How Reinvestment Transformed a Sealcoating Business, with Michael Melicia

Michael Melicia, the Founder and CEO of Coastal Paving and Excavating, joins Host Taylor White of Ken White Construction this week to share his remarkable journey from starting a business with just $500 to leading a thriving civil engineering and construction company. Along the way, Michael and Taylor explore the challenges of starting a business at a young age and how Michael navigated these obstacles with determination and resilience. The discussion also highlights the transformative power of social media in business growth, with our guest emphasizing how a strong online presence has been instrumental in expanding his company’s reach and reputation. Additionally, Michael talks about the importance of maintaining a warrior mindset in the face of adversity, balancing family life with the demands of entrepreneurship, and the critical role of personal branding in building a successful business. 
Michael further delves into his unique and effective leadership style, which sets him apart in the industry, and shares his perspective on the future of Coastal Paving and the evolving landscape of content creation. He offers valuable insights on risk management and the lessons he's learned from past failures, reinforcing the idea that staying true to oneself is essential for long-term success. This episode is rich with advice on work-life balance, entrepreneurship, and strategic business growth, making it a must-listen for anyone in the industry or aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to learn from Michael’s experience and expertise. With powerful takeaways on the intersection of personal and professional development, this conversation provides listeners with the tools and inspiration needed to succeed in their own ventures.

Topics: 

• The journey from $500 to a successful paving and excavating business 

• The impact of social media on business growth 

• The challenges and rewards of starting a business at a young age 

• The importance of a warrior mindset in entrepreneurship 

• Balancing family life with business responsibilities 

• The role of personal branding in business success 

• Michael’s unorthodox and effective leadership style 

• The future of Coastal Paving and content creation 

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Episode transcript: 

Michael Melicia: People want to do business with people. So if you just get on there and you're just pumping your company's profile, that's definitely going to create value. But I think that it might not create the same value. I think that there might be a day where somebody sees somebody out there and they have a different idea that isn't in– For instance, me. Somebody found me and was like, “I have an idea. It's not paving and it's lucrative, and it's a good idea,” and they can help it go somewhere. I would want them to be able to do business with me, not just let me come do their parking lot. I'm in this to get my name out there and see what comes of it. And if nothing comes of it, I had a great time doing it. And the other thing that I've actually noticed with this that is actually more important to me than I think I talk about is pictures are great. I have my iPhone's full of pictures of my family and me and stuff. If I got hit by a bus today, if I didn't do all this, they wouldn’t have a bunch of pictures and stuff, some videos, whatever. But there's been some stuff that has been caught on camera of me interacting with them or their mom or me just being who I am and work that I think they would get a lot of value from. The good times, the times where I was frustrated with them, tell them to get their [expletive] in the car. They could have hours of footage that they could watch and they could connect with their dad because they're young right now. So that's another thing. I think that, I don't know where that, where and when I realized that, but it was something that I realized at some point and was like that that's really cool because you just don't know what's going to happen. And I feel like video shows– Especially from a different view if I'm just filming me with them, it's not the same view as when you have a lens on you interacting, it shows a different side. It's like you're there. So I feel like if nothing came from this, at least there's all of that for them forever unless the SD cards are damaged. But yeah, I think that separating the brands is important. 

Taylor White: That's really cool. And I kind of have the same mentality. I actually have just a dedicated safe because I've been filming my life for five years basically every single day. I started out for the first four years just filming myself, and then recently in the past year a bit, I have a full time videographer that just follows us around all the time, and he's on site, but he films ultimately my life. Like if I'm up at 5:00 going for a run or something, I want him to come out there and film that. And I think that it's really cool because of the same thing you said. I think it's really cool for my kids, but also a big thing for me, and I could tell you're probably the same, is you want to create a legacy as well with your name. You just don't want to live and then just die and then Michael Melicia is just, “Oh, yeah. I kind of knew him.” You want to have your name there. And that's the same with me, as I think it's really important that I leave something big behind. And that's just always been my mindset. Just go big or go home. And when I'm dead and gone, I want to leave something big. And I have hard drives in a safe that basically tell the last five years, six years of my life, growing the business, dealing with multiple things all the way from not having kids, now I have two kids. It's just crazy to be able to go back and actually look at footage from 2017 to now and just to see how it changed and how it progressed and the problems that we had. And that's so cool. And I think long term if we grow this thing big enough it'd be really cool even down the road to you can make a documentary or a show about it or something, and you have your entire life on film and on camera. So I really think what you're doing is super smart with the content online, and I really, really dig it.  

Welcome back, everybody, to the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Podcast. I am your host, as always, Taylor White. This podcast is brought to you by our good friends over at Komatsu. With me today, somebody that I actually came across through scrolling on my own for you page on TikTok. He's all over Instagram as well, too. I have Michael Melicia from Coastal Paving with us here today. Thanks for being on the show, Michael. 

Michael Melicia: Yeah, thanks for having me. 

Taylor White: Yeah. Like I said, normally, sometimes I get people sent to us, but sometimes they come naturally. And you definitely kind of came natural because I love your style of what you're putting out there, and you are investing heavily into putting yourself on TikTok and Instagram and just kind of like short term content. But I want to talk more into that further into the conversation, but I guess maybe give people a bit of a brief description of who you are because you have a paving company. That's your actual business, Coastal Paving, right? 

Michael Melicia: Yes, it is. 

Taylor White: All right. So let's talk a little bit about who you are and what you do. 

Michael Melicia: So, Michael Melicia, founder and CEO of CPEX, which is Coastal Paving and Excavating. We do everything civil engineering, construction. So underground utilities, site work, concrete, asphalt, municipal, city, and private, residential, and commercial as well. So yeah, basically an engineering firm that is just kind of making a name for itself and started from $500 in a suitcase, moved back to my hometown, and I started knocking on doors, doing just driveways and seal coats and patchwork, small stuff. I didn't have a license when I first started, so I was just, again, knocking on doors, doing that stuff. And then I got my license in 2017, which is when coastal paving actually started, May of 2017. And then from there, just basically put all of my efforts into building the business, growing through SEO and Google Ads and an online presence. It's not fun to go knock on doors and not really know what's coming your way. You just have to go find it and make it happen, which takes a toll. I'm happy I went through it and did it because it taught me a whole heck of a lot. But, yeah, so basically that was my first thing when I started was to how do I make the phone ring without me having to go bug people at their homes, etc. When I did that, I started to notice the value of it, and I just basically funneled all of my energy and money into the online presence. Being first if you Google “paving near me,” I wanted to be the one that popped up first, and we are.  

So between that and all my profits that came from every job and every year I use that to buy more equipment and hire more talent. I don't have an extensive background in the engineering sector. I grew up doing just patching and ceiling and so forth. So I didn't even know how to read plans when I started postal paving. And I still can read them, but I'm not the best at it or I'm not the best at estimating everything. So, anything that I didn't know any strengths I didn't have, I just found it in other people and or equipment. So I kind of looked at it like a shovel compared to a skid steer or a loader. I'm the shovel. And if I could hire the loader and the skid steers and the excavators is kind of the way I looked at it. And here we are today, seven years later, as Postal Paving CPEX. 

Taylor White: Nice. I like that. Good summary. That was a lot that there's, there's a lot there, though. I really respect that you understand your strengths. I pride myself with that as well, too. Although I can't have the same story of saying I started off with $500. I have a family that has had a business, and now I'm third generation, but learning to delegate and learning to hire people that are smarter than you is definitely something that is a key takeaway from what you just said. They bug me in the office because I'm a psych guy. After this, I'm going to go screen some topsoil. And I own the business. but there's people in the office that are picking up where I leave off, so it's real important what you just said. Like you said, you kind of grew up doing driveway ceiling stuff. Was it kind of like a teenage hustle for you and was a game of volume after that? And then you're like, “Well, maybe I should offer paving.”Tell me about how you kind of started and then how you made that leap to being like, “Okay. Now I'm going to offer more services, bigger services, and do more.” 

Michael Melicia: I kind of grew up into it. So I worked for my dad growing up. I dropped out in 8th grade, and I just worked for him. I didn't get a paycheck or anything. It was just kind of my contribution to helping our family live, I guess. But I always looked at the companies, the bigger companies around. I always admired it. I wanted our family company. My dad always had a dream of a family company, all of us working together and so forth. The problem was a lot of my family I guess, got in their own way because everybody wanted to be the guy and nobody wanted to share and nobody wanted to work together. So that kind of always stopped that dream, but it was a dream that I shared. I just seen why it wasn't working my whole life growing up. So I admired these other companies that were doing the things that I wanted to do. When I started, we were on a Malden Paver. Like, if we pave a driveway, it was like a big deal, the hopper paver or you're shoveling and asphalt. But I seen these other companies and they presented obviously much different. We were kind of like, I don't know, a backyard boogie type of thing growing up. So it was something I always wanted to do. I guess I never worked for those bigger companies, so I didn't get that full experience per se.  

So it was a plan in my head. And as far as how I made that leap and offer those services, I actually like on our website and like, on the Internet, I actually always offer those services from the start of 2017, even though I couldn't actually perform them. I knew if I got the job, I could, one, sub it out to some different firm, which I've done when we were starting. Or I could get a job and have a good down payment, or I already had the funds or whatever, and I could just buy the equipment necessary to get it done. So I kind of just put myself out there and whatever jobs came, I just. I found a way to get it done again, whether that was subbing it out or buying the equipment to get it done. So the services were actually always there on our website or as a service from our company. We offered paving, we offered concrete, we offered all these things, but when we first started, we technically internally couldn't perform them yet. So that's how it started. 

Taylor White: I like that. That's awesome. What was one of the biggest challenges, I guess, when you were starting out that you faced? 

Michael Melicia: I had a lot of challenges. I think my age was one of them. I'm 30 years old. So when I started Coastal Paving, I was what? 23. So I had a big challenge with people thinking I was too young. I think a lot of people struggle to read a room, and I was always able to kind of read rooms. So when I could tell that somebody was questioning my ability or my age, etc., I found a way to prove that to them. A lot of the time I would tell people, “If you're not happy, don't pay me.” I still have that same mindset. We don't have unhappy customers. I don't leave unhappy customers because I believe that an unhappy customer is actually a happy customer. You just haven't found a way to make them happy yet. So that was kind of my way of getting around that adversity. So age was always a thing, and then also money was always a thing. I don't come from generational wealth in any way. I don't know anybody with large sums of money that were able to help me. So having capital was always a thing. So basically, the capital that's run the business has been generated by the business its whole life. Well, I should say its first four years of its life, until I started to begin building a balance sheet and a P&L and building a company that banks and so forth actually wanted to invest in.  

So then once that happened, once I was able to actually get funding for capital or equipment or what have you, I also had to have a different mindset than what I was taught. I was always taught to buy things cash, don't take loans, etc. So I had to kind of shift that mindset into seeing that that would be something that would actually hold the company back, is by not taking those loans and knowing that those loans actually create more value for the company and then using that to offset taxes and so forth. So, yeah, there were a lot of challenges. We're only seven years old, so we still have challenges today. And I don't think that'll ever stop. I think that's just part of business. But I think that those challenges are what make and separate a good entrepreneur and a good business from a bad one. You have to be able to walk into those challenges ready to fall on your face or ready to make it happen. There's only two letters that separate a warrior and a warrior. And I chose to be a warrior, and I still do. I don't always know that it's going to work out, but kind of like offering those services from the start even when you can't perform them most people would be worried about how am I going to get it done. And my thought was always, we're going to figure out how to get it done. 

Taylor White: Yeah, I resonate with that, too. And it's like your ability to manage risk, right? Because I know some guys that are starting out in business and they're like, I don't know how you– For us, tackled a big sewer and water project last year for an example, and it wasn't something we normally would do. And even my dad, he was very like, “This isn't something that you guys should be doing.” But my ability to manage risk and take risk was kind of always there. And I think that's kind of like what you're saying. My dad was the same maybe as when you grew up. My dad was like, “Don't take on a lot of debt. If you can't buy it outright, then you shouldn't buy it.” And you're right with that, it slows your growth because if you want to grow into something that is large that generally does just come with debt. But I really like your leadership style when you're like warrior and warrior. How would you kind of describe your leadership style? Because even by judging by your Instagram, your reels, just content that you actually put out there as well, you seem to have a really good culture with your guys and girls. And you seem like a really cool dude to work for, to be honest with you. How would you kind of describe your leadership style with your team? 

Michael Melicia: So my leadership style is probably a lot different than most. Funny comparison is Michael Scott from The Office. I'm not a great manager, I guess, on paper but again, it kind of comes down to reading the room and knowing humans for humans. And I've always felt that when you connect with people on a human level and understand that everyone has their own, their own stories, their own cultures, their own beliefs, their own work ethic, you kind of can control the way that people perform. So my leadership style is very unorthodox, and it's very lackadaisical in a way. I've never been the person that is like, “You're two minutes late.” At the end of the day, if you're two minutes late today, but you're 20 minutes early tomorrow, it's all going to equal out. We all hit traffic. We all have kids. A lot of us have kids to take to school. Some of us are arguing with our wives before we head out the door on some days. I'm easy going when it comes to the day in, day out stuff. But when it's time to, to get down and we got to get [expletive] done, again you got to be a warrior when it's time to be a warrior. And that's where my last name resonates a lot with the way I kind of lead. I look at us like a small army which is the definition of a Militia and either you're in or you're out. You're going to get this done or you're going to leave everyone early because you had plans. You got to go feed your goldfish or something. And we're all out there paving till 8:00 at night and you drop out if you're playing in the playoffs on a football field and it's the last few minutes on the clock of the game. A good player is not going to walk off the field because they have stuff to do. So it's a very very tight knit group that is ready to do what's got to be done when it's time to do it. So, yeah, my leadership style, again, is different, but it's definitely worked. And it's created a good core group of people. And I also believe that people want to enjoy going to work and have fun. The few jobs that I have had, it was like the same thing day in, day out, it's very structured. And when you show up, this is when you clock out, this is when your lunchtime is. And for me personally, I don't like that structure. I like to kind of just again, when it's time to do it, we do it when we can chill, we could chill a little bit. But just getting the job done is really what matters. I don't know if that explained it right. 

Taylor White: No, it did 100%. And it shows honestly. True. And I want to know what was your big push for doing content. How long have you been doing it? And you've found a lot of good success on it. You have a crap ton of followers as well, too. So what was the push for doing content? You mic yourself up, sometimes you'll mic some other people up. I found you organically by scrolling on my for you page and seeing you on a paver or you're talking to some guy or girl on site and you're just cracking jokes or your wife would pull up on site. What was the reasoning behind doing the content? And have you seen that have a positive impact on your business? 

Michael Melicia: So the push was one day I was on my phone and I was scrolling and watching other people on social media, and it kind of hit me. I'm like, I'm the consumer, not the creator. And that was kind of what pushed me. When I first started, I was kind of planning on doing more of an informational, motivational, inspirational type of gig of me talking about business and how to grow your business and, and so forth. And I actually went on Bradley's Podcast and kind of got some notes from him before I even started. And his big thing was like, just turn the camera on and be the content. Don't create content. And I took that without knowing it and kind of– So I had 300 followers. I was on a private page, and this was, I think we just hit a year in July. So I've been doing it for a year, and I just turned the camera on, and I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm just literally, I guess, being the content. I think I took that a little too direct because not all of it has a meaning or a message behind it. Some of it does and some of it doesn't. But at the end of the day, I just turned the damn camera on and started uploading it. And it actually happened pretty quickly, though. I think my 7th post got 4 million views, which was the one of me with the leggings. And so as we're going, we start to learn what's going to click and what's going to go. And the funny part about it is the things that do well are things that are kind of silly, but connect with people and psychological ways. I think when it comes to relationship stuff or anything that somebody would share or connect with is what is what tending is showing to go. But yeah, as far as what started it, it really was just like, there's got to be a reason people are doing this. Let's give it a shot. And here we are. So far, there's no exact plan with it or I don't exactly know what it all is, but kind of like with anything, it's just like you just go out there and do it and see what comes from it.  

So far, good has come. When I first started though, the first couple months, I got some pushback from some customers as well as internally, my office, some people or some friends are like, “It's not really a good look. It's not whatever.” And I paused my page for a little bit and a couple weeks went by and I'm like, “At the end of the day, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm enjoying it. And if somebody has a problem with that, I guess maybe we shouldn't be doing business anyways.” So I definitely cleaned up a little bit. I have a potty mouth that's just natural. People say a mouth like a sailor. I have a mouth like a paver, which is much worse. But at the end of the day, it's like, that's who I am. So I definitely cleaned it up a little bit. I still cuss, I still say some stuff, but honestly, what's funny about it is I don't think it's directly related, but we were on track of doubling last year's revenue, so it hasn't hurt business. No one's ever come to me and– I haven't gotten a job because of it, but I actually have had some inspectors make some good comments, “Love watching your stuff,“ or so forth. So nothing bad has came from it. I can't say anything directly good has came from it, but we're still only a year in, so. 

Taylor White: No, I love that. And it's interesting because you said some of the stuff seems like maybe we don't have, there's no meaning to it or something. But honestly, Michael, there is meaning to everything. I like watching your stuff, even as a business owner as well, that does create content. I pull value from the stuff that you necessarily might be like, “Oh, there's no value in this video. We put it up and people seem to like it.” There's value in everything that you put online, whether it's like, “Okay. How's he communicating with this guy? How is he communicating with this person? Why would he post that over this?” I like dissecting that sort of stuff because I was the same when I started social media. I want to be a creator rather than a consumer. And it's been really interesting, and I love your point of there was some pushback and stuff because I had guys in the office that aren't with us anymore, and on their exit interviews were like, “I just can't do the whole social media thing that you do. It's awkward.” I don't like talking to people on the weekend then being like, “Oh, you see what Taylor put out on social media this weekend? Why would he do that? You think that's good? He jumped from an excavator bucket into a pond. That's terrible.” And to me, that's just me being me. But whenever you were talking about this, this is something I'm struggling with currently. I'm actually taking a break from YouTube right now. We've amassed a following of over 100,000 on YouTube and found some mediocre success on it. And it's almost like it kind of goes stagnant because I've been kind of half [expletive] it. And what I'm really struggling with is I want to show more, but I struggle talking about purchasing of the equipment, the financing of the equipment, cash flow issues, cash flow problems, hiring, firing, that sort of stuff. But what I like what you did was when I was just at a lunch meeting with a buddy, and he's like, “Oh, who are you going to interview today?” And I was showing, and he searched Coastal Paving. Coastal paving, you have a decent amount of followers. But Michael Melicia, you have 90 something thousand followers. So it's under your own personal brand. Do you think that there's better value? And you personally, as you grow and continue online of being Michael Melicia, the content creator or Coastal Paving content under your company's brand or personally. 

Michael Melicia: I personally wanted to do that purposely because I do want to live forever and I guess a little bit, if that makes sense. I want my personal name and my personal story to be known and accessible. This probably isn't the podcast for that story, but I plan to write a book. I have an upbringing story that's, I think, valuable to a lot of young men and women, people in general. So I definitely wanted to separate it. I also have a carpet cleaning business and have other avenues that I want to go. So I wanted to separate it. If my name's on something, I want it to be a brand builder. And Coastal Paving is its own brand. And I also know that to backtrack a little bit to childhood, I was robbed of a lot of childhood things that most children get to experience. Again, it's not the right podcast or setting, but that's where for me, too because a lot of the things I do are immature. A lot of things I do are silly me being a child still enjoying life and not always safe or whatever. I don't want Coastal Paving to have an image of that, but I want to be who I am and show my true self and build that brand, but also have some connection there. Some of the things we do are connected. I do a lot of my stuff on site, which is coastal site. But I think that the value is you want to see our profession, you want to see what kind of work we put out, you want to see the quality, you want to see the professionalism, all those things. Check out our Coastal Paving website page. See us in action, see us in person. And you're going to get all that, and you're going to see all that.  

We have a very good firm, a very respected firm, and we work with very respected clients and customers. And I don't want to damage that or tarnish that, but I also want to, again, build an online brand and presence that can be who I truly am. Because if I sat down and like I said when I was going to start, I was going to do this whole business informational thing. I know I've learned a lot of stuff and I have, I think, a pretty good amount of knowledge. I've been through a lot of stuff that could help people in business, but that's not my true identity, I guess not that I kind of fell into a CEO role without– I'm not a CEO. I'm an 8th grade dropout. So I can't sit here in a collared shirt and slicked up hair. I can be that guy, but that's not the guy I am in my everyday comfortable self. So that's where the separation came from. One, to protect Coastal's image. Two, to be able to be my silly young self that is I just wanted to be who I was. I don't know if that fully answered the question, but that was the separation for me and why, and that's the value that I see from separating it. 

Taylor White: No, it did. And it gave me a lot to think about, too, because it's true. If I could go back when people ask us questions or ask me questions about social media and stuff, if I could go back, I have no regrets of anything I've ever done, but I would start it just kind of how you started it. I would separate and it would be Taylor White and not Ken White Construction. Because you raised a good point of if you want to see the quality of work that we do, the work that we do, the professionalism, all that check out Ken White Construction. You want to see Taylor White, go to Taylor White. And those are two separate things. So I think that you actually did a really good thing. Do you think people starting out, you would kind of give them that advice if they're like– Because honestly, nowadays, there's a lot of guys like you or I online that have businesses that are trying to grow online and create a stream of revenue through that and share their story and. And it's its own business as well, too. Do you think that you would kind of recommend that to them be like, keep it kind of separate? Or if you're just a straight and narrow suit and tie kind of guy, maybe keep it on the same page, if you can be professional 24/7? But I don't know. Do you think that that's kind of smart for people to keep it separate or do it the same? 

Michael Melicia: I think that everybody's situation is different and everybody's personality is different. I would give the advice of whoever you are when the camera's off, that's who you should be when the camera's on for your personal brand. 

Taylor White: I'm an [expletive.] 

Michael Melicia: No. There's this guy, I don't know his name, but he's I think a tax advisor, and he's like a CPA or something maybe. He's in that area and his whole page is just him talking about tax expert advice and so forth. And, it's great content. And you can tell that he's not acting, he knows what he's talking about. So I think, and I'm sure that that's creating a lot of value for him, for his business. But what I will say is it's not his business name on his page. So he kind of did the same thing. So I guess, yeah, I would recommend, from what I know, I would say separate it and create your own brand behind your name because businesses also can come and go. I could sell CPEX. It could crash tomorrow, and I'd start another one. But at the end of the day, I think that the true art and grit and person behind those businesses is who people should see. And I think that people want to do business with people. So if you just get on there and you're just pumping your company's profile, that's definitely going to create value. But I think that it might not create the same value. I think that there might be a day where somebody sees somebody out there and they have a different idea that isn't in.  

For instance, me. Somebody found me and was like, I have an idea. It's not paving and it's lucrative and it's a good idea and they can help it go somewhere. I would want them to be able to do business with me, not just let me come do their parking lot. I'm in this to get my name out there and see what comes of it. And if nothing comes of it, I had a great time doing it. And the other thing that I've actually noticed with this that is actually more important to me than I think I talk about is pictures are great. I have my iPhone's full of pictures of my family and me and stuff. If I got hit by a bus today, if I didn't do all this, they wouldn’t have a bunch of pictures and stuff, some videos, whatever. But there's been some stuff that has been caught on camera of me interacting with them or their mom or me just being who I am and work. I think they would get a lot of value from the good times, the times where I was frustrated with them. Tell them to get their [expletive]. They have hours of footage that they could watch and they could connect with their dad because they're young right now. So that's another thing I think that, I don't know when I realized that, but it was something that I realized at some point and was like that that's really cool because you just don't know what's going to happen. And I feel like video, especially from a different view, if I'm just filming me with them, it's not the same view as when you have a lens on you interacting, it shows a different side. It's like you're there. So I feel like if nothing came from this, at least there's all of that for them forever unless the SD cards are damaged. So, yeah, I think that separating the brands is important. 

Taylor White: That's really cool. And I kind of have the same mentality. I actually have just a dedicated safe because I've been filming my life for five years basically every single day. I started out for the first four years just filming myself and then recently in the past year, year and a bit, I have a full time videographer that just follows us around all the time and he's on site, but he films ultimately my life. If I'm up at 5:00 going for a run or something, I want him to come out there and film that. And I think that it's really cool because of the same thing you said. I think it's really cool for my kids, but also a big thing for me and I could tell you're probably the same, you want to create a legacy as well with your name. You just don't want to live and then just die and then Michael Melicia is just, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I kind of knew him.”You want to have your name there. And that's the same with me. I think it's really important that I leave something big behind and that's just always been my mindset. Go big or go home. And when I'm dead and gone, I want to leave something big and I have hard drives in a safe that basically tell the last five years, six years of my life, growing the business, dealing with multiple things all the way from not having kids, now I have two kids. It's just crazy to be able to go back and actually look at footage from 2017 to now and just to see how it changed and how it progressed and the problems that we had. And that's so cool.  

And I think long term, if we grow this thing big enough, it'd be really cool. Even down the road, you can make a documentary or a show about it or something, and you have your entire life on film and on camera. So I really think what you're doing is super smart with the content online, and I really, really dig it. But I think what's really important is how you've managed to kind of– And I know I would be interested once you have a book, to listen to your story and all that stuff, because it sounds like you have kind of an interesting background or an upbringing. But what's really key is how you've managed to grow your business and how you've managed to kind of start and go with that. And I'm just wondering for the people listening, because there's a lot of younger guys, girls in blue collar who want to really grow a business or start a business, what kind of key points of advice or type of mindset should they have in order to create a successful business and to grow? 

Michael Melicia: Well, I'll touch back on what I said earlier. Sometimes you're just two letters away from being what you need to be to get things done that you want to get done. And that's worrier warrior. I think that is actually a DNA thing. There's actually a DNA difference between somebody who worries and somebody who is a worrier and a warrior. And I think that you can train that and I think some people just kind of maybe have it for some reason. But I think really the difference of the two is somebody who is willing to do what's needed to be done regardless of if they know it's going to work or not. When a warrior goes into battle, they don't know if they're coming back or not and that's been around for thousands of years. And so if you want to start a business and grow a business, it's that same mindset of going at it at all costs and at all odds and just starting it somewhere. And I think that people are trying to find the information on how to do it right. But starting a business is actually, it's all about effort at the end of the day. So, I could sit there and google how to start a business and go to school and all these things, but at the end of the day, that's not starting a business. What starts a business is starting a business and all the information is there, but the action isn't there in a lot of people. Just starting and learning along the way is really the best advice I could give. You're going to do things wrong. You're not always going to do the right thing, but everything is a lesson. When you make mistakes, you got to learn from them and do different.  

I think the most important part of it, of anything in business, or even just being an employee and growing it on a ladder, I think that a lot of people lack reading a room. If you can't read the energy of other humans, that's probably first things first because if you're trying to sell somebody on a car, for instance, and you're just yapping away and you can't read that, these people just need a minute to think and you don't shut your mouth, you're going to push that sale right out of the door. There's been many times where I want to buy a car and this guy's just telling me about the tires on the damn thing. I don't give two [expletive] about the tires. I want to know if the car drives good. I want it to be the colors I want and what's it going to cost. Let's get this thing done. I don't really necessarily want to hear you yap on about all the features it has all the time. So some people do. You just have to know to read those energies and so forth. So when you're talking to a customer, you got to know how to make them feel comfortable, you got to know how to close the sale. So anybody that wants to start a business, you got to start somewhere. So start anywhere. Pick one place, get the name. There's a start. Okay. Now what are you going to do as far as structure, LLC, S Corp, sole proprietor, whatever? You don't know. Okay, google it. You got your phone in your hand. I guarantee you if you were looking for where you're going to eat today you'd get on your phone, you wouldn't even think about it. You just go, what kind of food? You know, Mexican food, whatever.  

People don't realize that starting a business is that simple and then growing the business is just as simple. If you are trying to figure out how to grow it and get more revenue, okay. Well, what have you done? So if you're at $100,000 in revenue in your current business, okay, what have you done that's gotten you $100,000? You've sold people on your service and you've provided a certain amount of service. Okay? So you want to grow that, provide more service and sell more people, you're going to get more revenue. So of course there's other things along the way, like I was talking about with taking on loans and getting more equipment and so forth. So again, you got to be smart and strategic about not letting yourself or your beliefs or what you've been taught your whole life get in your way either. You got to kind of have that warrior mindset and not worry if I take this loan and get this big piece of equipment, what if I don't have work for it? Or you could look at it like, I'm going to take this loan, get this big piece of equipment, and I'm going to go get work for it. It's just all about how you look at it, what effort you put into it. And at the end of the day, we're all going to die so why not try? If you make it a year, you make it 10 years and you fail, well, it's still one year more than the other guy and, or 10 years more than the other guy, so. And if you fail at 10 years, whatever you did in those 10 years when you fail, you could start again. And now all the things that you learned from all the failures you had. And so now you know what to do different. Just start again. And then maybe it'll only take you five years. So I think that that could be dangerous, too. I think I've definitely pushed a lot of lines like growing too fast or doing too doing things. You know, I've definitely gotten right on that line. But again, you're going to learn as you go and you're going to figure it out. If again it fails, you just start again. 

Taylor White: High risk, high reward. I also think another really positive thing, to add to that, is also your spouse. Having somebody good at home is definitely key. And I know that sometimes in your videos you should talk a little bit about family and stuff like that. And I'm just curious how you manage because I don't manage at all. I'm the worst at work life balance. And that's the biggest argument of my life, is just working too much. But how do you manage work life balance and kids and wife and family and all that stuff with owning a business and doing what you do? Because I love asking guys that, because that's an area that I struggle. 

Michael Melicia: For me, work life balance is one of those things where if your business needs attention because it's struggling, you give it attention. And your family might need to sacrifice a little bit. Vice versa, if your wife and your kids are suffering or struggling, your business is going to have to sacrifice a little bit. And I think that over time, those things will coincide and mesh together to where you'll learn how to manage both of them together. And it's one of those things where you also have to pick what you want. At the end of the day, on the grand scale of things, my company is not huge by any means. To some people, it's astronomical. In the grand scale of things, there's Amazon. So I want a strong family. I love my family. I'm sick if I'm away from them for a day. But I know internally, I know that that means my business is not going to be Amazon. Because in order to create Amazon something's going to have to give there. So you kind of got to pick, what do you want? How big do you want to be and what's important to you? To me, what's important to me is that my family's healthy, happy, stable, and also that they get to experience great things that I'm able to provide for them. And simultaneously, I understand that my business may not be as big as it could be because of that, but that's what I have found, that's the life I want to have.  

I don't need $40 billion yachts. I'll take one and one day, no problem. And my kids will enjoy the [expletive] out of it, but I'm not going to sacrifice my family's values for the sake of having a big business. Does my family need to learn how to sacrifice some to live the way we live? Absolutely. And I think that that's good for them anyways. We should all have that quality of knowing how to sacrifice. So there's definitely a balance and I think that just listening to your heart is going to tell you that. And you said something about having a good spouse is important. And you know, in business as well you need their support and so forth. But a flower, you got to water it, right? And the thing about plants in general is when they get water, then they produce oxygen and then that oxygen goes back into the environment which then creates water. And so it's the life cycle basically. So you got to water your plants at home, you got to take care of your family, you got to water them and then they're going to give you the oxygen to then go and grow your business more, which is going to bring in more fruits to share, more money to do better things. But if you over water the flower or the plant, it dies. If you underwater it, it dies. And when the plant dies, that's one less plant giving oxygen. So it's one of those balances where again, you have to just find out where the perfect balance is to make sure that your ecosystem, everyone's ecosystem is different, finding the balance of water and non-water and oxygen and letting the two work off of each other and grow each other. I think that you can grow a business and grow a family together and that they actually both work together and feed each other. I just brought my son on the paver the other day. Took him out of school early. That's the ecosystem there because he is probably going to be better than me at a lot of things when he's old enough. If he wants to, not going to push him to, but if he wants to take the business and maybe he will grow it to Amazon type sizes, but that wouldn't happen if I didn't water him and feed him correctly, which then can go and feed the business. So it's a cycle thing for me. 

Taylor White: I love it. Everything you're saying resonates. And I know that everybody listening, it resonates with them as well, man. that. That's my hardest thing that I deal with because, like you were saying, business takes– It bugs me when people are like, “You know, family's number one.” Because family is number one. Don't get me wrong. We're in business to provide a great life for our families and our employees’ families and everybody. But there are more times than not when, especially in our busy season, because we're in Canada, so we're very seasonal. I was supposed to go t a province called Prince Edward Island. Super nice vacation spot, little Beach House, whatever. We were supposed to go there in July. I pushed it off to August, and now we're at the end of August and we're not going because then it's going to be September because this summer ended up being way busier than we thought. There is a decision that I made to choose my business over my family. And that sucks. And that's something that I think about as well. But that being said, then maybe that makes it so that in the wintertime, we can take a nice trip down to Florida and we can all hang out in Airbnb with the pool and we'll be booked and we're going to Disneyland. I've never been to Disneyland in my life. Or Disney World, whatever one's in Orlando. I've never been in my life because my dad was a workaholic. I grew up with my dad not super present because he just worked all the time. So being able to do that sort of stuff and provide that for our kids, go to Disney World and do something that I never got to do as a kid, I'm looking forward to that and that's the big payoff for me. But I love chatting with you, man. And I guess to kind of tell people like, what's next for you? What's next for Coastal Paving, your content? Where should be people watching out? What's next? 

Michael Melicia: What's next? We were just kind of talking like a week or so ago. We're going to probably start doing kind of like a docuseries vibe on YouTube. So good, bad and ugly. Just kind of like you ever seen the show Gold Rush or whatever? Kind of that vibe on YouTube as a long form, basically just the day in, day out, running of the business and so forth. 

Taylor White: Black Gold Rush? 

Michael Melicia: Yeah, it's actually called Black Gold. So that's next. I'm hoping that it's going to be fun and I think it'll explain a little bit more. That's the thing about 15, 30-second clips, you can't explain exactly what's happening and people don't always exactly understand or see the struggles that each day or project faces. We all wish life was perfect and every job was perfect. But in construction, I think me and you both know that's not true. And I think that showing that side of things, of what's happening, what's actually happening and how we're getting through it and how we're handling it, etc., how the business actually runs and so forth, and what the other people in the company do and so forth. I think that's what's next for the content side for the Coastal Paving side. Like I was saying earlier, just whatever's worked till now, we're going to do that and do more of it and keep increasing revenue and building a balance sheet and a P&L that is strong and stable. And either I could pass it down to the kids if they want it or sell it and go to Disneyland and yachts and Miami and all those things. And that's what's next, I think.  

Taylor White: I like it. Dude, that's awesome. And you saying that you're going to make long form content gets me excited because that's something that I'll watch. I love your stuff. I got to say I'm a fan, you're doing a great job. And I'm 29 as well, so I love seeing another– Well, I keep saying young guys, but I have a couple co-op students that are 16 that work for me and I feel old when they're around. ILike one guy didn't know who Rihanna was and I'm like, “Dude, what the hell are you talking about?” But it's good to see young guys, young guys with families and in business, like getting after it and chasing their dreams and like just doing anything because like you said, one day you're all just going to die anyway, so why not try it? If it fails, who gives a crap? Keep pushing, keep moving forward. And I love it, man. I appreciate you cutting out time today. I know that you're a busy dude, so thank you for coming on the podcast and you packed a lot of value in the 52 minutes that we managed to speak. So I really appreciate it and thank you. 

Michael Melicia: Yeah, man, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure and I appreciate it. And, yeah, I look forward to seeing what comes of it and all the wishes on your success and your family and health and prosperity. Yeah, man, I really appreciate it. And I appreciate these podcasts because it really gives people an opportunity to show and explain their true selves which those little clips don't really give you the chance to do all the time. So, yeah, it was an honor to be on here, and I appreciate it, man. 

Taylor White: Appreciate it. This podcast was brought to you by our good friends over at Komatsu.