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The Gearbox Podcast brings on industry professionals to explore the day-to-day operations of owning and operating a shop. From common frustrations to industry-wide shifts, this podcast covers it with fun and insightful conversations.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
Welcome to the Gearbox podcast, where we dive deep into the dynamic world of automotive repair and ownership. I'm your host, Jimmy Purdy, an experienced technician turned shop owner with a passion for sharing insights, stories, and conversations with industry leaders. This is the Gearbox podcast, and today, it's part two with David Marks.
David Marks [00:00:34]:
You don't know what the hell you want to be when you grow up, honestly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:37]:
Well, you're just searching for. You're just searching for the paycheck.
David Marks [00:00:39]:
Yeah, exactly. There's no passion, there's no drive. There's no why. So, for the service advisors position. You know what? I've. I've pulled one person away from the dealership. Not that I wouldn't be willing to do that again, but my next one will be. I want somebody that's got dedicated automotive independent auto repair shop experience.
David Marks [00:00:58]:
It's just a whole other world at a dealership.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:02]:
Yeah, it's not. It's not as personal. It's totally different. And we. We tried the same thing with the collision industry and trying to co mingle that, and that's. Yeah. The collision industry is a completely different. And not as a technician, but as an advisor.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:14]:
Right. You figure, oh, they're talking to people. People are upset. It seems like the same now. Collisions. It's all insurance, right? You just. They're just paid to sit on the phone with the insurance companies. They're not paid to deal with people calling, hey, I'm stuck on the side of the road.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:25]:
Hey, I want to bring it in right now. Hey, you looked at this, and now it's doing this, and. And so it's. It's just a totally different industry. But you think at the time, like, well, it's both automotive, so, you know, we could probably pull someone from collision. No. Not even. Not even a chance.
David Marks [00:01:41]:
I never thought of that before. I would have thought the same thing. It's automotive. It's automotive. That makes sense.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:47]:
You're dealing with people, with cars, and they break, and it's like, one. Just. The technicians are just doing the bodywork instead of the mechanical. Right. But no, it's a. It's a completely different animal.
David Marks [00:01:57]:
We.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:57]:
We learned that the hard way, but it's. Hey, we gave someone a shot, gave someone an opportunity, and it didn't work out, and they moved on. It was fine. It's amicable, and we both learned something. Right. So that was important.
David Marks [00:02:09]:
That's exactly how you learned. And not that. Not that I'm not. I wouldn't be willing to try the. Pulling somebody away from the dealership. A lot of it had to do with this individual. This person just couldn't make the transition. But, yeah, no, I know.
David Marks [00:02:25]:
You know, I got experience at something that I didn't have experience at before. And next time I will be in a much better position to get them properly trained and handle that, because, you know, I work with an automotive coach. I'm not gonna say which one, cuz I'm not here to plug that. That's not the purpose of that. I flat out ask him one day on the skill of one to ten how good of a job I had done. This is about two weeks before she quit. He said, you're about a three, five out of ten, Dave. And I was kind of a wake up call.
David Marks [00:02:51]:
And he's like, whoa, holy cow. You know, but that helped, you know, that's what I wanted to know, you know, because I knew I didn't think I'd done the right job and the best, and I wanted somebody that was going to be honest and had an outside opinion, and he gave it to me. And then she ended up quitting. I still don't think it was me. It was her. I don't think if. Even if I was a seven or an eight or a ten, I think the situation still would have. You know what? It probably would have manifested itself a hell of a lot sooner if I had done a better job, because the writing would have been on the wall, actually.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:27]:
Good point.
David Marks [00:03:28]:
Now that. Now that I think about it. But you know what, Jimmy? What separates guys like me and you is. Is we want to learn that, you know, I had an exit interview with her, and. Because. Which I'd never done, you know, I told my payroll service, I don't care what this cost me. I want her last check to be paper because I wanted to do that. And this just shows everything what kind of person she is, is I.
David Marks [00:03:49]:
You know, I asked her, what could the company have done to retain you? I got to think about it. You got to think about it? Really? Are you kidding me? You can't just be a woman and say it. No. So that told me everything I need to know about her. Yeah, I just gave her a check and left. You know, I wasn't gonna. I thought about. Just like, I thought about it, do believe me.
David Marks [00:04:07]:
I'm like, no, that's not good enough. You know why? Just tell me. Just tell me, you know, because I was approaching that with she's right, I'm wrong mentality. So that. That way I could get the information that I did. I know is going to help me prevent, make this the same mistake again. Because you're right. It's ultimately at sick that, you know, she didn't, you know, you can, there's a couple different ways I could look at it.
David Marks [00:04:28]:
Look at it that, you know, it's my responsibility that I hired her, which is true. And that doesn't let her off the hook for who she is either. So it's, it's balancing that and in my head, finding that happy medium where I will feel comfortable doing this again. Because what I've also done is just because I had a bad experience with her that doesn't alienate everybody else that I could hire from the dealership world that won't turn out like that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:53]:
Yeah, it's, it's, it's per person, right. And there's plenty, there's plenty higher deer dealer techs and went really great or really sour, right. Because sometimes the dealer tech doesn't like the way the dealers ran. Some dealer techs really like the way it's ran, but they don't like the people there, right. And so they come into an independent and they think it's going to be like a dealer atmosphere where they can go hit camp out in the corner. And if they run into a problem, there's five other senior techs they can go ask questions to, right? They get an independent shop with three other techs and they're all independent. Like, I'll help you, man, but I don't really know you and that's not really my job position. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:31]:
And so that burns them out real quick. Like, oh, this is not what I thought it was. It's like the, it's like the spotlight's on you now. Like the owner's walking the floor, hey, what's going on? You know, like, and they don't like that. And some other techs move from the dealership. Cause that's what they want. They want the interaction with the owner and they want someone to appreciate them, right? They do all this work in their little bay. At the end of the day, they get the paycheck and, and that's it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:53]:
See ya at the dealer. But they come to an independent, man, if I'm seeing someone kick ass, I'm like, dude, right on, man. You got that stuff done already. And that's all they're looking for, you know? So, yeah, you can't blanket statement and I guess is one way to put it, right?
David Marks [00:06:07]:
No, dude, you brought up a really good point. You know, for me it's, it's cause I got two tax dudes at every shop in the nation. Dealership wants flat out. And I know that, you know, they could probably go get more money other places, and they wouldn't get that personal touch. Cause I'm like you every, every day when they leave. Hey, thanks. I appreciate your help today. I always make sure that they are acknowledged when I get there.
David Marks [00:06:28]:
And I do little things. You know, one of my master tech, he loves these jack links meat stacks from Costco. Well, guess what's always in the fridge for him that, you know, when it gets. Dude, I'm in St. Louis, so it's hot. It's humid this time of year. So I make sure the fridge has plenty of Gatorade in it. I got snacks that the young technician, the female technician, she likes, which we got plenty of cold water.
David Marks [00:06:52]:
And it's those little things that we can do as business owners in general. There's a lot more to keep retain employees than just paying benefits. Is that important? You're damn right it is. But these two individuals that are still with me. Cause my master tech, he'll be four years this November. He ain't going nowhere. I know he's not. And it's because of that, what you just said, you know, walking the floor.
David Marks [00:07:19]:
Is there anything I can do to help? How's it going? A lot of times they just say, well, go back up front and leave me the hell alone. In a nice way, in a joking way, you know, but that's what you want as a shop owner. Get the hell out of here. What are you doing here? I can't get this car done with you over here.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:34]:
You know, I was ordering pizzas. I just wanted to see what you wanted on it.
David Marks [00:07:39]:
Oh, yeah. So here's another thing. What I do is this is really cool. I think this is a golden nugget, is all the rebates that we get from the vendors. I share that with the staff. And, you know, my friend that flips cars on my dealer license, he had a 70th birthday at a birthday party at this bar. He plays at a band. You know, I brought the shop with me.
David Marks [00:07:59]:
You know, I. We used our rewards cards that we get from the different vendors that paid for the tab. You know, they get to bring their spouse, their kids, that type of stuff. It's little things like that. And I know there's a lot of guys, a lot of good independent repair shop owners that do that. And it's little things like that. They won't quit. I'm.
David Marks [00:08:17]:
Yeah, that other place may put that big nugget in front of them, we see the guys advertising all these different signing bonuses. But what keeps them here is, are they going to get treated like that? You know, is this their places put out the big signing bonus. Are they going to make me feel appreciated? Am I going to feel valued? And the two people that I have, you know, they scratch my back and sit in the advisor, she didn't have the ability to do this. It's, they scratch my back, I scratch their back. And they're not keeping score because these two, there's, I tellers, they, they could, there's no paid time off or no, I mean, there's no, like, policy for it. You know, if they need to leave early, leave early because I know, or if they got to come in late because I know their quitting times. 430 if they're 15 minutes from getting a car done, they're going to take that 15 minutes and stay because they know that I'm going to let, they need to leave early or do something, I'm going to do that. It's, it's, it's, that type of environment is why they won't go.
David Marks [00:09:11]:
And it makes them feel appreciated knowing, hey, we got each other's back and no one's keeping score.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:16]:
A little bit of just mutual respect.
David Marks [00:09:17]:
Right, exactly, exactly. But the right people fit that environment. That's what I'm looking for.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:23]:
Yeah. And I'm not the best at it. I mean, I try and, you know, it's tough. Some days are tough. Some days you get in your head a little bit and it's like, you know, there's problems going on and it's just tough to be positive about it. But, you know, always keeping snacks and drinks and taking them out and celebrating the wins, you know, and, and it kind of sucks when we, you know, we, I think we, our sales goal was like $3,000 away this month, you know, from, from hitting our sales goal. And it's like, well, we're not going, we're not going anywhere, you know, it's like. But you gotta hold the line, you know, like, where is, where do we draw the line? Well, we drew the line at the sales goal and we didn't meet it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:59]:
So we worked really hard this last month. It was hot. It was like, it was miserable. We had a lot of warranty stuff, but we didn't meet sales goals. So we're not doing, you know, a monthly, monthly thing. And it's tough to take that away cause it's, it's, it's beneficial for everybody. Like, it's good to go do that. Bring their wives, their kids, and let's go hang out and do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:20]:
But you know what? If we didn't come together as a team and meet the sales goal, then we can't just go do that, you know? So. And that's, like, the hardest thing about doing those incentives and those bonuses, right? It's like. And then they say. They ask about their bonus paycheck. Hey, what was I. And it's like, well, you didn't meet your. You didn't meet your. Your bonus criteria, so you don't.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:37]:
You don't get it. Like, sorry. You know? Like, I don't know. And then that's when it's tough, because then they see that. That floating carrot, right? Oh, man. I can go over there and they'll give me $5,000 to start. And I think that's where it's important to start having the conversations of, like, so what is it that you want? How much do you want? Let's make that happen. Right? But then they don't.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:59]:
They don't meet that criteria. And then they just see this grass is greener somewhere else, and that's when it gets tough, because you're like, well, then, should I give it to him to retain them? But then that would defeat the purpose of the bonus. It's like, that's. That's tough for me.
David Marks [00:11:15]:
Yeah. That's why I do the rewards program. You know that we get a tire rebate from our independent tire distributor here in St. Louis on a gift card, on a Visa card, and then it's. I forget who bought. Federal mogul. It's called overdrive there. That whole conglomerate.
David Marks [00:11:30]:
We're on a rebate program with them, and then we're on a rebate program with other vendors, and they just put money in the gift card, and that's what I do. That's what I use. So it's not tied to sales directly. Do we have sales goals? Yes. Do we talk about it? Yes. Do I. Do I emphasize that enough? No. That's a fine line, Jimmy, and I don't think.
David Marks [00:11:53]:
I don't know. That's hard to do. That's. That's what it is. Because I've brought that stuff up over before in the past. I've had other people tell me, you know, in meetings, you know, don't talk about that. You know, you know, talk about this stuff. I don't know.
David Marks [00:12:10]:
You know, I'm not the best at it, and I don't have an answer. I don't know. I'm still learning, you know, there's some fear there, you know, talking about this. You're right, Zach. It's right. It's like, okay, my staff's busting their ass. Things happen. They're just beyond anybody's control.
David Marks [00:12:25]:
How do I talk to them about, hey, we didn't hit this number when I know there. We did the best we could with what we had to work with at that time. That's hard to do, Jimmy. And I just. I don't. I don't. You know, I mean, I think once I get the right advisor and I get them up to speed, that's when we can have those and start to incorporate that. Those.
David Marks [00:12:49]:
I haven't had that. I'm doing it now. I'm good, I'm decent, and I know that there's somebody out there that's better than me. I mean, as I was taught, you always want to hire people that are better than you at the positions you're hiring them for. That's what I was taught. And I'm still always.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:06]:
I mean, it's. It's tough to find those people for one, and then for two, it's even harder to measure yourself and put your ego aside and say, like, oh, they know more than I do, because you lose that sense of control a little bit. Right. But the more you do it, like, I think the better it is. Like, oh, man, I'd rather hire someone that knows what I'm more than me, obviously. I mean, you're not. You're not going to go try to do plumbing. You hire a professional, come fix your plumbing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:30]:
Or, I mean, you and I could probably fix the plumbing, right? But you get my point. Like, you hire the professional to do it, because it's just easier that way than you paying whatever it takes. But if you don't know, if you don't know what that job is supposed to be, you're kind of out in a gray area. Like, you get a really good service advisor, and they're selling a bunch of stuff. I'm not a good salesperson. So it's like, how are you selling that? Right? Is this like. And if I am not as good as they are, better than them, then I don't understand their tactics, then maybe they're doing it in a way that I don't. That doesn't align with my.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:04]:
My compass, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, that's when you get into that area where, like, I don't know if that's right, like, man, you're selling a lot. You're making me nervous. Like, that's great.
David Marks [00:14:12]:
I'm.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:12]:
But why, right? Like, how is this happening? And if you're not that skilled of as an advisor yourself, like, I don't understand how you're doing this.
David Marks [00:14:21]:
Yeah, I think you want to turn.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:22]:
A blind eye and say, yeah, that's great. But also, like, I want these people coming back, too.
David Marks [00:14:29]:
Yeah, I don't know, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:31]:
I know.
David Marks [00:14:31]:
And dealerships here, at least in the St. Louis area, they're all unionized. St. Louis is a heavy union town that would be looking at CSI scores. I've gotten better with the last one. We use a digital marketing company. I'm not going to say which one because it's not what we're here for. I don't want to plug anybody else.
David Marks [00:14:47]:
They record all our incoming phone calls on their tracking numbers and then I have a voice over ip system that we do. It would be listening to those phone calls and just understanding that, hey, was this. And, you know, our core values of the company, were this ethically and morally right? Were they properly trying to, you know, attempting to educate the consumer on what the whole car needs and not just what they want to sell and what the tech wants to do, and as long as they meet those requirements. And, like, hats off to you. You know, as a business owner, hats off, hats off, hats off to you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:22]:
Yeah. And using that is obviously, that's obviously how you attract that. But you're playing it from the backseat, right, where it's the same with like a vehicle diagnostic. If you don't understand cars, like, if you're a shop owner, you've never fixed cars and there's plenty of them out there that do really well. I don't know how. Like, like. But, like, right on. Cause I.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:40]:
If I didn't have my mechanical aptitude, I'd like. I don't know. But you get a diagnosis, right? And it's like, that doesn't sound right. I can, I can usually, you know, there's always an exception that happens that sneaks through. Right, like we talked about earlier, but usually with a diagnosis, I can say, that doesn't sound right. And I gotta go out there and check it out, right? And I can play it in the front seat instead of playing it from the backseat. And that's where hiring someone beyond your own skill level, if you don't truly know that aspect, you have to play it from the backseat. You got to listen to the phone call after it's happened.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:12]:
And then play it from that side, which that's what. That's what you have to do, is growing pains, right? There's no way around that. But it's one of those things that makes everyone really uncomfortable. They want to train someone from the inside, but, oh, man, I don't know which one's easier, you know?
David Marks [00:16:27]:
Yeah, I've had those. I was practicing having those difficult, difficult conversations with the advisor to just quit was actually listening to those phone calls. So what I did is I listened to mine as well, because the digital marketing company that I use, we can listen to the incoming phone calls. We can rate the phone call, leave notes, and who picked it is. I would critique mine as well. Like, here's where I did good on this call. Here's where I did Badenhouse, you know, and here's why I get an improvement. So what I did is we listened to some of mine first, and it's like, here's where I enter the phone really good, and then here's where as, yeah, I answer the phone really good.
David Marks [00:17:08]:
But I sound like a complete, you know, just a complete dumbass during the rest of the call, you know? And I think. I think because what? Because I wanted. The point I wanted to emphasize with her is that I'm not all high and mighty. I don't know at all. I I don't think I'm the shit. I'm not God's gift of service, advising, and I can learn, too. And I have an improvement. So that's how I approached it, was to, you know, start your criticism to myself.
David Marks [00:17:36]:
And I'm very self aware, and I've learned how to do that with myself without beating myself up. Then I could ease into their phone calls. Cause they see that, hey, we're on the same playing field. Yes, I'm the owner, but, no, I'm not here, and you're down here. We're here when we're working this position, instead of me thinking I'm here and you're down here and here's all your phone calls. Were you, you know, f'ed up instead of going over any of mine? That I did.
Jimmy Purdy [00:18:00]:
But isn't that the hierarchy you feel like a lot of shops are built around? Like, there is a lot. A lot of owners that want that hierarchy, that want that. I'm here, you're all below me. I pay you, you do what I tell you to do, and that's it. Right? Like, there's a lot like that. And it's unfortunate because until you realize that you start building leaders in every part. And just to your point, you want a leader as an advisor, you want a leader as a tech, you want them all to be the person of that job. I want you to start teaching me how to do this stuff, right? I want you to start learning these tricks and tell me, I'm like, holy, I never thought of doing it like that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:18:36]:
Right on. Like I just learned something new, like, you know, and. But that doesn't work unless there's mutual respect like they want. Then you tell them that. And how powerful is it when they respect you? And you can turn around and say, dude, that. I've never thought of it like that. Just made their week, right? Like this is a total eagle fluff, right?
David Marks [00:18:56]:
You want to make technicians or employees feel appreciated, criticize, you know, constructive, criticize yourself all day long. I do it all day long. I'm the first one doing my mistakes. You know why my master tech still with me? Because he knows I'm the first one to admit my mistakes. I don't leave myself high and mighty. I don't think I'm God's gift of the auto repair industry. I'm nobody. I'm nobody special, I'm nobody different.
David Marks [00:19:20]:
I'm just another, you know, cog in the automotive wheel. And they know that. They know that I will own my shit if I may. And then it's, if they know that, dude, it's ten times easier to confront them on their stuff because they know that I'm doing it as well. The guys that feel high and mighty, I, you know, that are out there, what does their employer, what's the word I'm looking for? I can't even think about it. Oh, my God. Rapport. Rapal or, you know, what's the other culture?
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:51]:
The rapport. Yeah, yeah.
David Marks [00:19:53]:
What's that? What's that? What's that culture? You want to get guys to our guys or girls to bust your ass for them, be the first one to admit your mistakes. Hey, I messed up, I messed up. I messed up. The more I do that and the better I get at it, dude, it's ten times easier to approach them and go, hey, here's where you messed up, here's where you made a mistake, or I'll walk up to this, hey, cool, we're going to learn something here. Or, hey, I want to learn something about this. When I show up like that and approach the situation with that it, dude, it's ten times easier. They're not, they're not defensive, they don't go. They don't get into defensive mode instantly like we can do is, I think, getting in defensive modes a natural human trait.
David Marks [00:20:33]:
And when we approach it from that way, they don't put up that I'm in trouble wall, and here's how I got to defend myself. I don't want that. No, you never have to defend yourself. Let's talk about it, see what we can learn from about it. And then they own it, and then they'll feel. I don't want to say they'll feel bad and they're motivated. How can I get that? How can I make. How can I help make it up?
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:57]:
Yeah. Yeah. It's like, like you said on the human trade of always being defensive, how many inmates are incarcerated that feel like they're actually guilty? How many? How many, you know how many times someone went up there and pleaded, I'm guilty that are incarcerated right now? Right, right. You will just defend yourself to a fault if you're called out on anything, but it's like the first natural reaction to catch somebody, to point it out and blame them. And it's. It's so strange how we're. How we're wired like that.
David Marks [00:21:30]:
Right, right. I tell you what.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:33]:
Yeah, it's, it's, it's. That's tough, man.
David Marks [00:21:36]:
My, my tax. They'll come up and make their mistakes because I do that. They'll just flat out come up, hey, Dave, I messed up here. I broke this. Here's what we can do to fix it. And I'll give them some. I'll sarcastically give them some. Some trouble about it, you know, give some stuff about it.
David Marks [00:21:51]:
But, dude, how do you not respect the hell out of that when he comes up, hey, I broke this. This is how I think we could fix it, dude. Right on, right on. Because when they know, they could come up to me and go, I made a mistake, or I messed up, and that goes back to me because I do it, you know, that's when the magic happens, you know, because they're going to want to bust their ass even a little bit harder. They're going to push themselves to get this job done because they know they're not making the company any money. They're not. And they know that. That's the culture and the aura that I've built in my place that I want is where people can feel comfortable, you know, making mistakes, because it's gonna happen.
David Marks [00:22:33]:
We're humans, you know, God didn't make us perfect for a reason, and it just. It just. It just works. But it starts with the hierarchy, like you talked about. You know, if I walk around thinking I don't make mistakes, they're not going to want to admit those. I don't care. I'll. I'll, you know, MacGyver this, and if it comes back.
David Marks [00:22:50]:
Oh, well, yeah, you know, that doesn't happen.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:53]:
Right, right.
David Marks [00:22:54]:
Yeah, they will. That prevents that. That's why there's hacks in some of these places, because it starts with management. Not. That is not to say that there's not hacks out there. There is, because I've had a couple that worked for me. I fired them both. But for the most part, well, goes.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:09]:
Back to their training and how they were raised in the industry. Like, and if that's what they knew, how do you expect them to come work for you and completely change the way they've been trained for years. Right. And it's nothing on you and your management, but it's like, that's just what they thought was the right thing to do, because that's where they came from, what's what they do. And maybe there's 1% that just, like, truly don't care, but really, like. And you read it, too, in the social media stuff, you think, like, oh, man. Oh, God. Just didn't care what he was doing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:36]:
Like, there is, like, come on, really? You think there's guys out there like, that? Truly do. Like, there's a large population of people that truly do not care? No, it's just. They just weren't trained correctly.
David Marks [00:23:49]:
Yeah, I agree. You know, and that goes back to what we were talking about earlier, is, you know, did they get the right responsibilities at home? And unfortunately, were they raised in a home that had the right responsibilities? Because sometimes, you know, I think we're a byproduct of our upbringing, and if people were unfortunately raised in a home that, you know, just didn't understand that or didn't know that, well, what do you think we're gonna get as. As them. As. As employers? What kind of adult do you think they're gonna be? You know, they don't know any better because they weren't brought up in an environment that was. That. That was taught, you know? So. Yeah, I mean, that's.
David Marks [00:24:23]:
That's a really good point there, Jimmy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:25]:
Yeah. Well, lots of good information here.
David Marks [00:24:29]:
No, I've loved this, man.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:31]:
Yeah. I appreciate your time. This is a lot of good. A lot of good insight.
David Marks [00:24:35]:
Absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:35]:
I mean, and you never know quite know where it's gonna go. Right. But I think in this day and age. I mean, talking about hiring and talking about retaining employees, I think, is the. Is the subject right now. I mean, it's always been since the beginning of time, but it's like, it's more prevalent than ever right now.
David Marks [00:24:52]:
Well, here's my take on that is people want to work. Okay? That thing that people don't want to work. There's people out there that don't want to work. There's always been people that don't want to work. The way people can work has completely changed. That's what we're competing with. We're not competing. We're competing against the way people can work.
David Marks [00:25:13]:
The way people could work before COVID and after Covid has completely changed, and Covid caused that. So that thing that, you know, because every industry has. Has employee. Has employee issues. Okay? And the reason is, it's not that there's not tax out there. There is, and it's not. It's just the way our society can work has completely changed. People have more opportunity.
David Marks [00:25:36]:
Because I've got friends, they don't have a job. They don't have a business. They got a bunch of side hustles. And people can do that now. People can sustain livability with not having a job. They don't need a business, because me and you guys want businesses, right? I want to be able to go take a week's vacation, and my business just runs. It generates gross revenue, net income without me there. Right? That's what we all for.
David Marks [00:25:58]:
That's what we're striving for. And there's a lot of people that don't want that. Okay, cool. Nothing wrong. The way they can work has completely changed. That's why everybody's hiring. You know, why everybody's hiring is because people have found that there's a lot more ways to make money and make a living than there was prior to Covid. That's what Covid did.
David Marks [00:26:14]:
Covid really shifted the way our society, at least here in the United States, can work. And there's way more opportunity than ever for people. For people to work. This flat out is it's not that people don't want to work the way, and there's more opportunities for them to work can.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. The eight to five is going away, right? I mean, it's not gone away, and it's not like a huge, but it's slowly eroding, you know, and moving to a ten four or four ten s and doing all these creative things to give people three day weekends or remote work like that was a big one, right? That changed everything. Now you see all these vacancies of all these commercial buildings because everyone realized, wow, I don't really need a brick and mortar. I can do this from home. I have all the technology. Sitting here the whole time. I didn't really realize that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:59]:
And it's to your point, right? That's exactly what happened. The realization was set in, oh, man, there's people on TikTok making a million dollars a year. Well, I'd be happy making like 50,000 a year on that. That should be pretty easy for me, right? And they start doing videos and they start making money, and you're like, wow. And then there's four, five, six other platforms that they can do the same stuff to generate all these different revenue sources. So you're absolutely right. But I think there's still people that want a job. I think there's still people that want to go somewhere, like you and I, that want something structured.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:30]:
They want to build something that can give back to the community, that can have someone that wants a job, that wants to show up to do something like that, that's meaningful. And not to say that, you know, selling feet picks isn't meaningful, but let's get real here, right? Like, when you can fix something with your hands and help someone get their family to their. Where they need to go, that's a big deal. You're being meaningful. And I think maybe, I don't know, there's no facts behind this, but maybe that will shift in the next handful of years as people start realizing, man, I'm just like this weird, I don't know, content creator that doesn't really do anything meaningful, right? And I saw that a lot with corrections. And not to say that's not meaningful, but a lot of guys getting these, these jobs because they're searching for the paycheck. And back to your point about, like, job hunting and trying to find who's, who's going to pay me the most. They go to these corrections jobs and then they realize all they're doing is sitting there for 10 hours a day.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:30]:
And it's just as close to being as an inmate, as being an inmate is. And they just can't do it. And I seen so many people take a pay cut just so they can go back into something that's more meaningful to them and that is never lost, right? And that's that. And that's. That's what's important. And just to your point of, like, you want someone who's, who wants a career that's absolutely right, because you want. They want to be part of something that's. That's growing, that's successful, that does things to the community, and I think that's important, and I don't think that'll be lost, and I think that's probably going to make a change coming back here.
David Marks [00:29:03]:
No. So I had to. Once upon a time, I had two young ladies who were both an advisor. She was 25 years old, and I had my apprentice tech, she's 22. And then there's guys like me and my master tech. We're both in our early forties. I could treat him exactly the same way I was brought up, and he didn't really care. You know, I didn't have to really do a whole lot outside of bigature.
David Marks [00:29:26]:
He had a paycheck and health insurance for him to be happy. The other two young ladies, because at our employee meetings, you know, he's just like, are you effing kidding me? When is this going to be done? I got this car that I got to work on. Because he's an old school, flat rate tech, right? But these two young ladies, when I talked about being something greater than themselves, you know, having a purpose, dude, their eyes lit up like. Like a ten year old at Christmas. And it's. And it was, it was like I had the aha moment. So, as. As employers is.
David Marks [00:29:54]:
But I don't care what business you're in, okay, it doesn't matter if you're going to be an employer. You gotta adapt to what the, what, based on what generation that you have and that demographic, what are they really looking for? You know, my, my young apprentice tech, you know, she, she wants to know that she's making a difference. She wants to feel, you know, empowered. She wants to feel. Feel of those things. My master tech, he could care less about all of that. I can half ass treat him nice, you know? And as long as I got a paycheck in there, he's fine. Right? But that's how we were brought up at this business.
David Marks [00:30:29]:
You know, I've been in this in the late nineties and him. That's how it was. I mean, if the late nineties and the two thousands, you know, we may not have been treated that best. You can't do that to this new generation. And it's not a knock on them. People that knock the younger generation, well, you're stuck in your old ways. You're not evolving, you're not adapting, and it doesn't. I'm telling you, man, it doesn't the thing, mentality.
David Marks [00:30:55]:
I practice every day and I try to get better. Better. It's not right, wrong, good or bad. You can't put that connotation on it because as soon as I put that on there, I'm just screwing myself. So the guys, the people that think that this new generation is lazy, bad work ethic, no, that's always been there. You know, you put, you're looking at it as rock. Wrong, good or bad. When you just look at it, this is how they want to be treated, right.
David Marks [00:31:17]:
And there's nothing wrong with that. Let me evolve and adopt. You know, that's, that's, those are, the shops are going to be around because what, dude, what keeps me up at night about this business, it's not EV's. Ev's are going to put us out of business, okay? It's not. Especially here in St. Louis. We'll be the last major municipality, metropolitan to adopt it just because of how effed up this government is. It's all that tech that's in the dashboards.
David Marks [00:31:39]:
You know, go get a 2022 f 150, these newer vehicles, and it's got that big electronic dash, you know, what's as snap on. Going to be able to snap on hotel going to be able to provide us the diagnostic equipment so that we can properly test it to keep us competitive against the dealers. I said that's what keeps me up at night. Not about Tesla. Tesla ain't going to put us out of business. You know, it's, it's, it's not, it's not gas is here to stay. It's not going anywhere to, you know, it's, it's that tech. That's what keeps me up at night.
David Marks [00:32:09]:
And will the kids or is we're going to have consumers that are okay with your average independent can fix 60% of the car. Because right now, at least at me where we could do that 80% to 90%, there's always that 1015 to 20 weekend because I don't have the dealer tool, okay, or the manufacturer. I got dealership experience behind me as well. So I know this and I can speak with this because the dealer is only one dude that can fix the whole car. I don't care what brand is or the only ones can fix the whole car because they have everything from the manufacturer. So as this industry evolves, gets more tech tact tech, right. You know, our consumers going to be okay. That okay, this 30, 40%, I got to go back to my local dealer and this 50, 60, you know, an independent shop like mine can service.
David Marks [00:32:50]:
That's what keeps me up at night.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:51]:
Yeah, it's the. It's the right to repair act. We have to make sure we're, like, standing behind that. And there's plenty of organizations that are pushing up, like SEMA and Apex and. Yeah, stuff like that. Go participate in the right to repair act and make sure that we keep that. Right. Because the same thing happened with phones.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:06]:
Right. And, like, it's exactly what's going to happen. There's going to be. It's not even going to be the tech. It's just going to literally be. You have to pay to get into that. And then we've already been there. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:18]:
Like, all service information. Look at Nissan. You got to pay for that subscription to obtain that. It's already here. We've already. We've already been dealing with it. And so how much more is it to say, oh, you want to. You want to remove and replace that infotainment system? Nope.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:31]:
You got to pay $500 a month for access to whatever they want you not have access to. Right. Uh, and whether that's ordering the parts or being able to program the parts, I mean, it's something we're literally doing. Like you said, we're already at 90%. We've already been taking 10% away because a lot of that stuff is just not cost effective to get that information to program. Put a Nissan CVT in. Just take it to the dealer. I'm not.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:54]:
I'm not spending that kind of money to have that subscription. I'm not doing 20 a month. Right. So it just doesn't make sense. So it's already happening. So, I mean, it's a valid point, and it's something that we got to make sure we're. We're tuning into. And anytime something like that happens, there's always something else that distracts us.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:09]:
Right. And that's what the EV is. The EV is just the distraction of what's really actually happening that's going to take us out. Right.
David Marks [00:34:16]:
Wow. I've never thought about it like that. And what cracks me up and what doesn't make any sense is these oems have to know their dealership network cannot service all the vehicles. And people don't want to go to the dealers, do they? Just flat out people don't want to.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:29]:
The experience is not. The experience is not anywhere near where some of these top shops are given. Right. Like, it's the experience they get.
David Marks [00:34:37]:
Well, what's sad is. Is from my dealership days, is they put all their. And I'm just speaking from my experience, you know, they put a lot of eggs into their. Their sales side. But honestly, it's. There's. We both know it's the service department that retains customers because I sell cars, too, you know, if. If I sell a car, well, how much time do I have with that consumer, you know, because I do the complimentary oil changes, complimentary retentions.
David Marks [00:35:00]:
I got stuff to retain them to get them to come back. So when they come back, if I give them rockstar service, who the hell you think they're going to want to buy another car from? Dude, it's easy. It's kind of like a no brainer, you know? I'm dumbfounded how they're not putting more effort into their service department because if people have a bad, awesome rockstar sales experience, and, yes, it's under warranty, and they know they got to go back here for the first few years or whatever, if they have a horrible experience, do you think they're going back to that dealer? Hell, no. They're going to go. They're going to. The dealer's going to lose that. Lose that customer. You know, the retentions in the service department starts in the sales and ends in the service department.
David Marks [00:35:37]:
You know, just. Just flat out. Flat out. It does. So what with mine, I want to provide that Rockstar service experience after the sale, after the money's been. After the real money's been exchanged. Because if people pay way more for a car than they do auto repair, because it's that big dollar amount upfront, they don't think about all the money they pay for auto repair over the long haul. They just think about that short, that one time that they're spending, you know, 15, two grand.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:03]:
They monthly payment, $600 a month.
David Marks [00:36:06]:
Yeah, they see that big. They see that big. And then they think. And they think that. Cause I see it all the time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:13]:
Yeah. Monthly payments, 600 a month. I can afford that, dude.
David Marks [00:36:19]:
You know what I learned how buy here, pay here's get a bad rap. So I started making, doing financing this year, right? And the first. So I got seven people making monthly car payments to me. Four of them are traditional. Buy here, pay here, and one out of the four, he's a friend of mine, he flips houses. He's in business. He wanted to know what the interest rate is, what are the terms, all the other things about it. And he was very happy and educated.
David Marks [00:36:41]:
Now, the other three, how much. How much do you need down? I have this much. I can put down. What's my monthly payment going to be? They have no clue what they're paying for the vehicle. No, no. They have absolutely no clue. You know, these are previous customers, right? So obviously, I, you know, I'm not jacking them around, because if they find out, I want them to come back, you know, but. But that's.
David Marks [00:37:05]:
That's why they'll buy here, pay here, get up, and I'm gonna throw the dealers in the same loop. And you know what? It's not their fault. It's not the. It's not the dealers fault that consumers don't educate themselves on what they're really paying for the car before they sell into the bottom line. That's not the dealer's fault. That's not. Now, that's not to take. Let the dealers off the hook.
David Marks [00:37:24]:
But at the end of the day, all these people that got car payments, nobody put a gun to their head and said, sign here. Nobody put a gun to their head and said, sign. Nobody forced them to sign. They did that on their own free will. That's not the dealers fault. And I will argue that 25 hours a day, eight days a week, you know, that's not their fault that they got. They screwed themselves because they're. They didn't take the time to.
David Marks [00:37:44]:
Let me take this with me, and I'm gonna go talk to somebody that understands money, and they can. And then if they agree with it, I'll come back. You know, we see that on the servers on the repair side, because we've. I know we've experienced this. We. Where we give the customer the breakdown of the number, and then they go talk to somebody else about it. And because they don't relay that information properly to them, they tell them they're screwing you, and then we look like a bad guy. How about.
David Marks [00:38:08]:
I've yet to experience that on the auto sales side. Just flat out.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:11]:
Yeah, yeah, that is a good point to bring up. Cause that happens all. Look at the parts they go on rock auto. Hey, I get this part on eBay or rock like, okay, then have eBay.
David Marks [00:38:20]:
Put it on for you. Call the guy on YouTube, see what he charges. Why are you calling me? I've told a couple people that. That it pushed my butt. I said, well, call the guy on YouTube. Ask him what he charges. Why are you bothering me? I've said that a few times over there. Because they just push my buttons and I don't care.
David Marks [00:38:35]:
I don't care.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:35]:
It's the same thing. It's just lack of consumer education. And it's the same problems we deal on the repair side is the same problems that dealers have, you know, selling car they shouldn't be selling. Right. Just lack of consumer education. And even though there's plenty of social media, there's plenty of YouTube, there's plenty of education out there. Everyone just avoids learning anything. They just want entertainment, right? And so the big, the big pull right now is trying to make this education and trying to make the education more entertainment based, right?
David Marks [00:39:05]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:05]:
Trying to make it, make it more showy. And you know what? And I have, I think it's fantastic. You know, a lot of guys knock these social media content creators giving away this trade secrets. You're telling all the answers like, no, they're making education entertainment and letting people have more consumer education so they understand what they should expect when they go somewhere. Right. And so I'm all about it.
David Marks [00:39:29]:
Well, they're going to be more educated and empowered consumer. The right ones are going to go, I don't want to do that. I want to pay somebody. Let me pay somebody. That's not going to that, you know, in the event something happens, they're going to be there for me. And I love how you brought up communication. I don't care what business you're in. That's the key to communication.
David Marks [00:39:48]:
What I've learned is I've been practicing, the better I understand the languages of the businesses my businesses do business with. I get great service because when I'm the consumer, because I deal with a lot of b, two b. And the ones that I'm just gonna throw the promotional products of industry under the bus, y'all suck at communicating with me. And the more I understand their language, I get great service. You know, this shirt I'm wearing, I'm going back to one guy for attire because he took the time to communicate with me to make damn sure I got what I wanted. Cause I bought stuff from other people and I'm like, that's not what I wanted. Well, and it's because of poor communication on their part. Because what businesses don't understand, at least in my experience, the ones that, and this is stuff I've learned, believe me, I didn't wake up and know all this stuff one day.
David Marks [00:40:41]:
It's like, dude, I speak, I get great, along great with my bookkeeper and my accountant because I speak quickbooks. I am fluent in quickbooks, and I am fluent in accounting, and I'm learning what ESP stands for. Vector file, the different sizes. And sometimes if I'm doing business with somebody, for the first time, I flat out tell them, talk to me like I'm a five year old because I don't understand the language of your business. If you think that's so. The businesses that my businesses do business with, the reason I got poor communication is they don't realize or forget that I don't speak your language. Like we, Jimmy, we have our own language. You know, everything has its own language.
David Marks [00:41:15]:
And when you're talking to somebody, you got to remember that. I don't. They don't speak their language. Our average consumer doesn't speak automotive. And when I'm the consumer, I've told people that I'm like, dude, I don't speak that language. So you got to talk to me like I'm a five year old. You're not going to insult me. You know, I've had this conversation with people.
David Marks [00:41:32]:
Look, we've. We've never met before. I'm going to learn at what level you're at, so I know how to properly communicate with you, so you get great service. Dude, you'd be surprised how many. How many people I went over when I say that I want to learn what level you're at, so that. That way I know how to properly communicate with you so I can give you rockstar service. And dude, it breaks down the invisible wall, like, oh, wow. Well, I'm an idiot.
David Marks [00:41:54]:
I don't know anything. Okay, cool. I'm going to take as much time as I need to. So that. That way you feel good about the decision you make. Dude, I sell a ton of work that way. And then two on the. When I'm the consumer, I have that same conversation.
David Marks [00:42:06]:
Except I reverse roles. Cause I tell people, look, I wanna get good service, so I'm gonna ask 1000 questions because I don't speak your language. Dude, I don't understand this. And I can take the time to google this stuff to teach me. You gotta teach me the language of the business that your business is doing. So that way I don't get screwed. It works.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:24]:
That's an awesome take. Absolutely. Yep. Because even though we're understanding the words, the language isn't there.
David Marks [00:42:31]:
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, I kind of had that. I've thought about that. I'm going to start a business that teaches b two. B business language because that's where. That's where it's at. Like, I don't like. Especially with the graphics art and the promotional products.
David Marks [00:42:46]:
Like, I need a. I need this at this many pixels. Well, okay, tell me how it. Tell me how a CVT Nissan transmission works, you know, I don't know. You know, I've literally said that to people. I don't know what that is. Dude, if you think I understand your business, if you're not willing to do that, then I'm gonna go find somebody else. And I've told people this, I don't.
David Marks [00:43:06]:
I've told this guy, I don't care what you charge me says, this is just because it takes care of me. I will gladly pay for somebody to. I'll pay for people's time because I know, because at the end of the day, it costs me more money when I get this shirt, and it's not what I want. I'd rather pay more and get what I want the first time than to have to take time to find a go. Somebody will do it the way I want them to. Like this guy, dude, I don't care what he charges me because it's going to be what I want. Because he's going to do his due diligence. He's going to take the time to properly communicate with me.
David Marks [00:43:38]:
Like, if you look at all my Google reviews, there's one on there that are negative. There's one I flat out earned, and I will admit that on that. And I could extremely inappropriately, not too long after I opened my brick and mortar the rest of them. That's all poor communication on our part. Just flat out we did not properly communicate with the customer. That's why we had a bad Google review. So the better we get at communicating, then we don't have those.
Jimmy Purdy [00:43:59]:
And not just communicating with. Speaking the right language, like you said.
David Marks [00:44:02]:
Yeah, exactly. And just flat out asking people, I want to learn what level you're at with this. You know, not to insult you. I don't know. And this will help me provide you better service. As if you could help me with that. Dude. I haven't had anybody tell me no, that's a lot.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:17]:
That's the golden nugget for the day, dude.
David Marks [00:44:21]:
There's been a ton of golden nuggets in this episode. You want my opinion?
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:24]:
Yeah, it's going to be good.
David Marks [00:44:26]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:27]:
Well, I really appreciate your time and coming on.
David Marks [00:44:30]:
Absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:31]:
Yeah. Once again, David Marks from Missouri. They say it right. That's.
David Marks [00:44:36]:
Yeah, I don't care.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:38]:
Okay. And what's the name of the shop?
David Marks [00:44:40]:
Oh, say so. It's quality auto repair. Tire and auto sales is the name of it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:44]:
Okay. That's a mouthful.
David Marks [00:44:46]:
Yeah. Well, dude, it's. Google likes it. I got all the keywords the name of the business for Google. Do you just flat out, if Google says whatever Google loves I love, you have to, otherwise you're gonna get left behind.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:56]:
It's like the old days, huh?
David Marks [00:44:57]:
Yeah, Google loves this name. That's flat out why it is. Google loves the name. It appeases all the keywords.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:03]:
Awesome. Well, thanks again, man, and then hang out for just a minute while this thing uploads.