The Institute’s Leading Edge Podcast

131 - Struggling to Hire? Imagine Recruiting in the Last Frontier with Mike Simard

131 - Struggling to Hire? Imagine Recruiting in the Last Frontier with Mike Simard
April 28, 2025 - 00:32:39
 
Show Summary:
Recorded at the Institute Summit, Mike Simard dives into the challenges of recruiting and developing talent, especially in a unique setting like Alaska. He shares his innovative strategy of acquiring lube centers as entry points for new team members and highlights the critical role of strong company culture and leadership. Mike also emphasizes the importance of building the right team, balancing the visionary and integrator roles, and the need to continuously adapt in the ever-evolving automotive industry.
 
Host(s):
Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio
 
Guest(s):
Mike Simard, owner of Simard Automotive
 
Show Highlights:
Mike Simard's Background (00:00:00)Acquisition of Lube Centers (00:02:10)Energy and Problem-Solving (00:02:43)Vision for Training Talent (00:03:41)Geographic Logistics (00:05:12)Talent Development and Apprenticeship (00:05:41)Industry Comparison (00:06:32)Recruitment Challenges (00:09:04)Relocation and Recruitment Process (00:12:31)Motivation for Policy Writing (00:16:03)Understanding Unique Selling Points (00:18:05)Building a Strong Team (00:19:20)Learning from Coaches (00:21:52)Delegating Responsibilities (00:22:30)Building Company Culture (00:25:47)Understanding the 'Why' (00:27:09)Finding the Right People (00:28:34)Balancing Inner Voices (00:30:04)Breaking Barriers in the Industry (00:30:35)
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrZHa2uib2k
 
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Carm Capriotto: This is the Aftermarket Radio Network everybody. Carm Capriotto Remarkable Results Radio in Amelia Island. We're here at the Institute Summit. We are the institute.com. Thank you so much to Kent and Cecil and the entire team from the institute to be here just a few hours ago. Michael, were you in the room when I gave my little speech?
Mike Simard: I was not. 
Carm Capriotto: You weren't? I was not. Okay. Well, they'll do it right now for you.
Mike Simard: Let's hear it. 
Carm Capriotto: No. It's a little longer than this podcast will warrant. Yeah, and it was great doing that and a lot of great friends, top tier shop owners that are here, and glad you're here with me. So we appreciate everything from the institute and how they're growing and how they have these incredible groups.
Carm Capriotto: More than 16% of light duty vehicles on the road are EV and hybrid. Is your shop ready to safely and properly service them? Get your shop trained and equipped to service hybrid and EV vehicles. With Napa Auto Tech's innovative, EV Ready, level one, high Voltage awareness and maintenance training. Hey, for over 30 years, Napa Tracks has made selecting the right shop management system easy by offering the best, most comprehensive SMS in the industry.
Carm Capriotto: We'll prove to you that TRACKS is the single best shop management system in the business. Find NAPA tracks on the web at N APA TRA cs.com. Also, thanks to aftermarket management network.com for information that can help you move your business ahead. And for the free and informative labor rate tracker.com.
Carm Capriotto: With me is Mike Simard. You were on a couple of years ago at the same event. That's right. Wow. Two, three. 
Mike Simard: That you even pronounced my name right? Still. So, 
Carm Capriotto: all right, throw the dollar over. I've been practicing it seven locations, but there's a couple of really unique things about Michael that you all need to know while you're driving down the highway on your treadmill.
Carm Capriotto: Listening to this, because you're here to listen, to learn. Just one thing from Michael Smart. It's got seven locations, but they're in Fairbanks, Alaska, Fairbanks, and Anchorage. And Anchorage. Now you see I got an incredible update. Last time I knew you, you 
Mike Simard: had four I. So I met you in Florida and at that time I had four locations, comprehensive models in Fairbanks, and then we a few months later had bought three lu and tire stores and a tire warehouse and two are in Anchorage.
Mike Simard: So we're now in the Anchorage market as 
Carm Capriotto: well is the tire warehouses just like they do in Canada where they store the tires for people or you distributor of tires too 
Mike Simard: distributor. So, ah, we have more buying power through this point S group that we join a tire buying group co-op, and we need to house the tires.
Mike Simard: Got it. 
Carm Capriotto: So. Amazing. Where the hell do you find the energy to do this? 
Mike Simard: Well, my wife says if I wasn't doing something, I'd break things just to. Just to stay going, so I like to 
Carm Capriotto: You're the Energizer bunny. 
Mike Simard: Yeah. I like to solve problems. I like to do different things. Oh God. I like to. Oh, I so love that. 
Carm Capriotto: Yeah.
Mike Simard: You know, I sleep good at night most of the time. Do you invent problems so you can fix 'em? That's what I said. Yeah. She said if you didn't go find something broken to fix I know. Or build something new. I'm so much like that. Yeah. I really, 
Carm Capriotto: does it still continue to work? Okay. Which 
Mike Simard: parts 
Carm Capriotto: I know Think about it and 
Mike Simard: can it do it better?
Mike Simard: You know? Can we get a better mousetrap? Teresa says, dad, it's fine. 
Carm Capriotto: Well, yeah, it's fine, dad, because I've always been this perpetual upgrader, you know, 2.0, 2.1 2 3, 3 0.0. I've always been, you never stay stagnant, right? 
Mike Simard: Well, our purpose, our vision is always try to elevate others the highest potential, so you better live that yourself.
Carm Capriotto: Michael, it seems crazy for you to go and buy some lube centers 
Mike Simard: and did you have a purpose to do that was the deal, right? The biggest thing, you know, I discovered a lot of new things, so I love learning and it's a new challenge and one of the things we need to do is continue to find great talent and grow our own by buying.
Mike Simard: I always had this vision many years ago, didn't quite understand what it meant, but the vision was like over on that side of town we'd have this teaching training shop. A place that maybe we can find talent, find people that want to come into this industry and train them up. People need to come in for a convenience oil change.
Mike Simard: They need to get some basic services and then get on their way. It's a wonderful place to teach people a better industry and kinda get them started, you know, and make sure they have their basic hygiene, make sure they really want to go down that road, and when we find out that they're a value fit, that there's somebody that wants to learn.
Mike Simard: That somebody we can maybe take all the way into our four year apprenticeship program. And so I had that vision and that just happens to be that one of the stores I bought in Fairbanks was in that same side of town and never thought that'd be the place, this one particular location. 'cause I was like, that's something I can't do.
Mike Simard: I. Had a limiting mindset there for a while. Yeah, sure. And then all of a sudden we did it and then we grew in the Anchorage market. 'cause they're really thirsty for, we believe what we have. And now we actually have promoted, hopefully next month will be the third apprentice. Out of that same location I.
Carm Capriotto: Apprentice out there into, 
Mike Simard: so that's into our general service shops. Into your, okay. And then we can grow them to a level master tech. 
Carm Capriotto: I just logistically need to understand how far away is Fairbanks and Anchorage? 
Mike Simard: Six hours unless, 
Carm Capriotto: oh, okay. You're going faster. So this isn't someone that you train 'em in Anchorage and move 'em into Fairbanks 
Mike Simard: for the Fairbanks market.
Mike Simard: But we actually just last October started our first ever 
Carm Capriotto: Anchorage Apprentice two, so I think we've got seven or eight now. Okay. Alright. It's such a great idea. That an independent successful goes into a specialty shop for entry level maintenance. And looks at that as a team building operation. 
Mike Simard: Yeah, that was the first vision actually.
Mike Simard: It wasn't like, I'm gonna go make a bunch of money or just get more car count. I was like, I wonder if we can find people and attract them and teach them who we are and maybe we can, you know, are you gonna show up in time? Are you gonna comb your hair? Are you gonna wear a uniform? Do you get along as a team?
Mike Simard: Can we teach you some life skills, some basic goal setting. Quality control. Do you care? Do you have customer service so you can actually, the lube model's kind of interesting 'cause a lot of people will change the oil and interface with the customer at the same time. So you actually can get advisors out of this.
Mike Simard: Technicians. And also when I went into that side of the industry, I didn't realize, you know, being part of the institute and ROO and the legacy evolution of this wonderful thing that they're doing here at the summit. I didn't realize how much they need there too. And we can share and learn from both sides of that industry.
Mike Simard: The tire and lube business and the comprehensive model. It's very interesting how they can share and grow together. 
Carm Capriotto: Why don't I hear a lot about that here in the States, and it's going through my mind. Well, they don't want to compete with Jiffy. You must have Jiffy Lubes up there. I 
Mike Simard: think we have two other quick lubes in Fairbanks.
Carm Capriotto: Okay. 
Mike Simard: Wow. It's then us. Okay. And then you have the dealership Fast lubes, of course. 
Carm Capriotto: Okay. So when I think of what you did as a proving ground, if you will, for talent. To feed growth of your other comprehensive stores as I think you called them. Why wouldn't we be thinking of doing that here? 'cause I don't know a lot of independent professional shops that own quick lubes.
Carm Capriotto: I think they have quick lube bays. I get that. I know a bunch of people that have quick lube bays. It's probably an incubation for talent, but it's a brilliant move. 
Mike Simard: Well, I guess I didn't really think of it until you asked me about it. The dealership does it for obvious reasons. They service the same brand.
Mike Simard: Yeah. I have a couple of friends that have done it. I find there's a few of us out there doing it. I can tell you one thing. We also have a couple of gas stations. Now, the reason why we bought them is because they were great quality shops already in excellent locations, and Fairbanks just doesn't have a lot of opportunity to buy shops.
Mike Simard: So I can tell you one thing though, if you can do one thing really well and get really good at it and don't do 27 things and try to do them all really well. Doing one thing really well is easier. And when you say that, you mean 
Carm Capriotto: oil changes 
Mike Simard: Really well. So if you just, if you do tires or you just do lube or you do comprehensive, but we do that and we'd sell gas, and then we have a tire distribution system.
Mike Simard: So I. The complexity of it is challenging, and so maybe that's one reason why not everybody's doing that. 
Carm Capriotto: Okay, got it. The lube centers, are they finding work for your comprehensive, your four other stores? Yes. That's the other benefit. 
Mike Simard: So they, we have a little internal referral system. Okay. We also at this time have branded them differently, so if you go to our website, you won't see that tire and lube model on there.
Mike Simard: Okay. Yeah. Because customers are expecting different things. You, in a convenience store, you expect one thing, you go into a big grocery store, you expect another thing. And so we wanted to be able to still provide to our small communities the opportunity to get the kind of service that they associate with that type of store or that brand.
Carm Capriotto: This is fascinating. I'm with Mike Sard from Fairbanks, Alaska from Sard Automotive, four stores, actually seven locations all together, a couple of quick loses and a tire distribution place. Is this the only place that you're recruiting? No. And so that's the big thing. I mean, you know, listen to my listener, you know, Carm, I'm interested in everything in the industry and including this man from Alaska.
Carm Capriotto: I've always wanted to do a story on mushing. Your mush dogs. 
Mike Simard: Oh, you're gonna come up sometime, right? And see us? Yeah. Yeah, we 
Carm Capriotto: are. Yeah. Yeah. How many hours is that? I mean, from Florida here, 
Mike Simard: driving or flying? You know, it's only like 13, 15 hours. So it's 
Carm Capriotto: only 13 or 15 hours to fly. That's right. Like to Florida.
Carm Capriotto: Yeah, but from Buffalo, maybe what? 10? Add 
Mike Simard: two, three more hours. Go to Boston and then go, 
Carm Capriotto: oh, I live near 
Mike Simard: Toronto. Jets are fast. Okay. You can make it. No excuse. You wanna go Tracy? Next summer. Tracy wants to go take you fishing. Oh, maybe you can bring Michael Smith or somebody. There's, oh my God, 
Carm Capriotto: what I'm telling you, I would, I 
Mike Simard: can buy fuel.
Carm Capriotto: We'll have 'em buy fuel. It would be a blast to hang out with a whole group of, if you ever get a group of institute people that want to just come up for the Alaskan trip of a lifetime, I'm in. 
Mike Simard: Oh, we had Bates and Waffler, and you did Casey last year. We do that. They know how it works. You buy fuel for my, and maybe a bottle of Kraken and then I take a minute when they want to go, oh my God.
Mike Simard: We could do a podcast out to see. Would you like that on Starlink, huh? Yes sir. Okay, done. You continue 
Carm Capriotto: to stretch this balloon here. Maybe you help me 
Mike Simard: recruit. That's not a conflict of interest. We'll, even, well, 
Carm Capriotto: let's talk. I'll buy the fuel. Alright, so let's talk about that, which is where I was going like, Hey, let's go.
Carm Capriotto: Was kind of going down that rabbit hole of. Anybody from the us you see your ads and say, I think I want to go up there where it's cold and there's no sun. Or where there's a need and I can fill it. How do you wanna look? I love that. How do you wanna look at that? I love that. You know? Oh, that's perfect.
Carm Capriotto: That's the exact answer. I see what happens with the sun on my head. Yeah. Too much. Yep. It's making it hardened a little bit from the north. Yeah. 
Mike Simard: I had to buy sunscreen. 
Carm Capriotto: Day one man from the North country, was it the Game of Thrones? Anyway, but I digress. Recruiting, I mean, is it all Alaskan talent you're finding?
Mike Simard: So we continue to evolve in recruiting. I sat down the other day and wrote a well over a couple weeks, a 200 page playbook on recruiting. Just try to dump everything out on my knowledge and Oh wow. This Playbook builder called The Way Book when our coach said many years ago, you gotta recruit. It's coming.
Mike Simard: He was right. And especially in Alaska it became more noticeable. A very small place to, to pull from. And uh, especially since COVID, you know, I think the attrition, people moving around more and more everywhere. And so we recruit, had some really good talent from Florida. It's really weird, Texas. I can't seem to get anybody outta the northwest.
Mike Simard: You think that'd be natural? It's like one plane ride. Just go over the border. But we recruit all over. So we're hoping though, in the next couple years. With, shoot, I think we're close. Like I said, between six and eight apprentices now. That next couple years, they're gonna start getting their master program in a little more time in saddle.
Mike Simard: And so maybe we have a little less room for the people down here now. We'll keep growing shops that'll, if it's right to do so and so we'll continue to, to 
Carm Capriotto: my listener. Don't be pissed that I'm trying to talk to Mike to recruit great talent to go up to Alaska. But my curiosity of where you find great people, then you say, yeah, people, they want a life change.
Carm Capriotto: If the whole family comes up, do you getting single people going up? 
Mike Simard: Yeah. And of course we wouldn't recruit from our friends, so we're not gonna do that here. Sure. We all have a hard time. So we'd be happy to share. That's smart. We do share with our friends. That's smart. Yeah. Like this is how we find technicians and so I wanna help the industry, so I'm not gonna try to pull people other shops, but obviously we don't wanna hold people back.
Mike Simard: So actually I prefer a support system, but we're not gonna discriminate against anybody. So I. We go through a very long process. I can give you the overview if you want. Sure. We've done some stuff on social. I've been in Texas before meetings with like, Hey, that guy in Alaska, and usually I'm out at sea saying, come join us for Alaska, so I gotta sell it a little bit.
Mike Simard: Yeah, I get it. Yeah. And so we have multiple parts of the leadership team, of our leaders, and we all recruit. We talk to them and we kind of reconvene and say, how's this working? What do you think about this position? We really talk about the trial. We do a job trial. If they pass all the interviews, they come up for two weeks.
Mike Simard: We pay them, they work with us. Every shop is a loaner toolbox and they work under the lead tech. And then we have a conversation. We take 'em out to dinner, how's it going? And then we give 'em a pretty substantial relocation package if we make that full-time job offer. And we'll move a whole family up. 
Carm Capriotto: Are you a Napa Autocare Center who is ready to take your shop to the next level?
Carm Capriotto: Then the Premier Tier Napa Autocare Gold certified program is exactly what you need. Gold certified Autocare Centers provide customers with a consistent experience no matter where they are in the US Now, this means. They're more likely to return and support your shop or find your gold certified auto care center while on the road.
Carm Capriotto: Gold certified members can maximize technology, increase their local marketing opportunities, and have a fully trained team that keeps up with the latest trends. Simply put the gold certified NAPA Auto Care program powered by your local brand will set you apart. A true partnership is a two-way street.
Carm Capriotto: Shops must meet specific criteria to be eligible for the many benefits of gold. Now, Napa Autocare rewards its most committed partners, their gold certified members with free premium shop referrals on the NAPA online locator, annual marketing dollars and enhanced warranty training opportunities, program rebates, and so much more.
Carm Capriotto: Are you ready to get started? Contact your local NAPA sales representative to discuss your eligibility and apply today more than 16% of light duty vehicles on the road are EV and hybrid. Is your shop ready to safely and properly service them? Get your shop trained and equipped to service hybrid and EV vehicles with NAPA Auto Tech's innovative EV Ready, level one, high voltage awareness and maintenance training.
Carm Capriotto: Hey, take your Autocare center to the next level, the gold level with the Napa Autocare Gold Certified Program. This program is for the best of the best who can provide a consistent consumer experience and earn the trust of returning and new customers. Talk to your NAPA sales representative about how you can become a gold certified shop.
Carm Capriotto: Let's face it, your shop management system is the single most important tool in your shop. Period. Napa Tracks was built from the ground up to make your business more profitable and efficient, we provide an extensive set of tools to increase and track profitability in real time. Napa Trax offers the industry's best post-sale support hands down.
Carm Capriotto: And we train your people on site. Yep, on site. And we offer remote refresher training 10 times a week, and customer support is open. Six days a week, give us a call. Visit the website or join our Facebook community today to learn more. We'll prove to you that Trax is the single best shop management system in the business.
Carm Capriotto: Napa Trax is always customized and tailored for you, whether you are a one man shop or a large multi-pay or multi-location company. After all, it's your shop. So it's your choice. Visit us on the web at NAPA Tracks. That's N-A-P-A-T-R-A-C s.com. Hey, did you know@automotivemanagementnetwork.com you can find an SOPA checklist forms along with policies and procedures that can help you move your business ahead.
Carm Capriotto: Well, sometimes you just need a little motivation to write a policy. If only you had something to review and then make your own. You can save so much valuable time when you can grab a document from our library, make a few adjustments for your shop, and move to your next task. There are more than 350 searchable documents with new documents arriving soon@automotivemanagementnetwork.com.
Carm Capriotto: If there's a job fit, you're gonna do what's right. That's right for them. That's right. 
Mike Simard: And then we'll house 'em for the first 90 days as well. Yeah, on top of that. And so usually it's enough to get started. That's an 
Carm Capriotto: expensive, 
Mike Simard: it's very expensive. Whoa. I just actually calculated it three days ago. I 
Carm Capriotto: don't know if you want me to tell you what it costs, but Yeah.
Carm Capriotto: I'm so curious. I'm sure my audience is, I mean, 
Mike Simard: It might scare people. It shouldn't be super 
Carm Capriotto: secret, but it's a reality of life. What it takes to, for you to recruit into Alaska can, I guess. Yeah. 20 grand 
Mike Simard: total cost more. 
Carm Capriotto: Wow. Yeah. Can I jump up another 10? 
Mike Simard: If you don't count the money you lost because maybe someone left.
Carm Capriotto: Okay. Yeah. 
Mike Simard: I think it was in the 30 something thousand. Now this is providing them 10,000 plus and then you're providing for the salary when they come up. Yeah. And then your time. It depends, however you wanna break it out. And if you indeed spend and sponsor, there's other ways to do it. That's the current mode.
Mike Simard: And I remember when I had a single one or two stores thinking that a recruitment fee or whatever, it's like, how am I gonna run my store? How am I gonna make payroll? How am I gonna serve customers? How am I gonna fix cars and recruit? That's what we had to do. Right? People don't understand what that takes.
Mike Simard: And it's harder now, 
Carm Capriotto: but you figured it out through. The right profit, the right gross margins, the right sales structure, the right everything. I mean, people can't be listening to this podcast and saying, I don't know how he does it, but you do. And you do it because you have great disciplines, good structures, I'm sure.
Carm Capriotto: Great programs and policies and people and culture. That's right. And all of that allows you to spend that kind of money. Now are you recruiting one or two a year? One every couple of years. Like that 
Mike Simard: depends how much you grow and it depends how well you take care of the people you had. Right? And it depends on how sticky you can make your company.
Mike Simard: So the idea is that people matter. And I think it really comes down to the continual evolution of our understanding. Our ability to find people that, that believe in our values and believe in our purpose. And then of course, Alaska is very unique. So the thing I can tell people, my recommendation to people is like, every place you are okay, has a unique thing about it.
Mike Simard: Now, I wouldn't wanna live in Arizona anytime soon because I was talking to Arizona and friends. I'm like, every day you get up, it's the same except that three days of rain. So for me, I like change. Okay. And so, but that's very appealing to somebody that maybe is sick of the cold or sick of the rain. No, I got it.
Mike Simard: So the grass looks greener on every side of the fence. So find your, you know, unique selling point for your Yeah. Company. But what about your community? And you will find people that want to come to you. And so you have to start that relationship. Obviously you have to start that connection. And then make sure it's a fit, and then you will make mistakes just like any technician minded person like myself.
Mike Simard: And just keep learning, 
Carm Capriotto: keep growing. Mike, what happens if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? People gonna handle it. 
Mike Simard: Well, 
Carm Capriotto: my attorney 
Mike Simard: told me to raise my life insurance, so Okay. That I did that part. Well, good. That's get your will, get your affairs 
Carm Capriotto: in order, get all that in order. But you're gone for a couple of weeks.
Carm Capriotto: You got a great team that's just charging ahead. I mean, the culture, the kind of people tell us you don't have to leave for two weeks. You could leave for, you know, work. Three days at the shop and two at home. As long as you have the right team, and obviously you've had to build that. Yeah. 
Mike Simard: And still learning, still growing.
Mike Simard: You know, I think obviously you can't start that way if you're running a single store. You've gotta pour in your people. I think it was just like, Dan, just like a lot of people talked about at this summit here, is find somebody that you can pour into, find somebody that wants it, find somebody that wants to learn.
Carm Capriotto: I love the word pour into, but they have to have the capacity to drink that Kool-Aid, don't they? Yeah. Yeah, they do. And sometimes you believe in the person, but they don't get what you're trying to do. 
Mike Simard: I'm an activator, right? Yes. So, and I have Woo, and then all those things. So that I'm really good at getting people started.
Mike Simard: And one person said for me from one of my strengths is I've gotten older, getting older, approaching 50. You start, hopefully wisdom comes in with less hair and more gray isn't, wait a minute. That's the idea. I think wisdom, I'm still acquiring it. I'm asking for it and I seem to get a lot of lessons to teach me it, but yeah.
Mike Simard: So you get kicked in the ass and instead of failing backwards, you fail forward. Yeah, exactly. So really trying to learn how to 
Carm Capriotto: do that better. So how do you guys survive the rollercoaster of business and weather and stuff like that? 
Mike Simard: So again, the institute's done a good job. I'm not here to sell the institute.
Mike Simard: Right. But I have some really good coaches that help us plan, forecast. Yeah. You gotta scroll away. What's that? Yeah. Because you're the leader, like you're helping feed all these mouths, all these people relying on you. The weight of leadership. So weight of responsibility. So like right now, first quarter's kind of slow.
Mike Simard: So you have to be ready to weather that storm. 
Carm Capriotto: Do you stop marketing? Do you keep marketing? You know, there's, people are saying, well, I'm really busy. I'm gonna, I'm gonna pull my marketing back, and then all of a sudden they're only four days out instead of eight days out, and then they want to turn it on.
Carm Capriotto: I. But it's tough to turn it on and have an instant result. 
Mike Simard: Right. And when the market and the customer, the demand's not there, or it's around the holidays, they don't always have the money. It's kinda like recruiting. Do you recruit when that person leaves or do you do it before? Yeah, so we really learn that stuff now.
Mike Simard: You can listen to the coaches, you should really listen to coaches, but a lot of us are stubborn. A lot of us are a personalities and like, oh, I'm gonna figure it out myself. Right. Well then you get burned and you get hurt and you can choose to either cry or fail forward, like you said. We 
Carm Capriotto: could do hours on.
Carm Capriotto: I didn't listen to my coach and here's what happened. Yeah. And now I regret. I 
Mike Simard: was right like two times though. I'll just say, 
Carm Capriotto: okay, 
Mike Simard: that's okay. Out of 20 years, two out 20 years, I remember 
Carm Capriotto: two out of how many 
Mike Simard: things they told you. Hundreds, right? Yeah. And with my wife, I think I was right. Less times. I'm just saying that was married for longer.
Mike Simard: But my wife's always right. That's why I'm happily married one time, but 
Carm Capriotto: that's it. She'll listen to this and so you're, hi, nice to meet you. Yep. Long distance. Sorry hun, please don't think terrible of me. No. Type A. What did you call yourself a few minutes ago? Oh, an 
Mike Simard: activator. An 
Carm Capriotto: activator. What kind of skills do you delegate?
Carm Capriotto: 'cause you just don't like to do 'em? 
Mike Simard: Well, it's funny. That's where I was thinking about the wisdom part. Like we didn't stage this at all. I've learned some of us have read the book E Os or Traction. Oh yeah, 
Carm Capriotto: sure. Are you doing that? 
Mike Simard: I. Yeah, we're actually going through the scaling up process, which, okay.
Mike Simard: Which I found out is where, and you're the visionary. You're the visionary. I'm the visionary all the way. I read a book like Rocket of Fuel and I'm like, yeah, so it's okay to be me. Like this is like, I know everything about me. It's okay. I know. So what I have now up there is somebody that compliments me really well.
Mike Simard: She's been with me 12, 13 years and she like, I'm a high di. And I know I'm using a lot of the profiling things and stuff, so I'm just a driven Sure. Like a driven coach. Like I wanna win but I wanna win together. And she's a very high sc so it's a very complimentary so, and if she hears me say this, she'll be a little concerned 'cause she don't like when I say the word friction or a little bit conflict.
Mike Simard: So there's some of that sometimes. 
Carm Capriotto: Yeah. But an SC should be a great integrator. Exactly. Does she want to be an integrator? 
Mike Simard: Yeah. Okay. So you're finding a right role for her? Yeah, and very complimentary. I'll cast the vision, but she's more wired for lingering behind and supporting. Okay. And making sure they're getting all the details.
Mike Simard: Yeah, they need to. So it's like a perfect thing. I don't like great details. I don't like to slow down. And S As and C's. I love the details and really wanna make sure it's, are you high D or high A? High D I'm like 99, 98. 
Carm Capriotto: Okay. 
Mike Simard: Alright. Depends if you depends. 
Carm Capriotto: We're partying, 
Mike Simard: we're gonna have fun or we're gonna fight.
Mike Simard: So whichever one. 
Carm Capriotto: Wow. Not 
Mike Simard: fight, but 
Carm Capriotto: you're an all. We'll fight for my team, like a good coach. You're an all in di or DI. Yeah. Wow. It's fun. I have to tell you, and I know a lot about disc. I went through all kinds of training, got a textbook on it. I've got a great, oh, by the way, go to my website.
Carm Capriotto: Remarkable results is slash downloads are on my downloads page. On the website, there's this great chart on disc for your salespeople to see. I think it's so cool to see a high D that has high I high. I could get along with that person. You and I could be friends for a long time. But for me, a high I to work for only a D, that's a tough thing.
Carm Capriotto: Unless the D is willing to listen to my crazy visionary off the wall. Hey, it's, you know, this is good stuff. It's gonna be fun. I had a boss like that. But ultimately, I believe we ended up becoming really close and good friends at the run of my career. I almost believe I really do that. I changed him a little bit from being such a, just a driver.
Carm Capriotto: Tough D. A tough D, and I got some of his D. When you had to go out and do stuff, you had to make things happen and you want to go out as a high I, Hey, come on everybody. We're gonna do this thing. They say, okay, we're gonna have another fun day of really new important policies with km. And you know, I needed my lu razzi in the room, my high D, to say, alright, here's what we're gonna do right now.
Carm Capriotto: So, and I find that fascinating in building and growing culture in the business. Is it all you or is you bring the team together? Do they know? We do what we love to do. This is the kind of company we have. We take care of people, we take care of you, we take care of the clients. How have you built this great culture?
Carm Capriotto: We're still 
Mike Simard: working on 
Carm Capriotto: it. Okay. We're not, that's a great answer. Not answer, by the way. Honestly, we're not. I love that 
Mike Simard: and I am, you know what? Our values is excellence, so I always want to keep growing. I'm very mindful of that, trying to stay humble. I think the biggest thing that I'm continuing to get, hopefully, some more wisdom on is really in the leadership team, really looking for people that we can compliment each other and also making sure we have the skills to not like get stuck in a certain place like we did the Working Genius the other day.
Mike Simard: Won't go too deep into that. I'm still learning about it, but I really resonated with, I could clearly see what I love to do and what I don't love to do. And then, but then I looked at back at DISC or some of those people on my team. I was like, but you do. And so what I realized, the more I stay in that visionary space, casting the Y, I just, I probably put eight hours in that beach, or I wore a trench.
Mike Simard: And a lot of like earbuds in vacuum, just talking to my people. Yeah. Yeah. And literally, I swear we talked about why, and Dan Clark talked about why. Yeah. And the why. It's like, I know, how do I get through? Like they didn't see that coming and I've been talking about it for a couple months. It's like, how do I get through and talking to my wife or talking to.
Mike Simard: Chief of staff and it's like, how do I get through and help from a perspective of Michael Smith and I talk all the time, and I think I wore him out on the beach too for two different walks, but really coming down to if you can get someone else to see the vision and see the why. Okay. And now that's where I need to live.
Mike Simard: Now I also know how to do the how. So, but what's dangerous for me, I'm finding as I'm getting older, is that if I stand how too long in those details, that's probably not the best space for me at the size of this company right now. Yeah. 
Carm Capriotto: When I was listening to Dan Clark and I didn't hear his entire presentation today.
Carm Capriotto: He did say it's the why, not the what. And I wrote that down and I was impacted by it because when you talk to people about their why, it's tough for a lot of people. It's tough to know and to figure out. Appreciate, understand their why, but by saying it's not your what, that person maybe can back into the why.
Carm Capriotto: He, it's not what you do, it's why you do it. And I thought that could be a game changer for somebody struggling with their why. Yeah. Now I get the whole how thing. I really understand the how thing, how you know, it's like who not how. Right. Another great book that really helps you understand it's Dan Sullivan.
Carm Capriotto: Dan Sullivan. Yeah. It's, when I hired Tracy was Barry Barrett, who sent me the book and I was telling him about me and Tracy talking and he sent me the book. I realized that she was my how 
Mike Simard: she's a who that can figure out the how that, yeah, exactly. You focus on what you need. Exactly 
Carm Capriotto: right. It's amazing.
Carm Capriotto: We're a tiny little company, but in your company I can see the value that it brings. 
Mike Simard: Wow. Yeah. Actually, just funny, I picked up another book called Who. By Jeff Smart. Okay. Top grading. I think his father wrote the book all about top grading and interviewing and having a players and his book's called Who?
Mike Simard: And it's like, oh my gosh. It's like Dan Sullivan and him had a conversation. Yeah. And he does it a different way. It's a little bit different take on it, but I think that's the whole wisdom part. I was saying that I'm hoping and praying I get smarter as I go and stop beating my head against the wall at times.
Mike Simard: And if you can find those that are really good at something, 'cause you don't have to be the smartest guy in the room, like get over that thing. Right. Find someone that's just loves doing that one thing. And there's things I just don't like to do and I love leading teams, but there's certain parts of that I do really well and there's certain parts I can do and I need to do.
Mike Simard: And when you're a single store owner, have a couple stores, guess what, like which hat you're wearing today? It's tough. It's tough. Yeah. 
Carm Capriotto: Hope to get smart. You just said that about a minute ago. I hope to get smart. You will. Because you hope. Because you know that's something you have to do for so many that just don't want to get ahead, that are languishing and struggling and really hurt our industry.
Carm Capriotto: They don't want to get smart 'cause they're afraid what it looks like. Yeah. I've been there. 
Mike Simard: That guy's still in there. He still talks to me. 
Carm Capriotto: And what do you do? Do you just grab him by the throat and throw 'em in the corner? Well, 
Mike Simard: I tell you, sometimes I lose the battles, but gonna win the war. 
Carm Capriotto: Oh. Is he screaming at you or just whispering in your ear?
Carm Capriotto: Oh, you'd name it. They'll try every little thing. And I 
Mike Simard: don't wanna go too far into that. The devil in one shoulder, angel in the other. But you know, as Michael talked about, and Dan talked about it, you know, we have a soul, we have a spirit, we have our body, we have things, forces, environments around us. We have people that talk to us in the past that are still talking to us that weren't very nice and things.
Mike Simard: And so what you said was very important. I think you have to first believe. I mean really we're such amazing humans, right? You have to first believe you can. I love what Dan said. Dan said today. What he say? Something about when your wise bigger than your why not? Yeah. That's what I took 
Carm Capriotto: away. When your wise bigger than your why not?
Carm Capriotto: And that to me, I was like, helps you understand your why. Mike, thank you so much for the, I enjoy this to a degree that I believe there's a lot of people out there. We always try to break these barriers that, you know, I just believe people have in general, but there's barriers in our industry of people wanting to jump and get ahead.
Carm Capriotto: I, it was a great episode to hear what you're doing and how you're doing it, so I appreciate you being here. Mike Smart's automotive Fairbanks. Anchorage, Alaska, seven locations. God bless you, man. Yes, thank you so much. 
Mike Simard: Yeah, thanks Carmen. 
Carm Capriotto: Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the Premier Automotive aftermarket podcast.
Carm Capriotto: Until next time.
 

130 - Look Good, Feel Good, Perform Great – How Branding and Culture Drive Team Excellence

130 - Look Good, Feel Good, Perform Great – How Branding and Culture Drive Team Excellence
July 2nd, 2025 - 00:58:42
 
Show Summary:
What if your shop’s uniform was more than just workwear? In this episode, Jimmy Lea is joined by Leah Grubb, founder of Green Bolt Printing, to discuss how automotive shops can turn everyday apparel into a strategic tool for branding, leadership, and culture. Leah shares the origin of her company, born from firsthand experience in multi-shop growth, and explains how the right look can foster pride, unity, and even performance. From choosing the right fabric to using color with purpose, this conversation unpacks the overlooked power of uniforms...and how to get them right.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Leah Grubb, Founder & CEO of Green Bolt Printing
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:00:23] - Apparel is often the first impression before a customer ever visits your website or talks to staff.
[00:02:35] - Leah shares her journey from rapid shop expansion to founding Green Bolt Printing out of operational necessity.
[00:04:47] - Reframing uniforms as a shop's “constant visual identity” enhances culture, pride, and morale.
[00:08:16] - Rebranding with color and design transformed the team’s enthusiasm, professionalism, and sense of identity.
[00:10:15] - Differentiating technician uniforms still matters, even if they aren’t customer-facing.
[00:14:24] - Biggest mistake shops make: not involving their team in apparel choices.
[00:19:10] - Fit, function, and thoughtful design choices affect confidence and job satisfaction.
[00:24:04] - Unified looks can range from strict uniforms to flexible, branded individuality, find your shop’s identity.
[00:37:10] - Merch stores only work for retail-forward brands or customer loyalty rewards, not just selling uniforms.
[00:49:43] - Use color intentionally: blacks evoke sleek professionalism, while red, blue, or green can cue emotion and expertise.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16XGiHzhxKY
 
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or goodnight, depending on when and where you're joining us from today. It is a beautiful day outside. The power is out in Las Vegas, and that's okay. We're okay with that. We have such exciting conversations to happen today. I'm so excited to have you here with me, my friends, as we have this conversation to talk about something that affects every customer interaction.
Jimmy Lea: Today we are gonna talk about this and before any word is spoken. There's something that happens, and our discussion today is with the founder of Green Bolt Printing. She helps automotive shops all over the country turn their gear into a leadership tool, from bold branding to team building through apparel.
Jimmy Lea: She understands how a look can drive culture, confidence, and performance. She's just not about putting logos on shirts. It's about uniting teams through identity. Give a big round of applause as we help to welcome the incredible Leah Grub. Leah, I'm so excited that you are here with us today to talk about your business and what it is you do to affect the shop's company culture and everything that goes with it.
Leah Grubb: Me too. Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking really forward to today. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes. This is gonna be a great conversation that we're gonna have to talk. I know you've got a lot put together with a PowerPoint and a presentation. So with that I'm gonna turn it to you as questions come up, just be understanding that we're gonna interrupt and ask some questions.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Because marketing is so much fun. This interaction happens before a website. I mean, it's not a website. This is our apparel, this is what we're doing that we wear. Has a uniform to be part of the team. Every team has a uniform and we're now part of it. So Leah, we turn it to you. 
Leah Grubb: Awesome. Thank you so much, Jimmy.
Leah Grubb: Hello. Hello everyone, and thank you again for joining me on this Wednesday afternoon and on a holiday week, nonetheless. I wanna start kind of with the concept and how we frame things before we dive in here, right? Because up until today, what you were to work right, is just kind of that what you wear to work.
Leah Grubb: So instead, I'm want to talk about how it can be so much more than just a uniform and instead your shop's visual identity. And I'm gonna be using that word. A lot, and I'm a bit of a fast talker too here. So, because these t-shirts and polos are something that you wear to work every single day, they can be the very vehicle that creates a feel good, ready to perform environment that achieves excellence.
Leah Grubb: But before we dive in, I do want to tell a little bit of my story here. Because right before I founded Greenbelt, I was working as a marketing director for two local automotive shops. One of them was C and J Automotive. And there I am, right there on the end. And at the time we had two shops. One was our HQ that was founded in 1988 and the other one was a second shop.
Leah Grubb: About 20 minutes down the road that was established. Very recently, I guess 2015, so 10 years ago, comparatively to 1988. Then within about a span of a year and a half, we expanded to not just the third location, not just the fourth location, but five locations in, yeah, about a year and a half in total.
Leah Grubb: Within the next closest one being 40 minutes from our hq, one being in a completely different state. New Jersey. Now you could say that we were learning how to build a rocket ship on the way up, or a parachute on the way down, depending on your outlook for that day, because if that wasn't enough, we decided to rebrand and revamp all of these locations.
Leah Grubb: And this was all at the time of. That post COVID supply chain issue, remember this the toilet paper shortages of that time. So it was a bit of a headache to say the least. And doing it at this scale and in this timeframe exposed a lot of flaws in the screen printing and embroidery industry that I thought could be approved upon.
Leah Grubb: So much so that when my employers decided that, that we decided that we could do something better with this. So Jack, who is right there in the center, and then my other employer at the time who owned a collision shop bootstrapped the idea and Greenbelt was born. And I'm saying all of this because I'm sharing a few other stories from my time in this career because Greenbelt truly was born out of necessity and not just general necessity.
Leah Grubb: Right. Actual specific necessities from growing auto repair shops, and that started with the rebranding process. We had to dive deeper into our brand and our visual identity. And where is that? Not if the most prevalent than in the clothing that we're wearing every single day. You don't need to go through a rebrand of your apparel to do all this.
Leah Grubb: Actually, the main thing I want you to do is to reframe your idea of what uniforms are as you know them, right? Uniforms are for identification, for functionality. They help people identify who works where, like going up to someone in a red shirt at Target and hoping they work there. 'cause a lot of people are wearing red t-shirts.
Leah Grubb: So, or functionally they're just more durable for the wear and tear of the day or the task at hand, or protective, like high visibility gear. But what if we took that one step further and recognized uniforms for their higher purpose that they can serve as a consistent or constant visual identity? And that's gonna be our tongue twister of the day because.
Leah Grubb: If you move past uniforms, just being used for purely identification purposes or purely functional needs, a uniform can reinforce a shared identity, build a sense of pride, boost morale, and set expectations, ideally positive ones, both internally and externally with your customers. Because the reality is uniforms are one of the most visible, consistent expressions of your brand and your culture.
Leah Grubb: Your team wears them every day. Your customers see them first. I. That's powerful. So when you start thinking of uniforms as a constant visual identity and not just the thing you're wearing to work every single day, you unlock their real value as a tool to shape how people feel about your shop and how they feel inside it.
Leah Grubb: So another story time again, right? With c and j, this new concept, this new way of thinking came into play during that rebrand because we especially had to think about where this brand was going to be seen. Would it look good on a mailer, on social media, on a street sign, and of course on people and on our.
Leah Grubb: Buildings. So the current logo already had to go through some refinement to look good for social media, right? There's our social media profile photo, and then it had to go through more refinement to be cost effective, and in some cases even possible, as in just actually able to be embroidered and put on physical products.
Leah Grubb: So then it became this, and then if you look at these suites of logos, it's. A classic auto repair shop logo. You have the wings. And some might say it's dated, especially if we use the full logo and some may say it's cluttered with those cars or things like that, but it's simple, clean to the point.
Leah Grubb: We were a local family owned, rooted in history or vintage depending on when you were born for 1988 at Auto Repair Shop with a friendly and personal service that we wanted to be known for, that our customers knew us for, but we wanted anyone for their first impression to also know us for whether we were there to talk with them about our history or not.
Leah Grubb: And thus our new brand suite was developed and our identity was finally realized, not just in the logo, but in now some red and blue colors that fed into this new visual identity that created a sense of pride within our team. And everyone could agree this was our shop and this is our look so much more so than the black and white chrome or and what it was beforehand.
Leah Grubb: And just look at the, okay. I have a 
Jimmy Lea: question. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: That is a significant rebrand to go from the black and white to adding color to being the red and blue. What did that do to the team? The performance, the culture, the feel of the shop? What happened internally when you did this? 
Leah Grubb: Yes. So when we first revealed this new logo, I mean, the reactions were just like that sick.
Leah Grubb: Like it's a logo you could put on a crew neck or a t-shirt, and it looks like maybe a vintage, I don't know, like alcohol brand or some of something else that you would've dug up out of your dad's old box of stuff in the attic. And now it's like worth. A lot more money. Right. There was so much more character to it where people now are just like, no, put it on a t-shirt for today.
Leah Grubb: It's become a brand more so that not just only for the uniform and what they wear to work every day, but they're getting casual t-shirts and casual hoodies that they wanna wear out and about because it just looks cool. It looks vintage. It's a, it's. Providing them a certain identity out and about even that's related to their work.
Leah Grubb: So it's advertising on our end, but it's also just something they feel good about wearing. There's pride in what they're wearing now. It's more fun. You know, we were a really fun shop. 
Jimmy Lea: It changes how they show up. It changes how the, their mindset is, it changes how they show up for work every day.
Jimmy Lea: You know, even to the technicians. So technicians in the back of the shop, they're not necessarily always seen. Usually it's the front counter, the front desk. Where you've got the polos and whatnot. Yeah. But then you've got t-shirts. 
Leah Grubb: Look at that kind of comparison in our teen photo from before with the old brand.
Leah Grubb: And we're all black and white and it's just a kind of typical thing to now how we put this brand together, red and blue, and we actually strip it away from the off from white to like an off white. So again, vintagey, with time beginning that timelessness and, you know, nodding back to our founding in 1988 and now we're wearing all colors, we're wearing dark navy, we're wearing gray, we're wearing some reds, and we can still and have fun with it.
Leah Grubb: Right. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So John's got a question and I want to ask his question then I've got another question behind his. How important do you think it is that technicians who are not customer facing to have their uniforms as well, are you thinking logos matching or full uniforms? 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. So if they're not fully customer facing we can do less branding on it per se.
Leah Grubb: Right. So you, for someone customer facing, you might wanna have on the polo a left chest or even something on the back too for when they're turning around. Yeah. But if they're always in the back and they're not really engaging with customers, you could maybe just do one placement on the t-shirt one to still functionally.
Leah Grubb: Identify that this person works here, that this person working on your cars and someone random off the street, they work here. So you still want that identification aspect. 'cause that's gonna build accountability and just build some communication between the customer and the technician that you don't have to say like, oh, don't worry about that guy over there.
Leah Grubb: He does work here. We swear. But you can kind of pull it back and we get some cost effective options there. But you also have to again, consider what if that those one-off times when the customer does like, want to talk to the technician too, right. That they're still looking like you want them to represent the shop and how you want that to look, but doesn't have to be.
Leah Grubb: Full out matching with the service advisors and service managers in that way. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So, and back to your picture with the rebranding, you went from all black to a rainbow of colors. 
Jimmy Lea: What was the mindset or what's the algorithm? What's the idea of. Who gets to wear black? Who gets to wear gray?
Jimmy Lea: Who gets to wear blue? Who gets to wear the off white? What? What's the mindset there for the shop? 
Leah Grubb: Yeah, so for that mindset, we went with that functionality too. So we're still blending in the same pre ideas of a uniform with functionality and identification, but now we're just adding more identity and more values and more emotion into it.
Leah Grubb: So the technicians still are primarily wearing black. Because it's a dirty job, right? Like we're not having them going back in those light gray polos. We'd probably never see them looking like that color ever again. So pure utility, the technicians are all in black. But then we also have a line of a lot of casual t-shirts that they can wear out and about and are like, not allowed in the shop because they're nice, like ivory colored and things like that.
Leah Grubb: Whereas the service in the front, you know, it's a little bit of a less dirty job. Maybe you're in the back just every now and then, but they're not. It every single day. So they're able to wear those light gray polos, those red polos, the navy polos and things like that. 
Jimmy Lea: Cool, cool, cool. I love that. I love that.
Jimmy Lea: I, there was a shop I went into Eric, Eric has a screaming mullet from straight outta the seventies and eighties and in his shop, his technicians had the black uniforms, but their accent color specified. Master tech Shop foreman, nice. BT Tech, Ctech, general service. So you could look out into a big shop very quickly and easily to identify.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, yellow, that's the shop foreman, so he's over there. Red is the Atex and you could see where they are. And blue, and then green and gray. It was really cool how the shop used the uniform for identification, which also became a promotional. Yeah. Product as a technician studied, trained, passed, test, and advanced themselves.
Jimmy Lea: They could get a new uniform. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah, exactly. There's that certain pride that people can have in the shirt that they're wearing every day, and that's what we can imbue when we rethink right. Uniforms from, I gotta put this on every single day just to go to work and to write that constant visual identity.
Leah Grubb: I 
Leah Grubb: love that. 
Leah Grubb: And that's the one thing that we really had to do with that rebrand is like, okay, it's not just what we're wearing to work, like what value can we put into it that we can go and say, this isn't just a T-shirt, this isn't just your polo. When we're all wearing these together, you know, we're not just this group of individuals, this person off the street, we pulled in to do your oil change.
Leah Grubb: We're one team representing one mission and we look like a team and we act like a team and we can win like a team. So it's a team building, morale building thing when we're looking at each other and like, we're all in this together, you and that Polo and me and that t-shirt. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it.
Jimmy Lea: I love it. Okay, so you've been in this game for a minute. What's one of the biggest mistakes you see shops make when they're choosing gear for their teams, 
Leah Grubb: not involving their team members in the decision? As a manager or an owner. And yes, maybe you were working in a shop and you've moved into management and ownership and you like a certain T-shirt, so you get everyone that T-shirt, but t-shirts, hats, hoodies are the most personal thing I think we can choose, especially if you're gonna have them wearing it every single day.
Leah Grubb: So if you pick something even as simple as like you love a hundred percent cotton. And how it feels. And then you have someone who comes in and you know, specifically I'm thinking of this shop in Florida. It's hot. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. 
Leah Grubb: And they need something that really wicks the moisture away. But cotton, while it does that, I.
Leah Grubb: Then you're just kind of sitting in your sweat all day. Oh yeah, 
Jimmy Lea: you gotta peel that shirt off. 
Leah Grubb: You gotta peel that off. So when you're, you know, maybe in the comfy, cozy office for a little bit, it's fine. But when you talk with the technicians and they're just literally drenched in that shirt and they're not comfortable working and that's one of the main, they're just thinking that in the back of their head, the entire time they're doing a repair or whatever they're working on, or dealing, interacting with their team members, it just is kind of that little.
Leah Grubb: Rock in the shoe that is gonna start eating away at something. So involving your team members in how and what you're choosing, whether that is a cotton T-shirt or is it a blend T-shirt or is it a fully polyester t-shirt, which is great for really sunny locations. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Very cool. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Very cool.
Jimmy Lea: So, what about, are you gonna talk about colors? Yeah. Maybe I'll hold my color question. Okay. 
Leah Grubb: I'm getting, so how can we Right. Create kind of this identity Yeah. And create that environment. And one of the main key considerations that managers can consider is of course function. And we talked about this right?
Leah Grubb: The uniform should support the work. You're not gonna get a technician in a white T-shirt unless you want to give him a white t-shirt every single day. That's up to you. But it needs to hold up to the grease and the wear. It needs to be comfortable in the heat, especially if you don't have AC in your shop.
Leah Grubb: And it can offer utility with as something as simple as pockets, which that was a whole heated thing with another shop on whether or not to have pockets on their shirt. And, you know, everyone had a say in that. The next thing, of course, would be fit. How well it fits is one thing. The size is one thing because that poor fit, right?
Leah Grubb: Whether it's super sweaty and it doesn't function for them or it's just too big or too and baggy. Core fit can make someone feel uncomfortable and overlooked as well within your culture. And I don't think anyone wants to develop a culture where you're just like, ah, here's that for you. And I don't really care about your thoughts or considerations or how you feel in it.
Leah Grubb: When a uniform fits well, it can make people focus better and feel more confident. So example, like what happens when you hire someone who's seven XL tall. True story. Someone hired a seven XLT technician. Or more likely what happens with a lot of shop owners is you hire your first woman service advisor or woman technician, right?
Leah Grubb: Yeah. And what are you going to do? Go back to your office, see rummage through your bag of all the old uniforms you bought from all the previous orders and he got something close. But don't, you know, tell the seven x Excel tall guy like, you know, maybe don't. Bend over too much or reach up too high.
Leah Grubb: 'cause now your shirt's just gonna ride up. Or the woman, you know, just appears a mend. It doesn't 
Jimmy Lea: fit right, 
Leah Grubb: it doesn't fit right, and it just eats away at your self-consciousness. Like if you've ever put on a great jacket or your best fitting shirt and to go to your job interview or whatever it is, it makes you feel so much better and it provides that confidence.
Leah Grubb: And with that confidence, you can then go, in turn, give a better experience to your customers and give, provide better service. So. A lot of times our shop owners come to us to outfit these new, as in unique new hires because they don't have this uniform on the back stock in the back office somewhere.
Leah Grubb: And plus, they wanna be able to get some new and unique styles just for them. Whether it is big and tall or whether it is women's styles or you know, whether they're family, their team members are having new family members, then we can do little baby onesies for 'em. It's super cute, so. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's rad. It is 
Leah Grubb: always there.
Leah Grubb: The last thing to consider is design, and we're gonna dig really deep into design today, but the main takeaway here on is just to be thoughtful about it, right? It's not just how your uniform and how your apparel looks, it's what it says, right? Your design can reflect your shop's values and culture, whether it's.
Leah Grubb: A rugged, you know, blue collar shop or a brother's precise and clean and family oriented. The right uniform isn't about just something your team wears. It's what they represent. And that's what that new concept of a visual identity that's what I want you to keep in your back pocket kind of throughout.
Leah Grubb: Because I will still be using the term uniform moving forward because constant visual identity is a tongue twister. I think I have maybe maximum of 10 tries saying before it starts getting really muddled here. But bottom line, right? Your uniform is your constant visual identity. It's your daily opportunity to show your team who they are and to show your customers who you are.
Leah Grubb: And you get this right, it becomes a quiet but really powerful way to reinforce pride in your brand and in what you do. Unity within your team and boost performance within the team and therefore boosts customer satisfaction. So these three things are main things for Manu managers to consider.
Leah Grubb: But don't make any decisions, right? Like what we talked about before, involving your team. There's plenty of research on how you involving your team is that employee involvement and uniform decisions makes a huge difference when you involve them, even if it's just getting feedback on letting them vote between a few options.
Leah Grubb: It gives them a sense of ownership. It shows them that you value their comfort, their perspective, and how they represent the shop. That has ripple effects too, because people who feel heard are more likely to take pride in what they wear. They wear it consistently. They show up more confidently. And one of the studies I've looked into has even shown that uniform satisfaction, which is influenced by how much involvement they have in picking their uniform, is directly related to job satisfaction.
Leah Grubb: And that's a powerful connection right there. But on the flip side, if someone has no say in the uniform, they can start to feel like what they're wearing is a symbol of hierarchy, of disconnect. Something that's done to them instead of for them. So even if you're not redesigning from scratch, which most of you will not be small moments of input.
Leah Grubb: So surveys, wear tests. Quick feedback can go a long way in helping your team feel included, respected, and more connected to your shop's identity, which I think is something all shop owners kind of want, because at the end of the day, there's only one shop owner, right? Or whatever team of shop owners you have.
Leah Grubb: But how can you get that buy-in from everyone that you bring in here, other than just, you know. Paying them for the job well done. Right. And so one of the things we did at c and j during that rebrand was to have a team discussion and to actually use a questionnaire to get involvement in a formal way because.
Leah Grubb: People were we use the team meetings. We have a team meeting every Wednesday during lunch 'cause they already eat lunch together anyway, so now we just all join in there and kind of take over that lunch so we could talk. We talked about these things, but then we also followed up with a questionnaire, and this is a lot of questions in one slide, but all of these questions we followed up with now and people ranked them on a one to five scale.
Leah Grubb: So it was a pretty quick one to five kind of run through thing. This way, you know, we could accommodate some of our team members who weren't as opinionated in a team setting. They, we know they were just better over in communication or when we could talk to them alone on the side instead of in the group as a team.
Leah Grubb: And that's fine. And this questionnaire also had that open-ended box for them to put an input there. The key thing with this in doing this discussion and doing this questionnaire was that the next team meeting, we followed up again with the same discussion of what we talked about, what like us as management heard from the team, and then also a little bit of the results from the questionnaire because we wanted, again, the team to feel like, Hey, we heard you the first time we've reviewed what you did and the input that you just.
Leah Grubb: Given to the company. And then here's like what our next steps are. Here's what we're kind of gonna do now for the uniforms and things like that, because we heard you like, it's not just they shout it out into the ether and then where's the follow up, where's the follow through on that? And we wanted to, you know, clearly connect those dots from this conversation, this questionnaire, this result for you from you.
Leah Grubb: So, 
Jimmy Lea: wow. That's powerful. 
Leah Grubb: Yep. And then, so with that feedback in mind there's a lot of key and key fundamental conver considerations. Now we can get, talk about the fun part, sorry. And how we can actually build this identity, this brand, this. Uniform. And I do wanna shout out one of the quick studies I actually went through for this webinar and when we were building this uniform back in my c and j days be if anyone else wants to read through it, it really it's mainly about the hospitality industry and how the effective employee uniforms.
Leah Grubb: Affect employee satisfaction for hotels and restaurants. But if you do think about it a lot, auto repair shops are very much like in the hospitality business because every other auto repair shop could do an oil change. How well they do it, you know, is all up for debate, but it's, at the end of the day, it's that customer experience, the customer satisfaction, how they feel going into your shop and how they feel leaving it.
Leah Grubb: That is the differentiator between you and that shop down the road. So especially, you know, first impressions, setting the tone when they walk into that shop. When you think about when you walk into this fabulous hotel lobby versus. A Motel six lobby or something like that, or, and especially the team culture and the, and equaling the customer experience and that specifically your team culture has a huge impact on that customer experience and uniforms can really play into that and thus affect the satisfaction of your customers.
Leah Grubb: And some of the key recommendations from this were about designing the unified look using color intentionally. Offering Gears awards and involving your team, which we already discussed. So we're gonna talk mainly about one, two, and three on designing a unified look. So the first thing with designing that we kind of define what is the uniform, right?
Leah Grubb: Like what is it? Is it the same shirt we're wearing every single day or just what we wear to work? And there's a lot of variable ideas we have around that. So on one end, right, you have uniformed, it is the same shirt every single day. Same color too. Everyone's wearing the same color, everyone's wearing the same shirt.
Leah Grubb: It's consistent. It's highly consistent in the middle ground, which is where I think most of our shops are at, and where most shops do sit is unified, but with a bit of controlled variety, right? We all wear polos, but we have a choice between red, blue, and gray. So we have a few color options there. On the other end is what I like to call branded individuality.
Leah Grubb: So you can have a lot of product options. Maybe it's a polo or a button up, and a lot more different colors, maybe up to like five or six different colors in all of those that follow your brand palette. But there's a lot of variability there. And each one has its pros and cons. You can kind of see on one end you decrease in consistency from being highly uniformed to having more individual expression.
Leah Grubb: But with increased individual expression, oops, my keys were there. You can increase team pride and personal comfort because you have now more input that the team member can put into what they're wearing every single day, increasing your personal comfort and therefore increasing their pride. And like, I chose this.
Leah Grubb: Sure. It's a very narrow down selection of what they could choose from, but it wasn't, you're wearing this every single day, this color. That's what it is. It's, I have a choice. There's I really like this color and I look great in this color, and they can feel good about that. So let's look at some visual examples, right?
Leah Grubb: So Rehouse does a uniformed, high consistency look right? It's the same shirt, same color, every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And for. Those of you who follow Jamie's garage on YouTube, this is one of his three shops. Everyone wears Polos and the only choice they get is between pocket or no pocket.
Leah Grubb: And then when Jamie hires someone new, he can simply go to a store, purchase however many polos he needs, but in the case of a new hire, if they need just six, we made it super easy. So even the new hire or the manager can go in and do it without having to remember how much they need with these new hire bundles here.
Leah Grubb: So. But they are even across his brand. So his three shops are Rent House Elite, Motorworks, and Elite Auto and Tire. Three different logos, but all of them all wear all black. All polos, even the technicians, which I found very unique. And then the middle ground, I think where most people are at is something like what we do at c and j where everyone wears polos.
Leah Grubb: I'm specifically talking a lot about service because they are the more customer facing team members, and they're the ones that this impact of the feeling of the uniforms are gonna have the most impact on with the customers. So with c and j. They could pick between three colors, again, the gray Navy or red.
Leah Grubb: And specifically for them we do bundles of six because you never know when someone's doing laundry. You might need to run over into Monday with that fixed polo or something happens and you really need an extra polo during that midweek. And then I wouldn't recommend, usually with this middle ground more than five colors is, it's just a lot to pick from.
Leah Grubb: Three is a three's a pretty good safe number there. So. With c and j, we moved away from that black, right, and we moved on to just navy gray and red. And we'll talk about why, because of the feelings those colors evoke later. But for ordering, right, again, the shop manager could go into the store and of course buy two of each color.
Leah Grubb: But I. That's also dependent on the shop manager knowing what is exactly going into every new hire bundle when they hire someone new. And it's too many clicking, too many clicks for my liking. So we again, made that bundle and oh, look, they also need quarter zips as well. So we include those with all of our new services as well.
Leah Grubb: For that outerwear layering, especially since we're located outside of Philadelphia, weather is, I mean, it felt like winter two weeks ago and now it's like. The heat of summer here, so we can never guess that. And then on the final end of that spectrum is branded individuality. Flexible consistency where there's a lot of product options and a lot of colors to choose from within that colors within that brand color palette.
Leah Grubb: So Brown's Automotive is a four shop, MSO based out in New Mexico. And their main rule is that anyone in the front had to wear something with a collar shirt. That was their only and main rule. They didn't really care what color or what style it was. So there's both button up. And polos and what color it was up to their personal preference.
Leah Grubb: A person could buy the all light gray or all dark gray or you know, that lime green or that teal blue, but two colors were reserved just for management. So there's that differentiation again. So only black and only white was allowed to be worn by management, or specifically the owners in that case. Were able to wear that color so when they go into a shop, anyone, which is odd if they've never met them, but it's very easily identifiable to find them there.
Leah Grubb: Some additional considerations, right? You kind of see either shop leans towards button-ups or polos. And that's again, mainly a preference on what you want your identity to look like, because button-ups could tend to give off a more formal, traditional, precise. Five. You know, we take our work seriously.
Leah Grubb: We've been doing this for a while and it could be a great fit for any shop that wants to project that experience the technical skill or even a higher end service. You know, it's just a little more formal feeling. On the other hand, polos are, offer a more casual, modern, approachable look. They could say that we're friendly, easy to talk to.
Leah Grubb: We're here to help approachable feel. And it's great for shops that wanna focus on, you know, customer connection, quick service, community feel, things like that. And neither again is better or worse. It's about what fits your shop's identity. Are you gonna go for buttoned up and detail driven or more laid back and people first.
Leah Grubb: And again, none of those descriptors either are mutually exclusive. You could. Be people first in a button of, right. So, also don't forget to take into consideration some regional differences and preferences. I'm from outside of Philadelphia. Generally the Northeast is considered pretty preppy, especially the more north and the more east you go.
Leah Grubb: So polos could be considered more casual and modern depending on where you are. In a more laid back area. Like, in my head, I think California is pretty laid back or Hawaii even, right? Polos could be viewed as formal and you should be wearing more just like a t-shirt, and that's, that could be professional enough.
Leah Grubb: So, always take those into consideration. The key, again, is to be intentional. Don't just pick what's the cheapest or what you've always done. Choose a style that tells the right story to your team and to your customers. Every time they walk into that door. You also have branded versus unbranded attire.
Leah Grubb: And I'm not talking about just like the items you put your brand on, like versus not put your brand on like pants, which you may think could be undecorated or should never be decorated. But we actually do have a handful of clients that put their logo onto their shop pants, like specifically their technician's shop pants on the upper thigh and on the back pocket.
Leah Grubb: Which is just a fun little thought of adding a, another touch of branding and another touch point there. But what I more so mean by branded versus unbranded attire is using stuff like Nike or Carhartt or even the North Face because branded apparel can carry a different weight. It can feel more premium, especially depending on the brand you're picking.
Leah Grubb: And it can tell both your team and your customers, you know, we've put some thought. And some additional money into this. Into what? Into what we're wearing every single day. And especially for employees, it can boost confidence even further, right? When wearing something from a trusted retail brand like Carhartt they can make the fee, it can make the uniform feel less like a requirement and more like a benefit or like a perk of working at your shop versus whatever other basic t-shirt there that's out there.
Leah Grubb: And then for customers too, it sends a similar message about quality and standards because you're almost. Co-branding your shop with how they've come to know and perceive Under Armour and Nike as a trusted retail brand as well. Another shop we work with they're called Bimmer Rescue. They're located in Richmond and Virginia.
Leah Grubb: They're actually, it's like a three shop location. But the other ones are called something different, auto rescue. Bimmer Rescue specifically noticed that they had high-end high spending customers coming in and they always had their golf clubs in their cars. So they started co-branding their Bimmer rescue logo with Travis Matthew, golf logos to kind of elevate that experience and their customer's perceptions of them when they walk into that shop.
Leah Grubb: John said that he missed the first half hour, and that will this be sent out in a recording? And I do believe it will be sent out in a recording as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think 
Jimmy Lea: I'm wrong. No, you're totally right. Yeah. It is recorded and we'll be sending out a copy of it, but I have a question for you.
Jimmy Lea: You talk about branded logo to apparel like Nike or Under Armour, or Ping or whatever name, name your brand, a adida. What about shops that are on a budget? Where do they start? 
Jimmy Lea: Where do they start when it comes to branded gear? Because for many shops, this is a big expense for 'em, or it is an expense for 'em and they want to spend their money wisely.
Jimmy Lea: Versus there, there are some shops that kind of go hog wild, which I think is cool but what about those that are on a budget? Where should they start? 
Leah Grubb: So my personal, maybe controversial opinion is I think Nike is very overrated and very overpriced. And I say that cautiously 'cause I do know that there's some shops in the institute that use Nike Polos.
Leah Grubb: But I, you know, and for consistency, yes, they continue to use them. But if you're looking at getting something branded to start. I say we use Adidas at c and j because it is one great quality. And two, it's still a well-known brand that everyone can just look and see and immediately recognize that and then they see c and j, right?
Leah Grubb: But it's at the, a much better price point. Under Armor, I think is coming down price point, but it's not. Quite there yet as comparative to Adidas and Nike, I just kind of think it is overpriced for what you're getting. So Adidas, I would say is a really great entry point. There are also a lot of other brands like OGO, which is a little bit more of a golf brand, but I think they're trying to do some other industries now.
Leah Grubb: And a few other and really any other brand too. There's a lot out there. There's on kind of the more. Traditional wear. You have Eddie Bauer for outerwear as well versus the North Face. Right? Right. The north face is gonna be expensive, and I'll be real about that. It's not cheap.
Leah Grubb: But Eddie Bauer offers similar performance and functionality, which we're always looking for, but still offers that at little additional branding that you can put your logo next to. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Alright. And John's just asked the question, this is one that I've thought of quite a bit with different shops and what they're doing.
Jimmy Lea: John's question here is do you feel like having merchandise store available for customers to buy branded logo stuff is a good idea? Spreading the logo and letting people see it more than just on your staff? Is that a good idea for smaller, mid grade shops or is that a bad idea? What's your thoughts there, Leah?
Leah Grubb: So, I. We have one shop that has a store that sells to their customers. 
Jimmy Lea: Right? 
Leah Grubb: But the only way, or the only reason it works is because the merch they're selling specifically in that store isn't their uniform stuff. It's graphic t-shirts that are just. Tiny, slightly branded with Eurotech, right? It's by, it's about the design.
Leah Grubb: It's this really cool car design that looks like it was hand illustrated, really like, like a lot of lines and stuff like that. So it's a cool design. By Auto Tech or Euro Tech. Right. I think as shop owners we can, you know, our brand is our life, our shop is our life, our brand is our life. It's cool.
Leah Grubb: And we're surrounded by a lot of people who are supporting what we do. Right. You're with the institute and your members there with friends and family like. Our work is our life. But when you try and go and then have a customer who's also spending however much money on repair, go and also buy merch it's not always gonna work out.
Leah Grubb: So when opening, if you wanna open a merch store, right, you have to come at it from either two different directions. One, you want to make money from it. That's when you would go the route of creating some really cool designs and actually building a retail brand, which if you wanna, you know, go that route and essentially start another company that's your prerogative, or it's for customer gifting and brand exposure and rewarding customer loyalty because you're gonna get so much more value of giving a really loyal customer a t-shirt for free than having them buy it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. You've just spent $2,500 at the shop. Go ahead and pick something off the middle shelf. Yeah. What, how much do I have to spend to get off the top shelf? Well, that's $10,000. Yeah. You're getting there. You're getting close. But this trip middle shelf. 
Leah Grubb: Yep. So we've had a few shops who still explore it and we open a shop for them.
Leah Grubb: It's very easy and we do that. But 
Leah Grubb: yeah. 
Leah Grubb: There's no traction. I mean, we have the numbers on our end. There's no traction there. Unless you go the route of. We are retail forward specific, or we are here just to the shop owner would actually just go on order a t-shirt on their customer's behalf and have it shipped to their house because, you know, you never know what size the t the customer's gonna be.
Leah Grubb: So they use that store to get that item shipped out specifically to them. Nice. 
Jimmy Lea: So, John's asking here are there different places that offer discounted pricing for businesses, for those polos, et cetera? And I think this plays right into you, Leah and your company. Yeah. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. So that was, that's what we would do.
Leah Grubb: Because the only way you're gonna get a quote, like discounted price on that is to get it at wholesale which you don't have the license for, which, but we do. So Right. You would work through US or again, like, any custom apparel. Does manufacturer would be able to access those wholesale prices, put your logo on it, and then we specifically put all that stuff into an online store for you so you can order one at a time or six at a time, or however many you need at a time, whether it's for you, a new hire, or a really loyal customer that just spend thousands of dollars at your shop and that they'll wear with pride out and about them.
Leah Grubb: So. 
Jimmy Lea: Nice. So that's pretty dang cool that you work with these shops and you can order in lower quantities. 
Jimmy Lea: Your equipment has the ability to do the lower quantities, which I think is tremendous. 
Jimmy Lea: Especially for that tech that shows up who's a seven XL t 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's why we started Greenbelt as.
Leah Grubb: It was because we were trying to, right, we're opening essentially three shops at a time, which was crazy, to begin with. But you know that you could think, oh, we're gonna bring in all these new people. We're rebranding. We're gonna be outfitting all these people at once. We do a big bulk order. But then a week goes by and someone doesn't wanna move along with a transition and they quit.
Leah Grubb: So now we gotta hire and then we realize like, hey, we actually probably need to hire another person. So, the bulk orders only go so far and we still actually have my other business partner, the one that on the collision shop. Had the same thinking. We were hiring a bunch of people, let's just get a big bulk order in and buy a bunch of these exercises.
Leah Grubb: And we bought like two XL up to four, five xl. 'cause we were hiring some big guys. And I. It's still an inventory. And that was when I was working for them five years ago. Oh my God. And it was still going through that. And anytime we hire them, because after that, of course, all we hired were small and medium high school guys to come in and we had nothing that fit them.
Leah Grubb: So we were really frustrated with one, having to wait almost six months because of the COVID supply chain issues to get what we needed. And even now the turnaround times for some screen printing shops are still a month. Wow. Because they're that busy, especially for the low quantity orders they don't prioritize them in screen printing shops.
Leah Grubb: There's, we're seeing on my end, we're seeing a split in our industry of shops like mine with the online stores that specialize in minimum or no minimum quantity things. Really specializing in that and then screen printing's moving farther and farther away to like, unless you need 200 shirts, don't talk to me, kind of thing.
Leah Grubb: And 
Jimmy Lea: yeah. 
Leah Grubb: That's how they're feeling. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, and so back in college, I, I did have a custom apparel company and I sold t-shirts to the college and the football team and other organizations. And the greater the quantity, the bigger the discount that it would be Yeah. For the end user. And it just makes sense.
Jimmy Lea: It's beautiful that you are able to offer such a great price at a low quantity for these shops, especially the shops that are bringing in a seven XLT. 
Jimmy Lea: Which is just amazing. Yeah. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. When I got that call I was like, oh I know. Six xl 
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Seven. Yes. So, I have a question for you. And oh, it kind of goes into John's question here as well.
Jimmy Lea: Do you have a setup fee for the logos or is it basically you get the logo and there's no cost for the items that we pull to the shop you guys set up In the past, I've done that type of stuff, purchasing the shirts, hats, et, and then have them embroidered after the fact. So my question for you is how much into John's question.
Jimmy Lea: My question for you is, how much advice or guidance or consulting do you do for a shop? To say, Hey, your logo really is not embroidery friendly. Or it's not print friendly. Do you re help them rebrand or do you help them modify their current logo so that it looks better? Or do they need to come with to you?
Jimmy Lea: With
Leah Grubb: print ready? Print ready? Probably here. A lot of other shops say like, we need print ready artwork. What does that mean? I'm not a printer. Right. And so because of that I've learned all of that. 'cause I had, I have plenty of time on my hands to try and outfit all these new employees. Yeah. But you as an auto shop owner, unless you've like John, you said that you are ordering a lot of these, so you've probably seen it a bit before, but you're brand new to it.
Leah Grubb: What was that mean? So, I like to say like, we're pretty much full service in that, you know, if you come to me and the logo is. The logo that you have, but for embroidery, right? Maybe it's a very I, we call it dense in the industry, but it has a lot of elements to it, right? It has your name, maybe a picture, maybe something else on it.
Leah Grubb: And altogether that may create a lot of extra stitches, and that's a lot of extra costs. And even though we can do one pole at a time, we still price based off of that. And so we can come we get that and we actually automatically just kind of come back. It's like, Hey, we can do this. It would cost this much though.
Leah Grubb: Or here's like three options of how we could par like par down your logo. So the integrity is still there. It still gets across like this is you and this is your logo, but these items, we can remove them and it saves you a lot of money for that. Yeah. So for embroidery, same thing for printing too. On the design.
Leah Grubb: On the placement, we can, if you just say like, here's my logo, I wanna put it on shirts and I wanna put it on hoodies. And whatever it is, we can take that and run with it because you have plenty of other things on your plate to deal with. And that's the kind of experience I grew, not grew up with what I learned through my career at c and j because Jack would just come in, you know, an awful whirlwind and be like, we need new t-shirts and we need softer ones.
Leah Grubb: And I'm like, that's all I need. And now we're just gonna go and create some designs. And that's what we do for a lot of our clients because again, you have your logo. How is it best gonna look on what color T-shirts, what color, hoodies, polos, or whatever it is. Yeah, that's our, you know, area of expertise.
Leah Grubb: So you can we can do all that for you. And to specifically ask answer John's question on the setup fees for the logo. We don't do setup fees, we don't do hoop fees. We don't do. Any fees. Shipping is included on every single order too, so that's not a surprise thing. Oh, wow. My favorite tagline right now that we're using is, you know, what you see is what you pay.
Leah Grubb: The price you see of that item in your store, you know, 24 99 polo or whatever it is the price you're paying aside from tax. But right now there really is no tax 'cause we're based in PA and we don't have clothing tax. So, that's really tax only gets applied on like drinkware, I think right now.
Leah Grubb: So get it while we're, while we still don't qualify to pay sales tax. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah. But, 
Jimmy Lea: and Leah you also supply more than just hats, hoodies, beanies, t-shirts, polos button downs. You have a full line of. Products that you can offer to shops as well. So if they're doing a car show or they're gonna participate in the county fair, you could do backdrops and.
Jimmy Lea: 10 Taylor Pops and popups. 
Leah Grubb: Yep. We just did a whole outfit for another community event. 'cause summer and fall is a time for community events for a whole new 10 by 10 popup, whole new tablecloth and then a bunch of rubber duckies for the kids. So the rubber duckies are for the Jeep owners and for the kids.
Leah Grubb: That's awesome. So between that and then all the office supplies, they just bring with them as well, all their extra pens and their sticky notepads. And then we also do a lot of. Maybe advertising supplements. So if that's like a poker chip voucher business card or like mints for a giveaway and even wall decals for just kinda freshening up your lobby area.
Leah Grubb: So pretty much anything you wanna put your brand on. The only way we can kind of describe it, there's a lot of items out there. 
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. That is so cool. You know, and if anybody else has questions, comments, concerns, just bursting at the forefront of your mind Leah, how do they get in touch with you?
Jimmy Lea: How can they get in touch with Green Bolt printing? I. 
Leah Grubb: Yeah you can go to green ball printing.com and type in that contact form. It'll reach me and Allie, but mostly I see everything going through it. You're gonna talk to me, but also my email's just leah@greenballprinting.com and you can reach me there as well.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. Yeah I, this is absolutely fascinating. The abilities that your business has of these low quantities and the pricing is still such a good price for shops and shop owners. That's just amazing. I love this, that we can do this with you. So Leah, this is phenomenal. 
Leah Grubb: Thank you. 
Jimmy Lea: Other ideas, thoughts, magic wand moments.
Leah Grubb: I would say a little bit, if we wanna talk a little bit about color. Yes, let's talk color. There's a lot of shops and sometimes you guys come to me with your logos and it's just like, put this on a black T-shirt. And I'm like, okay. Which we'll do that. But I think there's a lot of opportunity you can have with.
Leah Grubb: Adding color, even if you just have a black and white logo, right? You can start putting in navy blue or royal blue polos or things like that and evoke a certain emotion with it, which I think you kind of all saw with c and j changing from just an all black outfit to a colorful one or on. Flip side, right?
Leah Grubb: Maybe there's too much color and you wanna reduce down to all black. 'cause you see with like Rent House and Elite, it's very sleek, it's very modern. If you take a look at any of their social media, they do a great job at social media. They do make a lot of content, which I expect Jamie's a YouTuber with 800,000 whatever subscribers or something.
Leah Grubb: So they better be good at some content there. But they, everything they do looks very sleek, very performance driven, very modern and professional There. And so again, it depends on the identity that you wanna bring forward, but if you can throw in maybe some blue, which is a very trustworthy, very go-to color.
Leah Grubb: Everyone loves blue. How can you hate blue? I love blue. That's my favorite color. If you maybe specialize in EVs or you wanna distinguish yourself in the market as an EV specialist and get all those Teslas, and the Ians and the Lucid are in the pole stars, which is my car. Maybe throwing some green in there and start kind of marketing EV specialists.
Leah Grubb: Maybe throw on specifically for your technician, a little EV specialist badge if they go through a certain training like that. Right. Red, yellow and orange. Yellow and orange are definitely, you know, not as popular. Colors red. I see a lot though in the automotive industry 'cause it's, there's. It's just energy and passion and then it's urgency and performance, but it can be overpowering, right?
Leah Grubb: So like if you were to look at these two sets of people when you walk into an auto shop, right? How do you feel comparatively one to the other? And even if you can't place it in like words you get a different feeling with each person. So a lot of times, right, if there's red in a logo and they wanna also put on red poles like this, we can put both of these into your shop and you can kind of see how your logo on this red polo versus something that just has a little bit of red could feel.
Leah Grubb: Same thing with like outerwear. Or something with yellow and gold. There's a lot of options to do accents of colors versus full out, because sometimes that red polo can be a little in your face and that might not be the vibe that you want a customer to feel. So you can have something from all the way up to, oh, there's red and black to, I don't know if you can even tell on the screen the one on the very end for the piping.
Leah Grubb: It's. It's barely there, but it's there and it's just that little bit of accent that provides that feeling again, that the red can provide. So I love playing around with color especially. You can do something like this if you are an all black T-shirt or an all black polo brand right now. Add in these little, just like flex of not just color, but like feeling and a vibe and an intensity there.
Leah Grubb: So. 
Jimmy Lea: I like it. I like it. That is a very cool and to have those different options for the accent colors, that could also be a promotional product that as you progress, you get more color. Or something like that. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. Well, Leah, thank you very much for the information, the marketing, the colors, the mindset, the culture, the look, the feel, the uniform, the visual.
Jimmy Lea: Reminder that we all have, that we are part of a team that is super awesome. If you were to have a magic wand and you could change anything about this industry, what's one item that you would change in the automotive aftermarket? 
Leah Grubb: I would say having more fun with your brand. I really do think that there's a lot of potential that.
Leah Grubb: It's out there and a, aside from just putting your logo on a shirt, putting it on the back and calling it a day. Right? Yeah. And that, I guess not just in the color, it's in the items that you could be giving out for promotional products, you know? Yeah. We know about the lip balms and we know about the pens and you know, a t-shirt, and those are all safe staples and they're popular for a reason because people use them.
Leah Grubb: But there's a lot of other fun stuff that is really valuable, like. Pizza cutters that people aren't doing because it's not air freshener not gonna go in the car, but now it's in the drawer and every time they make a frozen pizza at home, they're using it. So there's a lot of other fun things that like you don't automatically associate with cars in the automotive industry, but you brand can go on them and I think can become like a keepsake over time.
Leah Grubb: I still have a pizza cutter that my mom got as like a freebie. Like what? Like before I was born and I'm still, I'm using it because it's the best pizza cutter I have. So there, there's so much more that we could be doing than just pens, chapstick shirts. Oh, 
Jimmy Lea: I love it. 
Leah Grubb: So I think we could all have a lot more fun with our brand and still keep brand integrity and still keep that.
Leah Grubb: Yeah, 
Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. Elena says she doesn't even have a pizza cutter, but anybody who does it for their next automotive repair shop. We need to send one to Elena. 
Leah Grubb: Absolutely. I'll put you on the list just a little, take a little one off the cart. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. So cool. Leah, thank you so much for joining us today and talking about uniforms.
Jimmy Lea: You know, our military has uniforms, professional sports teams have uniforms, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, we all have uniforms. And as an automotive repair shop, we're family. We're a team. We work together, and because of that, we. Are able to help our team to be better and we can provide leadership and guidance.
Jimmy Lea: So super awesome for that. Yes. Thank you for throwing this up here. Sign up for an appointment with Leah. Go ahead and scan those QR codes and get on her calendar so you can. Help your shop. 
Leah Grubb: Yes. And I'm happy to discuss any questions or any ideas you have about even where you wanna take your uniform, your constant visual identity.
Leah Grubb: As you can see, I could probably talk about this for another half hour maybe, or something like that. So if you wanna sign up for some time there, my calendar's right there. Or you can go straight to that contact form on the left and get a store done. Again, no setup fee. We were. Kind of consider us just like your own apparel director on your team and we work with you like that, so.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. And I love that you've put together the bundles already so that anybody hiring on, okay. You're extra large. Click. All right. Your six search will be here. What's a usual turnaround for you, Leah? 
Leah Grubb: Our standard production time is. About five days. And then depending on where you're in the country, that's another one to five days on shipping.
Leah Grubb: So if you're in the northeast or pretty much actually anywhere on the east coast, you could get your stuff in about seven business days. Oh, that's awesome. West Coast. Sorry, you need probably an extra three days on that, but all told a week and a half, week or two weeks to get all of your stuff. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Love it.
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining. Thank you. Thank you for joining and talking about uniforms and leadership and unity and branding and value. 
Leah Grubb: Yes, absolutely. My favorite topics. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Thank you very much. Hey, you know that this is my name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute.
Jimmy Lea: This is some valuable information. If you find this valuable and you want to talk more about other aspects of your business. Whether it's your advisors, your managers, or you as a shop owner, you've got questions about your profit and loss, your income statements, or maybe you don't even have a profit and loss, maybe you don't even have a an accurate income statement.
Jimmy Lea: Following my comments for 30 seconds, you want to pull out your smartphone and scan this QR code. You can meet with one of our business specialists to talk to you about your shop, your business. What can we do to work together to help you elevate your business? We at the Institute are all about better business, better life, better industry.
Jimmy Lea: The more we can help you to improve your business, the better your life is gonna be, as well as the lives of your staff, your family, your employees, your technicians, and their families as well. And in the end, the net result is that we are able to, as an industry, elevate and become a better industry. My name is Jimmy Lea.
Jimmy Lea: I'm with the Institute. Look forward to talking to you again soon. Thanks.
 

129 - The New Backbone of a Successful Shop: Software That Actually Works

129 - The New Backbone of a Successful Shop: Software That Actually Works
June 25th, 2025 - 00:58:23
Show Summary:
In this episode, Jimmy Lea hosts a dynamic conversation with John Phelps from Tekmetric, shop owner and Institute coach Jennifer Hulbert, and Tonnika Haynes of Brown’s Automotive. They dive into the realities of switching point-of-sale systems, discussing both the challenges and the rewards. John shares how Tekmetric has evolved, focusing on cloud-based innovation and powerful reporting tools that help shops improve performance. Jennifer and Tonnika provide real-world insights into how Tekmetric impacted KPIs like effective labor rate and average repair order. The conversation highlights the importance of accountability, data transparency, and choosing the right tools and partnerships to help shops grow and succeed.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
John Phelps, Director of Channel Partnerships, Tekmetric
 
Jennifer Hulbert, Owner of Service Plus Auto and Head Coach at The Institute
Tonnika Haynes, Owner of Browns Automotive
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:02:21] Tekmetric celebrates surpassing 10,000 shops using the platform, marking a major growth milestone.[00:03:45] Jennifer shares the top rule of POS transitions: don’t do it unless it meets every business need.[00:06:41] Tonnika chose Tekmetric for its ability to support remote work, which was crucial while raising young children.[00:08:47] John explains how Smart Jobs use VIN decoding to build accurate estimates in just a few clicks.[00:13:29] Tonnika and Jennifer describe Smart Jobs as a virtual assistant that improves efficiency and consistency.[00:17:00] Jennifer uses Tekmetric's deep reporting features to coach shop owners on improving financial performance.[00:23:06] The team discusses real-time reporting and how it helps address issues before they become problems.[00:37:40] Jennifer explains how digital vehicle inspections help build trust and transparency with customers.[00:44:16] John reveals that shops using DVIs with 8 or more images see an average repair order increase of $106.[00:54:54] Tonnika shares how “Do It Right” reflects her mission to serve her community and honor her family legacy.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZq3oadWJ-o
 
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good night, depending on when and where you're joining us from today. My name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute. We are going to have a really great conversation coming up here in just a few moments. This is to be an interactive conversation. You've got questions, we've got answers.
Jimmy Lea: You've got questions about different point of sale systems, you've got questions about Tekmetric. We've got the extroverts that are gonna be here with us. So not to give everything away, but we do have Tekmetric in the house today, which is gonna be an awesome conversation. Thank you to everybody who's here.
Jimmy Lea: We have a phenomenal panel that's gonna join us here today, starting with. John Phelps from Tekmetric. John is joining us as the voice of Tekmetric today. John, how are you sir? 
John Phelps: I'm doing very well, Jimmy. Thank you for having us. 
Jimmy Lea: This is gonna be awesome. And just so you all know, I did try to canonize John the other day.
Jimmy Lea: I called him John Paul. 
John Phelps: Yeah. I felt like, I was a pope candidate at the moment, but no, 
Jimmy Lea: you were, 
John Phelps: you're 
Jimmy Lea: in the running. There we go. You just didn't know it. 
John Phelps: No, I was a little late to that one, apparently. Yeah. That he was already he was already selected. Even though he is from the us No I did not make that cut.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. Well, glad to have you here with us, John. Thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate Tekmetric that, and the strides that you are taking as a software of value in the industry. Really making it great for our shops to understand where they are, what they're doing, process, procedures, profit effective labor rates.
Jimmy Lea: Effectivity is super awesome. 
John Phelps: Absolutely no, it's it's really been awesome to see, you know, we've got clients like like we have here today, and I know you said you don't wanna give everything away, so we'll wait to bring them in here in a little bit. But just to be able to see the strides in the growth within Tekmetric, but also within our clients, within our shops over the last few years.
John Phelps: I personally have been with Tekmetric a little over four years now, and in that timeframe it's been very cool to see number one. We've more than, let me see here, quintupled. Almost sex coupled in terms of shop count you know, sub 2000 at the time. And now as we, you know, announced a few months ago, cracking over the 10,000 shop mark across the country and growing bigger and bigger every single month.
John Phelps: Luckily for us, and even more so, and I know we'll get into this a little bit later, but. The strides that those shops have seen since switching. And by no means will we ever take the credit for a shop doing very positive things with their own business, but we're just happy to be a part of that ride.
John Phelps: One of the things I will say, I. Is, you know, the national average based on the most recent metrics that we've seen in terms of a RO which you mentioned, right? The average repair order that parts in labor sales per ticket is between four and four 50. We've heard reports as high as four 80. Whereas Tekmetric customers across our entire user base has cracked over $600 per car that comes across their shop.
John Phelps: So 27% higher than the national average. And I know we've we've got a. Can say a little bit more than that in terms of their growth that they've seen in the last few years. And I'll let them do the description on there, but very happy to be here and and be a part of this. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, thank you John.
Jimmy Lea: Welcome, man. This is awesome. And joining us, Jennifer Holbert. Jennifer is a facilitator coach with the institute. She is a Tekmetric user as well, and she made the leap to go from one point of sale system to another. And Jennifer, we know the rules. We know the rules of jumping and what are those rules?
Jennifer Hulbert: Hello, Jimmy. Thank you for the introduction. So as a facilitator my first rule of changing management systems is don't because it is a very large deal and can be disruptive to your whole shop. I. Went against that rule and made the switch from a different management system to Tekmetric about seven years ago and have seen nothing but an upside from that switch since then.
Jennifer Hulbert: We'll get into some of the reasons why in a little bit later. Yeah. In the podcast. But this has been a very positive move for me as it has been for many of my coaching clients and group members. 
Jimmy Lea: I think the top rule three rules of change your point of sale systems is don't do it.
Jimmy Lea: Don't do it. Don't do it. And then 0.4 says, to your point, make sure when you do it, it does fulfill everything that you're looking for. 
Jennifer Hulbert: Yes. Thoroughly research it. 
Jimmy Lea: Thoroughly research. I'm glad you research it. And you, your client number? 2000 something? Something. 
Jennifer Hulbert: 24 88. 
Jimmy Lea: 24 88. Wow. Wow. Welcome. Glad to have you here with us, Jennifer.
Jimmy Lea: This is awesome. Thank you. And by the way, just so everybody understands, not only is she a coach and facilitator with the institute, she owns a shop. You own a shop and run a shop in nor New York, 
Jennifer Hulbert: Northern New York, yep. Service plus automotive in calcium, New York. Nice. 
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Awesome. Joining us as well is Tanika Hayes.
Jimmy Lea: She's with Browns Automotive. She is phenomenal. Tanika, we are so excited to have you here with us. How are you? 
Tonnika Haynes: I'm great. I'm excited to be here. 
Jimmy Lea: You're, it's exciting and you sound like you're in a cathedral of sorts. 
Tonnika Haynes: I'm sorry, is my mic acting up again? 
Jimmy Lea: No, it's all good. It's all good. It just it's awesome.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you for joining us. We are all in different locations than we normally are Today. I'm in Manta, Utah on the road, helping to take care of family 'cause that's what we do. We help take care of family. And Tanika, I'm glad you're here so we can have this great conversation talking about your journey and what that looks like and Jennifer, your journey and what that looks like.
Jimmy Lea: And to kick it all off, we're gonna give my John a few minutes to talk about Tekmetric. And so any of you who are tuning in, this is the. 32nd commercial, which is a little bit longer than 30 seconds. We're gonna give John some time here to tell us a little bit about Tekmetric and what's happening, what's going on, what the future looks like as well.
John Phelps: Let me actually do this. I'm gonna go off script. Tanika, if I could ask you a question. Yeah. When you were looking to switch Now you joined us in July of 2020, so happy five year anniversary to that. Up here in a few, but when you were looking to make a switch as they've highlighted, it's a pretty big commitment, what were the utmost important things you needed to have in a resource, a software solution in order to consider making a change?
Tonnika Haynes: For me, it was the fact that I could work off site because at the time I had young kids just being able to. Use my phone, use my laptop, wherever I might be. I was able to connect with the shop. That was very important. That was most important to me. 
John Phelps: Perfect. Now, and that's what I wanted. I wanted a live 32nd commercial because I wanted it to be very customizable to her situation, but also it's what we hear.
John Phelps: Across all of our user base, right? One of the biggest things that we highlight at Tekmetric is being cloud-based. Cloud-based means we operate in a web browser and it's as mobile as it possibly can be. Laptop, tablet, cell phone, desktop from anti, from East Texas to upstate New York, wherever you are.
John Phelps: You absolutely have that flexibility and it's always been that way. Now that being said, having that one feature, being cloud-based isn't enough. Right. To Jimmy's point, we've got to continually innovate, and I mentioned, I've been with Tekmetric a little over four years now, and in that time, on average, we've released more than three new features or solutions, as we like to call it, every single month.
John Phelps: Right, that is a hundred. It's a couple hundred different solutions that we've been able to release over the last four years. And I say solutions because it's nice to have a nice, shiny, new object, but if it doesn't bring you value, if it doesn't allow that extra checkbox to be completed, something that you didn't have before, something brand new or a new way to look at it, well then it doesn't do any good.
John Phelps: That's just a shiny object that really nobody's gonna act upon. And so over the last few years, we've released things like our. Our MO, our multi shop owner functionality, right? Our payments platform that has buy now, pay later, actually multiple financing options within that. We acquired a company, right?
John Phelps: We acquired a CRM called Shop Genie. And we're building within a Tekmetric marketing platform inherent into the system. All along the way, we'll sprinkle in some smart jobs to where you can build entire estimates in just a couple of clicks. Instead of having to source every part, every labor line multiple times, go ahead and do a one click feature right there and.
John Phelps: Few smaller things like template text messages. Of course we've got the two way texting, the digital vehicle inspection. Tamika, we spoke the other day talking about moto visuals and having vi videos be able to add it automatically to that digital vehicle inspection, that DVI and the value that brings to you.
John Phelps: Sure. But really your customers and that way that it sets us apart, sets you apart as a shop of anywhere else that they could go. And so, by no means are we satiated with where we are. We absolutely wanna grow as a product. We want to grow our user base. And being a part of things like this allow us to be able to get in front of more people, speak more specifically about the functionality of the software that is important to our shop owners, and the value that each individual solution brings you.
John Phelps: And hopefully hearing more about that throughout the conversation today. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. I love where Temp Metric has come from and where it's going. And you mentioned Smart Jobs. Would the industry call that a can job Or what is a smart job? What's that definition?
John Phelps: It's a, that's a great question. So we do have CAN jobs which is a portion that we've had in the system for a number of years. However, smart Jobs, it sounds like it's ai, it's not, it's actually built from the bottom up inside of the system. And so. Interestingly enough, you can have a smart can job.
John Phelps: So for instance, if you've got an oil change, right? Jimmy, do you know how many quarts of oil and what type of filter your vehicle takes? If you do, it's gonna be different than mine. Very likely different than Jennifer's and so on and so forth. And so instead of having four different oil change can jobs for our four vehicles here, you can have one Smart Can job it is gonna decode the vin.
John Phelps: It's gonna know the type of oil, the quantity of oil, and the OE part. Number of that filter, which is gonna be then cross-referenced with your inventory or your preferred part suppliers. And within a couple of clicks, it's gonna know that it's 4.8 quarts of zero 20, or 8.3 quarts of five 30. All within the same smart job right there on your estimate, and it's not just the oil changes.
John Phelps: Sure, we've got the oil changes, the air filters, the brakes, but what about spark plugs? Four cylinders, six cylinders, eight cylinders? Where do you buy your split? Your plugs? Does it automatically pull from the labor guide or your own dedicated labor? Time? Answer is both. Whichever you prefer automatically applies.
John Phelps: Your parts markup, your matrix that you prefer, and within a couple of clicks without having to dig through. Is it 4, 6, 8, 10? You've built that estimate, that job with a couple of clicks, so saves a lot of time. We plan to expand upon that to have a couple of hundred, but that is the early onslaught of these smart jobs inside of Tekmetric.
Jimmy Lea: So I have a question. Did he freeze on you guys? Just on me. Is he's frozen. No, 
John Phelps: no. I can hear you Jimmy. I can hear you. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, okay, good. Yeah. Hey, so, with these smart jobs, I, oil changes. Okay. I totally get it. What about timing belts or water pumps? Same idea. Absolutely. Looks up the vin looks up, the part, looks up, poses, brackets, belts, everything that's needed for that 
John Phelps: job, correct?
John Phelps: Correct. Now, again, being that it is a build proprietary solution inside. We've gotta, we've gotta build certain things out. So is it a water pump or does it come with the supplemental labor that goes along with that? Okay. I've gotta, it's a water pump, but I've gotta pull the pulley. I'm gonna go ahead and replace the belts as well.
John Phelps: There's different ways and obviously different vehicles call for different repair. Within that then do you fully. Service the coolant or do you just replace what's drained out? So certain things like that are continuing to be built out, but absolutely it is going to be the same concept. One water pump smart job regardless of vehicle, one water pump or one timing belt, smart job or chain, I guess, regardless of vehicle.
John Phelps: Absolutely. That is going to be the concept with it. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Jennifer and Tanika what's your experience here with.
Tonnika Haynes: I am back and Can you hear me now? I feel like I froze a lot. Yeah. Okay. So I love the smart jobs. I'm getting used to it. We were definitely in for the can jobs. That was fun. We go ahead and build it and make your notes in there. Everything was great. The smart jobs, when it starts popping up and it's doing the work for you.
Tonnika Haynes: It's amazing. So I have to remember that I don't wanna say this aloud, but I'm gonna say it. I'm not fond of technology. I don't want a new phone when a new phone comes out. So I'm pretty sure a lot of people like that, the same boat as me. But once you get into it and you learn it, you're just like okay.
Tonnika Haynes: This is it. This is what's up. And so it's like adding, maybe not a whole nother employee, but it's like adding an assistant that can do some of that work for you. 
Jimmy Lea: Hello. Yeah. Well, speaking of technology, here we are updating mom and dad's phone. They're 19 updates.
Jimmy Lea: That's painful. Jennifer. Smart, smart jobs. 
Jennifer Hulbert: I for me, I haven't, I. Use them myself, because I'm not in a day-to-day position at the shop, but I know my two service advisors absolutely love them because just like Tanika said, it saves them a significant amount of time. So knowing that we have this technology, we can utilize this technology, it's gonna make our jobs easier.
Jennifer Hulbert: Is one of the reasons that I continue to be a Tekmetric subscriber. 
John Phelps: I want to add to it though, because you know, myself, my, my background is automotive, but I didn't come from a technician role, right? I didn't come from turning riches and having that inherent knowledge. And so to me, when I first saw the Smart job functionality, it was one of those that two things stood out.
John Phelps: One is. A steeper learning curve, right? Getting somebody up to speed so they don't have to guess, what do I do with this? What do I do with that? What do I need to add into this job? And the second and kind of supplementary thing to that is consistency. Yeah. We've all seen it to where one advisor quotes something separately than the other advisor because, well, their experience says this, and then they say, well, that's, that doesn't seem quite right.
John Phelps: So they pad something here or they adjust something there. But if you've got 2, 3, 4, 5 separate advisors. That same smart job is applicable across the board, and that consistency is there. So you don't have to worry about, well, did he quote it and she quote it the same way this time versus last time. So the learning, the training piece of it, but as well as the consistency piece of it.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. I love that. I love that consistency. Now you're able to bring in an advisor that doesn't have an automotive background, and the consistency is across all of them. So when an advisor's going to recommend an alternator. Does that include the alternator, the belts, and the bracket? Or is it just the alternator?
Jimmy Lea: Well, it needs to be everything that's involved. Love this. I mean that, that's just amazing. Alright, back on to, I mean, we could go down this, I'm, I could go down this rabbit hole with smart jobs, tell the cows come home, but. I wanna ask you, Jennifer, you were talking about your smart jobs, you know, your advisors using them.
Jimmy Lea: When you, when Tanika came on with coaching and training with the institute, what were some of those first things that you looked at with her and her business? 
Jennifer Hulbert: Typically, the first thing that I go to before we get solid financials is just the KPIs within the system. So with Tekmetric, that would be the end of day report and we can see her sales volume.
Jennifer Hulbert: We can see the gross profit in parts and labor. I. Sublet tires individually, we can see the collection of environmental fees. So if there was anything on the lower end of our benchmarks, that's what I would look at to, to improve first and to make any adjustments into a parts matrix or collecting labor.
Jennifer Hulbert: Tanika had a lot of those items pretty dialed in. Again, she utilized Tekmetrics ability to dive into those reporting to find some of those areas before we started to work together. But I believe, Tanika, correct me if I'm wrong, we looked at the parts matrix and made some decent adjustments to that.
Jennifer Hulbert: And I think effective labor rate too were some of the two that we looked at first. But she was well versed on the software and also had the familiarity to look into the reporting and a general understanding of her key KPIs, and they were in a good range to start off with 
Jimmy Lea: T Tanika.
Jimmy Lea: What were some of those first challenges or process procedures that you looked at with a coach that you were like, okay. I know I'm here, but I know I wanna be here. What do I need to do to get there? What were some of those things that you first looked at when you were with Jennifer? She talked about the KPIs.
Jimmy Lea: What else did you look at? 
Tonnika Haynes: I was really concerned with my effective labor rate and how to increase that and get that closer to my do. And with the help of Jennifer and being able to go into Tekmetric and just make adjustments with the click of Mouse and just watch that effective labor rate and the door rate just start to closer together, that was also, and again, like she said.
Tonnika Haynes: I'm not coachable, but when Jennifer said, Hey, go in here she's laughing 'cause she's, I'm not coachable. I am she said, go in here and let's change the parts matrix. Let's add this and let's do this and let's try this. And I drank the Kool-Aid and I did it. And I'm just slowly watching those KPIs just get to industry standards or even my standards, you know.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. And how close are you now with your effective labor rate and door rate? Are you exceeding the door rate? Are we there yet? 
Tonnika Haynes: Not yet. We're not there yet. We'll be talking about that on our next meeting, but it is a lot closer than what it was before. A whole lot closer. So, you know, just a tweak here, changing in policy there.
Tonnika Haynes: We're gonna get there for sure. 
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. And did it, Tanika, had you never come on with coaching and training with, is this an area that you would've found, discovered, implemented on your own? Or did you need some accountability to make it happen? 
Tonnika Haynes: Oh, Jimmy, I need accountability to make it happen because I was one of those shop owners that, I'm still one of those shop owners that look at, I look at a checkbook, so there's money in the checkbook.
Tonnika Haynes: There's money in a bank account, I can go buy things, so I'm fine. Right? No, Jennifer's not going for that. I mean, she's not, I'm getting better. Can I get it? Am I, look, she said I'm getting better. I'm getting better at really understanding, not being afraid of those numbers. If I don't understand it, I'll get frustrated.
Tonnika Haynes: Just like I don't want new technology, anything new. But learning each and every thing that she's teaching me and when she's learn, teaching me how to. Get that to a better place, let's decrease that. We need to look at this. What does this mean? I'm getting to the point that I can answer most of the questions.
Tonnika Haynes: So nice. The Tekmetric reports, they make a huge difference in being able to see what's really happening in the shop and not waiting for that credit card batch to hit the bank account and say, oh, I won. I know exactly how much I'm winning by percentages. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good. Jennifer, a question for you.
Jimmy Lea: How do you what's the method, what's the strategy? How do you take someone like Tanika, and I'm not gonna say survive because I think Tanika was doing well. How do you change that mindset to go from a survival or a coasting mode to a thriving mode where she is implementing and she is holding accountability and she is.
Jimmy Lea: How did you do that? How do you. Guide someone down that path. 
Jennifer Hulbert: Well, you first start looking at the reporting. So again, that was one of the reasons I changed to Tekmetric was the high level of reporting and the ability to dig down deep to find the areas of improvement that we need. So if we're talking about parts gross profit, then we're gonna look at the Matrix and then we're gonna look at.
Jennifer Hulbert: Where do the majority of the cost of those parts fall within the matrix? Are we making the right adjustments to the matrix to really impact the total parts gross profit? So again I'll say this a million times. One of the reasons I love Tekmetric is you can dive deep into pretty much any area that you need to.
Jennifer Hulbert: Just before this webinar I was on with another GPG member and we were looking at possibilities and ways to increase the average repair order. So we started looking at the vehicle inspections. Are the technicians identifying enough work to be able to be estimated? To present to the customer. And that inTekmetric is called average written repair order.
Jennifer Hulbert: So that's a KPI in a report that we can look at to say, Hey, you know, if I'm in the thousand dollars range, I'm typically gonna have a lower average repair order, where if I am consistently estimating 2000 or 2,500, which is. What we recommend, I'm gonna be able to get to that eight, $900,000 average repair order if we have an effective service advisor.
Jennifer Hulbert: So depending upon which KPI is we're trying to improve. Tekmetric has an ability to look at a report and say, okay, these are the areas that we're identifying. Now we know. Do we go to the technician for a change in the DVI process? Do we go to the service advisor for an upgrade or an a higher sales training ability?
Jennifer Hulbert: Do we look at a change in a matrix? Do we need to increase our labor rate or our labor matrix? So it's a little bit of a loaded question, Jimmy, as to where we look first, but it depends on what area that we're focusing on. And again, Tekmetric makes it easy because we typically have a report that we can dive deep into.
John Phelps: Well, for sure. Can I add to that real quick? Only because, you know, I do say this a lot, but you just verbalized it and kind of put it to life in that there's a few different reports that Tekmetric provides you that allow you to go from a 30,000 foot view to a three foot view very quickly.
John Phelps: Right. How we do and how'd this ro get to this point? Yes. And whether that be the A WRO, what advisor, what technician what matrix didn't get applied. Oh, we had a discount, we had a coupon, we had a one-off. And it allows you to find those, but it does allow you to see how are we doing? What happened here?
John Phelps: I. Within just a couple of clicks on various reports. 
Jennifer Hulbert: Absolutely. And that's what I did just before this webinar was to go in and look at individual service advisor and we found that it was one service advisor that we need to focus with and one technician, and they had worked together quite a bit the month before, so that, that had the effect or the negative effect in this case on.
Jennifer Hulbert: The average repair order. So, yeah, being able to dive deep and to see okay, what's the overall KPI for a timeframe, and then dig down into each individual repair order is very simple. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. Ika, I've got a question for you, but I'm gonna ask John first. John. What do you hear from shop owners that are coming over and adopting Tekmetric?
Jimmy Lea: What's one of their, what's their reasons for coming over? Why do they choose Tekmetric? 
John Phelps: I. You know, there we're gonna hear any number of reasons, dozens and dozens of reasons. However, we have actually boiled down to really one of four things, right? Simplicity or ease of use, right? How easy is it to actually operate the system?
John Phelps: We've already mentioned change is hard. We wanna minimize that difficulty to a matter of a couple of days, if that, not a couple of weeks or a couple of months. So simplicity or ease of use is a key portion. A second is consolidation. How many systems can Tekmetric replace? Right? If you've got a system for texting, a system for digital vehicle inspections, you have a separate payment processor, you even have a separate marketing piece and the list goes on.
John Phelps: Tekmetric has all that built in, and it's all right there. Now we have the integrations with a lot of other companies, but we also have that product built right in. So consolidation is another one. The other two are performance and depend dependability. Performance is, does it work how it's supposed to, meaning does it work like it's supposed to run in an auto shop?
John Phelps: And yes, I have had that said to me many times. It actually looks like it's supposed to run in a repair shop. Well. That's how it was designed. That was the whole intent. It wasn't a a restaurant software that we thought would work in auto shops. No, it was built for auto shops. And then dependability does it work when it's supposed to?
John Phelps: With over a 99.9% uptime, even in the cloud, you've got very minimal, if any, downtime in the actual software because if something happens, it's usually fixed very quickly. So, regardless of everything that the shop owners say. Simplicity, consolidation, performance, and dependability are the four things that those all kind of bundle up into in terms of the reasons that they switch.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And Tanika then, now the question comes to you, you were on a different point of sale system before you decided to switch over to Tekmetric. What was that deciding factor for you?
Tonnika Haynes: For me, it was exactly what he said. I needed something that was more dependable. So I needed something that could give me reporting, even though I didn't even know how much reporting I actually needed at the time. I needed something that was easy for my customers as well. Everything is under the umbrella with Tekmetric, the text to pay the dvi, all of that information because I'm in a college town, so there's a lot of students, and so when the parents are a couple cities or a couple states away, I need to be able to communicate effectively with them.
Tonnika Haynes: So the DVI, giving them full picture of what's going on with the vehicle, in case they're too busy, I can send it to their email, I can send it to a text. They don't have to, we don't have to play phone tag. So that, that made the biggest difference for me being able to effectively communicate with all of my customers.
Tonnika Haynes: That was a bi big sales. Sales point for me and like he was saying, what I had before I believe was designed for a dental office and so it really didn't fit automotive as well as it should have, but these guys have built it from the ground up and everything that works seamlessly. I love it.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. I'm glad it's working. I'm glad it's working extremely well for you too. Jennifer, you have the rules that thou shalt not change nine point of sale system. What was that deciding factor? What's the tipping point for you with the rule that says, thou shalt not. 
Jennifer Hulbert: For me, it was, we had three different systems.
Jennifer Hulbert: We had a DVI system, we had a time clock. We, well, four, we had a text platform and then we had the management system and there were constant communications between the four systems and the level of reporting. So. As my group members know, I'm a very detailed numbers person, so being able to dive deep into identifying an area of improvement is important to me.
Jennifer Hulbert: And my old management system didn't allow that to happen as easy as Tekmetric did. So just having all of the communication systems working together was the key factor in the reporting. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And does that help you with your coaching and training with shop owners? Having a point of sale system that has good reporting, good data, good information, 
Jennifer Hulbert: it's imperative.
Jennifer Hulbert: I can't detect what I can't see and I can't coach it for an improvement of what I can identify. So having detailed reporting is. Imperative from a coach and a facilitator standpoint? Absolutely. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh man. Yeah, it sure is. Sure is. Makes all the difference. Tanika, were you at all afraid or fear fearful of switching from one point of sale system to another?
Tonnika Haynes: I can't say that I was afraid. I was ready. I'm shop number 9 67. I was ready to get on board for something new. And it worked seamlessly for me. Onboarding was easy. Actually. It's probably a lot easier than I can remember. I remember it was just easy overnight. We had everything uploaded. The learning curve kept with anything new.
Tonnika Haynes: You're gonna have a learning curve. But I remember just thinking like, wow, where has this been all my life? You know? So for me it was easy. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Props to you, John. Props to you and your team. That's pretty cool. To have an easy transition, an easy thing like that, that's pretty dang cool to make it easy for everybody to come over.
John Phelps: Yeah. I mention a lot when I'm doing any kind of presentation, right. Day one is tough. It's 'cause it's just something different. If, I mean, quite frankly, we are going through a transition in our own CRM and what we use to record to, to take record of our customers and prospects and so on. We're absolutely in that transition as a company right now.
John Phelps: So by all means I've done it before on the automotive side, but we're doing it here at Tekmetric as well. And what I always say is, yeah, day one's tough. Day one's a little less tough, right? Get gets a little bit better, but by day five, you're able to show the person next to you. Look at this feature I found.
John Phelps: Look at how. I do this, look at what we're able to do with this now. And I've said that in rooms, and by all means I wanna make sure there's corroboration. And people in the room say, yeah, absolutely. It was that way. You're gonna find nuggets along the way. You're gonna find things that maybe were you glossed over or didn't you know, didn't absorb quite frankly that, that first try.
John Phelps: But along the way, especially as we update, there's those new things that you find and wow, okay, that's a simpler click. I can open that in a new tab. I don't have to jump out of this. And it just. Becomes a little bit more seamless day after day. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that, that is so cool. And Tim's piping in here talking about how techs love using their cell phones with the app rather than using a tablet or a computer.
John Phelps: I. Yeah, it's, it is one of those things that, you know, we always, early on, especially touted, Hey look, you can use this on a tablet. No, you don't have to buy the thousand, $1,500 ones. You can buy the $200 ones. And you know, I have the ability and the privilege of visiting a lot of shops with my role.
John Phelps: And you see tablets kind of sitting on a charging cord on a toolbox. And technicians specifically like the mobile use of the phone, it's their phone. They're used to the screen, they know where the buttons are, and they can take the picture and they can put it in their pocket. And then they can move to the next one.
John Phelps: They can take the picture, they can put it in their other pocket, and they can use voice to text and type if they would need to, whatever the case is. And knowing that, that's why we developed the app. The app started off, it was released last fall but it started off specifically for digital vehicle inspections.
John Phelps: It was technician focused to ensure that they had an optimized, app ability to use that on their phone because it could have gotten a little clunky. Right. And I'm on my phone. I like it better than the tablet, but it jumps over here and it's not optimized specifically for that because I'm just logging into the website.
John Phelps: On my phone. Phone as opposed to an app. So releasing that and now coming up with new iterations, VIN scanning, license plate scanning, being able to add prefixed shapes and colors and text boxes to the pictures. I think we're on version 1.9 or something like that now with the app itself. So it is continuing to evolve.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. That's awesome. Tanika, Jennifer Tanika first, was there anybody resistant to this change?
Tonnika Haynes: I'd say, yeah, I've had, you know, tech that's been with me for a few years and he's just not sold on the DBI, but I think since it's on the phone, so we have the app that was dedicated just for the text, that's so much easier than the big clunky tablet now. And so he's buying it. He's buying in. I can see the dbis getting better, more pictures on each DVI, that 300% to that 300% rule is ruling.
Tonnika Haynes: So, 
Jimmy Lea: yeah, 
Tonnika Haynes: for sure. 
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Jennifer, any any holdouts, any resistance at your shop? 
Jennifer Hulbert: I was the biggest holdout, 'cause I had used my previous management system for 20 years and the change was very difficult for me, for my technicians. We didn't have the app at that point, but they moved pretty seamlessly.
Jennifer Hulbert: And my second advisor at the time was a little more up on technology than I was, so I fall into to Tanika's shoes a little bit there. And he picked up on the software. Much more quickly than I did. 'cause it was a different process for me. We didn't start in the same screen with my old system, so it was like a thought process change that I had to get myself over.
Jennifer Hulbert: But the technicians they worked pretty well. 'cause we were, well, I don't wanna say this. We went from paper to digital and then to metric pretty quickly. So they enjoyed the ease of the DVI because that is an area that we were very focused on at that time. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. DVI is a drum that I'm very familiar with and I absolutely pounded that drum for four or five, six years in the industry.
Jimmy Lea: Tanika to the DVI and educating the customer. What do you find it works best in educating that customer? 
Tonnika Haynes: The DVI along with motor visuals, that is a game changer. Like for example, we all speak different languages. I can try to explain to the customer a certain way and try to make it apply to everyday life or try to find something that it I can compare it to.
Tonnika Haynes: So you can do that. You've got the DVI with the images of their car, and if they still don't understand it, it's connected to motor visuals. So you gotta win, and win. So the and then the reporting, and I'm so happy for Jennifer for point this, there's so many reports on here, but the reporting on which check is doing the dbis, how many photos, how many videos per DBI is he doing?
Tonnika Haynes: And the more photos and the more image the more videos, the easier it is to sell that. Job to the customer. So the DBI reporting is winning. The dbis themselves are winning. The integration with more visual is all a win. And again, like I said, I have a lot of customers who have students. I mean, their students and their parents need to make these decisions.
Tonnika Haynes: Not only that, as we are close to UNC and SUNC hospital, major hospital, so we have the physician and hospital staff, we've got nurses, we have a lot of people that are just busy in their everyday life. And so maybe I, they don't get to talk to me about. The findings on their vehicle. But the DVI helps communicate everything that we found and if they don't understand or they need to dive deeper into it, they get a break.
Tonnika Haynes: They to pick up the phone and give us a call. Hey, I've looked at the pictures. Oh my goodness. Is that my car? Yes, it's my car. Did you follow the link to the video? Yes. That is pretty cool. Thank you. What should we do? And then we can go ahead with our sales process from there on out. So the DBI, again, like another employee?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And the answer is fix it. Fix it. Keep me safe on the road. Whatever it takes, keep me safe. Yeah, educated customers are the best. They make the best decisions, especially when you're having to send it to mom and dad. They might be in New York or Maine or Florida, and there you are in North Carolina helps them make those decisions as well.
Jennifer Hulbert: Well, the DVI does that, but it also creates that trust and transparency. So there is no question on what needs or the reason it needs to be repaired. And that, I mean, that's what we teach in the group process of the number one reason to do I. DVI is to create that level of trust with your customer and to build that relationship that what you're saying is absolutely what the vehicle needs.
Jennifer Hulbert: And we can prove it with a picture and a video of your vehicle, not just something that's prefabbed and out there of, you know, this is what a, a clunky ball joint looks like. No, this is your vehicle and I can move your tire because it's, you know, you actually have it at that loose. So it's that level of trust and transparency that, that I push the DVI for.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, it is. And that transparency is paramount. Tanika, what is the 300% rule? You mentioned that a couple of times now. 
Tonnika Haynes: You know, I think that's one of the hardest rules for shop owners that are, have been in the industry for a long time to apply is you write up a hundred percent everything that you look over a hundred percent of the car present.
Tonnika Haynes: A hundred percent estimate, a hundred percent. And it is hard to do because you feel like you might be pencil whipping, but you're not. You're giving them a full picture of what's going on with their vehicle and that's very important. Not to get off subject, but I had my vehicle at the dealership when I was on vacation for something and they did not follow the 300% rule.
Tonnika Haynes: They did the DVI, they showed me the problem, they showed me the video, did not present me with an estimate for that, did not do anything other than show me the picture. Personally for me, I would've gotten it done while I was there, while I was on vacation. 'cause that's not a job I wanted to do in my own shop.
Tonnika Haynes: It'll never get done, you know, call the daughter never has shoes. So the 300% rule is effective. And I said it is difficult to buy into, is difficult for tech to buy into, especially if you haven't been doing it the whole time. But once you do it, the average repair order automatically goes up. That means you have less cards that you have to bring in to hit the KPIs.
Tonnika Haynes: You can explain to the technicians, Hey, if you go through this car thoroughly, and if I do my job, then that means you have less cards to get on the lift every day. So instead of working on 10 cards to make your goal, you can work on four, you can work on five. And so I think everybody just needs to get on board, study it, understand it, and do it right, and it'll work out for you in the long run.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, so true. 
Jennifer Hulbert: You're also ma helping the customer make an educated decision on what investment to make in their vehicle. So if you're only giving them the bare minimum and say that the estimate is $800, but they really need. $8,000 worth of work, is it, should they put the $800 into that vehicle or would they make a different decision?
Jennifer Hulbert: Or is this something that they want to last? So, you know, they are gonna make that investment so they have that long-term vehicle and they don't need to purchase something else. 
Jimmy Lea: I, I love that 300% rule where everything gets, you take a picture of every recommendation, you estimate everything, and you present everything to the client, the customer.
Jimmy Lea: That customer's gonna make a much better decision about their vehicle and being safe on the road. Or, Jennifer, to your point, am I gonna put. $20,000 into a car that's worth 1200? Well, it depends. Is it sentimental? Yes. I'm gonna put 20,000 into it. Is it not applicable? Yeah. Okay. We just paperweight that sucker and let's go get a new vehicle.
Jimmy Lea: John, I have a question for you about the 300% rule in Tekmetric. What reporting do you have in Tekmetric that helps us to know if a technician and a service advisor working together is presenting everything to the customer? 
John Phelps: A few of them actually. So one, one of the things they were talking about earlier and being able to dive in I didn't mention this, but it's coming to now, is the real time reporting.
John Phelps: Being able to see what's happened before it actually closes. So if a correction needs to be made. You don't have to wait for the fire to burn down the house. You can put the fire out before it gets started, and so there's the realtime service writer report. Then the realtime technician report, and it allows you to kind of see things as they're happening, as they're being estimated.
John Phelps: Now, we've talked a lot about the digital vehicle inspection that DVI and to go back on why people say, yes, I gave you the four main things of what it rolls up into, but the most common feature mentioned. Is the DVI, is that D vehicle digital vehicle inspection. And within the inspection report, which falls under the employee reports, it allows you to see and Tanika already kind of mentioned this, I believe, was that, well, how many vehicles do we have?
John Phelps: How many of those actually have a DVI on them? How many of those are completed? How many of those were sent? How many of those were viewed by your customers? And then you can see the breakdown of how many pictures. How many average findings per tech, per advisor, per inspection. If you have multiple in there, you can see which ones are most effective, most impactful, and it really allows you, like I said, to kind of drill down and see, okay this DVI is my default one, of course is gonna be the most common.
John Phelps: However, we're supposed to do some extra checks on any car over 150. We're not seeing that being by this advisor, but it this. 12 pictures and their a RO is through the roof compared to this technician's adding six. And it's really kinda the four corners in the driver door open. It's the default pictures that we have.
John Phelps: Right? And so those, that inspection report is one of those that really allows you to inspect what you expect. Just so happens to be called the inspection report you know, setting those goals. A lot of times we have the outcome based goals. I want to be here, but really it's the performance side that allows us to achieve those goals.
John Phelps: And these are the reports that allow you to see the performance as opposed to just, well, let's just see what the outcome is at the end of the month. I wanna see what the performance is as we go. So can I can make. End game adjustments, whether that be in the RO throughout the day, throughout the week, or the month.
John Phelps: It allows you to make those adjustments and really start to improve that before it is too late. 
Jimmy Lea: John, I'm gonna put you on the spot here a little bit with pictures and DVI do. You, are there natural breaks that you see in patterns that says hey, if a technician takes 12 pictures, his average repair order probably is in this range.
Jimmy Lea: If he takes 20 or 40 or 60. Do you see a, an absolute correlation between the number of pictures in the average repair order? 
John Phelps: Absolutely. More than eight is, is that number now, within that inspection report it breaks it down by those picture ranges and I wanna say it says zero to six, six to 12, 12 to 15 or 18 or something like that.
John Phelps: And it gives you that bar graph. An a RO bar or line graph I should say, of, well, here's my a RO. And then when I get up to the eight, to 12 to 15 pictures, and then when I get down to when I get 20, 20, all means different shops have different processes. Talk to shops that say, I require 30 pictures. Now, when you aggregate the data, you're gonna see those peaks a little bit earlier and it really is that greater than eight.
John Phelps: In fact, we did a study, and it was a few years ago now, but what we found was when there's at least eight pictures, eight pictures or more, and it is sent to the customer at least 50% of the time, right? Take all the pictures you want. If you don't send it, they never see it. Yeah, if you send everything but take zero pictures, you're not doing yourself any good.
John Phelps: So if it has at least eight pictures and sent to the customers at least 50% of the time, shops that did versus shops that didn't saw $106 higher ticket, a RO was $106 higher for those that met that criteria versus those that didn't. So that sweet spot that we see is, let's just say six to 15. In that peak, in that a RO for the number of attachments.
John Phelps: And it is, it does say attachments because you can add videos, you can add PDFs as well. But pictures is the most common and it is that nice mid range of, call it six to 15. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. When I was pounding on this DVI drum standard pictures to take on every single vehicle, whether it's the four corners, the engine, the door.
Jimmy Lea: The license plate. You've got some standard pictures that you want to take, and anytime a technician makes a recommendation, take a picture. Take a picture. Take a picture. It will sell it Every single time. There was a shop I was talking to and we were doing a little bit of a DVI audit and here and a DVI came in from the tech and we're looking through there and I says, Hey, look right there.
Jimmy Lea: He's the technician's recommending a battery that a battery needs to be replaced. That it of 660 cold cranking amp, it was at 300. And the tech didn't take a picture. And I says, Hey, tell the tech to take. And this had already gone to the client, the customer. The customer declined the battery because what do we know about cold cranking amp?
Jimmy Lea: It's middle of the summer. I don't need cold cranking amp. It's not cold. Take a picture to show the customer. And they took a picture of the little report that comes out of the battery tester. Sent it to the customer, and the customer says, oh, yes, absolutely no. Now I understand I am borderline gonna be stuck on the, in the parking lot somewhere, not able to start my car because it's not gonna start.
John Phelps: What I've always found is people's biggest objections, right? The most common objections we hear really boil down to one of two things, time or money. But when you take that money piece and you dig into it a little bit more, it's not necessarily the cost, it's the value or the lack thereof. And if a customer doesn't see that value, and that's brought to them by information and benefits, right?
John Phelps: I need to have the information so that I can see the benefit. And if that's the case, the value outweighs the cost. Therefore, money is an objection should really be about, they just simply don't have it, versus they don't see the value in it. If it were to boil down to that, and that's what this allows.
John Phelps: We've talked about the education and the transparency. It's providing that information. They don't need to know how to replace it themselves. They don't need to know how the inner workings of the alternator actually work, but to know what it does and the importance of it to the running of a vehicle.
John Phelps: That alone allows them the educational piece, that information to see the benefits and allows them to say yes to the repair. Nice. And 
Jennifer Hulbert: sometimes seeing those benefits is not even connecting with the customer. It's all digital, which to, to me, in, in my generation I love that personal connection, so I want to have that call and that explanation, but I.
Jennifer Hulbert: The newer generation sometimes don't like that. So if they can see the reason why on the DVI and then receive the estimate digitally, then they can make a decision and have very little interaction with the shop. So we have that ability to do both. 
John Phelps: I had a shop owner tell me that they did 83% of their business, their dollars.
John Phelps: Touchless. Wow. Text message. That was it. Now we're not gonna say we're gonna eliminate the phone calls, but it may help to increase that efficiency if you can text back and forth to set up the phone call as opposed to the four time phone tag back and forth throughout the day. And then it's too late in the day to order parts, can't get the card done.
John Phelps: All that possibly could have been done via text. So hopefully we can increase that efficiency with the phone calls. And in some cases, with some customers, you can actually eliminate it because. It can be as touchless as you want it to be. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. I mean, Tanika was talking about the university parents that are around the hospital.
Jimmy Lea: There's so many professionals where they can't check their phone, they can't take a phone call, but they can check for a text message and from that text message, respond, yes, fix everything, do it all, whatever that case may be. That texting, I didn't know as high as 83% That is. That's really high. I think 
John Phelps: That, that was the highest side scene.
John Phelps: I will say that. But even now and you know, we've got, obviously you can text the inspection with the pictures and videos. You can text the. Then you can, number one, you can capture a digital signature. And number two, if you do have our payment processor and our buy now pay later, they can actually apply for a buy now pay later on the estimate itself.
John Phelps: So granted, you've gotta set the expectation with your customers. I will be texting this to you because you can send 'em text all day if they don't know who it's coming from or what it's about. Those can go unread. Otherwise, if you're setting that expectation and letting them know is if this is the preferred way, we could do everything via text.
John Phelps: They can send you pictures, you can reciprocate, they can approve, sign their name, even apply for financing options all while they're sitting in a meeting. Hopefully still paying attention to the meeting though. 
Jimmy Lea: So true. Hey, congratulations, Tim. Tim went up $300. $1,700 average repair order. That's pretty dang good.
Jimmy Lea: Gotta love that. It's, it is awesome to be able to witness that, John as you're standing on the bench or on the sidelines watching the game happen in front of you, you get a see and witness all this shop greatness. 
John Phelps: The success stories are awesome. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh they cer they absolutely are.
Jimmy Lea: Tanika has a theme that she likes to run in her shop, which is do it right. So, John, I wanna hear from you what does do it right mean to you? Because we're gonna land this plane here, John, and then Jennifer Ika will let you close it out. But with the institute, we are here to help you as a shop. As a shop owner.
Jimmy Lea: You're a part of our industry. We are part of your industry. We wanna lock arms with you and help you meet you where you are, so we can help you to progress, to grow, to get better. Let's lock arms. This is a crazy storm we're in. No two ships are the same, but if we lock arms together, we will not leave anybody behind.
Jimmy Lea: We will all make it together. At the institute, we have coaching and training for advisors, managers, shop owners. We have group environments that helps you to see other peers. What might be a mountain to you is really a mole hill. In that group environment, we can help you to discover ways around that mole hill very quickly, which might be a mountain to you, but to others, they already did that on Tuesday.
Jimmy Lea: So we can get together and take care of that business, John, to you do it right. 
John Phelps: Remembering who you're doing it for. You know, at Tekmetric we do have the automotive background. I saw somebody in the chat post about Sunil story and kind of how it got started. I mentioned my background is entirely automotive.
John Phelps: For the last two decades, I've done nothing but be in the automotive industry. That being said, I don't have all the good ideas. We see it all the time with shop owners or even just those that work in the shop, they've worked at other places. They come in with their own ideas and those processes tend to change a little bit over time for the better of that individual and maybe for the better of the shop, but not necessarily for the betterment of their end user, their customer.
John Phelps: And if we as Tekmetric and our shops can continue to keep. Who it's for in mind for us, it's for the shop owner, but we also have to think through that and for your customers as well, because if we do only things for you, it may lose contact with your customer. So doing it right to me is gonna mean keeping in mind who you're actually doing it for.
John Phelps: Keeping that message the same in driving to improve that. We've said it in early on and continue to say it. Sunil started out with Tekmetric with a vision to introduce a technology shift in the automotive industry, right? We've got the cars that are half computer, we've got consumers that can do everything on their phone, and a lot of times in the industry we're still trying to get to 1999.
John Phelps: Y 2K is upcoming in some of our minds. So we've got to think in advancement of all that and get ahead of that curve with in mind who we're doing it for so that we continue to strive in the right direction. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it's paramount that you partner with the right people so that even though you may be technology adverse, you partner with the right people that help you get there in the right direction.
Jimmy Lea: Jennifer, what does it mean to you here? Do it right. 
Jennifer Hulbert: Well, the core values of the institute is to build a better business, helps build a better life, and build a better industry. So. As a group facilitator, that is my number one goal is to help make our shop owners businesses better, which in turn makes their individual lives better, which in turn enhances the industry.
Jennifer Hulbert: So software programs and management systems like Tekmetric make that. Simpler to do because we are able to identify areas that need improvement and to help our clients and our group members to take that next level and that next step. So, doing it right is just utilizing all the information that we have and then.
Jennifer Hulbert: Encouraging and sometimes pushing right Tanika members to make those improvements, to see that there are better profitability angles to go and work towards. And just do it with a lot of fun. So Jimmy, you mentioned locking arms and supporting each other. And that's exactly what our group process and our coaching does for our individual clients.
Jimmy Lea: Beautiful. Yeah I agree. Locking arms is the best way for us to do that, and we'll do it together. Tanika, this is your mantra. This is your motto. Do it right. You have said it to me quite a few times in the past. Past webinars. Past conferences and trade shows. What does that mean to you? To do it right in your shop?
Jimmy Lea: Hold on, sister. You're muted.
Tonnika Haynes: Am I here? 
Jimmy Lea: Yep. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. So I was saying for me, second generation shop owner one of the things everybody knows that's important to me is make my father happy. So I want to continue to do things right so our name lives on in a positive way, and I also have to get it re ready for the next generation. My kids, not only is it about my family, it's about my community.
Tonnika Haynes: We're responsible for. For fixing and keeping our customers safe on the road. And these are the same people that I have to drive beside every day. I have to see them in the grocery store. I'm responsible for keeping them and their families safe. I have to do it right. I will see them in the grocery store, I'll see them at church.
Tonnika Haynes: So, my, my father's name is on that building. So doing it right is the only way that it can be done. There's no second guessing it. And so with the help of the institute and Tekmetric I feel like I'm getting. Writer and writer every time. You know? So the more that I learn and the more that I'm coach with the institute and everybody, Cecil, you, Jimmy.
Tonnika Haynes: I'm just thinking I can't, can I get any more writer? 
Jimmy Lea: And then we discover. We discover new levels of writer, 
Tonnika Haynes: new levels of rightness is happening here. It's righteous. How about that one? 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. I love that we're getting there and you know, if you're seeing this information, you find value in what you're seeing.
Jimmy Lea: We are the institute. We are here to meet you where you are, to help you grow. If you wanna work with a coach like Jennifer, that's gonna hold you accountable and show you what the possibilities are of that writer, of that better way of operating, a better way of doing things, we Woo. Did you see that? I kicked my camera?
Jimmy Lea: We would love to partner with you on this so that we become that value Partner with you. Let's lock arms. Let's lock arms together. We analyze different. Softwares, different programs in the industry to bring to you the what we feel is a best of industry program and Tekmetric is one of the best that we have in the industry.
Jimmy Lea: They're doing a phenomenal job to that. We applaud you, John. We applaud your team. We applaud Check Tekmetric and where you're going. We appreciate that, the reporting that's available. It definitely helps our coaches. It helps our shop owners to be the best that they can possibly be. 
John Phelps: Well, I'll take none of the credit, but I will absolutely accept it on our behalf.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And send the message, make sure everybody knows how much we appreciate what you're doing and the difference that they are making as an industry for our industry. Absolutely. That's awesome. With that, thank you very much for joining us today, Tanika. Thank you for joining, Jennifer. Thank you, John.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you. And with that, we are gonna call this a very good day. Thank you. And we'll see you again soon.
 

128 - The Power of Storytelling: Engaging Employees and Clients with Parker Branch

128 - The Power of Storytelling: Engaging Employees and Clients with Parker Branch
March 17th, 2025 - 00:35:47
 
Show Summary:
Parker Branch of Branch Automotive joins the conversation to discuss shop culture, leadership, storytelling, and business growth in the diesel specialty repair industry. Learn about the importance of employee buy-in, boosting productivity, and ways to build customer trust through thoughtful use of technology. Parker shares his journey from technician to business coach, offering personal experiences and proven strategies for success.
 
Host(s):
Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio
 
Guest(s):
Parker Branch of Branch Automotive
 
Show Highlights:
Introduction to the Summit (00:00:00) Keynote Insights (00:02:07) Importance of Storytelling (00:04:08) Parker's Background (00:04:52) Business Growth (00:05:12) Culture in Business (00:06:02) Self-Assessment in Leadership (00:08:27) Team Accountability (00:09:27) Lean Practices (00:10:26) Building Trust with Customers (00:11:27) AI in Automotive Communication (00:13:33) Motivation and Resources (00:17:26) Attracting and Retaining Talent (00:18:14) Growth vs. Loss (00:18:40) Creating a Positive Culture (00:19:34) Dealing with Toxic Employees (00:20:19) Accountability After Conferences (00:22:22) Cultural Engagement Strategies (00:23:41) Networking and Collaboration (00:24:23) Productivity Challenges (00:28:00) Quarterly Performance Evaluations (00:28:31) Inspiring Change vs. Forcing Change (00:30:20) Seasons of Business (00:31:16) Creating Momentum in Business (00:33:14) Commitment to Success (00:34:21)
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KfU09DMYEg4
 
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Carm Capriotto: This is the Aftermarket Radio Network. Hey everybody. Carm Capto. Remarkable Results Radio. We're in Amelia Island, Florida near Jacksonville. What a beautiful resort. We're here at the Institute's Summit. wearetheinstitute.com. I can't even quite come up with the word 'cause. I've had a chance to listen to many of the keynote speakers and be involved with tons of friends, meeting a lot of new people.
Carm Capriotto: This is what I do for a living and, and it's just great to be here and, and hanging around. So thank you so much for the institute, for having us here. Hopefully all the great content that we're gonna send out are gonna change people's lives. I wanna thank so much the great sponsors that we have on the show.
Carm Capriotto: Hey car here, and I hope to see you at the 22nd annual TST Big Event Saturday, March 29th, 2025. This very comprehensive one day seminar will feature trainers Bill Weaver from NAPA Auto Tech training, Josh Weaver from Dormant training, and Eric Ziegler from WTI. This all day event will be at the Westchester Marriott in Ton New York.
Carm Capriotto: Sign up@tstseminars.org. I'll be there and I'm going to present the keynote, the Rise of the Mechanical and Technology Specialist. Great education. Breakfast and lunch and a ton of learning. TST seminars.org. Saturday, March 29th, 2025. NAPA is focused on the now a national ownership workshop for our valued Autocare members centered around business building training from industry leaders.
Carm Capriotto: This is a can't miss event as we celebrate the past 100 years while looking ahead to the next 100. For over 30 years, Napa Trax has made Selecting the right shop management system easy. By offering the best, most comprehensive SMS in the industry, we'll prove to you that Trax is the single best shop management system in the business.
Carm Capriotto: Find Napa Trax on the web@napatacs.com. Also thanks to aftermarket management network.com for information that can help you move your business ahead. And for the free and informative labor rate tracker.com. I'm here now with Parker Branch. Hi Parker. Hello Carm. Glad to be here. So here's the story. We just came out of a keynote speech from Dr.
Carm Capriotto: Jessica Kriegel and we were both extremely motivated by her story. On changing culture and building culture and creating culture. Can you go back to the shop and take all this stuff with you, Parker? 
Parker Branch: I can't wait to try some great ideas on, you know, culture's very important to us at our shop and as it is to so many people, but sometimes knowing how we can have a positive impact on that, you know, how to get the message to the people, how to set the expectation and.
Parker Branch: What great ideas she brought. It was kind of a blueprint, wasn't it? It was really good. Yeah. 
Carm Capriotto: Here's these three things you have to do to make it work. Now. It's a heavy lift. 
Parker Branch: Seemingly simple when she delivered it. 
Carm Capriotto: Yeah. 
Parker Branch: But gonna be some strategy and some help. Oh, boss is coming back from another convention.
Parker Branch: Oh boy. What is it gonna be this time? 
Carm Capriotto: You know what? I never have a chance to thank Tracy. For all that she does. I mean, every time I open my mic, I, I need to say thank you to Tracy for all the things. Let me see getting you here a little later. 'cause we, we wanted to stay and listen to Dr. Kriegel, all the MIC adjustments and all the great production.
Carm Capriotto: And Tracy, thank you. Thank you. I've told this to Tracy how many times, and I've said it on the phone. When I own my business, I come back from the conference. Even when I worked in corporate America, they said carve away to a leadership school or something and we're gonna have to change. What I did wrong, Parker, is I came back and I said, this is what we're gonna do.
Carm Capriotto: Mm. I made this huge mistake, but I was young and maybe dumb and I was trying my ass off, but I didn't really have any of the magic. But I think back then, leadership books were just starting to be written in the nineties, right? I forgot to sell. I was out telling and I wasn't selling and I wasn't engaging, you know, by sitting down with some of my leadership group and say, listen, I gotta tell you guys, I just came back.
Carm Capriotto: Lemme tell you. I learned the storytelling. Yeah, exactly. And when you teach, you learn and they need to give you feedback. Actually, what you're doing is you're selling for, you know, buy-in and engagement, and I'm sure that's exactly what you'll do when you get back. 
Parker Branch: Absolutely. Those thoughts were going through my mind as I was listening to Dr.
Parker Branch: Kriegel about. The storytelling and we're all real good at going back and telling the story. I'm gonna figure out some resources to try to get some more buy-in to show them to align their beliefs with what we've learned and take it back. You know, Hey crew, this is what I learned and we're gonna do this.
Parker Branch: No, I'm gonna take it back. Exactly. Listen to what I. Saw and witnessed and learned and what do you guys think of this, by the way? Who's Parker Branch? 
Carm Capriotto: Just that right. Never even introduced the, here it is. We jumped right into this branch. Automotive Littleton, Colorado. A diesel shop. 
Parker Branch: Yes sir. 15 years in business in Highlands Ranch.
Parker Branch: Uh, was a GM dealership technician for many, many years. Before that and also a one-on-one coach for the institute in my spare time. Are you on fire, your business on fire? It's going well. We've had a lot of growth. We acquired some additional space for our one location last year and that led to 27% growth last year was great.
Carm Capriotto: Are you empowering your people so that you can go out and be a coach and be here? 
Parker Branch: I'm really trying to. 
Carm Capriotto: But it's working. Obviously, Parker, you probably should pat yourself somewhere on the back and say, Hey. I'm learning so much and you know, part of this whole culture thing that we learned this morning is are they gonna do the things sure.
Carm Capriotto: That really matter to the business when you know, obviously they're gonna watch what you're doing and mimic you, but they understand the plan, they believe in the plan, so you don't have to micromanage people if the culture's right to do what needs to be done 
Parker Branch: to serve. Yeah. And I believe that we have created some of that culture.
Parker Branch: I feel good about it. And if I was gonna reach over somewhere to make a pat on the back, it would be my manager Daniel. High fives, Daniel. Yep. He is learned a lot by, you know, immersion, being with me day to day for years and years, and then just giving him, you know, free reign. We talk about everything. We have weekly meetings together and then he goes and does his thing.
Parker Branch: So. Cool. Hey, are you doing more than your competition as far 
Carm Capriotto: as anything? I hope so. Okay. I mean, did you ever really study that and say, you know what, we've gotta do this bigger, better. We 
Parker Branch: try hard to embrace the difficult repairs and then the diesel business. You know, lately emissions systems are very complex and can be very difficult to repair.
Parker Branch: We've embraced them and we do see even our competition in the Denver market will sometimes send us those vehicles that they don't want to or are not able to take care of. Alright, so you're doing the 
Carm Capriotto: hard work? I hope so. Okay. Just because, uh, Parker has a diesel shop doesn't mean that if you work on ice engines, you shouldn't listen to this because of course we're a business leadership podcast advancing the industry.
Carm Capriotto: And if you can pick, listen to learn just one thing. It was Jimmy who said it the other day. You know that one thing from Carm, you gotta take one thing away. And that was the key for me, that if you're listening to this, there's insights, there's great ideas that you're getting your mind is, you know, sometimes people listen to my podcast.
Carm Capriotto: And they don't even hear the words for the last minute because they're out daydreaming on thi Oh my God, that's a great idea, and how can I implement it? I'm there. I'm 
Parker Branch: there with you. I've listened to you and I, you give me a nugget or a a point is taken from one of your guests or, and the next thing you know, I'm often thought, how can I take action on Exactly right.
Parker Branch: Well, wow, I love that. What am I gonna do with it? How can I share it with my team? Gems? Yes. Nuggets. We call 'em 
Carm Capriotto: nuggets. Any regrets for something that you just didn't do that you'd love to go back and 
Parker Branch: redo? I don't know if it's a regret, but I am happy to have learned maybe in the last year or two.
Parker Branch: Something that our last speaker even shared is when something's not going the way I want it to or in the direction I would like it to. How am I responsible for that? Like, I try to take a lot more accountability. I've shared that with Daniel. We now, when we have a, you know, a challenge, we look at ourselves first.
Parker Branch: Have I empowered my people? Have I educated them? Have I set an expectation so that they understand how to get there? 
Carm Capriotto: So before you get in front of your people to discuss anything, you're really self-assessing yourself. Yes, 
Parker Branch: sir. 
Carm Capriotto: Before you get in front of your people, are you reassessing yourself? I mean, I said that twice because.
Carm Capriotto: That's so important to get up there and ask your people to do this when you don't demonstrate the same 
Parker Branch: a hundred percent. And we have to figure out what responsibility we have, what's coming from us. You know, in any relationship the people that we're speaking with are trying to inspire. They can read what's going on with us and our emotions.
Parker Branch: So we have to take accountability ourselves and be willing to try to improve. Vulnerability share with 'em, Hey, you know, I realized Carm, that I may not have given you the tools or empowerment to achieve this, and I'm sorry for that and let's get better together. 
Carm Capriotto: You know? I know Parker, the last time you actually were on August of maybe a year ago or, uh, 
Parker Branch: yeah, sometime this last year.
Parker Branch: Yeah. 
Carm Capriotto: And we had such a great. Interview. I went back and I looked at the talking points from that huddles service advisor, I think reviews, or at least a couple of times a day, we interview a couple times a day. Yeah. Make 
Parker Branch: sure 
Carm Capriotto: we're holding 
Parker Branch: each other accountable. Yeah. 
Carm Capriotto: Are, are we on track? What's going on with the clients?
Carm Capriotto: What do you hear? What do you know? That storytelling piece. We think about the huddle, Hey, something cool that happened in the last week or yesterday to you, and you have people tell stories and if it aligns with the culture. You got 
Parker Branch: a home run. Oh, and I have to tell you, when Daniel, my manager approaches, uh, service advisors, he does like an 11:00 AM visit.
Parker Branch: And then again in the afternoons around three, not micromanaging, just, Hey, let's, what I wanted to say is, let's get on record, right? He says, tell me a story. No kidding. He's doing that. His line, that is what he says. Tell me a story. And I just, I eat it up. And then we're sitting in there and she's talking about storytelling and.
Parker Branch: You know, we lead a lot of our meetings by storytelling to then try to, you know, get where we're trying to get. 
Carm Capriotto: One of the things I remember is how Lean is important to you. Does lean continue to be a high strategy for you? I mean, we have to be aware of it so that we're sustainable. Lean is really for everyone out there who doesn't know, it's just, it's that six Sigma thing where you're just trying to do everything with the as least amount of steps.
Carm Capriotto: The greatest story about Lean that I ever heard was my friend Jim f Fleshman. He's an observer. He walks around his shop, he does all kinds of things, puts timers on every lift and all that stuff. And he said to me, car, he says, I'm watching our guys go walk to the other end of the shop to get a battery charger.
Carm Capriotto: So I bought two more and I put a charger in every bay. 
Parker Branch: Nice. 
Carm Capriotto: Think about, yeah, the steps saved, but then while it's there and it's in your environment, you know what that's used for and why. That's a good example of how you can stay lean. Yeah. Isn't it 
Parker Branch: Absolutely. Your client, they're spending a big a RO with you typically.
Parker Branch: Absolutely. Yeah. We are a light duty diesel pickup truck specialist, so any domestic diesels. So a lot of us know those repairs do tend to be more expensive, so it does drive a larger average repair order. What's the group doing to build trust with them? Internally? From my team? 
Carm Capriotto: Yeah. 
Parker Branch: Digital vehicle inspections.
Parker Branch: Making sure that, you know, one of the conversations we just had, Daniel and I, since we've been here, 'cause you know it's nice to get away and think and reflect. There was some discussion about canned findings and canned responses or recommendations. With the DVI process so much focus is on streamlining and making it quicker and for the technicians.
Parker Branch: And we reflected a little bit this week and thought, you know, we might actually go back and talk to the team some of what we just learned now, you know, trying to inspire some culture change with respect to the dvs and we might put more detail that's specific to each vehicle. Ask the guys to use their speech to text and tell the story.
Parker Branch: A little better than, you know, just as a blank example, you know, we have a line for windshield and there's a canned, you know, finding windshield's cracked, suggest replacement of windshield. Well, the customer didn't need to hear that. That has no value to them, you know, telling the story like they know it's cracked.
Parker Branch: They know the thing to do is put a new one in. So maybe. You know, that could be a tough example for getting more into it, but if we're talking about brakes or some check engine light issue, that created a problem getting into some of the detail, telling a story to help the average customer who doesn't know about this engine and what an EGR valve is, or, you know, whatever it is.
Parker Branch: Give them some explanation of what it is. Sure, yeah. How it works. Why does this matter and why we suggest to take what repair method. So yeah, we're gonna have to work a little bit more, but the value that we create by doing that, it will be so much better. And then the customer has trust, transparency.
Carm Capriotto: It's a great point. There's a lot of shops that are taking the technician or specialists. Paragraph, throwing it into AI and it's coming back and they say, wow, that's, it's the same stuff, but it's just a little nicer, a little friendlier, and they're putting it 
Parker Branch: back into the DVI. Sure. And I think you need to watch that too, because I've seen some of my guys use the AI to tune up their stories.
Parker Branch: A little bit of what came out was, you know, yeah. I drove the vehicle into the stall and picked it up and Oh, okay. Terrified what the customer said, so it was like, well, yeah, it's almost too robotic. Correct. 
Carm Capriotto: I just read something, Tracy Parker, that there's this movement out there that says that they want to make the AI voices that come back to you, that people can read it back to You sound like computers.
Carm Capriotto: Only because it is almost too real and you'll never know. Sometimes you can see a fake AI picture so that you could differentiate if this was AI generated or not. Yeah, I mean, even if you had to put the word, I find this AI thing off the charts, by the way. Yeah, I think it's changing every day. First of all, I think there's room in usage for it in our industry.
Carm Capriotto: But to rely on it, to your point, if it comes back and sounds too gr grammar. Schoolish. Or robotic. Or robotic, yeah. I mean, we've done episodes on this and I want to continue to stay very close to this AI thing. So if you're listening and you've got an opinion or some kind of great experience using ai, please karma at remarkable results.
Carm Capriotto: Top biz. Are you a Napa Autocare Center who is ready to take your shop to the next level? Then the Premier Tier Napa Autocare Gold certified program is exactly what you need. Gold certified Autocare Centers provide customers with a consistent experience no matter where they are in the US now. This means they are more likely to return and support your shop or find your gold certified auto care center while on the road.
Carm Capriotto: Gold certified members can maximize technology, increase their local marketing opportunities, and have a fully trained team that keeps up with the latest trends. Simply put the gold certified NAPA Auto Care program powered by your local brand will set you apart. A true partnership is a two-way street.
Carm Capriotto: Shops must meet specific criteria to be eligible for the many benefits of gold. Now, Napa Autocare rewards its most committed partners, their gold certified members with free premium shop referrals on the NAPA online locator, annual marketing dollars and enhanced warranty training opportunities, program rebates, and so much more.
Carm Capriotto: Are you ready to get started? Contact your local NAPA sales representative to discuss your eligibility and apply today more than 16% of light duty vehicles on the road are EV and hybrid. Is your shop ready to safely and properly service them? Get your shop trained and equipped to service hybrid and EV vehicles with NAPA Auto Tech's innovative EV Ready, level one, high voltage awareness and maintenance training.
Carm Capriotto: Hey, take your Autocare center to the next level, the gold level with the Napa Autocare Gold Certified Program. This program is for the best of the best who can provide a consistent consumer experience and earn the trust of returning and new customers. Talk to your NAPA sales representative about how you can become a gold certified shop.
Carm Capriotto: Let's face it, your shop management system is the single most important tool in your shop. Period. Napa Tracks was built from the ground up to make your business more profitable and efficient, we provide an extensive set of tools to increase and track profitability in real time. Napa Trax offers the industry's best post-sale support hands down.
Carm Capriotto: And we train your people on site. Yep, on site. And we offer remote refresher training 10 times a week, and customer support is open. Six days a week, give us a call. Visit the website or join our Facebook community today to learn more. We'll prove to you that Trax is the single best shop management system in the business.
Carm Capriotto: Napa Trax is always customized and tailored for you, whether you are a one man shop or a large multi-pay or multi-location company. After all, it's your shop, so it's your choice. Visit us on the web at NAPA Tracks. That's N-A-P-A-T-R-A-C s.com. Hey, did you know@automotivemanagementnetwork.com you can find an SOPA checklist forms along with policies and procedures that can help you move your business ahead.
Carm Capriotto: Well, sometimes you just need a little motivation to write a policy. If only you had something to review and then make your own, you can save so much valuable time when you can. Grab a document from our library, make a few adjustments for your shop and move to your next task. There are more than 350 searchable documents with new documents arriving soon@automotivemanagementnetwork.com.
Carm Capriotto: You're out doing a a one-on-one coach, correct? Yeah. I have eight clients right now. Eight clients, fabulous. Biggest struggle that's going on right now that you're hearing about? 
Parker Branch: Obviously the same thing we all know is attracting and retaining help. Those 
Carm Capriotto: are the two biggest things today. Biggest Absolutely.
Carm Capriotto: Is retention and recruitment. Of both of those, what's the biggest, what would 
Parker Branch: be just above the line? Retention? No, I think trying to acquire the talent is okay. Is probably the most difficult. 
Carm Capriotto: So you, but you need to acquire is you're acquiring for growth or are you acquiring because you lost somebody? 
Parker Branch: I see some of both.
Parker Branch: So, and some of the clients that I'm working with are typically clients that are, I. Have been in business maybe only a year or two, and they're starting to recognize their weaknesses. A lot of them might have come and listened to your podcast and they got the idea, I need some help and come to some coaching company in, in this case, the institute with me.
Parker Branch: And so they're trying to figure out how to grow, how to become more profitable, you know, and it might be them and one person. So. It's more of a growth in that situation. But then, you know, on the flip side of the coin, I'm still operating branch automotive and same thing, we've had some growth, but we've also had some talent leave, and it becomes top of mind, like, how can I make sure that I'm doing a good job of creating a culture that these people want to stay with us?
Parker Branch: Got it. Yeah. As well as how am I gonna grow? Why are they leaving? I've had one person leave, knock on wood. Well, I hope it stays that way. Technician that was with me for nine years and he just decided I'm a little bit tired of the ups and downs. His particular situation, he was offered a job by the electric company and he had, you know, grand ideas of how he would sit around drinking coffee and telling stories and still getting paid.
Parker Branch: And I've talked to him a little bit since, and there's definitely been a little bit of. Whoops. Yeah. Not sure. Oh, whoops. Moment. Yeah. He was a great employee. Really, uh, loved the guy and he knows the door's still open, so if he changed his mind, you know, we've even reached back out to him. But the grass isn't always greener.
Carm Capriotto: In your last 15 years, did you ever let someone go that was 
Parker Branch: really toxic? Absolutely. Tell us about. Not a lot, but there've been a couple. I definitely had a service advisor a few years ago. It was my strongest advisor. We were in a good place, sales wise and so forth. He was wonderful with customers, really good.
Parker Branch: He had a following, but internal to the company. He was extremely abrasive and made people feel uncomfortable, even myself sometimes, and eventually it just became so much of an issue. That feeling, I think Dr. Kriegel talked about that if you have that little thought in the back of the mind or uncomfortable, you know, thing going on in your mind about a situation or a person, you need to address it.
Parker Branch: And we actually had one technician that was thinking of leaving as a result of how abrasive that behavior was. And when I did let that individual go, overall it was awesome. The whole place went up. It was so much better. Yeah, people were happier. More people that I didn't realize he was rubbing wrong seemed to me.
Carm Capriotto: Parker. Parker, what does it take to listen to your intuition to observe? 
Parker Branch: No, I gotta do something. Yeah. What does it take? I mean, I have a little bit of intuition now, situations that, you know, this week was a good reminder. Hey, you need to go home and address this, all the, all the 
Carm Capriotto: right reasons to go to a conference 
Parker Branch: and be, be involved in networking.
Parker Branch: Well, how many, I mean, probably most all of us people listening us here in the room today, we'll have those intuitions at time and it may not be convenient to listen to them or take action. But then when we do, we generally, in my experience, almost always, thank God I finally listened and took action on that.
Parker Branch: We're in a better place now. 
Carm Capriotto: Thank you for saying confession. Are you overwhelmed? We're only in, I dunno if you've been here for three or two or we have one more day to go. I. And there's so much incoming. We're taking a lot of notes. We're hearing a lot of people, you can't do everything. But the story is, is if you don't do something with what you came back with within at least 30 days and hold your own personal self accountable, I.
Carm Capriotto: You just wasted your time and money. 
Parker Branch: Absolutely. And it was discussed in the last get together that you need to take action within three days. Oh, that's right. It was three days. Yeah. Yeah. 
Carm Capriotto: Get off your, yeah. Oh right. I'm gonna go back sleep for a day. Yeah. And then I only have two 
Parker Branch: left. Yeah, exactly. And uh, so the notebook needs to be opened up Monday at back at the shop.
Parker Branch: Wow. And I'm gonna go through there and pick. You know, one or two things to start with. They're going onto my to-do list and I want to take action. Cool. 
Carm Capriotto: What are you gonna go back and do? First? 
Parker Branch: Have a meeting with Daniel and we're gonna plan how we can take some of what we just learned in this last session with Dr.
Parker Branch: Kriegel about the culture and presenting it to our people differently. We're aware of it in the past. We've tried, we've done storytelling and so forth, but I think there's some more questions that she taught us to ask. Our people engaged. 
Carm Capriotto: It was a very easy and simple three step process to make culture work.
Carm Capriotto: To her point in the beginning, and I love to talk about culture, it's, you know what I mean? It's one of those uncomfortable, it's uncomfortable, it's soft, it's emotional. Did I say Moshi? And people, uh, I don't need culture a lot. We are the culture. We're badass. 
Parker Branch: No. It's not, that's not who the people that are coming into the industry, they are not that person.
Parker Branch: It's 
Carm Capriotto: like, so you like working there? Oh yeah. It's a great place. We're all happy. You know, Fridays they do lunch. Yeah. But you still never get accomplished in the business, even though people love lunch on Fridays. Yeah. It doesn't mean that you're hitting your results. Sure. So anyway, I know I'm only gonna get 20 minutes with Dr.
Carm Capriotto: Kriegel when she comes in and we do this episode. Please listen to it. 'cause I'm going to. Zero in on one particular section that she talked about and hopefully she's willing to go there with us and just give us 20 minutes on this and we'll find out In her episode we'll talk about how you can get in touch and see her stuff.
Carm Capriotto: Can't wait to hear that. Yeah, and Dan Clark was here and I interviewed Dan Clark and I'm gonna go home and listen to that before when it releases it. It may not release you like right away. It could come out in three weeks or so, but. 
Parker Branch: What a humble and amazing guy. My wife is here, Celeste. She went up and spoke to him after.
Parker Branch: Yeah. And he welcomed her to ask some questions about her challenges with her salon and so forth and dealing with people. And it was, he was like, absolutely, let's talk about this. Call me, let's get on the phone. Let's trade emails. What a neat 
Carm Capriotto: guy he was so open, Tracy and I. At the end of the episode, I'll give everyone a hint as to what happened.
Carm Capriotto: He asked us, where are you from? And we said, Buffalo. And he says, go Bills, right? Yes. And he starts telling us how often he spoke to the Bills group, and he's going down the list of all of our Hall of Famers that he's 
met 
Parker Branch: and known. But we gotta let the public know that Parker Branch grew up just outside of Buffalo, New York as well.
Parker Branch: So go Bills. And I grew up in the days of, you know, Marv Levy. 
Carm Capriotto: Oh my God, yes. Kim Kelly and the old, old crew. Yeah. So we've been out for a long trip. This is the longest conference trip. Tracy and I have been away from the office and or home. Right. And wherever we go. By the way, didn't he win last night?
Parker Branch: Yeah, 
Carm Capriotto: Josh Allen. Yeah, Josh Allen. I watched, 
Parker Branch: I caught just a glimpse of that and I was really 
Carm Capriotto: excited. I wished I would've seen it, but I did see it on, uh, I dunno if it was a newsreel this morning or whatever. Yeah, I think that's what I just popped in. 
Parker Branch: Last night. So Dan Clark's a Bills fan. 
Carm Capriotto: Bill's Dan Clark's a Bills fan.
Carm Capriotto: He goes, anytime you wanna do another episode, just let us know. That was our coin, that was our little chip to get in. There's a little payoff for us, uh, being Buffalo Bills fans, and that's what it's been since we've left. I don't mean to degrade from our great discussion, but it's always fun to, you know, obviously listen.
Carm Capriotto: To all my friends, my dear friends in Kansas City, and how many times you've had to send chicken wings over to Sherry Ham a lot. We spent a ton of money on buffalo wings. I think I've told this story before, but we never communicated with Sherry and her great team from Auca. Vision on the game that the bills won.
Carm Capriotto: Yeah. 
Parker Branch: You know this early in the season. Oh yeah. This season. Absolutely. Well, I'll tell you what, when we go to Vision, 'cause we'll be there half of our crew with you. Cool. We're gonna talk to her about that. 
Carm Capriotto: Okay? Okay. Yeah, let's do that. So all of a sudden, the next day, Tracy gets an email from Sherry and says the barbecue is coming.
Carm Capriotto: Oh. Yeah, Jack stacks and we Did you get to pay off? Oh yeah, we did. Yeah. Nice. And then on the wing part, listen, we send wings from a great restaurant in town that does ship out and they're frozen and they have to either thaw 'em and bake 'em or do whatever they have to do. But, uh, I don't know. I think we're going on our fifth batch now or something like that.
Carm Capriotto: I, I don't, this is gonna have to stop, huh? Yeah, I mean, to the point is, is, you know, I think it's five to one right now over the Super Bowls, whatever. Next year. Next year is our year. Next year, right? Yeah. And how about that rumor about the color of the Super Bowl logo? Uh, not aware of it yet. Oh, look at the colors of the Super Bowl.
Carm Capriotto: Is it 59? Yeah. Super Bowl 59. Look at the colors. I'll check it out. They're the chief's colors. 
Parker Branch: Oh. And, uh, what colors are the officials wearing? 
Carm Capriotto: I don't know. Oh my God, we digress. Big time now. Let's not have that discussion. Yep. Let's talk about back to the industry. Let's get into coaching. 
Parker Branch: Is productivity a big issue with your clients?
Parker Branch: With all of us, absolutely. And I think some of the level of, you know, technology and difficulty, I. Can create some issues in that, you know, trying to have them, you know, managing their time, getting through these issues and stuff. So we all have to look at it, measure it. Obviously labor inventory is what we have to sell on time, and we wanna make sure that the guys are proficient, we're efficient.
Parker Branch: So what are you doing about it? What are the great ideas that people are sharing about improved productivity? So we're having quarterly performance evaluations. So each quarter we get away from the shop, Daniel and I, and sometimes even our lead technician who's part of our management team. And we'll go sit down with each employee and it's uh, Hey, Karm, how are things going?
Parker Branch: Like, how is your experience? You know, what's getting in your way? Is there things that I could do to make it better? We're there to talk and listen and learn. And try to help empower them. Figure out what their challenges are. I so it's a 
Carm Capriotto: discovery moment. It's a, and it's 
Parker Branch: a 
Carm Capriotto: discussion. It's a discussion and discovery and every once in a while guarantee you a nugget's gonna come up.
Parker Branch: We learn more by listening to them, giving them a chance to talk. We like to get away from the shop, away from the rest of the people so they feel comfortable. We start having lunch, you know, there's an olive garden down the street and when I walk in there, they're like, oh, hi Mr. Branch. The usual. 
Carm Capriotto: Yeah.
Carm Capriotto: Would you like those unlimited breadsticks in that big salad bowl? 
Parker Branch: Yeah. So I abstain from the bread, but, oh, smart man. I wish I could, but it's just great to, I have to, we get 'em, you know, comfortable and it's not, you know, manipulative. It's like, let's just sit down and get comfortable and chat for a few minutes and then start talking about how's things going for you.
Parker Branch: And like you said, the nuggets come. We get ideas on how we can improve their experience. You know, what's getting in your way? And it's kinda like that last seminar we just listened to. There's, uh, one train of thought where you get in there and work hard and force this to happen and we're gonna make this thing change versus, Hey, let's talk about this and see how I can help you and you know, what do you actually believe?
Parker Branch: What's important to you that could help you do your job or feel good about your job? 
Carm Capriotto: What's the opposite of making change? Is it like morphing change? Is it, is empowering change inspiring, maybe inspiring like that? 
Parker Branch: Yeah. I mean, our coaches talked a bit in the last round of gear performance group meetings that, you know, you can't pull motivation out of someone.
Parker Branch: You know, the motivation comes from within. You can inspire those people, but you can't force anything to happen. It goes back to 
Carm Capriotto: culture. 
Parker Branch: Yeah, 
Carm Capriotto: it really does. And everybody focused on the results and how are we gonna get there? What we believe is going to make a difference for us and the client, and. One of the things that just can't stop making sure is number one in everyone's mind is the people in the company.
Carm Capriotto: Number one, the people, number two, the client. 
Parker Branch: Yeah. And one of the things that you just said kind of struck a nerve for me. Focus on the results. Yeah. We as shop owners and people in the industry, we go through seasons. Of our business seasons. Of the industry. Mm-hmm. So we're at different places. We're trying to figure it out now.
Parker Branch: I think I have it figured out now I need to grow, you know, what am I gonna do next? This is huge, what you just said, 
Carm Capriotto: the seasons of my business. There aren't just 
Parker Branch: four. There could be ongoing 50. You know, one of a saying that I picked somebody, it's a biblical thing, but somebody said to me with respect to what we're doing and how things are going in the shop, whether it's good, bad, whatever, this two shall change, this two shall change.
Parker Branch: Yeah. So if you're on top of the wave, eventually you're gonna be off the wave. Yeah. I love. 
Carm Capriotto: If you're listening to this and car's gonna talk a little bit about seasons of your business and that really is describing don't get stuck. I'd love to get stuck in summer in Buffalo. I'd love even fall stay. But now we get the snow and it's an eventual thing that happens.
Carm Capriotto: And in your business, no matter how successful or even marginally unsuccessful or successful you are, you need to create. Through your vision, through the where you want to get and how you want to get there, your seasonality of growth. And that means almost fall, gets winter, but the snow comes a little bit at a time and then it gets worse and it gets colder, and then spring shows up, boom.
Carm Capriotto: It's not immediate and it's an evolution of seasonal changes. So if you want to take your business. Want to go back and start working on processes. 
Parker Branch: Sure, 
Carm Capriotto: it's not gonna happen tomorrow, but take that seasonality approach where we're gonna get it, figure it out, implement it, watch it, grow another season of maybe better culture move maybe.
Carm Capriotto: We're gonna review our technology and all the equipment that we have, and we're gonna look at all the educational systems we bring into our people. And I guess if you think about all those things you have to work on and you think about this ongoing roller smoothing that out. Yeah. So this rollercoaster of seasonality Sure.
Carm Capriotto: Of the leader 
Parker Branch: of the business moving his business forward. Right. Not such a abrupt changes. I think by doing a lot of the right things, we can create some momentum. Yeah. That will smooth some of those seasonalities or seasonal changes so they're not so abrupt. I was just gonna say the word abrupt. I was just 
Carm Capriotto: thinking of that.
Carm Capriotto: And I think that's what. Hold some people back, Parker. Exactly. If we're reacting to things rather than I can't do this. Yeah, it, it would shake my company up. No, it should be slow and eventual. Hundred percent or methodically, eventual, but you can't get there by dreaming it and wishing it and speaking it.
Carm Capriotto: It literally has to be, this is what we're gonna do and why we're gonna do it when we're gonna do it. 
Parker Branch: And your team picks up on that. So if you're reacting and you know, letting it. Swing your behavior and mood. Yeah. Abruptly. 
Carm Capriotto: Yeah. 
Parker Branch: You know, by 
Carm Capriotto: April team, this is what we're doing. I 
Parker Branch: love it. 
Carm Capriotto: Yeah. 
Parker Branch: And then this is what we can expect based on what we've seen in the past.
Parker Branch: And you know, if we're in a lull, we know that we can expect this. We're gonna, you know, carry our momentum right through there and we'll be right back up on top of the wave 
Carm Capriotto: again. All right. Parker Branch, a branch. Automotive Littleton, Colorado. Give me. A great reason why you're so damn successful.
Parker Branch: Commitment. I love being there every day and I love fixing trucks and making people happy, 
Carm Capriotto: man. That's it. Great summary. Thanks for being here, man. Thanks 
Parker Branch: so much, Karm, and thank you Tracy. 
Carm Capriotto: Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the Premier Automotive aftermarket podcast. Until next time.
 

127 - Fix Your Hiring Woes: How Smart Shops Attract and Keep the Right People

127 - Fix Your Hiring Woes: How Smart Shops Attract and Keep the Right People
June 18th, 2025 - 00:57:07
 
Show Summary:
In this insightful episode, Jimmy Lea of The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence is joined by Brian Burris of Promotive and Mike Grosse of Glen’s Auto to tackle one of the biggest challenges in the automotive aftermarket: hiring and retaining top technician talent. Mike shares his journey from shop helper to shop owner and the influence of mentorship and industry support. Brian walks through the detailed processes Promotive uses to match technicians with shop culture. Together, they explore strategies like working interviews, career path planning, and internal training to build sustainable, high-performing teams. Their conversation offers actionable advice for shop owners seeking to grow without compromising culture or quality.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Brian Burris, Account Manager of Promotive 
Mike Grosse, President of Glenn's Auto Service 
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:04:53] Mike Grosse shares how he accidentally stayed in the automotive industry after taking a part-time job post-high school.
[00:07:35] Encouraged by a mentor, Mike climbed from sweeping floors to owning Glen’s Auto.
[00:13:02] Mike explains how his late mentor supported changes like marketing and tech upgrades despite an old-school mindset.
[00:16:04] Brian Burris explains how Promotive tailors recruiting by deeply understanding a shop’s culture through intake calls.
[00:17:59] Common red flags in candidates include mismatched experience and badmouthing previous employers.
[00:21:20] Mike emphasizes patience in hiring and the importance of job-specific and personal questions to uncover true fit.
[00:24:09] Brian stresses the value of speed in hiring and keeping communication open to maintain a talent bench.
[00:34:00] Working interviews and technician walkthroughs are powerful tools to assess cultural and technical compatibility.
[00:47:12] Building career paths and training plans help retain and grow technicians into long-term contributors.
[00:54:22] Mike and Brian share what they'd change in the industry: more young people entering the trade and reviving technician passion.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAj_C4fGSBA
 
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or goodnight depending on where and when you are joining us today. It is a beautiful day outside. I'm so excited to be here with you, my friend. So thank you to everybody who's here and joining. Whether you are watching it live or watching the recording, we so appreciate you as we lock arms together to make sure that we are building a better business with each other, resulting in a better life and a better industry.
Jimmy Lea: That is the mantra here for the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence is to build a better business for you as a shop owner, a better business for you as a service advisor, a better business for you as part of the industry. And by building a better business, it results in a better life for you as a shop owner, a better life for your advisors, your managers, your parts people, your tech.
Jimmy Lea: Nations, it's a better life for them and their families and their spouses and their extended family. It results. It's a really big ripple effect that happens. And the net result of all of this is that we work together to build a better industry. So I'm very excited to be here with you today.
Jimmy Lea: My guest today as we get here together. Joining us first is Mr. Brian Burris. Brian joins us from Promotive. Brian, good to have you with me, brother. Good morning. How's Atlanta, Georgia? 
Brian Burris: It is beautiful as always, sir. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, speaking of 85 in Alaska, what is your temperature in Atlanta today? 83 in Bert. 83 in humid.
Jimmy Lea: What's your humidity factor? 
Brian Burris: Oh, it's 83 probably. We've had a lot of rain recently, so. Oh, 
Jimmy Lea: a lot of rain. Yeah. Nice. Well, and you're recently returning to Atlanta. Congratulations. 
Brian Burris: Thank you. 
Jimmy Lea: Always good to move back home, isn't it? 
Brian Burris: Yes, sir. Yeah, absolutely. 
Jimmy Lea: How long have you been with Promotive now, Brian?
Brian Burris: Just over a year actually. End of May was a year with them, so. 
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congratulations. And you got your promotional t-shirt I see. 
Brian Burris: Yes. We get that after you have to 
Jimmy Lea: be there for a year and then you get your t-shirt, right? Correct.
Jimmy Lea: With the institute you have to close 10 deals before you get a backpack, so Oh, there you go. Now you know.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. Welcome, Brian. Glad to have you here with us. I'm so excited to talk about what you're doing in the industry to help. Shop owners because there is a huge shortage in the industry. So those that are here currently are the ones that we want to elevate and bring them to the top. And speaking of phenomenal shops, phenomenal shop owners.
Jimmy Lea: Our guest today is Brian Gross and he is with Glen's Auto down in California. Mike, welcome. Good to have you here with us brother. 
Mike Grosse: Good morning, Jimmy. Good morning. 
Jimmy Lea: Brian. Mike. And you sound so good, Mike. I'm loving this microphone you got, I'm gonna thank you for all of that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude, this is awesome. How's the shop there, Glen's Auto? 
Mike Grosse: It's, you know, we're pressing forward. It's been a little quiet as of late, but guys have work to do, so that's good. 
Jimmy Lea: That's good. That's good. And what's the makeup of your shop, Mike? What does that look like? 
Mike Grosse: It's a pretty small shop, little four bay shop.
Mike Grosse: Got one advisor, two techs, and and I'm kind of the floater, you know, I just wander around wherever I'm needed and that's really about it. Yep. 
Jimmy Lea: Yep. It's that all the hats that you get to wear. Good manner. Rural shop, four, four bays, two techs, one service advisor. Are you looking at expanding?
Jimmy Lea: Are you wanting three techs or four techs? What are you looking at? 
Mike Grosse: You know, I think if I could ever have any more help down here might be some support for my advisor and possibly somebody to help support the technicians. But as far as growing the shop, I'm quite comfortable with where it's at.
Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. Two techs, each tech has two bays. That's a beautiful thing. So as you're waiting for parts on one, you can be working on another. You don't have to push in, pull out. There's a lot of shops where it's one for one. Oh, yeah. Makes it challenging. Makes it very challenging. Sure does. Hey, Mike I wanna go back a little bit in history to talk about your experience in the automotive aftermarket.
Jimmy Lea: How did you get started? What did that look like when you entered into the industry? 
Mike Grosse: I actually kind of got here on ac I stayed here on accident, I guess. This was, you know, coming to work here was just you know, I'd just gotten outta high school and was looking for some part-time work while I was going to college and I never left.
Mike Grosse: It just turned into a full-time job and you know, I. Never had much formal education. I had a great mentor who was a phenomenal technician and he just kind of took me under his wing and showed me the way. 
Jimmy Lea: So, wow. Mike, that's a similar entry point as to what I experienced. You got a job as you were there and attending college and you just stuck.
Mike Grosse: Yep. 
Jimmy Lea: I say that I entered the industry 'cause I lost a bet. I.
Mike Grosse: But did you really lose? 
Jimmy Lea: No. Well, I lost the bet, but I gained a beautiful industry that is phenomenal. There's so much love in the automotive aftermarket. There's so much integrity and so much charity. That's here in this industry and care and focus on people that Yes. In the end I'm a winner.
Jimmy Lea: Correct. And I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you very much for that perspective, Mike. So you started as were, did you start as a technician in the shop or did you start at the front counter? What did that look like? No 
Mike Grosse: I had no idea what I was doing. I slung tires around at a Firestone for a few years, and I thought I was the fastest tire changer in the west.
Mike Grosse: But 
Jimmy Lea: you probably were, came, 
Mike Grosse: I came over here just as a shop helper. I mean, I did everything from sweeping floors to changing oil to. Cleaning the stock room out picking up parts, dropping off customers. I just, I did whatever I was told. So, yeah. And then ended up just working more in the shop.
Mike Grosse: There was actually quite a few employees here when I first came to work here, and, the culture was pretty good and I, you know, I got a lot of guidance from all the technicians that were in here. There was every, everybody was really helpful in guiding me along and educating me and showing me the ropes.
Jimmy Lea: So, oh, that, that's awesome. So you advanced from being the gopher. Go for this. Go for that. Go for this. Go get this. Go get that. Sweep this, sweep that, clean this, clean that inventory. This inventory that you went from being the goer to the shop owner. I. 
Mike Grosse: Yeah. Yep. Lot of pressure applied to me from the previous owner.
Mike Grosse: You know, not pressure I shouldn't say it that way. A lot of encouragement you know, to go out and get those ASEs classes after work at night, getting involved with those, getting my smog license and. You know, at that point, you know, I was being taught how to troubleshoot vehicles, diagnose.
Mike Grosse: And then that led into working at the front counter learning how to write service and just figuring out how to put it all together. And the opportunity presented itself for me to buy into the place. And never really thought I was gonna be a auto repair shop owner, but I think I was more afraid of leaving here to go work for somebody else.
Mike Grosse: And so I took the plunge and here I am. You know, it's been a, been kind of a wild ride, seeing a lot of ups and downs and probably the first 10, 15 years more downs than ups, but, you know, with the help of a lot of people in this industry we've managed to turn things around. 
Jimmy Lea: So it's a good place to be.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it sure is. And you know what I hear right there, Mike, and this is a joke I. For your job security, you just went ahead and bought the shop? Yeah, pretty much.
Jimmy Lea: I don't know if I can do anything else, so I'm just gonna buy the shop and yeah, that, that's job security right there now but did, how quickly did you discover that the skillset you have inside the bays, the skillset you have behind the front desk, behind the counter is a different skillset to.
Jimmy Lea: Shop ownership, business ownership.
Mike Grosse: I have a lot of these and I just, yeah, a lot of hats. 
Jimmy Lea: You wear a lot of 
Mike Grosse: hats and anybody out there that owns a shop knows that oh yeah. And you know, you have to be able to juggle it all around. And it's, it comes with its set of challenges. That's for sure. 
Jimmy Lea: How long did you trudge this on your own? And who was there to help you along the way when you first started out as the owner? Was the previous owner there with you, block, step, side by side, or was it good luck? Here's the deep end. 
Mike Grosse: No, as a matter of fact the the unwritten contract that we had was that basically I would show up for work one day and I'd get a new hat that said Boss and and Bill, who was the previous owner he became my advisor, my bookkeeper I mean, he was everything.
Mike Grosse: He stayed here to make sure that I didn't fail. And he was kind of old school. It was it became challenging because his way of thinking again, was kind of old school. You know, everything was word of mouth. He didn't, although he was real techie he didn't understand the value of.
Mike Grosse: Having a website and you know, all the things that come along with that marketing. And and I think that's where I started running into my struggles because I didn't know how to fix my broken business. But he was very helpful in making sure all the bills were paid on time and that. He'd kick me in the fanny if there wasn't enough money in the account and he'd tell me to just work harder.
Mike Grosse: Yeah. So, and that was that lasted for a long time. He he left us about three years ago and I didn't retire him until about three months before he passed. I almost refused to do it. He was just such a huge part of this operation and miss him a lot. So, 
Jimmy Lea: oh yeah, for sure. And it's awesome that you get to continue the legacy and continue the journey, the story the company, the culture.
Jimmy Lea: You get to continue that legacy that was established once upon a time and now you are the torch bearer. Yep. And enjoying it. Well, good for you. Oh, that's awesome. So as you step in and you took over I could see that there's probably, a lot of opportunities. Wrong word occurrences, where you probably locked horns with Bill from old school.
Jimmy Lea: This is what works. This is what I've done for 35, 45, 50 years to where you're wanting to introduce technology, software, modern marketing. 
Mike Grosse: He wasn't, you know, he wasn't really, he wasn't really opposed to the changes when they started coming. He really embraced them. The thing with him is he just didn't know how to guide me into doing that.
Mike Grosse: You know, it was through our local auto association and other shop owners. They were the ones that actually took me under their wing and. Led me down a different path, but as I started bringing this information back to the shop bill was quite helpful in getting it implemented and in place.
Mike Grosse: And I, I didn't get, I didn't get any pushback from him there whatsoever. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So the auto association that you were involved in was the A-S-C-C-A? 
Mike Grosse: That's correct. 
Jimmy Lea: Were you working with like John and Rocky, or who was it that 
Mike Grosse: Rocky was in our chapter when I joined TSU. Tida Love tsu.
Mike Grosse: He was love Rocky. He was probably the biggest cheerleader. If anybody knows tsu he's a cheerleader and he's a champ. He really yeah, he was my big, he was the big pusher for me. And I, you know, I'm very thankful for him, for everything that he's ever done for me. So, yeah, 
Jimmy Lea: he's expanded his kingdom here recently.
Jimmy Lea: I think he has a second shop now. 
Mike Grosse: Yeah, he does. He does. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Mike Grosse: Running two shops now. I you know, again, my hat's off to him. I, it's being an MSO is not for everyone. So. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, and that I was gonna ask you that, Mike, are you looking at. Expanding your kingdom, are you wanting to add to the footprint or do you think you're comfortable where you are at the moment?
Mike Grosse: I think I'm pretty comfortable. You know, I don't wanna say I've ever considered it. It certainly has crossed my mind a time or two. But, you know, I don't know, I don't know what the future holds. You know, I'm getting old. And I, you know, I just don't know if that would be a good move, Brian.
Mike Grosse: What does that 
Jimmy Lea: make us? If he thinks he's old? 
Mike Grosse: Oh, yeah. I'm just not sure if I'm, you know, prepared for that. So, but you know, he can only, each individual can only handle so much and I'm not sure if another shop is in my wheelhouse, but, 
Jimmy Lea: yeah. Well, and if it does come to that and you do look at expanding the kingdom.
Jimmy Lea: And adding additional shops to what you're doing. Gosh, man, reach out. We'd love to help you out with what that looks like and how you can build onto what you've already developed and built. 
Mike Grosse: Absolutely. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: And that goes right into what we're talking about today is if you were to lose one of the two technicians you have, yeah, you could step in for a minute, but you've gotta replace that person fairly quickly.
Jimmy Lea: If you are adding to the kingdom, and now you've got a second location, a third location, a fourth location, you've gotta have somebody like a Brian Burris, a promotive on your side to help you find the right people that are qualified. So that you can now go in and interview them. And so Brian, my question for you from a a recruiter's point of view, how do you define a company's culture clear enough to be able to hire for that?
Jimmy Lea: Do you know Mike's shop so well that you're able to hire for or qualify or interview candidates to match his culture? Or how do you do that? What's your process, Brian? 
Brian Burris: So initially when, whenever someone signs up with a promotive we will set up an intake call. So that intake call, I had one yesterday.
Brian Burris: It was two hours long. Just learning the the shop's culture and what they were looking for in a technician. Building that relationship with the shop owner and myself and the other account managers we get a good idea of what they're looking for. What the culture of the shop is, and we try to plug and play that.
Brian Burris: We'll go through hundreds of candidates before we send somebody that we think is a good fit. If we send somebody that you know isn't a good fit, Mike would come back to me and say, Hey, here's some red flags from me and let's pivot moving forward. And the recruiting team will also do the same. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, that's interesting.
Jimmy Lea: Brian, from a a red flag point of view, what are some of the common red flags that you see from other shops? Or maybe it's something that you've seen even from Glen's Automotive. What are some of those non-negotiables that you see with a lot of shops? 
Brian Burris: One thing is, it's a common occurrence is when we have a candidate we're screening them.
Brian Burris: We're asking about their experience as well. And when they go into a shop, their experience doesn't match their resume. That happens all the time. And then we also see the candidates. Unfortunately speaking bad about the previous employer, that's a red flag usually from any shop out there. When you go into an interview, you're not, you don't wanna be the one sitting there talking bad about your previous employer, your current employer.
Brian Burris: What if that technician leaves you? What are they gonna say about the job? 
Jimmy Lea: That's the story that I'm hearing is I don't want to be the next bad story that you're telling to your next employer. Correct. So there's a red flag that says Yeah. No. Next. Yeah. So do you hear that in the prequalification interviews that eliminates them?
Jimmy Lea: Or is it on to mike to listen for those indicators? 
Brian Burris: So we do ask a ton of questions when we're pre-screening or vetting a candidate for a shop. The recruiters will actually, we have a section for internal use only. They'll put red flags in of stuff that you know, we necessarily wouldn't send to a shop.
Brian Burris: But again, the recruiters vetting that person. I know Mike, I know what he is looking for. And those red flags I won't send to Canada. I'm not gonna waste Mike's time. Setting up an interview if there are things that Mike and I have discussed that you know, he doesn't want, that's where the buck stops with me.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and Mike, to your shop and to your experience, I want to talk about a success and then talk about a failure. Maybe we talk about a failure first. Have you ever hired somebody into your shop that disrupted your culture, and what did you learn from that? 
Mike Grosse: I haven't had anybody in here that had, I mean, that was just completely the opposite of what our culture is.
Mike Grosse: Most of the issues that I've had with people that I've hired is just their inability. You know, there, there's, I have different personality types that work for me now. Everybody seems to get along pretty good with one another. Every once in a while, you know, I have to intervene. You know, maybe we forget about our lines of communication around here, but having just a really rotten banana in my basket is not something that I've had to deal with yet.
Jimmy Lea: That's lucky, Mike. That's really good. 
Mike Grosse: Yeah I've heard horror stories, so, oh, 
Jimmy Lea: I yeah. You gotta what's the saying you gotta be slow to hire and quick to fire. Oh, yeah. I think that's what I've heard. Gary V say that quite a bit. The question. Whoops. Question for you, Mike. And then Brian, same question for you.
Jimmy Lea: And this is a comment that's coming in from Sherman. What are the top three hiring tips that you've got that you can share here? Mike, what are your top three hiring tips? And then Brian will ask you the same question. 
Mike Grosse: I think the first thing for me is patience. Don't. Don't fall in love with somebody on the first interview.
Mike Grosse: Take it slow, but not too slow for sight's, 
Jimmy Lea: not a thing. 
Mike Grosse: Yeah. You know, take it a little slow, not too slow because you know, you might not be the only person interviewing that candidate. The other thing that I would have to say is think about the position you're hiring for. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. 
Mike Grosse: And compile.
Mike Grosse: A really good list of questions job related questions and also you know, personal questions. Get to know the person a little bit on a personal level. If they're a chatterbox like me, you'll get them to almost forget that they're in an interview and then just start talking openly and candidly.
Mike Grosse: And you can oftentimes. Really see somebody's true colors when you can get 'em to just open up and start chatting. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah. The more you can get that candidate to be the one talking, the better off. You're gonna have a field if it's working or not. Brian, same question to you.
Jimmy Lea: What are your top three hiring tips for 
Brian Burris: going back to what Mike said there. They're not just meeting with you. You know, that's one of the questions that we asked during our prescreen of vetting is, how many other applications do you have? Do you have any offers on the table? Any of that. So circling back to that, it's speed to lead.
Brian Burris: We, that's the saying we use almost every day. We've gotta be fast on these candidates. If they're good, we need to get 'em in front of the shop owners as quick as possible that we're working with. Because there's other dealerships you may not be. Offering the most you know, hourly or flat rate, whatever it may be.
Brian Burris: But if the FR culture fit is good, they're gonna pick you. So sell your shop on that. So speed of lead the questions that we use can be edited per se. We ask tons of questions, like, if I send somebody over from Mike, we're ask him, you know, how much do you have in tools? Ask those tough questions upfront.
Brian Burris: Ask, what do you think your level is of diagnostic being electrical drivability on a scale of one to 10? That's one of the questions that we ask as well. So we try to get as much information as we can upfront before we sit 'em to the tech, to the shop. Secondly, I would say, you know, keep the communication open.
Brian Burris: Even if you're not, it doesn't work out. Right. They take another job over you. We see it day in and day out where a technician won't accept your offer, but they accept somebody else's. And they always thought that grass was greener on the other side. Turns out it wasn't. So we see that a lot as well. So again, keeping communication open with that candidate is key.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, and I'd like to call that building a bench. Absolutely. So as a as the coach. You've gotta build a bench of technicians that you're engaging with and you just keep in touch. Once a month you reach out and say, Hey, how's it going? How's the shop? Oh man, I'm so glad you're having success over there.
Jimmy Lea: It sounds like you're doing really well. Oh my gosh, whatever. But eventually there might be an opportunity that comes back around. And Mike, you may lose one of your technicians at the shop. Maybe he has to move back home to Wisconsin, take care of mom and dad, or whatever the case is. If you've got a bench of people that you can pluck from, makes that interview process much shorter.
Jimmy Lea: I. Correct, correct. Yeah. 
Mike Grosse: And I do keep a, I do keep a file. I try to keep good, clear notes and right on the top of the page, you know, I, you know, you might put on there something you know, might wanna follow up with this guy you know, in the future. Yeah, I've got one guy in particular that I really liked.
Mike Grosse: And although we couldn't come to terms I text him once every couple of months just to see how he's doing, and he's chatty he'll get back with me and you know, would he ever be the right fit for my shop? I don't know. But there was something that we liked about one another. And you know, again you never know what life brings you.
Mike Grosse: So, and like you said, you could have a technician that just might wake up having a bad day one day and decide that it's time to move on, so, oh, yeah. Yeah. It's nice to keep that, you know, keep all those candidates in a warm pool. 
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. And Tim, Ian's probably got one of the best stories that I heard recently about a technician wanting to come back to the shop.
Jimmy Lea: He expanded the shop just to bring this guy back in. Oh my gosh. What a beautiful experience. And this technician that is returning to the shop is now taking on an apprentice and teaching the industry as well. Yeah, phenomenal. I love it. I love it. Okay. Question has come in here, and this is a question for both of you.
Jimmy Lea: Coming from Angel, what kind of questions would you recommend for a non technician? Somebody like me, I'm not technically skilled. Somebody like you Mike, you know, technical questions, you know the technical things to ask and Brian, maybe you do as well, but for me, I'm not a technician. I'm not master certified.
Jimmy Lea: What kind of questions can someone who's non-technical ask a technician candidate? 
Mike Grosse: Ah, let's see. Well, if I, maybe I'm gonna read into this a little too much, but if if Angel happens to be a shop owner that has no technical background I would probably confide with whoever your lead tech is at that time, who does have the experience, let them compile a list of those questions.
Mike Grosse: And again, it kind of depends on what skillset you're hiring for. I mean, if you're looking for a rockstar bumper to bumper guy, if you already have one of those guys, have them put the questions together. If you don't network you know, most of us know other shop owners who are, you know, some of us doing better than others reach out.
Mike Grosse: That would be my recommendation. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah. And Angel, where are you from? I'm Go, oh, chapel Hill, North Carolina. So, angel, make sure that you are part of the association there. Asta. Asta is a phenomenal association. They have a very strong membership. And if technical is not your background.
Jimmy Lea: They will definitely help you and Mike to your point if you've got a master tech creating your questions, also make sure he gives you some appropriate answers that are good answers, that this is what we're looking for. For sure. This is good. This is mediocre, and this is somebody who just doesn't have a clue what you just asked.
Mike Grosse: Yeah. Yep. 
Jimmy Lea: Brian, what about you? What would you say is advice for the non-technical to ask a technical person? 
Brian Burris: You know, going back to what Mike said getting another team member or, you know, a peer involved with those questions, we do provide a lot of questions for you. I get it quite a bit.
Brian Burris: I actually had a shop yesterday ask me, he is like, Hey what can I not ask? I was like, oh, there, there's a whole list of stuff. He is like, what about politics? What about. I'm like, stay away. Don't do that. Yeah, you can't go there. No, he was just joking with me. But we can also help you with that. I do ask, get that question from shop owners quite a bit of, you know, what are your thoughts on this guy?
Brian Burris: Or, you know, what are some questions I could ask? And I've actually typed up an interview just bullet points for a shop owner for him to go over with a service advisor or a technician. I've been both. So, granted it's been many years, but I still turn a wrench in the garage with my house. But and I'll even call a shop too.
Brian Burris: Hey I'll call Mike and be like, Hey, what would you ask this guy? Or Can you help this other shop owner out as well? 
Jimmy Lea: And Angel's gone a little bit deeper into this, so this is even getting even better. This is a prescreening of a technician. They've got 13 different stores, 13 different shops. So what are some good question?
Jimmy Lea: Culture questions, team questions for someone to ask to find out which culture of all these different stores is the appropriate to go into. So 
Mike Grosse: trying to place him in the correct store. 
Jimmy Lea: Him or her. 
Mike Grosse: Him or her. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. There's, I know the Institute has some information on what am I thinking about assessing people's personality types, the DISC personality test, the disc personality test.
Mike Grosse: That might be a good place to start giving them that test. And also, and again, it's not something that we've done here, but I know a lot of shop owners do it. Doing that within your current staff and getting to better understand their personality types and then give that same test to incoming candidates that could help right there.
Mike Grosse: Trying just by doing that, figuring out which store would be a good fit for these incoming candidates. 
Jimmy Lea: Brian, what about you? 
Brian Burris: You know, that's a great tool. I have quite a few shops out there that we work with that use the disc. And we'll have the candidate complete that prior to them, you know, being sent over to the owner.
Brian Burris: We do ask some questions, you know, what are you looking for in, in a new shop? You know, it's stability, work-life balance, culture. You know, some of the guys they work with are toxic and management won't do anything about it, so they're gonna move on, unfortunately. Yeah. So those are some questions I would ask as well to make sure that you match up.
Brian Burris: 13 stores is a lot, so. 
Jimmy Lea: Which is also really good. You've got a lot of opportunity of retaining that talent because you've got different options for him or her to go to. As an option though. Well, if it doesn't work out at this shop, I've got 12 others and I've got three that I think you would be a very good fit for.
Jimmy Lea: So let's talk about what this looks like. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, that's good. That's good. So Andrew types in with a really interesting question as well when it comes to interviewing technical technicians. Have you ever had a what does he say? A senior tech sit in on technical questions in the interview?
Jimmy Lea: Mike, have you ever done that? 
Mike Grosse: Yeah, I did that one time about a year and a half ago. I did have my lead tech really I. Conduct the majority of the interview. And we ended, we did end up hiring the guy. But I don't think I asked enough of the cultural questions. He was kind of a, you know, just in it for himself.
Mike Grosse: But 
Jimmy Lea: oh geez, 
Mike Grosse: You know, but having my lead tech. Interview him from a technical standpoint. The guy was, he was savvy. He knew what he was doing. So, 
Jimmy Lea: so you were looking for an a tech and you had an a tech interview to make sure that you were pulling in the right person. 
Mike Grosse: Correct. 
Jimmy Lea: There you go, Andrew.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah I think that's phenomenal. Brian, 
Brian Burris: real quick, so I wanted to mention something that I've seen a lot more lately is I. Working interviews where they come in for, you know, four hours or whatnot, but you get 'em in there with the team that they're gonna be working with every day. Get feedback from your current team so you're not throwing that toxic person in there and potentially losing your other, you know, great techs who's been with you forever.
Brian Burris: One shop that I worked with in Oregon will actually the shop in a row do their first initial interview, and then they'll just throw 'em out in the shop. Just do walkthrough, put 'em up with your senior tech or, you know, the. The head guy in the shop or gal and get the feedback from them, see if he's gonna work, ask those technical questions.
Brian Burris: You know, your tech can, you're not in a office bubble of the interview, right? The pressure of the owner staring at you. They're gonna open up a lot more with that fellow technician or fellow service advisor about their personality and if they're gonna fit or not. So working interviews is great. And just do you wanna a walkthrough with the shop?
Brian Burris: You know, you'll learn a lot about that candidate. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, and so you two, two different ideas here. Brian, one is a walkthrough of the shop, but what about also a working interview? Technician comes in and works for the day to see how he j he or she jives with the whole team. Do you do that?
Jimmy Lea: Is that Yes. Appropriate? 
Brian Burris: Absolutely. It happens. And do you pay for 
Jimmy Lea: that day of work? 
Brian Burris: So the, typically the shop owner will pay. Cash, right? So they're taking their time off. They're using PTO or whatever. Sure there is a form of payment. Sure. You know what I mean? To pay them for that time. Again, working side by side with the guys you're, or gals you're gonna be out with in the shop every day is good.
Brian Burris: And then get that feedback. So it happens quite a bit. 
Jimmy Lea: I like that. I like that. What do you think, Mike? Working interview? 
Mike Grosse: I think it's a good idea. But you know, again, sometimes you're. In most cases, we're dealing with people that are currently employed and, you know, depending on how their work schedule is.
Mike Grosse: I, I mean, I've interviewed people that, you know, may have one day off during the week and then they work on a Saturday. We're a Monday through Friday shop, so we're not open on the weekend. So if I had a guy that had a Wednesday or a Thursday offer, whichever day guy or gal I could bring them in and do a working interview.
Mike Grosse: I. But at this point, I did have one entry level guy come in a couple of years ago on a day off, and he came in and worked for us. But yeah I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea if it works out for the candidate. If it works, yeah. With their schedule. So I'm a pretty compassionate person.
Mike Grosse: I, you know, I hate the thought of having somebody quit their job and come to work for me, and then after eight hours, I. You just cut the Yeah, cut the cord. So, 
Jimmy Lea: I've heard all those horror stories, Mike. I've heard technicians that failed to even show up for the first day of work. I've heard of technicians that show up for the first day of work, go to lunch and never come back.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I've heard of those stories. So yeah, it would be very powerful from a stability point of view, from a tech point of view to make sure that they're a good fit and a working interview, whatever compensation it is that you work out with that technician for the working interview, I think it is well worth it.
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. Yeah. Brian, question for you. Now, this comes from Kevin. Kevin's asking, are there personal questions that you are not legally allowed to ask? And I think that there's probably a plethora of, I. Questions, thou shalt not ask. This is 
Brian Burris: correct. Yeah. So there's a list of questions that our recruiters stick with.
Brian Burris: Angel put a link in there. Thank you for that. EEOC is definitely, you know, your hrs best friend gender, race, religion, you know, all the top ones. Politics. Politics, yeah. Stuff to stay away from. 
Jimmy Lea: What about drugs? Drug use, personal recreational time. 
Brian Burris: So we do ask that as well. 'cause you know, obviously it's getting more and more free out there of each by state.
Brian Burris: We do ask, you know, are you able to pass a background check or are you able to pass a D drug screen? Do you have a clean driver's license? They're very forthcoming sometimes on what we hear from the candidates of their background or, Hey, I don't do it at work, but I do it at night. So that's stuff that we would provide.
Brian Burris: All you can ask is just would you be willing to take it? Are there any concerns if you were to take a background check or a pre-employment drug screen? Nice. Nice. That's how you word it? Yeah, 
Jimmy Lea: it's proper wording. Can you ask about children and spouses or girlfriends or divorced or family questions in general?
Brian Burris: I would do not ask about that. That's some things that we do not ask on our end. If they're forthcoming with it, you can pick it up, you know, Hey, I've got a family and daycare and all that, but you cannot outright Aztec.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. Any other questions, comments, concerns? Go ahead and type them in the chat. This has been very interactive. This is quite the conversation that we've had here on a two-way conversation. This is good. It's really good. What other items, Mike, would you suggest that as an industry we need to pay attention to?
Mike Grosse: Oh, to pay attention to. That's a good question. You're really gonna scramble my noodle to try to think of an answer for that. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, maybe we can go to Brian first and you can noodle on that. Thanks, Mike. Thanks Jimmy. Uhhuh 
Brian Burris: light's on you. I would say the culture, you know, when I started in a shop.
Brian Burris: 20 plus years ago. And a lot's changed, let's put it that way. Evolving with the times these technicians that are still in the industry are getting older, right? We've got the young bucks coming up, they ranks and they're not the same mindset. The mindset as the technician that was there 40 years, that's 70 years old now and.
Brian Burris: You know, got arthritis in his hands and back and knees. You've gotta change with the times. Unfortunately. I know some of us like to get stuck in our ways and it's hard, but to keep this industry thriving with the younger generation, we need to make sure we, you know, not coddle, but I don't know how you wanna present that, but, we've gotta change, so 
Jimmy Lea: we have to be sensitive to it. Correct? Yeah. 
Brian Burris: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Mike, specific areas you think we, we need to focus on as an industry?
Mike Grosse: I think we need to focus on.
Mike Grosse: Training internally. You know, I at least where I'm at cost of living is terribly expensive where we are. And you know, it was the same scenario for me when I became a full-time technician. There just didn't seem to be time in, in the day or evening to. Go to school. So, you know, there's a lot of guys that are growing their own and and that's a better fit for some shops than others.
Mike Grosse: It's a little tough for me because we're such a small little family here. You know, maybe some shops that have four and five technicians they might be better suited for a mentor type program, but. You really got during the interview process. That's one of the questions that we discuss is ongoing training and making sure that these guys are willing to sit down with a, and do a lunch and learn, or, you know, maybe go spend two or three days at STX.
Mike Grosse: They've gotta be willing to continue their education. These vehicles are so advanced now. I mean, you've gotta be, you know, everybody talks about the unicorn. Everybody wants a unicorn. If you're not a unicorn, you're gonna really struggle trying to learn how to do this job on the fly. So, yeah.
Mike Grosse: Training 
Jimmy Lea: is key. Yeah. So, to that, to training. Mike, how much emphasis do you give and this is a comment by Keith, how much emphasis do you ha give for certifications? 
Mike Grosse: You know, we've, we structure our pay scale a little bit differently depending on the technician. I mean, I've had technicians that you know, when we have a production based pay plan for a technician that they'll, they can earn extra dollars per build hour.
Mike Grosse: When they're maintaining a certain amount of ASEs. So, and also for training, you know, I had one technician that was working for me that you know, he'd get an extra dollar an hour for every hour. He produced by doing eight hours of training. And he had no problem with that. So, yeah.
Jimmy Lea: It's important that personal training, you know, Cecil talks about often he, when he was managing Larry's shop up in California, Northern yeah. Northern California. There was technicians that they would get a bonus. If they participated every quarter, I think it was every quarter they had to do eight hours worth of training.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And this one technician, this one quarter didn't do his training. So Cecil went to the guy and said, Hey man, thanks so much for this bonus. You're giving me I'm able to keep an additional two or $3,000 this next quarter because you didn't do your training this last quarter. And the training was a very broad open.
Jimmy Lea: Online training, in-person training, reading books, personal progress. There's, there was a lot of training that you could do that you get to choose from, and this technician missed out on that, and so he missed out on his bonuses for the next quarter, so, 
Mike Grosse: sure. Yeah. I keep a I, each one of my technicians has a folder that their timecard goes in.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Mike Grosse: And so they see it every week. And we keep a training log in there. I, you know, I print up a training log, I staple it to the inside of their folder, and it's kind of an honor system thing. You know, again, we're a small little family here. I, and I'm on the premises all the time. So if I see, you know, I come up in the break room and a guy's sitting there doing a world pack lunch and learn, I see it.
Mike Grosse: And, you know, sometimes, a lot of times they'll come to me and, you know, Hey, I sat in on this lunch and learn and, you know, I learned this and I learned that and, or, you know, maybe I, you know, I, somebody showed a different way of something and yeah. So they'll usually be the ones that open up. So you pretty much know that they took the class, you know, they just weren't sitting there on the couch with their sunglasses on pretending like they were watching it and sleeping.
Jimmy Lea: Right. So, 
Mike Grosse: And when they know there's money hanging on the end of that. They'll usually do it. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. I love what Misty has put in here as her suggestion for a question. And I'm gonna couple that what a good question is where do you see yourself in five years?
Jimmy Lea: And I love that question. I, Misty, thank you very much. That's a great question. I wanna couple that with Kevin's comment earlier about building a career path. If you've got a very well-defined path that says, when you come on with us as a technician, this is the coaching, the training that, that we're going to provide.
Jimmy Lea: In house. This is the trade shows we're going to attend. And if you perform at such a level, you get to go to these trade shows and attend to these trainings. The face-to-face, the hands-on training. So when you are able to build out that timeline. Of what it looks like for these technicians.
Jimmy Lea: I'm gonna invest in you and in fact, I'm gonna invest in you so much that your efficiency and productivity will increase, that you are gonna get a raise because you are a better technician. You build that path and that timeline of what it looks like. 'cause it could be to Misty's point in five years, Mike Gross wants to own the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Phenomenal. Mike, you know what? You and I are gonna work together. There's a lot of free classes we can take at the community college that talks about business ownership. You and I will go take these classes together. There's instructions you can get from worldpac Lunch and Learns. There's instructions you can get from the institute, the gear course library.
Jimmy Lea: Go in there and watch everything to learn about. Productivity, profitability, efficiency, tech efficiency, learn those skills. You need to know as a business owner that you probably don't know as a technician yet. Yeah. Are you building your competition? Potentially, but what a great friend to have in the business that has done this training, and what if in the process of learning about business ownership, they get to a point where they say, Hey, you know what, Mike?
Jimmy Lea: I don't think I wanna own a business anymore. I just wanna be the best dang technician you have ever had at this shop. And I'm digging in, I'm staying here. This is my life. This is my future. This is what I'm gonna do. You got me. I'm a lifer. Yeah. 
Mike Grosse: Well, you know, again, in the interview process too, you know, asking that question, where do you see yourself in five years from now?
Mike Grosse: I mean, I've had guys tell me that, you know, I, you know, this is, you know, I. Eat, sleep and drink fixing cars all day long. And I don't wanna do anything different than what I'm doing now. I've had people say they wanna become educators. I would love to, you know, get into a high school and teach auto shop.
Mike Grosse: And I think that's fantastic, but what does that look like for me? You know, you want to come here, you wanna build up some knowledge for five years, I'm gonna invest all this time and money into you, and then you're gonna boogie. You know, that's definitely something to consider. You know, I've hired, I've had, I've hired older gentlemen, I've interviewed older gentlemen.
Mike Grosse: You know how, you know, how much time am I gonna get out of you? When are you gonna retire? You know, how's that back feeling? There's those definitely good questions to ask. Where do you see yourself in five years? One question that I ask, I, you know, I have nobody to pass this business down to, just like the previous owner.
Mike Grosse: I asked that question, do you ever consider owning your own shop one day? And, you know, some say yes, some say no. But again, like myself, I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I. When I bought it. 
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. Well, job security for one. 
Mike Grosse: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: But yeah, no that's really good.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I was gonna go down another path I totally forgot. Oh. Training. You'll never fail By training. You'll never fail. And we've heard it time and time again. I'll just reiterate it for everyone. What if I train 'em and they leave? To your point, Mike, what if I train you for the next five years and then you decide to go off into the higher education or a high school education to teach shop?
Jimmy Lea: What if I te train you and then you leave? 
Mike Grosse: You know what I think it's a risk that we all take. Yeah, but you never know. You know, maybe that guy that you trained and he leaves and goes and becomes an educator you know, maybe he starts sending you. Yes. Some of his students, 
Jimmy Lea: yes, he sends you his A plus students and now you have the best pick of the litter for that.
Jimmy Lea: But then also on the other side of this, what if you train them and they leave? What's the opposite of that? What if you don't train them and they stay? 
Mike Grosse: If you don't train them and they stay and.
Mike Grosse: You know, they just, they get comfortable, they get complacent. Yeah. And, you know, maybe they end up being removed from the company. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. We want them to progress. We want them to learn. We want them to grow. And as a, an industry, we want to be more professional. We want to have a career path for our people, for our staff.
Jimmy Lea: What's their goals? What do they want to do? Oh, I just want to turn a wrench for the next 20 years. Great. You have got a home here. As long as we stay productive. You've got a home here. 
Mike Grosse: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It goes a long way. It goes a long way. Well, thank you to everybody that has contributed both online and thank you, Mike, to you and your experience with Glen's Auto, your job security there with yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Glen Brian Promotive. Thank you very much for promotive. You guys are a valuable partner with the institute. Thank you for all you're doing in the industry. Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you guys. Thanks Mike. You're welcome. Now one last final question. We'll call this the bonus question for each of you. We'll do it one at a time.
Jimmy Lea: Brian, I'll start with you. If you had a magic wand, what would you change in the automotive aftermarket? And Mike, this is giving you time to think. 
Brian Burris: Ah, thanks Jimmy.
Jimmy Lea: Magic wand, what would you change? 
Brian Burris: I would say keeping. A lot of these kids that we see these days, even my kids they don't want anything to do with turning a wrench. I had a magic wand getting more, getting the younger generation more involved with automotive. There's a lot to learn. There's, it's fun sometimes.
Brian Burris: But magic wand, getting a pipeline of. Younger kids into automotive. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Stardom younger. I love it. I love it. Mike, to you, you have a magic wand. What is the, what's one of the things you would want to change in the industry? 
Mike Grosse: I would wanna change the mindset of the young technician. Everybody.
Mike Grosse: Everybody today seems so focused on the dollars that.
Mike Grosse: It's almost like the, you know, like the passion that older technicians have for this industry. They wanted to just come and fix cars and they got paid for it. Now these kids coming in, you know, I don't know where, I don't know if mommy and daddy teach 'em this, or they're college instructor teaches them this, but they seem to want to come in here with virtually.
Mike Grosse: No knowledge or no hands-on experience and wanna make money, the kind of money that it took me 20 years to get to. And they need to fall in love with their career and be good at it and the money will follow. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, I love that. It's almost in the realm of teach them how to work hard and the money will follow.
Jimmy Lea: Find a passion for what you're doing. And the money will follow 
Mike Grosse: work. Smart. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yes. Amen to that. That's awesome. Well, thank you very much gentlemen. Thank you to the our friends who are joining us online. We are so happy that we are able to be here and be together for this great conversation. As you hear this information, as you gain this knowledge there's a QR code that's gonna show for about 30 seconds.
Jimmy Lea: Once we're done, pull out your smartphone, get ready to scan this QR code. If you find this information valuable and you would like to learn more about this industry, more about yourself more, learn more about your shop. This is an industry that will definitely chew you up and spit you out if you don't treat it with the right respect.
Jimmy Lea: Hire a coach, hire somebody to be in your corner and help you navigate this sea that's ahead of us. It's a crazy storm. We're all in. As we lock arms together, we can survive this storm together. Nobody's in the same ship. All of our ships are different. Let's lock arms and together we'll make it with that.
Jimmy Lea: My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute. I'll see you again soon. Thank you.
 

126 - Loyalty That Lasts: How Top Shops Build Repeat Business and Stronger Relationships

126 - Loyalty That Lasts: How Top Shops Build Repeat Business and Stronger Relationships
May 29th, 2025 - 00:57:15
 
Show Summary:
This podcast webinar was hosted by Jimmy Lea of The Institute at the Tools Conference in Pennsylvania, the spotlight is on the evolution of customer loyalty programs in the auto repair industry. The conversation features Jeff Rudnick of Pit Crew Loyalty, alongside shop owners Joe Sturza from Auto Doctor in Michigan and Mike Simard from Alaska. They discuss the shift from traditional, manually-managed rewards to an automated, flexible loyalty platform that drives customer retention, community involvement, and business growth. Real-world examples illustrate how Pit Crew's customizable and scalable platform helps shop owners streamline customer engagement, promote referrals, support local charities, and create long-lasting connections. The episode concludes with data-backed insights and heartfelt reflections on giving back to the community.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Jeff Rudnick, Pit Crew Loyalty
Mike Simard, Simard Automotive
Joe Sturza, Auto DR Xpert
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:01:38] Pit Crew Marketing rebrands to Pit Crew Loyalty, emphasizing a shift from rewards to full loyalty and engagement.
[00:04:49] Mike shares a failed attempt at a self-managed membership program due to administrative burden and lack of automation.
[00:09:09] Joe describes the challenges of old-school punch cards and manual gift card referral tracking, highlighting the need for automation.
[00:12:27] Jeff explains how the Pit Crew platform automates and gamifies customer referrals, allowing real-time tracking and incentives.
[00:14:40] Mike outlines how automated rewards are crucial for high-volume quick lube shops to avoid manual errors and maintain engagement.
[00:19:00] Joe showcases the power of “cross pollinators,” where local businesses collaborate through the dashboard to offer exclusive customer deals.
[00:26:09] Jeff highlights how the platform transforms the shop into a community hub—similar to the old-school barbershop—with tools for charities, referrals, and events.
[00:29:04] Mike shares how supporting a soup kitchen through storytelling and loyalty point donations resulted in community buzz and positive business impact.
[00:34:34] Data shows that customers who donate loyalty points or refer friends spend up to 35% more and return more frequently.
[00:45:53] Joe praises the customization and partnership approach of the Pit Crew team, which tailored the system to fit Auto Doctor’s community-driven mission.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4c4Ewbo2DM
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: And good afternoon, good evening, or good night, depending on where you are. And when you are. It's a morning or afternoon. And today I am presenting from the afternoon. Usually it's 11:00 AM Mountain. I am in Eastern. I'm at the Tools Conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, here with the MWACA Association. And we are, we've got a trade show going.
Jimmy Lea: It is phenomenal. I'm so excited for this third in the series this week of webinars that we're doing. As we lock arms together to really help this industry grow and to help it become awesome and amazing and become better 'cause it's a crazy storm. We're all in. And if we lock arms and we do this together, we will be able to weather this storm together because it is all about a better business, better life, better industry.
Jimmy Lea: My name is Jimmy Lee. I am with the Institute and that is our mantra. Better business, better life, better industry. Our guest today, we have joining today right here beside me, Mr. Jeff Rudnick. Hello everybody. As we're here at the Tools Conference, we can put Jeff's camera up. Jeff is with Pit Crew Loyalty.
Jimmy Lea: Hey, look at the difference in our cameras. You're sitting right next to me. Yeah, I know. Totally different. Oh, that's funny. We're a couple inches apart, right? I. That's too funny. That's too funny. All right. Jeff is with pit crew loyalty. And the tremor you felt in the force is the fact that pit crew marketing has become pit crew loyalty.
Jimmy Lea: The re rapid the rewards program is now a loyalty program. This is not a rewards program. You felt that you're gonna hear about it here. Thank you for doing this, Jeff. Oh, thanks. This is gonna be awesome. I'm excited. Joining as well is Joe from auto Doctor. And Joe. Joe. 
Joe Sturza: Joe, thank you for being here, brother.
Joe Sturza: How are you? Hey, appreciate it, Jimmy. I've been trying to get on your podcast for years, man. Well, I'm glad we finally hooked this up together, brother. Where's home for you, Joe? We are in Michigan, north of Detroit, 
Jimmy Lea: north of, well, okay. I was in Michigan, north of Detroit. I understand the, I know where, how far north of Detroit are you?
Jimmy Lea: About a half hour north. Okay, so I took the Kakuy van once upon a time, and I dropped this. Yes. 
Joe Sturza: But you weren't here. I missed you. 
Jimmy Lea: All right, Joe. All right, Joe, I got you, brother. Thank you. Thanks for watching the van too. I really appreciate that. In fact, long story short, I couldn't get an Uber out of your shop and I had to finally call Lyft.
Jimmy Lea: To get a ride down to Detroit so I could catch my flight the next morning. That was a funny story. No, Uber's up in your area. It's all 
Joe Sturza: Lyft. No. Yeah. There's nothing out this way. 
Jimmy Lea: We're in a rural area. Oh. Oh, it was, I felt like I was on the edge of existence. 
Joe Sturza: Yeah. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: That's us.
Jimmy Lea: That was you. That was the shop joining us as well. From the other side of the continent, from Alaska, Mr. Mike Simard, Mike, how are you brother? 
Mike Simard: Good morning. I'm wonderful. Thank you. 
Jimmy Lea: It is Good morning for you. It's like 9:00 AM 
Mike Simard: It's 9:10 AM It's still early here. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Did you make the drive to Anchorage or are you still in Fairbanks today?
Mike Simard: Still in Fairbanks today. Beautiful sunshine in Fairbanks where my home is 
Jimmy Lea: so. It's gorgeous. That's awesome. So as soon as we're done here, are you headed to Anchorage or, yep. Actually driving 
Mike Simard: to Anchorage. You see my other stores down there, here and as soon as we're done here. So it's 
Jimmy Lea: gonna 
Mike Simard: be a good 
Jimmy Lea: day today.
Jimmy Lea: Nice drive. Very cool. Very cool. Well, we've got a great conversation. I look forward to what we're talking about because we're talking about a revolution of the rewards program and I say revolution, Jeff, that's my word. I don't know what word you use. 
Jeff Rudnick: Well, I don't think it's a revolution.
Jeff Rudnick: I think in this industry maybe it's a disruption. You 
Jimmy Lea: are disrupting the re the loyalty program. 
Jeff Rudnick: Loyalty rewards has been slow and coming to the automotive industry and I think for a lot of reasons that we'll go into technology integrations with shop management systems retail sophistication.
Jeff Rudnick: Recognition by auto shops that they're in the entertainment business finally. And they're in the customer service business. Yeah, the hospitality business. Yeah. And so sometimes things come a little late to the industry, but it has been growing really quickly in the last two years. 
Jimmy Lea: So before we launch into the greatness of what Jeff has created I'd love to get from you, Mike, and then from you, Joe.
Jimmy Lea: What's something that you've done in the past that did not work, that you thought, oh my gosh, this is gonna be great. This is gonna be awesome. Oh, this is, we're gonna have to buy heavy duty hinges. The doors are gonna blow off the hinges. What? What kind of a reward program Mike have you implemented in the past and it just fell flat?
Mike Simard: Well, I would say I've tried a lot of things that didn't work and that's usually how you get better. Right. And specific specifically towards customer retention and how to give them maximum value. One of the things we tried to do in the past was create like a budget program. So in the north you need to keep your heating oil tank full multiple times a year.
Mike Simard: And for example, you know, you would get an autofill and you have a smoothed out payment for 12 months. But we tried to institute, like our own program and manage it ourselves. 
Jimmy Lea: Like an automotive, a an automotive warranty or a, a self-care program, a membership, 
Mike Simard: like a self-care membership base. Pay $300 a month and that way you like a budget program.
Mike Simard: But here's the thing. The idea was to get them to want to come back. And because they have a credit with you and they feel like you give them value and the program gives them value, so there's no surprises. Well, it was way too much to manage the admin part. And so, you know, and we found someone like Jeff, for example, that can help you not in the same context, but in the context of bringing maximum value to customers and something that's already built and can do all the admin work for you behind the scenes is.
Mike Simard: It's huge. So that's one program that never worked. 
Jeff Rudnick: You know what? And then until I met 
Mike Simard: Jeff 
Jeff Rudnick: early on when I first met you, 'cause it was probably 15 years ago or so, and we started going down the path of doing the rewards program and it got very, you had a bunch of ideas. There were a lot of things technologically that we weren't doing yet.
Jeff Rudnick: And we kind of went our separate ways for a few years. I think that's when you implemented an in-house kind of a membership program. 
Mike Simard: Yeah. We also, we did a manual system and there was a lot of benefit to that, a lot of learning. I. And so that system was good, but again, a lot of manual having to send things out manually.
Mike Simard: And what would happen in the busy life of an automotive repair shop, the advisors would forget to send out a thank you or an email or a reward. And so the nice thing that I like about systems like a pit crew is that, it's mostly all automated, so, the streamlined efficiency of the process is extremely important.
Mike Simard: I think when you're looking for a loyalty program. One of the 
Jeff Rudnick: things we learned so early, every shop owner, I used to say, you're like snowflakes, but then that became a bad thing to say, right? And but they're all different. You all have, you're all unique ideas, all your unique, so the software has to be infinitely flexible.
Jeff Rudnick: It just has to, you have to be able to try things, do different things. We can measure and we know, I think like any other solutions provider, when you do it for a long time, yeah. And this is probably wrong, you start to think you know exactly what to do, 
Jimmy Lea: right. 
Jeff Rudnick: And you just get this tunnel vision. Do it like this, do it like that.
Jeff Rudnick: Oh 
Jimmy Lea: yeah. That's a developer's nightmare. I mean, that's the developer mentality is you think, you know, best 
Jeff Rudnick: you do. I mean, you do it for a long time. You get ate, you can't help it. You know, and you say, but you get new ideas all the time. So that's. Probably one of the best innovations that in thinking as well Yeah.
Jeff Rudnick: For us is that we make sure it's infinitely flexible so that it can be tailored to Yeah. Individual. Yeah, 
Jimmy Lea: for sure. Now, and Mike, one of these days we have to talk about your membership program. I try to suggest that to my shop in St. George, and probably for the same reasons that you stopped doing it.
Jimmy Lea: They never started doing it, but man I thought for sure, this has got to be a banging. 
Jeff Rudnick: We actually support that now. No, we do. I mean, that's okay. 
Jimmy Lea: We'll have to talk about that in a minute then. Yeah, 
Jeff Rudnick: exactly. 
Jimmy Lea: Let's get to Joe. Joe, what's a, an implementation that you made that did not, 
Joe Sturza: I mean two parts.
Joe Sturza: One we did the old fashioned business card. Punch card. Punch card for oil changes. Five oils. 10 oil changes. What, how many was it? It was five. Five, buy, five get one free. And you know, that's when you know, you forget to put on the card and the printing of like, am oil doesn't count. And you now you're eating $150 oil change and, you know, so yeah that it became a little hectic.
Joe Sturza: And then, you know, referrals. We would send out thank you cards every week along with a gift card for the local coffee shop. Which was nice 'cause it supported local, but it was, again, like Mike was saying, administratively burdensome in the sense that we had to keep track of all that. Where now we are part of a team that things can be done behind closed doors and help us focus on what we're supposed to be doing here at the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Interesting now and when you're talking about gift cards for the coffee shop, was it just a good old here's five bucks of the coffee shop, 
Joe Sturza: or was it 
Joe Sturza: Yeah it was just, yeah, just a little token. 
Jimmy Lea: Thank you. So you had to buy it ahead of time. Yep. Yep. So there wasn't a redemption point of view where like you could hand out a hundred cards and maybe only 35 get redeemed.
Joe Sturza: No, it, it was if for instance, Jeff came into my shop and he said, Hey, Jimmy Lee referred me to you. I would send Jimmy Lee a thank you card with a coffee card to say, Hey, thanks for sending Jeff our way. We really appreciate the recommendation. 
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. I, you know, I have a really good friend in his shop is in California.
Jimmy Lea: He gives a $50 gift card to his shop. This is a $50 gift card only redeemable here. No cash value. You have to redeem it at my shop. As a referral. As a re Yeah. Not only a referral, but even a Thank you. Yeah. So you could use it on an oil service. On a I Maybe he specified no batteries and no tires.
Jimmy Lea: I, I don't know, maybe it was just 50 bucks. You could use it however you wanted. They've found that to be very successful because not only would he hand one to the client, he would hand 'em additional two. Say, give these to your best friends, because if you like that client right, chances are you're gonna like their friends too.
Jimmy Lea: No, chances are their friends are very similar to them 
Joe Sturza: as well. Yeah. Word of mouth you know, out here is huge for us. 
Jimmy Lea: Word, mouth. That's the, 
Joe Sturza: the best type of advertising. And now that we're I call it part of the pit crew team, the ability for a customer, a client, a family member, to get into their dashboard and send referrals out on their own.
Joe Sturza: They get a $25 gift card if they use it. The person referring it to $25 gift card. It's all part of that system that Mike was talking about that's automated. And the customers absolutely love that. That, oh, you're gonna send a gift card to someone on my behalf? Absolutely. And if they use it, I'm gonna give you that same amount.
Joe Sturza: They 
Jeff Rudnick: can actually see who came in. The consumer themselves can see in their dashboard, here's everyone you sent it to and here's who came in. And you can reshare and you can gamify it. So you can say, oh, I like it this month. You've earned the right to give out three referrals or, Hey, it's Christmas. Why don't you use these as a stocking stuffer?
Jimmy Lea: Ooh, there you go. 
Jeff Rudnick: And it can go out that way. 
Jimmy Lea: Love it. I mean, that's a perfect segue, Joe, into what are you doing now? What? What is working? So let's break down this full loyalty program. Mike, what are you implementing in your shops? 'cause you've got quick lubes as well as general repair. Are you using the pit crew loyalty for all of your programs?
Mike Simard: Not yet. I think Jeff and I have a future to do on integrating a lube shop. So the lube shops are going to be a much higher pace, higher volume. Yes. The good part about it is then, is that 
Jimmy Lea: more of like the coffee shop idea, where it is that buy 10 get one free. Do you think or no?
Mike Simard: Well, I do think that those types of customers are gonna definitely be looking for value. All of our customers are looking for value. But the retention model or the concept, I think would work excellently. Now, I don't know how many lube style lube and tire shops Jeff has specifically the technologies there.
Mike Simard: I think there might be, I think with traction there might be a little bit of backend code to write. I'm not sure, but I know they have the abilities to do that. And I'm actually kind of excited because to go back to the old system of the referral cards, the manual stuff, it's gonna be worse. It's gonna be worse than 10 cars a day at a high average row 30, you know, we're 90 to a hundred cars a day in three stores.
Mike Simard: Like, there is no time to be writing handwriting, thank yous. So it has to be a quality program so that way your people can focus on people, focus on communicating value and expectations and serving their needs. And let the system in the background give them added value reminders about the rewards.
Mike Simard: And so when they come back, they're like, you know, why wouldn't I go there again? 'cause they have credit. Like, yeah it's, I get a free oil change like. I think it's gonna be super powerful and I think Jeff just needs to, after we complete this last awesomeness of customer loyalty and communic community things that we're finishing up, I think we should just push and get those loop shops signed up here in the next couple months.
Jeff Rudnick: The most important 
Mike Simard: thing here that, 
Jeff Rudnick: that everyone should understand about loyalty. You wanna throw a party for every customer that comes through the door. Yeah. There the data is so crystal clear. You get the second visit. I have this data on every one of our clients. If you get that second visit, your, the likelihood of a third visit is this, for that shop.
Jeff Rudnick: You get the third visit, the fourth, fifth, and sixth come. So it's about throwing that party with that first time customer and having a suite of benefits for them. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: And that suite of then where we come in, 'cause everyone can do this. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: Anybody can run a loyalty program with a suite of benefits on their own.
Jeff Rudnick: Will you remember to tell them, like, this is where technology comes in. This is where you make that decision. Do you need a technology partner or you don't, here's the suite of benefits. Are they automated? Can you scream it at them so they know it? Is it texted to them, emailed to them? Do they have a login to see it?
Jeff Rudnick: And then will it continually keep that relationship? But coming up with the benefits is not hard. Yeah. Any shop in the world can sit down. With their friends or their consulting company and say, let's list 10 unique selling thing points that we want for our shop. Let's list four benefits. But like what Mike was, what Mike learned was how do we actually manage this?
Jeff Rudnick: I love it through multiple advisors coming on board and it becomes very difficult. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Joe, what do you view implemented for your program in your shop with the pit, Lou pit? I mean, at this point, what haven't we 
Joe Sturza: implemented? You got the full Monty, huh? Yeah. You know, my, my background Jimmy, is I came from a business management, marketing sector.
Joe Sturza: Retired very young. I got an early retirement. My wife didn't want me home anymore, so she's like, go find a job. And so a mutual friend of ours knew the owner here at Auto Doctor and says, you know, he's looking for someone just to answer phones, Joe. I'm like, easy enough. Well, it's now turned into the general manager, but role, right.
Joe Sturza: So, you know, we've created this huge role and you know, he's the visionary. I'm the implementer. He says, Joe, I wanna do this. Let's get this on board. And one of the things was definitely a loyalty program. I happen to see Jeff in a webcast webinar and I'm like, we've gotta get in touch with Jeff because I think this is what we've been looking for all along and everything is automated and tracked for us.
Joe Sturza: So, not only do we have the free oil changes, but we actually have the ability through pit crew. To put. Charities on our dashboards. So, so what we did, and it was the first one we ran and we've only been active with pit crew since January. The first one we did is we have a veteran's home.
Joe Sturza: Here in our area, and we ran a monthly collection of tangible goods, but we also invited our customers through pit crew, through text message and email to donate their loyalty dollars to the cause. We raised a thousand dollars, and now mind you. We hadn't been active that long, so people didn't have a lot of dollars raised in their accounts yet.
Joe Sturza: Right? So to reach that was huge for us. And we're like, wow, this is fantastic. So now we have a second one up there that we're promoting now. So that has been huge. The other thing that has been like I think Jeff was even surprised at how well it was received in our community is the cross pollinator.
Joe Sturza: Ooh, yes. So we have to buy local. Yeah. So we're very big into our chamber of commerce. We're very big about supporting our community. 'cause this actually behind me is maybe half of our brand new shop that we built. And we know we could not have done this. Without the support of our community.
Joe Sturza: So we make sure we're giving back, we're supporting local by local. That is huge for us. So the cross pollinator gave us a unique opportunity to reach out to some people that we've worked with in the past or not and say, Hey, no cost to you. We'd like to give you the opportunity to basically. Showcase your product on our dashboard and offer our customers some type of a discount.
Joe Sturza: Love it. No cost. And they're like, no cost. There's nothing in it. I'm like, no. It's simply just being business partners together. Let's refer each other. Yeah. Right. So as of right now, I've got six cross pollinators live on my system, and the one that expired, which I think they're gonna renew was a local Mediterranean restaurant.
Joe Sturza: They started knowing our customers so well. They weren't even asking for the downloaded coupon on their phone because they knew, oh, auto doctor, customer, I already know. Yeah. You get 10% off. Wow. So, so the cross pollinators have been absolutely fantastic. And now some of the businesses are reciprocating, like down the street from us.
Joe Sturza: If you're familiar with pickleball. Yes. We just had a 24 7 pickleball establishment open up. They're cross pollinating with us. They asked if we could send them a a p and g advertisement that they could run on the screens in their facility to promote our business. Dude that's so rad. So it's like, wow this is working even better than I dreamed it would work with the businesses.
Joe Sturza: I love it. So what would and the customers absolutely. Blown away when they come in. We actually had a flyer printed that explains our loyalty program to them, how to get to their dashboard. Everything you can do with it. They're like, you're giving this to me? Like, yeah, absolutely. They're like, this is so cool.
Joe Sturza: No one else does this around here. And it's like, you know what? That's what sets us apart. That's why we wanna add value to your visit to us. TH and this loyalty program is part of that value of being an auto doctor customer. This is everything you're gonna get, and we're gonna get other people on board with this program too.
Jimmy Lea: That
Jeff Rudnick: Do you want me to, why don't I just, Joe, that was awesome, man. You know, so we've been around a long time and we've had a lot of ideas, this cross pollinator idea. It was literally the idea was a bee flying around Love it. Just pollinating local businesses. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: And like why shouldn't the goal be to spend as little as possible on marketing?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: And get the biggest possible result. Local businesses all have the same challenges. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: And we like to say we support each other, so why wouldn't we just do this? So we built it into our program that you can easily showcase a local business and have. The consumer from the portal download the offer right to their phone.
Jeff Rudnick: I love it. Show it, track it, manage it, love it. And now these other LO local businesses are also putting in the rewards program. I love it as well. So now it's interesting with new customers. So Joe has been around since January and I like to say like. My customers that have been around a long time, there's some scar tissue.
Jeff Rudnick: Right. You know, because they've been through the 
Jimmy Lea: trenches. 
Jeff Rudnick: Yeah. Like Mike can tell you, he's believed in us since the beginning, but like, Hey, you're not quite there yet. Or That's not quite finished and let's keep 
Jimmy Lea: working on it. Keep tweaking it. So you get all these new 
Jeff Rudnick: customers and they're like, wow, what the old customers are going, why aren't I doing that?
Jeff Rudnick: I'm like, well, 'cause we weren't good enough quite at that point. Right. You know? Yeah. So you gotta play a little bit of catch. But this cross pollinator thing, you gotta remember. People remember what they feel. Yeah. And so the consumer, at any retail retailer in general, they remember the experience, what they feel, how you made them feel about their community or about themselves.
Jeff Rudnick: And when they do a donation, they're not just donating, 
Jimmy Lea: right? 
Jeff Rudnick: They're clicking that button to donate their rewards. They're an instant teammate of yours. To 
Jimmy Lea: doing good. And to promoting your company too, and your, yeah. And promoting the emotion, the feeling, the, 
Jeff Rudnick: the, you're on a team to help the community be a better place to live, work be.
Jeff Rudnick: And the same thing goes with the cross pollinators. People feel it. Yeah. They might not be able to put it into words, but it's more than a 10% discount at the kebab place. It's small businesses, you know, we all go home at night with the same challenges. Yeah. Sometimes business is awesome. Sometimes you're crying at dinner.
Jeff Rudnick: It's just the truth. Small business isn't easy, and when you feel that you have a team, life is better. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. Absolutely. Totally agree. And I wonder if there's a way for us to analyze this, Mike, Joe. Jeff here. Is there a way that we can analyze it so that instead of. Offering a discount.
Jimmy Lea: What if we offered a value add? So when you partner with these local businesses, instead of saying, Hey, give a discount to my customers, we say, Hey, I want you to charge your premium amount. I want you to charge yeah, 10% more, but I also want you to give my client something more. What is it that we can do?
Jimmy Lea: And some 
Joe Sturza: of 'em 
Jimmy Lea: do that and some of 'em do that. 
Joe Sturza: Yeah. I actually have one that's doing that right now at Jim. If you sign up, you get three free sessions with a personal trainer. So we actually have that value added into that, 
Jimmy Lea: and the beauty of it, of that, I love what they're doing. The beauty of that is with those three free training sessions, hopefully the trainer demonstrates the value of continuing to work with them.
Jimmy Lea: Now they add that to their program. I love that. I think that's phenomenal. 
Jeff Rudnick: And these local businesses now, everything the word of the day it seems is frictionless. You need to make everything easy. Like if Joe had to sit there and get on the, like Joe's done an amazing job getting on the phone with everyone.
Jeff Rudnick: Yeah. Like Mike did, it has done a great job with some of his charities. But in order for this to work for. A lot of small businesses, it has to be super easy. Yeah. So we've made it so that the businesses can now log in to their own account at the shop. The goal is to have the shop be the hub of the community.
Jeff Rudnick: Yeah. So it's charity, cross pollinators, and community events. Yep. So it's a calendar. It's, 
Jimmy Lea: you're the source of truth. 
Jeff Rudnick: Right. And it's like the barbershop of old, right. Yeah. That's kind of where the idea is from. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. But 
Jeff Rudnick: it has to be easy. 
Jimmy Lea: It does, it has to be easy. Mike, question for you.
Jimmy Lea: When it comes to the charities, which of your charities have you found to be the most successful, the most attractive, the most attention grabbing? 
Mike Simard: Well, I think there's a little bit of a explanation of the why about this and a discovery process. I. I've realized over the years, and we've done a few different things and we went deeper in this concept.
Mike Simard: So for example, in oh seven we sponsored a local dog musher. And I discovered that when you have somebody else tell their story and then you can combine it with yours you know, overcoming adversity and doing hard stuff, like running a thousand miles on a dog sled with 16 of your best friends at 45 below and winning the race four years in a row that's a heck of a story.
Mike Simard: And you don't just, you don't just get on a dog sled and. You're Michael Jordan on a dog sled, right? There's 20, 30,000 hours plus. So that was a discovery about local community and it was a bit of a service thing. But then I went deeper. I was like, okay, people actually like that. They were telling me that I was on TV years later when I wasn't even on TV anymore with this guy.
Mike Simard: So that was like, oh, I discovered storytelling. A long time ago. And then Jeff encouraged us to, to couple our charity program with pit crew. And what I discovered there is a deeper level. So, and it's, look it when you can like, try to give back to the community and not necessarily expect anything back, like that's the ultimate form of giving, I think.
Mike Simard: Now obviously there is a business and the more that we make, the more the bigger checks we can write. Yeah. So there's a way to, to do charity, and that's what, you know, I think the institute coaches taught me a long time ago, like, make good money and write big charity checks. Be careful not writing, you know, big discounts on the counter or else you can, you, you can go bankrupt and you have nothing to give.
Mike Simard: So the more you can do in an ethical way be successful for your people, you can elevate them in your community. So what we learned was Stone Soup Kitchen. Was where the need is at. I mean, these are literally people that have no food. It's cold up here. It's a challenge anywhere when you're homeless.
Mike Simard: And so we just simply did a big drive with Stone Soup Kitchen. So learning about storytelling we went on TV and told us their story. Not our story combined with a local celebrity, but their story only, I'm here to just sponsor your story, so we just took us out of it. Really, that's what it was about.
Mike Simard: We just took us out of it and said, we're just here to let you know that there's a little place here that Sues serves breakfast and soup for people that don't have a jacket, don't have a place to go, and they really need your help. And they spoke about it. We did bring in another local celebrity who this year won the Iditarod.
Mike Simard: So like we're repeating history. And we did this before he won the Dita Rodd. All that does is bring credibility to what the call to action. So when we pair up credibility through a local celebrity, we learned by accident again, by just trying to go outside ourself and do something for the community. We raised $4,500 to do this little place, which to them is like humongous.
Mike Simard: Oh yeah. And and then all of a sudden people just, they said a couple months later said. We've never had anything like this. People are just coming by. They didn't know we were here dropping off food, clothes, money, just because you said, told your story and we're the pit crew comes in. The technology part is we also made phone calls and we asked people to donate and that's where that $4,500 went.
Mike Simard: So instead of giving a discount, they have a feel good and they felt good about it. They obviously feel good about the brand. We wrote a nice check, so we felt good. And more importantly, we fed the homeless. We helped feed the homeless and we brought the community along with it. We're about to do another big one with that Iditarod champion for another soup kitchen.
Mike Simard: Same thing. And we just learned so much about storytelling, how to serve your community, think outside your own self and your own needs. And, you know, at the end of the day, one of our sayings is, if you do the right thing, then money should come. So do the right thing. Don't worry about, you know, gotta stay in business, but don't worry about what you're gonna get back.
Mike Simard: And I think it will always come back to you. Oh, it's so true. 
Jeff Rudnick: And where the magic again comes in. This is a really subtle shift. 'cause a lot of shop owners and rightfully so, they don't wanna promote the, these good things they're doing. They're doing it 'cause they want to and it feels good. Yeah.
Jeff Rudnick: But they're not looking to grow business necessarily in that manner. Here's what you're missing is people are hungry for connection. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: And when you put the plaque about the baseball team up in your lobby, that's nice. You've made a donation and you know, you share those things. It might make it in the local paper, but when you reach out and say, we think this is important at ARD or at auto Doctor, if you think it's important too, click here and you can donate a portion of your rewards.
Jeff Rudnick: I always call it the God particle. That's the magic happens right there. 
Jimmy Lea: Poof. 
Jeff Rudnick: Two people doing something good together and 
Jimmy Lea: it 
Jeff Rudnick: changes the 
Jimmy Lea: world. Oh, it does. Oh totally. It does. Yeah. And I love that, that you can do that. So the example that, that caught me when you shared this with me, Jeff, was you talked about donating to the VA hospital.
Jimmy Lea: And so all these people are donating to donating, and then when you get up to that a thousand dollars point. You tell all these people, Hey, next Wednesday at one o'clock we're all gonna get together and hand 'em a big giant check. You are part of this. We'd love to see you there.
Jimmy Lea: Wednesday at two o'clock 
Jeff Rudnick: and here comes the marketing, the conundrum with marketing in general. 'cause this is just about doing good. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: But for every idea there's like a list. A thousand oh items long of what you can do. So you can extend it as far as you want. 
Jimmy Lea: Sure. 
Jeff Rudnick: And when for reach. If you post online about what you're doing, these local charities will also share what you're doing.
Jimmy Lea: A hundred percent. 
Jeff Rudnick: We had one shop in Minnesota had 55,000 views on their Facebook page. From one fundraiser, what? 55,000. That's a lot. That's a lot. People care about this. It's tough. As an automotive repair facility to come up with things to talk about. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: But when you talk about goodness and kindness and the benefits of your loyalty reward program or anything else that's more personal.
Jeff Rudnick: People actually care about it. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and this is a beautiful thing to contact all the media in the area and say, Hey, look, next Wednesday, two o'clock, we're handing over a big check and there's gonna be 20, 30, 40, 50, a hundred people there because they have all donated. Through our automotive repair shop and we're gonna hand a check over.
Jimmy Lea: Correct. You are welcome to be there. And that's all you have to put out there. Right? They're looking for feel good stories, so put it out there and they'll be the ones to tout how great you guys are and Oh, that's wonderful. So, and I love the loyalty, I love this idea. I wanna ask Mike and Joe and then Jeff, if you can support this as well.
Jimmy Lea: What have you seen? Loyalty wise, you know, the average nationwide is 1.2 visits per year. Maybe it's 1.3. Do you know what your visits has? Has it increased? Have you retained more, retained higher? Those that are participating in the community, do they spend more, those that are participating in charities, do they spend more.
Jimmy Lea: So start first with the idea are you retaining your clients or is there a loyalty that's happening by implementing a program like this? 
Jeff Rudnick: Do you mind if I jump in just real quick? 
Jimmy Lea: Hey, 
Jeff Rudnick: hit it. Mainly because we haven't had great access to numbers until this year. We spent the last six months, like three data scientists looking at every touchpoint and how people behave differently.
Jeff Rudnick: So, yeah, we have Joe's a little bit new on the program to have, you know, a bunch of numbers on it. Right. But we know with Mike, people that donated to the Stone Soup Kitchen, yeah. Spent 24% more the next year than his customers that didn't, and those other customers still came back. I know Mike's average repair order, so that's pretty good.
Jeff Rudnick: And. Number of everything goes up and I'd have to read from the actual data, okay. But the number of visits is off the chart. When you have a really good loyalty rewards program, and for any retailer listening, a loyalty rewards program is not just dollars. It can't be in the automotive industry.
Jeff Rudnick: I'm just telling you, we've done it for so long. Consumers don't come in enough. You're not Starbucks. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, they. 
Jeff Rudnick: They are not there frequently enough where they're excited to earn their free cup of coffee and Right. You know, so it's about the other things and it's the other benefits of the program, which I don't wanna be too much of a salesman, but there is a list of benefits that we've created that's ever expanding along with our partnership with local businesses and national businesses that are now supporting our program.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Mike, what are you seeing from your point of view as a shop owner? 
Mike Simard: For retention rates. Again one of the things that's important is our one and done. So when you do a marketing campaign, you get, you know, you get one person in. You know, I think the maybe about 50% return rate, it's a pretty good rate.
Mike Simard: We've increased that return rate probably about 30%. So, I don't know the exact numbers, but I know we've seen a rise in people coming back. So that's super important for us. You know the benefits of the reward dollars that you earn for every dollar you spend, you earn money. The referral program, as you described recently earlier, free oil changes.
Mike Simard: The roadside assistance program is very big, especially up here. We've actually increased that towing to 150 because I. Yeah, tos expensive. And you know, the local ch local charity donation with those reward points is another feel good awesomeness because it's like I can come in for a discount or I can also give it away.
Mike Simard: And that provides that, that awesomeness there. So the customer account portal is really a huge benefit that we've also seen where they can go in and see what's going on with their account at a deeper level and give to charities and do the cross pollination and get those rewards from other.
Mike Simard: Other businesses. So we just know that the more we do this, you know, the biggest thing is making sure that you have a proper, consistent approach to educating your customer. Oh yeah. And how you bring that into, obviously we're fixing their car, we're servicing their vehicle. So how do you bring the right amount of information to the person and communicate?
Mike Simard: It's not just a script, right? It's a conversation. And so how you can bring that to them in a way that they can understand the value. And I think that's the key to any program out there. And so it's been huge for us to see repeat customers across the little town of Fairbanks. Oh, that's beautiful.
Mike Simard: So Mike's one and done 
Jeff Rudnick: rate 30%. And Mike, that's huge. That's awesome. And everyone's across basically you're if you were to build something like this yourself and just give out. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: Just if, honestly, any shop owner listening, if you literally just didn't let a customer leave your store without telling them the awesome things you have, most shops don't even tell the customers about their warranty or you know, they have roadside through maybe the tires that they purchased or any of the other things you might get from a TechNet or from a napa or whoever.
Jeff Rudnick: You would get a decrease in one and dones wouldn't be probably quite as big. But just remember if there's one tip you can take away from today, make sure you tell your customers about the cool things you already have for them. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, that's super cool. Yeah. Joe, what about you as well? Are you seeing a increase?
Jimmy Lea: I mean, you've only been on it for a few months, but 
Joe Sturza: I mean, we I think when we came on board with Jeff we kind of said let's do a, a. Follow up in six months. 
Jimmy Lea: Six months, yeah. And just, 
Joe Sturza: just to kind of give a good window of is this gonna work or not? What'd you say, Jeff? You held my feet to the fire.
Joe Sturza: But you know, you know what I mean? It was almost an instant result and reaction from people. I think. And I don't wanna speak for you, Jeff, but I think Jeff was pleasantly surprised with. How quickly we were getting the response. We were really happy with the outcome because I'm one with a marketing background, you know, with your former place of employment, Jeff or Jimmy kakuy.
Joe Sturza: When I started here, we had Kakuy, but it wasn't being used to its fullest. So I was a kid in a candy shop. Right. You know, I sat down with my rep week or monthly and just dove in there. I'm like, man, if you're gonna pay for this program, use the tools and I. The follow-up portal in that program was like, fantastic.
Joe Sturza: So when I saw Jeff and we went through the program and I saw everything that we could do with it, I'm like, we're doing everything. We're not just launching a little bit. We're doing everything. And I think I caught Jeff off guard. I think I caught Jeff off guard when I said, I want everything. Now.
Joe Sturza: Yeah. I'm not gonna launch just an oil change program. I want it all. Yeah. And I, I think that explains on who we are as a business and how important it is for us to give back to the community, give that value to the customer. And since, I mean, we've only been in this facility, we haven't even been in this facility a year and this brand new facility.
Joe Sturza: And I really a hundred percent believe that pit crew loyalty has been a huge part in. Keeping our customers, retaining them, getting more customers to us, and getting those other businesses to come to us as well, to promote their business and to promote us too. Because when we put our name.
Joe Sturza: On the kebab house down the street, or what have you. That says a lot because we have a really high Google rating and for us to put our stamp of approval on another business in that dashboard says, we endorse this business, we support this business. And them flipping it back to us says the same exact thing.
Jimmy Lea: Love it. So, 
Joe Sturza: you know, customers absolutely love that. I had a real quick, I had a guy come in, I didn't know where he worked. Brand new customer. He had a logo on his shirt. I'm like, you work for that company? And he goes, yeah, I'm the director of operations. It's one of the larger movie theater chains in the state of Michigan.
Joe Sturza: Huh. And I started explaining the, a loyalty program, the cross pollinator to him. And he goes, I said, are you interested? And he goes, absolutely. Email me what you want from us. So then I explained one of my charities, which is called Neighbors Helping Neighbors. And we actually work with our vendors, our part vendors and the business community to fix people's cars for them that cannot afford to do it, but they need their car to get to work.
Joe Sturza: To put food on the table. Yeah. So people can go on our website, they can nominate someone in need, and we have a process that we go through that and then we work with our part vendors and businesses. I'm like, Hey, I know this movie company gives back to our state. I. Tenfold. They are huge in charity. I'm like, interested in this too.
Joe Sturza: Absolutely, Joe. He goes, gimme all the information. So Pit Crew is allowing us to do that networking and build all of those relationships to let the community know, you know, it's not. I mean, yes, ultimately, like Mike said, we're here to make money, but it's also about helping the community that helped build us and giving back and do we want the kudos and props?
Joe Sturza: Absolutely not. We just want to be here to do our job. We want to treat others the way they wanna be treated and show them. And this tool would, I mean, not to keep pumping you up, Jeff, but I'm gonna, but when I saw this. Tool. I'm like, holy cow. This is everything we wanted in one platform, in one dashboard for us.
Joe Sturza: And we can do it all. And it monitors everything and we can track everything. And holy cow, this. This was like great. It's like we did not have to reinvent the wheel or administer it. We got this program right here that does it for us. Well, obviously I appreciate you saying all that. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. But I want checks in the mail, Joe.
Joe Sturza: Yeah, I was gonna say, this is not a paid compensation endorsement. 
Jimmy Lea: No, it's not. And thank you for. Saying that, Joe, thank 
Jeff Rudnick: you. I don't know if people realize how hard every vendor works to really make something that you guys are gonna use and that's gonna work and, you know, there's blood, sweat, and tears that goes into it.
Jeff Rudnick: For us, one of the most important things, and I don't, I still haven't been able to get the word out about this, our job has to be about making marketing fun and easier to do. Yeah. And this is why Fortune 500, 100, all the big retailers have loyalty programs. It is an incredibly efficient. Way to communicate and execute your various programs that you wanna run.
Jeff Rudnick: And it's comprehensible to the consumer Yeah. The community. And it's actionable. So it becomes a playground for you. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. Yeah. 
Jeff Rudnick: And that's what a good loyalty reward program should be. And it, that's what we've been striving to, to build and hopefully we're getting there. 
Joe Sturza: Oh, I love that.
Joe Sturza: And Jimmy, you know, what's nice about pit crew is, you know, initially we had a few hiccups on implementation. We're perfect. Whatcha talking about Jeff? Jeff got his whole team on a teams meeting with me and let me share my vision guys. This is what I see this program to be. And you know what? They designed it for me.
Joe Sturza: They're like, okay, this is what Joe sees for his community. And they the team got to work. It took a little longer to implement than what we initially thought. But you know what? I wanted to implement something that was as close to perfection as possible, and that's what we got. That's, and the team worked with us.
Joe Sturza: We were in constant communication, but by Jeff getting that team on a teams meeting with us showed me that, you know what? I'm not gonna give you this cookie cutter design thing. I'm gonna make this. For you and for your community, and then you run with it. And that's the key thing is you running with it, Jimmy.
Joe Sturza: Because if you just subscribe to this product and let it do its thing, yeah, it'll work. But if you're not involved and getting those cross pollinators and checking things and all that, it's not gonna perform a hundred percent for you. Mike's nodding. You agree with that? 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. 
Jeff Rudnick: Yeah. I mean we're automating the living daylights out of things so that like businesses can sign up on their own, consumers can check things on their own, the marketing calendar, but there still has to be some will.
Jeff Rudnick: Yeah. And no marketing company can send things out without approval. Right, right. So you, there has to be some involvement. And what Joe did, you know, this is where I'm always so grateful when I. I remember when this happened. I'll tell it real quick. I know we gotta go, because Joe was upset. There was a moment where he was upset with what was going on, and my team who had been working so hard was upset that he was upset.
Jeff Rudnick: And I'm like, guys, we're all gonna do this meeting. Here's why. This is that opportunity for someone who's, he's willing to do everything that we've ever wanted, every idea that we have, and he's gonna implement it all. Why not just let him teach us what we're screwing up at? Yeah. And he did. And so we're better at what we do.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Thanks Joe for getting 'em out of their developer cave. 
Joe Sturza: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Putting 'em into the sunlight. 
Joe Sturza: I I think the, there are companies out there that won't listen to you and won't take your feedback. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Jeff. 
Joe Sturza: Jeff is an example of a company that will listen to you, take your feedback. Implement it and give you the product that is going to help you be successful.
Joe Sturza: 'cause that's the key. This product is gonna help me be successful and help grow in my community. And Jeff and his team really listen to us and we have developed a program and in fact we're meeting next week to actually look into going to the next step already with what we have. We're ready to move forward with even another step of this program because it has been that successful.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Hey, Mike and Joe, I want you to gimme a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I'm gonna ask Jeff some rapid fire questions and yes, you agree or no? No, don't agree, uhoh. All right, so Jeff those shops that are participating in a loyalty program. What's the percentage of increase that they see for customers that are participating versus customers that are not participating?
Jeff Rudnick: Customers? Revenue spent. Revenue percentage increase. We can back this up in court. You're gonna see a 30% increase from customers that you do a redemption with. They come in that first. They come in the second visit. Yeah, you do a redemption. Now they're in. Now they're in. And you're gonna see, but 
Jimmy Lea: thumbs up, thumbs down.
Jimmy Lea: What do you think Mike? Your thumb 
Mike Simard: is hit. Yes. It won't. It won't. Oh, there we go. There's thumb. It's like it's in the virtual world. It's in the virtual, 
Jimmy Lea: yeah. Oh, alright. So, so two, two more questions. Or maybe it's three. So that's those that are participating in the rewards program. What about clients that are using the community and the redemption part of it with the coffee shop, the movie theater?
Jimmy Lea: The restaurant. How much are those 
Jeff Rudnick: customers spending? That's the newest part of our program. Okay, so we don't know that number yet. Don't know that number yet, but I do know from anecdotally we have the numbers of what, the number of people downloading the offers. Oh, there you go.
Jeff Rudnick: Right. So at Joe's location. Yeah. You're roughly, I think last time I, because I wasn't prepared for this. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. No, you're good. We had 
Jeff Rudnick: somewhere around a hundred customers that have downloaded the deals. He got a call from the kebab place that said, wow, that's working 
Jimmy Lea: good. 
Jeff Rudnick: But from a charity standpoint, I think I already shared 
Jimmy Lea: it.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. That's the, and that's the third question. Those that participate in those of us that are clients participating with the shops that are redeeming our points to donate to the VA hospital, the A-S-P-C-A or the animal shelter, or the battered. Women and children shelter, what? Those of us that are participating in that charity and gaining recognition for it, what's the, what are you seeing from a shop point of view?
Jimmy Lea: Across 
Jeff Rudnick: all of our clients, it's 24% increased spend by a consumer that does a 
Jimmy Lea: donation. Thumbs up, thumbs down, Mike, 
Jeff Rudnick: but we have more numbers. Well, okay. If the customer does a referral, if they send a referral to a friend. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. 
Jeff Rudnick: Just the act of send, just the act of sending it. That customer spends 35% more than the, than.
Jimmy Lea: So if I'm referring Mike, I'm spending 35% more because, 
Jeff Rudnick: and you know what? I never realize, it's not just that they're spending more money, they're bringing in their, a lot of times it's if the wife or the husband, they go to a different shop 'cause it's closer to work. 
Jimmy Lea: Sure. 
Jeff Rudnick: When they see the benefits, they say like, you know what, we're getting all this.
Jeff Rudnick: Let's just all go here comes there. So in the referral program, I'll tell you it's the hardest piece. You have to work that a little bit. Yeah. If you want the best benefit as a shop owner, you really should have the pre-printed card as well. Yep. And pass that out. Yep. Yep. We all want set it and forget it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. But it's not a thing. 
Jeff Rudnick: It's not all. There's no 
Jimmy Lea: silver bullet. 
Jeff Rudnick: No. 
Jimmy Lea: You gotta work it. All right, last final questions. We've got coming in from those that are listening to us, so I don't want to ignore these. I acknowledge them. Thank you very much, John, for your question. With larger accounts, are you guys giving the loyalty rewards to those accounts that are fleets?
Jimmy Lea: Does you mean? Okay. I thought he meant fleets, multiple vehicles. Yeah. And Jeff Jeff says that, or no, Jeff. No, Joe. Joe says that you're not giving it to Yeah, no, 
Joe Sturza: no. We do not do it for the fleet customers, right? Yeah. 'cause we have special pricing for them already. So we don't give it to them.
Joe Sturza: It is for the residential customer. Got it. This 
Jeff Rudnick: gets back to that previous snowflake comment that I made earlier. Everybody's unique. Everyone's unique. So in the automations tab, by the way, everything that we're, we, we know this. I learned if I make the advisors do all of this, it'll never get done. So in the automations tab for any of the different shop management systems, you can choose to auto-enroll fleets or not.
Jeff Rudnick: Or you can manually enroll fleets on your own. But most people that do fleets have a fleet program. But they can leverage this 'cause just, this is a really good sales tip. You wanna go in and impress a fleet on a sales call. You show them your benefits package, including that you will give one per, all you have to do is go to their website, they give away money to charities too.
Jeff Rudnick: Say you come in, you're gonna get 2% back on your rewards card and we're gonna give. Half a percent to charity. Yeah. This charity in your name. Yeah. And this tracks all that. And there's a whole bunch of other things that we do for fleets. Love it. Love it. 
Jimmy Lea: Most people 
Jeff Rudnick: don't give rewards to fleets though.
Jeff Rudnick: 'cause they're already doing 10% off, 
Jimmy Lea: typically. Yeah. Well, and I think if I was doing fleets, I'd charge 'em 10% more. 
Jeff Rudnick: You always say that. 
Jimmy Lea: I know. Well, they want it done so fast. Right. 
Joe Sturza: Exactly. There's a premium for getting it out the door today. 
Jimmy Lea: Yep. 
Joe Sturza: And if you don't have 
Mike Simard: a fleet program, just walk in with this program.
Mike Simard: And I would say either or is good if you have a different program, but if you don't have a program, just make this your fleet program. And that really works well as, as well. People will appreciate that we have a little fleet. Thank you. We have a little 
Jeff Rudnick: fleet packet that, that people use. It's a letter, you know, and a that tells the benefits of the program.
Jeff Rudnick: And a lot of the fleets use it as a giveaway to their, so you say, here's our fleet program and here's. A bunch of gift cards for your employees. Oh, employee benefit program. Now the employees come in, they get enrolled into the plan as well. Love it. 
Joe Sturza: And, you know, pit crew adapted one of our segments for our, one of our business partners.
Joe Sturza: We do trade into towing company. They tow for us. Don't charge us, but. We do stuff for them. So now that's managed through the pit crew system that we can go in there and we can add value in there and subtract value when we know, so we're not doing it on paper and pencil. It's all managed through that system.
Joe Sturza: So they really tailored that to what my needs were for that system. That's perfect. Yeah, 
Jimmy Lea: that's perfect. All right, let's wrap this up with a magic wand question. In a sentence or two. Joe, then Mike. Then Jeff, what would you magically change? What's your magic wand question? Solution. Something that you would want to change if you had a magic wand in the automotive aftermarket Joe 
Joe Sturza: customers with patience.
Jimmy Lea: Ooh, that's a good one. That's a good one, Mike. 
Mike Simard: Training important things in like this on how to communicate and connect with customers and express value over the transactional price. And if we could do that consistently, immediately, and do it better than anybody else, which I think we do have a pretty high bar, there's still more room to grow.
Mike Simard: That's the magic wand for me. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. That's beautiful. Mike. Thank you. Training. Yeah. Training. Jeff, what you got, brother? Magic wand. 
Jeff Rudnick: I wish that we could magically make customers understand that they're better off spending the right amount of money on their vehicle, maintaining it than cons, than fixing it.
Jeff Rudnick: That it would cost them less money and that they would just know that. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. Hundred percent. 
Jeff Rudnick: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And that, you know, if we do the proper training, as Mike is saying, and we train and educate our clients, our customers, with an educated customer. Buys more. They make better decisions. They stay safer on the roads.
Jimmy Lea: They protect my family. They protect their family and Jeff's family, and Mike's family and Joe's family. And we're all safer on the road because we're educating our customers better so they can make better decisions. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Mike. Thank you Joe. Appreciate you guys being here.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you all very much. Yeah. And those of you in our audience that are here, you're listening to some awesome and great information as we talk about the industry elevating the industry. This is the institute. We bring together the best of the best to help the industry become better. We're here to help you build a better business, have a better life.
Jimmy Lea: Which in fact helps the institute to build a better industry. If you find this information valuable and like to have a discussion in the next 30 seconds, there's gonna be a QR code up on the screen. Pull out your smartphone, scan this QR code, and let's get together. Let's talk about your business, your goals, your numbers, so we can take that to the next level.
Jimmy Lea: My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute. Thank you very much. We'll see you again soon.

125 - ADAS Is Here to Stay: Why Drivers Love It and What Your Shop Needs To Do About It!

125 - ADAS Is Here to Stay: Why Drivers Love It and What Your Shop Needs To Do About It!
May 28th 2025 - 01:00:01
 
Show Summary:
Jimmy Lea sits down with Justin Allen from Hunter Engineering Company to discuss the evolution of automotive technology, Justin's personal journey in the industry, and the importance of calibration in modern vehicle repairs. Justin shares insights from his career, from working in dealerships to becoming a field trainer. The conversation covers the challenges of working with advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), the growing prevalence of calibration in everyday repairs, and how the automotive industry is adapting to new technology. Justin also highlights Hunter’s innovative equipment and how it helps shops ensure vehicles are safe and accurate on the road.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Justin Allen, Regional Field Trainer at Hunter Engineering
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:03:25] - Justin talks about his start in the automotive industry, transitioning from sales to service, and the impact of the 2008 economic downturn.
[00:08:23] - After being laid off, Justin joins Hunter Engineering as an outside sales rep, embracing the new opportunities and challenges.
[00:12:57] - Justin describes his transition to becoming a field trainer in 2023, driven by a desire to contribute more to his company.
[00:20:25] - Justin discusses Hunter’s commitment to innovation and research and development, focusing on key product categories like tire changers and alignment systems.
[00:23:08] - The conversation shifts to the growing impact of ADAS technology, including its history, current prevalence, and the challenges it brings to the aftermarket.
[00:31:39] - They discuss how proper calibration of these systems is crucial for safety and highlight how Hunter’s tools help ensure precision and reliability.
[00:48:52] - Justin shares his thoughts on how the industry could be improved by fostering better relationships and understanding between shop owners and customers.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6NZ54VBUt8
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Hello, my friends. Good to see you. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or goodnight, depending on when and where you're joining us from. Today. We have a phenomenal discussion gonna be happening here with you today. This is to be an interactive webinar and a webinar where you participate, you ask questions.
Jimmy Lea: We've got a guest, we've got an expert that's here. So you've got questions and we've got the answers. So, you know, we're just gonna let you go first. So we're gonna have this discussion. Jay Allen wanted to start with you. Thank you so much. We just had a great time at Tools. Yes, we did. You made a Home Safe and Sound, nine hour trip, and then what happens?
Justin Allen: I, you know, literally pulling into the neighborhood. Make the right turn and suddenly hear a dinging like chimes warning things going on. And I thought to myself, oh it's freaking out because it thinks the seat belt's off my passenger seat's full of garbage. All kinds of stuff, right? So it just thinks my seat belt's off and I looked down at the dashboard and it says, you know, pull over within three tenths of a mile because you've got a hybrid system problem, you've got an engine problem.
Justin Allen: And turns out my water pump, which is an electronic water pump on the hybrid RAV4 had stopped functioning, no, no more coolant flow. So, literally like five or six blocks away from the house. So, honestly, felt very blessed. There were a lot of amazing places to break down between Lancaster, Penn, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday afternoon.
Justin Allen: So I was very blessed to get all the way to my neighborhood. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes, that turned out very well. 'cause it could have gone tremendously worse. Oh man. No question. No question about it. So, good timing. Good timing is right. Congratulations. I'm so happy that you made it home and you made it brother safe with all that gear that you had.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. So, yeah. Who, where did all that gear go? 
Justin Allen: Well, I mean, the big gear went right back with Steve Dawson, our regional manager out of Washington, dc. He loads up a tow behind trailer and takes it around the country. He's driven that, the big stuff. The ultimate ADAS has gone about 7,000 miles around the country so far where he's personally taken it to events like tools and just showing off and educating people as fast as we can.
Justin Allen: So, 7,000 miles, what this year? Probably in the last 12 months. Probably in the last 12 months. Yeah. He's hustling. He's hustling. And my personal vehicle was packed to the gills as well for teaching class and things like that. And I have found, you know, when you and I and other professionals in our industry travel around the country a little bit, we have learned how to pack everything we need into one carry on and maybe check in one bag.
Justin Allen: You know, we're pretty good at that. I realize that when I have my whole car, I'm a horrible over packer because I'm just walking around the house like, you know what, I really could use this jar of peanut butter. You never know when I might need this chainsaw. And I just throw everything in the car.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it's great. Oh, the kitchen sink. Wait, no, I probably don't need that. Just take the kitchen sink out. Everything else goes 
Justin Allen: right, right. Maybe at least the dish washing detergent though. 'cause you never know if I get stuck on the side of the road, I have to wash my hands. Who knows. 
Jimmy Lea: You know? Gotta be ready.
Jimmy Lea: It's so true. It's so true. It those opportunities where I have to drive up to headquarters. Yeah. In Ogden, Utah. I so overpack. I so overpack. I'm there for two or three days. You think I was moving in for a week? 
Justin Allen: I know. I'm terrible for it. My wife is great. She's much more efficient at this stuff. I'm awful.
Justin Allen: Awful. Oh
Jimmy Lea: yeah. No I'm always ready. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: So question for you, Mr. Allen. Sure. How did you get involved in the automotive industry? What's the 
Justin Allen: start for you? 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. 
Justin Allen: Good question. I grew up underneath cars with my dad in the backyard. Passing the wrenches, holding the flashlight, always in the wrong place.
Justin Allen: All those stories, and loved it. So grew up as a fixer, I think, in terms of the nature of it specifically. Then I'm 20, 23 years old in 1998. And I did not have a college degree. I did, I was I've been married a couple years, I didn't have any kids. And I found myself wanting to get a regular job, quote unquote, like, I need to get a real job.
Justin Allen: I'm an adult and I'm just sort adulting. I know. But it was that moment of, you know what, Justin, you could do whatever you want. What would you like to do? Like, what do you think might actually be interesting for you? And I, all I could nail down was that I loved talking to people and I love cars.
Justin Allen: And so I thought, you know, I might be a really good car salesman. Not 'cause, not because of the the image or concept of a car salesman appealed to me, but just because I knew those are two things I enjoyed. You know, if I could be around cool cars and drive cars and stuff all the time, that'd be great.
Justin Allen: And so that's how I actually got into the industry. I, it was at a Ford dealership in Hendersonville, North Carolina. And, I was fortunate enough to be able to kind of rise through different roles. I sold cars for like three months. I said, this is absolutely not for me. That's not what I wanna do. Okay.
Justin Allen: But transitioned into the service side of it and sold parts and wrote service and then managed the quick lane maintenance department back there. And just very fortunate to work for a small family owned dealership that loved people as much as I did, you know, and they recognized that in me, I think, and gave me opportunities as a result of it.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's beautiful. So you started out in the sales side and quickly moved into service as an advisor, service advisor parts advisor.
Justin Allen: Sold parts at the parts counter and then wrote service. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: So how many years, months. Days. How long were you in the service department there at that Ford dealership?
Jimmy Lea: I 
Justin Allen: really a total of about nine years. Yeah, that's 
Jimmy Lea: longer than a minute. That's, yeah. Yeah. 
Justin Allen: That's a good 
Jimmy Lea: home. 
Justin Allen: It was. It really was. And then in 2008, the the economy went kind of weird in North America. If you were in automotive in 2008, then you probably know that dealerships were closing down, right?
Justin Allen: Yeah. There was a lot of strange stuff going on, and instead of having to close down, ours did. Month after month, lay people off, like they kept trying to trim the fat. The automotive industry prior to that or prior to 2011 or 2001, like nine 11? Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Automotive in 
Justin Allen: automotive industry prior to nine 11 was a different animal.
Justin Allen: Because used car prices and stuff were different and at nine 11 that 0% interest happened and the onset of the inter internet for purchasing online stuff. It all kind of happened at once and it really revolutionized the automotive industry as far as dealerships were concerned. Wow. And so yeah, in oh eight we still had a lot of extra, there was a lot of extra humans around to function that had just been able to kind of build up over the years.
Justin Allen: And so he really started streamlining and cutting back. And the day came where our entire department, I was managing the quick Lane maintenance department and the entire department got shut down and sent home. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh my word. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh 
Justin Allen: my word. 
Jimmy Lea: It was 
Justin Allen: tough, 
Jimmy Lea: you know, oh eight, that, when that happened, that's when I had to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. Right. And it was, that was some tough years. We call those the dark days. Yeah. I lovingly refer to them as the dark days, meaning, yeah. I don't love them. 
Justin Allen: Right. Yeah. That was a dark time for sure. And I, my dealer the owner of the dealership, man he was so good to me for so long, and we were close, and he hated to have, he hated every time he had to lay anybody off.
Justin Allen: It was brutal. Oh yeah. He really loved his people. So Yeah. There were dark times all the way around. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So after the dealership, oh 8, 0 9, 0 10. Yeah. And I do call it oh, 10. Oh, 10. Sure. Yeah. I did not like 10. Wh when did you get what happened after the dealership? 
Justin Allen: Yeah.
Justin Allen: That's a good question. So three months prior to getting laid off, I sold a house. Paid off all my debt and mu moved onto a Christian commune in Fletcher, North Carolina. So out in the woods with some farmland working the farm, taking care of our neighbors. You know, it was a beautiful thing.
Justin Allen: And so to get laid off when I was in a community that was intentionally trying to help each other out. Yeah. That was neat. That was neat. So for a week after the day I got laid off, I spent the next week working the farm Sure. And running the Bush Hog on a big tractor and just kind of clearing land and stuff.
Justin Allen: And wasn't really sure what was gonna be the next thing. I kind of felt like, you know, if automotive has burned me like this and maybe I don't wanna do automotive anymore, maybe I'll start something totally different. And so I got a phone call about the Hunter sales rep option opportunity in Western North Carolina.
Justin Allen: And I That's, I was still having those thoughts, like, no, nevermind. I don't wanna do automotive. Forget it. But a day or so passed, and I had written the phone number down and phone it on top of my Dr refrigerator. And I thought you know, I have no idea what that could even look like. Like what could it look like to be an outside sales rep?
Justin Allen: All I've ever done is like nine to five Monday through Friday and pick up a check paycheck at the end of the week and 
Jimmy Lea: Yep. I 
Justin Allen: had no idea what possibilities could be there, but the idea of being able to drive around and visit people, I've already told you that I love talking to people and I knew that about myself.
Justin Allen: It got my attention. So I wound up making that phone call and about three weeks later I was flying off to St. Louis for the training to see whether or not I would have that opportunity. And so that's oh eight and December 21st, 2008 is when I signed my contract with Hunter Engineering Company and came onto the company 
Jimmy Lea: right before Christmas.
Justin Allen: Yeah. Tough time to start a new job in sales, by the way. 'cause nobody at Christmas really wants to talk to anybody out. You know, they, everybody's on vacation. Nobody wants to spend any more money. They're already crashed and burned on all that. So it was a fun time though, a fun time to be able to start a on out, on a new leaf.
Justin Allen: Yeah. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: So how long were you out as the outside sales rep for Hunter? Visiting people? Talking to people. Right. Sleeping in your warehouse. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. I love that you've seen the hammock photo. That's right. I did that from December oh eight until August of 16 when I had to step away from a minute.
Justin Allen: I had a pacemaker put in May of 2016. And I know I died a few times and had to get a pacemaker. And so my heart took a nap. It doesn't, it's probably not nice to say I died. My heart took a nap a few times and so I had to get a pacemaker and so I stepped away for a couple of years and.
Justin Allen: Was very unhappy. Yeah. But I learned a lot about networking and marketing in those two years. Those were things that had never really been a part of my life experience. And so I really learned a lot of neat things that turned out to be applicable. Was fortunate enough to be able to come back to the exact same position two years later.
Justin Allen: And so it was August of 2016 I left, and in August of 2018, I came right back. And so been with Hunter these seven years since and I, yeah. And continued doing the sales until March of 23. 
Jimmy Lea: And so when you came back in the same position, was it a sales position again or did you Yes. Okay. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Right 
Justin Allen: back into, yeah. What I was doing before was field sales Yeah. Or outside sales or business consulting for Hunter. And I covered all of Western North Carolina and sometimes South Carolina parts, and sometimes Virginia and Tennessee. And but yeah, just absolutely loved the role of going shop to shop Yes.
Justin Allen: And doing whatever I could to help her, encourage 'em. You know, the selling the equipment was kind of secondary. Helping the human was the first thing and just loved it. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, absolutely. Yep. Absolutely. And I loved the same thing when I was back in the days of having a coco van able to travel to the country, visit shops face to face, knee to knee, see what makes them unique, see what makes them awesome.
Jimmy Lea: Different. Amazing. What's the the quirky thing about this shop? And they have an oil funnel. Tree. Tree. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love that. I absolutely love it. I know. It's so much fun. It's so much fun to see these shops and their differences, their idiosyncrasies. Yeah. And for you to be able to travel the.
Jimmy Lea: Your neck of the woods essentially and visit the shop. Yeah. It's so much fun. Yeah. So from sales, outside sales into your position now as a a field trainer when did that happen? 
Justin Allen: Yeah, March of 23. It was actually in January of that year that I was flying home from St. Louis. We'd had some that's where headquarters is and we'd had a meeting up there on a flying home.
Justin Allen: And I'm in the bar at the airport in St. Louis. And I don't know about you, but I'm a believer in the notion that an airport bar is a very safe space to really get real about the truth. You may be talking to just strangers. You can tell 'em exactly what you think about something, you're never gonna see 'em again.
Justin Allen: And so it creates kind of this little safe bubble. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
Justin Allen: And my division manager for Hunter Strolled in with another regional manager and went back into the bar. I'm sitting there with about five other sales reps. I said, fellas, I gotta go talk to that man. 'Cause I got some ideas and I went and I spoke with my division manager and I said, you know, you see me online, you see the things I'm doing, you know that I love my job and if I could do something different.
Justin Allen: 'cause I, that was about 13 years in with a company at that point. As far as the sales rep. Long time. 
Jimmy Lea: Long time.
Justin Allen: A good while, and I just get kind of twitchy sometimes. I, what could I do for our company? Different, what else could I do? I love the company. I love who we are, how we are, what we do.
Justin Allen: But what else? How else could I be an asset for the company? You know? And so I rattled off a couple of thoughts that I had and a week later my manager came back and said, Hey, listen, I know you had a good conversation with Kevin and we're wondering if you would consider being the trainer for North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Justin Allen: And because what I was talking about was being helpful in other ways but that I had never thought about it. And I went home and talked to my wife and we decided this was a viable option. And man, there's no looking back. I've been having the best time. I don't know if that shows up online or not, but I've been having the best time.
Jimmy Lea: I think it does. I think it's great. I love seeing you traveling the country and it's usually a picture that looks like this. 
Justin Allen: I've found that you know, you don't have to worry about what kind of things are stuck in your teeth or whatever, or how you've got some chicken wing sauce in your beard or whatever.
Justin Allen: If you can just cut everything off from here, nobody has to worry about any of that. Works out great. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, speaking of chicken wing sauce you have had chicken wings in darn near every hole in the wall place that you could find across this country. And you gotta collect something at Apex. Last year, apex sema.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. We walked into the same place and you joined us for dinner that night. That was so much fun. So 
Justin Allen: good. So good. Yeah. To walk in once, kinda like the airport experience, right? You were a stranger in a strange town and I was. Just getting ready for the flight and I needed some dinner and to walk into a place there in Vegas and have you swinging the door open wide and the entire institute team sitting in there.
Justin Allen: How, what a humbling, beautiful honor and experience to be invited to join you guys at the table. That was really, that was probably the best part of the whole trip. No, 
Jimmy Lea: it really was. It really was. The wings were great. The company was better. 
Justin Allen: I think Absolutely. The humans are what make it no question.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. And had you dined alone Yeah. You would've had some social media stuff to put out. Sure. Had a picture of a plate of chicken wings and how good it was. But what a better social post to have all of us friends together. 
Justin Allen: I'm telling you. Breaking bread. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: That's the way to do it, man. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. Amen.
Justin Allen: Amen. The brotherhood of the automotive industry, the brother and sisterhood, the human hood of automotive industry. Man, we gotta help each other out. We gotta lift one another up. And the 
Jimmy Lea: brotherhood of traveling pants. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. It's it's a wild world out there. So whatever we can do, whenever we can have those opportunities to slow down and get a meal together and share some stories about what's good and what's tough and what are real struggles, you know that one thing about social media is that it's so easy to.
Justin Allen: Get caught up in this world where everybody's just showing the best of what's really going on and they're not telling the truth about the downside of it. And it makes it easy for an average human being like yourself or myself. 'cause we're just average at the end of the day to see other things and think to ourselves, wow, my life's not as good as those people's lives.
Justin Allen: You know, those people have it all together and they're doing great and they never seem to have any problems. 
Justin Allen: That those face-to-face opportunities help us to get past some of that, you know, and let's get real. 'cause it is, life is never and life. There's nobody whose life is perfect and always chocolate and roses.
Justin Allen: Right? Yeah. I think it's very important that we be real about that stuff. 
Jimmy Lea: I agree. I agree. Everybody seems to hide behind a mask of social media or they're a keyboard warrior. Yeah. Yeah, indeed. They bring you down. Yeah. Yep. So, where you are today you are the trainer with for Hunter and for ados.
Jimmy Lea: And by the way, at sema. For approximately five years, I sat in the booth directly across from the Hunter. Nice booth at sema South Wall. Yeah. First floor. Yeah. I was in the TIA booth for so many years. You were probably there. 
Justin Allen: I, you know, I never really worked any of that stuff until this last year.
Justin Allen: No. Yeah. I went in 2015 just to see it. And then I worked the show. I was in the Apex side of it though, so I was in Apex. Okay. This last year for the first time to ever actually work it. And boy, you wanna talk about not getting to see much and just working hard like the sema, SEMA and Apex. That is an exercise man.
Justin Allen: If you're not ready to get serious, you got no business going out there. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Justin Allen: It's a big deal. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It is a big deal. And everybody thinks, oh, you get to go see all these great fancy places. Right. Wait. I was working. I know. I mean, you can squeeze in some fancy, 
Justin Allen: right, right, right. I squeezed in a little bit, but man, most of it, if you weren't working the trade show, you need to go recover somewhere is what you needed to do.
Justin Allen: No, that's exactly right. Yeah, exactly right. 
Jimmy Lea: So Hunter and tools and equipment there has been so much that has come out here recently with Hunter. I'm thinking I, and I say recent. Recent is relative. Sure. The drive across Hunter Pat. I think that's just phenomenal that you can have that quick check.
Jimmy Lea: Right. Yeah. For shops, for dealerships for anybody that's looking at doing stuff like this, talk about the technology of Hunter and the innovation that Hunter has come out with. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. You know what's funny? I was at headquarters for a couple of weeks in May, April, and May, and every now and then I would get lost in the building and find myself on some back hallway that would have, it's kind of like a museum sometimes, right?
Justin Allen: Yeah. And there would just be these shadow boxes full of patents and ideas and inventions that have been formulated over the years from our original founder as well, Lee Hunter. And it is, we are a company that first and foremost gets excited about making things better. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Justin Allen: And making things innovative.
Justin Allen: You use that word as well. And we don't do a lot of different stuff. We really don't. You know, there are seven products that we focus on as far as categories and I think it's only seven right now. Let's say it together. Tire changers, balancers, alignment machines, alignment lifts, brake la. ADOS calibration stuff and inspection related stuff.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Justin Allen: So the inspection being the stuff like you drive through or whatever. Right, right. These are the only things we do, and I think that allows us to focus heavy on that research and development side. And you don't have to be at headquarters for long to understand that truly is the focus. And, you know, born, our company was born in 1946, founded in 1946.
Justin Allen: And to be a global provider of these types of things that we do, which are always the cutting edge version of these things it's fascinating because we're not a marketing company, you know, and I don't mean that bad against anybody. I'm a person who loves some marketing, but when I came to the company in 2008, I knew nothing of the company.
Justin Allen: And I'd already been in automotive for nine years at that point, and our dealership was full of hunter equipment. But I just didn't, I didn't, you don't see TV commercials about it. You don't see. No. Race cars that are emblazoned with all the logos and stuff. Right. It's just not what we do.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and that equipment becomes wallpaper very quickly.
Justin Allen: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: It's just there. Yeah. And 
Justin Allen: you ju right. 
Jimmy Lea: You 
Justin Allen: just walk 
Jimmy Lea: past 
Justin Allen: it. Right? Exactly. Exactly. So, it's fun being with a company that is so focused on, let's not say perfection. 'cause I think that may be foolish for anybody to be pursuing perfection, but excellence at just a level that sets us apart, I think is, 
Jimmy Lea: and pursuing perfection is good.
Jimmy Lea: That's a good Yes, I'm comfortable with that. A good target is pursuing perfection. Will you ever be perfect? No. But can you pursue it? Is it an appeal that you can chase? Sure. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Yes. So by getting into these little niches and doing the research, I mean, you're making a better vacuum.
Jimmy Lea: If I can throw Dyson into the mixer that have been around for a long time. Sure. But you're making a better vacuum. Dyson was the first to introduce a clear receptacle so you could see what you were vacuuming up. Right. Okay. And collecting. Yeah. Hunter is now able to provide even more. So I almost, I saw a headlight alignment machine from the early 19 hundreds.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Okay. 19 hundreds back in the 19 
Justin Allen: hundreds, 
Jimmy Lea: back in the 19, maybe it was mid 19 hundreds. So ADOS has combined this headlight alignment, but also radar and technology and lidar. Yeah. Talk about ados because I mean, that's a whole new realm that's opened up within the last five, six years, 
Justin Allen: eight years.
Justin Allen: Well, let's talk about it. Let's talk. I like that you asked that. You say it that way. Yeah. When you wanna talk about disruptions to an industry you think about like automatic transmission and fuel injection and some of these things that really changed it. And I say disruption from the angle of the things that the people working on them needed to know what on earth they were doing.
Justin Allen: Right. Technology is one of those. It is really. Going to be such a big part of everything that we're all doing because it's all about safety right now. I love when you say about, you know, when it's become a big part of this industry and the truth is that Volkswagen was doing ADOS related technology back in the late nineties.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, interesting. 
Justin Allen: Right? So we had, adaptive cruise control was happening in the late nineties, and so we did not, we have, right, we've got 25 years of this type of technology existing. Now it's taken a long time for other people to develop versions of it and get comfortable with it. And in fact, if we go back 10 model years, yes, for 2015, let's use automatic emergency braking just as a conversation piece for it.
Justin Allen: Automatic emergency braking, of course, is something that's going to apply brakes as you approach something that is not moving at your same speed and try to at least mitigate or reduce that collision experience. Right. 10 model years ago that was only available in 4% of the cars sold in the United States.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. And
Justin Allen: by the way, to say that accurately, there's a study from September of 24 that showed all the data on this stuff. And I have to acknowledge in this study, it was not including the German automotive manufacturers. So not counting BMW, Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen kind of things.
Justin Allen: Only 4% of the other cars sold in the United States had that technology. Fast forward 10 years to 2025 model year, and it's almost a hundred percent 
Jimmy Lea: right. 
Justin Allen: You know, the Toyotas every Toyota sold in North America since model year 2022, has ADOS technology in it. Every single one. You know, so all of your model from your very base functional Corolla all the way up to a Sequoia or something like that.
Justin Allen: And so. Really it is, I think of it in terms of the cars that are still at the dealerships for service, right? You go buy yourself a new infinity or whatever, and you're probably going back to the dealership for the first two or three years comfortably, right? Because everything's under warranty. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes.
Justin Allen: You might as well go get your oil change there because you wanted them to look at that switch that was acting a little bit funny or whatever. Right? That's right. So usually two or three years we're still at the dealership. That would mean that everything sold back through like that model year 2022 has still kind of been going to the dealerships.
Justin Allen: Well, guess what, right? Every Toyota of 2 20 22 is about to fall out into the aftermarket. Most of them. There'll still be some gonna the dealership. Yeah. But most of, so in other words, every Toyota, that's that newer stuff that you're gonna be touching at your shop. It's gonna be filled with this stuff.
Justin Allen: And as an industry frankly, we're not prepared. We're not emotionally prepared for the responsibilities associated with that. And it's going to be interesting to watch, you know? Interesting. 
Jimmy Lea: It's absolutely fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. And I heard over the weekend that not only is it that a hundred percent are passenger vehicles that now have it fleet vehicles Oh, yeah. Produced with ADOS technology. Right, 
Justin Allen: right. And when we talk about fleet, like, all of the full size F two 50, F three 50 kind of trucks, it's becoming normal on those Yeah. Except for that size. And then Yeah, the big rigs, the dump trucks. Yeah. The, all that stuff. Lane departure assist and warning and adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking.
Justin Allen: Yeah. That's all showing up on those as well. So I. It's ability to make decisions without being distracted is phenomenal. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Like 
Justin Allen: it's doing a good job. What about class eight? Big 
Jimmy Lea: rigs. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. Oh yeah. That's what I'm saying. That adaptive cruise control so that when you pull out in front of that big tractor trailer with your Ford focus and you're, you know, 40 feet in front of that thing, it's gonna slow down.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Yeah, because that, that, that fiesta's gonna be a tortilla here in a minute. 
Justin Allen: Exactly. Exactly. And those truck drivers, man, they are not impressed. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Justin Allen: They're not impressed that's, those folks are definitely, I think, I'm sure it's a mixed bag, but in general, they have been unimpressed with that technology because for them.
Justin Allen: It's so hard to regain your momentum once you have to slow down. And if you imagine you're on kind of a rolling hill part of the country or whatever, and you're trying to gain speed going down that hill so you can get over the crest of the next hill and not drop below 50 miles an hour or whatever. Yep.
Justin Allen: And you start climbing up that hill and somebody zips out in front of you and you drop down. 
Jimmy Lea: You just want to kill 'em. 
Justin Allen: It's disappointing. 
Jimmy Lea: It is. It's disappointing. Yeah. Yeah. No, don't kill 'em. Don't kill 'em. 
Justin Allen: I know. You're bringing like trucker horror movies to mind when you talk about that. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I know.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I watch it on Facebook. You see the dash cams all the time of silly people thinking they can, oh, mercy cut off a semi-truck, and they quickly learn that you can't do that. That is 
Justin Allen: not a good plan. 
Jimmy Lea: Not a good plan. Good plan. So not only does it affect us in the automotive service industry, maintenance industry, even in collision.
Jimmy Lea: Sure. Even though a coat of paint is one 32nd thick, if you have that coat of paint too thick on that fencer. Oh yeah. Now you're not working. 
Justin Allen: Right. So many things. The body shop industry, and I'm not saying this in any way, to be belittling to anybody who's in any part of that the primary objective for so long has been to make things beautiful.
Justin Allen: Yes. And they didn't have to think a whole lot about electronics. Right. Right. So yeah, they are, their world's getting rocked by that a lot. You know, these, the, not just the sensor behind a piece that maybe they had to move or they replaced a bumper, fascia or a grill or something like that. But like the bracket could be bent a little bit.
Justin Allen: That looked pretty good, but it still bent a little bit, causing a degree or two of variation up close that, that's feet of variation at a hundred yards, you know, and that, that's not allowing that equipment to make a good, safe, intelligent decision. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And where in the past an alignment might cost 50 bucks or 80 bucks or 90 bucks, or maybe now it's $120.
Justin Allen: Thank you. There, now we're talking modern dollars. Okay. Yeah. Right, 
Jimmy Lea: right. No, I was going back when I was like, wait a second. Right, right. Better up this a little bit. I was watching and they were talking about, oh, you know, here I'm gonna bring in my Subaru Outback. How much for an alignment?
Jimmy Lea: Right? $600. I mean, excuse me, I just want an alignment. It's usually like a couple hundred, maybe. Right, right. Yeah. $600. What is that for? And it, there is so many other factors that need to be adjusted, not just the tow and the camera and the tires. You've gotta adjust all the cameras as well. So I wanna ask this question from the viewpoint of a consumer.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. But it's also to the point of a shop. Yeah. What is, what are the right questions for the public to ask, which then also translates into what does a shop need to know? So what should the public ask as questions for an alignment when for example I took in my my car for an alignment for wheel alignment.
Jimmy Lea: And this service advisor, Sebastian, bless his heart, he's like, oh my gosh, $320 for an alignment. We've never, it's so much. And I was like, bro I don't care. I need it fixed. Yeah. I need it fixed Now. I just put new tires on. I 
Justin Allen: need it safe. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: I need it safe. Yeah. Three 20, I don't care. Can 
Justin Allen: you 
Jimmy Lea: do it?
Jimmy Lea: That was my question. When can I have my car back? Right. Right. What kind of questions should we, as a public ask that helps us to understand a shop? 
Justin Allen: Yeah. So, on average the people that are using this technology love it. That's what we know. I Are you guilty of that? Yeah. I love it. I love it. And I didn't at first.
Justin Allen: I'm actually on my third vehicle that has this kind of technology in it, and I absolutely love it now. I loved it all nine hours to and from Lancaster. It makes driving 
Jimmy Lea: different. 
Justin Allen: Yeah, it does more 
Jimmy Lea: relaxing. I can relax. It takes some of the pressure off of it. 
Justin Allen: It does. Although being a good driver, it probably shouldn't in theory.
Justin Allen: You know what I mean? We still should be thinking just as much, but it allows us to not have to, it really does. And so the right question for a customer to ask a shop would be, Hey, are we going as a part of this repair process? Are we supposed to recalibrate that stuff? And are you equipped to do that appropriately?
Justin Allen: How are we gonna do it? You know, those are the kind of questions that a customer should honestly be asking. Unfortunately the numbers on this technology being repaired correctly are dismal. I know dismal, I know the shops that are it's between 66 and 75% of cars that are not repaired and calibrated correctly at the end of some type of a collision related situation.
Justin Allen: Some type of a accident. It, the numbers, it's 66% for just getting your windshield replaced. They're just not working right after that 'cause nobody calibrated it appropriately. And it's 75%. If your car was in some kind of an accident that involved replacing or repositioning or removing for any reason whatsoever, one of these sensors 75% of them are not functioning properly when people are done with it. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh. 
Justin Allen: So yeah. A customer being able to say, Hey, I really love the way this technology works. Are we sure that's gonna be okay when we're done with this? Is not a bad question. 
Jimmy Lea: Can I and so I'm gonna ask this question, but I don't even know the answer.
Jimmy Lea: And I would I would feel foolish asking it. And I wonder how a shop would translate it. Okay. Meaning, my, my question would be, well, when's the last time you were trained on calibrating this, these cameras and sensors and Yeah. And when's the last time your equipment was calibrated?
Jimmy Lea: Because I wanna make sure that my car is calibrated properly. 
Justin Allen: Right? Right. And those are those are the questions that if a customer walks in your door asking you those questions, you are already regretting letting them walk in your door. And I'm jokingly saying that like, as a shop owner, like, oh my goodness, this customer's gonna be a real pain in my tail.
Justin Allen: Is the feeling you would probably have with those kind of questions, but. They're legitimate good questions. That means that customer's actually pretty well informed about the way their vehicle's supposed to work. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And 
Justin Allen: that's okay, because frankly, we want to be able to charge appropriately for doing the job, right?
Justin Allen: Yes. And when that customer knows that stuff needs to be recalibrated, then we want to be able to say, absolutely. I'm glad you asked that. And in fact, our equipment gets calibrated every three weeks and it automatically blah, blah, or whatever the thing would be, you know, and we are trained and prepared to take really good care of you.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and that's a, it leads to an interesting question or an answer. Okay. How often should the equipment be calibrated? 
Justin Allen: Sure. I'm not in a position to answer for everybody. Right. I can say that. I can tell you as a, for instance though, the hunter and by the way, I never wanna sound salesy, you know, that.
Justin Allen: But our equipment that you just saw at the trade show there tools the ultimate ados checks and confirms its own calibration every morning. Like the first time you try to use it of every day, it checks and confirms its calibration. Oh, wow. So, it would not allow you to proceed if it found that it was out of calibration.
Justin Allen: So, 
Jimmy Lea: okay. So if it's outta calibration, we've gotta call Hunter. They send out a service team, it comes and calibrates it or we need to take 
Justin Allen: care of that, right? If it were outta calibration. Yep. So it's not like 
Jimmy Lea: push a reset button, shut the windows, roll the windows down, roll 'em up. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. Right, right. No, it's a situation where you wanna get an expert involved who's going to expertly make sure that thing is calibrated appropriately for your customers.
Justin Allen: Yep. Oh wow. Okay. Yep. And Steve Dawson, the gentleman who was there, the regional manager out of Washington dc, he tells a story about how he has bounced that ultimate ADOS all around the country. And not had to recalibrate it and it checks itself, you know, when you set it up. Oh, he's put fascinating. I dunno if I told you.
Justin Allen: Did he tell you he's put 7,000 miles on that 
Jimmy Lea: 7,000? Yeah. Yeah. That's a miles. That's a lot of balance. He spent a lot of miles 
Justin Allen: on it without having to recalibrate it. Yeah. So that's not bad. Oh yeah. Bouncing down the interstate in a box trailer. Yeah. That's doing pretty good. Some good equipment.
Justin Allen: So, so, and I say that to say, when we talk about having to recalibrate it, that shouldn't be something people would think was mercy. I gotta do that all the time. But it does confirm its calibration. You know, there's a lot of different types of systems out there. So I don't know exactly what everybody else does, but that notion of Yeah, I would hate to think that we were like, we're supposed to be calibrating torque wrenches too, right?
Justin Allen: Yes. They, you can calibrate a torque wrench. That's right. So all of our, any tool that's designed for measurement obviously has, you gotta, you have a way to calibrate and be sure that it's okay. So, you know, whatever people are doing, I hope that they do whatever they gotta do to stay in good shape.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah. I definitely hope so. When we talk about wheel balancing too I noticed that hunter equipment on the wheel balancer has a friction function as well. Okay. Is that the balancer or the rotator? 
Justin Allen: Rotator? You've seen that roller on the back of the balancer there? Yes. It has the, yeah, it does have grip tape on it.
Justin Allen: Much like a skateboard from when you and I were younger people. That's right, yes. I had a skateboard. Yeah. Yeah, me too. That is the roller that is used for road force measurement and lateral pole measurement on those balancers. Those balancers interestingly check and recalibrate themselves every 15 minutes.
Justin Allen: Oh my goodness. Wow. Every 15 minutes. Yep. Throughout the course of the day. That's a different kind of calibration situation, but they take it real seriously. But yeah, the balancer there that roller comes down on the tire while the tire's rotating on the balancer, and it can measure. What we call radial runout on that tire, meaning yes, totally not related to balance in any way, shape or form.
Justin Allen: What are the physical issues, the mechanical issues in that tire? And imagine just multiple layers of belts and rubber and all this different kind of stuff. Occasionally it will create a stiffer spot on the sidewall. And so when that stiffer spot in the sidewall hits that roller, it deflects on that. And so that we can determine mechanically, what kind of vibrations do I have on this wheel?
Justin Allen: Entire combination before I ever put it on a car. It helps you to locate and correct all that kind of stuff. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. Before you balance 
Justin Allen: it. 
Jimmy Lea: That's so awesome. So what new equipment do we have coming down the the pipeline? What is new innovations from Hunter? 
Justin Allen: Yeah. Across the board, you know, we're always trying to find ways to make things streamlined.
Justin Allen: And I can't give away all of the goodies, I don't think, until they announce 'em nationally. But I can tell you there are exciting things coming on the Road Force balancer, the Alignment Machine, the ultimate ADOS is the newest iteration of that, which is the latest and greatest version of our aligner Anyway, that's been killing it for a while now, and then adding all that ADAS stuff in on it, and it continues to expand in its functionality.
Justin Allen: Originally when it was released, it was only for Honda and Acura dealerships, and now it's available to everybody and we've got the targets and everything for almost every vehicle out there on the road. Oh, that's awesome. So that one's exciting. And tire changers. We continue to evolve in our tire changer lineup too, with Made only by us, only for us here in the United States on some of these models that are just outrageous in, in their abilities and talents.
Justin Allen: So, 
Jimmy Lea: oh, yeah. And I sat across from that tire changer for five years at the studio. Right. And the air sounds are still resonating in my head. Yeah. But I was fascinated to see how the evolution of that tire changer evolved from 2010 to 15. Yeah. Which got it to the point where the tech didn't have to pick it up anymore.
Jimmy Lea: Right. They were able to put it right on a lifter and it would lift it up for them and they just push a button and away it goes. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. Yeah. The Revolution tire changer now is our top line tire changer that continues to get better. You know, even people that have older versions of it, the newer software, 'cause it's software driven yeah.
Justin Allen: It can actually learn new tricks and do things even better. And so yeah. That walkaway technology is what we call it on that one where you can start it up and go on, like if you're gonna do a set of four tires, you can get that second tire started in the process of removing the tire from that rim while you're balancing a tire next door.
Justin Allen: Yeah. So side by side and so I can be multitasking and getting things done. And that's, it's just about efficiency, right? Totally. Like how can we. Be more efficient in our operations. Now I do think the danger of that is helping our training our customers to have unrealistic expectations in terms of time.
Justin Allen: Right. Like I, I blame Ray Crock for a lot of our problems and the things that went from fast food hamburgers to Yeah. Order ordering something on Amazon and expecting it to be at my house like by the sunrise the next morning. We have definitely created expectations that are pretty dang high.
Justin Allen: So when we can make changing tires faster, I like to think of that being a benefit for us on the service side. The customers, they don't need to expect it any faster 'cause we've already set ourselves up for failure on some of that situation, I think. Yeah. But if we can alleviate some of our stress on the backside, 'cause you and I both know this, so saying some things are gonna take longer than you planned on, right?
Justin Allen: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So 
Justin Allen: whatever we're gonna do to reduce our stress. 
Jimmy Lea: Who would've thought a milkshake would've been such a 
Justin Allen: problem? Oh my God. I'm telling you, man I've been to one. I was at a McDonald's where there weren't any humans out here at all. There was just kind of a hole in the wall. So you would, you'd order your thing on a kiosk and then it would eventually just spit out of the hole in the wall.
Justin Allen: It dehumanized the whole experience. I did not like it. That's unfortunate. I mean, I still ate it and I still smiled, but I didn't yeah. Didn't like the process. 
Jimmy Lea: All a question from Jake's asking as a general repair facility, we need to rely on non collision related issues for a DDoS repair and or calibration opportunities.
Jimmy Lea: How frequently does a DOS systems need to be repaired or recalibrated in a non collision situation? Which goes right along with my question. As I changed the tires and had to have a new front control arms and blah, blah, blah. It needed to be realigned. Right? And so I echoed Jake's question.
Justin Allen: Yeah, so it's a great question. And there are thank you Jake, for submitting a question. There are plenty of scenarios that are non collision related that are gonna require calibration. Now, some of the vehicles, yes. Just after a simple alignment are gonna want it to be recalibrated. In your case, you changed some components in there.
Justin Allen: And more major stuff that doesn't necessarily trigger it, but think about other things that might. I'm talking about maybe you're doing some air conditioning work on the front of that vehicle. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Justin Allen: But to access everything in there, you're gonna remove the grill, you're gonna remove the support that has that adaptive cruise control radar attached to it up there in the front.
Justin Allen: Maybe you're taking off a bumper face share or something that has some components associated with that. The radar is in some cases down there in kind of the bottom. Yeah. So any of those kind of things where you might move parts off the front of that vehicle would require it. So similarly, there may be situations where again, non collision related, but I just try to think about anything that you might do.
Justin Allen: Maybe you've got a power mirror that's given out on some kind of a vehicle and it's got sensors built into that mirror, or a camera built into that mirror sometimes too. And so you replace that mirror and it's gonna need to be calibrated. So, that's the idea of just anything that would involve moving it or and maybe like removing and replacing that part's still the exact same part.
Justin Allen: Yes, but because I took it off and bolted it back on, it's a little bit, it's changed. And so those are the kind of scenarios where you're gonna find yourself doing it too. So some alignment and re regular maintenance related. And then those, and when we talk about alignment, think about the kinds of things that you might replace in an alignment repair.
Justin Allen: If hypothetically you're gonna put new struts or something on a vehicle. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Justin Allen: There's two reasons why we put struts on a vehicle. One is those springs have sagged and given over time they compress, just like you and I, they're gonna get a little bit shorter over time. It also may be the strut part itself, not the spring, but the strut or the shock absorber in there basically.
Justin Allen: Right. 
Jimmy Lea: Uhhuh. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. If you're replacing that old set of struts that are 12 years old on this vehicle with a brand new set, like a quick strut that's got springs built into it, you are changing the ride height of that vehicle. So true. Okay. Yep. So the ride height, and especially like, imagine I only did 'em on the front and I've seen lately I've seen a lot of Toyota forerunners floating around that the front was dipped down a little bit.
Justin Allen: I don't know what's going on with that. Maybe they put a lift kit on the back and they ignored the front. But imagine you took a vehicle that was sloped like this. Yeah. And you put those new springs on the front and you changed that ride height on the front. Well, you've changed where all of your stuff is pointing, you know, oh, your lane cameras, your radar stuff, all of that stuff has changed.
Justin Allen: And so to be to be recalibrating it after those types of suspension related repairs as well, also very valuable. So that's also not a collision thing, I guess, right? 
Jimmy Lea: We, it is. Definitely not. And that goes to the North Carolina squat. Yeah. Golly. Whoever saw that. Bad ideas, terrible idea, bad ideas.
Jimmy Lea: You need to see the 
Justin Allen: road. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Gary's got a great question here too. If you're not sure, will the car let you know if it needs to be recounted? It doesn't. So you gotta do it. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. So I, Gary, thank you also for your question. The the car generally will not let you know that it needs to re be recalibrated.
Justin Allen: Its only job most of the time is to see stuff and respond to it. It doesn't know where it's pointed, right? 
Justin Allen: Yeah. We've heard stories of people with a vehicle with like a forward facing radar that was pointed down maybe. Yeah. And so it would see markings on the road and stuff like that and slam on the brakes.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my God. '
Justin Allen: cause it was freaked out about it. But it didn't know that it was wrong. There are instances where a vehicle, if it's getting conflicting signals, so imagine that you've got a forward facing camera looking one way and your radar, and maybe your radar is looking another way. And it starts to see enough of disagreement there on what's happening.
Justin Allen: Yeah. Some of these cars are gonna bring themselves to a complete stop. Yeah. And say, no thanks, we are unsafe. We are not going to be driving like this. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So 
Justin Allen: while it didn't tell you it needed to be recalibrated, it definitely told you there was a problem. Right? So you will occasionally get situations like that may cause a warning light or that system to disable itself entirely.
Justin Allen: But that's not the same as it notifying you immediately after you put those springs on there that needed to be recalibrated. So, the better bet on how to know how to be sure Gary is to look up your OE service documentation on what is supposed to be done. There's a lot of great resources out here that are trying to find ways to simplify and streamline those data sources, but it is challenging.
Justin Allen: So the OE is always your best bet. For, what am I supposed to do when I replace that mirror? Am I supposed to recalibrate something or not? And you'll find it there. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And it, does this fall in the range of that 30, 60, 90, you might need to recalibrate on that realm, or is it 
Justin Allen: When 
Jimmy Lea: parts are 
Justin Allen: replaced?
Justin Allen: That's a really good question. In terms of preemptive strike on that stuff, 
Jimmy Lea: yeah, 
Justin Allen: I would, I personally would say sure, it makes sense that way because again your ride height's gonna change over time. Different things like that. I mean, they tell us to recalibrate our steering angle sensor on about half the cars on the road because they know that stuff changes a little bit over time.
Justin Allen: So would it be harmful to recalibrate that stuff? No. But would it be logical? Sure. Yeah. There's no, there's, I don't think you'd have a good argument for why you shouldn't calibrate it in that type of a scenario. Yeah. My car gets calibrated probably 15 times a month. 
Jimmy Lea: Because you use 
Justin Allen: your 
Jimmy Lea: car for training?
Justin Allen: Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm calibrated all the time. It's very well calibrated. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, very well calibrated. So if anybody has 
Justin Allen: a car in the North Carolina area, oh, mercy, Jimmy, you do not say what's about to come outta your mouth, then register for class. Bring your vehicle into class and we'll calibrate it. There you go.
Justin Allen: That's what do, that's how I would say that. I know you might've been about to say that. You're a good friend. You might've been about to say that de I was 
Jimmy Lea: definitely gonna say that. Yeah. Good. I love it. Strip your class, bring your car, and then get it calibrated. We will calibrate it. I love it. Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. 
Justin Allen: Yep. That's awesome. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, last and final question for you here as we wrap up an hour I can't even believe it's been an hour. It feels like three minutes. It goes fast 
Justin Allen: when you're having a good time. That's right. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh, yes. Question for you. If you had a magic wand and you could change something about the automotive aftermarket, what would you change?
Justin Allen: If I had a magic wand and I could change something about the automotive aftermarket. I would just, I would make sure that all of our customers were so happy to come and see us and we're just so grateful for our expertise and professionalism and never questioned our rates or practices.
Justin Allen: Because your equipment is not the, oh, I mean the shop holders, I just mean the shop holders. I mean their customers, you know, I customers that come in it, when a customer comes in with a car broken down, like they are miserable, they're having a really bad, I don't care what else is going on in their life, that is a bad day and we have such an opportunity to be the superhero.
Justin Allen: Yeah. But sometimes that gets clouded by how frustrated they are, you know? And if they could really understand that most of us as shop owners are trying to do the right thing and do a good job with it, right. Then then it would be an easier world. 'cause we. We get a lot of grief from people who think that we're trying to do bad things, and I believe that is not the average situation.
Jimmy Lea: No. 
Justin Allen: May I, Jake real quick here, has one more question there that I wanted to address. Yeah. Is that 
Jimmy Lea: okay? 
Justin Allen: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And
Justin Allen: you're very welcome, Gary. And you as well, Lance. Thank you for that. Jake says, Justin Hunter's ultimate ADAS looks like an awesome tool. Do you think it is more useful when integrated with an alignment system or as an independent unit?
Justin Allen: Okay, there you go. So the ultimate that's kind of an interesting question. The ultimate ADAS is integrated as an aligner. You know, when we think about a vehicle being calibrated, these ADOS systems, our advanced driver assist systems are calibrated to the body of the vehicle. So it's really important that the tires and the chassis of that vehicle are pointing the same direction.
Justin Allen: And so, the alignment is kind of integral having, and, you know, find whatever system a person's looking at, if you're looking at the preconditions for a vehicle, it's always gonna say that the alignment is in good shape as aligned, as accurately as possible or whatever. And so with the ultimate datas, we do have our fully functional.
Justin Allen: State-of-the-art hunter Hawkeye Elite alignment machine. That's part of what it is. That's kind of the base of it. And then we just added the other stuff on top so it, it doesn't stand as an independent unit in that sense. But people of course, if there are people, we already have situations where somebody has a regular alignment machine just cranking out alignments all day, then the ultimate ADAS is a standalone calibration unit and it is phenomenal at that as well.
Justin Allen: So it can certainly be done that way. But so, do I think it's more useful with integrated with an alignment system or as an independent unit? I think it is beautifully useful either way. It's just a lot of shops may not have room to have a free freestanding calibration center. So it allows you to do your calibrations in many instances right there with the vehicle, even on the alignment rack.
Justin Allen: And so, that's part of how that works. Jake and I thank you for your question and don't hesitate to reach out further. How much room 
Jimmy Lea: does. The ultimate ADOS system need. How much room? I, I've heard 60 by 60. I've heard all sorts. Oh, yeah. I've heard all sorts of, yeah. You gotta buy a new building.
Jimmy Lea: You gotta level the ground. You gotta, right, 
Justin Allen: right. 
Jimmy Lea: What? 
Justin Allen: There's a lot of, there's a lot of apprehensions and concerns out there. And generally speaking, if a person has a 40 by 60 foot space that's nice and level and free and clear of distractions and other things that's amazing and phenomenal.
Justin Allen: Do they have to have that to get into the ADOS world and start calibrating things? Absolutely not. There's a, yeah, there's a lot of vehicles that the calibration process, and I say a lot, let's just say like Fords and Chrysler products, Solanis products, there's a lot of those that are just dynamic calibrations that you just go drive 'em.
Justin Allen: Right, right, 
Jimmy Lea: right, right. So 
Justin Allen: shop owners need to get on board with at least that initially. And usually you've gotta go in with some kind of a scan tool and let it know, like put it in learning mode and then go drive it. So that's an, those obviously don't need any space beyond that though, there are different ranges depending on the make and the manufacturer of that particular vehicle.
Justin Allen: And even the model. Sometimes, like you may have certain Hondas that it's really short and then other versions, it's kind of a longer space. But the, you can get a lot done in just a traditional alignment bay as far as forward facing cameras and radars. Yeah. Even in some cases where you would just turn the vehicle around facing the rear and get some things done.
Justin Allen: Now that's gonna be a best case scenario on a flush mounted alignment rack, mind you. Right. Because then everything's at the nice level and, you know, you're not having to worry about a lot different, a lot of different stuff. That's, you're seeing a lot of folks today that as they're building in alignment systems, they're definitely doing that submerged rack in the floor.
Justin Allen: Yes. So that you can have the car in that position and do all of your calibrations right there without having to do much else. You know, the space limitations. If someone has a normal alignment bay with some extra space out in front of it, like the ones that the alignment machine, the rack itself gives you four feet between it and the wall, those are gonna be challenges, right.
Justin Allen: That's gonna be a different environment. Okay. But being able to do these calibrations in other bays, there's so many ways to get that ball rolling in so many vehicles that you are going to be able to get calibrated. I believe reducing the need to sublet that stuff to somebody else is going to help you with your scheduling and your quality control.
Justin Allen: And those are things that also help you to sleep well at night, you know, when you can control that stuff. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. And that leads us here to, last question from Gary here about mobile ados. What do you think of these mobile ADOS companies? 
Justin Allen: Yeah, Gary. Thank you for that question. The a mobile ADOS company is just like any of the rest of us in the sense that.
Justin Allen: Either they're doing their job right or they're not. And that would, so it would, you'd have to look at that case by case, you know, this stuff has changed so quickly and there were so many mobile shops. Or there was a moment where I. People needed to get these calibrations done. And the only option was mobile really, kind of in the beginning.
Justin Allen: And so they were able to show up and charge whatever they wanted. And I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just 'cause there was no kind of there was nothing in place to help make sense of it. And not too long ago, like Mitchell as far as guides for guidelines for Labor times and things like that finally came out with some information so that people knew what to expect and what would be logical there.
Justin Allen: With that, I mean, like I said, you can have people in your shop doing a bad job on break work and leaving yourself vulnerable to liabilities. Right. And similarly, the mobile stuff, that's kind of the trick to it, is sometimes you're just, you turn the keys over to a person, they're out there in the parking lot, we don't know what they're doing.
Justin Allen: Maybe they're doing a good job, maybe they're not. If you've never seen them toting targets around and trying to get them on a level spot inside your shop, you might question what's going on. Yes. 
Jimmy Lea: But that was gonna be my question. Yeah. Not, I don't guys showing up at the shop, but if they're showing up at somebody's house trying to.
Jimmy Lea: Sure, yeah. A line, a car. That's my, I living on a hill. There's no way you're gonna find a level spot unless you come into the garage and my garage isn't that big. 
Justin Allen: Yeah. There's a lot of variables there, you know, and the only thing we can really try to lean into is whatever the OE said you're supposed to do.
Justin Allen: And so you have the vehicle's supposed to be level and you've got it out in a gravel parking lot and it's sloped into a ditch or something. That's not what they've said to do. I'm not sure that we can feel good about that in terms of doing our job to the best of our ability. So I'm not, you know, I don't, I'm sure I know plenty of mobile technicians and I'm sure some of 'em are doing an amazing job.
Justin Allen: And just like anything else, there might be some of 'em that are kind of shady about it. I don't know. But that's what we're here to do as an industry right. Is to lift each other up, help each other, get the right training and do a good job. 
Jimmy Lea: No, that's exactly what we're gonna do. We're gonna lock arms.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause as an industry, we can help each other to survive this storm. Yeah. Last question from last. You see that question here? He's talking about I'm reading that. Yeah. Yeah. Transmissions and knuckles. If those were to be removed, does it require an ADOS calibration? Yeah. 
Justin Allen: Great question, Lance. I would say the only reason I would think you would have to, well, you would, you'd look into that data.
Justin Allen: I love this, I love that, that we're getting questions from people that are curious about how would I even know if I was supposed to do it right? Yeah. Right. And that's what's been so wild about this stuff as of late. And if I was doing those changes, I know with those particular things, axles and knuckles and stuff, if I'm removing that stuff and putting it back in, I'm probably doing an alignment on it, right?
Justin Allen: Like if this, I'm imagining, I'm envisioning like a front wheel drive vehicle and I've got an engine cradle under there, support and all that stuff, and that cradle supports my lower control arms, I'm gonna need to do an alignment on it. So if that vehicle requires a calibration after an alignment, then yes, you would need to do it.
Justin Allen: You know, that's kind of what that bears down into. So in other words, replacing a axle by itself, does that call replacing a transmission by itself? Does that cause it? Not necessarily. But once you're gonna, if you're gonna do the alignment, which you should do because you did those other things, then yeah.
Justin Allen: If that vehicle calls for it, whether it's dynamic or static, you would definitely wanna recalibrate it. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yep. Well, super awesome. Justin. Thank you so much for your time, brother. It's so exciting to be together and to do our first webinar together. We've never before. My pleasure. 
Justin Allen: My pleasure.
Justin Allen: Jimmy. Yeah, and you came with so many good questions. And then what an honor to have people willing to listen in and ask questions as well. Thank you very much, everybody for that. Yep. 
Jimmy Lea: And we're gonna post this up. It's on Facebook, on YouTube, and of course on our website as well. So you've got questions, we've got answers.
Jimmy Lea: We just need you to ask first, and then we will barrel down that path. That's it. That's it. So if you find this information fascinating and interesting and awesome, and it helps you as a shop owner, or perhaps it asks more questions and provides more questions for you to ask, we'd love to connect.
Jimmy Lea: My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute. Following this brief outro, you'll see a QR code come up on the screen and for 30 seconds it'll be there. If you're interested to have an analysis of your business reviews, we let's connect. Let's look at your business. Let's look at your shop.
Jimmy Lea: What can we do to make it better, to build a better life, build a better business, therefore, a better industry? My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute. I look forward to connecting with you again soon. Thank you.

124 - From Wrenches to Leadership: How Culture, Systems, and Weekly Meetings Create a Shop That Works

124 - From Wrenches to Leadership: How Culture, Systems, and Weekly Meetings Create a Shop That Works
May 28th 2025 - 00:59:13
 
Show Summary:
In this inspiring episode, Jimmy Lea hosts Tim Chakarian and Johanna Reichert of Bimmer PhD in Pasadena, CA, as they open up about their journey from humble beginnings to building a thriving, purpose-driven auto repair business. Tim shares his roots from working in his uncle’s restaurant to becoming a BMW master tech, and how these experiences laid the groundwork for his leadership style. Johanna recounts her leap from the postal service to becoming a cornerstone of the business’s administrative and cultural success. Together, they explain how investing in leadership development, clear communication, and intentional culture-building turned their shop into a place people love to work. Their unique practices around team meetings, accountability, and recognition reveal how to create a business people feel proud to belong to.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Tim Chakarian, Owner of BIMMER PhD Motorsports
Johanna Reichert, Vice President at BIMMER PhD Motorsports
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:03:20] - Tim shares how his love for fixing things triumphed over family pressure to pursue other trades.
[00:05:22] - Restaurant experience gave Tim unexpected sales, management, and leadership training.
[00:08:03] - Tim’s 10 years at BMW taught him the critical importance of precision, mentorship, and attention to detail.
[00:13:34] - Johanna describes transitioning from USPS to becoming an integral part of the shop—starting with a terrifying first phone call.
[00:15:35] - Shop expansion forced Tim and Johanna to face the realities of leadership and begin shaping culture intentionally.
[00:17:13] - Leadership training transformed how they approach communication, staff development, and accountability.
[00:24:02] - Weekly meetings are structured around shared goals, technician performance metrics, and problem-solving.
[00:27:09] - Introduction of the “Actualizer” tool empowered team members to self-direct projects and own their responsibilities.
[00:43:33] - “Love it and Learn” rituals at weekly meetings foster camaraderie, gratitude, and internal recognition.
[00:54:01] - Tim and Johanna outline how mission, vision, and courageous hiring/firing decisions protect and nurture a strong culture.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdSELe--ljA
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening or goodnight, depending on when and where you're joining us from. It's a bright, beautiful day outside. Absolutely gorgeous. So excited to be here with you, my friends.
Jimmy Lea: And I agree you don't have to go this journey alone. We are gonna go with this journey together. It's a crazy storm out there. Not all the ships are created equal. Let's lock arms together and make sure nobody's left behind. 'cause together we can make this happen. We've got a phenomenal conversation gonna happen today about your shop, about your business, about your company, about your people, your staff, your technicians, your service advisors, your managers, your parts people, all of the people inside of your shop, including you.
Jimmy Lea: Joining today in our conversation, and if you've got questions, go ahead and type them into the comment section. Joining us for our conversation today is Tim, Ian and Joanna from Bimmer PhD in Pasadena, California. Some really good friends. They have a phenomenal shop. They have a phenomenal program. And I'm just super excited that we are gonna have this discussion today.
Jimmy Lea: Tim's here. Joanna's here. Thank you so much for being here. You guys. Good morning. How are you? 
Tim Chakarian: We're good. Thank you for having us. We're excited to be here. 
Jimmy Lea: It's a pleasure to be here. Nice. Oh yes. That's gonna be interesting. You guys are in the same room, aren't you? 
Intro: Yes. Oh, that's you. 
Jimmy Lea: We will figure this out and we will make it work.
Jimmy Lea: So, phenomenal. Tim and Joanna came to our summit conference in Amelia Island, Florida. What did you guys think of the conference? Awesome. Yeah. That was top notch, wasn't it? Phenomenal speakers. It's really good. Yeah. Phenomenal speakers that were there. It was just absolutely amazing. And so, gosh, dang, Tim you gave such a great presentation talking about your company culture and what it is that you've done.
Jimmy Lea: I, I wanna weave in your story first to talk about the history. Like when you started, when it is Joanna joined the team. When you moved up, when you, I wanna I wanna document this for posterity. That's my history channel moment here. Tim, how did you get started in the automotive aftermarket? 
Tim Chakarian: It was interesting because 
Jimmy Lea: you see that's a big old long breath.
Jimmy Lea: A big old si out. Well, 
Tim Chakarian: no, actually I'm gathering my thoughts, I'm gathering my thoughts. Usually it's just like a barrage of thoughts coming out. But I got started in automotive industry when I wanted, I had a passion for fixing cars growing up, always fixed cars, and my parents tried to deter me from being a mechanic technician as it were.
Tim Chakarian: So they got me involved with my family that taught me the pool business, the construction business, the restaurant business. But ultimately I, I loved taking things apart. I love fixing things. I love making 'em better. So, when we moved back up from to San Diego after I spent several years working at my uncle's restaurant business you know, I went to West Valley Occupational.
Tim Chakarian: I wanted to get certified. And I applied at every dealer I could. And BMW picked me up in Westlake, about 45 minute drive from my house, and I was super excited because that was, oh, Johanna's joining me here, they want me to, all right. So, and that, that was the start of it. I was so excited to be working at A BMW dealer that I didn't realize the possibilities and where it would lead me today, but.
Tim Chakarian: Ultimately I was happy to be working at a dealer, consistent income. They were gonna teach me and mentor me. I had some tire experience beforehand. In high school. I took auto shop. I stunk at all the other classes, but auto shop, metal shop and wood shop. I got an A in and
Jimmy Lea: yeah, very tactile, right?
Jimmy Lea: I mean, you get to touch stuff, you get to do things. Oh yeah. Okay, well now I gotta pause for a moment here. Let's rewind just a second. You worked at a restaurant. What did you do in the restaurant? 
Tim Chakarian: Since it was my uncle's restaurant, he didn't wanna have any kind of favoritism, so he started me from the bottom.
Tim Chakarian: I started out as a buser and I had to do all the menial chores, like cleaning and, you know, sweeping and catering after people. Seeding people. Yeah. And finally I worked my way learning the menu and learning what the. What we pitched, what we sold as it were as a server. Love, love it. And then from a server, I worked my way to managing the servers so I can understand whose shifts did what, when was the busy time, when was the slow time how to move people around and who, what, what happens when people don't show up to work?
Tim Chakarian: And eventually when my uncle went on vacation for two weeks, I got to. Order food and control the kitchen. And I thought, oh my God, this is huge. But what I didn't know at the time, and they say everything happens for a reason, is life was preparing me for what lay ahead, which is owning the business today.
Tim Chakarian: And the customer service people business 
Jimmy Lea: works. Yes. Oh, and you know what I just heard there was you had sales training. You had sales training, this is what we pitched, this is what we want to have. You had to study the menu, then you had management training, and then you got some leadership training. And then it was like business ownership training where you're having to order all the inventory and all those things.
Jimmy Lea: I love it. What kind of restaurant was it? 
Tim Chakarian: Being Armenian. It was our Armenian restaurant. It was called the Armenian Cafe, and we had kebabs and chicken and salads and humus and, you know. And,
Jimmy Lea: did you ever 
Tim Chakarian: cook? Were you ever chef? No. I'm I can cook here and there, but if you like your food chard, then let me cook it.
Jimmy Lea: Well, we, you know, when you do chard, it takes out all the calories, so then you can eat whatever you want. 
Tim Chakarian: Johanna's a much better cook. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Well, very good. Well, and are you cooking Armenian as well, Johanna? 
Johanna Reichert: You know what I do? I do try some dishes, but there's some things I won't try because I know I'll never live up to his mother's cooking when it comes to that.
Johanna Reichert: And I'll leave that. That's hard. But I do some simple dishes and it's really good. It's healthier food too, so it's, I like that. 
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. Rocky took me out to dinner and we went and had some Armenian food f phenomenal amazing. Life changing. It was so good. I just can't wait to do it again.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. From there onto BMW. You're working at the dealership you're a tech, you're doing tires, you're doing the whole thing. At how long were you at the BMW dealership? 
Tim Chakarian: I spent about 10 years there. When I first came in, I came in as an apprentice, and that's really what I liked is because I'm not gonna lie, I was intimidated.
Tim Chakarian: You know, BMWs are complex and you know, they have electrical issues 
Jimmy Lea: and 
Tim Chakarian: so I was very blessed to go into a mentoring program with the shop foreman. And I basically became the shop foreman's pet. And whatever he told me to do, I would do. And let me tell you, he was not easy on me, Jimmy. I mean, I got my butt handed to me one day because it was 10 Newton meters, not 10 pounds.
Tim Chakarian: And you know the difference between 10 Newton meters and 10 foot pounds? 
Jimmy Lea: I don't, but it sounds metric in standard. 
Tim Chakarian: Three foot pounds and you would've thought it was the end of the world. 'cause I tightened the gasket. But the, what I learned at that time, or what I learned now that at the time I was getting my tooth handed to me was three pounds.
Tim Chakarian: Is the difference between the gasket lasting 80,000 miles and the customer having reliability and you doing the job again a year or two or three years down the line. Oh my gosh, isn't amazing. So attention to detail was the bottom line. The attention to detail, that is it.
Johanna Reichert: Yeah, he started in 99 when the dealerships were a little bit different than they are these days. They had an apprenticeship program and I think that was key because you know, they're willing to take on people and to train them and to give them a mentor. I feel like they don't do that these days, which is actually in our.
Johanna Reichert: Our advantage because it helps us to make a better shop culture and a better culture for people coming into the industry. 'cause you can't, it's very difficult to just, you know, leave school and go straight into a dealership and be able to hold your own and not feel overwhelmed or not have them just kind of, you know, treat you like a number basically.
Johanna Reichert: So he was actually fortunate to get in when they were less like that. And so they did. Yeah. You know, I'm sure they treat a little bit like a number, honey, but, you know, they gave him a mentor. They gave him somebody to train him and teach him and pass along their skills to him.
Johanna Reichert: And so he really did benefit from that because of when he started. 'cause in that day and age, that was, you know, a little bit more normal than it, than, it's not normal these days for I feel dealerships to, to give their younger tech mentors and people to look up to and to train them and to teach them their experience.
Tim Chakarian: They don't, yeah, the. I worked my way from being a certified tech to a diagnostic tech to being a master tech. And when I finally was a master tech at a local dealer here they gave me an apprentice and I was so excited to be mentoring somebody else. And they're like, in 90 days he's going on the line and fixing cars.
Tim Chakarian: And I was like, 90 days. I was an apprentice for 18 months and I still didn't know Jack. So in today's era now. Recently they have kind of changed and understood that, you know, these guys are not successful. They're not setting them up for success. They're actually setting them up for failure. So finally, after all these years, they're going back to a mentoring program where somebody does watch over them, but it's not the same it doesn't have the same personal touch.
Tim Chakarian: And I'm sure we're gonna get into that, but that's was the growth part. You know, if we're looking at it from the time where I was at the dealership, that was a growth part. The part that had meaning for me was always worked under Mark, or I always worked under Steve. You know, Steve was a, he wasn't as old as Mark, he was closer to my age.
Tim Chakarian: But man, that kid could fix anything. He could weld brackets, solve problems, ac, so it was like. This dude's my idol, you know? And years later you progress and learn from that. You go to another dealer, you find another mentor, somebody else that takes you under their wing. And all of these experiences help build beliefs.
Tim Chakarian: Beliefs that we can do this, we can tackle anything. And, you know, guiding it into what we're learning today, those experiences, those truth tapes. Those are what built the foundation, the second foundation of what I'm experiencing to be able to mentor others in my shop. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. You got such a solid foundation there working at BMW and then at some point you, with that solid foundation, you decided, oh, you know what?
Jimmy Lea: I want to go and create my own. And so you opened up a shop. And how long of you being on your own with a bucket and a wrench and a phone and a computer, are you doing this on your own that Joanna joins the team? Because I know that there was a time period that she was doing the after hours books and then finally came on to the full-time.
Jimmy Lea: What does that look like? 
Johanna Reichert: About six months. 
Tim Chakarian: Yeah, about six months. I had left the dealership and I was doing everything on my own. We, I rented a, an 1800 square foot back shop and I opened the door, I dropped the customer off, I picked up the parts, I washed the car, I did everything myself. And it was only a matter of time until, you know, there's so much, these two hands can get done in one eight hour.
Tim Chakarian: Oh yeah. At the time, Johanna was still she was a mail carrier at the post office, so she said, you know what? I believe in you. I'll take care of the bills at home. You just concentrate on building the business and, you know, do what you need to do. And yeah, there's we had one weekend we had gone dirt bike riding and she did a wheelie on the trail and bashed up her knee.
Tim Chakarian: And after that she got some time off from the post office and, so she said, you know what, we're always talking on the phone. Why don't I come help you out in the shop? And I was like, perfect. So she came, thank you. Started answering the phones, helping me with the paperwork and you know, you wanna tell about your very first experience of answering the phone?
Tim Chakarian: My first 
Johanna Reichert: phone experience? Yeah. And I'm. I'm not an extrovert. I know you know me fairly well, so it doesn't seem like that, but I'm a little shy and a little bit quiet and kind of to myself when it, when I first meet people, so Tim's like, I need to answer the phone. And I was like, I don't know how to answer the phone.
Johanna Reichert: And he's like, just pick it up and say PhD. And I literally, I picked up the phone and I froze and I went, I can't. I put it on hold and I handed it to Tim, like the customer must have thought I was crazy, but I literally like, I can't do this. And then I gave it back to him. But now you would have no idea that was my beginning.
Johanna Reichert: In the shop. I, now you, yeah there's a night and day difference, but I just have to get used to things and acclimate myself to them to become more confident with them. 
Tim Chakarian: Now she trains all of our new guys and our service advisors on our outline of how to answer the phone. You know, thanks for calling Bemer PhD.
Tim Chakarian: This is Johanna who may have the pleasure of speaking with, and that way we can start engaging on the relationship part of it. But yeah, I mean, you love, you gotta start somewhere and all these. You know, inexperiences are part of the journey of who they build, the character of who we are today and how the future looks in our industry from, based upon the experiences and the lessons that you've had in life.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, for so, so for sure. So, so you've had this great trail. You come together, you're building the business. You're now hiring more people, more technicians coming in. At what point did you discover, oh my gosh, we need to work on our culture.
Tim Chakarian: The culture I think came from when, so from the backdrop, our landlord came up to us what about two and a half years into it and said, Hey, you know what the front building was a parts house and it was about a 3,400 square foot. Square building. It had parts in it and the guy had been there 25 years.
Tim Chakarian: So, when Albert retired the landlord came up to me and said, you're so busy back here that you have to take both buildings or move out. Go get another shop. And it was like, whoa. Oh my gosh. Another huge milestone in our lives. Right? So 
Jimmy Lea: it was a big 
Tim Chakarian: gulp. Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely. But you know, every time life throws you lemons, you make lemonade.
Tim Chakarian: So that's what we did. We built the front shop. We added three lifts. We made the, we built an office for ourselves. We built a waiting area, put windows in so that the clients can see inside. And now we had to fill it with some bodies. And unfortunately, I. I was not a people person at the time, you know, and I tell the story of I got into cars because I love fixing cars, but I didn't really like people 'cause the car did what I wanted it to do versus 
Johanna Reichert: car doesn't talk back.
Tim Chakarian: Car doesn't talk back. I used to say, right. Occasionally they do, but Right. But what a long ways from, you know, today I understand it's about the people. Yeah, I can fix the car. But it's more about the people now. Yeah. 
Johanna Reichert: I think we learned along the way that, just jumping into this from being a mail carrier and a technician and really knowing nothing about leadership and running a business, which happens quite a lot with shop owners.
Johanna Reichert: It's usually just a technician or a service advisor who decided that they can do it better than the dealer did, and so they kind of jump in with both feet, which, you know, it's a lot of bravery, but there's a lot that you don't know and you don't know that you don't know it. So when we first started up the shop, I don't think we had a bad culture, but I don't think anyone really knew anything about it.
Johanna Reichert: And then, you know, being a shop owner, you get, you have frustrations throughout the day and you're the one worried about the finances and making the ends meet. And so you can be stressed out and you can. Can, your attitude and your mind frame can bleed into the staff and you don't even really realize it because you're kind of caught in your own world.
Johanna Reichert: And so we just kind of started realizing from feedback from, you know, our staff that maybe the way we were handling things and dealing with things personally. Because, you know, it's hard to work together, live together, do everything together, just constantly be around each other. It's not I don't think we were meant to do that.
Johanna Reichert: So, you know, that can take a toll on you if you don't know how to handle it correctly. It can affect things. So, we started taking leadership training. We started taking management training. We started taking any kind of training that we could possibly find which I feel like maybe five, 10 years ago that wasn't as readily available.
Johanna Reichert: It was all technician training and service advisor training, which don't get me wrong. We did find the service advisor training very beneficial. One of our first technical trainings was when Cecil was working with worldpac and he had the Service Advisor Academy, and we took his class two clients and we got so much out of it, not just for service advising, but you know, he talked about personality types and things like that.
Johanna Reichert: Now granted, he talked about that when it came to customers, but that's also applicable when you're dealing with employees, learning what kind of personality type you are what kind of people you're dealing with. So how to 
Tim Chakarian: communicate with those personalities. Yeah. So I think 
Johanna Reichert: that's kind of where we started to realize that, use some of that information in the shop as well and try and benefit that.
Johanna Reichert: I used to tell Tim we would go to summits and, you know, trainings and I used to tell him, look at what we did by accident. Imagine what we can do with actual proper training. And so yeah, I think that's where we started realizing, start building a culture, start building a place where people actually want to work because you know, I used to work at the post office, and don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad job, but you had service, not service advisors, supervisors who were who had mine, not my power trips.
Johanna Reichert: And you know, they just loved having the power. And you were just like, dude, I don't wanna deal with this. I just wanna go and do my job and enjoy myself and go home and have a good life. I don't want to have stress and. Dread going into work and dealing with certain personalities and certain people and all that.
Johanna Reichert: So you kind of start realizing in your own workplaces. Now we're creating a. You know, these people, sorry, we're creating this atmosphere. People are coming in and Yes, and working for us. We're creating jobs and lives for these people to have incomes and live in California, which is not easy. And have families and, you know, have homes and things along those lines.
Johanna Reichert: And I don't want them to be miserable coming in to do it. So we want, our main thing now is that we really want people to enjoy working here and create a really good comradery. And so we've done a lot of 
Jimmy Lea: different 
Johanna Reichert: things to kind of get into that, but I'm sure you're gonna ask us about that down the line.
Jimmy Lea: And that's gonna be my next question here. So, but first I wanna say thank you for pointing out, look what we did by accident, but imagine what we could do on purpose. I. Focus. 
Johanna Reichert: I've said that to him multiple times. Back in the day, I was just shocked. Like I, I was shocked because I was proud of the fact that we had done so well and it really was accidentally, I mean, it was through a whole lot of hard work, but it was without knowledge.
Johanna Reichert: Right? It was without having the pre knowledge of, Hey, I went and got an MBA in business, or, you know, whatever. We didn't have any of that. And yet we were, you know, we were being pretty successful and we were, we created seven jobs for other people other than ourselves. There's nine, including Tim and myself.
Johanna Reichert: So that's something to be pretty proud of. And we did it completely without any kind of education. So imagine, you know, with a little bit more education and training, imagine how much better we can be. 
Jimmy Lea: I love it. Okay, so now you get this training. Now you're going down this road of purpose. We're gonna do this on purpose.
Jimmy Lea: We're gonna create this culture on purpose. What are those five elements, those five pillars that you've identified, Tim, that, or Joanna, that you guys work on in your shop? What are those five pillars? I. 
Tim Chakarian: Well, I think it starts with leadership, right? Everything rises and falls with leadership. So understanding, like Johanna said, the mindset that we're in before we come to work, are we in that positive mindset?
Tim Chakarian: Are we solution-based and can we have a positive influence on the team? Starts with you, and I wasn't necessarily. Trained on that until we started going into the groups program and seeing how other shops are doing it and seeing the success, seeing how you can actually implement this. Because again, being text textile, hand driven, textile.
Tim Chakarian: Textile, thank you. That I have to see it in the works. Right. So, yeah. Now I understood. Okay, cool. In order to have a productive team, I need to be having meetings. I need to be getting experiences out and teaching them this is the right way, this is the wrong way, instead of putting it on them and expecting them to know, right?
Tim Chakarian: Everybody wants that perfect tech. The heavens are gonna open and the perfect child is gonna fall out of the sky and he is gonna know every single thing about cars and BMWs. It ain't gonna happen. You have to grow. That is not gonna happen. And the way to do that is to constantly have clear goals.
Tim Chakarian: The way we have clear goals, clear definitions, is to meet with people regularly, you know, have a weekly meeting. So we started implementing the weekly meeting, and I didn't know what to talk about in the weekly meeting, so we're like, so how was your week? What did you do? What's, you know, what's going on?
Tim Chakarian: And then we started learning, oh God, there's an outline of things we should be talking about. 
Johanna Reichert: We joined a few boards too. We just, we joined some voluntary boards for associations in California, the A-S-C-C-A, and we got to see how a meeting's run. And then Tim's like, well, why don't we take the agenda that we have from the board meeting and try to kind of use it as a template.
Johanna Reichert: In our meeting with the shop. And then that way, instead of just, Hey guys, what's going on this week? Oh, I don't know. What do you think? What's going on? You know, nobody has anything to add because they don't know what the structure is. So Tim's like, finally structure. And at first I was like, oh man, more work.
Johanna Reichert: But then we, you know, we just kind of made a little template of like a manager's report and an administrator's report and a service advisor's report and a technician's report, and then it's just kind of, it kind of grew from there. So like it 
Jimmy Lea: evolved. 
Johanna Reichert: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, Tim would share. What he feels is going on.
Johanna Reichert: And then our service advisor who turned into our service manager, he we share the numbers every week with our guys. Like, how do we do last week? What was our sales? What was our average repair order? Did we meet our goal? You know, just the numbers of everything that goes on for the week.
Johanna Reichert: And then the technicians like to see, you know, who got better productivity. We pass around a little report and they all like to look at their hours and see who got you know, who got hours and which ones. And it's a friendly competition. I've never seen anybody get upset or frustrated with anybody.
Johanna Reichert: It's always just kind of done and fun. And so, you know, we, they enjoy seeing that and seeing how they're doing and seeing if the goals are being met. And that helps. And then, you know, I'll it's a good place to say, Hey, what's needed in the shop? Is there a piece of equipment that's broken down or needs maintenance, or we need to bring in somebody to work on it.
Johanna Reichert: Is there a shop supply that we've run out of? Is there something that we're not aware of that needs attention? And then that actually grew from, from just verbally doing it. And then we'd write it down on the agenda and then we'd forget about it till the next week. 'cause we'd get busy and then we'd look at the agenda and go, oh crap, we didn't do this.
Johanna Reichert: We said we needed to do it. So then we evolve that. Do you wanna talk about the action? 
Tim Chakarian: Yeah. And then also in the groups program with the Gear Performance Groups program we're in. We hold each other accountable in that program. Right. Our awesome group facilitator is Jennifer Holbert and man, she is on top of it.
Tim Chakarian: She's, 
Johanna Reichert: when I grow up, I wanna be Jennifer. Yeah. 
Tim Chakarian: She is just absolutely amazing and we learn so much from her, from Erin, from the other shops in our groups, and we learn to hold each other accountable. And how we do that is we use a platform that the institute has that's called, that's the institute's created, called the Actualizer.
Tim Chakarian: What do you wanna accomplish? Who do you wanna accomplish it with? By when do you want to accomplish it? And what is the status of that? So we started implementing that not only in our groups program, but also in the shop what needs to be fixed. 
Johanna Reichert: We asked permission first. 
Tim Chakarian: Of course. And so, oh yeah.
Tim Chakarian: And recently, Kent has created one specifically for shops, for those in the groups program. So now we can go ahead and our team puts down what we need to accomplish by when do we need to do it? Who's in charge of that, and when is it gonna be done by? What's the progress? It's not meant to say, why didn't you do it, but more so not to have that, oh, I showed up to a meeting not doing what I need to do.
Tim Chakarian: Because you do that once or twice and your self-motivation, your self-accountability now kicks in and you go, all right, well, I don't wanna let my team down. I don't wanna let my members down. I don't wanna let my boss down. More importantly, I don't wanna let myself down. I wanna build self-confidence, you know, so that I know I can accomplish the things that I set to accomplish.
Tim Chakarian: And that gives me the dopamines, the feel goods. 
Johanna Reichert: You know what I love is that at first, you know, it started with us, right? We're the ones like, Hey, we should start doing this. And then, you know, they were open to it. They didn't resist us, but it wasn't theirs. They didn't own it. So it was like, okay, we'll go along with it and kind of see how it goes.
Johanna Reichert: So then, right, I'm along 
Jimmy Lea: for the ride. I'll buy a ticket. Yeah. Okay. I'm in. Yeah, 
Johanna Reichert: exactly. And then what? So we used it for the first quarter. Then when the second quarter came along, it was getting long, so I was like, maybe we should make a second one for a second quarter. So I made one for the second quarter, so it was a little bit shorter 'cause all the things that were done, we didn't need to worry about that anymore.
Johanna Reichert: So I made one for the second quarter and then now what I love is we've had something that's been on our agenda for, a couple weeks that we haven't gotten to. And then my my shop foreman in training goes, Hey, you know, I think we should add this to the actualizer now. And I was like, yes, I love it.
Johanna Reichert: Go for it. Like it's, I dunno why we didn't think about it. Like we didn't think, oh, maybe we should add it to the action. We keep talking about it but not doing it. And he was like, Hey, I think it's time we add this to the actualizer. And in my head I was like, go James. Like that's what I wanna hear. I want you to be, to start thinking about you know, this is what we should be doing.
Johanna Reichert: This is how we do it. We're not doing this the way you've taught us to do it, and that we've now all got accustomed to doing so, hey, why don't we do that? So it's like, awesome. So now even our team's holding us accountable when we forget the process or we don't always follow the process and that's when you know you're doing a good job and everybody's on board and everybody's bought in because now they're starting to tell you, Hey, this is what we do.
Johanna Reichert: Why don't we do that? It's like, oh, great. Like. I love it. Let's do it. So we did, and I just remember being really impressed by that that he just, on his own, he was like, Hey, we should probably add this to the actualizer. 
Jimmy Lea: Thank you, James. That's amazing. I, to reiterate what you're saying, if you're not having company meetings with purpose, you are having company beatings by accident, not on purpose.
Jimmy Lea: Because those company meetings, you've got an agenda, you've got the actualizer. If you're not, when do you have company meetings? When there's a problem? When there's an issue. So it's a beating, it's not a meeting, it's a beating. And they walk away depressed and disappointed. You've created that environment where they feel safe, they feel a part of the team, and James has that input to say, Hey, you know what, Johanna?
Jimmy Lea: We really should add that. Yeah. So this, 
Johanna Reichert: and he got scared to say that, right? He knows that this is how we do it, this is what we should be doing. 
Tim Chakarian: Jimmy, this was one of the points that Dr. Jessica Kringle brought out at the summit, and that really hit home because I was able to build confidence in what we were doing.
Tim Chakarian: So, so far we've talked about leadership and accountability with the owners, right? We've talked about conducting and having regular meetings that are not time wasting, that are productive. Now comes problem solving, right? Okay, so here's the problem. What are the challenges that we have? What are the solutions and our goals?
Tim Chakarian: And what this is doing is it's building a pyramid. And the pyramid is the experiences that we're having. Again the stories that we're telling that is allowing the staff and ourselves to have those beliefs. This is our vision and mission. This is how we do it. So when we don't align our actions with that, we go back and understand what was our mission, what was our vision?
Tim Chakarian: We were trying to build something that made an impactful difference that was educational and had a excellent result, because that's what we're driven for, right? Fueled by passion, driven to excel is one of our mission statements. Yeah. Oh, I love 
Jimmy Lea: it. 
Tim Chakarian: Quality without compromise is one of our mission statements.
Tim Chakarian: So is the actions that we're as a team producing align with that? If they do, now you have buy-in from the staff, right? So you have the stories, the experiences, you have the beliefs, aligning up our beliefs and the team's beliefs together. Now you have an action. That action can now produce a result once you're able to produce a result.
Tim Chakarian: I think magic happens. They start doing it on their own because now they're self-motivated. I'm not holding, you know, I'm not probing 'em as it were to say, why didn't you do this? Or Why isn't this done on time? You know, it's more like, did we do this? If not, what can I do to help you with that? Is there something that I can help you achieve?
Tim Chakarian: Those goals that we set out together. 
Jimmy Lea: All right. I've got a question. Sure, go ahead. I've got a question about your company meetings. You're having a company meeting once a week, is that right? 
Tim Chakarian: Yes. 
Jimmy Lea: On Wednesday. Is this a Wednesday meeting? 
Tim Chakarian: Yes, that's a Wednesday. Meetings. We shut down the gate closes, you know, the phones go offline.
Tim Chakarian: We don't do anything when a customer walks in, you know, obviously we have the door open for parts deliveries, our front door, and we just let 'em know. Sure. Put parts down on the counter right there. If a client walks in, they automatically walk in and they're like, there's a big screen and they're doing something and everybody's together.
Tim Chakarian: So they're like, oh, did we miss something? And we just kindly tell 'em yeah, we're having a quick staff meeting. Go ahead and leave your keys or your phone number and we'll get right back to you afterward. The purpose of that is to let them know how important this meeting is to us, because that's hundred percent's the foundation of how we build the good customer service, the good teamwork that we're able to provide them afterward.
Jimmy Lea: I totally agree. I love that. So if you're having the meetings once a week, do you also have any sort of a standup meeting and by standup meetings, these are five minutes. You bring the team on the daily, do you have any daily checks, pulse checks with the team? That the team all comes together? Or is it the company meetings on Wednesdays?
Tim Chakarian: No, the daily checks, so we started with eight o'clock James, our junior shop foreman. He'll, when he gets here early, he'll check with Kevin, our service manager to see what's on the agenda for the docket for today. How many appointments are coming in? Are they jobs? Which jobs should be going to which technician?
Tim Chakarian: We've got two level a technicians. We've got a level B technician. We've got a C technician and an apprentice that's all five of the guys in the back. So he'll kind of de decide how the day looks, and then they'll do a check in again at about 11 o'clock. So in the morning it's a, who's gonna get what job?
Tim Chakarian: Delegation, 11 o'clock. Now comes the check-in. Did we get the diagnosis or the testing and analysis done? Are we on point? Because now advisor one's gonna go to lunch at 12. Advisor two's gonna go to lunch at one, everybody comes back. We even during the week, the guys know to shut down. At 12 o'clock, everybody stops working except for the one person answering phones.
Tim Chakarian: And then from there at two o'clock is our next check-in. So eight o'clock, 11 o'clock, two o'clock. And then finally at four o'clock, are we on point to be able to get this car out Because they built role in the shop, 
Jimmy Lea: The eight o'clock, 11 o'clock, two o'clock. Those aren't company meetings. That's quick standups.
Tim Chakarian: Five minute check-ins. Are we on point? Did we hit our mark? Did you put it to a status change? Are you gonna be ready to pass the baton off to the next individual, which is gonna close out the paperwork and make sure that the quality control inspection is done? All the check marks love are identified. If there's a repair that the client didn't buy, did it go into the CRM?
Tim Chakarian: Did it go into what is lost sales? And now the system is gonna reach back out to the client 'cause that's very important. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, that is important. Now to Jason's question, so I was building up here because I was inquiring for myself to Jason's question, which is you have these, he started doing weekly meetings with his technicians on Monday mornings.
Jimmy Lea: How long are your weekly meetings? You guys do lunch? 
Johanna Reichert: We do lunch. We purchase lunch. So per an hour? Yeah, it's an hour. We have one of our, our second service advisor kind of headed out. He figures out what everybody wants to eat. We have a budget of $15 per person, and we figure out where everybody wants to eat, and then we will order it, go pick it up and have lunch at noon.
Johanna Reichert: And it usually goes from noon to one o'clock. And the first 15 minutes we'll spend obviously on eating. And what we'll do is we will choose some kind of training video. One the the tips from the institute were super helpful. We would watch the tips quite often when we went through all of them.
Johanna Reichert: So actually we went through all of 'em and then we kind of went back and listened to a few of 'em that we felt were really good to kind of go over. 
Tim Chakarian: Technician, time management. Yeah. Communication between advisors. This is really the time where the owner let the put your CEO hat on and say, okay, if I'm the owner of this business, how do I wanna cultivate the team mindset?
Tim Chakarian: And this is now how you can use that to mold your team for the first 15 minutes. Because now it's, we call it, it's part of lunch and learn. Right. So 15, 20 minutes. Yeah, we learned. What we're gonna be educating ourselves on. And then we'll go ahead and start the meeting agenda. And it's, we try to keep it to about an hour max 15, I'm a little bit of a chatter, so 
Johanna Reichert: Tim sometimes goes over, give or 
Tim Chakarian: take 15 minutes, 
Johanna Reichert: but that first 15 minutes we do the training so everybody can eat and not have to worry about talking.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Yeah. That way they're listening. They're watching, they're listening. They can eat. To Jason's question, would you be willing to share your meeting agenda? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. 
Tim Chakarian: As a matter of fact, I sent a I did a follow up from the last from the summit. There's a quick little video that I created. I'm gonna be putting it on. You saw that as to how to do the meeting, how to set it up, and then there was another one that we created that was 28 minutes. That really had the entire meeting recorded. I, now, I regret not having the lovetts and learns on there because the Lovetts and learns have become my absolute favorite part of the meeting.
Tim Chakarian: Tammy, I think 
Johanna Reichert: it's everybody's favorite part. 
Jimmy Lea: Then we need to record one of those. 
Johanna Reichert: Ha, yeah, definitely. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay, so now to Betty's question. She's asking why are you doing your meetings on a Wednesday? Shouldn't it be like a Monday or a Friday type of deal? What why did you choose Wednesday? Which I'm inquiring as well.
Tim Chakarian: Good question. Wednesday's a good middle point because we want self-accountability. So if we have it on Monday, you kind of lose that steam, as it were. So from Wednesday to Wednesday gives you enough time because when you come in on Monday. It's a written agenda. You know what you ought to be doing.
Tim Chakarian: So when I come in on Monday as an owner, I know these are my management and marketing things. I gotta do Management Mondays, marketing Mondays as an owner, this is what I gotta do. So if I'm acting this way, then the staff is acting this way as well. So they go, okay, cool. What did I, what promise did I make on the last Wednesday meeting that on Monday I gotta start acting on.
Tim Chakarian: On Tuesday, if I, let's say I'm offbeat, right? Monday. Monday I did. I wasn't on point on Monday. Now I have Tuesday to be able to go, oh yeah, I said I was gonna run to Home Depot and get X, Y, and Z, right? Because when Wednesday comes now, you gotta have committed to what you're doing. Oh, by the way, we don't conduct the whole meeting.
Tim Chakarian: We have our, James our shop foreman. He is the secretary as it were. So he'll start the meeting on time. We have a timekeeper who keeps the time, and then you'll, he'll give a I'll do a operations and managers report. Johanna will do an administrator and HR safety report, and then he'll go back to James.
Tim Chakarian: Then he'll switch it on over to. Kevin, who's our service manager, and Kevin's basically he go, goes over the financials, Hey guys, this was our goal for last week. Like Johanna said, what was our gross profit? Dollar per hour. What's our a RO? You know, how are we doing? Who needs assistance to do what?
Tim Chakarian: We use the dashboard of the institute to understand where our numbers are. Johanna and I set the goals at the beginning of the month, and then the staff weekly works towards achieving that goal. So Wednesday gives you a good middle point to make sure to stay on your schedule, stay on point so that you can get to what you need to, and it still gives them the freedom without us having to micromanage and, you know, get all into their business.
Tim Chakarian: Self-accountability. Yeah. 
Johanna Reichert: To, oh, I love that. A better answer. Betty's question too. Wednesday works for us. It gives Kevin time to put the numbers together. Mondays are usually super busy for us. Fridays are really busy for us, so I feel like if we try to put a meeting in on a Monday maybe, but Friday it would just be disastrous 'cause there's so much going on Fridays.
Johanna Reichert: Everybody wants their car back before the end of the weekend. So that would just be, for us, it would be too difficult. But I would say. Do whatever works best for your shop? Our shop does run a little bit differently than a lot of shops we're very heavy on upsells and keeping cars in for a little bit more than a day.
Johanna Reichert: We're, we don't often like, get you in, get you out immediately 'cause. You know, we do inspections. We try to let you know what's going on with your car. We try to see if we can get you know, upsells and things along those lines. So, a lot of times we have cars in for multiple days. So we're not an In-N-Out shop, so I feel like In-N-Out shops it might be a little bit easier to do a different day.
Johanna Reichert: This just works out for our shop. So I would say kind of see what works out best for your shop. It's just kind of how it works for us, but I'd say check out and see how your workflow goes and everything, and then kind of choose accordingly from there. 
Jimmy Lea: I was gonna a hundred percent say exactly what you just did.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you, Joanna. What works for your shop? That's exactly it. Wednesdays work for you, Betty. Maybe for you it might be a Monday or it might be a Friday, who knows? Yeah. For Bimmer PhD it's Wednesday. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tim Chakarian: And Jimmy, we can use this as a tool as well. I'll give you a quick example of it. When we were hiring Jesse, our second service advisor.
Tim Chakarian: We tried something a little bit different this time. You know, we do have a, motto in, in the shop. We hire together, we train together, we fire together. You know, so we all do everything for each other. One, one for all and all for one. Love it. So when we're attracting you talent for example, you know, Jesse applied with us.
Tim Chakarian: He was working at the local BMW dealer. I wanted him to come meet the team, right? So we invited him for our Wednesday meeting so he can see how our. Team meshes together how we play together, how we get along, and he came in and I introduced him to the team. The techs got to meet him. So it's not like this.
Tim Chakarian: Who's this new guy that the owner hired? Are you gonna take my job? Who's getting fired? Blah, blah, blah. It eliminates all of that because it now shows how united and the culture that we have, what is acceptable, what is not acceptable. So it starts acclimating from day one, new hires, and believe me, from the work environment that we see around us.
Tim Chakarian: It's 180 degree difference, and it was like after the meeting, I got a text message from Jesse that said, when do I start? 
Jimmy Lea: Right. That's the only question. I mean, it 
Tim Chakarian: just shows, you know, how strong the culture is when you work at building it together. And we're not shy. If you're new to our team, you know you're gonna do a love it and learn as well.
Johanna Reichert: Yeah, I usually ask somebody who's visiting. We have a lot of shops ask if they can send their service advisors, their managers, their, you know, kind of their higher up people, key players. Yeah. Yeah. They will actually act often or even themselves. We have a lot of shop owners that will come and visit with us.
Johanna Reichert: And they'll come for a Wednesday meeting and we just include them. We get them lunch as well, and we kind of show them what we do and they're usually blown away. So we, that happens quite often. Yeah. I dunno why I started that, but it's been useful. People really find it to be. Very useful to their shops too.
Jimmy Lea: Are you asking the guests to give the lunch and learn as well? Yes. 
Johanna Reichert: Yes. Oh, absolutely. You ask them, I say, Hey, I don't wanna put you on the spot. Thank you for reminding me. I say, Hey I don't wanna put you on the spot, but this is what we do. So let me explain the love and learns, 'cause we kind of talked about it but not really explained it.
Johanna Reichert: So we like to end the meeting on something, not that it's not positive, but something really positive. Right? Something fun. So, Tim actually started it out and so basically we like them to tell us one thing that they loved about the prior week and one thing that they've learned in the prior week.
Johanna Reichert: And at first we would just do it verbally and everybody was really uncomfortable because nobody had time to think about it. And then we'd be like, oh no, like, who wants to go first? And nobody would want to go first because we'd be like who's think who could think of something quickly enough? And then some people would be like, I can't think of anything.
Johanna Reichert: And it was, I remember I would always feel on the spot 'cause I would have a hard time thinking of something. So then what we changed it to is we would have them, we would give 'em a slip of paper and it says. Your name, love it. Love form, love it. And learn and just write down your love it and learn before the meeting.
Johanna Reichert: That way you don't have to worry about coming up with something at the meeting. And then I wanted to make it a little bit more fun and I thought, well, how about we, well, two things. I wanted to make it more fun. Number one, I thought it would be nice to recognize somebody for doing something good in the shop.
Johanna Reichert: Yeah. So we now it's love it and learn and recognition. So I add an extra line recognition. So if somebody you know, you're a technician and you're having a hard time diagnosing something, and another technician came in and said. Hey, what about this and this? Why don't you try this? And gave him a little clue or gave him some advice or helped him to diagnose it?
Johanna Reichert: Well, he may say, Hey, I wanna recognize this technician for coming over and helping me when I was trying to diagnose this car. Or we have like a shop Porter, who's kind of like our apprentice as well. He like learns how to keep the shop clean and the flow of the shop, but also he's learning how to work on cars and maintenance and things like that.
Johanna Reichert: So a lot of times people will recognize him because of the fact that, you know, he keeps the shop flow going and he is trying to help out and he is trying to, you know, anticipate what the technicians need so that they can be a little bit more productive. So it's nice for to have the recognition so that way you can feel good about recognizing somebody who did something good for you.
Johanna Reichert: Then to make it one step more fun. I got this little, I went on Amazon and I found this little tire candy dish and it has a little cover and we put a little BM BMW rondell on it, so it's a little tire. And then I have everybody do their lovetts and learns and recognitions beforehand. We fold it up really small.
Johanna Reichert: I shake it up and it's almost like a secret santa, so I pass it around and say, somebody choose one. Make sure you don't get your own. So now you don't even have to read your own. So everybody, so. You know, Tim will be like, okay, I got James'. And he'll read what James loved about the week, what he learned in the week, and who he recognized.
Johanna Reichert: And so we all go around and we all read another person's love it and learn. So it's just kind of fun. Everybody enjoys doing it. It's a fun way to end the meeting, a positive way to end the meeting. And then James will puts James, who's a secretary. He'll put together who won who got the most recognitions.
Johanna Reichert: And then another shop, when we were telling 'em about this, they said, Hey, you know what you should do with that? You should at the end of the quarter find out who got the most recognitions and then give them some kind of reward. And we were like, that's a great idea. So we're gonna do done. We're still talking about like what the reward should be.
Johanna Reichert: We're thinking like maybe like 
Tim Chakarian: last week we a 
Johanna Reichert: bonus or last 
Tim Chakarian: week we threw it out to the team. Yeah. And we said, what do you guys want to see? And, you know, the consensus I got was a paid day off would be nice. You know, a hundred or $200 bonus would be nice. Yeah. So we were thinking 
Johanna Reichert: for the quarter we'll do a bonus of some sort and then whoever won it for the year, we'll give them an extra day off paid day off the next, the following year.
Johanna Reichert: And everybody liked that again. Love it. So, yeah, it's, oh my gosh, it's just kind of fun. It's, everybody enjoys it. It's a nice way to end the meeting and to, on an uplifting and positive point and it, everybody kinda looks forward to it. 
Jimmy Lea: That is awesome 
Tim Chakarian: and if I can add to it, cool. What that really does for me is it for the moment while that person's reading it, it gives you the opportunity to put yourself in that person's shoes, right?
Tim Chakarian: The love it and learns actually came from John Maxwell. I'm a big John Maxwell fan, and John Maxwell would always say, you should take some time to reflect. At the end of the week, we're going a hundred miles an hour. What does. The experience that you had mean to you? What was a real takeaway that you had that you really loved?
Tim Chakarian: And I'll give you an example. Our seed technician, Shane, he's super awesome. He's 21 years old. He's been an apprentice for 18 months and then now he is doing another 18 months learning to be a, a. A C technician being able to do parts replacement. So he was doing a transmission rebuild, right? So his little alert was, make sure you drain the fluid before you take the pump out first.
Tim Chakarian: And the reason that came about is because, you know, he's young, he is inexperienced. He didn't know he took the bolts out and all the fluid leaked out. And so that's what he put in his loves, love, learn it. His learns, he put, I love the fact that I was able to rebuild the transmission. My learn is make sure you drain the fluid before you take the pump out.
Tim Chakarian: And my recognition is to James for helping me put the transmission back together and that it runs. And for that moment, you just see it from his point of view and you think. You know.
Tim Chakarian: Have opened up an opportunity. But as owners, it's not our job to do the job. It's your job to provide jobs and teach them to be able to do the job and they love it. And that gives me such a warm feeling. It's the same feeling that I get when I put the car together and I press that start stop button or turn the key, you know, it's running on its own.
Tim Chakarian: It's better and everybody's working together in a way that. The customers really see that. 
Jimmy Lea: They can see it, they can feel it, they can sense it, they can smell it, they can absorb it, they can touch it. You can, it's paddle pool in shops when you know that it's a good environment or a toxic environment.
Jimmy Lea: I've been in shops all over North America and it is absolutely. Paramount. So what I, here's a question for you as we wind up this hour. I can't believe it's already been an hour, by the way. Okay. What advice would you give to shop owners that are struggling to maintain a culture in their company, in their shops when they're trying to grow their teams, they're struggling to maintain culture struggl.
Jimmy Lea: What advice would you give them? 
Tim Chakarian: I would say there's two ways that you can approach it. There's two beliefs. There's the blame it on everybody else belief, which is, let's just wait and see what happens. And it's not my fault. I didn't know, you know, and we'll call that below the line thinking, right?
Tim Chakarian: It's not me. It wasn't me. It was it's blame, it's victim. Yeah. Right. Or there's the above the line thinking, right. And this is the belief that I can do this. So we need to start with, do you see it? Do you own it? Are you able to solve the problem yourself and what needs to be done about it? And this way, what it does is it believe it, it builds a self accountability system because now the person, whoever, whether it's the owner, the service advisor, all the way down to the shop helper, right?
Tim Chakarian: What was your contributing factor? How did you own the solution and how, what else could you try differently? To make it work for the team and then now that builds you the confidence to be able to go, I can do it. And once you get to that point, now you can help somebody else with it. So tho those would be the two ways that I see it.
Tim Chakarian: Especially past the summit, I really took away a lot of good points from Dr. Jessica. She was, I urge you guys, if you watching the Carm Capto podcast. Watch that one just came out that she had on there. Yeah. Yeah. Just came out. It was recently. It's very good. And those, it's basically like tools, guys, you open your toolbox or oh, you're always going to the snap-on, or the macro track building tools.
Tim Chakarian: This is your business tools that you're putting in your toolbox. You know, a scanner's no good if you're not using it. So these skills are no good if you're not actually implementing them and trying them, and you're gonna fail at first. But what do they say if at first you don't succeed? 
Johanna Reichert: Try again.
Tim Chakarian: Keep trying. Yep. I would 
Johanna Reichert: say it's so true. Build your vision and your mission and your purpose. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yes. 
Johanna Reichert: What kind culture do you want in your shop? And once you've created that with yourself or you and your business partner, or you and your manager. Figure out what it is that you want that culture to be, and then you need to share that culture with your team.
Johanna Reichert: Or you know what, you can even include your team on it. Hey, I feel like maybe we can improve our culture here. What do you, what kind of culture would you like to see? Yeah. In the shop? And then get the, 'cause that actually creates buy-in. So sometimes that's even better. So you wanna have a conversation with them, you wanna include them, you want them to.
Johanna Reichert: Be on board with you. And then the hard part about creating a good culture in your shop is if you have a person who's not on board with your culture. They might be a high producer, they might be a high seller, but if they're not on board with your culture or they're toxic in your shop it's really hard to let those kinds of people go.
Johanna Reichert: But you usually find out afterwards that you're much better off without them and even sometimes your people who you thought weren't. As good producers, either salesmen or technicians they will usually rise because before they were being held back by that toxic person, sometimes those people percent rise and you'll be floored how talented they are.
Johanna Reichert: There was one shop that we knew that had two service advisors. The one service advisor was, he was a star. He would sell everything, but he was a little bit toxic. Not crazy toxic, but a little bit toxic. They finally got rid of him. And the second service advisor who they thought was just kind of average, oh my goodness.
Johanna Reichert: He rose to the top. He is amazing. He's there, he's still their number one service advisor. And I see him all the time at like our meetings and stuff. 'cause he is local here in, in our area in Southern California. And he is the nicest, sweetest guy. And he is making them all kinds of sales and the shop's happier and everything.
Johanna Reichert: So, I would say that start with your mission, vision, and purpose. Figure out what you want the culture to be with your shop. Make sure everybody's on board with it. If they're not on board with it, you need to get rid of them. Because if you start showing some employees that you're willing to put up with people not being on board, then why was, why?
Johanna Reichert: Why would the people who are willing to be on board feel like they need to be on board? Well, you're not making the other person be on board, so why do I need to worry about it? And then when you're hiring, you need to start hiring for your culture. 'cause if you're gonna hire, you need to make sure that those people fit into your culture.
Tim Chakarian: And you know what will happen? Jimmy is the bad apple Betty was talking about. The bad it takes one, the bad Apple will find his way out because he'll see that one of these things doesn't belong like Sesame Street. Back to the basics. One of these things doesn't belong and you can hide. But ultimately you know, we had a scenario where we had somebody that had to go and the team said, Hey, they gotta go.
Tim Chakarian: Wow. They took the initiative to say, this is not good for us. It's not good for you. And. This is a decision, and it was one of the more quiet members of our team, and we listened. Interesting. When it changed, we were all like, wow, now you give a lot more admonition to the person that rose to that occasion to say like, wow, that was really brave of you to, you know, call that person out on their mistake.
Tim Chakarian: Yeah. Or their outcome as it were. And so, or 
Johanna Reichert: their attitude. Or their attitude, and that employee would act differently around us than they would around 
Tim Chakarian: correct 
Johanna Reichert: the rest of the staff. So we necessarily didn't see it. But because we listened to our staff, we saw that they weren't a correct person in our culture.
Tim Chakarian: So it's all, it's nonstop ever-growing teamwork. Jimmy 
Jimmy Lea: Evergreen. Yes. Ever-growing? Yeah. For sure. Thank you so much for sharing. I've got some I wanna go to some quick one word answers, rapid fire culture questions for you. You ready for this? Joanna, you answered first favorite, and then Tim. Okay. Okay, so, and you got five seconds to answer and then I go on to the next question.
Jimmy Lea: Culture in one word. Joanna. 
Johanna Reichert: Atmosphere. 
Jimmy Lea: Tim. Belief. Your leadership style. Joanna. 
Tim Chakarian: Chill. 
Jimmy Lea: Tim. 
Tim Chakarian: Clear communication.
Jimmy Lea: It's two words, but I'll still take it. Most important value in a team. 
Johanna Reichert: Comradery. 
Jimmy Lea: Love it.
Jimmy Lea: Ethics.
Jimmy Lea: Ethics. Oh, I love that. Your shop's vibe. 
Johanna Reichert: Fun. 
Jimmy Lea: Fun. Nice. Biggest culture killer.
Johanna Reichert: Anger, 
Jimmy Lea: deception. Ooh. Yeah that's good. What drives your team 
Johanna Reichert: vision? 
Jimmy Lea: Unity. Love it. One non-negotiable in your shop 
Johanna Reichert: attitude. Good attitude. 
Tim Chakarian: Do the right thing. Love it. Success 
Jimmy Lea: feels 
Tim Chakarian: like.
Johanna Reichert: Making other people successful.
Tim Chakarian: Winning. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for joining today and talking about your company culture. Tim, we didn't even get to talk about your employee that came back and said, I don't care where I work. You could put me under whatever. I don't care. I just want to be here. I guess we 
Tim Chakarian: need a round 
Jimmy Lea: two then.
Jimmy Lea: You, you have established a phenomenal company culture and Tim and Joanna you are. I'm down. Let's do it. We'll do it again. 
Johanna Reichert: Thank you. 
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. For sure. Thank you so much you guys. 
Johanna Reichert: We appreciate it. Have 
Tim Chakarian: a great day Today we made a lot of the things that we. Successful with the things that we learned from the institute.
Tim Chakarian: So we wanna give a shout out to you and the entire team at the institute, all the coaches, all the people in the background that, you know, some of 'em even get embarrassed when you name them or put 'em on the spotlight. But you know what, if it wasn't for all of those people, we wouldn't be where we're at today.
Tim Chakarian: So together teamworks makes the dream work. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. The final slide that's gonna come up here, it'll be up for about 30 seconds, so get out your smartphone, scan the QR code. Let's connect. Let's see if the institute is a good solution for you to help you have a great foundation to build a company culture that you enjoy, not one that you endure.
Jimmy Lea: With that, thank you very much. 
Jimmy Lea: Have a great day.
 

123 - Cracking the Code – Google’s “Ask for Me” Update, Local Service Ads & What It Means for Auto Shops

123 - Cracking the Code – Google’s “Ask for Me” Update, Local Service Ads & What It Means for Auto Shops
May 27th 2025 - 00:56:06
 
Show Summary:
In this episode, Jimmy Lea welcomes Dan Vance from Shop Dog Marketing to explore the transformative power of AI in marketing for auto repair shops. They highlight how AI has shifted from an experimental tool to a central part of digital marketing, influencing how customers discover and interact with local businesses. Dan shares how understanding your ideal customer and problem-solving strengths can better align with AI-driven search results, enabling shops to stand out as the preferred choice. They discuss practical ways shop owners can leverage AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to brainstorm marketing strategies, assess online sentiment, and optimize their presence for both human and AI-driven searches. The conversation also emphasizes the importance of personalization, community engagement, and consistent online activity across platforms.
From single-location shops to MSOs and mobile techs, the advice is universal: AI isn't the future—it's the now. And shops that adapt will lead.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Dan Vance, Owner of Shop Dog Marketing
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:07:27] - Dan shares a surprising story of a customer finding a repair shop via AI, bypassing traditional reviews.
[00:10:15] - AI search favors shops based on category and customer preference, not just keyword ranking.
[00:12:29] - Shop owners need to identify their ideal customer and market directly to that profile.
[00:15:25] - Using AI as a brainstorming partner is powerful—ask good questions and refine with human insight.
[00:17:31] - AI can evaluate your online presence and suggest what you're known for in your community.
[00:23:09] - AI can create engaging subject lines for marketing emails with a personalized voice, like Oprah.
[00:27:35] - Dan outlines how to optimize your local presence for AI search results—focus on consistent content, reviews, and social engagement.
[00:44:10] - Tips for both MSOs and mobile techs on how to leverage AI and local search effectively.
[00:48:28] - Avoid incentivizing reviews; instead, use AI to analyze sentiment and improve service authenticity.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn0m3CSVg4c&t=1394s
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, or goodnight, depending on when and where you're joining us from today. It is a gorgeous day outside here in St. George, Utah. We are entering into the 90 degree temperatures per day, which is awesome, especially if you like the heat.
Jimmy Lea: And if you don't like the heat, then it's not so awesome. Very quickly, we'll be cresting over that 100 degree mark very quickly. And then the next thing to look for is 105 and 110. Anyways, enough about the weather. So excited to be here with you today. Excited for this conversation that we are gonna have, which is all about marketing, which is all about your shop and how things have changed yet again.
Jimmy Lea: If we go back in history, we start back with the blacksmith. Blacksmith in town was the gentleman or the lady that was working on your wagons would create wagon wheels for you. Somebody came along and created the automobile and the natural person to fix those things was the blacksmith. Go down the road, a few go down the road a few miles, and what happens?
Jimmy Lea: Somebody invents the telephone and there's a knock at the front door from a salesperson selling you. Advertising on a phone book. The phone book, because there's a device called a telephone gonna be in every household. Well, don't worry about that. My customers, they just come down and see me go down the road a few more miles.
Jimmy Lea: We're gonna create something called the web and it's gonna be in the cloud. Your customers are gonna search you on a computer. Oh, my customers, they call me on the phone when they need me. They come down to the shop. Well, it's gonna change yet again. For our discussion today, it is going to be amazing as we talk about what's happening in the wide world of the internet and the inner webs that are out there with us working together to keep our customers safe on the road.
Jimmy Lea: I, I just, I'm so excited to have our guest today. Our guest today is Dan Vance from Shop Dog Marketing. Welcome, Dan. How the heck are you, brother? Your camera's buffering. Oh, technology at its greatest. I don't see Dan. Does anybody else see Dan on here? Oh man. This is awesome. Awesome. Here we go. Oh, Dan, you're on now.
Jimmy Lea: I see you on camera. Do you have audio up?
Jimmy Lea: Oh my goodness. Well, we'll give a couple more shout outs while we're on here. Melissa at Berks Transmission Service in Sarasota, Florida. Dan, can you hear us, brother?
Jimmy Lea: I don't know if he, we do now. Rich Lucas. Oh, rich from Lucas Tires. Am I the only one? Not hearing Dan, he is frozen. Thank you, rich Dan Vance. Might need to go the way of Windows and restart that computer. You know, it's a funny thing and it happens. It happens when you do live events. Oh, Dan, you're back.
Jimmy Lea: You're moving.
Jimmy Lea: Do you have sound? 
Dan Vance: I'm here. I thought I've been here the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. I'm hearing great. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Yeah you were frozen there for a minute. Did you? Me, Dan, thanks for being here brother. How are you? 
Dan Vance: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. So happy to be here. Oh, good. 
Jimmy Lea: Really? Oh, good. Good.
Dan Vance: Even 
Dan Vance: more now than I wasn't even here. 
Dan Vance: Exactly. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. You were here, but you were frozen, so it was like that buffering mode. Right. So glad you're here. One more shout out to 
Dan Vance: frozen face. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you were frozen face for a minute. Betty or Toro from Greg's Auto in Florida. Betty is here as well.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you Betty for joining us. Hi Betty. Hey, our conversation today, we are going to be deep diving into AI and how AI has changed marketing. I love marketing. I love the process of marketing of, you know, it's like a phishing where you try a different lure, you try a different lure, you try a different bait, and then once you find that thing that works, man, you're just able to sink in.
Jimmy Lea: And that works really well. So Dan AI has changed everything. Got a quote from, I. Google's CEO Wanna read this real quick and get your feedback on this? It's not a quote. This is a summarization that in Google's CEO's last announcement, Google, CEO highlighted some massive AI adoptions.
Jimmy Lea: 480,000,000,000,480 trillion tokens processed monthly, monthly. Yeah, that's a 50 times increase over last year. 400 million Gemini app users. Gemini is the Google app users and over 1.5 billion, B billion, 1.5 billion monthly AI overview users. So these are people that are using and, but they don't have the app downloaded.
Jimmy Lea: Like myself I use Gemini, I use chat. GPT, I do buy the chat GBT, but I don't buy Gemini. So he's, I'm one of those 1.5 billion using Gemini, but I'm not registered. Right? Yep. Yep. It's crazy. So yes. I mean, we knew this was coming. We knew it was gonna hit. Now the ripples have happened and it's starting to even out a little bit years ago we would talk about using ai, trying it out, test it out, see what you can get.
Jimmy Lea: AI was learning. It's still learning. We were creating pictures and artwork and puppies with six toes, and that was a lot of fun. 
Dan Vance: Yeah, exactly. 
Jimmy Lea: How has AI changed marketing, Dan? 
Dan Vance: Well the truth is we don't know because it's just moving so quickly, but it is changing things. And I think this would be a great time to just share a quick example of like, stuff that's even surprising us is when a client calls us and says, Hey, I just got a car in from somebody that found me in.
Dan Vance: Gr, which is Twitter's AI language model. And what they had done, they were at the dealership and they went in and decided they didn't want to do business with the dealership. And they said, who in this town can fix Subaru transmission? And this client came up as the only option and they called him, oh my word.
Dan Vance: And got the car in. And what's so credible about that is, is that there was no reviews. There was no cross-checking or looking who else was an option. They just picked up the phone and they called and booked an appointment. So that's just an unbelievable example of how AI is changing our experience with the internet and collecting data and making decisions, and we're gonna see a lot more of that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. And to reiterate this with you, Dan there was an 10 years ago. 10 years ago? No. It wasn't 10 years ago. A few years ago, 4, 5, 6 years ago. 
Jimmy Lea: Was 
Jimmy Lea: going out with my soon to be son-in-law, and he said, he says no. We can't go to this restaurant. And he was basing that on reviews.
Jimmy Lea: It was Yelp reviews. Google reviews, the restaurant that I really like to go to. He says no. They got a 3.5. I'm just not going in there. 
Dan Vance: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, okay. Where are we going then? So it, it's gone from Father knows best friends know best reviews, know best, and now AI knows best. Yes. And here's a client that didn't even check reviews, didn't check with anybody else, just brought the car right on down because Twitter said it's the best place for Subaru transmissions.
Dan Vance: Yes. Yeah. And I don't know, I don't know what his repair order was on that, but. People that listening would know and it was healthy. And as a marketer, I'm just like, that is pretty sweet because being able to stand out to be isolated as the best option is an incredible win.
Dan Vance: And so I think that's another thing that AI is gonna provide and we can talk more about how it's doing it and how cool this is for auto repair shops, but we're gonna see a lot more of that for sure.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and then let's dive into that, Dan. 'cause I, anytime you can be the only solution, you know, it's always great to be the guy selling guns when you show up to a knife fight. Yes. 
Dan Vance: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: If you are the only solution, if you are the only one being recommended, I. How can I do that more often? 
Dan Vance: Yeah, well, I've been talking about this a long time, how the internet has become more of a search personalization.
Dan Vance: And so this idea that I, Hey I need to market to search engines by ranking for keywords is actually very old thinking because back in 2012, Google made a shift to categories. On your Google business listing, it's a category, it's auto repair. So I like go to the library and I go into fiction and there's a hundred books or a thousand books under that category.
Dan Vance: And so the. Thing the Internet's been doing is it's been taking people that batch up with that category and the things that you're telling, the search engine that you like to work on, like Subarus, and it starts to match those people to you, especially in a local environment. It's called Search Preference.
Dan Vance: It's been around a long time, and now we're seeing AI just take that to the whole new next level because they're, it's completely. Preference around you. They know a lot about you. They know of things that you've been asking, concerns that you have a whole gamut of things. And then it can pull all this data from the internet and give you very quickly the perfect match 
Jimmy Lea: and really this.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So, so, so what I'm hearing you and I want to summarize this just a little bit to make sure I keep up with where you're going. 'cause AI is changing so quickly. It's taking software from a three month lifecycle to, it feels like almost like. Yeah. Monthly, weekly daily things are changing in this AI cycle.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So everything that we've done in the past, everything that we've done for marketing and reviews and social media and public outreach, that has all gone into what AI is discovering today. It do I understand that right? 
Dan Vance: That's correct. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. 
Dan Vance: All the things you've been doing are good and healthy, and you haven't lost that.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Is there a but that goes along with that. 
Dan Vance: Yeah. The but is that we need to do better as marketers, whether we're an agency or as a shop owner, to accept the responsibility to know who our best client is. Okay. And start marking around that person. So, you know, so you 
Jimmy Lea: need to know your avatar. 
Dan Vance: You need to know your avatar and if you put more energy into that, AI will perform better for you as people get more comfortable with using that as a channel to find you.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So when we talk about our avatar are you talking about the cars that they drive? Meaning, I really like working on Ford F1 fifties. Anything Ford, Chevy Dodge, that's in my wheelhouse. Do I focus on that or do I focus on my ideal client, which is fleet vehicles, construction workers, that type of a truck?
Dan Vance: Yeah. It's a great question and I would say the first thing anybody needs to do is first say, what problem do I solve and why am I really good at it? And because there's lots of people that do Fleet or BMW or whatever, it's right. What problem do I solve in my local market and why am I the best? Why am I unique about doing that?
Dan Vance: Okay. And then start building things around that support, that like. Not only am I really good at fixing BMW, but that type of driver, that type of owner I get along really well with. We resonate, we have commonality. They're my best customer. And the reason they're the best customer is because of the income they make right where they live.
Dan Vance: How new their vehicle is, how many vehicles they have, the whole list. So you build out a customer profile on demographics about them, and then you build out a profile about the vehicle and why you're so good at it. So it's two sides of the same coin. I'm understanding who the client is and their demographics, and I'm understanding my side about the problems that I fix and how it ties to that customer.
Dan Vance: And love it. This is Marketing 1 0 1. It's been around for a hundred years, but a lot of people that get into the internet because it's so simplified, we forget some of those basic principles and, but it's going to be a core driver for how AI works in helping bring local business. As we see more and more of that, those two things, what do I really do and why am I really awesome at it?
Dan Vance: And who's that customer that really loves what I do? Who 
Jimmy Lea: are they? No that's so true. That's so true. And when we're sitting down thinking about this, is there any tools that we can use that will help a shop owner? Because I, I run into a lot of shop owners, Dan that really struggle with what's my unique sales proposition?
Jimmy Lea: What's my USP? 
Jimmy Lea: What makes me different than my competition? What is it that I do solve? Is there anything that, that, a, an AI can help provide a shop owner to prompt those? Yeah, results. 
Dan Vance: I would tell anybody listening to this that if you're not using AI language models like chat GBT or Gemini or whatever your choice is as a way of brainstorming.
Jimmy Lea: Brainstorming, 
Dan Vance: yep. Yeah. Then you're losing out on the power of having a massive knowledge base bring you. Perspective and fresh ideas that it would be very challenging for you or a group of 50 to come up with. Yeah, and it's just about asking questions and getting better about asking questions and knowing that when you're communicating with ai, you're not communicating with a real person.
Dan Vance: It's a machine. So it's okay to tell the machine. Hey, stop. Okay. You're being weird. We're not really talking about that. Let's refocus. Want you to redo this Looks like you got lazy. Like you have to be in command on one level. Stop making 
Jimmy Lea: up information. 
Dan Vance: Stop making up information. I know that's not true.
Dan Vance: And then and then, but the other piece is just asking really good questions. So you could ask a prompt like. I'm an auto repair shop owner, and here's my website. Look at my website and tell me what you think we are the best at in our local community. Might surprise you, but it will come back with a result and it'll do a really quickly and it will tell you, well, you're actually really good at this.
Dan Vance: And can you, I would start there. 
Jimmy Lea: And so I, I love adding the website as a reference website. Can we also add in for example our Google Business page, Google Business Profile our Facebook profile, our Instagram, our Twitter. Can we Twitter? What's in a x? Yeah. Can we add that as reference websites as well, percent?
Dan Vance: Yeah, but you don't have to work that hard. You can just say, go out and look at all the social media channels that belong to me. Because they have your website address. Yeah. And come back and give me feedback on how I'm communicating, what I'm really good at. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. 
Dan Vance: And I would start there.
Dan Vance: And as it starts to feed back to you, it's gonna create more questions. You're gonna be like, I. I didn't think about that. I have another question. Maybe you write three or four questions down on a piece of paper so you remember to get 'em in. 'cause it'll start moving pretty quickly. But it's all about brainstorming and it's all documented.
Dan Vance: Yeah. So then you can say, I wanna make a copy of this so I can print it off and think about it and process it and bam, all, you've got some really powerful tools there. And then you can say, okay. I agree with this. That's really is our strength. That's what we're really good at. Who in my community matches with that?
Dan Vance: Who would be some people, some demographics of people that would match up with that? And we have a case where we know somebody did that and the response came back. Teachers driving Subarus, 
Jimmy Lea: oh my gosh. 
Dan Vance: Yeah, and this owner, she was smart enough to know like, well, that would include firemen, military, and police too.
Dan Vance: And so that became her demographic profile. She knew their ages. She had a pretty good idea of their income, but then chat, GPT can refine that too. What's the income brackets in our community for those professions? And Okay. Is it mostly female or male? 'cause that could change my marketing. Okay. What is things that we know they like?
Dan Vance: You don't have to make that up. You just ask the AI model. It'll give you some ideas. Yeah. Then we use this to go, okay, that's a little weird, but that is a really good idea. 
Jimmy Lea: You still gotta have the human element in there to fact check, to qualify, quantify, make sure that we are on target.
Dan Vance: Yes. And just like the reference I was giving you, like teacher Subaru, that's great but it got built on by saying right here, like, well that's gotta include police, military, and. Fire too. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Dan Vance: And so I love that because that's, that is truly brainstorming. Like my mind is just racing and all these little sparks are coming out and I'm thinking, wow, this is such a relief because it just feels so heavy and like I can't get past first base and now I feel like I'm just hitting home runs boom every time.
Dan Vance: And that's how AI can help you be a better marketer and understanding. Fundamentally, who is my customer that loves the problem? I know I'm really good at fixing. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it, man. That's awesome. That just takes it to a next level now, and I have two questions that I want to ask.
Jimmy Lea: One goes down the realm of do we continue to do what we're doing in replying to Google reviews and whatnot. But before we get to that, I want to talk about AI being a draft one, draft two, draft three. Can I take that information that Google gives me and put it as a copy paste to use for my marketing? 
Dan Vance: No.
Dan Vance: Just think about it. It's brainstorming. It's a conference room meeting. It's, you know, internal documentation, and then you wanna go back and you wanna put your human touch on it and your expertise, like you better have some expertise. Like you don't want AI to tell you things about brake repair that you didn't know.
Dan Vance: Or you're probably not an expert, right? Right. So use your expertise, but use it for that brainstorming to give you creative ideas that you're, it's challenging to come up with when you're isolated, either by yourself or a team, a small team. So, but no, don't ever copy paste. Don't ever put that stuff on your website.
Dan Vance: Like this is legitimate content for the search engine. That won't work. 
Jimmy Lea: Go ahead. 
Dan Vance: Oh, I was gonna say definitely like what we're seeing right now with ai. Two years ago in an interview with a, b, C, you can go back and watch it. It was a 60 minute segment. They asked the president and CEO of Google about ai and he essentially said, we're so excited about where this is going, but we're nervous about rolling everything out.
Dan Vance: So what we're doing right now is we just have the baby. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes, 
Dan Vance: the adults in the closet, the adults lives exists. It's real. It's just in the closet because we're not sure about whether the public can handle it or not. Oh that's mind blowing to me. But that just illustrates like they already have very complex models that are ready to go, and when those come out, there's additional expansion that we'll see with this technology.
Dan Vance: So it's very young and we're just testing it. And the things that we're having, the experiences we're having are awesome. Freaking awesome. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, they are. They are. And I love it as a draft one, draft two, draft three. Definitely don't use it at any marketing on the internet as far as websites.
Jimmy Lea: But what about emails? Can I use can I use the AI to be able to send out emails? Well, am I safe doing that or does that get into a danger zone? 
Dan Vance: Now you're safe on that, and I'll give you a pro tip. Everybody watching this, don't tell your friends and neighbors or other shops or your group 25, this is just for you, but.
Dan Vance: There is a thing called clickbait, and it's an old style where you wrote headlines that just grabbed people and they couldn't resist just clicking it. And you can go in and you can have AI help you write an email for a service or an offer you want to do, and then you can say, okay, write 50 clickbait type of headlines that will draw people in to read my email.
Dan Vance: And it'll give you 50 in about two seconds. And you can go through there and you can pick out the ones that you love and try a couple of them, test half with half, and test another headline with the other and see what happens. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, and I've also done this, Dan I've said, oh, all right. Gimme the top 50 subject lines that will, entice people to open my email and then I'll say you know what I like number seven and 21 and 32. Combine those into one tantalizing email subject. 
Dan Vance: Okay. Now I'm gonna blow your mind, Jimmy, because if you did, if you really understand your customer and their demographics, like teachers driving Subarus, 
Jimmy Lea: yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Then 
Dan Vance: you're gonna know what kind of TV programming they like. Ooh. 
Jimmy Lea: Let's say, 
Dan Vance: let's say Oprah. Then you say, give me a headline in the Voice of Oprah. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's funny. And you get a car. And you get a car. But 
Dan Vance: AI will design those headlines with a reading voice, which is legitimate. It's a real thing that will resonate with teachers who are educated and it will draw them in, but they'll feel comfortable with that.
Dan Vance: They'll feel a connection with your headline. 
Jimmy Lea: For sure. That's phenomenal. Okay, so now a question. This comes from Yvette and thank you Yvette, for this question is using copilot just as a, as good as using Gemini? And the second half of this is, does it matter which AI I use? Yeah. All right. Well, I 
Dan Vance: think AI is a preference.
Dan Vance: You gotta find one that feels like jiving with you. But I'm, I feel pretty strongly into saying right now the best AI model for chat and brainstorming is chat, GBT the paid service. I do like 20 bucks a month. I mean, it's not 
Jimmy Lea: that, is it 20? Exactly, 
Dan Vance: yeah. Something like that. Yeah. I think you can get five users for 1 25, so maybe 21 or $22.
Dan Vance: Yeah. And Jim. Yeah, I love how I'm doing searches and a lot of times my informational type of search, like, how does this really work? The Gemini is much easier, faster for a response and understanding than going into chat GPT. But if I'm legitimately working on marketing and want to ferre out ideas for content or whatever I'm doing, I'm in chat GBT and I'm working that thing.
Dan Vance: And I get great ideas from that, some of the ideas we're talking about today of help been formulated by experimenting and doing that. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, for sure. So my, my wife uses Chachi pt, she also uses Claude. And she uses Claude because it does have a more human-centric conversation. It seems like is she using 
Dan Vance: the voice?
Jimmy Lea: I don't know that one. 
Jimmy Lea: So she's, that's 
Dan Vance: one of those that's coming that people are gonna love. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I know. It's a great TV show called The Voice, but I didn't know it was an AI app. That's for our next one. We'll talk, there's one that starts with a p. What's the one that starts with a PP?
Dan Vance: I don't use that one, but it's like proximity or something.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people are using this AI as the search, though, they don't go to Google anymore to search stuff. They go straight to an ai. So if I am a shop owner, Dan, and I want to make sure that I'm on top of things how can I optimize my online presence so that the AI. Bots, assuming that's what's out there, searching for information.
Jimmy Lea: How can I optimize my online presence so that I'm attractive to an ai? 
Dan Vance: Yeah, there's some of that. That's still an unknown because there's not a lot of data that's available, but what it looks like to us is this stuff that you do for local search. So good social media presence that you're tying in with your Google My Business, and you're publishing SEO content on Google My Business.
Dan Vance: And your website supports local search all of the backend metrics support local search, but then you have a page on your website that talks about community things and you're building like this awareness around it. The AI models because of a lot of the formulation of these questions is like, who in this town does this?
Dan Vance: It's gonna look for those kind of content pieces. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Dan Vance: And it's, you know, this is the AI we're using right now. This model that we're using right now is not going back and using old data. It's doing a search right now in whatever everybody else is seeing, and it's coming back with information for you. 
Jimmy Lea: So the the idea that everything from a AI is two years old, that's is not true anymore.
Jimmy Lea: It's all current now. 
Dan Vance: When you're in Chad, GBT, you can tell it to do a live search or you can do it to use its regular model. So I would recommend using the live search and ask it for resources so you can validate the websites and the resources. You'll learn this stuff as you get going. If you're hearing this and you're like, man, I'm not sure where to start.
Dan Vance: The answer is just get started. Start doing some stuff and playing around with it and brainstorming and saying, I really want to know who my customer is. I really want to know what the internet thinks I'm really good at and crossing my fingers. That's true. And if not, I'm calling my marketing guy.
Dan Vance: 'cause we gotta fix some things. 
Jimmy Lea: So the same questions you want to ask your marketing person, the same questions that you want to ask in that marketing realm are the questions you can ask to a chat GBT. And now when you go to your marketing. Company, you'll have a much better conversation because you've already done the research and educated yourself.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. For those first steps. 
Dan Vance: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So what are some of the I wanna ask this question, right? 'cause I'm thinking like I'm a shop owner. What are the, some of the things that I can do as a shop owner versus what are some of those things that I definitely need to hire out because. It's gonna take too long.
Jimmy Lea: I don't have the expertise. A marketing company would definitely do a better job at it than I would where? Where's the separation there that says I can handle this, but I need to hire this. 
Dan Vance: Well, a lot of the work that we do as an agency is, for example, we write content, so that's labor intensive.
Dan Vance: Now we're using tools and innovation like everybody else to get to the very best place. But it's a lot of work. It's a, it's akin to like, I know I gotta chop this tree down, so I'm gonna give my marketer the best tools possible so he can do it efficiently and give me the best results, which is to get that tree cut down.
Dan Vance: So if I give him a hand saw. I gotta have reasonable expectations versus if I give him a chainsaw. And so again, of our conversation, which is so critical today, more than ever, what do I really fix? And who is my best customer? I'm giving my marketing guy a chainsaw and he will go out, he'll create content.
Dan Vance: He knows how to fix the language on the backside of my website, so it makes sense to. He knows how to do this stuff and it's technical, it's hard work, and they can do this for me for a small investment. I get this huge return and I empowered them efficiently because I gave 'em a chainsaw instead of a handsaw.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. That definitely helps a lot. I'm seeing some comments here from Sheila Costa, Sheila and Daniel Costa out of California. Gemini has not been that great in, in for them, which that's interesting that it's not working. They're using more Claude and Perplexity. Yeah, perplexity 
Dan Vance: is the one we were trying to think of.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you Sheila. Way to 
Dan Vance: go. Ka. Yeah. Good job. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So, okay. Back to the the handsaw and the chainsaw. So, do we continue to answer all of our reviews? Do we continue to. Post on social media, do we continue to do that type of activity or do we let AI do that kind of activity? Yeah, 
Dan Vance: you know, right now we're in a weird time in the economy. There's, I think there's a deficiency of trust and we're, it's almost like a trust recession and reviews have always been like our solid.
Dan Vance: Foundation of like how we secure third party trust. 
Dan Vance: And you don't want to do anything different with that. You want to keep going the way you've been doing. You wanna get regular reviews, new reviews, you wanna respond to those. You always ask questions like you tell us about what we did and where you came from to do business with this.
Dan Vance: And not just that you loved us, but why, you know, was it. The warranty or was it the loaner car or whatever. You definitely want all of those things, but I'm having a lot of thoughts and conversations with what else can we do to reestablish trust? Because I think reviews don't have the same kind of power that they had even two years ago.
Dan Vance: AI is definitely a place where people have a lot of trust in it. We're seeing that, but what can I do to build trust in the community? And so that's a conversation for maybe another time, but definitely do reviews and definitely be asking yourself or brainstorming sessions with ai, like, what else can I do to build my brand and trust?
Dan Vance: Because we know people are clicking and they're looking at your stuff, but they're not necessarily calling. There's a large percentage of them that don't call, and I think that's trust. That equates trust. How do I solve that? How do I fix that? 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, that'll be different 
Dan Vance: for everybody, but. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, and I like what Yvette said in here about using chat to summarize her Google reviews so she can get a sentiment of what her clients think of her or of her shop 
Dan Vance: a hundred percent.
Jimmy Lea: And I think that's a great draft one. This is draft one, draft two. Yeah. Where you're getting that sentiment. And now I want to jump to John's question. So John's got a great question here. Why is it I would want to have a single AI search on my website reviews to see the things that we're best at instead of just going to our customers.
Jimmy Lea: What do they think of us going to our old customers that come in and ask them? It seems like the human perspective would be much better than an AI perspective. What's your feedback on that, Dan?
Dan Vance: I, I think as a business owner, you have to know like, this is the problem we solve. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Dan Vance: And going to your website is a way for you to say what I think the problem we solve and what the community and the internet space thinks. Are they a match? 
Jimmy Lea: I love it. 
Dan Vance: And if they're not a match, what do I do to get them to be a match?
Dan Vance: Because I'm unique because I can solve this problem. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Dan Vance: I had a guy, he told me, he says, Dan, he says, we're really good at fixing transmissions in Porsches. This so called some pkt, or, I don't know what it's right. But I was like, okay, that's something they're really good at fixing and there's a place for them in the marketplace to get more of those and they're profitable for them, so why not?
Dan Vance: Why not know that? And then see if that's what you're communicating digitally. I do love the idea of going in and saying, look at all the reviews I have on Google, and tell me like, what is the sentiment being the emotion towards us. What are some things that they complain about the most?
Dan Vance: Is there maybe like three or four di of services that are commonly referred to as complaints, brake repair, oil service? Oh boy, I gotta fix those, 
Dan Vance: right? 
Dan Vance: Right. And then the other one would be, what is it that customers think is really good about us and unique about us? And hopefully that matches up with what I think the, I'm really good at fixing as a problem in our community that my competitor can't do that.
Dan Vance: Jimmy, how many of these guys ever tell you like, oh, we get calls from people that have called other shops and they're just like, they can't fix this, but we can fix this. We get that car in and we do it. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, all the time. All time. All the time. They're, they are known as the go-to in town because they can fix anything.
Jimmy Lea: Cars talk to them. They're the go-to. I was talking to a shop the other day and I'm trying to remember who it was. The car had been at two other shops. They had already spent 2300, 20 $800 at these other shops, and it finally brought it to him, and they were able to fix it very quickly.
Jimmy Lea: It's amazing because all this troubleshooting that they had done and all these parts plug and play didn't get to the problem and these shops threw up their hands and were like, yeah, we don't know. Take it somewhere else. Oh, it's a paperweight. It's scrapyard. Yeah. That wasn't an option. They had to fix.
Jimmy Lea: Put that car down. Yeah. Put it down behind the shed. It's time for the shed. Oh, man. It, it happens all the time. It, and it's scary. It's unfortunate that these shops aren't known for that, that they're not known as that. Go-to and to John's question, by the way, John, thank you very much for your question.
Jimmy Lea: I love it because, I think what Dan is suggesting here is using AI as the draft one, draft two. So you gain an understanding. You start with somewhat of a foundation. Now as you're talking to your clients and your customers, you can ask them specifics about specific areas. 'cause if you ask clients and customers you know, what do they think about you?
Jimmy Lea: Or what do they think you are unique at? You might get deer in the headlights like they don't know. Yeah. They gotta think. But if you're able to come in and say you know, according to the internet, they think we're really good in these areas. And you list out four or five different options, which one do you think we're the best at?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Now you've given them options. They're gonna be able to choose one. So using AI as a draft one, draft two is a really good platform. Then introduce that human-centric side of things. Which I agree, John, that the human side, we want to connect with humans. The more we connect with humans, the better. And out to Sheila's question.
Jimmy Lea: Sheila, this is a great question, by the way, is that related to SEO versus GEO transitioning? That's happening now. SEO focuses on traditional search engines like Google, while GEO focuses on AI driven. Search engines and platforms. It seems like eventually AI, GEO will take over SEO and position itself like an authority when recommending business for our customers.
Jimmy Lea: Now, I'm not familiar with the term GEO. Maybe you are, Dan. I've heard SAO for search algorithm optimization, search, artificial optimization. Are you familiar with this term? 
Dan Vance: Yes. A lot of marketers are talking about like. It's not SEO anymore. It's search everywhere now. Search everything. Optimization.
Dan Vance: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Search engines. The this, people are not going to change to something new until they get more comfortable with it and have more experiences. We don't really like change as human beings, so the search engines aren't really going anywhere, but everybody is racing on the AI stuff because they see what's coming around the corner.
Dan Vance: So we definitely are going to be experiencing AI driven local search results. Moving forward 100%. You count on that. The question is, what does it look like in a year or two years is really unknown. Well, and what it 
Jimmy Lea: looks like one year from now is gonna be different than two years in three years.
Jimmy Lea: It's just, it takes money from now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's gonna evolve so quickly. 
Dan Vance: So it's a great question, but I would also just add to this kind of like this level of like, find stuff that's working for you. You have to know that local search, when practice right, is the same elements that AI is using in pulling out into search results.
Dan Vance: And we think that's a big reason why our clients are telling us they're being found in AI models. 
Jimmy Lea: And so when you're talking about local search, Dan, are you talking about the LSA local search ads? 
Dan Vance: Nope. I'm talking about organic search, which is ranking a specific effort to rank better in Google Maps mobile.
Dan Vance: Another way to think about this is mobile ranking. What do I do so that I rank on mobile devices that are based on proximity? How close am I and how strong, yeah, prominence and how strong is my brand? So those factors, that's all local search, it's all mobile device driven. There's specific techniques that you apply.
Dan Vance: A lot of SEO companies don't do it 'cause they think it's a bother, but it's the leading edge of taking us from mobile users, having a great experience with Google Maps to the next thing, which is mobile users getting personalized, highly personalized returns. Based on their search and their behaviors based off of mobile devices.
Jimmy Lea: Alright, so now I have another question. Going down this this idea what about two different scenarios. One is a a mobile tech. 
Jimmy Lea: And then second is MSOs, multiple shop operators. How does that local search affect? Let's go to the MSOs first. How does a local search, how can they set them up sales up for success?
Jimmy Lea: If they're a multiple shop operator, they've got two shops, three shops, 10 shops, 21 shops, what's the best way for them to see success now here with this new AI model? Yeah. 
Dan Vance: You know, I, I'm not associated with this company, but I'm gonna tell you this brand Christian Brothers, if you go to their website, they're a perfect example of how they've taken multiple locations and they built one website around the model of promoting services and each one of those locations.
Dan Vance: And if you go in and you look at that'll probably answer a lot of questions. For an owner that has multiple locations, what kind of website should I have? Christian Brothers website has a what's called a domain authority, which is an internet scoring model. That's over 45 and that totally blows away Most auto repair shops, I've seen some of the best performing auto repair shops in the twenties.
Dan Vance: Oh wow, so, so just so you know, like it takes you to the new level. So yeah, I have multiple shops. I have both. I have a brand that's tied to all of those, or an associated brand, but they're all on one website and I can see that structure interesting. And all of that works really well for ai. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So that's 
Dan Vance: how they would do that.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and what about the mobile person? The mobile tech? Yeah. Yeah. So they don't have brick and mortar, but they probably have a radius of 20 miles that they might travel to repair vehicles. How can a mobile tech optimize their online information? 
Dan Vance: There's a way to set up the business listing for guys that have a business location, but don't publish it.
Dan Vance: I work out of my home, but I don't want people to know where I'm at. Yeah. If you just set up that way. Google does like mobile auto repair. It's a place that if you're doing that, will boost your rankings. So even if you are just a traditional shop with an address, but you do mo mobile repair, I would add that as a subcategory, it'll boost your rankings.
Dan Vance: Those guys. I think what they have to do is they have to do more as more social media posts talking about their services, how they come to you, customer reviews and social media, and then similar type of posts that they do that. Oh, I was, I can't read that. I gotta finish my thought. Oh, it says 
Jimmy Lea: I don't necessarily agree with AI telling people what to do, but I can't deny what's happening.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. I totally agree. That's just. Fascinating that people are agre going after AI first. So you were talking about mobile technicians. Google likes the mobile text. They like that convenience factor, and I think that's what's happening in that algorithm is Google is going for that convenience factor of of convenience for the client. 
Dan Vance: Yep. And so work on getting great reviews when you're on the job. Take pictures, post those on your Google business. Listing pictures are a huge thing. Reviews, obviously as we've discussed, and then I would do Google posts that I could also share into social media.
Dan Vance: And the Google posts are gonna be things like, Hey, we are really good at oil service as much as we are like diagnostics on your vehicle, either in your office, parking lot or your house. 
Jimmy Lea: Love it. 
Dan Vance: And that'll help the ranking system understand you better as a mobile place without maybe you don't even necessarily need a website.
Dan Vance: A website enhances that too, but definitely not a business location. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, you don't need a business location, but I think the websites are still in necessity. You've gotta have a website to be found. 
Dan Vance: Well, I'm guys get away with not a website. Yeah. 'cause the algorithm likes them. But look, if I'm a mobile guy and I'm busy, I'm good.
Dan Vance: But if I wanna hire a couple guys and get a couple more techs out there, then you wanna make sure you have a website. Like you build that foundation like everybody else has to. For sure. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: You gotta keep doing that. Yeah. All right, so, let's go to John's question here. Do you think. That social media presence and trying to market to the AI on each of those platforms will be better, or staying on Google search engines, they're much different kinds of marketing.
Jimmy Lea: So there is a bene is there a benefit to one versus the other? 
Dan Vance: I'm not sure I understand that. You know what he's saying, 
Jimmy Lea: Uhhuh. Yeah. So, do they, is it more important to be active on your social media and your reviews or? Which is optimizing it for ai or do you stay with the Google and search engine optimizations?
Dan Vance: Yeah. Years ago Google had a thing called Google Plus, which was their social media attempt to compete with Facebook, and I don't think they ever got rid of that algorithm. I think they use that in local search. 
Jimmy Lea: Ah, 
Dan Vance: so anything I do in social media. Seems to work. Like we can't really put our finger on why or what it's actually doing, but we see better performance when we do it that way.
Dan Vance: So that's why I think you use social media 'cause it ties in with locals. It's this idea of community and groups and things that I like and where I live. And so I would definitely utilize social media with my Google Maps local search 
Jimmy Lea: for sure. Yeah. This goes right back to your. Definition of SEO, which is search everything Optimization.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah you really do need to focus on all of it. Make sure it's there. All right. Lance has a question here. Any recommendations on combining organic customer reviews versus shops that pay or discount to entice or encourage positive reviews? 
Dan Vance: Yeah, I'd stay away from that. That's, that usually violates most of the review sites guidelines for the way you're supposed to put reviews up there.
Dan Vance: And discounts or enticing is a violation of Google's. And for sure, Yelps will just close you down. Well, they won't close you down. They'll just make you like a one rating star. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, yeah, they'll take away all your reviews, and I've seen Google do that. I saw Google take a shop from 440. Reviews down to 80.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Overnight because they were incentivizing five star reviews. Yeah. So it's not good. 
Dan Vance: I do have a tip for you though, like if you're wondering like. Hey, I know this shop is intense. They're doing that. Then use AI to say, ai. Go read the reviews these guys have on Google My Business, and I wanna know what the sentiment is.
Dan Vance: I want to know what the negative comments are. I want to kind of get an idea of like, I. The underlining from the mass of data crunch, all that, mash it all up. Give me something good. And we had a shop, we did that too. And the reviews came back that basically said even though they were rated high like a five score, the sentiment was negative.
Dan Vance: Ne the sentiment was negative. And what we also saw was that there was common words like rude. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh my word. 
Dan Vance: And it was tied to services like brake repair and oil service. So that gave me the power and our client the power to kind of like display, like, we're really good at this, we're really good at these things.
Dan Vance: You'll have a better experience with this and we're not gonna pay you to give us a review. That doesn't really reflect the experience you had. So you can, so you gotta be 
Jimmy Lea: open to all reviews. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 stars. You need the full rainbow of flavors there, right? 
Dan Vance: Yeah. 
Dan Vance: Spam is a huge issue with reviews.
Dan Vance: Google's saying they want to fix it, but they, I don't think that problem ever goes away, but if you, but agencies can definitely do this for you, where they can go in and they can file complaints against that shop and identify specific reviews and hopefully get Google to take some kind of action. That's a lot of dang hard work, but it will generate some results, but the problem still doesn't go away.
Dan Vance: So it's much better to kind of tackle it another way just to say where are their weaknesses? And I'm gonna market to that and I might even run some Google ads. So I know somebody's searching for brake repair is gonna find me right up with that other guy, like I'm gonna start pulling away his lead source into me.
Dan Vance: And start hurting his business. 'cause he's doing bad business practice anyway. And I'm better at fixing breaks. That's my thing. I fix breaks. I'm really good at that. That's the problem I solve, right? Yeah. Porsche 
Jimmy Lea: breaks. I fix Porsche brake better than anybody else. I fix. Be 
Dan Vance: competitive and think that way.
Dan Vance: Like, okay, I'm not gonna try to go head to head, but I'm gonna look for where they're weak and where I'm strong and I'm just gonna pull those people. I'm a stronger magnet, I'm a better place for. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. I can't believe how quickly this hour has flown Dan. Phenomenal. So, so I want you to be thinking here, I'm gonna go into a little bit of a commercial for the institute, but then I want you to think, if you had a magic wand, what would you do in the automotive aftermarket?
Jimmy Lea: So I wanna let everybody here know that Dan is coming to our Mars intensive September 4, 5, 6 in Ogden, Utah. Ooh, I hope I have those dates right. September 4, 5, 6. Ogden, Utah. Mars is a marketing for the automotive repair shops. This is an intensive, we are limiting the number of seats, so it's gonna be a very good and intimate group.
Jimmy Lea: We're limiting the tickets to 40 tickets. The tickets just went on sale just the other day, and I think we've only got a few tickets that are sold so far. So those of you who are watching this that want to be here, you want to be here to ask questions. Dan, face to face. We're limiting the number of seats, so it is gonna be a really good conversation at our Mars Conference, our Mars Intensive marketing for repair shops.
Jimmy Lea: I'm so excited for it, Dan. It's, it is just gonna be an awesome event. We're gonna have so much fun. 
Dan Vance: It's always the best, really. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah, it is. All right. So Dan, if you had a magic wand, what would you change in the automotive aftermarket? I. 
Dan Vance: Well, we wanna change the thinking and we want people to accept the fact that AI is here.
Dan Vance: It's not going anywhere. It's just gonna be deeper and deeper water. So we're looking. We're about to announce, but I'm just gonna give you a T teases that we have some AI tools that are gonna empower shop owners to build a better, more marketing profile. And also some tools that'll sit on your website for better conversions that are all gonna be AI driven.
Dan Vance: So you wanna stay tuned for that because this stuff is coming and you can be on the forefront of like utilizing that for more success and it's not going away. This is something that we can do right now to empower. So that's kind of cool. That's what I think is gonna help the industry because we can't keep doing what we're doing and we gotta stop thinking about the way we've thought about search engines 10 years ago.
Dan Vance: 'cause nobody does that anymore. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Dan Vance: We gotta fix that. Gotta fix that. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, definitely gotta fix it. It The future is bright and we're here to be on that ride with you. So as we lock arms, we become greater together as an industry, we can rise together. Not all this, not everybody's ship is built the same.
Jimmy Lea: We're all in the same storm, and this storm is one crazy wicked weather pattern that we just can't predict. Yeah. So I'm super excited for what's coming up down the road. If you find this information fascinating and interesting, we've, we at the institute have partners like Dan that are gonna be there to help you and your shop.
Jimmy Lea: We have programs for advisors, managers. Owners with coaching one-on-one coaching, as well as 20 groups of shop owners that are getting together and holding each other accountable. It's a higher level of understanding, it's a higher level of coaching and training. You wanna advance yourself as quickly as possible to go from the face-to-face coaching on a one-on-one to a group environment.
Jimmy Lea: It'll just hockey stick your business. It's so much fun. So much fun. Yeah. Thank you Dan. We're having a great time, brother. I can't believe how quickly, let's not do it again fast. 
Dan Vance: I know. There's a lot more we haven't even started on. Let's do it again. I know. 
Jimmy Lea: We gotta schedule out our next webinar for sure.
Jimmy Lea: Let's talk after here and we'll get on the books here. 'cause man every three months it's a new lifecycle. Yeah. Every three months for sure. Sure. A hundred percent brother. Thank you everybody. Thank you for being here. Look forward to talking to you again here. And this week we have quite a few webinars, so hopefully you get to catch us a few times this week.
Dan Vance: Yeah, hope to see you soon. See you soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.

122 - Trust Your Wings: Embracing Your Authentic Story & Building a Bold Legacy

122 - Trust Your Wings: Embracing Your Authentic Story & Building a Bold Legacy
May 21st, 2025 - 00:51:24
 
Show Summary:
This episode dives into the journey of Tonnika Haynes, the dynamic leader behind Brown’s Automotive in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Hosted by Jimmy Lea, the conversation opens with laughter and memories, then unfolds into a powerful reflection on family legacy, leadership, and resilience. Tonnika shares how she went from being a little girl napping on a pleather couch in her father’s shop to running the service department solo after an unexpected handoff. She discusses the trials of business ownership, the lessons from her Marine father, and how she’s cultivated strength and success through grit, coaching, and personal growth. The episode is a must-listen for shop owners and aspiring leaders ready to turn life’s curveballs into victories.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Tonnika Haynes, Owner of Browns Automotive
 
Episode Highlights:
[00:03:00] - Tonnika recounts the early days of Brown’s Automotive, founded by her father after serving in the Marines.
[00:06:59] - In 2001, the business moved to a significantly larger location just two weeks before 9/11.
[00:08:01] - At age 16, Tonnika was unexpectedly left in charge of the shop, a pivotal learning experience.
[00:18:00] - In 2016, she was again thrust into leadership when her father retired, taking over the service department.
[00:23:00] - Tonnika discusses how The Institute helped her understand profitability and manage financial data with confidence.
[00:27:00] - She reflects on her greatest growth being in self-development and becoming a responsible leader for her team.
[00:35:17] - Her biggest business mistake: keeping the wrong people too long and the impact of toxic employees on culture.
[00:38:15] - Emphasizes hiring for character over skills, sharing success stories of loyal, high-integrity employees.
[00:40:45] - Tonnika shares her evolving “why” and plans to promote industry opportunities for youth and women.
[00:43:56] - If given a magic wand, she’d change the public’s perception of the industry to one of respect and professionalism.
 
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
 
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TVQMePOk8
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
 
Links & Resources: 
Want to learn more? Click Here
Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here
See The Institute's events list: Click Here
Want access to our online classes? Click Here
________________________________________
Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or goodnight, depending on when and where you are joining us from today. Hello my friends. It is good to see you. My name is Jimmy Lea. I am with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence and thank you for joining today.
Jimmy Lea: We are going to have an amazing discussion today with a very good friend, someone who I met a few years ago at ASTA at an NATA conference, Tonnika Haynes. Thank you, Tonnika for being here. You are awesome and I love your hairstyle. Sister, you are looking fly. This is nice. 
Tonnika Haynes: It's like Jimmy, it's like yours.
Tonnika Haynes: We're twins. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Two inch, two inch hair and it stands right up. It gets out to about three and it just falls down. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. I'm gonna cut it a little bit more so we'll be twins in Pennsylvania when I come See you at tools. 
Jimmy Lea: Hey, good. Yeah, you're gonna be at tools. That'll be fun. 
Tonnika Haynes: And oh, and I've got my jacket ready.
Jimmy Lea: You do? I got a couple ready. I'll be bringing a couple jackets 'cause jaded mechanic is supposed to be bringing my jacket back from Canada and I'll be bringing him a new jacket. 
Tonnika Haynes: Jeff had, what did he put, like one arm in your jacket? 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. He looked like the big man in a small jacket. That man in a coat.
Jimmy Lea: I need footage. I need to see that. Oh, sister. Oh he was on the stage at Asta. He's like, Hey, can I wear your jacket? Sure. Of course you can. Yeah.  
Tonnika Haynes: I gotta find a picture of that. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It was last year. 
Jimmy Lea: He was the panel. He, yeah, when he is MCing. Yeah. Which he had his back to us the entire time talking to the panel.
Jimmy Lea: That's funny. 
Tonnika Haynes: Okay. Let leave him alone. 
Jimmy Lea: Leave. He did such a. I, I was very proud of him. He has come a long way in the industry, so thank you for joining Tanika. And how's Brown's Automotive? How's the family? 
Tonnika Haynes: I'm doing good. Everybody's good. You know, work and life is a rollercoaster and we are riding, but mostly up, so.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Nice. 
Jimmy Lea: All good stuff is right. So, in our discussion today you are the rock star of Browns Automotive. You are the rock star of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Love Chapel Hill. Been there a couple times. Absolutely gorgeous. I wanna talk about Browns Automotive and your journey.
Jimmy Lea: And I think we need to go back to 1980 when your dad founded Browns Automotive after service in the Marines, who raw to the Marines. My daughter's in the Marines and our our own Ryan Daley is a Marine. So back to that what thank you to all those servicemen and women that are keeping us free and that are fighting for our freedoms.
Jimmy Lea: We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. What do you remember about his journey in him founding the shop? The foundation of the shop. What do you remember? 19 80, 81, 82, 83. What do you remember of dad setting up the shop? 
Tonnika Haynes: So, of course I was only three. I don't remember a whole lot. So when I look at the pictures, I remember just had, how busy was, he was always busy.
Tonnika Haynes: He worked like, I wanna say dad worked 18, 20 hour days. I remember summertime spending all the summer with dad and the dogs. We had dogs to keep me busy and falling asleep on this blue pleather couch and sweating to death 'cause it was summertime. But I do remember my dad being so busy. But I enjoyed it 'cause I would do anything to be around him still.
Tonnika Haynes: Just whatever. What are we doing? I don't know what he is doing, but I'm just gonna be standing beside dad to be with him. But a busy man is what he was. Yeah. Worked all the time. 
Jimmy Lea: So did he have employees? Was there more than him or was it him? A bucket and a wrench. And he ran the whole show. 
Tonnika Haynes: So, he did have employees, I wanna say I remember it only being maybe two or maybe three at the most in our older location in the beginning.
Tonnika Haynes: But he was hands on. He didn't just do the office that did office, and he was still the primary body man. And so he just had a couple employees. But yeah, mostly him. 
Jimmy Lea: So Brown's Automotive was a body shop? 
Tonnika Haynes: Yes. Brown's Automotive started as a body shop in 1980. Oh my. When did that? I'm the body shop world.
Tonnika Haynes: Oh, that's, yeah. A lot of people don't know that. So we started off in a body shop and we were in this very small location for a very long time, and we moved to our current location. And when we did that, my dad built two buildings. Because a lot of people don't know that insurance rates are very low still.
Tonnika Haynes: I believe the insurance rate is about 42 to $44 per hour. I don't think it's above 50 yet, but here's the kicker. 
Jimmy Lea: Wow. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. So if you get in an accident front end collision, or right, three quarter front, whatever, and you have suspension work that needs to be done right, the insurance company only pays that existing labor rate.
Tonnika Haynes: So at the time, I think when we got out, it was like 38 to 40. What I could take that same work to be done at a local mechanic and they would pay them their full rate. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: And so you could sublet the work and they would pay it with no problem. So dad say, okay, I'm gonna play this game too. He built two buildings.
Tonnika Haynes: One was where I work now in the mechanic shop, different tax ID number, different name, and said, okay, well I will sublet the work to myself. And so that's how we got into the service side of everything. 
Jimmy Lea: Way to go pops. That is so smart. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. And so that's how we ventured into the service center. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that is so smart. Way to go. Yeah. That is very cool. So, how old was the business when you moved to the current location? Or what year was that you guys moved? We moved 
Tonnika Haynes: in 2001. We moved two, was it 2001? We moved two weeks before nine 11. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh my word. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yes. So we moved in like a location that was probably, I'm not really good with square footage, but I wanna say about 30 times the size of our first location.
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Like, we don't have enough furniture to fill this place up. 
Tonnika Haynes: Right? There was construction on the highway in front of our building. They were widening the street and two weeks before nine 11. So let's talk about struggles. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, that's a struggle bus for sure. 
Tonnika Haynes: We are still here. 
Jimmy Lea: You're still here and you're doing well and still kicking.
Tonnika Haynes: Yep. 
Jimmy Lea: That's good. That's good. So you moved into current location 2011. Was that the first summer that you were handed the reins and Pop said, have at it? Good luck, sister. 
Tonnika Haynes: So summer I turned 16, but that would've been 93. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, you were at the old location? 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah, we did at the old location, just in the body shop.
Tonnika Haynes: And it was the summer I turned 16 because I had my own car. I could drive back and forth to work by myself and I get to work early in the summer and dad looks at me and he says, okay, I'm going on vacation. Yeah, brother just left me there and told me to handle it. Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: You're 16 and he's like, here's the keys.
Tonnika Haynes: That's how my father, any and everything, that's how he's gonna teach you. You wanna learn how to swim? Yeah. Wanna learn how to swim? Let's go to the middle of the lake. I'll push you in order. But did you die? Like the whole, but did you die? That was way before that movie. Yeah. Uhuh. Yeah. But that's how he taught.
Tonnika Haynes: But then people say, well, you know, you're only 16. I know as a mother now, and I know as his daughter for the last 48 years that. He was teaching me the whole time I had been taking classes from William Brown since I was three. Yeah. So in order for this man to leave his 16-year-old daughter alone for what, two or three months, he already trusted me.
Tonnika Haynes: You know what I'm saying? 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So he had taught you for, let's call it 13 years, right? You were in tutelage for 13 years. You had a master's degree in running the shop. Where most people they're not even close. So speaking of that dynamic you mentioned it just here in the same sentence, your father and William Brown.
Tonnika Haynes: Oh yeah. What's 
Jimmy Lea: the difference between working with dad and working with William Brown? 
Tonnika Haynes: I've never worked with my dad. My dad has me rotten. I'm spoiled. Oh yeah. Daddy, I need a dolphin. Okay. I'm on the way to get your dolphin baby. I am spoiled, but William Brown, that's a different person. William Brown is a teacher.
Tonnika Haynes: He is Mr. Miyagi. So how do you teach a 16-year-old girl to run your shop or any 16-year-old girl or boy to leave them at the shop your business, and you just leave that way? Because for the last 13 years I was straight up doing some wax on, wax off and didn't really know that I was practicing karate moves.
Tonnika Haynes: You get it? Like we had to think about the karate kid. Everybody knows that. Yeah. Coat on, coat off, wax on, wax off, paint up, paint down. And then at the end of that, when it was time to fight, it was just natural for him. And so when it was time for me to fight, it was just natural. 
Jimmy Lea: You were ninja. 
Tonnika Haynes: You were nin is the what do you call him?
Tonnika Haynes: Sensei. 
Jimmy Lea: He was your sensei. Oh, absolutely. Right. So 13 years of training, he hands you the keys, like I mean, when we say, he says, I'm going on vacation, was he gone? 
Tonnika Haynes: He was gone. No, he was, I mean, he was at home. I don't know what he did between office hours, but he was not at 1 0 2 Cobb Street. So he was gone.
Tonnika Haynes: No. 
Jimmy Lea: Huh. Wow. Wow. I mean, I know 
Tonnika Haynes: that's not true. He had to, for the people that know my father. Yeah. And the people that are watching this or that will watch it, they're laughing 'cause they know that's who he is. So yeah. That's how it was taught. So yeah, eh, go do it. What? But nothing. Go do now.
Tonnika Haynes: Love you. Bye. 
Jimmy Lea: The butts have it. Get down. Yeah. Let's count. Oh, wow. 
Tonnika Haynes: Right. 
Jimmy Lea: Do you feel like that training prepared you? Like you were ready? Or did you feel like you were still unsure? 
Tonnika Haynes: I'm pretty sure I was still unsure. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, 
Tonnika Haynes: but you can't live like life like that. I wasn't raised like that.
Tonnika Haynes: You didn't, that wasn't an option for you to sit back and say, well, what if what if it's gonna be fine? So you, if you're gonna fail, you're gonna fail forward. Like before all these cliches came out, this is how I was raised. So if you're unsure, you know, we'll talk about that tomorrow. But right now we've got stuff to do.
Tonnika Haynes: So I couldn't sit and have a pity. Have customers and employees and cars to fix. Yeah. So maybe at night when I went home, I might have cried in my pillow or whatever and not have come to Jesus, but from eight to five or whatever the hours were, there was no room for that. Right. And I'm not sure that's So like the people out there to watch it like that seems so cruel.
Tonnika Haynes: It's not. That's actually what a lot of people need. You know, that push that, I mean, not a gentle push, but a shove and like go and do it. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Yeah. Yes. Well, for sure. Right, for sure. Do you think, do you feel that because of your upbringing, you have raised your sons the same? 
Tonnika Haynes: Yes. Poor kids. And I know when people see them online, they think they are spoiled.
Tonnika Haynes: 'cause again, they have their mom and then there's Tanika. But I know, and as they get older, so they're 19 and Santana will be 21 in a couple weeks. When your kids come back and they tell you things in a light that, hey, they got it like they were listening. Or when they're comparing themselves to other kids like, mom, this dude cannot find his way out of a paper bag because it's real.
Tonnika Haynes: Like these 20-year-old kids don't know how to do anything because we huddled them a lot. I mean, I love my boys from the moon and back. I mean, I, if I could pick them up and put them in my pocket, I would, but I know they can't live in my pocket. The world is no matter, the world is ugly, it's cutthroat.
Tonnika Haynes: People are mean. Society is a mess. You're gonna find people in your life that are gonna bring you in and take care of you and love on you, but for the most part, the world doesn't give a crap about you. And that sounds so mean. And I'm pretty sure the comment section is gonna flip out, but it's not a lie.
Tonnika Haynes: And I wasn't gonna raise my kids on a lie. 
Jimmy Lea: Right, right. So yeah, 
Tonnika Haynes: suck it up buttercup. You fall down, get up and try it again. Their knees are skinneded up. There's plenty of blood on my carpet. They went outside to play and they smelled really bad when they came in. They did sports, but they didn't do sports.
Tonnika Haynes: 'cause I thought they were going to the NBA or the NFL or whatever, like Santana's a big joker. But that's not why I put them in sports. I put them in sports to be coachable. 
Jimmy Lea: I 
Tonnika Haynes: put them in sports so they would have to listen to other people. 'cause they will have to listen to other people in the world.
Tonnika Haynes: Totally. Like even you gotta think in families Now. When I got in trouble as a kid, you got in trouble with everybody because it was a village, right? You got in trouble with the neighbor, the little old lady up the street. Everybody heard about it. Everybody helped you raise like I thought coaches were very important for them.
Tonnika Haynes: Their grandfather, William Brown, was very important. So yeah, I was very strict, but with a purpose. And now I can see the difference in my kids versus from others, but we won't talk about that. 
Jimmy Lea: No well, I'll tell you a quick story about my son. 
Tonnika Haynes: We were 
Jimmy Lea: at church and somebody came up to me and he says, Hey, can my son hang out with your son?
Jimmy Lea: I was like odd requests, but yeah, sure. Why? Well, your son seems to have street smarts, like he's got common sense and. My son doesn't have so much. Right? Like, yeah. Well you're gonna have to let him out. He's gonna be able to have to go outside and stay out after dark. Yes. You okay with this? And he is like, Ooh, let check with my wife.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. There's boogeyman out 
Tonnika Haynes: there, but the boogeyman iss gonna be out there when they're adults too. So won't we teach 'em about 'em now? 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, teach 'em. Let 'em learn. Skin, knees, skin, elbows. Yes. Yes. More please. Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: But now you know, the kids are like this. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh 
Tonnika Haynes: yeah. They can make eye contact and they can't have a conversation.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. My girls so I was a scoutmaster for 18 years. And I would take my girls out and I. Coach and train and teach them. They knew all the knots and sharpen knives and light fires. And my daughter now is Marine and she's in Hawaii, but she's been deployed and I think it has prepared her and them with confidence and ability to do stuff.
Jimmy Lea: I told my girls, I, I would take you into any Boy Scout competition before I take any of these boys. 
Tonnika Haynes: Well, but it starts early. You have to start early in 'cause you're training up teeny humans. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: You know, but they're not gonna be q forever. You're training your next, the next husband, the next wife, an employee, a boss.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Yes. And in fact, to your point there, Tanika, I was asked, why in the world are you a scout master? You only have girls because I had two girls. And there's, so there's three years between the two girls and then five years between the my youngest daughter and my son. Why? Why are you doing boy scouts?
Jimmy Lea: And I said, well, one of these yahoos gonna wanna marry my girl, so I'm gonna make sure these yahoos are worthy. 
Tonnika Haynes: Exactly. And people forget about that. I think we do forget about that when it comes to raising kids and we're so busy. But I mean, children are a gift. Yes. Sometimes curse, but they're a gift and God gives you these, this child and says, okay, what are you gonna do with it?
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah, you just gonna get him a bunch of toys. What are you gonna teach him? You gonna wait for the school to do it? Yeah. What is he gonna do when he has to go outside and like the boogey man is outside and he doesn't recognize the boogey man. 
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. So, yep. Totally agree. I think Crystal has said it very well that you're training these children while they're young, because then when they get old, they'll remember.
Jimmy Lea: And
Tonnika Haynes: I'm at the phase of remembrance. I'm getting to hear it from my kids that they remember. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Isn't not, we're doing something right. Yep. We're doing something right. So now to the time in your life, 2016, you take over Brown's auto. What does that look like? What's that transition? I mean, is this like when you turn 16 and Pop says, here's the keys.
Jimmy Lea: Good luck. God bless you. Love you. 
Tonnika Haynes: Actually, it was. I haven't thought about. Yes, because listen, we're a body shop. We're just using the service department for to keep it in house. 
Jimmy Lea: Right. We didn't 
Tonnika Haynes: mark it to the outside. We didn't mark Brown's Tire and Automotive is what it was called at the time. We didn't do any of that.
Tonnika Haynes: And so when he retired and he made a decision to rent out the body shop, which I knew. And left me the service department, which I did not know. I didn't know, I didn't know anything about that. Sister was mad. Jim was mad. I was mad and sad. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, you're mad is here. He goes, throws you in the deep end again.
Tonnika Haynes: He threw me in the deep end again. As a matter of fact, I think we should call him right now and ask him what his problem is, like get him on the phone. He threw me. He, but he knows what he's doing. I look back, he knew what he was doing. He pushed me outta my comfort zone. Again, nobody asked him to do all of that, but that's what he did.
Tonnika Haynes: And I remember thinking to myself, 'cause the boys were young okay, all if I can just make this amount of money, I need this amount money to break even. And then I just have to have this amount of money to make sure I can pay the bills. And I was just in a mindset of, okay, I just need to figure out enough to get by.
Tonnika Haynes: And so I became the state inspection and oil change queen. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh goodness. 
Tonnika Haynes: I would say yes to everything because
Jimmy Lea: that's what you knew 
Tonnika Haynes: somebody said to do. And I entertained all the bottom 
Jimmy Lea: feeders 
Tonnika Haynes: and I ran myself crazy, I think. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yep. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: I think my average repair order, I looked back, it was maybe a hundred dollars if it was that.
Tonnika Haynes: Since we've been talking numbers, I just went back, I was like, oh my goodness, how far have I come? But yeah, and so I didn't have confidence, not be, I did have it, I just didn't know it. So let me rephrase that. But yeah, he threw me on the deep end again and says, okay, what are you gonna do? Now 
Jimmy Lea: what? 
Tonnika Haynes: Now what?
Jimmy Lea: How do you like me now? 
Tonnika Haynes: You like me now? So, yeah. Oh, you work for your dad. It must be great. It is great. It is great. It ain't easy because he's like, because he knows who I am and he knows what I can do. And you know, at times we can doubt ourselves. And Dad wasn't having that. I remember in high school he would say, if I would get a C well I don't have no average child.
Tonnika Haynes: Ain't nothing about you. Average. So what you get that for? I'm just like, I just, I did. Okay. Okay. Is not good enough for William Brown. Neither it is from, it's not for me either. I've grown into that, but I'm more like him than I think, which is scared to say out loud, which I'm just like that man. But if he wouldn't have pushed me, then 
Jimmy Lea: what?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: We'll be talking to you. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, I'm glad he pushed you. I'm glad you survived the deep end. I'm glad that you are able to stand up to the challenges and you've trained and taught your beautiful boys the same. Principles, the same character, the same work ethic. Yes. And I'm glad that they're coming back to you saying the same thing.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you, mom. My friends really don't know what they're doing. 
Tonnika Haynes: It's hilarious. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: I was like, oh yeah, mom, you remember, you know what the worst, my worst, best punishment was. I'm like, why are we having these conversations? And they can remember. That's how my father was. You know, you did something once. Oh, you were not gonna do it again?
Tonnika Haynes: No. He taught lessons, not abusive. I mean, in 2025 standards, you know, somebody probably should call it Department of Social Services, but hey, it worked. Oh, it does. It does. 
Jimmy Lea: And the 
Tonnika Haynes: couple of, 
Jimmy Lea: just as the song says, the children are our future and we've gotta train 'em. Right. 
Tonnika Haynes: Because 
Jimmy Lea: we don't want a bunch of marshmallows running in the future.
Tonnika Haynes: No. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yep. 
Jimmy Lea: So question for you about joining the the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. 
Jimmy Lea: What have you learned? What have you grown to what were, if you were to describe your experience to somebody else, what would you tell them? 
Tonnika Haynes: So, this has been good for me. My coach is good.
Tonnika Haynes: Jennifer's, she's good. She can call me on my own bull crap. 'cause I got a lot of y'all. I get in my own way and one thing that I have not, in the nine years I've been completely on my own a hundred percent. I've been afraid of the numbers. Truly understanding them. You know, in the beginning you learn about your KPIs, you learn how to set your labor rate and whatever, but one thing that I struggle with is you thinking, okay, I'm a million dollar shop, but hey, are you a profitable million dollar shop?
Tonnika Haynes: What? There's a difference. Bottom line, there's a difference. What is your bottom line? Are you recycling money or do you have money to spare? And how much of that million dollars did you profit? You know, was it 8%, 1122? What do you know and where's your money going? Like, how much did you spend on charity?
Tonnika Haynes: How many elementary school charities can you donate to What is your marketing budget? So digging into the numbers and having a resources I love it. I love it that you can just go and press, play and listen to a class. I love the reporting that I get back every day. Those daily emails that are telling you, Hey, you're on track.
Tonnika Haynes: Hey, you not on track. But watching those numbers, which people are afraid of, I'm still afraid of them. That has been like one of the biggest things for me, actually, seeing where my money's coming in, where it's going out, making adjustments so I can keep more in my pocket. Make an adjustments so we can pay your employees better and make an adjustment so that I can actually offer benefits.
Tonnika Haynes: You know, I can't say that the institute did it, but before the institute, you know, I had I didn't have health insurance, but now I have health, life, disability, vision. I can offer all of that stuff now because I know exactly where my money is and I know exactly how to spend it. 
Jimmy Lea: Well, I, there's most people that don't need lessons in how to spend it 'cause they can spend it very well.
Jimmy Lea: But it's definitely more important to know where to spend it and why To spend how to spend it. Exactly. Yeah. I love that. And you went to college for accounting? 
Tonnika Haynes: I went to college for accounting. But here's the thing. My first couple classes my i's were crossing, even now when I have to do my composite reporting, I will get a message like, hey.
Tonnika Haynes: Put your numbers in. I'm like, oh my God, because you know, your, I start across and there's like a million numbers on there and no, so I didn't graduate as an accountant. I just know I decided to change courses. Business administration is what I did in management and marketing. So numbers are scary to me.
Tonnika Haynes: I'm no I'm no accountant. 
Jimmy Lea: No. 
Tonnika Haynes: I could fight people that develop QuickBooks. Right. We wanna fight people to develop. I do, but it has to be done. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: It has to be done. If I'm going to succeed and I'm gonna bring in a million or two or eight, you can't just be bringing it in and not budgeting and not bouncing your checkbook.
Jimmy Lea: Right. 
Tonnika Haynes: Crazy now, wouldn't it? 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No I'm glad you're paying attention to the numbers. I'm glad you're able to know. The million dollar successful shop is the one that is able to have more money in the bank every year. 
Tonnika Haynes: Right. 
Jimmy Lea: It's how much you keep, it's 
Tonnika Haynes: how much you keep. 
Jimmy Lea: Is there, what are some of the biggest successes or breakthroughs that you've had since stepping into an ownership or leadership position?
Tonnika Haynes: Oh, that's a good question. Biggest success. It sounds arrogant, but I would have to say my self development.
Tonnika Haynes: Don't know how to elaborate on that without crying. So I'm not doing this with you right now, Jimmy, LOL. But continuing to learn to be myself, continuing to grow, continue to allow myself to be challenged by different things. I'm responsible for currently eight households. 
Tonnika Haynes: So we talk about leadership, we talk about running the business, but I'm literally responsible for feeding eight families 
Jimmy Lea: and the roof and the utilities, and the right shoes on the babies and the diapers.
Tonnika Haynes: So I don't get to crawl in the hole and cry and die. I have to step up, you know, I have to move forward. I have to keep learning. And so just con the learning part of it. And I feel like, and I know people, oh, you're already doing it. Leadership, that's a good word. Like everybody leadership.
Tonnika Haynes: That is a scary word. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: You know, leading I. My family of employees. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: Being I'm saying a lot. I'm sorry 'cause it really tickles my heart, but people are actually looking up to me in the industry, so that's weird. You know, the direct messages, they're asking real business questions.
Tonnika Haynes: I'm like, whatcha asking me for, I dunno, either. I'm in the same boat as you guys, but yeah, just growing in my, in myself. 
Jimmy Lea: For me. How do you feel like your leadership has changed over, I mean, shoot, since you've been doing this in 96? 
Tonnika Haynes: It's still a work in process. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: Because William Brown was the leader forever, and then for, I had an employee mindset.
Jimmy Lea: Right. 
Tonnika Haynes: So changing your mindset from an employee to the boss or the leader, the business owner, making all those executive decisions, that's a lot of growth there. 
Jimmy Lea: It is. So how can we prepare, or what advice would you give to an aspiring shop owner who is stepping out of the shoes of employee into the shoes of business ownership?
Jimmy Lea: How do they. Work on that mindset to be the boss. 
Tonnika Haynes: I would change what is entering into your ears? For me, it started with a lot of podcasts, a lot of motivational speakers, a lot of books, a lot of audio books. Reading Fundamental. I would tell somebody to find a business owner that you admire. And get in their ear and ask for help because you know, I've never been a mechanic.
Tonnika Haynes: I can't turn wrenches, right? But here's what I can do. I can cook, a sister can cook. I can cook, man, I can make a me macaroni and cheese. But just because you can do that doesn't necessarily mean you can go open a restaurant. Right. So I think sometimes in the forms and the Facebook groups, you know, people are asking questions like, how much do I charge?
Tonnika Haynes: People don't know how to set their labor rate to be profitable and to pay the bills. I will tell that person take business classes 'cause it's more than just fixing the car. 
Jimmy Lea: Right, right. Well, and with those nails, you are definitely not turning a wrench, sister. No, by the way, gorgeous. You have gorgeous nails.
Jimmy Lea: Love, love your nails. So what are you reading right now 
Tonnika Haynes: again? I am reading profit First again. 
Jimmy Lea: Nice. I'm going through 
Tonnika Haynes: that. You know, we, my favorite thing to read is nothing to do with Business. 
Jimmy Lea: Okay. 
Tonnika Haynes: It's The Alchemist. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I need to read that. I've heard that before. 
Tonnika Haynes: So I actually don't read it every time I listen to it on the audiobook, probably twice a year.
Jimmy Lea: Oh wow. You really like this book. 
Tonnika Haynes: I the story is amazing. The story can apply to anybody. It's about finding your personal goal. He is going after these goals. It's hard to explain, but I love it. The audio audible version because it's a story being taught to you so you don't have to really focus on the book.
Tonnika Haynes: 'cause you can get lost in the pages, but once you listen to it over and over again, it sticks with you. And I started listening to it in the car. When we take trips, long trips with the kids, like, we're gonna be in here forever. We're gonna listen to books. So that is the book that I listen to all the time.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. It's like the the book, the Richest Man in Babylon. It's a story. The 
Tonnika Haynes: Richest Man in Baby. It's a story just like that. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. And a big shout out there to Parker's comment about go to your local Chamber of Commerce. Take all the business classes and courses that you can possibly take, consume it, absorb it, sponge it.
Tonnika Haynes: Yep. And a lot of this stuff is out here for free, right. I mean, there are some things that the Institute offers for free. You've got a couple free. Classes in there there's free stuff available. You have to start somewhere. And the key word is starting, 
Jimmy Lea: like yes, 
Tonnika Haynes: I know it sounds cliche, but a lot of people just do not know what they don't know or they think they know everything.
Tonnika Haynes: If you know everything, then you might as well just be dead. You should always be learning. Always. Nobody knows everything. 'cause even, like, who is it? I'm not a sports person, but basketball. You think about basketball, you got five guys on the court, NBA. They're good. They're the cream and a crop, right? Best of the best.
Tonnika Haynes: And on the side, on the sideline, who's the coach? What does the coach look like? Does he look like them? Not necessarily. He can't do that anymore. He can't run up and down that court. He'd die. I mean, he's an overweight, older guy, but he's got the experience, right? 
Jimmy Lea: Yes. 
Tonnika Haynes: And when the clock is at what? So the clock is at.
Tonnika Haynes: 10 seconds. Right? Game's about be over. It's Todd. You've got these million dollar players looking for this guy on the sideline. What? Help me out, coach. Yep. Yeah. Great Stu. Even NBA players have coaches, so everybody should help a coach. And I know if, oh, coaches are stupid, that man took my money. Every coaching company is not gonna fit every person a personality.
Tonnika Haynes: But to not get one and to not need one, to not need one, to think you need one. That would be like one of the biggest. Mistakes that a person can make. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: In my opinion, 
Jimmy Lea: yeah. Coaching companies have value. 
Jimmy Lea: Check it out. Go in there, be part of it. Dig in deep. If it's not your jam, if it's not your song, don't go it.
Jimmy Lea: Go find the next one. Go find the one that connects with you. 
Tonnika Haynes: Right? 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I mean, all these professional athletes that not only do they have one coach. They might have 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 coaches. I think of Michael Phelps as a swimmer. I was a swimmer in high school and he had like seven coaches, one for each stroke, one for his flip turns, one for his dive, one for his streamline.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You gotta have multiple coaches looking out for you. 
Tonnika Haynes: Right, because you can't let your arrogance cost you money. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, amen. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, okay. Oh, man. We could just keep going down this road of path learning setbacks. Oh, yes. We learn more from failures than we do successes.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Tanika, what is one of your greatest, strongest, most impactful failure that taught you the most? 
Tonnika Haynes: Keeping people too long. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, 
Tonnika Haynes: employees. Yes. What do they say? You have to be quick to fire. Fire higher, slow to higher, quick to fire. I had never practiced that. I've kept people in places too long. And that's been it for me, and I'm still working on it.
Tonnika Haynes: I'm a work in process in progress, so. Keeping people too long keeping the wrong person in that position. People are not always who they are in front of you. In the last 60 days, I fired two service advisors hired and fired. Two, you gotta go. I would get up. Gotta go. 
Jimmy Lea: Wow.
Tonnika Haynes: But it took a long time for me to get there because, you know, I need them.
Tonnika Haynes: I need them. You do not. And the quicker you fire them, the quicker you'll be forced to hire the next person. 
Jimmy Lea: Well. It's almost like you're attracting the right person. Like you, you've gotta get rid of this bad apple. 
Tonnika Haynes: Because 
Jimmy Lea: The right person will not be attracted to your shop or to your business, right.
Jimmy Lea: With this cancer or this bad apple in your community, in your culture. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. I've had technician that we had to fire, and when I fired him, it was like the sun came out in the back of the shop. I mean, like everybody's attitude changed and I'm sitting there like, y'all didn't like him. Why You didn't say something?
Tonnika Haynes: We did. You were not listening. You thought you had to have them. It's like, oh, okay. So that was me. You put that on me I'll take that. But it will mess up. You know? I say one bad apple. It's true. It's true. All those cliches are true. So yeah, I've had some hiring problems. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: But we found solutions now.
Tonnika Haynes: Like the team I have now, very proud of them, 
Jimmy Lea: so. Okay. So, and thank you and I'm glad you're proud of your team. Do you hire, there's a question for, we've got a webinar coming up that's going to deep dive into this with Promotive and Mike Gross of Glen's Auto Outta California. Into, are you hiring for skill or character?
Tonnika Haynes: I'm focusing on hiring for character. The people that I've hired for character in the past are still with me. Resumes lie. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, people 
Tonnika Haynes: lie. Trying to dig into someone's character and figure out who they really are. I'm struggling with that 'cause I try to love and like everybody Yeah. Most of the time.
Tonnika Haynes: But the people that I've hired in the past for character, and I'm not gonna say his name, I'm gonna say his name, everybody's name. I remember the first young man I hired. He literally said, I'm not a mechanic. I know how to change parts. He's been with me nine years. I remember him saying that nine years ago.
Tonnika Haynes: Wow. He's got integrity written all over him. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: My newest service advisor, she is 20, 22 now, but she was 20 when she started with me, but I knew she was the one after hours of having a conversation, you know? I can teach skills, she can get training, I can, Albert can get training. You have to want it, you know, everything else can be taught, but an attitude, integrity, you're born with that stuff and I'm not gonna try to coach that out of you.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I like what, yeah. I've already 
Tonnika Haynes: raised two kids. Yeah. We're not doing that. 
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. We raised two. We're good. I like what Stu said here, that you hire for attitude, not aptitude.
Tonnika Haynes: That's true 
Jimmy Lea: because it's, and 
Tonnika Haynes: that's hard to hear because you want to put somebody in that position, say, Hey, you already know how to do it.
Tonnika Haynes: I don't have to spend time and money. Yay. Now I can leave and go to the 
Jimmy Lea: beach. Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: But no matter how much money they're bringing in, so they've got a $1,200 a RO, the customers hate 'em. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: So they sold that one job, they'll never be back. Yeah. So they can, you know, do this job in 50% of book time.
Tonnika Haynes: Everybody else in the shop hates 'em. Yeah. And you're slowing down everybody else because there's so much venom back there. Yep. That's tough. Tough. It's a crazy struggle. But that is, that's it for me. That's my struggle. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it is. It is. Alright, so let's talk about today. What makes you the most proud about Brown's Automotive today?
Tonnika Haynes: Well, that I can sit here in my health. A webinar and know that the people that are there running the show are doing a great job.
Tonnika Haynes: That my community stands up for me. That when people walk in the doors and I see them, and I don't, not at the front desk all the time, that I can still remember their names, that we can catch up that we're not too big for our britches yet. That our customers are really celebrating our growth, so it feels good.
Jimmy Lea: I love that. That's very cool. Very cool. What is the future of Brown's Automotive? What does that look like for Tanika? 
Tonnika Haynes: So that is something that everybody should ask themselves, and that's another one, you know, was that Simon said, you know, your why. So my why has changed big. So like the kids are gone.
Tonnika Haynes: My why was always about Santana and Jordan. It still is, you know, but it's not my focus 'cause they're adults now. So now that's been the question for the last year or so. What next? And for me I know I say I'm not gonna do it, but I think after I, when I turn 50, I'll probably be a multi shop owner. I might have another location, so that may be in the stars.
Tonnika Haynes: We won't talk about it. But I want to continue to use my voice in whatever platform that I can build to encourage the youth to come into the industry. I think they get a bad rep. Also, and I want more women naturally to speak out, speak up, come into the industry like you. Imagine a young lady's that's been wrenching with her dad or her pop for the last couple years, and she's really not interested in being in the back of the shop.
Tonnika Haynes: There's a spot for her in the front of the shop, you know? Yeah. So there's so many opportunities in the industry for our youth, and I wanna highlight that. So I think my future is about not teaching and coaching, 'cause that's not me. I don't think that's me at all. But promoting the industry 
Jimmy Lea: good. And growth.
Tonnika Haynes: And growth. 
Jimmy Lea: I hear growth. I hear growth in, in promoting and communicating. And promoting the automotive aftermarket to the next generation, right? Both male and female. This is a great opportunity there. There is a space here. 
Tonnika Haynes: For 
Jimmy Lea: everybody, for whatever your interest might be, whether it's tech and wrenching service, advising, selling management.
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. 
Jimmy Lea: Marketing. Oh yeah. Marketing, communication, social media websites. Yeah. There's so much that can be done in this industry. I. We just need more people to know about it. 
Tonnika Haynes: Right? So I wanna be a part of that. 
Jimmy Lea: I agree. Well, we will make sure and help in any way we can to make sure that you're part of that.
Jimmy Lea: All right magic wand question now, before we ask the magic wand question, if there's any questions, comments, concerns that people have that are part of our audience, type in your questions now so we can ask Tanika. What your questions are, put them in the comments so that we can ask and get some feedback from Tonnika as she has just done such a phenomenal job with Brown's Automotive.
Jimmy Lea: I'm sure your pops is just so proud of you and what you've accomplished. 
Tonnika Haynes: He says he is. I think he is. 
Jimmy Lea: I think he is. I hope so. Okay. Well, we're not gonna cry. 
Tonnika Haynes: No, we're. 
Jimmy Lea: No, we're not doing that. Not today. Magic wand question goes into if you had a magic wand, Tanika, and maybe it's a magic wrench for the automotive industry, if you had a magic wand and you were to wave this wand, what would you change about the automotive aftermarket?
Tonnika Haynes: I would change how the public perceives us. I would change I wouldn't allow YouTube mechanics. 
Jimmy Lea: I wouldn't 
Tonnika Haynes: allow people to just be able to go into AutoZone or wherever and buy parts and try to fix it. I mean, some things, yeah. But I wish we had more respect from the public and sometimes I believe that some of that problem comes from us.
Tonnika Haynes: The industry itself. But I wish I could wave a magic wand and get some respect on. For automotive professionals, you know, because we're fixing one of the, you know, maybe the second most expensive thing people are gonna buy. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: And drive their families around in it. Okay. Yeah. It could potentially kill you or someone else.
Tonnika Haynes: Yet they want us to be the cheapest, the same conversations that customers have. With the last minute stuff. All the things that we all know that run us crazy are not had with the HVAC company. They're not had the plumber, the electrician you call HVAC and you, it is hot. It's 95 degrees outside and 110 in your house, and they tell you we'll be out to see you next Tuesday.
Tonnika Haynes: You know what you say? Oh man. Okay. We're gonna charge you to come out there and sometimes they will charge you a prepayment to show up and you know what we say? Okay. But we do not get the same respect. So if I had that, Juan, Jimmy, and I would have some like rhinestones on it, it'll be very glittery, Juan.
Tonnika Haynes: Okay. Of course it 
Jimmy Lea: would. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yes, that is, yeah. I would just make that happen for us. 
Jimmy Lea: You, your wand. And my wand will be twins for sure. Yeah. 
Tonnika Haynes: You wand. We'll make 
Jimmy Lea: that happen. Oh, I love that. The wave of the wand is for respect and perspective. 
Tonnika Haynes: Exactly. 
Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. All right. I got a couple of rapid fire questions I wanna throw at you.
Jimmy Lea: This is a one word answer only. Let's end with a couple of quick hits. What is your leadership style? 
Tonnika Haynes: Wealthy. 
Jimmy Lea: What is your favorite car? 
Tonnika Haynes: Mercedes. 
Jimmy Lea: Which Mercedes?
Tonnika Haynes: Right now I'm looking for S 63 or G Wagon. Ooh. I have just a E 43 and a 400. 
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Well then that G wagon, that'll put some tax benefits for you too, by the way. 
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah, I've been working on that for a while, but I gotta take it easy 'cause I know what my numbers are and. 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Shop culture in one word.
Tonnika Haynes: Silly fun. Had I say two? 
Jimmy Lea: That's okay. Biggest strength. 
Tonnika Haynes: Ooh, pass. 
Jimmy Lea: One thing. You never leave home without. 
Tonnika Haynes: Red lipstick. 
Jimmy Lea: It might not 
Tonnika Haynes: be your own, but it's in my pocketbook because I gotta be ready at all times. 
Jimmy Lea: Ready at all times. Biggest motivator. 
Tonnika Haynes: My kids. 
Jimmy Lea: Oh, amen. Secret. 
Tonnika Haynes: All kids. All kids. But definitely my kids.
Jimmy Lea: All kids. Yeah. Yep. Coffee or tea? 
Tonnika Haynes: Tea. Unsweetened. 
Jimmy Lea: Unsweetened. 
Tonnika Haynes: Don't judge me. Judge your mama. Don't judge me. 
Jimmy Lea: Yes ma'am. Late night or early riser? 
Tonnika Haynes: Early riser.
Tonnika Haynes: Like what? 
Jimmy Lea: You got a bad sister? Oh my gosh. Alright, last question. Legacy in one word,
Tonnika Haynes: it's gotta be two words. 
Jimmy Lea: Go for it. Two words. 
Tonnika Haynes: Hang.
Jimmy Lea: We said we weren't gonna do this. Gonna 
Tonnika Haynes: do this. Santana and Jordan, my babies. 
Jimmy Lea: Amen. Sister. It's family. It's family. Thank 
Tonnika Haynes: you Megan. 
Jimmy Lea: Thank you Megan. Yeah. Yeah. Family. It, at the end of the day, it is all about family. Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing in the industry. Thank you for your communication, your inspiration, your influence.
Jimmy Lea: Keep it going, sister. Keep it going. 
Tonnika Haynes: All right, Jimmy, I will. You too. 'cause you're doing a lot and we all appreciate you. 
Jimmy Lea: Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate the shout out. 'cause I'm a backup singer, but I'm a pretty good backup singer. 
Tonnika Haynes: You singing in the background? 
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So, and for the last couple of minutes here we throw out a commercial for the institute to say, Hey, you know what, we're all in this together.
Jimmy Lea: It's a crazy storm. Not all ships are created equal. If we lock arms and we do this storm together we can survive together, we can make it together, we can thrive together, we can make sure that no one's left behind because this crazy aftermarkets all about building a better business, resulting in a better life for you as a shop owner, and the net result is a better industry for all.
Jimmy Lea: So come join us at the Institute. We'd love to meet with you to talk about your business. No judgment, we'll talk about your numbers. No judgment. Where are you today? Let's do an analysis. Let's look at your numbers and see what can you do to improve. Or are you hitting on all eight cylinders and you're doing a great job?
Jimmy Lea: We'd love to sit down and talk to you. So as we conclude, there will be a QR code up for about 30 seconds. To which you can scan that QR code and set up an appointment with me or my team, and we can sit down and look at you and look at your shop and look at your numbers. My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute.
Jimmy Lea: Tanika. Thank you so much for joining me today. This has been so much fun. I look forward to seeing you next week. Bring your blank. 
Tonnika Haynes: Oh, I'm ready for it. Jim, you don't want none of this. 
Jimmy Lea: I know you're, I'm like nervous. I'm like I need a different jacket. 
Tonnika Haynes: I'm so sorry. Keep in the comments inside joke.
Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. You should join a fun, get a bling jacket. 
Jimmy Lea: Gotta bring a jacket. Bring a good jacket. Bring your jacket. Love you all. Thank you very much. See you again soon.