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This podcast is dedicated to changing the automotive industry for the better, one conversation at a time.
Whether you're a technician, vendor, business owner, or car enthusiast, we hope to inspire you to improve for your customers, your careers, your businesses, and your families.
Kory Rozema [00:00:00]:
I'm not very photogenic either, so it'll work out perfectly.
David Roman [00:00:04]:
Better than us, let me tell you. You just get used to how ugly you are on camera, and you're like.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:13]:
Yeah, it works out. It works out. I was extremely thankful that they made our cardboard cutout so blurry. They didn't try to take it any further. So that was awesome.
David Roman [00:00:28]:
I sent her a high resolution shot. It was like, you know, 8000 by 6000.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:36]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:00:37]:
But I guess by the time they did all of the heavy editing to thin me out, stretch me up, he.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:45]:
Was officially at least six inches tall.
Kory Rozema [00:00:47]:
I was going to say, yeah, I made you regular height.
David Roman [00:00:51]:
Regular height. I am regular height. Thank you. You guys are just freakishly tall.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:56]:
They said, look, we want a two six foot cardboard cutouts. And they were like, whoa, man. Like, we can do a lot, but that stretch feature is gonna look awful skewed.
David Roman [00:01:09]:
They pulled it off, though. They did a good job.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:11]:
Yeah, absolutely. That was a good time. That was a real good time. Except for the fact that you don't like being around people. That probably was taxing.
David Roman [00:01:18]:
You have to be nice to everybody.
Kory Rozema [00:01:20]:
And it's hard in your force. I saw you talking to Eric Merchant.
David Roman [00:01:24]:
Merchant. I love Eric. He's good people.
Kory Rozema [00:01:28]:
He's awesome.
David Roman [00:01:29]:
He really is nice.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:30]:
He really is.
David Roman [00:01:31]:
And.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:31]:
And as many people as I tried to come get you or to come give you hugs, not many people did it.
David Roman [00:01:38]:
Eric, did I hug them back? We had all moment.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:42]:
A moment, yeah. Was it called on video?
David Roman [00:01:44]:
It was. It was on the camera.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:45]:
Very nice.
Kory Rozema [00:01:46]:
And he has his hair comb this week, too. I saw that, Eric, he has his hair comb because he didn't bring a hat.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:53]:
Oh, dude, that's impressive. Cory, introduce yourself.
Kory Rozema [00:01:58]:
I'm Corey Rosima. I own Rosima's car care in Hudsonville, Michigan, with my wife and I. We bought that as a family business. My wife and I took it over Memorial weekend of 2016.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:10]:
Nice. And it's, like, really taken off here recently. It feels like, am I just seeing more of your stuff on the Internet, or is it just that things are happening?
Kory Rozema [00:02:20]:
I mean, we've always pretty consistently grown since day one. You know, my dad was 65, retired or retiring, had no debt, you know, had $200 a month in homeowners association dues cause for my mom and his condo. So he was, you know, answered the phones when he felt like working and then didn't when he didn't want to.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:47]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:02:47]:
So it was just a matter of answering the phones and getting cars in and. But lately, like, maybe two months ago, I put. I asked one of our service advisors to really go get Facebook and Instagram, and she's taking our little Wednesday videos that we do.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:06]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:03:06]:
Just gone gangbusters with it, for sure.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:08]:
I've seen, like, a lot of them, and typically, like, we're friends with a lot of shops, so we see a lot of stuff, but usually it's, like, cookie cutter and it's things where it's always the same. And I've noticed, like, your videos are making it through the algorithm, which is pretty impressive. Right?
Kory Rozema [00:03:23]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:23]:
Especially as many shops as we are friends with. It's pretty cool.
David Roman [00:03:26]:
I don't click on anybody's stuff, so.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:29]:
You'Re a pretty hateful person, you know that?
David Roman [00:03:31]:
It clogs up your feed with other, like, cars. I don't want to look at cars. That's the last thing I wanted to look at.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:40]:
So I'm friends with some of your technicians.
Kory Rozema [00:03:42]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:43]:
Really awesome guys.
Kory Rozema [00:03:44]:
They're fantastic.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:45]:
And you have built a really unique culture in the shop. It's been very interesting to watch that play out. What were the keys to that? When you think back about, was it just finding the right people, or was it.
Kory Rozema [00:03:58]:
I think a lot of it was realizing one day I walked out there, and outside of Luke, who's here.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:05]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:04:06]:
I had a complete staff turnover in, like, 30 days.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:10]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:04:10]:
When you first took over.
Kory Rozema [00:04:12]:
No, this was two years ago. Yeah, two and a half years ago.
David Roman [00:04:16]:
Why?
Kory Rozema [00:04:17]:
I was a horrible person. I mean, I was a nice guy, but I was not a very good boss.
David Roman [00:04:23]:
What. What made you a bad boss?
Kory Rozema [00:04:26]:
I had a pretty short views. People just like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I. I was trying to play dad as opposed to employer.
David Roman [00:04:38]:
And sometimes you gotta play dad. But you were, like, a mean dad.
Kory Rozema [00:04:42]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was. It was not great. You know, we didn't have anything written down. You know, I was of kind of the opinion, everyone should know how I want them to do it, because I had it stored in my head.
David Roman [00:04:58]:
Sure.
Lucas Underwood [00:04:59]:
And it was never on paper, it was never conveyed to them.
Kory Rozema [00:05:02]:
Right. Yeah. And, I mean, during the interview process, I was, you know, this is kind of what the expectation was. And it was three or four sentences, and, you know, six weeks into it, eight weeks into it, two years into employment, all of a sudden, they're like, well, I didn't know that. Yeah, well, how do you not know that? But it wasn't a question. It was a big blow up. Yeah. So how Luke decided to endure all of that is still when I ask him.
Kory Rozema [00:05:31]:
He's like, oh, no. It just never really bothered me, which, I mean, you met Luke in ASD last year, and he's here today or this week as well. But, yeah, it was. It was a tough thing to see. Like, I just walked out into the shop, and I'm just like, how did this happen?
Lucas Underwood [00:05:50]:
It was maybe last year at the institute summit that we talked to a shop owner, and he said one of the heaviest things he ever did is he said it. He had seen it many times, but it never clicked with him. But he happened to open his quickbooks employee or whatever, you know, where it shows all the employees. And he said, like, I looked at that, and he said, I've been doing this for all these years. Holy cow. I've been through a lot of employees.
Kory Rozema [00:06:12]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:13]:
And he said, that feels really heavy now. And he said, you know, I'm getting to the point. I'm ready to retire. And I look at that, and I'm like, holy crap, dude. I don't want to keep doing this. I don't want to keep, like, struggling to find those people. And I think there has to be that self reflection to look at it and say, hold up. Maybe I'm part of the problem here.
Kory Rozema [00:06:32]:
And, I mean, I wasn't part of the problem. I mean, it was very apparent. Like, I was.
David Roman [00:06:38]:
Yeah, so, but what was catalyst, though? Because self awareness is severely lacking.
Kory Rozema [00:06:45]:
I mean, I always took it really personal when an employee left.
David Roman [00:06:49]:
Sure.
Kory Rozema [00:06:49]:
You know, I mean, I only just fired my very first employee five, six months ago.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:56]:
Really?
David Roman [00:06:57]:
So most of the time, they quit then.
Kory Rozema [00:06:59]:
Oh, yeah.
David Roman [00:07:00]:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:07:00]:
And in most cases, it was ugly. You know, like, one person personally, though.
David Roman [00:07:05]:
Was there one thing that. That all of a sudden, you're like, oh, crap, I gotta fix this.
Kory Rozema [00:07:12]:
I think it was that one Monday morning, I walked out there, and I'm like, guy. I have Luke. And that's it for my, you know. Luke was the second person I ever hired.
David Roman [00:07:22]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:07:23]:
You know, and he was 1516. We're a little unclear on that, but, yeah, I insist. He rode his bike the first week to work. He says, I'm pretty sure I drove, but whatever. But it was. Yeah, like, it was gut wrenching and.
Lucas Underwood [00:07:38]:
Well, what was the what? Let's do that.
David Roman [00:07:41]:
Yeah, they had all quit. You show up Monday morning like you just lost the one guy and then another guy, and then you show up Monday morning, you're like, I don't need employees. Where the hell my staff go?
Kory Rozema [00:07:51]:
Well, I mean, I was staffed. I mean, I you know, by the grace of God. Like, I never had massive issues hiring, you know, and we had good tools. We had good equipment. It was clean.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:03]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:08:04]:
Well lit. So people wanted to work there. It just. They didn't want to work for me for very long. And, I mean, I guess it's really kind of a challenge to pinpoint exactly what it was outside of. Like, I walked out into the shop that morning, and I'm like, I just. Okay. You know, we had our very first staff meeting 30 seconds after that.
David Roman [00:08:27]:
What?
Lucas Underwood [00:08:27]:
So step one. Staff meeting.
Kory Rozema [00:08:29]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:30]:
What'd you say?
Kory Rozema [00:08:31]:
Hey, you know, like, let's get to know each other. I'm gonna make an effort of apologizing, right? Because I never really had a problem apologizing to my kids when I was a bad dad, but I would never thought about apologizing to my employees when I would go home and talk to my wife. Like, yeah, this guy did this, and this guy did this, and my wife has no problem holding me accountable. She's like, you know, it sounds like you're kind of a jerk. Like, yeah, well, you know, whatever did.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:03]:
When she said that, was there ever a little bit of a tinge that was like, maybe I should do something different. Maybe I should apologize. Maybe I should.
Kory Rozema [00:09:12]:
I mean, probably. But at the same time, she's fairly involved. You know, she does all the accounts payable, payroll, things like that. She knows everybody that works there.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:25]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:09:25]:
And I don't know, maybe, like, subconsciously, you know, she didn't say I should, so it can't be that bad.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:32]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:09:33]:
And then when I came home that day and just told her, she's like, well, we'll figure it out.
David Roman [00:09:39]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:09:40]:
That's always kind of been her deal.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:42]:
Right?
Kory Rozema [00:09:42]:
And. And we did. And I think it was shortly after that I was scanning through Facebook, and at that point in time, I was not involved with, but communicated back and forth with another Facebook group. You know, I don't know if the mechanics alliance people.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:02]:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:10:03]:
And one guy just always asked amazing questions. Excuse me. And he's like, I don't really like where I work, and blah, blah, blah. So I Facebook stalked him. And that was Andrew.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:16]:
Yep. That's what I was going to say, is, I know that when Andrew came in, I'd been watching you for a little bit, but it seemed like there was a shift when Andrew came in.
Kory Rozema [00:10:24]:
Yeah. And, I mean, he definitely had a big part in it. And my shop manager, John, came on right around the same time as Andrew. You know, we had gotten to the point where I really needed to have, like, two legit or even three legit a tax in the shop. And Luke was almost there. Andrew, I thought, was a. I wasn't quite sure. Like, I was.
Kory Rozema [00:10:52]:
No matter what, I gotta come work for me. We'll figure it out.
Lucas Underwood [00:10:55]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:10:56]:
And a manager at that time was easier to hire, so I hired John and I just stayed wrenching.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:02]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:11:02]:
And. But, yeah, when. When Andrew came on, he lives.
David Roman [00:11:08]:
Who's doing the advising.
Kory Rozema [00:11:09]:
I had a. So her name was Kelly. She doesn't work for me anymore. She moved on. Her dad was. Had some health issues and stuff like that. Wonderful person. She actually installed shopware in my shop, and she's like, this is never going to work.
Kory Rozema [00:11:24]:
I'm not very tech savvy. Did a wonderful job.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:27]:
Right.
Kory Rozema [00:11:27]:
You know, um, but so that was that. We were just very informal prior to having shop where. Yeah, everything's on pen and paper. Hand it to her. She writes them all up, calls the customers what they want to do, we do. And what they don't, we don't.
David Roman [00:11:46]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:11:47]:
But, yeah, when Andrew came in, him and Luke clicked immediately.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:52]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:11:53]:
And now when I talk to their wives, it's like these two. They text back and forth constantly.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:57]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:11:58]:
Nonstop.
Lucas Underwood [00:11:58]:
Yeah. And it's. It's definitely. It seems like a pretty warm environment compared to what it was when we first met. Right. Like, it seems like a very different environment when I talk to your guys. They're completely different than. Than what I would have expected based on what I had seen you post prior to that, you know?
Kory Rozema [00:12:15]:
Yeah. And, um. I mean, they love the industry. I mean, they eat, breathe, sweat and bleed it, and it's nice to not be the only one there that's the same way.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:29]:
Yeah. I've noticed that you seem happier in the shop. Like, when I. When I see your videos and stuff, you seem more engaged than you were. Cause you had done a little bit of social media stuff when we first met, but you hadn't done that much.
Kory Rozema [00:12:42]:
Well, we did. We started doing, like, the, you know, Rosemary's car care olympics thing, like a week before COVID started.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:51]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:12:52]:
And then COVID hit and the whole world closed down. And our little community of Hudsonville and Jenison, I mean, they thought it was amazing.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:01]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:13:01]:
You know, we were getting, like, 30,000 views a week on our little videos.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:05]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:13:06]:
And while you've watched them, they're kind of weird, you know, like, they're not how to fix your car. It's watch us do dumb stuff on the Internet.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:16]:
Right.
Kory Rozema [00:13:16]:
But yeah, I mean, it's. I enjoy going to work every single day.
David Roman [00:13:22]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:23]:
But, I mean, I think I've seen a shift in you, though, right? I think you have enjoyed it more here recently than you did a while back.
Kory Rozema [00:13:30]:
Yeah, I mean, I get to work on the business instead of in the business, and I'm part of two mentorship groups that are all West Michigan based, and they're helping a ton. And, yeah, I mean, it's fantastic.
David Roman [00:13:45]:
I mean, I have go back to this. You decide you want to make a shift. Okay? So there was at least some type of catalyst there. You lost a bunch of employees. You walk in, you're like, hey, let's get to know each other. Like, you still need to know how to make the change. Or did you always have it in you? Maybe you were just taking out your aggression at the shop. Like, how did you make that shift?
Kory Rozema [00:14:12]:
So I think probably a lot of it was John, my service manager. Him and I were friends for a long, long time, and after that, he sat me down and just said, we need to get everything out of your head and put it on paper. And, you know, that's what I did. You know, I opened up my little notepad on my phone, and I just hit record, and I just started talking. And then it was all in text at that point. So then it would just cut, copy paste, and edit and make it somewhat legible. And then all sudden, I hand it out, and they're like, oh, that all makes sense now. Now I understand why you were frustrated or whatever.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:01]:
Well, and when you present them with that data, now they have a chance, an opportunity to come back and say, hey, I think that's gonna work. Like that. Like, that just doesn't play that way.
Kory Rozema [00:15:12]:
Right? Yeah. And. And again, that led to another one of my really good employees leaving.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:18]:
Okay.
Kory Rozema [00:15:18]:
You know, because nothing really had changed outside of. Now it's on paper.
Lucas Underwood [00:15:23]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:15:25]:
But when that employee left, that then made room for Andrew. And, you know, I would say that he was as much of a catalyst as anything else because, like, he made Luke want to get better. Luke made Andrew want to get better. And then we. We got busier as a result of their talent and skill, so we had to add another person, and.
David Roman [00:15:46]:
But it's still. I'm just trying to get to this. Always gets glanced over, which just drives me bananas. Cause I like to get into the nitty gritty sometimes, the exact steps. Did you have a mentor? Did you have a coach? Did you read a couple books? Did you get on some podcasts? The self awareness is one thing after battle. That's a huge portion of it. And once you cross that threshold and you go, oh, it's not. It's not just about me.
David Roman [00:16:22]:
I have to understand how this other person feels about this situation, and they have a unique perspective, and they've got unique life experiences, and so I'm going to try to understand them, right. And then try to come to a mutual agreement. That whole process is not natural.
Kory Rozema [00:16:45]:
Right.
David Roman [00:16:47]:
It's not innate. That has to be learned, because it's not. It's not ingrained in us biologically.
Kory Rozema [00:16:57]:
Sure.
David Roman [00:16:58]:
So what steps did you take? Or did you always have it there? And you just. That's why I'm asking, like, where you. You're always like this, like, engaged and understanding person, except when you got to the shop and something set you off, and then you're like, screw those guys, and nail on them.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:17]:
I think that's such an important question. And the reason for that is because there's a lot of shop owners in that situation, right. And they don't really know where to go to make that transformation. They don't know how to take that next step to start fixing things. And I, you know, I've never. I've always been a people person, so I've never been in those shoes, necessarily. But also recognize that. That I know a lot of people who, when faced with a challenge like that, would be a little bit embarrassed to stand up and say, like, hey, yo, this has not been working, and I'm gonna own that.
Lucas Underwood [00:17:53]:
Right. That kind of extreme ownership, taking that next step to say, all right, let's fix this and let's get moving. I get that. It was super inspiring to look and see the shop empty of all the old employees. Like David said, what was that next step? What was that catalyst that kind of pushed that through? How did you.
David Roman [00:18:12]:
No, no, we moved past the catalyst. You know what I'm saying? What's the next. Just sit down and read seven habits. Did you like.
Kory Rozema [00:18:20]:
No, I can barely read it all. No, not really. I'm not a big book reader. I listen to podcasts. Started listening to your guys's podcast, asking questions of shop owners that I thought were good. And, I mean, just being as credibly open and transparent with my employees as I possibly could. So I think I probably still had a lot of the same conversations that, as I did prior. But instead of coming at it angry, I would.
Kory Rozema [00:18:53]:
I think I would almost use the exact same words just in a different tone.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:57]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:18:58]:
And, hey, this is what I'm thinking, what's running through your head right now? As opposed to walking over there and be like, what the hell did you guys just do? That was the dumbest thing ever.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:08]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:19:09]:
And giving them the option of. Or the opportunity to answer.
David Roman [00:19:16]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:19:17]:
And knowing it's no repercussions kind of an answer.
David Roman [00:19:22]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:19:22]:
You know, because no one wants to quit in their job. I mean, you know, now they're giving.
David Roman [00:19:27]:
You feedback, and now you guys can have a conversation, and you can both grow and move on from the situation and make things better. Yes.
Kory Rozema [00:19:34]:
And, you know, you don't always necessarily agree, but, you know, I I mean, I tell everybody when I hire them in, I'm kind of. Of the opinion that my way is the right way, and everybody does everything my way until you can show me your way is better, and then I'll adapt it, and. And that's the way it will be for everybody, you know? So, I mean, when I was a tech, I was pretty productive, you know, and I kind of thought the same way. I was called, like, all kinds of things, the tech, you know, diva, whatever. Other words, you know, prima donna.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:07]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:20:08]:
You know, all this other stuff. And I think just being open to other people's opinions and being willing to say, hey, that's a fantastic idea. I'm gonna claim it as my own. I'll give you credit right now so I can institute it across everybody else, but I'm gonna go to the handbook, which I'll use that term very loosely, change it, put in your process, and I hand it out to everybody else. And now they know that willingness to.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:39]:
Go to them and allow them to develop policy, process, and procedure in the shop gives them ownership of that.
Kory Rozema [00:20:46]:
Yep.
Lucas Underwood [00:20:47]:
Right. And, you know, I'll never forget one of the defining factors for me when it comes to the leadership style that I took. And, like, in my shop, the way that I lead my people is if they make a mistake, I make fun of them consistently for at least a week about it. Right. And, like, we just absolutely give each other a really hard time. And so that's how, you know, you're being reprimanded. Right. Is that I'm absolutely busting you over it.
David Roman [00:21:15]:
But unfortunate thing about Lucas. He is. He is a politician, right? He's got that cult of personalities, people like, you know, they're like, oh, Lucas, sure. And then that's it. It doesn't go past that. So if you end up working for him, you find out that he's cruel, mean, colon you. But because he does it in like this, like fun loving, warm. You're like, ah, that's just Lucas.
David Roman [00:21:45]:
It's okay. Did you hear what he said about you? Yeah, but, you know, it's like, did he really just pull that prank on you? Yeah, it's okay. It's Lucas. You get away with it, nobody else would. So whatever works for you does not work for anybody else in the entirety of the world. You're just completely oblivious to it. I pointed out all the time, nobody listens to me. Whatever.
David Roman [00:22:08]:
Anyway, yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:11]:
Yeah, he's probably right. I'll give him credit for that.
Kory Rozema [00:22:15]:
That's a challenge too, right, of becoming, going from tech to shop owner. You know, there. I do think that all of my employees are my friends and I tell them all they're an extension of my family. But I make a conscious effort of, like, not doing that because I want there to be that whatever separation or whatever word you want to use. But I fight that urge a ton.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:40]:
I can't. That is like our culture in the shop is like, if we're not making fun of each other, I'm gonna quit.
Kory Rozema [00:22:46]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:46]:
I'm absolutely gonna quit.
David Roman [00:22:47]:
Yeah. That's the thing though. Like, I'm the same way. Like, I've gotta go in and I gotta. I come in and I just distract. That's what I do. I come in, I distract. I make things a mess and then I leave.
David Roman [00:22:58]:
And so when I come in, though, I come in to cut up and crack jokes and I don't help anything.
Kory Rozema [00:23:05]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:23:05]:
That's the only reason.
Kory Rozema [00:23:07]:
Yeah, I know. I feel like now I'm at the spot where I do come in to help.
David Roman [00:23:12]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:23:13]:
They're just like, oh, God. Corey's gonna try to write this ticket or Corey's gonna make this phone call or don't order parts. Corey, it's already been taken care of.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:23]:
Yeah. Just get out of the way.
David Roman [00:23:24]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:23:24]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:23:25]:
So, I mean, what do you do at that point? You really don't need to be there. They don't want you there. That's the idea. And I think my shop would be that way, except that I'm probably running a slightly understaffed upfront. I need, if I have had one more person to help on, just answer the phones. At the very least, answer the phones. I wouldn't ever need to show up or be there anything, like, at all.
Kory Rozema [00:23:53]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:23:53]:
Like they would just go about their business and not bother me and I wouldn't bother them. Everybody's happy.
Kory Rozema [00:24:01]:
Yeah. I decided. I decided to open up an 08:00 shop.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:05]:
Yeah. I saw that. And so now that moves your. He's been successful. He's not like you.
David Roman [00:24:11]:
He did something with it.
Kory Rozema [00:24:12]:
I would.
David Roman [00:24:13]:
I would buy services.
Kory Rozema [00:24:15]:
I would. I would use that term successful very loosely. Like January. We are, total revenue is $900.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:23]:
Hey, that's way more than David did all last year with his Ada shop.
David Roman [00:24:26]:
No, no, I'm correct.
Kory Rozema [00:24:28]:
I think. Yeah. In February we paid the rent for that building, but didn't pay any staff or electric or Internet or even like the shopware bill. So Rosmas Cartier is still footing the bill for that.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:42]:
But where's the. Let me ask you this then. Where is the business coming from? Are they coming from body shops? Coming from?
Kory Rozema [00:24:50]:
Yeah, we've sold the rosemary's car care side of it. We have three body shops that feed us work. One of it, one of them has their own ADAs facility. So they just do everything that way. But it was literally going door to door, you know, getting body shops to, hey, this is real. You know, it's. Maybe you're not doing a ton of it, but you're probably doing more than what you think there.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:15]:
The facilities that have done really well with calibration are facilities that have someone that can explain the insurance process to the DRP facility or whoever it is. So they get paid for it.
Kory Rozema [00:25:31]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:32]:
Right. And that they can clearly lay out and document. And what they do is they build a document that they give to the body shop, who then gives that to the insurer and then sure says, oh, they've crossed all their t's and dotted all their I's. We know this is by the book and so that's how they've become successful.
David Roman [00:25:56]:
At a bare minimum, though, you need to go out and make sales calls for sure.
Kory Rozema [00:26:00]:
Introduce us in the area and honestly, like, we added two more body shops to the rosemary's car care side by trying to educate them on that. They're like, we're not going to mess with the ADA stuff, but you guys will do our alignments and mechanical stuff? I mean, that wasn't the original idea, but absolutely, we'll do it.
Lucas Underwood [00:26:18]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:26:19]:
And then, well, hey, this cars in, you know, it needs to camera calibrated after you in alignment now. And then they'll say, oh, okay, well, we didn't know that, so, yeah, just go ahead and do it, y'all.
David Roman [00:26:31]:
Y'all. They're taking bumpers off.
Kory Rozema [00:26:33]:
Oh, yeah.
David Roman [00:26:34]:
And putting them back on.
Kory Rozema [00:26:36]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:26:36]:
And saying, we're not gonna mess with it.
Kory Rozema [00:26:38]:
Yeah, yeah. Because while they, you know, we didn't unplug it.
David Roman [00:26:42]:
It doesn't matter.
Kory Rozema [00:26:43]:
I know that, you know that, but.
David Roman [00:26:45]:
They should know that.
Kory Rozema [00:26:46]:
And you know, insurance companies are still there to make money so if they don't have to pay for it. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, but you, I can't, you can't get in an argument with it, with the people because then they're for sure not gonna give you the business.
David Roman [00:27:02]:
Yeah. So then you just know I'd be pissing everybody off. Just incredulity, just kicking things over going, this, you can kill somebody and there's.
Kory Rozema [00:27:12]:
There'S software out there like adas think and Rev Adas that you can rub the, upload the invoices to and they'll scrub it and say, oh yeah, this repair requires this calibration. This repair requires this calibration. And it's not overly expensive. You know, one is, you know, it's in service information.
David Roman [00:27:29]:
Like at least like all that, it has it broken down.
Kory Rozema [00:27:32]:
All that is great.
David Roman [00:27:32]:
If you touch this, these things have to happen in alignment. You have to calibrate this now. So like it's gotten to the point now anything past like 1617 comes in and we're doing any steering, suspension, headlights. Yeah, anything like that. Like we're checking now what the, the.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:53]:
Challenge always comes back to something we've talked about over and over again, though is that all of these other facilities are just saying we'll align it, we don't care. Oh, yeah, right. And you go to them with a dollar 400 bill to align the car.
David Roman [00:28:05]:
They don't know, though. And they're not checking.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:07]:
They absolutely know. They don't care.
Kory Rozema [00:28:09]:
Yeah, because especially when you're dealing with dealerships because a lot of dealers are well, independent. So, you know, they don't know. You know, so when dealers know, but.
David Roman [00:28:21]:
They don't care because they want the price point to be the correct price point for the customer or what the customer thinks should be the price point, but they're taking on a massive amount of liability.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:34]:
So what, what I know of, you know, we were talking about my friend at the dealer the other day. So they eat the calibration. When the alignment requires a calibration, they just eat it. They don't charge the client for it and so they just pay the tech and calibrate the car because it's required equipment anyway. So they have to have the equipment. The chain store around me, they just, when it pops up on the alignment machine and says, hey, this car requires calibration.
Kory Rozema [00:29:02]:
Oop, next.
Lucas Underwood [00:29:03]:
Yep.
David Roman [00:29:03]:
If they were so money hungry, though, why wouldn't it make sense for them to go, this is gonna be a profit center for us? Because all these. We are the authority on this Toyota. And if we tell them, hey, this takes a calibration, $250 more, and what are they gonna. They're not gonna argue with them and be like, well, I'm at the Toyota dealer. They know my Toyota.
Lucas Underwood [00:29:27]:
I think that part of it is. And especially your service advisors in a dealership world, the only thing they care about is CSR, and that's because their bonuses are built into the CSR. So if they get a bad rating on one client's CSR, it kills their bonus for the month. So they're encouraging the tech, hey, don't calibrate this thing. Or if you have to calibrate it, let's do it like this. We'll just work it in and we'll cover it. Cause it doesn't matter to them.
David Roman [00:29:55]:
Because they're gonna throw off their profitability, though, if they're looking at their GP numbers going, hey, why did we pay this tech an extra two and a half hours this month? To do what? Calibrations? You didn't collect any money for these calibrations.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:10]:
And who knows? Maybe they're even paying somebody just to do alignments and calibrations. Cheaper employee.
David Roman [00:30:16]:
I don't know. This doesn't make any sense to me.
Kory Rozema [00:30:19]:
I mean, it's not rocket science. Like, once you know how to do it, it's not challenging work.
David Roman [00:30:25]:
It's super easy. It's super easy. The problem is the, hey, why won't it calibrate? Everything should be right. And now you're looking for, oh, this is seven mil paint, and this is supposed to only be five mil paint. And it's not zapping through the bumper because it's too thick a paint, because you put so many coats on, or you put the wrong mix on. Or.
Lucas Underwood [00:30:46]:
When we had that event at Caldwell Community College, Jim said. He said, you know, he said that trigonometry that you guys did not take is going to be very important when it comes to a car not calibrating. And I'm like, well, he says that.
David Roman [00:30:58]:
But also, I took trig. I took trigger.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:03]:
I thought you said you choked Trigg.
David Roman [00:31:07]:
I took it. I don't remember any of it, but I took it.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:13]:
So what's next for Rosama's car?
David Roman [00:31:15]:
Care.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:15]:
Then?
David Roman [00:31:16]:
He doesn't have anything else to ask you. That's why I asked you the question. You asked those terrible questions.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:20]:
No, I'm curious. We've talked about. Up to this point, we, you know, and I'm.
David Roman [00:31:25]:
Frank opened an ADos calibration. He's got to build that up. It didn't even pay the bills.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:30]:
For a man that's backed into a corner, you sure are gutsy.
David Roman [00:31:35]:
Why is it always violence with you? It was terrible.
Kory Rozema [00:31:38]:
Maybe you should ask David. What's next for Rosma's car care? I mean, he wants to answer the question, but no.
Lucas Underwood [00:31:43]:
What's next for Rosma's car career?
David Roman [00:31:45]:
I just think we need to move on to the question. We need to talk about Gretchen Whitmer. That's what we need to talk about. Our next president.
Kory Rozema [00:31:55]:
We're gonna talk about politics.
David Roman [00:31:56]:
I'm going to. Thank you, Michel.
Kory Rozema [00:32:02]:
Michigan.
David Roman [00:32:03]:
No, no, but how do you say somebody from Michigan?
Lucas Underwood [00:32:06]:
Michigan.
David Roman [00:32:07]:
Michigan Gander.
Kory Rozema [00:32:08]:
There you go.
David Roman [00:32:08]:
I'm gonna thank all Michigan Ganders for giving us that jewel.
Kory Rozema [00:32:14]:
My wife is gonna listen to this now, and she's gonna be like. All she's gonna hear is Michiganders. Cause that's how she says it. Michigan.
David Roman [00:32:22]:
That's how you say it, though, right?
Kory Rozema [00:32:23]:
Yeah, but just like, the way she says it is.
David Roman [00:32:26]:
Is she from a certain part of Michigan?
Kory Rozema [00:32:27]:
I know it. No, no, she's, like, from West Michigan, you know, grand rapids area. But I don't know. Maybe it's somebody somewhere said, you have to say it like this, and it just drives my wife insane.
David Roman [00:32:37]:
Really?
Kory Rozema [00:32:38]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:32:39]:
I'm sorry that I'm saying it wrong.
Kory Rozema [00:32:42]:
Maybe you're saying it right, but it.
David Roman [00:32:45]:
Is what it is.
Kory Rozema [00:32:46]:
That's okay.
David Roman [00:32:47]:
I'm gonna pull up how Gretchen Whitmer says it so I can model my voice just like her.
Lucas Underwood [00:32:54]:
I don't even know who she is or what she is.
David Roman [00:32:56]:
She's the governor. No, she's the governor, and she was a wonderful, wonderful governor. And they voted her back in. They voted her back in. I don't know what happened to poor Tudor. Did you vote for Tudor or Gretchen?
Kory Rozema [00:33:12]:
I voted for Tudor.
David Roman [00:33:13]:
Did you?
Kory Rozema [00:33:14]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:33:14]:
Yeah. This is why I brought it up, because you looked like a tutor kind of guy, but I saw that and laughed and laughed and laughed. It's like the same thing happens when I see your employees come back to work every single time, and I'm like, you're gonna go back in for that abuse again? Yeah, well, you know, like, okay, good luck.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:38]:
You know, typically at work, we've got nerf guns. We have tennis ball launchers and nerf guns at work. Now, the Nerf guns were December's idea. And it's a rapid load. They've got these little blue nerf balls. They're actually pretty painful.
Kory Rozema [00:33:54]:
Are they. The balls are the big jumbo bullets.
David Roman [00:33:57]:
No, no, no.
Lucas Underwood [00:33:57]:
They're like little blue.
Kory Rozema [00:33:59]:
Yeah. Okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:00]:
Foam balls.
Kory Rozema [00:34:00]:
Those are the ones that they never jam.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:02]:
Yeah, exactly. They don't really. And it's rapid fire money. And so the good news is. The good news is I'm gonna start packing one and bringing it with you.
David Roman [00:34:12]:
Just nail it.
Kory Rozema [00:34:14]:
Make sure you take it on the airplane with you. That'll probably go away.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:16]:
I know, right?
Kory Rozema [00:34:17]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:34:18]:
See, just wave it around in the cabin.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:21]:
I'll put it in my check back.
Kory Rozema [00:34:22]:
You know, we actually. You did that as one of our rosemary's caricature things. A shooting gun. We brought the nerf guns to the shop and target practiced.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:32]:
I think I remember that.
Kory Rozema [00:34:33]:
Yeah, I think I saw that.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:34]:
Wasn't it tire bowling or something like that?
Kory Rozema [00:34:36]:
We done tire bowling. We used floor jacks of scooters and raced them around the parking lot.
David Roman [00:34:42]:
The problem I would have with something like that is that that would go on off camera, too, and it wouldn't be for the camera. They'd just be doing that.
Kory Rozema [00:34:49]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:34:49]:
And somebody would get hurt. And then you're like, what happened? Why is your leg backwards? Well, see, I was scooting down, and I rammed into this car. By the way, this car is dented, too.
Kory Rozema [00:35:03]:
I haven't had that happen. Now I'm gonna. That's all I'm gonna think about.
David Roman [00:35:08]:
You need to have your insurance guy come out and look at it and go, am I insured for this? He's gonna be like, no.
Kory Rozema [00:35:14]:
In fact, we're gonna cancel your policy.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:17]:
You know, I can't remember who it was a while back said we were shooting people with Nerf guns, and they said, you've never been sued, have you not?
David Roman [00:35:27]:
I'm well insured against getting sued, but have you ever had one, like, fall into an engine or somewhere it shouldn't be?
Lucas Underwood [00:35:35]:
I'm probably. Look, I'm gonna. I'm gonna incriminate myself. There are probably little blue nerf balls all over the place. What is that coming out of that old plug?
Kory Rozema [00:35:47]:
Oh, it's Nerf. Right. So it'll probably just. The oil will eat it up and.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:53]:
Yeah, it's gonna polish components, right? It's foam, so it's gonna clean as it goes through.
Kory Rozema [00:35:59]:
It's gonna be like adding transmission fluid to the engine oil.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:01]:
Yeah. See, this is gonna be fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about.
David Roman [00:36:05]:
That was a thing back in the day. Oh, yeah, yeah. Not anymore. Don't do that.
Kory Rozema [00:36:09]:
I worked for Acura, and that was one of the fixes for the TSX's that would always get gummed up. Cause they would never change the oil.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:16]:
Really?
Kory Rozema [00:36:16]:
Yep.
David Roman [00:36:17]:
What year?
Kory Rozema [00:36:17]:
TSX's zero four to zero eight.
David Roman [00:36:21]:
They had a problem with those burning.
Kory Rozema [00:36:22]:
Oil, like every 300,000 miles. Oh, no, they burned oil early, especially when people wouldn't change their oil because.
David Roman [00:36:31]:
They had the, like, the. I think was the second gen MDX's.
Kory Rozema [00:36:35]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:36:36]:
So ten, 1112 and 13, those had.
Kory Rozema [00:36:39]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:36:40]:
Oil consumption problems.
Kory Rozema [00:36:42]:
Yeah. The TSX started it, and then, like in zero nine to twelve, they had the warranty extension. So you had to kind of rebuild the engine in the chassis. And I've probably done hundreds of those.
David Roman [00:36:55]:
Really?
Kory Rozema [00:36:56]:
Oh, yeah. Rings and pistons and slam it back together and it's good for 30, 40,000 miles.
David Roman [00:37:01]:
And then start burning oil again.
Kory Rozema [00:37:03]:
Yeah. Yeah. But the older ones, it was, change the oil, dump a cord of transmission fluid in it, drive it for 15 miles, come change the oil again. That doesn't take care of it, live with it, or put a motor in it.
David Roman [00:37:17]:
Juan owns an zero six, I think. Right. I love those cars.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:22]:
They're awesome.
David Roman [00:37:23]:
They're. Zero four to zero eight is my absolute favorite. Like Acura. The integra is my favorite. But that TSX, that four door model with the six speed.
Kory Rozema [00:37:34]:
Yeah, yeah.
David Roman [00:37:35]:
Exceptional vehicle.
Lucas Underwood [00:37:36]:
There were slick rides, for sure.
Kory Rozema [00:37:38]:
The Ti. You could get the six cylinder, too. The TSX's didn't have a six cylinder option.
David Roman [00:37:42]:
Yeah, the. The TL. The old, old TL's.
Kory Rozema [00:37:49]:
Like that same year range. Zero four to zero eight was the boxy ones, but they were still cool.
David Roman [00:37:54]:
Six, they switched to that, like, sleek looking. And then they had issues with, like, the door panels would fall. Well, this one, they were old, and you were in a dealership, you probably didn't see this, but you see them come in and they're like. The door panels are falling apart and you're like, hell happen on the.
Kory Rozema [00:38:11]:
On the four to eight. Oh, you're talking.
David Roman [00:38:16]:
Because five, the Cl. You could still get a Cl and five and the Cl stopped in.
Kory Rozema [00:38:23]:
Oh, three, was it? Yeah. So you're.
David Roman [00:38:25]:
That's. That's that body. So I'm talking.
Kory Rozema [00:38:27]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:38:27]:
That body style.
Kory Rozema [00:38:28]:
Yeah. Yeah. You couldn't buy a four door Acura after 2004. It was an oath, because my brother and my dad both had. I'm sorry. Yeah. My brother and my dad both had two door Cl's. And those were awesome.
David Roman [00:38:41]:
They were awesome.
Kory Rozema [00:38:41]:
Six cylinder, 100%. Yeah. That's the type of ones. They were fast and they were fun.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:46]:
They were fly.
David Roman [00:38:49]:
Did you even drive one?
Lucas Underwood [00:38:50]:
I did. Um, well, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna incriminate, but yes, yes.
David Roman [00:38:57]:
You'Re a diesel guy. What do you know about Hondas?
Lucas Underwood [00:38:59]:
I don't know much about Hondas, but I've driven quite a few of them.
Kory Rozema [00:39:02]:
Yep. Anyway, there's a ton of diesel shops here at vision there are pretty happy about.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:08]:
I'm pretty happy about that because the diesel market has always been way behind. And I think Eric Merchant.
Kory Rozema [00:39:17]:
Yep.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:18]:
Is responsible for much of that because, you know, he reached out a while back and we were talking. He's like, man, he's like, this just isn't working. He's like, the manufacturing side of things, the performance side of things is good, but the shop side of things is not. Right. Right. And he had found the podcast somehow. And I shared kind of my story with him in the diesel performance world. And, you know, the problem is, especially in diesel performance, is that a lot of those guys are already aware of what the part cost.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:50]:
They're aware of how much time they think it should take, and they're not really. I guess the nice way to say it is you got a bunch of young kids who have bought really expensive trucks that they can't really afford.
Kory Rozema [00:40:01]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:40:01]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:01]:
Because let's. Let's be honest about what a diesel truck is. It's meant to work. All right? Now, if you.
Kory Rozema [00:40:07]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:08]:
If you made it in life and. And you've got money put back and you want to buy yourself a brand new 2500 Chevrolet that's loaded to the gills for $124,000, so be it. All right? But for the most part, those trucks were meant to work and were meant to haul. They were meant to haul campers, they were meant to haul horse trailers. They were meant to do something. And in a lot of those cases, they were meant to generate income, and that's what makes that $120,000 price tag worthwhile. But in diesel performance, they wanted a fast truck. But in the performance world, many, many, many of those people don't have the money to have a fast truck.
Lucas Underwood [00:40:46]:
Right, right. And so you see so many of these performance shops go out and they're like, well, they won't pay that for it. Okay, that's great. But the reality is, is your business needs a certain amount of dollars to operate and to be profitable. And if you're not profitable, well, yeah, but I'm feeding my family.
Kory Rozema [00:41:07]:
Not the same thing.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:09]:
Exactly. We can go get jobs and feed our families and we don't have all this liability and we don't have all of the stress and we don't have all of this other stuff. So why not go get a job working for somebody? And if you have a passion for diesel performance, build yourself a diesel truck. But the two things are not the same. And so to see these diesel shops here beginning to make changes in their business, because all of them are taking management classes, not technical classes. And to see them beginning to take those steps and saying, look, it doesn't matter what map pricing is, it doesn't matter what they think they can buy it for online. I have to make this much money to make the business work. And so now they're doing it.
Lucas Underwood [00:41:53]:
And I think that's effing awesome. That's where I came from, right? Like I was a diesel performance shop and I was not making any money. And it sucked.
David Roman [00:42:00]:
I don't know how you do it. It's nuts. What do you mean that all those problems there. I mean, yeah, you can just. You can draw the line and say, hey, if you have a service, it. This is what it costs. Or you're the parts I can sell them to. You can put them on yourself.
David Roman [00:42:16]:
That's it. I don't know.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:20]:
Well, but I mean, they. They didn't do that.
David Roman [00:42:22]:
I get that. And then the problem then becomes you might not do that any longer. But the three other diesel performance shops in town will. They don't know. And so now it's like, well, I gotta go make friends. Eric might be making friends, but I'm not gonna go make friends.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:40]:
You're not a very friendly person.
David Roman [00:42:42]:
There you go. There you go. That's why I shouldn't be running a shop. You're a friendly person.
Kory Rozema [00:42:48]:
I try to be.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:49]:
Do you want to shop in Kansas City?
Kory Rozema [00:42:51]:
I do not know.
David Roman [00:42:52]:
Are you sure?
Kory Rozema [00:42:53]:
The commute would be a bitch.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:54]:
It's kind of warm here. Yeah, it's warmer than Michigan.
Kory Rozema [00:42:56]:
Hey, we had 70 degrees last weekend.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:59]:
And then two today.
Kory Rozema [00:43:00]:
Yeah, I know, I know, I know. And outdoor. Outdoor sports starts on Monday for us. So regardless of the weather.
David Roman [00:43:11]:
What does that mean?
Kory Rozema [00:43:12]:
My, my. Both my boys played lacrosse, so.
David Roman [00:43:14]:
Oh, okay. We're going outside.
Kory Rozema [00:43:16]:
They're going no matter what. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like the assistant to the assistant coach on my youngest son's team. So I'll be out there in boots and snow pants if it's that cold.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:25]:
But you should be used to this by now.
Kory Rozema [00:43:30]:
I'm used to it. Doesn't mean I like it, but, yeah.
David Roman [00:43:35]:
So far north. It is.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:37]:
Too far north.
David Roman [00:43:38]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:38]:
Julie and. And Brian and Greg from Eti all live in Michigan.
David Roman [00:43:44]:
Do they really?
Lucas Underwood [00:43:45]:
Yeah. They say it's nice in the summer, but it's wonderful.
Kory Rozema [00:43:48]:
It's awesome.
David Roman [00:43:49]:
Is it really?
Kory Rozema [00:43:50]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:43:51]:
Humid? It's.
Kory Rozema [00:43:52]:
I mean, it's humid, but, like, we have a lake, you know, just jumping.
David Roman [00:43:56]:
I could see if you're, like, right on the lake. Maybe it's not that bad, but I don't know. I don't think midwest and in summer just. It's terrible.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:05]:
I don't think I could live with, like, three days of summer you get in Michigan.
Kory Rozema [00:44:09]:
I just don't think I. Oh, no, no. We get summer for sure by July, but then it will go all the way up into. But then it'll go almost August. It'll go all the way into September, October. So it's good.
David Roman [00:44:27]:
And then you have to leave his change, and it's nice.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:29]:
That kind of sounds like it goes from winter to summer to winter is almost.
Kory Rozema [00:44:34]:
What? Yeah, we have, like, three or four spring seasons, too, because, you know, like. Like I said, last weekend it was 70, but now it's zero. And then probably in two weeks, we'll get a foot of snow, and then the week after that, it'll be 75 degrees again.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:48]:
So I'm completely good about that. I mean, it's gonna do that at home, too, right? I. Too much. Oh, yeah, it'll do that.
David Roman [00:44:56]:
The random, like, snowfall in April.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:59]:
Yeah. Our last freeze is April 15, I think is the average last freeze is April 15. Maybe later than that.
Kory Rozema [00:45:07]:
But you don't get big amounts of snow or anything, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:45:10]:
Um, no, because it all blows away. Blows off the mountain.
Kory Rozema [00:45:15]:
Nice.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:15]:
Because the wind blows a hundred mile an hour.
David Roman [00:45:16]:
You ever seen the. The pictures from the back, from his back door? Like, you can't. All you see is, like, the top sliver because there's just snow piled up against the house.
Kory Rozema [00:45:26]:
Interesting. Yeah, it's terrible.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:28]:
Very terrible. And it gets cold, man. It gets, like, super cold. People don't realize that. So.
Kory Rozema [00:45:34]:
Super cold. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:37]:
Um, the. On grandfather, which is about 20 minutes from my.
David Roman [00:45:42]:
So at the very tippy top of this really tall mountain, negative 43. Okay. That's the very top of the mountain. Nobody lives there.
Kory Rozema [00:45:52]:
Wind chill and everything. Okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:54]:
My shop. My shop. Maybe negative 1516 degree wind chills.
Kory Rozema [00:45:58]:
But that's okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:59]:
That's about as long as it's cold. That's really cool.
Kory Rozema [00:46:01]:
That's really cold.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:02]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:46:03]:
Yeah. Oh, the polar vortex hits us. We're negative 15, too. Yeah, we're all the way down here.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:12]:
You're not exactly down here.
David Roman [00:46:14]:
We're down.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:15]:
You're over here.
David Roman [00:46:19]:
We're down.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:20]:
Compared to him, Buck and Bob is down. Okay.
David Roman [00:46:23]:
Bucking Bob, you're over. That's way. That's way down.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:28]:
It's almost Mexico.
David Roman [00:46:30]:
That's. That's far away.
Kory Rozema [00:46:33]:
Yeah. So you asked what's next for us. And we're trying to bring something like this to West Michigan.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:43]:
Okay.
Kory Rozema [00:46:44]:
It'll probably never be to this scale because, I mean, it'll take a lot of work, but we don't have training in West Michigan.
David Roman [00:46:53]:
Don't you have an ASAP organized like this?
Lucas Underwood [00:46:55]:
They've got an AAsp and then they. You've got the. Wasn't the great value or whatever show.
Kory Rozema [00:47:02]:
Yeah, that was a couple weeks ago. It was the auto value. Bumper to bumper. Yeah, that's what, you know, Rick White was there. He actually came the night prior. We asked him to come to merchant automotive and speak.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:15]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:47:15]:
And there was probably 50 or 60 people there.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:18]:
Holy cow.
Kory Rozema [00:47:19]:
Which was fantastic.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:21]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:47:22]:
But I don't know if you've remembered this. Like, I basically had a temper tantrum on Facebook one day and I put it on the ASOG group about no one would take training.
Lucas Underwood [00:47:32]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:47:34]:
No one would do it. I was hosting it at my shop and going door to door to. Cause, I mean, in, like, the three mile stretch that my businesses on, there's probably a hundred bays of auto repair. There's just tons of them. And no one would show up to the training. Like, it's free.
David Roman [00:47:50]:
Yeah, that's the problem, though. It's free.
Kory Rozema [00:47:52]:
Yeah. I'm like. And a couple shop owners, like, well, I don't want to send my text because you're going to try to poach them. I'm like, okay, well, I won't go then. Yeah, just have them show up. They can eat dinner. You know, we're going to have some.
David Roman [00:48:05]:
How did. What do you do with that? You're gonna poach my guys? I'm staffed up. Like, I don't want to poach your guys. And they don't even go to training. Like, what the hell am I gonna do with them?
Kory Rozema [00:48:15]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:48:19]:
You don't send them the training, dude. Like, they're just gonna smash up my cars. I'll pass anyway. You should send them.
Kory Rozema [00:48:26]:
Yeah, but I said I wouldn't go. And that helped. But, you know, the biggest thing was when I posted that on there, I didn't know Eric at that time, really? Not at all. He posted something on there and he's like, well, I didn't even know this was a thing. We'll be there. Because it was. I think it was late on a Friday. I put it on there.
Kory Rozema [00:48:48]:
He said, I'll be there. It was the following Wednesday or maybe two weeks after. And when I got to work on Monday, Andrew's like, did you know. Sorry. Did you know Eric was going to be at the training on Wednesday? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I saw that. Do you know who that is? I'm like, yeah. I said it was Eric merchant. He's like, no, no, no.
Kory Rozema [00:49:09]:
Like, you don't understand. Like, he's a big deal.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:11]:
Yes.
Kory Rozema [00:49:12]:
And now I know him really well.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:13]:
So, yes, you definitely know that none of it is true.
Kory Rozema [00:49:17]:
Well, I mean, I. We have a lot of fun together.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:22]:
You know, he is a awesome dude.
Kory Rozema [00:49:23]:
He is super great. I think he's. Yeah. Like, him and I, we're. We talk a lot.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:28]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:49:28]:
You know, he actually hired my brother.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:31]:
Really?
Kory Rozema [00:49:31]:
Yep. Yeah, my brother's in need of work and I'm like, you know, I think that you guys would be a fantastic fit together.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:38]:
Right.
Kory Rozema [00:49:39]:
And what's he doing for you? Writing service, advising.
David Roman [00:49:42]:
Very cool.
Kory Rozema [00:49:43]:
Yeah, he's here.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:45]:
Really?
Kory Rozema [00:49:45]:
Yeah. Eric brought six people here from his place.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:49]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:49:50]:
But, yeah, it's. He's a great guy, you know?
Lucas Underwood [00:49:54]:
He is.
Kory Rozema [00:49:55]:
He is. You know, I can vent on him and he'll vent on me. And we seem to work out pretty. Work pretty well together.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:01]:
That's awesome.
Kory Rozema [00:50:02]:
But now we, we have training events. We try to do them monthly. I volunteer his building because it's bigger than mine.
Lucas Underwood [00:50:11]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [00:50:12]:
Regularly. He doesn't always know it until a couple of weeks prior, but otherwise we'll have him in my building and have my new building for the ADA stuff if need be. But. So that's what, that's what I'm really pushing for is getting more trainers and more instructors to come to West Michigan.
David Roman [00:50:33]:
So that the monthly on site training in a facility, I think aside from the networking, because what, I'll be honest with you, what has made this more popular or amplified its potential reach is social media.
Kory Rozema [00:50:56]:
Oh, yeah.
David Roman [00:50:56]:
So the ability to come here and go, hey, I know you from Facebook, right? The Facebook groups were in and we're, you know, so being able to show up to a big national event and you get to see all these people? I mean, that's one thing, but I will say, like, you go to one and then it's like, I already met you, dude. Like, it's whatever, right? So from a functionality standpoint, having monthly, like, local, I get to meet all these local people that would have more of an effect on my career. And I can now reach out and go, hey, you've got that piece of equipment.
Kory Rozema [00:51:41]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:51:41]:
Can I go look at it? You see what I'm saying?
Kory Rozema [00:51:43]:
Oh, yeah, it's. Yep.
David Roman [00:51:43]:
Now, now we can build something here if you're doing them regularly and you're in your coordinating it.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:51]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:51:52]:
Because a lot of the parts stores, I feel bad for our local parts store. My first calls, factory motor parts. I love factory motor parts. They're just the nicest people here. And they're super cool with me, and they put up with all my b's. And they, the one of the head guys comes out to my shop and he's like, man, I just want to get some people to the training. We've got all these training classes available. I just need to get people there and we buy them pizza and it's in.
David Roman [00:52:22]:
We'll move around the times and stuff and nobody shows up. I mean, there have been classes where the only people showing up as my shop, nobody else.
Kory Rozema [00:52:31]:
And so you might have it at your shop and save them the rent on that location.
David Roman [00:52:35]:
Yeah, I mean, we could, but then I gotta, like, clean my shop up.
Kory Rozema [00:52:39]:
No, you don't.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:40]:
No, you should probably go before you say that.
David Roman [00:52:44]:
Bad. Don't say it like that. You're a jerk. I'm sorry. Big red barn or fancy floor and stuff. He's like, why don't you have leds?
Lucas Underwood [00:52:53]:
Because these, these bulbs, I was more talking about the.
David Roman [00:52:56]:
Are cheaper.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:57]:
I was more talking about the Ada shop with all these, like, boxes. And you're like, so the trash, the trash. Where's the trash can? We don't have a trash can.
David Roman [00:53:04]:
Throws it into the store. No, I didn't know. I didn't. We had a box up and you did point out my hanging. He goes, what? You rip down that insulation? I'm like, what for? He was like, look at it.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:19]:
I'm like, yeah, it doesn't do insulation. Holding down out of the ceiling.
David Roman [00:53:23]:
That's the whole thing. Anyway, they don't. They can't get anybody to show up to these. To these training classes.
Kory Rozema [00:53:32]:
It's hard. It's frustrating.
David Roman [00:53:34]:
I don't have an answer for them.
Kory Rozema [00:53:35]:
Because it's like, not pizza. Yeah, you know, like, we don't have pizza. We order like noodles and company just, just so it's different.
David Roman [00:53:43]:
Yeah. The challenge, I'd eat pizza every day. I thought maybe instructors. So we have maybe nationally recognized instructors, but even complexity of class, that doesn't seem to do anything for them. These are GM instructors coming down from GM and it doesn't seem to, like move the needle.
Kory Rozema [00:54:04]:
So do they do a decent job of not only teaching GM, like, because we have one of the AC delco guys come down, rob Roth, and he does a really good job of teaching GM evAp systems, but then branching it into Chrysler and Ford and Honda and Toyota.
David Roman [00:54:22]:
I don't think they get car specific, but I do think they try to teach theory and operation and principle generally. This is how this works.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:30]:
And, you know, so share a little bit of inside association thought. Talking about ASTA, for instance. Right. For the association to hold many of these training classes, it ends up costing a lot more. Now, the part companies can host that training our area, they can't get them to show up either. Right. Five, six, seven people show up for a training class. We've talked before about they don't market them well.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:00]:
And just walking into a shop and saying, hey, you should come to this training. You've got to show value to get people to come to that. But even then, marketing it really well and sharing it, it's very hard to get people to show up for training classes. Now if you have a group of people, you've mobilized a group and that group mobilizes and shows up to training because that's what we do. Right. The other thing is, is that it's often easier to get people to show up when it is a owner hosted training or another shop hosting that training within a group of people. Right. Because they'll show up to that.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:37]:
Now the, the poaching thing is a real concern, especially for your bigger shops, because they need those people. Right. They have to have those people. So the bigger shops, like chain stores and stuff are absolutely against sending their guys to training. And one of our local ones is absolutely, it is against our policy to send our people to training. We'll train them internally, but they don't go to training class.
Kory Rozema [00:56:01]:
Trained internally by who?
David Roman [00:56:03]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:04]:
You know, based on the quality of work that they output.
Kory Rozema [00:56:06]:
Yeah, I know.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:07]:
I don't.
Kory Rozema [00:56:07]:
Nobody.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:08]:
I don't think that real thing. Right, right.
David Roman [00:56:11]:
That be a, that should be a thing. We need to make that a thing. If you, if your shop is unwilling to send you to training because they fear poaching there. There's probably a problem. There's an underlying problem.
Kory Rozema [00:56:22]:
Well, make your techs not want to leave now. I will pay them to be there, first of all.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:27]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:56:27]:
Pay them to be there. Make it conducive so they can go. Make it part of the culture. Yeah, that seems the natural fix for this. Right?
Kory Rozema [00:56:37]:
I mean, my cleaning kid comes to the training. I shouldn't say cleaning kid. That's not fair. He's 18 years old, but he's not a kid.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:44]:
He's just a cleaning guy. Yeah, there is some. There's some merit to the poaching thing. And the reason I say that is we had classes where. And it happened at a carquest training class. It happened at an Asta training class. That low key a Schneider employee came to the class and stood up and started giving books and telling people that they should come in. Had talked to the instructor in multiple different classes, saying, hey, I'd like to give a presentation.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:19]:
I have a great opportunity for the people in your class and the instructor, be it that they were just chicken and didn't want to stand up and say, hey, no, that's not acceptable. Or whatever the reason was, said, yeah, go ahead and stand up and speak to him. And he stands up and he's like, oh, we're gonna give you $120,000 a year. We're gonna.
Kory Rozema [00:57:34]:
This. We're gonna store by you then.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:36]:
Or they're. They're like a fleet company.
Kory Rozema [00:57:39]:
Okay.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:39]:
And so, like, they stand up and tell them all this stuff they're gonna do them, and then they hand out applications to everybody in the room. And you wanna talk about people getting upset?
Kory Rozema [00:57:47]:
Oh, yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:48]:
It really happened.
David Roman [00:57:50]:
It.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:50]:
It was Carquest. It was an a. No, it wasn't an AstA event. It was Carquest. It was ATg is who it was. And so that. That really, really set us back as far as people in our area that would send their people to training.
Kory Rozema [00:58:05]:
I can understand that.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:06]:
Yeah, that would upset me.
Kory Rozema [00:58:08]:
Yeah, for sure.
David Roman [00:58:08]:
Yeah. That would enrage me. But.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:12]:
So they were audacity, whether it was the instructor's fault. And ATG, man, they stepped on that, like, immediately when it happened. Mike Allen reached out to me because he had somebody in the class, and he said, hey, I know you're friends with some folks at ATG. Can you reach out to them? So I reached out to him, and they're like, they what? And so they're. They start trying to figure out what happened, and they instantly, they sent out an email apologizing, and they reprimanded the instructor, and then they banned that person from the class, and they did everything they could to make it right.
David Roman [00:58:44]:
Part of the marketing. Then, like, hey, we have a no poach, no solicitation policy.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:49]:
Maybe that's. Maybe that's a good idea.
Kory Rozema [00:58:51]:
I mean, if that's what it takes, you know? But, I mean, I think in the grand scheme of things, it would be, uh, you know, just respect your fellow shop owner.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:01]:
Yeah, for sure.
Kory Rozema [00:59:02]:
You know, help. Help him build the world. Your employees don't want to leave.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:07]:
I I had a good friend, and while we're on the subject, maybe it's a great time to talk about. I had a good friend that a group of us works very closely together, and this good friend hires somebody from another shop. And that person was also a good friend. Now, this person was leaving anyway and specifically said to the one friend, hey, don't say anything because I don't want them to know, and I would prefer to be the one to tell them. So when they told them, that was the two week notice, and it created this massive rift between two friends because. And he's like, well, he was leaving anyway, so, sorry, I guess. Right, but. But that, like, when we work in these close networks, I think common courtesy means you need to call them and say, hey, I have somebody applying from your location.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:08]:
And maybe you don't give them the name, but at least say, hey, this is happening.
Kory Rozema [01:00:14]:
So I actually had a guy imply from a dealership that's 10 miles away. And I didn't realize that at the time, but I had a really good friend of mine work at this dealership, and my understanding at that point was he's the sales manager. So I said, hey, Dan, you know, what do you know about this kid? Because he was younger, and he goes, oh, well, I guess I'm gonna start off by saying I just became the service manager there, not the sales manager anymore. And I'm like, oh, okay. So I'm like, well, cat's out of the bag now, so. And he's a. He's a good kid. He's, like, kind of dramatic, you know? Yeah, there's no paper cuts, everything's established.
Kory Rozema [01:01:00]:
Like, you know? And I'm like, okay, well, now that I know that he works for you, I'm not gonna hire him anyway. But I just reached out to him, and I basically told him the same thing that I'm telling you. But I also said, you know, if I were in your position, knowing what I know of your boss, stick to him like glue. Because everything he touches turns to gold. I mean, that's just the way it's been. Like, he's a hard worker. He knows what he's doing. Become his right hand man or his go to person at 19 years old, and when you're 20, 21, 22, you will move.
Kory Rozema [01:01:41]:
You will, like, the sky's the limit.
David Roman [01:01:43]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:43]:
Yeah.
David Roman [01:01:44]:
I.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:45]:
You know, I think there. There needs to be a common courtesy, for sure.
Kory Rozema [01:01:49]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:49]:
That we work a little bit better together when it comes to those things. Right. And I. I like your shop.
David Roman [01:01:56]:
Unless it's a dirt bag shop. Like, there's certain dirt bag shops, you just know.
Kory Rozema [01:02:00]:
Like.
Lucas Underwood [01:02:03]:
That'S what I was getting ready to say, is, like, your shop, like, your shop, like, my shop. We're all pretty close with our people. It's like, they know they can come talk to me if they need to do something different. Let's just talk about it. It's cool, right? Like, whatever you need to do is fine.
Kory Rozema [01:02:16]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [01:02:17]:
And the same with the local shops. To me, I'm. I'm pretty close with a couple local shops, and. And we talk like, hey, this person was talking about this, or that person was talking about that. Okay, how can we. Like, how can we serve them, right? Because for so long, this industry has served itself, and it needs to serve its people. Right. And if we create an environment where we can make that happen, I think our industry is better for it.
Kory Rozema [01:02:40]:
Yeah. There's plenty of cars to fix.
Lucas Underwood [01:02:42]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [01:02:43]:
Right. So that's what this training kind of turned into, is the shop owners and now get together.
Lucas Underwood [01:02:48]:
Yeah.
Kory Rozema [01:02:48]:
And they do their thing, and the techs do their thing. And now we're talking next month about, okay, we're not even going to have an instructor. We're just going to have these texts get together, and the higher level text are going to kind of teach a basic electronics course.
Lucas Underwood [01:03:06]:
Right.
David Roman [01:03:07]:
So put that together in a more structured fashion with a mailing list that you can reach out to, text list that you can reach out to on a regular basis and make that a thing rather than go, well, we want a vision up here in Michigan, because, like, I'm saying, like, you guys already kind of have a show. The big monolith training events are great, but deep down, like, those smaller shows like that are gonna make a bigger impact.
Lucas Underwood [01:03:43]:
I agree.
Kory Rozema [01:03:44]:
Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I mean, that just, you know, that's the dream. But, I mean, end of the day, you know, I do. I have an email list of probably 40 or 50 texts, and then probably 25 ish shop owners, maybe a little bit more than that.
Lucas Underwood [01:04:00]:
That's where associations start.
Kory Rozema [01:04:02]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [01:04:03]:
Right. And, and whether you go and get involved with AASP and in Michigan or whatever it is, right. It's that engagement that makes it work.
Kory Rozema [01:04:12]:
Sure.
Lucas Underwood [01:04:13]:
You know, we talk about the board of directors with ASTA and the other shows or the other associations. You can tell who has a good board of directors that's active and out there working because it's the board of directors who make it happen and the associations that are dying have a board of directors that's like man, I don't feel like doing this. I don't feel like dealing with that. Right. And that's the only difference between a successful local association and a dead one is the board of directors. So if you've got an association near you that is willing to at least consider being active, I would pull on those resources as much as possible.
Kory Rozema [01:04:53]:
Definitely.
David Roman [01:04:54]:
All right.
Kory Rozema [01:04:55]:
Definitely. Woohoo.