When Mariano Ramirez swapped his warehouse ID for an architect's drafting table, he and Yvette, his partner in life and business, embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure that's nothing short of a blueprint for success. On CV Hustle, we're thrilled to welcome the founders of M Design Group, who share the exhilarating tale of their transformation from clocking in at a nine-to-five to crafting a flourishing residential design firm in Coachella Valley. They reveal the fortitude it takes to pivot passions into a thriving enterprise and the importance of a robust support network cheering you from the sidelines.
Ever wondered what it takes to sketch your way from community college to the hallowed halls of architecture school? Mariano and Yvette take us through their educational odyssey, emphasizing the foundational importance of hand drafting and the character it builds. They recount the dedication needed to create a standout portfolio and the pivotal role networking plays within the architectural community, all while balancing the demands of academia and personal growth. Their story is a masterclass in perseverance, illustrating that with the correct measurements of grit and grace, one can draft their own future.
As the architectural lines from paper to real-world projects begin to take shape, our guests map out the journey from employment to entrepreneurship with the precision of a finely calibrated compass. They recount how responses to a Craigslist ad laid the foundation for M Design Group and share the vision required to grow a business from a humble garage outfit to a corner office enterprise. Through their narrative, they convey the significance of cultivating client relationships, navigating the design process, and the art of balancing business growth with creative control. It's a conversation that constructs a framework of inspiration and practical advice for anyone looking to erect their entrepreneurial dreams.
When Mariano Ramirez swapped his warehouse ID for an architect's drafting table, he and Yvette, his partner in life and business, embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure that's nothing short of a blueprint for success. On CV Hustle, we're thrilled to welcome the founders of M Design Group, who share the exhilarating tale of their transformation from clocking in at a nine-to-five to crafting a flourishing residential design firm in Coachella Valley. They reveal the fortitude it takes to pivot passions into a thriving enterprise and the importance of a robust support network cheering you from the sidelines.
Ever wondered what it takes to sketch your way from community college to the hallowed halls of architecture school? Mariano and Yvette take us through their educational odyssey, emphasizing the foundational importance of hand drafting and the character it builds. They recount the dedication needed to create a standout portfolio and the pivotal role networking plays within the architectural community, all while balancing the demands of academia and personal growth. Their story is a masterclass in perseverance, illustrating that with the correct measurements of grit and grace, one can draft their own future.
As the architectural lines from paper to real-world projects begin to take shape, our guests map out the journey from employment to entrepreneurship with the precision of a finely calibrated compass. They recount how responses to a Craigslist ad laid the foundation for M Design Group and share the vision required to grow a business from a humble garage outfit to a corner office enterprise. Through their narrative, they convey the significance of cultivating client relationships, navigating the design process, and the art of balancing business growth with creative control. It's a conversation that constructs a framework of inspiration and practical advice for anyone looking to erect their entrepreneurial dreams.
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate, inform and inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley. Welcome everybody, I'm Robert Mraz.
Speaker 2:And I'm Fina Mraz.
Speaker 1:And this is CV Hustle, the podcast dedicated to educating, informing and inspiring local entrepreneurship here in the Coachella Valley. And you know, on this podcast our goal is to sit down and talk to the best entrepreneurs here in the Coachella Valley and kind of pick their brains. So today we've got a really special guest nothing but illustrious guests on this show, that's right. Today we've got Mr Mariano Ramirez and Yvette Ramirez of M Design Group. They're, you know, architectural graphic design group, right guys?
Speaker 3:Yeah, residential design firm, you're in Coachella Valley. So anything from remodels to new construction to commercial TIs, just to get specific. Yeah, I mean, that's what we're all about we construction to commercial TIs, so that's just to get specific.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's what we're all about. We want to get into specifics. So if you're into you know, architect and plans and drawing plans, or maybe in school for plans this is the episode for you. You want to check it out because these guys started, you know, probably just like you, you know from working a nine to five and built their own business. So and we want to start with the beginning, with you too, I want to take it way back. So, are you guys, a Coachella Valley natives? Are you, are you from from here originally? We?
Speaker 3:are yeah. Before, before we start, the brought you guys a little gift Got some hats for you, I get the gray one.
Speaker 2:Any alcohol too.
Speaker 3:Not today, so Fina gets her first pick there. Very nice. Well, thanks guys. Yeah, no thanks for having us. It's quite exciting that you guys started this up. We're happy for you guys. Congratulations, thank you. Yeah, yeah, definitely, I think I consider myself a native.
Speaker 2:Were you born and raised here?
Speaker 3:I was actually born in Torrance, california, the ghetto of LA County, but nothing I can remember. I mean, I was four or five years old when my parents decided to move down here and I've just been here ever since, so I consider myself a native.
Speaker 2:So what school did you go to growing up in?
Speaker 3:California, cat City, yeah. And so I did Cahuilla. Actually, that's Palm Springs and then Landau, what is that? What's the Bighorn Middle School, james Workman? Oh, I don't know. And then we did Cat City High. We did it from Cat City, cat City High here You're a native, basically 2005. Oh yeah, like I said, I was four or five years old.
Speaker 1:You've been here since. Yeah, that's you killing me I like you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it's kind of similar to my story. I have very small memories of very little memories of living out in LA but, yeah, mostly everything that I can remember is here, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Okay, so tell us a little bit about how your business started. So, after high school, what did you end up doing or what kind of led you in that path? Or did you always have an idea that was something that you wanted to get into, or was it something you stumbled upon and really liked?
Speaker 3:you know, after high school I I got a job at a um, a shipping uh, shipping warehouse um out in palm springs and at that time, 2005, I was making 9.50 an hour, which was Mad loot right there. That was good man, that was good. So, you know, I told my parents, hey, I think I'm going to try this out for a couple years. And you know now, as a you know, growing up, I guess that's not what you want to hear. You know what I mean. You want your kid to go straight to, you know higher education and whatnot. So I did that for a couple years. I didn't know I was going to do this. To be honest, I've always been into art. You know the arts drawing, painting.
Speaker 2:So is there somebody in your family that has an art gene?
Speaker 3:Yeah, my older sister. She is four years older than I am. She's fantastic man Really. Yeah, she's great at what she does, so she was very inspiring to me. She did a lot of art before I was even good at it.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So yeah, if anybody in the gene, it's definitely her. And then I come to find out later in life that my father is actually musically inclined. So you know a little bit of the creative, the art in the blood, huh, everything. So I I knew it was going to be something with, you know creativity, but I don't know what you know yeah, just had to come, come to you and we haven't heard from yvette.
Speaker 1:So are you a native or where? Where are you from?
Speaker 4:listen, I was just trying to say here but y'all really want me? To oh, you're in front of the mic, so you gotta give a little back yeah, born and raised here in the valley, born and raised my entire life, east Valley.
Speaker 3:Come see me, hello yeah born and raised in the valley no, but Yvette is my biggest supporter, so and probably one that. I'm amazing probably the one that um definitely pushed me to start my own business when, when the time came.
Speaker 2:So so okay, so the, but how did that get started? So, like you were working at the warehouse thing, right, and then what did the next? Did you say, hey, I want to start going to school? Do you start doodling and say, I'll, I'll work at this lead, like you're. What do you think? And you know?
Speaker 3:I mean it was, it was all party mode back then. You know as it should be. Yeah, I mean, you know you're young and, like I said, making nine, fifty. I mean I had cash in my pocket at the time and you know, um, I just started, you know effing up, you know started getting into trouble and um, just there one night, you know, my dad, my stepdad or um sat me down and said hey, the, can I cuss on this yeah, please do it.
Speaker 1:It's a podcast man there's uh, you talk where you can talk about whatever you want here.
Speaker 3:Here's, uh, those Spanish speaking guys. This is what he told me. He said no, te quiero decir que estas valiendo verga, porque yo vali verga, pero estas valiendo verga. And he's from Sinaloa. So the word verga is just thrown around for everything, but it means, hey, you're a fuck up. You know like what are you trying to do. I don't want to say you're a fuck-up. You know, like what are you trying to do. I don't want to say you're a fuck-up because I was a fuck-up, but you're a fuck-up Wow, pretty much. And it was an eye-opener. I mean, yeah, you know, I come from a divorced household where, you know, my mom didn't have too much authority over me and I just needed somebody to say it, you know. And when he said it, it kind of really hit home.
Speaker 3:And I think probably that week I signed up at COD and just, you know, hey, what do they got to offer? I went to go see the counselors and I got one of those little pamphlets on the wall, and architecture was one of them. So I looked it up and saw the stuff you could do with it and I said, well, let's give it a shot. You know, the program was two years, took me more than three to complete it. You know, the program was two years, took me more than three to complete it. That's okay, you know. But yeah, I mean take your time. You know it's, it's everything will kind of settle in place like it did, man and and yeah, that's that's kind of how it played out. And I got into the architecture program. Cod actually has a fantastic architectural program.
Speaker 2:What's the, what's the name of the guy there?
Speaker 3:Burt Batanga. Yeah, he's been there forever, right, he's great. He's the architectural director there and he is an architect, I believe, and he's done a lot of great stuff here in the Valley.
Speaker 2:A super respected guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, he's fantastic and he's super down to earth. I mean, got classic cars in his garage and he'll sit down and just chat with you if you need to.
Speaker 4:Well and he'll sit down and just chat with you if you need to. Well, I was like yeah, Two or year three we met. Two, no, probably year three yeah, that's where we met at COD. Oh, really.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, you know what, though, you got to think about when your stepfather said that to you? You could have just rushed it off and said whatever Like most teenagers. Right, and so that had to have been something that you really needed to hear. That you probably already knew in your own head and was, like you know what, all right enough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you need to want it. You know what I mean. You need to have that want and that need and you know some people need that and some people just don't want it. You know some people need that and some people just don't want it. You know some people just want to cruise it and do the nine to fives and do part times and whatever it might be, you know. But if you really want it and you know you get that, one person in life that just kind of gives you the right nudge. I think that's all you need.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it sounds like you probably respected him enough too, because you know, you, when you know, we always say, like the, the opinions of others don't really matter unless you respect them, right.
Speaker 3:So otherwise, yeah, a hundred percent. I mean that guy's, he's, he's still in my life and and you know I love him as as my father and and he he did a lot of stuff that you know he continues to see, still does. But, yeah, he, he was, he was in a, in a place, uh, at the right time. You know, growing up as as a young male, um, he just kind of filled in the blanks, you know what I mean. So, um, I gained a lot of respect from him and still do and still look up to him and he still gives me good, good advice. You know so, and I think I think you never stop learning no matter how old you are, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 2:You just always grow and grow. So when you go take these classes at COD, what does that look like? Is that a 9 to 5, monday to Friday? What does it look?
Speaker 3:like Super flexible. The program only offers a certain amount of classes per semester, so they split it up pretty good to be able to get a part-time job. Whatever it is you want to do. Pick up some more GE classes, so it's very flexible. They got multiple hours for each class.
Speaker 2:What do you start learning about in the beginning? Because you know it's the whole new world out there, right, learning architecture and how things are built and why they're built the certain way you came from no background at all.
Speaker 1:right, you were just hey, take a cool class to take You're starting from.
Speaker 3:Oh well, you know, yeah, I mean they, they have um, it's not all just methods of construction. I mean they definitely throw in, I'd say probably 80% creative, 20% technical as far as construction goes. So you go in there and I think they still offer hand drafting classes, even though it's not really what the field is using currently. It's all computer based now. But I just saw one of our friends, our friends, um is taking the, the program now and they're still doing roof plans by with pencil, which I think is good. You know, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta learn that stuff. I think you do. I think I think they make you get real down and dirty. You know, um start from the basics and then you build. I think they build them up there, which, I said, it's a great program here in the valley. You don't have to go far for it and it's uh, it's a good.
Speaker 2:It's a good starting point because from there you do your transfer to whatever uh university or private school that you want you know, when you said about the hand drafting, like I, you know, we, I own a tile store and when I'm working with people and they don't, a lot of people aren't visual. So when, when you just sit there and go you know what let me just sketch this up and I started drawing, like you get mesmerized, even something. So just when you do that and you're putting, you know, pen to paper, it just is something about it. That's just really, really cool.
Speaker 3:It is, it is, and and I mean it's, it's you know, kind of a reflectiveness of your character too. You know the way that you sketch and the way that you draw and how you kind of put ideas on paper.
Speaker 2:I think it's crucial in this career path to be kind of in touch with the basics and the free hand. So you're going through the class and you're taking tests, I'm assuming and you're passing this test and things like what you said, that it took you. It's supposed to take two years, but it took you three. So like what was that extra year? How did that? How did that pan out?
Speaker 3:It has to do with your scheduling. You know how, how, how intense you want to load yourself up per semester On top of you know how your GEs look's. Look. You know if you come out of high school barely like I did um, you know you don't have ap, you don't have extra, extra credit you're already behind the eight ball, yeah, big time man.
Speaker 3:So I mean, and you can tell this seriously. So I mean you can tell kids nowadays that are in, you know sophomores or seniors, and say, hey, dude, you know it's time to pick it up, and they won't listen until until, dude, it's time to pick it up and they won't listen until you go through this. So it's too late. Right, it's too late, yeah, but fortunately there's places like COD that you can make up the stuff pretty quickly and, yeah, it all has to do with, like I said, super flexible. So you load yourself how you think you can handle it, because if you set yourself up for failure too, that could be discouraging. You know what I mean. You do too much too fast, yeah, and you start, you know, not making the cut and you got to repeat the year after and so Pain and, like I said, it's up to you Get your feet wet and you know, get a couple of classes per semester and take your time.
Speaker 2:So were you taking a class in architecture? How did you do? Hell, no.
Speaker 4:I studied nursing. I got pretty close. Didn't finish Pretty close, but I guess one of his GEs was speech, as was mine.
Speaker 3:Which I got a better grade at, by the way.
Speaker 2:But I was better at he cheated off my notes here.
Speaker 4:He's like super like to like public speaking, like it's not like his, it doesn't come easily, like he has to like do all the like, practice, like all the points, like walk this way, walk that way. And I was like, so what are we talking about? Like, oh, you're supposed to, you know, come up with a speech about X, y, z. And I was like, give me 10 minutes, I got this, I got this. And I and he would like, uh, get better grades. I guess, because he would follow like, oh, you're supposed to do this, that the third is to walk this way, walk that way. Yeah, but I was able to like I'm not scared. You want me to go up in front of the class? No, that's fine. And that's where we were like complete opposites, like he's like super strategic and I'm like winging, get somebody else, we know right.
Speaker 4:You're saying yeah, he's pretty shy, honestly, yeah, I'm real.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, I don't think it's shy, I think it's um, I kind of overthink things and and like things to be more structured. So, um, and she's kind of more improv I don't free, free flowing, you know. So she's more of the, she's more of the hand sketching. I'm more of the computer, you know, you know draft.
Speaker 4:He said. He sent me like a meme the other day on instagram and said um, why did? Why do the quiet guys always date the fiery women, or why are they attracted to the fiery women? And the response was because someone has to tell the waiter that I ordered mashed potatoes, not a baked potato.
Speaker 2:Damn yeah it's okay, it's okay, all right, so so walk us through. You, you graduated, and COD.
Speaker 1:Now you've got to go to the four.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, it's a. It's a process. You know it's a process and you know what I used to get. I get a lot of shit from from my cousins and be like dude, how many fucking years did you?
Speaker 3:do in school like 10 years like, and now they're. It is what it is, man, we bought some money. Yeah, once, once you do the program at cod, you, uh, you're able to build enough, um, kind of a, an academic portfolio and you're able to now apply at different universities, whether it's Cal Polys I went the private university route it's a lot less expensive than the Cal Polys or Cal States. Yeah, so definitely look into that. And yeah, you, you, you build this portfolio on top of you know just grades and and curriculum. You build in actual architectural portfolio, so you show your work, you show your 3d models, youd models, you show your that you can actually yeah, that you can pull it off.
Speaker 2:Why would you what?
Speaker 3:you've learned, and then they'll accept you and they'll, they'll, they'll bypass the first or second year and then you, you're, you're ahead of the game now how you should have been in high school. You know um, and then, and then you get into the program that typically it's a four-year program, four or five-year program so where did you end up going? I went to san diego, but I went to a private university. It's called new school of architecture and design and so you moved out to san diego we did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we ended up moving out there. We stayed out there for about five years really, and we almost stayed not know that really I didn't know that we weren't.
Speaker 4:We weren't dating for very long. And he he's like so listen, I want to go to San Diego, you want to come with me? And I was like fuck it. Like literally, I'm like, yeah, let's go. And my mom's like what?
Speaker 1:How long have you known each other at this?
Speaker 4:point Like a year oh my God, like you're Okay.
Speaker 2:What Mom's like yeah. So you guys went out one weekend and said let's go look for a place to stay.
Speaker 3:Oh, no, it's crazy how everything kind of just falls into place. It falls into place. So Burbatinga at the architectural program here at COD, he's really big on Cal Polys. So there's two Cal Polys, one in Pomona and one in San Luis Obispo, but it's just freaking expensive, you know, a semester is. I think by now it's probably well over 40,000 a semester or a year or something. Whatever that may be. It's insane. It's insane. And New School was kind of that new, kind of the new one that was starting to get talked about in the program, because everybody kind of knows each other. At that time that you're about to transfer, everybody knows each other. And they're like, oh, new school, new school. I'm like, what is that? You know what's new school and you look it up and it's $20,000. So it's half the price. So you're like, heck, yeah, this is good, it's the same accreditation. And what was the question? I forgot the question.
Speaker 2:The question was did you go out there and look for a place ahead of time?
Speaker 3:So you know, you go through this two or three year program at COD. So you know people. And one of my buddies took off a year ahead of me and he went to New School. So when we heard about New School and it was $20,000, I reached out to him and said hey, you know, what do you think of New School? And I'm about to take a tour. And he's like dude, it's legit. Um, come check it out. And, by the way, if you need a spot, I got a room for rent. Wow. So we're like that works like yeah, dude.
Speaker 4:And he's like you get the homie discount, blah blah, I was working at JFK here locally still in that time. It turned out so that guy's mom was a nurse at JFK in Hawaii.
Speaker 3:You guys know it's a small valley. This freaking valley is small, so don't burn yourself, guys. Don't burn bridges.
Speaker 1:Burn bridges because you never know what's that about me today. That's a little bonus coverage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a bonus. Uncut, Watch it later.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we did the tour and made a deal with the homie and you know the rest is history. We went out there and we actually I graduated in 2014 15 started working out there at a firm and shit, we almost stayed out there. I mean, I took, I ended up taking over the apartment or the condo and the homie ended up taking out uh, taking off to la and doing his own thing.
Speaker 2:So okay, but so let's talk a little bit about new school suit. How many, how many kids are there like? Is it a big school?
Speaker 3:it's, it's, uh, it's. It's about as big as a half a san diego block, if you can picture that. Okay, so it's a, it's a building, it's, it's two stories then mine went to little italy yeah, they think of that. Uh, you know, half um, half a block wide, on the whole street, a two-story building, super small, um, but the way that they set it up, it's, it's, it's, it's fantastic. It's a 24-hour studio, um, yeah, 24 hours. They give you your little your little card right?
Speaker 1:yeah, like I've worked nights and I can go in at night and do their security.
Speaker 3:You get to, you get uh, you get to meet all the bums out there, you make friends with them and shit, and it's a different lifestyle, different lifestyle. But the setup they have there is legit and you just do your thing.
Speaker 2:You work as much as you want you so how did what did this school and how is it different from COD? In like what way?
Speaker 3:It gets about 100 times faster. So COD is a good program, good entry, but they give you a project and they're like you know, design a two-bedroom house, and you have four months to do it yeah, I'm just exaggerating right. And you get to new school and they're like you have to do a full-on case study of Albert Frey and Palm Springs and you have until tomorrow to do it, or two days, and they just had you your. It's not even a whole course curriculum, it's just one project curriculum that's like three pages and they just briefly explain it and they let you go and they say you're presenting it's Monday and you're presenting Wednesday at 5 pm and we're going to have two architects from so-and-so and they're going to critique the shit out of you.
Speaker 4:Nice.
Speaker 3:And that's all it is. You're just getting bashed on for four years.
Speaker 4:He's just like nitpick at everything. He's like I'm all stressed. He's like I'm going to fart.
Speaker 3:And here's where the COD public speaking, you know came into play, because I was able to structure my presentations really well. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, so that all kind of lined up it all. It's all full fucking circle. Man, Everything, everything. And yeah, I mean the long nights, the 24-hour studio kind of gets you ready for real life and real deadlines and they just really mold you into a machine man.
Speaker 2:Right. So are they teaching you CAD? Are they teaching you Rivet? Are they teaching you software?
Speaker 1:I mean I would think right, you guys all work on software, right yeah?
Speaker 3:it's. I mean there's in the industry there's multiple software programs. There's Rhino, there's Revit, autocad, and every office is different. You know there's offices that are Revit, only Revit, and there's some that are only AutoCAD. But yeah, the program teaches you all the software that are available.
Speaker 1:They go through the softwares with you guys, all of them. That's pretty cool. That's real important, right? Because you can immediately get a job. Exactly. Oh, I know how to do that. I don't think the four-year universities do that very well. You could have a real smart kid come in out of college and I know how to use Excel or word. You know basic stuff that you got to use in the office. So that's, I mean, that's, that's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean and and um, because it's a private school, it's, it's, it's, it's just all driven behind architecture and design. So you don't have to I mean, you do have to do your trigonometry and all that crap, you know, but um, there's no fluff to it, you know. And they just like said they just build you into this, this architecture machine, and then you get out of school and you have this fantastic resume. That's just like shit you could do. You could do it all you know. And where do you want to go? And and that's the point, right, it's the point to pay 20 G's I'm impressed with myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, you're paying 20 G's a year for this shit, so you better come out with something. And yeah, I mean, I mean I everything that I learned there. They gave me a broad set of tools that you know are just great for when, when she gets tough, you know. And yeah, it's all around everything, All programs that are there in the in the field currently.
Speaker 2:So you graduated in what? 2014,?
Speaker 1:you said 15, I think so still in san diego what were you doing at that time?
Speaker 2:were you? Were you working at the hospital?
Speaker 4:um, yeah, so I worked um at here in india at jfk. I worked there for a total of 10 years actually so you were still here.
Speaker 1:Well, I was in san diego well, I worked.
Speaker 4:I worked 12 hour shifts, so I would group my three days together, crash up my mom's and then, as soon as I got out of my last shift, take a nap and head back. So I was off four days in san diego and three days working here and just crashing at my mom's when you're in love, you're in love, that's right baby, what you will do for love we'll try again. Wow, it worked out great for me.
Speaker 1:Well, you were young, you could handle it. You could handle it.
Speaker 3:She could, but the Toyota Corolla didn't.
Speaker 4:No, that's why you bought me your brand new car. And he continues.
Speaker 3:It was fun. You know what it was. An experience. I mean, we talked about it all the time.
Speaker 4:We're like fuck we were so young, so dumb, I'm like it was fun.
Speaker 3:It was tough. It was tough, yeah, it was tough Life at that age you know life at a university.
Speaker 4:God, we felt so grown up. And then, when you really think back, I'm like fuck, we were kids, what were we doing?
Speaker 2:Okay, so you were in school and were you working, because you're a worker. Oh, yeah, so you were working.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it started off, I mean, obviously, when we went out there and did the big move, it was strictly school, full-time, I mean that's why you call it full-time student. And after a while, I mean, you kind of get the hang of it, you know. And then you figure out that you can move your workloads with the 24 hour studio to make room for work or whatever. Yeah, have a social life, you know. And yeah, eventually I ended up getting a job out there at a firm that I worked after I graduated as well.
Speaker 2:At an architecture firm yeah.
Speaker 4:Nice, and then that final year I finally was like like listen, like this drive is like that's enough, like I think it was like five years no, yeah, we're at the five years of commuting and I was like I'm done like there.
Speaker 4:We said until you graduated, you graduated. So either I quit my job and and find something here. Are we settling down here or are we coming back home. And then we started like, okay, well, it kind of like like um, like uh, looking at the prices for the area, oh, compared to like here, it's a no-brainer, yeah, compared to here.
Speaker 3:And he was like yeah, babe, we're going home well, not only that, you know, we, we were, it's, it's fun, you know, san diego, I mean, you know that place is legit the weather is beautiful mission beach, you know. You know it's legit out there Downtown.
Speaker 4:So much to do all the time.
Speaker 3:You know, gaslamp Padres, like it was. I mean, it was party mode too out there. So you're a Padres fan? No, no, but it was. That was like a couple blocks away. You know, you got fucking live baseball going on, so it's like like it's legit, you know, you got.
Speaker 4:You got the beach, you got. Coronado school was in downtown san diego, so there was like yeah it's like hustle and bustle, always something to do, just even around the school so we were pretty dead set at that time.
Speaker 3:You know, I had had a full-time job at a firm I just got, I just got out of school. Um, she actually got a job at sharp hospital after the five, I believe so we were. But every damn weekend we were coming back to the Valley and coming back for family parties and after a while you know it was it was.
Speaker 3:You know we'd go every other two weeks and then every other three weeks, and then we started missing out on a lot. You know, parents got older, your nieces and nephew got older. And then you know, on top of the cost of living and um, everything we just kind of, you know we had to come to Jesus moment. Yeah, like what, what? What do you want? You know, if we leave out here we're by ourselves and then back home, you know we got family, that's that's getting older and we're missing out on a lot of shit. And we decided to make the move, we jumped back and it was just too fast-paced, it was too far from home, um, it was expensive we wanted to start a family and we were like, how are we gonna do it by ourselves?
Speaker 3:I think we need like, we need our, that's our village, like absolutely there's something about the valley it just keeps, keeps bringing you back, your little, drag your ass back that's true.
Speaker 1:It does nothing wrong with it and I was when I was young. I used to hate this place Because I'm a little older than you guys, so there was nothing out here. There's no social scene. You had to drive to Riverside to go to a club back in the day. I mean, there was one club and that was it. The casinos were barely getting popping. But now it's like it changed completely. We got a hockey professional hockey team.
Speaker 1:It's growing fast we were just talking about that. We have rush hour traffic now. Our little valley has exploded in the last 10 years, you guys have seen. That's why we live in the outskirts.
Speaker 2:It's great love it, okay, so let's go, let's get back to the. So tell me so. You started with an architecture from here in the valley yeah, yeah, we ended up uh it was residential.
Speaker 3:Yeah, after, after we, we had that come to jesus moment that she calls it um. You know, I applied out here and, like I said, the resume that that we build was was great and it was. You know, um, you got a job immediately, immediately.
Speaker 2:You weren't making 9.50 an hour anymore I wasn't, but I was still.
Speaker 3:It was still a um. It's a standard paying job. You know it's a. It's an entry-level position at an architectural firm. I was at a press fuchsic architects great, great company out here architectural firm and uh, those guys are great, you know they, they um, taught me a lot.
Speaker 2:I was there for two years and then got laid off, unfortunately, you know, and I remember that because you do, you do and you get tell the story about yvette working, so how we know I'm their favorite guys okay, I pay is the all-time employee of the year.
Speaker 4:Ooh, he said it. Someone get Elizabeth.
Speaker 1:No well, sorry, Ellie, it's on the record now dude.
Speaker 4:It's on the record now. Edit that out. Do not edit that out.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so we know Yvette and Mariano, because Yvette was the first golden employee, oh gee.
Speaker 2:He was working out of the Tiles showroom.
Speaker 1:I remember that she took a chance with us. We would always be in debt to her because she busted her ass for it.
Speaker 4:I left the hospital and then he got that firm job and then literally down the street was Ipay just starting. They were looking for someone. He was like, just do it.
Speaker 1:How many clients did we have when you first started?
Speaker 3:like 25, you know, like nothing yeah, I remember the story, though when, when she got hired tell us the story, tell us I remember the story when she got hired that, um, it was between yvette and a sec. Can I say that? Yeah, all right, okay, good, good, I, or yes, you how about you? How about you tell? You tell if you know how it happened that it?
Speaker 2:was. We interviewed two girls and one of the girls just rubbed me the wrong way. I did not like her, and that's, of course, the one that bobby wanted to hire, but I really liked, you bet. So I called her after hours and hey, what the job?
Speaker 4:yeah, okay well you need to call. What did I say now? She was like, and, mind you, I was literally at home with mario like, oh, I'm gonna send a thank you email, thank you for the interview, them all. Help me word it, because he's like always so professional, right. And then I get this call, this title designs, and I was like, and I answered and she's like do you want the job? And I'm like am I hired? And she's like this is what you gotta do. Wow, she's like this is what you got to do.
Speaker 4:She's like go ahead and send Robert an email and say thank you, but make sure you say and then I don't know she told me exactly what to say to get him to say yes, because you know, we know our men.
Speaker 3:Get played all the time, man.
Speaker 4:And here we are. I'm the number one. Everybody loves me. It was a total setup.
Speaker 1:It was, it was a total setup.
Speaker 2:And did I not know better? I'm the best thing that ever happened to I-Pay.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, here we are 10 years later and Yvette and Mariela are still in our lives. There you go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it worked out.
Speaker 4:That's a good sign, right, it was so much fun in your bag you know, come, come, come deal with your clients. You bet they want to talk to you, bet? No, it's fine. So and then the first time I came back one of the clients I answered the phone and I was like, oh yeah, you know, I paid. See that, how can I help you? Oh my god, you guys must be really busy if you're answering phones. And I had been gone for like two, three years and I was like sure, whatever you want, the whole time yeah I've been here the whole time, okay, so what year was that?
Speaker 1:because you started your business in 2017 yeah, so he was so kind of take us to the progression. You, you're not working at that architect?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think I think they came in and said um, do you want me to cry?
Speaker 1:I'm kidding, I'm kidding no, it's your stepping stone. It's better right?
Speaker 3:this is what happened to all of us, right. Well, here's what happened and I think it goes back to why I'm here now is, you know, like I said, it's a great company, you got nothing to complain about, but I always wanted more. You know, I was a job captain at the firm and I wanted to do more. I wanted to be a project manager, and project manager I was doing some of the project management roles already, with some supervision. But, you know, I felt like I could do it, you were ready. I felt like I was ready.
Speaker 3:But obviously every system has its own structure. Every, every company has their own structure and you know, your employees are going to tell you how to do it. If, if this company has been around for over 20 years, um, they have their own system and and I just wasn't wasn't the right fit for the company, um, at least that's that's what I think. And I wanted more pay, and obviously that's not good for a company either. So it just didn't work out and they sat me down and said, hey, there's not going to be enough work to maintain you, so you're getting laid off.
Speaker 3:But I think it was good because that did me a favor. It allowed me to get unemployment, right, to figure out some income. Yeah, yeah, you figure out what the next, what the next step is, and and it was, either, you know, uh, look for another firm job, or or whatever the hell comes next. I didn't know at that time, you know, um, but what I did know is that if I go to a firm, I'm not going to be happy because I'm going to be in the same fucking position that I was in, um, not making enough and not getting the responsibility that I wanted, right. So, um, luckily, you know, the government gives you unemployment and it allows you to at least get some sort of income while you figure the whole thing out.
Speaker 3:And I think, I think we, even uh, did some work for you for a little bit. You wanted some help, uh, 3d modeling, uh, right, when I got laid off I don't know if you remember that yeah, I think, really, you want to learn sketchup, and I think I think yvette told you hey, well, my husband I don't know xyz and then you said, well, have him come in and help me. You know, build, learn sketchup.
Speaker 2:I think this is what yeah, and then my adhd said no girl, you can't under, you can't and then, and then you ended up paying us to to do some of your drawings.
Speaker 3:So, um, yes, you know, it's, it's little little things that that and you I was.
Speaker 2:That's when I was also like getting my tile line off the ground right and I did my little that was way later, yeah, but but it was like yeah, not bad, like he was super bummed. I remember you coming in going man mario's like super bummed and then so we and then like where, where did it come from?
Speaker 1:like I can just go out and do this did somebody contact where did the light bulb go off and say, hey, I can just do this myself. You know well, here's here's the thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, you know, you lose your full-time income right, which is pretty drastic. I don't think we had our own place at that time, did we?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 3:So I think we were living at her parents' house. We moved in with my parents. The goal was to live with her parents for a certain amount of time to save up for our own place Kind of the typical you know kid story, can I come? It's kind of good though that that happened, yeah, yeah, so you know, I was expecting to make, you know, $30, $40 an hour with my 10 years of school, and the whole time I said my cousins would bash on me hey, how long did you go to school? What are you making? I'd be like dude, like I think I ended up making 25 an hour at the most there, um, which was not bad, you know, not bad um. But but you had kids in in in the same field or even in construction that were making over 30 an hour and I was like how the fuck did I spend you know forty thousand dollars, sixty thousand dollars, in school and and um wasted so much time? So it was.
Speaker 2:It was pretty depressing at that point, um, you couldn't see, you couldn't see the flip side quite yet.
Speaker 3:Nothing, nothing. I was just like what the? You know? What was that about? You know, like some fucking kind of joke, you know. And, uh, yeah, it sucks, it sucks, you know.
Speaker 3:But, um, but I think I think in the midst of all that it was, it was just time, it was a perfect opportunity, you know, as the alignment of all the planets, to do something. So I ended up putting an ad out for design work and drafting on freaking Craigslist, and it was free back then. Right now, they charge you five bucks. Five bucks on that. We have a reoccurring Craigslist ad, um, and that's just, we just left it alone and we still get business from there. Um, but, um, yeah, I ended up putting my, my ad in there and I said you know drafting and construction documents, because I knew how to do everything. I said I was, I was doing project management, I was talking to consultants, I was, uh, doing construction administration. I mean everything from beginning to end. I knew how to do and I knew how to talk to people, I knew the terminology and so I said, fuck it, I'm getting unemployment. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 4:Unemployment was starting to run out, I think.
Speaker 3:No, no, and it was sick. I was getting $900 every two weeks, so it's like it was sick. I was getting $900 every two weeks, so it's like it was legit. And I was getting little jobs like yours and draft this for me and I'd be like $80 or whatever, and it's like the money was not bad. It's just supplemental income and, like I said, we were at our parents so I didn't have to worry about rent. We didn't have kids, and so it was a little bit easier on us to kind of try this thing out and and so it was a little bit easier on us to kind of try this thing out, and you know, somebody called you from that ad.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think things started rolling Like I really think I want to branch out on my own, and I think it was like a few months into that ad when I was like do it, go for it. He's like, but what if I'm all? But what if you don't?
Speaker 3:Well, here's, here's what happened. And shout out to Shields Residential they're a construction company out here and you know, do you know Shields Residential? They do all the Modernism Week. They did what are those homes? You guys? Do you guys spend so much time and then present them on Modernism Week?
Speaker 4:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Anyways, we can cut that out. He's a modernism week home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you do one. It's always like a big. You do all the trial for them. What's it called? What do they call those homes?
Speaker 4:Modernism week. Right yeah, it's just modernism week.
Speaker 3:All right, yeah, so this guy calls me, right, and he's remodeling his house. I think that's how it played out. He's remodeling his house and I go and sit and talk to him and you know, it's the first meeting that we have in person with somebody off the Craigslist ad and he's like okay, cool, like, send me a proposal for your work and I'll make the check out to you. And I said oh. I said hey, I'm getting unemployment right now. I said, uh, I can give you cash, he's like, but I want a discount. No, no, I mean no, not the time. So, um, he's like I can give you cash. Honey, I would trade secrets. You give you cash somewhere along the lines where I can give you cash, but, um, I probably won't get you for the next one somewhere along those lines, like, I have to be able to write this shit off. Like, you better get him, you better get him. He need to get legit. Yeah, because he writes all his stuff off. And obviously, now that we're business owners, I understand right. So he's like we could do this. I'll give you cash or whatever you do, I can give you a check legit, and then I'll give you more work.
Speaker 3:After this, I was like and we'll see where it takes us, well, you know. And then um, that was the first job that I ended up taking. I said I think I talked to her for a little bit. I said, hey, this is what's going on, but it's going to cut the 900 a week, or 900 bi-weekly from the government. I said the fuck do we do? You know, and you can, you can go, you know, do some cricket shit and start getting you know, so it's not reported and all that. But we don't want to do that. And uh, we, we made the decision say you know what, let's do it, let's stop reporting unemployment and get this job, and then we'll see what happens so how did you know how to price his job out?
Speaker 3:Because I mean I've been doing this, for I mean before.
Speaker 4:Did you deal with the pricing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did everything. You already had an idea what something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, you're in the industry long enough and you see the proposals and you see the deposits and all that. And then it's all time based too. You know how long is it going to take you to draw it up and and what? One thing that I was kind of calculating and one thing that I suggest for for people trying to jump into this game, is figure out what your bi-weekly income was, and then, or let's just say the month you know you're making X amount a month. If you can match that on your own, then you're solid. Go, go to the next month and go to the next month, like you, yeah. And then after a while I mean that that monthly turns times 10 and you're like what the fuck?
Speaker 4:like hell, yeah, dude I think you did soul prop for like yeah and then and then.
Speaker 3:That's when you guys came in.
Speaker 4:I mean what. I turned to robert and was like hey, so how do we do this corpse stuff? And I think we took you guys came in and what. I turned to Robert and was like hey, so how do we do this corpse stuff?
Speaker 3:I think we took you guys out to sushi. We took you out to dragon sushi to pick your brains To dragon sushi, yep, and then we became a corpse, picked you guys to the game man, and it's kind of like my roommate from San Diego, you know, it's just all the pieces just kind of they're all laid out, is just kind of they're all laid out. It's just how do you put them all together? And, um, you know, we're fortunate, for you guys were there, you know, with the whole hiring of yvette, and then you know it all it's all crazy, you know. It's funny how the universe works. It is man, if it's, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be, and and she's just got a long place.
Speaker 2:We went to dinner and then you were like you did, you wanted to incorporate. So, bob, did you help them get an einIN? And then you have to go open a bank account under that name.
Speaker 1:To do the setup. It was a show. It was a show and you guys immediately saw the benefit, right. I mean, at first you're like, oh shit, I got to pay all these personal taxes. But in the long run when you go turn in that W-2 instead of that 1099, you realize, hey, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not owing all that 22% of this 1099.
Speaker 3:And it's a freaking learning curve, man. I mean we get it all you know. We're still learning too.
Speaker 1:We've been doing this 10, 12 years and we're still learning every day. There's not a day gone by, right, that we got to kind of put fire out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I mean, like I said, there's definitely you know, definitely risk involved in all this shit and I think if you just have enough tools to chip away at all those, you'll be fine. You got it, man.
Speaker 2:So you were a sole proprietor for a little bit.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, we did the same thing and then it was like, oh my God, our first tax bill. Was it hurt? Yeah, don't do what we did. Don't do what we did. But, like I told them, the reason we did that was because it was like $800 and some dollars to incorporate at that time and we were like we don't got that money, so we just did that. But I'm glad that you ended up incorporating. Yeah, yeah. It's just so much better and you're protected, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can't go after your assets. You know, it's all you work for the corporation.
Speaker 1:You're not, that's right, you're just the president. You know, I'm just the president, here I don't.
Speaker 3:If M Design Group's going on there, it's M Design Group, not Leagues.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're you know, I mean that's what thing that the corporation kind of does, yeah, um, so where do you see m design? I mean m designs is kicking butt now. I mean you guys are up and running. You got a couple employees now.
Speaker 2:Yeah how did that all come about? Like did you? Were you working out of your home first, or how did what?
Speaker 3:yeah you know what? Um, yeah, we got. We got our first home. Yeah, this is our second home and obviously I always had an office. I had my system set up and it was always one of the bedrooms would be converted to the office space and after a while, I mean, you start making pretty good darn income. You know your monthly income is a lot better than your full-time job. Yeah Right, oh yeah, so you can start to afford things that can help you structure your business. So, yeah, for a while we hired we've hired some help. I got an office manager and we set up the whole system. I mean, we set up our folder drives, we set up kind of the templates, we did all our marketing.
Speaker 4:Any other firm. You did everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everything, I mean physical archives. We set everything up. It was legit and she was working from home and I was working from home. And then they offered us some office space some of the people that we work with and I said, hey, it's X amount per month, Could we afford it? And then we looked at our books and, yeah, let's fucking go for it. And it was, you know, like, let's try it out, let's give it a shot. And I mean, after a while it just kind of becomes second nature, it just becomes part of the business, you know.
Speaker 2:And I always tell Bobby I think what we did and I think what you guys also did, was you never bit off more than you could chew, right?
Speaker 1:You didn't go out and immediately get this get a huge office, hire employees and you know baby steps, baby steps, baby steps.
Speaker 3:Know you, you think you could do it all right. So, um, I was like, how much does, uh, does my own office cost? And then when, when they come back and say it's xmi, you're like, oh, never mind, you know. But then then, then your, your, your connects and all that your contacts start to hey, I'm looking for office space. You know, you start asking around. You know, you got, you got to speak what you wanted to existence, and then the word's gonna get around and around. And then they offered us some office space at a fraction of the price. And now we had an address. That's fucking crazy, legitimized, and that counts a lot too. If a client looks you up and it's a house on X street, then it's going to seem a little sketchy. Some are special, like that.
Speaker 2:Bobby, tell them about where you used to work with payroll company. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yvette knows we're in the back of your show. No, I'm talking about. Christy and Vicky's. Oh, when I first started, when I first started in the industry, yeah, I was working in the garage. Basically I was working in the garage and as soon as they hired me they wanted to get legit, so they got an office. And then when you get an office like it's just legitimizes the whole thing and we probably doubled in two years.
Speaker 3:And if you can't afford it there's I mean, I did this for a while too before we got our office you can pay for an address. So if you got like, I got my, my good buddies over at GLS in Palm Desert, I said, hey, I need an address. So, um, I said hey, I need an address. So it looks like name dropping left and right. Yeah, I got it, shout out to my, to my boys, you know, and I said, hey, um, I want an, uh, an address that looks legit. He's like dude for sure, like um, and you and I was able to use the conference room. So that was the first baby step. And and now my plans have off of joni drive in palm desert. You know it's and it's legit. I mean it's. You don't have to, you don't have to do a full office. You know you got to fake the funk while you can. You know.
Speaker 2:Well, and you got to know too, like, as long as you're producing your work and you're giving them what they've paid for, why not? Right, right, you know.
Speaker 3:But, like I said, some clients are picky. I mean, I remember a client we were doing a project and he's like, well, send me the address and it better not be a peel box. That's what he said and, like I said, it's it's.
Speaker 2:you know you might get those clients that you know it's no-transcript after you worked with this first guy who answered your, is he still a client? You're still working with him, are you? How did you? How did you find more clients?
Speaker 3:yeah, we still got a few projects with uh shields, residential um in construction right now and um I think a lot like in the beginning.
Speaker 3:A lot of it was word of mouth, like so-and-so told me yeah, yeah and and again, I mean the craigslist ad was still up there, so you know you'd still get people in. And then, um, fortunately, uh, some of those uh hits from craigslist were, um, either contractors that have worked, you know, year round, every year, so I would get uh returning clients, and then those clients became kind of my, my regulars, you know so. And then those guys obviously are in the field and, um, hey, I need this, do you know anybody? And then, oh, yeah, I use my guy, my guy. And then it's just word of mouth is the number one thing that that will bring in the business reputation, right, when the reputation's good. Yeah, I mean, I, I was, I was working when I was first starting off.
Speaker 3:You know, uh, there's a lot of people that would, like I said, burn themselves. You know they, they would get the money and then not produce. And then that was the, that was the end of the line. You know what I mean for. And then you have to go somewhere else to look for it. It's a small valley, I mean it's going to catch up to you later. Eventually it will. So I think if you're straightforward and legit and honest and honest, you'll be fine.
Speaker 2:And what I love is, like you know, in my business, like you said, you get your regulars and because and you already know how to work with each other, and so it's just like, ok, I know, you know, like I know a particular designer that I work with, I already know what she likes, I already know what she's looking for, so I and I'll get new product and I'll go oh my God, you got to come in and see this because I know she's going to love it. So you, you, you establish that rapport with your clients. So right, you know, that's kind of priceless.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I mean I have, I have new clients that will call me and say, hey, this is M design group. Like, yeah, I got your number from you know so-and-so, and I haven't worked like in over four or five years with this guy but the one project that we did for him, he kept my number and then five years later down the line, this is like, hey, do you know anybody? He's like, yeah, call, call mari from m design group, you know, so it's, it's you know shows that you do good work.
Speaker 1:You know, five years later remembering hey, this guy knocked it out of the park, call him thank you.
Speaker 3:Now I think I think I think what, um, what m M Design Group offers and what we kind of drive ourselves, is we create a relationship with people. You know it's not speaking to a robot or an office manager or a receptionist, it's a direct line with me. Whatever is going on, it's good and bad. It's good and bad, but hey, I mean, it's what I want to do. It builds the business. It's how it's been running.
Speaker 3:So my cell phone has been the same and that's how people get a hold of me. I'm not changing my number all the time and you can shoot me a text at 7 or 8 pm if you want, and I get in trouble for it, but I'll be like, but if it's quick you can just answer, of course. Yeah, well, we're at dinner. I'm like you're not answering emails right now, you're not answering text messages. I've never, I've never, I've never been that guy that's like oh, it's 5 pm, I'm shutting my phone off like no dude. There's people that are. They run into some shit or a tough pickle and and if you don't respond to them, they're going to go to the next guy and then they're never going to call you again.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean so being dramatic, it's 9 pm. They're texting you. They can't wait until the morning no, that's, that's extreme.
Speaker 3:At 9, 9, 10 pm I won't respond, but you know, if it's 7, 30 or something and and sometimes you know we've, we've gotten people out of you know tough pickles because of that and um, I think, I think that goes a long way and I think that's that's how we kind of build our clientele. Yeah, it's definitely a balancing act, right.
Speaker 1:You don't want to upset wifey too much, you don't.
Speaker 3:You don't After 9 pm. Like I said, that's a little extreme.
Speaker 2:So I have a question because, for people that don't know exactly what you do, what is, what is a typical client come to you with and what do you help them with?
Speaker 3:Typical client comes back from the season right, you get this what they call the snowbirds or whatever and they're going to expand their house. Right, they got X amount to spend for a new project at home and they need to add 400 square feet to the house. So they'll call us and then kind of walk through what they want to do. Is it a bigger master bedroom? Is it a bigger kitchen? We want to blow out the kitchen to the back and make it you know.
Speaker 3:So you'll go out to the project you almost always have to yeah, we'll get the initial call and, like I said, hey, I got your number from so-and-so and we're thinking about this project. Well, tell me a little bit about your project and then they'll kind of walk me through a scope of work, Um, and if necessary, I'll do. I'll do a site visit. A lot of times clients want us to do a site visit, Um, some. I can say, hey, that's enough info, I can get you some pricing. Give me a couple of days, Um, but if not, we'll go out there and and in person and say you know, what is it that you want to do? They walk us through the process and then we build our proposal and our pricing based off of that scope of work. And then we build our team, our appropriate team, whether it's going to be structural, involved, whatever it might take to get a permit. Are you the one pulling permits?
Speaker 2:We can you know, are you going? Hey, you're giving this to the contractor here's your drawings.
Speaker 3:The majority it is us dealing with the city. It's kind of a whole other conversation the permit process. But permit it's got to be specific people that pull the permit. But we're the ones that get it approved in order for the city to release a permit. So we do the initial drop off at the city, we deal with the city correspondence, we'll pay the fees, all that stuff. So the client just gets to kick back and wait for the permit. In the meantime they can hunt for their contractor, their builder, and when the permit is ready, after we go through our process with the city, then we'll contact the owner with the good news, says, hey, your permit's ready to be issued, and then their, their builder, will go and pull it okay, and then are you out of it at that point, or you're doing project management like you wanted to at the very first place.
Speaker 3:You know what, um, how I mentioned that at the firm job I was was doing everything from talking to consultants to construction administration. It's not necessary for us to do all that stuff after we get the permit. I mean, we could easily say, hey, our job's done. You know, good luck with the project. But that's not how we want our company to run, so we'll stick around for the construction aspect of it.
Speaker 3:Um, in case there's any questions, yeah, yeah, and and if, if, um, if they don't contact us, um, the builders will, you know, because there's always something that happens in the construction um, so they'll need responses for any issues that come up. And we're the guys that they'll reach out to, because we're the ones kind of quarterbacking the whole um construction document phase, you know. So, um, and this happened on the site who, who, who do we contact? And then I'll look at my team and I'll say, okay, we got to contact the structural engineer or my title 24 guy. So we're kind of the guys, um, you know, with the ball, you know. So see, where do we go? Yeah, of course, you know it's um, it's very, very challenging, you know, but, um, I think, I think that's that's why I like this field.
Speaker 3:It's, it's, it's hard, it's really good you know, and, um, like I said, it's there's, there's something under pressure and stress, there's something new every day. You know, every project is new, it's new challenges and, um, it just kind of builds our arsenal of tools. Like, like I said, it's really important to build your tools because, whether it's in the field or just in life in general, I mean those problem-solving skills that you learn, I mean you can use them anywhere. You know what I mean, just to kind of get you out of a muddy situation. Full service over there huh yeah.
Speaker 3:Making the extra mile, and that's customer service, everything, the extra mile man over there, huh yeah, making the extra mile, and that's customer service. Everything. The extra mile, man. The extra mile is why you get referrals five years later.
Speaker 1:So we're kind of running up against time here, so there's a couple of questions we wanted to kind of close with. Where do you see M Designs in five years from now? Do you see it expanding? What's your vision for the future, for your company?
Speaker 3:You know what, we did expand for a while and I felt it was taking a direction that I didn't like. Um, because it it takes me out of kind of that.
Speaker 2:That you can't, you can't you can't manage everything.
Speaker 3:It's hard and and you know what, some, some, some people like that, some people want to be able to just, you know, get up in the morning and have the whole team run the business, which is fine, and you can't. You can't do it. I mean, we're getting to a point where I mean I wasn't even drawing anymore. You know, I was just talking to the client and then making the numbers out, and then that was it, and I wasn't, I wasn't producing anymore, I wasn't drawing, I wasn't. It took, it, took the creative aspect out of it, which is why I got into the industry.
Speaker 3:Um, so, um, do I see ourselves expanding? No, I think I think we kind of learned our threshold. I think a team of maybe three or four is where we want to be. It's sweet, yeah. Anything bigger than that, it gets expensive and it gets a lot more stressful, and then it kicks me out of the creative. Three or four is where we want to be. It's sweet, yeah. Anything bigger than that, it gets expensive and it gets a lot more stressful, and then it kicks me out of the creative process.
Speaker 1:Perfect Cause. You found that out early, right when you're, where you're most profitable and where you want to grow to. And if you grow too much, then you're not making as much money and it's more stress, more strain on the business. And you, you know, since you're, you know and it's all.
Speaker 3:It's all, it's all about profit. I mean, I mean, let's, let's get down to it, man, the top line does not matter, it's not the bottom line. Bottom line is we want to make more fucking money and we got to make living. You know it's. It's um, how do you bring more value for the time in your day? And yeah, whatever, how much time we have left? You know, let's, let's make it count. It's no commodity you can buy it's time.
Speaker 1:Right, that's right. So a couple questions. We always close with our entrepreneurs is what's the best business advice you got coming up and and going into this thing?
Speaker 3:best business advice? Um, I think I think it's just pulling the trigger. I think is number one pull the damn trigger. If it's meant to happen, it's going to happen if you really want it. From the beginning you've kind of been laying out all these pieces that I'm talking about and it's kind of just destiny pieces of the puzzle. If something gets a little bit hard or you don't know something about it, that I'm talking about and it's kind of just destiny Pieces of the puzzle whenever you run together. If something gets, you know, a little bit hard or you don't know something about it, that one piece is going to come into play. You know it's going to be Robert from MyPaceSolutions or Fina from. You don't know who it is, you don't know what it is but just pull place.
Speaker 1:It will let the universe I promise let's do its work right yeah, don't, don't, don't be scared to pull the triggers.
Speaker 3:And last one what's the worst business advice you got? Jesus, talk about right, yeah, you, I know, you got something, I know you got. Uh, the worst business advice I think would be, um, not taking something on that you don't fully understand. So, um, just just take it on. And you don't fully understand, so just take it on and you'll figure out how to do it. So a lot of I know a lot of people that are either in the industry or trying to get into the industry, and then they'll say, oh, I'm not ready yet because I don't know this. Or you know it's a whole business, but you don't grow from A to F, but you't know what, what c is or how to do. C is like you'll figure it out, dude, you know, but so the worst thing is to not do it because you don't know one aspect of the whole thing and you're never not going to know the whole thing.
Speaker 2:No, you know too much yeah, so things are always evolving in, in, in, design and building everything it's something new all the time, yeah, so you just kind of got to go with the flow.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the worst advice is just, you know, letting one of those things stop you is probably the worst, because then you're never going to know how to do it, if you don't want to try to figure it out.
Speaker 2:There you go. You got to crawl before you can walk. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on this. I appreciate you guys making the time to come.
Speaker 1:I learned a lot about you guys. This is a lot of good nuggets in there for all our aspiring entrepreneurs. You know, one lesson I did take away from this? What To all you fuck-ups out there there's a chance.
Speaker 4:There is a chance.
Speaker 2:You're saying there's a chance, right, mariano.
Speaker 4:I never saw him take a backpack to school. I don't know how he graduated. I was like, oh bro.
Speaker 3:I mean, we could talk for hours about this man.
Speaker 1:From fuck up to business leading entrepreneur. It's right here in front of my face. It can happen, guys. So you life. Hey, you still got plenty of time, baby, you were smart enough to do it. Absolutely, man. It's not whether you fail, it's how you respond to the failure. Exactly, work that wise guys. Thanks for coming in. If you found some value today, like, subscribe and follow and we'll talk to you guys next time. Thank you, guys.