Beyond the Garage: Navigating Success with Nick Gadaleta and Ralph Estep, Jr.

EP 132 - Beyond the Garage: Navigating Success with Nick Gadaleta and Ralph Estep, Jr.

[00:00:00]

Introduction to a Special Interview

I've got a super special treat for you today. I had the opportunity to interview Nick Gadaleta he is the president and CEO of Super Service Automotive located in Middletown, Delaware. Nick has been a client of my practice for many years. He's a friend. But we really got into a great discussion about business, about work-life balance and how to build a business that has a fantastic reputation. So I truly hope you enjoy today's interview.

Welcome to the Ask Ralph Podcast

Welcome to the Ask Ralph Podcast, where listening to an experienced financial professional with over 30 years of experience can help you make sense of confusing questions, current headlines, and industry trends about taxes, small business, financial decision making, investment strategies, and even the art of proper budgeting.

Ask Ralph makes the complex simple by sharing his real world knowledge from a Christian perspective with all things financial. Now here's your host, Ralph Estep, Jr.

Well, today we've got a special guest on the [00:01:00] show. This is Nick Gadaleta from Super Service Automotive. Nick, welcome to the show.

Morning, Ralph. Thank you.

Hey, it's great to have you. I know it took a little arm twisting to get you on, but we're going to jump right into it.

Nick Gadaleta's Journey into Automotive Industry

So, Nick, what sparked your interest in getting set up with being an automotive person?

Probably what sparked it, a lot of friends and family always needed their vehicles fixed. so I kind of found that niche to be able to, take it from being in disrepair or another shop or facility couldn't figure it out, I would fix it, get it running and driving the way it should be. So you get the self satisfaction from that.

And I snowballed from there. You know, came easy. And then, my family was all race car family, if you could say that. So we, we're at the drag strip and we're at the races every weekend. So working on cars was second nature.

So I know when we were preparing for our interview, you said this wasn't your first career choice.

How did you end up going in this direction? Nick?

the first career choice is, actually, being a police [00:02:00] officer. So I went to school to, to be one, graduated with my associates. switched, switched ways a little bit and then ended up, finding more enjoyment from fixing, vehicles, rather than going into the force.

So once that happened, then, went from there and now we're here.

Challenges and Learning in Business

So what would you say has been the biggest challenge or challenges that you've encountered in starting your own automotive business?

Biggest challenge I'd say is probably. Maintaining a, like a solid footprint in terms of controlling my emotions.

sometimes when you're working on somebody's car or you have a disgruntled employee, or you have somebody who's not happy with your services, the first thing is to get defensive or is to, try to play the blame game and sometimes you have to control your emotions better so that you can better serve other people.

So that's been a learning curve is to, Win the person not the argument. and that's something that we've learned over the [00:03:00] last seven or eight years of Being in businesses to try to figure that out first before you know going and then you know fixing the problem Obviously is what we're here for.

So those are probably the biggest ones

Dealing with Negative Reviews and Customer Service

And it's so hard you and i've talked about this with social media It's almost a full time job and it's such a challenge when someone writes a negative review or puts a comment How have you learned how to deal with those things Nick?? You

I'd probably say with the negative reviews, and we don't have many of them, but when we do get them, it's kind of part of owning a business.

Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff with Google and with reviews, it's nameless. So you can do it anonymously. And what happens is somebody can leave your review. we have a bunch of them that are from fake profiles, that aren't real people. So it hurts to see that because you know how much hard work you're putting into it.

And to see that, it it's. It's hard to see the biggest thing is just letting them come in as it's part of business. And if there is, truly one that has, came in, that's legitimate, then it's a learning experience as to [00:04:00] how we can make things, go smoother, what not to do, what to do, what, what could I've done better.

And a lot of that is just controlling emotions. you want to get upset when somebody's yelling at you, but if you're calm, cool, and collective, then, it usually has a better, outcome than if I'm meeting them with, force head to head. So it's been a learning curve because, to say the least, but that's probably been like the biggest, to, dealing with those.

Yeah. I call them telephone tough guys or internet tough guys. I remember the first time I got one of those, Nick, I was frantic. I called my marketing people. I said, what am I going to do with this? And they said, Ralph, listen, if you're human, you're going to get an occasional person that you're not going to sync with.

If you go and look at somebody's Google profile and they have nothing but five star reviews and never found a person that had an objection, it doesn't look very real. Have you experienced anything Nick?

Yeah, we have. And it's, it makes us look more normal, which is that, how I feel about it is [00:05:00] if we had, cause we almost have about 500 five star reviews.

So we're the highest rated, auto repair shop in the state. and that took a lot of hard work, but we also have some negative ones, which come with the territory. and we know that it's normal. It's part of business. Does it hurt to see? Yeah. But like I said, it's a learning, it's a learning moment.

What can we do better? And, every day is striving for, for greatness to be better than you were yesterday. And that's what we try to do with our work and our, customer service. Same thing is let's be better than when we were yesterday and how we approach people and speak to them.

Cause you don't know what they're going through. You don't know what hardships somebody is dealing with. we just started doing, detailing. So you'll see people that look, they're, pretty. well kept and that they have all their crap together and their vehicles come in and disarray because of what they're going through in their life.

So if we can be a little bit of a, a blessing and not have them have to worry about their car, being, filthy, then we can kind of take one stressor off of them

and don't judge a book by its cover. So everybody's going through something. Everybody's here.

No, that's [00:06:00] the absolute truth, Nick.

The Evolution from Garage to Super Center

Now I know you said you started literally in your garage and now you've got a, what I'll call a super center. I mean, it is a fantastic place. So tell us about the evolution of going from your garage to the current location you're in now.

So I compare it to Amazon, how Jeff Bezos started in his garage, the same exact thing. I'd work a nine to five. I would come home five 30, feed the kids dinner, try to have some play time, put them in bed. And then I remember having my phone facetiming the camera in the kids room so I could be out in the garage, work on these cars until 12, 1230.

And waking up at 5 30, getting the kids to school and doing it all again, that's from seven to five. So I'll, while everybody else was out partying, I was at home with the kids, grinding and trying to get established until the point where it came, where I couldn't do anything after hours anymore.

It had to be a full time gig, which was, I think, officially back in 2017.

What were the emotions you [00:07:00] went through when you had to make that difficult decision to go from here's my guaranteed full time job, you probably had benefits, you had vacation time, what went through your mind when you made that leap and said, you know what, I'm going to go do this for myself?

What did that look like for you?

I definitely had the normal emotions. People saying, Oh, what if it doesn't work? And, you have a family to worry about because it's that safety net. And if you don't have a safety net, then you don't feel comfortable. And I felt once I made that jump, I actually felt more comfortable striving and hustling more than what I did.

I don't think I was as good of a employee as I was a boss. and then once I had that under my belt and kind of You know, got that, figured out that was when I realized, okay, this is something that I can do is not just a good mechanic, but I'm also a good leader. I can show, these people, that ended up being longterm employees, that, Hey, I'm here right next to you and we're in it together.

And everybody has to have a job, you have to have a means to pay for your life. So if we can make it, bearable and help people in the community, then [00:08:00] it makes sense. And it went from there.

Financial Surprises in Business Expansion

What would you say are the biggest surprises that you've experienced along the way, Nick

surprises?

 how much stuff costs. we first, got established, we were renting a building. We decided to build in 2019. So roughly two years after we started, we decided to build our facility now, which is the biggest auto repair shop privately owned in Delaware. So it's a big deal. I didn't know that at the beginning.

but we probably went over budget by about 540, 000. So everything costs money and everything's expensive. And that includes insurance, professional services, goods, everything. Was so much more money than what, what I had thought. we spent probably 60, 000 just for architects. We spent 40, 000 just in landscaping.

You don't think how much a tree in a bush was going to cost until you have to buy them. just, the cost of doing business. It's, it's a lot and I can see why people don't make it and don't do it, but I had no other choice. I have my family on my back. We now have almost 20 employees. [00:09:00] So I take the personal responsibility of every one of those employees and their families is on my back as well.

So you see some gray hair. It's probably why because I have a lot of it. a lot of stress, but it's self inflicted and I, and, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yeah. And you talk about that budgeting process. How much of a percentage do you think you were over in your original plan versus the full build out cost?

Percentage wise, probably an easy 35%. You just don't account for as much when we went for budgeting wise. when we approached, the bank, we were off the mark. And,luckily we had a bank and which is Dover federal that backed us up. They saw the vision and all of them, pretty much the presidents and all the higher ups, they're all still customers to this day.

So we,luckily had somebody that would back us and, saw our value. so when they did the, the kind of spreadsheet on us, it, it made sense.

Building Key Relationships and Customer Trust

So one of the things you talked about there, Nick, and I preach about this on my show all the time, it's about [00:10:00] building relationships.

What would you say have been the biggest relationships that you've built and the, the most important relationship you've built with people in your business?

I was talking to the wife about this yesterday. They probably the one that started with me, would be Dover Federal and then, Saggio.

Yeah. Ralph, I think you were probably one of the second phone calls I made when I first got started as I need a good accountant. I need somebody because that's one thing I don't do is numbers. that's your forte. So having that relationship, which, I've known you for the last seven or eight years is probably one of the biggest, and then just treating people.

The way you want to be treated just as if there's somebody, if a female comes in here, she's somebody's mom, sister, wife, cousin, aunt. So she gets treated just like if she was one of, our company members. And that's probably why we're one of the biggest shops, in terms of, female customers retention wise is because we treat people, respectfully.

And, what's that saying? He who loves thy wife, loves himself. it's the same, the same thing. so we just try to treat [00:11:00] everybody equal and that's probably, why we're so successful is building those relationships. First name basis is as big, make sure somebody feels seen and heard, and it's not that hard to treat people with, respect, be honest and, be responsibly priced.

And it will grow from there. It's pretty much the gist of it.

Yeah, and the bible talks about it admonishes men to love their wives of christ Loves the church and what they're really talking about.

Cultivating a Positive Workplace Culture

There is a culture Nick It sounds like you have a culture at super service automotive Can you tell me about the culture that you're working on what it looks like and what you're trying to achieve?

So we're trying to build a brand that is not just You know, bring your car in, give me your money and I'll fix it. It's let's explain it as to what, why, and how nobody wants to be taken advantage of. So when people come in, they have this notion that they're going to be, that's due to the, the kind of the industry of.

The shade tree mechanics, the guys that will throw parts at a car or we'll take advantage of somebody because they have the ability to, [00:12:00] because if somebody doesn't know or have the knowledge to figure out what's going on, that's what our job is. those are probably, the biggest ones.

So you feel like when people walk in the door, they're already expecting to be taken advantage of. So what are some things that you've put into place? Nick to counter that?

most of it is just transparency. So a lot of our system is digital so we can show pictures and videos. so I want to go take a look at their vehicle on the lift.

It's very open, nothing's hidden. There's nothing, That we can't say or do in front of a customer. It's pretty, it's pretty open door policy where people come in with a like a wall up a safety wall. Our job is to knock it down and make them say hey, this is the real deal.

I can feel comfortable coming there and they're going to tell me what I need. Not what I don't need. because a lot of shops are corporate and sometimes they'll, push stuff that it doesn't need to make their quotas high. We all get paid by the hour and that's including myself. So there's no quotas that hit or numbers that pushed.

And we're we're so busy. if [00:13:00] you're a slower shop, you might try to. stretch some stuff to try to get more business. We don't have to do that. We're trying to keep the clientele that we have in here now,grow obviously, but at the same time, maintain that same quality control, and the super service that people come here to, to see.

And it sounds like the word super service was intentional. one of the things that I mentioned to clients is you have to be transparent. And that's what I think a lot of people get themselves jammed up. And I hear you using the word digital and technology and transparency. How are some ways you've been able to work with that, Nick?

A lot of it is newer technology to where people are able to do and see things without having to leave their house or their work. But don't get me wrong. We still do the phone call nice, voice to voice. A lot of that, comes hand to hand as you have to evolve with the times and, we have to, because cars are just constantly evolving.

So we use a digital, to our advantage. So where, if we send a quote to somebody, they can approve and deny each line item that they'd like to, [00:14:00] there's no pressure, there's no, nobody has a gun to your head to try to make you buy something it's, Hey, this is what your car, checks out as we did a complimentary inspection and here we're.

Here's what the findings are.

Yeah. And I'll tell you, I went through that personally with my son. You did some work on his Jeep a couple of weeks ago, and I was really impressed with the technology. Nick, it was really cool that you sent me over a detailed quote, cause I'm helping him out, of course. And it was like, I'll do this.

Don't do this. And I thought it was really cool the transparency. So I commend you on that. Listen, I want to move on to the next question, and that is you're building this culture, which is sort of countercultural these days. How are you finding staff members and what is your process to find those people that fit in with that super service culture?

A lot of it is, try to follow, follow the advice of people that used to work here. A lot of people will take that advice and they'll end up working here. if they moved away or they've changed career paths, they'll say, Hey, like that was a, a great shop to work at. [00:15:00] The atmosphere is good.

It's usually recommendations. we also do a little bit on, indeed my wife, Stephanie, she handles all that so that, we can stay staffed, but that was the biggest problem we've probably had since opening is trying to keep up with the workload and just constantly hiring, during COVID when everybody else was closing down and, firing, we were hiring and we were building and growing and not able to keep up.

So luckily, we were able to. Stay open because we're considered emergency personnel. we work on the Townsend fire companies, complete fleet. So we have to have those vans and those ambulances up and running. we work on the town, Middletowns, complete fleet. So we have to keep all of those trucks running so that somebody's power goes out, or if there's something wrong with, utilities.

That's what their job is. So we have a huge job to do to, to back that up. But a lot of it is, referral base for staffing and then on indeed, but it's people, people see what we've done, where we've come from and what we're all about. And they okay, I want [00:16:00] to join that.

I want to be part of that. and that's something that we, me and my wife take pride in is that it's not a crappy place to work at. We do, we have a grill out there. You'll see me grilling. we do a lot of, outings, as the company. So I think the last time when we did was bowling, horrible at it, but it's something that kind of team bonding team, team growing.

We do dinners all the time. we're going to try to hit up Chesapeake Inn, with this warm weather. They're another one of our customers. So we'll go there and you'll see super service on our shirt. and, where is it at? There it is. you'll see probably 15 or 20 of us and we'll, go to dinner at Tomfoolery's or we're going to, Chili's or, Red Robin just to try to build that team growth and that, hey, we're a family.

So come join the family and same thing with customers when they walk in the door like, wow, I feel like a, like a close friend or, part of the family. that's what sets us apart from a corporate place or somewhere that might not be. very welcoming.

Engaging with the Community and Team Building

And it sounds like Nick, what you're saying is community is important to you.

So what have you done to connect with the local community?

So we're on M. O. T. Residents, which [00:17:00] is probably about 35 or maybe 40, 000 strong members. that's just Middletown Odessa and Townsend. So we're a big contributor and advocate on there. So

and that's a Facebook group, correct?

Yes. Yeah. And that's not just about pay jobs.

It's, advice or, Hey, that should be covered a warranty. Go see your dealer. because we want to be obviously the dealership alternative. But at the same time, if it's covering the warranty, there's no sense in us being paid for it. So we have no reason to say, Hey, bring it here so we can pay us to fix it when it's under warranty.

so that would probably be one of the biggest ones.

Community Engagement and Giving Back

And then, we have a pretty big Google following. But a lot of the Facebook, Instagram and Google, It's pretty big for us and we've been able to give back to the community. for the last three or four years, we've done a couple, I don't know what you would call me, like a car drive where families get, nominated by either friends or family as to, who deserves to get 1, 000 of the work done to their car.

So last year for Christmas, we had five families that got.

Commitment to Quality and Safety

And we did, 1, [00:18:00] 000 to the work to each one of their cars, and some of them were tires that they've been holding off on because they couldn't afford them, or brakes that have been bad for the last two years, and they just didn't have the money to, or, grandma who takes the kids to daycare and school every day, we were able to do something to keep that car running and driving it safely because, bottom line is we want the cars to come out of here safe and, I always had this motto is, we work on cars.

Just like if it was our grandmother getting ready to drive to Florida, just treat every one of them like that. and it's worked. same thing, Oh, it was like that before. If it's broken before or something was not right while we're fixing something else, we're going to repair it. Even if we don't get paid for that.

Because it has our name on it. And because there's somebody's family in there, somebody else is driving that vehicle. That's important. And that's, it doesn't matter who you are or what you are. Everybody has the same, the same importance in life. So we show that with our work. And I think it.

It's you know easily distinguishable

Authenticity in Business and Community Service

And it sounds like what you're really saying Nick is you look for authenticity You look to be authentic in the community and that's difficult because [00:19:00] some people are perceived as oh, they're just trying to advertise me They're trying to get that sale, but it sounds like with super service.

It's more authentic.

Yeah, that's what we strive on is our motto is beyond the standard, but we're not just you know, like a servicing place. it's A lot of it's customer service, but we also want to be true to ourselves and be true to our community. we sponsor a lot of the local charities, the food drive.

I forget what it's called. there's one in Middletown. We do all the sports all around Middletown. So Middletown high Appo, we sponsor all of those teams. M. O. T. Youth Football League. We sponsor them with golf carts. and that those golf carts were used for handicaps. So if somebody comes in and they need to get to the field to go and see their kids play, they'll take a super service golf cart and they'll drive out back.

And that's kind of our way to give back. And we've able to, to do that based on how fortunate we are and how, we're able to give back and it's good.

Balancing Work, Family, and Personal Health

Now, you mentioned a little while ago when you were first starting out, you had the FaceTime going with your kids. And one of the [00:20:00] things I talk about on my show a lot is balancing that business work life.

And I gotta be honest with you, I struggled with that. How have you been able to do it or has that been a struggle for you too?

I think it's always going to be a struggle because there's three things in life. You have the work life, You have the home life, which is your wife and your kids, and then you have your personal health.

right now my personal health is down because the other ones are high, so work is good and the family, life is good. but trying to balance them all, but what's important to me is reading books to my kids at bedtime. making them breakfast in the morning and having a meal together.

We're all sitting down there, lights are dim and we're just enjoying each other's company, the conversation. those are all things that are important to me. And I think if we got back to those old ways, I think it would be a better environment for everybody. I just feel like those are true to myself and try to instill those in my kids of, what's important and all the frivolous stuff.

It doesn't really matter.

Yeah.

The Importance of Family and Traditional Values

I heard a guy say one time you want to give a hundred percent [00:21:00] to your business, but when's the last time you gave your wife a hundred percent? When's the last time you gave your kids a hundred percent? you read books about your business. You read books about how to be a better entrepreneur, but when's the last time you invested in your family?

And I love what you're saying, Nick. It sounds like you make it really a point of, you want to have a meal together. You want to make sure you share quality time together, but that's tough when you own your own business. I can speak from that from personal experience.

It's super tough. But what's important to me is being at those docs appointments, the practices, the games, the functions at school.

If I work my butt off and I woke up at 3 30 in the morning so I can have this lifestyle and have this freedom that I'm going to use it. So in, In my mind, I've earned it and then the children deserve it as well. So does my wife. She, is like the puppeteer in the background. She's what makes everything work.

So they always say like next to a king is his queen. And that's a hundred percent true is, next to every good man is a good woman. And it's true. I believe in that. the marriage is [00:22:00] important and I feel like we've gotten away from that as well. so if you do some spiritual, awakening or learning, you'll figure out that your wife is the only woman that chooses to love you.

And is not by blood. She doesn't, have to love you. She doesn't have to be with you like your mom or your sister or your aunt, have to, because her blood, she's the only woman in the world that chooses you and chooses to go through whatever she has to. and in the end, she's still loyal to you.

So that's, that should be something that should be noted. and I feel like it's gotten away from that to where it's, not as important as it used to be. monogamy is something that's thrown around, but I think that very seriously and same thing with,Women and your family are pretty much all you have.

If you have a super great business, but you are alone and you have no kids to share that with, or your wife should, that should be your best friend to share that with, then there's no, It's endless. There's no hope. There's no light at the tunnel.

Yeah. And you alluded to something I talk about on my show all the time.

Incorporating Faith into Business

we try to look at things from a [00:23:00] Christian perspective and you talked a lot about traditional values. You talked about faith. How have you incorporated your fundamental faith beliefs in your business?

I'd probably say the biggest one I use is just the light at the end of the tunnel. there's always that light and there's always that, that positiveness that you can look forward to, and you can always know that this probably won't matter tomorrow or next week.

So let the small things go. prioritize and then figure out what you can do to, be a better husband, be a better brother, a better, pretty much all those things. And that's how you have to go about it.

Yeah. It's tough though. You, we live in a culture where people look down on people who, have the normal traditional family values.

And I just wrote a book about this and it's all about you know You don't have to check your christianity at the door And I encourage small business people to live out their faith because I think it's all about your character and I hear you saying that not in direct biblical quote ways But I hear you [00:24:00] talking about treating people fairly being transparent.

So I certainly commend you on those things Nick Now, what are your plans for the future my friend?

What are the plans?

Future Plans and Expanding the Business

I'm We, touched base on this a couple of times. It's what can we expand to, other markets, our 10 year goal back in the day was to own a auto repair shop, a auto body shop, and then either a used car or a new car dealership that way would be.

All encompassing the same, same thing. at this point, we're good at what we do. if you have a good thing going, it's hard to end that. So we might just keep going with what we have, venture into the medium duty, the heavy duty market, we might open up some more locations,start looking at franchising to see if we can get more super services around the, around the country.

Detailing Service Challenges and Customer Care

Now, I know you just opened up this detailing shop and I was, before our meeting, I was looking at Facebook a little bit, man, you get some cars in there to look like people lived in them full time. How do you deal with those, Nick?

That's what we're talking about.

You don't know what those people are going through. [00:25:00] So we don't judge. Hey, if you want your car to be, be super, super clean when it's done, bring it to us and let us deal with it. some people have health problems or family issues or work issues. So they're one thing that they can, get, out of it is.

A clean vehicle when it's all said and done and they don't have to worry about it. And that's one less, stress in their life and we've done our job. So those are hard to do. Put some gloves on, puts, put your big boy pants on and just deal with it. But we rarely ever say no. that's what we're here for us to solve people's problems.

we are the problem solvers. So when people come in with issues, that's our job. That's what we're that's what we're here for is to fix it. So somebody feels like they need to jump off a cliff. Our job is to take them down off of there. Console them and say, hey, it's not that bad. We can fix it and let's let us do our job and we'll get you back on the road.

And that's why we have loaner cars and whatever else to make it. we have a popcorn machine in the, in the waiting room. We have. Movie theater chairs just to make it more comfortable. So it's not oh, this, this. This again, I have to get my car fixed. Somebody wants to pay for auto repair so we can make it a little bit less stressful or less,[00:26:00] negative than we'll try to do that.

So Nick, what's the best way to reach you and reach your company?

obviously by phone. So our, shop phone constantly rings. That's, 302 464 1149. We're on Facebook. At super service automotive, same thing on Instagram, on Google. If you search us up, you'll see us and we have a. A pretty good,social media standpoint, and we've earned that.

it's hard. Like you talked about earlier, nobody's perfect and we're not the only shop that people can choose. So when they do choose us, we're appreciative of it. And we know that we're not going to be, the shop for everyone, but we can do our hardest. and put our best, self forward to try to gain their business and their trust.

And that's something that you just can't lose. Same thing in like on, on a personal,level, you can't lose trust, with your wife. Once that trust is gone, you can never get it back. You got to just keep it there and, stay positive. That's another thing that we're just big on is positive outlook, positive mindset, you're going to have more good luck if you have a positive, A positive sense of yourself and [00:27:00] hitting everything negatively.

And that's just what we do.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

So what advice would you have somebody who is thinking about going into business for themselves, but they're just scared to take that leap, Nick, I get a lot of people to listen to the show that are thinking about going off on their own. what advice would you have for them?

I say, get a good accountant, somebody that can do the numbers for you so that you know what you need to do and what you have going on. The second thing I'd probably say is. work harder than what you think you have to. once you make that leap, that's the hardest part is just making that leap.

Once you do that, then everything falls into place there. But the biggest thing is, you'll never make a shot if you don't take it. so when people say you can't do that, you'll never survive, which I've heard all that stuff. it'll never work out or, you're not going to be busy enough.

We are. head over, over tails. We were so busy. And so I take that as fuel for the fire. So when somebody says something negative to you, just brushed off to your shoulder. sometimes the best advice is [00:28:00] to not take advice. If you have a, a drive inside of you, you have to just let that lion eat and go and Get what you think you deserved.

but nobody's ever entitled or too good to do anything. You'll see me clean the toilets next to the guys, just how I operate now in 10 years, will I be doing the same thing? Probably not. but I can still be in the trenches with my guys and, be in the office dealing with whatever I have to, that's my job, is to handle all that stuff.

So I guess my final question, Nick, is what is your plan to stay motivated? what drives you at this point?

I'd say the probably the biggest one would just be,when we're recharging from the work week and you see your kids. being able to, play basketball or play soccer or any of those fun sports that you're fortunate enough to be able to do that instead of having the mindset of, I have to go to work is I'm able to go to work.

I'm healthy enough to go to work. My kids are healthy enough to, [00:29:00] play these sports and go to school and things that you just don't take. take advantage of, and that's the biggest thing is to make sure that where you came from. stay humble, eat some humble pie. I started from nothing.

 way back in the day we lived in a mobile RV, like a travel trailer, then we went to a single wide show and I went to a double wide and then I brought my first house and, just keep on moving from there.

Reflections on Personal Growth and Gratitude

All right, so I'm going to hit you with one out of left field you weren't expecting.

One of the things I like to talk about with the people I interview is being grateful. So Nick, what are some things you're grateful for?

Ooh, that's a long list. I'd probably say my employees, obviously the wife, I'm grateful for the kids. I'm pretty, pretty simple. I wear the same clothes every day, so I'm not too materialistic.

So not too many material things will come to mind when I say grateful. It would probably be health, if, if I'm healthy, the wife is healthy, [00:30:00] all of our kids are healthy and everybody at work is healthy. And, close friends and family are, then that's pretty much all you can ask for the rest of it.

Like I said, if it doesn't matter and it won't matter tomorrow or next week. Then just let it brush off your shoulder andjust keep on trucking. But, being grateful would be, it's a long list.

And you mentioned a few minutes ago, you got a few more gray hairs. I'm right there with you.

Do you feel like your whole, inspirational journey is changing as you get older as well? Nick, do you see things differently than you did even five, 10 years ago?

Yeah, a hundred percent. Everything's shifted. instead of it being like a single person, mindset, it's changed to, the husband and wife aspect of being a family man.

I take pride in that. I mean, you'll see me, you can ask the wife, you'll see me,Doing dishes, where those stigmas are, where the wife does the dishes and the cleaning of the house, I'm sitting there with my vacuum just to make sure that she knows, Hey, I'm here just as much as you are, with me.

[00:31:00] The, those stigmas are, I think they're pretty big and trying to get those walls down. it's a big deal.

It's tough, as men, we're expected to slay the dragons, but you bring up a very good point. Like I said, a little while ago, the Bible tells us to, love your wife as Christ loved the church.

And if we can all, as men do that, boy, I tell you what, I think we'd have happy homes and happy lives and all that goes along with having a happy wife as well. Wouldn't you agree?

Yeah. that's all part of it. That's like the why and the reason as to why I do what I do, my back's killing me, but I still have to get up and provide.

That's what. the definition of a man is in my book, it's to provide and to, take care of their offspring and take care of their life and that kind of stuff. So it's definitely evolved throughout the years. I'm probably nowhere near the same person I was 10 or 15 years ago. And, the wife will tell you that as well.

Grown a lot. And, that's just takes, takes time to do that. So I'm 35 now. So if I was 25 or 21, you would have seen a different person where priorities were different. the drinking was [00:32:00] probably a lot more than what it was or is now. So those things, have less of a meaning than what they do now to where what's really important is, what you have.

I always tell people it's not about the destination. It's about the journey. And it sounds like Nick, you're learning to enjoy the journey.

Yeah. that's putting in the work and seeing what, what we've built and where we've came from. It's kind of what it's all about. And it it shows you what you can do if you bust your tail and the sacrifices as well.

Like I said, when everybody else, my age, 21 years old and 22, 23, 24, 25 were out partying. I was home taking care of my obligations and that's what a man should do and,just staying true to yourself and making sure that. You are, the real you. I'm not, I'm not a big one to filter or say things or do things that I don't mean, or, it's.

What you get is what you get. I'm who I am. And, I can always be a better person than what I was yesterday because who you are today was because of how you were yesterday. [00:33:00] So

that's true. That's true, Nick. And listen, I want to thank you for going on this journey with me today. I think we've had a, we've had a great conversation and I'll encourage everybody to reach out to Nick.

Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

I'll put all his contact information, the show notes. So again, Nick, thanks for joining me today. I think you've given some great insight and, I wish you and your business all the best, my friend.

Thank you, Ralph. I appreciate it.

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