Latest / Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan / This Founder Runs a 7-Figure Business From an RV—With His Dog as His Wingman

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This Founder Runs a 7-Figure Business From an RV—With His Dog as His Wingman · Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan

• 0:00
  Your dog helped win A5 figure deal for your business.
• 0:03
  You are a business owner that travels around the country as
• 0:06
  like a traveling nomad, right? And you're killing it in your
• 0:09
  business. You guys are doing amazing right
• 0:11
  now. RV life slows life down just so
• 0:15
  much. For you, you're probably going
• 0:16
  to be on the go anyway so you can stop and physically see
• 0:19
  customers. And in person, I can look at the
• 0:21
  guy and I'm going to get him to look at me and I'm going to get
• 0:23
  him to focus on what I'm saying. I can't do that on Zoom.
• 0:25
  So while you still get to see people and it's better than, you
• 0:29
  know, not being on zoom or better than a beats a phone
• 0:31
  call. I'm complete old school, but I'm
• 0:33
  walking across the showroom and a guy across the showroom just
• 0:36
  looks at me and he goes not interested.
• 0:38
  You know, kind of made a fool out of me and I'm like, that's
• 0:40
  crazy. They're really a holes.
• 0:41
  You know, I'm going like, but This is why I want this life
• 0:45
  because I could just go, how could I get the interest and
• 0:48
  then go see them and not have to knock on doors the way I did it
• 0:52
  completely cold my whole life. We're going to do that mail and
• 0:55
  he goes and I'm telling you right now the only reason I'm
• 0:56
  doing is because this dog right here and I'm.
• 1:02
  So I'm really excited to have you on the show and, and to just
• 1:04
  dive into your world and what's going on.
• 1:06
  And I'm pretty hopeful that other founders and business
• 1:10
  owners will be able to learn from your experiences and what
• 1:12
  you're going through. So let's get into a man.
• 1:15
  The first thing I definitely get back to that 5 figure deal that
• 1:17
  was close through Wyatt, your dog.
• 1:20
  First of all, how did you first get on the road like as a
• 1:22
  business owner, entrepreneur? Like what brought you to where?
• 1:24
  Because you had a house and then you sold it and then now you're
• 1:27
  just literally on the road like you don't have a house.
• 1:30
  No, I don't have. Actually.
• 1:33
  May 31st will be 6 years of no home.
• 1:37
  Wow. Absolutely no home.
• 1:38
  I mean, I do have technically I do have an apartment over there.
• 1:43
  You got an apartment? I have, I have a place that I
• 1:45
  that I rent that I never see. Basically it's I'm, I'm
• 1:49
  nonexistent there. I'm on the road.
• 1:52
  I guess what, what really happened was I, I did a lot of
• 1:56
  traveling before I did the RV and I did that with hotels, but
• 1:59
  I always had a dog. So it was just hard finding
• 2:02
  hotels. Then I joined into the RV life
• 2:05
  form like, oh, I love it. I, I can, you know, I can stay
• 2:08
  where, you know, I can go wherever I want.
• 2:10
  I don't have to worry about booking hotels at night.
• 2:12
  And then I had a house in Connecticut, which was my last
• 2:14
  house. And in 2018, in a 5 month
• 2:20
  period, I literally spent eight nights in my house and I'm like,
• 2:25
  why do I need this? What's the point?
• 2:27
  Why do I, why do I need this? I was literally, I would get
• 2:31
  home and my first thought is where we going next?
• 2:34
  And, and I just said, you know what, why don't I just give this
• 2:38
  a shot? And I wasn't sure.
• 2:40
  I mean, I really wasn't sure. You know, you're not sure if
• 2:41
  you're going to like this, love this.
• 2:43
  And I, and I decided that you know what, I'm going to give it
• 2:47
  a shot. But I got two big storage units
• 2:49
  and I put all my stuff enough for a, you know, 2 bedroom house
• 2:53
  in storage. Just not sure what it was going
• 2:56
  to be like. And I went out on the road and
• 2:58
  my first stop was Tennessee. I had to do business and I
• 3:02
  literally got there and I was like, what did you do?
• 3:07
  I was sure this is what I. Exactly.
• 3:09
  I said are you know, what did you do you know and I'm like you
• 3:13
  have no home. This is it.
• 3:14
  This is your home. You have.
• 3:15
  At that time I had no residence. Oh, not even the rent.
• 3:18
  Not even the nothing. I had nothing and I'm like what?
• 3:21
  It's a little scary. Yeah, it was very scary.
• 3:23
  And, and I, I was sitting there and I'm like, OK, I thought
• 3:27
  about it and I said, well, you know, I'm leaving here.
• 3:28
  This was kind of business and I was going out to Colorado and
• 3:32
  California to do a little business, but that was more
• 3:34
  pleasure and business. I had some, you know, people to
• 3:37
  see out there. And I'm like, so I said, I
• 3:39
  thought about that and I said, well, you know, you going out
• 3:41
  there, you really like it out there.
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  And so let let this just, you know, let this simmer for a
• 3:48
  little bit and see how it works out.
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  And I got out to Colorado. I loved it.
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  And I'm like, OK, maybe feel better.
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  And then I went to California and that was where it that's
• 3:58
  kind of where it got a little interesting.
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  I was at a beautiful park. I love California, beautiful
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  weather. But for what I do advertising
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  and automotive, the area where I stayed at, they don't do mail.
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  And I was told this when I started walking in just trying
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  to introduce myself and guys were like, they were like, you
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  know, this is an area where this is the way they.
• 4:16
  By cars. And they, they get on their
• 4:17
  phone, they buy a car. Most guys aren't going to be
• 4:19
  interested in what you do. And, and one guy who was an East
• 4:23
  Coast guy said some of these guys are probably going to be a
• 4:25
  little bit, you know, harsh with you because it's they, they
• 4:28
  don't like your that type of stuff.
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  And I, I have thick skin. I don't really care.
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  So I started walking in and, and I got actually treated pretty
• 4:36
  rudely. And I have, and it doesn't
• 4:37
  bother me, you know, I'm like, hey, I walk in.
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  I don't walk in with a briefcase.
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  I walk in with an iPad. If you're not interested, thanks
• 4:43
  for your time, move on. But I'm walking across the
• 4:46
  showroom and a guy across the showroom just looks at me and he
• 4:49
  goes not interested, you know, kind of made a fool out of me.
• 4:52
  And I'm like, wow, these guys are really, they're really a
• 4:56
  holes. You know, I'm going like, you
• 4:58
  know, it's just bad. You know, you don't do that.
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  I mean, there was no need to do that.
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  And so I kind of was like, you know, this just isn't an area
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  for me. And I'm went back and I'm
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  sitting in the RV and I paid for a month.
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  I seen my friend twice who I came out to visit and I'm
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  sitting there and I had my other dog Jenny, at the time.
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  That's who I started this with. And I just look at her on the
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  couch and I go, we're out of here.
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  And right there I said This is why.
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  This is. Me, but This is why I want this
• 5:27
  life because I could just go, it was just it wasn't working out
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  and I just left and I go right there.
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  I said this is this, this this is this is the type of life you
• 5:39
  want. Because when I go somewhere and
• 5:41
  I love it and I enjoy it, I could stay as long as I want.
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  I could stay for a year if I wanted to or I can leave in a
• 5:47
  day. And then I just said, you know
• 5:48
  what? Since that point, it's just it's
• 5:52
  just gotten better and better. And that was really it.
• 5:55
  It it, I think it really helps to have the, you have a really
• 5:58
  nice RV, right? Like so nice that when I was on
• 6:00
  the first zoom call with you, I was like, Hey, he's got this is
• 6:03
  a nice house. And then you're like, I'm in the
• 6:05
  RV. I'm like, no, like where your,
• 6:07
  your background's like a fake. You're like, no, I'm in it and
• 6:10
  I'm like, oh shit, that's actually it.
• 6:11
  Like it looks nice because I think for me it's like we're in
• 6:14
  humans, we're creatures of habit, right?
• 6:16
  So it's like for me, I think about man, if I didn't like wake
• 6:18
  up in my house every morning, have my coffee routine and this
• 6:21
  and that. But you probably just set your
• 6:22
  own routines. You just set your own routines
• 6:24
  because you have kind of a mini moving house, right?
• 6:27
  So that kind of keep some stability, right.
• 6:30
  Would you agree that if you were just on the go on a car and had
• 6:32
  to go to different hotels everywhere?
• 6:34
  Oh yeah, it's a. That would be.
• 6:36
  Yes, right. I gotta, I gotta take, I gotta
• 6:38
  pack up my computers. I bring a lot of stuff because
• 6:41
  how do? You have good Wi-Fi wherever.
• 6:42
  You're I always well I have 4:00.
• 6:44
  I have 4 hotspots OK, so and I carry and plus I have satellite
• 6:47
  plus I have I have satellite and I have starlink.
• 6:51
  I have to be connected have to that's a that's a must.
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  So if you can throw me out the woods, I'm getting online.
• 6:57
  Can you explain what Starlink is for those that don't know?
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  Like how is that different than a hotspot type of thing or the
• 7:01
  same thing? No, Starlink is satellite.
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  So you're working with satellites, but so you doesn't
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  matter. You can go out in the middle of
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  the ocean. You don't need a tower, you
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  don't need any kind of cell reception.
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  You're using satellites to get it.
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  And how good is it compared? To it's fantastic.
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  The the only weird thing about Starlink, which I find
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  interesting is that with with like satellite TV, like DIRECTV,
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  DIRECTV, you'll lock on to a satellite and it just locks on.
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  It seems like with Starlink, it'll roam, it'll switch to
• 7:31
  different satellites. So for whatever, the way it's
• 7:33
  set up, even though you're pointed in One Direction and
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  it's roaming satellites. So every once in a while you
• 7:38
  might just, I think I've had zooms with you where I pause for
• 7:41
  a second out of nowhere. That could just happen.
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  It doesn't happen a lot, but the second it just reconnects in
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  seconds. But when you're connected, I'm
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  running 200 and 5300 megs a second download.
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  It's super fast. And that's way better than
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  trying to connect to no signal or having shitty Wi-Fi.
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  You can't. And then I just go, I can put, I
• 8:01
  could just go, you know, just use that and make Wi-Fi calls
• 8:04
  through my through the Internet. So if we were here now, unless
• 8:07
  they were in a cabin in the woods and it's like in the
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  middle of nowhere and I'm trying to use, you know, let's say my
• 8:13
  computer's here, my iPad phone and I have Starlink.
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  Do I have to have it in a certain place location?
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  Does it got to be pointing somewhere outside?
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  Like how does? How does this set up?
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  The only. The only.
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  I'm actually curious. Yes, well, actually the the only
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  downfall to it is that you can't have blockage with with like
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  DIRECTV and other satellites. You can have some kind of
• 8:32
  blockage there and and you could still get it.
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  This has to have a clear shot at North.
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  Got it, And and North. Specifically.
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  At North specifically, so you could put it up on top of the
• 8:42
  RV, you can hang it from a tree, it doesn't matter.
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  But if you're, you're going up and you're, there's a big tree
• 8:47
  blocking it, you're going to, you're going to get very, very,
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  very spotty. You can, I've had it get through
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  some trees, but you really just need a clear spot.
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  So being out in the wilderness is great because it's wide open.
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  You're always going to feel, you know, have a clear spot.
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  But some of the state RV parks that I stay at are just filled
• 9:05
  with trees. Oh yeah, you're.
• 9:07
  In a cabinet in there because trees you you're not going to,
• 9:10
  you're not going to get it. That's why I have, then I have
• 9:14
  my other hotspots and then so then I can just use Wi-Fi.
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  If I don't have that, I can use, you know, just boosters, which I
• 9:21
  have. So one way or another I'm
• 9:23
  getting online. So it's really hard.
• 9:27
  Six years and I've never been in a spot where I can't get
• 9:30
  connected. Nice.
• 9:31
  What are some of the like pros and then even cons of having a
• 9:34
  business on the road all the time?
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  Maybe let's start with pros like what are some of the big
• 9:38
  advantages aside from you just get to see amazing places like
• 9:42
  travel and do cool shit. But like from a business
• 9:44
  standpoint, right? Maybe if founders are listening
• 9:46
  to this being like maybe I want to try like renting something
• 9:49
  for a month and seeing if this might be cool for me.
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  I could, I could work that backwards and say I don't have
• 9:54
  any downfalls really. I don't have I have no
• 9:57
  limitations because I can go wherever I have to be at any
• 10:02
  given time. Yes, I have no schedule, right.
• 10:05
  So if if it's like, oh man, I can't get out there.
• 10:08
  Sorry guys, man, I'm just you know, I'm tied up here.
• 10:11
  I can't leave now. This never happens with me,
• 10:13
  right? So I don't I have because I'm
• 10:16
  connected, because I'm now we were remote before the pandemic.
• 10:20
  So you know, we were we were actually doing this kind of
• 10:23
  lifestyle. You know, I was and and my right
• 10:27
  hand person, Caitlin, she and she's a military wife.
• 10:30
  So in 2014 she said, Hey, would you ever consider me running
• 10:35
  things from remotely? And I said, I have no idea.
• 10:38
  Why don't you take a computer, go home and I'll see you in a
• 10:40
  month. That's awesome.
• 10:43
  She goes, really? I said.
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  That's a good entrepreneur and a good leader you.
• 10:46
  Know and I just said we'll we'll find out and nothing changed
• 10:50
  nothing. We didn't miss a beat.
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  We just everything was as smooth as as ever.
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  You guys were in an office before that and then you just
• 10:56
  said, hey, go try it out. That was it.
• 10:58
  And I had there was six other people in that office.
• 11:00
  I had two offices in in Raleigh, NC actually.
• 11:03
  Carrie, Wow. And I know a place, so that was.
• 11:07
  That's where that's where Caitlin was.
• 11:09
  And then once that noon once I just since 2016, I got rid of
• 11:12
  that. I kept the New York office, but
• 11:14
  I got rid of that. And that's when I started
• 11:16
  traveling. That's when I got my first RV in
• 11:19
  16. I started going completely part
• 11:21
  time. But like I said, every time I
• 11:23
  got home, it was just, it was, it's different because I think
• 11:28
  that the biggest thing to me, and this is just a life thing,
• 11:33
  life is spinning fast. It's, you know, life just spins
• 11:36
  fast. It does just goes by as simply.
• 11:38
  It gets faster when you get a little older too, like as you
• 11:40
  mature. Yes and yes, and I can tell you
• 11:43
  this, I don't, you know, I've never really pulled anybody on
• 11:46
  this because RV life, but RV life slows life down just so
• 11:52
  much. I mean, two weeks at an RV park
• 11:55
  feels like. Why is that?
• 11:58
  Do you think? I have my kind of theory on
• 12:00
  that, but you probably know better.
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  I get up and well, first of all, you, you know, you kind of
• 12:04
  combined, you know, you had a park or whatever.
• 12:06
  And I get up and just like you're start your day, you know,
• 12:08
  and, and next thing I'm just, I'm sitting outside with my
• 12:11
  laptop and I'm, I'm cooking breakfast and I got a fire going
• 12:14
  and you're relaxed and you're like, and you're just working.
• 12:17
  You go 8:00 in the morning, man, this day, all day.
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  Yeah, I got all day. And it's like it's just such a
• 12:23
  relax and just quiet and, you know, and just, I don't know, in
• 12:27
  my house, I just, there's just distractions.
• 12:29
  Yeah, I'm doing these things right.
• 12:31
  There's just so much more going on.
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  I just feel like times like this, it just spins.
• 12:36
  And in the RV life, it just, it slows down like, you know,
• 12:40
  coming here. So I'm, I'm coming here from
• 12:42
  Pennsylvania, then I'm staying here and I'm staying here.
• 12:44
  Pennsylvania's pretty to drive. It's pretty.
• 12:46
  Yeah, there's, there's right there, there's everywhere.
• 12:48
  You feel like it's very surprising when.
• 12:50
  You go out. Central Illinois is very boring.
• 12:53
  For India, a lot of places are very bland, but but I could tell
• 12:57
  you that, yeah, that was that. Perspective, though, man, that's
• 13:00
  like, yeah, I think it's less distractions.
• 13:03
  It feels like it'd be just like, you know, I've been thinking a
• 13:05
  lot about the next vacation. How do I go to a place where I
• 13:09
  can, like, me and my girlfriend can connect with the wilderness
• 13:11
  and connect with Earth? And I think maybe you're just
• 13:13
  connecting with like the inner human being that you have,
• 13:16
  right? It's like we're not meant to be
• 13:17
  in these things and apartment buildings and houses and be on
• 13:20
  electronics. We're kind of meant to be out in
• 13:23
  the wilderness. And have you ever gone camping?
• 13:25
  Yeah, when you go camp. That's why I see the time
• 13:28
  slowing down. Like it's just like, yeah.
• 13:30
  You go camping, you go and it's like this, this becomes not as,
• 13:34
  not as important camping, It's just a relaxed, you just relax.
• 13:38
  That's why, which is shocking to me being a full time RV uh,
• 13:42
  it's, I'm going to say 7075%. It could actually be more in
• 13:46
  some places that I'm like, OK, all these people in these RV
• 13:49
  parks, you know, they're going to be from all over, 7080% are
• 13:52
  local. They're less than two hours away
• 13:55
  from that park. They just want to go because
• 13:57
  when they go there, they just get away from the noise and it's
• 14:01
  quiet and it's calm and it's relaxing.
• 14:04
  Well, put yourself in that mindset and that you know the
• 14:07
  way your body feels like that, and that's every day.
• 14:11
  That's really cool. So you go, why is it slow down?
• 14:14
  Because everything slows down. The noise slows down, you know,
• 14:18
  and just, it just does. And so I big, huge plus to me is
• 14:22
  that, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm getting up there and age well.
• 14:27
  And I think one of the one of the good advantages, I'm sure
• 14:30
  you would agree is that you can't, you are so local, you're
• 14:33
  not tied down. So it's like for you, you're
• 14:35
  probably going to be on the go anyway.
• 14:36
  So you can stop and physically see customers, which I see is a
• 14:40
  massive advantage. And we do that too.
• 14:42
  I go see customers, they come into town, I fly out to go see
• 14:44
  them because you just build better relationships, you get to
• 14:47
  know them better, They become lifelong customers.
• 14:49
  Like I I really believe that's a big aspect of business that
• 14:53
  people sometimes just think we're just doing virtual, we can
• 14:55
  do the Zoom, we don't have to do it in person.
• 14:57
  Sure, you don't have to, but if you did, it might just change
• 15:01
  things for the better, you know? Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:05
  You know when you go on Zoom and Zoom is fine, but when I'm
• 15:10
  sitting here and I'm looking your eyes.
• 15:11
  Totally different and that's why we do the live podcast because
• 15:15
  you cannot do a Zoom or a virtual podcast and get the same
• 15:19
  type of emotional interaction, the same type of vibe that you
• 15:23
  get with someone being here. The way that we can look in each
• 15:26
  others eyes, the the conversations that we have the
• 15:30
  you just can't it's hard to read somebody on a video call right
• 15:33
  and then the content we can get is so much better too, right and
• 15:36
  the same for you. You can film in person with
• 15:38
  like, it's just, there's so many reasons to do it in person, but
• 15:41
  it's also that's now another hurdle or challenge because now
• 15:44
  you got to be in person, you got to get people here or you got to
• 15:47
  meet them somewhere. So for a lot of people that's a
• 15:49
  challenge, but for me it's like I don't want to do it any other
• 15:52
  way. Well, here's.
• 15:53
  I don't want to do a virtual podcast.
• 15:54
  Here's a perfect example of to me in business, why it's so
• 15:58
  important for me to be in a in a room with people.
• 16:00
  I'm on a Zoom call. I was on a Zoom call a couple
• 16:03
  months ago and there was four guys and me and four guys were
• 16:06
  from a company, a new company I was talking to about business,
• 16:09
  and I could see that one of the guys is distracted.
• 16:13
  He's not listening to me. I have no idea if he's hearing
• 16:15
  anything that I'm saying. That's a good.
• 16:17
  Point. You can easily do this like
• 16:18
  yeah. That's what I'm seeing.
• 16:20
  He's clearly distracted, like, and he was the most important
• 16:23
  guy in this conversation. I'm going, I'm losing this.
• 16:26
  I can't, you know, I can't read through and go, yeah, you know,
• 16:31
  you pay attention, you know, so, so I to me, I was like, you
• 16:35
  know, in person I can direct my focus and my voice and my I'm
• 16:39
  going to look at the guy and I'm going to get him to look at me
• 16:42
  and I'm going to get them to focus on what I'm saying.
• 16:43
  I can't do that on Zoom. So while you still get to see
• 16:47
  people and it's better than not being on Zoom or better than a
• 16:50
  pizza phone call, it's never to me.
• 16:53
  I'm complete old school. That's why the RV life to me is
• 16:57
  so, so awesome. And here's the other thing that
• 17:00
  is kind of surprising, you think, well, you know, hey,
• 17:03
  you're out in California and I'm in New York and you know, yeah,
• 17:06
  I'm never going to see you. I see my dealers more since I've
• 17:08
  been full time RV than I did when I lived anywhere, even the
• 17:12
  local dealers that were close to me where I lived, because every
• 17:15
  time I go near their area, I go by them every time and I
• 17:18
  crisscross. So I'm never going to.
• 17:21
  I, you know, I'll go out of my way to get to my clients.
• 17:23
  My clients are the most important thing.
• 17:25
  So on any path when I'm going here if I have to go like this
• 17:29
  just to make. Sure, why not?
• 17:31
  Anytime I'm in that region, I'm seeing every one of them every
• 17:34
  time. If I live there.
• 17:36
  How often are you getting busy? And then I got to take trips
• 17:38
  here and I'm going here for a month and here I might see him,
• 17:41
  not see him for five months, six months.
• 17:43
  And here on the road, every 3-4 months Max.
• 17:46
  I see everybody and some of them faster than that because I don't
• 17:49
  always go all the way West and all the way E I'm somewhere in a
• 17:53
  region for a while, like I was just in the southeast for, you
• 17:57
  know, a couple of months. But the second I break out of
• 17:59
  that, I got to shoot out to the other regions and get through my
• 18:03
  so you just keep that. And then I, I love the, to me, I
• 18:07
  think the biggest thing about me is that the biggest challenge I
• 18:12
  think people have being on the road is the, is the, the travel
• 18:16
  is like my brother's like, how do you drive, you know, at 3000
• 18:20
  miles and you know, and everybody loves the
• 18:23
  destinations, but they don't, they don't want to, you know,
• 18:26
  take the ride there or fly there and go through all that, the
• 18:29
  airport or traveling. And I just love the journey.
• 18:33
  To me, the journey is every bit as fun.
• 18:36
  Sometimes I enjoy the journey more than, than the, than the
• 18:40
  destination because I get so excited about going to
• 18:43
  somewhere. Then you get there and that way
• 18:45
  it's like climatic a little bit you.
• 18:47
  Built it up in your mind. But in your mind, but in
• 18:49
  building that up as I'm going there, I'm so.
• 18:51
  Excited. And the travel out there and you
• 18:54
  know, and then all the things I see on the way.
• 18:56
  So that's to me, it's a lot of it is, you know, so much of it's
• 19:00
  here, it's how, how you feel. So totally, I think that's a
• 19:03
  good lesson too, is enjoy the journey because the destination
• 19:07
  could be great. It could be not so great.
• 19:09
  But if you enjoy the journey and that's 80% or 90% of it, you get
• 19:12
  there, you can still enjoy the mountaintop and the destination
• 19:15
  and what you've done and what you've accomplished to get
• 19:16
  there. But now you've been excited and
• 19:18
  fulfilled on the way there and that's fucking everything,
• 19:21
  right? Everything.
• 19:24
  Do you ever get lonely? Because that would be like one
• 19:26
  thing I would be like, man, it was just me, like my, you know,
• 19:28
  a dog or something. I'd be like, I might get, I
• 19:30
  might want some company, you know, you can meet people
• 19:32
  obviously, but like the. The the one, the one part that I
• 19:37
  would say about that is that I I get to experience so much fun
• 19:42
  stuff. Sometimes I just wish I was
• 19:43
  experiencing it with somebody other than my dog, my dog and I
• 19:46
  get to experience it. So it's a different type of
• 19:48
  lonely. It's almost like, man, I wish I
• 19:50
  had somebody. Oh my God, like, oh, I like, I'm
• 19:53
  looking at these incredible things and my dog can't
• 19:55
  appreciate. So your dogs are like, no, not
• 19:57
  right. It's like.
• 19:58
  My dog's like, hey, you know, hey, can we go climb up this?
• 20:01
  And I'm like, will you look at this beautiful view?
• 20:03
  And that's the part that I just wish I could share with
• 20:06
  somebody. So that's the that is the lonely
• 20:09
  part to me. You know, I see so many people
• 20:12
  that I'm friends with. I meet a lot of people.
• 20:14
  So it's a different type of lonely.
• 20:15
  It's just being able to have somebody I can enjoy so much
• 20:19
  unique stuff with and and and just because to me, I don't care
• 20:23
  like. You could tell me today a place
• 20:25
  in Idaho that is unbelievable and I can't wait to go there.
• 20:29
  So if I'm with somebody, you know, a companion and I'm, you
• 20:32
  know, doing things with them, I don't care where they want to
• 20:34
  go. I, I love everything.
• 20:36
  There's no, well, I really like this.
• 20:38
  I don't like that. Bring it on.
• 20:39
  I don't care because it's all to me.
• 20:41
  It's all just, it's just to me, it's that's why I live this life
• 20:46
  because I get to to enjoy things that I didn't think I might even
• 20:50
  enjoy. And then I go and I go, Oh my
• 20:52
  God, like this is awesome. So.
• 20:54
  Have you been to like the Apple? Well, you've been everywhere, so
• 20:58
  that's a guarantee. Appalachians.
• 20:59
  The Appalachians I'm like thinking about like cool
• 21:02
  mountain kind of towns to go to and maybe get in the woods and
• 21:05
  mountains a little bit like get that connectedness with earth
• 21:08
  and have some spiritual type things.
• 21:09
  But then also having like, cool little mountain towns to go hang
• 21:13
  out at, do dinner at, you know, explore.
• 21:15
  That is a that's a very interesting like.
• 21:17
  Or maybe there's somewhere else in the country that you know
• 21:19
  you'd recommend? Well, it's not, it's not even
• 21:21
  that. It's just, it's more of one of
• 21:24
  the things that I that I do is since I'm in an RV and I'm
• 21:29
  always in an RV and a lot of times like if you're trying to
• 21:32
  just travel to a lot of mountain towns and you're going up, you
• 21:36
  know. It's hard to get to them right?
• 21:38
  Especially when I'm, you know, 63 feet from tip to tip.
• 21:41
  Trailer and. Some roads I can't even go on
• 21:43
  because of the length. So what I do like I was just out
• 21:46
  in Colorado for a month and I stay at the RV park.
• 21:50
  I stay there for a month and I just detach.
• 21:53
  I take my truck and I went to Breckenridge, which is a great,
• 21:56
  great little town and I stayed in a lodge with a fireplace and
• 22:01
  overlooking the mountains. And and so I do that a lot where
• 22:05
  I break away from the RV. So it gives me a little bit of
• 22:08
  something different, but it's just to just go out and enjoy a
• 22:11
  weekend and I do that a lot. You know, obviously just you
• 22:14
  know, me and Wyatt, always a dog friendly place.
• 22:16
  And that to me is that to me is the ultimate because now I, you
• 22:20
  know, I go and I enjoy the RV part of it.
• 22:22
  And then I just break away to just go do something different
• 22:26
  and, you know, just stay somewhere, somewhere else.
• 22:29
  I'm going up to in the in the summer, I'm going up to Coeur
• 22:33
  d'Alene, which is a beautiful area.
• 22:35
  I've heard about that Idaho or where is that?
• 22:37
  Yeah, it's Idaho. It's.
• 22:37
  Northern Lane. Quarter lane it's.
• 22:40
  It's look that up, people, because I've heard a lot about
• 22:42
  that. What makes that place so great?
• 22:44
  It's beautiful. It's just beautiful.
• 22:46
  It's like mountains. You've.
• 22:47
  Got Lakes. It's Lake.
• 22:48
  It's it's Coeur d'Alene Lake. It's just, it's just a lot of
• 22:51
  risk, really. Yeah, well, I didn't realize I
• 22:54
  went. Which is why you going then no.
• 22:57
  This was the funny part. My, my, I was, we have the map,
• 23:02
  the RV maps, and I was trying to complete Wyatt's map and we had
• 23:06
  to do the five Northwestern states that I hadn't that she
• 23:10
  hadn't been to were it was North Dakota, Idaho, Washington,
• 23:14
  Montana and Oregon. And so we were trying to, you
• 23:20
  know, fill that out. And I was talking to my cousin
• 23:22
  who lives in Vegas and he's he was like, hey, man, he goes,
• 23:26
  when you go to Idaho, you got to go to this place called
• 23:28
  Sandpoint. And he said Sandpoint because
• 23:30
  his friend has a house on the lake in Sandpoint.
• 23:32
  Sandpoint's really beautiful. And so I went to look for an RV
• 23:36
  park and there was nothing in Sandpoint.
• 23:38
  And I saw this Coeur d'Alene. I couldn't even say it.
• 23:41
  I go, it's spelt weird, you know, Coeur, you don't go like,
• 23:46
  what is that, Kowari? And I'm like, I had no idea what
• 23:49
  it was. So I found an RV park there and
• 23:51
  I'm like, OK, I guess I'll stay there and I'll drive up to to
• 23:53
  Sandpoint and I go and I'm like, what?
• 23:56
  This place is gorgeous. And I'm sitting there and I and
• 23:59
  I go downtown and I'm like, it is just beautiful.
• 24:03
  So I was telling the people like, I'm talking to people that
• 24:05
  are local and I'm like, man, this town is absolutely amazing.
• 24:08
  They're like, yeah, we know. Don't tell anybody.
• 24:10
  Yeah, exactly. And then I started reading about
• 24:14
  it because I go, how could a place be like that, you know, so
• 24:16
  beautiful and. Hidden gem, right?
• 24:19
  Yeah. And I found out that that
• 24:21
  Matthew McConaughey and George Clooney, Kim Kardashian, Wayne
• 24:23
  Gretzky, John Elway, they all have homes on Coeura Lake.
• 24:26
  Yeah. So they're all famous people
• 24:28
  around the lake. You can't really.
• 24:30
  I tried to drive around and see some of their homes, but they're
• 24:33
  kind of buried. They're exclusive.
• 24:34
  They're gated, and you got to get down into their complexes.
• 24:37
  But on the lake itself, it's just beautiful.
• 24:40
  It's just a beautiful, peaceful, just it's, it's tranquil.
• 24:44
  It's really, it's just a beautiful area, so.
• 24:47
  Because you don't think Idaho like, where's the You're like
• 24:50
  Idaho like potatoes. People ask me all the time,
• 24:53
  what's the, you know, it wouldn't say it's my favorite
• 24:55
  place, but it was the most shocking place that I, that I,
• 24:58
  that I stumbled upon, you know, in, in the RV life not knowing.
• 25:03
  So what about the Appalachians then?
• 25:05
  Are there some cool places down there?
• 25:07
  Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely this.
• 25:09
  Yeah, I've been to every mountain range there is.
• 25:11
  I don't care. Like it's a much smaller
• 25:13
  mountain. Like if you're in the Rockies,
• 25:15
  like Vale or Breckenridge, like that's a different style of
• 25:17
  mountains, obviously, but absolutely.
• 25:19
  I haven't done nearly as much as I have in other ranges, you
• 25:23
  know, So I would say that it's the least the one that I've that
• 25:26
  I've travelled. But I don't care where you go.
• 25:29
  Mountain towns to me are amazing.
• 25:31
  Love it, love it. The Catskills are I I love it,
• 25:34
  you know? There's something about mountain
• 25:35
  towns that are just freaking cool.
• 25:37
  If you've never been to like Vail, Co Breckenridge, probably
• 25:41
  some good ones in the Smoky Mountains.
• 25:42
  Like they're they're. Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:44
  There's just some cool places, man.
• 25:45
  They have a different vibe. You feel like you're in nature,
• 25:48
  but it also in a town, like in the middle of nature.
• 25:51
  It's really cool. Better than the beach I think
• 25:53
  personally. I will take the mountains over
• 25:55
  the beach. Me too.
• 25:56
  I don't like the beach. I mean it's there's some pretty
• 25:58
  it's cool, but I just I don't like sitting on the beach for
• 26:01
  long periods of time. It just doesn't do it for me.
• 26:04
  I, I feel like a rotisserie might as well just spin me
• 26:06
  around while I'm, you know. Slow, like I'm just spinning
• 26:08
  around like, you know? Just cooking.
• 26:10
  I'm going like. Exactly my.
• 26:12
  Buddy lives on the beach. He just sent me a picture.
• 26:14
  He's like, hey, where do you think I'm going?
• 26:15
  He said to the beach. Like you can send me pictures
• 26:17
  like he's on. He just lives on the beach.
• 26:19
  I go it. Does nothing.
• 26:22
  Some people love it man. They just freaking love it.
• 26:24
  Going to it. Me too beautiful.
• 26:25
  But just it's just for the day. Like, yeah, I'll take the
• 26:29
  mountains. Me too, me too.
• 26:31
  Everything about the mountains I love.
• 26:33
  Yeah, I love. I just, you know, and I'm not a
• 26:35
  big fan of heights, but I love me too.
• 26:38
  Like going up to these top of these 14,000 foot mountains
• 26:41
  where there's no guardrail and you're like, you know, my heart
• 26:44
  is beating. At the.
• 26:45
  Go like this is like, you know, this.
• 26:48
  It's it's but it's exhilarating to me, so I'll take the
• 26:51
  mountains. How?
• 26:51
  Much does Wyatt mean to you? I think that to me, I've had
• 27:00
  three dogs and they've all kind of handed me off to the next one
• 27:04
  at night. Without them, I, I don't
• 27:07
  function. I don't, you know, when Jenny
• 27:09
  died, Jenny died suddenly and I just literally lost.
• 27:13
  I was, I had Jenny for 10 years. I started this in 2016 with
• 27:17
  Jenny. I had had Jenny, I, you know, I
• 27:20
  had Jenny for a total of 10 years.
• 27:23
  But I think about 5-6 years when we started RV and, and I was
• 27:27
  never away from Jenny. So Jenny was the first time that
• 27:29
  I had a dog full time. My first dog, Jesse, was when I
• 27:34
  would travel. Jesse stayed with a friend.
• 27:36
  Got it. Jenny traveled with me.
• 27:38
  Right. It's your best friend, man.
• 27:39
  It was just I spent in 10 years four days away.
• 27:43
  From from. From Jenny, four days I flew out
• 27:46
  to Vegas for NADA, for national, the, the dealers association,
• 27:50
  their, their yearly convention. So NADA and I flew out for that
• 27:55
  and 2016 and I flew out there for for four days.
• 27:58
  And that was the only time that I had I was away from my dog and
• 28:04
  I mean, so we were literally soul mates.
• 28:07
  We, she worked with me she's with me when I go to car
• 28:09
  dealerships. And then I was in New York.
• 28:12
  We were in a snowstorm the day before.
• 28:14
  We were playing in the snow. And then the next day she's just
• 28:18
  it's a Sunday. She's just no energy and I'm
• 28:21
  going like what's going on with her?
• 28:23
  And I'm like, this is scare me. I'm like, you know, the vet
• 28:25
  opens Monday. I'm like, I'm going to take her
• 28:27
  to an emergency room. I took her down to what is a
• 28:29
  glass open glass building. It's a open emergency room for,
• 28:33
  you know, vet and I rolled her in the door and she died.
• 28:37
  She was in that door 45 seconds. The lady we rolled it as soon as
• 28:40
  I rolled her in, the lady's like, I don't like the way her
• 28:42
  lips are put her on the table and she's she's got a scanner.
• 28:45
  She goes, her heart stopped. I go, what do you mean she goes,
• 28:47
  it just stopped. They said she goes, do you want
• 28:49
  me to try to revive her? I said yeah, yeah.
• 28:51
  I'm like, I'm freaking out. I'm like 45 minutes from when I
• 28:54
  left the RVI was back in the RV and my dog is gone.
• 28:58
  And I was like, Alex, I was lost.
• 29:00
  I was lost. And I was just like, I mean,
• 29:05
  the, the RV life full time. I love it.
• 29:07
  I'm telling you how much I enjoy my life.
• 29:09
  It doesn't work without the dog at all.
• 29:12
  This is this. It changes everything to me.
• 29:15
  Everything. So you go on.
• 29:16
  What does your dog mean? It's it's everything.
• 29:18
  It doesn't work without you know that That's that's my companion.
• 29:22
  So much of my trips are planned around her.
• 29:25
  Yeah, around. It would be lonely without the
• 29:26
  dog, I feel like. Right?
• 29:27
  Yeah, do it. Yeah, never in a million years
• 29:29
  could I do this without the dog. If you know, if you know if
• 29:32
  anything ever happened, I would I would immediately get enough
• 29:34
  like. You know that I just that's on
• 29:35
  my mom as she was like we always grew up with dogs.
• 29:37
  One would pass away. It's so sad, it's hard.
• 29:40
  It's just like a phantom family member, you know what I mean?
• 29:42
  Like it's like losing a brother, sister, husband, whatever.
• 29:45
  It's tough. And then you kind of grieve, you
• 29:47
  go through that and then you're like, all right, let's get in
• 29:49
  our dock because it's just you need to kind of have that, you
• 29:52
  know, that void build and you enjoy the company.
• 29:55
  You just love it. It's it's fun, right?
• 29:57
  Like it's it's nice. They're nice to have around.
• 30:01
  Let's let's talk about Wyatt again here because we I
• 30:03
  mentioned the beginning that you want a 5 figure significant deal
• 30:07
  from Wyatt and Wyatt was able to help you kind of land this.
• 30:09
  So tell that story. OK, so there's a there's a guy
• 30:14
  his name is Rich and he owns, he owns a Toyota on Honda store in
• 30:18
  New York and he's New York. He's a New York.
• 30:21
  I'm a New Yorker. So he's a bit of a hard ass guy
• 30:23
  and he doesn't trust male guys. A lot of people don't,
• 30:26
  especially in New York, because there were guys that beat the
• 30:29
  system and shorted male and manipulated poster receipts and
• 30:32
  did some bad things and actually there you know it, it put a, you
• 30:36
  know, bad name out there for for guys that do what we do So Rich
• 30:40
  I was referred to rich. So he cut me some slack, but he
• 30:44
  he, you know, he lets me in, but not, not all the way in, you
• 30:47
  know? And he's always, you know, he's
• 30:48
  like, yeah, you guys are all full of shit, you know, you
• 30:50
  guys. Yeah, I know.
• 30:51
  Yeah, Yeah, I know. The mail is great.
• 30:53
  Best Mailer ever. And I'm like Rich, I said, you
• 30:55
  listen, I got stuff that works well, you know, So he's always
• 30:58
  breaking my, my, my balls, basically.
• 31:00
  And so I was, I'm in there and we're talking about doing a mail
• 31:03
  and he's like, and, you know, hamming it on.
• 31:05
  And I'm like, whatever, you know, I kind of enjoy guys like
• 31:08
  that because it's a bit of a challenge to me.
• 31:10
  And he's just like, he just looks at me and goes, where do
• 31:12
  you live? I said, I'm a full time over
• 31:14
  here. I said, what do you mean he
• 31:15
  goes, what do you mean? I said, I travel to the United
• 31:17
  States with my dog. He goes, you and your dog.
• 31:19
  That's it. I go, yeah, He goes, where's
• 31:21
  your dog? I said, my dog's in the truck.
• 31:22
  He goes, your dog's in the truck, Go get your dog.
• 31:25
  And I'm like, OK, I go out. I'm like, are you serious?
• 31:28
  He goes, yeah, go get your dog, man.
• 31:29
  It's like I bring my dog in and he is just loving up my dog.
• 31:34
  He's like going like this with his phone.
• 31:35
  He's like, oh man, this is my dog.
• 31:36
  I've had anything and he's. Got he's got a box.
• 31:38
  Of treats and he's and he's just like and up and he's just eating
• 31:42
  up my dog. And I'm like, oh, like this guy
• 31:44
  was like in heaven with my dog. And I go, I just look at him.
• 31:47
  I go Rich, I thought you were a prick.
• 31:50
  That's exactly what I said to him.
• 31:51
  I said I, you know, I didn't know you had a heart, you know,
• 31:54
  I just thought you were a prick, you know?
• 31:56
  And I'm like, you know, just always like, you know, a tough
• 31:58
  guy just breaking balls, you know, and.
• 32:00
  Sometimes they have the softest hearts.
• 32:02
  Yeah, and. New Yorkers are kind of like
• 32:04
  that, right? Everything would help you if you
• 32:06
  needed it, but kind of hard on the on the surface.
• 32:08
  He's, he's sitting there and he's sitting back in his chair
• 32:10
  and he's going like this and he's like, we're going to do
• 32:13
  that mail. And he goes, and I'm telling you
• 32:14
  right now, the only reason I'm doing is because this dog right
• 32:16
  here and. Wow.
• 32:18
  Whatever works, man. So Wyatt closed the first deal.
• 32:21
  Nice, Where is Wyatt right now? Why it's in the RV?
• 32:25
  Because I didn't know how. I was going to say.
• 32:27
  Yeah, I would, I would always bring her, but we're pretty
• 32:29
  close. I'm only 30 minutes away, but
• 32:31
  normally I bring her and she'd be in the truck, but it was a,
• 32:33
  you know, it could be a little warm today.
• 32:35
  So I didn't know if it was going to be too hot out there.
• 32:37
  So and if and this could take a little while.
• 32:39
  So I normally would just leave her and let the truck run if I,
• 32:42
  if I'm only going in for 10 minutes to stop in.
• 32:44
  But 99% of the time she's she's with me.
• 32:47
  Do you Speaking of mailers, right, you do direct mail for
• 32:50
  dealerships, obviously that's your business.
• 32:52
  How effective is direct mail now versus 10 years, 1520 years ago?
• 32:57
  Like has it changed? Is it more effective, less
• 33:00
  effective? The same like what do you think
• 33:02
  comes curiously, you've been in it for a while?
• 33:03
  It's completely different, yeah. And completely different.
• 33:07
  It's it the, the way if you rollback the clock really prior
• 33:12
  to 2008, 2007 8, where the where the auto industry really took a
• 33:16
  big hit prior to that mail was, was more about, well, just at
• 33:21
  least the mail that, that that way that we did mail was more
• 33:25
  eventful. It was more about, you know,
• 33:27
  Saturday mailers and get the balloons out and crank the music
• 33:31
  sound out a big mail campaign and a kind of a lot of rah rah
• 33:34
  and, and you just pack your showroom and you'd sell you
• 33:37
  break every record you had. You would limit the amount of
• 33:40
  time people would have. So you do like 14 hours, 7 day
• 33:43
  hours on a Saturday and seven hours on a Monday or Friday.
• 33:46
  Saturday always had dated mailers always, you know, get
• 33:50
  people to go spontaneous it that's just the way mail was.
• 33:53
  It was a lot of you know, it was just a lot of fun, a lot of
• 33:57
  entertaining things. You know when we would do some
• 33:59
  pretty wild and fun campaigns and they work great after 2008,
• 34:03
  seven, 8-9 people just you know, with the bad, you know, when the
• 34:08
  economy went tanked, people just not buying cars spontaneously
• 34:12
  like they were before. They wanted time, they wanted to
• 34:14
  shop and those rah, rah buy a car today 7 hours only just
• 34:19
  weren't working anymore. People were not buying that way.
• 34:21
  And I'm like, wow, we got it. You know, we got to adjust to
• 34:24
  this. And I started, you know, I
• 34:25
  started getting away from some of the gimmicky stuff and I
• 34:28
  started just doing things where I was, you know, I didn't date
• 34:31
  the the mail or I didn't give you.
• 34:32
  I wanted you to have time to be able to shop it because you
• 34:36
  weren't going to buy it the other way.
• 34:38
  So the messaging changed to where it was just, you know, and
• 34:42
  you started getting like, away from the gimmicky stuff, away
• 34:45
  from the yeah. Just.
• 34:47
  Like that what, what one of my clients calls left lane mailers,
• 34:50
  those high flying, you know, messaging you, you don't even,
• 34:53
  you look at it, you don't, your eyes don't even know where to go
• 34:55
  because there's 45 messages on it.
• 34:58
  And I just started doing more direct clean, just pointed
• 35:01
  messages and just getting real targeted to, to an audience and
• 35:05
  getting away from that. And I had a lot of success with
• 35:07
  that. And then the more time went on,
• 35:11
  the more I got got away from gifts.
• 35:13
  And then I'd walk into a dealer and when I wouldn't have gifts,
• 35:15
  the guy's like, you don't give away those sunglasses.
• 35:18
  I said, no. He goes, he opened up his
• 35:19
  closet. He got boxes of sunglasses and
• 35:21
  tool sets from all these other campaigns.
• 35:24
  And I go, you know what I realized what happened was I got
• 35:28
  less people in the door than the rah rahs, but I got buyers in
• 35:32
  the door. I didn't get tire kickers.
• 35:34
  I didn't get a guy who's going to take a test drive to get his
• 35:37
  tool set knowing he's not buying a car, wasting that salesman's
• 35:41
  time, knowing he's not buying just because he doesn't want to
• 35:43
  feel like, hey, can I just have the tool set?
• 35:46
  And I'd appreciate it if they just did that.
• 35:47
  Just go, give me the tools, take the tool set and go if you
• 35:50
  really have no interest. But they would feel like they
• 35:52
  just got to act like they're, you know, they're not cheap.
• 35:54
  They didn't come down just for their.
• 35:56
  Tool set. You know.
• 35:58
  Waste their time and they could be working with someone else
• 35:59
  that might buy. And I got away from it and then
• 36:02
  my whole concept changed. And as time went on, I got even
• 36:07
  more personal. I got, you know where we are
• 36:10
  today. Fast forward, I've been doing
• 36:11
  this, this is June 16th will be 24 years with my company.
• 36:15
  And in the last literally from the pandemic, I started making
• 36:21
  mail more personalized. I started using QR codes where
• 36:26
  now I was talking to the customers.
• 36:27
  I have QR codes on my Mailer. So you get a Mailer in your
• 36:30
  living room, you scan it and there's a message from the
• 36:33
  general manager and you know, they're talking to the customer,
• 36:35
  introducing themselves, telling them about that, that piece of
• 36:38
  paper in their hand has value to it.
• 36:40
  And with the what happened was everything started going
• 36:44
  digital. So I'd go and guys, guys like,
• 36:46
  you know, the way mail was kind of dying, people were like, oh
• 36:49
  man, I'd get 15 mailers the week in my mail that that crap
• 36:52
  doesn't work anymore. And it all went digital.
• 36:55
  And now I'm like, thank you guys because you got out of the
• 36:57
  mailbox. That's right.
• 36:59
  That's right there alone. That's right and I go keep
• 37:02
  talking about you because guys are just married to digital
• 37:04
  beautiful because it just helps my yes, it keeps you out of the
• 37:08
  mailbox keeps the clutter there. My messaging can be direct.
• 37:11
  There's still guys that do mail, but not the way.
• 37:13
  I don't see when it's. True.
• 37:15
  I don't see as much, Yeah. When I started doing the video
• 37:18
  mailers, I don't know, I didn't know a single dealer that was
• 37:22
  doing what I was doing with the QR codes and then having videos
• 37:25
  autoplay from a manager introducing himself and
• 37:28
  explaining that letter in the hand and the value that that
• 37:31
  brings to them. Now there might be guys that are
• 37:33
  knocking that off because I've been doing it now for a few
• 37:35
  years, but that's that's something that I believe I
• 37:38
  started. I hadn't seen it and I do
• 37:39
  nothing but mail and I still don't see anybody that does
• 37:42
  that. And then in the last two years,
• 37:45
  I was talking to one of my big clients and I said, Hey, you
• 37:48
  know, we bought the sales department in your, into your
• 37:51
  living room. How about we bring your service
• 37:52
  department there as well? And we started doing service
• 37:56
  walkthroughs, which were different, different than the
• 37:58
  sales manager talking about the Mailer.
• 38:00
  We'd go and we do, we shoot a 4K video at the, at the dealership.
• 38:06
  The entire service process for I fly drone footage, get some nice
• 38:10
  drone footage and then I fly it in as they're talking about, you
• 38:13
  know, come in and welcome to our service department.
• 38:16
  ABC mode is I fly the drone right into the service
• 38:19
  department. It turns into a car and it shows
• 38:21
  the whole process. The guy walking up greeting you,
• 38:24
  putting you in the computer, all the all the things that they
• 38:26
  have in there. You know all the conveniences
• 38:28
  they have when they have rental cars and shuttle services and we
• 38:31
  do a whole walkthrough and we include these in our mailers and
• 38:35
  here's the big key both videos that I'm shooting and doing
• 38:38
  editing and everything I'm not charging the dealers for it.
• 38:41
  I'm I'm doing these for different first time dealers.
• 38:43
  I'm doing the whole introductory videos for free and my price in
• 38:47
  the mail did not go up 1 pence. See, there's this extra value
• 38:50
  for them. Yeah, no one else is doing that,
• 38:52
  I guarantee it. Or at least not.
• 38:53
  Many. Yeah, that's why.
• 38:55
  Yeah, that was. You guys also do something
• 38:57
  really unique. It started I think a few years
• 39:00
  ago, helping kids help kids. I want to talk a little bit
• 39:03
  about that because I think it's a unique balance between
• 39:05
  genuinely making an impact on kids, the community, but also it
• 39:09
  drove business. Yes, yes.
• 39:12
  Talk a little about that. Well, if you knew more about my
• 39:15
  personal background, I've, I've been, let's just say, you know,
• 39:17
  people have helped me for, for a number of reasons that I feel
• 39:21
  like it's always made me feel like I wanted to give back.
• 39:25
  I'm a big fan. I don't need to like everything
• 39:28
  our company does, I do as an individual.
• 39:30
  I won't walk by anything where they're, I don't care what it
• 39:34
  is. If they're collecting for
• 39:34
  anything, I could care less, I'm going to give something to it.
• 39:37
  I believe in that. I believe in just helping people
• 39:39
  and I just, I can never figure out, you know, how to
• 39:43
  incorporate what I do into, into, into giving back.
• 39:48
  And I just had it was a thought. It was just a thought I had.
• 39:52
  I'm like, you know, what if I went to a charity and I, I
• 39:57
  bought this up to one of my biggest clients and I said, Hey,
• 39:59
  I want you to hear this out. I said, I want to go to a local
• 40:02
  charity, Boys and Girls Club. Something involves kids.
• 40:04
  And then I picked the boys and Girls Club, as you know, and as
• 40:06
  an example, I said, we go down to the boys and Girls Club.
• 40:10
  Let's have kids. Have a drawing contest.
• 40:13
  Crayons. Just draw anything that looks
• 40:14
  like a car. I have a bunch of kids.
• 40:15
  Have a contest. I want to give the kids awards,
• 40:17
  plaques, you know, gift cards, you know, give them something
• 40:20
  good, I said. And I want to take the winning
• 40:23
  drawing and I want to use it in your car.
• 40:26
  And in turn, I want you to give a donation to that charity.
• 40:30
  And the guy I presented it to, he looked at me and goes, I
• 40:34
  think you're on to something. No, I know I'm on to something.
• 40:37
  I don't know if I could legally do it.
• 40:39
  And so I went to the Boys and Girls Club and I met one of the,
• 40:43
  the director of nine locations and big corporate building.
• 40:47
  And I told him my idea and he said he goes, you know, he goes,
• 40:51
  I love it. He goes, I've never heard
• 40:53
  anything like this before. He said getting the drawings
• 40:56
  done is easy. Getting those drawings out of
• 40:58
  the building is where I think we have a problem.
• 41:01
  And so I spoke to multiple lawyers about this.
• 41:05
  I ended up paying three different lawyers and it took me
• 41:09
  about 4 1/2 months to be able to launch Helping Kids Help Kids.
• 41:13
  It was just the legality of the kids.
• 41:16
  It was their property and now you were sending out for sales,
• 41:18
  right? OK.
• 41:20
  The main thing was is that the kid that draws the picture still
• 41:24
  has the rights to the picture. So in order to do this and use
• 41:28
  it for business, I had to take ownership and that was the
• 41:32
  different, it had to be an assignment agreement.
• 41:34
  So I can legally take ownership of the picture even though we
• 41:36
  gave them, you know, something for it.
• 41:39
  I, that was the only way to now get that legally into, into a
• 41:44
  direct mail campaign. And you know, I checked with
• 41:47
  everything I wanted to make sure because after I did my first
• 41:50
  campaign, which was just absolutely awesome, we raised
• 41:52
  $10,000 for the Girls Club. That's incredible.
• 41:55
  Yeah, we had a huge video presentation.
• 41:58
  We gave the kids the plaques, the awards, the kids grandmother
• 42:01
  who won second place, a little girl, cute girl and her
• 42:05
  grandmother came up to me and she's like, I want to thank you
• 42:08
  so much. She said my my granddaughters
• 42:09
  always wanted to be an artist. And I'm like, we're changing
• 42:12
  lives here. This is what that was about.
• 42:15
  It wasn't, you know, I'm like, yes, it, it generated business
• 42:19
  and it generated car deals, but it was, it was more than that.
• 42:24
  It bought the dealership to the community and and got them
• 42:27
  engaged. And even that the, the, the, the
• 42:30
  head of the boys and Girls Club, he said, you know, we know who
• 42:32
  this dealership is. They're one of the biggest
• 42:34
  players in our area. We've never been able to make a
• 42:37
  connection. You did that for us.
• 42:39
  So when I walked out the door after that, they had a
• 42:42
  relationship. I joined that.
• 42:44
  So they stayed together and they've given more to this
• 42:47
  charity since I left. And I go, wow, this was, this
• 42:50
  was awesome. Like we really, and but I, I got
• 42:54
  to be honest, I was waiting for where's the pushback?
• 42:57
  Somebody's going to find the negative.
• 42:59
  Who's going to tell me that we're exploiting kids, We're
• 43:02
  pulling heartstrings, you know, and you know, find the negative.
• 43:04
  And I just said, you know, I said, you know, I wanted to see
• 43:07
  what happened. And I got to tell you because
• 43:09
  this is, this is something that never happens in the car
• 43:11
  business. We got no negative on anything
• 43:15
  about it, but there was a phone call to one of the dealers, to
• 43:18
  the dealer that did it and the guy said, hey, listen, he goes,
• 43:22
  I just want to know. He goes, I just want you to know
• 43:24
  that I absolutely love my car. So I'm really not interested in
• 43:28
  trading my car right now. He goes, but I just wanted to
• 43:32
  thank you for what you did and what you're doing for our
• 43:35
  community. Wow and I go fan mail that
• 43:38
  exactly mail never happened. I have the call I.
• 43:41
  Wow. We started it in 2018, so that
• 43:44
  was, you know, seven years ago. I have that call of the first
• 43:48
  time anybody's ever called and thanked them, you know?
• 43:51
  That never happened, yeah. For and I go, but think about
• 43:54
  it, just think about that guy wasn't ready to buy a car, but
• 43:57
  when he is, where do you think he's going?
• 43:59
  How we do video content, too. And social media, right?
• 44:01
  It's like you're creating demand.
• 44:02
  And when this time is right, they're gonna come to you.
• 44:04
  You built trust and credibility. Authority.
• 44:06
  Yeah. A. 100% wow, that's incredible,
• 44:09
  man. You and recently you've gotten
• 44:11
  more into social, obviously, yes, you're doing this podcast
• 44:14
  now, you've filmed some videos, you're active on LinkedIn,
• 44:16
  you've won a few clients through social media, through video,
• 44:19
  which is amazing. What made you want to get into
• 44:23
  that? Like because you could have
• 44:24
  obviously your business is doing well.
• 44:26
  You've got direct mail, it's still working amazingly.
• 44:28
  What made you start to think? You know what, maybe I should
• 44:30
  lean into the video and social stuff a little bit.
• 44:33
  I it was really just, you know, most they'll tell you, most Rd.
• 44:37
  salesman have a five year shelf life.
• 44:39
  That's like, you know what they'll tell you the guy can hit
• 44:41
  the road hard for five years and he's done.
• 44:43
  And you know, you got to move them into a different position
• 44:46
  or move on. And I, this is, you know, 23
• 44:49
  years coming, you know, two months away from 24 years doing
• 44:52
  this. And it's like, I just didn't
• 44:54
  want to, I love the face to face.
• 44:56
  I still want to do that. I just don't want to knock on
• 44:59
  doors to get the leads. I don't want to drive around and
• 45:02
  just go somewhere and just stay in an area just # indoors.
• 45:05
  And I'm like, I'm, I'm done with that.
• 45:07
  I've been doing this for so long, but I still love the face
• 45:11
  to face. So how can I get the interest
• 45:14
  and then go see them and not have to knock on doors the way I
• 45:18
  did it completely cold my whole life.
• 45:20
  That's even before when I did, you know, my company, I did that
• 45:23
  knocked on doors and I enjoyed that I had I still have the
• 45:26
  energy now, but I just don't have the desire to cold call and
• 45:29
  knock on doors all day long. So I wanted to use this as a way
• 45:32
  to to, you know, to introduce our company, get some people
• 45:36
  interested in our product. And then I don't care if you're
• 45:38
  in Wyoming, I'm coming, you know, I'm like.
• 45:40
  They're like, you're not going to come out here.
• 45:41
  You're a damn. I'm straight.
• 45:42
  I am. Alex, I've been doing you.
• 45:44
  Know you're in Coeur d'Alene Oh. Listen, we've been doing stuff
• 45:47
  together for for three months now.
• 45:49
  This is the third time I've been.
• 45:50
  Here. Yeah, true.
• 45:51
  Yeah. You're the only client that
• 45:53
  actually came to see me. Like this is kind of nice.
• 45:55
  Yeah, absolutely. We got school.
• 45:57
  Yeah. I wish we could do it tonight.
• 45:59
  I know. Dang.
• 46:01
  So I mean, it's like, but that's, that's the part of it.
• 46:03
  It's not just it's everything about business that, you know, I
• 46:06
  still love that I just this gets this gets the doors open without
• 46:11
  me knocking and then I get to do everything else and, and, and
• 46:14
  keep the love, the, you know, the life that I love right now
• 46:17
  and the travelling and just now, now I'm going to, you know, to
• 46:21
  sit down with somebody and talk about it rather than knock on
• 46:23
  doors, just introduce myself. So that's what started it.
• 46:26
  That's why you know, I'm, I'm pushing it more because it's
• 46:30
  working. It's in the last about last I've
• 46:34
  seen the last 25 days we've put on 4 brand new dealers that I've
• 46:39
  never done business with before. And they explain how they came
• 46:41
  to you because this is great for people.
• 46:42
  Through, through the through LinkedIn, through just, you
• 46:45
  know, they, they, you know, we, we posted some boosted some
• 46:48
  stuff and some video content I did with you and just guys just,
• 46:52
  hey, want to hear more about it. One guy had saw one of the
• 46:55
  dealers in the video in my in my documentary video.
• 46:59
  Who's a big dealer everybody knows.
• 47:00
  Success stories, guys, they work.
• 47:03
  And, and he's like, Hey, you know, I saw you do business
• 47:06
  with, with this company and I'm a, you know, I'm a big fan of
• 47:09
  theirs. You know, I, I, I look up to
• 47:11
  them, you know, come see me. And he's one of the guys that we
• 47:14
  booked. And, and then just just from
• 47:16
  the, from the interest of just, you know, showing.
• 47:19
  And I got to tell you, there's guys that I haven't even gotten
• 47:21
  to yet. I'm going to be getting to this
• 47:24
  is working. It's.
• 47:25
  Freaking amazing, man. What's cool is like people won't
• 47:27
  see it, but you know, a few months ago you had a pretty bare
• 47:30
  LinkedIn profile, weren't doing video content on social lease.
• 47:33
  And there was even times we were like, I don't know if this is
• 47:35
  going to work. And then I was like, Rick, trust
• 47:37
  me, this will definitely work. Yeah, that's cool to see, man.
• 47:41
  That's really cool. And yeah, I think you got like
• 47:43
  the best of both worlds. You got the real life out scene,
• 47:46
  customers, personal human connection, and then you've got,
• 47:49
  you know, bringing those stories digital and being able to talk
• 47:51
  about it and reach more people. Yeah, it's cool.
• 47:54
  For the record, for anybody watching this, I had 10 people
• 47:58
  following my company and maybe 200 following me.
• 48:01
  And I just crossed 1400 and that was in, you know, two months and
• 48:05
  my company's at about 700 and we had nothing so.
• 48:09
  Let's freaking go. That's why I that's why I asked
• 48:12
  him. I just just so I could give you
• 48:17
  I appreciate it. Thank you.
• 48:19
  It's honestly I said I just you know, I always like, you know, I
• 48:22
  mean, this is me, right? I want to work face to face and
• 48:25
  when I the biggest thing that got me to you is when I really
• 48:29
  liked your videos and I said, man, he gets it and you get that
• 48:33
  you, you, you cut through all the noise.
• 48:35
  You're you're you know, you're messing is very clear.
• 48:37
  A lot of guys just there's just too much noise and you caught me
• 48:41
  with that. So of course I watched several
• 48:43
  of your videos and then I went to book a call and it was very
• 48:47
  simple. I said to my right hand person,
• 48:48
  I just said here's the deal, If I get to speak to him, done.
• 48:52
  If I got to speak to somebody else, yeah, I'm not going to do.
• 48:55
  It yeah. And it was me and it was you.
• 48:56
  And that was key to me is that I got to speak to you because I go
• 49:00
  you're, I don't care if I work with your team, right?
• 49:03
  Once I speak to you, right? You know that.
• 49:04
  And I'm involved. 100% just like me.
• 49:07
  I can't always be involved in every aspect, but I'm there.
• 49:10
  But you know what's going on. And yeah. 100% just like you,
• 49:13
  you you oversaw just said, Hey, Calista's going to, you know,
• 49:15
  get your stuff. Dee's going to help you with
• 49:17
  this. You guys set it all up.
• 49:18
  We ask them questions, but when I need something from you,
• 49:21
  you're available now that got me you and that's why I said done
• 49:25
  this. Is it because I saw what you
• 49:28
  were doing was how you say it on your own video.
• 49:31
  Go look at me. Go look at your other people
• 49:33
  that you know you're competing with and see what they're posted
• 49:35
  and how they're. And your, your, your numbers are
• 49:38
  like, yeah, you know, you were, you had your one video.
• 49:42
  You were like I have $30,000, now you have 45,000.
• 49:45
  Dollars. I know, right?
• 49:46
  15,000 K really quick I know so it's like so that's something
• 49:49
  and I go do I do I really need to even be that?
• 49:52
  No, not for me because I could never handle that in my
• 49:55
  business. I still want to you know, I
• 49:56
  can't never be but for me to to literally in a 2 month period go
• 50:02
  from non existent to I got pretty crazy 4050 posts up there
• 50:06
  now with, you know, getting getting people that just every
• 50:09
  every day or you know following I see it pop up yeah, probably
• 50:12
  look on my phone right now and see three more people that are
• 50:14
  following me that weren't following me and I go wow, this
• 50:16
  is completely working and you. Amazing.
• 50:19
  You know that's why I'm here. Yeah.
• 50:20
  Because I believe in you. I believe what you do works.
• 50:23
  And I appreciate that and. I believe we, we, we look at
• 50:25
  business the same. Way we do, we do, we do cut
• 50:27
  through the noise and what's crazy is you've probably done
• 50:29
  like 1. You put in a lot of work, but in
• 50:32
  potential wise, one 100th of what you could do, right?
• 50:36
  So like the skies. I mean, if you really wanted to
• 50:39
  blow it up, you could. And so, yeah, but you're in a
• 50:41
  good spot now. And I always tell people, Hey,
• 50:43
  let's crawl first, then let's walk, then we'll jog and then if
• 50:46
  we want to run, we can. But that's that's awesome, man.
• 50:49
  Good to hear one of. The things that that happened
• 50:51
  with this is I I could see it. I just saw what was happening
• 50:55
  been doing this a long time and I brought in four people into
• 50:59
  the company and we weren't in need of all of that now.
• 51:04
  But you know, and I was kind of questioned why are you kind of,
• 51:07
  you know, shouldn't we wait until I said, if you can't see
• 51:09
  that this is coming? No, I said I don't want to wait
• 51:13
  for it to get here. And then how are we going to
• 51:15
  train these? That's right.
• 51:16
  We need to get them in now. Yeah, we'll pay a little bit
• 51:18
  more upfront, but they need to be ready for.
• 51:20
  So when this storm hits. Yeah, we're prepared.
• 51:22
  I remember those. Conversations.
• 51:23
  Yeah. And the storm is hitting.
• 51:25
  We're prepared. There it is.
• 51:28
  Rick. I appreciate you being on the
• 51:29
  show. Where can people go find you,
• 51:31
  connect with you, get in touch if they're interested in
• 51:33
  potentially working with you or know someone that is?
• 51:36
  And well, you can obviously find me on LinkedIn.
• 51:38
  Yes you can now. That's yeah, that's or Facebook,
• 51:40
  LinkedIn and obviously IPI direct.com, which is my website,
• 51:44
  yeah. You know, link everything.
• 51:45
  Everything, everything is linked together.
• 51:47
  We're actually because of you. We're we're, we're, you know,
• 51:51
  we're doing redoing all that. And we have a lot of actually
• 51:55
  kind of cool things that are going on there with not gonna
• 51:59
  say it, but with Wyatt. Yeah, yeah.
• 52:02
  We have a little a little thing that we're gonna do with Wyatt
• 52:04
  that I think is gonna be interesting and definitely.
• 52:06
  And so that's something that we're looking forward to.
• 52:08
  But we are, we are, you know, we are a little bit slow walking
• 52:12
  because like I said, right now I'm having a tough time handling
• 52:15
  what I have. I am, I'm slammed because on top
• 52:17
  of that, you know, business has been good.
• 52:20
  My regular business is going and now when I'm just getting, you
• 52:23
  know, new, you know, new dealers and you know, we have to do the
• 52:25
  videos and that's a big part of it.
• 52:27
  And gotta make sure that you have enough time to you don't
• 52:30
  ever wanna get too big where you're ignoring, you know, a
• 52:33
  your bread and butter, we got you there and B not getting to
• 52:36
  people in a timely. Match definitely.
• 52:38
  I don't want, you know, definitely we're, we're, we're
• 52:40
  keeping it. I'm almost holding things down a
• 52:42
  little bit because they are, they are, they are, you know,
• 52:45
  they're ready to, they're percolating and they're ready to
• 52:47
  boil over. Yeah.
• 52:49
  Well, Rick, this is awesome. I appreciate you being on the
• 52:51
  show and I know we got some more work to do after this.
• 52:54
  Got it. Thank you for having.
• 52:55
  Me. Thanks brother, Appreciate it.