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