CV Hustle
A Podcast created to educate, inform & inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley.
We will be talking to some of the best & brightest entrepreneurs in the Coachella Valley about how they started their journey in entrepreneurship.
CV Hustle
Ep #1-From Being Fired to Tile Industry Powerhouse: The CV Hustle's Tale of True Grit and Triumph
Ever wonder how a former pizza joint worker becomes a titan in the tile industry? Tune in to CV Hustle, where my co-host Fina Meraz and Robert Meraz, along with Coachella Angel, unfold a tapestry of stories that will leave you astounded at the resilience and ingenuity of the entrepreneurial spirit. From Fina's transformative journey against corporate giants our discussion isn't just a trip down memory lane—it's a masterclass in self-belief and seizing opportunity.
This isn't your average business talk; it's a raw, candid exploration of the trials and victories that come with creating something from nothing. We share the nitty-gritty of starting up with nothing but a bold idea and a willingness to take risks. Our guest, Angel Chavez, brings a touch of flair as we reminisce about the early days, tackle the importance of community support, and highlight the significance of maintaining family bonds amidst the bustling life of a business owner. It’s as much a chat among friends as it is a blueprint for aspiring entrepreneurs.
As we wrap up this enlightening dialogue, we don't just look back—we also set our sights on the future. We discuss strategies for adapting to new markets, nurturing exclusive partnerships, and the excitement of expanding a business. And for those who treasure the familial warmth, we stress the irreplaceable value of gathering around the dinner table, sharing stories, and building legacies. So grab your headphones and join us for an episode that celebrates the heartbeat of Coachella Valley's entrepreneurial landscape.
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate, inform and inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley. Alright, hello everybody. I'm Robert Maraz and I'm Fina Maraz, and this is CV Hustle, a podcast dedicated to guiding and inspiring entrepreneurship here in the Coachella Valley. And today we're real blessed nothing but illustrious guests on this show. We're blessed to have a guest host, the legend himself, mr Desert Underground Coachella Angel. Mr Angel Chavez, thank you for joining us on this show today.
Speaker 3:Now, thank you guys. Thank you for letting me be part of the first episode too. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. Well, you kind of inspired us to kind of see what you've done, just to give you guys a little background. Me and Angel go way back. I'm old enough to have coached him in high school football, so seeing, what he's done has been a real inspiration to me.
Speaker 1:Even as I was growing my business I was like, hey man, this guy is doing some major things in the music world. So you know, he was, truth be told, he was kind of an inspiration for this show, so we wanted to involve him in it and we're blessed to have you here, man.
Speaker 3:So thank you for coming. No, thank you. Thank you, coach. Yeah, no problem, I'm a little chivalrous, I know, even after all these years, you know that's one title I love to hear, man, that's a title of respect.
Speaker 1:But you know you are here, but we have to say, you know, today's episode is the first episode of CV Hustle and we wanted to, you know, give you guys a reason to actually, you know, hey, why should I even listen to these guys, you know? So, you know, the main focus of today's program is going to be my co-host to the left here, the beautiful and talented Fina Marazda, the queen of tile, the diva of design.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, what the hell Miss. Tile designs by Fina herself Fina Marazda. Hey Bob, how you doing? I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 1:I'm doing pretty good. So you know, if you're into design, you know in the design world or even hard doing anything with the heart surfaces, you know this girl and this is the podcast where you want to listen to this episode because we're going to kind of go over the origin story today.
Speaker 2:Right, guys, I think we're going to get down to the nitty gritty and talk about where it all started. I had no idea where it was going, but where we're at today, so I think it's going to be a great episode, and so how was the?
Speaker 3:well, let's take it to the beginning.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:Can you tell us a little about your backstory, just where you started here in the Coachella Valley, or?
Speaker 2:Yep, I was. I've been born and raised here and I always throw in a little, unfortunately, because I, like I need to get out and see the world right. That's how I feel. I grew up with the, you know, two older brothers, a single mom, and we lived in an apartment our whole lives, right in Coachella and what else. I went to oh, I went to. Oh yeah, I grew up at Jehovah's Witness, believe it or not, so that's why I cuss a lot today.
Speaker 1:I will say that.
Speaker 2:It was pent up all those years. But we so we went to church three times a week, religiously hope, no pun intended. But I went to CV high school and but always knew that you know that there was something out there, bigger for me. I guess you can say, but didn't ever, didn't go to college. And partly of that part, part of the reason of that, is because the religion really shies away from that and any kind of like furthering yourself, which I didn't really know right, but at the age of 18, literally I turned 18 and I was like bye mom. She came home one day from work and I was gone.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, I'm 18. Just 18.
Speaker 2:I moved into one of my friends. Paul's had a little studio. His mother had just passed away and he had a little studio in Coachella and I moved in there with my other friend and we worked at Little Caesars Pizza, you know so, and and kind of a way we went, you know, I just kind of started living my life and I didn't want to go to church anymore.
Speaker 3:So and what made you see the church for like, or what made you like step out of the whole ecosystem?
Speaker 2:That's a deal. I might start crying on that one. Well, I have two older brothers and they both got baptized into the church right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:One of my older brother. My oldest brother is gay and my other brother was on drugs. So you know, the religion of course, does not like that, and so they were disfellowshipped and what that meant was nobody in my family could talk to them. My mom couldn't talk to them. It was just a really weird thing. So we were always kind of the black sheep of the family because my mom had two sons that were disfellowshipped. My mom came to me when I was 14 and said I want you to get baptized. And I said hell, no, lady. I told her I know I'm a bad seed, I know I'm going to date, I know I'm going to play sports, I know I'm going to do these things and I do not want to end up like my brothers and I don't want my family, you know, not talking to me and things like that. So I think around that time is when I really started understanding what was going on.
Speaker 3:So you went from working at Little Caesars and how does like that journey, like do you ever think, like I wonder I'm going to be owning my own business and doing all these cool things? Or what was the how was like your beginning with entrepreneurship?
Speaker 2:I think it started very early I was. I was a young girl living with my mom and we had, like this shed where we lived and we used to play store. I mean, my friend Veronica, you know, I'd play store, I'd price things out or we'd have a drive through. I was always selling something as a kid, I was always making wreaths and things and selling them and what have you. And I just love design. Like in my bedroom I had literally like six or seven mattresses stacked up high because I wanted my bed. I'm just weird shit, right, and my mom let me do it. So that was kind of cool. I kind of forgot my train of thought, though.
Speaker 2:He said no, but he said something about how did I get started?
Speaker 3:Or no? Do you ever think of all like you? Cause you stay. You start working at Little Caesars but like you're in trip or new journey, so you started selling stuff on like selling things you made with your friend and stuff.
Speaker 2:And another and kind of another thing was almost every job I worked at I got fired from because I just I guess I have a big mouth and I got you know and I just I'm very vocal and so a lot of people don't like that Right, and I understand it. Now I just you know, that was that's kind of my personality and so I was like, well, if I own my own business I can't get fired from that. So you know, let's try that.
Speaker 3:But I, I should I go into the whole Karen thing or is that your first business, like the towel by Fina, or do you have other businesses before getting into the towel world, or how?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, we kind of started a little bit of with selling properties, so I would say, like a real estate.
Speaker 1:we have a real estate company that you got to tell, like the, the cool backstory of TD, tdbf and how it really started.
Speaker 2:Okay, where do you want me to start with that?
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously you got to start from you. You work in it, you work in it. You know, working for Ron Fields tile, oh God.
Speaker 3:Take a way back. We want to hear the Genesis the backstory. Yeah, so I was, I was, I was a little bit, I was a little bit.
Speaker 2:I was a little bit. I was a little bit. I was a part-time student at COD learning criminal justice, which helped me get out of a ticket. Remember that it was something, it was something.
Speaker 3:Bobby was so pissed with Anyway so we had a tell me that story. How do you get out of a ticket?
Speaker 2:I had read somewhere if the cop can, you can follow the letter of the law, which means you're by the book. Everything has to go, or the spirit of the law. So we got pulled over because I did something in a parking lot I wasn't supposed to do or something. We were out of town. We were kind of lost and I got pulled over and Bobby was like the cops.
Speaker 1:You say cops and Bobby, he gets like ugh, I've never gotten out of a ticket bar. Yeah, yeah, and he starts getting flashbacks.
Speaker 2:I'm going to jail, so I'm like just be quiet, let me take care of this. So the cop comes up to the window and I say so, officer, can I ask you a question, do you believe in the spirit of the law? And he was like how did you know that? How did you ever heard you hear that? And I said, oh, I'm taking classes. Yeah, I got it. And then we just kind of got along and got off with the all right, have a nice day, kind of thing, keep going to class, kid.
Speaker 3:That's sick.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was going to school, I needed a part-time job and one of my friends' moms was like, hey, we just need somebody to come answer phones, All right, fine. So I went and worked for Ron Fields Tile and he had a place in, excuse me, Cathedral City and he wanted to move out to Thousand Palms because it was cheaper out there. He found a bigger place and everything, and what he did primarily was did installations. But he did installations for a company called ISI and he had all his eggs in one basket with this one company and immediately I was like that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Why would you? These guys don't have any work. That means we have no work, right? And so people would call down to our place hey, can you come install Tile? And he would turn those jobs away All sides of us, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I just it blew my mind and Bobby was. We were together at that time and I used to go this guy's stupid. Sorry, ron, but you know what I mean. I saw the writing on the wall and said I got to find another job so the next job was even worse. I mean, I guess it was kind of.
Speaker 1:Well, it was all stepping stones in your career. Yeah, which you don't really know at the time, but it's a little bit more high end design based, and this is where you really flourished.
Speaker 2:And I went to work for a lady and I was going to do her books. I wasn't going to do any sales or anything or design, right. I had no idea. But when I started doing her books I found out she was $100,000 in debt with the state board. So they were coming calling, they were going to close our asses down any minute. Right, we would get paid on a job. I used to have to go to the bank and cash the check and get my paycheck. It was crazy.
Speaker 3:Go because it was going to bounce or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah or no, the state board was going to capture any of that money and pay themselves right. They're like hey, you owe us so much money.
Speaker 1:That was the bad, but tell them, we got to tell them about the good. Yeah, so the high end was.
Speaker 2:Well, let me touch a little bit on. So I used to go out I don't know why, but she would take me out with her on jobs and we would talk with the homeowners and she would be saying, oh, let's do this, let's do that. And then the owner I don't know why, but the homeowners would ask me, like, what do you think? And I'd say, well, I think I would do this and this and that, and then half the time they would go with what I had suggested. And so then I would see the installation and I thought, god, that's pretty, it looks pretty good to me, right. So that kind of built up my confidence a little bit, hey, so anyway.
Speaker 2:So one day we purchased a lot from Mission Tile West and I'll always be thankful to them because they really taught me how to run a business. We used to purchase from them. So she had a conversation with them, I'm sure, about hey, they're going to close my ass down any day now. And the next thing, you knew, she went from owner to employee and I was stoked because they kept me on right and I didn't change my pay. I had three kids to feed at the time, right. So I was like, oh, thank god I still have my job. But of course after 30 days she was like I can't do this. You can't go from owner to employee and love it, right, yeah? So 30 days she was like peace out and she left and she's hated me ever since.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:You know, whatever to each their own. But so I kind of was stuck like whoa OK, I'm running the show now and they did bring some other girl in from Pomona or what have you, and she would drive every day from Pomona to come and help me. So I worked for them for seven years and then we moved over to a different location, but this was during 2006, 2007. And one day that's when the market started just crashing.
Speaker 1:Everything started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were like whoa there was no sales coming through the door, right, but our margins were also very high for the desert and I think they were trying to take you know, mission Tile was taking their approach from the LA market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a totally different market, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:And then kind of applying it here. Well, it didn't work. It doesn't work like that here in the desert, right.
Speaker 3:So was the difference between the LA market and the desert? Just like a quick or maybe a scene.
Speaker 2:Just well, the LA market, I think there's people are just willing to spend a lot more money.
Speaker 1:And they don't shop as much Because if you go to their showrooms you have to pay for parking. You know you've got to find parking? Yeah, it's not like you're going to just drive across town in five minutes and get you've got to deal with traffic. I think that has to do with the two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you've got to deal with traffic. Who wants to deal with traffic?
Speaker 1:And once you're in a spot, it's like OK, let's just get this done.
Speaker 3:But it's also a lot more people too, yeah absolutely so.
Speaker 1:It's just you know more money. There's something to that, you know. To that, yeah, you don't want to go and drive.
Speaker 3:You know, in the car you almost have to be like, ok, we're going to get this done. You have to go here, absolutely, plan your days. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:But you also have to remember they've been doing this for, you know, 20 years, so they also have had an established business in LA. They were new to the desert, right, so the desert's like what You're charging, what for the you know whatever. So anyway, where was I?
Speaker 1:You were just about to get to the nitty-gritty. We were just about. You were about to get your final check at the city.
Speaker 2:So during my time I've always like I was always telling the girls I wish I could have my own store, and you know that kind of thing, and I've always kind of knew that. And you know, as they say, put it out to the universe, and the universe heard me and I got fired.
Speaker 1:Well, it wasn't really that you guys fired. I didn't get fired, but it was a store. Well, so Because they were go ahead.
Speaker 2:Right, so OK, so one day. You know, it was a sunny beautiful day.
Speaker 3:No, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:And I got there at 8.30 and they were already there like the main guy, thono, and then Tisa was there, who was? Who is the man? She was kind of my mentor and I still love her to this day. She was awesome and one of their like warehouse guys and like one some other guy right, and I was like I walk in and I'm like what the hell are you guys doing here? And they're like, oh, we're closing our showroom. Here's your last paycheck.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And I go, what? Yeah? And I was like, oh my gosh and my head, I'm, I feel so responsible for this store, right, because I'm managing this store and I have all of these orders going on, the phones are ringing Like they're answering the phones, like we're closing our place down, so you need to pick up your stuff this week, or you go pick it up and South Pasadena, and I was not allowed to even take a freaking pen off my desk, I had to just basically get my shit and walk out, cut throat Right and so, and then they, and then we had two other employees right, so they walked in and same thing happened to them. So, me and those two girls, we went out to breakfast, to CJ's diner, and we were all having breakfast and I said they all said to me well, now you can start your store. And I was like I know I should, right, but I had no idea where to start.
Speaker 3:You're going to begin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I really didn't. But what was kind of cool was, and that I didn't realize myself was, I think that it happened on a Monday. By the end of that week I had four job offers, and Del's flooring was one of them, and there was all these other people and I called them all back and they all wanted me to work for them or with them. So I figured I must have something that they want, right.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it was, um, but I ended up working for Del's flooring because he was going to pay me the most money and I had three kids to feed at home, right. So I went to work for him for six weeks and fucking hated it with Jay, with Jay.
Speaker 3:I love Jay, I love Jay, I love Jay. Hey Jay.
Speaker 2:Bernardi. But uh, yeah, he's. He could be a little hardcore and you got to remember I was used to running the show Right and all of a sudden I had daddy over my shoulder. Oh you know, can I do this? And I was like I'm so not that person. I don't want to ask for permission, god damn it.
Speaker 2:I want to ask for forgiveness, you know so, um, but anyway, um. So during those six weeks oh why don't you tell him the story about, about Bobby made went and made me business cards, like in Chinga Right, real quick, like okay here, cause we knew that I needed, I needed my clients to call me with any questions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they had to find you.
Speaker 2:I just felt so responsible for these jobs.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so Bobby went and made me business cards. And what'd you do?
Speaker 1:I put them on the door of the old, of the old push them in between the door. Showroom. I pushed them right there. So people came in, so I locked.
Speaker 2:They could just take the card right, and then I got a phone call that will lead to a referral or whatever job came out of that.
Speaker 2:And then I got a phone call from Thano, who owns Mission Tile West, and said why are your cards in our doors? And I said, well, because if anybody has any, oh no, you're just trying to write our coat tails. Oh yeah, that's right. And I was like what the fuck, honey? I am Mission Tile West, down here in the desert. In case you didn't know, like I, I am the face of your company and I was just. I was, I was very offended by that because I was like nothing could be further than the truth. I was concerned about my clients and like their projects, you know anyway.
Speaker 1:So that was a little fire in your belly. Oh yeah, Because after I mean tell her what our lunches were like during that time when you were working for somebody else. That's what I remember most about that time.
Speaker 2:Why don't you tell them?
Speaker 1:Come pick you up for lunch and you'd be miserable. He's like I don't want to work for nobody else, I want to do this myself. And I me being the you know financial conservative that I am I punched the numbers. I'm like babe, we got like $3,000 in the savings account. I don't even think we can, we can't afford to open anything right now.
Speaker 2:Babe, we're broke.
Speaker 1:We're broke. I mean, I'm the only one that had a job there for a while, so, um, but you know, I think you know me just seeing you and I like how unhappy you were, you know every day I go pick you up for lunch and you're just like I. Just I can't do this. So, I'm like okay, well, you know I she's that kind of started me to think okay, well, how can we do this?
Speaker 2:Well, you got to be a forgetting you that pushed but you're forgetting something.
Speaker 2:So during those six weeks that I worked for Jay, um, I had clients calling me hey, I need you to design three bathrooms. Hey, I need you to do a fireplace, hey, I need you know, and I'm just like, okay, Um, so I had to go shopping at all the tile showrooms around here, Right, and number one. They hated me because I was already their competition. So I, in a way, I think that they were like oh God, look who's walking in our door.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And, um, I had one of them even say to me like hey, if you find the product here, please make sure you buy it here. And I was like I'm, I'm, I've got integrity, honey, if I'm shopping in your store and I'm using your time, I will buy from you. I don't, I don't play that shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, um, anyway. So during those six weeks I had to go shopping at all these stores that fucking sucked, by the way, they just were not what I was looking for. And Mission Tiles known to have the best decorative, the most unique, gorgeous tiles in the world, and so that's what I was used to. They had 200 different tile lines. Whoa, that's huge. And so during those six weeks I was like I told him what am I going to do? We've got to do something about this.
Speaker 2:So I went and walked my happy ass over to should I say her name? Yeah, so, to a friendly competitor of mine, and her name's Barbara Taylor. I love her dearly. She had her own, she has her own. She had her own little store. And I went to her and I said listen, can I please work out of your showroom? I have people calling me and I need somewhere to work out of and let's work something out. I'm happy to give you a piece of the pie, whatever I'm bringing in, or what have you. Can we work this out? And she said you know what? Let me think about it and I'll call you tomorrow. I said OK. So I was like I'm pins and needles right, because I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel Like, yes, how could she say no?
Speaker 3:Well, you're bringing in business. It's just like yes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And so the next day she calls me and says you know, I've thought about it and no, I want to work by myself. I like being in my own place by myself. She says but you know what, why don't you just go get like a little showroom yourself and just start your own thing? And like whoa and I said to Bobby, that's it.
Speaker 1:Like why didn't I? The light bulb went off, didn't it?
Speaker 2:Why didn't I think of that? You know, like just so stupid. I just, you know, and I was like, and so I said you know she's right, she's right. And so I mean, and I do not let anything wait, and that's a good thing and bad thing, but thanks, shout out to my ADHD, but you know we. So let me think.
Speaker 1:I mean you had to convince me right. I was the one dragon our feet for a little while, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I found a place. It was on a little cornered lot on Segal Lane, 600 square feet, one just big room with the bathroom. And I said to Bobby, like we got to get this place, it's perfect, it's right around the corner from Mission Tile West, like it's perfect. And he goes. Well, how much is it? And I go at $600 a month. And what's the deposit? $600. So it's $1,200. We only had $2,000 in our savings account, yeah, and of course he had his paycheck. But yeah, we still have rent, we still have three stills we have three kids, kids, we have all these things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of expenses.
Speaker 2:And he was just like he was so scared.
Speaker 1:He was so scared and I was it's terrifying, I mean, from going to you know steady income every two weeks, you know exactly what you're going to get to going, oh, I'm just going to take this leap of faith and maybe it will make money. Maybe we won't, you know. And just like I said it was to me, her hardest sell was me, because I was like.
Speaker 1:I put everything on paper, I did the spreadsheet. You know I come from an accounting background, so numbers are my thing and I was like, ok, well, we have to make this, can you make this? And she was like, I think so I think.
Speaker 2:I can tell.
Speaker 1:Or do you know? So I'm like, because this is what we have to make in order for us to survive and live the lifestyle, our lavish lifestyle at the time, you know, it's like just to pay our mortgage, you know. So for me that was the hardest sell. Once she got me to kind of buy in, I think it was off to the races, but I was really the one like OK let's make sure it makes sense First let's do this, let's put it off, and she's the type.
Speaker 3:Let's just do it, it's going to work out.
Speaker 2:It's going to work out. I believe in myself. Let's go If anything I do is going to work. Like how I see it, Do you?
Speaker 1:think growing up because you didn't grow up with a lot of money. Do you think that kind of contributed to your ability?
Speaker 2:Oh, because I didn't give.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been broke before, no problem, I think that's an advantage in entrepreneurship is coming up from not much, because you're not scared to take risks.
Speaker 3:It's all upside. It's all upside. Back to zero.
Speaker 1:I've been at zero and I'm not scared of it. So I think people that do come from more humble backgrounds are better for entrepreneurship, because they got none to lose really.
Speaker 2:You're saying we're hungry.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying, like you had, that was something you pushed me to kind of see that, because I was terrified and you were like, but you were like, yeah, we've been broke. We've been broke before. It's not going to be no different if we're broke on our own terms.
Speaker 2:Let me just try it. Yeah, and you're broke, on your own terms at that point You're the master of your own destiny. With our Airbnb, I said let's try it too. That's a difference.
Speaker 1:OK, well, anyway I know, OK.
Speaker 2:So I ended up getting the place right. We were like god, do we even have good credit?
Speaker 1:We can even rent a place right, I was surprised we could even rent a place at that point.
Speaker 2:But once I had, you know, once I got the green light from Roberto over here it was on I started calling all my vendors and we took furniture from our garage that was like just holding this shit they're holding.
Speaker 1:Christmas organs and stuff.
Speaker 2:It didn't match. We put that in the showroom.
Speaker 1:His brother came and hung up cleats for me and we learned how to cleat into the walls. We had to come in and do the walls ourselves. One of my clients gave me a desk.
Speaker 2:We went and bought a table off Craigslist for $50, because it was like yes, that's $50.
Speaker 1:A decent table for $50.
Speaker 2:And it was great I had some vendors who I will always be.
Speaker 3:What year was this 2013.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like hey. So it was like, how do you start a business, right? So one of my vendors who I called he goes, you want to know the secret to starting your business. And I go, yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me. He goes, just starting your business, just do it. So I went down to the city of Palm Desert, got myself a business license. We had to put our name in the paper, so it was all of those little steps that went to go open up a bank account. We had Bobby got me an EIN number, so it's just all those little things that you're like OK, here we go, got business cards. Oh shit, now I need a website.
Speaker 1:So we just slowly built this.
Speaker 2:His parents bought me my first logo sign that was outside on my door Like that was huge. You know, that was like $250. I didn't have at the time so it was like I'm legit, we had to get phones turned on all of that stuff. But in vendors that I knew were just like, yeah, you can just have whatever you want.
Speaker 3:So for the future trip, I need to open LadyB치 now, those vendors that just give you all the samples and then just so, that way they could sell their products Absolutely. So you just called everybody, just yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey, I'm starting my own business. They had already heard what Mission Tile did.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Some were like, oh well, and some were like, oh, we feel really bad for you. And I'm like, no, you know what? I hope that this is going to be like a blessing in disguise. So one person Ocean Side Glass gave me like gorgeous samples, right, and they knew I could sell their product and I had been selling their product for seven years before that. But so I had them up on the wall and I just people just started. I started calling designers hey, I just opened up my own business. Come, please. You know, come take a look at my place. You know, or is there anything you're working on that you need? Oh yeah, I might need, you know, a couple of tiles for this shower. All right, let me go find it right. So then I would kind of I was I could do that at the time where I could get out and do it. So we just started selling. And the next thing, you know, I didn't. I realized I didn't have a freaking warehouse.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was the best part.
Speaker 1:I was like my poor house Having bad flashbacks right now. Yeah, so we so then what happens?
Speaker 2:right, the order start coming in and I'm like, oh shit, where am I going to put them?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Duh. And so I was like well, guess what? So we started stacking stuff in my bathroom, we started stacking stuff at the front entry, and so Bobby would come on his lunch breaks and come break down pellets for me. And tiles heavy, bro, you know yeah, at least there is no 24 by 48s at that time.
Speaker 1:Lucky I was a lot younger back then, like back didn't go out.
Speaker 3:Cause if I had to do that today? I don't think I'd make it Good workout yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Good workout. I was exhausted after.
Speaker 2:He didn't want to come to lunch anymore. I didn't want to go to lunch anymore. I don't stay at the office Like how many pellets you got today.
Speaker 1:How many orders we got to break down today, so, but I mean, that's what you had to do to get it done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but what was great was a couple doors down in that little strip mall that I had rented was a upholster. Shout out to American Poultry, that's right. And I walked over there one day and you know we were friends, right, we would all see each other and Palm Desert carpets was there as well, and I said to him like do you use all your warehouse, cause he had a warehouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he's like oh yeah, you know, and I just said, can I have like a little portion of your warehouse? And you know, charge me. He goes. All right, 200 bucks, I go, perfect. So now all of my orders started going to his warehouse. I mean I like look back and go, what the fuck were we thinking? But you, honestly, ignorance is bliss. We just made it work and that was it. You know it was just so. Then we started kind of going okay, I can't keep staying here.
Speaker 1:I need. I need to you all grew the space pretty quick, absolutely, and it was we didn't even finish our lease over there.
Speaker 2:We did not finish our lease.
Speaker 1:We didn't finish the one year lease over there we actually paid both, both places.
Speaker 2:So what happened? Was we what? Bobby was, like soup. So when we first started, his parents are dentist, right, and they had been sole proprietors forever. So we opened up as a sole proprietor, okay, well, I had no idea what which is a business structure, by the way.
Speaker 1:Correct yeah.
Speaker 2:But the taxes. I had no idea what we were going to get slapped with. But here, we'll get to that in a minute, but where am I going with?
Speaker 1:this we grew the space in less than a year, paying two rents.
Speaker 2:So what I was going to say is like we started getting all these. Oh, do you remember the check that I took to Joey?
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, shout out to our banker, joey. Joey Jimenez hooked it up Okay.
Speaker 2:You might get him we might need to cut this into the beginning, but I was again. I was working like just out of nowhere. I was going to his office using his fax machine. I had bought like a book of purchase orders and was just writing them out and like open and you know, opening a council with like that Rosie and what have you school on paper?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So I had an $8,000 check that I had gotten from a client and I was like, uh, how am I going to cash this? Right, I need to buy materials. So I called the hey, joey, I need to open up a bank account like now. And I don't know what he did. He was like come on down, we'll get, you know, I'll get, I'll cover you. So we went, he, he cashed the check for me and away we went. And that's just how it all started. I was able to buy materials and then give my clients the materials and then, you know, have obviously a profit from that. And what me and Bobby always think about was, you know, we had $2,000 in our savings account and so once we started getting like $5,000, we were like dang we're, we're, we're we're balling.
Speaker 2:man Like that's awesome and they were like 10,000. Oh my God, can you believe we have $10,000?, you know. And then we hit 20,000. We were, we just kept going up and up and I was like, dude, we have $100,000 in the bank. Like what the fuck? What's going on? Is this pinch me, Like this is crazy. But one thing that, like Tisa told me, because she was my mentor for Mission Tile West, she was like they make bank right, they may, they have three stores and they all do very well.
Speaker 2:So, she told me never spend everything that you make. And that always stuck with me. And you know, because, like I always say, I'm a really good student, like you tell me to do something that's going to better myself, I'm going to do it. And yeah, so I, we just saved and saved and saved our money. Well, thank God, because then tax time came rolling around. Well, we, we did. We did set ourselves up with Gus Gonzalez, because that's who he used to do business with at the payroll company he worked for.
Speaker 1:He really helped us in the early going.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Gus. Thank you for yeah.
Speaker 2:And he. He was kind of our guiding light because we had no idea right what to do. And he was. He was really influential in the in the fact that he was like you guys should open up different accounts and like have a tax account, have your main account and have like a whatever account right or like equipment account or something, yeah, so all that money like for taxes I would just save and then I'd move over to my tax account, right?
Speaker 2:And it would just be sitting there. So when the tax man came in, the tax man came.
Speaker 1:At first year. We were shocked. Yeah, so we do you got to remember before we were, you know, just W2 people we'd run down and do our taxes.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because we get our tax time.
Speaker 3:We love tax time. We get our kids.
Speaker 1:you know we're like $5,000, $8,000, you know, yeah, and we're like I was like our sports savings account. Yeah, a lot of people do that and that's you know, that's awesome. Tax times are awesome for them. But one thing you do need to know is when you do open your business. Tax time is not so fun, no more. Oh, my God Because especially if you're a sole proprietor and you haven't paid your estimate. You're going to have a nice little bill.
Speaker 1:So you know that was an eye-opening experience for us the first year. We kind of we ran down and incorporated real quick after that.
Speaker 2:So You're not going to say the amount.
Speaker 3:What? No, no, no, it's not done. So someone was starting a business, Okay.
Speaker 2:I will.
Speaker 3:Someone started a business today. What would you recommend them? Not to start a sole prop, or or I'll see you.
Speaker 1:Start a sole prop. So I tell this to my clients now I deal with, you know, by hundreds of small business owners all the time Start as a sole prop because it's the cheapest. You want to have a proof of concept in your business first. Now, if you start with money coming in, if you got outside investors and stuff like that and there's VC involved, which down here we don't get too much of, we're mostly bootstrapped in Coachella Valley and we start on our own and we do it ourselves.
Speaker 1:You know that's that's our culture, that's that's the business culture down here. But if you're so, if you're doing it that way, if you're doing a like a bootstrap situation where you're starting and you don't know what you're going to do, just be a sole proprietor because it's the cheapest way to go. It's going to save you. It's going to save you the money on going and filing with the state and stuff like that. Now if you see that that's taken off and your, your, your business is growing and your bank account's growing, then there is that reflection point where maybe we need to look at an LLC or S corp.
Speaker 1:And basically what that is is to separate you from the business. You know, makes you, makes you just the president or CEO of the business. It doesn't make you the business as a sole prop. You are the business and you're subject to self employment tax, but that's a different podcast. But you know, I would, I would definitely suggest if you, if you open your business in any booms, then you know we need to do something to get rid of that tax liability in the S corp. I love the small S corp.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, but the reason the, the another reason we didn't open up as an S corp right away was because it costs a hundred eight hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1:And it costs a never. Then you got to file a return, which is another fifteen hundred dollars. So it's not.
Speaker 2:It's about two thousand dollars, yeah. So we kind of were like we you know, we don't we didn't pay two thousand. Yeah, we're like no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Let's say we weren't there yet because we didn't know what she was going to do.
Speaker 2:You didn't believe in me, just Well. We didn't know what you were going to do but then when you?
Speaker 1:did it. We're like oh we better, better changes real quick, because I don't want to go through this again.
Speaker 2:So now we, we. So our first tax bill was twenty five thousand dollars and I was like say what? And? But I remember sitting at Sloan's like what are you like? I mean, we got slapped on the face with that. I was like what did you do? You know like what happened? I thought you were, you know. You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:We're broke again. We're broke again.
Speaker 3:You guys got to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So get out the freaking top rum. But we, we had the money because we saved and saved and saved, right, so that thank God, we did that, you know. So those are things that I think you know was a was a plus. We probably we would not have paid that had we been an S corp, but whatever it is what it is, we learned and not yet immediately, we incorporated after that.
Speaker 3:So and then from that warehouse. How long did it take you to move on? Because right now you guys are moving to a bigger space.
Speaker 2:So I don't know how, but we had this guy come into my place, harold Schultz. He said hey, I have a place for rent on Highway 111, and I think it would be perfect for your place. So we went to go look at it. Do you want to talk about that place?
Speaker 1:I was like, oh hell, no, this is a dump. It's been empty for three.
Speaker 2:I have pictures of it.
Speaker 1:Remember, this is 2013. So 2008 wiped out a bunch of commercial spaces on Highway 111. So this building had been empty for five years and it was like it was tore up.
Speaker 2:It was well, it was pretty bad.
Speaker 1:It was like nobody had been in there. It was like a vagrant might have been there.
Speaker 2:But it had warehouse space in the back.
Speaker 3:It wasn't even a warehouse.
Speaker 2:It wasn't even a warehouse.
Speaker 3:It was a yard.
Speaker 2:It was a freaking yard. Yeah, it was like a little shack.
Speaker 1:But it was on Highway 111, frontage roads, and I always knew that I wanted to be on 111, because I didn't have money for advertisement.
Speaker 2:So I was like there's thousands and thousands of cars that go down the street, that'll be my advertising, right? So Bobby was like this place is a dump. And I was like, oh no, I can already see what I can do, like I can always see the potential in something right, I'm like this is a great space. So we got it. My rent doubled right. First I was paying 600. And then I went to 1200. And we were like, can we pay that? Can we do it? And but we did, we just we did. And so I think one of the things that I've done and been smart about in my business because I've made many mistakes. But the one thing was I never bid off more than I could chew, so I never went. I didn't just go out and get this huge freaking place, that and did it up to the nines and put I never did that, I always did it in increments that I felt comfortable with, right, because that's just stressful.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we got that place and then we hired our first employee, joseph. It was, and he's still with me today, 10 years later. He's my GM and he's my writer. Dad, I tell him, and we fight like cats and dogs. It's awesome, our employees go. Mom and dad stop, stop. But he's been with me. But we started there and then the building next door to me became available. Do you remember the lady next door? She was selling knockoff purses. Oh, that's right. And she ended up like her Fucci yeah, fucci purses.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the knockoff stuff, fucci was it.
Speaker 2:So she ended up leaving and I said to the owner hey, I want the place next door. And he was like OK, so again, I doubled my rent again, right, but I was still on 111. And we literally just bust through the walls in two areas. We made an entryway and then we made a really big area. Remember that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, double our space instantly.
Speaker 2:Yep. And then I did tile installations on the floor and I was able to show more vendors Like it was just a good thing. And then our business just kept growing and growing and I couldn't believe it. Then we really did start growing out. Oh, then I got my first forklift.
Speaker 1:That's a big, that's a big help. You know what?
Speaker 2:So when we moved to the first place on 111 and doubled our rent, I bought a forklift no more unloading pallets on my, my bunch. Yeah, my poor baby. Yeah, Thank you, honey. That's why I married you, because you're a big brook.
Speaker 1:That was the best day right then when we got the forklift.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was cool, I mean, and it was a big expenditure, right, it was like five grand and I was like oh my god, and that thing is older than dirt.
Speaker 1:We still have that forklift. We still have that forklift to this day and the forklift they're like cockroaches, man, they just go forever.
Speaker 2:But I mean it was great because now all of a sudden, I mean you got to remember I had tile guys come into my place so they were pissed when they had to load up their own stuff. Right, they're used to just backing up when we load up the truck yeah, and away they go.
Speaker 2:It was not the case at my place, so it was like ah, so I had to address that. And then I remember guys would come and they're like, oh, we're here to pick up who's going to drive the forklift. And I'm like you're looking at her, I drive the forklift. So I did everything we answered phones, we did sales, we did forklifts, we checked in material, you name it, I sure did. It was just a wild ride. What else? Ok, so now we're going over to the bigger building.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, but why do you think you what made you guys successful those early days? I mean everybody can anybody. I mean it's not like you guys had only exclusive lines. What was the magic touch? I mean because obviously you've. I mean Angel knows you're a name in that world. Yeah, I think it's safe to say that, like, what was the in the early days? What was your secret sauce? Like why did people come to your showroom? You know, because they could go to other places. They could go to these competitors.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean your prices were, you know, were the same as everybody else's.
Speaker 2:Oh, I got to tell one story. I just remembered when you said that. So when Mission Tile West took off right and I was opening my own place, there's this one vendor I love her called KJP she's the only person in the world that does this tile right and I called her and said hey, I really want your tile line in my new place. You know, can you send me some boards, like you know, whatever? And she was like well, what makes you think you can sell it if you couldn't sell it with Mission Tile West?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right. Wow, she said that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I said well, I'll tell you, their fucking margins were too high, yeah.
Speaker 1:Everybody loved your stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said everybody loved your stuff, but the margins are just too high. I said, believe me, I can sell your tile. She goes, you know what, call me back in six months and I was like this bitch.
Speaker 2:I was like, but I love her to this day, you know she's. And I put on my calendar six months later and I called her and said six months, I'm in business, and she sent me her product and it's I mean, it's great and I've been selling her product ever since. But so I think one of the things is I'm very, I'm ambitious, right, like I'm going to go and I'm going to get that sale.
Speaker 1:Well, you made a good business decision to say, hey, I can sell this high, these high end lines, but I I got to bring that margin down. Oh yeah, because Mission Tile West, they had beautiful, so everybody wanted their stuff. But when they got the price tag they had sticker shop. Ok, let's go to find the cheap, something cheaper, you know? So, you, you, immediately. What kind of material was it?
Speaker 3:There was a like Perse yeah.
Speaker 2:Was a stoneware, so it could go in there, it could go anywhere, and it was. It was just it's beautiful. So, anyway, I've been selling her products. But I think, when you say, like, what has made me different? I think number one, our selection is the best in the valley. Absolutely, we're very, very knowledgeable about our products and I'm kind of anal in the fact that if, like I remember I had one client who came in and was like, oh yeah, we're going to put this in our pool, and I was like you can't put that in a pool, that's going to, it's going to disintegrate on you, right, and I'm very, I'm very vocal and I'm very authentic, which I'm told.
Speaker 3:So that's good Honest. Yeah, you got to be honest.
Speaker 2:I don't like. I always say I'm not there for the short sale, I'm there for the long haul. I don't, I don't want just sell you something to make a quick dollar. I'm not that person. So and I said I'm not selling this to you. You can go buy it somewhere else, but I will not sell this to you. If you're going to put it in a pool and the I got, I got the pool guy calling me fucking pissed. You know like what you know, and I just said, dude, go buy it somewhere else. You know, like I'm not, I can't do that, I can't sleep at night. And he ended up calling me like years later and apologizing and we, you know we do business today, but I'm one of those I think I'm very, very detailed Like well, where is this going? No, this can't go there. You know what have you? And it's more about educating people and I think once they know I think it's my knowledge, I think that I I know a lot about the product.
Speaker 1:You're good at what you do. You're good at design and you're good at identifying what can go where and making it look good. I mean, you got to make it look good, right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's what, that's your thing. So I think I've got an eye too, you know, and so that's always fun and I love what I do.
Speaker 3:I absolutely love that part, and you know I love the towel industry, everything. And so you. You started off because you said you got off for a job at a towel place in the beginning just to answer phones. So like you trajectory from just entering into that world versus now you're dominating in that world, like the everything, like how your life could have been different. You would have maybe worked at a different job and maybe a different career.
Speaker 3:Like it's crazy, Sometimes you don't even know where something leads you, it's just yeah they're getting exposed to that world, because you probably before that you I don't know Maybe you probably even think about flooring or showers.
Speaker 2:Oh, I never did, never did absolutely, but I just knew that I loved it. You know, the moment I got there, I just oh, we could do this, if we could do that. And you know, I just Always have done that.
Speaker 1:So now and you're creative, so I think anything you would have done I still don't see it, you're definitely what's your? Favorite, with you every day. I know you're a Creative.
Speaker 3:Was your favorite part about design or just the industry in general? I?
Speaker 2:think, seeing somebody walk through my doors that it's just gonna start a brand new project and the world is ours right, like we can make that house look like anything and that's what's really cool. Like I do, we do all the spec houses out at thermal club and it's like, hey, this house is gonna sell and it's like, hmm, what do we want this one to look like? Should we do it all black and white? Should we do it this? I mean, it's, it really truly is like it's. It's awesome Just seeing something come into life and making it look beautiful. And we also want it to be sustainable. Right, we want it to kind of last the test of time and Just, I love all that. I love it, I love seeing it all come together. I love answering all the questions. I love, I love working with the tile guys. I I just love the whole design industry.
Speaker 3:So and what? What kind of projects are you excited that you currently working on right now? Like?
Speaker 2:oh god. Well, right now it's all about the shag house for Modernism week. Who is what? What? I worked on with the actual artist, shag he. I don't know if you're familiar with his work, but he, his paintings, look like you walked into a Jetsons Movie, right like the like. Everybody's holding a martini, in the background's purple and there's a rock wall. It's a very mid-century modern.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm type of photography and and artistry. So this house, you literally it's like you walked into one of his paintings. It is, it is crazy, one of a kind never seen before Epic home, yeah. So you know, he came to my showroom, we was. He was like you know, I think I'm gonna use subway tiles in the shower, but I want him to, you know, be orange, green and blue. Okay. So then it was up to me to kind of like narrow down the things and Work with vendors that it's like hey, you know we're gonna be working on this really cool house Is. Can you donate anything by chance? You know well, so it was one of those things. But, um, but also like just finding the right floor for this house and you know, cuz our name is gonna be on it and this, this house, has been in the LA Times recently. It's in Palm Springs life. We're gonna be whole okay times like they're.
Speaker 1:Yeah right about this in London, this house.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We're only like what the heck are you talking about? People in the? No, they know these things are pretty big deal. Yeah, also, your own line is in there, right.
Speaker 2:Right, oh, so that's. That's one of the things that we're online, of town.
Speaker 2:So my husband he and it was really Bobby, that's what that's really great about him is he really pushes me, like I'm Parts of me, I'm like let's go, go, go right. But my husband on other things, I'm like, yeah, and he's like you need to design your own tile line because that's gonna always separate you even more from your competition. And and I was like, yeah, you know, I get people that come in my showroom that always want pool tile that doesn't look like pool tile.
Speaker 2:Yeah don't want to see a six by six blue tile and like they're over it, right. So I designed something and one of my friends he Manufactures tile, and so I collaborated with him and he was like, yeah, send me the CAD drawings. We sent it to him and we've produced it and and it was. You know, some of the images I've taken from my childhood. Some are from my travels or just whatever. I is kind of inspiring like. One of one of the tiles is like a Cute mermaid's tail, you know. One is like popsicles, because I was thinking pool, you know. And One of the other great things about that tile line is, if you purchase that from me, a portion of the proceeds are gonna go to any local Community or charity here in your name.
Speaker 3:It's right.
Speaker 2:So whoever purchased it will be in their name, because I've always, you know, we've always been about giving back to the community, always, always, and I think that's another part of our success is that we, we always give back. You, oh, you have to. You just that if you're putting some sort of position, you should always give back, because it will not that it will come back tenfold to you, but it you're just it just putting an energy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So and so, like we're like, for instance, I'm hosting a private cocktail party at the chag house during Modernism week and it's gonna be in benefit of fine food bank. So Hence you know we do that for, for a local community, people here around here and this like.
Speaker 3:So this is your first line. Are you currently maybe working on future lines or you're like thinking of going certain routes like that? Does that like give you like more motivation to Step into like your own design as well?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I forgot to name the tile called fantastic wife Fina, because everybody would call me hey, how you doing, I'm fantastic, and I just kind of stuck. So, yes, I am, I'm constantly producing new, new tile lines, but have I like, put them into effect? Not really, I have a. That's one thing I need to do more of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got a carve out some time to expand the line a little bit.
Speaker 2:But I do have like other vendors of mine saying, oh, did it? Okay. But I do have other vendors that are like, hey, will you make a tile line for us? And I'm like sure you know, but have I done it now? You know, I'm so, it's just, I need, I need more time to do it. You know I'm right now. I'm like I got a sell, sell, sell to keep you know, keep our business going, but that's something I want to do. And then I also was approached. I've actually been approached a couple times now. Other manufacturers are our distributors that I sell for are like, hey, I just had one the other day Say hey, so this is your tile line. I'm like, yeah, she's like well, who's distributing it for you? And I'm like me myself and I girl, like I don't know what to tell you, I'm the only one doing it. And she goes well, what if we distributed it for you? Oh, wow. And I was like I don't know if I'm ready for that yet.
Speaker 1:Right, I had a whole different business.
Speaker 2:right there I had a whole different animal that I know nothing about, right, I mean, I know it with my friend, but I don't know it because obviously we would have to produce it to to bring the cost down, because right now it's about a hundred bucks a square foot, but it's quarry tile and it can go in a pool and if it can go in a pool it can go anywhere yeah right, because that's like the hardest place.
Speaker 2:So we even put that in our own spa, because I had to put my money where my mouth was. I had to make sure my product worked. I had to make sure it withheld cleanings in our son and whatever. So it's, it's in our pool, it's doing great, so I'm very proud of that and then now.
Speaker 3:So when can people follow up and check out your work and where could people go into? Where's your showroom located and where could people find you?
Speaker 2:so we're in. We're in Palm Desert Off Highway 111, and then I'm also in Palm Springs off Talk with Canyon talk tweets somebody just told me, but we're there. I'm on social media everywhere tile designs by Fina and tiktok, instagram, facebook, the usual suspects.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I'll let me tell you about expanding into Palm Springs. So we had this gentleman come down from San Luis Obispo or something open up, and Bobby and I had been talking about Opening up in Palm Springs. If I'm in Palm Springs and Palm Desert and I have Acto like, for instance, is one of my tile lines right in environment both locations and Joe blow tile, comes to town in Palm Springs and they want to open up and they want to open up with Acto. Actos gonna say Sorry, we already have tile designs by Fina.
Speaker 2:So I knew that I needed to lock in my territories, right. So?
Speaker 1:controlling your vendors is a big part of of your her business, like we got, you got to be it because your vendors can go online and sell to anybody. People can shop you, you know. So a Big part, big part which you know, which we found out early on, is that you have to be able to control your vendors and have loyal vendors to you. Oh, otherwise otherwise it's, it's almost impossible.
Speaker 2:Yeah so.
Speaker 1:So Palm Springs was part of, always, part of the. It was always part of the plan, for sure.
Speaker 2:So we? So one of my vendors calls me and says Tabarka calls me and says, hey, this guy from San Luis Obispo is opening up in Cathedral City and they want to open up with our tile line. She said to me is there room for one more in the sandbox, right? In other words, like I have another person's gonna sell this product that you already sell, I go absolutely, there's not room for anybody on this in the sandbox. Because I told her you know, nobody else knows this, but I'm opening up a place in Palm Springs. Oh, you are, yeah. I go yeah, you know we're, we're working on it right now. Okay, all right, oh, I'm not gonna open them up. And I said, damn fuck, now we got to open up a place.
Speaker 2:Literally, I had no place to go.
Speaker 3:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:So I said, well, here it is. I've always kind of been pushed to do things and and I'm a risk-taker, right, I'm a risk-taker my husband's like a god damn it. She's on another role, right. So we found a little tiny place. This was in March. Oh my god, we rented a place in March right on Palm Canyon Perfect, cutest little place. It's like a thousand square feet. Yeah, what summertime came around. It had no AC.
Speaker 3:Oh wow.
Speaker 1:Well, it had AC, but it didn't work.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't think it had AC.
Speaker 1:But, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:But so I was like, oh my god, well, in March the weather is beautiful. Yeah, no idea, right, anyway? So we ended up. We ended up opening up that and and Learning the Palm Springs market was a completely different beast. Then we were used to. You know, because when we first opened up that store, my thinking was we're gonna put in all this gorgeous, beautiful, high-end tile that nobody else has seen and that kind of thing. And you know, they don't know what they want until we show it to them. Because remember our friends, for that the cabinet people had said Palm Springs is a fantasy land. That store is never gonna sell what you sell in your other store. And I'm like, no way she goes, no, palm Springs, she goes, they're cheap. And I'm like, what she goes? Yeah, they're all looking for a bargain. She goes, you are not because she goes, we, you're just not gonna sell that. And I was thinking bullshit, I'm gonna sell it, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah and so. So we showed the product and everybody loved the product in Palm Springs, but nobody bought it. So we were like, oh, we got to do something here, right? So what we ended up doing is we did end up moving to a different location, and it was the best. Look, because it now.
Speaker 2:This place had tons of parking, it had Front and you know, for front entrance, back entrance it was just more visible a lot of foot traffic, lot of foot traffic right and and we narrowed down our selection in that store and we really took a look at all the vendors we had and Narrowed it down to some of our least expensive vendors but still had really nice stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's kind of was the secret sauce for that store. That store has, you know, it's tripled what what it used to, and so we that was a good move on our part is just learning, you know.
Speaker 2:Learning the market, yeah, adjusting to your 20 minutes away and it's a completely different world. That's crazy. Yeah, so that's how the Palm Springs market came to be, you know. And what's crazy is that guy Wanted to shut us down, the guy that was coming to town. He wanted to take our Vendors, like Sonoma, he wanted, he wanted those vendors to shut us down because he was some big bad shit that was up in wherever. Boom. Eight months later he's out of business and guess who's buying his boards from him? I am, so I bought his boards and that's what I put in my.
Speaker 2:I put I added to my Palm Springs showroom yeah so it's just, it's just a funny little way of how things work out, he just things you yeah, you just never really know what's gonna happen and no, that's, that's amazing to go from, like you say, from that, to just dominating the town space.
Speaker 3:And and what about, like big box stores, like Florida Corp, opening up? Do you ever see any pushback?
Speaker 2:Now I have to sage the place, because you said Florida Corp, but no, the big box stores. You know they really are our friends. They can work for us or against us in some instances, you know, if the margins are too low. But we have flyers that we give out to all the big box stores and they refer us business all the time. Oh nice. The reason being is because people come in there and they don't find what they're looking for. You know, if you're they're looking for a specific orange. They're like go see Fina.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just go see her, you know, or you've got to see this person or whatever. You know. We've got people from the big box stores shopping at my place for their own homes, you know, and so that's actually been a really great resource for us is the big box stores and they help us out. We do business with them all the time. The F&D one that you mentioned. The 99 cents store, Fuck dangerous. I mean no, no, no, the 99 cents store tile yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like the 99 cents. I mean, I can understand why it's appealing to people, but, man, if anybody knows what Thosos marble is, it should be all white. It should not have gray running through it, yellow running through it or pink running through it and it should not be 899 a square foot. So things like that. You know, if you don't give a shit and you could care less about quality, that's your place. But I've had several people come in, installers all the time like, oh, I tell this client, you know, if it came from there, your shower is gonna take me, you know, two more days to finish because these tiles are not exactly the same size. You know the calibers off whatever. So you know. But then and you have those people that just are all about the dollar and that's fine, but that's not really my market.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know so? No, that's how I feel about that.
Speaker 3:Okay, so what's next for tile designs by Fina? Now you have the Palm Desert Store, Palm Springs. Are you looking to expand? Are you looking? What's like the next step for you?
Speaker 2:But anyway. So now I have artistic tile showroom within my showroom, I have Porcelanosa showroom within my showroom, and so, again, that kind of just sets me apart from any of my competitors. Our showroom's like 4,500 square feet inside and we also have that outside. So one of the things we're gonna tackle this year is we're gonna start showcasing countertops out back, build a slab yard.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Oh nice, yeah, cause we really want to Porz prefab everything, probably.
Speaker 2:I don't know about prefab, quite yet, but for sure. Porcelan I think Porcelan's kind of the way things are gonna go.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's heading that direction big time, absolutely. I've seen it everywhere.
Speaker 2:Right and quartz, you know like. So anyway, that's kind of our plans and my husband's gonna really he's actually gonna help me kind of spearhead that, cause I've just got so much going on I can't do it all, and he's really really great about putting in processes and keeping me on task, honestly. So, yeah, that's what we're excited for.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. I get a lot of. We do a lot of quartz stuff too, so that's our kitchen. But aren't you hearing?
Speaker 2:about like the fabricators getting sick from like the dust.
Speaker 3:I know.
Speaker 2:See, and that's why.
Speaker 3:It's a little scary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why people are saying they're getting rid of the quartz and going to Porcelan now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and Porcelan. You get these nice, just like the glaze and I can go indoor, outdoor. Indoor, outdoor and quartz you gotta be inside, and then granite's kind of outdated sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah it's natural stone. It's too busy, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, it depends on the style, but Sure, yeah, for sure, porcelan is the way we see it. Yeah, so, okay. So how do you find time for your family with all these businesses and Family, what family no?
Speaker 2:Well, we just do. You know, my showroom closes at four and that's for a reason, so I'm home by five.
Speaker 3:Oh nice.
Speaker 2:And we, bobby and I go to the gym quite often and we take our son and we spend time with him there. Our other son is a huge athlete, so we're always at football games or basketball. We're always at something.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so, and then we definitely take weekends and go do things and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Take trips and Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Have to carve out that family time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's important because your kids, our kids, we you know we got grown kids and we got some still in the house and it goes by so fast.
Speaker 2:But one of the things that we've done, too, is dinner time. We are at our table, no phones, and we sit at our table. We all have dinner together, always, yeah, so.
Speaker 3:No phones, I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that us, as like a Hispanic community that I came from, didn't know jack about how to do any of that stuff, and that's something that I think I can help out with my community.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thank you for joining us on CV Hustle guys. You can follow us on Instagram CV Hustle 760, facebook. The same thing we're going to be on YouTube, we're going to be everywhere, so we are. Like and subscribe. If you like the show, if you found some value in it, go ahead and subscribe and check us out for the next one.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Thank you.