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Shop Talk Her Way is where former shop owner and coach JeanAnn Saint Grace opens up the books on what it really takes to run a profitable, sustainable, and well-balanced auto repair business.
With decades of experience in bookkeeping, operations, and leadership, JeanAnn brings an honest, no-fluff approach to shop management — all from a woman’s perspective. From financial systems and staffing to communication and culture, she shares insights that help shop owners (and especially women in the industry) take control, build better businesses, and enjoy the ride.
Whether you’re turning wrenches, balancing the books, or scaling to your next location, you’ll find encouragement, strategy, and a healthy dose of “you’ve got this” in every episode.
Shop Talk Her Way is an AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching production — helping shops thrive, her way.
Thanks to WorldPac and the WorldPac Training Institute (WTI) for sponsoring Shop Talk Her Way. Visit worldpac.com for the latest in auto parts distribution and wtitraining.com to explore training programs that can take your career to the next level.
[00:00:00] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And stress is a thing. Like, stress is a killer. We know that. We know it takes a toll on our hearts, um, you know, our cardiac systems, but it also takes a, a toll on our emotions, our immune systems, our everything. Like, if we're living in a s- constant state of stress, we're at risk for adrenal fatigue. We're at risk for a lot of things.
[00:00:21] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And that, that number one is finding a way for us to help people manage their stress
[00:00:41] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Are you or one of your employees or team members at risk of becoming a statistic? That's a good question. And then the next question is, how do we prevent that? Hi. This is Jeanne Anne St. Grace with Shop Talk Her Way, and I wanna welcome you to this episode. This is a little more serious, and it's been pretty, um, heavy on my heart, um, since I kind of put all this together and since I decided to talk about it, but I think it's an important conversation to have.
[00:01:11] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, there's plenty of statistics out there, and we always wanna be careful what statistics we use. But the statistics that I wanna talk about today is the high level of suicide in the automotive industry. Uh, just with some very cursory Google, um, searches, I found the following information. The average per capita male, um, population in the United States, about 22 out of 100,000 men will commit suicide.
[00:01:49] JeanAnn SaintGrace: For men in the automotive industry, that number rises to 77 out of 100,000. When you break that down to more digestible numbers, it's just under one person, one man per one-- 1,000 men in the industry. And just putting myself in, um, into the statistic, um, not very long ago, just a couple months ago, uh, one of my clients had a team member whose former coworker killed himself.
[00:02:23] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, and it, it was hard. Uh, he was a young man. He was, you know, in his early 30s. And of course, there were other contributing factors, but the fact is he was in our industry, and he was one of our brothers. And it t- it was a hard loss, right? It would be a hard loss for anyone, but, um, you know, for someone so young who didn't feel like they had anywhere to turn to, f-friends to reach out to, didn't have another option, um, that's really a heartbreaker.
[00:02:55] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And so we're looking at, you know, a little over three and a half times the average rate, which I don't like talking that-- to-- about people as statistics, but those are the numbers that we have. Um, and statistically speaking, uh, women in automotive tend to not... There's no statistic. It's statistically unrepresentable in the automotive industry.
[00:03:23] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Now, looking at other statistics, they figure men are somewhere between 88 to 90% of the automotive industry. And so we're looking at a high population at risk. And I'm all for you know, boys being b- boys, guys being guys. But we have to make room for people to experience their emotions. And one of the places where people struggle, where men struggle, is sharing their challenges, right?
[00:03:59] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Whether it's financial, personal, emotional, whatever that looks like. There's a tendency to either tell them to suck it up for lack of a better term. There's some probably more vulgar ways to lay that out, but you know, to suck it up, to grow a pair, however you want to lay that out. Um, they don't feel comfortable expressing their issues to coworkers or, um, other male friends because they don't want to look less than or like they're weak.
[00:04:31] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And they also don't want necessarily to go to their partners, um, wives, girlfriends, because that makes them weak as, or appears, makes them appear to be weak as well. So opening up these conversations is very, very important as leaders and owners of our teams and even team members. If we see someone who we are worried might be thinking about taking a, an, a route of action that, um, means taking their own life, then I would rather we say something than just let it pass.
[00:05:10] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And is the average shop owner equipped to deal with that? Maybe, maybe not depending on their life experience, but we can at least help them find help that they need. Um, I This all came up because, um, I saw a, a video that June is, um, Men's Mental Health Month, and so I'm recording this in June of 2026. Of course, everything goes to the internet and becomes perennial.
[00:05:42] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So this is something that we need to be thinking about on the regular, but especially because of the time of year that is, I wanted to bring this up into everybody's, um, consciousness. And hopefully you all know by now, or if you've never listened before, I have a real heart for this industry. The men and women in this industry are some of the best, right?
[00:06:08] JeanAnn SaintGrace: They're some of the best people you'll ever meet. They, they have, um, the desire to fix things. Um, they have the desire to make things better. They wanna do a good job. All of those things that, that add up to desire. If they're in the industry for a paycheck, that's still their paycheck. They still have a good reason for being in the industry.
[00:06:32] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And it's, it's very, I wanna say interesting, but it's also disheartening to see how many of the people that are looking for jobs, the men that are looking for jobs, have been through the wringer. They've been taken advantage of. They have been underpaid, overworked, given until it hurts. Um, there's, you know, the, the really high-level performing techs out there who, because they're very capable, continue to get laden with the worst jobs, the heaviest jobs, and they don't get a reprieve from that level of stress.
[00:07:15] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And stress is a thing. Like, stress is a killer. We know that. We know it takes a toll on our, our resp- our hearts, um, you know, our cardiac systems, but it also takes a, a toll on our emotions, our immune systems, um, our, our everything. Like, if we're living in a s- constant state of stress, we're at risk for adrenal fatigue.
[00:07:38] JeanAnn SaintGrace: We're at risk for a lot of things. And
[00:07:45] JeanAnn SaintGrace: That, that number one is finding a way for us to help people manage their stress. Can we remove things like KPIs? No, because we need to have goals. How we present them, how we use them, are we setting realistic goals? Are we setting realistic goals for someone's skill set? Um, these are all things to consider.
[00:08:10] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Are we offering a place for them to come and share w-what their challenges might be, um, in, in situations like one-on-one meetings? And this is w- uh, one of the reasons I'm a big proponent of one-on-ones is because if we've built a relationship with our team members to the level that we're talking about their personal goals, maybe their, some of their personal struggles, um, giving them a place to, without judgment, without the possibility of, you know...
[00:08:44] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Or with the possibility that they might become emotional and, you know, cry. Crying happens. Crying happens for a reason. But letting that happen without judgment, I think, you know, those, that's a, a very, very safe place, to use an overworked term. But, but we have to be creating these spaces where they feel they can be candid and really share the situations that they're going through.
[00:09:12] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, we've seen an uptick in, um, passings from cancer at y-younger and younger ages, and so we might see, you know, younger, um, technicians losing parents, losing other family members. And, and age is not the determining factor. Even, you know, somebody well into their 50s who might lose their parent or, you know, some other mentor or close loved one, that creates a, a, a level of grief that everyone is going to experience differently.
[00:09:45] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And from my own experience with grief, grief is a real ass-kicker. Like, let's face it, let's just be candid. I don't really wanna have to filter my language because I think it's so important that we, we really get to the gist of this. Um, that, that telling somebody they lost a loved one and expecting them to, quote-unquote, "just get over it," um, a lot of times a, a death in a family or a death of a spouse or a death of a child sh-shatters and alters somebody's self-perception and the reason why they do the work that they do.
[00:10:23] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And sometimes grief rewires the brain to the point where the things that came easy and they did before are no longer places that, that work for them. So helping them to understand that challenge and helping them to understand there's support for them, and we can be part of that support system. If they are in crisis, then- Finding a, someone, a counselor, a therapist, a someone to help them, uh, get through the darkest parts of this is really key.
[00:10:57] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So, um, you know, there are, uh, there are therapists that specialize in working with men, um, who, uh, work with people through walking, working through grief. Um, but, but knowing that they're supported and knowing that nobody's judging them, and making sure that they get a little extra support in, in the shop environment at that point is probably key.
[00:11:25] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, possibly allowing them some extra medical leave or to use their vacation for leave or, um, you know, helping them find a, a way to maybe get disability so that they can take some time off to gather themselves back up. Um, you know, these are the things that we can do as, as owners and as co-members of teams that we can help them find the help that they need.
[00:11:52] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, there are some companies that are offering, um, things like BetterHelp. Um, the-- there's an online app called BetterHelp. I'm not advocating for that one way or the other, but there's ways to do, um, you know, therapy sessions via, um, video, like a Zoom call, where they don't have to go to an office, where they can step out of the shop, go find a quiet place, and, and have the time to do that.
[00:12:20] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, you know, they're offering off-hours help, you know, all, all the things. There's no... The, the time, the closeness, the, um, ability, the accessibility is out there, and so there should not be any limiting factors. Um, there are often, you know, county resources, local city resources, governmental resources to get them the help that they need.
[00:12:48] JeanAnn SaintGrace: As shop owners, we can even offer sometimes, depending on how critical it is, to pay for the first session. Like, if we have to pay $100 out of our pocket to help one of our team members get through a crisis, I think that's more than worth it. Um- And, and I think that we have to take this level of, of ownership.
[00:13:15] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, I did have, um, a c- a coaching client who, um, you know, one of their guys came in one day just looking totally disheveled, um, kinda out of sorts. Um, they could tell he just wasn't, um, wasn't himself. And it was a Monday morning, and the owner got wind of it, whether he observed it himself or one of the other team members keyed him into it, and they-- he pulled this gentleman aside and kinda started talking to him, and was like, you know, "How, how are you?
[00:13:51] JeanAnn SaintGrace: How are things?" You know. And the guy was like, "You know, I just spent most of the weekend trying to figure out if I was gonna kill myself or not." And is the average shop owner prepared to deal with that situation? Probably not, but I think I would encourage everyone to have some kind of a plan, somebody they know they could call, somebody that they could get some help for them, um, knowing that you've got a resource that, that could possibly help them kind of, you know, on your speed dial if that's what's necessary.
[00:14:26] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, at least having a contingency plan for something like this. I mean, we know if somebody gets cut in the shop or, or were to get injured, you know, the, the contingency plan is do we call paramedics? Do we get them to the ER? What do we do? And so having a mental health crisis response, um, I think is a good idea.
[00:14:46] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So who would you call? How does it-- what does that look like? Having those kind of resources available to them, I think is a good idea. Um, giving them the space, like I said, building that rapport, building that relationship to where hopefully we can curtail the situation before it gets into this crisis point would be key.
[00:15:07] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, and I know there's gonna be people out there and, and I've seen the-- we've, I've seen some online discussions about, you know, how much responsibility does the owner have for helping their team members? Like, if they're in financial trouble or they've never had somebody give them financial advice or, um, whatever it looks like.
[00:15:31] JeanAnn SaintGrace: I think at a very human level, if we see someone in crisis, we should at least offer them help. We should at least give them a place to talk, uh, a referral if they need it, and if all else fails, maybe, you know, pay for the first round or something like that, um, if necessary. But I don't think this is something we should be ignoring, and I don't think this is something that we can sweep under the rug either.
[00:15:59] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, you know, as a population, there's... and I, and I mean a population of our nation and, and our world, there's, there's definitely been a shift in generations of priorities, of understanding financial responsibilities, of the value of money, of how to manage your finances. And There's, there's places where, you know, if, if you haven't had a mentor or a parent or somebody to show you the ropes of the financial system, then they don't know.
[00:16:41] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And it's very easy to get tangled up in debt. It's very easy to get over, you know, over their head in a, a house purchase or a vehicle purchase. And, you know, everybody makes it sound so easy. Oh, it's only this kind of a monthly payment. But then when you start to add up all those monthly payments, what does that turn into and how much money is that actually?
[00:17:01] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So when I hear shop owners and managers wondering how much should we do for our team, how much is our responsibility, I think there's a lot, honestly. Because in the last several generations, we have, um, you know, two parents most likely working. Um, it's not-- it's become abnormal or, or not the norm for somebody to have a parent working and a parent in the home where they had supervision, um, and somebody to, to get advice from.
[00:17:38] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, and sometimes you're born into a family that financial responsibility isn't, isn't a thing, right? They're, they're raised in a, a home where financial responsibility was not a priority, and so they don't know any better. And I, I I'm, I'm not laughing because it's funny, but I'm just going back to, um... I had, uh, one of my clients, one of our first calls, he was so frustrated because the person he hired to, um, to do a specific job, and part of their job was to clean the bathroom, they were not cleaning the bathroom to his specification.
[00:18:18] JeanAnn SaintGrace: It was kind of like haphazard how it would happen. And one of our first conversations was, "You need to write a checklist of how to clean the bathroom." So if, if this person possibly in their life had never had to clean a bathroom, what are the chances they've balanced a checkbook? What are the chances they've sat down and looked at how much money they take in and how much money goes out?
[00:18:42] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Have they looked at the actual cost of, you know, getting into a high interest loan on a vehicle or a house or a credit card? Um, you know, fiscal responsibility is not something that people are born with. So, you know, helping them to understand the importance of things like this and that there's ways out, right?
[00:19:04] JeanAnn SaintGrace: There are ways out of this that don't include the most drastic measures. There's always a way to find help that it might be tough, right? It's not gonna be necessarily be easy, but it can be done and there are solutions that don't include, um, taking a life. So the other thing that I think is important, and with the rise of social media, is there's a lot of, for lack of a better term, keyboard toughness out there.
[00:19:39] JeanAnn SaintGrace: People think, "Oh, I'm just gonna toss off a flippant response or tell a person," you know, I mean, how many times have you been on F off, uh, you're too stupid to live, um, you know, those kinds of comments. And I think if we were a little kinder, you know, if we could, if we could dial back some of that, that
[00:20:10] JeanAnn SaintGrace: recklessness, for lack of a better term. Um, you know, somebody, their last hope, their last gasp might be posting in a forum. Um, and the level of unkindness could be the thing that pushes them over the edge. Now, does that mean somebody making a comment like that is, quote-unquote, responsible? No. But is it necessary?
[00:20:36] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Is it going to serve a higher good to just throw off a quick, flippant comment like that when you don't know what's going on on the other side of that post? Um, there are people in business who don't know how to make money, how to record their profits, how to, um, you know, manage their businesses properly so that there's profit on the bottom line and all the bills are paid both at home and in the shop.
[00:21:06] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And if we don't know what kind of a day that person is having, those kind of comments can be very detrimental, and especially if it becomes a pile-on. And we've all seen it, so unless you're not on social media at all, you can't tell me you haven't seen those comments. And I see it in industry postings, and it's like, are, is this helpful?
[00:21:33] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Like, if you don't have something helpful to provide information about, then maybe don't say it. Um, it's become way too easy to just insult people, to demean them, to, to say rude and unkind things without any liability or, or not looking that person in the eye. I think it's a lot easier to throw down a stupid comment in a chat over looking somebody in the face and saying the same thing.
[00:22:04] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, you know, sometimes the anonymity of, of the internet is a way for someone to bare their souls and post an anonymous comment i- in a, in a real vulnerable way, and then to be slapped in the face with something like, "Well, are you stupid?" You know, those kinds of negative comments aren't, are not helpful.
[00:22:29] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You know? They're just not. And, you know, there's people out there who have the best intentions at heart and are, you know, maybe their last resort is making that post and, and really needing some good advice. And, um, that's, that's important that we think about that. One of the other key indicators for, um, male suicide is, uh, substance abuse issues.
[00:22:58] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And a lot of times a substance abuse issue is a, is a stopgap maneuver to ease the pain of whatever they're going through. And, and so we should be keeping an eye out for things like that. And again, are we supposed to be staging interventions? Maybe. Um, and if we're, if there are technicians and they're on the floor and s- the safety of our customers and the public at large is at risk, then yes, we should be pulling them back and being like, "What kind of help do you need?
[00:23:32] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Here's the resources that we can put you towards." And of course, it is their choice. It's always somebody's choice to get help or not, but we have to protect our team, and we have to protect ourselves as well. If there's a situation like that going on in our shop, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to it.
[00:23:51] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And sometimes I think it's easier because we don't wanna hurt somebody's feelings, we don't wanna insult them, we don't wanna make the wrong decision or the wrong conclusion. But again, that's where having open and honest communication with your team members is so key, that it's like, "Hey, you don't, you don't seem like yourself.
[00:24:10] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Tell me what's going on." And hopefully we can catch it way before it gets to an addiction issue or ultimately somebody wanting to pass. And
[00:24:24] JeanAnn SaintGrace: When it's all said and done We're all human, and I think we're often quicker to extend grace to others than we are to ourselves. So if, if you're hearing this and you are the one with the challenge, if you are the one feeling like the-- it's too much, you can't take it anymore, getting somebody to talk to is the most important thing.
[00:24:50] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And I am one of those people that if, if you're feeling like you have nowhere else to turn, you can turn to me. I'm easily-- I'm easy to find. A quick email to my contacts in the show notes is all you need to do and say, "I need help," and I will get on the phone with you. That is not, um, that is not a problem.
[00:25:13] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So, you know, hopefully you have someone closer to you that you can confide in, but if you don't, sometimes a stranger's even better. So I would, you know, encourage you as, as owners and as team leaders and even as team members, like I said, this is everybody's responsibility. This is a human issue, not, um, not a leadership issue.
[00:25:39] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, I say that, but maybe there's leadership issues that lead up to this. And, you know, helping people to understand their compensation plans, making sure they're compensated fairly, making sure that there's a safety net, um, is, is one of the, one of the things we can do. And one of the, one of the first things that comes up when you, when you start searching on this, one of the contributing factors is flat rate pay.
[00:26:09] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And I'm not saying every shop is doing it wrong, but a lot of shops are doing it wrong. And it may work in your shop. You may have amazing car con- ca- car count. You may have amazing, um, inspections, amazing write-ups where you have all the secret sauce to make that happen. But, um, there's a lot of shops doing it wrong.
[00:26:30] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So we need to be cognizant of, of financial stress. The other thing that I think is important, and I just had this conversation with a client today because they need to find another technician, and one of... part of the conversation was, "Well, we've got this technician who is a super diagnostic guy," and one of the options is to hire a lesser skilled technician and give all the diag to this one guy and then feed-- have him feed repairs to other members of the team.
[00:27:01] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And I said, "We really need to think about that." Because what I worry about with, with people like that who can take on that heavy level of diag is that they get stuck with it all the time. And I'm sure that there's some c- of my comrades who would agree that getting stuck with diag all the time is a good way to burn out a tech because there's a lot of stress in it And they can be the best tech in the world, but if they get hit with, you know, a handful of really hard diag where, and if their pay is dependent on performance and they spend five to 10 hours on a diag job that only pays two, their pocketbook's gonna take it.
[00:27:42] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And I think there's also a certain amount of stress of making sure they get the diagnostics right and then not having that, I call it downtime, where maybe the nuts and bolts repair is the thing that they need to diffuse the tension of the heavy diag. So we don't wanna burn our people out because they're capable
[00:28:07] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, and be sending what is more of the gravy work down the line. I think finding a good work mix that works for them, keeping a close eye on their capabilities, um, then those are, those are the things that we need to do. We need to make sure that we're tailing- tailoring their workload and the workload even in the shop to the s- the strengths of our team.
[00:28:33] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And we need to be watching for signs, and some of the signs are, um, things like appearance, um, maybe how the, how their cleanliness in the shop changes. Maybe their toolbox isn't as clean as it was or their tools aren't organized. They're throwing stuff in a drawer and walking away instead of putting it back in its space where it should go.
[00:28:57] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, you know, if you don't have a tech who's like that, then maybe their, their, their appearance, their cleanliness, their personal hygiene might be going south. By comments that they're making, they might be more negative than normal And the difference between men and women in this area is women will ask for help.
[00:29:19] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Women will make attempts before they actually succeed at, at, at a suicide. Men push themselves to the point where they just do it because they've gotten to the point where they can't take the pressure or the whatever is challenging them anymore. They're not going to ask for help, talk about it. They're n- they're not there.
[00:29:44] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And so, you know, where women will ask for help, men will just go to that final solution without asking for any help 'cause it gets, gets worse and worse and worse and worse until they can't take it anymore, and that's the, that's the only way they see out. So I, I hope that this is a helpful conversation. I hope that, um, maybe even if this just puts a, a, you know, you put-- you talk to your people, first of all.
[00:30:13] JeanAnn SaintGrace: This is worthy of a lunch, a lunch and learn, a team meeting. You know, if there's ever a challenge that you have that f- you feel is insurmountable, then we will find you the people to help you do-- to figure it out, that there is, there is almost nothing worth this, this final, um, this final of a decision. Um, we can post, you know, signs.
[00:30:36] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You'd be surprised how, how helpful it is that there's the number for the suicide hotline on the, on the board in the break room versus having no resource at all. Um, you know, making sure that we're, we're checking in with them. I, I will beat the one-on-one, um, drum all day every day if, if this saves one of our brothers from doing this.
[00:31:00] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And that 20 minutes a week that you spend, or 20 minutes a month, or 20 minutes every two weeks, whatever that looks like, that you spend individually meeting with them could make all the difference. So I would rather we be proactive and know that we did everything that we could rather than have regrets or wonder or feel the guilt of having not done enough.
[00:31:19] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And I'm, I'm just feeling that this is something we, we as an industry need to address. We can't kick it under the, to the curb or under the covers or hide it or whatever. It's out there. It's happening. And I would be surprised if, um, there's people who don't know of a-- know somebody or know somebody who knows somebody.
[00:31:45] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, you know, my small circle, I know at least one person who succeeded and one person who was seriously thinking about it. So, you know, there's, there's that. And you know, elevating our industry, we know there's stinkers out there. We know. But if we're not the stinker, if we're the one standing in our integrity, offering a helping hand, offering sage advice, um, being a place where people can come to, I know there's a number of people like that in this industry.
[00:32:19] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Even if they're not people you know, if they're on social media, you can tell, you know, sending a DM, picking up the phone, whatever that looks like, um, I would much rather you do that than, than do nothing or just, just go to the final decision. So The other thing about this is we have, we have penned our men into a corner of not being able to show emotion without being seen as weak or called names, and those paradigms have to change.
[00:32:59] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You can be the manliest man on the planet and still sit down and have a good cry. It doesn't reduce your manliness. It doesn't reduce your strength. I think it takes a lot of strength to show our vulnerability and to, to be the voice out there saying, "I don't know what I'm doing, and I don't know how to fix it."
[00:33:20] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, um, then turning that into something very powerful, a very powerful healing. Um, how did I turn it around? How did I become a success story? Um, I think it's easier for me to share my experience, um, because I, um, because I feel like my experiences become more powerful the more I share them. If I can help somebody who finds themself in a situation similar to mine, where my spouse was diagnosed with a, a fatal disease and ultimately died, um, at a young age, and I was left to figure out what to do with my life, um, it's a testament to him and a, and an honor of his memory to share.
[00:34:09] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And so if, if somebody goes through this journey and then t- comes out and says, "This was my journey with this, and this is how I got out of it," then they become the voice in the wilderness rather than a sad statistic in the dark. So for those of us who, who can come out and share, those of us who can, um, offer support, I think it's incumbent on us that we do, that we beat this drum, and that we step up for our brothers out there who are hurting.
[00:34:42] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And they're out there, and we know they're out there. We've all met one. We've all met a dozen of them, and if you've done any kind of interviewing, you've seen it. And, you know, a lot of times too, we offer them a better option, but they don't believe it. They don't trust it because they've been hurt before, because they can't see the, uh, light at the end of the tunnel.
[00:35:04] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So, um, I know this is a little more serious than I normally do. I think our businesses are important, but our people are even more important, and letting them know that they matter, that they count, that we would miss them if they weren't here, could make the difference. So, um, with that all in mind, of course, I have to get a little bit of a sponsorship read in here, which is to thank Worldpac and Worldpac Training Institute for, um, being the kind sponsor of, of the podcast.
[00:35:36] JeanAnn SaintGrace: They are our industry partners, and they offer, you know, both service on the parts side, but they also offer the Worldpac Training Institute, where there's a lot of great training. And I guess we could argue that offering somebody training, helping them to, to learn more, to become more valuable, to increase their earning potential is one way that we can help support them and improve their financial status.
[00:36:00] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So, um, even though, you know, we've gotta, we've gotta get the sponsors thanked, um, I think there's purpose here as well. So thank you to Worldpac and Worldpac Training Institute for being our partners here at Shop Talk Her Way. So to wrap up, and thank you for sticking with me here. I know this isn't easy to listen to, but I think it's important, and I wouldn't waste your time if I didn't.
[00:36:25] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, but I think we need to do better by our people. And, um, for those of us who are leaders in our industry, I think it's important that we, we, we lead. And sometimes being a servant leader means that we pick up the phone and we answer a call or we answer a DM and we offer the support that's necessary and do, do what we can do to help.
[00:36:53] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, so please, you know, keep an eye out, be on the lookout, right, for people who are challenged, who are-- might be suffering right under our noses and, and, and we might be the person who sees it and helps them. So as always, I encourage you to love your people until it's weird, to support them in their challenges, to help them find the help that they need if the help they need is outside of your skill set, um, but not to give up and not to, um, you know, just walk the other way thinking somebody else will figure it out.
[00:37:31] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um- And also if you're the person, if I'm talking to the person who is thinking that the only way out is a final exit, please don't think that. Please remember that there are voices, there are ears out here to hear you, and hands to help you, and you're not alone, and you're not the only one going through this, but we will find you the help that you need.
[00:37:55] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So with all of that being said, go out there, take care of your team, get your shop your way, and thank you again for listening to Shop Talk Her Way with me, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. But, uh, I appreciate you all, I love you all, and, uh, I wish you all the best. Have a great day