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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.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:00:00]:
There's unfortunately those people out there and you've met them and talked to them. Well, this is— I had to do it the hard way, so now you can do it the hard way. If somebody's out there having a problem and they need a half hour of my time, they're gonna get it. If they decide they want coaching, that's a different story. But if they need a place to come and unload and lay down that burden, that's what I'm here for. Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Tanika Haynes. We all know as shop owners, sometimes you gotta slow down. in order to speed up.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:00:28]:
And that's what this podcast is all about. It's time to downshift.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:39]:
So I'm— you're on my podcast, so I'm interviewing you today, right?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:00:43]:
Uh, I think so. Yeah, we'll call it that. And then I'll get you to come on mine.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:49]:
Yeah, we'll do that. We'll, we'll do that. So what episode are you on now? 11.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:00:55]:
We just dropped 11 today.
Tonnika Haynes [00:00:57]:
It's fun. Um, but you, you have another podcast though, right?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:01:03]:
I have an old one. I don't do it anymore. Um, it was more about my spiritual woo-woo stuff, so it's still, it's still out there, but I'm not recording any new episodes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:13]:
Spiritual woo-woo?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:01:16]:
Yeah, spiritual woo-woo.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:16]:
Of course you've got spiritual woo-woo. I mean, I'm looking at your decor. Right. And then we talked about your name, which is— yes, what do people call you? Because I get nobody— I wouldn't want anybody to call me Jean or Anne. You need to call— if my name was Jeanine St. Grace, you need to call me by my whole name. Like, that's a name you need to call the whole name out.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:01:39]:
Just Jeananne is fine.
Tonnika Haynes [00:01:41]:
Just Jeananne is fine. All right, so, um, before Braxton Not to be rude, I never met you or heard of you or seen you out here in the automotive world. So maybe there's some people that are watching my podcast. So you want to take the opportunity to tell everybody who you are, your story, your background, and all the good stuff that we talked about?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:02:03]:
Sure. Share.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:04]:
Yeah, sure.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:02:06]:
Nothing's off limits. You can ask me anything.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:09]:
Well, I know that you start— you had a shop with your husband.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:02:13]:
That's right. Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:02:14]:
And, um, he passed on from cancer and that was— you owned the shop together for like 15 years?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:02:22]:
We had the shop from 2000 to 2015. And when he was diagnosed in 2015, we almost not immediately, but within a couple of months put the shop for sale. Um, and just had, we had one looker that he didn't, he wasn't going to be able to do it, but then the second person that came forward It was just a unicorn deal. Like, everything was perfect. Like, just from start to finish, it was a seamless thing. Like a 45-day escrow and it just went through. And they were thrilled. We were thrilled.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:02:58]:
Everything just went. So it's one of those guided things that the universe, God, Creator, however you want to talk to your higher power, just pushed it all through.
Tonnika Haynes [00:03:08]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:03:09]:
And held us through that process. Um, it's just one of those miracles, if you want to call it that. In my world, it was a miracle.
Tonnika Haynes [00:03:19]:
You know, we'll call it that. That seems legit. I think so. Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:03:23]:
Yeah. It was, it was cool.
Tonnika Haynes [00:03:24]:
So you stepped away and then he passed on, but you came back into this crazy business. I did.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:03:32]:
I did. Well, I mean, coaching. My first foray back into the automotive industry was coaching.
Tonnika Haynes [00:03:39]:
Okay.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:03:39]:
From 2018 until '24, I was focused on like individual coaching for grief and trauma, learning a ton about myself as well. Like that was, I had to relearn who I was after that. Like anybody who goes through a loss like that, you're not going to come out of it the same. And so I've spent you know, the last 8, 9 years, just figuring out who I was again.
Tonnika Haynes [00:04:11]:
Mm-hmm.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:04:12]:
And through that discovery, figured out that I have a knack for coaching people. I just have a way of helping them understand what they're going through. And when the opportunity to get back into automotive popped up, it was a super godsend. I ended up in a big coaching company. And then that was just too much. So now I'm with a much smaller company called Auto Fix Auto Shop Coaching.
Tonnika Haynes [00:04:37]:
Mm-hmm.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:04:38]:
And it's small, but I get to coach exactly how I want to coach. Whatever the client needs is what they get. We don't have any agenda. We don't have anything to sell except to be with the client and give them exactly what they need. And to be able to spend an hour with a client every week or more if they need it. and have the freedom to do that. Um, you know, cause I mean, you're a shop owner. I've been a shop owner.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:05]:
Sometimes the things that are on fire, you can't fix in a 20 or 30-minute coaching call. You know, you need more time.
Tonnika Haynes [00:05:11]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:12]:
And so, um, I find having the longer format gives us time to go much deeper with the problems and solutions. And I just, I thrive on that. longer form. Um, because you get to know your people, right? You get to love your people. Like all of my shop owners, even the ones from the previous company, like I'm still in contact with them. I just had one last week text me and he's like, I had my best week ever. And I'm like, thank you. Like, thank you for sharing that with me.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:47]:
It means a lot.
Tonnika Haynes [00:05:48]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:49]:
That he still is like updating me and wants to celebrate that with me. Like, that's huge to me.
Tonnika Haynes [00:05:54]:
Well, that's, that says a lot about you.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:05:57]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:05:58]:
Yeah. That is, that's you and good coaching. So I love it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:06:04]:
Thank you. Thank you. But, you know, they have to do all the hard work and I get to sit here and celebrate with them and, and give them, I mean, you know, as well as I do being a shop owner, there's not a lot of people running around wanting to pat you on the back.
Tonnika Haynes [00:06:18]:
Nope.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:06:19]:
So. Um, you know, when you get a chance to share that celebration, give them some props, tell them you're proud of them, tell them they did an awesome job. They made decisions for them that made their lives better. That's a win for everybody. And I'm, I'll celebrate every, every day with those, uh, every day.
Tonnika Haynes [00:06:38]:
I've never thought about it like that. You just said it as being a shop owner. Um, there's not many people you can celebrate the wins with. Because if you celebrate the wins too much, you might come off as arrogant. Um, really, you can, but you can't celebrate the wins with your team the way you could celebrate maybe with another shop owner that knows how big of a win it is.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:07:04]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:07:04]:
You kind of have to bury your success to a certain extent. You don't want to be too proud. You don't want to make enough, you don't want to make too much money. Um, yeah, that is, uh, oh, I need to counsel with you, girl. I'm just thinking about it, like, yeah, I'm— I have a lot of wins happening right now, a lot, a lot of trials as well. Not trouble, just like little trials, like people playing with me. Um, yeah, and just navigating through that. I'm a good culture of people.
Tonnika Haynes [00:07:40]:
I don't— I'm not a coach, but I can walk people through things. But damn, it's not that many people I can call and say, hey, this is what happened this week, best week ever, blah blah this, blah blah that. That's good. And I, I mean, I love my coach right now, my current coach. Um, she's great. But no, we don't get to talk once a week. That's a lot. I only get to talk to Jen like once a month.
Tonnika Haynes [00:08:04]:
And she's so busy because it's a bigger company. So I can see how what you're doing can really make a huge difference.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:08:13]:
Yeah, it's— yeah, I like it a lot too. I, you know, I had a few clients in the old company where I only talked to them once a month and it was so hard because so much has happened and then you're only— you're condensed into like what happened in the last month and it's 30 minutes and it's just not enough time. And I'm a, I'm a go deep or go home person. Like, Yeah. I'm not going to sit here with you and talk about the weather. Like, it's, it's sunny, it's fine. Let's get into what's happening with Tanika, right? Let's, let's drill down. How are you? How's your team? What's challenging you? What, what's on fire? What do you need from me today? That's what I'm here for.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:08:55]:
And If you've met me, there's no short answers. There's no, there's no like, let's just talk about it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:09:06]:
I thought you were gonna say, I'm okay, I'm fine.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:09:07]:
Yeah, you're not gonna— yeah, those 2 trigger words are gonna be like, no girl, tell me exactly what is going on. Like, don't—
Tonnika Haynes [00:09:14]:
You ain't gonna have me crying all over Beyoncé's internet because, girl, I mean, you know what? And then, and then, oh, can I get one more hour? Like, right now I'm struggling with a long-term employee who's having troubles, but it's coming into the workplace. And I know as a business owner, I need to do X, but as a friend, because we've known each other for so long, it's been part of the work family. I need, I need to do Y. And it's just like, right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:09:51]:
But yeah. And there's a middle ground for that. I don't know if you've heard me talk about how I coach people with leadership, but we do have to lead each person differently.
Tonnika Haynes [00:10:04]:
Oh yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:10:05]:
And, you know, if they're a long-term employee and you're, you're invested with them, what creative solution can we come up with to help them and have it be a win for the business and a win for them?
Tonnika Haynes [00:10:18]:
Yeah, I think I did a really good job with that today. Um, leadership, and I know whoever's listening to the podcast, like, there she is with that stuff again, but leadership is So much more than I ever thought it would be. It has changed my business and my— me a whole lot more than I thought, you know.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:10:38]:
Mm-hmm.
Tonnika Haynes [00:10:38]:
Because again, we do talk about all the numbers, all the money stuff, but these are the things that keep the shop running. I've got to coach this employee different than that one because everybody has a different personality and a different um, communication skill and all of that stuff. So it's just like, uh, yeah, I have an auto shop, we fix cars, but I feel like sometimes I have a nursery school full of cats with air guns, right? And they know how to fix stuff.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:11:14]:
Mm-hmm.
Tonnika Haynes [00:11:14]:
But yeah, a bunch of different cats— stray cats, fat cats, crazy cats. And I just have to figure out how to navigate with each one of them. And it's crazy. It's fun though. I mean, I do like it. It's teaching me a whole lot more about myself, but sometimes, girl, my eye get to twitching. Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:11:37]:
Yeah. And you can imagine, like, you know, coaching 70 shops a week, you hear so many things. And even in my shop, like we had, For as small of a group of people as we had, we had the gamut, right? And I was much more— I was less developed in my leadership skills then. I was still very empathic, very sympathetic to their challenges. But I was also like, and we have goals to meet, right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:12:09]:
Right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:12:10]:
And it's that balance. I, I was learning, like I was baby stepping into and had my little training wheels on and being a better leader then. But all the work that I've done, especially since my husband passed away, just because like I said, you can't go through that and not like just have a shift in your ex— in your life experience.
Tonnika Haynes [00:12:34]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:12:34]:
And you don't ever know what people are going through. And so And you don't know what trauma they're carrying. You don't know what their childhoods were like. Nobody's ever sat down with most of these people and asked them, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Tonnika Haynes [00:12:51]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:12:51]:
Do you want to look past your next paycheck and the paycheck after that? Do we want to look 5 years down the road? Where do you want to be as a technician or an advisor? Where do you want to be as a person? Where do you want to be with your family? What do you want that to look like? And give them a vision. beyond this week's KPIs, this week's paycheck, you know, maybe next week or the next vacation, right? Like, how do we help them and encourage them also to be individual leaders within the shop? Everybody's got something to bring to the table. So—
Tonnika Haynes [00:13:28]:
Everybody's got something to bring to the table. I used to use that when I first started thinking about leadership and before I got any training on it, before it was like the industry keyword, I would say that and say, everybody's got something to bring to the table. If everybody brought the same thing to the Thanksgiving table, that'd be the most boring meal in the whole world.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:13:46]:
Right. Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:13:47]:
So, you know, you're strong at this, I'm strong at this, you're weak at this, blah blah this. So when people get all judgy like that, I remember having that conversation a couple times with my staff saying, hey, we all have different skill levels, we all bring something to the table. Because like I said, if everybody brought ham to Thanksgiving, want no damn ham. Like, that's a lot of ham. But if you have, you know, somebody— yeah, somebody only can bring the cups. That person that cannot cook, please just bring cups and napkins. Don't, don't try to cook, sweetie, not yet. But we appreciate the cups and napkins, right?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:14:23]:
Right. Yep.
Tonnika Haynes [00:14:24]:
So everybody have something to give, um, yeah, to bring to the table. That's— that, that was powerful. I'm gonna write that one down, put on a t-shirt.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:14:34]:
Yes, absolutely. And even your least experienced person might have a different vision. They might be like, why are you guys doing that? That's crazy. And it's like, well, that's just how we've always done it. And they're like, well, why don't you do it this way? And all of a sudden you've got the next, the next, you know, turn of your wheel that evolves you into the next level.
Tonnika Haynes [00:14:55]:
Great idea.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:14:57]:
So, you know, we don't ever want to tell someone, oh, shut up, kid. You're the new guy. Just sit down and shut up and turn the wrench, right? Like, you never want to tell somebody that. You always want them to be sharing information and sharing ideas. You just never know where the next great, great idea is going to come from.
Tonnika Haynes [00:15:13]:
So, and yeah, same thing. You never know when your next great employee is going to come from. I was in a group setting today and we were talking about a shop owner. She has a new employee, a younger lady, and she's like, she's always on her phone and I just cannot express without getting angry to tell her, get off your flipping phone. And I, I said—
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:15:37]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:15:37]:
Oh, look at me coaching people. And I said, I said, listen, you don't know how she came up. You don't know what she's doing on the phone. These kids have had a phone in their hand since they were 6 months old. Think about how much we see children with electronics in their hand. So I tell them, I say, listen, just go into ChatGPT and say what you need to say with all the words that you want to say it and ask it to fix it for you. But I was like, that girl probably has more knowledge on technology than you do because she would with me. I just got a new phone and I want to throw it out the window already.
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:11]:
Um, we don't know what the youth have been through. I think people always talk about, oh, we don't have any new technicians coming in, the industry's dying, um, everybody wants to leave. We're not inviting people in because one, we think all of their ideas are stupid, their hair is stupid, their music is stupid. Everything's stupid. Like, my dad cannot stand my child's hair. Jordan's hair is— honey, it is, it is, uh, it's a lot. It's a lot of personality going on in those coils. But I look at Dad, I'm just thinking, you used to have an afro and a Jheri curl.
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:49]:
Somebody couldn't stand your damn hair either. Like, I don't know what it was like for us. It was hairspray and big bangs and stuff.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:16:56]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:16:56]:
And if I look back on it, that was stupid. Now we, we have to get over ourselves when it comes to people being different and bringing different stuff to the table, different ideas, different music, different ways of doing something. Hey, right now for me with my office, we got our standard operating procedures. They know what everything's supposed to look like. They, they know the minimum level of acceptance for certain things. But as for right now, I don't need to know exactly how you made that Kool-Aid, right? But it should taste like this when it's done. So I'm not going to micromanage every step that you— you know, if you want to put the sugar in first, Kool-Aid, I'm not going to tell you you must put the powder Kool-Aid in first, then the sugar, then the water, and stir it 3 times. I don't— I'm not gonna do all of that.
Tonnika Haynes [00:17:46]:
I'm just gonna tell you, right, my red Kool-Aid needs to taste like this.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:17:49]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:17:50]:
And I'm going to taste that red Kool-Aid often. Now, if you decide you're going to take my red Kool-Aid and put a little bit strawberries in it and make it better, why would I stop you from doing that?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:18:01]:
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And, and we don't, you know, I think shop owners or not shop owners, but any business owner in general, they're like, they, they're kind of feel like they have to be the smartest person in the room.
Tonnika Haynes [00:18:16]:
Mm-hmm.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:18:18]:
And I think we need to have smarter people in the room with us because our ideas are not always going to be the best because we've been raised a certain way. We have a certain level of experience. We know what we've been doing and it's been working. So, you know, we're not open always to, you know, it's our business. But again, this new style of leadership, um, when we did engagement surveys, the biggest things that That employees would talk about. They were anonymous surveys, so they could say whatever they wanted. There was no identification. It was communication, and it was, I don't feel recognized.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:18:56]:
I don't feel heard. I'm not asked for my input. Those were, no matter how good the shop was, those were the 3 big things. Even if the shop got 5 stars and everything else, those were the 3 things that always popped up.
Tonnika Haynes [00:19:11]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:19:11]:
I'm not asked for my input. Nobody listens to me and nobody sees me. And so if we can start seeing them and hearing them, our world becomes revolutionized. They're going to be like, oh, they see me as a person. When you see them as a person, then we start getting them engaged and then they start giving us more than 100% of their—
Tonnika Haynes [00:19:37]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:19:37]:
Energy. And, and it's, I mean, I—
Tonnika Haynes [00:19:41]:
It's like clocking in and clocking out. That engagement is a big deal. Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:19:45]:
Yes. And it's as little as, hey, how was your lunch? What did, what did you have for lunch? Oh, is that your favorite place to eat at? Um, how's your dog? How's your kid? Um, I'm a big proponent of one-on-ones, so I like my shop owners to have a 20, 30-minute sit-down with their each team member However often they want to.
Tonnika Haynes [00:20:07]:
I— How often do you think that should happen?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:20:11]:
I think a minimum is like every other week.
Tonnika Haynes [00:20:14]:
Okay.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:20:15]:
My, my unicorn desire would be once a week. Um, and then at that point they can be like 15, 20 minutes, but it's their time. It's like date night. It is inviolable. Like when that person shows up with their little notebook You turn off your phone, you give them your full attention for 15 or 20 minutes, talk about their goals, talk about how things are going in the shop, how are things going at home? What do they, you know, continuously, what do they wanna be when they grow up? Is this goal still the same or are we working towards something else? You know, if they wanna buy a house, I know a realtor, I know a lender, I know a financial planner, I know a plumber, I know this, I know that. So, bringing them into your network and showing them them not only that you're interested, but also that you're willing to help them find the person who can help them. Because you, you had a great stream on Facebook about like, how far do we need to go with our people? My opinion is we need to love them till it's weird and then love them some more. And I just— that we have to show them that we care.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:21:30]:
And more than about their KPIs, more than about their productivity. As human beings, how are you doing? And it really broke my heart to find out that the automotive industry technicians specifically have the highest— I'm sorry.
Tonnika Haynes [00:21:53]:
Highest suicide rate.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:21:55]:
Highest suicide rate. of any other industry.
Tonnika Haynes [00:21:58]:
Um, a lot of people don't know that. I want to dig into that. We talked about that when we first met. I didn't know that until you brought that up. And I've been like, kind of going down these rabbit holes with that.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:22:12]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:12]:
And I believe it all leads back to what I was saying earlier. There's not many shop owners that have anyone to celebrate with, or to cry with. Because this crap is hard.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:22:24]:
It is.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:25]:
I mean, like, you can close your shop at night and feel like a complete failure because every single RO went down the drain, went to shit, right? Or— and, and you're responsible for— you've got a business, right? You're a business owner. You're responsible for 5, 6, 7 families, and you cannot figure it out. But if you go to try to figure it out, we're in the industry, there's a lot of testosterone you could potentially get verbally attacked, which sends you down a little bit more.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:22:58]:
Um, right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:22:59]:
Yeah, I know that there's a lot of our brothers hurting sisters too. Uh, so yeah, I believe that's, that's part of it. And then the lack of engagement.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:23:10]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:10]:
And that's with any job. I mean, I have people that say they not in the automotive industry and listen to my podcast and they're getting something from it. and the little lipstick report thing I do. But there's not a lot of engagement. And we're not trying to light some sage and sing Kumbaya and all of that good stuff. We're just saying, hey, how are you doing?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:23:31]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:31]:
Yes, my shop is having this problem right now. Hey, right, I had that problem too. That sucks. I'm still having problems. I might have the KPIs at the percentages where they're supposed to be. I'm meeting all my goals. But yesterday I ran to the bathroom. I just sat there and I hid because everything was just coming all at once.
Tonnika Haynes [00:23:55]:
My eye is still twitching. I'm— yeah, I'm, I'm still not getting everything right. So just because you see me smiling with the lipstick and this, that, whatever, honey, it ain't easy out here. And if you want to talk, I'm here. We don't get a lot of that. And so—
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:24:11]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:24:14]:
What do we do about it?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:24:16]:
Well, we open up the space, right? And I am a coach, that's what I do. But I'm also here, I've had a couple of people reach out to me and like, I want to start a shop, but I'm getting all this negative feedback of don't do it, just keep your job and be happy. And it's like, why are we Why are we crushing somebody's dream? Why aren't we having a conversation? And there's unfortunately those people out there, and you've met them and talked to them. Well, this is— I had to do it the hard way, so now you can do it the hard way. Instead of saying, come here, bud, let me, let me talk to you, you know, or you being the auntie, right? Like, come here, come here, little one. Let me, let me talk to you for a minute.
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:03]:
You know, let's do this. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that, babe.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:25:05]:
Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, let's, let's, you know, instead of, again, this, this other style of leadership, let me finish my thought before I jump on that one. If somebody is out there having a problem and they need a half hour of my time, they're going to get it.
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:20]:
Mm-hmm.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:25:21]:
No question, no question asked. That one's on me. If they decide they want coaching, that's a different story. But if they need a place to come and unload and lay down that burden, That's what I'm here for.
Tonnika Haynes [00:25:33]:
Right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:25:33]:
And I mean, I have had, you can imagine the majority of my shop owners are men, that there have been, sometimes our calls evolved into, this is what's going on at home. My wife doesn't support this. She hates the shop. She doesn't want to talk about it. So I don't have anybody to talk to. And so then I'm the one who steps into that gap and is like, well, talk to me. Tell me what's going on. And, and that breaks my heart because, you know, my husband and I were a team.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:26:06]:
We were there together doing it day in and day out. And I know, and this is nothing against him because he was a tremendously good technician, he didn't know how to run a business. He didn't know how to do payroll. He didn't know how to file quarterly taxes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:26:22]:
Right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:26:23]:
You know, he didn't know any of those things. That was my department. And if, if they don't have a me and they might be relying on a bookkeeper, so then you need trust but verify. But if you don't know what the bookkeeper's doing, how do you trust and verify? Right. And I'm not throwing shade like this business is not for everyone, but these, these shop owners that are doing it on their own without a partner, they don't have anybody to talk to. And then we've created this lack of collaboration/competition/let's not talk about the bad stuff. It's only, hey, we hit our KPIs this week, and we're not supporting each other in a real way where we can sit down and be like, man, I am challenged. This thing is eating my lunch.
Tonnika Haynes [00:27:12]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:27:14]:
And so, a good part of coaching is finding a place where you can have a peer group. Where you get to know people, they're not in your market. So you're not— I don't believe in competition, but a lot of people view competition as competition. So if they're out of your market, then you can sit and have an honest conversation. Hopefully, sometimes that is, you know, smoothed out by a couple of cocktails. But, you know, getting real with each other and being, and being vulnerable, because how many of us as shop owners want to admit Yeah. This isn't working. Something's wrong.
Tonnika Haynes [00:27:49]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:27:50]:
And, and I'll be perfectly honest with you, towards the end there, right before my husband was diagnosed, I was working 50, 60 hours a week. I was burnt out. I couldn't admit that to my coach. I couldn't admit that to my husband because I felt like I would be letting him down. Um, I was Because I'd always been rewarded for sticking it out. And man, you're working 60 hours a week, good for you. And I'm like, I'm dying here and you're telling me I'm doing a good job, right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:24]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:28:25]:
And so, you know, we have to make ourselves vulnerable and say, dude, I was burnt out. I, I did not— I didn't have anybody to go to to say, well, maybe you need some more help. Maybe you need to find some places you can turn loose of some control.
Tonnika Haynes [00:28:41]:
You know, I had to get all of that from podcasts and books outside of the industry. Yeah, I have on repeat on Audible right now is Buy Back Your Time. Yeah, I have been listening to that. Like, I've listened to that book 4 times straight this month. And yesterday— No, here's the other side of that. So yesterday I, um, went to the doctor's office, and so I suffer from all of the Black people diseases. I've got high blood pressure, I've got diabetes, and, um, now I have rheumatoid arthritis. So those are the things I'm putting out there in the world.
Tonnika Haynes [00:29:16]:
I know I'm cute, but a sister be hurting. Um, yeah. Got more medications than an old person, and I have not been taking care of myself. I did that for so long. Um, in, in the last— in the first 3 to 4 years, I was hospitalized twice because I took it too far. When my body was talking to me, I was like, I got stuff to do, I got stuff to do, I can't do it, got stuff, I gotta go 50, 60 hours a week. Yeah, but now I'm on the other side of that. Okay.
Tonnika Haynes [00:29:45]:
And I've got a great team and they are really working well together. They, they are doing better without me because I've got the stuff in place, right? So everything's on the up and up. And I leave the doctor's appointment yesterday and he, he's a customer. He's like, you've got to stop working so much. So I walk into the shop and I—
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:30:02]:
Mm-hmm.
Tonnika Haynes [00:30:03]:
Am apologizing to them. saying, hey, I need you guys to know that I really don't want to be an absentee shop owner, but I also want to be alive. So I'm going to leave here at 3 o'clock. And they are like, we're gonna help you leave here at 3 o'clock. We want you dressed for the gym or dressed to go for a walk at 3 o'clock. They're pushing me out of the office like, go on, get Miss Tanika. So I was telling— I was like, I don't know what you call it. I don't want to call it survivor's remorse.
Tonnika Haynes [00:30:31]:
There's like something sitting over my, over my heart. Like, oh man, I can't abandon them. They're doing all the work and I'm not doing anything. So now I want to make myself work harder. So I need, wait, girl, I need to make an appointment with you so we can talk about that. Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:30:49]:
And that's, I mean, and that's understandable because we've all been taught to lead by example. Right. We've all been, and, and I'm, I'm guilty of the same thing. If I'm expecting somebody to put in 40 hours and by God, I should be there right next to them 40 hours. But as shop owners, we have to realize that when we lock those doors at 5 o'clock, does the business turn off?
Tonnika Haynes [00:31:13]:
Nope.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:31:14]:
We're strategic planning.
Tonnika Haynes [00:31:16]:
We're checking the email at 2 o'clock in the morning.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:31:19]:
Yes. If we're doing our own books, we're doing our own books. We're doing the payroll. We're doing marketing. We're checking the Google reviews. And as far as me, you know, being a shop owner, I was also on the front counter. So there was no way I could sit and do payroll and be a service advisor at the same time.
Tonnika Haynes [00:31:42]:
Right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:31:43]:
From 8 to 5, I had my service advisor hat on, and from 5 to whenever, I was business owner, accountant, bookkeeper, payroll, HR, marketing, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Like, I know that if every shop owner had a business card that said everything that they needed to do, it would be like an 8.5 by 11.
Tonnika Haynes [00:32:02]:
5 business cards. Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:32:04]:
Yeah. So, you know, I want you to think about it like that, that you don't— even as a business owner, you don't work 8 to 5. You work all the time, pretty much, right? And if you have the people in place, then you're probably paying freedom tax, right? You're paying your team to do the things that you need them to do so that you can step back and be a better owner because you're not you're not like down in the trenches.
Tonnika Haynes [00:32:38]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:32:39]:
It's fine to be in the trenches, but you also, as much as I don't like militaristic leadership anymore, the generals are never on the front line because they're leading the pack. The generals are in HQ sending out the signals. And, you know, do they care? Yes. If every wounded soldier that comes back, they should be there patting them on the head, telling them, hey son, you're going to be all right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:04]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:33:05]:
But they are not going to be out there leading the charge. And Band of Brothers is one of my favorite war movies, miniseries of all time. And at one point, they've made the guy the lieutenant and he's got his gun in his hand and he's running to the front lines and his commanding officer's yelling and screaming, get him off the line! Get him off the line! What's he think he's doing? We have to kind of think about that, right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:33]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:33:35]:
And, and just because— what's that?
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:38]:
I said that was great. You got me thinking about so many different things. Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:33:43]:
Yeah. So just because you're not in the trench from 8 to 5 doesn't mean you're not putting in your time after you go take your walk. And your more productive time might be from 5 to 7 when the doors are closed.
Tonnika Haynes [00:33:55]:
Oh yeah, for sure. That is my best time to work. I love to go to the shop. I'm only open Monday through Thursday. I love to go in there Friday and Saturday and get stuff done because other than that, every 5 minutes it's squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. I can't focus, so I just go in there, turn on Dateline, solve a couple crimes, and do my work. Now, yeah, here's another part of that. You got the new shop owner, okay? Say it's a great husband and wife team, they're, they're working well together.
Tonnika Haynes [00:34:22]:
And, um, you know, we tell— we're saying right now, you know, you can't work in your business, you have to work on your business and this stuff, whatever. Yes, early in your business, you're going to have to do both. You're going to have to do what I did, what Jean Ann did, what a lot of people are doing. But we're trying to say is, don't, don't do it to the point that it's causing you mental and physical health issues.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:34:54]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:34:55]:
You cannot go— you cannot start a business, any business, automotive, barbershop, I don't care what you're doing, you cannot start any business and your door hours say 8 to 5 and think that you're only going to work from 8 to 5.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:35:09]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:35:10]:
You're going to have to be a service advisor from 8 to 5, and then you're going to have to be accountant, and from— you have to do marketing from 6 AM to 8 AM. You're gonna have to wear those hats. So not yet, not yet. You can't, you know, you can't do what I'm doing at this phase yet. You are going to have to work 50, 60 hours.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:35:33]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:35:33]:
Unfortunately, people get that mixed up, and then that's how they fail at business as well, because they're not putting the work in. But when you're putting the work in, give yourself some grace. That is what I want to put out there. Yeah, I don't want you to think you're going to go in there, you're going to make all your money real quick, and then you're going to go buy a big boat. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Do not fall for the okie-doke and the pomp and circumstance of these coaching companies that are telling you just it's going to be easy. It's not going to be hard as hell, right? But I want you to choose your heart, and I want you to choose to give yourself grace when you're doing it. You're going— you, you gonna be tired, big dog, little dog.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:36:16]:
Yes. Yeah. You've got to. Yeah. And I find, I do find that with, with new shop owners, you know, well, I want to show up at 8 and leave at 5, then go get yourself a job. You know, this is, this is an investment in your future. And, you know, I, I mean, in a way. All of that hard work paid off because when the chips were down and my husband was sick and we had to focus on his healthcare, that became the core of our existence.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:36:51]:
How do we continue to keep our bills paid and give him the care that he needed? And all that hard work, all that time spent, Paid off because we were able to sell the shop. And I had a part-time job for a short period of time until we were— then we're moving, right? And so we're moving across country, no way I can hold down any kind of a job. Um, we had money coming in, then we moved completely and we're down here, and that's when his health really started to deteriorate. And I had one client for bookkeeping, I did that once a week, But, but our passive income carried the rest of it. And then when he passed away, I was immediately able to tap into his 401 and I just had to pay the taxes on it. But there's no penalties for somebody who passed. So I had money. So the future, as long as you're thinking about the future now, the future will take care of itself.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:37:52]:
We had a 401, we had We didn't have— and this is a big cautionary tale— what we did not have was like key man insurance or life insurance on him.
Tonnika Haynes [00:38:03]:
Oh, okay.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:38:04]:
If I'd had those 2 things, it would have been even easier, right? But so, so what I'm telling everybody who's listening now, if you are an owner, you need to have life insurance and you need key man insurance because If you— KeyMan will generally cover, um, like your payroll.
Tonnika Haynes [00:38:28]:
Mm-hmm.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:38:29]:
Like we were— when he— for his treatment, we had to be in Utah. We were in California. We had to be in Utah for 1 week every 3rd week. So we were running the shop 2 weeks, closed a week, running the shop 2 weeks, closed a week. And the first, the first month of his treatment, the shop was closed and we were in Utah for 30 days. And I was able to put my team on temporary unemployment so they could claim unemployment for when we were closed.
Tonnika Haynes [00:38:56]:
Right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:38:57]:
And then we paid them when they were working. And bless their hearts, they stuck with us through that. I can't ever say enough about those 2 guys. Like, they're in my heart forever. And, but if we'd had Keyman, I probably could have kept paying them their weekly salaries, their weekly pay, and they wouldn't have lost anything. And I mean, coulda, woulda, shoulda. Like I said, I'm a cautionary tale. Do that now.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:39:28]:
It's so inexpensive compared to everything else. It might be another car to a month to pay for that.
Tonnika Haynes [00:39:34]:
Right.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:39:35]:
Do it. Right? Do it. Take care of your team. Take care of your spouse. Take care of your family. Because I was in that whole process, I never thought, well, I never had planned my husband passing away, but I never looked at the day after he passed. Like, what did that look like? You know, and I was in no place to go work a 40-hour job week. I was, you know, the only thing that got me out of bed some days was that my animals needed to be fed.
Tonnika Haynes [00:40:04]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:40:04]:
And that's a hand to the heart, God's honest truth. And you don't know, you know, and a lot of times we think about the husband passing, but what if you're a shop owner and your wife passes away and you've got little kids? Are you going to be able to spend 50 hours a week at the shop?
Tonnika Haynes [00:40:24]:
No.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:40:26]:
No. Yeah. And Lucas and his— is it Dave Roman?
Tonnika Haynes [00:40:34]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:40:34]:
Yeah. They just had a guy on. His dad passed away. And he worked, he kind of worked himself through the shock of it all. And then one day, he's like, I just can't do this anymore. I don't want to do this anymore. So what, you know, what do you do in that situation? And bless his heart for like having that revelation of I just can't anymore. But if he'd You know, if he'd slowed down a little bit at the beginning and been like, I'm in shock.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:41:06]:
I'm, I've lost, you know, for men losing their dads is tough. Losing their moms is tough, but we don't give them room for that. We're, nobody's like, who was checking on him saying, dude, are you okay?
Tonnika Haynes [00:41:20]:
Nope.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:41:20]:
I'm just working. I'm good.
Tonnika Haynes [00:41:22]:
I'm just working. I'll be fine. I'll be fine.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:41:23]:
Yeah, exactly. And, and I was, I was not fine. I mean, I will tell you my, my, my low, low was I would, I I was leaving on a trip and all I wanted to do was get out the weed whacker and weed whack around my front gate so that when I came home from my trip, I wouldn't come home to weeds that were 6 feet tall. All I wanted to do. The day before I was going to do it, I went out, I started the weed whacker, it started, it ran, whole thing, no problem. The next day I go out because it was cooler. We're in Texas, right? So I was going to go out at 6 in the morning and do that and be done by the time it got hot. The thing wouldn't start.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:42:03]:
Like, no, nothing. And I'm like—
Tonnika Haynes [00:42:06]:
Or did you throw it?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:42:08]:
I didn't throw it. I sat it down. I walked away. And this is not a lie. I was on the floor of the kitchen in the fetal position, and my dog was licking my face. Because I was just like, I am not a helpless woman. I have never been helpless in my life, but I just got licked by the damn, you know, I just got laid low by the weed whacker. And it's like, can't one thing just work? Like, can't I just have this one thing?
Tonnika Haynes [00:42:46]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:42:47]:
And I just, You— it's surrender, right? In that moment, I'm just like, whatever, the weeds will just have to be there when I get back and I'll figure it out, right? So when you go through a life change like that and you're still trying to run a business, you need better support.
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:07]:
Mm-hmm.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:43:07]:
And, you know, like, you allow your team to support you. You've been giving and giving and giving and giving. Let them give back to you. And support you and hold you up in this time of challenge. Just like you're helping your employee get through this rough patch, they're going to help you get through your rough patch too. And that's engagement. That's building culture. That's teamwork.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:43:31]:
That's trust.
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:32]:
That's what we're talking about right now.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:43:33]:
Yes. So, you know—
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:36]:
We just fix cars part-time after we engage all day and take care of each other. We just happen to fix cars while we're doing it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:43:42]:
Exactly. And, and that, I mean, it's weird to think that, that the byproduct of what we do is working on cars, but, and you'll hear me say this too, we're here to serve our customers. We're really not here to fix cars.
Tonnika Haynes [00:43:58]:
We're here to— I think my coach put it like, we're in the people business.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:44:02]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:44:03]:
The way Jen said, she's like, yeah, we're in the people business. Like, yep, we are. They come to us with problems. They come through the front door with problems. They come through the back door with problems. Situations. I've been trying to use that more and more because, uh, in Jamaica— I love Jamaica. I think I'm Jamaican.
Tonnika Haynes [00:44:19]:
I'm not. Um, the shirt, no problem, only situations. Bunch of situations.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:44:26]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:44:26]:
Too many situations.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:44:29]:
Um, I use challenges because it's just something to be overcome. It's not really a problem. Like, somebody's got a solution. Yeah, yeah, take a number.
Tonnika Haynes [00:44:41]:
What's next? Bring it, bring it. I am ready today. And then tomorrow I'll be in a corner in fetal position getting licked in the face by a dog. It's like, what kind of day? I don't know what the day is going to bring, but just bring it, bring it, Lord, bring it. I'm ready for it. Okay, don't, don't bring that much. Chill. I was just playing.
Tonnika Haynes [00:45:00]:
I'm just playing.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:45:00]:
Yeah, yeah, I'm at the— I'm at my limit. The limit was the new start lawn weed whacker, right? And I, you know, it's just, um, those are the moments, right? Those are the moments when we're human, when our humanity shows 100%. And I'm more than willing to show people my vulnerability. Like, I, I am not Superwoman. I don't play her on TV. I tried that. It didn't work. You end up with adrenal fatigue and really bad coping mechanisms.
Tonnika Haynes [00:45:30]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:45:33]:
And a dark sense of humor. Like, that's— I don't recommend. Zero stars.
Tonnika Haynes [00:45:39]:
Zero stars. Don't do that.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:45:40]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:45:41]:
Okay.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:45:41]:
You know, like, even— yeah, even Superman had like his, his fortitude of, um, oh, what was it called? His cave. His ice cave. So where he could go and lay his cape down and just be Clark Kent for a while and have nobody be able to find him or, you know, So, and a lot of, a lot of shop owners, both men and women, we've got our little super capes on, right? And, and we get, we get validated by being Superman or Superwoman. The customers are happy. We've saved our team member, like we saved their dog. Lassie's out of the well.
Tonnika Haynes [00:46:23]:
Mm-hmm.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:46:23]:
And there's, you know, awards all around for, you know, the thing you did in, in public. Nobody was there on a Saturday when I was balancing my checkbook, right? It's like, oh, good job, you did a good job there.
Tonnika Haynes [00:46:36]:
Look at you go, go girl!
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:46:39]:
Nobody was there when the 941 payroll return wouldn't balance and you're banging your head against the wall going, why the heck won't this thing balance? And then you figure it out. Yeah, and nobody, nobody's there with the golf clap saying, good job, you did a good job. Like we, so many shop owners are having their successes in private and nobody's celebrating with them. And, and then they fail in private too, because we have this feeling that we're the leader and we can't ever fail. And I think that's where our challenges come. And then, like you said, we don't have a community where we can hold them and say, hey, you know, hey, we've all been on our face. We've all been on the floor crying about a weed whacker. Or whatever it is, right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:28]:
You know, it's not about the weed whackers, everything that led up to the weed whackers.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:47:33]:
Yes, yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:47:35]:
It's just like when you're, um, there is a little spot where we keep the batteries and it's right by the door to the office. And it's so funny because I have like, in this, in the, um, winter I'm wearing my sweaters, right? And, um, it's too funny, like I'm just running, running, running. It's before I have my service advisor. Running, running, running. 100 miles per hour, and the flipping cart, the thing would grab my sweater almost every single time that I would get out of hand. And one of my technicians would say, huh, got you again. And I'll just say, I started to say to myself, you know what, that is the Lord slowing you down.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:48:10]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:48:11]:
Like, sit down, sit down, my child, you've done too much. Like, the weed whacker was slowing you down. Yeah, he was just like, okay.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:48:18]:
Yeah, yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:48:20]:
So yeah, we, we don't get celebrated when we reconcile the books and it all works out, and when we find that, um, 7-cent difference in that 941, and, uh, when we get our taxes done on time, and, um, when payroll— when you don't have to— no longer— you no longer have to check your checking account every day to make sure things are clear, when you're actually doing those wins. Those are the small wins that we don't get to celebrate with anybody. When you don't have any comebacks for 30 days Yep. When you remember when all the parts came in right and on time, big dog. Like, what? When all the customers say yes, like, there's always like, they said yes? The week of yes, the cars left on time, every— nobody called in late from work on Monday morning. You didn't get a Monday morning text at 6:45 saying, I'm gonna be late. Right, we gotta start celebrating. I gotta figure out a way to celebrate that on the internet.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:13]:
I want you guys to celebrate like Lucas does it— celebrate your wins. But they're like, oh yeah, I hit my KPIs. Hey, I didn't kill anybody this week.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:49:21]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:21]:
Yay me.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:49:22]:
Yeah. And sometimes that's the win, you know. Every lug nut got tightened. Um, you know, nobody ran into the shop door. Um, you know.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:36]:
We didn't hear ever since you that nobody— no customers said ever since you. We, we've remembered to change every oil change sticker this week.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:49:46]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:47]:
Go us. Big stuff. Yes.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:49:49]:
Yeah, we, we did it. We did all the oil changes and nobody came back saying their radio now didn't work.
Tonnika Haynes [00:49:56]:
Oh my God. But if people could hear themselves when they complain— like, I've gotten really— I'm really good at it. My uncle told me the other day, we're dinner at my dad's, and he's like, you do this thing with your face that you can smile at people and you can really tell them off, and it's kind of scary. And I was like, I know it's scary when I do it. Like, yeah, I'm a crazy person. But like, I don't think people can hear themselves when customers say crazy stuff like that. I repeat it to make sure that they heard how ridiculous what they said was. Like, so yeah, we did your oil change last week and your radio's not working now?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:50:27]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:27]:
Yeah, let's see what we can do about that.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:50:31]:
Is the volume up? I had a customer come in. He called me one day. His dash lights weren't working, but the radio worked. And I'm no technician and I'm like, well, gosh, like the dash—
Tonnika Haynes [00:50:47]:
The dimmer.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:50:48]:
The dimmer. The dash lights are all on. It can't be a fuse because all that stuff's got to be on the same fuse. And I'm, like I said, I can't read an electrical diagram. I am not a technician, but in my little pea brain, I'm like, All that's on the same thing? And I'm like, well, bring it by and let me take a look at it. And I climbed in it. And he'd always been one of those that was kind of like a Doubting Thomas about me. Like, you know, you don't like the woman.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:51:14]:
Yeah, I'd rather deal with the man behind the woman. And I hopped in there and I'm looking around and I'm like, where's the dimmer switch? I find that dimmer switch and I just roll it up and he's standing there watching me and I roll it up and all the dash lights come on.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:28]:
What?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:51:30]:
Oh, the light came on. Oh, um, man, I missed that. I'm like, yeah, that's cool, no problem, it happens to everybody, you know. Okay, I smoothed it over for him and he had a lot more respect for me from that day forward.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:47]:
Good.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:51:47]:
You know, and, you know, bless his heart, he just— yeah, he was just caught up in his own stuff and Had to have been somebody else's fault.
Tonnika Haynes [00:51:57]:
Usually people are. I find that with a lot of customers, they're, they're in their own stuff. They've got stuff going on. They're just mad at the world, and now the stupid car, and they got to come bring it to the stupid people at the stupid shop, and they don't have any time. So I love customers. I know I talk junk about them, but I love them. But some of them can play with me. Um, I don't even know if I told this on the podcast yet.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:16]:
I put it in one of the groups when it happened. Sitting in the back, and Haley comes and she's like, Mr. Nika, this guy's upset. And I think it was just one service advisor at the time. I don't think Stuart was working there yet. This guy's upset, he's got a waiting oil change. I don't do a lot of those, we do like 2 a day because my nerves— I can't, I can't.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:52:34]:
That's all you need, that's all you should be doing. All I need.
Tonnika Haynes [00:52:38]:
Yeah, so we're doing an oil change, tire rotation, DVI, um, and I go up front and I'm like, what could possibly be wrong? What is the problem? He's mad because we're taking too long. I was like, well, sir, I'm like, you've been here like 30 minutes. We're not a Quick Lube, I don't know what you expected, but he's been here before, so You know what's really happening? His oxygen tank was running low.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:53:05]:
Um.
Tonnika Haynes [00:53:06]:
And sometimes I am not as graceful as God wants me to be, but I can be very— that one of those times when I can start smiling at you. And I said, so you made an appointment for your car to be repaired and you decided you wanted to wait for it and you walked out of your house and you did not bring enough oxygen for you, and you're mad at me. And he's just going on, this is not senior friendly, this is mean, this is poor customer service. I'm like, dude, like, you're— oxygen is your responsibility. What do you want me to do with that? Like, what can I do?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:53:43]:
Right.
Tonnika Haynes [00:53:43]:
And he's just talking, and Satan showed up right there. He was He went right there and he said, um, say this, say it, say it, say it. And I said, for somebody that is running low on oxygen, you are talking a whole lot. And I left. I went to the back and Jesus, he forgave me.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:54:08]:
He did.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:10]:
Um, yeah, customers are something. Well, I don't do that. That's why I need to be in the back. I am no longer allowed to answer the phone or deal with the public anymore. I'm turning into a cranky old woman.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:54:23]:
Well, you know, you've, you've earned the right. I, I think we have so many times where we swallow it and are like, you're right, have a wonderful day, bye-bye.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:33]:
But then they go somewhere else and get away with it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:54:36]:
Yes.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:37]:
I'm going to train you as my customer. We don't do that here. You're not going to get away with that here. We're going to have a conversation. I'm gonna understand that you're upset, you don't understand, everything's not clear. I, I'm going to look at it from a consumer's perspective, right? And then we're going to tell you how it's done here at Brown's Automotive.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:54:55]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:54:55]:
And that question is going to be yes or no. Do you want to come in?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:54:59]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:55:00]:
And join us, or take your butt down the street because I ain't doing this with you. But, um, right. But no, we can't let the clients get away with it way too much. I, I'm really good at trying to figure out what the real problem is, um, because usually it's not the car, it's not— it's something else that's going on with their lives. But again, you don't— you're not allowed just because you're having a bad day to make everybody else's day bad. We're not going to do that. Keep that to yourself, right? Not doing that. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Tonnika Haynes [00:55:29]:
And so what's—
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:55:29]:
what's up? And I would say— what?
Tonnika Haynes [00:55:32]:
Go ahead. No, what are you gonna say?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:55:35]:
I was gonna say, you know, sometimes, like you said, we're just— we just happen to see them on a bad day. But I would say that 99.9% of my customers were amazing people and would bring their families and bring their friends. And, you know, when my husband was sick, the outpouring of kindness that I— that we received was powerful. And so even if you're in the trench and you feel like, I am not making a difference, I guarantee you that most of your customers, that if they knew you were having some kind of a struggle, would at the very least put you in their prayers and wish you all the best, right?
Tonnika Haynes [00:56:21]:
Oh yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:56:22]:
And that might be the extent to which they can help. Um, but, you know, I still have customers. I just talked to one the other day who, you know, she, she's a sweet lady and she just got herself into my heart. And, you know, 10 years out, I just picked up the phone and called her the other day and we had a great conversation. And that's a testament to the work that we do.
Tonnika Haynes [00:56:46]:
Yeah, same. I've got a customer, much, much older lady. It's about time for her to stop driving and she was having some memory issues that one of my, um, employees picked up on. She could not figure out how to register her vehicle, and she— I think she had called him, asked the same question like 10 times. And so Jade said, hey, can I go and help her with this? And I was like, absolutely. And so what I did is I called her daughter, who's like 2 states away, and I said, hey, this is what we're getting ready to do for your mom. Um, she's like, you guys have always taken care of my mom. I was like, this is what we do.
Tonnika Haynes [00:57:19]:
This is, this is why I love my business. I love the service side. Now, I will— I, I love customer service. I love service. I'm not nobody's servant but the Lord, right? But I love service. And when I can do something like that, that is my favorite thing. I love it. She sent us, um, uh, a bunch of snacks and Grover.
Tonnika Haynes [00:57:43]:
She had him delivered. And I mean, she, she I was like, yeah, I think it's time for Mom to stop driving. I know this is a difficult conversation because your mom's so independent. But I watched my mom go through it and she was upset and she was crying and I was able to talk her through that. And she kept apologizing that we had to do it. I was like, no, I am so grateful that I get to do this for you. I get to do this for your mom.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:58:10]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:58:10]:
So yeah, that— those are the things that make me So very happy that I still love the industry. I still love the work that I do, that, that connection with the community, human connection, and also letting my staff see that this is why we do what we do. It's not just that, you know, we hit our numbers this week. We hit those emotional KPIs. We've connected with the community.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:58:35]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [00:58:36]:
Right. Yep.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:58:36]:
Yep. Absolutely. And, you know, I, I'm not conflating us, but, you know, in a lot of ways we're their first responder. And when they, instead of calling the fire department, they call us and they're like, I have a problem with my car. And it's, you know, we've fomented that relationship that they trust us enough that they might not even need us. Maybe they need a collision department or maybe they need a glass guy or maybe they need a tire guy if we don't do tires.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:03]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:59:04]:
But they're calling us first and say, who is your person? And they trust us for us to point them in the right direction. And those are the ones that are successful. You know, and they're, who's your plumber? Who's your this? Who's your that? Right. So that's, you know, and some of them were the ones that didn't trust us at the beginning. You know, they walked in skeptical, they walked in, they're going to tear you down and they're going to, You know, come at you from every angle and you persevere with them. And then they're like, I've, I had some people come back and be like, yeah, I was being a real a-hole that day. I'm sorry. You know, you guys took really good care of me.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [00:59:43]:
That's a win. That's a win. And that, that's what I love, winning over the doubters. I think if I can win over the doubters, that's my, uh, that's my stock in trade.
Tonnika Haynes [00:59:56]:
I like that. I like— I live in the, um, in a retirement community, so I feel like I have like 1 million grandmothers and grandfathers, and they have earned the right to be grumpy.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:00:06]:
Mm-hmm.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:07]:
And I love it. Just like, don't you come in here with that grumpiness. I don't want to hear that today. And, oh, Tanika, you know, it's like, don't you come in here with that today. It's like, okay. And you just make a different connection. And like you said, I remember, um, years ago had a, a client who was She's something else. She's— I'm gonna act like that when I'm old.
Tonnika Haynes [01:00:26]:
But she did not trust anybody, nobody. And she lived in a retirement community, and somehow she lost her car keys. She came home from the grocery store, brought the groceries in the house, and could not find her keys. And she must— she called the janitor for the, um, the retirement community, but she did not want him in her apartment. So she's telling him to call Tanika at Brown's. And she wanted me to come to her apartment to help her find her keys because she didn't trust anybody else in her apartment. And I, um, remember getting there. I got the call and my dad was like, what? And I was like, listen, I gotta go help her find her keys.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:06]:
Just— I'm on the way. Um, I get there and I said, well, what did you do? They were in the refrigerator. So, yeah. But that's the kind of trust and that's the kind of relationships that you, you can't— there's no KPI for that.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:01:19]:
No.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:19]:
For sure. So.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:01:21]:
No.
Tonnika Haynes [01:01:22]:
Don't you love it? I love it. I do.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:01:25]:
I, and there's times when I miss, I miss that, but I'm after, I'm going to say everything that I've been through, not an excuse, just my, my life experience. I feel so good to be sharing my experience with shop owners and helping them with their people and talking to their people. Like you and I don't just talk to the owners. We're talking to the advisors, we're talking to the technicians. It's a, it's a family, it's a community. And, um, we serve, I think, I like to think that we're serving everybody by doing the work that we're doing. And I love being a coach. Like, I just enjoy the heck out of it.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:02:02]:
And, you know, this industry has given me pretty much everything. And so this is me paying it back.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:10]:
Well, we appreciate all of the things that you are putting out here in the universe. All the good podcasts, the good conversations, the hard conversations that nobody is willing to have, and, uh, the time that you get to spend with your clients. I love that about the coaching. Like, an hour a week, that is a lot. And I, um, might need to come lay on your couch.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:02:34]:
You know what, you are more than welcome.
Tonnika Haynes [01:02:37]:
And another thing, and one more thing. Okay, hours up. Okay, I'm gonna call you right back. I got more. Yeah, but no, start that clock again. Again, just bill it. Bill me. Yeah, because we do, um, like Kim Walker was saying, there is a lot of shop owners, men and women, that do not have a— as Kim Walker put it— a soft place to land when they get home.
Tonnika Haynes [01:03:04]:
Yeah, because they don't want to hear, or they don't understand and they've been home with the kids all day, or they had their own problems at work. And, um, and you just shut up and you grin and bear it, and you pull in the car, you come home, pull in the garage, and you sit in your car for another 10 to 15 minutes to decompress, put on a happy face that really is, uh, just a mask, and go in there and try to be super mom or super dad. And on the inside, you're misfiring. So, yes.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:03:34]:
Yep. And that, that's an excellent way to put it. And yeah, we, you know, for everybody who's listening, keep listening. Whoever, whichever voice speaks to you, whether it's Tanika's or mine or both of us or our buddy Jeff, the jaded mechanic with the heart of gold, um, Lucas and Roman and all the, all the voices out there, you know, we're all here for you. We're all here to support you. We're all one big family.
Tonnika Haynes [01:04:00]:
Yeah.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:04:00]:
And you're not alone. And if you need something, reach out. Do not suffer in silence. Do not think that there's nobody out there who understands. We might not have been through exactly what you're going through, but we've been dang close.
Tonnika Haynes [01:04:16]:
And we know people who may be in the same boat as you.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:04:21]:
Yep.
Tonnika Haynes [01:04:22]:
And we can make connections like that. That's one thing that I love about conferences like ASTA. the networking in general, like-minded people and, um, things like that. So I got— my son's coming in right now and I know he's going to scream my name. He comes in, he'll say, Mama! Oh my God, I didn't shut the door. But anyway, so with all of that said, I so appreciate you taking your time to speak with me today. And then next I can be on your podcast.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:04:52]:
Thank you.
Tonnika Haynes [01:04:53]:
And we can talk more. We can talk about more stuff. Like, this is a subject that we can talk about for hours. Hours. Yeah, we just visit it every now and again, for sure.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:05:03]:
Yeah.
Tonnika Haynes [01:05:04]:
All righty.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:05:04]:
So absolutely.
Tonnika Haynes [01:05:05]:
Well, if anyone— someone needs to get in touch with you, how do they reach you?
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:05:10]:
Um, I am, you know, through my socials, Jean Ann St. Grace. Um, the business that I work for is Auto Fix Auto Shop Coaching. Um, you can get get a hold of me through there. Um, in every one of my podcasts, if you go to any of the podcast players, my direct email is there or my booking link is there. So I am not hard to find, I'm not hard to get a hold of, and I welcome everybody. So, um, if you want coaching, if you just need help with a quick question, if you are looking to buy a shop and need to know a few things you don't know I will put every resource that I have to bear into your hands.
Tonnika Haynes [01:05:53]:
Well, thank you so much for your time, and we will see you in a little bit.
JeanAnn SaintGrace [01:05:58]:
See ya.
Tonnika Haynes [01:05:59]:
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.