They’re describing a quick carpet refresh method: use a product to loosen or freshen the carpet, then vacuum it up. It’s more like maintenance than a full deep clean.
They’re talking about a specific car-wash soap called “Super Soap.” They like it because it makes a lot of foam and seems to clean better than other soaps they tried.
“Pure Magic Cleaner” is a detailing product they tested again after not using it for a while. They say it helped clean wheels (including brake dust) and made chrome look better.
“Off label” just means using something for a different purpose than the label says. In car detailing, people sometimes do this when a product works well on other surfaces too, but it can also create confusion about what it’s really meant for.
“Limitations and trade offs” highlights that detailing outcomes depend on chemistry and application—e.g., a product that’s great at removing grime may be less effective at protecting, or may require careful dilution and dwell time. This framing encourages realistic expectations and correct technique.
“Tough of Shell” sounds like the name of a car-care product. They’re talking about how making it look shinier can also make it harder to apply and more likely to streak.
Streaking is when the product dries in lines instead of evenly. It usually happens when the coating isn’t wiped off and leveled quickly enough or when conditions aren’t ideal.
Dark-colored cars are more prone to visibly showing streaks, smears, and uneven gloss under certain lighting. That’s why detailing products are often evaluated specifically on dark paint to ensure the finish looks uniform.
High pH means the cleaner is more alkaline. Some all-purpose cleaners are like that, and they can be too strong for certain interior materials and finishes, causing color changes.
“Turn them yellow” means the interior part changes color after cleaning. Strong cleaners can react with the material or leave residue that makes light surfaces look yellow.
“Picture Perfect Polish” is the name of the polish being discussed. The speaker’s main point here is that it doesn’t smell like typical solvent-based polishes. They’re using a formulation designed for a cleaner, less-smelly experience.
A solvent is a chemical liquid that helps mix and dissolve ingredients in a product. Some solvents smell strong, while others are designed to be much less noticeable. The speaker is saying they chose a low-odor option so the polish doesn’t stink.
“Custom made” means the product isn’t just a generic formula. It’s made to match the creator’s specific recipe and requirements. That can affect how it performs and how it smells.
R&D just means “testing and figuring out how to make the product better.” They’re spending time and money to develop formulas and processes before selling at scale.
SuperSoper is the name of a detailing product the host is talking about. They’re saying it’s not just a cool brand—it actually performs when you use it on cars.
Durability means how well the product keeps working over time. If it’s durable, you don’t have to reapply it as often.
LIVE
So I get this email the other day
and the subject line is you're killing me in a good way.
And my first thought, I don't know why,
it was always like, oh my gosh, like this isn't good.
This is a high priority email.
Turns out it was a high priority email,
but it just had a dynamite subject line
of which I'm actually borrowing.
So thanks, Sean, who wrote in the email for that.
But Sean goes on to say, he starts with a quote,
he says, hey Jimbo, it smells so good in here.
And he's quoting his wife.
He says, I know I recently emailed you
with some feedback and spots for improvement.
I maintain those, but really need to focus
on the complete cabin cleaner here.
So just as an aside, I have gone back and forth
with Sean a few times.
He's a very nice guy.
He had some critical feedback.
I welcome that critical feedback.
That is how I improve my brand.
I actually really welcome that.
And so we've gone back and forth
on making sure he's using the products right,
maybe where he could see where I can improve the products.
And we've really just had a really cordial
kind of email exchange of,
which I really welcome you guys to do.
I love interacting and clearly it helps me with content
like it is here.
But back to the email, he says,
so I was cleaning up my apartment.
I was mobbing the floors and I figured,
let's try the complete cabin cleaner
on wood floors and everything else.
I mean, it's good for every car surface.
Why not everything else?
Experience was literally fantastic.
I used to have my apartment professionally cleaned,
but we recently stopped.
I used the complete cabin cleaner
on my wood floors, glass table, air freshener,
and to refresh carpets while vacuuming.
My wife walks in and said,
it smells so good in here.
Like a freshly cleaned beach house
when you go on vacation.
Can't say I disagree.
He goes on to say, as I grow my detailing business
towards becoming a full-time job,
he's currently a teacher,
I'm trying to find quality products at a good price point.
And to be honest,
I shifted away from your brand
based on price and performance.
However, I think I was just not using them efficiently
or in the best manner.
I've tried three different soaps from competing brands
that are supposed to be excellent at cleaning.
While they are, the amount of foam
the Super Soap produces is just next level
and its cleaning ability is unmatched
even with higher pH soaps.
It really does hold its own quite well.
Pure Magic Cleaner is one that I put on the shelf for a while
but I came back to it while detailing it Bentley.
It really impressed me how it reinvigorated the shine
on those wheels and removed brake dust.
It also did a really nice job on the chrome
on some old packers I was watching for a client.
I'm realizing the power of these products
the more I use them.
He goes on to talk about toughest shell.
He wishes it had more shine.
Which is very interesting.
I'll be totally honest with you on that
because I get feedback that is the exact opposite of that too.
Much more than not enough shine.
Is that it has a ton of shine.
So again, shine is very subjective here.
Anyway, he said tough a shell beats the hell out
of every other ceramic spray I've ever used.
I do wonder when the ceramic spray market bubble will pop.
I don't think I ever shine.
But when it does yours will remain relevant
because it actually repels dirt and maintains durability.
And so, this is anyways always tough
running your business as I know you know more
than I do with full chemical brand.
I have some of the car wash soaps to use
which films well but doesn't clean as effective as yours
but all your products are still topped here
in their class for now.
And I include all dressed up please make it in a gallon.
All dressed up in gallons is coming probably next month.
So, Sean is a part time detailer.
He's doing the right thing.
He's trying to make it his full time thing
without quitting his full time thing
which I think is a really, really good way.
But it's very interesting.
He's cleaning his apartment and he has the thought.
Like there's so many off label uses for products
that this is not too much of a stretch.
I don't talk about off label uses too much
with my own product brand only because it does
add some confusion and I think one thing
that I've really been working hard on
is getting my messaging more clear with my brand
and my products and what they are capable of doing
where they fit in, where some of the limitations are
and being really honest and transparent about those
because as I've talked about endlessly
and it's very true is that every product has pros and cons
and limitations and trade offs and as a brand owner
it's up to me to decide what of those trade offs
I'm willing to do or to take less of this,
more of that, whatever.
With my product brand what I try to do
is bring it to the absolute limit
and that's where I've noticed,
that's my kind of differentiator if you will
is that I'm trying to bring my products
to the absolute limit of having as few limitations
as possible.
Let's take Tough of Shell for an example.
He said, hey, it's not shiny enough.
Well, as you increase the shine
on something like a ceramic spray,
as you increase the ability for shine
you start running the risk of it streaking really bad
and so or not being super sun friendly
or not being able to use it on all surfaces.
So you really have to teeter that line of like,
okay, what do I want?
Do I want maximum shine possible
or do I want it to be maybe a little less shiny?
I'm struggling with this
because I personally think Tough of Shell is very shiny
but I guess it could be shinier
but in making it shinier I'm gonna have a trade off
of it's gonna be more difficult to apply.
It's gonna streak a little bit more
and those are all samples that I played with
when developing Tough of Shell, honestly
and then redeveloping it about a year into the brand
and I feel like it's in a really good spot right now
of like people use it on glass,
people use it on paint, they use it on dark color car
and so my decision was I will take a little less shine
and I'm talking very, very little
because the vast majority of feedback
is that it's really shiny
and so but let's dial back in the shine raw material
because I still, my top priority is easy use
and making it really easy to use and also durable.
So again, the more you increase the shine
the more you have to cut back somewhere else
and so using Tough of Shell as an example in that
that is what I have to do as the brand owner
working with the chemists
with every single product in the line.
So a complete cabin cleaner, you know
it's a pH neutral cleaner
but so that is something that I wanted pH,
I wanted it to smell really good.
I felt like when I was developing
the complete cabin cleaner
and testing all these other brands
they either had like a really strong minty smell
or a men's musky cologne smell
and it was just like scents are very subjective
even more than shine and very, very hard to pick
because they can smell different
in a variety of situations as well.
And so like for example, summer heat
can make something that smells really good
in the winter time, the summer heat
can make it smell like barf, right?
And so that's a very, very tricky balance to play, right?
And so with the complete cabin cleaner though
I had that scent that I had used
in a private label product as a quick detail spray
and I really, really liked it
and the feedback on it was amazing.
And so I asked Walter,
hey, can we put that same scent
into the complete cabin cleaner?
And it's probably been the number one compliment I get
is that scent and how unique it is
and how no other cleaner on the market smells like that
and people use it as an air freshener, right?
And so, and then working on every surface
I know that the downsides of using a high pH,
all-purpose cleaner on tan, mattes
and how that can actually turn them yellow
and discolor them, right?
And so I know how the color red can do that
on some interiors.
And so all these things come into consideration for that
but, and then it's highly dilutable
and foam's really good, right?
So foaming is another thing with the complete cabin cleaner
that I developed and I had samples made with like low foam,
tried that, high foam, tried that
and then figured out where I wanted it to be
because foaming is very important
but foaming is just an added ingredient.
It doesn't have anything to do with the cleaning ability, right?
And so as he talks about the super-super as well,
like foam is important but foam is one attribute of it.
If the foam is not functional,
so functional foam for me with the super sober
is that the foam is there to look cool, yes,
but also it is there to make the product clean
to the surface longer, which is helping it clean better.
So the foam is functional.
Same with the complete cabin cleaner, foams
because the longer you have foam,
the more you can work that product
and you're letting the chemistry
and the chemical makeup of the product
help you and aid you in cleaning that, right?
So, and then obviously you want it to smell good, right?
So I know, you know, I used to,
I tried everything from air fresheners,
those little drop-in air fresheners
and I knew that there was kind of like two ways to go
that were best for interiors
and that was either a citrus smell or like a fresh scent,
not fresh laundry but like fresh scent.
And so that's why when the air freshies
are more of a citrus smell,
the complete cabin cleaner is more of a fresh scent
but it smelled like a freshly cleaned beach house, right?
Didn't smell like Fabuloso, right?
And so I think that was pretty cool, right?
So it's all my products, to be honest with you,
are car products but they're not just car products.
They're all designed to not streak,
not leave residue behind, smell good, be safe everywhere.
So I have a ton of people that are using pure magic cleaner
on bathtubs, on shower door glass,
on boats, on tractors.
Gloss Boss, I was just talking to Landon today
over at Facebook Messenger.
Landon is, he restores farm equipment
and so he is restoring tractors and farm equipment
and applying the Gloss Boss onto those parts, right?
Tuffa Shell works really good on stainless steel appliances.
So does the complete cabin cleaner, right?
It works really, really good on stainless steel appliances.
I use it at home on, I have it gone at home.
My wife uses it to help clean the house.
I use it on stainless steel all the time.
So one thing I really appreciate about Sean emailing me
like this and then his previous emails
and why I encourage you guys to email me all the time
is because of things like he said in his email
when he said, I shifted away from your product,
or from your brand rather.
He said price was the main thing, right?
And that is, that's real.
That is 100% what people do, right?
Price is the first thing you see.
It's your first reaction.
But price can always be a strategy as well
and that's something that again,
I have to factor in as well,
especially when I see competing brands
running monthly sales, right?
And a monthly sale tells me or a constant sale
tells me is that you're trying to boost the numbers
to look good because you're probably gonna sell, right?
And so the strategy for them is to constantly run a sale,
constantly build hype because they are trying
to sell their business in three to five years
and they want that, those numbers to look big
without knowing that nitty gritty that you've discounted
your products forever for those three to five years, right?
And so pricing really becomes a strategy
just like every other part of the business.
And so I feel like I have priced my products
competitively and most importantly
so that my brand can be profitable
so that my brand can sustain for the long term.
So this is a little inside baseball,
but my strategy on my products and my pricing
is that I want my products to be top tier, right?
The multifunctional products that are innovative products
that I'm building from the ground up, right?
Every single one of my products
have been built from the ground up
and they take a long time.
So the Protector Wax Style product
that I've been developing and working on right now,
you know, I've been in development for six months.
The Picture Perfect Polish took a year to develop, right?
And so I have to take that into consideration
on top of I'm not cheaping out on the raw materials.
Perfect example, I say it all the time,
the Picture Perfect Polish has no scent.
It does not smell like solvent, why?
Because I used a solvent, an odorless solvent.
That odorless solvent is more expensive
than the classic solvent that everyone else uses
in their polish, but it was important to me
that the polish didn't smell like solvent
because I don't like that.
I don't like using a smelly solvent in my polish.
I don't think it's good for us.
I just don't like it, right?
And so I opt for higher grade raw materials
and I push the envelope on, like I talked about earlier
on like what is the least amount of drawbacks
of this product that I can absolutely have, right?
And so I do that for every single product, right?
So my products are more expensive to make.
They are also custom made.
I have a manufacturer making them for me to my specs,
chemist, manufacturer.
I bottle, package, and distribute all myself.
In fact, that's something that,
a big change that I'm making to my brand this year
is I'm having it made out of manufacturer,
but everything is then brought over to my shop
and we are packaging, bottling, labeling,
everything in-house and distributing in-house.
That's a big, big thing that I'm working on currently.
And so point being is I'm not taking any off the shelf
things, so all the raw materials that are brought in
are brought in specifically for my brand and me.
And then that means every time a batch is made,
it's made only for me.
So these are made in big vats.
And so my, and maybe this is too much information
in insider baseball, but when we're making the products,
we make a ton at a time, like a lot.
And so that requires a lot of raw materials,
a lot of everything, a lot of labor to make them,
a lot of containers to put them in.
And so all that has to come into the price of the product,
but also I am here for the long haul.
I have no investors, I have nothing.
It's just me, cash flow in my business.
I have to be profitable from the get-go.
And so it takes time for R&D,
it takes time to do these videos,
it takes money to do that.
And so by charging and pricing strategically,
I am putting profitability in that
so that I could pour that profitability
back into the business.
And so when you are supporting the brand,
you are supporting me to continue to do that.
But in return, what I am doing,
and I am giving you products that are maxed out
on every angle, right?
And I'm in this for the long term.
And so I want you to have success
so that when Sean says stuff like,
I came back because the foam is next level.
The cleaning is better than everyone else.
I'm like, okay, not only does it look cool,
but it actually works, right?
And so when he says stuff like,
you know, I shelved it for a little while,
but now I came back and I'm starting to realize
that your products are top tier in their class.
And if this, you know, what did he say?
If this ceramic spray market bubble pops,
yours will remain relevant
because it actually repels dirt and maintains durability.
If everything collapses, yours will stay relevant
because it's actually works.
And so that is such a simple remark,
but that is such a point that I wanted to make of like,
yeah, my products, sure, foam's great.
It's called the SuperSoper, everything's fun.
The brand is super fun,
but the cherry on top is that they actually frickin' deliver
and they actually frickin' work, right?
And so whether it's used on a Bentley or an old car,
you know, it just works.
And so I think it's fair that he says,
hey, you know, if you're gonna nitpick anything,
it could be shinier.
He says he's using some liquid sealants,
but again, shine is subjective.
A lot of the feedback is that the shine is really good
and it's actually something that I've worked on
because when you guys email me things like this,
I actually read it, take it into consideration,
and then have the ability to change it.
So I have the ability to change it on the next batch.
I don't need to wait for a version two,
I don't need to wait for a version three,
I don't need to wait to sell out.
I can literally change it on the next batch.
And that's, I think, an unfair advantage that I have as well
with my brand is I have the agility to do that,
to change it quickly, to switch it up,
to take your feedback that you guys are telling me,
and then incorporate that right away.
Obviously, I have to weigh that feedback sometimes,
like Sean with his shine, am I gonna go in
and change tough a shell in any sense to get more shine?
One, I've already tried that, two, I'm not going to,
because the vast majority of the feedback
has been positive on the shine.
And I'm not willing to risk the durability
or risk the ease of use on that specific product.
But like when it comes to the protector wax,
I'm still in development for that.
I think the formula is where I want it.
I'm working on the label and the mockups
and that will become available for pre-sell soon.
But again, I'm just as eager to get that up for pre-sell
as you are to pre-sell, to buy it.
And so, but this stuff takes time.
So, I appreciate the continued feedback
and the continued support for the brand.
I'm seeing more and more of this happen
of people kind of circle back
as I get into the third year of having the brand.
It's hard because you do have to hype your own products
to get awareness.
Sometimes that hype can backfire,
but as we've already started to see recently,
there's product brands going under,
you don't hear about them anymore.
Products that you love,
that you have good feedback on,
the brand doesn't exist because they price themselves too cheap
or for whatever, there could be a whole host
of reasons why brands go out, right?
But I'm in it for the long haul.
So, I appreciate feedback like this.
I appreciate support.
I know sometimes I get eager to hype up stuff
and that can sometimes backfire.
I'm trying to get better with my messaging,
more clear with my messaging
and it really helps to use stories and feedback like this
to help me make my messaging clear
and kind of help me get the points across
that I'm trying to get across.
So, Sean, I appreciate your email.
Everyone else watching, I appreciate your guys' feedback.
I appreciate you guys reaching out, reaching in
and I try to respond to every email.
I'll admit it's getting harder and harder,
but customer service is one area I will never outsource.
I love interacting with you guys
and I think what you guys write in is massive.
So, that's one thing I will never, ever outsource.
In fact, I'm looking at bringing more stuff in-house,
not less.
So, with that, hope you guys enjoyed that episode.
You're killing me in a good way.
What a great subject line.
And with that, I'll catch you guys on the next one.
Thanks for watching, thanks for listening.
See ya.
About this episode
A listener email sparks a deep dive into how detailing products earn trust: Sean tests “Complete Cabin Cleaner” on everything from wood floors and glass to carpets and air freshening, then credits the foam and cleaning power of competing “super soap” products—while praising the brand’s scent, versatility, and durability. The host uses the feedback to explain product design tradeoffs (shine vs streaking, pH vs interior safety), pricing strategy, and why he keeps R&D and customer service in-house so formulas can be adjusted quickly based on real-world use.
car detailing, auto detailing, car wash soap, best car soap, foam cannon soap, super soaper, car cleaning tips, detailing products, ceramic spray coating, tough as shell, interior car cleaner, complete cabin cleaner, wheel cleaner, brake dust remover, detailing business, mobile detailing, car detailing podcast, foam vs cleaning power, how to wash a car, best detailing products
