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Wired for Success: Doc Watts Electric · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I told my boss, I said, I'm done with this.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I just couldn't do it no more.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Some businesses start from a great idea, some from a need.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: But for Georgia and Margarita Rivera, their company, Dakwats Electric,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: was founded in a moment of frustration.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: He came home to pretty much let me know that
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: he had quit his job and that he was going
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: to do this side thing full time. It was super
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: bad timing. I'm eight months pregnant. I was just like,
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: what are you thinking?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The stakes are extremely hot. It's like do a die moment.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: You know, either I'm going to put food on the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: table or not.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: of how they got through it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Then we're back with another story.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: Tell me all about it, Tanya.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Well, once upon a time, newlyweds George and Margarita decided
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: to leave behind everything they knew while raising an infant.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Though the first few months were hard, they finally got
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: a huge break and put everything on the line. Would
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: this moment make or break the couple and the business.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Was that a Hollywood movie or a small business story.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I'll let you listen and then you can decide. On
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: today's episode, Doc Watts from Orlando, Florida. Growing up, a
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: lot of kids dream of being astronauts or ballerinas. Not
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: George Rivera. He only wanted to be one thing, an electrician.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: That was born for this. And you talked to my mom,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: she tells, y'all was born with a wire out of
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: my hand.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: His dad was a handyman, and he tag along on
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: jobs and watch him build, shape, paint, and tear things down.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: But nothing fascinated him quite like electricity.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: It's a mystery. You can do a thousand different things.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: You can turn the light bulb with different ways. It's
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: no one way to do it.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: He went to an electrician training program, completed an apprenticeship,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: and got a job at the Orlando Airport. Right away,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: he was put on a multi million dollar electrical project.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I was the youngest guy there with the license that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: very had any mustache, or beard, and they tell me, George, man,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: what are you doing here? I've been doing this since
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: you're in diapers, you know, pretty much.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Although he was a lot younger than most of his coworkers,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: George wasn't shy about taking charge.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: They didn't like a young guy coming in a very aggressive,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: very go get her. And there was one guy. I
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: told him, listen, man, one day, you're gonna be working
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: for me.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Before long, he was right. George quickly rose in the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: ranks and soon was managing the same men that had
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: previously disrespected him.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: We had thirty two guys. The guy show up, lady
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and I said, you know, I feel like a big
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: babysitting here.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: George got more and more frustrated. One day, after a
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: particularly infuriating moment, he marched straight in to his boss's office.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I told my boss, I said, I just couldn't do
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it no more. I'm done with this. I'm going to
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: go out my own. And that's exactly what I did.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I didn't think about I knew I was going to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: have a company one day, and I said now or never.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: George may have known that this was the moment, but
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: his wife, Margarita had no idea. The whole ride home,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: George dreaded, telling her.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I remember pulling up to the driveway and walking around
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the van a thousand times, like in circles circle.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I think I had to redo the driveway after that.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Margarita was eight months pregnant with their son. They had
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: only one thousand dollars in the bank and lived in
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a house with the foundation issues that made it slanted.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: With all that was going on, the timing wasn't great.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: He came home to pretty much let me know that
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: he had quit his job and that he was going
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: to do this side thing full time.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: That's Margarita, George's wife and a co owner of Doc Watts.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: I was just like, what are you thinking? We're going
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: to have a baby in a month.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Let's pretend George isn't sitting next to you. Were you
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: cussing him out in your mind?
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: You know? It was more like you really made the
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: decision without me. How is this going to happen? How
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: is this going to work? There was no plan.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: Okay, Tanya, I have to stop you for a second.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Let me ask you honestly, Okay, if you were twenty
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: four years old, you're just married you're one month away
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: from having your first kid and your spouse comes out
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: and says, I've had it, I quit, I'm starting a
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: new business. Here we go, right, I mean.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Right, that sounds like you were cussing him out in
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: your mind.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: She had to be.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: She she deserves, she deserves an Olympic medal.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, come on, yeah, that's a lot to be
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: as calm as it sounds like she was, even though
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: she's pissed because he didn't say anything to her about it.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: And then he makes such a major life decision when
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: she's about to give birth for God's sakes, Like what, yes, saint.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Okay, let's go back to the story. What happens next?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: So then George had actually been preparing for this moment
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: months before he quit. He put ads in the local
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: paper for electrical work on the side. He even bought
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: a utility van.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I ain't had the customer base darting out nothing, just
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: really go out with faith, no money and no experience,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: no business skills, one hundred percent of nothing. Still nothing.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It's like do a die moment. You know, either I'm
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: gonna put food on the table or not. We had
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: no room to fail.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: He knew that to stand out his business needed a
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: catchy name. And then one day he was talking to
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: a friend about it.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I remember, man, what's the name gonna be? What's the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: name gonna be? So he throws his phone book on
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: his table and landed in the doctor pages. You know,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and you know how about Doc Wats Electric. I said, Oh,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: that's corny and catchy.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Doc Watts Electric. He even had someone sketch out what
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the character Doc Wats would look like.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's the older guy and lives like little Einstein.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: You know, I tell people that's me in twenty years
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: holding a light bulb.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: George even started wearing I used to.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Go with my Doc Watts like a lack hole, like.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: A doctor's coat.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I used to pull up in the people houses.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I said, look at this guy. You know, I needed
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: some advertisement. I needed to be stand out. I was
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: trying to catch people's eyes, you know. I was trying
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: to attract the man, who is this guy walk in
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: this house or a lack hole?
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: He built his business through word of mouth and by
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: saying yes to any type of job he could get.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: There was one time I was even doing flooring just
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to get started.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: His hustle paid off. He started with smaller household job
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: to build his client base and then landed contracts with
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: larger companies.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I worked day and night NonStop. There was times where
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I needed to get something done the very next day.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: He said, there's no way this guy's gonna get it done.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And I stayed there all night and the guy was
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: very impressed. So that's how you build client and tell
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: you you show them what you're made of.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: George was on his new path and Margarita was headed
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: back to work at the County court House after her
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: maternity lead. She'd found a sitter for their baby, but then.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Two weeks into me going back to work, I pick
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: my son up and she says to me, Margarita, I
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: can't watch him anymore. Oh no, I'm like, wait what?
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: And so I came home and I tell George. I'm like,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: she just says she can't watch him anymore. We can't
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: afford daycare. Like what are we going to do? So
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: the conversation came up about me leaving my job and
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: doing this full time with him. George was like, well,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: why don't we grow the business, why don't we do
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: this together? And so of course My thought process was like, Okay,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: do I want to do that?
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Margarita had earned a degree in psychology and dreamt of
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: actually working in the field full time.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: You know, it's very difficult to think about leaving your
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: career path, your dream to help fill your husband's. Do
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: you understand. Yeah, So that was a decision that I
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: had to make, and we decided that that's what we're
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: gonna do. There could have been because of that, a
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: little bit of resentment, even though that's what I thought
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: the best decision was.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: It was a tough decision, but it really was the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: only decision we had in our hands. We didn't have
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: no family member. We can't go back to mom and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: dad's house. We had no options.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: So Margarita would join Doc Wats as a co owner.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: She'd start handling the administration and operation side of the business,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: all while taking care of a newborn. They'd spend the
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: next few years learning on the job.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: There was a lot of stress in the beginning, just
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: trying to figure things out. Neither of us had any
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: business knowledge, any business experience.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean a ton of mistakes. I can tell
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: you that, you know, I wish I was a little
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: more educated in all that stuff. But you know, sometimes
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: you just got to be naive. You don't need to
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: have everything figured out. You just had to have the wheel,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the gut to do it.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: While the company was taking off, Margarita had trouble letting
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: go of some resentment.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: For a little bit because George was out front and
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: he was meeting the customers and things like that. There
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: was also sort of like a feeling of being in
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: the shadow. He was like the face, and then I
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: was like behind the scenes, you know, doing all the
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: background work.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Besides, this was her husband's dream, not hers. George tried
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: to convince her otherwise.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Through the whole process. I told, babe, you're a owner.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: This is your baby. I was playing I see from
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: day one.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: But all their efforts were working, clients were returning, and
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: referrals were coming in quickly. One of his clients ended
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: up recommending him for his biggest job yet.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: He said, this is a big job. I'm not sure
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: if you can do it. I was doing multimay lot
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of jobs at the airport. I could do it for
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: somebody else, I can do it for myself.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: So even though he'd never done anything like this before,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: he been on the job.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: There's like three or four other companies that I know
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: of were bidding, and they were well known, and I
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: just submitted a proposal. I wanted it so bad. I
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: talked to the owner, so listen, just give me a shot.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Doc Watts landed the gig and it was a big one.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: But at first they felt like it was a little
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: out of their league.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I have no tools, I had no employees, no credit,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I had nothing.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Georgie and Margarita would be doing all the electrical work
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: for two buildings, near Universal Studios or Landou. The project
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: budget was one million dollars.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: With this job landing on our desk, it stakes with
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: high again. This is either going to break us or
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: take us to the next level.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: To get the job done, George would need some help.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: He even brought in some of the guys he used
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: to work with at the airport, the same ones he
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: joked would work for him. One day. That day had come, I.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Called everybody and their mother to come help.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: We recruited his brother, Jonah. He was working at a
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: restaurant at the time. George was just like, you know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: I need you to come help me. Mind you his
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: brotherhood no electrical experience.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: What was this like working this job? What did you
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: do to execute on this.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I pretty much lived there. I had no choice. Weekend, Saturday, Sunday,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: sun up, some down. A group of ten people should
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: have done this job.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: The crew wasn't the only thing that was absolutely invaluable
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: to pulling off this job. There was also the copper wiring.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: The cost of copper wire had gone way up and
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: they had spent seventy thousand dollars on it for this
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: project alone. Theft of copper wire was on the rise,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: so George couldn't take any chances.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: At the time, gas was going up, the copper's going up.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: We had this big delivery to the job. I said, man,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I had to stay here, and my wife said, what
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: do you mean to stay here? I said yeah, because
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: if I if somebody takes a foot two foot of
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: one of these cuts a wire, it was done. You Miles,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: well pack your bags. I spent a night at the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: job site. I don't think I slept. I mean I
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: was out there and keep my head on a swivel,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I was looking around, looking around. I don't
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: remember sleeping.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Up until this point, Margarita had mostly been working in
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: the background at Dacwatts. But this job changed everything.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: I was super involved in that job, and so I
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: think the beginning of this job is when I took ownership.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: I purposely tried to be out front to where like, Okay, yeah,
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: he's the doc, but I'm here too. There's certain things
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: that all of us bring to the table, and so
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: I kind of had to just realize those I may
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: not have all of this electrical knowledge, but I have
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: something to bring. I have something that is going to
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: help this business grow.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: That's when she became owner. And let me tell you,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Sky was a limit.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: The project was grueling, but George and Margherita small but
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: mighty team pulled it off. This million dollar contract changes
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: the game for Dock Watts.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, right in the middle of the recession and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: we were thriving. That was doing the biggest job in
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: my life. And I had a brother with me and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: my wife. Oh man, you can't write this if you
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: wanted to.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: With a million dollar project under their belt, Doc Wats
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: started beating on other large jobs and started hiring more employees.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: They also decided to make another big bet.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: We end up buying a little small building.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: We went from my house to a storage unit to
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: actually in twenty eleven, we end up buying a little
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: twenty one hundred square foot building lit a tiny little thing.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: For many, real estate is the business, but for Doc Watts,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: real estate was the insurance policy.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I was working for the other company. Remember that they
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: rented their spot for eighteen years and they went out
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: of business, and they had no assets and all, nothing
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: like that. And you know I would not be like them.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: So we can rent it out to have other incomes
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: just in case, you know, something God forbid, something happens
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: to Dog Wats. We always had something to full bag on.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: While Georgia Marcurita made some strategic moves to expand, one
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: of the biggest growth areas for their business came from
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: a moment of just being human. In twenty seventeen, when
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Doc Wats donated two generators
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: to a charity helping to rebuild. This turned out to
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: be the first step in what would be a major
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: pivot for the company.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: We wasn't built to do generators. We were doing commercial
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: job service and all that stuff. As a man, what
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: a great opportunity to take advantage of this and we
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: capitalize that we do the maintenance, we do the programming,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: we do all the warranty claims. It was a whole
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: different department. We have a generated department now because of
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the Hurricane Maria and the hurricanes afterwards.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Today doc wats continues to grow their core business and
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: no one has to sleep on the work sites anymore.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: The business has grown significantly from us doing all the
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: tasks and now we have an office team, a field team,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: and now just recently we finished our office expansion and
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: now it's twelve thousand, so one hundred square feet. So
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: it's a little surreal to think about it.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: And that twelve seven hundred square feet isn't just for
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: their doc wats business. It's also home to their dance
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: studio and an event space they rent out on the weekends.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Doc wats has been in business since two thousand and eight.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: It's been a long time since Georgia and Margarita first
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: started learning how to run a company, but they're still
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: devoted to growing as entrepreneurs.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: We got to get better leaders, which means I'm looking
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to leadership schooling, get mentors. I mean, we got to
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: this level from knowing no business skills or no education.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Now we gotta get smarter, we gotta get educated, because
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: we can't continue the way we're doing now.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: George wasn't the only one who had to develop as
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: a business owner. Margarita also had to go through an
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: evolution of her own as we've grown.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: There are things that I have taken on in the
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: business that have helped it grow, and so I have
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: to stand proud in those things to continue to not
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: let resentment in. I am proud of the fact that,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: oh that for me to know that this could not
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: have been built alone, and for me to stand in
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: that pride to know that I was a part of
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: it and that I helped bring it here. I's just
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: seeing your value and that's where I've come to, and
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: I'm not backing down today.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Doc Watts is a seven figure company and they're moving
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: quickly toward eight figures. They now have twenty employees and
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: eleven electrical trucks on the road. George and Margarita hoped
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: to open another location in Fort Myers, Florida sometime soon.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: They even plan to start selling DAC Watts merch in
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: an online store. What would you say was the smartest
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: thing that you want throughout this process.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: I think that us being able to build something together
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: really says a lot. And we were able to feed
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: off of our strengths and persevere through a lot of challenges,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: and where we are today really shows that.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Every day I do like fifty first dates, I like
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: st every day. It's like, what a joy I get
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to do this venture with my wife, you know, so
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: I think we get that right.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: What a story, right?
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: You know what I really love about it. Part of
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: the reason that we wanted to do this podcast was
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: to talk to real businesses. You know, there's so much
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: out there that talks about the latest billion dollar VC
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: backed startup or you know, the household name that everyone
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: knows about, but those aren't the everyday businesses that you know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: sponsor your local little league and keep your community going
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: and employ local people in the same way. And we
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: really wanted to tell those stories. And I just George
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: and Margarita's story is so rich with that. They're real
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: people facing real business challenges and real family challenges every
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: day and making that work.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hustle right, and then doing things even when you
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: don't feel like you're qualified to do them. They didn't
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: know what they were doing. Yeah, it's amazing, right, and
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: yet they still you know, George is still not shock himself.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: But beyond that, oh yeah, he knew the electrical.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Part technical p Yeah. But you have Margarita who's psychology background,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: and then suddenly she's running this business with her husband
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: and they are just freestyling doing what has to be
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: done in order to make it happen.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: I think that's really important. We hear from from our
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: clients all the time. You know, the first time I
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: ever did something was the first time I ever had
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: to do something. When you have a job and you
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: work for a company, sort of people tell you what
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: to do or there's a roadmap or there's an app
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: for that, and in small business there really is no app.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: There's no playbook to follow. And so this, this is
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: classic necessity. Is the mother invention kind of stuff where
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: you see a challenge, you have to do something about it,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: and so what do you do? You just figure it out.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: You just figured it out. Yeah, And that's what both
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: of them had to do at the same time, with
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: a brand new baby, with a house that's slanted, I mean,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: just it was a number of things coming together all
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: at one time, yet they still made it happen.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: You know, Tanya. One of the things I hear from
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: business owners all the time is how hard it was
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: just to get started, you know, to win those very
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: first customers. And I hear stories about trial and error
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: and people try advertising, it doesn't work. People try all
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: different kinds of methods and it's hard. It's hard when
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: you first get started. So what have you heard from
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: your clients about that first kernel of success when they
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: win their first customers? How do they do it?
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: A lot of it was its similar to how Doc
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Wats did it, and that is that word of mouth
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: that referral business. I think one thing that Doc Wats
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: did really, really well was being able to differentiate themselves
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: in a sea of frankly non differentiated companies, right And
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: I think they found a way to be unique. They
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: found a way to be memorable. They found a way
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: to make an impression on the people that they were
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: doing their work for. That's huge. And the fact that
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: he was thinking about this very early on and established
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: this is how we're going to become memorable to people.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: I think that's really important. I think more people starting
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: out should be aware of that.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: You know, Look, George says he's an introvert, but it's
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: clear that when he needs to be, he can turn
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: it on. And when you think about small business and
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: the fact that they don't have a whole marketing machine,
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: you know, they are the business. So he found his
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: own authentic way to turn it on when he needed to.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. But then I want to transition a little bit
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: and talk about their use of commercial real estate as
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: part of their growth strategy. As you know, this is
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: a significant part of my practice, and I like seeing
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: how they use that as an opportunity to advance their business.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: So what do you think about that?
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: So, there's lots of ways to use property as a
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: tool to either balance your income out, to invest profits
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: for the business, or to make it more resilient. All
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: those are perfectly acceptable reasons to buy property, like anything else,
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: as long as you can get it at a reasonable
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: price for what you're buying.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as long as it makes sense, right, So with
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: them to your point, for some small business owners, it's
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: really a risk management approach. And I think that's a
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: thing we've got on the show here, which is what
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: strategy makes the most sense for your business? Right, Like
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: is it a risk management type of thing, Is it
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: a diversification kind of play. What is it that is
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: going to help this particular business in the long term.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And also I encourage people to think about you know,
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: when you get into anything, doesn't matter what it is,
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: you need to understand it completely. So just like I
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: would tell people who are renting buying their first home,
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: don't think that it's just like renting. It's yes you
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: live in it. Yes you live in it, but you're
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: now responsible for taking care of it and paying the
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: taxes and maintaining it and all those things. And the
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: same is true for a business that buys its property. Now,
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: that doesn't mean it's not a good thing to do.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: It's often a very good thing to do. But business
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: owners need to appreciate that when they're buying a property,
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: whether they're going to use it for their business or
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: they're going to rent it out, it comes with a
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: new set of obligations that they need to be prepared
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: to handle.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: It does. But I don't want us to discourage people
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: who may not understand commercial real estate, right, So I
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: get your point. Yes, it's important to understand anything that
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: you're getting into completely. At the same time, though, don't
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: be afraid because you don't know what it's about. If
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: it's a great play or potentially good play for your business,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: it's incumbent upon you to become aware or educate yourself.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: So what do you suggest people do or think about
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: when they're trying to figure out that next step?
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: Or run the numbers, run the numbers, really understand it's
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: what is it going to cost to own this piece
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: of property? What's it going to cost to service the debt?
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: And when I say service this piece of property, I
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: mean everything to maintain it properly. If you don't maintain
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: it properly, you're not going to hold the value. If
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: you can't pay the taxes, it's not going to hold
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: its value. So what is it really going to take
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: to service this property properly, to really do it right?
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: And how does that work within the numbers that your
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: business generates? And if you run the numbers and it works,
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: then it's a great investment in many cases, And if
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: it doesn't, then you're not ready.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. True.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: The other lesson I took away from the story is
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: that you just never know where a great idea will
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: come from, and it's important to pay attention to the
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: world around you, and you know, sometimes even a great
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: business idea can come from the way that you give
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: back to the world. Think about what happened in Puerto Rico, right,
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, he donated some generators to Puerto Rico after
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: the storm when they were without power, and of course
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: that was a tragedy for the people who live there
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: and he was able to help. But out of that
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: grew a new business idea.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I thought that was awesome. You know, came from
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: a great place of just wanting to help others who
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: were in a really, really tough situation, and then from
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: that his ability to see that there was a need
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: there that he could serve. He found something that complimented
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: his core business. And I think that that's great, just
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: being aware of the potential opportunities to grow without it
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: being detrimental to the business.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it helped him see around the corner, right,
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: so he could see that what had happened in Puerto
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: Rico could happen in Florida and that people were starting
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: to wake up to that reality, and it gave him
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: an opportunity for the business.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's just a testament to being open and being
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: aware that business is dynamic. You don't continue to do
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: the same thing over and over again for years and
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: years without being willing to adjust.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I know very few entrepreneurs who say, my business
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: is exactly in every way what I envisioned when I start.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: And you have to know when to kind of cut
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: some things loose or when to expand and try some
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: new things.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: I want to give George real credit for one other thing.
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: I want to give him credit for his growth mindset.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: And what I mean by that is he's not static,
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: he's not satisfied. He and Marguerite have been enormously successful,
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: but they don't take that as a reason to sit
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: back and enjoy the spoils. They know that to get
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: to the next level, they're going to have to continue
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: to learn and grow because every day they run a
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: bigger business than they've ever run. Because it's important that
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: people understand that as long as you own a business,
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: there's never a moment at which you spike the football
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: into Claar victory. It doesn't work that way. As long
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: as you own that business, competitors are coming for you.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Things you can't control are going to impact it. Whatever
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: it is. There's always the issues. As long as you
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: own a business, and if you're not getting smarter and
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: learning and growing and developing with that business, you're going
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: to fall behind. As long as you own that business,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: you cannot declare victory.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: And look, one of the things he's struggling with is
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: growing as a leader means finding other leaders to be
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: part of his organization. You know, people who work in
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: big companies naturally understand that. It's a big part of
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: what they do is help grow generations of leaders and
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: lead leaders. It's not something that helps you build the
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: business from zero. So there's always a pivot that comes
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: for small businesses when they get to a certain size
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: where suddenly the business owner can't know everything and has
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: to have people that they trust who can lead others
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: on their behalf. And that's a big leap for a
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: lot of people.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: It is a big lead, and I want to say
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: it's a huge challenge for a lot of small business owners.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: They've been so entrenched in their business, they know how
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: to do it, they're developing themselves, they've become great leaders.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: But finding those people who will kind of step into
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: their shoes and do what they used to do or
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: who will even perhaps to see them later. Is a
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: widespread challenge, and I'm hearing from a lot of different
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: small business owners and the question is how do you
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: do it when you're not big business.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: As a business gets bigger, one of the most important
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: things it can do is hire people who have worked
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: in bigger businesses, who understand how leadership at scale can
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: look and feel. By definition, if you started your business
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: from zero, if you've never worked in corporate you don't
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: know what that looks like. So you don't necessarily want
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: to turn your business into a large corporation overnight. That's
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: not a good thing. But you do want to bring
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: in people who can teach you how to do those
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: things and show others what good looks like when it
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: comes to that leadership. Now, there's a catch, which is
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: you have to be open to someone who wants to
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: do things in a different way. Yeah, and you have
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: to find a way to do that in a way
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: that's authentic to you. But you have to bring in
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: people who've seen it done at scale. If you want
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: to operate at scale.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Well, Ben, I'm excited to see what doc Lots is
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: going to do. They've taken some big risks and have
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: had some big wins as a result. So it's cool
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: to see what they're doing and I look forward to
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: seeing more from them.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: I expect a lot, Tanya. I want to go back
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: to your chat with Rivera's. They had some words of
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: advice that really highlight the spirit and determination of all
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: small business owners that we should share.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Let's hear it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: It's real simple for me, it's just take action. You
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: don't have to be the smartest guy. You don't have
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to have everything figured out. You can get educated later on.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: The thing is how many books you're going to read,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: how many seminars and all that stuff you can read.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: But if you don't take no action, that's my advice.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Just take the action as a matter what positions you are,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: where you are in light, start somewhere, fail forward, just
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: do something.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: I would say, write up plan, write your goals, write
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: your vision, and then kind of write down like how
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: you're going to get there and then remembering why you started.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: For us, I had to quit my job to do this.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: There is no looking back, there is no giving up.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Keep going and make it happen.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the unshakables. If you like the show.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Please rate and review it to help other listeners find it.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: In the next episode, after a severe allergic reaction shakes
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: her family, Denise Woodard is inspired to create a line
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: of allergen free snacks to protect her daughter and others.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: I'm Tanya Nebo and this is The Unshakables from Chase
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: The Unshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: And We'll have