From Paramedic to Professional Detailer - Vanessa's Story

Narrator: Calling all detailers, but just guiding every grind, helping detailers make more money one show at a time.

David Elliott: Hey, welcome to the Calling All Detailers podcast. I have Vanessa from. From Full Throttle Detailing. How's it going, Vanessa?

Vanessa: Everything is going good. It's going fantastic.

David Elliott: Where are you from and, uh, how did you get started in all of this?

Vanessa: I'm in Rocher in Texas. I got started by accident. So I've. I've always, always. I've always been a biker, always kept motorcycles clean and detailed, and we paid somebody to come and detail our bike, which was like 250 bucks. Well, they were. They spent an hour and a half on it, which I thought was kind of crazy because it always takes me many, many hours. And, um, they left and I was so dissatisfied. Swore I'd never pay anybody to detail my bike again. And so that's how I got started.

David Elliott: So you did it yourself and you fired that guy and you said, look, I'm going to start a detailing business and I'm going to focus on bikes. Is that right?

Vanessa: Yes. And I did a really great job, and it looked better than anything I've ever seen anybody have professionally done. So did you.

David Elliott: Did you get a refund?

Vanessa: No, I did not get a refund.

David Elliott: Great, Great. So as with the, uh, last couple episodes of the podcast, you are also part time and you are a paramedic full time?

Vanessa: Yes.

David Elliott: Tell me how that's going.

Vanessa: Um, hey, that's going good. A lot of patient care. It's. I like detailing because I can just free my mind and get in my headspace and get busy with it. I see a lot. A lot of tragedy and a lot of things just hurt my soul. There's a lot of illness and a lot of disease, so just. I'm good at it, but I kind of like detailing. It's fun. Great.

David Elliott: So. But you work a lot of hours and detailing is a little bit more on the side. Is that, um.

Vanessa: Right now it is. Sometimes I actually will be detailing more than. Than I am working at the hospital or on an ambulance. I hope to eventually be detailing and just work one or two shifts a month doing medical. So that's. That's what I'm hoping for. And every once in a while, I get lucky and my weeks turn out like that. So.

David Elliott: Do you ever get any customers from where you work at?

Vanessa: I do. I do, uh, a lot of biker friends at the hospital.

David Elliott: Excellent. Excellent. We were just talking with John on the last episode, and he works at a place where they do custom trucks. They build Trucks, and then he gets to ceramic coat them afterwards on, um, a nice. On his business. So that's pretty cool. So. All right. So how long have you been doing this professionally?

Vanessa: Only, let's see, about six months.

David Elliott: Six months. Okay.

Vanessa: But I have been detailing bikes my whole life, since I was a child.

David Elliott: Great, great. And what does being a detailer mean to you?

Vanessa: I don't know. It's very. It's very artistic to me. It's just, like, peaceful state. I don't know. It gives me peace. It gives me peace. I'm obsessed with them. Um, I like how beautiful everything turns out.

David Elliott: Just.

Vanessa: I don't know, everything from color correction and just. And doing beautiful chrome work and making something old look brand new again. I just. I don't know. I'm obsessed.

David Elliott: Great, great, great. How about some. Some tools that you use, um, that, you know, motorcycles have lots of little, intricate little detail parts. Do you use anything special to get in some of those areas?

Vanessa: I use nipple, uh, brushes from baby bottle brushes to get. They're like little pipe cleaners. A little handle I can get into a little bitty spots and just. Yeah, Uh, I get. I touch every single part of the bike from the frame up inside. I'm inside of it. I'm under it. I'm. It looks like it came right off of a showroom floor when I. I touch everything I see.

David Elliott: Pete from Bike Works talked about, these are things called pimp sticks. Have you ever heard of those before?

Vanessa: You know what? I feel like I have, but I have not used them. I don't believe. I guess you get, is it like a pipe cleaner? Is it like a pipe cleaner?

David Elliott: Like that and all the different corners and those kind of things. So he was telling us about that kind of stuff. Great. So how do people find you? How are you marketing?

Vanessa: I'm marketing through Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Um, a lot of word of mouth. And now I'm real happy. A lot of my customers are now starting to pass me on to their friends, so it's. I'm starting to get more business picking up.

David Elliott: Excellent. Do you do any Facebook ads?

Vanessa: I've done a few. I've done three Facebook ads, which have all turned out really, really well. That's great. They keep me busy, but I have them out.

David Elliott: What are you spending and what kind of revenue are you getting on the other side?

Vanessa: I'm not spending a lot, probably. You know, I've had. I've actually had AI companies and marketing companies come, want to come in and be like, hey, we're going to do this, and we guarantee you X amount of dollars. And they want me to spend more money, and they're. They're. They're promising me less money than I'm already making myself. So, um, I've been spending, like, I'll spend 15 bucks a day, and I get creative with my ads, and I'll only run an ad for about a week, and it'll keep me busy for about three weeks.

David Elliott: Wow. Yes. Yeah. Forget those companies. They. You can do business yourself. How about before, during, and after pictures? Do you do that?

Vanessa: I should. I should. I always do after, but I have not done too. Any before or during, which I really need to.

David Elliott: Yeah, that's something that I really push hard is, you know, do a before. Yeah. Uh, before, during, and after picture and video. Like, looks like, you know, Fred here washes his bike with a brick. Check this out. But check this out at noon when. When, you know, it's half done and we have a tape line, and we'll pull the tape line now look at it. And then when he comes to pick it up, look at Fred's bike now. And that can't be my bike. Oh, no. Oh, that is my bike. Oh, and you got to get your bike in here, too. Check this out. And Vanessa does awesome work. You had videos like that? Every single bike. And you throw it on Facebook and all the other places you'd have to quit the.

Vanessa: I need to do that. I will do that. You know what? Sometimes I look at them and I'll be like, oh, my goodness, what am I getting into? I mean, they'll scare me because, like, how can I. How can I turn this around? And then by the time I'm done, like, oh, my God, it's so pretty. I wish I had taken pictures before,

David Elliott: but I tell people it's, uh, like brushing your teeth. You should. Every single bike, car, truck, tractor, trailer, whatever you're doing before, during, and after. And then try to get a testimonial at the very end and post that stuff. Post it raw. Don't even edit it. And then at the end either. At the end of the week, end of the day, whatever. You could edit it a little bit. I recommend using the cap cut thing, the video editor, which you don't have to edit. And I don't know if you've heard this before, but you can download the templates, and there's millions of templates, and you just download it for free. It says, replace their picture with your picture or your video with their video. And you Click, click, click, click, click. Press export. Done. And it's flipping and zooming and there's music and you have like a professionally done short video of whatever you're doing in just seconds. I talked about it. Longer than it takes to actually do it.

Vanessa: No kidding. You know, I've been looking at different AI programs. I have not found one that has been easy for me to navigate so far. But I've been wanting to make some, like, live. I've been wanting to make some commercials, some animated commercials and so forth. And I've. I've not had any luck so far.

David Elliott: There's a couple of them out there, but. But yes, uh, yes, there's a couple of them out there and there's a couple where we're working with that, that you put type in the, uh, the, the, the words and it gives you a song with the beat, reggae, whatever. Pretty neat. And they'll do videos.

Vanessa: I'm trying to get something worked out with that.

David Elliott: Okay.

Vanessa: So hopefully soon, because I was hoping to put a new ad out and have it all just like a live full motion ad, but I have not figured it out yet. But I'm definitely working on it.

David Elliott: Okay. Well, I try to keep these videos evergreen, meaning you never know what time of the year or what year this really is, but it is the first of the year. What kind of things do you have in store for this year?

Vanessa: For this year? Well, I do plan to do a whole lot more advertising. I would like to get a storefront and this is alternative. I, I would like to get some sort of free label. I forgot the word private labeling. And I love your products. I do love your products. I want to get some private labeling going and just get my name out there. I do want to be a household name within the biker community for my area. I want it to be synonymous with Harley here in here in Houston area.

David Elliott: Great. Well, I know a guy.

Vanessa: Yeah.

David Elliott: That can help you with all that. So, uh. Excellent, excellent. What other kind of things are you, uh, gonna. You said you might minimize some of the paramedic work and do more detailing.

Vanessa: Yes, I'd like to retire from paramedic, honestly and just. I would like to learn. I want to start doing body work. I want to do paint work. I want to, you know, just really hone in the skills that I've been starting that I've been picking up and learning. I want to learn how to wet sand. I want to learn how to do it all. Um, I love, I just love how just. It's just. I don't know, I don't even have the right words to describe it. Just um, it's kind of like it's just artistic and beautiful and to see something change that's been sitting out in a field for 10 years because people, some people really neglect their bikes. Have it sitting out on a bike for 10 years and just love on it and then poof, it just shiny and beautiful.

David Elliott: Right, right, right. Excellent. I have a couple more questions and then we can wrap it up. How about a CRM or email marketing list? And uh, do you email your customers?

Vanessa: No, I do not. I am not the most techie. I'm learning.

David Elliott: I'm just, all I'm saying with that is, is if you know, Facebook closed, you wouldn't be able to advertise, but you could have an email marketing list and you could just be, hey, I have a, you know, Christmas special or a summer special. Let's, let's, let's brush off the winter and ah, get the spring special going and get your bike so you can get out there ripping up the highway. And you know, you can do that on all the social media stuff, but you could also email is still relevant and pretty effective to the, to pointed audience.

Vanessa: Okay, I did not realize that.

David Elliott: So I, and then all your customers, all your customers, you ask them for your, their address and their phone number and their email address and there's a couple different ways you can market. So, so there's always the email. You know, you email them at least once a month. You know, it's uh, Hanukkah and you have a 25% discount code. If you get your bike in here before Christmas, whatever it is that you're talking, you give some and then check out my videos of before, during and after and you know, check out the last bike that I did. And a referral if uh, I'm just giving you some ideas on marketing. And so if there's a referral, if you referral for your aunt, then you know, you get another 25%, you get 50% off this month if you get your, your bike in here. So there's all kinds of different things. And if you touch your customers on email, you can call them, ask them, you can text them and you can even use a postcard. You can get postcards made and snail mail still works these days if you touch them. Four, you know, if you did that every single month and you actually contacted them four times every single month, they might have threw away your postcard, never ignored your text, but they can't get Away from your phone call or maybe they did. They went to voicemail, but they got your email and that. And then that said, okay, that's what we're doing on Saturday. We're taking our bike to Vanessa. So that's kind of the marketing thing that I talked about, talk about with people all the time.

Vanessa: Okay. Okay, I. I'm going to work on it. I had not thought of these things, but I am going to work on it. I'm currently mobile. I do not allow anybody to come to my place because I am residential m right now. But I do. I work in everybody else's garage and I make myself at home. At their home.

David Elliott: Okay, and how does that work? I mean, you need a lot of light. Are you bringing lighting with you?

Vanessa: Yes, I bring lighting with me. I bring lighting. I bring my personal hot water heater. I bring, I mean, portable power washer just in case I've got to get in and really get some stuff out that I can't get with a little elbow grease.

David Elliott: See, that's, that's a tool that, that I never thought about is a, uh, portable. I don't know what you're talking about, but I've seen the, you know, the portable for tea and coffee that you plug it in and it gets warm water. And you can't clean anything with. With cold water, really.

Vanessa: So it's like that, but super sized, super size.

David Elliott: Okay. And then other people have extractors and steam machines, and we used to have a steam machine here. And, uh, so all those are. Is good. But if you're mobile, you probably don't have, you know, all those kind of tools.

Vanessa: Not yet. I've not done a lot of cars. Uh, I'm wanting to get some extractors. Cars don't excite me the way that bikes do. I'm wanting to move into, um, aircraft. I'd like to do airplanes, but I will do car. I need to get better. If maybe if I can specialize in really nice cars that I like, perhaps I'd find more interest in it. I'm just goofing off, and that's what it feels like anyways, you know, goofing

David Elliott: off and making money. Are you. How about your rates? What do you know what you're making an hour?

Vanessa: I'm incredibly competitive as far as pricing goes. Uh, right now I've been averaging with as long as it takes me to do between 40 and 50 bucks an hour.

David Elliott: That's pretty good.

Vanessa: That's pretty good. And I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that right now I'd like to, you know, once I'm really confident and I can train somebody to do it, like I'd do it because I'm very. Obsessive is the only word I can think of. I'm very obsessive with every, every inch of what I'm touching. If I could train somebody to be as thorough as I am, then I will hopefully grow it and get bigger. But finding somebody that thinks like I do is kind of hard to do.

David Elliott: I hear that all the time. All the time, yes. 50 bucks an hour for being mobile and doing this part time. I think that's a, that's a great price. If you have a shop and you have employees and you have insurance, all these overhead things, then I, I, I really push. Your minimum should be a hundred bucks an hour. Minimum.

Vanessa: That's not better. And you know what that's about with going right getting my foot in the door. I just came in low and it's like this is the bare minimum I can survive on. So that's, that's what I do.

David Elliott: And the other way that I look at it is you're a professional. I mean you probably, you know, I'm just generalizing with other detailers as well. You might have burned some paint. You had to learn. You have all these trials and tribulations and that takes time. I mean try to hire a professional. Anything. Try to hire a plumber. A plumber here costs about 250 an hour, so you better get it done in one hour is what I would tell them.

Vanessa: Absolutely. Yeah.

David Elliott: And you're a professional as well and everyone else is. So you know, a hundred, two hundred bucks an hour, work fast, be a professional. We, we, we talked with um, with Rob Torres and he really, he, he, he goes out to the high end neighborhoods and he's fully professional. Uniform hat, everything is uh, above grade and uh, it's all good. So anyways, 50 bucks an hour, but you're going to move towards a hundred bucks an hour and uh, you might like to do planes and high end cars, is that right?

Vanessa: That's right. That's what I'm hoping. That's the goal.

David Elliott: All right. All right. So uh, this podcast used to be called the 10x Detail podcast. And do you know what 10x means?

Vanessa: No, I don't.

David Elliott: Well, don't do things at 1x, do things at 10x. So then the next question would be is what does 10x mean to you? But if you don't know, I can just tell you.

Vanessa: You can tell Me, But I can. I kind of, um, I get it 10 times, you know.

Narrator: Yeah.

Vanessa: So 10 times more everything, A thousand

David Elliott: percent everything is, uh, at ten times. I guess the whole thing is if you made $50,000 a year and you say, I only want to make $60,000 a year last next year, look at this, I'm going to make $500,000 this year. And if you fell short at 300,000, it sure beats $60,000, right?

Vanessa: Absolutely.

David Elliott: That's. It's a mentality. It's a way of thinking. It's like, I'm going to do as many bikes as possible. I'm gonna charge as much as I can. I'm just gonna. I'm never gonna sleep. I'm just gonna eat. Detailing bikes and I'm just gonna just make as much money as possible. And then you come up for air and you're like, wow, I made a 300 grand. And maybe I didn't 10x it, but I 6x'd it.

Vanessa: Hey, that's good too.

David Elliott: Yes. So that's what it. That's what it really means.

Vanessa: So great. Thank you.

David Elliott: All right, Vanessa, well, it was awesome talking with you on the show here and we will catch up with you maybe in a year from now and see if maybe your full time gig has tapered off and you're doing detailing full time.

Vanessa: Thank you. Thank you for having me too. I appreciate it.

David Elliott: No problem. We'll see you on the next show.

Vanessa: All right? Yes, sir.

David Elliott: Bye. Bye.

Vanessa: Great. Take care.

Narrator: Calling all details Gather around the sound A place to learn the secrets that will lift you off the ground um, tips and tools and stories shared from shop to shop Helping you grow stronger with each needlely piling Try calling all the tailors partners chest Guiding every grind Helping detailers make more money one show at a time. From the first rinse of the morning to the final shine at night the wisdom in each episode will help you get right Raise your rates with confidence Let your business climb Tune in and keep leveling one detail at a time Calling all detailers podcast Guiding every grind Helping detailers make more money once you're well timed Sam M. Ah, Taylor's purest Guiding every grind Helping detailers make more money one show at a time.