Episode 283 - Revamping Trade Shows While Building Industry Community with Tonnika Haynes

0:00For years, the automotive industry has been plagued with the perception of shady business practices, greedy owners, and incompetent technicians. It's time we flip the script. Good clap, David. I'm very proud of you. I don't know if you know this, but this is not a standard podcast, David. We started this podcast in order to bring everyone together to have the tough conversations everyone's been avoiding.

0:31Instead of endless complaining and pointing out the problems, we seek to get everything out in the open and look for real solutions. To do that, we bring on industry experts, vendors that are changing the game, multi-million dollar shop owners, as well as those that are struggling every single day to pay the bills, and everything in between. We're not professional podcasters pretending to know how it is.

0:56We're in the trenches every single day trying to pay the bills and hopefully achieving some success. So if you're tired of overly polished scripted conversations, it's time to tune in to the Changing the Industry podcast. Lucas and I are proud to partner with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence as a means to help shops, whether they're getting off the ground, hiring their first technician, or looking to pass along their business to a new generation.

1:29So jump down to the show notes and check the link in the description, which will take you to their events page. The Institute is committed to bringing world-class training to shops all over the country, including their Leadership Intensive, their MARS Intensive, and the Service Advisor 3-Day Intensive. Some of these events take place all over the country, so jump down to the show notes, click the link, find an event near you, and experience world-class training unlike anything else you've seen.

2:03And now on to the episode. Mine's yellow. It's because it's, uh, selected. Oh. Uh, not selected and Auntie Nika. Whoa. What's up? That's exactly what my nieces and nephews call me. That's it. Auntie Nika. Yeah. How you doing? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm good. A little wore out, but I'm good. I know. Me too, man. Like I was struggling this morning.

2:36Yeah. I had to make myself get dressed. Yeah, I did too. Put myself in auntie mode. Yeah, it was rough. It was rough. And, and that's one thing about these trade shows is the nights turn into late nights. It's so fun. It is. It is. Um, I don't know, you do this for long enough, it doesn't feel as fun as it used to.

2:55I can see that happen. Yeah. But, uh, so we're at Vision. What do you think? I like it. I like it. I feel— I don't feel out of place, but it's like, oh, this is a new experience. You know, I'm used to ASTA. You know everybody, you know what Yeah, all the ins and outs. It feels a little odd, but I do like it.

3:11What do you, um, you come to a show like this, and I know that for the longest time, um, my engagement and involvement with AST and then ASTA, I go to other shows and I pick up on the things that they do well, right, or that they do wrong, or that I like or dislike, and take tools back to use in the other shows.

3:31And so, uh, Mike and I would always come out here, and, you know, the executive director would come out here, and we'd all kind of look at how they did things We'd go to Apex, we'd go to other trade shows, and then we implemented things we liked and said, hey, we didn't like the way that felt or didn't like that experience. Are there any takeaways?

3:48Yeah, I actually love the badges, the badges that have the little tickets on it. Yeah, sorry, I sent that over to Ryan. Yeah, I said this is a good idea because, you know, we had a problem with dinners and lunches and stuff last year because people were signing up or didn't sign up, just showing up. We couldn't control the food cost and the food disappeared because people did not sign up to the last minute, couldn't get the counts right, and this, that, and whatever.

4:11So I like the tickets. I like how she's got everything laid out. Yeah. So I'm still— I really like that registration counter set up the way it is too. That is nice. I think that's great. And it's open much longer. Yeah, for sure. It's even open tomorrow on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. I think it works way better than, than our setup has worked.

4:28Um, I think Ryan did a really good job to go from what we where we were to where we're going, that was a big leap. Yeah. I don't think people know how much it takes to put on a convention. Yeah. There's a, there's a lot of talk about, especially like the training and things like that. Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of frustration in the technical space because shows are saying, hey, we need somebody to sponsor the training.

4:52Right. And I look at that now and I'm like, hey, listen. Yeah. I don't like sponsored training either. Mm-hmm. Um, and I don't like the training that you get when you do it sponsored. And some of the park companies bring very, very generic, very low-end training. And it turns into a sales call. Yeah, exactly. And you know how I have expressed my frustration in our events committee meetings.

5:12Yeah. Which you're the vice president now, so you don't really get to hear me complain nearly as much. Um, no, please do continue to complaining. Um, but so like, but I also recognize we have to be profitable. It has to make money or it won't continue to exist. We can't do anything. Yeah. Like, yeah. I think one thing I will tell you that I have seen, the thing I feel about especially, and I'm not trying to talk crap about our own association, so don't get mad at me, but one of the frustrations, one of the aggravations for me is, is ASTE grew grassroots.

5:49You know what I'm saying? It was members talking to members saying, we want you to be here. It was board members working the streets saying, let's go, come on, come with us, shop to shop to shop. Come on, we want you to go, we want you to go, we want you to go. And I think that there's a lot of things that happened.

6:07One was fatigue, right? Because we had all been on the board for a long time. We'd done it year after year after year. After a while, it gets to feeling like a job. I'm asking over and over again, how many more times can I ask these people to do something for me? Right? I'm having to drag them to this event. I'm having to go get them and bring them to Fueling Connections.

6:27I'm having to do all this stuff. It kind of feels like I'm a salesperson for this organization. It stops feeling organic after a while. Right. And I'm not going to lie to you, it did. For the longest time, it felt like I was being refueled when I was at our events. And eventually it started to feel like it was draining to be an artist.

6:49You're doing a lot of work. Yeah. Yeah. And so how do we, you know, and, and it comes back to the same thing with like sponsored training. Well, the way we were able to make it work without having sponsored training, having really high-end training before, is it was us going out and begging these really high-end instructors, please come help us. Please come make this work.

7:10Once we grow, we'll start paying you and we'll figure out how to make this work. And we're going to grow the show. We're going to get it to a level that it works. And, and the problem is, is we never executed, in my opinion, very well on that. Right. Right. On the other side of that, right, like, is, is that these associations are depending on their trade shows to pay their bills when what we should be doing is growing the association and all these people who are at these trade shows become member of the association, increase the revenue in the association so the association can stand on its own and the trade show can then

7:44make enough money that it can pay the instructors. And that's how other associations do it. Yeah, that's why Ryan is good, because he dealt with other associations and he's like, no, you are on the trade floor, you have to be a part of the association. You can't just come and use us, get all your contacts, and then yeah, run away. So this year I think that's what we're trying to push for, but we're going to get pushback on that as well.

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9:00No matter what you do, you're gonna get pushback. Yeah, in my opinion. No, somebody's not going to be happy. And then people's like, oh, they're trying to make money. You have to make money if you're gonna survive. Yeah, to survive, to bring the trainers in. Yeah. To have the events, to make money, to pay the people, to pay the convention center. All this stuff that I don't think people know how expensive it is.

9:19Yeah. I had no idea how expensive it was until I saw the financials this year. Yeah. It's, it's rowdy. It's crazy. Well, I, I think that we made some missteps in how we executed. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna get Mickey mad. You keep saying we. That wasn't you. I know it wasn't me, but we have a board and we've got board members and we've got, uh, you know, I think they disappeared.

9:47Everybody wants to be on the board. Nobody wants to do any work. But you've been too busy to do work, right? Everybody's been too busy to do something. Well, so, so here's the thing. I think that our president-in-chief of the last couple of years is probably who we should throw right under the bus. We'll call him in here. See if he'll come back.

10:06I think I, what I'll do is I'll get in the bus, you throw him down, I'll drive over top of him, and then I'll reverse. You gonna reverse? Yeah. Back up over top of him. Don't run over my brother. Yeah. It'll be like, well, I'm, I think he said what he said, 6 days, 6 days in, he was like, what the? But even now, just a couple weeks in, I feel like it's a whole nother job, which I, my shop runs pretty well, so it's not a big deal for me.

10:28Yeah. But it's a lot of work. It's a, people just like, oh, I'm on the board, but then you're not doing anything, not even sharing a You, you social media post. You were right. Um, I had been on the board for 5 years. That's a long time, right? And, and listen, I loved it, but it started feeling real political. Something had shifted at some point, and it didn't feel like we were working as a team to accomplish stuff.

10:53Yeah, but you know what that comes with? I think men are cattier than women, so all of the side conversations Yeah. Instead of just, yeah. Oh, that was definitely, yeah. I called you out on a couple times. Where you at? Yeah. I'm on the beach. I'm coming. Yeah. Like conversations are had, being had. Oh, this person's talking to that person. This person's talking to that person.

11:15We all have the same complaints. It's all good. We can complain and we can figure it out together, but just talking about it and not doing anything. Yeah. Like what ticks me off in a meeting, mm-hmm, is all the things that we're getting ready to do. Like, like, please don't tell me what you're getting ready to do. Let's talk about what we're gonna do.

11:30What have you done? What are we doing? Yeah. Yeah. What is the plan? What is actually happening? Yeah. And why is it taking so long? Like, I'm that person. Like, I'm a high D on the, this thing, so I will run over you. Yeah. And so I feel like that can have, um, I feel like I hurt people's feelings sometimes when I just get really direct.

11:46Yeah. Like, I don't give a crap about your feelings right now. These are the facts and this is what we need to do to make this happen. I, I love our immediate past president very much. Mm-hmm. You know that he's one of my very closest friends. I think that the— he doesn't like confrontation. He says it all the time. Right. Yeah. I think the 2 people who are in charge now are the 2 people who needed to be in charge all along.

12:07Yeah. Right. Um, I think you and I both know Envy is a no BS, right? She, she knows how to run a business, right? She is. She, yes, she sure are. And you too, right? I just be talking though. I'm just a mouthpiece. But you're so full of shit. I am. I just, I don't do nothing. Um, but I, I think that, I think there needs to be accountability and I think there needs to be more structure if, if it is to continue.

12:35If these trade shows are going to continue to grow, my one thing to you is, is you have got to figure out how do you still bring the high-end trainers? How do you bring the Seth Thorson, the Brandon Steckler, the people who are not just going to say, Hey, I'll go get a sponsor and they can pay me. Yeah. To be here.

12:54Right. How do I get good trainers in here who are interested in educating for that purpose? Because it costs money to generate that content. They have to generate the content. They have to travel. They're bringing heavy equipment with them. So there's a whole thing. I think it was Brandon Steckler that maybe put a YouTube video out about it, um, a couple months ago, maybe even a year ago.

13:13I don't know what tomorrow— I mean, today is so Yeah, he made a lot of points, but I don't think people get that. Me, I never got it until he said it, how much it takes to come up with that content. Yeah. Hours and hours and hours. Hours and hours. Same thing, like we talk about our labor rate in the industry. Yeah.

13:28Like, oh, all you have to do is, but do you know how long it took me to get there? Yeah. So respect my, respect my hustle. Yeah. And so they need to have their hustle respected. They need to be compensated for their knowledge. Yeah. And then shop owners also have to understand. You have to pay for this. Yeah. Because shop owners comparing, complaining about the price of training is the dumbest thing.

13:49Yeah. Like if you really break it down, for example, this is 4 days of training. Mm-hmm. So 8 classes, 7 if you're lazy. Yeah. Class should cost how much per class? $5,000, $6,000 per class. Yeah. And you're getting it for $700 and you're still complaining. Yeah. Make it make sense. Well, the problem is that I need to be able— we had this whole discussion like 2 or 3 years ago— I have to be able to say that I spent $700, I had my guy out of the bay.

14:23So how much did that cost me, those 2 days that he went out of the bay? Thursday and Friday, let's say, uh, if you're open both those days. So he's out, both those days, plus the cost of the training and the fuel, whatever else you gotta accommodate if he's traveling or whatever. Is the training that he comes back with, the knowledge that he comes back with, going to exceed that cost in additional value that he can bring to the table?

14:52If he's all of a sudden more productive, all of a sudden he can diagnose a car a little bit quicker, or the If there's something substantial to it, then, then yeah, like there's, there's no complaining about the cost and you can say, well, it costs what it costs. Yeah. But at the end of the day, you're going to be able to make X more than what it's costing.

15:12That's true. But a lot of shops don't even know how much it costs. Like how much X is, what they're, how much it were. Yeah. That's the problem is like, how do you, how do you measure it? Yeah. That, and the only thing I can say. For sure is I, you can chalk, and this is what I do it as, I chalk it up to retention.

15:34If I take them to the shows and they feel engaged in the industry, I'm more likely to keep them. And it's far more expensive to lose and then have to replace and then be without a tech for a month, 2 months, 6 months, a year. Upgrading fees and all that stuff. That costs you $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a month that they're not in the bay.

15:52Plus finding the new person, plus they're getting up to speed. So if I can spend whatever it costs for them to come here and that helps retain them one more year, then the cost is justified. But to say that they're going to be able to spend X amount of dollars and that's going to bring Y amount of value to their performance, that's where I think like we haven't been able to quantify that at all in any way, shape, or form.

16:20And so for a lot of shop owners that just look at it as sunk cost, it's like, I'm just throwing this into a black hole. So I would prefer it be $700 and not $1,000. I'd prefer it to be $1,000, not $3,000, because then just, it's just going into a black hole. And I can understand, again, I can justify or I can, I can argue the other side of it, but I can completely understand where they're coming from.

16:46Because it's like, it's no investment. It's not like a, like you, you, you get a scan tool and like, hey, I, I can, I, I can spend the $5,000 on the scan tool, but now that tech's not waiting for that other scan tool. This tech has got their own scan tool. That's just cut 15 minutes to every diag on every car. And then at the end of the year, I'm going to end up making an extra $15,000 for this $5,000 I'm about to spend.

17:12I mean, that's a no-brainer. You do that every single time, 10 times over, you're making 3x on your money. You just can't do that with a training. That's the problem. And then you have the issue with course selection too. Like, hey, we're going to go to this show. Then you look at the class list and you're like, okay. And then the tech looks at the class list and they go, I mean, I could probably take this class, this class, and this class.

17:35I might get something out of it. Yeah. And you're like, well, crap. Yeah. Well, you don't think the course selection is that good. Yeah. And so it's part of the factor. It's definitely part of the factor because even if you're going to say it more from a retention standpoint, this is why I'm spending the money. And again, I think that's a, that is a valuable component.

17:54I don't think any shop owner looks at it that way. I don't think any shop owner looks at their, their total benefit package at the end of the year and say, I'm going to add to the, whatever I spend, I'm paying you salary of $65,000 a year. Plus I'm contributing 401k. Like we have benefits, like we have free food, free gas for their personal vehicle.

18:16You add that to the total package and then you go, plus I take you to a training event and the total cost of that training event ends up being whatever, $5,000 of travel costs, yada, yada, yada. You add that to the total benefit package, becomes sort of their retention plan. I don't think anybody does that. Nobody does it. They look at it as, I'm going to spend this money in you, invest this money in you.

18:38I need you to be slightly better at your job. Well, that slightly better has to be quantifiable. Like there has to be some kind of metric you can, you can check and see that, yeah, they've got me an extra 0.3 per day and extrapolate that out at the end of the year. It exceeded the cost of the training. That's where we, every single shop owner looks at it that way.

18:57And I don't think anybody can sit down and say, No, they don't think it'll be done. Okay. Yeah. The retention and the culture development is huge, right? The culture development is huge. And that's the other thing too. Like what trade show markets their training as retention? Nobody does. No, true self. There's a whole freaking t-shirts out there and it's all about be better at your job, dying faster, blah, blah, blah.

19:22It's like, okay, great. And is that a metric I can actually check? Hell no. Hell no. But you say, hey, you can keep this guy one extra year because they know they're coming to the show following year. They're going to want to stick around and be like, hey, they're taking me to Vegas. I'm going to go to Apex SEMA. I'm going to at least stick it out till November.

19:42It's like, well, yeah, I got another year of retention out of that person. That is valuable. That you can actually put— how much is this guy making me a month? Yeah. Yeah. How long does it take me typically to replace him if I lose him with the same skill set? Well, that might be 6 months to a year. Well, how much is that gonna cost me?

20:00Well, whatever. That might be quarter mil to half a million dollars. That makes wonderful sense to put it that way. Maybe we should market it that way as well. Yeah. Well, because I know and believe in that because I've been on a lot of different sides of it. Yeah. But like, if you're just looking at it at a cost, like, well, what is it gonna pay me back?

20:15Like, what's the investment? Like, you wanna see the numbers. If you're that person that you need to see the numbers. Yeah. I don't think we can pull 'em out. Uh, 'cause that would be different for each shop. And then he is like, how do you measure each person? Yeah. How did they learn and what exactly? Did they retain? Did they retain it?

20:31I think Ryan coming in was a bit of a wake-up call on that front. And I think my experience going to other trade shows is a bit of a wake-up call, right? Because I go to a lot of other trade shows that are unrelated to automotive. And so it's like you go to IAAPA, the training is a secondary, it's not a primary, right?

20:49And so you go to IAAPA and it's like, hey, I'm gonna go to the trade show, I'm gonna get a new deal on this piece of equipment. Hey, I'm gonna get a better deal on this. I'm gonna get, volume bulk pricing on this type of food. I'm gonna do these things. My purpose is trade show. My purpose is not training, right? Right.

21:06Uh, Apex is very much the same way. The training was an afterthought. It wasn't always that way, and there's a lot of discussions about Apex and the training right now. But, um, for us, training was the primary and the trade show was a secondary, right? Um, I think Ryan looked at that, and I heard him say some things that made me think, hey, he doesn't think this is a standard approach.

21:28This isn't how most people do this. Um, I think David's right. I think it's very hard to quantify ROI on training in a way that you can measure it and manage it like that. But I also think that we have a responsibility to the industry because the, the automobile is changing so fast. We have to be training them and raising them up and getting them that information and that technology.

21:48The, the problem is, is like the majority of the sponsored classes aren't doing that. The majority of the sponsored classes are sales classes. They are Hey, do something for me, get me something. Um, what if, what if— Hey y'all, Lucas here. It's story time. Over the past 6 months to a year, I've actually been working more and more in the family business.

22:07Now the family business is not an automotive business, it's a tourist attraction. And one of the things that was happening in that family business is we were doing all of the marketing internally, be it social media ads, be it Google, all of it. We were handling all of it, website building, the whole nine yards. And here's the deal. It became very clear our marketing efforts were ineffective.

22:27Now we could see that we weren't getting return on investment. We could see that we weren't getting good conversions. And that's when we stepped in and hired someone. We hired a professional that knew what they were doing. And for the first time in years, our parking lot's full when it's typically empty. And that's why I'm going to recommend you pick up the phone today and call Shop Marketing Pros or click the link down in the comments below, because you shouldn't be learning how to do marketing Your marketing machine should be working for you right here, right now, making sure your bays are full.

22:55So go into the link in the comments and click on the Shop Marketing Pros link for your free marketing analysis today. The angle becomes— because that's not, that's not being done either. And that, that makes total sense. Like, why wouldn't I put back money and say, well, when I buy this, because everybody buys their shit impulsively. It's like somebody walks in with a scan tool, they hit a couple buttons, they're like, ooh, that's fancy.

23:22Very shiny. They're like, hey, yeah, how much is this going to cost? I was like, well, I got that. And then boom, they bought it, right? Just randomly. And I get that. Like, everybody's got to sell stuff or whatever. But what if, if you're a little bit more intentional about your spending and you go, well, I buy my scan tools at ASTA because they show up with ridiculous show deals.

23:44Or my scan tools or my lifts, or I know I need to replace this lift. Yeah, I'm not buying it until September. Yeah, yeah, because I'm going to be able to talk to the, to the BendPak guy, and that BendPak guy is going to have some stupid deal on the— because they show up to this show with the good deals because they know buyers show up, right?

24:06See what I'm saying? Yeah, but I don't think anybody approaches it. I don't— I haven't seen anything. Well, we kind of tried to do that. We tried to have an owner's only showroom floor. And that didn't work out because everybody came down there. So the owners, like you can really talk to the owners. It's not someone just at the booth getting your snacks, getting your pushups.

24:22But I mean, why didn't we police it? But even if you police it, it's like, let everybody show up. But like, instead of having exhibitor or whatever, like when you go to Apex, SEMA, one of the people on there is the buyer. Yeah. So you know who to talk to. Yes. But that's not going to work all the time because for me, Even if it says buyer, I'm gonna, my texts are gonna say, Ms.

24:42Tanika, look, this is what we need in the shop. Yeah. So I need my texts to be able to also talk to that guy. Yeah. Okay. And be able to take my decision maker seriously. Yeah. So have different designations just so the, the person that's there go, they can look down and go, okay, this is someone that I can actually talk to and they're interested in picking up this.

25:05So we did that. Right. We did that entirely. That was my idea. We did that entirely because, um, we had, it was very clear to me that we were missing the boat. I was talking to vendors and they were saying, hey, we're unhappy with, with the trade show because we're not getting any closes on this. We're not getting any leads. Yeah. They're like, I give you one names and phone numbers and email addresses.

25:35But even if you give them that, here's the thing. You get the leads, right? Everybody's scanning my badge right now. What do owners do? They get mad because the people are calling them. And that, that's, that's another problem. They get, they get mad. Oh, I just got back from, uh, I just got back from Apex and I got so many emails. Like, that's what you're supposed to do.

25:54It's like if your customers complain about you emailing them, that's jacked up. Yeah. That's part of the marketing. That's what they have to do to stay in your inbox and stay in your face. So why the heck are you mad? 'Cause someone's emailing or calling your shop. So you can't win with people sometimes. But if you set the expectation going, hey, this is how this show's gonna play out.

26:12Mm-hmm. Because I think every, if everybody shows up, like, I, I think everybody shows up to shows like Vision or whatever, whatever. And they have this like, oh, they're doing it for altruistic reasons. Nobody's making any money off this. Mm-hmm. It's just for the betterment of the industry. Everybody shows up with that mindset. It's idiotic. I know. Yeah. It's like, dude, everybody, everybody's on the take.

26:32Everybody's on the take. The vendor's on the take. The freaking convention center's on the take. The hotel people on the take. Everybody's gonna try to make some money. Everybody's trying to make a dime or nickel. As they should. As we are trying to make money as owners. Yeah. But if you don't get anybody to think of it that way, and if you just shift their mindset and go, no, no, no, no.

26:49Everybody's trying to make money. The reason why you come to this show Is because we are telling these vendors specifically that they either are going to make a deal, a sale there, or they're gonna be able to get your information to do a follow-up and give you a ridiculous deal because they met you at this show. But it shows where you come to get great deals.

27:09The vendor has the responsibility to bring that to the table though. They have to bring that to the table, but also for sure. But you, it needs to be presented to them that way. Like, this is what we do. The shop owner needs to let them do their job. Yeah. The shop owner cannot get mad because somebody is calling on them. Are we promoting it as like, hey, you, you need to support the vendors because the vendors are who make this possible?

27:30The vendors are who make it possible. Yeah. But then, then again, that's just back to the altruism. It's like, oh, it's charity. It's like, no, fuck that. It's like, get, get the vendors, go, hey vendors, we are going to present this show as an opportunity for you guys to make direct sales on the showroom floor. To buyers because we are going to tell these shop owners to show up ready to buy.

27:53They're gonna have tags on there that say that they're buyers or decision makers. And those are the people you need to talk to to make sure that you are making sales. Like, I want you to show up with great deals and product to move. Okay. So who are the vendors sending? That's another question. Well, yeah. Hey, that's on them. But here's the thing, if you're sending your Okay, you've got this company.

28:17Yeah. We're not gonna name a name and they're worldwide. They've got a big, and they're gonna send these 20-year-old salespeople and they're sitting there playing on their flipping phone the whole damn time. Oh my gosh. And they're not taking numbers back. And all of a sudden it's ASTA's fault. That, that's a, that's a downhill slide because what, what caused them to send their low budget?

28:36Yeah. They sent the deadbeats because they weren't getting any deals at the show anyway. You getting deals? No, they sent deadbeats. Right. Well, and so, I mean, I, I'm just saying, like, there's booths out there right now and there's nobody sitting in it. And there's a booth, I was walking around the show, the show floor, and it happens at ASDA that people are just sitting there on their phones.

28:55Yeah. You know, don't get up, don't make eye contact. You're looking at me, don't know who the fuck I am and won't even talk to me. Yeah. So that is on that salesperson. Like you're picking and choosing who you talk to. I'd rather a salesperson get on my nerves than ignore me. Yeah. Yeah. Because in my opinion, it was like, okay, bitch, I got your number.

29:14Like, like I'm literally, I just, before you called, I was walking up and down. I got the cards. I'm thinking about ASTA. I'm thinking about it as a shop owner too. And I'm watching people sit on their butt on their phone, no eye contact. And me, I'm going to talk to everybody. I hope you have a great day. A good day in your booth.

29:28And they're just sitting there. And so many of these vendors show up and they look at it like you were saying, like brand, or I think it was Mike Allen was saying it was brand awareness. So they're showing up to just present the product just so you can have some awareness of it. I don't think anybody shows up. What's that? With the, with the deal.

29:43Like if you buy this product and this is your code, your code is going to be Vision 2026. And for up to 30 days, you can get 15% off. Yeah. They're not taking advantage of that. Taking advantage of that. Well, and that's what they should be doing. And then they, and if you just go to the vendors and go, hey, make sure you guys show up.

30:00With product and deals. Like make, be ready to sell some product. Everything, just something. Literally, there is, there was a toolbox from O'Reilly that looks like a gun, uh, army ammo box, an old school one. And I sat there and I said, I would love to get those for my guys for Father's Day. And you know what? That was the cue to say, gimme your number.

30:25Yeah. This is how you get it. Let me make this sale. I'll ship it to you. He didn't say nothing. Yeah. I'm sitting there ready to buy 5 of them. I didn't ask him how much. I didn't ask him for a discount. I'm ready to buy. Yeah. And he didn't say anything. Well, and, and here's the other thing is like, maybe these shows have to think.

30:44So Vision's done a really good job of allowing other people in, right? Anybody can come to the expo, right? You don't have to, I don't know if it's free or if it is— anybody can come to the expo. But you know, I'm almost thinking, you mean like people for the trade show part? Yeah. Okay. So I'm almost thinking maybe you expand your trade shows to the point that you have, maybe you've got some cool cars in there.

31:05Maybe you've got some stuff for, for the automotive enthusiasts to come in and see whatever that is. And I'm not saying that's a good idea. Coffee. Yeah, exactly. But it's $10 a person to get in. And so now we market to all of downtown Raleigh. Now we market to all of Cary and all these other places and hey, bring your kids, come see the cars, come see the, Right?

31:24And, and the vendors might look at that and say, well, you're diluting it. Well, you know, we're trying to get you as many people as we can. Maybe bring some product that does relate to them. Maybe bring something that does do something for them. Yeah, right. Especially your Nappas, your Advance Auto Parts, your O'Reillys, stuff like that. The DIY guys. Yeah, who knows?

31:42I mean, you, you might be able to sell a lift. You might be able to. But, but I, I do think, and you know, part of me says It was, it was a, the idea to move to a convention center. I made a big push for that. And I think that, and, and Sherry warned me. She said, Lucas, if you guys move to a convention center, there's costs that you don't know about.

32:06The executive director or whoever's in charge needs to talk to me. And I said to that executive director, before you do anything, you need to call her and talk to her. And one of the things that she brought up is convention centers have union workers and it creates a whole new complexity that you just don't understand. And it causes costs to go way up if you don't know how to navigate that.

32:26Right. We didn't reach out to Sherry and talk to Sherry. Right. And it is what it is. There's a lot of egos at play. Yeah. And so it, like, I think that I was making that recommendation and pushing for that without truly understanding it. I take responsibility for that. Um, I think that we moved into the convention center without a full understanding of— well, that contract was signed way before Ryan.

32:49Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. I don't think that there was an understanding of what was happening. The not talking to Sherry was just an ego thing. And I love me some Sherry. Yeah. And I'm just ready. I'm watching her navigate this convention. Yeah. Hair's done. She's not sweating. It's just smooth. Now she might be flipping out on the inside, but it looks like it's so organized.

33:08But this is the nature of her business as well. So I'm definitely like trying to go to Sherry's school, like, okay, now how'd you Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, absolutely. She's very smart. She's been doing this a long time. Exactly. And, and so I just think that there's a ton of opportunity to, to learn and grow from that. But I think the trade shows as a whole need a revamp.

33:27And I mean, look at SEMA, right? I, I get SEMA is a massive show and it's all about really cool cars, but they draw in hundreds of thousands of just people off the street. I know, I know. I'm going this year. Are you? Yeah, I'm going. I'm thinking about taking the team. I hope that this gets released before SEMA. Um, but yeah, I'm thinking about it.

33:47I know it's going to be heck of expensive, but that I wouldn't— well, I've got— yeah, I think there's like a couple guys I think deserve to go to SEMA. Yeah, yeah, you can always ask them. Like, I've got one tech who like, I, I don't want to go Vegas. I have no interest in Vegas. I think I got 2 that would be like, uh, yes, Miss Sneaker, let's go.

34:03And they deserve it, so Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how that plays out. But I haven't been. But it's— they draw automotive enthusiasts from all over the world, right? And, and I'm just saying, I think maybe we need to reconsider and revamp how we do automotive trade shows in this space. I just— I don't— because look, I get that the association has to stay solvent, and so right now the trade shows are making that happen.

34:30The association is very quickly becoming a byproduct of the trade show, not the, the root of the trade show. I believe so too. And that's why I'm excited about, you know, the shenanigans. I know it sounds cheesy, but I wanna get back to the roots. Like what you were saying, just the regular shop owners coming in and talking. Yeah. Like the, the lobby, that is my favorite place in any trade show.

34:49Just the connections, the networking. Yeah. The Sheridan Bar over here. The, yeah. Well, I mean, like you heard me saying from the very minute that you got on the board, guys, we gotta get back. We've gotta get back to, to the way we were doing it before because like it was working. Like we were all, we had all these regional events. And every single person involved was going out saying, hey, let's go.

35:08When we went to Asheville, we had like 100 people show up to one of our events and we just walked around downtown Asheville. That's all we did. We just sat around. We, we were at a Holiday Inn. And so we sat outside and there were like 50 of us just sitting around having drinks, talking and networking. Benji's, what he just did was amazing when he brought Josh in.

35:25Like people flew in for that and he's in the middle of nowhere. But you know what made it work was Benji went and did the work. We did work. Right. And so just open your mouth and share anything because there's things we got going on right now. I'm just like, okay, uh, nobody knows about it. Yeah. And in this day and age with social media and fear of missing out, and then like I said, we've got talking heads on it.

35:45We've got me. I mean, I'm a superstar, but I've got a social media phone. You got Benji. All we gotta do is like and share and people are nosy. What are you guys doing? I wanna do that. What are you guys doing? You do it enough and like, hey, I'm on the way to North Carolina. Or the shops in North Carolina that don't show up.

36:00It's easily known that North Carolina has the most active automotive repair space as far as networking and, and community of any, any state, right? By far. Like, we are miles beyond the other states. And I feel like that too, that we are the bomb. Yeah. I mean, like, I— we just got to reel it in. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that the thing was is like, like I said, it kind of got to feeling like it was political.

36:24It kind of got to feeling like it was a job that wasn't appreciated. Nobody ever said thank you. Yeah. They just looked at you like they expected it from you. Well, we had a good meeting, um, in Wilmington. I expressed some concerns in a not so, I mean, I felt like I got a little loud, but what you're saying, we've been saying it since I've been on the board.

36:44I've heard people say it and I've said the same thing. I was like, if you tell me one more thing about what the hell we're getting ready to do, yeah, I'm gonna flip out. I need to know what is done. Yeah. All right, let's move to the next thing. Like all these ideas and nothing ever happens. Yeah. I am so over it.

36:58Maybe he's over it. And so I think we're making stuff happen, like shenanigans, you know, that's on a monthly basis already. Got Fueling Connections. Like it took forever. I was like, listen, I called her. I sent her a message on Facebook. Becky will be here. Yeah. Minimum, she draws a crowd. You do not have to spend $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 getting a big dog in here, for example, respectfully, and I love them, everybody doesn't want to hear from the big company.

37:25They wanna hear from somebody like Becky Witt. Right. Because me, even if I were not on the board, because I know how her training goes and I've been in her classroom, I'm going as an owner, my service advisors are going, and then my son Santana's going. Yeah. So we're excited. So that's 5 going. And it seems like maybe we invited a little fish, but I think she's a big fish and she's You can relate to what she's saying.

37:48Like, that's a more training that I want to bring in. For sure. We definitely need the technical training. We need all this stuff, but just that little grassroots stuff. Yeah. The simple stuff. Cause people are still— that's what I enjoy. Right? Like, that's what I, that's what I enjoy. And I enjoy when we, we sat around and we had a good time and we were all about like networking and community.

38:08Yep. And I feel like we lost that. Yep. I feel like we made it like a business. It's on to we. I don't know if anybody can do it. You can do it. It's coming back. It ain't nothing but a hot dog, a little red North Carolina wiener, and a piece of Wonder Bread. So you guys stuck in the Raleigh Convention Center?

38:25Uh, yes. I don't know. 2 more years. I think it's 2 years. I think it's 2 more years. Um, but then you just said, oh Lord, everybody was complaining about the other hotel. Like, can never make anybody happy. Listen, we— if I feel this, we were too big for that. I feel the same way. About my shop as I feel about the show.

38:45We should have stayed in Embassy Suites and stacked cash and got things situated. But that was just a waste of 30 seconds of film time because shoulda, coulda, woulda— can't go back. We can't go backwards. I know, I know. So I'm just telling you, if we did that, we stayed in convention center for the next 2 years and then we went back down to the Holiday Inn, then people be complaining about that, right?

39:05Well, no, I'm just saying, like, so we're moving forward, we're going to come back if there's like If there's sizable growth and you're like, well, we're gonna take a slight shift and we're gonna make it unique enough that we're gonna be able to attract a whole bunch of extra people on the show. Grows into that space and it makes sense. It's like, yeah, well, obviously we can go back.

39:25I thought it does. If it stays, if it stays flat or down. Because one of the things everybody was complaining about was the cost. It's like, dude, this, this, this was the most affordable show. Now it's like, so why do we have to stay cheap? Why cheap? Well, because there's a, at, at the end of the day, it's like, are we just trying to be Vision South or are we trying to, to, to do something that is unique?

39:51But as the costs rise in everything in the world, our costs have to go up too. I'm like, we're working at a loss right now. Well, and that, listen, I, I love Vision. I'm just saying like the capacity that we have where we're at now is far beyond what Vision could do if we had the people, we could put substantially more people in that show.

40:10The issue was, is it's like car count, right? Like, we built a 200-bay shop, yeah, but we only have enough cars for 50 bays, you know what I'm saying? So I do know what you're saying. I think we got, I think we got— but there wasn't a— there wasn't a— from what I understand, there wasn't a hotel between. No, there wasn't. There wasn't, there wasn't anything between except for going to Charlotte.

40:33The, the, uh, I'm just saying that the, and again, I understand the woulda, coulda, shoulda, but it, it's not necessarily that the cost didn't need to go up. The cost needed to go up. But if the cost wasn't going towards a bigger facility and spending money on all these caterers and the union fees and man, man, man, man, man, all that money was going into the trainers and all of a sudden you guys were attracting the most ridiculous trainers.

41:01Well, that's the cost to justify. Or it isn't even like, oh, we just have better trainers. It's we have better trainers, but now we can like, we can go off-site and, and have everybody work on a car. We're going to have cars there to work on, tinker on, or disassemble. Except disassemble the Tesla. That Tesla, yes Lord. That was awesome. Yeah, like And how fast did that class sell out?

41:26Like everybody was talking about, I tried to get into Seth's class, tried to get into Seth's class because he was assembling and flipping Tesla on the floor. That type of experience in a tiny facility, but hey, the price doubled. But by the way, we're just assembling 17 cars now as part of these classes. Everybody would have gotten an outsource. At least my, what I'm saying is like you would have shifted Towards a slightly different experience, staying in the same smaller space, jacking the price up.

41:56But what you were providing for, because you didn't have all this massive overhead in the facility— it's almost every day that I hear shop owners talk about credit card processing and credit card processing fees. And I'm gonna tell you right now, if you're that worried, you're stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. What do I mean by that? When it comes to credit card processing, It's all about the service.

42:19It's all about the support and the great rates at the same time. And that is exactly why I use 360 Payments for all of my payment processing needs. They are the best payment processor in the automotive space. So don't wait, go to the link in the show notes and get set up with 360 Payments. They're integrated with all of your favorite shop management softwares, and it makes your life so much easier is we're going to be able to bring in cars and instructors that are going to be able to disassemble cars and you guys are going to be able to tinker on these things.

42:56Everybody would have gone absolutely nuts. And they're like, well, I understand why it's $800, whereas $400 last year. It's $800, but you guys are going to be disassembling Teslas. Everybody would have been— I don't know. I'm just saying. Okay. Yeah. It didn't go up any much more than inflation did. It didn't go up that crazy. Well, and I mean, I'm going to be blunt here.

43:15The reason that we moved was because it was spite. Like the hotel made mistakes. It upset us. It upset everybody. Long story short, they had a contract with an airline and they had promised that we would have a certain number of rooms. And I don't, uh, looking back now, I think negotiations were the problem on our end. We did not communicate clearly.

43:36And so we thought that we had way more hotel rooms than we did. And then they popped up right before the event and said, no, no, no, you only have this many. And I think, I mean, I, we know who negotiated that and did all that. Yeah. Well, that said and done. Yes. And she was over with and then there was a whole, I mean, yeah.

43:51So, I mean, I, nobody wants to say the mean thing to the person 'cause they don't want 'em to cry. And so a whole lot of that stuff was the fault of the board for letting, yeah, this person get away with it for so long. Yeah, you're right. And so when everybody said, oh, and like, oh, how long has this been happening?

44:36The whole time when I was pushing the show and telling people, you gotta go to ASTA, took my whole shop to ASTA. My sales pitch was, it's not Vision. It's a completely different experience. It feels Southern. It feels homey. It feels like I walk through that floor and I see absolutely everybody. There are people on top of people, but it felt like You knew them.

45:03It felt like family. It felt like family. And it felt like the, the, the thing last night where you're just, you're bumping into randos, but it's like, hey, hey, hey, every step down. Couldn't even get to the bathroom without stopping and saying hello to 15 people. And then on the way back, another 15 people. And that, that was a different experience. When you come to Vision, like, I may see somebody, but they're like way across and you just kind of nod and then that's it.

45:28Not the same. That was my pitch. Mm-hmm. And then it gets moved into reality and it's like, I didn't see anybody. Well, I bumped into Kim once. Yeah. Here's the thing is I, I do believe that, that it is still an awesome show. I think that we have, I think we need to get the numbers up to make it sustainable. So here's my problem with that statement.

45:53The only problem I have with that statement is when people say we and it turns into, I mean you. I do mean you. Yeah, I know. So let's not speak French. Okay. So, because we've been saying we for a while, but we haven't been involved. Yeah. Yep. Because we were supposed to be at meetings and we didn't show up because we were busy doing other stuff.

46:12And I mean, we meaning a lot of board members. I'll just sit there like, same board. Well, I think we, I think a lot of us really got disassociated with new leadership. Not, not because, mm-hmm, but we were fine with last leadership that screwed a lot of stuff up. No, we weren't fine with last leadership either, but we felt like it. So you gotta remember, a good number of us got thrown in that.

46:38I wasn't a part of the whole hiring process. No, no. I'm saying, I'm saying a lot of us got thrown into the board positions. Mm-hmm. Really early on. We didn't know what we were in for. We didn't know what was happening. We didn't understand what it was. It wasn't until Mike and I were in Philadelphia one time and we were in an Uber on the way to the airport and Mike said, hey, have you thought about this, this, and this, and the timeline of how this happened?

47:01And I said, no, I hadn't thought about that. And he's like, do you realize I think they were putting us in there to try and save the association? And some old board members came up and said, hey, I'm really sorry for the way that you got done and the way that all that happened. It's kind of what it feels like to me and Mimby sometimes.

47:13Like, oh crap, look, this is nice. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but no, I, you're right. You're absolutely right. I, I did bail, right? I did bail. So like almost a lot of people bailed, couldn't show up for a meeting, couldn't sign up for a meeting, couldn't turn a damn camera on. But everybody has these side conversations with all these opinions. Yeah. But nobody's talking as a community, as a board.

47:34It's like a dysfunctional family. Well, that's what it felt like at the time, but that won't continue cuz we're gonna call it out. Yeah. You got something to say, just say it to everybody. Right, right. You got an idea, just pitch it. Let's, let's just have the hard conversation so we can get past it and move on. I don't understand how we got there in the first place though.

47:49But anything, understanding it is important, but to keep talking about the past and knowing we can't do anything about it and not coming up with stuff to handle in the future. Understanding it though is a good way to prevent it from happening. That's what it's gonna help prevent, prevent from happening. Right, right. But, and, and understanding who understands what happened, cuz it's so disconnected.

48:08Understanding it can get you at least somewhat back to where you were, right? Back to where those people who were, who were excited about it and wanted it to thrive, wanted it to do well, get re-engaged. And I think we're on the way back there. After, you know, the meeting we had in Wilmington, I think we're on the way back there. Just like there's some hard conversations and some calling out that's happening on a weekly basis.

48:29Like, hey, you said you were gonna do it, you didn't do it. Instead of waking, instead of not telling that person where they failed, Mm-hmm. We, we had been, well, accountability. Yeah. We hadn't said anything to them. We talked to everybody else about it instead of the person that was making a mistake. It's like gossip. Well, the person, you know, the person that I was most connected with and that person heard from me.

48:53Mm-hmm. And that person was the person responsible for dealing with it. Yep. And that person does not like confrontation at all. He's gonna watch this later and be like, look, motherfucker. That person, that person is, but he admits to it. Yeah. He or she admits to kind of hiding behind the camera. Yeah. And he or she is still gonna help us get through this muck.

49:23I don't, I, I, he or she will, or else I will roll up to he or she's shop that may or may not be 3 locations in the Wake County area. I'm gonna get this on video. And he or she blow up that daggone— I mean, they might have a Miata. Oh, I think it's got steer horns on it now. Oh my God, that was so stupid.

49:51So have you seen it? Yeah, you haven't seen it with them? Yeah, that was so silly. But no, um, ASTA is ASTA. Yeah. It means a whole lot to me. I would not be, I don't think I would be where I am without that connection. 100%. I would not. I guarantee you I wouldn't. And it could do the same for other people.

50:08Yeah. Um, we can't, we can't, we could not stay where we were. Yeah. As far as facility, the way things are done. We couldn't stay, we couldn't stay the way we were as far as membership. We couldn't stay the way we were as far as the board. It's like you shouldn't as your shop. You can't be the same shop you were in 1995.

50:26If you are, I am so sorry. Um, do better. Yeah, I'm with you. But we do have a responsibility to the industry and to shop owners that were in my shoes 6, 7 years ago. Um, I won't lie to you, I'm a little bitter. Why is that? I'm a little bitter over how, like, things played out and some of the things that got said and some of the way things happened.

50:48You'll be fine. Yeah, I still love the association. You'll be bitter again about something else. Yeah. Oh, you know, we still live here. I mean, I'm primarily bitter about Mike Allen. I don't know why, but I mean, he's just, you know, I mean, he came in here this morning. I know he came in here this morning. He's talking about the Girl Scout cookies and he gave the Girl Scout cookies away and made me pay him for it.

51:09They weren't even his Girl Scout cookies. And next thing I know, he tells me that I'm sponsoring a show for $6,000 a month. And I'm like, dude, I don't even have an advertisement. He's like, I know, but I need your $6,000. And I'm like, He's kind of slick like that. What? I mean, why did I just hand this man $6,000? What is going on here?

51:27Because all he does is just say something smart and just the goofy ass smiling. You're just like, okay, whatever you said. Well, I mean, it's true, you know. Um, his brother got the talent and he got the mouth. And so he does have the gift of gab. Yeah, he's good at it. He's really good at it. So tell me about your, uh, new podcast.

51:44You know what the new podcast is? Um, When people say that about— I'm like, oh, I do have a podcast. So actually, Braxton convinced me at, uh, your shop when we were there with Michael Smith and Institute. It's like, Miss Tanika, you should just do the podcast. I'm not doing stupid podcasts. I don't want to. Like, I don't want to do it.

52:02I kept saying I don't want to do it. But then I know that one thing that I love about my position is that I feel like I can be the person that I needed 10 years ago. Yeah, 100%. So if my, I have a little gift of gab, like I might sound like cornbread and stutter, but I guess do people do pay attention to what I say?

52:24That's what people are gonna say about you. Yeah. Well, guess who's cornbread? It's all right. It's all right. My cornbread is good. We'll take that. But, um, so if my platform can help a shop owner or make somebody laugh. Yeah. Or just have a come to Jesus moment. Like I think when Zeb said something about, yeah, I ask God on a daily basis to help me with my shop.

52:49Yeah. People get to see that part of Zeb instead of our version that we see online all the time. Like, yes, he had a hard time in his shop. Yeah. But he kept fucking going. Yeah. Like, I understand you're having a hard time in your shop. I understand this, but we all have, and you're not by yourself. You're not an island. Reach out to us.

53:08For sure. For sure. And we're not just saying that. I was like, it's times that I'll be in a shop and something will happen and I'll just go to the bathroom and sit there for like, right? But then, I mean, and then have a connection. I think it's opening up dialogue for people that just maybe see you as a superstar, see you as a superstar, see Mike as a superstar.

53:28Hey, I'm just regular old Neek with some red lipstick on. Yeah. Maybe we can talk. And then we can interview. You need lipstick. I think you'll do good in a pink. David, look, David's got this issue where the tones just aren't right, and he doesn't even look like he has lips. So, you know, um, we can get you a filler. We can get some filler.

53:48Yeah, that's what Ash told him, that he should get some filler. She said she couldn't fill her lips. Maybe, maybe that would help out. I don't understand it. I don't get it. I don't— the duck lips. My, my son, my son like bends his bottom lip down and he goes like this and then he sticks his tongue up to make, to make it the duck lips.

54:10Oh my God. I'm gonna take a picture. I'm gonna make it my profile. It is the funniest thing. And as soon as I said duck lips, he was like, they're paying for that. But anyway, so Braxton said I should do it and, um, here we are. About six weeks later, I just decided maybe I should. Yeah, I'm proud of you. But um, I still don't know what I'm doing.

54:29I'm just talking, and I realize on camera I blink a lot. You're used to it. I'm a blinker. I say really stupid things. I say right a lot. Right, right. Yeah. And Mike picked that up, and my my word is so. So, so, so, so, so. That's my word. Yeah. That's what you were watching yourself going, man, I blink a lot. I blink a lot.

54:48What are you supposed to do? I don't know. Breathing. I'm just like, yeah, I'm blinking because you would die. I just like, yeah, I just like, so I blink a lot and I haven't listened to the episodes at all. You don't? I don't wanna listen to the episodes. I like having fun with people though. We, David listens because he has to edit them.

55:07I don't. Yeah. I don't, I know what we said and sometimes I know what we said is so bad that I just know. Oh, he always remembers it worse than what it was. Yeah. I go back and listen to it. I'm like, so I'm wondering if I'm gonna have some of those things that's gonna bite me in the tail. Like, I don't want a customer to hear it and I'm like, oh my God, I'm never going back there.

55:26Oh, I love it. My customers listen to my rants. You kidding me? Like, yeah, you're the cause of this. You're the cause of this pain. I would be so much nicer if it wasn't for you. I know, right? Like, it would not be like this. This is your fault. But I like it. I'm having fun. I was shocked how many people wanted to talk to me.

55:45Yeah. When I was sitting there like, hey, would you mind meeting me? Like, yes. And so I'm like scheduled out for Yeah. A couple months. So, we'll see. How many, how many are you recording a week? I was up to like 6. A week? Yes. I had to cut it because I was doing all day Friday on, I was trying to get 'em in the kitty.

56:01So Braxton has about 35 to go through right now. I think it's that many. And, um, you, you're gonna learn something very important. What's that? You don't listen to Braxton. Don't listen to Braxton. Leave, leave that baby alone. Braxton's not a very bright man. Don't say that on camera. I can say that on camera. I work with him on a daily basis.

56:22He's, um, he's, uh, hmm, what was it that you called him, David? Uh, we should probably not say that on air. Um, he, uh, whatever it is I called him, I would have called him to his face. Okay, you did call him that to his face. Y'all leave Braxton alone. He's a great kid. He is. He is. I— we all hope that by you doing a podcast that we could get some Braxton maturity going on that maybe we could get Braxton to grow up a little bit.

56:50Well, I fussed at him the other day because he needed me to do the outro video. Yeah. And I said, Braxton, and he's like, I gotta get it done. I gotta get it done. I said, Braxton, listen, I have a whole job. And I was like, board stuff, ASTA board stuff with the, uh, State Employees Credit Union. I was like, I have stuff to do.

57:04And I said, well, you should have told me this. You should have had a list prepared. Yeah. Things that I'm going to need and I can check 'em off one by one. When we first signed the contract, you should have had me a list. Of stuff that are going to be needed. What kind of mic? What kind of this? I say, because you're talking techie stuff with this stuff and I don't know what you're talking about, love.

57:22This new— but he's gonna do it. He's got it. This new, uh, social media manager is, is like managing all of our like production and all through like a process now. Mm-hmm. And I am extremely thankful for her because she does that. Mm-hmm. Lucas, I'm gonna need this, this, this, and this from you. So Braxton's gonna, where's the checklist? Auntie's gonna teach him some stuff.

57:43Yeah. Cause we're gonna work on that onboarding paperwork that he needs to give people. Yeah. So we'll know. I was like, you assuming I know what you're talking about, honey? Yeah. I'm, I'm excited for Braxton. I think he's got a lot of potential to expand this into something a lot bigger. And so when he started the media company, you know, he started that and he was making reels for me.

58:02I, I really wanted him to leave where he was at because I did not feel like he was fulfilling his purpose where he was at. Yeah. And then he went somewhere else and things were going okay, but I could tell he wasn't happy. And so I really wanted to see him kind of take this media brand, start with making the videos, start with getting some things, and him and Candace kind of work together to make it what it is.

58:24So I'm really proud of him. I give him a lot of credit. Yeah. My little Coop on a Stoop. You have to look that up. That's what he looks like. Coop on a Stoop. TikTok Coop on a Stoop. Just please. When you're on the phone, on the toilet, look up Coop on the Stoop, and that is Braxton. It is hilarious. Coop on a stoop.

58:41Coop on a stoop. Coop on a stoop. Coop. Cooper. Not poop. Coop on a stoop. So every day— Yeah, that does look just like Braxton. Yeah, the father takes the kid outside and he gets a snack and he sits on the curb to watch the cars go by. You know, I think this kid's probably a little more mature than Braxton. And have 1.2 million views?

59:07Yeah. All he does is take— go, he will go outside with his snacks. And the way the baby, you know, baby sits down in a big butt pamper and then babies just flop. Mm-hmm. And it's the cutest thing in the world. And he was like on Today Show because of that baby blew up on social media. And that's all it's about, what Coop does all day.

59:26I am. What happens when Coop grows up? Oh, they'd be rich by then. Yeah, Hollywood stories. I don't know, they're probably pulling in $20,000, $30,000 out of TikTok. You know it ain't going in that baby's IRA. No, hell no. Coop's gonna be on a true story, real, real stories of Hollywood TikTok stars that failed, sue their parents. Trying to get their TikTok money because they exploited it.

59:56Like all the kids on A Different Stroke. Uh, look, I'm just gonna tell you, you know, I, I think poor Braxton's probably going through the same thing. You know, I talked to Mike this morning. You know what Mike said? Mike said, I have it worked out that Braxton, after 12 months, is going to begin to pay me for doing the podcast. And I said, why is that?

1:00:12And he said, because it just— it's an honor to be able to do the work for me, right? As I've grown, as I've developed, this is Really about me. I'm like, he didn't say that. He probably did. I'm telling you, the dude knows how to— Antonio Allen, he knows how to build, build that money, right? Like, he knows how to stack a bank account.

1:00:32I'm gonna let him manage my money from now on. I don't know, I won't do— I won't go that far. Yeah, I won't go that far. I've seen his— I won't go that far. He makes it look good though, but don't do that. I mean, thank you for being here. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Yes, ma'am. All right, all right, next one.

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