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Feeling overwhelmed by your family's daily grind and looking for a way out? Welcome to "Dig the Well," the podcast that empowers you to build the life you deserve. Your hosts Vikki and John are top earners at Neora. Vikki is a # 1 best-selling author and John is a retired Los Angeles Police Officer. Together they’ve navigated family challenges, raised successful kids, and achieved financial freedom.
In each episode of "Dig the Well," they dive deep into the strategies and mindsets that can help you break free from the constraints of the traditional 9-5 lifestyle. They understand the unique challenges faced by stay-at-home moms and families who are juggling multiple responsibilities and struggling to find balance. Their mission is to provide you with the tools and inspiration you need to create additional income, gain more family time, and ultimately, transform your life.
Throughout their journey, they’ve had the privilege of working with renowned figures like Jack Canfield and Jeff Olson, whose wisdom and insights have greatly influenced their path to success. They’ve also celebrated significant milestones, such as raising two valedictorian children and supporting their son, an Olympic weightlifter on Team USA. These experiences have equipped them with valuable knowledge and practical tips that they’re eager to share with you.
"Dig the Well" is more than just a podcast; it's a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to personal growth and financial independence. Whether you're worried about your family's financial security, longing for more quality time with your spouse, or simply seeking a way to reignite your passions, this podcast offers actionable insights and real-life stories that can help you achieve your goals.
Our mission is to inspire you with the belief that if we can do it, so can you. We want you to feel empowered, educated, and ready to take control of your future. By tuning in to "Dig the Well," you'll gain the confidence and knowledge needed to break free from the daily grind and create a life full of possibilities.
So, if you're ready to transform your family's future and discover the greatness within you, join us on this journey. Subscribe to "Dig the Well" and start building the life you deserve today!
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John:Ever wondered how you could turn your side hustle into a full time gig and spend more time together?
Vikki:Hi. I'm Vikki, a number one best selling author.
John:And I'm John, a retired Los Angeles police officer. Welcome to dig the well, where we help couples navigate the world of business.
Vikki:We've been married for thirty years, and because we built a successful side business, John retired nine years earlier than he originally planned from the Los Angeles Police Department after twenty five years on the job. Now we spend more time together, and we want to help couples like you do the same.
John:Join us as we help you overcome common obstacles, and we show you how to make extra income without sacrificing family time.
Vikki:Ready to dig deep and build your well? Let's get started. Welcome back. Welcome back to dig the
John:well. Welcome.
Vikki:Welcome. Welcome. We have something interesting to talk to you about. We find very interesting, and that is contract negotiations.
John:Yeah. Or any kind of negotiation. Right? Right. Yeah.
Vikki:But in business, I I was ticking it off because, with contract negotiations because I have a a really good friend who's a business owner, and she was, thinking about changing floors in her current building and doing a whole new build out, and that was gonna be hundreds of thousands of dollars just on the build out alone. And but she she she and her husband and her daughter run the business, and they all decided let's do it. So they go into negotiations. They get it all figured out. I think they involve some lawyers as well, which is always smart and, and and planned everything well.
Vikki:And they and they signed off on it. And then, the contractors and the the owners of the building came back to say, okay. We've got your build out, but it's 200,000 more. And she just about jumped through her ceiling and, you know, then started to reevaluate. Is this really what we want to do?
Vikki:Is God kind of telling me maybe I shouldn't be doing this right now? And so just for that alone, she started thinking, you know, maybe we shouldn't go with this. And, you know, of course, they're gonna consult their attorneys and whatnot on what the next course of action is. But now this is interesting. They're thinking about buying their own building because they're passing their business onto their daughter who's going to be a 40 in a few years, and they wanna set her up for success.
Vikki:So, anyway, it got me thinking about businesses and how many of you that are listening might be in the same boat. You're in a building currently right now. You know, you know, you need need to do things differently in 2025. That's in your back of the of your mind. You're wanting to go big.
Vikki:You're wanting to change things up because that was her. And, but she also got listens to the man above on what, you know, is possible, what they should be doing, and all those things. So it got me thinking of how many negotiations we had with our business as well and how I think my friend is super smart. You know? She's not not just agreeing to this new 200,000.
Vikki:She's going, woah. Woah. Woah. Okay. Let me step back.
Vikki:Let me take a look at this. Is this really what I wanna do? And she's got lawyers involved. So yeah. So I was thinking about, you know, when we had our shop and we had to negotiate the build out, you know, it's just interesting.
Vikki:Negotiations are interesting in business, and you as an entrepreneur should not just fall for anything is really what I'm trying to get to is my point. And, John, you were always so great at that, you know, because we were in our twenties when we had our that original prestige motor accessories in the city of La Habra then we moved to Brea. So we had two build outs. Right? We had or at least two Mhmm.
Vikki:Contract negotiations with those. And you were so good at teaching me poker face. Right? And don't be so excited. Don't let on that you're maybe you really want that that lease.
Vikki:You think it's a great deal. You've taught you taught me. Don't show that. Don't show that to to them.
John:Yeah. I remember one because we didn't know what we were doing. So we ended up getting into that building. Because remember we had two buildings in Mahabra. It was the same landlord.
John:It was actually in the same same complex. It was just we moved to a better location. But we didn't know anything, and so we ended up getting this this thing that didn't really work out for us. It was just the weirdest floor plan
Vikki:Yeah. In this room. Is that the one that was upstairs at the loft and then
John:Well, they both did. But this one had that weird front, like, office space that we needed to have, like, as a showroom, but it didn't work for us. So then we learned that, no, we we need to negotiate that in into the original contract when we were when we accepted the lease. Right. Right.
John:So when we were negotiating the lease, the build out had to be a part of that. Because then later we said, hey, we need this done, and they're basically, we're not doing anything for you. Yeah. You're gonna pay us your rent, and if you don't, then we'll just kick you out. Right.
John:Right? And then they were alright they were alright people. There was this Japanese family.
Vikki:Yeah. We liked them, actually.
John:They were they were nice enough, but they were they were they knew business, so they knew that, hey, were dumb enough to sign on off on that lease. Yeah. So then the next one, when we talked about moving to the other space, which is bigger, and of course, they were having trouble, and we knew it. They're having trouble getting that thing, any any tenant in there.
Vikki:Rented out these times.
John:Right. And when we had, since it wasn't there was no build out on it whatsoever, I mean, it's easy for them. They're just starting almost from a clean slate. And it was a smaller unit, and it fit it suited more more people, I think. So we ended up getting the other one, and this time we negotiated a different build out for the front.
Vikki:So we learned.
John:Uh-huh. And we got actually we actually got it a lot a little cheaper. Yeah. And then the one we went to in Brea, they wanted a they wanted a triple net lease. Yeah.
John:And so we learned quickly what that meant. It meant something that we didn't
Vikki:Do you wanna explain that a little bit?
John:Yeah. It just means you're paying for all the maintenance, you're paying for all the property taxes. So the basically, you should be able to get triple net leases for a lot less money than you would just a standard lease, like a gross lease. But at least with with the lease we have, which is I think it's just like they call it a gross lease, we didn't have to pay for their their property tax because we don't own it. Why am I paying your property tax?
John:Right? We don't own you know, we're we're just renting it from you. And so anything that broke down, the landlord's responsible for it. They had to fix the air conditioning. They had to fix the plumbing.
John:So that that was nice having that. But you pay a little bit more in the in your your your Right. Square per square foot lease term. So that was fine, but at least this time, we negotiated a really elaborate build out. Remember, we had the office behind it.
John:We had a showroom. Right. Then we had an office behind that. Then we had, like, that other little, like yeah. And then we had that, like, almost like break room kind of a thing.
John:Right. Mhmm. Then we had another storeroom that was lockable.
Vikki:Yes. Because
John:it it was it would most of it was almost like a warehouse in the back, and that's where we did a lot of the work on which we did all the work on the cars. Right. So we needed that just to be open, just concrete floor open. We would bring in our own workbenches and our own toolbox, everything that we need, but we wanted that hard floor so that we could mop it every day in the morning to keep the dust down.
Vikki:That's right.
John:Just keep the window tint clean. So we wanted the the warehouse, the work shop in the back a certain way, but we wanted to lock up valuable, any kind of valuable tools in our inventory. So we had them build that out for us too. Then we had, like a almost like a dining kitchen area.
Vikki:Yeah. That's right. And the couch we put the couch in.
John:So we needed that plumbed, and we needed electric to that for refrigerators and whatever else that we had over there. So it was at least this time, we knew what we wanted, and and it was like, we're not paying any extra for this. This is going to be built out to these specifications. This is exactly what I want, and we'll we'll move in. So that's what they did.
John:Right. And so that worked out.
Vikki:But you're good at poker face in those situations where I had to learn that where
John:You still do. You still screw it up.
Vikki:But we play good cop, bad cop. I don't know if that's the right word, but, like, I could be excited if we're buying a car. I might act all excited. John's told me not to because you don't want the salesperson to
John:be be uninterested.
Vikki:Yeah. So then John plays the very uninterested. And sometimes we've done it reverse where you're not you're never like I am, like, over the top excited, but you show a little more interest. And I'm like, well, I don't know. I don't know if I you know, we do it on purpose.
Vikki:Even if I want the car too, we have it planned out before we go in. So that's another contract negotiation. But back to
John:Yeah. If you think about it, all the all these it's sales. Right? They're trying to get as much money out of your wallet, out of your bank account as they possibly can and give you the least that they possibly have to. Right.
John:I mean, if you think about it, where else do you go that that is looking to openly take advantage of you? Right? And yet you still go there and you shake hands and you smile and everybody seems like cordial. But think about it. Give that a thought.
John:If if restaurants were run the way they run car dealerships, and if you get if you work at a car dealership or own a car dealership, I know it's just the culture. It's just the way the industry works. And I'm not I'm not putting you down. I'm not, you know, I'm not upset about it. I'm just saying.
Vikki:It is.
John:It's interesting. Just think about this a moment. If restaurants were operated the same way, that would mean that everybody's gonna pay a different price when they go into that restaurant. So you go in one night and you get let's say, you get steak. Right?
John:You just get a New York steak, Then let's or let's make it easy. Let's just say it's a burger. Right? You just get a regular cheeseburger, and it's $16. And then I come in the next night, and I look, and there's no price on the on the menu.
John:Right? Because it's they've got a sticker price of $25, but you talk to him and says, well, yeah, I added the cheese, didn't want the onions, and he's all like, okay. That's gonna be $19.50.
Vikki:Oh my god.
John:That's too much, man. I'm not gonna pay $19.50. And then he comes back, well, let me talk to my manager. I'll be right back. And he goes back and talks to the manager because, okay, we can do it for $18.25.
John:Right? When the night the night you went in, you paid $16.50 for the same damn burger. It's like Yeah. That is would be different for everybody, and it's they would try and get the $25 out of you if you if you were I'm not gonna say, but if you just went in and just paid full sticker, which some people do on cars, I don't understand that. Yeah.
John:But if you went to that restaurant and saw the $25 sticker price and said, yeah, it sounds good. And maybe you have that much money. It's not it doesn't matter to you. Pay the $25, they'll take it all day long. Right.
John:Right? Right. They would take that all day long. And that's I don't know if I would ever return to a restaurant that operated that way with that business model. Nor would I go pretty much anywhere that operated with that business model, and yet we do that with cars all the time.
John:But it's just because it it is what it is.
Vikki:So you gotta play the game. Yeah. So we are we have bought so many cars. How many cars do you think over the years? 15.
Vikki:Maybe that's not a lot for a lot of people, but to us, we've had a lot of cars, and we learned you taught me early on how to play it. And we even have a thing where, you know, the the salesperson's trying to give us get have me hold the keys, or you, and you just keep giving it back to them. Right? Because you taught me they want you to hold the keys because they want you to want it.
John:Yeah. It's a psychological thing. Right? You have the keys. It's kinda like, okay.
John:I don't wanna give these up now. I've been holding them for the last five hours while we're sitting here trying to haggle this thing out.
Vikki:So we put the keys back on the desk. We don't we don't keep them in our hand, and then we play the thing where one of us is not interested, and they make us an offer, and it goes back and And then we look at each other, and, you know, the one that's being the hard nosed is like, no. I wanna think about it. And we we walk out. Like, even when we both wanted it, we both thought it was a decent deal.
Vikki:We were just trying to get a little better deal. We've walked out, and we'll even be whispering, oh my gosh. I wonder how that went. I hope I wonder if they're gonna start chasing us down, and that's and then sometimes they do.
John:Yeah. It's funny because it
Vikki:Follow us.
John:Yeah. But I think enough people play that game now where they may be onto it. Yeah. They might. I don't know.
John:But I'll tell you
Vikki:Pretty good.
John:It worked out really well one time. We were buying an Acura, and we were gonna just buy it cash. Right? So we had enough money to pay for that thing cash. It wasn't that expensive.
John:It was the one of the cheaper Acuras. Right?
Vikki:Yeah. But for us back then
John:There was a lot of money still for us back then. But I'm not saying monies. We're we're buying, like, an $80,000 cash car cash. We didn't have that kind money.
Vikki:In the thirties, wasn't it back then? Because it was
John:I don't even think it was that expensive. I think it was cheaper than that. But the point is, we had the money, but one of the things that we didn't let on was that we had the money we're gonna pay cash. We let them think that they were gonna finance it. Because if you think if you look at it from a overall dealer perspective, when the salesman keeps going back, and if if any of you guys are salespeople, please comment whether I'm right or wrong.
John:But this is how I believe the system works, is that you're you're negotiating with a salesperson. Right? They're not authorized to give you any kind of a deal. So they always have to go back to their sales manager who sits in an office, and usually they're they have that arrogant look on their face, and, you know, they never crack a smile.
Vikki:They do.
John:And then he'll come back and say, well, no, this is what my manager's gonna do. And then if if that doesn't work, they finally send in the manager as the closer. But the point is that I don't let on that we're gonna make a cash payment for the car. So they think we're gonna finance it, which they would love because there's another profit center in the financing. So when he goes to a sales manager, he's gonna let the sales manager know because I'm gonna say something about financing.
John:You know, do you have pretty good finance rates? I didn't I'm not lying. I'm not saying, hey. We're gonna finance a car through you. I just asked I was just curious what the financing was.
John:I'm not gonna finance it. I'm just gonna write you a check here, buddy. But I just asked about financing. So he goes in and tells his manager, hey. They're gonna finance it too.
John:So the manager's thinking, okay. We're gonna make some money on the finance on the finance portion of it too. So then they look and figure, okay. These are the incentives I've got on that car. I can apply these.
John:I can get the the price down to this. Okay. We can offer something else. Right? And it's always gonna be higher than they need that they can offer.
John:Right? And every time they accept the offer, it's they're losing money on the deal.
Vikki:They always say that.
John:They always say that. That's an absolute lie. Could you imagine?
Vikki:They can't
John:do
Vikki:How
John:can you be in business to lose money on a car sale? Yeah. That would be absolutely stupid to a stranger. You're gonna sell me a car. You don't know me.
John:Right. You're gonna sell me a car for less than what you paid for it. Bullshit. Right. So anyways, we were there almost all day, and and we plan on staying there all day, which is a waste of a
Vikki:lot of time
John:if you think about it.
Vikki:We do plan on it.
John:But we thought it part of it, it's fun too.
Vikki:He loves it. It's fun. Not so much, but you love it. You love it. Going to swap meets and thing.
Vikki:I don't even know if they call them swap meets anymore, but you love to negotiate. I don't. But anyway
John:That's how it goes. It's just like when we're in Africa, it's like Yeah. They they come up to your car and try and sell you everything, because they hand make all these little crafts and things. And everyone is a negotiation. Yeah.
John:And pretty much everything you can get for half price or less from what they offer to you.
Vikki:Yeah. Because they start.
John:$20 for this, $20 for this, and you tell them, no. I'll give you 5. And then it then it goes back and back and and you end up paying $9.50. Yeah. And then we just kinda everybody's happy.
John:Everybody laughs. They're happy. They made a ton of money. We saved a little money. We got something that we're like, oh, we'll have this for a couple years, and we end up tossing all that stuff.
Vikki:And we support their culture. We were talking about that.
John:That's how they eat. Bruce the
Vikki:Kelly episode. We love
John:their families. So of course, we're gonna spend money. Even if it's stuff that we really don't want, but we have fun with and they're they're nice people, we have fun with them. We have fun haggling with them, and it just okay. We'll get it.
John:So anyways, this goes on with the dealership over and over, and this particular car, it had gone back and back and back and and finally, I was just like, I'm I'm fed up. I'm kinda hungry. It's dinner time anyhow. So I I tell him, you know what? Forget it.
John:We're just gonna go somewhere else, and we walked. And I told I I mentioned you were saying there he's gonna call us. Yeah. So Exactly. We left, and we went to a local restaurant to eat real quick.
John:And no sooner did we sit down than the phone's ringing. Right? So now it's now it's time to play a little bit of posture so I don't answer the phone, and let it just go to voice mail. And we eat, and at some point, I I call him back because he keeps calling. I call him back, and he said, yeah.
John:You know, my manager's ready to do this deal. I said, yeah. But you've been saying that for hours now, and and your manager comes back with something else or another excuse not to do it. So I don't know if I'm gonna come back. You know, we're gonna just hit some other dealerships, and we'll probably just make this deal go through because it's getting late, and I would just wanna get the car.
John:So he promised that it would work. Come back. He goes, I can get dinner for you. So I'm like, okay. Cool.
John:I'm not gonna eat that much here. So we get back to the dealership, and of course, he forgets that he offered dinner. And I remember saying, I said remember that. We're sitting there. I said, okay.
John:Hey. While your manager's mulling over the the finals on this thing, you said dinner. So what are we ordering? And he goes, oh, that's right. I did.
John:So he brings out some menus, and so we pick out some menus, and he
Vikki:I didn't even remember Yeah. And they came and delivered. Yeah.
John:He got the free dinner out of the deal. Yeah. And then it turned out we got we got the deal we wanted. And then, of course, the manager comes out and says I think it was even the GM came out. It wasn't even the sales manager.
John:It was the top dog came out and said, you know what? Don't tell any of your friends to shop here because we can't continue to lose money like this.
Vikki:So funny. That was the truth.
John:I was gonna call bullshit on that too because you want me to tell my friends to come here and shop. But we ended up getting the car. We got it for the price we wanted to get it for, plus we got free dinner out the deal, and we had some fun just just messing with these guys.
Vikki:So that could be your business car. You know, those were that was a business car for us
John:It was. As I remember. So,
Vikki:you know, we're talking business here too. Yes. You might be thinking car. It's personal, but no. You know, if own your own business
John:And if you own your business, a lot of a lot of businesses use leases, you know, because it's a very, very simplified business expense for for leasing a car. If you do that, remember leases are also negotiable. Yes. A lot of people and and oftentimes dealers will tell you they're not. Like, I'm sorry, but this lease is $3.29 a month, and that's just the way it is.
John:No. It's not. There's a lot of factors that go in that. What what determines a lease the lease monthly price. A lot of things go into that, and you can change that.
John:You can change the residual value. You can change how much they apply as a basically, you can put a down payment toward it to bring down that least, amount. So it's everything's negotiable.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. I love talking to you about this kind of stuff because that's it's stuff I didn't know. Where do you think you've learned it?
John:Some of it I learned just from because when we started our window tinting business, so this goes back in the eighties. Right? And and a lot of our clients were car dealers. And we would do and this is before I we had a shop, like a legitimate shop. I was still working And it was just you.
John:Mom and dad's garage.
Vikki:Was just you. I didn't even know you yet.
John:But I had a business license. I had insurance. I did everything the right way. And so I would actually do the work at the car dealer, which it didn't come out as as nice as it would if I was working in my own shop where I can control the environment. But dealers loved it because they didn't have to send their cars anywhere, and I could get the work done.
John:So I was around those those guys all the time, and I was listening to them. I would listen to their sales meetings because they would have meetings constantly, constantly, because it's all about driving sales. So the the sales manager is always trying to trying to get the sales salespeople excited and offering. So whoever has, you know, whoever sells the car today gets this TV. They have like a little TV there.
John:Wow. And whoever does this is gonna win this. And they all they would always buy things to give to the salespeople. That. Yeah.
John:And when people say, oh, yeah. When's the best time to buy a car? And a lot of people say it's it's at the end of the month. It absolutely is. At least it used to be.
John:I don't know if things have changed.
Vikki:I would think so.
John:But they they gauge they monitor or they track sales month over month. And so at the end of the month, those numbers need to come through. And how they perform, especially for the managers, is how they're paid. They're paid big time on bonuses for sales. So they're pushing hard at the end of the month.
John:If you go in in the week of the month, probably not likely to get a good deal. But if you go in the last couple of days of the month or that last day, they definitely wanna sell you a car. That's a huge tip. Yeah. Because I remember I would listen, and then I would I would always park the vehicles at this one dealership right outside where the GM's office was, and the sales manager sat, so I could overhear what they're saying.
John:And those guys are really loud, and those doors in that dealership were cheap as hell. The walls and doors were like made out of out of rice paper, so I could hear everything that they were saying, and I could overhear the conversations that were going on inside. Right. And that's what they were looking at. They were just talking about, hey, we need to sell we need to sell five cars tonight, So we need to get this deal done.
John:Figure it out. Wow. It was just that's just how it went.
Vikki:Amazing. Yeah. So what other contract negotiations in business have we run into?
John:Well, there's business or personal. It's all the same. Right?
Vikki:Yeah.
John:That's true. And and I would say don't be afraid to negotiate because a lot of people, like, for you, you don't like to why don't you like to negotiate with?
Vikki:I don't know if I never witnessed it, so it makes me uncomfortable. My mom was I think what it might be is my mother was against salespeople. It was it was back in the day when everybody's front door right next to the doorbell said no solicitors. You know, we don't do that.
John:People don't Well, I think, yeah, people were doing door to door sales Right.
Vikki:Like crazy back then. And so my mom would my mom was the person, girl scout leader in everything, and some of you heard this story, but she would slam the door if it was a solicitor on a little kid even if they were selling candy or popcorn like a boy scout. Sorry. No. Thank you.
Vikki:Don't you can't you read the sign? No solicitors. And I I was appalled and actually kinda traumatized. I was traumatized. So I also was never part of any negotiations growing up, like buying a car.
Vikki:My parents did that. You know? It was only when I met you that we were buying cars and then in a business right away where we were negotiate I found it fascinating negotiating for the lease on our shop, all of that. That's why I thought all of y'all, all of you would find this so fascinating if you're not at that place yet. Maybe you have your business, but you work it from home and you don't have a location.
Vikki:Maybe you never will, but maybe you maybe you will. So this is a good episode to know that you can negotiate. Anything's negotiate negotiable.
John:Pretty much. Yeah. Almost anything. Yeah. Because if you think about, like, it was a shock that we couldn't negotiate any of the Teslas.
John:I remember the Tesla dealership. Oh, the only thing to negotiate? This hat. Oh, really? Got the hat for free.
John:Because that was I've I've we went we were actually driving home from a business meeting in San Diego.
Vikki:That's right. That's right.
John:And our business was really doing well. It's the same business we're in today that we've kind of mentioned about, and it was we were making a lot of money. And so those curtains are going up.
Vikki:The blinds are going up.
John:Yeah. It's gonna get bright in here. It's okay. So we were talking, and and it was one of those things where we sit we're we're on our way. We're leaving that place.
John:We're leaving San Diego. And so why don't we stay one more day? So we stayed in another night, and you had mentioned, hey. We're thinking about getting another car. What about a Tesla?
John:Yeah. Remember, Tesla's back in 2015 were were brand kind of brand new. Mean new. They were selling them the Model s starting in 2012 at the end of I think it was September 2012 when they came out or something like that. And they weren't they didn't sell that many of them.
John:So this is February of twenty fifteen. So we decided, okay. Let's check it out. So we went to the the showroom that was near the university Yeah. The San Diego.
John:Beautiful. And so we stopped in there, and we had no idea it was like. Because I looked it up online, and you can order it directly online. Just tick all the boxes, choose your options.
Vikki:Which was so odd.
John:Yeah. Yeah. It was really weird, especially when you're talking about a car that's well over 6 no. 6 figures. Right?
John:Yeah. It's it's well over a $100,000 for this thing. And I'm thinking, I don't even get to, like, sit in it or or, like, touch anything. It's like, it's just weird. So we thought we'd go to the dealer.
John:Plus I thought, oh, we'll go there, and I'll play mister negotiator again. Right?
Vikki:Yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Like, always do.
John:We'll save some money on this one. Watch me. Right? So we go in there, and they have one I think it's just one car in on the floor. And so we look at it, and we're like, okay.
John:Cool. And then so we talked to her and said, yeah. Well, how do we do how what do we do about ordering it? Do we have an issue? Oh, yeah.
John:She goes, here. I'll show you. So she just goes to a computer, logs in just like we did, and she turns the screen so she face. She's looking, of all remember. Which model which which model option would you like?
John:The 60, the eight? It was like 60 something else, and then 85 was the biggest battery.
Vikki:That's right. That's right.
John:And then do you want the performance, or do you want the standard? Do you want all all wheel drive, just rear wheel drive?
Vikki:So she could built it. Yeah.
John:Then she's clicking these things. We're going through it. It's the same price that I just saw last night on on the computer. So I said, well, or is there like do we can we talk about some of this? Because that's a lot of money to spend for this.
John:And she's all, no. She goes, you there's no options. You just there's no option for price. You just click it, and it just charges you. Remember that.
Vikki:I'm like We were dumbfounded.
John:This is no different than what I could have done myself. And she's like, exactly. Except you got to see that cars on the floor.
Vikki:Which was cool.
John:We don't even have one for you to test drive.
Vikki:I know. That's right. We couldn't even test drive. Did we have to go back to test drive? We got to
John:test No. Just ordered it. We did. No. Remember then we're thinking, well, I don't know.
John:This is kinda weird. Remember? So then we went to lunch again. We're always eating at these things. Eat a lot.
John:So we went to lunch and we sat there and and we were think you know, mulling it over and vice versa. Let's just go ahead and just let's let's pull the trigger on this thing, and let's just do it. So then we went back.
Vikki:Yeah. That's right. Did. I thought we test drove one of them eventually.
John:Because then we were in Fashion Island, maybe? Yeah. It was in Orange County. And I think it was we had stopped in for something. We were at this other mall, and they had another showroom thing.
John:I think it was Fashion Island. And we just stopped in because they had two cars in there. So I thought, maybe they'll have one because we ordered this ours with this thing called the executive rear seat option. So and they don't they only offered it for a number of few months or so, and then they got rid of that option for whatever reason. But it was awesome.
John:The rear seats were way more comfortable than the front. There were these really, really, like, cocoony bucket seats. It was meant for, like, if if you're chauffeuring someone around, I think. It has really cool center console. It was a it was a really cool option, which they should I wish they had kept.
John:But I wanted to see what it was like to actually sit down in the thing. So we went in there, and they said no. And then we mentioned we had ordered one, but never drove it. And that's when she said, well, I've got one outside if you wanna drive it. That's it.
John:So then we said, yeah.
Vikki:Yes, please.
John:Yes. That was
Vikki:But no negotiations with Tesla. That is
John:crazy. They don't
Vikki:The hat.
John:Who offered you the hat? Oh, then finally, said, there's gotta be something you can do for us since we couldn't negotiate even a dollar off this thing. And I said, there's something. Like, I looked around, and they had their little they had some apparel out. So I grabbed this hat.
John:I said, I know you can throw this hat in. Right? Just throw me a bone here. Felt like you got And so she started laughing, and I think the manager overheard me. And he he just walks over and he said, of course, you can have that hat.
John:You just ordered that car. You can have the hat. Well, thank you. I said, can I have one for my wife? And he's like, don't push it.
Vikki:That's funny.
John:Just be happy with the hat and walk away.
Vikki:That's funny. That's funny. Yeah.
John:But they even said that their employees get no absolutely no discount. Yeah. Yeah. Don't. Get other things.
John:They don't because I'm I've actually know I've gotten to know a couple of the employees that work for the company, and they said, no. We pay exactly what you pay.
Vikki:But, I mean, they must get other perks. Is that you know, wouldn't you think?
John:I have no idea. Anyway Well Yeah. Now, again, the biggest perk of all would be getting an employee discount on the vehicle.
Vikki:It would be. Yeah. Too bad if they don't. There's gotta be something.
John:But I'm telling you, guys, it's just like it it's funny. It like, you were saying that that almost every pretty much everything's negotiable. Almost everything is. And really almost every I guess even Tesla, it's negotiable if you want a free hat out of the deal. Right.
John:So I guess I guess everything
Vikki:A little bit.
John:Everything is. And you know, the other thing that I've that I've found that's really helpful in negotiations is put yourself in the other person's plates. Right? So understand what it is they want out of that negotiation. Mhmm.
John:Because they want something too. Obviously, you know what you want, and you've probably made it clear. And hopefully, you haven't made it too clear to them, but you've made some of the bigger points clear to them, but you hold some of that stuff in in reserve. Right. But you've made it clear what you want.
John:But try and understand what it is that they want, and try and find some middle ground. Because if you can please them on a few things and give them a little bit of what they want, they're more likely to go ahead and do the deal with you than if you just said no to everything that they want.
Vikki:Right. Right. Very smart. I mean, that's in business in general. That's right?
John:Yeah.
Vikki:To know what the other person wants. Yeah. That's good. And how about buying a house too? Our daughter and son-in-law are buying, a a house, a condo.
Vikki:And, that's all negotiations. Holy cow. Right? Those of you that have bought bought a house or condo or anything like that.
John:Yeah. Big time. And the other thing I would say about buying a house is be careful. You don't wanna negotiate this the final price of the house down too much because that actually hurts, if you're gonna sell the house. Unless you're not gonna sell it for ten years, it won't make a difference.
John:But if you think you're gonna sell it in the next year or two or three, you wanna keep the sales price high because it keeps all the area homes higher in price.
Vikki:And your neighbors will be happy with you.
John:Yeah. Right. You won't be hated. But, you know, negotiate other things. All the closing costs, negotiate down if you can try negotiate down as much as you can on other things.
John:Right? Yeah. I was just thinking because I'm wearing this watch today. I'm just thinking when we got this, again, it was a business that we're doing, and we hit a certain level, we're doing really well. And we we always pick what do we we always pick, like, rewards to give you to ourselves.
Vikki:Right? We, do delayed gratification. We might want that in something and be able to afford it, but we say no. We've set a goal. When we hit that goal, we'll get it.
Vikki:Yeah. That's exactly it.
John:Right. So and then, this is gonna sound goofy, but No. Like dream boards. I know.
Vikki:Oh, yeah.
John:Yeah. So important. Years ago, I would have thought that you're just out of your skull if you're if you think I'm gonna do a dream board. Right. But it's you put those things on there, and and you don't really realize how what an impact it has on you.
John:And then you'll find later that, oh my gosh, I bought that exact same whatever it is on the DreamBoard. So I had this on the DreamBoard, this color, this exact watch.
Vikki:It's a Breitling. Right?
John:Yeah. And they're and this particular one is fairly rare. And, like, I was looking here in The US for it just to see it, to wear it, to hold it, just to check it out, and I couldn't find it. Like, the Breitling dealers, the lug you know, the the legitimate dealers. I'm not talking about black market or gray market.
John:But the actual authorized Breitling dealers, they would have it with a different color. It wasn't their signature dial color, or they would have it with different numbers. I don't if you can see it, but it's kinda cool because it has stenciled numbers, and they're supposed to mimic the stenciling of American Navy ships.
Vikki:Oh, for your dad.
John:That's right. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. What do you know?
John:So anyways, trying to find it was because they normally put little tick marks. Forget what they call it, but they're little marks on And they in fact, they don't make them anymore at all, these. So anyways, we we were in Nassau, and we were going we're just shopping. Our daughter was with us, and one of her friends that went on this little trip with us.
Vikki:Cruise? It was to The Bahamas and yeah.
John:Yeah. And so we were just shopping in there, you know, because they have those those fancy stores. And so we went into one that's called Little Switzerland. So they're a really well known luxury watch and also jewelry dealer. And they're authorized by all these, you know, all the name name watches and whatnot.
John:And so they have all their displays. They're like, Tate Heuer. They had their Rolex. Then they had Hublot, and then I saw Breitling. Like, cool Breitling.
John:And then right in the middle of the display, you can't miss this watch is sitting there in that bright yellow. I was like, oh my gosh. I'm looking at it closely. I'm like, that's the one. So came over.
John:We wanna try it on. So I try it on and then just fell in love with it. And then comes the negotiation. Right? Because the things about price, what some small cars are.
John:Then I thought, well, this is ridiculous. We're not paying this kind of money. And this negotiation went back and and back and And what I real quickly realized was they did not want, and they probably couldn't contractually sell the watch for less than a certain amount. They had to sell it for the, like, the m the the suggested retail price, because I'm sure Breitling doesn't want their authorized dealers Right. You know, whoring out the market, selling these things dirt cheap, or selling a couple of them dirt cheap just to bring in a bunch of business.
John:So then I thought, okay, what is it this guy wants? Obviously, he wants me to buy this thing for full retail, but then you know what? I'll do it. And I even told him, I'll do this, but you're throwing in other stuff. Right?
John:I'm getting more. He goes, yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. Really good at that.
John:And right away, he's all. I said, I get what what you need out of this deal, but you understand what I need. This this isn't a value to me unless you make it a value. So we you threw in remember you had that Swarovski Oh, yeah. Necklace, whatever.
John:Then you got those Alex and Annie
Vikki:Oh,
John:yeah. Bunch of those things.
Vikki:That be really popular.
John:Little little some little diamond and crystal, whatever those pendants with an ad for Misa. Oh, yeah. A friend got something else. And then we were we were just asking for we felt like we're we're like we were poor, like homeless people just trying to get in there and just trying to get as much as we could out of the store, which is what we were doing since we're feigning so much for the stupid watch. And then he threw in another another band, or what they call strap, a leather strap.
John:Oh, yeah. Navy blue leather strap with another buckle. And just to show you how it's just how expensive these stupid things are. I broke this buckle, so I went and had to buy a new one. The cheapest one was $595.
John:For rubber? No. This is this is the the titan the they make them out of aluminum and titanium. And then the most expensive one was $1,200. Wow.
John:That's ridiculous. Just the rubber strap, I saw almost $200.
Vikki:Oh, that's what I thought you were saying.
John:Yeah. This is the same one that I had before. Just had to replace the buckle that I broke. But anyways It's nuts. They threw in that, they threw in an eight year extended warranty, but you'll get more once you realize once I realized that, hey, it's I know you want me to pay full price, but this is what I wanna deal then too.
John:So we ended up walking out of there, got got a lot of stuff,
Vikki:and Yeah.
John:Felt good about it.
Vikki:Yeah. John is really good. Like, you're a master. You're some something to watch in action. That's for sure.
John:And, actually, I enjoy it. You do.
Vikki:You yeah. You'll look at me when the salesperson isn't looking and then give me a big grin and then go back to your straight face.
John:And it's fun too because, you know, I I've I've always found that or it seems like almost every time, whoever the salesperson is, they don't get they're not offended by it.
Vikki:No.
John:Yeah. Sometimes they'll say, I'm sorry, but we don't like, I'm not gonna do it everywhere we go. Right? I might go buy a pair of shoes and try and Right. And try and, you know Get free socks or something?
John:Yeah. Right. Can imagine going to Nordstrom's and say, yeah, this is great, but, yeah, can you throw in an extra pair of socks with that too? That'd embarrassing. It'd be embarrassing.
John:But for some of these big purchases, I think most of the I think most salespeople realize that it's a big purchase.
Vikki:Right.
John:They expect it. Think they expect it. Right. Yeah.
Vikki:And you almost are becoming a fool in their eyes if you just jump at whatever price. That's what I also think too. They they they know they've got they've taken advantage of you. I feel like if you don't negotiate something.
John:Yeah. And another I think another big tip would be do your homework. You have to do your homework. Like, when we're buying cars, I would do my homework on that car. I knew what their invoice cost was on that car.
John:I would try and contact someone at with from the manufacturer and find out what incentives are offered, from the manufacturer that go to the dealer that the customer would never see, because there's all sorts of incentives that the manufacturers off to offer to dealers. They'll offer them if if the car if they can move that if they can move the inventory in, like, 90 in less than ninety days, they'll get a certain incentive. If they can do it in less than sixty days, they get another incentive, in thirty days, another so they're trying to turn that inventory as quickly as they can. They also have different different incentives that apply to certain vehicles, but you can you if if you know what you're talking about and you you mention it to the dealership and you say, I know you can take that because that's what happened when we got our Suburban. There was an incentive that was to apply to a Corvette that that Corvette was gonna sell.
John:And they and and we talked to because we knew the general manager. He said, oh, yeah. I already know a guy who's gonna buy that. I said, right. I said, the I forgot what incentive that the dealer was offering at the time or the manufacturer GM was offering at the time.
John:I said, I know you can apply that to this VIN that's on the on the the Suburban. He said, yeah. I think I can. So we got that applied you too, and it dropped the price down even lower.
Vikki:That is one thing too. Yeah. You've always done your homework, and I've always thought, how do you know all this stuff? And you're like, I researched. I looked into it.
Vikki:Yeah. That was even before the Internet was really huge, wasn't it? It it was Yeah. It was there, but
John:It was harder to find all this information. Today, it's super easy. But I I would say just spend a little bit extra time, do your homework, and at least you're not going in there like, you're going you're gonna go in armed. Right? So you Right.
John:That way you can at least not be taken advantage of so badly.
Vikki:Would you suggest that with, buildings too when you're gonna go lease a building?
John:Everything. Right?
Vikki:Check. Yeah. And, obviously, you're gonna have a realtor, I would think, helping you. But, you know, know what the cost of buildings are in the area and what leases are just like you wouldn't if you're getting an apartment too.
John:Yeah. And and don't take everything that they say, as gospel. Right? Yeah. They'll they'll a lot of times blame, well, you know, this this is gonna cost more because the price of plywood went up, it just doubled in the last month.
John:Check that out. Yeah. Don't And then you'll find out, no. Plywood hasn't doubled in the last month. Plywood went up 22% in the last month.
Vikki:That's a good point. Yeah. Because they're trying to pull a fast one on a lot of people. Yeah. We're we're landscaping with new hardscape, new softscape, our whole backyard and front yard, and we're in negotiations right now.
Vikki:That's another reason I thought of this.
John:Several different general contractors.
Vikki:Mhmm.
John:And we could try and tackle it ourselves as an owner builder project, and then just No.
Vikki:Thank you.
John:Work with all the subs. But good lord. You know? That's why when you look I you look at a lot of general contractors that have been working with these subs and have been doing this job a long time, they look really old for their age. My ex my ex sorry.
John:Sorry, guys. But I know that's tough. I know you're outside in the sun and and and bad weather and whatnot, but I'll tell you, that's a stressful job. They're having to deal with all of those moving parts, and, I wouldn't wanna do it.
Vikki:I know. And they don't use our product, probably. They probably don't. By the way, speaking of our new filler, can you guys tell John's skin? I was looking at pre our couple podcasts, you know, back in October is when we launched.
Vikki:Go look at those. Go watch a few. And look at the two of us now. I see a big change.
John:Yeah. That's been what I'm for me, it's been a month and a half maybe.
Vikki:I think five weeks. Yeah. Didn't we take four weeks? Yeah. Yeah.
Vikki:Anyway yeah.
John:Yeah. Well, yeah.
Vikki:And yeah. So if you're one of those contractors or you're out in the sun, I'm telling you, this product works.
John:Yeah. If you're one of those contractors, leave a leave a note in there because we'd like to talk to you maybe about about this project that we're working on, because we're just right now, like Vic said, we're negotiating. We haven't even started that yet. They haven't even we haven't even heard what their what their bids are on this thing. Right.
John:And we're doing it in multiple phases. So if you're interested in bidding it, please reach out to us. And I didn't mean anything by the you look old comment. Sorry. Don't hold that against me.
Vikki:We're in Southern California, so it'd probably be anyone listening that's a contractor in Southern California, unless you wanna fly out here.
John:Yeah. That's not gonna work.
Vikki:Alright. Well, this has been fun. We hope you learned something on this this episode. We hope you're not just gonna fall for anything you're offered that you negotiate, that you learn to do game face, that you work with your partner. It actually is very smart to go with somebody else, not just yourself because you can, you know, play off each other.
John:Yeah. For sure. And then also understand this because you can talk to each other and and kinda build each other up a little bit on it too. But also know this too, that when you go to a car dealership and again, we've been talking a lot about car dealerships just because that's an that's an expensive item. Right?
John:It's the most expensive household item Yeah. Other than a house. Yeah. It's the most expensive item that a family pays for other than buying their house. So it's important.
John:But remember, keep this in mind too that if you think about the times you've gone to a car dealership and what they've done and some of the tactics they they employ, like you're talking about handing you the keys and having you hold the keys, one of the things they want you to do is drive the car. Yeah. Right? And when you drive the car, it's like, oh, yeah. I love this thing.
John:Also, what they do is they'll leave you alone in that tiny little cubicle, that ridiculously small cubicle, right, that has just an empty desk, but and a phone on it. Why do they need a phone in that stupid little cubicle? No one is ever talking on the phone. That's basically a prop because it's an intercom. So they're listening to your private conversation that you, like Vicky and I, are having in there.
John:So just keep that in mind. I'm not saying all of them do, but I know a lot of them do because I've it.
Vikki:Yeah. Do you think they're recording us in
John:Maybe not the recording, but he's sitting in the sales manager's office, and they're listening to what's being said between us saying, you know what? I love it. We love that car. We're gonna then they know they've got you.
Vikki:Yeah.
John:Right? It's true. So play the game. Don't say, I I know you're listening to me. Yeah.
John:So we just act like we don't know. We say, wow. And then when when they when he leaves, it's like, we'll we'll play that same game. Like, you know what? Vic, I know you like it.
John:I don't.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. We do that whole thing.
John:We were talking to the whatever dealer down the street, and we can get the same basically, same car for less over there, or or it's a maybe it's a competing dealership. You know, I like that the the Toyota better than the the the Honda or whatever it is. Right? And I I think we'll go back there because that they look like they're willing to work with us a little better anyways.
Vikki:Don't seem seem like it. Yeah. Totally. We do that.
John:Yeah. If if if they would if they would come down a little bit on that price, you know, I would consider maybe talking to us more. So, yeah, I think we're about done. And then as we start to get up, right, all of a sudden they come rushing back in the door. How did you know we were leaving?
John:Yeah. That has Oh, that's right. You're listening to us.
Vikki:Yeah. So we just know. And if
John:you don't like if you don't like haggling with people and and whatnot, I get it. I I think most people don't. Right? So don't don't feel like you're, like, the weird one because you don't like you're not like me. I'm actually the weird one because I enjoy doing it.
Vikki:Yeah. And I'm glad he does because you've saved us a ton of money over the years. Tons of money. I wonder if it's the the Japanese in you because your mom not that you're a gambler, but is it kinda like
John:I don't know.
Vikki:She loves to kill me.
John:Thought of that.
Vikki:She liked to haggle too. I know. It's interesting. Maybe. Interesting.
Vikki:Have you seen her at a garage sale? Your grandma was great at garage sales. His grandma
John:Oh my god.
Vikki:Would buy low, go to an area and buy everything low, go to she had her own garage sale business because she'd buy low, come back to La Habra. She had lived in a nice area of La Habra and sell it higher.
John:Old do you think she was when doing that?
Vikki:In the in her nineties. So
John:she bought a little mini truck.
Vikki:Was just gonna say. This
John:was in the nineties, the nineteen nineties. She was in her nineties. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah.
John:Was born nineteen o two or
Vikki:Something like that.
John:I think she was born nineteen o two. So this was in the nineteen nineties, and she went and got herself a little Nissan mini truck, and then got a little shell for it so she could put her stuff in the back.
Vikki:We were like, look at grandma.
John:She had us tint the windows.
Vikki:But she did it legal. She did the ones behind her head. Remember? She didn't do right next to
John:her. Oh my gosh. A 90 year old with dark tinted windows would not be safe for anyone else on the road.
Vikki:Right? Used that truck.
John:She drove she did a ton of miles on that thing because she would go that was her thing. It was. Every weekend, she'd she'd get up at o dark thirty and hit all the garage sales, and she would just negotiate for this and that.
Vikki:You learned it from her then.
John:I don't I didn't go with her because I was embarrassed. Then she'd load her little truck up. She'd go but you know that I think that that's why she was so active in her nineties was because of things like that. She volunteered to the hospital.
Vikki:Meals on wheels.
John:She did she delivered delivered food for meals on wheels. Volunteered for that. Right? She volunteered for all kinds of things and was always so active. But anyways, getting back to the garage sale, you're right.
John:She would take it back to her place, clean it up, then mark it up, and sell it.
Vikki:And makes a little bit of extra money.
John:I guess. Hilarious.
Vikki:Now people are doing that too. I I mean, they're still doing it, but it was adorable to see. So Why not? Yeah. So that's a business idea for you.
Vikki:Alright. Well, thanks for joining us today. We hope you loved it. Please subscribe. Jump on every Thursday.
Vikki:Our podcast drops every Thursday. Share this with a friend if you know they're buying a house, negotiating a lease, anything that there's negotiations involved. Buying a watch, buying jewelry, for example. Share it with them. I know they could benefit from it, and, we've had fun with you today.
Vikki:Have a great one. See you next time.
John:Bye bye.
Vikki:Thanks for joining us on Dig the Well.
John:We hope you feel empowered and ready to take on new challenges.
Vikki:Remember, if we can do it, so can you. Keep learning, keep believing, and going after your dreams.
John:And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who needs a little inspiration or maybe a nudge in the right direction.
Vikki:Help us grow this community of go getters. Together, we can achieve greatness and get back to family.
John:Thanks for listening, and let's keep digging the one.