When Should You Hire Team Members? Plus, What is Necessary On A Road Trip? Episode #920

Welcome to the Pints and Polishing Podcast, the most influential and listened to podcast in auto detailing.

Welcome to the community.

Good to be back. I had a week off Labor Day weekend. Good trip for me. We're getting right into the specialist group because my trip kind of tied into a post that happened inside the specialist group.

Billy's about to take a big journey. Our Porsche guy from Miata Guy, that's his journey.

Interesting question that he asked, right? I like the question. He goes in and says, hey, what would you guys carry if you're out on a road trip? What was your answer? I'm curious.

Yeah, eco one and revive. I mean, to me, it's, it's simple. You know, none of us want to carry a thousand things and nothing's perfect, right? And we would carry everything if we could.

But to me, it's just about getting through, keeping if something were to happen, bird droppings, whatever, you know, stuff on the interior, just a quick wipe up. So that's sort of my plan, you know, it has been for a very long time.

Just something simple, a couple bottles, few towels, that kind of thing.

Yeah, same. I mean, I remember and Labor Day for me has always been it's a family tradition going over to Lake Washtaw. It's in Arkansas. It's my dad's side of the family, right? That's always what we do.

This year, though, well, headed to the Premier League, you know, so got to go do a soccer tournament. Yeah.

And who what's his name, Ronaldo?

Back at well, what's that dude that some dude out of Brazil just got gifted like a billion dollars out of some I know it's crazy, right? Like people and soccer players, it's wild. What people rest the world love about soccer players.

We won't get into that.

But out at a soccer tournament. And that was my move. Eco won. And I use slick. I like to take slick and I love to put on some tire shine.

I still always put on tire shine, even when I'm driving. You're like, well, it's gonna whatever. I know, I know it is, but I don't care.

When I pull up to the game, I want my tire shine, you know, I want everything clean and looking popping.

The thing that's always been interesting, right? Even back in the day when we'd travel over to Lake Washington, I would get looks then, right?

It's interesting when people want to kind of look or like, what are you doing? Not only looks from inside my family.

Yep. Interesting. Like, interesting. What did you all think I wasn't going to clean cars? Like, what? Yeah.

Like, did you ever get looks like you're snicked in other people think you're crazy for just cleaning your car?

Yeah, I think a lot of people, you know, but we have to say this to our crowd. I mean, it's to be fair.

We know most people what 90 plus percent of people don't really care for their car on a high level, right?

So, you know, they they're going to stop at a gas station, go through a cheap car wash or whatever.

They think that's what you should do. So I think guys like us people that are listening, we're always the different, you know, style of car owner, right?

So it never really didn't really shock me. Sometimes you have people come up and ask, you know, they are interested and they would like to do something.

Do they ever do it? I mean, I don't know. I don't really follow up with them.

But I mean, I think that's just one of the things that happens that it's just so rare that people take care of their stuff that they don't, you know, they're always going to look and stare and wonder what's going on.

So at the hotel, it was Saturday morning, had to get her cleaned up. That's what some lady goes, are you detailing your car?

Yeah, I bet. I bet. Hillbilly Alley.

I was waiting, right?

You're not having grits and country fried steak. I mean, you could be at the breakfast spot now.

What do you think comes next, right? This is always the fun part. What do we think each listener is going to put in their own thing?

If somebody asked you if you're doing this, what do you think the next question is going to be?

Can you do my next?

There you go. Or, hey, how much? Right? It's one of those two. Do you have time? How much is it going to be?

Fortunately, didn't get either one of those. We were on the way to the game.

She was a member of the crew, all with their dreams of their kid going to...

They're not even going to make it to the MLS, don't worry.

Don't worry. They're not going to make it to division three. So we don't have to worry about any of it.

But fall is here. There are people that love road trips in the fall. I mean, besides Lake Wachta,

there's a lot of people that love to go drive through the woods, drive through the mountains.

I think that's one of the things Billy was doing is people that love cruises.

I know you're Mr. Business. You're not going to just go drive and take cruises.

But where would you go, right? He listed some pretty interesting places.

I know there's certain, you know, maybe little check marks that you would want to go visit.

I don't know if I really want to go to Yellowstone to see big trees. I'm just not sure.

Yeah, I mean, Tale of the Dragon. You know, you got some historic, like, you know, spirited drives.

Look, I lived in Southern California. So I've been, you know, to all the places in Southern California

that you see guys taking a lot of video on. I enjoyed that stuff.

For me, mostly now we have some things that go through some mountains near my house,

not places that people would actually know. It's fun enough for me.

There's also drives you can do up into Utah, go through Zion and things like that.

Like there's plenty of stuff very close to me.

What's so amazing? Like for us, like we see in that area is like not Billy.

We see more like Jeep crawling and a bunch of people doing that.

Yeah, I mean, that would be, but you have like mountain driving.

You have, you know, two lane roads, curvy, you know, going through the mountains.

I mean, anytime you go through the mountains, they got to cut where the road fits.

The pass, right? So you're going to get, you know, a little bit more spirited drive.

You know, the thing is, is that you have to go enjoy.

Yeah, if this goes, this goes bad, it's going to go bad, you know, but I enjoy that stuff.

You know, with, you know, just like, you know, this and a lot of guys listening, you know,

when you, when you get like you're, you know, you're going through now,

when you get kids that stuff goes on the back burner, right?

It's now it's just like, what's near me? How quickly could I just go out and, you know,

turn this thing up and go.

We're getting a look into the future of old retired Nick.

Oh yeah. Got his cane out. Where are you going?

Oh no. See, I'm, I'm, I think guys go crazy on an RV. Let's do it.

No, I'm not, you won't, you won't catch me in an RV.

I'm not trying to smell everyone's farts and driving around and that's not,

that's not my thing. Like I'll, I'll fly there.

I'll catch you guys there.

You know, but yeah, I mean, I think anybody out there,

I think one of the things when I traveled up to the Northeast and we got some guys that listen,

there's some great places to drive.

Like in the Northeast, you get a lot of different,

you can hit a lot of different states and stuff really quickly, that kind of stuff.

So I think everybody's just got something probably closer to them than I think,

just to go do some fun driving.

Well, that's part of where we see, you know, why not enjoy your car?

Like car life, right?

Yeah, just go, just go as quickly as you can, find something to do, do it as near you as you can.

I think a lot of guys are like, I got to go take this big trip.

I'm sort of like, Hey, what can I make happen here pretty quickly?

You know, so I can go enjoy it and have a good time,

but I don't have to take much time out of my day to go have that good time.

Now you got to have a car that you like to go enjoy it.

That might be a lot of some people, right?

Sure.

He's really got the money in on that engine.

You know, he's like, I got, I'm going to go enjoy.

You mean you do like, you know, with my catty, it's not something I cruise around in.

But this weekend, doors off, it's 75 degrees.

I posted a picture I took.

We had to run through Sam's, of course.

Jeez, oh my word.

Sam's on a Friday night.

I asked the lady.

Oh, brutal.

I was like, what's going on here?

She goes, Oh, they all got their EBT money.

I go, makes sense.

Well, I got a weird one.

So we had to, we had to stop by Sam's not go in, but I guess you can like order

online and they bring it out to you or whatever.

You know what I didn't know.

And by the way, everybody that knows this is going to be like, who cares?

I didn't know you could get ice cream at Sam's.

Oh, I mean, you can get a lot of shit at this place.

You missed out back in the day.

My move was the hot dog and Coke for like $2.

That's crazy.

You'd get a slice of Coke for $1.50.

Is it still two bucks?

I don't know.

I can't eat that stuff and drink that stuff anymore.

That's how you know Marty's all these.

I can't have that anymore.

The doctor said I can't have it anymore.

But so, you know, it says we're there and I post a picture just inside the

specialist group, you know, thinking car life.

Well, this guy's confused.

Salt life.

And he's got the Ron John sticker.

I mean, that's, hey, that's old school.

But but doors on top on and you just care, come on, man.

I saw a guy today that I'll give a shout out to it was like a 1997 Jeep Wrangler

weather's kind of broke here.

Weather breaking here is under 100.

You know, it's nice to dry heat.

So I mean, it's not hot ever.

But one of the things we had here is like once it gets under 100 people

come out of the woodwork.

He had like 90, probably 96, 97, 98 Jeep doors off, sandals on, just

going to work, not a flashy Jeep.

Just anybody had a Jeep, a real Jeep, not a Cherokee with, you know,

some bigger tires on it.

You know what I'm saying?

So I got to give some respect to that guy.

Again, I shouldn't give him a little courtesy honking.

Been like, Hey, there you go.

One of your crew was unzipping her window and then sticking her

hand out so she could wave at me.

And I was like, Okay, zip your windows in the back up.

You're on the town.

All right.

So it was fun inside the specialist group where I posted that there

was a lot of cars and stuff posted.

So we're going to get into that.

I love I mean, some of the cars are beautiful that 2025 GMC

Sierra.

Beautiful.

GMC Sierra's are they're pretty trucks.

They're there with those.

I'm interested to see who all runs into cooking with Nick,

put that new diamond black, the Tesla's new diamond black.

Yeah.

That was pretty sweet.

What's what is diamond black?

Do you know?

Well, I mean, I guess I'm guessing it has some kind of little

flake in it.

But the craziest part is if you guys weren't around for when

Tesla black originally came out, it was one of the most miserable

cars to detail in the history of the world by by far one of

the worst blacks to ever be invented.

So hopefully they got that figured out.

Yeah.

Probably one of the coolest coatings put on was the tow pig.

The tow pig was pretty cool.

The tow pig was cool.

All right.

So so I want to talk about something we won't go too far

into it and I can appreciate the guys who when they make a

post, they'll say, Hey, you know, I use something else.

All right.

The flip of the coin is the guys that never say really

what they use and they come in the group and and want

help.

Now you and I have talked about this publicly.

It's a move that we do oftentimes will go into our

accounts and see if that's somebody that that is a

regular word.

Right.

Like, hey, I don't recognize this name and see if they

order.

Well, this guy, I saw a guy post and he was asking for

some help here.

And I want to look back.

He hadn't used our coding.

So he had a coding that started to get some spots.

Right.

And instead of had some blue coloring, like water

spots.

You remember that?

Like just that side picture Dale chimed in and and

different people chimed in offering help.

They, you know, they think that it was the iron

remover that started to get it off and smile.

But you just go, huh, like it is weird how things

start happening.

You know, inside the specialist group we love like

we talk about people go in and ask questions.

But it is tricky, which you and I have said

before, it's tricky when people don't use our

coding.

But then they go into our group and ask for help.

You know, yeah.

What do you know?

I don't know what to do.

I didn't answer because it's tough.

Yeah.

And I appreciate the guys that answer, but I don't

ever know what to do.

Yeah.

No, I think everybody, you know, just to kind of

give my point of view on it doesn't make it

right.

Just kind of how I see it.

You know, we use our stuff.

So, and the other thing is Marty and I making some

type of comment on someone else's product is also

not the most professional thing in the world to do.

Right.

You get into this thing where you're talking about,

you know, for lack of a better term, you're

rocking a hard place.

Like I'd love to offer some help, but the reality

is I really can't offer help.

And I wish I could and I can't.

And there's just no way to do that.

Right.

And I think that's just kind of the thing that

we have.

And I don't mind telling people that, you know, I

get some text from time to time and that's how I

handle it.

And I wanted to bring it up because I think maybe

some people might wonder why we don't comment on

certain things when people in the group list it,

right?

Like this is a legit question.

It was a great question.

What is the time where you go, man, I kind

of wish you'd go into the group of who you

bought, but he might have just bought some

generic and not as a group.

And look, that that's the best piece of

advice anybody could give.

When you use somebody's stuff and you're having

problems or something pops up with their stuff,

you really need to reach out to them.

Right.

Because you and I would say this just as a

manufacturer ourselves, like, hey, man, if

something's going on, good companies want to

help out.

Now, to your point, if you bought something

that has no representation, nobody that you

can outwardly see their face.

You don't think you can send an email to this

company.

It's also another reason not to buy from

companies like that.

Because at the end of the day, you're going

to run into something, right?

You're going to have something happen,

whether that's to your car, you know, DIY

type of person, or it's going to happen to

you as a professional.

One of the reasons to buy from certain

companies is for when things go wrong.

Right.

I was having a conversation with somebody

and it just goes to what we found out at

HyperClean or what I have found out in my

life or your life.

Guys, when you go buy cheap stuff, the

problem is there's usually no support

system for when that stuff falls apart.

Because having a support system costs money.

The corner that they cut is they go, hey,

buy this thing and get out of our, you

know, don't call us because we're not

going to help you because you have to

have a support system and money allocated

to do those things.

Right.

When something happened here recently,

somebody got a bad rap done here locally.

They paid hardly anything for it and they're

like, well, that person won't pick up the

phone.

I go, no offense.

You didn't pay them to pick up the phone.

You paid them to slap a rap on for cheap.

Right.

The reason the guy, and I don't even

provide this rap by the way, I know

the company that they didn't buy from

who carries this rap, they should

have bought from that company.

I bring up that name.

You didn't want to pay the price.

Well, that guy would pick up the phone.

That guy would rectify the situation.

You didn't pay.

You did.

Anytime you buy something cheap guys,

the cheap company has to cut a corner

to make money.

Right.

So a lot of corners are going to get

cut for them to make money.

And so I think that's what people don't

realize about things like just as simple

as the ceramic coating.

You guys all know us.

You know, you all know if you email

in or teams going to handle it, you

guys all know where we're at and that

we're out forward facing of our

company.

I just don't think a lot of times people

put that into perspective.

No, because forward facing, it doesn't

really quite make, I don't think everybody

fully understands that.

For you and I, it's very simple

because we've always talked to our

customer.

We've taken the keys.

We've given the keys back.

We've taken payment.

Right.

Very simple.

Right.

But not everybody's done that.

They haven't always went to your

point forward facing like looking

somebody in the eye, charging

them for a service, finishing the

service and collecting payment.

Right.

Like, I mean, not everybody's done

that.

Yeah, no, it's a good point.

And, you know, so, you know, just

to kind of, you know, rehash this

guys, it's not really fair for us

to comment on other people's product.

But your whole reason

for buying should be for when

you need help with something.

That's the way you should go into

buying.

Right.

Is this company going to stand behind

what they sell?

Are these guys, do these guys have a

support system like the specialist

group?

Is it helpful?

Does it have people that know what

it's talking about?

Like in 2025, I don't think we say

that kind of stuff out loud quite

enough.

So here's one way to think about

it.

I guess as you were talking, this is

the first time that I have a

phone called that.

And I'm pretty sure one of you

recently redid my car insurance.

Okay.

There's a question they ask you.

Do you what?

That's always fun.

Oh, yeah.

Well, it was fun for me because

previously, I was driving around

this state.

So I had millions of dollars of

coverage.

I realized, oh, yeah.

I'm just driving to HQ every day.

for me, most people go, well, why didn't you do that sooner? And

you go, Well, welcome to Nick's world. I am Tommy Tech. I

don't always think of stuff like that. Yeah, I finally got it

done. And they asked me a question. Do you want $500

deductible or you want the $1,000 deductible? Well, how

much is the $500 deductible every month? How much is the

$1,000 deductible every month? And then you can know,

well, how many wrecks do I get in that will allow me to do the

$1,000 versus the $500? Should I do the $500 because I'm going to

get in more wrecks, right? That's the that's the thing I do,

which I don't think people really understand in this

situation, right? Can I pay just throwing out a number 10 bucks,

20 bucks, right? 20 more bucks for this on an ongoing

time, when there's another company that's selling one for

10 bucks, because I know that on a point, I'm going to need help.

And if I pay that $10, I'm not going to get help. But if I pay

that $20, it's almost like I'm buying in to get help.

Yeah, no, and it's usually the $20, you know, we're just

using an example here. The $20 product is usually higher

quality. It's usually backed by higher quality company, a

higher quality set of individuals. All of those

things go into it. We just don't talk about it. Look,

the the consumer largely doesn't get talked to on any level

about this kind of stuff. If you guys are doing this

professionally, and you're charging a lot higher than

somebody down the street, just remember, you're trying to

tell them the same story we just said about a product, we

do a higher quality service, I'm better trained, I got

more years in my phone's always on. But the funny

thing is, you never look at the products you buy the

same way as you want the customer to look at you the

professional. And again, if you're just a consumer, doing

this because you love your car, it's the same exact

conversation. Like, there is always a value in buying the

higher quality product always. You may not need it

though, but but you might. And that might should be the

reason you buy a higher quality product.

I want to say this too, because I saw a guy on the

side of the road last week that was detailing. And I

love to pull over and just snap pictures. Just to see what,

you know, see what guys do and see what people in my town

and see, you know, you mentioned something there. How

important is it? I know this is chasing a rabbit a little

bit, but this guy didn't have any, any bottles that even if

you just got a hyper clean bottles that have a logo,

right? Yeah, the how important is to have the same bottles, the

same stuff lined up. I love the guys which we talked about, have

those most very intrigue, very organized. And then you have the

guys that just have this van. And he had a shop back over

here, that this strained out over here, had an extractor,

had an extractor, right? So boy, did a full detail. But then

unlabeled like half right, like you could just tell right,

you can kind of put into imagine of what this guy's

bottles were like, and what his organization was like, you

go, there's a little bit of that that has to be done in this

moment too. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, I don't want guys, you know, in this

situation, to be at the start of their career and think

everything has to be perfect, right? Because that's not true

either. That's not a real analysis of how we all

started and how we all did things. But if you wanted to

be taken seriously long term, even if it was just, you know,

clear bottles, you know, or, you know, like the basic 32

bottles, but they're all the same, and you kind of label

them yourself. I mean, even to that level, there's, there's

some of it. But like you said, I mean, there's also where a

lot of guys have tons of equipment laying around to

detail one car. And it's like, we're real big on use this

piece of equipment and get it back to either behind the

truck or wherever. Don't just have it laying out all over

someone's property or street or whatever. There's a lot of it.

You know, like I said, man, to your point, there's a lot of

it that's just, you know, simplistic, it's organization, it

makes you look a certain way. Yeah, that stuff becomes

important.

Well, it is because we were talking about, you know, in a

sense, what do you use and quality of products? And I I

always felt judged. If somebody walked up to my trailer, and I

had an open trailer, not a closed trailer, my stuff was not, you

know, these guys with their trailers, these fans, they're

wonderful. They are. I dream that I could do it. I never in my

mind, and my I could never do that. So I always felt judged for

my lack of organization. Right. And I just wanted to say it

right like because I think most people should feel judged on

what they do and what they look like and the quality that we

want to presume and what quality of product you use, it kind of

all plays out, right? So all right, let's move over to this

because else inside the specialist group, it was almost

like the specialist group had a sponsor. It's almost like we

were sponsored by matte paint all of a sudden. This was very

interesting how many matte cars started popping up. So I

just want to is Matt becoming just more popular in general? Or

did we just get hit? There's there's there's just more factory

matte now than ever. Obviously, matte conversions with PPF or

matte conversions with vinyl wraps been popular a long time.

We're just seeing more companies now release matte versions of

their paint, you know, having it as an add on as an

extra. But yeah, I mean, Matt, look, I've been kind of

surprised. I mean, Matt, Matt has been pretty popular for

the last decade. I mean, usually these things come and go,

you know, there's been a lot of things that were more popular

once upon a time. But there's a ton of of matte paint now. And

look, we always get this question. Guys, you can coat matte

paint, you can coat vinyl wrap, you can coat matte PPF, all of

it can be coated. You just need to take your time. If

you're not comfortable, do an inconspicuous spot behind the

wheels, get comfortable, you'll see how it reacts. But

yeah, that stuff can all be coated. And we get that

question a lot. I mean, whether it's by email, in the

Facebook group, if somebody texts me, whatever, I understand

the confusion. But guys, yeah, all that stuff can be coated

just like normal paint.

Well, I can understand the anxiety. And I know junior he

had anxiety. What, let's see, he had a BMW with matte

metallic. He had another one that he talked about in there

we had what there was a Mercedes. What was that? SLK was it?

I don't know. We had a ton of stuff. Yeah, I mean, here's

the thing. It's, yeah, it's way more it's way more popular now.

I mean, well, so you go, I get the anxiety because these are

expensive vehicles already. And a mess up that I think this is

the time that you would this is the time that if if if you

have matte, you do go to a professional, right? Like, do

you even risk it or do you automatically is this a

qualification for a professional but then even

professionals, right? Like, junior in here goes, I was so

anxious. He was so anxious. Listen, the next week, he went on

vacation. I sent him a text because he was walking around

with these like coconuts and drinking them. He was down

in Cancun. You go cool, man, you had a great time. You

coded some vehicles and joined your vacation, but he had

some stress for a moment, right? Yeah, for some stress.

I understand that stress because you you mess up, you're

in trouble. Yeah, no, it's you got to feel comfortable. Like I

say, always go coat something go coat inside of a door jam,

especially if it's factory paint, you know, just get

comfortable. See how the coating reacts slow down. You

know, there's a lot of people that that don't know how to

evenly apply coding. It's probably a little bit more

important to be a little bit more even in what you do.

Make sure you take your time. You don't have to be scared.

I understand why people are. But you just got to get

comfortable. There's a lot of places go inside the trunk, go

inside the rear door, all that kind of stuff. You know, again,

there's a lot of this where the internet scares you. Okay, they

scare you saying you can't do this or that.

You go into this side, right? You're talking about the

trunk or a door. What are we what are we looking for? What

are some things that we should do that are a little different?

Because this guy, you know, plenty of people have put on plenty

of coatings, but he's done them for years, but now he's anxious.

So what should we look for that maybe is different? Do I put

more coating on? Do I put less coating on?

Yeah, first of all, you should you should put a little bit

more coating to me is what we have found, especially if

you're talking about a rapper PPF over a mat situation. But a

little bit more coating, I think a lot of guys still

underutilized coating. So I'm going to always say on these

podcasts to use more coating, because people tend to not use

enough. This would be an instance to use a little bit

more. You're going to get a couple different options. Sometimes

what you're going to see is there's not as much sweating

and sometimes you will see the sweating like normal. It's

really factory dependent in my experience. But again, go do

inside of a door jam to see the reaction, go and do in the

inside of the trunk area to see the reaction. Everyone is

different. But then once you start to see it sweat, go level

it like normal, and make sure you don't miss spots because what's

going to happen is you're going to have this very rich

look. Okay, and it's a great look, it actually looks better

than factory after you coat matte paint, okay, or matte PPF

or a vinyl wrap, you just got to make sure that you don't

miss spots, even a tiny little line is going to show itself. So

just make sure you get nice, thorough, even coverage, and

you'll be just fine.

Have you seen like where some people do the like we talk

about the box technique, but then they do that overlap of the

box and then you can see that shadow of the overlap? Sure.

Is that a is that something that happens a lot in? It could

happen. But like I said, I don't have a problem with

like cross hatching or overlapping or whatever,

whatever you're doing, you need to do it consistently

throughout the car. Okay, so you just need to make sure your

process is the same. By the way, you should be doing this on

regular painted cars anyway. But you should just make sure

you're doing everything identical. Because what can happen

with Matt sometimes if you're a little bit inconsistent, you

can get a weird shadowy look, you can get a this looks

different than that doesn't happen all the time. It's

just something to be cognizant of.

Alright, so I'm working on Matt pain. I definitely put on

more, right? If I'm a 10 drops, I'm going to put on 15. Okay,

whatever, right? Um, what else do I need to make sure? I mean,

is there anything else? No, I don't know. There's nothing

different. Do I mean, fully let it sweat? Do I do I let it

sweat? I treat it there's some that's going to sweat less just

because of the paint system. Okay, there's going to be some

that sweat normal, just because that's a different paint

system, it acts a little bit more normal than the last

Matt. So again, even to this day, I'll go inside of a door and

just see how this is going to react. Now, I've done enough

Mercedes and frozen paint from BMW and those kinds of

companies, I know exactly how it should react. But I still

don't mind going and checking inside of a door jam. I mean,

just just doesn't bother me to take that, you know, two or

three advice, great advice. Anything I need to think about

different between factory Matt and Matt PPF? Matt PPF is

probably a little bit more normal, right? Like you if you've

ever coated over PPF, Matt PPF acts very similar to lead to

gloss PPF. But again, not really anything different,

except make sure even coverage, especially when you're

doing PPF guys, you should put more drops. If I normally

did 10, I do 20 vinyl wrap, same thing, probably, you

know, double a lot of it, because you're just talking about

way more porous surface. You're talking about it's going to soak

up a lot of coating. It just kind of is what it is.

Alright, for those people that did not travel for Labor Day,

they might have set home, watch movies. If you were back in

the day, you would have definitely watched one of the

most popular movies, Forrest Gump. And there was a scene

where he stepped in a pile and a guy wanted him to write

something on a t shirts. Shit happens. Sometimes with

coatings, even though we've put coating on. Listen, there was

Christopher and this was this was wild. I'm so glad he posted

this inside the groups. Looks like dose holding up strong on

a client's car. And then we can just go dot dot dot. Shit

happens. Like this is a white whether that's an explorer

something. Maybe that's a expedition. I don't know. But

it's white. It's white on most of it. And then you've got this

suit just coming down all over it, right? Yeah, and a local

factory had exploded. He said, and rained oil and soot all

over these cars. Yeah. Hey, look, it's first of all, this is

exactly why you coat cars. Yep. This isn't a factory mad. This

isn't a Mercedes. This isn't a this looks like a normal

person's car. And they did a great job of using Christopher

to coat it with dose. And now Christopher's going to go in

to to work on all these cars and nobody right. The other

people that didn't get it. But for him, he's like,

hey, it works perfect. We're great. Yep. Yeah, no, I mean,

this is this goes all the way back to why you waxed your car

back in the day, then you put a paint ceiling on and now we're

on to coatings and PPF and all these other great products.

Like, it's great when guys like Christopher share that because

I know we have a lot of consumers that listen to us

and are in our group. We got a lot of professionals getting

their start and with lots of experience and everybody in

between. This is the reason to coach your car, right? You're

coding, you know, in case something happens, right? You're

coding it because you want to care for your car. You're

coding it because you want to protect things. You're coding

it because you want it to look good all as much as you can.

There's a million reasons to coach your car. But the very

bare bones reason should be for when things happen, right?

Birds, you know, industrial fallout. In this instance,

you know, you had a real serious issue happen and it, you

know, went all over everyone's cars. Look, man, things in life

happen. And a lot of times we don't talk about it enough.

That's the base reason to actually get a coating. All of

them. I want my car to look great. I want my car to be

more glossy. I want this. We all agree with that. The

base level is, if something were to happen to your clear

code in this situation, you could be in a repaint. If

the coating, even in this instance, doesn't even look

like it got damaged. But if it got damaged, you polish it up,

you re coat the car, you save a repaint situation. I'm

certain that there's going to be people that don't save a

repaint who don't have something like a coating on it.

Yeah. And when we say repaint, it's not like, Oh, well, you

know, the insurance is going to pay and I'm gonna get this

new paint. No, you know how much it's insane. The

amount of headache those people are going to have to go

through. Whereas this guy, he just gets to walk away. Thanks,

Christopher. Appreciate it, man. Christopher's like no problem. I

just threw some stack on top. We got you right because that's

what he said he did. You go, yes, like this is the way like, I

love seeing we don't we don't try to do I mean, even the

professionals out there, we don't talk about it enough.

We're all into the looks of cars. I mean, that's part of

the reason we do this. But the base level is going to

be for these reasons when something happens that we can

prevent. You know, that person being in a body shop or maybe

having a huge bill to try to clean up the car because now a car

has no protection. I can't imagine what that would bill

bill would be to get, you know, a car that just hasn't been

well cared for and have protection on it. That's

going to be a headache. Even if the stuff comes off, it's

going to be really hard to get off and going to be a huge

headache. So this is always the base reason that we

probably skip over more times than we should.

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. Like, the next question

I want to ask out of this is, well, at what level or what

coding was that guy able to be okay on? Because we go into

other groups. This is a group where a guy posted a photo.

He's holding a bottle. And this is a ceramic wax.

Okay, so what level of ceramic do we need so that

we're not like the other people that were at this oil

factory getting, you know, crap all over themselves and not

being able to wash it off. Whereas this post, you know,

this guy was just asking a question about, Hey, you know,

I'm putting this on this is what I did. And nobody starts

reaming him. This I bring it up because I highlighted this.

This guy goes, And this is why detailers have problems

selling a true ceramic coating. He was posting a photo of a

ceramic infused wax. Yeah. And then you understand then other

people going, Well, that's why you guys can't sell true coat.

Yeah, no. And look, we've said this, I think you and I've said

as long as we've been on here, as ceramic coatings got

bigger, people were going to take liberty with the word

ceramic. Right. And it was going to confuse you and I

talked about car washes now using. Well, yeah, I remember

yeah, you know, I remember the first post I put out when

I was at the car wash show. And I saw this ceramic lava and I

just posted you guys think this whatever back in like 1718 they

were whatever they were arguing about. I think it was all the

polishing and like true ceramic, right? Like, I go, I made a

post I was like, you guys think that's what's going to

defy? No, what's going to hurt you is going to be all the

people going through the car washes. Yeah, or, or the

Wal-Mart Isles. I'm thinking that they're getting ceramic

coating. Yeah, I mean, look, you and I get sent a lot of, you

know, internet based stuff. And you and I get probably a lot of

this kind of stuff or somebody's like, look, what the I

don't I don't get all kind of offended by this, right?

Because maybe I just accept that this has always been

what's happened. You know, you remember this when you

start to wipe on Carnuba and then the car wash world and

the spray wax world, everything started to just say wax, wax,

wax, wax, wax. For those of you that have been in it five, six,

seven years, maybe you have a different, you know, relationship

with how this stuff works. This is how it works. The fact of the

matter is there's nothing wrong with quote unquote, a ceramic

type of wax, you know, there isn't anything wrong with

it. What level of protection? That's going to be brand

specific. I mean, there could be anything from that could be

99.9% water that could be somebody that has a legitimate

product. I mean, I don't even know what post you're talking

about. So I want everybody to know. I don't even know the

brand. I don't care the brand. But again, is that going to

save somebody the way a true ceramic coating is? We all

know the answers. No. But the funny thing is, the guy or

gal, you know, a lot of it being like, you know, those

old timers at car shows that would sit there and argue

with you on what a ceramic is. You know, the funny

thing is, I don't know that those people are kind of aging

out. Yeah, I don't get as much argument anymore. I just say,

hey, look, that's, I don't know what that is, but a ceramic

coating usually comes in a bottle that kind of looks like

this doesn't come like that. I'm not sure. I mean, maybe

that product if you use it every week would be very

beneficial for you. I don't know, you know, but again,

part of it is professionals get so angry. They go into

these groups, they vomit at the mouth and get angry. And then

they didn't really help anything. Right? So I don't really

want the people that listen to us to think that's the

solution. This is just is what it is type of territory for

me. This was gonna come. This was already here. You were

saying it seven, eight years ago, we've been saying it on

this podcast for as long as I've been here, which I

think we're going into six years now that I've been on

this podcast. It's just not worthy of a topic of

conversation because by the way, number one, those aren't

our customers. Those aren't the people we're really going to

talk to. And if you do want to go in and educate them, be in

mad and angry, I don't think is helpful either. So if you

want to educate somebody in that post and go and write a

thoughtful post about what he has versus what a real

ceramic is now you're going to help anybody I don't

know, but getting just pissed off about it doesn't

really seem all that helpful to me.

No, I agree. It's not helpful. So there's there's part of

this moment where, you know, we think of snake oil, right? We

think of gray area. There's so much in our industry that I

personally go, Well, is is a wax, you know, do we tell

people waxes X amount of I don't know, right? Like waxes

used to be this waxes used to be then we had sealants

and you just you always have this number. There seems to

always be this number that we want to put down. It doesn't

matter if it's a manufacturer, or it's a it's an in buyer

that's buying from a detailer, the detailer has to also

throw out some number that is going to last and we go, well,

waxes don't let well, but it's a ceramic wax. Well, does

the ceramic side of the wax make it last like a ceramic? I

don't know. I, you know, does, does putting things on

plastics that are, you know, shiny. Does does that help the

plastics? Does it make it look better? But then does it do

something later? I saw a post where a guy was was asking

what else needs to do. And these are, you know, was big

fan, the the weather tech mats. Okay. Anything wrong with

Roger's putting on and he lists this leather conditioner and

cleaner because he likes the way it looks. And I know it's a

little slippery is what he tells the customers. Hey, that's he

tells them. I know it's a little slippery. Like, where does all

this fall in? You've got you go how in the world did you make

these A plus B equals C but but ceramic wax? I know it's a little

slippery. But I like the way it looks. Well, it's not going to

last but I like the way it looks. So I'm going to charge you

this, even though this isn't good, like, there's so much in

our industry, so much of what we do. A lot of people can make

these big and you're right. I think most people in our

world, they've gotten all that out, right? Like, look, I

actually think there's one reason why. I think something

that turned a lot of people off was the graphene stuff. I think

people are a lot very highly critical now and should be of

companies a that are sticking with that be ever had it at

all, you know, and couldn't prove to anybody because there

was no proof that this was somehow, you know, the next

level, I'll be happy to debate that with anybody. But at the

end of the day, I really think from a consumer perspective, and

by the way, you and I are consumers, everyone listening to

this as a consumer. This is not my judgment on everyone else.

I'm saying for myself, for you, for everybody listening, who

you listen to matters more in 2025 than it did in 2020 than

it did in 2015 that it did in 2020 in 2010. It matters now

because so many people are talking. It doesn't matter

what subject you're talking about, anything in the world,

lawn care, plumbing, anything, right? Everyone's talking

because everyone thinks they're going to make a living off doing

some kind of content. Okay, right? I mean, let's just call

a spade a spade. And I think today, and I think this was my

advice six years ago when you and I first met, I did my

first podcast as I was on this big then, but I don't

think I've said it enough since I'll say it here. You're

a consumer or professional, the world's going to come down to

the to the people that you listen to and associate with.

That's what's going to happen. And I actually think the next

five to 10 years is going to be even more unmerciful to the

consumer listening to the wrong people. Why? It's pretty

simple. Everything is going to be more expensive than it's

ever been. And it might be exponential, right? I just

I mean, you and I can can can, you know, tell people all

kinds of stories of all kinds of things we know. But that

doesn't really matter. Okay, let me tell one. Let's not. Yeah,

what matters is who you listen to. It's not so

detailing. But I want to tie in to what you were just

saying, because you were saying mistakes. And I want to

say mistakes are also going to start costing us a lot more

a lot in these moments. In 2025 of September, mistakes. I made

a mistake recently. It cost us, right? Like, and then we

depended on some people to get some stuff to us. And there

was somebody in an organization that decided not to do

their job. And that mistake not only cost us, it costs

something you're not having to talk about with some of the

more the education I found out is this plane that was

supposed to show up with two huge cargo plane only had one. So

this guy's mistake ended up costing not just the company

all but then imagine how many things were on this other

cargo and imagine how many thousands of people's lives

got changed because somebody didn't do their job. Then you

go Okay, in moments where economies not so great, where

people are starting to get more stressed, they don't, they

don't let these things flow over as easy anymore. Yeah. So now

they start going, All right, other competition, you've been

calling me, let's get you on the phone because these guys just

made a mistake. Next thing you know, somebody's mistake turns

out to be millions of dollars. You go, Well, I'm not a detail

I get it. But that's just one explanation of these moments

of when you make those mistakes. And you don't

take the thing seriously.

Yeah. And the other thing is, I mean, think of this from

the consumer perspective, I just had somebody send me a post

on a Lamborghini that a shop on the West Coast chopped up, you

know, trying to put film on it, knifed it all the hell, a

Lamborghini. Let's say last year, you know, five years ago,

that would have been a $250,000 car. That's now a $380,000

car, $420,000 car. Think of you if you're a consumer

listening to this, you used to be able to buy something

and your car cost you 40 and now it costs you 80. So not

protecting it properly and having something happen. It's

now a bigger deal than it's ever been, right? I don't think

people, well, and again, we're all consumers, right? So one of

the things I truly believe is, we aren't talking out loud, guys

like you and I, everybody out there that's a professional

and whatever you do, most of you guys are detailing. But I

always say this, like, we're not educating the customer on

when something bad happens, it's now going to cost exponentially

more. So in this Lamborghini perspective, the cars cut up,

it's cut up to the point, it's going to be a whole repaint on

the whole body. Okay, they cut up windshield. What is it

called? What surrounds the windshield, the molding

around the windshield, that's all cut up. The windshield is

going to have to come out of the car, which by the way,

structurally, anytime you have your windshield replaced, it's

never like it was, it's it can never be put back for those of

you don't know, because it's kind of all sealed around that

that that windshield. And so now they're going to have to

replace it. So you have a 350 to $380,000 mistake, a car that

used to be 250. So you're already 100 $130,000 different. Now

when you go to repaint it, go back to when that thing

cost 250 and maybe just maybe you could do it for 15 to 20. Now

it's going to be 40 to 60 to get it repainted. Okay, also, if the

shop doesn't step up, which they're not going to because it

was cheap, this is going to go on your insurance. Your

insurance is a lot less thoughtful on giving you a

break because it wasn't your fault. Now they're going to

ding you to a level. In some cases, they just drop people

now. You go back a decade, they didn't drop people like they

do now. Now they'll just drop you on a Wednesday. Like, hey, you

kind of looked at us wrong when you paid your bill dropped. You

know what I mean? Like, these things have ramifications. And

we don't talk about them nearly enough. And that and that's

okay, right? But in these moments, when you go back to

where we started with this, it's like, Hey, man, the ceramic

rack waxes in a problem. It's not the problem that the

professional thinks it is. Okay, because those people aren't

gonna be your customers anyway. But to that person that thinks

they're putting something ceramic on, they are getting

cheated. Right? Now, if on the bottle, the company on the back

is truthful and goes, Hey, you should use this every time you

wash your car. Hey, this, you know, use it like this. And

they're pretty explicit, like, don't try to use this once a

year. Then did they really do anything wrong? I don't really

care about that. You know, at the end of the day, you got

to know what you're buying. But also you got to value knowing

who you're buying from. And if you walk into a Walmart, you

don't have any idea who you're buying from. And if you contact

that company and something goes wrong, they didn't price all

that in, right? They didn't price that into the $2 bottle of

thing. You're that's not priced in to help you out.

They're customers Walmart, not you. And that that's just the

nature of the beast. And I say this like pretty willingly. It's

one of these things, man, there's a real cost now that has

never existed in our world of listening to the wrong person.

There's always been bad work. There's always been people

that did the wrong things. The cost now is exponentially

more than it was five years ago. And that that has never

happened in my career. It's always been a gradual price

increase, you know, over the last 25 years, that gradual is

gone. It went from a $40,000 vehicle to an $80,000 vehicle

and it happened in a five year span. It's it's pretty wild to

see. And we just got to start speaking that way, especially

for people buying new stuff. You go, Hey, man, it's got to be

the most expensive vehicle you've ever bought. And some

of it's by a landslide. How much more expensive it is.

Yeah, absolutely. Alright, let's close out with a pro only type

of talk. And this is something that you've been seeing a lot

more. And you're right as I started going back through after

you mentioned it went back through and look through. You're

right. There's more people it seems to be right now fall of

2025, starting to go now hiring. Like, hey, that's

great. Because there's plenty of people needing jobs. Hey,

this is awesome. Wonderful. I think there's a lot of people in

the economy and the people out in the rest of the world that

would go wonderful. Let's get people back to work. It's a

great.

Yeah, I mean, look, we probably our biggest question you and I

get is about hiring. Would you agree over the last five

plus years? There's a lot. There is a lot. I mean, it's

it's it's the number one, right? How do I how do I sell

more make more and how do I hire? I mean, those are those

are the

when I think is it? Yeah, it's always what I'm saying is it's

always around hiring. Yeah, anything around hiring. So I get

sent a post somebody sent it to me and they go this guy

basically writes his post and he's talking about I'm having

trouble with a team member. I do around $10,000 a month in

revenue. Okay, that's basically what I do. And number one, I'm

not even sure how this person has a team member, you know, only

bringing in $10,000 in revenue. So the number one question I

always get asked is when's the right time to hire? And how

should I know how to hire those kinds of questions? I see a lot

of people. So I went down a rabbit hole a little bit after

that. And I started I went into some groups and put

hiring into the search bar. And man, there was a lot of

people with not very much revenue every month talking

about hiring. And I kind of come at it from this angle. And

because I know a lot of you have this question, guys, if you

can't do, you know, roughly 15 to 20,000 in revenue on your

own. How are you going to teach somebody to do, you

know, 15 to $20,000, which is what you're going to need

them to do. You can't just hire somebody and be like, Hey,

we're doing $10,000 in revenue. I'm good. Well, there's not

enough money for everybody to eat. Right. And again,

yeah, go on because I think people go, Hey, I made 10,000. I

need like, I need to hire somebody like, I need to get

some of this pressure off of my plate. Like, I've got

enough coming in. And you know, I, it's probably

right time because you know, I, I'm missing some things or, you

know, I get home, I'm a little sore and like, it's probably the

right time. It's probably right time to go hire somebody out.

Why is that number 10 grand what that's not enough?

Well, it's not enough when you take into account actually

paying somebody what is probably starting market now. I

mean, I think it's pretty unrealistic in most cities. Again,

some of you guys are in different areas. It's I

mean, it's unrealistic for you and I to hire under $20 an hour

for basic work in Tulsa, Oklahoma, not the most expensive

city by any means, right? But the cost in Tulsa, like

everywhere else have gone up to get a place to live, whether

that's an apartment or a home. So you got to pay that guy?

Yeah, I mean, I'd basically say, I mean, if you start

somebody at 20 bucks an hour, it's what 800 plus dollars a

week, right there just to work full time. I mean, look, you're

at 3200 bucks, no tax, no, anything at this point. I mean,

you're talking about probably 36 to 3,800 bucks a month. If

you're making a 10 grand, that's not a lot of money, right?

There's not a lot of money left over. You got to run your

truck, you got to put gas in it, you got to buy supplies,

you got to do all that. At the end of the day, that

guy's making more than you as the owner at $10,000 a month

in revenue. So number one, probably the reason this person

was struggling to hire is I'm guessing he wasn't paying his

help very much money in today's world. Okay, because when I

started 10 bucks an hour was realistic. Look, let me say

that. It was it was realistic for you guys is 2025. That's

not realistic now. And you got to get it out of your head,

you know, even if you want to start somebody at 15 bucks

an hour, there's not too many cities that 15 bucks an

hour here in Vegas, you can push carts at target for like 22,

23, 24 bucks an hour. I mean, so if I go, if I want to take

somebody, you know, from pushing carts at target, and I go,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay you 15 bucks an hour. Why in the

hell would they do that to detail a car? Right? Just

think about these things logically. Most fast food

out here is above 20 bucks an hour to get started. And

I'm not saying every one of you got to realize I'll find

somebody. I'm gonna go do it. No, no, here's the

thing. You'll find somebody. They just won't be reliable. They

won't be good. They won't, you know, you'll complain about

them, which is why you're in the group. But again, guys, and

I just go on my hiring journey, which I'm sure many people

listening has had the same one, especially guys that have

had success. The number one reason to hire is to double

your workload. Right? If I have another body that I

can get trained up, I can do two times the work. Right?

It's not to hire somebody to do none of the work. Meaning

like, most people, yeah, most people are gonna go, I'm

hiring because I want to do less. Yeah. Yeah. And by the

way, that can come later. But most people that that are

commenting, this is their first hire. It's them in a

person or it's them and two people. Okay. And at the

end of the day, if you can't double and triple your

revenue by hiring somebody, then in all actuality, what

you're doing is you're now taking all that money out of

your own pocket. Okay? If you can double what you're

doing, you're not taking it out of your own pocket,

you're taking it out of the bonus of the other work.

Right? So taking it out of my pocket. What's that?

How's it taking it out of my pocket? Well, because if I

do $10,000 worth of work on my own and I hire

somebody and we're still doing $10,000 worth of

work, I just took four grand out of my pocket, 3800,

3600 bucks out of my pocket. Right? So it all you don't

really get into just hiring to take things off your

plate. I'd probably say it was like my fourth or fifth

hire. That's when I was able to hire strictly to

take something off my plate. Okay? Probably my first

two to three hires that stuck around. I think

the same goes for us at HQ. Right? I mean, this is

this is kind of an across the board thing when you're a

founder and the people driving the business to

start out, which is most of us, right? Most of us

don't just hire 10 people at our company. You start a

company, you grow it, then you hire. That's that's

who I'm talking to here. I mean, you and I

couldn't I mean what? It was almost what 18 months

before we could hire somebody to take over some of

your duties at HQ. Right? And at that point in

time, we had to hire because the workload had gotten

so big that you actually couldn't do it and do

other responsibilities. So we we were able to hire

because the revenue had got to a point where

hiring a person was now it was not a want and a

need it was a necessity. Well, if you're doing

$10,000 in revenue guys, every single one of you

that's starting your business should be able

to do $10,000 in business by yourself. Very easily

in today's economic situation of what most of you

should be charging doesn't matter what you think

that's a fact. Realistically, you need to find a

way to do 15 to $20,000 on your own by today's

math and then go and hire from that point of

strength. So what if I'm like six, seven, eight

grand, something like that? Now I'm sweating at

the end of the month. I'm like, Nick,

shouldn't be thinking about it. I need somebody.

Yeah, you can hire, but again, all that's coming out

of your money, right? You don't have enough money. Now

if what you're telling me is, let's just use the

round number of 10 grand, I'm going to hire in the

next month with all the the stuff I have to

pass up now, I'm going to go to 20 or $30,000

because I have a helper. That is a reason to

hire. Okay, if you want to stay in business,

you can't hire with such a low revenue and expect

that to work out. Because by the way, there's just

not enough money to make it work out long term.

Well, I was trying to think through why do people

go ahead and jump off that ledge, right? Why do

they do it, right? Which we already said,

A, I want to take some take some pressure off.

I want to I want to stop which is what I

did. I want somebody else to clean those

wheels. Somebody else to vacuum the car. I

want somebody else to and you would give

those guys the things that that you didn't

want to do which we would say inside of a

company, you need people to be able to grow

and you start here and you get to that point.

Okay, okay. Well, you're saying that in

order to hire those people, I've got a

double or triple my income. Yep. Yep.

How does that happen? Just hire somebody?

I'm going to double my income. You should only

so what I found, what I would assume, and by

the way, I talked to a lot of people that

have had success in this business. Usually

when most of us who end up having a

success long term look back at why we

first hired somebody, it's because we were

bypassing a lot of work, right? We just

couldn't physically get to the work

anymore. So when I hired and I remember

pretty distinctly, I was like, I think

12 weeks out, you know, I was I just

couldn't get to any more work and I was

working six, seven days a week and

whatever. So once I hired, I went from

12 weeks out to six weeks out and I

doubled the work, right? Not immediately,

but within about 60 days, I was double

what I what I had made in revenue,

not actually made but revenue so

everybody knows. But also I knew I

could double it because I had all

of this backlog and then every time

somebody called instead of 12 weeks, I

was now six weeks, right? And then I got

built back up. I think we got to like

10 weeks backed up, something like that

wasn't the smartest thing by the way. I

would have hired a little bit sooner.

This was this was not perfect scenario.

I'm just sharing with everybody what

happened. I went hired my second guy

and all of a sudden we went from 10

weeks. Within about 60 days, I was

down to like three or four weeks. But

dude, we were cranking out so much work

that now anytime somebody called, I was

like, yeah, we can take on more work, we

can take on more work. So all of a

sudden I went from let's just call it

my first hire, I was doing 20 grand a

month, you know, when I hired, we went

from 20 to 30 overnight for the next

month and then we were at 40 overnight.

Then I went to my second hire and we

got to 50 to 60. I mean, you see

what I'm saying? Like we just

exponentially had the work there and

I was turning so much work away that I

was able to follow up with people and

say, hey, we've had we've had changes

I've hired and all of a sudden that work

just kept coming in. But I hired, I

guess you would say out of necessity,

but guys, I also knew I was immediately

trying to double my output. I didn't

take any time off. I didn't put the

work on. It made me pick up steam

to get to the next level and I think

I've said this on the podcast before.

I never really even got to take much of

a step back from the work until

maybe like four people on my team,

something like that. You know, I was

still cranking, I was still doing what

I had to do, but by that time we had

such big months, I had saved so much

money in the company. Anytime I hired

somebody, I could pay top dollar and

also at the time I was buying trucks

cash. Like, hey, let's set up a truck,

cash, cash, and I was just dumping all

of this money in it, but the money has

to be there. Like this is one of the

things that when I get this question

it's hard to explain to people. I was

living on nothing this entire time.

Like I did not expand my lifestyle. I

didn't go buy stuff. I didn't have

time to do anything. Like I had no

time to do anything at all and it

was just like, okay, another truck,

another truck, another truck. And in this

time, guys, I was losing people and

having to rehire, so don't think all

of this went smoothly. It never does.

Okay, for anybody and anybody tells you

it did, they're lying to you.

I had nothing figured out. I was just

doing what I had to do, but the thing

is I didn't have a problem working

seven days a week. I didn't ask them

to work seven days a week, so I'd

make up anything we didn't get to on

Saturdays and Sundays, but I never

hired with the thought process of

we weren't going to find a way to

double our work because at some point

when you run one of these service-based

companies, each employee, each team member

is going to have to generate so much

income off what they do for you to be

able to pay them a good wage and make

sure that they're able to drive a

truck around or have be in the shop

or whatever the case may be. And if

you can't, if you never did that

yourself, it's going to be hard to

get them to the level that you need

them to get to. And that's my

opinion on it. All right, so I want to go

over philosophy because you mentioned

something. You said that you hired

people and you weren't really making.

When, you know, there's this idea that

entrepreneurship, right, like I should

grind, right, keep grinding, grind it

out, right, and then you hire somebody

and there's this other idea that you

just keep grinding. And you mentioned

that you weren't making as much as the

people you hired. Did you bring home?

Did you pay yourself? What did that look

like when you were there? And because

there's this philosophy that some people

say, hey, if I'm building, right, or,

you know, they start saying I want to

get out of grinding, I've got to pay

people more than I'm making. But the

business is supposed to be generating

income and I've got to live and money

keeps, you know, like we said inflation,

like where do I go into that, right?

Because I told you I said there's a

philosophy beforehand. I was like,

hey, man, there's a philosophy. There's

a philosophy that you should grind

it out, pay people more than you ever

make in entrepreneurship and hoping

that there's a light at the end of the

tunnel. Yeah, there there might be times

that that happened. But you know, again,

I don't think a lot of people

understand money, which you know, we're

not going to dive into it here. I

think we've talked money on here

before. Certainly there were months

where I didn't make much money. You

know, maybe we bought a truck or

something broke down or whatever. But

when you're in a service-based

business, you should be making a

pretty good living. You should be

making a pretty good living because

especially in something like detailing,

your costs are relatively low, even when

you pay at the top of the market for

for a beginning team member. That

should be a low effect. So when

everybody asks me about hiring, I go,

hey, do you have three to six months

to just pay somebody in an account

somewhere? Like, do you have three to

six months of their salary or their

hourly, like just somewhere ready to

hire? A lot of people say no. And I

go, okay, we'll get three months of

an employee, what a team member would

need to get paid, put that into an

account. That kind of simple stuff.

I'll tell you this, man, you're never

going to make as much money as

easily as when you're working by

yourself.

Okay, that is the easiest way. Like,

there's many of you guys that should

be having $20,000 a month on your

own.

We've even talked to guys like, you

know, Mildren and other people, and

they're like, hey, man, if I really

wanted to do this thing, I could find

a way to do $25,000 a month just all

by myself. You're going to be working,

you're going to be sweating, you're

going to be, you're going to be

humping, you know, you're going to be

doing some work. But those of us

that know the business, there's

nothing as profitable as you working

on your own. So anybody telling you

differently has never been there.

But you can't grow past a certain

point, right? So, yeah, when you first

hire people, it does take a hit to your

personal money coming in, that kind of

thing. But you should be, like I said,

30 to 60 days. If you hired, especially

you guys that are solo by right now

and you're hiring your second person,

within 60 days, if I get that person

up to speed, I should be able to

double the revenue of when I hired

that person. If you can't do that,

you've hired for all the wrong reasons,

in my opinion, okay? Then when you

become really good as a two-man team,

you should be talking about, like,

3x probably where you're at, because

now your body is not doing as much,

they're getting more comfortable, your

system's getting more organized and

efficient. So there's a lot of guys,

two-man teams, that could be easily

do 35 to 45,000 dollars a month in

revenue. I mean, people don't believe

it, but you know, I have receipts from

a lot of people that have done that,

myself included, you probably have

receipts yourself and other people.

And again, I'm not saying you have to

do that, I'm saying, I think people

are getting too comfortable hiring too

quickly and they're not understanding

that 10 grand isn't what it used to

be. 10 grand is now the new 20 to

25,000, okay? That's the real

number. 10 grand when I started,

which, you know, was 2010 as a business.

Hey man, that was a lot of money.

You had 10 grand months, you felt good

about yourself, right? 10 grand months

now is not the money it was then.

And I have to realize that even today

for me, like, we've had to make our

guys more efficient, my team is more

efficient than it's ever been.

They're in charge of more than they've

ever been. I've had to pay them

more money than I've ever had to

pay. I've had to take a hit to do

things like hyper clean, you and I

talk about this a lot, I don't think

people realize the amount of money

I've had to invest into my business

here at VR to make sure everybody's

happy and all this kind of stuff.

So I want everybody to not run away

from hiring, but if you can't find a

way to generate 15, 20, 25,000 on

your own, it's going to be hard to

train somebody to work at that

level and that's the level you're

going to need them to work.

Because if they want to make a good

living, let's say you want to pay

somebody five grand a month, you're

going to have to find a way to be

20, 25,000 of revenue just off

things you can attach to them

personally, right? Whether that's

sales, whether that's the actual

work itself, whatever.

There's a real problem and I only

say this because I know a lot of

you are thinking about this.

When I got sent this post, it was

very clear to me, even when I

looked at some of the comments and

answers to this guy, I just go

guys, it's going to be real hard

to hire with 10 grand in revenue.

I mean, it's going to be really

hard to hire because like I said,

you can kiss four grand of it,

goodbye.

Like that's gone.

Now you got six to play with, you

got to run a truck or a shop or

whatever your base cost is.

That guy's definitely making more

money than you're making as an

owner, not the right time to hire.

So do I look at that number and go

that's not the right time to hire

or do I go let me hold my

breath and bust tail for,

like you said, 60 days.

60 days enough?

It really isn't, isn't it?

I think that's where most people

they get caught as they go,

all right, I can bring this guy in.

I've got some work and it'll

it'll kind of let me breathe a

little bit, right?

It'll kind of I deserve this.

I love that word when people say

that I deserve this now.

Yeah, you know, I think most

of us won't won't understand

what you're saying.

I think most of us won't.

We won't.

But I hope I hope we at least

take it in and go, All right.

Well, the time that I do hire,

I need to put out that was so good.

Three months worth of work,

three months of what the guy's

going to make.

Yeah, that's very fair to give

somebody a shot.

Like, yeah, so you go like very

fair.

If I'm going to just round up

and say a team member is going

to cost me four grand a month.

Do I got 12 grand to blow?

If it goes missing,

I don't care about it, right?

That's what blowing money means.

If my business has this money

and it just goes missing tomorrow,

if the answer is yes,

you got that money.

Good time to hire, right?

Because look, your first hire

is probably not going to go well.

You've never hired.

Don't expect your first hire

to go.

I always tell people try to hire

10 people.

You find one probably doing

pretty well.

Because remember, no matter

what anybody tells you about

hiring, when you're hiring

entry level blue collar,

and I love how people say 2025,

you know, it's never been harder

to hire entry level blue collar

in 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025.

It's always been bad.

Anybody trying to blame right now

was not hiring entry level blue

collar 15, 20, 25 years ago.

It's always been a craft shoot.

Doesn't matter how much you pay.

That's why I kind of hate when

people are like, well, you know,

right now, never been harder to

hire.

It's like, I can tell you never

really hired 15 years ago or 20

years ago or 10 years ago.

Because all of us, Marty, you

hired back then, it's always

been hard.

It's always been hard.

And so you're not going to get

it right.

There's going to be a cost

associated with that.

Then you're going to have to go

back on the hiring trail.

Then all of this stuff is part

of the game.

I think part of it is people

aren't ready for the

responsibility of hiring, not

only just financially, but the

headache that it causes, because

it is going to be a little

bit of a headache, the growth

you're going to have to go

through as a person to be a

better boss and know how to

actually manage a team.

That's why 10 grand doesn't

work.

Because there's all of these

things besides just the

dollar figure that you're not

thinking about that's going to

happen when you start hiring.

And you've got to be okay

with it.

I mean, I really think, I

mean, there's no maybe even

today, I tell people, you

know, you might hire 10 to

15 people to find a good one,

but I would have told you that

in 2010.

You know, I would have told you

that in 2015 after I'd been

hiring for a while.

It's like, yeah, man, you're

going to run through some

people because this is blue

collar work.

That's what it is.

Doesn't make it bad, but you

got to understand the people

signing up for entry level

blue collar work are the

same exact people 20 years

ago.

And I worked for people.

I saw how hard it was for

them to hire, right?

Didn't matter.

They were paying good money.

The companies that I worked

for didn't matter.

They still struggled 25 years

ago.

I got my first job in this

business.

Boy, oh boy, they didn't get

the cream of the crop.

Okay, that's not what

happens.

So anybody telling you 2025 is

different.

No, it isn't entry level

blue collar hiring has

always been this thing

that's very difficult.

And you got to be able to

weather that storm of

getting people up to speed

and maybe somebody quits.

You got to hire again.

There's money associated

with all of that.

That's just how the game works.

It's tough.

Yeah.

Oh, it's tough.

Kind of just finish off

with just going.

It's tough.

It is what almost in a sense

hiring and managing team

members almost does become

a defining thing for any

company, right?

They don't even just say

detailers, but you look

across the detailing

landscape and you go,

yeah, if this guy's good

at hiring and managing team

members, they're going to

run a good business.

If they're not,

there's why you and I have

joked and we look at people

and go, yep, who the hell

would want to work for that guy?

Nobody.

Yep.

Nobody want to work for that

guy.

That's why he's going to stay

in the position that he is

and staying at a certain level.

All right.

Good talk.

I know we all have some

stuff to chew on here

because when we think of our

own way, we hire and the way

we look at stuff and we go,

huh, interesting.

I wonder how many of us go

and just really dive into that.

It's not a fun thing.

It really isn't.

It's not.

It's not fun to dive into

hiring and how we do it.

You've got to realize,

people don't want to hear

this.

I'll end with this.

Everything in your business

costs money,

right?

Everything.

Hiring costs a lot of money.

And there's many people

who are trying to get you

to believe that hiring

isn't a big money

commitment.

They'll brag about

you should buy this van.

I'm telling you,

go hire.

In one year,

you'll surpass that van.

That van's going to look like,

man, that van was kind of easy

to get.

Go start hiring.

Start shelling out money

to hire.

And again, it's a positive

thing, but we just dodged

the money conversation too

often.

It costs to hire, man.

It's not a negative,

but it is a negative if you

don't actually live in the

real world.

So I hope everybody can get

something.

I hope everybody can get

something from it.

Alright, we'll see you all

next time.

All right, guys.

When Should You Hire Team Members? Plus, What is Necessary On A Road Trip? Episode #920

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