Connections! in SW Florida - Featuring Chris Torres with MasterTouch

Good afternoon. Yes. So let's just be honest. We have been praying for rain for these poor people out in Golden Gate Estates. The rain has come and the rain has not been cooperative with the internet access, the connectivity. So Chris and I are going to try to get through 30 minutes together without too much disruption. But because it is storming, and it's certainly in my area, It's been a little bit spotty. So Chris and I are going to try our best. Bear with us if our broadcast gets interrupted momentarily. We're sticking with it. If it continues to get interrupted to the point of annoyance for everyone, then we'll reschedule. But I know Chris is a busy man, so I want to make sure that we do everything we can to make this 30 minutes worthwhile. Real quick, my name is Renee Hahn. I have been hosting these Connections in Southwest Florida sessions, and really my whole vision when I started these a few weeks ago was face of COVID and recognizing that so many of us entrepreneurs who are running businesses have been in effect affected in a way that we're not used to and wanting to make sure that all of our wonderful local businesses continue to thrive during, if that's possible, But certainly after the COVID situation gets better and starts to pass, I wanted to provide a forum where people, local people could connect local businesses. So with me today is the master Chris from Master Touch. Chris, I'd love for you just to take a few moments to tell everybody a little bit about you, because you wear many, many hats.

All right, well, Renette, thank you so much for that really nice introduction. Um, so my name is Christopher Torres. I actually, yes, I do wear many hats. Um, I'm a career firefighter. I've been a firefighter for the past, um, 8 years. I'm also in the United States Army Reserves. Um, I serve as a sergeant. I've been in the Army for the past, uh, 6 years now. And I started Master Touch when I was 18, right, right after high school. Um, You know, I'm always busy, I'm always working, always doing things, but one of the things that I enjoy doing, I mean, the most is the fact that I'm doing things that I love doing. So sometimes I know that it kind of like seems like I'm not working. So I think that's the— that's how I can find time and, and pretty much the passion to do, um, all these different things. But that's a little bit about myself. Um, the company I started the company when—

Chris, let me rudely interrupt you before you get on to the company. I wanted to finish a couple of things off on you. So first and foremost, I want to thank you for your service, both in the, the US service, but also in our local area with firefighting. I commend you. I'm still trying to figure out when Chris actually sleeps. And I met Chris through him providing services to me as a homeowner. I've now recommended him in my role as a real estate agent, but I can tell you, again, before we get onto the business stuff, Chris was always has a can-do, very positive attitude. He's very solutions-oriented. His folks are reliable. They show up when they say, and some of us would say, well, of course they should, you're paying them. But let's be very, very honest. Not every service provider in the, of construction and home improvement do that. I have met wonderful people that aren't necessarily as reliable as they are wonderful. And one of the things I value about Chris and his team is they showed up. If, if they were scheduled, they showed up, they did their work. As you would expect with any service, sometimes there's things We don't all do it perfect. I don't do my job perfect every day, but Chris and his team really address those. And again, it's always a can-do attitude. So I believe that flows down from Chris, you as an individual. And so before we left you as an individual, I wanted to be able to assert those things, if you don't mind, and rudely interrupt you. But now you can go on to the business. And as you talk about the business, Chris, Let's start with what inspired you to start Master Touch.

All right, so I know we got 30 minutes, so we do have the time to talk a little bit about the company. So when I was in high school, when I actually, I took a program that was called Plato Lab, which pretty much what that is, is you go to school and you take about 3 classes and then you pretty much go home early. So I was only 18 years old. I was looking for something to do to try to, you know, make some money. And get a, get like a part-time job. Um, so I was lucky that I had a friend of the family, actually, um, he owned a flooring company. So I started working for him. Uh, the beginning was part-time and I would do, you know, as many hours that I was able to work, a lot of weekends. Um, but anyways, long story short, I stopped working for, for this friend of the family and pretty much was without a job. So I didn't want to go anywhere else. I kind of felt like I learned the trade and I felt like I had some love, I guess, for just the remodeling part of it. So I was thinking about growing a company. I didn't know what it was. And then pretty much what happened was I started saving a lot of money for it. I ended up buying a really, I'm gonna say, in lack of words, a cheap vehicle. And I had— and I was just trying to get tools from all these different places. The beginnings were really humble. Um, honestly, I would go and, and print out flyers, black and white flyers, and I will go to Home Depot and Lowe's, and I will pass around those flyers hoping that somebody will call me to just get a, you know, some type of job. Anyways, I was doing that for probably like almost a month, and I was like this close to give up and say, you know what, maybe flooring is not for me, maybe having a company is not for me, let me just go back and work for somebody else because this is getting really tough, really hard. I was going every day until finally one day somebody calls my cell phone, you know, and I pick up the phone and it was this guy that said, hey Chris, look, I saw your flyer, um, look, I'm trying to do a lanai, I want to do a lanai in my house. It was a small lanai but I was so, so, so happy about it. So I said, yes, absolutely. When do you want me to go? I'll give you an estimate. So I went the next day. Long story short, I was able to get the job. That was my first job, which actually my mom, um, I don't know how, but she found the check, the first check that I ever got. She printed out and she has it in the house in a nice frame. And that was my first check. So that was kind of like the beginning of Master Tots. You know, after doing, doing projects after projects, people were talking about it. I had a lot of support from family and friends calling me, and before you knew it, Master Touch started growing. I started getting busy. I started getting to know more people, and, and that's, that's pretty much how, you know, got Master Touch where it's at right now. One of the things that I was able to do as well too is, you gotta remember, I started the company in '05. So in my first 2 years, um, the beginning were tough, but I was still busy because there was a lot of construction here and around this area. But then around '06 and '07, that's when the recession started coming. And, and guess what? I was still so young, I was still so new, um, I was trying to build my reputation, but I was still, still so tender. So it just destroyed my company in '07. So at that time, um, I was like, oh man, like, you know, like everything's slow, we're not really building anymore, construction pretty much slowed down. So that's when I went into the fire service and then went into the military. And then once, you know, probably like around '07, '08, I'm gonna say probably like around '09, that's when I picked up the company back again. But I picked up the company with a whole different mentality. We used to do a lot of new construction, um, which is fine. New construction is fine, but I felt like I wanted to have more of a touch with the homeowners. I wanted to see the end result. I wanted to talk to the homeowners and see exactly what they were looking for and just go day after day to the project to see if everything is exactly how they want it. So when I came back in '09, I, I redesigned the whole company and I started doing more of remodeling, so it was more into a one-on-one with the homeowners. Now, because obviously being in the fire service and being in the military, I was able to bring that, the whole structure, the military structure, and bring the— even from the fire service structure into my company. That's pretty much helping us a lot, um, you know, having project managers, having crew leaders, having installers. And for me, Renee, let me tell you, um, especially now with everything going on, we get a lot of phone calls of people just calling to see if we are hiring installers or hiring helpers. And one of the things that I do, Renee, is I hire— in this company, we hire character. Um, I want to know that I'm hiring the right person, the right personality, because I believe that the trade, we can, we can teach them the trade. So, um, all the guys that we have right now, all the installers, all the helpers A lot of them, they came here with no experience, I'm going to say, in construction, and they were built into our trade. So that way you can kind of like have the master touch way. But that's a little bit about the company, the beginnings, the humble beginnings.

And, and, Christian, talk to us. Thank you so much. And I admire your perseverance, and I'm not at all surprised by the fact that you were just digging dirt and grinding it out and making it work. Because that's just your work ethic. And I'm glad that despite the downturns, downturns in '07 and '08, you still continued to prosper when things bounced back in '09. So thank you for sharing that. What I wanna do, it's very evident to me because I know your business, what you do, but talk about, you're on the install side, talk about the different types of installs because I know you don't install everything, we've had conversations about that. So tell the viewers, What is it that you install, both products and application?

All right, so it was, it was breaking up a little bit, Renee. Um, I heard that you wanted me to, you wanted me to talk about the different installations that we do.

Yeah, I wanted to talk about what, what products you install, because I know you don't install everything, and what applications you, you know, purposes you'll install them for.

Absolutely. All right, so we pretty much do everything related to tile, stone, and marble. Um, so then that could be flooring, that could be shower remodels, um, that could also be kitchen backsplashes or maybe even accent walls, everything that has to do with any tile, marble, travertine. And so that's what we do. Um, now, you know, lately one of the things that are coming into the market are the long format tiles, or even tiles or travertine themselves. Now they're coming in big formats— I'm sorry, they're coming in big formats and everything else. So one of the things that, that we started training on, um, especially in the beginning, was the, the ability to do small grout joints. And here in the back, I don't know if you are able to see the back wall that I have, um, those over there, that's marble, all right? And as you can see, you can see the grout joints are really tiny Everything looks really flat, almost like if it was just one entire floor or glass. So that's one of the things that we specialize in. You know, when we're doing installations, when we are meeting with the homeowners, I always go over there and try to find out what exactly they want to see, what is the outcome that they want to get. So according to that, then we'll go and pretty much bring it back to the team, bring it back to the project manager,, and we make sure that all the little details that the homeowners are looking for, we actually make sure that we perform, um, you know, in their projects. Now for us, it's really important. Now obviously nowadays it's really important to have a small grout joint. The reason being is because, as everybody knows, grout, it traps a lot of dirt. Um, so with time, you know, with, with high traffic and everything else, it's going to start getting dark, it's going to start changing colors, or it's just going to look dirty. So one of the things that we want to make sure is that when we do the floors, we give our customers a small grout joint, we make sure that the grout joints are sealed and everything is nice and neat. Now we also work with a leveling system. The leveling system is going to allow to, or it's going to allow us to make sure that everything is flat. It's going to give you the lippage-free. Lippage is when you have your ups and downs all throughout your tiles. So the fact that you have a lip-free small grout joints, it just makes your floors look so much nicer and gives you that really elegant timeless look.

Yeah, and I can attest to that because, Chris, you remember, I can never remember the technical name for it. What is the tile has the smooth edge? Starts with a P, right?

You have your press edge. And you also have your rectified tiles.

Rectified, that's it. I can never for the life of me remember that. But I, in fact, you can see it here. I bought wood-like tile from Hattinger Floors and bought it with a rectified edge. And one of the things I was most nervous about and why I was so pleased with Chris and his team is, one, could they get the grout lines small enough? Because my whole purpose in buying this tile tile was so that it had a very wood-like look to it aesthetically. And two, as Chris was saying, the closer you get the tile, the more noticeable the unevenness is because grout does help blend that, right, if they're, if they're just slightly off. And Chris and his team did a really good job. I think I only found one pop, and you guys, it was in a funny place, and you guys came and took care of it like that. So Installation is, I think people spend so much time picking out that perfect tile, and I wish sometimes they would spend that much time picking out that perfect installation company because you could take beautiful tile and ruin it. I remember as a person who is not terribly handy, but I was at the time very cheap, and I did my own tile. Backsplash in my kitchen, and I left for a short while in my husband's hands. He just looked at me funny because he knows I'm about to pull him out. And I said, make sure this tile stays all flush. I don't want any pops. I came home and there are pops everywhere. I said, baby, what do— I asked you to watch this. He goes, oh, that's what you meant, those kind of pops. So anyways, my point is, it's not as easy as books and the installation is so, so very important. Um, let me ask this, Chris, any geographic boundaries in terms of where you guys will work? Um, any, any applications like industrial versus, or commercial versus residential? Talk to us a little bit about any boundaries you have if people are, are interested in your services.

Absolutely, Renee. Um, so mostly we do residential, and the main reason why we do residential again is because we like to have that touch with with the homeowners. Um, I believe that when it comes to commercial, industrial, they pretty much have a guideline, and they, you know, it's just— they came from, from the top, and, and it's just different. I feel like every single project that we do that has to do with a homeowner remodeling, every single one is unique. Every client that you're gonna get has a different personality has a unique character. They're looking for different things. We like to do everything custom. We pretty much don't, we don't really have like a cookie cutter design. We always like to do something different, especially when it comes to shower remodelings. Once we open up and we have a free canvas, we like to do each shower different than the other. So, and that could be in the size of the niche, or it could be on the shape of it, as far as the floors or different size of bench or type of bench. So now, yes, we're open, absolutely. If we do residential, we do commercial, industrial, but, you know, usually we like to, we like to work more into the residential ones. As far as like different areas, we work in Lee County, Collier County. We are soon going to be in Charlotte County as well. Uh, we have an office in Cape Coral, we have an office in Fort Myers, and pretty soon we're going to be opening in Naples as well. Um, majority of the projects are actually in the Naples area, um, so you're probably going to see a lot of our vehicles around there. And the way that this pretty much works is we have a really nice system where you will call the office. Shelby, which is the lady actually operates here in the office, she will get you an appointment, she will get you a consultation.. And, um, I'm the one that's gonna show up. I— and even with that really busy schedule that I have, I always tell Shelby, I tell the guys, look, you got to send me. I, I want to go over there. I want to meet the homeowners. I want to see exactly what they want. And, and also, I want to make sure that they know who I am and they meet the, the owner of the company. I think that's a really special touch too for, for them. So I get to meet them and get to talk to them. Uh, we get, you know, we actually make a list of everything that's that they want, and then we go to the stores. And that's another really actually fun part because we go to the stores and we get to create the different designs that we can do. And then after that, they get assigned to a project manager. I don't know if you remember Ron. Ron was your project manager in your project. So they get assigned a different project manager, and that project manager is pretty much going to be with you day in and day out, day after day until the project is done.. And then at that point, we also will select a crew that is going to work on your project. We want to make sure that we keep the same crews and we're not changing guys on everything else, so that way you get used to them, they get used to you, and they actually know everything in and out from your projects. I think we lost Renae. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? I think we lost— we lost the connectivity.

Chris, are you there? I'm there.

I'm here. I'm here.

I'll still take this rain because I don't want anybody's houses or properties getting burnt down, but I told— tell you, it's frustrating. I could hear you up through the project manager, and they're there day in and day out.

Yes. So right after you get— we select a project manager that's going to take care of your project, then that's when we pretty much choose your crews as well. So you're going to have your own crew, your own guys are going to be going to your house, and we always try to make sure that they're the same guys going to your house day in and day out. The reason being is because we want to make sure that you are getting used to them, and also because they know already the ins and outs of everything that needs to be done at the house. Once you start changing people, changing crews, or putting new guys, then it's different. It's not the same touch. So once we select your project manager and then we select your crew, that's going to be the same crew that's going to go from the beginning to the end until the project is done.

Good. And Chris, I know I came a little bit in a different way because I had picked my tile out and I met you, but what I heard you say earlier, if somebody approaches you first, you've got connections to tile tile sales offices to be able to guide them through that process and have that be part of the planning, correct?

Absolutely, absolutely. So we get, we get, you know, many clients that actually call here first without having any tiles, without having kind of like not even a design. They just, they just know that they want to remodel, that they don't like the floors that they have right now, or that, you know, their showers are so outdated that they want to do something about it. So they call here first and we take them through all the steps. Um, pretty much like I said, the first, the first step will be they make connection with the office, we make an appointment, I show up, we, we find out exactly what they want, what we can do, the different ideas that we can, that we can get. And then we make another appointment to go to the stores. Now they have different options. We work with many different stores. And you know, if they're in Collier County, then we obviously look for a store in Collier County. If they're in Lee County, then we'll look for somewhere close to them so that way it's not an inconvenience. I also show up to the stores and we, we go around. We have a, we have a designing group as well that it can help as far as designing, making different plans and everything else. We want to make sure that everything is in steps where they can understand and they can see the whole process. I think one of the things about remodeling, remodeling could be stressful, but when you actually find the right team. And you know, Renette, you know that could be stressful, but when you find the right team, the right people, the right crew, I mean, it could be a really nice journey.

Yeah, and I, um, I agree with that. I think who you work with absolutely impacts, um, how the experience is. I also, I'm kind of in my mind going through as a consumer of these type of services some of the things that I hear people ripe about and I just want to share. So one is, do projects get, get finished on time? And I can say, Chris, you were right on par with your estimate for my completion in terms of the, the number of weeks. And it was a big project. We had wood demo, we had tile demo, and I'm pretty sure you hit it almost right on the date.

Yeah, I think, Renee, one of the things that helps me a lot too is the fact that I started from the bottom. Let me start from the bottom. So I was, I was a helper, I became an installer, I became a supervisor, and then I actually started running the company. So I went through every single step of this, uh, of, of the company. So I know, I know, I know how to install, I know how to, you know, how long it's going to take, um, what type of details we need to do, what type of changes we got to make to make sure that it, you know, we come out with the the outcome that we're looking for. So we usually have an idea on how long it's going to take. Um, the good thing too, Renee, is that we always try to have a good communication with the homeowners. So in the case that there's going to be a delay, or the tiles are not going to come in on time, or if it's raining, or something, whatever the case is, communication is key. We have a strong communication with the homeowners, and we always want to make sure that we keep them updated with everything that's going on. Either we're gonna finish, you know, before the deadline, the deadline, or if there's going to be some type of delays because of any reasons.

Yeah, nope, I found that to be very true. Let me ask this, Chris, has COVID affected your business in terms of your ability to work on jobs? Um, yes, no?

So let me tell you, Renee, before this whole thing, you know, happened, um, At the beginning of the year, I was able to schedule every single crew until the end of May. And a lot of the homeowners, a lot of the clients that we had, they actually were out of town when this whole COVID was going on. So, and they never stopped construction. Um, we were blessed that we were blessed to actually have these projects already in line. We were blessed that the homeowners were out of town. So we were now working on unoccupied homes. Um, So that is slowed down a little bit, you know, everything is different. We're taking it in a different, in a different way, um, but we were still able to, to, you know, work and, and have the guys busy for this whole time.

Good. So if somebody has a new project they want to start, obviously you may have some things in the hopper, but there's nothing that would preclude them from, you know, guys being able to move forward with quotes and sub scheduling of work sounds like?

Oh, absolutely. We have, we have, we have about 10 crews. Each crew is made of, you know, 2 or 3 guys. So we have our shower crews, we have our flooring crews. So yes, absolutely. You know, if they— and I always tell my clients, take your time. Let's take your time. Let's see exactly what you want. I want to make sure that you fall in love with your floors. You have to fall in love because once they're in place, they're not going anywhere. Um, just like you remember, like, we actually— you were able to choose some beautiful floors and your house looks beautiful. I'm actually able right now to see a little bit on how it looks now that it's dark back there. But oh my God, yes, better than when you were last there, Chris. Yes, but, but absolutely, um, we, we do have the ability to, you know, to get on this project if it's big or small We're here to serve our clients.

Fantastic. And Chris, I'm gonna, before we wrap up, I'm going to take just a moment to talk about some of the businesses that I have coming up on future ones. So starting out next week, I have Jack from Vision Home that's going to be joining me on Monday. Tuesday, I have Vicki with Naples Home Watch. Wednesday, I have Mallory with Boring to Bombshell Nails. I think Thursday I've got Tiffany with Clear the Clutter. Friday I've got Joanne and John with Potty Express, not potty, don't let me slaughter their business, paws, animal paws. Potty. I don't want you thinking we're going to be talking toilets on Friday, not a place I wanted to spend Friday. And then I've started to round out the next week. I've actually got Walter from Walter Salazar Pest Control on Monday. So again, let me remind everyone. One. These are completely free. I just take a half an hour of your time, a half an hour of my time. We get together, it's a live stream. It's my way of trying to find a way to give back during these challenging times. And so if you or you yourself have a business that you're interested in spotlighting, or you know someone else that would benefit from that, please send them my way. Renee, R-E-N-E-E, @YourNaples and I'm happy to get them booked. I do not go out, I'm not going out and soliciting anyone at this point. We'll let it follow its natural course, and if people stop reaching out to me, I will reallocate my time back into other parts of my business. As long as there's a need and people have a desire, I'll keep doing them. So that, I just wanted to let everybody know what the lineup is ahead of us, and again, I encourage you to reach out to me. But Chris, as we round out the half an hour, Please, anything you'd like to share with our viewers as a wrap-up?

Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for having me here. It's always a pleasure. Thank you for everything that you're doing. You know, supporting small business is really strong. So I feel like in these times, we all have to, we all have to, you know, fight together and stay together and help each other. You know, help your community. If you're, you know, if you have a restaurant close to you, If you have a mom-and-pop business, go help them. Right now is when they need us. So, you know, and that's how we're going to have the economy— that's how we're going to get the economy growing again. I know there's tough times, but we're going to get through it. We have been through so many different wars, times, and we always made it. So we got to be positive. We got to help each other. We got to be strong. Take precautions. Obviously, always take precautions, but we're going to make it through and we're going to— we're just going to— we're going to stand up even stronger and better than before.

Great, I agree wholeheartedly. And if you've got a need now or in the future when it comes to stone or tile work, again, that can be horizontal or vertical, um, Chris and Master Touch are your team. The nice thing about working with them is you're going to know you're going to get a quality install, and you can go anywhere to get your tile. You're not locked in. Not to take anything away from Flooring Places, but if you go to Flooring Places, you're looking at their inventory And then you can follow through with their install. And most of them are, all of them are okay with your own install. So working with a team like Chris who bring the expertise in the install, you can buy your tile anywhere from Lowe's to HomeGoods to Hattinger to Floor Meisters, any of those, and get what you're looking for. Have a beautiful symphony of beautiful product coming together with great install so that you love your floors as much as you thought you would when you stood in store and picked them out. So Chris, I appreciate— again, I know you're incredibly busy with the many hats you wear, but thank you so much for taking time out of your day to let others learn about you. I, you know, I hope that your business continues to thrive. I think you've got great staying power. You demonstrated that when we had the housing challenge back in '07 and '08. And you know what, this— as devastating as this is, COVID is temporary, and I wish you continued success. So thank you for making homes and businesses beautiful.

Thank you for having me.