From Broke to Owning 30 Million In Cars - Steve Hamilton

Publish Date: 2023/3/7

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Okay, we got a little bit of a different setup today. I got an intro for you. Keep it official. Today's guest is a business owner turned YouTube creator. If you've ever bought wheels and tires for your car, you've probably helped him afford the $30 million in cars sitting behind us right now that he gladly hands the keys over to pretty much anyone to experience and drive. Welcome on the podcast, Steve Hamilton. Thank you, gentlemen. It's awesome to be here at

At my headquarters. I was like, thanks for having us. Thanks for letting us tear apart your shop and your couch set up and all that. My pleasure, young man. Yeah, this is sweet, dude. It's quite the setup here. What do you call this? A car condo? Yeah, we call it the car condo or THC HQ, the Hamilton Collection Headquarters. That's usually what we call it in the text. Yeah, dude, this is sick. Thank you. This is new. You guys just moved from your house? Uh,

Yeah, everything was stored in my house. Prior to that, we had a much smaller unit here. So small unit, only fit seven cars. And then I built my house to accommodate like 15 cars. And then the collection got to like 25, 28 cars. So we needed this pretty quickly. Steve, I don't know if you even know this, but we've been working with Custom Offsets, which we're an owner of, for like...

I'd say four years now. I think it was like 2018 when we first had, uh, we brought our truck to banker and he built it for us down there. Um, so I mean, our viewers are super familiar with custom offsets, fitment industry. So we thought it'd be really cool to show the man behind the business. And, uh, you, you're becoming a little bit more public with your YouTube channel, the Hamilton collection. But before that it was nothing like you were, you were just like, you were just the

businessman and you left all the content creation to the custom offset guys and you were kind of just behind the curtains, right? Yeah, exactly. Totally behind the scenes. And then, um, technically I kind of stepped away from day to day activity and then I got bored immediately. So part of that's why we started the Hamilton collection a little over a year and a half ago. And so the channel has done really well in just a year and a half and took a lot of what I learned from custom offsets, Fitment and all the other companies, uh,

Um, added my own clever spin, my personality. We have a great, awesome team behind us with Natalia, Tommy, Aiden, and then Lawrence who does some editing. So, um, just the combination of us all makes for a really fun time. Well, it's kind of cool because a lot of people, um,

become youtubers to buy cars and to kind of do stuff but you've almost done it in reverse where you had the business you had seen success and then you started youtubing yeah yeah it's kind of strange and the awesome thing about that is because i still have the businesses and they're still generating income i can i don't have to worry about this being an income stream to be honest with you so and that's that's a huge part of the reason why we we give everything back and so every every profit and then some we

We give back. There's no money that gets paid out. I mean, technically, all the money gets paid to me, and then my wife and I go donate it. But yeah, that's what it's all about, sharing the cars with the community and then giving back everything that we earn to make sure that people are taken care of, I guess. So it didn't start this way, though. You didn't have all these cars growing up. You had a very humble... You come from very humble beginnings. I think...

to tell your story, we got to just start at the very beginning. Yeah. So the audience really just knows the come up story. So how did you get into the wheel and tire industry? I guess backing up, giving a little more background, like I had to work for everything that I had. I was just joking with my brother yesterday. We were at this little popcorn shop downtown Wheaton that

that sells like penny candy. It still actually does have penny candy, even with inflation and everything, they have penny Tootsie Rolls. And I remember being 12 years old and lying on the application that I was 14 to be able to get a job there. It just showed that like, I look at the age of my middle son and he's 12 and I'm like, God, I was that young understanding that you needed to have money to be able to get things because there was no money at home. Like there was nothing. Like I had to go, there would be field trips and I would have to show up without $5 to

with the permission slip, but no money. And the teacher would be like, oh, well, we'll make it happen somehow. And I don't know if they still charge for field trips at school, but I didn't get to do like, there's a big Springfield trip. There's a big Washington DC trip. Like forget about all that stuff. You really learn the value of a dollar early. And so I was extremely driven, tried to get that job at 12. They

They must have ran a social security check and that didn't happen. Started working at age 13. There's some weird law in Illinois that allows you to be like a caddy at a golf club. And you don't even have to have, you're not on payroll. Like you can receive cash and there's some just odd caveat where that was okay. 14, 15, worked at McDonald's.

16 and on for the most part, worked at Jewel, which is a local grocery store. And so like always had that drive, always had that entrepreneurial spirit. There were some other things that I started kind of in between with radio installation, with bike repair, and just kind of use that drive to realize that there was a need for wheels and tires. So this was like 2003. I was in my second year of community college and I just was looking for wheels online and

that A, people were being successful at it and B, like I could probably go do this myself. So I found a way to get direct with the manufacturer. It took a little bit of finesse and I was able to discover what the actual buying price of these wheels that I was looking at. I was looking at what they were selling on eBay and this was like almost before drop shipping was a thing. So I've

everything is about timing, right? So right now it's freaking impossible to get into dropshipping, even though YouTube will confuse people into thinking that everybody can be a dropshipper. It's like harder, so much harder now to be successful because you're going up against guys like me that have been doing this for 20 years. They get the best price, that stock that can ship faster. But yeah, I mean, I just started on eBay, dropshipping, selling wheels out of my mom's apartment. And the first, I didn't have to have any money to start it. And the first week I was receiving money from customers going and buying the product.

shipping it and then keeping the leftover money it was pretty sweet how'd you finesse them into into believing that you were like a wholesaler or a dealer i i called up and i said i was just around i'm just like what's my price on these eagle 077s they're like well are you a shop

Actually, the guy I talked to, his name was Paul, and he talks, he said, hey, man, we like your new shit. That's just how we talk. I don't know. Every time I, later on, every time I'd call and check on a wheel, it would always be, for your dad, I'm like, Paul, we've been doing this for two years, bro. Stop doing that for your dad joke. Anyway, that's a story for another day, but, um...

the second time i called because they wouldn't give me the pricing first i'm like hey this is steve from wheaton firestone could you give me a price on that uh eagle 077 and then like without hesitation they're like yeah it's 89 bucks a wheel i'm like hmm well that was pretty easy to go get that price

And while there's money to be made, I need to go over there and get set up as soon as possible. And I just had this little business card for radio installation that I was doing. It was totally not a registered LLC or anything. I mean, I was 19 years old at the time. I'm just doing it on the side. And they've signed me up on just a business card like nobody else would do that. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. But after like a week or so, they immediately needed me.

that I was a business because I'd already bought like five or six sets. They're like, this guy's not going to float under the radar. So, um, yeah. And then, and then I, but I had the money and I had that, like at that point, I'm like, this works. Like I'm going to figure out how to go get myself legal. And, um,

I was able to do that. So, so were you like passionate about wheels or you just saw money to be made and you were like, I'm going to just go all in on that because I can make the most money. I think it's both. I liked wheels. I had these wheels already actually on my car and I was, what I was looking for was them in 18 inch. That's where the idea birthed. So it didn't come to me when I first bought wheels from them, which I happen to have bought from that Firestone, by the way, it was when I wanted to upgrade. So I was very into customizing my vehicle and like

Um, there, there's a joke about CD players where every like birthday or, or, and I've been with my wife since I was, she was 15, I was 16. So she'd buy me a CD player for my car. And I'd always have every three months, I'd have a different piece of crap. And, uh, the joke was I'd, I'd put the CD player and install it and then sell the car. And like, she'd have to get me a new CD player. Um, and so always customizing with that. I I've done engine swaps myself. Um, even the stupid stuff where you're just throwing stickers and making your car look

special, but always into wheels and automotive customization. What kind of cars were you dealing with back then? My first car ever was an 84Z28 that I had when I was 14. I bought it from a fellow McDonald's employee, drove it to school at age 14 one time, drag raced in a cemetery, and I could never get the title. See, I didn't know what I was doing at the time, didn't have great mentors as parents.

Uh, so yeah, I had to, had to part that vehicle out. Um, my first vehicle after that was the day I got my license. I went and bought, or like right around the day I got my license, I bought a 79 F two 50 for like 500 bucks. And, uh, it was a really special car to me. I tried finding it again just because it was my first, but it was an absolute piece of crap. And I've probably had, I don't know, maybe 15 cars from that until I started my business that were all, you know, sub $2,000, uh,

hunks of crap. Just flipping them and... It wasn't intentional. I just got bored of them. Like, I don't think I even made money on most of them. I think I lost money on the vast majority of them. It was more just like... Yeah. Ryan loses money on everything he touches. It's funny because my brother, Joel, who's also an owner at all the companies, like...

I never understood it. Like he, he wasn't trying either, but he would always make money. Like no matter what he bought, I'd be like, how did you go make a thousand bucks? And I think it was patience. I think that was the difference where I'd be like, nah, I'm sick of that car. Like, I'm just going to throw it out, offer it at a cheap deal. Hope I get some cash, go buy another car. But like, that's when the addiction truly started to cars. Uh, I didn't have,

15 cars at the time, but I had 15 cars over like a three-year period. So you've always been a car guy. Always. Absolutely. Yeah. Some people just have it when making money, like flipping and wheeling and dealing like that. And some people just don't. Yeah. I'm one of the people who don't. I think you're right. I think it's patience. Like I've impulse bought my last two vehicles. Nice. I mean, which is fun, but it definitely is not good for the trade-in value on that. It's hard on the wallet. I mean, half of what you see behind you were impulse buys, but they were like...

three day, well thought, well shopped using my like network of people that find off market cars. So like at this point, when you buy this many cars, you connect with a lot of people. A lot of people know off market cars and that kind of becomes the thing when it's super hyper. And then you can eventually find like that Pagani Roadster that I just bought. I bought at a really good deal where I know that I could sell that within a month and probably make, you know, three, $500,000. And so that's same with the LaFerrari that I got. I will be, I will be

patient if I need to be, but I'll be impulsive if a deal comes around right away. I had waited, I don't know, nine months and I kept saying, I need to get a LaFerrari at $3 million. Like I have to get it at 3 million. They're all going for three, five, three, seven. And then I got a phone call from someone and he's like, it has an oil leak, but it's going to get fixed. But I can do it at 3 million. And I'm like, what color? He's like black. I'm like, well, that's a rare color.

I have no problem waiting a month for something to get fixed on someone else's dime. Uh, hell yeah, I'll take that. Like I've, I've got a half million dollars of instant equity. And it's funny about like the car flipping thing, because as you become a business owner, you just realize that there are so many opportunities out there that people can take advantage of. Like I look at, uh, Tommy was just talking about buying a, what's it called? Tommy.

No, the one online, the Vanderhall, right? All right. So he's looking at buying a Vanderhall and I'm like, I'm like, and he does some motorcycle flipping and he, he looks locally and he does a good job actually flipping. It takes some time, but I'm like, you know, you can run like scrapes to, to do nationwide searches and then have it like hit you if it's below a certain price.

Go look at it, buy it, or establish a network of people around that go look and help you. And like you could, you could really flip anything and make money if you're good enough at it. And it's just fascinating, especially in the super and hyper car market where there's a lot of allocations that I get offered to me.

um, that even just a commitment for a spot in a car that's coming out in two years, I could get and then flip for a mil. I've been offered a million bucks plus my deposit that I already put down on a future allocation that I have. It's just nuts. Wow. Obviously in order to get these cars, you need to have your network. Like you talked about, what's like the buying process look like for that? You have to have straight cash or like you can, you can finance, uh, for sure. But, um, it, it depends. So let's call it kind of three different categories. There's the supercar, uh,

uh, typically you're going to want to put down, you know, call it 25 plus percent and you can finance. I buy the vast, if not all of my, nah, the vast majority of my supercars, I just pay cash. Um, especially now because the interest rates are a little bit higher, right? So it's less attractive to go take a $200,000 loan. Um, hypercars are a little hard to go for it. Obviously we're talking two plus million dollars. And, uh, so, um,

I own a few of them. I finance a few of them. I got a lot of them on notes that were, you know, sub 4% back in the day when it was a lot cheaper. And so like I'll put down a half million dollars or I think I put down, you know, over a million on my P1, on my Sena. I put down, I think a half a million. And you do need to put down a higher amount when you're going to finance a high fund. That was one of my questions. Yeah. Like you can't, you really, like if it's a million plus, you can't, you can't put down like 200, let's say 30 to 40% and you're probably okay. Okay.

Um, so really someone can't go fake that there, you can, you can fake to an extent, but, uh, not at that level. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's what she said. So, uh, I counted in my safe, I think I had about 20 titles and we've got just shy of 30 vehicles. So I'm financing what eight or nine vehicles, but, um,

If I can finance it, you know, 4% average and I can go invest that money at 8% or 9%, like, I almost should finance the entire fleet at that point if I can go reinvest that money. But I'm at a point in my life where I just really want to simplify things and not have to go work. I mean, two years ago, I owned, like,

I don't know, 70 different units, apartment buildings, many, many, many businesses, LLCs. And it's, I've, I've scaled it down to 30% of what it was. And I'm trying to get it down to just my core wheel and tire businesses. Why? Just because simplifying things just because it's easier. I mean, I think, I think I look at how many things I was juggling and it's like, gosh, like that's,

It's just crazy to think that, that someone can mentally handle that much. And I've gotten to a point where, where I think the net worth is, is just high enough. Like I've, and I've worked extremely hard my entire life for it. So part of it's just burnout. Yeah.

Um, and part of it's just like, you know, my kids are, my oldest is a teenager now. And like, I just really want to simplify life. Now I've given them a lot of time. I think I've done a great job, like making sure that all we have plenty of family time, probably more than your average nine to five job even. Um, because I find time, I can do a lot of what I do remotely. I can go vacation, but sneak work in all throughout the day.

Um, but I still just don't want to have that stress. You know, I've even with the wheel businesses alone, there's enough equity there where I don't need all of this other stuff. I don't need those other legs to stand on, I guess. It's just doing a bunch of things instead of just doing a couple of things really well. Did you find that like you were spraying yourself just too thin? Yeah. I mean, we're focusing on like the main business. It's not even that I was spreading myself too thin. Like I managed it all.

it's just when you think that if, if something goes, it like goes whack with one of the businesses, which 2022 is a very big struggle for the wheel, the wheel industry in general. Um,

I think it's when you realize that something requires your significant focus that it's very dangerous to have yourself stretched like that. Now, I wouldn't say I was stretched too thin because I had people like a smart person that owns businesses and runs them is not in the trenches of every single business because then you'll never get anything done. So I have great people running my pet supply supply stores. I have great people running...

the property. I had a property manager and someone taking care of it, but like, but if crap hits the fans or if that person leaves and while I'm managing the wheel business, like that's, that's a dangerous thing if I have to jump into managing 60 tenants while working 70, 80 hours. So it's, it's just thinking about what could happen in three to five years. I want to have, I want to be tied to nothing. Like it's, it's more about like what has leverage on you. Right? So I want to be completely able to detach myself from everything and

do whatever I want during the day. And it just doesn't like, it doesn't matter. What all do you own? The wheel entities and automotive entities are custom offsets, fitment industries, MA performance out by you guys. Um, and we acquired them SD wheel, Mr. Wheel deal, trail built, Archon, Anthem, Anovia,

God help me if I'm forgetting another business. I know I am one or two under that umbrella. And then I own the seven Pet Supplies Plus stores working to sell those two. And I'm selling them at a discount. So I've had a really long line of people interested. And I anticipate those to be gone within about 45 days. They're under contract as well. Again, those are managed actually flawlessly. I've had to work, spend a half hour of my time every month on those stores and they're still being managed well. You know, you talked when you were younger, you were like, yes, I just need to work. How do you take...

working to make money on yourself and then apply that to a business to have the business make you money. Like, how did you go from, all right, if I work 50 hours this week, I can afford the thing I want to creating a system behind. Like, that's just something that we all would love to do, but it's hard without mentors and stuff like that. Yeah. And I didn't like everybody that reaches out to us now, they're seeking mentorship. I never did that because I didn't know

You don't know what you don't know at the end of the day. And so back then it would just be figuring stuff out on my own. Like a lot of it was just figuring it out. And, and,

And I was just really driven and I was doing a lot of, you know, $12 an hour labor. When I started, I was wearing every possible hat when I started the wheel. Um, what was called Steve's discount wheels. That was the first of all of the companies. I hope I didn't forget SD wheel and that whole mix because I think you said it. That's what SD stands for. Steve's discount. Yes. No way. Yeah. So I figured it was your middle name. Yeah. Yeah. 19 year old Steve thought it'd be a great corporate name. A real catchy one. Steve's discount wheels. Yeah.

And when I walked into the... Always running sales. Yeah, right? And when I walked into the company, the card for the radio installation was Steve's Discount Radio Installation, like the worst possible...

I don't know. Not a great business name. Cheaper than the rest. Yeah, yeah. Just a weird like... I don't know. It's weird to include your name and then discount and then... I mean, a lot of people use the name and it works successfully like Jimmy John's, but it's more fun to just make up words. Like Arkon. Arkon Offroad. Funny story about Arkon. That's one of our wheel brands. And then whenever I see the city Akron, I always...

fucking call it Archon. It used to be the opposite where everyone got confused and would say Akron when they read it. Now, like in my brain, everything is Archon. But like answering your question, it's just, I just met people along the way. Like you meet good people along the way. You ask them questions. I don't even realize that what I was doing was seeking mentorship, but like David was a great example in 08 where he was, he worked in the corporate world and he's the one that had started Mr. Wheelie with us.

he worked in the corporate world and he knew spreadsheets. And so I'd leaned on him for some advice on how to, how to do spreadsheets. And then, you know, at some point pretty quickly after he showed me, he was like, you need to go like, look this up, like just, just Google it. Like, and, and he was a good nudge to help me just go figure it out on my own versus asking him to do formulas for me. And that was huge because I learned very rapidly how to use a spreadsheet effectively. And that's one of the most important things I think that

that you need to have when you're going into any corporate position is the ability to work really well in Google Spreadsheets or Microsoft Excel that a lot of people don't realize. So I'm even teaching my 13-year-old son how to catalog his Hot Wheels in there, conditional formatting, running formulas. But just, yeah, that's just kind of it. Just taking a piece from everybody. That's what she said. Damn. We got a couple of those in already today. That's also what she said. Um...

There will be an endless stream of that.

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Whatever your home project, big or small, indoor or outdoor, you can Angie that and connect with skilled professionals to get the project done well. Right now, one of my wish lists is I want a bike for my condo in Milwaukee and I would love to rig it up on a pulley in the ceiling because I have one of those like lofted ceilings.

Because when it comes to getting the most out of your home, you can do this when you Angie that. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's A-N-G-I dot com. Can we switch over to cars a little bit? So we came to Chicago and we thought it was snowy here because we kind of forget that it's not winter until like May. We're hoping to bust our cars out in like April and most people around us would think we are insane for that.

So, what's car culture like down here? I take my cars out all year long. Definitely less in the winter. I would say this last winter, less than usual. But usually, I have like a super hyper car in my garage and I'm rocking it three, four times a week. But yeah, it's definitely dead until about May. April, there'll be some nice days and we'll try to piece something together. Did you grow up in Chicago then? Yeah. Okay. So, what makes you stay just...

You could live anywhere, obviously. That's a really good question. I think it's fall. I love fall so much that end of August to early September is like I can sit out on my patio. I can watch football and just...

Like it's the only, I don't know. That's the most beautiful, best time of year. And I think that's literally why I'm here. Seasons change is always the best, especially even for us. But then it's like after December, you're like, all right, get this snow out of here. I would say November 3rd or 4th. I'm like, all right, it's too cold. I should disappear and come back in April or May. They salt the roads here.

then or yeah so you still you're ripping your cars yeah i mean you just wash them i mean most of these are like carbon bodies right so like i don't have to worry they're not gonna rust uh i mean like almost all of these are carbon and if they're not we have a car wash like i can see it from here brighton auto detail is yeah 300 feet so as soon as they get here we'll just drop them off there and they get washed right away do people ever give you a little bit of like like the purest purest like give you any oh yeah oh yeah um

We get plenty of, we, I mean about ripping them or just driving them in the winter. Yeah. So there's a, there's a page, a Facebook page that has over a hundred thousand followers out here. And like, I'm at one point I was the only guy getting spotted. I'm like, I'm not even trying to get spotted. I just want to go have fun in a car. And like, you almost feel bad because you're like, gosh, I'm going to get spotted and people are going to hate just because it's the only, it's the only like super hyper car being driven out in this weather. But I try not to let that affect me. Um, we get plenty of,

hate. I mean, I hate the GTR. So I give that lots of hate. Why do you hate the GTR? I got a GTR. You should take that one back with you. I'll take it. I don't know. I don't know. I just really don't like it. I think there's a lot of pent up anger for the length of time that it took to build the

which I've never actually seen. That's 2,000 horsepower, isn't it? Yes. It smoked my Bugatti. There's a drag race that we did. It's a full-on race car. It looked like it was going to just launch into the sky. I mean, most of it's just like...

people just saying like, yeah, like, what is it? Why would you drive? And I'm like, it's not meant to be. To me, when I see you doing that, I'm like, wow, that is so cool. Like that is like, you know, that's the coolest thing. That's like the ultimate flex. Yeah, exactly. It's one thing to have the cars, but when you actually rip them and drive them and then especially like you, you,

I don't know how you try. I don't like, it's amazing that you're able to just give the keys out to what seemingly seems like anyone. I'm sure it's not anyone, but that's changing a little bit. Oh, is it? Well, it has to because my son, I got wrecked by nobody here. No, no part of the crew that's here. The Senate got wrecked. So that, that I heard about one little thing is making my life very challenging because I want to continue to share my cars.

Um, but my insurance company who might, who might praise so much country financial decided to not renew my insurance. So they're not going to renew my insurance. So for the whole fleet, uh, the whole entire fleet. So I have to figure that out. Now, the problem was I was already trying to figure it out. Cause I was told that it's probably going to happen, but I felt like I got strung along for a few months because like, it didn't happen. Like the accident happened in November and it's like,

early February and I'm like okay well they haven't. And did they give you the money? Yeah and then as soon as I get the money I got a letter and I got a call two days later. So it's like that was for the people back home how much was the center? The center was about a million. Now by the time that by the time that it was wrecked it was worth like one one two one three and then the insurance company I guess

or they just decide to also pay you tax because if you go buy a new vehicle, there's a tax registration. So I got a check for about $1.4 million. If I could go back and do it all again, I just wouldn't have had that person drive the Senna. And I would just rather have my car, have insurance,

Apparently, when it's that big of a claim, it goes to a national underwriter level. There's one guy, I guess, with country, and this is just what I heard from them. There's a national guy. He lives in Texas. His son, I guess he brought up the name. His son was an avid follower of the channel. He immediately, somehow there was a connection made and immediately...

They got the, the adjuster went on YouTube and he's like, Oh my God. I saw this. The 16 year olds driving them to prom or to high school. So I kind of don't, I kind of don't blame them. We deal with the same thing too. They go and watch the videos. It's like, you can't get by with anything. So I need to figure that out. Um,

Now, if you have 25 or more cars in Illinois, you can self-insure. So that's going to be an option. I've also went and quoted with Hagerty and a lot of other people and they just rejected. Like they saw that Senna claim finally hit. I may not be able to insure these vehicles. I probably can insure them all liability, which means that they're not covered in an accident, but the person that gets hit.

but then they might have excluded drivers even then so I'm insured until mid-April they also mailed me a letter that no one else other than myself and my wife can drive them that hasn't stopped like ultimately the cars are insured and someone can go drive them I'm just responsible

We've still been driving them, but not quite as heavily. So I need to figure that out so that I can continue to share cars with friends, family, and get people out there driving them. Well, I think it's really cool what you do because there's a lot, I would say maybe an older generation of car collectors have these giant garages full of cars and they never get driven. They sell these cars like two miles pushed around, you know, all that stuff.

So I think it's really cool that you've made a mission to share these cars, which are truly extraordinary with people who appreciate them. Yeah, I do. I do my best. I mean, it's, it's like, I couldn't touch these or drive these when I was young. So it brings, we become, we all become numb to them. Like, it's like, Oh, we got to take the GT3 RS today, man. I wanted to take like the, you know, the, the P1 or something like it's weird how numb you become to owning them and how normalized it is. But like someone will come in here for the first time and see, uh,

a 765LT or the Porsche 918. And like, they get to sit in it and like, they'll remember that three years later. They'll remember that. Motivating too. Very motivating. Like I've gotten letters mailed to my house, which is a little weird, but it's also fine. And just how much like that changed their life and how they went and bought this car. So it's, it just knowing that,

just continues to make me want to do it so speaking about uh i guess like you you drive them you obviously don't drive them nearly as hard as uh whistling diesel but uh i'm sure obviously you saw his new video with the ferrari do you think he's gonna get sued by ferrari i texted him when it when it got pulled down i'm like did like ferrari give you a problem because i've never had problems and like mine's mat wrapped um if i didn't exhaust on it i would never tell you guys um and i

We heavily modified my 488 GTB that is now gone. I sold it. I've never had problems with those, but I've heard that they're notorious for going after people. I don't think I know anybody personally that they've gone after, but like I thought that that was why it got pulled down. He's like, no, no. He's like, I think that he's like they demonetized it. And I think that there was something that was in the video that he went and changed.

and then he put it back up but I'm like well you should still send it even if it's not demonetized he's like he's like I'm not putting that up if I'm not getting paid I like I'm like okay he's got a lot of money in that video I'm like I appreciate the guy yeah for real and I appreciate him all the better and he is like if you

have you guys met him yeah he's in my i think he's such a good dude like he he was so much more respectful than than like he he asked about everything he's like can i throw this bean bag at your bugatti i'm like all right what an odd question but even about the egg when he threw the egg yeah yeah we did that like a block from here um and he asked about it and i'm like all right like we we we did some testing ahead of time to make sure it wasn't going to scuff and scratch and it had it

it had a PPF and then Stradman wrapped it for us. So it had two layers of wraps. I'm like, that's actually pretty convenient timing for him. Yeah. Um, so, so we were, we were all right with it. And like, um, but when he did donuts, he asked about doing donuts in it. Like that was the scariest part. Yeah. He was so close. So you were nervous. I was wondering that you don't seem like you ever get nervous. The most like I didn't. And then like,

That happened. That was like the first. And then when Alex Choi drove me in that Porsche right there, that was the scariest time. He's a crazy driver. He's a good driver, obviously, but like dude was going like 80 miles an hour down like curvy roads like this. I'm like, if there's one patch of water, like I'm like, I could die in a moment here. You had a good life. I don't need this. So Ferrari will send you a cease and desist if you put a exhaust on. I know about the wraps. I've heard about that or modifying the...

It's all potential hearsay. Really? I don't know. I probably can't. I definitely can't speak for Whistlin, but this is maybe just what it seems like to me. I feel like he maybe wants them to send him a cease and desist because that would be like he would go off and end the storyline. It would be like the perfect, exactly what he wanted to happen. And then he'd have three more videos about him going to court. Exactly. I don't know if I'd want to go to court against Whistlin

Ferrari though. That's true. That might be what's the worst case scenario. Maybe you give back your Ferrari and it's going to be worth it. And there's even some crazy content. Like there's a video and I'm not going to go into it too detailed, but there's like a video that we have that can be an amazing performing video right now that we've already filmed. And it involves like, there's risk there. Like we were in the right. And, and to some extent, um, we were threatened with false information. Like,

if we continued posting or if we said something. So like this video will be a million. I can't say who it is, but like there is some really suspicious things said, like I actually filmed this video to protect myself. Like if this stuff was, if this fake stuff was to go public, like I have a video ready to launch immediately. Um, or yeah, who knows? But it's, it's just crazy. I don't know. That one's

That one's, that one's, that one's interesting. Dude, isn't it wild that you start this like billion dollar company and now you're dealing with like two videos and shit, like the things that we deal with day to day. It's, uh, and I think I enjoy, I enjoy both of them actually. Like getting back in the trenches of custom offsets, fitment and all the companies like,

It's really fun. I started out doing really high-level stuff, like looking at wages as a percentage and working with the team to fix that. And now it's like I'm negotiating with suppliers. I'm working on a slow-moving inventory problem. I'm working in the warehouse for a day. I love that stuff. I love working closely with every team member, not just my leaders. I'm finding it a lot more fulfilling what I'm doing. But the YouTube videos...

some of it's work like some of it I don't look forward to like some of it's like I gotta go like we just shot a vlog on a new car that I have coming in and like

I love getting the new car, but knowing that I have to commit two hours to like creating a vlog run. You're like, you got to think what you're going to say. And you know, you want to, it's not even that, like I can, I can come up. It's just knowing that I have to, like, I don't want to, like, I don't want to go shoot a two hour. I'm sure there's plenty. Why? Yeah. Why? I obviously, cause you want to give back, I guess, but you need to create content. Like we need to keep creating content and growing the channel. Like, um, why?

Why? Why do you want to? Yeah. Like to me, I look at you, I'm like this, you, you've won at life. You got, you know, you got your family, you got, uh,

an awesome job you got i mean everything you could possibly want i would imagine i think it's because it affords me so other opportunity like for every one video that's that's work and then i'm not looking forward to where i'm like i gotta go drive this for two hours talk like when in actuality i just want to go drive it have fun go do donuts but i gotta film it it's got to be edited for every one that's work there's two that are fun and then one of the two that are fun

are opportunities to meet people like you guys or to meet Whistle and Diesel. Like my, like Whistle and Diesel gave my, my son the little RC Bugatti that he, that he raced in our, or his video, like, um, unspeakable flew out to our house, um, and did a track day with us. He's killing it. Oh, he's been killing it for a long time, but yeah. And he's definitely younger generation, but like, um, it's amazing. David Dobrik came to my house. Like,

And it's not even that I'm meeting these people. It's that they get to meet my kids. It means a lot to them, I think, to meet these people. Just knowing that I'm giving people access to these guys that they could have never met, that means a lot to me. And that is very fulfilling. And we also got to go to... There's some really fun stuff that we get to do. I'm sure you guys feel the same way. Maybe you want to admit it. But there's probably some vlogs where you're like...

God, I'm not looking forward to this. I'm doing it because I know it'll probably, it'll probably do okay. And we have to keep some days you don't feel like filming, but you gotta, the hardest part is when it's so fucking cold. Like, dude, I do not want to go outside right now. It's 20 below, but we're like, eh,

yeah it's not that bad let's go and then there's some cringy shit where like i had i went in my and we made a bathtub in the reservoir and you're like i'm like god i gotta go to drive-thrus sitting in swim trunks oh yeah but like but it's so funny when you watch it and it's such a different video for us that that like it's done it's over with i didn't want to do it but it was funny so i'm glad

Yeah, that's the best feeling too when you're like, you're like, I really don't want to do this. And then you're just like, whatever, we're going to do it. And then you do it and then you're just so happy like you did after it's over. Yep. How good does it feel though when you get like a one out of ten video and you know that like you put all this work into the video and it actually worked and people love it though. Yeah, very good. That is one of the best feelings ever. And then it does a little like...

For those of you that have YouTube channels, the little sprinkles or the fireworks are like, I don't think it works on mobile. It doesn't do the fireworks. It does it for me on mobile, I think. Maybe it does. Maybe I just don't know. No, it does. Never mind. And for us, I think our videos have done really well in general. I'd say now we're in a little bit more of a slump where, and I said this on the podcast I did with Graham Stephan, but like,

I, I still, even though it's very like loosely run here, like we still have metrics that I want them to stick by. Um, and it's, you know, it's, it's,

And I don't know what you guys look at, but the more subs you have, the more views that you should get on a video. But if you have 3 million subs and you're only getting 300,000 or 200,000 views on a video, then you're not doing so well. So I try to make it a third of our sub count is a pretty good video. And then two thirds or more is a solid video. So we're at 400,000 subs. Anytime that we're doing 250K plus, like we've made a solid video. We're averaging around 200K to two. If you took the average of our last video,

it's probably that 225 to 250 K, which is really solid. Right. Um, and that's like what Whistle and Diesel performs at. Like he's got four and a half plus million subs and every video is getting three plus million. Like, and the bigger you get, the harder it is. She said, you can't set yourself up for that. Uh, so like,

So he is really, but he's also like bold and like I will never be that bold and dangerous. It's weird how the older you get, the more conservative you get, even though you have less years to live. It's just weird. And when you're young, you go, that's an interesting perspective. It's true though. Like you're like, he's in his early twenties. By the way, he inspired me to get a tattoo as my first ever tattoo. He had a tattoo on his hand of his, um,

of his girlfriend's birthday. And I'm like, it was really small, really subtle. I'm like, if I ever get one, it's going to be small and subtle. And then it was like old timey typewriter font. So when I was in Vegas, I got my wife's birthday tattooed. Nice. I noticed that it looked fresh. It's so fresh and so clean.

So that was pretty, I didn't want to pose off the guy, but I thought it was so cool that I wanted to replicate it. Everyone's stealing his ideas and shit. Now he's stealing his tattoos. I should go take my LaFerrari off road now and go beat it. Just send it. Right, yeah. So you, like, how's things been with, obviously, you're extremely busy working on the business. Now you're working on YouTube. You got your family. You got your wife that you brought up. Yep.

there must be a balancing act that comes with that. Definitely. Yeah. Like there's like, you know, weekends and evenings are for the family. And then there's a lot of time I can schedule between, like, I pick up the kids a lot from school at three, three 30, um, take them like there's, it's kind of like weaving my schedule around that. So it's that, that's kind of the core schedule is making sure they're, they're taking to school, taking care of when Caroline can't. And there's a lot of days where it's just me cause she'll exercise workout. So like,

like that's kind of the solidified thing and then the work is scheduled like all around that stuff and we try to travel a lot too because I read that one of the or the biggest thing that people do once they start making good income is travel like that's that's the biggest differentiator it's not going and buying super and hypercars it's like the travel increases significantly and like there's a reason for that like it's so fun to

To just get out, go to the Bahamas, go to Hawaii, go to Florida. If you guys have seen some of the videos, which I'm sure you have, like Disney World, I'm huge on Disney World. I caught on to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You said you go to Disney World like 10 times a year or something? Yeah, I mean, we spend about...

one out of every four or five days in that area. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of nuts. You're kind of a big kid. I know. Like I eat a lot of sugar. Like I drink. I want to be like you. I mean, when I'm, as I get older, I want to be even more like, I'm not close to it, but I'm more of a, I'm more of a child, I think than a lot of people in there than probably them. Um, but yes, that's, that's the way it has to be.

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So do you pick up the kids from school in these things? I do. Yeah. We've, we've taken like, that must draw a crowd. Yes. There were, there was a period for like three solid weeks. I'd show up in a different car every day. And, uh, and then once we had all the cars out doing a vlog and, and like my son needed to be picked up, I'm like, we're going to have to take them all there. Like that's the only option. So we show up with like 10 super and hyper cars to pick him up. One of which was the blues mobile that was just with us shooting a vlog. Yeah.

Yeah. That's awesome. You got limos though too, don't you? Yeah. Those are like some of my favorite cars. I drove them extensively this weekend. We're big limo guys too. Hell yeah. Yeah. We've had two. What kind? Uh, shitty ones. Like what year? Uh, I think the first one was like a 2001 Lincoln town car. And, uh,

it was the best. It's not like rap, rap P. Um, but we had so much fun in it. I think we bought it for like $3,000 and, uh, that's where it all started. We, we ended up chopping the roof off and doing a convertible limo. And then at,

After that, we made a hot tub out of it and drove around. It was so fun. Yes. Mine's less about going and doing crazy stuff. I just like that it brings you into a different era. I feel like I'm driving this car and it's 1983. That's why I love it. And so they're very untouched other than rewiring them and making everything work.

So I have the 83 Fleetwood Broham and then I have an 89 Lincoln Town Car. Those were like the two pinnacle limos of the 80s. And so I wanted to get both of them and like the kids actually enjoy them until my 83 broke down on the road the other day and like my daughter was wigging out a little bit because we're in the middle of this busy ass highway. The battery's dead so like

The hazards are barely on. Like, it's dark. I'm like, I had to get the kids out. We're pushing the car, like, as quickly as possible. You're like, I got too many cars. For real, she's freaking out in the car, like, not making matters better. I'm like, she's never going to go in this limo again. But I still freaking love them. Are you kids driving? No, not yet. So, like, what are you going to do for, like, a first car? Have you thought about that yet? Like, I don't know.

It's not going to be... It won't be modest, but it'll be far more modest than this. I really like the Tesla Model 3. That's a great car. Yeah, I'm not going to... You're not going to put them in a turd wagon? No. There's a lot of that culture where the kids get super hyper cars. They're wearing $1,000... I'm like, that will never be my kids. They go to public schools. I just won't put them in a private school. I think there's a lot to be learned. And there's nothing wrong with private schools. I just...

I think that a public school... There's something wrong with private schools. He went to a private school. Can you tell? Yeah, there's lots of good people that come from them, but I want them to live a normal life.

uh life as possible and that's not possible to some extent but like a model 3 is not humble but it's also like a safe car that's quick and like it's neat and fun reliable maybe yeah yeah pretty base level yeah um or like a jeep like a like a wrangler like it'd be cool for them to have the rubicon 3 my wife has the 392 so that that is an expensive jeep but like it'd be neat for them to go whip a jeep wrangler rubicon 392 that's supercharged to school so

And it's not like a, it's not a Lamborghini or anything. It's not too eye eye catching. And yes, I mean, at the end of the day, you still own a wheels and tire company. Yep. And, uh,

uh the car industry has made you you know who you are today so you almost got to have your sons or your daughter rolling around in something cool they have to have enthusiasm even the model three isn't like we would slide i would probably put wheels on it and we'd probably put a body kit on it the rubicon 392 is an enthusiast vehicle like it would have to be some kind of enthusiast vehicle they're not going to get a camry they're not going to get something that's boring but

What do you think of the 392? It seems to me that Jeeps maybe don't drive the best and putting a giant motor in it would make it a death trap. It's incredibly fun. My, one of the other owners of the company, Ryan went and bought one too. And it's just a really fun car. However, it's governed at 99 miles an hour, which I, for good reason, I hit it every time I drive it. I'm like, Oh gosh, dude, I just want to like, even my Rizvani, which is a Jeep, uh,

I'll hit like 120 in that thing. And I'm like, cool, man, this thing's like, yeah, I'm like, I could die or flip at any moment, but cool, man, I'm going 120. But that frustrates me. However, it is like you're next to someone and they're in like a Mustang and I'm in this Jeep and

And like, I just zoom off and they're probably like, what the fuck? That thing sounded, and it's the first V8 in a Jeep in 40 years. And it's incredibly fun. However, we put the supercharger on and it added like 30 horsepower. And we're like, how did it only have 30 horsepower? The tune shop's like...

Well, we couldn't really tune it any higher than that because these engines are notoriously underbuilt. He's like, I could, but your engine would fall apart. I'm like, well, that's great to know. Yeah, I don't want to do that. After I've invested 14, I would have never put the supercharger in if I knew that they could only limit it to 30. They didn't tell you that? Nobody said anything. Yeah. You know what I love about you, Steve, is everyone always dreams of getting to where you're at, right? Where you get the money and you can buy all these cars. Sure. Yeah.

but you drive them and you treat them exactly how everyone would always dream that. Sure. And that's like my favorite part is that you're like, you're actually mobbing these things down the street. Like, like a 18 year old kid would. I,

I've gotten, as I've gotten older, I've gotten a lot smart. Like I'm not, I'm not speeding. I'm speeding in the right areas. Like that's what my buddy CJ says. That's what CJ said. He only gets one ticket every three weeks. Oh, well, I was going to say, I used to get a ticket, two to three tickets a year. Um, I have, I've had well over 35, 40 tickets. I've had none in the last three years. And it's because you just,

You just kind of like, you're like, there's a right place and a wrong place to speed. Like, I don't want to speed where there's a lot of intersections, crossroads homes, but like there's plenty of stretches that, that don't have any of that. And, and they're, they're very unlikely to probably be patrolled. So like, those are the ones that I'm going a hundred, 120, 150 plus on allegedly in Mexico. And then there's certain highways that, that have like long stretches. Like, you know, that it's not possible to patrol. Yeah. And so that's where I really try to get my aggression out.

I saw the video of you doing 200 in your Pucati. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's insane. 211 miles an hour. I can't disclose where, but yes. What does that feel like? Well, not scary. The problem was I hit it, and then there was a curve way up ahead, right? And then so I start braking, but you're like, you can't hard brake at that speed. So the curve got taken at like...

130, 104. So it's kind of, you just don't realize how quickly it comes up. That's what she said. And it's like, it's so far ahead where I, where I break the cautiously, but like, I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I needed to break even earlier. And then, and that was one that I texted the crew. That was when I went to 11 and I'm going around the curve and I, and there was a Senate was right behind me.

And that's when I'm like, all right, guys, like we need to chill a little bit more than that in the highway. Like, and I was leading. Everyone's like, what the fuck is that supposed to mean? Aren't you leading? We need to chill a little bit more than that. Like it's, it's just not worth it. Um, maybe we'll just go at 130, 140, but I don't know about this 211 shit, but it is tough. Cause you got a Bugatti. It sounds like you have to, well, the Bugatti is actually shipped off to, uh, to be auctioned. Really? So, so I, I want to get a Veyron and EB 110 this year.

So I, and then I have the, the Chiron SS coming later this year. So as goofy as it sounds, I wanted to like not have a Chiron for a good 10 months so that it's all the more fun when I do get it. It actually makes sense. It does. Indeed. What's your favorite car in the fleet? 918 all day. So fun. And then we put an exhaust in it, which made it better and also made it worse. Like it's, it's, it gives me a headache when I drive it. But like when the, when this, the top is off, like it's,

Something about a gas motor. When I was in a Tesla, I drive a lot safer. They're faster. Like the acceleration on that's faster than anything I have here, my Plaid that I had.

but like you don't hear the engine rumbling behind you. Oh, it's fun. So it's like you just drive more conservative and then it has autopilot. I'm like, well, I'm lazy. Like I'm just going to throw autopilot on and let this thing drive me at the speed limit the entire way to exercise or whatever. But these are like, I mean, there's no autopilot. They're loud. You can feel the engine rumbling. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to need to go 137 miles an hour on this little block here. So with like the car market, you know, obviously there is a stint where you could –

buy a Lamborghini and make money on it. And now it's obviously coming back down. Do you think, let's say if I was going to buy a, an Audi R8 or a Huracan, would it be a bad time to buy it right now? I think the market still has some correcting to do. Um, it would have been a really bad time to buy it six months ago. Um,

I bought a Huracan six months ago. Oh, shit. You were more like eight, so maybe even worse yet. Yeah. I bought it at the peak of the market. Oh, my gosh. I've lost so much money on it. I don't actually want to think about it. That will happen. Yeah. And then...

And that was about, yeah, six, six, eight months ago was pretty much peak market value. And then it's come down pretty hard. Um, the Hurricanes. So like looking back at Hurricanes, they got as cheap as about one 75, one 80. And I don't know what they're at. What's like the cheapest. Uh, I've been seeing them for like, Oh, the two wheels. I don't even look, I just look at the six, 10 fours. And, uh, those are like, you can get them for like one 80 right now. Okay. So they're, they're getting back down to where they were at, but that, but that was where they were at three years ago. So they have to come down lower than that. Like,

Yeah. So that's the thing is like they can't hold that value, especially with interest rates rising. Like even the Aventadors are getting where they were at three years ago. But there's more correcting that has to be done because they're three years older. Yeah.

Now that doesn't go for all cars. There are cars that you can buy. You can make money on the Ford GT is held strong. Like those are $400,000. I paid two 85 to something for that. I make, I've made money on my GTR if I was to sell it today. Well, they're not building them anymore. I'm going to lose a shit ton of money on that one. It costs so much to get it like that, but yes, yes. And you guys should buy it.

Porsche is notorious for building a car that holds their special GT3 RS has always held value you can go get a 15 year old one for like 170, 180 and that's what they were new it's crazy how well those hold their value but then there's some cars that will rapidly deteriorate

So yeah, unfortunately, you're going to take a bath on that one. I figured I've probably lost 50 grand on it. You just got to do something really entertaining with it and then you can make up for it. Yeah, by making it worth even less. Yeah, the company's got to buy it from me first. You guys will all be partners with me. We actually bought your guys' F-350, the Arkon truck. Oh, really? And that thing's been... It's been good to us. I love driving it.

It's really bumpy just because, you know, it's a huge lifted on 26-inch wheels that you'll have that. But that thing, honestly, is the most eye-grabbing vehicle in our fleet. But speaking of doing crazy stuff with it, we've done some good stuff with it. Good. Yeah. I bought the sister, so we ordered one up there, and then I ordered one down here, and I had the other F-250 diesel.

for about a year and then we sold that one as well but those are a lot of fun those are really nice we would drive it a lot more but the minnesota is really hard on truck laws and we have people that are really hard around us and it makes it really tough to drive because it's like a five six hundred dollar ticket if you pulled over yeah i heard i heard pennsylvania is like the worst in the nation for for those kind of laws too yes it's unfortunate i mean they're there for a reason but it sucks it's

You guys have real crime down here, so hopefully you know what I'm driving your cars. You go 45 minutes east of here, and yeah, you better be packing. Where I was going with that, I think, was we've done some kind of outlandish stuff with it, and we've been hard on it, but honestly, I think it looks just as good still as it pulled off the floor. Yeah, it's really held up. And you made me think of something. It's weird. We'll do some really...

phenomenal content I'm shifting back to content my brain will go like nine directions but like that made me think about like you'll do some content that's different for your channel but it's like really really good and genuine and it won't do well and like it's unfortunate where I'm like taking my resvani off-roading it like the resvani doesn't typically do well unless there's drama behind it and like even when we're filming the pickup which we haven't aired yet but like and it breaks down on the way home we're like

Gosh, damn it. Like now, now the video is going to do well because it, because it exploded. But I also, uh, my response is also exploded. It's like negative. Yeah. That's the thing about YouTube is like people just love,

the negative side of things. I know when the center wrecked, we're like, we have to get this edited up quickly because everybody's going to tell their own narrative. And then that was a million view video, right? We're hanging out with Stradman and some Karen walks up. I'm like, oh my God, like this is going to do really well. It's usually the ones that do the best are some of the ones that take the least amount of work. That Karen video took...

like 15 minutes to film and it's like our third or fourth best cold. Um, and then our collection tours always do phenomenal when we do the full tour. Those always do three plus million. So that'll be a recurring thing. And my collection changes so much. Like when we film it again, maybe later this year, it'll be a completely different collection. So we do the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. You almost, you almost have to, right. But, but it's weird. Broader market. I think it was James Stradman that said like, don't give up on those videos. Like if, if they're good, uh,

the more of those you do, like people, uh, you will acclimate other types of viewers and they will start to perform well. Like I started doing ones on, on business and like very different, like,

Those, those did like, they did the one third of followers. So they did like the B minus job, but the sub, the sub ad was like three X of, so that a hundred thousand viewers, I added a thousand subs, which is a thousand subs per every a hundred thousand views. It's awesome. So, so you have to treat that almost like a two 50 or 300,000 view. Cause that's the amount of subs that, that it got. If you equate it all out, you hang out with like all these really successful YouTubers. You've met way more than us.

obviously David Dobrik, Stradman, Whistlin' Diesel do they give you any advice that you can share with us? I think some of them get asked so much where it's almost like David Dobrik's consistency, that was his answer he probably knows a lot but like

I, as big as he is, there may be even be a liability to what advice he gives out. Who knows? Um, and so like, you also don't want to give away your secret sauce, but like, honestly, I don't really mind at the end of the day. I don't like, I think that there's a ton of little, I guess that's the easiest way to put it is there's a ton of little things. There's 20 little things and maybe a few big things, some of which are swapping out your titles. And I don't know if you guys will swap out your title. Um,

I heard that's one of the most effective things and we've seen it where you're, where you wait an hour, you see how the video performs. And then if it doesn't do well, you swap out that and then you'll see a small spike and like, okay. And, and usually it only does a small lift. There's a few videos where we're like, wow, that, that made a substantial impact. Um, but by and large, that only seems to help out a little bit for us.

I don't even know how important consistency is, like David Dobrik would say. Yeah, because then you've got Whistlin posting one video a month sometimes or even two months, and he's killing it. Yeah, I mean, but it's also the quality of content. Like, there are other people that have collections like this, and they don't get as much engagement because...

It could be their personalities. They might not be catering to like, there's certain things that I want to do that won't perform well. So I'm not going to do them. Like, I want to make sure that we know that the video is going to perform well. Like I'll still go do fun stuff. We're just not going to vlog it. Yeah. Like we'll go take a cruise to, you know, a three hour cruise somewhere in these and, and go hit up a

bunch of restaurants and like plan a really fun thing about it and like people would love to be a part of that but I don't think they want to watch some cruise it takes away from it too yeah it's not worth the time then it's like well we should just try to be present and enjoy it yeah and it's weird how when you first start filming how awkward it is to have like a camera rolling and you guys have been doing it so long where I don't know even know if you remember that moment but like

you and then you become numb to it you're like well pop up pop out the camera like we're in a walmart we're shopping like yeah oh yeah we're the best example we're in public yes and it's so weird at first we're like are people watching like but now it's just all right whip it out man i'm miked up i'm ready to go it was a lot harder though when you were like small and also i mean so we've been doing this for we're coming up on seven years yeah and especially where where we're from i mean there there's no youtubers so

Why are you guys in Minnesota? It's where we grew up, man. But I think that's the best, that's really the best reason why I'm out here. But we, we love it though. I mean, especially with the content we do, we do a little bit of everything and we really try to, to make the center is just kind of the group's camaraderie. And you know, it just started out with us hanging out and just started filming and then

started learning more and basically kind of teaching ourself as the time went on. In Minnesota, like we love to snowmobile. We love to do dirt bikes. We love cars. And being that we're in such a secluded area, it actually works to our benefit. And then on top of that, there's a lot of

you know, I mean, most of America is probably, you know, kind of small town or, um, so I think a lot of kids can resonate with it. Exactly. Yeah. I think, I think a lot, like there's a lot of people doing the same type of content that we're doing, but I think a lot of it does have to do with camaraderie personality. Exactly. And, uh,

And so that is important. And, like, we all get along really well with Tommy and Atelier. And that's important. Like, that was one of the biggest hiring things when we hired Aiden, who's our most recent hire, right? Like, he has to be able to hang with the group and get along. And, like, he just has to have that personality. Also one that I'm not going to get sued at. I'm not going to get sued when it's very, very...

I don't know how to say it, but we are a little insane. Like as crazy as we are on camera, we're three times that off camera. Yeah. That's probably like us too. I think that's most people. And you have to be careful. You have to trust your editor too because there's probably a lot of stuff that would get... Anybody that says that they are a cancel-free, that's bullshit. Yeah.

every single influencer has plenty that will get them canceled and there's plenty that we've all said and done that would get us canceled and you have to be careful who you like they have to sign ndas and other stuff like and you guys should do that so yeah we say that all the time though it's like at the end of the day it shouldn't really matter what we're filming as long as the vibes are high yeah yeah it's the most important thing dynamic so like if if uh somebody's like pissed off or like something just happened we're like all right well

Let's film in like an hour. So like we don't go into it like somebody mad. If one person's pissed off though, it's almost kind of funny. That person for us is usually Natalia. She'll be like, and like Tommy and I are the worst. You're poking at the bear. I'd say we're poking at a cat.

Okay. We call her a cat because you never know how many times you can pet her until the cat just fucking bites you. And then one day the cat's like, oh, fine, Danny, pet me. One day, the same thing, same input, but the cat wants nothing to do with you. That's Natalia. Kind of sounds like Ken. Yeah, you got to have that, though. That's part of every good group dynamic, I feel like. It's essential. So we'll notice her in a bad mood and we usually won't back off at all.

That's exactly what we do. She's a good sport though. So do you think that it's been harder to create a YouTube channel in this day and age or create a wheel company back when you first started? Because it's like completely different, but I mean, you're still building something. I guess the glory days of YouTube sounded like it was 15, 16, 17 when like,

that's one thing when I've talked to everybody, like it was so much easier to build a channel back then. And there's so much competition now actually is what I usually do versus metrics. Like you're just going up against so many more people. I think we've been pretty lucky, like a half, nearly a half million followers. And really we only have had content going since like, like we did a few videos that did a thousand views. And then like our first tour video, which was maybe our fifth or sixth video, like that's the one that did well at the end of October in 2021. So it's been,

like 14, 15 months of having actual like scheduled content and a half million subs is pretty good for that time period. So like I'm, I'm jaded I think a little bit by that in that it's been going really well. Like it doesn't feel like it's been a huge challenge. But the business has been a 20 year grind and,

And I think to start this today would be significantly harder. Now, granted, I have a huge car collection, so I think any Joe Schmo could go and build a channel out of these. I think we've seen that there are actually a lot of channels you may never heard about with super hypercars that just...

they don't grow or they don't do well. They may have sub a hundred thousand subs. Like there's, there's definitely an element to creating good engaging content, having good personalities. Like, but at the end of the day, someone could probably grow a channel to a hundred thousand viewers within a year, even if it's pretty mediocre, maybe not. But starting a, starting a business, especially in our industry would be like when I launch a new website, it takes two to three years for it to be profitable. And that's with our huge data, uh,

Our team, our marketing. So that makes me feel great though. Like to know how difficult it is, lets us know how special the wheel and tire companies we have are and how difficult it would be to compete against us. So if you were, um, let's say in your 21 tomorrow, you're going back to, you're broke again. You don't have any, you don't know where you're going in life. Yeah. Cause I'm sure there's a lot of people honestly listening right now that are trying to, they want to be successful like you, like what would be your first step?

Um, that is a great question. Uh, because, uh,

It is so hard to start something without money. Like they always say the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. And like, it's an unfortunate saying, but you realize as you make more money, there's so much more opportunities to make money. I'm like, there's so many, but it, but it sucks. And it's unfortunate. Like there's, there's several ideas I have in the pipeline that I know would be successful that I can leverage my social media channel. Uh, they just require a little bit of money and, and,

subjective at the end of the day, but to start a business, a little bit of money, a couple hundred thousand dollars is a little bit of money to start and build, especially like a manufacturing business. Um, but that's a lot of money to someone else. And that, that's what it requires to probably foster most ideas. It depends. Like if my skillset, like with my current skillset, I can't develop, I can't, I might go partner myself. Like I'll think of an idea. I might go partner myself with someone that has strong web dev capabilities and

and someone that's young right out of school that doesn't need money right away and work together with that person to build an idea that I have on the app side like I genuinely do have an idea and if I believed in it strongly enough

A lot of it's about giving up some equity and partnering with someone. That can build it, I'm assuming, yeah. There's a service or a product that we thought of that actually won't take too much upfront capital that could do well. And so that's one that I would go and it's like a bakery item. So I would go to local mass bakery producers, pitch my idea, see if I can, you know, with minimal amount of money, get them to manufacture. I can design like an idea for the label. Like I can do that all pretty cheap.

Um, but like developing and building a product, there's another one that, that will require a couple hundred thousand dollars and that's building like an actual like product. And so I think I'd probably go surround myself and do like an app or something, to be honest with you. That's the hardest, but it's the one that can scale and make you the money the fastest. That's interesting. I was actually going to ask you about like the, the rich just continuing to make more money in the poor. And it just seems like,

everyone keeps talking about like this recession and like, you know, we're in hard times right now. And, um, do you think that that's true? Like the people that have money are going to just make more and it's just like more dividing. Well, it's, it's weird right now because I feel like the average person, the recession hasn't hit them as hard yet. Like it's,

And I'm not the average person, but I try to talk a lot with the average person. Inflation has happened, right? But wages have increased really strongly over the last few years. It's really easy to go and find a job. To me, I don't think the general population has felt the recession is hard. They've definitely felt inflation, but...

But like when you talk to business owners, they're like, it's weird that employment's like this, but like my construction businesses, like every business owner I talk to is struggling and they're facing challenges. But the employment market is kind of jading how it is because there's still such a need in the service sector. And so it's this weird thing that has to catch up at some point. I think that recession is hurting businesses

the top level actually right now in spending is decreasing there. And then ultimately I think it's going to affect everybody. It's, it's hard to kind of quantify that or explain it, but I, it feels like something's coming. Oh, you think it's continuing to get worse? I mean, yeah, like it doesn't, it doesn't feel like it's getting better. Like inflation is still a little crazy. Yeah. Um,

It doesn't feel like it's getting better anytime soon. We just did a vlog actually where we went to my old, all my old apartments that I grew up in. I grew up in like eight different apartment buildings. We visited four of them. And first of all, I was shocked at how like

the living conditions one of them was nicer like one of them gentrified uh and the other three were like wow like this is it was probably worse actually when i lived in there because those cities have come up a little bit better um but then i asked them for their rent and we paid their rent for that month and i was like wait you're paying 1500 bucks a month for a dumpy two-bedroom apartment that's how much it is i don't know what it is in minnesota in this county even for a dumpy apartment it's 1500 bucks for a 900 square foot two-bedroom i don't know

I'm like, I can't imagine my parents affording something like that. I mean, my dad was making 13 bucks an hour when we lived in those apartment buildings. That's when he, he got that job and we were all so pleased because I think he was making nine bucks an hour prior to that sporting of four, four kids. Um, it shocks me how much rents have gone up. Like I'm glad we do those logs because I learn more about the struggles that people face. And, and, uh, I think that it's scary how much rent's gone up, how much mortgages have gone up because of rising interest rates. And, you know, maybe people are feeling it. Uh,

although recession usually means you're losing job, your wage deflation, it's harder to find a job, wages are down. I don't think we've seen that part yet. I think we've just seen cost of living go up. But if cost of living stays where it is and people are starting to lose jobs, then God help everybody.

Who knows? Hard to tell. Yeah. I guess for us, it's like it's not really worth thinking about it or worrying about it. So we might as well just keep on keeping on. People are always going to watch content. It doesn't cost them any money to watch a YouTube video at the end of the day. So if you're keeping them busy and entertained, then that's a win. We have been trying to kind of diversify though and invest. Like I know, so these two have rental properties and have been looking, but that's kind of why I was also asking. I was like, is it a bad time? Should I wait till it goes...

lower. Right now, I wouldn't buy. I think that there's going to be a little bit... It's kind of the same thing. You peg where they were. And properties are different than cars because cars always go down and then they get to a point where they go back up. But it's like when they're 25 years old, they become a collectible and then they go back up. Properties should always go up like two and a half to 3% a year. I think the average rate of increase is right around 3%.

if they've popped 20% in the last two years, like something has to, especially with rising interest rates, something has to correct. They may be at their best correction level because if you look in like 08, there was a huge crash. And so there was a lot of making up to do because the crash took them way below what they actually should have been. And I bought a lot of my properties way cheaper than they really were worth at the time. So I don't, I think some of that was corrected. The market may not correct much more than it has. I think I read something that

um, property values are down five to 10% or Americans have lost five to 10% of total property value. That might include commercial and residential, um, in the last like six or eight months. So they've, they've gone down some areas, maybe not. Um, and that might be where it stops. Uh, it's just hard to know, but like I look for, I look for bubbles both ways. Like that's, that's kind of like, did they drop 10, 15%? Like, was there some big recession that finally really hit they've identified it.

Now people are foreclosing properties that like, that's when I buy because I know. And then properties increased 20, 30% in the course of two years. Like I know they're pretty strong right now and something's going to correct. Like that's when I focus most of my buying efforts. But you should still continue to buy in between because you could still make, as long as you target to make 7, 8% like income or whatever, some people want 20%.

then you really can buy it anytime if that's your goal. Yeah, just make a little bit of cash flow on it and then you can always refinance. Yes, yeah, and that's important to know now. A lot of people are scared about buying homes, but interest

interest rates will come down. It might be five years. It might be two years, but you can always refinance. Yeah. That's the funny thing about like where we're at now, we're finally making money and the business is doing good. Yeah. A little bit of money. Well, you know, like, like, uh, yeah, no, definitely a little bit of money compared to you. Um, but,

but now I'm trying to find a house to buy a house. And I'm like, of course now, now that I'm trying to buy a house, it's like 9% interest rates and like prices are around us. They're still ridiculous. But the mortgage for a half million dollar home back then is the same as like a $300,000 home. Like, yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy that like now you have to get that. You have to settle for that $300,000 homes. And I say that around here, cause $300,000 is about the, one of the lowest values you can get for a home out here. Um,

Like if you bought a home mid 2020, uh,

Q2, Q3 of 2020, you did real well. You had two and a half percent interest rates. You had like low, low value right before they popped. And even a little later than that, everyone would tell you, oh, you're such an idiot. Worst time to buy a house ever. And then now look, it would have been a great time to buy. So it's kind of how, that's how it goes. Yeah. And we moved, we moved into our current home in April of 21 and I sold my, my house that I was in right around then. And I'm like,

right then I'm like, it already went up 10%. I'm like, I know I got to sell this like as soon as possible. And then a year later, I'm like that house went up another hundred. And I'm like, gosh, man, like if I would have just hung on to that, but at the end of the day, I still made more than I paid for it. So I can't think about it that way. That was like the first property I sold that kind of triggered the rest of them, but still made money. And that's, what's important. What about the Florida home? You have a, you built a house in Florida that you were just sold right away, right? Um, no, it's, it's still, it's up for sale, but

every, there's like three buyers that are ready to go. They just want a certificate of occupancy. So it's still being built. I just got a picture of it actually last night and it looks like 98% of the way there. So it's supposed to have a COI in a week or two. And then I expect it to sell right away. My wife just didn't like the layout. Like I rushed her through it and I shouldn't have, um, I don't know why I did. I think everything with me is like, let's like, when I get fixated on something, it's, it needs to get done and it needs to get done quick. My wife has done a great job. Like

especially when it comes to sex, slowing me down. No, I'm just kidding.

We got to know that's what she said. I know. I know. Yeah. Yeah. I set myself up for that one, but like everything has to be done quickly, but like she does a great job being like, all right, just stop and like, think about this. And, and I should have listened to her on this house because we'd probably would have ended up keeping it, selling our other one down there. And it would have been a really cool house. Like it is still a great house. She just, it just doesn't flow the way that she likes it. So I'm not going to go and make that our vacation home if she's not happy with it, but there's plenty of people that love the home the way that it is.

Um, so we'll keep our smaller one down there and we will sell off that one 16,000 square feet. It's like I sorted, I just went and looked online in Florida for all the homes and I sorted price down. And that was like the

30th most expensive, which you'd think it'd be even higher than that, but it was the 30th most expensive home in all of Florida. I'm like, holy God, that's for sale. That's for sale. How much? It's like right around 9 million bucks. We're going to sell that and then we'll figure out what's going to happen from there, but we'll probably just stay in the other home that we love. And that's right around the corner from that. You ship cars down there? Sometimes. We shipped my Ferrari down there for a little bit. My Senna was down there to get repaired. The shop that repaired it fucking made it much worse. They had it for months.

uh at the end the guy's like i just went through your your tune version one back on it i i threw it back on from the usb and it's been running pretty good i'm like you you took the earliest version of the tune like we were on tune four or five that had been getting better but it was still throwing i'm like you reverted it back to the worst tune and then i got it and immediately it goes in a limp mode i'm like this this guy like dicked around with my time and he's like changed all the spark plugs did a bunch of other stuff that did nothing and then reverts the tune and

That was in Boca Raton. I almost want to call them out. I just forgot the name, but it was in Boca Raton. And like, I think it was Excel perform, not pleased with them at all. And then they have the audacity to post a dino videos on their page. I'm like, I remember seeing an Instagram story. I'm like,

Yeah, you should take that down so I don't have to explain the grief that I went through from your hack job on my car. So that's why that was down there. And then we have a few cars down there. We have a minivan and a Tesla Model X down there for dailies. Yeah, I feel like that'd be the dream. You got a place down in Florida and you can just bounce back and forth. It's wonderful having annual passes for Disney World.

Have you guys been to Disney World? No. Actually, I did when I was a little kid. When you get to experience it as an adult, and I didn't get to experience it until I was 18 or 19. My wife took me down there. So I was basically an adult, a very young adult at that point. I have to go somewhere twice before I really like somewhere. It's weird. I think that there's a certain level of discomfort whenever I go somewhere for the first time. But the second time I go down, that's the make or break.

And so the first time I kind of enjoyed it, but the second time I'm like, okay, this is like my home. What are we doing? Like what's there to do at Disney World? Okay. So most people don't realize it's 40 square miles. It's gigantic. Isn't it? Yeah. Isn't it its own city? Yeah. They have their own like, yeah, they have their own like utility and everything and zip code. And so it's, it's four huge theme parks. It is two big water parks. It's the biggest outdoor shopping area that probably exists in the U S for golf courses, like 24,

20, 25 plus hotels, mini golf. Like I'm missing a lot of what else it has to offer. So there's something for everybody. And even Epcot is like, they have the rides, then they have the world. You can go like walk through like Germany and, uh, and go dine in, in their restaurant beer garden and have German servers. And you feel like, like they're, what they do is they spend a bunch of money on the experience because they want to, it's kind of like the 1983 Cadillac. So I'm, I'm a big guy with, with vibe, like vibe, uh,

a place can have shitty food but a 10 out of 10 vibe and i will eat there makes a big difference now when they have 10 out of 10 food in a 10 out of 10 vibe that's that's top notch right fuck it we're getting resident and i and i try to talk like every influencer i've met is usually like no i haven't gone or i haven't got like i'm like i need to make like a big trip where i just invite a bunch of like not even for filming like i don't want to vlog it i just want all of you to experience it like i

I've taken a lot of people down there and, and I know how to experience it. I know how to walk all the parks without him. I don't need a map at all. I know all the secrets. Like don't flex like that. I'm in. Yeah. I'm in. So like, and, and those that experience like Jeff with a G has been in some of our videos and he went down and experienced it my way. And like, I ruined him. Now he goes down there once or twice a year. Like they, you just realize how much it has to offer, how awesome it is. And there's like 250 plus restaurants there. A hundred of them are sit down. Like, yeah,

The average, the average person doesn't know where to like, I know I've been to all of them and I've been to a lot of them like many times. My son Logan has been to Disney. He's 13. He's been at least a hundred times. Yes. Yes. So, but it's great because oftentimes I have rewards for my flights just from spending money on Pet Spice Plus and other things like you get rewards. So flights are paid for a good portion of the time. I have the home down there that yes, I'm paying monthly for it, but like it's

it's not like I'm going down there and I have to go rent a hotel. Like I have this house that's, that's already bought and then I have annual passes. So you, you just pay for them once. So make sense. Yeah. I'm kind of already paying for this stuff. And every time I go down, it's, it's very minimal cost to me. Are you getting some cutback from Disney here? I should, man. Yeah, I wish. And I don't think like so many people advocate for it that they get nothing. And I certainly don't like, I just love it. They do such a good job at making you feel like you're

You're like, I don't know, making you feel like a kid again. And back to the big kid thing, right? I just feel like a kid down there and it's wonderful. That's awesome. That's amazing. I don't know. We've been going. Yeah, we were probably good. We won't hold you up anymore. Well, I just want to say one more thing. Yeah. When we first went to Custom Offsets. Yeah. They picked...

us up from the hotel that we were staying at, but I got picked up specifically in this car right here. Oh yeah. I shipped it up to the crew to borrow it for a week. Yeah. And we were there for that week. And so they picked me up in that one and drove over to the headquarters. And from that moment on, I was like, this is my dream car. It was my, it

my screensaver for like a year and a half. And I was like, one day I'll buy one of these. So that's, I still, I still want to get one, but I think it's pretty cool. You went and got a Huracan. I should have gotten that. I would have lost a lot less money, but Huracan is a bigger flex car, but like if I have two 50 K and I'm going to buy a super car, that is the one I will buy every single time. Yeah. That's what everyone seems to say. Like, like everyone that owns one or has owned one says like the best car. It is. It is wonderful. I love it. Wow.

Well, one day. One day. Yes, sir. Well, thank you, Steve. My pleasure, man. I want to be like you. Thanks for having me. How old are you guys? I'm 26. You got 13 years to catch up. All right, we better go get to work then. If you guys haven't already, go check out the Hamilton Collection on YouTube. Go check them out on Instagram and hit the subscribe button. We post a new podcast every week. So thank you guys so much. Thank you. And thank you, Steve. Thanks for having me, gentlemen. Appreciate you guys.

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From Broke to Owning 30 Million In Cars - Steve Hamilton

Life Wide Open with CboysTV

Chapters

How Did Steve Hamilton Start His Business Empire?

The Early Days of Custom Offsets and Fitment Industries

Transitioning from Business Owner to YouTube Creator

The Role of YouTube in Steve's Business and Personal Life

Steve's Philosophy on Car Ownership and Sharing

The Challenges and Rewards of Owning a Large Car Collection

Steve's Approach to Business and Entrepreneurship

The Impact of YouTube on Steve's Business and Personal Life

Steve's Thoughts on the Car Market and Future Trends

Steve's Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs and YouTubers

Steve's Personal Life and Family

Steve's Future Plans and Goals

Shownotes Transcript

PodQuest PodQuest Podcast Discovery Engine tailors playlist for your curiosity

From Broke to Owning 30 Million In Cars - Steve Hamilton 01:22:10

Life Wide Open with CboysTV

Chapters

How Did Steve Hamilton Start His Business Empire?

The Early Days of Custom Offsets and Fitment Industries

Transitioning from Business Owner to YouTube Creator

The Role of YouTube in Steve's Business and Personal Life

Steve's Philosophy on Car Ownership and Sharing

The Challenges and Rewards of Owning a Large Car Collection

Steve's Approach to Business and Entrepreneurship

The Impact of YouTube on Steve's Business and Personal Life

Steve's Thoughts on the Car Market and Future Trends

Steve's Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs and YouTubers

Steve's Personal Life and Family

Steve's Future Plans and Goals

Shownotes Transcript

PodQuest PodQuest Podcast Discovery Engine tailors playlist for your curiosity

From Broke to Owning 30 Million In Cars - Steve Hamilton