ATTENTION: Shop Owners - Buy Back Your Time | Dan Thieken - Ep 24

0:00You should offer tires for two reasons. The first, you shouldn't, you don't, your customers should never have to go to another shop ever. God forbid there's another shop out there better than you, and there is. If they happen to find that shop because they need tires and you don't offer them, someone else is going to take your cheese. The second reason is, I should coin this phrase, tires are the window to the car's soul.

0:21Welcome to Downshift with Tanika Haynes, the Automotive Auntie. The thing about Tanika, she gets to know you. She'll laugh and cut up with you, but then she'll hit you with some knowledge that you may not want, but that you need. Let's downshift. I met my brothers in Colorado. I went to the— Oh. My little apartment I'm sleeping in. Oh, that's cool. That's nice.

0:48I was saying your last name. Thinkin' rhymes with thinkin', and what's Dan thinkin'? I'm thinking that you don't know that H isn't silent or is silent. It's Tikkun. Dan Tikkun. Well, there we go. School me right away. Dan, good morning. What time is it where you are? Wherever you are? 8:30. Oh, you just, you chose to hang out with me at 8:30 in the morning on a Friday.

1:17That was a choice. I didn't have this trip scheduled when I scheduled this recording with you. I was feeling special, so damn it. Plus I've been, you know, I came out on the spring forward time change, plus we're 2 hours behind out here, so I like, my sleep's all jacked up anyway. All good. Yeah, so I've been up at like 4 in the morning out here every day.

1:44Did you make it a productive 4 AM wake up? Did you go out and exercise and stretch and do yoga? Maybe, maybe next week. You lying. Lies, all lies. All right, so welcome to Downshift with Tanika. I am your host Tanika, and that is Ash. Howdy. All right, Dan, you got to tell everybody in the world who knows— who don't know you, who you are, what you be about.

2:12My name is Dan Teeken. I own Kreger Tire and Service in Millersport, Ohio. I've been in this industry since 1996. I started at the current shop I'm at now as a senior in high school, and I bought it roughly 21, 22 years ago. I was reading that. I thought that was so awesome. I didn't know that part about you. I didn't know that you were a lube tech and then you flew the coop, then came back home and bought the coop.

2:40Yeah, I wouldn't even call myself a lube tech, right? I just, I came in learning tires and sweeping floors and obviously changing oil, but I never really did any mechanical work to speak of— brakes and things like that— but it was very limited. I became a tire guru. And then when I got married, my first marriage, just thought we'd go out and make more money in a bigger world.

3:02And they came back and offered to sell it to me a couple years after I left. So It worked out well. I think that's a, that's a beautiful Cinderella story. It's a pretty cool story. If I sit and think about it more, it's— I'm not special, but that's, that's a unique situation. So I'm very blessed that I was able to take part of it.

3:26That is really cool. Like, what did you go out in the world and do? Did you stay in the industry or did you go different things? Yeah. Yeah. So I got a job with, uh, at the time was a Bob Summerall Tire. That was a retail and commercial tire business based out of Cincinnati. So they had a Cincinnati market, a Columbus market for the retail.

3:49But I ended up in the management there, um, bouncing around stores, helping different managers out that were like out for medical leave or whatever the case may be. So, and then I had a clash with the general manager of the Columbus market So I whistle blew him and I left. You got that man fired and then left? I don't know if he got fired immediately.

4:13I know he wasn't happy, but he wasn't a good person. Call him out, Dan. Call him out. I love it. So you are not a technician that turned shop owner really, because you said you were a tire guy, but That's as far as you went? Yeah, I wouldn't call myself a technician in any stretch of the imagination. I think it's intriguing. The older I get and the more I grew the business into full service, I had to help find information for technicians that really weren't good enough to do the work I was bringing in.

4:54And over the last, I'd say, 7 to 8 years, the technical side of the repair is very intriguing to me. Like, if I could go back and do it all over again, I would probably become a technician and be— hopefully be really good at diagnostic work. I think it's intriguing. So, like, did you think— so you did this out of high school.

5:19Did you love cars, or you just needed a job and that's how you ended up there? Like, I was I was not a car guy. I always knew I wanted to own a business though. Um, I loved— I've always loved people, generally speaking. I always thought I'd own a restaurant or a bar, to be honest with you, but it just landed in the automotive industry.

5:40So here we are. I think sometimes we are like bartenders. What do they say? Bartenders make the best, like, really good service advisors and stuff. It's like people that you have to love people, you have to love like service and serving others. I could believe that. Yeah, I believe that. Because if I didn't do what I did, like, okay, no, I'm not going to tell my secret.

6:01I think I may have already told it on another podcast, but it hasn't been released yet. So if you didn't have this job, knowing that you love people and you love service, what would you be doing? I would probably be the one of the world's best food servers. We already know what to do. We've been to the trainings, paid for the coaching, learned the right way to inspect cars, build estimates, and talk to our customers.

6:26That's not the problem. The problem is consistency, because some days it only works when the right person is working, and when they're not, it's a whole different shop. So now you're stuck in that cycle. You need a strong team to run a great shop, but you need a great shop to attract a strong team. Make it make sense. That's why I rock with Detect Auto.

6:44The DECT Auto streamlines your service processes with automations that save time, increase maintenance sales, and improve productivity without changing your whole system. It plugs in, guides your team through inspections, recommendations, and even customer communication. Now that's not just based on memory or mood. That's how a shop runs. And let me tell you, I've been using it for over a year now. My ARO is up 63%.

7:11That's not new knowledge, that's just consistency. If you're tired of your shop depending on who showed up today, go check out Detect Auto, book a demo. Yeah, you'd be the guy making like all the tips. Yeah, I know everybody. Yeah, I still joke with my wife now, I'm like, I want to just go be a bartender or serve food because, dude, I love my bartender, she's amazing.

7:34They struggle. I mean, they're at their attitude, a lot of their attitude struggle. Their personalities, and they do it for the tips, right? But the way they behave is counterintuitive to maximizing their tips. And I'm not saying that you don't deal with— you probably deal with more difficult people in a restaurant setting than you do in our setting, if I had to guess.

7:58I think so. But it's a different difficulty. I think the people— if you're being mean in a restaurant, you're just a jerk. Like, go cook your shit at home. But if you're being jerky at our shop, it's probably because they're in a bad situation to begin with and they're mad about the car and they're trying to take it out on you. But how mad can you get about a dang old hamburger, right?

8:20I don't know, I probably get pretty mad about it. Yeah, because you would think about that hamburger all day, like, oh, they're gonna eat this, it's gonna be right, the pickle's gonna be right, tomato's right, and then they— and they put some damn onions on your hamburger. And it mess up your whole— and you don't— I don't even want it no more.

8:35I had— I could imagine that one of my previous employees, uh, years ago, if his lunch order didn't show up the way he ordered it, he wouldn't like take the stuff off that wasn't supposed to be on there. He'd throw it away and he would not reorder. He'd get so mad. Oh my God, my dad gets mad about— my dad hates mayonnaise.

8:56He hates mayonnaise. And I remember him him telling the story that he got mayonnaise on the sandwich at a restaurant— not a restaurant, just like McDonald's or Wendy's or whatever— and they actually scraped it off the sandwich instead of remaking it. You talking about something to laugh at, to listen to my dad tell that story. I'm surprised he didn't get locked up for that.

9:15But yeah, people are crazy. But if I didn't— I don't know what would I do. I know that if I did not do this, I would have a funeral home. That's a different thing. It's a lot of money in death and you can't ship it overseas. But when I lost my grandparents, each time it was like the service is absolutely amazing that you can help people in one of their worst times, you know, one of the most difficult times.

9:42That's an interesting perspective. Yeah. So I really, I think that's the reason why I like it. You met Ted, my new manager. You met him at Ratchet and Wrench. I met him at Ratchet and Wrench. Uh-huh. His, his family in West Virginia owns a funeral home in the small town and They own a lot of other small businesses, but they've, they've had that in their family for years.

10:02Yeah. And, uh, it's been a, it's been a good business for them and they're, they're super, super personable. They're extra, extra country nice to you down there. So. See, that's what I like. I like to be country nice and like maybe cause it sticky sweet and good old auntie vibe and come here, baby. Give me a hug. Let me help you. Ash, what would you do?

10:22What would you do if you had to get a whole nother job? Yeah, um, so I've been on both sides. I've been in the restaurant industry before this. Um, I would go into medicine. That's what I originally was going to do, probably animal, like vet, be a vet or something, because humans are just humans and they're hard. Um, but I love medicine.

10:44I love everything, like I love fixing problems. And so I think that's another way to like fix problems and still help people. All right, so Dan is all about service, but tell me more about the not funny on Facebook, Dan. Like, you have been doing this for 20 years now. Ownership. Yeah, yeah, ownership. So tell me more about that. Well, I think I'm funny all the time, Tanika.

11:11Thank you. Your little Facebook jokes, you think you're funny, man. I know you're not. Are you the funny man at work? Are you the funny boss, or do you like put the hammer Work— the older I get, the more stringent I am at work, but I'm not at work anymore. Really? I'm not allowed to be. That's a good problem. So I'm balancing, I'm balancing that new facet of my life.

11:33But what do you want to know? I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm fine. How do you, how did you build that before you were able to step away and not be there all the time? Like, how did you build the team? How, how did you do that? Did you take a whole bunch of leadership classes? It's just in you. It's just natural born.

11:52Being a good person is innately in everybody. Okay. Leadership classes are very beneficial. I've taken a handful of them. But at the end of the day, you just have to be good to people. You have to be a good listener. You have to think before you speak, and you have to be proactive and not reactive. Those are all things that can be learned, should be learned if you don't do them naturally already.

12:20But as far as how to build the team, I don't know. Just people. My guys would recommend someone come to work and before— what are we in, '26? I would say '15. Before '15, we weren't like super— I wasn't super foreign. Focused on doing the proper channels of diagnostic and stuff like that. It was back then, we were more of a parts cannon shop.

12:51And I say that as caveat, we got the problem fixed. The customer didn't pay for our mistakes or the wrong parts. Um, we just still fixed the problem and charged them what we would normally charge them to fix it right the first time, right? Yeah. So it became harder to get the right team in place from on the floor when we started to want to do more in-depth repairs, if you will.

13:21Um, our shop, it does not have the best curb appeal. There's technically no running water in the shop. We have to go next door to the other building on the property. There's no restrooms in my shop, they're next door. Um, my shop is not the most appealing shop to work in, right, outside of the culture. And just, it's very small town. I think the actual town population is around 1,000.

13:47But really, that's— the town has a cool name. Millersport is a pretty cool name for town. Yeah, it's right, and it's right on a little, uh, little touristy lake. And there's other communities around it, but my immediate community is small, but it's a lot of population around it. So yeah, building the team, just you get the, you try to get the right people on board.

14:07Um, it hasn't been an issue typically. We have, we had to have a couple hire slow, fire fast cases over the last few years. Now, as far as getting the staff in place for me to get out, 4 years ago, probably right after COVID, because we all saw a fairly big spike in business during and after COVID. I think that's a fair statement.

14:34Yeah. About 4 years ago, going into the office started to affect me physically. Within 2 hours, I would start to feel my heart beating in my chest, and I was running the front of the house by myself. So we're doing— back then we were doing 1. I don't know, $1.6 million, 4 racks, generally 4 to 5 people on the floor, and I was handling everything up front.

15:02I couldn't take that anymore, so I started looking, hired a service advisor. That worked out fine until there was some personal stuff and he had to leave. I've been recruiting Ted for effectively 7 years. Yeah, he told me about that. Um, he really likes working for you. He does. He, he, he like— it's 10 minutes from his house. It's, it's small town.

15:27It's more his people. He's dealt with city people for his entire career. Mhm. But once that landed, um, yeah, it's been— it's really been a godsend. And with the service advisor and other people helping me out over the last few years, I've had time away, don't get me wrong, but I'm, I'm effectively not allowed to be there now because as good, as good as friends as Ted and I are, we worked together years ago for about a year that started off real rocky.

15:57We were both alpha personalities. Um, his experience is vaster than mine. My experience is pretty vast and very unique for, as he likes to call it, the island that we're on. Um, so we, at the end of the day, we want the same goal. We want to grow, provide the best service for our clients, take care of our employees the best we can.

16:22But we have different views on how certain things happen. It can get volatile real quick, real quick. So I just said, you know what, I think it's best if I just don't come around unless I have to be there. Yeah. I mean, if he's getting the results that you want, he's just not doing it in the sequence or the way that you want, like sometimes let somebody else make the Kool-Aid.

16:44Oh, 100%. Yeah, that's gonna be hard though, because it was hard for me and my ego to let— to walk away. Well, it wasn't an ego thing for me. Oh, for me it was. It's— I've just— I've groomed that community. Like, I've trained that. Yeah, I've trained that community, uh, in every sense of the word. And it's really hard. Just think about this.

17:10It's really hard for someone to put that much effort into building the business and then effectively just stop coming in because that's what has to happen. That's a lot of trust. There's a difference between running an auto repair shop and building one. Running your shop means keeping up with daily demands. Building your business means putting the right systems in place. Systems your team can count on and a customer experience that keep people coming back.

17:34Techmetric is built for shops thinking long-term. Shop management, payments, and marketing in one platform. So nothing slips through the cracks and your operation is smooth. Less piecing things together, more running the business you set out to build. Check it out at techmetric.com or tap the link in the show notes. Yeah. And I'm okay with it. It took— but that's you. You, you did that though.

17:59You did that. You, you found the right people and put, you I mean, you built it and you found the right people, and now you can just walk away. And, um, I don't, I don't go to work as— I haven't been to work as much this month, but usually when I'm there, I'm in the back office. I don't go up front as much.

18:13When I go up front, it's just because I'm bored and I miss them, but they've got it. And so, yeah, it is hard because that's your baby. That's— you built it. Yeah, and there's going to be— I think there's going to be natural, some natural shrinkage when you have a new management team come in place and run it and the owner isn't around, there's going to be just some natural decrease.

18:35There's going to be some people that just refuse to come in. They don't want to give the new management staff a try. They don't want to not deal with me. So there's going to be some shrinkage, right? But overall, it's going to be fine. I'm not concerned. Well, if they respect you, I was able to I think I found that a little bit, but I sent out emails, I made social media posts like, hey, this is part of the team.

19:02This person's my right-hand person. This is who I chose. And yeah, I needed it. I remember I was walking out the office, actually I was leaving, coming to Vision, getting ready to go catch a flight. And the lady said, hey, Tanika, I remember you used to do all of this. You almost died twice. And she had been a customer for 20 years and she was telling the truth.

19:22Because I was, you know, our customers know all our business anyway. Like, I had some medical issues. She was like, yeah, you almost killed yourself trying to run everything by yourself. Had the shop, 3 techs doing everything, going to work at 6, going home at 9, forgetting that I had to— not to forget them because they were there when I got here, but you get so busy trying to build everything.

19:41But it's kind of like, like you said, it's your baby, and then you have to trust somebody else with it. But if you do a good job in hiring and firing then it'll work out. And then you get to go to your brother's house for a couple weeks and just chill in a bonus house. Well, this was supposed to be a relaxing trip, but, uh, the weather— the weather took a turn.

19:59So what's it like right now? Right now it's probably 40. Nope. I was supposed to golf all week. I went down and visited, uh, so I'm— he's north of Denver. I went down and visited Nathan Bryant and Matt Ratter, um, on Tuesday, spent the day at their shops, then we went to dinner. But yeah, so this, this turned into actually a very emotionally taxing trip because I dove into a project with my brother that he's been working on in the technology field, um, and it's something I've never done before, and I've got a crash course, and my brain hurts.

20:39And ouch. I think it'll be, it'll be, it'll be really good stuff. It's going to be a cross, across industries type of technology that can be very beneficial, uh, to many, many different people. But we'll see where it goes. Yeah, I don't like new brain stuff. That hurts. Like, I need a new cell phone right now. Not doing it. I'm not learning it.

21:02I don't want to. I'm too old for that. Ash is laughing. You keep, keep living. Keep living. As soon as you hit about 49, 50, you're just stupid. It's just like, I mean, no, pretty stupid with technology. I'm not gonna lie, I'm supposed to be like really good at it and I'm not. It's just like, no, what is this? You get kids, that's why you have children, so they can program stuff.

21:24That's the only reason. That's all they're good for. And that's crazy. So you're down there visiting other shops. You are a good owner, you think you should be a coach? You should become a coach. You should turn into a coach. Why? I think I would be glad to lend advice to people, which I did this week, actually. Yeah, you're visiting shops and— Listen, if someone wants to pay for my flight out somewhere and hang out with them for a week, whatever.

21:57I don't care. I don't need paid for it. I just, It's everything. This is a slippery slope, Tanika. Uh-oh. It's a real slippery slope. Um, I would be, I would be more than happy to help anyone that wanted help. You hear that? I don't know, I don't know what the compensation would look like, nor would I particularly want it. Well, what she basically said is send him a ticket, Spirit Airlines, put them in a Red Roof Inn.

22:26It's got to be a first class ticket somewhere. Spirit Airlines, Red Roof Inn. They'll leave the light on for you. You'll come in there, change your shot, change your life, whole thing. Yeah, I'm happy to help people. But you're young, you're so young, and you almost— are you— do you consider yourself retired? I don't know what I consider myself, and that's the problem.

22:50Me, I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. Me too. That's why I'm sitting here on a daggone podcast. Like, the kids are gone, the shop is running itself. Well, it's running very well. I'm just— what we gonna do, Dan? I don't know. I mean, I still have my role. I still have things I have to do for my company, but they're so minimal right now.

23:10Yeah, I still only trust myself with payroll and accounting and— yeah, that I do marketing because I get bored, you know. And the marketing— and there's other stuff that I've neglected over the years. Due to time constraints that I'll have to start doing more of, and I've been doing that. But I don't know, I don't have a t-shirt. I'm kind of— I just thought about that.

23:30I don't think I have a t-shirt from you. I think I might. What size you want? Large? Medium? I need medium. Medium. I'll have to look. I have a few people that want medium. Yeah, so you should do better. So tell me about— okay, so are you basically just a tire business, or do you guys What's your mix? So we're a tire-centric business.

23:51We were, we used to be probably 35% service, 65% tires. And now that's actually swapped, which is where I want it. I want to be a 65-35 split. I'm scared of tires. I'm not scared. I just never saw the profit in it. But now I do because people tell me. That's actually what I want to help people with. If I was going to coach anybody.

24:15Yeah, people tell me, they tell lies about the tire because they're like, oh, you don't make any money. Yes. The profit dollar per hour is crazy. That's what you should be, Dan the Tire Coach. Well, I'm, well, I'm, I'm doing that breakout class at, um, Tectonic with— I'll be there. I signed up yesterday. Yeah. And then I'll be at— we're doing Tools, a longer class at Tools.

24:41And then if you guys approve that class, we'll do it at ASTA too. You should come into the breakout class in Tectonic. Okay. Cause yeah. Um, I've learned a little bit, not as much as I want to because it's a myth that you just don't make money in tires. Like I have a whole align machine. I got the balancer. I got, I just don't market it at all.

25:02Well, so tires. Yeah. Yeah. Tires can be their own profit center by themselves. Right. Um, which is great, but fundamentally I don't look at it that way. The gross profit per hour. Can be really nice, better than a lot of your service work. But if you offer tire, you should offer tires for two reasons. The first, you shouldn't, you don't, your customers should never have to go to another shop ever.

25:30You don't want that another shop, God forbid there's another shop out there better than you, and there is, there's a shop out there better than you. If they happen to find that shop because they need tires and you don't offer them, someone else is going to take your cheese. The second reason is— I should coin this phrase— tires are the window to the car's soul.

25:58Elaborate there, Mr. Daniel. If you offer tires and your business is a destination for tires, you now have free access to look at that vehicle. Vehicle. Where if you didn't offer tires, you're not going to get that potential customer. The wheels are going to be off for brake inspections. You're going to be up in the air for a front end inspection. You can see the old tire wear.

26:21You have alignment, um, and then whatever else, whatever. It just gives you the opportunity to do your already in-place inspection process. It's just, it's just a window to the soul of a car, period. That sounds so simple that it's crazy that I've never heard it put like that before. Maybe I did and I just ignored it, but you should market— yeah, market coin that, right?

26:44Do get online and do that right now. Have your brother to help you since you don't like technology. He just— but I don't— I mean, I don't— well, I guess I don't have to worry about selling tires. My newest service advisor came from a tire store, so dude, you've got the knowledge. And it's just like any— it's just like any other car repair that needs done.

27:04We're not selling the work. We're just saying, hey, your brakes are worn out. If you'd like to have them done, here's the price. Hey, your tires are worn down to 3/32 and you need an alignment due to the tire wear. We have that option. Here's the pricing. What kind of tires are you looking for? It's— we got to take it— so many people in this industry have that mindset of we got to sell work.

27:24It's not selling. You just didn't— I think I saw— I think I heard Ashley say something on one of the other episodes about we're just advising. We're just advising. If you want to turn it into a sales pitch, then you're going to be— don't turn it into a sales pitch. Yeah, that's just how I— that's how I operate. Now, some people are successful with sales pitch type stuff.

27:44I get it. But yeah, a lot of people want you to have a script. I don't like scripts other than answering the phone, and I really don't like that to be scripted. I want you to say certain things make certain points, but scripts sound scripted. Yeah, it's all— and I've said it before, and everyone else says this too, it's— this isn't about the cars, it's about people.

28:04Just say, hey, Mrs. Smith, this is what you have going on your vehicle. Um, you tell me what you want me to help you with, and I'll get your prices, and we'll go from there. It's not— it's not you come in and here's $6,000 worth of stuff that needs to be done. Take it or leave it. Yeah, that's not how— yeah, all right, next.

28:26Have you— next. You— yeah, yeah, you got kind of aggravated with that because it seems like, um, you've heard that from a coaching company or two. Like, some coaching companies will tell you to throw the kitchen sink at them and whatever, but you'll just end up losing a customer if you don't make that connection, see what they really need, and go from there.

28:44What were you going to say, Ash? I was just saying it's a fair thing to be frustrated about. Yeah, especially if you're in a small community. We're just a community-centric shop anyways. Like, going after it as a sales pitch is the wrong way for you for that type of shop. Yeah, it is a relationship, and you can kitchen sink it if you have a relationship because it's not, hey, let me see if I can get 10 grand out of this person.

29:09It's, hey, we need to talk about the condition of your car and where you want to take Exactly. And I know I don't— I've never worked with a coach directly, nor will I probably ever. But you hear it indirectly through all these groups, right? And you can have a transactional business. You really can. I know some. If it's designed around relationships. Okay.

29:34So relationships are still key. Yeah, I agree. The way you treat the people are key. If I took my shop and put it in the big city, with my personality and went and ran it myself, I don't know. I don't know what would stop me from like owning the whole city because the type of service they get in the city is different than where they get in my shop.

29:58Yeah, it's like if anyone comes in, it's like their family. I talk to them like family or an old long-lost friend, and, uh, that, that's worth its weight in gold. Yeah, I'm with you, Dan. So you say you've never had a coach, you never had a coaching company, you never done those things? No. Why? And we've, we talked about this on, um, briefly we touched on this, the original Confessions of a Shop Owner meet and greet.

30:26It was you, Brian, Lola, and Mike. We talked about this, um, Well, I think everything that we need to know is already out there, right? In our networks. That's a lot of— yeah, we're lucky. That's a lot of free stuff. Yeah. The only thing that I think coaching can bring to the table is a form of accountability from them actually directly reaching out to you, plus financial accountability.

30:55Hey, you owe us money every month, right? So that's an accountability factor. Um, you're smart. You're a smart man, Dan. Um, some people— yeah, I'm not saying— I'd hold their hands. Yeah. And I'm not saying it's not for everybody, right? There's some people out there that need it. But yeah, um, yeah, it's not for you. I don't think so. Never have been.

31:24I don't know. Because I, I enjoyed my coaching experiences, but I knew when it was time to walk away. Also, you know, you don't want to pay for somebody to hold your hands and just be your friends. Get all the information I can get and leave. And I know of a certain real-time scenario, someone's working with a coach, the shop owner knows that he's gotten the most out of it.

31:47I assume— I'm pretty certain the coach knows that he's gotten the most out of it. Um, but there's no conversations from the coach to say, hey, this might have run its course, maybe we should stop. And I definitely think there is some form of responsibility that needs to be laid on the coach's shoulders to, one, fire the shop owner if they're not sticking to the plan, and two, if they do see that the— it's maximized its return on investment we should end our relationship.

32:19That's the only ethical and fair thing to do. I definitely believe in that. I believe in that with anything— relationships, employees also. Like, Ash, no, my dad tells the story why he had to fire Curly, because he thought he was holding him hostage. He wasn't able to grow because our shop was too small, our collision shop was too small. He thought he deserved to go to bigger and better places and learn all the things that he should learn.

32:41Um, so I agree with that. I've seen that situation. I've asked a coach that question, like, when do you know when it's time to let them go? And what kind of person would sit there and keep taking the money for a shop that once— that's not performing, are not doing the work? You know, you're telling them do this, do that, do that, and they're not doing anything.

33:00They're just using that hour session as a crying and whining and the bitching and moaning session instead of actually doing the work. Because that's going to make the coaching company look bad either way. If it's out— if I found that out, I was like, oh, that's messed up. Why would you do that? So yeah, and I find the most value for me, like when we go— when I go to these expos, I'll sit down.

33:20I typically always sign up for an Institute class or two or whatever the— whatever is on the docket out there. Um, that keeps the numbers and stuff fresh in my head. That's probably where I'm most comfortable doing that type of thing, and a lot of shop owners could benefit from that. But yeah, like you said, some people just need help, and if they they need to have like an onboarding and kind of just go through all your financials and see how your operations are running.

33:47And that's, that's different, I guess. But yeah. So like, what kind of advice would you give like a young person that was in your shoes or in your boots that long ago? If you had to start all over, what would you tell young Dan about getting into this business? Like you said, you haven't had a coach, But train your replacement now. Train your replacement now.

34:08Find someone that can run your operation 90% with 90% efficiently in the event you can't be there, medical reasons, whatever the case may be. You have to hire, hire and train your right-hand man. That's the first thing I would say. And then everyone's, you know, everyone's going to say charge, you know, determine your labor rate, right, where you need that to be to be profitable and take care of your staff and your clients and offer a good warranty.

34:39But honestly, yeah, get your shadow in there. Train your counterpart, your equal, if you will, immediately when it's financially possible. What kind of advice would you give them about the personal side, like how running a shop can take over your life and your health and all of those things? Like Well, for me, being where my shop was, it was very personal. I think I said this on another podcast, if— or maybe a Facebook video— if this is a person business, like I mentioned, it's very personal, it's emotional.

35:14Um, if it doesn't hit you that way, in my opinion, at least from my perspective where my shop is And you don't show empathy, have empathy, and truly don't care. I don't think you should be in this industry. For the longest time, I didn't compare. I didn't separate work from personal. All my clients were practically, like I said, I treat them like friends and family.

35:45It was just that kind of a connection. So, yeah. You're lucky because it's a small town and you can do that. But if I try to do that even in Chapel Hill, which is a small town, I'd go crazy because I had to stop. I'm so glad I don't live— I live this next city over because people, some people will take advantage.

36:04But your population is like 2 and everybody's everybody's friend, and that's unusual. But if you try to do that in the— you should do that in a bigger city, have the personality be that person in the neighborhood, help your community. But if you don't cut it off, people will come. Yeah, they're definitely— yeah, um, I actually had to put an auto reply on my cell phone, um, last year, uh-huh, to— after Ted hired to transition.

36:32And because I would say 100% of my agricultural customers have my cell phone, several of my retail customers have my cell phone, phone, and I can still respond to them if they're some of the really, really good ones. Um, no, I hear what you're saying, and my perspective, I know it's unique and it's, it's small, which is beautiful, as Ted points out to me all the time.

36:56But I, I genuinely think my view on how you treat people, it transcends really kind of any market. And it's not— it's— this theory has been around since the Bible, right? Treat others like, as you want to be treated, right? So yeah, but yeah, everybody can't be as cool as you. I'm not cool. Damn it, you are cool. You're cool, man. I like— I really— I don't know, I think you're like so cool.

37:27I like watching your interactions with people on social media. You're like a cool uncle. It's fun. You're a cool uncle. That's what— that's what is That's what it's like. That's how it comes off. Um, baby's at home too, so I'm a cool dad too. You've got babies? How old are you? 9, 7, and 5. It blows my mind. Like, I just assume everybody's kids are 20 because minor kids are 20.

37:52Well, I have a 19 and an 18-year-old as well, but my littles are at home. My mama did that. I'm 49 and I have a 23-year-old sister. That's crazy. And it's 5 of us. Yeah. So you are— you stay at home, you're stay-at-home dad because you're not working in the shop. How did you— what is your involvement with your kids now, the littles versus the 19-year-old?

38:21Because in the 19-year-old, you were in the shop a lot. The 19 and 18-year-old, they live with their mom. Okay. My first marriage. And they're— they do their own thing. My son Luke comes to me when he wants money, and Reese comes to me when she needs her car fixed. Um, so I don't see them a bunch because they have their own lives.

38:42They're busy. They're very busy kids. Um, as far as the stay-at-home feature, what's interesting is I finally convinced my wife to stay home. I've been begging her for 3 years to stay home, and last April, right before TED started, she, she agreed to that. And then we didn't know I would be home like I am now. So that's, that's a fun dynamic.

39:07My wife and I are now home together during the day and you have two people that have worked full-time effectively not working anymore. Sitting there looking at— we're like, we're like in this empty void. What are we supposed to do? We're not cleaning the house because we don't feel like it. We just— it's, it's a really weird dynamic. So weird. But that, that is really weird at such a young age.

39:30Like, usually people work until they're 65, 70, about to fall apart. You did— look what you did, Dan. And then you probably don't know that you're probably— you both are probably better parents that you have that time to be there with the kids whether you want to or not. But I can't imagine the mom I could— I would be if my kids were young now.

39:50Yeah, like they spent a lot of time at the shop, and I'm pretty sure they don't have any regrets. I don't. I spent all the time with my father at the shop, sun up, sun down, and there are lessons to be learned there. But I can't imagine what kind of mom I would have been if I could pick them up from school every day and all those things and sit there and just— yeah, that's— wait a minute, that's a lot of time.

40:11I get to take my little one to preschool, little redhead Maren. She goes to preschool. I take her most mornings and that's, that's the highlight of my day. That's so wonderful. A lot of shop owners don't get to say that. They don't. But yeah, you, but like you said, you have to hire that right-hand person. You've got to buy back your time because you're business owners and you're not supposed to sit there and let the business run you, but you got to get to that point too.

40:34A lot of people don't know how to get to that point because they don't take the steps early, early on. Yeah. And that brings up another point, I think. We have to be careful as shop owners, especially, and I'll probably ruffle feathers here, but if you're only a few years into shop ownership, your focus shouldn't on, your focus should not be coming an absentee owner immediately.

40:57Absolutely. That's what I'm talking about, Dan. I truly believe that. Yeah, it's not how it should work. I mean, you got to put in your time and you got to do it. Not that you're not allowed to be an absentee owner. But the only way you're going to be an absentee owner is if you devote time to build a successful business, and that requires you on site to do it.

41:19I think when they hear work on your business and not in your business, that they take it too seriously. Like, no, at this stage you have to do both, dear. Yeah, you have to do both. You can't, you can't just go open the shop and then say, I'm clocking out at 5, I'm clocking out at 5:30. Yeah, that ain't gonna work. Yeah.

41:35So I think, yeah, the coaching companies preach that, which is For me, that's where I am now, but it took 10 years to get there. Well, 7, 8. Yeah, just take your time, put in your time, build your business. If the American way has changed so much that our goal in a blue-collar society is to not work and be wealthy, I don't know where that disconnect started happening.

42:05I don't— I think after COVID, people— I don't know, I think it's post-COVID people thinking like, oh, I could just sit at home. I was working at home. I want to be at home. Well, where you go? How you gonna get your money? I don't know, but I should be able to do it all from home. I quit. I quit. I'm in the wrong conversation.

42:26Well, yeah, well, she knows the shop for 10 years to now being at home. Well, you're starting a business, you're in a different spot. And I said her all the time about it too, about— yeah, I'm learning. You're gonna work 12, 15 hours a day. Yeah. And then you're gonna work 10, 12 hours a day. Then you're gonna work 6 to 8 hours a day.

42:47And then you might work it, you might not. You're not going to go on vacation for a year. You're not going to go on vacation for maybe 2 years. Yeah. You're gonna miss a couple games., and you're going to be tired, and you're going to eat baloney with a dirty mechanic's hands, and you're going to cry, and you're going to pray, and you're going to get up and you're going to do it again tomorrow.

43:06But you got to keep going forward. It's not like magic. There's no microwave. And so I think people look at different shop owners on social media, and then they listen to comments in ASOG and Changing Industry, and they, they go and ask questions just so people can answer them the way that they want to be heard. To validate what they're thinking. Like, no, that's stupid.

43:26You just didn't put in the work. So yeah, it's going to come, but it's not instant. It's not guaranteed on how quickly it's going to come. Yeah, everything. And I want to be clear, my goal was not to become an absentee owner. You got kicked out of your shop. I mean, I, I wasn't— I, I didn't, I didn't plan on being this, this detached from my shop for another 7 or 8 years.

43:48Yeah. Yeah, I think I wanted to be out by 55, but, um, it works better. It does work better when I'm not there. I, I admit. Why is that? Well, because we— because it's our baby and we need to let it walk. It's like making up your child's bed every morning. He's like, cause— oh, never mind. Yeah, the first time you made it up, he made it up terribly.

44:10The second time, he made it up terribly. And then as a mom, you want to go in and just make up the bed and get it over with. We want to micromanage and do all those things, and if we keep micromanaging, they're not going to learn from their mistakes. So because we hold it so guilty of that— yeah, because we close— hold it so close to our hearts, just like a child, because like we said, it's our baby.

44:30Um, you don't want any mistakes to happen. You don't want that service advisor to make a mistake because one, the mistake's going to cost you money, and two, the mistake could cost you your reputation. And you just don't want mistakes to happen. But if they don't fall off the bicycle— yeah, so it's very hard. And it's easier for us to walk away and walk away and walk away.

44:50And the one time that I really knew that that was true— I've been told that a whole lot— but when I was ill one time and I literally could not go to work, and the shop did not die, nobody died, nothing burned down, everything was handled, it's like, okay, stop micromanaging, stop micromanaging. And I still micromanage, but I know when I'm doing it.

45:10And then they look at me like, would you please leave? Like, they will look at the clock and say, it's 3 o'clock, Miss Tanika, you can, you can go now. We don't need you, lady. It's a good feeling, but you have to get there first. Yeah, you've got it. I would still like to be there a few days a week, honestly. I'd still prefer to be there a few days a week, but it's fine.

45:32You want to be there because you need a job? You you need something to do, or because that's been so much, so such a big part of your life. I think it's, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's who I— that shop is who I am, period. And, um, like you said, it's your baby. So like, even if I just went out there and sit on a stool in the shop and watched, but apparently, apparently, um, my— that gets on my technicians' heads and they— we have it documented.

46:01They, they make they make— they're making fundamental mistakes when I'm on site that they don't make otherwise. Oh no, he's serious. That's crazy. That's crazy. I can see that though. It's like you're not putting the pressure on them, but the pressure's there. Yeah, 3 of them have been with me for years, so it's not like they're a new technician. They know me.

46:24They've known me for at minimum 5 years, 4 or 5 years. Oh, that might be disrespect. They don't want to disappoint you and they get so nervous because, oh Lord, dance here, dance here, then, and then they start making mistakes because they're nervous. That's so cute. But no, I sit in front of the shop, and the other day I sat in front of the shop and ate chicken wings and watched the cars go by.

46:48Then I walked in the back office and looked around. I was like, okay, I'm going home now. But you do have to find something to do. Maybe, okay, so don't become a coach, but give out like donuts like Becky does. Becky Whit, you know, she comes up with her things. You can help people that way. You can write up— yeah, I can just put my cell phone number in all the groups and say, call me.

47:14Don't do that. Call me. You need help? Call me. Look, I'm gonna hire you to come to Chapel Hill and help me get this tire thing started. I can't wait for the breakout, but I'm definitely going to Tectonic and, um, check out this breakout session because tires is just something that I know nothing about, just because I always thought you didn't make any money.

47:32And the reason I thought that, because the internet said you don't make any money and the people said it. But that is a story, another story that I have told myself, and I need some of that tire money, dog. I'm coming down your way— well, not your way, but I'm coming down North Carolina around my birthday in May to play golf. Where you going?

47:48Pinehurst? No, we did that a couple years ago. Um, you didn't like it? I loved it. Uh, okay. Balsam— Balsam Mountain Preserve. I've never heard of it. I don't play golf. Okay, that's up there by Lucas. No, that's why it's— it's about an hour and a half from Knoxville. Okay, so that's near Lucas Underwood. Should go teach him some stuff. He needs help.

48:18No, he knows everything. He knows everything. He walks into— he tells us every day all the things that he knows. Every day. Every day. All right, well, Dan, I was good to talk to you. I can't wait to see you at Tectonic. What else you got going on? You're going to Tectonic, then you're going to go to Tools, coming to ASTA. I'll be at ASTA, and then, um, I don't know.

48:38See, you're like, wherever the wind takes me these days. Yeah, because you gotta do it. I love it. I gotta be careful. I can't travel too much because it might upset my wife. Yeah, don't do that. Although she's going to Bar Harbor in September. She texts, she's like, hey, we're going on a girls trip to Bar Harbor. I'm like, oh man. And she's like, September.

49:00I'm like, I think I have a golf trip. I bet you don't. She had to reschedule. She had to reschedule the bar— schedule. Yeah, because it's a yearly golf trip that can't be changed. So she had to push her Bar Harbor trip back to the following, like, 2 weeks. Yeah, because I'm going golfing and then I'm going— I'm supposed to go fishing with my father-in-law the same week as ASTA.

49:27So let me rephrase the ASTA thing. If you guys approve the class that Anders applies to teach with me, then I'm going to be at ASTA. If you don't approve the class, then I'm going fishing in Michigan. I don't know if that's a cry for help. Are you winking at me? Like, no, I believe in this to chance because my father-in-law has been wanting me to go fishing for the last 5 years.

49:51You're not getting me in trouble with that, man. Now I already told him, I said, listen, I said, I may be teaching a class that week in North Carolina. So if that happens, I'm not coming. He's like, that's fine. It'll be always next year. Thanks. Thanks. Um, that is something to end on. Thanks for the pressure. Um, push the class through and we'll call it good.

50:13Understood, Lieutenant Dan. All right, ladies, it's been fun. It's been fun. I enjoyed talking to you. Funny paper. We'll see you later. All right, bye. Downshift with Tanika is where we slow down long enough to have real conversations, hosted by myself, second-generation shop owner Tanika Haynes. This goes beyond your car count, your KPIs. We want to talk about leadership, legacy, mindset, and the messy, beautiful journey of building something that lasts.

50:45You will hear stories from shop owners, technicians, and other industry leaders who are figuring it all out by themselves in real time. This is a space for growth, tough love, laughter, and leveling up.