The Jaded Mechanic Podcast Nov 18, 2025

Dutch Silverstein Tells Us How It Is

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58:26

Part

transmission

The transmission is what helps your car change gears and move. It's an important part that connects the engine to the wheels, making sure the car can drive smoothly.

Car

Toyota Camry

The Toyota Camry is a type of car that is very popular because it's dependable and easy to drive. Many people choose it for everyday use, like taking friends or family around town.

Term

tire balancer

A tire balancer is a tool that makes sure your car's tires spin smoothly. If they're not balanced, you might feel shaking when you drive, and your tires can wear out faster.

Term

road force balancing

Road force balancing is a special way to balance tires that checks how they will perform while driving. It helps make sure your ride is smooth and comfortable.

Term

road force balancer

A road force balancer is a tool that helps make sure your car's tires are balanced correctly. This is important for a smooth ride and better handling of the car.

Term

alignment

Alignment is when a mechanic adjusts the angles of the wheels so they are straight and not tilted. This helps the car drive better and makes the tires last longer.

Term

toe

Toe is how much the front of the wheels are turned in or out compared to the middle of the car. Getting this right helps the car drive straight and keeps the tires from wearing out too fast.

LIVE

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If you're in this business and you're a technician,

never in 25 or 30 years, like I said, or more,

has there ever been a more golden opportunity

for you to ton it if you had a work ethic?

Yes.

If you have the ability to understand

the measure of how badly you want something

is what it is you're willing to give up to get it,

and if you understand that you're sacrificing today

for the blessings of tomorrow,

you can write your own damn ticket

by doing that which others won't do.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen,

to another exciting episode of the Jada Mechanic Podcast.

So we're still at Asta 2025, and we're having a great time,

and this is kind of a special Asta for me

because somebody that I have a ton of respect for,

and it's a former guest,

but I've had a ton of respect for for a long time now.

I can remember seeing this man's name

and always being like, he's a pretty sharp individual.

Sometimes he's a little abrasive.

Me?

But he is super smart.

If you recognize the voice, that's Mr. Dutch Silverstein.

So Dutch, how are you today?

Peachy for an old bastard, anyway.

And I'm sitting here with the beautiful lady

that you're seeing in the screen, is Anna.

Yes, hello, everyone.

That's Dutch's daughter, everybody.

I know, right?

Must be adopted.

Were you adopted at a young age?

That's what he tells me, but I think it's my mom.

Yeah, absolutely.

Dutch, I5.

Yeah.

Yeah, I5.

Very good.

So we had an absence from you for a couple years from here,

and I talked about how the first time I came

was when I was brought here by Lucas,

and I got a chance to meet you.

And you didn't know who I was at the time,

other than I just was like, I've seen your name forever

and the conversations you were in,

and I had a ton of respect for you.

And since then, you've become a very important person

to me, to be able to bounce ideas off

and get perspective from and everything else like that.

And that's why I just want to celebrate

you're the fact that you're back,

because this is an important event,

and you are an important person at this event.

I'm not about any of that.

Oh, that's 100% Dutch.

When you haven't been here,

the presence has definitely been noticed.

A lot of people ask,

and a lot of people and all that kind of stuff.

And it's not for me to divulge

or ask a ton about why you haven't,

but just to say thank you for being back.

Well, you can ask me anything you want.

I can't guarantee you're going to like to answer,

but I'll tell you exactly why I was gone

if that's what you wanted.

For sure.

This organization used to be known

as the Independent Garage Owners Association.

It was a small organization,

basically set up for shop owners here in North Carolina.

It's the IGONC.

And it was, for me, a place where I could go

to distance myself

from the volume-based transactional business model

that everyone is pushing for.

I believe in the relationship-based business model,

and I see the value in it.

I see how it makes for happier employees,

long-term customers.

You got to remember,

I owned my shop for 26 years.

Third generation.

I had people that came in

that were older and their kids

and now their grandchildren came in.

You get that by treating people

with a certain amount of respect

and welcoming them into the fold, as it were.

Welcome to my family.

I named my business A&M

because it was after Anna and Max, my son.

That's awesome.

Right?

Because everything you do in life is for your kids anyway

if you're married and you have kids.

And I wanted it to represent it.

And I wanted people who came in

and know that I wasn't a franchise.

I didn't answer to some corporate accountant.

Yes.

When you had a problem, if you did,

you talked to me because it was my shop.

So I always looked at this place

in a way as a safe haven

from what I perceived to be a really bad trend

in the automotive repair sphere.

And that is the transaction-volume-based

transactional business model.

It is, to me, what Olive Garden is to Italian food.

That's a great analogy.

If you've ever had really good Italian food,

either from New York City or in Boston's North End,

or you've been to Italy or any place where

it was in a small, typical family restaurant

where you were blown away

by really good Italian food.

And then you go to eat over at Olive Garden

and you're like, this kind of sucks.

I mean, it's not horrible, okay?

It's not horrible.

But at best, it's mediocre.

It's standardized.

You know what to expect.

Every time you go into one, right?

But it's not good.

No.

But when you think about it,

how many Olive Gardens are there?

Oh, brilliant.

A ton of them.

Right?

A ton of them.

Okay.

So they were able to, using that formula,

they were able to grow.

And yet, you've got the mom and pop

that may only have where the people

put their heart and soul in the business

and take care with every dish

and go shopping every morning

for the freshest ingredients

and import the ingredients from Italy.

And what do they got?

One, maybe two stores?

Yeah.

Well, why?

Because we've come to grow and appreciate

as a society mediocrity.

And we don't need, in my opinion,

as a business,

as a resource, a community resource,

to place usself in a position of mediocrity.

Right.

If all you're going to be focused on is sales,

you're going to have a problem.

Because the product you're going to produce

is going to be mediocre.

Let's look at it.

Let's call things the way they are.

I want you to think about

any of the big box automotive

repair shops that you can think of.

It doesn't matter what it is.

Yep.

Okay, everybody has them.

The ones that have hundreds

are, in fact, over 1,000 stores.

Now, ask yourself, does that place

that I'm thinking about,

does that represent the apex

of the automotive repair industry?

Not even close.

And yet, there are 1,000 of those stores.

Well, why does that occur?

Because that business is scalable.

Yes.

In order to be scalable,

what must you not have?

Superstars.

Because you can't scale a superstar.

Yeah.

You're going to find them.

You're going to put them to work.

You're going to treasure them

because they're going to carry their weight

and then some.

But you can't guarantee that every market

you're going to go in,

it was going to have a superstar

that you can lure away

if they're working from another place.

Yeah.

So what we have here is the difference

between what is known as competent

versus good.

Yeah.

When you go to a store,

a corporate store like that,

okay, one of those big box stores

that we're all thinking of,

what you're having is somebody

who's essentially,

they're performing a service

and they're competent at it.

They can get the job done.

But they're not good at it.

Is it completely different

between being good and being competent?

Well, that's kind of what we say

seems to be going more and more

is that if we start making compromises

on standards,

we lower the collective standard.

Yep.

Right?

And then it becomes the norm.

And then we're,

I think we're at a point now

where like everybody

that operates a car

is kind of fed up with where it is.

Right?

We have people in all facets

that are either,

they're going to a smaller shop

and the smaller shop is looking

too much at the price

and they're putting on

these terrible quality parts.

Right?

And then the car's coming back

and the trust is lost

or they're going to,

you know,

the car is under warranty

and the dealership says,

yeah, okay,

it's three weeks

before I can get you in there

for an appointment

and then you manage to get in there

and then they go,

that part's backward

or we're really so short staffed.

I got you in for the appointment now.

It's going to be three weeks

before my tech can get back

to putting that replacement

transmission that finally arrived in.

So you're without your vehicle

collectively,

like maybe six weeks,

you know,

and then the aftermarket side,

we,

that used to be never the norm.

We were turning around faster

all the time than the dealerships were

and now I see the outrage of people

with a car under warranty

and they are live it

because the car sometimes spends

the first three months,

six months,

collectively of the,

I just got a warranty for five years,

it might spend six months

of those five years

in the dealership part waiting

and they're just,

they're beside themselves

or so I rate.

So when we,

when we look at

all these collective standards

that have been reduced,

if anybody I feel

that's not part of the design

to reduce the expectations

so that people become conditioned

to a lower standard

just like Dutch is comparing it

from Olive Garden to,

you know,

a small family restaurant,

I think it's definitely designed

and it's sad to see

because somebody that like

Dutch

that's been doing this so,

so long,

he's seen it change.

I've,

I've been around long enough

to see it change

but he's seen it change from

maybe it's,

what is it,

glory day?

It was the heyday of automotive

to now

where we're so uncertain

about where we're headed.

So I mean,

you got to remember that,

that I started this

just like most of the guys.

I started this in the 70s, man.

Yeah.

Right, 1973,

1975,

I was working at a station

then went to work for Sears

as, you know,

in the small engine department

and graduated to line tech

and, you know,

I mean, this is,

so we saw things differently.

Yeah.

You never saw the degree

of what appears to be

deliberate indifference.

That's the only way that

a lack of caring

because they have you by

the short hairs.

What happened to customer service?

What happened to leaning on the manufacturer?

What happened to designing the products

that was going to last

more than 20 minutes?

Holding them accountable.

Yep.

And that's a problem.

That's a real problem

that needs to be solved,

but you're not going to solve it

without the participation

of people who own stock.

The only way it's going to change

is if that change is commanded

to happen by shareholders.

Enough people have to be

so sick of what's going on

that they show up at

shareholder meetings

and they have the money

due to the talking.

Yeah.

Not by the vehicles.

What was it like

to navigate this kind of,

you know,

because sometimes we talk about,

you know, females in the

automotive realm

from a consumer standpoint

are very uncomfortable.

Having somebody that's such

and has always been such

an expert for it,

did you feel very blessed to,

yeah?

I've never been asked that

question,

but it's interesting

because I'm faced with it

often, you know,

there's all these internet jokes

about the slimy mechanic

and there's, you know,

definitely a reputation

that if you're a girl,

you're going to get taken

advantage of.

And I've only seen that

more and more as I've gotten

older and have needed

to maintain my own car

and all that good stuff.

And I just, you know,

obviously with my dad

had never found that to be the case

and he would go out of his way

to take pictures of,

you know,

oh, you need this replaced

and here's a picture

and do you want to see it?

You can walk,

you can look under the hood with me.

And so it's definitely

kind of like this duality between

a reputation for an industry

that has some bad actors

while being raised by

who I consider to be

the best actor.

One of the outstanding ones

and has been for a long time

and the reputation proceeds

himself, he's never acted

anyway other than

one of the most extraordinary

professionals within the industry.

Right?

And I know he doesn't like to hear

me blow his horn all the time

but it's absolutely true.

Like the legacy that Dutch

is left behind,

you know,

in terms of all the online

conversations and perspectives

that he's brought,

not that he's left behind

like he's done.

But you know what I mean?

That the example that he's set

for some others to come along

because of the way he's

always conducted himself

is I wish that the more had

caught on.

You know what I mean?

Because we wouldn't have

so many people then feeling

that the stereotype

that you described

was the norm, you know?

There was a funny episode.

I know you'll appreciate this.

She was being taught

when she was in grade school

by a substitute teacher

who said during class

was talking about the car.

It said that mechanics were thieves.

Yeah, my driver's ed teacher.

And said that mechanics were thieves

and that if you had a check engine

light on,

all you had to do

was insert a computer

into the USB port.

And that would tell you

what was wrong with the car.

Yes.

And my little girl stood up in

class, got red faced

and said,

first of all,

it's not a USB port.

It does assembly line data link connector.

It doesn't tell you

and she went off.

Right.

And I heard about it through the school

and I was, yep, she's good.

She ain't grounded, that's for sure.

Yeah, because people don't understand.

And now this individual was trying to

driver's ed teachers

trying to educate the young on this.

No, no, you don't try to pull

the wool over my daughter's eyes.

So Anna, do you have a lot of fond memories

of actually being at your dad's elbow,

watching him do some things

or did you kind of like

because I know you're not a tech,

but did you kind of like grow up

sometimes running around the shop?

I did.

Yeah, I remember the evolution.

He at one point had a very small

waiting room

and then eventually took over

some office space in his shop

and totally redid it.

And I remember his business growing.

Most automotive conferences,

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I don't really remember him

like necessarily being under the hood,

turning the wrench,

but I do remember him being

sort of an advisor to

both his employees

and to his customers, clients.

And, you know,

getting on the phone,

explaining what was wrong.

I remember very distinctly

him fixing a lot of issues

that other people created

by either trying to work on cars

themselves or, you know,

going to bad dealerships,

what have you.

So, yeah, I think I got a lot of

a lot of business acumen

and I have a lot of car acumen

for she worked for me for a summer.

Yeah, really?

Yeah, she worked for me in

as a CSR.

Okay.

As a service rep,

she wound up answering the phones,

obviously.

She took,

she had a

Camry and she took

people home back and forth,

you know, in the Camry

when she was doing that.

And then we tried to keep,

get her into bookkeeping

and that wasn't her saying.

Yeah, no.

The accountant sat me down

and was like,

you're not allowed

in this filing cabinet anymore.

You did this wrong.

So, that was the end of that.

I'm honestly amazed

when you say that,

the accountant,

because it's hard for me

to picture Dutch

ever passing that roll-off

to somebody else.

Do you know what I mean?

Well, you know,

you have to,

there's only so much

that you can do.

Right.

As long as

my attitude was,

look,

let me delegate

the task.

And then I can always

crush Jefferson

because I'm not worried

about you having

me financial statements.

I can read them.

I understand them.

I can dissect them.

I'm not worried about it.

So, I'm not going to worry

about somebody pulling

the wool over my eyes,

stealing from me

or doing any of that sort of stuff.

I'm not worried about it.

So, and the people

that I did this with,

I trusted.

Right.

And that gave me,

once that took that off

of my plate,

that gave me more time

to spend doing the things

I like to do.

You know,

working with customers.

So, this class,

working with customers,

this class that you brought

to ask for this year

and you taught,

can you tell us

a little bit about it?

Because I didn't have

the pleasure of being,

I couldn't be in it

this morning.

I was recording.

Otherwise I'd have been.

Basically, what I noticed was

once

the company getting back

to the original conversation,

I left in protest

because I saw

one of the individuals

who is an advocate for the,

an advocate for the transactional

business model

was asked to attend.

And I,

that to me was a betrayal.

Yeah.

I took it personally.

I really did.

And I guess I shouldn't have

in hindsight,

but I took it personally

and I'm like,

no, I know.

This is my quote,

unquote safe space.

This is my refuge.

This is where I go

to associated with people.

The whole industry is populated

with this cancer

that's permeating

every aspect or every part of it.

But there's one place,

one sacred place,

the IGONC,

that I can go

and not have to worry

about associating

with any of these slime bag,

slime ball,

use car salesman,

double speak.

Yes.

Idiots, right?

Okay.

Well, one of those guys

got invited here

and I'm like,

you people suck.

So I,

so I boycotted

and then as would happen,

I realized that there was,

I got over

being

angry and discouraged

and realized

that there was a golden opportunity

for techs here

to own their own shop

and to create the destiny

that they wanted.

Right?

We had talked about one in five,

one tech comes in,

five techs,

my age,

die, leave,

whatever.

God.

Okay.

That's going to build scarcity.

What happens to prices

when something is scarce?

We can put them up.

You can put them up.

Which means that now

with the right amount

of instruction

mentoring,

you can have somebody

who comes in

and 20 years later,

retires

with seven figures.

Yeah.

Now there are guys

in this business

that have been in it

for 35, 40 years

that don't have that kind of money.

That's right.

Okay.

Well,

here's a problem

and the problem is one

that Michael Gerber

really nailed in his book,

The E-Myth Revisited

and the E-Myth

is the entrepreneurial myth

and the entrepreneurial myth

is that

a practitioner

or a technician

in a technical business

understands

what it takes to run that business,

to operate that technical business.

Just because they can perform

the technical aspect of the business,

in their mind,

they're confident

that they can then

run that business.

Right.

And it's a completely different skill set.

Okay.

So you say,

well,

for the normal tech

who wants to go out,

the typical tech

that wants to go out on his own,

who does,

who's going to mentor him?

Well,

if you look at coaches,

a coach

and there are a lot of them

attending this event

is not going to be interested

in a technician

and they're not going to be

interested for one main reason.

Most techs don't have

a pot to piss in

or a window to throw it out.

They're not any different

than the general public

in many respects.

Right.

But the fact is

that if you're going to work

with a coach,

you're going to be spending

depending on the coach

you're working with

between $12 and $1,500 a month

unless you work

for one organization

which makes you sign

a promissory note

to the tune of $80,000

which they get paid

beforehand

and obligating you,

your heirs and the sides.

All right.

So I thought,

well,

this is a golden opportunity

for me to exert some influence

on the industry

because I'm not making any money.

I'm not asking

anybody to sign up

for any program.

Right.

I'm not selling a book.

Yeah.

I'm not engaging

any sort of coaching

contract

or any of that sort of stuff

and the consulting work

that I do,

they can't afford

because I do it

from multiple shop owners

who are making money

who can legitimately afford it.

So I'm like,

okay, let me work

with the auto shop

owners group

which is a group

that was started eight years ago.

I'm the treasure of it.

Yeah.

And what we do

is we work

with

owners

who's back or against the wall

who can't afford to pay that

and we get them to the point

where

the pressure is off.

They have money coming in.

They can see the glimmer of light

at the end of the tunnel.

Now if they want to transition

to a paid coach,

God bless them.

At least they can afford

to do it

and grow along that path.

Yeah.

Well, that's what I'm doing with techs.

There's no reason

that a tech

shouldn't know what to expect

when he's going to pursue

the path of shop ownership.

Yeah.

You have to know things

if you're going to be successful at it.

My obligation to the industry

that has allowed me

to feed my family

to put a roof over their head,

I have no choice.

I can't just coast

and say it's somebody else's problem.

Yeah.

I feel the very same way

in my role, right?

I now know what my power is.

I'm not going to be the level of technical

being able to pass that on.

I'm not there.

I'm competent, but I'm not there, right?

I can mentor a couple of people

in my workforce,

but do I feel comfortable enough

to go out there

and put this on the internet

and challenge everybody to say,

that is a definitive way to do that?

No.

But I seem to be able to resonate

with a large population

of the technicians in this industry

for whatever reason.

I think it's just because

we've all walked through

the similar mud

and had to bear the slings and arrows

to get to where we are

for whatever that may be

and it leaves us all

kind of feeling the same way.

And I've been the guy

that through this method

has been able to come out

on the other side and go,

man, it doesn't all suck,

but let's cast light

on what is making it suck

or who is making it suck.

And I've never backed away from that.

I was not raised

to ever back away from anything.

I was not ever very good

at keeping my mouth shut.

So it's not something that is

even in my peripheral

that I might should be doing

to change the trajectory of this.

It's not.

I go with it.

I just stay to me

and that's it.

And I let it take care of it.

God will guide me the rest of the way.

It will be what it will be.

And I'm very lucky for that

because it's keeping me

like I'm the same way.

I feel like I have something now

to give back.

And I didn't have that five years ago.

And that

as crazy as the weight

that comes on you

with that responsibility

at the same time

you feel more unburdened

because you know the direction

that you can go.

That's huge, man.

Huge.

So cool.

When I was at the

when I was at the airline

I was known as a systems junkie.

And there was a problem

where I was being dispatched

to an airport

with equipment

that was on the

MELs called the minimum equipment list.

Okay.

And maintenance control

was attempting to dispatch me

in a way that was illegal.

I refused

big brouhaha over the phone.

It's recorded.

And long story short

I refused the flight.

Flight was canceled.

They sent up another section

and passengers were accommodated

albeit much much later.

I get a call the following day

director of training

who said I listened to the conversation.

It's obvious to me

that you have a superior knowledge

of the airplane.

We'd like you to become an instructor.

And I said I really I'm touched.

I'm honored that you asked me.

But before you do that

I think you might want to look

at my HR file.

Two days later he calls me back

he goes thank you very much

for the heads up offer withdrawn.

I'm like you I am not.

Yeah.

I'm not diplomatic.

Right.

I don't it's gotten me in trouble

my entire life

because I say what I mean.

I mean what I say and I do

what I say I'm going to do

when I say I'm going to do it.

That's all there is to it.

Those are not bad virtues

to live by.

They are now.

Yes they are.

Now are you a lot like him.

Would you say much better than I am.

That's a that's a nice thing

to say though.

She's much better than I am.

That's not absolutely not true.

I mean I hope so.

I think that the one thing I try

really hard on every single day

is to have the kind of integrity

that he has.

I mean he he just does not back

away from anything.

If something is you know morally

right he is he is in line with

that and that's really difficult.

And I think that for me that's

like the the thing I think

about every day is am I being

am I using integrity in these

decisions that I'm making

whether it be at my job

or with my friends or whatever.

And that's a legacy isn't it Dutch.

That's a legacy.

I mean that's that's which that's

what your hope for your children

is that you know that they're

happy in life that they're

healthy and that they have a

value system that they can carry

forward to the next generation

and maybe sometime we'll be

blessed with grandchildren no

pressure.

But you know this this is

what you need to do.

You have to have a life that's

worth examining and worth

celebrating.

There are just some things in

life that I just refuse to do.

It's cool for other people.

You want to do them.

I don't drink to excess.

I don't run around.

I don't gamble.

I don't do drugs.

I don't do any of that.

My my advice is I buy too many

tools.

All right.

I'm a tool junkie.

Yeah.

That's it.

And I indulge my daughter

because she's the light of my

life.

So this this is what I do.

You know.

Yeah.

Worst things to have happen

to be sure.

But she represents the best

part of me because she's

rational.

Yeah.

She's reasonable.

Yeah.

I could say stuff.

And she steps back.

So what you're saying is and

I'm like oh that's so good.

Yeah.

I don't you know I think she

learned that in school.

She may have learned part of

that for my wife who's the

best thing I ever did in my

life was marry that woman.

But you know this this is

this is the way things work.

So what do you see when

when you have a classroom of

people like that younger

new start outs as I guess we

could say what is some of the

big obstacles that you see.

Not like so to two part that

you see in trying to get

through to them and they see

in what they're trying to

implicate in the industry.

But see there's a change in

the idea of work ethic

and structure right now more

and more younger people believe

in the ethic of work like

balance.

And they do that because

they're discouraged.

They see the American dream

is failing them because

they will never be able to

accomplish in their mind what

their parents did.

So since I'm not going to be

able to have home ownership

since I'm not going to be able

to retire when I want since

I'm not going I am going to

focus my energies on that

which I can control which is

time spent with family right.

Certainly very commendable.

But it's an excuse it's a

cop out because if you're

in this business and you're

a technician never in 25 or

30 years like I said or

more has there ever been a

more golden opportunity

for you to ton it

if you had a work ethic.

Yes.

If you have the ability to

understand the measure of how

badly you want something is

what it is you're willing to

give up to get it.

And if you understand that

you're sacrificing today

for the blessings of tomorrow

you can ton it.

And you don't have to be

the fastest ATAC and you

don't have to be flat rate

or anything.

You can write your own

damn ticket by doing that

which others won't do

and you'll do it for a

short period of time.

I'm not talking 20 minutes

I'm talking about you do it

for several years.

It might take you eight

it might even take you 10 years.

That means 10 years and

not going to ball games

or not going to recitals

coming in late leaving early

working the Saturday

or the day that you don't

want right doing that

sacrificing again today

for the blessings of tomorrow.

And the next thing you know

if you do it right

and you manage your money

right and you approach

eight approach a mentor.

Hey look I'm 52 I can retire.

Yeah.

I'm 55 I retire.

We lived modestly I'm 50

I can retire and do whatever

the hell I want to do.

Spend time then.

Yeah.

Deferred gratification.

Play with grandchildren.

Right.

Exactly.

I mean this is this is

what can be done.

So when someone says to me

well you know it's

a different time.

I acknowledge it absolutely

is a different time.

But if you're a tech

in this environment

with all the leverage

that you have

if you're not out

studying to improve yourself

every night instead

of watching an FM ball game

if you're not doing

what's necessary

to improve your skills

your ability

show up on time.

Yes.

Leave your problems at home.

Yes.

Forget about the baby mama drama.

Don't be liquored up

and show up hungover.

Don't be one of these morons

that goes

boss earns a dollar

iron a dime.

That's why I'm going to poop

on company time.

Right.

Yes.

Don't be on the phone

every 10 minutes.

Oh my god.

With the

girlfriend problem

or you know

whatever your side hustle

thing maybe

focus on what you're doing

when you're at your job.

Now there's some guys

and this is

this will piss a lot of people off.

So that makes me happy.

Okay.

So there are some guys that say

look I don't care

how much time

the guy gets on the phone

as long as he gets the work done.

Right.

Okay.

So if if you give the guy

eight hours of work

and he gets the work done

in six hours

knocks it out.

Well

give him more work.

Let him earn.

Right.

Help him construct

a budget.

Hey if you do this

if you get off the crapper

if you get off the phone

I can show you

where you're going to earn

X amount of more money per day

X amount of more money per week.

We'll set this up

in a retirement account for you

we'll put it in this type of

investment.

Let me set you up

to have you ever set up a budget.

How about I got Dave Ramsey

for my guys at the shop.

I'm like who wants to have

Dave Ramsey

I'll pay for it.

Nobody wanted it.

I'm giving them everything

they need to secure their future.

They didn't avail themselves

but they'll complain.

So Dutch is that a reflection

on the fact that they already

feel like it is

it it's all for naught

because of this current situation

that we're in going back to

that the way the light

the world has changed

and the economic

situation all kind of stuff

is could that be why

or is it.

Certainly no I mean that

that's a very very fair question

it certainly could be

that they're discouraged

and that discouragement

is preventing them

from seeing things

in a proper perspective.

Absolutely.

But the fact is sometimes

you just got to grow the F up.

Yeah.

Okay.

Don't come crying to me

about you're not having

the future you want

when you're not willing

to make that investment

in that future.

Yeah.

That's powerful.

All right I mean

you know you asked my daughter

she grew up without me.

Is that something I'm proud of?

No it absolutely isn't.

Seven days a week

work seven days a week

for nine years.

I worked seven days a week

for nine years

while I was going through

chemotherapy.

I worked.

Because I did that though

what did she want for?

Nothing.

And I'm not talking about

buying her the latest

and greatest in a new car

or any of that sort of stuff.

You know the fact is

she got she went to a good

school a good college

she always had food

in her belly

a roof over her head.

She lived in a nice house

not a great house

not a mansion

three bedrooms two baths

she had what she needed

to thrive

and she has.

But in order to do that

I wasn't there for her

because I had to start

at 40 all over again.

But the example that you set

I can see that she's taken

a lot of it

to heart

and she you know the

yes it's absent time

but she seemed to have a

I'm going to assume

probably at a very young age

understood what it was all

about and why.

She got scared.

One time she overheard

me talking to my wife

about the loss of retirement

and that scared her.

You remember.

Yeah.

I mean I studied finance

in school and my friends

used to say

why do you always start

every sentence with.

Well when the markets

crashed in 2008.

And it was because

it's shaped who I am

you know that

that conversation

and this idea that

everything you have

can be taken away from you

and you have absolutely no idea

when it's going to happen

or how it's going to happen.

Yeah.

That's it.

So you know we make a joke

in the family we'd say

she's so tight

that when she walks

her sneakers quick.

All right because

but I'm proud as hell

because she doesn't waste money.

Right.

And see what.

That's awesome to you

because whereas it could have

like really shaped you

in a dark way

and felt like all was woe

and it was never going to

you just buckled down

just like he does

and has and always will.

To to

effort.

I'm going to do the best

that I can with it.

Right.

I think that he taught me

the only thing you're really

in control of

is your work ethic.

Like the things that happened

to him.

You know it's completely

like out of the blue.

Right.

And the only thing

that you can do

is like he said

you just kind of get through

it by keep working hard.

And I would say like

you know this idea

that he's gone

in my childhood.

Physically he's gone

but what is he doing?

He's providing for our family.

So was he really gone?

The answer is no.

No.

Yeah I didn't I didn't go to

some of the parties

that she went to.

And you know there's things

that father daughter

stuff that I missed.

Yeah.

Let's be candid.

Okay.

And you're never going to

get that back.

She's only going to be

three four or five years

old or whatever.

But ultimately that's

not the bigger issue.

The bigger issue is

the odds are really high.

She needs to have her

future set up

to give her the tools

that she can go make her

way in the world

and be successful.

Yeah.

Now my other child

is on the spectrum

and he will never ever

be able to take care of himself.

It's not his fault.

No.

That's the way the good Lord

made him made him

that way for a reason.

Well what's my responsibility?

What's my obligation

to take care of him?

Which means

you got to put money back.

Yeah.

You got to plan for the care

that's going to happen

after we're gone.

Yes.

Because he's going to be

living for another 30 40

years after Louise and I

go take the dirt nap.

Yeah.

So if you don't do that

if you don't live up to your

obligations

what good are you?

What kind of man are you?

And see I think that's where

because I mean I'm not a daughter

I'm somebody's son

but I mean I can remember

like my father

I have memories of when it was

like he worked a lot too

because my dad was

collision tech

and then we were always

working on cars at home

on weekends right?

So there was a lot of times

I can remember that

I can remember having to like

beg him

while he was in the middle

of working on a car

on a Saturday afternoon

to finally take the training

wheels off the bike

so that I could start trying

to you know

and I couldn't have found

the tool in the garage

to be able to get them off

anything that

so I can remember him

grumbling

and finally getting the

and then of course it's not

you don't just

he didn't turn around

and go back to work

he has to get involved

in me learning

how to balance on

kind of stuff

and part of me remembers him

I having to beg

and plead

and get him to

to stop working on the car

for a second

to help this pivotal point

in my life

but I don't disrespect him

or resent him

for what he was doing

at that time

I just remember that

right it's a

it's a memory burned

in my brain

that because

he's in coveralls

and an old welding cap

on the top of his head

because he was probably

in the trunk

brazing floorpans

into the trunk panel

that's what he would have

been doing right

so I am

I'm appreciative

of what the hustle

that he put in

his whole life

for my parents

to provide for both of us

my brother and myself

but at the same time

you don't have that

any kind of

ill feelings to him

because of what he had to miss

you understand the sacrifice

was worth the reward

whereas I see other people

that complain about it

my daddy was never

there's obviously more there

and it's just an excuse

I don't think she ever

see I can't speak to anybody

else's circumstance

right

but she has owned me

since she was

wee big

this is one of my favorite stories

Louise is in the

in the kitchen

Anna's

maybe two years old

between two and three years old

and

she says to Anna

come here honey

so Anna

comes in the kitchen

and she says

do this for mommy

so Anna

being a good daughter

does this

but I'm standing there

and she says okay sweetie

go out and go play

but I turn to Louise

I say what the hell

did I ever do that for

she goes I just wanted to

see which one she had

you wrapped around

so there was never any

right

yeah

there was never any doubt

although I wasn't there

that she was cherished

and loved

there was

of all the things

you could say about me

and there are plenty of

bad things you could say

she always knew

my kids always knew

how I felt about them

and that I was doing

what was necessary

for our family to thrive

so you can either accept

that

or you can betch about it

yeah

yeah you can't

you can't resent your job

and I think that

that's something that's

really powerful for me

especially

as I've started my career

you know in the past decade

there's gonna be times

where it's hard

and you're gonna

not get to do the things

you want to do

or you know you're gonna

work later

and not sleep as much

so you can't resent

the things that

are gonna take you

where you want to go

and for him

you know making these

sacrifices for our family

if I

if I resented that

I would be miserable right

right

and instead it's so powerful

because it's like

now I have this very

strong work ethic

and you know candidly

I live

I live very well

and I'm

and I'm very thankful so

and I always say

it's I credit my dad

because the late nights

or the working on weekends

or whatever I

I don't resent

because it's an opportunity

to get better

and it's a defeated attitude

I think to just cop that

is an immediate excuse

I resent my parents

for this

right

my you know

I had

I had nice things

but they were never there

you know what kind of crap is that

well it's modern crap

you know

you know I mean

coming from a

group of immigrants

when they came to this

country and had nothing

and watched their family

being wiped out

by the Holocaust

and

you have a different perspective

of really what's important

in that regard

in the sense of family

yes

that was there

you know people that

they just

they lose it

right

I mean the entire time

my mother

didn't complain

when her father worked

that was not

you didn't

these are Eastern European people

they were stoic

you you did what was necessary

because you had

an obligation to do it

yeah

that obligation

no longer

exists

now it's a choice

yeah

well no

you don't

have that choice

I mean

yeah you always have it

in other words

and there's nothing

nobody's holding again

the gun in your head

so you can't do it

but the fact is that

in the culture

in which I was raised

there were certain things

that men did

certain things that women did

certain things you did

as a couple

to advance

the family

yeah

now

and I saw even

there isn't that anymore

it's

you know yes

you do see people

that are saying

I value the time

and I want to work life

balance

and all that sort of stuff

but

yeah

it's not

aside from the coaching side

of things

like as

to the advice of the younger

shop owners starting out

what's some other things

that you can

that you can share from

from your insight

as to what they need to be doing

all right so the first thing

they need to do is

and this is one of the most

difficult things

that they need to do

it really

I don't care how many books

you got on growing a business

or any of that sort of stuff

you have to have some

real introspection

you have to

absolutely stop what you're

doing

turn off the distractions

and ask yourself

am I cut out to do this

am I willing to make

the sacrifices necessary

so that I can do

what it is I want to do

am I willing to sacrifice time

with my family now

am I willing to put

my personal fortune at risk

am I willing to go into debt

am I willing to make sure

that when I come home

I don't bring the

anguish of work

or the frustration into the house

because it's not my spouse's fault

yes

that that trans slipped off the

you know the jack

that's not has nothing to do

with her

with her at all

right

you have to determine

am I

willing to put the time in the book

so that I understand

what a financial statement is

I'm not trying to become a countant

I'm not trying to do

I just want to be able to look

and understand the numbers

and tell me what they mean

am I willing to put the time

into say

you know

I don't know this

I'm going to need help

what is the KPI

what does that stand for

can you tell me what the difference

is between mark-up and margin

why that's important to me

what are the benchmarks

that I should be shooting for

at every dollar

how much should wind up going

towards labor

how much should go to parts

how much should go for overhead

how much should go for marketing

and what am I supposed to be left with

by asking questions

sincere interest

because you may engage in introspection

determine

this ain't for me

this is not what I want to do

find a mentor

find somebody who's successful

in the business

and see do you want to run your business

like they do now

in this case I'm going to have to be fair

well I don't care for obviously

for the volume based transactional model

there are plenty of people

if you just view it as a business

yes

there are plenty of people that

want to do that business

because you produce revenue faster

than at established relationship

based you scale it faster

it has a whole host of advantages

all right

if that's what you want to do

if you're money motivated

if you if your idea of being a great tech

is flat rate

because you want that cash

then you you should shift yourself

to the to the volume based

transactional model

yeah

if you care about people go look don't

worry about

I'll do the service the money will follow me

I do really good work

yeah

that's a relationship based model

determine who you are

determine what's important to you

be true to yourself

and then ask yourself

am I going to do this

am I really

or is this just kind of like a passing idea

yeah

you know

because a lot of people want to do

stuff but when it comes to

the rubber meeting the road

they don't do it

or did I make the mistake from going away

from being an employee

and deciding I was going to be a business owner

perfect

right you're exactly right

was that a mistake for some

yeah absolutely

I think that the industry where we are

right now

I'm going to say it I think even for a

long time before

they did make a mistake

yep

well the the bot themselves a job thing

that we always see people refer to

right

it's a very real thing Dutch

like it has happened for a lot of us

have worked for people that just

managed to buy themselves a job

you made an interesting point

when you talked about debt

I'm going to think that when you're starting out

that's inevitable

you're going to have to go in a little bit of debt

right

I think it's like the

the equipment that the shop is going to need

the

you know

I don't want to say marketing maybe

because like I don't

necessarily believe that that

if you do it right

you need to spend a pile of money on marketing

I think you

if you do it right

it takes care of itself a lot of it

but where's some of the

how do they avoid those pitfalls of

too much too fast

well the first thing you have to wind up

doing is realizing that you don't need to buy

anything new if used will do

all right there's no reason that

if you're starting a business out that

you be should be spending $80,000 on a

hunter setup

yeah

hunter make great equipment

no question about it

yeah

if you can't determine what the return on

investment is

if you don't understand the calculation

necessary to determine that

you don't buy it

you buy something that's older that you

can use that you can pay off quickly

right that's one of the things that you can

wind up is it necessary to have the

latest and greatest tire balancer

no no

right

we've been balancing tires with long

before road force and balancing them

effectively

yep

long before

did it sometimes take a little bit more

time yes

yes

but we were able to do it

I mean cars would go 200 miles an hour

long before there was a road force

balancer

without shaking the you know the fillings

out of the driver's teeth

one of the things that you have to do is

resist the temptation to get on the

software bandwagon that costs you

$200 here a month 180 there

$320 because after that all adds up

yeah

can you do stuff do you have to buy an

SMS right away

shop management system no you don't

initially you can do it with quick books

right

all right because you're not going to be

that busy

unless you buy an established business

already

where you have cash flow that's coming in

right

so to kind of offshoot from the software

answer

is there something you suggest

that they don't tackle

as a young as starting out

well the first thing you have to do is

do not buy an alignment machine

okay

do not get any alignment machine when

you first start out there's no

reason

you should be able to sub that out to

somebody in your name but yet so

many coaches tell us all it's such a

great revenue generator and you save

so much money by not having to sublet

it out and

it's such a quick turnaround on the time

because you bill it for 1.2 and you

know your tech should only take 18

minutes

yeah well you really want to talk to

me about this

well you and I know that an 18 minute

alignment is not really what you're

doing is you're setting the toe and

you're letting it go yeah okay you're

not performing an alignment

and if you're gloating about the

fact that you're doing it in 18

minutes and you're charging them for

1.2 and you're not performing the

service as it's designed

you're stealing from them yes

okay now if you did it

if you did the service correctly and

because you're fast knowledgeable you

seldom make mistakes and you can

knock it off

take the time right but setting the

toe and let it go

and that's it no what are you gonna

do when you need a calibration

lane change what are you gonna do

yeah set the toe and let it go and

go to work

right you don't have to buy new tools

for everything that comes across your

desk

you don't have to accept every bit of

work

that comes across your desk that was

what i was going to be

asking you next because you're

you are known as a guy that could

fix some problem cars back in the

day yep

right but when you look back at

those problem cars what was the

key

to making it work for you financially

and was there a whole lot of them

that you look back now and go

that was just an exercise in

fertility and pride

well there's there's a couple of them

that absolutely kicked my butt and you

know i actually had to ship

to the dealer i was just like i

appreciate in my rope i got nowhere to

go i've exhausted every avenue

i don't know right and i turn to the

owner and say look

here's the deal

um you're not paying me for any of that

that i've done

i didn't fix the vehicle i didn't come

up with a plan to allow you to

fix the vehicle

do me a favor

when you go and bring this to the

dealer

okay because you haven't spent any

money with me it didn't matter if i

had one hour in or ten hours

they did not pay it's in writing on my

website right

okay if i couldn't figure out what was

wrong with it

go to the dealer when the dealer

figures it out let me know what the

hell it is i got to see what i missed

right most of the time people would

laugh and go sure

and they would you know they would

tell me here this is what i'm like

oh what a dumbass you know i i

completely forgot about that i didn't

i didn't do this right or anything

but for the most part

when someone would bring in a science

project i got paid up front

and i had to have them understand

that they ultimately wouldn't pay for

any testing evaluation

if i couldn't come up with the solution

but the only way that was going to

happen was if they agreed to the

testing plan

that i prescribed in advance right so

years ago it was 750 bucks

to start

because when somebody comes to me and

i've been to five other shops and

they couldn't figure it out

what obligation do i have to them to

be cheap zero exactly right

i'm willing to put my money where my

mouth is and guarantee my repair we're

going to start with 750 now i can call

you and tell you i want you more you

have to determine what it is you want

to spend

really really simple and if i say i need

another 750 and you say no i'm not

giving you that money back because you

turned me down

you're so you're still giving them a

value of what the 750 the testing

results the the the eliminations of

it's not this it's not that it's not that

and it isn't that we're still not there

yet

but there's value in what we say to the

customer right and that i've

eliminated

you don't if somebody goes to if you

go to anyone else and they tell you

that you need those four things

i would lay my reputation on the line

that you don't because i've already

proven out that you don't have we

hit the magic

final whatever you know bullseye

no we have not

but i know that i'm zoned in this close

it's called diagnosis by exclusion

we've excluded that which can't be yeah

so now what remains and we just whittle

that down to get to the point where you

find it

yeah and it's it's absolutely frustrating

and it was certainly a part of pride

and it could i have earned more money

yeah by doing break jobs all day long

yeah by doing gravy front end work

by doing flushathons yeah make me

want to yak

you know that's not

i don't do that i don't do flushers

like that

amazing what um i don't want to keep you

guys i know anna's got yeah one of the

places to be but that's just closing

thoughts on what you think to be back

here and see that the new venue

and you know anna what do you think

of it

and god i hope next year you'll be

here

well i'll be here as long as they want

me to teach the class i want i want

really want

technicians to know that there's an

avenue that's open to them

that can change their destiny yeah

that can change their future that can

provide for their family and there's

never been a better time for it

so i'll be back as long as that they're

willing to have me here so that i can

teach this

and i'll continue to mentor shop owners

through the auto shop owners group

which is a 501c through charity again

nobody pays for anything also another

resource i'm just going to pitch

score.org

which is a service core of retired

executives

oh cool so you go and you go score.org

you enter in your zip code and it brings

you to the closest chapter

so if you say well i don't have

anybody i want to talk to here

boom there it is

okay so

and i answered the question

you don't remember the question

no the question was what i think of the

venue

i think it's incredibly impressive i've

been to the rally convention center

before

i've never been down to this

level but i mean overall the scale the

production the

like involvement of it is all very

impressive and

and i'm a little jealous because you know

i think that it takes a lot of really

passionate people in the industry to

make stuff like this happen so i'm

really glad i i could come this year

i can say that that honestly like

what i love about this industry and

in this

this networking style that we're doing

is the passion that somebody like

your dad

has i've always seen it

but to meet it in person and get to

know and be able to call him a friend

that's something i'm one of the most

proud of is the fact that he considers

me a friend and i am able to call him a

friend

it's huge to me huge because he he was

an example for me before he even knew

who i was

just by how he always took this

industry

you know

so i i've been very blessed so

unyielding and uncompromising in many

respects

you know i

that's i just i i want this place

i want what we do to be thought of

in the same level of professionalism

that people have

as attorneys and airline pilots yeah

because a lot of the work is just as

freaking difficult

one hundred percent

and the risk is the same

all right yeah you're right

i don't have

180 people behind me when i'm doing

this break job

right

but if i do it wrong that mother

and that kids that they may be just

as dead as if i screwed up at the

controls of the airplane yeah

you want to live with that

i don't want to live with it

no no you know

not once not once

there's an expression i'll leave you

with this and i want you to think how

this is going to apply to automotive

repair

and the and the poem is this

aviation to an even greater

even greater degree than the sea

is terribly unforgiving of any

carelessness in capacity or neglect

we have to bring that same attitude

of not tolerating carelessness

incapacity or neglect

to what we do yeah

that's how we're going to get our

value to be understood

amen thank you guys

all right appreciate it thank you

appreciate you

hey if you could do me a favor real

quick

and like comment on and share this

episode

i'd really appreciate it

and please most importantly set the

podcast to automatically download

every tuesday morning

as always i'd like to thank our

amazing guests for their

perspectives and expertise

and i hope that you'll please join us

again next week on this journey of

change

thank you to my partners in the asa

group

and to the change in the industry

podcast

remember what i always say

in this industry you get what you pay

for

here's hoping everyone finds their

missing 10 millimeter

and we'll see you all again next

time

About this episode

Dutch Silverstein shares his insights on the automotive repair industry, emphasizing the shift from relationship-based to transactional business models. He discusses the importance of work ethic, mentorship, and the sacrifices necessary for success in the field. Dutch reflects on his experiences as a shop owner and the challenges faced by technicians today, advocating for a return to high standards and customer service. His daughter, Anna, adds a personal touch, sharing her perspective on growing up in the industry and the values instilled by her father.

alignment road force balancer road force balancing tire balancer toe transmission

Toyota Camry

Original notes

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In this episode, Jeff Compton is joined by Dutch Silverstein and his daughter Ana. Dutch brings up the differences of a transaction-based vs relationship-based business model, urging shop owners to pursue what aligns with their personal values and long-term goals. The conversation highlights the need for self-reflection and sacrifice when considering shop ownership, as well as the dangers of lowering standards in the industry.

Timestamps:
00:00 Celebrating Your Return

03:50 Family-Owned Automotive Safe Haven

07:57 Car Repair Frustrations Persist

11:43 Mechanic Reputation and Trust

14:40 Mechanic's Business Growth Journey

16:52 Personal Betrayal in Safe Space

20:25 "Coaching Costs and Industry Influence"

25:51 "Pursuing Integrity Every Day"

28:49 "Sacrifice for Future Success"

31:10 "Boost Productivity, Build Wealth"

35:13 Work Ethic and Presence

37:00 "Training Wheels Off Moment"

42:23 "Self-Reflection for Business Growth"

43:38 Understanding Business Metrics & Decisions

46:31 Avoiding Pitfalls in Business Growth

50:25 "Unpaid Work Clarification"

53:21 Empowering Technicians for Success

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The Jaded Mechanic Podcast

Jeff Compton

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