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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:31] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:37] SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm Mario Toniguzi, managing editor of Canada's podcast.
[00:41] SPEAKER_02: Joining me today on Calgary's podcast is Chris Schellenberger, who is CEO of Perr.ca.
[00:48] SPEAKER_02: Thanks Chris for joining us today.
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for having me Mario. It's a pleasure.
[00:53] SPEAKER_02: Well, let's start by just maybe you could explain a little bit about what Perr.ca is and what
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: you guys do. Okay. Perr.ca is the first ever online app that allows private sellers to list their
[01:09] SPEAKER_01: vehicles for sale through local dealerships. And the goal is to help sellers get a full price for
[01:15] SPEAKER_01: their vehicle, opposed to a lower-treatment price, which most people are used to.
[01:21] SPEAKER_02: Tell me a little bit about the history behind it. How did this start?
[01:26] SPEAKER_02: Okay. And why did it start?
[01:28] SPEAKER_01: Sure. I'll try to make it short. So I've been in the car business almost 20 years now.
[01:35] SPEAKER_01: I've quit the car business three separate times.
[01:38] SPEAKER_01: Mainly because of the industry, I felt it was cutthroat, but it kept bringing me back.
[01:43] SPEAKER_01: I worked my way from a salesman to a sales manager to director of pre-owned operations for
[01:48] SPEAKER_01: a four-store dealer group. And I realized when customers came in, when we gave them trade numbers,
[01:54] SPEAKER_01: they were never good enough for what the clients wanted. Everyone know that dealers buy low and then
[01:58] SPEAKER_01: sell high. Yeah. So I tried to come up with a way where we could help get people more money for
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: their vehicles. And the only way to do that was to retail the vehicle to the public for them.
[02:11] SPEAKER_01: So I started a business. I had a pop-up tent behind a car wash. And I would just tell people I
[02:17] SPEAKER_01: want to help sell your car when they came by. And then I ended up getting one vehicle on the lot,
[02:22] SPEAKER_01: two vehicles, and then I grew it into about 100 vehicles on my lot and I'd sell 30 of those
[02:26] SPEAKER_01: every month, just helping people get a fair price for their vehicle on a small town of Red
[02:31] SPEAKER_01: D'Aroberta. And then after that, I wanted to scale across the country. And I wanted to help more
[02:37] SPEAKER_01: people get more money for their vehicles. So what we did is we create a platform that allows
[02:43] SPEAKER_01: local dealerships to just implement this turnkey solution so they can help sellers in their area
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: sell their vehicles for a full price. And then in turn, it helps the dealers get inventory that
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: they don't have to pay for. So it's a win-win for both parties. Okay. Tell me a little bit about the name,
[02:59] SPEAKER_01: how that come about. So it was actually called reverse dealers, reverse dealer before. So to be the
[03:06] SPEAKER_01: exact opposite to help sellers get as much money for their vehicle as they can. And then we actually
[03:13] SPEAKER_01: approached a marketing company and then that we went through a name change, reverse dealer was
[03:18] SPEAKER_01: little too long. So we ended up going with Per, which is a well oil machine. When an engine
[03:23] SPEAKER_01: purrs, it's a well oil machine, it just works. And then we kind of played on the cat sound of
[03:29] SPEAKER_01: Per. And then that's how one of our, it's not a logo, our logo is Per, P-U-R-R, but then we have
[03:35] SPEAKER_01: like a sub logo that's like a cat that kind of you play throughout our advertisement that you'll see
[03:40] SPEAKER_02: a bunch of different animations. So when starting this up, what was the biggest challenge you faced
[03:48] SPEAKER_02: in starting up this new enterprise? So it was big. I think the biggest challenge, we've had a couple
[03:59] SPEAKER_01: of the two biggest, there's two sizes, the sellers and then there's the dealers. So I'll focus on
[04:04] SPEAKER_01: first the sellers. The sellers don't believe it's true. They don't believe like, oh, you're just
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: another deal that's going to help, you're really going to get me more money. At first they don't
[04:13] SPEAKER_01: believe it, but then they're like, they're hesitant and they try it and after they try it, they're so
[04:18] SPEAKER_01: happy they did and then they go and tell everyone about it because it like it actually is real.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: So getting people to trust, especially private sellers or sellers to trust. When in an industry that
[04:33] SPEAKER_01: is not filled with trust, we have to overcome that by being this new, because every dealership
[04:38] SPEAKER_01: will say, oh, we're smiles, it's all good, but like, there's no real trust there. So we're trying to
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: build a company with full transparency where we know what the buyer made, what the seller made,
[04:51] SPEAKER_01: and what the dealer made. We know how it all worked. And then the other part on the dealer side
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: is just getting the dealerships to a lot of dealers like to own their own inventory.
[05:04] SPEAKER_01: But so moving to more of a consignment model, it's educating the dealers that they can actually make
[05:09] SPEAKER_01: more money and have less cost. That sounds too good to be true to them as well. So we're proving
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: through a few dealers now that they can have maximum success and turning vehicles, helping sellers,
[05:24] SPEAKER_01: getting more customers and help retaining more customers.
[05:29] SPEAKER_02: So this is available throughout Canada.
[05:33] SPEAKER_01: Right now we're in Ontario and Alberta only at the moment.
[05:37] SPEAKER_01: Okay, your plan to expand?
[05:39] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely. Ontario, the United States, our next city we're planning on opening up
[05:44] SPEAKER_01: is Chicago. Oh, cool. Why there?
[05:48] SPEAKER_01: Well, we have a couple of advisors on our team and there's a couple different cities we could
[05:53] SPEAKER_01: affect and we just ended up landing on Chicago. There's no like specific hard reason for that,
[05:58] SPEAKER_01: but we feel it's a pretty good population and just fits our demographic pretty well.
[06:05] SPEAKER_02: So Chris, tell me from the beginning, I guess, what got you into this car business?
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: It was a weird story. So I was actually a chicken farmer. I was born on a chicken farm of 100,000
[06:19] SPEAKER_01: chickens, grew up to 20 years old. Then I moved out west to Alberta to follow the oil field money
[06:25] SPEAKER_01: and I was in the oil making lots of money, bought my first house and I was 21. But then I realized
[06:31] SPEAKER_01: I wanted to live in my house in the oil field. You're always working. So I was pipelining just very
[06:37] SPEAKER_01: busy. And then after that, I or during the oil field, I read a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by
[06:44] SPEAKER_01: Robert Kiyosaki and it says, if you want to own your own business, which I've always wanted,
[06:49] SPEAKER_01: you have to learn sales and then you have to learn accounting. So I quit the oil field and I
[06:55] SPEAKER_01: volunteered. I think I'm the first person I ever to volunteer at a car dealership. So I just
[06:59] SPEAKER_01: said, all I want to do is just shadow your pop sales people. I just want to learn how to sell.
[07:03] SPEAKER_01: And I remember the two managers like look at each other request, volunteer. So and then there's
[07:09] SPEAKER_01: a yes, sure, go ahead follow. And then so I followed for the first month and the next month,
[07:13] SPEAKER_01: I was the salesperson of the month. And then the month after that, everyone turned on me.
[07:18] SPEAKER_01: Is that within the dealership because I was so aggressive that I take in the leads. And then
[07:24] SPEAKER_01: yeah, it just ended up and then oddly, I stopped selling cars and then I went and sold vacuums
[07:31] SPEAKER_01: door to door. So I did door to door vacuum sales climb up the ladder there and then opened up
[07:37] SPEAKER_01: my own dish office. And then we just started selling vacuums across Ontario. And then our factory
[07:43] SPEAKER_01: got bought out and it up almost going bankrupt. So I had to go sell cars again. And then it's been
[07:49] SPEAKER_02: that back and forth. My whole life. So what was the appeal for you to own your own business and be
[07:57] SPEAKER_01: an entrepreneur? My grandpa is he's a serial entrepreneur inventor. And I think it's just in my
[08:06] SPEAKER_01: blood. I don't know if there's any specific thing like I've always been just like
[08:11] SPEAKER_01: just selling things. Just always trying to flip things make money. And I don't know,
[08:17] SPEAKER_01: I just it's just in me. I don't think there's a specific thing I can think of that made me want
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: to be because it's just like in me for some reason. I don't know if I have a good answer for that.
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[09:07] SPEAKER_02: You know, when you look at the area of selling, what's the key? What's the key to
[09:15] SPEAKER_01: the key in a successful salesperson? I think there's a couple things you have to believe in what
[09:24] SPEAKER_01: you're selling. I think that's it's very important to believe it. Another piece is being relatable.
[09:31] SPEAKER_01: I think it's very important to relate to the people you're talking to. But the number one thing is
[09:37] SPEAKER_01: being inquisitive. Asking questions to learn and be a detective uncover the problems by asking
[09:45] SPEAKER_01: questions because if you just try to sell what you have, like if I try to sell per and just say,
[09:51] SPEAKER_01: this is what we do. We're going to get you the people like, yeah, whatever we've heard that.
[09:55] SPEAKER_01: But if you say, like, so if you're going to sell your vehicle right now,
[10:00] SPEAKER_01: what options do you have? They'd be like, well, I'm going to go sell privately or I'm going to sell
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: to a dealer, but I don't want to sell to a dealer. Why don't you want to sell to a dealer? Well,
[10:10] SPEAKER_01: because I know they're going to give me a low price. And then if they say, well, I'm going to sell
[10:14] SPEAKER_01: privately, well, do you know how to sell private? Do you have access to banks? And just by asking
[10:19] SPEAKER_01: these questions, no, well, and then like, do you know of any other solutions? And then just uncover
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: all the problems and then offer your solution pending that your solution is a solution to the
[10:31] SPEAKER_01: problems that you've uncovered. And I think that's simple key. So let's talk chicken farm.
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: So where was this? It was in Cambridge, Ontario, just outside of Cambridge, Ontario. Yeah.
[10:46] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. And yeah. And I was like family farm or? It was a corporate farm. So it was a big,
[10:53] SPEAKER_01: we lived on 100 acres. We had 14 chicken barns, 100,000 chickens. Workers would come to our house
[11:00] SPEAKER_01: every day. And they would help work on the farm, cutting the grass with the chickens and stuff.
[11:08] SPEAKER_01: But when I was 12, I was put to work collecting eggs, moving chickens to market, emptying out the
[11:18] SPEAKER_01: barn, spraying them down, disinfecting like all the filthy, good jobs that come with it.
[11:25] SPEAKER_02: Okay. I have some experience with that, but how did you deal with that smell?
[11:31] SPEAKER_01: You get used to it. And believe it or not, chickens aren't the very bad smell that you smell when
[11:37] SPEAKER_01: you go out into the country. And unless it's being, the manure is being spread onto the fields,
[11:42] SPEAKER_01: that is terrible. But we, we, we stored it, but we didn't spread it all over the place. So the
[11:48] SPEAKER_02: smells weren't too bad. And you get a little mask. And what did you learn? What did you learn from
[11:56] SPEAKER_02: working on the chicken farm that, that did you well for, for the rest of your life and your career?
[12:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would say the number one thing I learned is work ethic. Just work, work, like when there is a job
[12:12] SPEAKER_02: to do, but in the work. Yeah. And when you look at the entrepreneurship side of things right now,
[12:25] SPEAKER_02: let's look at a couple of different ways. First of all, the positives. What's a positive for you?
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: What do you like about being an entrepreneur? I like the challenge of like I at my home, my model,
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: my Instagram is stay uncomfortable with the number one. And it's all about staying uncomfortable
[12:46] SPEAKER_01: and learning. So going through that the painful areas that most people won't to create a solution
[12:54] SPEAKER_01: for others, like it's very painful for us to work the way we are right now. We're not
[13:01] SPEAKER_01: making a killing off every deal. All we're trying to do is help sellers. We're trying to give first.
[13:08] SPEAKER_01: And we have a long-term play and it's all about to me the challenge. That's what I enjoy. The
[13:16] SPEAKER_01: working hard at something, even though it's very difficult. Yeah, but it does allow hopefully
[13:23] SPEAKER_01: freedom in the future, potentially. So I'm not looking to retire or anything, but I do
[13:31] SPEAKER_01: just having the freedom so not trapped. Even though right now I'm trapped for time because I'm
[13:37] SPEAKER_02: working, working, working to try to be up for later. So on the flip side of things, what's kind of
[13:43] SPEAKER_02: the negatives of being an entrepreneur? What do you like about it? There's a lot of stress.
[13:51] SPEAKER_01: There's some good moments, but there's never long lasting. There's always problems to solve
[13:57] SPEAKER_01: and they can pile up and they can be very stressful. And I think that's the most difficult.
[14:04] SPEAKER_01: And then time away from family. I have three kids. There's a lot of time. Right now I'm in
[14:11] SPEAKER_01: Ontario. My whole family is back in Alberta. It's just very time consuming, but then there are
[14:20] SPEAKER_01: times where if I had a regular 9 to 5, I might not be able to make certain things as well. So it's
[14:25] SPEAKER_02: yeah, challenging. So, you know, obviously, you know, we all know that it's a 24 or 7 job
[14:34] SPEAKER_02: basically being an entrepreneur. What do you do when you do have spare time? What do you do to relax
[14:41] SPEAKER_01: and enjoy yourself? De-stress? So it's been getting busier and busier. So those are
[14:49] SPEAKER_01: it's becoming a little bit less, but I do practice Jiu-Jitsu. So whenever I even though the last
[14:58] SPEAKER_01: couple months, I have not been able to. So I'm a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
[15:04] SPEAKER_01: And that is like my number one de-stressor, like the brotherhood of the people and then the
[15:10] SPEAKER_01: challenge of getting your butt kicked every single day on the mats. But it's physically
[15:19] SPEAKER_01: you release a lot of stress there too. So that's one of the things I really love to do.
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: Two of my kids started soccer this year. So watching them play soccer is very relaxing for me.
[15:33] SPEAKER_01: You can just hang it out with the wife and kids at home. Yeah. Do you think that's one of the
[15:40] SPEAKER_02: biggest challenges for being an entrepreneur is finding that balance where it's not work
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: like all the time? It has to be. Yeah. I can't speak for other people, but I don't know how you
[15:54] SPEAKER_01: could possibly be so immersed into something that's so difficult and not struggle with the balance.
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: So it feels like I have my family and at home and then I have the business which is and feels like
[16:08] SPEAKER_01: another family member. So it's like you got to balance them and then they help each other.
[16:14] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. And yeah. So it has to be difficult for other entrepreneurs. And if there is a solution
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: out there to make it all succeed with having little less time, then please let me know.
[16:25] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. I guess you know, in many ways you talk about her and being well running and a smooth
[16:33] SPEAKER_02: machine type thing. Yeah. The case too when it comes to being an entrepreneur is finding that
[16:40] SPEAKER_02: balance so that you are because we're doing work all the time and nonstop. That leads to so many
[16:50] SPEAKER_02: issues like burnout and you name it, right? For sure. So it becomes more important that way.
[16:57] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely. Yeah. So as you developed on your entrepreneurial journey,
[17:04] SPEAKER_02: where did you find, I guess, information or inspiration to be an entrepreneur?
[17:15] SPEAKER_01: I've always, like, years ago I studied a lot of like,
[17:23] SPEAKER_01: I call motivational people, sales people, like old sales people like Zig Zigler, Brian Tracy,
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: those types of people at Jim Rohn, the older crew, and then the newer, like, in that 20 Robins.
[17:38] SPEAKER_01: Those kinds of things read a lot of books. That's where I got a lot of my inspiration. And now you
[17:44] SPEAKER_01: can find a lot of like collaborations of these on YouTube. You can watch videos, inspirational stuff.
[17:50] SPEAKER_01: But the thing that actually makes me, like, I feel I'm trying to get to a point where I don't
[17:57] SPEAKER_01: need that stuff. And I don't know if I do at this point, but it's just do what I know I need to do
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: and not focus on whether it's right now makes me feel happy whether I feel like doing it or not.
[18:11] SPEAKER_01: That doesn't matter. It's just like if this is what I've been working towards, then just go out and
[18:16] SPEAKER_01: do it, whether you feel like it or not. And that's that model of the stay uncomfortable that
[18:21] SPEAKER_02: I've been practicing. All right. Excellent. Well, thanks Chris for joining us today.
[18:27] SPEAKER_02: For sure. Well, thank you very much. Mario's a pleasure. All right. That was Chris
[18:31] SPEAKER_02: Schellenberger, who has CEO of Per.ca. I'm Mario Tonoguzzi, managing editor of Canada's podcast.
[18:38] SPEAKER_02: Today with Calgary's podcast. Thanks for joining us.
