This is Under Pressure, a podcast where we dive into the untold stories of entrepreneurs and business owners who have conquered adversity to achieve greatness. And now, here's your host, Nick Staton.

Welcome to another episode of the Under Pressure Show. I'm your host, Nick Staton. Today, I have this guest on here, Jay. Jay, if you don't mind explaining to our guests a little bit about yourself and pronounce your last name.

Nic Staton

Yeah, my name is Jay Arroyo. I haste to space auto detailing. We do a mobile car wash.

Jay Arroyo

Nice. Could you tell us a little bit about like where you come from, kind of like So yeah, a little bit of like a little bit about like your, your, your history brought you up before getting into the car wash industry and stuff.

Nic Staton

Yeah. So I'm military brat and been, uh, been moved around a lot. Um, most of my whole life, I've probably been in about four different high schools. Uh, but I, you know, one thing I've learned a lot about my, with my dad is that he's been a big options for a newer. That's all he's done. That's all he knows how to do either hustling or making a business. And, uh, we started our first business in California, uh, landscaping company is sort of small, just, just me and him 10 houses when we first started. And we, we grew, we grew so big. We went over about 140 clienteles. We had a, then we started getting into a landscaping company and we had a concrete cruise. And then we just, we just grew from there. Then it got to the point where I had to make a decision on, you know, what was the best decision for me and my family. And I think it was best for me to move out and get out of the business. I just felt like there was, there's more to it that I can do, not just doing landscaping itself, but just felt like there was more I can do for myself. And plus, you know, I didn't want to ruin the relationship that I had with my dad because we always fought a lot in the business. It's hard doing a family business on top of it because you kind of get, you know, his way and my way and you, you know, it can, it can, and then you got to bring that home. you know, that was probably one of the toughest things that I've learned about running a family business. Uh, so I took that came to Georgia, I think came back to Georgia in 2000. And I can't remember, I think it was in somewhere in the 2003, maybe, um, work for a landscaping company for a little while. Then after the economy dropped down to 2008, I worked for true green for a little bit after that went from working for body flex for a little bit. just a little jobs here and there. I mean, I still, I did, I've been with them for quite a while. I always, always did really well, but I felt like there was still more to it. Um, and then I got into, um, I got into this valet job and I was only actually just making it an hourly rate, $10 an hour, just parking cars over in Buckhead. We didn't, um, this, uh, the owner of the company, uh, at the time was Buckhead Tavern. He had to, he didn't, he couldn't run the Valley really well. So he ended up just giving it to me and this other guy. And then we started off running it for a little bit after we ran it for about, I think about three months, it started getting busier and busier before you even know it, man. And probably about 2015, it took off. And it went big. I mean, it went big for, and still, and we're still had the valet company, but how I got into the detailing business was I, I learned a lot from other people, especially in the bucket area, you know, learnings, people pulling up in Ferraris, Lamborghinis, what do y'all do? You know, that was the biggest question. What do y'all do for a living before that one kid on Instagram used to do and be like, what do you do for a living? I used to question people about that. What do you do? And you know, and I just gave advice. And the one thing I learned is never keep all your eggs in one basket. You've got to keep putting other business in other ways. So I think in 2015, 2015, we ran the band, uh, valet, um, legitimately. And in 2016, I opened the mobile detail business, started off with my car, man, a Chevy Malibu. Everything was everything I worked on was in the car. I was doing charging sixty five dollars for a full car wash.

And you picked up those clients from the from the from the ballet ballet.

Yeah. Some of it was from the valet. Some of it was from the, the cliffs building. Cause we worked behind the, um, with, uh, the Eclipse building had all a bunch of people and, you know, just kind of just word of mouth here and there. Uh, so most of my clients were from valet people, word of mouth, friends, family, uh, started off with that. And literally, man, I'll tell you, I was $65 for a full detail. That's what I used to charge. Um, And it started small, you know, just build a name first, you know, the name of the valet was already big. So I kept the, I kept the name in there. So it's still with the ace of spades and then ran with that. And then ever since then, I just kept growing every year, but I didn't really take it seriously. I think in 2019, I took it serious. I got, I got married to Donna and then, uh, And about, I say 2019, 2020, she came and started really like learning the business and she changed the whole game from there on. Right. Everything changed. I mean, she was just, she was just, so what happened was I think in 20, I think when COVID hit, we ended up, um, right before COVID hit, we ended up losing the company, the valet. We lost it, everything. It shut down. It wasn't going anywhere. And then, uh, I remember I was stressing out, man. I remember this is his day. I was literally going to Florida and, uh, we were going on vacation, go see my mom and business was good on both ends. And then got a phone, got the phone call that night that valet's done. And I was literally like, what, what am I going to do? You know, where we're talking about eight, eight to 800 to a thousand dollars a day type. And that was, you know, that was, that was my bread and money, even though I still had the detailing, but didn't take that serious. Cause I just felt like the valet worldly with the money, man, I just wanted to keep making sure I had more eggs than one. And then just in one basket. And then I remember my wife said, don't worry about it. It's cool. You got another company. She was like, she was like, we're going to just kind of take everything we get, no matter what it is, whatever time it was, we were going. And I kid you not, And this is before she even got involved in it. She just literally just stand behind, just stand right there by my side and, and stick with it. I remember we got calls. It was, uh, got a call one night and it was like 10 o'clock. It was like, Hey, you guys open. Hey man, we were in bed sleeping too. We're like, what? And she's like, I was like, Hey, uh, this guy wants us to come do his cars. And she's like, let's go. And we got out of bed, got down there and did it. And then that's what we just started doing. I mean, literally, we got the strangest calls, whatever it was, we were doing it, we took it. And then she she just came along at the time just to keep me company. And then she just started getting into it. And then for you know, and she just started getting she just started loving it. So now it's just become a more of a big partnership. We took it. probably from really probably like 30, 30, 40 clients at the time before she came in. Now we're at, uh, over 330 clients at the time right now as today. Yeah. So like I said, in 2020 COVID hit, we didn't even struggle. We were, we were so, we were so busy and then, um, got in 2020, we ended up, uh, in 2021, we got our second van up and running. Then after that, 2022, we just started picking up more customers. 2023, we started to realize we're going to have to start raising our prices. And then again, we raised it again this year. And we're still hitting it strong, man. We're still going strong. We just hired our second full-time employee. So they have a crew that's already doing it. I took a step back. Um, and my son, which is her son, which is her son, Chris, he actually runs the company now. He runs all the groups.

So I told you, yeah, I remember. You got to just take yourself out and put them in the place. And that's exactly what I'm doing right now.

I realized, right. When you used to say, Hey, look, if you're working, you're really just a nine to five hour job. I mean, that's what you used to say. And I was like, you're right. And then Chris was like, you know, and you know, he, he was working with me since he was 14 years old, stayed with it, you know, like he knows what he's doing.

You just gotta, you just gotta let those, let that leash off.

He, uh, he was the one thing that pushed me to actually getting to where we're doing it now this year. This, this thing was different because it was like taking a step back and letting him take everything. And then it was like, don't get me wrong. I was nervous as hell. Couldn't sleep. I was thinking about how the transitions was going to work. I think he started April 1st is when he actually started on his own. And then we're three, almost three months in and in marvelous, bro. I mean, I've actually have more time to just focus on the scheduling of, uh, mainly just putting more of the money into the business. Now that we're just putting like nonstop, any money we get is just going to the business, upgrading all our machines and, uh, just finding it so much easier now. And if any of the little leftovers that he can't do, like, I just can't get to this guy and he really wants it today. we make sure all our clients get what they want. If it's that day, it's getting it done. So, but you just allowed them to take over the most, most, I mean, Don, I'm really maybe do like one or two out of the day, maybe, you know, but the most time, like I said, we're, I guess it's more time to spend time with family. You know, I just, I just lost my grandma not too long ago. She passed away. And then, you know, my grandma's grandpa's kind of sick. So I'm just been spending time with over there in Florida a lot. So that the benefit of being away from it, working on the schedule on top of still able to have it running, it's it was a it was a big change. But, you know, I think you got to get out of it, get out of your comfort zone. And if you keep staying in the comfort zone, I think that's where a lot of people have a lot of problems.

They just want to be comfortable in everything and no matter what they do. And that's why a lot of people settle for the relationships that they have and stuff is because they just want to be comfortable. They don't want to worry about nothing.

No, they don't.

They're still going to worry about stuff.

I mean, like I said, I was, uh, I was nervous. And I, you know, my wife talks, you know, talk to her son. I was like, look, I don't think you realize what he's doing. Like he's giving you the key to the business and you know, it's up to you to change it, you know?

And don't get me wrong.

We, you know, we have, you know, some little, Hey, you forgot this. And, you know, but he learns from it.

It takes younger age people to give their perspective into the older age people and then it takes for the older age people to get out of that. Well, I already know what I'm doing. There's no way you can turn around and teach me anything. And it's like, at the end of the day, there's more ways to tie a shoe than one. So. Right. Exactly.

So, like I said. Yeah. And he's, and he's, and he's taking it well, you know, he's, you know, I try to, I know the biggest key is to, from what I learned from what me and my dad ran the company is, and the reason why I realized it was best for me to leave is because we were bumping heads too much. And at the end of the day, you can lose a family over that, you know? So I learned to learn to talk and communication better with him. Cause you know, I was very, I'm always been a hotheaded kind of person, like, you know, it's my way or no way. And I had to learn, I can't, I can't be like that no more. You know, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, there's a way to talk to people. And then I feel like if you, if you put stress on your employees, you're just putting it to affect it every day. You know, and then next, you know, it just, it messes up their mind and they're not focusing on. So now I just try to be more positive. My wife takes over more of the, you know, if you're running late, you know, but for the most part, man, I hate to say it, they getting it done.

So, you know, that's what I had to do is, is get that thing out of my head of, They're not doing exactly how you want it done. But as long as it fucking gets done, I don't care how you fucking do it.

Right. Yeah.

That was me. Get this shit done in the way that you feel the most comfortable and the best that works for you, because what works for you is not going to work for me. But I can explain to you the concepts. But once again, you're going to tie your shoe a different way than that time. I should. So I got to stop getting pissed off at you because you're not doing it exactly like I would.

Yeah, that's that's what my wife said. She's like, you know what? She's like, he might be late, but if he still kills it and does everything in time, what are we arguing about, you know? And I'm like, yeah, you're right. So, like I said, she, so she has certain roles that she does that helps me to kind of, you know, step away from having to fill it. But I have to understand that. But if you put a lot of stress on your employees, it can ruin the day. And if it ruins the day, they end up messing up. And then at the end of the day, you're still at fault because you're still running the whole company. It's still your business. You're still running it that way. So, I looked at it now. There's there's ways to communicate with your employees.

And I've been a lot better now, you know, in this transition that we're doing, you know, takes for us to change ourselves, for us to change things inside of our business, because I think that it's other people. But a lot of times it's our own our own actions and our own thinking that's really causing the problems.

Yeah. Yeah. So like I said, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's working well, man. I'm, I'm actually pretty happy where this is going. Um, you know, in, in the ballet, we're about to pick up another nightclub soon. So that's going to even be bigger again. So now that we got that back and we're running it now, so that's actually going to come up really good as well too. And the cool thing is we don't even think about that no more. We kind of like the ballet is just the ballet is now the back burner. Like we don't even care anymore. Like, oh, that's just extra free money. Don't even worry about it. Because we don't want to. I didn't want that. I'm not the night light kind of guy anymore. I'm more like just want to be there, get the work done, spend time with family, you know, go on vacations, do stuff. stuff. Okay. So, uh, I've changed my mindset in that way. So now it's like when I, there's times where, you know, employee needs a day off and I don't have no coverage. I had to cover it is what it is, you know? Um, but when I go work in the Valley, I'm just like, Oh Lord. Why didn't I show up? I'm like, man, I do, I make way more money doing this than I was doing that. And like, so it's changed. Everything has changed. My whole philosophy has changed on that. So, uh, so the thing is, it's just to keep running the company and keep getting bigger than what we are. So we're focusing on that more now.

Um, so why did you start, start your, uh, detailing business? Exactly. So here's a story.

It's going to be funny. I always tell a few people about the story. So there was this guy that worked at the ballet with me. I'm not going to mention him because he's known. Oops. So he worked for me for the ballet. And he was a great guy. I could never doubt about it. He was good at what he did. So what he did was he detailed why he was ballet. And I was like, cool. I mean, there's times we're slow. You know what I mean? I'm always about make your money. You know, so he would, he would sell, he would sell a detail and go detail the car while he's valeting. If he, if I need him, he'll stop and make sure he gets done. And he, he was marvelous, bro. I didn't know how he did it, but he did it. So one day on a Saturday, we had a big event and it was huge. And I think I had about six or eight guys on and I was like, he came down and he was like, Hey, I got to do some cars. And I was like, well, unfortunately you're not going to be able to do it today. Like today's the day you just can't like, I have to have you focus. And he kept insisting like, Oh, I can get it done. I can get it done. I'm like, I can't have you get that done. I really need you to just to focus. And he got mad. And then he was like, well, I don't want to see why. So it was kind of like he was kind of talking back to me. And at the end of the day, you know, I realized hiring friends can really kind of mess up things, you know, your friendship over time. So it's a learning curve. So I was like, well, we're not going to have this keep having this discussion like this is what it is. my company, you're working for me. I need you here today. I need you to focus. I said, I apologize that you can't do that, but today we got a big event. We got to stay focused. I didn't have eight people here just to sit around for no reason. Long story short, he just took his uniform off, shook my hand and said, thank you very much and dipped out, quit on me on the most busiest day, on the most busiest day. So I was just like, what? I was like, all right, And it kind of messed it up that day. That was mad. I was mad. And then he finally he finally the next day I come to the valet and he's washing cars in my parking lot. But what? So I was like, hey, I need you to move your cars. Like, you know, this is this is my spot. These are my parking lot. And he's like, yeah, I'll move in a minute. I was like, all right. I just felt like it was a slap in the face to me personally. So what I ended up doing was all that money I had saved from the valet and I was really being strict on because, you know, I was living in the condo. I saved every little penny I went for. I think I went for two or three weeks. I went on YouTube to learn how to detail cars. And I said, you know what, I want to learn to detail cars. And I went and started learning everything, every curve, everything, just anything you can think of chemicals, all of it. And I purchased, I purchased, I think I spent like $8,000. I put money on a truck. I put my money on it. And I was building as I was going, I was like learning as don't, my mom, my mom was my very first customer, you know, to learn, to see what, to learn how to do it. And of course, you know, she was like, you missed this and you missed this. And I'm like, Oh, here's my mom already. Like, I didn't even want it. And, uh, and then I, I ran with it, man. And then, uh, uh, took his customers. So that's how it all started. Because it was like my mind said, I need another company, but I didn't know what to do. But I love cars. I love cars, man. Every time I see cars, I'm so fascinated. I love driving the high end cars, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, all that stuff. So I was fascinated with that. I never knew I was going to love washing cars. That wasn't my, it wasn't my motive. I was just trying to figure out another way for another, I don't know what I was going to do, but I knew I needed another income. But that was, I think that what made me so mad that he literally like slapping his face.

So I was like, I opened up a detailing company then.

And that's what I did. I opened up the detail and then just started rolling with that since then. But ever since then and just made it so I just kept it going, you know, yeah.

So like I said, it takes some fire to get lit up under you to get you going.

Yeah. And, you know, and don't get me wrong. He came with headaches because I couldn't, I didn't understand certain things or how to work certain things and. You know, but you just have to keep playing with it. Nobody's I say everybody that gets into anything, even pressure washing business, you know, you didn't know what the hell I was doing.

All right.

Nobody does.

You just kind of don't in some aspects. I just go out and do it. Make it look good.

Hey, you make it look good. I'm like, damn, you're over here driving a lawnmower pressure washer, you know, driving a pressure washer. I didn't even know they exist. I was tripping when I saw that. I was like, all right, well, he knows what he's doing. I mean, he started with the red truck.

Yeah, started with the I actually started putting a pressure washer in and out of the truck originally. But then when you actually saw me going, I had the red truck and a trailer set up. Then I just bought a bigger trailer and got to where I was. I don't want a trailer. I want a flatbed. Then I got my first flatbed. Then I got the second flatbed. And I actually took my time. I'm building out my flatbeds too, because I had both of them because I bought pretty much both of them around the same time, right? Is I put all my money into the first one and then it was like you can go broke, build the second one and allow it sitting there. Or you can go hustle your ass off in the first one and then utilize some of that money towards the end of the year and build out the next one and then put somebody in that other truck and do it as hard as fuck to find anybody to put in the truck. Because nobody really has the drive or the motive to actually go out and want to do this shit. Most people come over here and take money from you and then turn around in the day, leave and go do something else and not really actually. Put that drive into being like, this is where I want to be, I want to help you build, help me help you, that type of deal. And it took for a while of me just running through people, running through people to find that person. And then once I found that person, he's in the truck and he takes it home.

Yeah. So yeah, that's, uh, that's how we're at right now. Like just finding a good crew, you know, if we have to weave in and out, some of them are good and some of them just, I realized now on the ones you do before we would keep them for quite a while. Now I just realized it's time to go. If it's, if there's just a bad egg, get rid of it immediately. Cause it's just, it's just a waste of time and money.

Another thing that I find really good too is just treating your employees really well to where they go out and they talk good about your company to other people too, because they may end up having a friend or something like that that catches an interest or whatever that wants to come out and work with you.

That's where we're at now, where we have now, at first, you know, no, but then second, once they started seeing and everybody started talking, they're like, wow, he pays good. Oh, he does this. So now I have people think we have, we have, we have like three, three or four people that want to get on. The problem is, is that it's the friends that I just don't use the friends things.

What I would honestly do is I would, you know, um, maybe you could even look at other pressure or other detailing companies that just aren't really doing that great. And then, you know, you just have some conversations with them and start talking to them and stuff like that. And just be like, man, I've got a lot of work. I could use you. And then they come over and they, they just work a little bit with you. And then y'all start having a little bit more conversations and basically be like, Hey man, I've got a lot of work. I could use you. You can come over here and just work for us and not, you know, worry about what you got going on. I'll keep you fed with all this stuff. You're going to make good money doing it. You enjoy doing it. You'll find other people that just want to stop their company and come over and work for you.

Yeah, we, we have one that we're curious. We were still waiting to see how it goes with him first. And he's, you know, he's, he, he, uh, mentor him and everything to the ground up. Um, but I, I don't know where he's taken off just yet. I'm still giving him time. before we start building where we're at. Because right now, like you said, putting on that second van, and that was just, you know, thanks to my mom, she actually gave me the 10k. And she was like, here, I got 10k, you know, shoot a little settlement and stuff. And she was like, I'm gonna give you 10k. And I was like, Oh, okay. And my wife was like, Nope, take that 10k and build a van. take it while you have it. And I'll tell you what, that was probably one of the best investments we ever did. And then now we're trying to get to the third one. But once we get to the third one, we want to go ahead and open up a shop. So that's the next, that's our next step. But like I said, we're going to have the, we just got, we're already looking for two more employees now. full-time, we're gonna go for a full 30-day training first, figure out who we like and who we don't like and what's gonna work for the crews, and then after that, start looking into it, because we're already starting, we got a last meeting, I think, on Tuesday, and we'll figure out which direction we are gonna go for the marketing thing, because we're trying to invest into the marketing now. Because everything we upgraded, all our machines, they're done. Everything's pretty much done. We put all our money into it, and we literally put all our money, every nickel and dime we had, we threw everything in it, And so, and like I said before, we used to go on vacations a lot. Now, we just stopped using that, you know, spending that money and using it the right way. So our next step, like I said, is to hire two more employees, see, and then get the actual two vans fully up and running. And once the two vans are fully up and running, then we start looking at getting the third van up. Because one breaks down, man, you got to have another one keep moving. Cause that shit sucks. I've been there, man. I've been there enough to where I'm like, damn, I broke down. I got to get through that for a few months. And that's why my wife was like, when I, when we got that same case, she was like, nope. turn that around and put that in, in that second van. And we're literally, I kid you not, when you put that deposit, that check in it, it was done. Like we had that van, I think we had the van, the van took us a minute to find, and we finally found it in Miami, drove that thing back here, gutted everything out, cleaned it up. We had that thing van and like literally in one week we were up and up and running. So, so now, like I said, we run, we still run the two vans doing, during our days. Um, but we want to run it like a full operation. But to do that, we're still going to have to buy more bands. So we already know when it comes, it's going to be at that level where we're going to have to spend another 10K out of it. Day cruise and night cruise or just? So in the summertime, we're doing the days and the nights because the heat. It's just outrageous, bro. I don't even understand how people do it. You know, we used to do it right now. We used to do it in the summertime. And, you know, we when I say we took everything, we took everything. There was times where me and Chris and I think he was 15 at the time. And I remember we were working in Buckhead and we worked from day and night and we was, I think it was like eight or nine o'clock at night. We're still washing cars. We had two more. It was getting to the point that every time we were drinking, it was just pouring out. Just, and it was like, I ended up having to tell the guy like, we ain't doing no more, bro. We're done. We are done. And then, uh, it was, it was a lot, you know what I mean? And you got to understand back then we were charging only $35 for SUV clean. You know, $25 for cars. And I remember when we finally, when we went up from 20, uh, 25, we went up to 45. People were complaining about the pricing, like what, or what we do. No, we're not doing that. We did that in real life.

Let me tell you something. Minimum 65 now.

No, um, no, you gotta be on the loyalty program for that. Now we don't even, yeah, we, we went up, like, and I said, we went out, we went up, but you know, we're, we're still the cheapest though. It's still looking at all. We still look at our, our, our, you know, what's around us.

I want to say most of these card dealing things or whatever, they're like, try to get their average tickets up in like the couple of hundreds and shit like that when they go to do something.

So, We still talk to a lot of detailers out there, a lot of detailers know who we are, and we're good friends with them and all that. But a lot of times, there's people that work in their cars, use their own water, use the customer's water, the customer's electricity, whatever it is. And they're charging $200 tickets when we're like, we're still charging like less than under a hundred. So I'm like, what the heck? So I'm like, it's a little off for me, but at the same sense, my dad always taught me about having more in volume than having, cause I see a lot of guys, this is where I see a lot of people failed in the detailing business. They charge so much money. that think about this. If you were charging a $200, $200, $300 ticket for a car and you know it's going to rain, you ain't doing it. You're going to cancel your appointment. You're going to be like, nah, I need to hold off because I ain't spending this kind of money and it rains in three days. But you know, it's not worth it. So, but here you're getting your ticket at $75, $85 and you're like, Hey, and I'm still getting the good work out of it. Why not? If it rains, I don't care. I still got a good, I still can get another one. I still can afford one more. You know, so we realized that's what we're doing now is, uh, we just raised our last one to March 1st, uh, and it's still fair in the pricing, but yet it's still to us. We're still looking at it, man. We're still in the wind. So, um, we're still doing that right now. We haven't gotten to the point where we're charging $200 a ticket. I think we'll get to that level once we open a shop. And then we have to start fluctuating on prices a little bit off, you know. So for the most part, I just don't see the concept in it, man. Like I even took this guy when he mentored, he went in training and he, you know, he had his own company does all he just wanted to learn a little bit more in the professional and, you know, having the doing the right way because he's using his car. And I said, OK, come on, come on, come work with us for the day. And when he saw what we were doing, he was like, How'd you do that in like 40 minutes? I'm like, because we have the proper machine. Y'all are doing extra for no reason. You don't need to do all that. People would not be watching all these detailings and these, you know, clips and tick tocks and stuff. They do the outrageous things. And I'm thinking that's a little assertive. I don't think you need to do all that. And you're charging like three, five or you see them where they're like, oh, $500 on this. do all that. And so we found a better way of upgrading our machines. And, and, and really my wife is the one that did all like, she's the one that Googled everything. She's the one that said, I think you can do, I think there's a better way to do this. I think there's a better way to do this. I think there's a better way to do this. And I, and I say, well, show me, because I'm just used to this, just rigid vacuum and pulling it and getting stuck underneath the They make something better than this. And sure enough, she was fine, bro. She was, she was killing me with it. I was like, well, you have to tell the wife she's right. You know, but I mean, at the same time, I was okay with it, bro. I was totally okay with it. Just, just to see the changes that we did. Then the setups, we were going to hire this company, I think ACP, detailing, I'm sure you know what Marietta and them, they do custom work. She was like, but they were always, we're booked during this time, we can do it this time. My wife was like, we don't need them. She's like, we do it ourselves. Sure enough, we did and we customize it. I'm impressed, even people are impressed. And when they look at it, they're like, wow, that's a crazy setup. But what we're going to do now is take it out. We're going to strip it again and we're going to customize it a little bit more, more professional in it, uh, to last a lot longer. Uh, so that's, that's what we're doing now. So, but for the most part, like I said, do one van at a time because you start doing all of them.

You just feel like, damn, like I'm not really stressed out so much all over the damn place.

I even told her too. I was like, man, we spent, Like this, I was like, I was shocked. I was like, this much money and this much week. I was like, literally tripping on it. I'm like, Oh Lord. And that was just like one van. And I was like, yeah, she was. So now what we did is we, we have a board on it and it's a dry eraser board and in our room and we just have everything listed of what has to get done no matter what. So when we have a little extra money, we just wrap.

So one of those things off.

Yeah. So I mean, yeah. So, I mean, we, we knocked out a good portion of it, so we don't have that much left, but I just went in today and bought another set of things that's on the list and knocking that bad boy off. So, I mean, we're getting there. We really are.

What's been the hardest part so far of all of this?

Uh, the hardest part. Yeah, I think the hardest part, honestly, was not taking the initiative to move forward was the hardest being comfortable. Uh, you know, like I said, my son, Chris, and, you know, like, you know, I call my son, you know, been with him since he was 14, which is I've been with his mom and him just taking, I think him seeing more He wanted to achieve more. He just he didn't want to be where like how I used to be with my dad. We would be OK just being where we're at. He wanted more in life. And I noticed that there was there was some time, bro. He would literally he would come home, be tired or be in the sun. And he and I remember he said that this is the first day he said this and that changed my whole mindset. So he's like, Jay, what the fuck are we doing? Like he literally took his shirt off and he said those exact words. And I said, what? And I'm literally sitting right here in the same spot and I'm looking at him like, uh, and he was like, what are we doing? Like, we need to keep, we need to move. We need to get up. And I was like, okay. And he was like, I can do this. I can, I can do this. I can run this company. And then he was like, and he was like, well, we need to charge this. And I would think that was hard for me to charge people that we were, you know, I live in my comfortable and I feel like, well, we charge, they're going to leave us. Right. And that was probably what feared me the most is get out of my comfort zone. So I say one of the hardest things is get out of the comfort zone. But he pushed me out of that. And that was probably one of the best decisions we ever did since then.

There you go. Yeah. When you find yourself under pressure or how are you dealing with stuff like that?

Um, well now I've been going to the gym. I stay focused on that when I'm on vacation. Of course I don't, but I go, I go almost six days a week. I feel like that actually keeps me. And I know, like I talked to you about it and you know, trying to, you know, seeing the results that you do, he's pushing me to want to do it too. But I say the biggest thing, that I've been, you know, and everybody's beliefs are different, but I try to take the time, you know, to pray in the morning, you know what I mean? Just me and my wife try to pray in the morning and try to stay in there. That mindset, you know, maybe no God takes over everything. Um, but under pressure, I haven't really, honestly, haven't gotten into that level. I mean, there is some times that we have gotten in some stuff, but you know, I tell my wife, Hey, we got a friend at the end of the day, God's in control of this. And, and he's the only one that can make anything better. So I would say that's the one thing that we do is like the stress level wise is working out for me. Um, but also also looking at things and wanting to make sure that I don't take what I learned or take from what I learned from my previous, um, business with my dad. because of the family home and learning from that because we used to be under a lot of pressure and then it was really bad. It was it's always hostile and I don't like that. So that was the one thing I had to do was learn how to change myself. But I have to want that. I can't just do that. You know, I can't just say I want. I got to I got to accept it, but also got to do it. So that's one thing I have done. So it hasn't been anything really under pressure yet for me and hope it doesn't. But, you know, it's life. We're going to go through that. So there are some storms, but somehow some way we still get pulled it through with no issues, man. That's what's still doing good.

How are you? How are you dealing with your mindset and stuff like that? As in what? Um, just like over and just in general, like, uh, how, how do you find yourself in like situations to be able to push yourself to continue, uh, doing things?

The number one, the two number one things would be my wife and Chris. And the reason why is because my wife is. She just, she's got a big heart. She always has in my back from day one, no matter what.

That's your, that's like your purpose is, is, is the main two.

They're good. It's, it's, it's, it's, They've been, you know, like I said, we're, we're like a tripod. We're, we're always together because we're family owned, you know? So we're always working it. And there's times where we have to run two vans that like, when we went to Todd price's house, we had to run two vans. So all everybody was there, uh, you know, either my boy offers to clean. Yeah. Yeah. And that man had us out there in the wintertime, watching cars when it was cold. I remember that because I remember his first time. And that's the thing about us. When you have two bands, you can do it. You know what I mean? And we had the employees to do it. Made your day nice. Oh, yeah. Don't get me wrong. And he called us in the afternoon. That was crazy part. But we took it and we don't try to turn anything down. But we worked it through, ran the two vans and got it all done. Like I said, Chris and my wife, we just pushed it through together. I think we pushed everybody to the limit. After seeing where we were living comfortable and getting out of the comfortableness, and actually taking the risk, because at the end of the day, if you don't take risks, you don't know where you're going to go. You don't know. No reward without risk. Right. Right. So you have to. And I noticed that, you know, and he was the main one. And he was. And ever since then, we just push each other. So every single person in this house pushes each other, you know. So, you know, so that's how we do it.

What's what's been the best part so far of all of this?

The best part I would say is, in this transition, I would probably say spending more time with family. You know, I was, yeah, I was able to spend more time, get more close to the family. You know, I, I worked so much when I first started, um, that I didn't, I didn't, I barely, I cut my family out really before I met, uh, before I met Donna, I cut my whole family out and just, it was just about me, you know? And now it's like, now I had the time and not realize how important it is.

is cut everybody out and just had to narrow my path down to just focusing on my shit, get my shit together. Because in the day, I could still focus. I spent my whole life focusing on other people, never really got myself together. Now that I'm actually in the position to get myself together, I've had to stop focus on other people. But I'm also at a point where I want to be able to put more stuff on other people to where I actually have more time now. to, you know, delegate towards things like my mom, my dad, or whatever it may be, if we can go out and go hang out with them, because we're all getting older, we're not getting younger. And I have to take that, that mindset of, you know, pushing everybody away and figuring out how to put people in positions to help me so that I don't have to necessarily turn family down when it comes to that type of stuff.

We just, we just came back from, um, we just came back from Florida literally, uh, yesterday or a whole week, you know, and, uh, I had to take care of my mom's dog so they can go on vacation. So like I said, being there for family, but, you know, being there only for the closest ones that actually been there for me. you know, never really gave up on me. So, you know, that's the main one, but also spending more time, uh, you know, with family too. So that's one of the most important things that I realized too. Like I enjoy, cause at the time before when we didn't have nothing, it was just about family. That's all it was literally when people don't realize when you struggle, it's just who brings you in that little circle. And that's usually the family that's helping you get where you need to be. You know, we all, We all put an important role into it. I mean, my oldest son, Aaron, he goes to college and he used to work for the company, but now he just kind of just works at his own, works at a job, but he's in IT techs. But he still helps out when we need the vans ready, he gets them all prepped if we need it. We have a little Bella, she's still young, but she She's, we started slow with her, you know, have her come in and do a little vacuum here and there. But, uh, she does all the laundry for us, helps me get all the buckets ready. So like I said, the whole family, that's the most important thing is having a strong family and working together. Cause at the end of the day, like I said, we're don't put ourselves in together and we don't get where we need to be. We don't eat, we don't, you know what I mean? So it's the most important part, you know? Uh, so all of us have to put in the work to get where we need to be.

Nice. What are you most excited about to finish out the rest of 2024?

I'm going to say really is I kind of want to if I can get down to if I can get down to the actual two full vans and then get the third up and running, then I would say I don't know if I would be able to get the shop. I'm going to we're working towards that shop.

Shops are so fucking expensive right now.

That's what I heard. You know, you've been getting priced at like $3 a square foot. You know, I haven't really, I just been looking at what. I've been seeing some of them like 26, uh, $2,600 a month or $3,000 a month. The only problem that I looked at is when it comes to shop, it's all about location too. You start getting some weird locations. People would be like, I ain't driving all the way over there. You know what I mean?

So your situation would be about like location. Mine doesn't really consider about location considering we all go out there where nobody comes to us. But I was just finding that the average was like $3 a square foot. So when it comes down to it, like that fucking bill is expensive for the square footage that you get.

So the other option we were looking at, and we are looking at it, was getting seen. And I noticed like the place where you live in the farm got that land. And I've seen you build your garages, which was good because in the wintertime. That's what I'm going to have to do for the lighting company. Right. Because we're going to have to have storage. Exactly. I mean, my wife were talking about, well, why don't we just get a house and buy land and build a warehouse on it? And we only have the selected people that will let come to the house, like putting ceramic coats and all that. And she said, so we we have been looking at that option because I looked at him like, why pay three or four thousand dollars a month? Right. On top of what I had to pay for mortgage. It don't make no sense when I can just do it all in one bundle and be cheaper than what I would do. So and then I'm paying somebody else's mortgage payments.

And it just helps you out in the long run because it adds value to your property.

Right. So so right now, we we like I said, if the shop works where it needs to be, it needs to be. But the same sense, our goal is like what my wife says. We're not forcing it to go there. It has to naturally go there. You know what I mean? So When things come our way, just like when my mom got that 10,000, we never thought we're going to get anything. You know, she was like, here, here's $10,000. And we're like, what? And my wife was like, nope, second band. You know, so it's like only if it, only if it guides us through it, we don't, I think I see a lot of people force themselves into things and not realizing when it gets down to the gritty, you're like, Oh man, why did I rush this? Sometimes rushing things is not the key in life. And I see that. So now it's, we just, we have to stay focused on what we're doing. As long as we stay focused, what we're doing, I think it would naturally fall in place. So if it comes to it and they're like, okay, we, we got the two vans are running. Now we, we know pay for all this marketing. Now we got to actually have a third person running the third van, but we also need to get the fourth one. Maybe that would be different again, but overall, a lot of people I talked to just tells me the shop is just not the way it's just so expensive. And just the overall to run it, it's expensive. So if we can just get, um, a place, you know, we are looking at buying land and then build on it and then maybe just put a warehouse on it. Cause I think for like a big warehouse that we looked at for 60,000, you can get a warehouse. And of course it may be aluminum and all that, but at the end of the day, it's just a warehouse.

It's just a warehouse. We'll get you a great warehouse. Yeah, I looked at him strapped down with a damn, uh, seamount and fucking floor. You'd be good.

Yeah. So like I said, so we're, we're looking at it. We're like, well, we could still put all our vans in one little area, one shot. So it is, it is possible. But like I said, we would like to have a shop at the end of the day. It's only what God's directs us to it. You know what I mean? So, um, we haven't really figured out what direction we're going yet. We're just not going to rush it. So we're staying focused on what we're doing this first. Like I said, our biggest thing is our, our marketing. Uh, and then Caleb is our second full-time employee. He's, he's been with us for two years, but he's trying to transition himself to be on his own now. So once he, when he's been doing, he's been passing the test, um, uh, he'll be out, be out tomorrow doing it again on his own to see how he does. And then he does, um, like, you know, when we only have a day where we only have like three cars, you know what, you can do it just so we can get him on his own. Once he passes that and gets to that level and we're ready to transition and pay for the marketing and everything runs in its own place, then we're able to get him his own team and he'll be on his own on that way.

There you go. That's what's up. I love hearing all this stuff that how you're growing and everything and everything's falling into place.

Yeah, it's it's falling slowly, but that's at the end of day. You don't want to rush it, man.

No, I definitely don't. Puzzle piece by puzzle piece. How can everybody finds you on on social media and stuff like that?

Uh, on social media, you can follow us on Asa space, uh, at Asa space detailing, uh, of course on Facebook, Asa space, auto detailing, and then our course, our website, that's a www dot Asa space detailing.com. Uh, that's mainly the ones we do on it as well. I think my son does the tick tock, but I think he has that as a space detailing as well, but he does most of that. So we're, we're based in Ackworth now. So, but again, we're mobile. So we travel, I mean, man, we travel anywhere along this.

I had to come over and clean our truck. I got one of my trucks in Ackworth.

Oh, do you really? In Ackworth? We're at an Ackworth. Huh? We're at an Ackworth.

I'm not exactly sure. That's only about an hour and 15 minutes from me, but that's where Richard lives. Richard lives in Ackworth.

Oh, okay. Now what's, what is Richard the ball guy?

Richard's the other guy that I have that works with me.

Okay. I haven't seen him on like, I can't remember if I saw him on social media.

You got Jeff, who's the stocky guy. Yeah. That, that guy was talking about the guy that I just got, that I just brought on that.

I saw him. Yeah. Okay.

He's an, he's an awkward. Yeah. He rides, he rides, uh, actually rides, um, bulls and shit does bull riding.

Really? Yeah. I've always wanted to do that, but I was like, nah, I'm not doing that now.

I got one guy that does rugby and I got one guy that does bull riding.

So, so what other trucks do you have that you do, or you just do the scheduling?

Uh, so I I'm basically in one of the trucks and then Richard's in the other truck and Richard's basically our full-time tech. He goes out and does all our residential for the most part. I go in and do some of the residential. I'm more over the commercial side. He comes in and helps on the commercial side. Okay. Jeff comes in and fills in on the commercial side when we need extra hands on that. And then he's going to start taking over the hood cleanings.

Oh, gotcha. Okay. Yeah.

And then I was basically putting Richard, uh, in charge of the Christmas light stuff, considering he's already got two years of experience in that. Yeah. Opening that that's smart. Yeah. That's going to allow us to take both and have both businesses and us stay busy all year round. But at the same time, I got a feeling with my mindset and the way that I have drive and stuff like that, that having both of those, We'll be doing probably five to 10 million a year. Once it gets, yeah.

I mean, like I said, you got to keep it moving with extra, you know what I mean? So, but yeah, that's, that's the one, that's the one key. That's the one key. Keep, don't have all your eggs in one basket. No, but, and, and working and working all year round is a good thing. I mean, like I said, our ballet is all year round, but our detailing, most of these I think they stop somewhere between November and they don't pick up somewhere in between February or March, depending on the weather. So they usually give yourself about four or five months out.

So here's the thing. You want employees. You want to stay busy all year.

Yeah, we're busy all year round. I never have to worry about it.

As long as you stay busy all year, you won't have no problem retaining employees. That's the reason that I wasn't retaining any employees is because I was strictly commercial. And once again, we might work five days out of the whole month.

Oh, I see what you're saying. That type of shit.

So I had to restructure my stuff and basically say, Nick, if you want guys to come over and to believe in what you've got going on, you've got to have a pipeline of work. Right. No matter what that fucking pipeline is, you've got to have that coming in. And I've been running off organic for the longest time, but here recently we actually changed it over his business page and put my phone number on it. And now we're basically capturing all the stuff that was coming in from his business page. Because he had a pressure washing company that he was running for, I'd say like two years. But he was also working in nine to five. He didn't want to work in nine to five and run a pressure washing company. So he came over and started working for me, but kept his going. Then it got to a point where he was like, Nick, I can't answer my phone calls. You have somebody in the office. How about we just change this number out? And then we just basically get those calls coming over. I pay $42, I think it is for the calls. But I mean, I'd much rather pay $42 for a phone call that's coming in. That's hot.

Right. 100%. So, yeah, I mean, that's what like I said, that's what we're looking at doing is the marketing, focusing on that in the area that we need to be. I mean, we've been doing really good organically. We ranked at first. We ranked somewhere in the 38th at the time. And I don't think we're ranked number one, number two. So we're doing really good. But I think once we hire this company to do what we need to do, it'll allow us to spread more. So like I said, we're all year round anyways. And we're our most, I think we get our most business in the wintertime because a lot of companies are closed. They're like, Oh, so when do I do is I have those yard signs that you'd be doing in the wintertime, we'll put them out and we'll be all year round. So that's what gets people to be like, Oh, I need to get my car clean again. I ain't going to be out in this cold.

Cause everybody's got a dirty car all year round. I wouldn't shut up.

Right. Right. Don't get me wrong. There are some times when you're out there in the cold, you're like, Jesus, I'm not doing that anymore. So, but like I said, it's, um, we didn't know, like we were like last year, the year before all that all year round went no issue. It sucks in the wintertime, don't get me wrong, but at the same sense, it grows in the more. So if we have 330 now, I'm hoping by the time we start this marketing in 90 days, if we can double that, I wouldn't even care about it anymore. It'll just naturally go where it needs to be. So we're getting there though.

Well, I appreciate you coming on here and explaining all of this. I'm sure some people will get some gems out of this and haven't had anybody come on and explain too much about car detailing and stuff like that. So that's going to be something new.

I'm always here. Like I said, I'm always willing to help people if they want to know how to do it. We're here to mentor.

Appreciate you. Well, thank you for coming on. And I'm going to end it right here. That's the end of this episode. the end of this episode, guys. If y'all would just go subscribe on every platform and you have a good night. Peace.

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