WEBVTT - Losing Everything... Twice: The Auto Firm 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:04.640 He stared at me straight in my face and said, 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.080 I don't need you anymore. 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:07.920 Wow. So he backed out on his promise. 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:10.920 Not only backed out, he screwed me over, told me 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.360 that there's nothing after two years, and it was just 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:16.960 like probably one of the most difficult things I've ever 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.239 faced in my life. I built this and I got 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.560 to walk out. It's his business, it's not mine. 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.440 That's Alex Vega, founder of the auto firm. At that moment, 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.240 he was up against a brick wall, pushed out of 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.360 a company he helped build, with no other options, he 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.480 would have no choice but to start over, not just once, 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:35.680 but twice. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.159 It was like starting again from nothing. 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.800 Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.159 Studio from My Heart Media. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:52.400 Chase for Business. 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.400 And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners. 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.240 On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.960 business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.320 of how they got through it. Hey, Tanya, we're back 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.119 with another story and this one, this one might make 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:10.559 you just a little bit uncomfortable. 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.960 Yeah, I am already nervous. Just based on what we've 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.399 heard so far, Ben, it is so hard to start 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.840 a business, and this man built one for someone else. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.480 Now he's turned back out on his own. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:23.800 It's even more complicated. 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.360 Just wait, h no, keep me hanging. Let's hear it. 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:33.160 On today's episode The Auto Firm from Miami, Florida. 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.240 I tell everybody, listen, I've never worked a day in 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:38.400 my life. I go there and I play all day. 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.400 Alex Vega has been in love with cars his entire life. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.399 As a kid going up, I remember the toys that 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.120 I cared about, the moles for the little hot wheel cars. 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.040 We would get markers and change them up, cut of 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.800 the wheels, do stripes. I would watch shows like The 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.840 Dukes of Hazard, the night Rider Starskeen Hodge. 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.000 I was the huge Dukes of Hazzard fan every Friday night. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:01.680 Oh yeah, and I like night Rider too. 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.800 Never hassle the Hoff, Never hassle the Hoff. Anything that 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.080 had cars in it I loved, and I always said 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.480 I wanted one day build a car that everybody in 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:13.720 the world would know. Hey, you know what Alex Viga 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:14.440 did that car? 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.000 Now. I watched all those shows, but Alex he didn't 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.320 just watch cars on TV. He was around them in 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:22.360 real life all the time. His father was a salesman 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.200 at Firestone. Alex would go to work with his dad 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.280 and just watch cars go in and out of the shop. 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:27.600 You know. 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.480 I was sitting down by the sidewalk and watch the 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.760 cars come in and out, in and out, and people 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.480 will either change tires or do old changes, and I 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.079 would be like, man, why don't they change the wheels, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.440 Why don't they paint them? Do them different. 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.720 Eventually he had the chance to fix up his own car. 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.120 I remember my front door neighbor had a Buick Regal 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.639 nineteen seventy nine. It had a grass growing all over it. 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.000 I told them one day, I said, would you sell 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.720 me the car? All I have is five hundred bucks? 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.880 And he sold me the car. But now I want 0:02:59.919 --> 0:03:02.240 to to make it look nice because everybody else in 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.160 my high school had these nice cars. And I'm here 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.760 pulling in in nineteen seventy nine. The antenna was a hangar. 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.480 And I just started, little by little going to autoparts 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.840 stores and buying hug caps, buying center console, and then 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:16.960 people would see my car in school and say, man, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:18.720 I like your car. What did you do to it? 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.239 And I just started selling cars. 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:25.400 He did that for a while, and when it was 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.640 time to go to college, he decided, you know, it 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:29.000 wasn't really for him. 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.760 I didn't want to go to college. I went for 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.880 literally two days, and I did it just to please 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.960 my mom. And I remember calling my dad and say, Dad, 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.000 I want to do what you do. I want to 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.960 work with cars. I have a passion for it. Why 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:44.040 not make it a business? 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:46.840 So he dropped out of school and his dad connected 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:48.960 him with the manager of the Firestone that he worked at, 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.920 but the manager thought Alex was too young he wouldn't 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.960 hire him. So instead, Alex got a job selling coupon 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:56.200 books for oil changes. 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.800 You would sell these flyers for twenty bucks and you'd 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.000 get five free old changes, and it was to drive 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:07.240 customers into Firestone. So I said, that's the perfect opportunity. 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.880 I'll cell abut to these flyers. They see my potential, 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.240 and I'll get a job at Firestone. I was probably 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.400 selling over one hundred flyers a week. 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:17.839 The district manager at his dad's shop asked to see him. 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:22.320 This is that typical Cuban guy with the macho attitude. 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.480 He was very intimidating. And I remember I walk in 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.400 and he throws like it was a stack of those 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.559 coupons into the table and he says, are you doing 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.240 this for some reason? And I said, what are you 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.120 talking about? He says, are you giving him away? Are 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.200 you selling them? I said, I'm selling them. He says, well, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:41.719 stop selling them. 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.719 Alex was confused. He was doing so well selling the 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.320 coupon books. Why on earth would anyone want him to stop? 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:49.279 So Alex tried to reason. 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:52.920 With him, the coupon is not costing you anything. It's 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.240 costing the consumer something. They're coming into your store. Now 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.640 it's up to your managers to take advantage of it 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.599 and bring them in and sell them. That's the purpose 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:01.880 of it. 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:04.520 Now, this was a smart manager. He thought Alex had 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.159 a point, so he made him an offer. 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:09.400 He looked at me like, I can't believe this guy's 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.080 telling me this, and says, tomorrow, I have a manager's meeting. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.719 All my managers are gonna be there. You're gonna walk 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.240 in at eight thirty, and whatever you just talk to 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.760 me about, I want you to tell them that if 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.320 you walk out of there alive, you got a job. Tomorrow. 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.040 I remember walking into this meeting, and I don't know 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.080 if you've ever seen bulldogs when they're mad that their 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.720 saliva is coming down. That's how everybody looked at me. 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.640 Alex gave the managers the same spiel he did before. 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.560 Most of the managers were pretty mad, but one was impressed. 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.839 He looked at me and said, I want this kid 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:44.600 to work for me. 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.800 For the next nine years. Alex was a successful salesman 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.800 at Firestone until one day one of his customers offered 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:54.320 him the chance of a lifetime. 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.039 Somebody comes in and tells me, I know what you 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.280 want as a custom shop to build custom cars. I'm 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.880 going to give you that opportunity, he says. I'll open 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.480 the nicest custom shop. I'll put all the equipment you need. 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:09.919 I'll pay you a good salary. If you get me 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.800 to a million dollars in sales a month and two years, 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.200 I will give you fifty percent of the company. 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:16.760 Wow, it sounds like a pretty good deal. 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:17.919 Yeah, I said, no brainer. 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.320 It was everything Alex wanted and a real chance to 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.640 prove himself. He told the man he would do it, 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.160 he'd build his company, and when they shook on it, 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.760 he was instantly on the hook for a million dollars 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.839 a month in sales. So he got to it, working 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:33.840 harder than he'd ever worked in his life to keep 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.640 his promise, and at the same time, he and his 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.479 wife started building their future together. They moved into their 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.960 dream home, confident that it was all going to pay off, 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.520 and two years later, Alex went to talk to the boss, 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:47.680 ready to take on his half as promised. 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.839 Two years came down the line, I overdid my promise. 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.039 He stared at me, straight in my face and said, 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:57.320 I don't need you anymore. 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.200 Wow. So he backed out on his promise. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.960 Backed out, not only backed out, literally looked at me 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.520 and said I don't need you no more. And it 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.000 was just like probably one of the it was one 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.400 of the most difficult things I've ever faced in my life. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.760 I thought everything ended like right there, all this I 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:14.600 built this, and I just I got to walk out. 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:16.040 It's his business, it's not mine. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.400 Alex returned home completely devastated. 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.160 I was so mad that I had never felt that 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.920 anger inside of me. And I get to the house. 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.000 My wife opens the door, looks in my face and 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.920 says what happened? And I said, he screwed me? Over. 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.920 I'm out, Like he just fired me and told me 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.920 that there's nothing after two years, I got to start 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:42.160 all over again. She looked at me straight in the 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.360 I said, you're going to sell the house and you're 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:48.120 going to build your own business. People love you, not him. 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.480 It's not the name of the business, it's you. 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.320 Wow, that's amazing. So now you're starting over. But you've 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.960 learned a pretty hard lesson. It sounds like, so how 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.040 did you do things differently? 0:07:57.640 --> 0:07:59.880 Number one? I knew it was going to be my business, 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.520 Like that's it, Like, this is all me now. My 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.400 wife gave up the most beautiful house we had just 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.680 built to open this business. And it's your money now. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.480 It's not somebody else's money. Now. It's when you go 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.520 and buy that tire machine that costs twenty thousand dollars, 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.440 it's your twenty thousand dollars. So now you really gotta 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.320 hustle three times the amount. 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.400 Did you find new customers? Did you serve the same customers? Like? 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.000 What did you do? You had to start all over? 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.240 Yeah, a lot of the customers stood by me. 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.680 Now on his own, the business continued to grow. Working 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.280 for himself under his own name, he built a terrific reputation. 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.040 I would look at any car, I would talk to 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.760 somebody for five minutes and boom, automatically, I knew what 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.559 they wanted. They couldn't see it, but I saw it. 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.040 And making cars in a way where when I thought 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:50.959 as a kid, I want people to see a car 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:52.520 and say, Alex Viga did that car? 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:54.679 What does a trademark Alex Viga car look like? 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:59.680 Nice than any other car out there? I promise you 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.960 have never spend one dollar in advertising. Wow, everything has 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.360 come through word of mouth and delivering exactly what you're 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:08.760 promising people you're going to deliver. 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.000 Alex's business was catching steam, and soon he was working 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.200 with athletes like MLB player Alfonso Soriano and celebrities like Akon, 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.000 Lil Wayne and Usain Bolt. He got crazy requests like 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:24.800 make me a Lamborghini that can breathe fire. That's a 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.440 real car he made by the way his work spread 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:29.840 through word of mouth, but he was solely focused on 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.160 car builds. If someone needed more basic collision repair or 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.920 maintenance services, they'd have to go somewhere else. Then one 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.199 day Alex was talking to a guy who owned a 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.120 collision repair shop, and as it happened, there was open 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:43.240 garage space next. 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:47.000 Door, and this guy convinces me to move my business 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.280 next to his business a building that he had next 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.960 to him, to lease it from him so I can 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.360 have a body shop basically next to me and a 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:57.120 custom shop. 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.120 It felt like a perfect way to expand further, so 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.080 Alex moved in. But he quickly realized he'd made a 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:03.720 big mistake. 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.680 I find this out three months after I did this 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.520 big move, that this guy's behind my back trying to 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.559 take all my clients. He had trademarked the name of 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:17.800 the company I was using back then and basically destroyed 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.040 me mentally. Confront the guy kicks me out of the 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:25.080 building with my equipment in there. It was like starting 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.160 again from nothing. 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.600 Hard as it is to believe. For the second time, 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.280 Alex had failed to get anything in writing, and he 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.240 had no protections in place. Why do you think you 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.319 took someone on their word after what happened the first time? 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.480 The way I was raised by my father was a 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.880 man's handshake and his word and looking him in the 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.000 eye was better than any contract. 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.560 Okay, so let's pause here for a second, and Tanya, 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:53.640 I need to bring you in here. I have to 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.400 confess I couldn't help but think of you as I 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.160 was interviewing him, and I'm listening to this story because 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.520 the lawyer and you must just be completely hor on 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:01.280 so many levels. 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.880 You are so right getting burned not just once, not 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.439 just twice, but then starting over a third time because 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.280 he really wasn't into contracts. You know, that's tough on me, 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.320 even personal. It does something to me. 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.240 You know, you're just thinking he should have hired me. 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.800 Well, yeah, he could have hired us, but someone I 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:23.560 see a lot of small business owners do this. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:25.319 Do you see a lot of small business owners take 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:26.240 it that much on faith? 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:27.000 Yeah? 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.559 Unfortunately a lot of entrepreneurs do this. They think that 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:33.600 since the conversations are going well and they feel good 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.439 about the person, that it's okay to just go ahead 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.600 and move forward with the deal. And that's such a mistake. 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.200 Trust me when I say it is best to do 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.400 the contract now when things are good between the two 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.760 of you. Imagine what's going to be like when there's 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:47.800 actually money involved. 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.640 If I use the analogy of a prenup where people say, 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.400 you know, it'll take the romance out, and obviously this 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.560 is business romance, not personal. But how do you make 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.560 sure the process of going through the contract and everything 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:00.600 that you need to do doesn't sour the really relationship. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.439 It helps to bring in the third person. It allows 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.280 that third person to be the one who's making it uncomfortable. 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:08.520 The two or three are all hover many people who 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:10.600 are getting into the deal. They can still have their 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.520 good relationship while the other person, the attorney, probably is 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.200 the one asking the hard questions, forcing them to have 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.520 conversations that they otherwise would not want to have. So really, 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:22.880 all an entrepreneur needs to do is just to know 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.480 that they simply need to bring someone else in. 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:26.280 That's it. 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.600 Well, look it's good advice, Tanya, and we should all 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:31.719 hire a third party to do that. But what if 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.160 you can't afford it? I mean, some small business owners 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.560 just starting out they don't have the money to do it. 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:38.080 Then they think they don't have the money to do 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.800 it because they don't realize what a priority it is. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.560 If you really think you're going to succeed in business, 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.559 you will ultimately have a lot at stake. And also, 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.120 even if you can just get advice, you know, if 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.640 someone were to say I can't afford to get any help. 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.960 I would say, how about you at least have a consultation, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.840 at least get points, even bullet points that could ultimately 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:00.560 end up on a piece of paper. Both of you 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.319 all sign just to get the insight from someone who 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.640 is a professional, who is advocating for them is better 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:07.200 than nothing. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:09.200 Listen. I think that's really great advice, and we'll get 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:10.720 into it later, but for right now, let's get back 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:11.320 to the story. 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.600 All right, Well, let's see where this goes. 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.120 Alex realized he had no choice but to take legal action. 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.920 Over the next year, Alex's company would be tied up 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.200 in a trademark lawsuit against his former business partner, and 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.400 that meant that all his business's assets, basically everything he 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.560 needed to keep working, were frozen. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.760 We had to go through a lawsuit for it was 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.920 a whole year. It was a disaster. I couldn't get 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.320 my equipment up, I couldn't get my inventory. So you 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.280 have to literally say, what do I do right now? 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:43.880 Alex found a new space where he could build back, 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.880 bigger and better. But before he could rebuild for the 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.560 third time, believe it or not, he had to raise 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.600 the cash to rent the garage, and he had to 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:52.280 do it fast. 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.560 I literally started calling all my clients and saying, look, 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.640 I'm going through this situation right now. If you want 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.199 to change your wheels, if you want to do anything 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.280 to your cars, I'll do whatever you want on your cars, 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.560 and I'll do it literally at the lowest profit possible. 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.920 But I need to move forward and reverse. The customer said, no, 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:14.960 you're going to charge me whatever. I remember baseball players 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.440 coming to me that were close to me, and I 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:19.720 remember this guy like saber mirrors. He was playing for 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.840 the White Sox. He literally came to my store with 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.440 a brand new Porsche she had bought and gave me 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.920 the keys. He said, I don't know what kits they have. 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.440 I don't care what it costs me. I want you 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.200 to build me the baddest Porsche you ever built. It 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.440 was literally a sixty thousand dollars ticket. 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:41.720 With the support of his clients, Alex was able to 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.040 raise eighteen thousand dollars in just four days, and he 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.800 signed the lease for the new space. He even had 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.280 enough leftover to buy some new machines for the final time. 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.720 Alex reopened the business with a new name, The Auto 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.640 Firm He also created his own line of rims and tires, 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.640 named using a combination of his initials AV and the 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.480 Italian word for an unstoppable force. Together. He called it 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:05.600 a Vorza. 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.360 And I loved the word. I said, man, it's catchy. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.400 You look it up. It doesn't exist, there's no description 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.800 for it. And I remember going to one of the 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.320 biggest manufacturers, says, I want to make my own brand. 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.720 I make all these designs. And I started drawing out 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.360 designs and they love the designs and they say, we'll 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.320 make them for you. Let's do it. And that's how 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.960 I created my own wheel brand. And I was actually 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.720 putting this on celebrity cars, athlete. 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.360 Cars, hopefully with a contract this time. 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:35.080 Right, Oh yeah, everything was contracts. You know. Now, I 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.720 learned the American way. I'll still give you trust, i'll 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.160 give you respect, but if we're going to do something 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.880 business wise, you have to do a contract. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:46.880 And yeah, there were contracts. But he made one critical 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.120 new addition to his team that made a big difference. 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.200 My wife says, whatever you're doing, we're doing it together. 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.440 And my wife came into the business and she became 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.680 the accountant whatever she wanted to be the resident, but 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:06.160 her being there, it will never happen again. Like now, 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.280 sky is the limit. We're going forward and it's thanks 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.040 to those moments that you live, that you go through 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:17.440 and not giving up ever giving up is continuing to push, push, push, 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.520 and being the best you can be today. 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.320 The auto firm and his tire brand of Orza, generate 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.880 twelve million dollars in sales every year, and collectively they 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.480 employ over forty staff members. The auto firm customizes over 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.320 a thousand cars a year, almost half of which Alex 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:36.480 says are for celebrity clients. But more importantly, he and 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.280 his wife Amy have retained full ownership of the company 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:41.560 and they plan to pass it on to their two sons. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.680 One day, I built something, but now I get to 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.440 enjoy my family with it. I'm gonna keep doing what 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.920 I do. I'm not gonna stop. The drive is always 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.880 gonna live there. I wake up in the morning and 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:53.720 that's what I want to do. 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.120 That was juicy story. There's a lot to unpact there 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.720 and I'm really excited to get to it. But first, 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:07.919 and I don't think you know this about me, but 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.879 I'm kind of a car girl. You're not impressed by 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:12.640 fire coming out of a Lamborghini even. 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.679 Well, look, I'm in awe of what he builds, and 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:17.720 then I'll go back to driving my Honda a Cord. 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.160 At least you can acknowledge, as your non car self 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:22.880 that it is quite amazing what he did. And when 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.359 I think about the branding model that he put together, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:30.880 where he's tying his own brand to other world class brands, 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.480 how brilliant Rolls, Royce, lambri all this. 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:38.000 Yeah, Alex clearly understands marketing and brands and how it works. Yeah, 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.480 and he understands that the best brands aren't built through 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.520 advertising dollars. They're built through word of mouth and reputation. 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:45.920 One of the things I tell my employees all the 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.960 time is that you don't create a brand. A brand 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.240 is a reflection of what you do anyway, and then 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.399 you get to take your megaphone and yell about that 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:55.600 brand that you have that your customers know you have 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.359 because you deliver it. And I think he figured out 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.480 a way to tie his brand that people already knew 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.760 about and attach it to the right megaphones with the 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.200 right associations in a way that really benefited his business. Oh, Yeah. 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.560 For him to have gotten this far and never paid 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.280 for advertising, that's huge. I mean, he's got all kinds 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.439 of credible people speaking to how wonderful his products and 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.880 services are. I really think he put together something amazing. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.560 Well. I think a couple of things. One is he 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:23.600 understands his brand and what it stands. 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:24.200 For sure. 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:28.000 His brand is grounded in the product that he actually delivers. 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.199 And my products and experiences for my customers inspire passion 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.879 in them, and that creates a marketing engine in and 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:37.520 of itself. And then I take all of that and 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:38.920 I package it up and I put it next to 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.400 other brands that people love, and I'm off to the races. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:41.840 Yeah. 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.280 And when you hear Alex talk about what he did 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.359 to this car or that car, he's talking about his brand. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:51.440