, I'dbe so much happier.
It's all the other.
It's all the other, all theother guests coming.
I'm not really excited aboutyou, you just need to rent out
(10:55):
disney I need to.
You know what I think you're abig baller.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You're not a big baller until you can rent out
disney all right, I got a newgoal.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I'm'm going to be renting out Disney.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
And you're right about that.
The experience that we had withmy kid and we're getting a
piece of cake and a couplepastries and just the way that
they treat and went back andwent around and treat my kid
like special, you know that'sthe cost of that care.
It's key.
You know the experience.
(11:23):
What's that?
That cost-perceptive that care?
It's key.
You know the experience, whatthey call right, that just the
experiences is.
It's what makes Disneydifferent.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So you got to experience and I think that is
amazing.
You know, I did the cruise toowith the kids.
I'll never forget that and Iloved it so much that I said
later on I was like we're goingto do that.
And then I looked at the priceand I went, no, we, we're going
to do that.
And then I looked at the priceand I went, no, we'll go on two
Royal Caribbean cruises and I'llbuy a Mickey mouse, but we're
not going back.
But it was so cool.
I just again.
(11:53):
You know I'm not, we're notgetting into politics and all
the other stuff that's going onthere.
When you go there with a family, they do it right.
And if you ever go into anotherone, another park and not
putting them down, it just notthe same.
It isn't now these guys have itdown, but it's all about, you
know, and it comes back.
Even in engineering, right,they call them imagineers, right
.
So I know engineers who havegone down there to work and they
won't leave for big bucks.
(12:15):
They could left and gone tonasa and they're like they
stayed because they just lovethe environment they worked in
so much.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I mean, if you think about it just from a business
perspective, how disney can havesuch a strong culture that I
mean, how many thousands ofemployees must they have?
And it's people who are takingout the trash, and people
serving you food and getting youon the rides, and then the you
know all the character actorsand stuff and they all have that
same vibe they do.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
They and she talked about that and I've had to
reinforce.
In fact, my general managermoved here from Orlando to take
this position to work with mehere at the Trusted Toolbox, and
he had a Disney pass and he hasa Disney file and he'll talk
about the experience.
There is just second to noneand the way that they treat you
and the way that they do serve,because he picked up a lot of
service habits that hetranslates into our own business
(13:05):
, uh, which you can tellfernando has as well, and that's
why we'll get into his businessand why it's been so successful
.
It's just those little thingsmake the big difference we did
digress a little bit, didn't we?
no, but, but it, but it all tiesback into business yeah, it
does go check it out, dream,believe, do uh again.
It's not a political thing.
And if you want to get on thatbed, good for you.
You blew it because you'remissing what the underlying
(13:26):
thing was, what walt disney wastrying to build and had built.
It has built, uh, and that isan incredible customer service
and new world environment.
You talked about the futurism.
You're like, you're looking atyou're on a monorail.
You're like, oh my gosh, Idon't know.
We we actually do have it.
We call it murder here in atland you're like, oh my God,
these guys had this figured outthen.
But then you can also get offthat and go on a Model T and
(13:49):
drive.
You'll see that thing drivingaround.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
You're like oh yeah, even today, right, you go to the
monorail and you're like, Imean, they thought of this 50
years ago.
You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, so I mean think that's amazing.
All right, so we get back to it, but but it all does tie back
into business and you can tell,that's definitely how I did it.
So you came here you didn'tknow anybody, um, and we're
gonna go back to it.
Right, you did it the right way.
You got here uh.
You said I'm gonna learn, uh,english, you use it, esl, that's
, that's english as a secondlanguage.
For those of you who don't knowwhat that is, and that is going
(14:20):
to learn english.
And if you haven't figured itout already, uh, obviously, he
obviously was probably topson'sclass or he's pretty good at it.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
He did a really good job.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
He speaks a lot better than I can do.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Portuguese boom we learned that.
All right, yeah, we alreadyfigured that out so you, you got
into, were you all?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
radio, the tv, all you know.
Turn off everything, justenglish, english.
That's so you immersed yourselfin it.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I did yeah, which is another great point uh, that's
one of the way my, one of theways my son was, uh, now fluent
in spanish is that even at home,when he was here, he would not
watch, uh tv in english.
He would watch it in spanish,and I'd have to have the
captions up, because I wastrying to go with him too,
because I felt like I knewspanish pretty well.
Yeah, how'd that go?
Uh, I love the captions a lot,and it made a pause.
(15:05):
So, all right, you immersedyourself, you did your thing,
you kept going, did you think?
I, this is my one shot.
I'm gonna keep, keep doing it.
I'm gonna find a job, I'm gonnamove back home you know, I
thought to move back home.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I didn't came with the first initial idea to come
and stay right.
I had a little girl at home,you know, wanted to learn
english, take a break, maybeearn some money, go back home,
right.
So but you know, you make plansand god laughs at you and
throws a different way on yourpath.
Right and so and uh, yeah.
(15:39):
So I just, I stayed and, uh, uh, worked jobs, jobs, moved back
to Brazil a couple, you know, acouple of years after that and
then moved back to the US andyou know, three years couldn't
readapt to Brazil.
You know, always when I wasthere, thinking of the United
States and missing, you know,all the things here, you know,
(16:03):
it's just, it's funny becauseit's like when you're here
you're always thinking I wasutilizing back home, and when
you're you're there, you'realways thinking of of united
states.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
That's home so you always like the other place.
So you're here in the us.
You're like, oh, I miss homeyes back in brazil.
You're like, oh, I miss theunited so much so much, so much,
yeah, and that's.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I think that's the reason that I end up coming back
.
I end up coming back and, uh,you know, and I'm here today, so
all right, so, uh, so you gotit.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
You got an exterior home business.
You take it all, take care ofall things on the exterior.
Um, is that where you were?
Was that a passion?
Was that a family business?
Was that?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
it was never a passion, even though I think I
was always thought to be myself,to be an engineer.
Growing up, going to school, Iwas very good in math, but doing
all those sorts of jobscleaning and flooring and then
one day this guy said, oh, weneed some help here, help here
(17:04):
to to to hang out some somesiding.
And then so got a hammer, got abelt, went to a job site,
started putting some nails onthe wall and just just felt good
, just felt natural, you know,had good talents with my hands,
and from that on I just stayhelping this guy and learning.
You know, the siding businessback then vinyl siding was a
(17:26):
real big in Atlanta and and justI guess couldn't, you know, did
some flooring and you got towork on your knees.
Cleaning was not my thing, youknow painting, deliver pizzas
and all of that.
But I found myself very good,feeling good, you know,
accomplished on the end of theday with, uh, you know, working
(17:46):
outside.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I love the outdoors, so I think that's part of it I
think you hit on something Ithink is so key because that's
where you hit your passions,that's where you start to pick
it up is that you know I candeliver pizzas and I could
become the dominoes guy.
I could have been the papajohn's, but that was.
But when I was outside and Idid something and I sat back at
the end of the day, I had awhole side of a house decided,
(18:09):
or I'd have two sides done,especially vinyl side.
You can pop that stuff up quickand it looks good when you're
done.
You're like you took somethingthat looks like crap and made it
look really good.
You're an artist all of asudden, which is what we talk
about and that's and that andthat's that's.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You've said something that it's true.
You know you start working onone wall or in a house and it
takes a day, two, three, four aweek and when it's done and you
look at that that I did this.
You know it really touched youand I think that's you know,
without realizing there wassomething that you know it was
(18:42):
one of my passions, I guess takepride on getting something from
nothing and then buildsomething from my hands right.
So I think that's probably oneof the reasons that I stayed
with the trade.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Now I'm talking back and, you know, revisiting that
memory, you know.
So I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Fernando can come here to Chris's consulting shop.
Fernando, the reason I'm sogood at this is because I've
gone through a lot of therapymyself, but not because of this.
Because of many other things,including anger issues, alan,
please say nothing.
So all right, so you?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
start doing this, I won't say anything because I
might get slapped.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Shut up, alan.
Sorry, guys, I had to put thaton mute.
Cindy, take that out.
I did not hit Alan.
He has a little red streakacross his face now but that's
because of the lighting.
It's lighting, it's okay.
I do it for love, alan.
I do it all for love.
I know this hurt me more thanit hurt you.
Have you ever used that light?
(19:38):
I'm not going to say, all right,we're going to keep going.
All right, back to Fernando,shall we let's?
All right, fernando, so you'redoing the signing.
Do you say, oh my gosh, I canmake a business out of this?
Or were you thinking, no, I'mjust really proud of what I'm
doing.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
At the time I just, I guess you know getting paid by
the day and felt good, and itwas good money at the time and I
just had to make it right, justhad to make it right, just had
to make it.
There was no other choice.
And uh, I just, you know,jumped on it and didn't think
about uh, anything else, justthat one particular yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
But there had to be a moment where you're like you
know what, instead of workingfor this guy, I can do this on
my own.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Tell us about that true, true, yeah, yeah, well,
came later, came, came yearsafter that, because, you know,
as we did, we did jobs and, asyou know, clients or builders
liked our service and madecompliments to us.
I guess that felt good too.
Right, you're being recognized,you take pride in what you do,
(20:40):
so, uh, and then, as we startgrowing, I said, well, you know
this, this might be it.
So yeah, you're right.
Um, at some point during thatbeginning, I thought that this
could be something was there aperson that pushed you there?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
was there a person who, like, planted that seed in
your head?
Was there a mentor?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
No, I don't.
As far as starting a businessand just pushing for the
business, I always had.
You know, I think I'm always, Ialways had in me to be an
entrepreneur, because I couldn'tsit in a desk and work for
somebody else and take ordersfrom somebody else else.
(21:26):
So I guess naturally I take thelead on the crew and on
learning.
I said I need to learn this, Ineed to learn English, I need to
learn the trade, and then Ineed to put my crew together and
then I need to build my nameand reputation, do things right,
and you know, just brick perbrick right, piece per piece.
And along the way from there tothen, I had some people, some
great people, that gave me goodadvice and were mentors and I
(21:47):
probably would not be here ifwe're not for their advice.
And then so that was key, butnot at that initial moment.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I think we've had over three and a half years,
alan.
We've had a lot ofentrepreneurs on and
entrepreneurs and people gotinto, and so some people got
laid off and had to, and somepeople had a mentor that just
said hey, have you ever thoughtabout going this way?
And they went, they were, andthey were kind of accidental, if
you will, or or had to, orpushed into it.
But you see, fernando has apath that I haven't heard before
(22:14):
, where you know, I was kind ofdoing it, kind of doing it, kind
of kind of good at it.
You know what I?
I think I'm entrepreneurial andhe's being very humble about
his skills and what he's doing,but but he's like no, I can
figure this out, I got this man,we're gonna go do it.
I mean that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Did you come from an entrepreneurial family, though?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
I.
I have my dad, yeah, my uncles.
They all had business growingup, so I guess that's part of it
too where was that in thetrades as well?
No, my uh not in the trades.
Had no one in the trades in myfamily restaurant business.
Uh, yeah, a lot of restaurantbusiness that's the hardest
business, yeah, and I had partof my family.
(22:51):
There were, uh, you knowteachers and you know attorneys,
and things started what do youthink is harder running a
restaurant or running yourbusiness?
oh, lordy, running restaurantspart harder, harder, harder,
harder, harder yeah, and mybrother's doing it, so you know
he's doing well.
yeah, you know, I think, uh, forme, looking back today, I was
(23:12):
lucky to had found this, thislittle path, and learn and liked
the path and and saw that was afuture.
Because, you know, as mybrother, he started working in
restaurants.
He started to work for FoggyDeschamps, worked for 12, 13
years and learned all the insand outs and he's successful.
(23:33):
But you know, restaurants,restaurant business, is very
demanding of your time yourfamily time, right, your 7 to 4
job, your construction business,monday to Friday, monday to
Saturday.
Then you have time for yourfamily in the evenings or on the
weekends, right On therestaurant.
You know, on the holidays,where everybody's enjoying their
families, you're working, oryou're working at nighttime.
(23:55):
The money is good, right, butthat's that side.
That for me, I think it's thehardest part.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
And I've had so many people tell me how hard
construction is and, uh, I amen,uh, it is.
Uh.
And I've had a lot of peoplemake fun of me and say, boy,
it's you know.
Garage door guy, window guy,that's all I do.
Uh, go look at me and go, wow,your business is so hard.
Uh, I'm glad I'm not you.
I'm like I'm glad you're not meeither and I wish I.
(24:28):
I'm like I'm glad you're not meeither and I wish I wasn't me.
But then again I look atrestaurants and go never, ever,
never, ever, never.
And I've had two opportunitiesto start restaurants with
buddies and I, um, I, I reallyheld to it.
We all want to.
Why, when is our?
I'm not gonna lie.
Uh, I actually had it.
Man, I was gonna do mama lala,mia's.
I mean I, I love cooking, Ilove doing it, uh, but no, it
doesn't ring.
Got a ring to it, yeah, right,and I was like I had some great
recipes that I felt like myfamily's Italian sauce and some
(24:49):
of the breads that we made wereeven better.
So we all think that.
But you know what?
It's still a joy for me and Ithink if I did a restaurant and
then, of course, eventually itwould have sucked the life out
of me and probably would havenot done well.
Uh, and then I would.
I would have not liked cookinganymore.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah well, restaurant business is fun, right.
You get to meet a lot of people, you get to do I mean, I love
to cook and you get to servepeople.
You get to meet people and it'sfun.
But that's that other part.
That's very demanding, right.
Construction is hard too I meanyou know?
I think every business in itssense has.
You know some way, some way oranother that they're hard on
(25:26):
some way or another.
But if you find a niche, youfind a way and you know you have
to be built.
Not everybody's built to be adoctor, right.
Not everybody's built to be acook.
Not everybody's built to be upon the sun.
You know 8, 10, 12 hours a day,right.
You know eight, 10, 12 hours aday, right.
But you know I learnedsomething interesting that you
(25:47):
learn to love.
You don't choose something thatyou love.
You love what you do, and thenyou know you get.
You love the fruits of that, ofthat.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yeah, you know.
No, I think I think you'reright.
You get to see so manybeautiful things, like your
teams when they're out there andthey're done.
It's what I tell my guys.
All're right.
You get to see so manybeautiful things Like your teams
when they're out there andthey're done.
It's what I tell my guys allthe time.
You know, when you're workingin corporate America and you're
working behind a desk or you'reworking on a computer, you don't
get to see tangibly what you'vedone.
It's all knowledge worker stuff.
We've talked about it on otherpodcasts.
But in construction you get tosee that wall that's been built.
(26:20):
You get to see that beautifulbathroom that somebody's going
to enjoy and love and you go.
You know what I made thathappen.
You get to see drywall that wascompletely wrecked and now it's
perfect in your case.
You get to see siding.
You know a house that'scompletely racked with bad wood
rot and now it looks beautifulbig sense of fulfillment and and
pride.
For sure, 100 yeah so youstarted your business.
(26:41):
Let's talk about the leap.
You said all right, I'm an LLC,I was a subcontractor probably,
you probably did thesubcontractor and now I'm an LLC
, I'm going to do my ownbusiness.
Here I go, you start, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Started a business but registered the business in
2005.
And get insurance, get all thatgood stuff and start to push in
it.
Get, you know, all that goodstuff and start to push in it
and um, um, you know just startto make phone calls,
subcontracting so you did.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
You did two things that I think are really
important.
We've talked about this, but wehaven't really talked about it.
You started as mellowsexteriors, because that was your
name, and now you've morphedinto eminem home exteriors.
Why did you do that and talkabout that arc and why you got
away from it?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So my first business was Mellow right, and we
subcontractor a lot for a lot ofbig names in town.
You know a lot of big GCs, alot of builders.
And you know 2008 happened.
You know it was pretty bad.
We had four crews running andso we ended up having to sell
everything and just persistingright, persisting, and end up
(27:49):
being me a helper and my toolson a Ford Ranger just doing all
sorts of work after 2008.
And then rebuild.
You know, when the economystarted to turn back in 10, 11,
12.
You know things started to moveback on.
I already had a bunch ofcontacts builders, contractors,
(28:10):
gcs that we had a goodrelationship and started to call
me back and build back on.
And then so that commercial,bigger, larger job took off.
But then I also had my clientson a residential portion of you
know portion that was startingto have more demand on that, and
that's what I did is I opened anew business.
(28:30):
I partnered up with a friend,mark, M&M Mello and Mark.
That's how we started thebusiness in 15.
And then we said, well, let'sfocus M&M only on the
residential, let's do the sameonly on the residential, let's
do same same, same services on aresidential and then mellow.
I kept that uh separate, butthat more on a commercial and
(28:51):
multifamily.
Uh, you know field and uh, andyeah, man, just uh, you know
that moment we kind of separatedifferent teams, different, you
know, different approach.
One, residential, you'releading with homeowners, the
other one more architects, newconstruction, and so a little
(29:13):
bit two separate operations, ifyou will.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
So M&M took off.
So you had one, two crews, youhad a partner.
Do you still have your partnerstoday?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
No, he ended up moving on and bought the
business from him and, rightbefore, covid oh right 2020 yes
yeah, he, he's a very goodfriend, he's a great guy, he has
his window business.
He had a window business, um,and uh, his window business was
taken off too, and you know hehad small kids and said well,
(29:42):
I'm going to focus on mybusiness and my family.
And uh, you know, we're stillgood friends today, and and so
he moved on.
I moved on and just jumped onhim and I'm from from all my gut
and all my my knowledge and soall right, so you've been at
this for a while.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
let's talk about the residential side and and talk
about the growth that you've had, and so how many crews do you
have today and how many you?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
obviously started with one, but how many?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
crews do you have today and what's the operation
look like?
Yeah.
So you know we have a lot ofmoving parts right.
So 2020, we had that COVID.
Obviously world different today.
You know, and then after yes,and the big demand after that, a
big demand more special, a bigdemand more special for outdoor
(30:29):
environments, outdoor decks,patios.
You know people are spendingmore time on their homes so they
want more outdoors.
So we grew a lot of ourbusiness on that and we brought
people in that are more, youknow, oriented for the, you know
, residential part, projectmanagers and all of that.
And you know the whole teamthat we have is people that are
(30:53):
veterans that have been in theindustry on those sections,
right, and I mean I couldn'tcount how many crews we have
running because we do five orsix trades, right.
So we have four or fivepainters, we have three or four
siding crews, we have one guttercrew, we have two window crews
(31:13):
uh, that are kind of moving jobsfor us, um, what else?
And that's we have two.
I have my dad guy my main dadguy has been with me for 11
years now, great guy.
And then we have three DAXcrews now, and so those are the
usual suspects.
They're there on the monthlybase, weekly base, that we try
(31:36):
to keep them busy, and so it's alot of moving parts.
It's not a simple window job orpaint job that you come in two,
three days.
You paint a house or installwindows in one, two days, or a
roof that you install in one,two, three days, right.
So when we approach the project, and it's beneficial to us, but
it's also hard because theclient wants to deal with one
(31:59):
contractor, and then we have aroof, you have windows and you
have painting siding, so it's alot of moving parts, so the
project takes a little bitlonger.
So it's a lot more involved.
We're more hands-on.
The projects, or projectmanagers, have to be trained on
all trades, right, and so, uh,but it's, it's, you know, it's
fun.
It's fun because, uh, we get tosee the big transformation, we
(32:21):
get to see homes that arecompletely, you know, like brand
new homes, so so that, that, uh, that sense of accomplishment
is it's, it's great so how muchtime passed from you coming to
the states to go to college andyou starting your own business
(32:41):
so five years.
So because I started mellow in2005, can you?
Speaker 1 (32:47):
imagine uh, let's say , you just went to china, right,
didn't know the language.
And then, five years later, she, she yeah he probably said that
wrong too, I did and I wouldhave too.
Right that is.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
I mean, that is such an amazing story I mean so many
hurdles to overcome to do this.
This is the great Americanstory, and that's I go back to
where I started.
You brought it up again Fiveyears.
He got here.
He did it the right way, didn't?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
know the language and so you know, he learns a trade,
and then he has to figure out.
However, in our system, youstart a business, like you said,
insurance and everything else,but then you got to figure out
how to hire people, you got tofigure out how to sell, you got
to figure out how to provide theservice and you got to figure
(33:34):
out how to follow up.
You got all the back end stuff,the accounting, I mean.
That is amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, looking back, it's been a journey.
It's been a journey I enjoy.
I enjoy building, I enjoylearning, I enjoy building
myself, I enjoy serving otherpeople and one of the biggest
things for me too, when they,when they call home of the free
(34:05):
and of the brave, I mean I thinkat some some reason I have to
be a brave to leave my family.
I have to be brave to leave myfamily, you know, and come and
and learn.
But I had nothing but greatexperience in this country,
nothing but great experiencewith people with, uh, you know,
identifying with the values youknow.
(34:28):
I don't know because the way Iwas raised, you know, and and
all of that, and I think that'sand so you know there's a
political statement right there.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Stop what the media is telling you.
Go talk to your neighbors.
Go talk to your friends, go goonce once again.
Just go back to your circle ofpeople.
You know, is it really that bad?
In fact, go talk to somebodywho you don't even think
identifies, like you do withtheir the political scheme.
You're going to find out.
You got more in common than youdon't, and I think that's where
we're missing out, because youhear all this rhetoric right now
(34:58):
about closing the borders, ofdoing this and uh and I was at
the National Convention for Narytalking about this, excuse me
that we're going to have lesslaborers again, because if we
don't let people in, who buildshomes, who works on homes,
immigrants they always have.
That's just what happens, andwe want them to be here because
a lot of the people here in theUS don't want to go do it.
(35:20):
Let's face it.
I want to get more kids in thetrades that live here and right
now, uh, the more we push andnarrate to do it, uh, more of
them are going.
Uh, believe or not, it'sactually starting to happen.
Is it pretty cool?
I'm seeing in welding, I'mseeing it in electrical, I'm
seeing in plumbing all theskilled trades, uh, carpentry,
painting, putting up siding.
(35:40):
Not so much, no, not yet yeah,why did I tell you.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And it pays good, you know, if the kids you know
doesn't have the status of you,have a college degree, go work
for a bank teller or you know,in a suit, uh, but you can raise
a family, you can build yourlife, you know, on the trade, as
you were saying, yeah sothere's a, you know, it's just.
I think it's a mindset, it's aculture that has to change
(36:05):
because, as you said, we'reshort on the field.
It's always.
You know.
My only recollection was in2008, what we had when we had
the big you know housing crisis,that you know we're short and
in work and uh, but uh, man,since that has been demand,
demand, demand demand.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
You brought that up.
Uh, and so in 2008, when thathappened there, the trades were
rising and what happened was thetrades fell apart.
Remember it was two, it was ayear and a half yeah, I don't
remember 2008 also so you do.
But uh, we won't bring it up,but bring it up in the trades.
What?
What kids were told from theirparents were don't get in
anything related to homes,because the homes of what
(36:47):
brought us down real estate hasbrought us down.
The whole world was broughtdown because of people who built
homes and people who live inhomes.
Oh wait, what do you do?
So the 2008 kids who are nowgone and they're in their late
twenties, right and in theworkforce now, the next kids
coming up, haven't seen that yetthey're saying wait a minute.
You mean, uh, you mean aplumber can make a hundred
(37:09):
thousand dollars a year.
Uh, yeah, as a matter of fact.
You mean a handyman can make 90grand a year.
As a matter of fact, I havefive.
That's how you can say, whoa,that's pretty good money.
You're like, yeah, but I can bean it guy and make, uh, 90, 100
, whatever.
So we're making the same money,but you get to go do something
that people see and go, wow, youjust solved my problem.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Make a difference.
Yeah, I'm with you there, 100%.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
So, fernando, we're coming to the end and, man, this
has been great.
I love the story.
I also know you've been growingyour business.
Where do you want it to be?
What's a great success plan foryou?
Where are you at now, as you'regrowing your business and doing
your things?
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I was asked this question, you know, and my
answer is always whenever thegood Lord allows me to be, I
don't want to lose control of mybusiness, I don't want to be a
slave of my business, I don'twant to lose my time with my
family, but I want to grow andso, you know, with those
(38:09):
parameters in line, I'm justgoing to keep pushing and I
don't want to lose my reputationbecause I think my, I have two
boys.
I have two boys, five or six.
He just turned six May 1st andsoon to be nine.
So you know, I'm building forthem.
I'm building for me, you know,for my reputation.
If they want one day to take upon, great.
(38:31):
If not, you know I'll keepdoing what I do.
I really enjoy it.
I really enjoy, you know, seepeople successful.
You know that started to workfor us and grow.
Um, you know, and I reallyenjoy.
See the homeowners sometimeswhen they see the result and the
reviews and and what they sayto the, you know, to the crews
(38:53):
or to to our manager, about thecrews, you know that truly, that
truly gives you joy it does.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
It does when you get that great review when somebody
comes to like?
I had one of my guys come to methe other day and say, chris, I
just got a $200 tip.
Cause I uh should I?
I said he started to stammer.
I'm like cause he realized youjust told the boss that he got a
$200 tip.
I'm like where's my cut, bro?
But no, I said absolutely, mattslept on the back.
(39:19):
I'm like isn do and keep doingit.
So I just that gives me themost joy as a business owner is
to watch my team perform in thein the uh, hopefully in the
environment that I presentedthem in uh, to go out there and
make that artistry happen.
So I amen to you doing that.
I think that's hard to dobecause you said, uh, some
(39:41):
things early on.
Let's see, I've uh sold myself.
I sold my soul.
Um, I was like no, no, no ohwait, I did not do it like
fernando, but here I am anyway,alan, what should we do next?
Should we go for questions?
Let's do it, yeah, all right,but before we do that, fernando,
everybody needs to know how togo out and see you guys.
You guys are on social, you'reon the website.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Go out there and hit that up there, because you gotta
go check out what m&m homemysterious doing yeah, so we're
all social media facebook,instagram, tiktok, youtube, at
sidingalantacom, and the companyname is eminem home exteriors.
We just google and you can findus nice.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
All right, let's do it.
Fernando, hopefully you've beenstudied up on this because we
know, yeah, here we go what is abook you you'd recommend to all
of our?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
so I taught a lot about that because I'm not a big
reader.
But you know, recently, with mykids growing up, we got a lot
of little kids' Bibles and Iread the Bible stories to them.
My kids go to a Christianschool, as you did, and so I
think Bible for me is number one.
It's my to-go you-go book forguidance and for everything.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Heavy.
I like it, and there's actuallya lot of good business
principles.
There are you?
Speaker 3 (40:59):
know what.
In fact, I probably would havemore fun reading the kid's Bible
.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
They have pictures for you Because they have
pictures.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
You could read it and they dumb it down for this kid.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
They simplify and we absorb the message and you're at
8 pm long day of work and thenyou're reading that little story
and your kid asks you aquestion and then it hits you oh
, that's what they meant by thepassage right.
That's what ethics looks like.
That's what being good lookslike.
(41:28):
That's what doing right lookslike.
That's what doing right lookslike.
So it's been great for me.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I love that one.
That's a great one.
All right, Number two what'sthe favorite feature of your
home?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
We spend a lot of time on our backyard Surprise,
backyard exactly.
Love to grill.
Love to grill steaks.
Play soccer with the boys, butmostly cook for them how do you
do your steaks?
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I want to hear some good tips from a guy from Brazil
medium rare baby what do youput on it?
The?
Speaker 2 (42:01):
secret is charcoal and rock salt or sea salt.
That's it for us.
You have to's some, some.
You have to add a little bit offat meat and wear and let that
fat melt on the steak.
You know, someday I have tocook for you guys.
I'm coming over.
Are you kidding me?
Listen, we're doing a home andhome, we're bringing it over
(42:23):
eminem home exteriors and he'sgonna cook for us, all right.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
And mama lalamia, ah, mama la la mia's, all right,
guys, I got my sauce, okay, mysuku, all right.
So, uh, fernando, one of thethings that ellen and I talk
about all the time is customerservice.
You brought it up, you broughtup disney, but one of the things
we kind of are, we're kind ofcustomer service freaks.
What's a customer service petpeeve of yours when you're out
and you're the customer?
Speaker 2 (42:47):
You know, when you're talking to someone and they
just roll the eyes and you knowdisconcern, that boils my brain,
you know.
Just, you know disconcerting ofyour.
You know, if I don't understandwhat's going on, explain to me,
right?
(43:07):
So communication is based onthat, because a lot it's just
communication.
Right, we were in that, notPanama city the other day and we
had some issues with our hoteland you know we talked to this
front desk, you know, associate,and he was not helpful, let's
say this way, disregarding to us, right?
Speaker 3 (43:25):
He's saying it nicely because the Bible told him to
do that.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Chris who, regarding to us, right.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
He's saying it nicely because the bible told him to
do that.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Chris, who hasn't read the bible in a little bit,
especially not the kids versionwould have said like hey, bro,
pull your head out of your assor I'm gonna pull it out for you
no, you want to say that youwant, even if they can't give
you the answer you want.
If they care about the problemas much as you do, then then
you're okay that's it, that's itcare about we talked to
somebody else and she wasexactly exactly that.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
She showed that she cared, she showed that she
understood, and sometimesthere's no remedy for the
situation, right, there's not agood remedy for the situation,
but she made me, she made usfeel good, and that's.
I think that's a big one, rightthere.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
How about that?
That's a good one.
All right, two for two.
All right, fernando, here we go, oh boy All right Two for two.
All right, fernando, here we go.
Oh boy, we want a DIY nightmarestory.
Now you're a contractor, you'vedone some stuff, you've done
siding.
I'll give you.
Before you even get started,I'll give you one.
I didn't do, but I was therewhile my crew did it.
And that is.
We're at the house.
(44:22):
I'm asking the customer how'severything going Great?
He customer how's everythinggoing great?
I said he goes.
I do have a project I want todo inside the house.
I'm like, great, let's go thereand look.
He goes yeah, I'd like to refacade my, uh, my, my, my hearth
.
I want the stone away and Iwant to do a marble.
I'm like, great, right, as he'ssaying that we watch a nail
come flying through the drywallbecause they're doing the siding
(44:43):
right above there.
And I'm like, yeah, not gonnawin this one, am I?
Speaker 1 (44:48):
oh my god there's so many my friends.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Oh my god, I was sitting right there.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
I'm like yep, uh, I can't remember if we won that
job.
I will tell you we dideverything right.
We got it fixed, because I wentflying back out.
I'm like yeah, I think youmissed it, bro.
Yeah, that thing went flyingright through that is key, right
there.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
That is key, chris, because you know, on the end of
the day, you only have so muchcontrol off the um of the site
or of your crew.
Right, sometimes things happenand all you can do is fix them
as your best ability.
But, uh, this one client inroswell not say a name uh, she
(45:27):
was very difficult and very uh,you know we didn't do anything
wrong.
And she started yelling ourguys, we had, you know, we had
plans, we have the whole project, we're building a deck.
And then she starts raisinghell, you're not doing this
right, this is not too cold.
And yada, yada, yada.
And then she ended up, you know, kicking the crew out.
(45:49):
Well, my crew said we're, we'renot working on this job anymore
and they left.
And so I went, talked to her,explained to her.
They came back, she all up thenagain, I don't even know where
her concerns were because shecouldn't articulate.
So we got the city of roswellinvolved, the county, you know,
we had plant, we had businesspermit, we had a building permit
(46:09):
, we had architectural plans, wewere following the plans, and
we got the building inspectorand he's like no, that's the
code, that they're buildingeverything through code and then
she let us finish the job.
She let us finish the job.
She was very, you know, you cansee that she was still not
(46:33):
satisfied, you know.
But once she, you know, once wefinished the job, we cleaned
everything and we finished thedeck, she was amazed.
She left good reviews for useverywhere, you know.
And so, yeah, I, I don't accept,you know, I don't accept, even
if we had made a mistake, right,that you're going to yell at at
(46:56):
our team, because, at the endof the day, I see that we, the
success that I have, or ourcompany has, is because of our
group, it's because of ouremployees, our crews, from the
salespeople, the consultants,from our manager, from our phone
, the person answering thecustomer service, from the
(47:20):
project manager, from the peoplethat execute the job.
And if you do something wrong,you go back back, you fix it,
you pay for it, you remedy, butdon't disrespect, right, there's
no right to disrespect our crew, and you know that's I, I guess
that's the, you know there'smany, like I said, but that's
(47:42):
that's one that, uh, I was verymild to describe this client I
like what you just said.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
That's been awesome.
You can tell you've been humble.
All right, guys, we learnedsomething.
We learned that you know whatthe true american immigrant.
It's a sex story, the horatioalter story.
That's what we talked about.
That's what we all got to see.
He saw disney.
He says I'm going to, I'm goingto, I'm going, I'm just gonna
go do it.
He did it.
He did it and he's living by acode that is amazing.
(48:10):
He's living by the bible.
He's teaching his young boyswhat, what it takes to be a real
good person in this world,doing what we're doing and takes
joy, and what he's doing eachand every day.
Take some lessons from thisstuff.
You learn something that's onyou.
Hey, by the way, don't beafraid to go out there and tell
some people about us, becausealan, I don't like the whining
chris.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Don't be whining chris.
Hey, put your boy britches onput your big boy britches on.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Let's go right up and say we gotta get going.
Get out there, tell everybodyabout us because we're the
freaking bomb baby.
You gotta go.
Cheers everybody.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the small business
safari.
Remember your positive attitudewill help you achieve that
higher altitude you're lookingfor in the wild world of small
business ownership.
And until next time, make it agreat day.
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