88 - The Diagnostic Journey: Tools, Technology, and Teamwork with Justin Kidd & Eric Edberg, iSCAN by Autoland

88 - The Diagnostic Journey: Tools, Technology, and Teamwork with Justin Kidd & Eric Edberg, iSCAN by Autoland

May, 2023 - 00:52:27

 

Show Summary:
This episode of "Leading Edge" brings into focus the ever-evolving landscape of automotive diagnostics, with insights from industry experts Justin Kidd and Eric Edberg of iScan by Autoland. Kent Bullard orchestrates a deep dive into the complexities of modern automotive technology, from the intricacies of high-pressure systems to the burgeoning domain of electric vehicles (EVs). The discussion pivots around the critical importance of ongoing education and the implementation of support on demand, painting a picture of an industry at a technological and methodological crossroads. As the conversation steers towards the horizons of automotive service, listeners gain an understanding of not only where the industry is headed but also how to equip themselves for the journey ahead. A narrative of change, challenge, and opportunity unfolds, emphasizing the role of strategic adaptation and the power of a well-informed team. For anyone passionate about cars or curious about the gears that drive the automotive service industry forward, this episode stands as an essential tuning point.

 

Host(s):

Kent Bullard, COO & Partner - The Institute

Guest(s):

Eric Edberg, Director of Business Development - iSCAN by Autoland

Justin Kidd, iSCAN by Autoland

 

Episode Highlights:
(00:00:00) - Opening remarks on the importance of education in automotive success.
(00:01:00) - The critical nature of safety in working with new automotive technologies.
(00:05:00) - The urgency of adapting to electric vehicle (EV) technology in the industry.
(00:14:00) - The value of technical training and resource accessibility for technicians.
(00:18:00) - How the evolution of the industry affects technician competency and shop operations.
(00:21:00) - Insights into the partnership between the Institute and iScan and its benefits for technical training.
(00:30:00) - The financial impact of service and the importance of understanding business operations.
(00:40:00) - A personal anecdote emphasizing the importance of charging adequately for services.
(00:53:00) - A discussion on the future-focused strategy for automotive businesses.

 

After engaging with the forward-thinking dialogue between Kent Bullard and the iScan experts, we invite you to reflect on the advancements in automotive technology. What are the lessons from your professional experience that resonate with the transformative trends discussed in this episode?

Share your insights with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com for a chance to be featured in future discussions.

 

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• Want access to our online classes? Click Here

 

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Episode Transcript:

 

Leading Edge Episode 88

[00:00:00] Kent Bullard: Welcome to the Institute's Leading Edge, a show dedicated to giving automotive professionals the tools and education needed to succeed. The topics we cover are all geared towards running a [00:00:10] better business, leading a better life, and ultimately changing the industry for, well, the better. Here's what's coming up.

[00:00:15] Kent Bullard: I

[00:00:15] Justin Kidd: mean, you could talk about, you know, knowing that hydraulic systems have a wild [00:00:20] pressure relief that's leaking. You could hurt yourself, right? So high pressure is high pressure. High fuel is, it could still hurt you greatly. So there's always this element of safety around the car, no matter what it [00:00:30] is that you're touching.

[00:00:30] Justin Kidd: I also don't want to be electrocuted. It's out there. There's an, it's in many cars and not know what you're getting involved in. Just for a simple, you know, we're talking a break job. [00:00:40] It needs to be educated that there's an element of safety before you

[00:00:43] Kent Bullard: begin. We need your help by submitting questions or topics to info at wearetheinstitute.

[00:00:48] Kent Bullard: com. We can continue to provide [00:00:50] relevant content to you, the listener. But for now, what are we waiting for? Let's get into it. Hello everybody and welcome to the Institute's Leading Edge. We are in episode number. [00:01:00] I believe 88. Today with me, I've got Justin and Eric from iScan by Autoland. I'm very happy, happy to have you guys on here.

[00:01:08] Kent Bullard: We've been, I went up and hung out with you [00:01:10] in in Boston a little while ago, right? That was fun. I've never been that, that far East. So a bit colder than I'd, I'd

[00:01:17] Eric Edberg: prefer we'll do in the summertime. Next

[00:01:19] Kent Bullard: time, [00:01:20] summertime, I'm looking forward to go there more often. I love the architecture. I thought, I think you guys caught me like taking pictures of a lot of the buildings and stuff.

[00:01:28] Justin Kidd: So

[00:01:29] Kent Bullard: [00:01:30] so those of you who are listening or watching, if you like what you hear, you learn something new, give us a like and a comment to share so that others might benefit from what we're discussing [00:01:40] today. Thanks. We do have quite a lot to talk about with these two guys today. So let's, let's jump into that.

[00:01:44] Kent Bullard: So first and foremost, our partnership, we're working together, aren't we guys? We are a hundred percent [00:01:50]

[00:01:50] Eric Edberg: excited about it as well. Yeah, I mean, basically for those of you guys that are not aware the institute and I scan by auto land are now officially. partnering up and [00:02:00] it's a joint kind of venture to really help our industry and our collective customers have basically a deeper toolbox at their [00:02:10] disposal to, to basically run their shops more effectively.

[00:02:13] Eric Edberg: You know, we're obviously kind of. focused on the back of the shop on the repair side and making sure that our customers have the proper [00:02:20] tooling, the information, the coding and programming and the, the diagnostic and technical resources. But I think what often gets overlooked is the front of [00:02:30] the shop and, you know interfacing with customers properly.

[00:02:33] Eric Edberg: How to run the business, how to properly right service to market to your customers. And, and again, we [00:02:40] really see this as a valuable partnership with you guys to, to basically bring that to our customers and make sure that, that, you know, that they really know that, that a business is [00:02:50] not going to be successful unless both sides of the the house are, are properly tooled up.

[00:02:55] Eric Edberg: So,

[00:02:55] Kent Bullard: so I had a meeting with some of my facilitators this morning and we were talking about [00:03:00] the high level skills. So, you know, a lot of these shop owners are master technicians. They could get in there, they could fix anything, diagnose anything, but what tends to happen is [00:03:10] they end up bottlenecking a lot of the process.

[00:03:11] Kent Bullard: And instead of investing that time, you know, fixing cars, you know, they need to be investing it on what we would call high level business acumen. [00:03:20] So stuff that actually helps the business run more effectively. And then earlier, In that same discussion, we mentioned someone had said, you know, I'm responsible for [00:03:30] 13 families.

[00:03:32] Kent Bullard: I am the direct, you know, pipeline for their livelihood for 13 families and I need to [00:03:40] be, I need to manage that. Actually, I think it was a post that Brian Walker put out this morning. We're discussing that, but you know, that's kind of why [00:03:50] we're excited to work with with ice can with with Justin and Eric.

[00:03:52] Kent Bullard: You guys are good people. I'm glad we made it official. We have a website, the landing page, right? The partnership. So yeah, it's [00:04:00] interesting. It's interesting. The, the, the opportunity that we have to combine both of our resources

[00:04:05] Justin Kidd: here. Absolutely.

[00:04:07] Kent Bullard: So go ahead. Go

[00:04:08] Eric Edberg: ahead. I was going to say [00:04:10] also you know, for, for, you know, I think some people might look at.

[00:04:13] Eric Edberg: Us is kind of, you know, we're, we're on slightly different spectrums of the business, but I think that's also what's really good is, is [00:04:20] it's combining kind of what you guys do really, really well. And, and some of the knowledge and expertise we have and, and basic, you know, cross collaborating, right. It's, [00:04:30] it's really about us sharing information.

[00:04:32] Eric Edberg: It's not about us kind of hoarding information. And that, that's why we're, you know, we're having our event, in a couple months as well, is because we just know [00:04:40] that. The way technology is moving and unfortunately with the pandemic the last couple of years we've taken some major steps back in terms of our collective [00:04:50] experience and technical training and getting up to speed.

[00:04:52] Eric Edberg: And we felt that this is really the right time to help you guys you know, build more technical content for your [00:05:00] customers utilize some of your technologies to make that information. easier to reach for our customers. And, and just basically again, show, show everybody that, Hey, we've, we've got [00:05:10] a really strong network of, of, you know technical and management and just, just, you know, we've partnered with the right people and these, these people know how to be [00:05:20] successful.

[00:05:20] Eric Edberg: And at the end of the day, what's, what's really kind of unique is they're willing to share that, right. They're not hoarding it from themselves. You know, when we look at our [00:05:30] iScan SOD network. We've got really competent partners that help customers every day with their difficult VW problems or their Mercedes problems or [00:05:40] their GM problems or whatnot.

[00:05:41] Eric Edberg: And not to say that our shops don't know what they're doing. I mean, they're very qualified, but In this day and age, it's just impossible to stay up on everything. [00:05:50] And sometimes even your best techs will admit that, you know, if nothing else, they need another set of eyes or someone to bounce something off of.

[00:05:57] Eric Edberg: And that's something that we can provide for our customers. And [00:06:00] when you need it, it's invaluable. And, and it really is the difference between you know, kind of spinning down the rabbit hole or, or staying on track and keeping those jobs profitable. [00:06:10] It

[00:06:10] Kent Bullard: seems, it seems, you know. More and more of the things are getting faster and faster.

[00:06:15] Kent Bullard: And there's, there's even more and even more. And you know, you, you guys, [00:06:20] you were talking about this tooling up, right? Getting prepared for it. You know, we, we often say, you don't know what you don't know. And the more resources that you have at your disposal, the [00:06:30] better,

[00:06:30] Justin Kidd: To help

[00:06:30] Kent Bullard: make better decisions.

[00:06:31] Kent Bullard: I don't know, Justin, what do you, what do you think about this? You, you guys, we've, we've been talking about the the SOD or school on demand, right? And Being able to get, [00:06:40] it's funny because a lot of your network is going to be related to the technicians specifically, but our business content is going to be right there.

[00:06:47] Kent Bullard: You know, how do you think that's going to, I know [00:06:50] we've talked about it, but I want you to elaborate on that. How do you think that's going to help some of these shop owners or these shops out there, these automotive professionals? Yeah.

[00:06:57] Justin Kidd: I mean, I was, as we're talking, I'm thinking of [00:07:00] even my own you know, as I'm coming up the ranks of being a technician and I'm seeing service writers and, you know, I always thought I could just.

[00:07:07] Justin Kidd: Sell service. It's easy. Pick up the phone, [00:07:10] call them, and just sell them brakes and then, and torque and clutches and stuff. And, you know, they make it look so easy. And then I actually had the experience of doing it, but I had [00:07:20] no again, I was educated as a technician, but I was never educated to be a service rider.

[00:07:24] Justin Kidd: So walking into a, A center and getting my first service writer job. It was you know, [00:07:30] it was, it was a big wake up call and you have to, you know, actually speak with customers and actually convince them to sell the work. But if I had something [00:07:40] like what the gear offers, you know, the institute and someone to actually train me on what it is I'm supposed to do, I may have been a lot more successful right out of the gate.

[00:07:49] Justin Kidd: [00:07:50] And that's again where the partnership comes in play. So yeah. You know, we have, you know, the great ability of tooling up and, and again, there's going to [00:08:00] be different different things that do better or worse for every job, right? The special tool for this special job. And, you know, it's like the Swiss army knife of of the [00:08:10] aftermarket, you know, what's going to work the best for this job.

[00:08:13] Justin Kidd: So, you know, we have several applications that I think work very well, but when you talk about what's in the, you know, our [00:08:20] back pocket and having a Partnership like with you guys, all of a sudden now we can focus on or let you guys focus on the front. So I really think that's a [00:08:30] huge value add for, for everybody.

[00:08:32] Kent Bullard: Instead of trying to, instead of trying to build it all out myself, you know, my dad used to call it a business in a box. He wanted to create a useful [00:08:40] tool that it's like a whole business in a box. You can take it and you can give it to a shop and they can run their business. It's, it's gotten far more complicated now and more.

[00:08:47] Kent Bullard: Ease of access. We're not shipping a business in a [00:08:50] box, but you've gotta use what you have at your disposal. And I'm really happy we got you guys, 'cause then we don't have to deal with the technical stuff. And you guys are vetting some really good guys. And, and do you [00:09:00] think, you know, as, as you were talking, I was thinking about this, what do you think the technicians should have?

[00:09:05] Kent Bullard: Some level of business knowledge? Absolutely.

[00:09:09] Justin Kidd: And, and why? [00:09:10] I mean, right off the gate, I can think of, you know, parts parts return, you know, as a technician, it's really easy at a dealership to just take something off the counter and try it and stick [00:09:20] it back in the box. And you don't think about the cost effect, you know, it's, it's waste, right?

[00:09:26] Justin Kidd: At that point, you know, you don't realize that. You just spent the company's money. [00:09:30] Maybe that part could never be put back in another car to be educated enough to know that, you know, again, we talk about like critical thinking you know, thinking outside the box and, [00:09:40] but taking apart and just sticking it in.

[00:09:41] Justin Kidd: You don't realize that somebody had to pay for that. So yeah, having some of this business esque knowledge of, of where this is going to [00:09:50] think a little bit ahead of that. Again, where, where can you save?

[00:09:55] Kent Bullard: A lot of the shops we work with there's always like one technician every now and then [00:10:00] who's just not happy that we're there, that we're working with the business owner.

[00:10:04] Kent Bullard: They think that they're either overcharging, like the shop owner's overcharging. the [00:10:10] customers or XYZ and they just didn't have that full picture of how the business actually runs and operates and what the costs involved are and all that. And we end up having that conversation with them [00:10:20] and it really opens them up to go, wow, okay, I, I guess I might, I may have been looking at this a little differently.

[00:10:27] Kent Bullard: So I'm interested to see how many technicians take advantage of some of the [00:10:30] business content as we push it out. What if we told you that you could get quality training and education conveniently and without emptying your pockets? Our gear platform presents great educational [00:10:40] resources for automotive shops, courses led by experts inside and outside our industry, a community of like minded people to engage with, and a resource library at your fingertips.

[00:10:49] Kent Bullard: With a monthly [00:10:50] membership, you can gain access to every course we have in the library, as well as the courses we add each and every month. With the ability to watch wherever And whenever you'd like, the right training is more easily accessed [00:11:00] than ever before. For help with improving your business, go to we are the institute.com and take your first course today.

[00:11:06] Kent Bullard: Yeah. Obviously they're gonna be looking at the technical stuff. We got some good technical stuff [00:11:10] coming up, right?

[00:11:11] Justin Kidd: A hundred percent. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. No, like I said, it's, it's if you, for the technicians that think they can do it on their own, you [00:11:20] know, they may be awesome if master texts in a field, and then when they get on their own, it's, they don't have any business degree to, to get moving.

[00:11:28] Justin Kidd: Right. So yes, the doors are [00:11:30] open. Yes. Maybe there's some clients coming in, but there's, you know, again, you're, you're educated in the vehicle, but the bottleneck may be the business end of it. [00:11:40]

[00:11:42] Kent Bullard: I'm interested. I'm interested to see how that all pans out.

[00:11:45] Eric Edberg: So, well, yeah, and I think hopefully, you know, owners and, you know, [00:11:50] managers and whatnot, you know, encourage their technicians.

[00:11:53] Eric Edberg: I mean, everyone in their organization to, like you say, learn about the business, become a vested partner in it. Hopefully, some of [00:12:00] these owners are looking at, you know, how do we. You know, how do we share profits or, or, or get everyone to, to, to buy into, Hey, if we're successful team, we're all gonna, you know, [00:12:10] grow together, but just brings up a really good point.

[00:12:11] Eric Edberg: A lot of techs, I think eventually get frustrated or see that the grass is greener and decide, you know what, I'm going to do it on my own. That's great. You know, [00:12:20] we want, we want people to be entrepreneurial, but if you didn't take the time to at least. Pay a little bit of attention on the other side, you know, unfortunately, you could get lucky, but but [00:12:30] realistically, you might have a pretty tough road ahead of you.

[00:12:32] Eric Edberg: And again, and I think that's why you know, the management training is just really critical. You can't, you know, just like you have to be tooled [00:12:40] up in the back. I mean, you cannot be one sided. And expect to be successful in the long run. It will catch up to you if you're deficient on one or the other sides.

[00:12:49] Eric Edberg: Yeah. Some [00:12:50] of the,

[00:12:50] Kent Bullard: some of our top shops the guys are doing the high level stuff. They've got a lot of, you know, they're expanding. One of them just bought three new shops. He's on those, waited 20 and, what they've been [00:13:00] doing is, is rolling out these training initiatives for personal finance and teaching their team about business [00:13:10] management and business strategy and, and wealth development and all this with their technicians, their service advisors with their and it just shows that, you know, they're, [00:13:20] they're really thinking on a higher level of how I can improve the team that I have And give them more opportunity to be successful really invest in them.

[00:13:28] Kent Bullard: And so, you know, that's kind of [00:13:30] in line with what we would like to do is, is that we always believe in full transparency and sharing everything about the business with your team. They, they, they're invested there too. And they're, [00:13:40] they're putting their time in there. So, yeah, I, I'm curious to see how it all pans out.

[00:13:43] Kent Bullard: So the event let's, let's shift gears a little bit. Let's talk about the event. Why are [00:13:50] we, why are we hosting an event? And, and what are we, what are we training on?

[00:13:57] Justin Kidd: Want to take that one, Justin? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. That, [00:14:00] that's, it's exciting because I, I really do love the, the live session and, and with obviously, the, you know, COVID kind of hindering us to, to be able to do that.

[00:14:09] Justin Kidd: We've [00:14:10] seen, again, kind of a shift of, a mixture of either, you know, hybrid or online learning, which, again, it, I think it all works hand in hand. You need both. [00:14:20] You do need, A little bit of the classroom, and you do need a little bit of live interaction.

[00:14:25] Kent Bullard: Yeah, well, so things are shift. Sorry to interrupt.

[00:14:28] Kent Bullard: No, I cut you off, but things are [00:14:30] shifting, you know, we've had, we used to have nothing but in person, then we went to nothing but online and, you know, there's there's pros and cons to both of those. [00:14:40] And the way that the Institute has been looking at it. Because we started doing online before COVID hit and moving into this, this space is you have to have some kind of a dynamic approach to this and [00:14:50] it all has to be backed by a community or a strong network of people, professionals who are in line with your same ideals of growth and development.

[00:14:59] Kent Bullard: And so, [00:15:00] you know, we, we see this, you have to have this. This online and in person where you can get the social aspect and have them interconnected with this community, like you know, we use our [00:15:10] network often with our workshops, so we'll do it an online training workshop will follow up with our network and have discussions between the members and then we'll meet in person and have an even more in depth [00:15:20] discussion as well as the bumping elbows and actually building those relationships for the long term.

[00:15:26] Kent Bullard: You know, you've got a lot of partnerships. I hate to say it, but old guys that are [00:15:30] moving on, they're getting to the point where they're retiring and they're transitioning and there's a lot of younger guys like myself, only have a little bit of gray. You know, I got three kids, so I guess that's why I got [00:15:40] that.

[00:15:40] Kent Bullard: But and they're looking to build these relationships. You know, you Eric, I think you mentioned having that, that community, right? You talked about building a strong network. [00:15:50]

[00:15:50] Eric Edberg: Sure. Yeah, no, I think, I think it's really important. I, again, you bring up I think a really good point. We've got some new mediums and technology that, that pass information along better now.

[00:15:59] Eric Edberg: [00:16:00] So gotta utilize that. I think it's important to, you know, kinda like what you guys are doing with the with gear is that, you know, you're, you're really making a lot [00:16:10] of. Quality information and education available at anyone's fingertip. But I think the important thing about these events is really just that you get to meet these people, [00:16:20] right?

[00:16:20] Eric Edberg: You build a relationship with them. I mean, I hate to say it. I'm not saying that the only reason you go to an event is so you can make it happen. get a phone number or whatnot, but, but let's face it. I mean, let's use the analogy of why [00:16:30] you go to college. Yes, you learn some things, but really it's kind of the relationships you make that, that potentially will last a lifetime and, and, and we'll, we'll lead into other things.

[00:16:39] Eric Edberg: So to me, [00:16:40] technical events, like we're going to be putting on you'll get a chance to meet these high level trainers and instructors. And most of them, if not all of them are SOD [00:16:50] providers. which means not only are they interested in training and bettering their, you know, their industry and the aftermarket, but they're also in many cases [00:17:00] providing some level of support to their customers.

[00:17:02] Eric Edberg: And, and again, and I think that's the thing is you know, I hear this all the time and it's kind of a true statement that. The top diagnosticians, it's, it's really, [00:17:10] it's not necessarily, you know, how they were trained up or, or, you know, what education they had, how many years he spent at the dealer or whatnot.

[00:17:19] Eric Edberg: If you're a really [00:17:20] good diagnostician, you're very good at getting the information and finding it. Efficiently, right? And it's the same thing with with this. It's it's the more people I know, I quickly [00:17:30] realized like, Hey, for that answer, this is the best person for me to bounce that off of or this is the best place to go.

[00:17:35] Eric Edberg: Even with scan tools, right? It's like, Hey, I know this tool is really good in this area. And [00:17:40] that's my go to for that. But this other tool is great here. That that kind of wisdom and expertise once you gain that it's it's invaluable. But again, getting in front of [00:17:50] people building your network, right? It just makes you stronger.

[00:17:52] Eric Edberg: And, and unfortunately, you know, we are in a, in a huge you know, technician shortage right now. You know, I, I know all your shops and [00:18:00] everyone out there is struggling to find and retain good talent. And we're never, you know, we're never going to go fully remote with anything, but having more resources [00:18:10] is going to be key because these vehicles are getting more complex.

[00:18:12] Eric Edberg: There's the, they're branching off exponentially. And unfortunately, even the shops that invest a lot in training. We're still [00:18:20] playing catch up, you know, we're still kind of losing that race with technology. So the, the tools that are going to be able to weather the, you know, the pending storms that are down [00:18:30] the road are the ones that took the time to invest in the technologies and partner up with the, the resource networks and, and are going to be in a much better place as we move forward.

[00:18:39] Kent Bullard: We've [00:18:40] got some big things coming in the industry, you know, got EVs coming. Maybe a lot stronger. I think there's still a lot of people out there who are saying, Oh, it's not, it's not going to come out, you know they, [00:18:50] they announced CB 10 years ago saying it was going to be the next thing. And that was 10 years, actually 15 years ago.

[00:18:56] Kent Bullard: And people freaked out back then, but now it's becoming [00:19:00] a lot more of a reality. You've got mass consolidation going around. A lot of shops are getting consolidated. Yeah, it's, it's so, so that's why, you know, this conference, what? [00:19:10] Justin, we are limiting how many people we're allowing at this conference.

[00:19:14] Kent Bullard: Why? So we talked about, so let's, this is in a juxtaposition here. We talked about growing a [00:19:20] network and expanding and your resource and all that. And now we're saying, all right, we're restricting it to 100. Why are we

[00:19:25] Justin Kidd: doing that? The energy in that room is going to be [00:19:30] just huge, you know, and when we do these, you know, live training events or when you get into a classroom and you and you really have a great back and forth with, you know, the instructors and the [00:19:40] students and stuff, it's just nothing like it.

[00:19:42] Justin Kidd: You can feel the energy in that room. And to keep it, you know, in that manner smaller than, you know, a couple of thousand, it's impossible [00:19:50] to get everything you want out of you know, and out of that. So I think it's really important that we'll keep it in that. Kind of, you know, very [00:20:00] smaller environment that it'll, it'll be a much better benefit for them.

[00:20:05] Kent Bullard: We did, we did talk about upscaling it. And ultimately we kind of came to this idea that, look, [00:20:10] we'd rather have a much more personal experience and much more one on one. You know, with with the instructors so that we can build those relationships there. And that's what [00:20:20] we really want. We want some hands on stuff.

[00:20:21] Kent Bullard: We want it to be more engaging for the members who are here, rather than blow it up to like a class of 300 people [00:20:30] with a presenter in the front, you know, and we just have. No time to chat and talk. Yeah. So we got a lot of networking opportunities at this event.

[00:20:38] Justin Kidd: Yep. I mean, I've done, I've done classes [00:20:40] before, you know, rooms of, of a hundred or plus and, you know, it's, it's tough to, to manage that level 'cause there's gonna be a lot of questions, you know and [00:20:50] having a smaller environment.

[00:20:51] Justin Kidd: It's a lot more controllable, but you do, you get to really see the guys and having you know, that energy in that room, but listen, this is going to be [00:21:00] something we do more frequently and it's going to be a great success, you know, it will grow and we will, there will be a demand for, for more. So we're excited.

[00:21:09] Justin Kidd: I've

[00:21:09] Kent Bullard: [00:21:10] already had people reaching out saying, you know, why, why, why just in Utah? Why not over in my neck of the woods? And so we've been just on the institute side of things because we run workshops and [00:21:20] and we're like, yeah, we really should. It's interesting that now people are going back to the regional stuff because originally it was you teach regionally and that was fine.

[00:21:27] Kent Bullard: And people were like, well, it's not yeah. [00:21:30] It's not that great, you know, we'll just go to the big conferences and so then it got to be, you go to the big conferences to get training and then we had COVID and now it's back to, hey, can we have this like in person little, [00:21:40] you know, get togethers. And so it's, it's, it's funny to see it all come full circle here.

[00:21:46] Kent Bullard: Yeah, so let's, let's look at this. So some [00:21:50] of the, some of the training that we do have at the event, you know, we're, we're touching EV. Why are we touching EV?

[00:21:56] Justin Kidd: It's absolutely important. You know,

[00:21:58] Kent Bullard: and why is it so [00:22:00] important now? Well, for the EV has been around. Why is it so important now?

[00:22:05] Justin Kidd: I mean, you could talk about, you know, knowing that hydraulic systems have a [00:22:10] wild pressure relief that if you know, if that's leaking, you could hurt yourself, right?

[00:22:14] Justin Kidd: So high pressure is high pressure. High fuel is It can still hurt you greatly. So there's always [00:22:20] this element of safety around the car, no matter what it is that you're touching. But I also don't want to be electrocuted. This is something we should be. It's, it's out there there's in, it's in many [00:22:30] cars and to, to not know what you're getting involved in just for a simple, you know, we're talking to break job or getting into the exhaust system, you know, this stuff [00:22:40] needs, it needs to be educated that there's an element of safety before you begin.

[00:22:44] Justin Kidd: But, you know, we even talk about how to, how to register batteries that happens with or without a [00:22:50] hybrid electric at this point knowing that the car actually needs to know what, what type of battery it has and, and and what the charging rate is. So. We're, we're much [00:23:00] past just throwing parts of this car and expecting it to be the fix.

[00:23:04] Justin Kidd: The education behind it has to be hand in hand. So it's important to [00:23:10] have that.

[00:23:11] Eric Edberg: Let me jump in there too. I think one thing a lot of people don't realize right now is you know, there is a big EPA in California, like CARB other [00:23:20] regulatory agency push. More

[00:23:22] Kent Bullard: states are adopting

[00:23:23] Eric Edberg: that, by the way.

[00:23:24] Eric Edberg: Correct. Correct. I mean, usually the way it works is California will go first and then eventually it'll kind of, you know, find its way [00:23:30] throughout the entire, you know, us. So there's, there's a term that maybe some people know and some people don't know it's called cafe standards. And really what that is, is the EPA [00:23:40] miles per gallon regs and the amount of O2 emissions that the vehicles are emitting.

[00:23:44] Eric Edberg: And that's really the focus of the EPA. We can get in this long old debate about it. What's [00:23:50] right? What's wrong? You know, is he gonna actually, you know, cause us more emissions because we got to generate the power. I don't want to get into that right now. But the reality is it's coming and it's it's coming in a [00:24:00] very subtle way.

[00:24:01] Eric Edberg: And a lot of people don't realize it. All the new vehicles have auto start stop, they have to because that's the only way. The emission standards can be met. All the new vehicles are small [00:24:10] displacement turbocharged vehicles because it's a way for them to keep their numbers low. If you drive it like grandma, guess what?

[00:24:17] Eric Edberg: You're going to get great numbers. The reality is no one's really [00:24:20] doing that, but it's, it's a way to basically comply and be able to sell your vehicles and get the brakes that you're looking for. Perfect example. I think one of the topics that [00:24:30] Justin Morgan who's with LMV Bavarian is going to be going over is the mild hybrid that's coming into a lot of the BMWs people may or may not know, but most of the six and eight [00:24:40] cylinder BMWs now have a 48 volt system in there that's designed to regenerate power.

[00:24:46] Eric Edberg: So when, when you, you know, when you go to break on that vehicle, [00:24:50] instead of the brakes being applied, it's actually going to. Apply load to the engine and generate electricity that's stored in the 48 volt battery [00:25:00] again, all for the whole idea of reducing emissions and O2. And so this push is coming, whether you know, and whether we go [00:25:10] to EV at a certain point or not.

[00:25:11] Eric Edberg: I know in California, there is a a date set to go a hundred percent EV. So it's coming. I mean, the vehicles, the legacy vehicles will still be on the road for a [00:25:20] period of time, but again, if the technicians don't understand this, now they're going to be in trouble as Justin pointed out, perfect example, when you replace this 48 volt battery on a [00:25:30] BMW, it has to be unlocked or taken out of transport mode.

[00:25:33] Eric Edberg: I can, I can physically put that battery and hopefully I don't kill myself doing it. But guess what? It's not going to do anything [00:25:40] until we command it through a scan tool to say, Hey, you're in this car now, you know, you're, you're ready to go. And you're basically unlocked. And, and I think it's really [00:25:50] important that technicians understand how these systems work.

[00:25:52] Eric Edberg: So one, they don't hurt themselves. And two, they just, you know, know what they're doing. Basically, you know, these, these are expensive components and you don't want to [00:26:00] misdiagnose on this side. Yeah. And, you know,

[00:26:03] Kent Bullard: you should be prepared to be able to take advantage of that opportunity as well. You know, if the shop across from you is doing EV and you're [00:26:10] not, well, you're going to miss out on that market and it's a growing market.

[00:26:13] Kent Bullard: You know, you've got Tesla, they led the charge with this whole thing, but you've got a lot of other companies that are coming out with all electric vehicles. That's [00:26:20] going to be hitting the market real soon. And more and more people are going to buy those. And It's interesting how, how [00:26:30] we're still seeing a lot of the, the nuances with COVID and hitting the, our industry and everyone else as well.

[00:26:37] Kent Bullard: But, you know I was talking to a friend who worked [00:26:40] at he works at a big chain dealership and they were actually enjoying the fact that they don't have to hold so much stock. And they're like talking about, maybe we keep [00:26:50] our reserves low as far as new cars and what we're selling. So it's, it's going to be interesting.

[00:26:55] Kent Bullard: These next five, 10 years, it's going to be, it's going to be weird. Yeah. [00:27:00]

[00:27:00] Justin Kidd: I was gonna, I was going to mention that there's, I mean, even the dealer network is, you know, still preparing and they're still changing and learning, but. From my understanding, New York state is trying [00:27:10] to approve no electric vehicle will be sold at a dealer level.

[00:27:15] Justin Kidd: It'll all be direct direct sales. So that, I mean, that, that right there [00:27:20] changes a number of different things on how vehicles

[00:27:22] Kent Bullard: are sold. And another one of my friends, he works for salvage title company. They, you know fix up these new cars and they actually just got approval to be doing [00:27:30] Teslas.

[00:27:30] Kent Bullard: And so they're actually getting Teslas up on the road and instead of selling them for, you know, 120, 000, they're able to sell them for like 35, 000, [00:27:40] right? Regular car standards. So you've got a lot of people who are going to end up buying those vehicles and having that on the road as well.

[00:27:46] Justin Kidd: Right. As the second and third owners that, you know, [00:27:50] we have, you know, we're just scratching the surface with a lot of this stuff.

[00:27:56] Eric Edberg: You know, one thing to keep in mind about that too, what may, maybe a lot of people [00:28:00] realize or don't realize is if these OEMs you know, get away from the dealership network, what's going to happen to service, you know, a dealership is not going to [00:28:10] necessarily just keep service open if they can't sell cars.

[00:28:12] Eric Edberg: So, so again, I, you know, it's kind of interesting, even though we feel like a lot of times the OEMs are attacking the aftermarket as time goes [00:28:20] on you know, again, look at what Tesla just recently did. They finally opened up because I personally believe they got such, they had such a backlog that it hit, couldn't do the work

[00:28:29] Kent Bullard: they

[00:28:29] Eric Edberg: [00:28:30] couldn't do.

[00:28:30] Eric Edberg: Yeah, exactly. Look, look, even the dealership network right now. I mean, I think, you know, one thing I want everyone to kind of, you know, hopefully they understand is. You know, we are a defense. The [00:28:40] aftermarket is a little defensive, right? You know, when, when the markets are down and people aren't buying new cars, we generally tend to do a little bit better.

[00:28:46] Eric Edberg: And I think what you're finding right now is the way that the new vehicle prices [00:28:50] are going, the, the inventory levels, it's a seller's market, you know, plenty of dealerships have been accused of, of, of, you know, putting huge packs on cars. And I think, you know, [00:29:00] the general sentiment now is, is going back to, Hey, we're going to, we're going to keep these cars on the road.

[00:29:04] Eric Edberg: And luckily we don't have cash for clunkers again, like we did 10 years ago which took a lot of good cars [00:29:10] off the market that would have gone to our, our independent shops. The other thing too, is Versus 10 years ago factory service is not nearly as, as [00:29:20] prevalent as it used to be. I think these days you're lucky if you get one free oil change, which means a lot of very new cars are going to the aftermarket right away.

[00:29:28] Eric Edberg: I used to always get that, you know, argument [00:29:30] from, from my shop said, Oh, I don't need to update my scan tool because I don't work on anything in the last four or five years. Okay. Maybe that was true 10 years ago, but these days I know [00:29:40] plenty of people that they buy a car from the dealer and they go to their independent shop for their first service.

[00:29:44] Eric Edberg: So you gotta, you gotta be tooled up. You gotta be, you gotta have the knowledge, the expertise and the [00:29:50] resources to fix these cars. And again, the dealerships are way behind. I mean, they, they really need the aftermarket to help with these vehicles because you [00:30:00] bring a 20 year old car to the dealership.

[00:30:01] Eric Edberg: I mean, I guarantee you, nobody has any expertise there. On that car, even though it's their logo and their, their, their marquee, you know, that, that, that, [00:30:10] that knowledge base has gone now and they need us to fix those vehicles.

[00:30:13] Justin Kidd: Yep. I was going to mention something or just take a step back, but you mentioned why hybrid in our classes and stuff.

[00:30:19] Justin Kidd: So, I mean, [00:30:20] think about if you were I don't, you know, Ford technicians or Asian domestic technicians, and you say, well, I don't want to work on European cars because that technology is just too advanced. [00:30:30] And all of a sudden you realize. That technology is going to be in the Fords and the Chevys and it's there and it's now.

[00:30:35] Justin Kidd: And we're, we're doing the exact same thing for the shops that say, I don't want to work on a [00:30:40] hybrid electric vehicle. I'm not going to see them. And it's just not going to be true because it's going to be on every single manufacturer now.

[00:30:47] Kent Bullard: Yes. And that's kind of the [00:30:50] discussions we've had Why, again, we're partnering and trying to get some of this education out more to more people because I've got a lot of my shops that we work with that are asking for this [00:31:00] stuff.

[00:31:00] Kent Bullard: And so, yeah, so we've got a couple people that are going to be training at our event, right? I Know you mentioned, you mentioned Justin Morgan. Right. [00:31:10] We've got Craig Shippy. Yep. Volkswagen, Audi, Volkswagen,

[00:31:14] Eric Edberg: Audi Superstar. Yep. Yep. For the people that know him you know, he, he's a huge asset. He's been, [00:31:20] he's been training the factory Otis system for a number of years now.

[00:31:23] Eric Edberg: You know, he, he's been on the dealer side for, I believe all of the, the VAG group lines, including [00:31:30] Lamborghini and Bentley. And he, he's one of those guys that, that provides support on demand. Services via iScan and he's just one of those unique guys that when you work with [00:31:40] him you know, you know, he, he just has that kind of really rare ability to, to help you, to train you, to not make you feel stupid.

[00:31:49] Eric Edberg: You [00:31:50] know what I'm saying? Oh, that would be nice for me. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, and shoot it to you straight. Right. And again, and he's just really good at, at, you know, you, you give them a problem and [00:32:00] he will solve that problem in, in a very efficient manner. And, and, and I think people really appreciate it.

[00:32:04] Eric Edberg: And I'm just, my hope at the end of the day is everyone who gets to interface with someone like Craig learns. [00:32:10] You know what I'm saying? That, that, that at least a little bit rubs off and, and they can, they can learn from that. We have

[00:32:16] Kent Bullard: some more specialized stuff, you know, Tony Callas is going to be teaching on Porsche.

[00:32:19] Kent Bullard: You [00:32:20] know, some, maybe some shops out there are going to go, well, that might not be a value to me because I don't work on Porsche. You know, but a lot of the classes we have going on are more general they're, they're more [00:32:30] for most shops, not just. these specialized areas. we Were, we were talking about that earlier about was it Marty?

[00:32:38] Kent Bullard: Marty Valisi. Marty [00:32:40] Valisi. We're talking about his class and why, you know, it's not, it's not specialized there. It's really more of a, a general class for any technician to be taking.

[00:32:47] Eric Edberg: Yep, 100%. Yeah, I mean, you know, [00:32:50] Ken, we, you know, we still have some shops that do specialize, but again, I think if you really, really got to the core you know, truth out of, out of shop owners these days yeah, they may say that, Hey, I'm [00:33:00] a BMW specialist or I'm a whatever specialist.

[00:33:03] Eric Edberg: But the reality is, you know, I think we all know in this day and age that good customers are hard to come by once [00:33:10] you, once you service a good customer, chances are they don't have three BMWs anymore. You know, if we, if we turn the clock back 20 years ago, people were very brands, you know, you were the Ford guy, I'm the Chevy [00:33:20] guy, you know, Justin's the Chrysler guy.

[00:33:22] Eric Edberg: And that's, that's what we had in our garage now. I'm, I, I'm not surprised when I see an Asian vehicle, a domestic vehicle and a [00:33:30] European vehicle in someone's driveway. So I think it's really important not to close doors to be more focused on the, on the customer than the actual vehicle, but [00:33:40] also know that if you take that vehicle in, you've got the resources to, to fix it properly and, and make money along the way.

[00:33:47] Kent Bullard: Yeah. So this, this, this podcast is [00:33:50] not necessarily supposed to be a big commercial, but it kind of. Kind of is a little bit. We're excited about this conference. I'll take a short actual commercial break and just talk about it. If you guys want to take a look [00:34:00] and find more information about this specific conference, the iSCAN technical training conference, which the institute is very happy to be hosting.

[00:34:09] Kent Bullard: We're really [00:34:10] excited to be doing this with you guys can go to wearetheinstitute. com forward slash iScan dash conference to check out more information and register your seats because we're actually halfway [00:34:20] full at this point and we're limited on our seating and it's going to be happening. I believe it's in May, right?

[00:34:26] Kent Bullard: May 13th to the 15th. That's [00:34:30] right. Right. Hey, I remember that. You have to look it up. So yeah, it's closing up pretty quick. If you guys want to secure your seats, we have group seats. We also have individual seats as well. So make sure to take advantage of [00:34:40] that at we are the institute dot com forward slash.

[00:34:42] Kent Bullard: I scan dash conference. The most crucial interaction our customer has with us is with our service advisors. So why not have it be with [00:34:50] someone who's confident and capable? We train hundreds of top performing advisors, utilizing the latest technology, tactics, resources, and training methods, placing them in a group of their [00:35:00] peers, our training keeps them accountable, engaged, and dynamic at the counter.

[00:35:04] Kent Bullard: We believe in developing career oriented advisors so that they have a place they can call home and you don't have to [00:35:10] stress any more about turnover. If you're looking for the next sales training opportunity to provide your advisor with the best possible outcome, experience what it's like to have an Institute trained advisor.[00:35:20]

[00:35:20] Kent Bullard: Book a discovery call today at wearetheinstitute. com. There's a lot of sales training programs out there, so why not choose the right one? So the last part of this, [00:35:30] this podcast that I'm going to talk about, you guys work with technicians a lot. Like A lot of life and every day. And I wanted to kind of get into what you're [00:35:40] seeing with your technicians.

[00:35:42] Kent Bullard: What are some common things that are out there that that maybe more shop owners should be aware of that you've been noticing with the text that you've been working with? [00:35:50] Yeah. So are you smiling

[00:35:53] Justin Kidd: on that one? I'll jump on that one. So I mean, look, we have a great customer base, you know, and, and a lot of [00:36:00] them are, we would go back to their specialists, right?

[00:36:02] Justin Kidd: So a lot of them know exactly what it is that they're asking for. But you know, we have seen a shift and, and some of the older guys are [00:36:10] getting you know, moving away from it or retiring. So I'm, I'm seeing a lot of, you know, Some of the younger guys come back up and You know, they need, [00:36:20] they need some help.

[00:36:21] Justin Kidd: They need some critical thinking abilities. You know, we, we're in a world of instant gratification and YouTube and you know, being able to just search on your phone and hope [00:36:30] you get a hit and maybe it's right and maybe it's not right. But we need to be able to find the direction and find the course of action and learn how to [00:36:40] test.

[00:36:40] Justin Kidd: To get the answer. So I guess I'd say we're, we're seeing a lot of maybe, maybe a little quick, too quick to too quick to, to, [00:36:50] to throw a part in or find out that once the parts in there, I'm not sure what to do with it, but you know, we're, we're guiding these guys and I spend time and train even on the [00:37:00] phone to discuss, you know, why did you get that point, you know, to, to that point, how did you get there?

[00:37:05] Justin Kidd: So. Yeah, we do want to start a lot of basics. We always talk about the [00:37:10] basics, but it's not just That it really is a critical thinking that that will take place to think outside the box. How did we get there and where do we want to go from this [00:37:20] point?

[00:37:20] Kent Bullard: Well, I mean, like, that's, that's a good, that's a good skill.

[00:37:23] Kent Bullard: That's a basic skill that you should have. And I know that us millennials aren't too good on the critical thinking, although I think I'm going to You [00:37:30] know crucify myself on that comment, but, you know, we, we can just Google it and get an answer. And if that doesn't work with Google and try another answer, it's not, [00:37:40] Hey, we, we could probably figure it out ourselves and rely on that.

[00:37:43] Kent Bullard: And you've got all this experience that's retiring. And so I think that is a, that is a pivotal thing. You know, a lot [00:37:50] of the, a lot of our shops that are on the higher end are thinking about technical training internally and how they're. They're getting basic technical knowledge to their taxes. They come on and [00:38:00] on board them when they hire them.

[00:38:01] Kent Bullard: And what does it look like? And what resources can we provide for them? And I think the shops that are doing the best right now are the ones who are thinking about how [00:38:10] do I train up my people? With basic technical

[00:38:13] Justin Kidd: knowledge, I mean, and you're absolutely right. The guys that are the most successful in this they are [00:38:20] involved in training and we see them often, right?

[00:38:22] Justin Kidd: So we see them not just once we've met them, but if they're reoccurring customers that are at different places and and [00:38:30] difference, you know, online or in live events. You know I think I was going to mention that. Back to the front end, you know, when these guys go and [00:38:40] actually diagnose a car and say, well, I figured it out, you know, training is not really what I need because we'll figure it out that goes back to what happens in the front end and the, and the money you're saving, [00:38:50] of course, if it takes, you know, 2 to 3 hours, because you figured it out.

[00:38:55] Justin Kidd: That's fantastic. That is, that is still a life lesson. You're going to, yeah, it's a life [00:39:00] lesson. You have to learn, right? It's going to take me this much time to get to fix this vehicle. And I'm not saying that there's going to be every real shortcuts, but to have a support system [00:39:10] or having training or no.

[00:39:12] Justin Kidd: Who you can call in your network to find that answer. That's invaluable. I mean, you still will learn that you will still learn that skill, right? [00:39:20]

[00:39:20] Kent Bullard: You know, you've got the tech shortage has never been, it hasn't gone away. It's been here for a while. It's just been exacerbated by COVID and with what's going on there.[00:39:30]

[00:39:30] Kent Bullard: And you know, in a lot of our shops, we see a big difference. We've, we've got a 20. 20 year age gap between most of the technicians in our shops. You've got some guy who's in his [00:39:40] fifties and you've got a guy who's my age, and there's a lot of experience and competency that's not there. And I think that shops out there think about how about your technicians.

[00:39:49] Kent Bullard: Do you [00:39:50] have that big age gap? Cause you're probably going to be suffering from the same issue of that. This new person does not have the same levels of competency as this person who's got 30, [00:40:00] 40 years of experience. And how can I start training and accommodating to that so that they can be successful?

[00:40:07] Kent Bullard: You know, that's one of the biggest issues with the hiring [00:40:10] problem with the technician problem is that shops are not preparing their. Technicians for success. They're still just hoping they can hire a guy have a wheel in his, his, [00:40:20] his toolbox and get to work on cars. But you have to train them. You have to give them some level of confidence investment.

[00:40:26] Justin Kidd: It's an investment. Look, when, when you get hired, forget [00:40:30] about our industry for a second, but any job you technically get hired for you come at a cost. And what's the cost? You have to have a phone, you have to have a laptop, you have to have a desk, you have to have [00:40:40] equipment. And that is, that is already at a negative when you get hired.

[00:40:44] Justin Kidd: And it's, and it's very similar. And the other side of it on a technician's, you get hired as, well, the technician pays for the [00:40:50] tools, the technician pays for his education. And then that's, it's backwards. You know, we need to change the culture. We always talk about how do we get more people [00:41:00] into our business.

[00:41:01] Justin Kidd: I mean, I was hired my first day that the guys that were going to train me said, turn around good. You know, you should go find something else to do. This industry is terrible. I said, [00:41:10] no, I like cars. I love cars. This is going to be great. I'm ready. And they're like, okay. But you know, you see these guys and they change and there's a shift, right?

[00:41:19] Justin Kidd: Young [00:41:20] guys are really fast. We can do things really quick. And as you start getting a little older and your body breaks down and you've gone through training and you get more education and [00:41:30] understand what it's going to take, well, you get less of those service works. Now you're getting the harder stuff.

[00:41:34] Justin Kidd: So you've got to struggle even harder to make more money, you know, and then there's the race against time. You are always at a loss. We [00:41:40] were always flat rate or how to pay the technician. So there's so many different variables that we all need to learn. But

[00:41:47] Kent Bullard: one of the one of the biggest things is getting a clear [00:41:50] path for your employees to be successful, and that could be for a service advisor.

[00:41:55] Kent Bullard: It could be for, you know, management could be for your technicians, right? As [00:42:00] you hire them on, they should have a clear path of how they can grow, develop and, and you know, when I talk to my shops, it's always how are we I'm Creating a career for them. [00:42:10] I always want to be hiring for a career, not for a job.

[00:42:13] Kent Bullard: And I talked to my employees or my new hires and my perspectives as a, you know, what is, what is the career path look like for you with my [00:42:20] company? And that puts it in a completely different mindset. This is how I'm going to train you. This is the tools I'm going to provide for you. This is the, the commitment that I'm going to invest in you to show [00:42:30] you that I want you to stay here because.

[00:42:33] Kent Bullard: We've got a tech shortage out there. I guarantee there's another shop down the street that's gonna, that's willing to hire that guy. So how are you [00:42:40] setting yourself apart to show them that you've got the resources and the investment that you can make in them to show them that you actually care? [00:42:50] Sorry, I got on a pedestal there.

[00:42:51] Kent Bullard: for a minute, but you see me step up on myself, but

[00:42:55] Eric Edberg: you're so right. Cause I mean, let's, let's put herself in anyone's shoes, right? If [00:43:00] I go into an organization and they're organized and they've got a career kind of enrichment path or growth path, I'm already going to feel way more confident in, in, in [00:43:10] management leadership there.

[00:43:11] Eric Edberg: And, and hopefully it will attract the people that do want to get. better, right? I mean, that is kind of the, I mean, I hate to say it, but you know, when your bill rates really high on the [00:43:20] wall, let, let's face it, it serves a couple of purposes because it will kind of scare away the people that, you know, their main focus is, Hey, I want to, I want to grind you down [00:43:30] 2.

[00:43:30] Eric Edberg: I don't care how good of a job you do or what kind of parts you throw in my car. You know, I'm, I'm looking at it from that. standpoint. So again, it's just, it's, it's, you know, sometimes it's [00:43:40] scary and definitely requires some effort and some good coaching to be able to, to, you know, do what you're talking about.

[00:43:47] Eric Edberg: But that really is, I think, a key difference [00:43:50] between, you know, companies that are successful and the ones that are not. So,

[00:43:54] Kent Bullard: so I was I was actually out in Boston again. I was at a group meeting and I [00:44:00] had a pipe burst in my basement, right? My wife, Hey, the house is flooding. I was actually on a flight back when it happened.

[00:44:08] Kent Bullard: And she ended up [00:44:10] calling a plumber came out. It was like the outside spigot had cracked and was leaking in. And so they came in and it took them five minutes, literally five minutes. I said, this is. [00:44:20] You know, you know, this is where the flood is. This is where we saw the water coming in, took him 5 10 minutes.

[00:44:25] Kent Bullard: They changed the pipe and said, all right, here you go. It was like 450 [00:44:30] bill. And I'm like, how many tools did he bring in? We hit this conversation all the time, but every Every now and then when I work with a different service industry, I'm like, wow, [00:44:40] they're charging what they're worth, right? They came in, they knew what they needed to do.

[00:44:44] Kent Bullard: They did it. They fixed my problem and they charged me adequately for it so that they were making a profit. And that's like, [00:44:50] it's like rule number one, you should be in business for profit, not business to scrape by. You shouldn't have to be paying to service people. They should pay you for your [00:45:00] service.

[00:45:00] Kent Bullard: It's that turnaround. And when you're trying to hire prospective technicians who want a career, who want a place that they can call home, that they know they can grow and will take care of their livelihood. [00:45:10] In service, the lives that they want to live, they're going to look for people who know what their worth is.

[00:45:15] Kent Bullard: And again, you're talking about sticker price, right? Oh, the prices are fairly high. Well, I [00:45:20] know that the clientele that I'm likely to be working with this shop knows the value of what I do. And I think more and more young people are putting their foot down and saying, I don't [00:45:30] want to be that, that 55 year old tech.

[00:45:33] Kent Bullard: Or 60 year old or 65 year old tech who's still grinding away because I didn't make enough off of my trade [00:45:40] off of my skill off of the tools I invested in off of all of that, that doesn't look attractive to me. So either they're going to find a shop who's going to support it, or they're going to go pick another trade industry that [00:45:50] they can invest their time and energy into.

[00:45:55] Kent Bullard: Sorry. I got on the soapbox again. I'm just, I'm really

[00:45:57] Eric Edberg: sorry, but Kent, you're [00:46:00] right. And again, again, and that's why we go back full circle to why running the business and strategizing and pricing yourself appropriately is so important. I mean, look, [00:46:10] I don't want to, I don't want to knock our own industry, but the reality is because I think in general, the barriers to entry has been pretty low to open up an independent shop.

[00:46:19] Eric Edberg: You've had a lot [00:46:20] of people come in that didn't have the skillset. It's not their fault. It's just that unfortunately they never got that training. They never either saw that it was going to be [00:46:30] valuable for them. And now there's kind of this, this wide divide, so to speak between, yeah, you've got some, some shops and operators that are doing really well.

[00:46:38] Eric Edberg: And then you've got,

[00:46:39] Kent Bullard: [00:46:40] it's like taking. Taking a totally green tech who's never even taken apart an engine and having them work on an EV and saying, here you go, figure it out. I don't, [00:46:50] they might come to some, they might be able to work on it for a little

[00:46:53] Eric Edberg: while. Hopefully they know orange is a no go in terms of touching.

[00:46:56] Eric Edberg: Right,

[00:46:57] Kent Bullard: right, right. And so you think about, you know, you switch [00:47:00] that transverse that, and it's like, well, you've never run a business before. You don't know how to run a business. So here you go. Good luck. See how that goes. You might float it for a little while, but. [00:47:10] You know,

[00:47:10] Justin Kidd: it's the same as being a manager, right?

[00:47:12] Justin Kidd: If you jump into a management role and you've never been a manager, chances are your first time, you might fail different

[00:47:17] Kent Bullard: skills, bad [00:47:20] employees. And

[00:47:21] Eric Edberg: no, you definitely have to be a good, a bad manager before you can become a good manager. Right? Same, same thing again. Look. Justin, you know, first time you get that one, [00:47:30] that one, you know, big job, you know, maybe book times five hours.

[00:47:33] Eric Edberg: I mean, you're going to be lucky if you do that in 10 hours, right? But the second time you get better third, and by the 10th time, maybe you're doing it [00:47:40] in two hours. So, so again, I mean, but that's the thing is that's the experience and that's what you have to put into everything you do, right? I mean, you have to put some blood, sweat, and tears into it.[00:47:50]

[00:47:50] Eric Edberg: So

[00:47:50] Kent Bullard: those of you who are listening and watching, if you had questions, I'm hoping we're answering them in the comments down below. I know I forgot to mention that at the beginning of this I want to get into final thoughts cause we're about at that [00:48:00] time and then we'll, we'll wrap this up. If you do have questions, please post them down there and we'll, we'll get them answered even after the podcast.

[00:48:06] Kent Bullard: So yeah, Eric, any final thoughts before we wrap

[00:48:09] Eric Edberg: this up? [00:48:10] Just, just going back to, again, we're really excited. Again, I scan, you know, we we've been around a long time and you know, we, we've always been kind of the small guys out there, you know, we've got some big, big bohemus in the, in the [00:48:20] scandal world, but we pride ourselves on, on having a good team and partnering with good organizations and people like yourself and well, look, we [00:48:30] have a common goal.

[00:48:30] Eric Edberg: We really are here to help. Our customers. That's it. You know, we work for our customers, plain and simple. And I think that's sometimes lost in, in [00:48:40] certain, certain places. And you know, we don't, we don't have magic wands, but, but what we're really good at is helping them when they, when they have trouble or they really need the [00:48:50] help.

[00:48:50] Eric Edberg: And, and again, and that's why this partnership is so important. And that's why this event I think is so important. I mean, Peace. We have not had a European kind of focus true conference [00:49:00] in a number of years. And, and those cars are only growing, right? There's more, more BMWs, there's more Mercedes, there's more whatever on the roads these days, and they got to get serviced and [00:49:10] people need to be trained.

[00:49:10] Eric Edberg: And we're hoping that the people that come will really see that, that this is, you know, this is a immense value to them to make the connections, to get caught up [00:49:20] on, on some new. Topics and, and, you know, the EV technology that we're moving into and, and even some core topics. I mean, Justin brings up, you know, Justin, I've been doing this a long time and [00:49:30] sometimes we'll hear some topics that, you know, we've known about for 15 years, but, you know, there's a lot of texts that only came into the trade two or three years ago.

[00:49:37] Eric Edberg: Right. We can't expect them to know that. [00:49:40] And we have to take the time to, you know, to not, not kind of belittle them, but basically say, Hey, look, you know, we can't grow until we have the foundation built. [00:49:50] And, and again, and that's what we really want to do is we want to touch upon all those important areas and, and continue to do you know, more technical training, more events in the future, and, and [00:50:00] really try to give back to our, our industry and, and, and grow with it.

[00:50:06] Kent Bullard: Yeah, I'm very excited for that. Yeah. Justin. Final

[00:50:09] Justin Kidd: [00:50:10] thoughts? Final thoughts, man. All right, man. So I was going to say that, you know, we kind of live in a world of instant gratification at this point. So we all want something now.[00:50:20] You know, we got to be able to get the answer we need as fast as possible.

[00:50:24] Justin Kidd: Search for it on the internet. But right now, you know, we kind of cater to that type of an audience. So you [00:50:30] guys deal with training and if you need training, you can get it, you can get it the way you want it, you can watch it. And different platforms, but, you know, we're giving the ability to say we have [00:50:40] multiple avenues to get that.

[00:50:41] Justin Kidd: And, and very similar to what iScans SOD network is it's, it's service or support on demand. It's software it's, it's [00:50:50] technology and it's the ability to service our customers, you know, how they, they need it when they need those answers. So, you know, this partnership that we have is in my [00:51:00] opinion, it's fantastic.

[00:51:01] Justin Kidd: And we couldn't be excited, more excited to, to be a part of it. Thank you for having us.

[00:51:08] Kent Bullard: guys. It's been really nice to [00:51:10] work with such a good group of guys. People who actually care about this industry and care about the shop owners. I mean, that's why I'm doing this. That's why the Institute's here is we're trying to

[00:51:19] Justin Kidd: help [00:51:20] shop owners.

[00:51:21] Kent Bullard: On a personal note, you know, I've, I've, my grandfather was a, was a shop owner, my dad as well. You know, it's just, there's a lot of pain out there that I [00:51:30] feel that we can avert as long as we can, we can intervene and give them some training that they need to put themselves in a better position.

[00:51:39] Justin Kidd: Excuse [00:51:40] me.

[00:51:40] Kent Bullard: Of course I start getting all choked up at the end of the, at the end of this start coughing a bunch. It's passion. It's passion. It's too much. It's welling up. It's, it's overflowing. No, I'm really excited [00:51:50] about this. This partnership is going to allow us to get more training out to more people.

[00:51:53] Kent Bullard: A lot easier, a lot more convenient. And again, You're saying, Justin, open up those avenues. So if you do guys, if you're [00:52:00] listening to this and you're interested in the conference we have coming up, the iSCAN technical training conference, you guys can visit wearetheinstitute. com forward slash iSCAN dash conference and register for that, [00:52:10] or just take a look.

[00:52:11] Kent Bullard: And if you want to talk to me, you can message me through our website and I'll talk to you about the conference. And, and yeah, we've got a lot of new training, a lot of cool new stuff that's going to be coming out this year. [00:52:20] Very excited for 2022. And yeah, again, Justin, Eric, thank you guys so much for coming on the podcast and, and doing an episode with me.

[00:52:29] Kent Bullard: Hopefully the [00:52:30] listeners, it wasn't too much of a commercial and more of a call to action to get, get the resources you need to have a successful shop. Cause that's all we really want is that you guys have the ability to [00:52:40] take care of your, yourself, your family and the families that you're in charge of.

[00:52:45] Kent Bullard: And so yeah, with that, we're going to end it out and then we'll see you guys in episode 89. [00:52:50] Thank you so much.

[00:52:51] Eric Edberg: Thanks again. Thanks everyone.

[00:52:53] Kent Bullard: That's it for this one. This episode was brought to you by gear for shops. com. The gear heads network and the Institute for a better [00:53:00] business, a better life and a better industry visit.

[00:53:02] Kent Bullard: We are the institute. com. Thanks for listening. And we'll catch you in the next one.