The Institute’s Leading Edge Podcast

The Institute’s Leading Edge Podcast is where forward-thinking Automotive Service and Repair Shop Owners come to sharpen their skills, expand their knowledge, and gain an edge in today’s competitive market. Hosted by The Institute’s team of seasoned consultants and leaders with decades of real-world experience, you’ll get direct, actionable advice tailored to the unique challenges of running and growing an auto repair business.

Each episode feels like a one-on-one coaching session. Whether it’s improving profitability, building stronger leadership skills, mastering marketing, developing your team, or planning for long-term success, you’ll find strategies you can implement right away.

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160 - How Mindset and Innovation Drove the Growth of Quality Auto Repair with David Marks
October 15, 2025 - 00:48:47

Show Summary:
David Marks of Quality Auto Repair joins Jimmy Lea to talk about his journey from working out of his backyard to running a successful three-bay shop in Overland, Missouri. He shares how learning the language of business through SCORE mentorship helped him secure funding and build his shop from the ground up. David opens up about mindset, the law of attraction, and how believing in himself pushed him from vision to reality. He discusses innovation through virtual assistants, reinsurance programs, and car sales that create new revenue streams for his business. The conversation also explores financial honesty, leadership, and the value of trust and transparency with employees. David closes with a call for greater camaraderie among shop owners and a reminder that success begins with mindset and accountability.

Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):
David Marks, Owner of Quality Auto Repair

Show Highlights:
[00:00:54] - David explains how his stepfather inspired his hands-on work ethic and love for fixing things.[00:04:55] - Time spent working in a parts warehouse became one of his biggest business advantages later on.[00:07:09] - How a SCORE mentor helped him understand business finance and secure his first bank loan.[00:10:22] - The law of attraction that took him from a backyard garage to a full shop.[00:13:57] - Discussing financial honesty, team involvement, and long-term planning.[00:15:05] - Core values of accountability, trust, transparency, and innovation displayed on his shop banner.[00:16:41] - Using a virtual assistant to handle marketing, social media, and customer follow-ups.[00:25:07] - Building a reinsurance company to cover comebacks and reinvest tax-free profits.[00:28:13] - Expanding with car sales and rentals to diversify income and strengthen customer relationships.[00:43:21] - Advocating for more camaraderie among shop owners and less negativity in online industry groups.

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?
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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, friend, Jimmy Lee here with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is David Marks, and he's joining from Quality Auto Repair. Now you live in Overland Park, but where's your shop? No, I'm in Overland Missouri. Overland Missouri.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh, dude, I was thinking you were in Kansas. I was like, Uhhuh. Wait a second, isn't it shop in like St. Louis, Missouri?
David Marks: Yeah, I'm west of St. Louis. Oh, okay. I'm in St. Louis County.
Jimmy Lea: Missouri. David, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. So glad to be able to connect with you as talk man. We've known each other for oh, more than a minute.
Jimmy Lea: I, I remember when you were do, man. I wanna say you were just starting out, but I don't think you were starting out. I think you were still wrenching in the shop for a lot of it.
David Marks: Yeah, it wa was, that was me. You know, we got connected at Vision. I started to go into vision and it's a progression.
David Marks: Jimmy, you know, I think it's mindset. It's that entrepreneurial mindset. It's growth authority, mindset. How do I get, you know, the goal is to get, the intention is to wake up every day. And be 1% better than I was the day before. You know, do I always, oh, I love that. You know, do I always accomplish that?
David Marks: Hell no. You know, but that's the intention and that's, you know, you know, it's, you know, I was with Kakuy and then going to vision and being affiliated with the, you know, industry trade groups. That's that growth oriented, you know, mindset. Yeah, and I still remember the stuff that you talked about in those classes.
David Marks: I've what's really cool about what you talked Jimmy, is it applies to business in general. It wasn't specific to the industry. 'cause a lot of the stuff you talked about. You know, I've taught all their business owners that like, Hey, Jimmy said this. My buddy said this. I said this. Yeah. Because it's so true.
David Marks: You know, I think, you know, 80% of business is pretty, is in industry specific. Yeah. There's that 20% that is industry specific, and there's a lot of stuff that you taught can be applied to. I don't care what business you're in, we're all in the people business at the, you know, big picture. So how do we apply this to people?
Jimmy Lea: I totally agree, man. Thanks for saying that, David. Yeah, I really appreciate that. It's been years and years that we've been doing these dish trainings and you're right. It's business applicable regardless of what program you're in or what stage you're in or whatever. So thank you for saying that.
Jimmy Lea: Um, I wanna dig that's a bit about, you're an I pass, but what about your pass? Where did you start? How did you start in the automotive aftermarket? Were you turning a wrench? Were you at high school? Did you have a tech program? How did you get started in automotive?
David Marks: My mom's second husband really influenced me.
David Marks: I'm sure I'm like, I'm sure a lot of people were late outta high school. I didn't not want to go to college. I was done with school and I didn't want like a dead end job. So my mom's second husband, he had a handyman business.
Jimmy Lea: And I started commercial. Like commercial and residential. Yeah.
David Marks: He was a carpenter.
David Marks: He would just, he just kind of a, he could kind of fix almost whatever was in front of him. So I started working with him and found out that I really like working with my hands. So I got into, so I got into automotive because a lot of days working with him, if we had outside work and it rained, we couldn't work, but.
David Marks: Automotive, we're kind of, we're not dependent on weather. You know, we can work, we
Jimmy Lea: have a roof,
David Marks: we got a roof over our head, you know, and I saw as a way to, you know, have a skill, have a trade, you know, make a good income and not do the traditional college route. So I went through, um, rank in tech here in St.
David Marks: Louis in the late nineties. Yeah. Then like I, you know, I bounced around like I think a lot of people do. I've got experience working in franchise dealers at the, all the franchise dealers here in St. Louis. They're all unionized. So I've got that experience. Worked at big box stores, worked at Independence.
David Marks: I tell you what, the biggest thing that I did that I had no clue at the time I was doing that benefited me is I worked at an independent parts store. I worked at an auto value bumper to bumper parts warehouse, you know, before I got my business started. That experience. Okay. Pay dividends that you can't put on a balance sheet.
David Marks: Okay. It's an asset because I know parts, I speak parts and I know exactly how to play the game with the parts stores and get away with it.
Jimmy Lea: Interesting.
David Marks: You know, it's, that is
Jimmy Lea: interesting. I've never had anybody say that before. So you could, if anybody, you could get that part and you could look at the part and you'd be like wrong one.
Jimmy Lea: Use news.
Jimmy Lea: It's
David Marks: understanding. It's understanding how to look 'em up. How to look up parts and know what's really in that box and it's play the game with the parts houses. Oh yeah, totally. You know, like I, you guys eat this part and here's why and not cross the line. Dang. You know? And it's about building relationships because being on that side of the fence, and now that I'm on this side of the fence, I've got a lot of good relationships on that, being on that side that have paid dividends and it's just for sure have to look stuff up.
David Marks: I can look stuff up very quickly and it's so that way too. When I call the parts stores, I speak their language. Yeah. Everything has its own language. You know, auto repair has its own language. Auto parts has its own language and it taught me a lot. Like it taught me the metric system. It taught me how to speak, how to, you know, here's what hex size is like if I'm ordering nuts and bolts, I speak that language.
David Marks: When you speak the language of the business you're doing business with, you get really good service and that's what it taught me.
Jimmy Lea: And I don't care. You get put a lot faster too. That's good. You get down the road a lot faster because you're speaking the same language. Your communication is flawless there.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. So, so you went from shop to shop. Then you went to the parts store and then what year is this now that you step out and say, okay, that entrepreneurial bug has bit and I am going to take the leap.
David Marks: So I bought a garage with the house in the front yard is how I guess. Whoa. I got started my back.
David Marks: I bought my gr If you look up on Zillow, my garage has more square footage than my house. I bought every single guy's dream house. I literally, you know, so I was working at the parts store at the time. Okay. And they knew I used to work for one of their customers, so they had me working on their delivery trucks, evenings and weekends.
David Marks: I was making really good money, Jimmy, doing it. I got really good at working on Ford Rangers and S tens. So about a year or so goes, they pulled that away from me for what reason? I don't know. And I got used to making that extra money. So somebody told me that, Hey, people advertise auto repair or car work on Craigslist.
David Marks: So I started advertising on Craigslist and I started getting work. I got an LLC, I worked my ass off every evening and night, and then I wean myself off the parts store. Because I wanted, I went all in on my backyard gig, okay? And then some time went by and I wanted to, I got nine. I got three tickets in nine years from the municipality working on my backyard garage.
David Marks: But I didn't care what I was doing. I didn't care. So, you know, eventually, you know, I wanted to get a storefront, a brick and mortar. I didn't wanna work on my backyard, so I went to some banks to try to get a loan and they all looked at my stuff like it was Egypts and hieroglyphics, you know, the profit statement of the balance sheet.
David Marks: I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know that I didn't know what I didn't know. So I'm a huge advocate for score. It's a free mentorship program from the SBA Society, um, society score. Society. Society of course, of retired executives. That's beautiful. And I got hooked up. I got hooked up with a gentleman named Gary Deacon.
David Marks: He owned multiple bus dealerships. Okay. So he taught me business. He taught me, this is how you put together a p and l. This is how you put together a balance sheet. And we worked on that. And then I went back to the bank. And he helped me write a business plan, and I got approved for a loan.
David Marks: You know, so nice. We took, I took warehouse space and turned it into a shop. I built a shop.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude, that's awesome. It didn't,
David Marks: It wasn't moving ready. We built it.
David Marks: And bought the lifts. I rent from an HVAC company, my landlord's HVAC company, so he is another guy like me, super real. He bought a building with the intent of doing what he's doing.
David Marks: So we split it and we built the shop. Whoa. It wasn't, yeah. So I'm super proud of what I was able to do there, and I opened, oh my gosh. With just me.
Jimmy Lea: And key point here. Communication using their language. You had to learn the language of business and finance. Yes. Yes. And once you did with that score, with this gentleman with the bus stations?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Or bus he owned bus
David Marks: dealerships. He owned three bus dealerships.
Jimmy Lea: Dude, bro, once you speak their language, you were in you probably the same bankers, and they were just impressed with the turnaround of you in a short amount of time for you. You got approved for a loan, you converted a warehouse.
Jimmy Lea: By the way, that's a heavy lift. I'm, that's.
David Marks: Yeah, my building where at did not look like what it is. You know, we had to put up a demising wall. We had to lay a floor, you know, do a bunch of electrical work, buy lifts, paint, build a bathroom, build a front office. Oh yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Wow. So, and is that the location that you are still in today?
David Marks: I'm still there today and I opened it up by myself. It was just me. I was a one man band.
Jimmy Lea: How many lifts, how many bays you,
David Marks: We got three. Three bays, two tacks.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. So that's the current layout, three basic. That's the
David Marks: current layout. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: So when you were doing it and you got the space, it was three lifts and one tech you?
David Marks: It was me. It was me, myself, and I.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. How long were you solopreneur this before you finally hired another tech?
David Marks: So I hired my real tech, I'm gonna say November. I opened this up in April, 2019, and I hired my real tech during COVID. It was November, 2020. And you know, that took time. You know, I had to learn, you know, Jimmy, I had to learn, you know, and I hired some, I'm gonna call 'em some car lot technicians.
David Marks: You know, and it just, and Jimmy I had to, I think. We gotta bet on us. The reason.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Totally agree.
David Marks: The reason it took me, what it took to even move from backyard to brick and mortar, it's just having faith in myself. I'm a huge believer in the law of attraction. The law of attraction and manifestation is what put me from backyard to brick and mortar.
David Marks: 'cause Jimmy, I love it. This, so I'm at my house right now 'cause so right behind you, I would literally sit out here for 10 minutes a day. While I was working in my backyard gig working with Gary, I believe I'll have a three bay brick and mortar repair business in Maryland Heights. I did that every day for 10 minutes, and it happened when I went to the how, when I, how I got my money from the bank is I went to the bank for something completely unrelated to, to, um, A loan business loan.
David Marks: A business loan. No. Me and Gary were working on a business plan to borrow the money, right? Yes. This is exactly how the law of attraction works. You gotta know what you want. You gotta be committed to the process and have faith. Oh my gosh, no. You gotta be of clarity, commitment, and certainty.
David Marks: Okay. You know what you want and certainly you're gonna get it. And the clarity part is, and the commitment part is do the work. Do the work. Jimmy is I questioned Gary. I would ask Gary questions, but I never questioned Gary.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. And there's a difference. And I understand the difference.
David Marks: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You are asking questions to understand, not asking questions, to challenge.
David Marks: No, I never questioned him when he, you know, he owned a $300 million business and sold it for $60 million. So that means you know what you're doing.
Jimmy Lea: Yes.
David Marks: Okay. Okay. And he was just a really good guy. And we clicked. So Jimmy was a, it was, you know, I knew what I wanted. I was committed doing the work, and I was certain it was gonna happen.
David Marks: I just didn't know when, because I walked into the bank for something completely different. Me and Gary worked on this business plan. Next thing you know, I'm approved for $198,000 score and I used one 60 of that is what I did. I used one 60 of the 1 98 is what it took. And I've already paid that all back.
Jimmy Lea: So it took one 60 to convert the warehouse Yeah. To what you've got today. Yep. And this is probably like a 10 year note or a 15 year note. No, it was a
David Marks: five year note.
Jimmy Lea: It's a five year note. How quickly did you get this five year note paid?
David Marks: I got it. So, when I got my EDIL loan from COVID is what I used to pay off most of it.
David Marks: So I had it technically, I had it paid off from US Bank in three years. Um, good. That's righteous. But you know, indirectly I stole the SBAI think like 90 grand or 89,000 or something like that. I'd have to look at my statements. I don't know that number off the top of my head. Right. When I got an EDIL loan for COVID, I took that and I paid off three of the loans.
Jimmy Lea: Bingo. There you go. There, it reduces that monthly nut. You've got a crack. Yeah, it helps tremendously. So today you've got the three bays, the two text, you have an advisor.
David Marks: No, not yet. That's been the toughest position to fail. So are you? Yeah, that's been the toughest position for me to fail.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh.
Jimmy Lea: So are you the advisor, like
David Marks: Yeah, I'm doing it right now. So I've got a guy lined up, so I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get real, you know, Jimmy, I've made a lot of mistakes, mismanaging money. Okay. I have, and I've got bad debt on my balance sheet, on short term liabilities. Okay. Okay. And what's really cool is that I can, you know, the best way to be honest with ourselves is to be honest with somebody else.
David Marks: So I'm gonna, being honest, you know, it's the best way. Yeah. So I've learned from that and I've learned, I've had six advisors myself. My lead tech did it for about eight months. He killed it. He absolutely killed it. He just doesn't want to do it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
David Marks: Yeah. Um, he just doesn't wanna do it, but he did really good.
David Marks: And then I've had four others, so I've learned a lot. So I've got a gentleman, I've got a friend of mine that's working at a place that got bought by private equity. He doesn't wanna work there anymore. But I've, but we've talked and I've gotta, we put together a timeline on when I can bring him on board, but it's, I need to pay off my short-term liabilities.
David Marks: I need to pay off my bad debt.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep.
David Marks: And I'm working progress and I'm working at it. I got a plan and this all goes towards, I think this very spiritual, the law of attraction. Okay. You gotta know what you want. And it's betting on me. It's believing that, Hey, I can really do all this and I can make this happen.
David Marks: When you have that, dude, you can do anything you want. Totally agree. And I'm there because we're making good progress on it, and I agree. My lead tech, he keeps keep, he keeps hounding me for an advisor. 'cause I'm not the best at it. I'm not. Am I good? Yes. Am I best? Hell no. You know, but I've been open and honest with these guys about the financials.
David Marks: This is where the company's sitting financially. And when we do this, we can get this, and this. Because the job of a business owner is to provide a better experience for the vendors, the employees, and the customers. Okay. That's what we do. I'm in the business of offering an experience, so I told them, if we can do this, then I can provide a better experience, a real advisor.
David Marks: Okay, now they understand why.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I love that that transparency, that trust, that clarity. Yeah. The accountability that you're placing. Those are my core
David Marks: values. What you just said are the core values I have hanging on a banner in the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, nice. And what are they?
David Marks: Enough said three of 'em.
David Marks: Except I said except innovation. Accountability, trust, transparency, and innovation.
Jimmy Lea: Innovation. Oh, I love
David Marks: innovation.
Jimmy Lea: That's beautiful.
David Marks: Yep. Innovation. You gotta innovate, you know, otherwise you won't get look what happened to Kodak. Look what happened. Blockbuster had the ability to buy Netflix, and they said no.
David Marks: Look what happened to them in the early two thousands.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah.
David Marks: They had the opportunity to buy Netflix. Netflix went to them to, to offer it, and they said, no. Look where they're at now. They're gone. Look at Kodak.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
David Marks: Yeah. AK Kodak's
Jimmy Lea: still around. But they're not the powerhouse that
David Marks: used to be.
David Marks: They're, yeah, they're not what we remember them being.
Jimmy Lea: No, you're exactly right. And you know that final blockbuster location, that final one that was up in Oregon or Washington? They're finally gone. They're done. They're, now, it's an experience. It's like an Airbnb or something like that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That you can rent to go in there. It still has the same smells and all that jazz. Yeah. If you're not innovating then you are, you're dying.
David Marks: Yeah. That's having that growth, that's people that have, that don't have that growth to rented mindset, you know? Yeah. I never really, how do we innovate?
David Marks: I like experimenting with new things I've told, so we're working with, we use Tech Metric with Shop Genie. I said, man, I'll be the Guinea pig all day long. I told Kakuy that I'll be the Guinea pig. You want the Guinea pig? Dude, I raised my hand. Come again, put whatever you put in front of me and give you feedback.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. That's just how I am. I love it. That's great. So, to your, um, experiences, to your innovation, what are you doing today that is innovative at your shop? What are you doing to move the needle?
David Marks: I've hired a virtual assistant. Okay. And to do what? Con the three Cs of marketing content. Content
Jimmy Lea: and
David Marks: putting content on social media.
David Marks: You know, and it's, we just clicked, you know, I've had a, I've had somebody that's been doing, you know, stuff for me. 'cause Jimmy, you know this, instead of having a billboard on the highway, this is the billboard. Yeah, the cell phone. Your smartphone is the billboard? Yeah, it's the billboard. So my va, she's helping me with, you know, some of my personal branding and then, you know, it's getting one full-time to do everything because there's a lot of things she's gonna do.
David Marks: She can send appointment reminders if I want to. She can send those follow up text messages on deferred work. She can send emails. She's gonna help me manage my email. She's gonna do all kinds of stuff.
Jimmy Lea: That is awesome. Um, to make sure you're not duplicating something you already have. You may discover that Shop Genie and Tech Metric have the ability of a 30, 60, 90 day reminder that goes automatically.
David Marks: No, they have it. But this way when my thought process is we can make it more, how do we make it more personalized? I love that. How do we make it more personalized? Yeah. You know, can I train her to do follow up phone calls? You know, was with something
Jimmy Lea: Ooh,
David Marks: interesting. Right. You know, what is her capability?
David Marks: What can we do? We're gonna figure it out. But I'm the type of, I'm, I don't know any other shop owners that have a virtual, I'm gonna have one 40 hours a week.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. That's amazing. So with your virtual assistant right now, they are. You are, you're sending to you're sending to this person all of your video content, all of your videos your information.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. And they're just taking it and then crunching it and giving out social media,
David Marks: Adding it. So we used last pass. Okay. Because what she could do is then she can use that. To post on my personal Facebook account, my personal Instagram account without giving up the password. 'cause a lot of the content you see, it's not me posting it.
David Marks: She edits it. You know, we meet once a week and talk about it, but then I have somebody that can manage my social media. I love it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You're meeting with her once a week and saying, Hey, go.
David Marks: Yeah, we're collaborating. You've
Jimmy Lea: got creative license.
David Marks: Go
Jimmy Lea: Make it pretty, make it work. Don't embarrass me.
David Marks: Yeah. Because what you gotta, you know, employees don't wanna be micromanaged. Right. You know, they want autonomy and they want freedom. You know, they want a collaborative approach. So I've always, you know, it, it's having that collaborative mindset and that collaborative, like, and it's setting expectations and boundaries from the get go.
David Marks: You know? And Jimmy, I just go with my intuition. Me and her just really clicked.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I love it. I love it. That's awesome. Alright, so I haven't heard the whole thing. I tried to watch it and list, 'cause usually when I'm watching the videos I'm just reading the text. Yeah. So thanks for putting the text on there.
Jimmy Lea: I don't wanna be rude and have my reels playing for everybody else to read it. Yeah. What is your favorite analogy you use with customers? I want to hear what this is.
David Marks: Oh, customers. So there's a couple different analogies I use is I, to me the service advisor's position is my job. So the customer's pissed off at the car, not me.
David Marks: That's the role of the service advisor. Because if they're pissed off at the car, they'll come back. If they're pissed off at the shop, they're not coming back. And I tell people, I've literally told people this, like, my job is so you're pissed off at your car. And I've even used some um, those seven words that George Carlin said on tv.
David Marks: I've even thrown that in there because then that means when I see that Jimmy, the customer knows, I mean business. Like, whoa, he's not screwing around. Right. He's taking this very seriously. Yes. The customer, in my opinion, has changed a lot where we have to, I have more lengthy conversations with people about their cards are, you know, I need to, we need, I need to educate them.
David Marks: We can't diagnose all the AC leaks at once. It's one leak at a time till they're all fixed while it's in our possession. Once it's in our shop, we can control it. Once you pick it up and leave. On a 10-year-old car with one 20, it's out of our hands. I can't help that. You know? And then I've had to educate customers.
David Marks: The roads that we test drive your car on are not the same roads you drive on.
Jimmy Lea: It's true.
David Marks: You know, and they're not. And unless you wanna pay me a bottle and
Jimmy Lea: the way I drive is different than the way you drive, you may have a lead foot, but I drive like, grandpa on Sunday,
David Marks: oh, we gotta do a lot of test drives with people when they drop the car off.
David Marks: The biggest one is brake que brake squeak. I want a test drive when they bring it in because that way when it doesn't do it, when we're with them, you know, then it's easier to get permission to put it on the lift, perform the inspection, charge 'em, hold off, and then when we find the broken CV boot and the brakes are fine, they say yes when we do the DVI.
David Marks: Right.
Jimmy Lea: Yes.
David Marks: No, I love
Jimmy Lea: that. So are using tech metric for your DVI? Yeah.
David Marks: We use, yeah. The whole key to the inspection thing. The 300 roll is get permission. Yeah. Is get permission. When you get permission and you know, we do, you know, we, I'll say, Hey, would you want us to give it a once over, 'cause that's a common term that customer uses when they say yes.
David Marks: Now I got that door open. And then I explain to 'em, here's our process for the once over. Okay. You know, let's say they say no. We don't want that. In the event our techs sees something that's a safety concern. Would you like us to let you know? Nobody's told me no.
Jimmy Lea: Right. But who's gonna, anybody who's gonna say no is gonna be in trouble.
Jimmy Lea: That's Yeah. Yeah. But at the same
David Marks: time though, you know, I don't want the techs looking the whole car over. If they don't, that's what the customer's not there for, and I don't like. And I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to customers would that, a lot of shops would say that disqualifies 'em right away.
David Marks: That's fine. That's not me. I'm still going to do what they presented the car for. I'm in business because maybe they've been screwed over by 10 other places. Yeah. You know, sometimes what I've learned, and this is what I do, is. This is gonna go against what a lot of auto repair coaching says, but that first visit do exactly what they want you to do, and then you earn their trust the next time we can do it our way and they trust us.
David Marks: You'd be surprised how that works. I love it because other places they've been burned, so we gotta earn their trust. Yeah. To really, I think to do that 300% rule, you gotta earn their trust. And that might not be doing it on the first one. That might not even be doing on the second one, but the third one, once you've earned it, then you can do that.
David Marks: Because I, I get that. I get the whole process. Then you can do that and apply and it works. Yeah. 'cause I love that people are tired of shops shoving stuff down their throat. All this when you talk to 'em about it and you, the key is to get permission.
Jimmy Lea: And you've done it, you've done it all along the way.
Jimmy Lea: You've gotten the permission, you educated them. You did your DVI. Yeah. Hey, here's the second time, here's the third time we've been watching this Mr. Customer. Mrs. Customer. Right. And it does need to be fixed. Now, here we are, the third time it's been, what, maybe six months or eight months down the road.
Jimmy Lea: Right. This is really something you can't put off anymore. It's not gonna fix itself.
David Marks: Yeah. And I think that's a much
Jimmy Lea: different conversation.
David Marks: That's a much different conversation, right? 'cause when you earn, if sometimes that's just what I've learned is when you kind of go along, kind of let them dictate it the first time.
David Marks: Yeah. That's how you earn their trust. 'cause then not then. Then they don't think you're just like everybody else, you know?
Jimmy Lea: And and what you're also providing them is not a laundry list of blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yes. $2,500. You've got picture of this circled that. Arrows to this.
Jimmy Lea: Arrows to that, right? Yeah. This is what a new one looks like. This is what yours looks like. Here's what we need to do, and here's why this is important. It, an educated customer makes better decisions.
David Marks: Absolutely. A thousand percent. So, yeah, I've got something else come cooking up my sleeve too that I think is I would've never thought of,
Jimmy Lea: okay, what do you got?
Jimmy Lea: What are you doing?
David Marks: So I also sell cars. I got my dealer license and I got my rental car license. I got some other irons in the fire. Um, and we're not gonna go down that rabbit hole, but I went to. Um, a conference on car sales. 'cause we, all of us independent repair shops hate the aftermarket warranties.
David Marks: Okay. I know exactly how they make money that is very lucrative. They make money through what's called reinsurance companies. Okay. Okay. What it is it's, you set up a separate company, there's a company to plug a for a company called Buckeye. They set this up because I'm gonna do this here. I got some things I gotta make before I get there.
David Marks: Okay. But I take $15 per repair order. Okay? Okay. Now, this is an expense on my p and l. Love it. Keep, gotta understand taxes. So this goes into, and I use Che GBT and I talked to a lot of people about this and I have the Che GBT account. I'm a huge advocate for it. Okay. Love it. And I do use it.
David Marks: So I take this, I put this into this reinsurance company. Okay? Now, as that builds up, right when I have a comeback, 'cause we're a Napa Autocare center. Okay? Okay. So let's say here's a perfectly good example. Let's say I put Altor on somebody's car, right? We charge 'em a thousand bucks. Simple numbers, right?
David Marks: Yeah. Easy numbers. That's 700,
Jimmy Lea: what the numbers are, but that's easy. Yeah. Simple numbers.
David Marks: So, seven hundred's, labor, three hundred's parts.
Jimmy Lea: Sure.
David Marks: Okay. Right. So Napa's obviously gonna gimme the warranty, the parts, but we're not make our parts. Profit on that job is gone. Gone. Yep. Not making any money.
David Marks: Right. And then we still pay the technician. Right. And Napa's not gonna gimme the 700 bucks. So what I do is I use money from that reinsurance company that's in there that's tax free to pay myself for that repair. Love it. Perfect. Right. Now once these, once this gets built up high enough. Yes. 'cause you gotta keep, let's say I have.
David Marks: $10,000 in there after a year, we gotta keep 30% in reserves. Okay. That's per bylaw. But that other 7,000, I can take that, reinvest it into the stock market.
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Yeah. There are devices, there are programs, there are, um, accounts at the bank and you'll need to talk to a banker.
Jimmy Lea: I'll tell you who's really good at that is Wayne Marshall, our, the CEO of the institute, he is setting us up. So we've got a sweeper account. And the bank is paying us to hold our money with them.
David Marks: Yeah, so essentially too, here's the other thing. I do this and I'm not
Jimmy Lea: talking about a savings account. Pay you.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. This is a much bigger piece of the pie.
David Marks: Listen to this. I can use this reinsurance company. Let's say I need a skiing tool and I've got two grants in this account. The reinsurance company pays the pays for the scan tool, quality auto repair, pays it back with interest. Oh, I love
Jimmy Lea: it. Sure. Become
David Marks: bank.
David Marks: So how can I. Right. For essentially for assets. I love
Jimmy Lea: it.
David Marks: So, and then it, this is, now I don't, I know enough about taxes to be dangerous. We have to talk to a cp 'cause everybody's situation's different. But this is the way to avoid a lot of taxes and generate, this is how these car dealers make money.
David Marks: This is how these reinsurance companies make, this is how these warranty companies make money. Guys that do their own service contracts in-house, this is how they're doing it and this is how they're making money on it.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Just their
David Marks: reinsurance programs.
Jimmy Lea: So, continuing on down, down the path of the innovation you've talked about the virtual assistant.
Jimmy Lea: This is someone helping you out with your social media. Yeah. Content. You talk about innovation with the banking and the reinsuring. What else are you doing that is innovative? You feel like this is different and nobody else in the auto aftermarket is doing it? So I, so one thing I do is I got my dealer
David Marks: license.
David Marks: Okay. And I do that because I avoid a lot of state taxes in the state of Missouri. And I think the two just go hand in hand. What's made that very profitable is having a good, reputable auto repair business 'cause the money without us buying and selling with the customers. Okay. It really is. So,
Jimmy Lea: so are you next door to each other or, yeah.
Jimmy Lea: This is all in
David Marks: one space. This is all in one space. One space. Okay. And then, so what, so when individuals say, I'm gonna trade it in. I tell 'em I can take it to the dealer auction 'cause I got Manheim nine miles from me and I can put this in your pocket. In four years. I've had one person tell me no. Wow. And I've hit some massive home runs.
David Marks: That right there. What I make off, that literally pays for me to have the license. Oh, that's awesome. The state fees it that much. It's the in, it's the insurance that gets, can get kind of pricey with it.
Jimmy Lea: How many cars do you have on your used lot?
David Marks: I usually do about 40 a year.
Jimmy Lea: You have 40 cars there or you sell cars?
Jimmy Lea: I used
David Marks: no. I usually sell about 40 a year. I usually keep two to five on, on there. Two to five is what I have.
Jimmy Lea: Two to five. Okay. My uncle had a dealership in Vegas, and I think he had anywhere from 15 to 20. 20 was when they had a lot, and he would turn like 10 to 15 a month. I mean, it wasn't a lot.
Jimmy Lea: But it was, when I get the right advisor, that's
David Marks: going to a whole nother level. That's challenge. Say again? When I gets to an advisor, that's going to a whole nother level.
Jimmy Lea: Agreed. Are you gonna do the buy here, pay here?
David Marks: I don't know. See, I have, so in the state of Missouri, I have what's called a lease rental license.
David Marks: I can either do daily rentals or leasing. You can actually lease use cars. Okay. I think buy here, pay here makes sense for the consumer when they can pay that. Because I've got people on buy here, pay here when they can pay for the buy here Payer. Buy here, pay your payment and auto repair on top of it.
David Marks: We've all seen too many people that got the buy here, pay here, note of the old thousands on the car. It's a POS and these thousands of dollars in repair. It's like, how do I avoid that? Yeah. You know, and I don't want that buy here. Pay your stigma either. I've done some when they've made sense. Um, I actually.
David Marks: I actually like the daily rental cars, Jimmy. Now I know. So Enterprise rental car here is based in St. Louis. The Taylor family, they're family owned based here in St. Louis. They do 25 billion a year on revenue. B. B billion. B billion. Yeah. I had one Ford Escape on the road for 30 days. I got 1600 bucks in 30 days on that as a daily rental.
David Marks: I'm like, you can't do that on a car note. Now I know why. Enterprise is a billion dollar business. Yeah. Yeah. So because of the my, because of the repair business I have, I think I, this is gonna go against everything we're taught. I think I can play race to the Bottom, Monte Touro with this and make money.
Jimmy Lea: Interesting. I get calls for parts of
David Marks: labor.
Jimmy Lea: You don't need to race to the bottom, but you can be a shoe man. You could be a solution. I can undercut silver
David Marks: car out there too. I can undercut. I can undercut because I, no, you could.
Jimmy Lea: You don't need to.
David Marks: I mean, when I say race at the bottom, it's because, you know, I pay everything at a discount, you know, you know, I, what's my real cost for a skilled tech?
David Marks: What's my real cost for parts? And I buy cars at a discount because of the license. So, and if guys would be surprised, Jimmy, what I've bought and sold stuff for with customers, what I've bought stuff for and what I've, I literally had a guy, he paid four grand over Kelley Blue Book retail on a car yesterday, about last month.
David Marks: Yeah. And he was happy. I said I said, I'll sell this to you. It was one of my daily rentals. I said, I'll sell it to you, but dude I need to get this. He said, okay, Dave. And paid it
Jimmy Lea: because he was in love with the car.
David Marks: Because it's trust.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh yeah. Trust too. It's trust. He knows that it's gonna be taken care of.
Jimmy Lea: So when you sell a car, do you have a in-house warranty that if you keep coming back to me, we'll keep doing yada.
David Marks: No, I was attempting that with the leasing program. I was trying to build a model that, that the customer could afford. Yeah. And was profitable and I haven't cracked it yet.
David Marks: Um, you know, I'm experimenting Jimmy, I'm experimenting with a lot of things and. If you're gonna do what I'm doing, you know, you can't be afraid to lose money, dude, because I've lost it. I'll be the first one to tell you. I, but yeah, it's, that's pay to play. And that's the price. That's the cost of, I don't care what you're doing, I don't care what you're doing.
David Marks: If you're not willing to lose money, dude don't do it. 'cause that's, no, that's right. That's what happens when you know, and I think that goes back to believing in yourself. Having faith. I can do it. You know, and trust in the process. You know how I do things, Jimmy is with the car sales thing is I play in the kitty pool with not knowing what the hell I'm doing, and then I find people that got way bigger operations than I am.
David Marks: Here's what I'm doing. What do you think? Because I have no clue what I'm doing. And they're told me. I've got people that, that have, you know, leasing programs and I've got a guy, he's got 4 4600 people making car payments to him. Oh my word. He owns four D. He's got four. What was cool is we were at a conference, he's wanting to get into retail auto repair, and he's picking my brain on this.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my word. Yeah. So you guys are going back and forth?
David Marks: Yeah, because he's got shops, he's got techs, but he's never done retail work. It's all for stuff that either in-house getting or stuff that, because they do work for people that are making payments, but he was gonna go out to the general public, so.
David Marks: It's really cool. It's a different,
Jimmy Lea: it's a different horse man.
David Marks: A whole different animal. And then, yeah, but it was really cool to experience that. But that's how, I think, that's how you do it, is you gotta play in the kiddie pool, not knowing what the hell you're doing. And then I have something I can take to somebody, and I don't care what this is.
David Marks: It doesn't matter what you're doing, it's falling blank. That's got a way bigger operation, then it's easier for me to understand what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong instead of prior. And I don't ask permission. I didn't ask anybody, Hey, should I buy and sell cars? Hey, should I do this? I can just go out and do it.
David Marks: Let me see if I like it, and then let me find somebody that's doing it at a high level and ask for help.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, there you
David Marks: go. There you
Jimmy Lea: go. That's your school of hard knocks right there.
David Marks: Yeah, it is. It's the school. I think it's the best education because when dude, I tell my MB is when I lose four grand, three grand, two grands.
David Marks: You don't forget it. Hey,
Jimmy Lea: it's the cost of your education, bro. Yeah, exactly. That's all it is.
David Marks: Exactly. If you wanna grow and scale,
Jimmy Lea: scale, that could be a line item on your p and l as well. Executive education.
David Marks: Yeah,
Jimmy Lea: that'd be four grand.
David Marks: That'd be the, that'd have the most dollar amount on it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it sure would.
Jimmy Lea: It's on
David Marks: there. It's on, it's, if you look at the net income, that's where it comes out. Of course.
Jimmy Lea: So with what you're doing you, I understand the school of hard knocks and what that like, like that have you ever had any coaching or training or teaching with any.
David Marks: Yeah, I have I've had coaching uhhuh I had that, I got a business coach that I work with, you know, currently, you know, is he industry specific?
David Marks: No. I think to me Jimmy, it's more mindset. It's more mindset and it's more beliefs. That's the coach that I work with really helps me with. 'cause the tactical stuff that's easy. The tactical stuff is easy. Okay. We all know GP and you know, independent repair shop. You know the 60, 40, 20. Okay, we can all get there, but does the mind believe that's possible?
David Marks: What does the mind believe? Yes. If the mind believe it, it's possible. The tactical stuff is easy. I can get on AOG and find that out. I, the tactical stuff is easy. It's everywhere, you know, but I literally have a guy, he works on my mindset. We work, he's a mindset coach. That's what I have.
Jimmy Lea: Nice.
Jimmy Lea: Congratulations. That's good. Yeah. And he helps '
David Marks: cause and he is, and we're working together on personal and professional. It's not just, it's not always about business. How's your home life Dave? How you taking, you know, I did that program 75 hard last year. Look, go look it up. 75 hard. And now I understand how fitness and business go together.
David Marks: I get that. 'cause I've always heard that. You know, because, you know Jimmy, the skill doesn't lie when I see my. Weight go down, or when I see I could push more weight at the gym or I could ride my bike. It's I, last week I did 10 miles and it took me an hour. This week I could do 10 miles. It took me 50 minutes.
David Marks: That you can't deny that. That's tangible proof. Okay. I'm getting stronger, I'm getting healthier. You know, what else can I do with my life? You know, that's what fitness and business is all about. I tell people the fitness, because I go to the gym every, I'm up at four o'clock, at the gym at four 30, you know, and I work out 5, 6, 7 days a week.
David Marks: And I do that because that puts me in the right mindset. Love it. You know, and it's, I, you know, the byproduct is as I'm physically fit, but the intention is that's helping me build confidence.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Confidence and mental clarity then,
David Marks: and then I can, then I, then the tactical stuff that is, I think, easy to get, then it all makes sense.
David Marks: Then it's applicable. 'cause if this mind ain't right, you could be the best tactical coach in the world. It's gonna be useless information because I don't believe I can do it. I don't believe that's possible.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Mindset goes, yeah. It's a big thing. I totally agree with you, brother.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. So what does the future look like for you, David? Are you going to continue with the single location? Are you gonna branch out? Are you gonna add to the Kingdom? Um, I would
David Marks: wanna, I mean, I like the single thing, you know, I don't know, Jimmy, you know, I don't know. You know, I think, you know, I want to grow the, I mean, the next step for me is to, you know, where the business owns the property.
David Marks: It operates on, you know, let me get that. I, here's my answer to that is. It's not right, wrong, good or bad, it just is. And being okay with what I have, you know, and
Jimmy Lea: And that goes into define success. What is success for you? Success is what you have to define and you're a hundred percent good and okay with.
David Marks: Yeah, I think success is being okay with what I have now. Right. And it's fine that you, it's good to have goals, vision and that's great. It's, I think success is not comparing other people's outsides to my insides
Jimmy Lea: bingo.
David Marks: You know, and understanding that. Everybody has a place in this world.
David Marks: You know, if somebody wants to be a one man band, awesome. There's nothing wrong with that. If somebody wants to own 14 locations, cool. There's nothing wrong with that. Success to me is being okay with where I'm at right now in the present moment. Yeah and having a vision for the future. Setting goals.
David Marks: Right. That's I, yeah. I have two vision boards. I have two in my office, my home office. I have two, four by six dry eraser boards. I got a personal vision and a professional vision. You know, I love it. Meditate in front of those 10 minutes. In one, 10 minutes in front of the other one. Okay. Right now, yeah, I have three locations on there.
David Marks: Is what? I have three locations is what I have on there. I got three. Okay. You know, will I get there? I don't know. You know, I don't know. We don't know what the future's gonna hold. But it's out there. Yeah. My vision's to have three locations,
Jimmy Lea: you know, and be okay. It's out there and your subconscious is now aware of it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And so your subconscious is gonna be on the hunt constantly for second location and third location. Yeah. So, yeah, you're gonna get there. Before you do that, David, before you do that, make sure that your first location is able to operate without you. And how do you figure that out? You go on a two week vacation and you do not check in.
Jimmy Lea: You let the, everybody at the shop take care of the shop. You are out.
David Marks: Oh, I do that now. I've already, I've left for two. I've been gone for two weeks this week already. Nice. You know, I call 'em workcation. Yeah. They're part work part pleasure. Yeah. And, but no, I've done that before and I agree.
David Marks: When I leave, you know, when I leave right now. Yeah. Does a place do what it does when I'm there? No, but it does, it is it, does it self-sustainable sufficient? Yes. And I'm just not a micromanager. Last time I went to San Diego, first week of September, I think I talked to Nick once. Oh, that's great. Once, and I don't hop on Tech metric and get, see what the numbers are.
David Marks: I don't look at numbers until we get back. I don't So you unplug,
Jimmy Lea: you
David Marks: completely unplugged. Yep. I do not look at nothing because I know what's gonna happen. I, we, you know that scarcity mindset or they're not doing this? They're not doing this. Nope. Just let it be. Let it go. And I think I talked to Nick once when I was gone that week, and that's it.
David Marks: And that's just, I've always done that.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Congrats, bro. That's very cool. Was there anything that we haven't addressed or haven't talked about that you'd like to bring up as we land this plane?
David Marks: Land this plane? You know, Jimmy, I follow you guys, you know the institute I follow, you know, Cecil and I can't remember his son's name, and you guys.
David Marks: What now, Kent? Yeah, Kent. You know, I love what you guys are doing. You know, I really do. I see that, you know, what's, I tell you what's odd? So I'm on LinkedIn a ton.
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
David Marks: And what's can scare, what really kind of concerns me about the auto repair business is, you know, Lucas Underwood, you know, I think he's an influencer.
David Marks: I see him on there now, the sales side of the, and if you take automotive and you've got sales and repair. Yeah, there's two sections. All the influencers, they're on LinkedIn on the sales side, and it's a great way to follow to see what GM Ford, Mary Bear is on there. Jim Foley's on there, bill Ford, Lanis, they're all talking about what's coming down the pipeline and a lot of sales influencers are on there.
David Marks: I don't see any, I'm gonna say independent rep auto repair influencers on LinkedIn, and that's concerning to me.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah,
David Marks: that's concerning to me.
Jimmy Lea: Have you? Not on LinkedIn. I haven't seen 'em, but royalty Royal Auto Service,
David Marks: royalty Auto Service. Yeah. They're not on LinkedIn. They're crickets.
Jimmy Lea: No they're they're on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. They're
David Marks: on Facebook. Yeah. I, you know, I follow their stuff. I like what they're doing. Actually. I wanna do a lot of a lot of their stuff. But it just kinda odd, that kinda strikes me odd that. You know, the AKA influencers, whatever you want to, however you wanna label that they're not on, on LinkedIn.
David Marks: So here's something cool I've done. BG corporate BG follows me on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, okay. Okay. '
David Marks: cause of the content that I put out talking about how I'd enjoy their products. Nice. That's awesome. So, you know, I think, you know LinkedIn, I, LinkedIn is its own different animal. There's social media, is LinkedIn.
Jimmy Lea: It is a different animal and there's different rules. It's not the same algorithm as what Facebook is or even Instagram. Yeah. It's probably the most antisocial social platform.
David Marks: Oh I'm on it. I've I'm on there almost as much as I'm on Facebook. Oh, wow. It's a great way to stay educated.
David Marks: It's a great way to stay. 'cause I wanna know what's coming down the pipeline. Yeah. The next five, six years, what are we gonna be working on five, six years down the road, you know? Yeah. Gas card v eights are coming back.
Jimmy Lea: Yep.
David Marks: You know, a lot of, there's been a lot of deregulation with the current administration, so.
David Marks: I mean, I mean there's, you could look at that, see what happens. We'll see what happens. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens.
Jimmy Lea: And Mark David, if I had a magic wand that I could hand to you and you can't wish for more wishes, but you can wish to change something in the industry, what would you change in the industry?
Jimmy Lea: It could be customers, it could be process, procedures, technicians, shop awareness, marketplace training, education. Where does your heart lie?
David Marks: I mean, I mean, it would be more comradery. More comradery amongst us. Amongst us. 'cause I'm not gonna name the Facebook group, but there's a couple that I'm in and I see a lot of derogatory comments flying back and forth in some of these Facebook groups.
David Marks: And I'm in some groups for auto sales and I don't see that happening. If it happens, I don't see it. Right. Be more comradery and I think a lot of. And I've put comments into Facebook groups and then it's like, really guys, you guys gotta make these comments. I think too many people in some of these auto repair Facebook groups look at what other people are doing is right, wrong, good or bad?
David Marks: Yeah. Instead of just, instead of, why do you care what I do? It doesn't affect you. That's what I'd like to see change is more camaraderie amongst us. I see too many bickering. On these online groups that we're all in instead of camaraderie. Is there a lot of camaraderie on there? Yes. Yes there is. And I see a lot of bickering 'cause I don't partake in it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no. And you know, do you know how, here's an old fisherman's analogy for you. Do you know how to keep a crab from climbing out of the basket?
David Marks: Put other crabs in there.
Jimmy Lea: And they just keep pulling each other down.
David Marks: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: That's not the business we wanna be in. Wanna elevate?
David Marks: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: We wanna elevate the industry.
Jimmy Lea: We wanna be about a better life, a better business, a better industry. That's the way it's gonna roll down is the more you can work on your business and have that be better, it's gonna result in a better life for you. Your employees, your Yeah. If and their families.
David Marks: If somebody wants to do what I'm doing, you know, do auto repair the sales, who cares?
David Marks: Why do you care? Do it or what can I learn from that instead of condoning it? That's what I see. Yeah. You know, or somebody just wants to be one man. Man. Cool. Awesome. Who cares?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. What gives you the right to tell them how to rule their kingdom. Yeah. I see. Let them rule their own
David Marks: kingdom. I see too much of that going on, and I don't have time to sit on social media all day either.
David Marks: I don't. Oh, yeah. I don't, I can't, I don't do it. I can't do it. But that would be one thing is more comradery I'd like. I'd love to see that. I don't think there's enough of that going around.
Jimmy Lea: David we definitely have some other things to talk about. Brother, thank you so much. Oh
David Marks: man.
David Marks: Mean you could go on and on all day. Dude,
Jimmy Lea: we could go on all day.
David Marks: Thank you for having me, Jimmy. I really appreciate this dude. It means a ton to me, dude. It really does, man. I, as best as possible when I see the in, even though I know I'm not part of it, but when I see the post, I like it. Or comment on it Or shared or your stuff because just because I'm not directly involved doesn't mean I still don't support it Or can't support it.
David Marks: 'cause that just helps the algorithm when we like and comment stuff. So. Yeah. Oh, amen. When I saw you were signing up, I just signed up for your class. I've signed up for some of your classes. I don't even know what the topic is. I just saw instructor Jim Lee. Yes. I'm dead. I just needed to know you are teaching it.
David Marks: I'm signing up. I don't care what it is because I'm gonna learn something and it's gonna be badass.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that.
David Marks: Of course.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, absolutely. As thank you. Your words are so kind and it's an honor for me as well to be able to interview you, David and to hear about your history and your
David Marks: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Your passion and your foresight and your projection, your laws of attraction, what your goals are and your future.
David Marks: Yeah,
Jimmy Lea: those three locations.
David Marks: Yeah,
Jimmy Lea: that's a thing, bro. And we can make that happen.
David Marks: I got a vision board in it. I wrote, I got it written down, you know, and all right. I'm a big believer in the, you know, it's just that you gotta, we gotta work on our mind and mind.
David Marks: My, my purpose every day is to wake up enthusiastic and inspired to be me. It has nothing to do with my business. Oh, amen. But up like that, good things happen to everybody I come in contact with.
Jimmy Lea: And if you can surround yourself with those people that are like-minded, that are growth minded, that are expansion and innovation minded, it's gonna elevate you and your business as well.
Jimmy Lea: And especially if those people are able to hold you accountable to a higher level. Hey David, you said you were gonna do this, you're. I gotta get that done. They hold you accountable. That and that trust that you build there is just so paramount. It's awesome.
David Marks: Yeah. That's why I did that program.
David Marks: 75 Heart I talked about look it up. That taught me self accountability.
Jimmy Lea: Oh good.
David Marks: It taught me what that taught me. This is what it is. So I did this for 75 days. Yeah. Do 2 45 minute workouts. One must be outdoors. Okay. Um, follow a diet, no cheese meals. Okay, no alcohol. Drink a gallon of water and read 10 pages of like a self-help book or personal development book.
David Marks: You do that for 75 days, dude, you're a different person.
Jimmy Lea: Amen, brother. That
David Marks: really taught me is that I have the ability to make a promise to myself and follow through.
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. No, I, 'cause there's so many people that do make a promise to themselves, but then they give them all the leadway and all the Yep.
Jimmy Lea: And I'm not,
David Marks: dude, I'm not perfect at this. I'm not perfect at this by any stretch of imagination. There's plenty of days where I make promise to myself and I don't follow through. Yeah. I know. I have the ability to when I put effort in initiative into it.
Jimmy Lea: Bingo. Yep. I love that And I'm not perfect at it either.
David Marks: None of us are
Jimmy Lea: that Take the fun out
David Marks: of it.
Jimmy Lea: I'm working at it. I'm working at it.
David Marks: Yeah. We're all works in progress. Absolutely. Yeah, that's right.
Jimmy Lea: David, thank you so much brother. Appreciate you being here.
David Marks: Absolutely. Thanks Jimmy.