Everyone here at Detailed Image is excited to add yet another great detailer to the Ask-a-Pro team. Jonathan Monson of Dirty2Dreamy LLC went through some hardships growing up and worked a few different jobs before getting into detailing. I wanted to summarize a few points from his story, but with so much happening and Jonathan writing this up so well, it was hard to pinpoint exactly what to (and not) highlight. Jonathan really is an inspiration to many and I hope you enjoy reading his journey below. Help us welcome Jonathan a warm welcome to the Ask-a-Pro community!

I was born on the east coast in Natick, MA. My strengths are rooted in mindset and fortitude because of some of the things I’ve endured in life. In my early childhood, I witnessed death several times and even saw my grandfather fall to his death at an early age. The things that I have been through have given me a giant passion for life and helping others. When I was 15 years old, I was nearly killed. I was jumped and sucker punched with a lead line glove which crushed my face. That’s really where my story begins. This is that “defining moment” for me in life when I really put together in my head that we don’t know how much time we have on this big blue spinning ball. I promised my young self to never get jaded or bitter because of others and to help whenever I could. Why? because no one helped me that day. I made it my life’s mission to always be there for those near me when they are in need. It can be exhausting at times but comes with a great sense of purpose. I recall that day now in stories as “the best day of my life”.

Given this newfound sense of purpose at such a young age, I didn’t get along much with leadership. I worked quite a few odd jobs as a young adult installing pools, managing warehouses, and doing physical labor. I really found my love when I started managing repair shops and working on vehicles of many kinds. My career in automotive started by mistake with a promotion to tire and battery at a Sam’s club. I went on from there to be a front end mechanic and quickly realized that I couldn’t stand how inefficient the repair shop I was working in was. I made attempts to improve, but was always fought with resistance from leadership. I moved on to quick lubes while working for Valvoline. I embraced rigid structures and thrived working within systems. There was always the leadership battle. The inherent dishonesty of many repair shops and quick lubes plagued my career as I ran shop after shop. I produced some of the highest numbers businesses had ever seen, but they still didn’t trust my recommendations for efficiency.

I finally reached a breaking point working for a new and growing tire chain. I helped them put systems in place and scale their business to 7 locations in our area here in Washington state. Long story short, the owner had some personal issues with my life choices and partner. Despite being the top manager in the company responsible for creating the company systems, I became a target. Within weeks of an awkward meeting about my life choices, I was fired. It was at that point that I decided I was done making millions for other people and was going to use my knowledge and expertise to grow my own thing. I decided that I wanted to try all the community based things that always go rejected by the leadership at other businesses.

That is when Dirty2Dreamy was born. I started with nothing but $1000 and the car that I had. My fiance, Andrew, and I went through hardship after hardship. My determination to make this a success and my support from Andrew are the only reasons we are where we are today. I could go on and write an entire book about what it took to get to where we are today with a 5k square foot shop and a team of 9. We can save that for future blog posts. What I can tell you is that the bad can’t last forever and if you just keep going, it’s going to get good. I’m excited to share as much as I can about what I’ve personally endured and personally tried and tested within our business. My mission is to help others and leave a legacy behind that says, “He was always the first to jump to help”. That’s my passion along with #operationmissiondetail. We offer free details to cancer patients, recovered stolen vehicles and people going through hardships. We also hold events to raise money for people in need. I dress up as Santa every year to raise money for the food banks and we work our butts off to be able to give more and more as we grow. This is the essence of who I am and why I continue to scale Dirty2Dreamy LLC. I look forward to sharing more with you all and I thank you all so much for the support and encouragement along the way.