The Riches are in the Niches with John Mapu from Wax On Warriors

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

David Elliott: Hey John, how we doing? Welcome to the podcast. How are things going over there? Good, good.

John Xavier Mapu: Uh, just happy to be here. It's a good, nice uh, day. Not really too sunny, but uh, you know, we're hanging. Just came back from a walk and we're ready to uh, talk some detailing. So good to be here, Dave.

David Elliott: Excellent, excellent. Well, thanks for being on the show and tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got here and where uh, are you located.

John Xavier Mapu: Absolutely. So, uh, my name is John Xavier Maku and uh, I live out in Menifee, California. I run a business here called Wax on Warriors. You uh, can find us on Wax on warriors dot com. And uh, we are a niche business essentially catering to fleet details as well as uh, RVs and boats, uh, ceramic coatings, things of that nature. And uh, I've been doing it for about two years and it really started, um, because I noticed I coach youth football on the side, um, shout out to um, Marietta Blitz Hawks here. Um, and I noticed on the summers, uh, half of my football team was kind of missing. So they would go off to the dunes or wherever it is, uh, take them and camping and so uh, later they would come back, um, you know, middle of training camps and things like that and just explain to the other players how fun all the summers were. But from there, um, a little niche kind of ensued because I got to know all the dads who had the fun Jayco campers and, and um, uh, things of that nature. So, um, I started a little side hustle with my 11 year old football son and started with word of mouth and it spread to a detailing business which I run exclusively. I had an employee here last year and I'll get into that. Um, but I'm on the verge of scaling up my business here. We do about anywhere from 1 to 5,000 and get more, um, of course the higher being in the summer months. Um, so a little bit about me here. I work for a company called Wabash national and we make semi trucks and trailers and things from scratch. So, uh, I'm an options builder, uh, a quality control inspector and a production line worker by trade for my Monday through Friday. Um, and then on the weekends here I, I tend to ceramic coat the vehicles that I make. So, so that always helps. Um, and it helped me organically, um, to cater a market here. Um, Menifee, Marietta, Inland Empires. I, I kind of have gold, um, with my ATVs my, my RVs, um, and I don't have to touch the OC and LA areas. However um, I do feel once you get into high end cars and things of that nature you better be ready to go and uh, you better be ready to tackle those kind of markets. But what I kind of want to share with everybody in my experience is um, be true to yourself and stay small and organic if you are. Um, when you're ready to push those ads and things, um, you'll know, you'll know because your work will m. Outgrow yourself. And so um, and so yes uh, but uh, you know getting into it

David Elliott: here,

John Xavier Mapu: um, uh um, I enjoy of course working out in my community. I think that is a big word of mouth thing that comes um, in itself. Um, if you want to go through what uh I do on the daily in my natural 9 to 5 I tend to meet all sorts of truckers and all sorts of workers whether I'm loading up parts and shipments. Um, and then in between those factions and between those lunch breaks you tend to have golden uh, opportunities. Um, if you'll check on my website on Wax on Warriors you'll see uh, I wrapped ah an 18 wheeler here um for an air gas company. Um, the gentleman, he uh, wasn't just a regular worker. He tended to be uh, on that day he tended to be one of the uh district guys who were just coming in and I happened to um, pitch him um just a little detail just for his car. Um, I have a device here, a uh little wristband um from dotcarts.com shout out to them. Um and it is, it has a little microchip in it which carries my business card. Um, any detailers I highly recommend carrying this. Um that way you don't have to carry fat stacks of papers. I can just tap to any phone, any, any Android, um, phone if you will and it uploads my, my my data, my, my profile page and any sort of link tree connects that I might have. I tend to hand that out more than my regular card at this point and um, it looks sleek, it looks professional. It looks like I'm not really pushing um something too much as I'm working my nine to five as well. So I found that to be very sleek and unique way and um, for someone who is a professional businessman, trust me, they like that on the go. They don't want to carry things in their pockets. So um, what that happened uh, and ended up parlayed into a ceramic coating job for vehicles and um, you know three more out of that. So, so you know, just, just never, never doubt an opportunity to grow for yourself. Um, and also, um, you know, put yourself out there when you can.

David Elliott: Right, right, right. So what I'm hearing is that you have a 9 to 5, that you're, you're a con quality control guy for a truck building company, right?

John Xavier Mapu: Yes sir.

David Elliott: They built, they build trucks?

John Xavier Mapu: Yes sir.

David Elliott: And while you're doing your business, you or you, your, your job, J O B, uh, you also meet people in the trucking industry who may need your side gig services as well. So from their cars to their trucks, to even wrapping, you know, I wrapped my, my boat and that was very difficult. And so a tractor trailer can't be that, that easy as well. And, and at least you're not in the water doing it. I did it on the dock and it was very difficult. But uh, so, so you've, you've, you have these niches also with the, the um, the RVs or the pull behind RVs and from people in your community and also the tractor trailer. So besides the, the clientele that you, that you are meeting in your daily 9 to 5, how else are people finding you?

John Xavier Mapu: Awesome. Uh, so, so other than the regular foot traffic that you have here, um, the IE in itself is a big community. So um, there's car meets that happen regularly as well if you want to go that, that I call it more uh, dirtier campaigning because then you're kind of in the uh, rig with the other detailers and you'll find them very quickly. So uh, shout out to SoCal wax shops, um, out in their area. They have a lot of good greets. Um, and Adam shop down at Anaheim as well. Um, they also have trainings which you can go to for free and you can socialize with these guys who are gear heads and car heads. So um, a lot of that is where you'll find good high end clientele. Don't get me wrong, the community has done me great. Um, but you'll find that it's hard to break from being a neighborhood car washer to an actual detailer. And so that is where my niche kind of comes in handy for myself because I come from a professional, you know, truck building background. So it's natural you would assume that, that I, I would have that when I bring that to your doorstep. But what if you're not, what if you're just a regular, you know, 20 something teenager and really trying to build your appearance? Um, at that point, from the minute you shake someone's hand, um, Till the minute you end the wash, everything that you need m needs to be on point, I would say. And you would have to, um, have the intention of having a return guest as well. Um, you can wash 10 cars a day and put your, you know, blast ads and do it for 70 bucks, you know, but trust me, that is tiring work. And really, I think in my eyes, what I've seen when I go down to the OC markets and the LA markets, it's saturated to the point where now everyone is dropping their own cost. And my question is why? Uh, you can only do maybe one to three washes a day. If you're really, truly on top of your game, make it the best so they can come back. And that is return business for myself personally. Ah, I end up doing two washes. I end up doing a regular detail, um, full detail with the wax and polish. And I would offer a return service and what I call is a ninja detail. It's a quick maybe, you know, touch up on ceramics here, there, inside out, um, dusting and just a exterior wash. And that's for 80. So, you know, you'll have a package for 220 and a regular detail and come back for 80. Ends up being three, two washes for 300. Do the math on that. And so you get two chances where you can present yourself to them and their client again. Usually the second time, they are talking about you the second time or the neighbor knows about you seeing it the second time. Keep in mind, um, and I kind of hate to say this because you want to think of your job as a 9 to 5, but detailing in my experience is kind of a luxury. And I think when the chips are down and I think when the economy is, that's kind of one of the first things to go. So think how you can present yourself again or return yourself again. Um, uh, from there, you know, I like doing fleets and I like doing, uh, the RVs. I fish regular, uh, car details into those bigger things. Um, and for me it's service people, blue collar people like myself. So anyone who is a construction worker, anyone who's a police officer, um, I give deals to multiple fleets and stay within that framework. If you want to go out and tackle those guys with those Lamborghini Yarises, um, and things like that, um, you know, make sure you are on top of your game and offer other things. I have a bunny who works with custom, uh, leather coatings. Shout out with them. Um, so he is not a PPF and vinyl guy. He can stain leather so when you're doing a Lamborghini Urus, um, how about offering matching the outside interior with the inside? You know, these are, these are true great niches I think people need to look into, tap into. Um, I just happen to find mine because I live more east and not west towards the coast. They tend to not be fancier cars, they tend to be bigger family owned vehicles. So I never outplayed my role from there and I never, and I never tried to. You know, if you see my, my Instagram or my Facebook, it's pretty plain. Um, but that's kind of purposeful. Um, I've never detailed a Ferrari in my life, so why would I pretend like I did that? You know, I, I don't understand that. Then you get these guys in a pickle, um, and then you're kind of stuck. I, I remember offering, um, $100 details just to. And it became $60 details and $40 details very quick for my neighborhood. Um, and my third detail, I had a, I had a truck that had beeswax and SAP and tree wax. And I think of any detail, when you come into that first, it looks like hard shell candy on the top of a hood. You really tend to freak out and you don't know what you do. And I think I spent 30 to 40 minutes youtubing what to do, you know, before I, before I actually, actually tackle that. And, and um, you know, you have to refine your skill through repetition. Um, so do your groundwork in your areas where you're known there before you start putting yourself out there. Because trust me, um, you know, having to run to your detail shop to pick up Dark and Stormy and all these things, uh, mid detail isn't fun. And, and, uh, um, so. So, uh, yeah, just, you know, it just goes on from there.

David Elliott: Right, right. So that all is great information. And, uh, yeah, say I went here in the northwest. Uh, there's a lot of pine trees, right. One time I, I saw somebody and their Subaru had a big pine pile on it. I'm like, all right, let me just, let me just take that off with my fingernail. It went all the way to metal. It took.

John Xavier Mapu: Oh, man.

David Elliott: M. All the. Everything off. I'm like, wow, you got to get that stuff off right away because it's burning all the way through. So.

John Xavier Mapu: Oh, yeah.

David Elliott: Okay, great, great.

John Xavier Mapu: Now turn into a paint correction.

David Elliott: Yes, yes. And, and, uh, a paint correction or paint spray or a touch up at least Dr. Color Chip. So, uh, tell us a little bit about the, the reason why it's Wax on Warriors.

John Xavier Mapu: Yeah. Ah, absolutely. So, so, um, growing up here, uh, I'm American Samoan, so big Islander loving household. I'm actually the smallest uh, in my family. I'm like 5 foot 8. So you can imagine everybody else looks like giant rugby players in my family here. But um, my father who uh, I take this business after he was a special forces sniper, um, and a Green Beret, um, back in the 80s. And uh, he was the eldest of nine kids in his family, so an extremely hard worker. I, um, had no choice but to follow those things and be up at 4 or 5 in the morning or whenever military guys do. Um, so I really take on kind of that mentality as well. Um, and also, uh, what that led, uh, for me growing up is just really being inspired to do sports and martial arts things of that nature. Um, in which I am now a youth, uh, football coach as well. So, um, we have a warrior mentality. That's how we attack our nature and our essence of what we do. And um, I combine that too with my six years of experience of truck building and learn how to wax and polish and buff here. So then you get the Wax on Warriors. Um, ah, so I just saw, um, when we wake up every day, I just want to be reminded and be grateful for what we do and what we have here and follow those, uh, warrior codes is what I call them.

David Elliott: Excellent. That's a great story. Awesome. So, okay, so this is a podcast about helping detailers make more money. And you've already given it, given us some great nuggets of, uh, how to do that professionalism wise and uh, niche wise. And stay in your niche. How about some tips or tricks or advice on different products or tools or things that make your detailing life a little easier?

John Xavier Mapu: Uh, sure. Absolutely. So, um, I'm going to tell everybody out there, um, if you, if you see my rig or set up here, I can kind of show you because I'm, I'm putting up a new one here. I, I have my extract, I have my uh, steamer. I think a lot of, um, what is the difference and what's better, you know, um, when it comes to carpet cleaning, should I have a heated like that? Um, a little, uh, PNS steps, 1, 2, 3. Um, does the job and I don't think, I think I rarely touch my extractor at all. So I think for every young, uh, 20 something out there, anybody who hasn't really gotten their hands dirty in materials, what, uh, do I need? Um, I would go with the heated steamer and then Just a regular, uh, a regular flow head, um, just like water and then you can saturate it out as you go. So that's my little tip there. Um, for people you don't need to go spend hundreds of dollars out there. Um, another thing too, um, a, ah, shout out to Detailer Flow. Um, they're on Instagram and they're in young upcoming, uh, company here that um, basically it's a backend app that has tap to pay regular invoices and they integrate um, your webpage as well as style out anything you might have. So for all you guys who are like me, um, I'll be 40 next month and um, I probably built my second wix page here so I didn't know what I was doing and um, I essentially didn't know how I can um, link that with my LLC on the back end. So for all you guys, Detailer Flow is a one stop shop for those things. Um, and I highly recommend it. Um, when you want to go there and you're learning your craft, um, you kind of become a jack of all trades. I uh, didn't know I'd have to learn how to market myself, um, how to make ads, how uh, to cut them on Inshot and um, how to post them into 20 second clips. But all of those things maybe you don't have to do and as you scale and as you grow up, um, put those in other people's hands. So um, I find with myself I have three kids. I don't like to um, rummage through all of my invoices or seeing what products are used. I want that um, given to me. I um, used to be a GM too. Just to give you a little background in San Diego for a place called island prime and Sea Level. So a high end fine dining restaurants got rated. So um, I like spreadsheets, I like data things. When it comes to my numbers. That's a place to find it in case you guys were looking because there's a lot of different stuff out there. Um, let's see, what else can they give? Uh, I mean uh, not too much really comes to mind. I think a lot of YouTube tutorials come out there when it comes to your style. Um, okay, yeah, actually I do have something here. Um, a year ago I tried to scale up my business before, um, just to throw it out there and have a person working while I was working my business. So Monday through Friday, you know, 9 to 5 I'm working. This person's trying to pick up the other slack at an hourly rate. Um, be very weary of your growth patterns at the time. I think I did three washes on my setup that I rigged on top of a pallet, you know, and I can fit it into my chunk. So I was really feeling myself at the time. And a, uh, person came in and it's like, let me help you scale it, you know, And I kept putting money into those things, but I wasn't watching it. And that's where detailing flow came in. I think if, um, if I, if I was a. I guess if I was a better manager and better at mitigating my time, I would see those things coming. But essentially I did a plug, plug and play thing, and I ended up for months shelling out and giving out, uh, money to something that never came to fruition. So, um, just kind of be weary of those patterns. Be wary of, you know, helping, thinking you're helping when in essence, um, you're destroying your own brand and your name.

David Elliott: Um, are you saying that the, the guy didn't work out, he was taking advantage of you, or what? I'm kind of missing what you're saying.

John Xavier Mapu: All of those things. You know, you'll pay an hourly rate and try to, and pump your ads and try to get it and, you know, someone's not answering calls or, you know, I would say showing late, but things like that. So, so, so an employee wasn't ready.

David Elliott: A lot of people are not going to care about your business as much as you care about your business.

John Xavier Mapu: And, you know, that's a hard lesson, but that is the truth. That, that totally is. So work your business until you essentially can't anymore. And then, um, if you need you, if you need that, that's when you'll know it's time to scale.

David Elliott: So I have seen that they pay a percentage of the detail or of the car wash. So they don't pay. They don't pay a, uh, hourly salary. They pay by the work that's being done. If it's getting. You're getting paid $100, they get 25% and you get 75%. So that tends to keep people a lot more honest and a lot. And then in their best interest to, uh, to do a great job and to do as many cars as possible.

John Xavier Mapu: Yeah, I like that as well. So any way you can keep it fair? Any way you can keep it, you know, honest. Um, just make sure it's practiced in your business model and always take what's good. I like that. Yes.

David Elliott: That's the whole point of this podcast is sharing great information from other people. And, uh, you know, during the COVID times, I did a hundred podcasts in a. In a couple months. And there's, uh, a lot of great ones back there if you want to check those out back in the archives. And, um, besides that, I think we covered quite a bit. How do people find you on, uh, on Instagram and Facebook and your website?

John Xavier Mapu: Absolutely. So check us out. We are wax. Waxonwarriors.com and waxonwoyors on Instagram.

David Elliott: Great. Hey, John, thanks for being on the show. And, uh, we'll catch up with you in about a year and we'll do another podcast interview and, and see how things have progressed and if you're. If you're breaking into some other markets or not. Okay.

John Xavier Mapu: All right. Right on. Appreciate you. Have a good one.

David Elliott: We'll see you on the next show. Okay, bye.

Narrator: Calling all detailers Gather around the sound A place to learn the secrets that will lift you off the ground Tips and tools and stories shared from shop to shop Helping you grow stronger with each needle pile is dry Calling all detailers Part 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 Pop watches Guiding every grind Helping detailers make more money one show at a time. Calling all detailers Purchased Guiding every grind Helping detailers make more money One show uh, at a time.