From Chaos To Control: One Shop Owner's Journey To Freedom

0:00Welcome to Repair Shop Reckoning: From Chaos to Control. Because too many shops today are running on chaos. Phones ringing, technicians frustrated, front counters overwhelmed, owners buried in problems with nobody to call. Kevin Brown has spent over 30 years in the trenches learning how to take that chaos and turn it into control. Shop owner, operator, consultant, leader. Through industry shifts, insurance games, bad hires, great hires, and lessons learned the hard way.

0:28This isn't theory. This isn't corporate training fluff. This is real shop experience, unfiltered. On this show, Kevin breaks down what actually works— running profitable shops, front counter control, training technicians, negotiating with insurance companies, building systems that make your shop run instead of burn, and the mistakes that quietly bankrupt shop owners every single day. No corporate scripts, no sugarcoating. And yeah, somebody might get offended.

0:57That's okay. Disney's two doors down. But if you want the truth about this industry, buckle up. This is Repair Shop Reckoning: From Chaos to Control. Let's get started. Welcome to the show, Isaac, for Isaac from Diesel Dynamax. Uh, Isaac, we've been working together for how long now? Um, so we've been working 6 months now. 6 months? Yes, sir. Let's start at the very beginning of your story, how you started your shop and what led you to the point where you figure you need to call somebody for help and where we're at now and how's it going.

1:30Just, just tell your story. Okay, I mean, it's a, it's a pretty long story. You know, I've definitely come a very long way. Um, so I'll go ahead and start from the beginning. So this all started around 2020, you know, height of COVID everything's going crazy, people are getting let go. Um, you know, I was one of the last to get let go from the oil field company that I was at, but eventually I did.

2:02And, you know, I went out and started working with a really, really close friend of mine. Um, you know, we, we still talk every now and then today, but But we kind of had some bad blood there whenever we split up. So he, you know, I guess started where, you know, I had a bad business partner to begin with. But we're supposed to be business partners.

2:32It just didn't turn out that way because, you know, I feel like if you start any business You have to have all your heart into it, 100%, and I don't feel like this gentleman had, you know, had it. He was always taking vacations, you know, we'd work 2, 3 days a week, you know, it seemed like we just made enough money to keep on going, and that's not me.

3:00You know, I work my butt off 24/7. I still do it to this day. I mean, last night I was, you know, none of my guys were available for a service call, so I was out working on a race boat trailer, you know, a big trailer that they do the, I forget exactly what the race boats are called. Cigarette boats? Yes. Yeah, did they have a big reach down there?

3:29Not to cut you off, but the place I used to work at called Sterling, it's called Sterling Engines now, Sterling Performance. Yeah, on their Facebook there at a race. I think it was in Texas, actually. Yeah. So we're— I was down there last night, you know, till midnight, you know. Now I picked up this sign a few minutes ago and now we're on the podcast talking about the story.

3:55So, you know, I get let go from, from the oil field, start working with a friend. That didn't work out. If you look us up on Facebook or the website, dieseldynamics.com, you'll see a 2004 E350 that we still work out to this day. That's where I got started was in the mobile service. And you know, the business just started growing so much that I had to get a good, brick and mortar.

4:32So from there, just working our tail off. The hardest part was finding qualified mechanics to help get the work done. And we're doing really good. For the past 4 and a half years. And, you know, I just decided that I needed some extra help. I knew what I needed to do. I just, for some reason, couldn't get focused. So, you know, that's where, that's where you come in to help hold us accountable, you know, with your weekly evaluations, you know, the The call into the shop to evaluate the service writer up front, all that helps.

5:26You know, you went from the beginning, from top to bottom, started with the books, and, you know, really showed me how to get this stuff done properly. Yeah, I'm pretty excited how far you've come already, Isaac, and see where you end up. I mean, You were a guy that worked your butt off and, uh, you just need a little bit of help organizing some of this stuff.

5:51I mean, you were doing your billing in QuickBooks, which, believe it or not, several of my clients, when I got with them, they didn't even have a shop management program. And how much easier is it now that you have a shop management program to deal with your billing? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be honest, for sometimes I still miss QuickBooks, the simplicity of it, but you know, we have to get with the times and, you know, moving or transitioning over to Shopware has been exponentially helpful in getting approvals and communicating with the customers.

6:30You know, we can load up the pictures on, you know, where the damage is and You know, it's just user-friendly. You know, they can pay over the phone, they can pay through email. Um, it's helped a lot with, with the efficiency of writing it up and getting paid, you know, ultimately is, is our goal, right? I like, uh, sending the link. We spend a lot of the time, we send the payment link and, you know, in the middle of the night we'll get payments and stuff like that when people get time.

7:03That way we're not always hounding them to get paid, you know. And if they want to pick it up, here's a link, pay for it, we can put your keys in a lockbox, you know, and give you the code once you're paid. Absolutely. You know, so what do you, uh, what do you think right now is your biggest struggle you're going through, trying, as we're going through this whole journey together, trying to figure out your next steps?

7:29Like, where do you want, where do you see yourself in a, in a year now? You know, so we're looking— so we're, we're growing like crazy. Um, we have technicians, we have 2 in the shop right now, and we're looking good. We're growing like crazy. You know, I got more work than I can handle, and so the, the next step would be, would be continuing to, to putting, you know, processes and procedures in place so that, that we can grow.

8:05You know, I want to— you know, my ultimate goal is to, to get a bigger location with, with more bays, you know, more technicians to be able to help more people. Um, you know, maybe, you know, like I said, we started— our roots come from, from mobile service, so, you know, maybe get more trucks out there, maybe do more fleet work, you know, just the, the sky's the limit at, at this point.

8:31Um, so I'm looking at, at growing in that way. And yeah, growing is, uh, the problem with growing right now is, is a, is if you grow too fast, it causes chaos. And the problem with businesses, they only can handle the amount of chaos that the owner can handle, right? So If you get overloaded because you grow too fast, which I see this happen with guys all the time, they think that they need to have 40 technicians and all this stuff going on and they just can't handle because they don't have no processes in place, uh, and no policies.

9:03And let's talk about some of the policies we put in place for you, uh, the handbook we had got written and all that stuff and how that's changed the dynamics of your business. Oh yeah, no, policies are, you know, I've come to learn are very important. You know, where there's, I guess the most important one is not letting the vehicle leave, you know, before it's paid.

9:28That was one of my biggest downfalls is being too trustworthy, you know. I learned a hard lesson with friends and family. You know, everybody wanted their vehicle fixed, but they didn't want to pay right then and there. Heck, I think I still got people till this day that owe me money from 2, 3 years ago. So I mean, that's one of the biggest policies.

9:58You know, we got a bunch of smaller policies, you know, for our vehicles. You know, whenever they go out in the field, when they're driving on the road, you know, that's very important to You know, things come up all the time. And, you know, we put a policy in place, we give it to the technicians, employees, you know, so they read it and sign it.

10:27And, you know, we have the understanding that that policy's in place and it's understood. So if anything comes up in the future, you know, we pull it out. And tell them, you know, hey, look, this— we've already talked about this, you know. So policies there, um, you know, procedures as well. You know, we, we do walkthroughs with the service writer and the technicians, you know, from when the customer comes in, um, writing them up, getting the work done.

11:05Writing up the, writing up the story, you know, on the work that was performed and then billing it out properly. And I mean, there's, you know, we got a limited amount of time here and I can talk all day about policies and all kinds of good stuff. So do you think your business, what do you think the biggest change in your business is?

11:32Is now that you have policies and procedures, you're doing billing and stuff like that. It's kind of expected for people to do their job now. And the one thing I wanted to touch on is writing your repair orders up with AI and how that sped everything up and fixed punctuation problems and all that stuff. How do you like the AI that we built you?

11:52I mean, the— so the AI is, I mean, it's a game changer. You know, that was one of the— that was one of my biggest deals was You know, I wanted to write a big, beautiful story that, you know, really the customers, they're gonna read the first 3, 4 sentences. And I know that because, you know, they call me back after I write a big, beautiful story and, you know, they're asking me questions that have already been answered in the write-up.

12:25So, you know, AI, You know, heck, sometimes I spend 30 minutes minimum, sometimes even an hour writing up one ticket. So you get to AI, you open it up, you let it know, you know, you start with the year, make, and model and ask it to write you a story. And I mean, it comes up with— not comes up, but it writes you a good description that's, you know, it, uh, it quotes, you know, laws are plugged in, you know, for the state of Texas or depending on where you're at, um, you know, and it, and it really makes it to where the customers can understand.

13:13It cuts our time down, which is very important, and It's just user-friendly, easy to use. So, you know, um, that's something that you've built and that you provide with your, with your consulting service. And it's, uh, and it's definitely worth it and been a game changer. Yeah. And you know, most people don't realize it. Like, I figure out what state you're in and I plug all the state laws into it for repair.

13:43Oh yeah. So you're, you're always in compliance with the state law stuff like that. And I think that It's very important. One thing that people don't do, and we talked about this early on, me and you do, is providing value. If you're gonna give somebody a big fat bill, you got to provide value with that big fat bill, right? Now, I always use the example of, you know, R&R spark plugs, $600.

14:11And people are like, wow, R&R spark plugs, $600. But with the AI, you say you put the year, make, and model in, and then you do the procedure— remove this, remove that, move the coil pack, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, then all of a sudden it becomes 2 paragraphs. Now it looks like the value for their dollar, you know what I mean?

14:29And that's one thing I think repair shops are lacking, has always been their paperwork. Because let's face it, I said this 100 times too, none of us guys are going to win a spelling bee, they're techs, you know what I mean? Oh yeah. Absolutely. I use the spell check constantly. I mean, on the simplest words. Yeah. Nobody wants to look like a dipshit when they're writing a repair order and have something spelled wrong, especially in our business.

14:52You know, one of the words that I think is spelled a lot wrong is funny is diesel. A lot of guys can't spell diesel. Yeah. I mean, every time I go to O'Reilly's, you know, those guys have a problem for some reason spelling diesel. Yeah, or you want 3/8 fuel line and they ask you what year, make, and model. I just want 3 foot of 3/8 fuel line, you know.

15:17So you have 2 technicians out in your shop right now, and, uh, how are they doing? How do you provide training to them and stuff like that? So I mean, they're doing, you know, I've been, um, I've been through a lot of technicians Well, some I wouldn't even consider a handful of them technicians. You know, everybody comes in, they want to be a mechanic, and they come in with the little toolbox with the screwdriver and adjustable wrench, and you know, that's not going to cut it in our industry.

15:57I mean, you know, There's a point where I was willing to train, you know, from the beginning, but I mean, the stuff that we're doing nowadays, I mean, in order to do it efficiently and correctly, I mean, you need years and years of training, of trial and error, messing stuff up. And that's one of the things that I really push to my guys.

16:23You know, I've You know, yeah, we break bolts and stuff, um, and I tell them that, you know, it's okay to, to mess something up, you know, as long as we're not blowing up engines. But, you know, breaking bolts, you know, maybe a gasket doesn't seal properly on a— after doing a water pump or a radiator, you know, that's okay. I tell them that I have messed every single little thing up, I mean, multiple times.

16:56That's, that's why I— that's how you get good at it. And the training that we provide is mostly in the shop, but we do, you know, we'll go to, um, we'll go to some of the Motorcraft-provided classes. You know, they're teaching us electrical and stuff, you know, to really help us pinpoint and tell us the new stuff that's coming out. Um, other than that, I mean, there's, there's a lot of information out there on the internet as well.

17:26You know, we use ProDemand, and then I think the most important thing that we utilize is, is other shops. You know, the network that we have with other shops. Maybe there's something that we don't know, you know, that, you know, we can run it by another another mechanic or a totally different shop. You know, I feel like that's, uh, the most important thing in our industry is, is working together.

17:53No, I would agree with that. And we have a really good relationship with all the shops around us too. We get along very well with a lot of these guys and stuff like that. Um, I've been around this area for 30 years, so I pretty much know everybody, you know, and we can use specialty tools from the dealer and stuff like that.

18:07And I agree. Um, that's a big help when you're, you don't look at everybody as your competition. You look like, like, okay guys, there's plenty of cars on the road, trucks on the road. We all just need to work together to get this shit done. You know? Absolutely. And I mean, we all have more work than we can handle. You know, I get, we get calls all day, um, service calls.

18:29I mean, in-shop work. I mean, we just, if I can't handle it, you know, I'll I'll send it out to, to another shop and vice versa. We get a lot of calls from, you know, we get a lot of overflow from, from shops in this area as well. And it just, there's plenty of work to go around. There's no reason to fight for it.

18:49No. And you know, you're obviously you're a skilled operator because I've talked to you quite a bit about a lot of the mechanical, your mechanical ability, and you're running into the same problem as the rest of us is like, you're only as good as your technicians. You got to run behind them and sit there and train them. And then people are like, oh, you have a huge turnover, you know, you're a terrible shop to work at.

19:09No, do you ever think that these guys that come in to say that they're an A-tech but they're really a D-minus tech? Like you said, they walk in with the itty-bitty little toolbox and they have emotional problems. You yell at them, they cry. You know, I've actually had guys, full-grown guys, moms calling sick for them. Yeah, what, your mom? You what? 'Oh yeah, I live with my mom.'

19:28And, 'Oh, so James is sick today.' I'm like, 'James can't call? He's that sick? He's 39 years old and you're his mama and you're calling?' So then we tease them, you know what I mean? Then all of a sudden it's a whole nother thing. Yeah, no, I run into the same thing. I mean, I feel like, man, ever since— and it might have been before, but, um, you know, around the COVID era, everybody just just got soft.

19:55Um, you know, I got guys calling in wanting to take days off, um, for their dog's birthday, you know, for their wife's birthday, you know, you know, we, I feel like we got to come to work. We can celebrate after we get the job done. Yeah. My wife was in HR before she retired and she would say that she would have guys call in and say, hey, my wife is sick.

20:17I have to stay home and take care of her. My wife was like, are you a doctor? Like, what are you going to do? Stay home and take care of your sick wife? Like, yeah. Uh, when I first got married, we couldn't afford to take days off to stay home and take care of each other. It's like, I'm sick. You're going to— I'm staying home.

20:34You go to work. You know, this is really going to hurt this week anyway, because we're not going to have enough money for the bills versus me staying home and not worrying about it. In our state, they just passed laws that we have to give these people sick days now. We have no choice. So they could take up to 30, 70-some hours off a year, 40 of it paid and 32 of it unpaid.

20:58Yeah, and that's, that's something, you know, as a, as a smaller shop, it's hard to— it's kind of hard to provide, you know, the, the extra, you know, the, the incentive for for technicians to stick around, you know. And I think the main thing is health insurance. Shit, I've been in business 6 years now and the whole time I haven't had any kind of health insurance.

21:28It's a little scary, but you know, with yourself coming in and getting everything set up set straight in the shop, you know, we're, we're, I'm finally getting to a place where, you know, I can, I can make that happen. Um, you know, I'm thinking by the end of this year, maybe the, the first of next year, you know, we'll be able to, to provide health insurance.

21:58And, um, right now we're doing, you know, if, if the guys are good, You know, and I see the potential in them. You know, we're giving them the 40 hours PTO and sick time. You know, just it's the little things that really help keep the technicians around and treating them well as well. I mean, if you want to touch on that, I mean, I've heard you say many times that, you know, there's good business owners out there and there's bad ones.

22:31And I've definitely, you know, heard about the bad ones and it's, it's just like, there's no reason to treat people that way. If you want them to stay around and help make you a bunch of money, you know, you just gotta, you gotta treat people right. No, I would agree with that. And, uh, unfortunately the bad business owners give us good business owners a bad name.

22:52And along with the crybaby technicians that are maybe a D-Tech and they think they're an A-Tech, you know, they're, remember the guys that are always getting ripped off, always getting screwed over by their boss. Now, every one of my clients that I've worked with, I've been doing this, what, I started this a year ago. Every one of the clients I've worked with treated their guys great.

23:12I have not had anybody that treats their employees terrible at all. So I mean, I'm at 100% far as none of the shop owners that I have on, I help right now, are treating their employees bad. They actually, some of them, I say, you're almost too nice. I said, When you start making a little bit of money, you keep— you're starting to give it all away.

23:32I understand you need to pay your good people good, but you get to the point where you're giving them all your profit too. You can't afford to grow yourself, you know? So there's, there's that balance, you know what I mean? And, uh, you know, with you, I mean, when I started working with you, things have definitely changed to the point now where you're a lot more comfortable.

23:50You're not freaking out all the time trying to get jobs out the door and stuff like that because One of the big things we always run into is people just aren't pricing their stuff correctly. Now you get a little bit of pushback as we've gone through that, but not as bad as you would've thought. What was it? Let's talk about it. Yeah.

24:07I mean, you, so, so I mean, you've taught me a lot. You know, you have, I mean, Kevin, you've been doing this since I believe around 1995. Yep. I mean, that's the year I was born. So I mean, you have a lifetime of knowledge that you've condensed down to help me. And that's just something that we have a rate that we've agreed on.

24:41And I mean, it's absolutely worth every penny to have you watching my back, you know, since the beginning 6 months ago. You know, I was— I wasn't pricing out parts the way I needed to, you know, and, you know, labor is not the— not the only factor in making a profit, you know, in our margins. You know, a big part of that is— or actually a majority of that is— is pricing these parts out correctly.

25:12You know, and I've been able to do that, you know, from the beginning. You know, my main goal with getting in touch with you was to really learn the numbers in the business. You know, I was tired of just floating and just hoping and praying that everything's going to go good, which a majority of time Everything worked out, but it was, I felt it was due to just pure luck, you know?

25:44And now that we've gone to Shopware and we can see the numbers, we can see the technicians' efficiency, we can measure that now here at Diesel Dynamics. I mean, and make, now I can make informed decisions on where I'm putting my profits, How much we're paying the technicians, you know, I absolutely try to max them out, maximize as much as I can pay them without, you know, without giving away all the money.

26:15You know, I used to look at my bank account and, you know, I lived paycheck to paycheck in my personal life and in my business, and that's what really you know, hurt me the most. And nowadays we're not doing that, you know, and this was 6 months ago. I've been in business 5 years. It's only been the past 6 months, you know, since we got in touch that I've been seeing the change, you know, being able to pay myself a decent wage for for the amount of shit that we had to put up with, you know, with talking with the customers.

27:04You know, I love every single customer I got, but sometimes you run into a disgruntled one even though you did absolutely everything you could. You know, sometimes it's just not enough for some people. You know, dealing with that, dealing with the late nights, staying up till 2, 3 in the morning, you know, making sure all the invoices get written up, making a good plan for the, for the next day, you know, working weekends, um, you know, that, that's what I would ask myself and my CPA, you know, where, where's that, where do we get the extra from, you know, as business owners, you know, where, where does the extra come from, you know, because I

27:46because 6 months ago, you know, I, I could go work for somebody and make more than, than I was making in my business. You know, that, that was a tough pill to swallow there. Yeah. And, uh, how many different accountants have you had since you started in your 5 years? Um, accountants. So I am on, I'm on my 5th one, I believe.

28:13So I mean, from the beginning, you know, it's tough finding a good accountant that is gonna watch your back, and it's real important to have a good one that understands the industry that you're in, you know. And I mean, going back to the beginning, whenever I first started as a, you know, just a regular old diesel mechanic, you know, I decided to open a business.

28:42You know, now I'm a business owner dealing with, with my CPA, IRS, um, state sales tax. You know, there's just so much stuff that has come up that I've had to learn the hard way. And, uh, you know, with the— with, with working with a experience, a gentleman such as yourself, you know, you've helped walk through that and, you know, really mitigate, um, you know, just really streamline all that good stuff.

29:21Yeah, it's, uh, it's— that's why I always tell people that you have to get your business to a place where you can work on your business, not in your business. And That's just, that's one struggle that pretty much every one of my clients has, along with myself. Sometimes I have to get involved in some of the jobs out in the shop, and it's like, well guys, I have my own stuff to do.

29:40If I don't do my job, the pricing and everything else, we're going to have other problems. So we're going to have to figure this out. And you know, 9 times out of 10, my guys are pretty good, but once in a while I have to get involved in something, maybe something older, probably like, you know, the younger guys are pretty good with the newer stuff, right?

29:56But you pull in a 1995 3116 and it's got an injector rack problem or something like that, then they're like, they have no clue. Well, I was trained on that back by CAT back in the day, so— but that's what's kind of go away. So as I get older, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm being phased out of the shop area part of it because a lot of that stuff now I just have never worked on, which I'm okay with that too.

30:20My job is to run a business, not fix cars. Yeah, no, I agree. Yeah, a bunch of that older stuff that comes in, um, believe it or not, we actually have a— I've implemented a cutoff date. I mean, you know, OBD2 came out in '97, so that's kind of what I stick to. You know, I've tried to work on— I've tried working on older cars with carburetors and stuff, and it just, you know, Being born in '95, you know, I just never really picked that stuff up.

30:57You know, I usually try to contact a, you know, an older technician that really specializes in that stuff. So that's, you know, nowadays we're running into, I mean, just everything needs a laptop. Majority of the, I mean, heck, I'd say 80% of the work that we do here at Diesel Dynamics is intermittent electrical issues. I mean, whether it's with the ABS, you know, just we've been running into some real tough stuff lately and that requires a real experienced technician that that, you know, knows how to read a wiring schematic and, and just go through the proper troubleshooting trees.

31:49Yeah, it's kind of crazy. I would have to say probably 60% of our drivability is electrical problems. We end up— it's not a sensor, it's not as a— this was ran around this way, especially on the stuff we all work on. You know, I don't know, I can't really speak because we're not in the automotive space, but a lot of these diesel engines, the vibrations and stuff like that, and the temperatures because of all the emissions and stuff like that.

32:11There's constant wiring problems. Yeah. And, uh, people don't understand that. So you better be damn good at reading a wiring diagram, that's for sure. Yeah. And, and here at Diesel Dynamics, um, man, I mean, we are truly dynamic because, I mean, we work on— so I come from, um, heavy duty, you know, working on semi trucks. Um, but we also work on automotive.

32:38Um, you know, we work on Prevost tour buses. Um, we throw equipment in there in the mix. Um, last night I was working on a, on an axle on a, on a trailer. I mean, it's, uh, I mean, I've really truly started to see the dynamic part and I mean It's, it's tough out there. It's real tough to, to work on so many different pieces of, of equipment and automotive.

33:13Um, heck, I was talking to the guys, I was like, man, we really need to, to narrow our focus to, I mean, semi trucks and automotive, because all this other stuff is— it's tough. I had a call this morning for a reefer I mean, I, I don't have the equipment to, to evacuate refrigerant from a reefer at the moment, you know, and that's just— I feel like that's a specialty.

33:41I would agree with that. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't— I don't mess with reefers. Now my shops are kind of like yours at Farmington. We do anything from a car all the way up to a heavy-duty trucks, trailers, whatever. My Bright location, we do all the fabrication. We have a trailer store there, parts store there. We do bumps, collision, framework, fabrication, sandblasting. So we encompass everything that anything you need with your truck, automobile, one way or the other, one of our shops can do it.

34:13And the funny thing is, Isaac, you're probably one of the youngest operators that I've met in a long time that got into the this business and that are qualified. There's not a lot of young guys coming into it like you did, uh, starting in an oil field. That's, that's an undertaking in itself, working in the oil fields, huh? Oh yeah. I remember, I don't remember exactly the years, but I remember they were saying that there was a core shortage because in the oil field with the oil boom, they were just taking engines out, replace them right in the field, leave the core right in the field.

34:45They didn't even give a shit about the core. They were making so much money, it would cost them more money to get the cores back to replace them. Did you remember that whole thing? Um, things like that. I mean, so whenever, whenever I was in the oil field, I mean, we're mainly working on, on semi-trucks and trailers, you know, some common stuff, uh, mostly Macs.

35:09Um, as far as, you know, I mean, the oil field is broad. I mean, there's a lot of stuff from pipelining, pipeline inspectors. Let's see. But we just mainly dealt with the semi-truck part. Let's see. Do you watch a show, Landman? That kind of depicts Oil field thing, huh? Is that how it is? Like, is it like it out there? I mean, Billy Bob plays a heck of a character.

35:51Um, I wouldn't say it's, it's quite that dramatic. Yeah, amen on that. So did you work on any of the oil rigs or any of that stuff, or not really stuff like that? No, I, I never really got Quite, you know, I was never a roughneck or anything like that, just pretty much on the semi-truck side of it. I tried natural gas compression for a little while.

36:20I just, those things didn't speak with me, speak to me, you know. I just, my heart is really with the semi-trucks and automotive. You know, and that, that's what I stick to and that's what, that's what my business is built on. And, and now we're doing pretty good with it. So you remember the spot in your life when you said, you know what, I'm done working for anybody else.

36:46I'm gonna go work for myself. You remember that whole, how you came to the realization that you're just gonna start a mobile business and be in charge of your own destiny? Absolutely. Yeah. I don't know the exact date, but I do recall the moment that, you know, I was just tired of it, you know, tired of, you know, making a certain amount every week, you know, getting a paycheck and it's already, you know, I already had it spent before it was even in the account, you know, living paycheck to paycheck.

37:24Whenever I was working for somebody else, I felt that I was a pretty damn good technician. Of course, I've done a lot of growing since then. But yeah, I mean, I remember the exact date and I do, I remember my wife was pregnant with our daughter and she was like, She's like, you know, you just got let go from your, your, your job.

37:53Um, you try to work with the friend in the business, it didn't work out. You know, just like Dave Ramsey said, the, the only ship that doesn't float is a partnership. Yep. The only boat that doesn't sail is a, uh, what, what does it say? Yeah, the only— what's the other one? The only ship that doesn't sail or something like that. I remember that he says another one.

38:13Yeah, I agree with you. Let's talk about your schedule. I mean, before we got together, you were working 7 days a week, 15, 16 hours a day. Yeah. Now that's changed too. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so that, I mean, I mean, just day and night, you know, I was stuck doing everything alone, you know, just 'cause I was hard-headed, first of all. You know, I wanted it done right.

38:46And, you know, having trouble finding qualified technicians. And I mean, golly, I mean, I still work a lot, but, you know, working with you, you know, I've been able to get my freedom back, you know. Shit. I mean, I was working so hard and so long that, you know, I didn't, by the time I started slowing down, you know, I, you know, started looking at my kids and I was like, my golly, I feel like I haven't seen you in a year, you know?

39:21And that's, uh, that's a real hard reality to, to, to realize, you know, that you've been working so hard that You know, you weren't even, or I wasn't even present. You know, I would come home, felt like I was, you know, just taking a nap. Just come home, take a shower, take a nap right quick and get back to it. Um, you know, but working with you, you've really helped change that, you know, get my freedom back.

39:54Um, I don't have to work every weekend. You know, I do it because I want to or because somebody really needs my help, but I don't absolutely have to. Um, and that's something that, that I praise you for, you know, really helping me get to this point. And, you know, we're, we're 6 months in, you know, it's a 9-day difference from, from where I began and we still got a long way to go.

40:22No, I agree. And it's, it's very interesting and people, I always try to tell people over over again, your numbers matter, your numbers matter. And they're like, yeah, well, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that. And what you've learned is your numbers do matter, because we— you think about this, we didn't up your advertising, we didn't start advertising more.

40:41We took the vehicles that you had there and we actually charged what we had to do to run your business and be profitable. Did you lose a couple customers along the way? Probably. But were they really your customers that they were worried about? About you making a living or having to pay their bill? You know, 'cause one thing that I always run into is a lot of these shops is they run these companies, these sole proprietorship companies, a guy have 1, 2, 3 trucks, and they never pay the shop on time or they don't pay the shop at all.

41:09Well then I come in, I'm like, okay, we have to start getting you paid from your clients and this and that. And then these guys get all pissed off. Well, you know what? If I have to pay, basically I'm gonna go somewhere else. They're like, wow, there's a concept. You pay me for fixing your truck. They're your best friend right up to the point where you start giving them a bill.

41:26Did you notice that? Oh yeah. That's, I see it constantly. You know, everybody, I mean, heck, even last night, you know, I got the service call. The guy, he's like, I just need somebody here right now. You know, Sunday evening, I need somebody here right now. I don't care how much it costs. And I've noticed that those always seem to be the guys that are the most worried about the cost.

41:52You know, you get halfway through the job, you know, they didn't even ask what you charge to go out there in the first place, you know. And then, then once they see, you know, hey, this wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be, you know, the YouTube video I watched wasn't, you know, the 30-minute video I watched, you know, This guy's been out here for 3, 4 hours messing with this thing.

42:17You know, then they start worrying about the cost. You know, they ask me in the middle of the job, hey, what's this going to cost me? And so we get that, and then we get, you know, we have lost some customers. That's one of the things I was most worried about was, or most scared of, is was losing customers. And the reality is, you know, if not everybody's made for you, you know, because I've been in situations where just like you said, you know, sometimes they didn't even pay the bill.

42:57You know, I was too nice. I trusted them. I got the work done. I got the work done. I wanted to move on to the next job. You know, I let them take their vehicle and never saw a paycheck no matter how many times he called. You know, that was probably one of the hardest lessons that I learned. And I mean, collecting the money is, that's the number one thing that you've taught me.

43:30You know, is getting paid for the work that you do. That's the most important part. You know, I do love my job, but you know, we can't work for free. And the time is the most valuable thing that we have. And we gotta guard that every second of the day. Absolutely. 100%. Tough when people don't wanna pay you. You ever notice when you get these guys like that that give you a hard time, when you start asking them to pay you for a job, you start to feel like an asshole.

44:10Like, hey man, I called you yesterday, it's Tuesday, today's Wednesday, can I get paid? Then all of a sudden they're like, Jesus, bro, like, come on, you know? It's like, wait a second here. I rushed out there, did all the work, did everything, bought the parts, I wanna get paid now. I'm the bad guy. I'm the villain of the story. That's how this works.

44:29Um, you know, one of the things we talked about, and you were going to write a policy, we just haven't got it done yet, is when these people want mobile service, we're going to have a script that we're going to teach your service advisors to tell them. This is how much it costs for us to show up. This is how much it is a mile to show up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

44:49This is a minimum charge. Are you okay with that? If that's the case, we'll go ahead and send you that invoice, and let's go ahead and get that down payment before we leave our shop. Because what we're doing is we're running into, like you said, some of my other clients, they get out there and get all this stuff, the work is all done, then the negotiation starts of how much they, they think that the job is worth.

45:08Because a lot of times when these guys are on the side of the road and it might take you an hour to do it, but you want to charge them $500, they're like, well, wait a second. You're like I'm on the side of the road on a Sunday afternoon. I'm not going to do this for $100. I could be with my wife and kids.

45:22Absolutely. Yeah. And that, that's exactly what I was thinking last night. I was like, man, this is, uh, you know, we, we could have gone without this one. You know, you don't always have to be the hero. And that's some— that's a hard lesson I've had to learn. I call it Superman syndrome. Yeah. Oh, I got it. Yeah. I know I've been working with you.

45:43Sometimes you just gotta look at somebody and say, "No, you're not my guy. Sorry, I could refer you to somebody else." Right now I'm sitting here with my feet in the pool, whatever, with the kids, and like you said, money's not everything. Time with your family, don't blink. That Kenny Chesney song is 100% real. Don't blink. I've seen it. Like Steve Jobs, I always go back to the Steve Jobs book.

46:08He says the one thing you cannot buy is time. And he's living proof. That man had a lot of money and he could not beat pancreatic cancer, right, with all the money he had. And he was right. The journey is the reward. It's not the end game. I'm listening to a book right now by Dale Carnegie. He talks about that. He's like, you know, when we're in middle school, all we want to do is get to high school.

46:29When we get to high school, all we want to do is get to graduate, to get to college or start a job. Then we start a job. All we want to do is retire. Then 9 times out of 10, most people get sick and die when they— when they retire. They never really enjoyed life because they're always looking so far ahead. And the book basically says, you know, live for today, live in today.

46:48Let's worry about tomorrow's problems tomorrow. And that means that, uh, that's something that I had to get around my head. Like, you know, me being in this shop— and I know you're gonna resonate with this— me being in the shop for 35 years, I feel guilty when I'm not here. Yeah. So if they're open during the day or whatever, like Fridays I don't usually work, I feel guilty still after I own the place.

47:13Everybody's like, go have fun, don't worry about it. I'm still like, man, I should really be at work. But if you pay good people and have training, uh, procedures in place and stuff like that, you should be able to enjoy it. That's why you started a business, so you could have freedom, right? Absolutely. Yeah. And, and You know, I run into the same issue.

47:34You know, my guys, that's how I know I got good guys because they're, you know, they see that, you know, they walk in the shop first thing in the morning and see the paperwork sprawled out across the desk. My, you know, they can tell that I've been there for a while, you know, and when I come in, they can tell, you know, I'm tired.

47:52And that's how I know I got good guys because they're like, man, go. Go home for a little bit, you know, go get some extra sleep. You know, we got this. And, um, that's been a real relief to, to have something like that, you know, from doing everything myself to, to, you know, having a good, you know, just good people around me like that, that, you know, that actually care.

48:22Yeah. And you know what? That comes with a price, knowing your numbers so you can afford to pay people a good wage so they could actually— don't have a job, they have a career with you. They're not looking to leave. Their foot is not always out the door. They care about your well-being, your family. You care about them. You watch your numbers.

48:38You know, one thing we just launched and I'm getting ready to— we've been doing phone audits. I set up a whole module with AI and we have a whole scoring system and Now, once a week we're calling all our clients, we're training their service advisors on the phone. So it's pretty interesting when you start talking. My one service advisor got a D-minus.

49:00Golly. Okay. My son didn't, who's 19 years old. You've talked to Lincoln a lot, right? Lincoln's, you know, he's a different animal. But we're going to start training these service advisors to talk to your clients and we're going to start setting expectations for the shop. So for instance, we're going to get a phone script going with you with these guys. We're going to get them— we're going to talk about mobile.

49:25Somebody calls for mobile, your, your service advisor is already going to be trained to say, hey, absolutely, let me see if you can fit you in the schedule. Yes, it's going to be $350 for us just to show up. What we're going to do then, we're going to weed out the people that have no money. We're already going to prove that they have a form of payment to pay you.

49:46Because how many times you went out there and they're like, oh, you get all done, they're like, I don't have the money, you need to bill me or I'll give you a PO. I didn't sign on to freaking give you a charge account to be on the side of the road to fix your damn truck. I came out here to get paid.

49:58That's what you need to do. So by putting that in play, we're going to collect the money up front. We're going to know they have a form of payment. They're authorized to make payments. They're going to know the rules. We're going to have signatures and everything already before you even leave your shop. So the negotiation doesn't have to start after the repair on the side of the road.

50:17Yeah. And we can get into that a little bit, you know, with the, with the Shopware, that's been a game changer from, you know, so we haven't had very many chargebacks, but I do recall a gentleman from that was passing through Texas Um, he flew all the way from California, picked up his truck. He drove it, I think, down the block. He didn't even make it a block before the dang thing turned off with the low fuel rail pressure.

50:49Of course, some way, somehow, the truck kept on restarting. Um, he made it all the way to San Angelo, Texas, and, and found me on the weekend. Because that's what we're known for, you know, always being available. We did all the work for him, and he leaves the shop, and boom, chargeback. I mean, we're talking $6,000 here whenever we weren't doing that great, so that one really hurt.

51:18And with Shopware, you know, we were able to get signatures, you know, we send the estimate Customer reviews it, you know, if he doesn't like it, he doesn't have to— he can deny it right then and there, or he can approve it. You know, we move forward, we get their signature. So the reason I didn't win that, that chargeback was because I didn't have the— I didn't have the proper paperwork.

51:47I didn't have a single signature from, from him saying that he approved it. You know, it was just It was just hearsay. So, you know, something like that's a game changer. Documenting, you know, documentation is very important. And that's something that you've taught us and, you know, we're able to do with Shopware. Did you listen to this week's podcast yet? How I talk about stopping mayhem in your shop by exactly what you just said.

52:21Oh yeah, signatures and covering your ass pictures and all that stuff, huh? Yeah. And you're living proof it hurts, doesn't it? It does. It's a— I mean, like I said, you— somebody leaves your shop and it, it's been pretty prominent nowadays, you know. It's— yeah, people just call up their bank and charge it back. They get their money back. And now I'm fighting with their bank to get paid again, you know.

52:55And that money comes out immediately and all that work's just gone, you know. That can really upset somebody and really shake up the shop, you know, depending on how you're doing. You know, hopefully everybody out there is doing great. And if they're not, you know, I definitely recommend, you know, getting in contact with you because, I mean, I could have done it by myself.

53:24It would have taken me a very long time. But like I said, you know, you've condensed, you said 30, 35 years worth of information, you know, down, you know, currently we're at the 6-month mark. You know, it's hard to put a price on that. I mean, we have, and if you wanted more money, I'd freaking pay it because, you know, we're doing damn good.

53:49I don't kill people, Isaac. And, you know, I really want to be a changing force in our industry. I just don't want to say it. I actually want to change people's shops and get them running the right way and get them have better life, you know what I mean? And, uh, I don't want to sound like all sappy and everything, but I really enjoy doing it.

54:07Yeah, obviously I charge for it, right? It's a business. But, um, it's actually— it's been actually quite— this is probably one of the most rewarding things that I've done because, you know, I get excited when you do good. Like, I really get excited. Um, some of my clients, you know, I've changed a lot of these guys around where, you know, I had one client that said, you know, I can go to the grocery store now and buy whatever I want.

54:30Okay, think about that. He said I could go grocery shopping and buy whatever I want now. Yeah, and I mean, that's, that's, uh, you know, that, that's a— should be a perk of owning the business. You know, you, you work your ass off, and I mean, that should be the, the minimum that, that, that you have to worry about, you know, being able to, to make rent or the car car payment or go to the grocery store.

54:58I mean, um, you know, sometimes I get a little carried away, but, um, it's just, you know, we've come a long way and, and you've really helped, you know, and I would say use the word enlightened, you know, coming from just being a regular mechanic to, to what I would consider a a successful business owner. You know, I never in a thousand years thought I'd own a business successfully, you know, and, and, uh, you know, be able to, to be on a podcast like this.

55:39I, I like having you on the podcast. You're doing very well. You're very well spoken. I mean, I've only talked to you on the phone, you know what I mean? This is the first time we've done a face-to-face. It's pretty cool. And, you know, I'm, uh, I'm proud of you. I mean, you're a young guy, you've had your bumps in the road, and you work your ass off.

55:55Nobody can take that away. And look what you've built. I mean, you've got a great reputation, you know, it's onward and upward for you, which is a great thing. And, you know, be able to go on vacation, be able to, you know, pay your car payment and all that stuff, that's a big deal. There's a lot of shop owners that are out there that are struggling, and it's not that they don't want to do good, they just don't know to do good.

56:16So what I'm gonna do is— I've been waiting to figure— I was gonna make a video, then I thought, you know, I'm gonna do it when I'm on here with you, Isaac. I'm gonna do— open 10 spots up if people go ahead and send me a PM message where I will do an audit on their shops. The only thing I want to do is tell them that I want to be able to play the recordings without the names in there, right?

56:38Because it's horrifying when when you hear what's going on on your front end, on your phone, on your shop. Because when you read your report, you're probably like, wow. Because I was. My one service advisor, my report on him was like, wow, that's pretty shitty. And it was not that he wasn't trained, he just wasn't doing what he was supposed to. Yeah, I think you might have caught him at a bad moment because, you know, my office is right next to his.

57:05You know, I can hear everything that's going on up front. And you know, for 90% of the time, you know, I feel like he does very well, you know, getting, getting all the information and answering the phone. But there is always a better way to do it, you know. I was talking about my guy Isaac. I wasn't even talking about your guy.

57:26Oh, okay. So I'm human too. Like I don't ever act like my podcast, like my shops are absolutely 100% perfect. Perfect. My service advisor was terrible. He got a D-minus, just like your service advisor. So we're good. You guess what he's getting? He's getting trained every week now. Heck yeah. Just, yeah, that's just like yours. Yeah. And I mean, you know, Kevin's open up— opening up 10 spots.

57:51I mean, I would take advantage of it all day, you know. Um, I'm not I'm not sure how much longer we got to work together. You know, I'm, I'm up for, you know, another 6 months minimum. You know, if we can, if we can double what we've already done, I mean, shit, I'm in a good place now. I mean, I'm excited to see, to see where I'm going to be at, at the end of the year.

58:20Yeah. We just got to get, um, right now is the thing I keep running into with my clients. I get you guys all up to to the point where we need to get your CPA involved. I can never get these CPAs to move their ass fast enough. Drives me nuts. I got another one that I got a 2-hour meeting tomorrow with his CPA, or with the bookkeeper we got set up to work with a CPA.

58:39It's just, that's the hardest part for me right now is getting the backend stuff fixed for these people. So having a good accountant is definitely key. And, um, you've learned that, right? Yeah. I mean, going through going through, what'd I say, I'm on my 4th or 5th one. I mean, it's been a hell of a journey. And I mean, I've gone, talking about accounts, I mean, I've gone with the cheapest account, I've gone with the most expensive account.

59:06You know, I had one place charge me $2,000, $2,300 a month. And I mean, that's pretty dang outrageous. Um, but it's kind of funny because right now I'm back with the, the first account that I ever looked at. And, you know, they, they quoted me $400 or $500 a month. And whenever I was getting started, I couldn't afford it. I was like, man, y'all are freaking crazy.

59:37I can't afford that. So that's whenever I started going with the cheap guys. And then I, then I noticed that cheap guys couldn't get the job done. I mean, I was getting, I was getting letters from the IRS and sales tax was getting missed. So then, you know, I went with— and I've seen that from the cheapest accountant to the most expensive one, you know.

1:00:02But now I'm, uh, I'm back to where I originally started with the guy that, that I thought I couldn't afford. Now $500 or $600 right now is a blessing, right? Right, right. And I always tell people, I say, when they hire me, I say, listen, after a few weeks you won't even miss the payment you're paying me. And one of my clients told me the other day, he's like, I thought you were full of shit.

1:00:26He said, when you told me that, he's like, but I will tell you, you were 100% right. You got me so squared away, the money I pay you is worth it. So yeah, I will miss it. I think, uh, I think you can recall that. I mean, there was a, there was a point, I think it was halfway through about 3 months ago, you know, I was still in a tight spot.

1:00:45You know, I may not have been listening to you 100%, you know, implementing everything that you said. And, you know, I, there was a point where you're like, you're like, hey, Isaac, what, what the hell are we going to do? You want to move forward or do you want to end it right now? And I was like, Kevin, I can't afford you.

1:01:06You know, that's what I thought. In reality, I could, but I was just making excuses. Um, but man, I'm glad I kept on going because now, now what, you know, what we've decided on is, is, uh, just like I said, if you ask for more, I would do it. Um, but yeah, I mean, just Just like you mentioned, you know, it's, uh, it's easy to make that, that, uh, to pay that compensation now.

1:01:36Yeah. That might have been the day that I may or may not have yelled at you pretty good. Like, okay, I care. Let's get this done. And you know what? After you got all done with the phone call, we got all done and you sent me a text. You say, I needed that. And ever since then, if you remember, that's when everything changed.

1:01:53I agree. Yeah. And I mean, you got to have somebody to, you know, a lot of times we get complacent and we get, we get comfortable. You know, I, um, you know, we're doing Diesel Dynamics is doing real good right now. You know, I've have caught myself slipping, you know, taking, taking the weekend off and maybe not doing as much work as I was planning on doing that weekend.

1:02:16Um, but you know, we just, we got to keep keep pushing through, um, because it takes a, it takes a lot of work to, to get to where we're at, um, and it takes a lot of momentum to, to keep it going. So, you know, to all the other shop owners and any other business owner out there, you know, just, I mean, don't give up, keep the momentum going, because it takes a lot to get up there and You know, in a week or a month you start getting lazy.

1:02:49Shit, brother, you're back in the same spot. You know, the bank account's low. Now you're trying to hustle to, to get paid. And, um, you know, just keep on going, guys. Absolutely. And, uh, I'm excited. Uh, you're gonna be our, you're gonna be set. Jason's gonna be getting ahold of you today to set up training, send your service advisor the link to get him scheduled.

1:03:09So thank you, get him start doing— and one of the things I'm gonna start writing out is a procedure. So when you, um, go to do these mobile calls or start training your service advisor to preempt and get the money and everything up front like we talked about, to stop the other bullshit, you know what I mean? We'll do a canned job on it.

1:03:27Yeah, no, we— and I, I already have one saved for a service call. Um, it's pretty basic. So, um, and that, that's one of the things as well with Shopware, the, the can jobs. You know, you do a job that's, that you've done multiple times, um, you know, saving those jobs to where you don't have to write it up from scratch every single time is, uh, has been a game changer as well.

1:03:52Absolutely. Well, thank you for coming on. This was absolutely wonderful. And thank you for the kind words, and, uh, we'll be in touch. Kevin, thank you again. Have a good day. All right, man. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye. All right, that's gonna do it for this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning. If this helped you, please make sure to subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next.

1:04:15We drop real conversations, real systems, and real solutions every week. We'll see you back here next time on Repair Shop Reckoning.