Why Young People Aren't Choosing the Trades | Zeb Beard and Benjie Burris - Ep 19

0:00We've been worried about everybody's feelings and being politically correct. You know what caused a lot of that shit? What's that? God-blessed cell phones. We no longer make eye contact, interact with people, and we can't— we don't read body language. We don't give a shit. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that I could blame it on cell phones, though. I don't know what to blame it on.

0:19It's changed in everybody, not just in our— what I'm getting back to, it's not just in our trade. That's the reason this AI stuff's taking over, because you can't get You can't get a person to do it, so you got to create a robot to do it. Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Taneka Haynes. We all know as shop owners, sometimes you got to slow down in order to speed up.

0:39And that's what this podcast is all about. It's time to downshift. All right. I don't know what the hell I was thinking bringing both you guys on the podcast at the same time. I asked you last night, you sure about this? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Reels. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My two favorite bros. Two country boys. Two country boys that's doing it right though.

1:04I don't care how much them city folks say, doing it right. All you guys are doing it right, and I look up to both of you guys. So here's the damn thing, I don't know who's going to get us in the most trouble, you or Zell. Have y'all done a podcast together? Never. We been together on one. Really? Nope. Yes. Nope. Yeah, yeah, that's how I got to know Benji.

1:24I heard him on a podcast. I don't remember whose it was. It was Jeff's. Was it on Jeff's? Jeff's. I said, I got to meet this fool. He's my kind of people. Yeah. And we've been friends ever since. That's when, like, I don't know what I heard you say, but I was like, that joker ain't got a lick of sense. I think if my daddy was a skinny white boy, he would be dead.

1:40He said some shit. I was like, that's my daddy. I was like, Dad, there's a guy. He got a big-ass shop just like you got a big-ass shop. And he lives in his shop. And they was like, you live in the shop? I said, yeah, I live in the shop. I was like, I got to meet him. And Jordan's like, yeah, he reminds me of granddaddy a whole lot with the stuff that you say.

1:55So that's that. What are we talking about today? It's my podcast. I should know. We're going to give lessons in how to speak properly. Me and Zeb. Yeah, we're going to work on the King's English. We're going to teach you how to do double negatives. That's right. Yep. You don't too. Ain't no. Ain't no. All these— what do they call them when you put two words together?

2:18Can't think of it right now. The double— It ain't conjunctions. It's what is it? Something like that. Conjunction junction. Maybe that's it. What's your function? So it's going to be English class. Ain't, won't, weren't. All the good stuff. Won't, mhm, about to, yont to, yont to, yont to. Uh, give me one, give me one from out in the Midwest. Out yonder. Out yonder.

2:44Narn. Narn. Narn. Absolutely. Not nam. Narn. Not a nary damn one, I bet. Nary damn one. Braxton is over there like he's cringing. Is it a Word on my toe? Is that how you say it? No, I ain't never heard that word before. When you put two words together? I don't think we don't call it that. No, no, no, no, no. You can put that— put that encyclopedia up.

3:08We got some shit in there. What's that? Compound word? No, are you saying double entendre? That's not what that is. No, no, y'all trying to get too fancy. We ain't that fancy. I went to college for a little bit. I said, I said conjunction, and you said the actual word for it? No, conjunction, junction. I was just singing the damn— she was singing the song from the elementary.

3:29Yeah, yeah, from the PBS conjunction. Yeah, that's what I'm going with. I don't know if that sounds good. That's what we're using. Sounds good. All right, so I think I picked you guys because I was like, oh, Zeb, brother keeps saying, oh, she won't even record with me. So Zeb did— he did an intro for me and, um, Braxton because I was like, I want these two to do my intro.

3:48And we're gonna rotate them. But Zeb's intro, we're gonna do it. Are we gonna do it? We can redo it here. I don't know if I can do it again. It's one of them things you just get it. You gotta hit it. It never works. You got it. It took me 3 or 4 times. But we can't say the bros and the hoes.

4:06We can't say bros and the hoes? That's the best part. What was wrong with that part? I don't know. I was like, it's like for regular bros and for regular hoes. Yeah, that's it. That's what I thought. And that's what it's like. It's for regular bros. For regular hoes. That's right. No, but I think you guys are important to sit here together because I think you're two powerhouses.

4:28And you know it. You know it. Oh, yeah. You don't take the credit for it. And I feel like when I'm listening to your stories that you have similar upbringings. Not like with the family or whatever, but I think you came up in the industry kind of the same. Yeah, yeah. Like you had a dream. Yep. You had a dream. And the way you've built your business and the way you've built your business, even though they're not the same, You have the same leadership style.

4:53He might cuss a little bit more and be a little bit more dramatic with it. You've toned it down just a little bit with your old age. I've toned it down quite a bit. I have. But with that toning down has allowed me to expand that leadership a little bit more and get the hell out more. Because you're never at work. Now this one won't sit down.

5:13No, I got to be there. Yeah. But okay, not to be nosy, I'm 49. I'll tell everybody all day. Black don't crack. I know. That's right. And how do you— I'm 47. Okay. Benji, you're 40? Just turned 49. Just turned 49. Just turned 49. So we're finna hit 50. And I've been in the business on my own for 10 years, but my whole life since I was 16, I got a check since I was 16.

5:41So y'all do the math. I'm not doing all of that. We just had an English class. With your wisdom and maturity, first of all, did you think you would be where you are now? And secondly, what in the hell have you learned in all of these years of being in this crazy industry that has nothing to do with a damn car? Oh, shit.

5:59We ain't got 6 hours, do we? We got an hour and a half. Damn. I always dreamed of being where I was. Yeah. I had my doubts at times, but I always dreamed of being where I am now. Like, if you had asked me I entered the workforce at 14 years old, and at that time I had— my vision was to be exactly where I am now.

6:22Now, it was so huge and so large that I never imagined that I would ever get there. But now I probably passed— I probably passed my wildest dream that I had. Did you ever, when you thought you were not going to get there, Did you dial it back at any time? I never dialed it back because I'm not a dialer backer, you know.

6:44Zeb turned it up more. He keeps taking it to the next level. There was times that I thought I might not make it, you know, what I wanted to be. At times I thought about reserving myself to whatever I was doing, but— 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.

7:07That's not the problem. The problem is consistency, because some days The thing is, it only works when the right person is working, and when they're not, it's a whole different shop. So now you're stuck in that cycle. You need a strong team to run a great shop, but you need a great shop to attract a strong team. Make it make sense. That's why I rock with Detect Auto.

7:25Detect Auto streamlines your service processes with automations that save time, increase maintenance sales, and improve productivity without changing your whole system. It plugs in, Guides your team through inspections, recommendations, and even customer communication. Now that's not just based on memory or mood. That's how a shop runs. And let me tell you, I've been using it for over a year now. My ARO is up 63%.

7:52That'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. I never totally gave up on it, you know. I always had it in the back of my mind. Yeah. And I strayed. I mean, I didn't go straight here. I mean, I did, man. I did carpenter work.

8:12I drove a skidder. I worked in the log woods. I've, you know, I've done a little bit of everything. But you had a family you had to support. Yeah. And I— but I always— motivate you. I always came back to this. Whatever I was doing, it always, in a way, it pushed me back to this industry. If I was I mean, like one, one summer I built a house, a huge house.

8:34I helped build it. And even when I was up there hammering boards, hammering nails together or hammering boards and nails together, I'd end up over there working on the— on the company truck, on the company truck or the equipment or whatever like that too. I always ended up with a wrench in my hand no matter what I was doing. So, so I ain't never got away from it.

8:55I started at 13 and I've told the story, you know, I wanted a horse. My parents said, you want a horse, get a job. And I got a job at a 2-bay service station and I worked for that man for 17 years until I got pissed off and threw the radiator across the shop and said, you know, F you, I'm done, and left.

9:11But I've always been in this industry. Never, never see myself anywhere else. But I think whenever I started, I never really dreamed of owning my own shop. I didn't. And if I had, I think I would have backed up a little bit and did a little bit more of the business side of it because damn, I made some stupid-ass choices. I mean, just screwed up.

9:38And that's what I've told a lot of guys. Look, I might not be able to tell you how to do it exactly right, but I can tell you how not to do it, right? Because I've made the mistakes, been there and done that. That's important that people hear that. Because, you know, looking at you and looking at— looking at this dungalunga over here, he's like, "You think you got it all together."

9:56Nah, dude, I messed up. Like, when we talked last, you was talking about, there's plenty of times I laid on the floor and I prayed to God. I was like, "Dude, help me." But then, I think the best part of that conversation is, you got your ass up and you did the work. Like, I was in a meeting and somebody was talking about, "I go home and I pray to God."

10:12And I was like, "Then what did you do after that?" Like, cause you thought he was gonna come knock on the door and just like rescue you, he's gonna see like a light and say, here my child, I've come to give you. Like, I believe that the Lord gives you everything that you're gonna have when you're born. You already got it. You just have to figure out how to dig it out and use it.

10:27And like, you definitely have done a good job at that. So kudos. So that guy that you worked from when you were 17, then you threw a radiator. Why? You an asshole or he was an asshole? No, no, I distinctively remember what happened. It was a— it was an older Honda and I was bolting the fans back on and I put the wrong bolt in it and I run the bolt through the radiator and instead of defecting that radiator out, he had me take it back out and put some JB Weld on the bottom of it and put it back together, let it set up, put it back together.

11:00Well, the next day it was leaking and I told him, I said, all right, now we got to get it. We got to get a radiator for this thing. Well, if you wouldn't run a damn bolt through it, we wouldn't have this problem to start with. And it just hit me wrong. And I threw the radiator across the shop and told him to kiss my ass.

11:15And that was after I'd worked for him for 17 years. Now, in full disclosure, the man was more like a father than he was a boss. So— and I went back and later on went back and tried to work things out. To this day, we have a great relationship still because He's a half a mile from my shop, so he's still alive.

11:36Still, you know, one of the, one of the biggest influences in my life, right, was, was Avery Whitley. So you're talking about the guy in the junkyard was a big influence in your life as well. Yeah, he was the coolest son of a bitch I ever met. I thought he was. I mean, how we got started with him, we just started racing dirt track cars, right?

11:52And at that time you'd buy all your parts for your car. You know, you didn't go buy a new engine. You go to the junkyard and find one. And so that was our junkyard guy. And we'd pull up there and he had a, he had a race truck and a fast boat and all this. And I thought, man, this is the coolest guy I've ever met.

12:10And we made friends. We lived on a big ranch with a bunch of ponds on it. And I love bass fishing, of course. So me and him got to be friends. I was just a kid. He was probably, he's probably in his 30s and I was 14, 15 years old. And he would come go fishing with me on those ponds and Then he ended up giving me a job and then I worked for him and he was a big influence.

12:32I wanted to be just like him. And in ways now I'm a lot like him, you know, still to this day. Yeah. I think about when they talk about, people are talking about the technician shortage and this, that, and whatever. And listening to both of you, it sounds like you were built, somebody built you guys to be a tech. You've got naturally born talent.

12:49I'm sure you've got naturally born talent, but there took the old man that you worked for 17 years and the guy From the junkyard, they pull that stuff out of you. You've done a wonderful job in leadership and pulling great things out of people. And I'm pretty sure you do the same thing. Your method has changed quite a bit because you have really been focusing on the leadership.

13:08How does that change your business? Has that changed you building the techs? Because you have a strong young staff. To start with it, it changed me enough to where I had to back up and calm down. And, and I have gotten away from the do it as I say. I don't really give it— do as I say. I've got away from that a whole lot.

13:30And I tell Cody all the time, I said, look, there's, there's more than one way to get to the right answer. It don't have to be just exactly like you think it should be. You got to allow a little bit of freedom, allow the guys to, to make mistakes. And that's something that we've talked about earlier today is, you know, I've told all the guys in the shop, you won't never tear up as much shit as I have.

13:50You won't never break as much stuff. Now, some of them might take that as a challenge sometimes. So, you know, you got to kind of watch that. But look, I got to where I'm at by screwing up. Yeah. And learning and doing it again. Like, like you were saying, you got to get back up. You got to keep going. So being able to, to back up and say, what would you do if I wasn't here?

14:12Cody Burks gets so damn mad at me. He'd call me, ask me this, ask me that. What would you do if I wasn't here? Yeah. Make a decision, son. Oh, that used to piss me off about that. Oh my God. Absolutely. Just tell me. Yeah. But what good does that do? It doesn't. What good does that do? All that does is daddy syndrome.

14:28Yeah. You know, I don't want to be the, I don't want to be that center cog of the wheel. Dude, fix it. Figure it out. As I tell my service advisors, and not too many techs are going to come to me, I'm not a technical person, but I tell the service advisors, I want you to come to me if you have to.

14:42With give me two answers to your question. I will help you go through those answers, but please don't use my brain to do your work because then I'm just going to take some of your money out of your check. If I got to do it for you, then I might as well do it myself. Why in the hell am I paying you?

14:57Exactly. That's kind of how I look at that. Yeah. But again, you got to go back and you got to give them a little bit of rope. And sometimes it's enough rope to hang theirselves. But by God, they're going to learn from it. Right. You know, so I found out this morning we just bought a tire a little bit ago. We were doing some TPMS sensors and that brand new Hunter tire changer just ripped the sidewall off a tire.

15:21I'm glad I'm not the only one that's ever done that. Hey, man, shit happens. But you know what? He won't do it again. Yeah, he won't do it again. You know? Yeah. And then you going to him and fussing at him and just going ham on him, what does it do? What does it do? If he's a good man, he's a good technician and he loves what he does.

15:37He's already punished himself enough. I guarantee you. He cannot. He's playing that over and over in his head and he will not do it again. So you going back there to tell him, boy, you did this, this, that, whatever, what's the point? So I'll say all of that to say that I have learned in the last couple of years with coaching and different training and podcasts that leadership is the key.

15:58You said it best. We were talking about a troubled employee that I had a couple days ago. You know what? The best thing about the business is the people. The worst thing about the business is the people. You can't say it any simpler. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to commend you or your staff when we were at the shop, how everybody gave you your roses right there in front of you.

16:21That had to feel— I mean, what does that feel like? I tell you, it makes you proud. It really does. But I love my guys. Yeah. I mean, I love my guys and not—— not just as technicians, as humans. And I want to see all them be better, you know. Yeah, I want to see them be a better technician or a better advisor, but more than that, I want to see them be a better father, a better husband, better communicator.

16:48You know, Josh's class, Josh Purnell's class with the communication, that's something that we've turned the whole shop onto, and the guys love it. Yeah. You know, being able to, to ask those questions and, and back up and Help me understand. That is huge right there. Help me understand. Now, I have put my own spin on that. I've had a couple of pretty tough conversations with help me understand what the you were thinking.

17:13Right. Been there, done that. But still, you got to kind of back up just a little bit and really make them think more, allow them to think more. That's something I struggle with. That's, that's my— probably my biggest thing is, is being able to let go. I still try to do all that. You still try to knock them out of the way.

17:37Let me do it. See? And see, and that hurts their confidence. It's hard for me to build their— I haven't figured out how to build their confidence like I really need to, because that's, that's not the way I did it. When I came up, I was the one coming up knocking the boss out of the way. Get out of the way, let me do it.

17:55So I don't know how to— somebody that doesn't have that personality type, it's hard for me to learn how to, how to bring them up, how to get confidence for them. Zeb, I was very much where, where you are with that style, attitude, whatever you want to call it. 5 or 6 years ago, I had employees walk out. I've made them cry, quit.

18:18Whatever right there. But I don't want it to be all about me. You know, it's, it's about that next generation. It's about all those other guys. And, and by doing that, that has allowed me to get a lot more of that freedom. You know, you, you joke all the time. You ain't never there. He ain't never there. Well, I'm still there some.

18:42Yeah. But by doing that and by giving them that energy to go in and make the decisions, that's allowed me to be able to back out a lot more. Now, I'm still— again, I've been on the phone with Cody multiple times this morning. I'm still available. But man, it's nice to be able to kind of get away some. It really is. I'm enjoying it.

19:06Yeah, you can get to Florida a little bit more. But here's the thing. You say you don't think you're that type of person. I don't think nobody really is. I'm Capricorn all day. What I say go, I know everything. Can't nobody tell me shit. But I had to learn that that was not going to get me any further than what I already was.

19:21I always felt like I had to touch every car. I need to look at every RO. I had to audit everything. Like, you didn't do this right. And why did you do this? Like, I was looking at everything. I find that I do not look at much more than the KPIs and make sure everything is on track. And I listen to phone calls.

19:36I do phone call auditing. So I audit the business and I give them all the tools that they need to do their job. And I definitely want my team to be smarter than me now. It feels so good. Eyes not twitching. I'm here. I got here, what, on a Tuesday, Wednesday? I don't even know what damn day of the week it is.

19:52Is it Friday? Yeah, I can't keep up with it either. Yeah. So leadership is not something that everybody's born with, but I do think that it can be learned. And it doesn't mean that you're not Kid Rock, you're not a superstar anymore. It's that you're just going to make a whole lot of little superstars. And that's what makes me feel good. That I can look at Haley or Stewart and I can sit there and coach them to a level that even if they don't stay with me forever, they will remember that Miss Tanika did this for them.

20:19Same thing for you. Absolutely. Yeah. And Jordan called me from school a couple weeks ago. He was like, "Mom, you're a really good leader and you're a really good boss." And I'm like, "Oh damn. Thank you. Thank you." And at the end of the day, we can buy the things. We always talk about world domination. I want me every Mercedes on the lot except for the ones that That start with C.

20:44And you know, you want to travel the world at each oceans, mountains, whatever. But at the end of the day, when you're called up, I want to say a good job was done. I want my father to say, well done, child. Come on in here. I taught you about a couple of things, but come on in. You know what I'm saying? So that's what I feel about leadership.

21:02And it has really changed my business, really changed my business. So I don't know, maybe you should get on the leadership bus with us, Zeb. What's the saying? You can get anywhere you want to go in life as long as you help others. Help others get there. Get to where they want to go. Right. Yeah. So, yes. How many techs do you have working for you now?

21:22Do you have anybody? I got 2. You got 2? I got 2 techs. We kind of run a little different. So I'm the diagnostic guy, right? I do the diag. We got a DVI guy. He gets the vehicles first. He does the DVI. Full inspection. He inspects everything. Then I come along. Before I even go to the vehicle, I look at that DVI and the customer complaint.

21:43Then I got a pretty good idea which direction I need to go. I do the diagnostic, figure out what needs to be done to it. Then I got the two animals, I call them, my son and Kyle. Kyle's been with me since 2018. Of course, my son's been with me since he was 3 years old. He's been working in that shop. So for the nuts and bolts, part replacement, it goes to the animals.

22:05And man, I'm telling you, they can put out the work because they don't do anything but the nuts and bolts, like replace the transmission, replace the ball joints, replace the engine, replace the fuel system. Now Kyle's coming along. He's starting to do some diagnostics. He's helping me with diagnostics and he's getting better at that. My son, he's still— he can do some, but that's still— he's still young though.

22:26He's 22, so he's still all about physical strength and stamina. So nuts and bolts is still his thing. How old is Kyle? Kyle is 20, upper 20s. Yeah, he may be 30 now. Okay. Yeah. So he's getting up there as far as that goes. You know, he's, he's, he's not as, he's not as fast as he was, but he's still— but he's a hell of a lot smarter now.

22:51Yeah. Works. Yeah. But he's still, he's still in his prime, you know? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. So as far as physical goes, he's a Marine and everything. So matter of fact, he's gone right now for— he was gone all year last year. 20. Okay. I remember. Yeah, he was gone for the whole year of '25. He's gone for 2 weeks right now.

23:08Some kind of military stuff. So. But then I got the cleanup guy. The cleanup guy. I talked about this on podcast. I recorded Brian yesterday and we call him the cleanup guy. And I really need to find a new word for that because that kind of sounds like a menial task, cleanup guy. Actually, the cleanup man is the man that comes to your wife's house when you stay gone all the time.

23:30His name is Jody. And there's a song in the African-American community about the cleanup man. I'll send it to you. Yeah. Cleanup man is Jody. Yeah. It's a little different. We got to give him a different name because you talking to cleanup guy. Oh, no. He keeps the maintenance technician. Yeah. He cleans up and keeps it organized. When the nuts and bolts guys, when the animals get done, they got a mess.

23:53I move the vehicle out and I go drive it and he comes in and he makes the bay look like new again, puts up all the gear, cleans up all the tools. Maintenance coordinator. And so that way when I pull another one in there, it's ready to go. Ready to go. You've got a good assembly line, but I need you to teach those other guys some of your diagnostic skills.

24:12Yeah. Kyle's getting there. He's working on it. Zachary's still, he can do it, but he don't, want to do it right now. So that's when he gets the want to. He'll— once the, once the hurts and the ailments start getting a little bit more. Well, his shoulders, he doesn't— he's not— believe it or not, he's only 22, but he's not a computer guy.

24:36So, you know, a lot of, a lot of diagnostic guys think you're sitting in front of a computer doing research and he don't. He still don't. He and his mama stay on to him all the time because he don't, he don't do his write-ups on TechMetric. He don't like doing none of that. He likes for me to walk in there and say, son, that truck right there, put that engine in.

24:57That's what he likes. What about like, like text to talk and or talk to text, that kind of stuff? Is he, is he open to any of that? He's not. He's not a tech guy. Like, he's got to learn to lead, though. I know. I know. That's what I told him. I said, son, it's all going to be yours one day. You need to start working on this.

25:14And it'll— I'm hoping it'll come to him. It's got to— well, you might have to do some dad work and just force it on them because that— I was forced to talk. I'm not— believe it or not, I am not a talker. Well, now he likes to talk, but that's the thing that would make me uncomfortable. So if the tech stuff makes him uncomfortable as far as the computer, you're gonna have to force him to be uncomfortable.

25:32Zeb, you know what I did? Get a brace or something. Say my wrist don't work. Whenever, uh, whenever Cody got come up to that front, and he's told this story before, me and Christy left for 3 weeks during COVID We went on a cross-country road trip. Cody didn't have a clue how to do any type of service advising, but he kept coming out of that shop, out of that shop, out of that shop, helping the lady up front.

25:53Yeah. And he got to the point, he's like, all right, well, if I can sell X amount, he set a goal with himself. If I can sell this amount, then I'm going home, I'm going to Dad's house, and I'm going to pull out one of his polos and I'm going to wear a polo for the rest of the week. Sure enough, he did.

26:06He hit his goal. And Cody's been in that front office ever since. He was a technician. He loved the tech side of it. But boy, he has really excelled on that advisor side of it. Yeah, that kid's grown a whole lot. He has. That kid has grown a whole lot. He's 25. He's 25. And like Zachary, I mean, he's grown up in the business.

26:24He's been out there his whole life. So, yeah, me, Dad did the same thing to me. He just left. 16, the summer of 16, he was gone. He was on vacation and I was gonna sink or swim.. But he already knew, you already knew that he can do it. And I tell people, he already knew that I could do it. It's like the whole wax on, wax off crap.

26:42I've said it a million times. I know it's going to get redundant, but I mean, you know what he can do and you know that he's not going to fail your business, but you just have to get him out of his comfort zone. And that's a lot of things with young techs. That's the thing. I think a lot of shop owners are not prepared to be the leader and the teacher.

26:59They just want to go in there and just just do it. Just do it. It's like learning to teach somebody is so difficult. Just like when the boys start doing Common Core math homework. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. I'm just like, I don't want to learn nothing else. Is Jimmy have 3 apples? Check. But I mean, it's your duty as a business owner if we want to bring young people in the industry, and we need to because they're the ones that have the brain capacity to learn all this new tech.

27:31Technology and all the things that are going on with these big-ass computers with wheels on them. We're going to have to learn how to be uncles and aunties and coaches and leaders. And if you have to throw a wrench at them, just teach them how to duck. I'll tell you something that just happened to me the other day. And you talk about a proud, proud moment.

27:49So I was asked to speak in an advisory board for apprenticeships right there in Albemarle. And Ethan, my apprentice, he was asked to speak as well. Ethan don't do crowds. He don't like being front and center. Yeah, yeah. But when me and him were talking about it on the ride up, I said, so how did they get you into this? He said, I'll be completely honest with you.

28:12He said, I can't stand talking in front of people. And I know this is the only way I'm going to get better at it is I'm going to have to talk in front of people. Yeah. So he had made out his speech and he was, he was ready to go up there and he knocked it out of the park. Getting comfortable being uncomfortable.

28:28Exactly. That's where your growth is. Like, I'm not a talker. And when Braxton kept pushing me to do the podcast, it's like, I'm going to do it. I don't know what I'm doing. It's like, oh, Miss Tanika, you don't. Oh my God. But then I started doing the Lipstick Report, just putting stuff on Facebook so I can stand to hear myself talk.

28:41It's like, oh, I don't sound like everybody else. And then it's like, you shouldn't sound like everybody else. It don't matter. You're not everybody else. I'm not everybody else. There you go. I went through that for a while. Been a long time. I didn't like the sound of my voice on camera and stuff. Now I'm the opposite of that. If I'm on a podcast, I listen to it.

28:57Good to go. I listen to it 3 or 4 times. You listen, I'm gonna listen to myself. I do. Sound like cornbread in the background. You sound like cornbread in the background. It's all good. It's all good. 'Cause we're unique, right? Yep. Why do you two think that we do not have enough young people coming into the industry? And I think it's more than just the old mean people saying, oh, it's bad, you should never do this, blah, blah, blah.

29:18In my opinion, I believe that one, remember we used to have career day? There's no career day. And I also believe that the parents do not respect the industry until this shit breaks down. I don't think it's not just our industry, it's any trades. I think we failed as first we failed as parents because it starts at home. I don't give a damn what they say.

29:44It starts at home. But then the school systems, have failed as well. And I think that, you know, I know for us at our age in the automotive industry, if you were, you know, causing troubles or whatever in school, you were pushed towards those trades. That's where they pushed you towards. Well, now I think we're really starting to reap what happened, you know, what we sown.

30:09And try to get a plumber to come out to your house or try to get an electrician to come out. By God, you're going to pay for them. That's a big problem I got. You hear all these talking heads talking, well, look at the HVAC industry, look at the plumbing, man. It ain't no better. It's probably worse. Yeah, they just got a little bit more.

30:27You can't get your air conditioner fixed. You can't get your plumbing fixed. They just replace it. Me and Benji, no, we end up having to do it ourselves. Uh-huh. Because they can't do it right. So it's not just our industry. It's all industries. And I don't think it's just the trades either. I don't— it's hard to find anybody to do a good job doing anything.

30:46Taking pride. Taking pride in your work. Yeah. And, you know, that's, that's something that I don't know. Do we, do we take pride in what we do anymore? I mean, I do. Oh, yeah. I know I do. But, but as a, as a whole, because, dude, I had a, I had an HVAC company come out the other day. I got a geothermal in my house.

31:09I was so damn mad by the time they got done. I had— I not been in Mexico on vacation, I'd killed somebody. They're supposed to be there on Wednesday, they show up on Friday, broke a water line up under the house, tore insulation. Oh, hell, I could name all of the, all of the trades that everybody talks about. Plumbing, HVAC, because I just got through building a building and I had a house.

31:33I had two houses.. And in my old shop, I added on to it 3 times. I have dealt with every organization that they talk about is so great, and none, not a single one has done a satisfactory job for me. But other people don't know that because they don't know what to look for. Right. Right. So you know better. My electrician, I'm not going to name his name.

31:55He's your electrician. Ain't got that many damn names to go with. And he ain't the one that I deal with now. He's the one that worked in my new building. That was the word. He's got every license certification that you can have. Mm-hmm. And he screwed up more. That's a lazy, sorry piece of shit. I go on and tell you, laziness is serious.

32:16There's some lazy individuals in all trades. I'll be fixed. I'll be fixing electrical stuff in that building for 10 years before I get it all straightened out. Wow. It's nothing big. Yeah, it's just not pride in his work. Yeah, that's, that's wild. But that is, um, so they're always talking about political and say that's just America right now. But that, for me, in my opinion, I think that comes from lack of the village.

32:43When I was growing up, there was a village around you. There was your neighbor, the mean old lady up the street. Anybody can whoop your ass, and anybody can look at you, and you knew, okay, For example, in high school, Benji, in high school for you, I had 15-inch subwoofers in the back of that '87 Volkswagen Golf, and I had 4 of them, and it boom, boom.

33:02But if you pulled up to the light and it was a little old lady, whether you knew him or not, you turned it down. You had respect. And so respect has been leaving and leaving, and we've been worried about everybody's feelings and being politically correct. You know what caused a lot of that shit? What's that? And God bless it, cell phones. We have, we have, we no longer make eye contact, interact with people, and we can't, we don't read body language.

33:27We don't give a shit. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know that I could blame it on cell phones, though. I don't know what to blame it on. I think I blame it on lack of family. I don't know. I don't know what we can blame it on, but it's changed in everybody, not just in our— what I'm getting back to, it's not just in our trade.

33:45It's just not in just the trades. It's in computer programmers, everything. That's the reason this AI stuff's taking over, because you can't get a person to do it, so you got to create a robot to do it. True, because walking to McDonald's, you really don't even talk to anybody. They want you to use a kiosk. I literally walked out of Bojangles the other day feeling connection.

34:05I was like, I got to push— let me just get in the car. Never mind. I'm not doing all of that. Christy was talking about she got the soda last night. She went and got those two sodas, and the girl wanted a tip. In a convenience store. Paid $9 to get 2 sodas and then she asked for a tip. Didn't want the tip.

34:19Didn't want the tip. Yeah. So we've got our own self to blame. So how do we fix it? I don't know. I've been studying on it a long time. I really don't have an answer. I wish I did. Because we got people like Jordan. Jordan got a 96 on his, some kind of diagnostic test in Mercedes. He shared that with me this morning.

34:36Got 96 and what he had to do is show all of his work. And so he sent me to the board and had all the papers on it. And I don't know what the hell I'm looking at, but I was like, that's a lot of words. You've got these kids like Jordan, Santiana wants to be in the office. You've got the outliers.

34:53We gotta find the outlier kids and pull 'em in and be uncle and show them, but not be soft on 'em. 'Cause I was never soft on my kids. Now I love the shit outta my children. Never soft. Because Carlos will tell you, when Jordan worked for him, he's like, I didn't even know my shop was that dirty till your son came and cleaned it up.

35:13Because I am determined to make my kids a very productive part of society. I don't care what you do. I don't care if you're sweeping the floors. I don't care if you're the maintenance guy at Strokers Diesel. You're going to be the best damn maintenance guy in the whole world. I don't think these kids walk around with the pride because they don't have a parent to teach them about the pride.

35:30There's no community. The teachers are burnt out. It's just like a whole domino effect. So how I'm just thinking all the time when I hear people complain about nobody's coming into the trades and this, that, whatever, and these kids all think they can be gamers. I think the kids just are lost and they don't know where to start and they don't have anybody to trust.

35:50Well, I think that's the only way you can save them. You're not going to save all of them. So you still got to be hard on them to find those outliers. You can't bring them in there like everybody's teaching right now. Oh, you got to bring them in there and pet them and buy them tools. I don't think that's how you do it.

36:04Right. I think that's just going to make the problem worse. How do you find them? What are you going to find them at? You— I don't know where you find them. You just bring them in and beat on them. And if they survive the beating, then they get to stay. If they don't, they go home. I'm going to beat them. Hey, I mean, that's some truth to that.

36:19Think about it. Toughen them up a little bit. The two animals I got, they survived the beatings. And there's untold numbers of them that didn't survive the beatings and they left. Right. You know, I had one— that's why right now I'm not even— studying on an apprentice. I tried to bring one in. It started in the same old deal. Oh, I just want to work for you.

36:41You got the best, you know, you're the best. You're all this. This is before I even had the big shop. You know, you're the elite. You're this, you're that. I just want to learn from you. I'd work for you for free just to get a job. Yeah. All this, whatever you can have, whatever you— if you can just hire me to tie your shoes, I'll come in there and work.

36:57So I did. And he come in there and he did good at first, you know. And I did everything for this boy that I— within reason, you know. I didn't bring him in there and pet on him, but I was easier on him than I was on my boy. And I was good to this kid. I bought him a truck for his graduation.

37:15He had an old raggedy car and it was always breaking down on his way to— or his mom or somebody had to borrow it or this or that. So I bought him a truck for graduation so he'd get to work. He drove that truck about 2 months, and then he started driving his old car again. I don't even know where the truck went.

37:30Uh-oh. And then I'd get texts, I'm not going to be at work today because of this, not going to be at work today because of that. And then it finally got to be where I just won't be at work today. Oh. And then it got to be, it wasn't even— he just didn't show up without coming. He was a shop cleaner. That's how you start at my place, right?

37:51And then started letting him work on a few trucks, you know, and it was— the work was not good. So just like my boy's been fired, I've been fired several times. How many times you been fired, Cody? Cody's been fired. I never— I never even fired this boy. And then we moved into the new shop and he started doing pretty good over there.

38:11And I said, well, you know, at that time it was a horrible experiment. I built a lot of those rooms in there where Workers could stay there if they wanted to. So I said, you can get you one of those rooms up there. I said, but I only got one rule. You can't bring nobody over. Nobody's to come over here. Broke the rule.

38:31So I kicked him out. I said, you gotta leave. This fool brought one time, this before I even kicked him out, didn't even kick him out for this, should have. Him and another one was staying there. And we had the best month we ever had, not because of them two. Because of the rest of the crew, but they were there. So everybody in the shop got a big bonus because of that.

38:52And they went and put their money together and bought as much dope as they could buy. I told Marty. And I walked into the break room because their rooms was right above the break room. I walked in the break room that morning and the break room is open to the— to the customer. It smelled like —yeah, whatever— in there. Smell like Jamaica mon.

39:15And I thought it was the other one. Now, the other one took the fall for him. I said, get this out of my house right now. Right. And ended up firing him that day for loose bolts. Fired that one. Well, then we get the iPad that the other one had, and text messages started coming in between those two. Found out this apprentice was— this other boy took the fall for the apprentice.

39:38It belonged to the apprentice. So I told him, I said, I'm gonna give you a second chance. I didn't fire him. And then it wasn't long after that he brought somebody in my house when I wasn't there. Nobody was there. Somebody I don't even know. So I kicked him out of there. He didn't like it. And that's when things really started going down.

39:57Right. And I remember that week before I finally fired him, every day at 2 o'clock, I got to go. He had a lot of family problems, so I thought he was having family problems. I got to go. I got to go every day at 2:00. And then he sends me a message. Just let me know when you got something for me to do and I'll come back.

40:25And that's a little arrogant. That's when I knew he didn't like that. He wasn't getting to work on cars no more, but he'd been messing up. I mean, he put a battery in a vehicle, the same kind of vehicle, put it in backwards twice. Twice. And at this time. So the last text message I got was, I'm not coming in to work today.

40:48I said, just don't come back. Don't come back at all. You can't be at work. Just don't come back. No. Well, then he was mad at him and his mom and his whole family. I was evil. Arrogant. I, you know, since I got money, I'm mean and all that. I think I'm better than everybody else. No, it's because you don't do— you didn't do your damn job.

41:06So funny how people would deflect and blame everybody except for looking at themselves. So when I got rid of him, I hired a 70-year-old man and my shop has never been cleaner. And I imagine when this podcast airs, if any of them listen to it, I mean, it's going to be a bunch of, bunch of hate mail come out because I made a post one day when the 70-year-old man got sick and he couldn't come to work.

41:26I had to hire somebody new. Oh yeah. I said, I want somebody older because I'm done with these. I'm done with the apprentices for a while. I got to have a break. And they saw it and then they were saying it was bad leadership and all this. But no. Well, actually, I had the second episode with Jeff Jada Mechanic. We're talking about technicians taking accountability for some of their issues.

41:50Like, you are not right. Yes. Oh, shop owners. Shop owners are not getting all the money that you think that we're getting. Like, chill out. But people that just cannot look at themselves and say, okay, am I the problem? In my business here lately with leadership, my focus is, okay, let me work on me. Am I communicating effectively? Am I giving the tools that they need?

42:12Let me make sure I check myself first. I'm not going to go in the shop like, oh, whoop-de-whoop, you just that whatever. All right, do they have everything that they need? Then I can go cuss you out. So I had a tech and he was a decent guy. He wasn't the best and he made mistakes and we found a lot of mistakes after he left.

42:27But to God be the glory. That is what it is. That's what it's gonna be with anybody. Oh, yeah. But the way he quit that job after I felt, "All the things that I did for you." I had two of those that I poured into. And then the way they quit the job, or the way they left things, I was like, "I cannot believe these people."

42:44But I believe it just has to be the way society is right now, and they get away with it. And so, actually, after that podcast, I didn't realize it was him, and I'm sure something's gonna come up after this airs. But he put under, and I didn't know it was him, he put under that clip, I wish I didn't rage quit. I wish I had the conversation.

43:02So the one that tells me I was doing something right, and two, he has regrets. Calm the hell down. Like, dude, if you're missing a bolt out of something, you are the problem. You can't get mad at me because I had to reprimand you. You should grow up. You still got to have pride in your work. You got to have pride in your work.

43:22And if the owner of that shop is irritated or mad and you do you have to be spoken to, you got to remember the same way a technician says, my tool box got wheels. Our shop ain't got no damn wheels. You make a mistake, you can leave. I can't go nowhere. That's right. My name is on that building. Calm down. What I say go.

43:41Whether, like my dad said in the podcast, and I know it sounds arrogant, I'm right even if I'm wrong because I've got to pay for all of those mistakes. So I think that's the thing about technicians they don't get about shop owners. It's not always about a KPI, is that we are ultimately responsible for everything that goes under that roof. Your toolbox has wheels.

44:02But it's not just responsible for just our shop. We're responsible for families. And that's where it's— health insurance, tax filing. Everybody on that highway. Everybody on that highway. Because if something happens to that vehicle that you just fixed— it's our ass. They're coming after me, not the technician whose name's on the RO. Yep. And if you're not willing to take that responsibility, shut the hell up.

44:25'Cause I have to take full responsibility. That last problem cost me how much? $20,000. Mm-hmm. $20,000. Give me $20,000. Mm-hmm. Shut the hell up, then. Yeah. Where was that little fucker when I was laying on the floor with my shop face down begging to go out? I was wishing my toolbox had wheels. Where were they when I was there with my damn 2 kids and we was there sweeping cracks and corners and shit, and I'm there on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?

44:54Now you gonna say something about I'm not at work every day? I wish I would. Yeah, talking about leadership. Let's talk about leadership. Let's talk about building a brand and building a business and having respect in the community and being able to walk into Walmart. Like Santana said, he was in Walmart and somebody called his name because he's always been— he's like, 'Ma, 3 people said something to me.

45:19I don't know who these people are.' We are part of the community. That's right. You can't be sitting here messing up stuff. They're not looking for you. They're looking for Benji Antonio Burris. That is not his middle name. It's like Lamont or Lorenzo or something. Oh, we don't know. But they're not looking for you. So if we all work together, you let me lead.

45:42You let me lead the best way I can, and I will continue to work on myself. I need you to wrench the best way you can, and you continue to work on yourself., but you are not the end-all be-all. And there's always something to learn. I've got shit to learn. You still in classes? Learning every day. Every single day. Some podcast, some book or what, every single day.

46:02Technicians need to take responsibility and learn themselves. And here's another thing. Left Vision, and I'm going to get in trouble for this. Say whatever you want to say, okay? Find me. Left Vision, and I'm looking at people reading, complaining about training. Oh, this was the same class. This is the same class. This is stupid. Same class. And I'm sitting there in the hallways during class time watching these young whippersnappers sit outside of the class playing on their phone.

46:30They're not even going in class. They're watching TikToks. Let me tell you the maddest I ever got about something like that. And it didn't even have nothing to do with me. Yep. We got our local training classes that we have that come through every 6 months. And, uh, it's, it's what brought me up when I started going to those. That's what brought me up.

46:50It really is. I wouldn't be where I am without those. And we got a dealership there in town, local dealership, and I used to work there back when I was a teenager and work for the man that owns it. He's a good man. And, uh, he was paying these guys to come to class. He paid for the class, and I'm pretty sure he was paying them to be there.

47:10Tell you what these son of a bitches did. They come in there. We had food. They come in there, got their food and ate, come in there and sit down in class till we took the roster. The roster. Them son of a bitches got up and walked out. No. You know what I'd done if I found that out? I'd have fired every one of their asses.

47:33I wouldn't care if I didn't have nobody working in the shop. I'd have went back here myself and done it. That's what I love about you guys. That's some shit my dad would do. I remember all that. I saw them bastards do that and I said, if one of them son of a bitches ever come in my shop looking for a job, I'll never forget this day.

47:46I don't care how good they are. What's the difference in that and sitting right here in a class right here at Tools playing on their phone the whole damn time, paying no attention at all? And I'm sitting there and you are in the front of the class. Ganye, his name is Ganye, not Gainesville Chris. He does not know how to say his last name.

48:01I said so. You guys are sitting in the front of the class. I'm gonna sit in the front. And these kids are in the back of the class playing on their phone, not paying a damn bit of attention. They're on there listening to podcasts, good or bad podcasts, and they're like, yeah, yeah, I'm not getting enough money. You ain't worth all the money that you think you are, baby.

48:21I watched you. You didn't— you did not go in there and learn anything. I'm— if I'm paying for you to go, I'm paying for you to go, I'm paying for your hotel room, you're having fun, you're networking, having food, please class, get the knowledge. Because the shop owner is not making you go to class. It's an opportunity for you to learn. Because when you leave that shop, if you leave that shop, you're going to leave with more than you came with.

48:45And you're getting it for free. You're not having to pay for it. He can't take your knowledge when you leave. And then another thing, I don't know how you guys feel about this. Sometimes shop owners are just shit. And they will not invest in their staff. And they don't invest in training and whatever. But I think something should be done. We got a whole, we got a whole, pretty much a state full of them.

49:06I don't know any, I ain't met nobody from Arkansas here. It's not that many of us out there. I don't know if it's 10% or top 5% or whatever they say, but they're not training each other. And then they want to run their mouth about shops like ours. They charge too much. They ripping them folks off. Yeah. They ain't got a damn clue.

49:24They have no clue. No idea on financials. I just met a guy right here at Tools. Last night, had dinner with him. He's from Firestone. He said point blank he had never— this is his first, first training event ever. He said, I never knew anything about this. He heard about it on, on Jess, on the Jaded Mechanic. So he came and showed up on his own time.

49:43They would not pay him at all, pay him for being here. They wouldn't pay for his classes. They didn't pay for anything. He said, all right, well, y'all gonna have to figure out how to do it for 3 days without me. He's here Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Paying for his whole way. That's the kind of people right there. That's what we want.

50:01That's what we want. That's what we want. Stewart, because I hired Stewart maybe 2 weeks before ASTA, and he said he had never had any training. And I'm investing in him. He's with Elite right now. I invest in training. You can take it with him. But here's the thing. If you are out there in the internet world, Beyoncé's internet, because she owns it, and you love this industry, You hear about training?

50:23I'm talking to the camera. That's why I'm not looking at you guys, because this is a very deep moment. Go by your damn self, whatever you got, take whatever you got to do. If you want to be better, do not wait for your management to do it. You might be in a shitty shop. You'll stay there until you get yourself trained because there's plenty of shops out here that are looking for you.

50:43You can go to the training. You do not have to belong to a business to show up here. We are here. Networking opportunities, just learning who people are and having conversations. Because trust me, we pee and poop just like you do. It's nothing special about us. It's just that we trusted the process and we did the work. Did nobody pay for our training?

51:02We had to come. We had decided to do it for ourselves. We didn't know about paying for it. To one more on that too. If you come to these trainings, come out of your shell a little bit. Go up and talk to somebody. Please do. And it's very intimidating for a lot of people, and I get that.. But damn it, that's where the magic really happens.

51:19Listen to us talk. Yeah. Ain't nothing special about it. Come sit down and join us. Yeah, you don't even have to say nothing. Just walk up. You see a group of us, just walk up and stand there. We ain't going to run y'all. We ain't going to remember nobody no way, son. No. We'll just be like, yeah, I ain't seen you in a long time.

51:33Who the hell was that? But no, yeah, if your shop's not investing in you and you are a technician that is really truly dedicated to what you're doing, you are allowed to go and learn on your own. There's Audible, there's podcasts, there's the internet. The internet was not available to— I mean, it was available, it took like 10 hours to dial up, but we don't— you guys have so many tools now.

52:00There's so many tools. So quit the excuses, quit your bitching. If you want to be better, get better, and get in the room with better people. And I'm gonna get off of that soapbox. 'cause I feel strong about it. That's true. We had another shop up the street. We had our little training class. That's when you see the true colors. You see it in those training classes.

52:19And we had a class in this shop. He had only been open a little while, but he'd been around. I've been knowing him my whole life, the guy that owns that shop. He come in there and I could hear him in the back of the class. He said, I don't really need this. He brought all of his techs. You know, he had 2 or 3 of them.

52:34He said, I don't really need this. I know what's wrong with the car when it rolls in. So I knew how it was. So he come to that, there's two nights of it. He came that, well, six months later when it rolled around, he didn't come, but one of his techs did. I said, where's your boss, man? He said, ah, he didn't come.

52:53I said, yeah, he knows everything, don't he? He said, yep. He said, yep. He said, and he told me, he told me he didn't know why I was wasting my money coming up here. That's a shop owner told that to his tech. Because you know what? Sometimes— So the tech had to pay his own way to go in. That's bullshit. What is that, man?

53:12I think it happens more often than I'm aware. The more I speak to people and the more I do these podcasts, I realize there's some shit shop owners out there. Oh, sure is. Sure is. It really is. Now we joke about it, like Mike Allen jokes about it. I'm a horrible shop owner. There's some people that's not even trying. And that's why the technicians are frustrated because their backs are being broken.

53:31Without respect. Like, they're really being used up and not poured into, and they think everybody's like that. Everybody is not like that, dogs. And if you find yourself in that position, please, like, just find your way out. Boxes got wheels for a reason. Roll it, roll it, roll it to an independent. Because even the dealership does that. The big box stores, they'll get this young kid.

53:54Kid is hungry, he's bright, he's ready, he's been landing Legos for all his life. Get stuck in a loop too. Throw 'em on a damn robot. And that's a problem, 'cause they'll get the good ones. Mm-hmm. And then we get the bad ones, like that little apprentice I was talking about. It's hard for us to attract those good ones. Well, 'cause it's not shiny, and you're not shiny.

54:13You don't have the crispy uniform and all the things that you think are important, and you're missing out on the fundamentals. Go into any of the community colleges, though, that the corporate and the dealerships are putting the money into. You've got the Toyotas, the GMs, the Fords. I mean, they're dumping a shitload load of money into that. Look, dude, we can't— can't compete.

54:35We can't do that. But what can we do to be better? How are we going to draw those checks, draw those young folks? Well, I've tried to explain to them till I'm blue in the face that, yeah, it may look better, but in the end, it ain't. It ain't. The money's not better. It may— the building may look better. Don't look better than mine.

54:58"It don't look better than y'all's. Y'all's are nice. Y'all's ain't huge, but it's like mine, but it's nice. It's nicer than the dealership I worked in." And even with my service advisor, same thing for service advisor at dealership. They're burning them out. They're burning them at both ends. And I'm like in the service advisor group on Facebook and I'm sitting there laughing like, you deal with this?

55:18They get on these podcasts. They're on Jeff's podcast all the time talking about the stuff that they go through. I'm like, you can solve this tomorrow. Go work in an independent shop. Get your ass out. We got the same thing. Got health insurance, life insurance, insurance, disability insurance, all of that. And shit, I work 4 days a week. And Stuart, like, when Stuart first started working for me, it just blew his mind that we were not doing 50 cars a day.

55:39I'm like, dude, we're not doing that. Just like, oh yeah, you know you can tell that customer no, we can refuse service. Well, you know, we had to take everything. We will do that. It was like $300 when he first started. That joker is writing up $1,200 a week ARO right now. It's crazy. But he's just like, now he's like, oh, this is just refreshing.

56:00And yeah, what do I do on Fridays? Like, my new tech came from the dealership, Monster Dealership. I don't know what to do on Fridays. Go fishing. Yeah. Oh, shit. Now he's got his fishing rods in the car at all times. But you saw a few years ago, I'm not looking for nobody now. We had a slowdown in '25, and I'm burnt out on hiring right now.

56:18But I put the word out that I was willing to pay whatever. You just send me a list of demands. Crickets. Like, you can solve all them problems that you're having. We'll just solve them right now. Whatever you want, just put it on a piece of paper and I'll see to it you get it. Yeah. I don't know if they thought I was lying.

56:36I don't think they thought I was lying. I think that took all the excuses away. Like, they come in there, they come in my shop, they talking about how good they are and everything. When we took all the— we took all the excuses away. If they couldn't come in there and perform, they didn't have nothing to blame it on. I think that's a lot of it.

56:58They use that dealership as a crutch. But you know what? And because you're only working on the same problems all the time. Mm-hmm. But here's the thing. If you came from a Toyota dealership and you're used to just doing this all the time and you get really good at it, you're going to get bored with that. Are you not going to get bored with that?

57:12Oh, I know I am. So you go up into Benji's shop and you're working on everything. Every make, model, every year. That's going to call you up. That's going to give you a chance to increase your skills. If you a real tech, man or woman, I would think you would want a challenge. Like, ah, you never did this shit before. What is this?

57:32Well, they ain't got no excuse. Benji's well known in the industry, right? Right. If they go in there and don't make it there, the whole world's going to see it. And then they don't have an excuse. They can't say, well, he didn't pay me enough. He worked me too hard. He paid me on flat rate and I didn't make make no money, there won't be no excuses.

57:51The only excuse if he don't make it at Benji's is him. And I think that's under the rocket. I think that scares them. I think that's why a lot of them stay there. Yeah, lying on their tallywackles. Yep. Do you know how I got the, the last tech? Isaac. Isaac's like 20, he's 22, 23, right in there. Young, came from Honda. All of them are young.

58:09None of them are over 30, are they? Well, no, I got, I got one that's 40, I got one that's 30, and then the other one's 20 Isaac's 22, 23, somewhere right in there. And then Ethan just turned 18 yesterday. But Isaac came to us because we were going to some training. The whole shop, you know, any kind of training the guys want to do, whether it's at CPCC, whether it's ASTA, whatever.

58:30So the whole shop, we were at some training at our local community college. He came to me, he said, I want to be a part of that. He said, I want to learn different vehicles. You know, I'm pretty good on Hondas now and again. He is. He was really good on Hondas. But he's like, so when we started talking about realistic numbers, he said, I can turn 40 hours.

58:52I'll be able to turn 40 hours. And I laughed at him. I said, I'm sorry, but you're not going to turn 40 hours. You're not even going to be close. I think I can. I think I can. You're working on the same make, same model over and over and over. Assembly line. We're going to throw you on a P-Series van. You know, you're going to be working on an F-150 and the next day you might be on an Avalon.

59:11The next day You know, whatever, man. He come in and he got his ass handed to him. Good. He did. And I mean, it, it took the wind out of his sails. But my God, to see the growth in this young man now. He's been with us for over a year now. And I mean, he— when he walks in, he lights— he lights up a room.

59:34He really does. He does. He likes it. He's a different kid than he was that I met last year. Man, he is an awesome young man. Awesome young man. But that's the kind of people that we want to attract into our shop. So the ones that want to learn and are willing to go out of their way. Right. And again, he came to us.

59:51You know, we weren't even hiring at the time. I think that's how you got to do it. I think you got to let them come to you and you got to beat on them and pound on them and whoop on them. And if they, if they survive all that, then they can stay. They ready to roll. I don't figure it out. Just patting on them and All that.

1:00:06Now I got one I've been beating on for over a year and a half, and I'm just watching him grow. He still gets on my nerves, and I let him know daily, you know, you work the shit out of me. And, um, but the same, same thing, it can go opposite way. I had one that I invested in, and, um, you know, he came in with a bad situation, helped him as much as I could— housing, food, everything— as much as I could.

1:00:27But week before ASTA, it's time for training, we're getting ready to go there, and he's sliding down a little bit. I can't find nobody to watch my dog. You can find somebody to watch your dog when you go to the club and you're at the bar. Yeah. We're not going that far. We're going to the next city over. You can always get home to the dog.

1:00:46Who watches the dog in the daytime? Like, this is— you're getting paid for the training. It's an opportunity for you to learn more, something that I can't take from you. Then your favorite person, I believe it was Mr. Subaru, was going to be there, and you don't want to go to training? Yeah, so that Monday I fired him. Yeah, I don't blame you.

1:01:03I'm done. I can't want it more than you. But if I found somebody that's hungry, by God, I'm gonna feed you. What you want to learn next? You want to do that training? Let's do it. Let's do it. Because it's going to pay me in dividends and it's going to make you a better person. So I'm winning on both levels. I'm making the industry better and I'm making you better and I'm making my shop better.

1:01:22So for the people that do not invest into your techs or even your front office, your service advisors, You're just throwing somebody in there on the phone with no training, then you wonder why shit don't work out. That's on you. That's where leadership comes in. And that's the difference in me from 3 to 5 years ago to now. And people really have to go understand that you are going to have to drink that Kool-Aid.

1:01:44Oh, I shouldn't have to pay for leadership training. I know what I'm doing. No, you don't. Bullshit. You don't. Bullshit. And I think about, we used to laugh about my ARO when I first started with Rick White. Shit was funny. I had no idea. I wasn't— I was like, y'all making money like that? Ain't no way. Ain't no way. What? Y'all making money?

1:02:04I was like, oh, this is not good. I should not fix that lawnmower in the middle of the day. You know, lawnmower tires don't make money. Damn. But I'm serving the community. Fix your mindset, all that good stuff, and it all trickles down and you get more money in your pocket, better people. Yeah, all the things. What are y'all doing tonight? Is there any party or anything tonight?

1:02:28I don't know, I ain't heard. I don't know, probably. I couldn't hang last night. Uh, I might be able to. We made it to 11 o'clock. It was still later down. What you talking about? I was headed that way at 9 o'clock. We was dragging because at 9 o'clock I was like, I'm gonna go lay down. Then everyone's like, I'm gonna go lay down.

1:02:44Rachel come out with them margaritas. Oh hell, we couldn't say no. No, I was able to say no. Keith got me on that Blue Moon though. I was going to bed and I stopped and Keith and Brian was there and I'd never had a Blue Moon beer. He said, let's just get one. It's good to kind of cap off tonight. So I stopped and had one of them.

1:03:05I didn't get a margarita though. Next thing I know, you got a glass of milk. I was like, bro, went upstairs with a glass of milk. Now I gotta have my glass of milk with my biscuit. I'm like, what is that? And he's like, I thought it was a White Russian. I was like, he's like, some milk. I'm a milk drinker though.

1:03:19I can sit down and drink a gallon. Hey, nothing wrong with that. I'll be tore up from the floor with some milk. Y'all be like, what is wrong with her stomach? That's my favorite drink. No sir, no milk. That was funny. I was like, what the hell is that? That was some milk. I gotta go take my BC. Yeah. Well, if nobody's ever told you, I'm gonna tell you that you guys are making a big difference in the industry whether you like it or not, and you are responsible for so many people looking up to you, whether you like it or not.

1:03:47You are a leader. Oh, I like it. You like it? I like it. Yeah. And I like that you not always trying to be on your best hate behavior. I like that you guys are leading by example. This is what I did. This is who I am. I've come from this. Now I have this. And you too can be a part of the crew.

1:04:04So I like that young people can see you guys in that light. Own it. You gotta own it. So don't change it. Just own it. Don't change who you are. I know you're not. But if at any point in your life you're like, you know what, let me change this up a little bit, please don't. Because we need you just the way you are.

1:04:21I'm going to be me no matter what. We know. And not everybody going to like it. And that's fine. I don't want everybody to like it. That's all right. That's fine. That is fine. I heard some rumors this morning. I think we're going to have Christy up here teaching for a long. Really? I think she'll do great. I think Christy's going to be teaching some.

1:04:42What do you think her subject would be? I don't know if I'm supposed to say or not, but it's going to be something towards helping technicians and advisors and owners be better. If we can get that communication. Yeah. It's just communication. The service advisors want to blame the techs. The techs want to blame the service advisors. No, no, it's not like that.

1:05:11Like I said, even with me, what I'm going to do is say, okay, there's something wrong in the shop. First, let me check myself. You know, like, is it me? I'm like, okay, they got the tools, they got the software. I think I'm communicating. I'm going to communicate via text, email, and whatever. One-on-ones, distant, whatever. All right, so this is looking pretty good.

1:05:33I don't think it's me. All right, what's the next thing? And it's not a blame game, it's just trying to figure out— you're just trying to diagnose your shop. You're going to go through the flowchart or whatever. I don't— I'm not a diagnostician. I don't know what the hell y'all do. But I tell you what, it's nobody— it's not one fault. So I think communication between the front office and the back office, that would be a cool class.

1:05:54I think she can teach that pretty good. I think communication is probably the biggest problem in most shops. Yeah, I think it goes back to communication. It's not as front of house, back of house, whatever. I think it's always 95% of the problem that I see, even with our shop communication. Yeah, back and forth between front and back. It's tough. And instead of picking up the slack, oh, you did this and you did this, like, oh, you dropped the ball on that.

1:06:23But what's Why am I gonna throw you under the bus because you dropped the ball? How many balls have you dropped? Like, you know, working together to get it done for the greater good. Let's figure out how to do that. Let's fix it and go on. Let's fix it and go on. All right. Well, I'm finna head downstairs. I am so glad that you guys decided to come home with me.

1:06:41Thank you for having us. My two favorites. Appreciate it. I don't even know what we talked about the whole time. I don't know what this episode is gonna be named. I do not have an agenda when I do this. And I love it. I love that about it. The assholes and the queen bee. Yes. Say something. We'll fight you. Downshift with Tanika is where we slow down long enough to have real conversations.

1:07:02Hosted 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. This is a space for growth, tough love, laughter, and leveling up.