0005: Everything You Need To Know About How To Properly Select The Right Carpet Or Flooring – But Didn’t Know To Ask! with Carpet/Flooring Expert & Best Selling Author Don Lovato

Intro [0:00]  

EA Interviews Episode 5. Welcome, Expert Authority Nation. I’m here and excited to bring another episode for you. And I have none other than Mr. Don Lovato, CEO of Carpet Source USA, bestselling author and he’s going to be sharing with you the things to consider before buying any carpet or flooring. So we’ll bring them up right after we thank our sponsor. 

SPONSOR – Crystal  [0:23]  

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Mario Fachini  [0:42]  

All right, Don, we’re rocking and rolling. How are you doing, my friend?

Don Lovato  [0:46]  

I’m doing pretty well. How are you doing over there in Michigan?

Mario Fachini  [0:48]  

I’m doing excellent. It’s great to have you.

Don Lovato  [0:51]  

Thanks for having me.

Mario Fachini  [0:52]  

What inspired you to start your company? Out of all the stuff you could do in the world — I mean, why didn’t you just work for a carpet store? I mean, what inspired you to start your business and say, I want to do this on my own? And in a big way?

Don Lovato  [1:06]  

Actually, it’s kind of interesting that you asked that question. I discharged from the Marine Corps back in 1990. And I was looking for something more to do. I didn’t necessarily discharge because I wanted to, but my former wife wanted me to discharge because I was deploying all the time. And of course, we were trying to raise a family. And so, that wasn’t conducive to being very helpful on my part, right? And being a good father and husband. So I decided to go and discharge and I started in sales. And I was selling door to door selling encyclopedias, believe it or not, door to door for World Book and for PF Collier. And there was also selling into the schools all over the San Diego County area. It was great business, pretty lucrative. And then all of a sudden, CD-ROM came out. Do you remember CD-ROM? When it first came out? So it really allowed business to sort of tank, if you will. And so, I called my dad and asked him for some advice. And he was in the flooring business. And he said, “Well, not a lot of business here where we live.” He lives in a really small town. “But your uncle,” he said, “has been trying to get ahold of you or your brother and try to recruit one of you guys. You guys are so similar. So why don’t you give him a call?” I said, “Well, yeah, Dad, I’m in San Diego, and he’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico.” So long story short, I called up my uncle. And he said, Yeah. My uncle is very similar to me, jumps at decisions and, jumps on decisions, and doesn’t really give it too much time to think, you know. What do they call that, analysis by paralysis or paralysis by analysis, you should say. So nonetheless, I called him and he talked me into, as any master salesman would, talk me into moving my family, you know, from San Diego, all the way over to Santa Fe, New Mexico. And I brought them over after giving it a six-week trial to see if I’d like the business. And so, I did work for him for a couple of weeks. And then, very quickly, he mentioned to me that he wasn’t getting along with the new owner. And he wanted to start his own business and he wanted me to be a partner, but I had to earn, you know, with sweat equity, I had to earn my way in. So we worked for quite a while together, and he gave me some training. And we started that business. And it took off. I mean, we were at probably ’91, I think it was maybe ’90, 1991, I think it’s December of ’91 when we started. And so, we went from zero to half a million a month in no time. Within three or four months, we were at really high volume. Of course, he had a big clientele. And he didn’t have the energy, but he had the money. I had the energy. And of course, it was his expertise. So together, we made a great business. And then, I was just really working like crazy again, and I was back in the same situation I was with the Marine Corps and my family was taking the backseat to the business because I was working seven days a week and practically 16 hours a day. So I decided to sell my share in the business and start my own business about 65 miles away from him, here in Albuquerque. And so, that’s kind of how I got in the business. I hope that answers your question. It’s kind of a long answer, but you know, I tried to condense it for you. But that’s how I got into the business, more out of desperation than it was actually coming up with a business plan or something like that. 

Mario Fachini  [3:59]  

You know, that’s a perfect answer because it’s honest. And I want to say thank you for your service. And I don’t think the military gets enough credit for, you know, in the past, present and hopefully, it changes in the future. But sincerely, thank you. 

Don Lovato  [4:12]  

Thank you.

Mario Fachini  [4:13]  

I wanted the honesty because I know people are listening to this. They’re watching it and they’re going “Oh, you know, I’m different. You don’t know my story”, this and that. And I — this is the whole reason I’m doing it is to hear the behind the scenes, you know, everyone looks around and sees — you know, if you want to share, you’re welcome to but you’ve told me some behind the scenes. And if you’re watching Don right now or listening to him, he has a very, very, very, very successful, not just one business, but multiple businesses. I’ll let you do what you want with that. But there’s a lot of people that are just, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. And I love hearing the stories of — I mean, that’s why I start the show off with that, what inspired you, because they’re all so unique. But the end result is everyone just looks at, you know, the end result going, “Wow, I could never get there.” And it’s like, “Oh, trust me, you absolutely can.” Who do you help? And how do you help them? Who is your ideal customer for you?

Don Lovato  [5:07]  

For me at Carpet Source, it’s someone that lives in the Albuquerque area, someone that’s a homeowner or someone that’s a property owner that needs some sort of floor covering because even though the business is called Carpet Source, we still do a tremendous amount of tile, hardwood, tile that looks like hardwood, and even these new luxury vinyl pipes that people are using. So that’s a big part of our business. As far as units is concerned, it’s probably 50% of our business. And regarding revenue, it’s probably about 35% of our business. So it’s a pretty big part of our business as far as the hard surface division is concerned. And then, in addition to that, someone that’s looking to prevent any sort of – what’s a good way to put it? We do dust free tile removal. And so, it’s very hazardous to remove tile from your home. And a lot of people don’t know that, your home or your business, and we do both. So the ground and the thinset below have crystalline silica in it. And it can create silicosis if you breathe it. And if you look up online on OSHA or anywhere like that, you can see that it could take one exposure, and you can develop a serious lung disease, including cancer. And it could take maybe 20. They don’t know. Everybody’s different. And so, we prevent that from happening by removing tile and encapsulating everything we do. And using specialty equipment and specialty training, of course, that we licensed for the entire state of New Mexico. So if anybody has any kind of tile that they need to remove and they want to prevent any sort of health hazards, then we can help them. So that’s for that business for carpet source USA. We also have ABQ Skincare and Acne Clinic, acne as in blemishes on the skin. So we have people that we serve all over the Albuquerque and New Mexico area, even parts of Colorado in a physical way. Parts of Arizona, parts of Texas, even part — all over the West Coast. But we also help people long distance. So if people look up ABQ Skincare and Acne Clinic in Albuquerque, the – ABQ is the acronym for Albuquerque – the coaching tab on our website. And so, we can actually, with technology like we’re using today, we can actually help treat acne from the source, not the symptom, because the acne on the skin is simply a symptom. And so, we treat the source, which is primarily inflammation through diet, lifestyle changes, and skincare and hair care products. We actually manufacture our own skincare and hair care products as well, as well as the acne products. So — 

Mario Fachini  [7:23]  

And I want to say congrats again, because you were telling me how well that’s going. And I’m happy for you because I remember before you launched it, and I know you’ve come a long way with it. So congrats again on that. So for Carpet Source, who was your biggest client success story?

Don Lovato  [7:41]  

Wow, we’ve — I’ve been at it now 20, 27 years. And so, we have quite a few of them. I don’t mean to say that like I’m trying to break my elbow up by patting myself on the back. But that’s a good question. I would say — okay, let me tell you a story about someone that we had here recently. So this — it comes to mind because it is so recent. We had a client who needed a shop-at-home service, which is exactly what we provide, we actually have specially outfitted vans with all of our samples on the inside. And these samples are very — they’re really well thought out and well planned out. Meaning, we take the top categories of product that we sell in this region and the top styles and colors and we put those samples in vans. So that’s our showroom on wheels. Because a lot of times, you’ll find that a showroom has — if you run the numbers behind the scenes, you’ll find that about 80 to 90% of products never sell. So we focus it down to the products that sell and they sell well. And we negotiate pricing on those products to be able to help the end user save a ton of money and eliminate the showroom by — we pass the elimination of the showroom savings that over it, we pass it on to the end user as well. Okay, that said, we had somebody that had a child who had — who was handicapped, and it was very difficult for them to get him anywhere. He’s about 14 years old. And he can’t help himself in any way. They have to feed him. He’s on a — he’s on oxygen, he’s got a lot of health challenges. Really, really nice boy. But he’s just got a lot of health challenges. And so, it’s very difficult for them to get outside the house. And sometimes, when there’s weather like there is here in New Mexico, up in the high desert where we’re at. In Albuquerque, it’s about 6500 degrees, 6500 elevation, you know, we get some weather here sometimes, like we just had this week. And so, they needed somebody, especially in times like that, to bring samples out to the house, help them and measure it and do everything. So this was a tremendous situation, because they had tried going to one of the box stores, a couple of them. And it just didn’t work out. People were not waiting on them, they would ask Mike and Plumbing to help them in flooring and that kind of thing. And they just weren’t getting the help they needed. So they looked up reputable floor and carpeting companies in town. And we have about 800 five-star reviews. We’re really proud of them. We’ve earned every single one of them, believe me. They said, this must be the business that we need to contact and see if they’ll bring the samples out. Well, once they clicked on the link and went to the website, they found out that’s the only way we do it. We bring the samples out to the house, we measure, we do a free consultation. There isn’t any obligation. We use Bluetooth. And we use to –. an architectural-type drawing program. So we take the entire — the measurements of the interior of the home and we put them into our CAD program – it’s basically a CAD program – put them in there. So we have the measurements for everything for that project that we’re working on and any future phases. So that way, we don’t have to come back and measure again. Then we go out to the van, grab the samples that fit the category of the product they’re looking for, and the budget they’re looking for, and the durability and color and that sort of thing. We brought them in and help them make those selections. Entire process took maybe 60 minutes. And then, the following 30 minutes, we were able to calculate it on the spot. And on the spot, print out a quote for them right then and there, we were able to check stock right then, right there, order it from the homeowner’s home. With the internet now, we can do all those kinds of things. And we were able to schedule it, pre-schedule it for two weeks out, which is right before the deadline when they needed it for some big, big party they were having. So that was a really big success story for them, you know. We were able to help facilitate that. So that really was warm — it was really heartwarming for us because you know, they had a big challenge. They didn’t know that we existed, they didn’t know that our service existed. And so, it was just good for them. So they saved money, they saved time, saved hassle. Didn’t have to drag them all over town, and didn’t have to get treated like a second-class citizen. And they got exactly what they want at the time frame they wanted and at the price they wanted. So to me, that was really a success story.

Mario Fachini  [11:40]  

Well, I appreciate you for sharing that specific story. And you guys, can you hear down here? This is why I had him on, because I know he could give 99 other success stories and most, people probably not on my show, but when you ask most people, what’s their biggest success story? They’re going to go straight to the profit, straight to this, straight to the revenue. And Don could, but he chose not to. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that. And Don, I appreciate you sincerely, like I’ve always said. Because you go, “Man, what — which one do I want to choose?” And you chose the one because you always have had the heart to help people. And I’m glad they found you. 

Don Lovato  [12:17]

Thank you. 

Mario Fachini  [12:18]

And you know, because not everyone would do that. They could say, “oh, here’s someone I can make a buck off of.” And I believe capitalism. You should make money for the service and add value and all of that. But you can still have a heart to do it as well. So thanks for that. 

Don Lovato  [12:28]  

Sure. Thank you. And to me, it’s not a success unless our supplier wins, our installers win, our entire team wins, and we make a small profit. As long as that happens to me, that’s a success. But the most important thing is, because we’re customer centric, is that the customer wins. We don’t always make a profit in every single job because sometimes, things go wrong and we estimated incorrectly. But as long as the client and customer wins, we’re okay.

Mario Fachini  [12:53]  

And I’ve told my clients and audiences that for years, you know, customer centric, client centric, it’s about them. It’s about serving them. And I agree with you 100%. If you’re always doing the right thing, at the very least, you sleep well at night. You can always make the money back. Right? 

Don Lovato  [13:09]  

Right. 

Mario Fachini  [13:09]  

Let’s jump into your book. How has your book Consumer Awareness Guide? How has that helped you and grow your business?

Don Lovato  [13:17]  

It’s been very helpful. In fact, you help me get it to number one on Amazon so thanks for that. I think I’ve thanked you 100 times already but now, there’s 101. But it’s been helpful because people find it an interesting guide, it’s a good way to get their information, their contact information and follow up with them. But it’s also more importantly, the guide for them to help them with color, style, the appropriate product. We call it application: applying the right product to the right situation. So it’s really helpful for them with that. It gives them — it answers questions that they probably hadn’t thought about asking before. And so, it positions us as the authority. So that’s helpful for us. But in addition to that, it also encourages them to watch, to go to our website and look on our frequently asked questions videos, as well as our should ask question videos. And again, it answers them there in multimedia, because sometimes people need to read some things, sometimes, they need to see it and hear it. And everybody learns in different ways. Personally, I learned through video and in a little bit — my second modality would be audio. But you know, some of these folks that want to watch the video and sees what I’m demonstrating on videos, they can do that. And again, it’s very helpful for them. It creates bonding, which is nice, because you have that rapport. And then, by the time we get out there, in most cases, people are just asking, “Listen, we already know we’re going to do business with you. We did what you said. We Google all the company names that we’re considering. With the right keyword and the word reviews at the very end. We looked at their reviews, we looked at your reviews, and you’re clearly the company we’re going to go with. So that said, what’s it going to cost?” And that’s before we even measure or take out samples. So you know, it kind of does, it does the selling for you, it’s your — people are pre-sold, pre-sifted, pre-sorted, pre-selected and predisposed to do business with you if you do it that way. So — and you know, thankfully, you were able to help get that book to the — up on, you know, number one on Amazon with — in the charts like that, because that has also added authority and credibility. So what we’ve done with the content and what we’ve done with reviews is one thing, but without having the authority, it’d be, you know, it’d be more diluted, it wouldn’t have been as potent as it was. So thank you for that.

Mario Fachini  [15:21]  

You’re welcome. But it was all you, brother. It was all you. All I did is help you showcase that. And, you know, like I said, that’s one of the things, when you’re legit, like you and you have a heart and you have a very successful business, it’s just a matter of how you showcase it. But the reality is, even with your story, that people — you were you were saying you have 800 plus reviews and us teasing you saying, “Is that it?” But when people come out to find you, you are the best. As far as I’m concerned, you are the best.

Don Lovato  [15:49]

But if someone else to showcase different, are you going to appear that way, even though you are. So that’s why I love doing what I do, because it’s really easy to keep the other people where they should be but you know, only work with the best of the best. So —

Don Lovato  [16:02]  

You know, you mentioned 800 reviews. And I didn’t mention the other half of that. Now, when you go on Amazon and you see something that has 1200, 8000 — sorry, 1200, 2000, 8000 reviews online, that’s one thing, right? But that’s Amazon, that’s different. And that’s like a product that you can box. These are like mini re-model jobs that we have to do, number one. So, it’s much harder to earn that because you’re going in and interrupting people’s spaces, their own personal spaces, number one. Two, we don’t do as many transactions as somebody that sells a widget on Amazon. Okay? Then in addition to that, our nearest competitor maybe has 85 to 90 reviews online. And that’s the nearest. So we’re 10x in the number of quantity of reviews and quality reviews that they have. And the people that are in third position, maybe have 30 reviews here in Albuquerque in the same type of industry. So it’s a lot of work to get — to do what we do, but we enjoy it. I’m one of those people that unless I’m going to enjoy it, I’m not going to do it. So thankfully, I enjoy it. And thankfully, they like our service, so we’re able to earn those reviews.

Mario Fachini  [17:07]  

Same as me. Absolutely love what I do. And I thought I had a lot with 100 plus on video, but I’m going to have to follow your lead and just keep at it here. So we’re going to go to the sponsor real quick, come back, and we’ll do the Imperfect Action Round, we’re going to rapid fire 60-second answers on how you can grow your business today. 

SPONSOR – Crystal  [17:27]  

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Mario Fachini  [18:24]  

Alright. Imperfect Action Round, like I said. So 60-second responses and we got three rapid fire questions. And this is — like I teach my clients and audiences, take imperfect action daily. First one, what’s the fastest path to the cash? If someone’s looking to start their own carpet business, what’s the fastest path to the cash for them you would say? 

Don Lovato  [18:47]  

Well, that’s an interesting question because there are only so many accounts that the manufacturers, the reputable manufacturers want opened. So, if you — this sounds very self-serving, and it’s not. The fastest path to success in cash would be to probably get ahold of me, I’ll put you in touch with the people that can give you a catapult to the right people to open an account very quickly, whether you have a store, or you don’t have a store because the requirement is that you have physical overhead and a physical warehouse and that sort of thing. So give me a call or actually better yet, just email me. I’m sure Mario, in the notes, will provide my email address or at least my website, and I’ll put you in touch with the right people that can get you started very quickly and with really, really good pricing. I don’t get anything out of it other than the satisfaction that you’ve positioned yourself for success pretty quickly. 

Mario Fachini  [19:34]  

Very good. So always have a coach or a mentor that can show you the inside. 

Don Lovato  [19:38]  

There you go. Thanks for summarizing that. 

Mario Fachini  [19:40]  

So, the next one, rapid fire, 60-second. What’s the biggest problem you see in your audience? So when someone is starting a carpet store, what’s the biggest problem you see repeatedly? 

Don Lovato  [19:57]  

One of the big ones I would say would be that they are not customer centric would be a big one. Not customer centric and all about the profit. So I think you need to have passion and you want to have to want to make a profit, but you also have to be passionate about making sure the customer wins, like I mentioned earlier, making sure you do a good job. Because in almost any town or any neighborhood that you’re in, even if you’re in a big city, let’s say that you’re in, in New York. While people do business within their neighborhood, when it comes to floor coverings, they don’t really call somebody three neighborhoods away to come in, you know, and drive an hour through heavy traffic, hour-and-a-half through heavy traffic and bring their flooring out and install it in your home. So what that means is word spreads very quickly. So unfortunately, with what we do, you’re only as good as your last complaint or your last poor review. So be customer centric. Yeah, make sure that you care about the customer, you know, because the biggest problem they have is that they just don’t care about the customer. They’re all about the money, and all about the prestige. And flooring isn’t sexy, but at the end of the day, you can make a great living and do good providing good service for people. 

Mario Fachini  [21:32]  

All right, excellent. And last question, how would you say is the best way to increase the customer lifetime value? 

Don Lovato  [21:41]  

Oh, well, that goes back to the same thing, provide great service and keep following up. We call people all the time. And what we say is we cause trouble. And what I mean by that is there isn’t another company here in town that I know of, or anyone in the country that I know of in my industry that will actually call the client and say hey, listen, your carpet — if, for example, if they bought carpet — needs to be — because we tell them all this up front, but they just don’t remember. Who can? There’s a lot of information and who reads all the brochures and the warranty paperwork and all that fine print. So we call them right about the time they need to have it cleaned and we either make a recommendation or help — tell them to call whomever they want, but make sure to get it maintained properly. Because if not, they could avoid their warranty. And here’s the part where I’m talking about create — cause trouble is we say, “Are you having any problems with the carpet, does it need stretching, does it need any repairs, do you need anything? There’s no cost at this point. So if there is any problems, let us know we’ll come out take care of them right away before the installation warranty is up.” And so, often when I mentioned that to my friendly competitors, they say, “Man, you’re a troublemaker, you’re causing trouble for yourself, you shouldn’t do that”, blah, blah, blah. But for us, that’s how we create clients for life. And it increases the client value exponentially compared to what it would be if we just wanted to hide under a rock and cross our fingers and hopefully, they don’t call, you know, or they call after the warranty is over or something like that. And from time to time, we get people that call after the warranty for installation is over, but we still go out and take care of it. You know, and sometimes, it’s very clear. I had one recently where they — we told them on the hardwood floor, they did a hardwood floor throughout the whole house, it’s very, very high end house. And I told them to use one of those rolling chair mats underneath their office desk, where they have their office desk and they didn’t, it was very obvious. They didn’t mean it wore the floor out. I mean, it wore, it splintered it. And she said, “Oh yeah, it’s been that way since the day you guys installed it. But I didn’t call, I haven’t had time.” And it was like five years later ripped out maybe 20 square feet, because she had some wood leftover. And we went in, put it in at no cost to her. And of course, she referred us to her mom — turned out, spent $50,000 on hardwood for us. So it cost me a couple hundred to go do the repair. And, you know, bruise my ego a little bit because of what she said. And I just kind of, you know, I just roll with it. But again, $49,000 or $50,000 later, it was fine. You know, we did a good job for her mom and everybody was happy. So —

Mario Fachini  [23:59]  

You got me thinking because I used to have the floor at, and the floor mat were cracked and the chair wouldn’t roll on it and I cannot confirm or deny if the carpet under this chair is in great condition or not, but I never thought about the flooring under it. 

Don Lovato  [24:14]  

Yeah, it could ruin it. 

Mario Fachini  [24:16]  

I appreciate that. So this was beneficial to me. Alright, last thing, where can they find you?

Don Lovato  [24:19]  

CarpetSourceUSA.com. That’s our website. So, check us out there, check out our products. The products that are available to us are available to anybody nationwide. So if you want to come out and check out our website, you can. And then, you can actually — because we can’t ship it to you. It’s not cost-effective to ship these giant heavy things that we have. And we can’t come out and install it if you’re in Michigan or New York or you know, Florida or something like that. So we only work in our local area but you can use our website as a valuable resource, for sure. 

Mario Fachini  [24:52]  

Excellent. Thank you very much, Don. It’s been a pressure having you.

Don Lavoto  [24:56]

Likewise, thanks so much. We’ll talk to you later. 

Mario Fachini  [24:57]

All right. Take care. God bless everyone.  We’ll see you on the next episode. 

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SPONSOR – Crystal  [26:16]  

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