Ep 98 - Jeff Compton & Tonnika Haynes | Are Viral Reels Ruining the Auto Repair Industry?

0:00You want to hear the uncomfortable— what I think the deal is? I honestly think that people are so used to being spoon-fed, they ain't even capable of going to find out what your podcast is and where to get it from. I don't think they have the brains to do it. I think 50% of people are dumber than average, or the median, technically the median.

0:14I don't think half these people could even get there from here. The following is a special edition of the show. Don't worry, today's episode still features doofuses talking about the aftermarket. This one just doesn't include my dad, so it's probably better than normal. The stuff said on this show does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have.

0:37Chances are there may be some spicy language in this show, so if you're sensitive to that, you should probably move along. Without further ado, here's your special host, Brian Pollock, with Confessions of a Shop Owner, presented by Techmetric, the best thing to happen to the world of personal transportation since the advent of internal combustion engines. Yeah, but the nipple chafing— is it nipple chafing?

1:03There's tape for that. Oh well, I didn't use the tape. I was in pain. Couple days pain. Did your nipples bleed? Oh yeah, I did. You just seen all the skinny people I still outran. Yeah, they ain't got no will to live, them people. Well, they just over there so upset cuz they ain't eat nothing. Threshold, right? How long did you run?

1:283.1 miles running like Just under 30 minutes. Who's in? Braxton, you look marathon-ish. You done a marathon? No. No. No. 5K. 5K. Okay. What was your 5K time? Braxton's in way better shape than me. 27 minutes? I was like 12. Oh my God. I don't remember. Yeah. Disc golf. Disc golf. Yeah. That's what keeps me in shape. Yeah, yeah. And we're just jumping in.

1:58Well, oh please, come on. Yeah, you gotta get the— you gotta get your, uh, the sun's out, buns out into the shot there, Brian. No, yeah, no, tell the people what that is. It's my emotional support wiener. Yeah, with mustard. With mustard. Yeah, yeah, just mustard. Okay, so, so anyways, on that note, here we are. Enough of the wiener shenanigans. Tools. Pennsylvania 2026.

2:29And we got 4— no, wait, my math is terrible. 3 podcasts represented at this table. 2 and a half. Who's the half? You discounting yourself? Stop that. Yeah, I'm not really. Well, I'm a half too. Next year we're all going to be catching you. I'm not really a half. Mike's in charge. Yeah. So I thought it'd be a valuable opportunity to let the listeners and viewers kind of peek behind the curtain of what goes on in our group chat.

2:59Not all of it, dear God. Not all of it. Hold on a second. Somewhat sensitive. Let me take my shoes off for this, Brandon. Oh my God. That's where it went wrong last time. So for those who don't know, we all are in a group chat that often goes off like probably hundreds of messages a day. I like the AI summary. Some days.

3:24Is that a lot? Some days it's— Some days we hit 100. Lucas, Jeff, Tanika, me, Jeff. I don't have a lot of words. I don't. Yeah, it's usually— If I have time, I'll get into it. But a lot of times something will happen and I'll be like, I ain't got time for this. Yeah, it's a lot of back and forth. There are some days where it's not much happening, but there's a lot of days where it is.

3:47One of the conversations that we have had at length 2 or 3 or 4 times, and I have notes. Watch out. Holy fuck. He's been taking notes. Is social media and reels. It's the devil, mama. And it's all Jeff's fault. It's the devil. It's all Jeff's fault. That jaded guy over there. I know. People will blame me because I'm the one that edits the video.

4:11And people think, oh, Braxton, he made somebody say something that they didn't. Really? I mean, everything bad that happens on all of these podcasts is your fault. Boy, it's actually Mike. Yeah, it really comes back to Mike. Well, really, you know, it could be Lucas too because he's kind of the guy that started all— well, listen, they're the leaders, are not they?

4:32Yeah, they're the leaders. Who's the leader? Mike Allen and Lucas Underwood. I thought you were talking about buying gas in Canada. You were like, leaders, sorry, like Leader of Cola, like Super Troopers. Okay, does that look like— It sparkles. Thanks. Wipe it off with your wiener. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Mom. Now you look good. The first time he's had a wiener on his nose.

4:57And that's what happens in the chat. I might edit that out. That might have to go. That might get edited out. Braxton, take that out. That means you can't. Yeah. Because they're going to be like, what did he say? Usually people are like, you know, Braxton, edit that out. And I tell people, when that gets said, that means guaranteed still in. That's not true.

5:16I wasn't paying attention until you said that. That's the end. That's going to— I'm leaving that in. So Reels, and I want to talk about social media because any business today, social media is critical. Yep, it is. And then, well, maybe not for Brian's business, but I mean, if you had social media, I posted in December, December 17th, 2024. Good job. It's the last time I posted on our business page.

5:44If you did social media, you probably couldn't handle it because you'd have way more business. They'd probably— nobody would show up. I just think it's a situation at your facility. Like, how much more do they expect you to do? Right. That's how I would look at that in that situation. Yeah, I'm fine. I don't need any more to do. We got too much to do.

6:01I think you have other people that could pick up that torch and run with it. I feel like that the results of that and the additional car count would be not for me. Yeah. Zero stores. Yeah, we get, we get excited when we have a cancellation. We get excited. Oh, even if it's someone we like. Yeah, because you can take it. I'm like, I'm— we're like, we're so happy you canceled because we have too much to do.

6:22That's a good problem. So we're very fortunate. I've recognized that, and it's not common, and I understand that. Yeah. So here's the thing, outdated SMS, just— they don't just slow you down, they cost you money. And I learned it the hard way. Before Techmetric, I was wasting time on inefficient processes, manual updates, back and forth calls with customers. Now I handle everything in one place—DVI, customer communications, payments, real-time reporting.

6:47It's all in one page. Since making the switch, my average repair order has jumped from $293 to $916. And it's not just me. TechMetric powers almost 10,000 shops nationwide. By the time you're hearing this, it probably will be 10,000 shops, helping them grow and operate smarter. If you're tired of losing time and money to outdated systems, tap the link in the show notes.

7:10And see what Techmetric can do for you. Hey guys, Kari Lynn with Turnkey Marketing. If you are looking to increase cars and you're looking for the right demographic to go after, you want to get the right people who need auto repair right now, then give us a call. We have a service called Direct Track and it utilizes AI to find people in your area who are the great demographic that you want to go after, have raised their hand and opted in saying, I need auto repair help right now.

7:37We send them an email. As soon as they open the email, we then get their physical address, follow it up with commercial ads on all their streaming services like Hulu and YouTube and ESPN, Fox News, all those different things. And then we also get their physical address and we start sending banner ads and display ads to every single device in that house.

7:59It has been incredibly effective. It has made shops seem like they're everywhere to those people who need repairs right then. And I mean, I'm telling you guys, the return on investment has been huge. So if you want to increase car count, you want to get great people in the door, give us a call or reach out to us and ask us about direct track marketing.

8:20But it is reality for Rural Joe. That's the situation. Yeah. For anybody but Brian, social media is important. And in growing a podcast, you need a social media because if you don't, how are people supposed to know that you're out there? Right. And reels, clips from an episode are one of the easiest ways to get people to say, hey, oh, there's a podcast.

8:48I got to check this out. That is how Jeff has turned into who he is today in this industry is because he's had some reels go crazy. Absolutely. Lately. Yeah. And then Confessions. Mike's not here, but Brian on Confessions has had a number of reels recently, one that's got 2 2.4 million views. I feel so bad for all them people looking at my ugly face talking about not tearing down a Volkswagen engine.

9:12I almost feel bad for them. They could choose not to look at it. Yeah, but you and I have discussed this at length several times. There's so many people out there that are not in the industry that are just wake up every day and choose violence and are angry and just want to cuss out the professionals. Yeah. And it's, and it's, we've been really mad.

9:30Yeah. Like sometimes I comment, thank you. Like when they really get going, I'm like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for the help. Appreciate you. Love you. Bye. Thanks for helping the algorithm. Thanks for helping the algorithm. But there comes a certain point that the reason I brought this up was in the chat. I mean, there's a lot of negativity with these reels.

9:51And it's good for growth. People will follow the page and follow and listen to the podcast. Oh, well, there's nothing negative about not tearing down a Hitlermobile. No. You can't say Hitlermobile. That's what they are. It was Hitler's car company. It's facts. Are you turning it down? Nein, nein. Wir ask easy questions here. We are not turning it down. I'm not in on this.

10:17But so Lucas has brought up a number of times the conversation about where do we want these podcasts to go? Because some of the reels that have gone viral have gained a lot of followers. And those followers are people that, like you said, they wake up every morning and just want to be mad. And sometimes you will gain that following and that turns into the things that your followers expect to see.

10:50And so I just want to talk about it because this has been in our group chat for months and months and months. It comes up about once a month. And recently it's been a real topic of discussion. Easily ignored. And so I want to get all of your guys' thoughts on reels and social media and the importance of it and the brand of it, the 5-year plan.

11:08How does that go into it? Especially for these two guys who've already seen that, but also Tanika starting out thinking about the kind of content that you want to release that creates the following that you want to have. She can say the same exact thing, Jeff, and I can say more eloquently. Yeah. Yeah. And here's the thing. And you've already experienced some of it recently.

11:30Yeah. I mean, on a smaller scale, but you've already experienced some of the hate that can happen. Somebody giving you a problem? Well, it was with Becky. Just watching people be ignorant. Oh, I forgot about that. Yes. It's like, are you even listening to this? That's an amazing conversation we did have. I forgot about that. That was on TikTok, I think it was.

11:47That was on TikTok. And it's on Facebook. It was on Facebook. Facebook, I just like— and then I'd ask, I said, do I delete this? Or do I just leave it there? Because I don't want to just filter. You delete it. You delete that. And I was like, yeah, delete that. Then people can go F off. And when they're done effing off, they can keep effing off.

12:03I mean, even coming to my inbox and saying, this lady is crazy and off her rocket and blah, blah, blah. I was like, well, did you listen to the whole podcast? Who cares? Like, and what do they think you're gonna do? Like, take it off? Like, take it off? Oh man, I'm sorry. Let me take it off for you. I'm so sorry that you messaged me.

12:18Let me take that off of Spotify. Why don't you just go do whatever you do? Like, turn it off if you don't like it. Listen to another one. There's 800 and everybody's a podcaster. 8 million of them. Go listen to somebody else, right? Yeah, yeah. But the hateful stuff is just— I'm, I'm not ready for that. Not— yeah, that had me, that had me— oh, you remember?

12:33Yeah, you, yeah, you were mad, as you should be. And when I had her on, I had similar comments too, and I would just immediately— I didn't even ask for questions, I just deleted them. It's not necessary. I would think, okay, I've seen this person here on this podcast, this podcast, let me shut up and listen. But everybody's so smart that they're stupid.

12:50It's like you couldn't look past what offended you. I don't know why it offended you, because to me, none of your damn business. Yeah. And you couldn't— yeah, you're so smart, you're stupid. And you didn't even take the time to listen to the message, to what was said. You couldn't get past the reel. Yeah. So when people can't get past the reel, and we talked about that, that's— you can't get past the reel and you listen to the highlight because just like on the news, I mean, I think about it and I go back and forth with it because me and Braxton have talked about it on the news.

13:20The news will tell you something, something, something, details at 11. You're like, shit, I want to know now. Yeah. So it's kind of like the same thing, right? Yeah. So they try— if it bleeds, it leads. It gets eyeballs. Yeah. And then you come to find out it was in another state. What makes me mad is that my local news would talk about something and it was another state.

13:39That happened in Oregon. Yeah. Like, it must be a slow news day. Yeah. So who cares? Lucas has pointed that out. And like you said, it's the reels that are driving people to at least comment and engage, which is what you— at the end of the day, you want, right? But it has to transition to actually listening to the episode for people to get the true context.

13:59And a lot of people, depending on how the reel comes up— I see his point, what he was trying to say to me is that because if the reel is effective enough in angering them, they're never going to listen to the whole episode. And that's the— that's that fine line you got to watch where you got to say it just in a certain way and say it in a just enough that they, they don't get like angry, but that piques their curiosity.

14:22Then there's a, there's a recipe to that, and I don't know what it is. You wanna, you wanna hear the uncomfortable— what I think the deal is? I honestly think that people are so used to being spoon-fed, they ain't even capable of going to find out what your podcast is and where to get it from. I don't think they have the brains to do it.

14:36Well, I think 50% of people are dumber than average, or the median, technically the median. I don't think half these people could even get there from here. Yeah, not even talking about podcasts. Somebody calls the shop and then asks you what your office hours are. How the hell did you just call me? Did you not Google that? Could you not like— we know that.

14:55And if they do, we'll call it. It's right there. You— that is not a phone call. Like, people just do not— yeah, what are your office hours? The ones that were posted, the one that was posted above the call button, above the call this place button. Yeah, they're not capable of getting the information. They're not. They're really not. I've been in this industry 25 years and I've never heard of this, and this guy doesn't work on cars.

15:16Well, if you've been in the industry so long, you can't you can't use a Google search to figure out who this guy is? Come on, bro. Yeah, like, don't be lazy. And we're no longer working on a 1978 Chevy. This is— we're talking about— it's the average confidence level. And that's everything, you know. 50% of people are dumber than the median. I can't say average because that's not technically accurate.

15:34It's the median. Whatever. They don't know the difference anyways, those people. Yeah, I, I find, um, like, again, you know, my— the two that, like, I was joking every morning when I wake up I get notifications from the Jaded Facebook page saying there's more comments on Sherwood's reels. It's always those two, three, four, whatever that he did. But it's, you can't mark up a spark plug.

16:00Don't tell me we can't charge $200 an hour. All this kind of stuff. And it's every morning when Jeff turns his phone on, there's a notification for that. It's been great for engagement. But like, I'm sitting here going, I'm tired of reading comments about this reel. It's like The Sixth Sense. I like dumb people. I, you know, I almost want to— I see dead people.

16:23Like, if I had more time, I'd go back and just sit there and try, because that's the way I'm wired, right? Is, okay, let's— I'll go back and forth with strangers all day, all day. That doesn't bother me at all, right? And yet I don't have the time, and I'm running out of the physical energy to do it because they don't want to ever say— like, a win would be to say, okay, I see your point, you were right.

16:44I'm not going to change what I'm doing in my place, but I can see— but I can see why you do what you do. They're not— most of them are not capable. Never. That's the reality, right? And it's like, we always, you know, everybody talks about the change, the change, the change. Well, I know the unfortunate reality. Most people ain't changing. No.

17:02Until they have to change or lose their business. And half them people or more will just lose the business anyways. It's like somebody said, that's the reality of the situation. The average shop rate's still $70, $80, or $90. And I said, on what planet, on what planet are you seeing door rates under $100 an hour? Like, we know of a few pockets, maybe, yes.

17:20And they're not fixing— I don't— they're not fixing and they're not working on a lot of the same stuff that maybe a lot of people that we run with are trying to work on, right? There's not— and that's not to say that there isn't a place for that. But when you, what, what do you qualify? You can't work. You know what though?

17:37You know what? To be quite honest, you can't work on Chevy pickups for $90 an hour and grow. You can work on Chevy pickups for $90 an hour and you as a shop owner can go to work all them hours. And at the end of the day, you can take home $42,000 a year and hopefully your spouse works and earns an income and health insurance and you can make it work if you want a hobby.

17:56Yeah. But that's what they think saving the community is. I'm going to do the community a favor and work myself into a hole. In my back and my shoulders and my knees. I am serving the community by providing them the best effort I have. That's how I'm doing it. I am being honest with them. I'm telling them when the cost per mile to maintain that car is starting to get a little high, it's time to get a new one.

18:20Yeah, we tell people trade their car in all the time. Right. All the time. I have to do it too, especially. That's how I'm doing it. Yeah, but I'm certainly not— I'm not in this for the experience anymore. No. So let me step in because let me just give you a glimpse into my brain. So I'm listening to this conversation and I'm not an automotive guy.

18:40I can't talk technical terms as you guys do or owner terms. That's not me. But I just heard 3 different reels that I could cut right now and get views from what you guys just said. And my job as producer extraordinaire is to grow shows. El Capitan. Grow the show. El Capitan. This is me, and I want you guys to tell me if I'm wrong and to tell me how I need to shift and improve and downshift.

19:08Right. Yeah. So there's a plug. Tell you how to improve. How am I supposed to tell you? Here's my confession. Yeah, it's a downshift. It's not my job. And not be so jaded. Okay, we've gone too far with that one. Let's go. I just heard those clips and I would clip what you said about— we tell people all the time, you can't charge $90 an hour to do a Chevy and grow.

19:36And that's true. And grow. And that's what he said. And I would clip that and people would get all hot and bothered about it. Too much money. And so the idea is— I still do. To me. Yeah, it bothers you? No, I mean, I would— yeah, I still do. It will bother me. Really? For now. I'm just starting. Okay, I'm not ready to step on your toes.

20:00Let me interject in this. Let's, let's remove you from the podcast realm though for a minute and go like, let's hypothetical. Then somebody was to call you tomorrow and say, um, yeah, I want to bring my 1992 Chevy truck into Brown's Automotive. No, we don't do that. That's right. Well, what I'm saying is I do care about how other people would feel about that reel.

20:24Not the fact— no, I'm not charging no damn $90 an hour. That's not happening. Yeah, but if he cut a reel and then it would cause controversy, I don't feel comfortable with that yet. Oh, there's no controversy. There's just people who are right and people who are wrong. Oh, it's not controversial. It's not a debate. I'm right, they're wrong. Oh, okay. You just don't like the negativity.

20:41I don't like the negativity that goes along with it. People think it's a vacuum. Somebody's wrong. I'm not asking asking for your input because I'm trying to set up my business model here. Yeah, I've already got the business model, right? And, and we ain't doing that. Like, what do you do, Frank, that works for $90 an hour in your shop? Oh, you have a real job at the town so you can have health insurance because you can't afford to pay your health insurance at your shop.

21:03So all the people— those are the people commenting, right? They have to have real jobs. Yeah, real jobs, because their automotive shop, much less pay for benefits for employees, they can't even have health insurance themselves. They can't freaking afford it. So they're servicing all the late '90s to mid-'90s stuff that's still on the road. And they're— and the same people that come in that haven't had a mortgage that they've had to pay in, in 50 years, it's all been paid off.

21:27And they're coming in and they feel like they're the best thing in the world because the people still have them convinced they ain't got no money and just keep patching it up. And they've been patching up for 10 years. And they go, what are all these events you go to? Like, I don't know how you can even afford that. I could never shut my shop down.

21:40And it's like, stop working on old rusted junk and you can maybe make some profit. And even if you don't come to event, maybe you could pay yourself. Maybe you can hire some talent. Elite clients don't just learn more, they do more. We help shop owners build stronger teams, improve profitability, and create systems that don't fall apart when you step away. The goal isn't just growth.

22:04The goal is sustainable success and a life you actually enjoy living. Elite Worldwide. Maybe that's a big maybe. That's a big maybe. Instead of crying about the technician shortage, maybe you can hire better ones. But no, you would have to turn some— or you have time to train some, right? Whether you can hire them, if they're truly— if you're in a situation, an area with low population, this is not going away.

22:33That Brexit— I know what you're saying. I'm trying to get like the real The reels do not bother them. Yeah. Well, no, no, no, no. What I'm saying is I think when we got into this, we— and I'm new to growing a brand too. Like, you know, I'm not— this is not my, like, I've been doing it for 30 years. We're all new at this social media stuff.

22:52And I don't think any of us understood what exactly we were getting into on driving people crazy. I didn't know that. You're absolutely right. I didn't know that so many people— I didn't know that you would say you could cut a reel that's just somebody saying something that's common sense to somebody who's educated in how this has to work. I didn't know people could get that pissed off.

23:13I mean, people get pissed off. And why they got so much time to get that pissed off? Why are you not at work? Like, that was a whole paragraph you wrote. What are you doing? You know what time it is? Some people at work have a lot of free time still in front of their screen. They still do. That's why they charge $99 a month.

23:28The idea around all of this stuff started with changing the industry, right? And I think that is, you know, one of the core things about all of the shows is to help encourage people in their journey in this industry, right? That's, that's the deal. I just had a guy I talked to in the parking lot that listens to the podcast. He knows, he knows I like, uh, weird oddball vintage scan tools.

23:49Yeah. And he said that he picks up, and he picks up stuff from, from David and Lucas. He picks up stuff from all of us. Yeah. He said he really likes it. And that's, that's, that's what we want. And you're gonna have those people. And that's what he does. We talk about this stuff each, and he sees what works for him. Some stuff doesn't.

24:04He was super reasonable. And I'm like, I never see him in the comments. And I'm like, well, thank goodness this guy's out here. David, I'm happy you're out there. The best people aren't always going to be doing that. But the thing is, and we talk about this at trade shows, is honestly, we can't actually change the industry. They have to change themselves.

24:24Right. Yeah. You can give people advice and you can do your best to help them, but for the most part, What, 10%? Whatever the money. Yeah, whatever it is you say it is, that's always going to be true. Like, I don't think you're actually going to see tangible growth in more shops doing things right. And that's the guess. We always guess, okay, who's actually willing to— Is it 10%?

24:46Is it 5%? Who knows? I don't know. Because we are— But it's very, very small. It's not the majority, that's for sure. We can all agree on that, right? We are in beautiful Pennsylvania in April. It's beautiful here in Hershey. It's a great place to be. And there's 400 people. Smells delicious. It smells delicious. There's 400 people. Here. You know how many shops in a 200-mile radius need to be here right now?

25:05200 miles. I asked Brett how many shops were within 20 minutes of here and he almost, he rolled his eyes in the back of his head. He goes, dude. Yeah. He goes, this is insane. Yeah. He goes, you can't get, he goes, he was talking about some groups he's involved in. He goes, I have a whole group that I'm involved in. There's only 3 of them here.

25:22Yeah. So people rather complain than change. Exactly. And if you, you know, challenge them, say, hey, why are you only charging $90 an hour. If you know, if you charge correctly, you know, how do you say it's correctly? If you charge correctly, you wouldn't have to have that job at the city and then break your back here. So do you really have two jobs or a job in the business?

25:43Because it sounds like you got two jobs. Yeah. So you call somebody out on the side. It sounds like you got a job and a hobby. A job and a hobby. Exactly. Job and a hobby. I use the term business loosely and job loosely. It's a hobby. Because a job, you can go get benefits at a job. You ain't getting benefits at a shop.

25:57It ain't even a job. Yeah, right. So let me, let me pose this question. If a year ago today, we didn't post any reels, like positive ones, or ones that could cause some rage, if we posted none, would you have the same reach and impact that you would today if we had not? So let me, let me there's somebody out there and he ain't worth saying the name, but there's a person out there in the scope of what we do that makes himself out to be, you know, a white knight coming along, rescuing people with broke-down cars.

26:39And it's all got this— I fell for it for a little bit too, bro. Yeah. And it's all got this tangible feeling that it's all positive. Right. And so he had a ton of followers, ton of engagements like the GoFundMe and all this kind of stuff is great. And it— I guess you could spin that and say it's all positive, but again, it comes back to one of my favorite words, perspective.

27:01Because it's very easy to sit here and say every other shop doesn't know what they're doing, is ripping people off, and that's a very negative thing to say. But if your audience is who you made it up to be, want to hear that, to them it's very positive, right? So it comes back to perspective. We're not out here the outliers that are in these channels that we run in, right?

27:25They've already changed the industry for themselves. They've already changed the industry in their local area because they're not doing the norm. So positive and negative is, is perception. And I think what, what I became overwhelmed with was just like, I felt like I was, yes, getting a lot of, uh, comments and a lot of communication, but it was in such a negative place that it was pointless to try and get them to see the other side because they didn't want to, right?

27:53And I don't know if that's the difference between a rage bait and a clickbait. Maybe is a rage bait is going to get somebody angry and they don't even want to have the conversation. They just want to be heard by their opinion and that's it. Whereas clickbait maybe gets people to engage. That's so, so, so, uh, you didn't answer my question. Sorry, but we can come back to that.

28:12So the guy that stopped you in the parking lot never comments. But he sees all the stuff that you know. I should say I've never seen him comment. He says he really appreciates— so there's people— so the deal is, the, the reality is, yeah, all those reels have to be posted to catch the eyes of people. So the people who are willing to do the work, because those are out there, right?

28:34Because remember, I only said 50% of people are unwilling to do this, right? Or whatever the number is. There's a percentage of people who are willing to do the work. Yeah. But, and this is my perspective and this is where I want you guys to tell me if I'm wrong. I, making reels, am not trying to cut something that makes that person look bad or create negative rage.

28:57I am trying to get eyeballs and those eyeballs help those people because you're not going to change the bad people. And him and I had a probably half hour conversation. He didn't need our help. Yeah, he's got his stuff together. He's got multiple businesses. He's diversified multiple businesses, multiple industries. But those people, the ones that actually do care and will change, to me, interested in listening, won't ever see real without— he sees the real.

29:26He sees the real. Yeah. Now he's interested. He's like, oh, I wonder what these guys are all about. Right now he clicks on. He's like, oh yeah, this is pretty cool. I'm going to listen to this. And if we only posted, you know, the super positive feel-good stuff, which isn't all about what you guys talk about, to me, if I cut only those things, it wouldn't be an accurate representation of what goes on on the shows because sometimes there are things you guys talk about that are rage.

29:51Yeah. And that's okay. And so it wouldn't be an accurate representation. But also, if I only cut reels for those, you wouldn't get the eyeballs you wouldn't get the attention, the listeners, to then have people like that, because he probably would have never heard about the show had he not had other people in the comments getting attention, driving rage. Right. If you don't have some of the negativity driving the other, you're not going to get it.

30:16And then, you know, social media sees that he's involved in automotive, among other things, though. Right. He's involved in multiple industries. From what I understand, he's, you know, he's has a couple of restaurants. Does a little dirt work, construction type work, stuff like that. He's got multiple and he's not, he's not, he was, he was a technician, you know, he's a guy and he's talking about maybe, you know, narrowing back down and focusing on a certain thing, but he didn't need it.

30:43He's successful in multiple businesses, right? So when you have somebody that's successful in multiple industries, they're going to seek out knowledge. They don't need Mike's help and my help, but they're going to actively seek out the knowledge. And he's like, hey, I kind of, I like listening to your guys' show. You know, it was, it was interesting. But like you said, without all the engagement as far as comments though, the algorithm never drives that so somebody sees that.

31:07Because that's the reality. That's the reality, right? If nobody— if it doesn't grab people's attention, okay, like let's see, let's say the confessions— let's say Mike and I sent the confessions page to the, to the couple hundred people we know, right? Let's say there was a thousand people we know that we sent it to, and every— all those thousand people like it, right?

31:26If you don't ever put anything on there that may be a little thought-provoking or spicy, as some people call it, it never gets commented on. People are like, oh yeah, okay, yeah, well, whatever, right? And none of that ever happens, and it never grows. It doesn't grow to 27,000 followers like it has, right? You sit there at 1,000 followers till the end of time, and those 1,000 followers are people who already know your opinions and already know the conversation you're having.

31:50You never actually reach out beyond the bubble that you already had. Yeah, yep, yep. And that's, that's, that's, that's well said. That's, that's how I, I see it. Look, when I first opened my shop, I thought my old systems would keep up, the software that I had would continue to evolve. But as we grew, the slow estimates, scattered workflow, increasing downtime, it really just, it was becoming a real problem.

32:16That's why I switched to TechMetric. It's not just software, it's a complete shop management system that makes my life easier. SmartJobs, instant estimates, integrated payments, integrated financing options. I mean, it allows me to focus on the work that actually makes me money and not get bogged down in the other details. My shop's repair orders have jumped over 300% since switching to TechMetric.

32:37And when I need help, their support team responds in real time. I actually was online with them asking questions just this week, and I got answers in minutes rather than having to wait for callbacks and emails days later. If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change. Tap the link in the show notes and see how TechMetric can help you move your shop forward.

32:56And I, and I'm a stupid grease monkey, I figured that out. I went to— I played, uh, I played baseball in high school with a guy who got married and has a kid who's about 2 years old that was born without half of his arms and half of his legs. And they're Christians, and they chose— the doctors knew this was going to be how the baby they took ultrasounds and they were like, "You could abort this child."

33:18And they chose not to abort the child. And so they wanted to create this social channel around what happiness that the child gives them, but also what kind of value of life that he has, hoping to inspire other people in similar situations to keep the kid. That's their hope. And they post all kinds of really heartwarming videos, about this kid and their life together.

33:45And they have hundreds of thousands of followers online. And if you go and scroll in there, while none of their content ever has anything to do with negativity or rage, it's all good stuff. They got a lot of hate in there. Of course they will. A lot of hate in there. Can't believe you're trying to monetize your child, or I can't believe you're in here trying to show off this sad kid.

34:10Why are they so mad? Like, why are they so mad? Let me— I guess I just don't understand that, but I definitely see what you're saying. I think is I have no matter what kind of content you post, don't be an idiot. You're going to have stupid people. Do those people understand how stupid they are though? No, they don't. I have a, I have a good friend who has, who has a disabled child and there's medical expenses involved.

34:33My friend does. He does pretty well for himself now and they can, they can absorb that. He does well enough for himself. That he's just— I just talked to him not too long ago. He says he's super thankful for the position he's worked himself into in life with his— in his financial position, that he knows that he can take care of his daughter without having to rely on XYZ, right?

34:56Yeah. So let's just, let's just dive into that. The mentality of the average American— how stupid are these people to think that that child doesn't have medical bills? How do they know that? Even if, even if this page is making money, why are they getting pissed off? What do they think the parents are going to do with the money? They're going to seek treatment to improve the life of the child.

35:18That's why people piss me off, because people do kind of— people piss me off. I guess it's still shocking to me, and I'm not gullible. It's not— they, they, they— it's not that they don't know that the child has medical expenses, but they don't know the, the the expense of what something like that is. A custom wheelchair, a custom vehicle to move a wheelchair.

35:38They have no concept. They don't understand that the expense of taking care of this child could be $30,000 a month. And then they don't understand exactly. And then they're mad that if it's monetized through social media— but they're mad that if it's monetized through social media and their living conditions are better than theirs, maybe they're on a house with a lawn and they're in some terrible apartment in on skid, like in the skids, and they're looking at that going, must be nice.

36:04Like, is it? That's what, you know, that's, that's the, the stupidest conversation that ever gets happened or anybody said, because, oh, I hate it. Must be nice. But that's what they're saying. I never see any of the must be nice people at the shop at 4 in the morning. It's weird. So weird. You know what, man, a lot of times I'm at the shop Sunday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and people are dropping off their cars.

36:23They're like, what are you doing here? I was like, because I got stuff to do. I got stuff to do. I got stuff to do. I know it closes. I still come in here to work. But it's the must be nice attitude that is what has spawned so many people to grab a keyboard and try and make themselves feel better. Must be nice.

36:41In most cases, must be nice is linked to an adult that's incapable of making a good decision, and they've chosen Newports and Red Bulls. Yeah. Instead of improving their financial position. I'm going to express myself with these two sleeves of tattoos as I stand there and ask if you want fries with that. Yeah, yeah, that's— that's a typical person thinking. But I got $6,000 worth of ink this year.

37:03That's exactly— that is my favorite, right? Choose your heart, man. You know, so it's like— and they're like, they wouldn't want to trade positions with that parent. Look at Braxton. He's pumped right now. No, but what Braxton is trying to get at makes sense, that if it were not for the reels, spicy or not, we could not get the message out that we're trying to— 100% agree.

37:25Yeah. 100% agree. Yeah, it's just how you said to me yesterday, just don't engage them in the comments. You just let them do what they're gonna do. Because you can say, just like you said, bless you, bless it, you know, right? Or I say, thanks for listening. I started doing that. Oh yeah, that'll be a good one. Thanks for listening. I'm gonna try that out.

37:44I wanna— I don't think I've engaged anybody in our comments. And then a cash register drawer sound will come out. Thanks for listening. Cha-ching! Just put another dollar in my pocket. Thank you. Right? And you don't want to be that arrogant because it's like, hey, you started it. I started it. So that's it. That's, that's fair. I mean, think about like, you know, thanks for 27,000 on Facebook, right?

38:0937,000 on Facebook. And we got, and we got, you know, other big followings on social media. I got 725. But Facebook is the big one. Oh girl, we can think about the people who like are mega famous. Like You can't even imagine. You think it's bad with the amount of followers we have. Think about like millions of followers. Sherwood and Sherwood are almost at 500,000.

38:34But I'm talking about followers on YouTube, millions and millions of followers, like, you know, athletes, celebrities, media. They have a manager, but, you know, there comes a point where you can't respond to these people, right? You physically would not have enough time in the day to do it.. And if you did, you're going to go crazy. So there has to be like, and this is what I was saying earlier too.

38:58We didn't know that this is where it was going to go. And so now we're experiencing new things. We didn't really know we were going to have to do this. This is a Mr. Rogers. Can you cut the Mr. Rogers in there? You're learning so many new things. So many new things. Please add that in there. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you.

39:15You're learning so many new things today. So, I mean, it's like we kind of just have to— you have to find the off switch somewhere. And because there's— I mean, as the page, it's good to engage with people. Yes. But sometimes there is a line there somewhere where it becomes unhealthy for you. You got to protect your peace, man. Yeah, you got to protect your peace, man.

39:41I used to hold the flashlight for my dad. None of that. Not a single one of them people bother me. And that's the thing, like, and that was— oh, you know what, I take that back. Who hurt your feelings? Who hurt you? I had one guy hurt my feelings. Was his name Mike Allen? No, I won't get into it. It's a long story.

39:57But Mike doesn't look at— but I made some— I made some phone calls. Mike, hey, by the way, that video is doing well. Oh, it is? Okay, good. I made some phone calls and I found him and I called his cell phone and we had a conversation. I found him. No, I found him. He had a lot— he had a lot to say online.

40:10He didn't have a lot to say on his phone. And that's sometimes the difference. Keyboard Warriors. Oh yeah, I said, you know what, you know what, I don't— he said something to the, to the, uh, effect of F your whole bloodline, you know, because my background picture is my dad's gravestone with his military service plaque on it. And, uh, and it said especially Ron.

40:28Well, my dad's name's Ron, my child's name is Ron. So I made a couple phone calls, I found the guy, we got— we're straightened up. He won't, he won't be commenting again. He won't say nothing no more. He can be all right. Yeah, but see, that's, that's taking that irritated. That's the only one though that I've ever really— of course, because that was taking it to another level.

40:46Like, what was the video context? But the thing is, what would piss you off so bad, right, from a clip in the interworld that you feel like you had to say something like that? You have to say something like that and have a refrigerator hunting you down. That's not good. It's not a good situation. Candace has to remind me a lot of times because I'm a very competitive I love my sports teams.

41:08And there was a time where it was bad. If my team lost, don't talk to me for a day or two. It was bad. And I've gotten a lot better. But she has, whenever I start to get upset about something stupid like that, she's like, Braxton, you realize there's starving people in Africa right now that have real problems. Oh gosh, here we go.

41:27And that's true. That got me to 400 pounds. You have to finish your dinner. There's starving kids. But see, they didn't eat on the airplane. Oh yes, ma'am. Yeah, you know, put it in perspective though. You know, people got real problems. People are in the hospital right now with issues and you're over here perfectly healthy with a good roof over your head.

41:47Getting upset about your sports team. I can't get old flats. Right. That's what the wing was to. All I wanted was old flat. Piss me off. Some people really wouldn't mind it for a drumette. When we put ourselves out in the automotive realm, we have to remember that a lot of us that are our audience as people not in the realm. So they all have a situation where they feel like they didn't understand what the repair was, or they didn't feel the repair was fair, or like you and I go back and forth so many times.

42:16First thing, what is fair? Yeah. And, and, but the second thing is, is like, it didn't— they, they were ripped off. They were just frankly ripped off. They were promised that this part would fix this complaint, and it didn't fix it in the lights back on, pardon my language, and they're mad and they're angry, right? We have to remember a lot of those people have that, that are watching, and what the algorithm is going to show it to them are the exact people that are watching.

42:39So they're not interested in us trying to be better than those people that screwed the most— nobody out. They got it exactly. They're going to throw hands through the screen at someone, and we represent that. And that's the difference, is it doesn't matter how hard we try, that's fair. You know, but you know, that sucks for them, I guess. Well, and I don't know why, why are people— I don't want to go on the tangent.

43:01I was going to say, why are people paying for cars that ain't fixed anyways? But that's— well, you— yeah, how many times have you asked? And what doesn't make sense? Why do people— and I know shops that have— I know shops that have subbed cars out to the dealer because the shop can't get to the bottom of it. They send to the dealer, dealer puts a bunch of parts on, writes them bill $2,900 and says, yeah, the car ain't fixed, but all these modules are here now.

43:22I'm like, why are you paying them? Yeah. They didn't fix it. Yeah, but that's a whole— we can't get it. That's another part. Well, it's a completely different subject matter. So what's the real— what's the real money that you can charge people if they'll pay $1,400 and it doesn't fix the car? $1,401. And you're the bad guy? I said that how many years ago?

43:4115 years ago. Price is Right. Yeah, $1,401. But it is. Yeah, but it is. If they put $1,400 into it and the car ain't fixed, you find a broken wire, what's the fix worth? What's the market value of the fix? The market value? $14.01. $1 more. And we don't do that, to be very clear. However, but that's the— yeah. Braxton, what else do you have for us?

44:04I love this stuff. This is great. Good, good. So many more angry people, and we're not going to respond to them because if you're angry, we don't like you. Cutting that one too. Not me, not me. I like you. Well, they're not our people though. Well, that's the thing, right? Like, people yet— we're gonna change the industry and they will become— no, no, you know, can I tell you something Greg Buckley told me one time?

44:29Yeah, I was real frustrated. I was trying to help somebody with something and I was just super frustrated. I'm like, oh my gosh, this guy just won't— he won't under— he's choosing not to understand this guy. Greg Buckley told me, and I just talked to him this morning, and I told him I took that advice very seriously when he— I literally told him the same this morning.

44:45But Greg told me one time, he goes, Brian, you're not the Messiah. You can't save all these people. That's what he said. I am not Captain Sable. Well, I was going to say, Tanika loves to say this. And I think in this situation with people getting upset online, we have to remember, what you eat don't make me fat. He said it right too.

45:06What you eat don't make me fat. And you worry about what you have to do. Other people's cake don't make me fat. Either way. No, down south. We down south. What you eat don't make me fat. Okay. I ain't arguing with you. I think we have to remember that these are our missions. We're trying to help the industry and we're going to stay focused.

45:27But some people just aren't going to get on a train. Just like they won't show up for training. Right. There's just nothing you can do about it. And you can do your best and don't worry about the rest. Yeah. I don't know. Christen dropping bars. Look at that. Do your best. Don't worry about the rest. Yeah. Freaking word to your mother. That's the thumbnail image.

45:49Word to your mother. Word to your mother. I think in some ways it's like we don't necessarily talk about the positive things enough because it would seem braggadocious, right? And the reality is, is what we just discussed is we discuss always the challenges. The challenge is a challenge, a challenge. We don't, like, you don't ever puff your chest out like outside of, um, the circles necessarily on some of the amazing things that you do.

46:20I don't really do that many amazing things. I've just— oh, shut up. So I figured a couple things. I know, I know. Yeah, maybe that's something that we try to lean into, and that's so— highlight some of the good stuff. And that's what I keep thinking going forward is we do talk about that. Shanika does a good job at that. I try to do— I try to do that.

46:35You do. I want to like, this is where I'm from, this is where I went, and this is what's happening. Happened. This is the good that came out of it. Yeah. And you always wrap up the episode with like, hey, what gives you hope about this industry? Encourage someone that's in shoes that you were in 20 years ago. Right. Like stuff like that.

46:52I find that people think it's just them and they're still thinking that in 2020. It's just my shop. It's just me. I'm not doing good. No, you're doing great. No, same problems, different zip code. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Everybody's facing the same challenges. And that's another thing. And they're looking— not— they're looking at the highlight reels of our lives on social media.

47:15Oh, yeah. And they're thinking those other 23 hours are just as easy, because that's all we share is the highlight reels on any social media, whether it's business, personal, podcast. The people that get online and cry for a living to music— now, that's a different beast. We'll talk about that in another episode. But really, that's what we post. We edit our highlight reels and we put music behind it and you make everybody laugh for the likes, for the dopamine.

47:44And that's what people are seeing. And then that's how they get the feeling like, oh, it's just my shop. I'm the only one that's struggling. And that's why I was saying with Benji today, I was like, listen, dude, if you've got 3 bays and your capacity is 500,000 a year, get there. Don't sit there and compare yourself to the guy that has $400,000 a month.

48:05Stop looking at those fools because they're miserable anyway and they smell funny. Um, work on you. Focus on you, boo. Yeah, do the best you that you can do. Social media has, has done way more damage than it has. Absolutely. Sure. I mean, there's a lot of good out there in there, but yeah, it's, it's It can— everybody wants to compare theirself to everybody else.

48:30How's everybody taking these vacations? Baby, that vacation reel was from 3 years ago. You wouldn't know damn where you believe that. I did go somewhere, but I'm just saying. Um, but yeah, people believe all of the highlight reels. Yeah, well, yeah, it's what people want to show because they want to make it feel better. Like, how many people are in dead-end relationships and open marriages and stuff, and they're still posting celebratory, you know, this is our anniversary?

48:54And yet, you know, I know a couple, right? And it's like, and, or you know the backstory, you're like, oh yeah, I know the real story. And it's like, oh, and that's, that's ugly. And I'm not trying to put those people on blast, but I mean, that's exactly what I like. People are lying. Yeah, people are not who they post to be.

49:09And from the business standpoint, we've talked about this, people can get in there and get all up on boat, like, this is the revenue that we generated, this is the hours that were turned and everything. And then we can go, we in the industry know that there's also fallout from that. Right. And, and so when you have some of those business models, although they may work for a few years, yeah, there's certain business models that have an expiration date that has to do with population density, market size, so on and so forth.

49:36Yeah. And that's when we get into that, you know, everybody was so just— it was so divided last 2 months ago, right, when that happened, the plane crash. And everybody was so divided and it got so toxic in one week. That was ugly. Yeah. And it was like, holy crap, like, everybody just chill for a minute. Like, it doesn't— what that— what they, uh, talk about all day long isn't for me.

50:01But it doesn't mean that— like, but again, eat don't make you fat. That's right. If you don't like it, keep it moving, big dog. Yeah. You know, and like, for me, that's not my model. Todd Hazey's not my model. You know, I choose to do it this way. You choose to do it But those who are treating the customer right. Everybody looks a certain way online.

50:20And then you find somebody in that market that's actually involved and you find out that, oh, maybe. That they show up every Monday at that shop and go. Or exaggerate about how great it is. And the staffing gets changed more than Brian changes his socks. It's not as great as everybody thinks it is. You know, there's a lot of people acting like everything's great, but then there's a lot of people that have a whole ass hiring manager because you can't keep people in the building for 130 days.

50:48Anyways, but yet those people in that that represent that side of the industry, they're still our people and they're still within our industry. Exactly. And that's the thing, it's like we, we need to remember that they still deserve a somewhat level of respect, you know, um, and, uh, and, and at least of, okay, you do you, like you always say, and, and we're gonna do us, right?

51:10And it doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong. I will keep doing me. Somebody will have a gun to my head, I'll just keep keep doing me. I'll risk surviving the gunshot wound. Yeah, yeah. Um, and that's the thing. So it's like, that's how it's gonna go. I, I don't care as much as I used to care about what somebody else was doing and whether it was wrong for the industry.

51:27I'm past that point, right? I, I put my focus on my people, which is the technicians. Yep. And that's where I put my focus. And it's like, this can work for you and it might not work for you. It depends on the type of person. You may go to a dealer and love it, and you may go to an independent shop and love it.

51:43Both of them are opportunities and avenues for some young people. And then sometimes even on that level, you got to be like, dude, if it's so bad, do something about it. Do something. And that's why I have to tell so many of them, right? Like, it's like, so let's— why do you keep— why are you still crying about— why are we having this conversation again, bro?

52:03Did you take the wheels off your toolbox? What's the trouble here? Yeah, right. Get it out. I don't want to move. Well, and then when you say that, other people get mad. I don't really care. Yeah. You know, you're just trying to help them think because you— I'm not going to sit here and listen to you make the same complaint. You just complain how you get screwed every single day.

52:19Well, why don't you go try a different shop and see if it's— well, let's try that because let's at least change one thing. You can't change you because you are you. Change your environment. If you still suck in the next environment, it might be— maybe it's time to check the mirror. Maybe it's better in the next environment. I don't know. I don't know the answer.

52:34I'm not you. I don't work beside you. I can't tell you, but you gotta tell you what to do. Something. Doing nothing. Yeah, do something. Shit or get off the pot, as my grandpa used to say. Do something. Yeah, yeah, you know, and that thing, I can show them person after person that moved across the country to find a better opportunity. You know, and everyone talked to some people who bring people in from across the country all the time.

52:57Yeah, all the time. Built whole businesses with transplants. Look at Zeb. Zeb threw that money up there and said, I don't care where you come from, come here if you can do the job. Well, you know, I can't come. And it's like all of a sudden all the hands went down. I'm not coming. Everybody talks a big game and then somebody says, show me what you can do.

53:14Come here tomorrow, right? Cricket. We've got more bays and more cars and you get done and nobody comes and knocks on the door. But if I post on Facebook right now, my phone will go chirp, chirp, chirp. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, and it's— and again, there's a big difference between having the— trying to be heard, right? And legitimately complaining. And that's just what I have to have this conversation all the time with.

53:39With my mom is that sometimes, like, it sounds like complaining, but I'm just trying to unload. Right. And that's a lot of the people when we put ourselves out there again, is they're complaining and it sounds like complaining, but they're just trying to be heard and get some, some tension out of themselves that makes them feel better. Right. And, you know, now nobody likes to hear, well, suck it up, buttercup.

54:04Like I had to— like I had to walk uphill both ways to school. That never taught a kid to appreciate, you know, the fact that they— yeah, don't forget, didn't have to walk. Don't forget snow, right? Tanika didn't— there was no snow. But you know what I'm trying to say, right? Like, that never made anybody appreciate better. It was just, okay, it's a disregard.

54:23You want to be a sounding board. Yes. But then when, uh, Jimmy Bob complains about the same thing for the 5 weeks— yeah, I don't hear that shit no more, Jimmy Bob. That's right. What are you going to do about it? Ron's like, okay, what we do? Do something. Change something. Do something. Yeah. If you're like, this place is horrible, this place is a prison, move.

54:43Get out. You're not trapped there. I mean, dude, it was a shop owner, friend of my father's, and he sent me a message on Facebook and he was talking, talking, talking. He was like, listen, you should do this. Consider this. You know me from my childhood. Now you know the type of people that me and my father are. I am telling you the best advice I can give you right now.

54:59Is to shut your door and come to Feeling Connections and listen to Becky Witt on this Friday. I will pay for you to go. Oh, man. You know, I got those. You know what? You know what? Now, my excuses. Can't, can't, can't. Yeah, I got a car lot full. I got a lot full of cars. I can't miss a day. That's not working out for you.

55:20You know what I use from my wrestling coach? I had the best wrestling coach on this planet. He's in the coaching hall of fame. Yeah, he was good. Yeah, and he used to— if we were, if we were messing around and not, not doing what we're supposed to do and getting beat or something, and, uh, he, he'd pull you aside and he goes, you know, you're out here finding a way to lose.

55:38It's just as easy to find a way to win. Yeah, right. And they— what they do is they keep making the excuse and they keep finding a way to lose. Yeah. And it's just as easy to find a way to win, and it's not as comfortable, but difficulty level long term Winning is easier than losing long term. And that's how losing is easier short term.

55:58That's how you create that movie that you play in your head is when you keep finding the people to blame and the excuses that you're going to make people to listen to it. That's right. And then nobody else will listen to it. No, you'll find some trolls that they'll be sharing the misery, the misery with you. Oh, that is a person that chooses to lose also.

56:15Yeah. Like, yeah, you're right. This sucks. That's right. Right. And that movie in your head, a change, that movie in your head is what will really screw you up. Yeah, make a change. Josh talks about that all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your very— because here's the thing, that's your very real reality is whatever you picture in your brain as the reason for why you act this way or whatever, that's the movement.

56:37I have a whole section in our class on, on visualization. Yeah, yeah, right. Like the beauty of the visualize where you want to be. You have to visualize it, right? And, and then build steps to get it. And it's not some hokey-pokey BS that— I mean, what do you think? What do you think these trainers are teaching some of these professional athletes to do?

57:00Mm-hmm. Right. Do you think a quarterback visualizes the throw to the ball into the receiver's arms? Right. People visualize professional Olympic shooters, right? The Winter Olympics this year, they're all skiing around and shooting, right? They're all visualizing the shot. It's not some hokey-pokey. You walk up to the putt thinking you're going to miss it. Well, you're going to miss it. Yeah. I'm not skiing.

57:24Black people don't ski. I'm lying. I just say stuff like that. But they were saying— Definitely don't water ski. Skiing, you know, on the slopes. Yeah. You're going fast as hell on two little skinny little pieces of— Yeah. But they say you just have to look at where you're going. That's right. Yeah. Like if they didn't look at exactly— because I'm like, how can you focus at that speed?

57:45And with snowmobiling, we have a funny saying. If you ride out in the powder, if you look at a tree trying to avoid it, you want to hit that tree every single time. You have to look where you want to go. If you look right, you're going to go right. You have to look where you want to go. So if you don't want to hit the tree, you better be looking at the gap.

58:01You look at the tree, you hit the tree. Yep, every time. Yeah, every time. Not just like, oh, it might work out. No. Hey George, look out for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to visualize. And some people, like Jeff said, their visualization— or as Jeff referred to it, the movie they're playing in their head— is woe is me, woe is me, woe is me.

58:20This industry sucks, I'll never do this. But then they say it so much that other people believe it. Like, no, dude, you suck, or maybe you're in the bad shop, but the loudest person gets the attention. And how many high school educated level people do I have to go through that have just absolutely made it in this industry? This industry is so terrible.

58:43Yeah, I have, I have dozens of people that are just killing it, killing it. Some of them didn't make it out of high school. They're multi-millionaires. Some of them didn't make it out of high school. They're multi-millionaires. It's like Daddy's story. He's 18 years old with a kid, me. And I tell people, statistically, according to statistics, I wouldn't even know who— I shouldn't know who he is, and he shouldn't be anything.

59:08High school, did graduate from high school, started a shop, but he had people behind him that believed him, and he kept his eyes on the prize, and he did the work. And he did the work. Yeah, you have to do the work. You have to do a lot of people trying to skip out on the work. That's the problem, you know, because like I was saying, the coaches are saying, well, work on your business, not any— no, you got to do both.

59:25You have to do both for a long time. We have a whole section of that that we talk about. How do you know what's wrong if you don't show up? Yeah, do the work. You got to do the work after hours, before hours. You have to do the work. And it's the same as like the more technical side of stuff that I do.

59:41If you think that I showed up the shop from 9 to 5 and I supposedly figured out all this magical crap between 9 and 5. It's no, no, no, no. But then you can choose what you devote— life balance, and you can choose. He gave you the side eye. You've got to have— and you can choose how successful you are. Yeah. Here's the deal.

1:00:05If you put in an extra 20 minutes a day, the statistics that Kokkonis collected— so I'm assuming they're correct because he's a master researcher. So I'm going to believe him. The statistics say that if you put an extra 20 minutes a day, you'll achieve a level at a certain thing. If you focus on that subject for 20 minutes a day extra, you'll achieve mastery of that subject at a level that will put you within the top 10% of people in that subject.

1:00:31Yeah, that's what 20 minutes a day extra work gets you. Is 20 minutes a day even that much? You have— everybody's got half hour lunch. Your shop, the guys take half hour lunch. They got an hour. Okay. Wolf your cheeseburger down. Spend 20 minutes a day watching Scandia. Choose your flavor. I don't even care what you want. Choose your flavor. Watch it.

1:00:49You don't have to do what I do. What Jeff knows, what I've done in 20 years, I've put an additional 20,000 hours in outside of. Yeah, right. Training. Yeah. And that's what you get. What I have, the blessings that I have, is what I get. For that extra effort. Absolutely. But you're certainly not just going to show up and somebody brought it up in the class the other day.

1:01:13I have a girlfriend. I want my work-life balance. Okay, buddy, that's fine. So if you would like to be— this is going to be a rage bait click. If you would look up, go online, go to the US Labor Statistics, look up what the average salary of an automotive technician is. And if you want to be— if you want a 9 to 5, it.

1:01:34You will be that average technician. You will earn the average salary. Good luck. Don't complain to me when you chose average. Yeah, you're choosing average. Yeah, well, that's exactly what they choose, average, and they get pissed off that they're average, bro. You chose average. I didn't choose average for you. You chose average. This is how you live now. I think I can get away with saying this.

1:01:55The girlfriends really mess techs up. The girl— I can get— I can, I can say it. Yeah, no, I'll say it. I'll be the female. The girls really mess up. The girls in the twisted up. They get all twisted up over these girls, and I'm like, bro, like, especially pull your head out of your ass. We got shit to do. Especially if you're with a toxic one.

1:02:14That was me way back in the day, and even— and it cost me a job. I think that even a red— even, even a, even a girl that's not a problem, I think their head gets all discombobulated, and they're all— they can't even make heads or tails of what the situation is, and they start acting stupid. I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen.

1:02:33And it's— well, you had one, you had one that left your shop and followed her. Remember that? That's how much— that's how I forgot about that, but I love everything about it. But that's what I mean. You and I have talked so long. This kid, yeah, his freaking girlfriend broke up with him. This kid go— drives to the Buffalo airport the next morning instead of coming to work, gets— buys a plane, like a full box and everything, left this shit.

1:02:57Ain't no way. Yes, way, Mr. Joe. She was working. Yes. She was working with the WAP. I ain't never seen— yeah, Wings and Pizza. Yeah, Wings and Pizza. That's exactly what we meant when we said that. But no, I had a young lady started off as a tech with me. She was really young and she wanted to do it. She was doing a good job.

1:03:16She wanted to be a diesel tech. She could have got a boyfriend. And I said, let me tell you something. And then mom kicked her out. I said, if your mama kicks you out You know you got problems. And she's, I'm gonna be late because he was down in Vietnam. So it was an hour and a half, 2-hour drive, and she's trying to come back and forth to work.

1:03:37She's called Vietnam. Vietnam. I, I had not heard that. We call Fayetteville. Yeah, it's a military of Vietnam. I'm familiar with the military town. I had never heard it called that. Vietnam. My life, my life has been improved. So you killed Josh. He lives in Vietnam. I know, I'm going to tell Josh. We got to reel it in. Okay, sorry. Oh, it's 5 o'clock.

1:04:00I love it. You guys have given me more content to cut. That was not the point of this whole conversation. When is Vietnam getting cut? Because I want to put that on endless loop because I'll last that forever. We'll do it in the Forrest Gump style. How much you willing to pay, Brian? I'll get it out. And we'll get Michael, we'll get Michael Gunther to put like your face onto Rambo's body.

1:04:21No, I want to be Forrest Gump. He's my favorite. Oh yeah. You know what he says? Now we can get her on Robin Williams. Good morning, fam. Okay. Okay, folks, it's really— we're back. I love you all. And I think these conversations are valuable for us and the listeners, especially the ones that actually care and aren't just here because they mad. But you guys, I believe, because I came, I worked for a Christian radio station.

1:04:49And I really do believe that God called me out of that space to be in this one, to help you guys do what you want to do. Yep. And I love getting to do what I do. And sometimes there are things that we got to figure out, and this has been one of those. This 2026 so far has been figure out how to manage social media, how to build a brand and and really come up with where you want to be, where you want to be in 5 years.

1:05:20And I think we're really changing things up on how we do it all. And it's been fun. It's been fun. I've learned a lot. And I do appreciate you. I've learned a lot. 100%. Well, I'm learning a lot too. I mean, like I say, I'm kind of new at this at the same time. So bottom line, what we want from our listeners is to get past the reel because we need the reels.

1:05:42In order to reel in new listeners so that we can continue to do our work. But we need you to listen to the whole thing. I don't know what percentage of it is, but say if you had 100,000 views on a video, let's say there's 1,000 people that actually go to watch the full episode. That's still good. I mean, yeah, that's 1%.

1:06:05That's 1%. That's 1,000 people that wouldn't have gone 100. Can you imagine if we change— if some— if you take 100 people, yeah, and convert them? One. Yeah, one. I wrote down here with Dan and Rachel, they brought to a guy that's running a shop and his employees. So one, one shop. One shop is a huge change. I was excited. I was like, this is awesome.

1:06:31This guy's mind is blown. He's down here. So if anybody wants to know what we want to do other than hear ourselves talk, What he just said. That's right. One at a time. One shop at a time. One shop at a time. One bite at a time. That's how you eat an elephant right there. I'm going to say like Jeff does, I loves you all.

1:06:46Yeah. How do you say it? I love you all. God bless. Good night. Thank you for listening. Chop chop. I'm not saying nothing because, you know, if you do, you won't stop. And that is the rest of the show. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out. The good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up.

1:07:05I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes. So why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink? You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover, or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mike@confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message.

1:07:22The number is 704-CONFESS. That's 704-266- 3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.