Inaugural episode of Zenware and RoadFS Mafia Memoirs
We interview Shawn Sepulveda of APE Detail of Santa Rosa, CA
Transcription
Jody: All right, guys, welcome to another episode, actually, our inaugural episode, our first episode of Mafia m=Memoirs where we take a look at the different businesses that are running the automotive detail industry in particular, we’re looking at members of The Detail Mafia, the vendors and sponsors that are really making a big impact on the industry. We are trying to figure out how we are going to add people using this iPad, so we may have to try this just a second, but we actually were going to interview Shawn Sepulveda of A Perfect Experience Detailing, and we’re gonna wait for him to join us, and I need to see if I can get this thing to go away real quick and view that and let’s go here and we’re gonna wait for Shawn to join us so we’ll see real quick, what I got. All right So that’s actually working out pretty good. So we’re gonna give him just a second to join us in the interim. Do we have anything fun and exciting? Actually, we’re really looking forward to SEMA counting down the days. We will be there with the P&S crew um launching actually just continuing what we’ve been doing with them for the past year. We have a brand new inventory module that we’ve been building into RoadFS that we’re very, very excited about because not only can we support automotive detailers, automotive reconditionners, PDR guys, but now we can actually support delivery guys that are running around delivering product to their customers.
So let me take a look because I am not able to get connected as you can tell, this is our first one, and so we’re experimenting with not only equipment but also the format and how we’re going to get people live to join us so that we can interview them and Rod is…
Rod: My bald head affecting the camera because it puts a glare on the it, it literally puts a shade on it. So.
Jody: you know what? We all have our attributes, right?
Rod: It’s an asset
Jody: it’s an asset
Rod: light changing, forehead. It’s actually a five-headed
Jody: yeah, this is a one. See what we got here? So i’m trying. To, just give us a few seconds.
Rod: We’ll also as we go through this video, if you let us know how many of you are gonna be at The Rag Company event on the thirteenth with Renny Doyle and some of the P&S products as well. Interesting to kind of see how many people are planning on coming here and doing that as well. It’s a big event. They got a beautiful facility. Just look at all the latest technologies for detailing and techniques and they bring in, you know, obviously, big name speakers and it’s a good time.
Jody: Yeah. That’s uh, that I’m actually really looking forward to that. Ready Doyle’s come into town. And of course, you have Levi Gates and his entire crew at The Rag Company. So they always put on a really, really good show, and I’m trying to see trying to figure this stuff out. So appreciate you guys, patience is we try to venture into some new realms. Hold on one sec go here. Let me try this. Are we there we go. So we just need wonder. All right, I’m going to do something here just for fun. And yet here we go. So we just rotate it yet, but what I need to do and there was there. Is me. Oh, was that you? that’s, what i was looking for showed up, too. Okay, so what I want to do ? They’re supposed to be a way to, stroll the left, which it’s not working.
Rod: Click on your phone
Jody: Yeah, it doesn’t, yeah, it’s, because I’m not broadcasting live from this, so I’m sure you guys are gonna have a lot of fun looking at this,
Rod: making fun of the tech guys that can’t get the tech right,
Jody: there should be. You’re supposed to swipe to the left that’s, right?
Rod: You always wipe right when you’re looking at me, Jody
Jody: All right. There we go. All right, so we’re actually waiting for Shawn that’s. Why it’s not showing up. So all right, Shawn let’s. See if I can get you on the line here, you know, it should show up. Sure, there you go. So now I go like that. There you go, that’s it all right, so that’s, what then? I should be able to scroll as they come through that. Okay, there we go, all right, Shawn Sepulveda, there’s, the man, all right, that’s, sad, Shawn, support. All right, let’s. Write. Hit the plus button.
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Jody: All right, guys, welcome to the inaugural Facebook live Mafia memoirs.
Shawn: What’s happening your way?
Jody: Here’s the man the myth, the legend, Mr. Shawn Sepulveda. How are you, man?
Shawn: I’m good. How are you guys?
Jody: Yes. Good. You know, it’s a lot of fun. And we’re trying to figure out all of this equipment. We tried to do it with the Mevo. We knew that the iPhone was going to be too small, and now the iPad has us exactly split in half so Rod and I are going to have to get all cuddly
Shawn: I’m trying to login in myself. I’m trying to log in on my Ipad at the same time.
Jody: That that’s what happens when you get, you know, guys that are really in the automotive industry and you get guys that pretend to know technology and it just doesn’t happen
Shawn: Not this guy
Jody: So I appreciate you being our inaugural guest on this. We are excited that I was actually I’m sitting down and thinking about what has happened the past year with us and The Detail Mafia with P&S Distributors, The Rag Company and there’s just some amazing things going on and we were part of the Air Force One Detailing team along with you and those memories have just, like, resonated and sunk into my heart.
Shawn: Absolutely
Jody: I’m like, you know what we need, to, have some Facebook lives so that we can talk to the guys and the gals that are driving the industry. So tell us a little bit about APE detailing, which stands for
Shawn: A Perfect Experience which we try to produce it, at any costs for our clients.
Jody: where you guys located?
Shawn: in Santa Rosa, California, the north bay area. So in the heart of the wine country
Jody: I know, Rod and I, we with RoadFS and Zenware, we talked to a lot of detail in companies and some of them are doing dealership work some are doing retail work. Where is your expertise?
Shawn: Um, I’m pretty versatile for the most part, but I’m not really a fan of dealership work simply because the educational aspect in the wintertime will get us through and really, actually, we see a busier times in the winner than we do and sometimes the summer because just the educational aspect of everything. Teaching people about paint protection and how to care for their interiors and exteriors and you know the ways around them that’s how to tend to him and take care of them in the proper way you could get that done, then you protected your investment for that season in many seasons to come. So dealership work for me just really isn’t kind of my way to go not my forte or niche, but other people do like it, and it works well for them and, you know, bravo to them. It’s just it’s just not a fit for my company, and I’m trying to well, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad deal, and I wouldn’t say that it’s something that I wouldn’t entertain doing, you know, one day, but I’ve done enough of it in my first few years of detailing to where just it was just volume wasn’t my thing, I was looking more for quality.
Jody: That’s an interesting thing because I think a lot of the detailing companies that are doing dealership work there, really honing in on the volume, right? Where as, detailers like you, they are really masters of the craft.
Shawn: Yeah,
Jody: You’re trying. To take it to the next level where you’re really it’s almost an art form, would you agree? Or disagree?
Shawn: I would agree, yeah, I would say it’s more like a little bit of art form it’s just it’s a little more invasive. Um, you know, there’s a whole lot more to look at, there’s more, there’s more science behind what we do. In a, I wouldn’t say in an actual detail shop because they’re detailers too. They’re just detailers on different platforms. Uh, we have more of a science to what we do. You know they have, you know, ten to twelve cars in a day will equal maybe one of our car’s in the shop. You know, So what they make in a day just slugging it out and knocking it out at dealerships, which is wonderful; we try to capture that same amount of finance in and if not more into one vehicle, and focus all of our time and attention to that. So when it leaves it’s beyond perfect or, you know as good as we can get it within reason without doing any irreparable damage to the car. And then that way, when it does leave and people ask, you know, why does it look like that? How did they get that finished? They know where to go.
Rod: All right, so, so one of the things I’ve been talking about, Shawn, with a bunch of the guys in the industry about coatings and there’s, a lot of misconception about coatings and there’s, a lot of change in the coatings themselves. So, one of the misconceptions is, you know, somebody that gets a coating, for instance, that’s, maybe a one year coating, and then, three years down the road oh, those, coatings, are crap, they don’t work, and you see, a lot of people slam coatings, but they have not invested. And you, and you mentioned something about that they’re not invested in the product. So, so explain to us how, how you educate cause I know talking to you or Darryl there’s a lot of education that goes on as well, which is one of the key reasons I think that, that people like The Detail Mafia that are that are really passionate about the industry are changing. It is through education, so kind of the education that you give your customers about, the different kind of coatings. And what it’s going to do? Because you see people coating everything right there. Coating wheels are coating interiors, coating your burrito if you want it done. It’s. Just, you know,
Shawn: I just coated my front door of my shop.
Rod: There you go, there you go I’d coat my, my head You can tell by the glare.
Jody: You need some Glassparency
Shawn: Yeah, um, so as far as like coatings and stuff and education, like, my take on this, people over sell it, to be honest with you. They will try to lock in the job, certain people, you know, people, in general, don’t really understand the concept or the characteristics of a coating, will say, oh, you never going to have to wax car again or you never got a you know, you never got a scratch proof, you know, it’s like no it’s not. If you take a key to your car it’s gonna scratch. You know, you go up against some, some tree branches, it’s going to scratch or mar the vehicle, but the cool part about it is you’re not diminishing more clear off your client’s vehicle. You’re polishing a ceramic coating and removing said defects that are there without the hassle of thinning out the clear more and more. Because as you guys know, every time you cut and polish the vehicle, you’re taken certain amounts of mils off of these clients cars and there’s only so much On the vehicle when it comes out of the factory. So when you start sanding and cutting down paint and you do not, you know, often or more regularly you’re going to lose clear. And the only thing that’s gonna happen is when you have a thin clear and it’s diminishing, uh by every time you cut and polish it, you put a coating on your replacing what you’ve originally taken off. So the idea, the idea in my shop and how I do things with my clients is I tell them like this, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to minimize the amount of clear that we take off your vehicle, and we’re trying to maximize the amount that we put back on so far as the ceramic coating, which, you know, is a nine h bond or ten h bond or, you know, whatever you know, coating that they decided to choose or they go with us, you know. And then we tell them that, you know it’s, not scratch proof, okay. You do have to put some protection on the coating after, there is such thing as after care you can’t put the coating on and think it’s bulletproof. You’re not going to go through a car wash seventeen times and expect it to look just like it did when it left the shop. It’s maintenance, it’s after care, it’s what you do after it leaves our shop that is going to tell you how long that coating to last. Friction breaks everything down over time. Over time if have enough friction on a vehicle, you’re going to start to wear away that coating and that’s, that’s where people are being misled in the industry and a lot of people who are uneducated and think that they could just sell you a coating and think it’s bulletproof is crazy. That’s no good, you know, be realistic.
Jody: Yes,
Shawn: Set realistic goals tell them. Tell them the truth because they’re gonna respect you that much more when you tell them the truth, that hey, this may get scratched. But it’s going to be a lot easier to take this Scratch out off this coating and reapply if necessary rather than diminishing more clear off your standard factory vehicle. you know so that’s that’s a little bit of my take on that. You know, it’s just set realistic goals of your clients. You don’t don’t sell them the world And They don’t need to hear all that when it’s just BS
Jody: right
Rod: And that that’s, really one of those things. That’s again, that’s, universal in any industry, it’s, don’t be dishonest with clients, be honest with them and educate them on what you’re selling. Hey, I’m selling you a one year coating. That means in a year, in six months, we’re going to need to do something if you haven’t touched it. If you’ve taken it through Costco’s carwash fifteen times, you’re causing issues. I love Shane Mayfield’s description of the central Oregon pinstripes as the scratches you get from the trees. That that’s totally true, I mean, but, but at the same time that honesty and education gives people the understanding and the industry that “hey coatings aren’t a bad thing”. They’re a good thing because it helps protect your paint, but it’s only as good as the product you’re putting on and the care and the after care that you’re putting after that get we get this, I think we have the same misunderstanding with, uh, kind of the so where they calm, like the zero rinse soaps and things that you’re not. Yeah, foaming on you it’s like, well, you know, I went out and I was mud bogging this weekend, and I can’t get this stuff off. I poured this crap on it doesn’t get it of. This is if your car is already clean.
Yeah, and it’s a between care when you’ve got a little dust on it. So it’s not meant to scrub off four pounds of mud. So
Shawn: Exactly, exactly. You know, a lot of misconceptions and alot people, they just think that you throw this magic sauce on the car and that’s it, you know, like put a coating on takes the scratches off. You know how many clients that I’ve had come into my shop and, you know, just go ahead, just put the coating on well, that’s, now how we do things and I, you know, I have to prep your vehicle because anybody who knows their weight in gold in, in a detailing shop in the industry itself is ninety percent of what you do is prep. Everything is prep. What you do in your prep work will show in your after. You know, and if you don’t prep the car right, you’re just going to send them up the road with a terrible product and your name’s gonna go right along with it. It’s going to be right on that bumper sticker. You know, when you’re just right down the road. So for me, I, I’ll give my client what they want within reason. You know, I’m not going, I don’t want to go concourse on every single vehicle for them, you know, But i do want the best out. I want the best outcome for them because when that thing does leave, it leaves with our name on it and when people ask where it was done, it’s gotta be done by us.
Jody: Yeah,
Rod: yeah,
Shawn: If it looks like garbage and guess who’s in trouble.
Jody: Yep,
Rod: yeah,
Shawn: you know, and i don’t want that. So within reason, I will give the client what they want. I typically just try to educate them as much as I can and tell them, hey, you know, once this coating goes on it’s locked in it’s not coming back out. You’re gonna have to live with what’s under here.
Jody: Yeah, the other thing that this kind of been on my mind too, you know, You look at it, there’s, other awesome guys, you know, that are doing incredible work. You look at the people like The Detail Boss, you look, like you think about people like you, I think about Mark Elliott on the east coast in Florida and I think a lot of times when people look at the kind of cars that they’re doing, they think, oh, you know, you shouldn’t do that on my Toyota Four Runner. So what, What is the? How do you educate customers on, you know, that are running the daily drivers and don’t have the exotic, you know is there? Is there an important play for the average consumer to say, you know what I’m just driving a Nissan Maxima now, or I have a BMW Z3, so, you know, it’s, mid-level, you know, So what? How do you bring those people on like, look, I can do a full detail, but, you know, we really should do a coating or some extra care to really bring someone longevity to your vehicle.
Shawn: Yeah, so be honest with you, I have an easier time selling coatings to blue collar people than I would with somebody with an exotic. I’ll say that. And the reason is, is because people who make, who are in that middle class range that don’t make all that money, who have exotics probably, probably don’t drive it every day. We’ll say that. So that coating is going to last for these people because it’s not daily driven. Now your average consumer, your blue-collar family people like that. Okay, we’ll say this, rich people don’t give a crap. They will beat the crap out of their stuff because they got money to buy more. Okay. That’s, the reality. Now people like myself or you guys or people who, oh tend to care for their investments. People with that Forerunner that’s, that’s a prized possession for them that’s outside of house, that’s their biggest investment. That’s like, that’s, my baby that’s new that’s Nice. I really like that they’re going to take care of that more than the rich person with an exotic who’s got more money to burn. Yeah, for me, it’s, like I’d rather sell a coating to somebody with a Forerunner, Honda Accord or someone like that because they’re going to care for it a whole lot more than your average, you know, rich guy who’s just got a ton of money and money to burn and just was like, okay, well, you know, whatever, I’ll send this down the road and get it fixed up by these guys again because, you know, what’s, what’s a thousand or two thousand dollars in my pocket, a thousand dollars in, in, in the middle-class pocket is a lot to them, and when they spend that with you and you give them what they want and it’s it’s protected and it’s, it’s what it should be, they’re going to come back, they’re going to revisit you, you know, because they tend to care for things more than somebody with a lot more money. People with disposable income have less care because they have disposable income. As for somebody who might be living on somewhat of a budget or has this, you know, funds appropriated for this specific thing as a coating, they’re going to spend it on that, but they want to see their money’s worth and they want to make it last so they will take care.
Jody: Yeah, and that, what you said, something there that brought up another question is how often do you recommend a customer come back to you? It probably depends on the types of service that they get from you, but do you have, like, maintenance programs? How do you stretch it out for your customers?
Shawn: So maintenance programs for me, it’s just again. So this will depend on and this doesn’t, you know, I don’t apply this just for myself, but this really depends on your climate. This depends on where you live, what part of the country and here in wine country we’re versatile. The only thing we really don’t get here is snow. So typically I tell my clients it’s just like an oil change come in like once every five thousand miles, three to five thousand. You know, for the full, for the big maintenance, you know we’ll, clay it, polish it put some topper on top of it and send you back out the door. Routine washes, you know, pop in, you know, once a month once every other month. It’s really up to you. How often do you drive it? How often do you beat this car up? You know, those are the questions that we ask. If it starts to get dirty and you don’t want to do it, bring it by. But the one thing I will tell you that probably not a lot of detail shops is, I give my clients their first maintenance it’s on the house after they’re after their coating. And the reason I do that because I bring them in and I do a full top to bottom workshop. I do a rinseless workshop and I do a full wash workshop with them so they know how to keep that investment protected for many years to come. So if I’m not available or they don’t want me to do, if they at least have a general knowledge of how to tend to and take care of their ceramic coated vehicle. That’s why downstairs we sell ceramic coatings kits We order them for them. We show them after care. We sell wash mitts. I mean, we do things like that that are geared for coatings to help protect their investment, because I don’t want to spend a thousand or two thousand or however many thousands of dollars they decide to spend with us. And a year later their coating just looks terrible and their unhappy, it’s not what I want. So at least at that point a year from now, if their coating looks horrible it’s not my fault. Yeah, because we’ve offered to maintain the vehicle and we’ve completely educated you on how to tend to and take care of this coating from top to bottom. So that’s kind of how I do things that’s how my program is run. I don’t know how others do, but I mean, I hope that works.
Jody: I actually really like that that you actually do a workshop with them and say all right, top to bottom. This is what you can do to take care of your car. You know what I’ve done for you at a professional level, and that will help you and me, better service you as my customer. I really love that because I think a lot times that’s missing because a lot of people I think, are afraid to bring people into their shop because either, either it’s liability or they don’t want to show them the secret sauce. And what I found in my experiences that education is power. If you have a more educated consumer, they see the value in what you’re recommending to them down the road, no one and bring it. You know, we really ought to revisit this. They understand why.
Shawn: Well, here, here’s. Another thing, too, is I give them that option to do it themselves and here’s, here’s the thing here’s, the best part of it all is we’ll give them the workshop, they’ll go home, wait a little bit, they’ll try it. They’re worn out. They’re done. That that’s the most a”fter trying to wash that car. They’re like how do you do that every day?” You know, so they’re like I’d rather not do it at home, I’m just going to bring it back to you, so I don’t show I don’t show them in a way to wear them out. We show a proper, thorough wash top to bottom to get through it, but a lot of people don’t do this every day like we do so it’s tiring to him, they’re like, man, this isn’t really what I want to do. I’m in the sun or in my mind, I’m in my garage trying this, and it doesn’t look the way you guys did it. I’m just going to bring it back for you, so a good amount of time, you know, they will end up bringing it back to us because it doesn’t look the way they want it to look because it wasn’t done professionally, but there’s, some people who do a really good job at it and maintain it and they’ll come back like bi-annually for, you know, a big maintenance where we clay the body and repolish the paint and put a topper on top of the on top of the coating and send it out. And they’re coming back still intact because they took heed of what we said to them and amazing that people properly, which is, you know, keeping that investment long lasting so for us it’s a win win, they bring it back. It looks good, it’s less work, we still get paid or, you know, they go home, they maintenance, they don’t like it, they bring it back to us, we still get paid every I still win. You know, irregardless of what we do, you know, I don’t see myself losing and that just because we’re giving them education, we’re showing them how to do it. We’re showing a lot of prep, protect maintain and create longevity in their investment. It’s just are they willing to put in that kind of work, a lot of them aren’t and that’s ok. That’s, why we’re here, that’s why we’re detailers. This is what we do here, is, we know how to do these things in to maintain and get through a whole lot quicker than they would. They’re like, how’d you do that in forty minutes when it took me two and a half hours? Yeah, right, again, we do this every day so it just becomes second nature, you know.
Rod: So one of the things you mentioned earlier and I just wanted to key on is there’s, there’s a misconception, that’s one of my goals while we’re doing this series is to kind of clear up some of those misconceptions. There’s a misconception out there that that detailers are only interested in working on exotics. Only interested in working on Porsche, Ferrari and Mclaren, and my thing with that is if i’m working on a Honda Accord and I and I, there’s a bunch of people that do, you know, everybody does you’re posting pictures of that? Just as much as the other right? You’re showing the before and after of it. But people don’t remember a silver Honda Accord in their Facebook post or the Instagram because it’s silver Honda Accord, if it’s, my silver Honda Accord or mama’s silver Honda Accord, she damn well recognizes it because it looks good. Yeah, absolutely. My wife. We got hit. We got hit by a goose. I know that sounds crazy but a goose. Hmm. I think I hit the driver’s door on. The top of the drivers were skidded across the room. Hit the truck and went down the site. It’s my wife’s, you know, two thousand sixteen Passat, right, It’s silver Passat. You know how that works, And, and it was it was not deeply torn up, but it was pretty torn up while she’s posting pictures after I fixed it because she’s very proud of the fact that the goose streaks are out of the car.
Shawn: Goose zero. Zenware one.
Rod: Yeah, the goose didn’t farewell in that accidents just so you know, it didn’t come out of that good, but, but I think that’s the misconception is that, you know, we’re all oh, of course we’re gonna post pictures of the Mcclaren or a Corvette or something that’s exotic because we all love working on those kind of cars. But, you know, and I notice a ton of people and I really appreciate people that are posting pictures of, you know, just a regular SUV.
Jody: Or Super Adrian raging and all his VWs
Rod: But the same thing, Ryan up in Alaska posting pictures of ah, gals, uh, CRV or something that he did for free. That’s freaking awesome, you know. And you guys as well talking to Darryl, talking to you about some of the cars that come in there. Um a hundred years ago when I was a mechanic, I used to use it as we all wanted to work on somebody’s Corvette, right? Or we all wanted a hot rod out somebody’s old car, but you have to do the brakes on a minivan to stay in business and that’s the idea that, you know is you people coming in so in you’re just like off the top of your head what’s the percentage of just normal blue collar cars that come through your shop compared to the others.
Shawn: eighty percent of my cars, 80% of my cars that come in are mom cars or, you know, people who are purchasing new vehicles, who want to keep the protection on it for a while. You know it, to be honest with you, man, I don’t care what kind of car it is. They’re, they’re paying, I’m playing,
Jody/Rod: That’s the thing!
Shawn: I’m not going to turn down work because you have a Honda Accord because I want to go work on such and such a Corvette over I don’t care about that. I personally care about taking care of the vehicle and keeping my client engaged with me, so they’re happy at the end of the detail. You know, I don’t care if you’ve got a soccer mom van, you want me to coat it, bring it, we’ll coat it. I don’t care, it’s just I’m a detailer, I didn’t, I didn’t jump in this to detail Mcclaren’s or Buggatis or, you know, Koenigsegg or anything like that, you know? I mean, if I do and it comes across my table, cool, but I see the appreciation level is much higher with people who have your standard vehicle or your Volkswagen Golf or your, your new Tesla, you know, your Honda Accord or anything like that. You see people who they perceive so much more value in that because it’s something they’ve worked very hard for as opposed to people who have exotics, and I won’t say that they haven’t worked hard for I’m sure that they have, but they could probably buy two or three of those and have disposable income. So it’s not, it’s not as big as a gift to them as it is somebody who just went out and bought, you know, a 2018 Honda accord and they were just super stoked with the damn thing. They’re like, oh, my god, look at this, this is my new baby, you know? And they ride around with a giant sense of pride in that and that’s awesome. I take pride for them, you know. So we want to help them out if we can. And if they need something on their vehicle, they bring it to us. We’re going to try and give them the best deal we can within reason. But then at the end of the day my company’s here to make money and provide a great product so we don’t sell ourselves short either. You know, there’s, plenty of work that I do kick out of the shop because they’re just two things; they are either tire kicking or they’re searching for the lowest possible prices. You want the lowest possible prices? It’s not going to be us.
Rod: Nobody wants to be the Kmart of the detailing industry.
Shawn: Exactly. And and that’s what I tell a lot of people, you know, And this is, I kid you not guys. When they come in, say it like this straight up. When I give you a fair price, this is what it’s gonna be. I don’t haggle if you talk price I’m going to send you out the door. That’s, just how it goes. I’m sorry, I don’t have time to, to, to mess around like this is. I’m very serious about what I do. You’ll get a quality product at a fair price, but that’s it.
Jody: And I think that’s a really important point. Sorry, I interrupted you. I’d actually like to have another one of these down the road and really talk about the value of price, right? Because I think a lot of people think that you are just washing a car,
Shawn: all right, sorry, we broke. We broke off there. You want to say that one more time?
Jody: Sorry, yeah, sorry about that. Somebody, I need to put this thing in airplane mode so they don’t try to call. So, uh, yes, the question was. And because you talk about price and value and stuff like, you know what? I don’t price haggle because what I’m bringing to the table is worth what I’m giving to you, and I think that there’s a whole level of discussion that we could have for another thirty minutes about importance of setting a price and being confident in that price and educating the customer of why that price is valid.
Shawn: Exactly.
Jody: So a lot of people think, oh, I’m just having a detail, right? It’s, fifty dollars and then what? Your are putting up a lot more than that.
Shawn: Yeah. So what i tell a lot of them is, you know, there’s people in my area and I tell them straight up, they’re going to smoke my price. Guaranteed. they’re gonna, they’re gonna beat my price down with a stick and twice on Sunday, it’s gonna happen. But will they match the quality? Will they match the workmanship? Well, they match the skill set. I highly doubt that. And not to say that there aren’t great detailers in the area because there’s a few of matter that are really kick ass, and I give them all props. But have you invested in yourself in your education, are you bonded and insured? Have you? Are you are you an IDA Certified Member? Have you gone through everything that we’ve gone through an education in a continual education to make sure that we provide nothing but pure quality for your vehicle? That’s kind of that’s noot really a selling point, it’s, just more of the educational aspect I’ll let them know like, hey, I don’t do this for fun or for play. This isn’t a hobby shop, you know, I’m not coming in here to wipe down your car and do something on an amateur level. I’ve invested in myself personally almost over ten years in a company itself and a year in business development for myself before I even started the company, you know, I look together a business plan and put this together for a year before I started, did test marketing and all this other stuff before I actually started the company and I started this was nothing, absolutely nothing. Zero, you know, So like I went for broke with everything I had. But, you know, at least I have the simple smarts to even see if a detail shop would thrive, In my, in my area, in somewhat of a saturated market, I started in there was detail companies here, but I just made sure I stood out like a sore thumb, and I did what I could for that, you know what I mean? So, you know, back to where that’s at, you know, it’s it’s just telling them, you know, we’re worth our weight in gold, we’re worth the money your going to spend spend. You’re going to get the absolute best quality. You know, I oversee everything in the shop before it rolls out and before I even put a coating on a car, I have my client come in and I have them walk around it, inspect it with us,
Jody: Smart
Shawn: And then I’ll install the coating because at that point, there on camera and if they try to, they try to debate that with us. Your on camera buddy, you shook my hand gave me a heads up, a high five, a hug a, you know, whatever you want to give me, you gave me the go ahead for the coating, and we put it on so that’s another thing that I do that I don’t know if a lot of other companies do is I will lose a little bit of time to make sure that my client sees their vehicle before putting it, installing the coating on it, because I want to make sure that they’re happy with the outcome of the paint prior to installing. Because once it goes on a lot of coatings, go on, just don’t come off, you know, there’s, just intensive labor behind to get it off to fix whatever they’re going to gripe about to reinstall. So at that point I’m losing time and money and that’s just really not what we are after.
Jody: right. Yeah. That’s Good. Well, that’s Awesome. We appreciate you Taking some time. I mean, we could keep going.
Shawn: I’m sure
Jody: I always enjoy talking to you and the other guys
Shawn: Absolutely
Jody: It’s been fun, to see all the people that pop in and out, you know, Christian Parker just popped in. We’ve had Joe Abin and appreciate everybody for tuning in. And but for the guys in your neck of the woods, how do they find you? Because you are the guy in Santa Rosa. So how did they find you?
Shawn: I am your Premium North Bay detail facility. You could find us at apedetail.com, or reach us at 707-757-9377, or just stopping at the shop at 90 Timothy Road, Suite G. We’re here in Santa Rosa, friends also six. So thank you guys, I appreciate you having me as your first guy on The Mafia Memoirs, and I don’t see the comments or anything. So anybody who’s on here hello, love you guys, and shine on and keep detailing.
Jody: all right, man.
Shawn: All right, guys, have a good day, you two guys
Shawn Sepulveda
APE Detailing
Web: apedetail.com/
Instagram: @ape_auto-detailing
Ph: (707) 757-9377
Mafia Memoirs is a production of Zenware and RoadFS The Official Software for The Detail Mafia. and the preferred software for auto detailers, PDR, interior repair and wheel repair. Proud member of the IDA.