339: Tomi Oliva On Technician Recruitment

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the link in the show notes. I highly recommend it. All right. Good morning, sir. How are we doing?

I am blessed today, sir. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Sunday morning. It's getting

sad that this was the best day we were able to do this, right? Don't we have other shit to do?

Right? Yes, I do. I will say this. It's truly a blessing. I'm very grateful for this

and I'm also very grateful for being able to share this. Damn it. I just killed my own momentum,

but I forgot all this platform. There you go. I'm just trying. I'm trying to speak more white,

man, but it just doesn't flow with me, man. It's worse than when I'm teaching in Spanish because

I think in English, I have to translate my own thoughts and then blur them out and then pray

that my translation is on point. So I even have like dress shoes and I have like dress polos with

my shop logo on them and I'm just like, what the hell happened to me, man?

But you know, we have a great topic today, but first and foremost, man, I just like everybody

that take a few minutes and send your prayers to the Stokes family. We found out on Friday,

he lost his life in a plane crash with his child and his nephew and a good friend of his on board.

That's terrible. Yeah, it was like or hate the person. I'm probably one of the first people to

go from criticizing to defending the vision that he casted on everybody. And so with that being

said, it's really nice to see the empathetic comments from both sides of the industry spectrum,

per se. At the end of the day, you know, a wife lost her husband and three other children

lost her father. So you know, hug your family a little bit tighter today, because at the end of

the day, tomorrow is never a promise. So that's why like instead of saying, why do I have to do

this? We say, I get to do this. We get to wake up, believe in whatever you want to believe,

but I believe that every day that I wake up, I still have a chance to fulfill my purpose of

why I'm here until that day until I get called home. So I appreciate you, Mr. Sean. I appreciate you

too. Yeah, yeah. All our listeners and every single person who reaches out to us and me and

yeah, it's been a I'm just truly grateful. Same here. And yeah, every day you get to get up and

try it again. Yeah, it's it's not guaranteed. We had a it was it was our top shop. The owner,

I don't know, he was in his 50s. And like this dude was like,

just crazy energy, like just always go go go. Really nice guy and ran a very good shop. He

he had been doing it for many, many years. But like, there wasn't any like signs of stopping and

he loved what he did came in and just did an awesome job. And then it was last summer,

he's just like trying to write something out on a piece of paper. And he's like, I can't write

anything on I can't write, I can't like do anything with this pen. So he's like something's wrong,

went in, doctor, he's got a brain tumor. And they did chemo for a while. But like within six months,

he's gone. And we just went to his funeral a couple weeks ago. And you know, seeing his family

and you know, a young daughter and stuff like that. And like, none of that was expected. Like

again, this guy is like just he took care of himself. Like it wasn't like a situation where

it's like, Oh, yeah, you know, so the guys only got 10 years left, like he was top of his game,

like tons of energy and just all of a sudden poof, you're gone. So yeah, you don't know. So it's

like, make sure what you're doing every day is what you want to be doing. And, you know,

making a difference one way or another to, you know, yourself, your family or the people you

care about. I think death is a solid reminder of that we don't have time. We don't have the time

to not have hard conversations. We don't have the time to sit here and argue over why a brown guy

is dancing on the Super Bowl show. We don't have time to argue about any type of divisive politics.

We just don't have time. We need time for our families, our priorities and our goals and our

dreams, man. Like that's what we're here for. We're here to fulfill a dream. We're here for

to fulfill our goals and every single interaction, every single, like I sat here and thought about

that. Like, especially for me, like, I was invited on to a talk this week for, for some shop owner

who wants to do mobile. And, you know, and I just, I gave him my opinion, like, listen, man, like,

this isn't, you know, I just give my opinion, like, this isn't, this is how this type of business is.

Any business can be profitable. Yes. But these are the challenges you're going to face. And if

you're not willing to face these certain challenges, then it's not, it's just not feasible. And,

you know, I started thinking about it afterwards. And just like, man, like, like, we really,

we really don't, don't have time, right? Like, we have all the time until we don't. So people who

are trying to get that, that dream job or whatever goals and focus you have, every day, every second

counts. And we have to make sure that we're aware of that and be mindful of it. Oh yeah. And just,

you know, go for it. Like, if you got something you want to accomplish, and maybe it's scary,

or you're not sure if you can do it, like, screw it, and just go for it, try it and see what happens

and you'll be surprised. So yeah, good, good reminders. And yeah, count your blessings too,

that like, you know, for me personally, I still have, you know, the loved ones in my life that I

care about my family. And you don't know how long that's going to be. So call your mom, call your

dad, you know, that sort of stuff and spend some time, you know, with people you care about.

You know, it's funny, this week, I had a young lady come into the shop and I've known her for

a while. She's been a client of mine for a very, for a few years. But I know her father's deteriorating

and she came in and she was all like flustered and this and that. And, you know, she got very

emotional and she got very open with me. And I guess I was just there at the right time and I

was just listening to her and she's just gonna go, Oh my God, it's all right, man, just let it go.

I mean, yeah, I talked to somebody. And then ultimately, ultimately, I look at it and I tell

her like, Listen, I want you, I want you to tell I'm going to tell you something that it was a fear

of mine. Like my father in his last last few years was very sick. So I would have to take him, I

would take him to because he felt comfortable with another man. My dad was old school. So I would

take him to doctors. I would, I would ask his questions. I would do this, I would do that. I

would just make sure that I was communicating my father's concerns to the doctors. He didn't like

translators. And so I just did it myself. And it was very hard. I was not a good business owner

at the time. I was still trying to navigate my diagnostic path. You know, I was answering phone

calls for the industry. So like the whole nine, right? I'm just so stressed. And, and then one

day it just, it kind of hit me. I won't, I won't, yeah, I'm not going to do this one day.

I won't be able to sit here with him. And I won't be able to walk with him to the car. I won't be

able to just be like, Hey, let's go get some lunch afterwards. All right, dad, let's go get some

lunch, even though like, I'm working till 10, 11 o'clock to make up the time because every time

I'm going to the hospital, here was a half a day event. So I'm telling her, I'm like,

you have no idea how much I wish I could be you right now.

And she looks at me, she's like, I'm telling her, I'm like, I'm telling you,

one day you're going to look back at these moments and you're going to wish you enjoyed

them instead of being flustered. Because that's how I feel right now. I said, I'd give anything,

I'd burn all this shit just to be able to take my dad to that because he was stubborn as

are you with me and all this stuff? I wish I can do all that again. So again,

knowing being being able to embrace gratitude will definitely change your mindset and your

perception about life and the moments you get to live and giving people their flowers while

they're here and not waiting to, you know, the majority of us men too, but not even just verbal

flowers, physical flowers, you know, the only time we get flowers is when we're croak. That's

fucked up. But it's the truth. Yeah. So every day we're here, let's just make a count. We're

making a count right now. Yeah, I don't remember exactly where I heard this from, but it definitely

stuck with me. And I think about it quite often for various things, but it's like, you never know

the last time that you're going to do anything, right? There will be a last time for a lot of

stuff in your life, but most of it you don't know when it's going to be, right? Like the classic one

that I think they referred to was like, you don't know the last time you're going to pick up your

kid, right? But there's going to be a last time. And then of course, like conversations with somebody,

but maybe it's just doing something like you don't know the last time you're going to play a sport,

but there's going to be a last time. You just don't, you very rarely know when that is. So

you should be conscious about it and at least think about like, oh, this, you know, could be the

last conversation I have with this person. I mean, hopefully it's not, but it could be. And so,

you know, do you want to be arguing or being a dick or, you know, like it's just because you

don't know, it's like take that into account in your daily life and interactions and then,

I don't know, change your perspective on stuff a little bit, I think.

Yeah, I agree. And also like just within your relationships, man, like me and the

wife have an interesting rule and I haven't, you know, and it's, it's, it's hard at times, but

it doesn't, I don't care how mad we are at each other or how bad the argument was.

Every day we walk out that door, we say goodbye.

And even if you don't say shit to me, even if you're mad or you're frustrated,

every day we go out that door, we say goodbye. I remember one time,

my, so when I grew up, so I grew up west side of Chicago, shitty, like my dad had the shop,

I was a child and I was, I was surrounded by drug abuse and alcohol abuse and just,

you know, older generation men who just didn't know how to deal with their issues.

And we had a guy, he was our tow truck driver, man, awesome guy, but I would come to the shop

after school or in the weekends and he'd just be drinking all day. He's be, one day I found him

on some tires, just sleeping on some tires, like dead drunk. And I'm just like, and I think that's

why I had an affinity for like doing reckless things or drinking and stuff like that. I mean,

I drink socially, but like, I can't drink at home. Like you see my dad drink by himself and I just,

I didn't like it. So fast forward to like, we had to shop across the street, he came in one day,

looking snazzy. I was just like, yo, what's up, man? And then my brother was there, my dad was

there, he spent an hour there just talking, my dad went and bought food. Like it was just such a

great day. And yeah, like I said, he had a tow truck, but he had one of those old school tow

trucks with the leather straps. I don't know if you remember those. How old are you? I'm 38, 39.

Yeah, you should remember those like back in the day, the tow trucks would lift the cars up by

the bumper. So they had these leather straps. The one I drove, my first job as tow truck,

it was the record style where you like shot the thing out the back, grab the front tires.

Yeah, I had a hook. Yeah, but these basically had chains and a two leather, big leather straps

where they didn't scratch the chrome bumpers, but it was old cars, man, you couldn't, you couldn't

lift up a new car with these tow trucks. And so you actually had to manually engage them,

so you had to go underneath the car, hook up the straps, blah, blah, blah. He was hooking

something up in the car, it was in the air, he was hooking the safety straps. A car rear ended

that car, lunged forward, fell on top of him, crushing the def, two days after we saw him.

So it talked to him, I was talking to my old man, I'm just like, man, like,

well, you think that was weird? He's like, what? He's like, this guy, he's, he had a nickname,

we call him Guata. And I'm like, that Guata just showed up out of nowhere, like we hadn't seen

him in years. He's like, no, he's like, that wasn't weird. I'm like, I think it's weird. He's like,

he was saying goodbye. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, the old time, he's like, my, my, my

grandparents used to say that when people would come out of nowhere, take the time to talk to him,

because I was like, oh, now it makes sense why you actually paid for food, I told him and stuff

like that. Yeah, it might, because no, and it wasn't like my dad was, I thought that was cheap,

he would buy food and stuff like that every once in a while. But my dad was more so like,

we don't like wasting time, we're at work, this is work, we work and we're here to work,

like playtime is after hours. So that's why I found it odd. And he's like, when people come in

like that, you don't know if that's the last time you're going to see him. He's like, the old folks

used to say that when people would just show up out of nowhere, like take the time to talk to him,

because it's, it's, it's this thing where they say that people who are about to go, they say

they're goodbyes. Sure. So be mindful about your time, be mindful, your energy and, you know,

because you just never know when your last meeting is. Yep, that's, that's very true.

Sure. What else you got going on? What's happening with the shop?

Good man. This is something that we're kind of both going through right now, but I hired my very

first A level technician, and he fucking fit in like a glove. Nice. He fit in completely like a

glove. He fit in great with the culture. Man, this guy, what's, what's funny was,

and that's kind of the topic of this, the show today is recruitment, right?

I think I, and even yourself, Sean, I think we're testaments to,

yes, there's a, there's a technician shortage, but honestly, I feel like there's more of a

disalignment in the industry. I feel like too many technicians are with shitty shops,

and too many rockstar technicians are at, I'm sorry, too many great technicians are at shitty

shops, and then too many mediocre technicians are at great shops. And by mediocre, I don't say

they're not skilled or whatever, but it's just like in anything, man. There's, you go to sell,

you go to even McDonald's. Like my service writer says like, dude, he's like, there's

this guy at the McDonald's. He's like, good morning. How can I help you? Oh, let me get

number one. Oh, okay. That's great. Great choice. How else can I help you today? Is there anything

else you would like? He works minimum wage, dude, and this guy's happier than most of us.

Yep. There's bubbles to every profession. Yeah. And then you go to another McDonald's,

and they're like, what the hell do you want? Yep. So there's people who truly love what

they do in their shows, and it shines, right? Yep. So I'll give you my story, and then you can

share yours, because I know you went through some changes recently as well. I actually was in a

training event with my service writer and my only technician quit, like literally out of the blue

quit. It wasn't so much me. And if it was, I'd say it, but no, he had some personal issues pop off,

and he's just like, I got to get the hell out of here. Sorry, dude, but I got to go. All right,

cool, man. I mean, you know, I've kind of gotten to the point where like, I love helping, but I

refuse to not help me first. So you know how everybody says you have to be able to have

water in your cup to pour into other people's cups? I've been starting, I've started to learn

that your cup has to overflow into somebody's cup, but your cup has to come first. Whatever

you have left over, you can go to somebody else's cup. You got to put your mask on before you put

someone else's mask on, right? Exactly. So I started, I, this is going to sound kind of sleazy,

but honestly, I don't give a shit no more. But I did have a big moral dilemma.

Being a mobile man, I kind of like kept the mental rolodex of like technicians, right? Like,

I would credit, I would critique them on their ability to communicate to me. I would critique

them on their ability to ask for help or like even keep their ego in check, right?

So then I'd be like, okay, this guy is good. This guy over here is good. This guy is over

here is good. So then I'd just be like, they'll start asking me a bunch of questions and they're

like, hey, can you show me what you're sure? And then like, they're like, hey, man, he's like,

I do side work, you know, do you come program to people's houses and stuff? Like, no, not typically,

man, but if I know you all do it, man. So here's my card and they'll text me and sometimes they'll

just ask me questions and I'm happy to help. But the reality is I did have an ulterior motive.

I'm like, all right, I think one day, you know, he'd be, he'd be a good addition to the team.

But, you know, I found that as morally objective, right? Because I'm getting paid to come into your

shop. And now I'm kind of, I don't want to say recruiting, but sort of like I'm mentally recruiting.

I never, one thing I did do is like, I never asked anybody. But a lot of them would be like,

like, Oh, what do you do? I'm like, Oh, you just do this? Or how did you learn?

Does I know, you know, I have my own shop. And so I try, Oh, you have a shop? Oh, well, you know,

I'm always looking to improve my skills. And, you know, if you ever need any help, you know,

just, you know, I'm always willing to move. So when people make an introduction like that,

then I say, All right, cool, like you asked me first. So now it's like, now it depends on

which side of the moral spectrum you're on, right? Or your moral compass. So for me, it was just like,

I don't like this. Yeah. So then fast forward to October, dude. I was fucking October was

such a blessing, but it was extremely challenging, man. I was wrenching by myself. The shop didn't

skip a beat, man. And I was just you in the shaft. Me and me and Josh, my service writer.

That's it. It might, my nephews would help me with stuff, but they aren't there. He's not

really a technician, Mikey, you know, he's still learning. So yeah, they would help me as much

as they could. But typically it was just me solo working, wrenching and still answering phone

calls, answering questions. I kind of had to put mobile to the side and my very, very best shops,

I bought them equipment and they were just like here, just hook it up and I'll log in.

So with that being said, I'm like, damn, you know, this, this, this, this, this sucks. I'm not

going to lie. I was like, man, you know, like, so I talked to one of my coaches and he's like,

what are you doing, man? I'm like, bro, I have, I put on an ad and because I had this idea that

my next technician was going to be a rock star. Like I don't have time to teach anybody anymore.

This is the, the prototypical technician I want. I put feelers to this gentleman,

the guy I just hired and that guy told me to go fly a kite with a hole in it. I was like, all right,

cool. You know, I'll still keep it in my bag runner, but this is the guy because, because again,

again, I had a list, right? And so like, I weighed my options and then, but my number one, my number

one was this gentleman I just hired and I'm like, man, I really want this guy. I really want this

guy. I really want this guy. And truth be told, it was just, if I'm being blunt, he reminded me of

myself, right? Like self taught in a shitty situation. I'm like, dude, this guy can be a

fucking rock star. So then one day and their clients, they call me and this is why I'm doing

all this. I'm like, Hey, dude, I'm down on a technician still, man. So I'll see you after work.

And I got to talking to him and I just asked him a few honest questions and I'm like, dude,

I'm like, this guy, I can pay him that right. Like, I just started going through a mental

roller ducks. I'm like, all right, man, what do I do? Like, you know what, man? Let me find me an

R&R guy right now. Let me find me an R&R guy. And then a month into me just kind of like biding

my time because I realized something, man, I have a I have more fierce competition in Chicago

than I thought. See, in Chicago, I forgot about a couple things. Yeah, we have a bunch of union

dealerships, but I can I can beat I can beat that on culture. The biggest competitor I have is the

city of Chicago. They hire a shitload of technicians for fleet work. And I'm talking about, dude,

these guys are lazy as shit. And I hope they don't hear me. But I mean, like, some of my friends

that I went to UTI with, they jumped ship, they were master techs in the perspective dealerships.

They jumped to the city. And they tell me all the time, like, yeah, I do like, I don't do,

I don't do anything. Like, I am a technician, right? So, for example, in the city of Chicago,

they have to they have to equip the state equip the garbage trucks with plows in the winter,

just to have a backup, right? Yeah. So guess what? They have to check the plows,

right? They have to install them. Well, they can't lift up the plow, right? So they have to make the

the mechanical connections. Well, they can't finish it unless they get the forklift guy to come over

where they can't jump in the forklift because that's not their job. So the forklift guy,

when he comes over, then you make the menu, then you, you know, you tighten it up.

And then guess what? They have to wait for the electrician to come over and do the electrical

connections. Yep. I've heard very similar stories from, yeah, more union stuff like the railroad and

yeah. And you know what it is, man, we still need people to work and that's the job you want to

work. That's fine. But how do you really compete with, you know, that? It's extremely difficult,

especially coming from a small business owner. So I'm like, I'm going to have to get kind of

drastic. And in this, and in this episode, I got, I consider myself lucky because

one of the guys that I wanted to hire, he had just started a job and he's like, man, I wish I

would have known one of the other rockstar dudes that I had in my, in my catalog, he actually

moved. He's like, dude, if I would have known, I would have, I mean, I'd come in, but dude,

I'm just, this is where I live. He's like an hour and 45 minutes from the shop.

So I'm just like, yeah, dude, totally understand it. So what are these technicians from another

shop comes into my shop to program a transmission he did on the side? And he's like, where's your

workers? I'm like, I do that quick. I'm like, myself, he's like, I told you, man, like, just

let me know. And he was high on my list. I'm just like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know,

man, I said, let me, let me talk to you about that later, dude, right now. I got too much going

on. He's like, all right, man, like I said, do you let me know? I talked to one of my, one of

my coaches, I'm just like, bro, like I have this dilemma, like he works for a customer of mine.

I don't know. I just, I'm having a hard time with it. And he made the distinction like, well,

he came to you, he offered you, he's like, dude, he's like, think about it, man, like

at the end of the day, us as owners, like we don't have people held hostage. They have no

obligation to stay with you. And at the end of the day, man, think about the good you may be doing

to him, a better work, a better work environment, better culture, like so many better, like better

working environment per se, like, they had this guy working sometimes outside, because it was one

of those shops that had shit everywhere and shit on the lips for weeks on end, you know, the shop.

Oh yeah, sure do. You know, he's like, dude, you know, at the end of the day, man, you're your

business owner now, dude, you can't be working in the shop anymore. You can't, you're going to lose

focus of the business. So I call him that same day, I'd be like, hey, bro, like, like, can you come

in on Friday? He's like, what's going on? I'm like, I just want to try you out. Well, at least for

me, I've seen him work. Like I saw the quality of his work. So it was never that my issue was culture.

I like listen, dude, ask for a day off work, come in on Friday if you can, or you tell me

which day you can come in or your boss will give you off. And yeah, just come in, dude. And I just

want to see I just want to see how you work, man. That's it. That's all it is. And I'll put you

know, obviously, you get paid, you'll get compensated for the day or whatever. He's like,

he's like, okay, he's like, no, I'll ask for Friday off more about it. I'll ask for it off.

He asked for Friday off. He came in. And yeah, I really knew he was solid R&R guy, like super

efficient. But I just like how he fit in with us, when we sat down to eat, like, like I told you

guys, I like I like to have a little black stone at the shop, I kind of like to cook for the dudes.

And so yeah, man, after after the end of the day, he's like, Hey, man, so what do you think I'm just

like, yeah, dude, I guess you want the job. It's yours, man. He's like, this is how much this is

the pay scale, blah, blah, blah. He's like, he's like, great. He's like, done. I was like, all

right, when you started, he's like, I, he's like, yeah, man, I said, I know you need the help,

dude, but I got to give I got to get my buy my my boss is two weeks, man. He's like, even though

like he gets on my damn nerves and he's he does a lot of stuff, a stupid shit, he's never been.

He's never been he's never done me wrong. So I have to I have to like, no, bro, like you do what

you got to do. So yeah, so he jumped on board. And then it's been great. Nice. He jumped on

board. And then also, I kept reaching out to to my current technician. I'm just like, Hey,

like what's going on? And I took him out to dinner. And I just sold him on the vision. And,

you know, he's really heavy into diet. And he's taught himself programming. I'm just like, dude,

he's like, well, where else are you gonna? Where else are you gonna have the opportunities you have

here? Right? No, no worries. I can promise you that. And so yeah, I was able to cast my vision

on to him. And he joined the crew on first week of January, he finished out the year at his shop

to finish some projects he had there. And he jumped ship. And it's been, it's been absolutely

amazing. And again, he was a client, right? So like, you know, here's the thing, a lot of people

might bark and say that this is it's a moral issue. But you know what, man, I'm gonna digress.

Yeah, I had that issue, right? But no, I my vision is that I these these these people working for me

can and will be able to make six figures. There's a small percentage of Americans that make American

males that make that, right? It's not going to be easy, right? It's not going to be, it's not

going to be instant. But the purpose of all of this is to get us to where we got to go. And now,

so that's where that's where I'm at right now. And it's just now that I'm and I have a diet now,

and it feels great. And it feels great to have a diet guy. And I know for a fact, he's going to be

better than I am. Okay. And that's, and that's the that's the key, right? Younger guy or how old

is he? He's 24. Okay, okay. Yeah, he's, dude, he's this guy is like, and, and it's just, it's just

culture, you know, I'm saying like, these guys do stuff that sometimes I wouldn't do.

Like, he, um, we had a we had a client that we had, you know, bad tires and you know, again,

we serve all incomes and stuff, and he didn't have the money for tires. And we sent them on,

I usually we sent them on his way to another shop. And we're pulling the vehicle off and

damn tire goes like flat. And we didn't notice it. So we start driving it and it pops off of the

bead. And this is when the cold snap here, it was like negative 20. So I had like, you know, I was,

I was on my desk. And I'm just like, what the hell did everybody go? And I'm like,

I see the next thing I know, I see the door, the back door open, and there comes my technician

with a tire. I'm like, Hey, what the hell are you doing? He's like, ah, he's like, man, this,

this, this vehicle, um, I didn't notice that the tire was low, it popped off the bead, man. So I had

it, I didn't want to damage it. But where's the car? And he's like, it's in the alley sitting

there on jack stands. I'm like, what the hell? I'm like, why don't you just drive it back in here?

The tires trashed anyway. He's like, ah, if he doesn't have a spare, what if we damaged the rim?

And then in my back of my head, I'm just like, I mean, what's the difference between this,

this guy driving on the street, right? Like, you know, he knows, he told him six months ago,

he needed tires, he never changed them. See what I'm saying? So I'm just like, fuck this car. But

he's right though, right? Like at the end of the day, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's service.

Like we want to do what's in the best interest to our customers. And so he's changed his tire

outside. And then so what do I do? I go out there and I stand with him and I grab the tools and

I help him bring the tools back in. And why do I, why did I, I could have just easily sat at my desk.

Right. But see, that's the problem with a lot of owners. A lot of owners have the mentality that

oh, I pay you so get the job done. No, you have to be willing to do the exact same things your

team is willing to do. So I sat there and froze my ass off right there with him.

100%. I don't want to ever ask my guys do something I wouldn't do.

I told, I told all of them at the end of the day, I will like, I will never make you guys do

something that I wouldn't do. And I will never, and, and I'll do it right there next to you. And

like, for example, he, we had an issue that we, we misdiagnosed the vehicle and he was on his way

to the, we, it was actually not so much of a misdiagnosis, but a continuation of a problem.

We ended up needing an ABS module and new was discontinued because I was just going to eat it.

And he's like, amen. He's like, this was on me, man. I got like the, like the, you pull the

yard has like four of these cars. I'm going to go we ain't going out right now. I'm like, bro,

it's negative 10. No, I'm like, we just get, but we'll get one and we get one and we get it

delivered. I'm like, no, no, no, that's a hard no, no, that's not happening.

And this is what it is. I'll talk to the customer myself, explain to them what's going on and,

you know, ask them for some more time. It is what it is. So that being said,

I don't view it as bad anymore. I view it as like us as owners, our job isn't just to exchange

money for time. Our job is to create a great environment so that they can flourish, their

families can flourish. And at the same token, we have the opportunity to have the right people

in place so we can continue with our dreams, right? Cause one thing that I did realize is I

don't want to be known as Tommy the shop owner from Humboldt Park in Chicago. I want to matter.

I want to do, I want, there's other things that I want to do. And, you know, allowing them to

flourish under the shop is going to allow me to do so. And this is, this is why Mr. Stokes's vision,

he changed so many lives because this is his vision. I'm a direct benefactor of the vision he

cast to the first group of people that, that he empowered that joined shop fix. And this is the,

the part that people don't like to talk about, the culture part of it, right? You have to have

culture now. Like, like there's, there's literally no reason why anybody should work with you anymore.

The majority of these, of these, this generation, they're not money motivated.

My guy isn't money motivated at all. Like it's, you know, he goes above and beyond,

but he wants to, he has a thirst for knowledge. So it's my job to give him that and keep feeding

into him to make him and help him achieve his goals. I'm helping one of my other employees

with some personal stuff. So it goes beyond, it goes beyond that. So, so again, I sat the guys

down one day, I'm not just, just imagine, right? If, if we're able to grow to scale, because I,

I've kind of shifted my, my, my momentum and I kind of want to have two shops. I just imagine

two shops would at least, would employ at least 15 people, bare minimum. That's,

that's QC guys, that's technicians and, you know, front of house staff and background staff,

admins and stuff like that. I'm like, no, those operations have employed a lot of people.

That's 20 people. We can change their lives, man. Yep. It's a huge blessing.

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

If you're looking for education on module programming, J2534, EEPROM work, key in a

mobilizer, electrical diagnostics or drivability diagnostics, Keith has a website L1Training.com

that's got over 60 hours of training videos on all those subjects and more. When I first started

out doing mobile, I utilized Keith's videos on module programming and J2534 in order to get my

head wrapped around what I would need for the tooling, the computers, the software setups,

you know, what kind of obstacles I would be up against when I'm out there programming modules

on cars. And it was a huge benefit to me. And I continue to use the training videos

that he has on his website. So I strongly recommend checking out L1Training.com. The link

is in the show notes. Yeah, it really is a great opportunity to be able to affect people's

you know, livelihood and their families and all that stuff. So yeah.

Yeah, we, yeah, we went through some changes recently and definitely doing some recruitment

as well. I hear you on the, you know, getting technicians from shops and like, if I'm coming

in there and just poaching people and being like, Hey, do you want to come work for me when they're,

you know, already employed at a particular place? Yeah, that's kind of shady. But I definitely have

a list of secret future employees. And we definitely, you know, just kind of kind of track

those people. And if they make a move, if they're super unhappy, you know, that's the time that I'm

looking to make my move of like, Hey, okay, you know, you're at a transition point here already,

you're going to be leaving this place, you're going to be, you know, you're pissed off at your

situation for whatever reason. You know, here's an option we've been working with you for a while,

like the way that you work, you know, you know, what you're interested in that sort of thing.

So it is kind of a weird position that you're in if you're doing mobile, because if you're just

running a shop and you're not going into other shops, you definitely don't have that

ability to interact with technicians at other shops on a regular basis. So yeah, kind of a unique

thing. But we, I mean, honestly, we recognize that technicians in shops, like just for the business,

they're our biggest marketer, like they get us into new shops way more than anything else that we do.

And so we've just tried to nurture that relationship and be advocates to the technicians,

like as much as we can, like whatever we can do for techs, like we are techs, right? We get it,

we understand what their pain points and what sucks about their job. And so, you know, we try

to assist where we can and be helpful and just build that relationship. Again, because we understand

it, we get it, but then also at the same time that we know that we are on their side. And then

that's a lot easier, you know, in the future, if you're recruiting people. So we definitely play

that aspect. I mean, my very first guy, he was a tech at a shop that I serviced, but he was going

to quit anyways. It's the same situation, like he was going to leave, he had already made that

decision, he was going to go drive truck. And I was like, well, you know, hey, what about, what

about this? You want to try this? And, you know, the I talked to the owner of that shop and I don't

think he was thrilled, but he knew that he was losing them either way. And so he's, you know,

wasn't super upset about it or anything. And just it was what it was. My, the guy I hired last summer,

and actually I do want to talk about this for like recruitment avenue was he was from the tech

school. And it is different if you're looking for a seasoned employee that knows what they're doing,

like you're talking about like an ATEC, it's going to be a different path. But

if you're looking to get some talent, and you're willing to play, you have the ability to play

the long game with some people. This worked out really well is I went to the tech school in May

when all the students were about to graduate and you know, just ask, can I give a presentation?

I'd like to have an intern or, you know, offer an internship for the summer for three months,

where you come in, you get paid. But it's just going to be entry level work with us kind of be

a helper, see what's going on, see if you like it. And then I just gave it like a little presentation

of what we do, right? Like, hey, this is different than going into a shop, because of what we are

doing, you're not going to be changing brake pads and oil changes and stuff like that. You'll be,

you'll still be entry level, but you're going to be seeing some stuff that you

wouldn't be able to do elsewhere. If that interests you, come interview, and I interviewed a handful

of kids, and we hired this one kid, and he has turned out to be amazing. He did the internship,

and then I offered him, you know, to come on full time. He's still part time, but like he's a

full employee of SD Mobile now. And he's awesome, given the right tasks, right? And

I don't mean any offense to him in any way, but I don't think he would have done very well

in a regular shop position. I'm sure he would have figured it out, but just I've been in,

I was attacked for a long time. I saw a lot of young kids come in, and I saw the ones that

succeeded and, you know, hit the ground running and the ones that just got eaten up and chewed out

because of what, you know, flat rate and the industry is, like they just couldn't handle it. And

I don't know that he would have done well in that situation, but you give him stuff related to

computers, you give him board work, which this kid is doing the majority of my board work right

now, which is crazy, but he's, he's so interested in it. Like he just hyper fixates on this stuff

and he'll sit there and mess with, you know, soldering things and moving chips around and stuff

just for, just for fun. So we kind of posted him out at the shop and he helps us out with a lot

with the computers and the software doing the board work. He figured out all the programming

stuff. Like, you know, younger generation, he's, he's 21 and so grew up with computers and technology

and he, he just, he just gets the stuff. You don't barely have to show him and he's like, okay, I got

it. He's, he's into 3d printing. So he's making us right now. We needed a, I wanted a device to

help me measure the angles for side detection modules on cars. And I know I tell sells a kit

for stupid money, but I was like, we could make one of these, we can figure it out. So he's like

3d printing this thing that has a laser on it and goes down to a mat that has lines on it. And so

we can measure the angles, but like, that's the sort of stuff that he's into. And so anyways, that,

that worked really well is to go, you know, to the tech school, give a presentation. And again,

I have the advantage of like, what we're doing is just, it's not quite the same as what you're

going to see in the rest of the industry. And that, I think you have an element of that too.

You know, with the level of stuff that you're doing. But that worked out really well. And then,

yeah, we got a new employee, same as you, he started first week of January. And that one,

it's, it just sort of worked out the timing worked out. I had let somebody go. And he had

just sold his shop is the shop owner around here, we did work for him. And we were just talking. And

so we did a ride along as like, we'll come with me, you know, see if this is something you'd

actually want to do. And then we, I wanted to make sure he fit in with the team well, because

that kind of learned my lesson with the last one is that, you know, the, like you were saying,

culture and like how everybody gets along. And you got to make sure that the team

meshes well. And if it doesn't figure out why and fix that, because it is just not good for

anybody, including yourself, but you know, the employees too. And so we went out to dinner

with everybody just to make sure like, you know, hey, how's everybody get along. And then I took

everybody and I'd recommend this. This is a great thing. Like a working interview with somebody

that's kind of fun, but with a little bit of pressure is go do an escape room with someone

that you're looking to hire. Yeah, don't give me that look. That's a white people shit, man.

It is some white people shit. I want you to dig, I want to digress something, right?

Okay. I'm not being racist. But white people just do some dumb ass shit.

Like, I'm going to really pay you to be locked in a room to figure out how to

fuck. What the fuck makes up this shit? Like,

yes.

Yes.

We're bored. We got nothing going on.

It worked out really well, because there's some pressure, you know, you're timed,

you got all these things you got to solve and everything. And it was a great just little like

insight of like, okay, problem solving, working under pressure, and then you have to do it as a

team. Like you can't get out of one of those things by yourself. You have to like work with

the people. And so it was just a real good like, okay, I think this could work. Let's give this a

try. And yeah, he's been he's been excellent addition to the team. Had some background

programming before. So that helped too. But yeah, we're getting them up to speed on the rest of the

stuff. Yeah, he's good. He's he's a I know him. I know him. He's cool people. So I'm glad I'm glad

it worked out. Yeah. So how do we get other shop because I hear this a lot. How do we get other

shop owners to kind of go about a different way of recruiting, right? You know, a lot of people

would be like, you know, the youth, the youth, the youth. I don't know, man, like,

I don't know. I just uh, how do we again, I'm not criticizing the youth. I'm just making an

observation, right? And okay, perfect example, right? I didn't I didn't I came across this on

social media, but it blew my I blew me away. All right. What was the first video game you

remember playing? Super Mario. Cool. Perfect. All right. So a lot of these video have you played

video games recently? No, I quit cold turkey around the PS2 because it dominated my life. I was like,

I can't do this anymore. Cool. Okay. So all right. In a grand scheme of things. I saw a report in

saying that how video games are affecting this generation of children. I'm like, that's BS,

man. I grew up with Mortal Kombat. And, you know, I ran around grand bottle picking up women and,

you know, yeah, some time with them. I did all types of dumb stuff on it. Now, you know, I, I,

I'm the I'm one of those zennials that in between millennials were like, I had pen pals. I remember

playing outside. But then, you know, I saw the advent of internet. I remember what it was like

to try to download a song and then your mom's trying to call somebody and shit. Yep. You know,

so like I went, you know, chat rooms, AOL chat rooms, like I did all of it, right?

But there's one thing that I never realized that can affect, you know, people's minds is

the way dopamine gets the way your dopamine reward, you know, like your award center, right? Like,

yeah, these kids get an automatic dopamine hit every time they open up that video game. Like,

for example, I like playing, you know, Call of Duty. Well, there's something every day,

you get a skin every day, you get a prize. So every time you pick it up, even if you suck,

you still get points and those points lead up to, you know, a prize.

Dude, how many times did you play that damn game and you didn't get shit?

Right. Did you ever play Castlevania?

I never played that one.

God, dude, I spent three months trying to pass this damn game. And then when we get to the,

when I got to the end of it, I'm doing my little stupid dancing shit. And then the stupid castle

flips over and you got to go back. I threw the controller out the window. Oh, it was so fucking

mad. Well, it sounds ridiculous, right? But what were you learning? You learned that you had three

shots. And your decisions came with consequences. And the consequences were you fucked. And you

got to start all over again. It doesn't matter if you're right there with Bowser, or you were,

you were hit by that first, or that first, um, that those, uh, what are they called, man, the,

the things that come out of the sewers with the flowers. Yeah, the flowers. Yeah. So like,

so it didn't matter. Like you just had to pick up your shit and start all over again and get over

it. Yep. Right. I started thinking about when we were kids, the social interactions that I had as a

child, or just, you know, growing up the way I grew up, you know, I remember my bike broke.

Well, I didn't have a cell phone to call mommy and daddy come pick me up. I had to figure out

how to fix it or not. I'm walking at home. So how do you deal with a generation of kids who just

doesn't, they don't know how to, how to, they don't know how to get themselves out of a jam.

And that's that. And that's the entire automotive industry.

Are you going to tell me that three break jobs are the same? No, they're not.

Well, I mean, just, just YouTube, right? I did not have YouTube when I started in the field.

And oh my gosh, it would have been so much better to be able to look up a video on how do I do these

breaks, but you didn't have that. So unless you had somebody there to help you, which you didn't

always do, depending on like the time of day, and maybe people had gone home, like you say,

you got to figure it out. Like you got, you got to work through it. You got to make it happen.

And that's when, that's when the human mind shines.

So then how do we attract the generation of, of, of, of kids who a, I don't know about you,

dude, but I've been driving since I was like 13 years old.

You know, not legally, but I was driving. I learned how to drive. I couldn't wait to drive.

Some of these kids don't want to drive.

You know, so how do you, how do you engage a generation of kids that just has a different

mindset? And again, you know, a lot of the old timers can talk all the, all the shit they want,

but the reality is they made these, they made it so that these, these kids didn't have to suffer,

but they didn't suffer. And now they changed their entire mindset. So how do we keep them

engaged? And I think that's, I don't have any answers other than the fact that there are still

kids out there. There are still good people who want to be in this trade, but they're not going

to be putting up with this shit. They're not going to be putting up with bad culture. They're

not going to be putting up with bad working conditions. So a lot of it, a lot of it is just

a mirror upon themselves. Like this is the first time a generation doesn't need to work.

And we all need to work, but they're the ones that truly realize that it's a sham.

They want to work with a purpose. And again, I'm not, I'm not going to create a political

debate or whatnot or spoil brats or this. No, no, that's not fair to them.

That's not fair to my nephew. That's like, my nephew grew up way softer version than me.

He got a softer version of my dad. My dad used to, used to watch him walk to school every day.

That man made me fucking walk two, two, three miles because I got kicked off the bus.

I got a different version of my father. It is what it is. He made his decisions. I don't

say anything else, but that's just the reality. We can't expect these kids to react the same way

we are when they didn't grow up the same way we did. You gave them a tablet to be on all day.

What did you expect them to do? We didn't. We were, we were like, get your ass outside. I

want you in here. Just growing up with, you know, Google to ask, you know, ask whatever question

you have and then maybe get an answer back. You remember having to fucking walk to the library

to get an answer? Yeah. Or ask people. That was always fun.

Yeah. Like he call up your buddy or you ask your dad or, you know, and there's, there's still that,

of course, but a lot less and even more so now. Like I look at my friends, little, little kids,

like two years old and like what kind of effing world are they going to be growing up in with

the AI stuff that is right now? Like imagine 20 years from now what it's going to be like. It's

just, it's going to be absolutely crazy. Yeah. It's to be seen how all this is going to play out,

man. And especially like, I hate to say this, man, but like a lot of my, and I don't, I don't say

this by any way means or nothing, but like, I've been dealing back and forth with some

like anxiety issues and some issues with my stomach again, because like my diet, my diet's been off.

Dude, I got more answers from chat GPT than my own doctor, because the problem is my, my, my doctor

labeled me as anxious. And once that happened, that's it. Like everything that I tell them is just,

it's just, you're just anxiety here. Take these, take these. And I'm not saying not to consult

your doctors or anything like that. I'm just saying that one day I just like, I read an article

about a gentleman who actually diagnosed himself with chat GPT. And I'm just like, dude, at this

point, I got shit to lose, man. So I just started like, Hey, like, what's this was that? And then

I found out there's actually a syndrome. And then I went to Facebook and I found a group

with said syndrome. And then I went, I got added to the group and I scoured the early articles

and people posting and my symptoms were one to one. So I'm just like, okay, cool. Well,

then why isn't it treated here? Well, because in the United States, they view things a little

differently. They treat, they don't treat systems systematically, they symptom systematically,

they treat them as a whole. Ah, okay. So I'm not crazy. Thank you. So now it's like, okay, well,

figure out, figure out, not with this information, I can go figure out a plan to,

to help me feel better. So like, is this going to be medically speaking now the new norm?

Because, you know, practitioners always kind of had their own database. Right?

Because you see them like, Oh, you do this, you do that. Oh, we can try this medication. They just

plug in your information into this. I mean, I've seen them do it. Yep. So I mean, that our medical

system is going to get revamped. Like this is, this is very intriguing, what it's, what's going to

be like. But also like, you know, something, you know, I'm going to recommend you do something,

man. I'll send you, I'll see if I can send you a link. I don't know what's available or not,

but through, through shopfix, I was, I got access to a cultural survey index. And I think there

are, there's some free versions of it out there. Okay. But dude, I took a survey to see what my

personality type and then ever since then, I gave one to my service writer and I gave one to my

tech, my, my technician, my new technician and dude, it was, it was game changing, man.

The thing is, man, we expect if Sean expects some or you thought a process is one way,

and you just belch an order to your guys, I mean, the way I was raised, it's like you get

an order, you, you just, you do it. But some people don't think that way, man. So I keep getting

pushed back from some of my things from my guys and I could easily said either you do it or you're

gone. But again, like it's a mentality shift. People don't, people don't really give a

shit about money no more. It's more about purpose. So then I, when I started doing this,

I started realizing that I'm doing things differently. So I started an algorithm on,

on chat gbt about how to deal with certain personality traits when I was a certain personality

trait. And it came up and shot off a bunch of different suggestions and lists. And, and the

reason why like, like, for example, like my guy, one of his biggest, my biggest issues with him is

like, I can't tell him anything. Sounds, it sounds crazy, right? But like, I am not a believer

that people just we were not meant to multitask. But I can pivot. I can go from doing one thing to

the next thing to the next thing and then come back. Sure. We can't. If he's doing something.

And I tell him, Hey, man, make sure you call a client at 12 o'clock. Okay, no problem. But then

John comes in and says, Hey, I need you to order these parts. Okay, it goes to be pivots to that.

But then as, as the things mount and mount and mount, he's the other things go out the window.

Okay. So I just thought he was just forgetful. He didn't want to do it. So that was my mindset.

Well, turns out that he just can't process information like that. So I have two options.

Either I work with him or I get rid of him. Well, I don't want to get rid of him, because I think

he has a lot of good qualities. So how do I work with him? So I, you know, I asked Chad GBT and

like, Oh, these are the type of people you just can't, you can't verbally communicate to him.

So find somewhere to write stuff down. So I bought a whiteboard in his office and it's right

there. So every, every day when we have to do something, if he's talking to a client,

then I have my list. So do this, do that, do this, and I just write it down. And that's it.

That's all it took me just to write stuff down for him. And now he's everybody,

yet everybody do that test, just kind of figure out where everybody's at or what.

Okay. Or just a personality trait. So that way I can, I, for example, my new guy, one of his,

one of his, um, uh, so we all have good and bad, right? One of his bad is he doesn't like being

wrong. So he will, um, he will pawn that off to somebody else. So he doesn't feel of being wrong.

So when I, when I realized that I make him be wrong.

And I told him, like, dude, I know you don't like it, but make a decision.

I go, as long as you're in the best interest of my clients, I go, we'll always be good.

We can revisit the mistakes that you're going to make and see where we can do better. So we

don't repeat them, but dude, I make mistakes every day. You have to, as a leader, you're going to

have to learn how to do them and eat them and then keep moving, pivoting. So that's, that's what,

that's what helped me with it because now it's, it helps me to understand why he does some of

the things he does and in order to better help them as well. And wouldn't stay in between my

personality traits because I have bad personality traits as well. I am a debater personality.

So one of my biggest weaknesses is I will fucking, it takes me forever to make a decision

because I debate it, right? But the good thing about my personality trait is when I talk to

certain people, I give them the other perspective because I can, I'm better at risk assessment.

Okay. Because I debate it, because I debate everything,

whether in my head or with you or with people, I'll debate somebody all day long.

But a friend told me this, this, this not too long ago and it really, really helped.

It's,

indecision is the decision to make time, to indecision is the decision to let time make the

decision for you. Sure. Something's gonna happen if you don't make a decision.

Yes. So just make it and then do the best with it and then give it. And that's one thing that

I've been learning because, you know, I've been tasked to observe and steer the ship of my shop.

And let me tell you, dude, it's fucking hard. And I'm nursing a shoulder injury right now.

So the other day I was pushing a car and I aggravated it. I never realized how much you use

your shoulder, dude. So I'm like, so now the guys are mindful about it. I can't open one of the

back doors. I can't get big. And so I'm nursing it because I don't want to do surgery. So I'm

just kind of rehabbing it. Okay. And I just have to be easy. I have to, so the guys know

and they, they will stop me in my tracks because I do, I feel fucking useless. I sit there and

and I observe them. But I've been able to make observations on the fly and correct stuff on

the fly. Like my, like, for example, before our shop was doing get the work in, because parts

isn't too difficult for us. Like we have a lot of hubs and stuff around in my neighborhood. So

like, I don't, I rarely have difficulty with parts. We usually get them within the hour or so.

So our objective before was like, you get the car in, inspect the concern,

sell the work, start the work, finish the work. Well, the problem is my shop's small.

So what it started doing instead was get the work in and we can move the vehicle,

move it out once it's sold and then, and then create like a piggy bank of work. So that way,

in the evenings, we get to, we get to knock the work out. But in the mornings, we're inspecting

vehicles and we're selling work and we're setting up expectations with our clients,

staying communication with them. It sounds dumb, but overall, we don't work on the vehicles until

all the parts are in the shop. Okay. And then if we have to pivot during a break job or something,

then we got to get the car out and get the car in. So it's, it's been kind of like an interesting

journey that I'm in right now of, of like not doing, not not physically doing work,

right? Because I basically went from like running 100 or 100 miles per hour to like, okay,

now I can take a step back, but I can't take a step back. I have to not worry about getting

cars in the door, about processing procedures, creating the, you know, rules and regulations

for the shop, like all the ownership stuff. And it's, so, you know, the mistake that my father

made was that we were supposed to be always mindful and present in the business. But at that

point, it's just a job. And this isn't a job. This is a business. It has to run on its own.

Yeah. And that is a really, really difficult transition to make.

It's, it sucks. It's hard. I feel so helpless. So I just been working on my projects. But again,

I'm mindful of the guys. I make sure that they're good. If there's something that, that, that

transpires during the day, I pivot to make sure that you get taken care of. And then there's,

there's red flags. There's, there's rules. Like I usually make, let them make their own mistakes.

The first week was pretty rough, man, but I just, I stayed out of it, man. And then at the end of

the week, we just, we just went back and we analyzed all the, all the things that happened and where

we can do better. We have daily meetings with the two head, with the two guys. And then if there's

something, the only time I stop them is culture concerned or quality concern. Sure. So that's

when I, those are my heart's goals. Like at that point, I will stop you in your tracks and be like,

Hey, this is why we do this. This is why this is done. Not just, Hey, I want you to do it this

way. No, I just take a few minutes and explain why the standards are there. And let's get this done

this way. Yeah. I know my tendencies are like, I like, where what I found really works well,

at least to get places, to move things along is like you were saying, you think about something

for a while, you debate about it. And then, you know, if you don't make a decision, eventually

something just happens. But I found if you can make, you can move forward with something even

if it's not perfect, right? Just like, okay, this is rough draft version one, let's go out there and

try it. If you can move quickly and implement something, even if it's not exactly what you want,

let it be what it is. You know, maybe some shit goes wrong. It doesn't work out the way you think

it does. And then you assess that. And then you go back and you try version two. If you can do that,

you know, on a productive basis, like you're trying something, you're iterating, you're trying

another version. Okay, this didn't work. Let's try this. I think you end up learning quite a bit more

than, you know, sitting back and analyzing it for, you know, a super long time and trying

to get it absolutely perfect before you actually do anything. The like, trying and failing and then

learning and then trying and failing and learning ends up getting you some really valuable experience.

And then for me, it's, you know, things in the business like, okay, we're going to try to do

things this way, or we're going to make this adjustment, we're going to implement this tool,

let's try it. Okay, this didn't work. Or this is not doing the way the thing that we thought it

would. Or maybe it just, okay, hey, kind of worked. Let's tweak it a little bit. Let's try

something else. And then you move forward again. And so I've been trying to do that as like, okay,

I want to try this. Let's implement it. Didn't work. Okay, let's, let's adjust course. And

seems to be working pretty well. But yeah, there's always something, man. And yeah, we're,

I'm always trying to make that transition to how to make the business functional without me.

What can I add? What can I take away? What do I need to stop doing? Give to somebody else?

But yeah, it's super difficult.

Barry, no, no, there's, there's, there's nothing easy about about any of this, man. Yeah, the reality is,

the reality is, there's nothing easy about any of it. No, no, right. Even even being an employee,

like for me, going back to being an employee is, would have been kind of hard.

This is, this is the, this is what we chose. And we, we chose this. And we, the moment we decided

to go into business for ourselves is the moment that we decided to be entrepreneurs. We're not

mechanics anymore. We're not technicians. We're business men. And that's, that's kind of where

I had it wrong. Yeah. And I still do. I'm still out in the field fixing cars and stuff.

Um, you know, trying to get my technician team, you know, as, as, uh, as many skills as possible

so that they don't need me, but I'm still out there and I'm still trying to work that out.

Because, um, yeah, you ask yourself, you know, if you, if you left, like you were just gone

with the business survivor, how long would it survive for? And, you know, mine personally,

I don't know how long, like, I'm sure they'd get by, they'd do some stuff, but there would be a lot

of gaps. And so then it's, okay, how do I figure out how to fill those so that, um, I'm not necessarily,

um, needed, like, obviously I want to have a purpose within the business.

But as far as the day-to-day operations, how do I get myself out of it? And then I'm still working

on stuff. It's, it's just little by little, um, trying to, trying to add things and document my

knowledge and get that stuff recorded so that everybody has it. But yeah, it's, it's tough

because we do a tough thing. Yeah, it takes, it definitely takes some time, uh, but just being

steadfast and the reality is, man, you, you, you're going to have to let them make their, make their

mistakes, man. And you're going, you're going to have to, uh, come up with processes and procedures.

And it's a little difficult because of our diagnostic mindsets, right? Like,

and you can't write that. You can't put that on paper.

Yeah. Oh man, me and Pedro, we fucking, we used to argue all the time because

he has a very methodic, every vehicle, every symptom was the same. Sort of like JT,

if you ever see JT diagnosed, he's like, every symptom has like, he has a set procedure for

every single complaint and concern that a vehicle can have. And me, bro, I'm just like, fuck it.

I just go by how I feel. And I'm a person of odds. Well, if the rest of the modules don't

communicate, but this one doesn't, I mean, the rest of the modules communicate, this one doesn't,

then I'm going to attack this module. Or if this one doesn't come, this one doesn't come,

then I'm going to look at that. Like, so I have a kind of a non-rhythmic, but rhythmic procedure

when it comes to diagnostics. I don't have as anything said in stone. Like, I kind of go by

feel. A lot of times I get some home runs and sometimes I eat shit, but I just can't think

of any other way of doing it because I was, the way I was in green to do it was to how to do it

as fast as possible. Yeah. But yet, you know, some guys like, you know, like JT and Pedro,

I mean, they do it on their own for their own purposes, right? So they didn't really have to

rush into stuff. I did. I didn't have a choice. I had to make the best decision with all the

information as fast as possible to move on to the next vehicle. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a child of a flat

right there too. Yeah. And that's my new guy too, is like, he's got that mindset too. And that's

one of the things I've been working on him is like, okay, we got, like, yes, we have a schedule,

we got to stick to, we got to get these cars done, but we got to slow down too. And just

take it a little bit slower because we go too fast. And yeah, you miss stuff. But yeah,

you got to find that balance. If you, if you want to make money and you want to be a productive

added diagnosis specifically, like you do have to operate within a specific time window. And

yeah, that's like, what most likely should we be going after here, given the all the data that

we have? Okay, let's go check that first. Rather than what's the craziest, strangest problem possible.

Let's go for that. I've worked with people like that before they wanted it to be the most difficult

thing possible. Agreed. No. No.

So what's, what's your next hire then? You're going to add more like high level technicians or

what? Honestly, it's really going to depend on the type of work that I keep getting.

So right now, I actually have, I keep people on the bench now. So I have a couple of technicians.

I have another service writer. But right now, if the shop goes the way we're going,

I think I'm going to get another R&R guy. Okay. I think, I think John's super solid.

I think he's better than me. He just needs more training, which is my job right now. Like we,

we stay late every Thursday. So actually, we have a new policy at the shop.

Like I still get a lot of diex from other shops. So we are only scheduling those out.

Like the, I don't, they don't, I don't make money off of shop diex, man. I don't sell parts.

It's more of a headache with the, with the shop sometimes. So I'm only using them for training

John. It sounds kind of backwards, but he doesn't really need that type of training from, from the

jump. Like a student, he just needs to catch up to like non-invasive testing techniques.

So I said, you know what? All the shop diex are scheduled Tuesdays and Thursdays only.

So we're scheduling three at a time and we're staying late every Tuesdays and Thursdays,

and me and him are going through them. I mean, I can pay somebody to train them,

but the reality is I don't have the budget for it right now. So I'll do it myself until the

shop starts making a little bit more money and then I'll start allocating some money towards that.

But in the interim, like he's at a, he is at a stage where even though like,

I'm not a strong diagnostic technician, I, there's still a lot he can learn from me

until I get into that next step. So that's, that's where I'm at right now. And then I have

another service writer in, in, in the background. Well, we talked this week, I think she's,

she'd be a great addition. I, we just don't have the word for her, for her right now.

Yeah. But that's kind of where I'm, I'm, I'm keeping people on the bench for future situations

and, and, and growth. Or I mean, we don't know what happens tomorrow, man. Like,

right, you know, we don't. So like, I, I, my, again, my job is in order to make sure,

just like Mr. Stokes, like he has an entire plan in case he's not,

he's not around and that, that plan's already going to be executed and the, the,

the company moves on like, and mine's, I hope will too.

Yeah. I'm open by 27. That's the plan right now is be ready for another technician,

basically at the end of the year. So we're going to work towards that this year,

you know, make sure that the, the work is there and then, you know, the equipment and all that

stuff. And depending on how it goes, it might be more of a transition of me out of the field.

But either way, uh, that's, that's my goal for right now. So we'll kind of see how that goes.

Yeah. I, uh, I think, I think ultimately what, what I think I'd be happy with is two shops.

And I, and I, and I can, once I learned, and then I think that's why it's such a blessing to be in

my, my little shop right now, because I'm really, really, really learning how to be good with

operations. And that's critical because at the end of the day, there's a lot of, there's a,

I think smaller shops are better than bigger shops. And I don't have the experience of running

either of them, just my tiny little shop, but just from the observations I made in the industry,

and just from the observations I can make from culture standpoint, though, I think the little,

the little shop shine a lot more easier to maintain. And there's also this weird thing about

comfort. And I remember when I was at the dealer, I knew that they had a lot of space,

but all the technicians, we were all assigned one bay. And I remember asking the manager,

I'm like, what the hell are we, why don't we just get two bays each? We have plenty of space.

We can take over this and take over that. He's just like, we did that.

And people are still making the same amount of money. Hmm. And I never understood it until now.

It's more of like a, it's a comfort thing, man. People just get comfortable right in a bigger

shop like where you like, you don't like, eh, it'll be all right. I can finish it tomorrow.

And it'll be okay. And the reality is like, I hate the fact that auto repair has to somewhat be

rushed, but like it, people just need their shit back, man. Like it just, it's the nature of our

business, dude. Like, yeah, like, yeah, it always has been especially like here in Chicago, where

it's like, dude, you go or like, like, you can almost get penalized for having more than one

vehicle. Like city sticker plates, insurance, dude, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a lot of money.

So like some people just can't have two cars. So if they're willing to put money into their

investment, they need it back, you know, it's efficient. So, so from that standpoint, I understand

it. Yeah. No, we found that. I mean, we're not working with the owner of the vehicle very often,

but just with the shops, like they are willing to pay extra if we can get it done faster, right?

We'll have situations like that. We're like, yeah, we can't get to you to tomorrow. And they're like,

oh, we could really use like, well, hey, if you want to, if you want to pay extra, we can get to

you today. And there's, I would say most times we offer that up, people go for it, because exactly

what you're saying is like, they got to get it out. You're, you're, you're only coming like, this

is what I can tell mobile guys. My experience was you're not selling anything but your time,

you're not selling your, your, to a point some knowledge, but the reality is you're selling

your time and you only have so much time. But you have to make sure that your time gets accounted

for. Yep. So yeah, I totally, totally fine with that. And some, some shops even do that too,

like, oh, Mr. customer, like parts come in, blah, blah, blah. Oh man, I really like, all right,

well, you know, we can get this expedited and you can get some better parts. We can get our

best guys on it, but then you'd be looking at, you know, I can't save you money here. You'd be

looking at this. Oh, I don't care. Do it. Okay. It just, it's, it's not wrong with it. It's just

the nature of the business, but you have to learn how to pivot, man. Yeah, exactly. You can't control

your market, but you can adapt to your market. Yeah. If you understand the pain points, it makes

it a lot easier to, to sell what you need. Like that, if you can, if you can articulate the pain

points to your customers better than they can, they're, they're going to buy from you most likely.

And so that's where it is, is like understanding like that the shops are under the gun to get the

cars out, because the customers want it back. Like, how can I be a, how can I offer better

service in that regard? Can I get to it faster? And then, yeah, in our case, get more money for it.

Don't just be faster. Charge more because we're faster. Yeah. And that's, that's my, that's my

goal. There's a lot of, there's a lot of shops in Chicago. There's a lot of, there's a few that I

would be considered sort of on my same skill level. There's a couple of them. Well, not really, but

like, because here's the thing, I don't believe in competition. I'm just setting out to be the best

to give the customers, the clients, the reason why they need to come, come to me. Why? And then,

I don't have a lot of amenities. I don't, I can't get loaner cars. I can't, you know, I don't even

have a lot of parking. I don't have any parking, but I will, I will out service them. I will take

the pain away from the repair process. I will do my best to work within their budget.

Um, that's my plan, because at the end of the day, it's like, I have all types of

income. So I have solutions for every single one of them, man. I mean, and it's frowned upon in the

industry, and it's fine, man. I mean, it's totally fine. But every single region is different, man.

Like we have, we all have like, I have the people, right? I have, I have tons of people,

but I also have tons of other shops that are willing to do things differently. So then,

I either adjust to them or stand on my, my high horse, but then what about my guys?

My guys is already get paid. They need to get paid. So, so I either check my ego at the door

or I close and I did that already and it failed. So this part seems to be working.

Yeah, good to hear it, man. I like it.

Anything else for we wrap it up for today?

I think we're good, man. I think we're good. I got a road trip tomorrow. I'm headed down to

Shreveport. It's funny how life works, man. Brandon's shop is actually his, is the shop

he works for now. He's actually in my group and we're headed down to that shop to do our group

event instead of going to the training center. So yeah, we're supposed to go like three weeks

ago, but it was during that nasty ice storm. So they didn't want to struggle.

Yeah, man. I took the week off. I informed my, my guys that unless somebody's dying,

unless the shop's on fire, unless somebody got into an accident, I do not want to call

guys, make decisions, figure it out, make notes, and then we'll talk about it when I get back.

Yeah, I should do that. I got a trip in May. I'll probably, probably copy there and do that.

Cody's doing his event again.

That's what I'm saying. That's what I was asking him. You're going.

Yep. Yeah. I mean, 85% sure I'm going. Okay. Yeah. I should be able to take the time. I'm just

actually, I just actually found out a few days ago, I might have to go back home. So if I go

back home, then I can't go. So I'm kind of going to be last minute for me. Hopefully it doesn't

kick me out. Well, I hope you can make it. It's an excellent event last year.

We're seeing some of my favorite people, man, to probably take the wife with me.

Yeah. Cool, man. That's awesome.

339: Tomi Oliva On Technician Recruitment

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