Build Your Shop, but Don’t Forget to Build a Life | Greg Buckley - Ep 14

0:00Like, I don't want to be 50, 55, 60 saying, "I wish I would've done this." I'm gonna say, "I did that and it was fun," or, "I did that and I will not do that again." And people say, "Why were you in Montana? Why were you not in Montana?" There's so much to see in this country. There's so much to do in life.

0:17You can't wait till you're 65, 70— No. —to start living. You gotta live every day. Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Taneka Haynes. We all know as shop owners, sometimes you gotta slow down. In order to speed up. And that's what this podcast is all about. It's time to downshift. What's going on, Uncle Buck? Nothing, man. Nothing. It's making my day right here.

0:45This is it. This is it. This is it. Yeah. Being here with you on your show. Down, downshift. We can talk soup and downshift all at the same time. We make a batch, you know? So, so I've been tectonic. Tectonic is being— it's wild. He spent some money on this thing. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's 7 figures. That's me too.

1:09Yeah, that's not what you can— we can't be nosy like that, but yeah, yeah. I mean, from what— here's the, here's the, here's the key: whenever you go to one of these events and you don't have to pay for any booze at all, right? You didn't have to pay for one single meal. Not one meal. It was first class food. Somebody complained about the lemonade.

1:32Seriously, somebody complained about lemonade. Yeah, people, they must be part of that Change Industry podcast. Probably those dumb suckers, duck pluckers. Um, but no, this is, this is good. Oh yeah, this is good. Um, well, the classes could have been longer. I think that probably needs to be adjusted. Yeah, I think it'll happen next year because they're moving down to the convention center.

1:57Yeah, which is going to be pretty good. But, um, speakers were great. Oh, the panel that Mike did, oh, was that crazy? That was a good panel. I took a Facebook Live. I know you did, and I recorded. I did. It was on Soup Live too. It was on Soup Live too. Good. That was good. He had some good questions, and he did still was himself.

2:14Yeah, ruffle a little feather. I would have given about another 10 minutes and we'd be fist fighting. Yeah, I told him, I text him when, um, he got off stage. I said, you know what, if Cecil was a good 20, 30 years younger, he would beat you up backstage. He would have. Yeah, he would have got up and really made a scene.

2:29Yep. You'll see. Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. It would have been Jerry Springer Show up in there because Mike— and he knows how to push people's buttons. That's why I love him so much. I know. Yeah, he's a good kid. But you know what, if Mike started acting normal and being very professional, we'd think something was wrong with him. Yeah, it would. If he came and had a really good professional podcast and was polished We'd be like, what's the matter with Mike?

2:53Somebody check on him. So it is what it is. That's right. What have you been doing? Really just hanging around, just doing, building the shops, getting them together. Building what shops? What do you mean? Well, I mean just getting them, getting the enterprise together. That's our goal for this year is really get to hone the enterprise, make sure we're all good, get the processes down.

3:16And the future might open up for, another one. Okay. We're kind of counting on— How hands-on are you with that? I thought you were leaving it to the son-in-law. I am. I'm not really— I'll tell you, I'm not really that hands-on. I, uh, I really don't go in as much as what I used to, um, but I think that that might change a little bit.

3:35You know, I, I had a, had a spell, you know, after my procedures, you know, with the, with the heart and all that Woke you up. You look great, by the way. Well, thank you. You know, what happened was, you know, I realized that, hey man, you know, the Superman cape got a little tear in it now. Yeah. You know, I got to be careful.

3:58But more importantly, when I got done that, you know, I had a time when I really was mentally not bright, you know, and I couldn't— in fact, I didn't even want to leave the house for about 2 weeks. Told my wife and she goes, "Well, why don't you see a doctor?" You know, and like a, you know, a mental doctor. You can get what's going on.

4:16A therapist is what it's called. A therapist. Yeah, thank you. A mental man. Yeah. You know, see what's happening? Yeah. But no, it kind of like took me out a little bit. So, you know, I told the boys, I said, "Listen, you know, I'm kicking back." You know, we had been on that route, but I got to the point where I wasn't— I didn't feel like— I let go too much, you know.

4:42And my coach, I pretty much dumped the business on him, and I stepped back, like, and like, the coach was running my business. And yeah, and that's exactly what was taking place. I was out of the scene. I wouldn't make a meeting. I would find an excuse, you know, all that kind of stuff. And finally, you know, the coach calls me out, sends me an email, tells me, you know, I'm this, I'm that.

5:11And, you know, I go, "Well, you're pretty much right." Yeah. I go, I said, "I let go too much." And I told her, I said, "I let you have too much authority where it's my responsibility." You know, so worked all through that. And it gets a little deeper where I didn't feel like I was wanted. And this is the thing that I'm speaking about down in Dallas at the ASL.

5:38It's called mattering. Where do you matter? How do you matter? And so when everybody in your family tells you that, hey, look, we got this, we're okay. And you're like— You don't need me anymore? Because they tell you that's what you want to do. You want the shop to be able to run without you. Yeah, exactly. You don't. No. Because you don't, yeah, what am I supposed to do now?

5:58Exactly. You're right. Your identity, your everything. Like, where do I go? What do I do? And yet it's a sign of success where, okay, you're here, your shop's still humming along. I'm here, shops are still humming along. That's what we want, right? But when we get there— If you don't have another job to do. Right. Well, they talked about that on the stage today.

6:20You sell the shop and then you get— $5 million, $10 million. It's like, yeah, but where am I supposed to drive tomorrow morning? Right. It's like people that retire and go right back to work. Yeah. So for me, I've been diving into a lot of nonprofit work. Okay. I saw that. Yeah. So you did find your way back to doing something? I did.

6:38Yeah. And it's really great. I'm really involved with some really good groups. In fact, I leave here and I go and we're one of the charities that I support. Is having its major fundraiser tomorrow evening down at the beach. And I'm— How inconvenient. Oh yeah, I know, right? Yeah. Daggone, gotta go to the beach. It's a concert for the kids with this organization called Paul Cares.

7:03And we help kids who are getting into culinary and musical arts. 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. That's not the problem. The problem is consistency. Consistency, because some days it only works when the right person is working, and when they're not, it's a whole different shop.

7:26So 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. Detect 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.

7:53Now 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%. That'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. So they're musicians or they're chefs.

8:15Okay. And there's a little small venue, about 65 people. We get an acts from around the country, regional, and then all the proceeds, you get like a 3-course. This is no joke. This place is, it's like a speakeasy. Okay. Right? There's only 63 seats. It's got major acts that come in and they play an intimate setting. The prices are anywhere from like $59 to $89.

8:44Okay. And you get a 3-course dinner, get some wine, and you get great entertainment. And so, and 100% of proceeds go to the, um, to the mission. So that's cool. And then on with, uh, the other ones, uh, while I'm interviewing, what, Autism Delaware? I just did those. I saw that one. Yeah, beautiful people. Beautiful people. And then I'm on the board with the YMCA down in there, and I'm an ambassador for them.

9:12So this is my path where I want to help others. I get involved. And it's more than goodwill. My dad always taught me, like your dad taught you, support those that support you. Yes. You know what I mean? Right. You got to bring it home every once in a while. Yeah. That's what Uncle Buck's doing. That's what Uncle Buck's doing. I like it.

9:36So, you know, it's a lot of fun. It makes me sad that you had— you were saved, the doctors were able to fix you. Yeah. But you still felt broken. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you feel that. And I don't know if— I mean, I can only speak for me, but You know, you go so long and the thing is that once you start to feel vulnerable in terms of health, you get scared, you get, you know, what if?

10:12And then in my case, well, what if something happens and I'm not there for my family? Yeah. And then you start going, well, that's why I didn't want to go out of the house. You know, until one day I got in the truck and I said, damn it, I'm just going to go down to Millsboro. I'm going to take that 85-mile drive.

10:29I go on the highway and I'm driving like 90-year-olds, white knuckles. I'm doing 55. I never do 55 in the far right lane. Yeah, exactly, right? Pops, man. Exactly right. You are— you're the old man now. I'm definitely an old man at that point because I never drive 55 or 65. I'm, I'm, I'm 80. Fratual and scared and Driving scared, running scared.

10:54Yeah. But no, you went back into the office. Yeah, I got back in slowly but surely, started going back in and seeing the guys, getting back used to it. And now this past month or so, really getting back involved and doing things and talking to the boys and having the meetings and doing what I have to do to be an owner. Yeah.

11:13And they're okay with it, but I still got to give them their wings. I got to let them do what they want to do. And they're doing a great job. I mean, I got no complaints, you know, just little things. But you did it. I mean, they can do it without you because you taught them how to do it without you. Yeah, yeah.

11:28Yeah, it's like the boys right now. I was coming back from Florida to see Jordan. And I'm just thinking, "I'm just so sad, but I'm so flippin' happy." I got to his apartment. He was still in class. I'd opened the door. The apartment's clean, clean enough for a boy. His bedroom was a hot mess. Bathroom's clean, kitchen clean. I don't know if he cleaned it because Mom was coming, but I don't think so.

11:48And I'm just thinking, he went to class, and he's gotten there on time. Time, and he's really enjoying it. And he's got— when I moved him, the first day, time I moved him, got furniture and pots and pans and stuff. And he said, "Hey, Mom, I want some plants." I have— I'm a plant mom. I am a crazy plant lady. And I was like, "You want plants?"

12:08I was like, "Yes! Got another one. I got a plant baby." The plants are still living. The plants are growing. So, he's taking care of them? He's taking care of them. There you go. And I'm just thinking, I wanna go in there and mom— I'm cleaning. There's nothing that needed to be cleaned. And I was like, "Okay, he doesn't really need me as much."

12:26He still needs my money, of course. I was like, "This boy is— the refrigerator's stocked." Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. "He's got his crazy posters on the wall." I'm respecting him as a young man. I'm like, "Look at this. This is what I did. And I don't like this chapter, 'cause I want you to need me." Right. So, same thing with the big one. He went to college.

12:46He's back home, and he— It's home, but he— you raise them to not need you. You build your employees to do their job and do it better than you. Yep. Um, and so when they have a situation, like they had a situation last Wednesday and I was able to coach them through it, they didn't ask for a lot of help. They were like, this is what's happening, this is what we think, and this is what we think we should do.

13:13This is what I'm going to tell the customer. I want you to go over to make sure I'm not missing anything. And I'm like, Damn it, you've got it. Yeah. OK, I'll sit back here and watch Dateline. They've got it. And I'll go up there and pet a puppy and hug a customer every now and again. So if I can see a customer coming that I love, and I'm like, oh, hey, how you doing, whatever.

13:32How's my car? I don't know. I have no idea. Hailey's going to take care of you. Stuart's going to take care of you. And if they don't, let me know. You know, a little humor there. But you raise them up the way they should go. That's good parenting. Yeah, that's your parenting. That's your coach. I mean, you as a leader. Like Josh talked about leadership today, and that's not really something that I really bought into that much a couple of years ago.

13:58"Just tell me how to make money and get out my face." "I don't wanna hear about this part." Like, me and Michael Smith from the Institute, like, I've told him twice, "You know, you really get on my nerves, Michael, with all of this hocus-pocus stuff." But now, when he talks, I'm just like, "Yep." I was stubborn again. I didn't wanna listen to it.

14:12But I have found that with leading your team and empowering your team at work. If you're not in the automotive industry, I found that people in the automotive industry are— that are not— are also listening to my podcast. So it's pretty cool. No matter what industry you're in, if you're a leader and you're leading properly, that will affect your KPIs. That's going to make you money.

14:38Yeah, period. Because you're telling them what they need to know, what they need to do to do their job correctly. They want to win for you because they respect you. And then they realize, if I win it, if I play this base, she's going to play this, this guy's over here on this base, and I don't do baseball, but whatever that is, if everybody's in the position and they're playing their game to the best of their ability, we're all going to win.

15:06And then the customer's going to be happy and then they're going to spend more money and then we get more money on commission. It all just trickles down. Yeah, it's like the trickle-down effect. Well, the thing is, you know, a coach's favorite saying when they're doing their presses is, "I got to put them in a better position to win." Yes. And that's what leaders will do.

15:26So let me ask you this. What's that? Outside of your dad, what other life experiences do you think made you a better leader? It was my grandmother too. Okay, your grandma. That's right. Yeah. Grandma Kitty. I laugh because, you know, we have a lot of podcasts and YouTube videos of the gurus, the Simon Sinek, or all the people that we listen to when we want to get refreshed, right?

15:54My grandmother always did that. There's a guy named Les Brown. Okay. And I believe Les Brown was probably one of the OGs of motivation speakers. He's back there with Jim Rohn. Okay. He's an older Black man and he's funny and he tells his story and he's just very motivational. And my grandmother always listened to stuff like that. And as a kid, it got on my flippin' nerves.

16:17But it's not like I can control the radio and we didn't have headphones. So whatever Keith was listening to, that's what we're going to listen to. And Grandma had— we lived in Charlotte and Grandmother had her shop in Albemarle. Actually, it was called Troy. So it's about an hour, hour 15 outside of Charlotte, maybe longer. And that's kind of how I know Benji, 'cause it's out in the boonies, like in that area.

16:37And she would always listen to that. She was always wanting to do better. And Grandma's a Capricorn like me. And she— Get out of here, you're a Capricorn? Yeah, I'm not— I know, I'm not bossy at all. I'm a sweet little lamb. Say it. Say it. You are? Yes, I am. So, you know how we are. What date? January 3rd. 18th. Yeah, so Grandma's the 15th.

17:01Okay. Um, oh man. Yeah, so Capricorn, Capricorn. And I— she was— as a kid, I thought she was the meanest person in the world and the smartest lady in the world and the richest lady in the world. Okay. And I wanted to be like Grandma, so I got to— and I don't know if you went to the institute and thing in Florida, but my story is not— it's not a story, my life is— I got to see both sides of the tracks, and I decided I wanna live over there with Grandma, over there on one side of the tracks, 'cause we get to do stuff, and she works hard, but we have stuff, and it's

17:32fun. And outside of being a beautician— so, anyway, her beauty shop, she had two. She had one in Charlotte, she had one out there in Albemarle, and she served underprivileged in Black communities that didn't have, like, a beauty shop or anything like that. So, she'd go up there, like, twice a week, maybe 3 times a week, and work all day. And not only did she do hair, she would sell things like socks and purses and earrings and stuff.

17:59Like, she had a little market. She was always hustling. So watching my grandma hustle, and then I could watch the rewards. I remember when she bought— I want to say it was an '89 or '90 Nissan Maxima. And that's when it had the keyless entry with the little buttons. Okay, yeah. And that's the year it starts like, "The key is in ignition."

18:21It talked to you. I remember Grandma going to buy that car, And she bought it in cash. Okay. Yeah. Wow. And I remember the guy telling her that if you buy this in cash, we have to report you to the IRS. And she said, okay, anything over $10,000 needs to be reported to the IRS. All right. Yeah. Right, right. And she was like, okay, so?

18:41And I was like, damn! Yes! Grandma said, so what? That's right. She said, so what? Yeah. Sir, Mr. Car Salesman, my grandma said give her her car. And I just thought it was cool. But it also— yeah, it's a big impression. So she made a big impression on me. Okay. And same thing with Dad, you know, he was young. My dad was— I'll tell people, it's funny now, I was a high school project.

19:05Dad was 18. There you go. Yeah. And so when he bought his shop, I think he was like 20, 21 when he first started working. I think it's what he said. Yeah. And, um, just watching him work all the time watching him work. And I adore him. So if he was out there milking cows, I would be a farmer right now. Because I just respected him that much.

19:26And I just wanted to be around him. I wanted to be around the greatness. So it's those two. Those two make the biggest impact on me. Well, that's a huge impact. It's a big impression. And that's the same way that I think most entrepreneurs will look at something like— I know for myself, my whole family, They were all in business. You know, there was my grandfather and his 6 elder brothers, and they were into either booze, they were bookies, they were painters, they were leather tanners, furniture salesmen.

20:02Yeah. They had it all. And one was an accountant, I think. That was Frank, the oldest one. Yeah, and so our whole family dinners were bunch of ballers. Oh yeah. But yeah, my grandmother's brothers and sisters, like her, uh, my uncles— well, I guess it'd be second uncles and great— is it great or second? I don't know. But her brothers and sisters, concrete, concrete.

20:25And like the cousins that are my age, they're still concrete cowboys. There you go. So they get it from their grandparents. Um, concrete, real estate, all the things. Just watching a family full of hustlers. Yeah. And ballers, or whatever you want to call it in this day and age. And just as a kid getting together and going on family vacations and family trips and saying, look, this is We're a bunch of nut jobs, but everybody has their own business.

20:48It is. And, and I'll tell you what, I know for a fact I couldn't work for anybody. I don't know about you, but I couldn't. I, I, I mean, all the times my dad fired me and how many times— because that fired me. I don't know how many times I got fired. I got fired for a tattoo. I got fired so many times.

21:01I got about 10. He would fire his own daddy. Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the funny side for me was I'm in the Bay, right? And me and my dad, we're butting heads at the time, right? Because Like anything else, I'm trying to tell him I'm doing it my way and he's going, "No, no, no, no, no. We're still sticking with my way.

21:18You got time." But I kept going at him, you know? And so we had a tire dealer down the street, Mickey Dwyer was his name. So Mickey would come up for gas every week, right? 'Cause we had gas at the time. And so I'm in the bay and Dad comes up to me, he says, "Hey, hey, hey, son, come on out here.

21:35Talk to Mickey. You know, I want you to see Mickey Dwyer." I go, "Okay, all right. Yeah, no problem." Put my tools down and I walk outside and, Dad's grabbing me. Hey Mickey, how you doing? Hey Gino, what's up buddy? He says, hey, um, you need, you need a tire guy out here, right? And, uh, he goes, yeah, I'm looking. He goes, well, here you go.

21:54And he pushes me off and he fired you. He got you another job though. And the next day I'm slinging tires down at the tire shop. You better not tell you I didn't, you know. And then one time, one time he, um, I was, uh, rebuilding my '67 Mustang. I had the motor out and had that. It was racked and I'm tearing it down.

22:15And I bought another car and I bought another one, all Mustangs. I ran out of money. And I got this car sitting on the side of the building and it's sitting there for a little over a month or so. I come into work one day, it's gone. He goes— I said, "Where's my car? Where's my car?" And he goes, "I had it towed."

22:37He goes, you ran out of money. That's some William Brown stuff right there. He said it. He had a toad. And he goes, you ran out of money. You don't have nothing. I don't want nothing sitting on my lot. And you said, okay. I couldn't do nothing. What could you do? He wouldn't even tell me where he had the toad away from.

22:52To this day, you don't know what happened to the car. You know, I mean, and I said, okay. You never did that again though, did you? Never again. Every time Daddy would punish me, like any kind of punishment I got, I never forgot it. Yeah. I mean, it would just be like, dang, okay. I'll never forget that lesson. Next. I'm so sorry.

23:09Yeah. Yeah. But it worked. You can't do that. You can, you can do that. When people say you can't do that anymore, you can. You can. You can. Yes, you can. Yeah. I mean, and it made me realize, hey, look, you can't go out spending more than what you got. You got all these cars around you, Greg, and I loved Mustangs. I still do.

23:27Yeah. And I had had a '67 I was rebuilding, then I picked up a '64.5 convertible from down the airbase, and then I had a '65 '65 and a '68 fastback. And hard-headed. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, and it was crazy, it was crazy. And then, um, you know, we had at one time we had 5 locations, all gas stations, right?

23:49And we just mismanaged, we just didn't know how to manage at that time. But I was running a shop, uh, it was a 24-hour shop on a main highway, uh, in Newcastle And so I'd have to pull a 24-hour shift every once in a while, and I wouldn't say no, you know. I, I kept up with the grind. But that's the kind of stuff that, you know, uh, I look back on it and the lessons I learned from not just him, but I think we're fortunate that our families were all in business.

24:21We have so many lessons, and I know that I can look at some of my good friends that had the 9-to-5s and they may have made out okay, but they certainly didn't have the life that we had. Not happy. No. Not fulfilling. No, not fulfilling. No. Always at, I mean, somebody else's, you can be fired in a moment. Yeah. Yeah. So my cousins called me, like, I think I was on a flight here.

24:44He was like, "Cuz I just finished listening to your podcast." He was like, "You motivate me all the time." Like, I'm glad. Good. I'm so glad. We are just, I got a wonderful family. My dad's side of the family, they're all nut jobs, but they all work so hard. You can look up to 'em. It's real people. It's real people. It's just real people doing real people stuff.

25:05Mm-hmm. Yeah, and then, like I say, I don't know how many times Daddy fired me, or— At the last 2 to 3 years we worked together, his name was Mr. Brown, I would cartoon kill him out every day. Like an anvil, just sit there and look at him like, "Okay, Dad, okay." Well, it got to the point that he didn't like the job anymore.

25:23I don't think he was happy with the shop because we grew from, I don't know, I would say 1,000 square feet to 25,000. But that was part of his dream. But he really liked the art of fixing a car. Yeah, he loved, he loved the— he's an artist by heart. And so the customers and the bills and the complaints, because he grew more money, more problems.

25:45I don't think he enjoyed it as much. And then I was ready to implement processes because I had went to school for business. He was an auto body man that opened a business and, by God, was very successful. And I wanted to change things. And he's like, "Can't do that. Can't do that. Can't do that." Because even after he retired, and I started running the service department, because he decided to rent out the body shop, well, I would make changes.

26:06And he said, "That's not— I wouldn't do that if I were you." Well, I learned otherwise, Dad. And so, when I would tell people, "No," when I start firing customers, and I started to— limit, um, there's no walk-ins, no waiters, right? We're not doing this, we're not doing that. Um, well, limiting waiters because it was— we're on the highway and we would get people that would stop, I need air, I need air, I need air.

26:31And it's not the people that you could turn into a customer, right? It would be a nastiness about it. And so I had to self-correct that, like, hey, this is not— this is— that's like 3 gas stations you passed to get here. And I can't have him drop everything right now. Because at the time, I probably had a tech and a half to do this.

26:51I can help you, but hold your horses. Yeah, right. Like, there's customer service, and I love servicing the customer. I love the— I love a thank you, and I love a smile. But what I want— yeah, we do. I do. And I love a thank you. That's why I will cook for you all day just so you can say it was good.

27:07That makes me happy. That makes me whole. But when people take advantage and they're just nasty, Because they think they can be. Because you're just a dirty mechanic and it's just a dirty shop and all I need is some air. You can take your monkey butt somewhere else with that. Now, if you want me to help you, I'll be glad to help you.

27:22And yes, we do have to write this up because if I touch your car, I'm liable for whatever I do to it. I just want air. Well, you're just going to go to the gas station because I'm going to check it. I'm going to see if there's anything in your tire. We're going to do it right. Yeah. Well, I don't want that.

27:34Well, you don't want to be here. And with a smile, of course. And trying to control my customers, trying to make sure I was attracting the clients that I wanted. And not saying yes to everything, that threw Daddy off. He's like, "You're not going to be able to do that." I was like, "I am." Yeah, you are. Yeah. I did it. I done it.

27:49I did it. That's the hardest part. He respects it now. That's the hardest part of when there's a transfer of ownership from one family member to a younger family member. It's rough. I mean, the lesson I saw from my own dad, and again, I talk about it, but In 2006, right, we were moving to the current location from his original. And he kept saying, "I want 40 years.

28:19I want 40 years here. I gotta have 40 years." So we stayed until his 40th anniversary at that shop. But it cost us because the person that we ended up getting the building from, the place we're at now, When I called him, because my attorney— there's a whole fiasco. So we're having issues with the oil company, right? We got to leave. They're jacking up prices.

28:46It's a whole crap show. Okay. So my attorney goes, find anybody who has a service bay that you can jump into. First person we wrote to was Mr. Shelton, and sure enough He says, "Where you been?" Been waiting for you. He's been waiting for us since 1999. Ooh, this says a lot about you guys. Yeah. And he knew about, he was a transmission rebuilder and he had bought this place, but he was retiring.

29:17So when we found that out, it was easy. But Dad didn't want to go. He refused to leave. And it got to the point where I had to tell him, Dad, You can't be here by yourself. You know, uh, he was 60— 66, right? 2006, 66. I think that's right. Yeah. And you can't just be a cashier at this place. There's no— there's not enough money for you to pay the rent.

29:43If we leave, you know, the rent from us goes away. How you gonna meet the bill? They're jacking your rent up. You're not meeting the volume. You know, that whole game. And finally, he came around and he goes, "Okay." But we made it to his 40th year. But after that, we were out. And that was tough on him. That was really tough.

30:05That is sad to listen to. Mm-hmm. Because that's how many years of his— 40 years of his life. 40 years, yeah, of him— And you got to close that door one more time. Yeah. And so we kept everything we could. They used to have a placard over the name, a ceramic placard. And in fact, I still have that, I believe. Yeah, it's still there.

30:26Well, I have it now. Eugene G. Buckley, proprietor. That's old school right there. Oh, yeah. Yes. Oh, yeah. I love it. Yeah. And I still have it. And so we're coming up on our 60th this year. This is our 60th year, July 7th, I think. So we're trying to get a little celebration about that. Oh, that should be a big party. I hope to, because we used to do a lot of cool stuff.

30:49And that's what I miss. I miss— I mean, we would have— I mean, Dad and I, uh, we built the crown of the Statue of Liberty for July 4th over top of the building on, on, um, PVC. Okay. And it had lit— it was lit. Uh, we had jazz bands come in. You got to do something, cuz USA is turning 200— 250, right?

31:15250. Yeah, that's— man, that's a week's party you should be having. Oh, it should. It's got to be. I mean, I'm trying to find uniforms right now and shirts for for it with red, white, and blue and 60 on it right now from a couple vendors. Um, but yeah, we, we had the band, uh, I dressed as Keystone Cops, we had walking Statue of Liberty, uh, Dad was in a straw hat, and, and then, oh my God, the things we used to do.

31:37You talk about hustling. Um, we were friends with a nightclub owner and a promoter, so he had the number one club in, in the Wilmington area. And Dad, at the time, he was selling hot dogs. We had 3 or 4 hot dogs. Gene's Dogs were all around the city. So this— Your dad don't know how to sit down. He didn't know how to sit down.

31:59He didn't. I love it. Oh no. So plus being a, he was into racing and boats and all that. So the promoter comes up and he goes, "Hey Gene, man, I'm doing this big, big beach thing." He goes, "You wanna sell hot dogs like Coney Island?" And Dad goes, "Yeah." So here we are, we're piling tons of sand. We're building a beach inside this disco, right?

32:24Oh, he was having a beach party in the club? Inside the club. Oh my goodness, I thought he was going to the beach. Oh, oh, okay. So we had the hot dog carts. We had us dressed up as the beach, like lifeguards. And we're in there slinging dogs in the middle of this club. And it was so hilarious. Dogs and liquor, hot dogs and alcohol.

32:44That is, uh, I mean, that's the kind of stuff we used to do. And, and he— you can still do it. You talk about your grandmom, right, and how she hustled. This is what we li— we live this life, you know. And, um, it, it started when he was in Pennsylvania because I was originally born in PA. And so we lived with my grandmom, and my grandmom would take in— we call them, they— we call them strays, but they were kids who didn't have a home, right?

33:14So our— the first 5 years of my life, I mean, it was kind of like a revolving door. There were characters. Thank goodness they were all good people, right? Nothing really happened. But we had this flavor going through this whole house. And my mom, my mom, my mom, Gertie, Dirty Gertie, I called her. Uh-oh. Dirty Gertie. Dirty Gertie. She hated me when I said that.

33:37I said, come on, my mom, you know I love you. And she gave me that smile. And, uh, She was from, uh, Shenandoah, Virginia, and, uh, it was always, uh, chicken and dumplings. Uh, and, uh, what was her Sunday dinner? Yeah, chicken dumplings, beans, and my grandfather made navy soup. But we would have all the people in there, and then she had a pool.

34:01So everybody was at your house, at Dirty Gertie's house. Dirty Gertie's house. It's an old Dirty Gertie's house. Old Dirty Gertie. And she was a character. And yeah, it was That's how we grew up for 5 years. Then we moved down to Delaware, um, and we had originally apartment, then we moved into Albin Park. Um, just some crazy stuff, you know, the things I've done.

34:25I don't know, man, it's a whole full life. It's, it's a really full life. Really? Yeah, I mean, it's been, it's been good. And I think like we talked about, all of these elements that we experienced has made us not only who we are, but how we are leading and what we see in others. I mean, my experience, I'm not the hard-ass leader because I know that to get the best— I know what it felt like.

34:53Yeah. I know the best to get out of people is to work with them, lead them, take their best skills. Yeah. I know you good at this. It's not, "Hey, can you give me 5 more minutes?" words at next week's staff meeting. Just, I know you don't want to talk. Or do you have everything that you need to do your job? Right.

35:13And I don't know if that's just a snack or if that's a tool. What is it that you need for me to do your job better? That's— well, we have to ask that. Yeah, because I don't know. He's like, you know what I need? I need one more of these Jacks. I said, okay, what else do you need? The newest guy, I'm diabetic, there's no diabetic snacks in there.

35:31I should know better, I'm diabetic. "Make sure I got some diabetic-friendly snacks." And that little simple thing let him know I'm listening to him, and I'm gonna do what I said I'm gonna do. And sometimes, I do forget. Like, you, as a father, you told that kid, "Yeah, I'm gonna buy you those skates." And you did not buy the skates 'cause you just were bad.

35:51You just said, "I forgot." So, every Monday, or whenever we do a meeting, "Is there anything you need from me? What am I missing? What is it that I can't see? What have I—" grown nose blind to here in the shop. Help me help you make your job easier, because without you, I can't do it. I can't do it. You're right. You can— your toolbox has wheels, and that works both ways.

36:11My toolbox has wheels. Like, yeah, their toolbox has wheels. So we don't want them to use it, do we? Correct. So let's see if we can keep them parked. And that's what we were talking about on the panel today, or they were, you know, where they said, look, it ain't all about the money. I had a tech tell me that early, early on.

36:24Yeah, he said, it's not always about the money. And I was like, Really? Then I start looking at things differently. Because I mean, we've all had them, but I mean, I have a tech with me that will go to 40 hours, but he won't strive for 45, 50, 60, but he's a good solid tech. He likes to go home, cut his grass, manicure, meticulous.

36:49Oh yeah. Yeah. Lies and all. And it's my nephew. Oh, okay. Because money doesn't drive him. Doesn't drive him. He's got to make sure I pay the bills and I can eat. And then, I want to see the lines in my grass, and I need to go fishing. Yep. So, now, my newest guy, we're on a 4-day work week. He said— he's been with me 6— I don't know how long he's been there.

37:07He says, "I didn't know what to do with myself on Fridays." And I said, "Go fishing." He said, "I can't go." You can go fishing. Yeah. You can go. You can go any— you can go to the park and walk. You can sleep all day, whatever. You wanna go get another job, go get— you have the freedom to live and not just work to live.

37:22You work to pay bills. You're actually working to live. Because we are told that you have to work, go to school, get a good job, pay bills. You retire, and then you die. Right. Like, I don't want to be 50, 55, 60, saying, "I wish I would have done this." I'm gonna say, "I did that, and it was fun," or, "I did that, and I will not do that again."

37:49And people say, "Why were you in Montana? Why were you not in Montana?" Right. It was beautiful. Right. And I, when Kim told me, hey, you want to go? I said yes. I booked my flight. That's a bucket list for me, by the way. I was like, yeah, it is beautiful. So beautiful. There's so much to see in this country. There's so much to do in life.

38:05You can't wait till you're 65, 70. No. Just start living. You live every day. Every single day. Yep. You got to do it every single day for sure. But the thing is, how do we, how do we instill that into our Team members. I mean, they got a lot of, I mean, let's face it. Yes, I think life may be a little bit more difficult for them nowadays.

38:28Maybe it's not as, it's more complicated than what we might have had. But still, you know, when we look at them, like I got a young man who is a GM Master Tech, world-class technician. His thing was, he says, can I get off early? One of the things he goes, All I want is to get off early on Tuesday so I can pick up my daughter.

38:53Wow. They were divorced and all that. And he's trying to rebuild his relationship with the daughter. I go, absolutely. I said, that's no problem. But then he came up, and I always check on him. How you doing? How you doing, man? You okay? What's going on? And then he's slowly coming out of his— The shell. Yeah. And he says, man, I'm having a tough time.

39:15I don't know what to do on Saturdays. You know, I go, you know, what he's telling me, he's kind of like, you know, I don't have too many friends. And I said, man, meeting people is rough these days and all that. And I kept thinking, I said, what could I put this young man into? Where could I show him or direct him to go?

39:34And I know we can think about it, but what about all of our other team members? How do we kind of, make them look through a different lens and, you know, do that? Well, people don't go outside anymore because they just follow everybody on social media. True. People don't pick up the phone and call each other anymore. They just check on you via your Facebook status.

40:01And so, I think this generation grew up with that. And there's a really big disconnection. And how to fix that, I don't know. They're gonna have to learn to unplug. Like, I don't know how old this young man is, but what do you love? What have you tried? Like, one thing that my grandmother always said is, "Teach a man to fish. It's not the whole thing he'll eat for a day," or all of that.

40:27"He'll never get in trouble. He'll always have somewhere to go." Doesn't have a hobby. Everybody's hobby is on their cell phone. Everybody's hobby is connected to Wi-Fi. I know I did a lipstick report one day, and I was like, do you even enjoy your mortgage? Just go sit on the back porch. Yeah, like sometimes people are so busy doing so many things that they're not doing anything.

40:52Maybe he needs to learn how to lip some— rip some lips, go fishing. Maybe he can start bowling. But he also needs to realize, and it's something that I realized early on, and I attribute that to ASTA Your friends do not have to look like you. So none of my friends look like me anymore. Very few look like me anymore. Like Jordan is hilarious.

41:11I don't know if you met Jordan. I don't think I did. Jordan, um, it's hilarious. And I remember he was much younger and he said, "Mom, all your friends are old white men." I was like, they are, um, because that's who I bond with in the industry and they have knowledge and I want, and they're funny. And then You know, and Santana went out with me to Josh's thing at Benji's house.

41:34And he's like, "These people just really know— these are really your friends?" I was like, "Yeah, I know." 'Cause he's like, "Well, where are we gonna stay?" I was like, "We staying at Benji's house." "You don't stay at nobody's house." "This is Benji's house." And he walked away. And I remember, he just made some connections. And this is a 22-year-old young black man.

41:54And he had to leave to go to work. So, he had to leave early on Saturday. And he texts me back, and this is what he says. He said, "Hey, Mom." "that tall man, I didn't get to say bye to him. It's the one that was talking." And he was talking about Jim Kokonas. He fell in love with Jim Kokonas some kind of way.

42:11Did he? Yes, he had so much— he's like, "I really enjoyed listening to him. I'd like to meet him again." And I'm thinking, "Oh, wow." But that's a connection that he wouldn't have made otherwise. So, sometimes, we'll let race, and sex, and status, and— financial status get in the way of a true, pure friendship. Sure, it does. So there's things for us to do that don't cost money.

42:36There's things to do outside of work. But I think social media and the internet really messed up the connection between humans. It did. And, and I don't know how to escape it. It's, it's tough anymore to put the phone down or forget about it. I know that a few people that I know have completely— they're not even on it. And they carry a flip phone and that's it.

43:00That's all. Sometimes you have to unplug. I'll tell you what, I met Chrissy Falco, Rich's wife, at Women in Auto Care in— where were we? Fort Worth. We probably hang out all the time. She literally lives 20 minutes from me. Never knew it. Really? We've been to lunch. It's the best. We've got the same flipping birthday. Our birthdays are the same. Really?

43:24And yeah, she— we've had lunch twice here. It's the best. It is the best. I love that woman. And I would have never talked to her 10, 15 years ago. Yeah. Because what do I— I don't know anything. I don't know her. Do your friends— do your friends— like, okay, you're talking about expanding your circle. Yeah. Okay. Do you find that your friends kind of stay more cloistered?

43:47I lost a lot of friends. Yeah, yeah, same here. Yep, that's a hard one. Um, it's— it can be tough. Yep. Yeah, I mean, yeah, no, I, I know that. Now you're tearing up. Yeah, you're tearing up. Okay, well, I lost a lot of people that I thought were— that were friends. I see. Okay, so But Kim Walker would laugh at this.

44:16She said I don't have enough testosterone in my body. I will cry over anything. But nobody's been replaced. Yeah. The whole thing that you check on people via social media. Yeah. I like to show up for people and I might show up too much because the Capricorn in me wants to. But they didn't show up for me. Mm. A shame. Yeah. But I have to give grace and forgive because maybe they didn't know how to show up for me.

44:44And I also don't know how to tell them that, "You didn't show up for me." So, they haven't been removed. But they're like, here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At some point, they may come back around. At some point, they may come back around, and I'd be open to that. But I know I can't chase it. Because I have so many other people around me that are helping to fill my cup.

45:09That's true. And I've been invited into rooms that I thought I'd never be invited into. And I've made some great connections right here in the industry, right at the shop. Customers that turn into a friend. Yeah. Other shop owners, man, woman, the wife of the shop owner, just getting together just to cackle and have a drink here at Expo or whatever and not even talk business, just talk about just stuff.

45:36'Cause we all have so much in common. And yeah, hands, the color of your hands and feet will really keep you away from people that you are just alike. So, I'm glad I'm so, I've never been closed to stuff like that. I think some people are. I think we need to have, we need to be open enough to be attracted by other people or another circle or get involved.

46:03Like, we're not afraid to enter another room. As you say, you know, I really think entering the room is very important. And I was telling somebody right before, the only time that I was told that I couldn't enter the room was by the spirit that was sitting on my shoulder. Okay. Nobody has ever said, Tanika, you do not belong in this convention center, or you are a female shop owner and you don't know what you're— Nobody's ever said that.

46:33Only Um, only spirit on your shoulder. The spirit on my shoulder. Yeah. And then I would just— you flicked it away. Um, and then I'll just go in the room. But I was telling the person, you know, we did the thing for Techmetric, uh, a couple— he's like, well, you know, what do you do now? Like, I want to know what you do now.

46:55What do you do now? So now I feel like I laugh and I say automotive auntie. Because there's a lot of youth walking around here now. It is so marvelous. Yeah. And I get excited. And this is where social media is good. They come up to me and they're like, "Oh, Miss Tanika, I wanted to meet you." I'm just like, "Why? Why do you want to meet me?"

47:16And I said, I decided that, "Okay, Tanika, your next journey is to be the person that you wish you saw." 15, 20 years ago in the industry. Yeah. You need to become that person, right, for somebody else. Not because you're somebody special, you're some guru. That's not it. Maybe it would have been a little bit easier for me— not saying that it was hard— if I saw someone that I could relate to instantly.

47:47Mm-hmm. For example, you know, we've done Hunter. Equipment, and Justin Allen did a women's only alignment class. And I remember having that in one of the women's group that we were doing this for ladies only. And Justin was gonna teach it, and I was gonna be there, and a NAPA rep, all the women were gonna be there. So, "Kumbaya, sister," right? This lady says, "Oh, we don't need that.

48:10We don't need that. We should be able to go into the room with the men, and we don't need that." I was like, "You don't need that. You don't need that." I needed that sometime, even though my dad raised me very well, and I had the confidence that some women don't have at a young age. But sometimes, you do doubt yourself. You still doubt yourself now.

48:29Every now and again, shows up. So, if I can be in the room, and then, my little niece can see me and say, "Oh, what? Okay, I do belong here." And that's all I do that day, then to God be the glory. But I'm not gonna let her stay there. I'm just gonna be like, "Okay, come on now." Come on across the hall.

48:47The big white scary men are not gonna get you. Come on, they ain't thinking about you. So that's who I want to be. And that's where I think the industry, that's what I think my job is right now in industry. I think you are absolutely finding a place within the industry. But like, I think I might have mentioned to you before, I said I personally don't want to see you play the short game.

49:10And you got a voice that carries outside of our walls. And you've got a persona that goes way outside our walls. You do. And that's what I'm trying to say. I just said, don't deny it. But learn to work it for the betterment of somebody else. Yes. I want to make sure I'm doing good. You're starting off on a good foot. I mean, you got a lot going on.

49:41And with all of the experiences that we just been talking about, they come in handy because you don't want to treat somebody the way you were treated. Right. And you always want to make somebody better. Yes. Okay. And that's what us CAPs are known for. Yeah. I was in the leadership intensive. The Institute with Michael again. And I remember he said, "I need you to, you know, write down your why."

50:15And my why has been changing. Kids are grown, shop's running, all the things are lining up. Mm-hmm. What do I do with myself? Yeah. Don't know what to do with myself. But it comes to you. It will come to you. But it's been there, and I've been— I've been not listening to it. So, Braxton was recording. And Braxton is the young man that does all the editing and stuff for the podcast.

50:43"Miss Tanika, you should do a podcast." "Shut up, Braxton. Shut up. I'm not doing that. That's stupid. I stutter. I don't wanna do it." "Miss Tanika, you should do a podcast." "Bleh!" And I wish I— I haven't memorized it, but when he said, "Write down your new why," it just flowed. And I said, "Okay, God wants me to do exactly what I just said."

51:03And I gotta stop not doing what he told me my next assignment was. When we were in Montana, we were talking and everybody was saying, you know, "What are you struggling with?" And we're just talking at the table. The ladies talk at the table after dinner. And I said, "I prayed the prayer of Jabez and I asked God to—" 'Enlarge my territory, keep me from doing harm.'

51:30That is not a stingy prayer. Some people think that's a stingy prayer. It's like, 'No, enlarge my territory, but keep me from doing harm.' And I said— and he said, 'Okay, my child.' And he came down and said, 'Okay, my child, I will do this, and this is your assignment.' And I was like, 'No, no, um, that ain't what I meant, Jesus.

51:49Uh, that's not the territory that I wanted you to enlarge, sir.' Is this my blessing? You mean I gotta talk to people and I have to make eye contact? Because I'm an introvert. I really am. We get it. Come on, seriously. I will have to go to my room and recover from this before I go to the party. Yeah, but it's fine because my grandma did not go for that.

52:11She would say, what's wrong with you, the cat got your tongue? I would be hungry if I wouldn't speak up. I called my dad for the longest. Okay, so yeah, I'm talking and being open, that's not for me. And that's one of the reasons I started doing the Lipstick Report. To make myself talk and to listen to my own voice and things like that.

52:29And, uh, yeah, so the prayer that I prayed, and God said, okay, okay, my child, I will bless you. And then I told him, that ain't what I meant, sir. And he's like, oh, you don't get to tell me what to do, I'm your daddy. And I was like, God, Jesus, is this how this works? Yes, it is. It must have been a heck of a conversation you were having.

52:52Yeah, yeah, yeah, I called him by his whole name, Jesus Antonio Christ. Listen to me. There you go. But be careful what you ask for. Yeah. But I love it. And I hope great things come from it. And if only I reach 7 people and make a difference in 7, 7 is a good number. Well, you know what? You made a couple points the other day about just that.

53:10Yeah. Right? I'm not worried about who's listening, whatever. You are your audience. I was talking to me. You're your fan. Right? And that's who you worry about. It doesn't matter what the numbers are.. It's a matter of, did you put out a good product? Did you put your voice out there? Did you make people feel something different? Yeah. And when they come back to you and go, damn, Tanika, I mean, you hit me over the head.

53:34That was great. I get 'em in the direct messages from people that are not even friends. That's right. Like I got two last night and I was like, who is this? Like he's talking to me. Yeah. But it makes me really feel good. Yeah. But that's not why I'm doing it. I'm not doing it for the likes and then for my little serotonin, whatever stuff in your brain.

53:51Yeah, it's not ego. No, it's not ego. But if somebody can hear me, and like yesterday, the Lipstick Report is like, eat some chewing gum, your breath stink. Maybe somebody forgot that. Did you see that one? I was afraid to come in. I didn't— my Mentos. I was gonna say, hey, man, if I can make you laugh real quick and you're having a bad day, then good, because I'm trying to make myself laugh too.

54:08Yeah. Um, but I prayed that prayer, and it seems like that's what Jesus Antonio Christ wants me to do. And, uh, I will do that. I will be kicking and screaming and cussing the whole time because he knows that I say bad No worries, but I'm working on it. And, um, so that's why I was like, okay, let me go to these conventions.

54:27Yeah, because this, this time I met a couple young ladies. Like, one lady that worked for Techmetric, she was adorable. And then Gabby that works for Kukui was like, they'll go on, nieces, everybody come here, look at all the young people. And, um, it's great, it's great. That's who you're reaching. You're going to be auntie Automotive Auntie. It is too funny that I know that.

54:49What's his name? Uh, Richard Check Engine Chuck calls me TT. TT. Yeah, there you go. And so, I mean, I like it. It's part of my new— why am I crusade? What are you gonna do? You doing charity work? Yeah, yeah, got soup radio going on, uh, Shop Soup. Uh, we're building it up little by little. Um, I'm gonna come on DJ one time.

55:10You know what, I've, I've The invitation's there. We're gonna get that together. I've got all kinds of things planned out, but it's a slow roll, a little bit slower roll than I would've liked, but it's getting there. And I'm putting the pieces together so this whole kind of like network that I wanna build is gonna be right on point. If you build it, they will come.

55:33But we got, I got some good things. And the 302 side where I'm interviewing all of the local, the Delawarean groups and the YMCA Oh gosh, Special Olympics. I'm learning, I'm learning how to interview properly. Uh, you know, I hired a coach, um, a podcasting coach. Oh cool. Uh, Clint Ravenscraft, great guy. Uh, I had followed him decades ago when he first started.

56:00There's a podcasting coach? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And he was one of— he's one of the OGs, like the original podcasters, and he started off on the floor of his room He was selling insurance and he decided just to whip out the laptop, an old beat-up thing, and he has pictures of it. And then he grew into this voice, you know, but he's really solid with his information and his style.

56:24And I had been involved with a lot of info marketing groups, you know, and that's helped me learn marketing for the shop, you know. I mean, really well-rounded from YouTube to, uh, podcasting now and all of that. So, um, I got a hold of Cliff and he had come back online. He took a break and he's called the Pod— it was the Podcaster— Podcasting Answer Man.

56:51You gotta, um, send me a link or something. Yeah, I will. Yeah, I will. And he's a great guy. Um, him and I, we— I mean, I had him for about 3 or 4 months of coaching And he just refreshed everything for me. So now I know what direction I'm gonna go to. And we had this funniest conversation because I said, I said, Cliff, I said, I'm having a problem, man.

57:14I said, right now I really hate my industry for, you know, just everything was going on. So much drama, so much anger. And he came to me and he goes, hey, Greg, you know how long I've been doing this? And he goes, you know what? I hate the podcasting industry. And I go, what? I'm like shocked. I'm like, but he goes, it's all a money grab because all the people doing this, doing that.

57:37And he goes, I know that they have to make money, but it's not the right content. Everybody's doing this or doing that, and they're all talking, you got to do video. And he's saying, you don't have to do video. So, you know, we're going back and forth on strategy and all this stuff, but we had a really honest conversation, and I've got it I've got it available to record to put it out there.

58:01Because we had links that were sent or that whatever, Fathom, they take notes on. OK, so I've got the video and the content for him. But he's a very good grounded person, him and his wife. And they've got all— we just have good talks over style, content. And he was always like, why, why? What are you doing? What are you doing? And I go, "Well, I want to go here."

58:29"No, you don't." You know? It's like— Yeah. So I mean, I'm learning a whole new thing because this will be a career move for me. I really have enjoyed my time with technology. I mean, I've been making movies and being on video since I was 12. Really? Yeah. I mean, I got the old-time splice out and cut and splice, edit and do all of that.

58:52So you get to do full circle and do what you really, really, really want to do. Yeah. Producing, editing. I had all the— I was the videographer for everything and everybody. And even with this nonprofit, I'm the videographer. And I was up 4 o'clock this morning editing video that goes on the TVs, the monitors tomorrow night. Oh, really? The director, he calls me up.

59:22He goes, hey, can I add some more slides? And I told him, I said, Frannie, I'm going away. I go, I can't— I don't know what condition I'm going to be in, right? So, you know, you're messing up my drinking time. Yeah, he was too. Back on it. So he said, come on, can you do it? I go, okay. So I got it done, you know, and I enjoy it.

59:39You know why? Because it just feeds me your imagination, um, and, and that's— it's healthy. And then I can go back and I can relate to technology, uh, and understand the digital side and bring everything in. But, you know, overall Um, that's what Uncle Buck's doing. And, you know, I'll still be the shop owner and be the dad and be the guiding whatever for some people.

1:00:03And, but we're, um, yeah, we're doing— it's fun. I got— the most important part is, you know, I got to find my groove again. Yep. This is what it comes down to. That's what mattering is about, finding who you are, where you're at, and, and get back on it. Get back on it. Get back on it, man, and have fun. You know, we're only here for so long.

1:00:27A season. Yeah. And so for most guys, it's like, well, how am I going to go out? What do I want to go out like? Do I want to just wimp out, or do I want to go out like a shooting star? Guns a-blazing! Yeah, I want to go out like a shooting star. Yeah, you know, blaze, you know, just beautiful. That's it.

1:00:45Yeah, you know. And so when I'm done, I'm done. But until then, I'm gonna keep trying to do something, whatever I can do. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, I love it. Yeah, yeah, just keep on keeping on. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's all good. Well, we got to get out here because Mike's going to get us— Sunil's kicking us out at 6. Oh, pack it up.

1:01:04Are you going to Tools? Oh yeah, I'll be at Tools. Yeah, I got a whole crew from Millsboro coming up. Yeah, I'll be up there. Cool. Yeah, yeah, checking things out, checking things out. Well, don't get too far into everything else that we miss you in this world. Oh, you got so much to contribute still. Well, I appreciate what the industry's done for me, and, and everything I can give back to it, I'm more than happy to.

1:01:29Um, I, I just want to be— I just want to talk common sense and give you real world stuff. Yes. You know, if, if I hurt, I'll tell you I hurt. Yeah. If I tell you I'm Riding high, riding high. I'll tell you all my warts. I'll tell— I don't care. You can learn anything about me you want. Yep. I don't care.

1:01:48No KPI talk, none of that stuff. Just real stuff. No. Yeah. Tell you my music, my history, what I've done. Done some stupid stuff. Yeah. You know, it was fun though. It was fun. Oh God, it was fun. I'm still here. Yeah. I don't know how. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I just I don't know, Tanika, I've had a really great life.

1:02:09Good. And it's still a great life. It's still a great life. It's still a great life. I got a great family, got a really, really, really great wife who's honest as the day is long. Can't stand how honest she is. Tears me up. But if she wasn't, you'd probably have an ego like this. She'd be like, "Oh, honey, please sit down." She will reel you back in.

1:02:31Back in. She takes me down in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. And I'm going, what? Yeah, you know, hey, you'd rather hear from her than the outside sources. Oh yeah, it's just like, why didn't you tell me I have a booger in my nose? She's the one that's like, hey, yeah. But then, you know, like today, like I forgot some stuff that I'm— that I, I packed my own son.

1:02:53I normally do, but I called her up, I go I forgot my socks. I forgot my pair of shoes. I said, I go, "Honey," I said, "How come you're not here?" And she's like, "Uh-huh." Exactly. I told you. Yeah. I love it. I love it. That's good. Well, then I'll see you in a couple weeks. Yeah. Pennsylvania. Okay. And I really enjoyed sitting down and talking to you.

1:03:16I love this. I love it. This is good. Love just getting real. This is good. And sharing what we've been through. And knowing you're a Capricorn, Yeah, that's even better. Yes, yes. You know, not too many of us, uh, kind of want to chirp about ourselves a little bit, but yeah, you know, because we can be some mean people. Oh yeah, I choose to be the nicer Kevin.

1:03:35I can be mean though. Oh, my, my sister, she's a, uh, Leo, and she knows. She goes, I know when I get on your wrong side because you just come in and you go like that. It's— you take action. I can cut my eyes at somebody like nobody's business, like No, we're not doing that today. Yeah, yeah, they reach a point. Yeah, and after that, done, done.

1:04:00Yeah, so, well, it's a great time. I really appreciate you having me on. Absolutely. Yeah, we're gonna do it again. Okay, do it again. Yeah, 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.

1:04:28You 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.