Talkin' Paint Podcast | Season 2 Episode #18 - What It Takes To Do $400k/month of PPF & Coatings w/ Joe Torbati of OC Detailing

[00:00:00] Gabe: I’m a personal believer of like your purposeful acts and like the actions that you take with intention are often the ones that pay off in the long

[00:00:10] Joe: run. What I see is like people learn how to do something and, and maybe that’s the difference of like being self taught and falling on your face versus someone showing you how to do something a certain way.

[00:00:20] Joe: It was, I guess it could be a little bit of a downside, right? I learned how to do X, Y, Z to get there. These results and most people are happy with it.

[00:00:27] Gabe: I’m going to quote Michael Abens from you’re able here. It’s building the plan, executing the plan, reevaluating the plan, re executing the plan.

[00:00:50] Gabe: Hey everybody. It’s Gabe from the talking paint podcast. We are back today for another episode here in season two, and we’re doing things a little bit different. You guys know that I like to do a lot of solo content, but today we’re doing some guest work. We have. Joe Torbati, the original OC Detailing out of California, quite possibly the one person that started and pushed Tesla across the industry.

[00:01:20] Gabe: I think no one more than Joe brings Tesla and paint protection film and auto film to this particular sector more than the origins of OC Detailing. And with that said, thank you for joining in here on the talk and paint podcast. Joe, how are you doing today, my friend? Oh

[00:01:38] Joe: man, any better I’d be illegal.

[00:01:39] Joe: Thanks for asking Gabe. How about

[00:01:41] Gabe: you? I’m doing well. Any better and I’d be illegal. I like that. That’s fantastic. So, Joe, you’ve been around the industry for a while. Quite possibly one of the, one of the OGs, so to speak, when it came to getting vinyl wrap and paint protection film. And just overall, probably one of, one of the few shops that understood the value of autofilms before the rest of the industry did.

[00:02:12] Gabe: So you’ve been doing it for how long

[00:02:15] Joe: now? Well, OC detailing since 2012. Before that I was working at another shop since 2008. So I got some years behind

[00:02:24] Gabe: me. Okay. So you’ve been at it for longer than most of the industry has been around. I guess. Yeah. You’ve been at it for a while. Yeah. Do you regret jumping into this sector and, and doing autofilm the way that you have?

[00:02:40] Joe: No, not at all. It’s been a blessing. Like the things that I’ve been able to do for all the people that work with me and myself, my family. It’s. Really incredible, actually. It’s crazy. I grew up in a, uh, my, I’m Persian. I’m half Persian. So my dad, very hard on you about school, go to college. All my cousins are like doctors and stuff.

[00:02:57] Joe: And then here I am over here polishing cars and it was a very awkward conversation. Baba, are you ever going to do anything with your life? You just put, make the car shiny and this is bullshit. And I’m allowed to make fun of that accent because that’s my family.

[00:03:12] Gabe: I can’t do that. Yeah.

[00:03:14] Joe: I don’t have to be busy about it, but now it’s a little bit different.

[00:03:17] Joe: You’re like, Oh. Oh, but you seem to have more money than all of us. Yeah. Thanks.

[00:03:22] Gabe: Oh, man. That’s, it’s funny. The, how the tables have turned, sir, turnabout is fair play. Yes. Turnabout is fair play. So you’ve been at it for a while. You’re clearly doing well. And I think that a lot of people don’t quite understand.

[00:03:38] Gabe: The scale at which you do this. And I’m, I’m hoping that we can kind of touch on some of that, uh, a little bit later here. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your shop and a little bit about what your mission is and maybe a little bit about your team and what really makes it special for you. I’ll just kind of let you run with that.

[00:03:58] Joe: OC detailing to be obsessive compulsive about the details. If you ever look at my logo, it actually, this car says Joe in it. So J O E S Joe’s OCD. Oh

[00:04:10] Gabe: my God.

[00:04:11] Joe: Yeah. Like maybe once or twice a year, someone will notice that. And I’m like, yes, thank you. Thank you. It does say my name for me. OCD is kind of in the name or obsessive compulsive about the details that that came from.

[00:04:25] Joe: Royal beatdowns from customers, because I didn’t learn any of this easy way. They didn’t, I didn’t have resources like we have today. I didn’t have, you know, people like yourself or like Mike Norris, a little world where they have like detailers, libraries, and Facebook, where you can go ask somebody, how do you install this bumper?

[00:04:42] Joe: Or you can, you know, you have a bunch of like at your fingertips, a YouTube video of somebody doing something or how to take this mirror off the car. So I learned a lot, the very hardest way you possibly could. And I just always wanted to do exceptional work. So my bar kept getting raised by customers complaining.

[00:04:58] Joe: So it was like, they would come back and I would do the best I could. And they would be like, but this can be better. And I’m like, I didn’t know it could be better, but I’m going to figure it out for you. And that eventually led me to all my processes and procedures that are still heavily in place today, where we just don’t accept anything less than as close to perfect as possible.

[00:05:17] Joe: We all know in this, there’s films, you can’t always get them perfect, but you don’t have to accept a distortion in PPF. You don’t have to accept. A piece of dust and film. You don’t have to accept not being able to wrap over a corner. Like you can do it. It’d be better. And that’s what OC detailing does.

[00:05:33] Joe: And me and my core team, I’m blessed. I have guys that have followed me around from that car wash I worked at in 2008. And when I opened my own shop, they came with me. And then Alex, the guy who does all the, all our videos and all her video production, that guy was a customer of mine when I worked at that car wash in 2011 or 12, 2012, maybe.

[00:05:53] Joe: And, uh, when I opened my own shop, he literally just came and approached me one day and was like, I want to work for you, and I’m like, I don’t know which Yeah, you don’t know how to detail cars! What are you gonna do? And he’s like, I’m gonna make content. And I was like, for how much money you want? Alright!

[00:06:13] Joe: So, I took a leap of faith, and I said, Alright, we’re gonna try to make this work, and uh, Kinda set Forward all the stuff that we do today. That’s the learning curve would be in Alex. We spend a ton of time filming videos, content, showing people that we care about our results being exceptional and we don’t accept good enough.

[00:06:30] Joe: And it’s paid off. It’s paid off. I know that, um, my YouTube channel is not the most popular thing in the world, but I get lots of my customers viewing it, which is great. I don’t care if I’m not getting a million views. If I get 500 from my local area, I’m super happy with that because that’s 500 people that’ll look at that video and possibly come to my shop.

[00:06:49] Joe: And then a lot of them already know, like they go or they go price shop, they go check out other shops and they see our content and they’re like, this other shop does this the way I want it done. Right. Because we’re built for picky customers. I always joke every now and then I get a real one. Like we all have that moment where a customer walks in your shop and your spidey senses go off and you’re like.

[00:07:08] Joe: Oh God, this person’s insane. I’m happy when I hear that because I was built for that person because no other shop will tolerate what that person’s going to put them. Dude,

[00:07:16] Gabe: there’s levels to this. There’s levels to putting your business together and there’s definitely different tiers at which your business operates in this sector.

[00:07:26] Gabe: And everybody thinks that their tier in their way is the best. And I think that what’s important, I think, I think what’s really important to realize is that. There are shops doing better work than you at a higher caliber than you. And you’ve got a long road to go before you get to that caliber. And the most important, I guess the most important, important, important piece of that is not being willing to settle for just where you’re at.

[00:07:56] Gabe: I

[00:07:56] Joe: see that happen so many times. Cause like you, I get a lot of people that call me and I get a lot of people to ask me questions and I actually get to visit quite a few shops. And I see is like people learn how to do something. And maybe that’s the difference of like being self taught and falling on your face versus someone showing you how to do something a certain way.

[00:08:11] Joe: It was, I guess this could be a little bit of a downside, right? I learned how to do X, Y, Z to get these results. And most people are happy with it. They don’t unlearn it. Yeah. And they don’t try to get better because this is working. Yep. And there’s no other way to do it. Well, I don’t fault those people, right?

[00:08:27] Joe: Because it’s not if they’re profitable and they’re happy and their family’s happy and their customers are happy. We’ve all seen a shop with five star Yelp reviews. And we looked at their car and we’re like, what the,

[00:08:38] Gabe: exactly. How are these people happy? What is happening? What is happening? And then we have, we have some shops like that here too.

[00:08:45] Gabe: They usually the ones that feel like they’re being sold up the river, usually the ones that end up coming around. And when you get a reputation for being the best. All you can do is just provide the level of service that you would for anybody else. And when you set that standard, when you set that standard for yourself, there’s no other way to do it because the only thing you do is just you devalue yourself and you devalue your own mission.

[00:09:12] Gabe: And I think that’s what, that’s something else a lot of people just don’t quite realize is that once you set the bar high, you never Absolutely. You don’t really go backwards anymore. Yeah. , it doesn’t

[00:09:22] Joe: come back down. It really doesn’t. You know, it’s like, too, I always wanted to separate us. I want customers to come to the shop and not only get an exceptional work, but have an exceptional experience from the way we check their cars in, to the way we follow up on emails, to how professional everything looks, to how we keep in contact with them throughout the process of a job.

[00:09:40] Joe: And then also, to really, really separate the normal experience, because even companies like Amazon If you try to reach a customer service rep and talk to somebody or you email them about a problem, they will not respond to you very fast or any big company where, you know, at my shop, if you emailed us and said, Hey, I have a concern about something, I would respond to you probably within five minutes.

[00:10:06] Joe: Like you would get a response like that. And it does take some effort to be able to do that. And like a patient wife and family for me, randomly dropping a car. Like I can be a mid conversation. Like, sorry, let me, they’re like,

[00:10:17] Gabe: hello. I’m over here. Hello.

[00:10:19] Joe: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. There’s some perks that come with that too, because once you nail that part, people will talk about it and they will be your big cheerleaders.

[00:10:26] Joe: They will tell their friends upon their friends, upon their friends. And it makes the whole thing work, right? Because I now have 18 employees and. You have to have a lot of work to keep 18 very efficient employees busy. How big’s the shop? So this is the funny part. I’m in California. My main shop is 2000 square feet and I have the building directly next door to it, that’s 1200 square

[00:10:46] Gabe: feet.

[00:10:47] Gabe: You’ve got 18 employees and less than 4, 000 square feet. Yeah.

[00:10:51] Joe: Yeah. We, we can work on seven cars at a time,

[00:10:54] Gabe: brother. That’s the pinnacle of efficiency. That’s wild.

[00:10:58] Joe: We’re all very motivated to get stuff done as efficiently as possible. And it’s actually a blessing to have that many employees. Cause you learn how to get really organized real fast or.

[00:11:06] Joe: You end up being unproductive and I’m realistic. I don’t expect a hundred percent productivity out of an employee by any stretch of the imagination. I’m really happy at like 80. So if I walk through the shop and one of the guys is on his phone once or twice, I might stare at him three times. I might kill him, but, uh, you’re like, yo, yeah, we got to stop here.

[00:11:25] Joe: It puts a lot of systems and processes and procedures in place because. Again, I went from being a technician and a business operator, uh, to somebody who I feel like is, I’m more of a business owner now. I still have my works and stuff that I feel like I struggle with, uh, because I I’ve been blessed enough to have people around me that they can fill in the gaps of the places where I

[00:11:45] Gabe: struggle.

[00:11:45] Gabe: I think that’s a piece, a really important piece to mention that you just kind of glazed over and that was that. You got guys to fill in the gaps where you’re either you either don’t have the bandwidth or you don’t it’s something you don’t enjoy and you’ve got guys that are willing to do those things and do them at the caliber or at least the closest that they can possibly get with the understanding that no employee is you that’s still high us high standard to hold and that takes a certain individual to be willing to accept that.

[00:12:15] Gabe: I think that’s something that so many people miss. They’re not willing to train. They’re not willing to talk to, they’re not willing to show anybody anything. They’re just not willing to give anybody the level of energy or even give them an, uh, an opportunity to fail. And that’s one of the most frustrating things for me.

[00:12:33] Gabe: And I swear when I see it, I want to crack people in their face. It’s

[00:12:36] Joe: funny you say that because this is everything you said is very, very true. And although you know this better than anybody, you don’t have to crack those people in the face. They crack themselves in the face daily. My first vivid memory of an interaction with you on Facebook, you made a post about how you were dying every single day because you were working way too much.

[00:12:55] Joe: And I made a comment that I said, Hey, maybe you should find some people to take some of this part off of you and do this and do that and do this and do that. And I don’t remember when that was, but I do remember thinking that you were going to kill yourself because you, what you were posting online of how much you were putting into building your business.

[00:13:12] Gabe: I remember having to just, I think that things that people don’t realize is that there’s seasons for your business. There’s seasons where you’ve got grind mode, you’ve got learning, you’ve got processing, you’ve got structuring and restructuring, you’ve got cash season where it’s just like cha ching, cha ching, cha ching, and that’s all when season opens for the rest of us who are not blessed to operate in California all year round.

[00:13:40] Gabe: And you’ve got times where you just, you got to put the time in. You got to put the time in, you got to put the energy in and those seasons of grind time and your purposeful, I’m a personal believer of like your purposeful acts and like the actions that you take with intention are often the ones that pay off in the long run and I mean like way long run because if you’re purposeful and how you put your business together, that translates all the way down the line into years later because there are guys that just Kind of shrug.

[00:14:15] Gabe: They’re like, okay, well, we’ll give this a shot then. No, that’s not how growth and grind time works. Like it’s building. I’m going to quote Michael Abens from you’re able here. It’s building the plan, executing the plan, re evaluating the plan, re executing the plan. And that’s what I was doing. When you saw me grinding my tail off, just grinding my ass off.

[00:14:39] Gabe: I was dying every day and it was so, I remember it was so hot. I was doing all this work and I was working at home and I was working on my phone until I passed out at night. I didn’t stop and I did that for two and a half years. No, about two, about a year and a half to two years I did that. And let me tell you, I paid forward a more way than someone so many ways,

[00:15:01] Joe: mine almost ended up with me dead.

[00:15:03] Joe: I did. I did it from 2014 to 2017 when I literally. Uh, well, I cheated. I was working way too much, so I cheated. I did a bunch of drugs, and that’s how I managed to get through it, and I ended up horribly, horribly addicted to everything, and then I had to go to rehab, but when I came out, I had a business, and I was like, oh, this is cool, it’s like, I guess I did something while I was in a, I was kind of high, because I actually wasn’t nearly as organized as you, my grind was not methodical, it was, So simple for me, it was pure instinct.

[00:15:37] Joe: Keep my customers happy, keep my employees happy and keeping my employees or customers happy meant I had to do a great job and I had to be able to take their car in on time and get it out on time. So it was that simple. And then keeping employees happy meant I had to pick up all the slack from my overpromising.

[00:15:53] Joe: So if the employees didn’t finish a car, I couldn’t tell them to work all night because they would get mad at me. So I’d send them home and I would say, and I would fill that void, right? So I would be the one polishing or doing selling film till three o’clock in the morning. And then go home and take a power nap and do some cocaine and go back to work.

[00:16:08] Joe: And then I did that for years. And I’m not sure how I came out in the position that I did. But it all worked out really well. Clearly you

[00:16:16] Gabe: made some type of correct decision during that intoxicated time frame. Well, I

[00:16:20] Joe: was a very high functioning addict. It was cool though. Next month I’ll be celebrating. On the 12th I’ll be celebrating 7 years of sobriety.

[00:16:29] Joe: Ah, dude, that’s awesome. I don’t even eat sugar anymore. So I’m like, totally, I went away from everything.

[00:16:36] Gabe: Dude, that’s, that’s massive. And I just want to say that as somebody who came from a home that had parental units that abused super heavy stuff, ultimately accounted for their demise. And that means a lot to me.

[00:16:53] Gabe: For you to just number one, that’s super private stuff that not a lot of people want out there in public, but like clearly when you’re at that level, you own it and you don’t hide behind it. And I just want to say just for me, you that I’m proud of you for that. And not that you came on the show looking for that, but that’s worth mentioning strictly because of how big that is.

[00:17:15] Gabe: And I also know that sometimes talking about things that you may or may not be proud of. From some point in your life is also something that’s super hard and it’s something that never really it gets easier but it never really goes away, so that’s Big props to you for that man, because I can’t imagine how many people are like in a similar position that just don’t think that they can get out of it and I think that just goes to show and On the long game just because you’re miserable now doesn’t mean that you’re gonna be miserable six months from now

[00:17:52] Joe: That’s true.

[00:17:53] Joe: I’m purposely very open with this because I do see it like, you know, when you’ve lived that life for a long time, you kind of spot it. You’re like, Hey, this looks familiar. I know what you’re doing. Because after I sobered up, it was, it was pretty easy for me to realize that I needed to stop living an unmanageable life.

[00:18:08] Joe: Which meant I had to work certain hours, which means I had to take time off for my family, which means I had to take time off for myself. And then it allowed me to put together a plan and policies and procedures and systems and all the things I learned about, like I said, the way I learned was customers being upset with me.

[00:18:24] Joe: This is all the things like, yeah, yeah. It’s like you do this, you’re like, okay, I don’t want to do that again. That person was mad. And a lot of times in this business, like if a customer’s mad at you, it costs you a lot of money. Like you, the only way you can fix it with some people is just money. Like. Oh, let me not charge you as much.

[00:18:39] Joe: Oh, let me give you something for free. I have a joke that you probably heard me say a lot of my sales. I don’t know, rated R or PG. I’m supposed to be here. The customer wants something, right? And it’s because you failed to meet their expectation. So let’s start fixing that. And I set out to really try hard to make sure that myself and my employees all had a healthy life or work balance.

[00:19:00] Joe: Like we take every day off that we possibly can. We only work Monday through Friday. And unless the shop’s burning down, everyone’s gone at seven, right? It’s helped. It’s made a huge difference. And I will say this, the previous seven years, since I was sober, I did things that just, I couldn’t believe, like it’s unimaginable how cool it’s been for me and my family and like the things that have come from the business and what it’s given me financially, and then also the freedoms I’ve had and.

[00:19:24] Joe: You know, like I live in California, it’s expensive to live here. Right. And like, I live very comfortably here. It’s not a big deal. I feel pretty blessed. And then also in the last year, I noticed a lot of my peers that I know here are having a hard time. And I feel it too. Like I’ve had to try a lot harder in the last year to close sales and to get people in.

[00:19:40] Joe: But it hasn’t been that bad for us. Like we’ve been fine actually. Like I didn’t really notice much other than spending a lot more time during my sales process. Right. I spent a lot more time educating customers, spend a lot more time asking leading questions and I think that’s an

[00:19:53] Gabe: important piece to talk about.

[00:19:55] Gabe: People don’t realize that the buyer journey has changed. It has. The buying journey for the client is now not who can quote them first. It’s not who can get to them the fastest. It’s who is going to speak the right messaging and who’s going to have the right communication framework and who’s going to have the best customer experience.

[00:20:19] Gabe: Those are the things now that really what craft the buying journey for people. And I talk to business owners every day. And they don’t get it that people walk away when they quote them a price. And then they hit the back button on Google and they go and pick the next shop and then the next thing that shop does is give them an actual experience where they actually care and then they’re frustrated that they can’t close anybody because they haven’t taken the time to invest in building relationships.

[00:20:47] Joe: But I paid for that ad. Why will they not spend money with me when I paid for them to click on my link?

[00:20:52] Gabe: Just shoot me. Shoot me now. Fucking just fucking kill me now.

[00:20:56] Joe: But I’m spending money with you and they’re not spending money with me. So you see the problem here?

[00:21:00] Gabe: Yes, I get brother, God, I, I am, I’m having a PTSD moment.

[00:21:05] Gabe: I’m flashing, I’m flashing, I’m disassociating, I’m flashing back, uh, help 911. Um, it’s concerning that a lot of people don’t really understand the component that an agency has in their business. Like, don’t get me wrong, you know, you can do it without, and you of all people know what it means when you can build organic strength, like you need the years for that.

[00:21:27] Gabe: Right. And you need the reach and depth for that. And that’s really important when it comes to building a sustainable business, because eventually you transition away from focusing so much on new inbound. To focusing on service your existing client base and be even people that are a year or two in can do more of that than they currently are.

[00:21:47] Gabe: But when you’ve been doing it for, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years, the depth of that client list ultimately turned you away from let me, what can I do more for my existing clients than what I can do for acquiring new clients? And that, I say, oh man, I say that to transition, I say, that’s a transition into this next piece is that people pay for marketing and they don’t quite understand the role that it plays.

[00:22:18] Gabe: And like you just said, they think that, oh, I’m spending money. Uh, I should be getting in closing the lead, but what they don’t realize is that they’ve been sold the biggest crock of shit from every other really low, low effort, low end agency that’s or kid that’s watched a TikTok video on this is how you start a marketing agency and you make money, right?

[00:22:41] Gabe: Like this is what they’ve learned because they all use that messaging. Of we delivered you qualified leads only that’s all we give you and the problem with that is is that and this is where I tell people I tell people this on discovery calls and they look at me like I’ve got 12 heads when I say there’s no such thing as a qualified lead it’s a fucking fugazi fugazi like straight up bullshit there’s no such thing as a qualified lead the only thing that an agency does is they craft your message you And they craft using the tools provided to them by the platform.

[00:23:20] Gabe: They craft your message in a manner that speaks to the right person. It’s just speaks to them. That’s the only thing that an agency can do outside of using whatever other very mild nowadays. Thanks, Apple mild levels of targeting that we can use. The only thing that we can do is make. Advertising and your messaging speak to the right type of person.

[00:23:45] Gabe: When it comes to them being qualified, that falls on the business and they don’t get it. Qualification doesn’t happen before you get them on the phone and begin the qualification process. People think that they should be qualified, ready to go one touch close. They’re not willing to follow up. They don’t have time to put systems in place.

[00:24:06] Gabe: How do I use this? I don’t understand it. This customer complained a one time. So the whole system is broken, but they expect that person that comes through the front end in their ad to be qualified immediately. And that’s just, it does, it literally doesn’t work that way. It’s not possible. It only works with hookers.

[00:24:28] Joe: Their clientele comes in qualified every time.

[00:24:31] Gabe: If that ain’t the truth, bam. If that ain’t, if that’s not God, how do you, how did, how do we go? I’m talking about lead straight to hookers. I just want you to know that I love you for bridging that gap, the size of the grand Canyon. I love that you’ve done that.

[00:24:46] Gabe: Well, that’s

[00:24:47] Joe: next level. Actually, hookers are in sales too. So if you ever happen to hire one, they’re great sales. Like I wanted to pay you by the hour to do sales for me, not anything else. I’m just kidding. But when I talk to people. And I asked them, they tell me they have trouble closing sales or they have trouble getting through to customers.

[00:25:06] Joe: I say, okay, I’m going to call you back. Just answer the phone. Like I was a client. I’m going to ask you questions and I’m going to, I’m just going to call you. Like I just found you on Google answer the questions I ask. No, okay, and I call them back and they answer the phone, I’m such and such detailing and, or whatever, and I say, how much is it to wrap my car?

[00:25:26] Joe: And what do they do? They give you a price. Kill me now. They give you a price, I’m like, I didn’t, I didn’t, would you like to know what kind of car I have? Would you like to d No, if I would like to make my car a different color or I have a 1974 Ford Ranger with the paint falling off of it. That’s what I want to wrap.

[00:25:47] Joe: Is that still that price?

[00:25:49] Gabe: Oh my God, dude. It’s just like the walking dead out here. Like these guys are just like. They’re asleep at the fucking wheel, and it’s, I’m so frustrated.

[00:26:01] Joe: We got ruined. We, like, like, even myself and my staff at the shop, we got ruined because of all the obscene money that got pumped into the world.

[00:26:09] Joe: Oh yeah. And nobody cared. Because, I mean, I’m sure you’re, anybody who was paying attention realizes that the stimulus check was not the stimulus that went out in the world. It was. People like me and you and other business

[00:26:21] Gabe: owners, it was the small business rescue

[00:26:24] Joe: that got so much money. And all those people just did not care because they were handed hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, and they got to go out and if they called you and you said your rap was 25, 000 and you could do it today.

[00:26:38] Joe: And they’re like, well, I just got a half a million dollars free from the government. Why not?

[00:26:42] Gabe: That’s like, so like, this is where we insert that. Uh, I think it’s the gift of. Mitch McConnell with the money, the money machine, where it says money printer go burr. Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. And now. Now you have to try again.

[00:26:59] Gabe: People got spoiled. You’re right. You’re, people got spoiled. Now we have to try again. Now we have to, you actually have to be a good business operator. You actually kind of have to maybe even the most bare minimum, maybe today or tomorrow know a little bit about what you’re doing

[00:27:21] Joe: a little bit. You have to act like a real business because.

[00:27:24] Joe: If you’re not acting like a real business, you could have got away with that during all that time because everybody was so packed full of cars and everybody was buying cars at 1 percent interest rates and they didn’t care. They just wanted it done. Like a lot of people, like there were, I still had my super OCD customers that would find us.

[00:27:40] Joe: And that was great. But we also had a lot of customers that I don’t think would have been normal customers in my shop. Like I just don’t see it. Like they, they were not, they would literally pick us and we, cause we would respond professionally. We’d get them on the phone, whatever they close the deal.

[00:27:53] Joe: They come in. But they would pick their car up and not look at it. And then they would, sometimes they would ask me, what did we do? And I’m like, you spent 15, 000. What do you mean? What do you do? I don’t know. My brother told me to come here. So. Oh, my God. Nobody’s saying that anymore. I just want you to know that.

[00:28:08] Gabe: No, nobody’s doing that. No one’s doing that. And, and that kind of translates into, let’s translate into some, let’s talk about what’s working and what’s been helpful, right? We talked about your key to success, right? We touched on that. What three things would you recommend to other operators? If you had to give them any piece of knowledge, what would those three things be?

[00:28:32] Gabe: Knowing what you know now and moving into

[00:28:34] Joe: this year. Well, actually I got three things, but sales process would be the number one is like, and when I say sales process, you need to be very, very late. Like it needs to be the most important thing you do talking to a customer right now is the single most important thing you do.

[00:28:49] Joe: You need to be undistracted, you need to smile really big and be really happy and excited to talk to that person. Cause they potentially want to give you money and you need to not mess it up. So not mess it up means you need to not talk too much. You need to pause when you need to pause and you need to ask very relevant leading questions.

[00:29:04] Joe: Hey, sir, how long are you going to keep you this car for? If they asked me, Hey, I’m going to wrap, I want to need a price on how much you’re at my car. What type of vehicle do you have? I have a Tesla or I have a Porsche or I have whatever it is. Oh, great. How long do you plan on keeping it? I’m going to keep it for five years.

[00:29:23] Joe: Oh, awesome. Do you plan on daily driving this? Is it a weekend car? Is it, you know, and usually you can tell someone’s like, I’ve got a GT three RS. You’re like, is that your daily driver? Like, no, it’s a track regular weekend car. Right. There’s some mix in ones that are turbo Porsche. You don’t know that for somebody could drive that every day.

[00:29:36] Joe: You talk to the customer and like. You really ask those leading questions and get them engaged with you. And then also tell them, I usually like to apologize mid questions and go, Hey, I’m really sorry. I’m asking all these questions. It really helps me make suggestions that are tailored towards you because I don’t just want to offer you everything if you don’t need it.

[00:29:56] Joe: And they love it. And I mean it too, right? I was on the phone with somebody today and I told them not to buy PVF because they lease their car. If I lease the car, I don’t care if it gets rock chips on it. I could care less, but I do feel like I have a first world problem. I literally feel like something’s wrong with my life if my car is dirty.

[00:30:14] Joe: So. This is an ideal ceramic coating car. Cause it just makes it easier to clean to look shiny. Yep. Great. If it gets rock chips, who cares? It’s you’re giving it back in three years. They’re not going to deem you for that. It’s normal wear and tear. So the customer said, okay, he booked a job and then he called me back 10 minutes later and was like, actually, can we just do PPF on the whole car?

[00:30:32] Joe: I don’t want to, it was like, I tried, I tried

[00:30:35] Gabe: to talk to you that listen, I can sell anybody, anything under the sun and I can sell it to them at the maximum level that their wallet allows, because we can do objection chasing. And redirecting all day long, when that’s when you weaponize that against the client, the only thing that does is set you up to not pay attention to how that person is speaking to you.

[00:31:01] Gabe: And so

[00:31:02] Joe: bad it is, you feel dirty. You’re like, ah, did I just do that? I just rammed something down someone’s throat. They didn’t even want to buy it. I’m like a horrible person right now. I’m going to go home and think about this all night and I’m going to call him back tomorrow and tell him, I’m really sorry, you shouldn’t do any of this.

[00:31:15] Joe: I don’t think you can afford it. I don’t know. You just probably

[00:31:18] Gabe: shouldn’t. Yeah, exactly. That’s sales process is the number one out of all the things that I troubleshoot for businesses. Out of all the things that I do on consult contracts, out of all the things that I uncover about businesses that I work with, whether it be on the front end, like with clients that work with us, we can jump into their CRM and see how they’re communicating.

[00:31:44] Gabe: We can listen to calls we can. And that’s like, cause our goal is to support them. It is sometimes I’m just like, Oh God. Uh, and other times I’m like, yo, this person is killing it. And I immediately can tell from like in the first 30 seconds, the type of call it’s going to be the biggest thing for every single business, their sales process suffers at some point in the journey and in the buying experience for the client.

[00:32:08] Gabe: And it’s usually the linchpin that determines whether they win or fail. Number one, it’s. For me that I see is speaking with a little bit, just the bare minimum, little bit of arrogance, just that little bit that’s just, it’s, you gotta just, you tiptoe on it, just that little bit. Makes such a

[00:32:34] Joe: difference.

[00:32:34] Joe: There’s a really fine line between arrogance and confidence, right?

[00:32:37] Gabe: Right. So, and that’s why you tiptoe on the arrogant side a little bit, right? When you say, listen, you get into that messaging framework where you say, I’m not sure what these other guys are quoting you, but I can tell you that. Without a doubt and shadow, uh, in my mind that I know for a fact that if I put my car next to the car that they do the, you’re going to pick our car every time that’s tiptoe in the line of arrogance, I think a little bit and some people view that as like grimy or dirty, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that you delivered the message in a manner that was nonthreatening and that the client understood while they never lost the job to that statement.

[00:33:17] Gabe: Never.

[00:33:18] Joe: Well, it’s also that you deliver on that statement, right? Like your car has to look better. And if you’re really confident that’s the case, it’s pretty easy to say it, right? Like I, I know I say I have a line very similar to that that I tell customers like, well, I can’t speak to what other shops do.

[00:33:32] Joe: I have no idea. I can tell you if you look at their work and you look at our work is better. And I mean it because it’s like, I see

[00:33:39] Gabe: it all the time. And that’s leaning on that, knowing that you’re confident on that is really important. And I think that a lot of people miss that. That’s the thing that just gets right over their head.

[00:33:50] Gabe: They don’t, they’re like, and when you tell them that they’re just like deer in headlights. Like somebody just set off a bomb and they’re staring at it. It’s like Oppenheimer is happening.

[00:34:02] Joe: Not quite. Yeah. Well, sometimes though, people do like, you know, just people being people. I want to believe anybody that would take the time to reach out to you or to talk to me or is really trying their best, right?

[00:34:12] Joe: Like they, they may be there where I was five years ago or six years ago and they’re. They’re working on getting there and they’re doing the best work they can, but they see, again, this is a two edge, a double edged sword. You got the Facebook thing and you got where you’re seeing all these guys put up awesome work and you got videos where people like me are walking around an inch away from an install and you can’t see it there.

[00:34:32] Joe: And then they feel demoralized by it because they can’t generate that result. Right. So they sound like their confidence is beaten because they’re telling customers like. Yeah, we’ll do a pretty good job. We’ll pre cut it. It’ll be what it is. There’ll be quarters. Don’t get wrapped in. But I, I talked to you a little, I’m like, Hey, if that’s what you’re doing and that’s how you set your business model up, own it and be happy that you can do that to the best of the best way it can be done.

[00:34:53] Joe: So if you’re just plotting and seeking, Hey, I use this program and modify my edges, you know, that way I can wrap most things. There’s some corners that are exposed, but those tend to lift and pucker. So this is a better fit for whatever reason you want to say it. Own it, build value in it, and then say it confidently.

[00:35:08] Joe: And you’ll, it’ll help you tremendously close the sale.

[00:35:12] Gabe: I would, I would agree that having an understanding, the level at which your business operates, eludes operators. They don’t understand that they’re not at the level that they’re talking about. And once the business talks to the other business that is at that level, that’s when it’s game over.

[00:35:32] Gabe: So that kind of points back to you better have your messaging, right. And you better have. You’re like, when I say messaging, you better have your framework in which how you speak to people laid out in how your business is supposed to portray itself and how it communicates to others from the standpoint in which you’re at.

[00:35:55] Gabe: That’s what I mean when I talk about messaging, like our messaging for both you and I is that for the best, and we know it. Right. Whether there’s a better shop and listen for me, there’s at least two shops around here that will give us a run for their money at the end of the day, we’re probably going to go that little bit extra and just to get it right and to like, say that we’re the best, but at the end of the day, when you can speak on it and know it versus maybe not really understanding where you’re at.

[00:36:25] Gabe: Those are two totally different levels of messaging. Well, well,

[00:36:28] Joe: it goes hand in hand. You were asking me three things that I would say to any business owner, one sales process, two expectations, and that comes hand in hand with what you’re just talking about. If you’re going to speak at a certain level, you have to be able to generate that because you’re now setting the expectation for your customer.

[00:36:42] Joe: And the only reason I I’ve never had, I’ve never had somebody like, if I say, Hey, give me your worst story. Tell me why a customer was mad at you. Or if I to ask you, tell me why a customer has been upset with your, tell me a bad customer you’ve had every single time I can pick it apart. And it’s a failed expectation set by the business owners always.

[00:37:02] Joe: Yeah, it never fails. Like it’s every single time it’s your fault. And then being very human. And I say that a lot because people are humans and not everyone’s self aware, but when you tell someone, can you just admit that that was your fault right now? And they go, it was my fault. It’s like a light bulb goes off in their head.

[00:37:18] Joe: It’s like, I’m going to grow now. Oh, okay, cool. We’re going to fix this.

[00:37:21] Gabe: Dude. People don’t get it. That’s the second thing that people hate so much is that they are unwilling to accept. That they are the problem. They’re unwilling to accept any criticism of themselves and they’re, they’re just flat out.

[00:37:35] Gabe: They’re not willing to hear any of it. And those are the ones that end up closing

[00:37:40] Joe: sometimes. Yeah. It’s like, sometimes it’s weird. You get some unicorns out in the world, some total pricks that just don’t care and they do sloppy work and somehow have stayed in business forever. And you’re like, I don’t even know how this.

[00:37:50] Joe: Person still works or does something. I maybe, I don’t know. It confuses me because I, again, it goes back to like where you see a car that is just absolutely trash work and they didn’t say anything or they’ll bring it to your shop and ask you to fix it. But then they won’t go bash that, that other shop.

[00:38:06] Joe: They won’t leave them bad review. They won’t say anything. They won’t tell anybody. And you’re like, Something one one hundredth of this left my shop, I would get ripped apart by a customer like they would kill me at the doorstep, but I set the expectation that won’t happen, right?

[00:38:20] Gabe: That’s an important, that’s expectations is another thing that everybody fails at.

[00:38:25] Gabe: So let me tell you, this is what we do. I’m going to take credit for this and I’m going to, I’m going to say it. Um, the, the digital terms of service agreement idea that came from me, that was my idea. of putting together a digital terms of service agreement to send to the client first. So, we would send that link to them.

[00:38:47] Gabe: It would have all the terms of service on it, like every bit of it. And then, at the bottom of it, it contains check marks that says, and it highlights all the key points for each service. I understand that paint protection film is being installed by a human, that it has to move through the air, and that it is impossible to have a perfectly clean environment.

[00:39:08] Gabe: I, uh, I understand that we will do everything that we can to make sure that you get a contamination free install. There still may be dust present. I understand that if I opt out of paint correction that, uh, if I’m not willing to pay for it, then you’re probably going to have scratches left over. I understand that my window film is being installed by a person and it’s moving through the air and then it will likely pick up dust.

[00:39:31] Gabe: Like, and like various pieces like that touch on all the important parts. They have to check, they have to fill the form out, they have to check the box, and then they have to fill out their address, and then they have to fill out their information, and then they have to physically sign it, like with their finger, and then hit submit, and no form, no service.

[00:39:53] Gabe: It doesn’t matter if they drop the car off. And they just didn’t fill the form out because it gets sent to them by a person and automation prior to them arriving. And what it does is when people are saying, Oh, what is this? I just say, listen, this is a lot of expectation management verbiage. What really matters are the last 10 check marks at the bottom of the page.

[00:40:14] Gabe: And they’re the most common issues that people have and once they check that and they understand then we very, very rarely have an issue and that kind of points to the next piece of this. I think it was the Joker in Batman when he says it doesn’t matter if there’s people dying like he was something to the, you know, it doesn’t matter if people are dying in the street.

[00:40:42] Gabe: If even if it’s pure chaos, people aren’t panicking as long as it was a part of the plan. Yeah. That’s the takeaway from that for me and everything in there that I have in there. If I were to show it to you, be like, okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. That makes sense. It’s nothing outrageous or like I’m lying to people, right?

[00:41:01] Gabe: It just, it takes all of that. I didn’t understand that level of guesswork out of managing expectations and put it in black and white. They have to check it. They have to sign it. No certain, no form, no service. If their car is dropped off, we will tell them like, Hey, we were just double checking and you didn’t fill out your terms of service.

[00:41:20] Gabe: Can you. Fill this out so we can get started. Never have I’ve had maybe one person tell me I’m not signing any terms of service. And I’m like, good day, sir. Come and get

[00:41:31] Joe: it. Come and get it. Yeah, we have something very similar that we send out to people. It’s a check in sheet and it has something they sign and lets them some expectations.

[00:41:39] Joe: That being said, like I always go over it with people in person. Like I, every time someone drops off a car, I insist one of me or Maddie or Alex, or one of us in the office, we’ll go out and go over everything with them and then tell them as well in person. No, I find it helps a lot. And also it makes me feel more comfortable if you’re like, Hey, just want you to know that this basketball can’t be wrapped in one piece with no seams.

[00:41:58] Joe: It’s not possible. I know we’re OC detailing and you probably expect that, but we can’t wrap your basketball,

[00:42:03] Gabe: sorry. Yeah, exactly. So let’s transition. We’re getting ready to wrap up on time here. So I want to cover a couple of one or two of the things. Sure. Wait, wait,

[00:42:11] Joe: wait. I got my third thing here. Cause you asked me for three.

[00:42:14] Joe: So, oh, all right. Hey, the one sales process, two expectations, three communication. If you communicate with your customer that their car will be done on Thursday and on Tuesday, it’s not going to be done, call them or email them. Yes. Let them know right away. Once the car’s there, don’t assume the sale is done.

[00:42:33] Joe: Sales will stop even when the car leaves the shop. If somebody hits you up. After they leave, like, you go through the whole car with them, explain to them all the things that are on that check sheet for you that, hey, those bubbles are there. They go away. Hey, we’re gonna have you come back for a 30 day follow up.

[00:42:48] Joe: Just look everything over and make sure it’s all doing what it’s supposed to. It should take 30 minutes. We’ll get you a cup of coffee while you’re here. Um, but we just want to make sure our job is going to last for the 10 years. It’s supposed to super important. Follow through and communication on the back end of that.

[00:43:02] Joe: And I see a lot of people mess that up because if you tell a customer, their car’s going to be done on Thursday and you let them know on Thursday that their car’s not ready, or you haven’t worked on it because a lot of times these cars have nannies in them. They they’re electronic. Like you, I can spy on my Tesla anywhere.

[00:43:17] Joe: I can spy on my other cars, any one of my cars. I can tell if it’s moved. If the doors are open. You know, it’s like, so the customer knows that stuff too. So if you left their car in the parking lot, cause you had 14 other cars to work on, they know that most of the time, they’ll be cool with it. If you just talk to them instead of avoiding it and hoping that nothing happens, exactly.

[00:43:37] Gabe: And we, uh, my shop, I, I hammer into my guys that you had better be in communication for timelines. You had always, if the timeline changes, you better call the customer before you call me. You better call them and you better tell them immediately, even if it’s just a text and even if you have to bullshit your way through it, even if it’s like we got behind, all you have to do is in terms of the customer and how the, how you communicate with them, all they need to hear is that you weren’t happy with something and you wanted to redo it.

[00:44:10] Gabe: The goal is to like, not lean on that. The goal is to be real forthcoming, but listen, if it comes down to it, like, that’s an option that you have, like, Hey, I wasn’t happy with how something came out. I want to redo it. And at the end of the day, perception’s reality, and the goal isn’t to lean on that as your primary communication method, but that’s one I’ve had, that’s a trick I’ve had to pull out of my hat.

[00:44:27] Gabe: COVID was great. Yes!

[00:44:32] Joe: It’s like, uh, my staff got COVID, I’m sorry, that’s why we’re behind.

[00:44:36] Gabe: Yeah, they got sick. Yeah, yeah, they’re vomiting all over your car right now. I’m really

[00:44:40] Joe: sorry. Yeah, not inside though. We can wash it.

[00:44:45] Gabe: So I guess let’s kind of switch to the last point here. Based right now. What are some of the negative things that you’re seeing taking place in our sector that need to be corrected immediately?

[00:44:56] Gabe: Whatever level.

[00:44:58] Joe: Oh man, I wish I had an answer for this. I saw it when you, uh, the text you sent me, but I so avoid everything like the plague. I just stay in my lane and I don’t care what anybody else is doing. I don’t pay attention. You know what? I was going to ask you, I’ll ask you, why do people hate you so much?

[00:45:14] Joe: I see it on Facebook all the time and I’m like, yes, I don’t actually pay enough attention to go through and read it. But dude, you get some hate on you, man.

[00:45:23] Gabe: It’s crazy. Certain groups, one of them was to gatekeep other marketing agencies that wanted to enter the space. One was because myself and the other person in charge had an agreement that regardless of what anybody said.

[00:45:40] Gabe: My job was to gate keep and keep ’em out because we had taken a lot of time and effort to build a community. Yeah, we were protecting our interests, number one, because don’t think for a second that these groups aren’t a business model. They are. And that’s okay because you work hard and you put time and effort into ’em.

[00:45:55] Gabe: The other part is that allowing people that aren’t vetted into the inner circle allows people to be taken advantage of. And that wasn’t a, a survival mechanism. Me gatekeeping agencies out of certain groups. Absolutely for me and the other person involved. The other side to that is, is that I also saw agencies come in and take advantage of people and flat out steal their money and I’m seeing it happen right now, people have come in after the fact, and they’re talking about.

[00:46:25] Gabe: Trying to extract 10 K from people and then not delivering on it. And some people buy into it and they don’t get what they asked for or what they paid for. So at the, at the end of the day, it was that and standing up for myself and not being willing to be bullied and telling people, fuck you, I’m not taking your horse shit.

[00:46:45] Gabe: I’m not doing it. Like I’m not taking it and you can pound sand and you can kiss my fat ass. That was the stance that I took, and could I have communicated in the moment a little bit better? Probably. I probably could have, but at the end of the day, I was fed up with people, and I decided that I was done.

[00:47:08] Gabe: And then what happened is, I got drug hard. Like somebody, other people involved, flat out executed me. In public and it was just like, it was character assassination because people like to throw words like scammer around and rip off and things like that when they talk about me and what we do, but I can tell you this, I’ve never not given anyone 110 percent and I have never not come to the plate and just been willing to go no stone unturned for any business that’s ever worked for me.

[00:47:42] Gabe: And does that make me perfect? Absolutely not. Are there ways that ways and instances that I could have done better? Absolutely. Am I perfect? And is my team perfect? Nope. You guys are human. You who knew right? Human. Yeah. Who knows are human and how I handled certain situations in my own agency. Could I have handled those better for sure.

[00:48:04] Gabe: But the one Hill I’m willing to die on for everything that I’ve ever done for this sector is that I have never set out to take advantage of somebody strictly to extract cash from them ever. I have always approached everything that I’ve done with how can I benefit? And also deliver value and help other people as well.

[00:48:25] Gabe: And that’s strictly because I know what it was like not to have it. And I know what it was like to figure it out on my own. And as somebody who didn’t know anybody and made the wrong choices as somebody who was there and didn’t have the right guidance, I know that everything that I do and everything that I approach.

[00:48:44] Gabe: Is for, it’s for the industry, it’s for everyone else and it’s for me because I know just for me personally, I need to help, I need to participate and I need to be helpful and that’s just a part of me as a person because it, it, it matters to me. And it matters that I’m helping people as much as I can, because that’s a core value for me.

[00:49:08] Gabe: And I’m unwilling to accept anything that anybody has to say about me and anything that we do. At any fact, at any level, other than I’m imperfect, just like everybody else. I’ve made mistakes, just like everybody else. And I will die, literally, in a hail of gunfire. Stand on my principles and to no longer be bullied by anybody.

[00:49:34] Gabe: And that I’m,

[00:49:35] Joe: that’s it. Sorry to interrupt, man. Did you almost die the other day flipping your car over? Yes, I did.

[00:49:40] Gabe: And that’s

[00:49:40] Joe: really, I’m not change the subject, but, uh, I did,

[00:49:43] Gabe: I thought ask, I could die in the car too. I could deal with that. I, I was ready. No. So I did, and I’m the type of person that I have a very hard time turning off right.

[00:49:53] Gabe: And channeling energy. I have a DD and I’m a very forward growth driven individual. When I need to turn off and I need to focus, it takes a lot of energy for me to do that. So I have, I’ve weaponized horsepower is what I do. And I take every precaution that I can. Is it the right thing to do? No, in the right setting and done correctly, it’s okay.

[00:50:19] Gabe: And a lot of people take a different view when I talk about this. So I will get up early. 430, four o’clock, sometimes I’ll do it every day and I will drive for like two hours before I get into the shop. Before I do anything, I have a set specific route that I take and you know what happens if you’ve done enough laps around a track at any given point, you know that the more you do it, the faster you get at it, you know what you can do and what you can’t do and I can treat the road just like that too.

[00:50:47] Gabe: But the biggest reason why I do it so early in the morning is that there’s nobody around. In terms of somebody else to get hurt and I can see if there’s traffic coming around a corner that I can’t see from lights reflecting off of woods and other structures, right? Cause you can’t see that during the day.

[00:51:03] Gabe: I, ultimately I do it because I don’t want anyone else to suffer at my own negligence. So. The other day there was black ice on the road, and this is really funny. I was traveling closer to the speed limit than not. So I’m usually exceeding the speed limit by very large amounts. And I don’t know whether or not that makes it into the public episode, maybe into some like B roll stuff.

[00:51:20] Gabe: I push the limits. I’m usually on the limits in terms of like the grip. And if you’ve seen anything or know anything about my cars that I put a ton of money into suspension and safety. And the biggest thing I did was invest in tires, brakes, really good coilovers with, from Cygnus performance. Those were fantastic.

[00:51:40] Gabe: And I will, for any other car that I own, if there’s a Cygnus performance coilover kit, I will buy them a hundred percent. And There was black ice around that morning and I had seen it in a few other places. So I was traveling slower and I came up on a blind crest. It’s the type of hill where like you can’t see beyond it until your eye breaks the horizon.

[00:51:59] Gabe: And as soon as my eye broke the horizon, I was already on the black ice and I lost all input in the car and I ended up in the embankment and then I ended up rolling it. Luckily I was wearing a harness. And it kept me in the seat. At one point, I let go of the steering wheel and I just held on to the harness for dear life, right?

[00:52:20] Gabe: And it was a four point harness. It wasn’t really anything meant for safety other than to keep you in the seat, like during autocross and stuff like that. I held on and. The car rolled and that harness and that seat that I put in from Sparco is why I’m still sitting here. I’ve got a little bit of back discomfort because I lifted out of the seat and then slammed back down on my tailbone.

[00:52:43] Gabe: So it’s, right now I’m a little sore, that’s why I’m shifting in my seat a lot. I was able to open the door and walk away from that wreck after rolling the car. Almost completely unscathed.

[00:52:54] Joe: That’s awesome. I’m glad you’re okay, man. I had a mental note to ask about that, but, uh, me to you, whether this makes it on the podcast or not, it sounds wildly immature of you to go driving like a maniac.

[00:53:05] Joe: Oh, yeah,

[00:53:06] Gabe: dude. Oh, 100%. It’s like 100%. Not, not

[00:53:11] Joe: that I, I, uh Um, I have room to talk. I have done some insane stupid things like, uh, on the way to paintball, like, so you’re driving my paintball. This is where I find peace with the world and I stop thinking about anything. It’s a glorious moment for me. I shoot him, he shoot me.

[00:53:26] Joe: That’s it. There’s nothing else. Just shoot him, shoot me. Okay, we’re good. Did you shoot him? Yes. I still have paintball for that reason because it turns my brain off. I have the hyperactive version of ADD. I’ve got the ADHD. Why I’m moving around in the chair so much is because of that, not because of anything else.

[00:53:41] Joe: But, uh, Mhm.

[00:53:42] Gabe: Paintballs, that’s an important thing to talk about because both of, both of us have a lot of ties to that and I have really fond memories of paintball and I miss it. I miss it a lot. I did like a division three and division two X ball with misfit toys when the PSP was still around before it transferred and turned into the NXL.

[00:54:03] Gabe: Yeah. Yeah. And that was some of the best years that I’ve ever spent with a group of people. And if you knew anything about paintball and how it grows and how it goes, people come and go, usually they don’t come back. And I miss it a lot sometimes because I miss that camaraderie and I miss my friends and I miss just those memories and feelings and I miss 15 balls a second with the one, two, three, four, full auto and XL mode.

[00:54:31] Gabe: And I miss all of that and just get having a way. To just channel rage into the end of a 14 inch barrel. Violence,

[00:54:40] Joe: violence, violence. Yes!

[00:54:42] Gabe: Yes! Dude, that was it. Dude, you just When you played tournament paintball, that’s all there was. It was just nothing but Unadulterated violence.

[00:54:52] Joe: They let you run uncapped back then.

[00:54:54] Joe: Now they cap you at 10. 2 balls, so you’re not painting anybody if you hit the I mean, you could light someone up, but you’re not painting them. They’re not like, they’re not like dripping paint off their face when they walk off the field, because I play wreckball where they let us run uncapped and like, yeah, you get the receiving into one of those ropes.

[00:55:09] Joe: It’s uh, I

[00:55:10] Gabe: miss that a lot. Traveling all over the place. I refed PSP in 2008. In Phoenix. That was the hardest event that I ever did. I ended up passing out from heat exhaustion. I can imagine. I almost got pushed out of a moving van into a cactus. So much, so much fun. Uh, that was so much fun and I missed that.

[00:55:29] Gabe: I missed that a lot. Wait, you missed

[00:55:31] Joe: almost getting pushed out of a moving van?

[00:55:34] Gabe: It was absolutely because it was nothing but chaos, and it was nothing but just shenanigans.

[00:55:39] Joe: That’s an interesting thing to miss, but cool.

[00:55:43] Gabe: I miss that. I just miss that whole experience from paintball.

[00:55:46] Joe: I will say this, some of the best people I have ever met in my life I met on a paintball field.

[00:55:51] Joe: Like just the coolest, like most honest, humble. Down to earth guys like I’ve ever met or like group that I play paintball with now It’s they’re incredible people. So it’s like I’m blessed to know him and I would have met him no other way There’s literally no other way. We would have came in contact in life except at the paintball field and out there It’s great.

[00:56:09] Joe: Like nothing else matters. Just I shoot him. He shoot me. Let’s do it. That’s it. We’re all friends

[00:56:15] Gabe: at the end That’s it. You get a chance to shut the rest of the world off and that’s what driving does for me Even if it’s in a non reckless manner, that’s what driving does for me I can’t state to you how much I miss paintball and I miss my friends.

[00:56:27] Gabe: I miss them a lot. I grew, I grew apart from a lot of them and I have gone back twice. I’ve gone back to paintball twice, and it doesn’t feel the same for me. It’s just, there’s so many really just tight knit, close relationships, like, truly like people who I would still to this day probably step in front of a bullet for.

[00:56:50] Gabe: Like, that type of blood, sweat, and tears when you put into tournament paintball, it’s the kind of Level of energy and input that gets shed while you’re building that and learning and growing and gelling and that whole thing, that’s a different level of connection that you have with people. And I have a heart I’m having a, I have a hard time getting beyond that because it was truly some of the most happiest times in my life.

[00:57:11] Gabe: That’s cool,

[00:57:12] Joe: man. It’s like, you gotta go back out to the rec field, just go goof off, you’ll meet some cool people and shoot them.

[00:57:17] Gabe: You’re right. You’re not wrong. Uh, I have a full, I like, I have a full set of gear. I used to work for Lurker Paintball. So I worked with Ryan on the development of the Paragon before ultimately it fell, it folded and it didn’t really work out.

[00:57:29] Gabe: I’ve worked with Ballers Inc. Paintball. I worked for OTS sports back in the day. I’m naming like just really small local operations type stuff. I got my start working at manhunt paintball at echo raceway. It was kind of like tucked into the corner of the drag strip. Off to the side, that’s where I started.

[00:57:49] Gabe: And then I really cut my teeth, reffing indoor paintball at another field called paintball invasion. And it was an indoor soccer field that got converted to a paintball field inside. And that was just, I really grew there. And I really, I met some people that I’m still friends with to this day. You know,

[00:58:06] Joe: I’m waiting to go to like SEMA or Birge or one of these other conferences I do, or any of these other like NT or something and waiting for a group to be like, Hey guys, we’re going to go play paintball.

[00:58:16] Joe: Anybody want to go? I’m like, Oh yeah, I’ve never done that before, but I’ll be right there. Yeah,

[00:58:21] Gabe: come get shit on, kids. Yeah, this’ll be

[00:58:23] Joe: fun. I’ll take the Tippmann A9. It’s okay. I don’t need a better gun for this.

[00:58:27] Gabe: That’s it. Just give me the Tippmann. Yeah, dude, you’ll be fine. Yeah, you wanna run us short?

[00:58:31] Gabe: That’s totally fine. We’re fine, man. Yeah, yeah. We’ll be

[00:58:32] Joe: okay. We’ll be okay. How do you hold this? I don’t know. I don’t know.

[00:58:37] Gabe: Ooh, man. Man, just so much time of my life was spent on paintball. I don’t know if I could put it into words, how important that was for me in my life. I don’t know if I could truly put that into more words other than I’d leave a lot to have some of that time again.

[00:58:52] Gabe: I’d leave a lot behind for that.

[00:58:53] Joe: Yeah, I always feel like, uh, in my opinion, it’s pretty great. But I always feel like I’m existing between days I get to play paintball because I love it so much. Like, I have to do everything to make it to this next paintball day. It’s the Sunday. Yeah, right? I get, I only get to play twice a month.

[00:59:06] Joe: It was like a kids and family and work, but, uh, Saturday’s a month. I get eight hours of, I shoot him, he shoot me and it’s, it’s glorious. I’ll take it. Where do you play out there? I play in Livermore. There’s a local field here. American paintball park. It’s the best. The best people like no egos. Everyone’s like humble.

[00:59:22] Joe: Everyone’s so happy. We all go out. We all play really hard. We all, it doesn’t matter how they split the teams up. We’re all going to be even, it’s going to be fun. And some days you’re the hammer. Some days you’re the nail, but at the end of it, y’all go sit down. We eat lunch together and hang out. It’s really great.

[00:59:35] Joe: But going back to all the stuff you said about all those people giving you all that shit, man, that’s, you know, the things I heard you say is that people attacked

[00:59:43] Gabe: you because I was upholding an agreement that I, I had, and when confronted. The other person did not speak the same story that I had, and the only thing.

[00:59:53] Gabe: That I could do is just,

[00:59:55] Joe: yeah, I get it. I get it. Well, it sucks, man. But me, I also heard you say something that I feel very much the same way. You’re like, Hey, I’ve never done anything dishonest. I like to sleep at night. That’s how I feel about my life too, is like wholeheartedly believe when it comes to the employees, customers, everything, just always do the right thing and everything else will work itself out, like it’s not that I’m doing everything for my benefit or that I am greedy or I’m thinking about any of the money I’m going to make.

[01:00:17] Joe: It’s always just. Do the right thing by your customers, do the right thing by your employees and everything else will be a side effect.

[01:00:25] Gabe: A hundred percent. I feel like if the industry and itself and the industry is much larger than what we see in our social circle, but for those operating in the social circle and living there and seeing and learning there, I think that if we all understood that there’s a level of, there’s a level of shit that you’re not just not seeing.

[01:00:49] Gabe: And we all, and if we all took just, just a step back to just see that the only thing on socials that you get is the best, like you get the best parts, very rarely do you get to see the negative parts and all the shitty parts from people. So I think it’s important to, I think it’s important to understand that your journey really isn’t that much different than most of the other people that are there.

[01:01:14] Joe: Yeah. Everyone has their ups, downs and struggles. And actually, it’s funny. Like I was at the, I saw you at the growth conference. Um, yeah, I heard so many speakers go up on stage and everybody said the same thing. They all said something different, but they all, if you were really listening, they basically all said the same thing.

[01:01:29] Joe: Like all of us had the same story. All of us had the same learning experiences. All of us went through the same thing with customers and that landed ultimately all of us in a position where we were able to stand up in front of other business owners and talk. Right. Yeah. Because we went through that experience and had it and they’re really cool that they were able to do that because you get people out in the audience who maybe are going through that right then or experiencing it right then.

[01:01:50] Joe: And they’re like, wow, there is an answer to this. It doesn’t have to feel doom and gloom because we’ve all been there to where it’s like, it’s really worth it. I want to keep doing this. Do I wanna get up today? This is bullshit. I don’t think I wanna do this anymore. , look how this sucks.

[01:02:03] Gabe: Yeah, like where was the nearest truck that I can step in front of?

[01:02:06] Gabe: Yeah, right, please.

[01:02:07] Joe: That’d be great. It’s funny, like I remember like when I was on drugs too, but I used to fantasize about like walking into a restaurant and like a mass shooter coming in and me and just jumping in front of that guy, taking his gun and getting shot in the process and, and then what one of my good friends is like.

[01:02:20] Joe: You’re a selfish prick the way you want your life to mean something just for a bunch of other people to die And I’m like fuck I never thought about that, but I guess you’re right. Maybe I don’t want to jump in have a mass shooter Oh my god Yeah, it’s eye opening. Thanks, buddy. Oh

[01:02:37] Gabe: my god Listen, I think on that note.

[01:02:40] Gabe: I’ve probably about my tailbone’s killing me. All right, so worries, man, everybody Thank you so much for tuning in and hanging out with me and Joe Joe is again, the owner operator of OC Detailing here in California. The original OC Detailing owns the trademark on that name. So if you’re thinking about using that name, maybe think twice because you will get a cease and desist.

[01:03:05] Gabe: Uh, the Joe, it was great talking with you. Thank you so much for being here and just having a really open and honest conversation. And I think that there’s, there was a lot of information shared here and a lot of, there was a lot of value to deliver here for everybody. And I just want to say that there’s not a lot of people who are willing to come to a table and sit in front of a microphone and openly talk about their own failures and how they’ve done it wrong and to openly admit that they had life altering experiences that could have ended other ways.

[01:03:38] Gabe: And I just want to say thank you for that, because there’s going to be a lot more people than just me that get the benefit from this. And for that, I would put you in the selfless category. So thank you for your time. Uh, thanks

[01:03:49] Joe: man. Thanks for having me Gabe. I appreciate it.