I'm grateful for everyone that I've met, made friends and done business with. The kid in me would never have believed my present self to have come this far
My journey started off as a die-hard car enthusiast with the love for japanese imports.
Instead of being responsible following the path of traditional education. I dropped out of high school to chase the dream of becoming a singer-songwriter.
I then quickly realized it's almost impossible to make money with music. So I decided to start my business and get my feet wet in the automotive industry.
Since I was broke and my options were limited, mobile detailing came into my mind since it doesn't require a huge capital to start and I have a love for cars.
I started with only $60 in my bank account a negative -$5,000 credit card debt from splurging on expensive car parts while binge watching detailing videos on YouTube and diving into the detailing rabbit hole on the AutoGeek forum
I was ready to start but I had to first figure out how to market my busienss and get my first customer.
Since time was the greatest asset, I spent 12 hours a day 7 days a week figuring out how to build a website, list my business on Google, Facebook pages, SEO etc. I was obsessed
I figured since I have no content, I have to run ads. I used up my last dollar to spend $1/day on Adwords (Now Google ads), figured it's only $30/month and i could probably survive
Days gone by without a single phone call got me on the edge of my seat, but eventually my phone rang and a customer wanted a wash & vacuum on his Volkswagen Amarok
I panicked. I stuttered. He agreed for $75 and i knew i had to make it happen. I then borrowed $600 from my brother to buy the first equipment to do his car and figured there's more to come and I should make back the money in no time (which I did in the first month and made a few thousand dollars)
After my first ever client, it was the best day of my life - even to this very day. I was driving home, rolled the windows down and the rush of the feeling 'i've done it all by myself'
It made me believe that opportunity is there as long as you're willing to work hard for it.
A week afterwards, a local established detailing business reached out to me to be a contractor for him for his smaller jobs. I quickly figured it's all the jobs he didn't want to take on.
The neglected soiled daily cars, the grimey jobs. You know, the beaten-up work horses, Toyota Camrys and soccer mum SUVs.
Cleaning up dirt, vomit and soiled interiors etc you name it, I've done it
I was busting out $200 jobs while he was cashing in on the high ticket $1,000-2,000+ jobs
But it was awesome, I learned a lot and it lead me to where I'm at today.
I was addicted to growth, the thirst for knowledge and improving myself. Even till today, I never once thought "i've made it", even though i've made millions in revenue.
There are people who made billions so, of course there's something more to this universe
I love being a student, and I'm always a student of life and the lessons it throws at me. There's always something I do not know about, and I'm ALWAYS listening and learning.
I've seen people lose millions and lost their businesses just because they're blinded by their ego thinking they've made it and they stopped bettering themselves.
Back to my story, I quickly figured the money is not in cleaning cars at somebody's driveway. Sure, it's 'full time job' money but not 'profit money' so I quickly reversed engineered the guys who made the most money in this space: It's the high ticket services like ceramic coatings & PPF.
It's was a no brainer. The cars are new, usually higher end luxury cars and the clients wouldn't even bat an eye since the dealerships has already 'pre-sold' them about paint protection.
I had to find my own high end customers, that led me down another rabbit hole of marketing
While I was in the growth phase, other detailing businesses started reaching out asking for tips and advice. Specifically how do I get booked with high end cars and grew my business quickly.
The shocking thing is, some of these guys are guys who I looked up to when I was starting my business.
I started consulting for a fee and scaled the 'consulting' side of the business which allows me to make a lot more than detailing itself - that led to the decision to exit the business
5 years of running Grand Sport Detailing, I successfully exited the business, which not many auto shops could do. Most shops have been around longer than me and they don't make money so I guess being comfortable and stagnation is the real enemy.
Now, I've went on to build another two 7 figure businesses, which I'm not allowed to disclose publicly due to other business partners are involved. It's pretty cool one of the business actually got featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, INC and other media outlets
It's been fun, even though I ventured out to other businesses, my deep love for cars is still in me - I buy, drive, fix, flip cars outside of business and I spend way too much time watching car YouTube videos and I have a small, interesting collection of cars
Here's my timeline so far: - 2015-2017: Detailing cars at people's driveway - 2017-2021: Grew my brick & mortar detailing shop to $75k/month and exited - 2019 - 2025: consulting with high end auto shops and scaled my own e-learning company to 7 figures - 2024 to present: Partner up with e-learning businesses as a growth partner, scaled 2x e-learning business from sub $10k/month to $130k+/month
Moving forward to 2025 and beyond, it's my mission to partner up with e-learning businesses (that is NOT marketers marketing marketing to marketers) and have a 9-figure portfolio of partners in the e-learning space with real impact.
If you know me personally, or just dropping by reading my story, or have we crossed paths before - don't be shy and say hi.
A conversion could lead us to a different universe.
