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My name is Jeff, and I'd like to welcome you on a journey of reflection and insight into the tolls and triumphs of a career in automotive repair.
After more than 20 years of skinned knuckles and tool debt, I want to share my perspective and hear other people's thoughts about our industry.
So pour yourself a strong coffee or grab a cold Canadian beer and get ready for some great conversation.
[00:00:00] Jeff Compton: You don't grow unless there's some discomfort to the growing. It's to understand, it's to go back to like you said, when your former boss says to you, "Now I've gotta change what I can actually buy or what I can do in my business because you're leaving." I want every technician out there to understand that that's the end goal, is that when, that you are vital and valuable, and when you leave, you cause a ripple.
[00:00:30] Jeff Compton: Because that's the only way that's ever gonna change this industry to the sense of we actually start to see the value in ourselves and the value of what we're able to do, is when we see what the absence of that person actually does to the bottom line.
[00:00:49] Jeff Compton: Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of the Jaded Mechanic Podcast. You're getting another weeknight episode here from the Jaded Mechanic Podcast, and I go, "You know, you guys don't care 'cause you always listen on Tuesdays anyway, so it's always a weekday." But what I mean is I'm recording on a weeknight, so if you see me fall asleep or yawn a couple times, it's 'cause it's, you know, after a day of work.
[00:01:08] Jeff Compton: Um, and, you know, some of you are tired of hearing all the Canadian accents and the Canadian jokes and the Canadian humor and all this kind of stuff. So we got you a good old boy from America again. Um, Mr. Caleb Mac, how are you tonight, brother?
[00:01:21] Caleb Mac: Good.
[00:01:24] Jeff Compton: Now you, we... I just saw your little young lad, Xander, and, um, we were looking at the shop that you have behind me and, um, you're kind of just getting used to your surroundings again, aren't you?
[00:01:36] Caleb Mac: Yep.
[00:01:36] Jeff Compton: You're... Yeah. You were, um, when I first talked to you, I think it was about just over a year ago, you were talking about quitting your job, and you went and did mobile, and now you're finally you're, you're kind of moving into a brick and mortar again, and you're happy to be there, which is good. Yep.
[00:01:51] Jeff Compton: Congratulations, Caleb.
[00:01:53] Caleb Mac: Thank
[00:01:53] Jeff Compton: you. So, yeah. Now kind of give us w- your, the rundown, the skinny. Where are you? You know, how long you been there? What do you love? What do you hate?
[00:02:03] Caleb Mac: So, I'm, I moved to Edgerton, Minnesota. It's way bottom southwest corner of Minnesota. Mm-hmm. About an hour from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and about an hour from Iowa.
[00:02:15] Speaker 3: Right on.
[00:02:16] Caleb Mac: Uh, moved down here January 17th, opened my doors February 16th. Uh, was mobile up in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Last, uh, last May I quit my job, was the 1st of May was my first day on my own. Uh- I was at a, was at a used car dealer, uh, for
[00:02:44] Speaker 3: a
[00:02:44] Caleb Mac: little less than four years. From there, I was at a-- started my career at, uh, I think I was 17, went to work at a Chevy dealership as a lube tech.
[00:02:59] Caleb Mac: I,
[00:02:59] Jeff Compton: I've, I've-- I just announced my, or not announced, I just celebrated my one-year anniversary at, uh, the used car dealer I'm at, so I can kind of definitely relate to, um, to the trials and tribulations of that. It's kind of I say it gets painted with a bad rap, but I'll say this, it's not, um... The way they treat me and the way they pay me is better than- Yeah
[00:03:20] Jeff Compton: most of the people that I have worked for up to this point in the industry, right? So, and not saying something, um, you know, I think they get labeled as a bad rap a lot of the time because of the shady operators, which, let's be real, it doesn't have to be, you know, you don't have to have a car lot out front to be a shady operator in this industry.
[00:03:38] Jeff Compton: We see them all day long. We talk to them. We know of them. Um, but I think it's a tough grind for them, you know, because everybody... Well, you know what it's like. They buy a used car, and they expect it to be a new car, and it's a new car to them- Yeah ... but it's not a new car, right? So what's it like doing mobile in Minnesota?
[00:03:56] Caleb Mac: Summertime, great. You see some beautiful scenery-
[00:04:01] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[00:04:02] Caleb Mac: the places I was going. Uh, wintertime sucked-
[00:04:06] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm ...
[00:04:07] Caleb Mac: both from trying to run a business and also just because of weather.
[00:04:11] Jeff Compton: Yeah. 'Cause you get- Uh- ... you get very similar weather to what I get in Canada. Like, it really- Yeah. There's even parts of Minnesota that are farther north than where I am actually, right?
[00:04:22] Jeff Compton: So I mean, it's, uh, you, you guys know what the weather's like. Like, you, you guys understand it for sure, so yeah. Yeah, so- What I've seen- ... before I
[00:04:30] Speaker 3: move...
[00:04:31] Jeff Compton: Go ahead. Sorry. What I, what I've seen of Minnesota is just absolutely beautiful, just absolutely. Like, Land of 1000 Lakes- Yeah ... there's so much. For a fish head like me, right, like I could probably retire there- Right
[00:04:42] Jeff Compton: and, uh, and never get sick of it, so. But yeah. So go ahead.
[00:04:48] Caleb Mac: I'm from Wisconsin originally, so I'm... I prefer Wisconsin more than I prefer Minnesota.
[00:04:53] Jeff Compton: Really? Uh-huh. Yeah. I've never been to Wisconsin. Never been. Never been to Minnesota either, but-
[00:04:58] Caleb Mac: Where I'm, where I'm from in Wisconsin is very, it's very backwoods.
[00:05:03] Jeff Compton: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:04] Caleb Mac: Uh, and that's, that, that's my personality.
[00:05:10] Jeff Compton: Same. Same. Definitely the same. As backwoods as a Canadian can get anymore, really. It's, uh- Right ... we're not allowed to get as backwoods as we used to be. So- Yeah ... tell me then, kinda you started out in a Chevy dealer as a lube tech, and, you know, that's kinda...
[00:05:30] Jeff Compton: I didn't start in my dealer as a lube tech. I kinda was a little more established by then. But what was, what was your dealership experience like? Was it like... You know, 'cause you see how it goes in the conversation sometimes, right? Everybody's got a lot of negative to say about it, but I mean, I kinda, I owe my footing in the industry to my time at the dealer.
[00:05:52] Caleb Mac: 100%. Yeah. I'm- As much as I didn't care for what I was doing and the people I worked f- worked with, uh, I'm thankful for the opportunity that it provided me-
[00:06:07] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:06:09] Caleb Mac: to go from setting, uh, modular homes and double wide, double wides at 16, going all over the freaking place-
[00:06:18] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm ...
[00:06:19] Caleb Mac: to something that's more, more consistent schedule.
[00:06:24] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:06:25] Caleb Mac: Uh, which, yeah, I was fresh out of, still kinda in high school or whatever, so it didn't matter a whole lot to me, but I wanted to have a set schedule. I didn't wanna, I didn't wanna go all... I didn't wanna go three hours from home every day-
[00:06:41] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:06:41] Caleb Mac: So once- ... and get home at 8:00.
[00:06:43] Jeff Compton: Once you were in the dealership, how was the trajectory for you?
[00:06:46] Jeff Compton: Like, did you move up pretty quick?
[00:06:49] Caleb Mac: I was, I was there for two years. Uh, 20- August 2019 was my first day. I left there July 12th, or First or, first or second weekend of July
[00:07:02] Speaker 3: Yeah
[00:07:03] Caleb Mac: Uh, of '21.
[00:07:05] Speaker 3: Okay.
[00:07:06] Caleb Mac: Stayed in, I was in the lube tech, lube bay the whole, whole time. When, when COVID came around, I got laid off, uh- Yeah
[00:07:12] Caleb Mac: for, I wanna say three, four months, something like that. Uh-
[00:07:22] Caleb Mac: So that, that part sucked. Uh, and they finally, when they finally brought us back, uh, it was at a very limited-
[00:07:33] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm ...
[00:07:34] Caleb Mac: we limited who... We had three bays. We only had two bays open. Uh, and they didn't bring everybody back at once.
[00:07:44] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Kind of staggered.
[00:07:45] Caleb Mac: Uh, yeah. So I was, my experience was Not great. They were hiring just anybody off the street that claims they can change oil on a car.
[00:08:03] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:04] Caleb Mac: Uh, a few people that show up, show up late consistently every day. Or when we were slow and we were just sitting there on our phones, soon as that door opened up, I was, I was usually the first one up to the vehicle.
[00:08:22] Speaker 3: Right. Yeah.
[00:08:23] Caleb Mac: Uh And I just, when there's work to do, I work.
[00:08:30] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:08:30] Caleb Mac: Uh-
[00:08:31] Speaker 3: You get that hustle.
[00:08:33] Caleb Mac: Yeah. There was, there was one guy, he would, he would always, as soon as work came in, he'd go to the back and go to the bathroom. Uh-
[00:08:46] Speaker 3: Oh ...
[00:08:46] Caleb Mac: guys that don't, don't work, don't pay, don't listen to the rules, like don't play on your phone while there's cars in the bay. Uh, he was a service writer. He was writing the- Okay
[00:09:00] Caleb Mac: he was writing the ROs or whatever, and I had, I had been there longer than he did. He was on his third attempt to working there. The second time he almost got fired for doing dope at work
[00:09:15] Jeff Compton: What,
[00:09:15] Caleb Mac: like- But when there's... Yeah.
[00:09:19] Jeff Compton: And then- What, what makes people, what makes people hire those people back? You know what I mean? I- And I'm not, I'm not throwing dirt on the people that struggle with addiction. I'm not, I'm not trying to do that. Yeah, no. That's not the goal here. But I-
[00:09:31] Caleb Mac: All I can say is desperate.
[00:09:33] Caleb Mac: They're desperate for workers. Well, I was
[00:09:34] Jeff Compton: gonna
[00:09:35] Caleb Mac: say- They're desperate for people ...
[00:09:36] Jeff Compton: Caleb, I was gonna say, is that the shortage, right? It's so bad that if they can get somebody that can kinda do the job, even if they are, you know, stinking of the reefer and Yeah ...
[00:09:46] Caleb Mac: like,
[00:09:46] Jeff Compton: you know, a little glassy-eyed, it like, they, they keep them, and I just, I don't, yeah, I don't understand.
[00:09:51] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:09:52] Caleb Mac: It, it drove me nuts when I, my last... When I was... There was two people that I liked working with. That was it.
[00:10:00] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:01] Caleb Mac: Out of 10 guys. Uh.
[00:10:05] Speaker 3: Yeah. That's
[00:10:06] Caleb Mac: tough. And we were just nailing out the cars, and there was a b- we'd all, we'd all get a bonus on like tire rotations, all that kind of stuff. We, we called out tire rotations if the customer wanted tire rotations, but all the tires were even, we still did it anyway.
[00:10:26] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:10:27] Caleb Mac: Uh, and my coworkers, they hated it.
[00:10:31] Jeff Compton: Yeah, they didn't see the point in it.
[00:10:33] Caleb Mac: No, they hated doing rotates. So that just, that fueled my fire even more to, "Okay, we're just gonna keep calling rotates when, when they need it."
[00:10:42] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Uh- So
[00:10:43] Caleb Mac: did
[00:10:44] Jeff Compton: any kind of mentorship for you at this dealership?
[00:10:47] Caleb Mac: No.
[00:10:48] Jeff Compton: No. None.
[00:10:49] Caleb Mac: Service manager made, made some empty promises. Uh, he's like, "Yeah, maybe we'd be willing to pay to y- for you to go to tech school." Uh, I asked about moving up to work in the main shop doing lube tech stuff up there.
[00:11:07] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:11:08] Caleb Mac: Uh, or even to do the online training that GM has.
[00:11:13] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:11:13] Caleb Mac: Every time I asked about it, he never had the time to help me get, get an account set up to get to work on to do it 'Cause I was, I wanted to grow.
[00:11:24] Caleb Mac: I didn't wanna just change oil and rotate tires for
[00:11:27] Jeff Compton: 20 years And that, isn't that frustrating though, right? Like you, you hear them, and again, like it's not just in my circles, but in some of the other podcasts that I listen to that have a more dealer-based, um, audience we'll say, they talk about how, you know, the guys don't wanna take the online training, and then y- there you are begging for the opportunity to take the online training, and you got a manager that can't be bothered to spend the 10 minutes and get it set up so that you can actually do it.
[00:11:56] Jeff Compton: Like- Yeah ... I, I'm so, I'm so over in this industry of people pointing the fingers at, I'll say it, I'll say it, the technicians, 'cause I mean it's like they... First of all, we can't even decide on what competent looks like at a, at a certain level, right? From a, a lube tech, like some people want lube techs that actually can diagnose a, an alternator.
[00:12:15] Jeff Compton: You know what I mean? Right. Like it sounds crazy, but they, they wanna be able to diagnose a battery. And then other places want a lube tech that like literally doesn't even know how to take the tires off, and all they want them to do is just figure out how to hook up flush machines. Like we can't as an industry even decide what a level looks like, and then you have all these people that are saying, "These technicians can't do this," or, "I can't find a technician to do that," and it's like nobody really knows what they're even trying to find.
[00:12:42] Jeff Compton: Like they're always trying to find the most for the least amount of pay. That's what it is. They want the n- Yeah ... the most skill for the cheapest price, and it, and it doesn't work like that anymore. The, the p- the pool has gotten too shallow. So, so he won't sign you up for online training, so you just kinda...
[00:13:00] Jeff Compton: And how did you get some of the opportunity to learn some of the other stuff that you learned, uh, away from him? Um,
[00:13:08] Caleb Mac: yeah, it just... So what, what started the fuel of deciding to be in this industry was a 1996 Polaris XLT 600-
[00:13:23] Speaker 3: Okay ...
[00:13:23] Caleb Mac: that had a stock engine- Mm-hmm ... and hadn't been running in 15, 20 years.
[00:13:29] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:13:29] Caleb Mac: Uh, got the engine freed up, got it running, rode a couple hundred miles that first season Uh, and yeah. Then I'm like, then working construction, I get, I get heat, heat exhaustion really bad.
[00:13:46] Speaker 3: Okay.
[00:13:47] Caleb Mac: And I had that happen when I was... We were out somewhere out in North Dakota, about three hours from home, setting the modular, and my coworker looked at me and he's like, "You're white-
[00:13:59] Speaker 3: Yeah
[00:14:00] Caleb Mac: and you need to go sit down." And I, I didn't feel right. Lightheaded, just kinda queasy.
[00:14:05] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:14:06] Caleb Mac: Uh, so after that, after that happened, I'm like, "Okay, I, I can't do this anymore."
[00:14:13] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:14] Caleb Mac: I can't... I don't wanna be three hours from home when something happened at work-
[00:14:18] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:14:19] Caleb Mac: kinda thing. Uh, so after that happened, that's when I started like, okay, I wanna, I wanna do something closer to home.
[00:14:31] Caleb Mac: Was looking at... And I wanted to be in the trades.
[00:14:35] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:36] Caleb Mac: Uh, wanted to, wanted to do welding, but I have asthma, so it was like, oh, that's not really a good, gonna be a good fit.
[00:14:44] Jeff Compton: Yeah, that can be an obstacle, for sure. Uh- You, you breathe a lot of fumes. Yeah.
[00:14:49] Caleb Mac: So it was like, all right, well, automotive, automotive industry.
[00:14:54] Caleb Mac: Started as a lube tech. Applied at the Ford dealer in town. They didn't want nothing to do with me. Applied at the Chevy dealership. They, they called me. We were on our way back. We did the circle tour. My dad and I did the circle tour of Lake Superior, like here on our motorcycles in 2019. Uh, so we were on our way back, we were in Au Train, Michigan, and the service manager called me.
[00:15:18] Caleb Mac: He's like, "Hey, when you get, when you get back, I'd like to talk to you about coming to work for us. I'd like to offer you the job."
[00:15:25] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:15:25] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I got my foot in the door.
[00:15:30] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:15:31] Caleb Mac: Uh- But
[00:15:33] Jeff Compton: did he ever give you a reason why they didn't move you up?
[00:15:37] Caleb Mac: No.
[00:15:38] Jeff Compton: No. Nothing.
[00:15:38] Caleb Mac: I, and I didn't, I didn't bother to ask. Uh-
[00:15:42] Jeff Compton: Is it a smaller scale dealership, Caleb?
[00:15:47] Caleb Mac: I I don't, I don't know 'cause I'm... I don't have any other dealership experience to really base it on. It-
[00:15:57] Jeff Compton: Like
[00:15:57] Caleb Mac: how many- They have- How many- I wanna say there was 10- In
[00:16:01] Jeff Compton: the back? 10 techs in the back?
[00:16:02] Caleb Mac: I wanna say there was 10 bays in the main shop. Right. 10 or 12 So I, yeah, I- So that's
[00:16:12] Jeff Compton: not
[00:16:12] Caleb Mac: a
[00:16:12] Jeff Compton: small, that's not a small dealership, you know?
[00:16:15] Caleb Mac: No, it's not small by any m- it's not small by any means, so it's also not huge.
[00:16:19] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:16:20] Caleb Mac: Uh-
[00:16:20] Jeff Compton: Pretty typical.
[00:16:22] Caleb Mac: It was a, in a town of 14, 14,000 people. Uh, so left there in '21, so I got offered a job at the used car dealership, and it was on-the-job training. It was no tech school-
[00:16:40] Jeff Compton: Right ...
[00:16:41] Caleb Mac: for me. Yeah. So it was all just learn as you go.
[00:16:43] Caleb Mac: Uh-
[00:16:44] Jeff Compton: And you had somebody at the used car dealer that was kind of a more of a senior tech that you could learn from?
[00:16:49] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Yeah, kinda. It was, they showed me how to do a couple things, and then it was just throw me to the wolves and figure out how to do stuff, and if I have a problem, ask for help.
[00:17:02] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:17:03] Caleb Mac: Right. Uh, and it was not, "Okay, you're just gonna do brakes, and tires, and oil changes."
[00:17:10] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:17:12] Caleb Mac: First month being there, I replaced an engine on a Ford F-150.
[00:17:16] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:18] Caleb Mac: Never doing it be- never done it before.
[00:17:20] Speaker 3: Yeah. Yep.
[00:17:21] Caleb Mac: Uh, but it was... And then pretty much my entire time there was heavy line repair, engine, transmission, uh, electrical diag.
[00:17:35] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Did that feel good though to at least get something a little more-
[00:17:39] Caleb Mac: Oh,
[00:17:39] Jeff Compton: yeah ... substantive than an oil change, right? And a tire rotation.
[00:17:42] Caleb Mac: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It felt, it felt good.
[00:17:45] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:17:46] Caleb Mac: Uh, first couple years were, well, first couple years were fine.
[00:17:50] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:17:51] Caleb Mac: Then as I started learning more, started growing, then I started to see the, like, just stuff I didn't agree with.
[00:18:02] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:18:03] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Uh, like, look at the car and tell us what's wrong with it, and we're not gonna fix a damn, not gonna fix a thing on it, and sell it for retail price. Uh- Yeah ... and not bother to say nothing-
[00:18:19] Jeff Compton: Right.
[00:18:20] Caleb Mac: Yeah ... to the consumer. Uh- So it was frustrating
[00:18:27] Jeff Compton: Up here, we can't really do that. I mean, we- Yeah ... I mean, you can sell a car as is, right?
[00:18:31] Jeff Compton: But if you sell a car from the lot and you sell it safetied, there has to be a bare minimum that it has to pass to be safetied, right? Yeah. So it's- Bare
[00:18:40] Caleb Mac: minimum level. Yeah Yeah.
[00:18:41] Jeff Compton: Like, I'm, I'm making examples all the time, like the sunroof doesn't have to work to pass the safety. The air conditioning doesn't have to work to pass the safety, right?
[00:18:50] Jeff Compton: So- Yeah ... do, do I safety cars that the air conditioning doesn't work? No, I don't, right? Like, we make it fit. But now there's a lot of cars that by the time we, we do get into that, it exceeds the value of what we can actually put into the car. You understand what I mean? Like, there's no money left. Oh, yeah.
[00:19:08] Jeff Compton: So then it goes- Oh, yeah ... it goes back to auction. Um, but we're, we're not allowed to sell it really to the customer as is. I mean- Yeah ... and, and because it's just too much liability, we don't want any part of that. It's just- Oh, yeah ... you know, because it, it's too You know, we get a lot of cars up here. I don't know what it's like where you are, but we get a lot of cars that are, say they're seven, eight years old, they're starting to get rusted enough that, like, they're not worth, they're not worth trying to re- Yeah
[00:19:35] Jeff Compton: to get back out there, right? Because-
[00:19:38] Caleb Mac: Because, like, on, on y'all's safety or whatever, is it, 'cause I heard you talk before, rocker panels have to be intact?
[00:19:45] Jeff Compton: Yep. Yep. Which before it didn't. Okay. But that was, that was when the stands or- standards were written back in, like, the '70s when almost everything still was a full frame, right?
[00:19:56] Jeff Compton: Well, yeah. So the rocker wasn't considered structural. Now with everything being unibody whatever, um, it, it certainly is a structural member. So I mean, I saw lots of cars go through the safety years ago that, like, had no rocker, and I'm like, "This is, this is BS," right? Like, that car's not worth putting tires and brakes on.
[00:20:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:20:18] Jeff Compton: It's not rusted because just 'cause I can't poke my hole through the finger of the floor pan yet doesn't mean that in two years I w- I, I'm certainly gonna be able to, right? Right. And, and that's just something that I'm glad to see the standards change. But again, it's one of them things, Caleb, when you start talking about bringing standards in, and everybody immediately in the industry goes, "I don't, I don't want any part of that.
[00:20:41] Jeff Compton: I don't want any part of standardization or, you know, um, certification." That's another word that they don't like, yet I think that, you know, if you're doing it on the legit up and up, you shouldn't have anything to worry about, you know?
[00:20:55] Caleb Mac: Yeah. So- Like, I'm not one for government control, but I think that some kind of, some kind of safety inspection-
[00:21:04] Jeff Compton: Yeah
[00:21:05] Caleb Mac: doesn't have to be super intense. No. But to get the, to get the crap that's got a rotted out frame- Mm-hmm ... or any kind of frame repair-
[00:21:16] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:21:16] Caleb Mac: off the road and in the salvage yard.
[00:21:18] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:21:19] Caleb Mac: Like, I don't wanna take a car away from a cus- from a customer, but I also want everybody to be safe that's on the road.
[00:21:25] Jeff Compton: Sure. Uh-huh. And it's, it's not... It's different if, like, you've owned it for 10 years- Yeah ... and now the rockers are rotten. That's different, right? Yeah. That's your, your choosing to, you know, do that with the vehicle. It's another when somebody sells it to somebody and says it's perfectly st- safe and they see, you know, the spray foam in the rocker or they, or they see the hole and they go, "Oh, you have nothing to worry about that."
[00:21:48] Jeff Compton: The person driving the car doesn't know what makes a car safe and what makes a car unsafe, right? Right. Right. And that, and that's, again, where I have the problem with the lack of s- of standards that's, you know. Yeah. Because everybody goes, "Well, I know what's right and I know what's wrong." Well- You know, human nature and the amount of people that are in, you know, the penal system would show you that a lot of people that say they know what's right and wrong don't.
[00:22:15] Jeff Compton: So
[00:22:16] Caleb Mac: Right. Yeah.
[00:22:17] Jeff Compton: So-
[00:22:17] Caleb Mac: And that, that was my experience too. Yeah.
[00:22:20] Jeff Compton: Like,
[00:22:20] Caleb Mac: as, as time progressed, so 2023, January 2023, Xander was born.
[00:22:28] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:22:29] Caleb Mac: Uh, I was doing, I was pulling cabs off of trucks for $16 an hour
[00:22:41] Caleb Mac: And being expected to buy my own tools.
[00:22:44] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:22:45] Caleb Mac: And my personality is, if I'm gonna be doing this for a long time, I'm gonna invest in the good stuff.
[00:22:51] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:22:52] Caleb Mac: Maybe I went a little overboard on some things buying from the tool truck, but like that's, that's my personality. Like I want-
[00:23:02] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[00:23:02] Caleb Mac: if I'm doing something, I want something to be, I wanna use something that's good.
[00:23:06] Jeff Compton: And you wanna make the investment in yourself.
[00:23:08] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:23:09] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:23:10] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I really, I struggled after my son was born, I, I especially struggled with like making barely anything to- Yeah ... cover all of our bills. Uh, so then it was sometime in the middle of the summer A friend of mine from church, he was working for an asphalt sealcoating company, uh, and he was having problems with his truck.
[00:23:41] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. A
[00:23:41] Caleb Mac: work truck or whatever. He's like, called me, he's like, "Hey, we'll give you 90 or $120 an hour to do the brakes." Uh, I'm like, "All right, sweet." Uh, so that kinda started the doing the stuff on the side kinda thing.
[00:24:00] Jeff Compton: Right.
[00:24:00] Caleb Mac: Uh, and we were talking and so I was looking online at, looking on Indeed at other job postings.
[00:24:10] Caleb Mac: A tech with same, same level of experience at the Ford dealer, $20 an hour.
[00:24:16] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:24:17] Caleb Mac: Show that to my boss, ask him for a raise. About a week later he comes back to me and he's, uh, we were talking and he's like, "Yeah," we were talking and, uh, him and his business partner or- Mm-hmm ... their brother-in-laws, uh, they, they were talking and were like, "We'll give you a $1.50 an hour to get you up to 18.50, and then 8 to 10 months from now we'll give you another $1.50."
[00:24:46] Caleb Mac: And I'm like, "Okay, thank you." And went, went back to work, and it just, it ate at me, like, "Okay, so you're telling me I'm not worth it now."
[00:24:55] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:24:56] Caleb Mac: But oh, eight to 10 months from now I'll be worth it.
[00:24:59] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:25:00] Caleb Mac: When I go somewhere else, it might be worth more than $20 an hour at that point.
[00:25:05] Speaker 3: Yep.
[00:25:05] Caleb Mac: Uh, so then talking to my friend and he kinda pushed me to go apply at one of the other shops in t- independent shops in town.
[00:25:16] Caleb Mac: Um, and my Snap-on dealer, he saw the writing on the wall before I did. Uh, he's like, "Hey, you should go talk to this guy because he buys, he buys the stuff that he needs for the shop."
[00:25:31] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:25:32] Caleb Mac: Uh, and so I went and talked to him, and he, he made me an offer at $20 an hour on the clock, plus an additional $12 per hour I bill, labor hour I bill.
[00:25:48] Jeff Compton: That's a big jump for you. So I'm like,
[00:25:50] Caleb Mac: dang, that's $32 an hour- ... if I can hit 40 hours a week.
[00:25:54] Jeff Compton: Yep.
[00:25:55] Caleb Mac: Like, I'm happy there.
[00:25:57] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[00:25:58] Caleb Mac: And then the plan was do that for a year, see where I'm at, and then m- move to full flat rate, 'cause he's a flat rate shop. Uh, so I went back to my boss, showed him the email with the offer.
[00:26:17] Caleb Mac: Like, "If you guys can match this, I'll, I'll stay." Like, I really don't wanna move
[00:26:24] Jeff Compton: Right. You're comfortable. Yeah.
[00:26:26] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Like, that was before starting, starting to see a lot of the stuff that was going out, uh, both on the paying customer side and also the used car side.
[00:26:39] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:26:39] Caleb Mac: Uh, so he's like, "Well, make sure that that's actu- that offer is actually accurate."
[00:26:48] Caleb Mac: Like, okay, fine, whatever. So I did. I, I called the, called the other guy, he was like, "Yeah." So told him the next day I saw him because he was working like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then switched to Tuesday, Thursday-
[00:27:06] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm ...
[00:27:06] Caleb Mac: every other week. Uh, talked to him and then, yeah, another, another week went by. We went upstairs, talked a little bit.
[00:27:16] Caleb Mac: He's like, "Well, we'll give you a, uh... Would you stay for 26 an hour?" And I was at 18.50. Right. I'm like, "All right." And then some promises about if you can keep track of your hours, then we'll look at maybe some kind of bonus or whatever.
[00:27:37] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:27:38] Caleb Mac: Uh, but it's hard, you know, it's hard to keep track of your hours because it's used car side, and you get pulled away from working on one thing, and you're in the middle of something, and then you get pulled away to go do this thing.
[00:27:48] Jeff Compton: Yeah, or- I don't know ... a lot of the stuff that you do doesn't get billed, right? Like that's just- Yeah ... the reality. And then, and that's, you know, I've said that for so many years, like it's everything is, everybody thinks that it's like the flat rate mentality or the production-based mentality is like, oh well, you know, we do it for free.
[00:28:05] Jeff Compton: But I don't, it's not even about the money amount, right? Like I don't mind, wipers are a good example. That was a good thing in the conversation.
[00:28:11] Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
[00:28:12] Jeff Compton: I don't care like if, if you don't wanna give me .2 for installing two wipers, no problem. But make sure that it's documented somewhere that like .2 is what it's supposed to pay.
[00:28:23] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:28:23] Jeff Compton: And, and track it all so that- Yeah ... when we look at it at the end of the month, end of the year, end of the quarter, whatever, and you see this, this s- not a surplus but a deficiency of, of time, then go look in the next column of all that unbilled, right? Yep. And then that, that makes that number not look so terrible.
[00:28:41] Jeff Compton: But see, as long as we've always, as I've ever had these conversations, as soon as it's not billed, it's not tracked. And that's the problem that I have with every technician out there, flat rate or not, incentivized, hybrid, it doesn't matter. If those hours aren't being tracked, you're not really looking at real numbers, right?
[00:29:03] Jeff Compton: So you- Dad, one's you. Hey, Xander.
[00:29:07] Caleb Mac: Thank
[00:29:08] Jeff Compton: you. So you get the, you get the raise-
[00:29:12] Caleb Mac: Yep ...
[00:29:13] Jeff Compton: and you start... So how, how were you tracking your hours, Caleb? Were you writing it down or- I-
[00:29:17] Caleb Mac: Yeah ... I was, I was trying to, but it- Oh ... it was hard. Uh- Yeah ... so 'cause I would, I'd get pulled away for stup- stupid little things.
[00:29:29] Jeff Compton: Yeah, go put air in a tire or go-
[00:29:31] Caleb Mac: Yeah
[00:29:32] Jeff Compton: change a light bulb or yeah.
[00:29:33] Caleb Mac: Go down to the gas station, put gas in the car, uh, kind of thing.
[00:29:39] Jeff Compton: You got some salesmen like I know I'm familiar with that like they don't, they don't wanna- Yeah ... put gas in the car. Yeah. That's-
[00:29:46] Caleb Mac: Or they'll make the detail guy do it, but then, oh, the detail guy's in the middle of something or he's not there.
[00:29:51] Jeff Compton: Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:29:52] Caleb Mac: So then I'm the one that gets the short straw. Uh, so that went on for a couple months. I asked about, asked about a kind of bonus thing 'cause I was kind of tracking my hours the best I could. Mm-hmm. And so- I get the whole, "Oh, we, we don't do that around here" And made it sound like I was the highest paid guy in the shop
[00:30:18] Speaker 3: Right
[00:30:20] Caleb Mac: I'm like, "Okay, whatever."
[00:30:22] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I, I stuck it out for another year and a half or year, year and a half, something like that. Uh, while I was, while I was home with my wife and Xander when he was a newborn-
[00:30:37] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:30:38] Caleb Mac: my boss and his wife came over to see the baby.
[00:30:41] Speaker 3: Like- Okay ...
[00:30:43] Caleb Mac: uh, and then he told me that my coworker, the other used car guy, he w- he put his two weeks in
[00:30:51] Caleb Mac: He was 65, so- Right ... he was ti- it was his time to retire from turning wrenches. Sure. We get it.
[00:30:59] Speaker 3: Yeah. '
[00:30:59] Caleb Mac: Cause I, I could see him struggling over the last previous few months and tried to help him with things that I, that I could. Mm-hmm. If I saw that he might need a hand, I went over to try to help him. Uh, and so I...
[00:31:16] Caleb Mac: Then I was the only used car guy for, I wanna say close to six months. Uh.
[00:31:24] Jeff Compton: That puts more workload on you.
[00:31:26] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Then I'm like, "Well, now my workload doubled, but my wage stayed the same."
[00:31:36] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Um- That's the, that's the... If I could make one proponent for why sometimes flat rate is the right way is for that very, to protect yourself from that very situation, right? Because it's like- Yeah ... you're not... Like, everybody thinks flat rate is like, well, if they don't sell anything, they don't make anything.
[00:31:56] Jeff Compton: But when there's more work than you can get through, and they have you for eight hours a day, and I'm not trying to say that anybody ever is just sitting around going, you know, they're not in high gear, they're just kinda coasting. All of a sudden they lump more workload onto you for the same amount of pay.
[00:32:12] Jeff Compton: That's just wrong. That's just, that's the only- Eh ... excuse I could say for why, as a technician, you should always know your production. And everybody that knows me knows I'm not a fan of that word. I, I think it's way overused and way misunderstood. But you have to know that if your goal, you know, if you can do an easy 8, 10 a day, and all of a sudden you're asked to do 14 consistent, but you're paid still like you're only there eight hours, you're getting screwed.
[00:32:41] Jeff Compton: There's no s- what, it's two ways to slice it. Yeah. So the guy leaves, the workload goes up, the pay doesn't go up. What's the next, what's the next conversation that you have?
[00:32:51] Caleb Mac: Uh, I didn't. Okay. I just kinda, I just kinda let stuff bottle up because it didn't seem like they were too motivated in having those kinda conversations.
[00:33:02] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Now that independent shop that had the offer in to you, that ship had sailed, right? You couldn't go like, "Oh." I
[00:33:10] Caleb Mac: maybe could have. I never even thought about it.
[00:33:14] Jeff Compton: Okay. Okay.
[00:33:14] Caleb Mac: I was like, um, he probably, he probably found somebody. Mm. Like, I just, I never, I never thought about it again.
[00:33:22] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:33:22] Caleb Mac: Uh, so maybe a hindsight, maybe I should have.
[00:33:27] Caleb Mac: Uh- I'm
[00:33:27] Speaker 3: not saying that. That's not
[00:33:28] Caleb Mac: what I'm trying
[00:33:29] Speaker 3: to say ... but
[00:33:29] Caleb Mac: now if I, if I didn't, I wouldn't be where I'm at now.
[00:33:32] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Okay.
[00:33:34] Caleb Mac: Uh, but I was, I was burnt out. I was getting jaded. Like I, like I was burnt out to the point I wanted, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with cars outside of work I have a '78 El Camino- Okay
[00:33:49] Caleb Mac: that I've been working on, 'cause I've wanted one since I was a kid.
[00:33:55] Jeff Compton: Nice.
[00:33:56] Caleb Mac: And it sat in the garage for close to two years because I-
[00:34:02] Jeff Compton: Didn't wanna look
[00:34:02] Caleb Mac: at it ... didn't have any motivation to work on it. I understand.
[00:34:04] Jeff Compton: I understand.
[00:34:06] Caleb Mac: Um, and so time went on, a few months or like six months later, they finally hire another guy who had worked there previously.
[00:34:18] Speaker 3: Hmm.
[00:34:19] Caleb Mac: He was gonna be the other, other used car tech. Like, great. Finally get some help Yeah, that didn't last very long. He'd get pulled by the... He'd get pulled from service side to work on customer vehicles.
[00:34:35] Speaker 3: Okay.
[00:34:36] Caleb Mac: And he, he did the bare minimum.
[00:34:40] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:34:40] Caleb Mac: He'd pull a car in, do the oil change, he'd scan it for codes, do brakes, whatever-
[00:34:46] Speaker 3: Yeah
[00:34:46] Caleb Mac: uh, to get it just say it's done.
[00:34:52] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:34:53] Caleb Mac: Uh, and there was several vehicles that he got pulled off of that I got stuck with. One of them was a It's between 2012 and 2016 Cadillac, the mid, mid-size S- SUV. Yeah. Uh, SRX, I think it is.
[00:35:15] Jeff Compton: Yeah, the kind of the Equinox-looking little thing.
[00:35:17] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[00:35:18] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:35:18] Caleb Mac: Uh, passenger seat didn't work.
[00:35:22] Jeff Compton: Hmm.
[00:35:23] Caleb Mac: Traced it down to no power, or couple of volts when it should have 12. That's the kind of stuff I enjoy.
[00:35:30] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. A
[00:35:31] Caleb Mac: lot of people call me nuts, but- I get it ... I like the stuff that makes my brain work.
[00:35:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it.
[00:35:38] Caleb Mac: Uh, so traced it down to a bad wire. Got the interior to just overlay a new wire, not try to find the, find the problem in the harness and fix it.
[00:35:55] Caleb Mac: Uh, so gutted it, pulled the r- run a new wire, but foam on the carpet, backside of the carpet is all soaking wet.
[00:36:06] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:36:06] Caleb Mac: Every... And there's a puddle of water in the back seat. Uh, sunroof drains are leaking.
[00:36:12] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:36:13] Caleb Mac: Because of mice. So I leave the car sit apart for a week so it can dry out.
[00:36:22] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:36:23] Caleb Mac: Because it's, it, I think it was summertime or kinda close to summertime, so if it sat outside and with water in it, it's gonna get mildewy and-
[00:36:32] Speaker 3: Yeah
[00:36:33] Caleb Mac: it's gonna, gonna stink.
[00:36:35] Speaker 3: Gonna gross.
[00:36:35] Caleb Mac: And then nobody's gonna be happy.
[00:36:37] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:36:38] Caleb Mac: Uh, and then yeah, it was... So it was that kind of stuff going on, uh, and just bad attitude-
[00:36:51] Speaker 3: On
[00:36:51] Caleb Mac: them? ... from that guy. You core. Yeah. Oh,
[00:36:53] Speaker 3: yeah, yeah.
[00:36:54] Caleb Mac: From that guy, and then another guy in the shop, just bad attitude, just... And it drove me nuts.
[00:37:01] Caleb Mac: Um, so it all just kind of like... And then he'd complain about if he had to pull a vehicle in after I pulled it in to inspect it to figure out what, what the vehicle needs
[00:37:17] Caleb Mac: And I'd order parts so that all he has to do is literally just put the parts on
[00:37:21] Speaker 3: Right. But
[00:37:24] Caleb Mac: he didn't wanna
[00:37:24] Speaker 3: do
[00:37:25] Caleb Mac: that Uh, threw a fit. "I don't wanna touch a vehicle that somebody else touched."
[00:37:35] Speaker 3: But
[00:37:35] Caleb Mac: then I was always the one that the vehicle he pulled out said it was done, customer drives it, "Oh, there's a problem with it."
[00:37:42] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:37:43] Caleb Mac: I'm the one that got it.
[00:37:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, of course.
[00:37:45] Caleb Mac: Uh, and it's stuff that's like how do you not feel that if you've been- Yeah ... working on cars since you were 15 years old, and he was in his 30s.
[00:37:56] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:37:57] Caleb Mac: Like
[00:37:57] Jeff Compton: how do you- It's called- ...
[00:37:58] Caleb Mac: not notice that?
[00:38:00] Jeff Compton: It's called doesn't wanna do the job, right? He doesn't wanna-- He probably has- Yeah ... an idea about what it is, and he doesn't wanna do it, you know? Yeah. It's like, like me, people laugh at me, but like my, my road test for every car that I recertify is seven miles, including like a highway jaunt up to 65- Okay
[00:38:22] Jeff Compton: 70, 75 miles an hour sometimes, and then back. It's a short- Yeah ... trip, but I, I'm close enough that it's like I can get out, I can get onto a main highway, I can get up to that speed, I can hit the brakes, feel for any pulsation, feel for any vibration, any bearing noise, all that jazz. Watch for an overheat- Yeah
[00:38:40] Jeff Compton: kind of stuff, and then I bring it back to the shop and, and I evaluate. That's it. And I don't know how these guys do that, that they shake down a car without getting it up to, you know, more than 30 miles an hour. Like, I don't understand how you- Right ... find that. 'Cause like they're not-
[00:38:55] Caleb Mac: Well, he would go out and, he'd go out and drive them, but it, like- Yeah
[00:38:58] Caleb Mac: there was an F-150 that was misfiring on almost every cylinder under load. Ignition misfire.
[00:39:06] Speaker 3: Yeah. Of
[00:39:07] Caleb Mac: course it is. And it's the 5.4 Triton with the break off, the ones that like to break off.
[00:39:10] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:39:11] Caleb Mac: I go drive it, and I feel it. Yep, it, it's terrible.
[00:39:15] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:39:16] Caleb Mac: And I'm like, how do you not feel that? It's in the... As soon as you get up to 60 miles an hour-
[00:39:21] Speaker 3: Sure, yeah
[00:39:22] Caleb Mac: it starts happening.
[00:39:23] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:39:24] Caleb Mac: Uh, so it was just stuff like that, and it just kind of kept building up and building up and...
[00:39:33] Jeff Compton: And see, if he's paid, if you guys are paid hourly, it doesn't really matter what that job becomes, right? Like if it, if it ends up- Yeah ... being a nightmare to get the plugs out of it, we know there's been tricks now to get the plugs out that like everybody used to make a big deal out of that job.
[00:39:46] Jeff Compton: And now, you know- Yeah ... guys come in there with a good impact and rattle the plugs loose, and they come right out, right? Like it ain't the end of the world. Totally. You jam eight new coils in it 'cause it's an old Triton, right, and it'll need eight coils. It either does then or it will soon.
[00:39:59] Caleb Mac: And,
[00:39:59] Jeff Compton: uh-
[00:39:59] Caleb Mac: And it was a used car.
[00:40:00] Caleb Mac: It was just throw- Yeah ... plugs in it and coil boots. It was never... If the coils aren't doing nothing, we're not doing nothing with the coils.
[00:40:07] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Yeah,
[00:40:08] Caleb Mac: yeah. Uh, which I, on the one hand, yeah, I get it. On the other hand, I don't wanna do the same thing again.
[00:40:17] Jeff Compton: Well, and me, I replaced way more coils that actually fixed the misfire than, than the plug.
[00:40:22] Jeff Compton: You know what I mean?
[00:40:23] Caleb Mac: Okay. Yeah.
[00:40:24] Jeff Compton: I didn't, I... Yeah, if it had a carbon track on the plug, it needed a plug. Yeah. But like I did the old carb, the coil swap for years on those- And that's... Like I didn't, I didn't go taking plugs out unless I absolutely had to, you know? Right. Because I didn't want that, that headache of one breaking off and then, you know.
[00:40:43] Caleb Mac: Right. So- Yeah.
[00:40:44] Jeff Compton: And it was 85% of the time she was a coil, you know? So-
[00:40:48] Caleb Mac: Yeah. For me, almost, I wanna say 75% of the misfires, misfire conditions that I experienced on cars from the auction was never a spark plug or a coil.
[00:41:00] Jeff Compton: Yeah. It's gonna be something.
[00:41:01] Caleb Mac: It was always something else. Yeah. And it was always... I, it got to the point where I'd open the hood, I'd see a brand new coil on the cylinder that's misfiring, and I'm like Okay, so there's the problem.
[00:41:19] Caleb Mac: It kind of just eliminated- ... taking the plug out and- Yeah ... swapping it. It's like, all right, well, let's go deeper. Compression test, and then a leak down test, depending on what the compression test did. Uh, if it was a Hemi, I had two Hemis that, uh, cylinder five intake-
[00:41:42] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:41:42] Caleb Mac: misfire. Rock arm wouldn't move.
[00:41:45] Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
[00:41:48] Caleb Mac: Exact same cylinder.
[00:41:49] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:41:50] Caleb Mac: Exact same lifter. Uh, one of them completely turned in the lifter tray.
[00:41:57] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:41:58] Caleb Mac: Uh, the first one I did, I didn't pull the cab.
[00:42:03] Speaker 3: Okay.
[00:42:04] Caleb Mac: I stood in between the motor, the engine and the, and the core support, 'cause I'm skinny enough that I can fit.
[00:42:12] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:13] Caleb Mac: Uh, but then, oh, you gotta climb in and out of that-
[00:42:17] Speaker 3: Yes
[00:42:18] Caleb Mac: if you get forget, if you forget something. Uh- Yeah ... so the second one I pulled the cab.
[00:42:26] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:27] Caleb Mac: And oh my goodness, I will not do it again. I will not do it without taking the cab off.
[00:42:32] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:42:32] Caleb Mac: Uh, so it was stuff like that I enjoyed. I didn't, I don't like, I still don't like doing brakes.
[00:42:40] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:41] Caleb Mac: Even though it's the most profitable service I offer.
[00:42:44] Jeff Compton: Sure, yeah.
[00:42:44] Caleb Mac: Or one of them, uh-
[00:42:47] Jeff Compton: I just find I hate the dirt, I hate the dust, I hate the grinding, right? Like, it's just-
[00:42:51] Caleb Mac: Yeah ... if
[00:42:52] Jeff Compton: I had a
[00:42:53] Caleb Mac: set- The, the repetitive- Exactly ... the repetitiveness of it.
[00:42:56] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:42:57] Caleb Mac: Um, and if I had a big, big project like that, I knew what I was doing for a few days.
[00:43:03] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[00:43:05] Caleb Mac: Uh, and then from December, November, December 2024, uh, pretty much up until I left, there was a lot.
[00:43:19] Caleb Mac: There was one truck that... And then what really, what really started my like, okay, I'm, I'm either leaving and... Like, I was to the point where I'll go flip hamburgers at McDonald's.
[00:43:32] Jeff Compton: Right.
[00:43:34] Caleb Mac: Like, I was just done. Uh, I didn't know any, like, Changing Industry podcasts. I didn't know, like... I felt like, okay, well, every shop is gonna be like this.
[00:43:45] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:43:46] Caleb Mac: And I want no part of it. Uh- So it was, there was a truck, '01 F-250, 7.3 power stroke, little over 100,000 miles Body is really clean, no rust. It's been repainted
[00:44:07] Caleb Mac: Comes from the auction. It's got a bad water pump. It's pissing coolant, all the coolant out. Uh, but the frame rails are rotted out.
[00:44:16] Speaker 3: Mm.
[00:44:17] Caleb Mac: On that era of truck, it's a leaf spring front end.
[00:44:20] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:44:21] Caleb Mac: Right in be- right in front of the cro- engine cross member and right behind the leaf spring shackle on both sides.
[00:44:25] Caleb Mac: And you can see dayl- daylight through the box frame. I'm like, "Frame's rotted out." Tell my boss that, and his answer was, "Go get some steel from the steel yard, put some steel on it, and we'll send it back to the auction."
[00:44:42] Caleb Mac: What happened was it went to the auction, did not get a bid, came back.
[00:44:47] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:44:48] Caleb Mac: And they stuck a couple grand into it to fix it And then when I tried to refuse to work on it, 'cause I'm like, "I... Yes, it's your name on it. It's still my name as the technician on
[00:45:04] Jeff Compton: it." That's right. Yeah. If you- Like,
[00:45:06] Caleb Mac: I want no part of it.
[00:45:07] Jeff Compton: If... Yeah. I don't even know Like I know up here, like I've never had to weld a frame and I'd... Like, if I go to my last final day in the industry and never have to, I'm a happy guy. Because like- Yeah ... it's one thing to say, "Okay, get some channel and lay it up in there and weld it." And I'm not, I'm not gonna argue with people that says, "Listen, you know, I made it stronger.
[00:45:32] Jeff Compton: I boxed it." I'm not arguing that you did, but the end of the day, all those, from what I understand, all those welds are supposed to be actually like magnafluxed and checked and, and, uh, and approved and signed off on. Yeah. I know because like I've, I've heard other guys that have had to put, repair a frame and put it through for, you know, safety inspection.
[00:45:53] Jeff Compton: Like, they get in there and get pretty, you know, checking it to make sure that it's strong enough. Yeah,
[00:45:57] Caleb Mac: and I'm, and I'm sure that the composition of the steel itself on a frame rail is different than just the steel you can buy off the shelf at the steel yard.
[00:46:06] Jeff Compton: Sure. Of course it is.
[00:46:07] Caleb Mac: I'm sure there's some science-
[00:46:10] Jeff Compton: Yes
[00:46:10] Jeff Compton: like
[00:46:10] Caleb Mac: way above our heads as to... So I just Then I got chewed out for trying to refuse to work on it.
[00:46:20] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[00:46:21] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I was... My boss told me, "I worship the same God you do. What difference does it make if I pay you to work on that truck or this car?"
[00:46:29] Jeff Compton: What does God have to-
[00:46:29] Caleb Mac: I'm like... Yeah. I'm like- We're
[00:46:33] Jeff Compton: not selling it to God, you know?
[00:46:35] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[00:46:35] Jeff Compton: Like-
[00:46:36] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I'm like, "You can set your morals and whatever off of your version of the Bible, but I'm gonna... I have mine set off of- Yeah ... how I interpret the Bible."
[00:46:47] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:46:48] Caleb Mac: And to me, that's, that's not right.
[00:46:51] Jeff Compton: No, and see, like, you've pulled a cab before. You've pulled, you know, we've all pulled a box off a truck before.
[00:46:58] Jeff Compton: Well, if you've done those two things, then you're, you're right there to doing a ca- a frame swap. Like, I mean, Toyota- Right ... they used to sell- I've done that. Yeah. So why not just find a frame and put it in the truck, you know? Do it the right thing. Like, this is why- 'Cause it takes too much time and costs too much money.
[00:47:15] Jeff Compton: Well, and this is... I have the same conversation with my boss all the time. Like, it... And I know it sucks when, you know, you get one and it was worse than you saw, but, like, I'm not of the belief that you should just sit there and look at pictures on a screen and make your, your, what you're gonna pay for it based on that.
[00:47:34] Jeff Compton: Like, I'm not so stupid as to think that I know there's a lot more money left on the phone.
[00:47:38] Caleb Mac: He, he looked at the truck in person-
[00:47:40] Jeff Compton: Well, then he don't know
[00:47:42] Caleb Mac: what
[00:47:42] Jeff Compton: he's doing ... before
[00:47:42] Caleb Mac: he bought it. Yeah.
[00:47:43] Jeff Compton: Well, then that's his problem. There you go. Yeah. It's on you, you. It's not Caleb's problem- Yeah ... it's his problem,
[00:47:49] Caleb Mac: right?
[00:47:49] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Um- Don't know where to look... Don't know where to look, why don't you bring somebody that does with you?
[00:47:54] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Sounds- There was several, um... So the truck that I did a frame on was a 2012 Chevy S- Silverado 1500.
[00:48:05] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:48:07] Caleb Mac: Just completely shot.
[00:48:08] Jeff Compton: Of course it is. They all did.
[00:48:10] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[00:48:11] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:48:11] Caleb Mac: And then every... I just, I got really good.
[00:48:14] Caleb Mac: Every si- every time I saw one of them trucks come in, I always check the box frame right at, right where it goes up to the box.
[00:48:21] Jeff Compton: Yeah, yeah. Right where it makes that little kick
[00:48:24] Caleb Mac: up. Yeah. Um, so that truck ended up going, that F-150 ended up going to a 19-year-old kid And I just didn't, does not sit well with me.
[00:48:39] Caleb Mac: Uh, there was a Chevy HHR that they sold. Customer brought it back because they smelt fuel.
[00:48:49] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:48:49] Caleb Mac: Fuel line rotted out
[00:48:53] Caleb Mac: Instead of buying the $120 pre-vent line kit off of eBay. Yes, I- Yeah ... know all the king you trusted off eBay, whatever. Uh, like sometimes that's the answer for especially older cars like that.
[00:49:08] Speaker 3: Yep.
[00:49:09] Caleb Mac: Uh, the answer was the Fleet Farm plumbing section and some 3/8 copper plumbing and some flare unions
[00:49:23] Speaker 3: Yeah. No
[00:49:24] Caleb Mac: Cut out the bad part, put in a new part Yeah.
[00:49:29] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:49:30] Caleb Mac: That's one. Uh, so it was stuff like that. And then, yeah, November 24 is when I decided I'm gonna go out on my own.
[00:49:41] Jeff Compton: So- Tell me what was the setup to get out on your own? Like, you had-- did you have a van or did you have just a truck or?
[00:49:50] Caleb Mac: I-- So I bought a, uh, December of '24, I bought a, uh, 8 by 23 enclosed trailer.
[00:49:59] Speaker 3: Okay. '
[00:50:01] Caleb Mac: Cause I'm like, I want a trailer so that I can just, when I wanna be done working for the weekend or whatever, I need my truck, I can just unhook my trailer.
[00:50:08] Speaker 3: Right.
[00:50:09] Caleb Mac: Unhook the trailer and be done.
[00:50:10] Speaker 3: Yep.
[00:50:11] Caleb Mac: Uh, go do what I wanted to do, hook it back up and be ready to go.
[00:50:17] Speaker 3: Yep.
[00:50:17] Caleb Mac: Uh, it was probably bigger than what I needed, but I got it for 4,500 bucks at an auction.
[00:50:24] Caleb Mac: For a trailer in today's money, that's not a bad price, especially for that size of trailer.
[00:50:32] Jeff Compton: Well, that's it. It's better to have more than you need than, you know, be running out- Yeah ... and having to make compromise on what you can bring with you, right?
[00:50:40] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[00:50:40] Jeff Compton: So.
[00:50:40] Caleb Mac: Um, so I started on the side doing what I could for marketing without my boss finding out.
[00:50:52] Jeff Compton: Hmm.
[00:50:53] Caleb Mac: Uh, 'cause I figured they weren't gonna take it very well. I-
[00:50:57] Jeff Compton: So you would do these jobs on weekends or nights after work or
[00:51:01] Caleb Mac: any- After work, weekends, whenever I, whenever I could make it work. Wow. 'Cause I'm like, I need to build a customer base so that I can get out of here.
[00:51:10] Jeff Compton: Good for you, man.
[00:51:11] Caleb Mac: Good for you.
[00:51:11] Caleb Mac: Um, so I, I did what I could and then Easter, Good Friday of '25, we were leaving to go to Wisconsin with my grandparents for Easter. I was gonna be leaving early that day anyway. I was talking to my boss and he's like- What's this, uh, you going or advertising doing repairs or whatever?" I'm like, "Oh, I see a better op-" I, I should have phrased it better.
[00:51:41] Caleb Mac: I should have phrased it differently, but I was just, I was done.
[00:51:44] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:51:45] Caleb Mac: Uh, I said, "I, I see a better opportunity for me and my family in front of me." He's like, "You need this to know this?" "Yep, I'll give you until the end of the pay period, and then I'll, then I'm done." Uh- There
[00:52:00] Jeff Compton: isn't really anything wrong with the way you phrased that though, I don't think
[00:52:03] Caleb Mac: No.
[00:52:04] Caleb Mac: No. Uh, like I don't think I phrased it bad, I just think maybe there's a different way I could've phrased it that maybe would've sounded, sounded a little better, whatever. Uh, but that's all in the past and I'm significantly happier. Uh, and I wanna say, I think it was January, sometime January of '24 or '25 rather, I was...
[00:52:33] Caleb Mac: I wasn't getting any calls for work, for doing stuff on the side. Might have been February or March too, I, I don't remember. Um, I wasn't getting anything, and I didn't... I kept going to, going to work and just hated it every day. Had earbud- Yeah ... had an earbud in every day. Mm-hmm. Listen to music or podcasts.
[00:52:57] Caleb Mac: That's right, right around when I found ASOG, and then your podcast, and then Changing the Industry.
[00:53:04] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:53:07] Caleb Mac: So I, once I got all that, or was listening to all that, but there was one day before work, I had listed all of my tools on Marketplace.
[00:53:20] Speaker 3: Wow.
[00:53:21] Caleb Mac: Like I was, I was done, and I didn't care. Like I'll, I'll figure out something to do, but- Yeah
[00:53:30] Caleb Mac: I was like, "Okay, I'm done." Uh, was able to... Then I deleted the post. I didn't, I had... My phone was blowing up.
[00:53:41] Speaker 3: Sure.
[00:53:42] Caleb Mac: And then my boss saw it on Marketplace, so he asked me what that was about. Uh, I'm like, "I'm just getting tired, getting tired of it." Uh, didn't go anything about like on trying to do stuff on the side, nothing like that, but, uh-
[00:53:58] Jeff Compton: And isn't that, isn't that crazy?
[00:54:00] Jeff Compton: Like just to kind of cut you off for a second there, not intentionally. At this point you've got what, maybe 10 years into the industry, and you're already like to the point where it's like, "I need out. I need to sell my tools." Yeah. 2019
[00:54:15] Caleb Mac: to 2025.
[00:54:18] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Not even 10 years. Yeah. Not even a decade. Yeah. You know?
[00:54:22] Jeff Compton: And you're already... That's... Yeah, I've been there.
[00:54:29] Caleb Mac: Uh.
[00:54:30] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:54:30] Caleb Mac: So I got through it, uh, when I, I got connected with Josh Goins.
[00:54:36] Jeff Compton: Good.
[00:54:36] Caleb Mac: Uh, because I saw a post on Facebook about what's a fair markup on a used engine.
[00:54:43] Speaker 3: Mm.
[00:54:44] Caleb Mac: Uh, and it sparked a, it sparked an argument.
[00:54:50] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:54:52] Caleb Mac: And I thought I was right that, oh, 20 per- one- 20% markup across the board is fair.
[00:54:58] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:54:59] Caleb Mac: Fair to the customer. Didn't matter what it was Oh
[00:55:07] Caleb Mac: That word,
[00:55:09] Jeff Compton: that word fair is a funny word. It really
[00:55:11] Caleb Mac: is Yeah. Uh, then so, so back and forth between me and Josh about why it's not fair and whatever, and he finally gave me his shop number and told, told me to give him a call after work. So I did, and we had... We talked on the phone for hour, hour and a half, and he got me, he got me set straight.
[00:55:37] Speaker 3: Yeah. He has
[00:55:38] Caleb Mac: a way of- He sent me a-
[00:55:39] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:55:40] Caleb Mac: sent me a, a sample parts matrix, whatever, and it's like, "You're not being fair to the customer. You're not being fair to you. You might be being fair to the customer, but you're not being fair to you."
[00:55:50] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[00:55:51] Caleb Mac: Uh, so that was... And then, yeah, what happens if a wheel falls off?
[00:56:01] Caleb Mac: What are you gonna do then? You need profit to be able to make it right Uh, so that's what-- And that's what really stuck with me is like, I'm here to serve, I'm here to serve people. We're, we're called to serve people. Like, then that's what it's like, okay. That, that's what set me like, okay, I need to charge, charge appropriately and Uh, had a, then I set up a parts matrix and
[00:56:33] Caleb Mac: So, um-
[00:56:34] Jeff Compton: And see, Josh, Josh learned that lesson the hard way, right?
[00:56:38] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[00:56:38] Jeff Compton: Because he was in the same shoes that you were in, and he had to, he had to come back around the second time into a business for himself to figure it out, right? Yeah. And that's, that's kind of like... Yeah, I love that dude. I talk to him, uh, several times a week.
[00:56:54] Jeff Compton: Yeah. I watch his, I watch his, you know, YouTubes every day, and it just kinda keeps me- Yeah ... you know,
[00:56:59] Caleb Mac: motivated. I've fallen behind on it. I've fallen behind on his videos, but I've-- the ones that I've seen, I've really enjoyed them. Um- Yeah.
[00:57:06] Jeff Compton: He, he's-- The first time I met him was last year at Tools. Okay. And I got to spend a lot of time with him in Pennsylvania.
[00:57:14] Jeff Compton: And, like, so he's originally from Pennsylvania, right? So it's not- Yeah ... he comes up from North Carolina and goes. And I got to spend again when I was just there last month, I got to spend a bunch more time with him. And I mean, he's quickly becoming one of my favorite people to just sit and chill with, uh, when we're at these events- Yeah
[00:57:34] Jeff Compton: 'cause it's like we're, we're so aligned with everything, and it's like, you know, I can be frank with him, and I can, and I can say to him, "Nah, man, I, I think that's the wrong way to go about this with your technician or this with your," you know-
[00:57:49] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:57:49] Jeff Compton: your office staff. And he doesn't get hurt. He doesn't get upset.
[00:57:53] Jeff Compton: He doesn't, "Oh, well, F you," like, "You don't run a shop." He just- Right ... takes it, and he analyzes what I say and, you know, thanks me. And, uh, and, uh- Yeah ... and that's just like all I wanna do is bring perspective. Like, I'm not sitting here telling most people that I-- you're doing something wrong. Right. Like, I'm just gonna bring a perspective.
[00:58:11] Jeff Compton: And he's such a, he's such an, a cool, collected guy that it's, it's really helps to be around him. I, I really enjoy the time we spend together, so shout out to him.
[00:58:24] Caleb Mac: Yeah. So he, he got me in touch with, uh, Lucas-
[00:58:28] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[00:58:29] Caleb Mac: and then Mike Allen.
[00:58:31] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[00:58:32] Jeff Compton: Yep.
[00:58:32] Caleb Mac: Uh- And Dan, Dan Tekin-
[00:58:37] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[00:58:38] Caleb Mac: in Ohio, uh, and then the ASOC Mastermind.
[00:58:41] Caleb Mac: So I, I was a part of that for a while. Uh, then in the process of me moving three and a half hours south-
[00:58:51] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm ...
[00:58:52] Caleb Mac: it... There was some disagreements and no, didn't really get to say my side of it or whatever, and so I, I left the group.
[00:59:03] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[00:59:03] Caleb Mac: So I'm like, "All right, well, I'm, I'm done." Mm-hmm.
[00:59:07] Speaker 3: Like-
[00:59:08] Jeff Compton: So when you hit the road with the, with the s- with the trailer full-time, like was there jobs that...
[00:59:16] Jeff Compton: 'Cause I know, like for a little bit I dabbled in, in having like a... I found myself, you know, between jobs and I would, I would, you know, do cash work on the side. And like, I would have people calling me up going like, "I, I need a transmission put in a, you know, four-wheel drive Dakota," or, "I need a, a transmission stuck in a, you know, Grand Prix."
[00:59:37] Jeff Compton: And I'm like, "I'm not... I'm on the ground, dude. Like, I'm not, I don't have a hoist here. Like, I'm not doing..." Did you- Yeah,
[00:59:42] Caleb Mac: I- ...
[00:59:43] Jeff Compton: take on anything like that or did you kinda-
[00:59:45] Caleb Mac: Nope.
[00:59:46] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Just
[00:59:46] Caleb Mac: stuck- I was very, I was very selective on what I did.
[00:59:51] Jeff Compton: Oh.
[00:59:51] Caleb Mac: Because I'm like, I'm not doing something that's gonna put me underneath a car on jack stands for hours or Like-
[00:59:59] Jeff Compton: Yeah
[01:00:00] Caleb Mac: and I don't wanna be at somebody's house for eight hours.
[01:00:02] Jeff Compton: Yeah. That's the other thing, right? Yeah.
[01:00:05] Caleb Mac: I wanted the, I wanted the quick and, quick and easy, in and out, couple hour jobs, whatever.
[01:00:10] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[01:00:11] Caleb Mac: Uh, and so it was, it was a good experience being mobile. Uh, I met some, met some really cool people.
[01:00:23] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:00:24] Caleb Mac: Uh, where I moved from was a, it's a very big touristy area when it's summertime.
[01:00:30] Caleb Mac: There's all the lakes.
[01:00:32] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:00:33] Caleb Mac: Uh, I met some really good people, some really cool people. Uh, I met one guy who was in the Navy during Desert Storm.
[01:00:43] Speaker 3: Hmm.
[01:00:44] Caleb Mac: Turns out he was on the same boat my uncle was on.
[01:00:47] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:00:49] Caleb Mac: So we were talking and he's like, "What's your uncle na- uncle's name?" I tell him. He's like, "The goofy guy that, that, uh, makes balloon animals?"
[01:00:59] Caleb Mac: Like, "Yep."
[01:01:03] Caleb Mac: He's like, "I was on the same boat."
[01:01:06] Jeff Compton: That's small.
[01:01:08] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I'm like, how in the world does that happen? Small town Minnesota, the guy's from South Carolina, up here vacation, whatever.
[01:01:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:01:19] Caleb Mac: Uh, ball joints were getting loose. He was going to get an alignment done and ball joints were loose on his Expedition.
[01:01:26] Speaker 3: Right.
[01:01:27] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I, he called me. I'm like, "I got time today." Like, "I'll go out there." And yeah, he was, he was a cool guy. Uh, and there was one, another guy from Colorado. I did brakes on their, uh, on his son's Toyota Tundra.
[01:01:47] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:01:48] Caleb Mac: Did some stuff in my driveway, but I tried to not do a whole lot of that so I didn't get shut down by the city or nothing like that.
[01:01:54] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:01:54] Caleb Mac: Uh, but from May, May to July, I had, I had... I was growing each month a little bit. Then after July it dropped off. Uh, and then I started like, okay, I need to start looking for a shop-
[01:02:18] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm ... '
[01:02:19] Caleb Mac: cause it's gonna turn wintertime here soon. Uh, and couldn't, couldn't really find anything. I found one place that was available, but they wanted, uh- It was 2,000 square foot.
[01:02:37] Caleb Mac: It was part of a 17,000 square foot warehouse complex, or warehouse, that they're done doing whatever they were doing with it, so they gonna rent it out. Uh, so we go look at it and it's like, all right, well, this is gonna need a lot of work for it to be a shop. You gotta put dividing walls up and whatever, uh, get power out to it for a lift or two, and tire equipment, whatever.
[01:03:08] Caleb Mac: Uh, and so they finally talked to my realtor and gave them a number, and they're like, "We want..." It was gonna end up being, like, $2,500 a month. They wanted me there for five years, and they wanted me to spend the 10 to $20,000 to get the place usable for me.
[01:03:32] Jeff Compton: Right.
[01:03:34] Caleb Mac: I'm like, "No, I, I can't afford..." A, I can't, couldn't afford $2,500 a month.
[01:03:41] Caleb Mac: Uh, and so I kept looking, kept looking, uh, and then was talking to the city, and they have some, they have some land in, in town, but it's- Right ... right off the main drag. But, like, it's a pretty busy road. Uh, like, location would've been great. You could buy the land for 30 to 40 grand. It would've been, like, two and a half or three acres, and then I was gonna build a shop.
[01:04:15] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:04:17] Caleb Mac: Uh, so we started going through that process, and then went to an auction in August with my father-in-law, about an hour east of us. Uh, and was talking to him about it, and possibly about, "Hey, can I borrow some money from you to buy the land so I can build a shop?" And then a few days later he calls me, and that's when the idea of moving down to where we did came up.
[01:04:53] Caleb Mac: Uh, he's like, "I'd rather... If I'm gonna loan you money, I'd rather loan you money for the entire entirety of the project or property."
[01:05:01] Jeff Compton: Right. "
[01:05:02] Caleb Mac: But I'd like it to be closer to where I'm at so that if you need a hand with something, I can, I can help you."
[01:05:07] Jeff Compton: That's kind of a nice gesture.
[01:05:09] Caleb Mac: Yeah. And I'm like, "Yeah, that, that makes sense to me."
[01:05:13] Caleb Mac: Like, uh, so he was talking to a guy that, a guy that he knew about a place right outside of town. Uh, he's like, "Well, that place isn't available, but, uh, we got this place. Used to be a boss tire shop." Um, so it's a house and a shop and a few acres right outside of town. You can see it from the main road going into town from the highway.
[01:05:44] Caleb Mac: Uh, it was an operating tire shop for 30 years. Uh, so not a traditional tire shop like where most of us are normally used to. He w- he would go to the cities with a truck, with a semi, get a truckload of tires- Okay ... and he'd bring them back and re-vulcanize them.
[01:06:02] Jeff Compton: Right.
[01:06:02] Caleb Mac: Put patches in and vulcanize them. Uh, and so that's what this place used to be.
[01:06:11] Caleb Mac: And so my father-in-law was like, "I'll loan you... I wanna loan you the money to, to buy it if you guys wanna move down here." Uh, so we, we talked, me and my wife talked about it, came down to look at it end of September Bought it in November, had some stuff to work out between November to January, and moved down here, and in four months being open, my total gross revenue is a little over $1,000 more than what my total gross revenue was all last year.
[01:06:47] Jeff Compton: Wow. Good.
[01:06:49] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:06:50] Jeff Compton: Good.
[01:06:51] Caleb Mac: So-
[01:06:51] Jeff Compton: That feels
[01:06:52] Caleb Mac: good ... I'm in a... Yeah. 'Cause I was-- I think if we stayed where we were, I'd probably be working for somebody else again. Yeah. Because it-
[01:07:03] Jeff Compton: It's tough, eh, the mobile thing. Um- Yeah.
[01:07:05] Caleb Mac: Yeah ...
[01:07:06] Jeff Compton: because it, it's just-- It's, it's up and down, right? Like, a-as people... And, like, you talked about that before we got on, like, you met some of the, like, the people that were the most challenging to deal with as customers, right?
[01:07:19] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Like, they-- They're limited. I, I see them as only two things. They're either limited budget, right?
[01:07:25] Caleb Mac: Yep.
[01:07:26] Jeff Compton: And it's like you're most of the time to do the job right, they just don't have the budget to do the job right. Yep. And if you keep just doing the job crappy, you're never gonna grow your business because crappy work will follow you no matter what you do.
[01:07:40] Jeff Compton: Right. Or they're the people that, like, have enough money that they could be at a shop getting it fixed, but they think that they can deal with you and, and devalue you to-- and then you gotta still come to them. Like, and, and I never- Yeah ... understood that. Like, the people that and I-- no, no hate on my listeners.
[01:08:04] Jeff Compton: If, if you're doing mobile and you're not charging the same as what the shop rates are around you, you're, you're, you're missing the boat because you're offering a service of convenience to them, right? That that's the thing. So if they're... We just had a conversation on TikTok, the other guy, and the other guy's trying, and he's a good person.
[01:08:22] Jeff Compton: He's not a bad guy, but he's telling everybody like, "Listen, start out at 100 bucks and, you know, you can grow your-- you can make $100,000 next year and be booked solid- Yep ... with $100,000." And I'm like, "It doesn't work that way, dude. You can't- Yeah ... it-- the math, the math doesn't-" That's
[01:08:37] Caleb Mac: what I did. I was- Yeah ... when I started, I was, uh I was like $10 less than the shop that I left.
[01:08:46] Caleb Mac: Yeah. And they were, I wanna say they were like 120.
[01:08:50] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:08:51] Caleb Mac: Uh, and yeah, it, it didn't get me good customers. It, I mean, it got me some good customers. It got me all the people that are out of town-
[01:09:02] Speaker 3: Yeah ...
[01:09:03] Caleb Mac: that are in the small towns that they, their car might not make it to town.
[01:09:08] Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah.
[01:09:10] Caleb Mac: So that's- But that-
[01:09:11] Caleb Mac: I spent a lot of time behind the windshield.
[01:09:14] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:09:15] Caleb Mac: Uh, I went, I drove over an hour to go work on a 19, uh- ... 29 Ford.
[01:09:26] Speaker 3: Wow.
[01:09:28] Caleb Mac: That was on a, some kind of Chevy chassis.
[01:09:31] Speaker 3: Right.
[01:09:32] Caleb Mac: He paid a guy to put a brake master cylinder in it, had no brakes.
[01:09:36] Speaker 3: Yep.
[01:09:37] Caleb Mac: And he's, I'm like, "I'll, I can, I'm like, there's gotta be a shop closer to you than, than me- Yeah
[01:09:46] Caleb Mac: that you can take it to." And then he just, he's like, "They're all booked all or they don't wanna touch it." Yeah. Uh.
[01:09:56] Jeff Compton: Fair.
[01:09:57] Caleb Mac: And we... Which, yeah, I now, I probably wouldn't have done it Like, it was pretty straightforward. It literally was just spend a couple hours bleeding the m- master cylinder out and bleeding all four corners, and driving it a couple times, try to get the brakes as good as I could.
[01:10:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:10:19] Caleb Mac: Uh, so it was a significant improvement, but the, the axle seal on the right side, right rear axle was leaking. So it's like the brakes aren't gonna be that great anyway because it's, they're all covered in gear oil.
[01:10:34] Jeff Compton: Yeah, and there's, there's, uh, you know, there's ... When it's all that kind of hot rod thing, there's bias that, you know, you're supposed to put a proportioning valve in there and then dial the bias- Oh
[01:10:45] Jeff Compton: and a lot of guys don't do that. Like, there's, there's so much- Yeah, there was no
[01:10:49] Caleb Mac: proportioning valve in there ...
[01:10:51] Jeff Compton: there's so much geometry that goes to, like, if you're running manual brakes and you put a disc kit on the front, like, what's the sizes and all. There's so much engineering that goes into that, that a lot of people just, like, slap some parts on and go, "I don't know why this pedal is forever soft," or, or the pedal's hard- Right
[01:11:07] Jeff Compton: but I've no ... Like, the thing'll slide through the every intersection I come up on. Yeah, there's- Right ... 'cause there's engineering involved and you don't have it.
[01:11:14] Caleb Mac: Yeah. It was, it was all drum, all four corners of drum brakes. Uh-
[01:11:20] Jeff Compton: No ...
[01:11:21] Caleb Mac: but, like, I didn't really wanna do it to begin with, so I, I called the guy and told him, like, "Okay, just for me to show up, it's gonna be..."
[01:11:30] Caleb Mac: I wanna say it was, like, $300, $350-
[01:11:33] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm ...
[01:11:34] Caleb Mac: just for me to show up.
[01:11:36] Speaker 3: Yep.
[01:11:37] Caleb Mac: Uh, he's like, "Okay. I don't really have another option right now, so I got the money. Don't worry about it." Like- Okay ... "Yeah." So I went down and did it. He was, he was a cool guy. He was a- Oh,
[01:11:52] Speaker 3: yeah ...
[01:11:52] Caleb Mac: Vietnam vet, I think he was On a small little lake ridge, small little town.
[01:11:58] Caleb Mac: It was a-- He was a cool guy. Yeah. Uh, so it was nothing about, like, the customer or nothing. It was just the car. Like- Yeah ... I had no idea what I'm going into.
[01:12:09] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:12:10] Caleb Mac: Uh-
[01:12:11] Jeff Compton: I remember when my short stint, I drove 80 minutes one way to look at a no start on an older, I wanna say it was a mid-'90s Nissan, I don't remember what it was.
[01:12:25] Jeff Compton: But I get there, check it out, starter's bad. And the guy says to me, "Okay, um, I kinda thought it might be the starter was bad, so, uh, there's a guy back in town," like in Kingston, um, "that I'm gonna take the starter to, and he's gonna rebuild it." And I'm like, "Okay, so, like, when do you want me to come back and install?"
[01:12:45] Jeff Compton: He's like, "No, no, we're gonna do that today."
[01:12:52] Jeff Compton: So, so Caleb, here's, here's how it goes. I've driven 80 minutes to his place. Starter took me all of 20 minutes to get off. Um, I make the 80-minute drive back to Kingston. Him and I, we go to this little shop that was-- that's not even there anymore, and, uh, there's an old guy behind the bench rebuilding starters, and he takes my starter, and, you know, it's just a, it's a Nip and Denzel starter, right?
[01:13:16] Jeff Compton: He puts a-
[01:13:17] Speaker 3: Yep ...
[01:13:18] Jeff Compton: puts a s- set of contacts into the, into the solenoid, and he, and he bench tests everything else. He's like, "Here you go." And he, and he goes, "That'll be, you know, 100 bucks or whatever." And, uh, the guy that I brought-- came with, you know, he rode down with me, talking the whole way, right? Gives him the 100 bucks for the starter.
[01:13:39] Jeff Compton: And I'm thinking, "Okay, now drive back to his house, put the starter in." And so I had four hours probably by the time... You know, and so while he's rebuilding the starter at the shop, I'm talking to that sh- shop owner, you know, and kinda where am I at in my career and all this kinda stuff. This is long before, you know, the podcast and Facebook and everything.
[01:14:03] Jeff Compton: And, um, the customer's cool as hell, talked to him. So I, I get back there And then, you know, 20 minutes, put the starter back in the car, vroom, fires the car up, everything else is great. And he's like, "Thanks. What do I owe you?" And I said, "Oh, give me 250 bucks." And I, like, and I think 250 bucks, and then I'm like, I do the math, I'm like, "You idiot."
[01:14:30] Jeff Compton: Like I spent... 'Cause I was driving a, I was driving my old Cherokee at the time. I spent p- pretty near 70 bucks in gas. So if you break down my hourly rate, I, like, I wasn't-- I was an idiot. Right. Yeah. But it was kind of cool to, you know, and I'm sure that old gentleman now is probably not with us anymore. Um, or if he is with us, he wouldn't remember me or the car.
[01:14:56] Jeff Compton: Right. Um, and the, this, the starter rebuild shop is long gone. Um, I drive by it and it's an empty place now. And, and it's those kind of things, like, where sometimes the... You know, it's like you said, you don't know what you're going, gonna get into when you get there. And that's why sometimes I, you know, with the mobile guys, I'm pretty hard on them when I see what they're doing 'cause they're charging way too little for what they do.
[01:15:24] Jeff Compton: But at the same time it's like my h- they'll always have my respect 'cause it's that, that confidence- Oh, yeah ... I don't know what I'm getting into, but I'm just gonna fix it, you know?
[01:15:33] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:15:33] Jeff Compton: Um.
[01:15:35] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Like one thing that my old boss told me the week that I'm leaving, he picked me up from the Chevy dealer, dropped the car off to get a key programmed.
[01:15:45] Caleb Mac: So we're on our way back to the shop, take a longer way back, and he's like, "I gotta rethink who-- I gotta rethink the cars I'm buying 'cause I don't know when the shop is gonna fix them."
[01:15:54] Jeff Compton: That's right. Yeah. "
[01:15:56] Caleb Mac: I was buying, I was buying the stuff I was buying because I knew you were gonna fix it." Like-
[01:16:00] Jeff Compton: That's right
[01:16:02] Caleb Mac: "Thanks for telling me that."
[01:16:03] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:16:03] Caleb Mac: The week that I'm leaving. That made me feel good.
[01:16:09] Jeff Compton: Y- Like- I, you know... And that's, that's interesting, Caleb, that he'll even say that to you, right? Because most- Yeah ...
[01:16:15] Speaker 3: most
[01:16:16] Jeff Compton: owners don't. And here's- Yeah ... the very reality, right? Like we've seen the conversations, you and I have seen them pop up, and they go, "Oh, I don't have a tech that can do this, and I don't have a tech that can do that."
[01:16:26] Jeff Compton: And it's like you and I know we've all seen it, we've all said to them, "Well, you have to change what you're saying yes to until you get a tech." You and I know they don't. Yeah. They don't say yes. No. Or they don't say no. No. They, they bring it in and muddle through it and, you know, I understand why they do that.
[01:16:44] Jeff Compton: But it goes back to, Caleb, like I said, that what's your real value? Well, your real value's not a dollar amount, but your real value- Right ... is when somebody says to you, "I have to completely change my business now because I don't have you anymore."
[01:17:00] Caleb Mac: Yeah
[01:17:00] Jeff Compton: I don't know if you can... Can you put a dollar amount on that, Caleb?
[01:17:03] Jeff Compton: Like it's-
[01:17:03] Caleb Mac: Right ...
[01:17:04] Jeff Compton: you know, and they have to change- Yeah ... completely what they're buying because they can't buy the project cars anymore and have- Yeah ... you stuff an engine in it or a transmission or get it running again, weld a frame. They, they can't do that. And, and I- Right ... where I work, I'm pretty s- I'm pretty solid with them that it's like I'm not here to rebuild junk, you know?
[01:17:26] Jeff Compton: I'm here to, to make like cars certified to sell them.
[01:17:33] Caleb Mac: Right.
[01:17:33] Jeff Compton: And-
[01:17:35] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I, I didn't wanna... That was one thing I didn't like is just some of the stuff that was going out the door, I just didn't sit- So- Didn't sit well with me.
[01:17:46] Jeff Compton: No. So tell me about the new shop. What's it like? How big?
[01:17:50] Caleb Mac: So 2,800 square foot with a 300 square foot office.
[01:17:54] Caleb Mac: So I'm in the office area right now. Okay. Um, the building is solid concrete because the previous guy burnt it down a couple of times.
[01:18:02] Jeff Compton: A couple of times.
[01:18:04] Caleb Mac: And his insurance company told him that- It can't burn ... if you do this, if you're gonna keep doing this, it's gonna be concrete 'cause we're not building, buying another building.
[01:18:14] Jeff Compton: Right.
[01:18:15] Speaker 3: Wow.
[01:18:15] Caleb Mac: Uh, so the guy that had this place is a very interesting guy- Mm-hmm ... from what I can understand. He passed away in '21.
[01:18:25] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:18:25] Caleb Mac: Uh, but everybody knew this place. Like n- not a lot of people probably recognize it because it's significantly different than it was because there was thousands of tires- Wow
[01:18:40] Caleb Mac: on the yard. Like that you, there, you could fit a semi and one person between the house and a drop-off and it was just tires. Holy. But if you had some weird sized tire, he knew exactly where it was. It's in this pile under the, these tires.
[01:19:00] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:19:00] Caleb Mac: He'd know right where it was. Um- Is
[01:19:02] Jeff Compton: that why it kept catching on fire?
[01:19:04] Jeff Compton: Like was it tire fires that were actually catching it on fire?
[01:19:06] Caleb Mac: Yeah, it was from the vulcanizing machines because you, you know, you're getting the tires up to several hundred degrees to get everything to flow, and then you gotta leave it on for overnight or something like that- Mm-hmm ... for the patch to set.
[01:19:20] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Uh, and that's, that's what, that was the cause of it. Uh-
[01:19:26] Speaker 3: Oh ...
[01:19:28] Caleb Mac: so, but I, so it's got, it's got one overhead door, so it, it's definitely a four bay shop, but it's tight.
[01:19:38] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:19:38] Caleb Mac: It's more like three bays with a lift and then a flat bay or one of them portable scissor lifts.
[01:19:45] Speaker 3: Yeah. Yep.
[01:19:47] Caleb Mac: Uh- So it, like there's plenty of room for, for another tech in here-- for a tech in here- Okay
[01:19:56] Caleb Mac: or a couple. Um- Yeah ... but it's s- it's awesome.
[01:20:03] Jeff Compton: Just you
[01:20:03] Caleb Mac: right- My commute to work is like 50 feet.
[01:20:05] Jeff Compton: Oh, nice. Nice. That helps.
[01:20:08] Caleb Mac: Um, yeah. It's
[01:20:09] Jeff Compton: just-
[01:20:10] Caleb Mac: It's just me right now. I'm hoping to hire... My plan is to hire a tech by the end of next year I wanna get consistent and stable before-
[01:20:21] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:20:21] Caleb Mac: before I bring, bring another family on to try to feed.
[01:20:26] Jeff Compton: And that's exactly what you just said, to bring another family on, right? Like, it, it's one thing... We say that all the time, you know, to bring another person in here. But, like, if you're bringing in an established tech versus a young person, and that's the, the two different things. When you bring an established person, you're bringing the family along, right?
[01:20:44] Jeff Compton: Because- Yeah ... they have to earn enough to be able to pay for that. Right. Like, I, I was very lucky in the sense that, like, the re- only reason I could survive sometimes, it was just me. You know? Like, I, I didn't have... Like, I wasn't married, you know? So I was... And I had, like, I had child support payment, sure, but it wasn't like it wasn't killing me, like, that I had, you know- Right
[01:21:07] Jeff Compton: multiple kids and all that kind of stuff. I'm, I'm too hard to get along with for that, so. But, so what's, what do you kinda... 'Cause we see the struggles in a lot of the new people when they come into a building like this. Like, are you, are you still able to be a little bit picky and say, "I'm not gonna do this and I'm not gonna do that.
[01:21:28] Jeff Compton: I'm gonna stick with my strengths," or have you kinda had to relax?
[01:21:32] Caleb Mac: I've, I've pretty... It's, it's been hard for me to say no- Mm-hmm ... because I wanna, I wanna build a relationship with people. I don't wanna- Sure ... and I don't wanna just fix their car and then never see it again. That's right. I want... A, I'm in a very small town.
[01:21:50] Speaker 3: Yes.
[01:21:51] Caleb Mac: Like 1,200 people, and the county has only got 10,000. Yeah. Um, but, so I wanna build a relationship with people. I don't want to put out quality work. Um, so I've been... There's some things that, like, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have taken it on.
[01:22:14] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:22:14] Caleb Mac: But because I was able to do it-
[01:22:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:22:18] Caleb Mac: Mm-hmm ... that builds that relationship for, A, I'll go back to this guy.
[01:22:22] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:22:23] Caleb Mac: Uh, and then, like, I wanna say end of February, beginning of March, uh, I- I'm in a very rural area. The closest towing company is 20 minutes Nobody that lives a couple miles from me is gonna wanna to- call a tow truck from 20 minutes away to come tow their car two miles to me.
[01:22:45] Speaker 3: Right.
[01:22:46] Caleb Mac: Um, so... And I had gotten a couple of calls.
[01:22:52] Caleb Mac: Like, I had one guy, I had one call, his wheel fell off.
[01:22:58] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:22:59] Caleb Mac: He's like, "Can you tow it?" I'm like, "I, I can't. I'm sorry." I, like I have a trailer. I could've, I probably could've put it on my trailer.
[01:23:07] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:23:08] Caleb Mac: But I didn't know about the insurance side of it. Was I gonna be protected if I, if something were to happen?
[01:23:15] Speaker 3: Yep.
[01:23:15] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I said, "I can't tow it. You can get it towed here and I can fix it." And I, I didn't see it. I didn't see the vehicle.
[01:23:24] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:23:25] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I kinda was like, "All right." I didn't really... It took a couple... It was a couple weeks after that that I called my insurance agent, he's like, "It doesn't really affect your policy at all.
[01:23:37] Caleb Mac: You're allowed up to five tow trucks." I'm like, "All right." He's like, "Call Trevor, see if he still has his truck. They haven't been towing for a couple years."
[01:23:52] Jeff Compton: Right.
[01:23:52] Caleb Mac: So I did. Uh, he put me in touch, my insurance agent put me in touch with another guy that's half hour, 45 minutes fr- from me that has a repair shop and towing.
[01:24:05] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:24:05] Caleb Mac: Just to talk to him about it before I spent money on a truck, and then, oh, it turned into a flop or something like that. So I was trying to do my research like, are the numbers gonna work out? Is it, like, worthwhile to have?
[01:24:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:24:19] Caleb Mac: Uh, go look at the tow truck. It's in really good shape. It's a '97 F-350 regular cab with a five speed, 7.3 Power Stroke.
[01:24:32] Jeff Compton: Yeah, pretty reliable.
[01:24:33] Caleb Mac: Yeah. And it's the kind of truck that I, I enjoy.
[01:24:38] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[01:24:39] Caleb Mac: Growing up, my dad had a '92 F-250, so I've always, I've always- Yeah ... liked the, the OBS Fords.
[01:24:46] Jeff Compton: You're familiar with it, yeah.
[01:24:48] Caleb Mac: Uh, and he's like, "I want 8,900 bucks." It's got a full record body on it. I'm like, all right. We were going to Wisconsin for the weekend, so I was looking at the numbers over the weekend and like, will this really work out?
[01:25:07] Caleb Mac: Is it gonna be worthwhile, a worthwhile investment? Uh, and at first it was... I was a little nervous about buying it 'cause it's now another expense.
[01:25:18] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:25:19] Caleb Mac: Uh, but it's been one of my best investments, I think, 'cause it's already, in three months of having it, it's already paid for itself.
[01:25:36] Jeff Compton: That's awesome. That's
[01:25:37] Caleb Mac: really- Not just f- not necessarily from the toll revenue itself, but from the repairs that I've gotten in the shop because of it.
[01:25:45] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:25:46] Caleb Mac: Uh- Yeah. I- Which I had one that really, really tested my, tested my limits, and thank you to all there at Tech Assist.
[01:25:56] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:25:58] Caleb Mac: Like, I'm o- one guy, so I don't have different people to really fall back on. Like, "Hey, what tests do I do now to..." Like, based on what I'm getting to talk through it with.
[01:26:10] Speaker 3: Right.
[01:26:12] Caleb Mac: And I pay for all that for my service information, so like, I got it, so I'll use it.
[01:26:18] Caleb Mac: So we, we went through it, ended up... It ended up being a PCM. Uh, and then put the PCM in it, and the PCM ended up being bad-
[01:26:33] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm ...
[01:26:33] Caleb Mac: from Ford. Huh. It was sending out, like, on the starter relay control circuit, it was sending out like 57 volts to the starter relay. Oof. Yeah.
[01:26:47] Jeff Compton: Wow.
[01:26:48] Caleb Mac: Like, yeah, something's not right there.
[01:26:52] Caleb Mac: So put a different PCM in it, program it, away we go. Truck is running. Uh So it was-- And yeah, I-- There was a lot of unbilled time in there that-
[01:27:08] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:27:08] Caleb Mac: so I chalk it up as a learning opportunity and I know for, know for next time. And-
[01:27:14] Jeff Compton: Did you-- Have you heard about Brandon Steckler? This is a little pitch for him.
[01:27:19] Jeff Compton: His newest thing that he just an-announced two weeks ago, it's called SWAT, and it's like- Yeah, I just- Yeah ... I
[01:27:25] Caleb Mac: just saw, saw that in, uh, Josh, Josh Goom's post.
[01:27:31] Jeff Compton: Yeah. I think that's going to... Uh, I'll, I'll go out on a limb and I'll say I think it's really gonna revolutionize what's, what's happening in the industry.
[01:27:40] Jeff Compton: Oh, yeah. Right? I think because no one, Brand- like you can't, you can't get better insight and better guidance than Brandon, for starters. Um, and secondly, I think it's like- He is gross ... it's gonna fill a real... And I'm not trying to say that you don't know what you're doing. No. I'm not trying to say that. But there's-- Oh, shoot.
[01:27:58] Jeff Compton: Okay. We lost your camera. Now you're back, your camera's back. We lost your camera for a second. Okay. Um, I'm not saying you don't know what you're doing, but I'm saying that like you-- just like you said, you always need sometimes somebody to reach out to, right?
[01:28:10] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:28:11] Jeff Compton: And, and he's, he's awesome at being able to say, "Okay, what have you done and what do you need to do?"
[01:28:17] Jeff Compton: Yeah. And then, you know, I think, I think it's gonna be excellent for you, so. Oh, yeah. I know Jo- like Joshua, our friend Joshua just used him and was absolutely raving about it. He was one of the first ones to, to use Brandon.
[01:28:29] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:28:30] Jeff Compton: And I think it's gonna be-- I think Brandon's gonna grow something that's gonna like be incredible.
[01:28:36] Jeff Compton: And I, I-
[01:28:36] Caleb Mac: Yeah, it's definitely gonna be worthwhile and-
[01:28:39] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:28:39] Caleb Mac: like I wanna grow, I wanna grow my experience on the tech side of it.
[01:28:43] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[01:28:44] Caleb Mac: But now I'm, I'm more, I'm more wanting to push myself to being the owner-
[01:28:52] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:28:53] Caleb Mac: and not turning the wrenches all the time.
[01:28:56] Jeff Compton: Yeah, because like... And I, I don't-- You know, like I, I talk to so many people and, and the, the idea that they say, you know, you can't work in the business and on the business at the same time, that's just BS.
[01:29:10] Jeff Compton: I could show you so many- Right ... so many success stories, multiple store owners that like work in it. And- Oh,
[01:29:18] Jeff Compton: yeah.
[01:29:18] Caleb Mac: Like Nate Winston.
[01:29:21] Jeff Compton: Sean, my good buddy Sean Miller. Um, you know, like there's so many guys that have built multi-store operations now. Uh, Tommy Markham, uh, Zeb Beard- Oh ... you know. Yep. Chris Ganey. Like those guys work in their shops at the same time that they work on the shops. And- Yeah ... you know, I think that like when you have your strong team You can, you can do both because it's, it's not about- Yeah
[01:29:49] Jeff Compton: you can delegate the tasks, right? And it's some people just don't wanna delegate to the point where they don't have to be on the property. I'm not judging people that do, but like, there's, there's certain ones that just like the more that I can delegate, the more we all get done together. Right. And then the more profits we all have, and that's the whole thing.
[01:30:07] Jeff Compton: Whereas some wanna like step away from it and just watch it. Nothing wrong with that either. I'm not trying to say that.
[01:30:14] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Like I don't wanna do that by any means. I wanna, like, I wanna be, I wanna be in it. Yeah. I just don't wanna be the guy turning the wrenches- Yeah ... all day, every day.
[01:30:25] Jeff Compton: It's hard on the body, man.
[01:30:27] Caleb Mac: Yeah. It really is. Like I'm, I'm 24 now. I got T-boned in 22.
[01:30:34] Jeff Compton: You're just a baby. You're just a baby.
[01:30:36] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I got T-boned in 22. I have a bulging disc
[01:30:39] Jeff Compton: in my lower back. Yeah. And this job- So it's- ... this job doesn't help that.
[01:30:43] Caleb Mac: No. You
[01:30:43] Jeff Compton: know? I'm 50.
[01:30:45] Caleb Mac: No. Yeah. It's- Nope ... so I've been more focusing on like, okay, I wanna get better.
[01:30:54] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:30:54] Caleb Mac: Hire somebody to replace me so I can focus more on the business side of things, more marketing, better marketing The towing side of things, it's like I'd like to grow that too, not just as a- Yeah ... add-on, but like, okay- Sure ... yeah, I need to tow, I need to tow somebody like... And so that I have the flexibility, like I can go out and do it.
[01:31:19] Jeff Compton: Right now, are you doing
[01:31:20] Caleb Mac: the towing?
[01:31:21] Jeff Compton: Or it doesn't- Are you doing all the tows? You're doing all the tows. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:31:24] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:31:25] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:31:25] Caleb Mac: And I, I haven't been, I haven't been busy enough most of the time to, that it cuts into the shop.
[01:31:34] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[01:31:34] Caleb Mac: So it hasn't really taken away from the shop too much to... It's- Yeah ... been like, okay, I'm, I'm waiting on parts or I'm waiting on something.
[01:31:46] Speaker 3: Right.
[01:31:46] Caleb Mac: But okay, yeah, I got time. I can go out and do it quick Uh, at least get it towed here to the shop so I can be one of the next ones I get in.
[01:31:57] Jeff Compton: Uh-
[01:31:58] Caleb Mac: Uh,
[01:31:58] Jeff Compton: the end, the end goal for you, is this to grow this so that you can pass it on to Xander and your kids?
[01:32:04] Caleb Mac: Yeah, if they, if they want to. It's not gonna be a...
[01:32:09] Caleb Mac: Like, I'm not gonna force them into- Right ... working for me, but if they wanna do it, great. If not, that's fine too.
[01:32:17] Jeff Compton: Um- I mean, does he already like being around this stuff?
[01:32:19] Caleb Mac: Oh my goodness. He- Yeah ... he's taking lug nuts off by himself.
[01:32:24] Jeff Compton: That's-
[01:32:24] Caleb Mac: Like, I'm... I literally just hold the impact. Yeah. And he does, he does the rest of it himself.
[01:32:30] Speaker 3: Good for him.
[01:32:31] Caleb Mac: Uh, like those tires I was swapping around this afternoon were, uh, were tractor tires.
[01:32:38] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:32:39] Caleb Mac: So I kinda... Some people might say I have a problem with 80-year-old iron, but-
[01:32:48] Jeff Compton: Yeah, well-
[01:32:48] Caleb Mac: Uh- ... '
[01:32:48] Jeff Compton: cause you were talking with me, you, you got that Farmall last week.
[01:32:51] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:32:52] Jeff Compton: Last week. You sent me a
[01:32:52] Caleb Mac: picture. Yeah. So that's a 1948 Farmall M.
[01:32:56] Caleb Mac: Uh, that was a close friend from church, it was his tractor. He passed away Memorial Day weekend. Uh- So that's gonna be a, that's a restoration project. All right. Um, that's a bring it back. It's been sitting for 20 years.
[01:33:15] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:33:17] Caleb Mac: I think somewhere 10 to 20 years. Uh, so I- Like it's in pretty good shape. The tires were shot, so I was looking for a parts tractor to...
[01:33:31] Caleb Mac: That had good tires on it. Yeah. Found one of those on Tuesday, so I had to go pick that up. Um, so I was swapping the tires around. I'm gonna get it inside here Pro- maybe tomorrow, uh, so I can pull the carburetor off and clean it and... When I got it home, pressure washed it. Engine spins over. It wasn't stuck, which was a huge sigh of relief.
[01:33:57] Caleb Mac: Pulled the intake off, sprayed some, sprayed some carb cleaner in it, hooked the battery up. Had a spark. It pretty much popped right off.
[01:34:05] Jeff Compton: Nice.
[01:34:06] Caleb Mac: Yeah. And I'm like, that was, that was awesome.
[01:34:09] Jeff Compton: Pretty cool. Um- Now, have you got enough... Like, have you got some property that you wanna farm on? Is that the-
[01:34:16] Caleb Mac: I got three, I got 3.3 acres.
[01:34:19] Caleb Mac: Um- Okay ... so I don't necessarily wanna farm. Like, I, I have a, I have a Farmall 806 that I bought for a loader tractor for moving snow.
[01:34:30] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:34:31] Caleb Mac: Which has done a lot more than moving snow-
[01:34:34] Speaker 3: Yeah. ...
[01:34:35] Caleb Mac: for me. Uh- Yep ... it's been moving everything.
[01:34:40] Speaker 3: Yep.
[01:34:41] Caleb Mac: Uh, and I just, I've always, I've always liked old tractors and old cars.
[01:34:49] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:34:50] Caleb Mac: I'm more... Now I'm kinda more like I want old trac- I like old tractors more.
[01:34:55] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[01:34:56] Caleb Mac: I don't have, I don't have much motivation for old, old cars anymore.
[01:35:01] Jeff Compton: Yeah. That kinda, that kinda went away for me, too. I mean, I appreciate the way they sound and smell and-
[01:35:07] Caleb Mac: Yeah,
[01:35:08] Jeff Compton: yeah ... look, but
[01:35:08] Caleb Mac: like- I appreciate 'em, I like 'em, but like a project that I wanna work on every weekend or something like that, no.
[01:35:14] Jeff Compton: Yeah. I- I- I don't, I don't wanna mess with a carburetor, like, every damn Friday night before I take it out. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I know guys are like, "Oh, you don't have to." Well, you do, right? Like, it's just, they're, they're- Yeah. I want something, like everybody hates the LS swap for the world, you know?
[01:35:31] Jeff Compton: But like, I really enjoy that idea that like... I mean, look at Skanner Danner's truck, like it's EFI, you know? Yeah. 'Cause he wants to be able to get in and hit the key and drive it like a modern truck, you
[01:35:41] Caleb Mac: know? And I'm looking at, I'm looking at putting a EFI throttle body injection on my El Camino because I want, I want that.
[01:35:48] Caleb Mac: I want to... When I have it running, I wanna be able to just get in it and go.
[01:35:52] Jeff Compton: My, my friend has a, a truck kinda similar to, to Paul's. Uh, it's not a f- It's what? They, it's an old Dodge Warlock is what it is. Okay. And the last time I talked to him, he was swapping a modern Hemi into it, you know? Okay. Like, and this is a guy that like, at one point he had a 440 in it, he had Indy cylin- cylinder heads.
[01:36:11] Jeff Compton: He had like... He was gonna turn almost 600 horsepower and all carbureted. Dang. And after like... Yeah. And after messing around with the modern Hemi enough, he's just like, "There's no way I'd go back to a carb. No freaking way." Yeah. I just... You know, the truck will work better, perform better Uh, be more enjoyable, like with that modern...
[01:36:32] Jeff Compton: You know, and he did the same thing. Yeah. Like it's, it's a Hemi out of an '08 Ram, I think. Uh- Okay ... all standard wiring harness. Like, so took the harness, sent it to a guy, the guy eliminates all the harness, flashes the, the ECU so it all is just basic. Okay. Get in, turn the key. It's just like, you can scan it through OBD2, but- Oh, that's nice
[01:36:53] Jeff Compton: any of the shit that you don't need. There's no skim, there's no, uh, you know, none of that stuff. It's just a bare bones program. It's what you want. That's nice. That's how I would... Anything going forward, that's how I would do it. It'd be just the only way for me. Yeah. Like I don't wanna go back to having to like mess with a choke and pump the d- gas and- Yeah
[01:37:13] Jeff Compton: set up a distributor. No, I don't want any of that crap. None. Just-
[01:37:16] Caleb Mac: Yeah ...
[01:37:17] Jeff Compton: turn the key and go. I...
[01:37:18] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I was, when I got the El Camino, I wanted to keep it carbureted because I'm like, it just, I didn't, I didn't grow up around that kind of stuff. Yeah. So for me it was, it was cool. It was, it's fun. And I enjoy it, but like, I'm, I don't know, a tractor that's 80 years old-
[01:37:36] Caleb Mac: to me is a little more fun though.
[01:37:39] Jeff Compton: I get it. I get it.
[01:37:40] Caleb Mac: Uh,
[01:37:42] Jeff Compton: so yeah. So what, um, so you said you wanna hopefully have a, a tech come on within the next, what'd you say, year?
[01:37:50] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:37:51] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Okay. Okay.
[01:37:54] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I'm not sure what that's gonna look like yet, but I'm mostly just wanna get consistent. Mm-hmm. Get consistent work.
[01:38:05] Caleb Mac: Yeah. It's like the last two weeks for me have been pretty quiet. Uh.
[01:38:09] Jeff Compton: It's, it's quiet everywhere though, Caleb, right now.
[01:38:12] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:38:12] Jeff Compton: You know, I don't think it's- But it- ... to be alarmed about.
[01:38:15] Caleb Mac: It's, yeah, it's been a good op- it's been a good opportunity to get some stuff done that I've been needing to get done. Uh, like one was I need to clean the shop.
[01:38:26] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I don't know if you saw that picture on Facebook Or not
[01:38:33] Speaker 3: I don't
[01:38:33] Caleb Mac: think I... You have to off- But my pneumatic oil drain- Oh ... decided to-
[01:38:40] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah ...
[01:38:40] Caleb Mac: that it was time to spill about 15 gallons of oil.
[01:38:44] Speaker 3: Mm.
[01:38:45] Caleb Mac: Uh, it wasn't, I f- I shut the ball valve like everybody forgets to do. I didn't have that. Yeah. I had the hose come out of my tote- Yeah
[01:38:55] Caleb Mac: after I plugged my air hose in, and it sprayed everywhere.
[01:38:59] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:39:00] Caleb Mac: Uh, so I, I dealt with that at the beginning of this week, but yeah, it So it, it's been a good r- good opportunity to get caught up on some of my own stuff.
[01:39:13] Jeff Compton: That's good.
[01:39:15] Caleb Mac: Um-
[01:39:15] Jeff Compton: Well, I don't wanna, uh, I don't wanna keep you all night. I know your, your wife and your kids are waiting for you, but I, um, I wanted to thank you for reaching out to me and wanting to have this conversation- Yeah
[01:39:26] Jeff Compton: 'cause, uh, you know- Yeah ... we see a lot of the guys that go to the mobile side, but we don't see too many of the guys, you know, leave the mobile and come back into the, into a shop. And, and I- Right ... I think that there's a lot more of them out there that really need to think about doing that because I think-
[01:39:42] Caleb Mac: Yeah
[01:39:42] Jeff Compton: you know, the mobile thing's hard on the body. Being in the shop's hard on the body, but the mobile's even worse. Crawling around on your hands and knees is just-
[01:39:50] Caleb Mac: Oh, yeah ...
[01:39:50] Jeff Compton: that's for young people. And, uh-
[01:39:52] Caleb Mac: And jack and jack stands out of the trailer to jack a car up to-
[01:39:56] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:39:56] Caleb Mac: do brakes or, oh, you gotta pop an axle shaft out.
[01:40:00] Caleb Mac: Oh, that's- I got a Toyota- Yeah ... '04 Toyota Camry, you know, the right, right side axle, the carrier bearing gets seized.
[01:40:07] Jeff Compton: Yep.
[01:40:08] Caleb Mac: I, I think I spent five hours beating that stupid thing out of there.
[01:40:13] Jeff Compton: Yep. Yeah.
[01:40:14] Caleb Mac: Then it finally came out.
[01:40:17] Jeff Compton: Yeah, and it's like, and what for? Like, you might as well just- Yeah ... you know, order the damn thing and do it all, right?
[01:40:23] Jeff Compton: Just get in there with a torch and... 'Cause I mean- Yeah ... I've worked on the, the Nissans up here that have that, and, uh, I don't... Like, we don't spend any kind of time. We just get the torch and cut it, and you get a new one. Okay. You know what I mean? 'Cause it's just-
[01:40:36] Caleb Mac: Yeah ... to
[01:40:36] Jeff Compton: heck with it. Like, it- it's just not worth the time that you're fighting with it.
[01:40:39] Caleb Mac: Right.
[01:40:40] Jeff Compton: You know? Yeah. But sometimes it is what it is. Like, sometimes you can't get the parts, and then it's like, okay, I gotta like, you know.
[01:40:46] Caleb Mac: Yeah. Like, I had the whole, I had the whole shaft and-
[01:40:50] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:40:50] Caleb Mac: everything, but the Just that bearing was seized in the hou- in the carrier on the side of the block and
[01:40:57] Jeff Compton: Even, even when you look at some of the more and more of the modern wheel bearings that are pressed in and out, like it's really hard to- Yeah
[01:41:02] Jeff Compton: do that job as a mobile tech, right? If you're not lugging around- Oh, yeah ... like, yeah, there's a hub shark and I know it's a great tool, but like there's just some times that like I'd rather have the whole thing in, in a press, you know?
[01:41:15] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:41:15] Jeff Compton: Some-
[01:41:15] Caleb Mac: I had bought a, I had bought a 12 ton Harbor Freight press for that because I had a Kia, Kia Soul that was a pressed in wheel bearing.
[01:41:25] Caleb Mac: Yeah. I had two, two pressed in wheel bearings that I'd, uh, I did while I was mobile, which- Yeah ... was, weren't terrible. They, they weren't seized terribly bad, so they... the 12 ton press was able to handle it.
[01:41:39] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Do you use that torch trick to get the race off? You ever seen that?
[01:41:43] Caleb Mac: I, I've seen it. I've tried it a couple of times.
[01:41:46] Caleb Mac: I just, I couldn't get something set up enough for it to- Yeah ... really work, but-
[01:41:51] Jeff Compton: There's, there's an art to that one too, for sure, 'cause you gotta get it really hot and get it spinning good.
[01:41:55] Caleb Mac: You know, it's- Like, uh, Ryan Stratman, Stratman Automotive in Texas, like I watch all of his rear end videos. I had to rebuild a re- rear differential in October-
[01:42:06] Jeff Compton: Okay
[01:42:07] Caleb Mac: on the ground.
[01:42:08] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:42:08] Caleb Mac: Uh, on a Chevy three-quarter ton. That was a, that was a treat. Uh, but I use, I use my MAPP gas torch on the, on the bearings to heat them up to get them off the carrier.
[01:42:23] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:42:24] Caleb Mac: So like, in opinion, like it's a lot easier doing it that than trying to set it up in the press and... Granted, I didn't have a bearing splitter either.
[01:42:36] Jeff Compton: Mm-hmm.
[01:42:36] Caleb Mac: But like, still just easier.
[01:42:40] Jeff Compton: It is. Well, I, uh, I won't keep you. I wanna thank you for coming on tonight.
[01:42:46] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:42:47] Jeff Compton: No,
[01:42:47] Caleb Mac: thanks for having me. Any
[01:42:47] Jeff Compton: closing thoughts or, you know?
[01:42:50] Caleb Mac: Not really. I mostly just wanted to be able to share a little bit of my background that hopefully somebody that's in that same kind of area, like-
[01:42:58] Jeff Compton: Yeah
[01:42:58] Caleb Mac: to give them a push to like- To go out. Not necessarily go out on their own, but to leave where they're comfortable-
[01:43:08] Jeff Compton: Yeah ... in a
[01:43:09] Caleb Mac: sense.
[01:43:10] Jeff Compton: You don't grow, you don't grow unless there's some discomfort to the growing. That's just the reality. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's kinda like what I wanna be is I wanna be what Joshua was for you is what I wanna be for a lot of the people in the industry, right?
[01:43:24] Jeff Compton: Yeah. It's not the, to get down to the fine numbers or anything like that, that's not what it's about. It's to understand, it's to go back to, like you said, when your former boss says to you, "Now I've gotta change what I can actually buy or what I can do in my business because you're leaving." I want every technician out there to understand that that's the end goal, is that when, that you are vital and valuable, and when you leave, you, you cause a ripple.
[01:43:54] Jeff Compton: Because that's the only way that's ever gonna change this industry to the sense of we actually start to see the value in ourselves, and the value of what we're able to do, is when we see what the absence of that person actually does to the bottom line. Yeah. And when that, that happens, then we're gonna really see this sucker change.
[01:44:14] Jeff Compton: And I'm not, I'm not coming at it from an argumentative or a combative state to the people that are the employers, but I'm just telling... It's like I tell every technician, man, you make yourself indispensable, and this ro- road that you're on becomes a lot easier for you. Because people will bend for you.
[01:44:31] Jeff Compton: People will s- will make accommodations, they'll make exceptions, they'll sacrifice to keep you. Yeah. So have the a- But it always comes down to attitude. It's not your ability, because if you have a shit attitude and all the ability in the world, you're just a toxic MF-er- Right ... and nobody wants you around.
[01:44:49] Caleb Mac: Right.
[01:44:49] Jeff Compton: You know?
[01:44:50] Caleb Mac: And I, I did kinda, I did kinda turn toxic towards the end there, but I was around tox- toxic
[01:44:57] Jeff Compton: every day. I've been
[01:44:57] Caleb Mac: there too.
[01:44:58] Jeff Compton: I've been there too.
[01:44:59] Caleb Mac: And it was, it was hard to be my normal happy self, even after w- after work. It was-
[01:45:06] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:45:07] Caleb Mac: I was Pardon my French, but I was an ass
[01:45:12] Jeff Compton: I was too
[01:45:13] Caleb Mac: To my family after work.
[01:45:14] Jeff Compton: Yeah. And that's-- see, and we can't do that. That's- Yeah ... you know, that's what, in the end of the day, that's what, who we're supposed to be doing all this for. And, you know- Yeah ... going to work and making yourself miserable to make a bunch of money, to then come home and be miserable to the people that you're making the money for, it makes zero sense, and don't do it.
[01:45:36] Jeff Compton: Right. So. Well, Caleb, I will let you go, my brother. Um- All right ... I wanna hear lots from you in the future about what's going on. I wanna have you back- Yeah ...
[01:45:45] Caleb Mac: when
[01:45:45] Jeff Compton: you get your tech news. You're going to ASCA,
[01:45:47] Caleb Mac: right?
[01:45:48] Jeff Compton: Yes, sir. Are you coming?
[01:45:49] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:45:50] Jeff Compton: Oh,
[01:45:50] Caleb Mac: dude. I was one of the, I was one of the lucky winners from the Confessions of a Shop Owner.
[01:45:55] Jeff Compton: Awesome. See, so Mike, uh-
[01:45:57] Caleb Mac: So-
[01:45:57] Jeff Compton: As much as I bust on Mike, he's a good dude.
[01:46:01] Caleb Mac: Oh, yeah. Mike, Mike is a good guy. I, I-
[01:46:05] Jeff Compton: That's awesome, man.
[01:46:07] Caleb Mac: I- I'm
[01:46:07] Jeff Compton: looking-
[01:46:08] Caleb Mac: Yeah, I'm, I'm looking forward to going, and I got a bunch of family in North Carolina, so-
[01:46:14] Jeff Compton: Okay. Um-
[01:46:15] Caleb Mac: It's a bonus both ways.
[01:46:18] Jeff Compton: Well, then you and I will sit down at ASSTA then, and we'll- Okay
[01:46:21] Jeff Compton: we'll have a conversation and, and talk about... Will that be your first event?
[01:46:26] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:46:27] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Okay, dude. We're gonna have- 'Cause I,
[01:46:29] Caleb Mac: I didn't know that any of this existed.
[01:46:33] Jeff Compton: Oh, dude, you and I are gonna have some fun then. I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
[01:46:36] Caleb Mac: we'll have- Like, uh, Michael, uh, is-- got the Big Bird shirt.
[01:46:41] Jeff Compton: Michael Gunther, yes.
[01:46:43] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:46:43] Jeff Compton: Michael Gunther, yep.
[01:46:44] Caleb Mac: He's two hours from me.
[01:46:45] Jeff Compton: Okay. Okay.
[01:46:47] Caleb Mac: He's coming to see me on the 16th of July.
[01:46:51] Jeff Compton: All right then.
[01:46:52] Caleb Mac: We're going camping in Yankton, South Dakota-
[01:46:54] Jeff Compton: Nice ...
[01:46:55] Caleb Mac: the following weekend, which is 15 minutes from his shop, so I'm gonna make it down to- Awesome ... to see him.
[01:47:04] Jeff Compton: So when you come to ASSTA, I think then you might get a chance to meet the world-famous Buckaroo Buck and Bob, John Firm.
[01:47:11] Jeff Compton: Uh, essentially Michael's- Yeah,
[01:47:12] Caleb Mac: I'm-
[01:47:13] Jeff Compton: Michael's adopt- I think
[01:47:13] Caleb Mac: he's- ...
[01:47:14] Jeff Compton: dad, so.
[01:47:16] Caleb Mac: I think he's actually coming with Michael.
[01:47:18] Jeff Compton: Yes, that's-- well, they're, they're pretty much family now at this point. They're kinda- Yeah.
[01:47:22] Caleb Mac: Well, they're-- no, I think he's coming up to, coming up to Minnesota.
[01:47:27] Jeff Compton: He is. He's going on a fishing trip.
[01:47:29] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Yeah,
[01:47:30] Caleb Mac: going to Bloomington, uh
[01:47:35] Jeff Compton: I'm... He said it's put on by- So
[01:47:37] Caleb Mac: I don't
[01:47:37] Jeff Compton: know if- ... Federated Auto- He's coming
[01:47:38] Caleb Mac: with or- Yeah. Okay.
[01:47:40] Jeff Compton: Something put on by Federated Auto Parts. John Firm was asking me how to catch the fish up north, and I'm like, "Listen, I'm not gonna tell you how to do it. I'd have to show you."
[01:47:48] Jeff Compton: And, you know, 'cause John talks like he's quite the fisherman, and I'm not saying that he's not, but when you come up here, I keep saying it, teasing him like I'm gonna bring him to Canada, uh, and get him to spend a couple weeks up here and I'm gonna show him what real fishing looks like 'cause, uh- I- ... it's
[01:48:07] Caleb Mac: not
[01:48:08] Jeff Compton: the same, so.
[01:48:09] Jeff Compton: It's not, it's not- I would like
[01:48:10] Caleb Mac: to make it up to Canada again. I had-
[01:48:13] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:48:14] Caleb Mac: when we did the Serve with Thurl experience, I had a blast.
[01:48:18] Jeff Compton: Oh, it's... Yeah, depending on when you come, what time of year, it's, it's an amazing- Yeah ... it's amazing place.
[01:48:24] Caleb Mac: It was, it was July. Uh-
[01:48:28] Jeff Compton: Yeah ...
[01:48:28] Caleb Mac: we just met some really cool people.
[01:48:31] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:48:34] Caleb Mac: Met some interesting people. Yeah. Met some... But I met a lot of really cool people. Like, there was one guy, uh... So we were in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
[01:48:44] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[01:48:46] Caleb Mac: That was one of our stops. Uh, we were fishing on the St. Marys River.
[01:48:49] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[01:48:50] Caleb Mac: And we were talking to a guy. Uh, my dad was in the Navy.
[01:48:56] Speaker 3: Okay.
[01:48:57] Caleb Mac: That guy was in the Canadian Navy.
[01:48:59] Speaker 3: Yep.
[01:49:00] Caleb Mac: So they were talking, uh, and he knew we were staying overnight at a hotel. He-- The next morning we got a call from the front desk of the hotel, "Hey, there's somebody down here looking for you guys." It's that guy from the pier. He show, showed up at our hotel and gave us a Canadian flag.
[01:49:25] Jeff Compton: Nice. Yeah.
[01:49:27] Caleb Mac: Uh, he's like, "Here, take this home with you."
[01:49:32] Caleb Mac: So I had that, I had that in my trailer all last year, uh, just for that story.
[01:49:40] Jeff Compton: Very cool. But- I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. I-- We, we rib back and forth. We rub a lot on, on Canada and, you know, some days, like, I wish it was the Cana- the Canada that I grew up in, you know? Right. And I'll say that, but it's still a pretty awesome place to be.
[01:49:56] Jeff Compton: Yeah. So, and you know, I- It'll be better--
[01:49:58] Caleb Mac: I think it'll be better too once you guys are the 51st state.
[01:50:01] Jeff Compton: Hey, listen, there's some pluses to that. There's some pluses to that for sure. You know, it just depends on, on, on what you see as, as, as the plus and... Yeah, this is gonna blow up. Right. So I'm gonna have a bunch of comments when they make that into a Short and be like, like- Hell yeah
[01:50:18] Jeff Compton: and be like-
[01:50:18] Caleb Mac: That's why I said it. I
[01:50:20] Jeff Compton: know. It's good. It, it'll all depend on what side of the aisle you're on is, is what I'll say- Yeah ... you know? And, um-
[01:50:26] Caleb Mac: You should come down so we can blow up a beer dam.
[01:50:29] Jeff Compton: Yeah
[01:50:32] Caleb Mac: We did that, me and my father-in-law did that a few years ago
[01:50:36] Jeff Compton: Oh, shit. I, I, I
[01:50:38] Caleb Mac: probably- He was a farmer- Yeah ... and they were causing, they were flooding his field, and I bought 10 pounds of Tannerite and brought it down and-
[01:50:47] Jeff Compton: Yeah.
[01:50:50] Caleb Mac: It was fun.
[01:50:51] Jeff Compton: It's much harder to get- Could've been
[01:50:52] Caleb Mac: better ...
[01:50:53] Jeff Compton: it's, it's very hard to get Tannerite in Canada, I'll tell you that.
[01:50:56] Jeff Compton: It's not as easy as you guys. Yeah. You're lucky that way, so. But, um- Yeah ... I'll probably be knocking a couple out within the next month or so. You never know. 'Cause some of the p- some of the lakes I go in, they've got some, and, uh- Okay ... yeah, like, it, it, it's, you know, in order to get some of the boats up into the lakes that I wanna go, they're, they, the little buggers like-
[01:51:15] Caleb Mac: Yeah
[01:51:16] Jeff Compton: block them up and then it's like, how the frig am I gonna get my boat through here? But-
[01:51:19] Caleb Mac: Yeah ...
[01:51:20] Jeff Compton: you
[01:51:20] Caleb Mac: know. No, he... I know my father-in-law set a couple traps, couple beaver traps up by one of his fields yesterday. Went and checked them this morning. They were both set off. One of them we caught a snapping turtle.
[01:51:32] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[01:51:34] Caleb Mac: Uh
[01:51:35] Speaker 3: That happens.
[01:51:37] Caleb Mac: So that was, it was a little, a little nervous getting it out, but, like, I didn't want the thing to... I mean, it's a turtle, it moves slow anyway, but, like-
[01:51:48] Jeff Compton: It moves, it, yeah ...
[01:51:49] Caleb Mac: I didn't want it to turn around and-
[01:51:51] Jeff Compton: Yeah, well- ...
[01:51:53] Caleb Mac: try to get me ...
[01:51:53] Jeff Compton: they move slow. They can turn their head pretty flipping fast, let me tell you.
[01:51:55] Jeff Compton: Yeah. I've, I've had more than one in the boat with me, and, uh, it's never a fun time.
[01:52:01] Caleb Mac: Yeah. So I, I ended up grabbing the tail and just winging it.
[01:52:05] Jeff Compton: When you see what those things can do to a, a, like a boat oar when they snap onto it- Oh, yeah ... like, you don't, you don't wanna put, you know, it's like your shop teacher said, don't put your thing where you would never put your finger.
[01:52:17] Jeff Compton: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know, so, and it's, that's the truth 'cause, like, I've seen them, I've seen them crack a, a frigging boat oar with the, with the jaw and it's like, nah, I ain't putting my fingers very close. And their head will turn really fast, so- Oh, yeah ... I've had, I, I've had some big ones hit the line when I'm fishing and come in with the bait and, like, they're, they look like a manhole cover, you know what I mean, out of the side of the boat.
[01:52:40] Jeff Compton: Oh, man.
[01:52:40] Caleb Mac: They're,
[01:52:41] Jeff Compton: they're not little ones. Like, they're, they got moss on their backs, dude. Like, they're, they're giant. Yeah. And, uh, they got a stench all their own, and yeah, you don't... And they pee all over the boat when they're in the boat. Like, they're just, they're, yeah.
[01:52:53] Caleb Mac: Yeah. That's, that's nasty.
[01:52:55] Jeff Compton: All right, dude, I will let you go.
[01:52:57] Jeff Compton: Um, I can't wait- All right ... to see you at Augusta. We'll have a great time.
[01:53:00] Caleb Mac: Yeah.
[01:53:01] Jeff Compton: And, um, thank you for being on, man. We'll, we'll pick this up at Augusta. Yeah. We'll, we'll continue this. I'm looking forward to it. All right. All right. Thank you.
[01:53:07] Caleb Mac: Yeah, you too. We'll see ya.
[01:53:09] Jeff Compton: Love you all. Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and like, comment on, and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it.
[01:53:19] Jeff Compton: And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the ASAP group and to the Changing the Industry podcast.
[01:53:37] Jeff Compton: Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time