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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.
Jeff Compton [00:00:06]:
Start to get to know your people where it's like, okay, they're. Now you're doing a break job on one side and he's doing the brakes on the other side. That's not optimal sometimes for consistency, but you're working together. You're going to catch little nuggets of, oh, look at how he did that, you know? And then you're going to come over there and help him and you're going to start to really know your teammates, where their strengths lie, where their weaknesses are. And then collectively, we all get better. Good morning. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the jaded mechanic podcast. We're here in beautiful sunny Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jeff Compton [00:00:42]:
I can't even tell you what day it is of being here. I know I got a little bit more. I think I go home tomorrow, but I'm not sure. Don't ask me what day. Anyway, thank you again to our beautiful family at promotive. Promotive has been so, so pivotal in what we've been able to do here. And I just want to say thank you again to promotive. Thank you to techmetric for sponsoring these events, for helping me able to get to these events.
Jeff Compton [00:01:08]:
I've got an absolutely incredible young man here today who is the apex technician of the year. His name is Mr. Tony Martinez and he's from Wisconsin. Tony, how are you, bro?
Tony Martinez [00:01:22]:
Great, man. How are you?
Jeff Compton [00:01:23]:
Very good. I'm a little. I'm. I'm getting used to the American coffee because, like, back home everything is Tim Hortons, right? So I've had to take away my official protest of Starbucks and I've had to because it's right in the lobby of mgm. Where we're staying. Where I'm staying. Excuse me. And so I've had to pay the $7 for a basic black coffee every morning.
Jeff Compton [00:01:46]:
And get that.
Tony Martinez [00:01:47]:
Yeah, either that or you get 200 grams of sugar in your coffee. I don't know. I'm more of that kind of guy.
Jeff Compton [00:01:53]:
So kind of fill me in on. On how. What is it? You've been a busy man. You were supposed to be here yesterday. And we kind of got our scheduling mixed up because you told me you're like, well, I got to be at Napa. I'm like, okay, cool. Come by on Thursday. But how.
Jeff Compton [00:02:11]:
How busy are you right now?
Tony Martinez [00:02:14]:
You know, not. There aren't too many obligations that have been coming out. I just wanted to make sure my schedule is wide open 2x as a lot of things have come with last just in time communication. Yeah, let's Say, yeah, I'm.
Jeff Compton [00:02:32]:
I have to admit, I've been terrible. I didn't come here with like, oh, I'm gonna do a schedule. No, that ain't how I go. Right.
Tony Martinez [00:02:38]:
Me either. I. I'm just trying to figure it out. I'm looking at the. The Apex app and seeing. But as I've been going and mingling, a lot of. A lot of invitations have come out, like, oh, hey, come and help support women in auto care and stuff like that. I had scoot out of SEMA and walk all the way over there to go support them.
Tony Martinez [00:03:01]:
Really, really great group of people.
Jeff Compton [00:03:03]:
Tell me what. Like, how does. How does APEX determine that you're the Napa Technician of the year? Kind of give me that breakdown on what. What do you have to do to qualify? What. What makes you the standout? I know, listen, I know what makes you stand out. You're a sharp, sharp young man. But how did they determine that? Who nominates you go on that kind of thing.
Tony Martinez [00:03:22]:
So, initially, my journey started with I was nominated by one of our coworkers. Put in a nomination packet with details about who I am, where I came from, and what I do in the shop, how I like to mentor other young guys. Obviously, certifications and professional development comes in and training attended and whatnot.
Jeff Compton [00:03:53]:
We were talking. You're up to how many ASCs now?
Tony Martinez [00:03:55]:
49 out of 52. And I'm absolutely getting 52 by the end of the year. I refuse to fail.
Jeff Compton [00:04:02]:
How many people, when you tell them that, they even know that there is 52.
Tony Martinez [00:04:06]:
You know, a lot of people, I was over at SEMA and talking to someone and, you know, they were wearing a gold patch too shoulder, and they were like, there's your. Yeah. What? How many?
Jeff Compton [00:04:16]:
There's more than 10?
Tony Martinez [00:04:18]:
Yeah, there's more. I mean, there's 14 and just 13. I don't know, 13 in just automotive being master and then the advanced level certificates. But yeah, I mean, you've got 52 and all sorts of different sections. You got the collision, medium, heavy duty truck and all.
Jeff Compton [00:04:37]:
So you're. You're into a mentorship role at Silver Lake already?
Tony Martinez [00:04:40]:
Yeah, yeah, I've kind of. It's interesting over the time that I've been there, they're getting kind of older guys that are skilled into the shop that have good culture and would meld in with our culture has been kind of difficult. It's so much easier for us to bring in skilled young guys and have them bring their culture and match our. Ours. Right. And we can Develop them into, you know, we always call it the Slack way.
Jeff Compton [00:05:12]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:05:13]:
Which is just a great culture and. And mindset that they've bred in the company. So, yeah, five or six years, I was working next to a guy when I started Nick Espy out in Minnesota. He's a great technician. I don't know where he. He's. He's in Rochester now. Okay.
Tony Martinez [00:05:35]:
His. He's got a wonderful wife, and he moved with her down by us.
Jeff Compton [00:05:42]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:05:42]:
Because she was going to medical school. Okay. And they ended up moving back home. Funny story. I mean, I looked up to this guy a lot when I first came into the industry and got my job there. So he taught me an incredible amount. And during that time, you know, I ended up as a master tech and kind of started to get into more of a lead technician role after getting that and kind of proven my worth and my value. So one day, you know, I was talking to him and everything, and he just kind of dropped a bomb on me.
Tony Martinez [00:06:21]:
He came over to our shop, which was really weird. He came over to weld something, and I was like, I could have welded it, but he offered to come over and looked through my toolbox, and he's like, well, you're doing pretty good, kid.
Jeff Compton [00:06:36]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:06:36]:
And then a week later, he's like, yeah, man, I'm going back home. And it was like. It was a bummer. I'm like, man, this guy taught me a lot. I was hoping he would be able to stay, but, yeah, that was the passing of the torch for me to be. Hey, you're the lead guy. Like, I trust you.
Jeff Compton [00:06:56]:
And this was happening at Silver Lake.
Tony Martinez [00:06:57]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:06:58]:
Right on.
Tony Martinez [00:07:00]:
Yeah. They've. They've poured into me and invested in me, and one of the, you know, I. I absolutely give it back. That's one of the most important things that I've seen in the culture of our shop, is that, you know, the more that you pour into someone, the more they give back. And I know it's a subliminal thing. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:07:20]:
But it's nice to hear that, like, somebody was able to share it with you and pass it on so that it was already there. You know what I mean? Because, like, I've had that thing where I've had one good mentor or two good mentors in a place that had terrible culture. Right. It became an individual choice. You get to work for somebody that has a collective team culture that's so much more powerful than just an individual. An individual can change an individual's life, but a team of us all going for the same goal that changes the whole world. Right? Like, yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:07:50]:
And it's to the point now where, I mean, during the time that I've been with this company, they've evolved so much in improving and really being like industry leaders in the way that they set up their shop. And now, you know, they're scaling and they're growing and they absolutely deserve it because they've figured out these things as so many different dynamics of how to do it. They, you know, there's kind of a point now where they have almost a scalable point where, well, we need a kind of a lead tech mentor guy. We need like a production manager, we need a kind of a foreman. And without that, that mentorship guy around the building, you can't grow anybody.
Jeff Compton [00:08:35]:
And that, that position is not new. Right. Like any of us that have been up through the dealer systems. Oh, that used to be. The thing is every dealer had a foreman, but what was different was like they had them in a role whether they were good for the culture or not. Right. It's just. And it was always looking at like, well, that guy was the producer.
Jeff Compton [00:08:53]:
He knew all the tricks of the. How to keep everybody, you know, turning.
Tony Martinez [00:08:58]:
Hours, just keep ours.
Jeff Compton [00:08:59]:
He might have been. He might have been like me. He might have been a grouchy old gatekeeping, you know, worn down, herding, injured, whatever you want to think person that's not good for culture. You're 26 years old and you're in a leadership role within people that you mentor every day, that are older than you, that are maybe more years in the trenches than you, but yet you're tasked with, like, mentoring them to how to be the best that they can be in Silver Lake. I want to hope that everybody is receptive to that. You know what I mean? The fact they don't give you this, hey, young kid, like, oh, well, I'll.
Tony Martinez [00:09:35]:
Be honest, during that time, I mean, I think I was 26 at the time. Even before that, I was a lead tech. The 26. They allowed me the chance to be foreman. And it included administrative stuff that I was just not mature enough to do, like going to meetings and trying to figure out stuff. And I absolutely did not have the maturity or understanding of what we were trying to accomplish in the meetings. And what they were trying to do was give me the tools to improve the culture constantly and improve myself through doing it. And they would give me these little nibbles of information and I would push them away.
Tony Martinez [00:10:21]:
And now I, over a couple of years now, become a far More receptive to it and understanding and you know, listen to like Jocko's extreme ownership. I read that at first they said, you know, like, you should read this, it'll really help you just in your life if you don't take something from this for, you know, work, you'll get, get something for this out of your life. And I was like, I'm taking extreme ownership. You know, I'm going to fall on my sword every time I'm going to go do all these cars by myself. And that's not. It was absolutely the exact opposite of what those kind of principles that he's talking about in there or general principles like that, that work. And it took me a couple of years to finally listen to it. And it really has helped, you know, that and other things.
Tony Martinez [00:11:18]:
Like my brother turned me on to a book, how to think like a Roman emperor. Okay. Following Marcus Aurelius, right, from the gladiator movie.
Jeff Compton [00:11:30]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:11:31]:
And he was a Roman emperor in 200 BC, I believe, or 175 BC. Very, very short lived guy, like 35 years old. But he was taught stoicism by Socrates, right?
Jeff Compton [00:11:45]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:11:46]:
And the stoic practices are so interesting. And it's like, well, we could go into battle and get absolutely defeated, but I'm not gonna sit here and worry about it. We're gonna go do it and then whatever the results are or the results, we'll analyze and we'll move on. And stuff like that too, really has also improved the way that I kinda go through and say a young guy I'm working with, mentor and breaks something and it's like, you know, laugh, right. Like, oh, oh man, that's, that's funny. I've done that before.
Jeff Compton [00:12:20]:
Yeah. Because all, all of the, you know, you can, you can take, you've heard it, I'm sure. Oh. Just because you pass ASES means you passed a test, doesn't necessarily mean you're a great technician. Right, Right. What do you think about that argument? Because I mean, obviously this is more than just for you. Like an ASE said, I can pass a test. There's proof that you're a good technician.
Jeff Compton [00:12:43]:
But what are you people that counteract that as saying there's no point in getting ases.
Tony Martinez [00:12:48]:
I've absolutely met a lot of people which, you know, even a couple of them were master techs. A good, you know, guy that we had, I love the guy had that kind of attitude towards ases. And you know, it's really interesting because we've got some guys right now that Are they're trying, you know, me going out and doing as much as I have, getting ASE world class last year, being the 22Ases, and then now pushing for President's Club at the 49.
Jeff Compton [00:13:23]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:13:24]:
We've been having kind of gentlemen's competitions, like, hey, I'm gonna sign up and go take a couple this weekend.
Jeff Compton [00:13:29]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:13:30]:
You know, I'll take two if you take one. Let's go. Let's go push ourselves to do better. I can see where the argument comes from. Yes, it's a standardized test that really can tell whether or not you're skilled. And I can understand that. But the reality is that those people are also the same people that argue, well, I'm a bad test taker and I think I absolutely understand learning disabilities and everything like that. I have adhd.
Tony Martinez [00:14:07]:
But I think that the bad test taker thing is an excuse to not take extreme ownership.
Jeff Compton [00:14:15]:
An excuse to not really, truly know the material.
Tony Martinez [00:14:18]:
Right. If you know that material and have studied twice as much as you think that you should have, like I just watched a movie a million miles away. Right. Jose Hernandez, migrant farm worker. First migrant farm worker, astronaut for NASA.
Jeff Compton [00:14:36]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:14:37]:
Absolutely. Incredible story. And you know, people, everybody should watch it. Right. Because he wrote a book about how he got to that place in his life. He, you know, it's kind of six steps of like, no. Figure out where you want to go. Right.
Tony Martinez [00:14:56]:
And then make a plan. Right. Obviously, plan goes out the window at some point. Always. Right. Plan contingencies. And then once you think that you've gotten there, go harder. You gotta keep working because you may think you're there, but if you don't work harder at that point, and that applies to that kind of testing thing where it's always.
Tony Martinez [00:15:23]:
It's kind of an excuse because people that are trying to go out and go get these things are already incredible, but they just need to get that material really, really internalized. Like, if you understand the system, I.
Jeff Compton [00:15:35]:
Think it's the difference between I go to work and I get the job done versus I go to work and know that tomorrow, with a little bit of extra that I pour into myself, I can get more jobs. And that's sometimes. And you know where you're nodding your head, you know exactly what I mean. Right. But I can go to work and stay in my own little bubble and just say, I only do this. I'm to use that GSC B Tech thing. Right?
Tony Martinez [00:15:58]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:15:58]:
But if I want to go from being a B tech to an A Tech, I can Go to work every day and just get the work done. Or I can go to work every day, get my work done, apply myself and see that progressional step from going from a C to a B, a B to an A. Because here's the thing. I don't honestly believe that anybody can't be an A tech. I really believe that if you apply it and learn, like almost said, learn a product, learn the processes, learn how the material, you can be it. Are you necessarily that intuition that we talked about last night, that instinct that 20, 30 years of more and more that you're faced with, can you develop that? Some people have a window that we just can't learn it right. In terms of that instinct. But you can go and understand the system that you're working on and apply a process and fix the damn problem.
Tony Martinez [00:16:50]:
Absolutely. I mean, the, the key really is constant improvement. Right. And training. If you're not constantly improving, you're. You're leaving yourself behind. And I know that, like there are some guys that we work with that, you know, I wish would do more, you know, because it's not that the training is for the company that you work for or whatever, you know, and our shop is a family shop, it's family owned. And they really treat us like family.
Tony Martinez [00:17:24]:
But if you're not doing these professional development things, you're not doing it for yourself. It's in our handbook to go and get 40 hours of training a year. And I don't think that's enough with how this industry is so rapidly evolving. I just scanned a car for the first time, saw augmented reality module and there.
Jeff Compton [00:17:45]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:17:46]:
And like where we still have guys stressing about EVs.
Jeff Compton [00:17:51]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:17:51]:
And it's like, well, those have been out at least like Tesla, whereas, you know, the Chevy Volt and Bolt have been out far longer. Tesla's been out since 2013. They released the Model S. Yeah, we've. We've got these technologies that are rapidly, rapidly advancing other than those kind of things. And that's where that 40 hours of training is not enough.
Jeff Compton [00:18:17]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:18:18]:
And that training is how, yeah, you can go out and you can go get those ASEs. ASEs is a proof of your knowledge of the concepts of that, say, breaks. If you absolutely understand that system through and through completely, whether or not you're a bad tester. There are, there are some tactics to go and take those things. I mean, they're written by subject matter experts too, by the way, where some people think, oh, ASE writes these tests. No, actually those are technicians, trainers, and instructors that write those.
Jeff Compton [00:18:51]:
I have several friends that have submitted, been asked to submit tests and then review other people's test questions, you know what I mean, before it gets used by ASE. So it's not like, I think sometimes we think ASE is given the same tests they were given 10 years ago.
Tony Martinez [00:19:06]:
No, no, they're absolutely rapidly evolving. There's the 10 questions that don't get counted. They do get counted, if you get it right. So that's another thing. So you have all that opportunity to get them right. And they're constantly establishing a curve that they need to evolve the questions and the tests. But really, I mean, they're written by technicians, they're written by guys just like you in the bay trying to go take that test.
Jeff Compton [00:19:33]:
So this 40 hours a year that you. How do you seek, like, how do you personally seek that out?
Tony Martinez [00:19:41]:
So that's a good question. I mean, I've signed up for every possible lead on training. I mean, there are conventions that are phenomenal, like vision. In Kansas City, I discovered that we hadn't sent anyone there and they sent me there as a pilot. I think I went by myself the first time. 2020 Covid came around and I actually, I got it. I'm pretty sure they didn't have the tests back then, but I came back on the plane. I thought I was gonna die.
Jeff Compton [00:20:12]:
We all had.
Tony Martinez [00:20:13]:
Oh, it was so bad. But I got to go out there twice now. There's like STX by WTI or worldpack Training Institute. We've sent some guys down there, but otherwise, you know, we also use like the Napa Auto Tech training and that they come to us because we're an auto care center and they tell us when it is. And you know, anytime that's available, I go.
Jeff Compton [00:20:43]:
And you do a lot of online stuff too?
Tony Martinez [00:20:45]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I dig around and find stuff, especially, you know, for ASE test guides. I've done hours and hours of classes on like motor age and stuff, trying to get to a point where I understand compressed natural gas fuel systems, which, you know, I've never really worked on those vehicles in particular. But if I can understand the system, I can go and, you know, prove my worth on it. I have to understand it through and through though, without having the hands on knowledge. I think that's another real thing of all these ASEs don't mean anything. Well, you need the two years of experience and within that time, I think that you actually should be able to learn enough to say, go past brakes and steering and Suspension, let's say that 40 hours a year there, right. Get educated on those basics and kind of get a ball rolling.
Tony Martinez [00:21:42]:
But yeah, I've just tried to figure out as many ways as I can seek out that training and improve myself because I know it was gonna get me somewhere in my career. And at first, you know, it was just kind of to earn respect in the building. You know, I was just this geek off the street with a man bun.
Jeff Compton [00:22:02]:
Okay.
Tony Martinez [00:22:03]:
When I started, a huge, huge man bun sticking out the back of my hat.
Jeff Compton [00:22:08]:
So let's back up a little bit. Before you ever landed at Silver Lake, what like did you. Were you shop kid in high school or like did you tinker with stuff before you had a driver's license or.
Tony Martinez [00:22:20]:
Interesting, interesting question. Kind of looking at it, right. I was not in the industry. I was absolutely fascinated with kinetic learning.
Jeff Compton [00:22:32]:
Okay.
Tony Martinez [00:22:32]:
And I wanted to do technical stuff. I thought high school was such a waste of time. They weren't even teaching me how to do my taxes. And I was really like, what am I sitting in this classroom for when I know I want to go and get out into a job in manufacturing or something. So I begged my school district to sign on with a manufacturing apprenticeship. Went through that, where I would actually still get my high school diploma. That was the great deal of it. Spent two hours a day in the basement of some factory out in Waukesha, Wisconsin and did, did training on blueprinting and autocad and stuff like that and got certified as a manufacturing certified by the MSSC Manufacturing Skills Standards Council.
Tony Martinez [00:23:26]:
I can't believe I still remember that. That was a long time ago. And during that time they had us go and get jobs in local manufacturing plants. My first job, real job other than, you know, I was. I helped out at a farm. Yeah. Which kind of weird, right? A little suburb kid, but out in the farm. Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:23:50]:
It's kind of done everything, a little bit of everything. But my first job job was at Aries Industries in Waukesha. They, everybody probably will remember this. Ares Industries. There was a situation where a Chilean mine collapsed in Chile. I remember that Aries Industries flew down there. I don't know if it was a CEO or something. And they brought one of their bore like pipeline inspection cameras.
Tony Martinez [00:24:18]:
And they were able to. That was the camera they shoved down into the borehole that they, they made to prove that they were alive. And then they continued. That camera is actually in the lobby of Ares. It's really cool. So they, they manufacture very, very nice high quality little mini tanks. These things are all controlled remotely from, like, service trucks over sewer pipelines.
Jeff Compton [00:24:48]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:24:49]:
And sewer mains. And they also have, like, lateral inspection cameras. And now that when I was there, they came out with a cutter as well so that they could service the pipes without ripping up the whole street. They would cut them. And then they do the new polymer lining stuff where it's like an inflatable polymer lining. So I was there for about a year. I would always. I don't know, it's just kind of been ingrained in me, who I am of like, I would.
Tony Martinez [00:25:20]:
I would work to the point where there was no work, and I'm like, hey, give me more work. I want to learn. I want to do more stuff. And I don't know how to breed that in somebody. I'll have to think about that for a while.
Jeff Compton [00:25:30]:
But, yeah, I don't. I don't know if that can. Right. And I don't know. I don't know. That's one of the rubs that everybody says, all the young people. The young people don't know how to work. Well, it's not that the young people don't know how to work, but the young people from our.
Jeff Compton [00:25:43]:
My generation were raised like my parents. You just. If. If you got on the shovel at seven in the morning and it was seven o' clock at night and you were finally done with the shovel that was working.
Tony Martinez [00:25:55]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:25:55]:
And somebody that might have been sitting somewhere else doing something else, running the tractor, they were working too, but they weren't necessarily working as hard. Even though it's like they didn't understand that team thing of like, well, that's, that's work. These young people now, they feel like when I'm clocked in, I'm working. If you see me not necessarily on the end of the shovel, it doesn't mean that I'm being lazy. It means that I'm maybe doing something, you know, unrelated to the task. The old heads look at the guy and go, he's not under the hood. He's not working.
Tony Martinez [00:26:26]:
Right now I'm standing at the desk.
Jeff Compton [00:26:28]:
Reading on how this system works before I go and apply myself to it so that I'm more efficient, more knowledgeable, probably not gonna break as much. And they go, I listen, what are you doing? I don't need you standing there at the computer.
Tony Martinez [00:26:40]:
Right, right. Absolutely. And, you know, even with all of the stuff that I know, it's minuscule. Right. Still, every vehicle has different systems. You have to. You cannot memorize every system. I don't care if you're a dealer guy, you can't memorize.
Tony Martinez [00:26:55]:
Maybe you've seen it a thousand times, you've done same repair. But most of the diagnostic is understanding the system, finding your test points. Yeah, you're doing research on where you're going to go test and you take your last 15 minutes, rip something apart and perform your test. And you know, sometimes I see those guys doing training, same thing. And so that's another thing about the training thing that's interesting. But you know, it would be a lot easier for the guys to do it in the, in the shop rather than after hours. Yeah. If it was during the maybe you know, lunch and learns or hey, every once a month we do training.
Tony Martinez [00:27:37]:
We're talking about some stuff like that to see if we can figure something out and trying to build a curriculum as well to really give these guys the tools themselves. Right. To do it.
Jeff Compton [00:27:49]:
So was Silver like your first job as a tech?
Tony Martinez [00:27:52]:
Yeah, yeah. So I worked at the, I built robots and I was loved it. You know, I loved soldering and soldering like circuit boards, surface mount stuff and all the wiring, the splice cables. Like I did the slip rings that, that rotate okay. And keep constant contact. Like almost a spiral cable type thing. But back in the day they had slip rings behind the steering wheels of cars.
Jeff Compton [00:28:21]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:28:22]:
Before airbags were around and we needed to do engineer a different solution. But yeah, I would make those and assemble those. And then after that I worked at Generac Power Systems in Waukesha, their corporate headquarters. Actually they have since renovated it. But back in the day they had a huge, huge plant in there and it was only three assembly lines. And we did their industrial power generators which their kilowatt ratings is based off of the engines similar. If you look at engine specs, there's a kilowatt hour or kilowatt rating on it. So we used Ford five fours, six, eight Tritons.
Tony Martinez [00:29:11]:
Definitely some sort of a Chevy nine liter. That one was beautiful. It was a beautiful engine. And it would just roar to life and scream. Some sort of a 6, 7, high output diesel and 2, 4, 34 diesels as well for those generators. And I got to do through my time there, every step of assembly, taking just a long block and mounting custom fitted exhaust systems so that you could use it, some of them. So I did everything there, I mean the exhaust, the wiring, putting in the load centers where it would have to transfer power in to power out. And I had the opportunity there from learning everything and kind of the cross training to build some for Keystone Pipeline which was, you know, that was a big deal when they had those built.
Tony Martinez [00:30:13]:
Keystone definitely was paying more. They got all of the accessories because they were putting these things in, like, Alaska or whatever. They would use the. I mean, they're in such hardcore environments. They would have to use the exhaust of the generators in certain spots. Just run a generator to heat the pipe.
Jeff Compton [00:30:31]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:30:32]:
So they could get the stuff down there. So after working there, kind of got burned out on manufacturing a little bit, but, you know, still kind of. And at that point, too, I had to get my first car. It was absolute interesting, you know, totally a first car. My brother sold it to me and I crashed it.
Jeff Compton [00:30:53]:
What was it?
Tony Martinez [00:30:54]:
2004 Chrysler Sebring.
Jeff Compton [00:30:56]:
There you go.
Tony Martinez [00:30:57]:
Good old Diamond Star unit and Mitsubishi engine whatever in this thing. So it was a coupe. It was cool. I crashed it in the first month. I felt so bad. My brother sold me this thing and I messed up. Bought an even more beautiful 1994 Chevy S10 Blazer Tahoe. Two door, rattle can, black.
Tony Martinez [00:31:24]:
You could hear the ball joints about to fall out of this thing. I didn't know, though, right. I had no idea. And, you know, during that time I was driving that thing around, me and my buddy start having to fix these things when I bought the. Funny enough, both vehicles. First vehicles I had had crappy radiators. When I got them, they were. They were spraying steam out.
Tony Martinez [00:31:44]:
And I'm trying to drive these things home. So I just had to figure this stuff out. And had a good mentorship from, like, my uncle along the way there, teaching me what he knew.
Jeff Compton [00:31:58]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:31:59]:
And for some reason, I, you know, didn't get into the industry right away. I had some friends that worked at Jimmy John's, weirdly enough. And I went and worked at Jimmy John's for a couple of years while I was going to school.
Jeff Compton [00:32:12]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:32:13]:
And I was kind of afraid to get into the field, you know, oh, there's all these guys out there that know so much. And, you know, I got to go to school and get this schooling in and under my belt before I can go and get in the shop. Or I'm going to be changing oil and sweeping the floor every day.
Jeff Compton [00:32:28]:
And see, that's the big loophole that we get right sometimes is because we, we what we sell to the young people is that like, oh, yeah, you're going to get. You're going to get a whole bunch of dirt on your fingernails and you're going to get to try a bunch of this and do a bunch of that and the Reality is, like, sometimes they do, but most get, like, put into a role of, like, you know, equates to, like, this. It's tire season. So, like, I say it all the time back home, they'll hire somebody in October, and if they have experience, great. If they don't, they walk them over and go, this is a tire machine. You've never used it before. Pay attention. This is how the machine works.
Jeff Compton [00:33:07]:
Watch him how he does this tire. Now repeat and do that a hundred times tomorrow. Yep. Right. And then it's like. And then before you know it, wow, look at that. They're. They're awesome at doing tires.
Jeff Compton [00:33:20]:
And then maybe next week it's like, okay, we're gonna get you. The tire rush has died off. Right? It's snow tire season. Um, let's get used to doing small changes before you know it. And then nobody brings that next step in of like, hey, this is actually where the learning begins now, on how these systems on a car, the engine with its oil and the tires on the car, how they're all linked together and where it actually becomes. When we're fixing something. Looking at these systems as a system, we don't necessarily always do that. We get.
Jeff Compton [00:33:52]:
We get a job that we need done, we get a person in that role to finish that job, and we never show them the whole way of, how do you start to become a craftsman and a master in this? Because, again, we don't appreciate. We don't approach it the right way. We say, I need a person to get this for me done. Right now I already have a guy like Justin that's over there in the bay and he's doing. But we never think long term about, like, what should happen if Justin leaves tomorrow, hurts himself, God forbid, who's our next Justin? Well, we haven't grown that crap and the brakes slam on and we try trying to find another Justin. Whereas if we. If we would back up in this industry and realize, like. Like jocko, the way he teaches, if that guy drops a rifle, he might be a medic, but he could pick up that rifle and be able to fire that rifle effectively.
Jeff Compton [00:34:41]:
We need to start thinking about that in this industry. A lot more of, like, they only do this or they only do that. No, you're all riflemen, right? That's the old Marine saying. You're all riflemen.
Tony Martinez [00:34:52]:
Absolutely.
Jeff Compton [00:34:52]:
I'll have to be able to pick.
Tony Martinez [00:34:53]:
That up and do that manufacturing. They. When I was learning all those things, it was cross training. You know, they got the term of cross training and we would. That's why I learned everything. They were like, hey, we want you to learn everything first. Right. But you'd have a guy, hey, he's got a vacation.
Tony Martinez [00:35:11]:
Somebody's got to fill in that slot. And I would do two stations or whatever, but you got to know how the whole thing's built, and that's how you develop.
Jeff Compton [00:35:20]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:35:21]:
And I was worried about getting into the industry and not being given those opportunities. Meanwhile, I'm swapping engines in my garage on my.
Jeff Compton [00:35:31]:
You know, and figuring out, like, problem solving. I get it done, it drove down the road again. The engine didn't drop it on the highway. Like, there were successes, right?
Tony Martinez [00:35:41]:
Oh, plenty. Enough times there were bolts that flew out on the highway. But, you know, I was learning it. Thankfully, it was on my own stuff. Right. I definitely would prefer that than letting it be a customer's vehicle.
Jeff Compton [00:35:54]:
But that's the difference between mentorship of, like, somebody after you. Okay, hey, call him Danny. Danny, you know, Tony's got this done. Go look at it. Versus if there's no Danny for you. Right. You're just putting it in. You're winging it down the road.
Jeff Compton [00:36:08]:
You're like, oh, I heard that fall off. That was that wrench that I forgot to put back in the toolbox.
Tony Martinez [00:36:12]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:36:12]:
Or all the tires wobbling, pull over and torque the lugs. We're still learning. But that's that point of mentorship again, is that before something bad happens, your Danny or whoever comes over and just says, let me check this real quick before you go. We in this industry don't do that enough either, because we're always rushing, trying to, you know, and it goes beyond a quality control thing. It's not just quality control. Quality control is important, but it's before we get the customer involved and say they're done, or the service advisor to say, call Mrs. Smith. Danny's come over and said, tony, I like how you did that.
Jeff Compton [00:36:45]:
Or, Tony, okay, this is done. But before they let go, take that harness and flip it back the other way and clip it in. And, you know, and you might go, why? The lesson here is, like, if it doesn't clip in, eventually it could rub. Then it was designed to be clipped there. Put it back. It's just an example, but you know the difference. Exactly what I'm talking about. Because we.
Jeff Compton [00:37:04]:
We miss out too many times if we're always rushing on. Like, he goes over, hits the key. Yep, it's starting. Okay, Tony, go drive this down the street now instead of taking a couple extra seconds to look over what the person that you're supposed to be mentoring did. Look at how they did it. That's where the true lesson comes into, like, great job. Now, let's just. Next time we do this, try about doing it this way, or I was watching you.
Jeff Compton [00:37:30]:
I remember it was so funny. I had a technician in the bay working next to me, young kid, and he got stuck doing a long block and a Titan. So he gets all the, you know, this stuff. He gets the engine in and. And he goes to put the timing or serpentine dry belt on. This is after he's already put the engine in, put the fan shroud in, put the whole thing, and he's fighting to get the belt on. Like, Bryce, what if we did just put the belt on before we put the shroud in?
Tony Martinez [00:37:59]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:37:59]:
You know what I mean?
Tony Martinez [00:38:00]:
Like, it's a little coaching thing.
Jeff Compton [00:38:02]:
Saved 15 minutes. Now, I wasn't beating up on him. I just, like, I was watching corner of my eye, how long he was, and I'm like. He's like, you know, light bulb moment, right? And then it's all of a sudden.
Tony Martinez [00:38:13]:
You know, being able to coach someone and even just give them that little thing. Maybe they're not even going to think about it if you don't bring it up.
Jeff Compton [00:38:18]:
And would he have learned as he's doing it? He's probably thinking in his head, if I had just done this first instead of before I put the shroud in, this wouldn't. I wouldn't be scraping my knuckles. Where that's the whole point of mentorship is before there's value in scratching your knuckles. There is. There's value. That's how we learn sometimes. That's conditioning. But if we sit there and say, here's a little tip, or like I said, that is good now, but I saw you struggling with that.
Jeff Compton [00:38:45]:
Next time, just do that first. That's the biggest thing for a lot of technicians is, like, I look at it and I know what the end goal is. That alternator has to come out and that alternator has to come in. But if somebody shows me that, like, first thing I do is I disconnect the battery, or first thing I do is I pull the battery box out of the way. Next thing I do is I get the coolant bottle out of the way. That's some things that are not necessarily printed in service information, right? But if somebody has done the job, they come over and say, this is how I have been able to cut this time in half by doing this. None of that's ever published. That's where the mentor thing really becomes powerful.
Jeff Compton [00:39:17]:
If we all slow down and let them mentor.
Tony Martinez [00:39:20]:
Yeah, that's the thing. It's a, you know, systemic thing that the more this industry is growing to figure this out in a better manner, I think, because it's always been a thing, you know, this guy's got an apprentice attached to him, but giving someone in the shop more, someone that's obviously ready and, you know, they are equipped with the tools. Right. You're giving them the tools to do that and help these guys out, but freeing them up too. You know, it's so difficult to measure how valuable that is in the shop that, that time that that guy has to go coach and grow the guys around him to. I always look at it as, you know, I want to train my replacement.
Jeff Compton [00:40:12]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:40:12]:
I want him to be better than me and, you know, train my replacement.
Jeff Compton [00:40:16]:
So how do they task you and look at you and your job for. For how much time you spend mentoring? And then you're still obviously expected to get through some cars too. Right. So what, how did they break that down, Tony?
Tony Martinez [00:40:27]:
It's. Yeah, I mean it's, it's interesting and it's. It's kind of a tactical moves versus strategic. Right. The strategy is long term goal is to have me there mentoring the guys. Right. And grow my replacement. Seriously.
Tony Martinez [00:40:43]:
I mean, that's the end goal is to have, you know, five guys better than me.
Jeff Compton [00:40:48]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:40:50]:
But it's day to day, you know, trying to figure out we, we take in, you know, a lot of the broken cars and diagnostics. I'll take that because you can always kind of walk away from that, you know. All right, sure. I've got my scanner sitting somewhere. I can walk away while someone's got a question and go help them out. Yeah. And then pour that value into them and. Or you know, they've got some sort of crazy diagnosis.
Tony Martinez [00:41:14]:
So I, I have those cars and obviously we're trying to get them done as fast as possible, but also as good as possible. But that's kind of more of the strategy taking me out of heavier production where there are times I got to do it.
Jeff Compton [00:41:28]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:41:29]:
Because the guy's out or something and I'll do it. And you know, the. It's kind of always been either give me a minute because I'm really in the middle of something or I just drop everything and go help the guy out. Our layout in our particular shop is really interesting. So we've got stacked racks.
Jeff Compton [00:41:50]:
Okay.
Tony Martinez [00:41:50]:
We have two garage doors on One side of the building and stacked racks, four on one side and then a drive on and a two post truck lift or 12,000 pounds. It's not, you know, don't want to make it sound like it's a heavy duty truck lift because we have a couple £16,000. But yeah, we have four £10,000 lifts that are. You have to pull through one to get to the other. So it's always been imperative to work great as a team. Say I'm banging out a quick brake job in the front and the guy behind me is taking apart something, you know, that's a little bit longer of a job or it's going to take him a little bit longer. He's learning and trying to figure it out. Oftentimes I'll have a car done and maybe it's a full size truck, you can't drive it underneath.
Tony Martinez [00:42:36]:
That's right, you see it here all the time. It's actually pretty standard that vehicles get driven underneath other vehicles on a lift where they're safely on the locks and everything. It's totally understood, which you can do. I mean we can do that sometimes if I get trapped. But there, that's another thing. Like oftentimes I'll have a vehicle done and I'm stuck, I can't get it full size vehicle out. And so I go back and hey, what's going on back here? How can I help you? Watch the guys, I'll let them struggle for a little bit. Just smile and hey man, do this.
Jeff Compton [00:43:10]:
And that's key. I worked in a shop where same thing we had stacked and it wasn't a door at the other end. So it was like. And I worked on a lot of Transits so smaller light duty hoist was in front of the back one that we would put the full size Transits on. So if you parked a brake job on the front bay or whatever, you could pull a Transit in real quick, say to do an oil change on it. But you were expected that like that thing had to be able to roll because we didn't have enough room to get the car underneath, especially if it was a truck underneath that Transit behind it. So you had to play logistics on like, okay, what do I do first? Well, I can't put the Transit on the front bay because it's not rated to lift it. And B, if I put a truck on the front bay, it won't fit underneath the Transit that's behind it.
Jeff Compton [00:43:50]:
Transits were always like our fleet of what we would rent. So they were always priority or didn't matter. What you never said, oh, it's got to wait till tomorrow to look at it. It was coming in to get looked at, so we had to be. We're lucky. We were fortunate that some customers, we could put their car on the front bay, take it apart, do what we had to do. Oh, you couldn't have a water pump. And we keep it overnight on the front bay while we were working in on the stuff behind us.
Jeff Compton [00:44:11]:
It's not optimal, but you can make it work. Right. It's just having to a team to come together. Okay. Get this one the brakes apart, you know, or get it back together so that we can get this car out of here. Just being flexible. Right, Right. Everybody can make a lot more money and they get a lot more done if they are just willing to say, go help your.
Jeff Compton [00:44:32]:
Your. Your partner get that done.
Tony Martinez [00:44:33]:
Absolutely. Yeah. It's working as a team. Like, hey, check with your buddy, you know, your battle buddy next to you. What's he going to p. Is he gonna pull something in? And now we're jammed up. We've got a vehicle stuck there. And, oh, man, the amount of times it happens where, oh, we're waiting for a part that just.
Tony Martinez [00:44:53]:
It happens in every shop. But then, okay, you know, now it's kind of the. The culture is spread around of, oh, well, I'm stuck. I'm jammed up. I'm gonna go help someone else. And it's great. I mean, it's starting to spread around in the shop. These guys are picking that up.
Jeff Compton [00:45:12]:
I think that's awesome too, because it keeps everybody, like, my. My. My episode that just dropped. We're talking about two guys in a shop that absolutely. They hate one another. And to keep a bay between each other, to keep them, like, that's not good culture right now, again, it's. You know, there's. There's a whole lot of animosity back and forth, and one guy's jealous of the other guy because he knows he's fast tracking to be, you know, a better tech than him.
Jeff Compton [00:45:39]:
Right. So there's a little animosity there, but, like, that's not healthy. Where. If you would just go over there and go, like, listen, I. Whatever the beef is here. But if you start to get to know your people where it's like, okay, they're. Now you're doing a brake job on one side and he's doing the brakes on the other side. That's not optimal sometimes for consistency, but you're working together.
Jeff Compton [00:45:56]:
You're gonna catch little Nuggets of, oh, look at how we did that, you know, and then you're going to come over there and help him, and you're going to start to really know your teammates, where their strengths lie, where their weaknesses are, and then collectively we all get better. But I think you got to take away a lot of the way. We've traditionally looked at the value of our people as how many hours do they produce? And instead look at, like, how do they fit in with the team?
Tony Martinez [00:46:20]:
Right, right. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:46:21]:
Because the team collectively, I'll win more with a good team, then I'll win with one star player who the rest of the people won't support. Always. I'll win better with a better team.
Tony Martinez [00:46:34]:
Yeah. I mean, you could have half a million dollars of shop tools, all available. If you don't have a good team working together to do it and in support of each other, there's absolutely no way you could fail in every possible manner. Quality control and all that.
Jeff Compton [00:46:50]:
You mentioned the part thing. What's your biggest frustrations now with that side of the industry, the parts stuff? Because, I mean, Napa's pretty good, right?
Tony Martinez [00:46:58]:
Yeah, Napa's great. They're phenomenal. They have everything to us as fast as possible. I mean, they.
Jeff Compton [00:47:05]:
But you've seen our good friend Sherwood. You kind of seen him go on lately about the quality of parts that are out there. Have you got a story like that the Sherwood had where it was like. I'm sure you got more than one story probably of where a part really let you down or sent you down.
Tony Martinez [00:47:21]:
Most of the time it's customer supplied. I do agree. Say he had that. That the Amazon hood latch situation. Taking down a can network. Are you kidding me? It's crazy. Absolutely unbelievable.
Jeff Compton [00:47:32]:
And here's what I remind everybody about that. Okay. What's so powerful is like, yeah, it was neat that he managed to make that case study up and show it to everybody. Here's the incredible part of that whole story that we don't talk about enough. That thing sat there 17 months. Yo, 17 months. He did not give up on that.
Tony Martinez [00:47:49]:
Right, right, right.
Jeff Compton [00:47:51]:
I never heard of somebody. I mean, I know of people that after 12 months bought the vehicle from the customer.
Tony Martinez [00:47:58]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:47:58]:
But they were not, like, they were not still having those open conversations with the customer. Like, listen, you know, yes, I realize it's a year. And I'm sure that if it hadn't have been some like that was that lady's only vehicle, they wouldn't have even bothered because they would have been like, they but the fact that somebody, so there's somebody who's very esteemed, a good friend of yours in the industry and they're going, I had this thing 17 months. It drove me crazy. So we all have to be a little bit more patient with ourselves and patient with each other and forgiving of ourselves because there's somebody that's arguably one of the best doing it right now and he's got one that's kicking his tail in the 17 months. He didn't call it quits, he didn't give up, he didn't burn it down, hide it. You know, all this kind of stuff we joke about, he saw it through.
Tony Martinez [00:48:46]:
Oh, man. That like kind of touches on the point where that good old fashioned culture of, oh, that guy down the street's not a professional, you know, that made me think of that immediately. And that has got to stop in the whole industry right now. We've got to stop that and start respecting each other, that we're all professionals in the industry. And, you know, situations like that do absolutely happen. That, that there's no issue or point where he is not. It's still absolutely the most professional thing. He sat there and figured it out.
Tony Martinez [00:49:22]:
But it is difficult. I mean, it is a difficult job and, and career.
Jeff Compton [00:49:27]:
And it was, it was through networking that he was able to reach out to somebody to say, hey, dude, step back for a minute and think about what you actually got here. Let's go at this from a different angle. And all of a sudden it put him on the path of solving the car. Right. If he was the type of shop or the type of person that was always like, I'm the best there is and everyone else around me is beneath me. Nobody would be reaching out to network with him, to help him through that. When he's stuck, he wouldn't have somebody else to lean on for a different perspective. We all have to back up and go, I'm not picking on you.
Jeff Compton [00:50:02]:
Well, he's got 49 ASCs and I only have 12. That means that he's not. You know what I mean? You know, it's doesn't mean that he doesn't have anything to offer you, right?
Tony Martinez [00:50:12]:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, these young guys teach me things and it could be absolutely. Some new trick they saw on TikTok or something.
Jeff Compton [00:50:20]:
Yeah, we talked about, you were asking me yesterday about Chuck Engine Chuck, Right. Like there's a guy that is, I don't know anybody learning more every day than that dude.
Tony Martinez [00:50:28]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:50:29]:
Like he puts himself out there every day, learns something Gets his butt handed to him on some. He fixes a lot more than he even bothers to show. Like I talked to the guy and he's like, yeah, I knocked out five this morning and I'm going, I'm going back to this one that's been kicking my teeth in for a week. So he's figured out finally that it's like I have to. The ones that might kick my teeth in. I'm going to have to have a different kind of conversation of expectations with that customer, whether it be a shop or whatever. And we will get through it. But I have to continue to get my gravy done, my programming and my easy stuff done so that I can afford to be able to put in the time on that tough one.
Jeff Compton [00:51:09]:
Because that's the thing. If they all become tough, then we're either like spraying ourselves way too thin, not training on what we're working on, or we have got to just like dial down that ego and go, I don't have to fix every one of them. You know what I mean? I want the low hanging fruit too. Like if you, if you become a sadist and I want all the stuff that nobody else could fix, you crazy, you'll burn yourself out.
Tony Martinez [00:51:35]:
I don't know, I'm kind of like that I love.
Jeff Compton [00:51:37]:
Really?
Tony Martinez [00:51:38]:
Yeah, people bring it. Like other shops are referring stuff apparently directly to our shop. I don't know, like of our multiple locations. Yeah, they're like, oh no, Silver Lake will do it. Like yeah, yeah, yeah man. I love the challenge. And kind of thinking back too about talking about check engine Chuck getting, you know, getting it handed to him by some of these diagnostics. It happens to all of us.
Tony Martinez [00:52:02]:
And there's a certain point where obviously we've got to charge for some of it. Right. But when, you know, it comes to like the hood latch situation on this thing, it's been there forever. How do you charge the customer for months of diagnosis? You know, at a certain point, so you're married to the thing and you want to fix it. And the tenacity to get all the way through to the other side is another reason why absolutely everybody in this industry should be respected.
Jeff Compton [00:52:31]:
And you touched on, you know, earlier some right to repair and stuff. There needs to be even more open communication, more information because they're holding so much. Nowhere is it written in service information that that hood latch causes that friggin symptom. Nowhere.
Tony Martinez [00:52:46]:
Yeah, yeah. Like I think realistically we need engineering level explanations to everything because if so I talked to him about it, about how it's simple switch. But what was happening, it was shorting the ground inside the switch and pulling down the 12 volt supply. Similar to a shorted 5 volt.
Jeff Compton [00:53:08]:
Exactly.
Tony Martinez [00:53:09]:
Yeah. But it pulled down the entire 12 volt supply and brought down modules and a can network. That's absolutely ridiculous. But you, we need that access to the information like that.
Jeff Compton [00:53:22]:
Because you hear us all the time say the way the engineers do this is stupid and they're not wrong. Right. It's a lot of it is over engineered. But we wouldn't be constantly throwing them under the bus and saying this is dumb if they would give us the same information that they had when they built the damn thing. Right. It wouldn't be like then we might see the logic of what they're, of their, their method or wouldn't matter if we don't see the logic of the method. But the, the information that we need to be able to get through this is there, that's not published that it can do that.
Tony Martinez [00:53:52]:
Right, Right. So we've got a guy that has an engineering degree as well and he's an auto technician. Master tech.
Jeff Compton [00:53:59]:
Right.
Tony Martinez [00:54:00]:
And you know, he kind of knows a little bit more. Right. I haven't designed circuit boards or anything in a while, nor do I have an electrical engineering degree. That's what I wanted to do first actually. And there was four, four semesters of calculus. No thanks, I don't feel like it. That kind of steered me away and really led me more to the automotive because hey, I mean this is more tactile stuff and I'm not going to be behind a desk all day. But so it's great, you know, someone like him has more of the knowledge of that.
Tony Martinez [00:54:33]:
And depending on who you are, right. In the industry you may know something like that. Like hey, those transistors are not powerful enough to overcome this short. Sure. But the more information that we have, the better. Yeah, some of it, some of it's not even out there. The engineers don't know. I, there was a class I took the GM Duramax with two radiator caps.
Jeff Compton [00:54:59]:
Yeah, yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:55:00]:
And ones on the side. Yeah. The guy said he's a local AC Delco guy. He's like, I, I have no idea. I have asked engineering and they, they have no idea. They can't explain to me. The guy that did it left. So that happens, right? That happens around and we joke at.
Jeff Compton [00:55:18]:
It and we go, well I know why they did it because they had a whole bunch sitting on the shelf and they Wanted to sell them. But we also know the reality is if they could build it as cheap as possible without needing to, it wouldn't need to. So there's a method there. Right. But it's crazy when you think about that engineer. Didn't even bother to write down why he did it that way.
Tony Martinez [00:55:35]:
Right, Right. Is this for the injection molding process or something like that? We have no ide so that it's really funny.
Jeff Compton [00:55:45]:
What do you want to see? What do you want to see change for. For the industry and for the technicians? I know that's a big question.
Tony Martinez [00:55:53]:
That is a huge question. I mean everything. Right. Wow.
Jeff Compton [00:55:58]:
Well, you can't answer.
Tony Martinez [00:55:59]:
Just blew off my hat.
Jeff Compton [00:56:00]:
You. That happened to you last night too.
Tony Martinez [00:56:02]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:56:03]:
We'll get you a new hat.
Tony Martinez [00:56:04]:
Done. Well, I gotta cover my hair up anyway because it's hat hair now. No, I would say there's several things I want to see. First off, I want to see the Right to Repair act pass. I think it's absolutely necessary. I've run into so many different situations where even normal service information is inaccessible throughout multiple things. Even going to OEM until you get to the OEM level. And maybe it's on dealer information, but it needs to be available to the aftermarket.
Tony Martinez [00:56:37]:
And if it gets to a point where you need a dealer login where I don't want to say specifics because I may very well be wrong. I feel like there was something Chrysler I needed to get dealer connect or something and I just don't have access to that. I don't have access to that information or know how right at this moment. But yeah, the Right to Repair act is one of the main things I want to see industry wide support for that. And they're. They've got a little QR code that you can just submit exact instances, give them time stamps and dates and we can give them some evidence and get that just finished and done so we can move on. Yeah, but I mean like for the technicians. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tony Martinez [00:57:32]:
I think there needs to be a culture shift and one of the culture shifts obviously the sublimate or probably not. That's probably not the right word. But subject. Like make your ego as small as possible and learn from everybody as much as possible in the industry and have them teach you back and forth that that shop down the street is. Is no good. Needs to stop.
Jeff Compton [00:58:01]:
But.
Tony Martinez [00:58:03]:
As an industry too, I want to see it shift to. We were kind of having conversations about it. About the industry is not automotive.
Jeff Compton [00:58:14]:
No.
Tony Martinez [00:58:14]:
At all. I don't think Any industry is. And I just kind of been led into this information. Someone said it to me and it really just started to hit me that any industry is people. Yep. And if, you know, you prioritize the people more, you get better results. You get, you know, I've always just wanted to do, when I work, I want to want 5 star reviews on Google from our customers. Right.
Tony Martinez [00:58:43]:
And they don't even know, you know, they see my face on the inspection. Sometimes I get to talk to them and you know, I'm very, very busy in the back. So taking that time is difficult. But you know, half the time they don't even know who is there doing their vehicle inspection or writing it up. But the level of service from the people in the front, the level of service from the technician providing to them, it all affects, you know, our metrics. And the metrics that we're looking at are those Google reviews. How satisfied are people with what we're doing? I mean it makes the business successful. When we have that, that's a great measurement tool to see how we're doing.
Tony Martinez [00:59:27]:
And you know, the company shifted a couple years back to realizing that and it absolutely changed everything. The way that they pour everything into us, give us all these opportunities, I mean flying down to vision and whatnot and going to go get that training and bring it back and share it with the other guys. You know, everything possible they can do for the culture and they're building has driven their success. And I think the entire industry could be so much more successful on small independent shops and everything. And it'll change that. You know, I always hear guys bouncing from job to job to job. There are some people, yeah, I mean, maybe you can't coach them enough yourself and they're going to do it, but like the correct coach and then, you know, kick them out, terminate whatever there was.
Jeff Compton [01:00:22]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [01:00:22]:
So there's a three phrase thing, but initially it's, you know, try to correct it, try to coach these people and pour into them and that I hope it's adopted by everybody in the industry. Most of the people down here already are. That's why they're down here.
Jeff Compton [01:00:42]:
That's so true. Right. Like we come to these events and we get really fired up and motivated and we feel good about where this industry going. The reality is it's 5% come to an event like this. Right. So you know, we, it's like it starts back home in our neighborhoods where we don't keep throwing the shop down the street under the bus. Right. We gotta start learning how to work together.
Jeff Compton [01:01:05]:
I've said it forever. The argument of the dealer is terrible. And, you know, the independent is the bestest thing in the world. It's two very different. It's an apple and an orange. You know, it's two different things. If you start to see how those guys at the dealer are treated by their culture, you can understand how. Just because he's a mechanic and you're a mechanic doesn't mean there's a whole lot in common in the way.
Jeff Compton [01:01:26]:
Because the culture steers the. The performance objective at the end of the day for that technician, the guy that just wants to get paid is probably at the dealership.
Tony Martinez [01:01:34]:
But realistically, it doesn't mean you're any different either. I mean, we're all in the same industry trying to.
Jeff Compton [01:01:40]:
There are outliers at the dealer that are really tuned into turning out a really good product and fixing Mrs. Smith's car. But their culture might be like, I don't, Congratulations, you fixed Mrs. Smith's car. Here's half the money that that guy that couldn't did, right? And then the independent shop down the street could be always fussing and going to dealer. I got to be less. I got to be less. I got to be less.
Jeff Compton [01:02:01]:
Or the dealer didn't bother to fix his. Ms. Smith's car. We got to stop looking at that as like, who. Mrs. Smith could be full of it, right? She might have taken it in for a break job.
Tony Martinez [01:02:11]:
It's the last thing you want to think, but, you know, it happens sometimes. There's misunderstanding on that end, I have to say. Yeah, that totally does happen. But yeah, like coming down here too, to these events, it's interesting to see the shop owners all get together. You know, they're all friends, they're talking to each other. But these are the high performers in the industry. And again, especially me, I measure it in that the metric is people, right? These are the high performers because they have great friends in the industry that they learn from every day. They work together to strive for a better industry.
Tony Martinez [01:02:50]:
And Dan Garlock wants to improve the industry as a whole, and he's going out to go network with people, little shops around and try to, you know, build relationships with them and stop that. Hey, that shop down the street's expensive.
Jeff Compton [01:03:06]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [01:03:07]:
Well, why, why are they expensive? Well, you know, they've got great guys that they pour training into. They have a great facility that costs a lot in overhead.
Jeff Compton [01:03:15]:
They're expensive because they charge for their diagn. And the guy down there, he doesn't Char me for the diag. Because he's not really diag in the car.
Tony Martinez [01:03:23]:
Right, right.
Jeff Compton [01:03:23]:
That's the difference. You're not getting the same thing?
Tony Martinez [01:03:25]:
No, absolutely not.
Jeff Compton [01:03:27]:
Did they maybe fix it by luck? Sure.
Tony Martinez [01:03:29]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [01:03:30]:
It's not the same thing. Kind of to go on. Are we gonna see you end up like Sherwood on online? Can we see? Can we look for that? Is that something that interests you going forward? Yeah, I feel like it is.
Tony Martinez [01:03:42]:
I totally thought about enough now to be like, yeah, I would absolutely do it. I got to figure something out where I'm trying to figure out how to, you know, work with doing it in the shop while still doing my duties. Right. And then, you know, gladly sitting at home and editing some footage and putting it together.
Jeff Compton [01:03:59]:
Well, I mean, you've got a power team in Sherwood and Sherwood to be able to teach you how to do it. Because, I mean, I know, like, you probably know better than me. I keep wanting to call him Senior, but the second Sherwood, the second was pretty much just about retired. And then. And then, you know, the third comes in and says, hey, dad, come over here and just film this real quick. And before now, the proverbial cats out of the bag, you know, the genies out of the bottle, whatever you want to call it, they're not getting it back in. Like, they're absolutely full in, full invested on trying to build content that teaches these young people coming in that how to rack a car, how to do the basic stuff. Like, I was so.
Jeff Compton [01:04:37]:
I was so impressed with where they're thinking of going that it's. It's really cool. And I think I'm look forward to seeing you and the guys at Silver Lake, guys and girls, let's Overlake, do the same thing. Because I think it's. It only makes the industry better, right?
Tony Martinez [01:04:52]:
The level, like, of people that they've reached. I. You know, my. My mom. I love my family, right? We're all close, really tight, small family, but that great. You know, we have a great relationships. And, you know, I show. I go sit down when I visit now, and I'm like, hey, you should.
Tony Martinez [01:05:12]:
Did you see this video they posted? And I. Because I'll talk about work. She's like, oh, how's work going? And let her know it's working on this Dodge, ram, whatever, put four PCMs in it. True story. But, you know, she's watching these things. She's way smarter than the average bear, you know, consumer on this geek on the street. But from those conversations, but she's watching it and Spreading it to her friends that don't know anything about it. And the format that he's doing is so amazing that it's getting out to consumers.
Tony Martinez [01:05:47]:
And I think that that's part of how we can reach people outside of the industry to get that. You dirty grease monkeys. I got dragged in that post because my hands are clean.
Jeff Compton [01:05:59]:
Yeah.
Tony Martinez [01:06:00]:
And I'm like, I wear gloves so that I can rip them off, wash my hands again, and then get into the customer's car and keep the fingerprints off and provide world class service. You know that somebody's just calling you a.
Jeff Compton [01:06:12]:
Because you wear gloves. Yeah, yeah, you got it.
Tony Martinez [01:06:14]:
Like, I totally didn't affect me. I laughed so hard at it. But that kind of attitude, sure. That guy's the one, you know, one kind of guy that we. We don't like, you know what they say?
Jeff Compton [01:06:27]:
And I've embraced this. When you have haters, you've made it.
Tony Martinez [01:06:30]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [01:06:31]:
And I got mine, and you're going to have yours.
Tony Martinez [01:06:33]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jeff Compton [01:06:34]:
Anyway, thank you, man, for being here. This was a pleasure to get to know you while I was at sema. I want to talk to you more like you're that kind of person that I want to highlight and showcase about a young man that's truly doing some pretty amazing things in this industry. So thank you for taking the time out of your day to come here and sit with us. And by all means, you know, you're welcome back anytime.
Tony Martinez [01:06:55]:
Yeah. Hey, thank you for having me on. I appreciate having the time, you know, getting the time to have a conversation.
Jeff Compton [01:07:02]:
And this was a definite bonus for being able to be here today. So, everybody, thank you. If you're around sema, you're around Apex. Look up Tony. Look myself up. Come by, say hello. We'd love to talk to you. So, everybody, as always, I love you.
Jeff Compton [01:07:16]:
Ciao. Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the AESAW 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.