How I Built My Small Business

Duran Morley - No College? No Problem. 17 year old started VANSPEED instead.

• Anne McGinty • Season 1 • Episode 45

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Today, we're joined by Duran Morley, an action sports enthusiast who has built a thriving business centered around adventure living. Duran is the founder and CEO of VanSpeed, a company that converts sprinter vans into recreational vehicles for adventure-seeking customers.

College wasn't the right path for Duran, and he found that he learned best by doing. At just 17 years old, he opened the Van Mart, an e-commerce store selling van accessories. That venture has since snowballed into a full-scale, eight-figure annual revenue sprinter van conversion business, customizing vehicles not only for recreational use but also for mobile business opportunities. 

And he's only 24.

Duran has taken the outdated 1980s RV design and transformed it into something modern, efficient and visually appealing. As an avid surfer, motorcyclist and camper van traveler, duran is the end user of his own products. His work has been featured in American Iron Magazine, hot Bike Magazine, roadkill Magazine and Hot Rod Magazine.

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Duran Morley:

When I got an accident, there were a lot of things that I didn't know how were going to affect my life and if I was going to really survive or live or how I was going to be. That moment it really gave me the vision to see if this was the end. This is all I did. You never know when things can go and you want to feel good when they do. You want to feel what you accomplished and how you accomplished and where things end up.

Anne McGinty:

Welcome to how I Built my Small Business. I'm Anne McGinty, your host, and today we're joined by Duran Morley, an action sports enthusiast who has built a thriving business centered around adventure living. Duran is the founder and CEO of VanSpeed, a company that converts sprinter vans into recreational vehicles for adventure-seeking customers. College wasn't the right path for Duran, and he found that he learned best by doing. At just 17 years old, he opened the Van Mart, an e-commerce store selling van accessories. That venture has since snowballed into a full-scale, eight-figure annual revenue sprinter van conversion business, customizing vehicles not only for recreational use but also for mobile business opportunities. And he's only 24.

Anne McGinty:

Duran has taken the outdated 1980s RV design and transformed it into something modern, efficient and visually appealing. As an avid surfer, motorcyclist and camper van traveler, duran is the end user of his own products. His work has been featured in American Iron Magazine, hot Bike Magazine, roadkill Magazine and Hot Rod Magazine. You can find a link to his business in the episode's description. If you enjoy today's episode, please share it with a friend and consider leaving me a review or following the show to help me reach more listeners ears. Thank you so much. Let's get started. Thank you to our listeners for being here today. Duran, thanks for coming on the show.

Duran Morley:

Looking forward to it.

Anne McGinty:

How did you originally get interested in sprinter van conversions?

Duran Morley:

So I grew up Southern California lifestyle. So all the action sports riding, motorcycles, surfing, sailing, go to the ocean, mountain sports, snowboarding, desert sports really everything that an adrenaline junkie can dream of. Always being and doing something and camping was also a big passion as well. So always building stuff since I was little was also another passion of mine Everything from motorcycles to mopeds to cars and I actually went on a work trip that I met this couple. They had a software company that they sold and they were traveling in a van. I thought it was the coolest thing, but I knew in that moment I was like this is a great idea, but I feel like I could do it so much better in my own van Now.

Duran Morley:

Throughout those years I've always had a van, but I never decided to actually build it out and make it to what a functional camper could be. So when I got back, I decided I'm going to build on my van to be a legit camper. Turns out there was no places to buy parts and accessories or anything to build it out. So I was like, okay, well, let me get all this stuff together. I want to learn how to build a website. So I learned how to build a website and I put all these things on there and I was actually doing drop shipping and then turns out everybody loved it and they wanted me to install the parts they have on the website and that kind of took off into installing parts for people. A few years later we actually started manufacturing the parts and accessories and turning one install into 50 parts we're installing, which turned into a full actual build. And then from there, covid happened. Everybody was wanting to get outdoors and get their backyard, so it was a great time to really accelerate some of this stuff.

Anne McGinty:

So you did not actually get into this with the anticipation that you would be doing full conversions.

Duran Morley:

No, I didn't Really. It started as a passion project. Coincidentally, in that timeframe I actually got hit by a car as well, on my motorcycle, and for me, when I was laying in a hospital bed, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to walk or what my next six months year, two years, three years looked like I was just done with high school, graduated early and I was just kind of figuring out things and for me I was like well, I have a computer, I know how to use it, let me see what I could do. So really, that allowed me to really focus in on taking from scratch and going to the University of YouTube and learning how to build a website and just doing it.

Anne McGinty:

Rad All through video.

Duran Morley:

All through video troubleshooting forms. You know a couple of calls at Shopify. Picked it up and just ran with it.

Anne McGinty:

You had mentioned earlier that you were always building things. How did you learn how to build things?

Duran Morley:

I had some neighborhood people that loved to tinker on things, so I always just kind of looked at their shoulder and learned from that.

Duran Morley:

My dad is very involved in the action sports and power sports industry. Growing up I was always dragged around going to events and races and things like that, from like the Baja 1000 in Baja Mexico to off-road races, trophy trucks, to Supercross, all that stuff, to surf events, wsl so I was always involved with it somehow and really it came down to I thought it was cool, but what's behind the curtains, how does it go on and how does it get built and how does it? I was just so curious. I always ask questions and I think that's something that really drove me to not just ride a motorcycle. But how does it work and what makes it go and how does it get put together? And a lot of people think it's like okay, you see a motorcycle and that's the end of it and you know it's just a few parts slapped together. But it's this whole choreography piece of people in different industries and backgrounds and knowledge bases to put together a machine and I always just found that fascinating.

Anne McGinty:

You naturally have a bit of an engineering mind.

Duran Morley:

I think that was a portion of it, and then a lot of it kind of comes to the passion of it. You know, riding a motorcycle, surfing, those are things I just love to do on a daily basis. So if it came down to I was surfing one day and I didn't really like how a board turned or how it really rode, I would go back and try to fix that because I just wanted to be better. So you could say that is very cool.

Anne McGinty:

So when did you know that your business was really going to turn into something more?

Duran Morley:

more. The first time I thought like, oh, this could possibly be business is when my parents sat me down and said, hey, you can't do this out of a garage anymore, you need to get your own place. And I was thinking, am I really doing that much? So yeah, that's when I actually first thought like, oh okay, well, if they notice it, then maybe I should try to notice it and see.

Anne McGinty:

What were the next investments that you made? So, when you got booted from your parents' garage, what did you do?

Duran Morley:

I was always very cautious. I mean, renting a building and doing stuff at the time was like whoa, like this is scary, you know. So I actually rented a back alleyway of a friend's shop, rented it in may or something, and by august we were completely over it. We're rolling our tools out during the day and it was a hundred and like I don't know three degrees out, but it was just so hot in the baking sun and we're like, okay, this, okay, this isn't gonna work long, so quickly. After that we got a 1200 square foot space, but it was really just growing as I went.

Anne McGinty:

So 1200 square foot. And now can you describe your workshop to us?

Duran Morley:

So now our facility. We're located in Westminster, california, right off the 405. We're just around 30,000 square feet of manufacturing and about another 15,000 square feet of warehousing, parts storage, and then we have outside facilities as well that we do some restoring at.

Anne McGinty:

So this has grown really rapidly.

Duran Morley:

It has, it really has.

Anne McGinty:

Can you tell us a little bit about some of the key points, Going from a 1,200 square foot workshop to now the size that you're describing? There must have been 20 other steps in there.

Duran Morley:

You know, what's really helped me along the way is just being passionate in what I do and a lot of the stuff has just come naturally. So talk about the crucial me along the way is just being passionate in what I do and a lot of that stuff has just come naturally. So talk about the crucial steps along the way. We really diversified ourselves. So during COVID, when people couldn't get stuff in, a lot of our competitors that were importing all their stuff really suffered.

Duran Morley:

When we were manufacturing all our stuff in the United States, we really grew and excelled as far as our parts go, stuff in the United States. We've really grew and excelled as far as our parts go, because having all that stuff local and having quick access to it was always a big thing. And I think that's across our entire company of how we diversify ourselves. So not just in our recreational aspect, which is our RVs and motorhome type vehicles, but also in our commercial aspect. So our commercial thing is something we launched just two years ago, which that's taking a cargo van and converting it to a whole commercial vehicle for mobile, medical, dental, health, government uses, bakeries, all sorts of different uses. The steps along the way is just, you know it's watching the pennies and it's making sure that everything goes far and trying to do everything strategically as possible. Now during COVID, it was a big rush to the finish line for a lot of people just trying to get things done fast. So it's just being really precise about your actions and your movements.

Anne McGinty:

Do you currently manufacture all in the United States?

Duran Morley:

We do.

Anne McGinty:

Do you currently manufacture all in the United States? We do so. When you started manufacturing, how much capital did it take for you to place these orders just to get started, to let these manufacturers entertain working with you?

Duran Morley:

So when we first started we were dropshipping components right, so virtually it was free. We didn't need to commit to anything, we just needed their okay sell the product for us. Once we got to that, we started making our own parts. Then we just started extremely low quantities. We made very little margin, but it was extremely low quantities, and I'm talking about quantities of three, four, eight items, so pretty small. Then from there we just really naturally grew, with zero outside investment, zero venture capitalists, zero private equity, none of that stuff, just naturally growing step by step. And I think that really benefited us of watching the pennies, the budgets, everything that went into developing a product and selling the product.

Anne McGinty:

I love your business so much. Is anybody else doing this?

Duran Morley:

So no one else is doing what we're doing. Now. There are other vehicle manufacturers out there, there's some online stores, but we kind of took every angle of the industry and brought it into one because it just works so well. On our side, we have the parts we sell, we have the vehicles that we manufacture, and they're all under different companies, but they all kind of fall under the same roof. I mean, they're all housed under the same roof as well.

Anne McGinty:

You started this when you were 17?.

Duran Morley:

Correct.

Anne McGinty:

Did you have anybody who was guiding you on decisions? Did you have a forum or like an entrepreneur's group?

Duran Morley:

Yeah, I had a lot of mentors growing up, all different industries and purposes, from Roland Sands, from Roland Sands Designs, so they focus on designing and developing motorcycle parts and accessories he was a big mentor of mine. Jerry Zayden from Camper, big mentor of mine. They build and design race trucks that go through the desert at over 100 miles an hour. So I've had a handful of mentors over the years and I think it was always keeping your eyes open and always being open to conversation and talking to people was always a big thing of mine.

Duran Morley:

Now, a lot of it. It does get lonely in there and you do have to make decisions on your own, but a big portion of it is being confident in your decisions and going with your gut. You get to a certain point where your gut decision is really well and you put together a team that ultimately is better than what you'd ever be able to make it make it and with the business operations, how did you learn what you needed to know in order to grow your team and to be the chief executive officer of this company?

Duran Morley:

Yeah, big or small, all companies, when you come to learn, they all have challenges and the challenges come every day. Bigger the company, bigger the problems, bigger the challenges. So really, over the years, it's come to listening the company, bigger the problems, bigger the challenges. So really, over the years, it's come to listening to people, talking to people and always finding a better solution, never staying stagnant because before you know it, things will pass you up, and that's one thing that I've definitely been caught a handful of times is staying stagnant and things start to creep up on you and pass you up. So you always got to keep moving and that was something that I think is something we have to preach across everything staying hungry and staying moving.

Anne McGinty:

And you mentioned listening to your gut instinct and you were so young when you started this business. So how do you listen to that gut instinct, like what shapes your mindset and your approach and your thought process for making business decisions?

Duran Morley:

Yeah.

Duran Morley:

So when you get a lot of people together, it could be tricky to see someone's thought process all the way out, and that's why a lot of things don't get executed the way that they probably should have or the most productive or positive way more output.

Duran Morley:

So when I say listen to your gut is see the vision all the way through and plan and execute on it. You know it's good to have feedback and allow people to incorporate different ideas and decisions, but most importantly is be confident on your decision and live with it, good or bad, but you know, if it's bad, it's a starting point and then improve upon on that. And I think that's something that a lot of people make a mistake on is that they start with a bad decision and they realize, okay, well, hey, maybe it's not for me right, but really it's just a starting point on okay, this is where you're starting. It could be worse, it also could be a lot better, and I think if you just take everything and spin it in a positive aspect, it totally can change your mindset, not just with you, but everybody you work with and people you're around. And you know, stay positive.

Anne McGinty:

I think it's a huge thing. Yeah, it sounds like you are Wise beyond your years. How old are you now?

Duran Morley:

So I'm 24 right now.

Anne McGinty:

You're still so young, but you have so much wisdom. The way that you're speaking is like the way that people speak when they're in their 40s sometimes, and you're only 24.

Duran Morley:

Yeah, I mean I always like to say it's like the school of hard knocks, right, because it really is. A lot of stuff I've kind of come to realize or learn hasn't been like I opened up a book and all the stuff came out of it and I'm 10 years ahead, right, it's just been doing it, and doing it at five times. The speed has always been a thing. So when you grow and the best way to get adjusted to a cold pool of water is to hop in, that's kind of how it's been. It's been getting into the water and getting used to everything around and figuring out how to be better at it and how to grow, and once you're in that situation, it's crazy what the human mind can learn and how fast it can grow.

Duran Morley:

I've read a ton of books and there's a handful I like. There's a handful I don't. There's one I read recently I just finished up. It's a really good one. The name of the book is Fire, by Dan Ward, so essentially, in Fire, what he talks about is just starting somewhere, which I think is something that's widely missed. A lot of people think it's waiting for the perfect product, waiting for the perfect product, waiting for the perfect idea, the perfect business, the perfect opportunity. It's really just starting somewhere and finding your base, because either way you look at it, even if it is a perfect product, you're still going to start somewhere. So I think it's something that recently I looked at and I was reading and just thinking, and there's some really good examples.

Duran Morley:

I don't want to give them all away, but one of them is about the Air Force, about them making a supercomputer. They contracted a company to make a supercomputer and they actually used like 1,500 PlayStations to build a supercomputer. It took 10% of the power. It took 20% of the original budget allocated. Rather than making a supercomputer from scratch, they took this already existing idea, made a couple tweaks and totally reinvented what a supercomputer is out of PlayStations. It's used for gaming and usually widely used by kids. But there's lots of good books out there and they do have lots of good principles and ideas. But see what you think about it and take it with a grain of salt and challenge the idea, challenge the concept and try to break it.

Anne McGinty:

What is the size of your company, how many people work for you, and what can you tell us about how well you're doing?

Duran Morley:

Yeah. So COVID is an interesting one. For a lot of companies they did really really bad. For us it was a happy medium because we manufacture our parts but for some things that aren't manufactured you can't really do, like wire and electrical components and things like that that just are forced to manufacture overseas. When it comes to building the vehicle, we ultimately were kind of strangled on some of that stuff with buying power and not being able to get the product on time or saying we're getting on time and plan everything around it. It's not on time when you have an entire vehicle that's already built but you're missing one crucial little component.

Duran Morley:

These have kind of learned and set its lessons across the board. For us it was good and bad when we couldn't get things. It just forced us to create more of our own product, which then was a little easier for us. Now, throughout COVID it was a calculated growth, but it was a fast growth. Now we created product, we created vehicle builds and we excelled. During COVID we grew to just over 30 people, which is where we stand at now, and then collectively across all our locations were right around 45,000 square feet of manufacturing parts, inventory, all that stuff. So it's been an exciting run for sure, and we've learned a lot.

Anne McGinty:

How would you describe your process from receiving interest from a customer to then delivering a finished product to them?

Duran Morley:

50-foot RV that has a washer, dryer, all that stuff in there that they can go ahead and either A park in their driveway and be able to go to the beach for a weekend, or they want to go on a four or five-month road trip.

Duran Morley:

Maybe they want to go from Alaska all the way down to the tip of Baja and Cabo and all the way back. So we have customers that do everything you can imagine with these vehicles. They're very highly capable. So when we get these customers, a lot of it is just deciding what they're going to use it for and what's their motive and do they have kids, and how they're going to go ahead and benefit from the vehicle. Working with the customer to develop a vehicle that's surrounded around and suiting their needs has always been an important thing. Vehicle that's surrounded around and suiting their needs has always been an important thing. Now we provide everything from interior layout and a design that has worked over the years, and then they go ahead and mix and match their exterior components to fit their either budget or their use case.

Anne McGinty:

And can you take us behind the scenes into your workshop? So what sort of software programs are you using and what type of physical machines do you have in your shop to make the conversions possible?

Duran Morley:

Yeah, so during COVID, when labor supply was very short, we opted to do a lot more machinery and CNC equipment and technology. So we have a wood CNC router that actually cuts out all our cabinets, doors. All our wood components gets cut out there and then it gets assembled. So that is actually going back. Another way that we kind of really propelled during COVID was having that automated. Same thing on our metal side goes fully automated metal CNC fiber laser. We do all our welding, fabrication, bending, everything in-house, so it allows everything to be under one roof. But a lot of those technologies allow us to excel, just having things accurate and perfect every single time.

Anne McGinty:

What kind of job roles do you have on your team? So, do you have the designers, the engineers? Do you have the carpentry, fine carpentry, electricians, plumbers? Who comprises your team? And then, who do you bring in as third party?

Duran Morley:

We've always been big about trying to. You know, okay, if we don't do it in-house, then let's not do it at all, because it's probably not important, you know, and if we need it, then let's find someone that can help us with it. So, as far as shop goes, we have a full team between carpentry, install, fabrication, all different departments. We have an engineering team as well. At the beginning we didn't have an engineering team, so deciding if we needed one was a big factor. It was a big added cost to our business, but it really would allow us to grow our business.

Duran Morley:

So, I mean, one of the biggest things is choosing okay, how is this going to be rewarding? And, most importantly, when can it be rewarding? You're going to put a significant investment in a department. You want it to pay off pretty quick. It doesn't always fulfill that way, but that's the goal. Doesn't always fulfill that way, but that's the goal. And we opted to do engineering team just to provide faster products, better quality of standards between instructions and product and installation methods and everything to our customers, and ultimately, that was to provide a better experience.

Anne McGinty:

I looked at your website and it looks like you have several layouts that are sort of pre-designed. What does the engineering team do, then, beyond those designs, since they're already set? What are they doing on a day-to-day basis?

Duran Morley:

Yeah, so we have the vehicle side and then we have the product side. So the vehicle side is just developing new layouts and making tweaks to curtain ones A lot of our customers are very creative and making tweaks to curtain ones A lot of our customers are very creative. So they'll come up with ideas and give us feedback, which is nice, because they're using the bands every weekend or every day. So we get great feedback on how they're going to use it and what they're maybe looking for as a customer. And then we kind of choose from there what to add and how we're going to develop it even better. So we'll take the ground idea and then we'll improve upon it. And even better. So we'll take the ground idea and then we'll improve upon it, and then we have our product side. So these are creating parts and components that are going to allow customers to customize or add on to better suit the needs. And that could be something like we came out last year with it, but it was a customer feedback item and there's a rear box that's off the back of the doors on the sprinters.

Duran Morley:

Now a lot of people add this because they want to put snowboards, skis, things like that, on there. So this gives them opportunity to basically lock their things in there and be good to go. So what we created is we actually created an open storage locker. So the benefit of this is everybody knows when you put skis and snowboards inside your car, it doesn't matter. However good you clean them off, they're always going to have a little ice melted into there.

Duran Morley:

So we created an open box that allowed people as they drive home and say if you go to Mammoth this is a pet peeve of mine as well when you go to Mammoth Mountain here in California and you go drive home and then you get home and you have the snowboards or skis on your car, now you have water all over your car and it's a big mess. So essentially, this outside carrier gives you the opportunity to go ahead and blow it off while you're driving home. So everything is just clean, dry, ready to get packed up and ready for the next time you go. So those are like little things that we just do as like customer features that just suit their needs a little bit better. That goes a long way.

Anne McGinty:

That sounds like a lot of fun. It's very creative. Have you ever had a request for something that kind of blew your mind a bit?

Duran Morley:

We've done a lot of vehicles for actors, different celebrities, high net worth people, oh man, yeah, you know, it's always exciting to see what customers are going to come in with and what their interest is or what their request is going to be, because everybody thinks a little differently and everybody has a different use case. So we've done everything from a guy that wants to take his van to Idaho, to Montana, to go fly fish off the back deck of his van, to the person that wants to go ahead and just travel with their family of five. They're all different use cases and all different backgrounds, so we're really just curating to them on what they want. At the time it's like this is completely different than what we're doing, but now what's happening is that we have this whole consumer facing side and then we have this business facing side.

Duran Morley:

So this is the stuff that's really having me sit on the edge of the seat, which is creating a business that was brick and mortar to now be mobile. So that's everything from medical to dental to just random mobile businesses like IV, drip labs, experiential marketing vehicles. So instead of a trade show booth or setting up easy apps and going from places, you have your whole experiential marketing setup inside a van and now it's a full indoor showroom on the beach in Highland Beach or in Las Vegas Trade Center during a convention. There's so many different uses for it. So this is something I'm very excited for. The next year or two is seeing how creative some of these business owners get and seeing how we could help take their dreams and sketches to become a reality and functional.

Anne McGinty:

It sounds very rewarding what you're doing. It's because it's more than a vehicle, it's a lifestyle or it's an income generator. It's something that is adding tremendous value to people's lives. So, really, really impressed. How many people can fit in the largest conversion van that you can do?

Duran Morley:

So our biggest layout right now and when I say this I'm sure we'll get someone that wants to do more, because it always is, but typically our standard layout right now is about five people this layout is the Trailblazer. It was actually developed with Ken Block. Now, for the people who don't know who Ken Block is, he passed away a little over a year ago, but he is a pro rally car action, sports enthusiast, adrenaline junkie, daredevil. His daughters actually are training to race in Formula One right now.

Duran Morley:

So before he passed, we actually got in partnership to create a vehicle that was designed around everything he uses and how he lives his life, from racetracks to snowboarding, to snowmobiling, to utv, to all these different use cases and we were creating a vehicle for him and his family to go use, but then also he could use it as a mobile workstation when he's at the track with his daughters. So go back to the you know, craziest request we've had. That's probably actually it is. We needed to pack everything we could in this vehicle but also make it capable that this professional off-road driver can go ahead and drive it off-road. So this was a pretty crazy request.

Anne McGinty:

What percentage of the conversions that you're doing are this customized?

Duran Morley:

Very rare. Now, when we started custom, we started custom because we didn't know what was the best and what was the worst. Now, over the years, we've really learned, doing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of vehicles, that we know what works for customers and what doesn't. So we wanted to create a better experience. And what better experience than it is to create a layout that works for a customer. In other industries you'd have interior designer and you have an architectural designer and then you have a whole firm working for you. It's a little different in this industry, these layouts. They work just depending on what the customer has and what the requirements are from kids to sports gear, to mountain bikes, to motorcycles, lots of different uses. Our conversions from when the vehicle rolls in and rolls out, it's about seven to eight weeks for the customer.

Anne McGinty:

Wow, that's pretty fast.

Duran Morley:

Standard in the industry is about six months. So with a lot of the technology and processes we implemented, it just goes to show how quick we are to turn things around.

Anne McGinty:

And how many vans are you currently doing per year on estimate?

Duran Morley:

So just over 100.

Anne McGinty:

Amazing. It's just such a cool business. How do you approach continuing to live that adventurous life with running and growing such a big business? Running and growing such a big business.

Duran Morley:

Great question. It is definitely a struggle, but what's great about it is these aren't just something you sleep in or you camp in or run a business out of, it's also a mobile office. So if it's just going down and working in a vehicle or taking everything I like to do which I still love to motorcycle even after my accident, I still love to surf and still have all these things it's nice because it's not just a vehicle. When you get there, it's an easy vehicle to transport around.

Duran Morley:

I think that's the big mistake. People ask okay, why are they so expensive? What's really different about them? It's because this vehicle doesn't just get you to the location, but when it's sitting at home in a driveway, it's easy enough to hop in and just go to the grocery store and park in the parking lot. You know, the smaller model, which is the most common model, is actually the same length as an F-150 pickup truck. So very easy to turn, very easy to park in a parking spot parallel park especially in Orange County where we're based out of Parking's a little tight.

Anne McGinty:

Yeah, and I don't personally like to drive RVs, so the idea of doing one of these vans instead just feels so much more doable, attractive.

Duran Morley:

Exactly.

Anne McGinty:

How big do you want to grow your business?

Duran Morley:

There's always the big number, and the number always grows as you continue to grow yourself, but the biggest goal is to produce something that lives on to be a legacy, lives on to be an iconic brand, and how we get there is made up of the decisions that we bet on on the way.

Anne McGinty:

And when you say legacy, what does that mean to you?

Duran Morley:

on the way. And when you say legacy, what does that mean to you? Legacy is changing the way the RV industry is. Now we have built a vehicle that wasn't necessarily needed. They don't need more vehicles to be made. What we did is we developed an alternative to cater to the customer that doesn't want to drive a big RV and, on top of that, doesn't want the same styling that has been used since the 80s and 90s. We put a refresh in the design elements and the architectural aspect of building a van and to create something that's more modern. As cars and everything else become more modern, we wanted these vehicles to be something fresh and new, that when you hop in it you don't really feel like you left home. You feel like you're in a rolling piece of art, and essentially what we've always joked around is that this is customers' beach house on wheels. They can pull up to a Sanofri beach or Malibu and this is their beach house where they could cook, hang out, barbecue, store things, sleep camp. It's a cool experience.

Anne McGinty:

You've found an amazing solution, very creative, to a problem in an existing industry. I mean, that is the dream you want to leave a legacy. Why is that? Where does that fire come from?

Duran Morley:

Every time I get out to go ride motorcycles or surf and I'm bringing the van, it just gets me so excited to put myself in the position as the customer because I get to see it from a different angle now. I get to see on how's it being used and we did it like this, but does it really work? How does it work better? So these are things that I enjoy. So I really get to take my passion and I get to combine it with how the vehicle works. So that's the feel for me is when I build a vehicle and we would design new parts and all that stuff.

Duran Morley:

I'm doing it to create a better experience for customers. Customer streams when they come to us and we've been following you guys for three years and we saved up enough to get you guys a vehicle and we're going to be going on this trip to Alaska. It is so rewarding to see where these customers take the vehicles and how long we go on these trips for and what they see along the way. It's the coolest thing, I'd say. Every other day I get texts from customers and emails of different photos that are there at different locations, and that's stuff you just don't get with anything else.

Anne McGinty:

And as the end user of your own product, you really get to understand what it means.

Duran Morley:

Exactly.

Anne McGinty:

So what advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Duran Morley:

For me, college just wasn't really the right thing that I was going to enjoy. I was never really a textbook person, so I was always on the side of learning on my own. It's for some people. It's not for everyone, but for someone aspiring, I think the biggest thing is to get up and go and work like you'd ever worked before. It's not easy being an entrepreneur and starting a business, but it is rewarding and it does make up for all the lost nights of sleep and the frustrations and stress with it. But the biggest thing is get up and go and work like you've never worked before. And if that's going from never doing anything before and just turning a new leaf and trying it out, but don't quit, just keep going, just keep going.

Anne McGinty:

Did your accident, your motorcycle accident, have any sort of a profound impact on the way that you think or the way that you live your life?

Duran Morley:

I knew I have always wanted to do something on my own. When I got an accident, there were like a lot of things that I was hurt on that I didn't know how we're going to play affect my life and if I was going to really survive or live or how it was going to be, but for sure, in that moment it really gave me the vision to see how's this going to end up and if this was the end. This is all I did. So, yes, I think it's one of the biggest things you know. You never know when things can go and you want to feel good when they do. You want to feel what you accomplished and how you accomplished and where things end up.

Anne McGinty:

Yeah, like it's better to try and fail than not.

Duran Morley:

Yeah, exactly, and if anything, the failures create good stories.

Anne McGinty:

Totally. If someone listening in right now is a teenager and college isn't the right fit for them, what advice would you give them for approaching their next steps in life If they don't have a business idea yet and they don't necessarily even know what they want to do?

Duran Morley:

Next steps, I would say is find what you like to do outside of work or making money doing that stuff. If that's a sport, if that's a hobby, if it's whatever, just find it and try to get started in an industry like that, because you'll soon to realize that whatever you're doing when you're working for it and you like it, it's really not work because it just naturally becomes part of your lifestyle and your day to day activity. And I know that's. You know do something love. You'll never work a day in your life. You know you're always going to work, right, but it's a matter of making it not feel like work.

Anne McGinty:

So you are just very wise beyond your years. To close up here, I just have a few rapid questions.

Duran Morley:

Okay.

Anne McGinty:

So what's your favorite vehicle?

Duran Morley:

I won't choose a conversion van has to be a motorcycle. There's nothing that gets you more connected to the road, to like nature, than a motorcycle.

Anne McGinty:

All right. Second question Would you choose surfing or motorcycling?

Duran Morley:

Oh geez, that's a hard one. You know I'm going to say surfing, because I just chose the motorcycle.

Anne McGinty:

So and for the last one destination you've never been, that you want to go.

Duran Morley:

I would love to do trips through Whistler, Canada.

Anne McGinty:

Oh, that would be amazing on your motorcycle too.

Duran Morley:

Oh yeah.

Anne McGinty:

Well, Duran, thank you so much for coming on the show and chatting with us. I love your story.

Duran Morley:

Yeah, thank you for having me. I love sharing it and looking forward to staying in touch.

Anne McGinty:

Today's key takeaways. If there's a product, design or solution you need and can't find, there's a good chance others will need it too. Innovation often starts with solving your own problems. Duran learned web design while recovering from a motorcycle accident and attending the University of YouTube. Embrace setbacks as opportunities to grow and learn. Stay curious and ask questions to better understand your curiosities. This is a repeated one, so really let it stick. Surround yourself with supportive, positive people who believe in you, maybe even sometimes more than you believe in yourself.

Anne McGinty:

If you rely on materials from overseas, consider reshoring where possible to safeguard against global supply chain disruptions. Watch your pennies and ensure every dollar is well spent. Be precise and strategic in your actions. Always be open to conversations and new opportunities. Keep your eyes open for better solutions and never remain stagnant. Trust your gut. Make decisions confidently and live with the outcomes, good or bad. Use mistakes as starting points for improvement.

Anne McGinty:

Spin every experience, good or bad, into a positive learning opportunity. This mindset can transform you and your team and your life. The human mind grows quickly through hands-on experience. Don't be afraid to dive in, get started and learn as you go. When reading business books or considering advice, including this advice, challenge the ideas and see if they hold up under scrutiny. Before making a big investment, ask yourself how the investment will be rewarding and when it will be rewarding. College is for some people, but it's not for everyone. You can learn on your own In all circumstances. Get up and work like you've never worked before. Get up and work like you've never worked before. And, lastly, life is unpredictable, as Duran learned from his serious motorcycle accident. Make the most of your time and opportunities. That's it for today. I release episodes once a week, so come back and check it out. Have a great day.

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Anne McGinty

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