Charge Forward Podcast
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Charge Forward Podcast
Security to Supercars: Janis Lasmanis' Journey to Automotive Excellence
From Security to Supercars: Janis Lasmanis' Journey to Automotive Excellence
Description:
How does a car enthusiast from Latvia go from guarding Prince Charles and Eminem to becoming Middle Tennessee’s go-to specialist for exotic cars? Meet Janis Lasmanis, the founder of Corsair Detail, whose remarkable story is a testament to perseverance, adaptability, and the pursuit of excellence.
In this episode of the Charge Forward Podcast, Janis shares how his career journey led him from high-profile security roles in the UK to launching a premium car detailing business in the U.S. Learn how an unexpected encounter in London sparked his entrepreneurial spirit, driving him to build a thriving business from the ground up, even while navigating the challenges of starting fresh in a new country.
Discover the secrets behind Janis’ success as he balances quality service with strategic growth in the competitive automotive industry. From his early struggles to his rise as a social media rockstar and trusted advisor for exotic car enthusiasts, Janis offers invaluable insights into the power of building relationships, learning from setbacks, and fostering a transparent, high-performance team.
With candid anecdotes, including a costly mistake with a Rolls Royce, and lessons learned from his global experiences, this episode is packed with inspiration for anyone looking to turn their passion into a thriving business.
🚗 Tune in to hear how Janis Lasmanis is redefining the art of automotive excellence while charging forward toward even greater heights!
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– Jim Cripps
You are the cap for whatever goes on in your store, in your company, in your district, in your household. However excited you are, what you believe is possible, whatever that threshold is. Good afternoon, team Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward podcast, coming to you from HitLab Studios here in Nashville, tennessee. Now I have a special guest for you today, mr Gi, and he is the guy here in Middle Tennessee that if you've got an exotic car and you want it to look pristine and perfect all the time, he's your guy. Whether it's ceramic coating, whether it's paint correction, whether it's just making sure that it's sharp for that next event, we got GiannJanisi in the studio. That's right. Now, giannis, give me a little backstory, because you're not from the States, obviously. How long have you been in the States? And then how did you get to Tennessee?
Janis Lasmanis:I'll do it seriously Sometimes. Obviously I'm a car guy because I work with cars and actually used to live around the corner from here and I like to go on my evening drives. It's just, you know, this is that's my therapy and I drive around. I'm like how the hell did that guy here, like what happened? You know? So I grew up in latvia, um, which is eastern europe, so we're pretty much we're border russia, we border, uh, estonia, so estonia and lithuania and bel, so we're in that, at the Baltic Sea, we're in that area.
Janis Lasmanis:So I left home then when I was, I think, 19 years old and I moved to the UK. So I lived there for almost 10 years and did all sorts of random jobs run clubs, nightclubs, bar clubs, also bars, and I was a bodyguard for about six to eight years. I used to work for Prince Charles as well. Oh, wow, yeah, I used to work for a family for a while. So, yeah, I had a very eventful life. I looked after Eminem, marilyn Manson, I met a lot of cool people and been in a lot of cool places. Man.
Jim Cripps:So I got a crazy one for you, marilyn Manson. So Brian Warren has actually been at my house. No way, now he did not come in because so I used to be friends with his producer and they stopped by my house one night at like 2.30 in the morning and I didn't answer the phone and I get a call the next or I call back the next morning and he's like dude, he's like we were banging on the door. I was like yeah, I heard you. I was like it's 2.30. And he's like no to the airport, we were gonna pick you up damn it, dude.
Jim Cripps:His manager was an absolute asshole, seriously there's a lot of them in that industry, that yeah dude, because so I worked, I did.
Janis Lasmanis:I didn't work right next to me, so usually the person that's next to the celebrity that's called personal protection officer. Yeah, so those, those guys usually stick with with that kind of little celebrity. But then they usually hire the next circuit and you know, going, going onwards and drivers and whatever, and his manager literally like lined us up for us because we were in the first perimeter. He's like you are not allowed to wear strong deodorant, you are not allowed to wear an aftershave. If he's not going to like you or the way you smell, he's just going to walk off the stage. He's like don't even to him and he just comes out. What's up, guys, I was like I have this guy, you know, I was like and I literally told him I was like. This guy said you're an absolute asshole. And I was like you're just a cool dude, you know.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, well, he's just, he's chill oh, yeah, well, and and the buddy of mine, he literally sent me a picture and he was like oh, we were around the corner from your house earlier than that, earlier that day, just having a cheeseburger at the local like restaurant. Yeah, of course, nobody knew who it was, yeah, so but right.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, in tennessee they're like who's emo girl? That's right whatever yeah, oh yeah.
Jim Cripps:So you come to the united states after now. You even worked for facebook when you were in uk, right?
Janis Lasmanis:yeah, so I was in security industry in general you know, so I used to have my own security company.
Janis Lasmanis:I used to. I started as a battle so the way it worked. So I used to work at like I used to run nightclubs and restaurants and it didn't pay that well and there was just so much headache things that you have to think about. For the money I was making. I was like I just don't like this kind of stuff and I technically don't have really any kind of other education than former military, and in the UK that was an option because I don't want to go to war ever. I was very lucky not to go to war and thank you for everybody who's done the service. Thank you for your help and your support. But I used to be really handy, you know, so I can fight.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, and you're a big dude.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah.
Jim Cripps:I mean even here at the studio. You know that handshake is powerful yeah yeah, you know I'm 6'3" about powerful.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, yeah, you know I'm 63, about 250 on a good day, right, yeah, but so, so, yeah, so some of the owners that, like I used to run the nightclubs for, so they literally cut down security by half. Because I was there, because, right literally, I used to just drag people out while the security was like what's going on here, you know? And then, uh, then one of my buddies, he just opened his own nightclub and he's like, how would you like to be a head of security? I was like why not? So then I took over that nightclub, but not the big nightclub and kind of, and about 20, 15 to 20 bars, just in general I was working around. So, yeah, put my people in place and stuff. So that's how I got into security. And then I kind of outgrew that part. It kind of got boring. So I sold the company, not for much but still and then I moved into um, um, to the clothes protection, to close protection is the bodyguard, sure?
Janis Lasmanis:And then within when I was working for some of these guys, we had like, like some of my assignments used to be three months on, two days off, you know. So for three months, that's all you do. You live with the family, you work with them, you know, and then for two days you go home and just like, look at your condo and turn around and go back, but so there's a lot of downtime. You know you're sitting sometimes, you know, in a bulletproof range over in front of some gate that nobody ever drives through, but you know they have the money to pay for you. So you're sitting there picking your nose. So I started studying counterterrorism, okay, and with that, about two years later, yeah, I got a job at Facebook as a counterterrorism advisor for the physical security team.
Jim Cripps:So it sounds really fancy.
Janis Lasmanis:But, like all I was doing, I was writing procedures and they paid me a lot and all I was teaching them because we're not allowed to have weapons there, you know even the security guards. So all I was doing telling them look, if somebody walks in here with a gun, that's the direction you run and that's where you hide. You know, hide, report, and then you're good. You know yeah, but yeah, and then, uh, I just bumped into a beautiful girl. You know, downtown london, at the bar that I usually don't go, it's like national broadway, like people who live here don't ever go there, that's right. And I just bumped into this beautiful girl and we start talking and she was from arlington, virginia. She was studying out there in the uk.
Janis Lasmanis:So, yeah, one thing after another, we're dating for a while. And then, uh, I was in between assignments. So, um, you know, because you're a contractor, you know, so I could have re-signed again for Facebook. And she was just like, do you want to come see me to the States? You know, I'm going for summer. I was like yeah why not?
Janis Lasmanis:And three months turned into six months, six months turned into a year. Then, you know, relationship was more serious. Later on we got married and then I started Corsair. Then I started Corsair, yeah. And so I started Corsair because for the first year, while I was here, I couldn't legally work, you know, because obviously I don't want to mess with the government, they don't want to catch me, you know, I don't want to do construction somewhere, so they're going to deport me and I'm going to mess. Once you're in that process and you get deported, like that's it, you ain't coming back, no matter who you are and what you do, you know. Yeah. So that was really serious and luckily for my wife's side, I had some, you know, support that I, you know, we're not starving. You know what I mean.
Janis Lasmanis:So I had the opportunity to kind of figure out what I want to do, take my time and yeah, and then I started cleaning cars, like my own car, because I can't sit. Still, I got to do something. Yes, it doesn't matter, I've got to do something. It doesn't matter, even if I'm 70 years old and whatever money I'm going to have, I've got to keep moving. I've got to keep doing something. So I'd clean my car, my girlfriend's, wife's car, fiance's, whatever, her mom's car and just everybody family's cars. And I like it, I wash my cars. I always had some nice cars before and I always took care of them myself. And then my former mother-in-law was taking somebody to the airport. Someone worked calling and she's like, oh, did you buy a new car? I was like, no, yannis cleaned it. Oh, he's so good at it. And I started to kind of pace things together and I started running into some problems how do you clean the carpet? What kind of chemicals do you use? So, obviously, youtube certified Yannis. And then I see all these guys with these amazing shops, all the shops that I have now, that's right, all the lights and R8s and Ferraris and all this stuff, and some of them are owners and operators and stuff. And I really enjoyed doing it.
Janis Lasmanis:And it started to kind of put almost like a little business plan together. I'm like, look, I've got nothing to do anyway, might as well just do a little market research. So I called around what would it cost to? You know detail, I don't know. C-class mercedes, like 200 bucks, you know. I'm like, damn, I can do three a day with six and oh, that's a lot of money. Yeah, you know, it's still a lot of money. So I started a facebook page, went to auto zone with about 200 in my pocket but I had I had like some sort of shop vac already and in like a 80 power washer, yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:And then I bought, you know, uh, glass cleaner, spray, wax, some rags, you know, and I put a couple posts up on. You know, this looks like local, I don't know local, franklin, by himself, just put up, like you know, come to your house for 150 bucks or 125 dollars, yeah, clean your car. And my first car was an escalcalade. It was pre-used but she bought it second-handed and the detail department at the dealership didn't do a great job. She's like it's a two-year-old car but it still looks like crap. Yeah, so she's like I'm going to get them to pay for it. Can you come to my house? And, dude, like I could have finished that car in bar half an hour, I kind of had to drag it off at least like two. It's just dusty. So I did that. She gave me $150 and $150 tip, okay, and I was like hell, yeah, well yeah, because she's going to get the dealership to pay for it.
Jim Cripps:Yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:I'm like she's like, can you send me an invoice? I'm like, sure I don't have an invoice, but I figured it out Just. You know Google it because you had to invoice the dealership. But yeah, I was like 300 bucks. I'm like I could have done this in an hour and again, I like it. You know I get up in the morning my stuff is packed, everything is neat. You know, I know where everything is. You know I know my chemicals, I know what it reacts with everything. You know how it works and yeah, the rest is kind of history. Started to advertise more. Then I created a Google profile, started a website. I also started LSC and then I got involved in a couple of local cars and coffee groups as well. I was there every Sunday and I still remember there's one cars and coffee in Dallas Landing. There was usually three of us on a Sunday Three.
Jim Cripps:Yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:Because it was like I don't know if it's snowing. Everybody's like now, every Sunday there's about 1,500 cars. Yeah, I'm like, damn, no, I mean it was good. So, yeah, you know, and just getting local trust and everything. And then when I started to get more cars and, you know, more bookings, then I hired a buddy of mine who didn't know how to vacuum a car and I'll teach them all the ways and everything, sure, uh, so that was my first employee and then I have another one. Then I went into the shop I was renting kind of like a shop space. Then we had our own shop, um, and then, you know, things start to evolve. We start to start to subcontract a couple things like you know, window tinting and stuff. And then I opened a place in florida, in orlando, uh. And then, uh, and then, yeah, our house. Wow, yeah, it's just a pipe burst. We're going to a Super Bowl party for two days. Come back and there's water coming out of the garage. But we rented it, which is good.
Janis Lasmanis:So that was my wife's time to pull out of Virginia, because she grew up there. She didn't want to live there. So we kind of just traveled around. I was like baby, I just started this business. I just started this business. I just started stacking money. We got married as well. So we got married here and we also got married in Latvia, which is a beautiful wedding that I paid for as well, and I was really happy that I had the opportunity. Family helped me before and now we got married in Palace which was built for Russian Tsar's wife. Oh my God, you can't even get married there. But my grandfather, he was a big shot, so he pulled that off, so it was beautiful. So then all of a sudden, we got married and come back and she's like we got to move and I'm like where I don't know. I know 10 people at the time in America.
Janis Lasmanis:So we went to North Carolina, went to LA, to Vegas, and I'm'm like this doesn't make sense. I was like you know, do you know anybody like in nashville? No, let's check it out there. So he came out here party, don't sleep. For two days. That was great. You know, downtown, yeah, broadway, oh, great time. And like you know, when you focus on like, let's say something I don't know, you focus on a white van. You know that's all you see on the street. So I kind of looked around. I'm like I just see some shitty cars here and I'm like I don't know, can I make money? Bear in mind, this is no offense, nashville's cool, but before I knew it I'm like this is Tennessee and I was in Loudoun County, which is the richest county in America. Then all of a sudden I see all these beaters around. And then I came and then, yeah, she was still in the bedroom. I'll hang over. But I was just like let me just go and check out National Cars and Coffee. And I was like holy mackerel.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, bonnie, I didn't understand until probably the last year just how large the exotic car scene is here in Middle Tennessee. It's unreal. Yeah, you never expect that. Well, and a lot of these guys and women too, they don't own one. They've got like three, four, five cars and then a couple of them are you know real deal and got you know 100 cars which is crazy.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, we have some of our clients but yeah, like guys like Sammy Poirier, like he's got a, you know, bugatti Veyron he's got a Bugatti Veyron. He's got Pagani Zonda, he's got Bugatti Chiron, he's got a collection that almost nobody has His collection himself probably. Yeah, it was worth a lot of money, but again, they're such cool guys I'm so appreciative of that. I get to know them and now we work with all the dealerships. We gain that trust here. So, yeah, I started the franklin shop they're open east nashville and then we moved from franklin to brentwood. You know this is just a tactical move, but yeah, at some, at one point I had five shops in three different states. Okay, which sucked ass right.
Jim Cripps:It's not a quality of life. That's why I have no hair inside of my head.
Janis Lasmanis:I just keep pulling them out. Now, you did used to have long hair, right? No, that's a spot, that's a photoshop okay okay.
Janis Lasmanis:Photo shop Okay, okay A buddy of mine always takes pictures. He's a kind of photographer. He always shot at the bed. He always takes pictures of me and then just adds long hair. Yeah, because even I was dating some girl and her mom was like I didn't know, you liked guys with long hair. She's like no, no, no, he's got a little strip left here Because he's got a little strip left here because I had my bra hack at the time.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, but it's funny, that's awesome. Well, so you come here. You, you know, obviously got pretty extensive background before you get to the united states. Um, how easy was it, you know, obviously you had been cleaning cars, you had experience already and we're growing that. How was it just kind of picking up and and then replanting here in nashville? How did that go.
Janis Lasmanis:So I still had the previous shop. And then the corona happened as well. That sucked, yeah, you know, and whatever people's feelings are about it, you know, for business as a self, it sucked. It. It pretty much killed my marriage as well. Um, because my wife's health was not that great and you know she was a strong believer about all this. You know, also, like I've been shot before, so I don't have a spleen, so I'm in a higher category. If I get, you know, some sort of serious infection, I might not make it, you know. So, yeah, because my immune system is a little bit, you know, compromised. Yeah, okay, I'd be compromised. So there was a time when you know she was living upstairs, I was living downstairs in our house, you know, because you know she's like why are you going to work? I'm like who's paying the bills?
Janis Lasmanis:yeah she's like but what are you trying to kill me? I'm like no, I'm just trying to pay bills. You know right, sorry, I'll eat you out. There was occasions when I actually um shout out to the team with customs they're really, they're really good people. They do like high end car builds, like the Stata 250 grand, you know, and they let me work at night so it's not around other people oh, wow that's cool yeah is that your local.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, they're in Madison. Okay, yeah, team Wood Customs, they're good people and they they build really really cool cars. They build hot rods and like restoration rods and stuff. Okay. But yeah, again, I've been fortunate. You know Say fortunate, you know I work for everything I have, but I've been very fortunate, you know, to attract the right people. You know I walked into Titan Motoring. That was the first place. Literally I walked in Because I didn't know anybody in Tennessee when I started here. Yeah, so I walked in the store talking about something else and I was like, hey guys, do you ceramic coatings here? And this guy's like, oh, we used to do it, but the guy that did it for us, he actually moved to florida, whatever, he's like he's working out that well. And I was like, really, I said, are you the best custom shop in town? And he's like, yeah, I was like, well, you just find the best ceramic coater. Ah, there you go yeah, go.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, I like it he's like oh really.
Janis Lasmanis:He's like when can you start? I was like yesterday, that's right. He's like, okay, you're going to coat my G-Wagon. So, dude, I was making love to the G-Wagon for two days. I'm polishing. I got nowhere else to be. As well, I don't even care how much I get paid, I'm buying the old one. Okay, and I have it now. Nice, that was another dream come true. When I was 14 years old, I had a silver G-Wagon on my wall like a poster. Yeah, and now I have one. It's just yeah, it's been amazing.
Jim Cripps:Well, I will say, you know, because, in total transparency, like you know, we met at what is kind of like a car meet lunch, you know, there at Perry's Steakhouse in Brentwood. And what, three hours later you're tinting the windows on my wife's new car. Yeah, that was crazy. Yeah, well, because we met at lunch and it just so happened that I was doing the deal on my wife's car and when I walked in over there I said, yeah, I'm going to have her come by tomorrow so she can pick it up, have the experience of picking it up at the dealership and all that. And I said, uh, I'm gonna probably give you honest a call and see if you know he can get to it and he goes. Man, I bet you, if you call you honest right now, he can, he can do it right now.
Jim Cripps:I'll take the car over was back in like two hours.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, yeah yeah, no, it is awesome. So what kind of little bit difference is me from most of the detailers? It's really hard to let your standards go and I'm not saying that I have let my standards go. But let's say most of these detailers are super ego-driven. This is the way I do it, this is how it needs to look, and I get it. We have set standard procedures. You know what? Let's say what we get, what we need to achieve. You know how much time we can spend on something. How much product can we spend on something? You know? Sure, you know, because otherwise it's not a business, it's a job. That's right, usually not very successful. But so a lot of these detailers, all they have, they have one or two helpers, his cousin or his nephew or whatever, because it is hard. Even now.
Janis Lasmanis:Let's say, if I walk in with detailing in general, I can look, you could detail the car for 10 hours. I'll still find something if I want to. It's just such a big surface and there's so many things that what is perfect? Where do we stop at this level? So the problem is you see, these guys, they don't want to trust anybody else. Then they ended up working in a business forever, forever. They just own their job. They don't own a company. Yeah, exactly, and the difference between me? I'd rather pay six figures to a manager that takes care of it. Still, I'm still working. Every day I'm picking up cars, I go to every dealership in the work.
Janis Lasmanis:You're building the relationship to grow the business, exactly. But I don't. I wish I could just wash cars, man. Oh my God. There's been times where, like so lately, yeah, lately, like I book my Sundays, I book, once around the book, one ceramic recording for myself, I put my headphones on listen to some Joe Rogan or whatever, or just some classic music, and I just polish away. I love it, man, yeah, but yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:So the difference between most detail, like I don't know anybody who's got five detail shops in America. I mean, I don't know one person and I know probably two thousand detailers, because it's hard to sustain and I learned the hard way, unfortunately, sure, so I had to cut it back. But because I have taken that step of hiring other professionals, paying everybody well what they deserve, I can pop out there. That's why I met you, that's why, but every cars and coffee, every cars and cigars, I'm everywhere, yeah, and literally I have other details mentioned me like dude, how the hell did you make to all these places? Like you, you always somewhere. I'm like, yeah, because I don't wash cars anymore, that's right. Like if I'm washing the car, we lose money or our future is losing money.
Jim Cripps:Yeah. So I always look at it like I need everybody in that business to know their role so well that everybody is selfish enough for us to be victorious. What I mean by that is like everybody that works for you selfishly needs you at those events, making those relationships so that the work keeps coming in.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, that's a very good point. You want me to be there and have a cocktail? Yeah, absolutely. Otherwise, there's no overtime, buddy. Yeah, yeah.
Jim Cripps:And, at the same time, you've got to have guys that you treat well enough, that you pay well enough, that they're in there and they know that their job for everybody to win is to take care of this car, whether it's the tent, or whether it's the paint correction or the ceramic or whatever it is that we're doing to this ride, so that yannis's name is synonymous with excellence. Yeah, when they pick this car up or when it gets dropped off. Yeah, so that you can be out there at the next event and hold your head high.
Janis Lasmanis:You know how cool it is. Lately I work with Rolls-Royce and Bentley and Carlock dealership. They're like, dude, we've been trying to sell services for you, like penetration film, but the guys are picking up a car and we're like, hey, would you like to have a ceramic corner? No, I got corset, don't worry about it. So our said don't worry about it, you know. So, like, our name is already there. Yeah, and um, I think specifically lately, um, some of the dynamics in in my shop has changed, because everything comes from me at the end of the day, you know, and uh, a lot of times I think my employees, specifically, you know, guys, it's just let's just detail. All they see is, you know, I turn up in the g-wagon, cuss everybody out, you know, slam the doors and just leave, you know. And then they, they see me at some cocktail party with cars and cigars and they're like what is this guy even doing? But I kind of sat everybody down and I explained to them and this was after one church visit. It kind of just really resembled my head.
Janis Lasmanis:We're all servants. One thing is we work for somebody or whatever, but we're all servants. And instead of I'm like I sat everybody down, I'm like I sat there. But now I'm like guys like you, all adults, most of them are older than me. You know, I'm 36. And I'm like I'm not here to wipe your asses, I'm not here to go. And what about this? What about that? I said how about you get paid? Well, you do everything on point and I'm here to help you. I'm like what do you need? The latest equipment, the latest technology, the tools, whatever you need. You come to me and tell me what do I have to do for you to do your job at the best it is? Do you need more time? Do you need more light? Whatever the hell that is, I'm your servant. Yes, I'll sign your checks, but I'm not your boss. I'm your servant Till you overstep me, till you cross the line, and then I'm able to wait a little. What's the?
Jim Cripps:nightmare. Well you know, you do have to have a strong spine in order to be an entrepreneur, I mean bottom line, like you went through it.
Jim Cripps:You went through some adversity, there was tough times in order to get where you're at. At the same time, that doesn't mean you, you, you don't treat your people well, right? Uh, in fact I think it's uh. Somebody recently, uh was on a podcast and said that you know, like your, your elite, like most decorated like seal team type guys, are the least aggressive people in the general public and it's because they know what they're capable of. They don't have to prove it. And I think that to some extent, business owners have to kind of be the same way, like they've been through the crappy days and not knowing if you were going to eat tomorrow and will this business survive, so that now they're tough skinned enough to where. You know I can treat you really well as a team member. I can treat you really well as a customer because I, what I have been through, I know what I, I know what I can do, you know.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, and sometimes it's hard man, one of my guys recently based up a Rolls Royce that cost me $32,000. Oh, based up a Rolls Royce that cost me $32,000. Oh my gosh, again, simple mistake. I probably would have done the same thing. I'm not going to go too much into detail, but he just did a polish on a brand new car and there's this one specific trim level where they have this tinted chrome and usually on every other car you can sit on it for minutes with the polish and nothing's going to happen. On that Rolls Roycece.
Janis Lasmanis:He almost wiped it off and the dude's like um, yeah, I wanted it priced, so we tried to color match it and apparently, you know, the guy's like literally told dealership he's like you know, I got a bit of money we can take it to. You know, we can take the quarter if we have to. And the cars were 750 grand, yeah, and I'm like, so I called my insurance. I was like they're like, yeah, we'll back you, but we're gonna drop you instantly. I'm like so. So I called my insurance. I was like they're like, yeah, we'll back you, but we're going to drop you instantly. I'm like, so how did he? You know, when I get that phone call, first of all I want to throw up, yeah. And next thing again, like you know, I want to hurt somebody, you know, or at least tell them how I feel. Sure, but it was just such a simple mistake, you know. Obviously, I sat down with that guy, you know. So we don't make these mistakes again. But I got a fairly short fuse and it's hard.
Jim Cripps:I'm like look, this is not even your fault you know like I would have done the same thing, yeah well, and I think again like that's where we have to take a breath and go. You know what we do, like as an entrepreneur, like when the when the business is doing well, we get to take some stuff home, right yeah, and at the same time, when something goes awry, it's on us.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah.
Jim Cripps:And I think that's kind of the game that you're playing, because if you're going to work on million-dollar cars, then every once in a while a screw-up that would be pennies on a regular car has got zeros behind it on a million-dollar car. Oh yeah, yeah. But there's a reason that you get paid what you do in order to work on these cars too.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, you know, you know, but sometimes specifically working with, deal with high-end dealerships is the same money. And then and again, you know, like these, all these guys are fighting for all these, like, not mercedes, but, like you know, ferraris and lambert, lambos and blah, blah. I'm like, truly, guys, I don't want those cars. Like they look cool, you know. But let's say, somebody I don't know takes a chair and, you know, bumps into a walking path or a lunchbox or whatever you know. Even on a Range Rover brand new Range Rover I can buy a door for five grand, which is already stupid expensive. Sure, you do it on a collectible, I don't know, some sort of Shelby, something, it's over. Yeah, like, like I'm screwed, you know. Yeah, so that's why I like, yeah, I try not to, I'm trying not to push that high end. It looks cool, you know, but like those guys, number one, I used to have a mclaren dealership contract in virginia, so we did all the mclarens. And then for ceramic coating. So imagine the difference there was a three-year coating which was just for exterior, and there was a five-year coating that was we take the wheels, wheels off, we ceramic coat the glass, the interior, the whole nine yards. Yeah, the difference was the five-year package, platinum package we charged dealership, I think, like $1,500. And the three-year was $800 because it was just an easier job. Those people are so tight, everybody just goes for the cheap stuff. Yeah, and I'm like, come on, you got like $150, you know what I mean? Right, and now you're cutting what $800, $600, you know, I don't know. Those people are tight and they all pay the same price, you know, but sometimes the risk is a lot higher. Yeah, we even do airplanes now as well. Oh, wow, I didn't know that.
Janis Lasmanis:Yes, we're the only people that do dry ice blasting. You ever heard of it? Yeah, yes, we're the only people that do dry ice blasting. You ever heard of it? Yeah, for like undercoating, rust and all that. Yeah, so it doesn't really remove rust, at least my machine. I have kind of like a medium level. I mean, my machine was about 50 grand, but there's machines for like 150,000, which are a lot better, but the bases are the same. But yeah, so we're the only people in Nashville it's not in Nashville, well, national, well, most part of tennessee we're the only people that do dry ice blasting.
Janis Lasmanis:It's a really cool technology. So we remove. You know where the landing gear is on planes, where the wheels are, yeah. So there's this um, they have to cover it in this liquid called cic, which is like like a cosmolin on porsches anti, anti rust prevention thing right, because you can't just take a power wash, yeah, um. So yeah, we, we work on private jets, so we blast that all. Often it just all becomes dust, Because there's only two ways how you can remove it. One is the dry ice blast, the other one is chemical. So they spray these chemicals but they're so poisonous they have to evacuate the hangar for like two days and they eat up all the labels on all the cables and stuff. So, yeah, we've been killing it. That too, that's great. Well, yeah, we've been killing it that too.
Jim Cripps:That's great. Well, I know even there's only two places that do it in Atlanta, and the reason I know that is my brother-in-law just had his Jeep done and he was like there's only two places in all of Atlanta.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, but why I mentioned that is? So we were working on a buddy of mine's airplane, a private jet. It's a falcon, so it's a three million dollar plane. And I told him I was like at the time I was like, look, I don't have aviation insurance. I said for me in the cheap, the cheapest one for me, because you know, I'm not the experience, you know they look at everything, so the insurance gonna cost 10 grand. The whole job was like 12. Yeah, so I'm not paying 10 grand for insurance. And he's like and he's a client, he's not everybody, but he's a client. He's not a real buddy of mine, but he's a client. But he's a cool dude, like I worked on every car that he has, yeah. And I told him I said, look, you know, I'm happy to do it, but you got to send me an email Like saying you know, if you mess something up, this is not on me, you know. And he's cool, he's like yeah. So he sent oh yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:Damn, because, like we were working on cherry pickers, you know like to get to everything as well. What if one of my guys falls off it, you know, or something. Yeah, damn, and I was there half the time like staring at everybody, you know, telling people what to do, which doesn't make their life easier. They're like they just put headphones on, like hey, hey, just go, problem. I'm like say what's up? He's like we broke one of those little aerials. They have little antennas on the wings. They have four or five on one side. I'm like, oh my god, that's it. I got to shut the company down. I'm moving to Antioch, opening scrub and bubbles. Just leave it low key. Grow out a beard, wear a hat every day, just disappearing from the world.
Janis Lasmanis:So I called the engineer. He's a cool dude as well. I said, look. He said they broke the antenna. I said, hit me straight now, don't bullshit me around. I said I need to know right now because I'm about to or throw up or jump off the cliff. And he's like, ooh, one of those. I was like, come on Fucking, tell him what's going on. Yeah, he's like dude, don't worry, we break them all the time because we got a box of them.
Janis Lasmanis:They're like 60 bucks a piece Because they use that plane a lot. So my thought was okay, the plane's grounded, so from now on I'm paying for everybody's first class tickets, you know, and expenses, you know. One flight's three grand to, I don't know, Miami, you know.
Janis Lasmanis:Oh, yeah, you know I'm like ah but no, he just stopped laughing and I called Jim. He was like yeah, the the, the guys already called me. He's like I was thinking I'm going to mess with you as well, but you probably wouldn't survive that. You know there was a breakdown, but it's crazy.
Jim Cripps:That's cool, but you end up with some really great clients and I'm sure you know the guys over at Exotic Autosport Lane and them. Yeah they're good dudes, they're fantastic and they're clients of mine and I had no idea. I had no idea that the Exotic car scene was that big Right. You never know who's going to walk in that building. It's crazy the people that just pop in.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah dude Lane as well. Those guys, they're super good techs Because I believe they worked for a couple of dealerships before that. They did. They became master techs through whatever Yep, Him and Mike, both yeah yeah, and bear in mind, let's say, two years ago those cars were somewhere else. You know what I mean. So it was kind of like over now Now, but in every one of these high-end know, including mine we just packed with these cool cars. You know it's awesome, it's so cool and you know what, like back in the day, because I came from nothing, I grew up broke, you know. So I always thought like all these guys are assholes. You know these cool cars and you know what? Most of them are the nicest people ever.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, it's like nine out of every income level. You're at right. Um, the other thing that surprised me too and you know I'm not trying to be sexist or anything but how many women own these cars? Yeah, and they're like no, no, this is my car, yeah yeah, I had a buddy of mine.
Janis Lasmanis:He turns up in a ferrari, uh, and then his wife turns up. He's like talking something about the car. His wife turns up in an SUV and she opens it. That's my fucking car.
Jim Cripps:She's like yeah baby.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, but yeah, no, they are. And then they are a bigger car movement. Maybe, let's say not with that exclusive and expensive cars, you know, because I think, just like a little bit older men and women, they with that exclusive and expensive cars, you know, because I think, just like a little bit older men and women, they have more other things to do, you know. Sure, but there is this one girl that works I can't remember her name is Timber. She started something like a national girl car scene or whatever, and then younger girls would, let's say, still cool cars, like you know Nissans and Camaros and you know Corvettes and stuff like that. They do some events as well around here.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, but yeah, everybody's always welcome, Because I don't know how it was before, but I think in Virginia, when I started going to these three-car meets, then people are still kind of like who's who, what do you drive? And now, when this all has grown to this level, everybody's just cool, Like Ben. Shout out to Ben from National Cars and Coffee, the nicest dude ever. Yeah, you know he runs the whole thing and you know he's got 2,000 cars there every first Saturday of the month, which is coming up, by the way, Yep.
Jim Cripps:Are you coming up? I'm sure I probably will. You know, because that's.
Janis Lasmanis:Saturday. Right, it's Saturday. Yeah, guinea one. Yeah, because it's next to the shop. I gotta get the shop pumped up.
Jim Cripps:So, yeah, yeah, it works well, and it's a different feel at each one of those too. Yeah, you know, um, and I think too, because they're they're the same day yeah, at the same time uh, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing because you get a different. You get like a different group at each one. My problem is I gotta be in all of them.
Janis Lasmanis:You know that's right it's bad for you yeah, because it sucks, like you know, like I gotta drive out there. I usually try to. I try to go there early, you know, and then shoot for like 10 o'clock I'm back here, you know. Yeah, so I'll sometimes I say one one one month I'm here one month I'm over there because ben, actually from cars copy, cars coffee, they helped me a lot as well to take my business off the ground.
Janis Lasmanis:Oh sure, because, um, um, they didn't had like a secured uh of the ground. Oh sure, because they didn't have like a secured spot partner. Yeah, you know, detail shop, and since then, since I started with them, you know there's been a lot of other detail shops that want to have that part, you know, and I've been exclusive with them because I was there from the beginning, but now, with them being a little bit away and most of that crowd is technically not my clientele anymore, specifically because you know I have enough here and that's who I want to be and that's who I want to keep, you know. Sure, so we work on everything, everybody that pays money, you know, it's not that we just don't work on cameras, we work on literally everything, you know.
Jim Cripps:Yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:It's just there's certain processes and you know packages that you know. There's no point to put you know a 2500 film on 2008 camera.
Jim Cripps:That's right, yeah, but most people get it yeah, well, you know, one of the things that I think is cool and I'm not just trying to pad your ego here is, like people that are your competitors are also your biggest fans, like, uh, I shared with you earlier um so I recently had a car full paint correction and ceramic on my dad's 68 Chevelle.
Jim Cripps:And like the same weekend that I was picking that one up was the same time you did my wife's car. And I told him you know, it got tinted this week. And he goes oh, where'd you have it done? And I said Gianni, out at Corsair, and he was like, oh my God, giannis is awesome. You know, have you seen this car? You've seen this video? Blah, blah, blah. You know, and this is a guy who's literally one of your competitors and he's also like a big fan too. Yeah, um, so big, big shout out to Brian Patterson out there. I mean, uh, between the two of you, I mean I think you could tackle anything, you know air force one, if you want to.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, Um, now, the other thing that I think makes your kind of your path unique is so one not from the States to kind of it's almost like y'all threw a dart at Nashville and decided we'll, we'll. Come in here. You get kind of punched in the face with kovat, hmm, and yet you've built this business and you're thriving, mm-hmm, like what's the secret? What's the secret to? Just? You keep moving, you keep charging forward every time you get hit. What I mean?
Janis Lasmanis:what you have to decide when you close the doors to go back, that's right. You close the doors, fuck it, there's no way out here. Yeah, you know there's no way out. Yeah, like, sometimes, you know it bothers me because I've grown it, grown this monster that big I can't just pull up. Yeah, you know it's over, but that gives me the drive for the next big project, for the next thing, for the next dealership. You know i's over, but that gives me the drive for the next big project, for the next thing, for the next dealership. You know, I've overstepped that boundary, specifically with dealerships. Nobody does as many dealerships as we do. You know we work with probably 10 dealerships in this area and that's how we started Florida as well. I just went in and I just didn't take no for an answer. I'll keep bringing them cookies.
Janis Lasmanis:They're like look like look dude, we're not doing business with you. I was like I'll keep bringing these cookies here till we do, and then I'll stop. That's great. Yeah, I don't care, I'll be here every thursday, and I am, you know, and I'm still there, like now. It's too, because I I take like the crumble cookies, or sometimes cakes. Sometimes some dealerships they, they're like, stop bringing the cookies, so I bring the protein shakes now oh there you go yeah, yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:But literally it gets to the point when I get a phone call what? No cookies today it's Thursday. I'm like I'll be there in a minute or I'm out of town, you know. But yeah, the consistency is everything and, like I said, no is not an answer. You can't once the door is closed, that's it. You. Can I go back? What? Am I going to get A job now? Good luck. I can't afford my car payments. We're not having any kind of job, but you've got to keep moving forward. There's literally you are the only person that stops you from being whoever the hell you want to be.
Jim Cripps:That's right.
Janis Lasmanis:If you think something's impossible for you, then it's impossible, but if something is possible or you want it to be For you, then it's impossible. Yeah, you know, but if something is possible or you want it to be, I'm literally a simple example of how you can do whatever the hell you want in life. You know, yeah, come from a village of 2,000 people, never thought I'm going to live in America, never thought I'm going to speak English like that. You know, never thought I'm going to have this business, cars and travel. You know I live a really, really cool and happy lifestyle. I just came back. I was in 10-day dirt bike trip in Grand Canyon. I saw the pictures.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, it was so beautiful. Black and gold. Yeah, of course, black and gold. Dirt bike, that's right.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, you just got to keep moving forward. There's a Russian saying once the next shit's going to come, the preview's going to look like it was nothing Right. Look like it was nothing right. We're all being in. You know you sit at home, you're like there's no way out, whatever it is. You know your relationships, you know financial situation. You know you're like I'm done and then next you sometimes have you like that, that was nothing, you know, and it's always like that. It always. It always works out. It's going to be all right at the end and if it's not all right, it's not the end.
Jim Cripps:Well, and I think too, it's you just deciding. I'm going to get up and I'm going to do what has made me successful so far and I keep pushing. I'm going to put one more step forward and then, at the same time, I think one of the biggest things for you is not only are you doing the right things, but also you get that you have to network you. But also you get that you have to network.
Jim Cripps:You have to be the face of the company you have to be out there getting more business so that your guys have stuff to work on.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, and I love it, man, I love it. I recently so, when I had all these shops, I was running around like a headless chicken, you know, like bring me this, go that, go this, and I was almost like an Uber driver for myself, you know, just taking, you know, products and shit around everywhere. And then I kind of, once we moved to Brentwood, like I set up my office and I started to actually talk to people again. You know, because usually I'm like, hey, rob, there's a client in the lobby. You know, go figure it out. You know, it's just because I always have something else to do. And now I'm like, rob, watch this, you know, and I'm so good at it. I I'm like, and I can polish the paint, but anybody, anybody, and sometimes and again, because I like doing it.
Janis Lasmanis:You have to love what you're doing. That's, that's also the biggest thing, you know, and sometimes I just I challenge my people. You know, let's say, we get super busy because you know we make our normal bookings. You know like our schedule and everything, but then deal, when dealerships call me, I'm the yes man. Yeah, can you get it done by? I'm saying yes, even if it's yesterday, you know, and that's successful. You know, and sometimes I have my work clothes at the shop as well. I put my dirty shorts on and everything. I'm like watch this Daddy's going to show you how to do. It. Takes six hours. Watch me daddy's going to show you how to do. It Takes six hours. Watch me. And I do it in three. And I was like come check my work. I'm like come check my work. So next time when you tell me it can't be done or it can't be done at that time, just remember what you just saw and I like it. I'm trying to lead the guys as well.
Jim Cripps:Now, one of the other things that I think has played to your success and and some people, a lot of people do it, a lot of people do it wrong Is your social media. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the first things like when we figure out that we're talking about the same person. That's the first thing people are like oh, did you see this video? Yeah, and so how did you get started in that path? I mean, obviously it started all this started with a Facebook post. Yeah, but how did you? How did you kind of wrap your head around what the next evolution was? It wasn't just a post, it was. You needed to engage people and entertain them.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, because. So, number one, you know, one of our kind of end goals would be as well to try to start to sell something you know out of our shop, let's say a product line you know, merch, or whatever it is you know. So it's really hard to be such a you know. Let's say, if I'm only in Tennessee, you know, nobody cares to buy. I don't know a window cleaner for me if he lives in Florida, that's right. Who the hell I am, you know. So that was kind of like the end goal to pump up the Instagram and I can literally like I can look at anybody's Instagram, any detailer's Instagram profile, and I don't even need to see how many followers they got. I already can tell you where he is at his business.
Janis Lasmanis:Because everybody, including me, started with those collage things like dirty, clean, tick, tick, tick. If you look at all their posts, that was me. Then I hired a social media guy and he started making all these cool banners and posters and stuff. Again, this is, I think, a problem for all these detailers, because they're so proud of their work and, let's say, they pick up a 10-year-old black Mercedes that looks shit, and now it looks like a mirror, and I know how much work they put in it, so they're like everybody's going to love it. How many times can you look at a clean car? It's all the same shit. Yeah, it's all the same shit. It's personal to them. It's not personal to anybody except them and the owner. Yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:So with Ben from Cars and Coffee, we started this Corsair Kenny, corsair Kenny, this imaginary person that works for Corsair. So I bought this fake mullet and I was trying to do Tennessee Accident and just mess around, and we just started to do these Instagram videos where I pretend I'm the client that calls up and like oh, yeah, it's barely dusty, you know how much it costs. And then the car shows up and it's like trashed. So we started messing with that and then people literally like even my friends are like hey, we want to see some more, we want to see some more. And now, lately, it the videos that we do when something silly happens. And then I just like roll off the bike or something and it's hilarious. Yeah, I like watching it, you know, because, like I have relationship people that mention me. When's the next one coming out? Come on, come on. Yeah, we got, we got, we got. Stay tuned, by the way at corset detail on instagram. Shout out, shout out for my, my own plug absolutely, because I didn't tell you that.
Jim Cripps:My wife cracked up yesterday when I showed her the one where the the guy's like standing on top of the water pipe, yeah, in the water pipe, and then you're on the stool.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, that's one of my favorite ones, have you seen where. I'm asking for more water.
Jim Cripps:Yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:That's one of my favorite ones. I just showed Dale that one earlier too, yeah yeah, he laughed out loud throughout the whole office.
Jim Cripps:It was great.
Janis Lasmanis:And again, you know we try other things. You know we had a couple local influencers working for us as well. Like you know, just good-looking girls and stuff, yeah, because usually you know, good-looking girls and cars go together, sure, but you know it kind of almost backf more money or they're not that open about it or they're like they're not like harley guys, you know you go to a guy who owns a harley, he's got posters of like half naked girls in his garage where he lives with his family. He don't get one. That's right and I mean. But I think these guys and I mean today people are a little bit more classy and stuff, and it's not that we're just trying to bring, you know, some some just just female for that attention. You know, like, like she actually knew what she was talking about as well, so that was kind of cool. But, um, yeah, girls and and that kind of post like didn't work out that well because, like, we have a lot of nerds there as well, like porsche guys. You know they are the guys that read that. The book that lives in your mailbox, yeah, that everybody hasn't known touched it. Porsche guys read it, you know. So they are those guys. So they. They just they're not interested in that kind of stuff. So, yeah, they want to more know. You know how to detail a wheel, you know. And yeah, so we, we do. We.
Janis Lasmanis:I have a youtube channel as well, I think it's called corset detail. Um, so I started to do some car reviews and stuff, but I just can't run out of time. And it was, it was, it was too. It was too. Well, you, you run the podcast. You know how much it costs, you know. So for me to have, let's say, two guys with cameras, I'm gone for the day. I have to find the cars. That takes time, like you. You have to find people. You have to pay for the studio and stuff.
Janis Lasmanis:A buddy of mine, he's got a fairly busy detail in podcast. God, I can't remember his name right now, but he's got, I don't know, 100,000 followers. Oh wow, that's great. And I was like Luke, dude, what did you bank Luke? Luke, god damn, what was his last name? Whatever? So, and I was like what do you bank there? He's like on a really good month, about 10 grand, you know, or not that good month, you know, maybe two, three, and I'm like it's just not worth my time at the moment If I had more freedom, because every video cost me $1,000 to $1,500. Let's pass that investment. But if I spend the whole day on doing what I'm doing going out there hustling I can make more money than that.
Jim Cripps:Well, and reality is it's not a short-term venture either, unless you hit the lottery with one video that gets viral.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, it goes viral. It's almost like building.
Jim Cripps:It really is like building a brand, absolutely, In that you've got to commit to doing this every week for the next years in order to be the overnight success. It's not overnight, it's built over years.
Janis Lasmanis:And I think content just has to be interesting. I think I'm a funny guy, I love stand-up comedy. I love stand-up comedy like I love stand-up comedy. So zany's nightclub here, you know, in nashville. I heard about zany's when I still live in the uk. I had no idea what nashville was, but I knew zany's, you know, and I used to go zany's that often I had my parking spot, imagine. So if I tell you I like stand-up comedy, I really, I really mean it. I bought every friend of mine, like we were just tripping, I just leave space to start a comedy.
Janis Lasmanis:So it's just like I said, you know how many times you can look at you know clean cars, you know. So time to time we do some informative videos, you know, like, hey, you know. But we also we send out like monthly newsletters. So it's like autumn comes, hey, don't forget to change your wipers, fill up your fluids, blah, blah. And also, if you want, there's 20 discount, you know, sure, for our services, you know. But again, it's just, it's not just a simple brochure with some bullshit information, it's actually something useful, you know. Or let's say, why do you have to check your tire pressure, what it has to be equal in all the tires. You know this is what it can damage, or not, you know. Like you just it. Something has to be interesting. You can't just keep looking and scrolling on clean cars like nobody cares's. Like nobody cares about it anymore.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, because you've got such a small number of people that are actually going to read it, because they're just the people that are going to read it. And then you have those going to read it because you've made it interesting, and so, yeah, you've got to know your audience. And I think you've kind of nailed that down.
Janis Lasmanis:My favorite ones are the ones that I'm like. Should I post it or?
Jim Cripps:not yeah, yeah. Well, you know, it's funny that you bring that up, because we do something a little controversial on the show and that is things that we think, but do not say, oh, I say everything, so what's?
Janis Lasmanis:something out there that you think that you know, everybody knows, they're just afraid to say it. I think people are too nice these days and we should judge people more. You know, now say, oh, you shouldn't judge this, you should judge more. Yeah, you're like petting people, you know, and just like I hate this stuff. You know, this is like typical.
Janis Lasmanis:You sit down a restaurant yeah, there's another couple sits next to you. They get their food. You like, wife, look at, these guys came in after us. You know they already. They got the main course. We don't have a starter.
Janis Lasmanis:What the hell is going on? I'm not saying you got to fight everybody and then the waiter comes over. Everything's okay. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, lovely, yeah, of course not. And they're like fuck, this place sucks. They don't tell the truth. Yeah, I'm not one babe. This album sucked. You know, let's get out of here, don't come back, you know. But again, waiters are like hey, how's everything? I'm like steak was okay. You know this and that I mean it's not worth a hundred bucks to be fair.
Janis Lasmanis:Oh, we can give you this because, simply, actually, I had this the same thing. I have a client, um, he is the nicest guy ever, seriously the nicest guy ever. And so we did a ppf and usually in pay-per-tension films, and he had to come in and, uh, we had to remove one bubble. On a typical simple procedure, we always ask people to come in two weeks later, sure, and he was booked for a couple of fridays ago, uh, and he came in and actually my ppf guy wasn't there because he was like I don't know what he was doing. But again, my guys didn't inform him, you know. Hey, the guy's not here, don't bother coming, you know.
Janis Lasmanis:And then he came in on Saturday and we thought it was going to be at least a five-minute job when we had this conversation. So I even told him. I said, dude, just come in, we'll also have coffee, it's going to be done. And there was just a little bit bigger issue. So we ended up replacing the mirror protection film, you know, which took about two hours.
Janis Lasmanis:So I saw him yesterday. I said, hey, what's up? You know, he said everything's taken care of, he's like bro best told me not to tell you, but he wasn't really happy about it, like with the weight. And then he came in and nobody was there, because we pride ourselves as the top, top, top people of what we do, and he's the nicest guy. Again, he should have said something, because I don't know, I was in Grand Canyon when that happened. But if I don't know, right, I was in Grand Canyon when that happened. You know what I mean. But if I don't know, I can't fix it, so you know.
Janis Lasmanis:So I called my team in together and I'm like, look, you know, we need to know all these things and luckily, this guy told me. You know that this guy was not happy. So you just people have to speak up. You don't have to be rude, people know how you feel as well. You know somebody like I don't take any shit from anybody. You know, like, if someone's like shady or whatever, I'm like, look, I think you're shady, yeah, you know this. And again, I have zero expectations, but I'm gonna have zero disappointments. But this is where, yeah, you know, because if people start, I hate when people lie to my face.
Jim Cripps:Ah, this is my intelligence and I've seen you in action on this and you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about here in a second. We were at lunch and the lady that was sitting at the kind of diagonal from us at the bar just injects herself into our conversation. Oh yeah, about taking your pork chop home for your dog. Yeah, and she just gets sideways. Yeah, your dog. Yeah, and she just gets sideways. Yeah, and uh, you know, you were as nice as you could possibly be, but, like anybody, any reasonable person would have known that you were saying thank you for your input yeah, but leave us alone, yeah yeah and she didn't.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, um, and it was, it was really uncomfortable and and uh, I mean I'm like a magnet to those people. Well, she was trying to push your buttons she really was, and I thought you handled yourself just wonderfully, probably better than I would have, because she was trying, she was, she was trying to pick a fight.
Janis Lasmanis:She's like you shouldn't feed that kind of. I said you know what else you should do. You shouldn't give advice to people that you don't know.
Janis Lasmanis:Okay, I said Say that I'll stick to my dog, you take care of yours and we're good. But seriously, I'm like a magnet to these people. God damn, every bar I walk into there's this drunk dude, you know steaming. Like, hey, how you doing? I'm like, guy, all due respect, I came here to have a drink, not with you, so just you know.
Janis Lasmanis:But then sometimes you know I can look because I drive Ubers almost every day. You know, like back and forth with dealerships when I pick up, drop off cars. You know, oh yeah, and these people just always like talk to me. I'm like, hey, where are you from? You know, how long have you been here? I'm like, guy, this is the only time I can be on my phone, so you keep. And then someone will leave me a bad review. I'm like, what the hell? Because in this county we have so many of these Uber drivers they just literally have nothing better to do in life. Oh, my wife makes me drive Uber, so I stay off the golf course. You're right, go back to the golf course. Yeah, go back to the golf course, do what you like.
Jim Cripps:I mean, I do think that people don't tell the truth enough. In fact, I actually talked to the seniors yesterday at our local high school and it was just about life in general, going out, getting a job and that kind of stuff and I said, you know, be the friend that will tell the truth. Yeah, Care about people enough to say the real thing, and it doesn't mean you have to be rough and gruff about it.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah.
Jim Cripps:But you can tell the truth because they need to hear it sometimes.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, and now I got a perfect saying for you yeah, yeah, be the friend that tells you, be the friend who tells your buddy that his breath stinks or he's got something stuck in his teeth. Yep, people are awkward about that, you know well, everybody's so worried about offending people yeah and it's like. But then you walk around you got like a spinach stuck in the teeth for three hours. You then you look stupid, instead of some dudes like bro sort out, you know. Yeah, then I'm offended because you didn't tell yeah, yeah exactly.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, it got back in the cave, sorted out. That's my, that's easy, that's my family. Like I put like like this my mom would talk to me you're wearing this sweater. What the hell's wrong with you? Sarcastic, my mom's gonna change.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, but you need that yeah, yeah, every once in a while we need to be put in check because we got a little too wild, or we got a little too full of ourselves, or we just didn't look in the mirror. Yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:Like I wanted to wrap the G-Wagon gold. All my friends, no yeah, leave that car alone. I'm like like you're a big dude.
Jim Cripps:You clearly work out 6'3", roughly 250 pounds. I mean, how has health played a factor in your life?
Janis Lasmanis:Massive, massive, and I'm still lacking it. You know I mean literally anybody that says they don't have time to work out are full of shit, including me. Yeah, you know, I mean literally anybody that says they don't have time to work out are full of shit, including me. You know like I'm. I wake up in the morning every morning I'm trying to make excuses in my head like, yeah, I gotta take care of this, I gotta do that, like nah, I think in general, specifically like I think with life I worked really because I had, I never had anything. So I mean I grew up fine, but I never had anything. So I worked really really hard to do whatever the hell I want. And now, when I can, now I'm trying to do things I don't like to do and then I feel good about myself, that's right, like a morning walk, a run, whatever gym.
Janis Lasmanis:I wake up you know we all wake up. We're like, ah, come on. You know I only have half an hour. I can't even get a decent workout in. Then I shut up and go do it. When you do it, after the half an hour you walk out.
Janis Lasmanis:For me, personally, I got to beat the day before. Day beats me, so I take my dog out. He's happy. We had a really nice walk. I literally have 5K. I go up the hill and down the hill near my house. Take my dog out, sun is shining, I, sun is shining. I got my phone in my pocket on silence and in a healthy body you got a healthy spirit. That's right.
Janis Lasmanis:And yeah, everybody should do it more. But trust me, like I know Jorg was talking about, if you're depressed or even if you just have shitty, you feel shitty through the week. Force yourself. Force yourself to go to the gym three times a week. Force yourself, just put literally on your fridge or write right on your wall whatever you want to do, just say, hey, if I can't get out of this pickle, I still have to promise myself that I'm going to work out three times for an hour. Yeah, you're going to do it, you got no problem. Yeah, it's just, things just take place. You know, I don't know it's. Yeah, you've got to stay healthy. We want to live longer.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, absolutely I don't want to be half done. No, not at all. And then you know, on the and it's kind of that same breath you were talking about the struggle or you know doing hard things. Now you're making yourself do hard things. Our pinnacle moments, the things that we look back on and we're proud of, and we're like excited to tell that story. None of those were easy.
Janis Lasmanis:No Like none of the things that you hang your hat on no easy thing make a good story no.
Jim Cripps:Not at all.
Janis Lasmanis:It's got no value. You know, right, it's the same, like you know, and it's whatever you know, whatever you can get easily and access it, whatever.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah whatever, yeah, you know. So what's what's next for you in Corsair? What's I mean? Uh, what gets you excited?
Janis Lasmanis:So so, specifically this year, I think because I've been rushing around so much with all the stuff that I've been doing um, I just kind of had enough. Yeah, like I didn't go bankrupt, though, you know, came to like a depression or something. I was just like I started put things together. I'm like, look, I just gotta downgrade this. You know, I came to like a depression or something. I was just like I started to put things together. I'm like, look, I just got to downgrade this. You know, I got to bite the bullet, you know, and close these places Because I want to focus on being the best at one or two places instead of, okay, at five places, you know, and that's very important and it's also financially very important because, you know, funny enough, having two shops instead of five making more money who would think, you know?
Janis Lasmanis:But so, start of next year, I'm focusing more on myself. So now I got a really good manager Shout out to Rob Craven, I have a really, really good manager. That's pretty much taking my place. I've spent the past six months months, you know being being literally, you know, right next to him teach showing, because he's he already came as a professional but I wanted to show him the way I want to do it and you know, and and our shop is, you know, a lot more fast pace than anybody else that I know the corsair way of doing things yeah yeah, so he's, he's getting hang of it.
Janis Lasmanis:So, um, I'm going to go to Thailand in January. Okay, I'm going to go and do a three-week Thai boxing camp. So you don't leave the camp, you eat there, you sleep there, you work out five times a day and you fight. And then, at the end of the four-week trip that I'm going on, we're going to go to Bangkok and there, four-week trip that I'm going on, we're going to go to Bangkok, and there's a couple of these bars where they have a ring in the middle. You literally call out anybody, somebody can call you out and you just fight them. And when I think about it, it's crazy because everybody, they can fight, even if I get my ass beat, who cares? This is a bucket list thing. And then, when I get back, we started to build a franchise. This is where you and I also.
Janis Lasmanis:You know, yeah, professional, that I want to start to pick your brain and we can sit down and set up the plan, because the you know some things that we have talked about about consultation, you know, yeah, absolutely, I think that is my way forward, because I've been just I've been eating up so many bills. You know, let's say, open a place in florida, you know. Then a manager pulls out. I can't find another one, then I have to be there. Then I find somebody and I have a three-year lease. I have to break. It's just a shit show that I don't want to be part of anymore. Sure, I have been very, very successful at what I do and I'm happy to teach it, for the right amount of money, to somebody else or go and perfect their business. Yeah, I think that's where I'm looking at the closest future, and then we'll see what life's going to show to us. All right, yeah, that's awesome man.
Jim Cripps:Well, kind of in that same breath. I know you're quite a bit younger than I am, but not only what gets us excited every day, but have you put any thought into how you want to be remembered?
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah.
Jim Cripps:Yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, Not like the way it thinks about me from last night no, I'm kidding, I wasn't. Especially when you're a younger person, you know. Like all you think is just money, fame, whatever the hell people think about. Well, that's what I was thinking about. Like I want to be somebody that people remember or I want to have that much money that I don't care about anybody. And then you speak to guys that have stuff and all they think about is legacy they leave behind them. So I just want to be a good man. I want to treat my people right. I want to do everything by the book, you know. I want to perfect. I want to like, you know, bigger companies A buddy of mine shout out to George that just opened.
Janis Lasmanis:He owns a Toyota of Cool Springs and he just opened a UFC gym in Hendersonville. Oh, cool, yeah, so he got a franchise. That dude is a powerhouse. Seriously, Like you're just in his presence. You're like, fuck, he's a good dude, you know. And he's got everything sorted, you know. He's got a beautiful family, he's got several businesses, he's making money, he's the nicest guy to be around, he exercises, he fights. You know he does everything. And, like all his employees, nobody in this town can tell and tell you anything bad about him, Like you need something sorted, you call him and he gets shit sorted and he's a very, very busy man. So I look up to that kind of people and I just want to be remembered like that. You know I'm already feeding 15 families. You know age of 36, you know I would like to have, you know, a lot bigger team. You know, and again, training legacy, never going to leave. But you know, do I want to detail for the rest of my life?
Jim Cripps:probably not, but but yeah, that's awesome man, yeah so, uh, somebody out there right now is uh, they've picked out their new car, or they are. It's ordered and it's headed this way. How do they link up with you? And then, what all do you offer there at Corsair?
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah. So, specifically, most of our clients are brand new car owners. Okay, so you buy a car you know for, let's say, $100,000, $80,000, $200,000. You have to. Technically, if you buy that nice of a car, you want it to look good and you want it to look brand new as long as possible, sure, so there are a few options that we offer. We also brand new as long as possible, sure, so there are a few options that we offer. We obviously offer the maintenance details, a normal detail on any kind of cars, but specifically for new cars, number one window tint. Everybody tends their windows. You know we don't install any cheap stuff, tint all. We only have the lifetime warranty. And I'm sure you probably noticed like you drive in the car right now, your arms are not even warm. Oh yeah, mean you guys.
Jim Cripps:I couldn't have asked for anything better. And the crazy part is I had had my new car tinted six months ago and I've got a line in the middle of the windshield where they didn't do it right Now. That was not you, that was somebody else. So, yeah, you guys are perfect. I could not have asked for that car to be any better. Thank you, that was somebody else. So, yeah, you guys are perfect. I could not have asked for that car to be any better.
Janis Lasmanis:Thank you, thank you, but yeah, so window tint, that's number one. Then we have ceramic coatings, which is what you know about it. But for people that know what it is, it's almost like a liquid layer of glass that we install on cars' exterior, on paint that makes the cars clear coat three times harder. It makes your car's clear coat three times hotter, so it can take a lot more beating and scratches and then we can polish it out. But the main thing, it works very similar to Rain-X, you know, like Rain-X was on glass. You spray it on like water just runs off it. So that means that your car's going to stay cleaner for longer. And when you will have to wash it, you know, then it's going to be a lot easier to do.
Janis Lasmanis:So Sure, then we do paint protection films, which is the see-through sticker that we put usually on the front of the vehicle that protects it actually against rock chips, so you can throw rocks at your paint and you know paint's not going to get damaged. So all the track cars specifically, but even daily drivers, if you get on a highway, if you put a lot of miles on there, you know that's a very good investment to protect the investment and also most of the services, including paint protection films. They are registered on Carfax. So whenever you trade your car in or try to sell it, somebody pulls out a report it has added. Let's say First of all, even cars being detailed by us, it goes on Carfax. So imagine, if I'm buying your car and I see there's six entries in the past two years, that you got your car professionally detailed instead of scrubbing bubbles in Antioch.
Janis Lasmanis:I didn't even know that was a thing I didn't know. You could put that on the carfax. That's cool, window tint added, paint protection added, you know. So we, we do all those things as well again, and that's that's how we try to separate ourselves from other businesses. You know, sure, basically you have a guy you know come into your house, you know, for 100 bucks, you know, and do a half-assed job and nobody's gonna know about it, even the car, even even the car looks good well, and I will say this too, not all ceramic is created equal yeah, of course not.
Jim Cripps:And then you know you got some of these guys out there that you know they don't. They don't touch the car, they just they're. They're just putting the, the ceramic, over the top of whatever blemishes were already on the car. That's the worst thing to do, and and that that's the worst thing you can possibly do, because you seal in all those imperfections.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, and even like a cheaper ceramic coating is a lot harder to remove. Like you know, I've messed my own car up. When I first did my first ceramic coating Like I was having like six beers that night I was like, ah, just smeared, it, didn't move for a couple. I had to wet sand half of the car. Luckily it was my own car, so that's how I learned from those lessons. But yeah, new car protection always. Also, we do vinyl wraps, so full color change. We do vinyl and paint protection film, so we do a lot of Cybertrucks. They only come in the color of your fridge and we can make it any color of the rainbow.
Jim Cripps:I have to say a shout out to elon musk, because that is maybe the greatest move I've ever seen in that. Uh, for an economy of a scale. Every panel on that truck is the same color. He offers it no colors. So I mean, it's kind of like, uh, henry ford when he said you didn't have a model t in any color as long as it's black, and then it's up to you to get wrapped. So he saved, you know, five or six grand on the price of the, the cyber truck, right out of the gate.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, and from from a part standpoint, if they have to replace parts or whatever at tesla, they're all the same part yeah, I mean yeah, and thank you, elon uh, for contributing to my bank account as well, because obviously a lot of people want to be more individual and so they bring their cards to us. So thank you so much. We make some money too, absolutely. So yeah, you can find us in Brentwood, tennessee. It's technically kind of a cool street, but it's got a Brentwood address.
Jim Cripps:And what's the phone number if they need to hit you up? Or can they book from the website?
Janis Lasmanis:So if you go on corsetedetailcom and just fill in the form, we're going to ask you how old is the vehicle and blah, blah, blah, so a couple of things, and then you can add the services and one of our members of the team will reach out to you, they're going to call you and if you don't answer then they're just going to with an estimate. You know.
Jim Cripps:When's the best time? So let's just say, if we could back up in time you know, I picked up my wife's car what five weeks ago what would be the ideal time? I mean, obviously you worked it in for me and I'm incredibly appreciative of that. But if I had met you before then, what's the ideal kind of time frame, like how far out?
Janis Lasmanis:should? I usually try to book book. So usually we're booked out about a week ahead. Okay, you know sometimes, because, again, you know, our operation is a lot bigger than most of detail shops. You know we've got about 15 employees and so so a lot of times we can squeeze people in there and then you know, but for certain services, you know, you might have to wait about five, six days.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, but let's say, like I said, um, do your research. You know when, whenever you buy a new vehicle like especially for me in your area you know we're the highest rated detail shop in this area by far. You know, come see us at the shop. You know we always do shop tours with every client. We always show them what we do, how we do we want to, because a lot of people don't even know. They're like, hey, I heard I need this and I'm like come in and let me show you what we do here and then let's figure out how you're going to look after the car and then let's figure out what is the right approach for your specific vehicle.
Janis Lasmanis:I'm always happy to take people's money, but I really pride myself on educating my clients on what it is and do you even need it or you don't need it. You buy a leased car. You don't need a $1,500, $2,000 coating or PPF Right. Lease it, give it back, don't worry about it Again. In the meantime, we can offer you a one-year coating which is only $100 more than the detail. Yep, that's going to keep your vehicle clean for a year. Yeah, so you don't have to overkill, and honesty goes.
Jim Cripps:Well, you're building a brand that is tied to your reputation and you get that, and I love that about you and the fact that you do try to educate everybody to make sure that they're getting the right product, so that, literally, they're bragging to people about their experience. Yeah, yeah.
Janis Lasmanis:And then how?
Jim Cripps:do they find you on social media?
Janis Lasmanis:Corsair Detail. Sorry, at Corsair Detail. Okay, yeah, and there's C corsair, uh, corset, dry ice and blah blah. But if you just go with at corset detail, you'll see all the plugs and stuff. Come check out the videos. Yeah, I hope you like it share.
Jim Cripps:Well, some of them are the cars, and then some of them are entertaining.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, uh, and so it's a good mix of both yeah, so we try to pass on the message through the smile yeah, well, janice, thanks so much coming in.
Jim Cripps:I appreciate you hanging out with me today and thank you for the great work that you're doing here in Middle Tennessee making these cars look great.
Janis Lasmanis:Thanks for inviting me. I'm super excited.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, man.
Janis Lasmanis:Your studio looks great, you know it's fun, it's fun.
Jim Cripps:The volleyball looks great.
Janis Lasmanis:Is this the one you want from?
Jim Cripps:That's the 300. So only person on the planet to ever shoot 300 backwards.
Janis Lasmanis:Damn, couldn't I touch you later? Yeah, yeah absolutely.
Jim Cripps:Actually, one thing that we didn't talk about we do need to talk about. So if you were going to put on a charity car show and you wanted to raise as much money as possible and I know there's some great events that have you know I think were you at Annie Rose. I wasn't at that rally, but like and then they just did one, Harpeth just did one that was for hurricane relief.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, I was at that one, yeah, and so you know there's a lot of these great events, but let's just say Corsair is putting on an event. Give me five cars that have to be there and give me five people that need to be there to make this thing huge.
Janis Lasmanis:So we actually do charity car shows? Okay, yeah, we do. We've done a couple at our Franklin location, but now we just got to finish out the shop, you know, because we still have some construction going on there and stuff. Sure, once that's going to be nailed in, which is probably close to the end of November, maybe start of December, we'll throw another one. Okay, we usually do because I'm a big animal lover, I love dogs and I fostered a dog and two weeks later I was like Rico's staying Yep. So for that specific charity we try to gather some money every year, at least a couple times a year. So one thing is, what kind of people have to be there? We bring dogs. Some of them you can adopt, some of them you can just pet. So what could be better than that? That's awesome, and I pay for the booze.
Jim Cripps:That's great.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah. So what I don't like about all these churches organizing it, you know, is it's always hard to, you know, find the right time because you know we got church people we have, you know we got church people we have, you know, saturdays and blah, blah, blah. So we always like that's one of the difficulties to organize one. But when we, when we do um, we have great local supporters, like harper car club, you know, those guys always turn up, shout out to chris and lance and everybody in the club, you know. Then we got some, you know, big shots, like, you know, sammy, with these rolls royces and bentleys and whatnot Sorry, actually, paganis and Bugattis. So people always come out, it's always for a good cause, it's always fun. And, yeah, you can organize some of these bowling events. Please don't have me in your team, but I'll support you from the bar.
Janis Lasmanis:I'll bring a couple of cool cars down. There you go. I'll bring like five golden cars down for you.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, yeah. Well, the last time I did a photo shoot at a bowling center, my dad brought his out and so we had a 48 Ford custom pickup the best of show winner at Gatlinburg. It's a 55, full custom 57. And he's bought a couple new ones since then.
Janis Lasmanis:Well, with that being said, I just found out what kind of cars I need in my car shop bring your dad yeah, for sure. No, I'd love that, absolutely I'm a big sucker for american classic cars yeah man, I don't own one yet, but all right so.
Jim Cripps:So we got. We're gonna have a mix of the the most amazing cars here in in middle tennessee and so we'll get dad to bring some classics. Yeah, so who, what? What people need to come out in order to make sure that you got some friends that you're just like oh my gosh, if this guy shows up, or if this, this, this girl shows up, she's gonna bring a crew, not really okay, not really.
Janis Lasmanis:I think in tennessee we are so special national, we're so spoiled to just run into kid rock, you know right and Right and all those people, you know, yeah, Kind of like he's Bob, yeah, and that's cool. You know, yeah, like my barber. She's like I was at Bob's party. I was like who's Bob? She's like Kid Rock. I'm like, wow, you know. But yeah, we have all those people and like I don't know as long, and your dad's cars and some animals and alcohol. I think we're good.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, yeah, that would be awesome. Yeah, and we'll have to put it on the Corsair channel and make sure everybody shows up. Absolutely.
Janis Lasmanis:No, no, seriously, I'm more than happy. I'll bring some serious machinery down to the bowling alley. All right, let's do it. I love it.
Jim Cripps:Well, we'll have to figure it out. Absolutely forward to that event. We're going to do a charity event. Um, do you, is there a local shelter that usually support or what it was that usually it's called sore?
Janis Lasmanis:I think so oh, I can't remember they're based in east nashville. Okay, really good people. That's how I found my dog and yeah, yeah, I love dogs. Man, that's awesome. My buddy rico is my. He's my best friend.
Jim Cripps:Yes, bob we've got two french bull dogs and they run the house.
Janis Lasmanis:Yeah, yeah, they're really hyper, isn't it?
Jim Cripps:well, so, uh, one's 13, so she's, she's, she's calmed down um. And then the other one's three, so he's, I mean, he's a handful machine yeah yeah, that's awesome, well cool well, man.
Janis Lasmanis:Thanks so much for coming out and hanging out with me today and, uh, everybody out there.
Jim Cripps:Thank you for so much for tuning into this episode of the charge forward podcast. Um, if you want to get in touch with a Corsair and Gianni and get your new car or your old car taken care of, make it look brand new really better than brand new Uh, again, hit them up at Corsair. Detail on social media. Is that right? And what's the? What's the phone number out there?
Janis Lasmanis:Uh, five, seven, one, three, one, four, four, nine, four, four.
Jim Cripps:All right, you heard it here. Until next time, continue to charge forward. Thanks, scott.
Jim Cripps:See you later Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just want to tell you I love you. I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward Podcast with people you know and you love, because that's what we're here for. That's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life, so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you are today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.