AUTO-TRANSCRIBED – FORGIVE ANY ERRORS OR TYPOS
Aaron Spatz 00:00
You’re watching America’s Entrepreneur on Youtube. Welcome to the show. I’m your host, Aaron Spatz. And each week we interview entrepreneurs, industry experts, and other high achievers as a detail their personal and professional journeys. Before we jump in, hit the subscribe button and be sure to hit the bell icon so you’re notified every time we release a new episode. Thank you so much for joining America’s entrepreneur. Just super excited that you’re here. Thank you so much for tuning in for yet another week. And I’m really just incredibly honored to be able to bring on just some some really fantastic guests and so no exception this week, I’m really excited to welcome Daniel McCutcheon to the show, you know, comes to us with a with a really fun background, I think you’re really really going to enjoy. So Daniel, Daniel played professional baseball pitched a total of 11 seasons playing professionally for 11 seasons. graduate from university Oklahoma was drafted by the Yankees. And they and he played in the minors or in the big leagues and played a total of 11 seasons before before exiting baseball. And so he’s launched his business called Big League carwash, we’re going to talk in detail about both baseball and about his business. And in the in the growth and expansion efforts that he’s that he’s going through right now to expand his presence. And so it’s a fantastic business, and really, really excited to just learn and pick his brain and hear his story. So, Daniel, man, I just want to welcome man, thank you so much for making time to be with me.
Daniel McCutchen 01:23
Yeah, thanks, Aaron. It’s a pleasure to be here. So I tell people that I played professional baseball for 11 years, so I can have a really cool carwash theme. So that’s kind of where my, where my life is. Now, the ugly carwash, you know, I can, I can back it up with played baseball a long time now, wash cars,
Aaron Spatz 01:42
hey, you know, it’s I mean, it’s, it’s a fantastic brand I love, I love the feel of the website, I if I was a little bit closer to you, I think next time we, if we’re making a road trip from the Dallas area down to San Antonio, I will have to pull in and in, give you some business would love to love to see what it’s all about. So, but super, super excited for you though, because I know for a lot of professional, professional athletes, right? That that transition out of out of whatever sport you happen to be playing in your case is baseball. But that can present a lot of unique challenges. And so, before we get there, like let’s back up and let’s let’s just talk a little bit about your baseball story. So I mean, you grew up I’m sure you like, you know, playing ball as as as a little kid and then just and just continue to grow with that. So just take us on that journey with you.
Daniel McCutchen 02:34
Yeah, you know, I was a preacher’s kid growing up. You know, my mom, I remember. Growing up my mom praying over me and saying, oh, Lord, help him, you know, to get into the ministry and do this. I’m like, No, Mom, quit praying that I want to be a baseball player. So I mean, that was a dream from the get go. Being a preacher’s kid, my, like, my parents didn’t let me play baseball on Sundays, which I hated it then I was I was good and Little League and you know, good growing up. And for those of you that play baseball, there’s some pretty big games on Sundays for Little League and tournaments and things like that. I say now, when I talk to kids, and that, you know, my parents made that sacrifice then and then they got to watch me play baseball on Sunday in the big leagues. Not saying you don’t have to let your kid play, play baseball. You know, that was my story. I wasn’t that good. And I was good in high school. Don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t that good. As far as like, if you were to come and watch me in high school, you probably wouldn’t have said that guy’s gonna play in the big leagues. I was a shortstop and a third baseman. I was athletic and, and you know, love, worked hard and love the game. But I walked onto a division to school my freshman year of University of Central Oklahoma as a shortstop. A really big spurt my freshman year and I went from throwing in the mid 80s to the mid 90s. And that’s when things kind of changed for me. And I went to junior college, I got hurt the first game of junior college, medical read started that year. And I was really good friends with groundskeeper at University of Oklahoma. That’s where I grew up, Norman. That’s where I always wanted to play. I was kind of done a favor by him. I was still hard but I was hurt. I met with the with the coat or shell Houma in my family really hit it off. And he gave us a full scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, but it was kind of felt like it was you have a great family. I really like you. I’m going to give you this scholarship and you know, hope you’ll get help and pitch us and then I will the last guy and backtrack here says 2004. I was The last guy on the team to get the pitch was about two weeks into the season before my first outing, and I don’t remember my exact stat line, but something around three innings. Eight strikeouts was 93 to 95. And that’s kind of when my college career took off. Turned into the Friday night starter University of Oklahoma, I got to pitch against a lot of great names that you know, even are still playing today, Max Scherzer. You know, I lined up against him Java Chamberlain. A lot of a lot of great players in the big 12 held my own as a Friday night starter. I was actually drafted four times, I was drafted out of junior college and three times the University of Oklahoma. I always wanted more money. I grew up I don’t know if y’all know much about preachers, kids, but they don’t have a whole lot of money. I’m not talking about one of these mega churches. My dad didn’t write any books. You know, always always wanted more money ended up signing for the least amount that I was offered as a fifth year senior for for the Yankees. But I graduated with an economics degree. Always love business. Graduated with an economics degree 13th round with the New York Yankees, I was one of the oldest guys to get drafted since I was a fifth year senior. So baseball’s a young man’s game, and especially when you’re in the minor leagues, I think I was 22. So I had to move up through the ranks quick. And I did perform, I had a chip on my shoulder for getting drafted late for, you know, competing against these first rounds and not getting that signing bonus that they that they got and was right on the brink of getting called up with the Yankees in 2008. I was in AAA, and I got traded at the trade deadline with to the Pittsburgh Pirates, made my big league debut with them in 2009. Had some great years there a lot of fun, met some great people from 2009 to 2012. And where to go the Orioles and the Padres and the rangers and the White Sox and you know, enjoy 11 year career up down a bunch was never a superstar, made a little bit of money, saved my money and retired in in 2006 or 2016 when my wife was pregnant with our third baby and said it’s time to start a business. And that’s what I did. Wow.
Aaron Spatz 07:29
Wow. Man, I’d say it’s a phenomenal story. And I mean, for you to be able to stick around and be in be present professional baseball for as long as you did. I mean, that’s a huge testament to, to like who you are and what in what you bring to the game. Because I know for a lot of folks, right? I’d say it’s a I mean, it can be a long grind, right? There’s a I mean, there’s a lot that goes into that I’m not going to pretend to know, near near anything about it more than that. I mean, you’re able to talk circles about this. But you know, I’m curious, and we were chatting about this off air. But I’m really curious because, you know, with, with how many teams are out there and how rapid trades can happen? I mean, what is that, like when you’re you’re literally living in one city, you know, on any given day, and then if you get called in or however they notify you that you’ve been traded, and you’ve been traded, and you’re like I mean you’re literally picking up and moving just I mean that fast. I mean like what does that what does that experience like
Daniel McCutchen 08:32
there’s there’s a very small percentage of the of the big league players that can get comfortable and that in the situation they’re in, you know that the superstars that have no trade clauses or things like that the rest even the great players, the rest of them, I mean you are it is a business and you are at the the general manager and the you know the owners, you are their possessions, and they trade jerseys as you make a trading fantasy football. I’ve told that a lot of guys like the I say think about the emotion that you have when you make a trade in fantasy football. That is the emotion that they have when they send you off somewhere and it might be a little bit different but not much. I mean it is definitely a business. You can get you can do things the right way and not cause drama and and get them to like you but bottom line is perform. Yeah, I told him we were talking off air. You know a lot of times my wife, my wife is a dentist. She owns dental practice. She had a very we were married my whole big league career together my whole professional career. So we had a you know she would work. Dentists is a great a great job if you’re wanting to schedule, make a schedule as a professional so she would schedule long weekends come and fly and see me every couple of weeks. It was easy before we started having pets then it gets a little harder when she’s flying with two kids. We have four kids now. But yeah, two was all that we had while I was playing. But you know, it was don’t get too comfortable anywhere. She would, you know, might be in the big leagues going to play in New York the next day, she would book a plane ticket, my family would look like a plane ticket, and then I’d get a call into the office, you’re going back down to AAA. Say, sorry, we’re not playing. We’re not playing in New York anymore. We’re playing in Cincinnati, or in wherever El Paso or, or a different city triple A city, which isn’t quite as fun for the wives of the family ordered for me for that matter. But yeah, so it was a it was a great 11 years, but my life is much more stable. And I mean, I know what’s going to happen tomorrow for the for the most as far as my schedule, which he did not know that baseball.
Aaron Spatz 10:56
Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s just crazy. I’m gonna have a ton of respect, you know, for just everybody who’s in that, because it’s just, you literally, I mean, if you’re having to relocate family or do anything like that, I mean, I can only imagine the headache that that can present itself, but seems like with your with your wife’s dental practice, having that kind of home base of stability was was kind of where that all centered around. And so tell me about then when you, you know, when when we decided to stop playing, you’re getting out. And then like the decision process that you were going through on evaluating what kind of business you want to get into what what your next moves were? So what, what, what was that? What was that process like for you.
Daniel McCutchen 11:40
I mean, I knew I wanted to work for myself, I made a lot of great connections, in baseball, business connections, and baseball connections I got I got a really good offer, from a professional baseball team to be to really move up in the ranks and be a coach at a higher level. That’s not what I want to do. I mean, I’ve loved my whole life, I’m not gonna lie to you, I will tell you that, you know, and I and I have these friends that I, that I played with, and they’re signing these huge contracts, and I never signed a huge contract. So I said, you know, I’m not gonna make that money being a t shirt or, or whatever else. So, I mean, I, I was just looking for an opportunity to do that in business. So I got out I had a had chunk of money because I didn’t blow my money. I didn’t I didn’t make enough money where, you know, I could blow it and have a chunk of money when I was out. But my wife had a great job. We saved our money. I had a chunk of money when I got out to make, you know, not a lot of business moves, but to make one business move. And I looked at I looked at things, you know, whatever a guy like me, entreprenuer says, oh, you know, storage buildings are great. car washes are great, you know, build a shopping center. I’m thinking something like that, right? Could be my own boss, my brother in law’s actually he’s in the carwash business. And he’s, I think he had three locations when I got out of baseball, so I knew it could be a great business. It was right at the start where everyone was building carwashes 2017 is when we, when we opened up the first one found a great piece of land a year from when I retired. I mean, I stopped the day I retired, I started looking for carwash locations, I took all of my passion, all of my work ethic, and I gave it all up until the very end. But then when it was done, was done. Put all of that into business. I was I opened up a year after I started looking which I thought that’s just how things go. I found out since then it takes a lot more time and that that first one every everything was lined up great and I got a you know, a prime time location next EGB in New Braunfels. And yeah, it just it took the rest is history of it’s kind of been growing since then.
Aaron Spatz 14:01
Man that’s really cool. That’s really cool. And you just going through that whole decision making process of what it is that you wanted to do and kind of just evaluating your options and no doubt it helps having a little bit of insider knowledge into the industry to kind of help mentor you and guide you to some level while you’re while you’re out there making it happen. So I mean what’s what’s what’s been some of the like the biggest things that you’ve learned in business since transitioning from baseball and going through that initial process of getting location number one built I mean like what’s what’s been what’s been some of your biggest learnings your biggest lessons learned from that?
Daniel McCutchen 14:36
Yeah, I think so much in in business like what I was doing in professional school, I’ve translated a lot of that into the business. You can’t translate all of it but you know, simple things like you know, staying even keel in baseball, especially, I was a star and or a lever but then you can’t get too high or you can get too low. You can strike out the side especially a really You can strike out the side night and, you know, be on top of the world and people are sending you nice tweets. And the next night you can give up, you know, give up the lead and get four runs. And, you know, people are messaging you on social media to, to do bad things to yourself to say nicely. You know, so that I’ve learned translated that to business, it’s different. Now. I’m not I’m not facing Albert pools, or, or Manny Ramirez anymore, but I am facing City Council’s and zoning restrictions, and, you know, new new regulations against you know, what to do, or all different types of things that now I deal with, you know, and so it’s just, you know, sticking with the process, grinding it out, not not being impatient. For those of you that have that have done commercial projects, you know, like, you better not be like thinking it’s going to get done this month, because it Well, I mean, would you get comments back from the city or the state or whatever? Yeah, I don’t think they check their, their emails very often to get back to you. So yeah, stay staying patient.
Aaron Spatz 16:14
Yeah. That I mean, that. That’s such a such a great point, I’d like to go back and revisit that with you just what I hear you saying. It’s just like mental toughness, mental resiliency, there’s probably another way of saying this, but I mean, I mean, you kind of got conditioned to that. Right. So like, did you see I’m going back to baseball now. But did you see a difference in people that were able to cope with that and stay even keel? Like you’re saying? Because I mean, it’s a great point. I mean, you could like, you can have a killer night, you’re striking everybody else. I mean, you’re just on fire. The next night, you’d give up, you know, give up a home run, or you’re giving up, you know, like a whole bunch of a whole bunch of runs, right? How do you keep that from getting in your head? And like, so what did you do in baseball to kind of help keep yourself from going insane? To put it mildly, and then like, translating that then into business?
Daniel McCutchen 17:08
Yeah, if I mean, in baseball, it was it’s not quite as easy as I just made it sound believe me. I mean, there, my wife knew the difference when I you know, threw seven shutout innings, or when I went, you know, three and a third with six runs. I mean, there was a definite definitely a difference in, in my demeanor. But for me, it was putting putting the work in. And if I did every, you know, doing everything that I was supposed to do in preparation would give me the confidence to pitch you know, that that body My mind is telling me yes, but my body’s telling me no, you know, that was the competence was always there, and you see it with these with these athletes and competitors, the mind is still there wanting to compete, compete, compete, compete, but man, the body just, I mean, you see it even, you know, in into your 30s you start becoming an old man in, in baseball, and those those fast twitch muscles aren’t quite what they were and where you could use to, you know, though 95 Now it’s 92 or 91. And it’s just not quite as good. And then you got this whole plethora of six foot seven, you know, Kansas corn fed super studs coming in behind you that are trying to take your spot. Wow. Anyway, that that was a that was the baseball part but me translating it into business is you know, having you know, taking these educated risks, doing everything I can up front you know, I’m not very good at playing devil’s advocate I’m very positive and in most of the things that I do so I got to bring in some negative people every now and then to say, All right, what’s gonna go wrong with this location or, or this setup and I have a few of those of those mentors in my life that don’t quite look at things the same as me but you know, trying to to lay it all out there the good and the bad on preparation for for me at Site selection and you know, site layout and things I have to do to get the proper zoning and things like that, but doing all of that up front and then you know, when you open up and it’s go time now now game time and all of that. That I have done pans out?
Aaron Spatz 19:28
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s that’s such a great point that you made because there’s your there’s such power and having mentors and people that will that will that you permission to like, hey man, like if this is a bad idea, slapped me upside the head, it’s always a bad idea. Like, you know, I need need that kind of feedback. And so it’s like, having those people in your corner is so awesome, you know, and I think you’re robbing me of a quote, I’m not gonna get the quote, right, but I may be attributing this to the wrong person. I want to say Mark Cuban had had noted that, like, optimism is it like being overly optimistic is is what is, is an Achilles heel to a lot of entrepreneurs. And so like, your, your, your estimates are always gonna be, like, overly positive. And then there’s like, what, what actually happens, and so like having to kind of manage through that. And so, you know, it sounds like you got a really good group of people around you to kind of help kind of help keep things balanced out and to help balance kind of your decision making process because I, I, like I can only imagine like in a car wash business, I mean, locations pretty dang important, right? I mean, that’s like, I mean, that’s a huge consideration as to what, you know, what you’re, what you’re going after, and like the future development of that particular area of the city or the county, like, you’re, you’re having to really think through that, right.
Daniel McCutchen 20:55
Yeah, yeah, it’s a huge part of me, probably, that’s the, that’s the most important part, you can be a sub cell operator. But if you are, you know, sandwiched in between Walmart and HGTV, and there’s no competition around, you can make a lot of money being a solo operator. Yeah, that’s what I found out in this industry. That’s the successful people. And it’s, uh, I mean, entrepreneurs, they, you know, they’re there. There’s a special breed I guess. But, you know, once you’re successful in one aspect, or, you know, you have a business that’s making money, you know, in most of the time that they do, this is the right way to do it. So, in the carwash industry, there’s a lot of different ways to be successful. So location is number one, you can have a so sell operator, and a prime time location that can kill it. One thing you were talking about, go back just a little bit, but when you’re talking about the, you know, the mentors and things like that, you know, baseball, it gave me so many opportunities to get face to face with people that you know, just a normal guy when it gets to, you know, I, I went skeet shooting one time with the, with the owner of Home Depot and my neighbor in spring training one year was his name’s Don pastel, he the own the largest pet food distributor in the country. Guys like that, I built a friendship with a never asked him for money or anything like that. But man, the super smart business guys that were able to come in contact with, in baseball, they’ll gladly give you information on you know, questions, so I became great friends and still am with with, with Don who’s had 1000s and 1000s of employees and, you know, has businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and, you know, being able to pick up the phone and call him and ask him about, you know, on my super small scale, but very important to me on this business decision, you know, getting his input on that. Yeah, that’s, that’s been great. And I have that list of people that are super successful in business that, you know, I can run these things by where, you know, they might see it at a different angle that I’m seeing it from, and they do a lot of times, but you know, taking their advice, and, you know, I definitely attribute that to, you know, my success in business so far.
Aaron Spatz 23:18
Yeah, that’s, that’s really cool. I mean, it’s like, I’ve noticed, it’s just like, I mean, the quality of your network is everything. I mean, the people that you surround yourself with, the people that you’re able to, like, I mean, you’re able to call and like lean on these people. I mean, there’s, there’s a reason there’s a reason that they’re so successful. And so it’s like, yeah, you’re like, Hey, man, you know, rub a little bit of that, of that knowledge off on me, because it’s, you know, even just a little bit, it’s gonna make a huge impact, you know, so it’s, that’s, that’s really, really cool. Really, really cool. Well, you know, so like, as a business has been growing. So you’ve been, you’ve been identifying growth opportunities for the business, you’re you. You’re telling me you got two locations, you’re working on plans for future expansion? So is there you don’t have to share this if you don’t want to we can we can attack this a different way. But like, Are you are you simply taking like a lot of the profits from the business as it is and just reinvesting or do you are you raising capital? Like what’s your what’s your thought process? Like? what’s the, what’s the vision that you have, I guess, is probably a better question of like, have a big Lee carwash? Like, what are you trying to accomplish?
Daniel McCutchen 24:27
You know, right now it is my wife and I we own 100% We don’t besides the bank, no, that doesn’t count. Right. But we don’t have any private investors. I am I’m just, you know, taking my taking my profits and reinvesting reinvesting it back into back into buildings. I’ve learned a lot since I started. You know, depreciation is a wonderful thing. on the tax side when you’re building these, these buildings and the carwash is very, you can depreciate a lot but a lot of it up front. So, you know, on the tech side of it, you know, things that are, are great with that. But you know I do I have a huge vision for what I want Bigley carwash to be I’m trying to I’m visionary. I mean, I can tell you what I want. As far as like implementation of my day to day tasks, I’m going to need to bring on some help for a little bit, you know, someone to pull the reins back on me and give me a path to get there. But, you know, for what we’ve done so far, it’s been very successful. Two locations open right now, we’re about to start construction on the third. They’re both very profitable, we wash a lot of cars. I mean, the Express carwash industry, it’s just gotten super sexy. Over the last, I don’t know, five years or so a ton of private money’s coming in a ton. It takes more than just money. I’ve so many people that come up to me, you know, and they have this many millions of dollars and this and that, let’s go build a bunch of car washes. It’s not that easy, especially with cities that you have to deal with and right zoning. And this third carwash that I’m building is over the Edwards Aquifer. So you know, another hurdle with TC Q, you know, making sure that water’s in order and all of that. So I mean, there’s a lot of tape to go through and regulations and things like that. I hate that process, just the same knowing that all competition is doing the exact same thing. I mean, like on this second carwash, it was a carwash before that I tore down and I built a new one, but the zoning could change. And so then I had to get all the neighbors on board. And so I literally went to the guy that’s right behind me, this older gentleman in his mid 80s, in a wheelchair, and I painted his front door, and I bought him a six pack of Bud Light, and he drank the bud light white painted his door, and I told him stories about the big league spring training with the Yankees. That’s probably not something that’s scalable, you know, rotations, not going to go meet every neighbor thing that I had to do to. And I’m a nice guy, and I’ll talk to you, I’ll tell you some stories. And I might, I might be a little bit better in my stories than I was in real life. But, you know, it was something that was one of the things I was able to use my baseball background to get interest from this guy that had no interest in signing this piece of paper for a zoning change. And you’re left with a signature. And he got a six pack of Bud Light and they painted door. So pretty good. Pretty good trade.
Aaron Spatz 27:45
Oh, that’s awesome. And so that mean, you’re just, you’re just you’re just taking that work ethic, you’re taking that creativity that you have of get just getting it done whatever it takes to get it done. And you’re like, Man, this is a major obstacle and you found out, you found out what makes this guy tick. And, you know, I mean, that’s just I mean, that’s, that’s just some good old fashioned diplomacy right there, man. Like, I mean, well done. So that that’s pretty cool. So you know, you’re so you’re, you’re expanding like, what? What advice, you know, would you give your yourself if you’re starting back over again, right? If you were to rewind the tape with the carwash business, has there been any really big pitfalls or challenges? We talked about regulations, I think is probably kind of detecting that that’s probably a substantial part of the process. And there’s not a lot you can do to rush that. But are there any other like business concepts or business principles, that man, you’re like, Man, if I knew this back, then this would have helped me out a lot. And, you know, maybe it would help somebody else out too.
Daniel McCutchen 28:50
Yeah, you know, I, I, I’m not that small, but I’m smart enough to get advice from smart people. And I was really I was I was able to do that I had some great guys that kind of we’ve talked about my brother in law was a huge one. There’s a couple guys in the carwash industry, that I really picked their brain and, you know, went over site plans and went over him again and went over him again and got a lot of negative feedback from people and I just I interviewed I interviewed people in the in the city about, you know, what’s their, what’s their travel pattern? If this is located here, would you do this on on the way to work and, and just things so that it’s really doing all of that work up front? If I could give anyone advice, and then look at your competition? I mean, I looked at my competition and said, What are they not doing that I could do? You know, we’re very customer service driven. I mean, I remember telling people what to watch like my vision for this carwash and there’s this one doctor friend that I have and you know, I’m like, I want the ugly carwash to be cool and you know, my employees doing this and this and that and he kind of laughed at me and I You know, and then that I felt that fire, like when people laughed at me like, Oh, you’re gonna play in the big leagues? Yeah, right. You know, you’re six foot one and you look like you’re gonna break every time you throw. So, you know, I felt that fire come up on me. And now I mean it. It’s, I’m not gonna say I’m like the coolest business in town that I went from. People don’t introduce me as the professional baseball player people in Yes, the carwash guy. And I haven’t signed an autograph that says the carwash guy yet, but you know, we are locations. They have that cool vibe. You know, like, on social media now, you know, you don’t go to Golden Corral, and post and take a picture to all your friends, no offense, Golden Corral owners, I have, I have one of my good buddies, and so Golden Corral, you know, post a picture, hey, I’m at Golden Corral. And I’m about to, you know, indulge in the chocolate fountain. But yeah, so it doesn’t have the cool vibe, but there are, you know, restaurants that have the cool vibe, but you’re gonna tell your friends that you have that. So we that’s what I tried to do at the carwash people checking in, you know, saying I’m here the vision that I have of it being a place where, where people can meet and, and hang out and packing, marry and have all of the things that that you want to do to get your car clean. You know, we want a lot. I mean, for those of you that don’t know about the Express carwash, and we can wash 130 140 cars in an hour. That’s not how it always goes. But the days, you know, when it’s been raining a lot and the sun finally comes out, or it’s pollen season and we’re stacked up to the street. I mean, we can push them through and you can wash 1000 Plus cars a day. And then we turn those we turn those customers in the members, I have a great membership program where you know, it’s less than the price of two washes, kind of a no brainer to come put a sticker on your windshield, the gate opens up, wash once a day, every day, get that customer loyalty, try to give the customer service and a consistent wash every time that they come through and get a little bit lucky and have a great business.
Aaron Spatz 32:13
That’s really cool. I mean, just hit on one thing that I think is so important, is consistency. And I think that’s something that, you know, you’ll you’ll have an experience with a business that may be like initially, like really, really awesome, you really enjoyed that. But then other people are not delivering on that with the same consistency. Like there’s a it’s some story I think I read this in a book somewhere probably, but like the the experience like going and get like a haircut right? Like you get a haircut, you’re you’re used to being treated a certain way or, you know, if they’re doing like a, they’re giving you like a hot towel, or but then you come back another time and they don’t do the same things that they used to do. And there’s an I can’t remember the phrase it was was referred to but it talks about, like chipping away at the, at the credibility of the business in terms of what they deliver and what they promise. And so even like little things like that, right. And so I like I’m saying that to say like, I love how you’re talking about consistency, because I think that’s something that a lot of people can overlook when it comes to like the the execution of their business. And so like you’ve got, you’ve got your systems in place, right? I mean, you’ve got obviously you’ve got all the equipment to make it all happen, but then you’ve got you’ve got people that are involved in your business as well obviously so you’ve got certain standards that you’re wanting to maintain and a certain vibe, a certain atmosphere that you’re wanting to cultivate. And so you know, is there anything that you think that really like? Besides it being like just baseball but like, what what else do you think is like really contributed to like that brand that you’ve built in terms of it being like the cool, the cool place to go? Like, what is there anything that you can kind of put your finger on
Daniel McCutchen 33:55
I tell my team this all the time, you know, we build this awesome location, it’s a baseball thing. I’m a baseball player, all of that is cool as long as the product is good if we don’t deliver a car at the end like it doesn’t matter like now they’re going to be mad at this baseball player that thinks he can run a carwash but you know once you once were consistent with and this is the process as I was talking about that I got the vision down you know by implement now my implementation on two locations is fine because I you know I can have my hand on both of them every day. But you know as we expand to three four or five when I’m gonna have to you know find these people to fill the bowls that that will be a new challenge that you know, I’m looking forward to but yeah, just the mean that the team is cool. The locations are great the building the school but it really comes down to my people. You know the the little things doing that things we we power wash our tunnel every night. We clean a trench with your you know, we’re scooping out all of this mud that’s coming off mud and grime. That’s coming off of your vehicle, there’s a lot of things that we do. That’s not fun. But it’s necessary to deliver that consistent product, when you don’t want to go to a carwash to get your car clean, and look at the windows and they haven’t cleaned the windows in a week or look at brushes and they’re dirty or see trash in the parking lot or, you know, trash cans that that aren’t in the end. So you know, it’s hard and it’s hard to keep a carwash clean. I mean, you I mean, after bug season wash 1000 cars of those brushes, catching water and throwing it on the windows and you’re brand new tunnel that was sparkly clean, the day before. I mean, it’s like a muddy dog running through your living room after you disclaimed it. I mean, we have to clean it every night. So just stay on top of that, being being consistent in that checking our chemicals, I have a big black truck, which is about as hard of a vehicle to wash as you can have I run that through if something looks off, you know, where I have a couple of great guys Jeremy and Ivan my two managers that are in both locations that you know, really have an eye for when our chemicals are off or when things are off. Maintenance. I mean, there’s a bunch that goes into delivering that consistent product. But I mean, I think the most important is, you know, the people that I have out there, are you being nice to the customers, are you doing what you’re supposed to be doing or you’re not on your cell phone when they you know, come rolling up, you know, giving them the the attention that they need, if they just I mean my top washes $18 they just bought, you know, an $18 Wash six or $7 Watch. That’s my lowest I mean, we tried to give every customer you know, a great experience, which carwash used to just be a carwash. And now we have lights and colored foams and great smells. And we do a Halloween tunnel where we have, you know, scary music that the lights are dancing to. And that’s cool and stuff like that. We’re giving them a an experience and a clean car and a cool, you know, a cool brand and just a very fun, great business.
Aaron Spatz 37:07
I mean, sounds like it sounds like sounds like an awesome, awesome place to be. Well, you know, so like, what what would be some your advice for just other entrepreneurs doesn’t have to be the carwash business necessarily, but like what would be some advice that you’d have for others that we haven’t already talked about, but that you think would be really helpful to people that are just getting started? In their in a new venture? Maybe it’s a side job that they’re working, but like what, what’s what, what are some things that you think would be just really important for people to understand?
Daniel McCutchen 37:40
You know, if you’re building like a brick and mortar, like iBill and you know, you’re going into it, and you get a loan for your construction or whatever, you know, have an extra capital, having money either that the banks worked in or that you’ve worked in, because there’s all of this stuff that’s going to come up that you didn’t plan for. I mean, we talked about TC two, I just got a $4,500 invoice for a permit application for something I don’t even know what it is like a 4500 bucks. I mean, that’s a bunch of money. I don’t even I don’t even know what it’s for. But you know, being able to do that that came up a lot in the first bill, two things that you didn’t think were going to be there. So have capital and we talked about it a little bit. Look the competition, which I’m not I’m not in the carwash world. I’m not trying to steal the guy down the road. That’s Washington and my competition. I mean, he can stay there. I have 35,000 cars a day that drive by my location I’m trying to get you know, for those guys that drive us. The $60,000 truck. Think it’s cool not to wash your truck. I used to be one of those guys, you know, it is a clean car. I don’t know. I sometimes I have to stop and look at myself. I get passionate when I’m talking about the carwash business and real dude. It’s a carwash. What do you what are you getting excited about? But it’s awesome. Yeah, I’ve thrown everything into it. I love the business. I mean,
Aaron Spatz 39:11
it probably it probably helps that you enjoy it probably helps that you’re just a little bit passionate about it. Right. So if you hated it, I mean, I’d be like, Dude, you gotta go do something else, man. So no, that’s I mean, that’s really that’s really, really cool. Really, really cool. I’m, I’m excited for you like what, you know as much as you’re comfortable talking about this again, I mean, obviously it’s it’s just not not everybody who watches the show has the ability to talk with people that have been in professional sports and, and, and I know there’s like some really unique challenges that come with that. And so, you know, like, was there something the quote I get? I’m, there is a question coming, I promise. But was there something inside of you that like as you’re playing that Like, you know what, I need to squirrel money away? I need to save this. And had you seen other people go before you and like, just lose it all and like, you know, leave, you know, leave the league and they have nothing? Or was that just something that had just been ingrained into you? And you just knew like, hey, I need to, I need to set some of this aside like what? Like what was that? Like?
Daniel McCutchen 40:21
I know guys that you know make their first million dollars before taxes, pay their 30 whatever percent taxes on it or city in when I played in Pittsburgh, we had a professional athletes fee was 2% of your paycheck, which at the end of the year, when you’re looking like what does that professional athletes feel even though that means they’re charging us to be a professional athlete. But yeah, I saw a guy who made a million bucks and drive a you know, have a $500,000 Lamborghini. And it’s real like that happens. I won’t say that I played with a guy that had like, seven years in the big leagues and made, I don’t know, $18 million. I played with him. In Pittsburgh, he just got he got sent down the tray, we picked him up off the waiver wire brought him over and he was so thankful to be back in the big leagues, or he was going to lose his house. And he made $12 million in his you know, his over a 10 year period. But, you know, athletes are some smart ones. I got some I have some friends that have, you know, just gone on and done great things after baseball in business, but you’re just it’s just the culture and the environment of you know, driving that awesome sports car or you know, flying private, or, you know, we go to Chicago go into the Gucci store, and how many $1,000 can you spend at the Gucci store without anything gauged by the way, I think about a Fuji wallet in New York on Canal Street. It’s kind of like Gucci, but it fell apart pretty quick. But yeah, I mean, so I had nice things. I had a nice truck, but I bought it off of Craigslist, even when I was in the big leagues. You know, and now you won’t see that. Now I have you know, I have a lot of a lot of toys and a brand new truck and no Lamborghini yet. But, but yeah, I mean, it’s you have the guys that blow through the money. And then you have the guys that that save the money. Most of the time, the guys that I knew were going to be successful after baseball, I could I could tell it in the locker room like this guy, you know? I don’t know, not all the time some some guys. Some guys that I didn’t think would be great or you know, have run good businesses and things. But you know, most baseball players get out. And you know, they become a coach or open up a baseball clinic or something like that. But there’s some entrepreneurs mixed in there.
Aaron Spatz 42:47
Yeah. So I mean, but but like for you just being able to see all that was that just it was just a reminder to yourself of like, Hey, I gotta manage this really well for myself, because it, it is me one day, I’m not gonna be playing anymore, like that day will eventually come sooner rather than you know, sooner or later. And so like, really just kind of think in the back your mind like, Man, I just I need to have a plan I need I need to kind of put some of this aside.
Daniel McCutchen 43:10
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, the window is Wednesday, small. I mean, at ton. I mean, the biggest piece of the puzzle is my wife. I mean, she is a doctor of a dentist, that’s like a doctor, I have a very successful dental practice. So, you know, I was very, very lucky to met her. And, you know, so she was the insurance policy helped me, you know, I got out of baseball, I had a chunk of money, she has a great job. I mean, I had two choices to make. I mean, I could have been a manager at Home Depot or something like that worked for someone made decent salary. And you know, just live that, I guess non stressful life. But, you know, that’s, that’s when entrepreneur comes in, you have to take risks. I mean, I had a chunk of money. Okay, we could live a comfortable life for the for a long time with her income. But do I, you know, I’m not going to be satisfied with that. I wasn’t, I mean, that was never going to be a question whether I was going to do something or not. But it was, I mean, it was a decision I had to make. I mean, we I’m gonna risk this into a business that I know nothing about, you know, we get these performers about how many cars we’re gonna wash and all of this stuff. And I’m like, Okay, well, these 10 Friends said they’re going to be customers of mine. And you know, this and that and I know these people, but where are the other 500 cars a day gonna come from? So that if it was if it was a little bit scary, you know, putting it on the line right there. I worked. I worked 80 hour weeks for a while, a long time. I was there every day at the carwash for a long time. Now if any of my friends listen to this, they’re gonna laugh because I’m not I’m not here to hear as much as as before but I’m doing stuff behind the scenes trying to work, work, work on the business and instead of in the business Got a lot of work a lot of risk and that educated desk, not just not blackjack risk, but doing your research as best as you can to try to be successful.
Aaron Spatz 45:13
Yeah, that’s really good. I mean, the whole risk risk idea. You know, there’s been, I think, a misconception that it’s exact. I mean, I love what you said that was like, the misconceptions. Like, it’s gotta be blackjack risk, like, you’ve got to just put it all out there. And I mean, man, that’s I mean that that’s not at all what it is. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s risk mitigation, you’re like, you’re, you’re, you’re you are accepting of a certain amount of risk, and you’re just evaluating it and trying to mitigate what you can and deal with it in as effective as a way as you possibly can, which I think is just huge. So there’s one other thing that you’re saying that I think was really important as well. And I’m trying to place it where we were going with that because there it had to do with risk. If I remember here in a minute, it’s all good but but no. So for people that want to learn more about your, your business, Daniel, they you’re in the greater New Braunfels area so for folks that are not from Texas that’s just north of San Antonio. Just a little bit but and then you got your you got the website, right. Bigley carwash. Calm.
Daniel McCutchen 46:21
Yes. Bigley carwash, calm is my website. We’re on Instagram and Facebook. Big League carwash. My personal Instagram is cut at two. Yeah, you can we have a pretty good website where we have some fun with our social media. And I have a lot of pictures of cars that go through our tunnel. And yeah, you can, you can see a lot about us there.
Aaron Spatz 46:50
Yeah. Well, that’s awesome. Well, well, Daniel, I just, I really I just want to thank you for spending some time with me and just going in and kind of going over a little bit of your story from, from baseball and into business and just a lot of the things that you’ve learned and seen along the way and, you know, no doubt. I mean, you’re, you’re, you’re clearly already successful, but continuing to grow and build on that success. And so I mean, I’m, I’m really, really excited for you. And, you know, once again, just thanks. Thanks for spend some time with me today.
Daniel McCutchen 47:17
Yeah, thanks a lot. It was a good talk.
Aaron Spatz 47:20
Awesome. Thanks for listening to America’s entrepreneur. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review or comment on your preferred social media platform. share it out with friends, family, co workers, others in your network. And of course, you can write me directly at Erin at Bold media.us That’s a Ron at Bold media.us Select