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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.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:01]:
You know, we've not done any audio sync and I've noticed that you've not had the mic on. On the. On the atm.
David Roman [00:00:08]:
Well, that's gonna be fun. It's gonna be like seven terrible episodes just to sync up.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:16]:
Why don't you turn the mic on so it's not a thing.
David Roman [00:00:19]:
How do I do that?
Lucas Underwood [00:00:20]:
Hit the on button for the microphone here. No, wrong one. Oh, it's. Yeah, it's in one that works. I mean, I guess you still have camera mics, so you could use camera mics.
David Roman [00:00:30]:
No, the camera mic comes in as does it. Yeah, the camera mic part doesn't work. The syncing is the clapping. That's the only thing that helps. The problem with where's the camera? Which one? Yours is right there. The problem is that beards tend to catch everything. All the environmental things floating around.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:57]:
Baby birds.
David Roman [00:00:59]:
Well, that's really thick for it to be a baby bird, but it catches everything. And so. And your skin underneath the beard gets super dry.
Josh Parnell [00:01:10]:
That's what the beard oil is for. It's for the skin, not for the actual beard.
David Roman [00:01:15]:
Shiny though.
Josh Parnell [00:01:16]:
That's right. It's a two fold multifamily.
David Roman [00:01:20]:
Lets you also keep it from getting scraggly if you oil on it.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:24]:
I think they had them in, in our neck of the woods. And the reason it was so common is because it had like purpose. In other words, it was cold, it was windy, it was nasty.
David Roman [00:01:33]:
It does keep you warm.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:34]:
And so. But the ones that always got me were the ones where like, they're. They're big backer spit guys. Right? And then so they're always chewing backer and they would spit it, but it would like stain the beard all the way down the side that backer spit orange. You know, it just.
David Roman [00:01:50]:
That's disgusting.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:51]:
It is.
Josh Parnell [00:01:52]:
I've never heard. And it has referred to as backer. Yeah, country stuff right there.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:56]:
That's it. But it did. It did tend to smell that way too.
David Roman [00:02:00]:
So if it's minty, it's not bad. No, I don't necessarily.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:04]:
The problem is, is once they spit it out, it kind of sours. It's kind of like sour milk, except it's got a slobber slasher.
David Roman [00:02:12]:
Somebody's like spit like Mountain Dew bottle.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:15]:
Dude. We. I'll never forget, I had a client one time that had a cup and he just put like a paper towel down in the bottom of it and he would spit. And I was like leaning down, working on something in the truck and then reached up to like Stand up and put my hand down in the cup. Yeah, pull it out. It's like, goopy.
David Roman [00:02:34]:
Oh, no, I can't do it. I could not work in the medical field. Like, the minute somebody, like, drooled on me or sneezed on me or something, I'd be like, okay, I'm done. I'm out.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:45]:
I. I've got a friend who is a ER nurse, and she was posting the other day on Facebook that some man had inserted a Febreze bottle into his exit. And somebody said, like, what kind of Febreze bottle? Like, the metal ones. And she's like, no, I like one of the plastic ones with all the odd shapes and stuff.
Josh Parnell [00:03:05]:
Wow. So we're not talking travel size, which.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:07]:
No, we're talking about, like, yeah, he suitcased her. And so, like, people were asking. They were like, well, the problem is that because it went in there and it, like, it shrunk down and then expanded when it got inside. Like, they have to go in and surgically remove it. Like, they can't just, like, pull it back out because it made it too far up. And she was like, explaining that once it goes so far, it starts kind of, like pushing the other direction if it's not supposed to be there and suck.
David Roman [00:03:34]:
You know that was an SNL skit, right? It was an Appalachia and that. I say, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:03:40]:
No, no, it's Appalachian.
David Roman [00:03:43]:
Whatever. Er. And it was. There was one character in it that it would come in and he'd always have some elaborate story as to how that thing got shoved up.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:53]:
It turns out, like, people were asking her questions, and she was, like, commenting. She's like, this is every single day.
Josh Parnell [00:04:00]:
What part of the country are we in here?
Lucas Underwood [00:04:02]:
They're in, like, South Georgia. But, I mean, it's like, not like you.
David Roman [00:04:06]:
You.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:06]:
Hey, you get on Reddit and search. Like, that's a common thing they see in ERs.
David Roman [00:04:11]:
People jamming stuff into their rectums. That's a bored person.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:18]:
Pretty bored to me. I don't know.
Josh Parnell [00:04:19]:
Bored, curious. Creating perspective.
David Roman [00:04:23]:
Curiosity only. Only enters the chat when you've been bored for a while and you're like, I wonder if. No, you don't. Not if you're busy. You got stuff to do.
Josh Parnell [00:04:34]:
You don't have time to wonder.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:36]:
Yeah, that's true.
Josh Parnell [00:04:36]:
Yeah, that makes sense.
David Roman [00:04:39]:
Anyway, so you're going to be a beard oil salesman.
Josh Parnell [00:04:43]:
Beard oil, mustache wax, beard balm. So, yeah, we'll see. It's all very fluid. It's a work in progress right now. Combs, brushes, probably not combs and brushes. I like the concept of, of just a few solid products. This company has probably 80 to 90 SKUs right now. I'm trying to get them down to like 40.
David Roman [00:05:07]:
Okay.
Josh Parnell [00:05:08]:
Because it's this concept of like the paradox of choice. There's too many, if there's too much, too many options, it's more challenging. So get it simple, minimalist, kind of the.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:16]:
Let's see, the Patrick's is a brand that's a very minimalistic but very like high end brand that does.
David Roman [00:05:22]:
That must be super bougie. I never heard of it.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:25]:
There's, there's a lot of them. It's a cool story. Like his, his story of how he accomplished. It's a really neat story, but there's a lot of them. The one that stands out, especially when it comes to care things was be like Duke Cannon, right. Because they, they had a really nailed down. They had a product that everybody loved and it was very specific. And then they started trying to grow it to be able to offer more to more people.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:50]:
And I think that it became too commercialized. Like people recognized it being too commercialized. Then they went into TJ Maxx and they went into Walmart and they went into Lowe's. They went into all Cracker Barrel. Yeah, you can get it.
David Roman [00:06:01]:
You can get a Cracker Barrel.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:03]:
And so they like the product quality went downhill. The packaging changed and this and that. But now that being said, I could see that if you, for instance, you build a kit, right, You've got beard oil, you've got mustache wax. Well, what if you did beard oil, mustache wax and a brush and you did the things right? Because like there's a difference in the brush you use, like the type of hair that's in the brush or the type of brush it is. Like if you use a plastic brush, it makes static and it goes bling.
Josh Parnell [00:06:30]:
Yep.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:31]:
So I think you could, you could angle that without having too many skews, but still have the ability.
David Roman [00:06:37]:
You could probably buy somebody else's brush and say, hey, we feature this type of brush in this kit.
Josh Parnell [00:06:44]:
I could see us eventually having a number of SKUs, maybe even more than 80 or 90. But early on, like, let's just fine tune exactly what we have and what we don't have and then build that clientele even more. Like when I say 10 exit, like we're gonna 10 exit and pretty quickly be able to say, okay, let's start adding this in the mix and this in the mix. Because we could be like your one Stop. Solution to beards, beard grooming, whatever.
Lucas Underwood [00:07:07]:
It's interesting because I have got employees and I know a lot of technicians who are very much like this, who buy things that are. In other words, like, if you say this is for mechanics, right, they buy it because it says it's for mechanics. And they love that brand and they're like all about it, right?
David Roman [00:07:23]:
What is for mechanics?
Lucas Underwood [00:07:25]:
I'm just saying, like, for instance, Eric has his beard oil thing that he does is stiffies or whatever, him and Scott. And they like love that thing because it's. It identifies with who they are. They branded around what these guys think they are now, neither one of them or anything near that, but anyway, they think they're tough, that's all. Oh, no. Scott's pretty fucking tough, man. He is a stout dude, I'm telling you, like, about the strongest human being I've ever encountered.
David Roman [00:07:52]:
I need to see this live. I wish you were here. I know you couldn't be.
Lucas Underwood [00:07:55]:
But I mean, dude, like, he, like George goes hand to hand with him and like, he literally will for. I need to know George's arms behind him.
David Roman [00:08:04]:
I need to know how he got that. It can't be just, just genetic. There's got to be like. Well, I did a lot of this.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:12]:
I just want to ask her. Bulls.
Josh Parnell [00:08:14]:
That's it. That's it. You're riding. You're riding a what, 2,000. No, 3,000 pound animal.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:21]:
That's it. That's it. We're going to put you on the rodeo, David.
David Roman [00:08:28]:
Dude, I get hurt climbing stairs. You kidding me?
Lucas Underwood [00:08:32]:
You are very fragile. You're probably the most person I know.
David Roman [00:08:38]:
It's because, you know, I haven't pushed the body until I got really old. So now I just want to get Scott strength. I want to be able to pick up George. That's what I want to do. I want to pick up George.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:52]:
Okay, we'll do a full size George too.
David Roman [00:08:54]:
Because if George gets small and then I can pick him up, I won't feel as good.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:58]:
Let's do a baseline today and see how close we are. I'll get it on video.
David Roman [00:09:03]:
I think I can get close.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:05]:
You think so?
David Roman [00:09:06]:
Yeah. Especially if it's over the back. Just like flinging them over my back like Scott did in that video. I think I could get pretty close.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:12]:
Okay, let's do it right out here.
David Roman [00:09:14]:
£400.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:15]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:09:15]:
Yeah. Let's see.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:18]:
Bet I'm setting it up. I'm setting it up. You think I'm joking?
David Roman [00:09:23]:
It'd be awkward. And Like George is in there, like.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:28]:
Grabbing one of my employees.
David Roman [00:09:30]:
One of his employees is enormous. Enormous. He's a big boy.
Josh Parnell [00:09:34]:
Height?
Lucas Underwood [00:09:35]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:09:35]:
Six, four maybe. Yeah, probably £400.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:38]:
Oh, yeah, probably.
Josh Parnell [00:09:39]:
Okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:39]:
Probably two times wider than I am.
Josh Parnell [00:09:42]:
Okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:42]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:09:43]:
So his other employees, Scott, he's five, six, maybe. Okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:47]:
He makes you look like a big dude.
David Roman [00:09:48]:
So he's five. He's five, six.
Josh Parnell [00:09:50]:
I've never heard anyone tell me that before. So that's.
David Roman [00:09:52]:
Yeah, he's. He's like maybe 5, 6. He looks like he's maybe 170, 160, 170 pounds. He's. He is like, he's thick though. Like, he's a stout 5, 6 in this 5 foot 6, 160, 170 pound man is picking up 6 foot 4, 400 pound George and throwing him on his back.
Josh Parnell [00:10:12]:
Wow.
David Roman [00:10:12]:
Okay, that's impressive, right?
Josh Parnell [00:10:14]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:10:14]:
So I want that strength.
Josh Parnell [00:10:15]:
So Scott's the bull rider. Former bull rider, yes.
David Roman [00:10:18]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:18]:
Okay, I'll find it.
Josh Parnell [00:10:19]:
Now I'm connecting the dots.
David Roman [00:10:21]:
There you go. Helps our listeners too. No, don't start looking for it.
Josh Parnell [00:10:29]:
Oh, we got, we got video.
David Roman [00:10:30]:
Yeah, we have video proof of this. This isn't just speculation. I wouldn't have believed it either. Okay, that's impressive, right? That's really impressive. That is an incredibly strong.
Josh Parnell [00:10:39]:
Eddie's walking with him.
David Roman [00:10:40]:
Jesus. That's what I'm saying. That's incredibly strong. That is a feat of pure strength.
Josh Parnell [00:10:44]:
Well, you know where he gets it from? He gets it from the beard. It's very. I mean, to me, it's very evident. I guess the first thing you notice.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:51]:
Yeah, exactly.
David Roman [00:10:51]:
My beard was much longer than this, and I'm telling you, it did not make me an ounce stronger. I like how he slaps them on the butt.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:57]:
He's like, go butt taps for luck.
David Roman [00:11:03]:
That's hilarious.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:05]:
You've not introduced yourself yet. Go right ahead.
Josh Parnell [00:11:08]:
I haven't actually didn't know we were recording until just a few minutes ago.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:11]:
So we don't tell you that.
David Roman [00:11:12]:
Okay.
Josh Parnell [00:11:13]:
Just kind of rolling with the punches here. Well, hey, thanks for having me, guys. My name is Josh Parnell. I'm a leadership coach, trainer and speaker with limitless leadership. And so really what we do is we bring a multifaceted coaching approach to the industry in the veins of not just performance coaching, which a lot of us are already accustomed to, but now leadership coaching. We also have technician coaching available as well. And so, you know, our big belief is that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And so it's very much of a people first type of mentality.
Josh Parnell [00:11:49]:
That's why our slogan is people plus process equal profit. We know that process is important. We know that we need to make a profit in order to stay in business. But it begins, in our opinion, with the people. It's about the connection before the content. And we can't connect if we don't exercise some authenticity, humility and vulnerability in the process. So a lot of what we do and how we do it is just, it's working with people. People have real raw emotions.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:15]:
David, do you have raw emotions?
David Roman [00:12:17]:
Yeah. I'm waiting for the robots. So one day, robots will eliminate the need for technicians and then service advisors will get replaced with kiosks. It'll be awesome. That day I will enjoy being an automotive repair shop owner.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:32]:
Well, I mean, unless you can replace your clients with robots.
David Roman [00:12:35]:
What are you talking about? They're going to come in, they're going to select the kiosk stuff, it's going to prompt them with a bunch of questions. Some AI head is going to pop up there and go, hi, Mr. Smith, we're happy to see you here. And it's going to be the exact same thing I want them to say with the same tone. And everything's going to be super great. And they're going to interact with them with the AI bot in front of them and then they're going to then ship it off and then some robots going to come take their car, pull it in, do the whole thing to the exact specs, Keith Perkins style. Like, because they read all the chat, GPT, read all of the fine print and they've included that all into the repair process and then it'll spit out a perfect repair every time. Cars will last a million years.
David Roman [00:13:18]:
It'll be great. I mean, he'll be out of business.
Josh Parnell [00:13:21]:
I don't know, man. I'm not ready to knock that idea. I mean, like the thing is, like, what from a customer standpoint, can I trust that? Because they're coming back to see you because they like you. They trust you.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:32]:
I mean, let's be honest here. Do they like him?
David Roman [00:13:36]:
They don't see me. They don't see me.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:39]:
And that's because they don't like him.
David Roman [00:13:42]:
I don't, I don't care.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:43]:
He dad voices them and he gets really rude and snarky with his clients.
David Roman [00:13:46]:
And so rude and snarky.
Josh Parnell [00:13:48]:
Dave, let's hear an example. I want to. What's the dad voice? Do you have Kids, I got four of them.
David Roman [00:13:53]:
Okay, so how many times are you going to tell them to put their shoes on? They don't listen. And that last time where you're like, yep, this last time, like, I'm not playing anymore. You'd get that tone.
Josh Parnell [00:14:03]:
Okay.
David Roman [00:14:03]:
And they know, they're like, oh, he means business.
Josh Parnell [00:14:06]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:14:06]:
And then they run in skirt. Okay, that voice is the dad voice.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:10]:
Let's hear it.
Josh Parnell [00:14:11]:
We've all heard it.
David Roman [00:14:11]:
I don't know. I got to be presented with a situation where I got a dad voice. Somebody.
Josh Parnell [00:14:15]:
Come on, Dave, let's hear it. Let's keep on pestering. You know.
David Roman [00:14:21]:
Listen, I'm just saying sometimes you have to dad always. Some people, sometimes customers act a fool, that's all. And I'm saying robots will fix everything. They don't have emotions. They're not gonna have a bad day. My girlfriend was fighting with me. It's like, shut up. Go get the work done.
David Roman [00:14:38]:
No, the robots will just get it done. And to perfection. They were having a bad day and therefore, yes, I'm telling you, look, we had a situation where I have this guy working for me. He is the coolest guy you will ever meet in your child. He's so laid back, super cool and rolls with the punches, Learns from his mistakes. Super mature, has a great head on his shoulders. Love him to death. He gets along with everybody.
David Roman [00:15:07]:
He is fantastic. A model employee left half the car loose. Car left. For some reason he did not go back. The car was a carryover. So he started it one day. The next day he finished the job. He left everything loose.
David Roman [00:15:24]:
Well, I'm talking bolts and nuts and everything. The car left. She made it 10 miles and started to hear a noise. Now this is a long time customer, a long time customer. And she's very forgiving. So I'm glad it was her and nobody else and that nothing actually happened this way. Bar link, because it wasn't attached, came down, started knocking on the axle and that's what she heard. And she shot a video of it and sent it to my service advisor and they end up towing the car back.
David Roman [00:15:54]:
Now he will probably won't make that mistake again. He'll probably go, I'm going to double and triple check my work now and I'm going to make sure I'm going to hit it every single time. And you know, I've given him tips over, over the last few months he's been working for me that hey, when you're doing a complex job.it the what you used to do like.everything that you. Once you torque it.it and I got him a little paint pen and I'm like.it so you know, that way you can visually. You don't have to go back and recheck all your bolts. You can just visually say, yep, yep, yep, yep. Ooh, I missed one. Because there's no dot.
David Roman [00:16:29]:
It's just a process. It's the system. And I don't know if he had been doing it or didn't do it or whatever, but in this particular situation, he made a mistake. Now we fixed it, everything's fine, no problems. But he's human. The robot wouldn't have made that mistake. The robot would have known to go back and double check.
Josh Parnell [00:16:49]:
But let me ask you this, because I agree with that, but do you personally trust a human over a robot or vice versa?
David Roman [00:16:58]:
Trust. I would trust the robot to do the same repetitive task to exacting specifications 100% of the time with absolutely no emotion or nuance or feeling. There's nothing there. The robot's gonna do the same thing over and over and over and over and over again until it breaks down.
Josh Parnell [00:17:19]:
How are you getting educated as a customer who doesn't know car like your robot does? How do you get educated so that you feel like you're making an informed, positive buying decision?
David Roman [00:17:28]:
Here's the thing that I've discovered is that customers don't care. They don't care. Now you're looking at me going, of course they care. No, no. That's what we tell ourselves, that they care. But here's the thing. If they cared, Firestone would be out of business. Firestone's business model is evil.
David Roman [00:17:45]:
One, they take advantage of customers. Two, they put out an inferior product. Three, and the Google reviews reflect that. Four. And yet, if I drive by. If I drive by my local firestone, they have 10 times the car count. I do. Now.
David Roman [00:17:59]:
Why is that? Now, of course, they're open more hours and they've got more people and yada, yada, yada, There's. There's factors in there. But if the customer actually cared about making an informed decision, and I'm going to do what's best for my vehicle and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Firestone wouldn't be in business. Here's the other thing, too.
Josh Parnell [00:18:14]:
Yep.
David Roman [00:18:15]:
Now, I believe I put out a superior product to Firestone. I believe that to my core. I think we put out the best possible product that I can do because we have a philosophy in our shop that is unique, I think, to everybody else around Me, it is unique, okay? And so that philosophy drives everything that we do. All right? The customers never asked our philosophy. The customer doesn't give two shits about our philosophy. The customer's never asked us, do you know what you're doing? The customer doesn't ask me about what kind of training we go to. The customer doesn't ask them about my equipment, how well equipped I am, what kind of service information I have. All important factors.
David Roman [00:18:56]:
Because if you ask those questions, no, no, no to the consumer, it's important.
Josh Parnell [00:19:00]:
To you, but they feel the result of your philosophy. They don't care about the. They don't need to know it.
David Roman [00:19:06]:
But here's the thing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's important for them to know that information because that's what enables them to make an informed decision on the purchase of the repair.
Josh Parnell [00:19:16]:
What's your mission statement?
David Roman [00:19:18]:
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me finish this. Let me finish telling you this right here. The customer, the only thing they care about is, is the car fixed, Is the car fixed, and am I comfortable with the price? That's it. That's it. They don't care about anything else. They don't care about who's touching it, why they're touching it, their motivation behind it, the philosophy behind the shop. They don't care what kind of processes I have, and this, that.
David Roman [00:19:40]:
They don't care about any of that garbage. Is my car going to be fixed and am I comfortable with the price? And if those two things align with what I'm able to offer, everybody's happy. We leave happy. I get five star reviews. Everything goes great. The minute something goes out of there, the car isn't fixed, or they're not comfortable with the price. Now we have some strife.
Josh Parnell [00:19:57]:
It's truly a trust issue because those things create trust for them. Let me ask you this. How many customers have you. Have you. Has Firestone lost because of your shop?
David Roman [00:20:07]:
I'm sure a few.
Josh Parnell [00:20:08]:
Okay. How many customers have you lost to Firestone?
David Roman [00:20:11]:
I'm sure a few.
Josh Parnell [00:20:12]:
You think so?
David Roman [00:20:13]:
Oh, absolutely. I'm not open on Saturdays.
Josh Parnell [00:20:15]:
Okay.
David Roman [00:20:16]:
I get told by customers all the time. They're like, hey, I really want to bring my car to you, but you're not open on Saturdays. And I go, yeah, because I'm home with my family. So is the rest of my shop.
Josh Parnell [00:20:24]:
Sure.
David Roman [00:20:25]:
Aren't you home with your family? Yeah, but I got to get rubbed my iron on Saturday because I don't have any other time. It's like, really, you can't drop it off first thing on Monday morning and then just get an Uber to work. You can't figure out your life like that. That's why I need the goddamn message Mac and cheese truck. Because I don't have to figure out these problems. I'm just saying I don't have to figure out these problems for these people. Like, you really can't figure anything out. Had a lady come in the other day and she brings me this car and she's like, hey, I went down to Midas and they told me it has a bad wheel bearing.
David Roman [00:20:52]:
I thought it was an exhaust problem. That's why I went to Midas, because she's 100 and she remembers Midas, does mufflers and whatever, right? So she goes there and they're like, it's not an exhaust issue. It's a wheel bearing. It's her bajillion dollars to fix this wheel bearing. And she's like. She starts googling. She finds my shop. She comes in, she set the appointment.
David Roman [00:21:11]:
Now, this guy that I had working for him, because I wasn't able to use a robot, this guy that I had working for me did not tell her the process before she showed up. Hey, this is going to be a two hour inspection process. We're going to inspect your entire car for safety, reliability, and for maintenance items. We're going to present everything to you. You can see pictures and detailed notes, and then we're going to send you the estimate. No pressure. It is just like buying from Amazon. You can choose what you like to do and what you don't want to do.
David Roman [00:21:35]:
Click it, sign it, send it to us, and we will call you for a parts deposit. That's our process. Okay? We didn't explain that to this customer. She shows up thinking, I'm just going to jump in the car, drive it around, and let her know if it's a wheel bearing or not. Now, I told her, I said, no, I'm sorry, we don't do that. Now. I went through the whole process and I said, this is what we do and this is why we're great. And she's like, well, I can't leave my car here all day.
David Roman [00:21:57]:
How am I supposed to get to work? I don't know. How can you get to work? Can you walk? Yeah. Is it too far? Then get an Uber. Like, how hard is this to figure out? You really don't know what to do? What am I gonna do? Get a taxi? Really call somebody.
Josh Parnell [00:22:15]:
This dad voice is the real deal. And I'm here For this.
David Roman [00:22:19]:
This is me yelling. I don't talk to my kids this way. I don't talk to my kids this way.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:22]:
What do you mean, clean your room?
Josh Parnell [00:22:23]:
Go clean your room.
David Roman [00:22:25]:
I don't yell.
Josh Parnell [00:22:26]:
Okay, Dave, let me go back and ask you this question. What's your mission statement?
David Roman [00:22:30]:
My mission statement? I want your car. I want to keep your car on the road as long as humanly possible, unless it rusts out. Okay, I'm going to keep your car on the road.
Josh Parnell [00:22:42]:
So what I'm going to share is driving a 400,000. Your guests don't need to know. Your guests don't need to know your mission statement, but they need to feel the result of it, if that makes sense. So my opinion, my thought is, I agree that there are certain things that guests do care about and don't care about, but at the end of the day, all of your actions are going to dictate or not dictate whether they can trust you or not. And that's what it boils down to. So my question is, can you trust a robot over a human?
David Roman [00:23:11]:
Can I? Yes. We do all the time. We do all the time. We blindly put our trust in, I don't know, airline pilots. We're going to fly out of here. They're using all sorts of automation.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:24]:
I'm driving.
Josh Parnell [00:23:26]:
Would you. Would you fly. Would you fly in a plane with a. With a robot?
David Roman [00:23:30]:
Purely a robot. Oh, no.
Josh Parnell [00:23:33]:
Why?
David Roman [00:23:33]:
I need to have.
Josh Parnell [00:23:35]:
You know why. You know why it starts with a T. You know why it starts with a T?
David Roman [00:23:40]:
I don't know.
Josh Parnell [00:23:41]:
Trust. You don't trust that a robot is going to do what humans have done for centuries? Maybe not with an airplane, but you get. You get the idea.
David Roman [00:23:51]:
Here's the thing. I do trust the robot right up, and there's a problem. Okay, okay. But then I have one human in the shop. One person. Not me, but somebody. Juan. Juan will be there monitoring the robots.
Josh Parnell [00:24:04]:
Juan, I just saved your job.
David Roman [00:24:07]:
Oh, I wouldn't get rid of Juan. You kidding me? Juan stuck with me. I love Juan. I love Juan. I do. No, Homa. I do love them. Little homo.
David Roman [00:24:20]:
It's okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:21]:
Just a little bit. So you'll be fine. You know, I mean, and look, you're coming into the scene with this new leadership company and beard oil company. You've upset everybody, pissed everybody off. You've already got haters. I didn't even know who you were. And somebody tells me how terrible you are. So I thought you kind of fit in with us pretty well, don't you fucking do it.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:49]:
Don't you do it. Oh, no. Is it empty?
David Roman [00:24:53]:
I missed. I missed.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:55]:
I'm so proud of you. It was empty this time.
David Roman [00:24:58]:
I did. I angled it towards you so you would have gotten sprayed if somebody got sprayed. Sorry. I learned my lesson. It's not that I don't trust the robot. I do trust the robot. It's a low stake situation if there's a mistake.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:16]:
Low stake situation if there's a mistake.
David Roman [00:25:19]:
If they strip a bolt or something like that or they break something, the robot in the process or whatever. Like, we can fix it. We can fix it.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:26]:
I mean, yeah, yeah, you can. But what if it doesn't detect that it damaged it? In other words, like, how many parts.
David Roman [00:25:36]:
Do you maybe have two people working for me, one QC guy that comes behind the robot and just double checks the work. Because that's what they do at the. Listen you. There are millions of people driving shit boxes off of the dealer lots right now. And that mother effort was put together by goddamn robot. A robot put together that car for you, and you just drove it off thinking everything's fine, there's nothing wrong with this. Why? Because that robot did its job. And only one rando.
David Roman [00:26:06]:
Some guy who's probably getting high in the parking lot. Did you see that at Stellantis?
Lucas Underwood [00:26:10]:
No.
David Roman [00:26:11]:
Yeah, they were. They were like this like undercover news team was filming these Stellantis employees getting high on their lunches. They were just completely stoked. They were hot boxing their cars and then going back in and to put together their Ram trucks. And they walked up to him and going, are you supposed to be doing that while you're at work?
Lucas Underwood [00:26:27]:
And he's like, I mean, like, I do just have to ask, like, did you expect anything different from Stellantis? I mean, we work on our car.
David Roman [00:26:34]:
Do you think it's only Stellantis? You ever in a Ford? It's also Ford. Trust me, it's Ford too. I'm just saying they're probably high. They're checking over the work of the robot. And you're driving off the lot going, oh, I'm glad I paid $100,000 for this ram truck.
Josh Parnell [00:26:49]:
So here's a question for you. Because I believe that leadership is a full time job, but it's because you're leading people. If you're leading robots, is your job as an owner obsolete?
David Roman [00:26:59]:
Like, why is your job so. Not really. Own it. That's my job.
Josh Parnell [00:27:04]:
Would you operate it?
Lucas Underwood [00:27:06]:
He doesn't operate it.
David Roman [00:27:07]:
I don't operate it now.
Josh Parnell [00:27:09]:
Is what I'm saying.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:10]:
Like, no, he doesn't even do it. He just, like, derelicts his duty as the leader and like, shifts it off to the wand and says, yeah, yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:27:20]:
You can delegate and empower because you have people when you have robots. What does that look like as an owner?
David Roman [00:27:25]:
Well, I still have Juan. He'll monitor the robots, make sure they break down. And I'll have a QC guide, just like they do at the. At the robot factory at the Stellantis plant.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:34]:
Are they going to be sitting outside smoking?
David Roman [00:27:35]:
Probably.
Josh Parnell [00:27:38]:
The robots can. Can handle the rest of the work.
David Roman [00:27:40]:
The robots will do the rest.
Josh Parnell [00:27:41]:
Hey, you just do your thing, robots.
David Roman [00:27:43]:
This is going to be.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:44]:
Do you think robots can teach leadership? He could just, like, record a track and drop it on them.
Josh Parnell [00:27:52]:
So phrases. Robots don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:56]:
Yes, right.
Josh Parnell [00:27:56]:
Robots don't care. Is that.
David Roman [00:27:58]:
Yeah, robots do not care. But here's the thing. I think you can. Not to disparage your wonderful industry, but I think you can chat GPT, 90% of leadership training. Not yours. Everything you do is fantastic. I don't know him. I'm just saying, 90% of leadership training.
David Roman [00:28:19]:
I'm sure you've read the books. Have you read Extreme Ownership? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Everybody's read that one. Yeah, I've read my. And just like the same books over and over and over and over. And if you distill the principles, like, down to their core. To the core, you know, what is it? Like Marcus Aurelius, all of it was in there, too.
David Roman [00:28:44]:
And what are you going to go back to? Like the philosophy of Aristotle, a philosophy of Plato, philosophy of Socrates, like, how far back are we going? The principles have been there for forever. So really, it's just, it's. You're adding your personality and flair to it, and that's it. Because the information is the same. It's always been the same, and you're just putting a little spin on it. There's never been a me, so when I give it out, it'll be different. And that's true, but I'm saying the ChatGPT will spit out 90% of it just fine. So the only thing that you need to create, and this is, you know, I'm helping you out here.
Josh Parnell [00:29:23]:
Appreciate it.
David Roman [00:29:23]:
Rather than having coaches just have AI bots to sit there.
Josh Parnell [00:29:28]:
And so one of my favorite. Call in one of my favorite quotes from Maya Angelou, she says, I've learned that people will forget what you said. They'll forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Robots are not going to make you feel a certain kind of way because there's no emotion behind that. So people put.
David Roman [00:29:44]:
People put. They anthropomorphize dogs and cats. They're like. This is.
Josh Parnell [00:29:52]:
Hang on, say that again.
David Roman [00:29:52]:
Anthropomorphize.
Josh Parnell [00:29:54]:
Like, anthropomorphize.
David Roman [00:29:55]:
Yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:29:56]:
God bless you.
David Roman [00:29:57]:
No, they instill human traits onto animals.
Josh Parnell [00:30:06]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:30:06]:
So fur babies. The concept of fur babies, okay, It's a animal. That cat, the minute you die, is going to eat your face within minutes of you dying. The minute it gets hungry, it's going to eat. And I don't care that you carried it. That. Yes. Have you ever read the.
David Roman [00:30:23]:
Like, how fast the cat will eat. That cat. Yes. That cat, the minute it gets hungry and it sees that you're dead, will eat you.
Josh Parnell [00:30:28]:
Wait, hang on, hang on. If there's cat food there, though, it's going to go for the cat food, Right?
David Roman [00:30:33]:
Unless it's been eyeballing you. Some of these cats are assholes.
Josh Parnell [00:30:38]:
Okay, well, they all are. Let's be honest. Cats are not a great animal.
David Roman [00:30:41]:
That's what. No, they're not. I'm just saying. But people. People, they're like, oh, this is my fur baby. He's got a personality. And, yeah, dogs, okay, they have a personality to a certain extent, but they're not people. They don't act like people.
David Roman [00:30:55]:
You think you put emotion into it. You think that they feel a certain way. Like there's emotion. It's just a dog. Like, the dog is just reacting to the outside world. The dog doesn't have, like, deep emotions. The dog isn't, like, thinking about philosophy. Yes.
David Roman [00:31:12]:
I have three.
Josh Parnell [00:31:12]:
Okay. All right. What's your favorite dog? We can. We can talk about favorite pets, maybe not favorite kids. What's your favorite dog?
Lucas Underwood [00:31:18]:
Definitely golden retriever.
Josh Parnell [00:31:20]:
I mean, like. Like, like your favorite. What's the name of your favorite dog?
David Roman [00:31:24]:
I mean, I don't. It's like, who you gonna. I have a dog I hate, and then the other two are cool.
Josh Parnell [00:31:31]:
How do they feel about you? Like, if. When you go home today or whenever, are they gonna run up to you? Are they gonna be excited to see they are. Why?
David Roman [00:31:39]:
Because I feed them.
Josh Parnell [00:31:40]:
Because they have emotions?
David Roman [00:31:42]:
No, because they're happy to see me. Because they're like, oh, it's the man that brings the food. Yay. That's all. They're just reacting to the. Look, here's the thing. It's not just me Anybody walks into my house and they react the same way. Yeah, anybody.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:57]:
Look, look, There goes one of them right now.
David Roman [00:32:00]:
That's what my boys. Anybody react. Anybody comes to the house, they react the same way. So it's not that they love me. They love everybody. They love the stimulus. They're like, oh, something different. Yay.
David Roman [00:32:14]:
And I'm not saying that the dog will be more attached to one person. Like, they all love my wife. They'll climb on top of my wife and lay on her because she lets them. That's it. They're like, oh, she's warm. And they lay on top of her. All three of them at the same time. Plot.
David Roman [00:32:29]:
And then they fight. Who gets to lay on top of her the more. More. It's like I get to put my butt on her, and I get to put my head on her, and they start to get all angry. But at the end of the day, they're not. They're not creating art. They're not looking at the beauty of the world and contemplating life. They're just animals.
David Roman [00:32:48]:
We are instilling the hu. The humanity onto the dog, okay? And I love dogs. I'm not. I'm gonna get so much hate. They're like, oh, you're a dog hater. No, I love dogs. I love dogs. Dogs are the best sand.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:00]:
Unless they're golden retrievers that piss.
David Roman [00:33:02]:
Not that one. Not that one dog. That one dog. I'm gonna shoot and bury my backyard.
Josh Parnell [00:33:06]:
That's not cool.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:08]:
Yeah, it was. It was pretty awesome. And then he, like, re. Wet the luggage. Like, it was it pistol on one of the tripods. And so we're sitting in this room, and he's like, what is this sticky stuff?
David Roman [00:33:18]:
He's like, yeah, why is this all sticky? And I'm like, I smell it. And I'm like, oh, it smells like pee. And then. And I'm like, oh, dog peed all over this tripod. And then I tried to clean it, and that kicked up all the pee stank. And then I was. There was pee stink everywhere.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:32]:
His own clothes.
David Roman [00:33:33]:
It was all over my clothes because I had thrown the tripod on top of the clothes. I hate that dog so much.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:39]:
Anyway, so we recorded a whole series of podcasts smelling like dog pissed, titled Pee Stank Everywhere. That's it.
David Roman [00:33:46]:
Pee stank everywhere. So when the robots come, they're gonna. They're gonna do the same thing to the robots. They're gonna do the same thing. This is my robot baby, My robo baby. It's like, no, it's a robot. It's a machine. Like it doesn't care.
Josh Parnell [00:34:02]:
Definitely took a turn that I was not expecting for this episode.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:06]:
I mean, clearly you've not listened to enough episodes and you've clearly not talked to Brandon yet, because if you had, you'd know that this is pretty much the direction all episodes go, which is no direction at all.
David Roman [00:34:18]:
No, that's not what we're talking. This is important stuff. This is the future of the automotive industry.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:22]:
You think so? You really think so? You really think so?
David Roman [00:34:27]:
I don't like your tone, Lucas. I don't like your tone. It was condescending is what I'm saying.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:34]:
Me?
David Roman [00:34:35]:
No, I'm just saying what. What is leadership training gonna look like when it's all replaced by robots?
Lucas Underwood [00:34:41]:
I didn't know.
David Roman [00:34:42]:
I mean, like.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:45]:
I think you've gotten in early enough. You don't have to worry about it.
David Roman [00:34:47]:
Yeah, I think you'll be okay. That's the hope.
Josh Parnell [00:34:49]:
I mean, I'm going to fall back on the fact that people respond to people. And so I'm not really concerned about robots in regards to leadership coaching or training. But hey, you know, I've seen crazier things happen too.
David Roman [00:35:02]:
How to better manage a robot by limitless leadership.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:06]:
I mean, I guess I don't see why I wouldn't.
Josh Parnell [00:35:09]:
Idea, I guess.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:10]:
Yeah. So what's the leadership strategy then?
Josh Parnell [00:35:15]:
With a robot?
Lucas Underwood [00:35:16]:
Yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:35:17]:
Oh, geez. This is something I was not prepared for.
David Roman [00:35:20]:
Come on. Now, you're still gonna have to, you know, you're still gonna have to provide some leadership training for the person running the robot, I guess, but there'll just be fewer people involved, that's all.
Josh Parnell [00:35:35]:
Ideally. And so this does apply to both your question and also what we really do, which is we get to create two things so that we can provide two things. We create safety and trust to provide clarity and direction. If you think about any job that you've either left or lost, you likely didn't have both clarity and direction at the same time. You probably didn't have both or you probably didn't. And you may have not had either. And that's really what we should do.
David Roman [00:35:59]:
I've had clarity and direction at the same time. Yes. Didn't like either one. And I left.
Josh Parnell [00:36:05]:
Okay, that's fair.
David Roman [00:36:07]:
They fired me, but kind of mutual. I was kind of being shit back, but I didn't like their direction. And they were very clear they didn't like my direction either.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:21]:
Can you imagine that happens from time to time.
David Roman [00:36:26]:
I've been vindictive clearly, they were wrong. Yes, I had a proven method. My method works, thank you very much. Look what you're dealing with. Shitty stores. This is your fault.
Josh Parnell [00:36:36]:
Let me ask you this, though. When you got hired, were they clear and direct on the direction that they were going to send you on? Because at some point, wires got crossed, miscommunication occurred.
David Roman [00:36:46]:
Well, what happened was I got transferred. Well, I asked for a transfer from one market into another market.
Josh Parnell [00:36:52]:
Okay.
David Roman [00:36:52]:
And so the first market, there was a lot of clarity, a lot of good direction. We are targeting growth. We want growth, growth, growth. Great. You do what you got to do, you know, within the purviews of ethical, moral. What's the other one? Are you checked out mentally?
Lucas Underwood [00:37:12]:
I've always been checked out mentally. You think that just happened? Especially when it comes to you? Like, I just don't even.
David Roman [00:37:18]:
Anyway, within the purview of what's acceptable within the company and what's ethical and moral anyway. But you do what you got to do. This other market was a very old market, one of the first that the company ever had. And that market wasn't about don't rock the boat.
Josh Parnell [00:37:39]:
Yep. So how long did it take you to get disengaged?
David Roman [00:37:43]:
Oh, it was pretty quick. It was probably within a year.
Josh Parnell [00:37:47]:
70% of employees, regardless of the industry, are disengaged at work. And it's because they don't feel seen, heard, valued. Which you didn't feel that because if you felt seen and heard, they would have been listening to your proven process, Correct?
David Roman [00:38:00]:
Yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:38:01]:
So it's very likely that there was a mix of. There was miscommunication, but also a mix up of clarity and direction from both sides. But pretty quickly people get disengaged. They start looking elsewhere, thinking the grass is greener on their side, sure. But us shop owners know that the grass is green where you water it. How are you watering grass for your people right now? Maybe with your robots one day. But how are you watering, watering the grass for them? How are you making them feel seen, heard, valued, understood, acknowledged, all these.
David Roman [00:38:26]:
I just walk in and I tell them, hey, I just want you are seen, heard, and valued. And then I leave the level of.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:33]:
Sarcasm and, you know, the very next thing that happens is all look at each other and say, is he getting ready to fire? Is he going postal? What, does he have any firearms in the car?
David Roman [00:38:45]:
So I walk in and I say it in the most genuine way I possibly can, and I touch on my shoulder and I say, you're seeing heard and valued. And I. And I go like this. And then. And then I walk away. And they. They think I'm. I'm kidding.
Josh Parnell [00:38:58]:
And then you go into your office with your Live Laugh Love poster.
David Roman [00:39:02]:
No, it says, no one cares. Work harder. That's what it says. Maybe there's conflicting messaging there. I don't know. Seen her?
Lucas Underwood [00:39:12]:
There's definitely conflicting messaging in. In your facility.
David Roman [00:39:17]:
Why? How's that?
Lucas Underwood [00:39:19]:
You.
David Roman [00:39:21]:
No, I tried to stay out of there.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:23]:
I don't want to. I think that's. I think that's why it works.
David Roman [00:39:26]:
I don't know.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:28]:
You know, you know, their motivation. You know, the. The motivation structure is phenomenal in his facility. I mean, it, like, it is the most brilliant way to motivate your people you've ever seen. David calls Juan, and then maybe 10 minutes later, you see Juan walk back into the shop, and Juan says, hey, guys, Dave says that we're not going to get paid if we don't get some work done, and so we're going to need to get some work done.
David Roman [00:39:56]:
I don't call him. I text him and I say, hey, I need money or no one's getting paychecks. And he's like. And that's. He gets a good side emoji. And then, you know, things work out. He's always delivered. He likes the challenge.
David Roman [00:40:12]:
I can show you the.
Josh Parnell [00:40:12]:
Trust me. Back and forth since the level of sarcasm here. But then I'm thinking, like, well, who's not motivated by money? Because if someone's not motivated by money, they'd be like, okay, I'm out.
David Roman [00:40:20]:
It's not. I. I really do think a good chunk of my employees would show up to work without getting paid. I do. I believe that because it's happened in the past, not in the last.
Josh Parnell [00:40:31]:
But what's the root of it? I mean, I have a feeling I know what it is, but what's the reason that they're going to go to work? And money not being the driving factor?
David Roman [00:40:39]:
I think they like being there.
Josh Parnell [00:40:41]:
Culture is the word I'm thinking of.
David Roman [00:40:43]:
Sure. Yeah, you can say it's a culture, but I think they like each other and they like being there, and they like working for each other. And that's a big deal at our shop. Like, hey, like, look out for each other.
Josh Parnell [00:40:57]:
How do you. How do you promote that? Like, how do you advocate for that type of family? Almost like, oh, I tell them, look.
David Roman [00:41:01]:
Out for each other. Don't be a shitbagger. I'm gonna fire you.
Josh Parnell [00:41:04]:
And by the way, you can also feel seen, heard, and Understood, look out for each other. And I see.
David Roman [00:41:12]:
But if somebody is like, I've got one employee right now, that is that we hired in. I've known him for a long time. I've had my other employees have known him for a long time. But his actions say, I don't care. I just, as soon as it's 5:30, I'm bouncing. Regardless of what's going on, there could be fires, fires. And nobody else will just let it go. Everybody else is like, we're here to finish this.
David Roman [00:41:41]:
We understand when you got to finish, you got to accomplish a mission. Let's get this done. And everybody will jump in and go, except for this one guy, as he's my newest guy and he hasn't, maybe he hasn't bought into it or whatever. I'm getting a little leash. But that's a problem for me. Not that I need him to stay late and need to. It's. It's the.
David Roman [00:42:02]:
If everybody else is putting their head down and getting the job done because they see that it needs to be done, you should know to fall in line with that. And if you're the outlier here, you can't keep working here.
Josh Parnell [00:42:15]:
So has that been communicated to him?
David Roman [00:42:18]:
Not explicitly. I know that, I know that Juan has communicated that to him. I don't think he's heard it from me. I did have a very frank conversation with him about attendance and stuff like that. And I told him, I said, look, I have no will. If you don't like working here, you don't need to come work here. Like, if I hated working somewhere, I wouldn't want to show up either. And so what do you say? He's like, no, no, no, no, I'll be there.
David Roman [00:42:45]:
And he hasn't missed the day since. But somebody calls off more than once, I'm not kidding. All of my employees, collectively, I think maybe five call offs and you know, one was a situation where Juan got stung by a bunch of wasps and had allergic reaction. He had to be hospitalized. Like, that's the only reason why they call off. Otherwise, they show up to work. They all show up to work. I think I missed more work than they have.
David Roman [00:43:09]:
I injure myself. I thought myself a lot. But they don't, they don't call off and. But this guy, like every sniffle, every excuse to not show up to work. He wasn't showing up to work. And I'm like, dude, it's obviously don't like being here.
Josh Parnell [00:43:26]:
So how long has he been.
David Roman [00:43:27]:
We split ways. Not very long. Like maybe nine, three 90 days, maybe three months.
Josh Parnell [00:43:32]:
Okay.
David Roman [00:43:32]:
It's not even that long. Yeah, dude. Like to call off that much within the first three months. Within the first three months. Like that means you don't like working there. You just don't like the job.
Josh Parnell [00:43:42]:
It's possible he doesn't understand the expectations and the standard that's been set to even this morning, in the session that I presented on, I talked about the importance of having foundational conversations. Sure. It's your opportunity and really your responsibility to lay the groundwork, create that firm foundation where he knows expectations are clear, standards have been defined, and it's a we before me mentality here. And so you're not just letting yourself down, but you're letting the entire team down.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:07]:
So, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but.
Josh Parnell [00:44:10]:
Come on.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:10]:
Problem is, is that when you're in a session, you're in a training class and you're all pumped up and you got the rah rah, and that feels so nice and so good. It's great. And, well, but then you go to do it and it's so exhausting and yeah, it's inspiring. And then you got to keep doing it.
Josh Parnell [00:44:27]:
Lucas. Hey, man. It's the J curve. Because what, because what you're describing, like the pump, the pump up and the rah rah, that's motivation. But motivation is like a flame. And flames are going to come and go. So where's your flame going to be tomorrow, six weeks from now, six months from now, is the J curve. You're starting on the lower end of the J, trying to go from here to here, the higher end.
Josh Parnell [00:44:43]:
And we expect this linear projection or trajectory. But inevitably we always. Because it's something new, it's something awkward, it's something challenging, Want to get comfortable, being uncomfortable. Inevitably, we're going to go through this dip. And too many of us quit in the dip. The one on ones aren't working, the daily huddles aren't working. You know, the foundational conversation, that was, that was a joke. And it's because we quit in the dip and we have to go through it in order to grow through.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:06]:
I could see that. I could see that.
Josh Parnell [00:45:08]:
It's a concept of consistency and repetition. Like, it's something I share in the training that I do is. Let me ask you this. Do you guys ever have New Year's resolutions? Do you ever start with a New Year's resolution?
Lucas Underwood [00:45:19]:
Yeah, I never. I never do it.
David Roman [00:45:23]:
If I want to start, I'm gonna.
Josh Parnell [00:45:24]:
You said the key thing I Never accomplish them. A lot of us start with them, A lot of us don't finish them. You know, there's actually a day in the year called Quitters Day, which falls on the second Friday in January.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:33]:
That's me. That's my day.
Josh Parnell [00:45:35]:
It falls on the second Friday in January because statistically speaking, anyone who's created a New Year's resolution, over half of those resolutions have already quit by the second Friday in January.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:46]:
Actually, my birthday is in January and It's on the 8th. So, you know, I quit by my birthday. Right. Because I mean, like, might as well just give up, you know, for New.
Josh Parnell [00:45:56]:
Year, for this year, I'm going to do X, Y or Z for my birthday. I'm going to quit it.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:00]:
That's exactly right. Yeah. That's kind of my mentality.
Josh Parnell [00:46:02]:
Well, the whole concept is this. It's this. So this book, I love this book called the Compound Effect. Compound Effect was. It was atomic habits, but before atomic habits was atomic habits. Right. And so the Compound Effect, it talks about the daily, small, consistent efforts and habits. And over the course of time, you see significant change.
Josh Parnell [00:46:23]:
But we, you know, we overestimate what we can accomplish in a month, or we underestimate what we can accomplish in a year or five years or 10 years.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:30]:
Right.
Josh Parnell [00:46:30]:
If you change one thing, if you substitute a Diet Mountain Dew for a water each and every day, you're not going to see a difference.
David Roman [00:46:37]:
There's zero calories, by the way.
Josh Parnell [00:46:38]:
Dave, I'm not suggesting that you should. I'm just using as an example, hey.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:42]:
Listen, we're in this situation now. We've drank so much Diet Mountain Dew. I don't know. There's a. There is a medical.
Josh Parnell [00:46:47]:
On the table.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:48]:
Listen, there's a medical case study that says that if you consume a high level of Diet Mountain Dew and you stop, you'll start getting kidney stones. We can't stop now. Wow. Yeah, it's a.
David Roman [00:46:58]:
It's a nih.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:00]:
No, it's an NIH study. Swear to God, I'll show it to you.
Josh Parnell [00:47:03]:
You're on the other side of the J curve. You're on this.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:05]:
Yeah, I'm on the upside now. Need to just drink more. You think I'm joking?
David Roman [00:47:10]:
Really?
Lucas Underwood [00:47:11]:
Yeah, I'm dead serious. There was a case study where a man began to have a ton of kidney stones. And so they. The doctor had told him, you, hey, you need to stop drinking Mountain Dew. When he stopped drinking Mountain Dew, he started getting all these kidney stones. They found out that they had given him a medication that caused kidney stones. And they said, well, wait a minute, why was he not getting kidney stones before? It's because of the acid in the Mountain Dew breaks down the kidney stones. And so they did all this research to find out that if you stop drinking Mountain Dew after you've been drinking it for a long time, that makes you flame proof.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:47]:
Right. That means you can run through a burning building without burning up.
Josh Parnell [00:47:51]:
I stand corrected then, because I was going to say, hey, substitute a water for Mountain Dew, and after a couple years, you'll see a difference. But you'll also feel that kidney stone that you're bringing on.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:58]:
Right. Have you ever had a kidney stone?
Josh Parnell [00:48:00]:
I haven't. And I'm not drinking Mountain Dew, by the way.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:02]:
I just want to point out that a kidney stone is a very, very uncomfortable process.
Josh Parnell [00:48:07]:
Oh, I can imagine.
David Roman [00:48:08]:
They have a new procedure. It's called. I think it's called 10X. Like, they blast it with sound.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:12]:
Yeah, it's. You can do the laparoscopic, you can do the laser, you can do the whatever.
David Roman [00:48:18]:
But their voice are breaking it up rather than passing it.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:20]:
Oh, but you still pass it. Oh, it's still coming out. That little. That little winky Woo. Don't you worry.
David Roman [00:48:26]:
I want it to come out in powder form.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:27]:
No, it doesn't come out in powder form. It doesn't come out in powder form. It comes out in starburst form. Little star prickly things. And your wife has to get a pair of tweezers and pull it out from, like, halfway up there. Because it got stuck.
David Roman [00:48:41]:
Because it got stuck.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:42]:
Yeah. And then, like, all the blood pours out because it cuts on the way down. It's awesome.
Josh Parnell [00:48:48]:
If the title of this episode is not Robot Employees and Kidney Stones, we're doing something wrong.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:52]:
Yeah, I know.
David Roman [00:48:54]:
Just telling you, you know, after you told me all that nonsense, I have, like, I've researched how to avoid kidney stones, like, to the nth degree.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:02]:
So. So I think of even it coming out and the worst pain that I had that very first day, like, just numb your junk.
David Roman [00:49:09]:
Like, numb the junk. And then listen.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:11]:
Just listen. The things that I hated most, the two things I hated most. And to this day, it still happens. The kidney spasms where the kidney goes and, like, you feel it. And they say that's not actually what it is, but it's the nerves around the kidney. So, like, the kidney spasms and so it's like juddering all the time. And then, like, your bladder will do that too. And so you feel like your insides, like it's like this sensation because the stones will roll around in your bladder and it's like, you need to go to the bathroom.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:40]:
But it's this really weird sensation. It's like it's tickling from the inside out. It feels awful. I mean, it's like completely miserable. It's a. It's a really bad time.
Josh Parnell [00:49:49]:
Sounds miserable.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:50]:
Yeah, it was awful.
Josh Parnell [00:49:51]:
Have you only had one?
Lucas Underwood [00:49:52]:
Yeah, I've only had one. And I probably have some floating around in there. They just haven't come out yet.
Josh Parnell [00:49:56]:
Hey, drink up.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:57]:
Yeah. And then listen, I sat on an airplane with a urologist, and the dude was a urologist for the va. And dude, I learned so much because he was like a no bullshit, like just straight up kind of guy. He's like, you know what you like about the va? And I'm like, what? He's like, what you like about the VA is, is the only fucking way you ever get sued is when they show up with a pink slip telling you you're fired. Because that meant you just got sued and they want you out of here. He's like, that's the only. He's like, you're fired before it ever happens. He's like, so, you know.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:24]:
But he said, he said, you know, I'm talking about motivation. He said, I have men come in to my practice all the time. And he said, vets are smokers. He's like, I don't know what it is. He's like, the ptsd, the stress, all this stuff. He said, especially our combat vets. He said, they are smokers. He said, they are drug addicts, they're alcoholics, they're smokers.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:45]:
He said, they've seen stuff that we don't want to see. And he said, it makes them do things that are unhealthy. And he said, so I have this responsibility to tell him. They come in and said, for years we've been saying, you need to quit smoking, you're going to get lung cancer, you need to quit smoking, you're going to get heart disease. He said, buddy, he said, I am the man to get him to quit smoking. He said, I guarantee you I can get him to quit smoking. And I said, really?
David Roman [00:51:09]:
How?
Lucas Underwood [00:51:10]:
He said, oh, you don't know what? He said, you don't know what smoking does. And I said, well, yeah, it like gives you cancer and stuff. He said, you know what the number one cause of bladder and penile cancer is? I said, what? He said, smoking. He said, you tell a grown ass man you're gonna have to cut his junk off because he smoked too many cigarettes. He said that son of a bitch quit smoking in a second.
David Roman [00:51:28]:
It's 2024 and cutting a junk off is in right now.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:34]:
Holy shit.
David Roman [00:51:35]:
Super popular.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:36]:
I just grabbed five of those. My face in a minute. Oh my God.
David Roman [00:51:47]:
That's gonna give you penile cancer too for those freaking strips.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:52]:
Why are you crying? Hey, this dude that hates you so much, he clearly has not set at a table and talked with you in a while. I just putting that out there.
Josh Parnell [00:52:03]:
Hey man, I.
David Roman [00:52:05]:
Everybody's got haters, dear. Everybody's got haters.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:08]:
We. We have got a bunch. And sometimes I wonder if we have more haters than likers. I mean, I know you do. I mean that's no doubt.
Josh Parnell [00:52:15]:
If people are hating on you, you're doing something right. I mean they're watching, you know, they're not.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:19]:
Yeah, they're watching enough to know that they hate us. That's pretty cool.
David Roman [00:52:22]:
I'd write to send the hate listen is the same as a regular listen. So it's fine. I'm okay with it.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:29]:
Yeah, I'm okay with it too. It doesn't bother me very as much.
David Roman [00:52:32]:
As Seth Thorson hates us. Hates you. He likes me. He comes in and sits so much with us.
Josh Parnell [00:52:38]:
Like, people who are intimidated by you will often talk bad about you so others won't find you as appealing. And the reality is like if someone is talking about you from years ago still, there's some insecurities there at some point. Like, let it go. Like there's, you know.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:57]:
Yeah, I could see that.
David Roman [00:52:58]:
You gotta let all most things go. That's another problem too. How do you fix letting everything go at the shop?
Josh Parnell [00:53:05]:
Oh, that shift to paradigm. It's thoughts. So like what we talk about is how. So first I'll say this. Humans have up to 60,000 thoughts per day. And studies show that 80% of them are negative and 90% are repetitive. And a lot of this stems from like this is why we experience stress and doubt and worry, concern, fear. But fear is simply false evidence appearing real.
Josh Parnell [00:53:25]:
And we're always going to find evidence in the things we believe. So if I believe that this is never going to work, I'm never going to achieve this or that. I'll find evidence that supports that.
David Roman [00:53:33]:
Sure.
Josh Parnell [00:53:33]:
And so how are we shifting and changing our thoughts and challenging our thoughts? Because our thoughts dictate our feelings and our feelings dictate our actions and our actions dictate our results. So if you're not achieving the results, you Want to achieve? Go back to the thoughts that you're having. One of the greatest mistakes many of us can make is assuming all of our thoughts are true. So if you're not achieving these results that you know you're destined to achieve, it begins with your thoughts. If you want to change your result, start with your thoughts.
David Roman [00:53:56]:
Yeah, so. But, you know, you need to keep somebody accountable. That's important. Right? Accountability is important because if you let everything go, then it's loose, goosey, and then everybody ends up. You have chaos on your hands. But also, it'll be fine. Like, I'll let it go. So they do something they shouldn't.
David Roman [00:54:17]:
And then, you know, you have to go and like, okay, I gotta go choke that guy out. And, you know, but. And you get amped up and you're like, I gotta choke him out. I gotta. We're gonna do this. But then he maybe says something funny or looks cute that day or whatever, and you just go, you let it go. Now that's unhealthy. It is unhealthy.
David Roman [00:54:37]:
Because then again, everything turns to chaos. How do you get over that?
Josh Parnell [00:54:43]:
You communicate. You talk to them. I mean, because what you're describing, like the analogy that I'll paint, is a rope with a single knot in the middle of that rope. Because you see one thing and you're like, I'll let it go. And then you go back a couple weeks later and there's like a few knots all kind of bundled up.
David Roman [00:54:57]:
Oh, yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:54:57]:
And you keep on letting it go and eventually this massive giant wad.
David Roman [00:55:01]:
Sure.
Josh Parnell [00:55:01]:
Yeah. And so you communicate. You know, one thing that we share is that we want to assume positive intent. So when I'm having a conversation with you, it doesn't necessarily have to be quote, unquote, difficult. So if I'm sharing something with you that is for your betterment, for your growth and development, I would. I would begin the conversation by saying, david, I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't share this with you. And, you know, it's coming from a good place. I'm pointing at my heart for a reason, because I care about you.
Josh Parnell [00:55:27]:
Trust me, I don't enjoy having like that too. Well, look, I mean, like, it's going.
David Roman [00:55:31]:
To come off super genuine.
Josh Parnell [00:55:32]:
We don't have, like, we're not excited to have difficult conversations. So, yeah, I.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:38]:
Hold up. I. For the longest time, I avoided them. Right. Why? Because I felt like I was going to upset people. I felt like I was going to hurt feelings. I felt like people would quit if I, if I had difficult conversations. Now I probably overindulge in the difficult conversations and I almost, I don't want to say I enjoy the difficult conversations, but I enjoy having the difficult conversations before they get more difficult.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:03]:
Right. Because if you let them steep, they become. Because now it's down to a choice. Now it's not I need to have a difficult conversation now. It's I'm going to have to terminate this person.
Josh Parnell [00:56:14]:
Well, and I do guess, Lucas, that a lot of your initial conversations are not actually difficult. Like you might be perceiving it to be a difficult conversation for this person. But they know you like, they trust you, they feel safe with you. So it's a hard conversation to have. But you guys know it's coming from a good place. You both assume positive intent.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:30]:
What do you do if they don't listen?
Josh Parnell [00:56:34]:
Accountability is going to go a long way. You just mentioned it, Dave. I mean documentation, let them go. Well, eventually, eventually that's the case. I think for a lot of people retention is a, is a tough thing because we, we expect that they can retain something from one time. But 70% of this conversation will be forgotten by tomorrow and 90% will be forgotten in a week. So repetition breeds retention. So this is why documentation goes a long way.
Josh Parnell [00:56:55]:
When you have one on ones with your team members and if you're not, you should be having one on ones document those things and bring them like, and by the way, they have access to this. I use a Google Doc, so we all have access to this Google Doc. Like when I say we all like me and the one and that person. So when you go to a one on one which is scheduled, we're not catching them off guard. It's not, when it's convenient for you, it's scheduled. They're writing down topics they want to discuss in your next one on one. And if you give them calls to action, which is a must for everyone on one, it's easy to go to a meeting and talk about something, but most meetings are a waste of time because there's no action beyond the talking. So talk about something.
Josh Parnell [00:57:31]:
Commit to a call to action for yourself and for that person. And if that doesn't get done time and time and time again when they get let go, it's not going to be a surprise to them because anytime someone's let go and it's a surprise, you guys already know, that's, that's really a failure on you as a leader. Yeah, just document, you know, I agree.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:48]:
But I mean, like, my problem is I keep just tolerating and then saying, so.
Josh Parnell [00:57:53]:
Okay, but you just said it. So what's the problem then? Who's the problem?
Lucas Underwood [00:57:57]:
Oh, I know. It's me.
Josh Parnell [00:57:58]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:59]:
Let me tell you. I. If there is a problem in my repair shop, I guarantee you it's me. My team's actually pretty legit. It's definitely me that's the problem. I'm probably more of the problem with the shop than David is with his shop.
Josh Parnell [00:58:12]:
We know, too, that, like, when we tolerate mediocrity, we start losing respect from the team as well. Like a favorite. Another favorite quote from Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Beware the lollipop of mediocrity. Lick it once and you'll suck forever. If you allow that person to keep on being mediocre, it's. It's contagious.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:32]:
Maybe you should go tell Jeff that.
David Roman [00:58:34]:
Tell him the cop quit being mediocre.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:36]:
No, I was just gonna say, go tell him. Look at once, and he'll suck forever.
David Roman [00:58:43]:
You might enjoy that one.