317: Brendan Sorensen

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.

Hey, what's going on, Automotive World, welcome to another episode of the Automotive Diagnostic

Podcast.

My name is Sean Tipping.

I'll be your host once again for this week's a little bit late episode.

Apologize about that.

I was out of town.

Just not able to get everything together on the regular Monday release, but it will

be next week.

Anyways, this episode won't disappoint.

We've got Brendan Sorensen on from Brisbane, Australia.

Tommy was recently down in Australia.

I was down there last year.

We've actually both worked with Brendan to do some online webinars for the Automotive

Technicians, the company that Brendan works for doing tech support and mediating between

us to get us on board doing some webinars for them.

If you're interested in that, there'll be links in the show notes as well.

I recommend checking out the site and everything they have to offer.

Brendan will talk a little bit about it in today's episode so you can hear some of the

stuff that they offer.

But either way, really great to talk with him.

I'm glad.

We finally were able to make our schedules work from across the world.

With all of that out of the way, let's jump into the episode.

Hey, have you ever been faced with the challenge of sourcing, installing and

programming a used control module in a vehicle?

I know a lot of us have.

It seems to be happening more and more often today with the volume of control modules on

vehicles, the cost of some new ones, or even the availability of new control modules.

In some cases, used may be the only option.

So what do you do here?

I strongly recommend checking out SJ Auto Solutions and Tommy Oliva.

Tommy offers a cloning service for used control modules to make these things plug and play for

the vehicle that you're working on.

In a lot of cases, he is also able to source the control modules if you're unable to locate

one for the vehicle that you're working on.

But once you get connected with Tommy, he's going to offer fantastic support from start

to finish to make sure that that control module is going to work in your application.

He's also got tech support that he offers through his website, along with some free resources

there as well on information about used control module programming.

So make sure to check out SJ Auto Solutions.

I can't recommend that enough.

Yeah, nothing.

We don't really have a plan, so we'll just riff it.

I'm sure we'll figure it out.

So the closest bear that we saw, we kept hearing people would be on the trails, and they'd be

like, oh, we just saw a bear down there, and they generally, they don't want to screw with

you.

Even the Grizzlies, they just want to do their own thing unless there's cubs around.

That's when you've got to be really concerned.

So we never actually saw any, but we have the bear spray.

But three quarters of a mile in the distance, you can see these little specks moving

against the grass, and some people had some like, monocular things where you actually see

them pretty close.

And it was a mom grizzly in her two cubs, and it was cool because you see the cubs

like wrestling around.

They were playing, and mom was like digging for something, like really aggressively digging,

and she pulled up like a ground squirrel or something, and they, you know, devoured

that thing.

It was, it was pretty crazy because the mom at one point was getting pissed off at the cubs.

They kept messing with her or something, and you could hear her like do the, from like

half a mile away, it was so loud, I would just poop my pants if that was right in front

of me.

Fuck you.

That's that, that's that white people shit I'd be talking to you about, man.

Yeah, like we went through, you know, Banff and did a bit of Canada is a great

trip, but because you're on those tourist trails, you know, me being a tourist as well,

but you see the ones that are like actively trying to search out the bears or, you know,

just the black bear on the side of the road, they pull the car up and they're getting out,

you know, trying to shake hands with it and stuff, you're like, what are you doing?

Black bears are big ass dogs from what I heard, like black bears, unless it's the

mom with cubs and yeah, fuck that, you don't want to piss off any bear with

cubs.

Yeah, it's like supposedly if it's black, fight back, if it's brown, lay down and if it's a

grizzly, just say your breakers.

Yeah, we're just leaving.

Yeah, yeah.

I hope you wrote it well.

At one point, one of the days we were hiking, you're, we're up in the mountains, so it

was cloudy.

Like, we had really good weather, but one day it was cloudy and you're literally

in the cloud and so I can see maybe 10 feet in front of me and that's about it.

And the park ranger walks by on the trail, we're on, they're like, yeah, we saw some grizzlies

out here earlier on this trail.

And so like the whole time I'm just like, like, I'm going to see one just pop out

of the mist at me and that we never did, but it definitely puts down alert.

Yeah, like, I think those are way worse, you know, Tommy's scared of these little

spiders and snakes coming down and stuff, you know, it's like, at least they're

going to kill you and you don't know about it.

Just happens.

And I can shoot that, bitch.

I'm going to shoot it with like a blow dart.

Just trying to put your shoe on and there's something in your shoe you're

like trying to kill you, like, come on.

Oh, that, those things gave me the fucking creeps.

I was at, so I went to Brisbane and we spent, like after the event, we went

exploring and they have this, like going through the city, go on like a

ferry, which was super cool.

And we made a stop at like a brewery and it was cool because you get to take

the elevator up to like, to the main road.

And so yeah, so that'll be felons brewery.

Yeah, I know that well.

That's exactly it.

So I go to the bathroom right and it was like, you know, I'm like,

dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, I open, I turn on the lights or whatever.

I'm like, Hey man, I'm like, looking around.

I'm like, Oh fuck, dude, it's like damp and fucking like no lights in

here. And it was just like, bro, I swear to God, dude, if I see

anything moving, it's getting Peter, it's gonna get fucking Peter.

Are you just, are you referring to what's in your pants as a weapon of

mass destruction?

Hey, man, you got to do what you got to do.

But, oh man, yeah, it was, but I, you know, it's funny.

I didn't see, I didn't see anything at all.

Like I didn't see not one spider and I want nothing.

I didn't see Jack.

Yeah, no, it's honestly, it's not that bad in the cities.

You know, I'm, I'm Brisbane based and I mean, sure, you don't

have to get too far out and you might have a snake or something,

but so they don't want anything to know about you either.

They, they just want to be left alone.

I think, I think these Australians just keep making fun

of us, Americans, because you guys don't want us there.

So I get it.

It's only the food and the guns that is going to get you in America.

Hey, at least the food tastes good.

Yeah, you guys really should have tossed the tea, man.

Maybe you guys could have came up with a better breakfast

than fucking beans and tomatoes.

Actually, it's just terrible fucking veggie.

Mike, that's not actually wasn't too bad.

It just tastes like somebody left soy, soy sauce on a fucking

burner for three weeks until it became the consistency of fucking

wheel bearing grease.

My dad loves it.

I brought a bunch back from him.

He's all about it.

I, I didn't get it.

I'm like, this is just like eating.

Yeah.

Okay.

So here's my take, right?

Like anytime that something is good for you, right?

I know it typically speaking, it doesn't, it isn't going to

attack, attract your taste buds.

That's just, yeah, like a grapefruit or something.

If you have to mix it with butter and ultra process fucking

bread, what the hell's the point of eating it?

Yeah, it's not, it's not like your peanut butter that

you're keeping next to the bed.

Yeah.

You'll have a little bit of it every now and then.

No, it needs, it needs accompaniments.

I'd rather just take some supplements.

Fucking eat the fucking assembly loop keeps you strong.

Yeah, it was, uh, yeah, the breakfast was not good.

I found some good ethnic food that Turkish place.

Man, yo, that was one of the best meals I've ever had.

Period.

Like even, even state side, that Turkish restaurant over by

the, by the river walk or the river area.

I suppose that's one thing we've got going for us.

There's a lot of multiculturalism.

So you get, you know, when there, when there's Indian, you

know, it's, it's good Indian and when there's Turkish, it's

good Turkish.

I said it before and I said it again, man, the damn

British colonized the world.

They sailed the seven seas to only season shit with salt

and pepper.

Like the fuck did you do with the rest of their

spices and shit that you treated for?

Did you treat it black people for?

You say on the seven seas and all you could come up with

this fucking sausage and poor people food for breakfast.

Crumpets.

You guys, you guys wouldn't have crumpets, right?

You don't, you know what a crumpet is.

What is a fucking crumpet?

I mean, think of it like, uh, almost like a waffle, right?

But it's got like holes.

So like a pancake, when you're cooking it, how it

kind of bubbles up.

So imagine like heaps of bubbles that open up.

So it's like this almost like a waffle, but with

all these holes.

And so you put honey in it and it fills it up.

But yeah, I think it's like only an Australian

and British thing.

No, I think that's a Spanish thing.

We do something similar.

They're called them, but not us Americans, um, in

Guatemala, we have something called Fuelas and

they, and they're kind of fried, right?

Are they fried?

Yeah, it's a, yeah.

I mean, you'd never cook one.

You, you buy them at the shop.

I wouldn't have no idea how they're made.

My grandma used to make those.

And yeah, we used to eat them with honey.

Yeah.

Let me see.

Anything that can hold honey is generally good.

It's just a device for holding the honey really.

These things look like some dried out pancakes.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Crumpet is a small griddle bread.

And it says become popular in Australia, Canada,

New Zealand and South Africa.

Yeah.

Sounds about it.

This is the type of stuff they, they put on

pirate ships that didn't go bad.

The last just six months on the ocean.

Oh, Lord, that looks terrible.

Yeah, that's, it's not the best.

Well, I'm glad you survived it.

You made it back.

Yeah.

Did you guys get to hang out together when you were down there, Tommy?

I was pretty busy that weekend.

So I sort of caught him.

Yeah.

I sort of caught him as he was walking.

I had like four sessions.

I think I was running that, that weekend.

So I was in and out running training sessions.

And then I remember we had a social event on the Saturday night.

I think it was for Asden.

And so, so that was good.

We're all at a bar.

You know, I didn't get the memo to dress up.

So I'm the only one there wearing my work shirt.

Everyone else is dressed up to the nines.

Yeah.

Right.

You didn't get the memo either.

And I remember, yeah, they were, yeah, they were giving

a little toast and say they're calling out Keith and

Brandon and Humble Tommy's at the back there.

I remember just sort of giving him a tap on the back and be like,

what are you doing, Tommy?

Like get up there, you know, as if you felt you didn't deserve it.

But no, you didn't know some job.

And, you know, you, you definitely held your own.

If not more against some of those big names.

I don't know, man.

I just, it's been embedded in me to stay humble or be humbled.

You know, like I just, I don't know.

I do it for the love of it, man.

I don't, I don't, I don't do well.

And that's probably one of my biggest weak points, honestly.

But I am not a big self promoter.

My, my, I may not have been, have a better business or I may

have a better name per se, but I just, I don't know.

I have a hard, hard time with, with accolades and stuff.

Dude, I just enjoy what I do.

Man, after our, so for those of you who don't know, I did,

uh, uh, Brandon asked me if we can do the, cause I mean,

obviously like training events can be difficult to get to.

So he asked me if I can do the, the TAT webinars for my,

um, my module programming class that I taught in, in, in Australia.

And of course, you know, I, it's a great opportunity and also

for more people to see my class.

And, uh, I got emails and I got messages on Facebook and thanking

me that it was a great class.

And I'm just like, man, I just, I just enjoy what I do.

I appreciate it, you know, but I, I really just, um, I

try not to let things get to my head.

I don't know.

Maybe it's a fault, but I, I feel the same.

You know, sometimes you feel embarrassed almost to pump your

entire is up.

So it's, it's a good trade.

I think every now and then realizing how, you know, I've

given yourself a pat on the back's good as well, but yeah, I

don't think there's any reason to wave it in people's faces.

Yeah, I think it's better than the other direction in my

opinion, you know, being a little humble and around people

who like, um, have this aura of importance and, uh, prestige

that probably not has not been like properly gained.

And yeah, those, those type of personalities, just they, they

annoy shit out of me, especially when I see them, you know,

one day they're like, you know, acting like they're

better than everybody else.

And then the next day they're messaging you like a side

shit.

Hey, Tommy, have you seen this?

Yeah, I've tried this.

Like, I mean, I'll always help people, but I'm just like,

I should save these because one day I'm going to use it against

you like, Oh, you remember that one time you asked me that

dumbass question?

Yeah.

Okay.

Don't forget.

Uh, for me, it's, uh, I think it helps me keep an open mind

on, you know, taking in new information to learn new stuff

is just, I, I am the same way.

I'm, I'm a bad self promoter.

I got kind of that imposter syndrome thing going, you know,

anytime I'm doing something, teaching, instructing,

leading, leading people, I'm like, Oh, I don't know all

this stuff that well, but it, it helps me keep an open mind

to learning new things, taking suggestions from people

trying new stuff that I don't know at all.

I'm like, I, I still got a lot to learn.

So I'd rather be in that position myself.

Yeah.

I, I agree.

Like, you know, that, that, that night was, that I was,

it was, was, was pretty cool.

That night we're, we're at that event.

I just was enjoying myself watching the, what a beautiful

view of this, of the, of the sky, of the skyline,

man. It's a, I was absolutely floored with how

beautiful Brisbane and Sydney are.

Honestly, two beautiful cities, man.

I can't wait to, I hope to get the opportunity to go

back. And if I don't, then I'm going to save my, my

pennies and go back on my own.

Cause I, yeah.

Well, um, you could make the 2000 and, uh, I

forget what year it is.

We've got the Olympics coming to Brisbane.

We'll have to look it up.

But I mean, if you get training now, you, you

might make it.

I don't know what your discipline is going to be.

Yeah.

What's your event, Tommy?

Shit talking.

I think it's 2032.

I'm pretty sure.

So you've got to run up.

I'll take a, I'll take a good silver medal and

making people feel stupid as fuck.

I think that's, I bet you, you could beat that

Australian break dancer from the last Olympics.

Yeah.

She probably, you know, she obviously made it on

the news over there for you to see it.

But yeah, she just got dragged through the mud

for a long time over here.

We're going, what is this that we sent over there to?

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I don't even know what break dancing is.

She's like, she's doing all right now though.

Cause she goes out and does, you know, like

motivational speaking and stuff like that out of it.

So I mean, if you looked at that shit, you

could live through anything.

Yeah.

Hey, we don't make fucking lemonade out of

some damn lemons.

Fuck.

You got a, yeah.

Yeah.

I don't remember any of the other break dancers.

So I guess there's something to that.

You know what, man?

You made a fucking good point.

She's the only one.

Yeah.

She's probably going to get a Nike sponsorship and she's set.

He's shit.

Well, um, yeah, hopefully you guys came over.

So hopefully I'll get over to there.

You know, I'd love to come to one of the, the

big expose, hopefully maybe make it to TST next year.

We'll see what we can put.

I was listening to Clayton and Vasco that you had on recently.

You know, Clayton's been over and he hopes to again.

So we might see if we can get a group together.

We're hoping he makes it out to STX, man.

So I'm hoping he's able to keep.

That was it.

So it's STX, not TST.

I think I said, yeah.

Yeah.

STX.

TST is like the, it's a smaller one day event in New York.

Um, STX is a big three day event.

And it's going to be in DC, in the operating land of DC,

Washington, DC.

So Clayton is that what we're going to do is I think he's coming

in to Chicago and we're going to road trip it there.

Cool.

Yeah.

And then I'll get to, we're going to go shoot some guns.

When is that next spring?

No, it's next August, actually.

Okay.

I've yet to go to STX.

So I wanted to last time I just wasn't able to spring.

You know, I have the, my life has been funny and my, my very

first training event that I taught was STX, just like here.

Hold that.

Um, classes were small, so that was great.

Um, but it was a very interesting experience.

And the operating land in Nashville is sorry, it's, it's

the Gaylord in the Gaylord hotel in DC and in Nashville, it's

called the Gaylord operating land.

That has to be the, I think, I think by far it's the biggest

resort in the United States.

It was 3000 steps or 2000 some steps from my hotel room to the

convention center floor.

Well, I was exhausted, dude.

And one day I forgot something in my room.

Oh man.

So yeah, you guys, um, if you can make it for STX, let

me know, man, we can coordinate something.

And yeah, that'd be awesome to have you over.

See what we can do.

Yeah.

I mean, that's a bigger event for you to start at.

That's, um, but there's a lot of cool stuff like that.

I see you guys are coming on, you know, the little sessions

that you can just get text to stand up and give input.

Whereas it sounds like you're doing something a bit more

structured back then, but big event to start at.

So yeah.

So I actually know that not I think about it the first

time I spoke at an event was that vision.

And that was me and you, Sean, me, you, Sean, Pedro,

and who else, Bryn, was it, no, was it Hans?

No, what the fuck was it?

I'm trying to think of what the other person was.

There was a fourth, right?

There was.

Yeah.

Matt Fanzlow, he did a, uh, a segment called tech talks

and pretty much, you know, regular Schmaggler

technicians just came up and we just did a, um, we

would do a, um, kind of like a case study ish or

something.

I think, uh, I think, uh, you did something on AI, right?

Yeah.

I forgot.

Pedro did something bigger.

I think he did something a little bit that, that took a

little longer.

He, well, he did like some general tips.

There was like 10 different tips that he had.

General tips.

I did my case study on, on global a transmissions

on, on GM transmissions.

Um, you did AI and man, who the heck was the other

gentleman?

Jesus, it's going to hit me like it.

Yeah.

It was like, it was two, it was 22.

I think that was, uh, I don't know, it's been,

but yeah, so, but yeah, so Fanzlow is the one that

came up with that and he's doing it again for

ASTA, I believe.

Pro.

Yeah.

I think that's also idea.

That was the first time I spoke publicly, um, and

then STX, then there are a couple of the tech fix

training events and then tools and then auto care.

Man, that was dope.

Yeah.

Auto care.

Yeah.

It was awesome.

No, it's getting good.

Yeah.

That's, you know, a pretty newish event really, um, that,

I think we discussed, you know, they, they do, uh, the

big expo every year and then they run auto care, the, the

off year and it's more focused on training and it's

just getting bigger and better.

Yeah.

It's awesome.

Yeah.

It was, it was really, it was really, we might, it

might have to see if we can take a page out of your

book and start to implement something like that where we

can give other people, you know, the chance to just

get up and start to say something.

Cause that's where it, where it comes from.

Yeah.

Like none of these, you know, you don't get into this

trade to become an instructor.

It's, you know, it's, it's, you just naturally sort

of progress there as you take these little steps.

One of the biggest issues I see here in the States is,

um, training kind of went a bit corporate for my taste,

which is it's kind of not, it's not all terrible and

they're not all bad instructors, but like the premise

behind it has kind of lost its focus.

And we keep going that route.

We're not going to get nobody young and innovative.

When are we going to get our next, you know, Scott

shot and our next, you know, John Thornton?

I mean, nobody's going to be John Thornton.

But what I'm saying is you need to grow the

opportunity to potentially get somebody that's up

there to, to harvest.

Cause the next generation is here already.

Yeah, it's exactly where, where I ended up.

I just got thrown into it.

Someone said, you know, come do something.

And I think they said, oh, do you want to get up and, you

know, speak for 20 minutes about common rail diesel.

We're just getting a few people together at a shop.

And I go, okay, sure.

Don't know much about it, but I'll give it a go.

And then I turn up and he goes, okay, great.

So we're going to break off into groups and you're

going to do an hour practical session with them as well.

And I'm like, thanks for the heads up.

You know, but yeah, it was, it was fine before

you know, it used to get the scope out.

Okay, let's have a look at a few things.

And it sort of naturally progressed from there where

after you've dipped your toes, you sort of like, okay,

I didn't die.

I came out of it and it was, it was actually pretty cool.

And everyone appreciated it.

So yeah, it's good.

It's exactly it is like a half hour session or whatever,

like the tech talks or like just get you up there.

You realize the, oh, okay, I made it.

Um, like nobody threw anything at me.

I, I didn't, you know, completely biff this.

I could actually do it or maybe you're like, I didn't like that.

That's not for me, but you didn't have to do, you know,

a four and eight hour class to figure that out.

Um, yeah, all the props to, to Matt, that was a great idea

that he came up with.

Yeah, that was fun.

Yeah.

I, that was my first per se teaching experience and I got

a lot of positive feedback that day.

I was shitting bricks.

I was nervous.

Um, I haven't been a big public speaker, honestly.

Um, but, uh, yeah, no, it's, it's, it feels now it just

feels good.

I've had big classes.

Um, so yeah, so I'm pretty thankful for all the opportunities

and I hope to be able to, to keep growing both here

and possible Australia, which is kind of odd.

Cause I assumed that because I like teaching stuff in Spanish

that that was going to be my, my, my, my new shape per se,

but I got more traction in English.

I was, I'm totally surprised.

I just, I assumed that was going to be Spanish.

I was wrong.

It's going to be an Australian superstar.

It's you're on the other side, but it's, yeah, it's like,

I got your buddy sorted the other night and Gary with the

trying to do some Subaru stuff.

Yeah.

I'm hoping to see if I can establish a, I'm, I'm going to try

to see if I can, cause I have some of the, the Asden board

members, see who I can connect with, with Asra.

Um, I think what you guys need is more of a liaison or

somebody, I can't be, it can't be me cause of time zone,

but at least I can, uh, give them some guidance on terms

of like what, what, uh, what needs to be fixed and

addressed, but yeah, but Subaru is broken.

And I, I, when I was writing the class, it was broken.

I couldn't get, I, I could not gain access.

Yeah.

So for anyone listening, uh, I'm sure you've heard these guys

mentioned before, but Asra is like NASDAF over there.

And so, you know, it's, it's still finding its feet.

It gives us someone to talk to, but you know, by no

means are they experts in, in every manufacturer.

And so my friend, uh, Gary reached out.

He was trying to do something on a Subaru and you know,

I've never actually done Subaru stuff, but it sounds

like they make you set up a remote desktop and then

because of that, you can't install drivers for your J box.

And it's just, you know, some of these manufacturers,

it's probably only going to get worse with all these

Chinese vehicles that we've got coming in.

It's just, what are we doing here?

You know, like it's, this is 2025.

The issue respectfully that I've seen is that basically

the government said you got to do it, but they didn't

tell them the parameters of how they got to do it.

Then that needs to be addressed because at that point

they're just like, well, fuck you in a nutshell, right?

Cause that's just what, that's just what it is.

Cause we, we have, for example, like it's not all

peaches and sunshine over here either, but at least I

don't need a login to buy the software by the tools.

We can, we just need logins for security information

or security procedures.

Um, but the thing with Subaru is that instead of

giving them the software, they just basically said,

we're going to, we're going to let you remote in and

install a virtual machine or a remote desktop, right?

But the problem for Gary, I suspect is that they

never installed the, the connect.

So yeah, correct.

You're not going to use your, you use your USB

as like a port forwarding.

So I think that's where the disconnect was.

They never installed that software on this laptop.

When I was there, they actually installed that

software on my laptop, but they never, never program

never launched.

So it's kind of like, okay, but, uh, according to

the gentleman I spoke to at, at the event that

they're, they, they know there's an issue and

they were fixing it, but I mean, the, the will

just is never going to be there unless it's

forced, same as, as the United States.

Our problem is they, they set up parameters,

which is awesome, but they didn't set up like the

availability of it, right?

Mercedes is $37,000 four year minimum lease up front.

Like, who really has a, what type of small business

has 30 K sitting around?

And it has to be a shop credit card.

What if you're new?

Yeah, you have that 30 grand on one card.

Like, like who's even going to get a $30,000

credit card when your business is less than

four years old, not a lot of people.

One, two, if you're on a hot, you have to have

a dedicated hotspot for a century.

If you share one and you're connected to an

auto, they'll shut your shit down.

Right.

And, and you have a chance of losing your

subscription.

So then it's just like, but then you go to

BMW and it's 40 bucks a day and the device

is $800.

So it's kind of like, well, which one,

which one is it?

Like, like you go from one extreme to

the other.

So, um, yeah, it's walled, isn't it?

The jump between some of these things.

At least the structure, right?

Like, like 2018, right to repair all the

manufacturers had to work with Jay.

And for the most part, there are exceptions.

It works fine.

Like most of these 2018 and aboves work

fine with Jay.

Um, some of the older ones work fine with Jay.

It kind of started going that way.

So the manufacturers started ramping

their, their programs up and changing them a

bit, but then at the same time they

gave us the finger, just GM.

GM used to cost us, what, 900 bucks a year

for a year for SPS.

And then they just said, F you, we're going

to roll everything and, and to add value.

And then it was $4,500 for a whole year.

Yeah.

Or 45 bucks a pop.

Kia Hyundai, what, what is there?

It's like 7,500 for those tablets.

If you want to get that set up.

Kia Hyundai used to be free.

So what do you guys do with, with

your business, you know, do you sit there

at the end of the year and sort of see what

you're seeing most of and to try and weigh

up, you know, what, what am I going to

yearly or how do I, how do I budget this?

I, I try to keep track, like we break it

down in our, you know, accounting

software of like, you know, GM programming

forward, whatever.

So we can tally it up.

Um, but then if we're getting requests

for stuff that we can't do, we keep track

of it and okay, we're getting more and

more of these requests that makes sense

to buy this.

Um, but yeah, there's a few Mercedes

is one, I don't have the factory tool.

We just, I don't have enough for it to

make sense for me right now.

Like those few jobs that I turned down.

It's just what it is.

If the demand ever gets there, you

know, we start getting enough volume

then, then I'll make that, that call.

But yeah, we got to try and see some

ROI.

I can't say I always do that with all

my tools, but it makes it super

difficult for, you know, these smaller

operators, you know, if you want to

be a one man band, you know, how are

you sustaining subscriptions?

You sort of can't, you have to have

stuff to share it through really.

Especially if you're not like just

doing programming, that's one advantage

that like my business has.

That's primarily what we do is

programming.

If you're a repair shop and you're

adding that on top of all your other

hoists and air compressors and all

that other stuff, that is a wild

expense that you might use once

every three months.

And then they wonder why people go

pirate versions and stuff, you know?

Well, I mean, I

kind of got blessed to be able to, I

got a lot of help sharing scripts

for a while, but this last

year, dude, they, all the

manufacturers went to like double

two factors.

So it's kind of like we were, we

kind of just got, you know, we

couldn't share anything anymore.

Like we had to go, you know,

everything legit, which, you know,

to the point that I get it, but

it's just, again, like the

unfairness is my problem, right?

The unfairness of the D ones

is my problem.

The unfairness of price points.

Like you go to rural America,

they're charged, the crisis

charging a hundred and fifty bucks

to program anything.

You don't need an ID.

You don't need a D one.

Dude, we have to pay what?

It's a hundred and fifty bucks

basically for the scripts

and a flash token, right?

But if you're doing a RFH hub,

right on a, on a, let's say

a Jeep or something, then you

don't need a, you don't need

a flash token, but you need

to buy the pin code.

It's 30 bucks and you have to

fill out a D one for them.

So in order to make it worth it,

you got to charge 300, 350 bucks.

But they can just, at that

point, it's probably cheaper

for them to tow it to the

dealer and have them do it.

If they're charging a hundred

and fifty bucks, I got guys,

I got dealer guys around me

who moonlight after hours

and go to shops and do

programings for 50 bucks,

80 bucks.

And I can't compete and I'm not

going to.

No, not for that.

Yeah, it's difficult, but I mean,

it's the world we're in.

So like always, we're

navigating our way through

somehow, some way.

And I suppose, you know, it's

lots of sharing to help

help each other out to say

you're not wasting your money

on stuff you don't need.

The worst part, the

thing I feel bad about Australia

is the service information.

I don't know how you guys

have been doing it, man.

Your service information sucks.

Yeah. So there's hopefully

going to be some reform.

So when we got this

this law that was passed, you

know, that allowed us to get

OE, they completely

missed out a lot for

data aggregators.

So that's why, you know, we

we don't have all data over

here. We have very limited.

We listen to some of the stuff

on this podcast and it sounds

like a wonderful dreamland.

Look up there.

We're lucky if we get like an

engine wiring diagram, there

might be an ABS wiring diagram,

no connector locations, all

that kind of stuff, you know.

Obviously, we can go in and get

it OE now, but hopefully

we'll get some reform happening

in this next round where they

going to look to update the

law and focus on data

aggregators so that we can

get more of that.

Because, you know, like we

said, it does not make sense

to be buying all these

subscriptions to OE information

for basic things.

You know, it's not like

we're doing some in-depth

diag.

You know, you just want to get

some talk specs or something,

right?

Yeah, I poured through.

Man, what's the name of the most

popular one?

Probably would have been

Autodata.

That one, Autodata.

Yeah, and even that, it's

different to what they get in

Europe.

And you know, it's a big company,

but what we get in Australia

is not the same.

Which is kind of like

it's kind of dumb to me that,

you know, at the end of the day,

it's still a business.

I want to provide information.

So what's stopping them from

actually providing good service

information?

Yeah, it's, you know, that's

beyond my pay grade, these

laws and whatnot.

I imagine, you know, that's

where luckily, with TAP,

you know, we're very different

to that where we don't get

into wiring diagrams or

actual OE information

because that's a whole

minefield world of, you know,

what you are allowed to do,

what you're not allowed to do,

redrawns and all that kind of

thing.

You know, we're very different

where we're really about

workshops sharing their

knowledge together.

And so it's a knowledge base

that's built by

everybody.

And it's it's got nothing to do

with the OEs really.

So luckily, I don't have to step

into that world.

Yeah, man, the TAT

website is is pretty

pretty sweet, man.

It's impressive

what they have.

Yeah, just a couple of guys

got together over a decade

ago now and decided, you know

what, I'm sick of calling you

to say, have you seen this

before? So they started to

go, OK, well, let's let's start

to database this just like we

all do, you know, a lot

of us, I know Sean's got

his notebook that he keeps

everything in, you know, any

good diag tech is doing

that.

And so why not pull them all

together?

It doesn't hurt me that you

over in Chicago get

to touch in a

file code or, you know, see

that this test is what I got

this result for.

And it's helping each other

really. So there's enough

work for everyone.

Agreed.

Yeah, why don't you share with

everybody listening if they're

not familiar, like what your

role is with them,

what you do and then anything

else about the site or

anything that somebody would

want to know if they're

unfamiliar.

Yeah, so, you know, I'm

definitely not in the sales

department. So don't worry,

it won't be a sales pitch,

but to give you a bit of an

idea of what it is,

we'll have a free trial

going up soon.

I don't quite have that set

up yet, but that'll be

handy so you guys can go

check it out.

But on the website,

www.tat.net.au,

you can watch a quick video on

there that shows you a bit

about what it is.

But the the crux of it is,

like I say, you know, main

things, we have repair

solutions, which, you know,

think of that as like your

identification type thing.

So it's just one small part

of what we do. But yes,

you know, there is that

silver bullet type aspect to

it, where it's member

driven. So, you know, if

you have a problem vehicle,

you find the fix to it,

you put it in there and we

format it so it all looks the

same. You know, very similar to

if you're familiar with DDTSB.

So they run a similar model,

but over in Europe.

But then probably one of our

biggest assets is the good

scan and scope data.

So we've got tens of thousands

of captures of good

module captures.

So again, it's member driven.

You know, there's no way I

could go and rent all of

these vehicles or whatever and

try and capture them.

And it's just, look, that

car comes in. It's just

there for an oil change.

It's got 30,000 kilometers or

whatever that is in freedom

miles. And take just

take a capture of it, you

know, so just doing

the reset with your scan tool

anyway, it's plugged in. Why

not go into the modules?

Just press save on a lot of

the the newest scan

tools. It's very easy to just

press print to PDF and then

we upload them there. So it's

as good as having a known

good vehicle out in the in

the car park when you're

sort of going, you know, what

should this fuel pump duty

cycle be at idle and all

those kinds of things? If

anything, it's way easier than

trying to dig through service

information because you're not

trying to read through theory

of operation or whatever, you're

just going, well, here's a

good one and this is what

it's doing. You know, so

um, so yeah, heaps, heaps

there, we do have a lot

of oscilloscope captures as

well. But you know, that's

a market where there's heaps

of other places like that,

the Pico Waveform library and

things like that. So I think

the one that really stands

out is our scan tool

captures. And then where I

have been frequenting quite

a lot lately is in the

technical assistance. So it

is just as it sounds, you

know, when you've got a problem

car, the membership gets in

there and we've got guys all

around Australia at the

moment that we're still

fairly Oceania based

Australia, New Zealand. And

they're top guys in their

field. So whether it be

transmissions, diesel,

hybrid, whatever it is, you

put in a problem vehicle and

we work through it with you

to try and get to the end

and that obviously helps us

because that builds our

database of fixes when we

help you fix the car. So

yeah, it's a really big

organized way of sharing

information. And one of

the the latest things that

we've been working on is our

AI tech Tina, which is super

exciting. I'm definitely a

you know, a guy that's

starting to get pretty

excited about AI and what it

can do and dabbling in all

those areas of how it can

help in the workshop. And

so we've been we've introduced

a model that we built

instructions for and she's

got access to everything in

the database. And that's the

thing with AI, you know, if

you want it to work, you

have to feed it really good

information or else it's

just going to go try and

look on, you know, Yelp.com

or whatever for how to fix

a car. It's not going to

work. Whereas I'm like

that. Yeah, that's it.

You know, so the

benefit that we've got, I

think it's going to be

really strong going forward

is, well, she's got all this

good data here. So she sort of

becomes this researcher for

you to be able to go through

all that. And as that

evolves, I think that's going

to be the new way that we

start to connect with

these kinds of databases.

You know, we get

something else AI to go and

do the research. And as

long as you're a reasonable

level, just a professional

technician, that's where you

get the best out of it.

It's not kind of throwing a

prompt into something and

just going car run bad.

What is it? You know, if

you can start to talk to it

about fuel trims and say,

oh, this is what happens

when I do this or I just did

this test and the voltage

drop is this voltage and

give it specifics, then you

can riff back and forward

with it. You know, we don't

have to call Tommy anymore.

I mean, you can shut down

his chat hotline.

Sweet.

So that'll be super good.

Can we make an AI, Tommy?

Well, it might fit.

So we've got we've got

Tina, Tina and Tony.

So Tina's Tina's

the researcher. Tony's in

the technical assistance.

So when you put a technical

assistance case in, Tech

Tony chimes in there.

And yeah, we might have to

have Tech Tommy as well.

It'll be be sort of like

you can roast you after

you fix the car.

Yeah, like our musk has

got with his grok.

You know, you can change

different personalities.

So do you want to talk

to Tech Tommy?

I'm worse with the with

the Mexicans around here,

like my Mexican mechanic

buddies that ask me for

help. Oh, man, I'm

absolutely brutal with them

because it's just like

because it also gets like

helping is one thing, right?

Like helping somebody

or in a jam or whatever.

But it's always like that old

adage, man, teach a man a

fish, right? Or or feed him

for a day.

But man, I guess they get

it gets too comfortable.

Like, hey, what do you think

about this? What have you

done? I don't know.

Well, what the fuck

you calling me for?

Oh, just in case you've

seen something I have.

But for fuck's sake,

go do something, man.

Like, you know, go check

at least check I'm present.

All codes you have.

OK, let me get on a little

magic ball here and guess

what kind of codes you have.

Yeah, that's that's the biggest

thing, you know, like at least

put a bit of effort in.

And it's the same with AI as

well. You know, talk to it

like you're talking to another

technician.

I don't don't think that it's

going to have a magic ball

either. It needs some

some input so that it can

give good output.

So I'm a big

believer of I heard the

saying that AI

doesn't suck your prompts just

do.

Yeah, that's

I think that's the two biggest

things is the prompts and then

the data that it has access

to. So like, we're working

on something internally, you

know, to link it with our

database so that it's pulling

from, you know, specific

information that we built.

And that changes the output.

And then, like you say, you

give it the context, like give

it as much context as you can

talk to it, like you say,

and blab about every detail

and it'll take it and into

account.

And then on top of that, like,

I think we're in the best spot,

like our generation, our age

because we've done this for so

long without a tool like

that. We've got experience.

We've got the knowledge

about this stuff.

So then the stuff that it

spits out, like, I feel like

we're in a good position to

call bullshit on some of this

stuff. And that happens, like

sometimes you get something

like, OK, that doesn't make

any sense.

But I don't know.

Maybe for somebody new, it's

a little tougher because then

they don't know, like, is

this really the way I should go,

you know, testing this stuff

because you're relying on it

too much.

And I mean, maybe that's

what's going to happen with

us too down the road, too,

is leaning on it too much.

But it is a really helpful

tool in the meantime.

Yeah, the strongest way

that it works is when you've

got a professional in that

field working with it, you

know, like out of our field

because they're using AI in

absolutely everything, every

business now, you know, they

maybe they think it's the IT

guys. They've got IT and Bob

sort of setting up these these

AI systems and agents

and things. And that's that's

not the way it works.

Like, you know, Bob in IT

doesn't understand how

that specific

speciality of yours works.

So if we can if we can

harness what we already do know

and really you're just trying

to having someone there that

you can talk back and

forward with. And I find that

that's the best thing

about it is, you know, you're

getting that when you've been

at a car for that one or two

hours, whatever, and you start

hitting that wall and you're

going, you know, what am I

missing here? There's got to be

something and you're running

out of ideas of what to do

sort of thing.

That's when you sort of talk

to it and you go, why didn't

I even think of that?

You know, it's not I'm not

looking for an answer.

I'm just looking for someone

that can stir up

my creative juices to go,

OK, that's that's a good

test plan. I should have

thought of going down that

path.

Yeah, well, and that's the

thing you say, hey, give me

10 things, you know, on this

situation that I haven't thought

about doing, and you'll be

like, give me 10 more, give

me 10 more, and it'll

keep going, it'll keep going.

It's, you know, it's not

going to tell you to fuck off

like Tommy will if you call

him too many times.

Yeah, I did that once, man,

because I was fucking hot, dude.

I'm just like, dude, you call

me three weeks ago about the

same fucking shit, dude.

I'm not on your payroll.

You don't pay me a fucking

monthly subscription and they're

fucking right the shit down

or figure it the fuck out.

He never called me again.

I'm rethinking setting up tech

told me on the tat side.

I need to set up a separate

separate complaints hotline.

Hey, man, you know, it's like

the people at Tech Fix, man,

they, um, they love me

to death, but Jesus Christ, man,

I get into so much fucking

trouble.

Because everybody's so like

straight and straight and arrow

and I just come in with

like a sledgehammer.

It's understandable.

And it grinds on you, you know,

and just like you say, there's

some guys that put the effort

in and there's some that they

give you nothing.

And here's the thing, like when

I go to these these training

events and I'm trying to be

like super professional, but

you know what, man, I play

around too much. I'm trying to

be professional.

Everybody asked me if I'm OK.

Everybody asked me, what's

wrong with you? So quiet.

So obviously you're telling

you're not OK.

I mean, like I just shake my

head. Then I start talking shit.

They're like, yeah, you're right.

Well, interesting how

with the AI thing, how they were

saying that when they changed

to chat GPT five, you know, so

many people were using four

O is their as their therapist

and stuff like that.

Dude, what's funny is

I, um,

I there's

something we didn't realize in the

automotive industry, right?

We kept talking about how he

can help us fix cars and blah,

blah, blah.

You have no idea how many customers

come in sending me articles

from chat GPT to help me fix their

cars.

Yeah. Yeah.

We got it.

It was Google. Now it's yeah.

It's on steroids.

Yeah.

We got this email just yesterday

from it was a guy.

I thought it was from

a repair shop because

like it was it looked

professional. It looked like

somebody who knew what they were

doing wrote this out as far as a

request for their vehicle.

So I call this number up.

It's just Joe Schmoe with

his Cadillac Escalade.

And I didn't

straight up ask him, but

I don't know. I inferred it by

talking to this guy. I'm like,

this guy didn't write this email

like and it's detailed to

his car.

So it's not like you just copied

it from Google. I'm like, this

dude definitely wrote this up

with chat GPT based on what he

had going on with this Escalade.

And I was like, I had not

seen that before.

Yeah.

You're lucky it wasn't an

AI phone agent that you're talking

to as well.

It's the next.

That's next.

But a lady had

had given my guy a hard

time over like the

expectations of chat GPT

like chat.

But you know what's funny is we

made more money because I mean

it's it's a. All right, man.

Let's just be realistic here.

It's a Camry.

I'm sorry. It was a Lexus.

A Lexus Camry basically

with a misfire, single

cylinder misfire.

I don't care what type of scope

genius you have, man.

It's

90 percent probability that

he needs a coil.

And the Denso coils are so good,

the 90 percent probability

it'll need the other three within

one month.

They're so good that when one

fails, they're like they fail

exactly after.

You know, you know, Josh, you

know, like listening, you know,

like she's like, no, no, I want

you to clean the throttle body

first. He's like, OK, but just

let me know what will perform

that as maintenance. But that

will probably not fix your problem.

She's like, no, no, just do that.

OK, we did it.

She took the car, calls back.

She's like, no, it's not fixed. OK,

you guys, um,

just change the spark plugs.

We're like, we're like, man,

we really recommend diagnosing

it because we're going to pull

this intake and it was

similar number five.

It's under the intake.

She's like, no, I want you to

pull the spark plugs,

pull the spark plugs.

And she's like, I want you to

check and advise.

And Josh is like, check them

for like, for like, he doesn't want

to tell her like, what?

How do you want us to check these

things? Right? Because we're supposed

to know how to check them, right?

But like, we we just

don't want to tell her, dude, you

just need a fucking coil.

We want her to pay us for

what us to tell her.

So she keeps fighting this on us,

right? So I tell Josh, you know

what, man, tell her we found all

three back ones back,

right? And then let's put the

back three coils in the front.

And so we did that, right?

Because we originally quoted her all

six coils and all six spark

plugs. And she was just like, no,

no, no, that's way too much

money. Blah, blah, blah.

No, listen, no, this is no

rigmarole.

So we do that, right?

And so we sell her three spark

plugs, move them for

the back close to the front.

And then but when the misfire

changes, she's like, well,

Josh is like, hey, good news.

We diagnosed it for free.

You need another coil.

Do you still want to change all

three of them?

And she was like, no, just

change the bad one.

So she paid us to change the

bad one, basically.

So, you know, like

in the grand scheme of things,

right? She she thinks she saved

money, but she really didn't

because now you have a potential

three bad coils, you

know, waiting to go bad in the

back.

Right. So like those

are the the nuances that you're

not going to know about chat

GPT. It's that's more about

building a relationship with

your with your shop, right?

Does your shop have your best

interest and before its own

profitability? And that's kind

of where like I

tend to like to shine a bit

because I some of my customers

were we're saving your money

here.

Like we're not charging you any

more labor, but you know, that

number next to its neighbor is

going to go out. And when it

does, you have to you're going

to pay us to pull pull the

planet back up.

But, you know, going back to

it, chat GPT is

only a sum of its of its

equations, right? Like it's

only going to spew out the

answers that it knows.

And so for people who have

faith in it right now, it's

another disadvantage that we

have technicians have because

now we have to listen to this

answers.

Yeah, it's it's good to, you

know, be pre armed with a

little bit of information.

But, you know, by no means

does that mean the overriding

professionals in that area,

you know, like I could go to

the doctor and I could be more

informed or they're giving me

you know, something about my

symptoms or a diagnosis.

And it's great to be able to

go, oh, I understand a bit

more than they were just

telling me, but I'm not going

to decide that amputation

is the right thing to do just

based on what chat GPT has

told me, you know, like you

still need to leave the

professionals do their job a

little bit as well.

Yeah. And at least at this

point in time, and I think

at least for the foreseeable

future, like the experts

in whatever field it is are

still that and you're

still going to you're going

to be the best person to solve

that problem that you're an

expert in, right?

Like I can't just let

my guys just, hey, use chat

GPT and you don't have to call

me anymore for anything.

Like we're not we're not even

close to that yet.

Maybe 10, 20 years down

the road, but that will be a

great time to retire.

Until then, like the

the real experts in whatever

field you're in, I think

you're in a really good spot

because then you can use it

as a tool to, you know,

increase your productivity,

like we do with a number of

different things where it's

not it's not necessarily

knowledge or solving a

problem. Even it's just

like getting more stuff done

or eliminating.

Like I've explained it on the

the podcast before I use it

to rewrite invoices for me.

I'll just blab in here's what

I did on the car. Here's the

details and then it spits it

out in a real nice

grammatically correct

formatted version that I can

put on the invoice and then

we have all the detail looks

great and it's a fraction of

the time it would have taken

me to write down.

So like you find those little

tools, man, that's

fantastic.

And I mean I'm probably

single-handedly killing the

planet with energy use and

things like that and data

storage. But you know, things

that I played around with like

just leaving it on recording

mode. And you know, I'm a big

one for writing things down

while I'm diagnosing. You

know, you always got to be

writing down what that that

voltage was or whatever. You

never know when it's going to

help. But you know, the

game changer there of just

leaving it recording and you

just talk to it and you go,

OK, found this and and it's

translating it. I'd hate to

think like, you know, when

that becomes mainstream and a

billion people are doing that

like the amount of energy and

daughter and stuff involved.

I mean, that's the way we're

hitting, isn't it?

Invest in data centers, that's

for sure. But

yeah, talking is the way to go.

I mean, I've never been a

real fast typer. But I think

even if I was like just

talking to it, it just

seems to be the way to go

because I can just ramble

on with detail and context.

And it's not like too

much. Like I will bore you

guys with the details of

the the car that I

worked on and just like stop,

I don't care anymore.

But you can just feed all that

in there, all the context you

want. And it just makes for

better output.

Well, we're still we're still

useful. Well, I'm still got

some years left in us.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, a couple, especially

like within our own

generation, these these

punk ass kids growing up, I

don't know, they're they're

they're definitely going to

be different. Their

experiences are definitely

going to be different than

ours, man. Yeah.

Yeah, like like Sean said, we

were in that that golden era,

wasn't it? You know, the way

you still had to put the

effort in, get your butt

kicked. And that's how you

you learn those lessons.

And then you can utilize

that that knowledge with

these, you know, newer

technologies, or as you

know, just trying to go at

it without putting in that

that effort behind the scenes

you're not going to end up

with the same results.

Yeah, that's that's a danger

for sure for kids.

I mean, just young kids in

general, but people coming

into this field as a small,

you know, piece of that where

this starts being really

helpful. I mean, I I

can't imagine how much easier

my life would have been as

a beginning tech, if I

would have had this in my

pocket, like worlds

different, just just to point

me in the right direction and

get me knowledge on stuff.

Holy crap. And I mean, there

wasn't even YouTube or

Facebook back then when I

started.

I say that a lot, right?

Like, oh, man, I could

have been a better tech or

more efficient or blah, blah,

blah. I mean, you really

don't know, right? But, you

know, growing, growing up

in the time I did and how

I had to learn and how

quickly I had to learn is

why I am where I'm

where I'm at right now.

100%. So I I

don't know. I mean, it's

it's it's it's it's really

difficult to sit here and

make the comparisons, but

it's human nature to

thrive. Like, look at that.

Just look at T.A.T.

If if if they would have

had access to what we have all

data, Mitchell and everything

else, right, you know, forced

by the government, they

wouldn't exist.

Yeah, it could be very

different. Yeah, or it

would be something to like

what we did here.

Like, if you remember I

T.N. I T.N. was in

its glory days, man. I T.N.

was the shit.

And then it got bought out.

And then after that, it

went to shit. Like, you

know, the really Facebook

groups have become a sort

of unofficial replacement.

But there's no cohesiveness.

There's no symmetry.

There's just everybody.

Yeah, there's no data basing

all that. Yeah.

No, it's like you type in a

search and if somebody had

this issue, but it's like

all the data is accurate.

Do I trust this gentleman that

he actually did his diet?

I mean, if I see if I see

Sean do something Pedro

Pleasanton or a couple of

the solid guys have posted

over the years, and you know,

I know I can trust their

information hands down, but

it's some Joe Schmo from

Mississippi or wherever he's

from, I don't know.

I've had I've had no good

waveforms that I found on

Facebook to be bad.

So yeah, right.

That's that's that's annoying.

Yeah, it came cranks where

they got the VVT active and

stuff like this and you're

like, come on, take a

damn relative compression.

Like, what the hell's wrong

with you people?

Yeah, quality of Dati, you

know, that's that's the

thing. And all these systems

that they're only as good

as the data that's going into

them. So well, you've done well

staying awake. You're saying

how hard a day you had, Tommy.

So yeah, you haven't passed

out on us yet.

I told you, man, I

I just work, man, like I told

you about doing the classes

after DST.

I don't care, man. If I got

to wake up another hour

earlier, my name is Sean, man.

I don't care.

Whatever I'll be up to, I'll

be texting you.

What time is it there now?

Is it the next day?

No, we're 10 30 a.m.

on Wednesday, whereas you're

Wednesday afternoon.

Is that correct? No, you're

Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday, Tuesday night.

Yeah, Tuesday night.

I am in the future.

Send me some lottery tickets.

I can tell you, yeah, nothing's

good happening tomorrow. Don't

even go all the way.

All right, I'm staying home.

That's just wild, man.

It was really it was it was

the heart. No, the interesting

part was coming coming back

man, like getting there.

I was I was killer.

And here's the thing.

Here's the worst part for me,

right?

So I got stuck in LAX,

but I didn't really realize

this, right? But when I got

stuck in LAX,

I I have what I get.

I went to the gym that day,

right? So I wake up at 4 a.m.

to go to the gym.

So I got up at 4 a.m.

Went to the gym. I did my

date completely, got home a

little early so I can pack or

whatever.

But we have been pretty

prepared for this trip.

My flight left 6 30 central

time.

We got to Los Angeles

four hours later.

So that's 8 30 flight

left was supposed to leave like

at 11 and some change.

They were they were digging us

around till about

12 30.

Pacific time.

Right. So I made it to the

room because they canceled my

flight. So I made it to my

room in Los Angeles

at 2 45 close to 3

in the morning.

Well, think about it.

That's 5 a.m. Central time.

So I fell asleep and I

didn't know why I woke up at

like I woke up so early.

I only slept for like three

four hours. I woke up like at

6 something.

Now it's your body knows what's

going on. The body clock is

real.

I didn't really like process

it until like I got back from

this trip. I'm like, dude,

why couldn't I sleep like well

because it's you know, it's

9 a.m. back home.

So so then like

again, we go through the go

through the day, hang out with

my buddy Caesar.

The flight was leaving at like

midnight or 11 45

and in Pacific time in Los

Angeles.

So the flight arrives at 7

in the morning Monday.

This is Saturday. So it arrives

7 in the morning Monday.

So I didn't I can't sleep on

planes, man. So I think I

nodded off watching a couple

movies a couple times.

So I may have slept for like

an hour in the total

15 hours that I was on this

plane or maybe more.

I don't know. I don't recall.

Yeah, I don't see.

I just couldn't get there.

And I'm like like it was

brisk that day.

Right. So it was pretty much the

weather I left back home.

So I was fine. I was in my

t-shirt.

The guy picked us up for Josh.

I kept making fun of him because

he's in a heated Milwaukee

jacket.

He's like, man, it's cold this

morning. I'm like, dude, this

feels great.

Like it was it was just a nice

nice brisk morning

and I'm up the whole day,

dude. Like I didn't buy

7 38 o'clock that night.

I'm just like.

Yeah.

I'm just like.

Slaping yourself like doing the

tea or doing the weevil wobble.

And I'm really sorry, dude, but

I got to get that.

So the next two days, yeah, about

7 38.

I was like, oh, shit, I'm

dying.

I didn't get used to the time

change until about a week.

And I was in like New Zealand

when I really kind of got used

to it.

And I got back home and the first

day I was.

I got home.

It worked out because we get home,

which is like always so surreal,

right? I left that eight

some and some change.

Wednesday night and I got home

at 9 30.

Wednesday night.

Yeah, that was crazy.

We do the same thing.

We took off like Friday morning,

landed Friday morning, like

16 hours.

Fucking wild.

Yeah, dude, like the days after I

landed, I was kind of like.

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What the hell is going on?

I was like, buddy, gets just

enough time to adjust.

Yeah, I was like, is it dinner

time right now? Like I'm

hungry in the middle of the

night and weird shit like

that. It took me like about a

week to get back to normal.

Yeah, I literally like, I didn't

have those like, like, like,

like that per se, but

I definitely fell off for

almost.

I get it. I get pretty bad jet

lag. Like, oh, my not just

the sleep patterns, which are

obviously terrible, but my

stomach doesn't know what's

going on either. So it's like,

why? Why are we eating?

You know, it's 2 a.m. in the

morning. And yeah, I can get,

I can feel pretty sick for the

first couple of days.

Just as it's sorry.

Yeah.

I had that going down there,

like, I don't know if it was

the airline food or just

the travel in general.

But my digestive

system was wrecked for the first

like three days.

I was in Australia and

I felt I felt really bad.

So I actually I never told

anybody like about this

because they took us out like

really nice dinners and stuff.

And one of them I went to

like, I was just dying.

Like I was like something's

going to come out of some

and it is not good.

But I'm going to go and it

was such a nice dinner.

And I'm just like, I kept

eating. I kept eating as soon

as I went back to the hotel.

Just I went to the

the bathroom and just rulfed.

I couldn't I couldn't hold

anymore. But I didn't tell

anybody because it was such a

nice dinner. I'm like, I feel

bad.

I don't do well in like like

upscale and like like bougie

restaurants. I'm not a I'm

not a big fan, dude.

I'm the type of guy who like

I'll find some street food.

I'll sniff out some food on

like I don't care.

Like I just I don't know.

I'm just a simple dude, man.

Like I I I

and it's like my cousins or

their college graduates from

back homes. But when they take

me to Guatemala, they take me

out. I'm just like, they'll

take me to American chain

joints. I'm just like, dude,

it sucks back home.

What makes you think it's going

to be better here?

You're just passing a guy on

the street trying to grill

some meat on a stick between

two two blocks of cement.

This is good.

And you're going to get sick.

I'm just like, yeah, like

you're not going to get sick

eating this bullshit ass

Tony Romo fucking like

just bullshit chain American

spots is where they take me

and my cousin, man, bless

this old dude. I know he tried,

bro, but he took me to go eat

Chicago style pizza in

Guatemala, bro.

That should have hot dogs in

the dude. I almost threw it

at him.

I'm just like, what the fuck

is this?

And I just I he was just like,

oh, what do you think?

I was like, oh, yeah, it's

great. I'm just like, whoa,

I wouldn't feed this to my

dog, man.

This is disgusting.

It tasted like the sauce

tasted like ketchup. It was

gross.

I'm just like, dude, I just I

want to eat something that I

can't get back home.

And that's that's literally all

I all I all I asked

for, like, you know, but, man,

let me tell you something, though.

Those motherfucking Tim Tams,

Jack, whoof.

Yo, yeah.

This is a recurring theme now.

You bring it up on every podcast.

You're addicted.

Man, what is it?

Tim Tams.

You missed out. Did you even

come to Australia?

So Scott, Scott Hicks was

there via top down a couple

weeks back. And I'm just like,

dude, bring me back some Tim

Tams. He's like, I'll pay you.

He's like, what are these?

I said, listen, man, you like

snackies and stuff like Oreos

and stuff. He's like, oh, hell

yeah. I said, don't open them.

I'll be back in just 10 seconds.

Yep. Twenty minutes later,

he fucking messages me.

He said, you fucking asshole.

I ate the whole fucking pack.

They're like, they're like

little chocolate wafers.

They're like little biscuits.

OK.

Think of a chocolate Oreo, but

instead of a circle.

I'm just going to have me a little

snack.

It's going to have me a little

snack here, Tommy.

Do some do some ASMR now.

I hope you get the runs.

Yeah. It's a good time.

Chocolate. I'm eating once once

every week.

I blazed through the first pack

and then the second one.

I'm going to take my time with this

one.

Set up a little romance with it.

You know, get some candles going

and open the pack real slow.

Glass of wine.

And then and then like

they there's like a wall of them

right all different flavors and

shit. And then just looking at

a mom just like, man,

New Zealand has some really good

chocolate, though.

Whitties, whitties or

maybe whitties.

I don't know exactly.

But it starts with a W.

But man, that chocolate was really

good. I brought some back to give

out to some friends and stuff.

And it was just phenomenal

that the snackies

in the United States just fucking

suck, dude.

Yeah. Yeah.

We'll bring you over a care

package. If we can get over next

year, you'll you'll know all the

Australian guys at STX.

If anyone sees someone sleeping,

you know what's going on.

I talk cleaning for as much as

they do. They're expensive as shit

here. I checked on Amazon and

they want twenty five bucks of a

pop.

Yeah. So I'm like, yeah, it's hard

with Amazon because you're sort of

like, you know, I see that

you're giving me prime free

shipping, but you've also

inflated the price of the thing

three times to obviously

include the shipping.

What's the name of that chocolate

from Wellington's?

Or it starts with a W, man.

But I think I saw it in Australia,

but I saw more in New Zealand.

I'm sure they got frigging

tariffs on your chocolates,

too.

Yeah, because yeah, I know them.

Yeah. Yeah, that's really

that's some good chocolate right

there, man. And the thing is, like,

it didn't make me feel like shit.

I felt like a fat ass, but I didn't

feel like shit.

No, we go OK for just a bunch of

convicts that got left

on an island.

We've got a few things going for

it. I liked about the Australians

I tried making them uncomfortable

and nothing, nothing really worked.

They even hit them with a penal

joke. I said a couple of dumb

stuff and that's

it. Is that all you got?

No, that's that's that's the

main thing. You know, we're sort of

known for pretty easy going,

like taking the piss out of each

other, you know, just giving

elbow jabs all the time.

And that's that's what keeps us

going.

I still think Mike set me up,

though, man. He really didn't.

He might have the state of

origin.

Yeah, he might as well have put

me in fucking New York with a

Red Sox jersey on.

Oh, yeah.

Like, that's that's that's the

equivalent of what they fucking

did to us and the fucking people

yelling at us. And I'm just like,

the fuck are they talking about?

Is that for the football or is

that rugby game?

The rugby game.

I got to go to the Red Sox game

when I was over there.

So we went to the last time,

went to the States was Boston

and went to Craig Van Batenburg

at the ACDC

hybrid training center,

which, yeah, that we finally got

to, you know, because he's a

little bit out. He's, you know,

an hour, hour and a half or so out

of Boston at Worcester

and we didn't

went over one time before

and it was just in and out, you

know, because we had to get back

to make things work back here in

Australia. So I, yeah, I went to

Boston, not really, you know, I

sort of got there, got on a train,

went out to Worcester. But yeah,

this time I got to go into the

city, got to get a Red Sox

game.

It was it was interesting.

Yes, you know, it's a good

game. I've never seen baseball,

but we thought we were

absolutely done, you know, it was

like four, four home runs

down. And then before you know it,

you know, someone hits and

those bases loaded and you're

like, we're back in this, you

know, it's good to go again.

It's not sort of like soccer

where you're like three down,

you're like, why are we still

here? Like, there's no way

we're getting three goals.

Yeah, baseball is an

interesting sport.

That's actually the first time

I saw a rugby match ever,

like I'd never I've heard

about it. I just never had an

interest in it.

Yeah, I'd never been to a game,

but I don't I don't know

that it's played around here

unless it's some guys out in a

field, maybe just messing

around.

What is it?

What's funny is that it's

fucking popular here, man.

The wife was thinking about

going to see the what's the

name of these?

The All Blacks.

They're playing here against

Ireland.

Yeah, so that's rugby, rugby

Union, which is slightly

different to the rugby league

that you saw.

Isn't that the countries,

yeah, so well, no, rugby Union

can be played just at club

level.

Yeah, it's a similar game, but

some pretty fundamental

differences that

could make it not not as

you know, I had to pass it

forward, like and put big

shoulder pads on like what you

guys are calling football.

But yeah, you still still

have some of the fundamentals,

but a completely different game.

If you came down here and

just called them both rugby,

people would be going, what

are you talking about?

Like rugby Union and rugby

League are two different

sports.

But yeah, the All Blacks, that's

an awesome spectacle to see.

I thought the All Blacks was a

nickname for the New Zealand

national team.

Yeah, New Zealand National

Rugby Union team,

whereas the Australian one is

the Wallabies.

I heard they suck.

Yeah, the Wallabies, they

have ups and downs.

So, you know, it will be

it's like the cricket team as

well. They're either, you

know, world champions or

they're absolutely stinking.

You're like, can we just get

some consistency?

I was watching cricket one time

and it was just like, I

felt like I was watching

somebody write Chinese,

dude, I didn't understand shit.

Like, there is nothing about

that game that interests me at

all.

There's a bunch of guys who

play cricket in

like, there's like a baseball

field near where my girlfriend

lives. And yeah, I've watched

it. I was like, I've never

played it. I don't know

anything about it. I'm trying

to figure out what they're

doing. And I'm like, I don't

get it.

Yeah.

So rugby was interesting

for me.

Because I played football, not

I mean, just fucking just

regular, like playing with

friends or playing high school

ball or whatever.

So like,

what's funny is like, like

the amount of people who in

Australia were just like, oh,

yeah, rugby is like 10 times

harder.

Unless I don't understand the

game, I physically, I think

it is physically harder for

sure. There's no denying it.

But I don't know if there's

a lot more.

I don't understand the strategy

of it to say that, you

know, the the

objective, right? Because

obviously the objectives are

similar. But what I'm saying

is that American football

needs to be more coordinated

within the team.

Because yeah, there's so much

strategy in it. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's kind of where

I'm just like, well, it's

not as physically hard, but

it doesn't make it easier

or harder per se.

It's just depending on what

you're good at, right?

Reading, reading plays and

reading defenses, rugby just

to me, just I can never play

this. So I don't. So for me, it

just kind of seemed like you

were just trying to ram this

ball down. Yeah, yeah.

That's a little bit like

obviously, you know, when you

get into the nuances of it,

there's a lot of strategy

there, but I completely get

what you're saying, you know,

it's kind of if you're the

tougher person and you run

through, you're going to

get there. Whereas with, you

know, what we we tend to

call your NFL over here

gridiron, American

football.

Yeah, it blows my mind

the amount of memorized

plays that go into that.

And, you know, I don't know

how they do it these days,

you know, but you see them,

it's all written down on their

arm or they they got the

earpiece into the coach and

stuff like that. And it just

seems like, wow, this is like

more of a choreographed

dance.

Yeah. And also, like

the amount of like

again, like

the hits, I don't know,

man, like I'm this I might

get a lot of shit for this

dude. But some of these

football hits, dude, they're

a lot harder than the rugby

ones. Because these guys

get cracked. And rugby seemed

to be like, you're aiming

at it like, like again,

because I don't want I'm not

saying that it's difficult.

I just never played it to

tell you. But looking

looking at it, right, like

you're kind of just getting

to you're getting tackled.

Yeah. And both players are

kind of prepared for the

collision. Whereas, you

know, if you're getting

sacked as a quarterback and

you're not even looking

at me, man. So it's like it's

kind of like one of those were

just like, I don't think one

is I think they all have

their their their strengths

and weaknesses. But

definitely, man, running

into some big ass, some moan

dude with no helmet is not

fucking my idea of fucking

fun. That's for sure.

That was the thing. And we

were watching some of it on

TV while we were there.

And like, they don't have

much for pads and

protection on in that game.

Right. That's that was the

part that got me as I'm

like, they're just going

for it with no

no padding of any sort.

That that's that to me was

like, that's that's crazy.

Like your your career length

in that sport must be a few

years at best.

Yeah. And then there's all

these guys that are playing

in the amateur leagues on

the weekend. Like that's the

last thing I could think of

wanting to do after working

on cars all week and then

being like, you know what,

like, let's just go out and

just run it.

200 kilogram men.

Yeah. I like I play

rec hockey and

like all the pads,

helmets and we don't play.

We don't check like it's a

non-checking league, but

that's because like, yeah, I

have to go to work the next

day.

You know who I make fun of

all the time?

The Mexicans around here,

they play full contact soccer

here.

Right. And even though like

it's not like you're not

tackling right, but you're

still you're still a sort of

tackling dribbling, right?

Like so.

Yeah, you're still tearing

ACL that way.

Bro, what the fuck are you

doing? He's like, oh, he's like

playing. I'm just like.

That's for when you're like

21 years old.

Dude, you're 40 years old, man.

Like you're going to fuck your

shit up, dude.

Yeah. I never blow your knee

cap for what a cheap plastic

trophy at the end of the year.

Mm hmm.

Paul Dan is into his hockey

as well. He was playing in a

wreckly. You have to set up

like a technician, all-star

game, right?

So we always try to do that.

Gee, I'm going to be team

fucking refer, not even a

referee. I'm going to be the

fucking sportscaster.

We'll put you in a suit and

you can be the mascot.

Oh, I can do that too.

I ain't skating shit, man.

We were poor, man. So we I

played hockey as a kid

actually, but we were

poor though. So we played

floor hockey.

OK.

Well, like we played boot

hockey, you know, early on

before we couldn't afford

all the skates and stuff

like that. So you're just

literally running on the ice

chasing the frigging ball.

It's ridiculous.

And we were just in the fucking

gym with fucking hockey nuts

and just fucking just in

sneakers and shit.

But bro, those fucking pucks

still fucking hurt.

Yeah, they do.

She fucking hurts.

Pucks are through pads.

If you don't have pads.

No, man.

Getting cracked with a fucking

hockey puck, like especially

like in this area.

And then I would just so

happen. There's there's like

always like these little

spots and stuff that you

don't get protected on.

Bro, that's I religiously

used to get hit like right here

like my I had my armpit one

time that I thought I was dying.

That should fucking hurt.

The worst is, yeah, the puck

always finds that little spot.

There's like a little bit on

your ankle where skate doesn't

quite come up in your shingar.

It isn't quite there.

I got cracked a couple of times

right there. I thought I

broke my ankle one time.

It sucks.

Yeah, like blown up in

purple.

I fucking played forward.

Was it for is it?

Yeah, I think it was for one

time to feel like to fill in.

And I got hit.

But like, like it might work

my Achilles, like the end of

it, like right there, like.

I was just like, you know what,

man, I don't get paid enough

to be playing this bullshit.

Man, this shit fucking hurt.

Yeah, we're too old for that

kind of stuff now.

Recovery. Recovery is a long

time.

It's all I can do to stop

from hurting just living my

normal life.

So yeah.

Right.

Yeah. So watching

rugby.

So if the next time I go out

there, I really want to check

out Gold Coast.

I want to check out Gold Coast

and we watch who do we

want? And another I would like

to watch another league game, not

a league game. It's.

Yeah, it's rugby league, right?

So we watched.

Yeah, rugby league Broncos

versus.

Man, fuck, who the hell

do we watch?

One of those teams from like the

middle of Australia, I forgot

the name of it.

I got to look it back up.

But yeah. So we watch.

Well, it was a beautiful stadium,

man. Holy shit.

That was a nice stadium.

Yeah. Yeah, Brisbane's pretty

good. You know, we were lucky.

So in Queensland, Brisbane,

that's where I'm from.

And rugby league is

was predominantly a New

South Wales sport.

So that's the state below

us. So while they would have

a team like every

few kilometers, we just

had Brisbane, Brisbane Broncos.

So like all the resources of the

city got thrown into it.

And so, you know, it was really

good.

Yeah, we've got a few few Queensland

teams now because of the

success.

Gold Coast is still a good place

to go. It's, you know, the best

equivalent is it's like

Miami.

So that's kind of our Miami.

But it's, you know, with

that comes the fact that,

yeah, it's it's a little

bit of a decline, I'd say.

But it's still amazing to go

to. It's just, you know, compared

to what it what it was.

It's that's that's what happens,

isn't it?

Yeah, but like, um, like

what, is it a tourist or

foreigners?

Yeah, yeah. Tourist, you know,

and then crime comes in and all

that kind of stuff.

It's, you know, from 20

is I didn't see anything

or I never felt.

So no, it's not.

It's not it's not risky.

You know, I never felt safe

either in Brisbane or like

or you're you're from Chicago.

You're going to feel safe everywhere.

That's how I know where someplace

ain't safe though, sir.

Yeah, the hood over here

just means like Starbucks isn't

close by.

I thought you guys don't have

Starbucks.

Yeah, we got Starbucks over here.

Yeah, we don't don't have like

Tom Hortons and a few of those

ones. But I'm sure Starbucks is

still here. I don't really go to

it. But.

Yeah, I am.

But Auckland, man,

I hope you don't have any fans

in New Zealand. But Auckland just

did not feel nice to me, man.

Yeah, Auckland is like more of a

city centre, I'd say.

So yeah, I know you steered away

from heading south in New Zealand

because you didn't want to get cold.

But for me, that's where it's like

it's really it's.

Yeah, it's interesting because I've

been to Scandinavia and

I've been to New Zealand and they're

like the similar area

on opposite poles of the world.

So like for us as Australians,

like, yeah, you could fly that far

and go to like Finland

or you could like go

a few hours and go to the south

of New Zealand. And it's it's really

similar to rain.

And I will

never go back in the in the winter

to New Zealand, though, man.

All my plans were busted for the

shit weather. And like,

it just didn't.

There was nothing that I saw there

that I was just like, oh, man,

except for like the Lord of the Ring

stuff that I was really looking

forward to seeing.

But just the weather, man, we went

up north, man.

And it's beautiful.

But just the weather, the weather

just didn't help at all.

Because I can do that.

I could do it for anywhere, I

suppose. So I'll stick up for our

New Zealand members at TAT.

And it's it's not all bad.

I'm just saying I will go back in

the winter. Like I just didn't get

anything. I didn't get to do

anything, honestly.

Yeah. Come come here in June, not

January.

Come here in January.

You'll hate it.

Yeah, that's it.

And then you're just talking about

how terrible a place it is the

whole time. It's like, yeah, you

came at the wrong time.

Yeah. But you Minnesotans are

some weirdos because you talk about

how how rugged and rough you guys

are. But everybody and everywhere

had there's heated everything,

fucking heated garages, heated

fucking car parks, heated

walkways.

Jacket.

Yeah, everything like you guys are

just a bunch of punks, man.

Just a facade that's sitting

inside, warm as drinking

cocoa.

Yep.

When I went we went up to the

top of the mountain, there's a

melting glacier and I jumped

in the water.

So.

That's.

No, thank you.

After you do that, you let me know.

First of all, I'm not walking up

any fucking mountain.

You got me fucked up, like I said,

dude, my idea of our ideas

of vacations are fucking totally

different, dude. I don't want to

I don't even want to have my phone

on. Matter of fact, dude, I just

leave it in my hotel room and I

just want to go post up, get

some bad ass food.

That was the best part is there

was zero reception if you were in

the park.

Nothing. I love that.

It was great.

That was like the true highlight of

my Australian trip, dude, because

every event that I've gone to, I

have to consistently check my phone

for like a phone call or whatever.

Everybody's asleep.

Yeah. Yeah.

Just like, dude, the amount of

love piece that I got, like

the reason like I know the

wife would not she want we

OK, I want to go back to New

Zealand. It just has to be

in the summer.

It has to be the summer. Like I

want to go exploring in the

summer.

We were in Bay of Islands.

We rented an Airbnb with a view of

the bay and we didn't see

shit.

Like a little hours at a time and

then it was windy and cold and

rainy.

But I was just inside the Airbnb

with my legs up, just watching

air Netflix.

Honestly, that's what I did all

day. We bought food and we

just, you know, we just just

chilled and she's like, we

should be hiking. We should be

this. We should be done.

I'm just like, I don't want to

hike when it's nice. I ain't

fucking hiking in this shit.

Crazy. Yeah, it's hard when

you're when you're on vacation

is the way you like force

yourself to do something and

you're like, this is terrible.

What am I doing?

And she's like, how are you so

happy? I'm just like, you

hear this?

She's like, no, fucking

exactly. Fuck this phone.

Fucking the world.

I just want to like decompress,

dude. I just want to sit here

and just enjoy.

I just breathe in.

I said it's it's it's what

it is, man. It's like, you

know, you got to do that.

You got to do it.

I'm beyond blessed and I'm

totally grateful for everything,

but it gets it gets

overwhelming.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, it's hard running the

shop and now you had your guy

away today and music

still got to happen, doesn't

it? Got to keep the world's

wheels turning.

Yesterday with him, it was

just me and my my nephew

and my manager, but we

still banded out. We had a

great day.

Sometimes it can help, you know,

because it really it focused

you in. You sort of know, OK,

someone's going to be away.

So like right from the start of

the day, you're just you don't

whereas you turn up on a regular

day. And sometimes it's like a

monotonous.

It's just a day you drudge along

a little bit.

I think that's what me and Sean

enjoy about this industry, man,

because not even two repairs are

the same.

But I guess you're never bored.

No, no, never, never.

It's always you.

You feel like you go through

those highs and lows.

You know, sometimes you're sort of

like, man, I'm so sick of coils

and you just sort of waiting like

something's coming.

And you know, then it does.

And then three of them come at

the same time. And you know, why

would anyone do this job?

But this is a ridiculous

profession.

And then you go back down to

the low where you're like, I'm

bored, like throw something at

me.

What what what what do you do in

your workshop, Brandon, like,

what is your position?

So I mean, I'm in a pretty

odd transition state at the

moment. So for 20 years, I was at

the family workshop and it's a

general workshop. So we do mainly

Asian is pretty much what a lot

of workshops do around Australia.

So when you say domestic for us,

like, well, yes, I heard you

discuss it with Clayton and

Vasco. We've got Holden, GM

and Ford, which are

similar. But but yeah, we

see a lot of Asian around my

area and a lot. So we were an

all makes all models.

You know, after a while, I got

to the point where I'd start to

step into the office a bit more.

And so sure, I'm not banging

out struts or anything.

And then you know, the guys that

were out on the the floor, some

of them would just walk all over

me as far as, you know, that's

their niche, but you give them a

multi meter and they go, what is

this thing? What do I do with

this? Right. So we sort of found

out niches.

I was OK with customer service.

I was good with Diag.

So I would sort of try

and work on the business, you

know, listen to calm Capri

Otto's remarkable results

podcast, try and implement some

of that kind of stuff to get the

family business going better.

And then, you know, when there's

Diag stuff, you'd jump

in. But then that becomes a

difficult task as well, because

you go, well, look, I can't

just be taking this and going

through it. How are the other

guys learning? How are they

progressing? You know, so you

almost move into this other

role where you're sort of

trying to facilitate them

diagnosing stuff as well and

just being a bit of a guide

for them.

And so that's where now I've

as I moved into TAT over the

last, you know, it's been five

years or so now I started in the

technical assistance area as

just a regular member and I would

just jump in like some members

do. And I'd be helping out

where I could.

No real affiliation to TAT and

then through, you know, a few

mentors that I'll throw some

names out that are, you know,

similar to the Harvey Chans

and stuff of the U.S.

But there's a Morris Donovan

got me involved with TAT.

He was just another member and

said, look, you should start

coming to some training and

things like that. And as I got

more and more involved and I

started doing YouTube videos

for the family workshop and

stuff like that, they sort of

saw that I could bring a little

bit of that. And fast forward,

I'm now one of the four

directors at TAT and spend a

lot of my time putting

together training courses or

helping in technical assistance,

which is similar to the role

in the workshop where you're

kind of you're trying to

guide someone through a

diagnostic. You know, you're

not just there to throw

silver bullets at them. And so,

you know, show me your

camcrank correlation, you know,

I might be able to tease

something out of it that you

didn't, you know, you look at

it and go, well, it looks in

time. Yeah, but look at the

amplitude of that, you know,

is it really reaching a

solid ground? You know, maybe

you didn't see that. So just

having someone I quite like

it. I'm enjoying that, you

know, that that time of

analysis. I think that's my

favorite part of a diag where

you it's all good grabbing

something, but, you know,

waiting for an intermittent

problem or something like

that. That's that's no fun.

So I sort of get to see

the gathered data and then

try and tease out what you

can from it to to try and

give some direction, which

I really like.

Yeah, it's a whole nother

animal trying to figure the

stuff out remotely.

And I'm doing that on a

very small scale within my

business when I'm trying to

help out the other guys and

I'm not there. It's like how

much I can I get when I'm

not at the car. And like

sometimes there's like the

disconnect of I can't

see that they don't have the

ground for their scope or

their meter connected

correctly. And so the

information they're feeding

me is, you know, wrong or

you just stuff like that.

Like they didn't hit the

button on the the am meter

correctly or whatever.

And it's amazing looking at

like a scan tool recording

and the difference of like you

took it. You were in the

seat. You sort of knew that

at that point it gave like a

little stutter or something.

Or as you look at it on a

graph and you're like,

that's a different it's

different.

Yep, yep. So yeah, guys

that do that full time and

yourself a lot of credit

there because that is it's

a whole nother challenge, a

whole nother challenge if

you're not the one.

There's been so many cars

where and I'm not this

isn't like a boast for me.

This is saying like I have

skills to improve, but

that I'll be trying to help

them out over the phone.

We just we reach what we

can do like, OK, just move

on. And then I'll come to

the car and I'll figure it

out like relatively

quickly. And again, not

because I'm so much better,

but it's like those things

that I noticed when I'm on the

car. I can't see away from

the car. And I'm so I'm like

trying to build that skill

set to it's like

AI. Like I got to prompt

them with the right

the right prompt.

Like it's my prompts

that suck with them.

So I got to figure that out

to get more info

and you still get that good

feeling that we all chase

as technicians. You know

there's something totally

sick in all of our heads

to be doing this and

to, you know, excel

at it. It's a lifestyle,

not just a job really.

And, you know, we're chasing

that high of when you you fix

that problem car, you go,

yeah, I nailed that one.

And so I still get to have

that when there's quirky

things and, you know, get

to the bottom of it. And you

you just like, yeah, it

doesn't even have to be a

big one. Like a recent one I

had was a some Nissan

and it it was

was doing it was not

accelerating at all. So it was

not accepting any throttle

response. It would run runs

beautifully. Just no throttle

response. And he's given me

scan data and we're looking

at it. And it's like, OK, here's

your throttle or your

accelerator, your APP, and

that's going up, you know,

your load isn't going up

and the commanded throttle

is not going up. The things

not bring up any warning

lights or anything. It's not,

you know, forcing talk

limitation. And you just

sort of thinking back

through things. I go, why

don't you, you know, let's

think of this from a

different angle, like go

into your other modules.

And this was actually from

your parasitic draw class.

We've done that recently, the

webinar, and I was sort of

thinking on different angles

like, let's just go into

other modules and just

have a look at, you know,

things that can be switched

and, you know, does

anything stand out? And

lo and behold, the brake

pedal switches on. Obviously

you're not standing on the

brakes, but there you go.

And then yeah, they get to

the back and they find that

there's aftermarket LED

taillights to it, which

weren't a problem to start

with. But now that the

center brake bulb has blown

that, you know, that circuit

must be all messed up

because of these taillights.

And so it thinks the brake

switches on and it

represents as a no-throttle

situation. You sort of get

something like that. And you

just like, yes, nailed it.

That's cool. We may need to

let Tommy get to bed. Hey, I

think you've done pretty

good.

Whatever. I'm just feeling

some text messages for my

California people, but still

six o'clock there.

Yeah.

What's the time difference

you have over there? So from

coast to coast?

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So two hours, two

hours behind me and me and

Sean are both central time.

So it's eight p.m. So it's

six p.m. in California.

But it'd be three from

east to west.

Yeah. It's three from east

to west. So east coast is

an hour ahead of me.

And then there's a there's

a time zone that doesn't

do daylight savings time,

right? Or part of the

country that doesn't do.

So then then the difference

changes.

Hawaii is not Pacific

standard time, but I think

Pacific Island or something

like that.

Daylight savings time.

I thought where Cody was

applied to that.

That's just because fucking

Arizona said, fuck your

couch.

Yeah, but I think it's just

Arizona as a state doesn't

doesn't do.

Okay, that's what it is.

So it depends on the time of

year, the difference in of

time. Yeah, it gets

confusing.

So if they could just get rid

of that daylight savings time

already, that would be

fantastic.

Just give me that extra hour

of light.

Their time is called Hawaiian

standard time, the illusion

time zone.

Okay.

Yeah, and they do not observe

daylight savings time, but

Arizona, I think is

I think they're mountain time,

aren't they?

Yeah, they're mountain

standard time.

Yeah, they're mountain standard

time.

So they're basically on

Colorado time.

I'm on who knows what time at

the moment, because we've got a

three year old baby boy.

So I'm on his time.

It's just everything's a blur.

Yeah, the state of Arizona is

on mountain standard time, but

with the exception of Navajo

Nation does not observe

daylight savings, that must be

fucking goofy so that the

Indians observe it and they

don't. Interesting.

We've got like a town where

you're saying you want to

go to the Gold Coast, so that

gets quite close to the

border of Queensland and New

South Wales.

And there's, you know, the town

that literally it's as

good as it spans over it, you

know, like technically it stops

there, but you know, you can be

at the hamburger shop on one

part of the street, but then

you're a little bit further

down the street and they're on

completely different time because

they're in New South Wales.

And so it's like you could leave

for work and time zone changes

before you get there.

I was always wondering about

that because there's

definitely places in the US

where you're that close, like

you might drive from your house

to work and be in a different

time zone and how goddamn

confusing that would be.

So you guys have different, like

I thought all the East Coast

wasn't the same time.

It's when the daylight savings

kicks in. So New South Wales

observes daylight savings

Queensland doesn't.

So yeah, it's yeah, it's

telling me that it was kind of

weird.

Yeah. Yeah. So when we're

trying to set up our webinars

because I'm trying to get a

decent live viewership across

Australia for you and that

in itself changes at different

times during the year for some

states, it still works, whereas

some states they go, man, it's

like 10 o'clock at night now.

Like I'm not I'm not getting up

for no webinar.

Yeah. No, I understand it.

OK, so I just thought the

entire East Coast, most of the

most of the country population

is on the East Coast.

I thought it was all the same

times or honestly.

Yeah, yeah. We're definitely

right over on the coast.

So over Western Australia

has a little bit as well,

but definitely the majority of

us are on the East Coast

and pretty close to the coast

as well. So different to

USA, where you sort of populate

the whole country.

We're just like that red dirt.

Leave it for the snakes.

Yeah. And then Perth is what?

Two hours behind East

Sydney time.

Yeah, depending, you know, if

it's daily savings and that

kind of thing. But right now,

it is two hours behind.

So yeah, we have that

little bit of similar thing

with tech assistants or what not.

Or you go to call someone and

don't realize what the time is

there. And oops, sorry.

I honestly think daylight savings

times is utterly useless.

Yeah, it's it needs to go.

And they keep talking about it.

Every year they're going to ax it

and it doesn't happen.

And what was it that the

but which tribe said that some

some Indian chief said that

the white man thinks that cutting

a blanket on the bottom and sewing

on the top is going to give you

a longer blanket.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

I just I just want my

extra hour of light in the

winter. So I'm not so depressed.

I don't want to be dark at four

o'clock.

Yeah. Uh huh.

Yeah.

Well, the cold and

the dark at four o'clock,

you know, after Christmas time,

then I'm just kind of like, OK,

can it be April already?

Yeah, same.

Especially since I hate the

winter, I hate the cold.

I hate everything about it.

I'm I'm good until Christmas,

like everything's cool and the

snow is great.

And then after that, I'm done.

I get I get the snowbird thing

more and more every year.

Yeah, maybe we'll buy some

property in Australia if I hit

the lottery.

There you go.

I thought property here was bad.

Jeez.

Yeah, it's getting getting pretty

outrageous. We have a housing

crisis.

Yeah, everyone just wants to be

close to these centers, you

know. So like I say, there's

not much that's happening

outside of these main ones.

And it's just basic

economics. There's only so many

to go around and everyone wants

to be close to those centers that

just going up and up and up.

So they got to do something about

it. But I notice you guys really

don't build it.

You build up as much as some other

cities who are on property

constraints, like like the Chinese

right, the Chinese that are like

Hong Kong, for example, right?

So many people live there, but

they just build upwards and you

guys kind of just are expanding

outwards.

Yeah, yeah, we definitely don't

have what you would call

traditional skyscrapers, like

sure they're big buildings.

But then you go to other countries,

you're like, oh, that's, you know,

there's a hundred floors.

So.

So it's it was interesting

even when I went over to

Worcester, you know, that

would be close to, you know, it

wouldn't be the city center in

in Australia. It wouldn't be

Brisbane or Sydney, but you know,

it'd be much closer to there,

whereas, you know, there you

you're almost two hours out of

the city center and it's a it's

quite a large thing.

You know, there was a hospital.

It was a size of a suburb for us.

Yeah.

Shit, my fucking high school was

the size of a hospital.

My old high school was 4,500

students.

Holy crap.

Yeah. So now I get it, man,

like cities here are we built

ours. Like we like in the States

we we have a metric

fuck ton of people here.

Yeah. Well, hopefully we'll get

over to see it again.

I'll have to chat to the

guys and see what we can sort

out and see

see if we can get into this clown

car with you for the road trip.

Oh, no, man, we're in America, man.

We drive we drive gas,

guzzling, you know, dinosaurs

eight miles to the galley.

Yeah.

You put me in the in the bed of

the pickup truck. I'll sit back

there with the shotgun and a piece

of hay in my mouth.

You be in the back of my escalate.

I'll give you my AR

that way you can take you can

feel freedom.

Yeah, that's all we had when I

was going to the airport last

time we were in an escalade and I'm

just sitting back there like this is

a lounge room.

This is crazy.

I was talking.

I was like, we're going to roach.

Well, it depends.

But yeah, I was like, we'll roach

with my escalate down there.

You can see America and see what

freedom really feels like

burning fucking dinosaurs.

Yeah. Yeah, that's our next

frontier here. Like it's the

it's the worst country really

for EVs.

But yeah, the government

is looking to

show how great

they are by bringing in all these

Chinese EVs that

is in these things.

I was reading about your

electricity stuff and I'm just like.

That makes no fucking sense to me.

We're good that we have a lot of

solar. So solar is super

common over here. You know, it's

really rare to see houses

that don't have solar. So we're

good there. But it's just, you

know, it's a pretty large

country. So when you're out of

the cities, you know, it's it's

the kind of thing where people can

be doing hundreds of kilometers a

day. And that's not really EV

territory. But in the city

centers and suburbs, it makes

sense. And we've got solar.

It's just, yeah, where

where your, you know, orange

fearless leader in Trump

is keeping the Chinese ones

out. Our government seems to

be more like, yeah, bring it

in. We'll take it, you know,

like, so all along

me now the highway, there's

Zika and D-Pang

and Cherry and all these

manufacturers I've never heard

of.

We are going to make the pieces

of crap that we

exactly. We're not going to have

some Chinese fucking Shang

Wang or Ding-a-ling come in

and fucking tell us how to build

cars. Yeah.

But then I mean, you see some

of them. And you know, some of

these B Y D's and stuff. And I

mean, they're, they're

impressive, impressive

cars. You know, so there is a

range there. It's like some of

them are absolutely

terrible. And you're like, who

wrote this, you know, their

service information? Oh, he is

like a poorly translated

cookbook. And then there's, you

know, quite good ones that

you're like, wow, this is

actually a pretty sweet car.

Number three is not angry.

The fuck?

Yeah, that's it, right?

It's what's what was funny

for me is, though, like, I

think if I, if I took 10

Ubers in Sydney, I think eight

of them were EVs.

I hopped in Polestar's and

Tesla's and even like

Korean EVs and she like

Hyundai EVs. And I'm just

like, is there a reason why

everybody's using EVs for

Uber here? Like, that's

fucking well. It was kind of

weird to me.

Yeah. Yeah. For a long time,

the taxi cabs have been

pretty much all Toyota Camry

hybrids. You know, that was

the the main one.

And yeah, they just get

massive savings, fuel economy,

never changing brake pads, all

that kind of stuff.

That's right. I'm like, man,

they were they brought the

shit here before they they

were out.

We have to use salt here.

Yeah. So that was that was an

interesting one. But yeah,

I was reading that you guys

actually like don't

really want to use coal, even

though that's like one of your

top producing.

I wouldn't say that we as

the public don't want to.

But yeah, yeah, the

powers, the powers that be

that are much smarter than

us, obviously.

So what we do, it's a really

smart system, I'll tell you.

So we we have heaps of coal

and we've got all these great

minds of it. And so we dig

it up. But because it's so

dirty to run power plants

on coal, we've got this great

scheme where we sell it

to China for a very low

amount. And then they burn it

and it goes up into the

atmosphere anyway. And then we

buy the goods back off them at

a very elevated amount.

So we're we're

absolutely shooting

ourselves in the foot, but at

least we're really green about

it. And I forgot that we

send it over there on giant

boats as well. So you've got

it. You better burning coal.

Yeah, we got to get it

tossed, which is kind of

stupid because I think what

was it like China was the

number one producer coal?

Like they have the most coal

deposits.

I mean, I'm not I'm not all

over that. But we've got heaps,

you know, it's a it's a massive

industry. We've got heaps of it.

And we just

yeah, we were using heaps of it

for ages, but it got a little

bit on the nose as far as

policy makers and everyone's

deciding they're doing their

green thing. But yeah,

I try and stay out of that.

I got enough problems trying to

fix cars.

Politics is not my thing.

Let me see here yet.

China, I'd say it's all to do

with we've probably got quite

high quality and things like

that as well.

So you know, the minerals that

we get, which is

the one vast thing we've got in

Australia.

We produce more than you guys

actually.

Yeah, right. I suppose per

capita and the size of us,

it's a big it's a big thing

for us, tonnage.

Yeah.

Yeah, the tonnage produce more.

We're a huge, huge

land mass, but you know, not

a huge population.

And so we probably don't pull a

lot out. But in relation

to how many of us it is, it's a

it's a pretty massive industry.

I mean, I don't care what roles

in the Bay, you know, they can

make what policies they want.

And I'll try and learn how to

fix it. And we'll do our best

to try and keep up as long as

they don't. Oh man, their fuel

cells, like I haven't had to

put on my propeller

scientific cap yet and try

and learn about fuel cells.

But I'm actually looking forward

to fuel cells.

I always I always suspected that

hydrogen fuel cells was going to

be the best move in terms

of like market

because at the end of the day,

like there's always a

feel to it, right? Like I don't

like how EVs feel.

I feel like I'm driving a

fucking golf cart.

Like I just I don't like how

they feel.

And hydrogen fuel cells gives

you that opportunity to still

have what we consider a vehicle

right or the traditional feel

of a vehicle with like with

the emissions, without the

emissions.

And the technology is relatively

still simplified, right?

It's aside from the combustion.

Yeah, the good thing is it's

still a still an EV.

So, you know, this this

training in that we're

putting that we're

putting our time into and we're

investing in to learn

about it. It still translates over.

It's just, you know, rather than

carting around this big heavy

battery, we've got this science

lab that will

take around with us.

Mm hmm.

Somebody told me one time, what

are you worried about hydrogen

fuel cells?

Like either you're still

driving around a combustible

liquid or a battery.

You're hitting the hard enough.

It's going to blow up anyway.

So either you

blow up a little bit, you get

burned alive or you get blown

up to 100 pieces.

What's the difference?

You're still dead.

I mean, the way things are

going, you know, I can imagine

the parts catalog. It's just

going to be like one part

called fuel cell.

Maybe like, yeah, that needs a

fuel cell. You're like, man, I'm

trying to fix this thing.

Like, come on.

What do you mean it needs a $20,000

one? Just give me the resistor.

Come on.

Yeah.

That says it does that already.

So that's all right.

My battery died.

Well, you guys want to

wrap it here?

Yeah. No, I think that's a

that's probably enough for us.

That's where we're getting late

for you, but I really

appreciate it. And I'd love

to come back and shoot the

shit with you again some other

time. So yeah.

Well, anytime and

yeah, like you say, hopefully

well, one of us will get

down there, you'll get up here,

see everybody. That'd be cool.

I hope so.

Shit, I want to go back.

I'm just too poor.

Yeah. No, it feels feels good,

you know, this last few years

has been good momentum.

We're starting to see it all

around the world now with,

you know, a lot of people

connecting.

And it's only

a good thing for our industry,

the more that we sort of

connect and see the things that

are the same and the same

struggles, whether you're in

Italy, USA, Australia,

you know, it's it's great.

Real quick, did you want to

mention the class or

yeah, so.

No, no, no, I don't know how

long you guys wait until

you put these out after

recording, but from

it'll be early October

will have Tommy back at

Tatt to be doing his Ford

Mazda programming.

So he just ran his GM

programming and it was it was

awesome.

And yeah, we're going to utilize

all the effort he put into putting

Australian content together

to have him in early October

doing his Ford Mazda and

looking forward to having you back,

man.

Yeah.

That's actually the class that I

was like the most

proud of. There's a lot of goodies

in that class. So I'm hoping

you guys sign up

and, you know, spend

a couple of hours with me, even

though he went over.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're very,

very gracious with your time.

Yeah. I was just like, hey, man,

like we can get more stuff.

But I just I thought I just only

had two hours, but I didn't care.

Like, I'll fucking I'll go over.

Yeah. No. It's a cross.

I'm happy.

Yeah, it's great.

And yeah, we really appreciate

that you did a few live

programings there for us as well.

And yeah,

I think people got a lot from it

and it's great that there's a

recording there.

So, you know, they can go back

and those error codes that were

coming up stuff like that.

People are going to run into that

one day. And it's it's very

different to doing a programing

course where you're sort of like,

this is what should happen

and go for it.

You know, I think you gave a lot

of light. This is what's going to

happen.

And this is, you know, a little

bit of tips to get around

it. So that's what we want.

Yeah. And that's that's actually

when I started teaching or

developing the classes, I wanted

something that I wanted that extra

mile.

All the books that I did for

like STX or anything else that

I've done, they're actually not

just books or manuals, too.

So if you go through my book,

you will learn how to you can

program a card by following my

steps.

Very nice. Very good.

Well, we'll see you soon for it.

So, yeah, thanks very much for

having me, guys.

Yeah. Thank you for spending

the time.

Appreciate it.

All right. That is going to do

it for today's episode.

Thank you so much, Brandon,

for spending the time with us

this morning, this evening,

whichever way you want to look

at it and all the hard work

that he puts in.

Great guy to know.

Also like to thank everybody else

out there for listening feedback

on the show. Emails I get

interactions I have with

everyone.

If I don't get back to right

away, please trust me, not

ignoring you. Just busy

and sometimes messages or

emails slip through.

But I do try to get back to

everybody. So keep it coming.

If you got ideas for the show,

you want to be on the show.

You want to hear from a

specific person or about a

specific topic.

Shoot it over and we'll see

what we can do.

But as for next week,

we'll be back on the regular

release schedule.

So sorry about the little late

episode. But with that all

out of the way, let's get

out there, start fixing the

world one car at a time.

317: Brendan Sorensen

Cadillac Escalade

Toyota Camry

Ford Capri

About this episode

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