The Rise of the Specialist: Redefining Automotive Professionalism [THA 485]
Remarkable Results Radio Podcast
The Rise of the Specialist: Redefining Automotive Professionalism [THA 485]
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53:43
Term
body control module
The body control module (BCM) is the car’s computer that runs lots of the non-engine stuff—things like doors and lights. Here, it’s being blamed for staying awake too long because of what the door was doing.
Term
go to sleep
Cars have computers that can “power down” to save battery when they’re not being used. If they don’t shut down when they should, the battery can drain over time.
Term
shop management system
A shop management system is the software a repair shop uses to keep everything organized—like jobs, schedules, and customer updates. The point here is that it helps the shop run smoothly and make money.
Company
NapaTrax
NapaTrax is a software tool for auto repair shops. The hosts are saying it helps shops track results and get training/support to run the business better.
Car
Chevrolet Trax
The Chevrolet Trax is a small SUV made for regular driving, like commuting and running errands. It’s meant to be easy to live with because it’s not too big, but it still gives you the higher driving position of an SUV. People bring it up when discussing which small SUV is the most practical to own.
Term
alternator
The alternator is what makes electricity for the car while the engine is running. It also charges the battery, so if it fails, the battery can run out and the car may start acting up or not start.
LIVE
This is the Automotive Repair podcast network.
Hey everybody, Karm Capriotto in our 11th going into our 12th year remarkable results radio
another town hall Academy. I have an eclectic group of shop owners here and we are going
to talk about the rise of the specialist. I'm so excited. You don't have an idea.
I didn't sleep last night so I could be here to talk about this with Craig, Tom and Brett.
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Okay, let me introduce my panel. Craig Noel. How you doing, Craig?
Peach Acane, Peach Acane.
Son Automotive, Springfield, Oregon. Four locations or is there a fifth that I don't know about?
Three in Eugene, one in Springfield. That's our horse and Junction City. So I got five.
Five? It's like watering a bamboo tree. Sooner or later it just goes whew.
It does. All of a sudden you're from 15 employees to 30. You're like, wait a minute, how'd that happen?
I can't keep up with you guys. Brett Beechler, CEO of Beechler's Tired Automotive Center, Peoria, Illinois.
Was there this past six months ago, maybe?
And the timeline on the wall in the lobby for the customers talks about the lineage of your family business.
75 years, and I know you're celebrating what, in a couple of weeks?
Couple of weeks, yep.
You got to be so proud.
Sorry about it. Yeah, it's pretty humbling. Our all balls down to it.
Who would have thought the grandpa or the grandpa before that that would have ever realized that you'd still be rockin', baby?
Yeah, only 13% of us survived the third generation.
Yeah, isn't that something?
But thankfully God blessed me with a competitive spirit. I don't like to lose, so.
I love that.
That's true.
Well, that sets the tone for our episode here.
I know.
Tom Palermo's here, preferred automotive specialist from Philadelphia, PA, family business, a dad, Joe, over 30 years now, huh?
Oh yeah, 40, yeah. He's in a couple days a week, two he's in.
So he comes in, you know, looks around, gives me the nod.
That's what dads are for.
That's right. Yeah, now we started the business back in the 70s, so yeah. It's been a while.
Yeah.
Okay, it's been a while, so that's not 30, that's more like 45 or maybe close to 50.
He'll tell you, it feels a lot longer than that, I can assure you.
I've heard so many stories about dad coming to work and parking in the wrong spots so customers can't come in and all that junk that they say, dad just doesn't want to let go.
That's a whole nother podcast, Carl.
Oh my God. You're also the vice chair of ASC?
I am, yeah, proudly so.
The coolest way, look everyone, we have a podcast listening app that I just want to remind everyone around about.
And what we've recently done is got this really cool URL, A-R-P-N stands for the Automotive Repair Podcast Network dot app.
And you can go right to it to either do your Android or your Apple thing and get it.
So much good stuff resides on there and the ability to watch the video and or share it with friends and we appreciate that.
And we appreciate all the great support that we've had through all the years from all of our listeners.
So we are going to talk about the rise of the specialist.
Two years ago, Tommy were reminding me that I gave a keynote, my first keynote of the series of keynotes that I've given for the rise of the specialist,
of which is something that I started to write maybe two and a half years ago.
And then Dave Johnson, Jason Rainey, they all said, hey, you got to come in and talk to us.
And then I got a keynote to Ford Motor Company because of it.
And then I've been traveling a lot of places to share this message that we need to stop calling ourselves techs, mechanics, wrenches and even technicians because the field is getting everybody stealing the word technician.
As I say in my keynote, look at Tracy, she goes and gets her nails done and there's a sign nail technician wanted.
It's amazing to think how many industries have taken the word technician.
So it's time for us to leave it on the doorstep and embrace the word specialists.
And it all started, you guys know this.
I've talked about it a lot from me looking at the food industry and chefing and how important being a chef is in that industry.
It's kind of almost ASE-ish, if you will, Tom.
And for people hunting for the Michelin stars, and it is a competitive world,
and they have to do so much work and so much training mentoring that are we cooks or are we chefs in our business?
What's your thoughts, guys?
When you gave that talk to us back at our June meeting two years ago, the content was great, but that was something that really, really stuck to me.
And I brought that back home with me.
And as we were talking about, I had a meeting with my managers and I said, are you cooks or are you chefs?
And they just kind of like, they didn't blow it off, but it didn't hit them at first.
And then I said, no, really, think about it. Are you a cook or are you a chef?
And they said, well, guess I'm a chef.
Well, what does that mean?
What does it mean when you're a chef?
That means you're trained, you have expertise, you've put in the time, you've put in the effort.
When you start to look at it like that, it changes your mentality and it really changes the way you see yourself and the way you see your coworkers and the way you see the industry.
I can't thank you enough for putting this together because it's definitely due.
We've always been clamoring about respect for this industry.
I think this really kind of puts a fine point on it and lets everybody understand, hey, look at all the things we do as an industry.
There's people that work in this industry for our customers.
This is not something that you could just wake up one morning and decide to do.
So we are truly specialists.
Has anyone stopped to think about this technology marvel on four tires?
We respect it. We know we're challenged by it.
We know we educate toward fixing it.
But my God, we don't talk that level of sophistication to our clients.
We just said, oh, our mechanical look at it or our tech look at it.
Well, what does tech mean?
And the power of the word specialist, I have a technology specialist.
I have a calibration specialist that's going to look at why this lights on your dash or the fact that you had some work done on the vehicle and it's not driving the way you expected it to drive.
And I love the fact that if you say, are you cook or chef?
By the way, all of this is clearly outlined in our declaration and you could get it at remarkableatresults.biz on our downloads page.
And here it is, there's a brand new version going up and it's a 10 page, some pictures and documents in it.
And I'll share a little bit about it a little later.
But here we are, when you say cook or chef is the angle and I wasn't in your meeting, but a little later.
So does that make what we do at this highest level?
You point to somebody, aren't you really a specialist in this field of diagnostics?
And somebody would stop and say, yeah, so that means you're a chef.
And so let's call you a specialist because you know this technology.
You study it, you know it, you've got the equipment and the tools and you struggle and you learn just like a chef would when they're creating a new dish.
Because, oh my God, it just hit me guys.
They're creating new dishes all the time, new flavors, new spices and everything.
They're trying to one up everyone.
Those are like all the different models that we work.
Think about, there's nothing really standard in the high level chef industry.
It's always moving and changing.
I think this analogy is stronger than I ever expected from a couple of years ago.
What say you, Brett?
What you just said, Karm, is fascinating.
It just shows the difficulty and the challenge of changing human muscle memory.
I'm challenged by it too.
I hear my guys say technician often.
And my next step is to put the specialist business cards on their computer to say these guys are technology, mechanical and or specialist.
That's it.
Karm, that's interesting.
You said this because I caught myself saying this.
We're going to have the technology specialist look at the car.
Even that one word choice.
My technology specialist is going to perform testing on a blank part of the vehicle.
And right there, it adds value.
Right there, you're telling your client you're not going to get this for free.
You're going to pay the doctor for his time and his testing.
I think that's one of our biggest challenges in the industry.
You know this, Karm.
You've been calling us for over a year as changing mindsets and giving people to over and practice.
Just say, no, this is what we are.
We are not cooks anymore.
We are chefs.
Do you understand this?
And I think it makes it less cumbersome for our advisors or as we call them, our client service advocates.
I think we make it less obtrusive for them to sell the value of what we're doing here.
And if guys could get to that point of understanding like, here's why we're doing it because we've got to paint the why, of course.
I think shop owners and leaders of the shops are going to be successful.
It's really that simple because we all refer back to muscle memory.
I thank you for that.
And before I get to you, Craig, I got to share a screenshot.
It's a business card idea that I just gave a keynote to some young people in college.
And I wanted to really explain that as you evolve yourself to be a calibration or technology specialist, your business card should reflect that.
Please work for a shop that wants to do this for you and wants to give you that kind of recognition.
So thank you for just mentioning the word business card.
I think it's important that we drive these new titles, these new and improved titles into our people because I truly believe it can have effect on the psyche of even a specialist that are working on the car.
Like I call it the peacock syndrome, like their shoulders are back square.
They're like, this is what I do for a living.
And I'm proud of what I do versus that mechanic over there.
So I'm going to take that one step further, Mr. Beechler, because look, I professionally hung up the ranch in 08.
Obviously, I've been involved in this the whole time.
But as it led up to about 2015 to 19 and that the tech side of it started to increase on the car and then we got hit with COVID, something specific happened.
It drove out the older guys that were tired and long in the tooth.
We started to experience even an increased shortage of available technicians.
And what I would say to what you stated, which I think is very, very important.
Yes, it's a title.
But I think it is recognition that has been overdue for years because we are talking about people that not only have to have the mechanical aptitude.
They've got to have the IT aptitude.
They have to have the aptitude of hydraulics, which is a plumber.
They've got to have the aptitude electronics.
I mean, you put all four of those positions separately together as an annual salary.
We're underpaying our guys right now, are we not?
And it's interesting how the perspective from the consumer is that, oh, it's easy.
It's simple and it's not.
And I find it our responsibility as leaders of the industry to be able to work through how we are A, recognizing our people, how B, we are educating the consumer via the confidence of our CSRs or our advisors through education that builds confidence in what value the technician is establishing.
Because that's going to establish our recognition throughout the country in regards to the career path that you can have that is extremely rewarding.
I would have said before, we've talked about this for years, Carm and Brett and everybody, look, I want my guys to be able to pull the next door to a doctor and say, hey, my education is paid for and I got a better truck than you.
I mean, at the end of the day, right?
So sorry to kind of get off on my bandwagon, but I'm so passionate about this because it means so much that this has not been given to our industry.
Finally, we have the entire family in our hands, basically the other car, right?
It's just not the patient on the table.
The entire family is going over the mountain and it's going to go skiing.
And if that brake bleeder is not accurately tightened, right, what can happen?
So, you know, we got everybody accurately torqued.
Accurately torqued.
Accurately torqued.
There you go.
I think you're correct.
Craig, you know, there's another part of this.
We need to do this internally with ourselves.
Without it.
What I mean when I say that is, so as shop owners, we need to make sure that we're supporting each other.
So that means when Mrs. Jones car comes in from another shop, our first instinct isn't to throw the other shop under the bus because you'll notice when you deal with doctors or you deal with professional, you know, with those types of professionals,
very rarely do they bad mouth each other and try to do things like that.
But that's a place where we really need to focus so that there's kind of a homogenous kind of message that's going out there.
I think this is a great, great first step to that because it kind of smacks you in the face and it makes you realize, hey, wait a minute, you know, we're electricians.
We're doing hydraulics.
We're doing mechanical.
We're doing it.
All those things come together and you just, you know, these guys are doing it every day.
They don't think about it.
Once you kind of like lay it out and say, hey, do you realize how technically proficient you are at all these different things?
There's a certain amount of pride to Brett's point that comes in and that I think is what will get this kind of off the ground and get it moving in the right direction.
Most of you guys know that I'm a big, I mean, Craig knows this, I'm a big word choice guy.
I want to get the mindset to the point where my mechanical technology calibration specialists are revered.
And if you don't treat them, I'm not saying put them on a pedestal like, you know, praise them, all that stuff.
Here's what I love.
When I have a specialist walk in the door and he's leaving a vehicle with us, I mean, Carmen Craig, no, I have two buildings here.
So we have to get kind of creative on how we have workflow and everything going on.
So when they walk in the door and they're the client that I'm working with or one of my advocates is working on that happens to have the specialist walk in the door,
I go, hey, that's Caleb, that's your specialist who worked on the car.
Like that's the doctor who did the work.
I can see kind of like a little extra step when they do that, like, because they're always behind the walls, right?
And if we can get to that mindset of like revering these people, what they're doing every day, day in and day out, because it's a tough job.
100%.
Yeah. And so it's being an advocate.
I think they're a symbiotic relationship.
They should have symbiotic respect between the two of them.
Yeah.
But it's a tough job whenever we can get to the point of where every day we're revering and being gratitude toward them and have gratitude toward them.
I think you're going to go miles and leaps and bounds ahead of where the average shop is out there.
And I'll piggyback on what Tom said, Karm, to your point that's coming up, because Tom's talking about how another shop will, you know, bad mouth or say what they could potentially.
What I can tell you is that nine times out of 10, it comes down to poor communication.
It wasn't about what happened behind the curtain.
It was poor communication, which in my view, through education, through value that Brett's talking about, we have the ability to be able to establish the value with very clear communication and expectations that all of a sudden changes the
perspective from the consumer when the same stuff that happened behind the counter is now completely discussed in a different way.
And we have to be able to adapt that.
We can't just say, yeah, Ms. Smith threw an earlier on it, you're good to go.
No.
Hey, actually, what happened, Mr. Smith, is that, you know, your BCM didn't acknowledge to the BCM that your door was open and it caused the computer to communicate with the BCM, which is the body control module, to not go to sleep after 45 minutes.
It went to sleep after four hours and 45 minutes, but it took us four hours and 45 minutes when it happened to discover it.
Now, does that sound better than it was just an alternator?
It's a way that we have to be able to educate the consumer along the way to be able to let them know that, holy smokes, you don't just plug a computer in and it goes done.
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I love this great dialogue. Let me put a little umbrella over it.
Tom, you were talking to your people, cook or chef, right?
And if you rolled your sleeves up with your people and you're discussing this,
they've all read the declaration, they go, wow, should we be doing this? What do you think?
And wouldn't the words, isn't what you do, technical mastery?
Again, with the words that we want to do and change in our industry and this language shift lift,
our people have to buy in and they need to stop and think that it's mastery,
that they're challenged with and that they're overcoming.
And that may get the kind of discussion point for saying, yes, Craig, let's do this.
I think you're 100% right. And you know, Craig, to your point, this is why whatever, you know,
your CSR service advisor, whatever your title is you given them, they are critical in passing this message along.
Because most shops, it's not the technicians that are dealing with the customers, it's those folks.
So that's a place where definitely to dispense some attention and give them the tools to be able to be the specialist that they are.
You know, because really, when you think about it, they're the go-between between the back of the shop which is super technical
and maybe Mrs. Jones doesn't know much about vehicles.
So they have to translate all that, you know, to her, all that garbage cook and make it make sense
and still get the point across, Craig, that this is a complicated problem.
We put our diagnostic specialist or whatever on it and here's all the things that led up to the problem you had.
Here's the reason you had the problem you had and here's how we resolved it.
When they start, if they can get that message across to the customer, that will help drive this because then your shop becomes your goal.
And if we all do it, it's that rising tide, you know, saying it definitely lifts all boats.
We're working on one of the most advanced machines ever built.
And they continue to advance beyond what we could ever keep up with and we're using outdated job titles.
A hundred percent.
We're expected to get it right every time the first time, Carl.
Well now, so interesting because I was going to come right back to this part of it, Tom.
So, Carm, a simple thing that happens in our industry on what I would call, you know, shops that need to get up to speed with how we set ourselves up for success
is when we know or we suspect that it's going to be a certain component.
I have a laminated thing in the end of my terminals. I think I've told you guys this before.
Don't promise what you don't know.
So if we're going to say to Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Smith, right now we know that the alternator is failed,
but we can't complete testing on the system until that's replaced.
So again, we're setting ourselves up for further communication, an additional, you know, potential repair or add-on.
But when we blanket statement and symbolize it and say, hey, Mrs. Smith, you just need an alternator.
That's it. And you call back two hours later.
Well, Mrs. Smith, it's all of that, all of that communication and how we do it
and how we educate them about how an alternator works.
I mean, it can go on and on different systems, Carm, but you get my point.
It is within us. It's our responsibility to change the way that we work,
because it's like a four by 100 relay on a track race.
And every four of those key positions in our industry,
if we don't hand the baton off just right, you're done and you lost by two one-hundredths of a second.
And so I liken it like that. It's like every aspect, right?
From intake to appointment setting to communication advisor customer backed
or advisor technician and back to the customer, it all has to flow very, very well.
And the way that we set ourselves up, it just means better respect, better value.
And of course, you know, better education and a trusting consumer.
Carm, your assessment and Brett, you said you really hang on words.
This is the place where you describe Craig was, you know, when you say the word diagnostics,
that's a very finite word.
I'm going to diagnose the car.
The assessment, testing, testing.
It's evaluation. It's something along those lines so that the expectation is that,
look, we want to diagnose the car right out of the gate and get it right.
But sometimes there are problems that, you know, we have to get to a certain point,
get ourselves a hundred percent there and then continue testing.
Could be other issues.
So that's where, you know, Carm, and this is, you know, the language that you're using here,
Brett, what you're talking about, Craig, you know, words matter.
And we really, as an industry, need to stop using the shotgun and start using the sniper rifle.
Yeah, great analogy.
Very true.
I love that. Hey guys, here's another slide I want to show you.
The work evolved, the language didn't.
Look at that.
There you go.
And of course, no matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.
Yeah.
Carm, I think in the end, what you've spearheaded, there is no gray area about this.
It is something that must be completed by the leaders of all these top quality automotive shops.
That's not the question.
The question is, the top quality leaders of these shops, come on guys, let's get moving.
But it's turning around and inspiring this improvement, not change, but this improvement in our industry.
That's going to be where the rubber meets the road.
That's going to be the challenging part.
You know, we're here to help encourage and inspire people to do it because you know how our brains think.
We've got this idea flowing through our head and then the implementation thought also comes in.
And that's where I think a lot of dreams are shut down because you all, I'm going to have to do this.
I'm going to need to change business cards, my website, all this other stuff.
I'm going to have to coach these guys through 21 times and building muscle memory to stop saying, you know, the technician.
You know, it's like, man, that's a process just to tick our, you know, our industry up just another notch.
Am I willing to do that?
Brent, I love it.
Thank you for saying that.
Hopefully that's the big sound bite from here.
But we embrace technician and we fell in love with it.
Oh, wow.
Oh, this is so cool.
Well, wait a minute.
Everyone's stolen that it doesn't have the power and the value anymore.
So why would I not want to embrace specialist because from 20 years ago when we fell in love with technician to where we are today,
because of this technology marvel that we're working with testing diagnostics, all this stuff evaluate.
Why not?
I'm sorry.
If it's a heavy lift, shame on you.
I'm not discouraging people.
I'm just saying I understand the mindset of what's going on these leaders.
They just got to fight the bullet and make it happen to go.
I need to take my business to the next level.
I agree.
100%.
Therein lies the challenge.
Now, the very first bullet point on my mission statement is that we strive to improve the automotive industry every day.
And this is part of it.
We have to live and breathe the fact that who we have specialists, what we do is technical and what we provide to you is valuable.
I mean, Karm, you're right.
It's not just a word track anymore.
It's recognition.
It's raising the level of our industry and the view, the consumers view of it.
It's going to take a while for all of us to buy in and row in the same direction.
Yeah.
And that was, Karm, you talked about going from going to technician.
It was a long pass to get people to go from mechanic to technician.
I mean, it was torture, but we did it.
And then everybody else stole it to your point, Karm.
I think we're in a little bit better position here for a couple of reasons.
One, we're able to get the word out much, much easier than we were before.
But if we can get shops and technicians that are out there now to buy into this, that would be great.
But this is a place just thinking outside of the box.
Schools should be embracing this.
This is something that the trade schools should be embracing saying,
would you like to become a technology specialist if you want to use that as your diagnostic person?
Getting them to buy in as equally as important because that gets them in that mindset young
as they filter into the industry and we push this, it kind of helps bring everything together quickly.
In my discussion today with the students out at Hawkeye Community College,
I impressed upon them to look for opportunities, jobs, internships
that will give you a career path, will give you the kind of title that you can master.
And you're not going to come out of a two-year school being a technology diagnostic specialist.
You're not.
But you want to interview with a shop that has plans to lift you in ways,
but you've got to have that commitment, that educational commitment to go further.
And guys and ladies, I told them, the world's your oyster
because this is such a huge industry with so much opportunity with technology changing every day
that if you become the brainiac specialist, you're going to go a long way and make a lot of money.
It's funny you bring it up and as you were talking about that,
it made me reflect on how we have to get over this subconscious feeling
that the people that work for us were not a plan B for Johnny.
We now need to say, hey, no, Mr. Customer or hey, Mr. Consumer out there.
No, this is what he wanted to do for a career, right?
This wasn't a plan B because he couldn't go to college and get a degree in Northern French history of art or whatever.
No, no, he chose this industry, right?
Therein lies part of what we have to consider here
because I don't think really everybody out there, aside from the push from people like Mike Rowe
and all of the others that are introducing or have been for years introducing the specialty trades,
but now it's the recognition of choosing that trade.
That's what he chose to do.
Oh, it's 104 degrees out and the car is running at 230.
You're trying to adjust the valve and you got an advisor that's saying, hey, can it be done in 30 minutes?
I mean, right as we do every day.
Wow, that's a lot of difference sitting behind a computer trying to figure out how much a piece of French Northern art sold a year ago.
I'm just saying, oh yeah, there's a computer that you don't want to have fly off the car
and you've got to be able to catch it because it only happened once in six months at 85 degrees.
The ambient temperature going up a hill at 35 miles an hour, 20%.
That's OK.
You're killing me. I love it.
This is where, Karm, what you've put together here, I think, and organizations like ASC
coming together to help push us to your point, Craig,
what better way to show a consumer that, hey, we're serious about what we're doing.
The technicians are serious about what they're doing.
They're certified professionals.
They went through the education, whether it's a school or whether they just came through an apprenticeship program
at a shop and came up.
I always lean on this when it comes to this kind of stuff.
We as shop owners, we as industry leaders, we're the ones that drive this.
If we're not expecting it, if we're not telling our people, hey, ASC is important, let's do it.
It's a great representation to the consumer and your colleagues that you're serious about what you're doing.
This wasn't your plan B. This is what you wanted to do and this is how you're going to build a life for yourself and your family
and have a career, not just a job.
This isn't just a job. This is a career.
I'll get off my soapbox.
Guys, you're here because I know you each have soapboxes and I have one too.
In fact, I'm going to show it to you in a few minutes.
I actually have a real one.
Anyone out in the area of hearing us know Mike Rowe or can get me an email to Mike Rowe.
I want to send him the rise of the specialist.
I want to send him that paper because I think he could help us in certain ways as he does his social media stuff
and he's in front of people to start saying that the people who work on your vehicle, those skilled career people are specialists
and that's where they're heading.
Now, one of the big pushbacks that I get when I talk to people about this is,
says, Karm, you don't understand.
I can't make that change because when I'm looking to hire people and I go on indeed,
if I don't have technician in the, I says, fine, put technician in the title for your request
and in the body of who you're looking for, start using the word specialist.
And I think that we could get over the hump with that.
Your thoughts.
Agreed.
Wherever we can do it.
It's not going to happen overnight, Karm.
So, you know, I mean, we still have to kind of play in that end of the pool a little bit,
but I think as the language starts to evolve and people start to change their mindset, I agree with you.
If you have to go on indeed or if you're putting a job and you want to pay technician, whatever,
and then throughout the job description, use technology specialist, I think that's totally doable.
And eventually, we may not have to do that ABC thing anymore.
I've never been a fan of it, but unfortunately, it's just something that kind of took and stuck.
So, you know, because there's a lot of people that are in between levels there and so do you call them a C plus,
the Ecoma B minus, plus, the Ecoma A minus, you know, there's not enough definition there.
I'm with you and I don't want to go too deep on this.
But if I asked Brett, Craig and you, the definition of an A, B, or C, we would have nine different definitions.
I would rather say, listen, I'm looking for a calibration specialist who's got three years of experience or four years of experience.
That could make them a B or an A in your mind and let them come in and sell yourself and ask the right questions
to help define what it is that you're looking for.
Because there are people out there that think they're A's and they're not, but they're going to apply.
Oh, that's happened.
Yep, that's happened.
Maybe once or twice.
Yeah, maybe once or twice.
I had a recent ad with Chris Lawson.
I put it out there and I recruited a tech and just, I mean, it's fantastic.
I had the range of the, you know, potential income on that thing.
And you'd be amazed at how many guys who are C minus techs that came out there.
Nothing against Chris Lawson because I found my guy.
He's coming from my not North Dakota in two weeks to start up my business.
But it's funny when you put the definition of yes, we need a top level tech, whatever it may be.
And they're still going to say, hey, I'm a top level tech.
You know, I just started working at Midas as a basic guy, but I'm a top level tech.
Thank you for this, Brett.
What if you said across in the Mrs.
Okay, so you're a top level tech.
Could you be a top level specialist in my business?
What the hell is that?
Because we're all saying the word tech or technician right now,
because it's ingrained in our muscle memory, as I think Craig, you said,
I'm in meetings and I'm in Buffalo.
I'm, you know, I'm in an app of BDG.
I'm in an independent group and I'm in there every time you hear the word tech technician
and they know the car is going to scold them at the end of the meeting.
The beatings will now begin until we're out improves, right?
That's right.
Yeah, exactly right.
You know, but it's interesting how you think about that.
If you're having a conversation with a perspective, you know, employee, a specialist,
the conversation begins to start to take on this technician label.
And you have to, what if you stop right there and say, well, no, no, no,
we're not looking for a technician.
We're looking for a specialist that has about 15 years experience.
And all of a sudden they like, oh, wait a minute, maybe I don't fit that.
It's going to take as simple as even those things and word tracks and it's going to take that.
Totally agree.
Can I share another slide with you?
Absolutely.
Right here.
Look at this.
So when you think about theists that we have in our world, right?
We have ecologists, we have environmentalists, we have urologists.
You know, we have all theseists and they're designed on a level of focus and expertise
and in the doctoring world, lifesavers, right?
They're lifesavers.
Why wouldn't we be, if you will, longevity lifesavers for a vehicle to last 250,000 miles?
We're just not mechanics that we live in this dark blue collar world.
We'reists.
Yep.
That's it.
And as owners, we are therapists.
I'm just saying.
He's not wrong.
You notice nobody's arguing with you, Craig.
I know what you said that it's going to take us some time.
You know, I haven't done an episode like this ever because I just wanted to get our latest
version out.
I wanted to get the creed going and it is really time to make a push and get out there
in front of our industry a little bit bigger and better and stronger.
And in fact, the people that sell us parts and make us parts need to hear this and they
need to be part of this.
Here's my position.
I'll just give you my two thoughts.
Every day, what do we do?
Well, we're already trying to be relevant on social media to some degree.
We are constantly communicating with our parts suppliers and vendors and representatives
of such on those two fronts.
When you start using this terminology, word will get out and all of a sudden people start
to hear, well, now wait a minute, they're looking for specialists and I'm just a technician.
They start to then say, hold on a second, that's another level of recognition.
And it will start there at the same time.
We're going to have to take time because that's going to be the slow moving Titanic where
through education, through our communication with consumers across the counter, then there
becomes even further layers of the ability to communicate how complicated our industry
really is and how it desperately needs these specialists.
So then it goes home to the kitchen table and it's discussed about, oh my gosh, hey, Johnny,
I just son on a motive.
You should really check that out because they are passionate about what they do.
And they've got specialists that work on this, that, and this, that.
You need to maybe look into that.
You're seeing your year.
Those are the conversations that need to be had.
Start them at six or something.
Great.
I didn't mean to quiet you up there, Carmichael.
Just trying to give you my two cents.
I think you hit all the points.
I think you hit all the points.
You're right.
You got to start them early.
You got to get out there and I think things are starting to turn around for all the trades
to be honest with you because before realizing that going to school is an option for a lot
of people and it's some things you have to do that, but it's not the only option.
And I think we kind of, as a society, we did ourselves a disservice by pushing so many
people that probably would have been fantastic in our, in our business, you know, specialists
from getting into this industry.
God only knows what they're doing, but I think that tide is starting to turn.
And I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard that there's some universities
that are starting to look at putting trade programs in.
And at first, when I heard that, I was like, well, that's great.
The word's out.
And then I thought to myself, wait a minute, are they going to, is this, you know, what's
this going to look like?
You know, so even they're starting to get the picture that, hey, the trades are, are a viable
option for people to have very, very good careers that to be quite honest with you pretty much
stand, stand through just about any economic hardship.
I mean, really, when you think about their sessions and things like that, there's no more
recession proof business than this.
I don't know about you guys, but oh wait, I was expecting disaster and we had actually
went the other way.
We grew a lot.
Even with COVID after the first few months, we grew again an incredible amount.
So I think we need to communicate that and we need to have the right people communicate
that people like you, Korm.
Yeah, it'd be great if you could talk to micro that would be fantastic.
I would love to see that interview.
It'd be a great interview.
I got a way to connect to you.
I'll send it to you.
I mean, Korm, really?
Yeah, I'll send it to you.
I don't know personally, but baby, I'll send it to you.
I said your gold coin.
You know, you might get that gold coin after all.
That could happen.
That could happen 75 years and a gold coin from Korm.
I mean, what else do you need?
The one layer of this, I'm only going to tell you from how I feel about this.
Now, the one thing that I'm trying to wrap my head around is this.
If we look at the other trades, the consumer out there views them differently than our
industry, and I'm trying to wrap my head around why.
Here's what I know.
After 40 plus years of doing this, it's different when you have a plumbing problem.
You got to get the plumbing fixed is what it is.
You know, you got to go to the doctor.
You got to feel better.
You got to go through all that.
You know, you got to go and deal with a lawyer or CPA, whatever it may be.
You've got to deal with that because they're trying to save your bacon.
They're trying to get you better, whatever it may be.
Our trade seems to be the one on the low end of the ladder where unfortunately it's
pay a lot of money to get the keys back in general to get the keys back to continue
to go to soccer practice, get groceries and continue on with life at the same time that
your vacations affected and everything else.
And so along with that layer is this distrust layer.
And that's the hardest part that we've got to try to, you know, that's the gap that
we've got to put the effort into while we're thinking about this because we're
facing right now market compression and we can only charge so much right now in the
tolerance of what the customer is comfortable with, but we've got to be able to pay these
specialists X amount to gain that respect and be able to make that great income that
if we don't start to begin to show the value so that we can be rewarded fairly for our
skill set.
When you look at a plumber that's going to come to your house and they say, well, I've
got two guys on the job.
So now I'm charging you $300 an hour or a lawyer who's $50 per email.
And we can go down the list of whatever those may be in isolation.
But I'm just telling you right now that we've got some hurdles to cross with this
because we've got to gain our value and improve our value to be able to get away from this
market compression that's going on right now.
Look, when you said you silenced me before, I was just moved by what you said and it
felt really good inside of me and in my heart for all the great things you said.
Listen, before we leave, I do want to bring up the creed that we all helped write.
I'd like to read it.
It doesn't take long.
It's a declaration for the professional automotive service industry.
We are professionals who repair, diagnose, interpret, and solve complex problems.
We are specialists.
We are part of a high technology profession.
We apply knowledge, skill, experience, and judgment at the highest level.
We protect the safety and reliability of every vehicle entrusted to us.
We reject outdated perceptions that diminish our role.
We embrace the responsibility, pride, and professionalism of being specialists.
We elevate our skills through continuous education.
The title specialist is not given.
It is earned through dedication, discipline, and mastery.
We take pride in that responsibility and we honor it by earning your trust every day.
This is not just a change in words.
It's a transformation in identity and how we see ourselves and how the world sees us.
Our automotive repair specialist and the rise of the specialist has begun.
On my downloads page, remarkableresults.biz, you can download this.
And look, here's where it happens.
You buy in, the team is ready.
This goes in the lobby a couple of places for your clients to see,
even on a plexiglass piece on the counter.
It's near the time clock.
It's back in the lunch room.
This helps build that culture of being specialists.
And I think there's some pride in this language shift for people to recognize.
When someone ends up going through a, you know, an eight hour class and an event
and they come back and they feel strong about their capabilities now,
they're just a tech or a mechanic.
No, they're hunting toward the specialty that they're so good at.
I wouldn't even take it so far as to the appearance and the image that your specialists have.
I was shaking down local restaurants the last couple of weeks
for our 75th anniversary of the Big Raffle.
And I walked into a local Chick-fil-A and everybody is dressed like me.
And I'm like, if a fast food, high quality fast food restaurant can dress their people
in nice shirts, collared shirts like this, why can't we do something like this?
Why do we have to look like turds from 30 years ago?
It's such a drawdown to look at guys like that.
That's where we come in.
And when I say we, I mean owners.
That's where we have to push this.
We have to drive this.
It's the appearance of your shop.
It's the appearance of your people.
It's putting the creed up in the, in the break room and out front.
More importantly, out front for people to see.
We can communicate that and have that internal conversation.
And we can, you know, be proud of that.
And that's an easy lift to get people that are around you to be proud of it.
We need to communicate that to the outside world.
So, Corm, thank you for putting this together.
This creed is, is fantastic.
And I'm proud that I was able to put a couple of cents in with it as well as Brett and Craig.
I'm really proud to have been involved with this, you know, helping you with it.
You know, even it was just kind of like proofreading and giving ideas.
When you sent it to us, it made so much sense.
And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, why didn't we do this before?
This is great.
I almost felt terrible that I didn't come up with this a year ago,
but it just happened within the last three or four months.
Imagine someone leaving your place being consumed by this new language shift
in the things that you're saying to your clients and they're out to dinner next Friday night.
And they say, hey, yeah, I had some things with my car.
I took it over to Beachlers.
And why do you go there?
Well, there's specialists and everything that they do.
They read it.
They heard it.
They felt it.
They embraced it.
It's not just another shop that the Hollywood continues to tear us down about
and the images that we have and the bad language that we use.
Thank you, Brett.
I want to get up on my soapbox next and do this whole uniform thing.
I do that this whole appearance of the professionals and that we look like,
I don't want to piss people off to say that you have to look this good in order to be a specialist.
And I want to say it, but I don't want to go on total record because you know how bad social media is.
This lift has to come with appearance too, Brett, 100%.
It's part of your ability to educate the customer and get your point across and be able to sell the job to the customer.
When they walk into your establishment, and we should know this by now.
I mean, we really should.
We're not talking about anything earth-shattering when it comes to appearance.
What is going to make a customer feel comfortable when they walk through the door?
Years ago, I did this.
When we moved into this building, we put it together.
I asked people to come here after I got the waiting area set up and say,
I just want you to walk in and tell me how you feel.
Tell me what you've, and be honest, tell me you don't like this, tell me you don't like it.
And we did a pretty good job, but there were a few ideas that people had when they walked in,
which we instituted because I'm too close to it.
And I know what it takes to fix a car, okay?
But I don't know what it's like to walk into a repair shop with probably the, you know,
the second most expensive thing you're ever going to buy, okay?
And say, here's the keys.
Go ahead, you know, do whatever you want and charge me whatever I got to pay, whatever.
I don't know what that feels like to walk in just, you know, gobsmacked and wide-eyed
because, you know, I just don't know.
Getting people to do that for you is a great way to kind of check yourself.
Appearance is a big part of that.
You know, and Brett, to your point, the way your front staff looks is great.
I mean, the mechanics, or they, excuse me, especially, I said mechanics, look at that.
The way the specialists look is important, but your front-end staff, they are the face of your business.
So you have to have them at a high level of appearance to make the customer feel comfortable.
I'm going to add to your coattails, Tom.
I'm going to give everybody a suggestion.
In my company, we have what's called all four corners.
All four corners of the property and everything in between has to represent what we want to attract.
So as a suggestion, believe it or not, there is a book.
I don't remember the author offhand, but anyway, it is a yellow copy book, hard copy, unreasonable hospitality.
I love it.
Fabulous, fabulous book.
I'm telling you right now, so we as an entire company, this has been years ago.
So as an entire company, read this book as a project.
And what's interesting is that even the technicians bought into this because as they started to identify each person within the book,
whether it's the major D, the chef, right, the waiter, whatever it may be,
it was a great analogy between how each one of them needed to interact.
But what was most important was at the end of the day, as this restaurant wanted to strive to be number one in the world,
it was all about how the customer felt and to discover through the process about each one of their responsibilities,
about how a customer or a wife or whoever it may be may be able to turn a plate over exactly the right way to who made the plate in the manufacturer.
And the level of detail, it was amazing because now you shift your perspective to all sorts of aspects of how you can conduct yourself within an automotive repair facility.
It's a fascinating read, believe it or not, and we're a bunch of foodies anyway, so we bought in.
And it's a Netflix series, and you can identify people and faces.
I'm just telling you, it's a great project potentially for those who want to really open up the possibilities of how you make somebody feel.
To Tom's point about a waiting area, you walk in.
Look, when's the last time you walked into a doctor's office and said, hey, 14,999 special open heart surgery right now?
No, you don't see that.
They want to feel comfortable, relaxed.
They want to feel trusting, so it needs to be welcoming.
That's it.
I want to piggyback on your statement there, Craig.
When we finally got this thing together years ago, we had a grand opening a few months after we actually got it going.
I had a customer who, she had been a customer of ours probably for about a year or so, and she was coming over, stopped by, and she pulled me to the side and she said,
you know, Tom, when I rounded the corner and I saw your shop, it made me smile.
I mean, it's been almost 10 years since we've been here.
I still remember that, and I still thank her every year for that because it was so impactful to me, and it made me feel like all the work that everybody had put in mattered.
So, you know, if you start thinking like what you're talking about, Craig, people will start noticing and they'll start complimenting you and it makes you want to do it more.
Absolutely.
And it gets everybody bought in and it keeps the shit moving in the right direction.
There you go.
All right.
Hey, look at, let me close by saying this.
When I picked up on reasonable hospitality, Craig, and I started to read it and it aligned exactly with Chef and Cook.
Okay.
And the whole piece of the specialist in how I ground myself to this, I realized that I needed to write the creed.
And that's the unreasonable hospitality that forced me, but I said, we're missing something in this language shift.
And it's what I read in the book and the passion that they had for getting where they wanted to get.
So thanks for bringing that up.
Hey, I had a blast.
Thank you for coming on and sharing all of this.
Oh my God.
Tom Palermo, Brett Beechler, Craig Noelle.
Thanks for being my friend and thanks for being champions for the specialist, gentlemen.
Our pleasure.
Our pleasure.
Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the Premier Automotive Repair Business Podcast, Remarkable Results Radio.
Get your episodic education on the ARPN listening app at automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com.
Also, enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel.
Carm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry.
Until next time.
About this episode
The discussion frames automotive professionalism around “the rise of the specialist,” urging shops to stop calling themselves techs, mechanics, wrenches, or even technicians and instead embrace specialists. Speakers connect specialization to diagnostics and calibration, targeted troubleshooting, and clear customer communication—often led by service advisors. The episode also ties professionalism to shop culture, hiring language, certification, and visible creeds, while highlighting how shop-management and CRM tools can improve retention and predictable revenue.
Original notes
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty
Watch Full Video Episode
Host Carm Capriotto is joined by shop owners Craig Noel, Brett Beachler, and Tom Palermo for an important discussion on how “The Rise of the Specialist” is moving from idea to implementation inside automotive repair shops across the industry. Written by Carm Capriotto, “The Rise of the Specialist” is a growing movement and declaration designed to elevate the language, image, professionalism, and culture of the automotive service industry.
In this episode, the panel shares how they are actively implementing “The Rise” within their own businesses, from changing terminology and redefining job titles to elevating customer communication, shop presentation, and team culture. The conversation highlights the real-world challenges and successes of shifting away from outdated labels like “mechanic,” “wrench,” and “technician” and embracing the more professional and accurate title of “specialist.”
Carm explains that this movement is more than a branding exercise; it is a professional evolution aimed at helping the industry better reflect the expertise required to service today’s highly advanced vehicles. Modern automotive professionals are diagnosticians, calibration experts, technology specialists, and problem-solvers operating in one of the most sophisticated skilled professions today.
Throughout the discussion, the shop owners explain how adopting the language and principles of “The Rise” has strengthened team pride, improved customer trust, and helped create a more professional identity within their organizations. The panel also explores how service advisors play a key role in communicating the value of diagnostics, testing, and specialist-level expertise to clients in a way that builds understanding and confidence.
The episode draws powerful comparisons to professions like medicine and culinary arts, emphasizing that automotive specialists deserve the same respect given to highly trained experts in other industries. Just as chefs and medical specialists earn recognition through mastery and continuous education, today’s automotive professionals must also be seen as specialists whose expertise protects the safety and reliability of every vehicle entrusted to them.
“The Rise of the Specialist” has already gained momentum throughout the industry. Carm’s signature keynote, The Rise of the Specialist, has been delivered to influential audiences across North America, including the ASE Board of Governors, Ford Motor Company, and hundreds of forward-thinking automotive professionals.
What You’ll Learn
- Why “The Rise of the Specialist” was created and what it represents
- How shop owners are implementing “The Rise” in their businesses
- Why the industry must move beyond outdated titles like “technician” and “mechanic”
- How language shapes customer perception, professionalism, and team culture
- The role service advisors play in explaining specialist-level diagnostics and repairs
- How hospitality, presentation, and communication strengthen customer trust
- Why this movement can help attract the next generation of automotive professionals
This episode demonstrates that “The Rise of the Specialist” is no longer just a concept; it is becoming a real cultural shift within the automotive industry. By adopting language that reflects expertise, elevating professionalism throughout the customer experience, and embracing the identity of the specialist, shop owners are helping reshape how the industry sees itself and how the world sees it.
Download 'The Rise of the Specialist': https://remarkableresults.biz/rise Craig Noel,
Remarkable Results Radio Podcast
Carm Capriotto, AAP
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