What’s one of the toughest challenges you faced in the industry and how’d you overcome it oh boy well we never have
our shortage of challenges right I I want to stay positive Co was a tough time you know I I never had to let
anybody go for lack of work um until Co and I I had to sit there and and it was
the worst time I’ve ever had uh running a business where I had to actually tell people like listen I I can’t I can’t put
you to work welcome to the ride and style podcast your turbocharged Pit Stop for
automotive restyling buckle up with Jesse and
[Music] Josh all right here we go uh welcome to the ride in style podcast episode 15
with Ralph George Jr of specialty Automotive treatments also known as Ralph Jorge Jr Ralph thanks for being
here thanks Jesse thanks Josh good to be here with you guys I don’t know how far
down the the Rolodex you had to go to to finally you know this part but I’m sure
that list is long and distinguished well if you’re in the top 100 you and you are already in the top
20 because we had to mix it up sometimes it’s manufacturer sometimes it’s SEMA
sometimes it’s restylers but Jesse we’re talking to the king of South Florida
right here so that’s awesome and how did you guys meet by the way I love to start with that I’m gonna let Ralph go first um I
mean we’ve known each other for a while now it’s not uh I don’t know the first introduction doesn’t really particularly
stand out uh but we I mean I I’ve been part of the restylers United pretty
much since um right right around after my dad passed is when I felt it was a
good thing for both me and Christina to have you know um a a group that we can
reach out to and talk to and learn through um you know through others
experiences it’s been incredibly helpful um and Josh is just he’s always been him
Josh and Joey have always been kind of the um ambassadors of the group and um
it’s been a great relationship from the beginning very comfortable speaking with them about whatever asking for advice
sharing wins sharing losses and um I’m uh I’m very very
grateful to to the guys of the group guys and girls of the group yeah guys and GS I think we met if you remember
this um we were in Vegas and it was during the show but we
had a cat skin dinner that night but it was at the um it was at the
Shelby museum or where they where they built the Shel yeah where they built the
Mustangs in F-150s yeah yes and uh so here’s a funny story about that Jesse so
this is kind of new back when I mean or maybe it was around for a little B but it was new to me Uber so there you know
I’m coming out of the show it’s like Wednesday night or Thursday night I can’t remember but kin’s like okay be uh
you know it’s probably like 20 minutes away come to the Shelby museum and try to be there by like 6 o’clock so I’m
coming out of the show I’m I’m staying at the uh I don’t know one of the hotels and I look at here and I go oh my gosh
the taxi Line’s forever I’m never going to make it in time so I’m like all right I’ll just get this you know try this
Uber thing so I download the app I put it in my card and everything like that and i’ had done it maybe one other time I don’t remember but anyway I I do that
and I just click okay okay okay okay okay and it’s like it’ll be there in two minutes I’m like sweet and this Mazda 6
picks me up and the guy’s like Oh Mr pson it’s so great to see you would you like a a bottle of water and he’s
driving around he’s telling me he’s a math teacher and he’s like and hey what’s your favorite radio station what what kind of music do you like uh are
you are you warm enough are you cold enough and I’m sitting there going what in the world it’s like just take me to
the Shelby place so I get there and okay great thanks Mr Po have a great night
and I’m I’m walking in then you get emailed your receipt uh 20 minutes or it was actually
9 miles took 20 minutes and it was $132 cuz it had like a
multiplier of like four because four or five cuz they were so busy and I’m like oh that’s why he was offering me
everything so but I’m was like oh my goodness so I walk in and there uh there
was Ralph and Christina and um listen I’ve I’ve known of Ralph I don’t think we had had actually met at any point at
the point so I introduced myself and you know Ralph’s like the nicest guy around
um Christina was Christina made me a little nervous she looked she was a little scary she was kind of standoffish
I think she I she was like who is this guy you know that doesn’t sound that doesn’t sound like she’s I know she’s
like the best I know she like I think she thought I was just so excited to meet you guys she’s like okay who’s this
crazy dude maybe thought she thought I was hitting on her or something I don’t know but I was like so now that seem a
person of the year since you’re since that happened you just leave on a helicopter now right like you don’t need a uber it’s just no oh no no no no now
it’s now it’s automatically they just they have a taxi for me but I never get to use it it just has my name on it they
don’t let me use it but yeah that Shelby man if you’re ever in Vegas you can go toward that Shelby museum that was
awesome was Co they showed us how they build the super you know the the Mustangs and F-150s and everything like
that we’ve had a lot of great tours I mean between that the uh the F-150 plant
at uh the the Rouge Plant in Detroit I mean we’ve had we’ve had some really cool experiences as that group and um we
were watching them put in a sunroof one time and what it took 11 seconds for them to to install a panoramic sunroof
in at F-150 it’s nuts yeah we we we really stake at doing this is what I
came to the realize when we saw that yeah where else have we been oh my God I
mean how how far do you want to go we got um I mean obviously the wabaso plant
when when they were uh building them there um I mean I love visiting all the shops just seeing how everybody does
things I mean it’s all the same but but different every every Shop’s got its quirks and its own their own Tendencies
and processes I have a lot of fun visiting the shop which I still haven’t been to yours and I you know hopefully
we could Circle back to Columbus here at some point but that’s uh it’s it’s I I get a lot of um satisfaction from seeing
the way everybody runs their shops so let’s let’s go back to your because I want there’s some awesome stuff about
his old shop he recently sold the building and everything like that but your old shop when did your dad start
the company and was it at did he buy that building right there or was that the
first place or was there a building before that one no that was I think that was the third bir uh so my my dad
started in 1979 um he had been working for Marriott uh opening hotels around the
world Saudi Arabia you know management task force for Marriott and uh and he
took a leave of absence for six months thinking you know he’s going to he’s going to try out this business and um I
don’t know how many people know this um outside of our family but he actually started with a partner and um he was
doing it for for the six months and you know just pounding the pavement cutting
holes in in roofs and um it was a terrible product at the time uh but you
know he persevered through it and uh you know he found out that his partner was being um less than
uh he he he he wasn’t on on level with him it was he it it wasn’t a good
partnership let’s put it that way and 020 partners never are so this is uh this is 79 so um he
went up to his partner and said listen one of us has to go either you’re going to buy me out or I’m going to buy you out but one of us has to go and he was
hoping that the partner would buy him out at the time cuz he he was not seeing
this thing taken off and the partner said no listen I want you to buy me out and um it was not a a good situation but
he got through it he had to put his house up as a as a guarantee for the note on the buyout and uh after that the
the rest is history you know wow why why how did he even come across the business
it it was the the idea was brought to him by this other gentleman okay um and
uh you know he he was more of like the the tech right he he had the technical noow at the time and my dad you know
super I mean if anybody can Sail sell as your dad yeah well he could definitely
sell but like me he we we don’t have any like technical uh prowess um so he had
the the business side um so I mean he was able to make it work Against All Odds you know he made it happen and uh
you know over the years the product line Diversified and all that and um you know here we are so R how did you get into
the industry what was that like that transition so I I always knew that I
wanted to go into the family business that was I mean since I was a kid I would I would go into the shop and just
like be in awe of everything that my dad was doing and um and then you know as I
was in college you know he he wanted me to for sure go to college and get my degree and uh and my masters as to
always have that in my back pocket but um he asked me as I was finishing undergrad if I was like are you sure do
you want to go into this business you know you see what it takes and the kind of dedication and time and everything
and I’m like yeah absolutely Dad this is what I want to do so it was around that time that um we had been in the
warehouse that you saw Josh in Fort Lauderdale and um we had the the
building in the back the warehouse the production facility and then the the um the corner on Sunrise became
available and uh he uh he made a play and was able to get that and then we
built the building that you saw which is now uh the Tesla South Florida body and
Service Center yeah got a beautiful showroom like two-story showroom offices
very uh beautiful and but so so your dad in 7 what was he installing just
sunroofs or tops or what sunroofs t-tops um you know simc cons any simc
cons back then oh vinyl tops I mean yeah definitely vinyl tops I don’t know how long it was before that became like a
big part of the business but that was the business until like mid90s that was
that was it you know the simt the Sim Toops um I remember when you know like
Lincoln Mercury dealerships were like the biggest accounts you could get and uh it was um it was also like probably
mid 90s that Holman Automotive homman Enterprises bought out uh my dad’s
competitor sunroof of Florida down here Chuck risden um and they they had been
good friendly competitors for a really long time and my dad had approached him a few times and I don’t know if Pride
got to to Chuck and uh he ended up selling to to Holman and you know
eventually that business just kind of waned because Sim Toops all those customers are dying so literally um yeah
So eventually we ended up buying sunroof of Florida from Holman and um yeah that
it’s a non-existent part of the business now like Sim Sim Toop Sim Toops are just you know re recovers you know it’s not
even you can’t even put one on a new car they don’t make the shells anymore yeah yeah we were talking to we were talking
to Henry paly and that’s how he started in the 70s and he just there was no shells they were putting and what did he
say Jesse they $55 for a full STP $55 and it would take
them like 45 minutes two guys unreal unbelievable B in the moldings and
everything it was C $55 but so your name at that point wasn’t Specialty Auto
treatments though right it was it was Sun autot Toops is how it started autotop so s kind of always just kind of
lived along and what year did you guys decide to change that um I think it was around 2000 is when my Dad decided to
change it it’s just like you know we’re talking about tops when I mean yes it was still part of what we did at that
time but it was it was a it was a shrinking part of the business so it was more
appropo to to use a name that uh was more fully encompassing of the products
that we offered even though it’s kind of a mouthful still I I still specialty Automotive treatments is just it’s a
little long but everybody knows you has sat though yeah it works so that’s all that matters your dealer your customers
they call sat call sat some of them still call us sonat tops the oldtimers or they still say it but um you know
it’s we’re we’re still here we’re still going he when you when you look back at
Advice To Younger Self
your younger self in the industry what what would you tell yourself you know when you were just starting out now that
knowing what you know now um what would I tell myself um I I
think that I was less patient with people when I first started like I i’ I probably lost some really good team
members that we could have developed and nurtured into into uh lifelong members
of our team if if you know I didn’t get on them really hard cuz I I tried to to
to measure Everybody by the same yard stick that I would measure myself and it it’s that’s tough to do when you’re an
owner it’s not the same as when you know you have somebody that yeah they they might really be giving it they’re all by
normal people standards but it’s not the same when you know when it’s yours so I
think that that was probably a mistake that I had made when I was younger um
but that being said you know I look back and it was a learning experience so now you know I I try to approach people with
a with a different understanding a little bit more empathy you know if somebody calls out sick I don’t I don’t
get upset at them it’s just like okay you know you’re sick go go take care of yourself get better and you know we’ll
we’ll go back at it tomorrow um but yeah when I was younger I didn’t really understand it the same cuz you know you
would have to I’d have to be in the hospital to not show up to work yeah and what what year did your dad
pass so this month 10 years ago is when he was last in the office and then he
passed on uh New Year’s Eve 2014 that’s when he passed W I can’t
believe it’s been 10 years I know it’s it was crazy when I thought of that it
was like wow it’s been almost a decade and um yeah yeah it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long and um you know
seldom does a a week go by where you know I I speak to somebody who who
had dealt with him or maybe even met him just once but he he had a way of just
making an impression on somebody like people that whether they knew him for years like you and and John prer you
guys who had had really known him for a long time or hey I I Met Your Dad one
time but he left a mark on people in a way that um it was hard to forget so um
he intimidated me I sat down I was a young guy man I I sat down next to lunch at him and just listen him talk and I’m
like oh my goodness but so you were got to work with him for what 10 11 years um
I mean listen I had been going back to Jesse’s question from before I I always tried to go in yeah as often as I could
like I set up my College schedule so that if if I could fit all my classes into three days or four days and I could go to work a day I would do that um but
fulltime was going to be like 8 years full-time side by side
yeah that’s awesome time that you got to do that and Lear so what so what did you learn during those eight years with him
I mean what sticks with you because you guys are different right you know I I see he you’re a little bit more
conservative he I don’t from what I’m you know just from what I know about him and what I know about you you know
you’re very calculated you’re very intelligent and your dad was also intelligent but he was he was just very
more like let’s go let’s do this let’s make this happen he wasn’t as scared of
because he had maybe been through some of those obstacles like starting a business and stuff like that sure and
listen he he came he came from nothing he did it all himself so I mean you know for him going full steam ahead was just
his his total mentality you know he definitely had a Bravado and a flare
about him that uh that I’ll never match but um
he what what did I learn from him I mean just the work ethic you know um that uh
uh you know being competitive and um and always doing the right thing for your
customer I mean it’s our our business as you know is built on 100% repeat so um
you know it’s it’s a it’s a weird business that we’ve chosen to be in because you know how how our dealer
customers can be sometimes where you know they they sometimes push a little more than than what they probably should
and you just have to you just have to take it and smile and and make them happy and um because listen as you know
if you’re not going to take care of it somebody else is going to take care of it and if you don’t take care of it
guess what you they still owe you for probably 60 days of work that you’re that you’re hanging on to so it’s going
to come off of that anyway so I e you take care of it or you don’t but you don’t get to play again if you don’t so
um always take care of the customer do do things the right way
um you know he he taught me never to get too high or too low Things Are Never As
Good as they seem things are never as bad as they seem um and uh yeah I mean I
I everything I mean I can’t I can’t think of anything that I didn’t learn from him except for some of the you know
here and there experiences that I’ve come through on my own but it it’s it was uh it was amazing the the the time I
got to spend with him was uh invaluable and I wouldn’t trade it for what’s one of the toughest challenges you faced in
Ralph’s Toughest Challenges
the industry and how’d you overcome it oh boy well we never have our
shortage of challenges right um I mean today yesterday last year uh we we’ve
always got something I mean obviously we we’ve all had loss as as you know very well with um you know what what y’all
went through with Casey and um how how they’re how they’re dealing um and
moving forward but I mean just industry related um Co was a I I want to stay
positive Co was a tough time you know I I never had to let anybody go for lack of work um until Co and I I had to sit
there and and it was the worst time I’ve ever had uh running a business where I had to actually tell people like listen
I I can’t I can’t put you to work I don’t have anything for you to do um and
I I I had to I’ll call it Furlow cuz we brought everybody back um once things got back
to normal um but I had to tell drivers like listen I I I can’t I can’t put you
to work they’ve been working for me for 15 years and I and I I can’t keep them busy that was tough um how long were you
how long were you closed we didn’t we never closed the day but but what what we did we just had our our installers
going up and picking up cars because like hey if there’s not enough for them to stay busy all day we’re going to have them pick up and deliver and everybody
you know everybody got on board and and understood what we were going through I remember the you know the the meetings
that we had as a group which was great at the time is like um you know talking
about how are we going to make it through this and you know surely we we all got through it um
that was a challenge you know just adapting to the new circumstances right like um going through that where dealers
had never had the problem where they wouldn’t have cars to sell and they actually got to the point where there
were no cars on the lot I mean I would go to a Toyota store that had a has a parking lot that’s the size of like
three football fields and it was always double parked like cars stacked on top of each other and I went by there and it
was empty there was not one car in the lot and it was like I it was it was not
believable it I like I had to take a picture of it cuz obviously it’s
temporary everything is cyclical and I was there last week and here they are they’re double parked again and now we
got to figure out how are we going to incentivize customers to come out and buy cars when they’re not selling themselves um so I do feel that we have
an opportunity now to to reintegrate ourselves into that process and U in a
way that we haven’t been able to for the past couple couple of years so I’m optimistic about that
yeah what what’s your uh what do you think you guys are your favorite your best product is it still leather for you
guys is that your number one go-to or is that what you’re most comfortable with or uh certainly we’re very comfortable
with it um I I feel like it’s it’s it’s definitely uh you know one of the most
important products that we’ve got I I enjoy selling it I think it makes a tremendous impact on you know the the
the vehicle itself self when when we put it on it’s something that everybody wants you know every top trim level on
every car comes with it so naturally it’s something that everybody wants
um I think that one of the biggest opportunities that we have is cons
consumer awareness I mean when we hire people when we when we bring on new people at our company whether it’s to
sell or you know maybe to train in the shop they’re like I never knew you could do do this and I mean like that then I
realize how bad we are at what we do at making people aware that this is something that you can add you can do
this even if the car is already built you can go to the dealer and buy that car so I feel like that’s always been
one of our our biggest uh weaknesses that we don’t do a good job at at promoting that or making people aware
but it’s also a huge opportunity because most people don’t know and if that’s the
case that just leaves a tremendous void that we can still fill so training
people training um dealership sales people is such an opportunity for us and
I’ve always wanted Joey’s uh PTA meeting if he could just make that where we could I could take go to a dealer sales
meeting and plug HDMI into the into the screen and play this he does a great
great job at communicating that and uh in a way that’s just very relatable because it has to be about them it’s not
about us it’s not about us selling you something it’s about hey can we add value to this transaction and if we can
we have a place if we can’t then I don’t belong here yeah Ralph um it’s probably
What Sets Ralph Apart?
you probably have some competition down there right Fort Lauderdale and so what what sets what sets you guys apart
specialty Automotive treatments What Makes You Different well we I mean listen there’s
always competition whenever there’s a uh an opportunity uh for for people to to
to to profit in ADV Venture they’re going to try to to or they see somebody doing something successfully they’re
going to want to do it and um you know it’s like whack-a-mole one goes down another one pops up uh we definitely
have competition but um I think that we have definitely have some competitive advantages um obviously yeah we can hear
you fine something changed here okay um you know we we’ve been doing it for a
really long time 45 years and going now um our customers all know us and they know that we’re going to stand behind it
you know if it’s six months out of warranty are we going to take care of it yeah we’re going to take care of it um
but our our we we keep a lot of inventory for the more more popular brands and the things that we know move
we keep it so um I mean we we can we can turn stuff
around in in an amount of time that doesn’t really make sense um in in like
the real world nobody should think this is possible I’ll give you an example I had uh a dealer customer call me uh
this is sometime last year they’re like Ralph listen this is it’s it’s 12:30 on a Friday it’s after lunchtime on Friday
he goes Ralph I have a customer I I know I know this is crazy but I have a customer and he just bought an F250 and
we made like like $115,000 on this but I need to have leather in it and I and he’s driving to the other side of the
state tomorrow can you get it done for me and we’re we’re open Monday through Friday
that that’s something that that I’ve done for probably the last 12 years we’ve been open Monday through Friday um
I’m like I mean this shouldn’t be able to be a thing that can happen in any real like
nobody should be able to expect this but Factory match F250 I’m like listen let’s
let’s get it picked up and I’ll I’ll get it done for you we had it on the Shelf we knocked it out and we drove that truck back to him at 6:30 on Friday and
the customer was able to take it home with them I didn’t know about it till after lunch and it was done back delivered to the dealership by 6:30 I
told them dude don’t don’t expect this every time but we were able to get it done for you so it I mean that that’s
certainly a competitive Advantage I don’t think that there’s anybody certainly not in South Florida probably
not many other places in the country where that can happen um and we could do that with with a lot of different
vehicles that are you know easy ones um if we know stuff moves we keep it in
stock if if it’s not we can get it pretty quickly um and uh you know we’re we’re on the
road every day we’ve got sales people out on the road every day just staying in front of our customers finding out
what they need what’s working what’s not working we we try to stay pretty plugged in that’s our
um you know and we have we have um on-site ownership I mean like it it when
when when you have a company that is being run by a manager and this is no offense to any other company that
there’s some great great operators out there and maybe this is saying something about me but um I I’m there all the time
my cell phone rings almost any time like if it ring right now I’d probably say let’s pause it and I’ll pick it up um
I’m very responsive to customers I’m on top of stuff and um if you have absentee
ownership I feel like that’s tough to replicate not to say I mean I could think of several examples in our group
that that that absolutely would would contradict what I’m saying you know uh
dino at at Automotive concept like he is he’s he’s the guy like he handles that
stuff there um you know there’s several examples of Kevin I mean there’s so many
of the of our guys that that act like that um but but here we’re we’re that
company I mean nobody else is going to do the things that we do for our customers um and
I I I feel pretty comfortable saying that I think that’s pretty important that you have you know somebody like
yourself that’s willing to jump in and get your hands dirty and that you know you’ve never been afraid of work and you
know that comes from you know having to prove yourself growing up in a in a in a uh family business how was how was the
transition I mean obviously you know you you know when your dad passed you know it was automatic that you were you know
you and your sister we’re going to take over but what are what are some of the challenges of a second generation
uh taking over a company like especially with long-term employees sure um yeah I
mean I listen I I I think I’m lucky that we had a lot of people that were on board and and were ready to help out um
and they UND the ones that I felt comfortable enough talking to about the situation uh you know they they were all
there and and um I I think that it really wasn’t not
to say that it wasn’t tough but the transition listen when when it when it
went down and it and it wasn’t obvious at what point my dad was going to be coming back or if he was going to come
back I I remember just saying to myself listen he he act as if he’s not coming
back and now this is it like I’m running it and that that’s it now that this is this is life now moving forward and it
has been ever since and um you know I’m sure they’re no different than
the challenge Alles that you had to go through if anything we had an infrastructure in place already so I I
was very lucky to have people and processes mostly in place to handle it
um you know that I think maybe juggling some of the the personal stuff at that
time um while also running the business taking care of you know his personal
stuff I mean that that was yeah um you know she was up there the whole time she
was never not with him so uh Christine and I would alternate weekends flying up and back from New York uh and then
running the business but honestly being in the business and being able to to focus on that and not think about him
for whatever it was 8 to 10 hours a day that was a blessing during that time uh it was challenging but but you never
know what you can do until you have to and we definitely got it done so um yeah Christina myself we we definitely did it
I think I think about one of the things your dad told me which I just thought was hilarious and I don’t remember how much of the story you remember about
this but do you remember the uh American uh uh Camry oh yeah the the Patriot Edition
Patriot Edition all right tell Jesse about the patriate Edition and how your dad came up with this idea with this
Toyota dealership this this is a really funny one and I’m glad that you brought it up cuz I wouldn’t have thought of it
but this is this is a good one this is ex this ex totally is what his dad would do hilarious yes so um there was a point
uh it’s probably right around 12 years ago is that you know these dealers run
these outrageous ads like oh you don’t you don’t have to pay for a car or what like just what whatever they could say
to get you in but they put in the fine print the one stock number that one car
and it’s usually like a stick shift cam or something that nobody would ever want to drive and you have to have
unbelievable credit to be able to qualify for this offer so you had these two Toyota stores in our Market that
were in a in a a pissing match about their you like who who can create the
most ridiculous advertising deal ever so um we had two of them that were sending
us cars to do these ridiculous things so one of them sent us like a gold Camry
and we put a pop top in it back like and this is when poptops have been like so far like yeah what year what year would
this have been 20 2012 is and you’re putting a popup sunroof in a Camry in a
Camry and a and a purple headliner and just like the most ridiculous ads that
you would never want to drive that car not even if somebody paid you to take it um so the other dealer’s like listen we
need to figure out how to how to make ours uglier because we’re going to run an ad but when somebody comes in they
can’t want to take it so we we created um it was called a patriot Edition and
it was this uh a Camry it was a blue Camry with like a triple tone American
flag colored interior but but awful I mean like I’m as patriotic as the next guy but this was bad uh big spoiler uh
and literally spray painted like with a template like a stencil stars and stripes on the hood that look like a kid
did it in their garage cuz basically I did it in the shop you did it oh you were the you were the genius behind the
patreon Edition well I I I was the Gopher but I did it um so um I remember
getting a call on a Saturday from the the principal of the Toyota store and he’s like Ralph I need you to pick up this car make it look uglier because
people are actually looking at it and they they’re they’re going to drive it cuz they ran they ran a deal for like
what 99 bucks a month and you can get this ridiculous get this Camry and it was you know you’re just like wow and it
was that one stock number but they made it so ugly they thought no one’s ever going to drive this car no one so we’ll
just push him onto another car that we have no and the and the GM called me he said listen Ralph one of my one of my
sales people one of my idiot salespeople showed the customer that you can actually take the paint off of the hood
so now they’re going to drive it you need to come pick it up and and make it uglier so what’ you do I mean we we
brought it back and I mean I just we we put more stuff on it that to make it less attractive um and it’s funny I had
lunch with him and we we we talked about that car uh about a month ago and it was just it’s so funny it sticks out as one
of the craziest things that we’ve had to do so you you put like a red white and blue leather in it you spray paint some
stars on it you put a stupid spoiler on it you do all these and you charged them for everything obviously yeah yeah
because I mean it’s not the it’s not the cost of that car it’s like hey how many people are we going to get in on a $99
Camry I mean you put a big ad on the paper that day $99 $99 Camry come on in
there it is to Toyota Toyota definitely tightened up their advertising rules after that that
was a very finite moment in time down here yeah FTC uh well the new cars law
coming into place they would have a a fun Heyday with that it would be a $50,000 fine now I mean listen it’s the
people that work on the On The Fringe like that that that Mak happen the Patriot Edition I love it I love it uh I
I got to ask you so what’s your rough percentage of retail versus
dealer um I’d say that now it’s probably roughly 15 to 18% retail and the rest of
it still wholesale okay is that why you decided to close Saturdays or what’s your what was your whole thing with that
were you guys open Saturdays for a long time doing yeah doing dealer work obviously too if you had it well we were
open Saturdays just to you know because OB obviously a lot of people they work Monday through Friday so you can’t come in on Saturday um Monday through Friday
to get things done or get you know shopping for for personal items for your car um but it came to a point where you
know we had to we had to staff it appropriately and then that person that was there on Saturdays wasn’t there on
one of the days Monday through Friday and I and we we were taking we always took foot traffic counts like we would
we would count like how many people are coming in how many people come in Monday through Friday and um it in the end it it it would ended up
being pretty much a wash as to how much are we have Rel losing both in the
communication and what had to happen on that day that that person was missing Monday through Friday and when when we
tried it and we closed Saturday we didn’t see the numbers drop off so I mean instead of burning people out you
know having them come in six days a week or you know rotating schedules nobody ever wanted to be there on Saturday um
and I’m not saying we won’t try it again at some point but um but I I don’t feel like we’ve lost we we lost much when we
started closing on Saturday I got another follow-up question about your your guys’ service what what are you
what are your top selling products and services now and what do you want what do you wish they were I’m I’m I’m
curious like what’s requested what do you have what do you do a lot of and then what what do you kind of is it the same as what it what you want it to
be H well that’s a that’s an interesting way that you phrase it I mean
I so our our top selling products and services are going to be
um leather’s obviously always going to be up there Wheels Tire suspension has become a a a tremendous part of our
business um and uh wraps have been big
since we started that hasn’t tapered off if anything I feel like we have a lot of room to grow um I do think that we have
a huge opportunity to do more with the paint protection film um we’re we also
um we never were really into pre-loading uh when window tint and film at dealerships but we’re doing more of that
now um you know the high volume and
maybe the the margin part is is tough to articulate because like window tint it’s
not a high ticket but it’s a high margin when you’re doing it right right you have a low cost of materials a relatively low install cost um but you
have to do a significant amount of volume to be able to get to a number that’s meaningful right um I I was I was
trying to explain this to one of my tiners the other day I said listen it doesn’t matter if you’re making a 50%
margin if you’re selling an air freshener that cost you 50 cents you got to sell thousands and thousand of
thousands of them to be able to move the needle and it’s similar with window ENT you got to be doing a lot to make a
difference you can’t just be doing one or two tints a day um so I would like for that to be a
bigger part of our business because I do feel that uh volume’s important that’s
what helps insulate you from the the the swings in the market right like if if
you’re relying on that 10 or $15,000 build to cover your rent every month and you don’t get one or two of
those builds then you really suffer right but if you’re doing volume and it’s consistent and you know it goes
down 10% up 10% up 20% you can you can ride that wave you
know through and still be able to have a a very predictable business staff yourself appropriately but if that one
big Bill doesn’t come through and you got guys that are waiting around for work that’s that’s tough so I I would
prefer high margin high volume but it’s really it like you know predictable
recurring volume um is helpful because then you can keep everybody uh everybody
busy you have predictable Revenue um I find that that’s kind of our sweet
spot that we like to stay in like not too too too too custom but
repeatable and um and predictable it’s in do you think uh I was just going to
say it’s interesting you said vehicle wraps it’s a little different there’s a lot of restylers that don’t do that it’s
almost a separate business for some but have you guys always done that you’ve been doing a long time and or or uh we
we’ve been doing it for a long time but not and not as long as I feel like we should have been um I I I mean when we
started doing it in Earnest I felt like like we missed the boat like we should have been doing it for the last you know
5 10 years before that but um it’s just a nice way to help
um to give that Finishing Touch to a vehicle and from the outside make it look special a lot of cars H are are
going towards that floating roof design you know the Nissan Rogues they look look like a Range Rover now when you
when you wrap it and you do it the right way um the Ford Explorer you can go on
forever I mean every car manufacturer basically has these floating roof designs Chevy Tahoe now uh Cadillac
Escalade um the Chrome deletes are are a big big part of our business that’s so
are you doing commercial Fleet also in like commercial wraps or you sticking with single color or what what kind of wraps are you guys
doing more single color but we also do commercial um we do you know we we have
the the graphics printed and we’ll lay them on and um you know it seems if you go after it it’s not that hard to get
that business every single one of our dealer customers has a a fleet of parts or service fans and um you know it’s
just it’s just a matter of them knowing that you can do it they’re going to get it done I mean they’re already getting it done but if they know that you can do
it and you they don’t you know they they’re already set up like you don’t have to call in a new vendor and all
this stuff it just makes it easy for for them and we’re the Easy Button I mean that’s what we are for the dealers they
don’t I mean most dealers could if they really wanted to do everything that we
do but there are challenges to it um and I was talking to a customer about this is that you know you got your Tech back
there even if he can do custom stuff or she can do custom stuff they’re coming off of a flat rate
job that they know that they’re going to get paid a certain amount for and it’s going to take them this long to do now
you’re going to take them put them on something that’s totally different totally diverging from what they normally do on a day-to-day basis it’s
not profitable for them their employees not happy it takes more time it’s a headache they just want to call pick up
the phone and say hey Ralph can you come and knock this out for me and yeah the answer is usually yes yeah I you know 45
years this is going to be your 45th year thinking about that that you guys have been in business I so I I’m I’m going to
give you a chance to think about this we’ll come back to it but I want you to think about some of the uh home run cars
or the worst cars you guys ever did I mean in 45 years maybe it was one of those uh Town Cars you walked up on when
you were 5 years old when your dad was there but and besides the patri Edition which is obviously a a stellar one that
should go in the Hall of Fame but um when it comes to you do you think how do
you see the retail business changing in the next 5 years do you think it’s going to stay the same do you think it’s going
to change I mean you’ve been you’ve and the reason why I asked Jesse to to Ralph because he really worked the retail in
when he came into the business right you you were really heavy on the retail end of course you knew the dealer end as well you know what do you think’s going
to be harder for us is it going to be the dealer side or is it going to be the retail side oh boy
um I don’t think there’s going to be anything that’s easy um you know we just we we have to I think that the important
part and I think we touched on this a little bit at our last meeting in Cabo is that you have to know what you’re
really good at what are your core competencies you know um if somebody came
in what I what I did probably about a year and a half ago is I actually tried to trim down our product menu and make
things as um not generic but easy as possible for our people to price out
because if you have to spend three hours putting a quote together it’s usually going to be one of those jobs that comes
into your shop and you’re ordering parts and you get them in and maybe they’re not the right parts you got to exchange them if a car sits in our shop and you
and I both know if it comes into the shop and it sits for 2 weeks you lost money on it like there’s no there’s no way you made money it took too much time
mentally for the people that are administering that job versus the stuff that you can get them in get them done
get them out customer knows what they’re getting you know what you’re doing they’re going to be happy with it I feel like the opportunity for us is going to
be um in I I still think in obviously
the Leathers wheel the core products Leathers Wheels tires wraps because
there’s only so much that we you you can diverge on that on those uh vehicle
builds that’s going to get you into trouble like if you stay in the right processes and you know what you’re doing you’re going to be good um when you
start trying to get a little too fancy um that’s where you’ll get into trouble
I feel um I think there’s a big opportunity in retail um you know with
with online marketing and uh and social media and just customer Harve like
harvesting your own customer base they’re all you know if you’ve had a customer from three years ago chances are they their friend their you know
their brother has bought a car or something that they want to get done um I think there’s a big opportunity on
retail um but still in dealer business like most people don’t know that you can
get this stuff done so the opportunity there is huge and you can Finance it through your car payment like that’s so
much more powerful than anything that we can do as a retail establishment you know if you can add $18 a month to your
payment and get the car exactly how you want it that that’s just fishing with dynamite there um as far as home run
vehicles I I’m I’m weird Josh like we’ve built some pretty cool cars and trucks
over the years but a home run to me is if a Honda dealership calls us and we put in you know a red leather interior
we come back you know two days later it’s gone and they’re say Hey listen come pick up two or three more the stuff
like that that’s that’s quick easy to get done and they they move cars and
they see us as a partner there that helps that build that repeat consistent
predictable business and uh we did feel like a redheaded stepchild over the past couple years during covid when cars were
sold three weeks before they got to the dealer but but we’re getting back to that spot you probably have gone through
Handling Customers
a lot of T trouble customers whether it is a dealership a GM A salesperson or it’s on the retail side I always like to
ask about this kind of customer service side of things like how do you handle tough situations with customers or
manage misunderstandings about your business in general um that’s a that’s a good one
Jesse because um our our customers are you know
they’re high strong and they they want to get things done right away which is great we can help facilitate that to the
extent that we can um when a customer
places an order for something and they are like hey this customer is in the Box we need to get this stuff ordered right
away and then we send them a confirmation or we ask them for a purchase order this just happened last
week um you don’t get a response I send my salesperson to the dealership hey can
you go see this person we need to get a po because we’re ordering a you know blah blah blah custom package for them
oh they’re off that day okay cool send them a text you know like let’s let’s stay on them send me send them a text send them in a group text with me no
response customer shows up to the dealership you know a week and a half later meanwhile you’ve been trying to to
to pry this information out of them so you can help them do their job and then now the the sky is falling down like hey
what’s going on my customer is going to give me a bad survey like you guys got to make this
right you have to make sure that you’re that they understand that you’re doing
everything that you physically can to to help them and whether they’re right or
wrong I’m going to do whatever’s physically possible to help them make it happen
and usually they’re not that interested in stopping to help you get the
information that you need to help them do their job but you know it it is the business that we’ve Chosen and sometimes
you know once a month you just got to listen to it uh from a customer oh well you should have done it and like listen
we were trying but um that part’s tough if if customers know that you that you
really you’re not trying to fleece them or you know everybody’s defenseless against the truth and once you tell them
the truth and there’s nothing more that you can do or you if you mess up you got to say hey I messed up and and um that’s
how that’s how you you build a relationship with somebody when things are tough is when you show people what you’re made out of not when things are
easy you know I’ll tell you Ralph I don’t know about you but I don’t I don’t change policy just because something
gets messed up it’s got to be something I see recurring over and over again I mean you get some customer calls me
you’re guy should have said this done this done this done that and you know if I agree with them I’ll say yeah and I
might I might say something to that employee like okay yeah you should have done this you should have done that if it’s blatant but sometimes it’s just
people are people I mean you know and they expect us to you know do every
little thing and a dealership salesperson might expect every little thing they don’t recognize that hey you
work with 30 other salese at the next dealership and then 30 at the next dealership and guess what I have a 100
of these dealerships with 30 people that are all saying this this and this so you know you just like Ralph says you take
it but I’ve very rarely ever change company policy or standard operating procedures unless it’s something that
it’s you know we’ve really messed up and and I can see that there’s an easy fix
that we actually did something wrong we need to change it I don’t know what do you think Ralph um I mean listen I I
agree with you I don’t think we should change policy I think we just need to do whatever we can to to help them
understand like hey this is why we need this because you know the last time we
deviated from policy and we ordered this for you and the customer shows up and it
turns out that it wasn’t what you asked for then we had to do it again and it
there are certain very special customers that you know just they need that little extra attention some people are great
like there’s some places that you know they’re answering the questions before you’ve even asked them it’s it’s some
certain special customers that are always just too busy to to finish this deal before they get on to the next one
and then the details are lost um and yes you you have
to um make sure that you’re getting what you need to be able to do the job yeah I
I want to ask you about manufacturers because a lot of Manufacturers like they’ll listen to this podcast and um so
as restyler let’s say let’s say they’re listening right now you’re these manufacturers that send out reps you
know so um whether it’s you know I don’t know your leather rep your suspension rep your wheel rep what do you expect
out of a rep and what do you expect out of a manufacturer what are some things that
really draw you to have a bond or have a relationship with that with that company
well I I feel very fortunate that we have really really good relationships with the manufacturers that that are
important to us um I’d like to be important to them uh what what do we
expect I mean obviously product quality uh you know ontime delivery um responsiveness when you have
an issue but I mean our our manufacturing partners are fantastic I mean we’ll start start with catskin we
have a great relationship from when it was Mitch but Ron has been you know our guy there for forever um you know we we
love them over there they do a great job for us and uh I mean we keep going down
the line the you know the the team at Wheel Pros and and ready lift and Vox
and I mean you can just keep going down the line it’s I if we find that a manufacturer is
not or or the rep is not going to be there to to to answer our questions
when we need help or to be there to support the product if something went wrong um more than likely we’re just
we’re going to start to deviate away from doing business with them I mean I don’t want to put my name behind
something if the manufacturer that’s making it isn’t going to stand behind it I mean we we stand behind everything
that we do so there are certain products and um I don’t know if you’ve been down
this road before but like there’s certain things that you try and usually you start it on a retail like when a
customer asks for it there’s certain products that we just don’t sell um like hid and uh headlights like we we offered
those at retail a long time ago but those thing they’re we’ve we tried the best ones and we’ve tried the
inexpensive ones they’re all garbage they’re all bad so we just don’t offer them so when people ask for them they
said listen you could go down to the you know the local 12vt or tint shop and get those things done but I’m going to put
them in for you and you’re going to hate me you know um there there there are other products
that I could say the same thing I don’t think it’s necessary here but like if you feel like you’ve got a product that you’re having consistent issues with
even if it’s 10% 15% of the time that’s that’s too much if the warranty is great
it doesn’t matter if the customer is upset about having to bring their car back so I mean consisten he’s important
um what what about the rep how how often do you want them to visit you know do you like him to go on the road with your
sales team you know do you prefer inperson zoom and I’m just listen I think some of these manufacturers would
like to hear this and you’re like a key customer of for you know I mean but I I have my opinion I’ve given it but I I
want to hear from you so the Lumar reps can show up whenever they want because those guys like to party and they have they have a good time I I I’ll have them
in town whenever they want to come they just got to let me know but um I mean listen when it comes to some of the
other stuff if we need help we’re going to ask I don’t need you guys to come down all the time I mean it’s nice to
hear about new products and stuff like that if you’ve got some but usually that you could save yourself the plane ticket
or the hotel stay and just call me and tell me about it we’ll talk about it or maybe I’ll see at SEMA and I’ll hear
about it there um the restylers group is a great forum for that like if if you’re
doing something or you found something new I’m gonna hear about it you know and vice versa um but you know back to when
uh you know when Mitch was around you know my dad told him listen I don’t need a rep I just need the best price and
we’re going to move your product um listen reps are great
but do we need visits from you know to find out that you got a you know the the
version 2.0 of the parking sensor like no I I don’t need you to come out for that if there’s something mind-blowing
and we need support on rolling it out maybe that kind of goes to the Lumar thing too like if if we’re going to
start to a a program at a dealership and we’re going to start pushing this through fni and we need you know manufacturer support to to help train
people yeah um that kind of support I welcome uh if we need installation
support on something new if uh if if a new product came out that my guys don’t have any experience with yeah but I
don’t need you to personally drop off a flyer for you know for something I I’m
I’m okay yeah and and that’s changed over the years don’t you think I mean it used to be everything was in person Co
killed a lot of that which is great now you could have a virtual meeting and get everything done if you need to if you
really need to have a face to face but like you said a lot of times it’s just I almost would prefer a rep just I just
need you to be there when I have issues let me know about things but when I have issues that’s when a rep really makes
their paycheck in my opinion um is not how much you know trainings one of it
you know product roll out yeah absolutely but just showing up to my building three times a year does nothing
it’s more about hey when I have an issue and you’re on it and you and you somehow help me out and take care of it or just
responsive and let me know and communicate that’s what I need yeah I Agreed 100% I have a couple couple more
What Excites Ralph Now
couple more questions um uh Ralph what are you what are you most looking forward to doing or maybe what most
excites you about your business now where where are you at what what are you looking forward to this
year um I’ll tell you what Jesse this this year right now and um this has I
don’t want this to sound like taking away from anybody who’s been with us before or because we’ve had some great
people come through our organization but I feel like right now I’ve got the best team overall that I’ve had since I’ve
been doing this on my own on my own since I took over um I I’m very excited
to see what our team’s going to be able to do I I’m I’m energized about the inventory levels coming up and and us
being able to inject value into transactions again um I’m excited to get
our retail show room finished out so that we can advertise and drive traffic there um there’s a lot I can’t put my
finger on just one thing but um I am feeling very very positive about this
year in a way where the the last couple years where you can go out and visit 10
dealerships and they say Ralph I love you but I I don’t have any cars if you can go find me a car to give you I’ll give it to you I felt like me and it
also I if not to put words in anybody’s mouth but I feel like between me and
Christina we’d go out to dealerships and we had scaled back on our salese it was like it it kind of took the wind out of
your sales a little bit for a little little bit of time there but I’m feeling much better about about the environment
now which is kind of um counterintuitive because like everybody’s talking about the soft landing and you know recession
yeah but that helps us be part of that transaction again if you can’t go in there and buy the Ram
laramy or you’re going in there to buy you know the the lariat F-150 but hey
guess what if you can’t if that’s a little bit of a stretch for you you can get all those features that you want the
the trim level economics right out of an F1 150 or a Honda cord or a Jeep
Wrangler there’s so many vehicles where customers don’t want to buy the $20,000
more version they they want the they want that car they want that frame and maybe they want a lift in
wheels and tires or maybe they want Power steps or maybe they want a leather interior AC seats and this is stuff that
we can do um you know uh Grand Cherokees you talked about the wraps the the what
is it the summit or the altitude Edition that comes with that black roof we can make the base Grand Cherokee look like
that and guess what when we do it that thing flies off of the showroom floor those things don’t last so um I feel
like we’ve got a big opportunity to be able to make ourselves relevant again at the at the dealer level you mentioned
Work Life Balance
kind of being you know you’re an owner operator you said you’re really accessible and you’re you’re doing all the all the the touch points with your
customers which is awesome it’s commendable but how do you balance the demands of your business with your personal life do do you get to have one
or you just have to work 247 I don’t his daughters are perfectly trained let me tell you they are not only are they the
cutest kids but I mean I think they’re probably ready to take over the business Ralph oh boy um yeah so I there’s listen
the balance is I think that my my family knows and
Maybe Carly hates it but if if we’re on vacation and we’re in cell phone range like like it’s not vacation until Friday
afternoon when when business is closed I mean if people are going to call I’m going to answer
um I’ll try to be I’ll try to keep it on balance and I feel like I’ve gotten
better about involving our reps if a dealer calls me or a customer calls me and it’s in one of my reps areas I’m
going to get them in on a group text and sometimes it’s easier to just do it yourself but then that doesn’t help you
progress so um having good people helps create that balance um having
processes uh you know as we Implement uh the auto accessory configurator more and
more we’re going to have more of that balance where people can submit their stuff via text or email or on a website
um those are tools that I think we all need to leverage because not only does it make life easier for us most of our
customers are they they want that they don’t they don’t want to have to make a phone call
they just want to be able to Boom get it done submit it you know like they they don’t they don’t want have to talk to
somebody they want to just get get the job done so see you get my point so Ralph always makes fun of me what did I
say to I I can’t even remember what did I say to you he go because every time you I like talking he goes I’m so I’m so
sorry I’m calling you I’m like why are you sorry he goes because I know you hate talking on the phone I’m like did I say that to you at one point you did
what did I say I didn’t say to you I don’t like I don’t like being on the phone I don’t like I don’t like being on the phone I just you know I I don’t even
think you like texting I think you just just out of my out of my I love texting
yeah no you know what it was I you know what I cuz I was I man I you know like Ralph you know you’re you’re running a
business and you’re just getting non-stop I think I one month I had like 3500 hours on on my cell phone and I’m
just like this is you know I just I to I got to the point where every time the phone rang I was in a bad mood and I was like you know what I got to change
something first of all you change your ringer I learned that ring change your ringtone and then the second thing is I just just learned that you know now with
the whole text thing is so much better now I don’t flip out if I don’t answer the phone or anything like more and but
uh now I don’t mind talk on the phone nobody ever calls me because maybe I just ticked everybody off like I don’t
want to ever talk to you again nobody ever calls me yeah I I mean listen if people know
where to go it’s when people call you with the just the the totally silly stuff that it could have been handled by
anybody but no they’re going to call you because they want to talk to you um I I mean the the customers that you a good
relationship with and I I don’t mind it but yeah sometimes it can get a little taxing yeah well you call me anytime
Ralph I’m happy to talk to you I appreciate it you’re you’re the best thank you very much for doing this I
mean appreciate you you got awesome sat is you know just so well known in the industry as an industry leader the very
first pro cup challenge we were in it together you kicked my butt um appreciate that and but I mean just
doing a lot of stuff for the industry you Christina of course and um you know
Carly behind the scenes taking care of what everything really needs to be done I’m sure she’s the real boss signs the
check so but we appreciate you I’ll let Jesse ask his famous question how would
people get a hold of you Ralph if if they want to learn more about you and your business or what website should they go to let us a little a little bit
of contact information information be great sure yeah I I I make myself
eminently accessible it’s uh my cell is 95449 47011 if anybody ever wants to get
a hold of me I’m available if I don’t have you stored in my phone I’ll probably let it go to voicemail so shoot
me a text if uh if I don’t answer for whatever reason um my email is Ralph S
as an specialty a as an automotive and the word treatment.com and um yeah pretty easy to get a hold of
me you can find me anywhere awesome thank you thanks for being on today thank you very much Ralph appreciate you
I want I want you to text me when you have Joe and Jared on this show cuz I want to watch that one I don’t want to
miss that one ABS oh that’s a great one we also need to have Joey back on to do his uh little uh dealer sales meeting
for everybody I think it’d be great and if uh if Josh’s Wi-Fi signal is um
strong enough on the plane you got to get him on the podcast too oh yeah exactly I mean he’s always flying so I don’t know if he can he’ll be in the
office next Monday oh yeah yeah exactly that’s what his message says uh he guys sorry I’m not I’m not available off I’m
off till Monday or I’ll be I’ll be off till Monday so leave me a message it’s the greatest vo mail of all time which
is another you know actually I told him I said I’m going to if I ever have another kid it’s I’m just going to name him spam likely so that way when he
calls people and they have him saved in his phone he’s like it’s like who’s calling you oh that’s my buddy spam likely so it’s already
saved all right thanks guys this is fun guys thank you for having me on all right bro appreciate
it and there you have it another high octane episode of the Ryden style podcast wed up and ready to go your
hosts Jesse Stoddard and Josh pson shifted your Automotive game into
overdrive if you’re hungry for more insights Trends and game-changing interviews from the automotive restyling
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