Episode 1: This is Us

Welcome to the Cozy Camper Podcast! Join Mike and Elizabeth as they tell the Cozy Camper story and outline their vision for the future. 

Transcript

00;00;03;21 - 00;00;06;09
Mike
Hey, y'all, I'm Mike, the RV inspector and technician.

00;00;06;11 - 00;00;10;08
Elizabeth
And I'm Elizabeth. I'm the wife of the RV inspector and technician.

00;00;10;09 - 00;00;17;18
Mike
And welcome to our podcast.

00;00;17;20 - 00;00;19;29
Mike
Well, Elizabeth, we're here.

00;00;20;01 - 00;00;21;05
Elizabeth
We're here.

00;00;21;07 - 00;00;41;26
Mike
Welcome, everybody, to the Cozy Camper podcast. I'm Mike, and this is Elizabeth. And we are the owners of Cozy Camper Mobile RV services. We do RV inspections and RV repairs. We've been talking for a long time about doing a podcast, and it is kind of come from this. Social media outreach that we've been doing, it's been very successful.

00;00;41;26 - 00;00;48;03
Mike
There's been a lot of response to it, and we thought, well, what's the next step? Here we are.

00;00;48;06 - 00;00;49;12
Elizabeth
Let's try a podcast.

00;00;49;18 - 00;01;02;25
Mike
That's right. And hundreds of dollars later, we have podcast equipment and our figuring out sound. So we're so grateful that we're here. We thought for the year here. I'm grateful that we're here.

00;01;02;28 - 00;01;04;22
Elizabeth
I mean, if we weren't here, this wouldn't be here.

00;01;04;23 - 00;01;12;27
Mike
That's right. I'm so grateful I'm here. we thought that we would reminisce a little bit about our backstory.

00;01;13;04 - 00;01;13;23
Elizabeth
Yeah.

00;01;13;25 - 00;01;18;06
Mike
Elizabeth, what was our first RV experience like?

00;01;18;08 - 00;01;38;11
Elizabeth
Our first RV experience was us with a baby, Nolan, who was under one year in a pop up camper. It was my first ever camping experience. Not just RV experience. Like camping at all. And it didn't go well?

00;01;38;11 - 00;01;40;05
Mike
No. How old was he?

00;01;40;07 - 00;01;42;13
Elizabeth
I mean, under a year, I think he would.

00;01;42;13 - 00;01;44;18
Mike
Have been just a year because it was Thanksgiving, right?

00;01;44;20 - 00;01;45;13
Elizabeth
Yes. Okay.

00;01;45;14 - 00;01;46;07
Mike
He would have been just a.

00;01;46;07 - 00;01;52;25
Elizabeth
Just one year because we went we stayed in a cabin when he was a baby. Right. So I suppose that was camping, but.

00;01;52;28 - 00;01;55;04
Mike
It's not.

00;01;55;07 - 00;01;56;07
Elizabeth
Debated in the comments.

00;01;56;08 - 00;02;00;11
Mike
There's already people that, like won't allow RV to be called.

00;02;00;12 - 00;02;00;19
Elizabeth
It's.

00;02;00;19 - 00;02;16;17
Mike
True camping. And they get they want to call glamping or whatever else. But so that night and I had I've been wanting an RV for a while. We rented that one. We rented that, outdoorsy RV share. And, it did not go well.

00;02;16;23 - 00;02;36;02
Elizabeth
No, it set up fine. If I recall, everything was fine until bedtime, and then it stormed. And we learned that pop ups need to secure. Right? The tent part. The pop up part has to secure. And if it doesn't, rain gets in and gets in. Which it.

00;02;36;02 - 00;02;36;22
Mike
Did.

00;02;36;24 - 00;02;38;00
Elizabeth
Cold gets in.

00;02;38;00 - 00;02;38;25
Mike
Yes.

00;02;38;27 - 00;02;41;24
Elizabeth
And it makes for a really not fun experience.

00;02;41;25 - 00;02;46;04
Mike
It was, I remember that night, like there was the sound of the wind, like slapping on the canvas.

00;02;46;04 - 00;02;51;14
Elizabeth
Yes, that too. And I was wide awake because one, it kept me up in two. I was worried it was going to wake the boy.

00;02;51;15 - 00;02;52;01
Mike
Which it didn't.

00;02;52;03 - 00;02;52;20
Elizabeth
It didn't.

00;02;52;20 - 00;02;53;15
Mike
He slept the whole night.

00;02;53;16 - 00;02;54;23
Elizabeth
Nothing wakes the boy.

00;02;54;25 - 00;03;00;13
Mike
But the. And what was that RV missing?

00;03;00;15 - 00;03;03;09
Elizabeth
a toilet did not have a toilet.

00;03;03;11 - 00;03;06;16
Mike
Because I'm sensitive to her needs. what did I do for you?

00;03;06;16 - 00;03;25;07
Elizabeth
You. Let me be clear. I did not advocate advocate for this. I did not want this. but my care went out and bought a portable toilet, which, at the time, I didn't even know was a thing. But as soon as I found out was a thing, I was not happy about it. And I. I believe I tried to persuade you not to do it.

00;03;25;10 - 00;03;26;00
Elizabeth
Not to buy it.

00;03;26;01 - 00;03;38;21
Mike
Yeah. So I bought. Not only did I buy that, that portable toilet, I also bought a tent structure to go over it. And I bought like the, the, the nicest that had like a separate room so that you could use it as a shower.

00;03;38;26 - 00;03;41;14
Elizabeth
I would totally call it a room, a separate.

00;03;41;14 - 00;03;42;18
Mike
Room, a divider, very.

00;03;42;18 - 00;03;42;28
Elizabeth
Loose.

00;03;42;29 - 00;03;44;00
Mike
It was a divider.

00;03;44;03 - 00;03;48;11
Elizabeth
And Mike, did I use it at all on that camping trip? I did not. I dug my heels.

00;03;48;11 - 00;04;06;07
Mike
In and just to set the scene for everybody, we were camping on a ranch. Our family has a ranch and we were staying on that. There was another RV family there and we were staying on the ranch. So literally 40 steps to walk into the front door of the ranch.

00;04;06;07 - 00;04;09;28
Elizabeth
And that's what I chose to do every time I had to go.

00;04;09;29 - 00;04;13;09
Mike
Out of stubborn defiance, I chose to use the.

00;04;13;09 - 00;04;14;14
Elizabeth
You were the only one.

00;04;14;14 - 00;04;20;18
Mike
Yes, because there was also another camper right next to us so we could use their bathroom if we wanted or we were on a ranch. Just go outside.

00;04;20;19 - 00;04;32;28
Elizabeth
It's true. I would have done any of those things before I used your portable toilet. And tell me, Mike, where is that portable toilet now? It's how many years ago? No, our son's five and a half. Yeah. Where's that? Where's that portable toilet?

00;04;32;28 - 00;04;33;14
Mike
It's gone.

00;04;33;19 - 00;04;37;17
Elizabeth
Yeah. It's gone. And did we ever use it again? No, no, it lived in our garage.

00;04;37;17 - 00;04;41;13
Mike
Well, we took it out when we had the great Freeze.

00;04;41;16 - 00;04;43;01
Elizabeth
We we took it out.

00;04;43;01 - 00;04;43;18
Mike
Yeah, we took it.

00;04;43;18 - 00;04;47;03
Elizabeth
Out I we didn't take it out. No again I didn't. So it was.

00;04;47;03 - 00;04;53;09
Mike
Never I was the only one never ever use it. That is I don't know if you remember this. It didn't actually go in the garbage. I sold it to someone.

00;04;53;12 - 00;04;55;18
Elizabeth
Who impersonated.

00;04;55;21 - 00;05;04;03
Mike
Somebody, bought it. I didn't lie, I was like, that's a used toilet. It's been used a couple of times and they bought it. But all that to say, that first trip. Oh no, no.

00;05;04;04 - 00;05;08;25
Elizabeth
Wait, we're not done. Yeah. When you went to close it up, remember something was wrong and it wouldn't close.

00;05;08;25 - 00;05;29;05
Mike
Yeah. The, the, So. Okay, there's a whole bunch of problems. And you're right, that did occur because the outlet that we had plugged the RV into didn't have a ground. So. And there was some other damage on the RV, so the RV had the hot skin, remember? both RVs did remember Tom got electrocuted. Our brother in law got electrocuted.

00;05;29;07 - 00;05;41;05
Mike
I mean, nobody believed him either. Like, he's electrical engineers getting his tester out, and we're, like, making fun of him. But, no, he got electrocuted in our friend's camper, and our son was one, so it was terrifying that he would he would got.

00;05;41;05 - 00;05;41;19
Elizabeth
About that.

00;05;41;19 - 00;06;04;19
Mike
That he would, you know, step on something to be electrocuted. So we unplugged RV from the system. We were like, well, it's just we're sleeping outside. And the battery died. Then we were trying to leave. We couldn't close it had like an electric motor that, closed the the pop up portion. It was not good. So that all that occurred, the refrigerator never worked.

00;06;04;21 - 00;06;19;26
Mike
and then I don't know if you remember, but you remember the, the cable, the seven pin cable for the brakes and lights on the trailer came unattached. That's right on the highway now. And we had to pay. someone we had to pay the owner of the RV.

00;06;19;26 - 00;06;30;18
Elizabeth
I do remember for the damage, right? That's right. Yeah, it was. It was a fail. However, it was our gateway into Cozy Camper, which started as.

00;06;30;20 - 00;06;34;24
Mike
we started as an RV rental company right before the pandemic.

00;06;34;24 - 00;06;35;08
Elizabeth
Yes.

00;06;35;08 - 00;06;54;11
Mike
And like weeks before the pandemic. And we came out of that, and both of us were like, well, the high points, we try not to focus on the negative stuff. So the high points from that, we were like, all right, it's actually really cool that we can drag this with us and bring our stuff. But we learned like, hey, this camper is not for us.

00;06;54;11 - 00;06;58;21
Mike
We're also limited by tow vehicle, right? Yeah, we have a we still have it. It's a Dodge Durango.

00;06;58;21 - 00;07;09;29
Elizabeth
Well, at the time we weren't ready to buy our own camper. We liked the rental idea. We just felt that we needed. What? Like, what would you say?

00;07;09;29 - 00;07;31;26
Mike
Well, we couldn't just straight up. We needed more experience. We couldn't afford it. Yeah. And so in those days, you were a, Catholic school teacher, and I was a nightshift police officer. So money was not something. We had a lot of student loans and everything else. And so we we really wanted another camper, but we couldn't figure out how to pay for it.

00;07;31;28 - 00;07;43;00
Mike
And then our friend Sean, who was the one who had the camper at the ranch with us, he was like, well, why don't we maybe buy one and we'll rent it? And then, you know, we can have a camper whenever we want.

00;07;43;01 - 00;07;56;22
Elizabeth
I'm remembering now that that's why we got into it. I couldn't remember if it was because we wanted to be in the rental market, because there wasn't a lot of choices for ones that we could tow, or if it was because we wanted to have our own camper and have someone.

00;07;56;27 - 00;07;58;08
Mike
Pay for it. I just wanted a free camper.

00;07;58;08 - 00;08;01;10
Elizabeth
I mean, it's all coming back to me now, the perks of having it.

00;08;01;12 - 00;08;26;10
Mike
And so we we rented there, so we bought the for the 2020 Coachmen Apex Nano 185, which we named Cassiopeia Cassie. And we put it on the market. I think we technically incorporated as a business like right at the end of 2019, we put it on the rental market, like February 23rd, 2020. So right after that, the world shut down.

00;08;26;10 - 00;08;35;22
Mike
And I mentioned that we were mere civil servants at that time, and the world shut down and it looked like you might lose your job.

00;08;35;25 - 00;08;38;07
Elizabeth
And I didn't you didn't.

00;08;38;09 - 00;08;48;11
Mike
And, you know, I was, thankfully, I was making a lot of overtime in the early Pandy era, but we were petrified. We're like, oh, man.

00;08;48;13 - 00;08;48;27
Elizabeth
What are we going?

00;08;48;27 - 00;09;06;08
Mike
We just bought this thing like the world's, you know, we're going to go back. And then the sky opened up and we rented that thing out like crazy. Because again, back in that the only safe way to travel was in the RV space. So our, a lot of our first clients were traveling nurses and people that had no choice but to travel.

00;09;06;08 - 00;09;12;10
Mike
I think we had like a nuclear power plant worker that had to go on the other side of the country. And so we rented out a lot like that.

00;09;12;10 - 00;09;26;28
Elizabeth
And then and we marketed it for that. Remember, we tried it out by camping in our driveway and we took pictures. We had our friend Rachel at the time who was staying with us, take pictures, and that was honestly our early.

00;09;27;01 - 00;09;29;05
Mike
That was our early sort of social media marketing.

00;09;29;05 - 00;09;35;15
Elizabeth
I think we didn't really think about it too much then because we were just on our personal pages. Did we? Did you have the ability? We did.

00;09;35;18 - 00;09;38;11
Mike
We did have Instagram. Yeah, we had a Facebook.

00;09;38;17 - 00;09;45;22
Elizabeth
Okay. So it's probably on there, but it wasn't necessarily in our heads that that was going to be a big thing. It was just sort of.

00;09;45;28 - 00;09;52;23
Mike
Like, oh, let's just do this. Yeah, I remember the picture clearly because we had a bonfire in the driveway and I. You had shaved my head.

00;09;52;26 - 00;09;53;14
Elizabeth
I did the.

00;09;53;14 - 00;10;04;14
Mike
Day before because we couldn't get haircuts. So, you'd shaved my head. I was not the best haircut I've ever had. It's okay if we had to get things done. Jocko said stay hard, so I shaved. It was.

00;10;04;14 - 00;10;04;29
Elizabeth
Efficient.

00;10;05;00 - 00;10;22;05
Mike
It was good. But I will never forget, I went to work, and the chief of police was there, and I ran into him in the hallway, and he had said three words to me, ever. And he said, what happened to you? This is a man who, like, I respect a lot. And I it felt like you're like your dad saying, like, I'm not mad at you.

00;10;22;05 - 00;10;26;09
Mike
I'm just disappointed. Oh, and, so anyway.

00;10;26;12 - 00;10;27;02
Elizabeth
You're welcome.

00;10;27;02 - 00;10;41;11
Mike
Yeah. Thanks for that. but yeah, so we were very successful. We ended up buying another camper and grew the fleet and it worked out really, really well at first. Yes. And then things started to break.

00;10;41;14 - 00;11;02;19
Elizabeth
It just became harder to maintain the campers themselves because they kept breaking. With rentals comes orientations and walkthroughs when they get back, and cleaning and maintaining all of the things inside the camper, it just became too much while also working full time job, right?

00;11;02;19 - 00;11;16;15
Mike
And that was like we decided very early on that we our motto was worry free camping. And the idea was every single thing you could humanly need in the RV was going to be there. Blankets and sheets and, and, and cookware.

00;11;16;15 - 00;11;18;11
Elizabeth
And it was going to be the cleanest. We were going to have.

00;11;18;11 - 00;11;26;26
Mike
The cleanest RVs we actually hired was our first employee. We had a cleaner that, Tiffany what's up? We had a cleaner that came in and took care of our RVs.

00;11;27;03 - 00;11;28;13
Elizabeth
And she went above and beyond.

00;11;28;13 - 00;11;32;01
Mike
Every time they were spot. No one ever complained about the cleanliness of our RVs.

00;11;32;02 - 00;11;35;03
Elizabeth
But all that to say, it was a lot to maintain.

00;11;35;04 - 00;11;47;17
Mike
It was our commitment to worry free camping. Just even if nothing ever broke was so time consuming, I was starting to have to like, leave work early and use paid time off or have to hire someone to do it.

00;11;47;23 - 00;12;05;05
Elizabeth
So that just reminds me of our my first walkthrough. You trained me. I was so nervous. We again, we didn't really own our own camper like we owned them to rent them out, so I didn't have a lot of experience going in. It was my first walkthrough and I'm doing the walkthrough and something's going on with the toilet.

00;12;05;05 - 00;12;13;22
Elizabeth
Like water, like I go to flush it and water starts pouring out. And I was like, oh, I don't know much, but I don't think this is supposed to be happening.

00;12;13;25 - 00;12;33;25
Mike
And what happened was the there was no toilet paper holder. And so there was a, that we had a, like a standing toilet paper holder and I. So it wouldn't fall in transit. I put a bungee cord around it. And just while it was in transit, the bungee cord worked its way down. And then when you push the foot pedal, it just slid down behind the foot pedal.

00;12;33;28 - 00;12;38;00
Mike
Oh, gotcha. And when you wouldn't come back up. But you were not a.

00;12;38;03 - 00;12;45;13
Elizabeth
I had no idea. And so this guy's standing there like, what what are we going to do about this? And I remember being like, great question.

00;12;45;13 - 00;12;49;17
Mike
You called me like six times. And as I recall, I was at some overtime event or something.

00;12;49;19 - 00;12;50;21
Elizabeth
Was like, I need help. Yeah.

00;12;50;22 - 00;12;54;18
Mike
And it was like, I'm being the police right now. I can't, I can't come.

00;12;54;19 - 00;13;11;16
Elizabeth
So then you said, call Sean, and I did call Sean, and I don't remember if he helped me. He might have got I think he actually had just gotten home and he came in and was able to give a temporary answer to this gentleman, who was clearly very annoyed by me not knowing anything at all. So Sean saved the day that night, if I recall.

00;13;11;17 - 00;13;12;01
Mike
That's right.

00;13;12;01 - 00;13;18;01
Elizabeth
Until until the next day when you were able to figure out a plan. But it just it was just too much.

00;13;18;02 - 00;13;23;15
Mike
Yeah. And then we we started having mechanical failures. Remember the one they had, the failure in the middle of the desert?

00;13;23;15 - 00;13;27;17
Elizabeth
Yes. And we even though he claims he was not driving too fast. Mike.

00;13;27;19 - 00;13;33;01
Mike
but I'm trained in crash reconstruction, and I figured out exactly how fast he was going when, that happened.

00;13;33;01 - 00;13;36;20
Elizabeth
Yeah, but we made a friend. We made a mechanic friend in the middle of. No way.

00;13;36;20 - 00;13;42;26
Mike
Right. I found a I found an RV technician out in the middle of nowhere. He did us a favor. He went out there and fixed it.

00;13;42;27 - 00;13;49;24
Elizabeth
Literally. The middle of nowhere. He had to drive 2.5 hours in desert just to find where this guy left the camper on the side of the road.

00;13;49;24 - 00;14;11;23
Mike
And so things like that were happening. And then even the the lower level things, you know, like a fridge would stop working or water heater stop working one time and I have some background. I was reasonably handy, but one of two things was happening. I was either spending all of my time trying to figure out what was wrong with these things, or coach people how to do it on the road, or I was getting killed.

00;14;11;24 - 00;14;31;09
Mike
We were getting killed on RV technicians, right? I mean, that that one person came out, we had to do that reseal after I crashed one of our campers, they had to do that reseal so that it wouldn't leak because it was going out the next day. And it was, like $900. And at the time, I didn't know.

00;14;31;12 - 00;14;56;28
Mike
I had no idea how this stuff worked. Right. And so then, I forget how we found it, but one of us found the National RV Training Academy in Athens, Texas, and I was like, we, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I gotta get some training. They have a one week. It's, you know, the intro to our RV owner fundamental class is what it's called, and it's the, the gateway to doing all the other courses they have.

00;14;56;28 - 00;15;02;21
Mike
And so I went to that one week class and it was like a, switch flipped.

00;15;02;21 - 00;15;06;20
Elizabeth
Your mind was blown. Yeah. Like truly we're like, oh my gosh.

00;15;06;27 - 00;15;17;20
Mike
Right. It was it was like, I'm pretty sure when I was asleep, the instructors, like mind melded their knowledge into my brain because I came back and I was like, I know how to do all of this. You did like neo from The Matrix when he got plugged.

00;15;17;20 - 00;15;33;22
Elizabeth
In like, well, something just clicked with you. You were, and we should say, like this little backstory leading up to this, you were trying so hard to find a new path like you. You knew you loved policing, but you wanted more. You wanted to find. Right? We we just got discovered, like power washing. You were like, maybe this could be my path.

00;15;33;22 - 00;15;35;02
Mike
I knew I wanted to.

00;15;35;02 - 00;15;35;22
Elizabeth
Do something.

00;15;35;23 - 00;15;47;20
Mike
I knew I have. We have a very good friend, Mitch. And, you know, he's a business owner. And I had talked to him about it, and I knew that I wanted to open a business. I knew that's where I wanted to go.

00;15;47;20 - 00;15;49;02
Elizabeth
You just couldn't figure out what it.

00;15;49;02 - 00;15;58;04
Mike
Was we talked about doing, like you said, power washing. We talked about opening a security guard company. And there was something else, too. And I remember what it was.

00;15;58;04 - 00;15;58;23
Elizabeth
I mean, maybe.

00;15;58;24 - 00;16;26;03
Mike
Was lawn care. I think we talked about that. And none of that really. None of that really stopped scratching. And then even when we were doing RV rentals, that didn't really scratch the itch either, like it was just, all right, we're back. We had a little technical difficulty. We were saying that it's our first glitch. So we were saying that even the RV rental business did not really scratch the itch because there's only as many RV is.

00;16;26;03 - 00;16;45;05
Mike
There were like once they were out on the road, there was really nothing I could do to develop any business. It didn't feel scalable with the money that we had right on hands and our hand. And then, that's when I went to an RV to got training. And then, like, I saw all these doors open up in front of me.

00;16;45;05 - 00;16;53;18
Mike
And I realized, even just like with that one week training, all these things that I struggle, I was like, wait, I kind of know how to do this? Yeah. Just like, what's the analogy I already have?

00;16;53;18 - 00;16;55;00
Elizabeth
So it all clicked.

00;16;55;01 - 00;16;55;19
Mike
Exactly.

00;16;55;19 - 00;17;01;03
Elizabeth
You were like, wow, this feels right. Like you came home and you were like, I can do this. This is the.

00;17;01;03 - 00;17;22;19
Mike
Way. Yeah. And you know, and full disclosure, the when I went to, I didn't even know RV inspections were a thing. And when I went to the class, they talked about RV inspections as a thing. I was like, really? I was like, I don't know about this, right? You know, this this is this really a thing?

00;17;22;19 - 00;17;27;26
Mike
And I spent a couple of months doing research. I called, like, every big time inspector in there.

00;17;27;26 - 00;17;29;25
Elizabeth
You did? I remember this, actually.

00;17;29;27 - 00;17;48;02
Mike
And, like, I was cutting the lawn one day, and then one of them called me back. I talked to, one of the master inspectors from Illinois. Rob. You're good. Dude, if you're listening, I appreciate your help. And I decided that's what I wanted to do. So I went to RV inspector school, and around that time, we sold our rental fleet.

00;17;48;05 - 00;17;49;15
Mike
We said, that's we're done.

00;17;49;15 - 00;17;50;25
Elizabeth
We're just was too much. It was too.

00;17;50;25 - 00;18;14;10
Mike
Much. We got out of it because I saw it as a second side hustle at that point, and I wanted to put everything into it. And I was becoming increasingly unhappy at the PD, and I wanted a way out. And I was like, alright, well, we're just going to develop this idea. And it was great, but we weren't very busy.

00;18;14;13 - 00;18;24;27
Elizabeth
Right. And it was a it was a good side gig. You were doing repairs on the side and the occasional inspection, but not enough to make a career out of it.

00;18;24;29 - 00;18;33;07
Mike
There was not enough at that time. It was only a couple of years ago to couldn't break away from full time job.

00;18;33;09 - 00;18;35;14
Elizabeth
So you got a different job though?

00;18;35;14 - 00;18;52;28
Mike
Well, before that though, remember? Then I went back and I got, more RV technician training. I was like, hey, we live in Texas. Let me become a specialist and air conditioners. And that was like another door opening. That's right. Where like last summer, I did air conditioners all day, every day.

00;18;52;28 - 00;18;53;27
Elizabeth
Right.

00;18;54;00 - 00;19;24;16
Mike
And that was a huge boon. And we we've done water heaters and we've done a bunch of classes there just to expand my knowledge. And even right now I'm doing that weekly, I training to learn more. But in any case, just it was more branching paths that we could go down and more doors were opening. And then I left the police department, I did, I went to go work for a friend who was in the solar business, which was basically another sort of branching path.

00;19;24;19 - 00;19;42;16
Mike
That was amazing, too, because we were building these solar systems. and I got to build solar and work with tools and interface with people that had never done before. So that experience was sort of like the icing on the cake. It was like, hey, Mike, you need one more bit of experience before you're ready to do this on your own.

00;19;42;18 - 00;19;53;26
Elizabeth
And we said that you wouldn't have done well jumping from the PD right into full time inspections, repairs. You needed this like sort of gap or and we want to call it transition period.

00;19;53;27 - 00;20;09;28
Mike
And the and the cool thing was I got to learn like they had professional marketers there. You know they had professional sales there. And I got to I took it all in, you know, and I was like, yeah, I was physically doing the manual labor, putting these things together. But also I was like, hey, sales guys, can I go with you on this call?

00;20;10;01 - 00;20;14;08
Mike
You know, operations guys, can I go with you on this install? I wanted to see everything.

00;20;14;08 - 00;20;21;10
Elizabeth
How it worked. It was just so different than the police department, right? It was unlike any world you have had ever really experience.

00;20;21;10 - 00;20;41;17
Mike
And it opened my eyes the last little bit that they needed to be opened. And then we said, let's do it, let's do it. I finally left we Kozy camper became a full time the early days of us doing this full time. It was mostly repairs and then doing a little bit of inspections and a.

00;20;41;18 - 00;20;42;25
Elizabeth
Tiny bit of inspection.

00;20;42;25 - 00;20;52;22
Mike
Like sometimes we'd be 3 or 4 weeks without one. Yeah. You know, when you ask me at one point, you remember what you said, you're like, I don't. You said, our RV inspection still thing.

00;20;52;24 - 00;20;53;29
Elizabeth
Sounds like something I would say.

00;20;53;29 - 00;20;54;25
Mike
Sitting at this very.

00;20;54;25 - 00;20;55;23
Elizabeth
Table, I believe it.

00;20;55;23 - 00;20;56;28
Mike
And it was a.

00;20;57;04 - 00;20;59;06
Elizabeth
They were just really uncommon in those early.

00;20;59;06 - 00;21;01;18
Mike
Days. We were doing 1 or 2 a month. We were doing.

00;21;01;18 - 00;21;02;01
Elizabeth
Repairs.

00;21;02;01 - 00;21;07;01
Mike
Yeah, we were doing repairs. a lot of repairs last summer.

00;21;07;06 - 00;21;10;11
Elizabeth
Last summer was basically all air conditioners. And yeah.

00;21;10;12 - 00;21;10;25
Mike
We would do.

00;21;10;25 - 00;21;13;14
Elizabeth
Maybe with like an inspection once every two.

00;21;13;14 - 00;21;21;01
Mike
Weeks or once a week maybe. And then the the fall came, the winter came. We slowed down to a lot of water heaters and plumbing. Right.

00;21;21;01 - 00;21;21;11
Elizabeth
And that was.

00;21;21;11 - 00;21;45;18
Mike
Fun. And we and this whole time we were running this, like, social media thing and it wasn't really getting anywhere. And then we're going to name drop. We met the Thomases. Yes. From Thomas Coast to Coast and their RV renovators. And we actually I met them on an inspection. So somebody they renovated an RV for someone and then their client hired me to go inspect the RV before they took possession of it.

00;21;45;21 - 00;21;47;03
Mike
And we met them.

00;21;47;05 - 00;22;05;29
Elizabeth
And I'm going to stop you there because this is where I come in. You met them? I was out of town. It was in the summer, and you called me. And he was like, Beth, this is it. This is our ticket. Like, these guys know what they're doing? Yes. They're awesome. They're kind. They want to help us. They have so much experience like this, is it.

00;22;05;29 - 00;22;12;16
Elizabeth
Right? And I was, you know, in Chicago doing my thing, like, okay, cool. Yeah, sure. Like, hey, what? I'm here we are.

00;22;12;16 - 00;22;40;09
Mike
Yeah, I met them. Yeah. You were not there. You were out of town. And when I met them, So Igor was a police officer there. Are you? Igor was a police officer. And it was, like, out of step brothers. Like, do we just become best friends? Yeah. Right. and anyway, Casey, I kind of told her what I wanted to do with social media and, to her credit, she was like, well, you know, dum dum, why don't you do it?

00;22;40;09 - 00;22;48;15
Mike
And I was like, well, I can't do it because of X, Y, and Z. And she was like, that's dumb. Just do it. Yeah. And I was like, oh, okay, you did.

00;22;48;15 - 00;22;49;12
Elizabeth
And then listen, I.

00;22;49;12 - 00;23;04;29
Mike
Listened and my committed. It didn't happen at once all at once. But I was like, you know what? I'm going to post a real every single day. at that time, it was at first thing in the morning, every single day and spread the word. And we did that for a while.

00;23;05;01 - 00;23;18;00
Elizabeth
So there was a shift. You went from posting here and there occasionally about mostly air conditioners and repairs, occasionally about an inspection to stopping basically that to every single day inspections. Yeah, inspection as.

00;23;18;00 - 00;23;18;11
Mike
Much as.

00;23;18;11 - 00;23;19;00
Elizabeth
Inspection as.

00;23;19;00 - 00;23;32;17
Mike
Much as my, our clients would allow, you know. Oh I did post I would post about inspections and the value of them and why I think they're important. And we were on an upslope and then we went to we we table that the Austin RV show.

00;23;32;19 - 00;23;33;05
Elizabeth
That's right.

00;23;33;11 - 00;23;36;26
Mike
And as we were growing into RV and that was just February.

00;23;36;26 - 00;23;37;01
Elizabeth
It was.

00;23;37;01 - 00;23;38;10
Mike
This February.

00;23;38;13 - 00;23;39;16
Elizabeth
I was also out of town.

00;23;39;16 - 00;23;43;17
Mike
You were out of town. I did that myself. Thomas Mann the table. Mitch. Man. That's it. Shawn. Man.

00;23;43;17 - 00;23;45;26
Elizabeth
The table I was traveling. I'm sorry.

00;23;46;03 - 00;23;54;20
Mike
Everyone. We've mentioned in this story so far. Man to table that day. And that was kind of a that was like our last sort of watershed moment.

00;23;54;23 - 00;24;01;28
Elizabeth
you were just hoping to get one inspection out of there. You were like, if I, if I get one inspection, it paid for the week.

00;24;01;28 - 00;24;04;13
Mike
I don't know how many inspections we got out of it. Probably.

00;24;04;13 - 00;24;06;15
Elizabeth
We know more than one. Probably. I mean.

00;24;06;15 - 00;24;07;02
Mike
Inspections.

00;24;07;02 - 00;24;07;17
Elizabeth
Easily.

00;24;07;17 - 00;24;08;11
Mike
Got out of it.

00;24;08;13 - 00;24;11;13
Elizabeth
And the marketing I mean, so much value came out of those few days.

00;24;11;14 - 00;24;31;23
Mike
It did. And I just we didn't just stand there and table. I taught RV owner education seminars when I was there, and there'd be 8100 people in the room. I recorded all of them. We were in the middle of our let's post once a day, every day, right saying. And that was like gas on the fire. And then with now it's February.

00;24;31;23 - 00;24;44;26
Mike
March. That's one kind of RV buying RV season begins. Our inspection just exploded right? And I was able to now post every day something RV inspection related or most days.

00;24;44;28 - 00;24;51;28
Elizabeth
Different ones too, which was cool, right? You actually had new footage. Not to say you weren't before, but now you had a variety to choose from.

00;24;51;28 - 00;24;54;05
Mike
I had to do a lot of B-roll footage in the you're.

00;24;54;05 - 00;24;54;12
Elizabeth
Getting.

00;24;54;12 - 00;25;15;27
Mike
Creative, right? It was like, oh, I've used this. There's that one video of me on the tiffin roof with the yellow shirt that I probably used for 30 videos. Yeah, just, you know, trying to trying to get it out there. But we went from we had I remember right around the same time in February, we had 7000 Facebook followers, which I was blown away by.

00;25;15;27 - 00;25;16;19
Elizabeth
Right. That was huge.

00;25;16;20 - 00;25;23;23
Mike
And I had a thought we had a thousand Instagram followers and now we have 20,000 of each.

00;25;23;25 - 00;25;25;17
Elizabeth
Which is just mind blowing.

00;25;25;17 - 00;25;27;11
Mike
Mind blowing that we've.

00;25;27;11 - 00;25;33;17
Elizabeth
I remember when we started the Facebook, I was like, yes, 100 followers and majority were our friends and almost.

00;25;33;17 - 00;25;34;03
Mike
All of our friends.

00;25;34;03 - 00;25;43;23
Elizabeth
And and then I, I remember clearly like 200 like, wow, that feels really good. And now here we are, 20,000. It's insane. It's I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it.

00;25;43;23 - 00;25;46;20
Mike
And I still don't know what to do with it to be totally transparent. Right.

00;25;46;20 - 00;25;46;27
Elizabeth
Yeah.

00;25;47;00 - 00;26;06;10
Mike
Like just happy that I'm educating the public. It's it's it's giving us, you know, it's helping our small business to thrive. But there's also like second and third order effects, like other inspectors are getting inspection business because somebody sees our content and then they seek a local inspection.

00;26;06;10 - 00;26;08;07
Elizabeth
Right. Because we're not always.

00;26;08;09 - 00;26;08;16
Mike
It's.

00;26;08;16 - 00;26;09;09
Elizabeth
Visible.

00;26;09;09 - 00;26;10;18
Mike
It's expensive for us to go.

00;26;10;18 - 00;26;17;00
Elizabeth
And social media doesn't just show people here in Austin and the surrounding areas. So yeah, people are all over our.

00;26;17;02 - 00;26;46;04
Mike
And there's, you know, I was just talking to one today. He was in Oklahoma. Right? And he's like, oh yeah, I've hired Inspector X, Y, z, a couple in California, one in Illinois. And so I know that that second order effect is occurring at reach. Exactly. And so in my intent from the beginning, like, yeah, I do want to I do want to advertise our business, but it's important to me to, to, to, to raise the tide of RV inspections.

00;26;46;05 - 00;26;52;17
Mike
Right. Like probably not even 10% of our getting inspected right now. It should be 50%. That's kind of my first goal.

00;26;52;17 - 00;27;08;12
Elizabeth
We want it to be comparable to a home inspection. You wouldn't buy a house without having it inspected first. It's a massive purchase. Whether you're living in an RV or not, just traveling in it, you know there's an expectation of what it should be.

00;27;08;19 - 00;27;22;04
Mike
Right? And I, I agree, that's like that's why when I went to the school, they pitched it to me. I was like, well, yeah, that makes sense. But I'd never heard of it before. And then like, if I encounter someone on the street and I'm like, hey, this is what I do, they're like, oh, that makes sense. I hadn't thought of that before.

00;27;22;09 - 00;27;28;23
Elizabeth
And we I feel like the elephant in the room here is also RVs need to be inspected. That's its own podcast and.

00;27;28;24 - 00;27;29;14
Mike
Nobody.

00;27;29;18 - 00;27;36;19
Elizabeth
In its own right. But I, I think it needs to be said that like, there's a reason why inspections on RVs are so important.

00;27;36;21 - 00;27;37;27
Mike
Right. And we're going to.

00;27;38;03 - 00;27;40;07
Elizabeth
We will get into that. But I just feel.

00;27;40;07 - 00;27;41;22
Mike
Episodes talking about.

00;27;41;22 - 00;27;45;19
Elizabeth
Just feel like it was worth mentioning here that there's more to it than because.

00;27;45;19 - 00;27;48;28
Mike
Nobody nobody's in the background like, wow, RVs are so perfect.

00;27;48;28 - 00;27;50;14
Elizabeth
Yeah, no need for an inspection.

00;27;50;14 - 00;27;53;23
Mike
Well, dealers say that. Well, I promise we'll come back to that.

00;27;53;26 - 00;27;56;01
Elizabeth
We are not going to dealer bash here.

00;27;56;03 - 00;28;24;25
Mike
Today, but you know, so and that that kind of brings us to now, one thing we did forget to say was that you've left your job now, and you work for the business full time. And Elizabeth is the one who answers the phone and a contact sense of our reach increasing. And this was becoming a problem right before you were able to join the business full time, is that I was I'd be doing I remember I was doing an inspection on a Sunday, which I don't like to do, but I did.

00;28;24;25 - 00;28;27;07
Mike
I will do it if the client really needs it.

00;28;27;09 - 00;28;34;00
Elizabeth
And if the stars align, it's sort of like one of those things. If A, B and C happen and then you'll do an inspection on a Tuesday.

00;28;34;03 - 00;28;48;23
Mike
And I was doing the inspection on Sunday. As a result, I had the work phone with me and somebody called me and was like, are you the guy from Instagram? I'm like, well, yes, I am the guy from Instagram. how can I help you? And we talked on the phone for an hour and I love to do it.

00;28;48;23 - 00;29;01;29
Mike
I love to interface with our clients, people that are interested, but I was doing an inspection for a client at that moment. So it has been an enormously helpful thing where like, if you need to talk to me, you can call Elizabeth and I'll set it up like that.

00;29;02;02 - 00;29;04;23
Elizabeth
For those of you who know Mike, you know, he likes to talk.

00;29;04;23 - 00;29;06;15
Mike
I'm literally on a podcast right now.

00;29;06;15 - 00;29;10;01
Elizabeth
So it's in everyone's best interest. If I stepped in to.

00;29;10;02 - 00;29;11;00
Mike
You've got to throttle.

00;29;11;02 - 00;29;19;27
Elizabeth
Because otherwise he's just sitting there chatting to everybody. So and every about everything, not even just RV's. He'll chat your ear off about literally anything.

00;29;19;27 - 00;29;41;16
Mike
Literally yesterday at the dealer, literally, literally. at the inspection I did yesterday, I had to tell that it was the seller that was there, and I had to say to them, hey, I need you to leave because I don't have any self-control. And if you stay here, we're going to talk about sports and Star Trek and RVs until the end.

00;29;41;16 - 00;29;42;23
Elizabeth
It's not going to get inspected.

00;29;42;23 - 00;29;43;26
Mike
We're not going to inspect it.

00;29;43;26 - 00;29;50;03
Elizabeth
And it's this is a good point for anyone listening who might get an inspection from you. It's not personal.

00;29;50;08 - 00;29;56;26
Mike
Yeah. No, I would love to chat with you and get to know you. I do need the space to to get everything done.

00;29;56;29 - 00;29;57;28
Elizabeth
But. Yeah.

00;29;58;00 - 00;30;07;12
Mike
But. So that's brings us to today. You've joined the business we're doing, you know, now 3 to 5 inspections a week. We're still doing our repair business.

00;30;07;12 - 00;30;09;19
Elizabeth
Cases are still pretty prominent.

00;30;09;19 - 00;30;20;13
Mike
Yeah, we're still doing those. But we're finding that we're almost having to step back right now from the repair side of the business, because it's sort of not fair to everyone all the time.

00;30;20;19 - 00;30;38;16
Elizabeth
Right? Because we'll schedule a repair and you'll be able to go do it. And then they need an air conditioner or a fan or a, I don't know, something. And then we need to schedule it another time. But by then we're booked up with inspections, which is great. But now the repairs have to wait.

00;30;38;17 - 00;30;43;17
Mike
They have to like tomorrow. I think we have to repair clients. They've been waiting for like two weeks and.

00;30;43;17 - 00;30;51;12
Elizabeth
We're doing our best. But when once you get an inspection, booked it, you can't just so much goes into an inspection getting booked and it takes a full day.

00;30;51;12 - 00;30;52;04
Mike
It takes every.

00;30;52;04 - 00;30;53;02
Elizabeth
6 to 8 hours.

00;30;53;02 - 00;31;11;02
Mike
Every bit exactly. Everybody to eight hours. I'm exhausted by the time we're done. And then there's report writing when we get back. So and once in a while, like I did, the couple of you scheduled, Elizabeth will send me to work if she thinks I can do it in one trip. But I did a couple of service calls after an inspection the other day.

00;31;11;02 - 00;31;16;07
Mike
I knew just patient they were going to be relative easy and they both were. So we'll do that.

00;31;16;07 - 00;31;17;24
Elizabeth
But typically it's too hard.

00;31;17;24 - 00;31;34;00
Mike
Yeah. If it's most of my inspections are I drive for an hour like I have to drive to San Antonio or to Waco or something to go do the inspections. They're not like in my backyard. And so we're we're done. And that's, you know, if you're listening to this and you think about asking us to fix your RV, we're going to do it.

00;31;34;00 - 00;31;34;19
Elizabeth
We'll do it.

00;31;34;19 - 00;31;44;01
Mike
But we're just at a point where we're not yet big enough to hire employees to go do it, but we're big enough that we're having trouble with our schedule.

00;31;44;05 - 00;32;03;11
Elizabeth
So I find at the beginning, when I first started doing the scheduling, which was only a few weeks ago, I'm talking like I've been doing this, I haven't. But even three weeks ago when we started, I found it really hard to tell people no. And now three weeks and maybe this is week four, I'm getting a little more confident because I find I would rather say no upfront.

00;32;03;13 - 00;32;19;08
Elizabeth
I'm sorry, we can't get to that. Then have to schedule it and then push it out, or schedule it and then make them wait for their new fan to come in or whatever it is they're waiting for. So I, I'm getting a little more comfortable with the the. No. I'm sorry we aren't able to help you until this date.

00;32;19;14 - 00;32;21;22
Elizabeth
If that works for you, that's fine.

00;32;21;25 - 00;32;45;29
Mike
And that's what we kind of do, is when. So I think it was last Wednesday, let's say. So four days ago. At that moment we were booked out for 14 days. And so the next day would have been July the 3rd, and we booked July 2nd for an inspection, which going to go to Katy for. And then the next day you were like, all right, well somebody called, they want to repair.

00;32;45;29 - 00;32;54;10
Mike
I'll schedule it for Wednesday the third. That becomes the next repair day. Yeah. So any follow ups that need to be done or any new calls they get, we start.

00;32;54;10 - 00;32;55;09
Elizabeth
All on that day, that.

00;32;55;10 - 00;32;58;02
Mike
Thursday. And then we have an inspection on July 5th.

00;32;58;04 - 00;32;58;23
Elizabeth
Friday.

00;32;58;23 - 00;33;00;29
Mike
That's right. And so now the.

00;33;00;29 - 00;33;01;26
Elizabeth
Next the next repair.

00;33;01;26 - 00;33;03;23
Mike
Day would not be till, you know, July 7th.

00;33;03;23 - 00;33;05;29
Elizabeth
So it's complicated. What is the date today.

00;33;05;29 - 00;33;08;23
Mike
The 23rd. So we're talking about scheduling repair client.

00;33;08;25 - 00;33;21;18
Elizabeth
And this is a good problem to have I think we're talking about this because we're saying like wow look how far we've come. Where we relied on every single air conditioner call like last summer, you had to take them if you wanted to make a full week.

00;33;21;18 - 00;33;22;27
Mike
I took some dodgy calls.

00;33;22;27 - 00;33;32;02
Elizabeth
You needed to. There was times when Mike would be like, hey, Elizabeth, this is the address I'm at if if you if I don't return your call, you can't find me. This is the last known location.

00;33;32;05 - 00;33;32;14
Mike
For, like.

00;33;32;14 - 00;33;34;00
Elizabeth
Jesus Christ. Where are you?

00;33;34;00 - 00;33;35;18
Mike
I think I'm at a cult location right now.

00;33;35;18 - 00;33;36;22
Elizabeth
Like, what is happening?

00;33;36;22 - 00;33;39;07
Mike
Yeah, I took some. I took some dodgy air conditioner.

00;33;39;13 - 00;33;47;08
Elizabeth
So all that to say, like, look how far we've come in one year. I mean, in several years with just the pop up and the right and the portable toilet.

00;33;47;08 - 00;33;48;12
Mike
So that was that would.

00;33;48;12 - 00;33;49;26
Elizabeth
Have been the rentals and now.

00;33;49;26 - 00;34;00;14
Mike
Six. That would've been six years ago. Five years ago for the five years. Yeah. For the from our very first family experience as with an RV, I mean, I'd been in them before.

00;34;00;17 - 00;34;03;19
Elizabeth
But I had not. This was a new experience.

00;34;03;20 - 00;34;06;17
Mike
We've come this far since then.

00;34;06;19 - 00;34;07;28
Elizabeth
And we're going to keep going.

00;34;08;00 - 00;34;28;18
Mike
We definitely are. And we're something that I don't think I pushed hard enough here is when we talked about our social media. I am so grateful to everyone who listens to this and to all of our followers and to all of our clients, you know, and that's maybe my feeling is that, you know, I just was I had an inspection yesterday.

00;34;28;18 - 00;34;46;25
Mike
I was just talking to the client right before this, and I told him I was like, well, you know, I only put pictures of stuff that's broken. And generally I do put some pictures of the RV just to document its condition in the report. But I usually only document what's broken. And I told him I was like, well, I took 900 more photos and if that's it, that's it.

00;34;47;01 - 00;35;03;12
Mike
I was like, so there's 100 photos in the report. I took 900 more. That didn't make it in the report. If there's something you want to see, you know a little more of, let me know. And then he's texting me now because he wants the photos and I want to give it to him because I'm I'm so grateful to him.

00;35;03;14 - 00;35;15;15
Mike
I'm so grateful to him for hiring us. And I want him to be a good ambassador for the service. Yes. Right. I want him to tell people not just like Mike. The RV inspector was great. I wanted to say like, hey, it was totally worth it.

00;35;15;21 - 00;35;33;14
Elizabeth
We pride ourselves on the special. I don't know how like, we are special, right? Like we are like your relationship, your rapport, your above and beyond is what makes cozy camper cozy camper. People don't just want an inspection, they want an inspection from you. And I want I know that's hard for you to hear.

00;35;33;15 - 00;35;35;25
Mike
I don't like that, but that's the truth.

00;35;35;25 - 00;35;41;20
Elizabeth
I think that's what's making our social media. When you're making these videos, you talk to the people, right? You look right at the camera.

00;35;41;24 - 00;35;44;00
Mike
I'm a fan of the people.

00;35;44;02 - 00;35;58;20
Elizabeth
You look at the camera and you say, hey y'all, Mike here, you connect and people love that. And if we if I should say, when we grow our business and when we have employees, we're going to hold them to the same standard. You will you will talk with people. You will you will build that relationship with them.

00;35;58;20 - 00;36;17;05
Mike
It's so important to and we did have to put up a barrier. That's why you're you answer the phone because I can't I just I don't have the time like to talk to every single person as much as I'd like to. Yes. On the fly. Like if we schedule or make something happen. But I'm just. I'm so grateful.

00;36;17;05 - 00;36;40;01
Mike
And I want these people to feel good about the service that they've done and not just our clients. But I spend a lot of time talking about some dealers, and we've seen the dealers in the area turn right. Like most of them now, are very positive and welcoming towards us is inspection. They're inspectors and they don't they don't.

00;36;40;08 - 00;36;46;20
Mike
Most of them just say, oh, Mike's coming. Okay, great. Now he'll be over there. It's true. Let them know. and that wasn't that way.

00;36;46;23 - 00;36;47;11
Elizabeth
Now when.

00;36;47;11 - 00;36;47;23
Mike
We first.

00;36;47;28 - 00;36;48;06
Elizabeth
Turned a.

00;36;48;06 - 00;36;49;03
Mike
Corner. Yeah, exactly.

00;36;49;05 - 00;36;52;01
Elizabeth
Now you've earned that. I feel like you've earned that respect.

00;36;52;01 - 00;37;17;26
Mike
And I feel like if our little corner of between Austin and San Antonio is, well, not all the way to San Antonio, I don't know, happens down there. That'll be a whole other episode. But it would, you know, things are shifting. Yes. And so now I think the next step is bigger than you and me. And that's why part of the reason we're doing a podcast is like, I will now we're at a place where we can effect positive change.

00;37;17;29 - 00;37;46;24
Mike
Yes, in the industry. And that is really our intent for all of this is we talked a little earlier about worry free camping, and when we went from the RV rental to the RV inspection repair, our model hasn't changed. It's literally in the back of your shirt right now. And the idea is, is if we can if we normalize RV inspection before purchase so you know, what you're buying and what condition it's in.

00;37;46;26 - 00;37;56;10
Mike
And then RV owner education, which something we haven't talked a lot about, but we teach RV owner education courses. So you can become an expert in your RV.

00;37;56;11 - 00;37;58;27
Elizabeth
Comfortable and what you're living in or.

00;37;58;28 - 00;38;18;12
Mike
You feel comfortable about this thing, and then we have aggressive maintenance and repair service so that when something is going to fail, no different than how something is going to break eventually. But like if you're like, oh, I either know personally how to do it or I know someone us that can come out and fix it and make it better.

00;38;18;12 - 00;38;27;26
Mike
That's where free camping, where you're not worried about your frame failing, you know, or any of these other terrible things that can roof rotting off. Right. And that's how you get a.

00;38;27;26 - 00;38;28;12
Elizabeth
Peace of mind.

00;38;28;14 - 00;38;54;19
Mike
Exactly. That's what drives people out of the RV. Life is that worry. And so we have thought about worry free camping at this scale. And now we're thinking about it at the next scale, which is in the industry. And I can't believe that we're talking about disrupting industries 24 months after, like doing our first handful of real inspections and repairs.

00;38;54;19 - 00;39;05;23
Mike
Right? I can that's that's what that's what excites me. Yeah. About it. But Elizabeth we're husband wife team.

00;39;05;26 - 00;39;08;02
Elizabeth
We are now for now.

00;39;08;04 - 00;39;18;18
Mike
We we run. We run this show. We've talked on our social media. We do. We have been full time RV years. We currently are not. We're wanting to sell our house.

00;39;18;22 - 00;39;19;17
Elizabeth
That is correct.

00;39;19;24 - 00;39;36;00
Mike
We'd love to be full time, our viewers with the market and we've done it before. This year we did full time RV for a few months. We haven't been able to do it yet, but we love the lifestyle. Yes, we. I loved every minute of it. I can't wait to do it.

00;39;36;02 - 00;39;45;21
Elizabeth
It's hard being back in the house after having a taste of the lifestyle and then having to rein it back in and be in the house. We love our house, but this isn't the lifestyle we want.

00;39;45;22 - 00;39;49;19
Mike
No like now after living in the RV, I'm like, why do I have to clean up this room?

00;39;49;19 - 00;39;57;12
Elizabeth
We don't. You? I was thinking that yesterday I was like, gosh, I did not miss the amount of space that I have to clean. And we're doing a great job keeping it picked up and you're.

00;39;57;12 - 00;39;57;22
Mike
Doing a.

00;39;57;22 - 00;40;03;09
Elizabeth
Great job. Thank you. However, it is still a lot of space and I'm not used to that. Again.

00;40;03;12 - 00;40;06;16
Mike
Well, remember in the camper you would take the dogs for a walk.

00;40;06;20 - 00;40;08;14
Elizabeth
When you would clean it.

00;40;08;17 - 00;40;13;02
Mike
I would clean the whole camper in 30 minutes. It mopped everything.

00;40;13;07 - 00;40;15;23
Elizabeth
I miss those days. Take me back.

00;40;15;23 - 00;40;20;14
Mike
Soon. We'll be back. If there's any realtors that listen to this, we would love to hear your take on selling this home.

00;40;20;14 - 00;40;26;05
Elizabeth
But sell our house or buy our house. Someone buy her house, please.

00;40;26;07 - 00;40;31;24
Mike
But, you know, I thought it'd be worth mentioning. You know, Elizabeth, we've come a long way personally, too.

00;40;32;02 - 00;40;32;25
Elizabeth
Yes.

00;40;32;28 - 00;40;36;23
Mike
Where did you meet Mike? The RV inspector?

00;40;36;25 - 00;40;44;08
Elizabeth
I met Mike, the RV inspector, in his basement, sitting on his bed eating a sandwich.

00;40;44;08 - 00;40;45;20
Mike
Evergreen Park, Illinois.

00;40;45;22 - 00;40;48;11
Elizabeth
In front of a blink 182 poster.

00;40;48;13 - 00;40;49;11
Mike
You always bring that up.

00;40;49;11 - 00;40;51;02
Elizabeth
I think it's an important part of the story.

00;40;51;02 - 00;40;53;01
Mike
It was 2004.

00;40;53;04 - 00;41;00;10
Elizabeth
Right around there. I was in high school, so 2004, maybe 2005. And you despised me. You were.

00;41;00;10 - 00;41;00;23
Mike
I wouldn't go.

00;41;00;23 - 00;41;10;19
Elizabeth
That. You felt I was like an annoying little child bugging you in your room, which I was. To be fair, it was weird of me to go into your basement.

00;41;10;19 - 00;41;12;01
Mike
Came right into my house and into.

00;41;12;01 - 00;41;22;28
Elizabeth
The air and say hello to you however I did. I'm. And we were basically instantly friends. I mean, yes, you gave me a little attitude and you were a little short with me. I said, what do you do? And then you said, eating a sandwich.

00;41;22;28 - 00;41;32;20
Mike
Because Elizabeth Murphy, which was not your name. Then I was getting ready to go to work at the grocery store, and I was having a quiet time.

00;41;32;22 - 00;41;37;01
Elizabeth
You weren't very good at communicating back then. So you did not use your words to tell me that?

00;41;37;01 - 00;41;56;21
Mike
No. And then we were. We were friends for a number of years, a long time. It was only after college that we said, why not? Why don't we go on some dates? And we did that. We lived in Chicago for a while. We worked at the same jobs you discussed earlier there. I moved to Texas in 2013. Right?

00;41;56;23 - 00;41;57;22
Elizabeth
Yeah.

00;41;57;24 - 00;42;04;27
Mike
And we've been here ever since. And now we're talking about maybe ending the Texas experiment. But who knows? We got to sell the house.

00;42;04;27 - 00;42;09;00
Elizabeth
You'll just have to keep listening to hear our plan.

00;42;09;02 - 00;42;13;05
Mike
But that is our story in a nutshell and.

00;42;13;07 - 00;42;15;00
Elizabeth
A very consolidated nutshell.

00;42;15;00 - 00;42;32;28
Mike
Yeah, we'll talk more about it. We've got some ideas we would love to talk. One of the things I get asked the most and right now I have to we have two videos. I had to turn my phone down because they're maybe going viral is such a weird thing to say, but they're getting a lot of views and a lot of comments, and I posted them today.

00;42;33;01 - 00;42;36;22
Elizabeth
And you can usually tell right away when one is going to take off. Yeah.

00;42;36;22 - 00;42;45;12
Mike
If if a video gets more than like 5000 views in the first 24 hours, that's usually a video that's going to get 100,000 or maybe 500,000.

00;42;45;12 - 00;42;50;12
Elizabeth
And it's usually because you said something controversial or yes. So what did you say in this video?

00;42;50;13 - 00;42;55;24
Mike
This one, it was about the dealer the other day that, remember, he laughed in our face.

00;42;55;26 - 00;42;56;13
Elizabeth
yes.

00;42;56;13 - 00;43;13;23
Mike
And it was actually so I was talking about that dealer. But then I started talking about a different RV inspection, and that was on a new RV, and it was pretty a lot of quality control issues. And the point I was making is like, well, hey, you know, how are you going to laugh at me? And then this is the RV that you're defending.

00;43;13;23 - 00;43;28;07
Mike
Yeah. Like either you don't know or you do know and you're trying to conceal that fact from me. So that video is going right now. And then we just posted a when I post air conditioning videos in the summer, they tend to do very well.

00;43;28;13 - 00;43;30;04
Elizabeth
Especially the why. Why is that?

00;43;30;07 - 00;43;39;29
Mike
Because people. And that's the thing with people, you can make these air conditioners do whatever you want them to do if you know how to do it right. So it's like sealing it up, throwing a cool RV in there.

00;43;40;00 - 00;43;43;01
Elizabeth
Wise words from Inspector Mike.

00;43;43;01 - 00;43;52;21
Mike
Have been working hard, but like, I mean, RV is 30ft long and has one air conditioner and it's in the heat of the day. It will get slightly warm.

00;43;52;27 - 00;43;54;03
Elizabeth
Yes.

00;43;54;06 - 00;44;14;08
Mike
With one AC and then I go, two people have three ACS and there's warm, super warm in there. And it's just because they're not sealed the right way or something. So we'll go. We'll go in and fix that. But anyway, I have that video cooking right now. Gotcha. And I expect by the time we talk again a week from now, that we will have more to discuss with that.

00;44;14;08 - 00;44;25;21
Mike
But that seems to be how it goes. We get one big video, yeah, come in waves and the next five will be small. We'll get a bunch of followers. Yeah. Grateful to before they ever press that follow button.

00;44;25;21 - 00;44;30;06
Elizabeth
Absolutely. Because that's what makes us us right now is our followers.

00;44;30;06 - 00;44;43;00
Mike
That's right. And with all that in mind, just a quick note. We are going to talk about our experiences both as our viewers and RV business owners. I want to talk about you.

00;44;43;02 - 00;44;43;24
Elizabeth
Want to.

00;44;43;25 - 00;44;53;01
Mike
You hate when I say I want to. I hate it, I, I'm a Chicago in and I've just I've picked up the y'alls and the twos and the water burgers over the years.

00;44;53;01 - 00;44;54;19
Elizabeth
I hate it so much. Yeah.

00;44;54;19 - 00;44;59;03
Mike
I remember that day we were that RV park in Illinois and I started dropping y'all. I was talking another Texan.

00;44;59;03 - 00;45;02;27
Elizabeth
And y'all's is fine. I use y'all but still want to that.

00;45;02;27 - 00;45;29;10
Mike
But like, remember our friend Rick looked at me. He's like, what are you doing? He's like, what voice was that? I was like, oh, I was talking to a Texan. I'm changing their language. Different accent. But the, we're so we're going to talk about the RV life and our experience as business owners. And sometimes we're going to talk about stuff that is, we're going to talk to other our viewers and some of the people we've met, particularly in the RV space where they're active on social media.

00;45;29;13 - 00;45;45;06
Mike
But I also want to talk to people and about things that have nothing to do with the RV space. And kind of my, my vision for that is the RV camp. The camper you sit around the campfire.

00;45;45;06 - 00;45;45;21
Elizabeth
You just chat.

00;45;45;22 - 00;46;06;15
Mike
You just chat. And if I get four people at this table and we talk about the price of tea in China and it makes for a compelling podcast, I'll put it out there. Yeah, but what I won't do want to I won't do. What I won't do is I won't sit here and be. And I do the same thing on our social media.

00;46;06;18 - 00;46;29;24
Mike
I won't sit here and be like, RV inspections are a great thing. And then you say, that's right, Mike. Like we do think that they're great, but we're also going to talk about some of the downsides and the areas that the industry could improve on. And I'm open to that criticism. I will have the most anti inspector, hateful RV dealer owner at this table and we will talk about it.

00;46;29;24 - 00;46;34;04
Mike
Yeah. but I won't have a fake podcast where we're just glorifying.

00;46;34;09 - 00;46;37;07
Elizabeth
No, we're going to talk about it all the good, the ugly, all of it.

00;46;37;10 - 00;46;42;13
Mike
Like for example, a minute ago you criticized me for taking drinks of water during the podcast.

00;46;42;13 - 00;46;48;10
Elizabeth
I did because you're loud and our listeners don't want to hear you gulping down. They don't want a soda.

00;46;48;10 - 00;46;50;15
Mike
Well, I've got a mute button right there.

00;46;50;18 - 00;46;56;15
Elizabeth
To be honest, I've been really thirsty this whole time, but I didn't know where the mute button was. So I have been holding off on having a sip.

00;46;56;15 - 00;47;03;10
Mike
I got you. There you go. It's that red button right there. This episode brought to you by. No.

00;47;03;13 - 00;47;04;07
Elizabeth
Thank you. That's so much.

00;47;04;11 - 00;47;12;14
Mike
I'm so glad that I was able to do that for you. But, yeah, I don't want to have a fake podcast. And I want to.

00;47;12;17 - 00;47;13;25
Elizabeth
My God, make it stop.

00;47;14;02 - 00;47;19;15
Mike
Please. I sometimes I do it on purpose. I want to have real conversations while we're here.

00;47;19;15 - 00;47;19;25
Elizabeth
Yes.

00;47;19;25 - 00;47;46;26
Mike
And I think that's important in this space because so much of the so much of the RV space right now, I have a real criticism of because on the one hand, you have the RV industry where. Everything is great and you're going to love this RV and look at the floor plan and it's got these big windows and, you know, you kind of sold a bill of goods.

00;47;46;28 - 00;48;08;16
Mike
And on the other hand, you know, you've you've got kind of the opposite of that where people, well-intentioned, make claims that aren't necessarily true. Right. So just like YouTubers are describing a problem and then I'm watching and I'm like, well, that's that's not that problem at all. Right? Like that's a totally different issue than you think it is.

00;48;08;18 - 00;48;25;00
Mike
I'm not saying it's not a problem. it was there was all these like frame flex videos and people were talking what was going on. I'm like, well, some of that is frame flex and it is a problem. But what you're describing isn't that. Yeah, it's something else that's that's also bad. But like you're, you're you're railing on this.

00;48;25;02 - 00;48;25;24
Elizabeth
The wrong thing.

00;48;25;25 - 00;48;48;06
Mike
The wrong thing. And you know, let's, let's have this conversation. And we are not beholden to any RV industry. No space whatsoever. We are independent business owners and can I also I won't be told what I hate being told what it is. You see, your face changed when I said it. I won't be told what to talk about.

00;48;48;06 - 00;48;49;22
Elizabeth
You will not be told so.

00;48;49;25 - 00;49;01;01
Mike
Yeah. If I say a thing, it's because. And you asked me this the other day because we filmed a a promotion for a product, and you asked me you were like, do you actually believe this? I was like 100.

00;49;01;01 - 00;49;14;27
Elizabeth
Percent I did. You were recording a video and I'm off and in the background you can't see me. But I'm almost always listening to him record content. And he was just like so passionate. And when it was over, I was like, is that true? What did you say? True. Like, you believe that and you did. He said, yeah, absolutely.

00;49;14;27 - 00;49;15;05
Elizabeth
I was like.

00;49;15;06 - 00;49;16;10
Mike
I wouldn't say it.

00;49;16;17 - 00;49;22;06
Elizabeth
And I should know that obviously being married, you, I know that, but I just it was so compelling that I was like,

00;49;22;08 - 00;49;34;08
Mike
Like, I don't I won't, I will not get up here. And because we, we'd even, we've even talked to a dealership chain about maybe filming some, some like walkthroughs just like, hey, this is the RV, and here's the floor plan.

00;49;34;08 - 00;49;37;27
Elizabeth
An RV chain that has been really good to us, a very accepting of inspectors.

00;49;37;27 - 00;49;59;01
Mike
And like my condition has been that I will make it clear that I haven't inspected this RV and that you should have it inspected by someone before you buy it. And you know, because I love the RV life, I think our RVs are awesome. Even with their questionable quality. You can overcome that and have a good time. Yes, in your RV.

00;49;59;04 - 00;50;15;03
Mike
So you know what we what we're talking about earlier where the RV industry is like, oh, everything is awesome. And the people that are maybe having questionable takes can both simultaneously be true. Yes, you have to work through the bad stuff and like to.

00;50;15;03 - 00;50;15;18
Elizabeth
Get to the good.

00;50;15;18 - 00;50;18;24
Mike
Stuff, right? Like every single time we move our RV, something breaks.

00;50;18;24 - 00;50;19;13
Elizabeth
Yes.

00;50;19;15 - 00;50;28;10
Mike
Right now I don't know if I told you, but the bedroom door is broken. Oh, I fell because I didn't lock it and it fell in transit. It's going to take me five minutes to fix, but I have to fix it.

00;50;28;12 - 00;50;28;19
Elizabeth
Good.

00;50;28;19 - 00;50;32;23
Mike
You know, you know, and, that is the nature.

00;50;32;23 - 00;50;33;24
Elizabeth
Yes. Of RVs.

00;50;33;24 - 00;50;35;15
Mike
Of of RVs. But.

00;50;35;18 - 00;50;45;11
Elizabeth
So, yeah, that's what this podcast is about. We're going to talk about all of it, not just our side of it, not just what you want to hear, not just what we want to hear. Like a little bit of everything.

00;50;45;15 - 00;51;02;03
Mike
Yes. And don't be surprised if some totally off the beaten path characters and conversation like, I know I'm going to talk to some cops about law enforcement, and you'll probably you have some topics that you're passionate about that you want to bring up, and I'm excited to do all of it with you.

00;51;02;05 - 00;51;03;14
Elizabeth
I'm excited to.

00;51;03;17 - 00;51;11;28
Mike
If there's something that you'd like to, if you have a question or a topic or even a guest that you'd like to see us meet or chat with or about, let us know.

00;51;11;28 - 00;51;14;17
Elizabeth
About who to you like this to talk about.

00;51;14;17 - 00;51;24;11
Mike
Let's talk about Jim. But we would love to do that. And we're so grateful we're here. I just want everybody.

00;51;24;13 - 00;51;26;01
Unknown
To be here to.