Bill Lewandowski: Speed of the Leader is the Speed of the Pack - Bonus Zoom Episode 5

0:00Good morning. Glenn Piccolo here with Adams Automotive bringing you another episode of Master Tech to Millionaire presented by Auto Shop Answers. Man, we just wrapped up an amazing weekend here in Houston, Texas. Courtside program was just off the charts. We've got a very special guest this morning that was at Courtside, which is Bill Lewandowski, AKA Bay One Bill. Man, this guy is an absolute superstar in our industry, uh, coming out of Atlanta, Georgia.

0:32What an absolute player. So we're going to talk about his journey, break it down. Thank you so much for listening. Let's dive in. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How we doing this morning? Amazing. Best day of my life. Hey, let's go. What an amazing weekend. Happy birthday. Feels like a $100,000 morning. Hey, $100,000 weekend.

1:00Adams 10-10, let's go, man. That was fire, man. There you go, man. Great, great job, man. That was awesome. What an incredible weekend we just wrapped up. We're gonna get to debrief that this morning. We had an amazing time over at Courtside. I got to be a part of Courtside, which was awesome. We had Key to Key in Vegas, which I can't wait to hear about that.

1:30But this morning we've got another special guest on this morning and super excited about this. We've got Bay One Bill, Bill Lewandowski out of Tru Automotive in Atlanta. Just an absolute stud. I met Bill, I think it's probably been 5 years or so ago. And, you know, it's one of those people, man, when you meet, you don't forget. And we didn't end up really working together for, you know, like 3 or 4 years or whatever.

2:09I came through Key2Key and then, you know, we just kind of went separate ways and he'll probably be able to touch on that a little bit.. And, but I never forgot Bill. And I'll never forget whenever the, we were having a Zoom call and I see down on the screen, I see Bay One Bill. And I'm like, man, I got excited. I'm like, Bay One Bill's on the call, man.

2:32This is fire. You know, because look, I'll tell you, every week or every month we have a program and there's a lot of people that have been listening to the Zoom calls or listen to the podcast. And, and people come up to me and they're like, man, I'm so, you know, so excited to meet you. I've been listening to your calls or I've been listening to podcasts and, you know, they're excited.

2:57And, you know, I don't think that people really know and understand how equally excited I am to meet them because I really am. And, uh, Bill is, you know, definitely one of those people that like, when I found out he's at Courtside, I'm like, yes, I'm fired up, man. There are so many people that when I hear that they're coming, I actually just get so fired up because I'm about to be around a bunch of superstars and a bunch of players.

3:21And that is super exciting. And so I am so excited to get to kind of debrief this morning and get to talk to Bill. So how you doing this morning, Bill? Man, I am doing excellent. It is the best day of my life, Glenn. I'll tell you, I I am all fired up today. A little bit of plane snafu last night, got in later than I wanted, but it doesn't matter, man.

3:45I'm here. We're rocking and rolling first thing this morning, and I'm really excited to be here with you, sir. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I know you had probably some major takeaways because I got to hear some of them, you know, last night. Um, but really just want to kind of, kind of get to know a little bit more about you. Um, so can you give us a little bit of a kind of a backstory, how long you've been in automotive and kind of your journey up to this point?

4:11Absolutely, man. You know me, how much time do we have? We may have to extend this meeting by an extra 15 minutes, so I'll get rocking and rolling early for us. But yeah, I've really only been in the industry for about 5 years now, Glenn, and my journey started, I'll never forget, obviously for those who don't know Rob Escue, he is the owner here at Tru Automotive.

4:32He's been my best friend since we were little kids. I was living out in Colorado and he always said he wanted me to work for him. I was doing a little bit of phone auditing, a little bit of sales training on the side. And, you know, COVID came back in 2020. And one day he called me up, Glenn, he said, "Bill, I need you."

4:51The next day I packed my car, drove across the country 24 hours straight and started work the next day here in Georgia. I started really, Glenn, with sweeping the floors. I didn't want anyone to think that I had any type of leg up because Rob was my best friend, so I wanted to earn my stripes. And I came in here to Lawrenceville, our flagship store, and I made it look perfect.

5:16I cleaned, I took pride in what I was doing, and eventually they gave me the keys to the building in Marietta and they said, hey, we know you know what to do and take it from here. I was really— the greatest gift I was ever given. I was able to, you know, learn and grow and make mistakes and truly, you know, understand this whole process and grow as a person and grow as a leader and grow into this industry.

5:44And through some time, you know, we had a lot of success. I remember how excited we were. I got a trophy the first time we did $150,000 in revenue, right? They're like, we've never done that before. And all sorts of excitement over that process. And as I grew, we were able to come over here to our Lawrenceville flagship store. And that's really the first time that I entered Key2Key, and I was blown away by this process.

6:12However, at that time, we were a part of a different group with multiple shop owners across multiple states who just didn't see the light the way that I saw the light. I even have a testimonial. If you used to type Todd Hayes and automotive, used to find a video of me talking about Key2Key 4 or 5 years ago, and I was really excited about the process.

6:33But unfortunately, you know, it was, it was poo-pooed a little bit, and we really had to take a step back from that and continue to do things the old way without plans, processes, and procedures in place to be successful. So time goes on and, you know, we keep rocking and rolling and we're doing okay. But really last year, Rob kind of took over the business here, as we've all heard in his podcast, and able to, you know, re-engage, you know, with everybody over there, you know, Adams Automotive, Auto Shop Answers, sending teammates and growing, getting into courtside.

7:12And, you know, now I really feel like my skills and my abilities can be put to use, right? And putting it together again, a perfected business model. So we, we had a chance to really kind of hammer down and watching our success. You know, when I talk about breaking records, right? We were 100— we were excited at $150,000 in December. We did over $400,000 here in Lawrenceville.

7:36Every single month in from the— from 2026, from January through obviously now April, we have outpaced ourselves and continued to get better without a single slide back. None of that roller coaster ride of up and down of gross profit and revenue. It's been a single stream of success. And I owe a lot of that, like I said, is surrounding myself with the best, Glenn.

8:01And I've been really excited to continue to come back. You know, it was my third Courtside this year, back to Key2Key to continue to learn the basics next month so that I can be the best person that I can be, you know, for my team. And my journey has been— I've been so grateful for my journey to be able to learn, right, the little things by myself, but now come into a system where I can really blossom and use my skill sets to be the best and to inspire the best, man.

8:30It's been wonderful. It's been quite a journey for me, and I'll never look back and I'm super grateful from where I came from and where I am today. Man, that's an amazing story. And I didn't even realize you've only been in the industry for 5 years. I would've never guessed that. Yeah. You know, a lot of people think you have to have all this experience in this industry and you just don't, right?

8:54Mike Quinn's a perfect example of that. A lot of you've heard his story and, you know, we just did a whole weekend of Courtside together, and he's an absolute stud in our industry. And 3 years ago, you know, he didn't know what a brake rotor was. And, you know, 5 years ago, you came in sweeping the floors just to come in and help Rob, and you've obviously grown into an amazing, amazing leader.

9:19I had the privilege of sitting in one of your Take 5s, what, a few weeks ago or a month ago or whatever? And like, that was amazing. You know how to pump a team up, that's for sure. You do have a saying, I heard you say it, and it's the speed of the leader is the speed of the pack. Correct. And I really love that, right?

9:41And your team obviously runs really, really hard and really fast. So that's just, man, that's just really, really awesome to see. So when you came in 5 years ago, you're sweeping the floors, like how do you transition into like a top managing partner in the company and the industry for that matter. How's that happen? Yeah, that's, that's a, you know, really it kind of happened, you know, on big, it's a kind of a funny story actually, cause I was trying to stay under the radar.

10:12I kind of knew, like I said, I just wanted to earn my way in. I always hate when people tell me they deserve something. I'd rather earn something. I think there's a big difference between those two words and I wanted to earn my keep. And one day I'm, kind of walking through and the phone's ringing in the lobby. And I'm like, well, I'm not going to let that go.

10:30So I, you know, I marched my booty into the war room, as we call it here. And I picked up the phone, hit the script, get the car, our phone intro, get a car in for the first time. And just at that moment, the manager at the time turns the corner and she's like, what are you doing sweeping my floors? And I'm like, whoa, you know, don't blow my spot up yet.

10:50I'm like, we're, we're not ready. Um, but really it was that transition from there where she started to talk to Rob and obviously the other partners at the time. And that's where they said, okay, I think Bill's, I think Bill's ready. Uh, we don't have to keep hiding him anymore and we're going to unleash him into the world. And so they gave me the keys to the building at our Marietta store, which had recently opened.

11:09It was a business, you know, before that had been around for a pretty long time. It had a pretty well-established team. Um, so I really just had to learn on the fly and, and, and, and just absorb and take in and, you know, focus after I said, I joke with my teammates. I said, I drive home in silence every day to see, you know, and reflect on my day of what I could have done better.

11:30And I had a lot of reflection process. And I remember at that time, you know, we're kitchen-sinking everybody, Glenn, like everybody. You know, we have this priority system, priority 1, 2, and 3, and we're gonna go get the priority 1s, and then we're gonna kind of talk about priority 2s. And I had this technician that was like, Bill, I'm a firefighter, right?

11:49Like, I just put out fires. I'm like, yeah, and your customers come 10 times a year, right? Like, we see them once a week. And this is where it really started to click for me of how we should be kind of presenting work and doing things. And I remember this joke that he had, you know, it was like, John, just, you know, all good things come to those who stay the course, right?

12:07We're going to build every ticket. We're going to put everything on there. It's going to be your future piggy bank. And soon control arms are going to be falling from the sky. And I remember the day that it really all kind of turned around and clicked for me as I start to come up with basically not knowing, right, your process, but kind of trying to imply it a little bit more.

12:25So that we're not totaling cars out and sending them down the road. I said, one day I got there, it's like, you know, 6:45 in the morning and there's people waiting outside. And the first 3 people that walked in were all kind of coming back with previously declined work. And I got to prove that this— to this technician, right, that these things work.

12:44And the first one that comes in, he's like, you guys recommended control arms for me. The second one, I kid you not, not a lie, you recommended control arms to me. Third one was brakes. And I got to hand this technician all this gravy work. And not sure, you know, not long after that is when I really got introduced to Key2Key. And that's again, no matter what, if we implied the process here at that time or not, right?

13:05That's where it really clicked in my brain to say, wow, there's something bigger out here and I need this and I want this. And sad that it took us as long as it did to get there. But like I said, it was a That was kind of my transition. Just here's the keys, figure it out as you go. And I'm not one to lose and I'm not one to, you know, to be second best.

13:27And I just took it from there and said, I can, I can do this, man. I can do this. Yeah. You know, when you're a leader, I was doing just a lot of research about leaders and managers and just all this, you know, different research about just people in general. And, you know, people show those signs of great leadership just way before they're handed the keys, right?

13:54And, you know, you're recognized and your team kind of just puts you in that bucket as a leader. And you don't have to have a title to be a leader. Like, you can just lead. And a lot of people, they don't realize that. You know, it's funny, there's another Bill in my life, And now he's been in the automotive industry for probably going on 20, I guess 28 years now because when I first started in this business, he had no automotive experience and he lived down the street from our shop and he came into the shop and he's like, hey, can I get a job sweeping the floor?

14:30It was a very similar situation except he was just trying to apply for a job and we didn't have anything at the time. And the next day he comes back and he's like, hey man, you got anything open for me yet? And he had a lot of charisma and, you know, he's just this bubbly guy and we're like, no, we don't have anything.

14:46And he's like, well, look, man, I'm just going to start working until you put me on the payroll. And he goes in the waiting room and he cleans the coffee station and he grabs some trash and takes the trash out and he starts work. Like he literally starts working. He's like, you got a broom? Let me just sweep this up for you guys.

15:03And I'm like, this is crazy. So We ended up giving him a job as a general service, and he did that for about a week, and we're like, okay, you need to be up front working. And so he moves up front. Now he's a service advisor, and he has been in automotive running shops and doing this for going on 30 years now.

15:29But he was a leader before we even hired him. Yeah, right. He just had it in him. And so that's what— that's really cool, you know, to hear, to hear that story. Yeah. So you've been to Key to Key and you've been to Courtside a bunch of times. Why would you keep coming back, Bill, if you've, you've already learned it? We're just teaching the same thing over and over again.

15:48Oh, I wish it was that simple, Glenn. It's, it's, I got to say, incorrect, man. Is, is the best always want to be better. It's something my dad always taught me. And when you have that drive and that passion, right? There's always something more. And when you surround yourself with the best, right, you become the best. I said, and a bunch of sayings, you know, Billisms, if you will, as you hear my mom also say to me as well, like, you know, if you hang out with 3 dummies, you're sure to be the 4th.

16:16And so I wanted to surround myself, you know, with people that are the top dogs in this industry, right? The top dogs, because my level rises. And every time, like I said, I've been to Courtside 3 times now this year, and I'm not missing a single month, Glenn. You'll see me. I said I wanted to do key-to-key to take some of our newer teammates with me because I do believe in the basics as a coach that I've always been a coach of youth lacrosse and high school lacrosse and college lacrosse, right?

16:47And I start my practices the same day with the basics. You can't master the basics. You can't get to the top tier. And for me, I'm on this journey now of, again, being around people like you, people like Mike Quinn,, right? People like Charlie Zakos, obviously Todd Hayes, right? Amy Bartel, these leaders in the industry. And I just look at myself and I say, you know, I can do this.

17:08And I believe in the process because this perfected process, it's real, right? And you can't unsee the things that you see when you come back to your store, right? And you just, you know that there's more out there. And I told myself and made a commitment to Rob and to Jordy, who's done an excellent job of driving this business forward. From where we are to where we are now.

17:31I'm so, so grateful for his leadership and the ability to send me every single month, but I won't stop, right? And you don't just get it all the first time. There's so much in there. There's so much information that the first time you miss things, right? The second time you grow things, the third time you start to perfect things. And I just don't— I can't imagine what I'm going to get out of 5, 6, 7, And I won't stop for the people who think that they can just come in one time, turn their whole business around, right?

18:04And commit to this process. Unfortunately, as I kind of said yesterday, is incorrect. Like it is a very basic and simple process, right? But it takes constant refinement, right? And as we say to my teammates here, right, we are on the constant pursuit of progression, right? The outcome is the distraction. Right? If we continue to grow in this process, the desired outcome will come to us, which is $500K and beyond, right?

18:30And we are just sitting on that cusp. There's so much potential energy here, Glenn, that I mean, like I told Rob yesterday, I feel like a nuclear bomb is going off inside of me and I'm going to take and I'm going to do whatever it takes, you know? Yeah, it's— look, it's professional business, right? It's a sport, right? We all learn how to play baseball, football, basketball, right?

18:52When we were in elementary school, like we learned the game. Like everybody's learning the game, right? It's a kid's game, right? And then you look at the professionals, I mean, at the highest level, I mean, these are, man, these are professionals and they're playing a kid's game for a king's ransom. Okay. And how do they do that? Well, they just execute at the highest level and they are practicing the same exact thing over and over again.

19:16And you know, when you surround yourself with these great people, you are going to learn. So I've, you know, I've been doing key-to-key, I mean, for years now. And I was at Courtside this weekend and I had a list of notes, okay, that I took, right? To come back and to sharpen up and to implement because I'm around a bunch of superstars, right?

19:38I'm around, and I'm not just talking about people teaching, I'm talking about the people learning, right? Like there are people in that room that I'm learning from. Every single time I get nuggets from somebody that is in the chair. Okay. Now the awesome thing about Courtside, and I have to just touch on this because like this was my first Courtside. So Key2Key, we're getting a lot of just people that are brand new to the concept and we will see people go and transform their business after one weekend.

20:07But you know, you have to keep coming back to keep growing and keep going to the next level. Now Courtside, man, this is people that have been doing it And they've kind of leveled up to Courtside, and it's a whole nother level where, man, you are really, really getting down into, you know, just breaking down these concepts and, you know, doing it in real time.

20:33Like, uh, and you have to get a little bit uncomfortable to get comfortable doing it. And, um, you know, it was just amazing to watch everybody be able to come up and, and, and do a take 5 and do an invoice review. And do a shop tour live, right? To be able to do that. And one of the, one of the best parts about Courtside is the accountability partner.

20:54I love that, right? And you have an accountability partner. Who's your accountability partner? That's D Block. I hope D Block's on the line. Donovan, man, I'll tell you, is absolutely amazing. His fire, his electricity, right? It's that moment again that you have to rise to the occasion. Like, I was so proud because we were in the same group together. And to watch someone who's been just like you said, Glenn, has been doing this for years, right?

21:20And he's in here, right? And we practice like we play, right? We, we, we, we— that's the only way to become the best. And he did not take anything lightly, which even in, in, in training pushed me, right, to say, okay, I got to dive back in and I have an opportunity to perfect my skills. And I'm really excited again about my accountability buddy, um, because I think that both of us have aspirations to grow..

21:42And that's what I need to push myself, you know, into the next level. And, you know, you guys know every single time I've been there and, you know, Cupine can contest to this, Charlie can contest to this, right? Like, it's not that I've been there and I don't have to participate anymore. It's like the opportunity to get better in a setting where people are going to critique bullseyes and are going to push you forward.

22:03So I was really excited to watch someone who has been with Adams Automotive and have been through this process and steps in and again, acts like, you know, it's the first time he's doing this and brings that fire and that energy, right? Because that's what we need. That's what auto hospitality is. It's Dr. Dana's favorite line. If he's on the line, he already knows what I'm going to say.

22:24Like, hospitality isn't just being nice. It's engineering trust and putting all these 10 trust points together. And to have someone in your group that you know is going to be your accountability buddy, right, is like, it's lightning, man. And I just feel So great to have someone and to watch someone that could have easily just said, you know what, been doing this for years.

22:44I can't believe they're going to make me go back and practice. No, he took this as the same opportunity as I did is, hey, let's go get better. Right. And him even hearing, you know, D Block say like, oh my gosh, like I can do that better. It's like, boom, triggers in my brain. Like, okay, I can do better. Like we can keep perfecting this.

23:01And it's just a really great part of it. Really, really excited to be able to communicate with him. Same with Mercedes Mike. He's my, my, my accountability buddy. And I got to do a better job with you, Mercedes Mike, of understanding for my salespeople how I train my salespeople as well. So again, I've been really blessed to put these people that I hold in such high regard around my circle.

23:24And that's again, another important part about Courtside is again, you know, you hang out with 3 ballers, you're sure to be the 4th. Yeah, I was so excited to see just Donovan, how fired up he was, right? And I knew, I was like, man, these guys, they're gonna be accountability partners for sure because you guys have, you know, a very, very similar energy, just like fired up.

23:48And, you know, he's been doing this for a long time and he's really, really good. I mean, he is an absolute stud and, you know, he wants to go to the next level and he has leveled up so much, you know, this past year. It's absolutely incredible to be able to watch and to see him come out of there and be so fired up and to take so many notes and to learn so much, even though he does it every single day, to be able to just kind of get out of the store and to be able to go through the training.

24:18Look, we send all of our team through training. Like the training that we do for everyone all over the country is the exact same recurring training that we do for our teams. We do it every single month. Our teams come through, our teams are learning, and they're leveling up as well. And, you know, training not only teaches you the concept and how to, you know, execute, but it also, it actually makes you a better leader.

24:47You know, if you look at, you know, I look at Amy and, you know, we spin the wheel, right? Of who's gonna go up, Who's going to be on stage next and who's going to be able to do whatever's on the list, right? And at the beginning, people might be a little bit hesitant or a little bit uncomfortable. Like, man, you're about to get up in front of a group of people and you're going to do a Take 5 or you're going to do whatever.

25:16And you've got Amy now. I mean, Amy's just like, please, please land on me. Please land on me. Please land on me. Because she just wants to get up there because she's always got a new nugget, right, that she got. Oh yeah. And that she is ready to just let everybody know about. And, you know, just the conversations that you're having with people in there is going to just trigger some type of idea or some type of concept.

25:44And it's like, wow, I never really thought of that. We had some great recruiting thoughts about just doing some shifting with some people. And it was like, wow, yeah, that's a great idea. You know, I wanna, yeah, I wanna go do that. You know, it's just so fun to be around, you know, all these, you know, absolutely amazing people. So yeah. So what do you think was your biggest takeaway from this weekend?

26:13Yeah, I had a lot of aha moments. I said, is this my favorite part? Is every single time I get something new and there's a few things that I really took away this time because every time I come, my focus shifts. Right. I feel like I come back, right. I pick one thing that I'm going to kind of harp on and focus on in my take-fives and growth.

26:34And, you know, this time there's a few things, and I think my teammate Luke got it this day. I had an aha moment there, you know, with the Hammers and in this group. And so a few things is really, again, is recruiting, right? Is, is, that was a powerful one for me. It, again, because of where I was in the process the last few courtsides, I think I was focusing on a little bit more of, you know, let's do the best with what we've got.

26:57But that doesn't translate, right? Superstars are superstars for a reason. We have to be able to go out and find them. I think I made the comment to you that I've been waiting for one to fall in my lap or sign up on Indeed, but they don't come that way. And to hear, you know, you know, Felix, to hear JT, to hear, you know, Lubano, the way that, you know, they were out, they were plucked out.

27:20I mean, Todd Hayes calling Lubano's district manager is the wildest thing that I've ever heard. Right. I'm like, this is insane, but that's how you go get these people. They're not people that fall in your lap. Right. And it takes that work, right? This is that, like, that work-life integration that we talk about, you know, maybe within the hours of 7 to 6, right?

27:40I'm running Monday through Saturday, obsessed with the business, obsessed with the process, right? And continuing to grow what I have in the walls is the time that I have to spend outside of the business to growing my business. Right. I'm very fortunate to be a managing partner here at Tru Automotive, and I'm very blessed, but I have a responsibility to grow this business.

27:59And it's through those recruiting methods that we kind of talked about and getting on the phone and finding those people and getting referrals. Who's the best tech you've ever worked with? Who's the best service advisor? We have people in my building that, again, I will call Luke out, said he was holding out on somebody for me because I never asked. That's not his fault.

28:16That's my fault. I have to take ownership of that. You know, the second really big takeaway is, is I'm, I love math and I love numbers. If for those in this business, we all know that the numbers don't lie, right? The P&L is the Bible, right? And we, we kind of understand and where I'm at, right? We're, we're very close every month right now to $400,000 in revenue.

28:36And, you know, I'm sitting there talking with Luke and he's kind of seeing this third base mentality, right? As we run through the bases for a reason,, right? This is a perfected business model, right? And I said, okay, we're seeing about 500 cars, you know, a month, which is plenty, right? Plenty to go ahead and get that $500K. And I told Luke, I said, you know, guys, we're not asking for permission to continue the inspection of the maintenance portion of this.

29:03If we sold $500, right, to 200 more customers, and these are customers that we know we're going to buy,, right, that have been customers of ours. Joe has this thing, you know, the 80/20 rule, right? If we focused on 20 more percent of our customers and running the bases better, hit 200 cars at $500 more, which is like 2 maintenance services, right?

29:24A brake fluid service and a coolant flush. That's $100,000 in revenue at 62.5%, right? That's $62,000 more that drops right to the bottom line. And this is again where, okay, I first time, okay, let's perfect first base. We've got these videos, we're rocking and rolling, we've got stories, Second time, okay guys, we're not doing a great job of rolling into second base.

29:47Boom, come back into the store, making sure my Rack Attack team, myself, that we're dedicated to getting second base, setting the customer up. We're gonna call you back in 30 to 40 minutes with the update of your bumper-to-bumper inspection, rolling into second base. And now, right, it's that final piece of the puzzle, which is again why I keep coming back and I keep coming back, right?

30:05So the math is right there. And again, I see that $500,000, you know, in sight,. But as I say, right, that the outcome is the distraction. If I focus on the process, right, and I focus on this perfected business model, I'm going to get there. So I'm really excited for my take five this morning. Uh, but those were like two of my most powerful takeaways.

30:25You can't sit back and let people come to you. We have to be proactive and not reactive. And every day, right, we have to reset the salt shaker and continue to make sure that we're doing things right to run this process correctly. Yeah, people, they're just not gonna fall in your lap. I mean, it's just not gonna happen, right? You have to actively be recruiting and you have to be recruiting all the time, right?

30:46We talk about it like the highest level of the pro sports, right? Regardless if they are a championship team, if they are winning back-to-back championships, we talk about the Chiefs or the Eagles, it's like, you know, they're winning Super Bowls, but guess what? They're still recruiting, right? They are actively recruiting because one, you never know what's gonna happen. Somebody's gonna sell sabotage, something's gonna happen.

31:11Somebody's gonna get hurt, whatever that is. And you have to always be ready to go and get that next player. We had some great recruiting things happen right there. I mean, sitting at the table, I mean, just thinking about that table, like just think about the horsepower, right? That's sitting at that table in one of the breakout groups. It's about 5 or 6 of us sitting there.

31:30And we just call the shop and it's like, hey man, I've got this Audi that's making a noise. And look, hey, if you're listening to this, you might think that this is, you know, I don't know, out of bounds or whatever. But it's just not because, look, if you hire a recruiter to go and recruit for you, these are the things that they're going to do.

31:48And it's, look, it's no harm, no foul. We're calling a shop up. We're already training anyway, calling shops. So, hey, look, I've got an Audi, it's making a noise, I need to bring it in. Like, who do you think I could bring it in? Like, if I bring it in today, like, who would be able to look at it and who would be fixing that car?

32:04And the guy on the phone just like, well, you're looking— I mean, either Jake or Jerry. Yeah. I mean, let me check their workload real quick. Let me see what Jake and Jerry got going on. And so we're like, we know Jake and Jerry can fix Audis, okay? And then he's like, well, it's kind of making this weird noise. Would it be okay if I just talk to one of the technicians?

32:22And they're like, sure, hang on a second, right? And then they're going to put a technician on the phone, okay? And they got on the phone, they had him on speakerphone, and we had a little conversation. And we didn't get anything out of it at that moment because we were just doing it for the exercise. But we know at any time we can call that shop and Jerry and Jake are looking, uh, or can fix Audis.

32:42And You know, there's a time that they're probably not going to be happy. They might not be happy right now. We text another guy, say, okay, let's go back through, through your, your phone, your contact list. Okay, let's, let's go. So let's think, think, think. Okay. Donovan. Now, Donovan has been with me for a long time. Donovan recruited some people. Donovan's a stud.

33:03Like Donovan, dig, think, right? He's like, man, there was this one guy, right? And he, and he goes and he looks him up and he finds out his first name and he gets his phone number and I search it online. I'm like, is this him? Yes, that's him. Him because his name popped up under some, you know, just People Finder thing. We know the guy.

33:19He's texting with the guy, and the guy's like, hey, how's it going, man? I'm good, whatever. And the guy's like, surviving. Yeah, he said, I'm surviving, man. Okay, so this is a master technician, right, that one Donovan has had in his, in his, uh, you know, in his phone for a while, but just, it was just, you know, he wasn't thinking about it, right?

33:41It was just out of sight, out of mind. Okay, one little pro tip is anytime I talk to a technician I talk to a service advisor, anytime when I put them in my contact list and I have, you know, thousands of contacts in my phone, it's crazy. But I always put a little star or if they're a technician and a star or certain, you know, a symbol if they're a service advisor.

34:03So that when I go to my contact list, if I push the star, I know exactly who it is. It's a recruit. Okay. And so I can go through that list. Well, he goes through this guy and he finds this guy and this guy's like, man, I'm surviving. So what do we do? We send them over a shop tour, we send them over some recruiting videos, and we started this dialogue with this guy.

34:21And now that he might be a technician that works for us next week, he might be a technician that Donovan needs when he's running a store and he needs a technician in a year from now, or 2 years, or 6 months, or whatever that looks like, right? Right. We have a technician right now in our Woodlands location that I've been hunting for 3 years, you know, for 3 years.

34:41And now, you know, the day came and it was just, you know, it was just that perfect timing. Like, it was like, uh, hey, I'm looking in. And it's like, I've got an opportunity for you. It's at our Woodlands location, and he is an absolute stud. Now, just sitting across the room from Luke, Lockdown Luke. Hey, Luke, man, don't— do you know a hammer?

34:59Like, okay, let's not even— don't even think about calling anybody right now. Just think real quick. What industry did you come from? He tells me. Do you know a hammer? Like, is there a stud that you could think of? He's like, ah, actually, yes, I do know somebody. And you looked at him like What the heck? Yeah, what the heck, man? Holding out on me?

35:18What the heck? But see, people aren't holding out. They just, you know, it just flips their mind and they don't, they don't, you know, maybe they're not thinking, um, that intentionally at that moment. Or, you know, sometimes people don't want to make a recommendation right away. Maybe they don't want to make a recommendation after 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, maybe even 6 months, maybe it's a year.

35:38And they're like, you know You know what? I do have somebody. Because people are, you know, sometimes they're hesitant to put their name on somebody, right? Todd has a saying and it's like, the only bad hire is the one you keep, right? And I love that because, you know, we move fast. Like we're gonna hire somebody and then we're gonna move really fast.

35:56And if we hire them, you know what? We hired them as a team. We made a decision, we're bringing them on, right? We win together, we lose together. If that wasn't a good hire and we released them, then hey, no problem, no harm, no foul. You never know when you're gonna find that diamond. "Man, let's go ahead and give this person an opportunity."

36:13It's not on you, right? Just because you brought them to me does not mean that it's on you. And so I think that's a very, very important part. You have to keep going back to your team constantly because, like I said, I've got Don, he's been with me for years, and all of a sudden there's this guy that just popped in his mind that he remembered.

36:33And so I think that's super, super important. Third base, great point, you know, on third base. A lot of people are scared to sell the additionals, the maintenance on it. And here's why. Because they're scared. They're scared of the rejection. They're scared of the no. And here's the probably the biggest part of it is they're too emotionally attached to the previous conversations with the customer.

37:01Because when you're selling that initial concern, that ISO, and they kind of say, oh my gosh, that's a lot. That, you know, I really didn't have that budgeted for. And, you know, I just had to get my roof fixed. And, you know, my dog has to have surgery next week. And right. And so they'll tell you all these things. And so you start to— obviously, we, you know, have empathy to our customers.

37:24And that's a real thing. And you have to have that, right, if you care about people. But we still have to be able to present objectively. And so I can't hold back information just because is the customers having their roof fixed. That doesn't mean I don't tell them what's wrong. You see, the roofer is not telling them that they shouldn't do XYZ because they told the roofer the check engine light just came on their car.

37:51The roofer is going to tell them everything that needs to be done because everything needs to be done, especially if they're a hammer. They should be closing deals, right? Hey, there's probably some roofers out there that might be a little scared to sell some maintenance on a roof, right? But maintenance is important. And It happens all the time. It's like, hey, Mr.

38:10Customer, we need to get XYZ done. They say, you know what, I'm just gonna hold off on that. I'll get that done next time. But you've presented it. Yep. And then guess what? An hour later, 2 hours later, when the customer kind of comes off that emotional roller coaster and they go, you know what, man, it's there now. I'm already putting money into it.

38:30I might as well just go ahead and get it done while it's there. And everybody on this call has probably had a customer call back. And I know this because when I ask for people to raise their hands, all the hands shoot up. The customer calls back and they go, hey Bill, you know what, hey man, while it's there, go ahead and take care of that maintenance while it's there.

38:47Does that happen? Absolutely it happens. But they can't say no without the opportunity to say yes. And people get scared. And you're right, it's just a numbers game. If you take Go ahead. I was going to say, there was the saying that someone was bringing it up this weekend, Glenn, is the saying from Perry Adams, is like, you're never wrong to do the right thing, right?

39:11And it's the right thing to do, right? I mean, it's just plain and simple. I know I'm butchering that saying. I'm going to need to know what exactly what it is. But you know what I'm talking about? We're scared to do the right thing and we can't be scared to do the right thing. It's our professional obligation to tell these people, what's going on with their car.

39:26And we cannot be scared to bridge that gap. That's who we are. Yeah, exactly. Uh, the saying is, doing the right thing is always the right thing. There you go. Yeah. And so, yeah, yeah. So, uh, you're right, because here's what happens if we don't tell them everything their car needs. Well, that's an integrity issue, okay? You don't get to decide if you're gonna hold back information from a customer on maintenance on their car because of the way the conversation went.

39:52That's not fair to the customer. They need to know everything that needs go on with their car. And then here's what happens, because we PMI the car every time it comes in, and so we're gonna rack attack the car next time. And next time the car comes in, guess what? It's not gonna need any safety concerns typically because it was just here not that long ago.

40:11And the only thing that's left on the car is maintenance. And what does our industry do? Well, there's nothing left on the car that's a safety concern, and so they're gonna call the customer and try and sell the customer maintenance, and the customer's gonna say, say exactly this. They're gonna say, why didn't you tell me that last time when I was just there?

40:29And you're gonna say, well, uh, and you're gonna be, you're gonna be scrambling at that point. And they're gonna say, I should have known that last time. And you're gonna have an upset customer on your hands. Yeah, because what now, you can tell the customer, and look, if they don't want to do the maintenance on their car, that's perfectly fine, right? We now, at least they know next time And hey, look, next time you come in, we can go ahead and take care of all your fluid exchanges, right?

40:54But I'll tell you what, why don't we do this? And this is where you— this is, this is what really separates, right, the hammers and the closers from the order takers. I'll tell you what, look, instead of doing all the fluid exchanges now, why don't we do this? Let me take care of your brake fluid and your fuel service. Next time we'll knock out your driveline services.

41:11So today it'll be an additional $536.42, and then that'll actually take a little bit away, less, you know, a little bit away from next time so it's not as big next time. Why don't we just knock out a couple of them while it's here? And more times than not, if you're trying to sell all the fluid exchanges on a car and they say no, most people back off right there.

41:32Try and get one or two right there. Look, let's go and take care of this one today and then maybe we can start tipping away, tipping them away as you go. And you will find more times than not, the customer is going to do one or two of those services at that time. And look, that could be the difference of $400 to $500, right?

41:51It's just a math game, right? It's your ticket average times your car count. So you gotta either figure out, one, if you do the concept and you execute it at a high level, okay, it yields a $1,000 ticket average, okay? I know that. We execute at a very high level. It's a $1,000 ticket average, which includes all the zeros too, by the way.

42:08A lot of people don't count their zeros. We count the zeros, okay? It counts, it includes the zeros. You have to. You can't get a batting average and say, hey, look, what's his batting average without his strikeouts? Yeah. Okay.— but it doesn't work that way, right? But it's just a math— it's just a math equation. If it's a $1,000 ticket average, then I know I need 500 cars.

42:30You see, I don't have to find $500,000 worth of work, okay? I have to find 500 cars, okay? That's the difference. You see, the, the, the number is the byproduct of executing the concept at a high level. The number is the number. On the top of my board, the goal every single day, it says WCS. And it's world-class service. I don't put a number up there.

42:54People ask me all the time, hey, when they come in for VIP Rack Attack, hey, what's your goal today? World-class service is my goal. I don't have a number. It might be 25, it might be 35, it might be 48. We did $100,000 over this weekend. Shout out Jose Garcia and amazing, amazing A-team. Okay, $100,000 in sales. But what— but we don't come in saying like, we're gonna do the number, right?

43:21It's just like an NFL team. They're not coming in saying, all right, look guys, this is gonna be the score, okay? Let's look, okay, 42 to 7 this week. That's the score, okay? And how do we get there? No, they say, we're gonna work on blocking and tackling and executing, okay? That's what we're gonna work on. We're gonna work on the basics and the fundamentals.

43:40And then the ones that do that the best end up end up with the winning score, and you never know what it's going to be, right? I mean, sometimes it's a blowout, sometimes it's not. You just never know. And so that should always be the goal, right? Execute a high level, get to that $1,000 ticket average, and then all I need to do is figure out how do I get 500 cars in my shop, because then you'll get 500, 600 cars, 600, and so on and so forth.

44:07Yeah, 100%, man. And I got to give a shout out, you know, Glenn, to the— to exactly what you said, and it's just going to keep repeating. I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, but as you just described, right, the outcome is the distraction. You stuck to the process, you get $100,000 over the weekend, right? The goal, obviously we all want to get to $100,000 over the weekend, but it wasn't like you stepped in there and like, all right guys, I'm going to go run, you know, courtside, just do what you do.

44:30You made a powerful comment in courtside that really stuck with me too, Glenn, was, you know, it's like a lot of managers in this industry, right? They're like, okay, you know, I'm going to leave and I want my team to do well, but I don't want them to do too well because I'm not there. And that's not going to reflect well on me.

44:48And, you know, I said what the biggest thing I was proud and so fired up rolling into the weekend is, you know, I left, you know, work at 11 to get on the plane to come. Luke had to do the same thing. And my team, right? I, big shout out to the Lawrenceville team, you know, Zach, Anthony, we had, you know, Cody in the back helping drive our business as well.

45:09And, you know, we left and we did $30,000 at 62.5% without us in the building. What do you think, right? And that's just a testament to how well this process works and the things that you're capable of when you instill these values in your teammates and your teammates take pride in the way we do things. We didn't take a step back, we took a huge leap forward.

45:30And I'm in no way, shape, or form sad of the performance that they did on Friday. I looked at my board this morning and I'm like, all right, baby, let's cook, right? Today's the day. We're gonna build on that and we're gonna move from there.. But I was so proud of how they carried themselves. Even Rob made a comment, you know, 'cause I know Glenn, you know, we've been working hard on parts and making sure we're collecting all of our dollars and cleaning up that world.

45:55The world's cleaned up. Everybody stepped up. Everybody rose to the occasion. Rob gave me a phone call that was the most, one of the most proud phone calls I've ever got. He's like, hey, I left your shop after 2 months and I came back and it's the first time I left it better, right? It's better now than when I left. Right. And I'm like, boom, like, that's it, man.

46:13That is a set. That's how we roll here in Lawrenceville. And it's just the beginning, man. It's just the beginning. I'm just at the tip of the iceberg. It's why I got to keep coming back and keep surrounding myself with y'all because this is gold. Well, I'm so excited that your accountability partner sits next to me every day. That's exciting because I'm going to be able to get to to hear and see what you guys are doing through that.

46:39Not that we don't talk all the time, but just to be able to just kind of get the inside scoop. So man, well, we are up on time, man. This was a blast. I absolutely loved talking with you. Love seeing you. So happy we got to hang out this weekend and just look forward to doing it again next month. Have an amazing, amazing week, everybody.

47:02We're about to start our Take Five, get this day started. Let's go! Let's go! Have a great day, everybody. Thanks. Thank you so much for having me, Glenn. I really appreciate it. Absolutely. For 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.

47:32We have leadership classes, an 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 Westerland, 925-980-8012.