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Losing Everything... Twice: The Auto Firm · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: He stared at me straight in my face and said,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I don't need you anymore.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Wow. So he backed out on his promise.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Not only backed out, he screwed me over, told me
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: that there's nothing after two years, and it was just
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: like probably one of the most difficult things I've ever
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: faced in my life. I built this and I got
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to walk out. It's his business, it's not mine.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: That's Alex Vega, founder of the auto firm. At that moment,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: he was up against a brick wall, pushed out of
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: a company he helped build, with no other options, he
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: would have no choice but to start over, not just once,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: but twice.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: It was like starting again from nothing.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Studio from My Heart Media. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Chase for Business.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: of how they got through it. Hey, Tanya, we're back
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: with another story and this one, this one might make
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: you just a little bit uncomfortable.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I am already nervous. Just based on what we've
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: heard so far, Ben, it is so hard to start
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: a business, and this man built one for someone else.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Now he's turned back out on his own.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: It's even more complicated.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Just wait, h no, keep me hanging. Let's hear it.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: On today's episode The Auto Firm from Miami, Florida.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I tell everybody, listen, I've never worked a day in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: my life. I go there and I play all day.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Alex Vega has been in love with cars his entire life.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: As a kid going up, I remember the toys that
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I cared about, the moles for the little hot wheel cars.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: We would get markers and change them up, cut of
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the wheels, do stripes. I would watch shows like The
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Dukes of Hazard, the night Rider Starskeen Hodge.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I was the huge Dukes of Hazzard fan every Friday night.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and I like night Rider too.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Never hassle the Hoff, Never hassle the Hoff. Anything that
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: had cars in it I loved, and I always said
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I wanted one day build a car that everybody in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the world would know. Hey, you know what Alex Viga
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: did that car?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Now. I watched all those shows, but Alex he didn't
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: just watch cars on TV. He was around them in
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: real life all the time. His father was a salesman
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: at Firestone. Alex would go to work with his dad
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: and just watch cars go in and out of the shop.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I was sitting down by the sidewalk and watch the
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: cars come in and out, in and out, and people
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: will either change tires or do old changes, and I
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: would be like, man, why don't they change the wheels,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Why don't they paint them? Do them different.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Eventually he had the chance to fix up his own car.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I remember my front door neighbor had a Buick Regal
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. It had a grass growing all over it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I told them one day, I said, would you sell
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: me the car? All I have is five hundred bucks?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And he sold me the car. But now I want
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to to make it look nice because everybody else in
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: my high school had these nice cars. And I'm here
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: pulling in in nineteen seventy nine. The antenna was a hangar.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: And I just started, little by little going to autoparts
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: stores and buying hug caps, buying center console, and then
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: people would see my car in school and say, man,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I like your car. What did you do to it?
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: And I just started selling cars.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: He did that for a while, and when it was
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: time to go to college, he decided, you know, it
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: wasn't really for him.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to go to college. I went for
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: literally two days, and I did it just to please
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: my mom. And I remember calling my dad and say, Dad,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I want to do what you do. I want to
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: work with cars. I have a passion for it. Why
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: not make it a business?
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: So he dropped out of school and his dad connected
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: him with the manager of the Firestone that he worked at,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: but the manager thought Alex was too young he wouldn't
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: hire him. So instead, Alex got a job selling coupon
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: books for oil changes.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You would sell these flyers for twenty bucks and you'd
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: get five free old changes, and it was to drive
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: customers into Firestone. So I said, that's the perfect opportunity.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I'll cell abut to these flyers. They see my potential,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and I'll get a job at Firestone. I was probably
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: selling over one hundred flyers a week.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: The district manager at his dad's shop asked to see him.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: This is that typical Cuban guy with the macho attitude.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: He was very intimidating. And I remember I walk in
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and he throws like it was a stack of those
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: coupons into the table and he says, are you doing
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: this for some reason? And I said, what are you
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: talking about? He says, are you giving him away? Are
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: you selling them? I said, I'm selling them. He says, well,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: stop selling them.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Alex was confused. He was doing so well selling the
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: coupon books. Why on earth would anyone want him to stop?
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: So Alex tried to reason.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: With him, the coupon is not costing you anything. It's
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: costing the consumer something. They're coming into your store. Now
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: it's up to your managers to take advantage of it
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and bring them in and sell them. That's the purpose
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Now, this was a smart manager. He thought Alex had
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: a point, so he made him an offer.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: He looked at me like, I can't believe this guy's
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: telling me this, and says, tomorrow, I have a manager's meeting.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: All my managers are gonna be there. You're gonna walk
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: in at eight thirty, and whatever you just talk to
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: me about, I want you to tell them that if
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you walk out of there alive, you got a job. Tomorrow.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I remember walking into this meeting, and I don't know
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: if you've ever seen bulldogs when they're mad that their
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: saliva is coming down. That's how everybody looked at me.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Alex gave the managers the same spiel he did before.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Most of the managers were pretty mad, but one was impressed.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: He looked at me and said, I want this kid
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to work for me.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: For the next nine years. Alex was a successful salesman
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: at Firestone until one day one of his customers offered
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: him the chance of a lifetime.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Somebody comes in and tells me, I know what you
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: want as a custom shop to build custom cars. I'm
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: going to give you that opportunity, he says. I'll open
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the nicest custom shop. I'll put all the equipment you need.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I'll pay you a good salary. If you get me
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to a million dollars in sales a month and two years,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I will give you fifty percent of the company.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Wow, it sounds like a pretty good deal.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I said, no brainer.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: It was everything Alex wanted and a real chance to
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: prove himself. He told the man he would do it,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: he'd build his company, and when they shook on it,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: he was instantly on the hook for a million dollars
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: a month in sales. So he got to it, working
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: harder than he'd ever worked in his life to keep
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: his promise, and at the same time, he and his
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: wife started building their future together. They moved into their
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: dream home, confident that it was all going to pay off,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and two years later, Alex went to talk to the boss,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: ready to take on his half as promised.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Two years came down the line, I overdid my promise.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: He stared at me, straight in my face and said,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I don't need you anymore.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Wow. So he backed out on his promise.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Backed out, not only backed out, literally looked at me
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and said I don't need you no more. And it
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: was just like probably one of the it was one
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of the most difficult things I've ever faced in my life.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I thought everything ended like right there, all this I
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: built this, and I just I got to walk out.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: It's his business, it's not mine.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Alex returned home completely devastated.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I was so mad that I had never felt that
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: anger inside of me. And I get to the house.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: My wife opens the door, looks in my face and
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: says what happened? And I said, he screwed me? Over.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I'm out, Like he just fired me and told me
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: that there's nothing after two years, I got to start
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: all over again. She looked at me straight in the
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I said, you're going to sell the house and you're
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: going to build your own business. People love you, not him.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: It's not the name of the business, it's you.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's amazing. So now you're starting over. But you've
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: learned a pretty hard lesson. It sounds like, so how
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: did you do things differently?
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Number one? I knew it was going to be my business,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Like that's it, Like, this is all me now. My
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: wife gave up the most beautiful house we had just
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: built to open this business. And it's your money now.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: It's not somebody else's money. Now. It's when you go
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and buy that tire machine that costs twenty thousand dollars,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: it's your twenty thousand dollars. So now you really gotta
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: hustle three times the amount.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Did you find new customers? Did you serve the same customers? Like?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: What did you do? You had to start all over?
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of the customers stood by me.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Now on his own, the business continued to grow. Working
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: for himself under his own name, he built a terrific reputation.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I would look at any car, I would talk to
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: somebody for five minutes and boom, automatically, I knew what
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: they wanted. They couldn't see it, but I saw it.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And making cars in a way where when I thought
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: as a kid, I want people to see a car
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: and say, Alex Viga did that car?
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: What does a trademark Alex Viga car look like?
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Nice than any other car out there? I promise you
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: have never spend one dollar in advertising. Wow, everything has
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: come through word of mouth and delivering exactly what you're
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: promising people you're going to deliver.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Alex's business was catching steam, and soon he was working
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: with athletes like MLB player Alfonso Soriano and celebrities like Akon,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Lil Wayne and Usain Bolt. He got crazy requests like
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: make me a Lamborghini that can breathe fire. That's a
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: real car he made by the way his work spread
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: through word of mouth, but he was solely focused on
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: car builds. If someone needed more basic collision repair or
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: maintenance services, they'd have to go somewhere else. Then one
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: day Alex was talking to a guy who owned a
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: collision repair shop, and as it happened, there was open
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: garage space next.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Door, and this guy convinces me to move my business
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: next to his business a building that he had next
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to him, to lease it from him so I can
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: have a body shop basically next to me and a
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: custom shop.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: It felt like a perfect way to expand further, so
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Alex moved in. But he quickly realized he'd made a
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: big mistake.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I find this out three months after I did this
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: big move, that this guy's behind my back trying to
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: take all my clients. He had trademarked the name of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the company I was using back then and basically destroyed
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: me mentally. Confront the guy kicks me out of the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: building with my equipment in there. It was like starting
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: again from nothing.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Hard as it is to believe. For the second time,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Alex had failed to get anything in writing, and he
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: had no protections in place. Why do you think you
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: took someone on their word after what happened the first time?
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: The way I was raised by my father was a
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: man's handshake and his word and looking him in the
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: eye was better than any contract.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, so let's pause here for a second, and Tanya,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I need to bring you in here. I have to
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: confess I couldn't help but think of you as I
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: was interviewing him, and I'm listening to this story because
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: the lawyer and you must just be completely hor on
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: so many levels.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: You are so right getting burned not just once, not
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: just twice, but then starting over a third time because
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: he really wasn't into contracts. You know, that's tough on me,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: even personal. It does something to me.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: You know, you're just thinking he should have hired me.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, he could have hired us, but someone I
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: see a lot of small business owners do this.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Do you see a lot of small business owners take
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: it that much on faith?
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately a lot of entrepreneurs do this. They think that
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: since the conversations are going well and they feel good
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: about the person, that it's okay to just go ahead
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: and move forward with the deal. And that's such a mistake.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Trust me when I say it is best to do
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: the contract now when things are good between the two
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: of you. Imagine what's going to be like when there's
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: actually money involved.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: If I use the analogy of a prenup where people say,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: you know, it'll take the romance out, and obviously this
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: is business romance, not personal. But how do you make
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: sure the process of going through the contract and everything
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: that you need to do doesn't sour the really relationship.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: It helps to bring in the third person. It allows
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: that third person to be the one who's making it uncomfortable.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: The two or three are all hover many people who
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: are getting into the deal. They can still have their
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: good relationship while the other person, the attorney, probably is
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: the one asking the hard questions, forcing them to have
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: conversations that they otherwise would not want to have. So really,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: all an entrepreneur needs to do is just to know
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: that they simply need to bring someone else in.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Well, look it's good advice, Tanya, and we should all
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: hire a third party to do that. But what if
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: you can't afford it? I mean, some small business owners
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: just starting out they don't have the money to do it.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: Then they think they don't have the money to do
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: it because they don't realize what a priority it is.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: If you really think you're going to succeed in business,
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: you will ultimately have a lot at stake. And also,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: even if you can just get advice, you know, if
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: someone were to say I can't afford to get any help.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: I would say, how about you at least have a consultation,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: at least get points, even bullet points that could ultimately
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: end up on a piece of paper. Both of you
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: all sign just to get the insight from someone who
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: is a professional, who is advocating for them is better
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: than nothing.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Listen. I think that's really great advice, and we'll get
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: into it later, but for right now, let's get back
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: to the story.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, let's see where this goes.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Alex realized he had no choice but to take legal action.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Over the next year, Alex's company would be tied up
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: in a trademark lawsuit against his former business partner, and
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: that meant that all his business's assets, basically everything he
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: needed to keep working, were frozen.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: We had to go through a lawsuit for it was
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: a whole year. It was a disaster. I couldn't get
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: my equipment up, I couldn't get my inventory. So you
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: have to literally say, what do I do right now?
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Alex found a new space where he could build back,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: bigger and better. But before he could rebuild for the
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: third time, believe it or not, he had to raise
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: the cash to rent the garage, and he had to
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: do it fast.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I literally started calling all my clients and saying, look,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going through this situation right now. If you want
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to change your wheels, if you want to do anything
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: to your cars, I'll do whatever you want on your cars,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and I'll do it literally at the lowest profit possible.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: But I need to move forward and reverse. The customer said, no,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you're going to charge me whatever. I remember baseball players
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: coming to me that were close to me, and I
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: remember this guy like saber mirrors. He was playing for
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the White Sox. He literally came to my store with
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a brand new Porsche she had bought and gave me
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the keys. He said, I don't know what kits they have.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I don't care what it costs me. I want you
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to build me the baddest Porsche you ever built. It
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was literally a sixty thousand dollars ticket.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: With the support of his clients, Alex was able to
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: raise eighteen thousand dollars in just four days, and he
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: signed the lease for the new space. He even had
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: enough leftover to buy some new machines for the final time.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Alex reopened the business with a new name, The Auto
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Firm He also created his own line of rims and tires,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: named using a combination of his initials AV and the
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Italian word for an unstoppable force. Together. He called it
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: a Vorza.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: And I loved the word. I said, man, it's catchy.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: You look it up. It doesn't exist, there's no description
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: for it. And I remember going to one of the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: biggest manufacturers, says, I want to make my own brand.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I make all these designs. And I started drawing out
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: designs and they love the designs and they say, we'll
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: make them for you. Let's do it. And that's how
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: I created my own wheel brand. And I was actually
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: putting this on celebrity cars, athlete.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Cars, hopefully with a contract this time.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Right, Oh yeah, everything was contracts. You know. Now, I
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: learned the American way. I'll still give you trust, i'll
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: give you respect, but if we're going to do something
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: business wise, you have to do a contract.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: And yeah, there were contracts. But he made one critical
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: new addition to his team that made a big difference.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: My wife says, whatever you're doing, we're doing it together.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And my wife came into the business and she became
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the accountant whatever she wanted to be the resident, but
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: her being there, it will never happen again. Like now,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: sky is the limit. We're going forward and it's thanks
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to those moments that you live, that you go through
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and not giving up ever giving up is continuing to push, push, push,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and being the best you can be today.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: The auto firm and his tire brand of Orza, generate
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: twelve million dollars in sales every year, and collectively they
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: employ over forty staff members. The auto firm customizes over
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: a thousand cars a year, almost half of which Alex
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: says are for celebrity clients. But more importantly, he and
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: his wife Amy have retained full ownership of the company
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: and they plan to pass it on to their two sons.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: One day, I built something, but now I get to
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: enjoy my family with it. I'm gonna keep doing what
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I do. I'm not gonna stop. The drive is always
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: gonna live there. I wake up in the morning and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: that's what I want to do.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: That was juicy story. There's a lot to unpact there
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: and I'm really excited to get to it. But first,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: and I don't think you know this about me, but
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: I'm kind of a car girl. You're not impressed by
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: fire coming out of a Lamborghini even.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Well, look, I'm in awe of what he builds, and
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: then I'll go back to driving my Honda a Cord.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: At least you can acknowledge, as your non car self
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: that it is quite amazing what he did. And when
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: I think about the branding model that he put together,
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: where he's tying his own brand to other world class brands,
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: how brilliant Rolls, Royce, lambri all this.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Alex clearly understands marketing and brands and how it works. Yeah,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: and he understands that the best brands aren't built through
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: advertising dollars. They're built through word of mouth and reputation.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: One of the things I tell my employees all the
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: time is that you don't create a brand. A brand
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: is a reflection of what you do anyway, and then
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: you get to take your megaphone and yell about that
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: brand that you have that your customers know you have
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: because you deliver it. And I think he figured out
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: a way to tie his brand that people already knew
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: about and attach it to the right megaphones with the
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: right associations in a way that really benefited his business. Oh, Yeah.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: For him to have gotten this far and never paid
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: for advertising, that's huge. I mean, he's got all kinds
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: of credible people speaking to how wonderful his products and
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: services are. I really think he put together something amazing.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Well. I think a couple of things. One is he
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: understands his brand and what it stands.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: For sure.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: His brand is grounded in the product that he actually delivers.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: And my products and experiences for my customers inspire passion
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: in them, and that creates a marketing engine in and
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: of itself. And then I take all of that and
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: I package it up and I put it next to
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: other brands that people love, and I'm off to the races.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: And when you hear Alex talk about what he did
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: to this car or that car, he's talking about his brand.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: And I see too often people talk about this is
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: my manufacturing or this is my product delivery. Then I
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: go think about marketing. No, no, no, he's not thinking
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: about them separately. They are one and the same.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so cohesive of how he's done it all.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: He did get some help, and I want to talk
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: about that like I'm a trusted advisor, I'm a lawyer, right,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: And I want to stress how important it is as
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: a business owner to have advisors around you that you trust,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: who understands you, who know how you do business. And
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: we got a chance here to see with Alex that
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: your advisor doesn't actually have to be just your lawyer.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: In this case, it was his what.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to have people you trust and that
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: can be your spouse, it can be your best friend,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: it can be someone that works for you, it doesn't matter.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: You have to have people you can rely on, and critically,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: you have to have people who will challenge you. So
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: if all you have are people who are by your side,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: who will tell you that every decision you ever make
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: is right and every thought you ever have is brilliant,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: then you know there is no chance that your business
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: is going to grow and extend and take it to
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the next level. It can't happen that way.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: No, it can, because you can't grow the best version
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: of your business if you don't have people around you
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: who are willing to tell you the truth.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Seriously, I think the other thing that really comes through
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: is just how much this is not work for him.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: This is his passion. If he couldn't get paid for anything,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: he would still work on cars.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I like that he really spoke to how
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: critical the passion piece is. Now, of course, you know,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: do what you love, but better pay right. But I
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: really like how he encourage people to pursue that which
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: really matters to them, and it doesn't necessarily have to
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: be the particular thing they're selling. It could be the
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: passion that they have in how they're doing business, you know,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: because some people don't have passion for microchips or whatever
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: it is that they're selling, but they have passion for
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: the fact that they're selling and they're solving problems for people.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: And I think that, you know, there's different ways to
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: foster that passion.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: But I do see sometimes and I bet you do too,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: that sometimes they have so much passion for the end
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: product of the business but less passion for running the
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: business and the enterprise and the business side of what
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: they do. Sounds like he's got a reasonable balance, But
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I do hear quite a lot. You know, whatever it
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: is that you do. I didn't get into business to
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: run a business. I got into business to cook food
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: or to fix up or to do whatever. Yeah, I
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: don't like this whole business part of it sounds like
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: it sounds like he's learned some hard lessons in that regard,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: but I see that all the time.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And the key is it took him time too.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: He didn't have all that figured out, which is why
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Deal one didn't go well. Deal too kind of you know,
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: fell apart as well. But one thing that he said
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: was that he now has people who protect him. So
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: he put together the right team. But it took him
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: time too, and it takes some mistakes. Sometimes you get right,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: sometimes you don't, and then you tweak right.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: And I think it's important to recognize those inflection points
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: that happen with a business. Right, there's a point at
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: which it turns from just a passion to a business.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Then there's a point where it turns from a business
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: to a growing business that has risk that people are
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: going to be coming after from a competitive perspective, that
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: you know, the stakes start to go up. You know,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: there's the kind of inflection point that happened to him
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: where something terrible happens. But then there's those other inflection points.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: You may not know their inflection points until later.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: You look back and say, ah, that was the moment.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Tanya, I want to share one last part
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: of my interview with Alex that I think you're going
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: to really like. That speaks to what it is to
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: be unshakable.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: Let's hear it.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: So, Alex, you've told us your incredible story. There's a
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: lot of small business owners listening today who certainly want
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: to build their own version of what you've done. If
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: you could leave them with one piece of advice, what
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: would that be?
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: To not be afraid? And it requires money, as it does.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I had to sell a house to do it. If
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: you have to sell your house, if you have to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: sell anything that you have to be able to build
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: a dream, take the risk and do whatever you have
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: to do to do what you love.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I can only imagine what's next for Alex. He's growing
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: like a weed. He's got a plan, his whole family's involved.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I think we're going to be seeing more of Alex.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's going to be exciting to see what he
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: does next.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakables. If you
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: liked this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: our show find more listeners. Next episode, we'll hear from
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: an entrepreneur who wanted to capture the feel of a
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: life Tino home through candles by finding a niche and
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: building a strong brand story CEO Melissa Gallardo sold Nostalgia
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: to major retailers all over the country. I'm Ben Walter
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: and this is the Unshakables from Chase for Business and
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Bmshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Wheelhouse DNA