A New to Blue-Collar Millennial Making a Difference; Tato Corcoran

00:00 - Speaker 1

Welcome to blue collar BS, a podcast that bust the popular myth that we can't find good people, highlighting how the different generations of today the boomers, gen X, millennials and Gen Z are redefining work so that the industrial revolution that started in the US stays in the US.

00:21 - Speaker 3

The blue collar BS podcast helped look our business owners like you Build a business that'll thrive for decades to come by turning that blue collar bullshit into some blue collar business Solutions in this episode, you're going to learn that business is just a game and how you win is in your hands, the process of making money is fun and that profits can change lives and, importantly, the importance of putting yourself and training in an LOI, our guest today at Tato Corcoran, a Driven millennial who's in real estate and manufacturing to make an impact on people's lives.

00:59 - Speaker 2

We hope you enjoy the show.

01:01 - Speaker 3

Blue collar BS podcast. Brad, how are you?

01:03 - Speaker 2

doing today? I am doing fantastic, Mr Steven Doyle. What is the world in Clarkston Michigan doing for you today?

01:11 - Speaker 3

Well, the world is raining Absolutely beams of sunshine. It's a sunny 52 degrees here and I'm loving it. What do we got going on over there in Milwaukee?

01:23 - Speaker 2

Oh well it's. It's a cloudy, overcast fall day. However, just because it's cloudy outside doesn't mean that the show is gonna be cloudy. It's hard to say is nothing more than a massive ball of sunshine and energy, and she said it's true, though. So Tato is With us today. An entrepreneur, a speaker and real estate investment person owner into a manufacturing environment at a very young age that do nothing about manufacturing is absolutely killing it, and I am so grateful to have her here today to share her story as to why and what it she is doing to create her success in a manufacturing world when that's not where she came from. So, tato, welcome to the show.

02:08 - Speaker 4

See guys.

02:09 - Speaker 3

I'm really welcome, welcome, welcome, before I forget and before Brad rips me anyone. Yeah, which celebration, tato, do you fit in with?

02:20 - Speaker 4

Six days out of seven. I am proud to say that I'm a millennial.

02:24 - Speaker 2

And on the seventh day on the seventh day.

02:26 - Speaker 4

Millennials just give us such a bad name, but sometimes I do to myself. I was at a conference last week where they didn't serve espresso and all three days I door dash Starbucks and I was not proud of that. But I need.

02:44 - Speaker 2

Or dash Starbucks because they just had shitty coffee.

02:48 - Speaker 4

Yeah, it was arguably one of the more millennial things I've done a really long time and it left me really ashamed.

02:53 - Speaker 2

Oh you really what do you mean? Google there?

02:58 - Speaker 3

Yeah, 100% yeah no, it was bad. Yeah, so that's a seven.

03:06 - Speaker 2

I did it for three days. It was day seven, but I did it for three days. So, tato, how does a you know, a young lady from California working at Salesforce get into real estate and then owning a bolded, cultured marble Manufacturing facility?

03:30 - Speaker 4

So, in a super small nutshell, we can dive into whatever areas we want to, but in a super small nut. Well, when I was young, I was always hustling and like every Different type of way, even when I was a little kid, like I. Just, you know, a lot of times they'll say business is a game if you play it right. And to me it does feel like a game in some ways. Sometimes it's super real and, you know, crazy stressful, but a lot of times you know it's a game and, like I, I see the process of making money as just a really fun one, and so I've always, always been obsessed with business and entrepreneurialism. I but I didn't know how to really make that happen, and so I spent almost 10 years of my well, the only career I've had in tech which is what you do when you're millennial living in the San Francisco Bay Area and really the impetus to kind of my life now, which couldn't be further from wearing heels in downtown San Francisco every day, was COVID. We were the first to be shut down, obviously, and you know, tech was like the first to stay at home and whatever, and that, just for me, took on a total life of its own, like I was the poster child for why ambitious millennials should never be allowed to work from home policy, because I took massive advantage of it, not really meaning to, but all of a sudden I wasn't expected to be anywhere physically. I have family here in the Wauke area and my sister's here, and just had just had a baby, and so I had plenty of reason to be here.

04:57

And one thing led to another. You know, first things first, I kind of stopped and said, wow, you know, I could afford to buy a house here, which isn't you don't think, to buy rental property in California. And so I kind of realized that. And I'm sort of a person where, like, I decide I'm going to do it, I go full, I like jump off the cliff and then, as I'm falling, I'm like, wow, I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing. And then I just kind of forgot to make it work, which is what I did.

05:23

So I found a house to buy, because I was like I'm going to do that, and while a ton of things went crazy wrong, it was so fun and amazing and instantly just I fell off a cliff with real estate, I became obsessed.

05:35

I took in any piece of content I possibly could. And then that was a whole couple of year long process that led me to a group of peers who I'm still really close with through a mastermind, and a couple of those peers of mine were buying small business. So that's where that conversation started. They were buying up local business for several different reasons, and so again I was like, oh, I could probably do that, and though it was more adjourn, it sounded Well, yeah, I'm making it sound less adjourn than it was, but basically I found a really good deal and I was like I'm going to buy that. And so I did, and I had literally no idea what I was doing and no idea what I was getting myself into. But that's really the short version Is a ton of just completely blind ambition and hard work until it worked out.

06:22 - Speaker 2

Blind ambition. I like that. Yeah, wow, and this is the short version, steve.

06:29 - Speaker 3

So many questions right now, so pick one, pick one. So, as you were going through this whole purchasing of business as a younger person, tell our listeners what that journey was like for you as someone buying somebody else's business.

06:50 - Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah, for sure, you have to lace the context of all of my answers with honestly and truly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no idea what I was doing, and I don't mean that like oh aha.

07:04 - Speaker 2

But here's the thing, though. So all of those chucks in a truck that buy their business from the old guy that's retiring, that says, ok, this is a really good business. You did exactly that, just in a different environment than a lot of the other folks that listen to the show, so it's important to share that, so you're not alone in that journey.

07:22 - Speaker 4

Exactly, and it's I don't say it to downgrade myself or whatever, but people. I think the reason I preface the answer to the question is because the couple times I have talked about this one-on-one with people who are looking, I can tell that they're trying to be really strategic about what it is that they're buying. And if you can play strategy around it then that's great, absolutely. But I didn't have a strategy. I was like I'm just going to find something that seems like a good deal. Literally that was the whole strategy. So anyways, saying that I had looked at all kinds of things, I looked at dog grooming businesses. I actually became very, very, very in-depth educated on laundry mats. I could tell you all about laundry mats because I was close to doing that and everything in between. Literally I sent out letters to every owner of a porter potty business in Wisconsin and I can't tell you how many conversations I had with 72-year-old dudes who had been doing this since they were 25 and could not believe that a 29-year-old girl was reaching out asking if they wanted to sell. They're like I got to get a load of this and so they all called me. Anyways, I just threw a ton of spaghetti at the wall. I was like I recognize that I don't know what I want to buy, so I'm going to pretend like I'll buy anything and then take that education and kind of narrow my funnel. And that really is how it happened. Because then I came across some business brokers, and the particular broker who ended up selling me this business was representing the seller and he initially tried to pitch me on it. Second, he said manufacturing. I was like I don't know anything about literally anything, but I definitely don't know anything about manufacturing. So I appreciate it, but no thanks. And a month or a month and a half went by and he called me and he was like hey, I understand that you didn't necessarily show interest initially. However, this owner is going to close his doors in two weeks, so if you want to at least walk through, you can basically like the deal's yours. And he then told me that he owned the building and that the building would be like a part of the sale, and so I was like, ok, at a minimum I will go look at a piece of real estate, right, because that's at least something that I feel comfortable with.

09:35

A close friend of mine and Brad's is very in to the Milwaukee commercial real estate space. And so he offered to come with me and I was like, ok, your only job is to walk around the entire place and tell me if it's a good deal or not. Basically, long story, not really made short. What little I could understand of looking at his financials and what little I could understand of the business in general looked promising. And I was like look, your building is worth $750,000. I won't pay you for the equipment, I won't pay you for the business, nothing else, just this is what your building's worth.

10:10

And he didn't have any other options, literally Like he could have closed his doors and liquidated. But that is way more simplistic than it truly is. So that is the short answer to that question. But really it came down to OK, I'm going to buy a business. I've never owned a business, I don't know what I'm doing, and so if I am going to buy a business that's just a real estate play, then that's as hedged as I can get with my risk. It's the least risk deal I'm going to find, probably. And so that's why I did it, because I was like well, worst case, I suck and I'll rent the building.

10:57 - Speaker 2

So you took the risk of buying from a real estate perspective and now take us through that journey of OK, you go through that. Oh shit, what the fuck did I just do moment after I sold the paperwork and go?

11:08 - Speaker 4

oh, not just a moment, by the way, not just a moment. I still have that every day. I still go on.

11:13 - Speaker 2

But anyhow. So you got that and the first customer calls hey, you owe me some stuff.

11:20 - Speaker 4

Yeah.

11:23 - Speaker 2

And I'm going to assume, like many boomer businesses, that there probably was all in the previous owner's head. It was nothing there, right, and it was just a little bit of OK, what's on, what do I have, what's there, what do I do? How did you work through that transition of fear, anxiety, stress, all of those things, and how much of your team that you acquired stayed as well as they stayed and were helpful, versus trying to be saboteurs?

11:55 - Speaker 4

I had the great fortune of and I will always thank my seller for this the day we signed our LOI which, as you know, is not necessarily a truly binding agreement. But the day we signed the LOI, he agreed to bring me on full time to learn the business, which was a way for me to get two months of learning for free and basically just speed up my ramp. And he didn't have to do that and he did that and that made so much of a difference and I'll always be grateful for that. But basically I signed the LOI. The next morning I showed up and literally he handed me the company phone and said here you go, we have two months to learn 35 years worth of business. So I hope you're listening.

12:34

And that's exactly what we did for at least 10 hours a day for two months. I literally would get home and be like I can't speak to anyone until seven o'clock tomorrow morning till I come back into that office Cause I was just so, so mind-boggled All things to keep in mind like I didn't even know what the fuck culture in Marvel was into. The day I showed up to learn what I had just bought Like that's how little context I had coming into everything, but so that was critical. For sure is the fact that I just basically, you know, was attached at the hip with my seller for two months.

13:13 - Speaker 2

So so for those listening, note to self when buying that business if you can get training as tied to your LOI for free, take advantage of it.

13:21 - Speaker 4

Yeah, and I didn't even know that that was like a thing, much less, you know, a privileged thing, right? I totally see it now, but anyways. So at the time the business had three employees. One was headed off to college, so I really don't even count him, to be honest two long 10-year-old employees who had all of the knowledge in addition to the seller. So it was absolutely critical that those two were made as happy as humanly possible and kept on Since then.

13:50

It's kind of funny in a I mean, whatever I fired one and the other is now my business partner. So one ended up just whatever didn't work and the other literally is my right arm and my left arm and the reason that my doors are open, and I recognized how valuable and talented he was from the get-go and not just as an employee, like he's just a human that I adore and we get along swimmingly, and I just was like so I'm a very transparent person. Neither of us is going to ignore the fact that I'm nothing without you. So do you want to be my business partner? You know how can we work together? How can I like really tie you into the actual business of what it is that we're doing?

14:34

the bottom line of you, know your efforts every day and things like that. So he's uniquely bonus right Based on company performance. He has total transparency into you know what we do in the books and this and that. And while it was critical at the time, I now I just feel like I feel like I in a way co-own the business with someone who I wholeheartedly respect and love, and, while it would be, it feels close to impossible, like if you were to walk out the door for me to operate the business without him, but the truth is I wouldn't want to operate the business without him. You know, like we just have to skirt relationship anyways.

15:10

Okay, so I'm being long-winded about that. So I retained one employee. Basically is the answer to the question, which is insane? Like that's insane. You know this isn't a big business by any means, but it's not a small business.

15:23

g like the last six months of: 2022

16:22

I came, my raw material went up 50%. 50% on top of prices that were already at least five years behind, probably 10.

16:32 - Speaker 2

Come on, there should be a process for that.

16:34 - Speaker 4

Where, and so then the only way to remedy that is to go to customers who have worked with the same guy for a decade plus and say hi, I'm new, you don't know me or trust me, I have no background and, by the way, your price is going up 40%. Really tough conversation to have.

16:50 - Speaker 2

Did it work.

16:51 - Speaker 4

The business. I had no customer attrition, which I'm very proud of.

16:55 - Speaker 2

So it worked, so it worked.

16:58 - Speaker 4

It did. I mean, I chose to delay that conversation, actually in truth for a good three to four months, because I wanted to prove to them that this transition was gonna happen with no hiccups. In fact, some of the companies didn't even know we transitioned ownership. They were like wait, what? Like they had no idea.

17:15 - Speaker 2

So so, Tato, hang on. So so I want to interject. I want to ask a question in this spot, because there's some. I think there's a good observation here and you are a very self-aware individual. So if you, you've identified yourself to be in that millennial space right Door, dash that coffee, you know, because they don't have the coffee you like. Do you believe, if you were in a older environment, if you were put yourself in a older Gen X seat, like myself, do you believe that success would have come out the same way?

17:56 - Speaker 4

Gosh, that's such a hard question. I mean, if I'm understanding the question correctly, I think that my youth charisma, charm and ambition, packaged together, as crazy as it seemed, was alluring to people and they were willing to at least give me a listen and give me a chance. And then, when I proved to them that I was competent, I think they were that much more excited to partner with me. I guess I don't know if that answers that question.

18:24 - Speaker 2

No, it does, because obviously I've been in the facility and I've seen it and we've talked about the culture that you've created. I don't know that a 55 year old white guy coming into that business could have accomplished what you've accomplished in the same period of time. To do those things because of your energy level, because of your enthusiasm, because of your sense of community, because of those different generational differences that we've grown up with and behaviors that are accepted versus not accepted across from generation.

18:56 - Speaker 4

Yeah, totally, and I think that, like, for better or for worse, millennials are like enabled to like really be themselves and have personality and all that, and I definitely take that to an extreme. I was raised with like way too much self-confidence and way too much space to be my own But-.

19:13 - Speaker 2

Can I get you a medal? Can I get you a medal? Can I get your trophy?

19:16 - Speaker 4

I'm just patient To your point, like you, definitely. Like I just kind of approach things with a limited sense of fear, you know. And so, yeah, I do think that helps. I think it helps too that not only am I young, but I'm a young woman in a very male dominated space.

19:33 - Speaker 3

Oh yes.

19:34 - Speaker 4

So that was initially something that I was really self-conscious about and, frankly, got a lot of rudeness about, but I ended up using it to my advantage because I truly believe that I've won meetings that I really shouldn't have won Because, again, like I was placed in a position of being just doubted, doubted, and so when someone default doubts you and you can prove them wrong, then it's like a double win. Yeah, so yeah, truly.

20:07 - Speaker 2

I know what other stack have I told you, so cards.

20:10 - Speaker 4

I know for a fact-.

20:11 - Speaker 2

Double, win.

20:13 - Speaker 4

I know for a fact that most meetings that I've taken, whether they were with you know customers that I inherited or customers I wanted to sell that they came in with a, you know, a default sense of doubt. Some of you have been doing that. It helps, too, that, for better or for worse. Also, I am licensed as an oppressed business by the state, being a female-owned business. So that, too, like, was an instant way to set me apart, because that's not an easy designation to get and it's very valuable to builders who are held to, you know, equality requirements and stuff.

20:44

So, that was like a specific, like tactical way. You know that I was able to leverage my otherwise weirdness in the industry, but unlikeliness is a better way to put it.

20:57 - Speaker 2

For those that are not in Wisconsin and those that don't know, you tell us what Brent Moulded Marble does and who you supply, who your customers are and why you are excited about your business.

21:11 - Speaker 4

Yeah, so we manufacture culture marble, which is a form of man-made stone. Some people are familiar with granite. That's a stone pulled out of the earth, cut down, polished, in other words, fabricated. Quartz is a stone that people are familiar with. Quartz is actually man-made in a similar fashion that my product is, but cultured marble for those who aren't familiar is a cost-effective option when it comes to stone in a residence or a commercial building. So the customer base that I inherited is all single family or condo residential spec builders here in the.

21:47

Waukely area entry level specs, so at most semi-custom. Most are production builders. You know they're just trying to pound holes in the ground and put I don't want to say affordable housing, but put lower cost new home buyer houses on the market. And the customer base that I'm working really diligently to expand is two-fold. One side is the remodel space. There's a virtually insatiable remodel market here in the Greater Milwaukee Madison areas where our shower application is really ideal, and then in the commercial side there's apartments going up quicker than you can possibly imagine and so again, have a quote-unquote budget.

22:31 - Speaker 2

Millennials don't want to buy houses.

22:33 - Speaker 4

Yeah, exactly. So that's a way that millennials are benefiting me, which is great. Yeah, so it's a perfect apartment product. So those are kind of the three buckets where our product fits best. Like I said, we do a pretty good job of I don't want to say dominating, but we have a really strong foothold in the spec business, but not on the commercial side, and there's just way more work to be done on the remodel side. So that's what I'm working on, and what makes me excited is two part. Part one, on the business side, is that, for lots of different reasons, cultured marble manufacturers have shrunk drastically in the last decade. So I'm one of only three, maybe four at most, remaining in the entire state and we'll define them as you go outward, in the Midwest as well Versus how much building is happening here. There's obviously so much land here. There's still a ton of demand, even though people think that no one lives here, and so the-.

23:32 - Speaker 2

That's only for all. You folks that used to live in California think that Exactly. We're just dealing about that okay.

23:38 - Speaker 4

So the classic supply demand is wildly in my favor. I have also learned that my competitors often times offer a really low level of service. I only say that because that's the feedback that I've gotten when their customers have called me to talk about partnering. The fact that I can provide a similar product with great service locally makes me super excited. The second piece of it is coming into all of this.

24:08

I had no idea how much an employee days was going to affect me. While it was a really terrible experience initially, for a lot of ways, as I've grown my own team, it's been an absolutely delightful experience, riddled with, of course, the everyday headaches that come with being an employer, but largely it's been a really amazing discovery to learn that when you own a business that makes money, you have every power in your hands to fundamentally change the lives that people work for you, and you can either choose to leverage that or you can choose not to, and that's your choice and I don't judge you either which way. But I have chosen to make that almost as important as what we do at work every day, and that has been so rewarding and I feel like I haven't even gotten started. I haven't actually done what I really want to do, and it's already been great.

25:00 - Speaker 2

There's a song out there called You've Only Just Begun. Maybe you've heard of it way back in the day.

25:05 - Speaker 4

That song is probably the story of my life.

25:07 - Speaker 2

Mid 70s song yeah.

25:09 - Speaker 4

I went now. I know my parents are great at each other, Brad.

25:13 - Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah.

25:14 - Speaker 3

Whatever so you?

25:17 - Speaker 2

know somebody wants to buy your product, look at your stuff, have an inquiry or just want to get a hold of a very young, energetic lady who has turned industry upside down? Where do people find you? How do they connect with you? What does that look like?

25:35 - Speaker 4

I don't deserve that recap, but our company.

25:39 - Speaker 3

Really.

25:40 - Speaker 2

You've earned that recap, by the way, just so you know.

25:44 - Speaker 4

Our company's website, or we're on Google, of course Brant Moulded Marble. Our company website is BrantMarblecom, so that's our business. And then I am best reached on LinkedIn. I actually do have a website for myself too. It's just tatocorkerincom, because since my name is so weird that you are all, it was only like a dollar. You can find me that way too, but I'm not LinkedIn, so All right.

26:10 - Speaker 2

Awesome Tato. Congratulations on your success. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your story. I am looking forward to having you back on the show in a year or two to hear about the next business you've acquired and gone through to impact the lives of others. So thank you so much for being here today.

26:30 - Speaker 4

Thank you All right, thank you.

26:34 - Speaker 2

Thank you for listening to Blue Collar BS Brought to you by Vision Forward Business Solutions and Professional Business Coaching Inc. If you'd like to learn more on today's topic, just reach out to Steve Doyle or myself, brad Herda. Please like, share rate and review this show, as feedback is the only way we can get better. Please keep Blue Collar businesses strong for generations to come.