February 6, 2024 • 23 mins
Alex Vega always loved cars. It started with a $500 car in high school and led to a custom detailing and modification business. Until one day, a business partner revealed his true colors and unceremoniously dumped Alex back to square one. But that wasn’t the first time that happened to Alex—and it wouldn’t be the last.
Join Ben and Tanya as they chat with Alex, owner of The Auto Firm, about how even the biggest red lights in the world can't stop you when you know your brand, the importance of paperwork (especially when working with friends), and how finally finding a trusted advisor-led to his greatest growth yet. These are The Unshakeables.
The Unshakeables is brought to you by Chase for Business and Ruby Studio by iHeartMedia
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
He stared at me straight in my face and said,
I don't need you anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Wow. So he backed out on his promise.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Not only backed out, he screwed me over, told me
that there's nothing after two years, and it was just
like probably one of the most difficult things I've ever
faced in my life. I built this and I got
to walk out. It's his business, it's not mine.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's Alex Vega, founder of the auto firm. At that moment,
he was up against a brick wall, pushed out of
a company he helped build, with no other options, he
would have no choice but to start over, not just once,
but twice.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It was like starting again from nothing.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Studio from My Heart Media. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of
Chase for Business.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
of how they got through it. Hey, Tanya, we're back
with another story and this one, this one might make
you just a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, I am already nervous. Just based on what we've
heard so far, Ben, it is so hard to start
a business, and this man built one for someone else.
Now he's turned back out on his own.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It's even more complicated.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Just wait, h no, keep me hanging. Let's hear it.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
On today's episode The Auto Firm from Miami, Florida.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I tell everybody, listen, I've never worked a day in
my life. I go there and I play all day.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Alex Vega has been in love with cars his entire life.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
As a kid going up, I remember the toys that
I cared about, the moles for the little hot wheel cars.
We would get markers and change them up, cut of
the wheels, do stripes. I would watch shows like The
Dukes of Hazard, the night Rider Starskeen Hodge.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I was the huge Dukes of Hazzard fan every Friday night.
Oh yeah, and I like night Rider too.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Never hassle the Hoff, Never hassle the Hoff. Anything that
had cars in it I loved, and I always said
I wanted one day build a car that everybody in
the world would know. Hey, you know what Alex Viga
did that car?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Now. I watched all those shows, but Alex he didn't
just watch cars on TV. He was around them in
real life all the time. His father was a salesman
at Firestone. Alex would go to work with his dad
and just watch cars go in and out of the shop.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I was sitting down by the sidewalk and watch the
cars come in and out, in and out, and people
will either change tires or do old changes, and I
would be like, man, why don't they change the wheels,
Why don't they paint them? Do them different.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Eventually he had the chance to fix up his own car.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I remember my front door neighbor had a Buick Regal
nineteen seventy nine. It had a grass growing all over it.
I told them one day, I said, would you sell
me the car? All I have is five hundred bucks?
And he sold me the car. But now I want
to to make it look nice because everybody else in
my high school had these nice cars. And I'm here
(03:04):
pulling in in nineteen seventy nine. The antenna was a hangar.
And I just started, little by little going to autoparts
stores and buying hug caps, buying center console, and then
people would see my car in school and say, man,
I like your car. What did you do to it?
And I just started selling cars.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
He did that for a while, and when it was
time to go to college, he decided, you know, it
wasn't really for him.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I didn't want to go to college. I went for
literally two days, and I did it just to please
my mom. And I remember calling my dad and say, Dad,
I want to do what you do. I want to
work with cars. I have a passion for it. Why
not make it a business?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So he dropped out of school and his dad connected
him with the manager of the Firestone that he worked at,
but the manager thought Alex was too young he wouldn't
hire him. So instead, Alex got a job selling coupon
books for oil changes.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
You would sell these flyers for twenty bucks and you'd
get five free old changes, and it was to drive
customers into Firestone. So I said, that's the perfect opportunity.
I'll cell abut to these flyers. They see my potential,
and I'll get a job at Firestone. I was probably
selling over one hundred flyers a week.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The district manager at his dad's shop asked to see him.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
This is that typical Cuban guy with the macho attitude.
He was very intimidating. And I remember I walk in
and he throws like it was a stack of those
coupons into the table and he says, are you doing
this for some reason? And I said, what are you
talking about? He says, are you giving him away? Are
you selling them? I said, I'm selling them. He says, well,
(04:40):
stop selling them.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Alex was confused. He was doing so well selling the
coupon books. Why on earth would anyone want him to stop?
So Alex tried to reason.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
With him, the coupon is not costing you anything. It's
costing the consumer something. They're coming into your store. Now
it's up to your managers to take advantage of it
and bring them in and sell them. That's the purpose
of it.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Now, this was a smart manager. He thought Alex had
a point, so he made him an offer.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
He looked at me like, I can't believe this guy's
telling me this, and says, tomorrow, I have a manager's meeting.
All my managers are gonna be there. You're gonna walk
in at eight thirty, and whatever you just talk to
me about, I want you to tell them that if
you walk out of there alive, you got a job. Tomorrow.
I remember walking into this meeting, and I don't know
if you've ever seen bulldogs when they're mad that their
(05:29):
saliva is coming down. That's how everybody looked at me.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Alex gave the managers the same spiel he did before.
Most of the managers were pretty mad, but one was impressed.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
He looked at me and said, I want this kid
to work for me.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
For the next nine years. Alex was a successful salesman
at Firestone until one day one of his customers offered
him the chance of a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Somebody comes in and tells me, I know what you
want as a custom shop to build custom cars. I'm
going to give you that opportunity, he says. I'll open
the nicest custom shop. I'll put all the equipment you need.
I'll pay you a good salary. If you get me
to a million dollars in sales a month and two years,
I will give you fifty percent of the company.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Wow, it sounds like a pretty good deal.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, I said, no brainer.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It was everything Alex wanted and a real chance to
prove himself. He told the man he would do it,
he'd build his company, and when they shook on it,
he was instantly on the hook for a million dollars
a month in sales. So he got to it, working
harder than he'd ever worked in his life to keep
his promise, and at the same time, he and his
wife started building their future together. They moved into their
(06:39):
dream home, confident that it was all going to pay off,
and two years later, Alex went to talk to the boss,
ready to take on his half as promised.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Two years came down the line, I overdid my promise.
He stared at me, straight in my face and said,
I don't need you anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Wow. So he backed out on his promise.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Backed out, not only backed out, literally looked at me
and said I don't need you no more. And it
was just like probably one of the it was one
of the most difficult things I've ever faced in my life.
I thought everything ended like right there, all this I
built this, and I just I got to walk out.
It's his business, it's not mine.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Alex returned home completely devastated.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I was so mad that I had never felt that
anger inside of me. And I get to the house.
My wife opens the door, looks in my face and
says what happened? And I said, he screwed me? Over.
I'm out, Like he just fired me and told me
that there's nothing after two years, I got to start
all over again. She looked at me straight in the
(07:42):
I said, you're going to sell the house and you're
going to build your own business. People love you, not him.
It's not the name of the business, it's you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Wow, that's amazing. So now you're starting over. But you've
learned a pretty hard lesson. It sounds like, so how
did you do things differently?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Number one? I knew it was going to be my business,
Like that's it, Like, this is all me now. My
wife gave up the most beautiful house we had just
built to open this business. And it's your money now.
It's not somebody else's money. Now. It's when you go
and buy that tire machine that costs twenty thousand dollars,
it's your twenty thousand dollars. So now you really gotta
(08:18):
hustle three times the amount.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Did you find new customers? Did you serve the same customers? Like?
What did you do? You had to start all over?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, a lot of the customers stood by me.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Now on his own, the business continued to grow. Working
for himself under his own name, he built a terrific reputation.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I would look at any car, I would talk to
somebody for five minutes and boom, automatically, I knew what
they wanted. They couldn't see it, but I saw it.
And making cars in a way where when I thought
as a kid, I want people to see a car
and say, Alex Viga did that car?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
What does a trademark Alex Viga car look like?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Nice than any other car out there? I promise you
have never spend one dollar in advertising. Wow, everything has
come through word of mouth and delivering exactly what you're
promising people you're going to deliver.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Alex's business was catching steam, and soon he was working
with athletes like MLB player Alfonso Soriano and celebrities like Akon,
Lil Wayne and Usain Bolt. He got crazy requests like
make me a Lamborghini that can breathe fire. That's a
real car he made by the way his work spread
through word of mouth, but he was solely focused on
car builds. If someone needed more basic collision repair or
(09:33):
maintenance services, they'd have to go somewhere else. Then one
day Alex was talking to a guy who owned a
collision repair shop, and as it happened, there was open
garage space next.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Door, and this guy convinces me to move my business
next to his business a building that he had next
to him, to lease it from him so I can
have a body shop basically next to me and a
custom shop.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It felt like a perfect way to expand further, so
Alex moved in. But he quickly realized he'd made a
big mistake.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I find this out three months after I did this
big move, that this guy's behind my back trying to
take all my clients. He had trademarked the name of
the company I was using back then and basically destroyed
me mentally. Confront the guy kicks me out of the
building with my equipment in there. It was like starting
(10:25):
again from nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Hard as it is to believe. For the second time,
Alex had failed to get anything in writing, and he
had no protections in place. Why do you think you
took someone on their word after what happened the first time?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The way I was raised by my father was a
man's handshake and his word and looking him in the
eye was better than any contract.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, so let's pause here for a second, and Tanya,
I need to bring you in here. I have to
confess I couldn't help but think of you as I
was interviewing him, and I'm listening to this story because
the lawyer and you must just be completely hor on
so many levels.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You are so right getting burned not just once, not
just twice, but then starting over a third time because
he really wasn't into contracts. You know, that's tough on me,
even personal. It does something to me.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
You know, you're just thinking he should have hired me.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well, yeah, he could have hired us, but someone I
see a lot of small business owners do this.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Do you see a lot of small business owners take
it that much on faith?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Unfortunately a lot of entrepreneurs do this. They think that
since the conversations are going well and they feel good
about the person, that it's okay to just go ahead
and move forward with the deal. And that's such a mistake.
Trust me when I say it is best to do
the contract now when things are good between the two
of you. Imagine what's going to be like when there's
actually money involved.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
If I use the analogy of a prenup where people say,
you know, it'll take the romance out, and obviously this
is business romance, not personal. But how do you make
sure the process of going through the contract and everything
that you need to do doesn't sour the really relationship.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It helps to bring in the third person. It allows
that third person to be the one who's making it uncomfortable.
The two or three are all hover many people who
are getting into the deal. They can still have their
good relationship while the other person, the attorney, probably is
the one asking the hard questions, forcing them to have
conversations that they otherwise would not want to have. So really,
all an entrepreneur needs to do is just to know
(12:23):
that they simply need to bring someone else in.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, look it's good advice, Tanya, and we should all
hire a third party to do that. But what if
you can't afford it? I mean, some small business owners
just starting out they don't have the money to do it.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Then they think they don't have the money to do
it because they don't realize what a priority it is.
If you really think you're going to succeed in business,
you will ultimately have a lot at stake. And also,
even if you can just get advice, you know, if
someone were to say I can't afford to get any help.
I would say, how about you at least have a consultation,
at least get points, even bullet points that could ultimately
(12:58):
end up on a piece of paper. Both of you
all sign just to get the insight from someone who
is a professional, who is advocating for them is better
than nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Listen. I think that's really great advice, and we'll get
into it later, but for right now, let's get back
to the story.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
All right, Well, let's see where this goes.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Alex realized he had no choice but to take legal action.
Over the next year, Alex's company would be tied up
in a trademark lawsuit against his former business partner, and
that meant that all his business's assets, basically everything he
needed to keep working, were frozen.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
We had to go through a lawsuit for it was
a whole year. It was a disaster. I couldn't get
my equipment up, I couldn't get my inventory. So you
have to literally say, what do I do right now?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Alex found a new space where he could build back,
bigger and better. But before he could rebuild for the
third time, believe it or not, he had to raise
the cash to rent the garage, and he had to
do it fast.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I literally started calling all my clients and saying, look,
I'm going through this situation right now. If you want
to change your wheels, if you want to do anything
to your cars, I'll do whatever you want on your cars,
and I'll do it literally at the lowest profit possible.
But I need to move forward and reverse. The customer said, no,
you're going to charge me whatever. I remember baseball players
(14:15):
coming to me that were close to me, and I
remember this guy like saber mirrors. He was playing for
the White Sox. He literally came to my store with
a brand new Porsche she had bought and gave me
the keys. He said, I don't know what kits they have.
I don't care what it costs me. I want you
to build me the baddest Porsche you ever built. It
was literally a sixty thousand dollars ticket.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
With the support of his clients, Alex was able to
raise eighteen thousand dollars in just four days, and he
signed the lease for the new space. He even had
enough leftover to buy some new machines for the final time.
Alex reopened the business with a new name, The Auto
Firm He also created his own line of rims and tires,
named using a combination of his initials AV and the
(15:00):
Italian word for an unstoppable force. Together. He called it
a Vorza.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I loved the word. I said, man, it's catchy.
You look it up. It doesn't exist, there's no description
for it. And I remember going to one of the
biggest manufacturers, says, I want to make my own brand.
I make all these designs. And I started drawing out
designs and they love the designs and they say, we'll
make them for you. Let's do it. And that's how
I created my own wheel brand. And I was actually
(15:27):
putting this on celebrity cars, athlete.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Cars, hopefully with a contract this time.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Right, Oh yeah, everything was contracts. You know. Now, I
learned the American way. I'll still give you trust, i'll
give you respect, but if we're going to do something
business wise, you have to do a contract.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And yeah, there were contracts. But he made one critical
new addition to his team that made a big difference.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
My wife says, whatever you're doing, we're doing it together.
And my wife came into the business and she became
the accountant whatever she wanted to be the resident, but
her being there, it will never happen again. Like now,
sky is the limit. We're going forward and it's thanks
to those moments that you live, that you go through
(16:12):
and not giving up ever giving up is continuing to push, push, push,
and being the best you can be today.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
The auto firm and his tire brand of Orza, generate
twelve million dollars in sales every year, and collectively they
employ over forty staff members. The auto firm customizes over
a thousand cars a year, almost half of which Alex
says are for celebrity clients. But more importantly, he and
his wife Amy have retained full ownership of the company
and they plan to pass it on to their two sons.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
One day, I built something, but now I get to
enjoy my family with it. I'm gonna keep doing what
I do. I'm not gonna stop. The drive is always
gonna live there. I wake up in the morning and
that's what I want to do.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That was juicy story. There's a lot to unpact there
and I'm really excited to get to it. But first,
and I don't think you know this about me, but
I'm kind of a car girl. You're not impressed by
fire coming out of a Lamborghini even.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, look, I'm in awe of what he builds, and
then I'll go back to driving my Honda a Cord.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
At least you can acknowledge, as your non car self
that it is quite amazing what he did. And when
I think about the branding model that he put together,
where he's tying his own brand to other world class brands,
how brilliant Rolls, Royce, lambri all this.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, Alex clearly understands marketing and brands and how it works. Yeah,
and he understands that the best brands aren't built through
advertising dollars. They're built through word of mouth and reputation.
One of the things I tell my employees all the
time is that you don't create a brand. A brand
is a reflection of what you do anyway, and then
you get to take your megaphone and yell about that
brand that you have that your customers know you have
(17:55):
because you deliver it. And I think he figured out
a way to tie his brand that people already knew
about and attach it to the right megaphones with the
right associations in a way that really benefited his business. Oh, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
For him to have gotten this far and never paid
for advertising, that's huge. I mean, he's got all kinds
of credible people speaking to how wonderful his products and
services are. I really think he put together something amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Well. I think a couple of things. One is he
understands his brand and what it stands.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
His brand is grounded in the product that he actually delivers.
And my products and experiences for my customers inspire passion
in them, and that creates a marketing engine in and
of itself. And then I take all of that and
I package it up and I put it next to
other brands that people love, and I'm off to the races.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And when you hear Alex talk about what he did
to this car or that car, he's talking about his brand.
And I see too often people talk about this is
my manufacturing or this is my product delivery. Then I
go think about marketing. No, no, no, he's not thinking
about them separately. They are one and the same.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah, it's so cohesive of how he's done it all.
He did get some help, and I want to talk
about that like I'm a trusted advisor, I'm a lawyer, right,
And I want to stress how important it is as
a business owner to have advisors around you that you trust,
who understands you, who know how you do business. And
we got a chance here to see with Alex that
your advisor doesn't actually have to be just your lawyer.
(19:21):
In this case, it was his what.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, you have to have people you trust and that
can be your spouse, it can be your best friend,
it can be someone that works for you, it doesn't matter.
You have to have people you can rely on, and critically,
you have to have people who will challenge you. So
if all you have are people who are by your side,
who will tell you that every decision you ever make
is right and every thought you ever have is brilliant,
then you know there is no chance that your business
(19:46):
is going to grow and extend and take it to
the next level. It can't happen that way.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
No, it can, because you can't grow the best version
of your business if you don't have people around you
who are willing to tell you the truth.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Seriously, I think the other thing that really comes through
is just how much this is not work for him.
This is his passion. If he couldn't get paid for anything,
he would still work on cars.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, and I like that he really spoke to how
critical the passion piece is. Now, of course, you know,
do what you love, but better pay right. But I
really like how he encourage people to pursue that which
really matters to them, and it doesn't necessarily have to
be the particular thing they're selling. It could be the
passion that they have in how they're doing business, you know,
(20:27):
because some people don't have passion for microchips or whatever
it is that they're selling, but they have passion for
the fact that they're selling and they're solving problems for people.
And I think that, you know, there's different ways to
foster that passion.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
But I do see sometimes and I bet you do too,
that sometimes they have so much passion for the end
product of the business but less passion for running the
business and the enterprise and the business side of what
they do. Sounds like he's got a reasonable balance, But
I do hear quite a lot. You know, whatever it
is that you do. I didn't get into business to
run a business. I got into business to cook food
or to fix up or to do whatever. Yeah, I
(21:01):
don't like this whole business part of it sounds like
it sounds like he's learned some hard lessons in that regard,
but I see that all the time.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, And the key is it took him time too.
He didn't have all that figured out, which is why
Deal one didn't go well. Deal too kind of you know,
fell apart as well. But one thing that he said
was that he now has people who protect him. So
he put together the right team. But it took him
time too, and it takes some mistakes. Sometimes you get right,
sometimes you don't, and then you tweak right.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And I think it's important to recognize those inflection points
that happen with a business. Right, there's a point at
which it turns from just a passion to a business.
Then there's a point where it turns from a business
to a growing business that has risk that people are
going to be coming after from a competitive perspective, that
you know, the stakes start to go up. You know,
there's the kind of inflection point that happened to him
(21:49):
where something terrible happens. But then there's those other inflection points.
You may not know their inflection points until later.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
You look back and say, ah, that was the moment.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, yeah, Tanya, I want to share one last part
of my interview with Alex that I think you're going
to really like. That speaks to what it is to
be unshakable.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Let's hear it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So, Alex, you've told us your incredible story. There's a
lot of small business owners listening today who certainly want
to build their own version of what you've done. If
you could leave them with one piece of advice, what
would that be?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
To not be afraid? And it requires money, as it does.
I had to sell a house to do it. If
you have to sell your house, if you have to
sell anything that you have to be able to build
a dream, take the risk and do whatever you have
to do to do what you love.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I can only imagine what's next for Alex. He's growing
like a weed. He's got a plan, his whole family's involved.
I think we're going to be seeing more of Alex.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Yeah, it's going to be exciting to see what he
does next.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakables. If you
liked this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
our show find more listeners. Next episode, we'll hear from
an entrepreneur who wanted to capture the feel of a
life Tino home through candles by finding a niche and
building a strong brand story CEO Melissa Gallardo sold Nostalgia
to major retailers all over the country. I'm Ben Walter
(23:12):
and this is the Unshakables from Chase for Business and
Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Bmshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia and
Wheelhouse DNA
He stared at me straight in my face and said,
I don't need you anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Wow. So he backed out on his promise.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Not only backed out, he screwed me over, told me
that there's nothing after two years, and it was just
like probably one of the most difficult things I've ever
faced in my life. I built this and I got
to walk out. It's his business, it's not mine.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's Alex Vega, founder of the auto firm. At that moment,
he was up against a brick wall, pushed out of
a company he helped build, with no other options, he
would have no choice but to start over, not just once,
but twice.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It was like starting again from nothing.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Studio from My Heart Media. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of
Chase for Business.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
of how they got through it. Hey, Tanya, we're back
with another story and this one, this one might make
you just a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, I am already nervous. Just based on what we've
heard so far, Ben, it is so hard to start
a business, and this man built one for someone else.
Now he's turned back out on his own.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It's even more complicated.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Just wait, h no, keep me hanging. Let's hear it.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
On today's episode The Auto Firm from Miami, Florida.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I tell everybody, listen, I've never worked a day in
my life. I go there and I play all day.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Alex Vega has been in love with cars his entire life.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
As a kid going up, I remember the toys that
I cared about, the moles for the little hot wheel cars.
We would get markers and change them up, cut of
the wheels, do stripes. I would watch shows like The
Dukes of Hazard, the night Rider Starskeen Hodge.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I was the huge Dukes of Hazzard fan every Friday night.
Oh yeah, and I like night Rider too.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Never hassle the Hoff, Never hassle the Hoff. Anything that
had cars in it I loved, and I always said
I wanted one day build a car that everybody in
the world would know. Hey, you know what Alex Viga
did that car?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Now. I watched all those shows, but Alex he didn't
just watch cars on TV. He was around them in
real life all the time. His father was a salesman
at Firestone. Alex would go to work with his dad
and just watch cars go in and out of the shop.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I was sitting down by the sidewalk and watch the
cars come in and out, in and out, and people
will either change tires or do old changes, and I
would be like, man, why don't they change the wheels,
Why don't they paint them? Do them different.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Eventually he had the chance to fix up his own car.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I remember my front door neighbor had a Buick Regal
nineteen seventy nine. It had a grass growing all over it.
I told them one day, I said, would you sell
me the car? All I have is five hundred bucks?
And he sold me the car. But now I want
to to make it look nice because everybody else in
my high school had these nice cars. And I'm here
(03:04):
pulling in in nineteen seventy nine. The antenna was a hangar.
And I just started, little by little going to autoparts
stores and buying hug caps, buying center console, and then
people would see my car in school and say, man,
I like your car. What did you do to it?
And I just started selling cars.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
He did that for a while, and when it was
time to go to college, he decided, you know, it
wasn't really for him.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I didn't want to go to college. I went for
literally two days, and I did it just to please
my mom. And I remember calling my dad and say, Dad,
I want to do what you do. I want to
work with cars. I have a passion for it. Why
not make it a business?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So he dropped out of school and his dad connected
him with the manager of the Firestone that he worked at,
but the manager thought Alex was too young he wouldn't
hire him. So instead, Alex got a job selling coupon
books for oil changes.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
You would sell these flyers for twenty bucks and you'd
get five free old changes, and it was to drive
customers into Firestone. So I said, that's the perfect opportunity.
I'll cell abut to these flyers. They see my potential,
and I'll get a job at Firestone. I was probably
selling over one hundred flyers a week.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The district manager at his dad's shop asked to see him.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
This is that typical Cuban guy with the macho attitude.
He was very intimidating. And I remember I walk in
and he throws like it was a stack of those
coupons into the table and he says, are you doing
this for some reason? And I said, what are you
talking about? He says, are you giving him away? Are
you selling them? I said, I'm selling them. He says, well,
(04:40):
stop selling them.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Alex was confused. He was doing so well selling the
coupon books. Why on earth would anyone want him to stop?
So Alex tried to reason.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
With him, the coupon is not costing you anything. It's
costing the consumer something. They're coming into your store. Now
it's up to your managers to take advantage of it
and bring them in and sell them. That's the purpose
of it.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Now, this was a smart manager. He thought Alex had
a point, so he made him an offer.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
He looked at me like, I can't believe this guy's
telling me this, and says, tomorrow, I have a manager's meeting.
All my managers are gonna be there. You're gonna walk
in at eight thirty, and whatever you just talk to
me about, I want you to tell them that if
you walk out of there alive, you got a job. Tomorrow.
I remember walking into this meeting, and I don't know
if you've ever seen bulldogs when they're mad that their
(05:29):
saliva is coming down. That's how everybody looked at me.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Alex gave the managers the same spiel he did before.
Most of the managers were pretty mad, but one was impressed.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
He looked at me and said, I want this kid
to work for me.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
For the next nine years. Alex was a successful salesman
at Firestone until one day one of his customers offered
him the chance of a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Somebody comes in and tells me, I know what you
want as a custom shop to build custom cars. I'm
going to give you that opportunity, he says. I'll open
the nicest custom shop. I'll put all the equipment you need.
I'll pay you a good salary. If you get me
to a million dollars in sales a month and two years,
I will give you fifty percent of the company.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Wow, it sounds like a pretty good deal.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, I said, no brainer.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It was everything Alex wanted and a real chance to
prove himself. He told the man he would do it,
he'd build his company, and when they shook on it,
he was instantly on the hook for a million dollars
a month in sales. So he got to it, working
harder than he'd ever worked in his life to keep
his promise, and at the same time, he and his
wife started building their future together. They moved into their
(06:39):
dream home, confident that it was all going to pay off,
and two years later, Alex went to talk to the boss,
ready to take on his half as promised.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Two years came down the line, I overdid my promise.
He stared at me, straight in my face and said,
I don't need you anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Wow. So he backed out on his promise.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Backed out, not only backed out, literally looked at me
and said I don't need you no more. And it
was just like probably one of the it was one
of the most difficult things I've ever faced in my life.
I thought everything ended like right there, all this I
built this, and I just I got to walk out.
It's his business, it's not mine.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Alex returned home completely devastated.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I was so mad that I had never felt that
anger inside of me. And I get to the house.
My wife opens the door, looks in my face and
says what happened? And I said, he screwed me? Over.
I'm out, Like he just fired me and told me
that there's nothing after two years, I got to start
all over again. She looked at me straight in the
(07:42):
I said, you're going to sell the house and you're
going to build your own business. People love you, not him.
It's not the name of the business, it's you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Wow, that's amazing. So now you're starting over. But you've
learned a pretty hard lesson. It sounds like, so how
did you do things differently?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Number one? I knew it was going to be my business,
Like that's it, Like, this is all me now. My
wife gave up the most beautiful house we had just
built to open this business. And it's your money now.
It's not somebody else's money. Now. It's when you go
and buy that tire machine that costs twenty thousand dollars,
it's your twenty thousand dollars. So now you really gotta
(08:18):
hustle three times the amount.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Did you find new customers? Did you serve the same customers? Like?
What did you do? You had to start all over?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, a lot of the customers stood by me.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Now on his own, the business continued to grow. Working
for himself under his own name, he built a terrific reputation.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I would look at any car, I would talk to
somebody for five minutes and boom, automatically, I knew what
they wanted. They couldn't see it, but I saw it.
And making cars in a way where when I thought
as a kid, I want people to see a car
and say, Alex Viga did that car?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
What does a trademark Alex Viga car look like?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Nice than any other car out there? I promise you
have never spend one dollar in advertising. Wow, everything has
come through word of mouth and delivering exactly what you're
promising people you're going to deliver.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Alex's business was catching steam, and soon he was working
with athletes like MLB player Alfonso Soriano and celebrities like Akon,
Lil Wayne and Usain Bolt. He got crazy requests like
make me a Lamborghini that can breathe fire. That's a
real car he made by the way his work spread
through word of mouth, but he was solely focused on
car builds. If someone needed more basic collision repair or
(09:33):
maintenance services, they'd have to go somewhere else. Then one
day Alex was talking to a guy who owned a
collision repair shop, and as it happened, there was open
garage space next.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Door, and this guy convinces me to move my business
next to his business a building that he had next
to him, to lease it from him so I can
have a body shop basically next to me and a
custom shop.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It felt like a perfect way to expand further, so
Alex moved in. But he quickly realized he'd made a
big mistake.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I find this out three months after I did this
big move, that this guy's behind my back trying to
take all my clients. He had trademarked the name of
the company I was using back then and basically destroyed
me mentally. Confront the guy kicks me out of the
building with my equipment in there. It was like starting
(10:25):
again from nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Hard as it is to believe. For the second time,
Alex had failed to get anything in writing, and he
had no protections in place. Why do you think you
took someone on their word after what happened the first time?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The way I was raised by my father was a
man's handshake and his word and looking him in the
eye was better than any contract.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, so let's pause here for a second, and Tanya,
I need to bring you in here. I have to
confess I couldn't help but think of you as I
was interviewing him, and I'm listening to this story because
the lawyer and you must just be completely hor on
so many levels.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You are so right getting burned not just once, not
just twice, but then starting over a third time because
he really wasn't into contracts. You know, that's tough on me,
even personal. It does something to me.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
You know, you're just thinking he should have hired me.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well, yeah, he could have hired us, but someone I
see a lot of small business owners do this.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Do you see a lot of small business owners take
it that much on faith?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Unfortunately a lot of entrepreneurs do this. They think that
since the conversations are going well and they feel good
about the person, that it's okay to just go ahead
and move forward with the deal. And that's such a mistake.
Trust me when I say it is best to do
the contract now when things are good between the two
of you. Imagine what's going to be like when there's
actually money involved.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
If I use the analogy of a prenup where people say,
you know, it'll take the romance out, and obviously this
is business romance, not personal. But how do you make
sure the process of going through the contract and everything
that you need to do doesn't sour the really relationship.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It helps to bring in the third person. It allows
that third person to be the one who's making it uncomfortable.
The two or three are all hover many people who
are getting into the deal. They can still have their
good relationship while the other person, the attorney, probably is
the one asking the hard questions, forcing them to have
conversations that they otherwise would not want to have. So really,
all an entrepreneur needs to do is just to know
(12:23):
that they simply need to bring someone else in.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, look it's good advice, Tanya, and we should all
hire a third party to do that. But what if
you can't afford it? I mean, some small business owners
just starting out they don't have the money to do it.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Then they think they don't have the money to do
it because they don't realize what a priority it is.
If you really think you're going to succeed in business,
you will ultimately have a lot at stake. And also,
even if you can just get advice, you know, if
someone were to say I can't afford to get any help.
I would say, how about you at least have a consultation,
at least get points, even bullet points that could ultimately
(12:58):
end up on a piece of paper. Both of you
all sign just to get the insight from someone who
is a professional, who is advocating for them is better
than nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Listen. I think that's really great advice, and we'll get
into it later, but for right now, let's get back
to the story.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
All right, Well, let's see where this goes.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Alex realized he had no choice but to take legal action.
Over the next year, Alex's company would be tied up
in a trademark lawsuit against his former business partner, and
that meant that all his business's assets, basically everything he
needed to keep working, were frozen.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
We had to go through a lawsuit for it was
a whole year. It was a disaster. I couldn't get
my equipment up, I couldn't get my inventory. So you
have to literally say, what do I do right now?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Alex found a new space where he could build back,
bigger and better. But before he could rebuild for the
third time, believe it or not, he had to raise
the cash to rent the garage, and he had to
do it fast.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I literally started calling all my clients and saying, look,
I'm going through this situation right now. If you want
to change your wheels, if you want to do anything
to your cars, I'll do whatever you want on your cars,
and I'll do it literally at the lowest profit possible.
But I need to move forward and reverse. The customer said, no,
you're going to charge me whatever. I remember baseball players
(14:15):
coming to me that were close to me, and I
remember this guy like saber mirrors. He was playing for
the White Sox. He literally came to my store with
a brand new Porsche she had bought and gave me
the keys. He said, I don't know what kits they have.
I don't care what it costs me. I want you
to build me the baddest Porsche you ever built. It
was literally a sixty thousand dollars ticket.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
With the support of his clients, Alex was able to
raise eighteen thousand dollars in just four days, and he
signed the lease for the new space. He even had
enough leftover to buy some new machines for the final time.
Alex reopened the business with a new name, The Auto
Firm He also created his own line of rims and tires,
named using a combination of his initials AV and the
(15:00):
Italian word for an unstoppable force. Together. He called it
a Vorza.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I loved the word. I said, man, it's catchy.
You look it up. It doesn't exist, there's no description
for it. And I remember going to one of the
biggest manufacturers, says, I want to make my own brand.
I make all these designs. And I started drawing out
designs and they love the designs and they say, we'll
make them for you. Let's do it. And that's how
I created my own wheel brand. And I was actually
(15:27):
putting this on celebrity cars, athlete.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Cars, hopefully with a contract this time.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Right, Oh yeah, everything was contracts. You know. Now, I
learned the American way. I'll still give you trust, i'll
give you respect, but if we're going to do something
business wise, you have to do a contract.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And yeah, there were contracts. But he made one critical
new addition to his team that made a big difference.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
My wife says, whatever you're doing, we're doing it together.
And my wife came into the business and she became
the accountant whatever she wanted to be the resident, but
her being there, it will never happen again. Like now,
sky is the limit. We're going forward and it's thanks
to those moments that you live, that you go through
(16:12):
and not giving up ever giving up is continuing to push, push, push,
and being the best you can be today.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
The auto firm and his tire brand of Orza, generate
twelve million dollars in sales every year, and collectively they
employ over forty staff members. The auto firm customizes over
a thousand cars a year, almost half of which Alex
says are for celebrity clients. But more importantly, he and
his wife Amy have retained full ownership of the company
and they plan to pass it on to their two sons.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
One day, I built something, but now I get to
enjoy my family with it. I'm gonna keep doing what
I do. I'm not gonna stop. The drive is always
gonna live there. I wake up in the morning and
that's what I want to do.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That was juicy story. There's a lot to unpact there
and I'm really excited to get to it. But first,
and I don't think you know this about me, but
I'm kind of a car girl. You're not impressed by
fire coming out of a Lamborghini even.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, look, I'm in awe of what he builds, and
then I'll go back to driving my Honda a Cord.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
At least you can acknowledge, as your non car self
that it is quite amazing what he did. And when
I think about the branding model that he put together,
where he's tying his own brand to other world class brands,
how brilliant Rolls, Royce, lambri all this.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, Alex clearly understands marketing and brands and how it works. Yeah,
and he understands that the best brands aren't built through
advertising dollars. They're built through word of mouth and reputation.
One of the things I tell my employees all the
time is that you don't create a brand. A brand
is a reflection of what you do anyway, and then
you get to take your megaphone and yell about that
brand that you have that your customers know you have
(17:55):
because you deliver it. And I think he figured out
a way to tie his brand that people already knew
about and attach it to the right megaphones with the
right associations in a way that really benefited his business. Oh, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
For him to have gotten this far and never paid
for advertising, that's huge. I mean, he's got all kinds
of credible people speaking to how wonderful his products and
services are. I really think he put together something amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Well. I think a couple of things. One is he
understands his brand and what it stands.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
His brand is grounded in the product that he actually delivers.
And my products and experiences for my customers inspire passion
in them, and that creates a marketing engine in and
of itself. And then I take all of that and
I package it up and I put it next to
other brands that people love, and I'm off to the races.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And when you hear Alex talk about what he did
to this car or that car, he's talking about his brand.
And I see too often people talk about this is
my manufacturing or this is my product delivery. Then I
go think about marketing. No, no, no, he's not thinking
about them separately. They are one and the same.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah, it's so cohesive of how he's done it all.
He did get some help, and I want to talk
about that like I'm a trusted advisor, I'm a lawyer, right,
And I want to stress how important it is as
a business owner to have advisors around you that you trust,
who understands you, who know how you do business. And
we got a chance here to see with Alex that
your advisor doesn't actually have to be just your lawyer.
(19:21):
In this case, it was his what.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, you have to have people you trust and that
can be your spouse, it can be your best friend,
it can be someone that works for you, it doesn't matter.
You have to have people you can rely on, and critically,
you have to have people who will challenge you. So
if all you have are people who are by your side,
who will tell you that every decision you ever make
is right and every thought you ever have is brilliant,
then you know there is no chance that your business
(19:46):
is going to grow and extend and take it to
the next level. It can't happen that way.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
No, it can, because you can't grow the best version
of your business if you don't have people around you
who are willing to tell you the truth.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Seriously, I think the other thing that really comes through
is just how much this is not work for him.
This is his passion. If he couldn't get paid for anything,
he would still work on cars.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, and I like that he really spoke to how
critical the passion piece is. Now, of course, you know,
do what you love, but better pay right. But I
really like how he encourage people to pursue that which
really matters to them, and it doesn't necessarily have to
be the particular thing they're selling. It could be the
passion that they have in how they're doing business, you know,
(20:27):
because some people don't have passion for microchips or whatever
it is that they're selling, but they have passion for
the fact that they're selling and they're solving problems for people.
And I think that, you know, there's different ways to
foster that passion.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
But I do see sometimes and I bet you do too,
that sometimes they have so much passion for the end
product of the business but less passion for running the
business and the enterprise and the business side of what
they do. Sounds like he's got a reasonable balance, But
I do hear quite a lot. You know, whatever it
is that you do. I didn't get into business to
run a business. I got into business to cook food
or to fix up or to do whatever. Yeah, I
(21:01):
don't like this whole business part of it sounds like
it sounds like he's learned some hard lessons in that regard,
but I see that all the time.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, And the key is it took him time too.
He didn't have all that figured out, which is why
Deal one didn't go well. Deal too kind of you know,
fell apart as well. But one thing that he said
was that he now has people who protect him. So
he put together the right team. But it took him
time too, and it takes some mistakes. Sometimes you get right,
sometimes you don't, and then you tweak right.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And I think it's important to recognize those inflection points
that happen with a business. Right, there's a point at
which it turns from just a passion to a business.
Then there's a point where it turns from a business
to a growing business that has risk that people are
going to be coming after from a competitive perspective, that
you know, the stakes start to go up. You know,
there's the kind of inflection point that happened to him
(21:49):
where something terrible happens. But then there's those other inflection points.
You may not know their inflection points until later.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
You look back and say, ah, that was the moment.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, yeah, Tanya, I want to share one last part
of my interview with Alex that I think you're going
to really like. That speaks to what it is to
be unshakable.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Let's hear it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So, Alex, you've told us your incredible story. There's a
lot of small business owners listening today who certainly want
to build their own version of what you've done. If
you could leave them with one piece of advice, what
would that be?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
To not be afraid? And it requires money, as it does.
I had to sell a house to do it. If
you have to sell your house, if you have to
sell anything that you have to be able to build
a dream, take the risk and do whatever you have
to do to do what you love.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I can only imagine what's next for Alex. He's growing
like a weed. He's got a plan, his whole family's involved.
I think we're going to be seeing more of Alex.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Yeah, it's going to be exciting to see what he
does next.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakables. If you
liked this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
our show find more listeners. Next episode, we'll hear from
an entrepreneur who wanted to capture the feel of a
life Tino home through candles by finding a niche and
building a strong brand story CEO Melissa Gallardo sold Nostalgia
to major retailers all over the country. I'm Ben Walter
(23:12):
and this is the Unshakables from Chase for Business and
Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Bmshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia and
Wheelhouse DNA
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.