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This podcast is dedicated to changing the automotive industry for the better, one conversation at a time.
Whether you're a technician, vendor, business owner, or car enthusiast, we hope to inspire you to improve for your customers, your careers, your businesses, and your families.
Lucas Underwood 0:00
Okay, demony give us a which ones that one.
David Roman 0:03
That should be for right kill for Hi there. Yeah.
David Roman 0:08
I'll be like right now. Yeah, that'd be right on it is real close. Okay. Yeah. Well we tell that to people and they're like, Okay, I'll be real close anyway. So how's everybody doing? I know it's uncomfortable. My chin keeps hitting
Lucas Underwood 0:24
uncomfortable. I got hair on my chin so like I do this and it makes noise and then I like, get distracted. I
David Roman 0:31
know he wasn't rubbing his chin. Just mine. I wish there were episodes where you were like, yeah, there are episodes.
Lucas Underwood 0:40
Yeah, there definitely those episodes.
Lucas Underwood 0:44
Like Robert from Everybody Loves Raymond.
Lucas Underwood 0:48
The food is Jen.
David Roman 0:50
The mic dear.
David Roman 0:53
Oh, turn the audio up there.
Demeny Pollitt 0:56
Well, you those lights. Those are pretty. That's a pretty, pretty board. Is that yours? Yeah.
Lucas Underwood 1:03
Can you hear yourself?
Demeny Pollitt 1:05
Yeah, a little bit. I can hear myself. Good enough. Good job. There you go. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 1:12
It's like you know what you're doing? I know who would have thought I would not have thought that.
Demeny Pollitt 1:17
So Introduce yourself. My name is demony known each other for a long time now. It's It's pretty crazy. A lot of years. Yeah. So tell your story. David doesn't know your story. All right. I mean from like birth. Absolutely. I need all of the all of that. Like, because you got a really cool story from the way this shop started. Sure. Yeah. Where the shops? Yeah, that's pretty crazy. It is pretty good. Yeah, I like okay. So I went to school to be a tech. Previous to that I had worked in like social services, people with developmental disabilities, nannying, elder care. And I was always like, just so poor, and always just so exhausted. And my car was always breaking down any any money I saved went to fixing my piece of crap car, right? Can I swear on this? Of course, trigger on a piece of shit. Yes. Box. Yes. Yes. You know, while we're on that subject. Do you have a rental car? Yeah, I'm probably going to need a ride later. And pull back in the parking lot. David explains to me that we have one mile to empty. His How far is the nearest gas station? More than one mile?
Demeny Pollitt 2:40
Thanks, Dan. You're real good at that. That's, that's good. Good job. I try. He's a winner. I mean, way to keep it exciting. Yeah, to say it's kind of fun. I don't like to fill up the car as we come down the interstate. He's like, Hey, I just want you know, I'm sorry. We have to walk.
Demeny Pollitt 2:58
lectures, I never heard anyone.
Lucas Underwood 3:02
He's trying to keep us healthy. That's what this is all about. Don't the real the story here. Sorry.
Demeny Pollitt 3:08
I eventually, I couldn't afford my $200 a month rent without asking my parents for money. And I was like, It's time for me to grow up, go to school, I never went to college after high school, get a real job. And the only things that I felt like would keep me interested for more than six months, because I couldn't hold a job for longer than that. It just gets so bored. Psychology. I thought that would be like a cool mystery solving people every single day or fixing cars that also I mean, that was just a total mystery to me. I knew I didn't know the difference between a socket and a wrench. I knew nothing. And so I did some research, I found out psychology would take me about six years in school and becoming a tech would take me to so that was my decision.
Demeny Pollitt 4:02
So I went to school. And then as I slowly started to learn like parts of cars and systems and stuff. I started realizing like that I had been taken advantage of in the past and most I remember really specifically, this moment where we were looking at a I don't even know what it was some some car on a lift and the teacher showed us what a sway bar was. And we had learned what tie rod ends were and tie rods and I remembered years and years ago bringing my my piece of shit chip box in for like a tire changeover or something and the mechanic came out and said, Hey, come out to the parking lot. I want to show you something your car's really unsafe. So we got on our backs under the car and he grabbed this rod and he shook it back and forth and he said see that that should not move If that's your tie rod, your tie rod end. It's really dangerous. It's a serious safety issue. And I was like, he is moving it. I see it. That sounds like that's bad, right? I will pay all the money I have and then some. And looking at this car in school on the left, he was grabbing the sway bar. Oh, well, that's what it does. Yeah, moves just like it. He moved it. He was not showing me tie rod ends. And I realized the difference. I mean, okay, still got screwed over. I mean, that bar is supposed to move the way he moved it. So
David Roman 5:43
would have been really strong. If he was like, flopping that thing around.
Demeny Pollitt 5:48
That's true. You're right. I mean, maybe those bushings were gone. Yeah. I mean,
Lucas Underwood 5:54
it's not like a major safety.
David Roman 5:56
No, it's not. But it depends. Because like, if it's driving on. Yeah, if it's completely flopping around, you make a lane change on the interstate. That whole car is gonna start waving back and forth. I will say
Demeny Pollitt 6:10
he did have a desktop while it was a terrifying vehicle to drive.
Lucas Underwood 6:15
In the south. That's normal. To be fair,
David Roman 6:18
it was you're talking about? What are you even saying
Lucas Underwood 6:22
all these people show up? They're going to school, right in my hometown. And they show up and like they they worry about these things like death wobbles. I can't keep my car on the road. Well, I mean, that's a feature, right? Like, we
Demeny Pollitt 6:34
never makes it fun. Yeah, exactly. I
Lucas Underwood 6:36
mean, you turn the steering wheel a quarter this way and a quarter that way to stay in the middle of the lane. Yeah. That's called Robin.
Demeny Pollitt 6:43
I gotta say I was traveling around the country a couple years ago. And so in Vermont, we have state inspections, and they're a pain in the ass. You have to get them every year and you have to put 1000s of dollars
Lucas Underwood 6:53
in y'all do like real estate inspection. So
Demeny Pollitt 6:56
serious. Yeah, very sour safety inspections. Right. So I have a friend in North Carolina
David Roman 7:02
inspector think that they're not serious.
Lucas Underwood 7:05
Oh, you know what he does? What he does, he's the coolest cat ever. This dude is is as cool as all get out. If you need him. There's a shopping center down the road from my shop. And if if he's in the county, during any given time, you don't even have to call him you just show up to that shopping center. And he'll be sitting in that parking lot with his feet hanging out the window, with a cigar in his mouth and his patrol car. That is his life. It really does. He's awesome.
Demeny Pollitt 7:34
Do what is he doing
Lucas Underwood 7:36
the job description? job description. I swear to God, that's what he did. He came in the other day somebody somebody actually, I suspect someone complained about us because he said, I will shut him out. And never. I've never had somebody drive a car in a state inspection before. And I don't think it's right. We were entangled. And so he shows up with a sign and he's like, put this on the wall and casing by says anything and it like says we have to drive your car. Right? Like we. He's like, Yeah, most of them don't. If you got down the wall. They can't say anything about it. Can they? Okay, cool. All right. There you go. Yeah. So like, Yeah, we don't have your you got real safety inspect. Yeah,
Demeny Pollitt 8:21
I mean, they're serious. And my friend who lives in Nashville was like, Oh, you guys in your state inspections. They're ridiculous. I can't believe you guys go through that. And I was driving down to North Carolina. And I got it was probably Virginia. Yeah. And I have never seen from their south. I have never seen so many dead cars on the side of the road. Yeah. Like, they are everywhere. Yeah.
Lucas Underwood 8:46
It's crazy. It's crazy. And they just leave them there. Why? I don't know. What did they were?
Lucas Underwood 8:53
I don't understand how long do they stay there? Hey,
Lucas Underwood 8:55
I guarantee you if I if I 24 hours, you're in Kansas, that's three days in North Carolina, you got three days. And so that is a lot of cars that are breaking down all the time. Well, so here's the thing is like when I if I had taken a video when I left for the airport, and I took one when I went back, you'd see the same cars that are just sitting there on the side of the road.
Demeny Pollitt 9:15
I mean, if they're the same cars, that makes me feel a little better. Yeah, they really clearing them out every three days. I mean, that's crazy amount of dangerous cars that are just dying on the highway.
Lucas Underwood 9:26
Listen, we've got we've got the dangerous cars, okay. We're pros. We have to be proud of Yes, absolutely. And our safety inspections are those it looks like Roy Jennings is gonna kill me. Roy is the local college automotive guy for the Caldwell community college and he teaches inspection class. And he's like, you know, 90% is is Inspector discretion. He's like, you just don't want to be on the 10% that is the license and theft. discretion. I don't know which is which but hope you figure it out. Thanks. Really?
Demeny Pollitt 10:06
That's some good guidance. Got it.
Lucas Underwood 10:10
So, so you got ripped off?
Demeny Pollitt 10:14
Oh, yeah. Okay, so I realized that that was probably not the only time that had happened to me. And to be fair, it was a junker. And maybe, you know, maybe he misspoke, whatever. But whatever I paid for it was not what I thought I was paying for. Yeah, and I, and I didn't understand why it was being done. That reason being given to me was not necessarily the actual reason. Or maybe it was. And it was just confusing. It made me realize that I never really knew what was going on previous to that. And I thought, at the time, I still didn't know enough to fix my own car was still the very beginning, and still had a piece of shit. So I was always looking for my own mechanic. And I thought, I wish I knew of a woman technician somewhere for some reason, I feel like I could trust a woman more than I could trust a man and I would drive a great distance to take my car to her. And then I thought, I bet a lot of other women feel the same way. I'm going to start my own shop, I'm going to start an all girl garage. And I'm going to make $10 million which was my plan until I started looking for tax. And I realized that was an impossibility. But from that point on, that was my goal was to open my own shop. So I took all the business classes I could every decision I made, was informed by the fact that I was going to start my own shop. And I worked for a couple years after I graduated through school and then graduated as a tech. And my first job. It was actually I was really excited about it. Once I graduated my first job. It was maintaining a fleet of delivery vehicles. And it was an older guy, who was really excited to have a new technician and apprentice. And I was really excited. We got along really well. But he was a toucher. Not, he wasn't like grabbing my boobs or my butter or anything but you'd like go by me and put his hand on my waist or there was a point where I like I needed some help underneath the dash with something and he came and he just left his hand on my thigh. And it made me really uncomfortable. And I, I was too young and to experience. I didn't know how to say anything. I didn't know what to do. And so instead of being like, Dude, stop touching me, which was like, All I really needed to say definitely. I just turned into a total bitch. And I made our work environment really unpleasant. And I started like, leaving as early as I could. And I don't know, I made it a really unpleasant place. And so he I believe he started looking for reasons to fire me. Yeah, so they did, they fired me. And they pulled me in. And they told me that I was a safety hazard. And I didn't have the maturity or like the knowledge to look and see what had really happened. And I really believed that I was a safety hazard. And I thought, This is my first job after graduation. There's no way I'm going to ever get another job. My only reference is going to tell them I'm a safety hazard. I can never, I can never get another job. And I was just utterly devastated. And I didn't. I just lost all my self confidence. I thought I was done. I thought I had just wasted all this time in school. And during all this, I had been going to women, business owners, network meetings and meeting all these women business owners just getting ready. Just you know, because I still wanted to open my own shop and I met a woman who was the her job was to help women. She worked for Key Bank. And her job was to help women start businesses, essentially. And so she said, Well, why don't you instead of just sort of giving up Why don't you go and work on the adviser side for a while. So I did that I worked as I worked as an advisor at a dealership for about two years. It was possibly the worst job I've ever had. It was a nightmare, but it was for sure the best job I could have had for starting my business. Yeah, I mean, just learning the miseries of it still off right is horrible and it was. So it was a dealership, but it was also a used car superstore. So people were buying, they would sell cars that should not have been sold that
Lucas Underwood 15:09
should have been scrapped or should have been, like, completely redone or something.
Demeny Pollitt 15:14
And they would not tell them that it wouldn't be under warranty. And so I got to deal with all the angriest because I just remembered the best thing it comes to where ever said to me it was around Christmas time and she bought it was an as is she bought it as is it was like an old caravan and it was falling apart. But also they did not tell her how bad it was. So she came back. She wanted us to fix it. And I had to tell her like you bought it as is we're not fixing it for you. She said, I hope you and your children go to hell for Christmas.
David Roman 15:54
Just for Christmas.
Demeny Pollitt 15:56
Come back after. It was so good. That he's crazy. And I feel terrible for her. I mean, it sucked. But also that was Yeah, but that in my pocket.
Lucas Underwood 16:07
Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 16:12
So I did that. And then I did that for two years. And then I left and I opened Garlington.
Lucas Underwood 16:19
So cool. So tell us a little bit about the journey. Because you had you had some business owner training, we met through the coach we were using at the time, right? Yep. And I've got to see the shop. Amazing shop. Beautiful community. Right. And like the shop is awesome. Yeah. And like really cool culture. Right? Like, it's, we've been in quite a few shops, but her shops a lot like mine or yours. Right? Like where it's laid back. It's chill, it's, you know, it's not we do a lot of touching at our shop.
Demeny Pollitt 16:54
You know? Well, now that I'm the boss, of course, I do a lot of touch. I mean, that's where you do.
Lucas Underwood 16:59
Right? Well, you know, David brought up this really interesting fact. And he's like, we were talking about, I can't remember maybe it was in our new group or something that somebody said something about hiring a woman and they're like, I'm so afraid to hire a woman and David's like, what I mean, what do you what do you? What do you mean? Are you hiring? Trying to start a relationship like is that people
David Roman 17:27
are afraid of that. I don't know what their deal is.
Lucas Underwood 17:29
I mean, like, I don't know. I mean, I've never hired somebody man. Like, I'm gonna hire me. You know what I'm saying? Like, what's up? What
Demeny Pollitt 17:36
do you think that they're afraid of their lack of control or the unknowable nature of women?
David Roman 17:44
unknowable need? I don't know how else to have friends and wives. Faith daughters. Whoo. It's
Demeny Pollitt 17:51
gotta be I don't know what
David Roman 17:53
it is. People deranged?
Lucas Underwood 17:57
I mean, I don't. It doesn't make sense to me. I don't know. It's weird. Like, I never resist weird.
David Roman 18:06
I don't get it either.
Lucas Underwood 18:07
I mean, aside from Eric, like, I don't put my hands on people that work for me, right?
David Roman 18:14
He's touchy with Eric.
Lucas Underwood 18:15
Yeah, it's bad. It's bad. It's real bad.
Demeny Pollitt 18:18
I mean, is it worth it?
Lucas Underwood 18:19
No.
Demeny Pollitt 18:21
Maybe you should stop. It's not like,
David Roman 18:25
oh, man like that.
Lucas Underwood 18:27
It's the it's the I got him good the other day. He, okay. I gotta tell his really great story. He goes through them poor Eric. He goes through the hallway, right, like walking out of the office into the shop. And he walks through, and he just like, lets one rip right through there. And I open the door and I'm walking into the shop. And I'm like, Oh, my God, that is terrible. What is that? And like, everybody in the shop is like, dry him. And he's like, it's not that bad guys. And he's like, you know, walk around, almost like he's offended. He always brags about this, and now he's offended by it. So we decided to repeat the story. No. So Terry, right.
David Roman 19:07
So he doesn't touch he he in inflicts psychological damage to these people. So I don't know what's
Demeny Pollitt 19:14
worse. Is that better? Yeah.
Lucas Underwood 19:16
So he, he walks past mental scarring. This has mental scarring. So Terry walks in, he's like, man, he's like, you gotta get him back. But none of us want to, like take the risk. He's like, you know, you're the only person here that everyone is afraid of. And I'm like, You're afraid of me. He's like, I'm not playing a practical joke on you. Like, I know, there's consequences for that. Eric kicked you in the nuts one time, four years ago, and he gets kicked every morning when he comes into work. Do you kick him every morning? Some? I mean, maybe Eric walks into the tears he hands me this bottle of that liquid Aspray and Eric walks in and dude, I just don't
Demeny Pollitt 19:56
know what what is liquid air spray? Please. He's telling me it's not just like fart
David Roman 20:03
fart spray. Yeah, it's just it's
Lucas Underwood 20:04
just extremely Val grow extremely foul. I mean, it's, it's bad.
David Roman 20:11
I'm horrified. It's like you've seen the you've seen the the, the Amazon boxes, the guy engineers to throw glitter and fart spray. Oh my God. Have you ever seen that? No. So this guy was wanted to get back at people that stole packages off of Portus. So we decided to design a glitter bomb, that when they opened it terrible, it would throw glitter all over their house, and he wanted to up it in the habit start spraying out for it spray. So he's designed five or six times now where it's like a certain amount of fart spray. He's got cameras in there. So it'll start to take pictures of them. As soon as they open the the thing. And he kept changing the design because they would open the box, it would then start to like go nuts, it would start flashing lights and saying three, two, and they didn't know what was going to happen. So they would put the cover back on. So let me design these little legs to kick out and prevent the box closed back up. It was pretty impressive.
Lucas Underwood 21:15
Like he he engineered the heck out of this thing. And they're still making them. Do you
David Roman 21:19
still make and right? You don't want to so?
Demeny Pollitt 21:22
Yeah, that's beautiful. I like his determination.
David Roman 21:25
Well, now he's done it for you to views, right? Okay.
Lucas Underwood 21:29
The best one yet is like you've seen those scammer payback videos of like, where the scammers will steal the money. Well, they started tracking them and they figure out where they were and they would like release boxes of cockroaches in their office and they would like it's pretty crazy. If you ever get a chance to like go
Demeny Pollitt 21:44
watch them. That's fun. Like that whole. I'll go down that YouTube hole. Yeah,
Lucas Underwood 21:48
it's terrible. But yeah, so Eric, Eric. Yeah. For Eric. Now I'm kind of feeling bad for Eric, you should feel
David Roman 21:55
bad. I have tried to make you feel bad for what to do. Poor Eric. He puts up with it though. I just want to know how he gets back to you. He writes up 45 Page dissertations on diagnosing bad sparkplug wires on a Buick
Lucas Underwood 22:11
and is still wrong. Is still wrong at the end of it. So it wasn't the wires. I don't know if it was the wires or not. After she got done reading his essay. She was like, I think I probably just should scrap the car. And I'm like, No, you're probably right.
David Roman 22:28
It was a Buick, older Buick that still has sparkplug wires.
Lucas Underwood 22:34
It's a car that that you had to pour two quarts of oil in to get it in the shop. Oh geez. And then you had worked two quarts of oil back in it to get it out and see
David Roman 22:41
one of those old Buick because it doesn't burn the oil. It deletes the oil all over the motor mounts and then the engine kind of sits caddywhompus that is also a feature. What's the what's the caddywhompus mountain word for saigopal psi goggle
Demeny Pollitt 22:56
psi goggle? Yeah, I mean, that's,
Lucas Underwood 22:58
yeah, sounds like that. SolidWorks caddywhompus.
David Roman 23:02
Do you guys have your own language in Vermont?
Demeny Pollitt 23:05
I don't think for sideways. I mean, you
David Roman 23:08
have weird runs. There's there's a whole vocabulary. They've got these words that just I don't really airy
Lucas Underwood 23:17
means it's windy,
Demeny Pollitt 23:19
airy. I mean, there's a lot of air going on. Yeah, I like it. So he
Lucas Underwood 23:23
makes it okay.
David Roman 23:24
That's weird, dude.
Demeny Pollitt 23:27
I mean, I'm sure Vermont does. And I just, I mean, we like wicked. I use that all the time while
David Roman 23:35
Something New England. Sure I
Demeny Pollitt 23:37
grew up near Boston. Yeah, I don't know. I bet they're there. And I just don't realize it. No, yeah. Sorry for being so boring. How'd
David Roman 23:45
you escape the accent? Oh, I
Demeny Pollitt 23:48
moved around a lot as a kid. So I didn't move To Vermont. I went to high school there. And then moved to Burlington where I am now in 2000. So I had my accent pretty well established by then. California, then Boston.
David Roman 24:05
Okay. And I think it's in the genes. There.
Lucas Underwood 24:10
It is. Well, so, like, tell us the story from the shop from that point forward. Right. And a like, why did you kind of tell us where you were when you decided to get a coach? Right? Because there was a point when, like, things didn't exactly seem like they were going like you thought they should go?
Demeny Pollitt 24:29
Yeah, so I started it in 2009. Right after, so I kids through 2008 I was sort of ramping up to starting it writing my business plan. And my mom and dad had recently separated and I was like, Well, why don't you come up and help me start this? Keep me company. Yeah. And so she came up like as as like everything was fine. falling apart. The recession was beginning. And she in the beginning, we thought, Oh, you'll just be here, maybe one two days a week to give me some support. You'll be here for six months. Yeah. And then you can, you know, go back to Massachusetts. And after, like one month, I was like, Oh, you can never leave and work here. You need to quit your other part time job because you're here full time now. And so she and I, we just built it up pretty slowly. Started out with I think just one tech or our lifts weren't even they didn't arrive in time. So we opened and I had no lifts. We were working on our backs, right? And then, anyway, we slowly grew and grew. And my mother and I do not work well together. And over the years, it evolved so that we were each working two and a half days a week so that we wouldn't like Yeah. So she would work Monday through Wednesday morning, and then I would work we'd overlap for an hour and talk. I know. I'll start that again. Sorry. I gotta keep my hands down.
David Roman 26:22
Well, as long as you're talking to the mic, yeah, you can
Lucas Underwood 26:25
just keep knocks the mics over. Like, we got a whole bunch of new equipment once in like with literally within the first five or six minutes. He's like moving his hands and flip something over.
David Roman 26:37
onto your laptop. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 26:39
Oh, no. Oh, but I was imagining like a can of soda. I don't know.
David Roman 26:44
Mike, it was my, these mics are heavy. They'll hurt somebody
Demeny Pollitt 26:49
with a hit. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Okay, so,
David Roman 26:54
Mark. Yeah, we
Demeny Pollitt 26:55
hated each other, we would overlap and our we working two and a half days a week. And like the hour we overlapped would be spent in the office yelling at each other. And then I had a mental breakdown, I didn't have a mental breakdown, but I had hyperbaric primary hyperparathyroidism, which I was bedridden for six months. And I was able to come in for my two and a half days a week. But that was literally the only energy I had, it was all the energy I had. And it also I got it fixed. But it led to like major depression. And so my mom said, you need to take time off. You need to like go away from the business. I'll keep it running for you. And go away for two years and figure your shit out. And come back. And then if you want to keep running it or if you never want to come back, we'll figure out what to do. Which was, I mean, thank God.
Lucas Underwood 27:59
Yeah, I mean, that is like, y'all may have been yelling at each other. But dude, that is yeah, that's legit. Good
Demeny Pollitt 28:05
mom. Yeah, yeah. 100%. And so she did, she ran it. And then I came back after two years, and she was like, I am done. Like, I'm out. This is my retirement. Yeah. So you can pay me for two more years. And then we'll figure out what my like fee is how you know how to so anyway, so she was out. And now was in. I came back in 2016, I think. And once she laughed, she had made some changes that really affected the business that I I was having a hard time sort of overcoming and putting back together and
Lucas Underwood 28:53
what were those changes? What were the things that one of the
Demeny Pollitt 28:57
things was that she one of our texts she put on salary? In order he was an incredible producer and an incredible diagnostic diagnostician.
David Roman 29:08
Hold on What happened to all girl garage?
Demeny Pollitt 29:11
Oh, yeah. Oh, so as soon as I started looking for texts, I realized there are no there are very few women out there. And I like 1% of them. I was like, I guess that's not ever gonna happen in my dreams. So
David Roman 29:26
I have had what about the chop in Pennsylvania?
Demeny Pollitt 29:29
I know there is one shop out there. I don't know how. It's amazing and I'm jealous.
David Roman 29:34
It's awesome. She has all female mechanics, right? Yeah,
Demeny Pollitt 29:38
it has been it's been done. I just never
David Roman 29:43
liked the area. So who wants to move
Demeny Pollitt 29:45
To Vermont? It is really cold. It's really cold hay in
Lucas Underwood 29:48
the summer months. It's
Demeny Pollitt 29:49
nice, beautiful. It's I love it. I will never live anywhere else but you have to like
Lucas Underwood 29:55
the cold. I like
David Roman 29:56
to call it just because she lives
Lucas Underwood 29:59
I hate Cold. Yeah, I hate the cold. It sucks.
David Roman 30:03
I've seen your snow drifts.
Lucas Underwood 30:04
Yeah, I'm look, the minute that I can move to Florida. I've got it figured out. I don't like those super hot and I don't like to super close on them. So instead what I'm gonna do
David Roman 30:16
is I'm a mountain folk, mountain folk don't leave the mountain don't leave, I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna try to leave. And then they're like, you just need to say I'm not leaving on the mountain. And then they go back.
Lucas Underwood 30:26
You see, look, I've got that figured out though. I have it. I've got it all planned out. I'm gonna buy myself a winter shop in Florida.
David Roman 30:32
It'll only be open in the winter would you want to headaches and so yeah,
Demeny Pollitt 30:35
well, I if you just buy a winter house in Florida,
David Roman 30:40
and then just manage it like pulutan him.
Lucas Underwood 30:44
That's a good idea. But see, at least then I've got an excuse. Look, problem is I get super bored. Oh, yeah, I want to have like all kinds of things going on. If I just had a house where I went to Florida and sat there you go crazy. I wouldn't be there any. Jimmy YOU
David Roman 30:57
can stress from 1000 miles away or whatever. Shopware
Lucas Underwood 31:01
is pretty useful for that. It really is. Is that what you're over here freaking out about like you're texting furiously?
David Roman 31:08
No, I forgot to pay for the rear windshield. Third, where glass on a Malibu and he's like, Hey, what card Do you want me to use? And like, use this card? Sorry, I forgot to pay for it this morning.
Lucas Underwood 31:22
Okay. So. So, you, you come back and you take over for your mom? Yeah. She's got a minimum salary.
Demeny Pollitt 31:31
Yeah, she put her technician on salary, basically, to keep him. She also decided to call on the shop foreman to give him sort of like a sense of ownership. Yeah, I think and that just, I mean, it really affected. He was never He never stopped working. I mean, he was billing 50 hours a week regularly. So it was okay. But it's just not how I would do it. And it sort of like tied my hands with other texts. And, and, and I
David Roman 32:05
honestly, the salary thing or the he's now a shop, it was a salary
Demeny Pollitt 32:09
and the shop foreman thing. He did not want to be a shop foreman, he didn't want the responsibilities of it. He did like taking care of the shop in terms of like making sure we had the enough of the kinds of oils we had or letting me know when there was a mess that needed to be cleaned up the shop, you know, but he didn't want the responsibility of overseeing the other technicians. He didn't want to. He was he was a born and raised dealer tech, you know, for 23 years, he worked at the Ford dealership, and he liked billing hours. He liked putting out work. Yeah, he didn't want to be a shop foreman. But he was a shop foreman. And there I couldn't take that away from him. If I took that away from him. He would have left he was he's a very sensitive man. And that would have meant
David Roman 32:58
something to me. Sounds Hold on. isn't worth the responsibility. But I want the title. Yes. But just don't hold me accountable to it.
Demeny Pollitt 33:05
Yeah. Yeah, he got to sort of make up what the shot Foreman meant to him. And it didn't mean a lot. But there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't I couldn't undo what was already done. I felt like you know, so. And then there were other changes that I don't actually remember. But I remember coming back and being like, what do I do here. And so the there was that that I was dealing with. And then the other part was just, I didn't have anyone to talk to anymore about what I was doing. And like MIT. So while we were at each other's throats, we would also every day, or every Tuesday, we would go out to dinner, we were the rule was we had to finish a full drink. And then we could talk about so once we were a little softer, we would talk about the shop and and make these hard decisions together and bounce ideas off of each other. And I didn't have that anymore. And I felt really alone and really lost. And I didn't know how to sort of steer things in another direction and make things grow the way I wanted to without someone to bounce that off of Yeah. So that's when I started looking for a coach, right. And I found Rick and I, I actually I went to one of his classes of vision. And I was like, Well, I liked what he said, but I don't want him as a coach. Right? He's not for me, right? And then he taught I think, Amy Matt net was actually like, no, no, no, no. Rick's great, you need to talk to Rick. So I talked to Rick, and I was like, I want one on one. And Rick was like, I'm not doing one on one. I'm doing group coaching. You should join in. He talked me into joining. Right. And that's where I met you. Yeah. And that was it was excellent. It was great.
Lucas Underwood 34:55
And we have like our little group of like a family. Yeah, right for a long time. Yeah. It was really special. And so like, what were the challenges you were facing when it was like, Hey, I've got a I mean, I know like, you felt alone you felt but But what were the things because it was like from that point forward? And I'm gonna think it was Rick, I think it was you. Right. But from that point forward, it was like exponential growth. Yeah, it just seemed like things fell together perfectly and things just started happening.
Demeny Pollitt 35:25
I, I am a person I really like. What's got structure? I love structure. I love rules. And I. So I like to do really risky things. But it I like to have someone say you should do this really risky thing. Yeah. So like, I would come up with this idea that I really wanted to do. But it was very risky. And just having someone else say, yeah, go ahead and do it. That made it okay for me for whatever reason I needed like the permission, I need it. Yeah, the permission. And then I also having Rick say, what I'm trying to think like the parking lot scheduling method, like, stop having a car every hour for the tech, just schedule for cars per day protect, just do it. Just do it to me stop doing your own way. And having someone say, yeah, just do that. I'll try anything. I tried it. And it was the best thing that ever happened, I think during that, and also changing the way that we brought Carson in the day. So looking at every single car and doing a an evaluation before we did any work on anything. Getting those evaluations done making estimates talking to customers. And then at the end of the day during the work, those two changes. That is what caused the exponential growth.
Lucas Underwood 36:53
Yeah. And that's what happened for me too, right. And like, and the other thing is like, so a bunch of people come up to your shop, they all get to see it from the outside looking in, and they see it from that 30,000 feet. And so like there's a lot of ability to share perspective. Yeah. And like your feedback based on what they see. Yeah. Right. And it was big for the people that win, right? Because we saw things that you were doing that we were doing, we're like, Oh, I see that from this perspective. And I
Demeny Pollitt 37:19
can see why that's not working. Yeah. And also, I found it's that it's that having another person to bounce things off things off of hearing the thoughts that I was having, or the doubts that I was having, or the struggles in my, in my head that I was having, hearing another person verbalize exactly what was going on inside of me. Yeah. And people having the exact same problems. I was same fear. So it was fantastic. And it also for whatever reason, leads you led me to a way to overcome those things like oh, okay, this is not my own personal, shameful thing. This is something that everyone experiences. So how do we get over it? Let's move forward. That was really helpful. And and having that person or someone else in the group say, Oh, this is how I got over that this is what made that work was really helpful.
Lucas Underwood 38:19
And so now you've kind of moved forward from all that. Sort of,
Demeny Pollitt 38:23
I'm still doing one on one with Rick, I never stopped doing that. So I, I transitioned from the groups to one on one, I felt like I wanted more directed help from him. The group, it was really it was that family and and the only reason I stayed in so long was because I cared so much about everyone. And I still do I mean, I love everyone. And I I want to know what's going on in their lives and their shops. But the group also a lot of times was didn't have, you know, we would meet and it would have nothing to do with what was going on in my shop and I may really need help with something specific and no one else was having that issue. So why why bother talking about it. So I really needed I felt like I really needed someone to deal with my specific issues. I'm a little selfish I wanted me to. And so the other thing that happened was I had how much of a star Do you guys want? This isn't live. It's all recorded, right? Yeah. Okay, so I had
David Roman 39:35
I don't edit these things. It's gonna be like seven. The finish. That's it? Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 39:46
So I hired this employee. He was a technician, incredible technician. His first week there he built 60 hours. I mean, he was so good so fast. So Red Flag beer. Yeah, I learned.
Lucas Underwood 40:02
Turns out like, that's where she's going with this bro.
Demeny Pollitt 40:04
I didn't realize that. I mean, that wasn't totally the problem. But I was just so happy with him. And I really I liked him. And he, at one point, he came to me and he sort of he said he was having a really hard time personally really struggling. And he was very emotional. And we had a long conversation where I understood that he may that he was maybe suicidal. And he asked for some time off, and I, I take having had my own struggles with mental illness and the effect it had on my life and the gift I was given by my mom to take that time and, and get it figured out. I was like, absolutely take that time off. And I'm going to be checking in on you every day, I'm going to be calling you every single day. And if you don't answer, I'm driving to your house, and I'm checking on you. But yeah, to do what you need to do take care of yourself. And so he he took some time off, I called him every single day. He I also said he wasn't at his one year yet. But I felt like he really I didn't want him to be without pay because he was having mental difficulties. So I gave him a week's vacation. Or I just, you know, I gave him a week's pay. And I was gonna count it against his when, you know, when he came up on a year, like a month, a month later or something. And he came back. And he came back and gave us notice. And he turns out he had spent that time partying and looking for another job.
Lucas Underwood 41:58
That's exact. Yes.
Demeny Pollitt 42:02
And then he didn't work his two weeks. He just didn't show up one day, I feel probably better off. Agreed. Agreed. I totally agree. And I was just so mad. And so when I paid him out. I said, Well, I gave you a week's pay for this time off, but you hadn't earned it yet. So that was an advance on your vacation that you didn't actually get yet. So I'm not going to pay you for the last week you worked. We can say it was an advance on that week's pay. Which is technically legal. Right. I was pissed. Yeah. Yeah. And so he got real, real angry, and filed a complaint, a labor complaint. And I, you know, responded, and I won bla bla bla, in the meantime, I discovered that he was, I mean, understandably, really, really angry and saying really nasty things about me. And about me as a boss on social media. Yeah. And it just devastated me. I, I wasn't it like, it affected me so strongly. And it really knocked me for a loop. And it made me realize that like, I was not enjoying being a manager anymore. And in fact, I hated running the business. I was just, I was miserable. And I wasn't, I probably wasn't very good at the management aspect of it. And so I realized I really needed to make a change. Actually, not even I was like, I'm done. Yeah, I'm walking away. And I said to one of my texts, my lead tech and my manager. He goes, I'm walking away. Do you want the business? I'm out. I'm done. I need to do either. Yeah, just, yes.
David Roman 44:11
Awesome. I'm walking away.
Demeny Pollitt 44:17
I was like, it's yours. Or I'm just gonna shut it down. Because I can't I cannot do it anymore. And my manager was like, Yeah, I'll run it. And Rick, fought with me and convinced me not to walk away. But I did step back. And so from that point on, he has been helping me figure out how to transition and handover all the power to Susan, my manager, right. And she is now running it this summer. I had to go to California for three months and she ran it no problem. That's also
Lucas Underwood 44:54
awesome, really, operationally.
David Roman 44:57
So she just she getting up chunk of the business, no social revenue, or she just she just hang on owners draw, how's that work?
Demeny Pollitt 45:07
Nope. So it's still mine. It I, it didn't like I didn't actually transfer ownership or anything like that, it sort of evolved because I and I still go in two days a week. But she, when I hired her, I did say, I am looking for someone who can run the business for me. And like, I want to be able to go away for six months, and not worry about the business. So she knew coming in, that her job was to run the business. And I basically, we have, the idea is that once the business starts growing, she's going to start getting any profits from that, or, you know, that will be her. Well, she'll
David Roman 45:53
slash hold you that set.
Demeny Pollitt 45:55
You know, now that we're talking about it, I don't think we ever laid it out. So I don't know. And that is definitely something we should do.
David Roman 46:04
Maybe in writing? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You told me this. No, I didn't. Yes, you did.
Demeny Pollitt 46:10
No. I mean, she really just stepped up and started actually doing the match. Because up until that point, she had just been doing service advising. And like, when I couldn't come in, she would sort of run the place without me. So instead, she stepped back, and we hired another service advisor to replace her. So now she's full on managing it, rather than in her salary, she got a better salary. Absolutely. And so her Her goal is to open up another shop, or first a larger shop, and then other shops. And my idea, and it isn't in writing should be your right. Is that I'm making, I'm making enough to support myself and I was ready to walk away with with nothing. So as long as I can keep making a salary that supports my lifestyle, I'm fine with that. anything extra? It goes to the shop. However, Susan decides is fair, because she gets to make those decisions now. Which has also been hard, like learning how to say,
Lucas Underwood 47:21
Go hands off. Yeah, yeah. Well, and so the catalyst for this is interesting to me. Because I got a Facebook message last night. And so you toggle
David Roman 47:32
on Hold on, hold on. Scott, I gotta ask this question again. What happens when she decides she wants to change the name and doesn't want to call it Burlington garage and wants to call it? Joe's auto?
Demeny Pollitt 47:47
I'm okay with that. Okay, so So for the first time, this is I think this was about two years ago that this happened. For the first time, I have started having to remind myself that I was just going to walk away, and that I was ready to let it all go. And so these things, they don't actually matter to me. It hasn't mattered. I haven't even thought that way. Recently, I mean, some little part of my cold dead heart has become reattached to it recently. But I want to not care. I don't care, as long as it keeps being successful. And if it doesn't, then I'll
David Roman 48:30
well I guess that's sort of the problem, though, is, so let's say she, let's say she, she makes it wildly successful. Actually, she yells it out, right. And she's looking at the p&l. And she says, I could have this extra chunk of money coming in that I could use to expand. But instead I'm handing it over to this person who by own her own admittance doesn't care, right. She doesn't care about change the name and the layout of the shop and the location and hours and she didn't care about anything. But I gotta keep paying this money out. Just because she happened to have the name on the whatever the business registration. Yeah, business license. Do you think at some point, that's going to cause a little bit of animosity? Right there.
Demeny Pollitt 49:23
That, okay. I think that were she to significantly change the way the business ran, or the name. I think there would be a really in depth discussion before it got to that point, because,
David Roman 49:42
well, let's say she doesn't make these wholesale changes. Let's just say that you blows it up. Okay. There's now three Burlington garages in the area. And she's she's raking with every month. She's having to pay it out this chunk of money that she could keep or keeping the business or use for expansion and she's Looking at this expense line? Yeah, like we all do, we all look at the p&l and see this random expense line and start questioning whether we should keep paying this out. For me, it's Texas. I question.
Lucas Underwood 50:15
Okay, let's be clear, he doesn't pay those I do eventually,
David Roman 50:17
dear. Otherwise, it'd be in jail.
Lucas Underwood 50:19
When they show up, eventually, I
David Roman 50:21
will lock the door. If I call you if I start tapping the back door, like, hey, I need a place to stay. You know what happened anyway. So we'll look at the expense line, and we go, why do I have this? I'm just asking, like, if it were, if I were her, and I blow this thing up. And she wouldn't take it on. If she thought she wasn't going to blow it up. You see what I'm saying? Like, she didn't think she was gonna grow this thing and double the revenue and the years that she wouldn't take it on. So she's looking at it. Like, I can blow this up. I can really run with this. And now she's looking at this expense line going. This is not bringing value to the business. Yeah. How does that conversation go?
Demeny Pollitt 51:07
I don't know. I have no idea. In reality. I have no idea. I think
David Roman 51:13
let's play it out. Yeah. Hey, I'd like to.
Demeny Pollitt 51:17
Okay, see you. That's fine. You can't because I own the business. Yeah. But the reality is, she can go start her own business if she wants to.
Lucas Underwood 51:30
She's really the name of the business at this point. Yeah, right.
Demeny Pollitt 51:32
Yeah. So she can
David Roman 51:33
She's the face of the business. She's the name of the business. Right?
Lucas Underwood 51:37
Well, yeah, that's what I should have said. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 51:39
I mean, I think I think that would be her option. And my so her option, her best option, if she doesn't want to keep paying me is to go and start her own business, probably somewhere warmer, because she would love to be somewhere warmer. And my option is to say, Okay, fuck it. That's the end of the business. Or I'm going to find someone else and train them to do it. Or I'm going to do it myself. That's would you?
Lucas Underwood 52:05
Would you would you say her? What do you say her telephone number?
Demeny Pollitt 52:09
Don't you dare, I will end you
David Roman 52:16
don't do any of the things that you said. We just go Hey, make sure it doesn't catch on fire. But if it does call us when we leave.
Demeny Pollitt 52:24
You guys are so helpful.
David Roman 52:26
Yeah. Well, that's what we do. I feel I feel she has made me feel bad. She has made me feel bad. How like, well, because I feel like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Like, I don't know what I do all day. I don't know Ron, anything like I show up. I pay some bills.
Lucas Underwood 52:48
It's full. I could do much in the same boat.
David Roman 52:52
I'm pretty well, no, you metal he metals. I don't metal. If I do metal, I usually cause problems. And then they get mad at me. And they're like, Oops. And then I distract my mental and distract. And then I pay some bills and leave. Yeah, I don't.
Demeny Pollitt 53:08
I mean, that's what I do. The two days I go in I if there's like some kind of big disaster happening, I deal with that. Or if there's a project, she just can't go get to I'll do that. And I pay some bills and I leave. So I'm also a sounding board for her. I don't know how long that will last. But, you know, I have institutional knowledge that she does not yet have. You know, I am not very valuable.
David Roman 53:39
Well, that's what I say. i Is that how it's supposed to be.
Demeny Pollitt 53:45
I mean, oh, that's a good question.
David Roman 53:48
So here's, I couldn't do a Vinny lucido and that was that dude took off for like, Bally's. He's been gone. And he's like, Hey, I just checked in with my manager. Three months later, everything's fine. I'm gonna go back to to Belize to meditating on top of mountain. Isn't his brother still running it? No knows brother bound. Oh, he
Lucas Underwood 54:14
just started another shop. He just had another shop. Yeah, he went now he was gonna go live in a van. Yeah, he's decided he's gonna start another shop. I think what do you do to really get along? Well, I mean, this is.
David Roman 54:27
I'm just saying like, that's a terrible idea. Why would you want to open another shop?
Lucas Underwood 54:34
So So here's the thing that I want to touch on. Right? Because we were talked about the message that I got last night. You had a message last night on Facebook, right? Remember that?
Demeny Pollitt 54:43
No, you were interrupted. You didn't get through it.
Lucas Underwood 54:46
Let's hear this message for a while. It used to
David Roman 54:50
interrupt. Oh, I'm sure trails off. Boring topics.
Lucas Underwood 54:56
lets you keep
David Roman 54:57
redirect. Yeah, let's redirect back to something be more interesting.
Lucas Underwood 55:01
Long story short, he asked me says you guys should do a podcast on how internet reviews have influenced or to do with anything. I'm not there yet. And so he was talking about the fact that he got a one star review. Okay, right. And that sucks, right so it does. And so I think for people like us, like we're really bought into that David, he hates people he like really hates people so if they leave him review he's like, hate them. I they suck it's terrible. You don't care if you get a bad review you'd like
David Roman 55:37
to do why would I? Why would I not care? I don't want my ratings to tank but it's your time and find
Demeny Pollitt 55:44
your heart or your stomach when you get it.
David Roman 55:47
i What bothers me is the injustice. So I have done exactly I have done
Demeny Pollitt 55:52
my Soul Shriven.
David Roman 55:55
No, no, no, no, I have I have done everything right. I have done right by this person I have done right by this person. And they leave me a one star review. And there's nothing I can do about it. Yeah, the what bothers me Xeon justice like this isn't right. How do you sleep at night as a dirtbag? That thing leaves me a one star review as though I screwed you over. If I screw the person over. Okay, I deserved it. I don't screw people over. Like I go out of my way to not screw them over to my detriment. Yeah, yeah, I, I put my business at risk to make sure I don't screw somebody over
Demeny Pollitt 56:35
name, but it hurts that. People don't see that. That's what hurts me. That's what bothers me the most is I work so hard.
David Roman 56:42
But it's not even know like, for a lot of people. I'm not saying you. But for a lot of April's like I tried. He's talking. No, no, I'm saying like, I get this all the time. It's like, I tried to not forget to tighten the lug nuts. It's like, okay, I'm sure you did. You tried. But at the end of the day, the lug nuts are loose, they're loose and the wheel fell off. And now I'm I've got a $5,000 bill and somebody who thinks I tried to kill them, right. Are we gonna do about this? Right? Like wardrobe? Nobody flippin cares that you tried. Nobody cares, because you did at the end of the day. Yeah. I don't try. I'm telling you. I make sure that this person is not screwed over. I got a one star review from a guy. He followed me through all the review platform of them. Yep, I've had, he brings me this vehicle. And he says I've got I've been approved by snap. I've got like, $2,500 I need this vehicle to run. And this is the most clapped out. Jeep Grand Cherokee I've ever seen in my life. This thing was rough. This thing was passed junkyard time this thing should have been crushed. It was unsafe. And there was no reasonable amount of money. Would that would have made it safe. I'm talking the back end. The Brute cradle is rusted out. transfer cases blown out transmissions
Demeny Pollitt 58:07
and 2500 Chittick onto another car.
David Roman 58:10
Yes. But you know, he's got this snap finance. Yeah, he has to we do the walk around. We take pictures of absolutely everything. And we tell them was like, Dude, you can't fix this car. Like you've just cannot fix this car. And he's like, uh, but I need to get this thing running. And I said, I get it. But go spend the money on something else. Go find another vehicle. And he's like, no, no, no, man. I'm just I'm telling you like I took. It wasn't I lifted from my service advisor. I took the phone call. I tried to explain. I was trying to be as empathetic as I possibly could be. But I explained to him like, I'm just trying to be honest with you. This is not a vehicle you should fix. I can't fix this thing for $2,500. I can't fix it for $7,500. This vehicle needs to go to the junkyard you need to go find something, some other vehicle. I waved all his charges and diagnostic time that we've had in it, all of it. I waived all of it. And I paid to have the car towed back to his house. I ate the first tow. I paid for the second tow and I didn't charge him a dime. And I explained to everything gave him the notes gave him the estimate. We didn't even build an estimate like it wouldn't even there would have been nowhere to start. He leaves me a one star review saying that I was insulting that he was refusing to work with him. He was upset that we took a picture of the dented fender because we did a walk around on the vehicle we do walk around on every vehicle. What else could I have done? I'm not taking this $2,500 And I told them that in the response like Dude, I'm not taking your $2,500 I'm sorry, because it would not have been
Lucas Underwood 59:43
what was right for him. And then he would have been mad at you and left you a one star review anyway because his
Demeny Pollitt 59:47
car broke down five minutes later and wouldn't have
David Roman 59:49
been ran for $2,500. All I'm saying is that I didn't I wasn't I didn't try to do my best here. I did my best best. This was the best anybody could have possibly We've done ever in any possible world ever. Well, he still left me a one star review, but the one place in several places.
Lucas Underwood 1:00:08
But here's the thing, right? When I go back and think about that the thing that gets me the reason that I felt the way I do is because I questioned myself and I'm like, did I make like, what did I miss? Did I screw up? Did somebody say something?
David Roman 1:00:21
When it's something's turned going sideways, though. When you know it, you know, when this is going sideways, this is not going down the path like customer turned on you the interaction, the vibe, all of it just went sideways. So that's when you stop and go, Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to overreach here, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna give up way more than I should here. I do that, you know, it's gone sideways. And they're like, Okay, stop.
Demeny Pollitt 1:00:51
I'm gonna stop it from going side over refund. Every
David Roman 1:00:54
let's tow it back. Let's give away this free repair. What do we need to do? I want to, I want to make sure that this is an a 5050 transaction. This was a me giving 100% And they are completely absolved of everything. That's what I do. And still, sometimes people still will like, look at your sideways like you screwed them over. But I didn't screw you over it. Like we gave away a lot.
Lucas Underwood 1:01:20
But here's my point, right is, is there's nothing you can do or say to combat that to them. There's nothing you can do or say to other people who they might have conveyed that to. If they buy what they say there's nothing you can do. Right. You're you're stuck. And so what I hate is like that's heavy for me. Right? I don't sleep for a couple of nights. Yeah, right. Like I get up. So yeah. And so, you know, it was we were in we're at the institute summit in Tampa, right? And dude sitting across from it says, I opened my employee dashboard in QuickBooks. And he's like, Holy shit, that I don't want to do this anymore. Right. Like, I've been through so many people. Yeah. And you might say to yourself, I have I did I did I call some of this me, right? Did I do some of this? Or
David Roman 1:02:11
if they have answers? Yes. Yeah. Well, yes. At that point, you stop and go. Okay, what I like I don't, I'm not just to be completely delusional, though, to be 35 employees down and go, Oh, I've been through a lot of people's like, dude, on the fourth person, you probably should have stopped and said, How many?
Demeny Pollitt 1:02:33
How many employees have you had?
David Roman 1:02:36
How many police have a lot have left the shop? Yeah, maybe five? Ish.
Demeny Pollitt 1:02:41
How long has your shopping have been? almost 11 years? That's incredible.
David Roman 1:02:46
Well, I keep hiring back to back. I just hired one back today. Yeah, that's amazing. And then she got mad at me. She sent me a text message. She's like, I didn't know I was gonna be here by myself. I may have forgotten to tell you that. But what I meant to tell you. I tried. I didn't quite get
Lucas Underwood 1:03:07
it. Did you say did you did you message your entire team or car?
David Roman 1:03:11
I said, Hey, you're gonna come back here. I'll give you a car. Oh, wow.
Lucas Underwood 1:03:14
Did you message her and tell her this weekend told her?
David Roman 1:03:19
No, it's it's a safe, reliable, and also cheap car.
Lucas Underwood 1:03:23
Do you message her and tell her we're gonna need to bring a five gallon gas over here. When she gets off work?
David Roman 1:03:28
She would too. She would totally show up with a go. She's awesome. She's a jet?
Lucas Underwood 1:03:34
I don't know. I just I think what I'm trying to convey is that like business ownership is heavy. And there's things like it, it aggravates you, in one way aggravate you. And another way aggravates me in another way. And I can see, right. And, you know, I've talked to Mike Allen a lot about this. Because you know, he's got multiple stores. And I'm like, I don't see how you handle that emotional load. And he's like, Well, I don't have to deal with it. Like I have to be separated from it. Because it is upsetting. Because people like they attack the business. They say bad things about the business. They say bad things about me. Like, if I heard every time that somebody had a bad experience, like I would probably not have three shops. Yeah, probably would not be able to stomach that. How does he separate? Well, so he's got managers for the locations. And then he's got Tyson who
David Roman 1:04:23
sleeps on a giant pile of money. He wipes his tears with his $100 bills. He's like, internet.
Lucas Underwood 1:04:34
He really does. You know, that's what they all do. But I mean, so So that's the thing is I mean, that is that how you make this business? You know,
David Roman 1:04:46
to we've talked about this before you build up a certain level of callousness. And it's not, not maliciously, but you just stop caring.
Demeny Pollitt 1:04:55
I don't know. Because every now and then, I mean, over the years I have come to expect, okay, these bad things are going to happen like bad reviews. Yeah, they still hurt me. But now I probably am up only one night rather than three nights. You know, I am building up that I learned and I come to expect the bad things. But every now and then there's that thing that just hits you. Yeah. And it's just like, I can't do it. It's it's so it. I don't I don't even have the words to describe it. But it's like, just too much. Yeah. You don't have that all the time.
Lucas Underwood 1:05:33
We talk about all the time while
David Roman 1:05:34
we're stuck. Wake up. He's not stuck. Well, he is now if your wasn't stopped, but now he's under mass
Demeny Pollitt 1:05:41
with your building.
Lucas Underwood 1:05:42
What do you wake up? Like, what we talked about the 3am Wake up, right? You know, when you wake up at 3am You, you know what I mean? And like, your chest hurts. And you're like, oh, yeah,
David Roman 1:05:52
so it's so I have something my wife gets annoyed. But I have something play in my ear when I go to sleep. And it's not it just something like it's soothing and relaxing play into my ear. And that's what puts me to sleep. And if I if I don't have that, the thoughts? Oh, yeah, start racing. Yeah, you're like, Oh, I gotta get this done. And I gotta go do this. And where's this money gonna come from? And how am I gonna get this taken care of. And
Demeny Pollitt 1:06:16
my notes now is like, 1000s and 1000s. Of notes of like, late night. I want to write it down. Oh, my God, I need it. Oh, once I write it down, it's gone. And I can go back to sleep. Not me.
Lucas Underwood 1:06:26
Not me. Oh, if I was still there. 50,000 others, but it's
David Roman 1:06:33
not even that. Now. It's like real. It's not just a monster you you built up in your head? Because if I don't if I don't write it down. Yeah, if I don't write it down. It's it's you know, I'm just, I'm getting upset over something that's not that real. If it
Demeny Pollitt 1:06:48
does, I'll deal with it at night when you're trying to sleep if that's what
David Roman 1:06:51
I play the finger in my ear. Otherwise, it just, yeah, distracts me. Yeah,
Lucas Underwood 1:06:56
well, so I mean, like, the things that the things I worry about, like did that client messaged and said that they had had a bad experience? Or something happened? Right? Yeah. Did we message them back? Hey, we told somebody we're gonna do something did to actually do it, right. And so like, every business has those. And I was thinking about the other day, I can't remember where I was. But it it wasn't even somewhere I was, it was that I was reading about a dry cleaner that they had like, these reviews. And everybody said, like, hey, they just didn't call me back. And they told me it was gonna be this day. And then it was this many days later, the place is packed full, right? They're lined up out the door. They're busy as can be. And they've got all these reviews on it. They don't call people back. And they don't do what they say they're going to do. And they charge more than they told them they were gonna charge right to and fine. And I'm over here, like, freaking out if we got an invoice. It's a penny more than it was supposed to. And I'm like, Oh, God, you know what I mean? And that's a that's an excuse.
Demeny Pollitt 1:07:52
I know, when we get recognition for
David Roman 1:07:54
this crossing over things like
Lucas Underwood 1:07:57
metals, but I mean, that's just it. Maybe it's all for now. Right? Like, that's what makes our businesses what they are, but maybe it's not as important as we think it is. Maybe we're putting too much pressure but walking
Demeny Pollitt 1:08:09
away from that. I guess it's like a moral compass walking away from that and saying, No, that's not important to me anymore. i That's an impossibility. Right? I can't let go of that.
Lucas Underwood 1:08:19
Well, so that's my problem is that's why I'm so mean to my staff is because like, it's so important to me that these people like get the service they deserve. And like
David Roman 1:08:27
Yeah, but you have to think like another layer down. Like you don't want to lose reputation social status perception. You like because your your name and face. We're doing some psychology here. But I love it. Your name and face is on the business all over the business. And you have a family thing in the area. You see what I'm saying? Like oh, those Underwood's screw people over? Yeah, now you're not just you're not just messing yourself up in your business. Now you're tarnishing dad and mom and your brothers. Like now it's a thing. Yeah. So it's a there's a bigger stake there. Yes. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. I don't have that fear. I am known to be within the business but like, as long as they have shown up in the last maybe five years ish. Like they barely talked to me. Yeah. I didn't know if you're around that much. You're never here. When I show up. It's like, yeah, I work in a different office. Like oh, okay. And there's detachment there. So I don't see how the sausage is made. I just the sausage hated the sausage is gonna be today. Kind of like okay, we'll deal with it. That's it. I can't be involved in every little detail because I will turn into a Like stressing over every little nuance and the Hey, I wouldn't worded it this way. Hey, how? What do you mean, we charge them an extra $100?
Lucas Underwood 1:10:09
It sucks, sucks. It's
David Roman 1:10:11
recognized why, though the stakes at hand is much higher for you, for you. Yeah. So that's why you have so much stress. So how do you fix that?
Lucas Underwood 1:10:21
You know, when, when I had someone who was pretty much managing the business like you described? Right? I felt a lot better about it. Right? And there wasn't that big of a mess to clean up when it was all said and done. Right? I'm sure there's a mess somewhere that I've not found yet. But I mean, the point is, is that like, that was what took some of that stress off. Yeah, so maybe that maybe that's got to be, because maybe you're so blinded by emotion. You're so blinded by the emotion that you will take the business, right, like we talked about emotional discounting, you will take the business trying to do what's right. And I think that's why when the technicians in the group get so pissy, like, It upsets me so much, because it's like, Dude, I would effing kill myself for these guys. Yeah, I won't go to the end of the earth to make sure they're taking care of anything. And yet, they think that every shop owner is trying to screw him over. And like, the majority of the shop owners, we know are like that, right? Like, I've seen you cry over your technicians, right? Like, you know, Tom shear, right? The whole deal with I don't know if you heard the whole story where he hired somebody and, and he just like, was trying to be supportive. And he asked the wrong question. And it turns out the guy had things that legally Tom shouldn't are putting in all this, like stuff unravels. And dude was just trying to be a good human being. Yeah, just trying to take care of somebody. Yeah. And it's like, sometimes it feels like as a business owner, everything in the world is out to get you. Everything's coming at you, you know? Yeah, it sucks. It sucks. I need a manager,
Demeny Pollitt 1:11:54
I will say, having Susan, she is that buffer for me, I feel better about the business I? Well, like I said, my heart starting to warm up to it again, because I have that buffer. I'm not. It's not all on me anymore. I know that when there's that angry customer, or when there's that bad review, she's going to be dealing with it not me, and maybe I'll hear about it afterwards. But she'll have taken care of it. Or she's looking for my advice on how to take care of it. But it's her who's taking care of it. It absolutely makes it so much more manageable.
Lucas Underwood 1:12:28
You know, I get out here yesterday. And David had to come get me and give me a ride from the airport, right? When a good friend. And so like I'm listening, good friend you are, I would love to Epic. You probably should have. It only took 45 minutes of a drive for you to get the I hate this new airport out of your system.
David Roman 1:12:50
It's only 30 minutes. A lot of people think that we're moving to people. I like my circle drive the whole circle thing. And then I don't know. It's the exact same thing as the old airport, the old airport was just a circle, it was three lanes, and then little spot for you to park. And because they made it straight, everybody freaked the eff out and said I don't know what to do here.
Lucas Underwood 1:13:16
It's the same thing. It's the same thing as every other airport in the country. And
David Roman 1:13:19
now it looks like every other airport in the country. But it was the same thing as the old airport except that one just went around this one just go straight through.
Lucas Underwood 1:13:29
You know, I listened to you yesterday handle clients, right? The ones that called when we're in the car. And he's got to answer because one's out. Right? And dude, he is like, so dry and so brash with him. And like, they're like, Oh, okay. And he's like, No, actually, well, what we did was we actually washed the underside of the car, we wash the car, we wash the car. And that guy's like, well, it's still true. I understand. But what I'm telling you is, is we washed the car. May it may still drip for a little bit, but I promise you, it's nothing to worry about. I washed the car. Maybe he didn't do a good job, but I washed the car. Maybe he didn't do a good job. And I'm like, and this dude's like, he's like, he's going back and forth. And the guy's like, Okay, right. He's scared of you. Right? By the time it's all said and done dudes like intimidated by No, no. Go back and listen to that call. Can we? Hey, well, you download it. We can listen to it. We can
Demeny Pollitt 1:14:27
listen to it right now.
David Roman 1:14:30
I think we have the technology we do. It wasn't like that. I have. I have two kids. And you get you develop your dad's voice. And the dad voice is Hamed on messing around. Like this is this is enough. You're not the scream. But there's a sternness to your voice. And you know I've had to tell him I'm like hey, put your dad voice on call this customer.
Lucas Underwood 1:14:57
Listen See, that would not fly where where No, it would not fly. And I've got to say now sweetheart, listen, the situation is is you put your mom voice on right? It did leak little bit, but we got it washed out and taken care of for you. But I tell you what, I give you my word. If you continue say drips, you bring that thing back and we won't.
David Roman 1:15:14
What I said, That's what I told them.
Lucas Underwood 1:15:16
Listen, I'm telling you, we watched, okay, and because we watched it, I know it's not a problem. I wasn't
David Roman 1:15:22
combative. You make it sound like I was combative. I wasn't mad. I was matter of fact. Come back show me where it's dripping. Yeah, show me it's I didn't say that.
Lucas Underwood 1:15:30
We should download the call.
David Roman 1:15:32
It was dripping all over. He said, I'm like, yeah, it's probably in the frame rail. Like all the oil because it sprayed everyone was terrible. I mean, it makes sense.
Lucas Underwood 1:15:40
He's to honest delivery, because it like in his delivery of it. As you just said, his delivery of it is, is well, you know, I paid him and he was supposed to wash it whether or not he did wash it? I don't know. But he probably just didn't do a very good job.
David Roman 1:15:57
I was telling him the truth. What do you want me to do?
Lucas Underwood 1:16:00
I like the truth. The truth is matter
David Roman 1:16:02
of fact, with with them, I was matter of fact, once the same way. You don't want and like it's it's almost that's not true of all customers. But there's a portion of customers that they walk in, and they're like, I'm gonna see if I can control this conversation. And there's a volley back and forth. But if you let them control the conversation, like, all of a sudden, you're conceding to all these things, and you're like, Okay, I'll do an oil change for free. Okay. No, no, no, let me dictate how this is gonna go down.
Lucas Underwood 1:16:37
But I mean, you don't have to take a stern approach to accomplish that.
David Roman 1:16:43
I wasn't Stern. You're saying I was stern. I was a matter of fact, that's not Stern. I was just stating facts. Does this sound Stern?
Lucas Underwood 1:16:53
You were far more stern.
David Roman 1:16:55
And I was not. That was.
Lucas Underwood 1:16:57
We should We should listen to it. I'm convinced we should listen to it.
David Roman 1:17:00
You don't you don't feel that if you take a softer approach with customers that they'll just bore us. You
Demeny Pollitt 1:17:05
know, I'm certain that they don't. I find that. Customers who try and bull Wah bull rush if you sit back and let them do their thing, but stick to your guns and take the time to explain it. I mean, if you stick to your guns, that's all that matters. But there is like i My style is gentle and patient and calm. Versus stern and aggressive, or whatever. I don't have a dad voice. I have a mom voice. I think
Lucas Underwood 1:17:41
it here's the thing is if you get into a situation where someone will not respect right then at that point, that's
Demeny Pollitt 1:17:47
not the conversation is over. Right. Yeah.
Lucas Underwood 1:17:50
I take back to the guy who did the chargeback. Right. And it was it was literal chargeback fraud. Right without a doubt. And before before he had any issues at all dude had done the chargeback in the parking lot of the shop before he drove off with the car and in like you could listen to the calls. And he was he intended to do a chargeback from the word go. Right. That was his intent is I'm going to I'm going to do a chargeback. Right. And so the first sheriff's officer calls him and says, Hey, we're going to file charges only. And what does he say? He said, uh, get bent. I don't care, do whatever you got to do. And the second sheriff's officer calls him and calls me and describes the conversation and he said, By the third time he said my mom was a bitch. He said, I explained to him that I would be at his house at 9am. And that with me, I would have a sheriff's deputy, I would have a pair of handcuffs and I would have a warrant for his arrest. And I made it extremely clear why that was because you did a chargeback before you and pick the vehicle up that is theft of services in the state North Carolina. I am processing a warrant for your arrest and this dude called and apologized every way from Sunday and begged me for a way to pay me
Demeny Pollitt 1:19:03
All right, that sounds like he was the stern dad voice guy that's what
Lucas Underwood 1:19:07
I'm saying. If if there are times that that's all that works Yes, but that's not the kind of client I'm going to work for now. Right like I'm not I will I don't tolerate that. Well
Demeny Pollitt 1:19:15
yeah,
Lucas Underwood 1:19:16
I I've got a temper right. And so the best thing for me to do is it's time for you to leave you need to get out of my shop right now. I had a client one time tell Alex that her place was in the kitchen and hang out on the front porch. Right? Because like he was like hardcore disrespectful to
David Roman 1:19:35
Lucas was a big boy. When you're a big boy. Like you can go you can ratchet things up to physical pretty quickly. Yeah, I
Demeny Pollitt 1:19:44
can't do that.
David Roman 1:19:45
I cannot either. I am not going to go beat up ever. As long as you
Lucas Underwood 1:19:51
don't see tears running down my cheek. You see tears running down my cheeks My watch out.
David Roman 1:19:55
I'm just saying that my I don't let it get At that point, I usually lose patients very quickly. Because if they're like, I'm like, Listen, this is how this is gonna go. Sorry, let him handle most of it. But you get to the point like, I don't have a mom voice. I have no idea what that is, like. I'm just saying, the only way I can get through it. Just put my bad voice on I go, how it's gonna be. I'm sorry. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 1:20:27
Sounds like it's similar. In the end, it's this is how it's going to be. Yeah, it's whether you let them be sounds out, or if you cut them off. Sounds like
David Roman 1:20:39
maybe No, I mean, I try to answer their questions I let, as long as they are reasonable, logical. You know, I try to take a try to be as patient as I can. The minute they start acting stupid. And you're like, I just explained this to you three times. Let me explain to you a fourth. And then we're done here. I don't say that. But the tone is
Lucas Underwood 1:21:04
listening to you yesterday, though. Right. Like,
David Roman 1:21:08
I was annoyed. I had to take the call, because one was ducking that call. Yeah, what was coming? I understand, I guess, oil everywhere on my truck.
Lucas Underwood 1:21:15
My point? Is that like hearing you take that, if I had, if I had expressed myself in that way, I would have felt bad about it. Really? Yeah. Like if
David Roman 1:21:27
we didn't do anything wrong.
Lucas Underwood 1:21:28
I didn't say you did.
David Roman 1:21:30
Well, even above and beyond wash the flippin truck. It was triple check to make sure we didn't leave it with a leak.
Lucas Underwood 1:21:37
It was the fact. Like every time he talked right, what I picked up on was every time he talked before he could finish what he was saying you were telling him why he was wrong. Or why it wasn't a it wasn't because he was wrong. Well, I understand that.
David Roman 1:21:53
He was pointing it out to him.
Lucas Underwood 1:21:54
I understand. But he didn't get he never got to say his piece. And so like I detected at the end of the telephone call. He was satisfied at the end of the telephone call. Okay, mission accomplished. But he felt frustrated that he wasn't hurt. He felt like he wasn't being listened to.
David Roman 1:22:09
Yeah, I could see that. I do feel that
Demeny Pollitt 1:22:14
with him feeling that frustration? Or did it end
Lucas Underwood 1:22:17
when when the call ended? He you could hear that? That little bit of man like, why was he like that? I just, I was just trying to talk to him. Right.
David Roman 1:22:29
Now. Now in the same respect you, you you put this guy a little to? No, but I will say I know this guy fairly well. He was in my BNI group. We had one to ones he was he was the chapter president for a while, like we had a lot of conversations. I know I
Lucas Underwood 1:22:48
can understand that. Right. And that's, that's a big part of it. Well, yeah, right. That's a big part of it. But I guess what I'm saying is is like it almost seemed like he felt like he wasn't heard.
David Roman 1:22:58
Yeah. And I wouldn't want to do that to somebody.
Lucas Underwood 1:23:01
Right? And so like, you know, that's one thing I've learned is the act of listening thing, right? Like we do these panels. And when we do these panels, I keep telling the people that are on the panel, like hey, don't try and think about what you're gonna say next. Listen to what they're saying. And then think about what they said and form response based on that. Don't be thinking about what you want to say next. Because it'll like lead you down the wrong path. And so I'm just saying from the outside looking in I heard you you already had your mind up about what you were gonna say before he finished saying what he's gonna say so like midway as he starts to stop what he's saying. He's like getting to the end of a sentence and you're already repeating back what you had already thought out in your head you were gonna say
David Roman 1:23:44
yeah, I didn't want to take that phone call. Understand
Demeny Pollitt 1:23:52
so in the end,
David Roman 1:23:53
I was so annoyed that I was on that phone call with that guy. I'm telling you one saw that number and said nope, I'm gonna let that one go to David. Because he knew it was coming the guy and we probably I don't know if we told them sufficiently that hey,
Lucas Underwood 1:24:15
we had a local airline ladies we had a bill
David Roman 1:24:17
No no, no the the the tech tried to reuse the clip. I'm annoyed at my tech because I bought new fittings, but he didn't want to take the old fittings off. I don't know why he just I don't know why he just decided he was going to he was going to reuse the old fittings. In the clip didn't hold 80 psi of fresh hot oil came sprang out of the radiator because with a fitting just wing gunk, and then two or three quarts got sprayed all over that engine and suspension and every best
Lucas Underwood 1:24:49
part of this the best part of this. I hope she hears this. Now Heather is at the shop and she's cleaning up No, no, no
David Roman 1:25:01
So he tries a second fitting that he happened to have in this in this toolbox and he's like, Huh, I'm gonna use this feeling here. Try that one. And then fresh high oil and everywhere at 80 psi.
Demeny Pollitt 1:25:18
But you bought new first receiver, why would he try a second
David Roman 1:25:21
one he calls me and he goes, I don't it's the problem is sometimes we have in our shop is that he doesn't read the flippin ticket if he had read the ticket, he would have seen oil cooler lines, fittings, oil, and he wouldn't go look, I got new fillings sitting on my part job.
Lucas Underwood 1:25:40
There the radiator was already in. So
David Roman 1:25:43
no, we were doing oil cooler. So he calls me and he's like, Hey, I need fittings for this thing, or clips, the clip light when I took it off. And when deploying and then went off in this space. I don't know where it is. And so I tried this other fitting and he's like, it's not working. It's leaking. And I need to fix. And I'm like, oh, okay, when we look it up here, I'm like this fittings on the on the ticket. There's there's something wrong with the end, he goes, what? fittings on the ticket? Why? And he's like, Ah, so you want me to replace this whole thing, or just use the clip. And we did replace the whole thing. That's why we bought him and he goes, Okay, and then it's fixed. But then he had to go and so he didn't clean the truck. And so he left it. And then it was like leaking everywhere. And it looked like it was a leak and then now we're freaking out going. Is this thing leaking? Is it not leaking? So then we had a carwash cleaned, off, tested, rechecked, driven rechecked one more time, all of that, and then the guy still calls me. And he's like, Hey, I'm seeing drips on the ground.
Demeny Pollitt 1:26:53
Did he know about the debacle? Or he just saw the
David Roman 1:26:55
drug? That's what I feel bad, because I don't know that one told him. And I don't know that I told him to tell them or make sure he knows. He might see some drips, as long as we prompt them to usually not a big deal. Usually be like, Hey, we told you see what I'm saying? Yeah,
Lucas Underwood 1:27:14
that's the biggest thing is you have to communicate? Yeah, yeah, you can't, you can't just let it slide, you absolutely have to be talking about those can't forget,
David Roman 1:27:21
I don't think anybody tries to let it slide. But actually, it's like,
Lucas Underwood 1:27:25
you know, today we had a deal where somebody had taken a vehicle somewhere else. And part of our closing statement is is you have to let them know about the warranty. Now, here's our warranty process, right? If you look, you'll have one of these hanging in your vehicle. When 100 number on the back, give them a call before you have any work done. If it's something we've done, it'll be covered. If they don't cover it, give us a call. And if it's something we've done, we'll take care of it. Right? No questions asked. But if that doesn't get said, they see a flier hanging up on their mirror and they can click it down. Right, and they don't pay any attention. So now this lady goes and has a battery replace $750 To have a battery replaced she wants you to pay for they want all this testing and they want all this stuff paid for. Because this battery we installed November's got a bad selling. And it could have all been solved with explaining the warranty process before that. So
David Roman 1:28:18
my warranty will cut them a check up to the dollar amount that they paid us even if they don't call the warranty even if they don't call first.
Lucas Underwood 1:28:26
Yeah, and usually you can pull that off but you're not supposed to.
David Roman 1:28:30
No, no. Yeah, they're usually extend your extenuating circumstances. But I've had maybe one. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 1:28:37
Do you claim warranties? Do you cover things like tires? Batteries. So usually that's going to be out of your own pocket because the warranty is not going to cover that
Lucas Underwood 1:28:47
what? Like
David Roman 1:28:49
motor parts save a five year warranty on their batteries. Free replacement nationwide.
Lucas Underwood 1:28:54
Wow. That's awesome. That is awesome. So I do 336 On the batteries. Yeah, because we've got a 36 month no question. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 1:29:02
But oh, I see. You're saying Yeah. And then
Lucas Underwood 1:29:05
tires. I just wrote hazard everything. I put a fee on it. It goes into road hazard. So
Demeny Pollitt 1:29:10
do you also second question about warranties? Is rust rust is not an issue for you? Is it an issue for you?
Lucas Underwood 1:29:18
Oh, it's an issue. It's more of an issue for me than it is for here. Yeah.
Demeny Pollitt 1:29:21
So we we have been warranting it but I'm just curious how other shops are dealing with during COVID People driving their cars less brakes rusting to the point because Vermont says in order to pass state inspection, you can't have more than a quarter inch of rust accumulated.
Lucas Underwood 1:29:40
Like on the surface of the surface of the rotors. Yeah,
David Roman 1:29:43
so that's a lot of rust. A quarter inch. I mean,
Lucas Underwood 1:29:47
like whip, right? Is that a width? Yeah, like
Demeny Pollitt 1:29:51
so. If there's a maybe it's a half an inch if there's a quarter inch on the inside and a quarter inch on the outside. You know? Yeah, yeah, not thickness. Okay. Um, So during COVID, we would we replace people's brakes in June, they come back for an inspection in November to the mic to come back for an inspection in November. And they need new brakes pass state inspection. And so we
David Roman 1:30:18
we I would 100% ethos, yeah, I
Demeny Pollitt 1:30:20
mean, we try to, but I would eat the
David Roman 1:30:22
labor back into the box and ship them back to the weight store,
Lucas Underwood 1:30:28
we have not we can I would eat the labor if if you're over, you know, six months at that point, like you got to drive your core, I can't, I can't make you drive your car. And they will not tolerate and because I mean, it would be every set of brakes like it was a true set of brakes. Yeah, I've got a bunch of people who are from Florida, and they come up and we work on their car, and then they leave it sitting for six months. And so it rains and it snows and it rains and it snows and it will be without time. Yep. And then next thing you know, like you've got a rotor that's got a big rough spot in it and they take it, they drive it, the brakes are making noise, you just did brakes. Well, the pads would literally rust to the face of the rotor. And so now when you drive cancooker Every time you hit the brake, what were you doing do anything
Demeny Pollitt 1:31:10
about so what we first we covered it, and we realized we were gonna go out of business. So we started, we would sell brakes and we would say there's a three year 36,000 mile warranty on these. However, you have to drive a minimum of 12,000 miles a year. Yeah. So if you don't drive an average of that. And if you don't have an average of that and your brakes go bad the warranty doesn't cover them.
Lucas Underwood 1:31:34
Yeah, exactly. Or and you know, I cover friction material. Right? A lot of people say hey, like Mike Allen, he's got a five year 100,000 And he's like, I will cover everything except the friction material on your brakes. hard parts, but I will not cover friction material where now
David Roman 1:31:50
what about rotors rooms? Where I'll tell though,
Lucas Underwood 1:31:54
well, that was that's what he's considered. Oh, he
Demeny Pollitt 1:31:56
considers that friction
Lucas Underwood 1:31:57
material material. Right? Because they make contact I feel
Demeny Pollitt 1:32:00
like technically that's not friction material.
Lucas Underwood 1:32:03
Well, I mean, it's aware I'm aware that the friction material makes contact with it. So with friction material touches it. Yeah. And it's making friction against the rotor itself. So that is friction material
David Roman 1:32:14
because he put this cockamamie five year 100,000 mile warranty
Lucas Underwood 1:32:20
on everything that is amazing. Everything. What I do it on everything. I'm gonna send you the bill.
David Roman 1:32:27
I'm not paying it. I'll get paid next on my tax bill.
Demeny Pollitt 1:32:31
I had when I worked at the dealership in my nightmare job. I had an old old timer come in. And he was he had like, I don't know 70,000 miles on his car. And he heard another adviser selling brakes to someone and he said Young people these days they don't know how to drive cars. I have 70,000 miles on my car. I have never replaced my brakes. They don't know how to drive. I know how to use my transmission to slow my car down. Guess what he was in there for third transmission. He never placed those brakes though.
Lucas Underwood 1:33:14
Mr. Devaney, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for this was a lot of fun to do this even it was really fun. I loved it. Yeah. This is the first time you to have met and yeah, I watched a video of yours once one time it was like a hiring videos that you Yeah, I think you recommended it. Yeah, good. didn't help at all. Thanks. Oh, no, that was gonna get edited out.
David Roman 1:33:39
Edit job. Everything I know from you. I got to hire video. It was
Lucas Underwood 1:33:54
something great. It's
Lucas Underwood 1:33:58
great.