Amy Bartel on 7-Day Shops, Hospitality Hires, and the Fraud-Fighting Formula - Bonus Zoom Episode 4

0:00Good morning. Glenn Piccolo here with Adams Automotive bringing you another episode of Master Tech to Millionaire presented by Auto Shop Answers. Man, today we have a very special guest. We have Miss Amy Bartel out of Chicago. This is going to be so fun. Everyone has been asking for this and we get to listen to Amy's story. This is going to be great.

0:21Thank you so much for listening. Let's dive in. Good morning, everybody. How we doing this morning? Good morning, superstars. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, man. What an exciting morning. So, uh, this morning we have a very special guest. We've got Amy Bartel on the line. Good morning, gang. Let's go, Amy. Good morning.

0:55Uh, an amazing superstar in our industry. I always say if there is an award for perfect attendance, it goes to Amy Bartell because she literally does not miss a Zoom meeting, training. I mean, she is always, always there and we are super excited. I know I've been getting so much feedback of everybody just like, man, I can't wait to hear this. This is going to be amazing.

1:22And so we're going to get going this morning. So Welcome, Miss Amy. How are you this morning? Thank you, Mike. And guys, you're setting the bar so high, you're making me nervous. Hey, you're a pro. You're a pro. You were built for this. Well, I love this. That's the problem is I have an obsession with this and I can't stand to miss anything.

1:46I get major FOMO missing trainings. I get major FOMO missing anything. So that's the obsession, I suppose. Yeah. Well, we know that, and you're obviously a major rock star. So I know you and I met about 6 years ago when I came over to Adams, but you had already been working with Todd previous to that for— and I don't really know how long.

2:09I really don't know the entire story. So I want you to kind of just kick us off with maybe just kind of how it all started for you. Yeah, I basically came back into the business in 2015. I came back in, I was actually at that point, I was living in Hawaii in Hawaii, and my dad came to me. I was a manager of a snorkel cruise company, and I absolutely loved it.

2:33It was amazing. It was sales. It was a family business in Hawaii. So I was there about 3 years and living the dream. And Dad came to me and said, "I need some help. Would you like to come back into the business and see how you like it there?" Because he saw me doing great things at this family business in Hawaii. So he approached me and said, "Come back and work for me."

2:55And, you know, the family obligation and wanting to be back stateside was the appeal. So I came back and started working back in the business. They put me in the back office and I was kind of getting an understanding of how the business operated from the back end more than being in operations and got a bigger picture that way. But when I came back in and was in the office, I literally turned to my dad and said, I didn't realize you were asking me to come back into a sinking ship.

3:26So I had no idea where the businesses stood at that point, and he had the 3 open, and him and Adam were essentially running the businesses, but they were not very fruitful at the time. And everything was— every time I would put more sales into QuickBooks, I watched it just be in the red, and it was a little defeating, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and I didn't realize the state of the businesses when I was— and what I was coming back into.

3:52But at that point also, that's when Dad had gotten Todd back involved in the businesses, and we were doing a lot of work with Todd at that time, and he he was coming out pretty much monthly, and he would come and he would do a lot of recruiting. He would do a lot of training. We were doing trainings at the Holiday Inn in Carroll Stream, and, um, we had a lot of, uh, a lot of different players in at that point.

4:17And kind of realizing we were also at a point where we were outgrowing a lot of our amazing staff that we had then. But the longevity just, you know, we wanted to get to that next level, and we couldn't with the players we were working with. So we did a lot of recruiting, and, and Todd was a big on that with us and actually implementing the process.

4:37And I just remember sending emails to our guys and being like, come on guys, we gotta hit these 5K days. That was our goal. 5K days was our goal. So it's just insane to look back at like the 10 years ago previous P&Ls and we were, you know, shooting for 100 a month. And, you know, now we sit around, you know, the average of 450, 500 finally coming out of these shops.

4:58But it's just wild to me to look back at those emails and be like, oh my God, I was literally rooting for 5K a day. And it just seems, crazy to me now that that was the goal. So yeah, that's, that's, uh, it is. I remember back, I mean, going back 6 years ago, you know, we have Moneyball and Moneyball is how we just raced to the first 5K, 10K, 15K, and so on.

5:24And I remember back in, you know, in 2020 and we were ramping up 10/10 and we had our Moneyball and We were, you know, in a lot of, you know, most days at 10/10, we were winning the day and beating everybody to 5/10 and 15, and we were a little bit ahead of the game on the concept, and Todd was, you know, right there with us for the most part and very involved at 10/10.

5:49And I remember on Moneyball, you know, different people that were like, "This kind of is not fair. Like, 10/10's winning every day. They should have their own Moneyball." And back then, I remember like $25K was such a huge day.. And I remember people saying, man, this, you know, like we're not able to catch those guys and it's not fair. And I was like, man, just follow the concept, follow the concept, follow Todd.

6:16Like he knows, like he will show you the way and just do it, you know, just have that buy-in. And then, you know, we look back and it's like a $25K day and in a lot of stores, you know, people would be like disappointed with a $25K day. Not that that's a disappointing day,. But now we have stores doing insane numbers, 40s, 50s, 60s in a day.

6:37And it's just really, really wild. And you guys obviously have just, you know, just gone to a whole nother level, not only your stores, but you as a coach, a trainer, just everything that you do. You are obviously, like you said, obsessed and bought in. I know you guys have like legendary stories from from Todd or with Todd on recruiting and some of those crazy stories.

7:08But I know one thing about you guys, y'all have a lot of restaurant people. Yes, we— yeah, yeah, we brought in restaurant people. One of my absolute shining superstars in Oswego right now was a restaurant guy. And he is— I mean, it's awesome to see his level of hospitality just being so astronomically different than anybody in the industry. But he's here. Yeah, we love the restaurant guys because they they just come in and they just, they just have a different vibe about them, a different energy.

7:37And John in Oswego is our guy there who Ivan actually recruited. He was out to dinner with his wife and was like, dude, you gotta come see what we do. And John's been with us ever since and he loves it. So yeah, restaurant is a secret sauce for sure. Yeah. Now who was that VIP Rack Attack last week? Was that— oh, John.

7:56Okay, John is a hammer. Jon is a hammer. Jon was at VIP. Now, for those of you that don't know, VIP Rack Attack Day, we do it 10:10, 10:10 Bladelock. That's our main store at Adams. And we do that Friday leading up to Key2Key and leading up to Courtside. And it's a day we get to come and spend the day in the trenches with our team.

8:22Now, Jon impressed me. I mean, major superstar, amazing energy. I remember we had somebody that walked by and they told John, have a great day. And John said, you have an even greater day. And I was like, wow, he is like just full of energy, so engaged. I hope he learned a lot. I'm sure he did. He was in the trenches and he was getting down with us and we had an amazing day with John.

8:50So those restaurant people, you know, Todd started back in '86. He's like, look, our industry, "You know, it has a lot of people that have been in the industry, beat up by the industry, and they just think that the way that it is is the way that it is." And he said, "Look, let me just go get restaurant people." Right? We are a 7-day-a-week operation, and I know you guys are too, and we'll touch on that here in a second.

9:14And in our industry, man, it's like sometimes it's a little bit harder to find people that'll work on the weekends because they're used to a Monday through Friday deal. We know how to recruit them. You know how to recruit them. But restaurant people, pretty easy. It's like, look, hey, you don't have to go home at 2 a.m. And they're like, what? I can get off at 7?

9:33And they're like excited about that. Like, oh wow, I don't have to work on Easter, man. That's amazing. And so we can have a 7-day-a-week schedule, still a 5-day workweek, but we are there for our customers 7 days a week. And then restaurant people absolutely love it and they have the hospitality down. And it's the same thing, right? We are selling parts and labor.

9:55They are selling food and labor. It's essentially the same thing. And so restaurant people have been just an amazing, you know, honey hole for recruiting. And you guys obviously know that. So I did want to ask about the 7-day a week. When did y'all start 7 days a week? I think it was about 3 years ago now that we went 7 days.

10:17I want to say it was about 3 years ago. Yeah, and it's been amazing. I mean, it's— and what's awesome is like specifically in our like Plainfield store, I have guys that prefer to work Saturdays and Sundays and take 2 days off during the week. So, you know, we have these hammers that are there Saturday, Sunday, and we have our best days on Sundays.

10:35I mean, they set— actually, I think they set a record on like last Sunday, not yesterday, the previous Sunday of like 35 or something and on a Sunday. So it's insane what we can do on a Sunday with the right people there. Yeah, I know you guys always really just crush on Sunday. And I remember opening up on Sunday when Todd was like, look, we're going to open up 7 days a week.

10:59And he told me, he said, look, you don't have to work 7— you don't have to work weekends. Okay. I was Monday through Friday at the time. Jose was Monday through Friday. But we were all Monday through Friday because we were only open Monday through Friday. And then we opened up on Saturday and Todd's like, look, I'm going to open up on Saturday.

11:16And we are retailers and we're going to open up on Saturday and eventually we'll open up on Sunday. But you guys don't have to work on Saturday or Sunday. And so remember me previously, I just remember that ivory tower life and hey, look, man, I don't want to work on the weekends. I kind of worked my way up to that. And then I'm like, okay, cool.

11:33Well, we'll just build a team for the weekends. And Todd's like, yeah, just build a team for the weekends and you guys don't have to work on the weekends. And I'm like, awesome, cool. So we launched Saturday, obviously. I mean, I was there, Todd was there, Jose was there, and we launched Saturdays. It was very, very successful. And then he's like, look, you know, we're going to open up Sunday and, you know, at some point, so let's just go ahead and do it now.

11:54Well, let's just open up Sunday. And it's funny, you know, if you build it, they will come. We were shooting our commercial for Adams on a Sunday. We weren't open on Sundays and we had the gates open because we were doing some, some, you know, some camera footage of the cars rolling in.. And all of a sudden we have cars showing up.

12:15If your gates are open, if your doors are open, people just, they just literally will just pull up because they think you're open. And we weren't at the time, but we opened up shortly after. And obviously it's been a major success. And look, at the end of the day, I tell people all the time, like, why would you limit your career and your success to a day of the week?

12:34And I worked weekends for the last 3 years. I love it. And it's amazing when you're there for your customers. But when you guys opened up on the weekends, how did that go with your team? I'm curious to know what your team felt about that. Did you guys have to hire or just do some shifting? What was kind of the— Well, what's really interesting is I actually was, I was very against Sundays.

13:01I didn't want to be open on Sundays. Todd was the one, he had to convince me essentially to open on Sundays. And my mentality was very much like my grandpa who started the businesses. I mean, way back in the day, his mentality was always, you know, Sundays are family days. We got to give our people the Sundays for family days. And that's— so I had that same mentality.

13:21And my also mentality was, if we're open on Sundays, yes, I may not have to be in the shops, but I'll always be working and I'll always be on because when the shops are open, I'm available to my team. I'm available at all times. And that's, that's just the sense of urgency that I have for, for the business as a whole. So I was very much against opening on Sundays.

13:40What happened was at one point we had gone on a family road trip and my sister's AC was out in her car and we're, it was a Sunday and we were looking everywhere to find someone because we had to, you know, we had this huge road trip ahead of us and it almost like dawned on me, people need you on Sundays. People are out there on Sundays that whether it be an emergency or whether it be something simple, we still have to be available to our customers.

14:04So it was just, it was an interesting flip of the switch for me. And once I had that mentality, it was kind of then conveying that to the team and it was actually It was actually pretty surprising. We did not necessarily have to hire for Sundays. It was just more shifting the perspective of we are here for our community. We are here for the people, and they need us Saturday and Sunday because majority of people do work Monday through Friday.

14:26So their timing is, "I need somebody to help me out on Saturday and Sundays for my vehicle needs." So it was more of just shifting the mentality. And honestly, I really don't think it was that big of a shift once we kind of put everything in perspective of what we're here for and why we're doing this. We're here to help our customers, it really wasn't that big of a shift for most of our employees and our team members.

14:51So it actually went pretty smoothly and we didn't end up having to necessarily quote unquote hire a Sunday team. Everybody kind of just hopped on board for the betterment of everyone. So it wasn't that big of a shift. I thought it would be bigger than it was, and it really wasn't. It was pretty awesome to see the buy-in from everyone. Yeah, people ask all the time.

15:12They're like, wow, you guys are open 7 days a week. Like, you work your people 7 days a week? We're like, no, no, we don't. And then they ask the question, we're like, well, how do you, like, how do you do that? And I'm just like, you know, it's so crazy how, like, brainwashed, you know, our industry is because every other retailer is open on Sunday and nobody is asking asking the movie theater, like, how do you staff your store on Sunday?

15:40Or how do you ask, you know, like, nobody's asking Starbucks, like, I just passed a Starbucks. How do you, how do you ask Starbucks people to work on the weekends? Like, that doesn't even happen. So our industry has it just complete. They're just, they're just completely brainwashed by it. But it's amazing. Now you guys are, you know, crushing out a $35,000 Sunday.

16:03Your customers absolutely love you for it. That is absolutely amazing. We still have people and like previous customers thanking us for being open on Sundays. That's just it. Like, people thank you for being available on Sundays, which is crazy because again, yeah, it shouldn't even be a second thought. But we have customers that— I'm so glad you guys are open today. Thank you for being open today.

16:25It's wild that that's even the mentality of even the customer. Yeah, it's like if you went to the grocery store on Sunday and they were— I'm not thanking them. Yeah, you know, you'd like He'd start like, oh my gosh, you pick a new grocery store for sure. Like Todd says. So anyway, awesome. Well, yeah, you guys obviously are just killing it over there.

16:44So I did want to actually shift gears because I want to talk one of the, you know, the programs that we do is the fraud and prevention, Accounting First fraud and prevention. And I think a lot of people are intimidated by that. I think that that class should be just packed and sold out every single time.. And I think people are a little intimidated by that class.

17:07And I know you've been through it a bunch of times. And I think you have probably some stories to go along with it because we talk a lot, man, about people who are running their business and they're not watching their numbers very, very closely, uh, are being stolen from. And they kind of look at you kind of sideways when you tell them that.

17:27But I know everybody we've brought through that class, class has revealed some type of fraud in their company, as tight as they are. We've revealed fraud in our company and we're very, very tight. And so I know what's happening out there, but I'd like to get your feedback on that, what you've learned from that class and maybe some stories of some situations you've experienced.

17:49Yeah, I will say it is a very daunting class. I mean, I feel like I, it doesn't feel good to go through that class only because you do realize all the loopholes and you do realize all of the places that you aren't as tight as you should be. And so yeah, it is very daunting, but it is by far the most important class to go through, um, because you do realize, oh my God, I really need to tighten this area up, or I really need to make some changes here.

18:17Because at the end of the day, I mean, I, I like— I know that Joe and I actually— Joe and Charlie were just in town and we were having some conversations about this as well. And, um, it's a reality that no Nobody wants to face, right, that the possibility of someone you trust in your organization being able to take advantage of a situation that they're in.

18:38And I mean, we— our biggest story in our family was we had a bookkeeper with us for— I mean, she was basically family. She— I mean, we basically, you know, she would come over for family dinners. She spent years with our family. She worked for us, I got— I want to say 15, 20 years. And lo and behold, we figured out that when, you know, you don't have any money in the bank and you're going, what's going going on that she was basically taking the cash deposits and feeding a gambling addiction and stole over $150,000, I want to say, from us.

19:11So over the course of years, um, so, you know, it also comes down to you feel like you can trust anybody and everybody in your organization, but if you don't have all those checks and balances and the accountability piece of it, it can be happening right under your nose in small amounts that lead to large amounts. So it is definitely one of the most important classes to go through.

19:31I mean, even something as simple as we were just cleaning up all of our parts in TechMetric and going, God, did we get all these credits back? Did we get all these, like, you know, employees purchasing parts and, you know, saying they're returned, but we've already paid for it, no returns coming through. So simple checks and balances even within TechMetric that we weren't utilizing to the max that we should have been, that Lord only knows what's happened in the past, you know, 5 years before we started really honing in on all of that.

19:59So, I mean, it's just, you don't know you don't even realize the capacity of what, you know, Techmetric can really help you keep a hold on and can really help you make sure that these checks and balances are in place. And it's just, I mean, all the— there were so many takeaways from that fraud and prevention class. Again, it doesn't feel good, kind of makes you a little sick to your stomach going, oh my God, I didn't even know that was in there.

20:20I didn't even know, you know, the deleted tickets, the save for laters, all of those, you know, things that are built into Techmetric to help you that you may not be utilizing to the maximum that you really should. So it is by by far one of the best classes. Again, doesn't necessarily feel good to sit there and listen to, but so, so, so important just to make sure that everything is operating as smoothly as it should be.

20:44Yeah, we learned from Todd a saying that he has, which is, "10% of people will always steal from you, 10% of people will never steal from you, and 80% of people will steal from you given the right opportunity." circumstances. And so whether that be a gambling addiction, a drug problem, maybe going through a divorce, whatever that might be, given the right circumstances or the right opportunity, 80% of the people will steal from you.

21:15And so, uh, it could be inventory walking out your back door. It could be someone bought a part and, you know, moved it to inventory. See, there's a lot of things that people don't realize. It's like you could buy a part. And then move it to inventory. And at that point, you collect money from the customer. Maybe they don't put the part on the car.

21:34We've seen that before. And all of a sudden, you, you know, account for revenue and somebody literally stole a part. Or they put a part on the car, move it to inventory, and then it's not actually in inventory. So you have an inflated inventory. Another big thing is AR. Like, we don't do AR in our entire, you know, organization. Like, that's something we looked for very closely.

21:55AR is funny money as Todd calls it. You know, AR, you never collect the AR. Like how many people are writing off AR? So we actually have no AR. And so at the end of a month, whatever our numbers are, that's our number. That's what we've collected. And sometimes there's $30,000, $40,000 that's done, completed work that we do not close out. It just carries over to the next month because here's what happens.

22:21You close out that $30,000 and then, you know, Mr. Jones who was gonna pick up that ticket, that $5,000 job, he decide, you know, something happens and now he can't make it over there and then whatever, whatever, there's some type of reason something happens and then all of a sudden you got a car sitting on your lot and you have $5,000 in AR and you don't get the money.

22:42And so we just don't do it. And so that's another way that people steal is through AR. So looking through, like you said, looking through TechMetric, looking through all of these different things and these checks and balances, we do, you know, board and bag audits and now we have AI doing absolutely incredible things. I sent Todd a message this morning of a video, and it's something we're working on here building.

23:10It's in the beginning stages, which is basically a live board and bag audit. So once we get that done, that's going to be available, and that is absolute fire. It's literally in real time auditing your tickets, like, as you go. So there's very, very, very little room for error, but you got to look at it. You got to pay attention to it.

23:30I talk about the AI AI class because, man, if you haven't been to the AI class, Auto Stop Answers, AIX, you have to come through that program. And if you were there a month ago, if you were there 2 months ago, you're behind. That's just how it works because it's actually changing from day to day to day. It's that good. And so I encourage everybody to sign up and come to the AIX class.

23:52It will, it will literally blow your mind. And now it's doing all— well, not all of it, but it's doing a lot of those things for you, and it makes it that much easier because you're getting alerts in real time. And so you're not catching things after the fact, you're actually proactively finding these errors that can literally just change your business and keep, you know, keep water from leaking out of the boat, if you will.

24:17For more information, reach out to Todd Westerland at 925-980-8012. Or visit autoshopanswers.com. Get more information about key-to-key callbacks, courtside VIP Racquetech Day, where you spend a full day in the trenches with our teams. We have leadership classes and AI Academy, accounting first, fraud and prevention, as well as auto tech training. We are literally your one-stop shop. Please don't hesitate, reach out to Todd Westerman, 925-980- 8012.

24:52So, okay, cool. So Courtside, I want to talk about Courtside because I know you're doing some stuff with Courtside. Uh, I am so happy that this weekend I get to go do Courtside with Mike Quinn. Uh, that's going to be an absolute blast. I know you've been to, uh, several or all of the Courtsides. I'm not sure how many, and I know you're a big part of that.

25:13So can you walk us through Courtside and what people can expect from Courtside? Hey, what, what I can expect from Courtside? Courtside? Oh, I absolutely love Courtside. I know I'm trying to keep my streak alive. I haven't missed one yet since they started it, and because it just hits different. This is so different than Key2Key. It— the best part about it, and the biggest thing I also want to say, is the vibe in there is so different than Key2Key because you have players in that training that have such buy-in that it just feels like you're with the best of the best, you know.

25:47It, it's just, it's a totally different feel. You're in the Woodlands surrounded by these other Hammers that only want to also answer any and all questions that you may have. You're like, you're seeing the shop live, you're seeing everything in action. It just, it's just such a different energy in that room because everybody already has the foundation, right? They've already been executing the process in their shops and they're excited to be there.

26:13So you really, it's like only A-players in that room because they want to know more, they want to learn more, they want to expand on their knowledge base and make sure that they're getting it right every single time when they're bringing it back to their shop. So the energy in there is just so different. It just, it's hard to even explain, but it just, it lights a different fire in you and it is so much fun and everybody is participating and everybody, the excitement is different in there.

26:42And you know, it's smaller, so it feels much more intimate too. So you get to know the other people in the room on a different level than you do in Key2Key because there's so many people in Key2Key. So I don't know, it's just, it's so hard to explain until you've been through it and until you've been there. It's just like everybody is just amped to be there, is excited to learn more and excited to do it.

27:06And that's the best part about Courtside is you actually participate and do it. So, you know, my favorite part is when Quinn pulls up the wheel with all the names on it and is like, "Okay, now, you know, Bill, you're headed to the front to do a take 5." And, you know, everyone's clapping and excited for Bill to get up there and do a take 5 in front of everyone.

27:24Everybody. It's just, you know, nobody's safe in that room, if you will. You know, everybody is expected to— you know, you know the basics, you know the basics of the process, so now stand up and do it in front of everybody because that is the expectation when you go back to your shop that you do this every time. So it's so cool.

27:40So usually like day 1, we talk about a lot of take 5s. Everybody does a take 5, you practice those together, and I live for take 5s, so I like love it. It's my favorite part, and I'm always, you know, in the front row with my hand up, and Quinn and Charlie won't even call on me anymore. It's a little feeding. So, you know, I have to wait my turn.

27:58But it's— and then basically we do a lot of recruiting stuff in there also. We call shops on Saturday and try to find guys with— and gals with energy and bringing that level of hospitality and bringing that, yeah, now's a good time. And even if they're not saying that because they don't know the scripts, they're bringing that energy. So you call shops and take notes.

28:17And then when we get back, you know, we go and visit those people at the shop. So it's really fun in that sense too. And then— but so a lot of day one is a lot of more in the classroom training and talking about some of the things that even we're talking about, like the things in TechMetric that we should be paying attention to.

28:33It's kind of like you're building, you wanna build up these, the everybody in that training room to be of that owner mentality, the manager mentality. So even service advisors that are coming through, it's like, how do you get to that next level? This is, you know, paying attention to these things are what are gonna project you into that next level. And you know, like I always say to my team, I, I want a room full of service advisors that operate and want to be managers.

28:59Want to be owners, because I want you to want that next level that bad. And that's what Courtside does, is it gives you that opportunity for almost like that self-reflection of, do you have what it takes to get to that next level, to be that owner-operator-manager? That's the kind of like, almost like what we're forming in that room, in that training room.

29:19It's so cool. It's just, it just is a totally different feel. So yeah, day 1 is a lot more classroom, but then day 2 is the absolute best day of the entire training. It is— you start with a Hammer panel. You get to talk to all the Woodlands key players there, you know, Felix and JT and Lubano. And they all basically sit at the front of the room, and you ask them anything and everything.

29:45And, you know, how do you become a Hammer? What does it take to manage a Hammer? What does it take to find a Hammer? And you get all the inside details, if you will. But you get their vibe and energy, and it also just, like, kind of lights a fire in you to A, want to be one of them, or, you know, in my case, want to find them, want to find these diamonds out there.

30:06It just, it's so cool. So the Hammer Panel is by far my favorite part of day 2, but then you get to break out into groups with each and every one of them, and they teach you, you know, they go through and train you on shop tours, on strategizing tickets, on invoice reviews, rack attack, and perfecting your videos. It's just, you literally then get to walk around with these guys, utilize their brains to make you better, better at what you're already executing, but how you can do it at that A-player level.

30:36It's just, I mean, I can't say enough good things about Courtside. I literally, every time I go down there, I'm like, this is my Disney World. Like, this is what it's all about, is like seeing this execution, being a part of this team for a weekend, seeing what the shop does in that weekend. And during breaks, even these guys will sit with you during breaks, and I'll go and pick their brains on certain things, and they give you the 5 minutes here or there to explain X, Y, or Z.

31:02I don't know, it's just, it's almost hard to put into words how fun it is and how exciting it is to go to that store and see, A, also how clean it is and pristine it is. And then you go back to your shop and you're like, can we just look like The Woodlands? I just wanna look like The Woodlands. But I get overly excited about it because it is just next level.

31:23It is so much fun. I'm excited for you to see it, Glenn. It's just, you're gonna love it. It's so good, it's so good. Can I add one more thing, Glenn, before you go to the next question on this? One of my exciting parts too, and everything you said, Amy, I mean, it fires us up too. I mean, it starts with the people that are there.

31:42And I say this every class because the people at Courtside, they want to be there, they want to get better and they ask and they dig in and they try. And that's where it starts. And that feeds the energy in the whole room. And then another part that we do is the accountability partner. Partner part. Uh, we make people find an accountability partner, you know, they decide what they're going to improve on and they get a partner and they check in regularly with their partner.

32:09The other day I was at your store, Roswego, and I'm recording a video. Ivan is calling Jeremy because they are partners and making sure that they're doing the job they're supposed to do with each other. And Ivan have a partner, like I have a partner, checked in with me this morning, pipeline. And he checked in with me this morning. So even we get partners, 'cause this is the only way to get better is not by saying, oh, I'm gonna do it, by actually somebody holding you accountable to getting things done.

32:37And I love that part. I do too. And you know what? Rob, Robert True, is my accountability partner, and he has been sending me text messages of cleaning up his shop, cleaning up all of his parts shelves, making sure he's getting his credits in order. And it does, it literally, it pushes you to that next level to have that accountability partner. I was telling him about my recruiting woes because that was my, my piece that I wanted to do better at when I got back, was really hit the ground running on recruiting.

33:04And I was telling him about some of my stories. So it's just really nice to have that. And because it does push you again, once you leave that courtside classroom, it pushes you to keep doing better. And I know, I know Rob's doing what he needs to do, and it's just, it's really fun to then expand your network in that way too.

33:23Yeah, the other thing I think a lot of people don't realize about both Key2Key and Courtside and really VIP Racquetech Day for that matter is Key2Key is not only, you know, training, right, for the industry. Todd wants to change lives. He doesn't have to. He just wants to and absolutely loves doing it. But it's our onboarding for our teams. Okay. A lot of people don't realize that.

33:48And that's actually where it all started, where he kind of re, you know, relaunched Key2Key was we We were just onboarding our people and then we just started inviting some people in to onboard with our team. Courtside's the same thing. It's ongoing training for our people. So not only are you having people from outside, not outside, outside of our company, right? In the industry, but outside of our company.

34:11But you're having our teams that are also going through continuous training. And so a good example of this was the first Courtside, I remember Jay went, Jay Bird, from my store and we're cycling our guys through Courtside. We have one that goes every month and Jay He comes back and I'm kind of picking his brain in the take five, like, "Hey, let's tell the team how courtside was.

34:31Like, what was your takeaway from courtside?" And surprisingly, it wasn't the answer I was expecting. And it was, you know, when a lot of people started asking questions, I knew the answers to the questions. And I was like, "Wow, that's really, really impressive," right? Because we train constantly on it. And sometimes we take for granted, like, man, we're doing this every day and we're in this building and we've learned this amazing concept and learned business from Todd.

34:58But then you get into a room with a bunch of industry owners, advisors, managers, and whatnot, and you start to realize that they're asking questions that you already know the answers to. So I thought that was really cool. But Todd's really nailed it on key-to-key with VIP Racquetech Day, with courtside, and then branching off into the couple other classes that just go deeper into it with AI and accounting.

35:24But look, VIP Racquetech Day, Racket Tech Day, you get to come in the trenches with our team and it's a somewhat unstructured event. Okay. I tell people it's like you're going on a safari, you know, are you going to see the lion today or not? I don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. Now we've had 40 bangers, like every VIP Racket Tech Day over the past, I don't know how many.

35:48So, you know, it's been an amazing day, but it's a more unstructured structured format, right? You come in, we do a take 5, and then we go out to the rack and we just work like we would normally work with the team there, and they're in the trenches and they're doing it with us. Courtside is definitely a combination of Key2Key and VIP Rack Attack Day.

36:11It like takes the two and merges them together. You have classroom training, but you also have that in-shop training. And see, a lot of training companies out there are teaching people how to do what they think is right, but are they actually in the trenches? Are they actually doing it in live shops in real time? And that's what makes it really cool is we're not just teaching you how to do something that we know works.

36:34We are teaching you how to do something. We are showing you exactly how to do it and we are doing it with you. And that makes it so incredible. And I think that's what really gets that energy super high. Everybody's pumped up, everybody's high-fiving. It is just a winning environment, a winning culture. And it's an absolute blast. So are you going to be there this week?

36:57Are you going to keep your, uh, are you going to keep your, uh, streak alive? I am keeping the streak alive. Absolutely. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm just excited to do it this time with you, Glenn. I think it's going to be so fun. It'll bring a different energy to it, and I'm so excited. It'll be good. Yes, this is going to be awesome.

37:16Uh, Joe Adams has a question for you. Oh man, what's up, Amy? Long time no see. Long time no see. We just had a killer week with Charlie in the trenches. Um, man, So good. So this is kind of changing gears, but I think it's relevant. So there's a lot of people that come in through Key2Key and have like instant success. Like, you know, it happened with the Adam stores, it happened with JJ, it happened with Lynn.

37:38But then there's a lot of people who, you know, it's a little bit of a slower burn. And I'm thinking about Charlie, I think about Bill, I think about your family. So, you know, you've been doing this 10 years, I think, well, going on 11 years. I think there's probably a lot of people on the call that maybe aren't getting the, you know, immediate double sales overnight, but they're kind of on the roadmap.

37:59Is there anything you would like teach yourself basically? Like if you could just go back to like 2017 that you maybe didn't, because you came from outside of the business, you're not a technician. Is there anything you're like, damn, like I feel so obvious now, but back when we were doing this, when you were talking about the $5K days, I was like, hmm, I wonder what she would go tell herself for back then.

38:18So I guess I'll pause there. I would say the biggest The biggest— I think that for me, it's of course always about people, right? It's about finding the right people, but it's about finding the people who love what they do and are obsessed with helping people. I mean, obviously my background, yeah, I was a therapist for years in the criminal justice world.

38:42Like, I have always been one that I want to help people. And just understanding that, just switching my mindset of that's exactly what we're doing every single day. People are calling us, waving that white flag, going, help me, I got to figure this out, I got kids to get to school, I got to do this. So finding the people that have the same passion for wanting to help people, they can then deliver that level of hospitality and the sales will come.

39:08And you know what I mean? It's just, it's— I feel like it's that simple, that if people love this as much as I feel like I love what I do— I love what I do every single day because I love the people that now I've surrounded myself with. Our team members are passionate about it. They have a desire to want to do this.

39:23You have to have the desire to not only want to be massively successful, but help people, because that's what we do every single day. So it's really, for me, it's all about— and that's why I've really dived into more recruiting and wanting to find those diamonds and wanting to find the ones that not only want to, you know, be competitive, because that makes it even 10 times more fun, or the competitive ones in the shops.

39:47But be competitive, have a passion for what you do, and have a passion for helping people. If you can find that trifecta in someone, those are your golden team members. And I— now that I'm surrounding myself with those kinds of team members in all of our shops, it becomes so much more fun to do this every single day because there's so much more winning involved.

40:06So that would be my biggest thing. I wish I knew how to recruit the kind of people that we have on our teams now 10 years ago. If I had known how to do to do that, I really think it would've been a much, it wouldn't have been as slow of a burn. I think we would've moved a little bit faster. So recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, finding that trifecta, finding that diamond, those are the people that I want on my team.

40:28Great answer. That's honestly probably 90% of what we talked about. You know, we were in the trenches with Amy and Adam for, and Pat was there, a special appearance from the CEO, the founder himself. So anyway, that's probably 90% of what we talked about for, Yeah, you know, 3 days. So great answer. Great freaking, great freaking episode here. I'll hand it back to you, Glenn.

40:50Yes, it's about people. Yeah, it's about— I know it's amazing. And I know you guys are awesome at recruiting. Didn't y'all have some— y'all have any recruiting stories from this past week? Didn't y'all find a new honey hole? Yeah, Joe found a new honey hole. Well, I guess I'll just leave this as a cliffhanger for everybody. Somehow we ended up in a Facebook group of door-to-door steak and meat butcher sales salesmen trying to recruit door-to-door salespeople out of the meat business.

41:19So yeah, come to the recruiting class. You'll hear all sorts of stories like this. The meat men, they're called the meat men. And if you are, if Pete, if you were on the line, man, shout out to Bob and the meat men. That's on my to-do list today. Tackle the meat men Facebook group. Let's go. And Amy, can I ask a different question too?

41:39Yes. I know we're running close to time here. So, you know, from day one, since we've all known Todd— I mean, I've known him for many years, obviously your dad and your family has known him for many years— what Todd has always done is come in the shop and be in the trenches with the wrenches and feel it, sense it, touch it, right?

41:58And now this last week when I came down with Joe, that experience— I got to be, you know, on the Todd side of things. And what I wanted to say, I mean, you can coach remotely and you can do Zoom calls and, and pick up a lot of stuff, and you can fix a lot of things remotely. But there's things that are impossible to catch unless you're in the shop.

42:19I mean, we had a gentleman which I told you something I found on him, and you, you took action immediately. I mean, Amy acted so fast, I didn't even know. She let him go on the spot. It was definitely a fireable offense. Uh, how about paperwork? I saved you a ton paperwork just because you guys were creating so much unnecessary paperwork. Simplify the process.

42:43Um, what else, what else stood out on you that it could have been picked up on unless you're in the shop? And the reason I bring this up, because as you have coaches, like, how deep does your coach go, you know? Do they really go into details with you, or they just, uh, do a Zoom call with you once a month? Think you're gonna get the same success?

43:02That's what I'm trying to home here. Well, and the biggest thing, Charlie, that I was even— that after you guys left, I was talking to my dad about is, you know, I go into these shops every single day, right? I'm in there every single day. I visit these shops. There are so many things that because I'm in the shops every single day, I don't even see because I see it every day.

43:23So it doesn't even come up on my radar as something that we need to adjust, something we need to fix, something we need to look to look at. I mean, even, you know, just even cleanliness factors that I see every day. So it doesn't even— it's not on my radar. It's not something that I see or a sign with the hours of operation are wrong and I pass it every single day.

43:44So having those outside eyes that come in and know what to look for and see it firsthand and go, hey, Amy, this is— we need to adjust this. You need to fix this. I pass it every day. I had no idea, you know. So again, having that extra set of professional eyes on it is a game changer. And it is something so simple, again, like paperwork that I didn't even— it didn't even dawn on me of, yeah, why are we doing this?

44:08Why are we printing all of this? So yeah, that extra set of professional eyes to know what to look for and to be there in the trenches to see it, it's just— it's such a blessing to have you guys. It's beyond, beyond a blessing to have you guys. So yeah, game changer for sure. You are a beast. Let's go. Well, that's, that is our time.

44:32Thank you so much, Amy. For those that are listening, we'd love for you to come out and just come to Houston, go to Boston, go to Chicago, come to Key2Key. You get to meet Amy. She's amazing. I believe that you're probably, you know, just, you're always so happy and have such an amazing attitude all the time that you'd be successful in anything that you do.

44:57But we're so thankful that you are in our industry and we get to work with you every day. So that's it for today, guys. So everybody have an awesome day and we'll see you in either Houston or Vegas this weekend. Let's go! This was so fun. You're amazing. Thank you all. Let's go!