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This podcast is dedicated to changing the automotive industry for the better, one conversation at a time.
Whether you're a technician, vendor, business owner, or car enthusiast, we hope to inspire you to improve for your customers, your careers, your businesses, and your families.
Adam Debaja [00:00:00]:
Just warning my wife.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:03]:
Oh, I'm sorry. You prefer.
David Roman [00:00:05]:
That doesn't help.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:06]:
Slow.
David Roman [00:00:07]:
That doesn't help at all.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:09]:
Concise claps is that okay with you?
David Roman [00:00:14]:
Did you eat lunch?
Lucas Underwood [00:00:15]:
No, I didn't eat lunch. I'm saving up for Charlie's. But I noticed that somebody who is supposed to be there for moral support in this panel.
David Roman [00:00:23]:
I was there.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:24]:
Yeah. After, like, the last.
David Roman [00:00:27]:
Did you see me doze off?
Lucas Underwood [00:00:29]:
No.
David Roman [00:00:29]:
So I nodded off and about dropped my phone. I caught it. I'm like. I did one of those. Here, we're done. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Adam Debaja [00:00:39]:
I know.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:39]:
Yeah, I know, right? He is a great friend. I mean, this is what he does. Especially with it being Dutch and Mike. I mean, you really.
David Roman [00:00:45]:
You didn't need moral support from me. You were fine.
Jessica Debaja [00:00:48]:
Yeah, it was good.
Adam Debaja [00:00:49]:
He wanted you to hold the microphone.
David Roman [00:00:51]:
Yeah, no, no, that I wanted. I didn't even register for the thing. So, like, I'm not supposed to go eat or anything like that. Cause they didn't pay for me. I didn't technically pay to even be here, so I, you know, I covered my hotel room and don't worry.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:04]:
I paid for you to be here.
David Roman [00:01:05]:
No, you didn't. I'm not registered. Go find my name.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:09]:
Okay, I will.
David Roman [00:01:13]:
It's just a little pricey, though. I wasn't gonna go to any of the classes. I don't pay to go to Asta either. I just show up. I don't go to the classes because, you know, I don't eat their food either. You don't want to do that. Show up and then start filching.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:30]:
I've determined at this point what this really is, is it's his way of not eating conference food. Oh, I'm sorry. We can't eat here. I didn't pay.
David Roman [00:01:40]:
I wouldn't eat the conference food anyway.
Jessica Debaja [00:01:43]:
This lunch wasn't bad, though.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:45]:
Was it not?
Jessica Debaja [00:01:46]:
No, it was good. It was actually.
David Roman [00:01:48]:
You don't have to say that.
Adam Debaja [00:01:49]:
It was surprisingly good.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:50]:
We're surprised, Debbie, that, like, puts everything together. The event planner, she's actually very good at, like, making sure it's not the.
David Roman [00:01:58]:
Event planners, it's the people making the, like. You have to make it in volume so you get slop. It doesn't matter where you get it from it. We've been all over the country, conferences everywhere on every coast.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:11]:
Pretty consistent. And it's consistent and it's consistently terrible.
David Roman [00:02:15]:
Yeah, well, it's not. It's not bad, but it's also. It tastes like it tastes like cardboard. No, no. What's the buffet place? Ponderosa golden corral. Golden corral? Brian's old country buffet. That's what it tastes like. It's just like one of those places.
David Roman [00:02:34]:
That's what it does.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:35]:
Is that what it tasted like?
Jessica Debaja [00:02:37]:
Not today.
Adam Debaja [00:02:37]:
Not today.
David Roman [00:02:38]:
What'd they have?
Jessica Debaja [00:02:39]:
You missed out.
Adam Debaja [00:02:40]:
They had steak and potatoes, one piece of asparagus, and one little carrot.
David Roman [00:02:47]:
Ponderosa steak.
Adam Debaja [00:02:48]:
It was better than Ponderosa steak.
Jessica Debaja [00:02:50]:
He's picky on his steaks, too.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:52]:
I've never. I've never been to Ponderosa.
Adam Debaja [00:02:55]:
Oh, you're not messing much.
David Roman [00:02:56]:
Oh, I haven't.
Adam Debaja [00:02:56]:
He used to be good.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:57]:
K and w cafeteria is where I. It wasn't a buffet. But you've never been to a k and w cafeteria. Now they've all gone downhill now. Okay, but mash taters and gravy and the roles. Yeah.
David Roman [00:03:10]:
I don't know. That sounds weird.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:13]:
Have I said anything ever that didn't sound weird to you? Anyway, introduce yourself, guys.
Adam Debaja [00:03:19]:
Adam and Jessica Dubaija, and we are owners of Northland Automotive.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:25]:
Nice. How long have you been in business?
Adam Debaja [00:03:28]:
Since. Well, we bought right before COVID so.
David Roman [00:03:32]:
I'm sorry.
Adam Debaja [00:03:33]:
Yeah.
Jessica Debaja [00:03:33]:
2020.
Adam Debaja [00:03:33]:
2020? December. Actually, December. End of 19. Rolling into January, 2020.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:42]:
What was your.
David Roman [00:03:43]:
Where are you guys out of.
Adam Debaja [00:03:45]:
So, our original shop, Cedar Springs, Michigan.
David Roman [00:03:48]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:03:49]:
And recently? The past year, we just purchased another shop that's a little bit south of Rockford, Michigan. But they're only 2.4 miles away, so not far. Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:58]:
Got it. Now, were you a tech before? Were you?
Adam Debaja [00:04:01]:
No. Automotive background as far as repair goes whatsoever.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:07]:
That's crazy.
Jessica Debaja [00:04:08]:
He was a car salesman.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:10]:
Car salesman?
Adam Debaja [00:04:11]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:12]:
And so what made you decide, hey, I want to start an auto shop?
Adam Debaja [00:04:15]:
Well, my father and I started a automotive business. My father's been in auto sales most of his life.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:21]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:04:23]:
So we started this small shop in Cedar Springs. It did really well. And one of my big problems was repair, like getting the repairs done at a good price. And we found a guy, local shop, not that far away from us. He treated us very well. And next thing you know, we're rolling 20 some cars, me and my dad, every month and doing great on the repairs. And he came and said, hey, I got a job opportunity down south that I'm gonna take. You guys want to buy the shop?
Lucas Underwood [00:05:02]:
Really?
Adam Debaja [00:05:02]:
And my dad said, absolutely not. I said, dad, absolutely, yes. This is it. This is the next thing to make. Our costs basically make more money on the vehicles.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:15]:
Right. And so it's still kind of doing the refurbish. On the used vehicles that you buy. Is that the.
Adam Debaja [00:05:22]:
It is. But my. I mean, after Covid car sales kind of tanked.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:27]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:05:27]:
For the overseas industry, it really tanked.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:31]:
And car prices went through the roof.
Adam Debaja [00:05:33]:
Crazy.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:34]:
The cars that were at auction were junk.
Adam Debaja [00:05:36]:
A lot of them are junk. I mean, you know, we've bought a fair share of bad this or bad that. Motors, transmissions, all that kind of stuff. And so really what we did is we kind of pivoted.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:50]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:05:50]:
My dad just primarily does car sales now.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:53]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:05:54]:
And I run both the shops.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:56]:
Very cool. Very cool. How much were.
David Roman [00:05:59]:
Hold on, wrong. You were sitting. You were selling cars. The guy that was fixing your cars sold his shop. That's the shop that you bought in 2020.
Adam Debaja [00:06:07]:
Correct.
David Roman [00:06:08]:
And then you decided, I'm gonna double the fun. That was another shop.
Adam Debaja [00:06:13]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:06:14]:
Why?
Adam Debaja [00:06:16]:
Well, actually, we did really well at our first shop.
David Roman [00:06:19]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:06:20]:
To the point of I was seeing the writing on the wall or maxing capacity. It's a small shop. Three bay shop.
David Roman [00:06:27]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:06:27]:
And somewhere in those four years, we put an outside hoist in to get in.
David Roman [00:06:33]:
Michigan.
Adam Debaja [00:06:34]:
In Michigan.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:35]:
Oh, buddy, that sounds cool. That's cold.
Adam Debaja [00:06:38]:
Obviously, we don't use it in winter.
David Roman [00:06:39]:
But, you know, for just nine months of the year.
Adam Debaja [00:06:43]:
Well, for six months out of the year, we get some use out of it a little bit here and there. Right. But it helps with, you know, the walk in oil change. Hey, I need a brake job, or, you know, that kind of thing. And then I was looking at the cost of building. Cost of building was ridiculous. And I saw this repair shop that I keep on going by, and I'm like, is this place open? Like, I don't even understand it. Right? And we cold called them.
Adam Debaja [00:07:13]:
I cold called them, said, hey, I heard you're interested in selling. We're interested in buying the shop. So we sat down with the owners, and here we are a year later. And it's kind of crazy because I know a little bit I'm young to the industry. I'm still learning. And obviously that's why I'm here, to learn more. But through all of this, I learned my numbers, and I learned where I needed to be. I looked at their p and ls.
Adam Debaja [00:07:48]:
I looked at, you know, they were gracious and let me look at all their. They had Mitchell at the time, right. So I could run the reports, I could look at everything that I needed to see, looked at those numbers. I projected what I could do. And we're on track to do it this year.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:04]:
That's fantastic.
David Roman [00:08:05]:
Just off their car count. They just weren't maximizing their opportunities or.
Adam Debaja [00:08:08]:
Correct.
David Roman [00:08:09]:
Yeah, yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:08:09]:
They had a really high, actually. Their RoI or car count was very high, and I never understood it until we took over operation. And really, what I ended up buying is a tire shop and automotive repair. So, like, half of those are flat repairs.
David Roman [00:08:26]:
Yeah. Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:28]:
And so that just drives the Aro in the tank and. And causes a ton of move.
Adam Debaja [00:08:33]:
It does, yeah.
David Roman [00:08:35]:
That's not a bad thing, though. You can run most of those customers off the first year.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:39]:
Yeah, yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:08:40]:
I mean, we pivoted from just doing a flat repair to doing a vehicle inspection on every vehicle.
David Roman [00:08:47]:
Right, right. That's what I'm saying. Like, you're gonna run them off. Maybe 75% of those flats are gonna get run off. Cause they're just there for a flat repair.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:56]:
And, you know, I have worked through that a little bit myself, especially as we've expanded into the bigger shop, is because now I have to navigate across being able to get new clients in the door, but also follow our standard of service. And so I've had to work with that a little bit.
David Roman [00:09:14]:
How big is the second shop?
Adam Debaja [00:09:16]:
We have eight bays in that shop.
David Roman [00:09:19]:
Nice.
Adam Debaja [00:09:20]:
And potential to put two more FDA shop.
David Roman [00:09:24]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:25]:
What percentage of the work that you guys are doing is for dad and the car sales right now?
Adam Debaja [00:09:31]:
So that one's done at the original shop, and it's pretty minimal right now.
David Roman [00:09:36]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:09:37]:
It's that business. I mean, it's enough for my dad to take paycheck and live on it. And he ended up selling that other property and moving into this repair shop with me. So he's got a small office in there, but he sold that property, paid his house off. He's happy, and so right now, he's just going car by car and making it work.
David Roman [00:10:04]:
So you guys splitting the duties and one person in one shop, one person in the other?
Jessica Debaja [00:10:08]:
No, I try to do all the behind the scene things and stay out of a lot of the day to day.
Adam Debaja [00:10:16]:
Jessica's great. She does all the back end work, does books, a lot of the admin stuff. She takes care of all of it.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:24]:
So, like, paying the bills and keeping up with all that.
Jessica Debaja [00:10:27]:
Yep, paying all the bills.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:28]:
Very cool.
Jessica Debaja [00:10:28]:
Payroll things like that.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:30]:
Right. Now, do you do your payroll internally, or do you do it through, like, quickbooks or you do it.
Jessica Debaja [00:10:34]:
We do it through Quickbooks.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:35]:
Okay. Got it. And that. That's. We have an accountant who does payroll for us for the majority of things, and I prefer to do it that way, but I may switch over now that we're on Quickbooks online, I may.
Adam Debaja [00:10:47]:
Switch over to just.
David Roman [00:10:48]:
Did you finally adopted Quickbooks online? Good for you.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:51]:
Welcome to the 19th century.
David Roman [00:10:54]:
20Th 15 or whatever. Ten years ago.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:59]:
Yeah, I know, right?
David Roman [00:11:00]:
Well, payroll is like, three buttons. Like, click, click, click, done.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:03]:
Yeah, for sure.
David Roman [00:11:05]:
And then they start sending you nasty grams when you don't send the feds their money. Hey, you were supposed to pay this week.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:10]:
Ours is just all automatic. I don't have to touch it.
Jessica Debaja [00:11:13]:
Quickbooks is, too. You can have them pay for you, so then you don't have to pay them.
David Roman [00:11:17]:
It sets up to automatic pay. But, like, I don't have them. I have to hit the button to say, yeah, go ahead and send that to the feds.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:25]:
You like the fed money, huh?
David Roman [00:11:27]:
Oh, the fed money makes me mad. Money. Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:31]:
It's so much.
David Roman [00:11:33]:
So much. It's the Fica and then the fed taxes. The fed taxes aren't that bad if they have kids and a family. Because you can start, like, because I tell my employees, like, hey, this is your deduction this year, by the way. Put, like, $25 back a week because you're going to owe some money at the end of the year. What? That's the way we do it here. Sorry. If they're single, though.
David Roman [00:12:00]:
I don't. I don't understand. It's. It's bad. No deductions. If you don't own a house, a business, and you're single and just straight w. Two employee, man, they hit you hard. Take and take and take.
David Roman [00:12:16]:
You okay?
Lucas Underwood [00:12:18]:
No. Noah's asking me if he can rent a car for a client because he ran out of loaners. And so I was having.
David Roman [00:12:23]:
You have twelve loaners. How do you run out of loaners?
Lucas Underwood [00:12:25]:
We've got 74 cars at the shop. Oh, my gosh. And so I had to.
David Roman [00:12:31]:
I was okay to fix one once in a while.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:34]:
They have problem, they just keep one.
David Roman [00:12:39]:
That's the problem. They fix one, and six more come in.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:42]:
Sounds like your shop all of a sudden.
David Roman [00:12:44]:
No, I don't have any cars to fix right now. Are you kidding me?
Lucas Underwood [00:12:47]:
I just had to.
David Roman [00:12:48]:
I don't think I want to do $9,000 this week.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:50]:
I just had to.
David Roman [00:12:50]:
Like I said, you just take it. Yeah, you just go, huh? Okay. We'll pay the bills, I guess. Something. I don't know. We'll figure it out.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:01]:
No, I just had to explain to Noah that he could not rent the car for them. They had to rent the car, and we had to reimburse them because I can't rent the car for them.
David Roman [00:13:11]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:12]:
So.
David Roman [00:13:13]:
But then they go rent a Land cruiser or something like that. At $200 a day, that would be terrible. It's gonna eat up your profit on that job pretty quick.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:26]:
Let Noah figure it out. Or Noah. So, long story short, my new service advisor and I got our schedules crossed. And while I'm down here, he's in Denver. And so now there's a technician on the front counter.
Adam Debaja [00:13:41]:
Oh.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:42]:
And he's a wee bit stressed out. He's a little high strung. Anyway, so. Noah is extremely high strung right now. And so what I'm trying to do by texting him. Who are you texting?
David Roman [00:13:52]:
Somebody's texting me. I don't know.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:54]:
Is it Noah?
Adam Debaja [00:13:58]:
They're asking for a loaner.
David Roman [00:14:00]:
No, no. My shop manager's here, and he's like, hey, I'm in class. Like, okay, I guess he wasn't earlier. He might have not been in class. He might have been.
Adam Debaja [00:14:11]:
So you paid for your shop manager, but you didn't pay for yourself?
David Roman [00:14:14]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:16]:
I'll be honest with you. I'm sorry in advance if I get Juan in trouble. I've not seen one.
Jessica Debaja [00:14:22]:
That's why he's checking in right now.
David Roman [00:14:25]:
I don't care what he does. I don't care. He came to, he signed in, he took a picture and everything. He's here. Ish. Ish? Ish.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:36]:
He's back at universal today or city World. Yeah, we went yesterday. Right? And we. Instead of being.
David Roman [00:14:43]:
I was working.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:44]:
I wanted to be here for the keynote. I really did. But it didn't work out. We go every time we come down here. We go to this place called Wild Florida, and you go out and ride the airboat. Did you have one?
David Roman [00:14:53]:
Yeah, it was awesome. Gators.
Jessica Debaja [00:14:55]:
Oh, yeah, we've done that.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:57]:
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
David Roman [00:14:58]:
They had one called crusher. He was enormous. It was the size of his table.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:03]:
Hey.
David Roman [00:15:03]:
Yeah. That's a big boy.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:06]:
Is it better than getting crushed by a car, you think? Maybe if you just dripped and fell in there. Think your life insurance would cover it then?
David Roman [00:15:14]:
You know, it might. If I get all of a sudden attacked by an alligator, I'd fight it, too, and be like, let's see what we can do, and quick. But still, I'd give it all. I got dragged underwater like that little boy.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:28]:
And you were a disgusting human being. You know that? You're a really terrible person.
David Roman [00:15:34]:
I think about that all the time. I know. It's weird. It's morbid. But I think about that all the time. I'm thinking, like, what would I have done in that situation?
Lucas Underwood [00:15:44]:
Right?
David Roman [00:15:44]:
And how do you deal with it? Like, you can't ever look at anything Disney related for the rest of your life and not think of that happening.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:51]:
Do you guys have kids?
Jessica Debaja [00:15:52]:
We do.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:53]:
We should have asked that before you went on your tirade.
Jessica Debaja [00:15:57]:
We're really offended.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:59]:
I can tell.
Adam Debaja [00:15:59]:
I can tell.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:00]:
How old are they?
Jessica Debaja [00:16:01]:
1211 and eight.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:04]:
Oh, my goodness. So I have got a 13 year old and a five year old, and we spaced them out like that so the 13 year old could take care of the five year old. Turns out that the five year old is a lot like dad, and he is a hellraiser. And I mean, like, when I say hell, I mean, like hell. This kid is wide open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If he is awake, he is going. And, like, we're talking about maybe track camp or something to try and burn some of this energy out, because, I mean, we go on walks every night, and this kid will run the entire mile and a half screaming the whole time. And, like, people think something's wrong with him, and he's just screaming and running and throwing things and picking up things, and it's crazy.
Adam Debaja [00:16:50]:
Sounds like our youngest.
Jessica Debaja [00:16:51]:
Yeah, that's our third.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:52]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:16:53]:
See, and what you don't know is that your wife actually hides red skittles in the house. He found them. He's been finding them. She sneaks them, doesn't tell you about him, and he's just popping red skittles.
Jessica Debaja [00:17:05]:
That would do it.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:06]:
That. That's true. That's true.
David Roman [00:17:08]:
But I got him checked.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:10]:
Oh, talking about, talking about, talking about people popping gummies and things like that. My dad. Okay, my mom just died of cancer. Okay. And. And we had gotten her gummies because she wouldn't eat. And they were. They were.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:26]:
They were strong gummies. They were. Hey, you don't cut these bad boys in half. You quarter these suckers out. You don't. And my dad were supposed to go to breakfast, okay. And I call him, and I'm like, hey, whatcha doing? He's like, oh, I'm sick. I think I've got the stomach bug.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:42]:
And I'm like, okay. Are you okay? And he said, yeah, I'm fine. He sounded weird. And so then later in the day, my wife goes to check on him, and we figure out that what has made him sick is there is a bag of peach ring gummies on the counter that are 1500 milligram gummies. And he eats all but one of them, maybe two of them. And so the next day, he calls me. He's like, son, my hands feel funny. And I'm like, swear to God, my 70 some year old daddy eating, like, been yelling at me my entire life for anything like that.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:25]:
Now here he is eating gummies. Says he's good. He doesn't want any more of that.
David Roman [00:18:31]:
It's messed up, man.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:34]:
Me?
David Roman [00:18:34]:
What did I do?
Lucas Underwood [00:18:35]:
I didn't eat them.
David Roman [00:18:36]:
Slipping them gummy.
Adam Debaja [00:18:37]:
You were the supplier, though.
David Roman [00:18:38]:
No, I didn't know.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:39]:
No, actually, it was my middle brother. It wasn't me.
Jessica Debaja [00:18:42]:
Like, I'm totally out of it.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:44]:
Yeah, it's really Colorado's fault.
Adam Debaja [00:18:46]:
Are you the oldest?
Lucas Underwood [00:18:48]:
No, I'm the youngest. Okay. I'm the baby. I'm spoiled rotten.
Adam Debaja [00:18:51]:
The baby. The wildest.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:53]:
Yeah, definitely the wildest.
David Roman [00:18:58]:
Let's see your kids working in the business.
Adam Debaja [00:19:02]:
They do, actually, they do from time to time.
David Roman [00:19:05]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:19:05]:
We have them cutting them.
David Roman [00:19:06]:
Trucks. Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:19:08]:
They get a couple bucks, they clean the payroll.
David Roman [00:19:11]:
W two.
Adam Debaja [00:19:12]:
No, no, no.
David Roman [00:19:12]:
What are you doing?
Adam Debaja [00:19:13]:
I know they clean the bathrooms.
David Roman [00:19:15]:
And you say you listen to the podcast, but you don't listen to the podcast.
Adam Debaja [00:19:18]:
No.
David Roman [00:19:20]:
Hey, people hire your kids, put them in the business. They work doing something.
Adam Debaja [00:19:24]:
Yes.
David Roman [00:19:25]:
Clean.
Adam Debaja [00:19:26]:
I know.
David Roman [00:19:26]:
Yeah. Bathrooms.
Adam Debaja [00:19:27]:
Mm hmm.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:28]:
So yours for marketing, right?
David Roman [00:19:30]:
I did for when they were little. Little. I put them in all the marketing pieces.
Adam Debaja [00:19:33]:
Oh, nice.
David Roman [00:19:34]:
Little baby pics and stuff.
Jessica Debaja [00:19:35]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:19:36]:
Kids in the car seats and stuff.
Adam Debaja [00:19:37]:
Yeah, yeah.
David Roman [00:19:38]:
I used that for years. Now they clean.
Adam Debaja [00:19:41]:
It's a good job.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:43]:
And you said DJ was gonna start coming to the shop this year.
David Roman [00:19:46]:
Yeah. For the first time, yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:19:48]:
How old is DJ?
David Roman [00:19:50]:
He's nine.
Adam Debaja [00:19:51]:
Okay.
David Roman [00:19:51]:
He can clean. Yeah, he can clean and organize.
Adam Debaja [00:19:54]:
So, this next year, my plan is to get my oldest son in there and start, you know, actually teaching him a few things. Right. I don't think he had the strength before, but, yeah.
David Roman [00:20:07]:
You can take off the trash, though, is my point.
Adam Debaja [00:20:09]:
Oh, they totally can do the cleaning stuff.
David Roman [00:20:11]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:20:12]:
But I'm wondering if we can get him to change some tires.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:14]:
Yeah, yeah. Let him get his hands dirty. Put a little bit of strenuous work on it. For sure.
David Roman [00:20:20]:
Just have him practice racking cars.
Adam Debaja [00:20:23]:
Yeah, just that.
David Roman [00:20:25]:
Pull the car in. Hey, rack it. Make sure it's perfectly safe. Have him do it a thousand times. Then at that point, he'll be comfortable. And, oh, by the way, if you screw up, somebody will die. So be careful.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:38]:
I don't think I would use that term.
Jessica Debaja [00:20:40]:
I would tell my kids that.
David Roman [00:20:41]:
Exactly. That I would tell my kids like, hey, you need to be careful. Cause someone could die. Could be you, could be somebody else.
Adam Debaja [00:20:49]:
Good incentive not to mess up.
David Roman [00:20:51]:
Yeah, don't mess up.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:52]:
I don't know. Mine would probably be.
David Roman [00:20:53]:
Don't take this lightly. This is a big responsibility. Racking a 5000 pound hunk of metal into the air.
Lucas Underwood [00:21:00]:
Mine would probably be trying to figure out how they got their inheritance early. What?
David Roman [00:21:08]:
Saying it's no inherent to us. I don't have any money. Get out of here.
Lucas Underwood [00:21:11]:
I don't either. But I do have good life insurance.
David Roman [00:21:14]:
Yeah, that's true.
Jessica Debaja [00:21:16]:
Oh, that's needed.
Lucas Underwood [00:21:17]:
Yeah, see, you got. What, what are you doing for protection in case something happens. What's your, what's your strategy as far as life insurance? Like life insurance, disability, what, what do you have to protect yourself if something were to ever happen to you?
Adam Debaja [00:21:31]:
Like how much life insurance?
David Roman [00:21:35]:
There's piles and piles.
Adam Debaja [00:21:36]:
Yeah, there's, you know, a couple million dollars on my head. So, I mean, I wouldn't say that.
Lucas Underwood [00:21:41]:
In front of her. I wasn't asking to say a number. I was just.
Jessica Debaja [00:21:44]:
I know, I'm a little worried. We have a good relationship with. Good.
Adam Debaja [00:21:47]:
No, she doesn't care though, because I gave her the paperwork and I said, hey, if I die, this is the paperwork you need. And then we needed it to put on some piece of paper for something and she didn't know where it was.
Jessica Debaja [00:21:57]:
No clue.
Adam Debaja [00:21:57]:
So I'm like, okay, I'm safe. Thank God for God.
David Roman [00:22:00]:
You were insured.
Jessica Debaja [00:22:02]:
That was his test. I passed. So I can know how much he's worth. It doesn't matter.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:08]:
Well, so one of the big things we just ran into after everything happened with my mom was trust accounts and, and making sure that the business is put into a trust.
Adam Debaja [00:22:18]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:18]:
And so even the verbiage of how it's done, because you don't want it to go into probate, right. If it goes into probate, that's a mess. That's a nightmare. And so I was just curious if you had things put in place that, hey, the business is going to go into a trust. The trust is split into three individuals, right? Because like, our family business goes into three trust accounts and a third of the shares go into one trust account. A third of the shares go into another trust account and a third of the shares go into another trust account. And then the property is divided three ways within a singular trust account for the family.
Adam Debaja [00:22:50]:
So with this new shop, we actually are having that conversation and we're going through that next. I can't remember there's a date. Cause my insurance guy was like, hey, we gotta get this done. We gotta get the estate planning done, right? And so we're on track to do that. I don't know what the date is, but Miles has got it all under control.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:11]:
Go ahead.
Jessica Debaja [00:23:11]:
One shop seemed no big deal. Two shops now we're like, oh, yeah, we gotta start thinking about these things for sure.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:16]:
If something happens, right? And you don't have that in place, and everybody says, oh, that'll never happen to us. There's a lot of young people who have something happen, and then the family's left cleaning up the mess, right? And so the reason I bring it up is because even though we had it all planned out, it's still a nightmare. Like, it's hard to navigate that. And where does the money go and how does it flow into that? There was. There was one discrepancy. So my mother's trust, when they did the life insurance, she got life insurance before she was sick. And when they did the life insurance, they said, it goes into this trust account. But then they determined that when that trust account was made was after the life insurance was signed.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:59]:
And so they said, well, it can't go into that trust account because the trust account was created after the fact. And so it was this whole deal. It's taken two months to get situated and figured out because it has to go like that pathway. Because in her living will and trust and everything they've done, it points exactly to what's supposed to happen to that money. Well, because one little thing was off in it. It stopped the whole process. My dad's freaking out, and he's like, oh, it's because they're trying to keep the money like that. They're not trying to keep the money.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:30]:
You just have to have this lined up perfectly.
Adam Debaja [00:24:32]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:33]:
And so, you know, especially when it comes to life insurance and having a business there that you're trying to run. I've had one scenario that I know of with a shop where they, because there was no trust, they froze the bank account. The spouse was not on the secretary of state as, like, a vice president or something like that. So they were not an authorized signer at the bank, and they couldn't just take over as authorized signer because they weren't on the account. So it froze. The bank knew that that person had died and said, hey, we have to freeze your account until we have an authorized signer. But he's the only authorized signer. And it couldn't just be that, oh, I know.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:13]:
You're his wife, so you can sign. No, because it was a business account, and it was never handled. And if it goes into probate, so now all of a sudden, you're looking. Six months. I think it took them almost nine months to get it handled to where they could run the business again. And so they had to open an account. They had no capital to run off of. They had no way to pay the bills.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:31]:
They're just running on what they could get in. If you don't have that right, man, that. That's tough. So you've got an estate planner doing it is how you all have it.
Adam Debaja [00:25:40]:
We're set up for a date, and I don't know when the date is. Some guy comes around, signs everybody up, and. Part of the whole life insurance program thing.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:49]:
Right. Got you. So it's like, through a life insurance company or.
Adam Debaja [00:25:53]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:55]:
I would talk to a trust planning attorney if I were in your shoes.
David Roman [00:25:58]:
Yeah. Just a review of the documents.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:00]:
Right. Because you, like, that's what happened in our case, is that a life insurance company came and set it up and went to an attorney, dad's attorney, and said, hey, we need to do this. And so just one little discrepancy. So you've got to make sure, like, it's documented. Well, for sure.
Adam Debaja [00:26:16]:
Good advice.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:16]:
Yeah. Disability. Got disability on yourself?
Adam Debaja [00:26:19]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:20]:
Awesome. You know, I've not. I had been paying workers comp on myself and paying disability. This time when we did it, I took myself off because I'm not. I'm not really working in the shop anymore. I'm just doing. So. I'm just paying for disability.
David Roman [00:26:36]:
I don't do anything. So I don't know what I need disability for.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:41]:
I'm just saying, if you were to get hurt or something like that.
David Roman [00:26:45]:
I just told them to let me bleed out. It's fine. Let me bleed out.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:52]:
It wouldn't be nearly as funny if your wife didn't tell them the same thing.
David Roman [00:26:55]:
But still, she knows. She knows. Just let me bleed out. So what fun new adventures have you discovered? Owning a second shop.
Jessica Debaja [00:27:07]:
Yeah. Change it from the death subject.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:09]:
Yeah. All right, let's.
Jessica Debaja [00:27:11]:
Alligators being eaten.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:13]:
Kids and. Oh, my God.
David Roman [00:27:16]:
You saw the story of the little kid. No. You guys didn't see that?
Lucas Underwood [00:27:20]:
Awful.
David Roman [00:27:20]:
The two year old here in Florida at the grand Floridian, like, recently, this was 17, maybe. Was it 17 or maybe 19? This was pre Covid. The family was hanging out. They were doing the fireworks or whatever. There were a whole bunch of families there. It's a large body of water. Little two year old started like I saw walking around in the water. Big old fat alligator came up, grabbed the kid by the leg, and pulled him up under the water.
David Roman [00:27:47]:
The parents, like the father, I guess, dove into the water to try to get his kid back, looking and hunting, but that kid was dumb. And so now we went, I think the following year, after that had happened, we went to and stayed at that hotel, and they had, at that point, they had it all roped up, and they had signs everywhere.
Adam Debaja [00:28:08]:
You stayed at the hotel for what reason? To try and get a reenactment to.
David Roman [00:28:11]:
Oh, no, I had so many places.
Adam Debaja [00:28:16]:
There's so many places.
David Roman [00:28:17]:
That's a nice hotel. Have you ever been there?
Adam Debaja [00:28:18]:
No.
David Roman [00:28:19]:
Oh, that's beautiful.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:20]:
And you ought to read the story about it. You ought to read about the whole design and everything. You know the red roof hotel in Coronado island when you like the Marriott, when you're flying in and you see.
David Roman [00:28:29]:
Oh, yeah, that's what they designed it around.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:31]:
Yeah, they designed it around that.
David Roman [00:28:32]:
Anyway, it's a beautiful hotel.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:34]:
Yeah, it really is.
David Roman [00:28:35]:
Like ten out of ten. If you're gonna stay at Disney and you want to spend the money now. We went right after, like, or right before COVID I think, or code was about to go on or something like that. I can't remember exactly what year we went, but it's absolutely awesome.
Jessica Debaja [00:28:52]:
Anyway, back to the fun and exciting.
David Roman [00:28:54]:
So they had roped up and stuff. Anyway, go ahead.
Adam Debaja [00:28:59]:
Where do you start? One shop's super easy in comparison to getting your second shop. Luckily, we got a really good manager that we hired on. He worked with us for a little bit at our first location. A little bit, meaning a month.
Lucas Underwood [00:29:16]:
Where did you find him at?
Adam Debaja [00:29:19]:
I previously tried to hire him as a technician, and he thought the shop was too small, so he wasn't interested. He didn't think he could turn the hours. Then when we were about to ink the deal, I started when it was coming close, and I knew that this thing was going to happen, I reached out to him again, and he was ready to make a change at that point.
Lucas Underwood [00:29:46]:
So he was working in another shop as a tech, or he was working.
Adam Debaja [00:29:49]:
In another shop as a tech. He's been a service writer two or three times throughout his career, and he's looking to make a move. He's a little bit older than us. He's definitely seasoned. He knows a lot, and he's a master tech.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:11]:
Right.
Adam Debaja [00:30:11]:
So that kind of helps. So he came on board with us and helped us get this thing off the ground. But there's so much that I didn't know. And that shop needed basically everything. It was gutted.
David Roman [00:30:27]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:30:28]:
I mean, so things that I thought they had. Well, I think they had them, but they kind of just disappeared before you got there. We got there.
David Roman [00:30:36]:
Right.
Adam Debaja [00:30:37]:
And so we had. There was a lot of supplies that we had to buy, a lot of equipment. A lot of the equipment was broken.
David Roman [00:30:44]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:30:44]:
So we basically bought all new equipment.
David Roman [00:30:48]:
You got the land at least, though, right? Yeah, yeah.
Jessica Debaja [00:30:51]:
Standing building is good.
David Roman [00:30:52]:
Yeah, that's it. That's really all you get it for, like.
Adam Debaja [00:30:56]:
Oh, totally. And we bought it. Right?
David Roman [00:30:58]:
Yeah. So good.
Adam Debaja [00:30:59]:
Not complaining.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:00]:
Right.
Adam Debaja [00:31:01]:
But our first. Our first month, you know, we had red customers compared to what they were doing before.
David Roman [00:31:09]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:31:10]:
And, you know, we had some money to run off from. I knew that we were going to be bleeding a little bit for the first few months, but pretty. I don't know exactly how many months into it. Maybe four or five months into it, we actually started to hold his own a little bit.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:25]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:31:26]:
So that was nice. And end of year one, which it's not like, you know, January through December, but September to September. I mean, you know, we're in the black. Right. So I feel like that's huge.
David Roman [00:31:40]:
Yeah, for sure.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:41]:
Run us down on the challenges that you faced, because, you know, I think a lot of shop owners, they go into this and they think, okay, I'm gonna buy a second location or even some of these guys that are starting a shop. And they were text and they say, I'm gonna start a shop. What were some of the challenges you guys faced that we can share with them to help them kind of think about some things outside that box a little bit?
Adam Debaja [00:32:02]:
Well, I mean, I think the number one problem is employees. We ran through a lot of employees in our first, what, four, six months?
Jessica Debaja [00:32:12]:
Yeah. It's a constant thing, the revolving door.
Adam Debaja [00:32:16]:
I mean, you hire the people, you do all the things, you do the checks, and they say they can do whatever it is. They can't even do a brake job. It's like, I don't understand how you're attack.
David Roman [00:32:32]:
You guys have licensing in Michigan that should fix everything, right?
Adam Debaja [00:32:35]:
No, you would think, I mean, to the standard that we operate and the standard that we were getting in. You know, some people lasted a couple weeks, some people lasted a couple months, but if they don't live up to the standard that we've set, they can't stay. They can't stay.
Lucas Underwood [00:32:56]:
Well, it's good that you take that approach, because especially if you were a technician, some of the things that we see is that those techs try and hold on to those guys a lot longer, and instead of just saying, hey, no, you got to go. And I was very much in that boat. I kept people for a long time trying to say, okay, I can make this work. I can figure this out. But if they're giving you problems right now, it never does get better. Right. Like, that problem doesn't get solved. So the fact that you're willing to cull that early is good.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:23]:
And I. That was one of the questions I had is, like, well, where are you finding people? And. And I couldn't imagine being in your. In your shoes, not having a little bit of technical background to be able to interview these people and get them on board and get them hired, because that. That seems scary to me. I'm. I know a lot of people who do it right. They hire somebody like promotive or whoever to help bring them in to, and then they verify their knowledge, they verify their background, that kind of stuff.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:49]:
How were you finding them?
Adam Debaja [00:33:52]:
Just online. I mean, we got what we use career plug.
Jessica Debaja [00:33:56]:
That's been helpful to at least get the traffic in and get the applicants coming in, and then the interview process is up to us to screen them. Like, how do you really change a tire? Can you change a tire? Things like that. But career plug has helped bring the traffic to us. Slowed down recently, so I don't know.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:14]:
Okay, so are we. Are we running? How many techs in the eight bay shop are you running right now?
Adam Debaja [00:34:20]:
What do we got? Six.
Jessica Debaja [00:34:22]:
Mm hmm.
Adam Debaja [00:34:23]:
Six in that shop.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:24]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:34:25]:
Tex lube techs and Tex. I'm grouping them all together because it's.
Jessica Debaja [00:34:31]:
A tire shop and an auto repair shop. We get a lot of tires.
Adam Debaja [00:34:34]:
A lot of tires.
David Roman [00:34:35]:
Right. So how many general service techs, like, and do a timing belt?
Adam Debaja [00:34:40]:
I would say two.
David Roman [00:34:42]:
Two?
Adam Debaja [00:34:43]:
Yes.
David Roman [00:34:43]:
And then everybody else is doing oil changes and tires.
Adam Debaja [00:34:46]:
Yeah. A lot of suspension, a lot of oil changes. I mean, we do everything. So everything from tires, oil changes all the way to motors, transmission, r and rs?
David Roman [00:34:56]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:56]:
Right. And so if you're looking at it like that, how many lead guys do you have? Do you have, like, a single lead guy? I know you have the manager. Is that who's going around and helping with technical issues or.
Adam Debaja [00:35:09]:
Yes, he does, but we also have master tech back there.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:12]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:35:13]:
We have master tech at both shops. And then depending on what the circumstances and how deep or something like that.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:27]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:35:29]:
If we need a second opinion, we'll have one of our other masters come over or bring the car to them. Right. If we get stuck on something.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:38]:
Gotcha. And so what, what's been the key thing that you're seeing as far as takeaways with the employees go? Because one of the things, especially with a new business that I saw a lot of people struggle with, if you're not coming from that technical role or you don't know that technical role really well, does it seem like there was a little bit of employee distrust or they didn't really want to engage with you in the same way? How. How's your experience been trying to hire them?
Adam Debaja [00:36:02]:
I don't know if I really had a problem with that. I mean, I worked in the shop in the first shop. I ran that shop completely.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:08]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:36:09]:
And I learned a lot.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:10]:
Gotcha.
Adam Debaja [00:36:10]:
In a short amount.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:11]:
So you kind of know the lingo and you know how.
Adam Debaja [00:36:13]:
Oh, yeah, I know. Basically, I know B's. And if somebody's telling me something that's not true or I suspect that is not true.
David Roman [00:36:22]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:36:24]:
I'll go check it out myself.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:25]:
Right.
Adam Debaja [00:36:26]:
I can shake a car down. I can change tires. I can do oil changes.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:29]:
Oh, that's awesome.
Adam Debaja [00:36:30]:
I can do all that stuff. Stuff. Right. But when it comes to the repairs, I have really good guys that I count on, and they know that I count on them. Both of the master techs are good at what they do, and it's more of, like, what we're trying to work on is we're really trying to build a good team, a good culture to where we are relying on each other, but we're also putting out a quality product, which is, you know, quality repair.
David Roman [00:37:01]:
Right.
Adam Debaja [00:37:01]:
And we're not taking the shortcuts. So that's one of the things in the interview process, is just making sure that these guys aren't the backyard mechanics.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:10]:
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. What would you have done differently about this process? I want to ask you. And then I want to ask her, because I'm wondering if there's two different answers.
Jessica Debaja [00:37:20]:
With us, it's always different.
Adam Debaja [00:37:22]:
Yeah. What would I have done? Difference about buying another shop?
Lucas Underwood [00:37:26]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:37:29]:
I would. I think I would have had a more lengthy process in bringing on the technicians.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:36]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:37:37]:
We had a lot of bumps in the road in the beginning.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:40]:
Okay.
Adam Debaja [00:37:40]:
I mean, we still have our bumps. Don't get me wrong. We're still ironing stuff out and trying to fine tune our process. Okay. But I think having more qualified people in the beginning would have helped us out a lot. It took us a little bit to get our master tech at that location.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:59]:
Okay, what about you? What would you have done different?
Jessica Debaja [00:38:03]:
I would have probably had just more policies in place from the very beginning. Like, okay, what did we do at our first shop? What did we do good? What did we need to work on? Where do we see the loopholes? And how can we just start with making those policies strong right from the get go? So that would have probably been where I was.
Adam Debaja [00:38:21]:
That would have helped a lot.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:22]:
Yeah. And I think you're right, because if you can do that from the beginning, when you're bringing these people into a brand new shop and we're retraining clients, if we have all that in place, it makes life substantially easier.
Adam Debaja [00:38:33]:
Yes.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:34]:
Way less of a fight, way less of the back and forth.
Adam Debaja [00:38:36]:
Yes.
David Roman [00:38:37]:
But if you walked into the first shop with no shop in the shop experience, did you hire a coach immediately?
Adam Debaja [00:38:46]:
No.
David Roman [00:38:47]:
So you winged all of it?
Adam Debaja [00:38:49]:
Yeah, I relied on the staff that we hired.
David Roman [00:38:54]:
Yeah. So, yeah, good for you. You got lucky.
Jessica Debaja [00:39:00]:
I mean, it was like a two base shot, three base shot.
David Roman [00:39:02]:
Yeah. I feel like that doesn't matter.
Jessica Debaja [00:39:05]:
He's really good at making things happen, and he doesn't know, like, we will figure this out.
David Roman [00:39:13]:
Most of the time, what ends up happening is you make enough mistakes that it sinks the business or it burns the person trying to make things work, they burn out, and then they give up. One of those two ends up happening. Not a lot of businesses overcome those adversities because it's like, hey, how'd that wheel fall off? Oh, I thought he torqued it. I thought he torqued, and you're like, okay, well, how much is this gonna cost me? It's like $2,500. It's like, okay, well, I locked up an engine, then the tech was working on it. I tried to jump in and help. We both thought, hey, you finished the oil change, right? Yeah. Okay.
David Roman [00:39:54]:
Vehicle left. We had no follow up quality control process because, you know, we just figured you put oil in it. How hard could that be? This was a 7.5 liter big block Ford f 250.
Adam Debaja [00:40:12]:
Sounds expensive.
David Roman [00:40:13]:
It locked up. I had no money. It locked up, like, 10 miles away. I had to tow it back. And I'm like, I don't have money to buy this kind of engine.
Adam Debaja [00:40:24]:
Wow.
David Roman [00:40:25]:
And on top of that, I only had one tech. So that one tech is now putting an engine in and not doing any paid work. Yeah, you just don't know that hey, before the car leaves, you check the oil. Somebody else checks the oil. Like, little things. Little things like that you just don't think of. And if you make enough of those mistakes, it can sink you.
Adam Debaja [00:40:45]:
Oh, yeah.
David Roman [00:40:45]:
And the fact that you were able to. Yeah, that's pretty quickly. Is. It's impressive.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:51]:
It really is. And, you know, back to that exact subject, one of the big wake up calls for me is for the longest time, I thought I was doing what's best for my client by not charging them anything, like, just barely making any money at all.
Adam Debaja [00:41:04]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:05]:
I'm like, oh, I'm cheap. So it's a business strategy. Right? Because it's marketing. It's helping bring people in, and I'm helping them out because it's cheap, so it's cheaper than everybody else.
David Roman [00:41:15]:
That's a really depressing cope. I'm just.
Adam Debaja [00:41:19]:
No, but I can relate with that. We're trying to gain the customer's trust.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:23]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:41:24]:
Trying to make them happy so that they'll come back.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:26]:
Right.
Adam Debaja [00:41:27]:
And in the meantime, we're eating, you know, rice and beans.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:30]:
Exactly. Well, and then what you find out is, is that you didn't make any money. So if something goes wrong, guess who's not actually taking care of the client anymore. Cause there's no money in the bank account to do anything.
Adam Debaja [00:41:39]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:40]:
So I don't have anything to work with. And so that. That, for me, was a big wake up call because, you know, the number of technicians turn shop owners that tell us, and Zeke's gonna kill me for this, because Zeke's always the one saying this. He's, you know, he's talking about pricing this and that and all that's too expensive, and that's too this and that's too that. I'm gonna tell you that. That eventually you have the epiphany that you have to be profitable. If you're actually gonna take care of the client, you have to have some money in the bank. And if you can't ever get to the point that you got money in.
David Roman [00:42:11]:
The bank, I got credit cards there.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:15]:
I have those, too. I keep using them.
David Roman [00:42:17]:
Well, yeah, I was not under that notion that I'm gonna be cheaper than. That's not at all. I went into it thinking that I was at market value, and I kept looking at my prices going, that seems like a lot.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:31]:
Yeah, yeah.
David Roman [00:42:32]:
I was spending my own money going, I wouldn't pay that much for a wheel bearing.
Adam Debaja [00:42:36]:
Right.
David Roman [00:42:36]:
Oh, get on the phone and you sell it. And I finally hired a coach. I hired management success. And they're like, oh, you need to be this much. And then this is percentage. And I'm looking, looking at the prices, and I'm like, ain't nobody gonna pay me that to do that brake job or do that wheel bearing. Like, this is nuts. They're like, yeah, they'll pay it.
David Roman [00:42:58]:
Are you sure? Sure, don't worry about it. Well, they paid it. And then after that, I was off to the races. Screw what they were saying. I'm like, I'm gonna keep jacking my prices up. They never not paid. At no point did I ever come to a stopping point. I just kept like, up and up.
David Roman [00:43:15]:
Hire more employees, jack up my rate of. Have them get a new piece of equipment, jack up my rate. It never ended. It just kept going and going. In fact, this year, all of my sales increase came from jacking up my rate. I think I'm down car count. I'm not kidding. I think I'm down car count this year.
Jessica Debaja [00:43:34]:
I gotta look at work smarter, not harder.
David Roman [00:43:37]:
I'm pretty sure I'm down car count. My arrows up over $100 from last year. Just from the labor matrix.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:45]:
Yeah, that's what I did, too. The labor matrix is like a life changer for both of us, because for the longest time, they said, hey, you need your ar o or your parts to labor, to be one to one, or, like, one to 0.85 or something like that. Never could get it. I never could. I'd raise my prices and I'd raise my labor rate, we'd bill more hours, and I just could not ever get it where it was supposed to be. I put that stupid labor matrix on there, and, buddy, does it do the trick?
David Roman [00:44:11]:
I don't think I'm still a one to one, but doesn't matter.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:17]:
It doesn't matter.
David Roman [00:44:19]:
No. I like an $825 arro. I am perfectly happy with that.
Jessica Debaja [00:44:25]:
That's pretty good.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:26]:
Yeah. I mean, I think I'm. I think I'm a like, a thousand.
David Roman [00:44:29]:
I didn't tell you the best part. We don't call to sell anything.
Adam Debaja [00:44:34]:
No. Follow up with the text.
David Roman [00:44:37]:
Follow up with a tech. No, no, I don't call.
Adam Debaja [00:44:40]:
That's what I'm saying.
David Roman [00:44:41]:
Like, we send the text, right? We send the link.
Adam Debaja [00:44:43]:
Yep.
David Roman [00:44:44]:
They open the estimate, they buy.
Adam Debaja [00:44:46]:
But you don't call.
David Roman [00:44:47]:
I don't call.
Adam Debaja [00:44:48]:
Interesting.
David Roman [00:44:50]:
Zero phone calls. Zero. We don't change anything either.
Adam Debaja [00:44:54]:
We don't call either. But I think we're thinking about calling.
David Roman [00:44:58]:
Oh, don't call.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:59]:
I like calling.
David Roman [00:45:00]:
I think I think you listen.
Adam Debaja [00:45:05]:
I know he is a salesman.
David Roman [00:45:06]:
Well, you are too, apparently.
Jessica Debaja [00:45:08]:
Salesman.
Adam Debaja [00:45:09]:
A salesman. I can see it makes sense.
David Roman [00:45:13]:
The biggest issue I ran into is that if you're really good at it, you'll double your arro if you get on the phone and you schmooze. Right?
Adam Debaja [00:45:21]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:45:22]:
Okay. Now you don't want to make those phone calls anymore. What are you going to do now.
Adam Debaja [00:45:27]:
You'Re back into the whole call.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:28]:
And David calls him in the ar o plummets, tells them, come get their piece of shit if you would, quick.
Adam Debaja [00:45:36]:
If he called him his average. Exactly right.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:39]:
It would.
David Roman [00:45:40]:
This is the worst YouTube video ever. The whole video is going to be. I know.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:43]:
And you've knocked it out of focus at this point. Poor guy's blurry.
Adam Debaja [00:45:47]:
That's all right.
David Roman [00:45:49]:
Oh, maybe, maybe.
Jessica Debaja [00:45:51]:
Oh, that's better.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:55]:
This dude can't sit still to save his life. And he's just like, I ate, so.
David Roman [00:45:59]:
I'm all like, he's ready to go. Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:02]:
My goodness.
David Roman [00:46:04]:
I haven't even had that much caffeine. Just that 1 celcius or whatever.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:09]:
I got you an energy drink and you didn't even drink it. I'm a little offended.
David Roman [00:46:12]:
I spent like, my wife has this friend and we go to visit her at 4 July. Cause my wife insisted. I don't like going there or whatever. And she is like, she's amped up and she's in shape and she's always moving. And so everybody kind of just dismisses that that's how she is because she works out and she's got this fast paced business life where she's got 18 businesses all going at once. And that's just how she is.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:44]:
Maybe it's methamphetamine.
David Roman [00:46:46]:
No, no, she didn't have like the sunken in face. Yeah, she doesn't have the. The meth characteristics. No, no. She's like wired all the time. And she's sitting there yakin on my wife about something. I don't know. Anyway, I'm not listening.
David Roman [00:47:01]:
And she's got a little Celsius in her hand and I'm like. And she's got a little mini fridge on the side and it's just full of every flavor of Celsius. I never touched the things in my life. Look in the back. Do you know how much caffeine, each.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:17]:
One, they will burn your insides out.
David Roman [00:47:18]:
200 milligrams of caffeine. Each little can. That one little can't. 200 milligrams. She just pounds them back one after another.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:27]:
Dude, Eric's like that. Eric will drink those reins. They're like, 180 or 200. He'll drink, like, four of them a day. At least I saw it. And he couldn't get anything done. So I was like, ah, surely this is not working. Figured out if I walk around the shop and pick them up, they've all got, like, a quarter of the can out of them.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:42]:
I'm like, I don't even want to hear about. You need a raise, homeboy. Maybe you drink one whole drink and leave the rest at home, right?
David Roman [00:47:48]:
That's too much. Like, it messes with the brain.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:52]:
I can't sleep if I have that much caffeine. I just don't sleep.
David Roman [00:47:55]:
I went to your hotel room. You've got just caffeine everywhere. Bottles just strung everywhere.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:01]:
The cutoff is noon, not afternoon.
Jessica Debaja [00:48:04]:
That's a lot to drink afternoon, though. That's all. Everywhere.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:10]:
None. Once it gets to 12:00, no more caffeine because I will not sleep. I'll be up all night.
Adam Debaja [00:48:15]:
I gotta have one about 02:00.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:18]:
I can't do it. I will not sleep if I do that.
Adam Debaja [00:48:20]:
02:00.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:21]:
No, can't do it. Can't do it.
David Roman [00:48:23]:
You gotta. It's. I was like that, too. It was a diet thing. Like, certain things I couldn't eat. I'm old, so, like, there's certain things I can't eat. Cause it makes you sleepy. Like, the blood sugar.
David Roman [00:48:37]:
The blood sugar spike, and then the insulin hits, and you're like, like, 02:00? No, no, I. I've.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:44]:
You know, I've learned whiskey keeps me up, too, so I have to day drink instead.
David Roman [00:48:49]:
Don't drink, folks. It's terrible for you.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:51]:
It's bad. It's bad.
Jessica Debaja [00:48:53]:
You do what you gotta do.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:55]:
Yeah, I mean, you're saying this, right? Like, this is what I put up with on a daily.
David Roman [00:48:59]:
Don't encourage drinking. I don't get this whole thing. Like, oh, we make jokes about drinking.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:05]:
When's the last time. When's the last time you see me have a drink?
David Roman [00:49:10]:
I don't. I yell at you when you do.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:12]:
When's the last time you saw me have a drink?
David Roman [00:49:14]:
None. This trip, he normally gets a bourbon with big ice.
Adam Debaja [00:49:18]:
Yep, I do, too.
David Roman [00:49:20]:
He asks for the list, but can I get the list? And then he finds the most obscure thing he knows. He's like, hmm, I know they don't have this. So then he asks for that, and then they always go, huh, let me check. No one's ever asked for this. Then they go in the back and they come out like, I don't have any of that. And then he asks for the normal stuff. He's like, okay, well, do you have this? Yeah, I got that. Because everybody buys that.
David Roman [00:49:42]:
Nobody buys the weird stuff. And then he gets a normal drink. That's how it goes. That's. It's a whole process every time.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:50]:
I mean, if you can get your hands on some of those that I request. That's like a once in a blue moon thing, right?
Adam Debaja [00:49:57]:
So it just burns.
David Roman [00:49:58]:
Maybe I don't get the thrill of finding it.
Adam Debaja [00:50:02]:
Finding the little.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:03]:
Yeah, I don't even need to. Yeah, I don't need to. It's not even that I have to drink. I just want a taste of it.
David Roman [00:50:08]:
Taste of the burn. Hey, I can give you. I can feed you some jalapenos. Trust me, they'll burn plenty. It's an acquired taste. You gotta taste the smoke. No smile. It tastes like burning.
Adam Debaja [00:50:21]:
I had a great Manhattan.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:23]:
Nice. Where? Here?
Adam Debaja [00:50:25]:
Yeah. Hotel eight or. No, what are they? Restaurant H. H. Whatever h is.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:30]:
Great.
Jessica Debaja [00:50:31]:
The h. That's the restaurant?
Lucas Underwood [00:50:32]:
The h. The h. Where's it?
David Roman [00:50:33]:
Athenae?
Adam Debaja [00:50:35]:
Somewhere close.
David Roman [00:50:35]:
Sounds pretentious and douchey.
Jessica Debaja [00:50:38]:
Yeah.
Adam Debaja [00:50:38]:
That is steak on there. I mean, this is crazy. We went out for anniversary.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:43]:
Oh, happy anniversary.
David Roman [00:50:45]:
Thank you.
Adam Debaja [00:50:46]:
Yeah, the steak on here is like $500. It was, like, gold crusted.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:50]:
So you bought her a $500 shoe?
Adam Debaja [00:50:52]:
No, absolutely not. No.
David Roman [00:50:54]:
Have you been Del Frisco's double eagle across the street?
Lucas Underwood [00:50:58]:
Those rolls?
David Roman [00:50:59]:
Okay, so here's the thing. They get these rolls, and the bottom of the. Of the pan is like, hold on.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:08]:
Can you wait for just a second? You know, he's talking about those gators and, you know, they talk about, like, how fast a gator reaches out and grabs something and how strong its bite strength is, right? Anyway, we were. We were in Denver, and the lady came and tried to take the rolls off the table. And dude, I mean, this was gator like reflexes.
David Roman [00:51:26]:
It's a wonderful. Why would you throw away those wonders?
Adam Debaja [00:51:29]:
You.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:32]:
Eating is almost as bad as alcohol. You know that, right?
Adam Debaja [00:51:35]:
It is same thing.
David Roman [00:51:36]:
That is absolutely not the rolls.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:38]:
100% the rolls.
David Roman [00:51:40]:
Okay, maybe the rolls. Maybe you don't make bad decisions with rolls. Like, you don't go to Vegas and stuff yourself with a bunch of rolls and wake up married to a hooker and going, huh? What did I just do? You don't do that on rolls. Anyway, so you get this piece pan, and the bottom of the pan is like two inches of just straight butter. And then they're like yeast rolls. So they're soft and doughy. And you get them out and this drip.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:08]:
The butter's, like, boiling underneath.
David Roman [00:52:09]:
Oh, my goodness. Those rolls.
Adam Debaja [00:52:12]:
I love hate relationship with rolls.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:14]:
I do too. Man.
David Roman [00:52:15]:
They are the best rolls. We so good. And it's right here. I should go.
Jessica Debaja [00:52:20]:
What's it called?
Lucas Underwood [00:52:21]:
Double frisco, double eagle. So speaking of, steaks are good, too.
David Roman [00:52:27]:
It's like $80. Good filet.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:29]:
Yeah, it was.
Adam Debaja [00:52:29]:
You go there for the rolls, but the steak's good.
Jessica Debaja [00:52:31]:
Steak's okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:32]:
Then we went to, like, five or six restaurants while we were out there, and it was the best one we had.
David Roman [00:52:37]:
Yeah, you go to these restaurants and it's like, it's a $100 for the steak, and you're like, okay, I'm gonna get a good steak. Then they bring you disgusting, cold, overly crusty bread. And then the worst thing in the world. The worst. I just want to flip tables and like, hey, can I get a Diet Coke? Sure. They bring a can out.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:55]:
Oh, you don't know. You know, I should not say this, but I'm going to. I'm going to tell a little story. Since he.
David Roman [00:53:04]:
I leave bad reviews. I get angry. I'm not a bad review person. Like, if I get a bad experience, I just don't come back because I know what it's like to get a bad review. But you want to leave me. You want to get me to leave a bad review.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:17]:
Bring a small can of code. The little cans. The little cans really get us in trouble.
David Roman [00:53:22]:
And then, like, it's warm, too. It's a warm can, and you bring the giant thing icing. And I gotta watch you pour my coke.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:32]:
He will vibrate. He will shake as they're pouring it.
David Roman [00:53:37]:
Shake. But I leave about. I'm like, this is just pretentious. What are you doing? Can I get, like, fountain? You've got a whole bar back there. I know you have a coke thing up back there. Just bring me a diet Coke. Just big glass. The best restaurants, I was in Branson.
David Roman [00:53:53]:
Yeah, they have Mason jars.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:56]:
Oh, those are so that's the way to do.
David Roman [00:53:58]:
They have drinks. So they bring you a mason jar. And normally I will go through, like, seven drinks because they're like this. I don't. No, no mason jar. I only went through, like, two of those.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:10]:
So Mason jar folks, you mentioned whores in Vegas. Wait, I've got to tell this story, and he's going to kill me for this. So Mike Allen does this thing. When we go anywhere, that he tries to convince people of this task or whatever, this job he has. I've heard him convince people that he was. He owned a company that balanced wheels and tires on shopping carts, and it saved food line and publix a million dollars in floor care last year. Okay? I have watched him convince people that he was a blimp folder. Okay? And these people will eat it out of his hands.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:51]:
They genuinely believe this. Right? I have had to have arguments with people convincing them that this is not true. Right? We are standing at a bar in the venetian, and a prostitute walks up and begin escort. Excuse me. Walks up and begins to talk to us. And before we leave, Mike Allen has convinced this woman that he is a skincare company executive, and he has got in his possession. We've gone to the golden steer. He's got in his possession this thing of dry rub that they give you to put on your stakes when you get home.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:32]:
And Mike Allen has. While we're standing there talking to this lady, and he's convincing her he's a skincare expert, he is rubbing the label off of this, and he hands her this can and says, this is exfoliating rub. And all you do is put a little bit of water in it, and you rub it on your face.
David Roman [00:55:49]:
That is deranged.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:51]:
I swear to God, this woman is rubbing this on her face.
David Roman [00:55:53]:
Oh, my goodness.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:55]:
I'm like, oh, she bought us probably 700 or $800 worth of tequila before we left.
Adam Debaja [00:56:01]:
Oh, my God.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:02]:
And I'm like, did we seriously just have a prostitute buy us alcohol? Is that what just happened? He's like, yeah, that's exactly. That's why we do this. What are you talking about?
David Roman [00:56:12]:
That was deranged.
Jessica Debaja [00:56:14]:
Oh.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:15]:
You said nobody listens to the last five minutes of the show, so I hope he never hears it. He's gonna kill me if he hears me telling his dirty secrets.
David Roman [00:56:22]:
That poor woman is gonna get beat when the pimp finds out she didn't bring home any money, and instead it was short dollar 700. Cause she bought these weirdos tequila and.
Jessica Debaja [00:56:32]:
Smells like steak now.
David Roman [00:56:33]:
Yeah, she smells like steak.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:35]:
Her skin's nice and smooth. Now.
David Roman [00:56:39]:
What was in the rub?
Lucas Underwood [00:56:40]:
It was like, pepper and salt. I mean, it was obviously, like, seasoning, man. I don't know. I guess she was just a little dense. I don't want to. But, dude, she was like. He was like, yeah, you just mix a little bit of water in it. And so she's over there dampening her finger and putting it in the steak rub and rubbing it on her face.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:58]:
And I'm like, that did just happen. I just saw it. I looked at Mike, and I shook my head, and I said, I'm going to bed now.
David Roman [00:57:09]:
See, this is the kind of stuff that happens when you drink, right? This wouldn't happen. You wouldn't do that to somebody with rolls you don't know or anything else.
Adam Debaja [00:57:19]:
Depending on how good the butter is.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:21]:
Yeah, I mean, that could be good butter.
David Roman [00:57:23]:
Not even this butter is. Is good. It's good butter.
Adam Debaja [00:57:26]:
Well, that's what I'm saying. I mean, if it's too good, it could be used for.
David Roman [00:57:31]:
We go to a mexican restaurant last night, and they kept. They're like, hey, get grilled this, grilled that, and the side is mexican butter. And I couldn't tell the difference between mexican butter and I think it was butter, bro. We had a mexican restaurant, so it kind of mexican.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:49]:
That's what I was gonna say. It's just like, you just because, you.
Adam Debaja [00:57:51]:
Know, if you put a label in front of it, you can charge more for it.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:54]:
Yeah, exactly.
David Roman [00:57:55]:
I'm gonna start doing that. Mexican break pads.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:58]:
That's what I was gonna say. I mean, look, look, I know you have tonal privilege and all, but Juan would be able to pull it off, no problem.
David Roman [00:58:10]:
I'll have the. It'll be pumpkin spice repairs for my white guys and mexican repairs for the Mexicans.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:21]:
Oh, boy. This is my life. This is my life.
David Roman [00:58:29]:
What kind of flavor brick pad would you like today, sir?
Lucas Underwood [00:58:34]:
Monique messaged me the other day, and she said, hey, how did the other recordings go? And I said.
David Roman [00:58:42]:
She asked us, though.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:43]:
How do you define no?
David Roman [00:58:46]:
Don't tell her. You're gonna freak her out. She liked it. The one that was more, like, more commercially. She's like, oh, this one's really good. It's like, yeah. Cause we kept bringing shopware up over and over and over again. It sounded like a commercial.
David Roman [00:59:00]:
For, like, 20 minutes it was.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:03]:
And then you talked about Mac and cheese and liven things up a bit.
David Roman [00:59:05]:
And then we went into the Mac and cheese truck. Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:08]:
How many times do you think our listeners have heard about the Mac and cheese truck at this point?
David Roman [00:59:12]:
I want to do it. I want to do it.
Adam Debaja [00:59:14]:
You got an offer.
David Roman [00:59:15]:
I told you he can talk. You give him my number. I'm telling you, he can call me tomorrow. He just has to take over the debt. That's it. Okay? That's it. If he actually, like, worked in the business, it would make some money, I think. I don't know.
Adam Debaja [00:59:29]:
He owns a shop. He said he'll buy your shop out and you can pursue your dreams on the Mac and cheese truck.
David Roman [00:59:34]:
I would do that tomorrow. I really would.
Adam Debaja [00:59:37]:
All right.
David Roman [00:59:38]:
Hate fixing cars. The worst thing in the whole wide world.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:41]:
I'm just curious, though, are you, like, gonna taste each batch of Mac and cheese just to make sure?
David Roman [00:59:46]:
No, I'm gonna have my recipe. I'm gonna have the cheese sauce and the noodles al dente, just. But it's gonna be like kinda craft Mac and cheesy, but not quite kraft Mac. It's gonna, it's gonna. So you're gonna. It's gonna give the essence of blue box. When somebody tasted. We're like, blue box but better.
David Roman [01:00:06]:
That's what I'm gonna do.
Jessica Debaja [01:00:06]:
Oh, that's a good blue box, but better. Yeah.
David Roman [01:00:09]:
Thank you.
Jessica Debaja [01:00:10]:
That was a good one.
David Roman [01:00:12]:
All figured out.
Jessica Debaja [01:00:13]:
I'm telling you who but better.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:16]:
You know, the problem is, I know you're serious.
David Roman [01:00:22]:
I told my kids with the Mac and cheese truck thing, and they're like, yeah, so, like, how many different kinds of Mac and cheese? I'm like, one. And then we'll do a fancy bowl, but it'll be whatever the hell I feel like throwing on top of there. They're like, no, no, but you gotta have, you gotta have like, white Mac and cheese. And I'm like, no, some with chicken, a spicy Mac and tunnel. No, we're not doing any of that. We're gonna have one price, one bowl, one size, no drinks, nothing else. Slop. There you go.
David Roman [01:00:49]:
That's it. Simple.
Adam Debaja [01:00:50]:
If you think car repair is hard, that's resurrected. And you don't make money and you wanna have one product on your Mac and cheese truck.
David Roman [01:00:59]:
No, that's. It makes it so much simpler. I don't have to worry about, oh, hey, we fixed this. And now there's a coolant leak over here that doesn't exist in Mac and cheese truck world.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:09]:
It's just the fryer quit in the.
David Roman [01:01:11]:
There's no fryer.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:12]:
No, no. You gotta have Mac and cheese balls if you're gonna have Mac and cheese.
David Roman [01:01:15]:
No, no, no, I'm not gonna have anything. It's one ball. Plop, plop. There you go.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:22]:
Until you've been to a baptist church, you know those, like, Sunday cookouts? They do. And man, and my women, they bring them big metal trays of Mac and cheese and it's like, I want baked Mac and cheese.
David Roman [01:01:34]:
Baked Mac and cheese. Nice and simple.
Adam Debaja [01:01:38]:
Smoked is even better.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:39]:
Oh, I've never.
David Roman [01:01:39]:
And it's a truck. It's a trailer. It'll be a trailer, because if the truck breaks down, then I'm stuck. Yo, trailer.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:45]:
Yo, dude.
David Roman [01:01:46]:
Hey.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:47]:
I have not seen you back out of a f ing parking spot without a trailer. I don't want to see you moving a trailer.
David Roman [01:01:52]:
I don't want to see I'm somebody else driving. If I'm not selling anything, I just move. Like, I'm stuck in my shop. I can't move my shop. I'm stuck there. I'm stuck there. I can't do anything about it. I'm surrounded by 18,000 other shops.
David Roman [01:02:06]:
It's super competitive. It's a struggle to get cars in the door consistently because there's 8 million other choices.
Jessica Debaja [01:02:12]:
If you call those customers instead of.
David Roman [01:02:14]:
Text, those customers are already in the shop. They're captive. Don't worry about that. It's everybody else. It's like, hey, what are we going to do next week? That's what I have to worry about. I can't move the Mac and cheese truck. I can just get up and move. Hey, I'm going to go over here now, see what happens.
Lucas Underwood [01:02:29]:
You know, I watch this, I'll find the video and send it to you because it's pretty cool. There is a video from Los Angeles and this guy, there's a taco truck in Los Angeles that they have been making tacos the same way for like, 40 years. Grandpa started it, and then son took over, and now grandsons are running it, right? And so they show the video of him. Like, these guys get there at 03:00 a.m. every morning, and they start cooking. And he goes through, like, the whole preparation process and everything else. And he said, you know, he's just talking about the fact that this is the same recipe they've been using for all these years. And it's a really, really cool story.
Lucas Underwood [01:03:07]:
I have to send it to you now.
David Roman [01:03:09]:
Here's the other idea. Let's say it doesn't take off. The other idea.
Adam Debaja [01:03:14]:
Yeah.
David Roman [01:03:15]:
Selling a lot of Mac and cheese. Truck. There is a YouTube channel. They live stream their interactions with their customers. So they put a camera up in the corner of the.
Adam Debaja [01:03:25]:
That will take our.
David Roman [01:03:26]:
Yeah, that will live stream watching. But the staff is very carefully selected.
Adam Debaja [01:03:33]:
Perfect, David.
David Roman [01:03:35]:
The staff is carefully selected to be particularly appealing is all I'm saying.
Lucas Underwood [01:03:41]:
Yeah, but you're not gonna fit that.
Adam Debaja [01:03:44]:
You're not gonna fit that. But if you have not me, you won't fit that.
David Roman [01:03:49]:
I'm not walking around in booty shorts.
Lucas Underwood [01:03:51]:
I don't know. Hey, I was gonna say those bears that we keep talking about, the population.
David Roman [01:03:57]:
The population that that would attract is so infinitesimally small.
Adam Debaja [01:04:03]:
But your broke. Your interaction with the customers and them being upset that they can't have bacon in their Mac and cheese or deep fried Mac and bacon. No bacon or deep fried Mac and cheese balls or drinking or the spicy Mac and cheese and you getting pissed off.
Lucas Underwood [01:04:20]:
That would sell. Yeah. Yeah, it would. And then if not, the booty shorts. Right? Because we already know that you have a demographic that loves you because of that. You might as well go ahead and switch. You've already said you'd go that way if it wasn't for the weenies.
David Roman [01:04:45]:
Totally. Be gay if it wasn't for the penises.
Lucas Underwood [01:04:53]:
What the hell, man? I'm just telling you.
Adam Debaja [01:04:57]:
How'd we get this far off?
David Roman [01:04:59]:
See, we're past the hour, Mark. Nobody's listening to this. I'm gonna have somebody Sabranda walk up to me and they're like, oh, whale gay. If it wasn't for the penises, I cut mine off. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it.
Lucas Underwood [01:05:13]:
He did. He absolutely did.
David Roman [01:05:18]:
And Mary Lucas, happily married, thank you very much.