The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

How Shine Supply Hit $7M/yr Without Paid Ads

Episode Summary

Inside Shine Supply’s Shopify Strategy

Episode Notes

Also Available on YouTube: youtu.be/_nqN9HyOpxM

What happens when a 23-year-old refuses to play the ecommerce advertising game? Colby Stevens built Shine Supply into a $7M detailing brand using nothing but Instagram ASMR videos, authentic storytelling, and a "people over profit" philosophy.

No paid ads until last month. No Amazon. No selling out to scale.

Instead: 80,000 Instagram followers, hundreds of photo reviews, and a community that buys because they believe in the brand, not just the product.

Colby breaks down the exact strategies that grew their family's Shopify store - from Klaviyo automation that actually works to the review incentive system that drives social proof. Plus why they turned down millions in Amazon revenue to stay true to their dealers.

Key Takeaways:

Fair warning: you'll want to detail your car after this one.

Sponsors:

Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more
getswym.com/kurt

Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify
cleverific.com/unofficial

Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels
zipify.com/KURT

Guest Links:

Shine Supply - Colby's detailing brand
shinesupply.com

Shine Supply Instagram - 80k followers, zero ads
instagram.com/shinesupply

Mentioned Tools:

Shopify - Ecommerce platform
shopify.com

Klaviyo - Email marketing automation
klaviyo.com

Loox Reviews - Photo review system
loox.app

Work With Kurt:

Apply for Shopify Help
ethercycle.com/apply

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The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Episode Transcription

Kurt Elster
This episode is sponsored in part by Swim. Okay, here's a depressing stat. 70% of shoppers who want your products never actually buy them. They browse, they consider, then they forget. That's revenue walking out the door. Swim Wishless Plus turns browsers into buyers. Customers save products they want, get notified when prices drop, or items restock. You can also engage them in personalized fashion through your marketing or sales outreach. It's like having a personal shopper reminding them to come back and buy from you instead of your competitors. And 45,000 stores already use it. And it only takes five minutes to install. You could try it free today for 14 days. Go to get swim. com/slash curt. That's swimwithay. com slash curt. Turn those maybe later into sales today. Get swim. com Yeah. Man, I love detailing cars. This is a a strange hobby and interest. Very uh Zen-like, but I enjoyed it. I used to have A black car. I don't know that I could bring myself to own a black car again because they're so difficult to get that really great, like, gloss piano black look. And so I'm really into detailing, enjoy detailing, and because of that, I have been lucky enough to work with several car detailing brands on Shopify. Jay Leno's garage really that helped us get our foot in the door with Shopify in many ways. So always grateful to them. Adam's Polishes. And then through those relationships got introduced to other detailing businesses that I have been lucky to work with. And today I want to share one with you because it's a a family-owned business. They started their business in 2008. I started mine in 2009. You know, it it it's an interesting, interesting story that I want to share with you today, and maybe you'll learn a few tips about keeping your car clean. And so I want to welcome Colby Stevens from Shine Supply to the show today. And of course, I'm your host, Kurt Elster. And this is the unofficial Shopify Podcast. Uh let's hear an entrepreneurial Shopify story. Colby, how you doing? Welcome to the show.

Colby Stevens
How's it going?

Kurt Elster
Good. Very good. I'm excited to have you here. Uh all right, you are you're a young guy. What uh tell us. How old are you, sir?

Colby Stevens
I'm twenty-three. Twenty three twenty-four in September.

Kurt Elster
Oh my gosh, you're half my age. Well, little A little more than half my age, but uh you're just a baby. How long have you been doing this?

Colby Stevens
Well, I mean I've been detailing forever just because my dad, you know, started detailing in nineteen ninety-six, but I started working here at Shine Supply in twenty nineteen. Yeah, right out of high school.

Kurt Elster
And what was your first job at Shine Supply?

Colby Stevens
My first job was packing boxes. Just make boxes all day, help pull orders, and I kind of just I've been through like every department of the company for now.

Kurt Elster
What are you and now where are you working?

Colby Stevens
So now I'm doing all of the marketing in the media. So running all the socials, making sure working with you with Shopify, um handling any issues with um Shopify if they need anything.

Kurt Elster
And so do you run the the Shopify online store?

Colby Stevens
Yeah, I just make sure everything's good. Like make make the new products. If we're launching a new product, I take all the photos for it. Make sure everything's dialed in on the website. Um, all the graphics you see, most of them I just make on Photoshop, but basically all the marketing and the media. That's what I handle.

Kurt Elster
The marketing efforts you've been doing, because you're relatively new to it, what are the channels that are working? Where are you seeing success?

Colby Stevens
Our biggest um Platform is going to be Instagram. That's how my dad grew the business was on Instagram. Last month was the first month we've ever done paid ads. Ever. Um we're starting to dive into like some meta ads just because I feel like we have very good content and a really good message and obviously really good products. Um and you're so limited with something like Instagram or TikTok on, you know, your reach. Doing I think we started about like ten bucks a day, just like the bare minimum, just to get our feet wet with med ads. But um Yeah, I feel like the platform to answer your question would be Instagram. We're starting to get some traction on TikTok, but Instagram is kind of where we push the most in terms of content.

Kurt Elster
I would imagine, you know, with detailing, you could do, you know, these these great videos of like before and afters or like the You know, I love pressure washing videos, like the really satisfying ones where it's like, here is something filthy, and then they show you, you know, cleaning it. Um, you do anything like that? Like what kind of video gets traction?

Colby Stevens
So we don't I mean those videos are great, don't get me wrong, but it's not like realistic. You're not gonna get like a I know a lot of companies will do like we have this junkyard car and Look at how clean we get it, but that's not like your average customer can't really relate to that. So I don't that's not really our lane. Um in terms of videos, but the best videos that we have found work the best are gonna be we have a person we work with, his name is Bryce, and he lives in Virginia. He's like one of the two people we work with in terms of like ambassadors and it's literally just with this phone, just with his iPhone, and he puts it on a tripod and he washes his truck with no music.

Kurt Elster
That's makes makes it sound so simple. But alright, so this was like a um influencer you paired with?

Colby Stevens
Yeah, his name's Bryce. I am Bryce on Instagram and TikTok. Yeah, gets thousands of views. It's very simple. They're very like satisfying, like how you're talking about with like the pressure washing.

Kurt Elster
Yeah.

Colby Stevens
Super satisfying. He lives in Virginia. It's really green. You know, he's got like wind chimes in the background. So it's like a it's like an experience, but those definitely do the best. Interesting. Every time it's crazy.

Kurt Elster
That it's like all right, we've got our Zen video is what does the trick. Yeah. So like detailing, you know, I said, hey, I work with multiple detailing brands. And what's so interesting about detailing, it's competitive, but like the space is more communal. You know, like the there are forums dedicated to this, there are people who do it as a hobby, people who do it as like a a small business, and then That uh and then you know, larger brands that have detailing supplies like yourself. But this started as um just a detail like a mobile detailing business, right? Mm-hmm.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, my dad started detailing in 1996.

Kurt Elster
What made what made him, what made you guys say, you know what? Let's also because like obviously you're buying the supplies. You're like, well, let's manufacture it too.

Colby Stevens
Mm-hmm. Um, so the reason why my the leading up to starting Science by my dad and mobile detailing, I have three brothers. So my dad was twenty believe he was twenty-seven with four kids. And uh he was distributing products for Maguire's at the time. And he just needed more income. You know, you have four kids. My mom has always been a stay-at-home mom ever since she had my older brother. Um so mobile detailing, especially back then you're making like, you know, forty, fifty bucks a wash, tops, right? You know, right now you can make like a hundred and fifty bucks, but Um he really just need more more income. And um he started Shine Spot because of that. He had uh He got his foot in the door with um a guy McGuire's who got him into uh blending company contact and then that's how He started everything, but the gist of like why he started it was just because he needed more income for Ma for a big family.

Kurt Elster
No, I get that. I got three kids. Um detailing as a industry, kind of communal. People help each other out. It sounds like he was buying, was he reselling? Was he like a distributor for McGuire's?

Colby Stevens
Yeah. Yeah. So he was like a diehard Maguire's fan forever.

Kurt Elster
And that's It's they were they're the ones essentially a connection through Maguire's is what inspired him and set him up to start manufacturing the product.

Colby Stevens
The lead trainer Adam McGuire's was super tied with my dad and was like, dude, like you're so passionate about detailing. Like I feel like you'd be really good. You started your own brand and he's just like, uh he hate he h hates being like a sales guy. So he was kind of against it, but Elite trainer was just pushing him to do it. Um because he's so passionate about it. He believed that my dad would be really good at selling just because he's so he like he believes in it. You know, and someone believes in something. It's pretty easy to sell something because they believe in it so much.

Kurt Elster
And makes it authentic. But he's got, you know, this this trusted authority figure, this third party telling him like, hey, this you could do this, I believe in you. And here, let me set you up with a connection. That's really cool. Always surprised by like the level of community to the detailing industry. But from there, you know, the the issue with detailing is it's kind of a commodity, right? Like thing it I'm looking at my car, I'm like, well, I need I need soap, right? I gotta wash the car. I need it like there's no end to the amount of stuff I could buy, but it's essentially all pretty similar. Right. It's like I need some microfiber towels, I need some some detailer spray, I need some glass cleaner. Like there's stuff, but it's all pretty similar. How do you stand out in a space like that where, you know, a lot of similar product, a lot of overlapping product? And you know, and people helping each other out in like tons of these brands.

Colby Stevens
Mm-hmm. I think the biggest thing something you know, I listened to a podcast, it was about the owner of True Classics, sure brand. Yeah. And he was talking about, I mean this guy scaled this thing from like seven hundred thousand to like fifteen million within like five years. So pretty gnarly dude. And he was talking about um You know, getting making f people feel getting like an emotional reaction out of people with your stuff. And I think that's My dad's like created a culture, you know, it's so much more the detailing br like a detailing product company. You know, when you think of Shine Spy, you think of the culture that comes behind it. Obviously our products are great, but I think what makes us stand out the most is we've always just stayed in our lane in terms of content. You know, we're not posting something um to go to m get a bunch of views. We're posting it because we want to and it's what we believe in. Um And just the the message, you know, my dad always pushes out, just working hard and staying passionate about what you love and I think that's honestly if I could put it in the a short sentence it would honestly just be the culture is that's how we stand out. Just like what we stand for.

Kurt Elster
And then how do you communicate that? Like social media posts, captions?

Colby Stevens
Yeah. Social media. Um my dad does a lot of For years he's been doing these properly shine quotes, does them all the time. Um but uh you know for I wanna say up until like twenty twenty. The whole Instagram was, you know, ran by my dad and he'll just put post like his whole life on on her business page. like with all my brothers and just what he was walking through and um, you know, people he's super vulnerable on there and I think people could relate to that and it started to, you know, attract people to the brand and Obviously the products work amazing, but it's something that people can like buy and get a feeling from it, other than, you know, if you bought from say like turtle wax from O'Reilly's or Right. You're not you're just buying it because it's right there, not necessarily like buying it because you're impacted by the brand.

Kurt Elster
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Colby Stevens
Yeah, pretty much. I mean we have we have like a YouTube channel, but it only has like 8,000 views. I usually just recycle the videos I post on Instagram and put them on a TikTok, but um yeah that Instagram and like word of mouth has been like the driving force for the brand up until you know up until now that's a majority of where we put our marketing efforts to. And uh I think that's where most people find Shine Spies from Instagram.

Kurt Elster
With detailing products, you know, the issues become Education and differentiation. And so like your products have interesting names. I'm looking at some of the top 10 products here. Number one, Wise Guy Decked out, shift, clutch, punch it, cool guy. Obviously I need this. Hotshot and the solution. And I'm like, that's there's our top eight. That's great. But I don't know what any of them do. Tell me about like talk to me about the like the naming, you know, challenges, thought process there.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, my dad names all the products and he writes all the labels for them. Um my dad super grew up uh eighties, nineties, seventies, so he um loves more like that old school automotive vibe. So that that's where the names come from. In terms of education, that's probably one of our strong suits. And that's what we stand behind is our education on the products. For years my dad would go in the stories and just walk through like a whole entire detail with our products. But now we just do our best to put as much education on our products as possible. My goal is to just put more on YouTube. So it's more stuff people can go back to, not scroll through our Instagram and try to find a video on how to apply decked out.

Kurt Elster
But Yeah, when I go on the site It's pretty smart. It's like, all right, I'm looking at Wise Guy, which wise guy cleans tires, and it tells you that. And it's obvious from the photo because the guy's spraying it on tires. And but like when you see, you know, the photos, there's one product photo, the rest is action and it looks so good. You like see it just looks satisfying when you see it like just all this dirt weeping off uh a wheel and tire. You're like, you're like, man, I want I want to clean mine too. That's how I feel when I see it. But then the product description really like sells it, removes old tire dressing buildup, leaving a clean canvas ready for our tire dressing. Right? This are like the product description's already cross-selling the next product to get And then there's a a YouTube video that's got a really strong uh thumbnail and it's how to clean your wheels and tires using wise guy and cool guy. And then he explains, you know, click through to it. And it's a really nice video, explains only seven minutes, explains the difference, shows you how to use it, tips and tricks. So by the end of it, you're like, I trust this product, I trust this brand, I trust this guy. And you only watch the one. And you know, I remember years ago I had, you know, this black car with swirled up paint. I had to fix it and so uh I'm gonna go watch YouTube videos. At that time it was like you know, chemical guys and uh Adam from Adam's Polishes. And that that was how I figured it out. And then, you know, the those become the brands you trust. And tutorial content, you know, just does so well on YouTube. Talk to me about the process for making these these YouTube videos. Because they're they seem pretty slick. They look good.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, the videos we had a lot of traction. I want to say like two years ago we had um a full-time media guy in here and then I was like helping with like sales but I would help the media guy at the time with YouTube videos. Those all those YouTube videos you see, that was um the media guy filming my dad with the iPhone. We had good traction there and my dad, you know, we've grown substantially since that point. He's kind of stepped out of the on camera role, I've started to step into that, but I but it's been uh a little difficult because I I hold the camera too, so I can't like film myself. Uh we're trying to get back into it. We're just trying to figure out, you know, the the balancing of times and getting someone to film.

Kurt Elster
It's tough because like try to do it film yourself, you know, either handheld or tripod. It just makes everything so much harder and it takes so much longer. But just like put even but then just having it on a tripod, it's like not nearly as dynamic to having a single static shot. So then it's like, what do you do? Okay, well now I should do multi-camera. Well now everything's like so much more complicated.

Colby Stevens
Versus a lot.

Kurt Elster
If just you and one other person with an iPhone, like it It's faster, way faster. It's more dynamic because they could just move in the position. And then that iPhone, the video quality, and like any modern, I'm saying iPhone, but like I'm using it like Kleenex, any modern smartphone. has great video quality. Um and you drop that into whatever video editor of choice. I'm lucky I know how to edit video, but man, I know it's time consuming. Like my own YouTube videos, I hired someone, you know, Christine, she's great. I had to get somebody else to do it for me. Um if there's so much value in the YouTube video, like I'm looking at a video, uh 13,000 views, and then like it really helps sell the product on the page. We gotta be able to figure this out, right? Like where's the hard part? The filming, the video editor?

Colby Stevens
It's more just um you know Right now we're growing so fast. Um I think it's more just getting the shop situated. We had to let go our operations manager like a month ago. And we've been rolling it. We've been rolling with the with no operations manager and having each department self-led. So like shipping is self-led by the lead in there. Um, our downflame department is self-led, but I'll leave in there. Um we have someone in purchasing in inventory. And I think we're just trying to get everything set in stone to a good foundation and then we can start jumping into the YouTube videos more. But um it's more just, you know, getting in there and doing them. I can sit here and make embugging excuses how to it's more just we gotta start doing them.

Kurt Elster
Well it's tough. You know, they say uh the cobbler's children have no shoes. You know, it's like it's your own business and there's it's easy to put off. stuff like, hey, make a YouTube video. Because it like, there's nothing holding your feet to the fire that says you have to make a YouTube video today. So yeah, I totally get it. It's an easy thing to deprioritize. um you know when there's other more pressing matters to attend to.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, but we definitely want to do more. It's not like, you know I don't I never want to be like, well, we don't, you know, we're gonna get orders regardless. We don't like let's not make YouTube videos. Like we always wanna be Our word this year is excellence. We always want to be better. So um when the time's right, we'll start knocking out as many YouTube videos as we can. It's just more like getting the shop situated, get a good foundation, make sure everything's running smoothly. And then jump to the next demanding task.

Kurt Elster
For sure. I mean it sounds like you're in this this incredible growth phase right now. And you know, with that, like r there are growing pains, for sure. Um but you did all that without really really it sounds like without paid ads up until this point.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, till literally last month. I think we did like 10 bucks a day on like two ads.

Kurt Elster
Yeah, and even with the ads, you're like, you know, we're just you're getting your feet wet. You're getting and you're I like the way you're approaching it. You know, building the bootstrapping it, you know, doing it without going organic, you know, trying to avoid burning money on ads. And then when you get into ads, being careful with it and trying to like figure it out yourself. And once you understand it, you know, if you hire out for it, it makes life a lot easier that you can speak the language. Mm-hmm. There I you have to have done email marketing SMS. Did we do any of that?

Colby Stevens
Yeah, I knew I was using I mean up till last year we literally did not do I think we had MailChimp, but we would You know, I think MailChimp's super outdated. And it was just like the most basic emails we were sending out. But once I got into the this role, Um, I looked into Clavio, so kind of got our whole website integrated with Clavio and we started pumping out more email marketing. I don't do a lot, I probably do like one or two a month just because I don't want to overload people, but when I do do an email campaign, an SMS campaign, they do very well. Um yeah, like up until last year we had like no no email subscription, no SMS at all. Um we didn't have any like flows activated, no abandoned cart, no nothing. It's crazy. Jeez.

Kurt Elster
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Colby Stevens
Yo yeah. Yeah, we yeah, it does very well. Especially all the flows, you know, like a banding cart, um, automatic like repelentry minders. I've got to be a good one.

Kurt Elster
This is consumable good. That's the nice part about detailing. People just keep buying.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, so I've like it set on I think it's like four months. Cause I don't want it to be like super insane where they're just getting blown up with emails all the time. But I think it's like four months. And I don't want people to get annoyed because I know I have some companies and it's just like dude leave me alone.

Kurt Elster
Like uh So the other thing I noticed on the site, like man, you've got These products will get hundreds of reviews. Which getting reviews.

Colby Stevens
Oh, that's another thing I didn't even mention too. So we didn't have any reviews set up. Like we had judge me, but it's like so outdated. I mean when I came to you for our website, it was like you know, our website was so outdated. It was from like 20 probably 2014. And so when I got into this position and I was kind of messing with the website, like the website that you that you helped us with, that's kind of what I what I started with and got the website to. But we I did um Luke's Luke's reviews.

Kurt Elster
Yeah, L O O X looks. Yeah.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, and I started doing like if they did like a photo or a video review, it was like 10% off. And we That's how we get so many reviews now.

Kurt Elster
Like so 'cause of the discount?

Colby Stevens
Yeah, I would say like seventy-five percent of the reviews you're seeing is strictly from like the past year and a half.

Kurt Elster
That's crazy. And what's wild is they all have photos and videos attached to them. And they're really good. It's just like clean truck after clean truck

Colby Stevens
Like if I saw all these reviews, like I'm definitely buying it because like photo reviews and video reviews, it's very selling if you're like a consumer and you see all those reviews. It's very very helpful.

Kurt Elster
So like early on you mentioned I've heard culture and community come up a lot. So I want to know like what you're big on culture. When you say building community, what does it look like? You know, what do we mean by having a community?

Colby Stevens
I think a lot of it's just um community. Just making people feel like involved. You know, like Something that my dad's always been big on is making people feel like they're included, like in the brand. You know, when they tag us on Instagram, they don't just get like a like on their story. You know, I always make sure to comment on it. Um and if it's something like I can relate to, I'll comment on something like there's a jersey in the back, I'll be like, oh like you like the you like the Rams or something like I just make 'em feel like Like uh involved or like loved. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to make them feel like they're included. You know, I don't want to make them feel like they just buy our stuff and it's just like, oh, you're just another person that's buying your stuff.

Kurt Elster
Um like your social media seems like there's a mix of you know it's like your own content and then you're mixing in customer content as well, UGC.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, so we have Bryce who I told you about earlier with those ASMR, and then we have Anthony, who Anthony is um big media guy, but he's actually our shipping One of our shipping guys is son. So him and Bryce are the only two people we work with and um they make great content. But yeah, Anthony does an amazing job. He's kind of He's kind of the one that we're investing in to kind of help us grab like a different audience. Like more of like the car guys. Um

Kurt Elster
Who did you have who what audience were you getting before? If not car guys?

Colby Stevens
Oh, we were just like all truck guys. Lots of truck guys. I'd say we're like obviously we have customers that have cars and they buy our stuff, but it's not like I think a majority of our sales come from like let's say A lot of blue collar guys, like firefighters or construction workers, they have nice trucks. Um a lot of the people from the East Coast, Bryce has brought a ton of those guys in. And it's like I'm not sure if you're familiar with trucks, but it's basically like stock wheels with big grap grappler tires and like color matched trucks. That's the look now? Yeah, so that's a look over there, Elise. So we have a ton of customers that Bryce has brought in from the East Coast that have those kind of trucks, but I would say the audience that we're kind of trying to grab now is the the cart guys.

Kurt Elster
And it's funny, I mean a hundred per I know exactly what you're talking about. A hundred percent Like car aft anything aftermarket related gets put into these tribes, either by like vehicle make or style. And then it's funny to hear you described, you're like, you know, when I asked, I'm like, oh color matched, you know, with the the the Nino Terra Grapplers, is that you know, that look, you know, is that is that what's hot right now? And you said that well over there. You know, yeah. What's funny is like car styling, aftermarket stuff, it is very regional in the US.

Colby Stevens
Oh yeah, it's crazy. Like like here in California. I have like a truck. It's like a it's called a pre-runner, so it's kind of like a, you know, you take a truck you can buy and then you kind of build it into like a off-road truck. That's like huge in California. But then there's none of that and like in the East Coast it's all like these kind of stock trucks with paymatch and they'll squat 'em or they have like the squad. The Carolina squad. Yeah, the big old twenty-two inch wheels. It's crazy like the different regions of um like different truck and car build.

Kurt Elster
The stu I Instagram serves this stuff to me and I love I love the stuff they do in Houston. I mean just like the yeah, nothing that I would necessarily build, but just like the wildest stuff. It's like, oh you put twenty-six inch wheels on that. And how tall are those tires? Are those rubber bands?

Colby Stevens
Forty-five inch tires.

Kurt Elster
Yeah, just wild stuff. Uh So looking how wait, how long has this store been on Shopify?

Colby Stevens
2014 maybe.

Kurt Elster
When you took over that store, then you you picked the theme, punched it up, and then later you hired me and I helped helped you fix the finish it, you know, fix the catalog, the menu, and the rest of the theme. Um, what what's the one thing that like you wish you knew going into it if you had to go back about Shopify?

Colby Stevens
I wish I knew how to like code and stuff like that. Like just because if I wanted to do something, I didn't want to like mess with it because I didn't want to mess it up more. Like when I was kinda doing the website I was just going on YouTube and figuring out, okay, if I want it to look like this, what do I need to do? Um but I would have loved to know how to code before 'cause then I can do like cool stuff like how you did. That's probably the one thing.

Kurt Elster
It helps. But I will say it's also, you know, still an exercise in frustration. Oh, well, once you're messing with the code, for sure you'll mess it up. That's how you know when you've got it right.

Colby Stevens
Yeah, I just didn't want to mess it up beyond repairs. So I just kinda like did the bare minimum on not the bare minimum, like my to my capacity of skill. And then That's when I found you and I was so stoked 'cause I was like, I want it to look like this, but I don't know how to do it.

Kurt Elster
Can you do it? Yeah, that was no, that's a It's a fun one. It's always great when it's like, all right, this is successful, but they you know they know what they want, they just don't know how to get there, you know, and we get to be the people that help. in between. But you know, earlier we were talking, you said the the past like one to two years has been stressful but rewarding. What do you what's the biggest lesson that you think you've learned?

Colby Stevens
For I think more as like a whole, as like a brand, is more gonna be like getting your foundation set in terms of like the people here. Our biggest uh thing that always stands out that my dad says like people over profit and like building uh you know, you can't go anywhere if you don't have the your team set. So I think investing in the employees here, investing in the staff and setting the foundation for the brand with the people you work with is like the most important thing we've learned just because we've You know, me being here for seven years next year, I've seen so many people like come and go. And um It's tough because it it ruins like the whole entire flow of the company and the entire whole entire atmosphere of the whole this whole building. So surrounding yourself with a with a good you know, a set of people here investing them, making them feel wanted, making them feel that um, you know, when the company succeeds, they succeed as well. You know, it's not like They're just slaving away and then you have the owner that never comes in and kind of just watches them. Doesn't really help. You know, my dad's in here every single morning. Uh we have a meeting every single week and we do team lunch every Thursday. Like he's very invested in the stuff. I think that's the most important thing that I've learned just watching is investing in the people you work with. Because they'll they'll want to build with you. You know, then it's not like they're just coming in for a paycheck. I believe a lot of the people here would do this for free.

Kurt Elster
That's great advice. And that's, you know, quite the thing to build. What uh what's got you excited about the future for Shine Supply?

Colby Stevens
Just the growth, honestly. Like I just want to be I wanna be the best, you know. I that I strive for that. I want our content to be the best. Um, I believe our products are one of the best. Um, but I just want to be like one of the top brands without I want to be one of the top brands without going against our moles and our principles. without sacrificing those. I think that's very important. You know, I know a lot of brands that have very good, strong morals and principles at first, and then, you know sacrifice those to gain a profit. I don't think that's the way at all. You know, I agree. We could go on Amazon. and just sell a bunch of stuff and completely, you know, disregard all of our dealers because no one's gonna go to our dealers now that we have personal relationships with because they can buy it on Amazon. We also just don't want to be on Amazon, you know, we're not one of those brands, but stuff like that where Yeah, you can make, you know, millions of dollars on Amazon, but you're going against your moils. That's never gonna be worth it.

Kurt Elster
Absolutely. So alright, if I wanted some detailing gear, where do I go? Plug the site.

Colby Stevens
Shinespy. com is um our website. We have over 40 dealers. Across the US. We have some in Hawaii. We have one in Thailand. We have a ton of dealers. The dealer maps on our website, but um our website shinespy. com.

Kurt Elster
Very cool. Yeah, check it out. Check out the the content. I think their their social media and their YouTube content's really good. Um but yeah, shinesupply. com for all your detailing needs. Colby Stevens, thank you so much.

Colby Stevens
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on, Kurt.

Kurt Elster
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