Nick (00:00): Today's guest is an interesting one. At this point, most of our guests are running their own businesses or in the process of transitioning from their nine to five into working for themselves full-time. However, we have not had a guest on the show that is going to college as a full-time student, while playing a collegiate sport, and running a profitable business on the side. That's right. Bruce Bright Jr. Is today's guests. And Bruce is a college athlete going to school and playing basketball at Birmingham Southern college. And what's amazing is that while going to school, Bruce's managed to jumpstart his own business, which recently brought him in over $10,000 in a single month. And he's even hired an employee to help them out. And if that wasn't enough, Bruce recently launched his own podcast where he himself interviews, entrepreneurs and shares their stories with his audience. So in today's episode, we're going to get into how Bruce has managed to juggle school, sports, podcasting, and run his own business.

Nick (00:55): And Bruce has big plans to take this detailing business to six figures this year in 2021. So we're also going to get into his plan and strategy for making that happen. Before we get into the interview, please head over to iTunes right now and subscribe to the Nine-Five Podcast. You will want to miss any of the great interviews like Bruce's here. And when you subscribe, you'll actually be notified every time a new episode goes live. So make sure you go subscribe to the podcast. And while you're over there taking care of that, why don't you leave a rating and review of the podcast. Your ratings and reviews, help other listeners know if the Nine-Five Podcast is right for them. And if it is, I don't want them to miss out on all the great stuff we have going on over here. So help me help more people and leave a rating review, or maybe even share the podcast with a friend. All right, let's get into the interview with Bruce Bright Jr.

Nick (01:43): This is the Nine-Five Podcast and I'm your host, Nick Nalbach. Where we get into the minds of entrepreneurs and people just like you. So you can start, build, and grow your own online business.

Nick (02:01): Welcome back to the Nine-Five Podcast. I'm your host, Nick Nalbach. And this is the show where we bring on entrepreneurs and business owners to help you start and grow your own business. And today I'm very happy to bring on Bruce Bright, Jr. Bruce, welcome to the Nine-Five Podcast, man.

Bruce (02:19): Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Nick (02:20): Yeah, man. And so I just want to start this whole episode off and all the listeners know you are still in college and you are currently running your own business and your own podcast. I think that is so cool. And we're going to get into all of that, but I want to give you a chance just to kind of give the listeners an idea of who you are and what it is you are doing in this entrepreneur space.

Bruce (02:46): Sure, sure. So, uh, I'm Bruce Bright, Jr. Like you said, I'm a college student. I go to a small liberal arts college in Birmingham, Alabama. Um, I also play basketball at my college. That's why I chose this small school so I could play basketball here.

Bruce (03:00): Last August I started, uh, my business. It's a mobile detailing business based out of Birmingham. Um, we've done $15,000 in sales up until December. We haven't, we're kind of on pause right now cause it's cold and I'm in the middle of basketball season. So it kind of works out perfectly. So through December we did $15,000, uh, I've got some big plans in the future, uh, to reach six, six figures in the next 12 months. And I can get, talk about how I'm going to get there, but yeah, I'm a business major, a focus in marketing and I graduated this May. So I kind of start the next chapter.

Nick (03:34): That is awesome, man. I also went to college as a business admin major, so it's kind of a neat little connection there.

Bruce (03:43): Yeah. Yeah. I didn't really, I pick my major like as late as possible. I think it's the end of sophomore year. I had to pick one and I had been leaning toward business cause I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. So I was leaning toward business, but my other options were finance and management and uh, finance is not interesting at all. I'm not, I don't like dealing with numbers and all that kind of stuff and management, the professors were terrible. So that left me with marketing and luckily marketing interests me and uh, I liked learning about it. So just kind of worked out that way. Yeah.

Nick (04:14): Yeah. That's awesome. So yours was a little bit more thought out than when I got into business management because I actually went to school for chemistry and I thought that I was going to go the pharmacy route and it was probably, I think I stuck with it into my sophomore year. And then I was like, this is not for me. I cannot do this. So I didn't really know what to do. And I was like, okay, well, if I have a business degree, I could go a bunch of different directions with business. So I was like, let's just go business. But I had no idea that entrepreneurship or any of this was going to be in the cards for me. So you were, you were a step ahead of where I was at that point. Not only that you're starting your own business while you're in college, as a college athlete, which I want to get into in just a second.

Nick (04:57): I just think that is super amazing. And I applaud you for that. But before we do that, what I'd like to do with all of the guests that I bring on the show is ask them what their superpower is. And for those that might be new to the podcast, or if you haven't listened to the podcast yourself by superpower, I mean, what is that thing that you feel like you were just a rockstar at? Like maybe people come to you if they need advice on this one thing, or you just think that you crush it in this area of business or life, what would you think your superpower is?

Bruce (05:28): That's a good question. I have not thought about that before. I think I it's either one of two things. My first thing that I think I'm really good at and it's, I can't really think of how this would be helpful to anybody, but myself is I'm really good at thinking big and keeping myself kind of excited and inspired about what I'm doing. So when I started the business, I was doing it out of the back of my car. It was not exciting. Most people, I mean, it didn't, it was not exciting at the beginning, not motivating really, to most people, but for me, I was doing the numbers in my head and realizing how big it could be and thinking about I'm doing this out of my car right now. Imagine if I was doing this a little bigger, putting more money in the marketing and more professionally.

Bruce (06:09): And that just kept me driven and kept me excited. And I did the same thing about basketball. Uh, when I was thinking about playing in college, it was when I was playing in high school, I was a pretty good high school basketball player, uh, good enough to play at the next level. And then I just started thinking, how far, how long do you think I could play? I bet I can play in college. And so just, I'm good at kind of inspiring myself and keeping myself excited when it's not exciting at all. When it, when it's kind of like down and most people would think it's not a motivating time in the business or in my journey. I think I do a good job at looking to the future and keeping myself kind of engaged with the big picture.

Nick (06:47): Why do you think that is? Like, what, what is it that keeps you motivated? Because I know as a lot of entrepreneurs, we all end up in that stage of like, okay, this doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. It's not growing. Or it just seems to get mundane. You're having to do the same thing over and over again. You're like, okay, is this going to go anywhere? Am I just spinning my wheels here? What, what kind of keeps you motivated to keep pushing forward and kind of think big like that?

Bruce (07:12): Yeah. I think one is experience. So with basketball, I made it to the next level. So I saw the payoff of everyday going to the gym shooting, doing drills, uh, meeting coaches, connecting with people, meeting trainers, that kind of stuff, going to weekend, uh, clinics and tournaments and stuff. So I, I saw that payoff in my basketball journey and now I've started to, I mean, I play more than I did freshman year. I'm a senior now. So I saw it progressed through college. So I kinda can use that to inspire the rest of my life. When I see like my business is at $15,000 right now, my friends are, I think they think that's a lot of money, uh, cause we're college kids and we don't have any money. So they're like, wow, $15,000. That's pretty good. And I think that's really good for what we were working with, but I see, I have a vision in my head of what it is 12 months from now.

Bruce (08:04): And it's, it's unrecognizable from what we are today. And then every time I feel down or feel uninspired, I can kind of think about that, that vision of 12 months from now when, and I'm focusing on 12 months, cause that's the goal I've set for myself, just like an arbitrary goal of $100,000 by, by in 12 months. And I think we can hit it. I have, I have numbers that project we can get there, but every time I feel uninspired or not motivated or get into that mundane cycle, like you're talking about, I can kind of envision myself there and it just kind of amps me back up a little bit.

Nick (08:40): I think that is an excellent synopsis. And I, that superpower, I think is a great, superpower to have because I think a lot of entrepreneurs wish they kind of had that motivation when things do get down. And I do think a lot of that does come because I was also a college athlete. I played baseball when I went to college and as an athlete, I think we all are kind of trained to do those visualization exercises. Um, for me it was always okay, visualizing what I'm going to do when I get to the plate or if that balls hit to me and you with basketball. Like if okay, if I'm going to get thrown at the free throw line, visualizing that shot and making that shot and you just kind of picturing the success and what it's going to look like. And I think that's awesome that you're kind of translating that over into the business side of things, because a lot of times it's not easy to make that direct connection or that correlation between one thing that you're doing over here and now you're doing something else over here. So I, I just, I think that is an awesome, awesome superpower. So being a college athlete and running your own business and you also have a podcast now, how the hell do you have time to do all that?

Bruce (09:42): Yeah, so I hired an employee. One of my teammates did most of the details in the fall. So I did, I did the first, probably 75 details that we had, uh, roughly I'm just guessing. And then he probably did the last 75. So I hired him. It probably September, right when the business was right in the prime of, of detailing for us, I got tired of doing it one and I also wanted to free up time to focus on growing the business and more doing more marketing and focusing on the customers and the customer management, the relationship management and that side of the business. And also, I like the idea of making money when I'm not doing, when I'm not physically going to do the detail. I think 50 Cent has a quote when it's, uh, the quote is roughly paraphrasing. You're not making money until you're making money while you're sleeping.

Bruce (10:34): And I like that quote a lot. I know it's really early in the business to think like that. And I do plan on doing details in the future to save some money, but, uh, but I hired him so that freed up my time to do more basketball and focus on the business and basketball with COVID, we started late. So we started skill workouts in like September and we would normally start a little earlier and then we couldn't practice as a full team until November. I think if I'm thinking, if I'm remembering, right. So we had a little bit more free time. And then when we got into December, it got colder, which I kind of projected business would slow down when it got colder. Uh, we did business in December, but not as much as the warmer months. Um, so that kind of just worked out as basketball picked up the business kind of went down a little bit.

Bruce (11:19): So, and then in January, we're in conference season, so we're right in the middle of basketball season. The important part, the most important part of our season right now. And we're 5-1. So we're doing pretty well. Uh, I gotta, I gotta plug that, but, uh, in February I plan on picking up the marketing again and, uh, and rolling into March with, after our conference tournament, rolling back into the business full steam, and I've got some big marketing ideas and, and really just growth ideas, but that's kinda how it, how the timing worked ou.t with the podcast. It has been, uh, the business not been going is definitely saving me some time, but I've also only been doing it for roughly a month, a little under a month, the podcast. So I tried it and I wake up a lot earlier than I, I used to, I wake up at 6:00 AM now every day.

Bruce (12:06): So that gives me an extra four hours of the day. So between six and eight or nine is when I'm editing the podcast or promoting or focusing on marketing podcasts. Then after that I go work out or shoot. Um, I have class in the afternoon. And then at the end of the day, I either finish the editing or try to connect with more people to get on the podcast or do podcast stuff. And that, that afternoon after practice, after class block will be, uh, where I focused on the business and probably a little bit of the morning block when, when it comes to the spring, I'll probably focus more on the business and the podcast will come second, but I've archived a couple of like enough episodes to where I think I can handle both. And yeah, that's kind of how the timing is gonna work out. It'll be interesting to see when, when I pick back up the marking on the business, uh, how my timing works out, but I'll, I'll, I'll figure it out.

Nick (12:56): So you seem like a pretty organized guy then you're pretty structured with your days.

Bruce (13:03): I used to not be, but having a lot to do kind of make, made me more thought out in my way and my in my day. So yeah, I block out my times now, so I definitely did not used to do that. I used to wake up whenever I woke up and kind of haphazardly did work all day, went to practice. If I thought I needed to do something, I would, I didn't, I wouldn't. And then I would go to bed whenever I wanted to probably really late. And then I'd do the same thing every day. And that was even while I was kind of starting off the business, I was doing that, except if I had to do details, I would be up at seven or eight to go do them. Um, but since then, I've definitely been more regimented in my schedule. I have every day I block off my next day and I kind of do it by the weeks. I definitely am more regimented in my schedule than I used to be.

Nick (13:51): Well, I guess now being, I mean, you're seemed like a very goal oriented and you know, where you want this business to go. And like you said, being able to think big picture like that. It probably makes it a little bit easier at that point to know, okay, if I want to really do this thing, this is, these are the steps I'm gonna have to take that. I think for one good on you for, I guess, recognizing that and taking that action to block that out, because that is something that I've struggled with. I still do the haphazardly just kind of pick up tasks as I go without much aim as to where I'm going with it. So I think that is a very good tip for everybody listening to just kind of really focus in. And like you said, block out those times, set time aside for each thing that you're working on. I'm curious. What, why detailing, where did that idea all come from?

Bruce (14:43): Yeah. Uh, so it kind of just I'll start to the full story. So this summer I was working at Domino's pizza all summer, pretty much cause COVID ended school year early. We had like a four month long summer and it was only place hiring you're my house. So I was like, screw it, I'll deliver pizzas. I'm not going to sit at home. I got bored. So I just got the closest job and I just listened to podcasts or music all day and.

Nick (15:08): What podcasts do you listen to?

Bruce (15:09): I listened to Passive Income. Pat Flynn. I listen to grant Cardone has a podcast. I would listen to capitalism.com with, uh, Michael. No, I think it's Moran. I don't know. I can't remember his first name, but it's a, it's like the number of it's on the top three, uh, entrepreneurial podcasts. But yeah, I have, uh, like a short list of the ones I checked most often. Russell Brunson's I've listened to his. Yeah, but uh,

Nick (15:35): No, sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. I was just really curious what, because I, the Smart Passive Income was probably the first business podcasts that I had picked up and started listening to. And I was just curious. Yeah. It's, it's insane. It's powerful.

Bruce (15:47): Yeah. So yeah, that's pretty much what I did for two months, two and a half months out of the summer. Eventually I got burnt out. I mean, it's very monotonous job. I don't know if you've ever delivered pizzas. It's not difficult.

Nick (15:59): Funny story. I didn't deliver pizzas, but when I was in college, I worked at pizza hut. I was in the back cooking. So I know exactly what you're talking about.

Bruce (16:08): I was just a delivery driver clocked in, made tips, clocked out. It was not, not my best setup, but I made money and I was not sitting at home all day, but eventually I got tired of it. So I quit. And probably the next week I was like, just looking for stuff to do. I'm sitting at home, I'll clean my car. So I cleaned my car out. I never cleaned my car. My car is filthy. So I cleaned my car out and I realized, I was like, we have all this stuff to do this in my garage already. Maybe some people in my neighborhood would want me to do it and they pay me for it. Uh, so I was actually at a party when I finally committed to the idea, but I was at a party and I was talking someone's ear off about this idea, how I was like, I think I can make money off this car.

Bruce (16:49): I could detail people's cars and make money. And right there I was doing, I, I committed at this party and I got on my phone and ordered a hundred flyers from FedEx Kinko's while I was there. And the next day they were delivered to my house. So I woke up. I was like, I think I, I think I committed to this last night. So I went around my neighborhood. I folded them. They were like eight and a half full page, flyers, eight and a half by 11. I folded them and just put them in a hundred people's mailboxes in my neighborhood and ended up getting four or five clients did their cars. They told their friends and I did theirs and I didn't have a website or anything. It was just my number on the flyer with a little message about a college kid, trying to make money before it goes back to school.

Bruce (17:29): And that's really why most people bought it. They, I mean, they wanted their cars clean, but they also just wanted to support a young kid, trying to make some money. And then they tell their friends and then eventually it got to the point where enough people were texting me that I was doing three or four a day. And that was after the first week. So I tried, I made a website, I made social media pages. Uh, I started booking through online. They could still call or text me now, even now people still like to text me and then see if I can do one, uh, which is fine. But yeah, that's kind of how it started. It just kinda was an idea. I realized I could do it. And really how I learned how to do it was a YouTube video. I Googled car detailing and I was like, I can do this for sure. It's not a, it's not something that's that difficult. And I think there's a lot of services that you can Google and figure out how to do and make money off of them. But this is just the one I chose and it's worked out pretty well. Eventually I started paying for marketing and not relying a hundred percent on word of mouth or putting flyers in people's mailboxes. Yeah. That's kinda how it, that's kinda how it started.

Nick (18:29): That is crazy, man. You're, you're at a party and you just think, huh, I'm gonna start washing people's cars.

Bruce (18:37): Like I, like, I had the idea beforehand and I just kinda threw it to the back of my mind. And at this party I was talking to somebody about it and I was like, I talked myself into it. I was like, yeah,

Nick (18:46): That is, that is awesome. And I really, like you mentioned this earlier in the episode, you've already started implementing things like hiring a second person to help you out to kind of free up your time. I think that's, I mean, it's very forward thinking of you. Cause a lot of people hiring someone or bringing on a partner or whatever it is is usually like way down the road. Like don't even think about that until I'm literally can't handle anything now. So I've just got too much on my plate and I'm forced to hire someone if I want to continue to grow. So I think that's really smart of you to think, bringing in more people to kind of help you manage this and allow you really, to focus on the business side of things like you mentioned earlier. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's really smart and it's, in my opinion, it's just gonna be more experience for you. You're not going to be, I dunno, however ways down the road thinking, okay, well I think I'm to the point where I need to start hiring people, how do I do this? Like you're already, you're already doing it. So I think, I think that's really good.

Bruce (19:44): Yeah. On one hand I could do the details and save money, save some, uh, contractor costs, not paying him per car. I pay him per car and he keeps all the tips. So he was, he's making pretty good money, but I could do it myself and save some money, which would be, which would help the business to have more money. But also it would limit the business in how much we can grow and how fast we would grow. Because if I'm detailing the car every day, listen, and just listen to music or podcasts, that's time. I can't spend thinking about a month down the road, marketing the business, talking to customers, that kind of stuff. So just kind of a give and take.

Nick (20:18): Absolutely. And I think that's really something that everyone needs to think about. What, where are, where's your time most valued? Is it in detailing the cars or is it thinking bigger picture and looking ahead down the road, obviously with what you're doing, I think that is looking ahead down the road to how you're going to grow this thing, because now you already have a plan to get to 6-figures, which I want to talk about in just a few minutes here. I'm interested when you started going outside of the folding up the papers and, and I'm in mailboxes and stuff. What were your first steps into marketing? Like what did you start doing right out of the gate that kind of helped grow this thing even more?

Bruce (20:55): Um, yes. I'm trying to think of what order it came in. I think so after the flyers on mailboxes, which I did for a while, even after the, that first, that first a hundred, I printed little smaller flyers and I would take them to the front of the mailboxes so I could order a lot more of them. And then I would just have one of my parents drive me or my sister because the mailbox is on the right side. So I can't drive and hand them out myself. I would just be on the, I would be in the passenger seat, just sticking, uh, flyers to the front of mailbox as well. They drove and I did that for awhile, but the next thing I think I did was Facebook ads, which I, I keep it really simple. Uh, I've done Facebook ads in the past and I know how to work it, but there's some really advanced features that I don't, I don't mess around with.

Bruce (21:38): Uh, I keep it really simple. I usually do three ad sets. Uh, my first one is just abroad 18 through 65, all Birmingham and just like my city that I'm servicing. My second one is everyone in Birmingham, but 18 through 65, but only at the top 50% of income because especially right now with COVID mobile detailing is an expense you can live without. So that's my thought process for that item. And then the third one is everyone in Birmingham, 18 to 65 specifically to my niche. So car collectors, people interested in mobile detailing or just detailing. And that's my third one. So those are the three ad sets I, I usually stick with and I don't usually tweak them that much, except I might raise the age up from 18. If I see, cause not many 18 year olds are paying for mobile detailing, they don't have money. So if I just raise it up to thirties, then that usually performs better. Um, but I start with 18 and then I use videos for my ads. I made a promo video of just us detailing a car. I've done pictures of us detailing cars, uh, before and after pictures even edited pictures with like our prices on it and stuff. But I've tested,

Nick (22:45): You're using these for the ads themselves,

Bruce (22:47): Like the actual pictures on the ad. Yeah. So that, that's how I think that was the next step was Facebook ads. And I plan on ramping that up cause I was not spending very much money on them, but they were, they had a good ROI, but I was just not putting that much money into them. Cause we weren't as positive. We weren't in the profit as much as I like. So I wasn't spending as much as I could, but in the fall or in the spring, I plan on throwing more money into Facebook ads as long as they work. And um, that was the next one. And then eventually we got into direct mail, which has worked really well. So for direct mail, I, the first time I did it, I got envelopes at 18 and back to my flyers full page, flyers folded them up.

Bruce (23:28): I've stuffed every envelope myself. I stick, I put stamps stamps on every envelope and I put the addresses on every envelope myself. And I think I sent out 250 and took forever. And I was like, I don't, this is something I'm not doing this. Right. Uh, and it worked, I got an, I got a ROI on those two and they always, they always perform well, but it took way too long, but I would do them while I was watching TV. So my thought process was, I, I mean, it's not the worst thing I can do with my time. I'm watching TV and just mindlessly stuffing envelopes. So it worked out, but I was like, there's gotta be a cheaper way and a faster way to do this. So I was brainstorming about what, how I could. Stamps are like 55 cents, which I didn't know before I did this, but that's expensive when you're doing it by the thousands.

Bruce (24:10): So I was like, how can I do this more efficiently? And postcard stamps are only 35 cents. So I was like, here we go. We're doing postcards now. So I bought a thousand postcards, just basically shrunk my flyer down, obviously like reformatted it, but made it smaller, touched it up a little bit. And we've to look at our, to look at my first flyers that I've put in people's mailboxes to the most recent postcards we've sent out. They look totally different. And it makes me smile when I look at the first ones because I just pictures of them. Yeah. I have pictures of them

Nick (24:41): Would be really cool. We'll have to talk after this. Maybe we'll have to put them like on the show notes page for this episode and be like the progression of them. That would be kind of cool.

Bruce (24:48): Yeah, I have all of them. I can, I can definitely send them to you, but it is funny to see because, because I've made, I made all of them and even just me tweaking them after every time I send them out, it's just changed dramatically. But, uh, yeah, so we did postcards and I did a thousand of those and they were, they were cheaper to send out a thousand postcards than it was to send out 500 envelopes. So, wow. Yeah. So I cut down my, like my costs a lot and uh, we got more business from it. So a double good thing there, but that was our next, that was our next marketing channel. And we're going to continue doing that too. And so I'm probably going to send out a thousand or two a month probably, uh, to start out with, and if they keep working, I'll keep doing them, but that's kind of where I'm at now. Other marketing, those are the, all the marketing channels. When right now I have some more that I plan on getting into. Okay.

Nick (25:41): Yeah. Do you, did you see a better response on the direct mail as opposed to like your Facebook ads in terms of like an ROI or return on investment?

Bruce (25:50): Yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean, the postcards were like since like two, 2 cents or 3 cents per postcard, so maybe 4 cents, but I mean, super cheap and are our prices are, it's an average of about $75 right now I'm thinking about raising them. But right now it's about $75 is the average price of one service. So I mean, if we just get a couple, we, we pay for all of thousand postcards,

Nick (26:18): You guys with that, do you go to your customers or do your customers come to you?

Bruce (26:22): Yeah. So we only go to our customers right now. So yeah, so I don't have an office or a warehouse or anything. And I, I just saw, I started, we're still out of the back of our cars now, which is another place I see us growing in, in the spring, but we're working on the back of our cars. Everything is in there. So we just pull up to people's houses and we use their, and their power. And no one has complained, no one, no one has any complaints. It's worked. But, uh, it has limited us a little bit. We can't go to apartment buildings, usually, uh, office buildings. Um, yeah, so that's, those are two places that I see us really growing in the future. Uh, but we can get into that whenever

Nick (27:01): I was just thinking it might not be a bad way to like market with that. I don't know if you've heard of the, it's a moving company called Two Guys and a Truck?

Bruce (27:11): Yeah. I've heard of it.

Nick (27:12): So it would, it would kind of be something like that where I don't know, it seems really low scale and obviously you'd be able to make it large scale, but I don't know, you could almost play into that fact that you're coming to them and getting this work done. And like, you don't have to worry about it at all. Like that that'd be an interesting way to play into the brand and like what the brand stands for. Um, but okay. Yeah. That's, that is really interesting. I was curious with you being, obviously your business is very location centric. Like it's based on where you're at, how direct mail would be effected and versus something like Facebook.

Bruce (27:46): Yeah. So I basically just target specific neighborhoods in Birmingham. Usually the, I started with the higher end neighborhoods and then have worked around, I think I have a mailing list of around five, five ish thousand right now, but yeah, we're going to expand that and send more out in the spring for sure.

Nick (28:04): That's awesome, man. Congratulations. That's so cool. You're talking about being able to take this thing. You're thinking big, you're talking about taking this thing to 6-igures where what's your thought process behind this. If you don't mind going into it, like how, how are you going to get there

Bruce (28:20): Don't mind at all? This is the exciting part. Alright. So for us to make a hundred thousand dollars in a year in a year, we need to do 3.4 ish details a day. And if we only work 10 months out of the year, so that doesn't include December, January, cause it's cold. So we did zero in those months, which we do. We don't do zero, but say we do. We needed 3.7, I think, or 3.8 either way. When you, for details a day to make a hundred thousand dollars, I was doing four details a day by myself, out of the back of my car all the way through August, September and into October. Uh, and that was the end of the warm months by myself, out the back of my car, doing flyers on mailboxes and barely doing Facebook ads and only being able to go to people's houses.

Bruce (29:03): So where I see us growing in the spring, I want to get a truck or a van I'm gonna get a water tank and a generator, a pressure washer. So we can go to office buildings, apartment buildings. And if we'd go my thought process behind this is we go to an office building with a couple hundred people. We only need four people to, to sign up for us to get a full day of detailing. So if more than four, we'd come to two or three days, whatever. But if we only get four, we have a full day. So that that's, that's where we hit our a hundred thousand Mark. And that's not even including the I'm going to have two people, one doing office buildings and apartments, and one doing residential houses. And the residents of house guy could be doing two to four day by himself.

Bruce (29:44): So my thought process is if we have two guys doing two a day, which I think is very reasonable, uh, we're going to hit that a hundred thousand dollar mark in 10 months. So that's kind of my thought process, but that's like my rudimentary math of where I think this is going. And also we're going to expand our marketing. So we're going to do more Facebook ads, more direct mail. And those have worked for us in the past to get three, four details a day. But also I have five billboards in the Birmingham area that I'm looking into getting, which is, which is pretty exciting there. Have you heard of the company Blip?

Nick (30:16): Yeah. Is that a, is that a digital?

Bruce (30:18): Yeah, they're the digital ones. So they kind of charge you. It's similar to Facebook ads where you can set a daily limit and they just show your ad on the billboard less or more, and in certain time slots.

Bruce (30:29): So it's kind of a cool idea how they do it, but there's five in the Birmingham downtown area and in Homewood, which is another part of Birmingham that we're going to target. I have some radio ads I plan on running on local stations. There's two or three that I've targeted. I think those are the two that I'm focusing on right now. There was one or two more that I'm thinking about, but I'm not taking this seriously yet, but those the radio and the billboards, I'm definitely going to add on a, as long as well as having a better customer relationship kind of management system. So I'm going to, I already do follow up every month with everyone. We've done details with, see if they need another one or see if they want to buy a kind of like next month or whatever they want to do orders to check in because they know me by name really most of my, most of my clients know me by name and we have over 150 clients now.

Bruce (31:20): So the relationship I've kind of formed with the clients is I think one of the most important things, because there's tons of people that they can get to wash their car. But if they know me by name and when they think car washing, they think my, my name, that's just, that's the kind of connection I want with the clients. So I'll probably think about more outreach to them, not just the direct mail flyers, trying to get business, but maybe some customer relationship postcards or some kind of gift we give to recurring customers, that kind of thing, to try to get some better word of mouth business. I also have another thing. I got this from somebody who came on my podcast, Jeff Lopes, he owns a global brand called Kimurawear a martial arts equipment brand. But he told me, he's like, look, he knows someone who knows in a mobile detailing business and said, look on those days when you're slow, you just get in the truck and you drive around and you knock on doors until people say, yes, they'll do it.

Bruce (32:11): And he said, Oh yeah, you can just ask. And I don't know why I didn't do that because there were definitely days at the beginning when I didn't have business or only had one or two where I could've just stayed out and knocked on doors until somebody said yes, but I just didn't think about it. And it, it blew me away that I didn't think it was such a simple idea, but that could add, I mean, that's going to add, I don't really X amount of dollars to the yearly sales also. But after you get somebody to do a detail, he said, you get a little sales pitch together and you pitch them on a six month package or a 12 month package. So you just discount it, give them 60 details for the next six months, 12, make it simple. And I was like, why don't I thought about doing a subscription service, like every month, but the thing about subscription services are people second guess themselves, that they're going to use it or not.

Bruce (32:56): So you just sell them, make it simple, 60 tails. You get one a month will show up. It'll be easy. You won't have to do anything and you get a discount. So your car stays clean. You don't have to worry about it at all. I think that could be a big revenue booster for us and recurring customer booster. Um, but yeah, those are kind of the, the growth opportunities I see for us going into February and March. Uh, and I think we could hit 50,000 in just March, April, may, June, July, just those five months. I think we did it probably 50,000 and if not, definitely in, uh, August. Right.

Nick (33:28): Wow. That is very cool. I forgot to ask this earlier aside from like the direct mail purchasing the postcards and the flyers and all that stuff. Was there any real investment on your side? I mean, being a college student, I mean, we talked about you don't have, don't have these extra funds. So I have to imagine you started pretty light

Bruce (33:49): Very light. So as I said, I worked at Domino's, so I had not a ton of money, but I had some money saved up from the summer, a summer's worth of Domino's money, whatever you think that is. And the original a hundred flyers, more, probably $20, $19. And that made me probably close to four, four or $500. So I, I turned that $19 into $400 or $500 because we had all the basic stuff I needed in my garage. We've added some services since then, obviously, and upgraded our equipment, but that original $19 investment made me $480 profit. And then I use that to buy better equipment. So we've pretty much just bootstrapped from that original $500 off that first a hundred flyers for the whole time. We've always been in the, in the positive money when we go into the spring and get this van will be the first big investment I have into the company. And I think we should still be in positive money even with purchasing the van, but that'll be the first big investment I put into the business.

Nick (34:54): That's exciting, man. I'm like, I'm excited for you.

Bruce (34:56): Yeah. I'm very excited for the spring for sure.

Nick (34:59): Have you, have you guys thought about SEO in your marketing at all?

Bruce (35:02): I have, uh, you mean like on our website? Yeah. Like

Nick (35:06): Really focusing on the organic traffic that you bring in

Bruce (35:09): like the local SEO I have, I've researched it a little bit. I probably should focus on a little bit more going in spring. That could definitely be a focus. Write that down. I've read a couple of SEO books and uh, I mean, I know the basics, I'm not an SEO expert, but I definitely know how to touch up a website and make it a little better. But no, we haven't when I was like, all our pictures have like the tags on it and stuff like all the basic stuff I think we have, but we don't have detailed keyword research stuff into the, in on our website. It's really just a website that makes us look more professional. It like lists our services. It tells a little bit about me and our story, how we started and you can book through it. So, and it has customer testimonials. So it's basically just a website that makes me look more professional, even though I'm still doing it on the back of my car. So, but no SEO could definitely still be a big, a big improvement for us.

Nick (36:01): I think, especially from a local standpoint, think of how many people. And we could probably talk about this when we get offline, but thinking about how many people in that area, cause how big is the Birmingham area?

Bruce (36:14): It's about 300,000 - 350,000,

Nick (36:16): Right? So I'm willing to bet there are a decent amount of people that are searching for phrases like car detailing in Birmingham detailing in Birmingham. And if you're one of the first people that they see when they search that or being a local business local, you, I know you guys are mobile, but being a local business, you'd be able to take advantage of some of that local SEO that other companies can't. And you might be able to get a decent amount of traffic coming to your website with no money invested in that. That could be a, a big opportunity mixing that with what you're doing, as far as putting marketing in ads and the radio and doing all this stuff, that could be a very good way to bring consistent traffic without even really having to think about it.

Bruce (36:58): Yeah, no, you're definitely right. I, SEO is, and it's more of a long game too, so it's not like I have to spend a lot of time on it, but you're right. I'd definitely improve that. There's only a few other players also in the Birmingham area that, and we're kind of, we kind of hit that middle. We're not going to take your seats out of your car and power wash your like frame of your car or anything. Cause there's like some extreme car detailers, but we're definitely that middle tier. So there's like some people that we don't compete with at the top and they do like, they'll paint, correct your car and you know, that kind of stuff, but sand blast it. And there's like a bunch of stuff that I would not even mess with just for like insurance purposes. But yeah, but yeah, for, for the niche we're in, there's only a few other players in Birmingham and I think we can definitely compete with them on a, on a Google homepage for sure. That would, I mean, that would definitely benefit us.

Nick (37:51): I do want to talk about the podcast. Tell me a little bit about what this podcast is. I was doing some digging on you before this interview, but for the listeners at home, what is your podcast? What's it called? What is it about Fill us in here?

Bruce (38:05): Yeah, sure. So the podcast is called adventures of an entrepreneur. That's the sign behind me. Uh, my sister made that, uh, one of my first people I interviewed, which is Jeff Lopes already mentioned him, but he was, he was the one that told me you got to get some branding, man. So, um, I'm, I'm in my closet right now, too. So I kinda just put together this studio. This is, I started it at my house in my bedroom and I just had like a wooden wall behind me and made, this is my next step up. I cleared out my closet, all my clothes in a, uh, like a portable hanging thing out in my room. And my shoes are above me above my head, but I have my flyer, my, to a Jersey, a little Vince Lombardi poster. And this is like my studio. So I started it in the end of December of 2020.

Bruce (38:51): So very recently I've had we're on episode 10 right now. I do two a week, every Monday and Thursday I've interviewed some amazing people so far. The guy I keep mentioning, he, uh, uh, is the owner of Kimurawear a global brand. Uh, he introduced me to a guy named Paul Getter. I don't know if you know him. He has a million Instagram followers. He's he goes by the Internet Marketing Nerd. He has clients are Ty Lopez is one of his clients Grant Cardone, uh, Tim Story, Akon. So he's like a giant name. And I interviewed him at, which was really lucky for me to get him so early. Uh, but it was just Jeff introduced me to him. And, uh, it was, it was really cool to meet those two guys really early. I've talked to, I mean, people from around the world already that there's no way I would have talked to them any other way.

Bruce (39:36): If I didn't have something to offer them in exchange, which is my podcast. Even with very few viewers, very low numbers. I mean, we just started a month ago. Uh, people were still gracious enough to come on. They have pretty big names. I mean, most people have a bigger name, especially in the business world than I do. So I'm honored to talk to most people and they just have great stories. And I love diving into the, the mind of an entrepreneur. And that's really what the podcast is about. Uh, I dive into their journeys, how they started before they were successful. Um, cause really only people see who they are now. You know, they have a million followers, they have 50,000 followers, uh, their businesses making millions of dollars, whatever it is, they're going on vacations every week. That's all they see, but they didn't, they don't know how, how we got there.

Bruce (40:19): So I kind of dive into where he was beforehand. If he had any struggles, how he grew his business, why you chose that business or she, I keep saying he, but, or she I've had girls or women on there too. Um, but yeah, that's kind of how the story gets or that's kinda how the podcast goes. I talk about their mindsets. They all have very similar mindsets, which I think is very interesting. Uh, they're all really positive people, everyone, they all see opportunities in in times when other people don't, um, which is a commonality between all of them. Uh, I asked them about their, their routines. Like most of them have morning routines that, that just personally interesting to me. And I hope to other people that are listening, but I just like kind of trying out different things that people do toward the end of every episode.

Bruce (41:02): I asked them what their advice to somebody who is starting a business or wants to start a business, what it is, you know, what they would say to them before they start. And I get a lot of different answers. So it's, uh, it's interesting to see one guy who has made a million dollars say something and then another guy who's also made a million dollars. So the exact opposite thing. So you kind of got to pick and choose who you listen to and kind of stick with it. But, uh, I think it's interesting to learn from different people and just kind of experiment with different successful strategies and just see how different people think and how they got to where they are. That's pretty much what we covered in the podcast. That's awesome.

Nick (41:39): And it's Adventures of an Entrepreneur,

Bruce (41:40): Correct? Yep. And an interest of an entrepreneur. Awesome.

Nick (41:43): For everybody listening, the links to what Bruce is doing with his detail shop and the podcast Adventures of an Entrepreneur, I will put links to all of that in the show notes of this episode. So just make sure you go check out the show notes so you can tune into Bruce's podcasts and hear from other amazing entrepreneurs that he's bringing on the show. That's, it's very, it's very similar to what I'm doing here. And we were just talking before we started recording this thing, the podcasts, you mentioned this, it opens up so many opportunities for people like us, who maybe we don't have this six figure business yet, or we just don't have those connections that other people have. But the podcast is a reason that we can get in contact with new people. And I think that is so cool because we have something to offer them, even if it's not a bunch of money or all these contacts that we have saved up to give to them, but we have this platform that they're able to get on and share their story.

Nick (42:44): And I love the way that you're doing that. I think that's awesome. That's the story is really something I've been trying to focus on a lot with these last couple of interviews because the, the story behind it all is the most powerful part of it. I've tried to be very technical with my episodes and I, that wasn't intentional. It just kind of happened, but I'm trying to take a step back and really focus on the stories of how they got there and how you got here. And just, I think the stories are super fascinating. So I th I think that's an awesome, awesome route.

Bruce (43:15): Yeah. Yeah. Do I totally agree. And also most of the people that I've talked to, they're just super friendly, which is, I mean, you don't, you don't get that through Instagram or whatever YouTube video you're watching, but they're like just super open to talking to you, especially if you just want to learn. So that's what I've gotten from almost every yes I've had on is just, they're just happy to talk to people, share their message and help another entrepreneur. Who's trying to try to make it

Nick (43:40): Actually for anybody who is listening, that maybe they want to have the same kind of experience. Maybe they've been thinking about getting into podcasting. I actually have a free Podcasting Quick-Start Guide that I will link to in the show notes of this episode as well, just in case you're wanting to see what it takes to get it launched. It's really not that hard and you can get it launched pretty quick. So if anybody's interested in that, I would encourage them to go and take a look at the show notes as well. We are getting close to the end here. Where do you see the future? You're a big picture guy. Where do you see yourself heading? Obviously six figures is the next logical step for you. And where you're trying to go, is this detail business? Is this something that you are going to put your focus in and really try to grow this? Or do you see something beyond what you're doing, right.

Bruce (44:26): Yeah. So I've definitely thought about this. As far as the mobile detailing business goes, I see it kind of going one of two ways. On one hand, it goes well in Birmingham, I keep growing, we hit the six figure mark. I put a manager in place, and then I go to another city and franchise it and expand it to another city. Because Birmingham is really not that big of a city. So if it works here, I think it could work better in a bigger city. Atlanta is close. That would be super competitive, but I mean, there's tons of other cities that I could, that I can start another one, another branch in. I see that that's a possibility, or I could see myself growing this business, putting a manager in place, getting some automation going and selling the business and using that to start my next venture.

Bruce (45:10): That's maybe a little bit more tailored toward what I, what I'm passionate about because I'm not passionate about detailing cars. I like the business and it makes me money and I'm good at detailing cars now, but it's not like I, I wake up every day wanting to detail a car. So let's start a business. That's yeah. If I could start a business, that's more tailored to what I really care about. I would do that. Uh, eventually my long game is I plan on getting into real estate as quickly as possible. So that's really why that's really why I started saving money and make it, and started this business was to have money to invest in real estate. And I specifically plan on investing in multi-family real estate. So apartment buildings and big buildings like that, uh, I've done a fair amount of resource search and I've done, uh, I've taken a couple courses online.

Bruce (46:01): I know grant Cardone has one, I've taken one of his, um, and he's a billionaire. So he has like 2000 units all over America, but I've decided that I've settled on multi-family is the best real estate to be in. And there's definitely other reasons and other thought processes on other real estate. That's better, but personally I'm interested in multi-family. And as soon as I can roll over money into real estate, that's what I plan on doing. And then my focus will become growing my real estate portfolio. And that leads me to my last stage, where I have a sailboat and, um, I have money. I have money coming in and I can help the charities. I want to help whenever I, whenever I want to, there's a friend that needs help or has a business that he's starting, that I feel passionate about. I have income that I can help them out with.

Bruce (46:49): You know, I just, I want to have the freedom of my time. One which real estate allows. And then shoe. I want to have freedom with my income to have enough where I can support my family in a good way and where I can help people that are also trying to be successful. Uh, whether it's charities that I believe in or friends or other entrepreneurs that are younger than me, maybe I mentor people, but that's, uh, it's hard for me to picture mentoring people right now just because I'm a little young, but yeah, that's, that's kinda my bigger picture.

Nick (47:20): I love it. I love that you have it all planned out and it's, it's a progression. It's very much progression, but I love, I love where you're wanting to go with it. And the big goal being big end goal, being able to help people. I think that is super powerful and it's obviously you're coming from a very good and genuine place. So I think that is awesome, man. Now we should probably get this thing wrapped up. What, what would be any advice you can give someone who is maybe they're thinking about getting into entrepreneurship and they haven't made that leap yet, whether it's, they don't think it's for them or they just they're on the fence about actually taking that step. What, what advice would you give someone in that situation?

Bruce (48:03): Yeah, so the first thing I would say is it's not for everybody. Uh, there are, there are more people working nine to five jobs than there are than there are business owners. That's just how it has to be. That's how it always will be. But if you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, taking that leap, the one thing you really need to have settled on is the ability to take some risks. So if you, if you are comfortable or if you are not comfortable with risk being an entrepreneur was probably going to be really stressful for you and really difficult because especially if you have a family. For me, my worst case scenario was my business failed and I'm still in college playing basketball and I get a job in the spring. So, or I try to get a job in the spring. We'll see.

Bruce (48:47): Uh, so that's really not a bad, that's not the worst outcome in the world for somebody that has a family to support and, you know, they have kids and that kind of stuff. And, uh, you can't handle taking a risk of living as frugally as you can, uh, going as cheap as possible and saving money and then risking your, your safety net. If you will, on starting a business that might fail or might succeed, uh, it's probably not for you, but if you can handle risk, I would say dive in, I would say first learn as much as you can before you dive in, let me just back up whatever you're planning on doing, learn as much as you can about it and get some kind of mentor. I have a couple now that are really great people, but you need to have somebody who's done it or is doing it that can help you out because it makes it so much easier and a lot less stressful.

Bruce (49:33): If you know, there's some people behind you that you can rely on. After you do that, I would just say commit a hundred percent for as long as you can. Really. I, it's hard for me to say, cause I'm still in my journey right now, but as long as you can commit, I would commit to it. And if you wake up and grind, for lack of better term every day, you're more likely to succeed than you are to fail. I believe that, and there's opportunities everywhere, but if you wake up and you truly work, like work your ass off, I think you're more likely to succeed and fail. And it definitely matters what industry you're trying to get into. If you're trying to make running shoes against Adidas and Nike, you're probably not going to succeed. But if you go into a, you know, a smart market, you do your research. I think you're much more likely to succeed than fail. And I would just say, dive in and outwork everybody, because there's going to be people that are smarter than you at, or have more money than you for sure. And I would the only re the only resource you have that they might, that you might beat them on is work ethic. So I think that probably comes from sports probably for me, that's where I get that. But

Nick (50:39): Actually there's a Derek Jeter quote. That's almost exactly like that. It's something to the effect of someone might be more skilled and more talented to you, but there's no excuse for them to work harder than you. And that is, that's a quote that I've carried with me all through when I was playing baseball in high school in college. And I do still believe that today as well. So I completely agree with you, man.

Bruce (51:01): Yeah, no, exactly. That's I think that's basically what I would say is just the only thing that you got is your work ethic. If that's the only thing you got, I think that can get you further than you can imagine. Really.

Nick (51:12): So Bruce, where can people find you online? Where do you want people to go? If they want to maybe check out the podcast, or maybe we end up pulling some listeners over from the Birmingham area and they want to get their car detailed through your business, where what are some links or social media that we can get in contact with you?

Bruce (51:31): Yeah. So if you want your car detailed in the Birmingham area, it's brightmobiledetailing.com. Uh, if you want to contact me personally, uh, I'm really active on Instagram. You can just go to @BruceBrightJr. I'm really active on there. And I'm growing that page. That page pretty fast due to my podcast, which has been the most surprising thing about it so far is just how big or how many people have correlated. Listen to our podcast, following me on Instagram. I did not expect that, but you can find me there. If you want to listen to the podcast. It's adventuresofanentrepreneur.co. dot C O and all the episodes are on there. The show notes we have, uh, some posts like some, uh, testimonials and blog posts and stuff up there too. Um, the podcast is also on Apple podcast, Spotify, SoundCloud, really anywhere you listen to podcasts it's on there. And yeah, that's, I think that's pretty much it that the podcast is on Facebook. We have a Facebook page and Instagram page to @adventuresofanentrepreneurshow is Instagram and Facebook is adventures of an entrepreneurial podcast. So you can find us pretty much everywhere, but yeah, that's, that's where you can contact me.

Nick (52:41): Perfect. And that will just like all the other things that we discuss. All the other links. These will also be in the show notes for this episode. So make sure you go check out the show notes so you can get in contact with Bruce. All right. I just want to thank you, man. This, I really enjoyed talking with you. I think your, your whole story and your journey is really inspiring. I mean, you're still in college. Um, I'm really excited to see once you graduate, which early congratulations on that. Once you, once you finally graduate and can focus on this, like you have a lot more time to focus on this. I'm really excited to see where you go with your detail and really your, your overall grand plan here. I'm really excited to watch.

Bruce (53:21): No. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for having me. And I, trust me, I'm excited to, I, uh, I have some big, some big visions in the next six months and I'm excited to see them come to fruition and uh, we'll see, but I'm pretty confident in them. And again, thank you for having me on. It's been awesome talking to you, sharing my story.

Nick (53:38): Make it happen. I'm excited for you. Okay. That is the interview with Bruce as a college athlete myself, I have to give Bruce a big pat on the back. Well playing baseball. It was tough for me to balance school sports and a part-time job in the evenings while trying to take time to be social and spend time with friends. So I could not imagine throwing the, running the business and podcasting on that list of things to get done, Bruce. He said it right in the beginning of this episode, his superpower is to be able to see that big picture and stick it out when everything seems to get tough. And you know, Bruce has had to have gone through a lot of struggles, trying to juggle all these various things while being in college. I really hope that this interview has been inspirational to you.

Nick (54:18): Like it has to me, the lack of time is the biggest excuse that we make for ourselves. But if Bruce's story proves anything, is that if you want it bad enough, you'll just get after it. So no more excuses, let's make a plan and stick it through. And I want to know what that plan is. What does that thing that you're going to be focusing on this year? That'll have a large impact on your life. If you follow through with it. To share you those answers, head over to the show notes page for this episode and leave a comment at the bottom of the page. The show notes for this episode can be found at ninefivepodcasts.com/episode33. And just remember our nine five is all spelled out. That's N I N E F I V E podcast.com forward slash episode 3 3. What is it for today? I hope you enjoy this interview as always have a great and safe rest of your week. And we'll catch up with you guys next week. When we chat with Jeff Bermant about data and how you can actually make money by sharing your data, the large companies like Facebook and Google take from you for free and use it to make money off of you. So I am looking forward to getting the interview with Jeff and I look forward to catching up with you guys next week.