The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
Beyond Borders: One Man's Path to Business Ownership | Fernando Melo
Fernando Melo shares his incredible journey from Brazilian immigrant to successful business owner with M&M Home Exteriors, providing roofing, siding, gutters, windows, doors, painting and deck services throughout Atlanta.
• Fernando's dream to visit America and Disney World as a child led to his immigration in 2000
• Started with zero English skills, sleeping on a stranger's couch while attending ESL classes
• Discovered natural talent for exterior construction work, particularly siding installation
• Founded his first business just five years after arriving in America
• Survived the 2008 housing crisis by downsizing from four crews to just himself and a helper
• Expanded into M&M Home Exteriors in 2015, now running multiple specialized crews
• Customer service philosophy influenced by Disney's approach to creating experiences
• Values treating crews with respect and refuses to work with clients who disrespect his team
• Balances business ambitions with family time, building a legacy for his two young sons
• Emphasizes quality workmanship and taking pride in transforming homes
Visit sidingatlanta.com or search M&M Home Exteriors on social media platforms to learn more about Fernando's services.
#siding#love#atlanta#fernandomelo#M&Mhomeexteriors#disney#brazil#america#ESL#deck#exterior#home
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
So before you get into the business, I got to ask you've got kids right? I do. Have you taken them to Disney?
Speaker 2:I have.
Speaker 1:And what was that like? Being a kid growing up in Brazil and just dreaming about that and then actually taking your kids?
Speaker 2:to Disney. It's fascinating, it's you know.
Speaker 3:Was it everything you thought it'd be?
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 3:It was, it was, I agree.
Speaker 2:You know the train, the futuristic. You know we grew up with American cartoons in Brazil, right, and so all the you know Lulitoons and things like that. So we had a little bit of the culture. You know, I had a little bit of a culture growing up and I was just so proud, you know, so proud and amazed how you know they can build such a structure.
Speaker 3:And it's just for fun, it's just for dreamers, just for kids. Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Born in the usa, alan, what the hell am I doing? You are such an ass I am. I'll tell you what you know. I thought you were gonna say bonjourno, huh I. I got my only other word I do in portuguese. I actually screwed that up, as I found out earlier. Yeah, you did.
Speaker 3:We got a great guest today because I will tell you what's going on right now is in the world, here, and especially in the us. It's all about protectionism and the borders and where we're all. And you know, if you listen to the media, you get all angsty and you're like oh right, yeah, we don't want other people coming to our country. And you know what? Back that. Truck up, brother. I wait a minute. You guys don't get caught up in all this media bullshit. You know what? Because I've said this over and over again. You guys have heard me say this.
Speaker 3:You know who has built all the homes since the US has been started. We are all from another country. We're all from another country. My brothers and my sisters, we all are, and I would tell you. This is why I think today's guest is incredible for me, because I got to meet Fernando and when you listen to his story, he is the immigration success story in today's world and I just sat there and went. You know, this is the story we should be talking about. Yeah, we want people in our country. We need people in our country because, guess who was building all these homes? Man, they're immigrants. I mean, all of us were building homes in the italians when we came over. We were building homes. Why do you think I got into the building business?
Speaker 1:I thought you were in the import export business.
Speaker 3:Well, olive oil I was not, I was, um, I was in the vegetable distribution business, but that's a different story. Um, let's just say, we, we, we branched out a little bit from the building. Uh, we found it. Uh, that moving product was a little bit easier. Uh, those are vegetables, by the way, vegetables from miami to new york but we won't talk about where where they came from I don't know that's right, that's a different side of the family la lomia trucking, it was what it was called, by the way.
Speaker 3:Uh, so we have fernando mellow here. Uh, m and m home exiors. But this is a great story, guys, because I got a chance to meet Fernando and we started talking and then I heard his story and I was like you know, we don't get to hear this story right now, especially in this America. You know, make America great again means oh, we don't want anybody here. I think that's how some people are taking it. I think, god, you're missing. You're missing who's your neighbor. You're missing who your grandparents were, maybe your great grandparents. You're missing the part of this and you're getting so focused on the bad people. You forgot about the great people who are here. And Fernando is here and he is that great success story.
Speaker 1:And not only that he's here in person and he brought us a gift, and the gift was a bottle of a very special rum that his brother made. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:That's correct. It's called.
Speaker 3:Cachaça. And so, Fernando, we'll get into your business in a minute, but what does your brother do, and what has he made?
Speaker 2:So my brother owns a chain of restaurants, brazilian steakhouses, and, um and um, the brand that I brought to you, the, is his own brand. They come up with the, with the logo and all of that, and it's uh, it's the most popular drink in brazil.
Speaker 1:It's the cachaca, it's basically rum made from sugar cane, and uh is uh, it's very delicious it is delicious and it's it's different, like when he said rum, you know, certain captain morgan's comes to mind. Right, and this was very sophisticated very sophisticated.
Speaker 3:In fact, it blew us away in our palate and when we we tasted it. Guys, I'm telling you go try it out. I you can't find it here in the States, is that right?
Speaker 2:There's imports, you can probably find. Well, if you know a guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you know a guy.
Speaker 2:If you know the guy that transports.
Speaker 3:So we can. Actually, I consider that a vegetable. So, yes, we can do that, because that will go with the other vegetables that we transport here in the La Llamia trucking business, that we transport here in the La Llamia trucking business. But we don't do that, Fernando. So I teased the story a little bit. But let's talk a little bit about what your business is today, and then we're going to backtrack on how you got there. So what do you guys do today here in Atlanta?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, happy to be here. Thanks for the invite. I really appreciate the invitation and just happy to be here. So a little bit of the story. We're a home improvement company. We provide exterior home services siding, roofing, gutters, windows, doors, painting, decks, roofs. Did I miss anything? All exteriors under one roof, under one umbrella, under one contractor, and we've been in business for a little over. We're getting to 20 years now how about that?
Speaker 3:and?
Speaker 2:uh, with mellow construction, which is my first company, and uh, we also provide the same services in the multi-family world.
Speaker 3:A little bit more commercial side, if you will yeah, so he's built an empire, alan, protecting the homes, building the homes. But I want to go back to the beginning. So, uh, fernando is, if you haven't figured it out, uh has an accent. Uh, and it's not canadian, uh, and it's not midwest and it's not oregon, uh and uh, it definitely ain't my southern bullshit accent.
Speaker 1:And the worst southern accent.
Speaker 3:Thank you right so you're, you're from, you're from brazil originally originally from brazil, born and raised, uh moved to the us.
Speaker 2:In the year 2000 uh went to kennesaw, attended um esl classes there and uh from there just uh hustle, you know with jobs.
Speaker 1:So why did you make the move? I mean mean that's, that's a big move.
Speaker 2:Big move, right. I always wanted to come to America, you know, since as a kid- I had never visited before. Always wanted to come and visit and go to Disney, right as a kid.
Speaker 2:I dreamed to go to Disney world Right, and I had the chance to, you know, to come and, you know, didn't plan to stay, wanted to stay for a few months a year maybe, and, you know, end up just falling in love with the country you know and really identify myself with a lot of the things in the country. So, uh and uh stayed in and, you know, start to to work in in, you know, flipping burgers, painting houses, working in uh well shops, so why atlanta?
Speaker 3:I mean, did you have family here? How did you know? You said you'd never been here before I didn't have a connection.
Speaker 2:A family I I knew knew a friend who had some friends here, who I was introduced. I said well, you can stay with them while you go to school and hang out and get a job, pay for your stay. And so I didn't know these people, so I slept on their couch for a few months and, as a know, as a roommate, sleeping on the couch and it didn't, you know, didn't really fit. So I had to move on, get an apartment and start working side jobs and to pay for before you get into the business I gotta ask you've got kids right?
Speaker 1:I do. Have you taken them to disney? I have and what was that like? Being a kid growing up in brazil and just dreaming about that and then actually taking your kids?
Speaker 2:it's, it's fascinating, it's it's you know was it everything you thought it'd be?
Speaker 3:it was it was, it was, it was you know the, the train, the futuristic.
Speaker 2:You know we grew up with american cartoons in brazil, right and so all the you know l. We grew up with American cartoons in Brazil, right and so all the. You know Lulitoons and things like that. So we had a little bit of the culture. You know, I had a little bit of a culture growing up and I was just so proud, you know, so proud and amazed how you know they can build such a structure and it's just for fun, it's just for dreamers, just for kids, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the uh, the Disney thing and I don't know if we've talked about that, but so I didn't know that he had would tie it into that. But, uh, you know, that's one that even in my business world I'll never forget, uh, that Disney uh has so many elements to it. Now they actually have the disney institute to tell people how to train people and how to get your, your team, to deliver a great customer service, because that's what they're about, right? Um, and I'll never forget when I had a, a consulting team, uh, when I first got started, was one of my first teams. They were all younger than me and it was a team of three and I said one of the things we'll do for team building is every Monday when we get together is that you have to present something that will help the rest of the team build their business acumen. And so one of the ladies had been an intern at Disney and she came back and all of us got Dream Believe Do the book from Disney. All of them get that when they went to intern at the time. This is back in the 90s. Turn at the time. This is back in the 90s. And she, she took us through the program about how she was trained on how to dream, believe and do, delivering customer service in the most excellent disney way.
Speaker 3:And I would tell you from there on out, I was like, wow, I can't wait to go back now. Um, now that I'm older and I've taken my kids there, I'm like, yeah, I'm good with that. I mean, I love disney, I love everything it's about. When it comes to the park and the experience, um, it's just all those people that are there. If they were on out there, I'd be so much happier. It's all the other. It's all the other, all the other guests coming. I'm not really excited about you, you just need to rent out disney I need to.
Speaker 3:You know what I think you're a big baller.
Speaker 1:You're not a big baller until you can rent out disney all right, I got a new goal.
Speaker 3:I'm'm going to be renting out Disney.
Speaker 2:And you're right about that. The experience that we had with my kid and we're getting a piece of cake and a couple pastries and just the way that they treat and went back and went around and treat my kid like special, you know that's the cost of that care. It's key. You know the experience. What's that? That cost-perceptive that care? It's key. You know the experience, what they call right, that just the experiences is. It's what makes Disney different.
Speaker 3:So you got to experience and I think that is amazing. You know, I did the cruise too with the kids. I'll never forget that and I loved it so much that I said later on I was like we're going to do that. And then I looked at the price and I went, no, we, we're going to do that. And then I looked at the price and I went, no, we'll go on two Royal Caribbean cruises and I'll buy a Mickey mouse, but we're not going back. But it was so cool. I just again.
Speaker 3:You know I'm not, we're not getting into politics and all the other stuff that's going on there. When you go there with a family, they do it right. And if you ever go into another one, another park and not putting them down, it just not the same. It isn't now these guys have it down, but it's all about, you know, and it comes back. Even in engineering, right, they call them imagineers, right. So I know engineers who have gone down there to work and they won't leave for big bucks. They could left and gone to nasa and they're like they stayed because they just love the environment they worked in so much.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you think about it just from a business perspective, how disney can have such a strong culture that I mean, how many thousands of employees must they have? And it's people who are taking out the trash, and people serving you food and getting you on the rides, and then the you know all the character actors and stuff and they all have that same vibe they do.
Speaker 3:They and she talked about that and I've had to reinforce. In fact, my general manager moved here from Orlando to take this position to work with me here at the Trusted Toolbox, and he had a Disney pass and he has a Disney file and he'll talk about the experience. There is just second to none and the way that they treat you and the way that they do serve, because he picked up a lot of service habits that he translates into our own business, uh, which you can tell fernando has as well, and that's why we'll get into his business and why it's been so successful. It's just those little things make the big difference we did digress a little bit, didn't we?
Speaker 3:no, but, but it, but it all ties back into business yeah, it does go check it out, dream, believe, do uh again.
Speaker 3:It's not a political thing. And if you want to get on that bed, good for you. You blew it because you're missing what the underlying thing was, what walt disney was trying to build and had built. It has built, uh, and that is an incredible customer service and new world environment. You talked about the futurism. You're like, you're looking at you're on a monorail. You're like, oh my gosh, I don't know. We we actually do have it.
Speaker 3:We call it murder here in atl and you're like, oh my God, these guys had this figured out then. But then you can also get off that and go on a Model T and drive. You'll see that thing driving around.
Speaker 2:You're like oh yeah, even today, right, you go to the monorail and you're like, I mean, they thought of this 50 years ago. You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean think that's amazing. All right, so we get back to it, but but it all does tie back into business and you can tell, that's definitely how I did it. So you came here you didn't know anybody, um, and we're gonna go back to it. Right, you did it the right way. You got here uh. You said I'm gonna learn, uh, english, you use it, esl, that's, that's english as a second language. For those of you who don't know what that is, and that is going to learn english. And if you haven't figured it out already, uh, obviously, he obviously was probably topson's class or he's pretty good at it.
Speaker 1:He did a really good job.
Speaker 3:He speaks a lot better than I can do.
Speaker 1:Portuguese boom we learned that. All right, yeah, we already figured that out so you, you got into, were you all?
Speaker 2:radio, the tv, all you know. Turn off everything, just english, english. That's so you immersed yourself in it.
Speaker 3:I did yeah, which is another great point uh, that's one of the way my, one of the ways my son was, uh, now fluent in spanish is that even at home, when he was here, he would not watch, uh tv in english. He would watch it in spanish, and I'd have to have the captions up, because I was trying to go with him too, because I felt like I knew spanish pretty well. Yeah, how'd that go? Uh, I love the captions a lot, and it made a pause. So, all right, you immersed yourself, you did your thing, you kept going, did you think? I, this is my one shot. I'm gonna keep, keep doing it. I'm gonna find a job, I'm gonna move back home you know, I thought to move back home.
Speaker 2:I didn't came with the first initial idea to come and stay right. I had a little girl at home, you know, wanted to learn english, take a break, maybe earn some money, go back home, right. So but you know, you make plans and god laughs at you and throws a different way on your path. Right and so and uh, yeah. So I just, I stayed and, uh, uh, worked jobs, jobs, moved back to Brazil a couple, you know, a couple of years after that and then moved back to the US and you know, three years couldn't readapt to Brazil. You know, always when I was there, thinking of the United States and missing, you know, all the things here, you know, it's just, it's funny because it's like when you're here you're always thinking I was utilizing back home, and when you're you're there, you're always thinking of of united states.
Speaker 3:That's home so you always like the other place. So you're here in the us. You're like, oh, I miss home yes back in brazil. You're like, oh, I miss the united so much so much, so much, yeah, and that's.
Speaker 2:I think that's the reason that I end up coming back. I end up coming back and, uh, you know, and I'm here today, so all right, so, uh, so you got it.
Speaker 3:You got an exterior home business. You take it all, take care of all things on the exterior. Um, is that where you were? Was that a passion? Was that a family business? Was that?
Speaker 2:it was never a passion, even though I think I was always thought to be myself, to be an engineer. Growing up, going to school, I was very good in math, but doing all those sorts of jobs cleaning and flooring and then one day this guy said, oh, we need some help here, help here to to to hang out some some siding. And then so got a hammer, got a belt, went to a job site, started putting some nails on the wall and just just felt good, just felt natural, you know, had good talents with my hands, and from that on I just stay helping this guy and learning. You know, the siding business back then vinyl siding was a real big in Atlanta and and just I guess couldn't, you know, did some flooring and you got to work on your knees. Cleaning was not my thing, you know painting, deliver pizzas and all of that. But I found myself very good, feeling good, you know, accomplished on the end of the day with, uh, you know, working outside.
Speaker 3:I love the outdoors, so I think that's part of it I think you hit on something I think is so key because that's where you hit your passions, that's where you start to pick it up is that you know I can deliver pizzas and I could become the dominoes guy. I could have been the papa john's, but that was. But when I was outside and I did something and I sat back at the end of the day, I had a whole side of a house decided, or I'd have two sides done, especially vinyl side. You can pop that stuff up quick and it looks good when you're done. You're like you took something that looks like crap and made it look really good. You're an artist all of a sudden, which is what we talk about and that's and that and that's that's.
Speaker 2:You've said something that it's true. You know you start working on one wall or in a house and it takes a day, two, three, four a week and when it's done and you look at that that I did this. You know it really touched you and I think that's you know, without realizing there was something that you know it was one of my passions, I guess take pride on getting something from nothing and then build something from my hands right. So I think that's probably one of the reasons that I stayed with the trade.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:Now I'm talking back and, you know, revisiting that memory, you know. So I'm glad.
Speaker 3:Fernando can come here to Chris's consulting shop. Fernando, the reason I'm so good at this is because I've gone through a lot of therapy myself, but not because of this. Because of many other things, including anger issues, alan, please say nothing. So all right, so you?
Speaker 1:start doing this, I won't say anything because I might get slapped.
Speaker 3:Shut up, alan. Sorry, guys, I had to put that on mute. Cindy, take that out. I did not hit Alan. He has a little red streak across his face now but that's because of the lighting. It's lighting, it's okay. I do it for love, alan. I do it all for love. I know this hurt me more than it hurt you. Have you ever used that light?
Speaker 3:I'm not going to say, all right, we're going to keep going. All right, back to Fernando, shall we let's? All right, fernando, so you're doing the signing. Do you say, oh my gosh, I can make a business out of this? Or were you thinking, no, I'm just really proud of what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:At the time I just, I guess you know getting paid by the day and felt good, and it was good money at the time and I just had to make it right, just had to make it right, just had to make it. There was no other choice. And uh, I just, you know, jumped on it and didn't think about uh, anything else, just that one particular yeah.
Speaker 1:But there had to be a moment where you're like you know what, instead of working for this guy, I can do this on my own.
Speaker 2:Tell us about that true, true, yeah, yeah, well, came later, came, came years after that, because, you know, as we did, we did jobs and, as you know, clients or builders liked our service and made compliments to us. I guess that felt good too. Right, you're being recognized, you take pride in what you do, so, uh, and then, as we start growing, I said, well, you know this, this might be it. So yeah, you're right. Um, at some point during that beginning, I thought that this could be something was there a person that pushed you there?
Speaker 3:was there a person who, like, planted that seed in your head? Was there a mentor?
Speaker 2:No, I don't. As far as starting a business and just pushing for the business, I always had. You know, I think I'm always, I always had in me to be an entrepreneur, because I couldn't sit in a desk and work for somebody else and take orders from somebody else else. So I guess naturally I take the lead on the crew and on learning. I said I need to learn this, I need to learn English, I need to learn the trade, and then I need to put my crew together and then I need to build my name and reputation, do things right, and you know, just brick per brick right, piece per piece. And along the way from there to then, I had some people, some great people, that gave me good advice and were mentors and I probably would not be here if we're not for their advice. And then so that was key, but not at that initial moment.
Speaker 3:I think we've had over three and a half years, alan. We've had a lot of entrepreneurs on and entrepreneurs and people got into, and so some people got laid off and had to, and some people had a mentor that just said hey, have you ever thought about going this way? And they went, they were, and they were kind of accidental, if you will, or or had to, or pushed into it. But you see, fernando has a path that I haven't heard before, where you know, I was kind of doing it, kind of doing it, kind of kind of good at it. You know what I? I think I'm entrepreneurial and he's being very humble about his skills and what he's doing, but but he's like no, I can figure this out, I got this man, we're gonna go do it. I mean that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:Did you come from an entrepreneurial family, though?
Speaker 2:I. I have my dad, yeah, my uncles. They all had business growing up, so I guess that's part of it too where was that in the trades as well? No, my uh not in the trades. Had no one in the trades in my family restaurant business. Uh, yeah, a lot of restaurant business that's the hardest business, yeah, and I had part of my family. There were, uh, you know teachers and you know attorneys, and things started what do you think is harder running a restaurant or running your business?
Speaker 2:oh, lordy, running restaurants part harder, harder, harder, harder, harder yeah, and my brother's doing it, so you know he's doing well.
Speaker 2:yeah, you know, I think, uh, for me, looking back today, I was lucky to had found this, this little path, and learn and liked the path and and saw that was a future. Because, you know, as my brother, he started working in restaurants. He started to work for Foggy Deschamps, worked for 12, 13 years and learned all the ins and outs and he's successful. But you know, restaurants, restaurant business, is very demanding of your time your family time, right, your 7 to 4 job, your construction business, monday to Friday, monday to Saturday. Then you have time for your family in the evenings or on the weekends, right On the restaurant. You know, on the holidays, where everybody's enjoying their families, you're working, or you're working at nighttime. The money is good, right, but that's that side. That for me, I think it's the hardest part.
Speaker 3:And I've had so many people tell me how hard construction is and, uh, I amen, uh, it is. Uh. And I've had a lot of people make fun of me and say, boy, it's you know. Garage door guy, window guy, that's all I do. Uh, go look at me and go, wow, your business is so hard. Uh, I'm glad I'm not you. I'm like I'm glad you're not me either and I wish I. I'm like I'm glad you're not me either and I wish I wasn't me. But then again I look at restaurants and go never, ever, never, ever, never.
Speaker 3:And I've had two opportunities to start restaurants with buddies and I, um, I, I really held to it. We all want to. Why, when is our? I'm not gonna lie. Uh, I actually had it. Man, I was gonna do mama lala, mia's. I mean I, I love cooking, I love doing it, uh, but no, it doesn't ring. Got a ring to it, yeah, right, and I was like I had some great recipes that I felt like my family's Italian sauce and some of the breads that we made were even better. So we all think that. But you know what? It's still a joy for me and I think if I did a restaurant and then, of course, eventually it would have sucked the life out of me and probably would have not done well. Uh, and then I would. I would have not liked cooking anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, restaurant business is fun, right. You get to meet a lot of people, you get to do I mean, I love to cook and you get to serve people. You get to meet people and it's fun. But that's that other part. That's very demanding, right. Construction is hard too I mean you know?
Speaker 2:I think every business in its sense has. You know some way, some way or another that they're hard on some way or another. But if you find a niche, you find a way and you know you have to be built. Not everybody's built to be a doctor, right. Not everybody's built to be a cook. Not everybody's built to be up on the sun. You know 8, 10, 12 hours a day, right. You know eight, 10, 12 hours a day, right. But you know I learned something interesting that you learn to love. You don't choose something that you love. You love what you do, and then you know you get. You love the fruits of that, of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know. No, I think I think you're right. You get to see so many beautiful things, like your teams when they're out there and they're done. It's what I tell my guys. All're right. You get to see so many beautiful things Like your teams when they're out there and they're done. It's what I tell my guys all the time. You know, when you're working in corporate America and you're working behind a desk or you're working on a computer, you don't get to see tangibly what you've done. It's all knowledge worker stuff. We've talked about it on other podcasts. But in construction you get to see that wall that's been built. You get to see that beautiful bathroom that somebody's going to enjoy and love and you go. You know what I made that happen. You get to see drywall that was completely wrecked and now it's perfect in your case. You get to see siding. You know a house that's completely racked with bad wood rot and now it looks beautiful big sense of fulfillment and and pride.
Speaker 3:For sure, 100 yeah so you started your business. Let's talk about the leap. You said all right, I'm an LLC, I was a subcontractor probably, you probably did the subcontractor and now I'm an LLC, I'm going to do my own business. Here I go, you start, yeah.
Speaker 2:Started a business but registered the business in 2005. And get insurance, get all that good stuff and start to push in it. Get, you know, all that good stuff and start to push in it and um, um, you know just start to make phone calls, subcontracting so you did.
Speaker 3:You did two things that I think are really important. We've talked about this, but we haven't really talked about it. You started as mellows exteriors, because that was your name, and now you've morphed into eminem home exteriors. Why did you do that and talk about that arc and why you got away from it?
Speaker 2:So my first business was Mellow right, and we subcontractor a lot for a lot of big names in town. You know a lot of big GCs, a lot of builders. And you know 2008 happened. You know it was pretty bad. We had four crews running and so we ended up having to sell everything and just persisting right, persisting, and end up being me a helper and my tools on a Ford Ranger just doing all sorts of work after 2008. And then rebuild.
Speaker 2:You know, when the economy started to turn back in 10, 11, 12. You know things started to move back on. I already had a bunch of contacts builders, contractors, gcs that we had a good relationship and started to call me back and build back on. And then so that commercial, bigger, larger job took off. But then I also had my clients on a residential portion of you know portion that was starting to have more demand on that, and that's what I did is I opened a new business.
Speaker 2:I partnered up with a friend, mark, M&M Mello and Mark. That's how we started the business in 15. And then we said, well, let's focus M&M only on the residential, let's do the same only on the residential, let's do same same, same services on a residential and then mellow. I kept that uh separate, but that more on a commercial and multifamily. Uh, you know field and uh, and yeah, man, just uh, you know that moment we kind of separate different teams, different, you know, different approach. One, residential, you're leading with homeowners, the other one more architects, new construction, and so a little bit two separate operations, if you will.
Speaker 3:So M&M took off. So you had one, two crews, you had a partner. Do you still have your partners today?
Speaker 2:No, he ended up moving on and bought the business from him and, right before, covid oh right 2020 yes yeah, he, he's a very good friend, he's a great guy, he has his window business.
Speaker 2:He had a window business, um, and uh, his window business was taken off too, and you know he had small kids and said well, I'm going to focus on my business and my family. And uh, you know, we're still good friends today, and and so he moved on. I moved on and just jumped on him and I'm from from all my gut and all my my knowledge and so all right, so you've been at this for a while.
Speaker 3:let's talk about the residential side and and talk about the growth that you've had, and so how many crews do you have today and how many you?
Speaker 1:obviously started with one, but how many?
Speaker 2:crews do you have today and what's the operation look like? Yeah. So you know we have a lot of moving parts right. So 2020, we had that COVID. Obviously world different today.
Speaker 2:You know, and then after yes, and the big demand after that, a big demand more special, a big demand more special for outdoor environments, outdoor decks, patios. You know people are spending more time on their homes so they want more outdoors. So we grew a lot of our business on that and we brought people in that are more, you know, oriented for the, you know, residential part, project managers and all of that. And you know the whole team that we have is people that are veterans that have been in the industry on those sections, right, and I mean I couldn't count how many crews we have running because we do five or six trades, right. So we have four or five painters, we have three or four siding crews, we have one gutter crew, we have two window crews uh, that are kind of moving jobs for us, um, what else? And that's we have two. I have my dad guy my main dad guy has been with me for 11 years now, great guy. And then we have three DAX crews now, and so those are the usual suspects. They're there on the monthly base, weekly base, that we try to keep them busy, and so it's a lot of moving parts.
Speaker 2:It's not a simple window job or paint job that you come in two, three days. You paint a house or install windows in one, two days, or a roof that you install in one, two, three days, right. So when we approach the project, and it's beneficial to us, but it's also hard because the client wants to deal with one contractor, and then we have a roof, you have windows and you have painting siding, so it's a lot of moving parts, so the project takes a little bit longer. So it's a lot more involved. We're more hands-on. The projects, or project managers, have to be trained on all trades, right, and so, uh, but it's, it's, you know, it's fun. It's fun because, uh, we get to see the big transformation, we get to see homes that are completely, you know, like brand new homes, so so that, that, uh, that sense of accomplishment is it's, it's great so how much time passed from you coming to the states to go to college and you starting your own business so five years.
Speaker 2:So because I started mellow in 2005, can you?
Speaker 1:imagine uh, let's say, you just went to china, right, didn't know the language. And then, five years later, she, she yeah he probably said that wrong too, I did and I would have too. Right that is.
Speaker 3:I mean, that is such an amazing story I mean so many hurdles to overcome to do this. This is the great American story, and that's I go back to where I started. You brought it up again Five years. He got here. He did it the right way, didn't?
Speaker 1:know the language and so you know, he learns a trade, and then he has to figure out. However, in our system, you start a business, like you said, insurance and everything else, but then you got to figure out how to hire people, you got to figure out how to sell, you got to figure out how to provide the service and you got to figure out how to follow up. You got all the back end stuff, the accounting, I mean. That is amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, looking back, it's been a journey. It's been a journey I enjoy. I enjoy building, I enjoy learning, I enjoy building myself, I enjoy serving other people and one of the biggest things for me too, when they, when they call home of the free and of the brave, I mean I think at some some reason I have to be a brave to leave my family. I have to be brave to leave my family, you know, and come and and learn. But I had nothing but great experience in this country, nothing but great experience with people with, uh, you know, identifying with the values you know. I don't know because the way I was raised, you know, and and all of that, and I think that's and so you know there's a political statement right there.
Speaker 3:Stop what the media is telling you. Go talk to your neighbors. Go talk to your friends, go go once once again. Just go back to your circle of people. You know, is it really that bad? In fact, go talk to somebody who you don't even think identifies, like you do with their the political scheme. You're going to find out.
Speaker 3:You got more in common than you don't, and I think that's where we're missing out, because you hear all this rhetoric right now about closing the borders, of doing this and uh and I was at the National Convention for Nary talking about this, excuse me that we're going to have less laborers again, because if we don't let people in, who builds homes, who works on homes, immigrants they always have. That's just what happens, and we want them to be here because a lot of the people here in the US don't want to go do it. Let's face it. I want to get more kids in the trades that live here and right now, uh, the more we push and narrate to do it, uh, more of them are going. Uh, believe or not, it's actually starting to happen. Is it pretty cool? I'm seeing in welding, I'm seeing it in electrical, I'm seeing in plumbing all the skilled trades, uh, carpentry, painting, putting up siding. Not so much, no, not yet yeah, why did I tell you.
Speaker 2:And it pays good, you know, if the kids you know doesn't have the status of you, have a college degree, go work for a bank teller or you know, in a suit, uh, but you can raise a family, you can build your life, you know, on the trade, as you were saying, yeah so there's a, you know, it's just.
Speaker 2:I think it's a mindset, it's a culture that has to change because, as you said, we're short on the field. It's always. You know. My only recollection was in 2008, what we had when we had the big you know housing crisis, that you know we're short and in work and uh, but uh, man, since that has been demand, demand, demand demand.
Speaker 3:You brought that up. Uh, and so in 2008, when that happened there, the trades were rising and what happened was the trades fell apart. Remember it was two, it was a year and a half yeah, I don't remember 2008 also so you do.
Speaker 3:But uh, we won't bring it up, but bring it up in the trades. What? What kids were told from their parents were don't get in anything related to homes, because the homes of what brought us down real estate has brought us down. The whole world was brought down because of people who built homes and people who live in homes. Oh wait, what do you do? So the 2008 kids who are now gone and they're in their late twenties, right and in the workforce now, the next kids coming up, haven't seen that yet they're saying wait a minute. You mean, uh, you mean a plumber can make a hundred thousand dollars a year. Uh, yeah, as a matter of fact. You mean a handyman can make 90 grand a year. As a matter of fact, I have five. That's how you can say, whoa, that's pretty good money. You're like, yeah, but I can be an it guy and make, uh, 90, 100, whatever. So we're making the same money, but you get to go do something that people see and go, wow, you just solved my problem.
Speaker 2:Make a difference. Yeah, I'm with you there, 100%.
Speaker 3:So, fernando, we're coming to the end and, man, this has been great. I love the story. I also know you've been growing your business. Where do you want it to be? What's a great success plan for you? Where are you at now, as you're growing your business and doing your things?
Speaker 2:I was asked this question, you know, and my answer is always whenever the good Lord allows me to be, I don't want to lose control of my business, I don't want to be a slave of my business, I don't want to lose my time with my family, but I want to grow and so, you know, with those parameters in line, I'm just going to keep pushing and I don't want to lose my reputation because I think my, I have two boys. I have two boys, five or six. He just turned six May 1st and soon to be nine. So you know, I'm building for them. I'm building for me, you know, for my reputation. If they want one day to take up on, great. If not, you know I'll keep doing what I do.
Speaker 2:I really enjoy it. I really enjoy, you know, see people successful. You know that started to work for us and grow. Um, you know, and I really enjoy. See the homeowners sometimes when they see the result and the reviews and and what they say to the, you know, to the crews or to to our manager, about the crews, you know that truly, that truly gives you joy it does.
Speaker 3:It does when you get that great review when somebody comes to like? I had one of my guys come to me the other day and say, chris, I just got a $200 tip. Cause I uh should I? I said he started to stammer. I'm like cause he realized you just told the boss that he got a $200 tip. I'm like where's my cut, bro? But no, I said absolutely, matt slept on the back. I'm like isn do and keep doing it. So I just that gives me the most joy as a business owner is to watch my team perform in the in the uh, hopefully in the environment that I presented them in uh, to go out there and make that artistry happen. So I amen to you doing that. I think that's hard to do because you said, uh, some things early on. Let's see, I've uh sold myself. I sold my soul.
Speaker 3:Um, I was like no, no, no oh wait, I did not do it like fernando, but here I am anyway, alan, what should we do next? Should we go for questions? Let's do it, yeah, all right, but before we do that, fernando, everybody needs to know how to go out and see you guys. You guys are on social, you're on the website.
Speaker 2:Go out there and hit that up there, because you gotta go check out what m&m home mysterious doing yeah, so we're all social media facebook, instagram, tiktok, youtube, at sidingalantacom, and the company name is eminem home exteriors. We just google and you can find us nice.
Speaker 3:All right, let's do it. Fernando, hopefully you've been studied up on this because we know, yeah, here we go what is a book you you'd recommend to all of our?
Speaker 2:so I taught a lot about that because I'm not a big reader. But you know, recently, with my kids growing up, we got a lot of little kids' Bibles and I read the Bible stories to them. My kids go to a Christian school, as you did, and so I think Bible for me is number one. It's my to-go you-go book for guidance and for everything.
Speaker 1:Heavy. I like it, and there's actually a lot of good business principles. There are you?
Speaker 3:know what. In fact, I probably would have more fun reading the kid's Bible.
Speaker 1:They have pictures for you Because they have pictures.
Speaker 3:You could read it and they dumb it down for this kid.
Speaker 2:They simplify and we absorb the message and you're at 8 pm long day of work and then you're reading that little story and your kid asks you a question and then it hits you oh, that's what they meant by the passage right. That's what ethics looks like. That's what being good looks like. That's what doing right looks like. That's what doing right looks like. So it's been great for me.
Speaker 3:I love that one. That's a great one. All right, Number two what's the favorite feature of your home?
Speaker 2:We spend a lot of time on our backyard Surprise, backyard exactly. Love to grill. Love to grill steaks. Play soccer with the boys, but mostly cook for them how do you do your steaks?
Speaker 1:I want to hear some good tips from a guy from Brazil medium rare baby what do you put on it? The?
Speaker 2:secret is charcoal and rock salt or sea salt. That's it for us. You have to's some, some. You have to add a little bit of fat meat and wear and let that fat melt on the steak. You know, someday I have to cook for you guys. I'm coming over. Are you kidding me? Listen, we're doing a home and home, we're bringing it over eminem home exteriors and he's gonna cook for us, all right.
Speaker 3:And mama lalamia, ah, mama la la mia's, all right, guys, I got my sauce, okay, my suku, all right. So, uh, fernando, one of the things that ellen and I talk about all the time is customer service. You brought it up, you brought up disney, but one of the things we kind of are, we're kind of customer service freaks. What's a customer service pet peeve of yours when you're out and you're the customer?
Speaker 2:You know, when you're talking to someone and they just roll the eyes and you know disconcern, that boils my brain, you know. Just, you know disconcerting of your. You know, if I don't understand what's going on, explain to me, right? So communication is based on that, because a lot it's just communication. Right, we were in that, not Panama city the other day and we had some issues with our hotel and you know we talked to this front desk, you know, associate, and he was not helpful, let's say this way, disregarding to us, right?
Speaker 3:He's saying it nicely because the Bible told him to do that.
Speaker 2:Chris who, regarding to us, right.
Speaker 3:He's saying it nicely because the bible told him to do that.
Speaker 1:Chris, who hasn't read the bible in a little bit, especially not the kids version would have said like hey, bro, pull your head out of your ass or I'm gonna pull it out for you no, you want to say that you want, even if they can't give you the answer you want. If they care about the problem as much as you do, then then you're okay that's it, that's it care about we talked to somebody else and she was exactly exactly that.
Speaker 2:She showed that she cared, she showed that she understood, and sometimes there's no remedy for the situation, right, there's not a good remedy for the situation, but she made me, she made us feel good, and that's. I think that's a big one, right there.
Speaker 3:How about that? That's a good one. All right, two for two. All right, fernando, here we go, oh boy All right Two for two.
Speaker 3:All right, fernando, here we go. Oh boy, we want a DIY nightmare story. Now you're a contractor, you've done some stuff, you've done siding. I'll give you. Before you even get started, I'll give you one. I didn't do, but I was there while my crew did it. And that is. We're at the house. I'm asking the customer how's everything going Great? He customer how's everything going great? I said he goes. I do have a project I want to do inside the house. I'm like, great, let's go there and look. He goes yeah, I'd like to re facade my, uh, my, my, my hearth. I want the stone away and I want to do a marble. I'm like, great, right, as he's saying that we watch a nail come flying through the drywall because they're doing the siding right above there. And I'm like, yeah, not gonna win this one, am I?
Speaker 1:oh my god there's so many my friends.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, I was sitting right there.
Speaker 3:I'm like yep, uh, I can't remember if we won that job. I will tell you we did everything right. We got it fixed, because I went flying back out. I'm like yeah, I think you missed it, bro. Yeah, that thing went flying right through that is key, right there.
Speaker 2:That is key, chris, because you know, on the end of the day, you only have so much control off the um of the site or of your crew. Right, sometimes things happen and all you can do is fix them as your best ability. But, uh, this one client in roswell not say a name uh, she was very difficult and very uh, you know we didn't do anything wrong. And she started yelling our guys, we had, you know, we had plans, we have the whole project, we're building a deck. And then she starts raising hell, you're not doing this right, this is not too cold. And yada, yada, yada. And then she ended up, you know, kicking the crew out. Well, my crew said we're, we're not working on this job anymore and they left. And so I went, talked to her, explained to her. They came back, she all up then again, I don't even know where her concerns were because she couldn't articulate.
Speaker 2:So we got the city of roswell involved, the county, you know, we had plant, we had business permit, we had a building permit, we had architectural plans, we were following the plans, and we got the building inspector and he's like no, that's the code, that they're building everything through code and then she let us finish the job. She let us finish the job. She was very, you know, you can see that she was still not satisfied, you know. But once she, you know, once we finished the job, we cleaned everything and we finished the deck, she was amazed. She left good reviews for us everywhere, you know.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, I, I don't accept, you know, I don't accept, even if we had made a mistake, right, that you're going to yell at at our team, because, at the end of the day, I see that we, the success that I have, or our company has, is because of our group, it's because of our employees, our crews, from the salespeople, the consultants, from our manager, from our phone, the person answering the customer service, from the project manager, from the people that execute the job. And if you do something wrong, you go back back, you fix it, you pay for it, you remedy, but don't disrespect, right, there's no right to disrespect our crew, and you know that's I, I guess that's the, you know there's many, like I said, but that's that's one that, uh, I was very mild to describe this client I like what you just said.
Speaker 3:That's been awesome. You can tell you've been humble. All right, guys, we learned something. We learned that you know what the true american immigrant. It's a sex story, the horatio alter story. That's what we talked about. That's what we all got to see. He saw disney. He says I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going, I'm just gonna go do it. He did it.
Speaker 3:He did it and he's living by a code that is amazing. He's living by the bible. He's teaching his young boys what, what it takes to be a real good person in this world, doing what we're doing and takes joy, and what he's doing each and every day. Take some lessons from this stuff. You learn something that's on you. Hey, by the way, don't be afraid to go out there and tell some people about us, because alan, I don't like the whining chris.
Speaker 1:Don't be whining chris. Hey, put your boy britches on put your big boy britches on.
Speaker 3:Let's go right up and say we gotta get going. Get out there, tell everybody about us because we're the freaking bomb baby. You gotta go. Cheers everybody. Thank you for listening to this episode of the small business safari. Remember your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world of small business ownership. And until next time, make it a great day.
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