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Power does not always come from pushing harder. Sometimes in life and in business, the smartest move is to slow down so you can move forward with control, clarity, and intention. Just like a great driver, growth means looking ahead, preparing for the climb, and knowing when it is time to change gears.
Kassiady Markham [00:00:00]:
There's definitely been times where I'm like, tanner, after work, your ass.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:06]:
Like, that's gotta be hard. I mean, working with him, working under all of these stressful conditions with the kids, your special bundles of babies. Ain't nobody kill nobody yet.
Kassiady Markham [00:00:15]:
I go to therapy. Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Tanika Haynes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:21]:
We all know as shop owners, sometimes
Kassiady Markham [00:00:23]:
you gotta slow down in order to speed up.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:26]:
And that's what this podcast is all about.
Kassiady Markham [00:00:29]:
It's time to downshift.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:37]:
So what are we talking about today? What are we talking about today?
Kassiady Markham [00:00:41]:
I don't know. What do you want to talk about?
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:43]:
I don't know. Girl, you got to tell me who you are. I mean, we know who Tanner is. Right, but do you work with him?
Kassiady Markham [00:00:50]:
I own half the company.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:51]:
Okay, well, let's talk about that. You own the better half of the company.
Kassiady Markham [00:00:54]:
I'm sure the back half is the best half.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:58]:
Yeah, exactly. Go ahead and introduce yourself to the world.
Kassiady Markham [00:01:02]:
I'm Cassidy. Most of you know my husband Tanner, the redhead that, you know, causes turmoil everywhere. We have been together for 15 years.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:12]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:01:13]:
And we celebrate 11 years yesterday. And I was 16 when we got together, so the business aspect was grown from us, like, from the ground up. I didn't come in after the business or anything like that, so I've always been a part of it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:31]:
Okay, so let's elaborate on that, because sometimes I don't know how often, because I own my shop without a man. Which is absolutely fine for you and your husband. I'm not trying to say that that came out wrong, but usually the wife is not a part of the beginning of the business, and they come in to help in the office, so on and so forth. But you've been there since the get go.
Kassiady Markham [00:01:57]:
Yes. So Tanner started selling parts. Oh. 2013. So he did fire and EMS first, and he was three grades ahead of me, so he graduated first. Okay. And then by the time I graduated and I went to school to get my EMT like he did, he was in paramedic school. He.
Kassiady Markham [00:02:21]:
He left the ambulance service we had both were working for at the time, and he went Oilfield. Oilfield's a big thing down here in Texas. Okay. So we weren't. We were just married or something like that. Well, I was in Louisiana training because I transitioned from a shuttle van, like, wheelchair vans, to the EMT side because I'd got my state license. And he calls me and he's like, oh, my God. They're working me, like, 36 hours straight.
Kassiady Markham [00:02:47]:
It's like 120 degrees degrees. He's like, I'm gonna have a heat stroke. And I was like, oh, my God. Yeah. Like, go home. I'll meet you at home in two days. And I could tell he was in distress. And he loaded up and drove seven hours home.
Kassiady Markham [00:03:05]:
So when I got home, we were still living in an apartment at the time. And he's like. He'd had some side jobs between then and he had. I remember walking out one night, and he had these. They're called helping hands. They hold, like, wires and stuff. He was. He had started building wire harnesses or something and selling parts online because, you know, he's always been a car junkie.
Kassiady Markham [00:03:29]:
It was a hobby. Yeah. And I was like, okay, whatever. So we got married, moved into our first house later that year, and he had actually started working for the heavy equipment union close to us. And he specifically worked on, like, cranes and excavators and stuff like that, like, maintenance in them and the apprentice and all that kind of stuff. So I. He did that, and he still kind of sold parts on the side. And then when our first son was born in 2016, he is like, hey, I want to take the hobby out of the garage, you know, do a little side gig, you know, when I'm not working on the union or he's on a layoff.
Kassiady Markham [00:04:08]:
Because if you're on a layoff from the union, you can't work anywhere else.
Tonnika Haynes [00:04:12]:
Okay, I didn't know that.
Kassiady Markham [00:04:14]:
Okay, yeah, that's not a problem. And I was like, tanner, I'm, like, fixing to have this baby. This is July. I was like. I was hot. I was miserable. I was like, let me have this baby. And then after he had the baby, he's like, I found a place.
Kassiady Markham [00:04:28]:
It's like 200 bucks a month or something. It was in a little warehouse district. He goes, do you mind? It's cheap. I was like, I get to use the garage again. Wrong. Go for it. So. And my oldest son to be 10 this year, so his little baby business of suppression motorsports was born.
Kassiady Markham [00:04:47]:
And I was kind of in and out of it, but it was like. It was a side gig. So I was at home with Rhett, and then I ended up going back to work on an ambulance sometime after that to make ends meet. And we moved from little, tiny shop to a big shop in the same city. It was like a couple thousand square feet. So we jumped. Kind of blurs in that time. Like, he was in there, I was in there.
Kassiady Markham [00:05:16]:
I got tired of him, and I went Back to work. It was really hard on the marriage. Yeah, his union stuff was up and down. Like, I'd ran that shop for a while. And then he came in. I was like, okay. Things were not great. I'm going back on an ambulance.
Kassiady Markham [00:05:33]:
Found out I was pregnant with the middle child. And about it tried to kick me into preterm labor once around six months. And then I finally stepped foot off the truck at eight months pregnant, seven months pregnant. I was working 16 hours trying to keep the house afloat. Our house was up for foreclosure, vehicles. He was trying to make his business work. And he was pouring all the hours he could, his heart, his soul. And it was struggling on us.
Kassiady Markham [00:06:00]:
And our oldest child was in and out of the hospital all the time. Asthma about killed him because we had an allergen in the house we didn't know about. And it was hard. So I had a baby. He asked me to come back. And I worked there, I guess, when I was still pregnant. And I had my son with me because he was kicked out of daycare for like the fourth time for violence because he's autistic. Struggled there.
Kassiady Markham [00:06:25]:
So pregnant mama, violent child. I'll help you run the business the best I can. And then I had my middle baby, and he was a little bassinet in the office with me. And so I had a baby in office with me. And then he was born. I don't know if you've seen babies with like little helmets on to reshape their heads. So my middle baby had plagiocephaly. And we try to get treatment around the Houston area.
Kassiady Markham [00:06:53]:
They decline it because it's said to be cosmetic, but his would have called, caused seizures and stuff like that. So my grandmother made a call and Shriners took us on in Chicago. So my mom helped me with that. And Tanner would stay home with Rhett. And we were flying baby to Chicago. Well, we went in November, I think, of that year. Tanner and I flew him that last time because Tanner wasn't as busy. We got a phone call that said, you've been evicted from your building.
Tonnika Haynes [00:07:29]:
The building, the shop in it.
Kassiady Markham [00:07:33]:
We had just landed in Chicago and went to the Ronald McDonald House. And I watched Tanner just sink, like, melt. He's like, where? A thousand miles from home. Cassie, I don't know what to do. I said, call your best friends. See if they can get everything out of the shop. And he called upon a bunch of people. And I tell you what, Tanika.
Kassiady Markham [00:07:54]:
They came in and they stripped everything they could of the building got all Tanner's tools, pulled the lifts down, dispersed it in all these places until we could get home two days later. That was the fall of the first business. Our marriage was still struggling, but I can honestly say that was the best thing that ever happened because we didn't know what we were doing. We were trying good intentions. And then he went back to work for the union on a pipeline job, which means he was gone. So I was home with kids by myself, which was hard because the big one was going after the little one. And it was. My mom was coming in and helping.
Kassiady Markham [00:08:31]:
And then I was like, hey, the school district was terrible. My son went to school already. He was 3 and 4. And I was like, I really want to sell the house. If you're gonna have to travel, I want to be close to my parents. This school district's terrible. I don't feel safe living here anymore. Beaumont's not a very safe city.
Kassiady Markham [00:08:51]:
If you know anything about Beaumont, Texas.
Tonnika Haynes [00:08:53]:
I don't.
Kassiady Markham [00:08:55]:
He was a little hesitant, but he's like, okay, Cassie, just do it. My parents come down and help me load up two U Hauls. And we moved. And then very surprised. Like, we had moved in July to my parents. August, I was pregnant with our third child. We were supposed to.
Tonnika Haynes [00:09:13]:
Good gracious.
Kassiady Markham [00:09:14]:
I was never supposed to have kids. Like, never supposed to have kids. It took forever, and it was a miracle. We got all three of them.
Tonnika Haynes [00:09:22]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:09:22]:
But I can't have any more after the third one. He just turned five, but he's like, hey, we may be going to Arizona to work on the border job. Because he was a crane operator, which was the Trump wall, or whatever they called it. Well, we found I was pregnant, and that put a stop on that. Because I'm such a high risk, I couldn't travel. And I was like, I want my family together. So he's like, my friend's got a service truck, and I'm really good on my tools. He's a diagnostician.
Kassiady Markham [00:09:49]:
He's like, I'm gonna go do this until we figure it out. I was like, okay. I was home. I was taking care of kids. I was pregnant. I had my family to help. And he goes, hey, Cassie, I think. What do you think about doing another business? And I was like, can I have, like, two days, three days to think about this? I was like, because it put our marriage in jeopardy.
Kassiady Markham [00:10:12]:
We're doing okay now. I was like, and I don't know if I can handle the stress. Yeah. I was like. And he went and rented a Building. He's like, I found a building. It's great price. It's highway frontage.
Kassiady Markham [00:10:25]:
I can't do these big jobs. I was like, just give me, like, two days to think about it. Had to process it. I was already high risk pregnancy, the kids. I was like, I just needed some time. I found out he rented it. I was like, oh, he was asking you after the fact he hadn't done it. I'd asked for a few days, and then he did it in those few days and then told me.
Kassiady Markham [00:10:50]:
Oh, I was like, he was asking for forgiveness by this point, but exactly.
Tonnika Haynes [00:10:56]:
Because, you know, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Kassiady Markham [00:11:01]:
I wasn't thrilled about him bringing on the business partner that he did. And that's a story for another day. But I've always been in this business. And he's like. I was like, yeah, you know, I'll help. I don't mind. I say that I'm very pregnant. You know, we were 40 miles from the shopping store at that time, and I was like, we gotta have a place to live before we have this baby.
Kassiady Markham [00:11:20]:
So we ended up renting a house in the same town as the business, and we moved. I ended up having the baby early. Oh, he was born, like, 34 weeks, and he was a preemie in the NICU. And I had him an hour and a half away at the level one hospital. And something was going on with money and everything. He's like, cassie, can you please come in, see what's going on? Because I already started pulling us out of the trenches of the house being foreclosed and the vehicles being up for repo and all that. I was like, yeah, I'll get involved. Business partner didn't like that.
Kassiady Markham [00:11:55]:
He didn't like me. I didn't like him. I didn't care. Yeah, I don't care. I never did. And then he's like. I told Tanner what's going on. And I was like, tanner, we gotta get a plan to get him out of here.
Tonnika Haynes [00:12:07]:
Can you tell me what was going on or is that. You can't disclose it.
Kassiady Markham [00:12:12]:
I got a letter in the IRS saying they were fixing to seize every asset because I had. We had, like, different accounts set up. There was money coming out of taxes, comptroller. So, like, I was paying them, but money kept going missing because somebody couldn't go without a paycheck because new business is rough, right? So Tanner and I took out the loan to save the business. And the business partner had pretty much tried to Run everybody off. They said they were quitting and everything. And I was like, nothing I could do at the time. But things were really hairy when Tanner was out with me and the baby.
Kassiady Markham [00:12:55]:
And then I came back to work at three or four weeks postpartum when he was out of the nicu, I had a baby in my arms, doing paperwork, taking phone calls. His girlfriend, he tried to get her involved. And Tanner's like, no, Cassie's legitimately my wife. She has some experience with this. We'll just go with this for now. So he said he was leaving. He announced his departure. All the Texas said they were quit and said, we're staying.
Kassiady Markham [00:13:24]:
Because I had already in the background was getting with the attorney to figure out the breach of contract and all that to boot him out of there. And then that dissolution happened, and we formed the LLC to where. Because it's easier to buy things and get equipment and house and cars and all that when you have an income. So instead of keeping it sole llc, we put me on the other half to show I have an income. And I actually handle the books, the HR payroll. I handle all those things.
Tonnika Haynes [00:13:54]:
Is that your natural thing, or is that something you had to learn in order to save your marriage, your business, and your family?
Kassiady Markham [00:14:03]:
Kind of all of it. Like, I didn't. I struggled in geometry of all the maths, but I could do some basic math, okay. So I got good at balancing. Balancing everything. What's coming in, what's going out, getting my sheet. Like, I still to this day have a log of, like, my monthly expenses, and I write it all out every month. I go through my statements every month, and I code it.
Kassiady Markham [00:14:29]:
And I mean, that's where I thrive. I'm not a people person. Y' all know this. Okay? Tanner is the mascot, as we call him, but he's definitely the people person. He's definitely the salesman that make the customer feel good. I try not to deal with people I don't have to, but I do. And it's. It's minimal.
Kassiady Markham [00:14:52]:
But the business became. We've been. We've had this business for six years almost now, and I've half owned it for four of them, so. And everybody doesn't know.
Tonnika Haynes [00:15:03]:
What's the name of the business?
Kassiady Markham [00:15:07]:
It's Phase two Automotive. And when Tanner told me the name, I was like, what is a Second Chance Automotive?
Tonnika Haynes [00:15:15]:
I like it. I was hoping that that was the reason behind the name, because Faith, too. Let's go. It's not Second Chance. It's just the next.
Kassiady Markham [00:15:23]:
I was just so Mad at the same time. When he told me that it was like, Tanner, our marriage, I was like, it is struggled. But keep in mind, we've been together since I was 16, Tanner. I grew up together.
Tonnika Haynes [00:15:35]:
Right.
Kassiady Markham [00:15:36]:
And now we're full on in adulthood. Our oldest is almost 10. We have one that's fixed and turns 7 in two weeks, and our baby's 5. So we're on to that next part of life in our. I. We did have some issues over, like, numbers and stuff. I was like, tanner kind of getting stuck here. I started hitting the point of getting stuck.
Kassiady Markham [00:15:55]:
And somehow he found the little fairy, Lucas Underwood, who was a godsend. Tanner put himself out there and started making all these friends. And he's like, we need to do coaching. And I'm like, I cannot afford that.
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:08]:
You cannot afford not to.
Kassiady Markham [00:16:09]:
I cannot afford it. And we went back and forth with it for a few months and I was like, okay, Tanner. So we interviewed some coaching companies and we ended up going with one. Let me tell you, our coach is not only our coach, but he's my marriage counselor. The one.
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:26]:
That's who you're talking about. But who are you talking about?
Kassiady Markham [00:16:30]:
Our coach?
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:31]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:16:32]:
He's Doug with elite.
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:34]:
Okay.
Kassiady Markham [00:16:36]:
He very is down to earth with us and understands tannerai's dynamic. I mean, we jobed from the beginning and we're like a year and a half in now. Yeah. And he's like the peacekeeper. He's like, tanner's this go getter and you're the one that knows the numbers and, like, try not to strangle him. And we do a pretty good job of keeping business. Business and home life. Home life, it does blur occasionally.
Kassiady Markham [00:17:01]:
Like, we're talking about the kids or something like that. But the marriage ain't teeter tottering like it was learning. Communication is a problems occasionally. Just gotta have a quick reminder. But it's just kind of gone like that, you know, having that first baby and two businesses in that time, the middle baby and surprise third baby. And I raised him in the office.
Tonnika Haynes [00:17:26]:
That is a lot.
Kassiady Markham [00:17:28]:
Like, it's been a long ride.
Tonnika Haynes [00:17:30]:
That's a long ride in such a short amount of time. What can.
Kassiady Markham [00:17:34]:
We were both fired.
Tonnika Haynes [00:17:36]:
Yeah. What?
Kassiady Markham [00:17:37]:
We were both fired from our jobs because our son was sent to the children's hospital two hours away for asthma. He almost killed him. So I'd lost my job the first time with him. And then I went back when I was pregnant. So like, we had lost jobs over. Over this. So this business was solely founded upon taking care of Our kids and all three of my children are autistic and on the spectrum, but they're very high functioning children. They, you know, little.
Tonnika Haynes [00:18:08]:
It's the best for you guys to be like on a live or shenanigans and they're in the background just doing their thing.
Kassiady Markham [00:18:12]:
I'm just like, they definitely beat to the their. They march to be their own drum. They really do.
Tonnika Haynes [00:18:17]:
They need their own. So they really do.
Kassiady Markham [00:18:19]:
You know, with those things comes behavioral crisis or meetings at the school district, doctor's appointments. I can't hold another job. And this just became. This has to work. So that was that bridge of getting the coaching and all that. And, you know, nobody's gonna, you know, say much to me if I have to leave to go get a sick child or if we have a doctor's appointment. I don't have anybody to answer to. Yeah, doesn't matter what I do.
Kassiady Markham [00:18:45]:
Doesn't matter what he does. We're both parents. He'll leave early and go get kids off the bus if he needs to. And, you know, this is. This is our life. This is our livelihood and our staff. Like, I no longer will lose my job. I'm actually fixing to let my state certification go up to 12 years.
Kassiady Markham [00:19:02]:
He let his go. He let his union stuff go, but I mean, we could always fall back on something. But this is it. Like, this is our life. It's gonna work.
Tonnika Haynes [00:19:14]:
It's gonna work. But here's my question for you. I remember you just said when they were going to foreclose on that building and Tanner called his people and his people went and did the thing and they got all the equipment and, you know, rescued his stuff. Who are you leaning on when it gets hard?
Kassiady Markham [00:19:35]:
My mom. My mom is my biggest support system. And mind you, my mom also went through a hard time. She got divorced after 20 years during this time, and she was carrying, helping carry our mental load and help them with their kids. But, you know, it's like a back and forth thing. But my mom and my husband, like, it's all three of us. And then, you know, you have my brother in the mix who actually has worked for us. He's worked for us for six years.
Kassiady Markham [00:20:01]:
And so I just kind of leaned into them. And then, you know, Tanner lean into his people. And eventually we just kind of all picked up the pieces and just kept going. And he still talks to one or two of those people. And the other one that helped, he was actually killed about two years ago in a motorcycle accident. That was like Tanner's Other father figure. And that was really hard. But those people, literally, one stored his list, one stored a toolbox, One had this.
Kassiady Markham [00:20:29]:
And, you know, when this other business opened, Tanner basically had a turnkey business. And so when we opened, he's like, cassie, I need a toolbox. And I was like, you know how expensive those Matco boxes are? But I'm not gonna say I allowed it. I just agreed with him that he could buy himself a nice brand new toolbox in cash from the money off our house. And he did. He got him a nice toolbox and stored all his things, and we just started growing again. Yeah, it's been a long ride, but now we're in the. The kids are healthy.
Kassiady Markham [00:21:05]:
My little one, as another thing, he was very, very sick the first year, and I was in and out with him and at specialist appointments all the time. He couldn't tolerate formula is what it was. He couldn't tolerate anything. And then after that first year, it started getting a lot better. And now he's healthy and five, and they're all in school, and things have calmed down a little bit. But owning the business is never dull.
Tonnika Haynes [00:21:32]:
It's not going to be dull, but I don't. I can't imagine anybody else with all of the ups and downs that you've had that would go through it and talk about it so gracefully and with a little humor like you do.
Kassiady Markham [00:21:49]:
Like, there's definitely been times where I'm like, tanner, after work, your ass.
Tonnika Haynes [00:21:58]:
Like, that's got to be hard. I mean, working with him, working under all of these stressful conditions with the kids, your special bundles of babies, y'. All. Ain't nobody kill nobody yet.
Kassiady Markham [00:22:11]:
I go to therapy. I go to therapy. He goes to therapy. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not ashamed of it. Yeah, I have a lot of trauma from my youngest one. Because what we also don't share is one night after he is home from the hospital, he almost coded on us. Tanner, six.
Kassiady Markham [00:22:27]:
To start CPR on my neonate. And that was very traumatizing. And it was just really, like, a hard time, really. And then, you know, the light started coming out, and we just leaned heavily on each other, because where all my husband has. He has family, but he's not close to any of them. Like, he is my family, because my family's the solid rock and not sketchy, for lack of better words.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:50]:
Right.
Kassiady Markham [00:22:50]:
My family's the support system. So we just leaned heavily into the family. And my mom and, you know, she remarried a man that we had known. My Whole life. And it just. We all just kind of fell into a new family dynamic. Really. And they're keeping the kids while we go to flying with the Eagles soon.
Kassiady Markham [00:23:07]:
So.
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:08]:
Okay, so you. You have how many employees?
Kassiady Markham [00:23:13]:
There's seven of us total.
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:14]:
Okay, seven total. You and Tanner. There any other women in the. In the shop?
Kassiady Markham [00:23:20]:
No, it's just me
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:23]:
knowing that it's just you. Do you guys think you guys are gonna expand or build or hire?
Kassiady Markham [00:23:30]:
We are still. For now. Okay. So we have been trying to work on expansion plans for probably two years now to expand. I don't know, what do you call it? Like a. Like we want to be around, but we also kind of want to be in the background of the business, if that makes sense.
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:49]:
We want to be the face and just not have a glorified job. You want to. Yeah, I get what you're saying. Like, everybody's like, I own a. You own a business right now, but you want to run it. You want to be able to delegate and be able to walk away and go on vacation and everything doesn't have to shut down. Like when you're going to fly with Eagles, the office doesn't have to shut down. I understand.
Kassiady Markham [00:24:07]:
So it actually be open. We've had our staff with. This one is my brother, which most people don't know we're related, but it's a family business. Okay. So my brother's one of my techs. We have another tech that's been with us for three years now. We have our diagnostician tech who's been with us for five years. And we have one that we just hired back in in August.
Kassiady Markham [00:24:35]:
He was with us first and then left for a little while to go to a dealership. And he grew a lot there, don't get me wrong. And we had some fill ins between then and he came back to us and then we just hired our second service advisor we've had and he come in. He's really strong and he fits him with the team. And we're very culture oriented and Tanner did that for a reason. We all really get along. We all have strong points. As far as us going to flying with Eagles, I don't have anything to worry about.
Kassiady Markham [00:25:03]:
Unless somebody wants to demand to talk to a manager. They won't be back until Monday. It is what it is.
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:11]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:25:12]:
So we don't have to shut down, which is a blessing.
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:17]:
So you're on your way to doing what you want to be able to do, to step away.
Kassiady Markham [00:25:21]:
Yeah. Baby steps. See, we didn't have Our first advisor until two years ago.
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:26]:
How long have you been coaching with Elite?
Kassiady Markham [00:25:30]:
January was a year. So, okay, pushing a year and a half.
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:34]:
That's what's up. That is what's up.
Kassiady Markham [00:25:38]:
I tell you. It helped me figure out where because I was telling Tanner. So, Tanner, I'm stuck. Like, I've done this, I've looked at this. Something is not jiving right here with these numbers. Why can't we get past these? What is going on here? And he's like, is it time to pull the plug and do some coaching? I was like, I guess, I guess,
Tonnika Haynes [00:26:02]:
like, are you in the ASOG group as well?
Kassiady Markham [00:26:05]:
Yeah, I've been in ASOG for a while. I was like, I guess. So we interviewed all the coaching companies and we ended up going to the lead and then we meet Doug and I'm getting a feel for him and we're all kind of feeling each other out. And then as we go on, he's helping me. He helped me really divide up like all the numbers and how it works. And like I had a basic idea and I wasn't necessarily in the wrong with how I was doing things, but I was able to open up my spectrum to really see, okay, this is parts, this is profit, this is how much my tax are costing me an hour. This is how much it costs to run my business in an hour. And policies, we needed some policies and thanks to Laura Lee, we went to policies and procedures.
Kassiady Markham [00:26:54]:
We wrote a bunch of policies and revised our whole book last year. So it was. We just been growing a little bit. Tanner and I do not travel a lot because our kids can only stay with my mom. Like no ins if words or buts about it. She's the only one that knows how to handle their ADHD and autism if they have a crisis and the medical stuff. So it limits us. But the coaching really, really helped a lot.
Kassiady Markham [00:27:20]:
Even if we don't talk about a ton of in depth stuff every, every, you know, meeting, it's, we can address something small and then make these changes. And he never makes us feel pressured, but he always listens in his neutral ground for Tanner and I and I really needed that. I'm not one of those, well, I need you to be on my side or I need you to be on his side. Like, I just needed support myself and he's really very much done that to help us and help me line things out to give Tanner what he wants. And he's looking for in the business for numbers and whatnot, but it was slow progress and we saw a lot to go, but we've made a lot of progress in a year and a half and I'm hoping to see it continue to really boom. So we can expand and get our parts room and our quick lane and more service advisors. But right now we're at a max capacity. There's three of us in a thousand square foot office and there's four techs in a 3,000 square foot shop.
Kassiady Markham [00:28:19]:
So we're at capacity now until we can add onto the building. So that's a goal.
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:25]:
So like you, you keep saying goals, which I think is amazing. And you, you're still young in the whole business. What is one goal that you guys know? Like, I'm sure you have your own personal goals, right? I want to be able to do this right now. And he has his dreams of whatever he wants to do. What are the things that you have? What are your goals together? What does success look like for you together? Does that make sense?
Kassiady Markham [00:28:49]:
Generational wealth and stability.
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:54]:
Because do you think any of the kids will able to work in the shop? Okay.
Kassiady Markham [00:29:01]:
Very much.
Tonnika Haynes [00:29:02]:
Do you think they're interested in it? Do you show any interest?
Kassiady Markham [00:29:06]:
Yeah. When they want to take apart everything and everything inside my house and all their toy trucks and put it back together and see how it works. And some very mechanically unkind kids. At least one of them or two of them. Huh. And then one of them, my little five year old, and he's five. I mean, you don't know quite what he's interested in yet, but definitely vehicles, just like their daddy. But my middle son, who has a little more emotional struggles than the other ones, he very much is.
Kassiady Markham [00:29:38]:
He's gonna watch it and he's like a sponge. He's gonna learn how to do it. I think auto care would. He would thrive in. And he doesn't have to talk to a ton of people. He just has to report to one or two people and he could do it. Tell him how it's done and he could do it or he can watch and do it. It's amazing watching this child take everything apart and put it back together.
Kassiady Markham [00:30:00]:
Six years old, just like Tanner.
Tonnika Haynes [00:30:04]:
I'm just, I'm tripping. You know what? Because I really didn't think this conversation was going to go like this. You don't talk a lot.
Kassiady Markham [00:30:12]:
No, you don't.
Tonnika Haynes [00:30:13]:
And you're still young. And I'm thinking about how young you are and what all the things you've gone through. What is something that you've learned about yourself? Not talking about them Kids, I ain't talking about your husband, ain't talking about their business, none of that. What has Cassidy learned about herself? Going through the things that life has taken you through in the last.
Kassiady Markham [00:30:35]:
It's not a bad life. It's just a bad day and I can just keep going. It's been a lot that's happened in my lifetime and since having kids and all that in the business, it ain't an easy walk and just anyone can walk through. They would have buckled. And trust me, I thought about buckling a couple of times and telling Tanner, that's it, I'm done. Yeah, it's been real. But at the end of the day, it's me and him against the world.
Tonnika Haynes [00:31:04]:
I love it.
Kassiady Markham [00:31:05]:
And I'm 31 now, so that tells you how long we've been together.
Tonnika Haynes [00:31:09]:
Was that 15? 15 years?
Kassiady Markham [00:31:12]:
15. We just celebrated 11 years of marriage yesterday. Yesterday was our 11 year wedding anniversary.
Tonnika Haynes [00:31:17]:
Oh, congratulations. Congratulations. Who's the boss? You and him? I don't hear who's a real boss after five o' clock.
Kassiady Markham [00:31:27]:
I tell him, you need to get your ass home because I need help with these kids.
Tonnika Haynes [00:31:32]:
Time for, time for phase two. No, phase three. Coming home and doing that kind of
Kassiady Markham [00:31:36]:
work, that's the other business very heavy on. We have a private life that these kids deserve because Tanner missed out a lot on Rhett, our oldest son. And I was like, we don't have to do that and we're not going to. Occasionally he stays over late for whatever reason, but we close at 4, we're 7 to 4. Okay. So occasionally he has a little bit of leeway. I'm like, we gotta be at the baseball fields at five, so you better get home. He's got a game.
Kassiady Markham [00:32:01]:
We're going. Work can wait till tomorrow and really drive in that boundary because Tanner would give his cell phone number to anybody if I wouldn't say something.
Tonnika Haynes [00:32:10]:
Trying to save the world.
Kassiady Markham [00:32:12]:
Yes. And I am very much the opposite. I'm like, I don't care. After 4 o' clock,
Tonnika Haynes [00:32:22]:
I learned to do that. I really had to make myself learn to do that. Like, listen, I can't save everybody. You know, there's going to be a lot of coaches in another. Other shop owners. Oh, you have to be available all the time. You're not serving your community, blah, blah. The only time I want Chick Fil a is on Sunday.
Tonnika Haynes [00:32:39]:
You know what? They ain't even open. And you know what? I have to wait until they open. Yeah, you really have to have. Especially you guys. You have to Have a work life balance. You have to have time for you and the kids, him and the kids. And I hope. And I'm pretty sure you're still together.
Tonnika Haynes [00:32:57]:
You guys are making time for each other outside of the kids. Like you can send them to your mom's house and have a date night
Kassiady Markham [00:33:02]:
and all that good stuff that comes and goes. My mom had some health scares, so that did kind of put that on stop. But when she's doing good, we'll ask her to come over occasionally. Hey, can you just came out for coming out for like a couple hours?
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:17]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:33:18]:
We'll go to the next city over and go have lunch or dinner, go shopping for whatever the kids need. Like, you know, just. Just Tanner and Cassie, not mom and dad, not business owners, you know, just us.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:33]:
Just you two.
Kassiady Markham [00:33:34]:
And we try for once a month. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it don't. But, you know, we still try to very much date each other. I guess that's what you would call it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:42]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:33:42]:
Because when my kids are grown, they may not be around anymore. It's gonna be me and Tanner.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:46]:
Yep.
Kassiady Markham [00:33:47]:
I don't need to forget who he is.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:51]:
Exactly.
Kassiady Markham [00:33:52]:
Motherhood definitely does consume me in some ways and, you know, self care or something I should probably work more on. But I'm like, I got a lot of irons in the fire, and it's just slowly, you know, relearning everything. My little one's almost. He's five, so he's over the. He's a little rambunctious, but he's not like a toddler anymore. He doesn't, you know, wake up at night anymore. So a lot of those things have gotten better. But still, just trying to step out of motherhood in the business is hard.
Kassiady Markham [00:34:19]:
But I do make time to take myself to therapy twice a month. And that's my time. Yeah, that's better than not. And I believe therapy has been a lifesaver for me because it's somebody that's neutral, that doesn't know any of my family, but always gives insight of how
Tonnika Haynes [00:34:37]:
they do that together. Is it separate? I mean, do you do it together or it's just you and you need your own time. And he takes his time.
Kassiady Markham [00:34:44]:
He sees his own therapist and I see mine. But if there ever come a time where we. We've really felt like we needed somebody together, we would see somebody together. But we each see our own person. We each jive with our own person, and it seems to work. I mean, I can go tell her everything that's going on. What My struggles are. And she's like, okay, well, here's some skills.
Kassiady Markham [00:35:06]:
Like, we can do this, and, like, stress. And Because I get. I physically hurt from, like, too much stress. Like, it hurts my body. So I had to learn some of those skills because I was like, these kids ain't gonna. Just because they're not babies no more doesn't mean they're not gonna be stressful.
Tonnika Haynes [00:35:26]:
They're boys 20 and 22, and they are stressful. And you've got. Yeah, it's going to be stressful. Your kids are going to always be your kids, no matter how old they are.
Kassiady Markham [00:35:34]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:35:35]:
You can always be their mom.
Kassiady Markham [00:35:36]:
Just different mom when I turned 18. And I'm not gonna stop being mom when my kids are 18.
Tonnika Haynes [00:35:42]:
No, no, no.
Kassiady Markham [00:35:45]:
I will always be mom, and Tanner will always be dad. Now they'll have to have, you know, responsibilities and stuff, but I'm not just gonna kick them to the curb when they're 18.
Tonnika Haynes [00:35:56]:
No, I don't understand that. That is. That's crazy to me. Like, of course I can refer to my kids as my babies. Those are not my babies. They might not be babies to you, but those are my babies. Because that's just. It's just being old.
Kassiady Markham [00:36:08]:
They are.
Tonnika Haynes [00:36:09]:
And having. Being a mother. They'll never be as old as I am. They're always going to be my babies. If you don't agree with that, then, I don't know, log off, get out my face. But those are my babies, and I want the best for them. And I'm going to always mother them as long as they allow me to. I'm not going to smother them.
Kassiady Markham [00:36:23]:
My mom will go to war over her kids. And Tanner. Tanner's hers, too. So my brother is. He'll be 38 this year. Yeah. I'll be 32. His wife has been a part of our family since I was, like, 10.
Kassiady Markham [00:36:38]:
They've been married 20 years, and they have three kids together. So that's me and my brother and our spouses, and we've all been together for a very long time. All four of us are my mom's kids. Yeah, it, like, don't. She don't take nothing else for an answer. We belong to her.
Tonnika Haynes [00:36:54]:
Right? I love it. I love it. That's probably why you. You're so good at what you're doing because you had to leave. Like, being a mother is like being a leader. I. I don't care. And nobody's not like, oh, no, it's not.
Tonnika Haynes [00:37:05]:
Yes, it is, because you're responsible for getting those kids through their first 18 years, making sure they enter the world and they are entering the world where they can contribute and not be a menace. Like you are growing a whole human. You're responsible for making sure that this human is going to be a good part of society.
Kassiady Markham [00:37:25]:
And that's what we're doing.
Tonnika Haynes [00:37:27]:
That at 18. Why would you want to just stop doing that? Such a gift.
Kassiady Markham [00:37:33]:
Some 18 year olds are still very not experience with life. I mean, especially the kids that, I mean no hate to them. I'm not saying anything negative. Like kids that play sports and they get to play sports and they don't work and then some of us work. Like some of those kids need a little extra time because they were allowed to play sports and be involved in all that. They need a little more time than just turning 18 and just kicking out the door if they never had a job. They still have to start learning too. Maybe not at 16, but they got to do whatever they wanted to in school.
Kassiady Markham [00:38:02]:
And I support that because think about it, okay?
Tonnika Haynes [00:38:05]:
I'm 49, I still make mistakes every day. You make mistakes every day. And people get so mad at the kids that make a mistake at 18, 20 or they're so stupid. No, you're stupid because you're still making mistakes. I've been here 49 years. How do I expect my 20 year old son not to make any mistakes? And why?
Kassiady Markham [00:38:25]:
I mean, obviously they know what's going to happen if they rob a bank, so probably should they try that out? No. But if you can be like, hey, I'm just gonna use a credit card. Hey, you can get a credit card, but you have to be responsible for it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:38:35]:
This is why.
Kassiady Markham [00:38:37]:
Yeah, and yeah, this is why. And if they still go and do that, then you could be like, I told you so, I told you how it worked. But you know, it's like, just don't rob a bank. You know what's gonna happen. You probably shouldn't test that one out. It's a felony. I mean, I believe in natural consequences, but yeah, I mean my kids will be, my kids are young, so they'll graduate. They'll be just turning 18 at the end of their senior years.
Kassiady Markham [00:39:05]:
I was 18 at the beginning because I have a late birthday and I worked a lot and all that. I was involved in school, but not as much as, you know, like if my kids want to play in band or sports in high school, you do it. I'll pay your way until you graduate. You don't have to have a Job and make it to practice three nights a week and play four nights. You know, like, it's one or the other. If you want to work, okay, you can go for it. Either you're going to be involved, or you're going to be working. And that's just where we stand.
Kassiady Markham [00:39:33]:
That's. That's kind of what I brought in from my childhood growing up. Not everybody's the same, but it taught me a lot, working very young. But my kids, I mean, they can be spoiled rotten in other people's eyes, but there's some very respectful kids. A little rambunctious, but they have a loving, firm home, and they don't get away with murder like a lot of kids do.
Tonnika Haynes [00:39:57]:
How does your mothering and how does that enter into the automotive world? Like, because you're the only woman working there. Of course. Tanner's your husband. He's going to protect you. But how do you lead as a woman in the shop?
Kassiady Markham [00:40:14]:
I'm firm, and I don't back down. Honestly, nobody really hurts my feelings. I don't wear my feelings on my shoulder for the most part. Now, if I have. I had a tech that was just. I could read body language. I can read people like a book. It's one of my weirdo superpowers.
Kassiady Markham [00:40:33]:
I can. Their body language shifts. Their tone shifts. And if I say something and they're saying something to me, I'm like, okay, well, this is what's really going on. You're just kind of making assumptions, like, I'm just laying it out. If your body language is like, you want to snap me like a twig. And I am. To you.
Tonnika Haynes [00:40:49]:
Oh, okay.
Kassiady Markham [00:40:50]:
And you don't stop, then I will be like, hey, Tanner, this is what's going on. I've said what I said. I think you may need to get involved before they don't have a job anymore, because I'm not going to deal with it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:41:06]:
Okay, so you don't go in the back office and cry about it.
Kassiady Markham [00:41:10]:
No. This is the automotive world. It's like, was it ash? I said they would. People would try to rip you to shreds, but I don't allow it. Yeah, I've been in conversation confrontation twice in my whole automotive career. So I've been in this world, what, 11 years? 1. The man about got shot in my office because he tried to grab me in front of my kid.
Tonnika Haynes [00:41:36]:
Oh.
Kassiady Markham [00:41:37]:
And then the other one was a woman. We, you know, we do DVIs and, you know, checkers, all that. She's hollering and screaming. At me. Well, her issue, she had already come back. Like, a brake system has different components. We know this. Right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:41:55]:
Right.
Kassiady Markham [00:41:55]:
She didn't want to replace the other component that was sending metal through the new part. We replaced, and it was documented. And it. She were like, you have to have that replaced and you don't want to. Like, that's not us from. She was screaming and hollering at me, and I'd have enough. I got belligerent with her, and then I hung up on her because she was just not leaving me alone. She kept calling and calling and calling.
Kassiady Markham [00:42:14]:
She goes, I will see you in court. I was like, fine, do it. Have your attorney contact me. I will give you my attorney's number. I had your file right here. I don't do that. I don't step out of character very often. But that woman, she took you and she was like, was it just because I'm a stupid woman? My dad was a mechanic.
Kassiady Markham [00:42:33]:
I am a woman woman. No, I hate that mentality. I'm just a woman I'm even taking advantage of. And I'm like, I'm a woman. My team would never take advantage of a woman ever. And I've been there. So you're a woman just doesn't apply here. She tried it and she lost.
Kassiady Markham [00:42:57]:
She didn't even take me to court. I mean, I made her follow my computer. I pulled the phone recordings. I took my Tech Metric information. I saved it in a nice little file. I was ready to send it to my attorney. She didn't pursue it because she knew she was in the wrong.
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:13]:
She was just trying to get you to break. It's like, if I turn it, she's going to give me whatever I want.
Kassiady Markham [00:43:19]:
I've been threatening the training three or four times, and I was like, that's cool. Have your attorney contact me and I'll share my contact information from my attorney and they can handle it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:28]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:43:29]:
And it says it's crickets
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:32]:
if there's another woman listening to this one right now. A wife that needs to help her husband in the shop or whatever. What would you. What advice would you give her if
Kassiady Markham [00:43:45]:
there was another woman listening and her husband needed help, or if they trying
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:49]:
to start a shop together? This, that.
Kassiady Markham [00:43:50]:
Whatever I would say, figure out who is. Because it's. If she's not a technician, obviously she needs to be in the front. But, like, clear expectations need to be set. And just if your feelings are hurt that, you know, I understand that. Just try not to let people belittle you and take you out because it's not right. You're not a punching bag and you shouldn't be. And if somebody doesn't respect you as a woman or wherever you are, kick them out, call for help.
Kassiady Markham [00:44:27]:
Do not become somebody's punching bags. I have a button I put walls up after that man tried to come at me. And I have a button I can just slide my hand across and it sets sirens off in my shop. And my technicians will be in the office armed within three seconds.
Tonnika Haynes [00:44:40]:
Wow. That makes.
Kassiady Markham [00:44:42]:
That's the place that this area I live in. Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:44:46]:
Just so there's shops that live in that place and that might be a good idea if they haven't thought of it yet.
Kassiady Markham [00:44:51]:
I don't, you know, and just have clear expectations like, hey, this is like set up your pricing and just kind of get the feel for it, you know, Obviously things are going to change. You just have to be open minded. But don't be a punching bag while your man's out there wrenching. If that's how it's set up, which a lot of them are set up that way to begin with. But don't be a punching bag. Stand your ground. If you want to buckle later, that's fine. To decompress, that's fine.
Kassiady Markham [00:45:18]:
But don't let somebody take advantage of you.
Tonnika Haynes [00:45:22]:
Facts, because they will and they will sit there. It's like your kids, they're going to sit there and see how far they can go. Stop. Stop that thing early.
Kassiady Markham [00:45:32]:
Yeah, that guy that tried to grab us, he also sued us and he lost. And he did a back charge, which is also a felony. Theft services.
Tonnika Haynes [00:45:41]:
He lost.
Kassiady Markham [00:45:42]:
He had to pay it back. And he lost in court. But he was. He started screaming and hollering at me. And they went to. He went to grab me and Tanner and my brother and I had other technicians in there that interfered. And I told him, I said, you better get the F up out of my office right now.
Tonnika Haynes [00:46:00]:
You said F word? Oh, girl, you do not say F words.
Kassiady Markham [00:46:07]:
I was not nice to that man and I wouldn't bring him in. My kid.
Tonnika Haynes [00:46:12]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:46:14]:
It wasn't long after that that that child went to daycare. But like, just the audacity of people, the narcissism and people just. And I've been called a stupid secretary before and they want to speak to management and I'm just like, what do
Tonnika Haynes [00:46:30]:
you say when they say that?
Kassiady Markham [00:46:33]:
I was like, I am management. I own this company. What can I help you with? And they're like, nah, you're just as staple Effing secretary.
Tonnika Haynes [00:46:42]:
And I was like, where the hell is your shop? I wish. I mean, I've had some customers that I had to set straight. I've had. In 10 years on my own, I've had about three that went that far. One. You know, one guy, engine replacement came in on tow truck. He did a transmission, too. He was just.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:05]:
He was loud. Like, all the technicians were like. Like, no, we're not doing this here. I've had some weird ones, but not a whole lot. I think my face. I can. I can cut somebody out really good by smiling at them. My uncle told me that yesterday.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:20]:
We were at dinner, and he's like, you do this thing? And I was like, I am so good. I wish I can teach people how to do that. Like, yeah. So no.
Kassiady Markham [00:47:26]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:27]:
I can smile and kind of scare you a little bit at the same time. It's like, I'll tell them it's my
Kassiady Markham [00:47:32]:
policy, and we're not breaking it. So you either like it or you leave.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:35]:
No, I need to speak to the owner, and I love to just turn around in a circle and be like, okay, now what? Like, that's me.
Kassiady Markham [00:47:41]:
I should do that.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:43]:
Just like, hold on one second.
Kassiady Markham [00:47:44]:
I've done the. Hold on. Let me go get her. Yeah, get them. Let me go get her.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:49]:
It doesn't happen. I guess for me, I've been in business so long that everybody just knows.
Kassiady Markham [00:47:54]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:54]:
And we kind of set the tone when people come through the door that this is not the place. It's not it.
Kassiady Markham [00:48:00]:
I've had them also call it. Are you Tanner's wife? And I was like, that's irrelevant to this conversation. Is there something I can help you with?
Tonnika Haynes [00:48:08]:
No. My name is Cassidy.
Kassiady Markham [00:48:11]:
Yeah. Like, what can I help you with? Doesn't matter who I am. Now, we do have people that, some very few and far in between, that know Tanner and I. Before phase two, they were actually friends and uncle. Hey, how's the wife? You know, those situations are okay, but you don't know me, and you do not gift the opportunity to come in. Hey, I'm Tanner's best friend, and he told me to come in and see y', all, and I'd like to see him. I was like, I've been with Tanner for 15 years, and I ain't never seen you a day in my life.
Tonnika Haynes [00:48:43]:
I'm. I'm Brown, talking about my dad.
Kassiady Markham [00:48:44]:
Oh, yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:48:45]:
I'm Brown's cousin. I'm just like, no, you're not. I'm his daughter. Are you serious? Right Now I wasn't where like dude, because I know like even my service people and people, everybody up front. You'll be able to determine who a family member is. Because what they call my dad because I used like they're asking for such and such. I'm not going to say it here. And I'm like, yeah, that is real family.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:12]:
If they call him by that name, everybody tell them they didn't lost their mind. Oh yeah, I'm your best friend. Oh yeah. I used to come here all the time. Well, how do you not recognize me
Kassiady Markham [00:49:22]:
exactly if you don't know my kids names? You haven't been to my house and you don't know me.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:29]:
You're not family, babe.
Kassiady Markham [00:49:32]:
Tanner has like friends.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:34]:
Yeah, right.
Kassiady Markham [00:49:35]:
And I have like two. My circle is really small, but for that reason I don't trust people and I don't like people to try to call me only when they want something. I'm not doing that. That road has to go both ways. And Tanner's real friends. That road does run both ways because they would.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:51]:
A real friend would never ask for this. Every time you need something, it's got to be a hookup because you won't do that anywhere else. It's not fair.
Kassiady Markham [00:49:59]:
Nope. I paid my house. Had to have plumbing redone. We paid the plumber. I needed trees cut down. Paid them. We had to have floors put in our house because it flooded. Thank you for that.
Kassiady Markham [00:50:13]:
We don't ask anybody else in front
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:14]:
of you because I respect you. Not that I need a hookup. Please do not come to my shop and think, oh yeah, that's my cuz. We family finna do this. Finn to do that. You don't say that when you go to the Toyota dealership or Honda or Chevy.
Kassiady Markham [00:50:28]:
Exactly.
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:29]:
Like if you went down the line, one of them jokers in there somewhere is your cousin. So why would you do that to me knowing that this is a small business and no, we're not doing that.
Kassiady Markham [00:50:39]:
This is our livelihood. This is how. This is not a hobby. This is not a 501c non profit. This is what takes care of my family and six other families.
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:50]:
Right.
Kassiady Markham [00:50:50]:
This is a business. It's here to make money.
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:52]:
Right.
Kassiady Markham [00:50:53]:
We're not charity. Have we done things in the past to help? Yes, we have. And was it for publicity? No, and it's not going to be. But I can't just take every sob story that comes in the door. Like I know it sounds bad. I have.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:10]:
It does not sound bad.
Kassiady Markham [00:51:11]:
I have empathy for people like I'm sorry you're a single mother and you're struggling, but this is what it's going to cost to fix your car. You know, if we can chunk it up, we do. Or if it's catastrophic. You know, we just kind of guide whichever way. But we're not going to be like, oh, you can just get by with this. And the car is a safety hazard for them and their family not doing it. We have ethics, we have morals.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:32]:
And then people that need help, in my experience, people that really, really need help hardly ever ask correct.
Kassiady Markham [00:51:43]:
To get over some of those barriers with the third party financing. They're like, but do y' all have financing options? We're like, yes, but we can't see them. We can kind of help you guide through it, but we can't see that. All we can see is how you pay. This is how it works. And if you do that, okay, if you still need some help, just kind of let us know. But we're not a bank either.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:03]:
Nope.
Kassiady Markham [00:52:04]:
And Tanner's more empathetic than I am. I'm like, this is what the options are and I can't do anything else because if I sell that out of my pocket and I discount that, what if my children need something with that money?
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:17]:
Right. I was talking to someone and her coach has it set up in her mind now that every time you offer somebody a discount, just go ahead and take that money out of your kid's trip to Disney. Take that money out of your kids college tuition. Okay?
Kassiady Markham [00:52:35]:
Exactly.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:35]:
Just keep taking from your family. Keep taking from your family. It's like, oh, you know, you can help people. I choose to help who I choose to help. And like I said, in my opinion, in my experience, people that need the help really don't ask for it so much. So if I see someone and I can bless them, I will at my discretion. But it's just not an automatic thing.
Kassiady Markham [00:53:00]:
It's the ones that are like, what's it gonna cost to fix my car? And then you tell them, and they just. They don't get belligerent. They just have a meltdown because they don't know what to do.
Tonnika Haynes [00:53:09]:
Right. And you can help guide them through that.
Kassiady Markham [00:53:12]:
Yes. And Tanner is a blessing at that. You know, I help people. I connect with people occasionally if I pick up the phone. But it can't be every person.
Tonnika Haynes [00:53:21]:
Nope, it can't be every person.
Kassiady Markham [00:53:23]:
And we also have people calling us for sponsorships that we hardly ever see. Like, I can't do that either. I support my kids or, you know, like the Little League my kids play for or, you know, our employees kids. Like, I do those things, but I can't do it for everybody and for us to not really see you. I can't justify that either. No, I know I sound bad for some of those things, but I can't.
Tonnika Haynes [00:53:48]:
You actually don't sound bad.
Kassiady Markham [00:53:50]:
What you sound like is a good.
Tonnika Haynes [00:53:53]:
You'd be out of money. Yeah, you'd be out of money. And especially the ones that hire a company to call around to find people to donate.
Kassiady Markham [00:54:02]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:03]:
Like what? So if my customer brings in her young lady Girl Scout and she wants to sell cookies, we're buying a box for everybody, Maybe two or three.
Kassiady Markham [00:54:15]:
I did buy some Girl Scout cookies this year.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:20]:
Like, we have the box out. We actually need to put it back out. The box out for the local company that collects food for the pantry. Encourage your customers to, hey, this is a donation spot. There's ways to give back without spending tons of money, but you just have to be careful with who you give back to. And you don't want to say, oh, yeah, we didn't get anything back from it, but you kind of do. Like, you cannot write a check to every little league baseball team. That would make no sense.
Kassiady Markham [00:54:49]:
I'm for. We didn't. We got one person that actually coached my. One of my kids baseball teams. He's a customer of ours now because he met us at the league, but that's it. Yeah, but I don't look at it as, oh, God, I lost all that money. Now people know that we're out there, but it's. Hey, these people took initiative to make sure these kids had their jerseys, and, you know, that the.
Kassiady Markham [00:55:11]:
The facilities can be updated for their safety. And, like, that's more how I look at it. It's not necessarily, oh, I want your business, because you saw us there. It's. These people are for the kids. They're for the community. We're a family. We're family people.
Kassiady Markham [00:55:26]:
We're not all about the top dollar.
Tonnika Haynes [00:55:33]:
That's. I think it's great.
Kassiady Markham [00:55:36]:
I did. I sponsored a pretty big sponsorship last year for one of the kids my son plays with his sister made it in the Nutcracker Ballet, which is a big deal in my area. And I gave her a sponsorship because that stuff's very expensive. But I know that family, and I know how far that went because she. She got to dance because of a sponsorship. And I was like, that makes me feel good that she got to do that, and she earned that.
Tonnika Haynes [00:56:03]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:56:04]:
And I will never regret those. But I couldn't sponsor every dancer, but I knew that dancer. So I had the opportunity and we did.
Tonnika Haynes [00:56:14]:
That's sweet. Those are the things that I like. I really enjoy hearing about stuff like that.
Kassiady Markham [00:56:19]:
Sweetie, what do you want to do?
Tonnika Haynes [00:56:20]:
What does phase three look like? What does phase two look like in three to five years about getting a bigger shop?
Kassiady Markham [00:56:29]:
So the thing about where we are is, you know, you flew into Houston. We're about an hour and a half north east of Houston, more on the Louisiana border. So up here, property would be cheaper in the city of Beaumont, but we don't want to go back to Beaumont. And we live in the little town just north of Beaumont. An acre of property is a million bucks here. So we. Our shop is in the next town north of that. It's called Silsby.
Kassiady Markham [00:57:02]:
And we're out in the county. But being in the county, we have highway frontage. It's eventually going to be an interstate there, eventually to go from, like, Beaumont all the way up north through into Oklahoma. And it's good property, but the city doesn't mess with us being out there. So we really need to be out there. So we're trying to expand where we have now, like between our office and our shop, which is. I don't even remember how many feet it is, but we can close it all in and put our offices on the second story and take down the building in the front or and then add on to it again if we wanted to, and still keep parking. But we would ultimately have to build another location from the ground up.
Kassiady Markham [00:57:52]:
And it can't be right on top of us. We would have to go a little further north into what's called Jasper, which is about 50 miles north of us, but different income area. We already pull from that area to begin with. So it would be phase two, Jasper location or something. To set the identities a little bit different, we looked at one going more towards the border side, which is about 45 minutes from us. But the properties over there in a flood zone. You remember where Hurricane Harvey happened?
Tonnika Haynes [00:58:24]:
I don't, but it sounds terrible.
Kassiady Markham [00:58:27]:
It was down on the Texas coast in, like, Louisiana. So major flooding. So we have to be very careful about another location. But we've filled the kind of got the feelers out. But we want to try to do what little expansion we can now and make that work. And then maybe we'll get lucky with something in Lumberton, which is the town we live in, to open up there. But it'll be a lot More quick service items, smaller items. Because right now we're bumper to bumper.
Kassiady Markham [00:58:59]:
We just got all of our new equipment in engine swaps and you know, reseals them. That's a lot of big work in a second location. We don't want to do that. All that big work, if that makes sense.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:09]:
Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [00:59:10]:
Have our specialty shop and then have our quicker shop like same day, next day, all those repairs. That's ideal for us. But our area is definitely wonky with prices.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:24]:
That's crazy. That's crazy expensive.
Kassiady Markham [00:59:28]:
Yeah. And what's crazy, we actually own our property in Silsby.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:31]:
Okay.
Kassiady Markham [00:59:32]:
We.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:33]:
You can add on to that property. You can change stuff around. So. Sounds good to me. I don't know about going to spend a million dollar an acre.
Kassiady Markham [00:59:40]:
No, I think it's all under there.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:43]:
Damn.
Kassiady Markham [00:59:44]:
Well, we are in the oil area and Spindle Top and Beaumont, but we have all the refineries on our coast. But that's the idea is just expand where we are now. I told Tanner, I was like, expand here first and then. Then we might consider taking on another headache somewhere else.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:05]:
Okay.
Kassiady Markham [01:00:06]:
Hopefully when the kids are a little bit bigger.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:08]:
Rapid fire questions. So everybody, because you don't talk a lot, I like you. I think you're funny. So you got to introduce yourself just a little bit. I'm actually some questions. They have nothing to do with automotive industry. Ready? All right. What was Your first car?
Kassiady Markham [01:00:23]:
1999 Mazda Protege.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:26]:
What color was it?
Kassiady Markham [01:00:28]:
Black.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:31]:
What is your dream car like, what's your dream car?
Kassiady Markham [01:00:36]:
A fully loaded Yukon Denali xl.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:43]:
Still a mom car because you got the kids. Yeah. Yeah.
Kassiady Markham [01:00:45]:
Or suburban. Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:47]:
All right. Water, coffee or energy drink?
Kassiady Markham [01:00:50]:
Coffee.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:51]:
Coffee head. My sister's so addicted to coffee, she's like ordering coffee every time we're on the phone together. I make a couple coffee. I'll make 8 ounce of coffee and I'll probably drink 2 ounces out of it and just ruin a whole day. I just waste so much money on coffee. It's not me. All right, one in one word, you have to describe entrepreneurship.
Kassiady Markham [01:01:13]:
Challenging.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:15]:
Challenging. All right. Started the shop. This shop is six years old.
Kassiady Markham [01:01:22]:
Yep.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:22]:
This shop is six years old. One thing you wish you knew before starting phase two,
Kassiady Markham [01:01:31]:
that coaching existed. We could have built that into everything from when we first started.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:39]:
Do you think it's important that people start out with a coach or just like I didn't start out with a coach. I think I went about two years before I got a coach.
Kassiady Markham [01:01:49]:
Even if they don't just know the option is Available if you can't sort it out. And it's causing more turmoil than what it should. Just knowing the help is out there before you get yourself in a big crisis.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:04]:
Yeah. And you've only been coaching with them for a year, and you can tell the difference already, huh?
Kassiady Markham [01:02:09]:
Oh, yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:10]:
Awesome. Same.
Kassiady Markham [01:02:11]:
Definitely.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:13]:
Well, Cassidy thought it was going to be weird. I'm losing my voice from tectonic. I'm just getting it back, and then I've been talking all day, so that was squeaky. Anyway, I'm glad that I got to talk to you and that you agreed. It's like, what are we gonna talk about? I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. I.
Kassiady Markham [01:02:30]:
Like, I told Tanner. I was like, man, that'd be so fun. Taylor's like, I signed you up.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:35]:
And I was like, yeah, he sent me a message. He was like, I think you should interview her. And I was like, well, say less. I think I sent you the message just like that.
Kassiady Markham [01:02:44]:
He's like, you're welcome, babe.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:46]:
And I'm like, you're just as important as he is. Like, this is. You're the backbone, girl.
Kassiady Markham [01:02:53]:
Can't do it without you behind the scenes.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:58]:
But you're doing all the work. You've got the kids. You've got everything rolling as smooth as it can be at six years. You guys are doing the coaching. You've got the ideas. You've got ideas for growth. I think you're winning.
Kassiady Markham [01:03:12]:
And just the idea of ever not needing coaching, I was like, is that a thing? Oh, my God, no. Like, I need my coach.
Tonnika Haynes [01:03:18]:
I know, right?
Kassiady Markham [01:03:19]:
He's like a part of the thing.
Tonnika Haynes [01:03:20]:
Do you grow? I mean, I've changed coaching companies. I've. You know, I've. From here to there, from there to here. But I don't see myself without a coach because I know that I would get in my own way. Me and my stubbornness. Yes.
Kassiady Markham [01:03:34]:
Yep.
Tonnika Haynes [01:03:34]:
And there's.
Kassiady Markham [01:03:35]:
I need that neutral line there.
Tonnika Haynes [01:03:38]:
Always something to learn. Well, I'm gonna let you get back to your babies, and we'll see you on the socials.
Kassiady Markham [01:03:45]:
All righty. It was good meeting with you.
Tonnika Haynes [01:03:47]:
All right, Downshift with Tanika is where we slow down long enough to have real conversations hosted by myself, second generation shop owner Tanika Haynes. This goes beyond your car count, your KPIs. We want to talk about leadership, legacy mindset, and the messy, beautiful journey of building something that lasts. You will hear stories from shop owners, technicians, and other industry leaders who are figuring it all out by themselves themselves in real time. This is a space for growth, tough love, laughter and leveling up.