How To Start a Business With a Sprinter Van

Intro  0:06

Welcome to the Growth + Exit podcast where owners of privately held middle market companies talk about founding, scaling and exiting their businesses successfully. Learn how to maximize and monetize your business on your own terms. Let’s get started.

Heather Bennett  0:30

Hello. I’m Heather Bennett, your host for the Growth + Exit podcast featuring business owners talking about founding, scaling and exiting their businesses. Past guests on the growth plus exit podcast include Allison Cummins, CEO of Blue Outcomes, Stephen Brent May and Hami Arrington, founders of One Foot Over and Jody Jankovksy, CEO of BlackLine. This episode is brought to you by Newport LLC, a team of seasoned C suite executives who help CEOs of privately held companies grow derisk and exit their businesses successfully. To learn more about Newport, visit us at Newportllc.com or find us on LinkedIn. Before introducing today’s guests, I would like to thank Kim Denney, who introduced me to Gabriel Arguello of Rent 2 Own Trailers for introducing me to Brookelyn. Gabriel had the most incredible things to say about Brookelyn, so I was absolutely excited when I was able to connect with her and get her to come on the show. So today’s guest is Brookelyn Avila. Brookelyn is the owner of Van Sharks. Van Sharks is a family owned business recognized by the Houston Chronicle as the best of the best in auto body shop and repair. Van Sharks is focused on being the premier destination for custom and luxury van solutions. They specialize in building luxury, functional and customized vehicles for both personal use such as tiny homes and travel vans, and for businesses such as mobile clinics and mobile spas, among I’m certain they will create many, many more. Brookelyn is a serial entrepreneur with a string of successful ventures to her name, showcasing her innovative spirit and business acumen as she works with her clients to make their dreams reality. She has also been featured on the Behind Her Business Podcast, hosted by Kristina Johnson, which is a great episode, so I would highly recommend watching that podcast as well. Brookelyn, welcome to the show. Well, thank you for having me. So let’s get right to it. How did you get started in this business?

Brookelyn Avila  2:46

So it’s interesting. My background has absolutely nothing to do with the automotive industry, especially van and so I found myself and at the end of 2022 I had a business partner who had a very large family who was approached by someone that owned a van conversion company, much like Van Sharks, and said, hey, you know, I didn’t do very well during covid. I’ve really struggled to recover. I’m going bankrupt, and I’d like to start a new company, but need kind of an angel investor, you know, which you and your group be interested in doing that. And so when he brought it to me, I said, you know. And they knew each other because he had reached out to him to build a van for him several years prior, and the gentleman had let him know it was going to take about six to nine months, which is way too long. And so that partner ended up purchasing a van from a larger company called Explorer, and they are in the northern United States, but he brought it to me, and I said, you know, I don’t know much about the automotive industry, but I did a little bit of market research and reviewed some numbers with our CPA, and said, you know, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of competition for this, for this in at least here in Texas. And so I said, you know, I have a healthy appetite for risk. Let’s do it. So what happened was, we found out later. And so this is a, this is a part of the story that, you know, people should definitely listen to. But we found out later that that gentleman who had all of the know how of the this industry was in very hot water with the Texas State Comptroller. And you know, for listeners that are not from Texas, you may not know this, but Texas State Comptroller is just an entity that you do not want to be in trouble with. It is the only entity, at least here in the state of Texas, right, that can pierce the corporate bail, and they are ugly about that. And so there is something called successor liability, and it is a it’s essentially a law that is there to prevent someone from closing down one business and opening a new one. It does not absolve. View of your tax responsibility. And so what that meant was that we were going to be liable for his two and a half million dollar tax bill. And so very, very quickly that gentleman became radioactive. And so at that point, we had already signed a pretty extensive lease. We had purchased equipment, hired a team, began advertising, and we said, you know, we’ve spent all this money. We’ve got really two options. We can roll up our sleeves and dig out the old fashioned way, or we can cut our losses. And so we obviously decided to roll up our sleeves and dig out the old fashioned way. And I found myself falling in love with vans, and following a difficult year, personally, in 2023 I said, you know, at the beginning of 24 I said, You know what, I have had a lot of pretty abrupt life changes, and I think that I would really like to be focused. I’ve done a lot of different things, and I think I’d really like to focus on something that I’m truly passionate about, and I love Van Sharks, so I offered to buy out my partner at the time, which he was gracious enough to accept, and I took over 100% and that is the story about how a girl that knew nothing about cars or vans became the owner of a van conversion company.

Heather Bennett  6:25

So like the very brave to go into an area in industry, what do you think from your prior career, your prior jobs that you took into this experience allowed you to be comfortable with that risk?

Brookelyn Avila  6:42

You know, the biggest thing that I because I’ve done, like I mentioned, several different things, the biggest thing that I’ve noticed in working in different industries is that the fundamentals of every business truly are the same, right? And so if you can figure out revenue generation, how do I, how do I get clients through the door? Then, how do I, you know, deliver this product that I’m selling that’s the same, really, everywhere that you, everywhere that you go. And so, fortunately, I do have a background in advertising and marketing, and so I knew that as long as I connected myself with the right people to manage that advertising and marketing. I could get the phone to ring, and so that was the most important thing to me when I took over. And so we did that with the help of kJ marketing. They are our advertising agency, and it did take us a while. It took us a little bit of time to get that right, just like it does for anybody. And my piece of advice would be to work with a company that treats your advertising dollars like their own, because you can tell very, very quickly when you’re working with a with a very big, big agency, that you’re just a number to them. And so as a startup, you want to align yourself with people that are because every single dollar we’re especially getting, it hurts a little bit, right? And you want to see those dollars come back to you as quickly as possible, otherwise you’re not going to stay alive. So linking up with that agency, and we interviewed a lot of them, but that was definitely the most important thing that that I did in the beginning, and then just, you know, the ability to enter a situation or a Room and understand inefficiencies, right? So the way that we built vans when we first started is very different than the way that we build them now and so off. I hear people say it all the time. You can’t see the forest for the trees. There’s nothing that happens at Van Sharks at this point that I don’t know how to do so rolling your sleeves up and getting down into the trenches with your team not only builds, it builds a great team, but it also empowers you as a business owner, so that other people, nobody can hold that things that you don’t know against you, right? And I don’t know, I don’t think that at this point that you know, once you get to a certain size, of course, there’s going to be certain things that maybe you don’t know how to do. But when you’re in the midst of a startup, there really shouldn’t be anything that you don’t know about that business, because in order to get a good pulse on it, you’ve got to you’ve got to know everything that’s going on.

Heather Bennett  9:39

Okay, so moving from two, 2023 to now. What are some of the major turning points during the last two years for the company?

Brookelyn Avila  9:52

So the biggest turning point for us is we became a certified expert of bitter by Mercedes Benz in. So what that meant for us is, Well, number one, there’s only one other certified expert, a fitter in the entire state of Texas. They’ve been in business since 1975 they do great work. They’re called sports mobile, and they’re in Austin. Their primary focus is camper camper vans, but to have the backing from Mercedes Benz at such a young company, has given us a lot of credibility with our clients. What it has also given us the opportunity to do is finance through Mercedes Benz financial, because we have traditionally been a cash based business, and so what you what we saw happen is all of a sudden, people that maybe didn’t have $75,000 to pay us in cash for their upfit, now they can actually finance the vehicle as a whole through Mercedes. And so it opened our market up to be able to service more clients. So that’s definitely been the biggest turning point.

Heather Bennett  11:00

What an excellent partnership that really can, can make a huge difference. And I think that talks, you know, both of the examples you’ve given in partnership, both with Mercedes Benz and your original partner, have taught you lessons on when or when you should partner with someone or an organization and when you should not. So that’s really good examples.

Brookelyn Avila  11:23

I appreciate that. I do have a another example of that. So at the end of 24 I got connected with Gabriel, and one of the biggest It was an exciting thing, but it became an issue very fast. Last year, we grew 57% in top line revenue, and we were not ready for it. You gave an example when we were chatting earlier about, you know, your friend who had someone pick their business up. They had Whole Foods pick up their business. And scaling an operation is very, very different than, you know, starting right? And so I had, at the end of 24 a few investors take notice of what we were doing and become interested in partnering. And the only thing that they really had to offer what was, you know, money, which is great to have. But here’s the thing, if you throw money at something and you still are not firing that business is not firing on all cylinders. You can throw money at it all day long, and it’s never going to if the health isn’t there, it’s never going to give back to you or give back to that investor. So Gabriel and I became connected, and I was very interested in an equity partnership with him because of what he has done at Rent to Own trailers. So not only has he built this incredible finance company, but he also supplies the trailers right, that that they are, that they are leasing to their clients, and they have been able, they’ve managed to scale, I mean, tremendously over the last few years. And what he does, production wise, is something very similar to what I do. And so that partnership made a lot of sense to me, because it wasn’t really about the money, it was about the ability to scale something. And I had heard a thing a long time ago. I’d rather have 10% of a watermelon than, you know, 100% of a grape, right? And so Gabriel and I became partners at the end of the year. So that’s why I’m very honored that he, you know, introduced me to you and said nice things about patients when they work together on a regular basis.

Heather Bennett  13:46

That’s excellent. So, and you talked about the financial help. What do you think are the key, the key things to do to make sure a startup is financially healthy, or even even a business that’s been around for a bit? What what do you think are those key flags or areas to pay attention to, to keep a company financially healthy.

Brookelyn Avila  14:08

I think, you know, keeping keeping your fixed expenses as low as as possible. It’s very important, you know, paying attention to, for it, for what we do. You know, there are, we have a lot of cost of goods sold, right? And so there are certain, there are certain figures that we, we had to learn, you know, setting up vendor accounts so that we, you know, get things at wholesale pricing, keeping those fixed expenses down, you know. And really the way that we started. I mean, our first warehouse was 25,000 square feet, and the rent was $25,000 a month, and it was not that’s not the way that you should start. It’s in a situation like that, you’re really learning kind of with a. I deer head. I mean, I had a little over a million dollars a year just in in expenses. Right my break? I mean, my break even was a billion dollars right for 2024, and I don’t recommend that people start big like that. If you start small, you can, you can make mistakes that are not so on a smaller scale, right? And it affords you the opportunity to learn something without it costing so much. And so I think that’s something that is very important to pay attention to just starting out.

Heather Bennett  15:38

It’s such great advice and I’m

Brookelyn Avila  15:44

so sorry, Heather, I was gonna say cash is cash is key. So hang on. Hang on to as much cash as you can.

Heather Bennett  15:52

Right? Absolutely. And I think you hit on one of the the most important things for entrepreneurs to know is, sometimes you don’t quit your day job, and that starting small as a side hustle is not a bad idea. That’s right, definitely. So what is your vision for the company? What impact are you hoping to have? What? What? What does the future look like?

Brookelyn Avila  16:21

So my vision for the company is to have, you know, it’s interesting, this partnership with Mercedes is something that I’m very excited about, because ideally, one day I would like to be acquired by Mercedes. And you can tell me, Heather, I lean on your your wisdom there if you think that that’s something we should leave in the podcast, but it is something that that I hope for you know, through the way that we work so closely with them, because Mercedes, it’s they have a harder time selling vans because a lot of the vans that they sell are empty, and The general public does not have really a vision for what a final product could be. And so in the beginning of next year, so q1, of 26 you will be able to find the first Van Sharks fan inside of a Houston Mercedes Benz dealership. And they’re very excited about doing that with us, because they are their van sales are a bit low, and so they want to have a finished product that’s sitting on the show floor so that they can demonstrate to clients. This is what you’re going to get,

Heather Bennett  17:37

you know, absolutely, absolutely, and you think about in terms of the fact that a staged home sells better than an empty home. It’s very similar. You have to help people see the vision and long term, I think it’s good to consider all the options. And it’s something that I we, you know, I’ve worked out with for business owners, is even if you think you’re never going to exit the business. You always have to think about what that could look like and what the opportunity looks like. So having a long term perspective on what that could look like, yeah, is is so important. Hello, and we’re back, and you can see the Brookelyn is now in her office, and this definitely tells you the story of what business owners are like and what they need to be in order to be successful. It is rolling up your sleeves. It’s getting in there, and sometimes you have to drive a sprinter van somewhere. That’s okay. So Brookelyn, on that subject, what is the most unusual thing or interesting or unexpected thing you’ve had to do as a business owner?

Brookelyn Avila  18:51

Well, gosh, I’ve had to do a lot of a lot of unusual things as a business owner. But if we’re talking about project based, I have, we had put a coffee shop? I don’t know if you know what a Honda act D is, but it’s a van D. Are you familiar with those? Okay, so, you know it’s like the size of a roller skate. I mean, I could fit one in my office here. It’s super, super tiny. And so we had a client when we were pretty early on. I think we were maybe a year in. I mean, we’re still early on, right? But this feels like a lifetime ago, reach out to us, who said, hey, it’s my dream to have this mobile coffee cart, but I want to put it in a Honda acti, and I did a little bit of research, and I said, okay, okay, well, this is an aggressively difficult project, right? He had reached out to so many people across the US, and he just didn’t have anybody that wanted to, you know, take this journey with him. I found out later kind of why, seeing as the project was very, very difficult. It required a tremendous amount of engineering, a. Lots of slides. So the whole thing kind of is a transformer, so that the ruckus that comes out of the back, the structure that slides out actually ended up being even a little bit longer than the van itself, which is really crazy, yes. And so it so it required us and then, and then, of course, it needed to pass inspection as well. So there were lots of, you know, kind of red tape things that we had to make sure were there. And so it was very interesting. So that’s definitely the most interesting project, trying to figure out, how are we going to get water from a stationary water tank all the way over here? How are we going to then drain the water from the sink, from two sinks, because he had to have a he had to actually have two sinks. He had to have a three basin sink, and then he had to have just a wash, a hand wash sink. So how are we going to get that there? How are we going to drain this espresso machine, and you can’t just drain into a bucket per the health code. You’ve got to actually move that, that gray water is what we call it, all the way back to this fixed gray water tank. It was pretty aggressive. The project took us six months, which is a lot longer than what a typical project takes us. But again, you know, there were, there were a lot of lot of things that we had to do to kind of be creative with putting this thing, you know, make bringing this to life. And so that’s definitely the strangest project I’ve ever had,

Heather Bennett  21:24

absolutely that that is a unique, unique offering. But as I said earlier, I am not surprised. I see there’s going to be a lot of need for unique uses for vans in the future and and it sounds like you, you guys have really learned a lot in terms of how to how to do that. So tell me about some of your proudest moments.

Brookelyn Avila  21:50

Gosh, one of my proudest moments, actually, it’s, this is a good this is a good proud moment, I think, personally and professionally. But my daughter, when she was in kindergarten, her teacher called me and said, hey, you know, Sophia talks about Van Sharks all the time. You know, tell me more about that. And so I kind of explained to her what it was that we did, and she said, Well, we have Career Day coming up, and I’d really love to have you bring a van and come talk about what you do with the kids. And so when I arrived, you know, there’s this big old group of kindergartners sitting out waiting for me, and they’re like little eyes are biggest saucers, because we brought one of our big, cool vans that has lights and all the things. And so they were super impressed. And my daughter was sitting with some of her classmates, and she was telling she kept kind of elbowing everybody, saying, That’s my mom. And so it was the by far the coolest thing that I think I’ve ever felt as a parent and as a business owner. There’s nothing better than seeing your child be excited about what you’re doing, because you sacrifice so much too. And so you wonder, is it connecting for them? Why we’re always at the office sometimes late on school nights? Or why is mom tired on the weekends? You know, it? You wonder if that’s connecting for them. And in that moment, even though she this was obviously two years ago, but you know, it really felt like it did, and I was so proud of that.

Heather Bennett  23:24

That’s incredible. And so much about like owning a business does tie into your family, your personal life and all of that.

Brookelyn Avila  23:34

Let’s talk about your team. Tell me about your team. So I have an incredible team. I have to tell you, you know, I there are, there are a few key people on our team that I just I couldn’t, we wouldn’t be here today without them, and so I have to give accolades to each of them, but I’d love to share with you why each one of them are special. So I’m going to start with Hannah. We don’t always tell people this, but Hannah is actually my closest friend, and so we typically keep that under wraps. But she and I owned a catering company together years ago during covid, of all things and and so we’ve always worked together in some capacity. And so when we started Van Sharks. She was really interested in being a part of it, but I said, You know what, listen, you have a she worked in corporate sales. She had a great job. She was very good at her job. And I said, you know, we need to make sure this company is going to make it before you completely jump ship, right? And so we had, you know, gone through our first eight months, and I felt, I felt pretty good about it. And so I said, if you’re really interested and you want to ride this roller coaster with me, let’s do it. And she came on staff, and she really, I hadn’t quit my day job at that point. So she was kind of my, you know, eyes and ears, feet on the ground, and she did sales, she did payroll, she. She did. I mean, she was wearing a lot of hats at that time, and, you know, has really, really become part of our brand, right? The first person that you speak to when you’re looking to purchase a van here at Van Sharks is always going to be Hannah. And she has the you I think, when you find people that have the unique ability to learn very quickly and also think on their feet, hang on to them for dear life, because they are far and few between, and she’s one of them, and she has just been I mean, obviously our friendship is she, I always tell people she’s my platonic soul mate, and it’s the truth, but we are very, very close. She’s like a sister to me. And so, you know, I trust her tremendously with just everything. And so I always have a lot of peace knowing that I’m I’m working alongside somebody who has who treats this place like it’s her own because of the relationship that we have. The person that I have to highlight after Hannah is Tim Plumlee. So Tim has been in the van conversion industry for, gosh, almost 15 years. So there’s almost nothing the guy hasn’t seen. He’s super talented. He I’ve never met anybody that has been able to outwork me and Tim, until I met Tim, we were working. We had a van, and this was a long time ago, but we had a client who, you know we were, we were running up on a deadline, and Tim and I worked a 23 hour shift together to finish this van. He will just keep going, he just keeps going. And I’ve never, I’ve really never met anybody with the level of just passion and tenacity that he has for what we do. He, you know, I think you spend a lot of time with the people that you work with, and so you kind of inherently become friends. And he has shown up for me, even on a personal level, in so many moments. And so, you know, he is somebody that, you know I just I couldn’t, I couldn’t do Van Sharks without him. He’s taught me everything that I know about vans. And so he has been a really key person in, you know, the growth of Van Sharks. The other person I’d like to highlight is Robert. Robert is a newer, newer team member. He’s only been with us for about we’re coming almost a year. We’re coming up on almost a year. But he came to us from another conversion company in Irving, and he’s just, it’s neat to have a fresh set of eyes and a fresh set of ideas. He’s just like Tim. He again, you know, I thought, wow, okay, now I found two people that can really just continue to keep going, right? He’s just like Tim, with that tenacity and that passion for what we do, but he actually has a lot of really innovative ideas. So he has helped us create products that are, you know, exclusive to Van Sharks, right? So we’ve got some really interesting lighting ceilings that we do, may box ceilings that we do, that Robert was the one who developed the design for it, these drink rails, so that clients have integrated drink rails you have somewhere to put your cup in the van that looks nice. And it’s not just a plastic flip out cup holder, you know, he he developed the design for those, and so, you know, he has an eye for design also that has brought a unique element to the team. The last person that I’ll highlight that that we work with it on site every day is Jacob. So Jacob is Gabriel’s brother, and Jacob manages the production team. So he’s the person that comes in every single day, and he makes sure that all the guys have direction for each one of the various projects that we’re working on, and he makes sure that we’ve got inventory for them. Jacob has jumped in like, you know, just like anybody else, we experience cash flow gaps, you know, we’re still little, right? We’re young. I mean, we’re little, we’re young, right? And so he has jumped in to say, hey, you know what, use my credit card. We’re going to get it done, because the guys need this tomorrow, right? And so he has that, that partnership has been just outstanding, right, to have people around you that care, right? It’s not just hey, I’m showing up and then I got to get home, and I don’t, I don’t think about work when I’m at home. To have people that care about the business the same way that you do is such a blessing. And I don’t know what I did to deserve having such great people around me, but I tell you what, I’m not complaining.

Heather Bennett  29:40

It’s so crucial those, those first, I would say that first couple of hires when you’re growing is so crucial. You know, both, both at a leadership level, because you it sounds like all of the ones you mentioned really are leaders within the company, yeah, but also at the get the job level, yes. So. Yeah, definitely, absolutely crucial. Okay, so what are you working on next?

Brookelyn Avila  30:07

So what I’m working on next? You know, we are a custom conversion specialist, and so I gotta tell you, got a lot of love for custom, custom projects, but the real scalability of a business depends on repeatability, right? And so there are only so many things that you can do inside of a sprinter van, because it’s just, you know, you’re working with the same square footage, essentially on each of the three models. But we want to spend more time standardizing so, you know, we are still going to be a custom conversion specialist, but you know, we are going to start saying no to things like this, Honda acti, for example. So when we’re taking, you know, brain power and you know, to do, to do a Honda acti, or to do something super random that you know, we know we’re probably not going to do again, it doesn’t in a in the long run, it doesn’t really benefit us. And so, you know, what we are working on next is creating more of our what we’re calling them, our spec builds. And it’s those spec builds that the first one will be on the showroom at our partner with Sewell Mercedes Benz here in Houston, q1 of next year. And then, you know, hopefully from there, we will see those spec builds being sold on other showroom floors here in Texas, and then eventually the US

Heather Bennett  31:30

so, and that’s excellent. I think it’s really a thoughtful and strategic way to grow a business, because when you start out, you do have to try a little bit of everything to see where the market is, you know, that’s just testing the market. What is needed, what’s going to work, you know, and then learning where the economies of scale are, where the efficiencies are, which is, is absolutely vital to growing and scaling. And you talked, it is really hard to scale. Yes, doing that thoughtfully is, is so important. So I know we talked about some of the roadblocks for your business. What were some of the obstacles in your personal life during this process? Because it’s hard when you’re the business owner. Like, a lot of it just kind of overlaps

Brookelyn Avila  32:15

that, you know, it does. I will say I have made a lot of, I mean, like everybody does, right? You make a lot of, you know, personal sacrifices, whether that looks like time with family, whether it looks like, you know, maybe not buying that new house, right, or, you know, whatever it is, right? I will say that at the beginning of this year, well, toward the end of last year, I went a big roadblock for me. My grandmother had a heart attack, and she’s somebody that I’m very, very close to. I know a lot of people are very close to their grandparents, but you can see right here, actually I have an urn, which always freaks people out. And so this is my mom, who I lost in 2023 so this is her mother. And of course, since losing my mom, that relationship has become even closer, and so she had this heart attack. We really thought we were going to lose her, and I’m very excited to report that she is doing incredibly well, but she did not make it out of the hospital until beginning of February of this year, and she was there for quite a while, and when she prior to going in, she was fully independent. She owned her home. She was doing things on her own. When she came out, unfortunately, she was not really in a position to be independent, and so there was, there was a lot of commuting. She lives in an area of Houston called Dickinson, and Dickinson is about an hour and 15 minute drive on a good day from where I live in Houston. It’s a big city, and so there was a lot of going back and forth, trying to commute so that I could be there with her. And then eventually we made the decision to lease her house, and I moved her in with with me, which at first was tough. She has regained a lot of her independence, but every single day she came with me to work, right? And so it was, you know, gosh, if I don’t want to say this in a way that makes it sound like it was a burden, it’s an absolute honor to care for her, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it was an added it’s an added layer to an already, kind of, you know, busy and complicated life. And so that has was definitely something that kind of, you know, shook, shook my foundation early on this year. Happy to report that we’ve leveled out. She has been, she’s doing really, really well. And she, you know, is actually not here today. She was here yesterday just because she wanted to be but she’s not here today because she’s able to be home by herself in some moments. And so she’s grateful to have that alone time, that’s for sure.

Heather Bennett  34:54

So that’s so good, such a good example of how the personal life overlaps with. Right with work life? Yes, and and there, and there is an increasing awareness of the support that caregivers need in order to do their job. So it’s it’s very real. It’s very real. Um, so speaking of people that you look up to, who are your mentors and what’s some of the best advice you’ve gotten from them?

Brookelyn Avila  35:24

So my mentor that I talk about all the time, her name is Jessica hatch, and she has turned into one of my closest friends. I was a bridesmaid in her wedding about five years ago, but I met Jessica when I was 18 years old. Sling and back braces I used to sell durable medical equipment, and I was so awestruck by her. She was this beautiful, powerful woman who, you know, just commanded respect everywhere that she went. And I met her through a mutual a doctor that used to buy bracing from me, and he said, I think that you should meet Jessica. She’s really special, and I think she could have a really good influence on not just your life, but your career. I was just with her, actually, yesterday evening, visiting her, but, um, she has she, she is the first person. She taught me how to be confident. And that is something that I think people are, it’s hard to learn that, right? It’s hard to learn how to, you know, be on camera even. I mean, if you had seen me 10 years ago, I couldn’t, I couldn’t record a social media video. I didn’t feel confident about what I was saying. And she she believed in me, and taught me how to believe in myself, and she taught me also how to have thick skin, because you kind of have to right? I mean, you get more no’s than you do yeses more often, right? And so she is somebody that I’ve looked up to a lot. She works in the healthcare industry, so she owns MRI facilities and pain management clinics here in Houston, even though I don’t work in that industry anymore. She also has a nonprofit that I sit on the board for. I donated a sprinter van to that nonprofit last year to help transport childhood cancer patients back and forth from their I didn’t know that the biggest reason that they those, those patients missed their appointments was lack of transportation, and so I had this van, and I said, You know what, I don’t need it. This, this organization needs it a lot more than I do. So we partnered with a company called Dream rides, and then her nonprofit is called hatching for health. And so we put this van together and have successfully transported, I mean, hundreds of patients at this point, and it’s been an incredible journey. So we always still find ways to work together, even though we don’t work necessarily in the same industry.

Heather Bennett  37:49

That’s incredible and a great way to give back. I mean, I do think that’s something important about, you know, small middle market businesses, that they are such a cornerstone of the community, and finding ways to to give back to the community that’s supporting you as you’re growing your business or or scaling is so important. That’s what a gift.

Brookelyn Avila  38:10

Yes, it is, it is. I was very grateful to be part of that.

Heather Bennett  38:16

So you have so much going on. You know, starting this business, you’ve got a lot. Like, it’s a lot. It’s a lot. You’re starting these new partnerships. You’re growing like, what are a few of your personal daily rituals that help you to stay strong and be ready to tackle those 23 hour work days with your team?

Brookelyn Avila  38:36

You know? I mean, I will say I drink a lot of caffeine. You can see me sipping on a Red Bull as we’ve been filming this, and that’s probably not great advice to give, but it is the truth. I mean, I’m tired a lot because I work long hours, but you know something that I start every single day at least 30 minutes before anybody else in the house gets up, and that’s just me time, and whatever I do during that time, whether it’s just take a shower in silence or have a cup of coffee, I just sit right. I sit and I kind of think about, okay, these are the things that I need to get. What am I worried about today? Because I think a lot of people struggle with, you know, anxiety and you know, just, you can cripple yourself with that. And so if there’s anything that I know that you know is heavy on my mind for that day, I actually just affirm myself. You You got this you’re going to figure this out, you’re going to get to work, and you know that you’re going to talk through this, whatever this issue is with the team, right? Fortunately, I have less days like that than I did about a year and a half ago. But, you know, it was a, it was a very, it was a daily thing for me. So now, when I wake up 30 minutes early in the mornings, I actually just have a little bit of peace before I, you know, head into the chaos of entrepreneurship for the day. So I do try to, at this point in time, turn off also, so it’s that’s that has always been tough for me, but I do specifically when my kids are with me and they’re not at their dad’s house, I used to have a lot of guilt, and I think a lot of women might relate to this, and not that dads won’t, but I’m sure they do, but I think it is different for a mom. But I used to have a lot of guilt, you know, when I would be sitting with the kids and, you know, I’m on my phone, checking emails or, you know, and I don’t think that you realize the impact that that could have right on your relationship with your children. And so I make it a point, especially when my kids are with me, you know, for at least an hour before they go to bed, I’m not on the phone. We’re going to sit together. We are going to have family time. We’re going to sit down and eat dinner. It may not be a home cooked meal. We might it might be Chick fil A, but that’s okay. We’re going to sit down, we’re going to talk to each other, and we’re going to not have a screen in front of us. And I think that that is really important. Because if you go through this journey, and at the end of it, we all do this, right, because we want to be very, very successful. But if you get to that, when you get to that success point, if you don’t have people in your life, ie your family or your friends, to enjoy it with you, what was the point?

Heather Bennett  41:20

Right? That is such great advice. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Of course, I do have one last question, but before I ask it, I want to point people to your website at VanSharks.com, and if you audience enjoy seeing just how they build these incredible vehicles. I highly recommend going to their YouTube channel. Brookelyn’s done an excellent job showing just some really exciting videos on how the process takes place. And that’s youtube.com/@VanSharks all one word. It’s definitely worth watching. It’s absolutely fascinating and really exciting to see how they build these and what what the end result is. So final question, what is the hard what is a hard lesson that you’ve learned while starting and growing your business that you would like to share with other CEOs and entrepreneurs?

Brookelyn Avila  42:26

Oh, not everybody’s gonna get it. Not everybody is going to get it. You know, when I left a corporate job to take over Van Sharks full time, and I had so many people tell me, you’re making a huge mistake. You’re making a huge mistake. And, you know, I spent a lot, especially last year, in this year, it’s been that way some right? I think, you know, we’re still two, two and a half, two years and nine months old. We’ll be three years in December or January, rather, but I spent a lot of late nights, and, you know, had to cancel things, right? And people assumed, well, she’s flaky. She just doesn’t want to spend time with me. I can’t be friends with her because, you know, or and even family members, right? And they just don’t get it right. They don’t get it they don’t get what it takes. They don’t get what it means right to embody and live this journey. And, you know, do it anyways, right? And do it afraid because it is scary, right? There’s no, there’s nobody, I think, that is in business for themselves that does not wake up with fear pretty regularly about something, right? So, you know it, I think it’s okay for people to not get it, but it’s also okay to not explain yourself all the time to them. You know, I don’t think that as soon as I stopped being concerned with the with the perception of me, I felt a lot freer. And the truth of it is, is that the people that you know you want to be in your corner are the people that are going to ride through all the trenches of life with you, and so, you know, at the end of I mean, at least at this stage, I’m grateful that I have some real, genuine relationships with with friends and family around me that do get it, but I have lost some people along the way, and it’s okay,

Heather Bennett  44:23

that’s awesome. Really good advice. Very good advice. I’ve been talking with Brookelyn Avila of the owner of Van Sharks, Brookelyn. Thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so much for sharing your story, your experience, your advice. I want to keep in touch, because I’m very interested in seeing where this goes. So thank you.

Brookelyn Avila  44:47

It’s been an honor, Heather. I appreciate your time and look forward to connecting soon.

Outro 44:58

Thank you for listening to the Growth + Exit podcast sponsored by Newport, a unique national business advisory firm. If you enjoy this show, be sure to share, like and subscribe for future episodes.