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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.
Jeff Compton [00:00:00]:
But I still have a responsibility to tell them that there's other options for them out there. If I was to just shut up and say nothing about how we don't want you to shut up, I would be. I'd be nothing. I wouldn't be the person that has contacted me and said, my life is so different now because I heard your episode and I. And I went and changed jobs and I'm making, you know, $10 more an hour, and they love me, and I wouldn't get those conversations. It wouldn't have had that impact. Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Tanika Haynes. We all know as shop owners, sometimes you gotta slow down in order to speed up.
Jeff Compton [00:00:38]:
And that's what this podcast is all about. It's time to downshift. Look, I went and had a blind date last night and I talked that poor girl's ear off and I warned her that would happen, but she's like, oh, yeah, I see why you have a podcast now.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:59]:
And I'm like, yeah, you went on a blind date? Yeah. Was it a friend that hooked you guys up or was it an app?
Jeff Compton [00:01:07]:
Did you find this woman Facebook dating?
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:09]:
Who is this woman?
Jeff Compton [00:01:11]:
She's. Oh, I don't even know her last name. Danielle's her first name.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:16]:
Okay.
Jeff Compton [00:01:17]:
Yeah. So she lives like an hour away, which probably won't work. And then there was just no real connection. She's a nice girl, but she's kind of. How do I say that? She's a little skinny, too skinny. I don't.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:34]:
That's a real thing.
Jeff Compton [00:01:35]:
It is. And it's not that I like, you know, I mean, it doesn't really matter. Right. Like, if the chemistry is there, the chemistry is there, but she's just not. She's not somebody that would have ever caught my eye, just attention wise. Because she's just. She's tiny, she's skinny, so, you know, not my thing.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:52]:
We need something. Cushion for the pushing.
Jeff Compton [00:01:54]:
A little bit bigger than that one. Yeah, she's.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:56]:
I was not supposed to say that. Bryson, take that out. No, cushion. Well, cushion. Cushion for the cushion. Right.
Ashley Kaplan [00:02:02]:
And then you keep saying it.
Jeff Compton [00:02:03]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:04]:
And I just keep saying it.
Jeff Compton [00:02:05]:
We don't have it on his T shirt, so it's all good. So.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:09]:
So. Well, this is why we're here. You've been a podcaster for three years. I've been on your podcast. I adore you.
Jeff Compton [00:02:17]:
Thank you.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:18]:
And Braxton does a really good job of getting everybody's attention with his reels. Yeah, that dude can edit something. And make us all look like nut jobs. And it's funny and it gets attention.
Jeff Compton [00:02:29]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:29]:
So in my coaching group a couple years, a couple years, a couple of weeks ago, I'm losing it. So my 20 group, you know, we get together, we meet, we talk, we talk about numbers, we talk about the things and we talk about stuff. All the things. Your name came up.
Jeff Compton [00:02:45]:
Uh oh, uh oh.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:48]:
And I did my best to defend my brother because I'm gonna do that. But a lot of the points were valid. It wasn't hateful or spiteful. And I want to get your take on it. And especially after kind of what's been happening in the, in the Facebook groups and all the anger and all the back and forth and you know, I like to joke and I like to have fun, but I also worry about people's heart and their mental health and their well being altogether. And what I heard in my group of shop owners, I mean, good shop owners, because they're doing the job, they're doing the training themselves, they're doing all the things that you say shop owners should do. And I know what is the top 5 or 10% of us are doing it. So I would like to think that they're good shop owners.
Tonnika Haynes [00:03:38]:
What they're finding, some people are finding is that your, your podcast is causing havoc in their workplace.
Jeff Compton [00:03:49]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:03:50]:
And let me get it out. So from what I understand and what I can see from their, their perspective is maybe technicians or the, the technicians and the mechanics are only watching the highlight reels. And you have nothing to do with that because you're not editing and they're not getting the whole message.
Jeff Compton [00:04:12]:
Yep.
Tonnika Haynes [00:04:13]:
Doing a podcast and they're going into work with the attitude of I, I should be making more money and I'm this and I'm all of that and I'm quitting and I'm going to hold the shop hostage because I am the shit. You will respect me. I do not have to bend to your authority. And what I say goes. Because the jaded mechanic says we're all underpaid and we're all this and the industry sucks and we need to just leave. And that's not what you're saying. I know that's not what you're saying, but what do you say to the technician that's not listening to the whole podcast? They're not understanding where you're coming from and they're definitely not at the level that you are. We're talking about these Jiffy Lube type techs that don't, they're not technicians, they're parts changers.
Tonnika Haynes [00:05:01]:
Yeah. And they're not coachable and they're not trainable and the shop is offering training and they are still not doing their job.
Jeff Compton [00:05:10]:
So I'll liken it to like this, right? We see, you know, certain people this week, everybody wanted to pile on them, right. And I'm not talking about myself, I'm talking about people within our circle. Right. And here's the thing. A lot of those people make that decision to jump on that person based on how things look on a page, how things jump off the page at them. Maybe it starts to really hurt some feelings and stuff. I would say that those people just like you've never listened to anything but a 30 second clip of mine. If you haven't heard the whole episode, you don't, you don't know me.
Jeff Compton [00:05:49]:
You have never met me. And I think it's kind of similar to that. So it sucks that the algorithm works, that if it seems like something negative, it draws a lot of attention. And I have by no means have I ever advocated for technicians that they hold the shop or their employer hostage. Now there are some technicians and I've talked to a lot of them in the last year, they didn't know their true value and where they were working. And I'm not saying that everybody just pick up a pitchfork and go in and demand and if you don't roll out, I'm not saying that. But it's a situation of like, always have the conversation first. But be aware that most of us work for that 90% that are not having the conversations that you and Ashley are having.
Jeff Compton [00:06:38]:
And you know, the three of us are having about trying to improve the industry and improve the shop every day. Like Josh says, 1%. Right. They're not trying to do that. So the shop owner might be in a dead end. It would be a disservice to my people, my fellow brothers and sisters that are techs, to not show them or talk to them about what you do. When people are in a dead end, they're already where they want to be business wise and it's not enough for you. There's nothing wrong with realizing it, but you can't just sit there.
Jeff Compton [00:07:14]:
Too many technicians for too long have sat there and said this industry sucks and they've never had a conversation about why it sucks and what should be done to improve it and have never tried to hold people accountable. Now people accountable for why it sucks. That's a lot falls right back on the technician. Right. We have not been as professional as we thought we have been, we have not been always the advocate for the customer and we make excuses for that. Some excuses are valid, I feel, but I don't want people to just immediately hear what I have to say and base it on a 60 second clip that I'm out there like some other podcasters in the realm that I'm not going to even bother naming who every week, don't even acknowledge who they are, where they work, what they do, and are just constantly trying to cause an uprising. You know, there are people with platforms that pretty much say every week, you should, you should quit, you should get out. I've never said to anybody, get out.
Jeff Compton [00:08:24]:
I have said, move on from where you are. I have said that you have to do more than what you're currently doing for yourself if you want to get to that level where you think you deserve. But, like, I've not ever said get out of this industry, you know, and that's where I think a lot of rubs people a lot the wrong way. And it's the same as, you know, I have my detractors that, well, you shouldn't have any opinion at all because you're not a shop owner. It's a fair opinion for them to have. The reality is, is that when every conversation seems to revolve around the fact that it's a technician did this or technician did that, or I can't find a technician. I'm not an owner. But I got one heck of an insight into the technician perspective after 30 years of doing it and like, the better part of a decade on Facebook, before there was a podcast talking to hundreds of technicians a week.
Jeff Compton [00:09:16]:
So, you know, why does it resonate with them so much? I don't know. I think it's because it's relatable. It's like we're just talking about, I'm authentic.
Tonnika Haynes [00:09:31]:
And they like the way you say out.
Jeff Compton [00:09:34]:
Yeah, it's about out.
Tonnika Haynes [00:09:36]:
Yeah, it's about, about out. It's the accent, but I mean, so do you ever think I got. Nobody wants to change you. If you ever cut your beard and if you ever do anything different, I will unfriend you. Okay, so if you find this woman and she's like, well, can you color your beard or can you trim your bill? It tickles. I'm gonna be pissed off. So don't do that. So don't change.
Jeff Compton [00:10:00]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:10:00]:
Who you are. But what scares me is I guess it's really. Do you think it's your responsibility? Like, do you have any like, you're, you're so influential on so many different social media platforms, right. Do you think you have the responsibility to make your message more clear to the younger text or to the texts that are in the bat shop and say, okay, don't rage, quit, have the conversation? Or is that, I mean, is that just too much to ask from one person? Is what's your responsibility in that? We're changing the industry, right?
Jeff Compton [00:10:43]:
Yeah. So every day when I wake up, I wake up with knowing that whoever put me here, without going down a religious thing, I'm put here to speak for them. They are my people, they are who I represent. So it's not a situation of any. Like, I love shop owners. I really do. Like, you guys are some of the most amazing, incredible, hard working, talented people I've ever met in my life with absolutely awesome stories and insight and perspectives and everything else. But it comes back to that 90 and 10 idea round numbers where we're talking to 10% of the owners.
Jeff Compton [00:11:24]:
Whereas, like, I talk to technicians that don't even know about these groups other than in passing because they've been mentioned. Right. And their owners don't even know about these groups. So they're in a situation of where it's not malice that they're in an environment that maybe isn't good for them, it's just what they, they don't know what they don't know. But I still have a responsibility to tell them that there's other options for them out there. Right. This 10% that we are in our circle. If I was to just shut up and say nothing about how we don't
Tonnika Haynes [00:11:57]:
want you to shut up.
Jeff Compton [00:11:58]:
Yeah, do it. I would be, I'd be nothing. I wouldn't be the person that has contacted me and said, my life is so different now because I heard your episode and I went and changed jobs and I'm making $10 more an hour and they love me and I wouldn't get those conversations. It wouldn't have had that impact. So when I have the, in the room, the, the, the owners stand up and say, he's all negative and he's causing uprisal. You know, I, how do I say that?
Tonnika Haynes [00:12:38]:
Just say it.
Jeff Compton [00:12:39]:
If you're, if your own, if your own environment is already great, your people I won't have any effect on at all. But if your people are coming to you going, I'm demanding more because I heard this from him, it maybe wasn't. You maybe weren't as keyed into your people as you thought you Were. Which is more human nature. Right. Like we happens. We get in a. Our good friend we've talked about.
Jeff Compton [00:13:08]:
Right. Like he had a. He had a rough year because he kind of stepped away from the plate a little bit, you know, you know who we're talking about. And I'm not sure.
Tonnika Haynes [00:13:16]:
Yeah, no, we're not doing shade. But if you are listening into that.
Jeff Compton [00:13:21]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:13:23]:
And you forget about your people, that's allowing you to do the things that you want to do and you're not communicating with your people, which are your technicians and your front line, your service advisor down to the guy that's taking out the trash. You take your finger off the pulse of your business and it turns to. And yeah, I can definitely see that.
Jeff Compton [00:13:44]:
So I, you know, I cannot back up now and back off the throttle and stop being me or stop or reach, you know, rethink how I actually have the conversation. Because it wouldn't be authentic. And there's just too much now that has shown me that I am making an impact and I am making a change. And I don't think for the really good owners out there that I'm having any kind of negative impact. I think the people that are triggered necessarily by me are not really looking at the reality. They're looking at what they hope things are. And maybe I shock them or scare them or make them worried. And that's not intentional.
Jeff Compton [00:14:24]:
It's just having conversations. That's all it is. I'm not out there to cause the uprising, you know, so what I think
Tonnika Haynes [00:14:32]:
that what they were saying. Okay, go ahead, Ash, what do you got?
Ashley Kaplan [00:14:36]:
Miss, has there ever been something that you believed in the past and now today don't, but haven't had an opportunity to talk about it and change your mind?
Jeff Compton [00:14:49]:
I have a really probably. What's the word, crystal ball image of the average technician in the bay. And I believe Brian Pollock pulls me back into reality a lot in the sense that he reminds me that I'm not exceptional. But some of the things that I do without even thinking about it, my processes and stuff, and some of it's 30 years in, it just. It makes me not necessarily one of the problem technicians for some of these people that they hire. So I see all these technicians as hard working, really competent, and if the job doesn't go right, it's because they weren't given enough time or they weren't paid enough, blah, blah, blah, not training. The reality is it's just some of them are not good technicians. They don't come with a good Attitude.
Jeff Compton [00:15:38]:
They don't come with good tooling. They don't apply themselves, they don't build themselves, they don't pour into themselves. And that's because, like, I don't work with 10 other technicians every day, right. I work with one other technicians that my senior and, you know, senior in age, not necessarily an ability. And I just go to work every day and do my job to the best of my ability. Cars don't really give me a hard time anymore to fix if I have the tooling and the information and that's it. And Brian reminds me that he sees things every day, not necessarily as much in his own shop, but what comes into his shop of people that paid for things that didn't get at all what they were supposed to get. And that's technicians that are responsible for that now.
Jeff Compton [00:16:22]:
They have leaders who didn't necessarily maybe, you know, hold them accountable. At the end of the day, there's a lot of incompetence that I have been not seeing because I'm not exposed to it and because I didn't want to see it at first. And it hurts me sometimes to see how far some of them still have to go to be worth what they feel they're worth. Because some of them might not have the time, but they have to start by trying to pouring into themselves that they won't even bother. Then it just goes, like you said, they're uncoachable, you know.
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:59]:
Yeah, it's just like the shop owner that starts a shop from the ground up and then they're just frustrated and they're not doing the coaching and they think they only have to work from 8 to 5 and they're not staying late and doing the late hours and they're not going in on Saturday and Sunday and they're not putting in the extra effort. And they're comparing themselves to the shop owner that's had a shop for 10, 15, 20 years and they wonder why they can't get there. And then it's everybody else's fault but theirs because you haven't done the work. Like, so that I think that is the. The demographic that the shop owners that I was talking to, because they're trying to do the work with those technicians that really think that they've done work. And like, no, dude, you didn't do anything. Like, you really are not applying yourself. And oh, you're not giving me coaching.
Tonnika Haynes [00:17:45]:
Yeah, but you're not even coaching yourself. You're not trying to learn anything else, like, help me help you. And they're using you and your podcast and the words that you're saying after your 30 years of experience and they're trying to compare themselves to Jeff.
Jeff Compton [00:18:00]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:18:01]:
And it was like, no, no, you don't even know how to change a belt. Like literally we had like, what are you doing? Oh, this is, this is bull crap. It's not. You're the bull crap. So I think that's where the disconnect is. Like, I think when you're talking and like you said, you don't have the crystal ball, but when you're talking, the people that are listening to your podcast are looking for reason to make themselves right and not be accountable for their own downfalls. Like they want it to be everybody else's fault but theirs. And they're not looking at a 30 year old tech that has been in their shoes and has made mistakes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:18:39]:
But you've done the coaching, you've done the training, you've done the training again, you're still, you're still doing training 30 years in and they won't even go to a training if their boss says, oh we've got training on Friday night, I gotta go home, my baby mama would gonna get mad. So those are the technicians I think that some of the shop owners are up against that start out thinking they're supposed to start out at 100,000 but can't even, don't even torque the wheels when they're doing a rotation.
Jeff Compton [00:19:07]:
And here's the unfortunate thing is the shortage has driven a lot of tax owners, excuse me, owners, and I know truth and I. Ashley, you can for sure confirm, as can you honey, that they're having a lot of shops are keeping technicians that they shouldn't have to keep if there was a bigger talent pool out there to be pulling from. Now do you blame the technicians for that? You blame them if they're not competent. But the fact that we have such low numbers, we have to put the blame back on the industry for that because the industry didn't do what it needed to do. I mean, crap, when I was starting out 30 years ago, they were telling me the shortage was going to happen. They were telling us then young people were not coming in in the numbers that they used to and the industry just kept doing what it does, you
Tonnika Haynes [00:19:57]:
know, and what is that? What is the industry doing what it does?
Jeff Compton [00:19:59]:
What does that mean going into survival mode, just trying to survive, not putting their door rates up, not going to training, not buying tooling, not subscribing, not pouring into themselves as a company sit there and go, these young people can't do this. Well, I'm sorry, if you look at a 1988 versus a 1998 anything and it's a 10 year window and you look at the difference in technology that's happening between 88 and 98 and then you think about some of them that were hiring them, were there when it was 78, and you think that they should come in and with three years just all of a sudden be an atec, you're absolutely over the moon crazy thinking that it can still be a three year window and they're an atec. It doesn't work like that because you might very well still book in a 78 and then the next day you might book in a 98 and both vehicles should go to the same technician. The odd sisters of success happening with both of them is about like go buy a lottery ticket. They have, depending on their age level and what the complaint is, they have a better chance of fixing the 98 than they do the 78. But the leader looks at it and goes, that 78 is so simple. Whereas the young person might look at the 2008 and go, that's simple to me. I don't understand why my leader can't understand this concept.
Jeff Compton [00:21:14]:
Right. So we have brought these young people into something that the technology is always looking like this and we've been going like this the whole time and we look over and go, oh crap, look what's coming. But when we don't do anything about it, we just keep surviving. We just keep going in and turning the lock every morning and we flick the lights on and we drink our coffee and we complain and wring our hands and go, I don't know what I'm going to do about this industry. And it just keeps chugging along. Well, the technicians to survive it have figured out how to survive it. They stay in their lane, but if, if they stay in their lane and you as the owner stay and think you're staying in your lane, but you're not having a conversation about what that actually looks like and how do we approach these challenges together. You're leaving them hanging and you're putting all the blame on them.
Jeff Compton [00:22:06]:
And that's the reality of the dichotomy of what happens in shops most days. We have unrealistic expectations of what we can get through as a company and we have unrealistic expectations of our people that work for us. Some of that is brought on by how they pay them. I don't want to get into that conversation Again. And some of it is just they're not tooled up.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:27]:
They're not tooled up mentally or physically. Huh.
Jeff Compton [00:22:31]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:33]:
So just fix it. Just fix it. Just fix it.
Jeff Compton [00:22:38]:
Make it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:38]:
I can imagine. Like, like it's. Just make it work. I can't make it work. It ends up going somewhere else. And then. Yeah. It becomes a cycle.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:46]:
Huh.
Jeff Compton [00:22:46]:
I'll tell you a real quick story. I had a 21 Explorer that the power seats would only work under memory function. You reach down and touch the switch and nothing would happen. And the we. So I go over and there's some key points here. I go over to Pro Demand, which is all the information system that I have. And I punch in the VIN number. That's the other key thing.
Jeff Compton [00:23:08]:
And I punch in the VIN number and I start looking at wiring diagrams for the power seats. And I have the switch off. And it come from another shop. Was already broken. And I can see by looking at those two wires right away, just from training, the two heavy wires are going to be what makes that switch power. And everything else is going be an input and output. No big deal. So now I take a power probe, I touch it to the wire.
Jeff Compton [00:23:27]:
I can make the seat move. Cool. Okay. I have it open to that switch. This is where the wheels fall off the truck. Because the printed service information that I had was completely wrong. And there was like four different ways that you can wire a power seat and that Explorer depending on options and. And all this kind of stuff.
Jeff Compton [00:23:44]:
I didn't have accurate service information on a 21. It's five years old from all data. Yep. Pro Demand. Excuse me.
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:54]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:23:56]:
We only have one. So in my brain I can already make this switch work right. I have an open. So I go looking over and over again. I go down a rabbit hole, removing the cowl and looking at the battery junction box and testing powers and grounds to it and power out of it. It's not coming out. And I get really frustrated and I go over to Google and I Punch in 2021 Ford Explorer power seat problem. It shows me on Google completely different wiring diagram that has a secondary fuse that's not in any of my diagrams that's located in another part of the car.
Jeff Compton [00:24:28]:
And it takes me to a video on YouTube that a Ford tech has made that shows me not only where the fuse is but where the short will be in the seat that caused the fuse to blow. So that's a four minute video that was able to save my butt because of calls and service information, because a shop owner that I work for only has one, not two, not three, not four. You know. And so I liken it to back in the day we would all called a friend. You know, it used to be every shop owner I ever worked for had a friend at the dealer. They would call the parts department, say I got one here. You guys see this? The Internet has become that. So I'm a smart dude and I went down a rabbit hole because of lack of tooling that's provided to me now.
Jeff Compton [00:25:19]:
That happens every minute in every shop all over this great land. Who's fault?
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:28]:
Well, okay, so whose fault is. But what is the remedy? What is your, what do you think would have helped you in that situation? To make sure you have all data identifix all of the things?
Jeff Compton [00:25:41]:
Yeah, all of the things. And even if you have all of the things and the car is so new that there isn't, you can't reach out and phone a friend and find a bullet and all that kind of stuff. What is allowing me to stay on task, stay focused, not getting beat down by the the situation is how that I know that when I go home at 5 o' clock, I didn't go in the hole fixing this car.
Tonnika Haynes [00:26:05]:
So make sure you have enough time,
Jeff Compton [00:26:08]:
pay, pay, pay in time, right? Nobody's yelling at me going oh my God, this has got to get done now. That's my own environment. Because we're reconditioning cars for sale, we don't have necessarily now we still have deadlines because salesmen love to look at something on Saturday morning when a customer comes in and promise it for Monday morning with no idea what the car might need. Or it's had one test drive of, you know, two miles around the block and that' so it's not that I'm without deadlines, but I'm not punished. If we have to spend some time to fix this car. I'm not punished. And that's what this industry, not always intentional, has done to so many young people for so long that that's why they're not coming in. And I didn't expose everybody to this.
Jeff Compton [00:26:52]:
Every old mechanic that I ever worked with told me don't do this, get out of this. Because this is how they treat us. And I just ignored them. I said, F you, I'm gonna be better than you. I'm gonna make it work for me. And I did. But there was some truth to the warnings that they were giving. So that's how I believe we, we empower our people to become better is let Them fix the damn car within reason.
Jeff Compton [00:27:20]:
If you can fix it better than them, go lead them how to fix it. If you can't, you're at a cut. Bait and fish or you go back to the dock. Good morning, Jordan.
Tonnika Haynes [00:27:34]:
He did an army crawl and I just looked down as a kid say, hey, happy birthday.
Jeff Compton [00:27:41]:
Thank you. It's good to see you, Jordan.
Tonnika Haynes [00:27:44]:
Get out. Go to the car meet. Can I go to the car meet? In what? What are you driving? Truck. What? Oh, you got your got my truck. Okay, love you. Bye. You need to put a toboggan on your hair sweat, Braxton. Don't take that out.
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:00]:
That's motherhood. He's going to the car meet in Raleigh. Well, his truck, he wrecked it. And my friend's painting it. Cause he moves next week. And so his in the shop, in the paint shop. And so he's driving my. Not my truck, not the Mercedes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:19]:
Cadillac. He's driving a Cadillac, which he can't stand. He'd rather drive his 2015 Jeep that's jacked up on these ridiculous tires. Oh, yeah, you go, Jeff. I'll send you a picture of it.
Jeff Compton [00:28:30]:
My boy.
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:30]:
With purple emblems on it and so many hats and it's just so, so rednecky. I love it for him, but he thinks the Escalade is beneath him. Why can't he rather be driving a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
Jeff Compton [00:28:43]:
Well, that's so 1990s mom and Escalade, like, you know.
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:47]:
Yeah, right. Mobile with the antenna. I think he has a 10 foot antenna on the top of this thing that's just in the wind. I know my kid when he's driving by is hilarious. Let's get back on task. Oh, my God. So again, I got a kid going into the industry and I like to introduce him to all of his uncles. And he's so lucky that I know that one day he'll be.
Tonnika Haynes [00:29:14]:
He can call Benji, he can call. Hopefully he can call you. He can call all his industry uncles. How can you be more of an industry uncle even if you don't want to? Because again, you have to accept, like, I have accepted that this is my calling to have the conversations with people even though, like, I don't want to. This is really uncomfortable for me to sit on this podcast, but if I don't do what my lord wants has led me to do, which I really believe he. He has from what the feedback that I'm getting, I'm like, oh, this is so exciting that you're talking. I'm like, why Do y' all want to hear from me? There's something there whether I see it or not yet. So I'm like a industry auntie and I love it at this point, even though sometimes I just want to scratch my eyes out and just want to go to sleep.
Tonnika Haynes [00:30:04]:
But that's not my ministry right now. I have to do what place here to do. You're industry uncle. You have a responsibility to the Jordans. How does that even make you feel?
Jeff Compton [00:30:17]:
It makes me feel like it's heavy some weeks. And then like Ashley, I've been thinking a lot about your technician that you had that was so toxic when you shared with us last time we talked. Right. And I feel like part of what I'm doing can make that person become more toxic. Some things that what I have to say might have made them more toxic. And then I feel like if I can reach some of them now and they reach out to me in person through a DM or whatever and say, this is what I feel. I have some real hard conversations with sometimes what people contact me because they think they're all that. And then you start talking to them about their fundamentals and their process.
Jeff Compton [00:31:00]:
And they ain't all that. They're getting by on pattern failures. They're getting by on maybe somebody's telling them what part to put in and they're absolutely killing the time. Right? So they look very. There's that word again that they look very productive. And it's important. But the true growth as a person isn't how fast you do something because you will slow down. It don't matter what your body just can't.
Jeff Compton [00:31:31]:
Can't keep doing it. It's your ability to pass on what you know. It's your ability to raise everybody that you come into contact with in your. In your business every day. That's your true worth. Right. So when I. I've been thinking a lot about Ashley's former.
Jeff Compton [00:31:47]:
Former, you know, employee, co worker. Excuse me. And. And it hurts me to think that I don't know where that person is. It doesn't really matter. It's, you know, it is what it is. I'm not excusing the way they would have acted, but me as somebody that's always fascinated about what makes people tick and why they are the way they are. That's the story that I always want to know.
Jeff Compton [00:32:08]:
You know, I'm not giving them affirmation that the way they acted and conducted themselves was right. That's not what I'm out here trying to do. But If I can show people why some of them get to where I was and some have gone farther, then I think we truly start to. To fix the problem. You know, when we talk about how one in 12 technicians contemplate suicide, like the rate is so crazy high.
Tonnika Haynes [00:32:42]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:32:43]:
It's followed only by first responders and vets, people like in all the blue collar trades, it's the number one. We. If we can't see that as a real telltale of how, and I'm not going to use the word messed up, screwed up, effed up, this industry is, but of how difficult it is, then we're missing everything that everybody's trying to tell us.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:06]:
So I want you to get a little bit more uncomfortable and I want you to tell us who you were and who you don't want these kids to become because they're seeing 30 year old in the trade, you.
Jeff Compton [00:33:24]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:25]:
And you can save them a lot of heartache, pain, stress, high blood pressure and all of those things. Tell them who you were. Tell us who you were.
Jeff Compton [00:33:35]:
I was very much that technician that Ashley had. I was very much that technician that, like, you know, the joke was. But I, I have grabbed more than one parts guy by the counter and. And, you know, tried to yank him across the counter by his shirt collar because I was being disrespected, I thought, or he wasn't hustling the way I needed him to hustle because I had to make money for my employer. I was expecting, you know, I had people yelling at me about how long it was taking to do something because I was standing 20 minutes at a parts counter and they were lackadaisial. Lack of effort was, you know, really biting into my butt at the time. And, and that's inexcusable. I had.
Tonnika Haynes [00:34:12]:
A
Jeff Compton [00:34:14]:
long time ago, I had a parts guy on night shift that wanted to fist fight me because he had brought me the wrong brick rotors three times. And when somebody asked me what was taking so long, I said, well, if you would stop hiring your effing family and start hiring qualified people, I might have gotten the parts I needed. That man wanted to fist fight me right in the bay. We were ready to go and somebody was pulling us apart. Now the next day, when I had to sit in front of my boss and his boss, who was his uncle, we both got sent home that day. And from that point on, we were good. We were good. Now I had good conversation, good relationship with that guy up to that point.
Jeff Compton [00:35:00]:
But the situation made me very frustrated and very angry and I Said things I shouldn't have said and didn't mean. No excuses. I have been somebody who has. Made it. Made a service advisor pay me cash for a job that he couldn't. That he told me to do, that he then couldn't have the. The cohejos to charge the customer for. And I was a good friend of mine, but I was.
Jeff Compton [00:35:30]:
I was. I was the type that if you showed me a hill of principle, I would climb that hill and stake my flag on. So I have. Yeah, so. Because I felt that it was right and it was just. And it was deserved. When I look back now, it was all for such an insignificant amount of financial. But the principle's still important.
Jeff Compton [00:35:56]:
It was just the way I executed was wrong. And I. The way I executed was a result of the culture and the environment that I was in. Not making excuses, but it was. Ashley. What. Whatever happened to your. Your co worker that way he's still
Ashley Kaplan [00:36:12]:
the lead tech and put on a pedestal.
Jeff Compton [00:36:17]:
Did you guys ever have. Yeah, sorry, go ahead.
Ashley Kaplan [00:36:20]:
They know that he's a problem and they admit it every day. They will not get rid of him
Jeff Compton [00:36:25]:
because there's nothing to replace him with.
Ashley Kaplan [00:36:28]:
They don't think there is. There is.
Jeff Compton [00:36:30]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:36:31]:
Yeah. It's like the technician that holds the shop hostage or the owner that allows the technician to hold the shop hostage because you don't want to lose production and you think you can't find anybody. What I remember, I don't know who said it. Well, if you fire him, you will find somebody. And just think about like, I think it puts the owner in an uncomfortable situation. But yeah, I think about it like this. I don't know. I don't know how the barbershops and the beauty shops work, but in the hood, if you go get your hair cut, that's going to be a hookup man that comes in selling stuff, whether it's a TV or whatever.
Tonnika Haynes [00:37:09]:
And if, if someone came in the barbershop and they had a 60 inch TV and it's like, oh brother, I can give you this TV. And you know, it's a $2,000 TV. I can get this TV for $500. Even if you don't have that $500, you don't find that dang on $500 to get that TV. So if you fire that toxic technician, even they're productive. You got to think about how they are affecting the whole culture of the shop. If you fire that person, you will be more motivated to replace them.
Jeff Compton [00:37:39]:
Yes. And yeah, your production on everybody else will come up 100%.
Tonnika Haynes [00:37:42]:
It does, it does.
Ashley Kaplan [00:37:45]:
So it was an interesting experiment because one of our other locations was down attack. So they pulled him and sent him over there and he was gone for 12 weeks. Our production and our culture had never been better. Right when he came back, that's when I decided to go start remote services. The estimates and I remember in two and a half, two years or so, I grew it from 1.1 to 2.5. Very proud of it. And when I was phasing out and we were looking for my replacement, he made a comment that well, we'll just pull your replacement from the McDonald's drive thru.
Jeff Compton [00:38:24]:
What did it say?
Ashley Kaplan [00:38:26]:
But my point is like those people are stuck in their way of thinking that everybody sucks. Service advisors are terrible. Service managers are no better than the drive thru worker at McDonald's. And it doesn't matter what credibility you have, what credentials you have, if we raise technicians to always think that the front of the house sucks, how are we ever supposed to expect change in the industry?
Tonnika Haynes [00:38:52]:
Good point.
Jeff Compton [00:38:53]:
When they move that, that technician to the other location for 12 weeks, what did it do to their numbers and culture and everything else while he was over there?
Ashley Kaplan [00:39:02]:
You know that that shop had trouble finding technicians to stay because it was a little bit of a dungeon. It was like one tech plus a lube tech. So it actually did help like having him there and be a lead tech there, helped them bring in new techs that saw somebody consistent in the company, stayed there. So it did actually help in a way. But it ran off three service managers in 12 weeks over there. And we had a revolving door of advisors at my location. And I don't take training people lightly. I pour my heart into training people and I train damn good advisors.
Ashley Kaplan [00:39:42]:
So for me to pour into somebody and then them have to leave because this technician can't get his head out of his, you know what like, and, and for leadership to accept that.
Tonnika Haynes [00:39:53]:
Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous from a leadership inspect perspective. I've done that. I've kept someone around too long because I didn't want because we were busy and I don't have time to replace them. But the last, the last check that I had to let go, it wasn't a production thing. He wasn't very toxic. It was just something didn't sit right. He didn't own anything. And I remember the last straw was there's a transmission that was damaged and we had to replace the transmission.
Tonnika Haynes [00:40:25]:
And the front office did a great job. We got everything done. Job was done. And he just did not care that you damaged the transmission. Just, it was supposed to be a fluid replacement. Like, what happened? There was no, I'm sorry, boss, nothing. There was no, no responsibility. And I said, you know what, this is just bad.
Tonnika Haynes [00:40:48]:
But I had another technician that just could not stand him, but he could not tell me why and he didn't want to. He didn't want to tell me why. But as soon as I let him go, the sun came back out. Yeah, everybody stepped up to make sure that we didn't get behind because we were down one guy. Everything worked out. And I still don't have a replacement form, but it's gonna happen. But I tell you what, nobody's walking around wanting to throw a wrench at nobody's forehead.
Jeff Compton [00:41:15]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:41:15]:
So, yeah, it is, it is a crazy one.
Ashley Kaplan [00:41:22]:
I learned recently with hiring and stuff, like when you're trying to hire out of desperation, you're going to make the wrong hiring decision.
Tonnika Haynes [00:41:31]:
I did that up front twice, so small plug.
Ashley Kaplan [00:41:33]:
But I did hire promotive. I'm very excited to keep like the revolving hiring process going. That way we have the ability, like, if at any point someone steps out of our culture or expectations, like, there's no scarcity mindset of like, well, I have to keep them because I did that too. I had an employee that was tearing everybody apart. I mean, making awful comments and offensive comments to people. But I was in a bind and so I couldn't let them go.
Jeff Compton [00:42:01]:
So. And yeah, I had that happen this week with, with my co worker. And he's very, he's older, he's almost 60. He's very, very, very, very jaded. More so than I ever was. And he is very toxic within now. It's a small operation. You know, they tolerate it.
Jeff Compton [00:42:25]:
But he has had several outbursts directed at me that I have had to go to my leader and say, I don't play like this. Like, this is. This is not. This is not good. Like, I'm not paid enough to put up with that. Nobody's paid enough to put up with that. So I'm asking you and tasking you with handle this. And you know, supposedly it was handled.
Jeff Compton [00:42:49]:
It's not. The boss is away in Barbados on vacation and he has another outburst. And sometimes for us technicians, when you, when you just say something to pacifies and say, oh, yes, I'll handle it, don't worry, it'll get better and nothing changes or it stays the same. It's not so much a big middle finger to us, it's just A situation of we don't feel like we're all that important, right? Like it becomes a machine and I'm just a cog and, you know, I'm not going to be. The beatings will persist until morale improves. Right. And, you know, so when you pass it off as just the way things are, that's the way he is or that's, you know, he's always been that. And I'm not young, but it's a situation of like, I come from a very old school of thinking that it's like, if you don't want to handle it, I will handle it.
Jeff Compton [00:43:43]:
No problems, right. And I'm not threatening anybody or saying anything.
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:47]:
But you just did. I got you.
Jeff Compton [00:43:50]:
Unfortunate situation. You know, what will happen will be, is you'll be without two technicians instead of just without one, right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:57]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:43:58]:
And that is not the answer. But we've all talked about it in the groups and we've seen. You can find the videos on the Internet of, you know, guys out in the parking lot in front of the service drive throwing fisticuffs, right? Or out back behind the tire pile, you know, and everybody goes, oh, that's, you know, blah, blah, blah. When you have allowed it to get to that point, right, You've already failed. And we always want to look at those people as they are the problem. And sometimes it is like you've got a toxic individual and finally somebody in the shops steps up and does the right. Does something. I won't say the right thing, but does something.
Jeff Compton [00:44:38]:
Does the something. The thing that needs to be done should be done, maybe not, I don't know. And, and takes it to the, to the end. And when we go, that's unprofessional and that's. It shouldn't have had to go to that. You're all right. Yeah, but how did it go there? Because some leadership, leadership did not handle the problem. So now I have to decide when I go in on Tuesday morning, how am I going to handle it again? You know, that's something that.
Jeff Compton [00:45:09]:
Like it. You know, I haven't had to think about how many flat rate hours I've made in a long time or any kind of stuff. But those kind of issues still always are around in this industry. So it's never been my thing to try and make people toxic or try to. I mean, he doesn't listen to me, right. He doesn't listen to the podcast. It's not his target demographic. But there are people out there that probably listen to me.
Jeff Compton [00:45:38]:
They'll go into the shop every day and think they are better than a lot of other people around them and they should be allowed to, you know, conduct themselves in a way that maybe is not very good for the team. And I have never ever said that you get to go unchecked because you're a little bit smarter than somebody else. I've never said that. I believe that sometimes you should be given some grace in the sense that, yeah, maybe he show up five minutes late. But you know, if you're just the kind of person that can get the car fixed that nobody else in the building would, then sometimes that just is part of the package. But toxic, abrasive attitude that kills culture. It's inexcusable. I don't care how smart you are, how good your production is, it's, it's inexcusable.
Ashley Kaplan [00:46:31]:
How can you teach technicians to become leaders just from, from their toolbox, like lead from any seat. It's a really good book. But like they have a role in leadership as well. They might not own the shop.
Jeff Compton [00:46:47]:
Well, they have to, they have to be see that, that position as an opportunity and not as a punishment, not as a responsibility that cuts into their pay. Not in a, you know, you can't. And then so it's like the foreman in a shop, right? Sometimes the foreman in the shop, all of a sudden a lot of mistakes happen and everybody's, you know, the service manager's been chewed up by the general manager. General manager is going to chew the shop for him and the shop, farm is going to go out and it just goes downhill and they chew it just butts get chewed. You look at oftentimes what causes that. And it had nothing to do with the technician or it might have been somebody out in the service drive that was not following a process. But that person now that's been tasked with being the leader got their butt chewed and it's expected of them that they're going to go out and chew butt. Because that's what I pay you to do.
Jeff Compton [00:47:44]:
That's what you get this salary for. And the rest of them are all on flat rate and it's your job to go. Man, that ain't what it's about. I don't know how to make the form unnecessary. The leader. I'm of the old school mentality that the manager is the leader.
Ashley Kaplan [00:48:04]:
I think I'm more meaning like even if you're not given the title, like you're just, you're just a B tech or an A tech at a shop, you're there to collect a paycheck. Right. Like that's a responsibility that you have to better the industry by choosing to be a leader. Like, rather than go down to the service desk and go chew out the advisor for a mistake, how can you be a better leader and create better service advisors?
Jeff Compton [00:48:31]:
Yeah. So open ways of conversation, you know, the knowledge that you have, the experience. Here's the thing where I catch hell all the time is because I share experiences and knowledge of people and they tell me that I shouldn't share it because I'm not a shop owner. I'm not showing you the. The too many times the, the better way that it was done. I'm just talking about the ways that I saw that I 1000% no don't work. So when I see people start talking about using those methods, like, whoa, wait, pump the brakes here. I got a story.
Jeff Compton [00:49:02]:
And you know, when you do that with your people, your co workers, that's a form of leading if they're open to it. Take your knowledge and share it with people. When you're. I believe in. And again, it's going to come back to pay. I believe in the team thing where if your baymate has got a rush job, you're doing a break job, you go do one side, he does the other side, you know, and then you check, make sure. If they're doing four tires are an excellent example of this because I've spent my whole career when you're doing four tires and he's doing four tires at the same time. Okay, you do mount them.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:40]:
I'll balance them.
Jeff Compton [00:49:41]:
That's right. You know, stuff like that.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:45]:
Like it comes down to teamwork. So the leadership as a team in the back. And I'm blessed because I actually feel like I really have a team that works together. Like my latest Facebook, my service advisor, they had this huge. I mean, I don't know what size tire it was, but they were having a hard time. Mountainous tire. It was three of them over there mounting these tires for this truck.
Jeff Compton [00:50:07]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:08]:
And then the other guy was over there balancing them. And this is one of my service advisors was out there help helping them. And together we all achieve more. But when you get in the head space of that's not my job. Like when I'm hiring someone, my. My latest tech and I told them the guy that's supposed to start hopefully in two weeks, I said all of these lifts are my lifts, all of these cars are my cars. We work together as a team to get it done. So that's my car that's my job.
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:32]:
That, that. I really don't have a lot of that. Because it's 4:45, we've got two hours left on this car. You're done with your job. Like you said, you get that side, he'll get this side, and then we'll check each other's work. But when we can get past that and work as a team and the shop owner or leadership promotes that and applauds that and make that part of the culture instead of like, oh, man, this is not your job. You need to get this done. I've got four more hours left on this, boss.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:00]:
Well, you should have done it quicker. But this technician's just sitting there twiddling his thumb instead of saying, hey, can you come over and help help your brother out? You know, just saying, you know, shame on you for not getting it done.
Jeff Compton [00:51:11]:
But teamwork trickles down certain pay structures, though, the conversation that pops up is, okay, what am I getting paid for that?
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:18]:
Yeah, that's what I do hourly, plus bonus.
Jeff Compton [00:51:21]:
I'm not trying to go down that conversation again. It's been had. You all know what, right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:24]:
Yeah, we know what you believe in. It's.
Jeff Compton [00:51:27]:
But then go ahead.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:29]:
If that guy's helping, if everybody's on flat rate in the shop and you got the right culture and everything's been doing right and all the dominoes are falling, if your brother's there and he needs some help, what kind of man would sit there and say, ain't my problem, that's your job. That's a part of culture as well. Yeah, because you don't know when you're going to need him to help you bleed some brakes or whatever. I don't know. Somebody's going to need somebody. So it's not. It's got to be teamwork. And I don't know if flat rate could really.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:58]:
I've never done flat rate except for in a collision center, but I don't even know how you can flat rate working really well.
Ashley Kaplan [00:52:06]:
And they would help each other. So I don't know.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:08]:
That's. That's culture.
Jeff Compton [00:52:10]:
And it can. Yeah, it's not the pay system. It's the culture.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:12]:
It's the culture.
Jeff Compton [00:52:14]:
But when you got one that's at 200 and the rest of them are trying to hit 80, like you're never going to see that guy at 200 get help. Yeah, it's just not happening.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:24]:
It's crazy.
Jeff Compton [00:52:27]:
I mean, there might be exceptions.
Ashley Kaplan [00:52:29]:
I had a different experience only one other time, though. It was like it was A unicorn shop that we had a tech who would turn 100, 150 hours a week, and anyone would drop anything to help him if they had to, because he would also help them be more efficient so they could turn more hours.
Jeff Compton [00:52:45]:
But that's.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:46]:
Yeah, that's culture and that's teamwork.
Jeff Compton [00:52:48]:
That's most of the time that that star player that I've seen is not the sharing type. Be the type to put down their tool and go over. It is sad because that's how we
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:57]:
cannot get kids on the bench. We can't get the kids on the end of industry on the bench because there's nobody in there willing to help them, even though there was somebody helping you.
Jeff Compton [00:53:07]:
And here's the reality. The reason we don't have three in the shop hitting 150 is because that one that can hit 150 is not sharing with the other two that are only hitting 80. Right? So. Because ideally, in a perfect world, if we believe everything that we're, you know, if we make carbon copies, clones, we should be able to all bring up closer to that level of what there is. Because I mean, there's just, there's ability and there's knowledge. But I mean, like, if I show you this shortcut and I show you the trick and I show you the pattern failure, pretty soon you all know it, and then we're all doing it and we're all going up. You have that one person that holds to them self, and everybody goes, that's my star player. They're producing so much.
Tonnika Haynes [00:53:52]:
They're holding the secret. They're not sharing the secret. Because if they share their secret, like I won't share my recipes. If they share their secret, then what makes them special anymore, Right?
Jeff Compton [00:54:02]:
And it's, you know, it's called gatekeeping. Or, you know, I used to be. And I've said it, and sometimes it's still. I will say it depends. In certain situations, you are training your replacement. You have to see that in a good way, though, that you're training your replacement. Not in a bad way. And sometimes, unfortunately, I have had service managers come to me and say, just go over there and do it for them, because I need it done.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:30]:
I'm sorry, Learning that way.
Jeff Compton [00:54:32]:
Yeah. And need it done is a you problem. It's not a us problem, it's not a me problem. It's a you problem. Probably because you over promised and under delivered and now you're back.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:40]:
That's what Becky Witt was just talking about. Becky, we just said it was like when it's going to be done when it's ready.
Jeff Compton [00:54:45]:
Yeah. So, you know, and it. Life is about clicks. Right. So there were people that I would have liked. I would have given the afternoon away if it meant that I was helping my partner across the bay because, like, I knew I could count on him to do that for me. But that's not always. That's not that symbiotic relationship everywhere where I can count on the nine other team members that would just drop and give to see me succeed.
Jeff Compton [00:55:13]:
They just aren't. It's different personalities. So I was very. I kept my cards pretty close to my chest. But there was a, you know, there was a group of us that like, yeah, I'd go over and donate time, donate hours to help. You know, I would stop what I was doing to go over there and help them, see them through something. You know, I watched the guy that one of the most toxic individuals ever worked for, I watched him change shops. And I remember he was there a week and he came to a shop that had good culture.
Jeff Compton [00:55:48]:
And I remember driving past because it was a shared lot and it had been like three years since I had worked with him, but I knew him to see him. And I remember him watching him try to push a truck in by himself and everybody standing at the doorway watching him laughing. Now, he had been there like 10 days and he had already alienated himself so bad through his attitude and the way he was old, grumpy, grouchy, know it all, can't tell nothing. Everybody's an asshole and an ignorant dummy but him. And everybody's smiling and watching him push that truck in by himself. Now here was the backstory on the truck is that, you know, he didn't even manage to diagnose it properly and fix it. And he was fired the next day, but in a very short, like two week period, he had completely divided himself from everybody else in that building. He walked in there on the first day because of course I'm, I'm friendly with them, I talk to them and they're like, oh yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:56:49]:
Because they're like, you know that guy? I'm like, oh yeah. I could tell you stories. And they're like, has he always been like that? And I said, from all accounts, from everybody that I can talk to. Yeah, he's always been that level of a hole. So there are sometimes when you bring a toxic person into the shop, it's not going to work.
Tonnika Haynes [00:57:15]:
Yeah. No matter how many hours they turn, know how much money they make you, they're Going to end up costing you more with the morale, teamwork, culture and all of that.
Jeff Compton [00:57:27]:
I believe that's why the idea of the, the working interviews is, is definitely a plus for more people. I think they really need to do that because, like, you can have an awesome resume and be really smart, everything. And if you come in and people, your. Your team doesn't feel a good vibe or doesn't like that person. Don't ignore it. Doesn't necessarily mean you don't give them the opportunity. But you got to start like making yourself a checklist and like, okay, we got to work on this. And, and John doesn't like this about him.
Jeff Compton [00:57:54]:
Maybe we got to delve into why did he do that or why might have John got that feeling? Just have the conversation, man. Like, don't sit there and go, listen, I'm down for the month. Numbers aren't going to be if I don't get a body in that bay. I'm so tired of body in the bay as an excuse in this industry for why it's sucked for so many
Tonnika Haynes [00:58:15]:
empty, basic September, dude. But I tell you that that the last tech that I fired, I remember we're not open on Fridays, but there was something that needed to be done. It was a chaotic situation. And the service advisor had agreed the part was there. He had agreed that he would come in on a Friday, finish the job. He never called. He never answered the phone. She went and got the part.
Tonnika Haynes [00:58:37]:
She's sitting in the shop waiting for this person to show up. She went home and drove past him, sitting at a lake, fishing. And then on Monday, she's upset because she's like, I've lied to the customer. We look bad. You never answer the phone. If you didn't want to do it, just say you're not going to do it. And he had no apologies. Again, same transmission guy, no apologies, nothing to say.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:02]:
And I said, you don't think that you owe her an apology for putting her in a situation? No, I'm not going to apologize if I really don't feel it. And this was his mindset, but it also showed up in his personal life. And I tried to coach him through understanding that you're having so many personal issues right now that you keep telling me about, but your personality, it all makes sense. Like, you don't understand that you're the problem. And a lot of people just cannot see that they're the problem or they're not willing to do the work to see that if you make this change in your life, whether it's at work or at home that your whole life could change by you just being a better person and working on yourself. And some people are not up to doing that. And so I was, I tried. But at some point you just have to say that base just got to be empty because you're ticking everybody off.
Jeff Compton [00:59:57]:
People joke about the Canadians, but I'll tell you something, I learned a long time ago that the one word that you can say without really meaning it, but it normally makes the situation better is sorry.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:09]:
Yeah. He refused to say I'm sorry. I was like, so you can't open your mouth to apologize? And he said, no. I said, oh, wow, this is who you are. And then as every time he showed me who he was and I tried to smother him and I tried to help him fix himself. If you're not willing to do the work, I can't make you do it, baby. I can spend that same energy on another technician, another employee and make them a better. Not that I'm going to make somebody a better person, but help them be better.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:42]:
And we all can help each other be better. We all raise each other up.
Ashley Kaplan [01:00:47]:
Was this the same tech that did not want to go to asta?
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:50]:
Exactly. Did not want to go to asta,
Ashley Kaplan [01:00:54]:
paid for it and didn't want to go.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:56]:
Yeah. So all my technicians, the whole shop, we go to asta. Everybody gets their own hotel room, everybody. I want everybody participate and just be emerged in it. I want you to be there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all of that. Ms. Tanika's buying drinks. Sometimes we're going to turn up, we're going to have fun.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:15]:
He didn't want to go. And so that Monday I got back from ASTA and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna let you go today. You show. If people show you who they are, you better believe it. And he was just, he just kept showing me and I just kept having more faith in him than he had in himself, which that was me trying to help someone. And that's just a part of, you know, me, my personality. I'm going to try to help you see that you're a better person than that. You could be an awesome tech, you've got it in you.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:43]:
But when I can't care any more than you. But like you said, the shop owners do not want to lose the money, we don't want to lose the production, we don't want to lose, have an empty bay. So every day I look at that empty bay and that computer screen is dark. And whatever. And I'm thinking, oh, I could be making X amount of money. But on the other hand, we haven't skipped a beat.
Jeff Compton [01:02:03]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:03]:
Everybody else picked up because they're doing it for the culture. They're doing it for the team.
Jeff Compton [01:02:08]:
Ashley, did you ever work on a team where you felt like you had to be somewhat guarded because you'd been hurt before, working for somebody? I know that's a tough question. I'm not singling you out either. One could answer it. But I. No one misses no.
Ashley Kaplan [01:02:25]:
My own team now.
Jeff Compton [01:02:27]:
Okay.
Ashley Kaplan [01:02:28]:
I am struggling and, like, figuring out my groove and leadership because of so many bad experiences that I don't ever want to show up as the bad leader that I had. So, like, I'm missing opportunities or I'm making the wrong decision because I'm so scared of doing the wrong thing. So, like my current team, it's a struggle that I can't show up the way I want to show up out of fear yet. Yeah. And they know I'm very open with them. I'm very transparent. Like, this is a work in progress. I'm working towards being better in these areas.
Ashley Kaplan [01:03:03]:
So they do appreciate that.
Jeff Compton [01:03:04]:
But, yeah, I. I can tell you sometimes I'm a little bit guarded when I first start at a new place, because, you know, the time that you spend sometimes. And maybe I'm not trying to defend Tanika's former employee, but there are some technicians that are walking around out there that have been really hurt in the past and don't necessarily want to be embraced into that culture where we're a family and we're, you know, like, I want to spend time with you away from here, and I want to pour into you because we might have at one point been so open and receptive and. And with it, and then things don't work out, and all of a sudden, these people that you thought were your friends, your family, you go different ways, you part and you carry scars with that with you.
Tonnika Haynes [01:03:58]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:03:58]:
I believe that that's sometimes why these people that we get labeled as, like, they didn't want to go to dinner, you know, they didn't want to do. They didn't want to have shop with lunch. They go and sit by the tire machine and eat their pizza. They don't.
Tonnika Haynes [01:04:13]:
That is valid. That is true. And I've recognized that in one that is still with me. But I've got him out of that a little bit, and he's appreciative of it. So that comes with insight, just knowing who people not Knowing who people are, you never know who anybody is. You barely know who you are. But trying to reach people. But then you also have somebody that will use you without telling all his business.
Tonnika Haynes [01:04:41]:
Well, it is what it is. This young man actually lived on our property. Cause he was basically homeless when I first hired him. And so I've had a physical embrace with this person. I tried to do my best to pour into this person. And the more I poured in, the more he was ready, ready, ready. But he could not reciprocate that. And that is a him problem.
Tonnika Haynes [01:05:05]:
And hopefully with age and maturity and life experiences, he would recognize that, hey, somebody was trying to pour into me. I can pour into this young man or this young lady. So maybe all of my work in pouring into him was not in vain. But I knew that I had reached my max of caring. Not caring. But I could not let that affect everyone else around me.
Jeff Compton [01:05:32]:
Yeah, you know, they can't distract.
Tonnika Haynes [01:05:34]:
That is true. It became a distraction and it became a ministry that I was not willing to preach anymore. That's not my job. That is not my current ministry. But that comes along with responsibility for yourself. And you can, you can walk in this place and not get hurt. Like you can walk into a relationship, but you're going to be guarded based on the last relationship you were in. But there's, at some point, whoever you're dating, whoever you're with, should not have to keep apologizing for what happened three years ago.
Jeff Compton [01:06:04]:
Yeah. Yep.
Ashley Kaplan [01:06:05]:
Or what somebody else did to you.
Tonnika Haynes [01:06:07]:
So that's, that's personal self work. That's work that people need to do on themselves. And we can't wait for everybody to come save us.
Jeff Compton [01:06:17]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [01:06:17]:
So there's a lot of work that needs to be done within ourselves, within the office, the industry and all of that. And then hopefully, if everybody decides, okay, let me work on this about me, it'll trickle down to your team, it'll trickle down to the industry, it'll trickle down in the social media groups and everybody won't be so aggressive. And it also would trickle down to the suicide rate that nobody wants to talk about and the loneliness that nobody wants to talk about. And the shop owner that's sitting in his shop, lights are off and he's wondering, should I even be here or what am I going to do? It'll be easier for me to just leave this place and not disappoint everybody.
Jeff Compton [01:06:58]:
It's Friday night. You know, it's a Friday night. It's another week that we didn't hit the goal, it's another week. You know, the stress adds up at home.
Tonnika Haynes [01:07:08]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:07:09]:
You know, and before long, I think that's why some people just, you know, and I mean, if you're at that place, by God, let the business go. Don't let it destroy your life to where you think that you're more valuable to somebody as a insurance policy payout than anything else that you had to offer. You know what I mean? Don't think that.
Tonnika Haynes [01:07:29]:
But we have a responsibility in the, you know, in the media, in the socials and all this stuff, even though we don't want to. We've talked about our responsibility in this, that when they go and make a Facebook post and they're asking for help, because you think about it, I can't imagine that you will ask for help every time you need it. If you go to a space and you're saying, okay, help me, I can't get this. You probably needed help six months ago. Yeah, but your ego, egos and testosterone and estrogen will get in the way of making those decisions. To say, hey, help me. Because we don't want to be attacked. But when we get to the point and we're saying, hey, help me.
Tonnika Haynes [01:08:05]:
And you're going to this leadership group, this group of your brothers and sisters that are in the industry that may have gone through what you've gone through, what we end up seeing more times than not is that one keyboard warrior that's going to say, well, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. That's stupid. That's stupid. That's a stupid question. And so then what happens? We retreat. Yeah, we're not going to talk because we're trying to come in here anonymous and we're trying to get help. We're racing help me. And then you raise your hand, you finally get it up and say, help me.
Tonnika Haynes [01:08:39]:
And someone says, pow, pow, pow. That was stupid. And they shoot it down. So we definitely have a responsibility, not just us three, but people as a whole, to be more responsible in how we react and answer these things. If you don't have anything nice to say, just shut the hell up.
Jeff Compton [01:09:00]:
And we can have responded to those.
Ashley Kaplan [01:09:02]:
Literally just saying, what an odd thing to say.
Tonnika Haynes [01:09:05]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:09:05]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [01:09:06]:
How did that make you feel? I hope that made you happy to be a jerk today.
Ashley Kaplan [01:09:09]:
What an odd thing to say.
Tonnika Haynes [01:09:11]:
And then there's times where we really need to answer the question, like there's some constructive criticism. And then people, what you guys call it a dirty delete. It's like, no, don't answer the question and just because we didn't answer it the way that you wanted to hear it and it hurt your feelings. Now that's different. Well, you say, yeah, go ahead.
Jeff Compton [01:09:30]:
I did, I did that last week where I, you know, somebody talked about servicing, you know, they had a breakdown in process. Right. And they service something that they probably shouldn't, which didn't need a service, probably needed a replacement, and then he dirty deleted it. And everybody's like, what are you making a big deal about this? The conversations are lessons, right. If we go and eliminate the conversation, all that effort that people put into that conversation, effort, input, whatever you want to call it, is gone completely. And it should, like, if I could run Facebook, you wouldn't be allowed delete it once it was up there. Because when I think about all the, you know, people like credit card fee processing questions. Right.
Jeff Compton [01:10:10]:
And like, everybody just wants to pull their hair out because it's been discussed at nauseam.
Tonnika Haynes [01:10:14]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:10:15]:
At least the conversations are there when we go and do the dirty delete thing. All the perspectives, input, good things that people said. All gone. All gone.
Tonnika Haynes [01:10:25]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [01:10:26]:
It's like turning off commenting. You got what I want. That's selfish, too.
Tonnika Haynes [01:10:30]:
That is selfish. That is crazy. When people. I just don't want to hear. And it's like, okay, but if you don't like the answer to the question, questions like, okay, what's the next answer? If you don't like the ingredients, like, that's not going to work for me. I don't. But if you just don't like that, you are wrong. Like, did you put that question out there to be validated? Or did you put that question out there to learn from it? A lot of people, validation.
Jeff Compton [01:10:52]:
Yeah. It ain't learning. Think about how we grab the hot stove. You know, if somebody grabs your hand, oh, my God, I shouldn't have had the stove on and let me get the ice pack. And then the other generations might have been like, ah, I told you, don't touch that stove. And I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong. But like, if you were just coming to look for validation that you. We didn't do wrong here.
Jeff Compton [01:11:17]:
No, actually, you know, so it's right or wrong, but take some. You're asking for perspective. People give you perspective. It doesn't align with what you did. Don't go flipping, like, get all hurt and, and, and hide it. Delete it. Let it be. Leave it there.
Jeff Compton [01:11:35]:
It is a conversation. It's the same as we all get on this Transactional versus relational, relationship based. Listen, I am for anybody that is helping a shop improve. Doesn't matter who they are. Does not matter. I am. I. They have my respect, they have my support.
Jeff Compton [01:12:00]:
Am I going to align with everything that everybody says online about how to do this and how mechanics should be? No, I'm not. Because I am me. And what I went through has carved into me a belief system and values that I will. When they put me in, when I'm done, my last day, they will still be within me. It is going to be my core. But my God, like, you know, the fact that we're having the conversations, you've come together and we've said there is a problem here and we're having this discussion, let's keep having it. You saw it yesterday. People are saying there's so much division.
Jeff Compton [01:12:35]:
There's not division. That's not division.
Tonnika Haynes [01:12:38]:
There's so many ideas. There's just a lot of ideas.
Jeff Compton [01:12:41]:
And, you know, if it doesn't apply
Tonnika Haynes [01:12:43]:
to you, then just keep moving. If you don't like that, don't do that.
Jeff Compton [01:12:49]:
We have not divided the industry yet because we don't even represent 10% of it. So it is not divided, but it's the 10% or whatever numbers of people that are active that are decided. I'm going to pick up this torch and I'm going to run with it and I'm going to try and bring up the conversations and improve this. You all have my love. I love all of you. Because you're looking at the problem and you're saying, we have to do something here. I'm not going to agree on everything that Lucas says. He's not going to agree on everything I say.
Jeff Compton [01:13:24]:
Lord knows we have our conversations where he tells me, whoa, I think he caused some damage there. And I go, yeah, not for the person that I'm for. I didn't cause damage. I might have put them on the path to something better for them, but it's just different sides of the aisle, right? It's a different perspective. He's looking at that going, that poor shop owner lost a tech. And I'm looking at that going, that tech might now finally be on their way to somebody that's valuing them to the level that they feel they may crash and burn. I don't know. I am not there.
Jeff Compton [01:13:56]:
So I don't ever say to them, yes, definitely go. Unless they're in my immediate area. And we start talking about people that are common acquaintances. And I know what you can do, and I know what you're like. And I say, yeah, get out of there, man. You can make better somewhere else. I'm never gonna say go somewhere else because the money's better, but I simply say, you feel like this, why? There could be opportunities somewhere else for you. You could get this.
Jeff Compton [01:14:23]:
You know, the texts come to me all the time and say, like, I'm in a mom and pop shop, the pay is not great, there's an opening at the dealer and like, me the guy. And they, why do they ask Jeff? Because Jeff's been back and forth both sides for 30 years. I've done them both. So when I say to them, here's the pluses and the minuses of each, I can say it with first hand knowledge, not second hearsay, rumors and Internet bubble, you know, about what somebody, you know, prints every week on YouTube or says on YouTube that, you know, dealerships are terrible and flat rates all over. I can tell them, listen, like, I've made good money. I learned a lot. Most of my processes and where I got my training came from a dealer. But here's the negative side.
Jeff Compton [01:15:12]:
I was that guy that was like ready to throw hands at somebody that was going to mess with my paycheck.
Tonnika Haynes [01:15:19]:
Yeah. You know, so, wow, we have been talking for two years. This is really, really good. So, Uncle Jeff, Uncle Jaded Mechanic, where can the people find you? As if everybody doesn't know. Like, we know everybody knows who you are and where they can find you. But go ahead and give you a shout out about your podcast and how they can call you or send you a DM just in case they need to talk to Uncle Jeff.
Jeff Compton [01:15:44]:
So let me start with saying we're on all the social media platforms. We're on LinkedIn, we're on Twitter, X, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're on Facebook. I will tell you right now, if you shoot a message to Instagram that's not linked up to me, so I won't get that message. So if you're trying to reach out to me and you see the Instagram, just go over and find me at Facebook and message me there. I'll get that message. I won't. It'll take me longer to get it if I get it at all through Instagram. So don't do that.
Jeff Compton [01:16:16]:
LinkedIn and X, that's all being handled from the, the editor side, so I don't always even see. We come out every Tuesday morning, 6am my time, at least Eastern is when the episode drops. If you Want to be on the episode. You know, you have something to say. If you're not comfortable recording an episode, but you need to talk, still reach out to me. I will talk to you. Now. The problem being sometimes there's only so much hours in the day and so many hours in the weekend, especially to have.
Jeff Compton [01:16:52]:
So I, you know, I will never shut my door to anybody, but sometimes we have to have the recording because it's a. It's. Well, we're sharing. And if you're not comfortable, we'll. I'll still talk to you. I'll still hear your story. I will still pour into you what I feel and what I think. But people that are on the fence about, like, I'm not sure.
Jeff Compton [01:17:10]:
I'm not comfortable. I'm not sure about being recorded. Listen, I'm going to start going forward where I'm going to record more, and if you don't feel comfortable and we won't share it, I'm not going to publish it. But I've had too many good conversations that I didn't hit record on that would have really helped other people. And let's be real people, when you're coming to me and you're in your bearing, your soul, or you're looking for input, that's good. Gets good perspective for everybody. So share it, man. You know, the.
Jeff Compton [01:17:38]:
I'm easy to find. I'm not. I'm not an abrasive jerk like everybody some people think, you know. But I will hold you accountable sometimes. I will remind you that, like, you might be a little bit too big for your britches. You might be in your head too much. And you can. You can hear that from me and go, you don't know.
Jeff Compton [01:18:02]:
Okay, I don't. I ain't there. But I've been doing this a really long time, a lot of different places at a pretty good level. And I wouldn't share it with you if I thought that it wasn't the absolute best thing for you to hear. And the truth, so, you know, it is not. I'm not aligned with any one particular. I mean, I'm aligned with Lucas. He's family at this point.
Jeff Compton [01:18:31]:
But, I mean, it's a situation of, like, you know, I will give it to you as real as I possibly can. I have nothing to gain by giving you anything but my truth.
Tonnika Haynes [01:18:43]:
And I bet you would do the same for shop owners. So. Shop owners, if you're listening, he's not out here to take over all the technicians and make them raise up and revolt. There will not Be a technician. War happening anytime soon, led by Jeff. If you don't understand his perspective and you're only listening to the highlight reels, I encourage you to listen to the whole podcast. And if you're still confused, send the man a message, go on the podcast, have the conversation. But sometimes, sweetheart, the problem might just be you.
Jeff Compton [01:19:16]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [01:19:17]:
Figure that out.
Jeff Compton [01:19:18]:
There's a lot of well respected shop owners that I've had great conversations with that I talk to on the regular. And you might be surprised at some of them because you wouldn't think that we'd be aligned. Yeah, but we are very much aligned.
Tonnika Haynes [01:19:31]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [01:19:31]:
Some of it is just in the love of the industry and the love of the. Of being the absolute best tech we can be. But I'm not out here trying to. You know, everybody needs a union, and if you're not getting 50 of the door rate, you're getting screwed. That is. That is not my platform, but my. That is not his platform, but my platform is. Is like, you go in there every day, you try to be 1% better, like my brother Josh teaches me, and you come to work as an open vessel to receive and to give.
Jeff Compton [01:20:03]:
You pour out of you and you receive back. It's a cycle, it's a circle. And you do that, and then what happens is everybody lifts up. That's the whole goal through this. This is not to divide and say that everybody needs to be $400 an hour because every technician deserves $100 an hour. I am not saying that. I'm quite aware of some of the realities now, so I'm not out to divide. And it hurts me sometimes that some of the shop owners think that I'm only out there to cause an uprising because it's the furthest thing from the truth.
Jeff Compton [01:20:37]:
I am out here to hold both sides accountable.
Tonnika Haynes [01:20:41]:
And that's what we wanted to hit on today. And I'm so glad that you were here and that you agreed to answer some of the hard questions that are not that hard. But I am looking forward to our next conversation.
Jeff Compton [01:20:53]:
Yeah. I love you guys. You guys are awesome. And I mean, I'll come on anytime you want. Ashley, you're. You're coming up soon with me. Hopefully.
Ashley Kaplan [01:21:01]:
I was going to say we need to record soon.
Jeff Compton [01:21:03]:
Yeah. Because I really want to dig into your backstory and hear it, because I think it's going to be. It's going to be awesome. And, you know, Tanika, darling, you're awesome. You really are.
Tonnika Haynes [01:21:14]:
Thank you.
Jeff Compton [01:21:15]:
And, you know, I just. It makes me so happy to see you, you know, the love for you have for your kids and Jordan and how much potential you see in him. And I can't. I'm so happy that I'm young enough still that I can see where he's going to be in five years, 10 years. Like, it's, it's Ashley. You're sitting there nodding. You can't wait to see it, too. Like, there's.
Tonnika Haynes [01:21:37]:
I can't wait to see it. I've been watching him since he was about two or three. His love for cars, his love for the industry, and when people, especially when he decided to go to UTI Universal Technical Institutions. Oh, why'd you send him there? I said, because he wanted to go. I'm going to let him choose his own path. And him headed down to Mercedes in what, seven days is killing me on the inside. But that's his path. And if he chooses to pivot, he'll pivot.
Tonnika Haynes [01:22:01]:
But I'm not going to keep that kid from running out this dream. He said, mom, I can't wait to have my own name on the signature of a Mercedes. And I'm like, well, baby, I'll be the one in the store trying to find the Mercedes with my baby signature on it. So I'm not going to keep them from dreaming. I'm going to try to keep pushing for young people in the industry. Little bit softer, nicer industry, and we're going to keep doing great work.
Jeff Compton [01:22:26]:
Yeah, 100%.
Tonnika Haynes [01:22:27]:
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 in real time. This is a space for growth, tough love, laughter, and leveling up.