Why Most Shop Owners Stay Stuck | Jimmy Lea - Ep 16

0:00If you're trying to present because you want the spotlight, you want the light shine on you, I want the fame, I want the fortune, that's a flash in the pan. If you want endurance, if you want longevity, bring value. Bring value to the service advisors, the managers, the owners. Welcome to Downshift with Tanika Haynes, the Automotive Auntie. The thing about Tanika, she gets to know you.

0:24She'll laugh and cut up with you, but then she'll hit you with some knowledge that you may not want, but that you need. Let's downshift. We need— so I've downshifted, I'm relaxed, I'm easy going, I am ready for the conversation. Ready for the conversation. So I've got the jacket on today. I wore this at Tools last year. I don't even think I can wear it again because you can only wear a jacket once, right?

0:52Uh, no, no, you can wear it many times. I'll bedazzle this jacket, that will be fun. Oh, there you go. That'll be good. So tell me this, what are you up to today? What do you do when you don't have a jacket on? When I'm at home working. At home working and you're not in Jimmy Lee mode. What is Jimmy Lee mode?

1:19I don't know, you're a whole vibe, Jimmy Lee. You're like the most— one of the most positive people I think, in my opinion, in the industry, very positive, very uplifting. I just enjoy when you show up, like you show up on purpose. Like, do you feel like you show up like that all the time? Like your energy is there all the time?

1:44Yeah, I do. Yeah, that's, that's me. So when I unplug, and this is what you're asking is, what do I do after the hotel door closes? And the jacket comes off. Yeah. And the jacket comes off. Yeah. I, uh, there is definitely an adrenaline low. Mm-hmm. It's an adrenaline high when I'm with people, batteries charging. I get charged. I'm excited. I love it.

2:14I want more. I love being around people. I love the interaction. I love talking, talking shop, talking networking, talking marketing, talking sales, talking what can we do to make a difference in the industry? What can we what can we do to make a difference for shops? I absolutely love, love, love, love doing that. We can tell. There are some people that being around people is exhausting.

2:43And for me, it's not exhausting. I love it. I love talking to people. And so what do I do when the hotel door closes? I hit an adrenaline low. And I need just a few minutes to just sit, unwind, relax, be peaceful. And I think of nothing. I don't want to think of anything. I don't want to talk to anybody. I just want to veg for 20 or 30 minutes.

3:19Same. And then I'm ready to go again. Same. I like to think of it— I was like, I need to walk away and, um, just go to my room and look at the wall and look at the traffic. Like, for me, it was a traffic circle at Vision. I could see the traffic circle outside of my window. Yeah, just watch people figure out that they cannot get out of the traffic circle, right?

3:43Entertaining myself with that. Um, so yeah, well, that's good to know. So I hear you when you speak, you're on stage, you're doing the Jimmy Lee, you're encouraging, but you've taken— I'm not saying it's not you, but you've taken courses to improve upon that. I'm interested in that. Yeah. Um, just like any bodybuilder doesn't walk out of the gym the first day and they're jacked.

4:11It's a lifetime. It's a life skill.. It's a skill that has to be honed and polished and worked on because if you don't work it, then you lose it. I used to play the piano. I can't play so well anymore. I used to play the trombone. I don't play so well anymore. I haven't played for 30+ years. So, you lose that talent.

4:36Same with speaking. You want to hone your craft. You want to own your craft. So, just like we talk about service advisors honing their craft and becoming better, they're not a Class A service advisor on day one. It takes time, effort, energy. It takes a coach. It takes reviewing phone calls, reviewing estimates, reviewing invoices, reviewing customers. Same with speakers. You've got to hone your craft.

5:09What is your opening sentence? What is your opening line? And that is the opening line that will hook them or not. What are you going to say? And then every story behind that has to support it. I work hard to not ever read slides. Slides for a speaker, a slide helps you to remember where you are and where you're going and what you're doing.

5:47The amount of content that should be on a slide deck should be low. The workbook should be read. The slideshow is just to remind you where you are in your presentation. I watched you work the stage in Vision, the last class on Sunday. I didn't get to stay for the whole, I had to leave. Your interaction with the crowd, calling people by their names, making people feel important.

6:17Like, I'm sitting here listening to you talk right now and I'm trying to figure out how I can be more Jimmy Lee-ish. We should get bracelets. What would Jimmy Lee do? What would Jimmy Lee say? How does that intertwine into your life? Like, I know that every day you're not wearing the beautiful shiny jackets when you walk through life every day. But do you wear like a virtual jacket that you put on every morning?

6:42Or— Yeah, yeah, I think we all wear a mask to a degree. And you put on your persona, you put on your outfit for the day, you put on your mindset. And mine is a mindset that always, always, always, always looks for the positive, always looks for the positive in every situation. I'm always looking for what is that silver lining in this situation?

7:15What can we take positive out of this? So that's me. So if you ever, you're in a situation and you need a positive spin, Come talk to me. I can help you find it. Get the bracelet. What would Jimmy Lee say? Yeah. Yeah. WWJLS. We'll get those out at ASTA. Yeah. Yeah. So, so not only looking at the positive, when it comes to stress and stressful situations, we already know what to do.

7:51We've been to the trainings, paid for the coaching. Learn the right way to inspect cars, build estimates, and talk to our customers. That's not the problem. The problem is consistency, because some days it only works when the right person is working, and when they're not, it's a whole different shop. So now you're stuck in that cycle. You need a strong team to run a great shop, but you need a great shop to attract a strong team.

8:12Make 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. Now that's not just based on memory or mood. That's how Shop Runs. And let me tell you, I've been using it for over a year now.

8:41My 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. Humor is my go-to. Okay. It might not be appropriate, but that's how I deal with stress is to have those conversations and to find the laughter in it. Yeah. Because eventually, hopefully we all laugh about it.

9:13Right. It's like, well, don't do that again. I like to think that I, kind of am similar in that. But for me, it has to— it's been, um, a learning experience. And that has to also— it's been coming from the people that I surround myself with. Like, if you can surround yourself with a bunch of negative people, then you're going to end up negative.

9:33Same thing, you know, you want to be, be with the smartest people in the room. You want to stay with smart people, stay with the positive people, whatever. And I think you do a wonderful job at doing that. So I wanted to give you those flowers. And that's another thing, I've been trying to give people their flowers like now, a whole lot more often.

9:49But you do that for the industry, period. When you're— we're on stage, when you're in the room, when you got your Route 66 belt on, you bring it. And a lot of us need it. Um, a lot of shop owners need that. Do you feel like you have a responsibility in the industry to keep that up? Like, is that the role that you've been set here to play?

10:10Like, how long have you been in the industry? That's a good question. So, if you go back to when I started in the automotive vertical, if you will, 2010, I was with Log My Calls selling call tracking phone numbers. They don't exist anymore in that form. The company's now called Conversa. And right along with Log My Calls was a company called ContactPoint, customer service and sales skills.

10:39And I was selling training for, uh, for the automotive industry, for the rent-to-own industry, for the mobile mini industry, storage industry, uh, construction equipment industry, the rent-to-rental. And I swore I would never get back into coaching and training because it's really tough to have that conversation that says, hey, your baby's really ugly. He's got a nice head of hair, but— but I know how to make it nice, and I know how to make it pretty, and I know how to change it so that baby will be pretty.

11:16So we did a lot of secret shopping, a lot of phone calls, a lot of sales and customer service skills training. One day they booked more conferences than they had people to present. So the CEO was going here, the president was going here, the vice president of marketing was going here, and they had another event and they said, hey Jimmy, you do you want to go to middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere and present at this rent-to-own company, uh, business, uh, conference?

11:52And I was like, yeah, yeah, I'd love to. You say yeah. I said, yeah, no, I'm in. So I went and I was hooked. I was hooked. Hooked. Yeah, hooked. It was so fun. It was so engaging. It was so awesome. Just taking this— so weird— this audience on this journey. I want to be able to give and speak and jimmy lee it like you do.

12:31Like, I feel like I was wondering, how do you do it? Like, in this stage of my life, I've been saying, you know, I laugh a lot, I joke a lot. And you were just telling me that first speech that I did at the Institute, at the summit. Yep. Um, I was really blessed to be— so someone to even ask me to do that.

12:50But then I know that we all have a story to tell, right? Yep. And we all have like people to touch, things to do. And you're doing it like every day. This is your job. Your job is to uplift people and teach people how to do it. As a matter of fact, Jimmy, what is your job? What is your job at Institute?

13:11What is your title? That is— I'm the Vice President of Business Development. Did business development. I would have never guessed that. You're just— how did you become the spokesperson for the industry though? Right? You feel like you're that person? So, if you go back to it, and I love him, I love him, I love him. And I already told you I got hooked in 2010 speaking.

13:36I was at a conference in Dallas, Texas. We were in the basement for an ASA National Conference Trade Show. I was in the basement and I went up to Bill Haas and I said, hey Bill, this is who I'm looking for. That's using call tracking numbers and marketing companies, websites, postcards, anything marketing realm that needs to prove that their marketing works. Who do I go talk to?

14:00And he, he gave me 5 people to go talk to. And I sold this one. I sold this one. I couldn't get ahold of this one. This one was already using call tracking. And then Then I demoed the last one and the last one says, hey, I'm not going to buy your product, but I love your pitch. I love your passion. I love what you're talking about.

14:17I need a spokesperson. I need somebody to come and speak like you speak because I'm not a speaker, but I need a speaker to evangelize the business. And I was like, yeah, yeah, okay. No, I got this big deal coming. Yeah, you and everybody else. Well, it did come through and, uh, I was working at AutoVitals. Oh, okay. I was at AutoVitals for 4 years talking about digital vehicle inspections and I went all over all, almost every state.

14:56I traveled to almost every state except for North Dakota, South Dakota. Yeah. North Dakota, South Dakota. I think those were the only two states that I didn't present in with the digital vehicle inspections. And then I switched and went to Kukui and I was at Kukui for 5 and a half years. It doesn't feel like 5 and a half because you got COVID in the middle of that and that just screwed up everything.

15:23The whole timeline is just messed up. And then had an opportunity to come here to the Institute. So to your question, your question is, how do you present? How do you take that spotlight? How do you be that presenter that engages the entire audience? And it's probably the most simple, difficult thing that you can do. Simple and difficult meaning, you have to bring value.

15:52If you're not bringing value to the conversation, value to your presentation, value to the audience, then you shouldn't present. If you're trying to present because you want the spotlight, you want the light shine on you, I want the fame, I want the fortune, that's not the— that's a flash in the pan. If you want endurance, if you want longevity, bring value. Bring value to the service advisors, the managers, the owners.

16:21Bring value to the audience. What do they need? What is it that they can implement on their own? So a lot of my presentations, I will say that. Here's the things you can implement on your own. And yes, you can go and do this. This is easy. You can't break this. This is stuff you ought to have somebody hold your hand. Get a nerd, get somebody, get a millennial that knows that, get a digital native.

16:42And I say nerd with all the love and compassion that I possibly can, because I love my nerds. They have knowledge and information in areas that I am not an expertise. I can go to them and in 5 minutes, they'll do something that might take me 5 hours. 5 days. 5 days. Yes, ma'am. Absolutely correct. So bringing value to the audience, that's what you have to do, or it doesn't make any sense, or you shouldn't do it, or it just won't connect.

17:15Because now people can smell it. They can smell, oh, this is all about you. Mm-hmm. That's the same thing. I think that could apply to service advisors and the front office in a shop. All the things that you just said. Yeah. What do you think, Ash? Because I'm thinking if you've got someone that comes to you with a problem and you make the problem about, well, you know, we can do this for you, and we can do this, and we can do this, and we've got these accolades, and we, and we're, and we're, us, us, us, us, us, and you forget about the customer's needs and wants and, uh, what they're actually there for, then

17:50that could be very off-putting. So what you said just can apply to shop owners and service advisors all the same. It's going back to like human nature. You want to be heard, you want to be seen, you want to feel important. Yeah, we're gonna help keep you safe on the road. We're going to repair your vehicle. We're going to make sure that you are safe on the road, because keeping you safe on the road also keeps me safe on the road.

18:15Exactly. But it's all about you right now. It's your baby, your vehicle, your money, your investment. Yes. So do you— what, what do you think? How— I mean, you're going to be with the Institute forever because that, that is— you guys have a big old family going on, but you do other things outside of the Institute. Yeah. Do you do other speaking engagements?

18:35Um, I'm available to do them, and no, I have not done much outside of the automotive industry and outside of the Institute yet. That's my favorite word here lately is yet for me. Yeah. Yet. Um, well, cause I saw that you had, you know, you take the trainings and you, you got a certificate or something that was pretty cool that you— I did.

18:57I got the Certified Speaking Professional. It's a CSP. Designation with the National Speakers Association. That's so cool. It is. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Uh, as far as I know, I'm the only one in the automotive aftermarket that has earned this designation. Yes, though there are many others who could earn it were they to apply for it. Yeah, uh, a lot of the coaches and trainers— I mean, that, that this is the industry of speaking.

19:27How can you improve your teaching? How can you improve your training? Yes, you may be able to come and give a lot of really good high intellectual information that goes right over the head of most people, but are you able to connect with the human adult learning as opposed to the way we were taught in elementary school and high school and middle school?

19:53That's a different, that's adolescent learning. Child learning. So the trainer needs to be trained. The trainer needs to be trained. The speaker needs to be trained. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the art of what we're doing with the National Speakers Association is there are coaches there that help you to improve your speaking skills and improve your presentation. Not only that, there's our speaker business as solopreneurs.

20:20A lot of these speakers are solopreneurs. They're out hustling. It's the gig economy for them. If they don't sell a gig, they don't put food on the table. Yeah. Yeah. So during Vision, well, after Vision, on the socials, because you know the social media is so important, people were complaining about the training. But I don't know if the training is like, oh, it's the same old thing, the same old thing.

20:46But maybe, just my thought, It was in the delivery and the trainers are doing an excellent job with the material, but it's the delivery that's the issue. The delivery. And could it also be that the technicians, the service advisors, are getting better and they don't need basic intermediate level information anymore? They do need advanced information, advanced level. So it could be one of two things, or it could be a combination of both, right?

21:21It's a different lipstick on the same pig. Well, then that gets redundant. I agree. If we need different levels of training now— here's a beginner level, here's an intermediate level, here's an advanced level— then yes, we should be advancing our skills and our level of delivery and the information we deliver. But what becomes difficult is somebody coming into an advanced class talking about Google, Google My Business, and they barely know how to turn on a computer.

21:55I've had that happen. Yeah. So I'm going to— oh, I found out from Sarah and Tracy because I took some of that class. My word. I don't say, um, I say so. So that's your, uh, so, so mental placeholder. That's my mental placeholder. I am working on that. I almost did it just then. And for the rest of this conversation, I am going to try very hard not to say that word.

22:30Excellent. Excellent. What I was going to ask you is about coaching versus going at it alone. You seem like a coachable type person. Oh, absolutely. Like, you seem like— you, you're not— you don't seem— you are a person that people look up to. You're a leader. How do you feel about coaching? I know you work for the industry, um, you work for The Institute, which is a coaching company.

22:57How do you think that applies to life in general? Let's not talk about cars, let's just talk about life, because you seem like you have it all together. I'm not going to assume that you always have it all together because that would be amazing and I want some of that pill. You're right. Yeah. No, they don't make them like that. So in the, in the coaching industry, yes, we do coach and train and teach shop owners.

23:21Um, and probably the best example I have of why a shop owner needs a shop coach Goes to the point that a lot of people we talked to here recently are like, hey, you know what? I know I need coaching and training, but I'm going to get this fixed first. I'm going to get this fixed. I'll get this fixed. And then, and then I'll come talk to you.

23:43And the analogy is, you know what? I'll bet you clean up your house before the maid shows up to clean your house. Right? I do. Why? Why are we doing that? Okay. We can clean up the clutter, but we're not cleaning the house. Because they don't— it does happen. I can— oh wow, that's, that's a great analogy. So why would you as a shop owner say, oh no, no, no, no, no, hold on, hold on, hold on, I've got to get my, my GP up first before I can hire a coach?

24:18That's why you need a coach, because a coach is going to help you not only do it right, but do it faster. Just like we talk about our computer nerds that do it in 5 minutes, versus 5 hours or 5 days, Coach is going to help you get there faster. So, what should your return be? How quickly can you judge if coaching is effective or not?

24:38And it becomes 2 parts. One is it should take— in the 3 to 6 months, you should see a hockey stick in your business, meaning you've been cruising along at this net profit and then now coaching you should hockey stick up to a new level of understanding. 3 to 6 months. On the flip side of that, if you are going to a coach and never doing your homework, shame on you.

25:06You will never change. Your business will be the same today, tomorrow, and forever. It will never change. No amount of leading that horse to the water will make that horse drink. Yeah, I'll keep asking that question to other coaches. Like, when do you tell that person, look, dude, you're wasting my money. Like, you're wasting your time, you're wasting my time, you're wasting my money.

25:30You know what I mean? The first company, coaching company that I've ever worked at where if you're not doing your stuff, we're gonna ask you to move on down the line. Mm-hmm. We're here to build the industry. And we'll take your money to a certain degree, but at some point that is not painful enough for you to do your homework, that's not painful enough for you to change, then we either need to raise our price with you because it's not working or you're not working it.

26:03And the most of the time is because people aren't working it. They're not doing their homework. Anytime you meet with a coach and that session is an hour every other week, Yep. Every week you should probably have in the range of 4 to 5 hours of homework that you've gotta do working on your business now. From that 1-hour session, you should have 4 to 5 hours that you gotta work on it.

26:28I don't think we can put it into work every week. I, I just can't stay. I know like my homework is late and the accountability partners, they'll call you out on it or whatever, but I'm not the best student. Jen's gonna get me. I haven't done my homework the last 2 weeks. I haven't. I've been trying so much. Yeah, yeah. Well, I know.

26:51Yeah, delegation. I've been doing really good. That's one thing that I can say with the Institute, that I was able to more effectively delegate and get out of my own way. Yeah, so I can do the working on the business part. Yeah, I am literally not on the front desk anymore. It feels so good. It was scary, but now it feels really, really good.

27:16And I don't know what the mindset, what that shift change was for me. I'm gonna have to dig into that. I'll have to sleep, think about that. But, um, what do you think is the one mindset shift that shop owners have that they get the aha moment And then they start to drink the Kool-Aid and then they can start to build the business that they've been dreaming of and they're getting out of their own way.

27:38Yeah, I think they go in phases. Most shop owners grow up in the shop, so they grew up turning a wrench and they love working on cars. And at some point they go through this, oh, I can do it better than you. I can be a better owner than you. I'm going to do this on my own. And so they bust out and do it on their own.

27:56What they don't realize is that that the shop used to charge $100 an hour and you thought because they were only paying you $20 an hour that they were putting $80 an hour in their pocket. Well, that's not true. So here you bust out on your own. You're like, I'm gonna charge $60 an hour. You're a dead man walking. You're, the business takes more than $60 an hour.

28:22Right. So the, they go through these phases of, oh, I can do it better and I can do it on my own.. And as technicians, they've had to learn by that school of hard knocks. I had to figure it out on my own. I had to do it on my own. And there comes a point where, man, I just can't figure it out on my own anymore.

28:39I need to be a business owner. So, there's a phase where they move from being a technician to working in the office. They hire enough techs in the tech that the technicians can work and govern themselves. Now, they're working the front counter, the front office. So that's phase 2. To get them out of phase 2, Tanika, you just barely transferred phase 2 to phase 3.

29:03Business owner, you work on the business, not in the business. And there's phases that people have to go through. You can't just jump in day 1 and say, "All right, you're out of the shop. You're now a business owner." No, you gotta work that owner through those phases to get there so they can get to the position where you are now. That you've got the front counter, you've got the people in place that are taking care of the day-to-day, the business.

29:29They're doing the grinding, they're doing the gears, they are the machine. Front counter's taking care of that business. Technicians, they take care of the cars. You have a finger on the pulse of how well the business is doing, and you are working on the business. You're working on the marketing, you're working on the books, on the profit margins, on the, profit level, on the efficiencies, the proficiencies.

29:54Now you're able to travel to different conferences and trade shows to pour into yourself, more learning for yourself, more things you can take back to your shop and implement to become better. And at some point you're going to look at that and go, wow, we did this with one, let's do it with two. And two's good. Two what? Shops. And then you're going to want to do 3.

30:19Now going from 1 to 2 is like having kids. One child is a handbag. You can take it anywhere. It's easy. We got this. 2 becomes a suitcase, a handbag and a suitcase. 2, if you are not, if you're in the day-to-day and you're having to drag that kid around everywhere that they've got to go, that's what a parent does. And as a business owner, a shop owner, if you are not in a position, if you're not ready to run it as a business, it's gonna become luggage.

30:49It's gonna become a suitcase. And you're gonna have to— everything you do is gonna be right along with that suitcase. 3 shops, for those that aren't doing it right, it becomes a trunk. And you're lugging this trunk everywhere with you. The shop owners that are doing it right are able to put people in place. They have systems, process, procedures. They go from chaos to control, just like Kent's presentation at Vision.

31:14I don't know if you saw that or not. I missed it. Oh man, he had rave reviews. He had everybody in the palm of his hand. It was phenomenal. 78 people, uh, uh, requested a business review. Chaos to control. I think a lot of shop owners think that the chaos is a part of business ownership. You think that you have to have your hand in every bag, on everything.

31:40I'm guilty of that. Yeah, yeah, I'm— yeah, I gotta do this. I've got to put— I've got to talk to each customer. I've got to touch each car. I need to know everything that's going on about everything. I need to do it, do it my way, or, or not. Don't do it at all. It's like, you have to— I gotta touch everything.

31:54Now I kind of laugh at it if I walk up front and I see a customer and it's like, hey Tanika, what's going on with my car? I didn't even know your car was here. Um, I don't know, let's go find out. Let me find your service advisor. And you know, for the, um, customers that have known me for a while, that knew me when I would get there at 9 o'clock in the morning, leave at 9 o'clock at night, and be there 7 days a week, uh, they think it's funny.

32:20And I think they're proud of me, but it's kind of hard to do it. But I think people think the chaos is part of business ownership, and it doesn't have to be chaotic. It can be calm. It can be calm if you design it that way. It can be chaotic if you design it that way. What do you desire? I want both.

32:41I don't mean because people thrive— no, I don't. I love the calm. You want control, and then we will be chaotic at the conference. Yeah, we'll be chaotic at the conference. Conference chaotic. But no, it is so relieving to know that— oh my God, trust me, Jen will laugh at this. All the SOPs and all the leadership training and all the words, you're just like, it's not necessary.

33:03I'm sitting there, I'm telling you, Michael Smith would laugh. I would sit there and it's like, there we go, trying to sell something else. Here we go with the, the word leadership, leadership, leadership, KPIs, SOPs, ABCDEFGs. All that stuff is so legit, man. I love sitting there and writing the process out right now. I love it that I can just put voice chat, GTP, and walk myself, you know, talk myself through what I'm doing, put that thing on paper so somebody else can do it and say, hey, get this done.

33:35Like, Santana's working with me right now, and I said, Santana, this is the task I want you to do. Give that to me, I need it by this date and this time. And I walk away and say, look at me, I'm a boss. And not— and having a staff that is better and smarter than you, and they're capable. Yes, well, let them do it.

34:01Let them do it. It's like I was saying, it's like the kid, you know, your parent. You're saying, okay, your stores are like your kids. You're a parent, and Jimmy can't tie his shoes, but Jimmy's gonna have to figure out how to tie his own shoes. You can tie them every day, or you could Velcro on it, then he'll get picked at as an adult.

34:17But the first time, he might not tie that knot as tight as he should and just let Jimmy do it. I don't care if it takes Jimmy 7 minutes to tie that one shoe. And if Jimmy put his shoes on backwards, let Jimmy put the shoes on backwards. Eventually Jimmy figure out that they hurt his feet, but you gotta teach Jimmy how to do it.

34:36And that is a hard thing to do as a business owner and a mother or father, because you think about it, if you could just go tie Jimmy's shoes, you can get out that door a lot quicker. And get to the grocery store and get it over with. Just brush Jimmy's teeth for him. And I don't know why I'm just— Jimmy, you're the kid right now.

34:53I can do it, I can take it. But you do know how to talk. I'm very guilty of that. Yeah, I'm so good. And you know, it's called micromanaging, but we think if we just— I could just do it myself and do it faster and I know what's right. Do you? Is your right— is your way really right all the time? I don't know.

35:09I've learned that in the shop it's not. I jumped in Workflow the other day because I did, I did that. I was like, I was getting fresh. I'm not a patient person by nature, so it's something I'm working on. And I jump in and I'm like, you know what, let me just do this. And then I did something wrong and I made a mistake, or I sent something to the wrong shop, and I ended up sending the shop a message and I said, see what happens when I try to jump in?

35:30Like, let me just like leave my team to just do it. I've trained them, I trust them, I just need to step back. It's hard. And then it leaves us opportunities to build, build, build, build, build, build. So that mindset that you can run a business, it doesn't have to be chaotic. It can be rewarding. Yeah, you can trust people. But you just got to get the right people in place.

35:56That's right. That's right. So what has coaching done for you, Tanika? Um, actually, it has ruined my night life. I don't know what to do with myself anymore. I got all this time. Whoa, it's me. It's freed me up. It's freed me up. It's lowered my blood pressure. Um, nice. I love to watch my team interact with each other. I love the team that I've built.

36:24Um, some, some of them have not made it. Some of them had to fall by the wayside on the way on this journey of becoming Brown's Automotive, becoming that team. Um, I've loved that I've been able to redirect certain employees and, um, help their mindset and teach them what it is to be like on a team. And the way I've been able to do that is from the coaching that I've had and taking that information back and implementing it, having hard conversations.

36:59Understanding the DISC assessment and how people are different, and you have to talk to people differently, and certain tasks are for certain people. Um, but on a personal level, just watching them interact with each other makes me so happy. It is beyond— it's beyond money. I know that sounds cheesy because you can't buy but so many things, but I know why I feel like I'm making a difference in 8 people's lives right now.

37:30I started out with 3 employees, now I'm up to 8. And yesterday, before I had to run to Charlotte, which is about 2 hours away, I went to the shop just for a second and I walked around and I physically gave everybody a hug because I hadn't been at work for a full day in almost 2 weeks. I was like, I miss you weirdos.

37:54Yeah, this is my team. I'm providing, helping them feed their families. We're learning, we're growing. Technicians are running, learning and growing. Front office learning and growing. I've got one young lady, I know she's not going to be a forever employee because she's in school, but I feel like there's so many things that I can teach her on an auntie level, on a business level, communications.

38:18Things like that, that 10 years from now she'll be able to say, I learned that from Miss Tanika, I learned that from Brown's Automotive, and she'll be able to take that skill into another job. So coaching has allowed me to be the business owner that is really not all about the money. The money comes by default. Yeah, it will come if you set everything in place, you get the right margins, you get your right ARO, you get your right client base, you know, the right customer, the avatar, you do your marketing, right?

38:52You pay your people, right? Your front office is doing their job. It all works out. And so those benchmarks are hit almost magically. Yeah. And you said a key word there, Taneika, is that you have to have it set up right. Right. If it's set up wrong and you think it's magically going to appear, it's not gonna— yeah, it's not gonna fix itself.

39:18No, it's not gonna fix itself. It's not gonna fix itself. There's too many holes, too much to do. And because you don't know what to do, chances are you don't have a coach. You need a coach, right? A coach is that person that can stand back, has no emotional connection to your business or to you. I mean, yes, there is, but there's no emotional attachment.

39:42A coach can say to you, hey, look, you need to raise your labor rate by $60 an hour. I can't do that. People would— Do you know there was a guy Cecil was training, a guy here in Salt Lake area, Salt Lake Valley, doubled his average repair order Uh, sorry, sorry. Doubled his labor rate, doubled his door rate because he attended a conference that Cecil was presenting at.

40:11And, uh, actually turned into a business where it was a very expensive hobby that he was supplementing. Expensive hobbies. A lot of shop owners have that because I think it's not that they're, they're not stupid. They just don't know. But they also, like you say, you come from a technician. Yeah, and the technician that turns into a shop owner, and you think that the boss is making all of the money because you don't understand the, the numbers part.

40:39Yep. But what happens is they think they're helping the community because they're giving away a lower price. Yep, they're selling out. They think— yeah, there's— they think they're helping the community, but yeah, you're just helping people take advantage of you. Yeah, but if you want to be the quality place and you want to Give your employees health insurance. Like, I would have never thought that I could afford health insurance for my employees.

41:03So when a customer complains about the price of stuff, oh, you're, you're higher than this place. I am, but my employees have health insurance and dental insurance and life insurance just like you do. And I mean, I can say it with a smile because I've learned if you say stuff with a smile, it works so nicely. Like, yeah, I, I, there's, um, things that's happening back here like expenses, and my employees are well taken care of.

41:27And they'll say, hmm, I never thought about it like that, because they don't think about the industry as a bunch of professionals. No, no, about the industry is greasy people that just fix cars, just dirty knuckles. But there's a company, and I love buying their stuff. Dirty hands but clean money. Yeah, we're the people, we're the people that are keeping you safe on this road.

41:51Your car is one of the most expensive things that you're going to purchase. Why do you want the cheapest way out? Your car can kill you and your family and people around you. Why do you want the cheapest way out? And why do you want the uneducated technician, shade tree mechanic— we're not going to disrespect, but there's some people like your uncle, cousin, brother, next door's neighbor— to fix this vehicle that keeps you safe.

42:24It lets you go to work to make the money to buy the things that you love, but you want to disrespect the industry and that technician by asking for discounts and things should be cheap and the internet said this and that, whatever. Yeah. Oh yeah, you want to think about the future when we travel to Mars or if we go back to the moon or when we travel to a galaxy far, far away.

42:51I ain't going. Who? Yeah, I don't think I can do it. I don't know. I want to go there. You guys can go. I did the Orange Line at Disney World for going to Mars. You're good. I'm good. Tell me about it. It cured me. I am so good. I'm staying. But those that are gonna go, the first people that are gonna go are going to be technicians.

43:13Those who can fix a machine on the go. Those that can build a plane while everything is falling to the earth. Those that can make stuff happen and make it work, those are the ones that are going to go first to these distant places, to these grand adventures, wherever it might be, whether it's in the depths of the ocean or depths of the Amazon rainforest.

43:38You've got to have technicians, somebody that can be there to figure out the fuel and the air and the combustion. Okay, now the engine's running. Where somebody who doesn't know doesn't know. How do you think we can get more respect for the technicians, the industry, period? Like everybody's talking about changing the industry, changing the industry, but I think we gotta, we have to come up with a plan.

44:02It's, we have to educate the public, the mass public, uh, the moms and the dads, uh, the moms and the dads that have kids in high schools. Where currently the counselors are shoving down everybody's throat, college, college, college. You have to go to college. You have to go to college. No, you don't. No, you don't. You can go to a trade school.

44:27You can— Absolutely. You can. In fact, right now you can live very well in a trade as a tradesman from a trade school. The automotive industry just happens to be the pinnacle of education, training, learning tools, equipment, scanners that is required to do it. If you want to be a good tradesman and carry a small toolbox, HVAC, that's your jam. Be an electrician.

44:56They, they don't have much tools compared to the automotive industry. Yeah. Yeah. 110 and 220. That's, that's all you got to worry about. Well, and there's some that get into the 440s. I had uncles that were line men. Um, and then they started— that's cool. That's hard work. Yeah. Yeah, it is hard work. Then after that, they started their own electrical business for residential, and they're like, man, this is so easy.

45:24Well, I mean, I— my electrician, who's also a customer and a family friend, can't find anybody. But you said it does start at home. It does start at home. Um, I remember Jordan is around December, November was going to school with me, Jordan, my youngest son. Um, he was not himself one morning. He has a very, very bubbly personality. I don't know if you got to meet him at ASTA, but the boy, he was running the, uh, the DJ booth.

45:54Yeah, at the poker night. Yeah. So he's not himself, and I'm like, what's wrong? And he's, Mom, I'm not getting acceptance letters. And I'm thinking So I didn't know you applied. Yeah, you wanted— I had no idea he was applying to 4-year universities. Somehow I dropped the ball being a shop owner, second generation. I had him believing that I, I don't know how I did it, but that you should go to college.

46:21He thought he needed to go to college to make me happy. I was like, no boy, I'm not paying for you to go somewhere for 4 years just to party and end up with a basket weaving degree that you can't do anything with. So there's a, there's a shame there. My own son felt— who family owns a business— felt like he needed to go to university.

46:44Yeah. So, but we sent him to UTI. He went there and he soared. Now he's down at the Mercedes School in Florida. He's going to school. Yeah. So yeah, I think it is a great idea to get more trades in the school. My dad went to school. They had an automotive program, body shop and mechanical. A lot of these schools don't have that anymore.

47:04When I was in school, you could go to school for barber, cosmetology, nursing, automotive shop, welding. They had all of those little programs in it. What are they doing now? Is there any of that? Uh, I know some schools still have it, but I'm pretty sure like maybe one per district. Yeah, and my high school had like a hand— I don't remember what it was called, but it was like just a hands-on trade class, and it did— it dived into a little bit of each thing.

47:32Like, they learned how to work on circuits, they learned how to do some minor construction, they learned— like, I think one time they touched a car, but it never like went into detail of each trade for people to really figure out what they wanted to do. Hmm, it was like a very broad brush exposure to it all, like a blue-collar home ec class.

47:53Yeah, they would have been better off having a Boy Scout merit badge handbook. Sounds like it. I've been to each one. I love the scouting program for that, the merit badges that they have. I mean, you got people like Steven Spielberg that discovered photography and cinematography because of the Boy Scouts, the photography merit badge. Why do you know that? I'm a Scoutmaster.

48:21I was 18 years old. Okay, how do you know Steven Spielberg? Yeah, I'm putting you on Jeopardy. Yeah, yeah. So, uh, most of your, uh, very first astronauts were all Eagle Scouts. I've got one customer, she's got— I did 4-H. I didn't do any of that stuff. I did, um It was busy. But shoot, your dad threw you the keys when you were 16.

48:49How'd you have to get— there you go. Yeah, I have my own, uh, my own Brown Scout. Oh my goodness, that man— I need a lot of badges. I need a coat with badges on it. I went through the trenches. Yeah, you did. The trenches. It was good. I wouldn't trade it for anything. But like you said, I do agree, Jimmy, that if we had more parents understanding that everybody's not meant to go to 4-year.

49:18Don't waste your money. See what that kid wants to do. Yeah, don't push it on, because even with Santana and Jordan, I never— I knew Jordan. Jordan's been tinkering and playing with Legos since he could crawl. I really knew that with Jordan. But with Santana, I didn't know what he wanted to do. But about 3 weeks ago, he did ask to come work at the shop, um, but I didn't want to force him into it.

49:39I didn't want to force him to, well, this is our family business. You should be here. I want him to want to be there. And he's not a technician. He doesn't have a technical brain at all when it comes to cars anyway. But at the front office, that boy's shining. I'm so tickled. I'm so tickled. I hope he doesn't get to hear this because you're doing a terrible job.

50:01Do better. Go back to work, boy. What are you listening to? You should be— But even we talk about blue collar, but imagine a young girl, young guy who loves cars enough, but they are more of a servant type spirit. Imagine that person at the front desk. Love it. That'd be phenomenal. That would be great. So we have all kinds of ways to get these kids, these young people into the industry.

50:35But, and make the industry look better and actually learn from them, I think by default everything will work out. And we really, like you said, we have to show the public that we are a wonderful industry and we're very important, necessary. Gotta have us. There's no— nobody's going to be driving spaceships like on The Jetsons, and if we did, we would still not have technicians to work on them.

50:57Yep, to work on the spaceships. You know something Lola does is this, like, the skills, the teeny techs. Yes, it is so perfect. I think that is so smart. I want to do that. I think I'm gonna do it this summer. She puts her heart and soul in that. Do you know about that, Jimmy? Oh yeah, she does a phenomenal job having the kids come in and they get to run an air hammer and they get to turn wrenches.

51:20Yeah, it's phenomenal. I think she's doing a phenomenal job. Yes. Yeah, there's a company out in Arizona that it's, um, like a skills lab that they take a car and tools and they go to a school and they like host a class. And I think that's so cool. I think we could be doing a lot more of that. That's true. I think the Institute needs to come up with a template to put that together.

51:46We're working on it. I know you are. We are. We're— in fact, we're working with, uh, Weber, the college, the university, to come up with continuing education certification that— imagine, if you will, as a participant, as a member of the Institute, you take all these classes and courses and they qualify you for college credit. And after so many years, you get a BA, and then you can get a BS, Bachelor of Science.

52:22In leadership, in business management, in— why? Because everything we're doing is what you can also learn in college. Accounting, payroll, HR, marketing, sales. Yeah, I mean, that's the secret background. I went to school for business management and accounting. I have learned far more being in the shop and now owning my own business That is so true. You always do. You, you can learn the theory of it, the theory of it.

52:55You can learn the theoretical, but once you put it into practice, you learn even more. Yeah. Yeah. When you are there in the trenches and now I need a, I need a tool. It has to be metal. It has to be hard. And I need to be this far apart so I can turn this nut here. This, what's that called? Oh, that's a, that's a spanner.

53:17That's British for you. It's a— it's a rant. Okay, something new. I think I learned more from college because I was working at the same time. I took classes on Tuesday and Thursday, but I worked at the shop Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And I would come in because my dad is the shop owner that started off as the technician. Yeah, so there was things that he was missing Yeah, as far as accounting and payroll and tax laws and all of these things, HR things, marketing.

53:52Um, I remember that he used to hate when I would be on Facebook. Oh yeah, I was on your phone. But that is marketing, Dad. I'm telling them what we're doing at the shop. Um, and he didn't get it. So that is that hands-on experience. I feel like that kind of skyrocketed me for sure. I love it, I love it. But I did get on his nerves too.

54:10My, my brother went, uh, he graduated from BYU and has a degree in economics. And then he went to work in the world and he came with me. We were at Nevada Packaging for a while selling boxes and bubble wrap, loose fill tape, that kind of stuff for packaging. And he was there for a minute and then he got it. He trans— he got a different job, the general manager for a warehouse, a toys warehouse.

54:33It was called Mars and they sold toys.. And so he was always in the fulfillment, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not that he was, he had a whole team. But then he came here to Salt Lake and he was working for some real estate companies. And then he went and worked for this big conglomerate PE company. And they said, this is the ceiling, Eric.

54:52You're not going to go any further than this. How come? Business acumen. What do I need to do? Master's degree. Okay. He went, he applied. He got into the University of Utah master's program. In his classes, the instructors up there hated, I'm sure he hated my brother being in this class because he would give the instruction and say, and what should you do?

55:19What's the case study? And the textbook answer, textbook answer, textbook answer. It comes to my brother and says, well, it just, it depends. There's so many factors that you haven't clarified in this situation that I can't give you an honest, good answer. What do you mean? Well, you didn't talk about this, this, and this because it'll affect this in this way. And what about this, this, and this over here?

55:44It'll affect it in this way. You didn't even talk about that. Well, that's not even part of the case study. Yeah, but for me to give you a good answer, don't I need to know this? Because he had real life experience. They had book experience. He had real life experience. Completely different course for him, a completely different class, completely different experience. And I'm certain that those professors were glad when he was done.

56:12Yeah, please get him out of here. He knows everything. Professors never worked a job in their flipping lives. All they did was teach out of a book. Yeah. Some haven't, some have. It just, it's, it depends. Yeah, that's crazy. Those in marketing, uh, will teach you the history of marketing. Mhm. Those that were, uh, accounting, hopefully they were an accountant, hopefully they had some time as, as an accountant.

56:37Hopefully that never changes though. Accounting is pretty like math. Yeah, it is. Yeah, go into core math. Common Core math, oh, forget about it. Oh my goodness, you talking about wanting to fight some kids when they were in school? I was like, I— oh my— I remember, I, I really have a good relationship with their 6th grade teacher still because I wanted to fight Steve Harrison.

57:01Uh-huh. Listen, I'm not trying to learn math again. I know the answer. But you have to show the work, Mom. You got to show the work. I ain't got to show nothing. Yeah, I figured out Oh, that's, that's funny. I would love to finish a degree. I've been to school 3 times, dropped out each time. I'd love to finish one, but that's my struggle is in the real world it's so different.

57:25I get frustrated and I'm like, you know what, I've gotten what I needed from it and I'm gonna go back to the real world. Well, look at Steve Jobs. He never graduated. Steve Jobs never graduated from college. He went to the college, he never paid for college. He would just show up to class, get what he needed, up on the floor at his friend's house, developed Apple.

57:46Apple kicked him out, he developed Pixar, sold Pixar, bought Apple back. So what you're saying, Jimmy, is I don't need a degree to be a genius? Yeah, no, you don't. You really don't. You don't. You're born that way. Yeah. And, and if you had a degree, what would it mean? It's a piece to me, nothing. I think it's just the, the art of completing it.

58:09Yes. And getting past the finish line. But, and I'm a forever student, I want to keep going back. But again, I don't know if I'll ever get to the degree because there's so much unnecessary things you have to do to get a degree. So if I'm not going to go pursue a career in XYZ, why am I going to put myself through the financial and mental strain of things I don't need?

58:29So I will probably go back to school 1,700 more times and not finish. Santana's problem right now. Like, Mom, this is not— this has nothing to do with life. Um, there's a lot of, uh, online schools that you could probably— yeah, I'm obsessed with Coursera. That's what I love. Oh, nice. Have you heard of it? I haven't. No, no. Yeah, so it pulls courses from universities, so it's all actual accredited college courses, and you pay $60 a month And you can just do a course at your pace, get the certification, do another course.

59:07Yeah. Nice. That's, that's awesome. So to wrap it up, it sounds like shop owners, Coursera, get your degree. Well, don't micromanage. Sign up for coaching at the Institute. Um, get a coach. Everybody needs a coach. I know some people are like, no, Tanika, everybody doesn't need a coach. I believe that everybody needs some sort of coaching, whether it's in your life or in your business.

59:29Because you don't know what you don't know, and you need to get out of your own way. And once you do all of that, all the gifts from God will come and fall upon you, and you will be more successful than you were the day before. And you can do that with the Institute. And Jimmy Lee, tell them, how do they get in touch with the Institute?

59:46Go right to our website, wearetheinstitute.com. Click on get a demo or get a business review. Let's connect. Uh, we're all over all the social medias. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Yeah, we're on TikTok. Go to YouTube. We have tons of content on YouTube. There have been people that have come to us after going through all 161 hours of content that we've got on YouTube and, and implemented it in their shop.

1:00:15And they're like, oh my gosh, we implemented this, we implemented this, we did this, we did this. We're ready for coaching now. Give me more, give me more. All right, well, you've probably done everything. All right, let's do it. So we, yeah, there's a ton of content there that you can implement from YouTube. Come to our intensives. We have a leadership intensive, a financial intensive, sales intensives.

1:00:40These are 2 to 3 day courses that you come right into Ogden, Utah. So if you're a snowboarder, come to the winter ones. If you're a mountain biker, come to the summer ones and we'll just go have a good time. We'll learn and have fun and it will just take it up to the next level. In October, we've got our Marketing for Automotive Repair Shops.

1:01:01MARS. MARS marketing conference in Mars in October. It's not in Mars, but it's at the headquarters. You're so unserious. I love it. I love your energy. I love your life. I love that, um, you are such a bright light in the industry. If no one has told you that, I'm telling you that now. And just, we ask that you continue to do what you're doing.

1:01:27And teach us how to duplicate it and how to make it whole trickle effect and help us bring the industry up one day at a time, one shop at a time, one shop at a time. Well, Jimmy, I do appreciate you spending the time with us today. Thank you, Tanika. I appreciate you. I want to say thank you as well, just for being who you are, because every single time I get to see you somewhere, it's the highlight of the event.

1:01:53I'm like, oh, I'm going to a SEMA and I see Jimmy and I'm like, yes. And you always remember my name. And I'm like, that just makes me feel good. Yeah, it's like a beacon. It's this— the coat is everything. It's, it's so much more than just a coat. And we do appreciate it. Well, thank you. And one of these times we'll have to have a conversation about Back to the Future and Doc Brown, and we'll tell you all about the jackets.

1:02:16Uh-oh, that's scary. 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. You will hear stories from shop owners, technicians, and other industry leaders who are figuring it all out by themselves in real time.

1:02:47This is a space for growth, Tough love, laughter, and leveling up.