May 6, 2025 • 47 mins
Kristina Johnson sits down with Brookelyn Avila, the trailblazing founder and CEO of Van Sharks—America’s fastest‑growing van‑conversion company—to uncover the grit, strategy, and heart behind her seven‑figure success, from scaling coast‑to‑coast Sprinter and Ford Transit builds and mastering the post‑COVID van‑life boom that’s eclipsing traditional RVs, to sharing practical funding and branding tips—think pink overalls and unapologetic confidence—for women entrepreneurs and mompreneurs, revealing the innovation story behind DIY conversion kits, CNC‑driven production and future Van Sharks factories, and demonstrating true resilience as she balances single‑mom life, navigates divorce and bankruptcy cleanup, and emerges stronger from hard times.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Are you looking for a podcast that you just can't miss?
Join me as I interviewed Brooklyn Avela. She is the
owner of Van Sharks, which is the fastest growing van
conversion company in the nation. She's going to talk about
her journey, her triumph, and her struggles as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You don't want to miss this.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Behind Her Business.
I'm very excited about my interview today. We have the
one and only Brooklyn Avela from Van Sharks here visiting us.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
If you don't know, now you know.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Van Sharks is a conversion of van conversion company here
based in Houston, Texas, but hey, they do everything international.
Thank you for coming in, Brooklyn, Thank you for having me.
I'm so glad to be here. I have been so
excited to have you on this podcast because number one,
she's a client of mine. She's worked with kJ Marketing Group.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What is right? How that was it been the last
two year and a half? Mate, it's been over a
year for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, Okay, So we have seen her her experience, we've
seen her grow and her journey. So I want people
to really get to know who Brooklyn Avla is the entrepreneur,
the mom, the woman, pretty much everything. Okay, but let's
jump into first. I want to know why van conversion,
because you are you know, van conversion. It's a different
(01:35):
type of business, you know, what is the gap in
the industry. Why did you decide it's such a different
type of service to have, it's more of a unique service.
Tell me a little bit why you decided to go
this route.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You know, if somebody had told me even five years ago,
really honestly, even three years ago, that this is what
I would be doing right now, I would have laughed
at them.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And I don't get an offer ortunity to share this
story very often, but I guess it was at the
end of twenty twenty three where I had another business
partner that I was partners with in another company came
to me and said, you know, hey, I had this
guy reach out that I had bought a van from
(02:19):
several years back and let me know he was going
bankrupt and wanted to see if we'd be interested in
starting a van conversion company with him. And so I said,
I don't know anything about van conversions, what are you
talking about? And you know, but I did a little
bit of market research and then came to understand that
you know, these sprinter vans more you know, for transit
(02:41):
whatever it may be that we ride around in to
go to the rodeo or you know, go back and
forth to our resorts in Mexico or whatever it may be.
Mercedes Benz doesn't actually make those. They make the van,
but they don't do that work to the inside of them.
And I thought, oh, that's actually very into interesting. Okay,
you think it would be an upgrade for Mercedes to
(03:03):
do that, you would think, right, But you know, I
think what it is is that a lot of the
major car manufacturers, I mean there they have their bread
and butter is are the cars, right, You've got Ford
where they've got trucks, They've got you know, the sedans,
they've got the svs, right, They're not really in the
van space.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
There's a whole van life out there. People. Oh yeah,
there's a huge I mean, this is a whole pandemic
going on. I mean it is after COVID.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I think a lot of people realized, you know, that
it was easier to you know, pack your life up
and just get on the road, right, and vans are
significantly more convenient than r vs are.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I mean, you could be off gride with them.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You don't have to park it in an RV park
if you don't want to spend the extra money to
park at the RV park.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, fun fact, you can park it any Walmart in
the US and overnight and they will not tell you.
That's very advice, y'all. But's some very freaki facts. So
I said, you know, I have a healthy appetite for risk.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I've been a cereal entrepreneur most of my life. And
so I said, what the hell?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Uh? And so at the time, I had a full
time job and working for that partner's law firm, and uh,
that's d I was like, who is this baddie? Who's
this bad boss lady? Yeah, it's immediately intrigued by you.
I'm like, just okay, I want to work with her. Well,
I appreciate that we did meet at the law firm.
(04:26):
You guys came in and uh, oh gosh, this is
my boa calling me.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I'll call him back. Bo's I'm cat stright.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I'm too old to say boyfriend. That's embarrassing. I'm divorced now,
so I'm you know I'm dating. Yeah, after you've been
married to say boyfriend, You're like, it feels funny, right,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And we're having wine because on a podcast you can
pretty much do whatever you want. That's exactly right here.
It's aster five pm, so cheers here. It wasn't, we'd
still be drinking. Okay. Sometimes it's just that way.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So anyways, I was working this full time job and
had two other businesses that I was partnered in and
was feeling twenty twenty three was a very difficult year
for me personally. I lost my mom at the beginning
of the year. Obviously, we started Van Sharks beginning of
twenty Gosh, I always get my years mixed up. No,
(05:20):
I'm sorry. Those are two big life changes. But it
was a very big life change, right. So I lost
my mom in twenty three, got divorced also that same year,
and then also had about a thyroid cancer that year
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So it was a lot all at once.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I mean most of the time. I used to have
really bad anxiety. And I was telling somebody recently who
had anxiety. I said, yeah, I used to have really
bad anxiety, and.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
She goes, well, what, like, what did you do. Why
don't you have anxiety?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Moore? And I said, oh, well, I am basically just
every terrible thing I could think of that could happen
to me happened all within twelve months of each other.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And I survived. And so, you know, that's a really
good way of putting it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Though you put it's almost like exposure therapy, but serious,
like real equotric therapy.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So I had exposure therapy that year. It was just
you know, what I.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Will say is I don't wish that kind of hell
and torment on anybody.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
However, I do think that I don't live.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
With anxiety anymore, which is so nice. So I think
it did a lot for me. And so when we
started twenty twenty four. When I started twenty twenty four,
I said, you know what, I work super hard.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I'm now a single mom.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I have my five year old and my seven year
old that I want to be able to spend time with.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I also want to kind of share with them what
I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And I feel very passionate about this little place called
Maan Sharks. And so I said, you know what, fuck it,
I'm done. I'm done with the corporate life. I'm done
being disingenuous. I'm gonna I'm gonna take this over. And
so I presented a buyout agreement to my partner, which
he was gracious enough to accept, and I took over.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And I have had to learn a whole lot of
things since then. Were you like a kid in the
candy store?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Like? No, me.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
The first day in You're like, I got my own business, Now,
what am I going to do? No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I honestly, I wish that it had been that way.
It was very overwhelming at first. I had already sunk
so much money into Vancharks up to that point because
I was still a partner in it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So I was thinking, Okay, well here's my life savings.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Let's make the best of it, right, And so, you know,
it was a little overwhelming at first, but I was
really grateful to walk in, work with the team and
get start getting my hands dirty out in the.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Shop and learn how to build bands. So how did
you get most of your first customers before you contact
a kJ marketing group? So most of the.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
First customers, actually, they came from this conversion company that
we I guess I should actually touch on this. This
conversion company that we were going to start with this
gentleman who had gone bankrupt. We actually could not work
with him. So that was another big thing that happened
(08:05):
in twenty twenty three. So he owed Texas State Comptroller
several million dollars, which we didn't know, and we decided
that we were going to invest all this money into
opening a new company. And so we were like, man,
he became radioactive, super fast, and he had.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
All the industry knowledge institutions, and You're like, I need
this guy. Correct. I was like, oh my god, okay,
So it was very it was really scary.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So I looked at my partner at that point and
I said, all right, well, we have two options. We
cut our losses or we roll up barsleeves and dig
ourselves out the old fashion way.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And so that's obviously what we chose to do.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
But a lot of the first clients that we had, unfortunately,
they were clients that he had, and I didn't know
this at the time, but I've obviously found out later
he had taken money from them and never finished their van. No.
And it's actually it's interesting because it's something that I
have seen happen a lot, just in other areas. You know,
(09:01):
as I've as I've gotten further along in business, it
happens all the time. I highly recommend don't wire somebody
fifty thousand dollars if you've never seen their facility, if
you have a zniar research. I know it's crazy and
I don't think this. So here's what I'll say. I mean,
I don't want to talk negatively about anybody. I don't
think that the gentleman that owned the you know company
(09:22):
that wanted to you know, start something with us, I
don't think that he was end doing that.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Do I think that he could have been more honest
about where he was at?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Do I think that he could have done more? Yes?
I do.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So what I ended up doing is, you know, I
took those projects on and I just did my best
to try to do that, finished them up for those
clients at at cost for us, but we, unfortunately, you know,
were not able to do them for You still have
to make a profit right, or you want to do
right because most of these people are going to come
back to you then, which is very important in business.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know, never treat no matter how much.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
A client spending they are, you treat them like a
million dollar client because you never emails where that can
go and you want to establish that trust, right, You're
good at that?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, I know, I would like to think so you
know when you should.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And it's a small world out there, right, so you
treat everybody the same, it doesn't matter who they are.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So those were where our first clients came from.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
And then you know, I just kind of started putting
boots to ground and started going around to the different
Mercedes dealerships that we have here in Houston, started doing.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It was mostly that for me until I met you, uh, but.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Then obviously we got connected with you guys, and it
went it went from it like this. And so then
my next problem was fixing production. How do we scale
because now the phone rings off the hook because of
kJ marketing, So how do we let production keep up
with sales?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Right? And so that was another big monster to tackle.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, I think too, like how do you say innovative,
which is why you've got You've brought in your DIY
kids into the mix. Yeah, because some people don't you know,
and you can ship those pretty much everywhere. So you
come up with those ideas and how to be innovative
against other competitors that might not be doing that, and
that's a very unique thing that you have going on.
You have a CAD designer. Yeah, I mean so, like,
I think you're really good at that innovation piece.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, I appreciate that. You know. One of the first.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Things that I was very interested in. You know, I
think a really big piece of unsolicited advice for anybody
out there is that you know you really as a
business owner. I don't think there's anything that should be
going on within the business that you don't know how
to do. Yes, Oh my god, I am so happy
you said that. When I first started the agency, I
was running the Facebook ads, I was doing all the
(11:39):
social media. Yeah, I was learning analytics. I was up
to like three or four in the morning. Yeah, trying
to figure out how the hell am I going to
do this. I love that about you, you know, and
some people will disagree, right I just here's the thing,
and I'm very fortunate. I have a great team, and
you know, I don't think any of them that I
have the or now, wouldever do this to me. But
(12:01):
you know, when you grow and you scale and you
hire more people, not everybody's always going to be ten
out of ten, right, yes, and people will hold what
you don't know against you. I mean every single day
of the week. And so you know, you have this
thirty year old woman coming in here who says, you
know what, I just decided I was going to buy
the business and now I'm going to take over. Hello,
(12:22):
and I'm gonna what sit behind a desk and just
boss everybody around. No, I bought myself a pink tool belt,
I got a pair of overalls, and I got out
in the shop and started.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Working with the guys. Yeah. Well, it's almost earning respect.
I feel like you earn your results that way. It's
like paying your dues. Like I'm going to get in there,
I'm going to know how to do this, and that's
that's a boss bitch. Well, thank you. I'd like to
think so. And yeah, I mean, you know it's a
male dominated industry. This is so funny.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I didn't tell you this, but recently I went out
I think I told Shehruthy when they came for the
content shoot.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
But I went out to go change A client.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Had a factory battery that was bad, and so I
didn't have an extra set of hands to throw at
it because we are busy on production.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Uh. And so I go out to change it myself,
no problem. And I walk out there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And he goes, He's like, where's your tech And I said, oh, no, no,
that's me. You know, I'm the tech today, right, And
so he goes, uh, he goes.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You're gonna do it?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean just stunned, and I said, uh, yeah, I'm
gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And he goes, okay. He's like, well, you know, doubting me, right,
it happens so often. Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
And so he walks over to, uh the hood of
the spriner and he's like, well, let me get pop
the hood for you.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And I was like, it's not under the hood, it's
not worried.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
That is great, and he and he questioned me, Christina,
I swear to you. He goes, are you sure.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
No, I've only been doing this for the past few years.
And I'm yeah, yeah, I'm up to my ears and
spurners all day. I said, well, I said, yeah, I'm
pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
But I tell you what, if you want to look
under there for the battery, I'm gonna be over here
where it actually is.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
But if you want to look under there for it,
let me. If you fine one. Do you get this often?
And we're not downing men here, guys like that is
we're not den haters. We're not men haters. No, but
I mean not all the time. You know, I come from.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
An automotive background, very very similar, you know, advertising, we
still advertise for automotive. Yeah, and walking into a dealership,
the first impression is like, Okay, what does this woman know?
And you have to know, you have to be smarter,
you have to be on point, you have to know
your shit when you walk in there to gain the respect.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I mean, and you know, I don't want to make
it a man woman thing, but I think that you know,
when you do work in a male dominated industry, it's
very important as a as a woman to really.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Know your shit.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh absolutely absolutely. They snip that a mile away if
they will, they sure will. So I want to pivot
to branding because, in my opinion, you are one of
my clients has the most amazing branding. A lot of
clients don't want to be necessarily the face of their business.
They want their business just to be the business. I
(14:59):
think whenever people start, you know, they get they talk
to an advertising agency like ourselves and they come to
us with those questions.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
You know, we want to brand our business. How should
we do this?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, I want it to look corporate or I wanted
to look like a family business. I want it to
be more organic and local. Like you know, we help
them distinguish what we want, what they should have, what
that should look like. But my question is, did you
go through that battle, like that inner battle in your
head in the beginning. Do I want my face in
front of everything? And do I want to brand it
that way? Or do I want to brand it just
(15:28):
as a you know, a business without a face. Tell me,
like your thought process there and why you decided I'm
going to be the face of this business. That's an
interesting question. So initially I did not want to be
the face of the business, which is initially everybody's. I'm
the same way. It'd be forever to shield my face. Yeah,
I mean you it's it's I don't I'm gonna say this,
(15:52):
and it's controversial, I'm sure. But you know the other
thing about being a woman is that you know you
wonder they're big thing come conceited?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Or is it's just about herself or she you know this?
That and the other I'm at the stage of life
right now, or I just don't give a fuck.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Would be on it's about forty. I'm pretty impressed. Well
thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I'm you know, I feel seventy years old. Just duck
a sim On, Well thank you. I'm a little I'm
got roseesia and now we've been drinking, so I'm a.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Little red memis too. You have roseasia. No, I get red,
I get baby. You have rosly have it. And it's
so funny because you would and I get hot. That's
why would changed the ace so hot. I think I
can just tell people I get excited. That's what happens.
I definitely have clinically been diagnosed with a prota. Ladies,
(16:43):
if you have that, just we're a high neck. That's
what I do. Yeah, yes, or turn the ac down.
We're gonna drink anyways.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So you know, at some point I just became really proud,
right I was like, you shouldn't be.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I was like, this was a big deal. It's a
big deal. You own a business. I mean, that is
a huge deal, you know, And it's not even that.
I mean, I don't I just the road with Van Trade.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I am absolutely going to write a book about it
one day, because I think that it has been you know,
if you look at my social media, my personal social media,
I'm real honest on but if you look at the
Van Shark social media, everybody's like, oh my god, you
guys are killing it.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, it's absolutely and now they were not killing it.
But it's hard. You want to start talking about cash flow,
you want to start talking about you know, it's really hard. Absolutely,
these conversations. It's not easy.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And so you know, just at some point I did.
I found myself feeling very proud, and you know, I
had talked to Tim and I talked to a couple
other people, Hannah on the team. I'm like, y'all like
being videos, right, and they didn't want to, and I
was like, well, damn, if y'all are going to talk
about it, I will because I'm fucking proud of us,
all of us. It's absolutely when you're representing everybody and
(18:02):
when they see you out there doing this, I mean,
they does give your team the excitement. They're like, okay, yeah, yeah,
so the pink overalls, I love those.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You guys need to watch her clips on Instagram. TikTok.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
We do those you got to watch them pink overall.
I read why that tell me why you decided on
the overalls. So the pink overalls, man, that was just
I bought those on a whim and I ordered them
on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
The first pair of overalls I order were green.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
They were just your regular old like Nae green Wrangler overalls,
and those have seen a lot of shop time. The
pink overalls had never seen a day in the shop
until last week. But I was on Amazon one day
just kind of surfing, and I was like, I wonder
if they made pink overalls hot pink overalls.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Of course they do. Yeah, they make everything you find
anything on Amazon, Thanks Jeff. Somebody in China made those.
Somebody yeah, who knows?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And so I bought them and I was like, you
know what, fuck, I'm gonna start wearing these are my
social videos.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And I don't know, people love them. They're great, Like
when I don't wear them.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I didn't wear them for some of the content that
we did toward the end of last year, and so
I have some content in the green overalls and I'll
get messages from friends and family like where are your
pink overalls? Would you do to them?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know, we saw that you had paint all over
your green ones. What you do to the pink ones?
And oh my god, you know whatever. I don't know,
but I'm they're your signature.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So branding, so you know, branding yourself. I think that's important.
What type of advice would you give a business owner
that's having the same type of dilemma in their head?
You know, they're they're starting their business, so they want
to be the face of their business.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
What would be your advice to them? This is gonna
sound cliche, but I'm gonnay it. Anyways.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Fear stops people from so many things. Fear of what
people are going to say about you, fear of you know, how,
how just how is this going to be perceived? You know,
I wrote something when I turned thirty this this year
last year, toward the end of last year, September, and
one of the things that I read something right before
(20:11):
I turned thirty, and it was about happiness, and one
of the it gives me chills. One of the sentences
in that little script that I read was happiness is
waking up every day without fear of how you are perceived,
but feeling comfortable and quiet in your own skin. So
if you're proud of something.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Be loud about it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Who cares, right, It actually really doesn't matter what you
do in life. If you're doing something great and you're
doing great all the time. That goes from motherhood too.
You can seen in breastfeed or you can bottle feed,
and someone's always going to have something to say, absolutely
either way. And it's the same for being a business owner.
So do what feels right to you in your heart
(20:52):
right and don't worry about what other people think.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I mean, don't jump on your Instagram and give people
the middle finger.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I probably wouldn't recommend that do something that you know
is going to cause a stir on purpose heretic you're
troda something.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And even same thing with that podcast. I'm like, this
is my my my love. I want to talk to
business owners. I have a broadcast journalism degree. I can't
help myself, you guys, but you.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Know, this is a passion project of mine, and it's
one of those things where you're putting yourself in a
situation where people to judge you, but you know what,
they're not doing it. Yeah, So if they're judging you
and you're not doing it, then I'm sorry said you
didn't take the chance.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
To do it. To do it, I'm glired by the haters.
I I might get the boy worry if I don't
have haters. So do you have haters, Brooklyn?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I love, of course I have haters. Now, okay, So
there are two types of haters in this world. There
are haters that will hate you and you know they
hate you. And then there are haters that are your friends.
I don't pretty tense, not pretend to be your friend's acquaintance.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I don't have any of it. See that's good. Or
you have somebody who acts like your acquaintance, but they
might not want us toe you succeed. What have you experienced?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I have experienced those, and I'm real quick to snaple mountain.
Oh same here, yeah here, it's.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Not my vibe.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I don't I don't hang out you know people like that.
I don't give my iner. No friendly vibe over here?
Oh no, never, never, and not from here either.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I mean, you know it's.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I mean, how often do you get text for me? Hey,
I'm gonna I'm gonna refer you to this client. I
love it, but I might Yeah, you're my number one.
I mean we're all it's fucking hard to.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Build something from nothing.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And so you know, I'm always you know, if I
have something come up and I'm real hard to get
a hold of them, and I'll just say that, right
I'm not always.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
In the way text you because if you make it
I text you, I get a better result.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yes, And if I'm sitting in front of my computer,
I can just respond right then and there. But you know,
I'm hard to get a hold of. So I'm not
always a super great friend. I'm not, but I am
always thinking about how can I help my my friends.
And you know, I sniff people out really quickly who
do not have the best rice. But as far as
a hater, this came up actually this week and it's
(22:55):
so funny. So there is a custom conversion company out
in Irving who I've actually sent clients to. I They're
one of the only companies that I will match their estimates.
If a client, you know, comes to me and says, hey,
I got an estimate from this company, I'm not gonna
say who it is.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
But are you sure you don't want to say who
it is? Look at me just stirring the drama. Okay, fine,
and I couldna say who it is.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
If they ever hear this podcast, and I hope they do,
they'll know who did. But I've actually purchased things from
them because they they you know, wholesale some stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And uh, you know, I was actually.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
In their office, uh, probably seven months ago, uh and
I was sitting there and I was listening to one
of their one of their employees, talk about on the
phone with the client talking about a warranty issue with
an electrical system. And I've had to learn a lot
about electricity.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I had. I had.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Somebody asked me recently, where did you get your electrical
engineering degree?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
And I said, right here at Vancemarks. We have classes,
don't you know you should start one? So there you go,
Nari Duppert. I had to learn out.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Of necessity because you know, we got to make the
bands work, not just look nice. Right.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Anyways, and so when they were talking to this client,
client was having an electrical issue, and I was like, oh,
this is this is what you need, right And I
actually sat there and shared with them info and have
since then. Every time I have a new vendor, come
see me. We do a lot of advertising obviously with
you guys, we're very well known at this point, and
so I have vendors come in all the time trying
to show us new products.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And I love when that happens.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And every time I have a new vendor come in,
I send it over to this company.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
So I had a client, you know, our mobile medspa. Yes,
I love that mobile med spa. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
And you know what, I've become really close with the
owner of the mobile Medspa.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I need to go see her.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
The most beautiful I've ever looked is when she got
her hands on my base.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yes, yes, she is so talented.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So but we did a mobile metspaw for her, and
we've gotten a lot of people wanting us to do
these sprinter spas.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
I own sprinterspa dot com, by the way, which is amazing.
I know. I bought it genius.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Actually I bought it a few years ago and uh
for ninety nine cents on godad I know, We're like,
it's gonna come in handy at some point I knew
it would. It was before it was before we ever
had this mobile mets ball client, before any of that.
But I bought it and I had somebody offer me
twenty grand board.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
The other day, Well, don't do it. No, I'm not.
I'm holding onto it.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
One day someone's gonna offer me a million for it,
and I'll be like, okay, okay, we're a million, maybe
a million, maybe a million. Five Yeah, exactly, always pushing
the annie, yes exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So, uh, this client, you know, so we did Mobile
Med's Ball.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
We did a great YouTube video about it, and somebody
else found us to do another Mobile Med's Ball from
that YouTube video and he was shopping around just to
kind of get quotes from other people, and he called
this other company h and so they quoted him like
triple what we did. And we have I mean, we
(25:59):
have excellent part. You know, we really cuetitive. We're very competitive, if.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
You know you and the truth is, and we're still
higher than some other people.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
But at the end of the day, you get what
you paid for and you know, but we're pretty competitive
as it relates to other people. Part of that is
because we have C and C we you know, are
able to do things faster and so you know, for
that reason we're able to you know, there's value there.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Because there is value there. Time is money. So this other.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Company, the owner calls my new potential client who closed
today by the way, before I came over here, thank you.
But this owner of this other company calls him and said,
and they've been in business for like fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I mean, they'd be doing it in a lot longer
than I have.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Uh calls him and says, you know, Vanchharks does really
terrible work.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You're kidding.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
No, they do really shoddy work. And you know they
they're just you know, the quality is just not there.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That is not I know. And so my client goes.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That would turn me off, as somebody at the shorane,
it would completely turn me off.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Oh, you're just this is sad. It did it did right,
And so the client calls us back.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
He calls Hannah. It's it's you know, technically it's her client.
And so he calls Hannah, our director at sales, and says,
you won't believe what I just heard from.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
The person that you are referring business.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yes, that we that we spent highly in that we
purchased things from right, Uh, you won't believe what I
just heard from them, And so UH tells her this
and and of course Hannah said, what, ma'am, I'm shocked
to hear that right, But you know, I don't have
anything bad.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
To say about them because that's just who we are.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yes, right, Oh, you guys all have integrity and you
do stand behind your product a dad.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It is just that's one hundred percent. And I'd like
to know who.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Uh I want to say the name so bad, but
I'm not going to. I'm not messy like that. And
just sometimes I feel just put in.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
A comment on this. Put in the comment on the video.
He's laughing.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, there's not that many custom conversion companies here in Texas.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
They're lookingated at nerving everybody Texas.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I understand what you're saying because I have you know,
there's a lot of agency, you know, competition, especially in
the automotive world. And let me tell you, I've had people,
I mean I've had people just straight up you know,
do some shady stuff and for me, for what my integrity,
I'm like, you know what, you can have it. I
don't want to have the client you can have it.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
That is not the type of businesswoman I am. I
don't just work for the dollar. I work for my client.
I want them to succeed. So yeah, I mean to me.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I I can just you know, I can just walk
away from something if I don't feel like it's right.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, and you know I love that about you, and
it's uh and sometimes it's hard. I know you did
have a situation like that recently recently.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yes, I did. I did a very big group. Yeah yeah, nine. Here,
I know we can't talk about that. We can't talk
about about that. But let me think to myself.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I'm thinking, let's talk about the perception of ow owning
a business and actually owning a business, because we like
to talk about this a lot, because everybody's like, there's
one thing, because I think one thing that you're really
good at.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Making it look easy. So Brooklyn makes it look so easy.
I'm glad she is.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
In her little pink overalls, you know, looking cute on cameras,
you know, running around working on the vans. You know,
really like pushing and you are like you probably lived
the business I do. Tell me about, you know, tell
me about the struggles with it, because we know that,
you know, business ownership is great, but tell me what
it's really like for you.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Tell me what your date, what does your normal day
look like? Oh man, well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I mean, if you're looking at starting a business, or
you own a business currently and you're struggling and you
feel like you're failing.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Just know that everybody experiences that.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Everybody li Truly my twenty twenty four I was going
to close the doors.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I was so upset.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I was like, you know what, I'm done, I'm done
with this. And then I woke up with this. I
don't know, this is feeling real.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Glad you did. I'm I'm serious, I'm done with this.
But I woke up.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
One day and I thought, well, well, I got a
really good you know, I got an offer from a
bigger company, and I thought, well, I'm just going to
do for them what I do for myself. I might
as well just do it for myself. I'm going to
go and that's true, you know, sell marketing and be
a consultant. I'm going to do it for myself, don't it.
I'm not going to do it for anybody else.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Hell, but tell me about you know, tell me about
what your day looks like, tell me about the biggest
struggle that you have. And I love the advice that
you're giving people that are deciding if they do want
to go into business. It's not going to be all rainbows.
I mean, if anything, it's a lot harder than working
for corporate for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Oh here's the thing, guys, I mean you're the last
one to get paid. Okay, you really are. Yeah, I've
gone months without getting paid.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Oh I'm here to tell you that in twenty Okay,
So this is really funny. This is a great story.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So my bow that called me at the beginning of
this podcast, we had experienced a little bit of a breakup.
We're not messy, but you know we're both navigating at
this post divorced a life percent.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Well, you're real, you're keeping it real. I'm keeping it real,
and sometimes it's a little tricky.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And the end of the year last year, you know,
I not the end of the year, but it was
really Q three. It was just kind of tough, right
and I.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Sits by God, humbled dying, and.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I had really let this man have it and he
deserved it, and he would tell you he deserved it,
and I let him have it. And I said, you
know what, we got to take a break because I
can't with the drama. I got lots of other shit
going on right now. I can't you know, we got
to take a little break, and so we took a
step back, right, and I walk up and I'm living
in an apartment right now because I bought a very
(31:51):
expensive scene sea machine instead of a house, and so
I live in the pike. Sure big picture, big picture,
think sure, well why the dream house later? Right now,
we gotta down the business. So I live in an apartment, right,
And I'm walking up to my door and there's like
an envelope on my door. Right, It's like a little
red thing and he has a tendency to leave flowers
(32:12):
and things that my door is very very sweet. But
we were taking a break at that point, and I
was I was thinking, oh, okay, here he is.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
He comes about remorse, he's brought me something. He gets
cartwurn Aby's bog is good.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Maybe write a little love letter, right, And I'm thinking, hey,
you know.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I got it right, So I go, I take the
thing off the door. I walk in and I'm I'm
just floating on a high right, wake God? And I
open it and it's an eviction notice and I let's rise.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
You ever seen Sex in the City with Carrie Bradshaw
when he Aiden leaves her and she thinks he wrote
her this last letter and there was her rent like
on thea A buyer place back. Yes, I was, I'm
looking at you in it, and I was thinking, okay, God,
thank you. I needed that because I was I was,
I was a little too vas you out there I
needed They humbled, I was feeding a little too much.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I see that.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I did eventually pay my rent and everything was like,
but this is a real story.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
It is.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, yeah, that was just that was like seven months ago,
and you know it wasn't that long ago. And so
you know it again, you're the last person get paid
and you're the first person to get their last one
to leave sometimes and it's tough, you know. At the
end of last year, finally when I felt like I
was catching up, I got a bill from the Texas
state government for seventy seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
How do you do about that? I hope they have
a payment plan.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
They don't, Oh jesus, they don't, not when it reallyates
a sales tax.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And so I took out a.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Personal loan and my ex husband actually helped me secure
that loan, which you know, uh, he's a really good person.
We weren't, you know, great married together. But he helped
me secure that because I would have lost the business
and couldn't pay it and so.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, but that was also very very stressful. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah, so pay say, pay your sales tax on time
because they don't. They don't play the comproller.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Don't play. Pay your fucking sales tax. See that's scaring
me right now. So we need to talk about this.
What you are.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'm not even going to give you advice. I'm not
even to get what Here's the advice I will give
this is actually, this is an excellent piece of advice.
Hire a CPA to pay your sales tax for you, Yes,
and ask for a copy of their professional liability policy
because if they fail to do it properly in Texas state.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Government, they are right for they are lible.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Okay, it's absolutely right. So there's your there's your advice.
I had to learn that the hard way.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Okay. So let's pivot to motherhood. Okay. I want to
know what's your balance like.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It's you know, oh man, it could be better, is
what I'll say.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You know, you work after hours?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Are you just strictly like what is your your usual
night look like? Are you are you on the phone
at night after five six o'clock. It depends, right, So
now that I have now that I'm divorced my ex husband,
I called him my baby daddy.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Even it's pretty I think it's so funny.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
But anyway, so my baby daddy, he has the kids
one week on and then I have them one week off.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
And you know what, here's what I'll say. If you're
going through.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
A divorce, if you can, if you can do everything
you can to put your children first, do that having
a positive co parenting relationship with your baby daddy or
your baby mama. Not that maybe a ton of men
are going to listen to this podcast, but it's so
incredibly important, and you know, it doesn't take It's not
about hard.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It's hard at first.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Because there's a lot of emotions and things there, but
take a step back and you know, think about what
you're contributing to the issues and try to do your
best to you know, just be positive.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
To be a combined front. Yeah, you know, he where's
super supportive.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I you know, right now I have my grandmother in
the hospital, and he's like, you know, I've got it,
I've got on your back, I got all to take
here as the kids. Yeah, he's he's a ten out
of ten dad. Another unslicted piece of advice. It doesn't
matter who you marry. This is controversial. Mm hm, you
canet on me.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Look, I love it controversial.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Tell me you can get divorced, right, Divorce is actually
not terribly difficult. Who you have a child with, you
will be stuck with forever.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yes, this is true. Forever.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yes, do not pick the wrong people to have children with.
It's a nightmare, I feed you. So I am grateful
that I decided to have children with Pablo.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
It may not have been the best marriage, but a
good dad. He's a great day.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
That's what matters in this situation because you can always
you know, you can always fall in love again.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
But your kids will never have another dad.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
No, that's so true. So he's a ten out of
ten dad. And you know I would not I actually
really don't think that I would be able to do
this if I did not have that kind of support,
I'll be honest. So, but on the weeks that I
do have my kids, it really depends on what's going
on at the office.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Sometimes they're there with me.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I mean I've had them there as late as eleven
o'clock on a school night, which I hope in the
next few years it will not be that way, but
sometimes it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Sometimes I think that subliminally that is showing your children.
It's kind of almost like raising them to be hard workers,
and you know, not that they have to own a
business and be somewhere, but to actually have integrity and
what they do and care about it.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
You know.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I think what we're doing is they're seeing it and
they're watching they do. So my parents were small business owners,
so you go my mom and dad. My dad's a
chiropractor and my mom always ran his clinic, and so
I grew up watching in the clinic.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, I mean I went.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
There every day after school. We were there on the weekends,
we were there on the summers. You know, it just
we were now look at you. Yeah, it was the
best thing they could have done for me. I worked
for the clinic by the time I turned fourteen. Every
summer I go work until I went to school or
I graduated high school and then went to college.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Didn't finish college, but I did go for a few years.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
So I want to know where this van thing is going.
This is, like I said, this is kind of like
a it's a whole thing. I mean, first of all,
people are using vans to live. Yeah, there's been this
whole man my List thing going. What's it called van bands,
van lifers. Then we have the van business, right, people
are starting their business in the vans, and then people
just have them because they're retiring in their vacationing. They
(38:30):
don't want to do the RV They want it more staplistic,
like where is this, Where do you see this going
in the next five years?
Speaker 2 (38:36):
And where do you think it's really good to boom?
So Okay, I'm so glad you asked me this.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, I'm excited about it because I think there's so
much potential. I think from where you have gone from
when we met to now, Like, it's just so exciting
to see you grow they come honey, grow to see
the revenue up, to see you, you know, hiring new people,
and it's just it's fun. And I think that it's
something that you're doing, something that makes people happy. I know,
I used to work in an industry where we made
(39:03):
money off people's misery exactly.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
I don't do that anymore. Hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, so like we're like, tell, I want to know
what this industry is going to look like in the
next five years, like where you headed. So in the
next five years where we're we are moving a little
bit outside of the custom space. Don't want to freak
anybody out right, we are still going to do custom vans,
but you know, custom is really just a variation in
(39:29):
a layout or a color choice. We're not going to
do all this really crazy custom stuff that we did previously,
honestly because it's very difficult to scale a business like that,
right because you don't have standardized processes and procedures. We
did actually recently just start. We built a relationship with
the Mercedes vendor in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Who's going to start providing us with two vans per month?
And they actually wanted to start with five, and I said,
I don't know, you.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Should just take it the five and you don't found somebody.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Well, I don't started me because I'll drive her crazy.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
You'll be up all night. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
You know, they are sending us five or five to
two cargo vans per month to do a spec upfit.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
And so that's gonna be oh man, that is so
you didn't tell.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Me this, this is something, this is there, this is recent,
this is within the last couple of months, And so
I had to I've had to really get you know,
the production line shaped up, and I had to take
full credit for that. You know. I brought on the
partners over at rent to own trailers, Yes, at the
end of last year. One thing that I also a
big piece of advice is that you know, you don't
have to figure everything out by yourself, and you you
(40:42):
don't have to know everything, and it's okay to say, hey,
these are the things I'm really good at.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
This is the experience I have. But this is the
experience I don't have. I need some help.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
I need some help with that, right, And so I
brought these partners on. They were interested in working with
us because what we do is, you know, it's very
similar and they have a background in me manufacturing that
I did not have. Could I have learned it over
the course of the next ten years or five, probably two?
Speaker 2 (41:06):
You didn't want to wait that long. I didn't want
to wait that long. I'm you now, I'm sorry. Who
runs stuff with it? Now? I want it?
Speaker 1 (41:11):
That's the most entrepreneurs we want it now. We're very
impulsive people. If you're not impulsive, you're not an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That' like very sorry, that's very true. So I want
it now.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
So brought them in and so they've helped me really
shape up production so that we can just crank out.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
That's examiting though, very exciting. So we have really cranked
up production.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
But I don't have a team quite big enough to
be able to take on five of the easier a month, and.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So and I don't want to ruin the relationship. Well
that's a special individual.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
It's not like you can just hire three people when
you're done. Like, these people have to be qualified, right
or can they learn on the fly.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
You know, now that we've really standardized things, it does
not necessarily have to be somebody that's super qualified. Right,
So you have a training program we do, okay, And
so that's another piece of a guid Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
You know if with your hands, if you are I say, handy,
you can learn this, right, that's exactically right? Yeah right, okay, yeah,
that's exactly right. And so because the C and C
machine prints everything for us, at this point, it's like
putting the other IQ furniture.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, so you don't need skilled labor.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
So this is going to be huge, guys. Yeah, of
something that's going to be huge. I mean it's already big.
But I think that this is going to be a
very different conversation we're going to have in the next
two to five years.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I hope so. I hope so.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
But uh, it certainly was where I think it's headed.
But and then in ten years, I want to make
my own van. I don't want to buy sprinters anymore.
I want to manufactor my own van.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
What would that look like? It would look like building
an engine. It would look like I mean it would
it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I don't know, be a van shark van. It would
be a vane. I see my little sum in place
of the Mercedes.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
We're putting that in like it's an existance right now,
it's more manifesting. Yeah, I love it. I don't know
how we're gonna do it, but we're gonna do it. Yes,
you are gonna do it. We can do hard shit. Yeah, yeah,
I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Well, I want to wrap this up with and I
ask everybody that comes on here, and I love to
just like surprise them with this, what's your superpower?
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Oh god, my superpower? Every single time. I never get
over I rarely get overwhelmed. What is your that's your superpower?
That's that's an interesting thing, right, Yeah, I rarely get overwhelmed.
I you know, things keep coming at me and they
just don't face me. I love it. I was laughing
with Hannah.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
It was you know when I got that amictional noticed
I talked about earlier, and I was laughing about it,
you know, just because it's funny. You have ever seen the
real where that guy's like running around and he's on
fire and he's like just normally he's like it's a
normal day. Like, no, that's straight, Like she's burning, but
she's okay, she's fine.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
So I think definitely my ability to you know, take
on a lot, and then my joy, my joy.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Is also my superpower.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yes, you know, And if you are having trouble finding
joy in your life, sometimes you.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Just got to start small, right, what are you grateful
for today? And then answer me this, What is the
biggest lesson that you've learned in your entrepreneurship journey thus far?
To believe in yourself?
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (44:16):
You are it gives me chills, and it makes me
a little emotional. She does have chills. Yeah, just let
y'all know she's not wing.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
It makes me a little emotional, But you know you,
it's kind of like going back to what we talked
about earlier.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
But you have.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
So many people around you that are going to think
you're crazy, that are going to doubt you.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
I have chills again, there they are. Don't be that
person for yourself. Believe in you. It's it and sometimes
that's all you need.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
And find your circle, find other entrepreneurs if you can.
I mean, I know that we are a client, you know, relationship,
but we have actually become really good friends and I
really believe in what you do and I'm just feel
very proud that you even give us the opportunity to
market for you.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
If you close the doors my share, I don't know
where I could be. You're we're living off of Brooklyn. Like, look,
you're my only client that you're all living.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Off of me.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
I don't spend I mean, look, I'm.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Like a bobo client compares some of the other people
that you work with and Joe and I appreciate you
because you visit the phone every time I call your
It goes back to what you said earlier about treating
everybody the same, and I feel that from you, and
I think you're grateful.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Thank you. So find your people, yeah, shind your.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
People, find your find your circle, find people that understand you,
and build that community for yourself. You know, because whether
they say you're going to be the what is it
the summary of like the five people that you know,
or is there some type of some type of saying
like that. Don't don't come in verbatim, but it is
important how you surround yourself. Yeah, around, Yes, yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
It is.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
And if you're around people that act like entrepreneurship is easy,
and they're like, you know, choose joy every day.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
No, they're lying. They're fucking lying. They're lying, they are lying.
It's it's terrible. Sometimes sometimes I'm like, probably out of
my misery. Yes, but then we come running back for more.
We love it. Yeah, because we're all burst outside. Yeah
we are, we are. We are so masachists inside. But
thank you Brooklyn for coming.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
You know, I really was excited to have this conversation
with you, and I hope that you guys got a
lot out of this, you know, talking to a wonderful
entrepreneur that has been in the through the ups and
downs too.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
It has huge you know, who has a huge.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Vision for what her company is going to be like,
and just to know that it's not always going to
be easy, but if you stick with it, it's going
to be great. So sure, thank you Brooklin for coming,
thank you for having me. And if you need to
get a hold of her, tell us how we can
get a hold of you. Okay, so you can email me.
I'm going to do info at vansharks dot com. Those
come straight to my regular inbox. I just don't want
to give my long other email because it's hard, or
(46:46):
even call our office. Seven one three seven seven seven
seven one seven one. It's a great pone number.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I like it. It's a really good one. It's memorable. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Our website is www dot vansharks dot com. Uh and
then our Instagram is at van under.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Score sharks plural. So check her out. Get your van
life on, y'all,
Are you looking for a podcast that you just can't miss?
Join me as I interviewed Brooklyn Avela. She is the
owner of Van Sharks, which is the fastest growing van
conversion company in the nation. She's going to talk about
her journey, her triumph, and her struggles as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You don't want to miss this.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Behind Her Business.
I'm very excited about my interview today. We have the
one and only Brooklyn Avela from Van Sharks here visiting us.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
If you don't know, now you know.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Van Sharks is a conversion of van conversion company here
based in Houston, Texas, but hey, they do everything international.
Thank you for coming in, Brooklyn, Thank you for having me.
I'm so glad to be here. I have been so
excited to have you on this podcast because number one,
she's a client of mine. She's worked with kJ Marketing Group.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What is right? How that was it been the last
two year and a half? Mate, it's been over a
year for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, Okay, So we have seen her her experience, we've
seen her grow and her journey. So I want people
to really get to know who Brooklyn Avla is the entrepreneur,
the mom, the woman, pretty much everything. Okay, but let's
jump into first. I want to know why van conversion,
because you are you know, van conversion. It's a different
(01:35):
type of business, you know, what is the gap in
the industry. Why did you decide it's such a different
type of service to have, it's more of a unique service.
Tell me a little bit why you decided to go
this route.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You know, if somebody had told me even five years ago,
really honestly, even three years ago, that this is what
I would be doing right now, I would have laughed
at them.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And I don't get an offer ortunity to share this
story very often, but I guess it was at the
end of twenty twenty three where I had another business
partner that I was partners with in another company came
to me and said, you know, hey, I had this
guy reach out that I had bought a van from
(02:19):
several years back and let me know he was going
bankrupt and wanted to see if we'd be interested in
starting a van conversion company with him. And so I said,
I don't know anything about van conversions, what are you
talking about? And you know, but I did a little
bit of market research and then came to understand that
you know, these sprinter vans more you know, for transit
(02:41):
whatever it may be that we ride around in to
go to the rodeo or you know, go back and
forth to our resorts in Mexico or whatever it may be.
Mercedes Benz doesn't actually make those. They make the van,
but they don't do that work to the inside of them.
And I thought, oh, that's actually very into interesting. Okay,
you think it would be an upgrade for Mercedes to
(03:03):
do that, you would think, right, But you know, I
think what it is is that a lot of the
major car manufacturers, I mean there they have their bread
and butter is are the cars, right, You've got Ford
where they've got trucks, They've got you know, the sedans,
they've got the svs, right, They're not really in the
van space.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
There's a whole van life out there. People. Oh yeah,
there's a huge I mean, this is a whole pandemic
going on. I mean it is after COVID.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I think a lot of people realized, you know, that
it was easier to you know, pack your life up
and just get on the road, right, and vans are
significantly more convenient than r vs are.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I mean, you could be off gride with them.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You don't have to park it in an RV park
if you don't want to spend the extra money to
park at the RV park.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, fun fact, you can park it any Walmart in
the US and overnight and they will not tell you.
That's very advice, y'all. But's some very freaki facts. So
I said, you know, I have a healthy appetite for risk.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I've been a cereal entrepreneur most of my life. And
so I said, what the hell?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Uh? And so at the time, I had a full
time job and working for that partner's law firm, and uh,
that's d I was like, who is this baddie? Who's
this bad boss lady? Yeah, it's immediately intrigued by you.
I'm like, just okay, I want to work with her. Well,
I appreciate that we did meet at the law firm.
(04:26):
You guys came in and uh, oh gosh, this is
my boa calling me.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I'll call him back. Bo's I'm cat stright.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I'm too old to say boyfriend. That's embarrassing. I'm divorced now,
so I'm you know I'm dating. Yeah, after you've been
married to say boyfriend, You're like, it feels funny, right,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And we're having wine because on a podcast you can
pretty much do whatever you want. That's exactly right here.
It's aster five pm, so cheers here. It wasn't, we'd
still be drinking. Okay. Sometimes it's just that way.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So anyways, I was working this full time job and
had two other businesses that I was partnered in and
was feeling twenty twenty three was a very difficult year
for me personally. I lost my mom at the beginning
of the year. Obviously, we started Van Sharks beginning of
twenty Gosh, I always get my years mixed up. No,
(05:20):
I'm sorry. Those are two big life changes. But it
was a very big life change, right. So I lost
my mom in twenty three, got divorced also that same year,
and then also had about a thyroid cancer that year
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So it was a lot all at once.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I mean most of the time. I used to have
really bad anxiety. And I was telling somebody recently who
had anxiety. I said, yeah, I used to have really
bad anxiety, and.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
She goes, well, what, like, what did you do. Why
don't you have anxiety?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Moore? And I said, oh, well, I am basically just
every terrible thing I could think of that could happen
to me happened all within twelve months of each other.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And I survived. And so, you know, that's a really
good way of putting it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Though you put it's almost like exposure therapy, but serious,
like real equotric therapy.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So I had exposure therapy that year. It was just
you know, what I.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Will say is I don't wish that kind of hell
and torment on anybody.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
However, I do think that I don't live.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
With anxiety anymore, which is so nice. So I think
it did a lot for me. And so when we
started twenty twenty four. When I started twenty twenty four,
I said, you know what, I work super hard.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I'm now a single mom.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I have my five year old and my seven year
old that I want to be able to spend time with.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I also want to kind of share with them what
I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And I feel very passionate about this little place called
Maan Sharks. And so I said, you know what, fuck it,
I'm done. I'm done with the corporate life. I'm done
being disingenuous. I'm gonna I'm gonna take this over. And
so I presented a buyout agreement to my partner, which
he was gracious enough to accept, and I took over.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And I have had to learn a whole lot of
things since then. Were you like a kid in the
candy store?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Like? No, me.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
The first day in You're like, I got my own business, Now,
what am I going to do? No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I honestly, I wish that it had been that way.
It was very overwhelming at first. I had already sunk
so much money into Vancharks up to that point because
I was still a partner in it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So I was thinking, Okay, well here's my life savings.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Let's make the best of it, right, And so, you know,
it was a little overwhelming at first, but I was
really grateful to walk in, work with the team and
get start getting my hands dirty out in the.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Shop and learn how to build bands. So how did
you get most of your first customers before you contact
a kJ marketing group? So most of the.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
First customers, actually, they came from this conversion company that
we I guess I should actually touch on this. This
conversion company that we were going to start with this
gentleman who had gone bankrupt. We actually could not work
with him. So that was another big thing that happened
(08:05):
in twenty twenty three. So he owed Texas State Comptroller
several million dollars, which we didn't know, and we decided
that we were going to invest all this money into
opening a new company. And so we were like, man,
he became radioactive, super fast, and he had.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
All the industry knowledge institutions, and You're like, I need
this guy. Correct. I was like, oh my god, okay,
So it was very it was really scary.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So I looked at my partner at that point and
I said, all right, well, we have two options. We
cut our losses or we roll up barsleeves and dig
ourselves out the old fashion way.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And so that's obviously what we chose to do.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
But a lot of the first clients that we had, unfortunately,
they were clients that he had, and I didn't know
this at the time, but I've obviously found out later
he had taken money from them and never finished their van. No.
And it's actually it's interesting because it's something that I
have seen happen a lot, just in other areas. You know,
(09:01):
as I've as I've gotten further along in business, it
happens all the time. I highly recommend don't wire somebody
fifty thousand dollars if you've never seen their facility, if
you have a zniar research. I know it's crazy and
I don't think this. So here's what I'll say. I mean,
I don't want to talk negatively about anybody. I don't
think that the gentleman that owned the you know company
(09:22):
that wanted to you know, start something with us, I
don't think that he was end doing that.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Do I think that he could have been more honest
about where he was at?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Do I think that he could have done more? Yes?
I do.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So what I ended up doing is, you know, I
took those projects on and I just did my best
to try to do that, finished them up for those
clients at at cost for us, but we, unfortunately, you know,
were not able to do them for You still have
to make a profit right, or you want to do
right because most of these people are going to come
back to you then, which is very important in business.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know, never treat no matter how much.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
A client spending they are, you treat them like a
million dollar client because you never emails where that can
go and you want to establish that trust, right, You're
good at that?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, I know, I would like to think so you
know when you should.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And it's a small world out there, right, so you
treat everybody the same, it doesn't matter who they are.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So those were where our first clients came from.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
And then you know, I just kind of started putting
boots to ground and started going around to the different
Mercedes dealerships that we have here in Houston, started doing.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It was mostly that for me until I met you, uh, but.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Then obviously we got connected with you guys, and it
went it went from it like this. And so then
my next problem was fixing production. How do we scale
because now the phone rings off the hook because of
kJ marketing, So how do we let production keep up
with sales?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Right? And so that was another big monster to tackle.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, I think too, like how do you say innovative,
which is why you've got You've brought in your DIY
kids into the mix. Yeah, because some people don't you know,
and you can ship those pretty much everywhere. So you
come up with those ideas and how to be innovative
against other competitors that might not be doing that, and
that's a very unique thing that you have going on.
You have a CAD designer. Yeah, I mean so, like,
I think you're really good at that innovation piece.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, I appreciate that. You know. One of the first.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Things that I was very interested in. You know, I
think a really big piece of unsolicited advice for anybody
out there is that you know you really as a
business owner. I don't think there's anything that should be
going on within the business that you don't know how
to do. Yes, Oh my god, I am so happy
you said that. When I first started the agency, I
was running the Facebook ads, I was doing all the
(11:39):
social media. Yeah, I was learning analytics. I was up
to like three or four in the morning. Yeah, trying
to figure out how the hell am I going to
do this. I love that about you, you know, and
some people will disagree, right I just here's the thing,
and I'm very fortunate. I have a great team, and
you know, I don't think any of them that I
have the or now, wouldever do this to me. But
(12:01):
you know, when you grow and you scale and you
hire more people, not everybody's always going to be ten
out of ten, right, yes, and people will hold what
you don't know against you. I mean every single day
of the week. And so you know, you have this
thirty year old woman coming in here who says, you
know what, I just decided I was going to buy
the business and now I'm going to take over. Hello,
(12:22):
and I'm gonna what sit behind a desk and just
boss everybody around. No, I bought myself a pink tool belt,
I got a pair of overalls, and I got out
in the shop and started.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Working with the guys. Yeah. Well, it's almost earning respect.
I feel like you earn your results that way. It's
like paying your dues. Like I'm going to get in there,
I'm going to know how to do this, and that's
that's a boss bitch. Well, thank you. I'd like to
think so. And yeah, I mean, you know it's a
male dominated industry. This is so funny.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I didn't tell you this, but recently I went out
I think I told Shehruthy when they came for the
content shoot.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
But I went out to go change A client.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Had a factory battery that was bad, and so I
didn't have an extra set of hands to throw at
it because we are busy on production.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Uh. And so I go out to change it myself,
no problem. And I walk out there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And he goes, He's like, where's your tech And I said, oh, no, no,
that's me. You know, I'm the tech today, right, And
so he goes, uh, he goes.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You're gonna do it?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean just stunned, and I said, uh, yeah, I'm
gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And he goes, okay. He's like, well, you know, doubting me, right,
it happens so often. Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
And so he walks over to, uh the hood of
the spriner and he's like, well, let me get pop
the hood for you.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And I was like, it's not under the hood, it's
not worried.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
That is great, and he and he questioned me, Christina,
I swear to you. He goes, are you sure.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
No, I've only been doing this for the past few years.
And I'm yeah, yeah, I'm up to my ears and
spurners all day. I said, well, I said, yeah, I'm
pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
But I tell you what, if you want to look
under there for the battery, I'm gonna be over here
where it actually is.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
But if you want to look under there for it,
let me. If you fine one. Do you get this often?
And we're not downing men here, guys like that is
we're not den haters. We're not men haters. No, but
I mean not all the time. You know, I come from.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
An automotive background, very very similar, you know, advertising, we
still advertise for automotive. Yeah, and walking into a dealership,
the first impression is like, Okay, what does this woman know?
And you have to know, you have to be smarter,
you have to be on point, you have to know
your shit when you walk in there to gain the respect.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I mean, and you know, I don't want to make
it a man woman thing, but I think that you know,
when you do work in a male dominated industry, it's
very important as a as a woman to really.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Know your shit.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh absolutely absolutely. They snip that a mile away if
they will, they sure will. So I want to pivot
to branding because, in my opinion, you are one of
my clients has the most amazing branding. A lot of
clients don't want to be necessarily the face of their business.
They want their business just to be the business. I
(14:59):
think whenever people start, you know, they get they talk
to an advertising agency like ourselves and they come to
us with those questions.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
You know, we want to brand our business. How should
we do this?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, I want it to look corporate or I wanted
to look like a family business. I want it to
be more organic and local. Like you know, we help
them distinguish what we want, what they should have, what
that should look like. But my question is, did you
go through that battle, like that inner battle in your
head in the beginning. Do I want my face in
front of everything? And do I want to brand it
that way? Or do I want to brand it just
(15:28):
as a you know, a business without a face. Tell me,
like your thought process there and why you decided I'm
going to be the face of this business. That's an
interesting question. So initially I did not want to be
the face of the business, which is initially everybody's. I'm
the same way. It'd be forever to shield my face. Yeah,
I mean you it's it's I don't I'm gonna say this,
(15:52):
and it's controversial, I'm sure. But you know the other
thing about being a woman is that you know you
wonder they're big thing come conceited?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Or is it's just about herself or she you know this?
That and the other I'm at the stage of life
right now, or I just don't give a fuck.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Would be on it's about forty. I'm pretty impressed. Well
thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I'm you know, I feel seventy years old. Just duck
a sim On, Well thank you. I'm a little I'm
got roseesia and now we've been drinking, so I'm a.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Little red memis too. You have roseasia. No, I get red,
I get baby. You have rosly have it. And it's
so funny because you would and I get hot. That's
why would changed the ace so hot. I think I
can just tell people I get excited. That's what happens.
I definitely have clinically been diagnosed with a prota. Ladies,
(16:43):
if you have that, just we're a high neck. That's
what I do. Yeah, yes, or turn the ac down.
We're gonna drink anyways.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So you know, at some point I just became really proud,
right I was like, you shouldn't be.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I was like, this was a big deal. It's a
big deal. You own a business. I mean, that is
a huge deal, you know, And it's not even that.
I mean, I don't I just the road with Van Trade.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I am absolutely going to write a book about it
one day, because I think that it has been you know,
if you look at my social media, my personal social media,
I'm real honest on but if you look at the
Van Shark social media, everybody's like, oh my god, you
guys are killing it.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, it's absolutely and now they were not killing it.
But it's hard. You want to start talking about cash flow,
you want to start talking about you know, it's really hard. Absolutely,
these conversations. It's not easy.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And so you know, just at some point I did.
I found myself feeling very proud, and you know, I
had talked to Tim and I talked to a couple
other people, Hannah on the team. I'm like, y'all like
being videos, right, and they didn't want to, and I
was like, well, damn, if y'all are going to talk
about it, I will because I'm fucking proud of us,
all of us. It's absolutely when you're representing everybody and
(18:02):
when they see you out there doing this, I mean,
they does give your team the excitement. They're like, okay, yeah, yeah,
so the pink overalls, I love those.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You guys need to watch her clips on Instagram. TikTok.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
We do those you got to watch them pink overall.
I read why that tell me why you decided on
the overalls. So the pink overalls, man, that was just
I bought those on a whim and I ordered them
on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
The first pair of overalls I order were green.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
They were just your regular old like Nae green Wrangler overalls,
and those have seen a lot of shop time. The
pink overalls had never seen a day in the shop
until last week. But I was on Amazon one day
just kind of surfing, and I was like, I wonder
if they made pink overalls hot pink overalls.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Of course they do. Yeah, they make everything you find
anything on Amazon, Thanks Jeff. Somebody in China made those.
Somebody yeah, who knows?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And so I bought them and I was like, you
know what, fuck, I'm gonna start wearing these are my
social videos.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And I don't know, people love them. They're great, Like
when I don't wear them.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I didn't wear them for some of the content that
we did toward the end of last year, and so
I have some content in the green overalls and I'll
get messages from friends and family like where are your
pink overalls? Would you do to them?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know, we saw that you had paint all over
your green ones. What you do to the pink ones?
And oh my god, you know whatever. I don't know,
but I'm they're your signature.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So branding, so you know, branding yourself. I think that's important.
What type of advice would you give a business owner
that's having the same type of dilemma in their head?
You know, they're they're starting their business, so they want
to be the face of their business.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
What would be your advice to them? This is gonna
sound cliche, but I'm gonnay it. Anyways.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Fear stops people from so many things. Fear of what
people are going to say about you, fear of you know, how,
how just how is this going to be perceived? You know,
I wrote something when I turned thirty this this year
last year, toward the end of last year, September, and
one of the things that I read something right before
(20:11):
I turned thirty, and it was about happiness, and one
of the it gives me chills. One of the sentences
in that little script that I read was happiness is
waking up every day without fear of how you are perceived,
but feeling comfortable and quiet in your own skin. So
if you're proud of something.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Be loud about it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Who cares, right, It actually really doesn't matter what you
do in life. If you're doing something great and you're
doing great all the time. That goes from motherhood too.
You can seen in breastfeed or you can bottle feed,
and someone's always going to have something to say, absolutely
either way. And it's the same for being a business owner.
So do what feels right to you in your heart
(20:52):
right and don't worry about what other people think.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I mean, don't jump on your Instagram and give people
the middle finger.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I probably wouldn't recommend that do something that you know
is going to cause a stir on purpose heretic you're
troda something.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And even same thing with that podcast. I'm like, this
is my my my love. I want to talk to
business owners. I have a broadcast journalism degree. I can't
help myself, you guys, but you.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Know, this is a passion project of mine, and it's
one of those things where you're putting yourself in a
situation where people to judge you, but you know what,
they're not doing it. Yeah, So if they're judging you
and you're not doing it, then I'm sorry said you
didn't take the chance.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
To do it. To do it, I'm glired by the haters.
I I might get the boy worry if I don't
have haters. So do you have haters, Brooklyn?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I love, of course I have haters. Now, okay, So
there are two types of haters in this world. There
are haters that will hate you and you know they
hate you. And then there are haters that are your friends.
I don't pretty tense, not pretend to be your friend's acquaintance.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I don't have any of it. See that's good. Or
you have somebody who acts like your acquaintance, but they
might not want us toe you succeed. What have you experienced?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I have experienced those, and I'm real quick to snaple mountain.
Oh same here, yeah here, it's.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Not my vibe.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I don't I don't hang out you know people like that.
I don't give my iner. No friendly vibe over here?
Oh no, never, never, and not from here either.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I mean, you know it's.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I mean, how often do you get text for me? Hey,
I'm gonna I'm gonna refer you to this client. I
love it, but I might Yeah, you're my number one.
I mean we're all it's fucking hard to.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Build something from nothing.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And so you know, I'm always you know, if I
have something come up and I'm real hard to get
a hold of them, and I'll just say that, right
I'm not always.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
In the way text you because if you make it
I text you, I get a better result.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yes, And if I'm sitting in front of my computer,
I can just respond right then and there. But you know,
I'm hard to get a hold of. So I'm not
always a super great friend. I'm not, but I am
always thinking about how can I help my my friends.
And you know, I sniff people out really quickly who
do not have the best rice. But as far as
a hater, this came up actually this week and it's
(22:55):
so funny. So there is a custom conversion company out
in Irving who I've actually sent clients to. I They're
one of the only companies that I will match their estimates.
If a client, you know, comes to me and says, hey,
I got an estimate from this company, I'm not gonna
say who it is.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
But are you sure you don't want to say who
it is? Look at me just stirring the drama. Okay, fine,
and I couldna say who it is.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
If they ever hear this podcast, and I hope they do,
they'll know who did. But I've actually purchased things from
them because they they you know, wholesale some stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And uh, you know, I was actually.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
In their office, uh, probably seven months ago, uh and
I was sitting there and I was listening to one
of their one of their employees, talk about on the
phone with the client talking about a warranty issue with
an electrical system. And I've had to learn a lot
about electricity.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I had. I had.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Somebody asked me recently, where did you get your electrical
engineering degree?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
And I said, right here at Vancemarks. We have classes,
don't you know you should start one? So there you go,
Nari Duppert. I had to learn out.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Of necessity because you know, we got to make the
bands work, not just look nice. Right.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Anyways, and so when they were talking to this client,
client was having an electrical issue, and I was like, oh,
this is this is what you need, right And I
actually sat there and shared with them info and have
since then. Every time I have a new vendor, come
see me. We do a lot of advertising obviously with
you guys, we're very well known at this point, and
so I have vendors come in all the time trying
to show us new products.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And I love when that happens.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And every time I have a new vendor come in,
I send it over to this company.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
So I had a client, you know, our mobile medspa. Yes,
I love that mobile med spa. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
And you know what, I've become really close with the
owner of the mobile Medspa.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I need to go see her.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
The most beautiful I've ever looked is when she got
her hands on my base.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yes, yes, she is so talented.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So but we did a mobile metspaw for her, and
we've gotten a lot of people wanting us to do
these sprinter spas.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
I own sprinterspa dot com, by the way, which is amazing.
I know. I bought it genius.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Actually I bought it a few years ago and uh
for ninety nine cents on godad I know, We're like,
it's gonna come in handy at some point I knew
it would. It was before it was before we ever
had this mobile mets ball client, before any of that.
But I bought it and I had somebody offer me
twenty grand board.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
The other day, Well, don't do it. No, I'm not.
I'm holding onto it.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
One day someone's gonna offer me a million for it,
and I'll be like, okay, okay, we're a million, maybe
a million, maybe a million. Five Yeah, exactly, always pushing
the annie, yes exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So, uh, this client, you know, so we did Mobile
Med's Ball.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
We did a great YouTube video about it, and somebody
else found us to do another Mobile Med's Ball from
that YouTube video and he was shopping around just to
kind of get quotes from other people, and he called
this other company h and so they quoted him like
triple what we did. And we have I mean, we
(25:59):
have excellent part. You know, we really cuetitive. We're very competitive, if.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
You know you and the truth is, and we're still
higher than some other people.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
But at the end of the day, you get what
you paid for and you know, but we're pretty competitive
as it relates to other people. Part of that is
because we have C and C we you know, are
able to do things faster and so you know, for
that reason we're able to you know, there's value there.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Because there is value there. Time is money. So this other.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Company, the owner calls my new potential client who closed
today by the way, before I came over here, thank you.
But this owner of this other company calls him and said,
and they've been in business for like fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I mean, they'd be doing it in a lot longer
than I have.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Uh calls him and says, you know, Vanchharks does really
terrible work.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You're kidding.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
No, they do really shoddy work. And you know they
they're just you know, the quality is just not there.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That is not I know. And so my client goes.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That would turn me off, as somebody at the shorane,
it would completely turn me off.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Oh, you're just this is sad. It did it did right,
And so the client calls us back.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
He calls Hannah. It's it's you know, technically it's her client.
And so he calls Hannah, our director at sales, and says,
you won't believe what I just heard from.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
The person that you are referring business.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yes, that we that we spent highly in that we
purchased things from right, Uh, you won't believe what I
just heard from them, And so UH tells her this
and and of course Hannah said, what, ma'am, I'm shocked
to hear that right, But you know, I don't have
anything bad.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
To say about them because that's just who we are.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yes, right, Oh, you guys all have integrity and you
do stand behind your product a dad.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It is just that's one hundred percent. And I'd like
to know who.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Uh I want to say the name so bad, but
I'm not going to. I'm not messy like that. And
just sometimes I feel just put in.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
A comment on this. Put in the comment on the video.
He's laughing.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, there's not that many custom conversion companies here in Texas.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
They're lookingated at nerving everybody Texas.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I understand what you're saying because I have you know,
there's a lot of agency, you know, competition, especially in
the automotive world. And let me tell you, I've had people,
I mean I've had people just straight up you know,
do some shady stuff and for me, for what my integrity,
I'm like, you know what, you can have it. I
don't want to have the client you can have it.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
That is not the type of businesswoman I am. I
don't just work for the dollar. I work for my client.
I want them to succeed. So yeah, I mean to me.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I I can just you know, I can just walk
away from something if I don't feel like it's right.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, and you know I love that about you, and
it's uh and sometimes it's hard. I know you did
have a situation like that recently recently.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yes, I did. I did a very big group. Yeah yeah, nine. Here,
I know we can't talk about that. We can't talk
about about that. But let me think to myself.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I'm thinking, let's talk about the perception of ow owning
a business and actually owning a business, because we like
to talk about this a lot, because everybody's like, there's
one thing, because I think one thing that you're really
good at.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Making it look easy. So Brooklyn makes it look so easy.
I'm glad she is.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
In her little pink overalls, you know, looking cute on cameras,
you know, running around working on the vans. You know,
really like pushing and you are like you probably lived
the business I do. Tell me about, you know, tell
me about the struggles with it, because we know that,
you know, business ownership is great, but tell me what
it's really like for you.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Tell me what your date, what does your normal day
look like? Oh man, well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I mean, if you're looking at starting a business, or
you own a business currently and you're struggling and you
feel like you're failing.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Just know that everybody experiences that.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Everybody li Truly my twenty twenty four I was going
to close the doors.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I was so upset.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I was like, you know what, I'm done, I'm done
with this. And then I woke up with this. I
don't know, this is feeling real.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Glad you did. I'm I'm serious, I'm done with this.
But I woke up.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
One day and I thought, well, well, I got a
really good you know, I got an offer from a
bigger company, and I thought, well, I'm just going to
do for them what I do for myself. I might
as well just do it for myself. I'm going to
go and that's true, you know, sell marketing and be
a consultant. I'm going to do it for myself, don't it.
I'm not going to do it for anybody else.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Hell, but tell me about you know, tell me about
what your day looks like, tell me about the biggest
struggle that you have. And I love the advice that
you're giving people that are deciding if they do want
to go into business. It's not going to be all rainbows.
I mean, if anything, it's a lot harder than working
for corporate for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Oh here's the thing, guys, I mean you're the last
one to get paid. Okay, you really are. Yeah, I've
gone months without getting paid.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Oh I'm here to tell you that in twenty Okay,
So this is really funny. This is a great story.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So my bow that called me at the beginning of
this podcast, we had experienced a little bit of a breakup.
We're not messy, but you know we're both navigating at
this post divorced a life percent.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Well, you're real, you're keeping it real. I'm keeping it real,
and sometimes it's a little tricky.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And the end of the year last year, you know,
I not the end of the year, but it was
really Q three. It was just kind of tough, right
and I.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Sits by God, humbled dying, and.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I had really let this man have it and he
deserved it, and he would tell you he deserved it,
and I let him have it. And I said, you
know what, we got to take a break because I
can't with the drama. I got lots of other shit
going on right now. I can't you know, we got
to take a little break, and so we took a
step back, right, and I walk up and I'm living
in an apartment right now because I bought a very
(31:51):
expensive scene sea machine instead of a house, and so
I live in the pike. Sure big picture, big picture,
think sure, well why the dream house later? Right now,
we gotta down the business. So I live in an apartment, right,
And I'm walking up to my door and there's like
an envelope on my door. Right, It's like a little
red thing and he has a tendency to leave flowers
(32:12):
and things that my door is very very sweet. But
we were taking a break at that point, and I
was I was thinking, oh, okay, here he is.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
He comes about remorse, he's brought me something. He gets
cartwurn Aby's bog is good.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Maybe write a little love letter, right, And I'm thinking, hey,
you know.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I got it right, So I go, I take the
thing off the door. I walk in and I'm I'm
just floating on a high right, wake God? And I
open it and it's an eviction notice and I let's rise.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
You ever seen Sex in the City with Carrie Bradshaw
when he Aiden leaves her and she thinks he wrote
her this last letter and there was her rent like
on thea A buyer place back. Yes, I was, I'm
looking at you in it, and I was thinking, okay, God,
thank you. I needed that because I was I was,
I was a little too vas you out there I
needed They humbled, I was feeding a little too much.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I see that.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I did eventually pay my rent and everything was like,
but this is a real story.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
It is.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, yeah, that was just that was like seven months ago,
and you know it wasn't that long ago. And so
you know it again, you're the last person get paid
and you're the first person to get their last one
to leave sometimes and it's tough, you know. At the
end of last year, finally when I felt like I
was catching up, I got a bill from the Texas
state government for seventy seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
How do you do about that? I hope they have
a payment plan.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
They don't, Oh jesus, they don't, not when it reallyates
a sales tax.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And so I took out a.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Personal loan and my ex husband actually helped me secure
that loan, which you know, uh, he's a really good person.
We weren't, you know, great married together. But he helped
me secure that because I would have lost the business
and couldn't pay it and so.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, but that was also very very stressful. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah, so pay say, pay your sales tax on time
because they don't. They don't play the comproller.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Don't play. Pay your fucking sales tax. See that's scaring
me right now. So we need to talk about this.
What you are.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'm not even going to give you advice. I'm not
even to get what Here's the advice I will give
this is actually, this is an excellent piece of advice.
Hire a CPA to pay your sales tax for you, Yes,
and ask for a copy of their professional liability policy
because if they fail to do it properly in Texas state.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Government, they are right for they are lible.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Okay, it's absolutely right. So there's your there's your advice.
I had to learn that the hard way.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Okay. So let's pivot to motherhood. Okay. I want to
know what's your balance like.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It's you know, oh man, it could be better, is
what I'll say.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You know, you work after hours?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Are you just strictly like what is your your usual
night look like? Are you are you on the phone
at night after five six o'clock. It depends, right, So
now that I have now that I'm divorced my ex husband,
I called him my baby daddy.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Even it's pretty I think it's so funny.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
But anyway, so my baby daddy, he has the kids
one week on and then I have them one week off.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
And you know what, here's what I'll say. If you're
going through.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
A divorce, if you can, if you can do everything
you can to put your children first, do that having
a positive co parenting relationship with your baby daddy or
your baby mama. Not that maybe a ton of men
are going to listen to this podcast, but it's so
incredibly important, and you know, it doesn't take It's not
about hard.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It's hard at first.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Because there's a lot of emotions and things there, but
take a step back and you know, think about what
you're contributing to the issues and try to do your
best to you know, just be positive.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
To be a combined front. Yeah, you know, he where's
super supportive.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I you know, right now I have my grandmother in
the hospital, and he's like, you know, I've got it,
I've got on your back, I got all to take
here as the kids. Yeah, he's he's a ten out
of ten dad. Another unslicted piece of advice. It doesn't
matter who you marry. This is controversial. Mm hm, you
canet on me.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Look, I love it controversial.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Tell me you can get divorced, right, Divorce is actually
not terribly difficult. Who you have a child with, you
will be stuck with forever.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yes, this is true. Forever.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yes, do not pick the wrong people to have children with.
It's a nightmare, I feed you. So I am grateful
that I decided to have children with Pablo.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
It may not have been the best marriage, but a
good dad. He's a great day.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
That's what matters in this situation because you can always
you know, you can always fall in love again.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
But your kids will never have another dad.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
No, that's so true. So he's a ten out of
ten dad. And you know I would not I actually
really don't think that I would be able to do
this if I did not have that kind of support,
I'll be honest. So, but on the weeks that I
do have my kids, it really depends on what's going
on at the office.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Sometimes they're there with me.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I mean I've had them there as late as eleven
o'clock on a school night, which I hope in the
next few years it will not be that way, but
sometimes it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Sometimes I think that subliminally that is showing your children.
It's kind of almost like raising them to be hard workers,
and you know, not that they have to own a
business and be somewhere, but to actually have integrity and
what they do and care about it.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
You know.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I think what we're doing is they're seeing it and
they're watching they do. So my parents were small business owners,
so you go my mom and dad. My dad's a
chiropractor and my mom always ran his clinic, and so
I grew up watching in the clinic.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, I mean I went.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
There every day after school. We were there on the weekends,
we were there on the summers. You know, it just
we were now look at you. Yeah, it was the
best thing they could have done for me. I worked
for the clinic by the time I turned fourteen. Every
summer I go work until I went to school or
I graduated high school and then went to college.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Didn't finish college, but I did go for a few years.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
So I want to know where this van thing is going.
This is, like I said, this is kind of like
a it's a whole thing. I mean, first of all,
people are using vans to live. Yeah, there's been this
whole man my List thing going. What's it called van bands,
van lifers. Then we have the van business, right, people
are starting their business in the vans, and then people
just have them because they're retiring in their vacationing. They
(38:30):
don't want to do the RV They want it more staplistic,
like where is this, Where do you see this going
in the next five years?
Speaker 2 (38:36):
And where do you think it's really good to boom?
So Okay, I'm so glad you asked me this.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, I'm excited about it because I think there's so
much potential. I think from where you have gone from
when we met to now, Like, it's just so exciting
to see you grow they come honey, grow to see
the revenue up, to see you, you know, hiring new people,
and it's just it's fun. And I think that it's
something that you're doing, something that makes people happy. I know,
I used to work in an industry where we made
(39:03):
money off people's misery exactly.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
I don't do that anymore. Hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, so like we're like, tell, I want to know
what this industry is going to look like in the
next five years, like where you headed. So in the
next five years where we're we are moving a little
bit outside of the custom space. Don't want to freak
anybody out right, we are still going to do custom vans,
but you know, custom is really just a variation in
(39:29):
a layout or a color choice. We're not going to
do all this really crazy custom stuff that we did previously,
honestly because it's very difficult to scale a business like that,
right because you don't have standardized processes and procedures. We
did actually recently just start. We built a relationship with
the Mercedes vendor in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Who's going to start providing us with two vans per month?
And they actually wanted to start with five, and I said,
I don't know, you.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Should just take it the five and you don't found somebody.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Well, I don't started me because I'll drive her crazy.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
You'll be up all night. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
You know, they are sending us five or five to
two cargo vans per month to do a spec upfit.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
And so that's gonna be oh man, that is so
you didn't tell.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Me this, this is something, this is there, this is recent,
this is within the last couple of months, And so
I had to I've had to really get you know,
the production line shaped up, and I had to take
full credit for that. You know. I brought on the
partners over at rent to own trailers, Yes, at the
end of last year. One thing that I also a
big piece of advice is that you know, you don't
have to figure everything out by yourself, and you you
(40:42):
don't have to know everything, and it's okay to say, hey,
these are the things I'm really good at.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
This is the experience I have. But this is the
experience I don't have. I need some help.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
I need some help with that, right, And so I
brought these partners on. They were interested in working with
us because what we do is, you know, it's very
similar and they have a background in me manufacturing that
I did not have. Could I have learned it over
the course of the next ten years or five, probably two?
Speaker 2 (41:06):
You didn't want to wait that long. I didn't want
to wait that long. I'm you now, I'm sorry. Who
runs stuff with it? Now? I want it?
Speaker 1 (41:11):
That's the most entrepreneurs we want it now. We're very
impulsive people. If you're not impulsive, you're not an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That' like very sorry, that's very true. So I want
it now.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
So brought them in and so they've helped me really
shape up production so that we can just crank out.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
That's examiting though, very exciting. So we have really cranked
up production.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
But I don't have a team quite big enough to
be able to take on five of the easier a month, and.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So and I don't want to ruin the relationship. Well
that's a special individual.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
It's not like you can just hire three people when
you're done. Like, these people have to be qualified, right
or can they learn on the fly.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
You know, now that we've really standardized things, it does
not necessarily have to be somebody that's super qualified. Right,
So you have a training program we do, okay, And
so that's another piece of a guid Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
You know if with your hands, if you are I say, handy,
you can learn this, right, that's exactically right? Yeah right, okay, yeah,
that's exactly right. And so because the C and C
machine prints everything for us, at this point, it's like
putting the other IQ furniture.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, so you don't need skilled labor.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
So this is going to be huge, guys. Yeah, of
something that's going to be huge. I mean it's already big.
But I think that this is going to be a
very different conversation we're going to have in the next
two to five years.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I hope so. I hope so.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
But uh, it certainly was where I think it's headed.
But and then in ten years, I want to make
my own van. I don't want to buy sprinters anymore.
I want to manufactor my own van.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
What would that look like? It would look like building
an engine. It would look like I mean it would
it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I don't know, be a van shark van. It would
be a vane. I see my little sum in place
of the Mercedes.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
We're putting that in like it's an existance right now,
it's more manifesting. Yeah, I love it. I don't know
how we're gonna do it, but we're gonna do it. Yes,
you are gonna do it. We can do hard shit. Yeah, yeah,
I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Well, I want to wrap this up with and I
ask everybody that comes on here, and I love to
just like surprise them with this, what's your superpower?
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Oh god, my superpower? Every single time. I never get
over I rarely get overwhelmed. What is your that's your superpower?
That's that's an interesting thing, right, Yeah, I rarely get overwhelmed.
I you know, things keep coming at me and they
just don't face me. I love it. I was laughing
with Hannah.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
It was you know when I got that amictional noticed
I talked about earlier, and I was laughing about it,
you know, just because it's funny. You have ever seen the
real where that guy's like running around and he's on
fire and he's like just normally he's like it's a
normal day. Like, no, that's straight, Like she's burning, but
she's okay, she's fine.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
So I think definitely my ability to you know, take
on a lot, and then my joy, my joy.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Is also my superpower.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yes, you know, And if you are having trouble finding
joy in your life, sometimes you.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Just got to start small, right, what are you grateful
for today? And then answer me this, What is the
biggest lesson that you've learned in your entrepreneurship journey thus far?
To believe in yourself?
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (44:16):
You are it gives me chills, and it makes me
a little emotional. She does have chills. Yeah, just let
y'all know she's not wing.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
It makes me a little emotional, But you know you,
it's kind of like going back to what we talked
about earlier.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
But you have.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
So many people around you that are going to think
you're crazy, that are going to doubt you.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
I have chills again, there they are. Don't be that
person for yourself. Believe in you. It's it and sometimes
that's all you need.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
And find your circle, find other entrepreneurs if you can.
I mean, I know that we are a client, you know, relationship,
but we have actually become really good friends and I
really believe in what you do and I'm just feel
very proud that you even give us the opportunity to
market for you.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
If you close the doors my share, I don't know
where I could be. You're we're living off of Brooklyn. Like, look,
you're my only client that you're all living.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Off of me.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
I don't spend I mean, look, I'm.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Like a bobo client compares some of the other people
that you work with and Joe and I appreciate you
because you visit the phone every time I call your
It goes back to what you said earlier about treating
everybody the same, and I feel that from you, and
I think you're grateful.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Thank you. So find your people, yeah, shind your.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
People, find your find your circle, find people that understand you,
and build that community for yourself. You know, because whether
they say you're going to be the what is it
the summary of like the five people that you know,
or is there some type of some type of saying
like that. Don't don't come in verbatim, but it is
important how you surround yourself. Yeah, around, Yes, yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
It is.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
And if you're around people that act like entrepreneurship is easy,
and they're like, you know, choose joy every day.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
No, they're lying. They're fucking lying. They're lying, they are lying.
It's it's terrible. Sometimes sometimes I'm like, probably out of
my misery. Yes, but then we come running back for more.
We love it. Yeah, because we're all burst outside. Yeah
we are, we are. We are so masachists inside. But
thank you Brooklyn for coming.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
You know, I really was excited to have this conversation
with you, and I hope that you guys got a
lot out of this, you know, talking to a wonderful
entrepreneur that has been in the through the ups and
downs too.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
It has huge you know, who has a huge.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Vision for what her company is going to be like,
and just to know that it's not always going to
be easy, but if you stick with it, it's going
to be great. So sure, thank you Brooklin for coming,
thank you for having me. And if you need to
get a hold of her, tell us how we can
get a hold of you. Okay, so you can email me.
I'm going to do info at vansharks dot com. Those
come straight to my regular inbox. I just don't want
to give my long other email because it's hard, or
(46:46):
even call our office. Seven one three seven seven seven
seven one seven one. It's a great pone number.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I like it. It's a really good one. It's memorable. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Our website is www dot vansharks dot com. Uh and
then our Instagram is at van under.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Score sharks plural. So check her out. Get your van
life on, y'all,
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