The Rise of the Specialist: Redefining Automotive Professionalism [THA 485]

0:00This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network. Hey everybody, Carm Capriato in our 11th, going into our 12th year, Remarkable Results Radio, another Town Hall Academy. I have an eclectic group of shop owners here and we are going to talk about the rise of the specialist. Ooh, I'm so excited. You don't have an idea. I didn't sleep last night so I could be here.

0:26To talk about this with Craig, Tom, and Brett. We have great sponsors that make this show possible. Hey, let's face it, your shop management system is the most critical tool in your shop, and Napa Tracs will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training, 6 days a week support, and local representation. Find Napa Tracs on the web at napatracs.com.

0:53Ready to optimize with Today's Class? Boy, listen to an episode we did with David Boyes. Great program. Roll out a training plan for your automotive shop in just 5 minutes daily. Boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Start seeing results today. Join your peers at todaysclass.com. Shop owners, stop juggling multiple marketing tools. Kukui's integrated platform, they deliver 4 times better website conversions, automated follow-up and real-time ROI tracking.

1:25Get industry-leading customer support with Kukui. That's K-U-K-U-I dot com. You're probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue. On the web at pitcrewloyalty.com. Okay. Let me introduce my panel. Craig Noel. How you doing, Craig? Peachy keen, peachy keen. Sun Automotive, Springfield, Oregon. 4 locations, or is there a 5th that I don't know about?

2:003 in Eugene, 1 in Springfield. That's our horse. And, uh, Junction City. So I got 5. 5. It's like watering a bamboo tree. Sooner or later, it just goes, whoo. It does. All of a sudden you're from 15 employees to 30. You're like, wait a minute, how'd that happen? I can't keep up with you guys. Brett Beechler, CEO of Beechler's Tired Automotive Center, Peoria, Illinois, was there this past, uh, 6 months ago maybe.

2:24And the timeline on the wall in the lobby of, for the customers, talks about the lineage of your family business, 75 years. And I know you're celebrating what, in a couple of weeks? Couple weeks. Yep. You gotta be so proud. Excited about it. Yeah, it's pretty humbling when it all boils down to it. Who would've thought the grandpa or the grandpa before that, that would've ever realized that you'd still be rocking, baby?

2:50Yeah. Only 13% of us survived the third generation. Whew. Yeah. Isn't that something? But thankfully God blessed me with a competitive spirit. I don't like to lose, so. I love that. That's true. Well, that sets the tone for our episode here. I know. Tom Palermo is here, Preferred Automotive Specialists from Philadelphia, PA. Family business, Dad Joe, over 30 years now, huh? Oh yeah, 40.

3:19Yeah, he's in a couple days a week. Yeah, 2 days a week he's in. So he comes in, you know, looks around, gives me the nod, goes home. That's what dads are for. That's right. Yeah, no, we started the business back in the, uh, in the '70s, so yeah, it's been a while. Yeah. Okay, it's been a while, so that's not 30, that's more like 45 or Maybe close to 50.

3:38He'll tell you it feels a lot longer than that. I can, I assure you. I've heard so many stories about dad coming to work and parking in the wrong spot so customers can't come in and all that junk that they say. Dad just doesn't want to let go. That's a whole nother podcast, Carm. Oh my God. You're also the vice chair of ASC.

3:59I am. Yeah. Proudly so. The coolest way. Look. Everyone, we have a podcast listening app that I just wanna remind everyone around about. And what we've recently done is got this really cool URL, arpn for the, stands for the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.app. And you can go right to it to either do your Android or your Apple thing and get it. So much good stuff resides on there and the ability to watch the video and/or share it with friends., and we appreciate that.

4:32And we appreciate all the great support that we've had through all the years from all of our listeners. So we are going to talk about The Rise of the Specialist. Two years ago, I, Tom, you were reminding me that I gave a keynote, my first keynote of the series of keynotes that I've given for The Rise of the Specialist, of which is something that I started to write maybe two and a half years ago.

4:54And then Dave Johnson, Jason Rainey, they all said, hey, you gotta come in and talk to us. And then I got a keynote to Ford Motor Company because of it. And then I've been traveling a lot of places to share this message that we need to stop calling ourselves techs, mechanics, wrenches, and even technicians because the field is getting— everybody's stealing the word technician.

5:16As I say in my keynote, look at Tracy, she goes and gets her nails done and there's a sign, nail technician wanted. It's amazing to think how many industries have taken the word technician. So it's time for us to leave it on the doorstep. And embrace the word specialists. And it all started, you guys know this, I've talked about it a lot, from me looking at the food industry and chefing and how important being a chef is in that industry.

5:44It's, it's kind of almost ASE-ish, if you will, Tom, and for people hunting for the Michelin stars. And it is a competitive world and they have to do so much work and so much training and so much mentoring. That are we cooks or are we chefs in our business? What's your thoughts, guys? When you gave that talk to us back at our June meeting 2 years ago, the content was great, but that was something that really, really stuck to me.

6:13And I brought that back home with me. And as we were talking about, I had a meeting with my managers and I said, are you cooks or are you chefs? And they just kind of like, they didn't blow it off, but it didn't hit them at first. And then I said, no, really think about it. Are you a cook? Are you a chef?

6:28And they said, well, guess I'm a chef. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean when you're a chef? That means you're trained, you have expertise, you've put in the time, you've put in the effort. When you start to look at it like that, it changes your mentality, and it really changes the way you see yourself and the way you see your coworkers and the way you see the industry.

6:46I can't thank you enough for putting this together because it's definitely due. But, you know, we've always been clamoring about respect for this industry. I think this really kind of puts a fine point on it and lets everybody understand, hey, look at all the things we do as an industry and as people that work in this industry to, you know, for our customers.

7:07This is not something that, you know, you could just wake up one morning and decide to do. So we are truly specialists. Has anyone stopped to think about this technology marvel on Ford tires? We respect it. We know we're challenged by it. We know we educate toward fixing it, but my God, we don't talk that level of sophistication to our clients. We just said, well, our, our mechanic will look at it, or our tech will look at it.

7:34Well, what does tech mean? And the power of the word specialist. I have a technology specialist. I have a calibration specialist that's gonna look at why this light's on your dash, or the fact that you, had some work done on the vehicle and it's not driving the way you expected it to drive. And I love the fact that if you say, are you cook or chef?

7:55Oh, by the way, all of this is clearly outlined in our declaration and you could get it at remarkable@results.biz on our downloads page, okay? And here it is, there's a brand new version going up and it's a 10-page, some pictures and documents in it. And I'll share a little bit about it a little later. But here we are. When you say cook or chef is the angle, and I wasn't in your meeting, but a little later.

8:21So does that make what we do at this highest level? You point to somebody, aren't you really a specialist in this field of diagnostics? And somebody would stop and say, yeah, so that means you're a chef. And so let's call you a specialist because you know this technology. You study it, you know it, you've got the equipment and the tools, and you struggle and you learn just like a chef would when they're creating a new dish.

8:48Because, oh my God, it just hit me, guys. They're creating new dishes all the time, new flavors, new spices and everything. They're trying to one-up everyone. Those are like all the different models that we work. Think about, there's nothing really standard in the high-level chef industry. It's always moving and changing. I think this analogy is stronger than I ever expected from a couple of years ago.

9:10What say you, Brett? What you just said, Carm, is fascinating. It just shows the difficulty and the challenge of changing human muscle memory. I'm challenged by it too. I hear my guys say technician often, and my next step is to put the specialist business cards on their computer to say these guys are technology, mechanical, and/or specialist. That's it. Karm, that's interesting you said this, 'cause I've caught myself saying this.

9:36We're going to have the technology specialist look at the car. Like even that one word choice. No, my technology specialist is gonna perform testing on blank part of the vehicle. And right there it adds value. Right there you're telling your client, you're not gonna get this for free. You're going to pay the doctor for his time and his testing. I think that's one of our biggest challenges in the industry.

9:59And you know this, Karm, you've been following us for over a year, is changing mindsets And getting people to over and over and over and over practice this and say, "No, this is what we are. We are not cooks anymore. We are chefs. Do you understand this?" And I think it makes it less cumbersome for our advisors, or as we call them, our client service advocates.

10:20I think we make it less obtrusive for them to sell the value of what we are doing here. And if guys could get to that point of understanding, like, here's why we're doing it, because we got to paint the why, of course, I think shop owners and leaders of the shops are going to be successful. It's really that simple because we all revert back to muscle memory.

10:40I thank you for that. And before I get to you, Craig, I gotta share a screenshot. It's a business card idea that I just gave a keynote to some young people in college, and I wanted to really explain that as you evolve yourself to be a calibration or technology specialist, your business card should reflect that. Please work for a shop that wants to do this for you and wants to give you that kind of recognition.

11:06So thank you for just mentioning the word business card. I think it's important that we drive these new titles, these new and improved titles into our people because I truly believe it can have effect on the psyche of even the specialists that are working on the car. Like I call it the peacock syndrome, like their shoulders are back, square. They're like, this is what I do for a living, I'm proud of what I do, versus, yeah, take that mechanic over there.

11:31It's just so— so I'm going to take that one step further, Mr. Bieseler, because look, I professionally hung up the wrench in '08. Obviously I've been involved in this the whole time, but as it led up to about 2015 to '19 and that the tech side of it started to increase on the car, And then we got hit with COVID Something specific happened.

11:56It drove out the older guys that were tired and long in the tooth. We started to experience even an increased shortage of available technicians. And what I would say to what you stated, which I think is very, very important, yes, it's a title, but I think it is recognition that has been overdue for years. Absolutely. Because we are talking about people that not only have to have the mechanical aptitude, They've gotta have the IT aptitude.

12:23They have to have the aptitude of hydraulics, which is a plumber. They've gotta have the aptitude electronics. I mean, you put all 4 of those positions separately together as an annual salary, we're underpaying our guys right now, are we not? Right. And it's interesting how the perspective from the consumer is that, oh, it's easy, it's simple, and it's not. And I find it our responsibility as leaders of the industry to be able to work through how we are A, recognizing our people, how B, we are educating the consumer via the confidence of our CSRs or our advisors through education that builds confidence in what value the technician is establishing, because that's going to establish our

13:07recognition throughout the country in regards to the career path that you can have that is extremely rewarding. I've said it before, we've talked about this for years, Carm and Brett and everybody. Look, I want my guys to be able to pull in next door to a doctor and say, "Hey, my education's paid for and I got a better truck than you." I mean, at the end of the day, right?

13:27So sorry to kind of get off on my bandwagon, but I'm so passionate about this because it means so much that this has not been given to our industry finally where we have the entire family in our hands basically of the car, right? It's just not the patient on the table. The entire family is going over the mountain and it's going to go skiing.

13:45And if that brake bleeder is not accurately tightened, right, what can happen? So, you know, we got everybody accurately torqued. Accurately torqued. Yeah, there you go. I think you're correct. Craig, you know, there's another part of this. We need to do this internally with ourselves. Without a doubt. What I mean when I say that is, so as shop owners, we need to make sure that we're supporting each other.

14:08So that means when Mrs. Jones' car comes in from another shop, our first instinct isn't to throw the other shop under the bus. Because you'll notice when you deal with doctors or you deal with professional, you know, you know, with those types of professionals, very rarely do they badmouth each other and try to do things like that. But that's a place where we really need to focus so that there's kind of a homogeneous kind of message that's going out there.

14:33I think this is a great, great first step to that because it kind of smacks you in the face and it makes you realize, hey, wait a minute, We're electricians, we're doing hydraulics, we're doing mechanical, we're doing it. All those things come together and you just, these guys are doing it every day. They don't think about it. Once you kind of lay it out and say, "Hey, do you realize how technically proficient you are at all these different things?"

14:56There's a certain amount of pride to Brett's point that comes in. And that I think is what will get this kind of off the ground and get it moving in the right direction. Most of you guys know that I'm a big I mean, Craig knows this, I'm a big word choice guy. I want to get the mindset to the point where my mechanical technology calibration specialists are revered.

15:18And if you don't treat them— I'm not saying put them on a pedestal, like, you know, praise them, all that stuff. Here's what I love. When I have a specialist walk in the door and he's leaving a vehicle with us— I mean, Carmen, Craig know I have two buildings here, so we have to get kind of creative on how we have workflow and everything going on.

15:37So when they walk in the door and they're the client that I'm working with, or one of my advocates is working with, that happens to have the specialist walk in the door, I go, "Hey, that's Caleb. That's your specialist who worked on the car. Like, that's the doctor who did the work." I can see kind of like a little extra step when they do that, like, because they're always behind the walls, right?

15:59If we can get to that mindset of revering these people, what they're doing every day, day in and day out, because it's a tough job sometimes. 100%. Yeah. And so is being an advocate. I think they're a symbiotic relationship. They should have symbiotic respect between the two of them. Yeah. But it's a tough job. Whenever we can get to the point of where every day we're revering and being gratitude toward them and have gratitude toward them, I think you're going to go miles and leaps and bounds ahead of where the average shop is out there.

16:28And I'll piggyback on what Tom said, Carm, to your point that's coming up, because Tom's talking about how another shop will, you know, badmouth or say what they could potentially. What I could tell you is that 9 times out of 10, it comes down to poor communication. Wasn't about what happened behind the curtain. It was poor communication, which in my view, through education, through value that Brett's talking about, we have the ability to be able to establish the value with very clear communication and expectations that all of a sudden changes the perspective from the consumer when the same stuff that happened behind the counter is now completely discussed in a different way.

17:14And we have to be able to adapt that. We can't just say, "Yeah, Mrs. Smith, threw an oil layer on it, you're good to go." No. "Hey, actually what happened, Mrs. Smith, is that You know, your BCM didn't acknowledge to the PCM that your door was open, and it caused the computer to communicate with the BCM, which is the body control module, to not go to sleep after 45 minutes.

17:36It went to sleep after 4 hours and 45 minutes, but it took us 4 hours and 45 minutes when it happened to discover it. Now, does that sound better than it was just an alternator? It's a way that we have to be able to educate the consumer along the way to be able to let them know that, holy smokes, you don't just plug a computer in and it goes done.

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20:53On the web at pitcrewloyalty.com. I love this great dialogue. Let me put a little umbrella over it. Tom, you were talking to your people, a cook or chef, right? And if you rolled your sleeves up and you're with your people and you're discussing this, they've all read the declaration. They go, wow. Should we be doing this? What do you think? And wouldn't the words, isn't what you do technical mastery?

21:21Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Again, with the words that we want to do and change in our industry in this language shift lift, our people have to buy in and they need to stop and think that it's mastery that they're challenged with and that they're overcoming. And that may get the kind of, discussion point for saying, yes, Craig, let's do this. I think you're 100% right.

21:43And you know, Craig, to your point, this is why whatever, you know, your CSR, service advisor, whatever your title is you've given them, they are critical in passing this message along. Because most shops, it's not the technicians that are dealing with the customers, it's those folks. So that's a place where definitely to dispense some attention and give them the tools to be able to be the specialist that they are.

22:07Because really when you think about it, they're the go-between between the back of the shop, which is super technical, and maybe Mrs. Jones doesn't know much about vehicles. So they have to translate all that, you know, all that to her, all that gobbledygook and make it make sense and still get the point across, Craig, that this is a complicated problem. We put our diagnostic specialist or, you know, whatever on it.

22:29And here's all the things that led up to the problem you had. Here's the reason you had the problem you had, and here's how we resolved it. When they start, if they can get that message across to the customer, that will help drive this because then your shop becomes your gold. And if we all do it, it's that rising tide, you know, saying it definitely lifts all boats.

22:51So we're working on one of the most advanced machines ever built, and they continue to advance beyond what we could ever keep up with. And we're using outdated job titles. 100%. Don't forget, we're expected to get it right every time the first time, Carm. Well now, so interesting because I was going to come right back to this part of it, Tom. So Carm, a simple thing that happens in our industry on what I would call, you know, shops that need to get up to speed with how we set ourselves up for success is when we know or we suspect that it's going to be a certain component, I have a laminated thing in the end

23:30of my terminals. I think I've told you guys this before. Don't promise what you don't know. So if we're gonna say to Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Smith, right now we know that the alternator has failed, but we can't complete testing on the system until that's replaced. So again, we're setting ourselves up for further communication, an additional, you know, potential repair or add-on. But when we blanket statement and symbolize it and say, hey, Ms.

23:55Smith, you just need an alternator, that's it, and you call back 2 hours later, Well, it's all of that, all of that communication and how we do it and how we educate them about how an alternator works. I mean, it can go on and on and on on different systems, Karen, but you get my point. It is within us. It's our responsibility to change the way that we work because it's like a 4x100 relay on a track race.

24:20And every 4 of those key positions in our industry, If we don't hand the baton off just right, you're done and you lost by 2/100 of a second. And so I liken it like that. It's like every aspect, right from intake to appointment setting to communication advisor, customer back, or advisor, technician, and back to the customer, it all has to flow very, very well.

24:44And the way that we set ourselves up, it just means better respect, better value, and of course, you know, Better education and a trusting consumer. Karm, your assessment, and Brett, you said you really hang on words. This is a place what you described, Craig, was, you know, when you say the word diagnostics, that's a very finite word. I'm going to diagnose the car.

25:06It's testing. It's testing. It's evaluation. It's something along those lines so that the expectation is that, look, we wanna diagnose the car right outta the gate and get it right. But sometimes there are problems that, you know, we have to get to a certain point, get ourselves 100% there, and then continue testing. Could be other issues. Correct. So that's where, you know, Carmen, this is, you know, you're the language that you're using here, Brett, what you're talking about, Craig, you know, words matter.

25:31And we really as an industry need to stop using the shotgun and start using the sniper rifle. Yeah, great analogy. Very true. I love that. Hey guys, here's another slide I want to show you. The work evolved, the language didn't. Look at that. There you go. And of course, no matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. Yeah.

25:55Carm, I think in the end, what you've spearheaded, there is no gray area about this. It is something that must be completed by the leaders of all these top-quality automotive shops. That's not the question. The question is the top quality leaders of these shops, come on guys, let's get moving. It's turning around and inspiring this improvement, not change, but this improvement in our industry.

26:20That's going to be where the rubber meets the road. That's going to be the challenging part. You know, we're here to help encourage and inspire people to do it because you know how our brains think. We've got this idea flowing through our head and then the implementation. Thought also comes in. And that's where I think a lot of dreams are shut down because you go, "Oh, I'm going to have to do this.

26:41I need to change business cards, my website, all this other stuff. I'm going to have to coach these guys through 21 times of building muscle memory to stop saying the technician." It's like, "Man, that's a process just to tick our industry up just another notch. Am I willing to do that?" Brent, I love it. Thank you for saying that. Hopefully that's the big soundbite from here, but we embrace technician and we fell in love with it and we, oh wow, look at, oh, this is so cool.

27:12Well, wait a minute. Everyone's stolen that. It doesn't have the power and the value anymore. So why would I not want to embrace specialist? Because from 20 years ago, when we fell in love with technician to where we are today, because of this technology marvel that we're working with, testing, diagnostics, all this stuff, evaluate. Why not? I'm sorry if it's a heavy lift, shame on you.

27:35I'm not discouraging people. I'm just saying, I understand the mindset of what's going on. These leaders, they just gotta bite the bullet, make it happen to go, I need to take my business to the next level. I agree. 100%. Therein lies the challenge. Now, the very first bullet point on my mission statement is that we strive to improve the automotive industry every day.

27:58And this is part of it. We have to live and breathe the fact that who we have, specialists, what we do is technical, and what we provide to you is valuable. I mean, Carm, you're right. It's not just a word track anymore. It's recognition. It's raising the level of our industry And the view, the consumer's view of it, it's going to take a while for all of us to buy in and row in the same direction.

28:26Yeah. And that was, you know, Korm, you talk about going from going to technician, it was a long path to get people to go from mechanic to technician. I mean, it was torture, but we did it. And then everybody else stole it, to your point, uh, Korm. I think we're in a little bit better position here for a couple of reasons. One, we're able to get the word out much, much easier than we were before.

28:49But, you know, if we can get, you know, shops and technicians that are out there now to buy into this, that would be great. But this is a place, just thinking outside of the box, you know, schools should be embracing this. This is something that the trade schools should be embracing, saying, would you like to become a technology specialist, if you want to use that as a, you know, your diagnostic person.

29:09Getting them to buy in is equally as important because that gets them in that mindset young as they filter into the industry. And we push this, it kind of helps bring everything together quickly. In my discussion today with the students out at Hawkeye Community College, I impressed upon them to look for opportunities, jobs, internships that will give you a career path, will give you the kind of title that you can master.

29:35And you're not gonna come out of a 2-year school being a technology diagnostic specialist. You're not. But you wanna interview with a shop that has plans to lift you in ways, but you've gotta have that commitment, that educational commitment to go further. And guys and ladies, I told 'em, the world's your oyster because this is such a huge industry with so much opportunity with technology changing every day.

30:02That if you become the brainiac specialist, you're gonna go a long way, make a lot of money. It's funny you bring it up, and as you were talking about that, it made me reflect on how we have to get over this subconscious feeling that the people that work for us were not a plan B for Johnny. We now need to say, hey, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Mr.

30:29Customer, or hey, Mr. Consumer out there, no, this is what he wanted to do for a career, right? This wasn't a plan B because he couldn't go to college and get a degree in Northern French history of art or whatever. No, no, he chose this industry, right? Therein lies part of what we have to consider here, because I don't think really everybody out there, aside from the push from people like Mike Rowe and all of the others that are introducing, or have been for years introducing, the specialty trades.

31:03But now it's the recognition of choosing that trade, man. That's what they chose to do. Oh, it's 104 degrees out and the car is running at 230. You're trying to adjust a valve and you got an advisor that's saying, hey, can it be done in 30 minutes? I mean, right? That's what we do every day. Wow, that's a lot different sitting behind a computer trying to figure out I don't know how much a piece of French Northern art sold a year ago.

31:26I'm just saying. Oh yeah, there's a computer that you don't want to have fly off the car and you've got to be able to catch it because it only happened once in 6 months at 85 degrees ambient temperature going up a hill at 35 miles an hour, 20%. That's okay. You're killing me. I love it. This is where, Korm, what you put together here, I think, and organizations like ASE coming together to help, you know, to help push us.

31:49To your point, Craig, you know, what better way to show a consumer that, you know, hey, we're serious about what we're doing, the technicians are serious about what they're doing, they're certified professionals, you know, they went through the education, whether it's a school or whether they just, you know, they came through an apprenticeship program, you know, in a shop and came up.

32:07I always lean on this when it comes to this kind of stuff. We as shop owners, we as industry leaders, we're the ones that drive this. So if we're not expecting it, if we're not telling our people, hey, you know, ASE is important, let's do it. It's a great representation to the consumer and your colleagues that you're serious about what you're doing.

32:25And this wasn't your plan B. This is what you wanted to do. And this is how you're going to build a life for yourself and your family and have a career, not just a job. This isn't just a job. This is a career. I'll get off my soapbox. Guys, you're here because I know you each have soapboxes. And I have one too.

32:42In fact, I'm gonna show it to you in a few minutes. I actually have a real one. Anyone out in the area of hearing us know Mike Rowe or can get me an email to Mike Rowe. I wanna send him The Rise of the Specialist. I wanna send him that paper because I think he could help us in certain ways as he does his social media stuff and he is in front of people to start saying that the people who work on your vehicle, those skilled career people, are specialists, and that's where they're heading.

33:10Now, one of the big pushbacks that I get when I talk to people about this, he says, "Karl, you don't understand. I can't make that change because when I'm looking to hire people and I go on Indeed, if I don't have technician in the—" I says, "Fine. Put technician in the title for your request, and in the body of who you're looking for, start using the word specialist."

33:30And I think that we could get over the hump with that. Your thoughts? Agreed, wherever we can do it. It's not going to happen overnight, Korm. So, you know, I mean, we still have to kind of play in that end of the pool a little bit, but I think as the language starts to evolve and people start to change their mindset, I agree with you.

33:48If you have to go on Indeed or if you're putting a job and you want to pay technician, whatever, and then throughout the job description use technology specialist, I think that's totally doable. And eventually we may not have to do that ABC thing anymore. I've never been a fan of it, but unfortunately it's just something that kind of took and stuck. So, you know, because there's a lot of people that are in between levels there.

34:10And so do you call 'em a C+? Do you call 'em a B-? Do you call 'em a B+? Do you call 'em an A-? You know, there's not enough definition there. I'm with you. And I don't want to go too deep on this, but if I ask Brett, Craig, and you the definition of an A, B, or C, we would have 9 different definitions.

34:31I would rather say, listen, I'm looking for a calibration specialist who's got 3 years of experience or 4 years of experience. That could make them a B or an A in your mind and let them come in and sell yourself and ask the right questions to help define what it is that you're looking for. Because there are people out there that think they're A's and they're not.

34:52But they're going to apply. Oh, that's happened to go. Yep. That's happened. Maybe once or twice. Yeah. Once or twice. Yeah. I had a recent ad with Chris Lawson. I put it out there and I recruited a tech and just, I mean, it's fantastic. I had the range of the potential income on that thing. And you'd be amazed at how many guys who are C-minus techs that came on there.

35:15Nothing against Chris Lawson because I found my guy. He's coming from Minot, North Dakota in 2 weeks. To start up my business. But it's funny when you put the definition of, yes, we need a top-level tech, whatever it may be, and they're still going to say, hey, I'm a top-level tech, you know, I just started working at Midas as a, uh, basic guy, but I'm a top-level tech.

35:37Thank you for this, Brett. What if you sat across from them and says, okay, so you're a top-level tech, could you be a top-level specialist in my business? What the hell is that? Because we're all saying the word tech or technician right now because it's ingrained in our muscle memory. As I think, Craig, you said, I'm in meetings and I'm in Buffalo.

35:56I'm, you know, I'm in a NAPA BDG, I'm in an independent group and I'm in there. And every time I hear the word tech technician and they know that Carm's going to scold them at the end of the meeting, the beatings will now begin. Right. Until morale improves. Right. That's right. Yeah, exactly right. You know, but it's interesting when you think about that, if you're having a conversation with a perspective employee, a specialist, the conversation begins to start to take on this technician label.

36:25And you have to— what if you stop right there and say, well, no, no, no, we're not looking for a technician, we're looking for a specialist that has about 15 years experience. And all of a sudden they like, oh, wait a minute, maybe I don't fit that. It's going to take as simple as even those things and word tracks and it's going to take that.

36:45Totally agree. Can I share another slide with you? Absolutely. Right here. Look at this. So when you think about the ists that we have in our world, right, we have ecologists, we have environmentalists, we have urologists. You know, we have all these ists and they're designed on a level of focus and expertise. And in the doctoring world, lifesavers, right? They're lifesavers. Why wouldn't we be, if you will, longevity lifesavers for a vehicle to last 250,000 miles?

37:17We're just not mechanics that we live in this dark blue-collar world. We're ists. Yep, that's it. And as owners, we are therapists. I'm just saying. He's not wrong. Yeah, you notice nobody's arguing with you, Craig. No. Yeah, I know what you said, that it's going to take us some time You know, I haven't done an episode like this ever because I just wanted to get our latest version out.

37:43I wanted to get the creed going, and it is really time to make a push and get out there in front of our industry a little bit bigger and better and stronger. And in fact, the people that sell us parts and make us parts need to hear this and they need to be part of this. Here's my position. I'll just give you my two thoughts every day.

38:03What do we do? Well, we're already trying to be relevant on social media to some degree. We are constantly communicating with our parts suppliers and vendors and representatives of such. On those two fronts, when you start using this terminology, word will get out and all of a sudden people start to hear, "Well, now wait a minute, they're looking for specialists and I'm just a technician."

38:27They start to then say, "Hold on a second, that's another level of recognition." And it will start there. At the same time, we're gonna have to take time because that's gonna be the slow-moving Titanic where through education, through our communication with consumers across the counter, then there becomes even further layers of the ability to communicate how complicated our industry really is and how it desperately needs these specialists, right?

38:56So then it goes home to the kitchen table and it's discussed about, oh my gosh, Hey Johnny, I just saw Sun Automotive. This is— you should really check that out because they are passionate about what they do and they've got specialists that work on this, that, and this, that. You need to maybe look into that your senior year. Those are the conversations that need to be had.

39:18Start them in 6th and 7th grade. I didn't mean to quiet you up there, Carl. I was just trying to give you my 2 cents. I think you hit all the points, right? I think you hit all the points. You're right, you got to start them early. Yeah, you got to get out there. And, you know, I think things are starting to turn around for all the trades, to be honest with you, because people are realizing that, you know, going to school is an option for a lot of people.

39:40And it's— and some things you have to do that, but it's not the only option. And I think we kind of, as a society, we did ourselves a disservice by pushing so many people that probably would have been fantastic in our, in our business, you know, specialists, from getting into this industry. God only knows what they're doing. But I think that tide is starting to turn.

40:01And I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard that there's some universities that are starting to look at putting trade programs in. And at first when I heard that, I was like, well, that's great, the word's out. And then I thought to myself, wait a minute, are they going to— is this, you know, what's this going to look like?

40:16You know, so even they're starting to get the picture that, hey, the trades are a viable option for people to have very, very good careers that to be quite honest with you, pretty much stand through just about any economic hardship. I mean, really, when you think about recessions and things like that, there's no more recession-proof business than this. I don't know about you guys, but '08, I was expecting disaster, and we had actually went the other way.

40:42We grew a lot. Even with COVID after the first few months, we grew again an incredible amount. So I think we need to communicate that and we need to have the right people communicate that. People like you, Carm. Yeah, it'd be great if you could talk to Mike Rowe. That would be fantastic. I would love to see that interview. That'd be a great interview.

41:02I got a way to connect to him. I'll send it to you. I mean, Carm. Really? Yeah, I'll send it to you. I don't know him personally, but— Oh baby. I'll send it to you. I'll send you a gold coin. You know, Brett, you might get that gold coin after all. That could happen. That could happen. 75 years and a gold coin from Korm.

41:24I mean, what else do you need? The one layer of this, I'm only gonna tell you from how I feel about this. Now, the one thing that I'm trying to wrap my head around is this. If we look at the other trades, the consumer out there views them differently than our industry. And I'm trying to wrap my head around why. Here's what I know.

41:47After 40+ years of doing this, it's different when you have a plumbing problem. You got to get the plumbing fixed. It is what it is. You know, you got to go to the doctor, you got to feel better, you got to go through all that. You know, you got to go and deal with a lawyer or CPA, whatever it may be. You've got to deal with that because they're trying to save your bacon, they're trying to get you better, whatever it may be.

42:08Our trade seems to be the one on the low end of the ladder where unfortunately it's pay a lot of money to get the keys back in general, to get the keys back, to continue to go to soccer practice, get groceries, and continue on with life at the same time that your vacation's affected and everything else. And so along with that layer is this distrust layer.

42:33And that's the hardest part that we've gotta try to, you know, that's the gap that we've gotta put the effort into while we are thinking about this. Because we're facing right now market compression and we can only charge so much right now in the tolerance of what the customer is comfortable with. But we've got to be able to pay these specialists X amount to gain that respect and be able to make that great income that if we don't start to begin to show the value so that we can be rewarded fairly for our skill set.

43:06When you look at a plumber that's going to come to your house and they say, well, I've got 2 guys on the job, so now I'm charging you $300 an hour, or a lawyer who's $50 per email. And we can go down the list of whatever those may be in isolation, but I'm just telling you right now that we've got some hurdles to cross with this because we've gotta gain our value and improve our value to be able to get away from this market compression that's going on right now.

43:31Look, when you said you silenced me before, I was just moved by what you said, and, and it felt really good inside of me and in my heart for all the great things you said. Listen, before we leave, I do want to bring up the creed that we all helped write. I'd like to read it. It doesn't take long. It's a declaration for the professional automotive service industry.

43:52We are professionals who repair, diagnose, interpret, and solve complex problems. We are specialists. We are part of a high technology profession. We apply knowledge, skill, experience, and judgment at the highest level. We protect the safety and reliability of every vehicle entrusted to us. We reject outdated perceptions that diminish our role. We embrace the responsibility, pride, and professionalism of being specialists. We elevate our skills through continuous education.

44:19The title specialist is not given, it is earned through dedication, discipline, and mastery. We take pride in that responsibility and we honor it by earning your trust every day. This is not just a change in words, it's a transformation in identity. And how we see ourselves and how the world sees us. We're automotive repair specialists, and the rise of the specialist has begun.

44:43On my downloads page, remarkableresults.biz, you can download this. And look, here's where it happens. You buy in, the team is ready. This goes in the lobby, a couple of places for your clients to see, even on a plexiglass piece on the counter. It's near the time clock. It's back in the lunchroom. This helps build that culture of being specialists. And I think there's some pride in this language shift for people to recognize when someone ends up going to a, you know, an 8-hour class and an event and they come back and they feel strong about their capabilities now.

45:17They're just a tech or a mechanic. No, they're hunting toward the specialty that they're so good at. I would even take it so far as to the appearance and the image that your specialists have. I was shaking down local restaurants the last couple weeks for our 75th anniversary doing a big raffle. And I walked into the local Chick-fil-A and everybody is dressed like me.

45:42And I'm like, if a fast food, high quality fast food restaurant can dress their people in nice shirts, collared shirts like this, why can't we do something like this? Why do we have to look like turds from 30 years ago? It's such a drawdown to look at guys like that. That's where we come in. And when I say we, I mean owners.

46:05Absolutely. That's where we have to push this. We have to drive this. It's the appearance of your shop. It's the appearance of your people. It's putting the creed up in the, in the break room and out front. More importantly, out front for people to see. We can communicate that and have that internal conversation, and we can, you know, be proud of that.

46:21And that's an easy lift to get people that are around you be proud of it. We need to communicate that to the outside world. Absolutely. So, Korm, thank you for putting this together. This creed is, is fantastic, and I'm proud that I was able to put a couple of cents in with it, as well as Brett and Craig. I'm really proud to have been involved with this, you know, helping you with it, you know, even if it was just kind of like proofreading and giving ideas.

46:42When you sent it to us, it made so much sense, and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, why didn't we do this before? This is great. I almost felt terrible that I didn't come up with this a year ago. But it just happened within the last 3 or 4 months. Imagine someone leaving your place being consumed by this new language shift in the things that you're saying to your clients.

47:04And they're out to dinner next Friday night and they say, hey, yeah, I had some things with my car. I took it over to Beechler's. And why do you go there? Well, they're specialists in everything that they do. They read it, they heard it, They felt it. They embraced it. It's not just another shop that the Hollywood continues to tear us down about in the images that we have and the bad language that we use.

47:32Thank you, Brett. I want to get up on my soapbox next and do this whole uniform thing. I do that. This whole appearance of the professionalism that we look like. I don't want to piss people off. To say that you have to look this good in order to be a specialist. And I wanna say it, but I don't wanna go on total record, you know, because you know how bad social media is.

47:55This lift has to come with appearance too, Brett, 100%. It's part of your ability to educate the customer and get your point across and be able to sell the job to the customer. When they walk into your establishment, I mean, and we should know this by now, I mean, we really should. We're not talking about anything earth-shattering when it comes to appearance.

48:14What is going to make a customer feel comfortable when they walk through the door? Years ago, I did this. When we moved into this building, we put it together. I asked people to come here after I got the waiting area set up and say, "I just want you to walk in and tell me how you feel. Tell me what you— and be honest.

48:32Tell me you don't like this. Tell me you don't like—" And we did a pretty good job, but there were a few ideas that people had when they walked in, which we instituted because I'm too close to it. And I know what it takes to fix a car, okay? But I don't know what it's like to walk into a repair shop with probably the second most expensive thing you're ever going to buy and say, "Here, here's the keys.

48:53Go ahead, do whatever you want and charge me whatever I got to pay, whatever." I don't know what that feels like to walk in just gobsmacked and wide-eyed because I just don't know. Getting people to do that for you is a great way to check yourself. Appearance is a big part of that, you know. And Brett, to your point, the way your front staff looks is crit— I mean, the mechanics or the— excuse me, the special— I said mechanics, look at that.

49:20The way the specialists look is important, but your front-end staff, they are the face of your business. So you have to have them at a high level of appearance to make the customer feel comfortable. I'm going to add to your coattails, Tom. I'm gonna give everybody a suggestion. In my company, we have what's called all four corners. All four corners of the property and everything in between has to represent what we wanna attract.

49:47So as a suggestion, believe it or not, there is a book, I don't remember the author offhand, but anyway, it is a yellow copy book, hard copy, "Unreasonable Hospitality." I love it. Fabulous, fabulous book. I'm telling you right now. So we as an entire company, this has been years ago. So as an entire company read this book as a project. And what's interesting is that even the technicians bought into this because as they started to identify each person within the book, whether it's the maître d', the chef, right?

50:19The waiter, whatever it may be. It was a great analogy between how each one of them needed to interact. But what was most important was at the end of the day, as this restaurant wanted to strive to be number one in the world, it was all about how the customer felt. And to discover through the process about each one of their responsibilities, about how a customer or a wife or whoever it may be, may be able to turn a plate over exactly the right way to who made the plate, the manufacturer, and the level of detail.

50:52It was amazing because now you shift your perspective to all sorts of aspects of how you can conduct yourself within an automotive repair facility. It's a fascinating read, believe it or not. And we're a bunch of foodies anyway, so we bought in. And it's a Netflix series, and you can identify people and faces. I'm just telling you, it's a great project potentially for those who want to really open up the possibilities of how you make somebody feel.

51:15To Tom's point about a waiting area, you walk in— look, when's the last time you walked into a doctor's office that said Hey, $14,999 special open heart surgery right now. No, you don't see that. They want to feel comfortable, relaxed. They want to feel trusting. So it needs to be welcoming. That's it. I want to piggyback on your statement there, Craig. When we, when we finally got this thing together years ago, we had a grand opening a few months after we actually got it going.

51:44I had a customer who she'd been a customer of ours probably for about a year or so. And she was coming over, stopped by, and she pulled me to the side and she said, "You know, Tom, when I rounded the corner and I saw your shop, it made me smile." I mean, it's been 10, almost 10 years since we've been here. I still remember that and I still thank her every year for that because it was so impactful to me and it made me feel like all the work that everybody had put in mattered.

52:12So, you know, if you start thinking like what you're talking about, Craig, people will start noticing and they'll start complimenting you and it makes you wanna do it more. So, and it gets everybody bought in and it keeps the, keeps the ship moving in the right direction. There you go. All right. Hey, look at, let me close by saying this. When I picked up Unreasonable Hospitality, Craig, and I started to read it and it aligned exactly with Chef and Cook.

52:37Okay. And the whole piece of the specialist and how I ground myself to this. I realized that I needed to write the creed and that's Unreasonable Hospitality. Not forced me, but I said, we're missing something in this language shift. And it's what I read in the book and the passion that they had for getting where they wanted to get. So thanks for bringing that up.

53:02Hey, I had a blast. Thank you for coming on and sharing all of this. Oh my God. Tom Palermo. Brett Beechler, Craig Noel, thanks for being my friend and thanks for being champions for The Specialist. Our pleasure. Our pleasure. Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the premier automotive repair business podcast, Remarkable Results Radio. Get your episodic education on the ARPN listening app at automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com.

53:31Also enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel. Karm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry. Until next time!