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Confessions of a Shop Owner is hosted by Mike Allen, a third-generation shop owner, perpetual pot-stirrer, and brutally honest opinion sharer.  In this weekly podcast, Mike shares his missteps so you don’t have to repeat them. Along the way, he chats with other industry personalities who’ve messed up, too, pulling back the curtain on the realities of running an independent auto repair shop. But this podcast isn’t just about Mike’s journey. It’s about confronting the divisive and questionable tactics many shop owners and managers use. Mike is here to stir the pot and address the painful truths while offering a way forward. Together, we’ll tackle the frustrations, shake things up, and help create a better future for the auto repair industry.
Josh Parnell [00:00:00]:
Communication, at the root of it is the biggest challenge every single shop encounters. A stat that I share on virtually every podcast that I have an opportunity to jump on is that poor communication is costing shop owners 18% of total salaries being paid out on an annual basis. The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we or our guests may say do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have. There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner with your host, Mike Allen. Maybe we should ask Braxton, who. Who is more technologically impaired, because I think I've impressed him with how inept I can be with tech.
Mike Allen [00:00:59]:
If Braxton starts mocking you about something like that, you just challenge into a spelling test. Oh, I know. Let's have a spelling contest now.
Josh Parnell [00:01:09]:
I have some ammo in my bag.
Bryan Pollock [00:01:11]:
Braxton's the only person I've ever met with worse spelling than an aircraft mechanic. They can't spell. They actually have coffee cups geared towards it. If you search aircraft mechanic coffee cup, it'll, it'll have like mechanics spelled wrong three times. At the bottom it says I fix planes. Like it. It's a thing they do. They can't spell.
Bryan Pollock [00:01:35]:
That's a little fun.
Mike Allen [00:01:36]:
I had a pretty good week. Got a lot going on. But one of the best parts of my week was the ability to be in a classroom with a bunch of other shop owners, some of which we've had on, on the show and, and a trainer and to corrupt them with evil shop owner type ideas while the trainer was trying to teach them the problem. All the things that popular trainers teach these days. And I ended up actually going to dinner with one of the shop owners last night. So I did. I went to a class in Cary, North Carolina, which is a suburb of Raleigh, Tuesday night and then Fayetteville on Wednesday night. And that was at Josh Coombs Shop all okay Auto Repair.
Mike Allen [00:02:19]:
Oh yeah, it's a good time.
Bryan Pollock [00:02:20]:
He's got that place fixed up nice, man.
Mike Allen [00:02:22]:
Yeah, I've seen some pictures.
Bryan Pollock [00:02:24]:
Oh my gosh.
Mike Allen [00:02:25]:
It's come so far. His lobby is so cool. He's got like, it's an old reserve airborne paratroop, paratrooper.
Bryan Pollock [00:02:34]:
Parachute.
Mike Allen [00:02:35]:
Sure as like the, the hanging ceiling above the lobby and he's got.
Josh Parnell [00:02:39]:
That's awesome.
Mike Allen [00:02:39]:
Bunch of like classic car decor and old school military decor and he's got beer in the lobby, which, which I support. So.
Josh Parnell [00:02:48]:
Cheers. I do.
Mike Allen [00:02:49]:
I do too. But you know, and it was, it was the Rick's road tour event for ASTA where he did four different cities and four consecutive nights. So he did Greensboro and then Carry and then Fayetteville and then Hendersonville, which is over in the mountains actually. So he went middle of the state, east, east, all the way west.
Josh Parnell [00:03:10]:
Okay, wow.
Mike Allen [00:03:11]:
So. And he was at Canuga Tire and we talked.
Bryan Pollock [00:03:17]:
Oh yeah, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:03:18]:
Edward Trevino. Yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:03:21]:
Oh, that's okay. I was like, I know that. I know Canuga. Yeah, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:03:25]:
You were at the, at the Fueling Connections event and Eduardo was there too. So. But anyway, I was. The shop that we were at Wednesday night was a four day a week shop. And you know that I love to jump in both feet first because they were talking about building a great team culture and recruiting and hiring and things that you can do to attract high level people. And you know, it's like a four day work week, man. Everybody loves four day work week. And then it was, you know, I've had so many clients who you know, have closed on Fridays and it's forced them to find efficiencies and productivities and they.
Mike Allen [00:04:11]:
Their sales haven't gone down or even they've gone up by being open just four days a week. And I was like, well if you think about it, it's great that it forced you to learn your efficiencies and everything. Why don't you just open back up on Friday and have a 24% growth.
Josh Parnell [00:04:27]:
Now that you know your efficiencies.
Mike Allen [00:04:29]:
Yeah. And you know that. And then all the, all my usual tropes about hours open and charging for diag and cheap oil changes and how you pay your technic and all that.
Bryan Pollock [00:04:42]:
So dude, I'm all about oil changes and I was all about. I was all about cheap oil changes before you poisoned me too. I mean I've been doing. I was doing cheap oil changes probably before you were.
Mike Allen [00:04:53]:
Cheap oil changes just work, man.
Bryan Pollock [00:04:55]:
They just work. Not intentionally. Not like, not like, you know, I don't know, I don't know how to explain it. Like just.
Mike Allen [00:05:04]:
Mark, if you're front of house team and your process is good.
Bryan Pollock [00:05:07]:
Yeah, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:05:08]:
If it's not, then it's a waste of money and, and heartache and everything else.
Bryan Pollock [00:05:13]:
It's probably. Arguably the only marketing we do is a pretty affordable oil change. You can get five quarts of synthetic and a filter and a thing done for like 80 bucks right now with the tax for how much? 80 with the tax.
Mike Allen [00:05:30]:
That's 8% tax.
Bryan Pollock [00:05:31]:
So it's, you know, it's like 70 something.
Mike Allen [00:05:35]:
We think. Josh, how do you feel about the cheap oil change?
Josh Parnell [00:05:39]:
I'm not the guy to ask you. I, I'm good at staying in my lane and I'm gonna stay in the lane. But I want to share. I was this past weekend at the Sunrise Automotive Training and Expo in Chandler, Arizona.
Bryan Pollock [00:05:50]:
Oh yeah, Very cool.
Josh Parnell [00:05:52]:
Shared with me that she is a two and a half day work week, specifically card three day work week. But she said she shared. She, she. They shut down half day on Wednesday. So it's four day Monday, four day Tuesday, half day Wednesday. And I, I was blown away. I mean, what's the 30 hour?
Mike Allen [00:06:08]:
Because I do 12 hours Monday, 12 hours Tuesday, and six hours Wednesday. Right.
Josh Parnell [00:06:13]:
I didn't ask for that, but that, that would make logical sense.
Bryan Pollock [00:06:16]:
But yeah, when I worked for the dealership, we were on three thirteens a week. Okay, three 13 hour days.
Mike Allen [00:06:23]:
Wow. So just open six to seven.
Bryan Pollock [00:06:27]:
Yeah, I'm sorry, I just, I just said yes, but that's not correct. It was. They were open from 8 to 9.
Josh Parnell [00:06:40]:
Oh, so that's a, that's 11. No. Yeah, yeah, 11 hours.
Bryan Pollock [00:06:47]:
I can't remember what the deal was.
Josh Parnell [00:06:49]:
Yeah, you're right. Yeah, 8 to 9.
Bryan Pollock [00:06:50]:
Yeah, 8 to 9. 8 to 9. 100% 8 to 9.
Josh Parnell [00:06:55]:
But were they only open three days a week or were you working three shifts?
Bryan Pollock [00:06:58]:
They were, they were open six days a week. So you know you did the shift. Yeah, for like four weeks. You'd work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You do that for four weeks and then you'd have a whole week off. You'd have. Yeah, it worked out to where you had Monday, Tuesday. You know, you'd have a week off, but then you had to start back up on Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Bryan Pollock [00:07:19]:
And then at the end of that, they would call it hell week. But it really wasn't a week because there was Sunday in the middle. So you worked Thursday, Friday, Saturday off Sunday, work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Yeah, it really wasn't. Yeah, but I don't know, it wasn't a bad gig. 12, 12 days a month and collected a full time paycheck. I wasn't complaining.
Josh Parnell [00:07:39]:
Yeah, but that dealership.
Bryan Pollock [00:07:42]:
That dealership isn't open anymore because it actually was just used for money laundering. So when the, when the FBI caught up with them, it didn't. They had to go.
Mike Allen [00:07:52]:
I find the FBI raids are bad for business.
Josh Parnell [00:07:55]:
Yeah, it tends to be the case.
Bryan Pollock [00:07:58]:
Yeah. Nice gig, man.
Mike Allen [00:08:01]:
So I think with Becky, like her goal set and what she wants out of life and her business are met with that schedule. Right. And so if four days a week you can get done what you want to get done and hit all your goals and meet all your needs, then why would you work any more than that? I can get behind that. That's cool.
Josh Parnell [00:08:25]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:08:27]:
Yeah. It's all about what your goals are. Right.
Mike Allen [00:08:29]:
Yeah. I have, I have really big aspirations and I have. I want to do cool stuff and, and, you know, give stuff away and have nice stuff and go to nice.
Bryan Pollock [00:08:41]:
Places and the Mike Alan kids that aren't good at fixing cars, but want to do great things too. Is that from Zoolander?
Mike Allen [00:08:50]:
Exactly. Hey, I do. Josh, I need you to weigh in on something if you've heard or not, but we have podcast Miata that we're getting put together for. For the expo and we're going vanity plates on the Miata. So. So I think it should be free. I have eight digits. I have eight characters.
Mike Allen [00:09:18]:
Right. Gotcha. I think it should be free Diag or number one Eso.
Bryan Pollock [00:09:25]:
I like number one Eso.
Josh Parnell [00:09:27]:
Yeah. You can't go wrong with either. I saw the post in, in, in the group and gotta say, there was a lot of really good submissions.
Mike Allen [00:09:34]:
There really were. Yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:09:36]:
But yeah, you know, I like, I like the number one Eso as well. I mean, that's, that's, that's kind of become your thing and perfect.
Bryan Pollock [00:09:45]:
Because it's on a Miata.
Josh Parnell [00:09:47]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:09:47]:
It wouldn't work on something.
Josh Parnell [00:09:49]:
That's a good point.
Bryan Pollock [00:09:50]:
Anything. Right. Like a. Yeah. Dodge Viper. You'd be like, well, maybe he is the number one Eso. That's really nice. Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:00]:
You know what I mean? Or not. You know, whether it's a nice car or not, they're hard to attain at a value price. Right. Miatas are pretty easy to get out of value.
Josh Parnell [00:10:08]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:09]:
You can go ahead and stuff 1500 bucks in your pocket and probably go find a Miata now.
Mike Allen [00:10:15]:
I bought this one for 500.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:17]:
Oh, nice.
Mike Allen [00:10:18]:
But there's significantly more invested in it at this point than what I paid for. That's for damn sure.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:24]:
I mean, you got.
Mike Allen [00:10:25]:
That was in. It was like paint thinner. It needed a tank and 90 bucks.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:29]:
Worth of fire extinguisher recharge.
Mike Allen [00:10:32]:
Yeah, well, it is the crispy fried Miata. That's what they call it at the shop right now.
Josh Parnell [00:10:37]:
The crispy fried Miata.
Mike Allen [00:10:39]:
Yeah. Technician caught it on fire because he.
Josh Parnell [00:10:41]:
Oh, I didn't know that.
Mike Allen [00:10:42]:
Not pain yeah, yeah, whatever.
Josh Parnell [00:10:44]:
Okay.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:44]:
If we're gonna have a car on.
Mike Allen [00:10:45]:
Fire, it better be mine.
Josh Parnell [00:10:46]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:47]:
You know what? If you haven't lit a car on fire, you're not actually working on anything.
Mike Allen [00:10:50]:
Yeah. You're not trying unless you're burning down.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:53]:
Yeah. So what about Liquid Asset? That's a little bit. That's a little bit.
Mike Allen [00:10:57]:
Assets is an evil shop owner's boat name.
Bryan Pollock [00:11:00]:
Yeah. I feel like I should go buy a really cheap boat and put that on it.
Mike Allen [00:11:07]:
I think a new start. But spelled anus tart is really good.
Bryan Pollock [00:11:13]:
Oh, my God.
Josh Parnell [00:11:14]:
I think, I think one of the best submissions I saw, I think it came from Josh Coombs. Butt stuff.
Bryan Pollock [00:11:20]:
Yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:11:23]:
Like, wow.
Mike Allen [00:11:24]:
There's. There's no way that that would get through the DMV filters, but man, that's a good. That's a good one. All right, so. Hey, everyone who is listening and wondering 10 minutes in, who the hell we're talking to, I want to welcome Josh Parnell from Limitless Leadership. I met Josh, spoke to him online a few times. Then I met him at Fueling Connections earlier this year. And I've seen him also at Tools PA earlier this year.
Mike Allen [00:11:56]:
He just got back from Arizona at that event that you were just talking about. And we're going to see you again at ASTA Expo in September, which is going to be awesome. And anybody who's anybody and ever wants to be anybody will be there or they'll be.
Bryan Pollock [00:12:11]:
It is. It is going to be awesome.
Josh Parnell [00:12:13]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:12:15]:
So, Josh, if you could just for the listeners who might be. Don't know you yet, can you give me like the three minute version of who you are, what you are, what you do?
Josh Parnell [00:12:24]:
Yeah. Well, Mike, thanks for, thanks for that, Mike and Brian, thanks for having me. Yeah. So quick three minute version. I. I really cut my teeth in the industry for almost a decade at Christian Brothers Automotive and had the opportunity to. To lead a team of incredible service development trainers. And we had the opportunity to serve thousands of team members across 31 states and over 300 locations nationwide.
Josh Parnell [00:12:50]:
And what we did primarily in my department was we were serving service managers, service advisors and franchisees. And so we would create and facilitate all the training programs for those individuals. And then a little over two years ago, I just got this itch and I'm a faith based person. I just felt like God was starting to do something in me. And, and, and I was thinking, you know what? Logically this doesn't make sense. I don't know why I'm thinking about leaving, but but ultimately that's, that's what I eventually did and really took a step in faith and left a great organization, great company, great role. I really loved what I did there, love the people there, still do, and decide to jump into this terrifying world of entrepreneurship as a leadership coach, trainer and speaker. And so here I am now serving the industry in a larger capacity.
Josh Parnell [00:13:37]:
When I was with Christian Brothers, I didn't realize how big the industry really was until I got out. And while I'm still a small fish in a massive pond where what I do know is that there are so many amazing companies out there, coaching companies, but also shop owners, esos, as you may call them, who are collectively trying to work together and collaborate, not compete, but to, to, to make this industry a better one. And so I'm just thankful to be a part of it. I'm thankful to have met a lot of great individuals who have welcomed me with open arms like you guys have. And so, yeah, loving what I'm doing and loving the, the impact that we're collectively making. And that's, that's kind of my, my quick, I guess, two minute spiel.
Mike Allen [00:14:19]:
Do you prefer to work with owners or service managers or advisors? Who's your sweet spot for working with?
Josh Parnell [00:14:28]:
Yeah, good question. I think the sweet spot would probably be service managers, because what I do is I share with a shop owner. I want to give you the gift of time and money by saying, we know that it's your responsibility to grow and develop leadership skills within your organization. Let me do that for you. And so I primarily work with people who are leading people in the trenches. And so I'm mainly working with service managers who are formerly leading people. Now I would say if I, if I gave you a breakdown of clientele, I'm, I'm thinking maybe 80% service managers, 15% owners and 5% technicians is kind of the current breakdown of clientele for us.
Mike Allen [00:15:08]:
So you've got like senior technicians who are filtering into a leadership role type thing or like a management role.
Josh Parnell [00:15:15]:
Yeah, not even necessarily management role. Say it again, Brian.
Bryan Pollock [00:15:19]:
Which need the most work? Because the mindset from a technician, I, I find myself being overly frustrated and not nice sometimes.
Josh Parnell [00:15:31]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:15:31]:
Because of the technical mindset, the connection, trying to make the connection. You know, why can't we just do the job? Right? Like why have we, you know, like if we, if we run into something, I find myself excessively frustrated. If we've had a conversation about something like six times, sure. Like six months later, I'm dealing with the same thing. And I definitely. I definitely don't approach it the right way. I caught myself with that one day. I didn't really catch myself.
Bryan Pollock [00:15:58]:
Somebody else caught me on it and called me on it Monday. And he was right. I was like, okay, I was kind of. I was kind of being a dick, but, you know, you could always do your job. Right.
Josh Parnell [00:16:06]:
Well, I mean, like, we know there's often multiple conversations happening for the one that's actually happening, which is the conversation I'm having, the conversation you having, and the conversation that we both think that we're having. And that's why the greatest misconception about communication is the fact that it's actually happening. And so when I'm working with.
Bryan Pollock [00:16:23]:
Yeah, right.
Josh Parnell [00:16:24]:
With technicians. Awesome.
Bryan Pollock [00:16:25]:
I never thought about that.
Josh Parnell [00:16:26]:
Yeah, well, and that's the thing, like communication at. At the root of it is. Is the. Is the biggest challenge every single shop encounters. And a stat that I share on virtually every podcast that I. I have an opportunity to jump on is that poor communication is costing shop owners 18% of total salaries being paid out on an annual basis, which means that if you're paying a million dollars in salary across an annual basis, poor communications. Sorry. Poor communication could be creating sunk cost in the amount of $180,000.
Josh Parnell [00:17:01]:
So when I work with team members, it is heavy on communication, on delegation, on casting a clear vision, driving a mission towards the vision, time management. But to answer your question, Mike, to go back to answer. When I'm working with technicians, it's not necessarily for those who are transitioning into a management role. Sometimes it's. It's working with a shop foreman or a lead technician who is. Who's mentoring other technicians. You know, in the bays, we need to make sure that we know how to communicate. And what we know is that a philosopher will take the simple and make it complex, and a communicator takes the complex and makes it simple.
Josh Parnell [00:17:41]:
So if we can collectively, from top to bottom, left to right, east to west, whatever you want to call it, there's that invisible wall that we all know about between the service counter and the bays. If we can communicate more effectively, then we're able to move the needle in a much quicker, more efficient manner, because we know that 7.47 hours per week right now, on average, is lost time because of poor communication.
Mike Allen [00:18:10]:
So where do you get Those statistics?
Josh Parnell [00:18:12]:
The 2022 State of Business Communication Report.
Mike Allen [00:18:18]:
State of Business Communication Report.
Josh Parnell [00:18:20]:
Yes, State of Business Communication Report. And if anyone wants this information, this is all found in my limitless leadership blueprint, too. Which is an online leadership training and a new stat that I think is pretty alarming because for the last couple years I've been sharing how 70% of employees are disengaged at work because we know that connection creates engagement and engagement increases performance. So we need to go back to the engagement piece. If 70% of employees are disengaged at work, that tells us that's the opportunity, which is connection. Like the better the connection, the more engagement. However, the alarming stat that I want to share is that the new report, the 2025. Yeah, I believe 2025 State of Business Communication report just released this information.
Josh Parnell [00:19:03]:
77% of employees are now disengaged at work. However, conversely speaking, 80% of people will tell you that they are fully engaged when they receive meaningful feedback at least once per week. So if you're listening, what does communication look like in your shop in the form of one on ones daily huddles, toolbox talks, whatever it may be. How are you creating engagement in your shop to subsequently increase performance?
Mike Allen [00:19:26]:
Yelling, cursing, throwing of hand tools.
Josh Parnell [00:19:29]:
There you go. Sounds like the engagement.
Mike Allen [00:19:33]:
Super engaged.
Bryan Pollock [00:19:34]:
That's unnecessary. Throwing is unnecessary.
Mike Allen [00:19:37]:
Yeah, tools are expensive and you don't want to risk messing them up.
Josh Parnell [00:19:40]:
Well, if you can dial the wrench purely.
Bryan Pollock [00:19:43]:
Ever go out, you ever go out there, Mike, and just do some cheerleading?
Mike Allen [00:19:47]:
That's probably one of the only things that I do is cheerlead. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's not like I can go help them put timing chains in, you know?
Bryan Pollock [00:19:56]:
Yeah, that's true. I got a little one up there, don't I? Oh, you're having trouble with this. Let me show you something.
Josh Parnell [00:20:02]:
Yeah, I'll ask you, Brian, because I know that's kind of a facetious statement that you're making, but like think about the amount of times we as shop owners or we as leaders in the shop are quick to reprimand rather than recognize. And if we have the opportunity to recognize and if we have the opportunity to call someone out in a good way, like, hey, this thing that you're doing good, we're quick to identify what you're not doing well. What about the things you're doing? Really?
Bryan Pollock [00:20:26]:
Yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:20:26]:
You're doing well.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:28]:
The only time, the only time we're ever congratulating anybody is when you can tell they got something going on and they're already down. You know what I mean?
Josh Parnell [00:20:36]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:37]:
And that's a problem. That's a problem because you know, you'll have a guy that'll do one thing wrong, but he did A hundred things right. You know what I mean?
Josh Parnell [00:20:45]:
So that's.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:47]:
Yeah, that's.
Mike Allen [00:20:47]:
And then we, when he does 100 things right, we say, good, congratulations on doing your job. And when he does one thing wrong, we yell at him for being a.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:56]:
I. I am like a much heavier, younger version of Dutch when it comes to people did their job right. Oh, congrats. You did what you were hired for.
Josh Parnell [00:21:06]:
Yeah. That's what, that's what's expected, right?
Bryan Pollock [00:21:09]:
Yeah, yeah. But it's not, it's. I'm not, I'm not as bad as Dutch. You know, if somebody does a good job or something like, oh, man, that was. That was killer. Thanks for that. But I'm definitely for how good the guys do. I'm not where I should be with that.
Bryan Pollock [00:21:29]:
Because they do really good job for us. They really do.
Josh Parnell [00:21:32]:
You mentioned mindset earlier, Brian. And we. We're guilty of this too. So someone can do a hundred things right. They do one thing wrong and we focus on the one thing that's wrong. But even we internalize things that we also do that is quote unquote wrong or negative. And we know there's 14, 40 minutes in a day, but we will allow a one minute conversation to completely ruin the rest of our day.
Bryan Pollock [00:21:57]:
Oh yeah.
Josh Parnell [00:21:58]:
Because we don't know how to manage or control the thoughts that we're experiencing.
Bryan Pollock [00:22:01]:
One minute conversation or something. That went sideways on a view. I went last Friday. I was off. I'm off the schedule on Fridays. We had something go wrong on a vehicle. I was gonna be able to sleep that night. I drove to the shop at 7:30 at night to repair the vehicle.
Bryan Pollock [00:22:15]:
I wasn't going to be able to sleep after not going to the shop all day. Wasn't gonna sleep 100%.
Josh Parnell [00:22:22]:
How long did it take you to repair that vehicle? Out of curiosity?
Bryan Pollock [00:22:24]:
Like two and a half, three hours.
Mike Allen [00:22:30]:
So it's 1440 minutes in a day. But do you know how many minutes there are in a year?
Bryan Pollock [00:22:36]:
I don't like that.
Mike Allen [00:22:37]:
By three, four and a quarter. You don't follow musical theater then? Because it's a famous song in the play rent. 525,600 minutes.
Josh Parnell [00:22:48]:
Oh, okay. Yeah. So I am familiar with the song. I did not know that was the time frame in a year.
Mike Allen [00:22:55]:
525,600 minutes. Flip that shit out and make a real out of it.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:03]:
Sorry. Gosh. The flat rate pusher would know. How many now? How many, how many fru is that? Divide that. Can you divide that by six on your Calculator and figure out how many tents there are.
Mike Allen [00:23:16]:
Not enough. So do more. One of the things, one of the exercises that we did in the class this week that I've seen trainers all over the country do it. It's the value of a technician's time broken down to the minute.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:35]:
Oh yeah.
Mike Allen [00:23:36]:
And you know, that number just goes up because the average labor rate goes up and everything else but parts go.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:42]:
Up, which means parts margin goes up and blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Sure.
Mike Allen [00:23:46]:
Well, I think very conservative numbers. He based it on $150 an hour labor rate with a 1 to 1 parts to labor ratio which a lot of people don't. That's, that's even conservative now. It ended up being like five and a half bucks a minute. So it was like. So when you send him down to the parts store to grab that part and it takes him 20 minutes, it's a hundred dollars.
Bryan Pollock [00:24:09]:
I had, I had a debate with somebody about whether technicians should be putting the parts on the work order, selecting the parts and putting them on the work order because of the cost of technician time per minute. And I said that that's a great argument, but let's face it, if you let the service writers pick all the parts to no fault of their own because it's not their job to know what parts work well on what cars, I think I could make an argument that you'll burn a lot more of that time taking parts back off then but.
Mike Allen [00:24:41]:
Or having to wait and leave a car hung because you missed some parts that the tech would have known were needed.
Bryan Pollock [00:24:46]:
Or you got me a Bosch O2 sensor for a Dodge and I know it's not going to work, so now it's in the air. So now we gotta re. Rack it or do whatever. Yeah, no thanks.
Josh Parnell [00:24:56]:
Oh, go ahead, Mike.
Mike Allen [00:24:58]:
I was gonna say that it's a, it's a double edged blade. Right. Because if you have the technicians heavily involved in the estimate building process, the estimates are more accurate and you have fewer burned minutes waiting for estimate correction.
Bryan Pollock [00:25:11]:
Sure.
Mike Allen [00:25:11]:
Callbacks, more parts, that kind of stuff. But you're burning a very expensive.
Bryan Pollock [00:25:14]:
Yeah. They can't be doing something else. Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:25:17]:
If you don't, if you, if you just have them in the bay working on cards only and they don't deal with any of that. Well then the service advisors are building the estimates. But they, they screw some up. Right. Because it's not their sweet spot.
Bryan Pollock [00:25:30]:
Yeah. It's not, it's not their job, man. It's not their job to know that.
Mike Allen [00:25:33]:
Well, you know, I've stumbled upon a solution. Would you like to hear what that solution is?
Josh Parnell [00:25:37]:
Let's hear it.
Mike Allen [00:25:39]:
Hub Shop Solutions. That's right. So everybody in the company loves it because I had technicians heavily involved in the estimating process and you know, advisors are still involved as well in different ways. Technicians would look up their labor, advisors would add parts and now the technicians don't have to look up their labor anymore. And you've got people who all they do all day is build high level estimates. And so the service advisors aren't having to look in a parts. The DVI is marked complete and then within 15 minutes the estimate is ready to rock and we get a message on Slack, which is the software, the communication software.
Bryan Pollock [00:26:23]:
Now instead of the technician adding a bunch of parts, he's just got to review the estimate to make sure it's not going to be jacked around. Instead of adding a whole bunch of parts, he would have added anyways.
Mike Allen [00:26:33]:
I would tell you if they falter, it's that they add too much, they default to everything. And these are professional estimate builders. That's all they do.
Bryan Pollock [00:26:44]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:26:45]:
They also will call and sit on hold and file your extended warranty claim stuff for you so that you don't spend 20 minutes on hold to you know, get that CarMax warranty or whatever which obviously the advisors love. So everybody in my company is super happy with that.
Josh Parnell [00:27:01]:
Well, and I want to piggyback on that Mike, because I'm actually friends with the folks at hubshop Solutions and I will vouch for them and the great job that they do. And so if you are listening and you are considering this alternative, I'll say it's a no brainer, like give them a call, jump on a discovery call with them. Hubshop Solutions is definitely the way to go.
Mike Allen [00:27:20]:
And actually ironically they've been growing a lot and I needed them to open, I needed them to be available to provide service on Saturdays for before I could put them into my big shop. And one of my former service advisors who was kind of a borderline manager is now working for him. She needs to work from home because she's raising her grandkid and so now she's knocking out estimates all over the country in tech metric while she raises her kid.
Josh Parnell [00:27:49]:
So actually Ashley was at the, the Sunrise Expo and she shared that specific scenario how now we're, now we're doing on Saturday too thanks to Mike Allen.
Mike Allen [00:27:58]:
So I did steal two slices of pizza from my son. So it's time for pizza and beer.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:03]:
Nice oh, God.
Josh Parnell [00:28:05]:
What's your go to, what's your beer? Michelob Ultra.
Mike Allen [00:28:08]:
This is free beer. This is Yingling Flight.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:10]:
Oh, yeah, okay.
Mike Allen [00:28:13]:
Was left over from the Asta summer social event that was hosted at Car Fix last week. And so there was a half a cooler of beer and soda left. And there you go, doing my part.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:24]:
I, you know, on the way down to Tools, we toured the Yingling Brewery, the America's oldest brewery there.
Josh Parnell [00:28:31]:
Oh, nice pots.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:32]:
Pottsville. Pottsville, Pennsylvania. That was really cool. Some poor guy had to climb this rickety old ladder every day and turn the water on from the spring water in the mountain. There's like a valve on a pipe. Terrible.
Mike Allen [00:28:45]:
Does he still do it or is that just like.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:47]:
Man, that was like an 18 something. It was pretty cool. But yeah, their, their free tour worked. Their free tour with their free beer worked because I didn't even know I liked Yingling beer. And I've found myself going to get some lately. It's almost like similar to a cheap oil change.
Josh Parnell [00:29:10]:
Yingling just made like a few years ago for the longest time.
Bryan Pollock [00:29:17]:
Kind of like a northeast deal. They're not on the other side of the Mississippi, I guess. Well, I guess they are now. If they're in Texas now.
Josh Parnell [00:29:23]:
They are.
Mike Allen [00:29:24]:
Texas is actually on the other side of the Mississippi, Brian. Yeah, Technicians and geography, not a big thing.
Bryan Pollock [00:29:33]:
Yeah, listen, I fix codes.
Josh Parnell [00:29:38]:
So here's a question I have for both of you guys, both of you guys being shop owners, because something I do share with a lot of shops is probably sounds counterintuitive, especially for technicians, and that is this concept of one on ones with your technicians. And so when you're talking about the value like time and the value for a technician and you know, even if they're like a minute, like broken down to the minute. So if I were to say I'm encouraging shop owners or service managers to meet with a tech, for example, 45 minutes every two weeks, that, that's 45 minutes of lost production in terms of dollars and cents going into the business. But my I, my argument is I go back to the engagement and the connection. Because if connection creates engagement and engagement increases performance, what kind of price tag can you put on a one on one with a technician who has perhaps never had their voice be heard or their opinions matter or their ideas be considered? They've never been asked for their professional opinion on, hey, what should we start doing here? What should we stop doing here? If I were to ask you what's your feedback on that concept of Actually pulling your technicians out of the shop for 30 to 45 minutes to talk to them about how they're doing up here and in here, I'm pointing my head and my heart.
Mike Allen [00:31:04]:
So five minutes, $5aminute is the low end of that spectrum. 45 minutes every other week is $6,500 a year. It's a pretty big chunk. Do you think you need 45 minutes?
Josh Parnell [00:31:17]:
Well, you don't need 45 minutes every day.
Mike Allen [00:31:19]:
I had a 45 minute conversation with someone that I wasn't being punished.
Josh Parnell [00:31:24]:
Well, and that's the thing. Why are we waiting until someone needs to be punished? Because that, that's what a one on one typically is. It's disc, it's, it's disciplinary. I met with someone because I had to tell them what they did wrong. And if our team members are giving us 120 hours every two weeks and we can't make 30 minutes, 45 minutes of time for them in that two week time frame. What we know is that it cost you six to nine months of a team member salary to replace them. So while you're right, it is a lot of lost time and production time in terms of dollars and cents. 6,500 for example, in the grand scheme of things, if, if, if my technician feels heard, understood, acknowledged, understands how much I care about them, not just as a technician but also as a person.
Josh Parnell [00:32:10]:
And if I'm promoting this healthy work life balance and work life rhythm, I'm creating this culture for them. Do you think that it's possible that their performance actually increases because they finally, for the first time in their professional career, feel like they, and they know that they have a voice, their opinions matter and their ideas are considered. It sounds counterintuitive, but it works.
Mike Allen [00:32:32]:
I mean, what do you think, Brian?
Bryan Pollock [00:32:33]:
We do like group lunch where everybody airs their grievances. And I think it's better to have.
Mike Allen [00:32:40]:
I think.
Bryan Pollock [00:32:43]:
No, we don't say nobody cares. Work harder. We have, we have production discuss, we have productive discussions at group lunch about like what's working, what's not working? Like stupid. Like, like, hey man, I don't like this TPMS tool because it does xyz. And whether I agree with them or not, I'd rather just not listen to him complain about it and have them be happy. So I'm like, what TPMS tool you want, I'll go get you one. You know, stuff like that.
Josh Parnell [00:33:11]:
Who's going to feel comfortable in that meeting to say, hey, honestly, like I'm struggling, I'm Struggling at home, my marriage is on the rocks. You know, we're, we're, we're, we're barely like, we're barely making it. Like no one's going to open up and say that. And by the way, I know I'm suggesting that every other week I think with, with service advisors, managers, I think that that's a feasible time frame. And, and I now having worked with over 120 folks in the last couple years in the one on one capacity, I feel confident in saying that I've had dozens of shop owners reach out and say hey, the introduction and the implementation of one on ones have been a game changer for our business. And when I say dozens, I'm not exaggerating. Like it is when you do it right and when you do it effectively it completely changes the culture in the shop. With technicians it's a little different.
Josh Parnell [00:33:53]:
And that's why I'm curious from your perspective, it does sound a bit much and it probably is to do every other week, but could you consider once a month for example?
Mike Allen [00:34:05]:
So I have tried with varying degrees of success to do lunch with an employee once a week, just rotate it through the team or lunch with the key employee once a month, that kind of thing. And sometimes it works great and sometimes it doesn't and you know, life has ups and downs and you know, busy times and you lose focus, that kind of thing. It. So for me obviously they love feeling heard and seen and, and that they have a voice. Right. And there is nothing wrong with that. But one of the side effects that I've witnessed is it has created a culture where some of my guys are comfortable going outside of the chain of command and coming straight to me with a problem. And they go over their leader or their boss to do that and I have to redirect them back down correctly because that's undermining their direct leaders authority by letting them come to me without going appropriately through the chain of command.
Mike Allen [00:35:21]:
Does that make sense?
Josh Parnell [00:35:22]:
It does. And this is also why I actually encourage service managers, specifically people who are in the trenches, boots on the ground for lack of better terms.
Mike Allen [00:35:31]:
They're the ones who in the trenches with the wrenches.
Josh Parnell [00:35:34]:
In the trenches with the wrenches, that's me. They're the ones who I think should be, should be doing what, what, what you're talking about and not to suggest that you don't do that. I think it's, it's, it's critical for every leader within the organization to nobody some kind of time.
Bryan Pollock [00:35:49]:
Nobody wants a 45 minute with me because they got to deal with me in the shop all freaking week.
Josh Parnell [00:35:55]:
They got to, they have to get to.
Bryan Pollock [00:35:57]:
I'm, I'm, I am, I am within, in our Sanborn shop, I am within 30ft of every person working in that shop at all point, at all times, unless I'm on a test drive or something, because I'm working in the bays every day. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if they want any more of me talking to them.
Josh Parnell [00:36:23]:
But, you know, there's a, there's a healthy balance, a fine line between love and accountability. And when you talk about getting comfortable and really overstepping the chain of command, this is where we need to make sure that we're creating and we're setting and more importantly, keeping boundaries for our teams personally and professionally and recognizing that accountability is actually a form of love. And, you know, I'll say this till I'm blue in the face. People don't care how much you know until they know much you care. But you can still hold your team accountable, set and raise the standard to where you are showing up for them in a way that no other leader has. And you are developing them as a leader that no one else ever, ever did. And they're turning into someone who is just unrecognizable to them, to you, and even to their family.
Bryan Pollock [00:37:09]:
I can see that side of it too.
Mike Allen [00:37:12]:
I mean, what does it look like? Let's say, for example, that I wanted to send my leadership team to you for training. What does that look like? How often do they interact with you? For how long? Is it 45 minutes every two weeks or what does it look like?
Josh Parnell [00:37:24]:
It, it can be. So we schedule an hour, but the calls last about 50 minutes. The reason they're 50 is because we work off running Google Doc. And the running Google Doc is something that they have access to. You also have access to being the shop owner. You see the conversations that we're having with, with your service manager or lead technician. The last 10 minutes of that hour is for me to type in any additional notes that I didn't take during the live call. It is for me to tidy up any notes, put a bow on things.
Josh Parnell [00:37:53]:
It's also for me to send them any resources that we may have discussed while on that call. But you do have access to all of that. We walk through a three phase process in coaching, which is the discovery phase, then the action phase, then the coaching phase. In the discovery phase, I learn a lot about who I'm Working with what drives you, what scares you, what makes you tick, why you think the way that you do, why you operate the way that you do. When I have a good understanding of who I'm working with, I can then customize the next phase of the program for your service manager or lead technician on the action phase, because this is where we start leading and working with leading the most challenging person we will ever lead, which is ourself, and navigating the toughest battle or one of the toughest battles we're ever going to face, which is in between the years. So it's early on, it's a little bit of mindset stuff. We're talking about how to sharpen the axe, how to level up spiritually, physically, emotionally, academically, financially. I'm not an expert on any of those five things, but we're at least mindful of those five things.
Josh Parnell [00:38:49]:
And I'm holding them accountable and giving them calls to action which are critical to any meeting that you have. Giving them a call to action so that they are doing something in between now and the next call to grow and develop. Once we get past the action phase, which is customizable to them. So the phase could be, it could be a few weeks to a few months for somebody, it could be something completely different for someone else. We then get into the final phase, which is the coaching phase. We're focusing quite heavily on leadership coaching, training and managing. There are four different methods for all four. I have methods for all four, but all are necessary, but all are different.
Josh Parnell [00:39:28]:
So we're walking through and talking through really the gamut of leadership from self leadership and self development to team leadership and team development. To answer your question, Mike, what we've been doing, I say we because I literally just added someone to the team and so hasn't even been officially announced, but I'll break the news here. So brought the regional vice president from Factory Motor Parts onto Limitless Leadership Team as leadership coach. Adam Faulkner is his name. He's a great guy, great coach. And what we're, what we're primarily pushing out and offering right now is the Limitless Leadership Blueprint, which is the online leadership training course for anyone and everyone within your shop, within your organization. If someone wants to purchase one on one coaching, there's an optional add on beyond that course and that's when it's a self paced, a self scheduled, one on one training or coaching session. So if you buy a coaching package of 10 coaching calls, for example, you get our calendar and you book your calls when you're ready for the calls.
Josh Parnell [00:40:31]:
What I used to do is either weekly calls or bi weekly calls on a set day and a set time. But now I'm saying if you have the course, you're watching the course, you're going through the information. A lot of the content that we otherwise might be discussing on a call, you're getting via video format, but we're personalizing it to you and customizing it for you in your one on ones that you have beyond the. Beyond the course.
Mike Allen [00:40:53]:
Okay. In your experience, you said like you purchase packages of coaching calls and you just use them up at your pace. If you walk someone from the beginning, the discovery phase, all the way through implementation and, and kind of they graduate through this program, I know that every person is different and their learning style and learning speed is different. But on average, what do you see that time frame being or number of calls and sessions being?
Josh Parnell [00:41:26]:
Yeah, when I first started this, I was, I was asking for a verbal commitment on six months of weekly coaching calls, which works out to be about 20, you know, 25, 26 coaching calls. I've never done contracts, so when I say verbal commitment, it was just a handshake kind of deal. And if you felt like it wasn't working halfway through, which didn't half didn't happen often, then we would talk about it and redirect. But the amount of people who retained services after that six months, I would venture to guess was 60 to 70% of folks. If I put a number on it. Just guesstimation, I'm thinking, I'm thinking 15 to 18 calls. If you're really putting in the work, doing what we're talking about, you're going to see significant improvements in your life, not just professionally, but even personally pretty quickly. And after 15 to 18 calls, again, just a guesstimation, you can look back and see a significant change in yourself and your team as long as you did the work.
Mike Allen [00:42:27]:
And where does someone go if they want to learn more about signing up one of their team members for that or what the cost is? That kind of stuff. I know that the cost will be variable over time, so we don't want to say it here, but they can reach out to you to find out details.
Josh Parnell [00:42:41]:
Yeah, thank you for that. So go to limitlessleadership co. Not com co. If I wanted the.com, the M would have cost me a hundred grand, supposedly. So it's limitlessleadership Co. And ultimately I'm just encouraging people to book a free discovery call. So even if you're Interested or if you're not sure what this might look like for your team or your shop, just jump on a call. It's a free discovery call.
Josh Parnell [00:43:03]:
I'm happy to share with you what we can do and how we can do it. It's not a cookie cutter program. So while the online leadership training is, is a static, it's. That's something that is already set. Your coaching specifically, and every client of mine will tell you this. It is very customizable to you. It's not cookie cutter. We're working with you and, and, and specifically action plans that you need because of the conversations that we've had.
Mike Allen [00:43:30]:
Awesome. And how many different automotive businesses would you say you're working with right now?
Josh Parnell [00:43:38]:
Good question. I would venture to thousands. No, I mean, yeah, dozens for sure. Yeah. Certainly not thousands. Maybe one day, but I'll say dozens at any, at any one time. I mean, I would say close to 30, you know, something like that.
Mike Allen [00:43:58]:
Okay. That's one thing that I'm always interested in when I, when I meet and talk to trainers or coaches who are kind of in the early stages of their, of their business like you are, is there's a point of diminishing return when you have so many clients that you can't give the same level of service anymore. And then you have to start hiring on others to help. Like you just hired Adam. What do you think is a reasonable number of clients per coach?
Josh Parnell [00:44:35]:
15. You're getting. When you get up to 15, 18. That's. You're, you're, you're, you're hitting a, a sweet spot and maybe, maybe a peak. I'll tell you at, at one point I was working with 27 people in a week, and it was a lot. And I was very. After about three weeks, I made a change because I felt like.
Josh Parnell [00:45:01]:
Well, I'll say this. I don't think the quality of the service was going to the wayside, but I think my family felt.
Bryan Pollock [00:45:10]:
Something had to give. Either the quality of service or the amount of time that you were putting into it.
Josh Parnell [00:45:14]:
That's it.
Bryan Pollock [00:45:15]:
Your mental exhaustion from doing so and so, so forth. Right.
Josh Parnell [00:45:19]:
I think what gave was really my attentiveness to the family after I shut the laptop down for the day. And so right now I'm only working with about eight folks on a one, on one basis. But the course itself is floating around a number of different shops. But I've had a waiting list now for two months. And this is. Bringing Adam on board is going to allow me to. And I should have hired a while ago, but I kept finding reasons or excuses, however you look at it, to wait.
Mike Allen [00:45:49]:
But first employee, bro. It's scary.
Josh Parnell [00:45:53]:
Well, it is. And I'll say I made a hire last year. I made a couple hires last year and things were working, but things weren't. And so it was a. For a while I said I'm just going to press pause, pump the brakes and just kind of roll solo for a while. But then I was like, I have to, I have to scale. And if in order for me to make a larger imprint in the industry and, and, and really help make an impact, sure, I need to bring on people and, and just trust that we're going to make it happen. And so that's what, that's what we're trying to do right now.
Mike Allen [00:46:27]:
Do you have like a 1, 5, 10 year goal set? Where, where do you see Limitless Leadership going?
Josh Parnell [00:46:34]:
I think eventually I'd love to be able to. Yeah, I'm going to say this quite often. That's this concept of collaboration and not competition. I'm right now really intentional with connecting with other coaching companies and even here lately, if you listen to Limitless Leadership podcast, there are other coaching companies who are joining me as guests on the podcast. And I'm saying, hey man, plug your services. Like, let everyone know what you do, how you do it, what it's going to look like. I want to highlight none of you as best as possible.
Bryan Pollock [00:47:07]:
You're looking to compliment what they do, not compete with what they do.
Josh Parnell [00:47:10]:
Dude, it's an abundance mentality. Like there's so many shops in this industry and you guys know, I mean, maybe, maybe 5% at most are attending these conferences. And really a part of these groups that you guys are all familiar with, most people aren't getting coaching. Like most people across the country with 250,000 shops are not getting coaching. They're not involved with training, they're not involved with 20 groups. They're not involved with peer to peer networking.
Bryan Pollock [00:47:38]:
A real, a real number is, there's just, there's just short of 600,000 technicians in the United States of America. And the largest annual training event, Vision, has something around 3,000 ish attendees.
Josh Parnell [00:47:50]:
Wow.
Bryan Pollock [00:47:51]:
Okay, so yeah, there's like 500, 570. Well, that's an old number that was pulled from the 2023 US Bureau Labor Statistics was like 572,000 technicians, but still low.
Mike Allen [00:48:05]:
Man, that feels like a small number. BLS 2023 said 794,000.
Bryan Pollock [00:48:13]:
I'm sorry, you have to separate out heavy duty. Yeah, there's about 200,000 heavy duty in there. So I separated that out.
Mike Allen [00:48:23]:
They're probably also counting like Jiffy Lube dudes as technicians too, right?
Bryan Pollock [00:48:27]:
100% it is, but that's, that's the real numbers. You know, less than 1/2 of 1% of the industry attends these things.
Josh Parnell [00:48:36]:
It's, it's, I think it's an opportunity for us to come together. It really is. And so to answer your question, Mike, one five, ten year vision. Ultimately I want to be able to have limitless leadership be a place in the industry where you can find leadership coaches, leadership trainers, leadership speakers to come in and complement your potentially your existing performance coaching company. I would say half of my clients and granted I'm not currently working in a one on one capacity with as many as I have before I mentioned I went as high as 27 and now I'm down to 8 or 10. But even when I had 20 plus half of them were working with a performance coaching company. And I encourage and I'll share names of coaching companies who I think would be a good fit for any particular client. And I say like go talk to them.
Josh Parnell [00:49:27]:
And even if in fact Eduardo will tell you this from Canuga. So I'm like, hey. Cause he was, he was, he and I jumped on a discovery call. I'm like, man, I want to make sure that you get the right fit. If I'm not the right fit, then I'm going to help you try to find the right fit. And ultimately he went and found a different coaching company which I applaud because I want people to go and find what they, they need. I'm not here to make money. I mean, well, I mean in the, in the grand scheme of things we all are.
Josh Parnell [00:49:51]:
But I know the money's going to come if I focus on serving the industry, focus on serving these individuals. Just like we ask our team members to serve their guest. You serve your guest, you take care of your guest, you love your guest. The transaction is a natural byproduct of exceptional standard setting service. And the same can be said for coaching in our industry as well.
Mike Allen [00:50:11]:
So one of the things that I found to be interesting to witness as I've gotten more heavily involved with ASTA and going to different training events around the country and that kind of thing is almost every coach speaks about it's a service first mentality, it's an ethics first mentality. It's, you know, we can be peers and not competition. There's more cars out there than than any one of us can fix. There's enough for everybody. Like you said, an abundance mentality. And the other thing that I've also witnessed at the exact same time is that these dudes are territorial af, and they do not think, they think of competition very fiercely amongst themselves. So it's like, it's always this awkward space at the trade shows where they're like across the aisle from each other in their booths and, and stuff. And, you know, they keep that smiling face on, but they're shooting daggers with the eyes, it feels like.
Mike Allen [00:51:15]:
And I sometimes want to go back and be like, hey, bro, why don't you, like, why don't you pull the plank out of your eyes? You're teaching, man.
Josh Parnell [00:51:25]:
I am. I'm determined to change that. And, and when I say, like, I am putting my money where my mouth is again, listen to the podcast. We have some great, great coaching companies.
Mike Allen [00:51:36]:
You had Michael Smith on there recently.
Josh Parnell [00:51:37]:
I saw that Michael Smith, yeah, had Jimmy Leon yesterday. His. His episode's going to air in the next couple weeks. Darren Barney from Elite is going to be on. So we've already done his episode as well. So there's a handful of folks around the industry and, and I'm intentional on finding folks. Matt Wag was on the, on the podcast today. His episode will air soon.
Josh Parnell [00:51:56]:
He's with AIM Auto Ignite Management. And so I'm looking for folks who, who, who can share the same concept, which is. It's one thing to talk about, it's another thing to walk the talk. And ultimately, if we can keep on doing our part to collaborate and not compete and recognize there is plenty to go around and being able to serve people, serve shop owners, serve team members. It's going to be fine. We're all going to be fine. Let's focus on abundance and not scarcity.
Mike Allen [00:52:28]:
Well, I'll focus on the abundance mindset and coopetition. I hate that word. Amongst shop owners. You focus on it amongst coaching organizations and by our powers combined, we'll make it a more loving and hugging and caring kind of. Kind of world.
Josh Parnell [00:52:47]:
Sunshine and rainbows. That's. That's really what we're all about, is it? Right, Mike?
Bryan Pollock [00:52:51]:
Co oping with other shops really isn't that difficult, I was about to say, but so I guess it is. You know, when you guys, when you guys have the same mindset, right. It's not, it's not a problem to co op with another shop that has a similar mindset to you.
Josh Parnell [00:53:12]:
You're right. And here's the Thing. And this is, this is where, this is where my hope is that we can introduce a new mindset when it comes to, to how we are showing up for our team members. And I know a lot of folks might be hearing me say this and like, dude, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Come try running a shop and seeing what it's actually like. And when I tell you that, when I say I'm gonna stay in my lane, I'm gonna stay in my lane. But here's the thing. I've worked with thousands of team members in this industry for a decade.
Josh Parnell [00:53:41]:
I've worked with hundreds of shop in this industry for a decade. And when I say that, I am confident in saying connection creates engagement, and engagement is what increases performance. We can focus on people before process and people before profit. And I promise you, the profit's going to come. So when I say, let's introduce this concept of putting people first and connecting for the sake of engagement, you will guaranteed you will see a significant change in culture and ROI in culture, in the coaching for the culture. So, hey, I want to say one more thing too, Mike, if you don't mind. So I mentioned the Limitless Leadership Blueprint. For anyone who purchases the Limitless Leadership Blueprint, it does come back, come with a 100% money back guarantee.
Josh Parnell [00:54:26]:
And so if you don't like it, you can literally go through the entire thing, watch the videos, get all the resources that you can download, get all the information necessary. And knowledge with that application is just information. But if you don't like it, you can call and say, hey, Josh, I didn't like this give my money back deal you got, you know, I'll give your money back. It's like, I'm that confident in how this, how this works, and other shops will attest to that as well.
Mike Allen [00:54:51]:
There is one other thing that I need from you. The title of the podcast is Confessions of a Shop Owner. You're not a shop owner, but that doesn't mean that you get to avoid a confession. Yeah, I need. I need to know something that went horribly, horribly wrong and that we can all laugh at you about. Can you tell us anything?
Josh Parnell [00:55:09]:
Yeah, I can. And I'll tell you because I thought about this. I was wondering if you're going to ask this question. And I believe that we connect through authenticity, humility, and vulnerability. I'm about to be real vulnerable because I'm a leadership coach. I'm about to give you something I'm really embarrassed by, quite frankly. So I Was in the Air Force, did a four year enlistment, got out. And my first job outside of the Air force back in 06 was an assistant manager at a Sun and Ski Sports.
Josh Parnell [00:55:42]:
And you guys on ski, do they have those in your area? It's like an REI kind of thing. So it's. If you're familiar with rei, so it's camping, hunting, you know. Anyway, so I was assistant manager at a retail store and, and, and I don't remember what happened, but I remember getting upset. I remember my emotions were high. And when emotions are high, logic tends to be low. And I had a plastic clothes hanger that I was. A handful of clothes hangers I was walking around with and God, this is embarrassing to even share.
Josh Parnell [00:56:18]:
I don't even know. I'm really throwing myself on the fire right now. So something happened in the store and long story short, I could not control my temper. I threw a adult man child fit and slammed the coat hangers against a rack. They broke, they shattered. And here's the thing. I coach people on this. I coach people on emotional regulation and I coach people on how to pause, process and pivot.
Josh Parnell [00:56:50]:
But just because we have the resources doesn't mean we're always resourceful. So there's my confession. I hate that I said it, but that's, that's the real honest truth.
Mike Allen [00:56:58]:
What were the repercussions? Did you get in trouble?
Josh Parnell [00:57:01]:
No, well, no one got. I mean, I was the manager and I'm the one who really misbehaved. And so, you know, I picked up the pieces, I apologize. And then I just, you know, went along my day. But that was not my best moment by a landslide.
Mike Allen [00:57:16]:
Lame.
Josh Parnell [00:57:17]:
Yeah, way better than that.
Mike Allen [00:57:18]:
You weren't really going to give us one of the real ones.
Josh Parnell [00:57:20]:
Okay, well, when you, what do you.
Mike Allen [00:57:23]:
Want to hear about when you wreck the MP truck into the nuclear missile silo? Why?
Josh Parnell [00:57:28]:
So actually, yeah, I was in North Dakota. And here's, here's one.
Mike Allen [00:57:31]:
I was, I was, I made that up. Did that actually happen? I just pulled that.
Josh Parnell [00:57:35]:
No, no. But I'll say this. So I was stationed in Minot, North Dakota. Super cold, right? And so I was in a. I was stationed. Mike 4 was the name of this, of this post. And I was providing security for a flight line that evening. And I was a one man United, you know, one man post.
Josh Parnell [00:57:54]:
And it's very cold in Minot pretty much year round. And I was bundled up, had my, had all my gear on and I was in a heated gate shack and, and I worked the night shift. And so, you know, I work the night shift and it's 3:30, 4 o' clock in the morning and I sit in that chair and I prop my feet up and next thing you know, my flight sergeant storms in to that gate shack and, and was like, parnell, what are you doing? And I was sleeping. I, I took a nap and I did. I didn't know. I fell asleep.
Bryan Pollock [00:58:24]:
Oh, national security was at risk.
Mike Allen [00:58:28]:
Fell asleep at your guard post. I think during wartime they just shoot you for that.
Josh Parnell [00:58:34]:
Yeah, well, I definitely deserve to be shot. But thankfully he, he gave me, gave me some grace. But hey, I've. I've had plenty of mistakes and failures in my life, so trust me, I, you know, me too. It, it's. It's been a challenge to get here, but here we are and, and we're going to keep on going.
Mike Allen [00:58:50]:
Speak for yourself, guys. I'm fucking perfect. And just like that, we're at an hour. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out. The good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes. So why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, maybe have another drink? You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover? Or do you just want to look, let me know what an idiot I am? Email mikeonfessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message. The number 704-confess.
Mike Allen [00:59:24]:
That's 704-266-3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to, like, subscribe or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.
Josh Parnell [01:00:05]:
You know, I said, jess.