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This podcast is dedicated to changing the automotive industry for the better, one conversation at a time.
Whether you're a technician, vendor, business owner, or car enthusiast, we hope to inspire you to improve for your customers, your careers, your businesses, and your families.
Becky Witt [00:00:00]:
So should I be looking at that camera over there?
David Roman [00:00:03]:
No, you just look.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:04]:
That's why they're where they are.
David Roman [00:00:05]:
Unless you don't want to look at us.
Becky Witt [00:00:06]:
No, I. Yeah, I'm just.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:08]:
He's pretty ugly. I am, too, so it's okay. Already did it.
Cody Gaddie [00:00:12]:
Can I just.
David Roman [00:00:13]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:19]:
Becky Wick, Cody Gatty. How are we?
David Roman [00:00:21]:
Hey. Hey. I just want to point out that this needed to be two different episodes, so now we're gonna have to go 2 hours, and then I'll just split it up. I'm just telling.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:32]:
You're just, like, twisted and have these. You probably need some help.
David Roman [00:00:41]:
You're condensing the content here. This is gonna make us have to record remotely.
Cody Gaddie [00:00:46]:
What did you say about going sideways?
Lucas Underwood [00:00:48]:
Yes.
Cody Gaddie [00:00:48]:
Okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:49]:
It just. We're there. Okay, good. Already happened.
Cody Gaddie [00:00:51]:
Just check.
David Roman [00:00:52]:
What did you say to him?
Lucas Underwood [00:00:53]:
I said, david will take this sideways. I guarantee it. I can't stop it. There's nothing I can do. Becky, you said something last night that stood out to me. No.
David Roman [00:01:05]:
You gotta introduce everybody. Becky Witt, Cody Getty.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:08]:
Everybody knows who Becky Witt is, and everybody knows who Cody Getty is.
David Roman [00:01:10]:
Okay? But we just need to let people know that that's who we happen to have here.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:13]:
Didn't already do that?
David Roman [00:01:15]:
No, you just said, becky, I think.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:20]:
Okay, so let me explain something to both of you.
Cody Gaddie [00:01:23]:
That's two.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:23]:
I always, always get a call after a podcast episode happens. And he's like, you remember you told me that? I didn't this. Or I did that.
David Roman [00:01:31]:
Yeah, once.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:32]:
You were right.
David Roman [00:01:34]:
Hey, be careful with that chord.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:35]:
I'm not touching anything. Because you can figure this rat's nest.
David Roman [00:01:43]:
We don't have any hissitive. That's good, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:01:45]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:01:46]:
We have random cables not connected, though.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:50]:
That's.
David Roman [00:01:54]:
Cody. How do you live here? This is awful. It's like 100.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:57]:
I know.
Becky Witt [00:01:57]:
Now we have.
David Roman [00:01:59]:
This is hot.
Cody Gaddie [00:02:00]:
This is, uh. This is opening in an oven. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's hot.
David Roman [00:02:04]:
But it's like this all the time.
Cody Gaddie [00:02:06]:
Uh, no, this is the worst time of the. The year.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:09]:
Why don't we have this conference in January?
David Roman [00:02:11]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:02:11]:
I don't know. It'd be beautiful. It would get you guys out of the, you know, the colder temperatures and everything else.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:16]:
That'd be fantastic.
David Roman [00:02:17]:
So January it is, right? Next year.
Cody Gaddie [00:02:19]:
I'm telling you. Yeah, January, February. I mean, December. You know, you can golf.
David Roman [00:02:23]:
Perfect. Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:02:24]:
Come down here and go golfing.
David Roman [00:02:25]:
That would be good. See, he figured it out.
Cody Gaddie [00:02:28]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:30]:
So last night you were talking, or maybe it was this morning. And you said that you had retired, but you were coming back to teaching. Can you tell me why you decided to come back to teaching?
Becky Witt [00:02:46]:
I think it comes back to passion.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:49]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:02:51]:
I've been through a lot in the last eight years. Lost my spouse, didn't want to go to work, didn't want to have the shop, and I bought a harley.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:06]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:03:08]:
I wanted something that was going to help me look forward and something that was going to help me make friends, because when you lose your spouse, you're not a couple anymore.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:17]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:03:17]:
So there goes the whole thing.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:19]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:03:20]:
So I bought this Harley, and. Holy mackerel, have I had fun.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:25]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:03:25]:
And along the way, I got reinvested. I refound my passion with the shop. I came to some classes, and. And I made some drastic changes. Having a business, owning a repair shop, is a lot like going to Vegas and putting everything on the red seven.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:47]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:03:48]:
In a lot of respects.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:50]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:03:50]:
You don't. You don't just. You got a job. You can quit the job. You can be working tomorrow. You got a business. You can't do that.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:57]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:03:58]:
You're stuck. I mean, that's where you are.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:00]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:04:01]:
And whatever goes wrong, it's your fault. Look in the mirror. You got nobody to blame but yourself.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:05]:
You're alone.
Becky Witt [00:04:06]:
And I had a technician that. That I won't talk about, but it was time to split up. And I don't like to compromise on excellence in the business, okay? I want to have the best business. I want to meet the highest standards. I want to be the best I can be. And I'm not happy if I'm not. So I run ads, and I got a nice shop. I got well equipped.
Becky Witt [00:04:39]:
We got good customers. We do good work. And I'm not getting much in the way of responses. So I take a class by Bill Haasden, and Bill said, you gotta offer something that nobody else is. We'd already gone back to a four day week. I got a destination shop. You're not gonna find my shop unless you got a compass, a map, and a Sherpa guy. There is no drive by traffic unless they wanna know, how do I get out of this neighborhood? So I'd cut back to four days, and business didn't go down.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:18]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:05:20]:
And then we don't have a lot sometimes on Thursday. So I figured, well, we'll cut back a little. So when I'm looking at having a new tech, I said, I'll pay you for five days. You work for three. What do you think? I had 30 applicants for the lube tech. Everybody says, can I come work for you?
Lucas Underwood [00:05:45]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:05:46]:
And in walk in the door walks the ultimate technician.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:50]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:05:51]:
The guy's certified in everything. He's fixed everything from school buses to Camrys. And. And he is passionate about doing it. Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:01]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:06:02]:
And he doesn't take any bull. If he doesn't like the way he's. The things are going, he just leaves the shop. He's had 17 jobs.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:10]:
Wow.
Becky Witt [00:06:11]:
So I'm asking him. So, okay, what about this place? Why'd you leave there? He said, because they asked me to put the wheels back on a car that I'm working on and push it outside so I could do a weight oil change.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:23]:
Oh, my goodness.
Becky Witt [00:06:24]:
I know that's not what he said, but it was similar. The vernacular of the technician.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:28]:
Yep.
Becky Witt [00:06:29]:
That describing what it is. I'm out of here. And he didn't like there was another. Another shop that is a sort of a franchise. And he said, I lasted two weeks there because of their ethics.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:46]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:06:46]:
Another place. He said, I was there 4 hours.
David Roman [00:06:51]:
There are situations where you have to push a car out. If that car was supposed to leave the night before, that's. Hey, I'm giving you 6 hours to get this car done, and we roll over into the next morning. I've got a waiting oil change scheduled. That lady expects to sit in the lobby and wait. You didn't finish the car. That lady still needs the oil change done. What are we doing? You're doing it on the ground, or you want to roll this thing out? That's the conversation I'm having.
David Roman [00:07:19]:
You didn't hold up your end of the deal. You can get all pissy with me all you want, but you didn't hold up your end of the deal. Parts were here. You just didn't get done. Now, you could say rust, whatever. I don't care. Now the situation is the situation. The car was supposed to leave.
David Roman [00:07:33]:
It didn't leave. It's still sitting there. Wheels are off. How are we solving this new problem now that we have a waiting?
Lucas Underwood [00:07:41]:
I don't know. I don't know. Because a. A technician like becky's talking about shouldn't be doing oil changes in the first place.
David Roman [00:07:49]:
No, no, no. You can take that. You can stick it up everybody who says that. No, no, no, no. Hey, you want to know what differentiates my shop from everybody else? Everybody does the oil changes.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:07]:
So the guy does oil changes.
David Roman [00:08:09]:
I'm just doing your inspection is not the looby that just happened to start last week. The guy that just got trained to sell air filters and brakes and oil and whatever, like, because that's all he knows. That person is a well, is an experienced, well trained technician. That's the person doing your oil changes. That's the person doing your inspections.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:31]:
I don't know how fiscally responsible that is.
David Roman [00:08:35]:
How am I supposed to sell work if they don't? How am I supposed to find needed work if they haven't been trained on? The only thing I'm going to train this oil change guy is how to find work at that point. And if I incentivize it like everybody does, what do you think they're going to find? Whatever you incentivize them on?
Lucas Underwood [00:08:54]:
I can't disagree with that. Do you agree with that?
Becky Witt [00:08:58]:
I couldn't be more far apart.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:00]:
Okay. I mean, I agree if you incentivize for a specific thing, that they will tend to find the specific thing.
Becky Witt [00:09:08]:
I don't believe in incentives.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:10]:
I don't either.
Becky Witt [00:09:11]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:11]:
And I'm trying to get away from them as much as possible.
David Roman [00:09:13]:
No, you're not. It's sack of lies there.
Becky Witt [00:09:16]:
Well, I'll tell you what I did. I eliminated weight oil changes. I eliminated all weight jobs.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:22]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:09:23]:
What I found was. Hear me out. What I found was. This is during COVID See? So Covid says you can't come in the building. Yeah, fine. They locked down the whole city of Lincoln.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:33]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:09:34]:
You can't do anything. And I called the mayor and I said, we have to stay open. We're an essential business. They said, why is that? I said, because if the doctor's car won't start, they can't get to work. Boom. Okay, you're open. So what I found out was, as I analyzed the business, I realized the people who wait for the oil change don't buy anything else. They want to get going.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:54]:
Yep.
Becky Witt [00:09:55]:
So what I've done is I've created an entire class of people who come in to have me make no money.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:02]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:10:02]:
Then what I found as I looked at this closer, every. Everything that we recommended, they've already had done someplace else.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:09]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:10:10]:
Well, this is interesting, but that might be true of some of your waiting customers. But I would challenge you and say that we have customers that buy newer vehicles. 20,000, 30,000 miles. They come to me for an oil change. How much work am I going to sell on? 20,000? I'm not. But here's the other thing I can do. I can present them what they need and let's game plan this. Let's take a parts deposit that's what we do.
David Roman [00:10:39]:
I'm not going to sell them. They're waiting. They're not going to. They're not going to stay unless it's a dangerous situation, in which case, if I haven't seen the vehicle, I'm not taking it as an oil. Awaiting oil change. That's number one. I have to know you. I have to have seen.
David Roman [00:10:53]:
And I will fight with a customer. I have recordings of me fighting with customers going, I'm sorry, I can't look at your 2014 Taurus while you wait. That's not happening. I've never seen you, I don't know this vehicle. I need to have a history with this vehicle. That's what I told the lady. She got really mad. You mean you're not going to take my business in them? I'm like, I'm sorry.
David Roman [00:11:11]:
It's just not going to happen anyway, so this is a vehicle that I've seen before that I know the history of, and then I will take the waiting oil change. And the other thing, too, is if it is a dangerous situation, then we. Hey, I'm going to uber you home, or, hey, I'm going to give you a loaner. We're going to figure out a way to get this vehicle fixed for you. You are waiting. You're not driving away in this vehicle. It's dangerous. And then the other thing, too, is if it's something that can wait, let's schedule this for next week, whenever, when you can drop it off, or we can arrange a ride for you, and I will take a parts deposit that make sure they come back, because they're just.
David Roman [00:11:47]:
They're in it for half the repair bill.
Becky Witt [00:11:49]:
Sure.
David Roman [00:11:50]:
Approximately half the repair bill. I would just. I don't. I don't take a lot of waiting. Oil changes, maybe two or three a week. I just. I can't eliminate them entirely. They are a pain in the rear.
David Roman [00:12:01]:
But I'm just specifically dealing with this technician who decides he's going to walk out because I'm telling him to push the car out. I wouldn't have told him what to do. I wouldn't have said, put those wheels back on, push the car out. I would have said, here's a waiting oil change that I scheduled next morning. What are we doing about this?
Cody Gaddie [00:12:16]:
And he needs to figure that out.
David Roman [00:12:17]:
Figure it out. How would you deal with it? I come to you, you're the superstar tech.
Cody Gaddie [00:12:25]:
So how I would have dealt with that is because that's exactly how, you know, when I was still in a shop they would hand me a. Here's a waiting oil change. Whatever work that I'm doing, we didn't have assigned bay. So, like, if the alignment racks open, I'm using the alignment rack. If there's not, scooch up on that.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:41]:
Mic just a little bit.
David Roman [00:12:41]:
Sorry, but slide it forward.
Cody Gaddie [00:12:43]:
If there's a. If the. If another rack is open, you know, because we didn't have assigned racks or, like, the alignment rack or anything like that, I would jump on the alignment. If all three of my bays are filled again, you know, which ones have wheels on it, which ones can be pushed out, you know, super easy. It's literally a five minute thing. You know what I mean? But to be not handed a oil change, that's not any waiting wheel change. That's not any shop that I've ever worked in. So I had to figure it out.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:15]:
I don't do a lot of waiting stuff. I have very, very. I think I have three waiting spots a day and they. They don't overlap and they're all in different spots. There's one, like. I think there's one that can overlap, but I have them set up for the two technicians. That could take a waiting job. None of the big stuff can take waiting jobs.
David Roman [00:13:34]:
You don't even have a waiting area.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:35]:
I've got a very small one for that.
David Roman [00:13:37]:
He built that? Yeah, he built a huge shop. I mean, this thing's enormous. Enormous. Enormous. You could fit an amusement park inside. It's a fun house. It's a giant fun house.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:50]:
It is kind of fun to work there.
David Roman [00:13:52]:
No, it's not. Let's not say that it's cool to go into. I don't know about shop life. Anyway, so he's got, like, three chairs in the front and that's it. How many shop owners would have built that shop? Put a freaking aquarium in the front.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:08]:
What was it Jeff said? Put the window so they can look at the technicians like they're.
David Roman [00:14:12]:
Yeah, windows. So you can see the technicians while they're working on cars in a kid play area and all that nonsense. Screw that. I would have had one chair in there. Just one.
Becky Witt [00:14:24]:
I have all that.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:25]:
Do you?
Becky Witt [00:14:26]:
My waiting area is twelve by 24ft with a three by three foot window. So you can see the technicians.
David Roman [00:14:33]:
You have waiters, you said.
Becky Witt [00:14:35]:
I know. I built a place 29 years ago. Yeah, I used to do twelve waiters a day.
David Roman [00:14:41]:
I figured it out in less than 29 years. Hey, this is.
Becky Witt [00:14:44]:
I got some sofa, I got a love seat. I got it. I got a kid's area.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:49]:
Listen, my text would be in the kids area playing, okay? That's what would happen. That's exactly what would happen.
Becky Witt [00:14:55]:
Yeah. I used to have a landline in there when we first drove it up, because not everybody had a cell phone.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:01]:
You still had the yellow pages back in that day.
Becky Witt [00:15:03]:
Well, yeah, we did.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:05]:
You know, and we talked a little bit this morning about some of these situations. Right. Because the thing that I think we forget about, because David, you say, well, I wouldn't accept that it's his fault that he didn't get done. And so I'm thinking about the people.
David Roman [00:15:23]:
I'm just, you know, worried. I'm just saying. I'm just worried. Misrepresent what I'm saying. I would have. I would have seen it as a red flag that the guy's got a short fuse, is all I'm saying. The guy's got to get upset over that.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:37]:
But hang on.
David Roman [00:15:38]:
I need a problem solver in my shop because it is constant problems in my shop. I need somebody that's.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:45]:
That's okay. I understand, folks. This is an exact representation of what David is going through in his life right now. At this moment. David's got some shop problems. So it's bowling over and it's coming out.
David Roman [00:15:56]:
No, I don't have shop problems. I always have shop. The shop is a problem.
Cody Gaddie [00:16:00]:
The shop is the problem.
David Roman [00:16:01]:
My problem right now is that I've got a missing leg on this thing and have spent the last 16 minutes looking for a solution to this thing flopping around on the table.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:10]:
Just hold it.
David Roman [00:16:12]:
That is. This thing's heavy.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:14]:
So here's my thought is technicians are human beings. They're not machines, and they're not robots, and they can't be programmed to do a specific task over and over again the same way. They have emotions, they have feelings, and every day they encounter something different, and they feel a different way and they respond a different way. And sometimes a job doesn't go. We were talking about this last night. A job doesn't go according to plan. Right. I can't, in my heart of hearts, jump on this bandwagon of saying, I know that job didn't go the way you planned.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:45]:
What are you gonna do to fix this? Right? I just. I don't feel right about that because there are things that happen, and we have days that we don't feel like doing it. Right.
David Roman [00:16:55]:
The problem is still there, though. It has to be resolved.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:58]:
I understand that, but I'm saying that I'm not somebody who's gonna come out here and scream and yell at you.
David Roman [00:17:03]:
I didn't say scream and yell.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:05]:
You scream and yell about everything.
David Roman [00:17:07]:
I get animated. Sound like my wife. Why are you yelling? I'm not yelling. I can show you yelling. It's not this.
Cody Gaddie [00:17:15]:
I'm gonna see how that works later.
David Roman [00:17:18]:
That's what I tell her. So this isn't yelling. This is animated.
Becky Witt [00:17:22]:
You'd be great in politics. Animated, yes, but.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:27]:
But, you know, and in a lot of ways. And David and I were talking about this last night. I resonate with what you're saying after you lost your spouse. Like, because I'm watching my dad go through that right now, and that's not easy.
Becky Witt [00:17:40]:
No.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:40]:
Right.
Becky Witt [00:17:41]:
My dad.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:42]:
Yeah, my dad was with my mom for 57. Right. And so it turns everybody on their head, and there's no avoiding that. And so Cody and I. And let's see who all was there last night? Cliff, Cody, andrew. Your wife. Yep. And I'm missing somebody.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:03]:
Kip.
Cody Gaddie [00:18:04]:
Oh, kip.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:05]:
Kip was there, and we were talking about exactly that. We were talking about, like, life happening and life going terribly wrong and things not going the way that we expect them to go. I noticed something, Becky, about you when you came back into ASOG, and you got involved in AsOG, because I saw you, especially the people who are, like, really going through it, I saw you jump in, and that's when you started making the post, and that's when you started. There's a lot of people going through a lot of rough stuff in that group. Right. Do you think that that mental health aspect plays into that? Right. The stress, the pressure that pushes on those people after a while? Do you think that that is that a dangerous situation that they get into?
Becky Witt [00:18:48]:
As far as shop ownership, there's no question about it. You got everything. You got everything on the line. And, you know, the biggest enemy that we have is the person in the mirror. And the main reason for that is we're all fix it people. We think we can fix everything. And there's some things you just can't fix. There's times that thing, your spouse dies.
Becky Witt [00:19:11]:
You ain't gonna fix that, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:19:12]:
For sure.
Becky Witt [00:19:13]:
You know, your kid turns out to have some dread chinese disease, too young or something, and you can't deal with that. And the worst part about owning a repair shop is having problems that can be solved, but you're either too bullheaded to do it or you lack the belief to do. To do what I did in a number of situations is something that very few people would be willing to do.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:51]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:19:55]:
When I said, I'm going to go to three days, what are your customers going to say? And what are they going to say? When you said, well, not only am I going to three days, we're going to start knocking off at noon on Wednesdays because we've already worked too hard.
David Roman [00:20:10]:
Right.
Becky Witt [00:20:10]:
It's time to quit.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:12]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:20:13]:
I would go to two days. I wouldn't care. The problem is you still want to get. At least that would put an immense amount of pressure on the productivity.
Cody Gaddie [00:20:24]:
Everything would have to be, everything has to go smooth.
David Roman [00:20:27]:
Not necessarily smooth, but. Because things never go smooth.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:31]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:20:31]:
No, no, but you need to have your systems in place, that everything has its place, everything has its time. And everybody's hitting their times, their beats, like, hey, this got pulled in on time. This thing got done on time. This thing got pulled out. Exactly. Nobody knew, nobody stopped to go, I'm gonna stand around. I just couldn't. The stress of the pace, not that you're rushing.
David Roman [00:21:01]:
I'm not saying that you're rushing, but again, it's 11:00. That means x, Y and z has to be done because it's 11:00 because we don't have an extra day. We close tomorrow. You see what I'm saying? I couldn't do it. I'd lose my mind.
Cody Gaddie [00:21:15]:
Would that add more stress to you?
David Roman [00:21:17]:
Oh, yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:21:17]:
What do you, what about you, Cody? What?
Cody Gaddie [00:21:20]:
Oh, I. I know what David's saying. I mean, it would totally add a whole nother variable for myself. So would it be less stressful or would it take away some stress? Because now you have, you know, four days to figure it out or five days or whatever for, you know, your time off? I think that. I think it would add more, more to my plate.
David Roman [00:21:45]:
Do you have, like, 50 loaners?
Becky Witt [00:21:48]:
Well, I wish I have eight.
David Roman [00:21:50]:
Yeah. See, the loaners, I think, would fix it because then it's like, here's a loaner. Go away.
Cody Gaddie [00:21:54]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:21:55]:
And you'll get your car back. When you get your car back. And we're working three days.
Becky Witt [00:21:58]:
Thank you. And we don't have promise times. Not only do you not wait for the car, you can't wait for the car. I don't care if it's a light bulb. You can't wait because that means I have to interrupt somebody. When I interrupt somebody, their train of thought is gone, and that's where mistakes happen. And this is how I explain it to people. I need my car back by three.
Becky Witt [00:22:16]:
I tell them. I tell them. I really tell them. This I hope you get it. Here's the keys to a loaner car. It's gonna get done when it gets done.
David Roman [00:22:23]:
Yeah, get someone to get.
Becky Witt [00:22:24]:
And no car is done. No car goes out of this shop until the guy doing the work is satisfied that it's right.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:31]:
How much pressure do you put on build hours?
Becky Witt [00:22:34]:
None.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:35]:
So none.
Becky Witt [00:22:36]:
None at all? We don't. You guys are talking about pressure. We don't have any pressure.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:40]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:22:41]:
We don't.
David Roman [00:22:41]:
Well, not like that.
Becky Witt [00:22:42]:
We don't have deadlines.
David Roman [00:22:43]:
Yeah. Buildings paid?
Becky Witt [00:22:45]:
What building?
David Roman [00:22:46]:
Your buildings paid?
Becky Witt [00:22:47]:
No, I rented.
David Roman [00:22:48]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:22:50]:
Been in the same place for 29 years.
David Roman [00:22:53]:
You don't own it though?
Becky Witt [00:22:54]:
No, I rent.
David Roman [00:22:57]:
That would freak me out a little bit.
Becky Witt [00:22:58]:
Yeah, it doesn't freak me out a bit.
David Roman [00:23:00]:
Is it super cheap because it's in Nebraska?
Becky Witt [00:23:03]:
Well, because it's a manageable expense. Had I taken out a loan to buy the building in the beginning, I wouldn't have had the money to buy the equipment I got.
David Roman [00:23:14]:
Okay, sure.
Becky Witt [00:23:16]:
You know, I got a ten bay shop. I got ten rotary lifts. I didn't buy anything cheap. I had the whole building rewired. Yeah, I had. I had a waiting room built twelve by 24 with an office upstairs. I mean, everything is super deluxe at my shop.
David Roman [00:23:30]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:23:30]:
And I couldn't have done it if I'd have had that overhead. That thing overhead. So I just said, well, okay, fine.
David Roman [00:23:41]:
See, that's your problem. You decided to build that stupid shop.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:46]:
Yeah, that is a lot of my problem. You're the other part of my problem. So how do you manage that then? Because you know. And I say that. Would you shut up for a damn minute? You were so annoying. You were like the most annoying human. I woke up this morning and I said to myself, I said, lucas, you just have to make it through the day without knocking his teeth out.
David Roman [00:24:10]:
You are doing well right now.
Cody Gaddie [00:24:12]:
Is that a daily reminder or is that.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:14]:
It's a kind of daily reminder. But I woke up at 220 this, this morning and said that to myself and couldn't go back to sleep because I thought this is going to be a challenging task. I don't know if I'm up for it. Could you just shut up for 5 seconds? I mean it. I swear to God, it's like talking to my wife. I'm in the middle of a sentence trying to say something and he has to jump in and say. And he breaks everybody else's train of thought just because he has to say this one thing. The pig was pink.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:41]:
Who cares? David, shut up. I guess here's my thing is, because I am under that financial pressure to be able to make ends meet, right. Because I've got the building, I have the loans for that, and I put all new equipment in it, right. Lots of expense associated with that. I want to pay my people really well, and I'm not paying them as much as I would like to pay them, but I'm trying my best to pay them well. I'm trying to offer benefits. I'm trying to offer an environment that is a good environment for them, right. And if I don't put pressure on build hours, they slide back.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:20]:
Right. And it begins to decrease. And if I do put pressure on build hours, it's less comfortable for them and me. So how do you balance that?
Becky Witt [00:25:31]:
Well, when I say you don't put pressure on people, what you do, you take pressure off. Okay, so. So the first thing is how much work can you take in a day? I took a look at the last year. I looked at the total number of jobs we did.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:51]:
Okay?
Becky Witt [00:25:51]:
Total number of hours we build.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:53]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:25:53]:
And I divided that by the number of days we're open.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:56]:
Okay?
Becky Witt [00:25:57]:
That's how many days. That's how many cars we take in. Okay, so. So that's. That's. That's the nuthenne.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:04]:
Right?
Becky Witt [00:26:04]:
All right, so now you. You write the ticket when you take the appointment.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:10]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:26:11]:
And then we look up ahead of time. The add ons, the engine air filter, the battery, the wiper blades.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:19]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:26:20]:
And we have those part numbers written on the ticket. If we know that they're coming for a certain thing, like the operation calls for a cabin air filter that's pulled ahead of time, that's in a little basket.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:32]:
Okay?
Becky Witt [00:26:32]:
So I got nine baskets. Parts pull. It says PP number three. Parts pulled, basket number three. I've got 100 air filters. I only do two makes a cars. So. So there's your.
Becky Witt [00:26:45]:
Your head scratching time is reduced by a whole bunch. Yeah, because you've probably already seen most of this stuff already.
David Roman [00:26:50]:
Right? And I don't do two makes of cars.
Becky Witt [00:26:54]:
Oh, yeah. Don't tell me you do more.
David Roman [00:26:57]:
Sure.
Becky Witt [00:26:58]:
Wait, okay, I do four. Are you happy? I do four. Honda, Acura, Toyota, Lexus. That's four right there.
David Roman [00:27:06]:
Boom.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:07]:
Oh, I'm sorry. That's your hurt shoulder, isn't it?
Becky Witt [00:27:09]:
Yeah, but when you look at. It's taking away pressure. Because I'm not taking things in that are outside of our field of expertise. We are highly specialized. Yeah, you got it. You got an zero one. You got. Well, I just had one.
Becky Witt [00:27:27]:
I had an zero one Lexus urban assault vehicle, this giant 22 cylinder land earth roamer thing that has tires that weigh 75 pounds apiece. I couldn't ask my guy to lift those tires. We've ordered a wheel lift, so we'll be able to lift things using air pressure. But I couldn't complete the job, so I had to tell the owner, look, I couldn't complete one to five tire rotation. I said, I'm sorry, I can't lift the tires. I gave him $125 refund because I couldn't finish the job. So if something comes up that we don't do, I just have to say, we don't do that. You need a head gasket, might need an engine.
Becky Witt [00:28:11]:
I'm not set up for that.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:14]:
So I don't know how much you know about Cody, but Cody's background was very, very different from that. It was. You were in a chain shop. Oh, yeah. And it was extreme pressure, nonstop.
Cody Gaddie [00:28:26]:
Volume, volume, volume, volume. Right. That was. That's the nature of the beast. Car count.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:31]:
So, like, I hear. I hear what David says sometimes. Like, how do you. Because that's a one in a million. Your shops are one in a million, right?
Becky Witt [00:28:40]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:41]:
When you hear her talk about that.
Cody Gaddie [00:28:42]:
What does that, like, where are you at again? Are you hiring?
Becky Witt [00:28:47]:
That's what everybody says.
Cody Gaddie [00:28:50]:
What I hear. As far as that, man. Yeah. Taking the pressure off, you know. So the main shop that I was at for 14 years, super high pressure, super high volume, flat rate, and, you know, so didn't help having keys to the shop, you know, if there's work there, if there's cars there, I wanted to be there, you know, I'd be there at 06:00 in the morning. I'd stay till 08:00 at night just to get. Get these vehicles done. And then management, over time, becomes accustomed to that.
Lucas Underwood [00:29:18]:
And the harder you push, the more they expect.
Cody Gaddie [00:29:20]:
Oh, they just expect it. And then you're unappreciated, you know? So taking, like, Cecil's class this morning, like, really touched on a lot of things, and it was appreciation. But to hear all this and to take that pressure off and, you know, loaner cars and everything like that, man, definitely a more relaxed environment, you know, and then having that time off with the family and everything else, if I could still. If I could make the money that I needed to make to survive and my family be comfortable and less amount of time at work, that's a. That's a no brainer.
Lucas Underwood [00:29:54]:
I read two studies recently, and the. The two studies talked about two aspects of american life, and one was a study where they were talking about the rates of cancer in the US, right? They said 50% of the cancers in the US were preventable. Right? And that's a big number. Right. Like a huge number of people. And they said stress, work life balance. Right. Is a big part of the stress.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:20]:
They talked about what we ate, about smoking, about drinking, about all of these things. Right. They affect that. And so I think about, you know, is there an impact on our people when we push that hard in the long run? I think there is an impact, and I think it's a. Right. And so then the other study was talking about that Americans have slowly been squeezed into this box where we all have to work. It's not just a lot of times we think it's just technicians or just in our field, because it's what we see every day. But a lot of this is all Americans, right? Pushing this hard.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:53]:
When everything was going on with mom, I was talking to the people at the nursing home they had put her in, or the recovery center, whatever they call it. And the girl at the front counter was in college and she was trying to become an RN, right? And she said, just to make ends meet, to be able to buy food and rent an apartment, I have to work 60 hours a week on top of my schooling. I said, well, how do you do that? She swell. I'm the front desk person here every night, six days a week, and then I go to school during the day and I'm like, well, right, like. Because that's not really a conducive environment to learn when you're that tired and you're pushing yourself that hard. She's like, well, it's a fairly easy job. I, you know, for the most part, I just can't go to sleep. I have to.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:37]:
I have to be awake.
Cody Gaddie [00:31:38]:
Yeah, but your mind starts playing with you after.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:40]:
Yeah, I know, right? Like you begin to. And so is that doable when you're.
David Roman [00:31:44]:
In your twenties, though?
Cody Gaddie [00:31:46]:
That is doable when you're in your twenties. I will say that it's completely different now. If I don't get 8 hours of sleep, it's a whole different, buddy.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:51]:
That's not a clock. I'm kind of worthless anyway, but I'll.
Cody Gaddie [00:31:57]:
Return the phone call, 330 tomorrow morning. You know what I mean when they.
David Roman [00:32:01]:
Say stress and work life balance, I think that's more of the lifestyle you take on. If you push yourself too hard, for example, it's very common. When I was in the parts store. It was very common to see a parts store, somebody that just got promoted to be a part store manager. All of a sudden, you're expected to work 60, 70 hours a week. You fill any shift that can't be filled. You're there. You're working open to close many days.
David Roman [00:32:30]:
If you're short handed, whatever, you have to make sure somebody's there. And if you can't find somebody, that person's you. And it's very common to see them all sudden gain 2030 pounds. And it's because it's lunchtime. You just go to the drive through and come back quick.
Cody Gaddie [00:32:44]:
It's easy.
David Roman [00:32:45]:
Yeah. You eat in your office because you have to go back to work or eating at the counter, and you take on all of those good habits. I'm gonna go exercise. I'm gonna eat healthy. I'm gonna pack my lunch. All those things go out the window, because you don't have any time anymore. It's 70, 80 hours a week. You do what you have to.
David Roman [00:33:01]:
And that shift in lifestyle is what then causes you to get unhealthy.
Becky Witt [00:33:06]:
I don't want to miss it. Mislead anybody, but I lived that way for years. Yeah, my standard was 60, 70 hours a week. I didn't just go to this three day thing from the get go.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:18]:
You know, I watched, and ASOG has kind of changed my perspective with everything. And the reason I bring that up. Cause you're a moderator, and you being a moderator in the group gives you a whole different perspective of, like, what these people are going through. Right. Like, you see it completely differently because you can kind of, because you have to watch everything that happens, and you see, like, trends in specific people, and you see how they act and what they act, and you'll figure out that a lot of times that when somebody is a bad actor, they're going through something, they've got something going on in life. Right. And so one of the things that I picked up on is techs were really frustrated with shop owners, and they felt like they were, like, bad people, and they were taking advantage of people, and they were doing this and they were doing that. And what I began to see was, is it wasn't that at all.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:00]:
It was that they finally found a little bit of help to help them get the business situated. And so the minute that the pressure came off, they found that advisor, they found that technician, and they were handling things in the shop. The last thing that owner wants to do is go back into the fire. Right. And so they continue to put more and more pressure on their people, and they're making money, and life feels great, and it's, like, wonderful for them because they're stacking cash and they just. They become completely disconnected from their people. They don't understand what they're going through. That's one of the problems I had with one of the coaching companies, because they were talking about having people do things, and it's like, nah, dude, you don't understand because you've not been on the front counter in so long.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:43]:
You don't know what it feels like to say that to somebody. You don't know what it feels like to be that tech. And somebody say, stop what you're doing. Do this oil change right here, right now, it's 445. And I know we're overbooked and we can't get it done. You don't know what it feels like to be that person. Right. And I think that we lose that human element and we can get ourselves in trouble really quickly.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:04]:
And I think that's a lot of what's caused a reputation in the industry from technicians. It's not that tech. The owners are bad people. It's their perspective. It's how they. It's how they got out of the fire. And now all of a sudden, it feels really good, and they just don't think about how they lost touch.
Becky Witt [00:35:19]:
All right, are you ready for me to totally blow your mind? I got one more thing to talk about.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:23]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:35:24]:
I changed my entire perspective after Covid and I said, I will no longer run the business to please the customer. I will now run the business to please the workers. The workers come first. The customers come second. The whole idea is, no business will ever have happy customers till they first have happy workers.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:45]:
I agree.
Becky Witt [00:35:46]:
So you look at the things that tick people off. Interruptions, doing stuff that doesn't make sense. Selling things just because you can sell them, not because they're going to benefit the customer.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:58]:
Right.
Becky Witt [00:35:58]:
You know, it's like you need your thermothrockels cleaned. This is really important. It's not. You don't even have thermothrockets. But we're gonna clean them anyway, and it's gonna be a high profit item for us.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:08]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:36:09]:
And when I started doing this, the interesting thing was the customers really responded. Yeah, they really think this is really cool.
Cody Gaddie [00:36:20]:
I bet they respected you, too, as far as how you are taking care of your employees.
Becky Witt [00:36:25]:
And what's really cool, I've got eight loaner cars. They're all full of gas and I tell the customer, all I ask is that you bring it back full of gas.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:34]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:36:35]:
That's all I ask. There's no extra charge. It's all built in. And they all come back full of gas.
David Roman [00:36:41]:
Yeah, yeah, that mine didn't and mine did. But see, what we started doing is $50 deposit. And they. And I told them, you know, hey, $50 deposit.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:51]:
If you have shop owner, you have shop loaner. Do you have the dongles that go in it so it shows you if it's full or not?
David Roman [00:36:56]:
I don't have the dongle. So what I thought, I take a $50 deposit, we put it in shop loaner that they paid the $50 deposit, and we say, hey, you bring me back a receipt showing that you filled this thing back up with the $7 in gas that you're gonna. That you say you're gonna use. They never, by the way, ever use. I just went to work it back. It was like 4 miles. No, it sometime ends up being $14 to $25 worth of gas. Anyway, the come back with a receipt, and I give them back the $50, or I applied to their bill.
David Roman [00:37:23]:
That's it. That fixed it. Anyway, I don't have nice customers. You're in Nebraska. That's your problem. What you need to do, you got.
Cody Gaddie [00:37:32]:
To train your customers.
David Roman [00:37:34]:
Is that what it is? People are nice in Nebraska. You understand? They're really nice in Nebraska.
Becky Witt [00:37:40]:
You're exactly right. The people in Nebraska are very unique people. I could not do what I'm doing.
David Roman [00:37:47]:
In a lot of other places, I think. I don't think what you're doing is that radical. The specialization, I think, alleviates so many problems.
Cody Gaddie [00:38:00]:
A huge part of variable right now is the specialization.
David Roman [00:38:03]:
Yeah, well, there's a lot of specialized shops that don't have it set up the way she's got it set up. But, you know, you all of a sudden, you don't have to buy all this extra equipment. You can have oe scan tools, and because it doesn't cost you that much. And everything could be tailored around just these vehicles, and then you can keep some inventory because you know exactly what part numbers.
Becky Witt [00:38:22]:
That's right.
David Roman [00:38:23]:
Everything can be hyper focused to these models. And the training that you send your guys to is also hyper focused. That alleviates a lot of complexity. A lot of complexity. And when they call for, hey, my car's doing this, okay. I know exactly what's going on because it's the same seven things that go wrong on these Toyotas, and that's it. And so it would, it would work. It would not work where you're at.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:49]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:38:49]:
Necessarily. I don't think it would work where you're at.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:54]:
I don't think it'll work where you're at.
David Roman [00:38:56]:
It might work where I'm at.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:58]:
You might have a Lincoln's.
David Roman [00:38:59]:
Not that it's a big town. I mean, there's, what, 300,000 people.
Becky Witt [00:39:03]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:39:04]:
If.
Becky Witt [00:39:04]:
Yeah. It's the university's there and the state government's there and there's a lot of people driving Hondas and Toyotas. And this is important because the demographics that I go, that I want are the people who are practical people. They think ahead. If you have a depressed economic area, they're incapable of thinking ahead.
David Roman [00:39:32]:
That's a good point.
Becky Witt [00:39:33]:
They can't do that. So you can't, you can't sell maintenance to a poor person because they don't think that way.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:39]:
Right. They're just trying.
Becky Witt [00:39:41]:
People think that way.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:42]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:39:42]:
And, and when I look at who's going to get a loaner car, because I don't give everybody a loaner car. I have to have a relationship. You, you alluded to that.
David Roman [00:39:49]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:39:50]:
That, you know, you know, I need to know the car, so I need to know the customer. And, and I just look at their address and I ask myself, do they have more than I do to lose?
Lucas Underwood [00:40:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Becky Witt [00:40:01]:
So if they do, they get a car.
David Roman [00:40:03]:
Sounds a good point.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:05]:
That is a very good point, actually.
David Roman [00:40:08]:
What's the sketchy street on in Phoenix? Is it 12th street? I saw some video. There were prostitutes walking up and down. They're like, somebody was just like, this is just 12th street on Monday morning in Phoenix.
Cody Gaddie [00:40:21]:
Like every corner. Yep.
David Roman [00:40:24]:
So not 12th street in Phoenix.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:27]:
You head right.
Cody Gaddie [00:40:27]:
Or 12th street in Phoenix? It depends on how you look at it.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:31]:
Take David down there and leave him.
David Roman [00:40:33]:
Don't do that. I wouldn't make it.
Cody Gaddie [00:40:36]:
It's not prison.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:39]:
He wouldn't make it there either. There's a good chance he's headed there, but he wouldn't make it there either.
David Roman [00:40:44]:
It's gonna be club fed.
Becky Witt [00:40:47]:
All right.
David Roman [00:40:47]:
It's a white collar.
Becky Witt [00:40:48]:
So back to this motivation thing.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:51]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:40:51]:
I believe that you cannot motivate people, not permanently. You can only remove the obstacles that demotivate them.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:01]:
Yeah. And there's science to support that. There's science to support that.
David Roman [00:41:05]:
There's a video that says that.
Becky Witt [00:41:07]:
Well, my next little venture on this, by the way, if you've been following my little deal, I've done a masterful job of doing photography work, to add to my information. But the next, it's going to be a stop sign.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:25]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:41:27]:
And that is, what do you do to stop your technicians? And how can you avoid that?
David Roman [00:41:36]:
Okay, so what do you mean?
Cody Gaddie [00:41:38]:
Yeah, so stopping, as far as stopping.
Becky Witt [00:41:41]:
Them, I mean, in my case, I've got, I've got, my guy works out of four or five bays.
David Roman [00:41:49]:
Okay.
Becky Witt [00:41:50]:
So you don't have to put the wheels back on a car to do an oil change.
David Roman [00:41:54]:
Sure.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:55]:
You can just.
Becky Witt [00:41:56]:
Yeah. You just walk away from it. Yeah, we've had, we've had cars that take up a hoist for weeks where we couldn't get parts. So they just hang there.
David Roman [00:42:05]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:42:06]:
The other thing. And, well, another thing that I do, I'm a napa auto care center, and the people who bought the Napa store about three or four years ago have been friends of mine for years, and the guy really gets it. Within 1 mile of my shop, I've got a napa store with $4 million inventory. Once a week, they send a guy and we talk about, I give him a report on, here's your missed sales. Here's what you don't have. And so that they've got, when I need akebono brand brake pads, boom.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:39]:
They have them.
Becky Witt [00:42:40]:
I need a denso ac compressor.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:42]:
Boom.
Becky Witt [00:42:43]:
And I only do quality stuff.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:46]:
None of the junk parts.
Becky Witt [00:42:47]:
I don't do any junk parts.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:49]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:42:49]:
My last lesson on that, I had to, I had to put on a starter for a guy with an Acura. Lasted three days.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:56]:
Oh, man.
Becky Witt [00:42:57]:
And it was prepped. I go, yeah, not doing this anymore.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:01]:
Yeah, yeah.
Becky Witt [00:43:03]:
So, so I have great inventory, and I romance the drivers because I have a whole arrangement of goodies, junk food, designer water with our company name on it. I tell them it's from a fresh hose, and I let them know that I care about them. And they fight over who gets to deliver to us. And they tell me stories about how they're mistreated by other shops.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:30]:
Yeah, I can believe it. I can believe it.
David Roman [00:43:32]:
I don't watch shops do that.
Becky Witt [00:43:34]:
I don't either. I mean, it's just, it's, it's, it's.
David Roman [00:43:38]:
Crazy all the time, too.
Cody Gaddie [00:43:39]:
I know they go to all these shops. So it's like, man, get. You don't think that all the delivery drivers talk? You know what I mean? It's like you want to be.
David Roman [00:43:48]:
No, they talk. They talk, but they, if, if they know the shop is, they take, they go out of their way to take care of the shops that that are nice to them, that are from living your first stop. Yeah, well, sometimes they can't do that, but they make sure to pick up your returns and they make sure that, hey, I saw that this wasn't right. They take extra care to pull the right parts, that they're not in a hurry, and they say, hey, I just wanted to double check to make sure that the 753 and that. A 735, whatever. Yes, they make and. But you wouldn't. You wouldn't believe how often shops are dismissive, rude, yells at them.
David Roman [00:44:24]:
Why'd you put that here? Don't you walk in this front door ever again. Just stupid stuff like that.
Becky Witt [00:44:29]:
It's like, yeah, I bug them to grab a Twinkie. I go, look, you. You need a Twinkie, right? Yeah, you better take a Twinkie. So. So now I'm painting a picture of a shop that is nice to deliver. Drivers has all the parts we need right there. $4 million inventory, plus my own inventory, so I can save the minutes. Everybody in the shop knows our time is $8 a minute.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:53]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:44:55]:
So. And there's just three of us. It takes two of us to keep up with the one technician, and he'll look you square in the eye and he'll say, I ain't doing it twice.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:06]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:45:07]:
So his work doesn't come back the most. And I tell my customers, the most expensive repair is the one that doesn't fix the car. And the second most expensive repair is the one that has to be done over because it doesn't last.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:21]:
That's a. That is a very, very stark difference from what Cody and I were talking about last night, because you were sharing your experience as a mobile guy. Right. The difference between the shop that's got it together and the shop that doesn't. And you and I thought it was neat because he was talking about the fact that, like, hey, the ones that don't have it together, the ones that are a pain in the butt, probably don't get the same level of service that, you know, in a respectful way. I'm not saying you're being disrespectful.
Cody Gaddie [00:45:49]:
No, no, no. But that's. That's how it is. I mean, you know, the shop that's really, you know, going above and beyond and everything else, if they're struggling with something, it may turn into a teaching moment.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:59]:
Right. Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:46:00]:
If they're willing to listen. And. Because I don't want to talk to deaf ears, you know, and the shops that. That. Or the technicians that are at these shops that I may be younger than a lot of the guys, you know, so that. So I don't want to listen to somebody that I'm not sitting here saying, I know it all, but if I can point them in a direction.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:18]:
Yeah, for sure.
Cody Gaddie [00:46:19]:
Teaching moment. If they don't want to listen and they walk away and they're rude and everything else.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:22]:
All right.
Cody Gaddie [00:46:23]:
You know, you guys want to charge me or you guys want to. Want me to pay or you guys want to pay me for diagnostics? You know, I'm not using this as a teaching moment. I'm going to figure this out and. But you're going to get charged for it.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:34]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:46:34]:
You know, now if it's a technician with open ears once. Once a learning, you know, pointing him in a direction, you know, that. That's. That's fun for me, but there's a lot of shops where guys don't want. They're not. They're not the shops here at the training.
David Roman [00:46:48]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:48]:
Well, and that's what I was getting ready to say is we're so, so everybody knows we're at sunrise, which is the southwest auto professionals trade show, Phoenix, Arizona. Yep. Right. Awesome venue, wouldn't you agree? Like, probably one of the coolest venues I've.
Becky Witt [00:47:03]:
Yeah, this is super.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:05]:
Yeah. And so, a, you don't see those guys here.
David Roman [00:47:08]:
Yep.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:09]:
Right. And you don't see those guys engaging in any training at all. You don't see them doing anything. Right. They're just. They're along for the ride. Right. Are we making an impact? Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:19]:
And I guess that's my question for you two. Is this changing? Are things getting better? Because we, you know, we were talking last night within ASOG, within the changing the industry Facebook group, within the things that. That everybody came together and tried to do, the training events. We started seeing some shops raise their rates, and because they raised their rates, they paid their people more. They made decisions, like you did, to treat their people better. And so more technicians that were good went to those shops, earned more money, and the other technicians started to figure out. But is it enough? Is it making an impact, you think?
Becky Witt [00:47:57]:
I think we're making an impact within our group. I can tell you right now, as someone who has been on Internet forums for.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:08]:
Yeah, it end days. Huh.
Becky Witt [00:48:10]:
I atN. Oh, I went through hell on I 18.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:14]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:48:15]:
You know, I would put out an idea and I just get attacked.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:19]:
Yeah.
Becky Witt [00:48:21]:
The day that I put out that I was changing batteries based on age rather than testing was the day that the whole thing blew up. There were 325 posts in that thread, I. Yeah, I was called a very.
David Roman [00:48:37]:
Specific number and a thief.
Cody Gaddie [00:48:39]:
She remembers.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:39]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know if you know this, but my.
David Roman [00:48:44]:
Who was arguing with that? It's four years.
Becky Witt [00:48:47]:
Oh, okay, okay. Here in Arizona, all the technicians are kills back. Technicians were arguing with that because I'm taking out a battery that's under warranty. It's got a five year battery. Why? How can you take that out? You're taking advantage of people. What's the matter with you? Until, as I was actively in training, in that time, every time I did an event, at the smoke break time and at lunchtime, I got cornered, you know, my wife's car croaked and I'm a believer now in this 36 month. I said, you know, the guarantee is by the marketing department. In the first place, it's not engineering, and in the second place, it has to fail.
Becky Witt [00:49:27]:
The whole idea is for it not to fail. That's the whole idea. So the happy medium is, and you're going to say, we can change one every day. Thank you for being impossible, but the whole idea is we want to do what we can do that's reasonable, to keep that car on the road so it doesn't fail. So you treat your customer like she was your pregnant daughter, you know, like she was your frail mother. That's how you look after people.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:01]:
Yeah, I agree. Well, you know, and the groups are known to be like that. Asag was like that. And I don't know if y'all know this. This jackass is like a wolf in sheep's clothing or something. I don't know what the deal is. He's not who he acts like. Okay? That's the deal.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:15]:
So when I joined Asog, it was. It was right after Ast, which is now the Asta expo, right? And I'll never forget this. I joined because I realized I had no clue what I was doing, right? I went to that Rick white class, and I went to a Malin Newton class, and I'm like, uh oh. Turns out it's not the clients that are the problem. It's not the cars that are the problem. I'm a f ing idiot. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to run a business.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:39]:
The reason I am poor, the reason I can't feed my family, the reason I have to work 70 hours a week is because I'm an idiot. Right? Plain and simple. So join aside and I asked a stupid question, and everybody chastised me. Right? It was terrible. I, like, took every kind of ashtune you could imagine, and this jackass sends a message and says, hey, don't listen to those people. I went through a similar thing. Here, why don't you try this? And he helped me for, like, six months, and then he turned into an asshole. So that's where we are today.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:07]:
Yeah, well, and so I think, in a lot of ways, that's. That's the reason that I pushed so hard with Dutch. I pushed so hard with Wendy and everybody else in the group to change was because I didn't ever want, like, the groups can't be a place where you can't ask a question.
Cody Gaddie [00:51:23]:
It needs to be a safe place, right? Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:25]:
Yeah. You got to be able to come to a man and now, like, if it's a completely stupid thing and you're doing something stupid, you need to hear the truth about it. Yeah, but don't be an asshole. That just doesn't answer. You know what I'm saying? And so I think that we've kind of curated it to the point that it's a very solid level of communication within the group, that if you have a question, somebody will jump in and answer, and it will be a respectful answer and people will jump out and help you. So I think we're making an impact. What do you think? I mean, have you seen an. Is it changed, do you think? Not just because of ASOG, but because of the training events and scanner danner.
Cody Gaddie [00:51:57]:
So. So, yeah, I feel that, you know, so ever since I joined Facebook and got a part of these groups and everything else, I got to see, obviously, you know, shops like Dutch's and, you know, seeing. Seeing how ASOG and everything else. And this made me realize, man, I'm not in a shop like this, that there's something better out there. So it started, you know, this is me stuck at a shop for 14 years thinking that, you know, this is. This is where I'm gonna die or I'm gonna retire or whatever, that there's no. There's no light at the end of the tunnel kind of thing. And I want to continue progressing and getting.
Cody Gaddie [00:52:32]:
Doing better and everything else, you know, made me open my eyes that there's there. That there's other shops out there, and it made me pursue another shop. That being said, you know, Covid happened, so it was just a weird time for everybody at that time. But if it wasn't for the networking and the social media and stuff, I wouldn't have pursued that. Then I wouldn't have pursued me being out on my own. I wouldn't be where I'm at now if it wasn't for everything that's happened now. Everything that has happened as far as from COVID and everything else, our wages have gotten better. I see in shops changing the way that their structure.
Cody Gaddie [00:53:09]:
Some shops going off a flat rate. Some guy, you know, some other shops, uh, $10 raises per hour that are flat rate. I mean, it was a, it was a huge jump. Uh, also seen a lot of shops where now they pay 100% of the family medical. Man, that's ten grand a year right.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:24]:
There at least, right.
Cody Gaddie [00:53:25]:
You know?
Lucas Underwood [00:53:26]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:53:26]:
Um, so. Right, that's a raise right there, you know. Um, so I've seen, uh, I've seen a lot of growth within the, within, you know, I know for myself, but. But just even in the industry as a whole, I still feel that we have a ways to go, but I think it's getting better, you know, but raising the awareness is definitely, you know, needs to be there.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:50]:
It was a huge wake up call for me when, because I was getting really frustrated with flat rate master Michael Burke's content, right? Not his content, but the comment section in his content, because all of the text got in the content. And they said, I can't believe, blah.
David Roman [00:54:04]:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:06]:
And owners are bad and they're terrible and they're this and that. And then I slowed down for a little bit and I got to thinking about it. And that was the experience they all had, right? They all had that experience of working for somebody that didn't care about them, that was only interested in the money, that whatever it was. But they all had that experience, right? And Jeff talks about a lot on the jaded mechanic because one of the things that I thought was so interesting about Jeff's perspective is he said, you don't understand until you work for a dealership that a grandchild or a child takes over after the parent passes away, after they built the dealership, and now they're the dealer principal, and they've never worked a day in their life for money. They've been handed everything. You don't understand how that feels. Or they work in the dealership and they're not treated the same way you are. And they get all these bonuses and they're driving these nice new cars.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:01]:
You just don't understand. Like you're. You're working your tail off just to survive and get be screamed at and yelled at, and they do nothing. And they just walked into this he's like, I'm not saying that it's, that it's necessarily unfair. That's not kind of what he was going at. He was saying it's this realization and it was rubbed in your face. Right. And I think we've got a lot of that in our industry.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:26]:
I think there's a lot of shops that have treated technicians like that and I think that we've got a lot of work to do to mend that. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the good technicians aren't coming back. I think they're going to get out or they're going to retire and then we're going to have to figure out how to fix the fact that we, we've got technicians telling 50,000 kids, don't get into this, don't do this, right. Because every single post you see they're saying, I wouldn't do this in our comment section, right. The best thing you can do is not become a technician and flat rate masters in your comment section. I just tell people they shouldn't get involved. Right. And so we've got some work to do to fix that.
Cody Gaddie [00:56:03]:
There's definitely work to do.
David Roman [00:56:05]:
Robots.
Cody Gaddie [00:56:06]:
Yeah, robots. There's definitely work to do out there. But like I said, I mean, I feel like there has been an improvement. I've seen a lot of shops take constructive criticism and have changed and trying to pay for these top employees and amazing technicians and stuff and really appreciate them, and that, that's, that's not gonna, you know, there's, there's still a lot of franchise companies or nationwide companies and everything else where you're just a number. So same with like, going to a dealership and stuff. So there's really gonna be a lot of technicians and stuff that, that are still gonna have a bad taste in their mouth because they're, they're not gonna change.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:51]:
Right. And they're, they're not seeing anything different than what they've ever seen before.
Cody Gaddie [00:56:54]:
No. They're gonna keep doing business the way they're doing business.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:56]:
I'm really glad to see that people are listening to folks like you and so, like, they're listening to Paul Danner, they're listening to Cody Gatty, they're listening to these folks who are, who are giving them good information and learning to become better technicians. They're listening to Becky Witt, they're listening to Dutch Silverstein. They're saying, okay, they're, they're students, right? And they're listening and they're taking action and they're doing something about it to make things better for them, which, in turn, improves things for the other people in their circle. Right. And so I'm glad to see that at least we're seeing some change, even if it's just within our little circles.
David Roman [00:57:30]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:57:31]:
And I don't. You know, if you. If you think about it, how much. How much change do you think this is? It's gonna be a process.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:37]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:57:37]:
You know, it's gonna be a process, but I feel that we're going forward and not backwards.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:44]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:57:45]:
The last time that I talked to you guys, I felt that I was going backwards, or the whole industry was going backwards. I was. I was pretty negative, and a lot of that was just getting adjusted, because now I'm in and out of shops instead of just being at one shop.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:57]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:57:57]:
And then I. Now. Then I realize that it's like, man, there's not a single shop in town that I would work for. Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:04]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:58:04]:
And. And before going in and out of these shops, these are. I'm like, oh, look at that shop over there. And their reputation and everything else. And then what you're getting called out for and what's you get to see behind the scenes, you're like, yeah, I don't agree with that.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:18]:
Yeah, for sure.
Cody Gaddie [00:58:19]:
I don't agree with that either. You know, so. So it was. It was it to sit here and say that we're gonna. That we're making a difference, you know, that was. That was a pretty eye opening experience. Like, no, this industry's gone downhill.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:33]:
Like, we.
Cody Gaddie [00:58:34]:
How are we gonna fix this?
Lucas Underwood [00:58:35]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:58:36]:
A lot's changed just in those last couple years, though.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:39]:
I agree. I agree. And, you know, you brought up something about this particular event is there are people right here within 5 miles that had no clue this event was happening. Yep. And so I think we have a responsibility to tell people about Asta Expo, tell people about this event, to tell people about vision, to tell people about Apex, and get them to these events, to get them training so they can help be part of the change that.
Cody Gaddie [00:59:06]:
We need to see industry 100%. So everything that changed my. The direction of my career and everything else was super Saturday.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:14]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:59:15]:
That one event that I paid for out of pocket, no shop sent me there or anything else, it was. And that was. That came from networking. And Keith Defazio. Shout out to Keith. I mean, he pushes so much behind the scenes, people don't realize unless you know Keith. Yeah, for sure, you know? And he almost was like, you know, you better be here. Like a guilt trip.
Cody Gaddie [00:59:34]:
Like, no, you're coming? Yeah, I'll see you there. I'm like, crap, I gotta figure this out right now.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:38]:
I gotta go.
Cody Gaddie [00:59:39]:
And thank God I did.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:41]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [00:59:42]:
You know, just, just. So now if every shop sends a service rider or the manager, the owner or whatever and gets get to some of these events, it's kind of, it's gonna change. Yeah, but you have to go. I would still be in the same shop. I'd be there 16 years. You know what I mean? I would still just be stuck.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:58]:
Yeah.
Cody Gaddie [01:00:00]:
So how do we grow? How do we go forward these events?
Lucas Underwood [01:00:03]:
Yeah, I agree.
Becky Witt [01:00:04]:
Thank you for saying that. This is one of the reasons I'm going back to live training. Yeah, I I I love live training. I love throwing twinkies. I love the presentation. I love making everybody laugh. Yeah, it's, it's just a hoot.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:22]:
Well, we appreciate you being here for us and lifting the industry up.
Becky Witt [01:00:26]:
I appreciate the opportunity to, to reach out to more people and, and I want to thank you for supporting Asog and helping me get back.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:35]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Ready?
David Roman [01:00:39]:
I guess this is in 2 hours.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:43]:
You have something else to say?
David Roman [01:00:44]:
No, that's fine.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:47]:
That was awesome, guys.