From $135K to $600K: J.J. Mont’s Auto Hospitality Breakthrough - Bonus Zoom Episode 3

0:00Good morning, Glenn Piccolo here with Adams Automotive bringing you another episode of Master Tech to Millionaire. Man, today we've got a bonus episode. We got a very special guest today. We got JJ Montt out of Waldorf, Maryland. What an absolute pleasure getting to sit down with JJ and just diving into his journey and really how he's implemented Todd Hayes's perfected business model.

0:20We're going to break it down, what that's looked like for him, kind of behind the scenes, and the results that follow. Thank you so much for listening. Hope you enjoy. Good morning. Good morning. Let's go. Good morning. Let's go, man. We've got a great guest this morning. JJ Mott. What a superstar, man. For those of you guys that don't know kind of the story there, we met JJ September of 2023.

0:51Met him at ASTA. Uh, he walked into the room and he was like, this is it, man. This is the room I'm supposed to be in. God sent me in this room. I'll never forget it. I met JJ, uh, absolute stud. You know, I always talk about that, that instant connection, uh, with people and just falling in love with somebody in the first 5 seconds.

1:15You know, we talked about that on our last podcast and how important that is. And man, we met JJ and we just hit it off. What an absolute superstar. He decided to come to Key2Key immediately following the ASTA deal. And I'll let him tell you kind of where it went from there, but super excited to have him on this morning as an HPP partner now and absolutely crushing it in Waldorf, Maryland.

1:48So JJ, boom, this morning. Hey, look, I'm gonna use your language. Boom! What's going on, man? Hey, man, man, it's an honor, man. It's an honor, 100%, man. It's, it's amazing, man. I can't, I can't thank you enough, Joe, brother Todd, everybody, man. I mean, Charlie, Bill, man, I love you guys so much, man. It's, it's a it's incredible how much things have changed.

2:16And from that day that we met, you know, it was special, man. You know, like, I remember, I remember on that day, it was in September of '23, you know, when I first, I first came in there, and I'll spare all the details, but when I was in there, I think it was like a 3-hour class or so. So it was like a, a shortened version of it.

2:34And, um, man, you and Joe were hitting that thing so hard, and I was like I said, oh my God, man. I was like, that's it. I done found it. You know, I found this is exactly what I was looking for, man. And you know what's funny though, man? I looked around because I was trying to catch eyes with somebody else in the class, and I would look around and some people half asleep, you know, some people were kind of picking holes in it, you know, they're talking about, hey, hey, you know, but what if you have a, you know, some type of injector misfire and this and all that.

3:07How are you going to diagnose that in 10 minutes? You know? And I was like, dog, they don't get it, man. I said, but I'm not even tripping on them, man. I got exactly what I needed to get, man. It changed my life, bro. So, I mean, meeting you guys was amazing, man. Yeah, it was awesome. And you're right, you know, in those rooms, uh, we, you know, we do it every month and, uh, you know, we can look around the room and we can see like who gets it.

3:31And who doesn't get it and who gets locked in. You know, we're staring back at the audience the whole time and, you know, some people get it and some people don't. And then typically the people that, you know, just lock in, you know, you feel that energy. Like when you're speaking to a group and you feel that energy, you just kind of lock in with those people.

3:50And so I was locked in on you. I was like, man, I know, I love this guy. You know, I just felt like I knew you my whole life after, Yeah, just a couple hours. And, uh, so just, just really— well, look, Glenn, Glenn, do you remember after you did the— after the session, right? I, I said you were walking kind of, kind of by me, right?

4:12And I was like, I said, hey man, I couldn't remember your name at the time. I was like, hey man, this, this changed my life, man. And you said, you said, oh, what, for real? And, uh, you were like, hey Todd, Todd, hey, this— he said this guy, this guy said it, it just changed his life. And then That's the whole thing.

4:30That's when, uh, me and Todd was just, he started prophesying over me, man, speaking generational wealth on me, man. And that was such a match for my spirit, you know? So man, we're in there crying and all this and all that, man. And I didn't, I just endeavored to go on that journey with you guys, man. Yeah. Uh, and what an incredible journey it's been.

4:48So it's been 3 years. I was looking back through my, uh, my photo library to try and get a couple pictures to send out with it. And I just found that picture. You know, you and me just, you know, right there taking a picture together like we just met, you know. And it's like, yeah, yeah. And then I, and then I got another picture, fast forward, you know, maybe a year and a half or maybe a year, I don't even know how long ago it was, when you just came running through Key to Key with, with the guns blazing.

5:15That's one of my favorites. Oh, you remember that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and, uh, you know, when, when your name is spoken, everybody, it gets a round of applause, and that's become a thing. If anytime we mention your name, whether you're or you're not, uh, everybody has to clap when we say the name. That is so funny, man. That is so funny, man.

5:35Yeah, I have— you guys have no idea how much, how much I love you guys. What an example you guys are, not only to, um, you know, to people about cars and, and automotive hospitality, but just as, as fathers, you know, as, as believers, as leaders, man. You know, you guys really set the tone and the example for what excellence looks like, man.

5:54So I'm very, very grateful, bro. Awesome, man. So for those that don't know you or don't know the story, can you kind of walk us through you and how it kind of all started and what this last 3 years looked like? Yeah, absolutely. So I got into, I'll speed everything up, I kind of got into the automotive space in 2018. And in 2018, I started a repair shop, definitely not hospitality.

6:23I tried to do the, hospitality thing at my particular level, but I had no clue about anything. So we were the cheapest shop in town. I had a little, I had a little like a rundown gas station looking deal, 3 bays, uh, in between 2 of the, um, 2 of the towns that are, that are the major towns out here. And, um, you know, it was rough, man.

6:44So I, I had that, I had that shop for 1 year and, um, our, our biggest month was $39,000 and that included a couple used car sales, you know. So, so we were rocking and rolling, man. I, I worked super duper hard, man. And I mean, I'm shuttling customers, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm cleaning up, I'm doing it all. And at the end of the day, I said, this industry sucks.

7:12I never want to do cars ever again. So I sold the business one year after we started for like $25,000. I would have took $1,000 literally and just just take everything that's in there and just, I'm getting out of here. And then, um, so I sold that in, at the, in the middle of 2019. Then 6 months later, opportunity, um, because I was going to move to the, to the West Coast and do, uh, some type of, uh, live production for, uh, Christian, um, Christian programming and stuff.

7:41And, um, but yeah, so an opportunity opened up for the store that I have now with the same owner or the same property owner, landlord of the, of my first store. And he gave me an opportunity. I didn't have any money or anything. Like, all that money was spent. So, um, he said, um, he said, yeah, you got— if you want it, you got first dibs on it.

8:01And I really had to pray about and think about it because I knew that I did not like the industry at all, but I felt led to do it, you know, because, uh, I believe that it was the best opportunity for, for me at that time in my life. And oh my God, I'm so glad I made that decision, you know. So I gave him, um, you know, rent check and a deposit.

8:22And I said, do not try to cash these because, uh, the money's not there. I said, but I will make it good. I will let you know when it— when I have it for this. And, and he believed in me because I took care of his last store and, uh, or his last, uh, his last location and, and took that up to another level.

8:40And, um, and he gave me a shot, man. So time went on. We started right at January 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. And we— my first year we did about $350,000. So that was roughly similar to what we did at my, my other store, in a sense. $350,000 a year, by the way. So, um, then the second year we, we jumped to a little bit over a million.

9:03Then the third year we jumped to about $1.4 million. And then that's when I met you in September of '23. So at that time we were, um, on average between $150,000 or, excuse me, about $130,000 $130,000 to $170,000, and we dipped into like $190,000, you know, right around there. So, uh, but we were just, you know, slapstickin' it, man. Just, just complete decision fatigue every day.

9:30We just running and gunning. And even at $130,000, like, we were slammed, you know. We were absolutely slammed because we didn't, you know, we didn't have the staff. So we were telling people, yeah, if you drop it off, we can get to you in 48 to 72 hours. What kind of mess is that? But, but that's what everybody was doing, you know?

9:51I mean, that's, that's kind of what you're going to hear out there. So we were just doing what everybody else was doing and, and we were, we literally were slammed, but we only had like 5 or 6 people, you know? So when, yeah, when we got with you guys and we started saying like yes on the phone, which literally, you know, was like a, like a defining moment for me, you know how, you know, people have, uh, you know, defining moments.

10:15So saying yes on the phone Man, it just started becoming a floodgate and that kind of led to the importance of learning how to recruit and learning how to implement the various parts of the concept immediately because now you have all these cars coming in, you got to get these cars inspected, you got to get these cars fixed and you got to sell all the work.

10:45So I saw immediately I needed all kinds of stuff I needed. So that was like, I was like, oh my God, you know, it just started, it just started happening, you know? Yeah. I was thinking about when you, uh, you came back from Key2Key and we were having a webinar and your record week at the time was $35,000 a week. And then you jump on the call and said, um, you know, I had a $72,000 record week and I'm like, oh wow, this is going to be great.

11:17I'm going to get to, tell everybody and have JJ just tell everybody about Key2Key and how great it was. And I'm like, JJ, tell everybody what you're doing. And I'm thinking you're about to get on there and talk about, you know, about everything in the strategy. You're right. Strategies and tag teams and all this stuff. And I'm like, all right, go ahead, JJ, just be the voice.

11:40And you're like, well, actually, actually, I'm not doing any of that yet. I have to, I have to confess, I'm not doing that yet. I'm going to. Yeah. But actually all I started doing was saying yes on the phone and treating my business like it was my first week in business and just checking cars out for free and saying yes on the phone.

12:00And all of a sudden you go from a $35K to a $72K week. And yeah. And obviously that was just a launching pad, you know, for what was, you know, for what was next. And you mentioned something that your previous deal, you were selling cars and fixing cars. And then you ended up converting into obviously getting into auto hospitality. And there's a lot of people probably listening to this that have a shop and probably sell cars on the side.

12:29And I mean, I think that's just a bad recipe because, look, if you're fixing cars and then you're selling cars, well, guess what? I mean, typically you're selling used cars. And so, well, you are selling used cars and then you're selling used cars. And what happens with used cars? Well, things go wrong and they break. And I guarantee those people are coming back to you.

12:48I just bought this car and what's going on with it? Now you've got a bottleneck in production because you're trying to fix cars that you sold because otherwise you have to replace them or you have kind of a heat case on your hands. Matter of fact, my previous company that I worked with was kind of the opposite. The owner, he actually was a car dealer and he built a shop just to kind of have a place to fix the cars and work on friends and families.

13:17It wasn't even actually a business concept. It was just like this shop. And then he ended up hiring, and this is why Todd's concept is just so amazing, one of Todd's original, you know, managers that he hired from the restaurant industry many years ago, and he became a super successful guy, hired him to kind of just manage this one little shop. Next thing you know, Auto Hospitality is kind of underway, a diluted version, not Todd's full version, But it was, you know, the company that I ended up being a part of and we grew, you know, and I was there for 15 years.

13:50But he went from selling cars to, wow, this business model of repairing cars and serving the customer is way better. And so he actually shifted out and went straight into auto, auto. We, it was auto repair. We can't call it auto hospitality. It was, but it was a obviously diluted version of it. So yeah, yeah, yeah, to that point, to that point, Glenn, man, like, okay, so I was doing, I was doing car sales, okay, even when I started my, uh, the shop that I have now, okay, before I understood, before I even connected with the, with the concept.

14:29So I was selling cars, I had a rental car business, I had a vehicle transport business. So I was, uh, I was dispatching, sending, sending, uh, trucks up and down the East Coast, you know, uh, transporting cars. Man, I had, uh, all other stuff, man. And but I didn't understand what business I actually had. So like, I didn't understand what I actually had.

14:52Okay, so when I got the concept, everything changed. I got rid of everything. My rental car company actually became my loaner car company, you know what I mean? That, that served, that served, uh, JJ's. The transportation company, shut that down. I had a towing business, shut that down. Everything, everything got shut down because like my, my, my eye became single.. And I knew exactly what, where, where I was trying to go and what I needed to do.

15:18And the only way I could do that was put 100% energy into this. People don't realize, man, like you get super distracted with all types of stuff and people, you know, talk about side hustle and this and all that, man, that's perfectly fine. I heard somebody talk about that where they said that's, that's fine for exploration to kind of figure out what you're, you know, trying to do.

15:38But once you, once you find that thing, that, that, that's the thing, man, you put everything you have into that thing because that's what's gonna super produce, you know? And that's what, that's what happened with me. Yeah. Um, Mark Cuban talks about that all the time, you know, that core competency, you know, people a lot of times they just want to venture out and they want to just start having all these different, you know, arms of their business.

15:59And it's like, yeah, just focus, focus on what you do great and just be the best at that. And it will, uh, and it will absolutely change your life. So you went all in now. We tell people, man, it's so predictable, right? It's like, it's as predictable as the customer. It's as predictable as our close ratio. It's as predictable as when I do that phone call in key-to-key at 10 AM on Saturday morning when I tell the room exactly what the guy on the other end of the phone is going to say when I ask this question and exactly how it's so predictable.

16:34Well, that room is very predictable too. It's like, okay, Who is going to take this? We know a small percentage of people are going to actually take it and go and change their life because you have to go all in. All right? You can't just decide, hey, I'm going to come to this training and then I'm going to go back and I'm just going to be great.

16:54You have to actually go back and do the work, right? We give you the framework, but you got to actually go and do it. So I believe that there is a correlation with the revenue numbers that everybody's doing and how many times they come to the program. I know that for sure, because the people that come back multiple times, they have insane revenues.

17:15So, um, how many times have you been back? Do you know how many seats you've had? We were looking it up the other day. It's a lot of seats. I don't— I really don't remember, man. I just— I, I know I've been there, you know, a lot. And, and to be quite honest, not enough, you know. I need to— I need to keep, keep coming more and more and more.

17:32I've been kind of locked down over the last few months, man, and I'm— I, I got to come back and get my fix, man. You know, I got to, I got to come back and give a— see, because what happens is it's like, it's not that I'm going to like— I'm, I'm coming to hear new revelation of the concept. We're going to go through the same, same thing, you know.

17:50We're going to just keep drilling the same thing over and over and over. And I know, and I love that. But what, in, in addition to that, what's most important to me is to get around you, to get around Joe. You know, to, to hear Todd, you know, uh, go all in, you know what I'm saying? And like I said, I always like to sit in the front, man.

18:11I want to be, I want to be where the action is, you know. So I want— I— and you know, Todd, like, sometimes you get close, he'd start spitting when he talking. I want to be so close. I want to be so close that Todd, the spit just dropped right on my forehead, man. I want to be, I want to be that close.

18:27Todd gonna beat me up for that. But we got— I like to be that close, man. I need, I need that energy, you know. I need feel that, that thing, man. It's very hard for me to kind of sit way in the back, barely, you know, can't really hear, or, you know, people in the back kind of distracting and all that, man.

18:42I need to be up front, man, and I need, I need to feel that because I don't intend to, uh, uh, take what I'm hearing and go play with it, you know. I gotta, I gotta get it all the way down so when I go back— see, that's the thing, like, most people trying to, uh, like, kind of build something and it's not in them yet.

18:59You know, so you have to spend the time to get it in you so you can go plant yourself in your store to produce there, you know. So that's the importance of keep coming back, is to keep hearing it, keep hearing it. Because now I believe that it doesn't matter wherever I go in the nation, I can, I can start a store and then I can, we can take that store to 500 because it's, it's in me.

19:24It's, it's in me. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, go ahead, you can keep going. Sorry. Oh, oh no, no, no. So I was just gonna say, man, like, that's the, that's the thing. So it's important to keep coming back and listening and just listen. See, I can't just listen to it once a month, you know.

19:41So that's why I'm on the, on, on your Take Five. Listen to your Take Fives every single morning, you know. I listen to, uh, the podcast, you know, and we just go over and over and over, and then we go over that in our Take Five. You know, so it's just, it's just a reproduction of that same spirit, you know? Yeah. I tell people it's, uh, it's like watching a movie, right?

20:00Like when you watch the movie the first time, you're like, man, that was a great movie. Right. But then when you watch that movie the second time, you understand the beginning of the movie differently than you understood it the first time you watched it. And the more you watch it, man, you understand and you just see all these little things that you didn't understand.

20:16See, this auto hospitality that, that we're teaching, it's a language, right? And you have to become fluent. You have to become fluent in it. I know that when I looked through the numbers last time, you had something like 58 seats or something, whether it be through key-to-key, courtside, accounting, fraud and prevention, like 58 seats. Now that's after we switched to a new system, right?

20:43Like a year and a half in or something. So there was a bunch more seats that you had for you and your team prior to that. So I know you've been through a ton of times and it's that important because we are talking about the same thing we were talking about last year and 2 years ago and 3 years ago. It's the same exact thing.

21:02Nothing's changed. Todd's been talking about it since 1986. It's obviously evolved based, you know, on, you know, new technology. But we're using technology for the right reasons. We're making the concept better. Our industry is actually taking technology and they're doing what's been done wrong for so long more efficiently, which is crazy. It's like, you know, using AI to be more efficient at doing it the wrong way.

21:28And I believe they just don't really understand. And so, man, you have to keep coming through. Now, I know you use a lot of, you know, Auto Shop, the family of businesses, you know, services, recruiting. You and I have done recruiting together. Yeah. I mean, we've done 3-way calls where you just listen to me like interview somebody just to hear and take notes on it.

21:51I mean, that is like fire. We, I was listening to a, uh, uh, I forget what I was listening to, but it was a podcast or maybe it was, uh, the, the panel that Charlie was on, um, at Tectonic. And I was listening to people talk about, um, you know, when they call a client, um, which we don't consider clients, we, we, we look at everybody as like our family basically.

22:13And they're talking about, well, yeah, when you get on a call, I mean, you're billing them for that hour, right? And I'm just like, what? Like, I was thinking like, what? And then Charlie just chimed in. He's like, no, I don't do that. Like, I don't charge for that. Like, when you come in, you have access to us because we're like one family.

22:31We help each other. And so I think that's, you know, obviously super important. But from recruiting, tell us about recruiting and just what, you know, the Auto Shop Answers family does for you and Brian. Instant, man. I, I can't tell you enough how, how grateful I am to understand the concept of recruiting, okay? So first, let me just back up, because I took a— I went to the recruiting class, right?

22:59And every time I was taking classes, man, I'd be in there and I'd be the one crying, you know what I mean? I'll be the one, oh my God, and just, just tears of joy, because I'm not a technician, okay? So like As you know, everybody says you really don't want me working on your car. Like, I'm not trying to change your battery.

23:16I never bust a bead on the tire. You know, I don't— I'm not trying to do all that. Now, I am a state inspector here in the state of Maryland. I can point out and say, yeah, that is not right right there. You know, that's bad. You know, but I'm not changing control arms or anything like that. I don't think mechanically or anything.

23:33So I've always kind of been at the mercy of a technician. Okay, so of course you don't have, you don't have a, you don't have a, a, a business if I don't have techs, you know. So techs would normally get away with all type of stuff. What could I do? I don't— I didn't have a bench ready, I didn't have a replacement ready, so I had to kind of, um, uh, yield to, you know, substandard stuff that I, I don't want to tolerate, you know.

24:01So front of the house stuff, I would, I would, you know, I'll be going hard, you know, making sure we're taking care of these customers even before the concept. I know it's all about making sure that people have a good experience. I didn't know how to deliver that systematically. And then that's when, that's when the concept just came full circle for me.

24:20So, but recruiting-wise, man, these guys had me in handcuffs. Okay. So if they wanted to, you know, do a hatchet job on something, how do I know that it's, it's any good. And then I can't even really do anything because if I, you know, terminated a particular person, then I'm down and we're already slammed, you know. So when we got the concept going and then I took the recruiting class, man, it really liberated me.

24:44It freed me up because I saw how the, the different strategies to recruit top-level talent, you know, which would take the business to a whole nother level, which would change everybody's life. Okay, so different things, man, was just amazing. So for example, I'm talking about secret shopping. Okay, secret shopping, all the different things, going into stores and just seeing who's active, you know, going into different stores and looking at the ASE certification things on the wall, you know, and just talking about the— listen to Joe, Joe talking about calling stores like, hey, is Mike there, the technician?

25:22Mike doesn't work here. Oh, what's the guy's name? Who's the master tech that normally is there? You know, and I'm doing all that, man. It's amazing. I was like, oh my God, you know. And then, you know, Brian at the class was showing us how to get on there and find technicians, man. So we called a technician off the jump, you know, and this is kind of just like practice, you know, to wet my whistle.

25:45I was the first one to do it. I called a technician and they just showed up. They just showed us how to do it, right? And I did it and I was like, oh my God. And the guy called back in the middle of the recruiting class. And then I set it up for him to meet me the next day, you know, uh, in, in Maryland the next day at 1 o'clock or so.

26:02Now, he, he did— I didn't hire him or whatever, but it proved to me this stuff works, okay? This stuff works. So, but also too, along with recruiting, how important is it, man, that your shop actually looks good, you know? So my, my first thing that I did, Glenn, when we came back, I said, all right, I said, we When we came back in 2023, I said, all right, we got to make this shop look good.

26:27So we got our floors on. So the week of Christmas, I gave everybody off paid, everybody. And then we did all the floors over, put some new lifts in, got some of the older lifts out, put some new lifts in, et cetera, man. We put air conditioning in there, man. And I took it to a whole nother level and painted. It's amazing what paint would do.

26:49You don't realize it can take something that looks like it's from the '60s and bring you up to modern day, just a little bit of paint. So, and when we did that, now I'm actually, I don't like to use the word, but like I'm proud. I'm happy about the way that my shop looks. And I'm not, I love to bring people in so we can do shop tours.

27:12We can do all of that. And what an amazing change that it actually has. Yeah, recruiting Brian and them, man, is fantastic. Shout out to Gilbert. You know, Gilbert is amazing. But going back real quick, Glenn, about being open, I could call you. I mean, you send me some things of some of your interviews, right? And you said, listen to this and tell me what you think.

27:34So I would listen to it and I was like, yeah, he already may sound like he would be good. And on top of that, you could do this, that, and the other. And he was like, nah. Nah, Jay, nah, he didn't. And these, these are the reasons why, right? And so see, so that's the thing about understanding the concept is great, but you need to get dialed in on it, on, on the nuances, you know, on the, on the things that you, you don't see, you know.

28:01And it takes somebody who, who's in there every single day, somebody does a million dollars a month to kind of show you, hey, hey, hey, not— see, nope, this Yup, see right there, that— yep, that's great. This is bad. This— and, and that little tweaking here and there, man, just, just completely helped, man. So recruiting, I— and that's the thing, see, people don't realize, like, if you know how to recruit, that takes your shop up a whole nother level because everybody in the store knows that it's ABR.

28:30I'm always recruiting. So can't nobody just be lackadaisical. Can't nobody just play around, you know. Can't nobody just, you know, kind of be jiving like, like we say, you can't just be jiving, playing around, you know, you got to be, you got to bring it as an A-game professional. You know, if not, we're bringing people in, man. It's just that simple. This is a business.

28:50And that's what I really got from you in this concept. This is a business. This is not— we ain't playing around. Yeah. You know, one of the most important skills you can have is knowing how to recruit because, man, your team, like you said, your team has to know that you know how to recruit. Otherwise they'll hold you hostage. And a lot of people listening to this right now probably have technician out there that, man, he fixes everything and this is the greatest technician in terms of skill, but they hold you hostage.

29:20And if you don't know how to recruit, your team knows that, by the way. They know you don't know how to recruit and they will hold you hostage. And then you're in a situation where, you know, the tail is wagging the dog. And so, yeah, like interviewing, man, it's super important. Recruiting is super important and being able to share an interview. We did an interview the other night and I did it on speakerphone with my team.

29:42Okay. And how important was that? Because we all had the same, like the same reactions to the answers. Okay. And so I'm recruiting this guy. Matter of fact, I'm recruiting here. Here's how we talk about access. Okay. So one of our Auto Shop Answers shops that comes through, sends me a candidate, hey, I'm thinking about hiring this guy. Would you mind calling him?

30:07And I've done this for him several times because he keeps coming back. I know he's committed and he keeps coming back. This isn't like somebody that just pops in one time and then, and then all of a sudden is going to have me like doing work for them, right? Like, I'm busy. Like, we run a big business, but this is someone that's committed.

30:23When someone's committed to the concept, I become committed to them. And so he's like, hey, can you interview this guy? And so I've done this a bunch of times. And so I'm like, sure, no problem. So I get him on the phone and I've got my team there. We're on speakerphone and we all have the same reactions because these guys understand, like, we know, like, we train constantly.

30:44They know the cues. They know what we're looking for, what we're not looking for, the answers, you know? And I get to a question and it's like how in sync our team is. We get to a question and I'm like, well, what happens if the customer says no and their brakes are, you know, in the red and they don't have time today?

30:58Whatever. He's like, man, I'm going to find out. I'm going to find out where they work. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take them to work, or I'll tell you what, why don't you take my car? I get off at 6:00 tonight. What time do you get off work tonight? Because I'll let you just take my vehicle and I'm going to get these boys taken care of for you.

31:14And then I'll come drop your car off and I'll pick my vehicle up. And I'm like, and we all looked at each other. We all looked at each other and just start shaking our heads. I'm like, yeah, you know, and that's fire right there. But those are the keys that you're looking for, right? And so we have a whole deal on, you know, a whole deal on recruiting.

31:28And obviously, man,, and you have to be able to, uh, to, to find A players. So, uh, you've obviously learned that when you started, you had a few people and obviously now you have a whole bunch of people. Now when you started, you said you were doing $135,000 to $160,000. Yeah. Around $170,000. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Gross sales. Uh, what, what, what are you looking at, uh, these days, JJ?

31:51So now we are like, we just hit our record month. Okay. So, um, but I'll go back just just to kind of answer that full circle. So I said when we started September '23, we started saying yes on the phone. So we started developing some momentum towards the end of 2023. And I said, okay, 2024, we are going to be a $300K store a month.

32:13Okay. Um, that's the goal. We're going to perfect the $300K model. All right. So we started going January, February, boom, boom, boom. And at the end of the year of 2024, we actually did $3.6 million. So we did we did, uh, uh, you know, um, uh, $300K a month. And I said, all right, so 2020, uh, 2025, we're going to be a $400K store, 100%.

32:36We're not looking back. We ain't playing around. We're going $400K. We're going $400K. So we, we did it, you know. We ended up actually exceeding that. I think we did like $5.3, um, in '25. And then I said, all right, we skipping $500K. We're, we're not, we're not doing, because we know we can hit that. Let's, let's get, let's, let's make the target a $600K store every single month for, for the year 2026.

33:02That's our goal. That's our target. And, um, and I did that because $500K just seemed, it was, see, if you set goals for, for people that you don't have to really reach for or press towards, then you can, you can kind of create a, like a lazy spirit or like it's like everybody will settle. So once you hit 500, then you start settling and that's not what we want to do, you know.

33:26So we said we're going to be a 600 store. And so finally, man, we, we hit 600 in, uh, last month, which was, which was April. We did like 614, man. And, uh, it was amazing. Absolutely amazing, man. God is so good, man. We just celebrate that and it's just like, what? Are you kidding me? 600 Because when we first met again in September, Joe said, how much you guys doing a month?

33:49And I kind of was like, I said like $170,000 and I just kind of threw that out there. And he was like, you'll be doing $400,000 before you know it. And I was like, golly, let's go, baby. Let's go. Are you serious? Well, let's go. You know, well, let's go. And then we just started on that journey. So we just hit $600,000, man.

34:05And it was absolutely amazing. And when I look at it, it's It's really not the number that is greatly satisfying. It was the journey, man. It's like everything that we did every single day, every single thing, every single thing that we had to tweak, every— I mean, oh my gosh, there's so much that had to be learned. There's so much that had to be received.

34:29There's so many people that we had to let go. There's so many people we had to bring on. And when you look back in just that short period of time, I mean, how grateful am I to just be like, oh my God. And there's no way I could do it without a Glenn Piccolo, without a Joe Adams, without a Charlie, without a Bill Broussard, without a Todd.

34:46You just can't. It's just very hard. It might be— I don't know if it's impossible, but it's just very hard to do. I mean, Charlie opened his arms to me, man. I went up to Boston and spent time in there for the weekend, man. He was amazing. Opened up his whole team. I could talk to the GM. Same thing that you do.

35:04And I'll just I mean, I'm taking notes, I'm capturing voice messages because I want to capture the essence of what's happening to bring it back down, man. But yeah, man, so we're on target and this is what a major year this is. You know, I was talking to Todd the other day, Glenn, and he was like, this is the most important year of your life.

35:23And it really is. This is the most important year of my life, you know, with what we got going on with the HBP and everything, man, it's happening. You know, it's happening. Yeah, it's amazing. And, you know, Todd, I love Todd, right? It's like every week is so— it's like so big. Like, this is such a big week because he moves so fast and everything he does, he's like, dude, this week, it's a big week.

35:48And I've heard that from him so many times. But it's funny what you talk about when, you know, you're just going to jump over, you know, 500, go straight to 600, right? Like, that's how Todd thinks. Todd thinks so big, right? We did $500,000 and he's like, next stop, $750,000. And I'm like, I don't say anything, right? And I'm just like, yeah, $750,000.

36:09I'm like, what about $550,000, man? Like, can we do $550,000? Maybe $600,000? Next stop, $750,000. And then we hit $750,000 and he's like, next stop, $1 million. One shot, one month, $1 million. And I'm like, yeah, this guy, man. Like, this guy, holy cow, man. This is wild, man. But like you said, man, it's not, you know, it's about the journey. It's about, you know, I was listening to Todd Graves and Raising Cane's.

36:35I mean, guy's like insane. And he said something and I love this. And he said, you know, it's not about what you can make, it's what you can give. And I really, really love that because, you know, he's like, that's how you keep score, you know, and making sure you're doing it for the right reasons because— There's a lot of shop owners out there that actually do well, but what are they able to give?

36:58Like, what are they able to give to their team? Like, is there a path and a growth plan for their team to be able to say, man, I can really grow and I can build upon this? Because, you know, if not, then, you know, that's just one person that might be, you know, just doing well for them and their family. But you got a lot of team members that you have such a responsibility to influence.

37:23And when you can start, you know, producing big numbers like this, then, man, everybody wins. Like, and it's just— That's correct. No, the culture is, it's just this infectious winning culture. And so it's super important. I know your team loves you. You obviously are just such an incredible, incredible leader. Appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man. No, yeah. So, um, I know, what about, um, I know you, you know, obviously you're using just so many of the, you know, Auto Shop family, um, services and affect your business.

38:03What about, uh, like callbacks? Can you speak on callbacks? We got a few minutes. Yeah, man. So callbacks, uh, with Gary Walker. Shout out to Gary, Big G. Um, you know, Gary runs that, man. And, um, it's so important because I've always wanted to like call the customers back. Yeah, I've always wanted to do that, but it will never happen in the middle of the day.

38:23It's just not happening, you know. So, right, I was going to— before, before, um, I got with the BDC callbacks, I was, um, you know, thinking about hiring family members to call and this and all that. I was gonna give them one of the corporate phones so they can do this, that, and other than just call, hey, you know, thank you so much.

38:40But then, like, if you do that, then what if they're sick? You know, what if they can't make it? They want to go on vacation. They want to do this, that, and the other. They got to, you know, you just got problems or whatever, then those customers are not getting called back. So I knew it was a no-brainer for me to be able to get the BDC callbacks because now I don't even have to think about it.

39:01Now I know that my customers are getting called every single day, every single one of them, and they're getting touched. That is important. You know, we talk about it in the, in the Key to Key where like, out of all the money you've ever spent, you know, over the last year, 10 years, whatever, how many of those, uh, places ever called you to thank you for your business?

39:20And when I think about it, none. You know what I mean? None. Not, not one has ever called me to ever. Now there was, you know, bogus, you know, spam emails, uh, thank you so much. You know, you can tell that's just a robot sending all that stuff out. But I never got a particular call. So that was amazing. I said, absolutely.

39:40And they're studs. So they do that every single day and they communicate us to us on the floor. So we're able to get ahead of situations that, you know, if we have a potential comeback or something, or if the customer was dissatisfied about something, man, they give us a heads up. We're able to reach out and squash that before, you know, before it gets out of hand and we lose a potential customer.

40:00And, you know, we lose a customer, they're going to tell 10 people and then it just multiplies. So it's such a great tool to have to know that every single day, every single customer is getting called. And last month we had about 840 tickets, 840 cars come through. So it's like, and so the BDC is working. Yeah. They're working for us. They ain't taking off.

40:26They're working. They got the little pod where different people are calling all day long, man. And it's just amazing. It. It is, it is, you know, you know, when you get that flow— see, the, the biggest thing I always try to tell people is like, you gotta, you gotta find flow, you gotta find that rhythm. And so the BDC is such a, a rhythm generator, you know, that I would never turn that off.

40:48That, that stays on. And some, some people say, well, you know, it's a couple thousand dollars or it's $5,000, man. Exactly. Now, once What is— they're underpaid in my opinion. Don't, don't tell them I don't want my prices, but y'all know I'm a PIAD. Don't do it, don't do it. Anyway, but anyway, man, I take full advantage of that because they create that rhythm and that energy, whereas we would, we would never be able to do that in-house.

41:18So they're able to keep that, that spigot, that spigot running, that water flowing, man. 100%. Yeah, you know, everybody has heard about callbacks, and you know, if it's a low car count day, it's like, okay, I need to do callbacks. And you know, Todd's had all these defining moments over the course of his career, and I'll never forget mine. It was when we were gonna call all the customers that had a state inspection last year and just remind them their inspection was due, like everybody does that, right?

41:43I mean, or should. It's a low car count day, and we're sitting there, and it's like, all right, here's a stack of— here's a stack of papers, let's go ahead and call these customers. So we call 1, 2, 3, 4 customers answer the phone, 3 voicemails, 4th customer answers the phone. Hey, just want to remind you your state inspection's due. Is there any way we can get that done for you?

42:01Well, nobody's jumping out of their chair to come and get their car. Oh, honey, grab the kids. You know, the oil change is happening, right? But it's like, oh, thanks for the reminder. Yeah, I'll come in tomorrow. We offered to pick it up and he's like, no, don't worry about it. I'll just bring it in tomorrow. And so after that, we hung up that call, the phone rings and then somebody walks through the door and then technician needs a part and then all of a sudden that stack.

42:23I'll never forget that stack of paper just slides underneath the computer monitor, and we didn't make another call. Well, the next day, that customer comes in, and he's like, um, he's like, uh, you know, I'm here for my inspection. Thanks for reminding me. Perfect. So we get the car in, we rack attack the car, we PMI it, and of course we find, you know, work that needs to be done.

42:42$2,500 worth of work that needed to be done on this customer's car. And I'm like, that's it. That was my aha moment. I'm like, we called 4 customers, one answered, he came in, $2,500, 3 voicemails, and then the other several hundred we didn't even get a chance to call. And that was my aha moment. Like, we need to be doing callbacks on days where we're slammed, not where we're slow, because you're not going to get cars to come in.

43:09One in, you know, every so often will come in, but man, like, for the most part, they're just not coming in. So it's like, we need to do callbacks when we're slammed. So we hired, uh, exactly like you said, man, we hired a young college kid and you put in the closet, right? Like, that's where the callback person goes, or it's a brother-in-law, or it's a sister-in-law, or whatever.

43:28Yeah. And then you're at the mercy of them, right? If they miss work, you don't get calls. If they want to stretch their legs and walk around the parking lot because they've been sitting all day and somebody grabs them to go pick up lunch or pick up a part, or, you know, like, they can easily be just distracted. And so we, um, you know, um, knew that that was not a winning formula.

43:48And so obviously Gary Walker comes into our lives through prayer, through Todd. And the BDC man, by the way, is his email, which tells you like he's had that for 20 years. He's like, I love this. I want to do this in service, not dealership world. And so it actually costs us less. We pay on our P&L, you pay on your P&L.

44:11It costs me less on my P&L than it costs me to have the college kid, right? There's no insurance, there's no, you know, there's no load adjust. I don't have to buy lunch. I mean, it's like I just pay for this and it just gets done in the most pro way possible. Todd said it was one of his hardest concepts to actually perfect.

44:32It took probably a year and a half or so, maybe, maybe more to get it like really, really dialed in. And now it is so dialed in. So anybody that's listening, I can tell you, you said a comment there, you said, um, if somebody has bad service, they're going to tell 10 people. And I— and that is true. And if they have, you know, just average service, what they expect, you're gonna— you— then they might tell one person.

44:55But I can tell you this, if, if they get amazing, over-the-top, just blown away service, they will tell more people. And we play a call in, in our, um, we play, we play a call in the, in the in the training. Yeah. And it's a lady that's like, wow, you guys call every customer. Like, this is crazy. She's like, I was in there last week and somebody called me.

45:21She's like, wow, wow, wow, I will definitely be back because every time I, every time I come in, you guys check on me. And it's like, we play that call because it just, it's just a reminder that like, okay, if you call your customers, you will absolutely blow them away., and they deserve it because they spent their hard-earned money with you. And, and just a lot of people don't get that.

45:42So anyway, um, we are up on our time. We're about to go and have an amazing, uh, amazing day. I want to thank you, JJ, for being on. Thank you, man. This was awesome. I always love talking with you, and let's go to be your friend and partner and just in the family, my friend. So, and likewise, man. Likewise, 100%. Love you, man.

46:05Appreciate you. Love you, brother. Hey everybody, let's go rock and roll. Have a great day.