Tonnika Haynes talks Family, Business, and Auto Repair

It is what it is. Like, I just can't make you happy.

Right.

Like, let's see if we can work it out. But, you know, I'm not going to sit there and beg you. Yeah, but you also don't get to tell me what to do. Yeah. You came to me with a problem. I'm giving you the solution and you're telling me that's not the solution.

Yeah.

Like, help me help you.

That's a huge concept that a lot of people need to grasp.

Yeah.

At the end of the day, it's. You're still your process.

Yes, it is my process. Yeah.

It's not theirs.

Yeah. You don't get to tell me that.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of the J to Mechanic podcast. We are still in beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina. The sun's finally come out. The clouds are breaking. I think the reason the sun came out is because of who I'm sitting here with today. I'm sitting here with Ms. Tanika Haynes from Brown's Automotive. Tanika is very famous, and he's for having the prettiest smile that we've walks around.

So she has big, white, good teeth. She's just a. An awesome young lady. So, Tanika, say hello.

Hello, all.

Yeah, hi.

So what. How many years you've been coming to this now?

This is my fourth year.

Fourth year?

Yeah.

So you've been coming even longer than me. This is your number three for me. And you're pretty involved as well behind the scenes on what's going on with asta.

This is my first year on the board, and so, yeah, I like to think so.

Yeah.

Trying to get more and more involved.

Yeah.

Watch it grow.

So what's home for you exactly, in this region?

Durham, like two miles from here, Chapel Hill? No, Durham. Durham. I don't live where I work.

Okay.

People there.

And you work in Chapel Hill. So Brown's Automotive is in Chapel Hill.

Brown's Automotive, Chapel, Hill, North Carolina.

Right on, right on. And Brown's Automotive, that was. Tell us the story of Brown's Automotive.

Okay. All the way back 1980, Browns Automotive was started by William Brown, who was my father.

I was five years.

Five.

I was five.

I was three.

Okay, cool.

So I was three when he started it. It started as the body shop. He had a very small facility in Carrboro, which is a city kind of inside Chapel Hill.

Okay.

Go find it on the map. Nothing exciting. So primarily was a body man only did body work, subletted everything else mechanical to the local shops in 2001. We moved to our current location, which was much bigger. Again, don't ask me square footage because I'm really bad with that.

How many bays approximately or flat stalls or whatever?

Hard to answer that.

10.

I'm not prepared.

Okay.

More than 10? More than 10.

So good size.

Yeah. In the body shop. It's a big, nice size. Two down draft paint booths. It was. He built it. His dress.

Two downdrafts.

Yes.

So it's very good.

It's a big job. Yeah.

Right on. Good for Mr. Brown.

So the reason why we started the service department is because some people don't know this. The insurance companies only pay like 38 to 40 an hour at that time. I don't know what it is now. It's still pretty low.

Yeah.

And in order to get mechanical rate for suspension damage and things such as that, you would have to sublet it to a mechanical shop and they could charge whatever they wanted.

Yeah.

And we can only mark it up at the time it was 10%. Right. So what that did is build a separate building, which is currently my building, and play the game. So we got a different tax ID number, named a different name and subletted it to himself.

So way back then with Mr. Brown, when he decided to. I'm not saying play the game, but was your. Was your father and when you do that, does he go and say hire a dedicated mechanic or did he. Okay, he did.

Yeah.

He hired a dedicated mechanic. So there was one and a half over there. And then we didn't do like outside advertising for oil changes or anything. We didn't market that business. It was primarily just to make sure we got paid by the insurance company.

Right. Repairs after the collision stuff.

Exactly, yeah. Keep all the money in house.

Yeah.

And you said your dad, you described him as an artiste.

Yeah. So dad is like very artistic. I mean, he can think of something and just make it. He builds, he can do iron work, he's done stone work. And watching him do bodywork, it's just amazing.

Yeah, yeah.

And he worked on some nice stuff when I was a kid. I think the nicest thing I remember at that time was a Viper.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it was a local doctor and he had a Dodge Viper and that fixed it for him. And he had. He has a wonderful personality.

Yeah.

Like, he's completely healthy. By the way, he's still with us. He just retired, but he. In Chapel Hill, you've got a lot of doctors and professors and. I mean, he met Michael Jordan a couple times because he had been in the area a long time.

Very cool.

So he had a good customer base.

Yeah.

And they trusted him because he. You just look at him. I can trust this guy. He's got a laugh. I can trust that laugh.

So you grew up in the shop?

Yes.

Yeah.

I've got pictures of me running around with flip flops and ponytails in the shop. Every summer I was at the shop with my dad.

Yeah.

So in the summertime, when you got old enough that you weren't necessarily supposed to play, but you're supposed to work, what did have you start you doing.

Before answering the phone? Sanding.

Yeah.

Wet sanding.

I did that too.

Cleaning up.

Yeah.

And I don't know if I was really cleaning up or just making big tape balls. Washing the cars. Yeah, stuff like that.

Right on.

Yeah. So I was just under him all the time. Probably getting on his nerves. Most anything.

No, I don't mean to be nosy. Nosy, but did you have a brother or sister that was also just me and dad. Just you and.

Wow.

I'm daddy's girl all day.

Yeah.

Yeah. Even now. Kiss me and dad.

That's awesome.

And then I start. Well, I didn't talk. Can you believe that? I never talked. I would talk to my dad. I would call him dad by tugging on his shirt. I'm not a big speaker. My grandmother would say, the cat's got your tongue. You need to talk.

Use your words. Not. I wasn't a big speaker, so I can't remember. I want to say about 14. I start answering the phones. That was scary.

Really?

Yeah.

So he kind of pushed me into it. But the best summer was the summer when I turned 16 and I had a car and I can get back and forth to work.

What was the car?

87 Volkswagen Golf.

Really?

Yes. She was burgundy.

I did. I'm not. I'm not picturing anyone that.

I wanted a rabbit, but he got me a Golf. And I remember her. I can remember the smell.

Yeah.

Yep.

Was your dad, like, would he touch. All makes a model. Models from a body Simpson.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very cool.

Yeah. Motorcycles. He built his own trailers and motorcycle trailers. All kind of stuff like that. So cool. I wish he was here.

Right on.

So you can hear him.

It'd be cool to meet him sometimes. Yeah.

He's something else.

Yeah.

I like that. Because, like, we were talking before we got on the air. We were kind of reminiscing about memories. Right. Because my father had been occlusion guy, so I grew up around it. Same thing I made balls of the tape that he tore off and, you know, sanded a bunch of cars and made a mess in the shop. And we were talking about. I can still remember that.

The way the bondo smells, you know, you like that smell?

Yeah, the Bondo smell.

Yeah.

The wet sandpaper in the.

So when you start answering the phones at 16, what did you. Did the. Did dad talk to you all the time about what made the business good and what made the business work, or did it kind of just be like the way he had always done his work, made the business pretty effective, the.

Way that he always done the work. And one thing I can remember is, I'm not sure what made him say this, but if he said something, he said it once, maybe it was a car that I thought was old and raggedy. And he said, everybody deserves to have their car fixed. You don't know what people have to go through. And so he was basically teaching me, you're going to treat every customer the same. You will not be judgmental. We don't do that here. And I mean, he said it a little bit more harsh, but like I said, dad said something once and that was it.

Yeah.

So. But he's right.

Yeah.

So your dad was the type that he'd help some customers.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

My dad too. Like a lot of times, especially, like I was saying, we would. He would work at the. The biggest collision center back home. And then like all of us in the industry, at some point, we probably dabble in working at home on the side. Right. And yeah, I can remember a lot of people that the same thing. Car would be ratty, rusted, because rot where I come from isn't the same as here.

Like, lots of cars, no floors left, you know, and he'd weld a set of floor pans in it.

Yeah, you want to make sure you're safe.

Yeah.

And if you told somebody that he did it.

Yeah.

It had to look good enough to have the William Brown stamp of approval.

So I'll tell you a story. I was probably nine, and we had been. We'd gone to a car show. Car show was a long way away from where we lived, like. So we were from Kingston and this car show was like up past Niagara Falls, which is quite a ways away. And we're walking just down the rows of cars and there's this early 70s Cadillac convertible. My dad walks past the car and he head snaps around like this and he walks back and he looks at the VIN number and he walks over to the guy, and he goes, did you buy this car from Mr. Smith?

Yeah.

My dad looks at that and he says, I did all the back end of that car and the floors in that car. He says, 10 years ago. And the guy kind of looked at my dad. And then it was like that was the one thing from early on that I. When I think about craftsmanship and I think about, like, how your work can live on, right? And legacy or whatever you want to talk about. That's the first example of that that clicked in my head that it's like you can actually do something with tooling on a vehicle that will be stand out enough that you will recognize it, you know, like, he didn't work on a ton of Cadillacs, but he worked on more than one. So to see that car in a different color later on, but be able to recognize his work under a different paint job, Wow. I was like, wow.

Yeah, it was pretty cool. And the fact that he could remember like a couple of the numbers of the VIN number that many years later and then remember the customer that he'd done it for, walk up to the guy and say, did you. Hey, buy this from? It was pretty cool. That was.

That's really cool.

It was a monumental thing for me, right, because it's like he was not in our local area. He was known as one of the better ones around to get work done. But part of that was also from the shop that he worked at was the largest shop. And then it was just like he had done so many jobs where you got talking about estimating it was not a good estimator. He'd look at that and go, yeah, the floor pans are gone. It's need floor pans and rockers and whatever. And then he'd get in there and find that it was way worse. The rust was way worse.

If he said it was gonna be this, that's what it got done for. And that got done still the right way. But I can remember lots of times we should have had that car done. He come home and work after nights for a few hours every night. And then on weekends, it should have been done in 10 days and it'd be there like a month because of the extra work that he would have to do. And this is. We're talking way back before cell phones and know we didn't own a Polaroid camera. So it was just a situation of like, nobody knew how much more work was in once you get the panels out and do it.

It was. There was a lot of jobs that he could have like mudded it and stuffed it and nobody would have known the difference.

He can't do it.

You can't do it. He would not do it. He'd show me Carson's like the old. It had cardboard tube stuffed in the door or bonded over fiberglass, whatever. He never did stuff like that. You know, if you needed something done cheaper. I can still remember he put some fiberglass on the door bottom and get it straight so it'd be safe. And again.

But he didn't like to do it that way. But not everybody wanted to pay for him to make a set of door bottoms and welded to the door. It was incredible. I remember so much of what he did. So, Mr. Brown. So at one point, how big, how many employees?

Oh, man. Numbers I'm thinking about. I'm smiling.

Yeah.

I think in the collision center, we probably had included front staff. About 11. About 11. Now here's the thing. The shop now is being rented out by another company. He retired. We rented it out. Eric's still there, Martin's still there.

It's like there's two employees that are still there. And so Eric and I have known each other for 30 something years. And it's hilarious. Yeah, yeah.

Right on.

Yeah. So I mean, and I'm thinking that when Eric started and even when Martin started, they didn't know anything. That taught them everything. And then there's a guy, Curling, has a shop here in Durham, not too far from here. I want to say Curly opened his shop maybe five years ago. It might been a little bit longer. But he also worked with dad and now he has his own shop. And he gave my dad a key to his shop.

So. Yeah, that's like really touched a lot of lives.

Yeah, it says a lot, right? Like that's, that's a legacy we leave, you know, not, not the. Nobody's looking at your KPIs after.

Right.

You know what I mean? They're looking at your, your legacy of people when you say a name or whatever. So when you, when you go back to. You started answering the phone. When did you get into. When you actually started to like estimate the jobs?

Oh, so the summer turned 16, we'll go back there. Yeah, I go to work that day. I drove myself because I had the car. And dad looked at me in the fashion that only he can do and said, I'm going on vacation. And he left me there all summer by myself.

The whole summer.

Not like a one week.

No, the whole summer. But that's how he teaches Everything. And learn how to swim. I'll push in the pool. Yeah, let's see how that's going to work. I mean, I remember the 87 Volkswagen Golf.

Yeah.

It. I got it Christmas. I was 15. I didn't turn 16 to like three more weeks. And I was living in Charlotte with my mom, so my parents were not together. All good. Long story. It's not exciting.

So he gives me the car for Christmas. It's a five speed. It's my first car. And dad's driveway is probably about a 45 degree angle. He gets out of the car, he puts his foot behind the tire and dares me to roll back over to foot. You know, I had to find my pressure point.

For the clutch.

Yeah, for the clutch.

Yeah.

Then he put me on 85 south and I went home. Nobody died. But I mean, of course he trusted me.

Yeah.

Same thing when he just left me at the shop.

Yeah.

Like you've been here. You watch me. You know what I'm doing.

You do what I would do.

You do the way that I would do.

Yeah.

And if you make a mistake, you got one time to make that mistake.

One time.

Well, no, not really. But he expected you to learn from your mistake. He's not saying don't make the mistake, but.

So would you say your dad was strict or your dad was like, I don't want to. Or fair is the other. You know, we used to say, like, as your parent was your was your parent. He was. They were strict but fair.

He was strict but fair.

Yeah.

Yeah. There's not anything I can think back on. And I think I need to go lay on somebody's couch and talk to him about. I can laugh at it. And so I'm telling my kids how granddaddy was and he's like that with them. It's like, no, he would never do that to you. I was like, no, my dad wouldn't do that. But William Brown.

Yes.

If you're going to learn this lesson, you're going to learn it and that's it.

Where do you think he gets that from?

My grandmother.

Your grandma?

My best friend. She's 83, Kitty.

And she's still.

She's still getting it. She will out bowl you out, fish you out drink you.

Okay. Not outfish.

Yes. She will outfish you. Kitty will put you to shame. No. Dad built a lake for his mom just so she could have the fish to go fishing. Yes. So, wow. She's like that.

And I was around her a lot growing up, so I have that in me. So it's. It's not scary. It's nothing I need to cry about.

Kitty sounds cool.

Kitty is cool.

Yeah.

It's not still your best friend?

My grandmother, my best friend.

That's amazing.

Yeah. I didn't realize that until, like, in the last five or six years.

Yeah.

But Kitty's my girl.

Yeah.

My. My grandparents have gone a long time.

Yeah.

Long gone. I miss them.

Yeah.

So. So you just decide you're gonna just run the shop?

So I didn't think I was gonna do that.

Yeah.

Again, I grew up in Charlotte, and Charlotte was the banking district, and I wanted to be fancy and dress up for work. I didn't care what I had to do. But these people are downtown and you got business suits on and briefcases, and I need to do that, right? No. But then I fell in love. I really fell in love with the collision industry because I got to help people. So I really like helping people. Even though I bark a lot, I do like helping people. That's my love language.

So I really fell in love with that. And then I started going to industry meetings for the collision World and learning the things and bringing them back to the shop. Introducing that to dad. He didn't like all of them, of course.

Yeah.

But he did allow me to grow and allow me to implement different little things and say, hey, dad, we should try to do this, we should try to do that.

So now what's that like to go into some of those meetings as a female and a younger one at that?

You know what?

Was it because you're Mr. Brown's daughter?

I. Mr. I'm Brown's daughter.

Brown's daughter.

So I really get a lot of pushback.

Okay.

And then, you know me, I'll come in a room. I'm coming in the room.

Oh, you light up. There's.

I'm coming in you.

I gotta say, for everybody, like, you know, I'm. I kind of flirt with Ms. Tanika a little bit.

Yeah.

She makes me.

It's all good smile.

But I mean, she's just has that. She's one of those people when she walks in the room, you can feel it, like, you know she's behind you before you see her because you just feel something different. It's pretty cool. There's lots of people like that. Yeah. But she has that way about her where she just commands the room.

My grandmother made me do that. Dad made me do that. Open your mouth.

Yes.

Yeah, open your mouth when you're talking to me. Look me in the eye, smile, it's.

It's.

Even if you don't feel like it.

It's important in this day and age though, right, that we, more of us need to get back to that. Because instead of we're staring at our.

Cell phone, looking at your phone and yeah, I do the same thing. And then like someone asked me yesterday, I believe, do you think you're extrovert? No. No. I would rather be in the room right now looking at Netflix under a blanket. So, like yesterday I had to go recharge my social battery. But I know that if I'm coming in a room, coming in the whole room.

Yeah.

Like, if I'm gonna do something, you're not gonna do anything half ass. I don't know, bleep it out. I don't care. But yeah, you're not my grandmother. You're not gonna do. You're gonna do it all the way.

Yeah.

You're gonna finish it. I don't care if your last person in the race. Finish the race. You know, get it done. And you better be cute while doing it. I mean, like, why not? So if I'm gonna come in the room, I'm not. It's not arrogance, it's confidence. You can't tell me I cannot be here.

Huge difference. Huge difference.

Yeah. And then my smile is to make you smile. My scratch, if I come up to you and scratch you on the back is I just want you to be in the room with me. Yeah, let's do it.

I get it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I get it. So you kind of then get into the. The business side and then how did you, Mr. Brown, work side by side or did it kind of like, did he quickly realize that you have a knack for this and he kind of just like let you.

I don't know how to answer that without. It was a hard transition for dad.

I can imagine it would be.

Yeah. Because that's like, he's like me micromanage. No, he's a micromanager and he's the boss and he built everything.

Sure.

So I think at about the age of 24, 25, I'm probably not using the best words, but I started to become more of the superstar. And he was in the back doing the back things and I was at the front. And then everybody wasn't looking for Mr. Brown anymore. They could look at, look for Tamika, like, well, Tanika said this. Don't. Whatever. I remember specifically when I had my son, that I was out of the work a lot more and people would Come to check on their car situation, and he.

How can I help you? We'll wait till Tanika gets here. And that was frustrating to him.

It would be.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Because, I mean, everybody has ego.

Yeah.

Right. Well, my name's on the building especially.

Because I sense he's a proud man.

He is.

He takes pride in what he does.

He does.

He's a proud man. And what he's built. I understand that. We see that a lot. Right. And we talk about, you know, the shop owner having to. Well, our good friend Lucas.

Yeah.

He's going to start to run link with some of that power within his. To his manager, and he's scared to death of it.

But I feel better now that I'm learning to do that. That I don't know about every car in the shop.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's healthy.

No, it's not.

Everyone does because then they come and.

Pick my brain and I don't have that much left, so. But anyway, I think eventually he saw that. Okay. She's doing everything I groomed her to do.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I still. I make sure that if I'm talking to somebody, doing an interview or just talking out in the lobby, I would be nowhere without first Kitty, May Francis, and then dad. So I'm gonna give you the glory, but then give me the torch, Give me the baton. I'm finna run this race. And then I have to pass it off to Jordan and Santana.

Yeah.

So which Jordan and Santana are your son?

Those are my babies. Yes.

And so let's kind of go in a direction of the shop is now still. You don't do collision.

I don't know. We just rent that out.

Yeah.

So we still own.

So when Mr. Brown retired.

Yeah.

You kind of focus more on the. On the mechanical side.

Yeah. So dad retired. That was sad for me.

Yeah.

I thought I was going to be running the collision center because that's all I've been doing. I've never written service rope before. Before. I didn't do that. I knew about it because just by default, I knew suspension. Yeah, I know. Suspension.

Right.

Because that's what usually is damaged. I know. Radiator, condenser, because that's about as far back as a collision will go.

Right.

But he said, you've got the boys. You can't do all of this. And I'm thinking, you don't tell me what I can't do. I can do it all. So I decided, well, it is what it is. He's getting the rent from that. That's helping him in his retirement. I'm going to take the service department, and I.

If I make $40,000 a month in sales, I should be able to break even and I'll be fine. And that was my mindset for about six weeks. But then I realized I'm not doing anything because running a collision center is hard. You got your customers, you have your insurance companies.

Yeah.

You got, you know, the guys. You got all those processes. And then, even though we were not open to the public, I also ran the service department for what? Yeah, I think the first couple weeks I walked around bored.

Yeah.

Because I was used to going 120 miles per hour, and then I was going 30.

Yeah.

And then I started to learn the things and what was it? Google. I think we had Google back then. Yeah, we had Google eight years ago. How old are you?

Very basic.

Yeah. But, yeah, I start being nosy, trying to figure out who was doing what and how I can do it better. And I start inviting my four former collision customers become my service customers and start building that way, basically giving stuff away.

I was just gonna ask, so did you. Did you make all the same mistakes that a lot of new people?

Yeah, I was a people.

Yeah.

I gave stuff away. Didn't want to charge cheap oil change. Cheap oil changes.

Any car that came, a lot of coupons.

Yeah, yeah.

Any car. Didn't matter.

Everybody can wait. Yeah. A whole bunch of state inspections.

Yeah.

Signs up for state inspections. That's bringing all the bottom feeders. All of them.

That's what.

They invited them all.

Yeah.

So you went and hired texts for this at this point?

So at that time, we had a tech. His name was Jesus. Thing is, Jesus, he's still alive. And he was good. Yeah, I mean, it was too funny. He was my work husband, and he did a great job. He was just hourly. He did the things, but he fixed the cars.

And me and the boys would come up on Saturday and Sunday to clean up the shop, and I would catch up on paperwork, this, that, and whatever. Then I hired my first guy by myself, and he's still with me. Albert.

Right on.

Yes, Albert's still with me. Albert came in. He says, I'm not a mechanic. I just know how to change parts. I want to learn. And he said the right things.

Right.

And he was. It's too funny. I mean, I hope he doesn't hear this, but I remember he had on like, a white business shirt and it was wrinkled. I knew that wasn't his vibe, but he Was trying his best for his interview to find a good job. And he came in there and he started picking up stuff from Jesus quickly, quickly. And of course I wanted to pay him properly. And then we real. I realized that Jesus doing jobs on the side on the weekends without my knowledge.

Right.

He was opening up the shop even to the point that customers thought we were open.

Oh, so he's using your facility, not doing at home?

No. Yeah. So let me tell you how I found that out. I hate whiteout. I hate correction fluid. And it was always on my desk. Why is this on my desk? And who's writing on all my business cards? So he would bring his kids to the shop and then I guess he would leave the white out. I guess you guys use that for timing to mark time or something.

He was marking something. He was using it. And. But he was at my desk. So, like things start adding up and the Lord starts showing me things. And I called him out on it. You can't do that. Yeah, you know, it's an insurance problem.

You can't use my, you know, the little stuff. You can't use my brake clean. Yeah, you can't do that. You're using rags, lights, brake clean. It's dangerous. You can't do it. And so he quit.

Plus he's not getting any kick of the money or you're not getting any kick of the money that he makes. It's not like you come to you and say, I got a few customers. Exactly. I'll charge them $50 an hour. I'll give you 10.

Right?

He never said that.

No. So he was basically lying.

Yeah.

And so I called him out on it. We talked about it. And I guess he decided within days he was going to quit. He just quit. He left me high and dry. Yeah. So a William Brown moment. Okay, no cursing William Brown on it.

Dad. Hey, dad. I found out Jesus is doing this. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he quit. What am I gonna do? It's me and Albert now. Albert's probably a lube tech at that point. He says, if the mnfer got hit by a bus, what would you do? Well, I guess I would have to hire somebody.

Well, you just pretend that Eminefer got hit by a bus.

I gotta beat dad.

Oh my God. And I'm sitting there like crying in the office and then I know that means put on your big girl draws and let's do it. Like, what you gonna box a kick rocks? Yeah, there's no crying automotive business. And I mean, he did call after hours. And check on his daughter. But William Brown said, yeah, pretend the Eminef or got hit by a bus. And I had to pretend that Eminef got hit by a bus because I can't stop. One monkey's not stopping my show.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm still crying. Then my dad's gonna call.

That's right.

And check on me. But William Brown said, no, we don't do that.

There's no crying.

Yeah.

Crying for what's wrong with you. Who raised you, girl? Yeah. So there's a tender side, but when it comes to money and stuff like that, it's like, we're not. We're not doing that.

This is business.

Is business.

Yeah.

100. Yeah, I, I recognize. I, like, I. I lament that all the time. Like, I just. To me, it's like, I'm. If I'm going to help you, I'll help you. But if we're going to do business, I'm to win, not you.

Yeah, right.

Because at the end of the day, like, I'm. I'm winning for my family.

Right.

We're not family. We're just friendly. And this is business.

I've got kids to feet.

That's right.

Yeah.

So.

So you hired a tech.

I had Albert.

Yeah.

We've gone through some crazy people, but hired a check. I finally got a really good tech two years in, and so. It's too funny. I. I didn't go steal him, but the two lady was like, listen, he's not happy where he's at. I think he'll be a good fit here. And so. And Joe's been with me about six years.

Wow.

Albert's been with you eight.

Eight.

Eight years.

Yeah.

And how. Albert's pretty good tech by now.

Albert's really good. Yeah, he's really good. Yeah, he is about the learning. Yeah, he really is. He especially. Stuff like this. He has a note, some notes on his toolbox from last year's Expo that he learned, and they're just in his handwriting on his toolbox from last year. And I just watch him learn.

And he doesn't like to be beat by a car. Yeah. If it's a. You know, we're closed on Fridays now, but Thursday afternoon, there's a car that's whooping his tail. I will text him, albert, stop thinking about that car. Or Albert will text me on Saturday night. Hey, I know what it is. Like, dude, clock out.

Yeah. So he's dedicated. Yeah. Everybody loves Albert. Even the customers know him by the Name. That's. He has his own set of customers. They want Albert to work on his car.

That's good.

Yeah.

What. So you drive a pretty nice car. You drive Mercedes amg. So is that something that you. You worked towards the kind of the higher end, or is it just because maybe that's not right. You. Will you take any, Anything like quality or do you guys specialize in something or. No, doesn't matter.

We're Subarus.

Corollas.

You love them Corollas, don't you?

Yeah. Minivans. All the things. All the things.

Doesn't matter.

If I can't do it, I can't do it. I'm going to find somebody that can do it for you.

And I see your two sons.

My babies.

Yeah.

One is off at tech school right now.

Right.

So he's pretty new. Like he would have grown up in the shop as well.

Yes.

Like you did and. But he's now gone off to tech school.

Yes.

Before going to tech school, what did you have him doing? What was it? Kind of. It was. What do we call him? A GS. Yeah, I've seen you guys doing tires with him.

You do tires. He went to class with Justin Allen and did. He knows how to do alignments. He did an alignment on my Mercedes. He can do the things. And he's more advanced in the people in school with him. Right. Right now he's like rebuilding the transmission.

Yeah, yeah.

So he's always been in the shop. He's always been really hands on. He's a Lego kid. He wants to be under somebody and he follows my dad around.

Like I was just gonna say, what does Mr. Brown think of him?

That I had that baby for William?

Yeah.

Yeah. I just got to nurse and raise him. But that's Brown's baby. Yeah, he. He. That boy. That boy, that boy. But then he gives the boy everything and teaches the boy all the stupid things that boys do.

Yeah.

And your oldest is playing football?

Yep, he's playing right now. Yeah, it's game time right now. Oh, I know, but he knows.

I mean, you're here with me.

I don't miss anything. But he knows that this is important to mom and he would be mad if I was not here.

Okay.

Yeah.

Now, did he work in the shop as well?

He does not do cars.

Does not do cars.

No. He's worked in a shop as a kid, you know, cleaning up, tearing down boxes. He can do his oil change, he can rotate his tires, he can mount a tire, but he don't he don't want to do that. That's nasty.

That's nasty.

That is dirty. That is stupid. Why are we here? So that's not him now. He's worked in the office with me for a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, he's not gonna be under this.

So he's gonna have his little brother work on his stuff for the rest of his life, too.

Funny. Christmas, they were out there and Jordan's putting lights under his car. You know the neon lights that these kids like? Yeah. And he's just handing him the tools and Jordan's doing everything. But we know, and it's not. I mean, he'll hear that Santana knows he doesn't do cars. That boy don't know a Toyota from a Tesla. No, no.

Oh, that's funny.

He can pick one up, though. But no.

Yeah, he's a good sized lad.

Yeah.

But no, he's not doing that.

Yeah.

And football is his love.

He does love football. But he's kind of getting old because it's a job now.

Okay.

You know, in college, they belong to the school. He doesn't get to go and do the normal college kids stuff. Yeah, he's a big man on campus because he's a football player. But coaches are really strict during season.

Yeah.

So he eats. Workout meetings. I'm meeting about the meeting. Class, workout, eat.

Will he make the big league, you think?

He could if he wanted to. So, yeah, he's got to apply himself because he's got the size. You can't coach that size. His hands. Yeah, Wings. Yeah, he's a big one. Yeah, but I'm not. She's just at a crossroads right now.

He'll figure it out. He'll be cheering them along. Yeah, whatever. He decides.

So how many others besides Albert and Santana?

No, Jordan is the baby.

Oh, sorry. Jordan and Jordan the baby.

And Santana's the big one.

Right.

That's it.

Ain't no more coming about here.

And then you got Albert.

Albert is the oldest in Santana. Joe is the other tech.

Joe is the other tech.

And then I have two girls on the front desk.

Okay.

I'm still looking for.

So three techs in the back.

Two. Jordan's not there. Jordan's in school.

But he'll come back.

Yeah, eventually.

Yeah, yeah. And then he'll. Is there succession plan? Is there a succession plan?

No. Jordan is going to finish school. He thinks he wants to go to the Mercedes program in Florida. So they have these different programs.

Yeah, I'm aware.

And then when he gets out, I don't think he should come work for me right away. So we'll find somebody in the network, find him a job. I don't. I don't want him in up at the dealership.

I was just about to get stuck. You missed. It's, it's. It could change his culture and.

Exactly.

Yeah.

But I think he needs to be with someone like Benji Burris.

Yep.

Or maybe Lucas's shop. You need to go and work for somebody else.

Yeah.

Maybe Micah. Hire him. Who knows? But I think he needs to go in the world for a little bit.

Fit with Mike, too. Yeah, for sure.

He's going to world. Because I don't. I don't baby them. I'm not that kind of mom. But I want to make sure that I haven't baby them. And then they get in the shop and they think I'm the boss. No, you're not. I am.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You work your way.

Experience the. The. Like, maybe mom would let me come in five minutes late.

Right.

My. This boss, when he says five minutes early, he means five minutes.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Then that's. That's tough because it's like the family dynamic. We've talked about that the other night at dinner.

It's.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of parents don't. When their children work with them, they don't necessarily hold them to the same. You hold them to a higher standard than a lot of your players. Right. So a lot of people don't even hold them to the same. And that. That is tough to work in. In that dynamic.

You know, you heard me say it's like sometimes it seems like it's just about a DNA and a blood thing at that point as to how you're going to work within the business.

Daddy fired me.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're talking about that.

Yeah.

Now he brought you back.

Yeah, yeah, he brought me back. But, you know, show you your crap doesn't stink. Yeah. I love you. But then again, there's Mr. Brown.

Yeah.

And then there's dad.

Right?

Yeah.

So, like, sometimes that was really hard, especially when the kids were younger. So when you.

When you go home, was he good at. When you guys went home? At the end of the day, say once out of a thousand times you make a mistake. It's pretty perfect. When. When did he. Was he good about. Once you walked out the shop door, it stay behind or did he kind of like, could you.

Dad was good at that. I was not. Yeah, I wasn't.

Yeah.

Yeah. I would say that was all on me.

Okay.

Because he believe he talked to me like that. I can't believe my daddy. But that was not your dad. That was your boss.

Yeah.

So that's why I think it's important for Jordan to. Yeah. Because he's used to it. Because, I mean, Jordan, you're not done yet.

Yeah.

I'm hard on him at work, but that's a GS Tech 17 year old kid.

Yeah.

But as you grow, when I have to get in your tail, you can't go stomping out mom, I can't believe you. Yeah, whatever. You can believe it.

Does he see anything else for himself or is it gonna be cars forever?

That's Jordan's cars forever.

Cars forever.

Well, he has said, you know, I want to be on a race crew.

Wow.

And do it. And that's why I said, I want you to go do all the things. I don't want you to think that you are attached to the shop. You don't want you to be forced.

To come back to the family shop.

Yeah.

There's plenty of times that dad asked me, he told me, sit me down. If you don't want to be here.

Yeah.

I don't want you to be here just because I'm here. I want you to be dedicated. I need you to do this job like I've built this. Are you serious about it? If you're not, it's okay.

Yeah.

And I know, daddy. I want to be here.

Yeah.

Does Jordan see sometimes or get enough exposure talking to other people of the.

The.

The reality sometimes of this industry, what it can do for him?

I don't know what he talks about with the guys in the back.

Yeah.

I don't. I'm not sure about that.

I mean, it sounds like you're still excited.

Like he's so excited about everything.

That's good. That's good.

I get an update.

Yeah.

The race thing is like, so many of us get into that. Like, it was the same thing. My. My dad was not a mechanic. That was a body man like we're talking about. And I always. I've said it numerous times. I didn't want to be a body guy because I wanted to make the car go fast.

I didn't give a crap. Crap what it looked like, didn't care. It could be outdated and rotted if it was fast. That was what I was about, you know? And that's not reality.

Right.

You know, because it's like.

So I think he's out on his own now. Reality settling in.

Yeah.

Like, yeah. You need A job that pays money, you can go play all day, get one car to make it go fast. But then you know you're gonna get a paycheck. Practical. But his, he wants a barndominium and barn dominion. He just wants a barn with a bed and a garage and he can have all his toys in it. And I'm like, well, when you decide on a wife, I don't think she wants that, mama. I can just live in the country, I can have all my toys.

I was like, you know, stuff costs money so you gotta figure out how you're gonna make it. But yeah, all his streams are connected to cars.

That's good though. That's what we need. We need that passion that like. Because I mean I started as that absolutely frickin over the moon crazy about cars. And then that passion. Sometimes what this industry does, it. You lose it.

Yeah, yeah.

Because it's. You don't get to work on the fun stuff like the Viper that. You're right. Like, have I worked on them? Yep.

Do you work on them every day? No, no, it's a 87 Volkswagen Golf.

It's a joke. Like there's so many caravans that I put my hands in and work when all my years at the dealer that it's like I still see one in the parking lot and I want to hug it because it made me so much money. That caravan.

Yeah.

So that's the reality for me in this industry is it's like, you may. I wanted to start work at Dodge because the Viper.

Right.

But damn, it was the caravan that paid all my bills, you know. And that's. That was the cool thing is it's like once you learn, you just apply it to everything. You know, they put some of the same parts on a caravan that they put on a Viper. Some of the same sensors are in there.

That's funny.

And, and it's like, well, that shitty oil pressure sensor that was in an Intrepid, it's the same one that was in that Viper, you know, and so that was what I loved about that. It was. It's just like I can take that and apply it. And I love the Caravan customer a lot more than I love the Viper customer. Different type of customer. Right. You know, that's why there's such a distaste for me for some of the car lines. Not because it's like, oh, you don't want to work on European cars because they're harder.

No, man.

Want to deal with the customer.

Some of the customers. I just don't have the patience for. I count people. People too. Well, sometimes with. With those people. Not that they're not entitled to be particular. They wanted things done a certain way.

Like. Because it's not that I look at and go, oh, if it's this type, it only gets this level of service. That's not what it's about.

But, you know, that's a good eye roll.

A good eye.

It's a good eye roll.

Thank you. But sometimes it's like, we know that some of those people that have the nicest cars come in and find all the scratches that I must have put on.

Yes.

Whereas the person that has the minivan is just like, oh, thank you for having it done.

Exactly.

You know.

Yeah.

So what's when you started to come here? Asta? Because it's been. You're in Asta, you're in another group. Is it top 20 or with the institute?

The institute, yeah. One of their coaching groups.

I love them.

Yeah.

I had Cecil in here. I had Mark Sewell, I had Jimmy Lee.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

No, I love.

Is a trip.

I love those guys.

Yeah. They're good people.

Cecil especially, like, it just. I. I first met Cecil three years ago. I sat in on a service advisor class of his. When Lucas is like, you should take one of his glasses. I'm not a service advisor. Changed my life.

Yeah.

And not in. In starting to understand the business, how this thing is actually supposed to make money. You're pretty good at that too, right?

I'm getting better every day.

Yeah.

And you have the right kind of personality. Just like your dad held you accountable.

Right.

You're. When you're helping these people, you're.

I've got to help these people because they see me outside.

Yeah.

My dad's name is on that building.

Yeah.

And yeah, they're at church with me and all that stuff. So I cannot not help the people. I cannot not be honest. And yeah, there they can find me.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't have anything to hide behind. And if I did, I still wouldn't want to do that just because again, it's the service and the love and the thank yous that I get from the community by making sure that they're okay.

Yeah.

It's tough though. Like sometimes we've had. All had some customers that are difficult.

Right.

Or you just can't make them happy.

Yeah, yeah. But you know, I feel about that. And they don't get to come back, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kind of. Just if you see them in the grocery store, you go down the other aisle, you don't.

I mean, yeah, it is what it is. Like, I just can't make you happy.

Right.

Like, let's see if we can work it out. But, you know, I'm not going to sit there and beg you. Yeah, but you also don't get to tell me what to do. Yeah. You came to me with a problem, I'm giving you the solution and you're telling me that's not the solution.

Yeah.

Like help me help you.

That's a huge concept that a lot of people need to grasp. At the end of the day, it's. You're still your process.

Yes, it is my process. Yeah.

It's not theirs.

Yeah. You don't get to tell me that.

You don't get to do that.

I told a lady she didn't want us to do a pressure test on a coolant system.

Yeah.

And she said, I just want you to. I was like, well, no, ma'am, you're losing coolant. We need to figure out why. Because if I do what you say and I just do a flush, you're going to be back in two weeks and you're going to be mad at me. So she thought, she thought doing a flush would fix her problem.

The coolant consumption.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Because Google said it. Or her cousin's next door neighbor's brother in law that used to work on cars in 1972 said it.

Uncle pookie.

Uncle Pookie.

Yeah.

Said, yeah. And so, I mean, I will find a way. And one thing I let people talk and I understand as a consumer why you would think that, ma'am. But let me tell you, this is the process we need to go to. Well, I don't want to do that. Well, I'll tell you what, I don't like getting on a scale at a doctor's office. I don't like when they have to take my blood pressure. I hate all of those numbers.

But if I don't let them do that and they can't track my weight or track my blood pressure or track those things they're checking when they take all my blood and don't give it back to me if something happens to them, then I get to go back to them and say, well, why did you not know this?

Right.

Well, because you didn't let me do my job.

Yeah, Same thing, isn't it? Right.

And so when I said that, she let us do what we needed to do. Some people just don't know what they don't know. And then Uncle Pookie told them.

Yeah.

What's. What's the next five years look like for Tanika?

I don't know. That's like the scariest question.

Really?

Yeah. They asked me that in my 20 group last week. I'm just thinking about the next car I'm going by.

I promise you they didn't ask me to ask you that question. Question.

I think they did.

No.

I'm writing a letter to the institute.

You can phone them. Nobody reads letters.

Sending an email. Strongly worded.

Where's the. If I ask you recorders to closest post office. Where would you even drop that letter?

I know exactly where. Is that? No, I don't because I live here. Very inconvenient.

So you don't have any five year plan?

I don't. I have to start thinking more about that. I just became an empty nester. My whole life has been about my kids.

What do you do with the boredom now?

There's a lot of books, a lot of wine. I have a girlfriend. We go out a lot now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So a lot of learning about the industry. I do spend a lot of time talking to people. Direct message. I feel really honored when people ask me stuff about the business. How do you do this? I'm like, you asking me?

Yeah.

And it's like cool, like in here.

Yeah.

This week? This weekend. Hey, Tanika. I'm like, what? I don't know you.

Well, like, I come down off the stage yesterday.

Yeah.

Before I can even get to the fried chicken, some guy stops me to ask me and tell me about the shop that he works in and his age and should he stay there or not. Like, I'm just thinking, I want to get some fried chicken. I want some fried chicken before they put the fried chicken away because the lunch is wrapping up.

Yeah.

And so I told it. He tells me the story about the shop he's working in. And I said to him, just real, real quickly, there's never been a better time to be a mechanic in this industry. Technician, mechanic, whatever. Use them interchangeably. You're no. Nobody's in more demand than you. So you're young.

Don't stay there. You'll have another job by the end of the day if you want one. Right.

Well, make sure you're doing what you say.

Yeah.

And that's the other thing I say. Like, you have to be point blank. You can go in there and say like, I like Scanner Danner, but don't tell them you're the next Scanner Danner. Unless you really are.

Yeah.

But you're probably not.

Yeah, right, right.

When are you having a hard time trying to find good people? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Everybody lying on their resume. That chat GTP is messing people slam up. I laugh at him. I was like, what are you trying to say? Yeah, I just want somebody, you know, I've got Joe, I've got Albert, and, you know, we say A, B, C, G, S, you know, a check, blah, blah, blah, master tech. I want somebody that wants to come to work.

Okay, so is that because you and I kind of talked about that the other day and not trying to put anybody on blast, but you had a guy that was pretty talented, but he didn't want to work. Couldn't be there.

Yeah, he didn't want to work.

Yeah.

And then, you know, there's toxic families and stuff. I'm pretty sure he regrets.

Oh, 100%.

Yeah.

And then. And then the last guy literally did not want to work. This guy bought a folding chair to work.

Yeah, I saw.

You saw that picture. You know, he was producing. Like, we're busy.

Yeah.

He's producing 19 hours a week. I'm like, bro, you know, I'm showing him the numbers. I'm like, okay, so numbers don't lie. That's. We're gonna have the conversation that I've been coached to have. What can I do to make your job better? What can I do to help you?

It sounds so perfect right when you say it.

Yeah.

How can I. What do you need from me to help you produce? And there is no fault of his whatsoever.

Yeah.

None.

None. I'm doing everything I can.

Everything.

You want too much, Ms. Brown. I'm doing everything I can.

Yeah. So look down. I thought about it overnight, and we're better. Hey, you know, this isn't a place for you.

Yeah.

Like, I'm. I can't give you anything more than I can give you here. Like, I don't have anything at all. But you're. I'm paying you to be here.

Yeah.

And I think it blows people's mind that. Yes, dear technician, mechanic, whatever you want to call yourself, we'll chat GTP that later. And I am going to make a profit from your efforts.

It's not a bad thing.

It's not a bad word.

Right.

I'm going to pay you the wage that you need to live. I'm not going to, you know, pay $15 an hour. You're going to make a check. I'm not. You're not going to be Stressed out. We don't do waiters. We do one a day.

Yeah.

This is not a dirty shop. It's clean. We got heat, we have ac. We've got snacks, we've got tools, we've got snacks. Yeah, we got good snacks. I need you to produce. If you're here for 40 hours, I expect at least 35 from you.

So as somebody is the mechanic side of this, right, Notwithstanding the punctuality and the reliability, what do us people like myself and the mechanic thinks? What do we tell the younger people to make them better people for you, the shop owner? What do I have to do?

Work is not a four letter word.

Right.

Profit's not a bad word. They can learn on their own. Like, you should always be investing in your own too, which is your brain.

Yeah.

Don't wait for somebody. Shop's not busy. Pick up the broom. Don't pick up your phone.

So I'll tell you what my, my pet peeve is, is like I, I find like half of these people now, the young people, they've learned half that job, they can sweep that into a pile. But then getting the pile into the trash can, you see that too?

Yes.

What was the point of leaving it in the pile? I just. It's in high traffic area. I just walked through it. Guess what? Your pile is now scattered.

I wish on applications, I could say, did your grandma hit you in the back of the head ever when you were growing up?

We were talking the other day, remember? Take your shoe off. Did Miss Kitty take shoes off?

Yes. Yeah.

See?

Yeah.

That woman scares me a little bit still. Yeah, my dad too. As they should. You should have a healthy fear. Like, did everybody tell you, did you get a trophy at every game?

No. See, like I don't. That right there, that happened after. I was going to say, like, whatever. Millennials, boomers, blah, blah, blah. I don't. Gen X's. I don't know.

I just know that we get a trophy. I know that I can still remember playing softball as a kid and we didn't win first place in the tournament. So, like, I can remember the first place trophy being substantially larger.

Exactly.

Than the fourth place trophy.

Okay, well, that's how it. Like there's no way that you think that you put in X amount of effort and you're supposed to have the same thing as that person that put in X squared.

Yeah, yeah.

Like just your feelings don't pay any bills.

Exactly. You can't eat them.

You can't eat.

You can't drink them. You can't smoke them. You can't. Like, they don't do anything.

Yeah, they don't do anything. You can have them. Yeah. And I still go home and cry, but they're not going to pay any. Oh, there's tears that come. They come out.

What makes you cry?

I'm just saying. I mean, like, I'm not concrete. No, but okay, so what's the day gets stressful. Like, they get stressed and then. Oh, I'm depressed. You're not depressed. You're just sad right now. It's okay.

Was it you live to play another day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If Eddie Murphy. If every day was a sunny day, then what is a sunny day?

Yeah.

Like, come on. It's okay. But you know, it's okay. They. They want to cry on the Internet to a sad song.

Yeah.

Like, why are you filming yourself crying and posting that? For likes. For attention for some. It's gonna be okay.

My girl likes to party every time.

Yeah.

So I don't know. I think the Generation Covid kids lost a lot of communication. They lost those last years of high school, a lot of social interaction. And I don't think that they know that. And that is a. That's a real problem.

That's a huge problem. And I see it now because it's like, well, I'm not calling anybody or put them on blast. But now I'm seeing that are like 21 years old and they're still playing Pokemon. And it's like, why are you still playing Pokemon at 21 years old? Because for three years, when you weren't allowed to go anywhere or you weren't supposed to go anywhere, that's what you did was play a lot of Pokemon. And then all of a sudden it's like. But how do. It's like you snap them into the reality.

Yeah.

Cause we can't get them back because we're too mean. That's what they say. We'll get canceled.

But they can't cancel you. It's your business.

I tell. I tell Haley that all the time. She's like, Ms. Tanique. Get canceled. Whatever. Tell them. Bring it.

Cancel me. I won't go home anyway.

So what would be the. Your dream for the legacy that you get to leave? Like, when you think about Mr. Brown's or Brown. Mr. Brown's legacy. What. What's Mrs. Tanika's gonna be.

I'll get back to you on that one. Not really. Because I've been so wrapped up in my kids for so long.

Yeah.

And then wrapped up in the shop and getting that to a good place where I don't have to be there every day.

Yeah.

So it's like, what's next? I don't know. I think I'll have a house in Jamaica.

Really?

Yeah.

There's gonna be an apartment somewhere on somebody's beach, and I'm gonna be there.

Does that really pull at you? Jamaica?

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You feel like I'm at home. Really?

My customers think it's funny. Like, oh, you've been home. They will say, you've been home. Yeah, I went home. Girl went to Jamaica. I love it there. Yeah. I've been plenty of places, but I love it there.

And it might end up being Myrtle Beach. Who knows? I might have Myrtle beach money, not Jamaica.

Myrtle beach money is not Jamaica money.

Yeah. It's not the same.

Yeah.

Well, you can't see through the water at all. There's a lot of seafood buffets and.

Golf courses in Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach.

Yeah.

I, I, it's been. When did I go? The last time I was in Myrtle beach was. I was a high school student. I'm on a band trip, and I can remember it was pretty. But we were there for all of, like, a day, and then we had to go again.

Yeah.

And it wasn't terrible, but, I mean, it was. I'm trying to think.

It's like a salty lake.

Yeah.

We were there in time of year February. So it wasn't exactly warm yet.

Right.

You know what I mean? We were stupid and still ran in the ocean.

Yeah.

But, like, we wish we'd have gone in March break instead, but, I mean.

I don't want my kids to have any kids for, like, the next 10 years. But I want to be somebody's grandma. I'm stealing kids all day.

I watched you.

I will steal your baby.

Brandon Dill's baby is just like, she's.

The cutest little thing in the world.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chubby cheese.

I mean, I like family money. I don't know. This is more time to do what I want. Finish sleeping, get up when I'm finished sleeping, you know?

So that's the, that's the main goal right now, is to make financially enough.

That I can do what I want to do when I want to do it.

You still come into the shop every morning. You were saying, still there. Because we were. Somebody was telling you the other day that you don't really need to be there.

Yeah, Haley won't tell me what to do. It's my shot. Tag on it.

Yeah.

But no, I still love it. The people are there. I get to talk to the people and kiss the babies and pet the dogs.

Yeah.

Shake the hands and shake.

But I do want to encourage more young people, especially women, to come in the industry.

Well, that's.

So I think that is my next soapbox. My last service advisor. Not. She's just on maternity leave. That's going to be like five years. She always wanted me, Amber.

Five years of maternity.

Well, I haven't. She didn't quit. I didn't fire her. She had some babies and she'll be back eventually. That's my dream.

Yeah.

She had me some twins.

Oh, good for her.

I know. They're so cute. And so, I mean, I started her from a blank page and Haley basically a blank page. And women are good at this.

Yeah.

So good at this.

Yeah.

And then the, the kids that don't test well, that really covet kids that they didn't have a dad to be in a garage with. They don't know if they like the automotive industry or not.

Would you hire a female mechanic?

Yes.

100.

Yeah, I had one.

Yeah.

Yeah. A young lady for a little bit.

What happened to her? Did she stay?

She. She found a guy.

Yeah.

That wasn't any good for her and I tried to tell her that because I tried to auntie her and she did try to come back but I didn't need her at the time.

Yeah.

But she, she was a hard working. Listen, she was sweet as she can be. But. But dudes do that too. So that's not. That doesn't have.

Yeah, it's not.

Yeah. I don't like a safe place for young people and to encourage young people that you can do this. You've got the brain. Your brain is still young and this technology is changing like nobody's business and there's money to be made.

Well, that's. Yeah, that's the crazy thing. Right? Like you're a good example. They can see that you're successful and that like, you know, they could do that too. That's what I think. We're all. When we come to these conferences, we're just trying to show people that like you don't have to go without. You just have to make that choice.

That it's like I'm going to put myself at a higher value.

Right.

So that I don't have to go without or my kids don't have to go without or my family doesn't have.

To go out and you got to find that shop that Respects you. Yeah. You can't get stuck at Jiffy Lube. You can't do that. Yeah, yeah, you can start there. Get a little bit of information there. Go to a big box. Learn something at the big box store.

You know, increase your brain tool and apply yourself. Get in the shop on independent. Find somebody like you. Duck a wrench every now and then. Don't. Don't cry when you get fussed at.

I don't.

You don't throw wrenches anymore.

Wrenches anymore. And I never threw them at another person. I talked about it. It was something that. But no, I would throw it at the wall.

But you have to start somewhere.

Yeah.

You just can't go and just be a doctor. You just can't go and start changing wires in people's houses.

Yeah.

Like, you have to start. And the Internet told them that they should come out of high school and make a hundred thousand dollars.

Yeah, that's not real.

The Internet told me.

That's not.

TikTok said so. Yeah. So the reality. Parents need to speak to their kids with reality.

Anything you wish you'd have done different. In closing, we.

Who?

You.

No, no, no.

That's good then.

No.

Yeah, no, that's what it's about.

Because then I wouldn't be here, you know?

Yeah.

Like, if I didn't make that mistake. If I didn't. Yeah. If you don't make the mistakes. Well, if you don't make mistakes and grow from them, like, you can make the same mistake over and over again. You're an idiot. But no, I wouldn't change anything.

Yeah.

Life's the lesson. Right. That's the worst thing, that when something goes wrong, how you can take from. It's the lesson of it.

Right.

You know, you shouldn't take any more. You shouldn't take the drama that it puts you through. You shouldn't take the stress. You should. You should just take the lesson.

The lesson?

Yeah. Don't let it define what you are, who you are. Just take the lesson from and keep going.

It's just a blip on the map. That's it.

I thank you for this.

This is.

You're welcome. Has it been that long already?

That's one hour.

Yeah.

That was easy.

It's not bad. See?

No. I started my own podcast.

Yours would be yours, eclipse mine in no time. Now. I'm telling you.

Whatever.

Yeah.

I thank you very much.

You're welcome so much.

Yeah, we'll do this again.

We will.

Thanks, guys. 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 Changing 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.

Tonnika Haynes talks Family, Business, and Auto Repair

Dodge Viper

Volkswagen Golf

Toyota Corolla

Master Tech

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