Palm Harbor Local
Welcome to Palm Harbor Local—where we celebrate the heart and soul of our community by sharing the stories of the incredible small businesses that make Palm Harbor thrive.
Hosted by Donnie Hathaway, a Florida native, real estate expert, and passionate community builder, this podcast is all about Building Community—connecting people, businesses, and ideas that shape our town.
Each episode, we sit down with local entrepreneurs, business owners, and changemakers to dive into their journeys—the dreams that sparked their businesses, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the impact they’re making. From brand-new startups to long-standing local favorites, we uncover what makes these businesses special and why they matter to the community.
Whether you're a fellow entrepreneur, a proud Palm Harbor resident, or someone who just loves supporting local, this podcast is your inside look at the passion, dedication, and creativity fueling our local economy.
Because strong businesses build strong communities.
Join us as we shine a light on the people behind the businesses, share valuable insights, and inspire you to engage, support, and grow alongside your community.
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Palm Harbor Local
From Driveway Washes to First Class Detailing
In this episode of Palm Harbor Local, host Donnie Hathaway sits down with longtime friend and local entrepreneur Anthony Santiago, the founder of First Class Detailing. Anthony shares his journey from being a 19-year-old with a passion for clean cars and zero business experience to becoming the owner of one of Palm Harbor's most reputable high-end detailing shops. From humble beginnings as a mobile car wash service to managing a thriving shop specializing in luxury detailing, ceramic coatings, and paint protection, Anthony's story is one of perseverance, evolution, and service.
The conversation dives into the real challenges of entrepreneurship, including managing people, maintaining work-life balance, and navigating shifting consumer habits. Anthony opens up about prioritizing family life, the importance of EQ in business, and why quality service often trumps technical perfection. Whether you're a business owner, car enthusiast, or local resident, this episode offers insight into what it takes to grow something meaningful in your hometown.
Stroll through the laid-back streets of the Palm Harbor community with this informative podcast, proudly brought to you by Donnie Hathaway with The Hathaway Group, your trusted guide and local expert in navigating the diverse and ever-changing property landscape of Palm Harbor.
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Welcome to the Palm Harbor Local the podcast dedicated to building community and sharing inspiring stories from the heart of Palm Harbor. I'm your host, donnie Hathaway, and today we are joined by Anthony Santiago, who's the owner and founder of First Class Detailing. Now, palm Harbor Local is all about spotlighting individuals and businesses who are making a difference, overcoming challenges and fostering connections right here in our hometown. If you're passionate about growing together, getting involved and celebrating the individuals who make Palm Harbor thrive, you're exactly where you need to be. In today's episode, you'll discover why Anthony got started detailing at such a young age and some of the challenges that go along with running a successful detailing business, and we'll also talk about how Anthony balances work while being present for his family. Now don't forget to connect with us on Instagram at Palmharborlocal for behind the scenes highlights, and join our weekly newsletter at palmharborlocalcom. Now let's dive in and build community together, anthony.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the podcast man. Thanks, donnie. Appreciate you, dude. I'm excited to chat with you. Obviously, we've known each other. Appreciate you, dude. I'm excited to chat with you. Obviously, we've known each other. I don't know when we first met or how old, but long time Little kids.
Speaker 3:Well, I played ball with your brother, yeah, right, and that was probably fifth sixth grade. Your dad was my coach. Yeah, so what are you? 12-ish in fifth grade, sixth grade? That sounds about right. So 12-ish in fifth grade, sixth grade? That sounds about right. So 12 minus 30 something? Yeah, it's about 20 years. Yeah, crazy 25 or something. Yeah, 25 years.
Speaker 2:You're old. I'm a couple years older than you. That's crazy. I was, what was it? We had our 20-year reunion from high school recently, and that's just like wild to think.
Speaker 3:It makes you conceptualize time. Yeah, like with the stamp, about 20 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's fucking crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if it's not your reunion, or your kids, or your gray hairs, like it tells you hey, time's passing by, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Gray hairs. The gray hairs have come in your beard is. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about your business first. Yeah. First class detailing. That's right. When did you start that?
Speaker 3:I started well. I opened my business in 2008. I graduated in 07. I opened it in 08. It was originally called Car Cleaning Concepts. Okay, for the first, I think two years or three years, which I felt was kind of limiting, because there's RVs, there's boats and when you think car cleaning concepts, I thought it was a good little ring to it CCC, make a logo out of it. And I didn't really have a direction. And then I figured out fast and quick that I wanted to work on fancy stuff, nice cars, rich people, and so I was like man, I got to switch this around. So I think, on like year number two or three, I went from car cleaning concepts to first class detailing. But you know, the hustle started in 08, you know when things were bad. 08 was a bad time for the economy and I was 19 at the time. Time had no idea what I was doing yeah just went for it why why?
Speaker 3:did you want to do that? Well, I've always been in the cars, ever since I was this tall. Okay, I've always been ocd, neat, freak, clean, organized and so, and I wanted to work on cars at some capacity, but like I didn't want to turn wrenches, you know, I like the aspect of making a car look cool, making it look nice, and so, you know, I think, at 19, there's not really a whole lot of thought process, and so what you're doing which can be both good and bad, yeah, but at least in a good way, you don't talk yourself out of it in a bad way, you just have no clue what you're actually doing. But putting the three traits together OCD, loving cars, wanting to work on cars but not turn wrenches, detailing sounded like the route to go, and so I gave it a shot.
Speaker 2:Did you do any of that in high school, or just for your own?
Speaker 3:No, you know, did you do any of that in high school, or just just for your own? No, you know, it's funny. I I applied at like during high school. I applied at like two or three detail shops. Never got the job. Everybody wanted somebody with experience. I had none, which is a young kid wanted to work. Yeah, and you know, I kept my car clean my, my personal car and, um, I enjoyed keeping it clean. Like it was fun to me. So why not get paid for it? And so I applied at a few places. A few friends of mine worked at a few detail shops, couldn't get in anywhere. I was like you know what? Just do it myself, buy a van, throw some equipment in there water tank, generator, pressure washer, let's go at it.
Speaker 2:Ready to roll? Has the business changed since you got into it? Oh yeah, absolutely not just your business, but just you know like detailing so, yeah, I think my industry has changed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, the automotive industry has changed, business itself has changed, people have changed the dynamic of, uh, consumer spending and shopping has changed. I mean, like it's you know, business five years ago was different than 10 years ago, versus 15. You know, I'm going on year 17, headed towards 18, so like it's not the same you know, and then for me personally too, inside of my business.
Speaker 3:I originated as a driveway mobile wash guy, kid, young, kid, and so you know those are all small tickets Back in 08, those are $40 washes, $80 washes, you know. And then, as I've evolved inside the business, you start to offer protection services, window tint, paint protection film, ceramic coatings, show car stuff, wet sanding, and so now at the shop back in the day we had $50, $75 average ticket and now it's a $2,000 average ticket.
Speaker 3:It's a $2,000 average ticket, you know, somebody could spend I mean, if you wanted to, you could spend 30 grand at the shop. Yeah, at a detail shop, yeah, you know. So, yeah, going from driveway wash kid to full-blown protection and restyling shop from 08 to 25, everything's different.
Speaker 2:Did you? At what point did you? Did you know like you would end up where you're at now, like doing what you're doing right now, as far as, like the, the type of cars you're working on, like the type of you know, the protection services you mentioned, like, did you have that foresight to be like, yeah, that's what I want to get to?
Speaker 3:Well, I was the kid who had 20 model cars, you know, on the dresser. You know like that was my thing. I loved cars as a kid, probably from like five all the way up to when I got my license. You know like cars were. Just I loved cars and so I knew I loved cars and then nice cars on top of that. So I knew what I wanted to work on. But, like, as I got into detailing, you know my preconceived notion back then was wash, wax, buff. You know I had no idea what paint protection film was. I had no idea what window tint was. I had no idea what restoration level car detailing was. I had no idea.
Speaker 3:It was just a natural evolution of getting into something that has many different subsets inside of it. You know, similar like to you, in real estate there's short-term rentals, long-term rentals, commercial. You know, once you get into it's like wow, look at all this. You know, and that's kind of how uh detailing is. You know it could be as simple as a wash and wax or we could have a car completely disassembled, changing the color and doing everything to it. But I feel like you don't really know that stuff until you're exposed to it. So I didn't know, but it was just a natural growth process of how do we make it look better, how do we make more money, how do we make this more fun, and so you go from small ticket to large ticket. It wasn't intentionally, it was just slow and steady over 15 years or so Just doing the things that you wanted to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah focusing on that, All the stuff I used to do on a video game. Yeah, Make a car from white to purple, put these wheels, you know it just kind of it just went the way that now that I look back on it it's like I was supposed to do this stuff. Yeah, you know, like subconsciously I was already doing it as a kid, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've been in could be valuable for somebody who is early on in their business journey or at some point they want to start their own business.
Speaker 3:I mean quite honestly, it's all the cliche stuff that you hear. It really is. You know it's live a life of servitude. You come last, everybody comes first. You know everybody's got a problem. They want your resolve. You know, on the like interpersonal side of it, like nobody gives a fuck how you feel, what you got going on, they just want the service. You know people, whether you sell houses, whether you sell details, whether you sell watches, whatever, people just want what they want. And so if you're having a bad day, if things are messed up in your life, or if things are even great, nobody cares. They just want the service. And I think for me that was probably.
Speaker 3:You know it's not natural, I think, to human biology to be in business. Everything is delayed gratification, everything is do it now, now, reap the benefit later. You know everything is people before you right and like, I think internally, but biologically, you would want to be taken care of first. So I think I think a lot of entrepreneurship and especially when you start something from zero, you know no funding small business, you know a lot of it is simply just put yourself to the side and do what needs to be done. It doesn't matter if it's 100 degrees outside, it doesn't matter if it's 20 degrees outside, it doesn't matter if the economy is booming or if the economy is tanking. You just have to do what you got to do, period. But I think you know you take all that, you put it into a box and it's just serving people at any capacity If it's health care, if it's selling cars, cleaning cars. You know it's what you're doing right now. Yeah, you're just talking to people. Yeah, networking sharing this make
Speaker 3:somebody laugh, connect at some type of level. You know whether that's a quick five minute quote on the phone or if it's a 15 minute drop in at the shop or somebody's picking up their car or you're talking to them about. You know how to like profile somebody to find a house for them to buy. Yeah, the more you know about said said prospect, potential client, the more you can help serve them. Yeah, right, and so I think at the core of it, it's a lot of it is just take care of people. Yeah, period Simple. Yeah, simple when said, but when done, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's simple in the concept, right, and then it's like how do you? And then you internally, you got to reflect on like okay, how do I want to serve people, like, what do I want?
Speaker 3:to do yeah. There's different styles of doing so yeah.
Speaker 2:And like serve people. Like what do I want? Yeah, yeah, there's different styles of doing so, yeah. And like what business do I want? What like?
Speaker 3:what speaks to me like cars spoke to you yeah, you know yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think it's important, for if somebody is starting a business, I think they have to understand and don't get me wrong, there's always outliers, yeah but I think for the most part, people have to understand whether you're starting something for passion, that you love and you enjoy, or you're doing something for profit, because there are certain industries that are just hard to make a lot of money in period and there's other industries that are easy to make a lot of money in.
Speaker 3:You could be a half-assed business owner and still be very much successful, and some industries are just not like that. You can be all the way composed, all the way put together, run a tight ship, and you're still not going to be rewarded in the same aspect of other industries. And so I think if somebody is just getting started, you got to come to terms and kind of evaluate is this a passion thing because I enjoy it and I love it, or is this a profit thing because I want to enjoy and love the money? Because it's very, very rare, very rare that you love the money and love the thing at the same time, like how many people you know that absolutely love what they do and are making a million bucks a year.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of people who hate what they do and are making a million bucks a year.
Speaker 3:I know a lot of people who hate what they do make a lot of money. Yeah, I know a lot of people who love what they do and they take care of their family yeah, you know. Not bad, but how many people do you know that are in love with their occupation or business or whatever it is, and also are killing it?
Speaker 2:that's like the lotto, in my opinion yeah, what do you, what do you think goes into that, though? Is it just like they're just dialed in to like who they are and like what they're passionate about, and they've they've locked in so much on that, um, that passion, that they've been able to to make a lot of money doing it?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I mean like, do you?
Speaker 2:think everybody has the ability to to do that. So, like you know, I'm passionate about this and I'm so passionate about it I'm going to make a lot of money doing it as well.
Speaker 3:I don't, I don't. Well, I don't think everybody has the ability to make a lot of money. Yeah, I think every industry has the ability. There's somebody making a million dollars a year right now recycling cans. Who would have thought? There's somebody making a million dollars a year right now picking up dog poop? Yeah, who would have thought? Yeah, right, but that takes a special individual to push it there, and I don't think everybody has that. True, you know, but that takes a special individual to push it there, and I don't think everybody has that.
Speaker 3:Some people might not agree with me, but I think I mean listen, I'm five foot seven. On a good day, I'm not dunking a basketball, it's not happening. It might if I put my whole entire soul and effort into it. And I think that's the same thing with entrepreneurship no-transcript years, you know, because it's like man, I'm putting in so much and I'm not getting anything back. It's like, well, for how long can you sustain that? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:So I think the right person can make a million dollars a year doing anything. I don't think everybody can make a million dollars a year doing anything. I don't think everybody can make a million dollars a year, even in the easiest industry. Yeah, I think entrepreneurship is um. Essentially, I think, deep down in my heart, I think it's a lifestyle. You, you live in a state of business, right, and you figure out how to live your life inside of that. You know, I really do. And you know, obviously, if you have the right staff, you compose the right team, you do the right thing, you can remove yourself in due time. But that's incredibly hard to do that. Yeah, it's like putting together an all-star team, like that's why there's not very many of them, you know yeah, that is it.
Speaker 2:That is interesting. Yeah, I would agree. It is um, it is a, a lifestyle right and it's. It could be fun, but it can also be yeah, difficult.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, at one point in time I hated working 100 hours a week. Now you know, technically I'm a text away at all times, no matter what day it is. It's not a big deal anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know is there a mindset shift that you had to go through to like, appreciate that and absolutely, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean I started when I was 19. I also moved out of my mom's house at the same time, so, like full court pressure at that point you know, and you know who I was then was a different man than I am today, and as much as I had to learn how to just grow up as a human, I also had to learn how to grow up running a business, which was tough. And so, yeah, I think there's seasonality to business, there's seasonality to getting older. Right now, there's things that are important to you, that were never once important before. Right now, there's things that you may have never even thought about, that are on the front of your list to do today.
Speaker 3:Same thing with business, the front of your list to do today. You know, same thing with business, you know so yeah it's season, you know it's, it's not. Uh, you're not just gonna wake up and be the guy who you need to be, yeah or the woman you need to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the the whole seasonality thing, I think I I heard that. Um, I think he said seasons like from from nick barry used to listen to some of his podcasts. Um, and what do you call them sprints? Right, like you go through sprints in life, or sometimes you got to give it like 110 percent yeah, that's relevant.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you can dial it back right, and I think, like, like, just grasping that concept like allows you, um, the the freedom to like, okay, this is I and just enjoy it too, right, because it's you know, yeah, it's hard, life is hard, business is hard, and it's always going to be hard, like none of that's going to change. You know, investing is extremely important, but it can also be somewhat confusing With taxes, asset allocation, stocks, bonds and funds. To know what to do with all this could be overwhelming.
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Speaker 3:But like, the only constant is all the variables. Yeah, it's never solidified. You know if you make, you know facebook or tesla, or you know that's different. But even those things they come and go. You know how many big technology companies you see that are around for five or ten years. They don't innovate and then it's gone yeah right and like it's forever changing. Yeah forever.
Speaker 2:I mean look at what I mean. Yeah, just like facebook and tesla, like what they're you know, constantly having to adapt and change. Reiterate yeah, version 2796.
Speaker 3:Right, you know, it's like that's season number 2000. You know, it's a constant. You know you always got to. That's the other tough thing I think about owning a business too is I guess you're operating in this three month season, so to speak, but really your head as a business owner you're out two or three seasons in front of active time, right, and so like you're constantly computing what's going on and then what's about to take place, you know, and like of stressful a little bit. I mean just a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, especially like I only have three guys who work for me, but I I often think times, you know, I've got some customers of mine that have one or 200 employees, you know, or you think about a company like, uh, for GM or Amazon, like 100,000, 200,000 employees, mm-hmm, yeah, how do you even do that?
Speaker 2:yeah, you know they start. You start like, where you're at right, you get a couple employees and you get a couple more wasn't jeff bezos in.
Speaker 3:Uh yeah, one man in an office doing coding or something you know, and here he is. Amazon's been around a long time, but right now, look at it. Yeah, you know, pretty much everyone uses amazon. Again, another cliche thing it's one foot in front of the other. You know the million mile journey starts with the first step cliche it's all cliche. Yeah, once you go through it and you experience all the stuff, all the hardship and all the stuff, it's all that cliche stuff your grandpa told you or you heard on the internet.
Speaker 2:It really is, yeah.
Speaker 3:It really is, it's so true.
Speaker 2:What have been some challenges for you as far as from the business standpoint? Some things that you've had a hard time with. People and money. People like managing people.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And just funding.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean customer people like managing people, yeah, and just funding like yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean customer calls you have to pinpoint who they are, what they need. Employee asks for a job you have to pinpoint who they are and what they need and then between those two variables you got to figure out how to pull a dollar out of it, you know, and so like that's easy, especially in a service industry which we sell, ultimately we just sell work, ethic. I sell labor. I don't sell a bottle of water, I don't sell a hat, where I'm just selling you a product. It still requires ethic and stuff, but our end result is a byproduct of how good our ethic is, and so it's hard.
Speaker 3:In the service world HVAC, plumbing, detailing, lawn care, anything that is a trade business I think it's extremely tough because every customer is different, every employee is different. You have to manage. I've got a book of five or 6,000 customers. I've had 80 something employees over the years and so you know it's adult babysitting for money. You know, and I mean that because that's truthfully what it is Now. You know it's not like I'm inconvenienced by it, right, you know, like that's is my job, that's my role is to make sure I hire the right people to do the right thing for the right person, paying the right dollar amount. But that's been the hardest part is understanding how to handle clients and understanding how to handle employees, because and then sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes those two things bash, they clash. Yeah.
Speaker 3:This employee doesn't like going to this customer's house, this customer doesn't like this employee and it's like, okay, how do I tiptoe around this and don't lose anything out of it? Definitely the hardest thing, I think, specific to what I do. Finding the right clients or the right type of clients is easy. You can find rich people if you look for them. They're not hard to find. Selecting services not hard. Finding the right equipment, the right SOPs, everything, the right structure to run your business, payroll, all that stuff Not hard. But bringing a young guy in through the door, because my demographic for staff is 25 to 35. You bring those in through this door. You have to tune them up and send them off to the right client who is happy with that individual. So yeah, hardest thing for me has been people management and money management.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's almost. Um, I had a broker. Did you ever do anything with like personality types, like understanding?
Speaker 3:You know I did Um what's that called again.
Speaker 2:There's like there's a bunch of them right, but um yeah, yeah, I forget what it's called Like. Myers-briggs is one. There's True Colors is another one, I think that's what we use.
Speaker 3:Myers-briggs Okay, but I forget what that's called.
Speaker 2:It's like a term that they call it Like a wheel, like a personality wheel or something, something like that.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I tried it and I'm about to get deep on this here. So I tried that, but I don't think personality types is really like what you're after, because you could have a certain personality type but have a different goal than your team. I think if you can get multiple personality types, because one can complement another, for sure.
Speaker 3:One can fill in for another right be outgoing, somebody may not, somebody might like to work long hours, somebody may not. And those things go hand in hand. You need them. It's yin and yang. But if you can get the right people assembled with the right vision, the right objective, the right goal, I think that's more important than who those people are. In my opinion, you know, as long as you're hiring good, decent people, I'm not saying you can just hire anybody.
Speaker 2:Do you think like those? Yeah, I, I think, yeah I. I hear you saying right, like they can. There can be a combination of different personality types that still fit like your ultimate goal as a business owner, correct? Yeah yeah, but from from a perspective of the business owner, like understanding personality types I think allows you to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the most important thing, because you because your employees, like you, gotta understand them, like what makes them tick and how you can help them. Yeah, you know operate and how you can help them operate to the level that you want them to operate at, absolutely. And then, same thing, understanding your clients' needs and how to handle their, how to service them.
Speaker 3:It's one big HR EQ play. It's all it is. Yeah, I mean, you don't even have to be the smartest guy, you just have to be able to deal with multiple personality types. Yeah, ask the right questions, extract the right data, analyze the data, figure out what this guy wants, how he wants it and for what price, find the right guy to give that to him and make a profit out of it. Yeah, you know, I think eq is super important people skills. Listen. If you're, if you're not, a people person, I don't think business is gonna work. No, I don't think so at all. If you can't converse with somebody at the bar in an elevator for no reason, for 30 minutes, like, it's probably not going to work out. And that's just a starting point.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know it's it's uh, it's a necessity of, of entrepreneurship, for sure, and I didn't start out that way either. You know I am um, I'm what you would refer to as a tradesman-built business. I didn't come into business understanding business whatsoever. I came into business understanding that I wanted to do what I was doing, no matter what. Then I got really good at doing what I do five, seven years later, and because I was so good at what I do, it was easy to scale it and drive demand, but not in terms of doing it structurally as a business marketing, strategic partnerships, like all of that stuff came at the end like backwards, you know.
Speaker 3:But when you, when you deliver a good service, people ask for it, people want it, it, no matter what it is. If the value is there, they'll buy it. But I didn't. I didn't start out being a good people person. It was like I was a kid. You know, give me your keys. I'm gonna make this thing look good for you. I'm gonna give it back to you. You're gonna be happy like.
Speaker 3:I don't want to know what's your wife's name, your husband's name, how many kids you got, what you do for a living. I just i't want to know what's your wife's name, your husband's name, how many kids you got, what you do for a living. I just I just want to do the car and make sure you're happy. Yeah, you know. But as I got older and as I got further into business, I realized and I don't mean this in a bad way but sometimes quality is not paramount. Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it's just service. You know, like if I go somewhere and it's got really really good food but the service is shitty, I probably might not come back. No, but if I go somewhere where food is decent, it's pretty good and the service is amazing, because I was taken care of, I'll be back. I'll spend more money there.
Speaker 2:I think that's a really good point that you just made, because I couldn't agree more. I think that's the most important thing and I say it all the time in real estate too because there's so many different people involved in a transaction and there has to be clear communication, constant communication, throughout the transaction process, and any time we've had a deal go south or there's been someone get upset about one thing or another, it's because there's been a lack of communication.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Lack of service, yeah. And there's a lot of people who touch one deal in what you do. Yeah. Yeah, you know what is there Sellers agent, buyers agent, the finance people. Yeah, title the title Home inspector. Yeah, I finance people. Yeah, the uh title inspector yeah, I mean you know it's got to go through seven or eight people. Smooth, yeah, insurance, yeah, I mean it's it's. You know that's tough, yeah, and that's all. All that is is hr. Yeah, managing people, that's it yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's almost like, if you can just master that like you, it's like what business do you want to do? What are you passionate about?
Speaker 3:yeah I think the best way to get exposure, you know, let's say somebody listening is like on the fence about man, do I want to start my own thing or not? Two things I would first assess is do I have a risk tolerance? Do I have a stress tolerance? Okay, that's like important. Three can I deal with people? Okay. And then the best way like say you're borderline about that stuff I think the best way to get exposure is going into something that requires sales. Yeah, that's how you get the most exposure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, think there's really another occupation outside of a sales role, where you'll communicate with 10, 20, 40, 80, 160 people in a day, you know, and repetition creates mastery, right. So the more you do it, the better you get at it. And if you can do it for somebody else doing, example, a hundred cold calls a day, getting 80 no's before you get 20 maybes, getting 20 maybes before you get two yeses if you can do it for somebody else, you could do it for yourself. Like that's like you got to get that out the way. Sometimes I think to myself I should have not started my business so early. But then other times I'm like it's probably a good thing that I went in everything on zero. I flipped pizza before I started my business.
Speaker 3:That's what it was.
Speaker 2:Did you flip pizza? Were you involved with? Were you just cooking? So no customer service Dude, I can spin a pizza, like you wouldn't believe, dude.
Speaker 3:I can throw it in the air, roll it down my shoulders. I'm nasty with the pizza dough, I'm not even lying.
Speaker 2:My next, I want to get a pizza oven at the house and I love making pizza and stuff, dude.
Speaker 3:One day I got to my um customer's house yeah they had a. My buddy sean. He owns a uh Black Label and we're pulling up to clean their Range Rover and he's dropping off a 7,000-pound brick pizza oven to my customer's house. I'm like who the hell? Buys a real no, dropping it off, oh wow, I'm like who the hell buys a real? I don't even know what that's called.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a brick oven pizza.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a brick oven Like what you would see in a pizza restaurant.
Speaker 2:Like literally a brick oven At their house.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they got like six guys trying to move this thing. Everybody's struggling. I feel like it's going to knock down a wall. I'm like who buys a pizza oven like that? Yeah, you gotta love pizza for that, but you can cook, uh.
Speaker 2:So I got into this like a couple years ago. Oh, that's what it was. I was trying to make pizza dough like my own pizza dough, and um so I I got it. I did try to do a little sourdough once, but before it was pizza before I was just trying to make the dough and stuff, and so I made a couple batches, um, but it's just, it's just, it's a lot of work yeah, yeah, my wife went on like a six month run of sourdough bread.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, and I I had no idea what making dough was about. And then, yeah, she went through it.
Speaker 2:Dude it was it's pretty cool, like if you can a lot of attention and love. Yeah, for sure so I I watched a bunch of videos on on making pizzas or whatever, and gosney, that's the name of the pizza oven, like a little portable pizza oven, and they have bigger ones and stuff, um, but they, I mean they're, they're cooking like steaks and all this other food and stuff in these ovens. I'm like oh yeah, it's totally worth it. Real food yeah, yeah, I love it. Do you eat pizza a lot?
Speaker 3:I wouldn't say a lot. I mean, we eat pizza. We try to eat real healthy, but I might eat pizza maybe a couple times a month.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, that's not bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Not often. I love it though.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite pizza spot around here? What Not often I love it though.
Speaker 3:What's your favorite pizza spot around here? What is this Fireside over here? I love Fireside. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's good Fireside. I also really like Anthony's Cold Fire Pizza. Oh yeah, yeah, the franchise, they're all over the place. They're really good. They got good wings too. Those are like the two pizza spots that I'll order pizza from or go eat pizza at Yep and then, if it's like, at the house. I don't know if you've ever had Amy's Pizza frozen pizza. No, they got bought out by a big company so they're not as clean as they used to be. Oh okay, but it used to be a really really clean frozen pizza, organic. You could just take it out the freezer, put in the oven and it's fire yes, it's awesome, interesting, yeah, I could probably eat three of them.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 2:I love um fireside fireside's awesome. Have you been to corvo bianco?
Speaker 3:oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, them too they have amazing fries too. I don't know if you've tried their fries. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean easy on the carbs, but hey, the fries are awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:All in a brick oven. That's pretty sweet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like that place a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So growing up. So, speaking of like all the spots around here growing up here, did you ever think about like moving to a different state? Like you grew up in Florida, like your entire life?
Speaker 3:I was born in New York Okay, and then we moved to Orlando when I was two Okay, and then we moved to Clearwater when I was about nine. Okay. So I've been here since I was like nine or ten. This is home, yeah, you know, you like this area, obviously yeah, it's what I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you ever think about going elsewhere?
Speaker 3:by the time I could conceptualize moving, I was already a few years into my business yeah yeah, and like my wife you know she's mentioned a few times be cool to live here, live there. Like, yeah, if I could distance myself from my business, that'd be cool, but currently the way I'm structured, I'm not distanced.
Speaker 2:Could you open up multiple locations Like? Is that an easy thing to?
Speaker 3:I mean hypothetically. Yeah, you know, I could hire like a franchising company and get me all structured and tuned up to multiply Cost some money to do it. But I'll be honest, I got it easy right now I got three guys.
Speaker 3:It's low overhead, I make good money. I've got a awesome group of clients. You know I've been ever since things got weird with the economy. We'll say, let's just say two years ago. Yeah, you know, like, know, like 23-ish, I finally have been able to breathe because we haven't been so busy. So it's been 15 years of hustling, grinding, and then, when things got slow, I looked at Lena. I'm like you know, if this is the first time I'm going to be slow, I'll just take it.
Speaker 3:Enjoy it still good, everything's fine, but we're just slower than we were. Um, and I'm gonna be honest, man, it's uh, I've been trying to rally myself up to go grind again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's hard like I your grind is is a lot harder than than other people's grind right.
Speaker 3:It's like physical and well, yeah, for for my staff. Yeah, yeah, I jump in and out, you know of out of the labor.
Speaker 3:I'm not always required to be in for labor, but I am forward-facing to the client. I make all the sales, all the appointments, swipe, every card collect. Often these days that I'm in a squatted position, you know. But you know if the guys need help, if they need alleviation, or if somebody's out on vacation, I jump right in there. You know, back to working hard is fielding every call, fielding every text, every online lead, calling everybody five times. You know sales flow. Where are we at procurement? Push, push, push, push, push. Okay, it didn't work. How's the discount? You know, like that's the new form of of grinding and I've been telling myself that we should do that and I I just can't bring myself to do it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're in a different season right now.
Speaker 3:I'm really enjoying being a dad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it is. How old are your kids?
Speaker 3:My daughter's four and a half, my son's two and a half and it's amazing. So we're like, right there, we're five and three.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And growing up, growing up, I didn't really have the whole homey, lovey life, household, and so now that, and neither did my wife, and so now that the two of us together can create that, it's like we're in love all over again, you know. So, like it's, I look forward to going home. Yeah, like I used to love getting after it, working like nobody else would you know, 16 hours. I did it because you won't you know, like that was my mentality. But now having kids is like like I just came from swim practice Right Left the shop. I'm like swim practice podcast. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. That sounds good yeah.
Speaker 3:So, like I'm just it's a different season, you it's, it's working, but I do want to get back to uh, building and pushing and getting uncomfortable again. You know it's, it's. It needs to happen at some point here once the economy starts to trend back up and things aren't so weird anymore. Yeah, once the automotive industry turns around yeah, I think that's cool, man.
Speaker 2:I I would agree with you that there is um, they're at this age too, right, like they're only this age for you know, a short period of time, right, and they're only going to be there for a short period of time before they want to do other things besides spend time with with mom and dad. So, yeah, it's like, yeah, soak up all of that. You can't.
Speaker 3:I've heard a lot of people say it's like up till 10. Yeah, At 10, you're no longer cool for your kid you know.
Speaker 3:So, like, every time they ask me to pick them up, I pick them up. Yeah, you know, every time they ask for a kiss, I give them a kiss. Every time they ask me to put their shoes on, I put them Because, again, it's cliche, but you never know when that's going to be the last time they ask you to pick them up, that you never know when it's the last time they ask you to put their shoes on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of that, my daughter now our oldest when we take her into school, we walk into the building and then her classroom is a little bit further back, a couple doors back. And now she this was a couple weeks ago she was like I want you to drop me off, I think, as one of other classmates do it. She's like I want you to drop me off at the door. So we walk in the first door and then she walks like the back of the building, like where her classroom is, and it's like that's her routine now, like we used to have to like walk her into the, into the classroom, help her put her stuff up, and now we're already getting kicked yeah, as a dad, it's a happy and sad moment all rolled into it.
Speaker 3:You don't know how to feel about it. I know it makes me emotional, but being a dad's cool. Your preconceived notion of parenthood before you're a parent is way different than when you're actually in it.
Speaker 2:No idea, yeah.
Speaker 3:I was stressed out when my wife was pregnant. I'm like man, how are we going to do this? What's going to happen? Like oh my gosh, down to a single income household and like you know what is about to happen. And then you get into it. You know, you put your boots on, you go stomping around and it's like this is nice.
Speaker 2:You know, I kind of like this. You know, yeah, how long did it take you to like settle in and be like, oh, this is like I got this, Like I enjoy this.
Speaker 3:I'd say probably the first time that my daughter called me and we had a full conversation. Oh yeah, like open topic, topic close yeah, conversation. Yeah, you know, and it's, you know, it's a two and a half year old conversation but it's like. She asked her mom to call me. I talked to her on the phone. There's a subject you know we talked about what was going on. Okay, daddy, love you. Bye, you know, and like at that point I was like this is worth it yeah, like this is so cool yeah yeah and then the next level to that was having two kids.
Speaker 3:and then when you see them interact together, you know like, uh, my daughter can't read. She's four, four now she's learning her letters and her numbers, but she can't read. And she'll'll grab my son, they'll grab a book, they'll sit down together, lean against the wall and she'll just thumb through the pages and explain what the pictures are. And one day I came home from work. They didn't know I came home and they're in the room and the door's cracked. They're playing in her room by themselves mom's in the kitchen.
Speaker 3:And so I'm just looking through the crack of the door and she's reading to him and I'm like, yeah, brothers, I don't think there's anything that could piss me off. I've got everything. You know, yeah, and I think that's when I was like you know, whatever happens happens, yeah. Whatever business wise, work wise, whatever. Well, whatever business-wise, work-wise, whatever. I've got love in my house and that's primary to me at this point. And growing, building a business, chasing dreams. As much as I am an A-type personality Capricorn I'm pretty much supposed to be a business owner, much supposed to be a business owner. Like as much as I want to be all that the love in my house is far, far more influential than being successful you know, and for some, some people, it's the opposite.
Speaker 3:You know, like some people chase money and then they're distant from their kids, which is fine, you know, do what works for you, but for me this is the season of like man.
Speaker 2:I'm a dad, you know and I think you can have both right. There's just, there's balance there and and I think there's also, like you said, there's seasonalities to it, right? Yeah, like you've, you've grown a business to to this point now and and now you're enjoying the life that you've built so far, and then at some point, like, you'll get back into like okay, let's, we're in the growing season now and we're going to grow the business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I uh, Lena and I, we we conversed about this topic and, like you know where I should be positioning my efforts, and we're on the same page. We both feel like the kids are important right now. My industry and the economy right now there's a lot of abrasion for an upward growth cycle and so, like grinding is one thing when all the variables are correct, yeah. Right Right now, for me all the variables are not correct, so if I'm going to go grind, it's going to be an extra grind.
Speaker 3:And so you know, you might could say I'm going to go grind, it's going to be an extra grind, and so you might could say I'm getting lazy or I'm being smart, I don't know which one to call it but I'm cherry picking the work, cherry picking the clients, taking it for what it is, trying to soak up as much kid time as I can and basically just stalling out waiting for things to turn around. So that way growth isn't so strenuous. Because I'm watching there's. There's another shop in town. They came in maybe three years ago, four years ago, and man, they're just, they're working hard as hell to make it happen. You know, and like I did that a long time ago, yeah, I paid my dues, not really interested in that. Yeah, you know. And like I did that a long time ago, yeah, I paid my dues, not really interested in that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know yeah, that's cool man but when, when things go back to how they were yeah, I'm gonna get after you're ready to go, yeah, and some people might say, oh, you shouldn't wait.
Speaker 2:Okay, whatever, I'm waiting you do I mean that's cool, like you know, just just to be able to recognize that and just be accepting of it and okay with that.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, I mean, you know, as a young business owner, sometimes it is really difficult to talk to somebody. Hey, chill out. Yeah, things aren't right. Yeah, stay the course. Do what you got to do to keep the doors open. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Do what you got to do to take care of the family. But right now it's not about pushing forward and that's like a internal mind fuck, so to speak, because it's it's counterintuitive to what a business owner wouldn't actually want to do 100 you know. But I did it, uh, about a year ago I did give it a nice push and I just saw that the ad spend wasn't returning. Um, consumer habits are changing inside of my industry and it's like it's very it's. It's a lot of abrasion right now to to have a busy detail protection restyling shop it's tough yeah, cars aren't selling.
Speaker 3:Interest rates are high so people aren't going to come spend, willingly come spend $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 on their new car at the shop. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, makes sense. So where can people find your business online? And then, what do you want people to know about what you offer?
Speaker 3:Well, url is firstclassdetailingcom. Business uh, online. And then what do you want people to know about what you offer? Well, url is firstclassdetailingcom. Instagram is firstclassdetailingllc. Facebook is firstclassdetailing. You can find me. Oh, youtube too. Youtube, I believe, is a firstclassdetailing08. I believe is our youtube. I believe is our YouTube.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I mean, if you were going to, I'll talk to the mic in terms of if you were a potential client, what would you want to know? And I mean you already know I use the best products. I pride myself on using top-notch stuff. My work ethic is incredible. I have a great group of guys who work for me. We're all aligned, we're all on the same page. All of us are family men and I think it's different when you buy a product from somebody who is two, three, four years into it and they're money oriented, versus buying something from somebody who's 15, 16, 17 years into it, and they're people oriented. And so you know it's an owner operator shop. I own the shop, I run the shop. Some other places are not like that. They're operated by employees or an investor owns the shop and somebody's a small partner who manages the shop. But that's a big, tangible difference that you can feel as a potential client of. Like, this is my life, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is what I do A lot more pride in what you're doing pride and I mean listen, I've, I've cleaned more cars than I've brushed my teeth in perspective, yeah, you know, that's crazy. I've, I've, I'm a better, I'm better at cars than I am being a father. I've done it for four times as long. Yeah right, I'm better at taking care of cars and clients and I am sadly to say, being a husband, I've done it for longer. I have more time under attention doing this than anything else in my life.
Speaker 3:My whole adult life has been doing cars. So, like for you to know I got you, I'd take care of it the right way. I promise For sure I got you I'd take care of it the right way. I promise you know for sure. And if we have issues out of ethics and morale and principles if there ever is any issues, which very rarely you know I stand behind all of our services and products and everything that we do. So I have to live to the name. Right, first class detailing. It sounds like you're getting taken care of. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Damn it, You're getting taken care of you know, you got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that man yeah.
Speaker 3:Thanks for being here, dude. Absolutely, bro. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Palm Harbor Local. You know we are incredibly grateful for our sponsors who make this show possible. Jake with Roadmap Money, Be sure to check them out and support other local businesses in our community and keep Palm Harbor thriving.
