Friday Mar 28, 2025

114 - Grow Faster, Go Further – The Peer Group Advantage [THA 423]

February 7th, 2025 - 00:43:03

Show Summary:

In this heartfelt episode recorded live at The Institute Summit 2025, Carm Capriotto sits down with facilitators Aaron Woods and Jennifer Hulbert to explore the transformative power of coaching groups for auto repair shop owners. Aaron and Jennifer, both shop owners and coaches, share their journeys from struggling operators to impactful leaders, guiding others through growth and accountability. They dive into the importance of peer groups, the value of mirror people, and why coaching is about more than just fixing a business… it’s about changing lives. Their candid stories offer inspiration for those ready to level up their business and personal growth through community, vulnerability, and intentional action.

Host(s):

Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio

Guest(s):

Jennifer Hulbert, Head Facilitator/Coach

Aaron Woods, Head Facilitator/Coach

Episode Highlights:

[00:03:00] - Aaron and Jennifer reflect on the rewarding challenge of running a shop while coaching others through peer groups.

[00:04:13] - Jennifer shares a powerful story of shop owners rallying together to keep a fellow member’s business afloat.

[00:05:49] - Aaron explains how peer groups, not just coaches, drive meaningful transformation through shared experience.

[00:06:43] - They discuss how real business growth starts with personal transformation and leadership development.

[00:08:54] - Aaron unpacks the “law of the lid” and the importance of removing limiting beliefs to unlock team potential.

[00:11:20] - Accountability thrives when group members hold each other responsible for progress and action.

[00:15:01] - Jennifer and Aaron share the idea of “mirror people”—those who reflect and shape your growth.

[00:23:42] - Aaron tells his emotional story of public vulnerability at a conference that changed his life and business.

[00:33:59] - They emphasize that even as facilitators, they’re still shop owners learning from their own groups.

[00:39:18] - Jennifer and Aaron discuss the massive impact of helping 72 shops grow their profitability and lives.

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=bfB6qhU79kc

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!

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Carm Capriotto: Hey everybody, welcome back. Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio here at the annual. Nice. I think it's every couple of years, the Institute Summit 2025. Thank you so much to Cecil and Kent Bullard and the entire team from the Institute. We are the institute.com. Honored to be here. We were at the last one. Had a blast. We're having so much fun here.

Carm Capriotto: Hey, welcome back. Okay. Sometimes there's some behind the scenes stories that you have to tell and Carm, why are you sitting so close to Aaron Woods? One of our cameras kind of decided to die, so I asked Aaron if he could just chum up a little bit and he said yes.

Carm Capriotto: So this is one of the most uncomfortable places or positions I've been in my entire podcasting for a year.

Aaron Woods: For you, for you. It's very comfortable for me.

Carm Capriotto: Oh, well, I'm gonna have to talk to Morgan about that.

Carm Capriotto: Oh my. We're already starting to have fun, and this episode is gonna be about fun. Also, Jennifer Hulbert is here from. Service plus automotive in calcium New York, not far from Buffalo. Maybe about what, four hours?

Jennifer Hulbert: Yeah. Other side of the lake.

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. At the end of Lake Ontario, we're on the edge of Erie, but on the show three times with us, Aaron, eight extra mile Autocare Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Carm Capriotto: Now, why both of you are here is you guys are leading the gear performance groups here at the Institute.

Jennifer Hulbert: We are.

Carm Capriotto: How do you run a shop? And coach and facilitate. I find it fascinating how many shop owners are getting involved. I mean, I talked to Parker this morning. He's got like eight clients. I love it.

Carm Capriotto: There's nothing like an individual who's been there and done that to help guide people down this pathway in life of improvement and coaching and leadership and all that stuff. And just to set the record clear, and I think we've done a podcast on this before. I was so honored, Tracy and I, to be invited to one of your peer reviews in Buffalo and you had your whole team there and we watched you facilitate.

Carm Capriotto: We saw a different side of Aaron Woods than we ever knew before, and it was positive those shop owners rallied around you. And of course you went and scoured my friend Tom Cino shop, and he worked almost like a year to get it ready. Nothing like pressure, right? He did a great job. Yeah, he did a great job and he learned a lot and he's improved his business in so many ways.

Carm Capriotto: So how do you get in front of these groups and facilitate them and have a little Jen or Aaron push? How do you do that? Is it your personalities to do this?

Jennifer Hulbert: Absolutely.

Carm Capriotto: Okay.

Jennifer Hulbert: So I was part of an actual group for 18 years, and my facilitator always joked that I was trying to take his job. Ah. So this has been an inherent part of my personality from probably the day that I was born.

Jennifer Hulbert: And

Carm Capriotto: I couldn't tell that about you.

Jennifer Hulbert: No. No.

Carm Capriotto: Could you?

Aaron Woods: Oh yeah.

Carm Capriotto: Oh he knows a different side of her.

Jennifer Hulbert: Well and these members are there looking for assistance, and that is our job. And if we're not going to push them, then they're not going to improve, and that's what they're, we're there to do. That's what the group is there to do.

Jennifer Hulbert: At the beginning of the GPG Day kickoff, I talked about the entire group process, just wrapping their arms around members, and we've had members. From, I've lost all of my employees and it was the owner and a wife, and we had two additional shops who drove to their location. Put on their technician hat and got work produced for that individual shop just so they could stay in business until they were able to hire technicians.

Carm Capriotto: There's all kinds of stories about that out there.

Aaron Woods: Oh, it's remarkable, really what the group process is. And we were just having this conversation with a shop owner at lunch today and they said, well, I really like working. And they were talking about, they were working with Cecil as like a one-on-one coach and they said, well.

Aaron Woods: You know, I have this fear about coming into the group because I really like working with Cecil and I said, well, with all due respect to Cecil and everything that he brings to the table, we all know that. But really, if the group process is doing what the group process does, the coach isn't, not that I'm trying to take away from what Jennifer and I do bring to the table, but what I'm here to say is that.

Aaron Woods: The coach is not the focal point of the process. The process works and changes lives because of the group members that are sitting there in that room. It's about them, not about you. It's about them. And so that's the power of what comes out of that room. Going back to what Jennifer spoke about in the beginning of the GPG Day when we both got up and addressed the group and Jennifer had, you know, talked about that.

Aaron Woods: And I stood up and I said, immediately, right outta the gate, I said, there's two types of people in this world. There's the people that learn from others, and then there's the people that touch the stove because they had to find out for themselves. Unfortunately, those type of people where I have a burnt hands.

Aaron Woods: But back to what I'm saying here is you have a room full of people that have been through those experiences, have lived those, you know, the ups and the downs and the rollercoasters, and are able to help each other and guide each other through those experiences, and that's been really powerful to see.

Carm Capriotto: Thank you for that. This is a pretty heavy question when you see a transformation in the business. What do you see in the person who helps make that happen? The shop owner.

Jennifer Hulbert: The shop owner. That makes the transformation in their own business?

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. What do you, what do you, yeah, the business is moving and there's a lot going on, but what do you see in the person, do you see a transformation in them? Do you see a new and better, stronger leader? Do you see attraction? There's gotta be, it starts with the person, the man in the mirror, you know, the ego, all that stuff. And I think it's important to know when people are considering coaching or grouping or networking, that you're gonna change as a person.

Jennifer Hulbert: Oh, absolutely, and that's what we're here to do. If you're not growing in your business is retracting and shrinking. So how can the managers or the owners make those improvements and then they have a different role in their business. I. All of us, most of us started in an actual day-to-day role.

Jennifer Hulbert: I was a service advisor. Aaron was a technician. Most of the shop owners are in one of those day-to-day roles, and as they take that step out, they can see the growth potential. I. Because there may not be holding back their business. And I said this, I think on my first podcast with you, is I was holding my business back.

Jennifer Hulbert: And until I took that transformation and had that epiphany of there are people who can do these individual roles better than I can, and putting those people in those seats allows the business to grow. And that was something that Dr. Jessica Kriegel talked about today. That kind of goes back to culture.

Jennifer Hulbert: If you have the people who are working in the same direction, your profitability is going to be extremely higher than just some growth because of a labor rate increase in Absolutely, you know, a parts margin change.

Aaron Woods: Oh, I agree. And to add to that point, yesterday, during, or not yesterday, Wednesday on, when we did our breakout, you know, GPG training, one of the things I talked about was just that, I mean, there's intentional growth and there's organic growth.

Aaron Woods: Organic growth is, yeah, we're gonna increase our labor rate. You know, parts prices aren't getting any cheaper, and so. You know, a 5%, 10% growth, to me is not really doing anything different rather than just natural environmental factors. But to add to what Jennifer is saying, it's the lid. It's the story of the fleas in the pickle jar that, you know, jump up and hit the bottom of the lid and eventually they quit jumping.

Aaron Woods: And then you take the lid off. And it's like, we as shop owners, and I say we, myself, Jennifer, all of us included, it's. We tend to put that lid on it, on our beliefs. Going back to, you know, Jennifer or Dr. Jessica Craigle and her talking about the belief system, where we believe in our business should be is where we put the lid and it's like we have to remove that lid and let our people.

Aaron Woods: Run with it. We have to train them. Well, we have to build the systems around them, but then it's amazing to see what they can do when we get out of the way.

Jennifer Hulbert: And we're building leaders then, and not managers or employees,

Carm Capriotto: followers.

Aaron Woods: Yeah. Correct. That was one thing actually that stuck out to me. I think, was it Dan Clark that said that?

Aaron Woods: He said a leader's job is to build other leaders. You know, and I thought that was a great point, right?

Carm Capriotto: There's an awful lot about micromanaging in the last couple of days, discussions with people, and I think we micromanage because we don't know what else to do. I think we love to turn a wrench, sweep a floor.

Carm Capriotto: I. And all the thousands of other things that we like to do and not lead. I mean, listen, for 10 years we've been doing this. This is not a redundant episode, but it's an episode that kind of shares the same themes or storylines that we've been talking about for years, and so why would I want all of this repeatable life's lessons to happen again?

Carm Capriotto: Because I believe I haven't gotten to everybody who needs to hear this. Okay? And if you're a top 20 producer, listen to this. Continue to affirm and confirm that you're doing the right thing. And if you are not and you want to get there, then listen to this. Write some stuff down. Listen to it three or four times.

Carm Capriotto: Listen to the wisdom that's coming from the real life's experiences out here. And that's kind of what I want to know. There's a level of accountability. Here's the law of the lid. I love the law of the lid. You did finish the story. The fleas, you take the lid off, the fleas not gonna come out because we've taught them.

Carm Capriotto: This is only as high as you can jump. But what I wanna know is with these groups, how does accountability. Happen. And what I mean by that is what I was so impressed by to be in your group was they seem to hold each other accountable. And you talk about the height of networking and the height of, I don't know this guy, but I've just been assigned to be his partner.

Carm Capriotto: I guess my job is to hold him accountable because he's gonna hold me. Wow. What a cool way. It's a tug of war baby, but the positivity's in the middle.

Aaron Woods: Well, I think Jimmy said this perfectly. I think it came from Jimmy or Jimmy during the summit was, you know, we're all in the same storm. We may not be on the same ship.

Aaron Woods: And our ships may not be the same size, but we're all in the same storm. And I think the power of the accountability factor that you speak to is the age old saying, right, a rising tide lifts all ships and maybe the ships aren't the same size, but we're all in this together. We're all here. In the same industry, and we're all battling a lot of the same, you know, day-to-day issues, whether it be technology, staffing and these things.

Aaron Woods: And so as that room grows and as the discussions happen, it's, I know that if I help Jennifer raise her tide, that in turn comes back to help me. Because it lifts the group up. Right. And you see that Jennifer like, absolutely. I'd love for you to get your input as well. Like, you know, you facilitate a several of the groups so well, you see that as well.

Jennifer Hulbert: We have these like-minded people in the same room. And Michael Smith uses the word or the phrase all the time that we're not gonna do business with jerks. So we're not gonna have someone who is gonna self-sabotage themselves in the group, that they're not gonna last because the other members are going to say, we are here to improve.

Jennifer Hulbert: All of us and we're all gonna rise together.

Carm Capriotto: That's right.

Jennifer Hulbert: So we're in the 1% the people in our groups are in the 1% of the business. That's been one of the trademarks of the institute for a very long time. So we're like-minded people and we want to improve everyone's business and everyone's lives.

Jennifer Hulbert: Again, going back to the theme and of the institute, better life, better business, better industry. So if you are not going to push your members and hold them accountable. We're not going to rise together.

Carm Capriotto: That's right.

Jennifer Hulbert: And sometimes in the beginning that accountability is forced. We've had difficult conversations with our group members and they see the potential.

Jennifer Hulbert: They see others making the improvements in their business and how they've rosen up and say, okay. Finally, I'm gonna commit to this. Yeah. And I'm gonna make the improvements and I'm going to listen to my other group members because I'm getting the same information.

Carm Capriotto: This is a behind the scenes on what grouping networking and coaching is all about.

Aaron Woods: Oh, and it is, and I'll add to this, you know, I think Jennifer and I share a great dynamic in this, in the sense of. Not only are we the ones leading these groups, but we come from the group process. Yes. And not only are Jennifer and I collaborating at this sense now of, you know, co-facilitating this program, but we were composite partners, which is the really accountability partners Oh.

Aaron Woods: And the group process. And so. We came from that. Oh, you know more about her than anybody. I see. I won't go into specifics, but there were several times where her and I would push each other on our meetings in the group process. And you know, we all still to this day, still to this day and. You know, I heard Jennifer mention this the other night, and it's something that her and I have been very vocal about back and forth.

Aaron Woods: It's mirror people. And I think it was something that came out of the first summit. Yes. Kevin Brown, who are your mirror people. You know, the people that when you look at the mirror and you say, this is where I am today because of people that have influenced me throughout my life. You know, who are those people?

Aaron Woods: Jennifer and I have been very vocal about each one of us being one of those people, but to the broader. Point here. 'cause we're talking about the group process, the people in that room that do hold each other accountable and do be there for them in the good times and the bad times of the business. A lot of times it's more than just running a shop.

Aaron Woods: It's those people become the mirror people. Yeah. That's the true bond in that room is you've earned the right. To be able to be that person for that person when they needed you. Yeah. That's powerful.

Carm Capriotto: Kevin Brown, hero effect.

Jennifer Hulbert: The Hero effect.

Carm Capriotto: The Hero Effect. We got the book at the summit. Oh my God.

Carm Capriotto: I think, was it a signed copy?

Aaron Woods: I still talk about that to this day.

Carm Capriotto: Tracy, you read it? I did that, yeah. Tracy read it. And we were moved by it. I believe it's on the books page on our website. Remarkable results biz , it's a must, must read. He's gotta be one of the top.

Carm Capriotto: I mean, oh, I loved it. From the minute he started to talk to the end. You were He had me, he had me. The hero effect, Kevin Brown.

Jennifer Hulbert: Well, and to go back, just to expand a little bit on Mirror People, there are group members who become your chosen family. And again, I was in a group for 18 years.

Carm Capriotto: Your chosen family. That is big.

Jennifer Hulbert: I have chosen family members. And we support each other in all aspects of our life. Not just the business side, but the personal side. And I have people that I can make a phone call tomorrow or this minute and say, Hey, I'm really struggling this with whatever it is in my life. And they're gonna be there.

Jennifer Hulbert: We got you. We're gonna be there to support you. And that's really what I want the group process to be, or we want the group process to be. 'cause we do share that same thought is. How can this group become more than just a board of advisors or a board of directors for your business? How can it support your entire life?

Jennifer Hulbert: We have many group members and all across all of our groups, so vacation together. So again, it becomes chosen family, and that to me is the pinnacle or the ultimate part about being part of a group.

Carm Capriotto: That makes so much sense that if you are out there looking for a networking group to become part of, to your point, it's gotta be more than a board of directors.

Carm Capriotto: It ultimately has to be family. But here's my big think. Does everyone make it?

Jennifer Hulbert: No.

Aaron Woods: You know my saying there, Jennifer?

Jennifer Hulbert: Yeah. The easy answer is no.

Carm Capriotto: And what's the hard answer?

Jennifer Hulbert: Aaron saying.

Aaron Woods: The ship wasn't meant to save everybody Carm.

Jennifer Hulbert: No, Noah's Ark wasn't made to save everyone.

Aaron Woods: It's inevitable when you come in and not even just when you come in throughout your tenure of the process.

Aaron Woods: It's not always easy. I. It's not always going to be easy. We're not always going to hear from other people the things that we want to hear, and I think that ultimately that catalyst has to be there inside of you to want to change. I grew up, you know, in a farmhouse and we had a circle driveway around the house, and I remember.

Aaron Woods: I'll never forget this. I was young and my dad bought A Burrow, which is a cross between a donkey and a horse. Yeah. And it was for my little cousins to be able to come over the holidays and ride the Bur ride. Right? Because they didn't wanna ride the horse. We had horses, but they were too big. And so we bought this burrow and I remember watching my dad trying to get this borough to walk with a lead.

Aaron Woods: Right. For two weeks, he's dragging this burrow around the driveway. I mean, the hooves are shoved into the ground. I mean, it was amazing to see. It probably wasn't, but I thought it was funny. Carrots. Yes, that's where I'm going with this. Oh, no kidding. So, so he went inside after about two weeks, and he came outside with a bag of carrots.

Aaron Woods: And so he stood in front of the burrow and he pulled a carrot out and then the borough would walk up and get the carrot. And then he continued to do that. And within a couple of days. The boroughs walking right around the driveway, right. Looking for a carrot. I never knew until like just recently, like how did I learn so much from that moment?

Aaron Woods: It's people will only do what really they want to do. We can't make group members come into this process and want to change, or want to improve or fix this, or we just can't. And I think that's the thing is we sometimes we do get group members that come in and they say. Well, my business is failing. What can you do for me?

Aaron Woods: And that's a, whoops, if somebody says like, I can't do anything for you. Right? Like you have to do those things for yourself. The information, the knowledge, the gathering. The facilitation. We can pour the glass full of Kool-Aid and sit it in front of you, but I can't make you drink.

Jennifer Hulbert: And that for me was probably the biggest challenge of changing from group member to facilitator.

Jennifer Hulbert: I'll never forget, the biggest thing I took outta leadership intensive with Michael Smith is you put your hand up and you start to push. What does the other person do? They push back equally or harder, so how can we turn that push into a carrot and how can we make or help them realize that they have it within themselves to make these improvements themselves.

Aaron Woods: To take that step forward.

Carm Capriotto: So I want to join your group and I say, so what can you do for me? Would the next question say why? Why do you say that?

Aaron Woods: My next question would be is what can you do for yourself? What are you willing to do?

Carm Capriotto: Well, I don't know. You tell me.

Aaron Woods: Because going back to my story with the Burrow, right?

Aaron Woods: It's like, well, my dad got the carrot out, but the burrow still had to take the step to eat it. Yeah. So it's not, if somebody says, well, what can you do for me? It's no. What can you do for yourself?

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. You want direction, you want guidance. If they don't have the motive, obviously there's zero motivation. If they say, what can you do for me?

Jennifer Hulbert: Maybe not zero motivation. Maybe they don't know what they don't know.

Carm Capriotto: Yep.

Jennifer Hulbert: So think of typical shop owners. You're a technician. You're there to solve a problem. You're there to work with your hands. You're there to do step by step, a job to get an outcome. For shop ownership, there are outcomes that you can't control.

Jennifer Hulbert: Customer interactions, you can control them to a point, but there's, it's not like fixing a car. And sometimes that thought process for that member needs to come out, like, I need to look at this differently. I need to grow as a person. I'm no longer a technician, I'm a business owner and I need to look, do, see things differently.

Carm Capriotto: So I want to take the leap and I want to join a coaching group, company group like this, and what characteristics, I get what you're trying to say, that there's nothing you can do for them except maybe do, you know, bring the bag of carrots and let 'em walk to it and ultimately eat. But let's talk to the shop owners right now that are struggling and they need help.

Carm Capriotto: If you want to get into a networking group, coaching thing, what kind of priorities do you need to set for yourself? To make that phone call, to get on that website, to do some discovery of how to get yourself to the next level in your life and in your business.

Jennifer Hulbert: Aaron's story of how he became a group member is the perfect example.

Jennifer Hulbert: So I think your story is one that we should share.

Aaron Woods: You know, I was young in my shop ownership. I started my shop from ground zero. I had nothing, not even really many tools. I remember as I first got started, I didn't know, just like Jennifer said, I don't know what I don't know, and I remember just being extremely defeated when I worked so hard and I mean, seven days a week.

Aaron Woods: 18 hour days, and at the end of the month, I got a negative profit and loss statement from my accountant. And I'm sitting here and I'm trying to look at this negative profit and loss statement, income statement, whatever you want to call it. And I'm looking at all the hours that I just worked and I'm like, how does this make sense?

Aaron Woods: Like, I've always grew up, and I think a lot of us are this way. You grow up and you say, well, if you work hard. You get the things that you need to have, right? Or want to have whatever you describe it. And here I am, seven days a week, 18 hours a day, and at the end of the month, it's like I gave somebody else money, you know?

Aaron Woods: But the problem is that I didn't know why. I'm like, well, I know I can see this bottom number at the bottom of this sheet, but I don't know why. And so my next step was, and I was mad. I was really mad. Actually this was a couple weeks before vision and I remember going to Vision a long time ago when I was a rep for a sales company and I was there as a vendor and I'm like, I think there's this conference that I need to go to.

Aaron Woods: To learn. Right. And it happened to be vision. So I drove up there and I took my manager and with me and or he's now my manager. He wasn't at the time, but I took, you know, somebody that worked with me up there and we attended some classes and I remember on it was on Sunday. I was stewing over this negative p and l the entire time.

Aaron Woods: And that was really what I wanted to learn is like, okay, how do I fix this? Because I don't know what I don't know. And at the end of the conference on Sunday, I'm in this big room, there's a coach in there. I sit at the front of the room and I knew the entire time. I'm like, I am going to touch the stove today.

Aaron Woods: And so I sit at the front of the room and when that coach said, would anybody be willing to volunteer to sit up here on this stage and have us look at your numbers? And I didn't even raise my hand. I just stood up and started walking to the stage. And I'll never forget this, he pulled a chair up and he set it on the stage and he had a projector here, son, sit here.

Aaron Woods: Oh yeah. And I sit there and I pulled up my chop management system and I had it on my phone. And so he was writing these numbers down. He was asking me, and I didn't even know what numbers he was asking me. He's like, oh yeah this. I'm like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm giving him these numbers. I have no idea where he is going with it.

Aaron Woods: And he is writing these things down on this projector screen and it's on this big screen in front of the room, and he's asking me all these numbers and at the end of it, he's like. Group, what do we think? And there's like 500 shop owners in this room, and I'm sitting up on the stage. You were exposed. Oh, I got ran through the grater.

Aaron Woods: Oh, you were but the thing is I knew I was going to, and that's the thing is like I, that was your moment. That was my moment, right? I'm like, yeah, I know that if this burns enough that it's going to ignite me to go back and make the change. And so I did. And it did. I was so mad at myself. I'm a very prideful person, right?

Aaron Woods: And I said, never again will I ever be here. And it was a four and a half hour drive back from Kansas City and Tyler sat in the Passeng. You can ask him himself. Tyler Nichols Extra Mile Auto Care sat right there in the passenger seat of my Honda, and I did not say one word, leaving that conference center all the way back until about 15 miles from Stillwater.

Aaron Woods: And he finally, he looked at me and he goes. What is wrong? And I lost it. Blew up. Not at him, just blew up. And I said, but you've been planning that diatribe for four hours. In your mind.

Aaron Woods: And I said, I have failed you. I have failed this company. And I said, I'm sure there was more choice words there, but at the sense of it is never again will I be here.

Aaron Woods: Never again will I ever be here. I'm not saying that as the rollercoaster of our business, that we don't ever have a bad month, but never will I ever look at that number and not know why.

Carm Capriotto: I wrote down the word exposed. While I'm listening to him. 'cause I always take people's words and I'm saying, how can I really bring this inside of me?

Carm Capriotto: I also think about my listener and I know what you just heard about Aaron in his story, but you cannot be afraid. To do an Aaron story to be exposed, and you were exposed in front of 500 people. You find a coach, you're being exposed to one person who's willing to get on board to help you. And then if you get into a group, maybe it's 20 people, but at the end of the day.

Carm Capriotto: If you are not glowing and growing and doing all this stuff, then you've chosen poorly. They have not given you the right direction, and you need to move on, which is why people sometimes shift around until they find the right love fest, the right family, the right connections. But if you're not willing to expose.

Carm Capriotto: That I don't know what I don't know all the missteps that you've had in your life. If you're not willing to be humble, that's what happened to you, but you didn't think about the beauty of his story is it was an intervention. I bet you if I was in the room, I would've seen a lightning bolt come down, pick you up, and guide you to that stage.

Aaron Woods: You could have probably scrambled an egg on my face.

Jennifer Hulbert: And we have people, maybe not to that extent, but they'll go to a class that NAPA put on in their local BDG. Yeah. Or you know, another class in their market and they hear something and they're like, I have no idea what they're talking about. And then they'll watch one of your podcast and they'll say.

Jennifer Hulbert: You know, I don't know anything about this, but Carm just gave me an idea of where I can find the information and that's usually the first step.

Carm Capriotto: You know, I've been in a room where there's been a coach presenting, you know, over Zoom or a management video came up, and guy who's, does anybody have any questions?

Carm Capriotto: Nobody raises their hands. I look over at Tracy and I do one of these. I want to go to everybody's shoulders and I wanna shake them because their potential, everything's it is like, even though it was a, maybe it was just a mini, you know, performance. KPI, just one subject. No one had any questions.

Carm Capriotto: Everyone in the room's an expert on that topic. The answer is no. But no one wanted to have an Aaron experience.

Aaron Woods: I say that. I mean, I don't recommend that. Well, I do if that's what you need. It was not a fun experience. But at the same time, it's, go back to your original question, Carmen.

Aaron Woods: You said, what do those people need to do? And I think that for me it's kind of like goal setting, right? It's okay, so I have this place that I want to be. But that's not where I am. Right? And maybe I don't know what that place is that I want to be, but I know where I am and it's like, well, if all I ever focus on is that one day I'm gonna have all of these other things, then what we're missing is the path.

Aaron Woods: Right? And it's like, okay, well what can that shop owner that's struggling do today? You can make a phone call, you can reach out, you can do just a small action today. That gets you on a path to then having a different result. I mean, this was 2019 when I went to Vision in Kansas City. Wow. You know, and granted I never would've said, well, you know, in six years from now, Erin, you're gonna be a facilitator.

Aaron Woods: No, I would've known that. Right. But it's like, I didn't just go from vision to facilitating. What did I do? I did one thing. I reached out to. You know, the institute, right. Pulled up a podcast. I, and that's the thing is like, you're so inundated in your business and you're like, well, I can't just do this, you know, 20 group thing. It's like, but you can make a phone call.

Jennifer Hulbert: And don't be intimidated by the process. So we have so many new group members who come in and say, what can I possibly give to this process right now? Yeah. I've not been involved in. There are so many things that I'm not confident about, but yet they contribute to the conversation.

Jennifer Hulbert: They contribute to the meeting overall, they contribute to helping someone in a dinner conversation. So I guess if there's one thing that we could tell your listeners is don't be intimidated by coming and joining a coaching group or a group in general, because you have knowledge, be a sponge, you have experiences.

Carm Capriotto: Be a sponge.

Jennifer Hulbert: Yes.

Aaron Woods: And maybe that is the role. Right. That maybe that's the rule. I agree, Jennifer.

Carm Capriotto: Talk about an accelerated. I am worthless on the bottom of the ocean to a group facilitator.

Aaron Woods: I'm very upfront with my clients. It's. Just because Jennifer and I are facilitators doesn't mean we don't struggle with things in our own shops as well.

Carm Capriotto: Thank you for bringing that up. I think that's so important.

Aaron Woods: It is. It really is. I mean, I You're also, I'm a technician short at my shop right now.

Carm Capriotto: I mean, you're learning from the group too. Yes. Oh, wait a minute. You're absolutely, you gotta go back, put your money where your mouth is.

Aaron Woods: No, but here's the thing.

Aaron Woods: You're right. And that's powerful. It's like, because we sit at the front of the room, it's like, oh, well Aaron and Jennifer have the answers. That may not be the case. Like I always tell people. I learn more than I teach. And we should, right? And that's the thing, it's your end goal is never a destination.

Aaron Woods: It's always a journey. It's always a journey, right?

Jennifer Hulbert: But it's also who you surround yourself with. So if you surround yourself with those people who are going to help make those improvements or give those ideas, then that is why we are all here.

Carm Capriotto: Let's go down a different path. How does homework get done? I know that everyone who leaves their group sessions has homework. Does it get done?

Jennifer Hulbert: Most of the time, but it goes back to the same ideology of are you working in your business or are you working on your business? So if you go back to your shop and you jump right into a service advisor role, your homework, so to speak, or your ownership duties are gonna take a second seat to that.

Jennifer Hulbert: So do you have the proper people in place to be able to step out of the day-to-day role and say, I am going to make a commitment and I'm going to get X, Y, z done because I am looking for a goal or I'm looking for a different result of what I'm doing right now.

Carm Capriotto: Aaron, I wanna. Get a coach and facilitator and once we get over the hurdle that I can come in, the next question that I ask you is, okay, Aaron, oh, thanks for having me.

Carm Capriotto: Shall I start working on sales costs or margin? Where? Where do I start?

Aaron Woods: I think I. Margin is where I think the easiest thing that we can deploy in our business. Right. And that's when I begin working with a client. And of course the first thing I do when I look at a financial statement is I'll scan right to the bottom.

Aaron Woods: And give me a percentage of sales. Right. And if that net profit isn't where it needs to be. The second place I'm gonna go every time is to the margins, to the gross profits. Gross profits are the easiest and quickest way that we can fix, I don't wanna say fix the business.

Carm Capriotto: Legitimate fixes. Real live, honest to God. Oh. The coach is justifying their fee because I just raised my labor rate and we hear a lot of that junk out there. In many cases, it's way untrue because that's where a big fix happens, to your point.

Aaron Woods: Yeah. I don't know that. I mean, is there a time to increase a door rate?

Aaron Woods: Yes, but I look at it in a little bit of a different perspective in the sense of a door rate is really just a figurative thing. It's the effective labor rate is really what's important. It's how many dollars on average are you taking to the bank for every build hour, and that's your effective. So it's really where does our effective labor rate need to be?

Aaron Woods: And that effective labor rate calculation is really just looking at what are your expenses? What are your margins need to be? So then what does our effective labor rate? And the point I'm making here is. The setting of the effective labor rate. Now granted, the door rate might need to be moved to move the needle on effective, but that's just one of the four or five different ways to move effective labor rate.

Aaron Woods: That's what it's truly about, and that's oftentimes, if we do arrive at the conclusion that the door rate needs to be increased, it's not just to increase a door rate, it's. Because we've gone through and we've looked at the calculations, we know where it needs to be because of other information. Then we make that decision.

Aaron Woods: It's never, Jennifer, you might speak as well, but I don't think I've ever looked at a p and L and been like, well, it's a door rate issue or

Jennifer Hulbert: No. And more of what type of production is coming out of the shop. So you can set your margins to be whatever you want them to be. If you're not turning out the work or attracting the customers to be able to turn out the work, then what are we doing?

Jennifer Hulbert: And I use the analogy. Almost every meeting, and I did on Wednesday. If you had a 300 gallon bulk oil drum, would you turn the spigot on and watch the oil go down the drain? No, no shop owner would do that, but that is what we do with our labor inventory every single day. Correct. 'cause we're not managing it.

Carm Capriotto: I kind of knew the answer to this because although margins may be a quick fix, there are all the key issues of sales margin and cost management are just things you gotta pay attention to. Period done, case closed.

Jennifer Hulbert: There are so many, I mean, again, you have your labor. Do you have the right marketing to attract the right customer?

Jennifer Hulbert: Do you have the right service advisor skills to be able to turn that DVI into an average repair order? I mean, there's so many other factors besides, let's look at your parts matrix or your labor rate.

Aaron Woods: Jennifer's hitting the nail on the head. I love the analogy of the 55 gallon drum of oil. And it's like, yeah, I mean there's so many factors to pay attention to and I also understand as a younger shop owner, a struggling shop owner, I.

Aaron Woods: That's a lot to try and find and fix. And it's like, well, how do I have time to do that? And I think the ultimate goal is work on one thing at a time. Right. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the information is there. You have to buckle down and solve it.

Carm Capriotto: I'm with Jennifer Holbert from Service Plus Calcium New York. Also a facilitator here for the gear groups here at the institute and Aaron Woods from Extra Mile Autocare in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Let's wrap this up. Give me one aha moment of your life as a facilitator. Any aha moment you'd love to share?

Jennifer Hulbert: This is more rewarding than I ever thought possible.

Carm Capriotto: Wow.

Jennifer Hulbert: Being able to watch the improvements of the group members and the entire group process. So one of the notable achievements that we accomplished this year was increasing the net profit of the entire group process by almost 1% in 12 months.

Carm Capriotto: Collectively?

Jennifer Hulbert: Collectively across the entire program.

Carm Capriotto: Net operating income?

Carm Capriotto: Wow.

Jennifer Hulbert: So sitting back and saying, you know, wow, we had a part of that. And I say we, Aaron and I make a very fantastic team and we collaborate a lot with our different groups, but. Seeing that we are impacting 72 shop owners' lives with better profitability.

Jennifer Hulbert: For them to be able to take that and make notable improvements in not only their business, but their employees' lives and their communities is much more satisfying than I ever thought possible.

Carm Capriotto: You just said a big number 72, and I think about herding cattle.

Jennifer Hulbert: Or chasing cats.

Carm Capriotto: Wow. Okay. Because if I was to your group, this guy is a disciplinary and strictness guy, you know, in front of that group, I guess that's the only wage you've gotta have that structure, right?

Aaron Woods: Structure, yes. There's a time to push and there's a time to pull. Right. There's a time to lead, there's a time to motivate, and you know, and that's something that we, you know, continually learn, you know, as our experience grows.

Aaron Woods: But I love what Jennifer said, the 1% increase, and somebody might think, well, that's 1%, but we're talking about millions of dollars. Millions. That, and to take what she said and to build on that, it's when, just like the institute, better business, better life, better industry, right? It's. When we collectively, Jennifer and I make that type of impact, right?

Aaron Woods: You're creating a better business, and this is what I love about this. You are making a better business for not just the owner, but when the owner has a better business, then the owner has a better life and business for each one of his employees. And that the, each one of those employees that has a family that is in impacted and it's, and so when you look at the spider web effect of what that does. To me it's, it transcends auto repair. Right? It's making an impact to society. And that to me is my biggest takeaway. I don't have one.

Carm Capriotto: It's a good aha moment.

Aaron Woods: Different than that because I used to build upon that.

Carm Capriotto: You just, I think, nailed a great summary of why facilitating, why grouping, why networking.

Carm Capriotto: Why coaching so important. Yeah. We're doing this for you and your business, potentially your, you know, to build wealth for all the things you want to do as a spouse of a family. But you just nailed the fact that the work family is just as important. Talk about retention, recruiting, and all. I mean, there are some people that want more in life than we're currently giving them.

Carm Capriotto: They want more money. How do we get 'em that, how do we pay for their education? On and down the line. And for anyone who's listening, if your owner, your business owner, CEO, has decided to get into a coaching group, that's good for you too.

Jennifer Hulbert: It is.

Aaron Woods: Absolutely. My employees live better lives because of the group process.

114 - Grow Faster, Go Further – The Peer Group Advantage [THA 423]