Before I Was the Boss Lady, I Was His Little Girl | William Brown and Ash Kaplan - Episode 7

0:00your benchmarks are going to be your benchmarks because you're going to have to price yourself to make sure you're profitable, right? But if your labor rate needs to be $180 and their labor rate, because they don't have a mortgage, can be $120 and they live in an 800-foot-square-foot apartment and they're meeting their needs. But I know what my needs are. My needs are hundreds of thousands of dollars of needs.

0:18Yeah. So again, what I consume does not affect your paycheck, right? So I know what my dreams are and I know what I like to drive and I know when I like to go on vacation. So I have to work for that. Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Taneka Haynes. We all know as shop owners, sometimes you got to slow down in order to speed up.

0:39And that's what this podcast is all about. It's time to downshift. Hey, Daddy. Hello. How you doing? So for the people that live under the rock, that is my father, William Brown. The OG of Brown's Automotive. Daddy, you want to tell us a little bit about your story? Not really. Not really? No, you got to. Okay. We're all dying to know. We're all dying.

1:07Everybody on the interweb is dying to know who my daddy is and how. Mr. William Brown. Mr. William Brown. The Brown Effect is what Karm called it. Oh. Yeah, Karm named it. Spicy. The Brown Effect. The Brown Effect. When'd you get started, Dad? February 18th, 1980. That's a long time ago. That's the late 1900s. That's when you got started. So I remember when we were at the family reunion, you start telling a story of how you got into the business.

1:38Can you give us a little version of that? Like how you first got the shop? I first got the shop. I had a cousin that hit a truck. Your cousin hit a truck or y'all hit the truck? My cousin hit a truck with a tractor in the snow with no insurance. We were 19 years old and the man wanted his truck fixed.

1:59So I said, I can fix it. He said, let's fix it. Okay. And I did. Go into detail, Daddy. Go into detail. It's just us and the internet and the whole wide world listening to you right now. It's friends. Nobody but a few thousand. Cliff Meat Market. Uh-huh. Tom Robinson. He had me fix 3 trucks. I fixed those 3 trucks. Then another man, George Tate, made me fix his car, 'cause I was working out of his building then.

2:34And the rest is history. The rest is history. It's not. There's so much more to that story because my dad was how old at that time, Dad? 19. 19 years old. 19-year-old hoodlum running around wrecking cars. No money. No money. I think I had $150 in my pocket when I came to Chapel Hill. Yeah. Wow. So, but how did you know that you knew how to work on cars?

2:58How did that all start? High school. High school. We had a class at high school that had mechanic and auto body, and I took the auto body and I liked it. Yeah. Did you think you were gonna make a career out of it or you was just trying to find an easy class to take? I just knew I wanted to make cars look good.

3:20I didn't like mechanic, mechanical work. Right. I liked to make it look good. And I think I did a go-kart. My mama wouldn't let me drive it 'cause she said it was too fast. But it looked good. Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. I never got to drive it. I sold it. Then I did a couple bicycles, sold those, because I wanted a waterbed.

3:47I remember that waterbed. Yeah, she said I couldn't have no waterbed unless I paid for it, so I made it. That is so funny. I know, right? I've never experienced a waterbed. I'm showing my age. Me, like, Dad had a waterbed when I was a kid. It was crazy. I couldn't get out of it though. I can picture that. But all right, so a lot of people, I tell this story all the time, and I know I say it all the time, like, yeah, my daddy started a shop.

4:12I guess— how old was I when you went, when you started all of that? 3? 3 years old. 3. And so you mentioned the name George Tate. Yeah, I know who that is. Okay. And nobody else knows who that is. So George Tate was, uh, he had a lot of real estate in Chapel Hill. It was the biggest, largest Black-owned real estate developer in Chapel Hill, and he had an old storage building that he rented out to me for $300 a month and told me that I needed to buy it, not rent it.

4:50He gave me a price of $60,000 to buy it, and he said, I know you ain't got no money, so he said, but $60,000 today or 20 years from now, but you're gonna buy it. About 10 years, I bought it, but he told me I had to fix it up to make it worth 3 times what I was going to the bank to get.

5:10And I borrowed the $60,000 from Central Carolina Bank in— if I was— I would say, ooh, early '90s, early '90s. And the man that loaned me the $3,000 February 18th was named Mark Royster. Then he loaned me the $60,000 to buy the shop. He was the manager of the bank. The same man gave, loaned me the money to buy the, build a new shop.

5:45It was in the six figures. Daddy doesn't like sharing numbers. Well, I'mma get in trouble right now. How much was the loan, Dad? You had a $3,000 loan for the— just for your rent and your improvements. Yeah. Just buy tools for $3,000. Buying tools. And then the $60,000 was to buy 102 Cobb Street. Yeah, that was to buy the building. And when you sold 102 Cobb Street— because it burned down and I sold it and I was building another shop.

6:14And it was— it was more than a million-dollar shop. $1.8 million. There you go. Nobody's going to die. $1.8 million. So you went from a dirt lot I went from a plastic chair with telephone poles. Wow. At my aunt's house to the shop where you're at now. That was $1.8 million. It only took 46 years. You too could do that. I'm talking to the kids.

6:46It was, it didn't take 46 years. It did take 46 years because you moved to— 2000. 2000, is it 2000, 2001? We came, yeah. 2001, 2 weeks before 9/11. And we're sitting here and everybody knows that I call it the McMansion. But I know my dad's story. And I think when people look at you or they look at me, they see an easy way.

7:11But I like to think I probably don't know half of what you went through building a shop. I don't know a pinch of it, a fingernail, a toenail clipping of what you did. But I know that as an adult that I can think about what I would see. Like, Dad worked all the time and I would be in the shop playing with the dogs, playing with Bondo, playing in dirt, running around to the other businesses because it was Car Quest, actually it was Motor Baron's at the time.

7:39Yeah. Going over to Rice's Glass Company. And in that little area, there were another— there was another body shop that's still there. Yeah. There was another mechanic shop on the other side of the building. And so I was a neighborhood kid and running around to all of these shops. But I did see you work. And I remember Dad had this old blue couch.

7:58It was, it was a wooden couch with blue pleather cushions. And it was summertime and it was a very sweaty couch. But I took plenty of naps on that couch while my daddy was working. And so I just wanted to let you know and let the whole world know I really appreciate that. But I don't think people know what it takes to go from the plastic barn at your cousin's house to what is the square footage of both the shops combined on 15501?

8:24Total about 25,000 square feet. 25,000 square feet. That takes vision and that takes dreams. But I'mma let you tell it the way you tell people. What about— what do you think about dreams, Daddy? Dreams? Yeah. You need to wake up and do something. Do something. Do something. That's kind of where I'm at, is like hearing where you started and then seeing where you left things.

8:47Like, how do you not get discouraged in the middle? Discouraged? Discouraged. Like when you're not getting to where you're dreaming you want to be at and it's taking way longer than you thought it should. Well, it's always going to take longer because you don't know what you're going to run into, for one. But you can't give up, can't quit, because if you quit, what you're going to do?

9:08'Cause what is, I mean, now all the coaches, and I love my coaches, you know I love me some Josh, and Josh calls it quitting in the dip. Quitting when things get hard. Or when you can't see the next, when it's about to go up. People like to quit in the dip and they come up with all kind of excuses. But I was raised between my daddy and my grandma Kitty, excuses ain't nothing but a made up lie.

9:32Like, what do I say about feelings? They don't fix cars and they don't pay bills. They don't. And so, but I was raised in that culture. And so for me, it's not easy. But when I feel like, oh, it's time to quit, oh, this is hard, this is hard. First of all, I can't call him because he is not going to sit there and be like, I know, baby, it's going to be fine.

9:53You got this. He going to be like, what you going to do about it? You going to box or kick rocks? What you going to do? What you going to do? So what are you going to do? What are you going to do to keep going? That's the thing. I think a lot of people miss that. They quit in the dip. And that's what they say in, you know, big guru terms now.

10:08But you can't quit. You can't quit. You can. I know. But what you gonna do next? You just gonna be— I haven't even seen— I have seen a speck of the iceberg of what looks hard. Yeah. You don't know hard. No, I haven't experienced it yet, but— Hard is when you don't know what you gonna eat or where you gonna sleep. Stay fit and sharp.

10:32Sleep in your car. Yeah. I don't think a lot of people are willing to do that though. No. Especially young people. They can't do what I did. You know? Not a lot of them. I mean, they want to quit. They want to run to mom and daddy, develop them out. But you got to do it yourself. Yeah. I do respect that. Like, Tanika shares a lot of stories about you.

10:58That's why I was so excited to meet you. Is when you say Grandma Kitty, is that your mom? Okay. Um, one of the things Tanika said, you told me about— I won't go into detail because it was a really sweet conversation, but things got hard and you, you can't go to your dad and say, I need help with this. No, I could tell him.

11:18You're talking about the mortgage? Just— well, yeah, yeah, like to share. Yeah, I mean, I, I am an open book because one thing I do say is my, my dad is amazing. Man, y'all, y'all know that. I think I probably don't tell him enough, but you're absolutely amazing. You crazy, but you're amazing. You're good crazy. She won't take credit for nothing. No, like, we're in these groups talking about— I all the time, I'm so amazed by what you have over there and your people.

11:43And all you always say is that your daddy built it. Daddy built that. Daddy started it. And he tells me— what'd you tell me, Daddy? You took it to a whole nother level. Yeah. So it's One thing, what you're talking about is I had overextended myself. I had a nice townhouse. I had me a nice Cadillac Escalade. I was balling. And then I had a baby.

12:07And them jokes expensive. Keep the dog. They cute, but keep your dog. And I got— and I had a mortgage that the rates went up. And I was losing my house. And I was gonna go in and say, "Hey, Daddy, you know you can help me get out of foreclosure, bling, bling, blah." And he was like, "Nope." No, I did it one time.

12:29I did it one time. I saw the mortgage statement and I fainted. I said, I'm not gonna do that again. Yeah, because I told her something. I came in the office, she was crying. He don't care. She was crying because she wanted a Cadillac Escalade. So I told her, act like your daddy, pick up the phone, call Cadillac and tell them to bring your Escalade.

12:58And she did. But I told her not to. First I told her she didn't need it. She was crying because I told her she didn't need it. I said, you want it, but you don't need it. It's the difference. I said, you want an Escalade, but you don't need an Escalade because you had a— I had a Tahoe. You had a Tahoe.

13:17I had a Tahoe and a customer ran into my Tahoe at work and so it was in the shop. And so I had a rental car and it was a new rental car. It was a newer Tahoe because the Tahoe was paid for. Daddy bought it for graduation. It was a new rental car. So I got the new car smell and what Black people call this, I got grown.

13:34I started smelling myself. I thought it was grown. And I wanted to go get a new Tahoe. But then I went, I saw them. Then they had the new Escalades that didn't look like a Tahoe with all the moldings. It was a real Escalade. And I was like, I want the escalator. It's like, you don't need to escalate, you can tell me what I need.

13:54And so of course what I do, I start crying. Tell me, because if my daddy tells me no— I am 49 years old, I know I look good. Yes, I'm 49. Um, if he tells me no, it tears my whole soul up still as a grown woman. So him telling me no, you don't need it, you say you can get it. And I guess he would probably try to looking at me crying and stuff.

14:16Like, get it, go ahead. Does it tear you up? That's like a kid. Because it's true? 'Cause my daddy told me no. I'm my daddy's girl. You tell me no? Why not? I'm a little spoiled. People say that I'm spoiled and not all at the same time because he makes me work and he'll teach me a lesson in his way. So him telling me no, and then I bought an Escalade and I had the house and then I had a kid and I just could not.

14:43Afford it. But I do remember when you say— he's like, no, you'll get another house and it'll be 3 times better than what you have now. And it is. You know what, that house almost paid for. I am not— that was like, I will never go through that again. But now there's some hard lessons, but all those lessons that Dad taught in his way have always been— they still apply today.

15:06Like, I know one thing that you ask me, and you can ask Dad, when will you have enough money to do what you want to do? Yeah, I see a lot of people crash and burn. Like, business is good for a little bit, so they go buy this nice stuff, and then I, I have the— unfortunately, that's a lot of people that I'm in the position to help now, is help them get back to that spot.

15:26But I don't know when I will be like, when do I know it's appropriate to treat myself a little bit? Like, at what point in your business do you allow to spend a little bit of money? Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna tell you like I told her. She wanted a pocketbook and I think the pocketbook was a lot of money. Don't make no sense to me.

15:50It costs more than you have to put in it. And, and I said, I told her she didn't, she couldn't afford it. And she said she had the money. So I asked her, I said, "If something happened to one of your kids and you couldn't work and you couldn't pay me, I will put you out. You know, your business would be over."

16:15I said, "If you got enough money to pay me for a year, pay your other bills, then you can go buy something stupid." You know, she didn't buy the pocketbook then, but I'm pretty sure now she got a lot of them. Got a lot of stupid pocketbooks. Yeah, a lot of them. It's crazy. No, it's not a whole lot. But yeah, I do.

16:35When people like, oh, you got this and you got this, like, yeah, but I ate like a bologna sandwich at lunch the other day. I choose what I want to spend my money on. It's the choose your heart. It's choose your heart. Yeah. And make sure you have the money in the bank account. Make sure you have 6 months living expenses at minimum.

16:53And then also not just for your personal. If something happens to the shop, how are you going to take care of your team? Yeah. How I'm going to pay him rent. Like, why do you pay your dad rent? Because that's not my shop. Like, people are spoiled. Yeah. And they really think— I think people think— people think I'm spoiled. That is hilarious.

17:09They just don't know him. He is not giving me nothing, but he gives me everything that I deserve and that I've earned. But just me getting something on a platter, that ain't happening. And so when I do go buy something crazy that I feel like I've earned and that I can afford, I do take my dad with me just so he can see me like, hey dad, let's go buy, let's go buy a Mercedes.

17:32Yeah. I mean, you need to, employees, everybody need to get what they want when they work. Make sure you, you can pay for it. 'Cause whatever she go get, I ain't gotta pay for it. But you know, make sure she, you can pay for it. And like you said, when do you know that you can go get something like that, right? When you know you can pay for it without worrying about everything else.

18:03Because you got— if you got $100 in your pocket, 9 times out of 10, it ain't yours, right? You know, right? You got a light bill, gas, insurance. You might get $7, $8 out of that $100, you know. But when you can get up there, you can get $50 out of that $100. You probably can go buy you something, you know, but, um, just buy something because you got $100 in your pocket, you ain't got no money, right?

18:29Yeah, that ain't no money. That— I think people see the money in the bank and they think it's theirs. It's not yours because everybody gets paid first when you're the boss. I know Profit First says pay yourself first, and I encourage you that you need to cut yourself a check. You have to pay yourself first. But if you cannot do that, then you're not doing something right in your business.

18:48Or you just, you need to do some more right stuff. You're not doing enough. Like when people say, um, coaches tell people to work on your business and not in it. No, big dog, you need to do both. Yeah, I think that, that is a— that's not one of those things you just like take it for at face value. I think a lot of people take it for at face value and they think they can clock out at 5, 5:30, right?

19:10But people tell me that, you know, like, oh, clock out, go home, have a work-life balance. I have a wonderful work-life balance now. 9 years later. Exactly. Because me and those kids were at that shop Saturday and Sunday doing cracks and crevices, doing this and doing that. I'll leave here and go to the shop for the rest of the day. Right. Once I leave here on this Sunday, I'm going to leave here.

19:28I'm going to go to the shop because I know I'm going to Vision next week. It's almost more peaceful too, like when the workload, when the employees are gone and the customers are gone to just like actually get work done. Yeah. And I don't remember, like Dad would take, we take vacation or go somewhere. He'd sleep the whole time. That joke was tired.

19:47Worked 12, 14 hours a day average. It wasn't no getting off at 5:30, 6 o'clock, right? I mean, the phone stopped ringing and the doors were closed at 5:30, but there's still work to be done in the dip. That's when you're in the dip and you got to keep working. And you can't take what coaches say in certain things to face value if it does not apply to you, because you will make anything apply to you to make yourself feel comfortable.

20:12Take what works for you and leave the rest. Mm-hmm. Take what works for you and leave the rest and sit there and lie to yourself. And then numbers don't lie, people do. You sitting there lying to yourself about your checking account, your credit score, things like that. Or you're watching somebody on social media and you think, well, if they can do that, why can't I?

20:29But you don't know what they did. Like one thing I like to say, Aunt Shirley, my dad's sister, it used to make me crazy for her. What you eat does not make me fat. Worry about yourself. And that comes to other shops calling, calling around and, hey bro, what's your labor rate? What are you charging for this? What are you charging? Right.

20:48What they are charging for what they're doing has nothing to do with you, right? You have to charge according to your mortgage, your bills, your employees, your benefits. That's the frustration I have with like the benchmark metrics. Like, okay, everybody has to be at this number, but that shop's overhead is different than that shop's overhead. Well, no, your benchmarks are going to be your benchmarks because you're going to have to price yourself to make sure you're profitable, right?

21:09But if your labor rate needs to $180, and their labor rate, because they don't have a mortgage, can be $120, and they live in an 800-foot-square-foot apartment, and they're meeting their needs. But I know what my needs are. My needs are hundreds of thousands of dollars of needs. Yeah. So again, what I consume does not affect your paycheck, right? So I know what my dreams are, and I know what I like to drive, and I know when I like to go on vacation.

21:36So I have to work for that. And I have to make sure my metrics are in line to make sure that I'm paying my employees a premium and I'm paying 60% health insurance. Some shops don't offer health insurance. Wow. Exactly. I pay 60% because they're worth it to me. Now, I couldn't do that. I couldn't do that 5, 6, 7 years ago.

21:56If you're my employee, ignore that. If you're my employee, well, you can have 2 jobs. You be Jamaican. I have 2 jobs, man. So, but Dad, tell me about this. You're retired now. What do you be doing all day? Working on a dream house. If I want to work that day. Most of the time doing something around this house. So we are sitting in your dream house and you have had the plans for this house.

22:25You had the plans on the house in the 102 Cobb Street location. Yeah. And I think it was in the '90s because I was in college. '96. '96 is when you had the blueprint hanging on my wall. Hanging on your wall. 30 years. Wow. So when you ask somebody, how long does it take to get to where you're going? It depends. But I know that you did not want to be in a lot of debt when you did that.

22:50You did it your way, right? He's gonna do everything his way. He's gonna take a brand new car fresh off the assembly line and remodel it so it'll look like a Browns car. So he wants everything his way, and then you did it at your time, at your pace. Yep. Ran your own race. I knew I wanted to build this house, but the shop came first, right?

23:11And I wasn't going to try to build this house until the shop was paid for, you know. Shop came first. And so it's a lot of— it's a lot of economic stability that But that comes from, in my opinion, that comes from you not having a silver spoon or whatever. I don't even know what to call it. Had a plastic spoon. You had a plastic spoon.

23:36A party spoon. You had a party spoon. And a red Solo cup. Was it a Solo or was it a, one of the like Dollar Tree Bill— whatever McDonald's had. Crinkly cups. The little wax paper cups. Yeah. Whatever McDonald's had. You wash them and then they just just crinkle up. You had to get another McDonald's cup. You had to get another one.

24:01But, well, you virtually— I mean, I know it's not debt-free, but you're virtually debt-free because, I mean, people think you— people that know my dad think that he spends a lot of money, just like when people think they know me, they think I spend a lot of money. But we were at a meeting and one of the, the guys that's on the board, he was like, I don't know your dad personally, but if you lived in Chapel Hill or Carrboro you knew who Mr.

24:24Brown was by what he was driving because he was working at the time. He was working at Chapel Hill Tire, I believe. And then he also worked with Mike Allen's dad. I can't think of Mike's name, but Auto Protocol. I think it was Auto Protocol. He worked with Mike Allen's dad? So no, no. So they all came up at the same time, you know?

24:44Wow. Yeah. This is crazy how small the world is. But— Wow, that's cool. But no. Dad is very frugal. You see what he driving out there? My favorite car, that Ford Maverick. I hate that car. I hate that car. But you get to spend the money on your dream house now because you didn't spend a lot of money on dumb stuff. No dumb stuff.

25:04No dumb stuff. Fun stuff, but no dumb stuff. If I spend my money, I want to be able to see it next month. But I spend it on— that's a good point. I didn't want to pee it out. I put it up in smoke. What, Tanika? You tell me. I didn't say it nice like this. She said, don't look at food but nothing but a potential turd.

25:25Yeah, you want to eat your money and poop it out if you want to. Like, think about the money that you're spending in the drive-through at a fancy restaurant and whatever. Yeah. Like, what are you really getting out of it other than the turd? It's ridiculous. Yeah. And I know that. I'm so sorry that I just said that, but it's real. No, it is.

25:41Really, people think about, you know, every time you go through the Chick-fil-A line, I'm eating Bojangles, and I love me some bojongles. But you know what, tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, I'm getting ready to go to Kansas. Bohonglas. I don't have no bohonglas money right now because I got money that I want to spend though, because when I go to the mall in Kansas, I might see something that I want to buy.

26:01So you have to choose your heart, you have to choose what you're going to spend your money on and choose it wisely. I don't know, I never learned— so I never learned anything like that growing up from anybody, so I don't know where I picked it up, but I think it was similar to what you said. I want to see where my money went the next month.

26:14Um, I would have friends that I would look at like their budget and stuff and their income, and they'd bring all this money in and then have nothing left. I'm like, so what are you spending it on? And it's out at the bar, out at this restaurant. Um, it'd be really easy for me, as much as we've been traveling lately, to have no money.

26:30But like, even for me, I go to the gas station, I get the $3 protein drink because it's gonna give me everything that I need to get through till my next meal for $3 instead of $15 at a drive-through. And then I'm just gonna Gain more weight. Well, here's the thing. See, when you just said the $3 protein shake at the convenience store, I'm like, that shake ain't nothing but $1.56.

26:52Yeah, right. I know. So those are the decisions. I know. Like, I was thinking about that today. I'm like, okay, so I've been buying like 2 a day. That's $6. I could like, after 4 days, I could buy the whole canister, put them in Ziploc bags. But that's how you keep your money and then it grows into something that you actually— Right.

27:10Need, right? Keep buying the fast food, never have the cars, the house, whatever. Yeah, you gotta sacrifice somewhere. Yeah. You know, a lot of people got, I guess, bad habits. Um, I consider them bad habits— smoking, the drinking, the drugs and all, right? Then at the end of the week, they ain't got nothing else, right? A lot of them still stay home with Mom.

27:35You know, uh, can't afford it. You broke on Friday or Saturday, gotta go back to work Monday, living week to week. That's not living, right? That's not living. That's not living. And then you get mad at the person that's actually living, and instead of having a conversation, it's like, oh, how'd you do that? Like, I like having those conversations, like, oh, how'd you do that?

27:58Like, don't, don't hate, appreciate. It's like the difference. Learn from it. Must be nice, and I want to work for that. Yeah, that is— oh, must be nice. It is. I'm very tired, but it is. No, it's like, what do I— what do I need to do to get to this point? Those are the questions that younger shop owners need to ask the shop owners that's been doing it for a while.

28:18And that's one reason why I adore Dutch. Like, Dutch— people, oh, he's old grumpy man. Yeah, but look where he came from and look what he has, and look at all the knowledge in between. Like, I think young people, I was lucky 'cause I didn't have any choice but listen to my grandma and my dad. If I didn't, I would be sitting in a whole different seat.

28:39I remember I got mad at dad, and I got mad at dad a whole lot. And I went to tell some family members about my daddy 'cause he got on my nerves and he is evil and he is mean. And, "Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah." And I remember that it got back to him. It got back to you, Daddy. And he said, the next time you talk about me to somebody, you make sure they got more than me.

29:03And I was like, oh. Damn. See, those are the things that, like, you know, people want to have conversations with their kids. Well, let me tell you, Jimmy. Gentle parenting. Gentle parenting. I ain't had none of that gentle parenting. He was mean. But the point, I remember it. And I don't know, that had to be 20-something years ago. But I remember that statement, and it stuck with me.

29:23Any situation that I've been in, any problem that we've had, any heads that we've butted, no matter how much my feelings were hurt or I was sad or the conversation didn't go my way, I remember every last one of them, 'cause I don't remember him being wrong. Right. It didn't feel good, but what about feelings? They don't fix cars or problems. They don't fix cars or nothing.

29:47Yeah, the feelings don't mean too much nothing about nothing. And that sounds so harsh to say. Feelings do matter. I know my dad loves me. I know my dad's gonna protect me. But he's not gonna love me too much that he was like, "Okay, baby, it's fine. Go ahead and touch the hot stove." Like, you have to tell your kids no. You have to tell yourself no.

30:07You have to tell your staff no. Well, I think those people, like, when you grow up like that, then you end up in the world with nothing's fair. Everyone's out to get me. Why can't I have it? Like, why did I get a trophy? Because you didn't win, right? A participation trophy. You didn't win, Johnny, right? But I tried. I know you tried.

30:25That's nice. Try harder. Yeah, well, that's all Johnny can do. That's fine, Johnny. But it means if Johnny gets a participation trophy in middle school, in high school, in elementary school, he enters the real world and then everybody, oh, my feelings are hurt. Johnny, nobody care about your feelings but your mom, maybe your daddy. Okay, but then he can't take a job, he can't take constructive criticism.

30:53He thinks he's supposed to come into the job making $40,000, $50,000 a year. Dude, you are at McDonald's. Why do you think you deserve it? That's what my mama told me, I was special. You're special though. Oh, you're special. Uh, little short man. We can't say that, we're gonna get canceled. Braxton, fix that. We're gonna get canceled. But no, I mean, um, and, and Dad was never like that with me.

31:19Now, I— when I say stuff like that, it seems like he was never really gentle, but he was. I tell people I never worked for my dad. I was gonna bring that up. Talk about that. I never worked for my dad. I worked for William Brown. I didn't. How did you separate the two? If you got to I mean, if she's gonna get where she's at today, I couldn't baby her.

31:44But she couldn't have taken it. She had to be strong. And I had to let her see the real world. And business is the real world. It's not like when I left the shop, I said, I'm gone. And I left. He left. People be like, oh, your dad still must help you. No, he don't. He left. So, Daddy, what made you— the summer I turned 16, the summer you let me run the shop by myself.

32:12Lord. And you have to tell that story because I'm pretty sure some people don't think that I'm telling the truth when I say no, he left when I ran the shop this summer by myself. It wasn't the whole summer, but I needed a break and I knew she could do it. And if she couldn't When I got back, I could have fixed it, but I needed to let her do it without me helping, without me holding her hand.

32:40She did, and she's still doing it. I think a lot of parents won't let their kids into the business because they are micromanaging the children. Like, they won't let them just push them, push them in the lake, let them figure it out. Like I said, throw them in the water and let them swim. If they drown, go to bed and make another one.

33:01I'm sorry. Y'all heard it here first. There he is. That's my daddy. So you think I'm crazy. But no, I mean, push them in the deep end. But I know if my dad pushes me in the deep end, I'm going to sit there and I'm like, OK, I got it. And then I'm like, and I'm throwing doggy paddle. He going to be like, OK.

33:20All right. Okay. She ain't gonna make it. She— okay. Life jacket. You have to let them grow. And it's hard because I know Daddy thinks that I coddle the mess out of my kids. I do. But it's hard not to do that. I don't— I know he thinks— he thinks I do, but I know compared to other parents, I don't. And I know, like, when I left Jordan in Florida, I told everybody on the Lipstick Report, yeah, I'm crying because that's my baby.

33:46Right. And but he's not. He's a man. He's a man. He stinks. He smells like a man. But I know that between me and my dad and his bonus Gigi, his Gigi, his favorite thing in the whole world is Grandma. He's fine. And God's got him. And he can't do nothing but run into a brick wall. And if he keep running into the same brick wall, then we probably— that's a him problem.

34:08Yeah. But you run into the brick wall and be like, oh, OK, don't do that again. But so I like to think that I tell people that it was like Mr. Miyagi. Like I had been at the shop all my life and you had been teaching me the whole time how to run the shop, even though I wasn't hands-on doing it by myself.

34:26It's like wax on, wax off. But when it came time to start fighting, I was kicking people butts. Right. But yeah. Yeah. I've never understood that. Like people, I'm not ready for the promotion. I'm not ready. Like to become a manager. When we ever— like, why weren't you watching the whole time? Like, watch what the other people are doing so you can grow into that.

34:47I don't— right, take something off my plate, right? Because if you are at a job or you're at a shop and if you're not in upper management, you're not the owner, you're listening to this, you're the service advisor, you're the parts person or whatever, you need to work that job as if— if I don't show up, do they miss me? And if they don't miss you if you don't show up, you're not doing a good job.

35:11Does your phone ring when you walk away too? Yeah. If they don't miss you, nobody skips a beat if you're not showing up. You, you call out with the flu for the week and the shop is like smooth, and you come back Monday, they'd be like, hey, what's up, dog? You ain't doing your job good. But if you come back Monday like, please don't ever do that again, like, we needed you, then you You're irreplaceable.

35:33Yeah. You're doing your job. So if you're not getting that reaction out of the people, if you have to take a day off or whatever, you need to step your game up. Right. Like, if you just want to do enough just to get by, just do it somewhere else and don't blame everybody else for it. But you need to make yourself— There's a good balance in between the two.

35:49Good balance. Because you do that well. Like, you could step away for a week and go— Now I can. Yeah. And they can handle it, but they definitely want your guidance when you're back. You know what, at this stage in the shop, they'd rather me be gone. Really? Not to be bad, because I have— I like to think that I've built my team that at this point they won't miss Tanika to be relaxing somewhere.

36:10That's sweet. They— I, I see it because 3 o'clock will come and everybody up front like, see, you're going— but that's because you poured into them. Like, that's when they talked— Josh talked about it yesterday, um, about showing the numbers to the team. Yeah, showing them what does it cost to operate this business. What are the benchmarks? This is how we like reach the goals together.

36:31And when we reach these goals, you get to make more money. So like it has them involved. Mm-hmm. And I think that's, that's a big part of it. They need to understand it takes every single person in here to get to that. Right. So like learn all aspects of it and owners should teach people more than just their job. I know your job is this, but let me show you how I do this in case one day I'm not here.

36:55And the wonderful thing about it is like, I remember when Dad used to still wear the uniform, and then he went from a uniform to a suit. Oh, and he stopped getting dressed up for work. And I thought that was awesome. Daddy come to work, he was cleaning the mug. He wasn't standing in cars no more, but he could if he had to.

37:16And I know if push came to shove, you'd put a uniform back on. Yeah. But you had trained the whole posse that you didn't have to do that. Now, one thing that I love is what Brett said yesterday, that was Brett, and people say it all the time, is when you have grown an employee to the point that they have outgrown the shop.

37:33I remember when you fired Curly. Yes. Can you tell people who Curly is and why you fired him, that story? Hmm. When I met Curly, Curly knew nothing about mechanics. You know, I don't think he knew what a pair of pliers was. But now Curly Guy owns a multi-million dollar shop himself. And I fired Curly because I wasn't big enough and I was holding him back.

38:07And I fired him, so I said, you can go out there and you can grow. And He did, he's doing good, real good. Still doing real good. And I talk to him every week. That's been 30 years ago. Yes. You know, 30 years ago. And it's just like, I taught him all I could teach him. So he went to Rick Hendrick and the rest is history.

38:35He just kept going. He just kept going. I like how you said that, that you taught him all that you could teach him, then you put him in the world. And what, you know, the thing is, don't tell— don't miss out on the part that when he built that shop, what did he do? Gave me a key. Wow. Right. So that is the type of legacy.

38:54Now, if you want to be an evil shop owner and have 18 shops and not have a relationship with your employees, that's fine. You can do that. But as far as me and my village, that's what I want. I tell people, like, I know if my dad has had 100 employees and God forbid something happens, 98 of them going to show up for him.

39:15You can't help and save everybody. Everybody's not going to become a star employee. Everybody's not supposed to be on the bus. That's what we talked about yesterday. But for the people that you can, that is such a good feeling. And that's the feeling that I get now. Like 6, 7 years ago, I was excited about making my numbers. I was excited about making that, oh, I did another 20%.

39:34I was excited about that. I was just, "Oh, Dad, this is what I did. This is what I did." But now I'm excited about, "This is Ash and this is my little automotive niecey," and all the people that I get to talk to about that. I get excited about like on the way over here, Stuart just getting back from Atlanta. I sent him to Atlanta for training.

39:50He was like, "Thank you for investing in me. I've met so many friends. We getting ready to do this, Miss Taneka." He's like, "We getting ready to do this." And that's the kind of building I want to have. But everybody's not supposed to be there. Everybody's not supposed to be on your team. And you know the same people that you get to a million dollars with is not the same people that's going to get you to $2 million.

40:10And that's hard to believe that you have to leave certain people behind. And you don't really have to leave them. Like, for example, Amber had to go because she had other things to do. She got two babies she need to take care of. She hasn't left me though. But when it's time for somebody to go and you need to understand when it's to let them go.

40:25For example, Leo, the young man that lived out here. I meant to say his name out loud. But I did all that I could for him, and it just worked out. Brown's Automotive is not the space for you. And then when I— part of what helped him— hopefully he'll grow from there. Like, even if it— even if you can't see it today, yeah, later down the line you should look back and realize that had to happen so I could grow.

40:47Exactly. And become this person. And that's Eric. You remember I fired Eric? So Eric is a body man that had worked for Dad. We've known Eric 30 years too. 35 years. 35 years. And he still works next door. But when we were still running the Collision Center, Eric did something and he ticked me off, and I, I fired him. And that is like— I can't believe you fired Eric, the highest producing body man I've ever met next to Curly.

41:11He is amazing. Daddy taught him all that he knew, but he got arrogant. He got real arrogant. And another thing that you heard me say, one monkey do not stop no show. But when it came for me to get rid of my own crazy monkey, you remember that? So Dad retired and the shop was mine. And, uh, um, my monkey that I thought was the bee's knees, was my right-hand man, this, that, whatever, was opening the shop on the weekend.

41:38I didn't have my pulse on my business. I wasn't going to the shop on the weekend, so he was running the whole business on the weekend behind my back. And I talked to him about it, like, you know, we can't do that, blah blah this and blah blah that. And he said, uh, The next week he says, I have to go to court for a ticket.

41:52Like, you get a ticket, you don't go to court the next week. Go to court months later. So I'm thinking, but he quit. He quit. And he quit and he left me and Albert high and dry. Albert was just a lube tech at the time. He has been with me for a couple of months. And I remember calling Daddy. Can you tell the rest of that story, Dad?

42:08Why not? I'mma let you tell it. I can't know it, Daddy. You got to tell the story. And I want you to say all the words. No, I can't say all the words. You can, Daddy. I can't say the words. Somebody tell me the story. I said that. Well, I call me— let's do the phone call. Daddy, Daddy. Okay, I'm crying, y'all.

42:28I'm crying. Daddy, I can't believe Jesus quit. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Yeah, yeah, I don't have a technician. It's just me and Albert, man. And then what you say, Dad? That ain't what you said, Daddy. That's what I remember. That ain't what you said, Daddy. If you die today and get hit by a bus, what would you do? And that's exactly what he said.

42:50Well, I'm crying. But then again, what did I tell you earlier? I've never worked for my dad. That was William Brown talking. William Brown said, if the MF got hit by a bus, what would you do? Dang. I guess I got to hire somebody else. And that's another thing we do in the industry. We let people stay with us too long because they really think they hold all the balls.

43:11No, them are mine. And I'm going to juggle them myself. And they might fall, but I'm going to juggle them myself. And they will hold you hostage in your own business. And that's basically what he was doing. But like Dad said, if he got hit by a bus, then what was you gonna do? Yeah, well, dang, I mean, I guess I really need to consider that.

43:27And I just had to do what I had to do. Now, like I tell people, later on he called me after I got to work and make sure I was okay. But still, but he needed to go. He needed to go, you know. That was God's way of making him go. Yeah. And then I found— and that, that mean Albert had to step up.

43:46And he did, and he still is. And that left an opportunity for me to see, oh, I can grow, I can hire other people. So I had to learn the hiring process, and I've sucked at that a lot, but I've had some good people as well. So I've had some frogs come through, but right now I feel like I got an A-team.

44:02So yeah. Yeah, I love your team. Yeah, I love my team too. So Yum Tix, how do you think, like, you hired a lot of people there and you trained most of everybody. Like, did you ever have a body person come in that was already skilled? Yes, I had one man come in. He was an older guy. He didn't make it a day.

44:26He knew everything, huh? He knew, he knew too much. And I was watching him, and I told him that he couldn't do what he was doing there. And he told me, I've been doing this for 20 years, I know what I'm doing. And he cursed me. He had some curse words in there. I don't know why he won't say the curse words.

44:49I don't curse. You hear that? And, um, I said, you've been doing it 20 minutes too long here. You need to get your toolbox and leave. I know that's right. I said, 'Cause up here I'm always right because I'm right. Are wrong, and then I got to pay for it. So that means I'm right. And if you can show me a better way, I'll look at it.

45:15But in the end, I'm still right. Because ultimately you are responsible for everything that comes out that door. I gotta pay for everything, right or wrong. That's what they said, right? Uh, delegate, delegate. Well, how did they explain that? Delegate and give responsibility to other people knowing that you are accountable for everything. You're accountable for everything. I can delegate, but at the end of the day accountable, but you are responsible.

45:39Exactly, because you have to think about in the court of law. I can't tell the judge, oh, my employee did that. No, that's, that's your name. Your name is on this, uh, federal EIN. Yeah, that's your check account. You are responsible. Job description. Yeah, that is your job. That's your responsibility. Yeah. So yeah, blame the blame game, because at the end of the day, I'm responsible.

45:56So it's not necessarily saying it's my way or the highway, but it's my way or the highway. Now, like you said, I could take your input And I told y'all, know how I talk about the macaroni and cheese? Like, my Aunt Lynn started making macaroni and cheese and it was good, but I still got the basis of the macaroni and cheese. And if you want to say, hey, won't you put a little of this in there, Mr.

46:17Brown, or Miss Tanika, let's try this. I'm like, okay, let's try it. Yeah. And if I don't like it, I'm not gonna put the ingredient back in there. But if I like it, I'm like, all right, big dog, I appreciate you. Yeah, yeah. But, um, yeah, and that's a— that's part of ownership, that's part of leadership. I know it sounds like a joke, but that is leadership.

46:33Like, you cannot— even though the guy was experienced, but you can't have him come in and take over your whole shop. No, because at the end of the day, you're responsible. But everybody else, I feel like you've trained— trained too many people. A lot of people. That is a teacher, Mr. Miyagi. A lot of people. Like Martin. Martin is amazing. Martin worked at the shop for 2 years, maybe 3 years.

47:00And I didn't pay him a dime. He was just hungry because I told him I wasn't training anybody else. And he told me, I'll work for you for free. People don't do that anymore. I don't understand that. Because you don't get paid to go to school, you know, right? You pay to go to school, but you don't get paid to go. He said, I want to learn how to do that.

47:23And that's been 20 years ago. And he's still next door working for the other, and he's, he's good. He's good. He's a top tech over there. See, that's the drive, like, I want to see in people. But it's so hard, like, especially my generation, the generation below me. Nobody ever wants to do that. It's not true because you're doing it. You just can't see it.

47:44Y'all are aggravating. You aggravating. That's fair. I know I aggravate you all the time. It's a good aggravation because I don't know why. I don't know why. It's not for me to understand, but it brings me much more joy for you to give me a call or anybody that hits me and say, hey, Miss Tanika, this whatever. I love being your automotive auntie.

48:06Dudes do that. The guys that detect autos, look, I know this ain't my business, but won't you try that? Okay, yeah, won't you do this? Won't you do that? Consider this. I like being the sounding board, and I like to see you guys develop and grow. And there's much more coming to you and everybody in your age group. You guys 40 belows, 30 belows, but We owners, old schools, we need to be patient.

48:34We need to chill. Like, there's some lessons that need to be learned. You have to learn hard because I know I talk to you harsh, but I also have to understand that, okay, if you're opening up to me, I need to be available to you. Like, shop owners are quick to say, ah, this stupid hair, the stupid music, and they're always on the phone and this, that, whatever.

48:53They haven't had what you had. Like, think about how many shop owners sitting in there talking about Benji yesterday. If he would not have poured into those people at that table, where would they be? They literally told him, dude, I don't know where I would be without you. He was a leader, not just a boss. It's a difference, right? So he leads them and they respect him.

49:16They all spoke up on his behalf yesterday. Why he wasn't crying, I don't know. But I think I heard him crying last night when we went to sleep. I think I heard him sobbing. Yeah, but all of his whole team, when he does something— all of that made me emotional. It was amazing. But Benji had to come from a far place to get there, to be able to lead them.

49:36Dad came from a far place. 18, $150. Statistically, I know Statistically, I know according to the government, I shouldn't know who my daddy is. And you should be broke selling drugs somewhere or something like that. Mm-hmm. I missed my calling. You missed your calling. But so you have a story and everybody has a story and everybody doesn't have a straight line to their destination, right?

50:07It's going to be. But if you kept your story to yourself, Or if I kept my knowledge to myself and my William Brownisms and my Kittyisms and I didn't fuss at you, I would be doing a disservice to myself, my father, my grandma, my legacy, and my God. So stop trying to just be in a box. It's a ripple effect and it's more rewarding.

50:29It is so much more rewarding to get that text from you, get that text from Katie, get that text from anybody. And this connection and the networking and get the text from my employees, Miss Tanika, this, that, whatever. I don't have a figure. I can't buy no cars with it, but it feel good. I don't know if I'll ever have it figured out, but you tell me a lot of things and it's that ripple because then I'm talking to somebody and you say the same thing and I say the same thing because I'm like, oh, Miss Tanika taught me that.

50:56But anybody, like, that's what about, like, anybody can help anybody. And that you don't have to— I do not coddle you. You don't have to coddle them, and you don't have to sit there, all these kids and their emotions. And you don't need— she knows that I love her, but I am going to fuss her slim out. But I need that, and that's what I appreciate the most about you.

51:16That's why the other day I told you, they went around the room, think about a mentor in your life that instilled in you what the core values you have now is. And I listen to every single person talk about my dad, my grandpa, my this, my that. And I was like, I don't have anybody that actually gave me the good values until now.

51:36So mine were like reverse engineered where I was like, I didn't like that, I didn't like that, I didn't like that. This is how I would have rather had been led, so that's how I'm gonna try to lead. Until you came in the picture and like, you've never tried to put bubble wrap around my feelings. Okay, not about your feelings. But I don't care about— like, I, I'm a very emotional person.

51:57I know. And I— but I don't— my feelings don't need to be what drives— because I'll tell you, nothing to hurt your feelings, right? But I don't— like, I'm not worried about you hurting my feelings because I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to wake you up. I would be more worried if you said the softer version, or like, I don't want to hurt your feelings, so let me put it this way.

52:14If you hurt my feelings, it's because I need to fix something. Yeah, because he hurt my feelings all the time. I ain't know I never hurt your feelings. Daddy, we don't tell stories. No, but I mean, all of it is necessary. Yeah, all of it's necessary. Had you not raised her that way, you wouldn't be out here pouring into all of us, right?

52:34So when people don't understand the hard and they quit in the dip, like Josh says, and they don't want to do the work and they don't want the constructive criticism— he wasn't hard, it was constructive criticism. He just never got to listen to Oprah Winfrey. So he didn't know the way to say it. Like, my grandma's the same way. Like, his mama get on his nerves, but she be right.

52:56My grandma just— I think about the things my grandma would say, like, if you can't buy it twice, then don't buy it at all. Like, and then when I bought the Escalade, the black one, she said, well, I did. Yes, I can buy it twice. Do you want one? Same thing about borrowing money. If you let somebody borrow some money, Daddy, Just expect not to get it back.

53:15Not to get it back. You just had these— those are the things, like, those are the things that Grandma would say, and it's like, okay, that makes sense. But that— well, why you gotta say it like that? Why couldn't you say it sweet? Because they ain't got time for that. They ain't have time for sugar coating because then we already diabetic. We don't need to sugarcoat with nothing.

53:30The sugar just is more calories and we don't need that. Well, I mean, I understand some people really need to hear it softly in the beginning, but once you find somebody that you really respect just listen to him. Like, I really respect Dutch, and I don't think he knows how much. I think the first time I listened to him, I was like, is that my grandma?

53:48But he's white and he has no hair, but I'm sure that's my grandma. And I was like, he sounds just like my grandma. And I was like, but then I see people in the audience like this, you can't say that. Yes, you can. So you do need a healthy balance of it because you kids are coddled a whole lot. And then like, facts over feelings.

54:10Facts and feelings don't fix no cars. No is a whole word, a whole sentence. Yeah. Yeah. Love you, bye, next. It's hard. You have to, you have to toughen up a little bit. Yeah. I think I'm like trying to find that middle ground because I'll upset somebody because I'm just being honest. And then I'm like, oh great, okay. Let me say this the right way.

54:31And then you throw yourself on the whole— but you're worried about other people's feelings too much. Right now in your journey, in my opinion. Opinion. I want you to use that person for yourself. Back to you. But anyway, so that is my awesome dad. Wait, what else you got to say to the people, Daddy? Like I said, don't give up. Don't quit.

54:55Can't quit in the dip. Can't quit. You know when it's time to quit. And are you quitting or are you just passing the baton? Recalibration. Passing. Recalibrate. Yeah, recalibrate. I'm gonna say pass a lot of batons. Yeah, pass a lot of batons. If you had to do it all over again. If I had to do it all over again, I would get more office education.

55:25In the, in the office. Everything I learned in the office was hands-on, you know, not school. That what I, that what I would do different. Yep, the coaching and the business, because like, you know, everybody knows, I think coaching is way important. I, I, I don't, I don't even know if we had the coaching stuff like y'all got now, you know. We didn't even have a cell phone, you know, fax machine.

55:53We had a calculator, a book, and a tablet. You know, we didn't have the communications that y'all got now. The internet, artificial intelligence, all that stuff. We got so many more opportunities. Yeah. Yeah. You think you can learn all that stuff? You want to come back to work? Hell no. I know I couldn't deal with the people now. People are crazy. Yeah, because they say the customer's always right.

56:24Nope, not in my world. Not in my world. Look, my friends know that. No, they're not right. Right is always right. You know, I can help you understand it, but just because you feel— just because you feel that way, that's not how that happens there, kid. Nope. Well, Daddy, this was fun. Oh, by the way, I just want everybody out there in the internet world to know I said, Dad, we're going to do a podcast.

56:46He said, what is that? What's the podcast? What's the podcast? It's like, oh my God, really? Yeah. All right, well, this has been Tanika and Ash and Mr. Brown, the famous Mr. Brown. You gonna do it again? I'll do it again. You'll do it again? Let's go. Give me some kind of warning that I can think about some things. No, we want to do it right off the rip, no warning.

57:07All right, guys, thank you. Make sure that we follow, like, and what else? Share it to the world. Share it to the world. We'll see you next time. 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.

57:36You 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.