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  1. #11
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: The Journey of a Car Detailer: Trevor Spedden

    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    If you’re like me, your passion for all things automotive started at an early age. Long before getting a driver’s license or owning my first vehicle, I was intrigued by every aspect of cars. Whenever I thought about purchasing a new car, I spent numerous hours looking at everything from the car’s interior and exterior styling to its engine and drivetrain specifications. Since discovering Autogeek, I now consider the color of the paint when shopping for a car. After owning a black Jeep Grand Cherokee for ten years I will most likely never buy a black SUV ever again.

    Ha ha... me too.

    After owning a black Honda Pilot I'll never own another black daily driver again. I could see owning a black special interest vehicle but not a daily driver.



    Becoming a Professional Car Detailer

    When I first discovered Autogeek it was purely to learn more about car detailing and how-to remove paint scratches. After spending a year or two practicing car detailing techniques on my personal car and those of friends and family, it was time to officially start a business. In 2009 I started Critical Details and have been operating my small business part-time for the past seven years. Two of the biggest advancements in car care that have happened in my time as a car detailer would have to be long-throw polishers and paint coatings. This past year I set a new record for the number of paint coating applications and attribute a lot of this success to the growing popularity of car detailing forums such as Autogeek.

    [/quote]

    Congratulations on your success and key to your success is the human characteristic of tenacity, that is the ability to stick to it or stay with it. To give it your all.


    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    It’s very hard to convince someone to pay hundreds of dollars for a paint coating application when the general perception of car detailing is that it should cost a few hundred dollars. Regardless of how good of a sales person you are it’s always tough sell to convince someone to pay two or three times what they expected to initially pay. Sticker shock can be hard to overcome but one of the best ways to educate clients is to have a high-quality detailing portfolio.

    Having a strong Instagram and YouTube presence can do wonders for anyone looking to generate high-end car detailing.

    I 100% agree. In my 3-day Competition Ready detailing classes I teach my students how to command high dollars for your detailing work and in a nutshell it starts FIRST with education yourself, (going to my class does that plus reading, reading and reading and watching videos), and then SECOND you educate your customers. It's via education you can get someone else to see the value in going with you at a higher price than going with a competitor at a lower prices.


    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    Thorough documentation of the detailing process helps establish trust with potential clients and justifies the cost of labor involved. We all know how scary it is whenever we have to take our car into the dealership for service or hand the key over to a valet driver.

    Again I 100% agree. Fully and thoroughly documenting some of your work showing, before, during and after results demonstrates with pictures that you know what you're doing.
    (a picture tells a thousand words)



    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    When I started Critical Details I was still in college and it was important to me to grow my business organically. There was no money for paid advertising on Google or premium business listings on one of the many directory sites. At the start, I was using an Iphone5 for Instagram pictures and an 8MP Sony camera to film YouTube videos. Now I am currently using an Iphone 6+ and a GoPro Hero3 Black for media creation. The biggest step that I took to improving the quality of my YouTube videos was a mechanical camera stabilizer and eventually and electric camera stabilizer. Being able to walk around the car without having the camera having it look like Bigfoot is stomping around really helps improve production quality.

    I think it's Cale Yarborough that made the below quote popular,

    Run what you brung


    My version that I've used all my life is

    Use what I have


    For example, when I wrote the article on how to restore antique single stage paint I didn't want to use the ugly 1973 Lincoln Continental you see in the pictures, but - it's what I had at the time.

    I used what I had in front of me and made it work.




    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    The Best Car Care Community

    Without the generosity of Autogeek and its forum members, I doubt that I would be detailing cars at the level I am today. I have participated in many car detailing forums over the years but have always considered Autogeek home. Some of the main reasons that I prefer Autogeek is how accepting the forum is of new members, there is no cost to advertise, and it’s well moderated.

    Thank you for sharing the above and I agree 100%



    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    There is nothing more disheartening than joining a new forum and seeing that hundreds of people have viewed your post but no one has replied. Whether you’re seeking car care advice from senior forum members or sharing a detailing write-up it’s always nice to know you’re not getting the cold shoulder.

    I agree too. It takes a lot of time to create a detailed, thorough write-up. I wish more members would chime in on everyone's write-ups and even I need to work harder at it.



    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    Even the most basic of car detailing questions are happily answered on Autogeek while other forums might offer the less helpful response of ‘there’s already a post for that’.

    Yet again... I 100% agree. Too many people on other forums would say, use the search button instead of either answering the questions or finding the relevant thread and sharing it with the person asking for help. AGO is not like that at all, in fact my experience is we're 100% the opposite. This forum is helpful and friendly and that makes it nice for new people that may have never been on a forum before.


    Birds of a feather flock together

    For the most part, our forum attracts high caliber people. The few bad apples or birds that do join up either find the door on their own or with a little help and then they find the right birds to hang out with.




    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post


    It’s nice to see that forum members not only care about their own cars but want to make sure that other members aren’t accidentally breaking the detailing commandments on their own cars as well.
    Agree.



    Quote Originally Posted by CriticalDetails View Post

    The fact that Autogeek allows detailers to freely post their write-ups is greatly appreciated. Some sites will let members join for free but they can’t post articles under their business name or they have to pay a subscription fee to gain access to post in certain categories. In addition to having no barriers to entry, Autogeek does a great job of keeping the general forum tone to that of one that is happy and helpful.

    Thank you for creating and continue to grow what I consider to be the greatest car care forum around!

    Thank you for being a part of this forum and making it what it is.



  2. #12
    Super Member Rod73's Avatar
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    Re: The Journey of a Car Detailer: Trevor Spedden

    I really enjoyed reading this post.

  3. #13
    Super Member C5Longhorn's Avatar
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    Re: The Journey of a Car Detailer: Trevor Spedden

    I enjoyed it also. As a consumer, getting ready to put on his first coating, I've been reading a lot of threads.

    You said detailing was part time, what else do you do?

    Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

  4. #14
    Super Member CriticalDetails's Avatar
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    Re: The Journey of a Car Detailer: Trevor Spedden

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Phillips View Post

    Birds of a feather flock together

    For the most part, our forum attracts high caliber people. The few bad apples or birds that do join up either find the door on their own or with a little help and then they find the right birds to hang out with.

    Thank you for being a part of this forum and making it what it is.

    It’s an honor to be a member of Autogeek. I’d love to make it down to Florida for Autogeek Detailing Fest one year and meet everyone in person.

    I like the part about you using a 1973 Lincoln Continental for your demonstration to restore single stage paint. When detailing a heavily soiled Toyota Prius I thought it might be too dirty to film a video on. Three years later and almost a million views I am quite glad that I filmed a how to clean upholstery video on the Prius. Sometimes the cars that are the roughest around the edges get the biggest and best responses.


    Quote Originally Posted by Rod73 View Post
    I really enjoyed reading this post.
    I am happy to hear that my post was well received.


    Quote Originally Posted by C5Longhorn View Post
    I enjoyed it also. As a consumer, getting ready to put on his first coating, I've been reading a lot of threads.

    You said detailing was part time, what else do you do?

    Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
    Applying your first paint coating can be nerve racking. I’ve been using the Lake Country coating applicators to apply Pinnacle Black Diamond and really like the ease of use. The coating applicator doesn’t absorb as much product as traditional wax/sealant applicators. While five dollars per applicator seems expensive it can end up saving countless time and product during the detail.

    I am a Search Engine Optimization Analyst and I work on car dealership websites. Mainly I create content and pages on the sites to help them rank higher organically. Knowing how to optimize a website and perform keyword research to find higher searched phrases has been helpful for expanding my number of clients. One of the biggest things that I learned was more people search for the phrase 'car detailing' than they do 'auto detailing'.
    Critical Details
    Trevor Spedden

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