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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.
Yes, I was in the independent, but I wasn't a tech and you know, I was at the dealer and
man I thought I was awesome at pulling plastic.
I was the best plastic puller.
You think you're good at something and then you start working on all makes and models
and I'm seeing these guys you know flagging 18, you know, 28 hours a day and stuff and
upper controller bushings on like the S10s not even pulling the wheels.
I mean, this these tricks and stuff and I'm like, I mean, there's I did not know that
this world existed.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to another exciting, thought-provoking
episode of the Jada Mechanic podcast.
My name is Jeff and I'd like to thank you for joining me on this journey of reflection
and insight into the toils and triumphs of a career in automotive repair.
After more than 20 years of skin knuckles and tool debt, I want to share my perspectives
and hear other people's thoughts about our industry.
Support yourself with strong coffee or grab a cold Canadian beer and get ready for some
great conversation.
With me tonight, I've got a very, very good friend of mine, Mr. Cody Gotti of Cody's Auto
Diagnostics and Programming.
How are you tonight, man?
Good.
How are you doing, Jeff?
Oh, man, it's it's we were talking about the weather just before it came on and it's
hot, but it's not as hot as what you've got.
So I can't complain.
So, yeah, it's it's so I'm out in Arizona and we're on, I think, 54 days of over 105
degree temperatures.
So so, yeah, it's you know, today was one hundred and eight last week, you know, was
getting up to 113, 114.
So this is the time of year I I'm better in cooler temperatures.
You were saying if you could start every all the days at like five a.m.
with the shops would be open at five.
You'd go there and bang out a bunch of work and try to be and out of the sun by noon.
Right. Because I mean, yeah, come three o'clock, it's it's torture out here.
And so, you know, and we'll get into this, but I'm mobile.
So so a lot of my, you know, me going to the shops, I'm typically out in the parking lot.
You know, I don't like to obstruct the shop flow or anything else unless it's a
diagnostic sign, you know, and stuff like that.
But, you know, just being out in the out in the parking lot and everything, your
equipment starts overheating.
You know, you start overheating.
It doesn't it doesn't take long, even if it's a 15, 20 minute program and stuff.
It's that that time adds up for sure.
So I meant to ask you, how many years have you been doing this on your I don't want to
say on your own, because I know the wife is pretty big proponent and helps you out
quite a bit. But on your on your mobile mobile job, how long many years has it been
now? Five?
No. So actually, I started.
We'll get more into the backstory in a little bit, but I started January 1st, 2021.
So right after Covid.
All right. So I'm I'm almost three years into it.
Right. OK. All right.
I thought it was a little bit longer than that, but I guess I've seen you around so
long on the on the on the Facebook groups and whatever.
I just always thought that that's you were doing a lot of mobile stuff then.
So so I was you and you've probably seen the code is auto diagnostics from, you
know, building tools and stuff like that.
I've been doing that for about five, six years and everything.
And then, you know, I went mobile twenty, twenty one.
So and there is a list of things that kind of led into that, I should say.
But yeah, I mean, I made the jump and been mobile mobile since then.
So so how does the Cody start story start?
Oh, man. OK, so yeah, it started.
I'm originally born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
And grew up there.
I got come high school.
I went to two different high schools, one high school for my freshman year, another
high school for my senior or sophomore year.
Excuse me. And I was just kind of my parents wanted to retire and they wanted
to move somewhere where it's warmer, where we didn't have snow and everything else.
And I was planning on finishing up my high school career in Colorado.
And I had my parents offer that opportunity to stay with the family and do so.
But I wanted to change, you know,
I was wasn't hanging out with the right crowd of people and kind of get my life
back together, I should say.
And so I decided to come down here with my parents and graduated,
graduated high school, you know, my senior year,
my senior year or my junior and senior year in high school.
I started taking automotive shop, which we didn't have that in my school in Colorado.
So I was real fortunate about getting into that.
You know, I was always kind of a Legos kid and everything else.
So I really like taking things apart, putting things back together,
trying to put things back together, depending on what it is, you know.
But, you know, kind of fell into the automotive and everything.
It's something I wanted to do.
I applied for UTI when I graduated and I got accepted.
And it was me along with three other guys from my high school,
which is kind of unheard of for because they only select a certain amount,
especially not from like usually the same school.
So we were all accepted and everything.
And we were all planning on renting a house and everything up in up in Phoenix
is where we're going to go to school and graduate high school.
And things kind of fell through on that, at least on my end.
I kind of had a falling out with some of the guys.
So that being said, I was like, you know what?
Spending the thirty thousand dollars or however much to go to the school and stuff.
You know, I pretty much was
it wasn't in my it wasn't in my cards at that time.
I don't think I would have taken it as seriously as I would have now.
So that being said, you know, like I said, I graduated.
And then shortly after graduation, I ended up getting a job at a at a local gas station.
And this gas station, there's also an automotive repair shop
and then a four bay service station.
So I got I applied there and the guy that hired me is a he's a good buddy of mine.
I actually saw him today. He works at another another shop.
But he hired me.
And I don't know if I would have hired myself at that time.
Just, you know, I walked in, I had a I had a blonde afro and, you know,
I was grungy looking.
But he took a chance on me.
He saw some to me and then took a chance on me and everything.
I had no experience or anything except for a little bit of the high school,
you know, shop class and started out there working
from two o'clock to ten o'clock, ten o'clock at night.
You know, pretty much after five o'clock, the texts are gone.
So it's sweeping and mopping the base.
It's, you know, kind of custodial stuff.
But it got my foot in the door into the shop and everything.
And so I was there for about six months.
And then got got onto the day shift.
And then two months after getting onto the day shift,
I got pulled into the office and, you know, my boss was like, you know,
we really want to have you be like this is a manager.
So, you know, now I become like the service writer.
He was in the dirt late model racing at the time.
So he was gone.
He was gone quite a bit.
You know, so he needed somebody to be there to greet the customers,
to get them rode up, you know, shuttles home, you know, things like things in that nature.
Now, the shop that I worked at,
just to kind of give a little backstory, this is a real reputable
company here in town.
And.
They at the time, they really they hired the A level technicians.
They wouldn't hire a C level technician and really train them
or build them up within, you know, build them up within the company.
They wanted those master certified techs, you know.
Top dogs in in in Tucson here.
And that's in the company had an amazing reputation and everything else
because they had top talent.
So in order for, you know, so I became assistant manager and I and I enjoyed that.
But, man, I really wanted to work on cars.
Yeah.
And there was really no progression for me.
I was right under the the the owner.
The owner's son is actually the was my boss.
So, you know, I was pretty much right under him technically.
Right.
And, you know, to become a technician and stuff, I wasn't that A level guy.
I didn't have the experience and everything else.
And I really wouldn't have gotten the education or the mentorship
to become that A level guy or B level or C level or whatever it is.
Right.
I really want to get that training, even though I got some training
and I overlooked a lot of stuff in the shop and I learned a lot.
It wasn't that I wasn't making the progress that I really wanted to make.
So I continued to do that and I was there for about a year.
I would say after about two years of being the assistant manager,
shop foreman or not shop foreman, but, you know, the service writer and everything,
I got a job opportunity at a local dealership.
And so I took that opportunity and I started out as an apprentice
because obviously I didn't have the skills and stuff to to be a full blown technician.
So I was working underneath somebody at that time.
And I was working with a local dealer.
I was working underneath somebody at that time.
And I continued to work at the gas station.
So I was working seven days a week, seven days a week for about two years.
And so during that time, you know, and the dealership that I was at was a Lexus dealership.
So I know we've talked, you know, you talked a lot about, you know,
dealerships and everything else.
Well, you know, I was in the new car use car department.
So I was pulling plastics and doing PDIs.
And, you know, as far as the dealership, that's really not being a technician.
I mean, you're you're you're not doing much.
You know, we were I would get the timing belts and I would get, you know,
bigger services and stuff.
But you're we're working on cars that that really didn't break down,
especially at that time.
This is this is 2003 at this time.
You know, it's maintenance stuff.
It's 60Ks, 30Ks, you know, stuff like that.
It's fluid changes, you know, the gravy money and stuff.
So, again, I didn't feel oh, and that was another thing.
So when I hired got hired on there, they said that, you know, the technicians get.
They send them to training out in California and everything.
And I was like, man, that's awesome.
That's what I, you know, me not going to UTI, I felt that I was
that I was behind, you know, even though.
Yeah, because I didn't get the training and everything else.
And even though I my buddies that graduated, you see, I here's a funny story.
So my guys that graduated UTI, my buddies or whatever,
the guys that kind of had a falling out with.
It took them six to eight months to get a job in the repair facility
because they didn't have the training.
They didn't have the in shop experience.
So a shop would rather take somebody that doesn't have any experience like myself
and pull them in than, you know, somebody that's a UTI graduate
that expects a certain price to start.
And they don't have, you know, they may have more formal education,
but it's the day to day stuff, you know, racking the cars to, you know,
it's the shop environment.
It's there's more to it than than what they teach you at school.
So it took them a while to get a job.
And by this time, I'm already at the dealership.
So but I still felt behind.
So that was just a backup on that.
So, yeah, I felt felt behind.
And then so I was like, yes, I get to take take advantage of this training
and get to, you know, learn about the Lexus vehicles and everything.
I'm a Toyota guy.
My parents both drive Lexuses and stuff.
And and and at that time, there was a there there was it's not a freeze,
I should say they they stopped sending the technicians to training due to the
the price of the education at that time.
They're they're putting it on hold is a better way to say they're putting it on hold for
for that year.
Right.
And and I don't know the details more on that, just that, you know, it was put on hold.
And so, you know, I was what I was really looking forward to on the training and everything and
feeling getting, you know, getting to where I wanted to be.
I wasn't going to get it.
And I didn't know if the next year it was going to be there.
You know, so I ended up, you know, I was the apprentice.
I got moved into a flat rate technician.
And then, you know, I was there for about two years.
And then, you know, eventually I had an apprentice under under myself and stuff, too.
So I got to train a little bit and everything.
But again, I wasn't doing, you know, these are Lexus vehicles.
You're doing alternators and brakes and, you know, struts and stuff like that.
You you've taken the job hoping to get some on the job training,
which sounds like you got.
But you've always you've always had a hunger for like knowledge, right?
Of actually how things work and not just taking a part off or putting a part on.
And you weren't getting that on your saying that Toyota because
A, they didn't send you to training and B, because the cars didn't break a whole lot.
So exactly.
And then the shop foreman is just funny.
I mean, he walked, you know, it's funny looking back now,
but you'd walk around with his white shirt, but he wouldn't.
He was never dirty.
I was like, you're never dirty.
Do you touch cars?
But he wouldn't offer any assistance or anything else.
I mean, it was really, you know, I learned from from my mentor,
you know, the guy that I apprentice under at that time.
But again, I mean, there's so much just the fundamentals of how things work.
Right. Yeah.
And and I wanted more and I wanted more and I wanted more and I didn't get it.
So so at that time, I was like, you know what?
I'm going to I'm going to leave the dealership and I quit the other job
because seven days a week doing that for so long that really started playing a toll on me.
You know, and I was a 21 year I was 21 years old at this time and stuff.
So so I ended up leaving the dealership and I went to a little
little tiny shop.
This is a it's a guy that had two days kind of like in his backyard and everything.
And he offered me a guarantee and the guarantee was,
you know, more than I was making at the dealer and stuff.
And, you know, I learned quite a bit and stuff there.
And essentially, he wanted me to end up buying the place within like five years and stuff
so he could retire and everything.
And, you know, I saw a good opportunity in that.
And, you know, it was good.
And it went good for for about six months.
And then then the work just started drying up.
And when it's a two day shop and the work, you know, when the work starts drying up,
there wasn't anything coming in.
So, you know, and I'm not one I don't like job hopping.
But I had to do what was best for me at that time.
So I ended up leaving and I went to an independent company,
a locally owned company here at that time.
And they had, I think, seven seven shop locations here in town.
So I applied.
I got hired.
They said, you know, every ASE certification will be a mandatory race.
You know, we will send you to any of the local training.
You just have to show up, you know.
And I was like, sweet, right on.
You know, that's what I awesome.
Good. You know, there's room for advancement and I can really grow and everything else.
And so I started there and then going from.
Yes, I was in the independent, but I wasn't a tech and, you know, I was at the dealer.
And, man, I thought I was awesome at pulling plastics.
How's the best plastic pull?
You know what I mean?
Like you think you're you're good at something.
And then you start working on all makes and models.
And it's like and I'm seeing these guys, you know, flagging 18, you know,
28 hours a day and stuff and upper control and bushings on like the S10s,
not even pulling the wheels.
I mean, just these tricks and stuff.
And I'm like, God, I mean, there's I did not know that this world existed.
So, I mean, I was slow, slow, slow, you know, and there was a couple guys there
and they're both named George and they took me under their wing and they
one was an awesome drivability guy and one was, you know, he was just a banger.
And so I learned how to, you know, beat the clock and start making some money
and made some real good friendships at that time.
And our location was was the number one location out of out of the other locations.
And we're just killing it.
And we're just as a whole team.
What an awesome opportunity for mentorship to have two so strong in such different ways,
right? A strong diagnostic guy and then a strong re and re guy.
I mean, you don't really get that, right?
You tend to get a lot of shops where there might be one really strong guy
and five or six really strong, you know, re and re guys, really strong.
I'll do air quotes because there can be some hacking going on, right?
But I mean, you lucked out there for sure.
I mean, that's that's what a lot of people would really like is to be a smaller size
location, but still get that mix of both.
And especially like you said, when you're doing all makes and models on all on,
especially die or anything else for that matter, you know, but the die especially to
you just have to have a good fundamental base, right?
You have to have that.
You have to be able to look at what they have in common and not what makes them different.
If you look at what makes them different, you get all frazzled.
You look at what they got in common.
No, exactly.
It's less over.
It's yeah, it's less less overwhelming when you when you look at what's different, not,
you know, or what's the same and what's what's not different, you know?
And, you know, BMW, same kind of thing.
But having those having both those guys, man, that was I was I was really blessed and they
really took, you know, they both took me under their wing.
And so I had the best of both worlds.
And at that time, I just started, you know, any training that came up and sometimes it was
three nights a week or four nights a week or, you know, six times a month or whatever.
I was I was there.
All I had to do was show up the company paid for it.
So I just had to show up and go into these classes.
I'll tell you, I mean, when I first started going that 99 percent of the stuff is over
my head, I'm just like, man, I I'm missing a bunch of the fundamentals, you know,
electricity and, you know, the diagnostic approach and stuff like that.
And but I just kept going.
I just kept going and kept going.
And then soon it was, you know, 50 percent of it was over my head.
Yeah.
And then, you know, 25 percent was over my head.
And then, you know, then I started, you know, the more I went and the more training I got
and everything, you know, now it became I got this, you know, I really started to understand.
And not just that, I started investing in myself with scan tools and scopes and stuff
like that. But putting in putting it into practice, it's one thing to to learn this stuff.
Or see slide, you know, see a screenshot of the scope capture.
Well, some half the battle.
How do you get that scope capture?
You know, you know, it's like, how do you set that scope up?
Like they make it look so easy.
You just plug in right here and you just do this and, you know, here you have this.
And it's like, depends on the tool you have.
But it's not, you know, you have to you have to know a little bit more and how to set it up.
And and so I started putting into practice and staying late, you know, after after work and
learning these tools and learning new techniques, you know,
checking the amperage on a fuel pump was like my first.
Like lightning, you know, the the light went off and I'm like, man, this is cool.
And you can see the commentator bars and you can see the health of that pump
by making one simple connection, you know, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is.
And it just blew my mind.
I was like, wow, you know, you think that that that test, you know, would have saved you
hours, right, of being able to or an intermittent thing.
You could have just done that test and and eliminated or proved it, right.
But that's the whole thing. We're just trying to eliminate or prove
if you just had the one test. Yeah, I get it, man.
And the scope thing, it's still, you know, we joke because I'm not I'm not a huge scope guy.
I don't get enough opportunity to use it.
But, you know, I'll talk to my friend and he'd be like, you wouldn't believe how hard it is.
He said I had to move it around to the fluorescent lights weren't screwing up with the with the scope.
He's got, you know, certain lighting in the shop.
It changes how the scope looks, the pattern looks.
He says it just it'll drive you crazy. You go down a rabbit hole, you know,
hats off to those guys. Yeah, no.
And I actually had a buddy reach out to me the other day and with a with a scope capture
and stuff. And he's like, man, what the hell?
I was like, oh, that looks like you're picking up some noise, man.
You know what I mean? He's like, and sure enough, you know,
he went outside the shop and stuff. And yeah, he was picking up noise.
And he could have been going down a rabbit hole because he was scoping a fuel pump at that time.
He's like this does it. And there is extra hash.
And it just didn't look clean, you know, and it didn't look like a normal fuel pump,
even a bad waveform. And, you know, so so yeah.
And if you overanalyze it too much, you can definitely be going down the rabbit hole on that.
So and, you know, so yeah, I started learning the scope.
I started learning, you know, what to look for on the scan tools.
I just started attending training, training, training, man, and, you know, slowly.
So I ended up leaving that location. I still stayed within the same company,
but I moved location. I ended up buying a house over on the other side of town and went.
I got transferred to the location that was closer to my home.
And then I walk in there the first day and, you know, I'm dropping off my toolbox and,
you know, I show up and stuff and the camaraderie and everything that I had over at the other shop,
I thought it was just going to be the same thing. Right.
And I walk into this shop and these guys are hating, hating hard.
And I don't know what the deal was, but they didn't they did not.
You know, it's funny to laugh about it now because they're all buddies of mine and stuff now,
but they didn't like me because, you know, I came in and they're all smokers.
So they'd be in the back, you know, smoking and stuff.
And I just stood right up in the front or whatever as the service riders came out.
And I'm telling you, Jeff, nine out of 10 cars, it's oil change, oil change, oil change.
I'm taking it. You know, they're they're handed to me because they don't want to go chasing,
chasing down these other guys. They don't they don't want the oil changes.
So I'm like, give it to me. I don't care. Whatever.
I need to make.
And. Yeah, exactly.
But I started out flagging them in here. I'm the new guy at that location and I flagged them.
And so now they're pissed. And it's like, you know, half that half my flagged hours are point
three, you know, point four oil changes and stuff. So while they're over here doing motors and heads
and transmissions and everything else and, you know, so now they really hate me.
You know, and I constantly had to prove myself and everything else. And then and.
Slowly, those guys started. And again, there was like three driveability guys when I showed up
there. So I, you know, there was no chance for me to. There was no mentorship there, first of all.
Second of all, it was I wasn't getting the diagnostic work, which is fun. I mean, I was
still learning and I was just going to classes and stuff. And at this time is when I first invested
into a scan tool and stuff, I was using my my other mentors at the other locations, their scopes and
their scan tools and stuff like that. And, you know, so I started investing in myself and slowly
those guys, you know, a couple got fired, a couple left and stuff. And then when the last guy got
let go. You know, my boss was like, do we need to hire a driveability guy or do you think you have
this? And, you know, talk about getting thrown to the wolves because I'm like, man, I don't know.
You know, I don't know if I'm ready, but let's let's do it, you know. And at that time, you know, I
learned a lot on my own, but I continue to go to training. And around that time is when I
came not came in contact, but when I came across scanner, Daner and, you know,
and that right there, you know, Paul Daner that that I just started watching his videos,
watching his videos. I mean, every single one. I mean, every single one, Jeff. And that completely
changed everything. Yep. Everything that changed my whole career right there is his videos. Just
he gave me more than than any of the the classroom training that I attended and stuff. And granted,
I didn't get the formal training, the UTI and everything else. But but, you know,
this is the basic understanding. And, you know,
Jason Vale Because you've been exposed to more training than maybe what a lot of people in the
industry starting out got right in terms of you got into a place that had a culture where they
wanted you to take it and they were rewarding you for taking it. But yet, I've always said this about
Paul, he has a way of and again, we talk about it because he's an actual educator, right? He's an
actual real teacher, not just, you know, and I mean, no disrespect, he's not just a tech teaching a
class. He's, you know, he's a teacher with 20 years experience. So he has a method of getting you
to understand the subject matter in such an efficient way that it just makes sense. You know
what I mean? Like he's he's he hates and we always talk about him. But I mean, it's we'll never he'll
never ever ever know how much of an effect he's had on so many of us, right? And it's just been
because he's been able to do that. We've been able he's been able to take things that you might have
sat through the class, and you got the concept of what they're teaching, but you didn't implement it,
or it seemed like it was too much to implement. And he just goes at a pace where it's like,
he puts it into a really simple format. And then he doesn't even give the option of do you want to
implement it before you know what he's using it. He's doing it in front of you. But walking you
through it's just a I can't describe it. I'm not doing it justice. But the way he teaches is just
has helped out so many of us. And he's, he's just a gift. He's a gift that keeps on giving. So yeah,
Tanner Iskra Well, and he is and you know, and I knew about, you know, I watched stuff on YouTube
and everything, but I didn't realize that YouTube could really be educational, you know, that I
wasn't finding, you know, you got the Scotty Kilmers and everything like that. And it's like,
I'm definitely not watching this, this load, you know, I'm not doing this. So it took a little bit
of searching and everything else. But when I finally came across them and stuff, I was like,
oh my gosh, and I'm a visual learner. So, you know, he's talking about the circuit, you know,
let's say a three wire, a three wire sensor, and you know, talking about the circuit. Oh,
now I understand the three wire sensor. Now let's go implement it, you know, and he's showing right
there. And it's like, and I got a car in my bay. I'm like, I'm doing the same, I'm following along
as he's doing it. And, you know, that muscle memory just, you know, building that foundation on,
on not just watching it to be watching it, but, you know, putting it to use and putting it to practice.
So that right there, I mean, I thought he was an awesome guy. You know, he really hit home on how
he educates, at least for myself and everything else and so many other people. And I know that,
but to visually see it and to put it into use and everything else, you know, slowly, I was
with this company for 13 years. And, you know, then my name started building within the company,
as far as, you know, with, with the other at this time, now we have 12 locations for this company and
and send it to Cody, send it to Cody. And, you know, these problem, problem vehicles and stuff.
And I was, I was proud to, to, to feel that, you know, man, I've from somebody that felt like he
was so far behind, you know, I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm getting to where I want to be.
And I say that, and I still feel that I'm not where I want to be. But, but, you know, I feel
I've definitely progressed, you know, and I've, I've built a name for myself within the, the,
the community and stuff. And, and I like the problem cars, but being flat rate, those problem
cars and spending, you know, hours and everything else on it. And like, you know, you spoke in
multiple podcasts, man, it wasn't, it wasn't jiving. I would get these problem cars sent from
other shops that, you know, they've spent, you know, however long that they spent on it and they
just throw their hands up in the air, send it to Cody. Okay, Cody, here's your, here's your hour,
figure it out. And, you know, there's 10 things that have been replaced and there's, there's this
and there's that. And, you know, so now you just threw more variables in it because, you know,
you've caused more issues. I guarantee it. They always do.
Yup. Here's your hour. Here's your hour for this network diagnostics. And it's like,
whoa, man, you know, it's got 12 codes in the system. Here's your hour.
And this company didn't, didn't see, they thought everything was, was done in an hour. Now, if it
was an ABS light and a check engine light, okay, that's two separate fees. But if it's a check
engine light and they haven't, they haven't had it looked at in six years and it's got 12 codes
and it's all separate systems and stuff, it's an hour. Yeah. That's not fair.
No. And I tried to explain to them, you know, especially after going to training and stuff,
because I would also take the management training and everything and, and, uh,
tried to inform them as much as I could, you know, on the things that I was learning as far as,
you know, we really need to be charging differently than this. And it really should
be kind of a tiered system. Some of these vehicles that are, that have been neglected for six years
and now they have to pass emissions. Why, why are, you know, as a shop and as a technician,
why are we getting punished kind of for it? You know, and we're getting an hour. Why this guy
over here is 45 minutes hanging shocks and struts and making three hours, you know, and he doesn't
have to invest in the scan tools, the knowledge he doesn't, he doesn't, you know, and Duncan,
you're wrong. I'm not trying to talk crap about that because we need those guys. And, and I was
that guy, but the more jobs I took on for the driveability and stuff, man, I really need to
focus. It's like, don't talk to me at this time. Like, man, once I'm in the zone, I'm in the zone
and getting pulled away to like, here, knock out this waiter oil change. That would earth the crap
out of me, man. Yeah. Cause it blows your, yeah, it's only you're gone 18 minutes and you come back
to it, but it's at least 18 more before you get back into the flow of where you were on that job,
right? Of whether it's like, did I check that three wire sensor? Did I check, you know, did I, did I
load the ground? All that kind of stuff. You've got to go back and think, did I do it or not?
You know, because what they say always should be like, you know, you see guys and they write
little notes or they put little stars on the, you know, we'd all trace the wiring diagram. We all
say, write down a little note here. Yes, it's good or not. But some of us don't do that, right? It's
all up here as we're doing it. If you get pulled away to do a turked around oil change and then
you have to come back. Yeah. It's, it's costing you more than the three tents you made. You just lost
on your efficiency on the next job easily, at least three tents, whatever time. So it's,
stop doing that guys, please just. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it messes with your flow and everything
else. And when I feel that I am on the right track to something, man, I, you know, I'm like
a kid in a game store, like just leave me the hell alone, man, because I want to get this, I want to
get this figured out. Like I'm close and I can feel it. And then when, when you mess with my, my,
my flow or my jive or whatever, it's like, man, that, that just, it kills me. And,
you know, in the shop that I worked at, it was a, it was a volume shop. We were doing, you know,
40, 60 cars a day and stuff. And, you know, with, with three, four technicians and everything. So
yes, it was a high volume shop. And in, in, in order for me to still have a decent paychecks,
I still had to do, do those, those jobs, those, those jobs, you know, in, in order to,
to, to get paid. And so I had, I had long conversations and stuff with my boss and,
and with the company and with, you know, like I said, it was a local owned company and
the CEO and everything. Like, look, we, we really need to try to, you know,
charge differently within the company. And if I'm getting a car that has, you know, all these parts
thrown at it from one, one of your other stores and stuff, it kind of like Paul, Paul's, you know,
mentioned with his brother, it needs to be like a $500 minimum for us to look at it. And then,
you know, if it is, if it's a blown few, some simple or whatever, you're obviously not getting
charged that, but, you know, there should be an upfront, you know, compensation for the technician
and for the shop in general to, to, to make it worth everybody's wild, right. And they didn't,
you know, they, they were in the process of making some changes. And then we, we ended up getting
bought out by a, by a larger corporation. So now, you know, where I, I did feel that I had a voice
and some things were, you know, some things were going to change. Now these guys are in New York
and there, there's no getting anybody on the phone. There's nobody wants to listen to,
I'm just a technician. I'm just a, you know, who's this guy, you know, and not meaning that
my name means anything, but I'm just saying that like, we, we had a, all the techs and all the
managers and stuff had a voice before, you know, we could mention something to the, to the CEO,
and some actions would be, would be implemented. But now, you know, now with the bigger, you know,
company coming in, that's, that's not the case, you know. So, and, you know, so, so to go back on
that, it's, you know, that was, that was some of my frustrations and stuff. And, and, you know, I
really getting older, I didn't want to, you know, I was the banger and I was hard on my body for,
for the 13 years that I was with the shop. Cause I was there from, cause I just, I'm just,
you know, I just, I like to work for sure. Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, I, I'd be there, you know,
I piece of the shop. So I'd be there at five o'clock in the morning. If there was work and
everything, I was there at five o'clock in the morning to, to open up the shop, to start working
and stuff. I'd stay till seven to eight o'clock at night. And that was just a, that was a, a night,
that was a daily thing. And that, that cost me, you know, one relationship with my daughter's mom
and stuff and, and, uh, rightfully so. And, you know, but when I'm the provider for the household
and everything else, it's, it needed to be done, honestly. And yes, I made really good money, but
if you look at the time spent there, as far as actual hours away from the family and everything
else, it didn't add up to that much money, you know, uh, decent technicians should be able to,
Oh, go ahead. A lot of that too, what I always found is it's, when you're getting a heavy
diag mix into your, into your schedule, I will say, it's always like you're, you're,
you've got a number that we want to chase, right? For a paycheck. That's cool. But when you're in
that heavy diag, there was so many nights I was staying there after five, six at night,
eight, not even necessarily on a diag job, but it was because I'd been on a diag job that morning
that, you know, it didn't, I might've made straight time on it or at best or whatever. I lost an
hour here or there. So you're going to bang out that gravy rack and pinion or, you know, strut job
or brake job or, you know, I'd stay late and put three sets of tires on, you know, because it was
like they were sitting there and I could get that done and I could make up for the diag work. Right.
And it did it. Yeah. I was, I was the same way I'd go in at seven. I'd get home eight o'clock at
night, seven 30, you know, stress, grouchy, like angry, you know, that's where I learned to rant
about this stuff was before I ever had a Facebook account was I'll be, I'll be ranting to my ex about,
oh, you wouldn't believe what I had to do today. And it was just, yeah, it was, it was tough. So I
mean, the guys that, that, you know, always had that mix, right. It was either you just accepted
it and you made less hours or if you wanted to chase that, you know, competitive of being the
number one in the shop or in the top five or whatever, you had to put in the extra hours to
offset the diag work. And I, you know, I never thought that was fair and it does come with an
expense. So, yeah. And 100%, that's exactly, that's exactly what would happen. And it would be me
showing up early in the morning because I knew parts showed up when I was leaving, you know,
the night before and, you know, I'm throwing cats on this car. I'm doing X, Y, and Z. So I can make,
you know, six hours, let's say before, you know, before eight o'clock in the morning, right after
we open and then I can, you know, get back to those, those cars that are kicking my ass as far
as those, those heavier diag's and stuff that, that, you know, I'm really not, not making,
making much money off of. And again, and I liked it because it was a challenge. I learned a lot
through those challenges, you know, but learned a lot and I'm continuing to learn a lot. But that
being said, it's, it played a, played a huge role and I lost a lot of time with, with family,
with my daughter and, you know, and 13 years, I'll tell you what, man, I mean, 13 years went by
real damn quick, you know, and you don't realize like how long you're doing something and you're
just so repetitive on it and everything that, that you just think that that's how it should be.
Right. And I didn't realize that, you know, there's actually shops where, where guys can make,
you know, good technicians can make six figures and they can actually work the, the allotted hours.
I'm like, no way, you know, until meeting Lucas Underwood and all these other shop owners and
stuff after going to, to super Saturday and I'm like, and AST and, but super Saturday is what
really set it off. And that's where I got to meet scanner, Dan and Paul and stuff. And, and,
man, I came back from, from super Saturday, all of my own, own time, the shop didn't think that
that was a out of state training was, was quote unquote needed because we get local training,
not realizing that, you know, the, the local training is great, but that's,
there's more out there, right? You know, Brandon Steckler is not bringing his class here to Tucson.
And, you know, for example, so that's where getting out of town and going to these trainings.
And I took some management trainings and I took some, you know, Brandon's class and, and man,
I came back from this and after meeting some, some other shop owners and stuff like that,
I'm like, man, there is a, I want to make my shop better. You know, I want us to, to be able to,
to send, you know, not necessarily me, but send, send a couple of guys every year to super Saturday.
And, and, you know, then I hear about vision and then ASTD and it's like, man, there's all this
training out there that I didn't even know existed until, you know, Facebook groups and everything.
And I'm like, man, I want to go to this all. I came back and, and let's, let's, let's change
this company. You know, let's, let's training is where it's at now. Mind you, my shop did pay for
training. Like I said, locally, right. And out of the 12 locations we have, there's 14 locations
with that company now out of the 14 locations. Cause I go to all the trainings, Jeff, guess how
many technicians take advantage of the training? I'm going to say less than 10%. Yeah. There's four
or five guys in there that, that are in there, the same four or five guys at every single class.
And they're the ones that are, and the guys I'm referring to are no longer with that company and
they're good buddies of mine because man, we all value the training and the education and everything
else. Everybody else just had to show up. They wouldn't even show up, Jeff, you know, so that was
and then trying to convince the company to invest into training, to send guys out of state.
I get it as a business. It's a lot of money. The guys aren't even taking, yeah, the guys aren't even
taking advantage of the local training, let alone send them out of town. So, you know, I felt that
I was just spinning my wheels. We got bought out, like I said, so I ended up leaving there and I
went to another shop and this was, I spent 13 years at that other, at the shop I just mentioned
and I went to another shop and I had to sit down with them and I used to work with them.
You used to work for the previous company and, you know, I asked for a guarantee. I asked, you
know, there's a bunch of things I ask because here's the thing, you know, I want guys to understand,
like you're looking for a shop. It's not just you being interviewed. Yes. You need to also be
interviewing the shop. You know, it goes both ways. It's not just sitting there answering the
questions that they ask you. You need to be asking questions and stuff too. Like,
do you guys pay for education? What, how do you advance within this company? What's the five-year
plan? These are questions that need to be asked, you know, and this is all stuff I learned later on.
Right. So with that company, I was like, look, it's all across town. I would like a guarantee and
this guarantee that I suggested that I would, that I'd be comfortable with was almost half
than what I was making with the previous shop, but just a guarantee. And I knew that I was,
I was going to kill it. Just something to keep me from, you know, where I still have a paycheck as
I build the clientele where people realize that I'm over here and stuff now and to get acclimated to
how they do business over here. Jeff, this was the beginning, I started 2020, right? And first
couple of months were okay. It was definitely a pay cut. I couldn't break 30 hours. I was like,
man, I went from doing, you know, 70, 80 hours a week. Now granted, I wasn't working like I was
before as far as the early mornings and late nights and stuff. So I was like, maybe that's why.
But, you know, and then just a couple of months into 2020, obviously COVID happens. Now, if I
didn't ask for that guarantee and mind you, I was the only technician in that shop that had a
guarantee. I don't know how I would have survived. I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't have made
$30,000 that year. So I don't know how these other guys made it, you know, because business
just came to a standstill. Yes, we still had some work, but nothing like it. Nothing like we do now.
Right. When you make a good statement, when you say, I don't know how guys made it. And the reality
is a lot of guys didn't make it. And that's where there was a, you know, we're seeing the shortage
now because there was a mass exodus of qualified people that just, when the dealership slowed down,
when the shops slowed down, didn't shut down, but slowed, everybody went and said, you know what,
now is the time, because you know how we all are. A lot of us are always like, we're always thinking,
I only want to do this five more years and I want to do something else. Right. It's killing me.
Another career. When that happened, that's when a lot of people just went, there's my sign from,
you know, the powers of B, go make that next step in life. And whether it was like we just talked
about, and you've heard me talk about it, my friend, there was a mass exodus in my area, people
went and work at a Goodyear plant. You know what I mean? Some of them went to fix some machinery.
Some just took jobs building the tires because it was a steady paycheck. Right. They needed people.
And it's such a frustrating thing because I can remember seeing a post pop up in the Facebook
group of the lady that had the dealership. And it was literally like she, her one tech posted how
they had been guaranteed through the COVID and then she retracted on the guarantee,
cut their wages, did everything she could do. And it blew up. It was all over Facebook and it was
all over Reddit and everything else until she was like, I'm sure to this day, it still had a big
effect on her dealership because it started to expose what a lot of these people were really
like that we work for in this industry. And that's not, I'm not knocking, you know,
owners. I'm talking about more dealers, dealer owners and what they could, because when that
time when they needed it the most, right, business people got paranoid, stayed home,
didn't bring their car in. I mean, who needs an oil change at the car's parking and driveway?
Doesn't, right? All of a sudden, most people, when you needed them the most to look after you
until it was over or we could move around again, they didn't. They just said, oh,
your cost is too much here. I'm taking your guarantee away. It's no wonder thousands of
them went to a completely different line of work. So, yeah. Well, and that 100%. And that's kind of
where I was at as far as, you know, I was thankful that I was smart enough to ask for a guarantee
and not just, you know, take any job that came my way. I didn't go out looking for this job. They
came to me and I was like, okay, you know, these are kind of the guidelines that I would need
because now I'm driving 45 minutes one direction across town. So in order for me to, you know,
instead of five minutes to work, I'm going, you know, 45 minutes more time away from the family
and everything. But I was hoping to not be there at five o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock
at night and actually work my hours. Plus it was weekends off. So I was like, oh, yeah, man,
that's huge. Cause I was working six days a week for seven years of that at the other company. So,
you know, so I took it and man, like I said, I was thankful that I had it, but there was some
other promises and everything else. I didn't want to go backwards. The shop foreman was
going to retire. But again, you know, COVID kind of changed everything. So the foreman was going to
retire and I was going to take over the foreman position. Well, now COVID's here and he's concerned
too. And he's like, yeah, I'm staying where I'm at kind of thing. So, you know, I kind of felt that
I went backwards in a sense, you know, and you know, just COVID was this a weird time.
During that time, the year before in 2019, I ended up paying off my house and everything. And so 2020,
we were going to do a big remodel on the house. And so I took out a loan on the house to do a
remodel. Then obviously COVID happened. And my wife at the time, she's like, I don't want anybody
in this house. You know, she really got freaked out about it. And rightfully so. We didn't, there was
so much unknown at that time, right? But coming towards the end of the 2020 and I was like, man,
if I can survive off of half of what I was making before, right? Cause I don't live outside my means
and I save and, you know, being flat rate, you really have to know. Yeah. It's take the good with
the bad, but you need to save for, you know, they're not always steady paycheck and stuff. So,
so that being said, you know, I, I had some money in the bank and stuff that we were going to use
on the house. And I was like, man, you know what I can, I can go, I'm going to give it one year.
I want to go mobile, start my own diagnostic and programming company. You know, I I'm tired of
lifting transmissions, doing motors and everything else. And my body's just breaking down. I spent
13 years breaking it down and working my ass off, you know, that I was like, man, I just want to
focus on what I truly love. And so I did that. So I was like, you know what? January 1st, 2021,
I'm, I'm going mobile and I did. And you know, I didn't burn any bridges. I never burned a bridge
at any shop that I've ever worked or anything else. And every shop that I have worked at,
I service them. Now, you know, I do their programming and I'll get called in for
diagnostics and stuff. And, and so, you know, that's really helped me out, you know, and,
you know, it helped me build my name within the company or within the locally here in Tucson before
going mobile. So when I did go mobile and people got word and stuff, I really didn't have to do a
lot of advertisement till I, till I was, you know, I had full, full days booked.
That's awesome. And yeah, so it's, it's been awesome. And, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't
change it, but I'm going to, I'm going to mention this real quick. And for how much, you know,
I have issues or I've had issues and just like, you know, other people that have been on your
podcast and stuff, as far as, you know, with the industry and shops, you know, false promises or
whatever, what, what have you. And, you know, so I go mobile and, you know,
it's kind of like a change in the industry podcast, man, you just get, you get psyched up.
It's like, man, I'm going to change, you know, I want to help out all these shops. I want to
change the industry. I want to help, you know, I'm here to help. I'm here to service them and,
and make all these shops better. Rise and tide, raise all shoes, right?
Exactly. Man. Here's the thing. These shops don't want the help.
Like you, you can, you can literally give them free training and they are not going to take
advantage of it. You know, I mean, they, for, so, so what I wanted to say about that is like
going mobile, it's really, you know, so I, I do webinars and some teaching and stuff for ATG and
our webinars of $39, right? $39. So I'll go into, cause every single shop, where do you,
where's training? Where's some good training? So I go in with the flyers and everything else, Jeff,
I go to shops out of my way that I'm not even scheduled at to drop off flyers because they've
mentioned training. They want training. And you know, from that to WTI to any kind of training I
know of. And I have never seen any of these shops in any one of the ATG webinars, $39.
Jeff, you know, and that's, that's just one example of, of, you know, I try to go out of my way to,
to help change the industry, to help, help these shops better themselves to essentially, I want
to put myself out of business. If I'm not getting called in for, for the blown fuses, I'm happy.
I mean, and, and it's a funny thing, right? And I'm not sure cause I was going to ask you about that.
How it, not how do we do it, but I mean, it's, I sense the change in you as, as I've known you,
where at first I saw that attitude of, I really want to, you know, I want to up, bring up everybody's
ability. That was the same as me. I wanted to see the average technician get better. I didn't want
to see the same crazy questions get asked. I want to be able to, when somebody comes and you say,
okay, did you test this, you know, X, Y, and Z instead of going yes or no, all we got was a blank
stare, right? And it's like, so then you're okay. So you're not at that level, what level are you
at? And that's when it got really scary about how a lot of people could, what's Volt drop,
what's fuel trim? Well, come on. Like we, so where do you start? And I found there's so many,
as I've networked with so many people that it's just like they've gone from, I want to enable
to, I just want to charge them. And that's it. It's just my, I'm going to come to them with a
business. At the end of the day, we want the customer's car to get fixed. So if I go in and
fix the car for them, I'm going to charge whatever I need to charge to be profitable doing it. And
I'm not going to worry that why they don't, aren't able to do it. Because like you said, we could,
you want to eventually bring it up to where nobody needs to call you, right? Their skills come up.
They don't, you know, they, they know to check for the missing fuse. They know to check for the
blown fuse. They actually know how to put a test light on it versus a meter when to do it, a scope,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We could go on, but they're not doing it. So Cody, why is that
that they're not doing it?
Honestly, I wish I had an answer for that. I don't know.
Scared to charge the customer?
I think a lot of that has to do with it. And, and the scared to charge the customer and they think,
you know, let's just say a diagnostic charge is if shops are charging $130, they still have that
mentality. Like my old shop where everything's covered under that $149 or $139 that that one
hour diagnostic charge. And, you know, these texts, especially being flat rate, if they're spending
over an hour on it and they don't even have an idea of what direction to go there, you know,
honestly, they're being smarter than me because they're like, I'm going to move on to these
shocks and struts and make some money. And I'm over here, like, I'm going to figure it out three
days later. And I didn't get paid. You know what I mean? So, but then, then they call in somebody
like myself that, okay, I do charge for, for every hour that I'm, that I'm there to figure it out.
And, you know, I, I'm, I'm more expensive to even come through the door than, than to, you know,
have your technician figure it out. And it's not that, you know, I have the special tools or
anything else. I'm walking around with a, with a meter, a test light, and, you know, a couple back
piercing probes and stuff. And, and, you know, that, that's how I fix 90% of these cars. It's
not with the fancy scopes. Now my scope gets pulled out. If it's, you know, now mobile is like a flat
rate on steroids. Like, I mean, it is, you know, if, if you can come, if you can get to the conclusion
with the least amount of tools, and I am a scope guy, but I'm not breaking out my Pico scope
for a three wire sensor. Like I used to, I'm not, there's a lot of things that when I was in a shop
and I had my scope cart and everything else, I want to scope all things and, and known good
waveform library and this and that I want to be in and out. And the faster I can get in and out,
when I have anywhere from eight to 12 appointments a day, that the, the better the business will do.
But I, you know, I made these appointments for, for all these customers. I have to get them done.
And it only takes one thing to go sideways to like screw up the whole week of scheduling.
So when we, when we get back to, when we're talking about why they're not doing it, and then
I want to bring it back to the idea, cause I say, okay, so some shops don't charge. And we always say,
and I'm guilty of this shops need to charge more. They're not charging for that. They're doing free
die and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But when you come back to the reality that maybe 10% of the
tax actually take training, I can understand why some advisors or some owners or some shop managers
are reluctant to charge for die egg because you're not really giving the customer anything.
You're just given a round in the chamber of the parts gun, you know, and, and, and that's not die
egg. Is it a elimination is, is it can be a step in diagnosing what's wrong with the car, but that's
not die egg, you know, throwing a dart and hitting a bullseye is still not die egg. It's just, you're
good at throwing darts. Right. Yeah. And that could be a big reason behind it because the shops don't
see the value in the diagnostics because you know, essentially the techs going in there and it's got
a, he got a P zero one 71 and he goes to identify and he's like, ah, it needs a mass airflow sensor.
Yeah. I mean, he spent five minutes, five minutes on the car and he didn't even run the vehicle to
see the grams per second on that mass airflow sensor or, you know, there was no value. There's
nothing written from the technician as far as, you know, okay, this is what I checked. I checked
fuel terms at, at, you know, uh, at base idle. I also checked fuel terms at 2,500 RPM. I went and
did a volume metric efficiency. I did X, Y, and Z to show value for that, that what we're charging
that they're just, they're literally, and I'm not knocking identifics. I use it, but I don't use it
for, you know, the, the hits. I use it because there's certain things in identifics that are
not in or harder to find and then all that are Mitchell or anything else. So I'm not knocking
any company, um, or, you know, all, uh, identifics, but I, it could be, um, it can be a great tool or
it can be a horrible tool. It's all about how you use it. And, and a lot of these guys that,
that the shops do provide identifics, they're using it 100% incorrect. Yeah. Uh, they're not
even doing the, the, the six step process or whatever, to, to, to come up with that conclusion
for that code. They're just like, man, 376 hits for mass airflow sensor for P zero one 71. And I
come in and I plug in a vacuum line. Yeah. You know, I mean, that's, that's, that's where it's,
you know, they're, they're not showing that value. They're, they're not written up. It's not like
being at the dealership where you have the T one codes and the T two codes. I mean, you had to write
novels of everything you did at the dealer in that sometimes that took longer than doing the
repair all the time, all the time. Yeah. Yeah. So, so at the independence that, you know,
very few shops here in town are doing DVI's even fewer shops, you know, are the technicians
writing down why they need X, Y, and Z and what tests were performed. If, if they're not telling
me that I wouldn't be charged in diagnostics either, probably. Cause I'd be like, what's the
value in that? I'm stealing the customer's money and it, and 100% you are. Yeah. I mean, that's,
that's what. And it's too bad because I mean, like I've, you've heard me say all for years,
I genuinely think most of the techs out there want to do well. They want to do better. They
want to improve, but I, I feel like, like I was, we all reach a point where it's like, you know what,
I can't eat my pride. I can't pay my bills with my pride. If, if I'm not going to like get
compensated for the time that I put in it. And I don't need every minute, but I mean,
I need a lot closer than the way it used to be. And it, you know, if I'm going to work on it,
on an incentivized pay, if you're just going to pay me an hourly wage that we both agree on is
good. And I show up and I fix cars. I'm a happy bear. I'm good. You know, it's, it's, it's, I,
I work within that means and it's, it's good. But these, these texts that are in that, that
incentivize thing. And it's like, you get handed a check engine like ticket. I feel for them because
I believe that most of them want to do this better. You see the look on their face when they're
frustrated, then they don't know something. And they're, they're like, what do I do? I mean,
it's a $500 mass airflow sensor. You know, I talked about a Mazda I had a couple months where
it had a mass airflow code and a bunch of codes and everything. It wouldn't even run.
It would barely run transmission with shift funny ABS. It ended up being five volt was
shorted in the harness underneath the trunk from water. So it was killing. I had no five volts.
My math, if you'd have gotten the identifix, there's even a Mazda bulletin that tells you how
common the mass airflow is to fail. It was like 100 hits for the mass airflow was the next for,
for a one-on-one and the symptom, not just the code, but the one-on-one.
So if, and I said to the customer, cause he was a little perturbed that we had like two hours in
the fine in it. He's like, Oh, and I'm like, Mr. If you'd have gone to the dealer, the first thing
they would have jammed in this thing would have been a massive because I guarantee they put three
in this week, right? They have it on the shelf. That's how common it is. Right. Cause my guy
phoned over and said, what's a dealer math cost? Oh, 600 bucks. Okay. I don't want to do that.
So when these people are seeing the price of this and that's assuming they're using OE parts,
you know how it's even worse when we get another variable, when they go and buy, you know, a boot
streak or a Dorman or a standard or whatever, not knocking Dorman after market. That's another
variable though. Right. When you get called in because you're all, where's the OE part? Oh,
it's in the, it's in the trashcan. Okay. Well, I now need to get back to the baseline. I need that
OE math to see what was it doing. Are you going to fix like your vacuum leak or like you said,
or something else? And then your math is screwed because it's got a a hundred dollar math in there
instead of the $500 one it's supposed to have. So that's where I feel like most of us want to
do better, but we're just not, I know, cause I've said it for years, I'm not going to donate my time
anymore for the shop to do better. I'll donate my time to make myself better, but I'm not going to
make myself better at the expense of pay. You know, I just, it, it, it goes against my core value.
I feel like if I can make money doing something else, then I'm going to do that until you value
what it is I can do. That's as simple as that. And yeah, but we, yeah, we, here we are, you know,
we don't have 10% of people that are the only 10% go to training. Like it just, we've got to break
that. Otherwise, otherwise it's going to be a really dark day. You know what I mean?
And, and, and okay. So yeah, let me ask you, how do we change that?
You know, I mean, and from all the podcasts and listening to, you know,
changing the industry and stuff and, and, you know, now, now I feel that, you know,
me going mobile when I first went mobile, you know, like I said, I was, I was out to change the
industry and I wanted to lift, you know, lift all the shops and, you know, then it, then it becomes,
like you said, I'm, I'm here to make my money. You know, if, if the shops replacing a module,
I'm not offering to diagnose it before they replace it. Before I would take a couple of quick
looks and everything, just as are they on the right track or is it something stupid that they're
completely missing me questioning shops and are not questioning shops. I shouldn't say that
because I didn't question them, but me asking questions to the shop, like, hey, why are you
replacing the module? Would you like me to take a, take a look at it just to kind of confirm and
everything? I offended them. I offended 90% of shops by, by asking that, no, how dare you? It needs
a, it needs a computer. My tech said, you know, and awesome. So, so now I don't offer that to shops.
If they, you know, if they're replacing a module, I show up, I program that module.
Yeah. Jeff, nine times out of 10, it doesn't need the module.
Oh, you know, and that was, that was a real hard pill to swallow at first, because I hate
charging shops when it doesn't fix it. And, but here's the thing to be made to feel stupid for
kind of, you know, quote unquote, questioning them are, or, you know, Hey, can I, can I help
you in a sense? They don't, they didn't want the help. You know, now they're stuck with a
$700 module, the programming charge. And, you know, if they do want me to look at it now,
I'm not doing it the same day. It's scheduled, it's scheduled out and I'm, you know,
three, four days behind on that, you know, scheduled out. So, you know, from, from wanting
to help these shops and grow, grow them and everything else that they've, they've left a
bitter taste in my mouth because of they, they don't want the help. They don't want the help
for the training. You know, every single one of them asked me, Hey, do you know any good
technicians? I do. I do, but I'm not sitting. That's the simple bullet, right? Is I need a
different tech. I don't want to improve the way I thought. I need a different tech. Why would I
send them your direction? When, when I go, you know, 80% of the shops here in town, why would
I send them your direction when I could send them to, to, to Bill over there? And, and you know,
Bill's going to take care of these guys and they're going to, he's going to send them to training.
He's going to take them out of town to go to training. Why, why send them your direction?
Yeah. And so, so my, my, you know, and like I said, it's, uh,
going mobile has kind of made me jaded in a sense because it's, you realize that,
you know, you think that there's some, some good shops out there and there are, don't get me wrong.
There are, man, that there are the, the Dutch's and, and, you know, the Lucas and David's and
man, but the, those good shops, they're like 0.01%. They're not, they're not on every street corner.
Just like the good technicians are not on every street corner.
So when you ask me how we, how we fix this, here's where I think we fix it or how we start anyway.
And I'll go with this from two ways. So if you're in a shop and say you all are whatever,
senior, senior technicians within the shop, right? You've got 10 years experience.
If you've got somebody that is, is got an aptitude like you had, you have to either put them on just
a straight hourly wage that's competitive for what they could have been making, hanging parts,
bang a ball joints, putting control arms in, putting struts in, putting tires on, brakes on,
whatever, so that it's very lucrative. So it's at least as lucrative as that. And then you say,
okay, you could be making me money doing this, but you're very good at this. So we're going to have
you do that, which is drivable and electrical program and all that kind of stuff. If you can't
do it where you can give them a guarantee, then like you said, for every ASE that you have,
for every diagnostic classification that you get, that's got to come with more money per hour.
Cause that's the only way I see where a tech can go, let's see easy round numbers.
We're all paid $30 an hour. I bang out 12 hours. Cody makes eight doing drivability. I'm still
50% better than Cody at day's end. But now if I pay Cody 50% more per hourly wage per hour,
and Cody makes eight and he makes 12 at his other wage, 30 bucks. So you're now at 45,
he's at 30. At the end of the day, you go home with more money than him. Do you know what I mean?
Because it's incentive. That's true incentivize for actually developing knowledge and a skill set.
So people that are listening that are shop owners or whatever, you got to start with
doing that. Cause otherwise the young people, just like eyewitness for 20 years are not going
to go into the challenging hard cars, the nightmare cars, the problem cars, if it means they have to
lose. Or if it means that on the tally sheet that goes up at the end of the week, or everybody's
hours are hanging there. If they're going to be at the bottom of that, it doesn't matter whether
you tell them how important they are to the shop, how important they are to the business.
You have to show them that they're important. And unfortunately that comes with money too.
So that's one way. The next thing is, and this will be another unpopular thing,
training has to be mandatory. If you don't want to attend, that's fine. You don't want to attend.
I get it. Some guys don't want to do diag, don't want to do drivability. Cool. All right. You don't
want to do it. That's fine. But I cannot then in good conscience, maybe bonus you out the way that
I bonus the guys that will take training. Right. Or maybe like somebody made a good point, maybe
for every hour that they take in training, that's paid time off. Put it on their holiday pile.
Do that. Do something because at the end of it, because you're always going to have people that
just don't want to, I just want to hang parts. Right. I just, I'm happy with that. I like that.
I'm good with my hands. Great. We need those guys. Just like you said earlier, we need them.
But the people, if you want to see this technology problem get fixed in the industry,
it's not going to be just with a wage or finding a different tech. That's such a stupid answer.
Oh, I got guys that won't take training. I got guys that can't fix cars. Do you know another tech?
He's probably just like the ones you got. You know, do you want a superstar?
Okay. A superstar more and more now we're seeing shops are building them. They're not just walking
around, you know, a tech like yourself, a tech like, you know, Keith Perkins, I use Brian all
the time, Brian Pollock, right? Guys like them are not walking around just out of a job, right?
They are. The good techs always will have a job and that's just it. There's, you know,
unless it's going through like the pandemic or anything else, like what you had to deal with
as far as up in Canada and stuff. But you know, that was just a weird time anyway. But the good
techs, they're the good techs, if their name is, you know, if they're known within the community
and everything else, like I know Tucson and I can't speak for everywhere, but I know Tucson is the
biggest little town there is. And it's if there's a tech that's leaving, oh my gosh, the whole
community knows this tech is leaving before the tech really even knows he's leaving. You know what
I mean? Like you were already on his ass. Like, hey, you know, you have job offers
four or five, you know, there is no quitting to go fill out applications and everything else.
They're on it. You know, they, I've had people poach me at where their wife has showed up to my
current employer and was like, hey, can I talk to you outside? And, you know, trying to recruit me
straight up at my shop, you know, and I'm not saying that that's right or anything else, but
man, that's, that's, you know, that's what's happening out there. And that's,
and I guarantee that's happening everywhere. I'm not just saying Tucson or Arizona or anything
else. That's happening everywhere because these techs are not, they're not, you know, walking
down the street. They're not looking for work. You have to go search them or build them like
you just mentioned. You know, you have to grow them within the company.
Yeah. And that's the, we have to get them, you know, I say that we're, if they see and they
have an aptitude where they're more comfortable with a scan tool in their hand, but you watch them
maybe do a set of drum breaks and they're fumbling, you know what I mean? Or something like that,
man, push that on them, right? Don't, don't sit there and go, you suck because you can't do a
set of drum breaks. Like put that scan tool in their hand more and more. I talk all the time,
if I'd have never walked into a dealer where they just handed me a scan tool that involved
like programming with a DRB three for a bulletin and said, this bulletin sucks. Nobody wants to
do it. I know you've been here a month, but here's the DRB three. Here's the instructions
from the bullets and it tells you how to run it. Go flash 10 cars. Some comes to me the end of
your shift. If nobody had ever given me that opportunity, I wouldn't be where I am today.
I would have never learned how to navigate that tool or how to then see, okay, well, maybe it needs
the update or maybe it actually needs some, some dyke. Cool. And I was straight time when I was
started doing that. So it's, it's always been my progression. Once I got into the dealership,
that's just what I did. I had a scan tool in hand and I was, even when I went to flat rate,
okay, now flat rate, oh, I'm going to start doing more steering racks. I'm going to start
doing more of the, you know, stuff that traditionally I hadn't been fast at because
it paid well. And the dyke always didn't under warranty, but I was lucky because I had two
skill sets, right? I was like you, I could hang parts, but I could also solve problems.
And it was always a battle then between how do I get enough of the easy work that I can then,
you know, like by Wednesday, if I had, you know, 30 hours in by Wednesday, great, you know,
because I was never a guy that was turning 60 consistent a week. That wasn't me. I always
had seen by Wednesday, if I had three 10 hour days, I got saddled with like four dykes, you know,
and they were complicated, involved, pulling the carpet out, finding the splice, that kind of stuff.
And then by the week, I'd close out the week with 45, 46, you know, 40 sometimes. And I was happy
with that. But the guy over there that didn't have to do them, he did 10 more racks. He walked
out with 60 and I was like, shit, I got 45. So what my service manager did at the time,
which was very groundbreaking, was he then implicated when at least when it was retail,
a diagnostic rate of a time and a half. So the diagnostic rate has paid the tech,
and this was only retail, an hour and a half or excuse me, every hour he was on it. So, and that
was, it could be an evap leak. It could be, I mean, it wouldn't be like a light bulb that was out.
But I mean, if you had a steering rack that was a steering rack, wiper motor that say didn't work,
right? Or the horn didn't blow. And then somebody had already put a clock spring in it. Somebody
bought a photo. You started with an hour and a half, just there. That's what it paid. You only
got an hour time, but it paid you an hour and a half. And that was his way of trying to incentivize
more people to try and do it. Unfortunately, at a dealer, when you're doing still so much under
warranty, you know, probably 60% of your work was under warranty still. So you didn't get that rate
in the half, but it was still, at least I was lucky that the guys, they looked after me. So I
didn't, I didn't lose my butt too often on warranty dyke. They looked after me. I wrote really good,
long five and six page stories with all my Voltrop this splice that, you know, ran an overlay,
proved the component was good, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and got paid. That's what you had to
do. There was none of this, you know, it only pays this or this. You hear Cody, how they talk now,
but how the guys in the dealer don't even get paid dyke, right? So you bring it in and it's ruled.
I put my tools down tomorrow and I'd walk out and it'd be the last you'd see.
Yeah. So like you were talking about that Mazda with like the mass airflow sensor.
Okay. And you know, and I'm not harping on dealer techs because I've been there, you know, and you
see their repeat failures, you know, you see a car come in and, you know, it's kind of like on the
Nissan's, oh, P zero one zero, you know, P zero one zero one. Oh man, it needs an update. You know,
you already know in the top of your head before you even see the vehicle, before you even hook
anything up. That's what you're doing. So that mass airflow sensor, you know, damn well that the
shop, you know, the dealership would have thrown a mass airflow sensor in it. You know, why do the
checks? Why do those checks for 0.3? Well, that's if you're getting the 0.3, but if you're not even
getting the 0.3, why are they going to go through the steps to CYA to cover their ass when they're
not getting compensated correctly for it? So, you know, that that's all that's going to make
is just a parts thrower, you know, that that's take the dice out, roll it, tell it what it needs
and, you know, ship it. And our car's getting fixed that way. Unfortunately, yeah, a lot of them are
because they are pattern failure, but then there's the ones that, that those are the ones, those are
the cars that I get now, you know what I mean? And they're, they're all the ass kicking and it's,
you know, find the corrosion, find the broken wire, you know, find the module that's bringing
down the network, find, you know, now it's, it's not that easy that the pattern failures,
because the pattern failures, they're getting fixed, you know? Yeah. And that, that Mazda,
the only thing that like, because I'm, you know, so I didn't, I didn't hook a scope to that car.
I just, I stared at data a lot on it and I'm scrolling through and I'm seeing the fuel tank
pressure sensor is skewed really bad. It's like 30 PSI of fuel tank pressure on the EVAP system.
And I'm like, that's, that's a red flag. Like that sucker should have blown apart by now. I should
be hearing that, you know? So immediately go back, unplug it, fire the car back up, runs like a brand
new car, right? Then the diet is to go and actually see, but I mean, so the dealer tech wouldn't have
sat there long enough and said, cause it didn't have an EVAP fault. I don't know why, don't care.
Didn't have it. I'm just looking at data, trying to figure out, okay, I got the mass air flow unplugged
in the, still not drivable. It's still wonky. You know, I'm still getting all this blah, blah, blah,
whatever. The next step the dealer tech would have thrown in would have been an ECM, $700 ECM, $500.
You know, we'd have been 1200 bucks into a car that wasn't fixed. So when my customer is starting
to get a little cranky about, well, you know, what's this three hours for, you know, two hours
for Diag and one hour to put a harness in a little $80 jumper harness that comes from here to here,
just whatever. And I said to him, I said, would you want it $1,200 of parts that didn't fix it?
Because that would have been the reality. It was like, how do you know that? Cause I know a guy,
right? Like that's how it would have went. And that's not ripping on them, but I was just giving
the keys and nobody came to ask me how much longer I was going to be. Did I have any headway? What,
you know, what do I call my customer? They just handed me the keys. And when I knew what was wrong,
I went to them and said, Hey, this is what's wrong. I'm not being bothered and pressured into,
Oh, we need to know. We need to know. We need to know. That doesn't help anybody's diagnostic
process when you're trying to rush it. That rate standpoint, you got to stop doing that.
You put that yourself under that kind of pressure when you're on your day to day,
going to the job, right? You put yourself on that. If you're working, somebody's working,
don't do that to them. You know,
exactly. Yeah. I mean, adding, adding more pressure where it's already a, a pretty technical
and you know, diagnostics is a, is a, is a thought process and you know, you need to follow your
processes. And every time that I, I, I don't follow my process, that's when I started going down a
rabbit hole. And every time I don't follow my process is, is usually when, okay, somebody comes
up and they start talking to me, we shoot the ship for a little bit. And next, you know,
I just lost my train of thought. I forgot where I was, where I was going, or, or I went to, to step
three instead of, and I skipped step one and two and step one and two is what, where was that? You
know what I mean? Yeah. And, and yeah. So, so doing that and everything and asking them or,
you know, handing them a waiting oil change and stuff that that's, you know, honestly, that's how
wheels get left loose. That's how, you know, things get overlooked. And, and, you know, obviously
that's going to be worst case scenario and stuff and, and diagnostics and the whip and, you know,
tightening up wheels, two different things, but in reality, it's not, you know, I mean, it's both
going to cost the company money and, and, you know, having a lead guy or a diagnostic guy,
handing him an oil change to get a waiting oil change done when, when he's knee deep in a network
diagnostics and he's got wires hanging everywhere. Yeah. That's probably not the time you think he
needs to bring. Yeah. And I'm not trying to say that like when your tech is out there and they're
three hours in and nobody's checked on them, right? You kind of have to know the tech because if they
are struggling, but if they're competent, like if they, if they've proven to you before that they
can, you can give them a challenge and then get to the bottom of it. Two hours can go by really fast
when you're in, when you're in the midst of a problem or I'm in the midst, it can go by really
fast. Right? So now if it's all morning and he's still trying to figure out a misfire or something
like that, that's a different thing. But if you're into something complex like that, two hours can go
by really quick. It doesn't mean that you need to run out and start putting the pressure on it.
Like I've got to make, cause that's the other thing in this industry too many times that the advisor
or the shop owner, the manager, whatever says, I need a better tech. I got guys that can't solve
anything. The reality is, is a lot of them come out there when the hour and a half is up and go,
I need an answer now. Give me an answer. And you go, well, boss, the answer is it's not X, Y, and Z,
but I still don't know. And he goes, well, what's the next thing it could be? Well,
it's looking like it might be the ECM, but I still have to check this circuit, that circuit. I still
have to do the, okay, well, I'm going to call the customer and see if they want to do an ECM.
And that's how it goes. And then the ECM doesn't fix it. And they call up Cody and Cody comes in
and he goes, well, there's not 12 volts on that wire. Like, I mean, there's 12 volts when I unplug
it and I face probe it with the meter and it shows me 12 volts, but it won't light my test light. It
won't flow current. And then the guy's like, my tech didn't do anything for, you know, three hours
and I had to call someone in. The reality is that you didn't give the tech enough time and it sucks.
I understand it, but it comes back to then when we're going to chart, start to do these diags,
we need to go back to like what Brian and Paul Danner came up with, which is that retainer.
How invested is this customer going to be in getting a repaired vehicle?
How are they in it for the long, I hate to say the long haul because that implies that we're
going to keep it forever, but are they really, you know, because the variables, it's got a dormant
mass airflow sensor in it. It's got a, you know, 10 texts. Somebody's taken a fuel pump out of it
and put, we don't know what a fuel pump in it now for a link code and it's still got a link code.
And now it does a different thing. There's so many more variables that have been added
that we need to now check. You can't do that for an hour and a half.
And I always say it, and it really perturbs some people. If the customer has spent a thousand
dollars and didn't get it diagnosed properly or repaired, that's a thousand dollars that most of
the top diagnostic people in the industry probably could have found it with a thousand dollars worth
of time allotted. So I would say time. Yeah. We don't know what that would cost as far as what
the final part might be. Yeah. Exactly. But for time. Yeah. I mean, I know plenty of guys that
take on, you know, these hero cars and stuff and they'll start at, you know, seven, $800 or whatever.
And that's a decent enough amount to, okay, I'll take this on, you know what I mean? And I'm talking
about like flooded vehicles. Note to self, what's all you guys do not take on flooded vehicles.
Nobody wants to be your hero on a flooded vehicle. They're never ever done. They're never ever done.
I'm eight months in and we're not done yet. And we're 12 modules in.
I know. I think it's flood cars. And I had a lightning strike car once in my career.
But going back, when I say that, you know, when they try to say the customer won't pay for dyke,
if the customer will pay a thousand dollars for parts that didn't fix it and they're still
trying to get it resolved, they most certainly would have paid a thousand dollars for dyke.
You just, it's, you're not selling it to them the proper way, right? If you sell it to them,
$100 an hour and they think it's 10 hours, they think they're being ripped off. If you tell them
their dyke rate is 250 an hour and you're selling them four hours, okay. Four hours to them doesn't
sound like a ripoff. And I think you're onto something there, Jeff. And I mean, the customers,
okay. So yes, it's all about how you approach it with the customers and, you know, selling them,
let's say a module and, you know, time to install the module and then the programming. Yes, it comes
to a thousand dollars. This will take care of your issue. Okay. Now it does. Well, now they have a
module and they have this and they have that and they don't realize that, you know, this could have
been fixed. It had some, you know, broken wires or whatever, and it could have been fixed for,
you know, five, 500 with, with the diagnostic time, you know, multiple hours to chase down the
wiring and everything else. And it was fixed. Unfortunately, like even for customers, you know,
they, they see more that that's so you just, you found some broken wires and you're charging me $500.
Exactly. Yeah.
You know, compared to, oh, well, I got a module that I didn't need. They don't know that I got a
module. And then the programming and then the time to install it in that was 1200. And you, you know,
and, and you're trying to charge me $500 for three broken wires, you know, so, so it's all,
but that's about how, how the service rider sells it to the, to the customer. And, and a lot of that
is from the stories that that technician, we go back to that where the story that the technician
writes up. And if we need more diagnostic time, give them the value of what they're paying for,
for that first hour. If you need more time, tell them, these are the steps that we're going to,
we're going to check for the, these, you know, these are our next steps of what we need to check.
Show them the value in, in your time to continue forward, you know, that way that they feel like,
man, they, they really went, you know, they did a lot and even read the story, you know, tell them,
you know, if anybody has questions, like, okay, so ATG, if you go onto automotive training group,
there's downloads and there's downloads to where like, you know, question surveys, as far as does
it, does it, when does the symptom happen? Is it cold first start in the morning? You know,
questions that we service as service riders, they forget to ask, but then there's also another
download and everything too, for, for the technician stories to where they can write down,
okay, this, I checked X, Y, and Z. This is, you know, that document, their process. And then,
okay, this is where we're at. We need additional time. And these are the next things that we are
going to, we are going to check. And that way the service rider can straight up, you know, read that
to the customer, give them the value for it, show them that, you know, our time is valuable. This is
a complex system. Vehicles are complex nowadays. I don't care what you're working on, let's say,
but they, but they are, and it takes that skillset and it takes that knowledge. And it's not just any,
you know, guy changing the oil and stuff that, that can fix a lot of these vehicles with the
drivability concerns and stuff. So, or you can take it over here and, and they can throw modules at it
and everything else. And then by the time it does get to a good drivability tech, they're all out
of money. Yep. And then we get that sympathetic owner or service advisor or whatever, who knows
that they're out of money and feels for them. And then he tries to discount it even more.
That's the completely wrong step. I got to ask you, Cody, because, you know, you see it and you go
to these shops and sometimes the conversation comes up to the top, it comes up. Are mobile guys like
doing what you do? Are we keeping some of the shops in the business in, in the industry that
should have gone the way of the dinosaur? And are we really doing it? Oh, 100%. Okay. Let me, let me,
let me, let me touch on this. Okay. So I, yes, I do say this. Okay. So when I first went mobile,
I was taking any, any shop that, that would pretty much call, I was even doing individuals,
which that was, that was a mistake. But, you know, I'd show up to, you know, I'd show up to
one shop in particular and it's a two bay shop. There's, there's two cars on the lifts. There's
two cars underneath it. There's a hundred cars in the parking lot. And their guys are out there on
the, on the dirt lot, pulling motors, pulling transmissions, jack stands on their, on their back.
I mean, they, they, they don't have a lift to, to work out of that because they don't move those
cars. And they expect me to, to work like that and stuff too. Well, I did. I, and unfortunately
I did. Right. To the point that, you know, their sink is a, is a garden hose in the back with,
with the garden hose and some gojo right there. And that's, that's how that's the shop sink.
If you need to pee, it's the other, it's the other yard. You just go back there and just go,
you know, take a piss. There's a bucket. Yeah. And, and I'm like, this is what, you know, and
that was, what the hell am I doing? Because I'm, I had some really good diags and stuff there.
And it made that shop look like a hero. And I'm not trying to own horn. I'm just saying that,
you know, these, these were cars that have been to multiple other shops and I made this
shop that should not be in business. 100% should not be in business. Look like the hero.
And so our mobile guys hurting shops like that. Yes. Hey, but on that note, let me,
let me back up for a second. So anybody that's a top shop owner and, and you know, that, that I,
my recommendation would be to go ride along with a mobile guy for a week and just, just see how
things are. And you will realize that 90% of the shops shouldn't be in business. And I say that,
you know, not it's, it's hard because, you know, I go to some real reputable shops that have some
really great talent and they're, they're missing simple things. And why are they missing simple
things? Because these guys are not going to training the shops, not investing into the training
to send their guys there because it's too expensive. Well, it's expensive not to send
your guys there because they're missed. They're calling me in, you know, for simple stuff.
And don't get me wrong. I get the hard stuff too. I mean, I get the cars that has had identifix
thrown up at it and you know, it's got, it had one problem now it has six and then it's been to four
other shops. So now we have incorrect part numbers in, in, in for parts. We have, you know, there's
so many different variables and we have to, we have to, you know, shift through all that to, to,
to come up with a conclusion, a resolution and to get these cars fixed. But our mobile guys hurting.
Yeah. But you know what? Here's the thing. Shops need to change. There's a reason there's mobile
guys out here that are making a living. I'm trying to put myself out of business, take advantage of
it or send your guys to training. Go to these, spend $39 and go to a webinar. You'll get something
out of it, man. So, you know, I wish every shop was a, was a Dutch and, and, and Lucas and David,
and I wish every shop, you know, paid for tools and everything else. Unfortunately, that's not any
of the shops that I've ever worked at. And now that I'm mobile and I go into, you know, a majority
of the shops here in town, that's not a reality here at all. I mean, they, they, they are,
they are the unicorns and those are the shops that I'm, you know, I would pack up my mobile stuff and
go work at a shop if, if that's, if there was one like that here, you know, but they're, they're not
man. I mean, look how Perkins runs it. I mean, he pays for it. To the snacks, to, to food. I mean,
it's just, it's real, it's real expensive. Now don't get me wrong. I spend a lot of money on,
on tools a year, but I also run a business, right? But I also spend a lot of money a year when I
worked in a shop and, and, and I was still spending 15, 20 grand a year when I worked in a shop.
So take that right off the top. So let's say you're making a hundred thousand dollars. There's,
there's $20,000 that you can't claim on your taxes anymore. So, so now you're getting double
penalized, right? So now you're making $80,000. You know, that's a, that you should be able to
make a hundred thousand dollars without a constant continuous 15, $20,000 every single year.
Just for sure. Now I, so I gotta ask you, because this is kind of a two part to this,
the question we just asked Brian Pollock and I talk all the time and Brian, you know how he,
I love the dude we talk every day. He talks about the industry has tried, has built the need for
the independent guys like your, or diagnostic guys like yourself. And not only that it has pushed
people like yourself out of shops and created the, the market that is what Cody does and, and you
know, Keith Perkins and, and Tanner Brandt and Matthews countries, all these people that every
day go around and fix these cars because they, we force people like you talent out of you, like you
out of a shop. Do you agree with that? 100%. I mean, that's the whole reason that, that I'm,
I have the business that I have. And the whole reason I went mobile and everything else was
trying to communicate to shops that this network diagnostics should be a level three diagnostics.
And we need to start at three hours and then we go from there. And, and no, just, you just go ahead
and do it. I'll pay, I'll pay you. So I get paid, you know, but they don't, the customer doesn't get
charged. So the customer thinks the $150 fix their network diagnostics. Yeah. But then, you know,
at the end of the month, it should, Cody's really not, you know, there's really not gross profit in
anything that Cody's doing because man, we've coupon $20,000 this last month of, of, you know,
the services that he's done when we should have been selling more work to, to benefit the shop,
to benefit the technician, to, to benefit everybody involved. Right. But we're, but we're not,
and we're going to discount it and stuff because we think that's what's right for the customer.
So, so now you, so now you force me out and to, to go out on my own to now, when you call me,
I am charging for every single hour that I'm there. And that $139 that you were charging the
customer. Now it's a $500 bill from myself. I don't know how you're going to figure that out
with the customer, but I'm charged for what I feel is this, this repair is worth. So if shops want
to change and, you know, start charging appropriately, stop screwing around with, with, you know,
any of the texts, not just the lead texts or anything else, but, you know, really,
you know, invest back into the company, invest into your people with training and, and, and education
and, you know, your service writers and service writers and managers should also be going to
training. That's, that's another thing. It shouldn't be a technician telling, telling them how to run a
business. I tell myself how to run my own business. I don't, I shouldn't be telling them how to run a
business and how to charge appropriately for diagnostics. That's all done at training that
there's, there's training for them. So, so are we helping them keep them afloat? 100%. But here's
the thing. If, if we weren't helping them keep the float, man, I don't know where this industry
would be right now because how bad it is already. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is, what was I going to
say? So going back to what you're talking about, when sometimes texts try to tell owners that they
should charge more for this, or they need to charge more for that, or, you know, diag time needs to be
more, we get labeled as like, well, you're always, texts are grouchy, texts are, you know, prima donnas,
texts are always trying to tell us how to run our business. We're not trying to tell you how to run
the business per se. But if we have to show like an effective wage for that person that's working
on that car and we're tackling diag versus the parts margins way better on a, on a strut job
than it is on a, on a fix and a broken wire, there's no parts on fixing a broken wire,
maybe a piece of shrink tube if you want to build it out, but there isn't there. So when we have to
show our worth, we have to be upfront and demanding and say, okay, you need to charge a little bit more
for me to show my worth because it's, it's a different thing. But as soon as we put our hand
up and start to say that, oh, you guys just always want more money. You always think you're the,
you know, the expert, if you're so smart, go do it yourself. The very real reality in this industry,
and I hate to say it, and it's going to get a lot of people pissed. There are some texts working
right now on your shop floor that probably have a better idea about how to run the business than you
that own the business. And that sucks. It's terrible. It's a, it's a mean, shitty,
realistic thing to say, but it's the truth. It's the truth, especially if you've been doing it for
20 years at a whatever level that you've been doing it. And that level hasn't been great.
Maybe you bought yourself a job, right? Hats off to you. But this young person that is invested
and is networking and is seeing the change that's happening, you need to be listening to that person
because just because they're not an owner doesn't mean that they don't have value
in their input. They have a lot of value in their input. It's a young minds with a different
perspective is sometimes more valuable than experience. Yeah. We're in an industry that you
need to be open minded. You can't be closed off. Obviously look at all the changes and everything
else. Look at the guys, you know, when, when carburett, you know, everything was going to,
to fuel injection. Oh man, I'm not, I'm not changing with the times. Cool. You're going to
be left behind. Okay. ABS, right? The industry is changing so fast, so rapidly and stuff. Now
you have to be able to adapt and grow. This isn't 1976 anymore. We went years and years and years
where there was very minimal changes, so to speak. I mean, you know, for, for the last 15 years,
compared to the last hundred years before that, the technology is just 10 times what it was. And
it's going to continue to go grow and grow and grow and grow. And that's where it's listening to,
I don't care if it's the lube tech, everybody should have a say or, you know, he may be the
next latest and greatest and he's just, he's just the lube tech right now, but you don't know
what he's going to become, you know, and, and it's willing to grow. It's willing to, to, to make
changes, listening to everybody. And I think I know for myself, that was the bit, one of the big
things I was looking for, for a shop, because I wanted to have a say, you know, I wanted us to
get into the last shop I was at. I wanted us to get into ADOS. I wanted, you know, I wanted us to,
I wanted, again, I wanted to move that shop into, you know, something that, man, and at that time,
there was nothing here in town, man, we really could have tapped the market. I'm like, I'm telling
you, like there was business that just makes sense, right? And they didn't, they didn't see it. And
it's like, they, they've missed that shit now, but man, if we could have got it in 2020 before
the other ADOS company and stuff opened up, man, they, they could have already had the market
tapped. They, they could, and just, just listening to a guy like myself, just because I went to the
training and I saw where everything was going, man, this ADOS, this ADOS, man, we can really
deal with, you know, body shops. And then guess what? You're dealing with insurance. You don't
even have to like ask for customer's permission, not permission, but you know, the insurance is
paying it. That's guaranteed money right there, you know, and it has to be done after, after a
collision. So it's, listen to your guys. You never know what the next great opportunity,
you know, it will, willing to expand, willing to get into new things that, that you may not,
that you may be scared of and, or, or it's, you know, also maybe getting into just specializing,
you know, it doesn't have to be the, the general repair for everything. If you really like
electronics and everything else, and you can, you can create a business just,
just for electrical repair and diagnostics, you know, that there's, or, or if you have that guy,
you know, make him the diagnostic guy and make it like a dealership. I know when I, when the
guys over at Buick, there, there's the brake, the suspension guys, there's the drivability guy,
you know, they, they have their own department. That's what they did all day long. And that works
for some, you know. I, I got to ask you, cause you're out there a lot. Is the technician
shortage really as bad as, as it's made out to be? Oh man, it's, it's horrible. And honestly,
I don't know, looking back now, and I really hate to, to, to talk bad about the industry and stuff,
but man, you know, knowing what I know now, what I have gotten into the industry, it's,
don't get me wrong. It's, it's, it's, it's given me an awesome lifestyle and everything else.
You know, I'm not a millionaire by, by any means, but, but I'm happy. I enjoy what I do.
But it's also come with a lot of frustration. And I lost out on 14 years of my daughter's life
that I can't get back, you know, the, the volleyball games that I will never be able to attend,
you know, and that, that right there is, is, is unfortunate that that's, there's no money,
amount of money. The money I was making wasn't worth that. Right. What you missed. So it's real
hard to sit here and my daughter wants to, you know, she, she wants to, she's wrote along with
me and she's like, man, I, when I get out of high school and stuff, and I even offered, I was like,
I'll hire you outside of, or during high school, you go around to a couple of the shops and I'll
give you a, a certain percentage of how, you know, models that you're programming, because she's
programmed to GM and afford and, you know, so I'm showing her each software and how it works and,
and what to do and stuff. And, and, you know, but I, do I want her to get into this industry? I,
Jeff, I don't, I don't, I don't know. You know, this is what, this is what, this is exactly what
I told her. She needs to go and get a degree, whatever that may be, even if it's in, you know,
computer into IT or whatever, but you need to go out and explore and don't just fall into this,
because I'm in this. If she can go a different route, then, then I'm all for that. You know,
even if it's business, you know, getting a degree in business management or, you know,
whatever it may be, but, but it's real hard to sit here and, and, and knowing where the industry is
until shops start changing to, to sit here and, and, and 100% like be like, it's the best thing
ever. Like go be a technician because man, I see what's out there. I go to these shops and it sucks.
Like it really needs to change if, if, if it's going to get any better. And that's just the
God honest truth. I mean, that's where it's at. So what's the next five years look like for Cody
and Cody's auto diagnostics and programming? What, where do you, do you have like, can you see that
as bringing her on as an employee or do you, do you want another employee? Would you like to get
one as her, do you not have one because you can't find one or so? So yeah, that's, that's part of it
is, is I don't have one because I try and define one. I know that getting an employee would probably
be the best thing for me because my appointments. So right now during the summer it's, I'm not even
scheduling any diagnostics because like I said, I, I, uh, just summers here are crazy. They're,
they're hot, um, cars are breaking. So, so just my programming alone, I'm, I'm doing anywhere from,
you know, eight to 10 programming a day. I can't even keep up with that, let alone take on, um,
drivability issues or diagnostic issues and stuff at this time. And then on top of that, you know,
I'm usually out in the parking lot. So, so that's another variable and stuff too, that, uh, during
the summer, that's just, that's not going to work for me. And, you know, I value myself and there's
no amount of price that I can charge a shop, even if it's $500 an hour that it's worth it for me to
be out in the middle of the parking lot and scorching, you know, 110 degree heat. Normally
I like it, but not the summer is, is like our, is like your winners. You know what I mean? That,
that's the time of the year where, no, it sucks here. So, so yeah, I want, I, I need an employee.
I really, uh, I think an employee would be good. It would help me step away, um, a little bit to,
to focus on, on back into the diagnostics and give me some breathing room right now.
You know, just answering the phone is, is, is, is a full-time job and answering the phone. And when
I say that these are shops that, Hey, I just put a transmission in a, in a 2013 GM, uh, does it need
to be programmed? This is, this is, this is 100% calls that I get all day long that I am, I am
all data and Mitchell and identifix all rolled into one that I have all the answers, uh, when
they pay for these subscriptions and you know how much time that takes out of my day to answer these
stupid questions or Hey, it's four 30 on a, it's four 30 on, on a Friday. We just put this
transmission in. We didn't realize it needed to be programmed. Can you get it done tonight?
No, no. Yep. The car has been there for a week. You could have called, you know,
you could have read service information. You know, that last step where it says programming,
you could have called and schedule. I don't feel I, I'm sorry, but it's getting harder and harder
to feel sorry for shops when they can't even read the service information. And this goes from the
technicians to the service writers. They both need to be reading, uh, just the, the repair procedure
because the technician's not always going to know, but then the service writer should know that,
man, this is, does this need programming? Does this need X, Y, and Z? Uh, but then you're going
to call me and get frustrated with me. Cause I'm going to tell you three days. I'll get to you in
three days when the car has been done, when you've had the car for a week and you could have made the
appointment on Monday for, for, for Wednesday or in like today. I mean, I drove all the way across
town. Uh, I talked to the guy on the phone. You say, and I'll be there in a couple of hours. I
had two cars. I had a Nissan for a program and then I had a diagnostics drove all the way out
there. Oh, Hey, uh, we're just going to send the car to the dealer. Okay. All right. Is the other
vehicle ready for the programming? No, it's not ready either. Okay. Well, I'm sorry. You just,
you just wasted my time and that's that, you know, and this is where it's frustrating to,
as, as a business owner, you, you just, you just wasted my time where I could have been making
money somewhere else. Um, you get charged. I charged them my show up fee and you know,
it's just such a time, just such a time waste. And then the mobile calls a day,
does it need this? And does this need programming? And does this need, man, look it up, look it up,
man. Like, you know, Matthew's concrete, you would give a hard time, like look at service information,
but now be mobile. I am Matthew's concrete. Just like, look it up.
You need to, what you do is you have to have all your calls go to a voice answer
system, right? So you don't answer and that make that in the voice answer.
Just, okay. Thank you for calling. Now, before I call you back, have you checked out your service
information? Did you read service information? Man, I like, I like that. You know what? I think
I'm going to put that on my voice man when I get off. I'll definitely give it to you. You've
given me enough. So this has been great, Cody, honestly, I want to thank you for coming on.
You know, I, this, this, this podcast is about, you know, showcasing people like yourselves,
right? People that have, have taken that step and have not been afraid to, to, you know, tell their
story and then get into the meat and the potatoes of why you, you made the choices you did, why you
went down the path that you did and why you think, you know, so many of us are doing the same thing.
That's what this is all about is, you know, I don't have the answer. You don't have the answers. Like
we were talking about it. You don't know the one answer about how do we fix this industry.
But I think that if we keep talking to each other with open communication about why you made the
choice that you did, why, what this made you feel like this. And this made me feel like that.
We're going to get closer, you know, is there ever an end game? I don't think there's ever an end
game as to where we get this perfect, but you know, right now, right now what we've been doing for
the last 25 years has not been working. So it's time to. And that's all I was going to say is
right now it just seems so overwhelming, right? Cause it is, it's such a, such a big picture.
And there's so much that needs to be, that needs to get, that needs to change. Do I think it can
happen? 100%. Like I said, this is, this is the industry has been great to me. And I, you know,
I, I wanted to be as transparent as possible, you know, my frustrations in it and the experiences
that I've had. But that being said, you know, if I could go back in time, what would I have changed?
Probably not. I probably, I would have done some things differently, but I would probably be
in this field doing what I, what I love, because this is one thing that I, I'm really good at and,
and I enjoy and I, and it's a, and I'm continuing to grow every single day and everything. So,
so everything that, you know, I was saying, I was just trying to be candid and, you know,
but things do need to change. And, and, and I'm so passionate about it because man, it's frustrating.
It's frustrating that to have so much passion and, and not for shop owners or other business people
in this industry, not to have that same kind of passion and think that they'll just get by.
Yeah. And that, that's, yeah. Getting, getting by has gotten us where we are. So on that note,
well, I want to thank you. Are you going to go to AST this year?
Yeah. So I really want to. And I took the, I took the wife last time and man, we just,
we loved it out there. Yeah. So I, I'm, it's still up in the air. I really want to. So,
are you going this year, Jeff? Yeah, I'm going, I'm going. Last year I went and that was life
changing. I thought like I was, I'm, you know, how I, yeah, you know, how I've been. And then to get
there and realize that it was like, there's, there's so many people that are, that are having the
conversations just like we had. And there's so many people that are implementing the changes that we
actually want to see changing that it's like, Oh my God, we're not doomed. You know what I mean?
That was, that was a life changing event for me. So, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm,
I'm going to go and record a bunch, meet a bunch more people that I haven't met.
Like the highlight of my life now was Paul Daner was there last year. Right. So I got to meet Paul
and I mean, I've been friends with Paul for a long time, but I'd never met him. Same with Brian.
Brian and I have been friends for ever never met the dude. He's huge. If you've never met him,
he is a giant. I haven't met him yet either, but man, I can just, I can just tell that. I mean,
he's huge and you know, but that's what's cool about social media. I mean, you network with
these guys for so long and you become, you know, these are some of my best friends and you know,
but then you finally meet them in person. And it's like, man, after years of talking,
it's like, man, you already know, you already like know everything about the guy. You talk multiple
times a day, a week, whatever it is. And it's like, now you can finally, you know, my wife
didn't understand it until, you know, she went out to, and she got to meet Paul and, and you know,
so it was just the, after she saw it, she was like, man, this is, this is, this is huge. Like,
this is, it's such a cool experience. And that's coming from somebody that's completely 100%
outside the industry. And she was like, man, this is awesome.
Yeah. To sit, to sit down and have dinner with, with Super Mario and Paul Danner at the same table.
First night there was just like, I'm sitting there just pinching my cell phone over and again, going
like, what am I doing sitting here with Brian and Corey and, and you know,
it's like, they let the dumb kid walk in and sit with these, you know,
fantastic, amazing people, but it was, yeah, it's life-changing event. If anybody can make it,
they really should. Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and like comment on and share
this episode, I'd really appreciate it. 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 ASOT group and to the changing the industry
podcast. 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.