More Than a Shop: The Heart Behind Summit 4x4

0:00Hey, everybody. Welcome back to signals AZ.com, the signals news podcast two day. I have Jesse Walsall. I thought the weather was perfect to bring you in and start talking about all things four by four, all things summit four by four. What you guys got going on over there? Well, the weather is perfect. And I wish I was out in my Jeep right now. But this is a great place to be as well. So super thankful to be here. You know, the weather warms up. People really get excited about being outside and getting out in their vehicles. And so we are gearing up for our busy season right now. Perfect. Is there a better place to live than right here with all the trails and everything that we've got? Absolutely not. I mean, we are so close. I talked a lot of people that live in other states and they've got to travel hours to get off road. 10 minutes in any direction, we can hit a trail. A couple hours. We're doing some serious rock crawling down in the valley. You can get up to Sedona, do some sightseeing, some beautiful trails up there up in Flagstaff.

1:00No, Prescott is hands down home for sure. Awesome. And how long have you been calling home for summit four by four? How long have you been calling this? So we say 2017 when we officially became summit. Prior to summit four by four company, we were summit jeep company. And I didn't foresee any issues with that until I got a letter from the Chrysler Corporation, a cease and desist, which rightfully so jeep is a registered trademark and we were in the wrong. I just didn't think that a small little jeep shop in Prescott would ever catch the eyes of the Chrysler Corporation. There's got to be a moment though where you're like, oh my gosh, we've made it. Look, people are realizing we're here, but yeah, there was a part of it that was definitely kind of cool. I mean, to a point where I actually still have the letter, it's framed and in my office today, just as a reminder. So yeah, I guess you could kind of look at

2:00as maybe a little accomplishment to catch their attention for sure. I'm sure you had to rebrand do all that stuff. Yeah, so we had to go from summit jeep company to summit four by four company. And at the time, I thought it was the worst thing ever. But really, it turned out to be very beneficial because even as summit jeep company back then, we still worked on toyotas and full-size pickup trucks, chevys and rams and all of that. So going into summit four by four company, definitely opened that market, I gave the consumer confidence to stop in because if you drive a Toyota, you're probably not going to stop by a jeep shop, right? It makes sense. But if it's a four by four shop, absolutely, you're going to pull in there. So God knew what he was doing the whole time and opened that door for us. Let me tell you how this is going to go. I got this. So and I'm sure when you're a little boy, you're like, ma'am, and I grow up, I'm going to be the best darn four by four provider out there. You know what's funny? I never had a dream or a plan to own an off road shop. I've always

3:01enjoyed for as long as I can remember, even back when I was riding dirt bikes or got my first vehicle, I always enjoyed customizing them. I didn't want my motorcycle, dirt bike quad or truck to look like anybody else's. So I would always, you know, I would change the graphics or the rims on the dirt bikes or the handlebars or the seats. And then when I got old enough to get a vehicle, I'd put a lift kit and wheels and tires on it and do a sound system. Never in a million years would have imagined that we would be where we're at right now. So definitely a God moment and a cool God story for sure. He knew I didn't, but I can't imagine my life without it. How did you get started doing it? Well, at the time I was working at the Hitch Church actually as a production manager and charge of a weekend service in the big events and working at a church, you don't make a lot of money. And I had a wife and three kids and so I had to figure out how to be creative. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit and always bought and sold and flipped things

4:04and so I'm like, you know, I'm going to start pursuing that again, just kind of on the side. And we started buying automotive parts and then I came across a gentleman on Craigslist that was selling four Jeep bumpers. And so I started doing some research and trying to figure out how much those are worth and what it would cost me to ship them. And the guy was asking, I think it was $100 per bumper and I made him a ridiculously low ball offer. I was like, I'll give you $100 for all four and he's like, all right, I'll take him. Surprise the heck out of me. So then I drive over to his house and he's like, how many more do you want? And I'm like, I thought you only had four. And he goes, oh, I probably got a hundred more. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So that kind of opened the door and that was a local builder up here, Moab Industries and got to know the builder very well on that and purchased. I went out to their property and I mean, he opened up this just like arena gate and there was bumpers, wheels, tires, tops, doors, interior, like everything you could imagine from building vehicles. And I made

5:09him, again, low ball offer because I can make me an offer and he took it. And I about crapped myself because it took me about seven loads with an enclosed trailer to go back and forth. And somebody was staring you on that path. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so that's where it all started and you're like, here we go and never looked back. I'm assuming. Well, for me, it was one of those like at that point, we were just really selling parts, you know, and so we were selling on Craig's list and created an Instagram page and people locally would find those ads and they'd come in and want to buy a bumper and then they're like, hey, can you install it and how much would you charge? And so tell them, I don't know, $100 and we didn't install it. And so it kind of got to a point where we were able to make some money selling the part and then also make some money on the labor side of it as well. And that grew organically and got to a point where I ran out of those parts and had to kind of go a little bit wider on my search and came across to shop down in Scottsdale,

6:10the owner, Mike of that shop kind of took me under his wing and taught me how to run a business. Wasn't, again, ever planning on having something this size and drove back and forth for about six months, volunteered my time. I started out sweeping his floors and then started building the vehicles and then he taught me the business side of it and then my brother Colton and I at the time just kind of decided to jump in with both feet. And then here we are. And you're giving back to the community with, I know you partnered with Charles for Tata's, how did that start? Yeah, so Charles for Tata's originated when myself and some of our club members were at our normal kind of club meeting. We were at a local coffee shop and we were just talking about how important it was to all of us and especially the roots of who some it is and who our company is to be able to give back to this community. You know, I'm a firm believer you have to give back. You can't just take. And so one of the club presidents at the time was talking about breast

7:12cancer and we all agreed. We said, yeah, you know what? Let's figure out how to do this. And so our first year was in 2019 and we quote unquote kind of partnered with tough enough to wear pink with Marianne Suttles and just kind of got to figure out how the whole fundraising works and so she kind of came alongside and gave some encouragement. And that first year, I think we raised about $3,500 and it was on the street cornered our shop on Sheldon Street and Peter Medall was there standing on top of a jeep box auctioning off items and we were so excited to raise the $3,500 and big money, right? You know what it was for our first go round. You know, in each year, you know, God's bless us. We've been able to raise more and more in the community's been more and more generous. And we've got some really big donors, you know, thinly, here in breast gets been huge donors. There's a lot of them actually. And this last year, we did a hundred over $120,000 and every penny of it goes to the Baskin Breast Care Center and

8:17stays locally here in Yavada, by county. Yeah, I had Lori in. It's been a couple months probably. We talked to her and it was just, you know, everyone knows someone or has been affected by breast cancer. It's not one of those things that you're going to be able to dodge. You're going to, it's somehow going to enter your life. So Victor and Lori, I just want to give them a shout out. I mean, their blood, sweat and tears and total commitment to helping out the, you know, the Baskin Breast Care Center and really just taking charge with trails for talk to us has been amazing. So Victor and Lori, if you guys watch this, see it. Thank you guys so much. And there's a whole army of volunteers. They're going to watch for sure. But yeah, you're right. You know, the the Baskin Breast Care Center's got 20 women a month diagnosed, one in eight. And we actually have a team member at our shop that's going through triple negative breast cancer right now and does not have a foreseeable positive prognosis at this point where believe in the God can heal anything

9:19and she's on a heck of a battle right now. So new hair stories. You hear where it's like, well, doctor said this. And then I was able to do that. And so yeah, there's lots of healing stories out there for sure. And that's what we're believing. But it has definitely hit close to home. I mean, she's, she's been with us for about three years now and was completely unexpected. So yeah, scary. Yeah, definitely affects all of us. Well, I'm glad you do that. I, I, the over 120,000 is amazing. You guys do service. You guys do, you, you'll track down parts for people. I'm assuming you have four by four clubs, which is great. What's a four by four club though? There's something. So you don't hit people that will get in trouble for doing that. No, so we've got two. It's the summit four by four club. And then we've got the summit four by four girls tribe, which isn't all women's group. Husbands, boyfriends, friends can go, but we

10:20encourage the women to drive. And so that's an opportunity to gain friendships, right? To be able to do something in the community, to be a part of the events that we do, to be able to take your rig off road and we do quarterly clinics as well, where we teach people how to use the equipment. We're doing one coming up here, where we're going to teach people how to spot, which is really important. And if I'm trying to get you over an obstacle that I communicate clearly with you and that you understand what I'm trying to do, sound simple, but it's actually pretty complicated. It's very complicated because I especially if my husband is driving and I'm trying to tell him something, I'm like, okay. And I try to mimic like what he does, like, okay, yeah, you're right. And he's like, cool. And then he ends up hitting it. And I was like, well, I told you, you know, and I'm trying to like look through his mirror. And then that I'm mad. And he's mad or he's trying to tell me what to do. And there's got to be a better way. There is a better way. And yeah, it sounded like you were backing up a trailer right there at that point, which is usually where it starts. So it's all about a clear understanding and pathway that if I make

11:24this signal, you know, exactly what that means, right? And if I tell you to turn driver, it's not full driver, maybe I need to say a little bit driver, you know, driver as you can. So we're going to go through and just kind of give different terminology, different hand signals, just so the communications better and it's safer for everybody. Basically a marriage therapist. You're saving marriages. Yes. Yes. I tell you. Absolutely. Because the last thing I do, I just, last time we were doing, we were just in a parking lot. And I remember getting, I was having a puff and I'm ready to sit down and my husband basically told my daughter, watch her mom right now, just going to get in and just like, I, I tried it and of course it's exactly what I did. And I was like, well, I teach me, teach me Jesse, how to guide. All right, we can do that for sure. For east of somebody, you've got a shop in Prescott Valley now. Where's that located? So that's at 69.01 East, first street right next to the big yellow duck, you know, the spa Prescott. Help me out here. Prescott's boss, isn't it? Prescott's boss. Prescott. Prescott. I'll look it up, but we'll look that up and get that right. So yeah, it's right there.

12:28It's right next to it right off of 69. And I guess it would be kind of southwest of Glacierd. And we've got Craig and Mark are our service guys up front there and we've got Dave and Trent in the back. So we've got two technicians. We've got an alignment machine, a tire changer balance, so pretty much anything that we do in Prescott, we can do at our Prescott Valley shop as well. I think it's Arizona hot tub company. There we go. Thank you. It's the yellow duck. So the big yellow duck, Arizona hot tub company, absolutely. And then you've got Summit for, I'm going to say X4 because it's just in case, but summit for x4 company.com. We're going to say summit four by four company. But yes, if you're, if you're doing a website for x4 company, for sure, but summit four by four, if they'd like to get involved with trails for Tatos, can they also reach out to you there? So we have trails for tatos.com. So that's trails the number four tatos.com. They can go on there. They can reach out, put them directly in contact with Victor and Lori. They'll reach out. We've got volunteer opportunities. We accept donations year round. We do fundraising. We were just at

13:31Dad's backyard barbecue on Sunday over there. They're big supporters as well. And so yeah, there's all sorts of ways to get involved and to be able to give back. All right. If you guys were thinking of starting probably a pretty inexpensive hobby, you know, to do four by four in and you're cheap and expensive. No, you know what jeep stands for, right? Tell me just empty every pocket. And that's absolutely what it is. I was afraid you're going to say that doesn't, doesn't sound. We tell our clients buy once, cry once, you know, we will work absolutely around budget. It's 100% right? I get it. Everybody's got a budget. But we want to try to offer the best product that we possibly can within that budget. You know, we do get some clients from time to time that just say, hey, you know what? This is what I want. Just build it. Make it happen. Just make it happen. And we can do that. You got to be safe too. For sure. For sure. Yeah. And so we can also someone comes in and goes, hey, I've got a $5,000 budget. And this is what I'm looking for. We'll be able to put together the the best options that we can within that budget.

14:31Perfect. So if you want to get involved with summit four by four. And if you've got a jeep and just want to make some friends and want to get part of the the club and or support transfer tata's go check out Jesse summit four by four company.com 928 227 2026 right over by the duck and Preska Valley. Yep. And we work on too. A lot of people again assume it's just jeeps, it's jeeps, toyotas, full-size trucks, SUVs. We've even lifted minivans. They actually have lift kits for minivans. So if you're a mom with a minivan and you want to look a little bit cooler. A little bit. You know, maybe we can we'll tag it to saving moms for minivans, right? Lifted sewers. Two will drive vehicles will work on. So absolutely not not just jeeps. Not just jeeps. That should be your sign summit four by four, not just jeeps. Well, you know, we didn't I put signs up over here. It says all makes all models all four by fours. Excellent. Right. So we'll make anything a four by four. That's it. We've actually done some conversions. So we can do that as well. Yeah. People think we just do builds. We do repairs and

15:35maintenance. We'll do oil changes, brakes, tuneups. You got to be doing something in the winter. Absolutely. Yeah. Wintertime slows down a little bit for us. So repairs maintenance, kind of more of your necessities get done. But yeah, like I said, we're a full service shop. You build a vehicle once, maybe twice, but you have to maintain it its entire life. And so we want our clients to be comfortable coming just to one location air conditioning repairs. I mean, we're just diagnosing an AC issue on a customer's vehicle. So we do it all. Do it all. All right. So go see Jesse's summit four by four company. Jesse thinks for everything. Thanks for coming in. And really, thanks for helping support Trust for Tautos. That's absolutely. That's a great cause. Exactly. For sure. All right. Guys, we will see you next time. Thank you.