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My name is Jeff, and I'd like to welcome you on a journey of reflection and insight into the tolls and triumphs of a career in automotive repair.
After more than 20 years of skinned knuckles and tool debt, I want to share my perspective and hear other people's thoughts about our industry.
So pour yourself a strong coffee or grab a cold Canadian beer and get ready for some great conversation.
[00:00:00] Speaker: But then I, I looked over and I happened to see you there. You were standing with Brian Pollock, and I was like, "All right, you know what? I'm gonna go say hi to Jeff and then go from there." So I went over and r- we had a about a 10, 15 minute conversation. You're a Canadian as well. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, I kind of felt like I had some kind of connection with someone right away.
[00:00:22] Speaker: And from that moment, I started to go to the classes, meet other pe- you know, one familiar face. You don't need 7,000 people that you're gonna go there and see. You need one person that's gonna literally take your hand and tell you, "It's gonna be okay. You're with family. You're with the automotive family now."
[00:00:42] Speaker: And that's the feeling that I got when, after maybe about an hour or two, I'm like, "I feel like I'm at home."
[00:00:49] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:00:49] Speaker: Like, ASTA is my home.
[00:00:56] Speaker 2: One. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting, albeit, uh, technically difficult, challenging, uh, I love computers, um, episode of the Jaded Mechanic Podcast. Um, it's a Saturday morning. No, I'm not on the boat. Uh, we're trying to, um, knock out something when the schedules align, and again, all the, um, techno gods smile down on us.
[00:01:17] Speaker 2: But- Finally ... I wanted to bring on a good friend of mine, almost my brother at this point, um, Aniz Lavji. Aniz, how are you today, bro?
[00:01:24] Speaker: I'm good, man. How are you?
[00:01:26] Speaker 2: Oh, I'm a little sore as always. We had a, I had an interesting Friday yesterday, but like as you know, my, my coworker's never in on Fridays. He gets Fridays off.
[00:01:34] Speaker 2: So Fridays at the- Yep ... at the dealership are kind of like chaos day, right? Um- Oh,
[00:01:38] Speaker: yeah ...
[00:01:39] Speaker 2: and we were pretty lucky in the sense that it wasn't all that busy, so I actually got a chance to change out the, uh, failed power steering pump on my Jeep and, uh, get that done, which, I don't know, it said it's supposed to take like two hours to do it, and I had it done in like 45 minutes.
[00:01:53] Speaker 2: So I don't know, um-
[00:01:55] Speaker: That's been a long time coming.
[00:01:57] Speaker 2: Yeah. It's been, um, it's been a little, uh, sket- not sketchy, but hard to back a boat in with no power steering, uh
[00:02:06] Speaker: Yeah.
[00:02:07] Speaker 2: Um, for about two weeks now, so I finally got it done. There's other things that still need to get done. Uh, it still needs a, the, uh, engine oil cooler, like all the Pentastars need to get done.
[00:02:16] Speaker 2: Um, it needs to be done, and I need to p- change my vacuum pump. That's still not done, and then I need to put my, replace my radiator, order some new tires. So yeah, you know-
[00:02:26] Speaker: All in due time ... it's,
[00:02:27] Speaker 2: it's a Jeep thing, bro. So you know what they're like when they come in, right? Yeah. They're money makers. Awesome.
[00:02:32] Speaker 2: So how was your week?
[00:02:34] Speaker: It was good. Um, so like, you know, we've been talking often, so I finally f- hired a service advisor, and we got a licensed tech, so we have two licensed techs now, which has been a game changer. It's been a lot easier to kinda run our, the whole operation. Um-
[00:02:53] Speaker 2: Yeah ...
[00:02:54] Speaker: with the flow of things, I'm not kind of running around and trying to make sure that this car is getting done and this car is getting done and is there someone assigned to this job?
[00:03:03] Speaker: So now I'm kind of in training mode for my new advisor to kind of take some stress off me so I can breathe and think. And like, you know, all the coaches say and, and everyone, you know, you don't wanna be working completely in your business, you wanna be working on it. So that's, that's the mode that I'm in now.
[00:03:23] Speaker 2: And that would've been pretty hard to bring in a technician, right, at the same time without the advisor 'cause that just ups your car count, it ups your, you know, responsibilities on, on all the estimates. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And at the same time with no help for you. So this is... couldn't have happened at a better time.
[00:03:38] Speaker 2: A lot of people might look at two new employees at the same time and ease and go, "Oh, that's too much," but for you this seems to be working great.
[00:03:45] Speaker: I, I'm, I'm okay with it. Even if we were only getting the tech and we didn't get the service advisor, that's okay because I would just go with the flow. And the thing is, I'm able to serve my customers better too.
[00:03:58] Speaker: I'm not telling them, "I'm not gonna be able to get you in in the next couple days. It might be a few days after." So now I'm able to get that vehicle in, have it dropped off, inspect it, send off the quote. But because that's less stressful than telling them, "Hey, you know what? We're slammed right now." And the worst thing you can tell a return customer all the time is, "Oh, we're slammed.
[00:04:20] Speaker: Oh, we're slammed." They're like, "You know what? This place is the worst place because I can never get in." And then you're gonna lose that person that you've been, you know, nurturing all these years. Mm-hmm. So all your marketing dollars go to crap.
[00:04:32] Speaker 2: You and I know that, and we've, we've seen it. The, the shops that you go by and the parking lot's absolutely jammed full oftentimes is not the best place to take your car to.
[00:04:42] Speaker: No.
[00:04:43] Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
[00:04:43] Speaker: No. No, if, if I had a vehicle that I'm hearing brakes are grinding and I drive by, like, six shops where I can't even park, I'm automatically gonna think that there's no way in hell I'm getting my car in here even in the next few days. So but if I go by a shop where there's three or four cars outside, whether two of them might be the employees, and it looks like a clean shop, I'd be more inclined to go in and be like, "Hey, you know what?
[00:05:11] Speaker: This place can probably take care of me at least today or tomorrow." Right?
[00:05:16] Speaker 2: Yeah. You don't wanna have to... And like you and I were talking yesterday with the, you know, people taking on big jobs versus little jobs and, and- Yeah ... you know, easy money versus, you know, uh, whatever. Um, you said something very powerful that you hate to see, you know, what could be an easy two hours go out the door because when you're in s- some of these smaller shops, you have a bay tied up- Yeah
[00:05:38] Speaker 2: doing an engine or a transmission or, you know, whatever, some nightmare project type of thing, right? Yeah. And all of a sudden, the money that you were making on that one job, you could have made it easily on three cars.
[00:05:50] Speaker: Yeah. I mean, you could have an engine you, you're replacing and you charge X amount of hours.
[00:05:58] Speaker: Now you're deep into this job. Let's say you have a two-bay garage, and now something breaks or, you know, you're missing a hose that you didn't realize you needed because it's not a normal job you do all the time. Now you're calling the dealer, "I need this specific hose," and they're saying the part's discontinued or it's gotta come out of the States and if, you know, it's allowed to come into the country with a 99% tariff or who the hell knows.
[00:06:26] Speaker: And now you've got that car stuck on the hoist in a two-bay garage. Your, your business is now 50%. Your production has been cut in half because you thought that $4,500 engine job or whatever it is, oh man, I got a really good one. I'm making $1,800. But that $1,800 costed you X amount of thousands of dollars in aggravation, and now your customer's pissed because the car's stuck there, and you've already pre-booked other appointments that are supposed to come in.
[00:07:01] Speaker: So now, in turn, a lot of owners will start telling the mechanic, "Well, why the hell didn't you tell me? We could have needed that hose." It's the, the... It's not the tech's fault. Things happen. But now you've caused a whole crap shoot of a storm in your shop, screw the culture for probably that day, and now everyone's pissed, no work is getting done properly, everyone's aggravated, and now you've turned your whole shop upside down because you thought being a superhero to do that engine job was the right thing to do.
[00:07:35] Speaker 2: Well, and not only that, and he's... The other thing we don't talk about, but I've witnessed it in the shop, and you've witnessed it in the shop, is that all of a sudden that day, that big job just runs one day extra long, right? O- over scheduled. Yeah. Not over budget, say just over scheduled. Mm-hmm. All of a sudden, all these appointments that get backed up, everybody's rushing on those cars.
[00:07:55] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. It's very, very, very realistic that something that you rushed on, a basic job even, but you're just trying to get all these Mrs. Smith and Mr. Jones cars done. Yep.
[00:08:04] Speaker: Yep.
[00:08:04] Speaker 2: Next week you have a comeback or two comebacks.
[00:08:07] Speaker: Exactly.
[00:08:07] Speaker 2: Right? And then all of a sudden, all of that work, the profit that you made on the one big job, you're now spending on rework.
[00:08:15] Speaker 2: Yeah. Which is just the financial side of it. We talk about this all the time, guys. You can't get that customer confidence back. You can't get that reassurance back. You now have to invest time in five more, you know, jobs or appointments that they're in that you don't mess up anything before they start to feel- Yeah
[00:08:31] Speaker 2: okay, good, it was just a human error again. Like, this is all the stuff that, you know, and I should, I should preface, um, Aniz and I met last year at ASTA, and, and, and- Yeah ... it was for Aniz's first... It was your first trip to a big event like that, wasn't it?
[00:08:48] Speaker: My first expo or... Yeah, completely.
[00:08:52] Speaker 2: And, and we had talked a little bit before he got there, but not like we weren't tight like we are like now, about, you know, the business and everything else, 'cause Aniz is like a Cana- Canadian.
[00:09:02] Speaker 2: He's a Canadian like me. Um, you know, and that's why you heard him mention tariffs and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. We kind of chuckle because it's, it's the buzzword up here for the last, what, two months now, I guess, Aniz. Mm-hmm. It seems like it's- Oh, yeah ... never stopped, you know? Um, and we don't... We try not to talk politics on here.
[00:09:18] Speaker 2: Um, so it'd be-
[00:09:19] Speaker: 100%.
[00:09:19] Speaker 2: You know, it's, it just doesn't, it... As much as it can be fun, um, it just seems
[00:09:25] Speaker: to upset people. Stay
[00:09:25] Speaker 2: neutral. Yeah. It, it alienates people. So Aniz came to ASTA last year, and we're... What are we, Aniz, 10 days out from ASTA 2026?
[00:09:34] Speaker: I haven't counted the hours yet, but yeah, we're just about there.
[00:09:37] Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:09:38] Speaker 2: It's coming up fast, and we're, we're excited to be able to finally see each other again. Um, Aniz really came away from ASTA with, you know, a lot of... Well, I'll let him tell it, but you've had a bang-up year since ASTA, haven't you?
[00:09:51] Speaker: Yeah. So I'll kind of tell you how this really happened. So I was, uh, driving into work, and I was g- really getting tired.
[00:10:01] Speaker: I was not really listening to podcasts. I was more... had Spotify playlists for old-school 2000 hits, and I'm like, you know what? Let's, let's change it up today. Let's go on the wild side. I'm gonna hit the podcast button, which I never did. So I went on there, and I'm like, okay, what's there? There's this, this, this.
[00:10:21] Speaker: And I'm like, okay, I don't really care about this. I own a shop. Is there anything that has to do with automotive? So I went on there and searched mechanic, and then some guy named Jeff something Compton, I don't... Anyways, so I, I found your podcast And I scrolled as far back as I could because I'm like, I wanna kinda see what's this is all about.
[00:10:46] Speaker: So I started listening, and then I was ... started binging your show honestly for days and days. Six days a week I'm driving to work, so I got to listen to a lot of content. And I'm like, "Holy crap, there's a whole network of people. There's a whole show dedicated to the automotive industry. Like, where the hell have I been?"
[00:11:07] Speaker: And slowly and surely I listen, I start getting all these ideas and, uh, you know, I'll get into it later, but I work with my parents for, you know, the past 20 years, and I start getting all these ideas, and my dad's looking at me like, "Who the hell are you? What is this sh- extra shop supplies and a .2 here and a .1 here.
[00:11:29] Speaker: What is all this?" So my mindset started changing, and I started thinking like a proper shop owner and not someone that's going in to clock in at 9:00 and leave at 5:00 o'clock, and that's it. Owning a shop is very different than, uh, you know, going in and working for somebody. There's a lot more responsibilities, and I didn't realize that completely.
[00:11:55] Speaker 2: Well, I think this industry for years, Aniz, has been reactive instead of proactive. Yeah. And I think it starts- Yeah ... from the idea that it's like we're, we're leery of selling maintenance, right? Because everybody just is ... Uh, we, we believe that nonsense that they don't have any money, and, and you know-
[00:12:10] Speaker: It's scary for them to say no
[00:12:11] Speaker 2: they're gonna get rid of it in six months, right? The, all the s- excuses and stories we all have heard.
[00:12:15] Speaker: Yeah.
[00:12:15] Speaker 2: So I think it's just a lot of us become reactive to the idea that whatever gets towed in, booked in, dropped in- Mm-hmm, yeah ... we, we've- Yeah ... we look at that, we get it done. At the end of the day we sit there and look at the cash register slip and go, "Oh, uh, maybe it was a good day, maybe it wasn't."
[00:12:31] Speaker 2: And then, you know, more times than not we're wringing our hands going, "What's, what's broken here?" And- That's true ... you know, for people that ... Like, I have my detractors. I'm not a shop owner, okay? But I'm somebody that has ... Like, I've been studying shop ownership in the terms of, like, all the stuff that's been come out in mailers and old trade magazines and stuff.
[00:12:51] Speaker 2: I always read the, the, the whole thing f- front to back, cover to cover. So I read the business side of the stuff, I read the technical side of stuff, Motor Age, you know, all the magazines. So- Mm-hmm ... I've always been just listening and watching and learning how other people do it. Never said that they do it right, and where I was was- Yeah
[00:13:09] Speaker 2: doing it wrong, right, Aniz? It's just how do they do it? It's perspectives. And, um- Yeah ... there's been a lot of things that through my career as a technician I've been able to put my hand up and say, "Yeah, I know you've been doing it like this forever." But here's an example of somebody that does it different, or here's how an example that maybe, uh, we did it different where I work- 100%
[00:13:28] Speaker 2: and it really worked for us. You know what I mean?
[00:13:30] Speaker: Have an open mind.
[00:13:31] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:13:33] Speaker: And, and unfortunately, having an open mind is not something that a lot of shop owners and technicians have.
[00:13:40] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:41] Speaker: You know? Like, uh, I'll, I'll have to quote, uh, Josh Parnell, you know, uh, be a lifelong learner.
[00:13:49] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:13:49] Speaker: You're never gonna know everything.
[00:13:52] Speaker: Ev- nobody.
[00:13:53] Speaker 2: No.
[00:13:54] Speaker: But you have to be open for taking advice, taking criticism, and be okay with someone telling you that you're doing it freaking wrong. If you can't hear that from someone and you start getting bad feelings and you feel hurt from that, there's no way in hell you're gonna be able to improve yourself.
[00:14:16] Speaker: Because if you can't hear from someone that's saying like, "This is not right. You are not going up. You are staying stagnant."
[00:14:26] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:14:26] Speaker: If you are not able to take any help from someone that's above where you are, that's already gone through all the crap, then you're gonna stay just the level. You're gonna get the same paycheck every week.
[00:14:38] Speaker: You're not gonna grow. If you're happy with that, I mean, y- you're in another sector. That's not where I'm trying to be.
[00:14:46] Speaker 2: No. No, it's... I've always said the best mistake is the one that's made by somebody else that I was able to learn from. Yeah. You know what I mean? Or- Watch '
[00:14:53] Speaker: em.
[00:14:53] Speaker 2: Yeah ... and, and, you know, mistake can be a broad scope.
[00:14:56] Speaker 2: We can say that it was a mistake for them to do it that way, but maybe, like you said, it's the way they wanna do it. You know, if you wanna run free oil changes or, you know, loss leaders, whatever, free diag, it's, it's... I'm not calling it a mistake, it's just the way that other people wanna do it. But when you always have to look at their results and talk about it with them and have perspectives so that you can then learn, well, does it work for me or not?
[00:15:19] Speaker 2: 'Cause if it doesn't work for me, I don't have to pass judgment on them because for whatever reason, their s- demographic's different, it works for them. But I'm not passing judgment. Too many people look at it and go... They see somebody with three, four, five stores and they go, "Oh, they must have had a bunch of money.
[00:15:33] Speaker 2: There's no possible way they started at the same place as me." That's been so disproved in this industry that it's- Yeah ... it's not the case, right? And these... And it's, and it's one of those things where it's little tiny details and processes that allowed them to, to grow at a rate that was faster. And that's all it is.
[00:15:51] Speaker 2: If you wanna expand, you need growth. You need growth, you need efficiency.
[00:15:56] Speaker: If you wanna expand, have growth and efficiency, you need to have the proper advice and the proper training. And that's why when I was listening to your podcast, you know, over a certain amount of time, it just happened to be getting close to ASTA last year.
[00:16:15] Speaker: Yeah. So last year around July, uh, I started listening and then I, s- I started hearing about the, the best software that was ever created- Mm-hmm ... which is TechMetric. And I got them, and that really gave me a boost, so I was really getting into the metrics, parts matrix, and labor matrix, and really getting into it.
[00:16:37] Speaker: And then on a whim I heard you start talking about ASTA.
[00:16:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:16:41] Speaker: And I'm like, "What the heck is this?" So I went to the website, started checking it out. I direct messaged you and got some info.
[00:16:47] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:16:48] Speaker: And I was like, "You know what? What the hell. I'm just gonna go." Um, I, I went by myself- Yeah ... and it was scary as shit.
[00:16:55] Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you, 'cause what did you, what did you expect you were gonna g- when you went there, what was your initial thought that, what, you were gonna go there maybe and take some classes and, and did you really... I don't think, 'cause I saw you there the first day, and I don't think you, you were expecting e- everything that happened the way it did.
[00:17:14] Speaker 2: Were you?
[00:17:14] Speaker: No. S- so when I got there, um I got to the hotel, and there was a huge gathering. There's people there, and again, first impressions, I saw, like, little groups of people.
[00:17:29] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:30] Speaker: So I'm like, "Oh, crap," like, "I'm here by myself. Those four guys look like they know each other, and these five guys look like they know each other, and I'm this rando that's here from Canada, and what the hell do I do now?"
[00:17:43] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:44] Speaker: But then I, I looked over, and I happened to see you there. You were standing with Brian Pollock.
[00:17:48] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:17:49] Speaker: And I was like, "All right, you know what? I'm gonna go say hi to Jeff and then go from there." So I went over, and r- we had a about a 10, 15-minute conversation just right there, and, you know ... And, and that for me, coming from Canada, and you're, you're Canadian as well- Yeah
[00:18:04] Speaker: and I'm like, okay, I kind of felt like I had some kind of connection with someone right away. And from that moment, I s- you know, I started to go to the classes, meet other people, and all random people. Mm-hmm. I don't know anyone.
[00:18:16] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:18:17] Speaker: And, uh, I didn't know anybody face to face until that moment when I went in there, and then I, I met you.
[00:18:24] Speaker: So I was like, okay, I see one familiar face. But, but that's what it is. You have one familiar face. You don't need a 7,000 people that you're gonna go there and see. You need one person that is there that's gonna literally take your hand and tell you, "It's gonna be okay. You're, you're with family."
[00:18:43] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:18:43] Speaker: "You're with the automotive family now."
[00:18:45] Speaker 2: Yep.
[00:18:46] Speaker: And that's the feeling that I got when, after maybe about an hour or two, I'm like, I, I feel like I'm at home.
[00:18:53] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:18:54] Speaker: Like, ASTA is my home.
[00:18:55] Speaker 2: Yeah. And, and, you know, so thinking about that when, when we had, and not to go off on a side road here, but just a little quick- Mm-hmm
[00:19:03] Speaker 2: when, when I got to meet Frank in Pennsylvania, and you weren't able to make that trip to tools- Yeah ... but I got to meet... I tried to do the same thing with Frank and Marguerite, right? I said that I was gonna introduce them to, you know, as I said, my family, all the people that, because I first went to ASTA in 2022, so now this is four years later for me, right?
[00:19:20] Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm not, I'm not the staff, but I mean, I feel like I'm one of those unofficial, like, you know- Advocates, for sure ... advocates or greeters at Walmart that's like, "Hey, it's nice to see you again," right? Because that's, like you said, when you come from wherever you come from, and, and, you know, we don't get a big Canadian contingent going to ASTA, but when you come from wherever it is and all of a sudden you walk into that big reception area at the, at the hotel, in the conference center, and you're like, all these people look like they're in my industry, but I don't know anybody or how do I, who do I approach first and h- you know, hopefully they got their name tag on.
[00:19:55] Speaker 2: Like- Yeah ... I wanna try and eliminate some of that stressor of just being able to, like, say, "Hey- You finally made it. Awesome to see you. How was your trip? And then- Yeah ... you know, welcome everybody like they're... It- I wanna treat it like it's family that hasn't seen each other since last Christmas. You know what I mean?
[00:20:11] Speaker: 100%. And, and now after, you know, I've, I've been talking to so many of the same people since ASTA, so now when I see them, I mean, I feel like we've been friends for over a year now, and it's like a big reunion.
[00:20:28] Speaker 2: Yeah. And that's... You know what they say, Nis? Like, they say that's part of the fact that it's being down south.
[00:20:33] Speaker 2: Do you think that's what it is? I think it's part of it
[00:20:38] Speaker: Yeah, it's, it, it's a different feeling. Like, I, I, you know, I went to Vision.
[00:20:42] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:43] Speaker: Which, uh, you know, this obviously was, uh, four, five months ago. I can't remember now. Yeah. And I, I went there. Again, I went there alone, but this time I wasn't as nervous as I was there for the first time.
[00:20:56] Speaker: But-
[00:20:57] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm ...
[00:20:57] Speaker: it was nice. I got to see some familiar faces. Uh, I saw Josh was there, Tanika. Yeah,
[00:21:03] Speaker 2: yeah.
[00:21:04] Speaker: Um, Mike Allen.
[00:21:06] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:21:06] Speaker: And, um, you know, Lucas. So it was nice to see all these familiar faces, but it's still not the same... I didn't get the same feeling inside.
[00:21:16] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:21:16] Speaker: When I left ASTA, I was so sad to leave.
[00:21:20] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:21:21] Speaker: I'm like, man, I'm not gonna see these people for, like, a year.
[00:21:23] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[00:21:24] Speaker: And, and you get that feeling where, like, you have to make a point for those connections that you made, that you need to nurture those fricking relationships because these are... Like, you feel like these are your people.
[00:21:37] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and that's-
[00:21:39] Speaker: And, uh, and that's what I felt like for a while.
[00:21:41] Speaker: You
[00:21:41] Speaker 2: know, 'cause Lucas tells his story about how he all of a sudden felt like he wasn't alone. Like, there was... He was in a room full of people that were, had gone through and were going through the exact same stuff that he was. Yeah. And it, you know, it didn't matter... You know, he talks about, like, Mike Allen and all that kind of stuff.
[00:21:59] Speaker 2: Like, these are people that, you know, he, he had respect for, and he gets to see them and meet them and understand and talk to them. Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden, your little problems back home are not so little problems. You know what I mean? Like, they're just, they're... Or what was the big problems, excuse me, is suddenly, m- seems when you come home from the trip manageable, you know, not all that bad.
[00:22:20] Speaker 2: You might have seen it as, uh, a disadvantage, and now it's an opportunity. Like, there's so many- Yeah ... things, you know, that just come from- Well, well- ... sharing and, uh, like we've talked about, and it's been said before, Aniz, it's not about, like, sitting in the classroom where you're watching somebody. That's important stuff, but it's those conversations you have in the lobby before class, breaks at class- Mm-hmm
[00:22:40] Speaker 2: lunchtime, dinner, you know, having a bar, a drink at the bar at night. That's when you really get into, you know, people s- giving you the secret recipe of how they make it work.
[00:22:52] Speaker: Yeah, so when you're... Like, I went to some amazing classes last year. Uh, you know, I could... There's so many people I could shout out, but, I mean, the, the classes were absolutely amazing.
[00:23:04] Speaker: But they are structured to go through certain content Things that you may have going on in your own business may not be covered in some of those classes. So the items or the situations or the aggravations, I should say, about the industry that you are going through inside, you may not be talking to people about it, but they're all in here, man.
[00:23:32] Speaker: And those feelings and those conversations are the conversations you have before class, after class, you know, over a pint of beer where you're talking with your new friend that, you know, "I've got this issue and it's been haunting me for, like, six months. I don't know what the hell to do." And that person, you never know, they're like, "Oh, I used to deal with that.
[00:23:58] Speaker: What you need to do is this and this. And, and actually, if you call this person, they just help me with this. And in fact, they're over there. Come on over." So now you've made a connection with this person, another person comes over, and by the time you finish your fricking pint, your mind is like, "Holy crap, I should have just done this years ago."
[00:24:21] Speaker: But those are the little lessons that you're gonna learn outside.
[00:24:25] Speaker 2: And a lot of that advice you get is, is I'll say it right now, it's, it's more... What I see people talking about tends to be, like, the human relations side of the business versus the- Yeah ... the... 'Cause the business side, they're gonna teach you about, you know, your P&Ls and your KPIs- Mm-hmm
[00:24:40] Speaker 2: and all that good stuff, the, uh, really important stuff. I'm not- It is
[00:24:43] Speaker: important, yeah ...
[00:24:43] Speaker 2: but when you're sitting there talking about, you're talking about types of people, whether it's types of customers or types of employees, and people are going, "Oh, I had this customer and it was a real struggle until we finally did this," right?
[00:24:55] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. And sometimes it's a situation of they're just saying, "Nah, listen, break it down. You don't need that type of customer in your shop." And then other people are like, "Oh, no, you need that type of customer. You just have to treat it like this." And that's the stuff that they, they won't give you, you know, an itemized list of how to make the difficult Euro driver customer happy.
[00:25:15] Speaker 2: They're not gonna give you that. But if you start to talk to somebody that, like, that's their bread and butter, you come away- Yeah ... with little nuggets of like, oh That's how they do it. All right, I just have to keep that in the forefront of my mind when I'm dealing with that customer now
[00:25:29] Speaker: The, the training is so superior that I got last year, you know, with...
[00:25:37] Speaker: I went to Cecil Buller's class, Becky Witt, which was one of my favorite classes I've ever gone to. Uh, just as long as you avoid getting hit in the head with a Twinkie, you're, you're good. But, you know, these little nuggets you get from these classes, and then the same people that are in your class, you meet them afterwards, and then you kinda continue the conversation from what you kinda learn in that class.
[00:26:05] Speaker: And that now you're taking the information you learn, and some of these people are already applying it, but now you're getting real-life situations on how to apply it. Because the class is only this long, and you may be thinking like, "Oh my God, there's so much information. What do I need to retain? Or what is really important?"
[00:26:26] Speaker: But now John over here, those in your class, they're like, "Man, you know what, when he was talking about this, this is the exact situation that I applied it to." And then everything starts clicking.
[00:26:39] Speaker 2: And what I tell everyone, and I- I'll say it again, when you s- when you... You know, because they want the classrooms not to be like, they don't wanna be interrupting.
[00:26:48] Speaker 2: But I mean, all the instructors are looking for feedback, and they're trying to instigate thinking and instigate conversation. So if somebody in a classroom says something and it resonates with you, don't let them go down the hallway without, if you wanna ask them something, ask them that right then. "Hey, what did you mean by this?"
[00:27:05] Speaker 2: Yeah. Or, "Hey, can, can we delve into that a little bit more?" And that's how you're gonna make, you're gonna make a friend at that point, and a confidant, that you're gonna be able to keep in this industry, and that's, that's what it's about. You know, it's sometimes in our own little areas, A and E's, you don't wanna call up the shop around the street that maybe you just have a slightly, you know them by name, but you don't know them, know them.
[00:27:25] Speaker 2: Yeah. And ask them how are they doing? How are they doing this? But somebody that you can't see as competition maybe 'cause they're in another country than you, you feel much more, um, uh, relaxed about asking them, "Hey, how did you actually do that? How did you implicate that?"
[00:27:41] Speaker: Yeah, I f- I found, I found with information there was little to no gatekeeping when you're talking to people at, uh, ASTA.
[00:27:54] Speaker: I mean, you're asking questions. You know, people are divulging their numbers, their average repair order, ARO, how much they did with X amount of bays, and little tidbits on this improved this, and a percent here and a percent there. You're getting so much information that's X, like the value, okay, if, if anyone is thinking about ASTA and you wanna talk about value, the, the ticket price is nothing No.
[00:28:29] Speaker 2: Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and like, comment on, and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change.
[00:28:49] Speaker 2: Thank you to my partners in the ASI Group and to the Changing the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time