198 - Overcoming Set Back to Go From Farm Kid to Shop Owner

198 - Overcoming Set Back to Go From Farm Kid to Shop Owner April 8, 2026 - 00:58:14 Show Summary: Peter Bailey shares his path from farm life to owning Limitless Garage in Iowa. Early setbacks redirected him from the military and law enforcement into automotive. He built skills through hands on work and formal training while learning leadership in a fast paced shop. His focus on culture and people shaped how he leads today. He started his business in a home shop and grew into a full facility. He believes hiring for character matters more than experience. His story shows grit faith and steady growth.   Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development   Guest(s): Peter Bailey, Founder and Owner of Limitless Garage Show Highlights: [00:02:45] – Peter discovered he loved fixing equipment more than working livestock on the farm. [00:09:20] – His first shop job started with labor before earning the chance to repair vehicles. [00:13:40] – He learned attention to detail prevents mistakes and builds strong habits. [00:14:45] – Safety work like brakes and suspension must be done right every time. [00:19:10] – He pursued leadership after seeing limited growth at his first shop. [00:28:10] – Running a fast paced oil change business became his leadership training ground. [00:33:10] – Leadership means building culture that helps people grow and succeed. [00:38:20] – He left his job and launched Limitless Garage from a shop at home. [00:42:10] – He faced zoning issues and rejection before securing a commercial location. [00:47:10] – The technician shortage comes down to culture not pay or skill level. In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at [email protected], and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at [email protected].   Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Hello friends. This is Jimmy Lee with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge Podcast. My guest with me today is Peter Bailey. He is the owner and operator of Limitless Garage in Des Moines, Iowa. Peter, how the heck are you, brother? Peter Bailey: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me on. How are you? Jimmy Lea: Oh, fabulous. Thank you very much. It's a beautiful day outside, beautiful day. If we could be outside, it would still be a beautiful day. Peter Bailey: Is it cold? Where you, where you at? Jimmy Lea: Uh, yeah, I woke up, it was 19 degrees this morning. Peter Bailey: Yeah. That's chilly. Yep. It's similar around here. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Did you guys have snow here this last week? Peter Bailey: Not this last week. Well, a minimal amount and it didn't stick very long, so it's all gone at this point. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. Yeah. We had a few inches and it was gone the next day by lunch. Uh, anywhere in the shadows it's still there, but otherwise it's, it's pretty much gone. Peter Bailey: Yeah, I, we had a small snowstorm, like a little blip come through on Saturday and it was like right as I went to the shop to pick up actually one of, uh, my pieces of equipment to take it back to my home. And I had my boys with me. And so anyways, it was completely clean, but by the time we got it home, I had to wash again. So that was frustrating, but so good. Jimmy Lea: So what is a little snowstorm in your book? I'm new to this cold area. I grew up in Las Vegas. I lived in St. George, Utah. I'm a desert rat, so this climate change is new to me. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: What is a small snowstorm in your view? Peter Bailey: Oh gosh. I mean this, when I, when I was saying with snow, small snowstorm for this, it lasted all of an hour and a half. And it was done. And so the amount of snow left on the ground was, I mean, it was there, everything was white, but at the same time, we're talking like half inch at best. So it's not much. Jimmy Lea: No, that's not much at all. You, you barely hit mock three, driving on the street, having the stars come at you like Star Wars. Peter Bailey: Yeah, it, it was heavy snow like coming down, but the temperature, it was still warm here on Saturday, so we were like 35 degrees or so. So by the time it hit a lot of it was melting anyways. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well let, let's talk automotive, let's talk the industry. Let's talk, uh, automotive aftermarket. Want to start Peter, at the beginning? How did you get into this industry? Peter Bailey: Yeah. Um, so I've been in automotive now for 15 years at this point. Um, I started out actually wanting to go into the military, and so I had gone through like. All of my testing through my asvab, through my maps and everything in preparation to go into the military, into the Marine Corps, but then was denied at the end due to a heart mur. So no process went through, tried to get a waiver for it, didn't work, and by that time it was like six or eight months of a process and I was like, I'm not doing this again. I gotta see what plan B is. And Plan B was, I really enjoyed. Automotive. And so I was, um, yeah, I was sucked into there next, so it was going to find a shot to work for and uh, that's where it started. So I worked. Jimmy Lea: So, so where did you, I mean, how did you get, how was even automotive a plan B for you? Peter Bailey: That's a good question. Growing up, um, I grew up on a hobby farm and I really enjoyed tinkering on small things. And now almost Jimmy Lea: the ranch. Almost the farm, Peter Bailey: yeah. Almost a farm. Yeah. So like we had small tractors, we had, you know, trucks, stuff like that. Right. Dad still worked his normal eight to five job and everything, but we, we would do everything to bailing hay, you know, and livestock. And so I enjoyed working on the stuff around the farm and actually, of all people, I was thinking of being a farmer initially. None of my family was. And then one day we're sitting at the supper table and my sister looks at me and I was probably 16 at this point, and she goes, Peter, you don't really enjoy going out and doing all the livestock chores, but what you do seem to enjoy is fixing and maintaining all the equipment debt has. I said, well, you're right. I hadn't really thought about that, but I do find enjoyment in that. So that kinda sparked from like 16 years old on. Then I was like working in small engine shops, so like lawnmower shops, dirt bikes, stuff like that. All the way up until I turned 18 when I moved out, and that's when the whole Marine Corps thing happened. And then it's been history since, Jimmy Lea: right? The Marine Corps thing happened and then didn't happen. Peter Bailey: Yeah, it's gone. Jimmy Lea: It's gone. Yeah. Well, and I have a daughter that's a Marine. Peter Bailey: Oh yeah, Jimmy Lea: yeah, yeah. So she's in Hawaii right now. Um, and then my grandfather, similar story to you. He, his was not a heart mur. He had shaky knees. They called him, uh, crazy legs in high school. His knees were really loose. So here he got his draft notice and he was heading off to war. Oh, wow. And he had to report, so he sold his business. Peter Bailey: Oh, wow. Jimmy Lea: Showed up. On whatever showed up. And, uh, they, they gave him the physical and by the end of the physical they said, uh, thanks, but no thanks. Here's your ticket. Uh, you can go, you can leave now, you can Peter Bailey: go Jimmy Lea: home. Peter Bailey: That's terrible. That's a way worse story than mine. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So he, he, uh, he had sold his business. He, he went back and, uh, opened up another dry cleaning business, uh, and his wife had a daughter. Like, I mean, he was going off to the war and it was not a good thing. But anyways, yeah, that, yeah. Lucky for him. He had shaky knees, crazy legs. Okay. So, so on the farm, you're working on everything, you're, you're really enjoying the mechanics of it all. Yeah. Thank heavens for the women in our lives that can look and see and say, Hey, you know what? You really light up when you work on. Cars, trucks, tractors, lawn mowers. Peter Bailey: Yep. Yep. You got it. Jimmy Lea: You're, you're swearing at these animals. What's going on? Peter Bailey: Just about, yeah, you're actually not too far from that. 'cause even now I got kids that wanna raise animals and we live on a small acreage now, and so like I've got some hard nose. I'm not raising that type of anil and sheep is like at the top of that. I'm not gonna raise sheep any longer. So anyways, that's the side story. But at the same time, you're right, a hundred percent. I did not enjoy the livestock as much. Jimmy Lea: Okay, so on the sheep thing, my brother is in Sacramento, California. Cameron Park, he has goats. Peter Bailey: Oh, okay. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And sheep. Not sheep, I guess you can't call him sheep. Uh, dirty Fred is, is the, the alpha male. And then there's all this, this harem that he has. Uh, and they have all these little baby. The baby goat are so cute. They're absolutely adorable. Peter Bailey: And that's what everybody likes and they want, right? That's what my wife, Jimmy Lea: your Peter Bailey: daughter, right, Jimmy Lea: until they get bigger. And then you're like, nah, no, we're done. But he also goes through a phase where he'll raise chickens. So he has, he has 12 or 13 that he keeps for the, the normal for the good. And they lay the Easter eggs, the blues and the greens. Peter Bailey: Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: But he'll raise these, uh, these, the, the white chickens for the meat, a meat chicken. Um, and, and then they go through a whole food processing thing. So for you, that's a hard, thou shalt not. Peter Bailey: No, just certain animals. So don't get me wrong, I will still ra especially, I got kids now, I got four of 'em. So like I'm all about, I want the experiences for them. So we raise chickens, we raise ducks. Uh, my wife is all about that. I have to figure out how to keep everything clean, build it all, and then just maintain it and then she figures out what to put in there. So yeah, somehow we ended up with 30 chickens and a couple ducks and yeah, it's not a small thing anymore. Jimmy Lea: Oh, he's not a small thing. Oh, that is so rad. He has a, uh, oh, what does he call it? Uh. Oh, it's like a clucking to, it's a chicken, chicken chickshaw that he can move around the property. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: And he has this, uh, electric fence that goes around with the, the chickshaw and the chickens are scratching the ground and fertilizing the ground and, Peter Bailey: yeah. We used to refer to 'em as chicken tractors. You'd move 'em around, you'd pick it up and you pull it. You know, you move 'em around. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yep, Peter Bailey: yep, Jimmy Lea: yep. Peter Bailey: Very familiar. I don't have that for mine, unfortunately. They are confined to, they have a nice outdoor run in pen. It's very large. However, I like my yard as well, and so everything that's going to be kept will be kept nicely, so they would currently stay off of it. So yes. Well, Jimmy Lea: there you go. There you go. We'll have to trade chicken stories. Next time we get together, make sure I tell you about Ru Ru from a different brother, Ru Ru Rooster. Yeah, that's a story for another day. So here, working on the tractors, you are working on the farm. The Marines doesn't work out. Where's the first shop that you step into that you're now cutting your teeth and getting paid? Not just food room and board, but this is real money. Peter Bailey: Yep. So I started working full-time at a local independent shop here in Des Moines. Um, and I, I actually was in the process of applying for the Marine Corps when I started this job with them. And I knew I liked automotive enough to be able to get a job in it, depending on how long it took me to get into the Marine Corps. So I took it, moved to Des Moines from Pellas where I grew up. So I moved from Pella to Des Moines, which is about an hour. Yeah. And got a roommate and. We got our first apartment and then I started doing this, um, for 40 hours plus hours a week. Right. Working automotive. And when I say that it was, take that with a grain of salt because one of my first jobs when I started on site that. Morning. I remember the first day I started the shop owner had me filling the concrete in the parking lot with expansion foam and everything, uh, for all the cracks, expansion joint cracks. So I filled foam and caulked like all of the cracks in their parking lot with expansion foam and joint sealant and everything. And, um, I was power washing like the outside of the building. I just remember that summer I was very tan and very burnt by the end of it, but I did, that was my intro into this is what I'm gonna do. And then that escalated into once I not proved myself, but at the same time, once I was able to do this well. Uh, I started going into uh, do oil changes right? Then it starts to go on to, I'm gonna do brake suspension, stuff like that. And in short order then, yes, it kind of just started to fly by at that point in time. 'cause kind of back to the farm thing. My boss figured out pretty quickly, Hey, I can hand Peter a almost anything. 'cause I did everything from the caulking of the expansion joints to, I was fixing tire machines for him to, I rebuilt a carburetor on his 1950 Ford truck that he had out front for show to, like, I was kind of moving through everything at that point in time. And then at that point he's like, all right, you're gonna start working on cars. Here's what we're gonna do. Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. So, and, and it's true. The, the farm boys, they're, they're hard workers. They're smart. They figure it out that there's usually not a manual or a guidebook, but they figure it out, right? Peter Bailey: Yep, yep. You got it. Jimmy Lea: So here you are. He, he's handing you all these jobs to test your, your, your muster to see if you're gonna survive. Are you coming back tomorrow or are you done? Peter Bailey: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And you kept coming back, so Peter Bailey: Oh, yeah. Jimmy Lea: Congrats to you for keep coming back. You went from facility maintenance. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: And, and then into the automotive industry. Peter Bailey: Yep. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And, and that's awesome that you did. I mean, what a, what a road in. So here you I, did you have any formal training or is this still all hard knocks? Peter Bailey: Yeah, I had zero formal training at that point in time. The only closest formal training I would've had would be working in a mower shop on like small, like lawnmower engines. And I got to work next to a tech that did that. But, so like the fundamentals, but everything else I had learned just from trial and error or watching people or being willing just to talk, go talk to people and ask questions. Jimmy Lea: Dude, that is, that's amazing. So that is awesome. Alright, so how long are you at this first shop? Peter Bailey: Yeah, I was there nine years. So I spent a good stint there. Um, and I went from where I told you all the way to by end of year one I was entering into like I could do. Suspension, brake oil changes all your light maintenance and suspension work, um, to alignments. And at that point I was like, Hey, um, I'm ready to dive into this full fledged, like what can I do next? And then at that point in time, I had found General Motors, their ASEP degree through our local college. And um, at that point I reached out to them and. Wanted to go into the program there. So normally there's a waiting list, at least here in Des Moines. There was a waiting list at that point in time. It was what, 2012 at that point? Some 2012 or 2013 at that point. And there's normally a waiting list. So I remember going in and meeting with the director of, um, that, of the automotive, um, education there. And he. Walked through everything with me, and at that point I'd worked a year in the shop and this shop was AC Delco affiliated already, so I, I already had the in with that so my shop could sponsor me and I go to school. So I immediately took up that and started the very next semester and dove in on that two year degree. And then I did my, I did my GM ACEP degree at that point from, and I graduated 2014. That would've been, um, from asap. Jimmy Lea: Oh, congratulations. That's phenomenal. Yeah. What in, in that first year or in that first two or three years that you were working at this first shop? Mm-hmm. What's something you learned there that still rings true today, that's advice that you stand tall on, that you learned in that first year? Peter Bailey: That's a good question. Um, I would say that. The thing that I took away the most was attention to detail on everything that I did. So what really quickly started happening was whether it was pulling apart major repairs or whether it was even minor stuff, everything that went back together, you will. I would catch mistakes before they ever happened. If I could pay enough attention to detail throughout it as soon as I started just going into, um. Just automated repairs and I'm not thinking about it, then mistakes start to happen. So it was that, along with, I worked next to an older mechanic there and, um, he left during the stint that I was there the whole nine years. But during the beginning of it, one of the things that rang true to me that he taught me was, um, when working on vehicles, anything that has to do with an, let's say specifically in the engine compartment. If something's messed up in there and it breaks while a customer has it really realistically, one of the worst things that's gonna happen is unfortunately they're stranded on the side of the road, right? Let's say the engine completely quits and fails. It's not gonna blow up and cause immediate harm. However, they'll have to get off to the side of the road. However, if you're working on suspension, tires, anything like that. You can't mess up, that's like a no go because you've got people's lives at risk at that point in time. So brake, suspension, tires, anything that has to do with that. So everybody that I have through the shop at this point in time, all my text is basically continuing to ring true with, of like when anything leaves here, it cannot have an issue with any of those components. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. Yeah. The attention to detail, especially in those critical areas, break shocks, strut. Tires. Peter Bailey: Oh yeah. Jimmy Lea: It is huge. Yeah, absolutely. That's, you don't mess around there. So when, when you have your technicians working on cars and they are, are, are, um, let's see, tightening down a, a tire or wheels onto back onto the car and they use their torque wrench, do you have a second person come over and qc their work to make sure that it's torqued to the right? Peter Bailey: We have an initial phase where we will do that. So like in the first, depending on the length of the technician being there, within the first six months, like I had a very new technician that we had here that was 18 years old. Everything we called qi, so quality inspections, everything that left and even before we started vehicles, after oil changes, we would qi his work. So nothing started without oil. Nothing's left an oil filter off. No wheels are not torqued to your point. So we have those put in place, but then a couple of the other, um. Processes that we have in place, especially even for the more knowledgeable techs, including myself, is that if anybody's doing tires, it's a no-go. You don't ask questions at that point in time. You go come interrupt people at that time. You have to complete that part of the repair before you can move on and do anything. So you can't leave, uh, torque wrench, stuck on a wheel and go do something else. No. You complete that before. So anybody that comes back should have a question in their mind. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. That's so important. So important. Okay, so you're at this shop for nine years. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: Working your way up. You got your, uh, AC certification. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: Then what, what's next? Peter Bailey: So through that was GMAC to your point. I did a, my a c exams as well. I worked then for about five, the five years after that, remaining in that shop, and it worked up through heavy repair. Pulling motors out, transmissions, all the way to then a lot of dag. I ended that, my career stint there with a ton of diag. I was helping to teach some dag in it, um, as well as, um. Help assist in the office as well. So I did a lot then moving into service advising. So I learned how to service right? I learned how to talk to customers in this job. I learned how to open and close the shop. I learned how to do everything I could while there. And um, I had the opportunity at the end then to kind of talk, discuss with the owner where the shop was headed and what his intentions were and. When I got to the end of that, the stint there, really what just pushed me to end up finding another w another job was that hey, he had his plans for the shop, where they wanted, where he wanted to go, staying in the family. And I respected that. That was great. Um, it just was, that was the end of my, where I wanted to go with that section of being an automotive tech. I knew that wasn't the end for me, so I needed to find what was next. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats. I mean, that's, and that's a hard conversation to have with somebody to say, Hey, uh, what's the plan with the shop? And to find out, um, it's gonna stay in the family. But congrats to you for having that conversation. There's so many that don't. Peter Bailey: Sure, yeah, that's true. Uh, there's a lot of people that don't. Right. But then at the same time, I don't, nobody wants to overstep their boundaries. So you have to have it in a respectful way, right? When you're gonna have that conversation. Everything is open, I think, for a question. However, you have to respect the answer you're given. And then that was pretty much my takeaway at that point. It's like, Hey. That's great. You have a plan. I'm, I'm probably not part of this plan, and for that reason, I hopefully respect on both sides and I'm gonna move on. And my next mission at that point in time was I wanted to enter leadership. Like my ultimate goal was I just wanted to lead. I wanted to know how to lead people. How to make processes, how to get to the next stage. 'cause at that point, actually I was still, I still wasn't interested in owning a shop as much as I was in leading, managing, and, uh, being able to help make calls on a higher level at a shop. So my next venture or my next stage was anything that had to do with leadership and of all things that I wanted to do initially I took a, like a 180 again and I went to, I want to think about law enforcement. I wanna do law enforcement, or I want to do something that has to do with that. Um, 'cause I wanna learn how to help others, but at the same time lead a different group of people. And, uh, so I started that venture. I was still at that shop. I let the owner know and he was, he was just fine with it. It was like, Hey, I'm gonna look for my next. Career path and I think it might be in law enforcement. And I spent almost two years, 'cause that was, that would've been a seven year mark for me. But I spent almost two years trying to get into a law enforcement agency somewhere only to keep getting denied for, and I was never given a reason, to be honest, each time 'cause it's. It can be fairly political, but at the same time, some of it also can be, uh, just the needs of that agency at that time being. So, like in Des Moines, we've got multiple different departments that I'd end up going to and um, I tried probably four or five. I ended up actually ending that stint of looking. When going through the Border Patrol. So I ended the stint by going through the border patrol's process all the way through being interviewed by Homeland Security, going through multiple polygraphs with them and everything like that. Um, at the end, again, I was denied for I again, and a reason that I never got a good answer for. Um. I'm a guy that I think likes to follow up, but at the same time I'd call, you know, Hey, gimme some feedback. What can I do differently? 'cause I'm sure this is what I want. And uh, it was very vague, uh, gray areas. And so I'm a Christian at that point in time. I'm like, there's gotta be something different because I'm getting shut down. There's something out there that has a higher. I have a higher calling for. So, Jimmy Lea: amen. Amen. And I, I fully agree. I understand. Uh, God is in charge and this is his way of saying, all right, da da Peter, stay here. Stay here. Wait. Nope. There's gonna be something better. There's gonna be, gotta trust me. Peter Bailey: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And in the moment we're thinking, what the heck? What am I doing wrong? Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: How come I'm being denied? I mean, two years is a long time. Peter Bailey: It was Jimmy Lea: for you to be going down this path, having a goal, seeking this goal, pursuing the goal, and be denied the goal. Peter Bailey: Yeah, it felt like eternity, obviously when you're in sitting in it. And I had, I mean, I have the most supportive wife ever. 'cause at that point in time, we had a small kid who was less than a year old, our oldest at this point. And um, anyways, I remember driving to Minnesota with them to go like, Homeland Security, you have to drive. Like Missouri, they had a headquarters, Minnesota, they had a headquarters. I had to go between those. It's not long drives, like five hours or so, but she'd come with me on some of those. We'd stay overnight in hotels, we'd, we'd do the whole thing and then I'd get. I get knocked down again. It's like, all right, am I gonna do this? And I try a couple more times until at the end I was like, ah, this is, there's something else. I've gotta try something else. Jimmy Lea: Wow. Okay. So, so you finally throw up your hands and you say, all right, Lord, you're in charge. I get it. Where do you need me? Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: So what's next? You, you're denied by the border patrol? Peter Bailey: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Did they, did they ever say, oh, by the way, it's your heart murmur? Peter Bailey: No. I, I had so many, so Border Patrol was one of 'em, and I ran into some issues, which I thought was going to be that. Um, but I remember calling in, they. They had at that point in time, they had what they called an expediting program. And it was 90 days compared to six months. It was done in 90 days. And, but you had to be on the call at that point twenty four seven to do whatever they asked you to do in the next step of the process. And so I immediately elected to do it. Okay. I was like, do it. I'm gonna do whatever you asked. So I remember getting the call at 8:00 PM one night and they're like, Hey, we have an O opening all of a sudden for your medical exam, but you have to be onsite 9:00 AM tomorrow. And you have to be able to be off. Most of the day. So I call my boss up and I'm like, Hey, I know this is the last minute. Can you make this work? If not, I'm gonna have to find a different way, but they're gonna drop me from this program. And he said, all right, we'll make it work. And I said, all right. So I headed out, I go to this medical exam and they find the same thing. The heart remember thing, right? And they're like, oh, you haven't had an exam in the past six years on this. We need to have an exam. And so at that point, like I'm talking to this doctor who's doing it, and like, I'm going through all these loopholes. I'm like, have you tried this? Have you thought of this? Have you done this? I remember leaving the exam office running to my doctor or establishing a new doctor nearby that I had met a couple times, getting a good relationship with him within the course of a couple hours, asking him how quickly can we do another assessment on me? He's like, okay, within 24 hours we can figure this out. Like. I did an extensive amount of just hopping around all to bring it back to them. I made it through the medical part, but to that point, like the amount of loopholes that I had to jump through just to try to get to the ending where I did it was. Amazing. It was crazy, but it was a lot of just making, it was making friends really quickly and starting to ask for favors. Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. There. Yeah. You're having to make a lot of friends very quickly in that situation. Peter Bailey: The Border Patrol, I would say that was an interesting one that I got sent on the track of in from the automotive industry. I talked to, I was at Vision Conference in Kansas City and I talked, I remember going to, uh, it was, I went to a class with my boss at that time it was called Robots on the Road, and it was all about autonomous vehicles. And I talked to that person at the end 'cause they were somehow affiliated with Homeland Security at that point. And I talked to him about my interest and he said, have you thought about border patrol? Because if you went to the coast anywhere and you had to. Be able to, um, inspect vehicles coming in off the coast on ships and stuff. With your automotive industry, you'd be able to tell if there's anything abnormal in the vehicle, if people are trying to smuggle things, anything like that. And you could be valuable for that. So that sent me down the border patrol thing and I was fully committed to, if they wanted me, I was gonna, I was gonna move, I would go out to whatever coast I needed to to make this work. But yeah, it was an interesting one. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, there, there again, you got the maker standing up there saying, whoa, hold on. Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter. Right here, right here, right here. I I, we've got a better path for you. So you going through all of this to get to the point where, what's next? Peter Bailey: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Now what You, you, but you're coming home from the border patrol final denial. Peter Bailey: Yeah, I went, so I was told no. Um, yeah, there's a backstory behind that, but I was told no, and immediately I remember. We went to church the next Sunday, or two Sundays after that. And I had a guy that I had met a couple times come up to me and he, he was, he's a partner at, um, he is a partner at a business here in town and he does very well. But anyways, he came up to me and he said, Hey, I know you're in the automotive and I know you had these goals. Um, have you considered reaching out to one of my friends that I know that owns a. He owns, he's in the automotive and he, he was very vague. He's like, he owns, um, a shop here or a couple shops here. And I know that the son who was one of my employees in the past is looking to come back, be the CEO for this company. And he needs good people. I know. And I remember he, I tell him, yeah, I, I'd be interested. It's an automotive again, but let's do it. I just want something in leadership. And he said, okay. So I remember standing there actually with my family and he is a very charisma guy. He's, he's awesome. He's all high energy and he is like, Hey, uh, let me take a photo of you guys real quick and I'm gonna shoot a text over to my, my, uh, friend, uh, who's this, who used to be my employee, and I'll see what he says. So he shot a text. Well, within like 24 hours, this guy was texting me and he is like, Hey, can we set up an interview? Can you send me a resume? And so I remember writing out a resume out resume. Um, I was boarding an airplane when he sent me that. Um, uh. Text message I remember. So I remember sitting on an airplane, typing up my resume, finishing it all, sending it to him, and then meeting with him. And at that point he was coming actually back from the job that he was working in prior to the company his dad owned, which was in automotive. Well, I met with him and I found out this company, it's quick loop. It is oil changes and it's a local, oh Jimmy Lea: gosh. Peter Bailey: Yeah. It's a local company that does oil changes. And I'm like, oh, well. So I sat in this, I sat in this interview with him and we probably spent two and a half hours in an interview as he went through all this stuff with me. Um, come to find out this. Wasn't any oil change place that I had ever been aware of. Um, and they're in town, they're a local company that's family owned still, and they were, had two stores and they were looking to start their third and they needed a general manager for their third. But this oil change place, Ankeny, which is just up the road from me, their biggest store was there and they would process upwards of 250 cars a day if. If like during a round holiday season and on normal we'd be, they'd be somewhere around 180 to 200 at that place. So like a ton of volume, like this was not normal. It's crazy. So I went, Jimmy Lea: that's a lot of oil changes. Peter Bailey: That's nuts. Tire rotations, they do some fluid services, mostly oil changes. That's their bread and butter. And I remember thinking about it. Then he said, come out for a day, just work in the shop for a day with, uh, his brother at that time was an ops manager. So I went out and worked with his brother and, um, come to find out, I was like, well, this would be a place I could learn leadership and interviewing skills if I really wanted to, but do I want to do it? And they shot me an offer, and it was more than I was making at that time, uh, in automotive as a mechanic or anything. And I said, okay, I'm gonna give this a shot. They, their idea was they wanted to put me as a general manager. For their Walkee location, just west of town here. When they opened it, which is their third location, I said, all right, let's do this. So I signed on with them and I got the most amount of calls I've ever received from all the people in automotive that I knew, like from, I initially told my boss, but it was all because it's like. Forbidden sin to go from automotive repair where we really pride ourselves right. To anything that has to do with quick lube. 'cause quick lube has a terrible wrap to it. You gotta, Jimmy Lea: oh yeah. They, they skim the top, they take all the gravy. They, they're gonna go in and do the air filters and the windshield wipers and they Peter Bailey: do shoddy work. Right. And they, they don't tighten drain plugs and you end up with lawsuits and all that sort of stuff. So I was like, all right. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Peter Bailey: I'm fully aware of this, but if this is what I, if I wanna learn leadership, like I can do it here. I think, 'cause these stores, they would be equipped with about 25 to 28 people per store that you had to be able to lead. So there's quite a few people in the store. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Peter Bailey: Everything from your managers to your assistants to your employees. Um, cut me off if I'm going too long on any of this, so just let me know. But in any case. I started working for them and I started learning to be a general manager. Uh, within about six months, the CEO who had hired me had, was, had joined at that point in time, and he. Came to the shop that I was working at a couple times and he'd come every week and then eventually he is like, Hey, Peter, I, you've been working, I see your eth work ethic and everything. Would you consider going to lunch with me? And so I went to lunch with him a couple times. And then at that point he, he's like, Hey Peter, you have the automotive knowledge. You're the subject matter expertise is here. Um, and his brother, who was the ops manager for the whole company at that point in time, stepped down and said, Hey, I'm gonna do something different. And he left the company altogether. And so the CEO comes to me and he goes, Hey Peter, can you, can you be an ops manager? Do you think you could do this? And I said, well, absolutely. I think I could do this. And I jumped into that fee first. Then at that point, I was in their AIM store. I jumped into ops manager and um. It was like a convergence of all of your leadership changing over in a very, it's a small business, granted, right. We're under $12 million at this point. Um, but you have like 50 plus people. 'cause we had two stores and everything had hit the fan at one time. I remember. And having to just figure out how do you keep two stores open that are doing roughly. I don't know. Again, we're doing maybe 8 million at that point in time between the two stores. Okay. How do you keep all of this running and still working while the owner's there? The CEO's there next to you and I'm the ops manager and I'm trying to keep everything pulled together. 'cause at that point we had a general manager and Ames, our ames store, quit ops manager, quit in store manager and it's all 'cause of leadership turnover at that point. So I'm just, I'm watching all this go down. I'm like, ah, this is making sense. I know why this is happening. People are. Worried about their future. They're frustrated with leadership turnover. What's happened for the past five years is no longer happening. So all this happens, and I remember having a lot of conversations with the CEO, but then just starting to dig into, like, I listened to every podcast on leadership I could find. I read every book I could find on it, and then I started just talking to people and I. Was there to help try to build it back up. So I stepped in in Ames for a brief amount of time, found a general manager, played that role, found a general manager, put him in the store, trained him in the store, turned down the Ankeny store, did similar thing to there with them. Um, and I stayed with that company for almost four years. Trying to learn this. And I, I learned it at the end, but that's where I cut my teeth in leadership of I figured out I can work 90 plus hours a week if I need to and I won't die. I know how to try to manage a home life and a business at the same time. And also I went through some difficult conversations with. Owners and the CEO as well, both of which had come from corporate backgrounds. And I didn't on how to, how do I speak to these people? How do I gain their respect and trust? And at the same time, how can I sit in a room full of owners and CEOs and hold my own and not let everything hit the fan and get flustered? So it was a great learning experience. Jimmy Lea: Oh, it sounds like it. I mean, you, that was the, uh, uh, refiner's fire. You stepped right into it and it was on full blast, full furnace. Sounds like you stepped into a, a, a landmine, uh, just from day one. Everything was blowing up right around you. Peter Bailey: Yeah. Okay, Jimmy Lea: so I have a question for you. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: What does leadership mean to you? Now that you've been through all this, you've had all these experiences, you've read all these books, you listened to all these podcasts, you've had four years, you're working the corporate, you work in the private. What does leadership mean to you? Peter Bailey: It is a generalized question. I mean, that's a super broad question, but at the same time, um. I think leadership takes different appearances depending on the stage that you're at in the company or business and the business's lifespan. But at the same time, just in general, leadership is being able to cultivate culture inside of a business that's going to thrive and people enjoy and they get to the next level, and at the same time you can. Use the efforts from those people to continue building a business to the next level. Right. But when I was doing this all for this last place and what I'm doing right now, everything is centered around culture at this point. 'cause if I don't get, if I don't have people that are happy to work, that are interested in working, that I can't continue to put push into, I'm lost because I can't do this myself. Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. It it is so true. And people don't leave a job because it's a bad job. They leave a job because of poor leadership. Peter Bailey: Yeah. Poor leadership normally, or Yeah. The people that are in leadership, so you're right. Yep. Jimmy Lea: Poor management. Uh, yeah. That, that's why people are leaving their jobs and, and searching for fulfillment somewhere else. Peter Bailey: Oh yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. I agree a hundred percent. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: So you were there for four years and now you are limitless garage. Yeah. After the, so talk about that transition of going from the, the corporate quick lube into independent auto repair. Peter Bailey: So by about Jimmy Lea: back into auto repair. Peter Bailey: Yeah. By about year middle of year three at this job with oil changing and everything. Um. I figured out pretty quickly, like once I had established what work ethic I want to have and what we're capable of, once I had experienced that, I'll be honest, once I had experienced that with my wife currently as well, so that she knew like what this took. I mean, there were days that I'd leave at three 15 in the morning and I would not be home until after 11 at night. I remember days where I would work that extensive of a day and she would figure out, and she'd be more than happy to continue supporting me as her Hu as her husband. And that was groundbreaking for me. So once we had established that we were a team, this is what we wanted to do. And at that point I was like, I, I can make this work. I can make a business work. 'cause I went from that. Being able to work those hours to being able to. To put people in place, train people in place, and see the progression to get me to work six hours in a day. So it's like, okay, I know how to do this. If I can train in the right areas. And I'll be honest at this point, now that I've gone through it and I'm, I'm not super old by any means, so I have a lot to learn, I'm sure. But at the same time, once I'd figured out I could do that, um, at this point in my life, like it's not 'cause I don't wanna work. I really do enjoy working, but I still enjoy cars and people and all that sort of stuff. However. I wasn't confident unless I knew that I could make the business successful, even without me, that I could make this work. So by about middle of year three, I was like, I know I can make this successful without me. And if that's the case, I know how to get there. I want to do it myself now. And that started sparking the conversation with my, with my, um, with the CEO and my boss at that point in time where I was like, 'cause I moved from operations manager then to director of ops right underneath him. And, um, I started hiring ops managers and general managers and starting to tweak the business in certain areas and processes. And at that point I was like, Hey, I'm ready to do this myself, and I think that this is a good time for me to exit. I've got some great people that are surrounding me and I think that you would be well off without me, but at the same time, respectfully, this is something. I had the potential and I told him earlier, I had the potential of doing and I'm back to it. And so of course, initially that started a full course press on, let's keep Peter and Yeah, that it's great. It's, it's flattering to be honest, right? Anytime it happens. But at the same time, my mind was made up at that point. Uh, so I gave, um. Several months notice, a six month notice I started, we started telling people that Peter's leaving and here's who's taking his place in these areas and training and everything to like, I remember the last week, just not really having much to do. 'cause I had trained, at that point in time, I was reviewing, I was making sure everything's happening and it's like. Let's make this a very easy handoff. Nobody should know that Peter's gone. Um, everything should be handled and when I step out, it's seamless. Um, and I like to hope that that was very close to what happened at the end. So I stepped out and I remember this was May 27th, 2024. Was my last day at that shop, and I remember going home and that was a, oh gosh, it was like a Wednesday or Thursday, I don't remember now. I remember going home and for the next, then proceeded to be the next three months. All it was was renovating a pole barn on my property to try to get ready to become a shop where I could just start outta my own barn because I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure what my clientele was going to be yet, but I had my vision put in place my LLC at that point. I had a lot of that stuck out or put together, but I didn't have what I was sure was gonna be limitless garage yet until I had finished that first building. And so I spent the first two or three months finishing the building and opening then officially in July. Well, it wasn't even three months, I guess, right? I spent all of the Es of May, June, the beginning, parts of July before I opened in July then. Jimmy Lea: Wow. Wow. Congratulations. And so you, you opened your shop in your barn on the, on the property. And how long were you in there and how many did, did you have employees? How many did you have? Peter Bailey: I did it all right. It's a, it's a typical business startup, right? You know, especially in automotive. It's like, I'm gonna do it all. Like I am all my hats. And honestly, at the very beginning, I knew it immediately. I was like, this is not sustainable, but I'm gonna make it happen just to get the cash, just to be able to get to the next spot. So I say that right? We look at May 27th, 2024. That's not that long ago. I look at where I'm at right now. That's Jimmy Lea: a heartbeat to go, dude. That's, that's really barely almost, it's almost two years ago, but really you're like a year and a half ago. Peter Bailey: So now we're sitting, I mean just bringing you up to here, but now I'm sitting in my office here at the shop. We have a little over 5,000 square foot shop at this point in time. I've got multiple employees. We just built our lounge out and I'm a little love talking to you about them, but. The inception of that, I started at the shop. I started initially, I'll be honest, I live in Mitchellville or right outta Bondy in Iowa. And I'm like 20 minutes from a metro area. From the metro area. So nobody wants to come out and visit me unless they know me and they just wanna support me. So initially, right off the bat, like I built my Google profile and I just shouted out there, I'm like, everything is free pickup and delivery. I'll come to your house. I'll pick it up. Just tell me what you got and let's get going. Bye. From July 4th, well, from, it was July 12th. From July 12th until the end of October. By that point, I could not keep up with what I had, and so I hired my first employee at the beginning of November and I remember vetting him, interviewing him. I was like, this is like, I, at that point, I had interviewed over 300 people and I'd filled like 185 positions at my previous company. I was like, I'm very familiar with this. Let's start my interviews. Start my interviews. Found a guy, guy. He joined me. Um, and we started together in my shop and he was coming out to my shop. Very close there. That's November. Uh, my neighbor calls me in to the county and says, Hey, there's this guy doing commercial work on a residential area. And I'm, I'm literally out in the middle of nowhere, but I have a fairly close neighbor. He was not happy about it. So then the county shows up at my door, gives me a notice. I made friends very quickly with the county. Uh, they were great guys at the end. They gave me several months notice to make this happen. Richard was like, 30 days get out. I was like, no, I, I can't do that. Gimme something. So they gave me until January. Um, and so then I just started my, my process of finding a facility to rent and to lease 'cause I didn't have another option, like where do I find something to lease? So I visited, oh man, half a dozen to a dozen different areas with my real estate agent, which I'm calling up then people from my past employer that I did real estate with. It's like, Hey, help me find a place to lease. And I remember going around to all these, and it's hard to lease for automotive in like a flexible space. They don't wanna lease to repair, right? 'cause they don't know who you are. You're gonna keep a trash heap. What are you gonna do? So I remember I got shut down again like multiple times. I remember trying to sign leases four to five to six times with these people and that nobody wanted to do it because automotive. So at the end I got really desperate and I'm like, I'm not stopping unless I've tried everything. I remember talking to people trying to find the owner of these buildings so that I could call them, and I found several of 'em. I called their cell phones. I finally got phone. Left them messages, texted them and said, just call me back because I want a lease. Your building, and I think you're gonna be really impressed with what I have and I really want to, I wanna buy you over. And I had a couple that called me back. You fast forward until January, December 20, right before Christmas. I signed the lease for this place before I had to be out January 1st. Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: Talk about cutting it close, brother. Oh my gosh. Peter Bailey: I signed the lease and I walked my employee, uh, in here with my wife and his wife actually came as well. I'm like, here's our new shop. I remember holding up the keys and we got a picture of us holding the keys to our shop, and um, I was like, here's where it's gonna happen. And 5,000 square feet of open space feels like a lot. Initially I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna fill this, but we're gonna fill it together and, uh, uh, Jimmy Lea: feet, it's full. Peter Bailey: Oh my gosh, yes. So we start there and then I start with all of kind of, I mean even just what you see here in my office, but then it's logoing and moving everything over and having a moving party, which included all my brothers are coming over with, you know, the farm equipment and everything. So yank hoists out and to put 'em on flat beds and everything over here and toolboxes. And then, uh, my first employee and I started here and by March of that year I had to find another guy 'cause we were buried again. So March we hired our next guy. Um, and then it happened again. By June, we were destroyed again, and I had to find another guy. And this time it had to be a service writer. Wow. And I hired a service writer then. Um, and so then by this past November we were bordering that again, but that's kind of where I pulled the. The, the thing in the back pocket where it's like, Hey, I know how to work these hours and I'm concerned about what's January and February gonna be like. 'cause normally it can be slow. So that's when it's just kicking to high gear. And that's where I'm working late nights trying to figure out, 'cause now going into first quarter here, we're looking for another guy. I need a nice, I need a good tech at this point in time to be able to get to get things. Jimmy Lea: You're going for your third tech. Peter Bailey: Yeah. Yep. Jimmy Lea: So does this mean that you, as an owner now, you're able to put down the wrench and go into the office and now work on the business rather than always in the business? Peter Bailey: Not yet. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Not yet. Okay. Peter Bailey: Not yet. Jimmy Lea: Keep going. Peter Bailey: Yeah. So even now I still can't do that a hundred percent. And. Is by design a lot. And I, like I said, I do enjoy working. Um, I en I enjoy the pieces of it as well, um, in the shop still diagnosing cars. 'cause that was my backbone initially was just, I could diag cars. I, I mean, I was learn, I, I knew scopes, I knew a lot of this stuff and I really enjoyed it. So now it's, it's teaching a lot and getting my guys up to speed of like, Hey, here's what we need to be doing. Here's how we die at cars. Even if you knew automotive initially, here's what, how I want it done right. Um, in my, in, in my mind, true leadership and delegation and teaching anybody. This is not a one 60 day plan. This is not a 90 day plan. This can be six months to get somebody to where I want them to be at. 'cause by the time I'm done teaching them, I better be very confident that they're gonna do the things that I want the right way. They're gonna have their own style and technique, but at the same time. I'll be honest. Dave Ramsey says it really well. I don't follow necessarily all Dave Ramsey's stuff, but at the same time I think delegation from him. That booklet is amazing because it does teach you if you have a Ferrari and you, you don't immediately hand the keys to your kid and say, you go take my car and drive. Right? If you want them to be able to drive the car, you start with, they ride in the passenger seat next to you while you drive, right? Then you move to, hey. You sit on my lap and we'll drive around the block together and I'm gonna teach you how. Then we morph to, I'm gonna sit in the passenger seat while you drive. Then we finally get to the spot where, okay, you can take it for an hour and you drive to finally, okay, I'm confident. Hands you the keys. Go drive. You got this right. Delegation. It's a, it's a art in my opinion, and it takes time and I'm not rushing through this. So if I'm gonna build it to make it last, it's gonna last. And I've got a, I got a plan to be able to do that. Jimmy Lea: Oh, congrats. Congrats. So you are deep in the, the neck of, uh, finding a new technician, a, a third technician right now. Peter Bailey: Yep. Correct. Jimmy Lea: Nice. So if you're listening. Give, give Peter a call. He's ready for you. Peter Bailey: Hundred percent. Yeah. We're ready for you. And I think we've got something here that you're not gonna find anywhere else. But um, I think that the piece there of like finding another tech, 'cause all. A lot of, every, a lot of people are hearing right now, right? We're at a shortage of good techs, right? It's all over the industry. It's been over the industry for a long time. Um, it is the way it is, uh, and all these theories out there of what's causing it, right? Why aren't people wanting to do trades, all that sort of stuff. Um, I think that that gives me a great opportunity, if you're okay with me saying this. But in my opinion right now, the shortage of automotive attacks, um. In my opinion, it's not because of flat rate, it's not because of pay. It's not because of it's hard work and nobody can learn this. Um, it goes back to leaders and culture a hundred percent. Because if you come into my shop and you look at what I have here, um, if you look at me and where I came from, I played Australian football. Through college. I'm an avid view musician. I play violin. I played it for 25 years. At this point in time, I have all these things that I really enjoy, but if you, if you get down to the roots of it, it's just basically, I really enjoy a challenge and I enjoy being able to figure things out and cars was a great way to do it. But if the culture isn't there, I'm not, I'm not staying probably as a tech. I now have like one of my best technicians out here right now that's learning still, and he's a music grad. He came from, he got he, he came from his music degree and getting that to now an automotive and being like one of the best technicians I've ever seen, and it's all because of his attention to detail. How well he, he, he's designed to read and to be able to absorb information and put it into practice, and he does a phenomenal job at it. And so when I look at like, how am gonna find my next tech, yes, I need, I need an A level tech. But at the same time, I'm very, I'm committed to being able to train that person if I need to. But right now what I want is the person who has the character traits and qualities that may not even be an automotive. I wanna pull them in because yes, the pay is there. Yes, the hours are there, everything like that. But I got a culture and I've got guys, and I've got a shop that they would be interested in and a vision that I think I could gain their trust on. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I, I agree. I agree. Yeah. The pay is there, the work is there, the hours are there. And what's awesome and amazing about this, the automotive industry and, and your culture, your culture is so important. It, the, the amazing thing about us in the automotive industry is, uh. The, uh, the, the instant gratification, the, the instant feedback, the instant sense of fulfillment where you took something that was broken, took it apart, put it back together, and now it's fixed. Peter Bailey: Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That is so fulfilling for so many people. They, they don't even know how fulfilling it is. Peter Bailey: Yeah. Oh yeah, I a hundred percent. And I mean, yeah, that process along with you, you sprinkle in like just the inherent challenge of finding all those pieces. And it's not an easy process necessarily, but you gotta head on your shoulders and you're willing to think and think outside the box. Like it is awesome. You can't beat it. Jimmy Lea: I totally agree. Hey, so when I tell you about Rru the Rooster, we'll talk music backgrounds as well. I'm not from the violin. I'm not orchestra, but I'm from the band. Peter Bailey: There we go. Oh, I love it. That's Jimmy Lea: great. Yeah. Pet band, jazz band. Symphonic band. Uh, ensemble band, uh, honor bands. Yeah. So we'll, we'll have us a jam session. Peter Bailey: Yeah, exactly. That'd be a blast. Jimmy Lea: Oh wood Peter. That's awesome. It's amazing. Congrats on your journey. Congrats on creating a culture where people wanna be there. Peter Bailey: Thank you. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And you are you. You are an attraction. People are being attracted to your business. Yeah. And thanks. Thanks for listening to the Man Upstairs who kept patting you left, patting you right, patting you left, patting you. Right. Keeping you on that straight and narrow. So you could get to this point where Limitless Garage is an icon there in Des Moines, Iowa. People want to come to you, they want to bring their cars to you. Peter Bailey: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, limitless Garage and even like, you see the logo behind me a little bit and everything like that. But at the same time, um, everything we built, uh. Like we said, I do like cars. I do like a challenge. However, in automotive, in the repair business and in the company that I'm building, um, hospitality and experience is the heart of the shop. So we've formalized ourselves around being a concierge, automotive repair shop with facility. So everything we do is with. Intention, but to feel, have a high-end luxury feel to it, but still staying within the budget and the, the budget of what people are used to in the automotive industry. So I'm not, I'm not the highest of highs and not the lowest of lows, but at the same time, I'm creating an experience and that I think is what draws a lot of my customers in. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. Peter, I'll, I'll say that you're not the highest of the highs. You're not the lowest of the lows, but you are the best of the best. Peter Bailey: You got it. That's, that would be the hope and that'd be the dream as we continue to try to make it happen. Jimmy Lea: Oh, congratulations bro. That, that's awesome. So what is the future? Where are you going from here? You've got a service advisor, two techs. You're looking for a third. Peter Bailey: Yep. Jimmy Lea: Then what, Peter Bailey: um, obviously continued, continued growth for the business altogether. Um, I have mapped out. So far, uh, three different phases I'd like the business to go through and I'm, while I'm not willing to share all of where we're headed at the same time, I would say, Hey, uh, the next spots for, uh, or the next stages for us is continuing to, the building we are in right now is a flex space building. So. We had to do a lot of logoing, a lot of, uh, sign signage and everything like that just to make it feel at least enough for customers to come in here. Um, 'cause it's in, it's a new building. It's built in the last year and a half. So we were the first tenants in it. Um, but this building is also massive. I say massive, but it is fairly large, like it's about 25,000 square feet. Um, and we have a small bit of it on the end here. So I'd like to continue growing, leasing out more of it as we develop and ramp up into our next several stages. So the continue, I would. This building here, I would like to have about between probably 15 and 20,000 square feet if possible, if I can fill it, um, and be able to continue building out the different, uh, pieces of the business, which is customer care. So we have customer care and repair, right? For all the cars with li like or limitless garage. Then we've got. We're working on right now, which is all of our fleets. So we've got a fleet program, um, put together and we've started to attract large fleets that are coming in and we're doing all of their, um, we're doing all their repairs and dag and everything on. And then the next parts are vehicle modifications and detail work. So the goal is Limitless Garage will be a one-stop shop for everything for automotive. Um, and while it may be a pie in the sky at the same time. I can make it happen. It's just a matter of taking bite-size chunks, one at a time. Jimmy Lea: Oh, congrats man. Yeah. I love it. Uh, you're gonna build the kingdom, you're gonna optimize this one, and eventually there's gonna be a second and a third, and a fourth and a fifth. I, I see you, I see you building the kingdom, brother. That, that is phenomenal. Congratulations. Peter Bailey: I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: If you need any help along the way. Peter Bailey: Oh, I do already. Jimmy Lea: We would love to help step in and, and help you out with whatever it is you need in your journey. 'cause it's, it's great to have a second set of eyes. A coach. You have a coach. Are you working with anybody right now? Peter Bailey: Not currently, no. I've not, uh, I've not hired a chef, coach as of yet. I've had multiple people, including yourself and I, I fully believe in having a shop coach. Don't get me wrong. Um. It's more along the lines of, while I don't know everything, I still have pieces in my mind that I have to build and get to that piece and that limit so that I'm ready for the coach and that I'm like, okay, now I'm ready to take the next step that I'm not quite sure about. Where am I going? And that is short. That's a short amount of time before I'll be there, so we'll see. Jimmy Lea: Oh bro. That's awesome. Are you guys head division this year? Peter Bailey: Yeah. Yeah, we're taking the team division, so we'll be closed for a couple days, but yeah. Jimmy Lea: We have to make sure that we connect. I'll be there. Peter Bailey: Oh, absolutely. I love some space. Jimmy Lea: I'm teaching my final classes on Sunday morning. Peter Bailey: Okay, Jimmy Lea: so Peter, we gotta get together. We gotta post up a picture of us being there together at the show. Peter Bailey: Oh, absolutely. I'll come find you. I mean, while it's a fairly big spot, it's not that big of a place I can, Jimmy Lea: yeah, Peter Bailey: probably. Jimmy Lea: It's not that big. We'll find you brother. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Here you are. Starting out on this journey. What advice would you have for somebody in a similar position to you that is starting their journey and starting their business? Peter Bailey: So already committed to owning their own business. Okay. Um. Always find enjoyment in everything you're doing and knowing that it does have a purpose and that you're building something that can be yours a hundred percent. Um, second would be, uh, there is a teetering point between. Supply and demand and you don't wanna upside upset that too far because one side you'll lose customers. The other side, you lose people. And so you're not gonna wanna make that, you're not gonna wanna be rash on that teeter-totter effect right there. And that's probably one of the hardest things that I struggled through was. Do you hire the tech and hope for the work, or do you have the work and can't do the work, and then you hire the tech and there's a fine line to draw. So those would be the two things. Third thing would be become obsessed with knowing all of the rules and regulations behind automotive and having your own building, because if I could go back and do it again, I probably would not have started on my property. However, I, I made it through it and I'm gonna do it differently. Jimmy Lea: And you had to, you had to do what you had to do. Peter Bailey: Oh yeah, you're right. Jimmy Lea: Because the results wouldn't be what they are. Had you done anything different? So congratulations, props to you, Peter. Peter Bailey: Thank you. Jimmy Lea: I'm very much looking forward to seeing your success and, and being a witness of this awesomeness. Keep going, brother. Thank you very much. Peter Bailey: Absolutely. Thank you.