200: Brin Kline & The Accelerate Training Event

Welcome to the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

We're going to explore ways to sharpen our diagnostic skills, find learning resources and hear from experts in the automotive field.

This episode is brought to you by L1 Automotive Training and Keith Perkins.

If you're looking for education on module programming, j2534, eprom work, key and immobilizer, electrical diagnostics or drivability diagnostics, keith has a website, l1trainingcom that's got over 60 hours of training videos on all those subjects and more.

When I first started out doing mobile, I utilized Keith's videos on module programming and J2534 in order to get my head wrapped around what I would need for the tooling, the computers, the software setups, what kind of obstacles I would be up against when I'm out there programming modules on cars, and it was a huge benefit to me.

I continue to use the training videos that he has on his website.

I strongly recommend checking out L1trainingcom.

We have got Auto Rescue Tools and Isaac Rodel as a sponsor for this podcast.

Hey guys, if you're looking for programming laptops, you want the laptop setup ready to go for programming control modules on vehicles.

You need key cutting equipment.

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Isaac is your guy.

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The link will be in the show notes.

Hey, what's going on?

Automotive World.

Welcome to another episode of the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

My name is Sean Tipping and I'll be your host once again for this week's episode.

Thank you for joining me on the show.

This week.

I've got Bryn Klein joining me from Assured Auto Works in Florida.

Bryn's going to join me to talk about a few different things, one of those being the Accelerate Training Event in Orlando this October.

I'm actually going to be teaching a class there as well, so we'll talk a little bit about that, but make sure to check out the show notes for the link in case you want to sign up or read more about it.

I'll also talk about shop ownership, the path to getting to that point, help along the way, and a whole lot more.

So I know you're going to enjoy this conversation, so let's jump right in there.

We go All right.

How's it going, bryn?

I'm doing well.

Thank you for having me on, sean.

Yeah, thank you for joining me.

Thanks for having me on last night too, for the train by texting.

That was fun.

Yeah, I always have a good time.

You usually overstare welcome, you know for like three hours.

I'm glad that we were able to kind of bow out after an hour and a half or so, but it was good having you on, always fun, always a fun time.

Yeah, yeah, for sure, you guys are a riot.

I spent most of the time just chuckling at all the jokes and stuff.

Yeah, and the monitoring, the chat too, is kind of fun.

There's a lot of folks in there kind of pretty active.

Some good case studies too, or the presentations.

I saw Tommy's at Vision, but I think he had kind of refined it since then with the slides and stuff.

That's good stuff.

Yeah, I think he at Vision.

He sent me the wrong PowerPoint there and accident or one that you know, not the final one, kind of one of the like your collapse or something, and he didn't realize it until, like in the middle of trying to present this thing.

But yeah, the technical difficulties.

So it's the worst because you're up there in front of everybody and like he was saying nervous anyways, and then something technical outside of your control goes wrong and you're just like ah, no man, especially on that stage.

You know, I think this year was a little bit of lighter attendance for that session, so it wasn't maybe as intimidating as the years before, but it's still tough.

Still some big names out there.

Yeah, when you see like Jim Wharton looking back and I'm like, oh boy, I think you have the record for the best presentation at that tech talk.

So was that 22 when it did the prices right?

Yeah, the diag is right yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know, man, I going into that.

I just wanted to do something different.

You know, I presented the year before and I didn't.

I didn't submit anything for the next year.

It was a great idea, but I just felt like, you know, the whole concept is to give new folks a chance.

So I didn't submit anything.

But I guess you know, a few months after later, matt had asked me if I'd be willing to put something on.

So I wanted to do something kind of different and we came up with that concept.

But to be honest with you, I mean I knew going into it was either going to be a lot of fun or is it going to be devastatingly embarrassed.

One or the other.

So I'm glad that it went as good as it did.

I mean, I think it a lot of that stuff has to do with your frame of mind at the time, and I'm usually so nervous about presenting and being in front of people so I get kind of mentally like, oh man, I try to basically shift my mindset and get in a better mood and be less stressed out and you know, I think after about five minutes the nerves tend to start to ease up and then you just make a decision to have fun and that's what goes.

But yeah, I really enjoyed that one.

Is it out there on YouTube still somewhere?

I think parts of it are you know but, it doesn't really do it much justice because it's, you know, just somebody's cell phone footage from you know farther back and sure.

But you know we had a lot of fun because the participation obviously was great and being able to have Rich Valko and Heath Berkin's help out was a lot of.

It was a great time.

That was great, Didn't Rich?

He had like signs that he was holding off and stuff like that.

You know we were so worried about, like I said, it was going to be an embarrassing flop or really fun.

So, ahead of time, we're like Rich you're going to have to start identifying people that you think will not just tell us to pound sand when you call them up.

Because, man, how embarrassing would that be to call people up there and just like no, not coming.

So and then we thought, well, we're going to need these signs so that people know.

You know, we want them to have a lot of fun, we want them to shout, we want them to get allowed.

So it worked out nice because he did a good job.

He was like the Vanna White of that presentation.

Yeah, that was good, good times, and we were fortunate to have a lot of folks sponsor, you know, with giveaways and stuff like that, it was really cool.

Yeah, you guys gave away a ton of cool stuff yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome and yeah, everybody was talking about that.

And I mean to bring a little bit of you know fun into the stuff to whatever level you can do.

It I think is it's definitely something for everybody considered that's putting on a class right, and I did it at the college level for about five years and if you keep it all technical, well, some people really enjoy that.

Like, you got to have some some you know humor and life to it some way.

Whatever that is, you know, everybody's got a different style but man, it keeps everybody engaged and wanting to be there.

You know, to be honest, I, you know I'm probably I'm a humble person.

I feel like I do a pretty good job with the cars that we see.

You know, I mean we get, I get my backside handed to me from time to time, but but, regardless, like I, I we're fortunate to, I'm fortunate enough, I should say, to have to be surrounded by people that are way smarter than me and to be surrounded by trainers that are way better than me.

And so, really, when I have an opportunity to do something, I kind of lean on everything I can to make it as interesting as possible, to kind of overcome my lack of abilities to really teach you know really well, or whatever, and or to be super technical.

I mean, I, I like I said, I feel like I do okay with the cars I see, but you know, you know I'm not always the best at being able to explain the scientific details of things.

So, again, it's just about trying to make as fun as possible, because sometimes you're, you're up in front of that class and especially in the evenings when technicians are just drained and you just feel like you're speaking to a wall and it's just, I don't know, it's hard to be animated.

So we've got to figure out ways to kind of make it fun for sure.

Yeah, so you got a shop down in Florida.

Right, you're your owner of the shop, or what's the setup?

Yeah, a short auto works in Melbourne, florida.

So Melbourne is about an hour east of the Orlando airport, so Orlando area about 30 minutes south of where the rockets launched the space coast.

Oh, okay.

So pretty decent amount going on High tech area, which is a lot of like Harris corporation, northrop Grumming stuff.

I don't know Several high tech.

You know government contract type organizations around us and but you know we opened a short auto works about 13 years ago in Melbourne and I don't know what to say.

It's a general repair shop.

I'm pretty much like a lot of shops technician turn shop owners.

So there was a lot of years of you know me paying for my naivety going into it and then.

But you know you go to conferences, you take some management classes, you don't.

You know you make sure that you're not afraid to ask help, seek out help and do make some changes.

And we're, fortunately we've been doing pretty good for several years now but it's a long, hard road.

But we're glad to be where we're at and, yeah, nice.

So were you independent or dealer, tech, or both beforehand?

Independent.

Mostly I did do some half as I'm experienced at a Chrysler and Suzuki store for a while but primarily independent.

My wife taught secondary social science so I figured I would eventually teach automotive technology and I was presented an opportunity to teach secondary automotive technology at a high school local and did that for a while.

But you know, I think I might eventually enjoy doing something like that again, but I wasn't really ready for it at the time.

But yeah, primarily independent shops, a little bit of experience in different areas as well.

What made you take the jump to owning your own place?

Um, I mean, basically I don't know.

I heard Pete Rudloff say that he was unhierable on a episode he did with Carm years ago.

I didn't really understand what that meant until I started really listening to him kind of explain what that meant, and I feel like most of us that are on a position where in are there, and maybe it's not that we're not hireable, Maybe it's more that the auto repair industry is kind of crappy, you know I mean.

So the long story short is it's just not easy to find a good place to work, you know, a place that really wants what I wanted, which is to offer really high level and accurate diagnostic work and really high level quality repairs and just be a good representation of what auto repair is like.

It's not to say there wasn't you know, there isn't shops in my area that do that but not the level that we were wanting or I was wanting at the time.

So yeah, I mean, you see that a lot with like the best of the best in the automotive industry From my perspective, usually end up going to do their own thing and I'm sure there's lots of various examples, depending on the career you pick but a lot of things that you would think of the best of the best, they're going to go work for the best company, right?

Or that best company is snatching up a lot of really good people where, boy, there's just so many going out on their own in automotive, at least in the last 10 years or more that I've seen.

Look at a guy like Keith Perkins, right, that's one I've referenced before, but you know they actually fired him from the shop that he was working at.

And look at what he's doing with everything now.

It's just wild.

Yeah, I kind of joked about him in Lisbon over achievers last night, but they are definitely super impressive and I've told my tech slash friend today, carlos, that Keith Perkins is probably one of the sharpest guys I know.

But yeah, that's a great example because someone like him was definitely being underutilized in the positions that he was in and totally not really appreciated.

And you know, there's so much potential there that I think shops I don't know, you know shops are just not managed the way they should be, in a lot of cases.

So yeah, I mean at some point you just got to.

You know, if you're not happy, it's either leave the industry or try to find this way to be happy within the industry.

And I, you know, we're hoping to bring more talent to the industry and retain the ones that we have.

So all the better to them.

If they are not able to find what they need under somebody else's umbrella, you know, go get their own, I guess.

But make sure you know there's a lot of them.

Technician I joked about technician turn shop owner but and being naive, I really admire folks that.

You know that recognize that they want something more and they go for it.

But you know, I guess, unsolicited advice, if you go that route, prepare more than most of us do, that's all.

I can ask you, get some business training, business management, and learn about marketing and managing people and all of those things.

And before you make the jump, you shouldn't just wing it and see what happens?

Well, that's what we do, isn't it?

Like a car comes in.

I've never seen one of those before, but who cares?

I got this thing you know we do the same thing with everything in life.

And I'm tearing apart my tub in my master bathroom right now and every corner I take I'm like, oh crap, I didn't expect that We'll eventually get it and it's.

You know, it can be painful during the process, right?

Right, right, it's good to be, you know brave and just go for that challenge Like I'll figure it out.

But then sometimes you get into it and you're like, oh, wildly unprepared.

A little bit better ahead of time, this would have been a less painful yeah.

Yeah, well, there's so much information out there for people looking into it nowadays too, which I attack, or owner, whatever you want.

There's so much training out there, oh my gosh.

We are so fortunate in that regard.

Like I, have so many resources.

It's unbelievable.

Yeah, I think about when I started.

I graduated tech school in 06.

And I mean, social media really wasn't a thing, and I think IITN was pretty much it you know for online resources, and the training was at least what I was aware of was just, like you know, the Napa class once a month or whatever, and now it's a completely different world for somebody who wants to learn in this industry right now.

I think about my career in this industry and it looks like you know what they tell you to do when you're running away from alligators.

Is apparently is um is a myth.

Uh, you know that was busted recently.

Apparently, you're supposed to just haul ass and not zigzag.

But, um, yeah, I mean, uh, it was definitely not an efficient progress progression.

So, fortunately, with the resources that we have, um, if we can get a little more organized with training and make sure the right people are at the right classes and stuff like that.

But you know, honestly, um, there's so few people attending, I guess we'll take what we can get.

Get them in the wrong classes is better than none, I guess.

But yeah definitely.

People have a much better opportunity for advanced careers.

And you mentioned Keith.

I hate to bring it up again, but like he doesn't have that much years of experience and he's, you know he's mind blowing is his.

You know where he's at now.

You know, considering the time he's got in, and that's a great example of somebody dedicated to learning to be the best and taking the time and and the resources that are available, of course.

Yeah, and I um went down to his place, uh took my employee down for training on programming, uh, month or so ago and yeah, he's got super nice shop and a bunch of really awesome guys working for him too.

It's a you know you say, yeah, impressive what he's done within that amount of time.

But it's really cool to see people succeed that way and do well, cause you're like, okay, like I'm not Keith, but you know, I can shoot for something like that too, like it doesn't have to look like the shop down the road or whatever I can.

I can shoot for something bigger if I want to, it is possible and here's a model that I can work with.

So I like having people like that that.

Uh, show me the way.

Yeah, no, it's good to see you know if you can learn from others and and be encouraged to go for it and do things that maybe you wouldn't have.

That's a great thing for sure.

Yeah, Just a different perspective.

I even like that Just going into different shops doing the mobile thing, Like everybody's got a kind of a different way of doing their thing, and I like to see the different mindsets because you, you know you do the same thing every single day and you don't even know what's out there.

You don't even know what different method of thinking there is to solve this problem or to improve this process.

It's it's, it's good to be open-minded in that respect, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, um, I do some part time stuff in other shops as well.

I guess I'm not as curious as you about their operations, but I've always wanted to.

Um years ago, before Carm, before I knew about, well before remark results existed, I had a dream and I came and I told my service advisor you know, I want, I want somehow to um go to different shops and interview you know like owners about you know how they run their operation, what has worked for them, what hasn't worked for them, like kind of learn their stories and the story of their company and their successes and their failures and, um, just kind of document it and put it out

in the world somehow.

I had no idea what it was going to be, uh radio or if it was going to be, you know, audio only or video, audio, audio, video, Um, I didn't even you know.

Anyways, I I contacted one of the shop female shop owners I know good friend uh, diane Larson about it, and she's in Peabody Peabody is how they pronounce it Mass Um, and she said it's funny you should mention that because, uh, I have a friend that's actually just was at the women's auto care clinic or something, I can't remember what it was called but um, but he's starting a podcast, you know, interviewing shop owners and things like you know, professionals and stuff, and I was like, oh, okay, so um

, but anyways, the concept of doing that, uh, you know, and of course in his situation most of its virtual, he meets people at events and stuff but I think there's still an opportunity, although it would be kind of hard and expensive is to be able to visit shops and get a little more in depth of what they're, because it's easy to I don't want this to come off wrong, but it's easy to to sit in an interview like this and and discuss

things.

But when you get a little deeper and kind of talk more in depth about the policies and see firsthand how they're experiencing, you know, maybe an unsatisfied customer or a mistake that was made in the shop, I think if you were able to spend a day or two at a shop and learn those things and be able to document them, obviously people would have to allow themselves to be somewhat vulnerable.

but I mean, we can learn some immense stuff from a situation like that.

But even if we didn't document it like I like the idea for myself just to learn things.

Uh, but you know, like I said, a little more in depth, as opposed to just a quick conversation about hey, this is what happened to me, what would you do?

What would you do, Kind of thing.

Right, yeah, it's.

It's easy to say like, yeah, this is how I handle these problems and this is the way things go.

These are the rules that I've set up.

And then you get into the real life and chaos and sews and it doesn't always go the way that you think it will.

Oh, it is.

Somebody asks it's, I mean even whether it's diagnostic stuff or whether it's dealing with a customer or a situation uh, you see it.

I mean when somebody asks on a on a Facebook group or something like that, it's super easy for me to be like, well, this is what you should do, or you know, I think this is what you need to kind of consider.

But when you're actually facing the situation yourself, it's definitely much different.

You know it's a lot easier to to give advice when you're not part of the situation which sometimes can help you know, somebody get out of rut?

Obviously because you know this is what I think too, and they said that, so I feel a little better about my decision, but yeah.

Yeah, sometimes the person who's not elbow deep in it has some different or better perspective too, which is nice.

But um, yeah, you never.

You don't know exactly how you handle all these situations till you're in it and doesn't always go the way that you want.

But um, yeah, so we got this uh training event in October.

Yeah, there's a lot of training events, but uh, yeah, we have.

uh, the former ASA Florida, now Florida Auto Care Alliance, is um doing our first in person training event October 14th.

Uh, it's called Accelerate.

It's going to be at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Disney Springs resort.

That's a lot to say, yeah.

So Saturday, october 14th, um, it's going to be a great time.

I mean, it is a one day event, but what we're kind of hoping for folks that do any kind of traveling to to come to this thing is, um, you know, be able to take a day and, uh, you know, attend some training and networks with other like minded professionals and then spend another couple of days to do the normal, uh, tourist Florida stuff.

So, uh, looking forward to it and um, we've got some great classes lined up technical and management, uh, for those listening, uh, florida AutoCareorg, and uh, you can find information about the event and register to attend there.

Uh, but we're excited about it and we're excited about your class, sean, which is uh, uh, we saw speaking of vision at Tech Talks this last.

This year you did um a presentation on uh using AI and a diagnostic process, which I thought was certainly a very creative um, obviously AI being a very hot topic the last year or two, um, it was certainly a very creative and relevant uh topic and you did a great job with it.

It was very interesting and uh, um, I, uh.

I asked you if you thought you could put you know, full class together and you said, yeah, we can do it.

So definitely looking forward to what you have to present for the event Uh, and then all the other great training opportunities that are going to be there as well.

Yeah, um, by the way, I'll put a link in the show notes for anybody listening, uh, so you can just click on that.

As far as, uh, finding the webpage and information, registration, all that, um, but, yeah, uh, really cool that you reached out to me.

Um, the presentation and vision, uh, that was fun because I'm definitely definitely fascinated by you know, all this um artificial intelligence and large language model stuff coming out for you know all kinds of different reasons.

Right, it has ton of possibility outside of the automotive world, but, um, what it could mean for us as technicians as far as tools, assistance, um, efficiency, accuracy, all that stuff is pretty, pretty cool too.

So that's what I'm going to expand on a little bit.

And, um, the the part of it I think is interesting too is you know how it might cause we don't know exactly what all this is going to look like in 10 years, but how it might change our rules or affect our rules as human technicians, uh, with all of the potential that this has, both in and out of the car.

Like what, what is it going to mean for the people working on cars right now?

How is that going to change?

So I'm pretty, I'm pretty interested and I think it uh opens up a lot of discussion uh looking at the future of our industry.

Yeah, no, I mean, you could probably just come up with one hour of material and then talk with everyone about it for two hours.

Right yeah.

I mean it's like simultaneously scary as heck and exciting as heck, so um yeah.

No, it's a very cool topic.

I mean, I think early on it's just a, um, primarily a matter of trying to figure out how we can utilize it to help us in our daily lives and more specifically, uh, when it comes to trying to pinpoint problems for customers' cars.

But, uh, but you know, you're right, you have to think, keeping an eye on it.

You know, I think in kind of in your own mind, kind of start to take your you know guess as to where it is going to be going and maybe how the steps you need to do to prepare for it.

I mean, I think of that as a shop owner anyways, like, uh, what is this going to?

Like?

You say, what, what's 10 years down the road?

What can we do?

How can we use it today to help us?

But, um, is there having some foresight to know how to react to the changes that it's going to instill in our lives?

Yeah, you stay on the the forefront of stuff as much as you can so you can say relevant, that's the, that's the goal, um, and I, I feel personally like this is one of those things where you don't want to get left behind.

You don't want to be like, ah, the internet, who's going to use that?

That's stupid.

You know, um, and there's, you know there's people out there that say that about you know this, the AI stuff that's coming out, but for me it's one.

I'm like, yeah, I don't want to just discount this because I feel as though it's going to be a big deal.

Well, even in your present you know what was that 30, 40 minute presentation Like?

Right away I started thinking based, I mean, I didn't even have to think about it.

You basically showed us how.

But the fact that you can feed this system uh, you know, cut and paste some service information in there and you get a synopsis, you know, of what that all means, is like huge, because there's, you know, unfortunately there's so many of us myself included that kind of can struggle with reading comprehension.

So the idea of being able to cut and paste service information in and getting, like the high level, you know, points that we really need and then kind of dispersing all of that stuff that's maybe less necessary as far as language goes, and then being more efficient and potentially more accurate, you know, because once you get started to get confused reading service information, you can start making bad decisions based on the way you interpret it.

And this is just I see this just being, at least at this point, being another tool to help you to maybe prop, you know, get it right, you know, understand what it is you're looking to, to prepare and diagnose better.

So that was really cool.

And then since then I haven't gotten to the level that you have, but I was even telling my service advisor the other day he ends up investing quite a bit of time you know kind of editing some of the technician notes to kind of make them, you know, understandable for customers.

And I was saying you know you should use some of this AI to cut and paste some of the notes that you're getting from a technician to see what it comes up with.

There may be a situation where you know it can spit out something that you can really use for a customer.

You know communications and then you know you've now you've taken 20 minutes of your own time back.

You know you're not losing that time anymore.

So I always told my service writer I gave up being an English major so I could be a mechanic.

Because that's my notes.

You know they're barely legible and poor grammar on top of it.

So having a having an editor for my comments on the vehicle would be a good thing for most people.

Well, you know, I mean as a shop owner years ago I had I told most of my technicians that I don't want to do the normal robotic you know, robotic type language when we're dealing with our notes on repair orders, because I think that it's, I think it's helpful and basically we look for every advantage we can right.

I mean, we're the odds are stacked against this.

So if we can, you, if our notes can be personal and kind of almost like we're talking to the client in a way, you know and so I think it could be helpful, but unfortunately it's gotten to where it got to, where it was taking so much time, and then there's only so much you can do.

I mean, some people are just not strong with, you know, written communication, so it's been a bottleneck in our operation a little to some degree.

So I don't know.

Well, I keep telling, reminding JD, let's give that a shot, and I think what's going to happen is I'm going to have to try to do it myself and show him, you know, and hopefully it works out.

And if, once, if I do it myself and it works out and I can show him, maybe he'll be more inclined to take it.

Yeah.

That's where I've been at is trying to utilize some of this stuff in my actual day to day in seeing what actually makes sense and what's practical or what's just wishful thinking Like it would be nice if it was useful in this regard, but realistically it's not.

And yeah, you got to kind of parse some of that stuff out to figure out what actually makes sense for a business.

But I think there is definitely some, some utilization, even right now, today, right Before it grows anymore and advances anymore.

The other thing is there's companies working on this all over the place that are going to be integrating into systems.

You know you're going to see this built into all data or identification or something like that, and you know for the moment, for now, what can we do with it to leverage it.

Help us out a little bit.

Man, I'm proud it's going to be a first time.

I mean, the exception being the tech talk.

It's going to be a first full time session talking about this subject.

You know how it relates to automotive diagnostics, so very, very cool.

Appreciate you willing to put something together for us.

Yeah, it's my first like full time professional presentation, the tech talks being the only other one at a professional event, but I'm pretty excited, so should be, should be good.

Well, do you teach part time as well?

I taught at the local college for automotive for five years.

I'm just full time mobile now, but so I do have some experience, you know, being in front of people and presenting, but it's a little different.

I can say it's a lot different teaching college kids versus a bunch of you know industry professionals and peers and people that you look up to that.

That all of a sudden changes you my mindset a little bit.

So, like you were talking earlier, like I got to get in a different mindset, I'm going to freak myself out here Basically the first time I I mean every time I present, especially at an event, you know, because these events generally have really professionally minded, career minded people and some of the best obviously.

So anytime I stand in front of working technicians it's intimidating.

But definitely the level intimidation increases substantially at these events and usually especially for tech talks, because there was like a hundred people in there and there was a lot.

It was like there was a lot of buzz to it and so there was a lot of the best trainers in the industry standing in the back watching us.

And so I just made a mental decision I'm not even going to look, I'm going to.

You know, when they tell you if you have a char time, you know looking people in the eyes, look between their eyes If you're uncomfortable looking them in the eyes.

Same concept.

I was like I'm not even going to look at them to know who they are, I'm just going to make it, I'm just going to look out in the audience.

So they should have just turned my back on, like Jim Morrison supposedly did when you did some rock, some shows for the doors or whatever.

That would have been real.

That wouldn't have been awkward at all.

No, no, no, not at all.

Yeah, I'm looking looking forward to it.

Who are some of the other instructors and trainers you got lined up for this event?

I'm glad you asked.

Let me pull it up so I can talk specifically about the technical ones, because I was heavily involved with putting those together, and the management ones I'll have to pull up and kind of talk about those.

But we have a good lineup for both sides.

But technical, we'll start with that.

Of course you excited about that one.

Richard Falco and I are kind of co-teaching a driveability class but it's going to be kind of interactive.

Our plan is to kind of present driveability case studies, but in a way like you would.

I mean.

I've always liked doing this, basically trying to emulate as much real world as possible.

So we give you the year-making model information and the customer concern, and then the you know the attendees kind of steer the ship.

What do you want to do first?

Okay, I want to pull codes.

Okay, so we'll pull codes.

And then, what do you want to do next?

And then so we're hoping to separate the attendees into some groups and then each group kind of works together, kind of silently going back to kind of like high school group, you know recessions.

They kind of amongst themselves kind of talk about what they think about the last test results and what they're thinking, what they want to do next, if anything.

We did something similar for the X50 virtual event a few years ago and had a lot of fun and doing that.

So we're looking to emulate that a little bit, but more of an in-person situation and probably having multiple driveability case studies to run through that.

We're going to have Jim Morton teach a diagnostic class, but it's kind of more on time management, which I think is kind of cool because, like I was saying last night, there are a lot of we've seen a lot of situations where there are a lot of stuff in automotive diagnostics that's sexy.

So you know, guys like you and I really find it interesting.

We love diagnosing problems, especially ones that maybe some others have struggled with.

I don't know, to me it doesn't even matter, it's just fun to have a problem and be able to work through the process of figuring it out.

And but some of these things have been.

It's like the big toolbox now right, like you know, being able to do these cool scope tests or whatever is sexy.

So we're seeing a lot of folks kind of skip over a lot of necessary steps to jump to doing a test.

That's kind of sexy.

And maybe you know we see evidence of that and clearly they've missed you know a lot of clues in the process to do this sexy test.

So I think Jim's concept for this class is really about being efficient with diagnosis and making sure that if you're doing a test, you're doing it for a reason.

They were led there because of the results of the last test you performed and I think that'll be pretty cool.

That's a Saturday afternoon thing because I think he's coming in Saturday morning.

Okay, john Thornton is doing two classes at this point.

He's doing a variable valve lift class, I can't remember exact.

You know he usually talks about the technology so that everybody kind of is make sure that he's leveling the playing field.

Everybody's comfortable with what you know, these systems, how they kind of operate, the components in them, and then he usually follows it up with case studies, so he's got specific examples.

John Thornton is unbelievable Anytime you have the opportunity to attend his class.

It's going to be great.

So when we asked him to consider teaching at our event, he said yes, we were on top of the world for sure.

And he's like, well, what do you want?

And like, man, whatever you can.

Brandon says something I think is pretty appropriate for this conversation is he could teach basket weaving and I'd show him.

So yeah, he's doing variable valve lift and then he's doing this is a brand new class.

He actually doesn't have the material.

I joke about teaching basket weaving, but we wanted hybrid or EV stuff, you know at least one class for the event.

And so we asked.

I asked him if he had any hybrid class and he, you know he didn't.

But he said what are you looking for specifically?

And you know he's been doing this so long, he's got so many case studies that he's not had any opportunity to present.

He has plenty of hybrid case studies, so he's able to throw a class together for us and it's going to be I'm sure it's going to be awesome.

And then I think is that Do you know what Orchwen is doing in the afternoon?

I'm asking this selfishly.

Last night I was thinking about that Like it being a one day event and John Thornton has a class for every session.

It's gonna be, you know, trying hard to compete with John, but I don't know which one he's doing, which I can pull it up actually.

But we also have.

We're still trying to finalize some stuff with Adam Robertson and Gary Smith with Diagnation.

Okay.

Most likely they're looking.

They have a full day really in depth network diagnostic class.

It goes, you know, far beyond what most classes do.

They're very, very proud of this class and that's saying a lot because they both do remarkable stuff and very, very exciting.

Adam is like one of my heroes, so very excited to you know, when they strongly suggest the class, like okay, yeah, we'll probably do that class, so we're looking at that's an all day thing, I believe, and that's something they would co-teach.

So, when they're together, I mean, they're fun alone, but when they're together they're a bit silly.

They're goofy, but they're certainly.

You're not going to be bored.

You're going to learn a lot of great stuff and probably leave there with some ribs hurting a little bit From them making fools of themselves or, you know, doing whatever.

So that's how we're working on that.

That's not a done deal, but it looks like we might be able to get that happening as well.

So if that does happen, we'll, of course, add that to the calendar and the schedule as well.

But management classes Rick White, with 180 biz.

He's been very we've been very fortunate to have him come along and do.

Becoming the leader that your team will follow is one he's doing, and then becoming a true shop owner is another one.

I think that one's in the afternoon.

Bill Haas is doing a couple great presentations as well.

I really appreciate Bill.

He's been around a very long time and I've been using Bill as a personal business coach for several years.

And you know when I decided to use a coach which I should have done years before, but I think pride gets in the way sometimes but when I decided, of course we talked about it.

We have a lot of resources in the industry, so I had I had plenty of folks to choose from and I really respect Bill because he spent years developing classes that had to do with dealing with different generations, and I think that's just remarkable, because most of the time people just complain about an older generation or a younger generation, and so for him to put as much research and development into classes that help us to identify and understand different generations

, I just I've always respected that.

Now, of course, his daughter, sarah Frazier, is doing the same kind of carry continue to carry that torch for him.

But Bill Haas with Haas Performance Consulting is doing why things don't get done and what to do about it.

That's in the morning and in the afternoon.

What is he doing in the afternoon?

He's doing a pretty cool class.

Um, okay, shot production and payroll that drive profits.

So, this is pretty cool Because, as a diagnostic technician, we often complain about you know what shops are charging for Diag and stuff like that and I suspect with this class, he's going to be getting into some pretty cool ways to put incentive plans together to make sure that your team is being taken care of in a way that helps your company succeed.

So looking forward to that for sure.

Brian and Kim Walker doing two, I think, classes for us.

That's there, with shop marketing pros Very excited to have them on.

I've been fortunate enough to attend at least some of her webinars and she's a lot of fun.

Creating a shop culture that attracts customers and techs is one, and creating loyal customers how to make them feel special as another.

But yeah, those are the management classes right now.

Hopefully I didn't forget any, but you know for sure.

Please don't hesitate to check it out.

Floater AutoCareorg.

You can find that accelerate banner and click on that to learn more about it.

And yeah, look forward to it.

It's going to be fun.

I like it.

Yeah, I should take some management classes.

I really haven't ever done any of those.

I always have gone for the technical stuff, so now that I'm running the show, I should probably figure some of that stuff out too, it's always been hard for me at an event, you know, because at an event one of the hardest things is picking which classes you want to take, because a lot of times you want to be at more places than one.

But, being a technical person, it's hard for me to choose management over technical.

So I'm in the same boat Usually.

I've kind of forced myself in a few times.

You know, sometimes they're really good and a lot of fun.

Other times I'm just like thinking of what I'm missing in a technical session or something like that.

Sure what you mentioned the business coach.

I'm just curious what was the motivation or what pushed you towards doing that, because people have some pretty strong opinions both ways on business coaches, particularly in our world.

But what was your experience?

So years ago, before I really knew I think probably before we had the resources we have I had a shop owner that participated in ATI's thing and ATI's thing is like an ongoing commitment Like you have to sign.

I think 36 months is like the minimum 30 or 36 months.

It's not like a just handshake and we'll work together until we don't type a thing and it's a pretty substantial financial investment.

But I remember him, he sent me to service advisor training.

Their operation was in Baltimore.

We're in, of course, florida.

He sent me to their service advisor training a couple of times and I was just it was a great feeling to be a part of that and learn as much as I, you know, learn from that experience.

And so I was kind of I knew about coaching pretty early I guess in my career, because this is early 2000s, that that went down.

But I guess ultimately I felt like I've known about it a long time and but I have taken a lot of management training.

I've participated in a lot of management conversations on IETN and the shop management discussion forums and stuff like that.

I felt like I've learned a lot from a lot of people.

So I felt like I had a pretty good idea how to run a shop and and my other fear with not doing it sooner.

Sean is like you know, there's so often you're promised the world with companies and when you sign the line it's like you feel like you're getting that fast food approach, when they when they kind of gave you the impression you were getting the five star experience and I was always afraid that I was going to invest this money into somebody to help us and just kind of get that fast food approach.

But ultimately it was kind of funny.

I had a conversation with Carm with remark results and I thought it would.

For there was a while I kind of felt like some ownership into that podcast just because I felt connected to it, because I had an idea that was similar and I you know that he had writ right about the time he started and I just kind of felt connected to it and would pitch ideas from time to time.

And one of them was going on and talking about you know being kind of vulnerable and talking about where we were and and then talking about you know getting a coach and what it, you know how it has helped us and stuff like that.

So that's kind of how it started and I just decided to to to pull the trigger.

And you know we haven't we never even did the episode.

But you know, I decided to kind of do a little more research and choose, but with regard to a lot of different point of thoughts, I think it's really a lot of it has to do with there are certain coaches that have a really big online presence and they're not afraid to kind of change the status quo, and a lot of coaches are.

And then a lot of people and some coaches are very protective of of that status quo.

Okay.

But also, you know, and I'm not really taken aside per se, I mean, I have very specific beliefs myself, but but I think that we need to maintain our value without discrediting ourselves.

But I think we also have to be realistic in a way.

We do business because the world changes and we have to change the way we do business and, like you say, stay relevant.

But so I think it boils down to just like anything else, man, I think you know I believe in getting help.

If you need help with therapy and stuff, I believe in that.

I think you you decide that you're going to get therapy, you choose a therapist and that therapist could easily not be the right therapist for you.

I think, the same thing applies to a business coach.

I think you need to do so.

If you, I think you need to not be afraid to have some help.

The difference with me I thought I had knew how to run a shop because I've tended a lot of management training.

I knew a lot about managing automotive business.

But really having someone that is very wise and experienced and has dealt with a lot of different scenarios to just bounce off of them you know that personal one on one relationship but also hold you accountable, like just make you move because I am kind of I get stuck, you know, I analyze the crap out of things and don't make decisions.

So to have somebody kind of standing over my shoulder saying, make a decision, bryn, you know, kind of helps.

But, like the therapist, you need to find something that fits you good.

So fortunately, we have a lot of resources and fortunately they're not afraid.

Most of them have an online presence, whether it's, you know, webinars you can participate in or go to their in person classes, at events or just listening to their podcast or their Instagram messages or whatever.

You can learn about a lot about kind of how they approach things and find a good fit for you, I think.

But when I was talking to Carm early about it, I think he kind of I mean, he's a strong believer in business coaches, but I think he had a statistic, if I'm not mistaken, that was pretty impressive, you know, with regard to the successful shop owners he's had on him, the successful shop owners he's had on his show.

And success means different things for everybody, right, but the success of shop owners that he's had on his show, like overwhelming percentage of them have had, you know, coaches or continue to have, coaches.

So when you're thinking a little bit proud, I guess and I can do this on my own and you for folks like us that are paying attention to other things around us and we have relationships on a national level.

We see these successful shop owners and to learn that they didn't do it on their own, you know, kind of helps in that regard as well.

But, I think everybody can find somebody that's going to help them in their business without you know, selling out their values or you know.

I think there's somebody out there for everybody.

That's cool, that's really good advice.

I mean just the fact to you know, admit the fact that like hey, you know I don't have it all figured out, I'm not perfect at all this stuff and, you know, maybe I can do some reflections, say, okay, this is some areas where I could use some assistance figuring things out with my business and then reaching out for help, you know, whether it be a professional service like a coach, or, like you say, just friends in the industry but just recognizing

that like yeah, hey, I need to be open to what other people are doing or you know knowledge that they're offering and take that into what I'm doing, rather than just like, yeah, I got it all figured out, you know, I got this 100%.

Not going to take advice from anybody.

I mean, I know people like that and it really limits you quite a bit if you can't at least be open with your you know, honest with yourself about that sort of thing.

Absolutely.

And I think you know, for those that are starting off and don't feel like you have the budget for it, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you do.

I can tell you that from my experience myself and everybody that I know that I've worked with them they pay for themselves.

I mean that said you only when you're starting.

You're working 14, 16 hours a day and you're not even taking a paycheck in a lot of cases.

So I get it.

There are resources though we talked about it several times this episode.

We are very fortunate to have the resources we have.

But if you're utilizing those resources, you have to learn to be good to filter out the noise you know, and kind of identify what you know.

If you're on a Facebook owner group or something like that and you're following it, you can learn a lot from those things, but realize that some of those folks are going to be keyboard cowboys and they're going to, you know.

Basically just recognizing that there's noise there and trying to identify what's going to work for you and learn from what you can.

But being able to recognize what is good information and what's not, yeah, these events are so powerful because then you can meet these people face to face, develop some real relationships and get information straight from the person, not through a Facebook post or whatever you know.

Yeah, man, and that's exactly where I was going to go is making personal relationships at these events.

And that's another reason I believe in like alliances like Florida Auto Care Alliance or even Automotive Service Association and North Carolina's group and California's group, is because, even if you're not going to these national trade shows, a lot of these groups have networking opportunities for like chapter meetings and things like that, where you can kind of get to know and make personal relationships with other folks that have that are in similar positions from you, and they also a lot of these associations have

like a mentor type platform program.

So if you participate in Florida Auto Care Alliance or ASA or something like that, then you'll have maybe some more veteran, successful shop owners that are willing to kind of give up some of their time to kind of bridge that gap for folks that you know haven't committed on getting a coach but they really think have come to recognize that they need some help.

So anybody to listen and keep that in mind as well.

But yeah, if you're in between, go to an event or somehow, you know, try to find a place where you can meet up with other professional shop owners and get involved and don't be afraid to ask questions and be curious.

You know we're usually afraid to ask questions, we're embarrassed, but you know the only way to grow is to put yourself in uncomfortable positions.

You know, like when me and you were diapers to present tech talks.

Yeah, I bet you everybody wishes they were at that one.

Yeah, that's um.

It's one of those things like if you're wondering that question, there's like four or five other people in the room that are asking that same question and then nobody speaks up and it's 100% true.

Like I would tell my class that in college, but then when I'm sitting in a class I got to remind myself of that same thing, like, okay, yeah, there's like a bunch of other people wondering the same thing.

Like I just just ask the question, and these are professional events with professionals, like you said, and like nobody's gonna, you know, give you crap for asking a question.

It's just I've never seen that happen at any of these events that I've gone to.

So ask away.

Oh, honestly, these instructors, man, they, I mean they long for it, I mean when.

I'm when I'm teaching and nobody's asking questions, nobody's participating it's painful man.

It is painful.

So do them a favor and ask that question, because as an attendee, when you man, when those questions come out in, another attendee sometimes chimes in too you learn a lot from everybody to surround you know that you're surrounded by as well.

Oh for sure.

Yeah, that's.

I've experienced that quite a bit, where somebody in the audience has the specific answer or specific experience for what the question that's been asked.

But yeah, that's cool stuff.

Well, cool man.

You got anything else for me, Anything else going on.

It was your birthday this week, right?

Yeah, it was my birthday, happy birthday.

Appreciate it.

I don't know if they're nowhere near as exciting as they used to be, but it's nice to be, you know, pampered by the wife.

I say that, but she didn't even get cake or ice cream, or nobody's saying to me on my birthday this year?

Oh man, I don't know.

But always good to have social media because at least get you know 100 people wishing you a happy birthday that you haven't seen any here.

Sure yeah.

I appreciate you having me on.

For sure, man, always enjoy what you're doing.

Every time I get like on a I get a road trip or something like that I make sure to take an opportunity to listen to either you or Matt's podcast.

So appreciate all that you do and very grateful to be on here.

Hopefully somebody can learn from my painful experiences.

So appreciate the appreciate the opportunity.

Yeah, thanks for thanks for taking the time and again, thanks for inviting me to teach at the conference.

I'm looking forward to that.

So, yeah, everybody listen.

Again, those links will be in the show notes for getting registered or checking out the show or whatever.

So, all right, that's going to do it for today's episode.

Big thank you to Brent for joining me today.

Really appreciate that.

Also like to thank everybody out there for listening and all the feedback I get on the show.

Always appreciate that.

Make sure to check out that link for the training event in October.

If you want some more information, you can also reach out to me.

I'm happy to help in any way that I can.

Also, in the show notes we got the links for all of our sponsors of the show that make this possible.

So check those out as well.

But with that all out of the way, let's get out there, start fixing the world, one car at a time.

200: Brin Kline & The Accelerate Training Event

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