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The Gearbox Podcast brings on industry professionals to explore the day-to-day operations of owning and operating a shop. From common frustrations to industry-wide shifts, this podcast covers it with fun and insightful conversations.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
Welcome to the Gearbox podcast, where we dive deep into the dynamic world of automotive repair and ownership. I'm your host, Jimmy Purdy, an experienced technician turned shop owner with a passion for sharing insights, stories, and conversations with industry leaders. This is the Gearbox podcast. This has been hard to try to connect.
Greg Buckley [00:00:36]:
It has been, yeah, I mean, I kind of, like. I've been really busy, you know, business, personal, all kinds of stuff, and, you know, and then I basically. I took a. I really kind of laid low for the last, I don't know, two years or so. I just take a break and, you know, get off the squirrel cage and run the business. I mean, it kind of demanded that I do that, so that's what I wanted to do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:02]:
You mean more like staying more in tune with, like.
Greg Buckley [00:01:07]:
Yes. Staying grounded, really, just, you know, staying focused on the businesses. When you. You know, we had so much going on that, you know, in. When I acquired number two, we were in the middle of a house renovation, along with a shop renovation, and then had to put resources into this acquisition, so it got kind of. Really got hectic. We came through with flying colors, but it took a lot out and then a lot of commitments that I wanted to make to the industry and profession. I just stopped, you know, and saw myself being worn out if I continued that route.
Greg Buckley [00:01:42]:
So I just, you know, hunkered down and got through all the projects, and now we seem to be coming out pretty well, and things are smooth, so I can start to peek my head out a little bit more. That's all.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:56]:
Okay. More of the social interaction stuff, I guess. Is that what you mean?
Greg Buckley [00:02:00]:
Yeah, and, you know, get out to some events. You know, I'll be at ETi next month, April, and looking forward to that, in fact.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:11]:
So you're coming to California?
Greg Buckley [00:02:12]:
I am, yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:14]:
Very cool.
Greg Buckley [00:02:14]:
Yeah. So we're going to. My wife and I, we're going to make a tail end of our vacation. We're flying to dominican next, or on the fifth, and we come back, and then we'll fly out on the 20th and spend a week out in Newport beach, go to the event. Dutch just called me today, and as it turns out, the chairman of ETI wants me to be on a panel. So I don't know what that's all about, but I agree to it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:43]:
So, you know, just run with it, huh?
Greg Buckley [00:02:46]:
Yeah, that's. You know, that's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:48]:
Well, yeah, yeah. I was looking at some of the. Some of the training seminars and. At apex for this year.
Greg Buckley [00:02:54]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:55]:
And so I was like, I'll put a class in. I don't know. I mean, I feel like when you got to teach something, it really elevates the level of knowledge that you have. It does. I mean, I. And so I really like the concept of dvis. They've been around for a long time. It seems to be really kind of still a lot of questions about it.
Greg Buckley [00:03:15]:
Mm hmm.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:16]:
So I thought that'd be an interesting class to. To present.
Greg Buckley [00:03:20]:
To present a DVI. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:21]:
Yeah. Just kind of, like the importance of it. But then, like, Dutch has got some great, great information of, like, how that can be taken in a negative way.
Greg Buckley [00:03:31]:
Hmm.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:32]:
Right. Like, so just because you're doing a DVI doesn't mean you're doing someone in service. Like, you could be taking pictures of any vehicle. You could be presenting whatever you want to try to upsell something that doesn't need to be done. So I. Obviously, I think there's more good than bad, but it's just interesting to think of the bad that could come from it, you know, points.
Greg Buckley [00:03:52]:
I can see his concerns like anything else. I mean, if you tell your team to, you know, kind of, like, make sure you focus on that, and here's why. It's all about the premise. I mean, I. You've got the red, yellow, green conditions, and, I don't know. I don't think in terms of trying to cheat somebody with a DVI. I actually think we're doing them a favor by showing them what their vehicle is going for. Now, there are times when techs can be overly aggressive with what they find and how they mark it up.
Greg Buckley [00:04:32]:
Like, okay, so you have control arm bushings, and you find a small tear or small cracks. It doesn't mean it's bad, but you get an inexperienced tech who will circle it red or say, hey, look, this has got to be replaced, and you got to go, you got to back up. And that becomes a teaching moment. You got to say, hey, look, we can see there's fatigue, but are they red to the point where you're going to try and sell the bushings out of that? It could go another slow on the totem pole.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:01]:
So I guess. I guess it's client advocacy, too, like, taking the time to explain that, because no one knows. Like. Like, we know. Like, we understand that bushing. You can probably ride that for a while. But then there's some people, like, I don't want anything. I don't want nothing wrong.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:12]:
I want everything to be brand new.
Greg Buckley [00:05:14]:
Absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:14]:
It's so hard to like. And so I've always had a green and red. Like, that's it. We don't use yellow.
Greg Buckley [00:05:20]:
Okay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:21]:
That's just something I've always done. Like, look, if it's something that you have drawn your attention as a technician, it needs to be read. Right. And I. But that also, like you said, that, that blurs the line of, well, are we just replacing stuff because it's got one small tear in it? Yeah, but you mark it red, and then obviously the advocacy comes from the service advisor, say, hey, we're advising this. This isn't, you know, and then that's where the notes come in and all that stuff, so. Right. Well, you know, it seems so streamlined.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:48]:
It really isn't. You know, it's not.
Greg Buckley [00:05:50]:
There's, there's, there's some gray area, but you got to look at the color red. It's a very emotional color, and people will see that and, you know, they think of immediate concern. So yellow is that buffer. Like, okay, well, it's wishy washy. You can explain the wishy washy. I think better than trying to get yourself out of a red. Where I've, I mean, I've looked at, you know, you do your ro, audits and you look at the inspection sheets and you go, okay, you got to go in the next morning and go, all right. Really? Or, okay, maybe you missed this one.
Greg Buckley [00:06:21]:
Or, you know, this is not red. This is, this is an okay condition. And that's what I typically do to train the technicians, you know, and to, you know, make sure that they're not trying to, you know, over recommend or oversell or just misguide the client, you know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:06:39]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:06:40]:
There doesn't have to be any, any nefarious thoughts behind anything. There's just, you know, they made, it's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:06:46]:
Interesting because the transparency of it, it's what's important. Right. Like, that's what we're doing the DVI for, because it's transparency. But then you always have, you always have one in a crowd that's going to use that, use that to their advantage where they just have a stockpile of bad pictures in their computer and they're sending these pictures to clients saying, oh, look what we found.
Greg Buckley [00:07:05]:
This really bad.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:06]:
It's really bad. And it happens. It's like. And so you don't, we don't even think that would, like, who would really.
Greg Buckley [00:07:11]:
There's people, I know I am that naive to think that nobody will do that, and yet, you know, you know, it's out there, so.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:19]:
Right. And I think it's just important to kind of bring that up is like, look, it's not. Just because you're doing it doesn't mean you're 100%. So you can't just, like, take a picture or something, recommend it, and then not explain anything. So it was just kind of an eye opening thing about. Because I'm as naive as you in that aspect. It was like, there's no way, like, really someone's gonna do that. Come on, man.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:39]:
Like, yeah, they're out there.
Greg Buckley [00:07:42]:
They're definitely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:43]:
I mean, this whole. The whole thing we're trying to do is, you know, changing the industry and, like, getting everybody more educated. It's.
Greg Buckley [00:07:48]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:49]:
It's important to know the bad. So, you know, I guess I don't know who your enemy is. Is that a weird way to say it?
Greg Buckley [00:07:54]:
No.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:54]:
You know, you got to know your enemy well.
Greg Buckley [00:07:58]:
You got it. You got to be able to think like a criminal in order to protect yourself from a criminal.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:04]:
Oh, that's a fair point right there. That's exactly right. How would I rip these people off, you know?
Greg Buckley [00:08:10]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:11]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:08:11]:
And then.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:12]:
And then do the exact opposite or however you gotta go about it, but.
Greg Buckley [00:08:18]:
You'Re always playing head games with everything.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:20]:
So it's a lot more than you'd ever anticipate. I mean, for me, too, it's like, it's so much learning of, like, everything, right? Like, employee mindset and dealing with them and keeping everybody happy. And I hate. Say, I hate. I hate using. Dealing with them, but, you know, it's like making sure everybody is getting the motivation they deserve, because you just think, oh, big fat paycheck, everyone's going to be happy. And it's not usually how it goes.
Greg Buckley [00:08:44]:
No, it's not. You know, I mean, case in point. Today, before I left to come up here, you know, from. From store number two, I had noticed that the last couple of days, my one tech, and he's. He's new to the field, and he's come on great. In the last year and a half, we've had him. Jeremiah. He is, like, awesome.
Greg Buckley [00:09:04]:
He. He's got. He's got such talent, and we're bringing him a little slowly. So, you know, I just noticed last couple days, he's been kind of mopey. You know, before I left today, I go, you okay? He goes, nah, man. He says, my. My real good friend was in. Is in the hospital from withdrawal, and, you know, he's like a brother to me.
Greg Buckley [00:09:21]:
I go, okay, so. So you're talking to them, and you're opening yourself up. You're letting them. Be yourself. Be a, you know, a soundboard and an ear or a shoulder or whatever you want to call it. But I think that's that. I think that comes with the territory for owners, especially today, because we have such a, we have such a generation that really may not have had that, that family unit situation where that person, they could be, that they could lean on. So when they come to work for you, work with you, excuse me.
Greg Buckley [00:09:56]:
I think they look forward to that. Or once you expose that to them, that you can be. You can be the person they can lean on or at least share with what's going on in their world, they really become very loyal and they do things way beyond what a normal, let's say, an employee or team member would do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:18]:
Yeah, I think, I mean, it's just a good point because it's so missed. I mean, how much is that is missed, right. With. Oh, yeah, with bet when, you know, I guess you call it bad ownership. Right. And it's not even, it has to be beyond doing that for, for a reason, though, you know?
Greg Buckley [00:10:32]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:33]:
I mean, you can't just, like, do that and expect loyalty. It's like, it's like, it's a two way street.
Greg Buckley [00:10:38]:
No, I mean, you can't treat people like pieces of shit, you know? I mean, it's a fact. And, and I get, I get, I get irritated by hearing stories, you know, on all the boards and feeds and forums we're on. We hear stories about technicians who, you know, haven't been treated fairly or this has happened. That has happened. It can go both ways. I can look at, well, if you knew what you were getting into, why did you walk into it? And then, secondly, why didn't you walk out of it? Do you have that? Are you not that confident in yourself that you cannot, that you cannot leave? But when you get a, when you get an owner, that. That is more I than we. That's a problem.
Greg Buckley [00:11:22]:
And I think that, you know, over the decades, I think we've shed a lot of that, but there's still a lot of it going on. And from an owner standpoint, it. Well, from the personal standpoint, that owner may not have his, his or hers moral compass in the right way.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:43]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:11:43]:
You know what I mean?
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:44]:
Yeah. And try, I mean, you're trying to do the right thing. Mm hmm. Right. And if no one's, if no one's really told you what the right thing is, is like, how do you, how do you navigate that then? Right.
Greg Buckley [00:11:54]:
That's true.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:55]:
And it's like, for I don't know. For me, growing up in a shop, it was like you put your head down, and you showed up to work. No matter if you're sick, hungover, broke your leg, you get. You get your ass to work, you do your thing, right? And it's like, hey, boss, what's next? What's next? And it's like. And you just. I don't know. I think everybody has that mindset, and it's like. And I'm so wrong.
Greg Buckley [00:12:17]:
That's why we're so naive, Jay. It's like, we will never get ripped off, will we? No. I believe you 100%.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:25]:
Yeah. So many pictures and everything. It's got to be good.
Greg Buckley [00:12:28]:
Please.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:29]:
You're so trustworthy. I like you. I see you. I see your face everywhere. Like, if he's. If he's this, if he's everywhere, he's got to be honest, right?
Greg Buckley [00:12:37]:
That's true.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:38]:
Yeah. I see his face everywhere. It's got to be. He's got to be an honest guy. Yeah. As naive as you can possibly get. Yeah. And, I mean, even on that, though, like, as I'm working for someone, it's like I never.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:51]:
I never wanted to be told what to do. I kind of just was like, hey, just. Just give me the layout, and I'll get it handled. Right? And so I expected that, like, as you hire someone, you're like, dude, just do your job. Just do it. Because it's, like, that's what I wanted. I wanted to be left alone and let me do my thing. I'm gonna.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:05]:
I'm gonna get some work done for you, you know? But it's like, it's almost 180 degrees opposite of that when you start building the team, because everyone's looking up to you, hey, what do you want me to do? And it's not. I don't think it's for, like, the cause of, like, they don't want. They don't have the motivation, but they're just trying to make sure that they're doing it the way you want. Right. In a way that's, like, benefits everybody in the team. And it's so weird, because I never had that thought as I was, I was working as a technician. I was very independent, right? I was like, I'm a wrestler in high school. Like, I never was a team sport player.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:38]:
Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just not my mindset, so it's so hard for me to do that. And, like. And then you're supposed to reflect and. And, like you said, have that reflection of, like, looking as, you know, as in, you got to look at it from the other side. And I've never had that other side to look at. It makes it really hard.
Greg Buckley [00:13:59]:
It is. It's difficult because, you know, you. You've got your concerns as an owner. You're. You're forced to worry about paying bills, keeping the place open, doing all of that. And at the same time, you're supposed to worry about the mindset of the team members. You know, you go, well, it get the job done and everything will be okay. You know, bring home, let me pay the bill, customer pay the bills, and everybody will be okay.
Greg Buckley [00:14:24]:
Make the hours and you'll be okay. And it's, you know, numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. But you can't. You can't build a team strictly by numbers only, because I don't think people are. Responded to that like they used to be. You know, I think.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:42]:
Or the small percentage that even was really. I don't. I think it was just a small. A very small percentage even back then. You know, nobody wants to be a number. Nobody wants to be a number.
Greg Buckley [00:14:52]:
You know, I mean, you got your grinders who are still out there, and they'll, you know, they'll beat their chest and say, I can pull 100 hours a week and, you know, do all that and good for them. And they'll. You put them in the back of the room and you shove everything you can to them and let them do their thing and they're happy if they're happy and they appreciate being there and all that. I guess that works out for you. For me, I give my teams as much autonomy as possible. I set ground rules. We have some particular sops in place. Not, I can honestly say, not many, because when I hire you, I tell you that I expect you to be better than you were the day before, and I'll give you all the tools I can to help you be that, both personally and technically.
Greg Buckley [00:15:36]:
You know, I expect that you'll have a long road to be an expert if you are, you know, you know, zero, you're just getting into the field or even your midterm. The important thing is, the way I feel is the more you give them the ability to have their say or, you know, let them. Let them roll and make a mistake. As long as it doesn't kill anybody. I don't, you know, that kind of stuff. You'll survive. It'll be a lesson you learn, and you move on from there. My team, it was really cool when I.
Greg Buckley [00:16:16]:
The second shop you know, the first shop is pretty much all family. And I have one technician, Corey, who we onboarded independently, but I got my nephew, my son in law, my son, my sister, my niece. Yeah. And they're all involved in shop number one and the primary core business. Yeah. And, you know, we, we get along great. They have, they know what they want to do. We move forward.
Greg Buckley [00:16:44]:
Now opening up number two, I had to go out and recruit 100%, meaning that, you know, it was a fresh startup. And I come across the two gentlemen that started with me. It was the way the deal went down. I was delayed all the way until, excuse me, July 1. And I was planning on opening, and I planned on. I had committed to hire these guys starting July 5. And we had a delay in the deal because of one, one of their side's members were just being a total jerk, that's all. So we had to get through that.
Greg Buckley [00:17:23]:
And once we did, the deal went through. But the two gentlemen that I hired, I brought on one came down Philadelphia, and that's Matt. He's still with me. Big guy, six, five, three something, right?
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:36]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:17:37]:
Just an awesome, an awesome kid. And he is high energy, loves what he does, loves the field, everything about it. And the other gentleman was Steve, who was a little bit older, been through the wringer with dealers and shops. But one thing that was really interesting is, and even today, they're recovering, and they didn't, of course, you can't ask all this stuff in an interview, and you, you wait to hear. But you know what? They were comfortable enough to tell me that as we gelled to be a team, and that's how much trust they had in me, because they knew we would just have these talks. Oh, yeah. I'm in recovery. I went to this meeting.
Greg Buckley [00:18:23]:
I do this, I do that. And I said, well, you know, everybody has their rounds, and that's fine, because there's, we're growing, we're gelling. We're learning about one another. You know, we're growing as, as men, really. Steve didn't last because he couldn't refrain. He went back. He got himself a little bit of trouble, so I had to let him go. Matt is still with me.
Greg Buckley [00:18:44]:
Yeah, it is a bummer. And Matt's still with me. And then we picked up Jeremiah, who I was just speaking about. Jeremiah came in for an oil change, and he looked around and he felt the vibe. And we were all just cruising around and shot number two is just, it's, it's so different, but so cool. It's an old equipment shed that looks like a house, and it's big. There's. It's like, okay, it's a shed.
Greg Buckley [00:19:11]:
It really is. You walk in and you see the rafters, you see the light, the lighting, the electrical, all. It's exposed. Not no insulation. I mean, it's rough, but it's. It's just got this cool vibe. And even customers love it. They come in and they go, man, I feel like I'm writing the action, and I'm like, okay, this is pretty cool.
Greg Buckley [00:19:31]:
And so, you know, Jeremiah is sitting there, and we're taking care of his Kia for an oil change and stuff like that. And he comes and he goes, you know, do you have a room for, like, a lube tech or an intern? And Matt and I were the ones working, right? And I go, okay, yeah, you know, I could use an extra hand. I don't care if it was a sweep the floor. Just at the time we needed him, so he came in and he started, and sure enough, he was wearing. He was wearing an emblem or something that. That said that he's in recovery. And I don't know, these things. I, you know, I just didn't pick them.
Greg Buckley [00:20:06]:
Well, Matt did. And him and Matt got to talking right away, like, okay, we got a bond here. We got something in common. And then we took on Jeremiah. And those two have become good friends. They go to meetings, they talk about their things, and they guide me. If an applicant comes in and they see them, they'll tell me that, hey, look, we know the signs. And they'll.
Greg Buckley [00:20:32]:
They'll tell me right away that if this candidate is good or bad or, hey, he's got issues here or there. But for what these gentlemen have gone through in their life, and they're still here, I'm really proud of the ability to say to them, this is pretty much a safe space for you as long as you understand that we do have a business to run, and the numbers that they can put out are pretty incredible. So that's the kind of way that I kind of operate. And.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:06]:
It'S awesome. It's a good culture, just signs of a good culture. And until you're trying to build one in your, your own shop, I don't think you can even relate to what you're, what you're saying.
Greg Buckley [00:21:15]:
Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:15]:
I mean, because you're like, oh, I asked my guys all the time if everything's all right, and they're. And they say it's fine. It's like. But, you know, they're not going to tell you. Right. Like, it's just, you can't just ask and someone's.
Greg Buckley [00:21:25]:
Yeah, you gotta pry. You do. You have to. You got it. You got to get that second. You know, are you sure you're okay? You know everything. All right? And then when they feel that trust, then they open up, and then they feel better, and then they work, they produce better. They've let that burden off, and it's just.
Greg Buckley [00:21:45]:
I don't know. I don't talk about it much. But now, lately, I say to myself, you know what? You know, being 64 and having, you know, 50 plus years in the business and knowing what I do, I'm pretty proud of the fact that we do have this culture that we. We let you grow, and we're there to help you. Whatever we can provide for you, we will. Do I really cook numbers like some of the big guys do? Probably not, but each shop does, you know, we'll do seven plus figures each location and. All right, I can do better, and we plan on doing better, but it's not all about the numbers for me. It really isn't.
Greg Buckley [00:22:23]:
And I don't want people thinking that it should be all about the numbers. I. That's probably gonna come out wrong, but I think that we need to care more about the people we have with.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:36]:
Us because, well, without the numbers, you can't care for them, right?
Greg Buckley [00:22:40]:
You can't care for me. You're absolutely correct. You're absolutely correct.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:43]:
So. But I totally get what you're saying, because if you can. If you can build a culture, like you're doing, and you can change people's lives.
Greg Buckley [00:22:50]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:50]:
Right. And keep them off the street, keep them in this industry, and be productive and support their family, I mean, that's. Isn't that the goal? I mean, I don't know. That's what I. That's why I started, so I can support my family and, like, support myself. So if I can extend that, it's like, that's pretty cool, you know? And. And on that topic, I mean, how many, like, of that situation, you have a kid come in, they do well, and all of a sudden, they take off and they're gone. And, you know, you try to get these people, give them a second chance, right? And it's like they're on drugs or whatever it is, and you keep trying to help, and you keep trying to help.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:22]:
They keep trying to take advantage of you. And I've. I've had it over and over and over, um, to the point where it's like, if I see the signs. And my older brother, he's, uh, he's, he's deep into the drugs. I haven't seen him in years. Right? Like, so I get it. And I see him when they come in and I can see the signs, and I'm like, oh, great. You know, still give him a chance, though.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:43]:
But, but it's getting to the point where I feel a little jaded about it. And I'm like, I don't even know if I want to go through this again, you know? And I just had a guy last week before we went to Mars. Um, it was like, what was it, the Friday before? It was, he was late Thursday, and then Friday, just no show. Yeah, okay. That's, that's kind of, and this is, he's been with us for, like, two weeks at this point. And we've, like, maybe, maybe was three weeks. So we call him. No answer.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:11]:
All right, well, if we don't hear him by Saturday, we got to send him a termination letter, you know? Right. Like, you just got to do it and did it. No reply. Monday, no reply. Tuesday, no. All. So now we're in Ogden now. Week goes.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:22]:
Bye. Still today. This has been two weeks. I still haven't heard from him. All his tools are in the shop. Snap on guy came by. Hey, uh, you know, where's he at, right? I don't know. Do you mind if I look in his toolbox? I'm like, you know what? Go get what you got to get, man.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:38]:
I'm not going to, I'm not going to hold you back. Like, you know, like, and that, how, how awkward of a position am I put into? Like, now I'm, like, holding his tools, I'm housing his tools. Like, what if something happens? Is that on me? Like, you know, like something.
Greg Buckley [00:24:53]:
You got put in an employment contract, right? Yes. Well, if you fall behind in your tool to bill, I have the right to give the toolbox back to the tool guy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:01]:
Yeah, right. I mean, these are all his, but his personal tools. And it's like, yeah, now it's like, well, you have 30 days, and in our contracts is, you have 30 days after termination. Pickup was like, what happens at 30 days? Like, what am I going to do with these tools? Really? Am I really going to take this kids tools? You know? Like, no. Like, but like, what and all, and there's all this, like, owners are like, so bad, and we'll just replace employees at any time is like, give me a break, man. Like, you have no idea how many times we taken advantage of.
Greg Buckley [00:25:31]:
Oh, I know, I know. And, you know, you don't, you don't you get that feeling? Well, I don't want to give up. But then there comes a point where you, you have to, and, you know, you gotta say, all right, I gotta cut ties now. And I try to make it when I see that happening. And it was, it was a few, it was two Fridays ago. I had to let a young man go that I thought, well, we hired him and we thought that he was going to be okay. He interviewed well, he had some definitely personal issues. None of it was drugs or alcohol.
Greg Buckley [00:26:02]:
It was just, you know, responsibilities to others that, you know, got him in trouble. But he was a good tech, but he got lazy. And I knew once we saw, once you get past two weeks, that's when the real person starts coming out and you can really see what happens after two weeks. Cause the two weeks, it's that honeymoon period. And so we noticed him slacking off. And then it got to the point where in this last cycle, the last two weeks, he was with us. I must have had like five or six people come back for stupid stuff. Oil drips for me, wasn't washing or wasn't wiping down the belly pan or the filter, the washer, he didn't replace the gasket on the drain plug, little things like that.
Greg Buckley [00:26:51]:
He didn't want to take a board in past 330, even though he's there till 05:00 so all the signs of him being lazy and losing again, falling into that I don't want to be responsible or responsibility thing, um, or accountability, um, was going away and, and I simply had to say to him, I said, listen, man, I wish you best luck, but it's not going to work out here. So, you know, it, it goes, it goes with the territory and that stuff, um, guys like you just had, you know, they're, they're going to be part of our lives. Uh, we just have to know how to deal with them. I said, you know, put your best foot forward and if something's going to fail, it's going to be them, not you. And when you, when you fail you, I think you know it more. It's in your heart or you could have done something better. But when they fail, I think, I think we all recognize it pretty fast, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:40]:
Yeah, it's, it's tough. I mean, I don't know. I have no idea. I'm way too new into all this to even be able to wrap my head around be able to wrap my head around it, but it's like, I definitely know what I don't know, you know? Like, I've learned that much is like, because sometimes maybe if I do this, maybe I do that. And then you ask them, hey, so what motivates you? I don't know. What, like, what do you want to do? And then you have these conversations with them in the pattern. Then the cycles happen, right? Then it's like every two months on the dot. Every two months, that same issue reoccurs.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:10]:
Hey, so remember we talked about this? I can't have you do this again. Right? And then another two months go by. It's like, it's so weird. It's like these patterns. And you start watching, and then you got to keep my, I got to keep my mind out of it. Like, I can't get emotionally frustrated by it.
Greg Buckley [00:28:23]:
When you, when you're talking to your team members, right? How much do you literally share about your life, about your personal life?
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:31]:
You know, and it's funny you brought that up because it wasn't until maybe this last year where we really started sharing more, and that, that definitely changed the culture a lot. And it wasn't like, oh, I had my, my blood work done and I have high ldl and my blood sugar. Like, not like that sharing, but, hey, so, hey, we're going to Ogden for Mars. We'll be gone. It's a marketing conference. Instead of saying, okay, we're going to be gone Wednesday through Friday, you guys got the shop, right? Like, it was just that small shift of, like, actually putting it out there, right? Because I think a lot of time you're kind of embarrassed of, like, taking time off and telling them you're going on vacation or what you're doing or, or showing the numbers, that's another big one. Like, and understanding the numbers enough to share it with them. Like.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:15]:
Cause all you see is, say, $100,000 in sales in a month, and you're gonna show your guys that you made a hundred thousand. It's like, no, I'm gonna show them where all that money went, right. And make them aware of their contributions until where we're getting. And then set the goal and then say, hey, so if we achieve this, I want to share this with you guys. Right? I don't know. I think a lot of people look at that. Like, that just, that just breeds, uh, what do they say that breeds, um, contempt. Well, yeah, well, just, it just breeds the culture of, like, upselling.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:49]:
So then, like, everyone's just trying to sell parts to get the number bigger, right? But I think everyone forgets about the human element, right? And if you have a good culture and a good team, no one thinks like that, you know, like, the same. The same way we thought about, like, who rips people off with a false DVI, right? So, like, I think we forget, like, hey, sometimes there's good people, and we're going to do the right thing to achieve that sales goal. Not like, oh, hey, we're. We're $10,000 away from our. Getting our bonuses. Let's just sell this transmission to this guy that doesn't need it. Like, no one's going to. No one's going to do that, right? And if they do, then I.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:23]:
You. You should probably reevaluate your team, maybe. I don't know. Like, that just seems crazy to me.
Greg Buckley [00:30:28]:
Well, you know, I try to make my compensation levels fair and not to breed that type of aggressiveness towards the end of the bonus period, whether it's quarterly, monthly, whatever, because I don't want that to happen. I don't want you to stuff a transmission or think about selling a transmission that might not be needed or whatever the case might be, you know? Right. You know, I just. I think that I discuss everything with them. Like, it's more of a team concept for everything, for. For everybody at the shop. Our techs get a bonus on. On ours.
Greg Buckley [00:31:07]:
Our commissions for. It's a percentage of GP for our sales teams, and it's very comfortable, and I give them a great base. So there's not a lot of stretch that they have to do. They're comfortable on their own without a commission. The commission is definitely, you know, better than some, so. But I want to. I want to circle back to what you said about what I said, about what do you share personally? And you said, well, I don't share about the blood pressure all that. Well, I have to tell you that I do, and I share a lot of stuff that is personal, and I just went through a lot of it over the last six or seven months with my mom passing and all the stuff I was doing to take care of my dad and my mom through hospice, back and forth to Wilmington.
Greg Buckley [00:31:58]:
They say it, of course, because I'm traveling, I'm not there. But there was a time when I had to say to them, you know, hey, my blood pressure is up, and this is what I'm going to do. And I said, guys, I'm going to need you to really help me out here as I try to get my own health in order, and I'm not afraid to discuss everything with them. The reason being is because at some point, as you're exposing yourself, you're going to give them enough courage to expose them themselves. They're going to come back at you. Because if you put that much faith, you put that much trust into them, you're giving yourself to them, and they go, this guy's really for real, man. All right, cool. And then one day they walk up to you, you know, man.
Greg Buckley [00:32:45]:
Hey, Jimmy, you know, I appreciate you telling me. My brother's gone through the same shit, man. You know, and how did you work it? So now they're coming back to you personally and you're creating that little bit of a bond, right? Outside of work, outside of numbers, outside of tech. And before you know it, the way that I've. This is what I do is they start to trust increases. They want to be able to work with you, not for you. They understand that if there's a. If there's a gap or a pitfall, it just seems to be that.
Greg Buckley [00:33:19]:
That's the way that I've always been. I have never been afraid to be open, you know, with whatever I've got going on, with whatever I'm doing. It gives you encouragement as you get older. You really don't give a shit what you say in some cases, but, you know, it probably helps a lot. It does, believe me. Maturity has its privileges. But I really encourage everybody to really be as transparent as possible with their team because I feel you don't look for empathy, but you certainly get it. And that's when you know that the person with you is going to be with you for a while.
Greg Buckley [00:34:04]:
They're. They're. They're interested, they're buying in. So that's kind of like a. Kind of a style of mine just being as open and transparent as possible and letting. Letting this trust build between myself and my team members and then the team members to team members. So, you know, not telling you to go out.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:24]:
And it makes a lot of sense. I mean, and I think. I think it's a natural evolution, too. And you start realizing as you share more, you get more, and it kind of works. I just. I also think that a lot of the time, whether you're a technician, service advisor, if you're working for somebody, you just try to keep your personal stuff at the door, right? That's what everyone tells you, keep your personal stuff at the door when you're here, you're here to work, right? Like, I think for most, most everybody, like 80, 90% of the workforce, that's kind of our thought. Like, the personal stuff stays at the door, and then I'm here to work, and then. But kind of bringing a little bit that into the shop or into your work environment, I mean, might be a little more important than we all kind of thought.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:08]:
Maybe. I mean, because, like you said, it starts on developing a different sort of relationship.
Greg Buckley [00:35:13]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:14]:
And maybe. And maybe taking. Because you hear guys take guys out to. Take their guys out to lunch, you know, like one on ones, and be able to open up there because you're outside of the work environment. Um, it's just interesting how your mind tries to keep it not so personal, like, right. So you try to tiptoe that line of, like, how much do I share? I don't want to get too personal.
Greg Buckley [00:35:37]:
And.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:38]:
But like you said, if, as the leader, I start, that, that's going to evolve for the rest of the crew, right?
Greg Buckley [00:35:44]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:44]:
And they could say, hey, man, I'm a little off today. Like, oh, my dog sick at the veterinarian. Oh, man, why don't you tell me that that sucks, right?
Greg Buckley [00:35:51]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:52]:
And then just saying that, it's like, it's huge. How much? Like you said, the weight that lifts off their shoulder just be like, I just needed to tell somebody.
Greg Buckley [00:35:59]:
Yeah. That's all they wanted to do. They have. It's undermined, you know, a chap number two, because it. It's, like I said, it's so different, and I purposely wanted to make it different for myself, and I do. Every time I onboard somebody new, we will go out that week and celebrate them coming on with us. So we go down to a local place called Brew works, and me and the team will go out, and we'll celebrate with a dinner. It's maybe some beers and burgers.
Greg Buckley [00:36:29]:
That's about it. And let. We let. We let the team, Joe, we let the new person talk about what they do, and then we get to know each other from a personal side. We break bread, and then we start to. We start the relationship from there.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:47]:
The awkward roundtable where you're like, hi, my name's Greg Buckley. So we did that as, like, we do that. We do that when we hire somebody. We just, like, leanne, my wife, she likes to, like, do that. Okay, everyone, we're gonna all stand up. We're gonna say who we are. Like, come on, man. I don't want to do that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:07]:
But then I'm like, the. I'm like the naysayer, right? I'm like, really? We got to do this again? So then it kind of breathes like this weird, like, awkward, like, yeah, I know, it's kind of fun.
Greg Buckley [00:37:16]:
Yeah. Like a b and I meeting, you know. Hi, my name is Greg Buckley, Buckley's auto carrier.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:21]:
And I've been.
Greg Buckley [00:37:22]:
There's a sales pitch now. You know, we're normally just. We're just grabbing a couple beers, and we're. We're talking smack already, you know, and then this person jumps in, and then we just start feeling each other out and going from there, and we learn about what they do, what they're, you know, what, where they've been, all that stuff. And then it was just the other, I think was like the 1 February. I don't know. I had my four key guys. Well, at the time, it was a key girl, key woman.
Greg Buckley [00:37:54]:
I brought them up to the apartment, and I cooked a big spaghetti dinner for everybody at 05:00 I said, get up here. And I had a good dinner, and we broke bread. We talked about it, and one of the advisors was having a little bit of rough patch working with the other advisor, so we got to talk things out of over dinner, and we went on the next. Next day, like, okay, hey, man, that means cool, chill, you know? And this was just right upstairs in the apartment. So, I mean, I really believe that the more that we try to connect with one another, we eliminate a lot of issues. I'm not saying that it's perfect. I'm not saying if, you know, if I run a million dollar a month operation, that I'm going to be able to do this. But this is my world, and this is the way that I feel comfortable running my business, and I am quite happy with everything.
Greg Buckley [00:38:46]:
So it's just what I do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:48]:
It's the co, it's the culture, and I think you can. I think you can scale that if you do it correctly. We haven't really said too much about, like, the Sops and, like, the procedures, and everyone thinks you have to have all these strict, strict, strict procedures and sops to have a business that operates profitably. I don't know. I think a lot of it's kind of an unsaid thing, right? Like, I've had issues where I try to document everything, and there's still questions that end up in between the lines. And I'm like, man, do I got to write down every single thing I want them to? I'm like, no, but if I focus more on the culture so we understand each other a little more, I think that would fill the gaps between, you know. Yeah. Expectations of, like, what is it that I'm expecting of you? And if that's not, like, clearly spelled out? And I've also come to find that I can't just clearly spell them out and then expect them to know my expectations.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:43]:
You know, it's kind of like one of those things, like, in the first two to three weeks, like, you kind of got to, like, walk them through it and like, hey, this is what we do here, and this is why. Right? And this. And this is the reason why we have that kind of steps in between that will kind of serve as your jumping off point as you come to different obstacles.
Greg Buckley [00:40:01]:
I think the hardest part that guys like us have is that we have expectations that you already know everything. And why do I got to show you all this? You should know it already for some reason, especially if you are already at a speaking.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:17]:
Speaking right to my heart. The word right out of my mouth.
Greg Buckley [00:40:22]:
See, I get so I do get irritated, and I got to hold myself back. I got to say, wait a minute. Timeouthe. And the worst, the absolute worst is between my son and myself. I mean, we can go toe to toe, and this Scott, my son, is just. He's really amazing. I mean, I it's not. It.
Greg Buckley [00:40:44]:
I'm not biased, but as a person, this guy is rock. This guy is a rock. You can't dent him. I have. I've put every ounce of negativity out. I've hollered at him. I've told him everything. I said this to him, and we.
Greg Buckley [00:41:01]:
And he'll stand there like this stone face, and that's it. You'll all. You'll get a silence, and then he'll. He'll come back, and he'll go, okay, we'll do this, like, here. The biggest thing that really got me so we're in this, man. When was it? That'd be about a year and a half, two years ago, when we were just in flux. We're, you know, doing things, wanting to do this, wanting to do that. And my style growing up in the business was yes to everything.
Greg Buckley [00:41:37]:
I mean, bring it in, put it on the lot, throw it around. It's just go, go, go. Right? It was from the old service station models and people would just come in, and you go, yes, yes, yes, okay, I'll take it, I'll take it. And, you know, you get. You get through the day, but there's constant activity, so that is, there's a lot of energy around there. And you're like, okay, I got to go, go, go do this. And I go.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:03]:
It feels. It feels good.
Greg Buckley [00:42:05]:
It feels good.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:06]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:42:07]:
And he comes in and he goes, you can't scale on chaos. And I looked at him, I go, God damn it, I hate when you're right like that. He goes. He goes, it's now controlled chaos. Yes, but you can't have chaos, dad. We won't scale. Because he's. He grew up in the corporate world.
Greg Buckley [00:42:31]:
He interned at a cupertino with Apple. So he went through all the apple culture, worked their retail, and then got in. He's got a b's in computer science, and, you know, so he's more formal. But he brought that element into our organization, and I'm so grateful for that. I still. We still argue, but because he could be hard headed and he won't listen, we're still trying to meld that my way and his way and the way we market and do all that stuff. And, you know, I call him an elitist half the time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:43:05]:
I can only imagine how that's going because he.
Greg Buckley [00:43:08]:
You know, he. He wants to go after he writes a million plus on his own, right? So the kid knows what he's doing, and he'll look for these. He gets these customers, and he's so good. So his average tickets are like, I don't know, seven, $800, and with great, just great numbers. And I look at him and my coach. I'm talking to my coaches. I can't stand it because I don't know how to holler at him anymore. He's doing everything the right way to me.
Greg Buckley [00:43:41]:
There's just not enough activity, but there is. And he's doing it the right way. And, you know, I respect that. It's just, my way is so it's not outdated. It's just.
Jimmy Purdy [00:43:53]:
No, I mean, I'm. I'm not terribly old, and I totally relate to what you're saying. And I grew up. I grew up in it. I grew up in a smog shop. And it was like that. And it was like 30 cars a day. Smogs, right? Like, over and over and over and over.
Greg Buckley [00:44:06]:
Right?
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:06]:
And I. I mean, I hated it at the time. Like, I definitely vividly remembering, like, my. I just hated it. It was like, this is overload every day, but looking kind of back on it, and it's like, anytime it gets mildly slow, I'm like, I need more cars. I need something to do. I need, like, you know, and then. And then I get all these projects in.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:25]:
I need. And everyone needs help with the diagnostic or walk through this or that, and the other. And I'm, like, pulling my hair out. I'm like, over, you know, sensory overload again. But then it gets slow, and I'm. It's like, we're just. We're just sick in the head, man. You know? It's funny, I was telling my.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:38]:
I was telling one of my technicians, we have his 90 day probation period. We had a conversation, and it's funny, we brought all this up because we ended up talking kind of more personal, and he actually was like, hey, can I say something kind of personal? I'm like, yeah, dude, this is your meeting. Like, this is your show right now. We're right. We're like, you know, oh, I'm just having a hard time because my girlfriend, you know, we moved here, and she can't find a job and this and the other, and. And then at the end, he's like, I just. I just needed to tell somebody because it's just me and her that we just live together. And I don't want to be mad at her.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:08]:
Like, I don't want to bring it up to her. Right. To hurt her feelings.
Greg Buckley [00:45:11]:
I just.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:11]:
But I have no one else to talk to about it, so thanks for listening. I'm like, holy moly.
Greg Buckley [00:45:16]:
Yeah, there you go.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:17]:
See, I forgot what direction I was going with that before I went off on my tension, though.
Greg Buckley [00:45:25]:
No, that was good, Nancy. You showed that you. You do have that. That. That Persona that allows people to. To open up to you, and that's good. That's what you're doing right here, right where you're. You're telling me what you do and I'm telling you what I do.
Greg Buckley [00:45:40]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:40]:
I mean, it helps. It helps the whole. Yeah, it does. I don't remember what the point of that story was, what we were talking about before that, losing it.
Greg Buckley [00:45:49]:
We were talking.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:49]:
Oh, not talking about not getting old. So. Yeah, I guess I am getting old. So, yes, it's the chaos. But what I wanted to get to was the point of, like, once you get to a coaching company and they start getting you kind of your numbers in order, and then you feel like you want to be busy. Right? So we'd have, like, a 80, say, 75 or 80 car count, you know, and it felt good where everyone's kind of busy and there's always something going on. But our numbers were low, you know, we're, like, lucky to hit 80,000 in a month, and now we've been able to capture less cars. Ten to 15 on average per month.
Jimmy Purdy [00:46:23]:
Right. But we're hitting $100,000 a month in sales. Right? So it's like. It's interesting because it feels slow and you kind of start getting a little panicky. Right? Like, you're, like, looking at the schedule. I'm only, like, three days out. That's not good. And you're.
Jimmy Purdy [00:46:37]:
But then you're looking at the numbers, you're like, huh? Yep, this is really interesting.
Greg Buckley [00:46:42]:
It's really good. I mean, the. I'm getting used to the fact that when I walk into the shops, it's quiet. And yet you look again, you look at the numbers and you're going, well, okay, but you can. I can't say you hear a pin drop, but everybody is. They're. They're wrapped up. They're.
Greg Buckley [00:46:59]:
Everything's flown smoothly. Everything. The organization is running like you wanted to. The numbers are there. It's just quiet. You know, you don't have that. That action going on, like. And anymore, you know, what's really, if you haven't noticed, but I know some guys that with online scheduling being more predominant or coming on, coming up, the phones ring less.
Greg Buckley [00:47:22]:
So that's less noise. And you're thinking, like, I maintain. I walk into Wilmington and they're sitting there, the advisors just sitting there, and they're, like, doing this and doing that. And the phones aren't ringing, but I look at the schedule and it's like this, and I'm like, okay, well, they're all online. They're all coming in directly. You know, I. You know, the service I use, you know, well, you could book online right now from Google or anywhere else, and it puts it right in the tech metric schedule. And it just, you know, it's weird.
Greg Buckley [00:47:55]:
It's really weird. So, you know, just. Nothing. Used to.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:59]:
I always. I always hated the phones I had. Yeah. From day one, I put the phones on silent. I just, like, I just cannot stand that. Like, it was like, over and over and that.
Greg Buckley [00:48:09]:
That ding ding of the. Of the island bell going off. Oh, my God. That was. That was like music.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:15]:
So it's not panic inducing?
Greg Buckley [00:48:18]:
No, no, man.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:21]:
It was.
Greg Buckley [00:48:22]:
It made me notice if somebody was coming in, had to get ready for them, you know, or in terms of full service, you had to run out to get there and wait on them. And the problem is, when it came in the rain, the rain was always a bugger, right? No canopy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:37]:
It's funny you said that.
Greg Buckley [00:48:38]:
About $2, please. You know. Yeah. Hey, can you check my little wire? And, you know, they do. Some will come in. They do it as a joke, but yeah, that's what you got to do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:50]:
What you have funny. Brought up the audible thing, because I was. We're up in Utah at the institute. They had the door thing. It's the little ring. You know, the ring security. So we have the same one. So every time someone walks in the office, that's pretty much the only noise we have is just that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:05]:
That ring noise of, like, the door. I don't know if you know what I'm talking. Is it so you can hear when the door open and closes? So they had it in the front, and it's like every damn time someone walked into there, I'm, like, looking over, thinking. I'm like, oh. So I'm like. And it's just funny how, like, your brain totally wires you. Like, I'm not, like, we're not even in California right now, and I'm, like, prepped to have someone walking through the front door. I'm like, how weird is that?
Greg Buckley [00:49:28]:
It's like a pavlovian experiment that goes on. That was, you know, you. Funny you bring that up, because I've been reading some really good books, and, you know, it's. It's on communication, theory of communication, along with a theory of how your body works. There's. There's a lot of intertwining that goes on between. Anyway, I will take you to, you know, the outer limits on some of this conversation, but you process sound, like, almost 20 milliseconds faster than you would visual, so sound is actually more important. And there's frequencies and bandwidth to.
Greg Buckley [00:50:18]:
To every noise, every sound.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:21]:
I'm into it 100%. Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:50:24]:
So when you. When you think about messaging, this goes into marketing and communication. And I say, if you don't know how to communicate, you'll never know how to market, because frequency, bandwidth is measurable. So when you create your message, you have to have certain elements in it, whether it's your inflection, your pitch, your tone, all of that, because that resonates to the ear, and that ear is processed faster than the visual. So a lot of things are very scientific when it comes to marketing, but that's all. Not a tangent and frequency and stuff and sound, that's. That's what.
Jimmy Purdy [00:51:08]:
That all goes to the communication, though. I mean, it kind of circles back to the whole conversation of, like. Yeah, just being genuine. Right? And, like, knowing how to communicate. I mean, that's like, it's big. It's so much bigger than anyone thinks. It's like the old. The old service station.
Jimmy Purdy [00:51:24]:
Hey, what can I do for you all change, bring it in. And then they're wondering why, like, they can't sell or can't get any more repairs out of that vehicles. Like, well, would you want to give you any money? I mean, my wife can sell repairs, like beyond where I could even touch. Right? Like way more. She sells way more of the repairs needed than I ever could. But I'm the, I'm the trip builder, ac master tech, you got all the certs and all that stuff. And it's like, they don't want to hear that from me. They don't want to hear my technical how I know it doesn't help, right? And she just puts a smile on and gets, puts her voice in the inflection and does the whole thing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:52:03]:
And if it was me, I would do it. And it's like, huh, I feel like writing a check right now.
Greg Buckley [00:52:09]:
You know, it's so true. You know, you have to be relatable and you need all of the tools to do that in order to convince someone that what you're doing for them is a benefit. And that's, that's what takes, that's what skill is all about. But there's also science to it. So, you know, understanding. Like I said, the book is called theory of communication and it is about how the modern pathway to communicate or communicate effectively with really digits like zeros want zero ones. It's coding in a sense, but it's how it gets through the pipelines. And it was from the engineers at Bell telephone were the ones who were, who had wrote one of the engines that wrote the book, I believe.
Greg Buckley [00:53:01]:
But it's really fascinating and I'm almost done with it. But the context is that there's only so much that's going to go through that pipeline and as a human, you're only going to pick up it's signal to noise ratio. And really you're going to have to key in on the signal, but at the same time you're going to have to go through all the noise. So the noise is here and the signal is coming through at what frequency? You know, if you think of a wave, wave waveform, you know, it's going to go up and down, up and down. If it's ac, it's this way. So at some point you're going to register with that and then from there it's what you, what your comprehension is and how you perceive it. So it's really, it's just fascinating.
Jimmy Purdy [00:53:48]:
It really is, because, I mean, I'm sure we all dogs or pets and it doesn't matter what you say to them.
Greg Buckley [00:53:54]:
No.
Jimmy Purdy [00:53:54]:
Right. It's just, it's how you say it. Right. And it's not even like, you know, hey, you big dummy, how are you today? And they're just wagging. Yeah. You're so stupid.
Greg Buckley [00:54:03]:
Look at you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:54:06]:
Yeah. And it's just. But we're all wired like that, right? Like, we're not that. We're not that different, you know?
Greg Buckley [00:54:13]:
No. God, we're only a hundred. A couple hundred strands of DNA difference between us and every other creature in the world. But, you know, it's the weirdest thing, I. When you talk about communications and how, how things communicate one another, the strangest one I had read about, and this is going to sound really crazy, but this is, this is how, like, far I go into things like this, I really go down a rabbit hole. It's the communication between trees and the root system and how they decide who's going to get the water or not. And there is a, there's actually a way where trees will signal to one another where the water is and how they're going to. Which one's going to grab it first or how they're going to work together through this, I swear to God.
Greg Buckley [00:55:09]:
And I believe I read.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:10]:
I've read. I've read about that, too.
Greg Buckley [00:55:12]:
Okay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:12]:
Okay. No, I'm definitely, I'm definitely picking because it's all about. I think it was about mushrooms, fungi. Okay. How the path, the communication pathways and fungus. And mushrooms have this network underground and that went into the microbiome of, like, a garden. And you have this garden system and you can't plant nightshades next to, you know, like, you have certain crop, you know, vegetables that can't be planted next to one another. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:37]:
And it's like. Because it's all an underground network and they don't communicate well with each other, so they don't. The. The beneficial nutrients for one is not for the other. And so. Yeah, there's. Yeah, I know.
Greg Buckley [00:55:48]:
Well, let's make sure that the audience knows that we're not doing mushrooms right now. And then we're just talking about. Because if we were doing my. I don't think.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:57]:
I don't think we'd be talking. We might be thinking we'd be talking right now, but there'd be no noise. That's that communication thing, right? We had a conversation with each other. We talked for about an hour. There's absolutely no noise on the microphones.
Greg Buckley [00:56:12]:
Absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:56:13]:
I'm pretty sure we had a call me communication.
Greg Buckley [00:56:16]:
I gotta think about that. Rewind.
Jimmy Purdy [00:56:18]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that seems to be the. That seems to be the new thing right now is with the micro dosing and all that stuff coming back around. So I'm sure it's probably strange for you to see, you know, going through the seventies and it's like. And all of a sudden it's. It's like this new hip thing and what?
Greg Buckley [00:56:34]:
Well, you know, you get a comeback. Yeah, well, you know. You know, Timothy Leary, right? Doctor Timothy Leary was a proponent of all of that psychedelia and LSD use and all that stuff. And now they are finding that it does produce good effects for those who have the conditions. You know, PTSD veterans are there, there's experiments with that and everything. So. Yeah, I mean, hey, you never know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:03]:
Whatever work. I mean, anything's better than, I mean, pharmaceutical. If you can find another way. Obviously this. We don't know anything, right? We're all trying to learn this stuff. And I mean, on the note of like, world, man.
Greg Buckley [00:57:18]:
Yeah, just trying to get it, dude.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:20]:
You know, kind of live my life here.
Greg Buckley [00:57:23]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:23]:
Like the, like the binaural beats was another one too. And when you're talking about the frequency you were talking about. Yeah, the binaural beats is another. So we were at that, the marketing conference, this Kelly I cameras last name. But he was a. What you call it, I guess some sort of a holistic therapeutic. He did some hithenne. He like hypnotized, you know, a group of the guys up there and.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:50]:
But one of his things too was. He was talking about was, you know, calming your mind down and like reducing anxiety. And I just thought it was cool that they, they brought that because it's like another overlooked thing of like, maybe you should get a little mindfulness, you know, like relax a little bit and then you can be a better person and then your business gets better.
Greg Buckley [00:58:08]:
See, falls in line.
Jimmy Purdy [00:58:11]:
It does. It really does. And it's just important to talk about this point of.
Greg Buckley [00:58:14]:
That's the thing. And you can sit there and you can. You can lower your heart rate, you can do whatever you want. It's just. It takes practice and it takes a mindset to do that, which I think a lot of us do need to practice. I do my best and I totally believe in reflection and taking quiet time, no matter what you do. And walking, to me, walking is. Is my way of, you know, I think I talk.
Greg Buckley [00:58:40]:
I normally play very loud music, very aggressive music when I'm walking. But, you know, that's. That's the way that I let everything go. Exercise helps for me as well, and just put you in a better. A better state of being, I guess, when you get to the shop and things are, things are slowed down enough where you can control it and you can see, okay, this is what's going on. You know, it's, it's. It just helps me so.
Jimmy Purdy [00:59:07]:
And it helps not to wake up at two or three in the morning and be there sitting there for an hour and go back to sleep. And I noticed the more, the more you exercise or the more you get the stuff off your chest throughout the day, the more chance you have of sleeping through the night, which then helps the next day. Right, right.
Greg Buckley [00:59:24]:
Well, unless you're like, you get in your sixties and you always got that 02:00 a.m. p that you gotta go, you know, I mean.
Jimmy Purdy [00:59:30]:
Well, yeah. Physiology, I guess. You can't get away from that. When it's the mental aspect and you wake up and anxiety is just rolling, you're like, what am I even worried about right now?
Greg Buckley [00:59:41]:
That's right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:59:41]:
A future that hasn't even, hasn't even existed yet.
Greg Buckley [00:59:45]:
Right, exactly. You know, but, yeah, it's a great ride. You know, I think. I think for the future on what we got, I'm not going anywhere. I see myself, my goal is to hit 100 and to be effective as long as I possibly can. Travel more, get to see more people. I think this has been the greatest profession I ever could have been placed in and stayed in since I was eight. It's checked off everything for me.
Greg Buckley [01:00:22]:
I think that as an industry and as professionals, we take on a lot. But I do believe, I mean this sincerely. I think we're the most intelligent group of tradespeople in the world. I will say that time and time again, because we have to know so many systems, so many subsystems. We have to make it all work. We have to provide safety. We're responsible for lives, and that's huge. And I think a lot of us just don't, we don't think of that, but yet I believe that we should, because it helps us understand who we are, what we are, and why we are.
Greg Buckley [01:01:06]:
And I think that really, that makes us be proud of our value. Maybe if owners think that way as well as techs, and that we're not there just for a paycheck, maybe it helps.
Jimmy Purdy [01:01:22]:
I think it comes too easy for us as what the problem is. And then on that, that's what I was going to bring up earlier, too. You know, we're all just a little sideways in the head, right? Like we're all not all right. And like, and he had, and he had mentioned that he's like, I just, you know, I'm just, I'm just a little slow. So sometimes, you know, I don't, I don't get things right away. I'm like, dude, to be in this industry, you got to be on the spectrum a little bit.
Greg Buckley [01:01:46]:
Right?
Jimmy Purdy [01:01:47]:
Like, that's what makes us who we are. Because nobody else that's like a hundred percent, in quotes, normal is going to be able to put up with the shit we put up with. So. Welcome aboard.
Greg Buckley [01:02:01]:
The train leaves in five.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:03]:
Yes, we're all, we're all a little different, man, but makes us special.
Greg Buckley [01:02:09]:
We're a special breed. And yes, it's funny, but I've, man, over the. Over the decades I've been in, I have met so many wonderful people and I still do. And it's just, it's just so cool to see what we're capable of doing. And for all of the, you know, younger guys like yourself and, you know, Brian Pollock and Keith, you name it, there's thousands of them out there. But what you guys are doing is really. It's inspiring because you are the next level. You're the next generation to come up and I think that you will.
Greg Buckley [01:02:52]:
Great future. Great future. No doubt. No doubt.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:55]:
Yeah. I wouldn't have it anyway.
Greg Buckley [01:02:57]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:58]:
It's not the best every day, but what is, right?
Greg Buckley [01:03:00]:
Yeah. What is. I mean, there's a lot of things you go, but if you. If you look at paycheck. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes we're all short changed, but in the same sense, I don't. I've never had more satisfaction in my life than being part of what. What this is all about.
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:17]:
So, yeah, back. Back to the culture thing. It's not all about money. If you're having a good time.
Greg Buckley [01:03:23]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:23]:
And you like what you do.
Greg Buckley [01:03:24]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:24]:
Because I'm sure even, I'm sure going to strip clubs every night probably gets pretty boring, too, so.
Greg Buckley [01:03:34]:
It does.
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:35]:
No, I knew you knew.
Greg Buckley [01:03:42]:
Those days. Long, long, long.
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:47]:
Well, Greg, this has been really good.
Greg Buckley [01:03:50]:
Hey, man. Jimmy, it's been great, man. I really. I didn't even know what we were going to talk about. I said, okay, well, I said, I wing it. And here we are.
Jimmy Purdy [01:03:57]:
I mean, and what we talk about or what we do, there is so many things to talk about, but it's like you just got to find something that starts making sense and just go down. I mean, we don't want to talk about something we don't want to talk about, so.
Greg Buckley [01:04:11]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:04:14]:
And that's what's fun about this. And no one understands like that. You said there's so many different aspects of this, of this industry. Yeah, the conversations are endless.
Greg Buckley [01:04:24]:
They are. And, you know, we don't even get into the, the people side of things too much, really. It's, it's a lot of, you know, the numbers and the culture and all that. So it's, it's what goes on inside the shop. We talk a lot about. I hope to be able to talk to people about what goes on outside the shop in their lives. I think that there's a, my inspiration for that is that there's an old journalist called Studs Terkel out of Chicago, wrote for the Chicago Tribune. If you ever get a chance to listen to some of his archives, listen to his interviews, and listen to how he brought the story out of the person everyday.
Greg Buckley [01:05:06]:
Joe and Jane's listen. Fascinating how he wrote a little bit of, he leaned to the left a little bit, but that don't put that as a bias. It's just his style and how he was able to draw out from the stories, from people, their feelings, their emotions. Fascinating. And he's one of my favorite writers, I would say, about America, about the people. The workers really got down to blue collar. And I take that as something that we do. You know, we're in that whole world, so I hope to be able to actually have a show.
Greg Buckley [01:05:50]:
Yeah. It's going to come about hopefully in the middle of the summer, maybe. We're supposed to be launching it, and I want to do well with it.
Jimmy Purdy [01:06:00]:
So we'll see you call it.
Greg Buckley [01:06:04]:
Beyond the shop.
Jimmy Purdy [01:06:06]:
I like it. Yeah, I think, I think the introspective part of that is really important because we, we all, we all think we're the only ones with a thousand things going on in our lives. Right? Like, I'm the only one that has all the stuff. I got it. And so you forget that everyone else has a story. Everyone else beyond. I mean, we talked a little bit about stuff outside the shop, right? And.
Greg Buckley [01:06:25]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:06:26]:
Oh, wow. You do things other than work on cars, like. Yeah, right.
Greg Buckley [01:06:29]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Jimmy Purdy [01:06:31]:
I like growing mushrooms, eating them on the weekend.
Greg Buckley [01:06:35]:
You know, I was dicing up some mushrooms for flatbreads.
Jimmy Purdy [01:06:38]:
I was making gotcha good.
Greg Buckley [01:06:40]:
Iced off my freaking finger, man. I'm chopping and look, I'm okay with a knife. I know what I'm doing. And I just happen to go, all right, and I go, oh, shit, man. I looked down and damn, man, I had cut the tip of my finger off.
Jimmy Purdy [01:06:54]:
You made some finger food?
Greg Buckley [01:06:56]:
I did. I just added it to the tomato sauce. Oh, well.