From Alaska to Arizona - John Pearson Finds a Way

0:00You're listening to the Success Leaves Clues podcast, a podcast for the auto repair industry where we uncover the journey of real shop owners. We hear their story of what it took to get their breakthrough because we are here to inspire you to have your own breakthrough, to be the success you've been looking for, and to change your industry, your family, and your life forever.

0:23Thank you for joining us. And now on to the episode. Yeah, go ahead, Jay. No, you're going first. I want to see how bad you mess it up. Perfection. Am I supposed to clap also? That was such a baby slap. A little better. Yes, sounds like— oh, that was better. You want a low clap. Sounds like you're slapping the butt cheek of a weasel-faced chuckle dick.

0:55We can't, we can't put that on this podcast at all. Did you see her walking around with that on her badge? No. So Colleen Shannon had a customer get mad at her, an old lady, and called her a weasel-faced chuckle dick. I've never heard of that in my life. She showed up at the conference and put in her badge weasel-faced chuckle dick in her badge.

1:19She wore it for 3 hours. I can't use any of this B-roll. Gotta talk about topics that I can use, man, if we're gonna be funny. Weasel Face Chuckle Dick is pretty funny. I don't know if I can use that. Can we use that? You think they'd be okay with that? While none of us have heard of it before, I don't think it's R-rated.

1:41Hmm, maybe they'll like it. I think I'll leave it in. If you're listening to it, leave a comment if you don't like it. Uh, John, thanks for, uh, being on the show with us today. I got some, uh, sponsors I want to thank. We're going to start out with— I'm going to see if I can do a better job this time. It's always the sponsor readouts have become the funniest part of the show because Aaron thinks I butcher it at times, and I do, honestly.

2:04It's fair. I do butcher them. A little boring. A little boring. And sometimes you spice it up a little too much. You think I need— it's like my clap. I can never get the clap right. So, um, hey shop owners, are you looking to boost your business? Actually, we're talking about ShopFix, and you've got a ShopFix t-shirt on, a shirt on right now.

2:23But we're talking about all the events that are out there. There are events for owners, foremen, advisors, salesmen. There are events that are happening throughout the year that are great to attend, and you get a ton of value out of it. If you want to be the best in the industry, you want to change your business and change your life, go to one of the events.

2:44They're amazing. We're sitting at an event. John, have you had a good time at the event so far? I've had a fantastic time at the event. Good. You recommend people to go? I always recommend people to come to ShopFix. Good. Okay, so shopfixevents.com. OctaRocket, if you run a shop, which I think you guys run shops, we do, you probably got too many systems doing too little.

3:09Phones in one place, reports in another. No, I feel like I'm speaking your language. Well, anyway, having all this stuff and all these different places that adds up to lost time, extra cost, and missed opportunities. OctoRocket is a unified platform for phones, shop analytics, and CRM all in one. Included with that, their AdvisorIQ to record and score inbound and outbound calls, RocketShield to block some spam, DVI and online scheduling.

3:36You see it all together with OctoRocket. Click the link in the show notes or call them at 855-600-OKTO. That's 855-600-OKTO. And our friends at Momentum Works who are the bookkeeping specialists. Momentum Works provides bookkeeping services specifically for independent auto repair shops, but more importantly, they help shop owners actually understand their numbers, which I think we can all appreciate, and get bookkeeping off your plate.

4:06They're the experts in auto repair industry and help hundreds of shops around the country. With Momentum Works, you get a dedicated team that knows your world takes your financials seriously, and gives you clarity you can actually use to run your business. If you're tired of guessing or stressing, call or text MomentumWorks at 615-538-1830 or use the link in the podcast notes. Guessing or stressing.

4:31I saw what you did there. You like that part? That's good. Just combined it, made it catchy. Catchy. Yeah. They say humans like rhymes. They remember rhymes. I, I guess that's true-ish. It's true. Maybe you can't think of any. You're thinking of a good one. I'm trying to think of one. Yeah, besides like Mary, Mary Had a Little Lamb, you know. I don't think I can think of anything else.

4:59The Grass Isn't Always Greener. Those catchy phone number jingles. It's true. Yeah, shop settlement. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, John, thanks for, uh, joining us officially, and thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me, gentlemen. Yeah, absolutely. So we have been talking about Corvettes. If you're a Corvette owner out there, this show is specifically just for you. No, or if you want to be— or if you own a pair of white New Balance tennis shoes some jean shorts and a braided leather belt.

5:36You're welcome, man. This is— what a good look that is. That is such a good look. This is, uh, this is company you will be received well in. And, uh, they probably got a pair of shoes for you if yours don't fit. I wish— I wonder if— I wonder if the guys could edit in a bald eagle, like, American flag. It is funny how there's no other car that has a dress code.

5:59But a Corvette— Corvette has a dress code. I mean, Mustangs don't have a dress code. Camaros don't have dress codes. Porsches don't have— nothing else has a dress code. A Corvette has a dress code. I don't know. I went into the car dealership to buy a Corvette, okay, and that specific Corvette wasn't there, and they're like, have you checked out the ZL1 Camaro?

6:20I'm like, I don't live in a trailer park and I don't have a flat bill hat. I don't want to buy a Camaro. Some dude is like, I take I take offense to that. You did take offense to that, but they're supposed to be bad to the bone. Oh man, I, I didn't want the Camaro. He's like, will you take it for a test drive?

6:40No, I don't want to drive it. Will you sit in it? No, I don't want to sit in it. What will get you interested in this Camaro? I said, if you sell it for stupid cheap, and I threw a number out at him, and he goes, all right, I'll take that. What? And then I had to honor my word, and so I sent him a wire and I drove away in a Camaro.

6:57Did you even drive it beforehand? No. You did it without even driving it. Without even driving it. You're a man of your word. But I'm a man of my word. Did you then go buy a trailer and go to park it at the track? And a flat bill hat? Yeah. No, no, I took it to the racetrack. So, but seriously, you pulled out of the lot, what was your first impression?

7:17Uh, 650 horsepower, 650 torque. This thing boogies. I can't see anything. Yeah, visibility is pretty rough. Can't see anything, but This is cool. That's cool. I liked it. I'd own another one one day. Wow. Wow. Which engine is it, the 6.2? Yeah, LT4. Okay, supercharged one. Okay. Yeah, it's main— it's a main car. So you race too? Oh yeah. And tell us a little bit about your racing, what you're into.

7:44Yeah, so I participate with a, a program called NASA. They have different regions and then they also have national competitions. So I run Corvettes in NASA, um, in the Southwest region, Arizona mostly, but then also chase the national championships. So, uh, just out of curiosity, once you own the cars, what do you think you spend annually just to, to do this? And you own a couple cars for racing?

8:124 cars. You have 4 race cars. And do you have 4 because they're fun, or is it literally because you, once the season starts, there's always one broken? Um, they're in different progressions of being completed or broken. This is the, this is the Jack Racer mentality right here. So each— it's to keep a car going all of the time. They're all stair-stepping each other in progression of what is next, um, so that we always have a car that's ready to go.

8:44But costs involved with that, we can do a a cheap non-competitive weekend for $2,500. Okay. If we're going to the national level, we're buying brand new tires, the big garage at the, at the race event, and we'll spend $20,000 to $30,000 in a weekend. Even if you don't wreck it? You— yeah, if you don't wreck it. If you don't wreck it. If you do wreck it, sky's the limit.

9:11But you really win when that happens. Yeah. And it And at the end of the day, it's all for a plastic trophy. Oh, it's not even metal anymore. Yeah, yeah, it's a fake piece of tin. Yep. No money behind it, just bragging rights, but it's a lot of fun. Yeah, I do that with some other Shop Fix members. That's something I've always wanted to get into.

9:32Yeah, one more kid I gotta get out of the house. She's 18 months from being out of the house, and I can start doing more hobbies. Okay. But yeah, I love that. I've got a Blackwing, and it's got that 6.2 supercharged in it, manual trans, and I don't know if there's a car in my driveway more fun than that Blackwing. That Blackwing is something special.

9:50It's just, man, that's a, that's a fun car. Yeah, it's a fun car. So, uh, you got an interesting story on your shops, bro. A little bit. A little bit. So when you and I first talked, that was so far back that I was actually the one selling Shop Fix. You were. I tried to join the Shop Fix Facebook page and you sent me a message and you're like, This isn't your normal program.

10:16I was like, you need to get on a phone call. Yeah, this isn't, this isn't just, you just jump in. We got to talk first. We talked and you were like, I still will never forget it. You go, you know, I've never done anything like this. Sure. I'll try it. And it was just like the most whimsical, I don't care, whatever. And I was like, wow.

10:33Okay. And, uh, in all seriousness though, you just went to town, man. You went to work. And, uh, that first shop was in a tiny little town that a lot of people have heard of called— everyone's heard of this town— North Pole, Alaska. North Pole. So why don't we back up? Where were you born and raised, and then what got you to Alaska?

10:54Okay. Um, born in New Hampshire, but I was raised in Manhattan, Kansas. I know that. Oh, Kansas. Kansas. Wait a second. Pause for effect. Kansas, the Little Apple. The little apple. I was like, I thought it was Kansas, and then you said Kansas. Yep. Um, 18, got out of the house and went to UTI out in Arizona. Okay. Loved Arizona. Um, joined the Volvo program, and they specifically wanted you to be close to home, so I was placed in a dealership in Kansas City, Missouri.

11:34Okay. Um, I lasted about a year there before— there was just poor systems and poor training in the dealership and didn't really make it. Um, was just struggling as a new technician with repair processes and stuff like that. Um, so I was let go, and knowing that I loved Arizona while I was out there for school, drove out to Arizona and started looking for work.

12:01Got a job at another Volvo dealership and lasted about 3 weeks until the manager pulled me into the office and he said, "Your personality doesn't fit in. Have a nice day." 3 weeks. 3 weeks. What do you think was the issue with your personality? Everything. You know me, I'm a hyper-energetic— But you're a pretty easygoing guy though now. Pretty easygoing. I don't know what you were like then.

12:28Yeah. Try, try to please, try to do things right. Okay. Um, but still as a flat rate technician just trying to make hours and maybe overzealous, I'm not 100% sure. Okay. That dealership also closed 6 months later. Okay. So who knows? Yeah. But the, uh, the friend that I was staying with at the time because I was couch surfing as a 20-year-old with not a lot of money.

12:56Um, I was like, hey, the Bob Bondurant School needs technicians, and why don't you go down there and see if they're hiring? So I went down to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving and said, I need a job. They say, perfect, you can wash cars and change tires for $8 an hour. Like, it's Corvettes on a racetrack. That sounds really cool.

13:20I'll do it. Good benefits. Good benefits. Yeah. So after about a year and a half, I worked my way all the way up to $12 an hour and one of their main technicians fixing and test driving Corvettes on a racetrack. And it was the dream job. It was the coolest thing ever, but there was no future in it. So I was kind of burned on the automotive career and wanted a new career, but didn't have money to go to school.

13:49So what does every young man do? Join the military. Join the Army. Let's learn how to fix some helicopters. Yeah, that sounds like a fun job. That's right, let's go fix helicopters. Um, so did all the training, did all that fun stuff, and they sent me to Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Fort Riley also has the same helicopters. Fort Riley is like 15 minutes away from Manhattan, Kansas.

14:17Why can't I go there? Needs of the Army. You're going to Fort Wainwright, Alaska. There you go. All right. Went back to Arizona, put all my stuff in a U-Haul, and drove for 4 and a half days straight. The only time we stopped was when we were waiting on gas stations to open and when it was so foggy you couldn't see the road.

14:42But it's a long way to Alaska. It's a long drive. It's a long drive. Yeah, that's That's a long one in a giant box truck. And then even when you're in Alaska, it's a long way from there, just the border to get to North Pole. Yep. Yep. But so got there. Um, something that really disappointed me is as soon as I got to my duty station, the helicopter that I was scheduled to work on was being discontinued and they were no longer going to support it.

15:16So there was no way to get promoted because they didn't need anyone to become the next level in that job. And so did about 3 years in Alaska, and then they want me to go to Fort Riley with a year and a half left of my time in the military. I'm like, well, you know, I kind of already started this shop out of my house on accident.

15:44Bought a house that had this 1,800-square-foot garage. There was this little one-bedroom apartment above the house or above the garage. And so, I rented the house out to pay for the mortgage payment and I tinkered on cars in the garage. And just word of mouth, it started snowballing to where there was just always 10 cars in the driveway. And I can't tell people no.

16:10I can't tell anybody no for anything. I'm going to find a way to get you what you're asking me for. So I had this auto repair shop out of my house going, and the Army is like, well, we want you to move to Fort Riley. And that was a challenging request because my dad was diagnosed with cancer at the time and he lived 15 minutes away.

16:36So I called him and I'm like, what, what do I do? 15 minutes away from Fort Riley? Fort Riley, yeah. Okay. Um, like, what do I do? Do I come home and spend time with Dad because he has cancer and it's stage 4 and I want to spend time with my family, or do I pursue this potential business opportunity? Um, and so I had a phone call with him and he's like, 'You do whatever you want to do, whatever you feel is best, but if you come home because of me, I will not be happy with you.

17:10You can't come home because of me.' Oh man. Yeah, that's heavy. That was really heavy. Um, and so I, I was scared to come home then because I didn't want him to think I was coming home because of him. And I also wanted to make him proud of something that I had built. So I figured, jump in and let's start an auto repair shop.

17:38So I looked at this little 1,000-square-foot building that also had this remote start shop on the other side. Because in Alaska in the wintertime when it's -40, you're not getting out of bed 30 minutes early to go start your car. Mm-hmm. You just want to poke that button and have it start for you. This was 13 years ago before you could just do it from your cell phone.

18:03But, uh, opened up in this little one-bay, 1,000 square foot shop and just hammered away 7 days a week, 12, 16 hours a day to make it happen. Wow. And that was, that was still the place I've attached to your house? No, this is 2 miles. Yeah, 2 miles down the road. Okay. So, but how did you get the Army not to make you move?

18:26So the Army has certain prerequisites like run fast, jump high. A 6-foot man should weigh 193 pounds. If you're over 193 pounds, you're overweight. And so while you, you're probably listening to this, not watching a video, I'm a, I'm a heavyset dude. I'm a thicker guy. And so I just failed to meet the military's height and weight requirements. And they say, all right, well, you failed to meet our standards.

18:58You're no longer a part of this organization. Have a nice day. Wow. So that happened while they were trying to get you to move? Correct. So yeah. So to stop the moving process, I failed to meet the height and weight standards. And that kind of stops all movement until you run fast, jump high, and meet the standards. And so they just let me go.

19:24Wow. It's an honorable discharge. It's nothing negative against your records. Yep. Gotcha. And all of my leadership in the military, that they knew what was going on and they supported that choice. Okay. It's— yeah, it was, it was nothing negative. They weren't upset with it. They knew that I wasn't the best person for this job. Um, I, I loved what I did, but there was so much wasted soldiers' time and wasted energy with just how the organization was run and my unit was run that I didn't see I was able to make a change and I was able to improve that because I was never going to be put into the leadership position to be

20:13able to do that because the promotion points system, they just didn't— they weren't promoting people. Yeah, it makes sense. It sounds like— and you've talked about a couple times, you mentioned about process and seeing inefficiency, and it really bothers you. It does bother me. And you, you want to make a change. So I'm kind of curious, how did that— when you started your first shop?

20:39Obviously now you're in it, you're the tech, you're everything. Yeah. How did you take that and run it? And at what point did you start growing or figuring out your own inefficiencies and figure out, okay, I'm going to fix this? What did that look like for you? Okay, um, so I'm, I'm a very ADD, ADHD person, um, which also equates to, I think, a lot of laziness.

21:03And I don't want a bunch of steps, I want to I want to get something done before I lose the focus of completing the task. And so, how fast can I get something done before I am disinterested in it? And so, that's helped me just create the processes of speeding up everything that I do so that it gets done before I lose that focus or lose that interest.

21:32Interesting. Yeah, my wife's the same. She has ADD and she says, look, you give a lazy person or somebody like me a job to do, she goes, I'm going to find the fastest, most efficient way to do it because I don't want to waste my time doing this slow process. Exactly. So yeah, I get it. Okay, so you started your own place, started turning wrenches, getting that going, 16-hour days.

21:56At what point did you— did things start to change for you? You started hiring people, started change in that business? So I, I had this kid that started working for me in my personal garage. His name was Trey. Trey is a fantastic kid, um, still love him. He went through some of his own hardships and we don't stay in touch anymore, but wish, wish this kid the best.

22:17So he comes to work for me in my personal garage, and his first day I'm like, I'll give you $15 an hour cash money under the table. I don't know how long this is going to last. And we worked together for almost 8 months in my personal garage before his first day off was the weekend before we opened in our commercial location.

22:40We got everything set up, take the weekend off, we're going to open on Monday. And so then for the next year after we opened in that little one-bay shop, Trey was working with me 6 or 7 days a week. We were just tag-teaming cars to get stuff done. Wow. So you called your parents up and said, hey, I'm gonna do this. You put your head down.

23:04How long did you work like those crazy hours? Like, how long did that last? Probably almost about 2 years. Wow. About 2 years. I mean, during the summertime in Alaska, it, it eases up a little bit. October is a big preparation season and— okay, there's probably a picture running around on the Shot Fix Facebook page of— I had a cot on top of my office because it was easier to sleep for 4 hours at the shop than to drive, get the diesel truck started at -40, drive the 2 hours home, deal with home.

23:44It was 2 hours to get home. No, I'm sorry, 2 miles. I was like, yeah, it's a long way to get home, man. 2 miles home. Yeah. And then get the diesel truck started in the morning, get out of bed after sleeping for 4 hours and drive the 2 miles back to the store. It was easier to just sleep for the 4 hours there and get back to the grind.

24:05Oh my gosh. So you just thought, I just got to do this until it's over with. This is the way to get successful. I, I always had a vision of this shop isn't big enough, the shop needs more, I need more people so that I can have more free time, so that I can buy back my time with their labor. That's crazy.

24:32Um, do you think your dad was proud of you? Oh, I know he was proud of me. Yeah, I know he was proud of me. That's awesome. That, uh, Corvette that was my race car right now. Yeah, I was able to buy that for him. That's cool. We— he had that car for a while until he called me and he goes, you know, the neuropathy in my hands and feet, I can't really drive it anymore, so come, come get your car.

24:59So I took that car up to Alaska, and, uh, he even came to Alaska once, and we have a little road course set up there twice a year. He got to ride with me in that car up there. So that's amazing. Awesome. That's special. It's, it's really cool. That's special. So, uh, you are going along a couple years. When did you and I finally intersect and talk?

25:25Yeah, so I'm, I'm renting my 1,000 square feet from a construction company, and about 2 years go by, and the construction company is Made friends with the owner and I'm like, you know, I need more space. And so he adds on 4 more bays in the back. So I have this 5-bay store now. And we're starting to cook along. We're doing probably between $50,000 and $70,000 months.

25:50Okay. And I'm like, all right, this is starting to get comfortable. And I'm looking for the knowledge of what's next? How do I create efficiencies? I'm a technician. How do I own the business? I mean, all of the P&Ls and the balance sheets and the processes and point of sales, how do I figure that out to maximize my dollars, my customers' dollars?

26:18Because I don't want to be overcharging them. I want an honest business. And so, I started searching the forums and the Facebook pages. Found the Shot Fix one, clicked join, and waited, waited for that little notification of— waited to get accepted into this group. Well, they didn't know my personality yet. Now I get denied. But, uh, that's, that's when Aaron called me.

26:48And I, I've always been a fan of if, if there's no obligations, if there's no long-term commitment. Like, Shotfix doesn't have a commitment of you. You're not required to be here for 12 months. If it's not giving you the value you need in the first day, in the first week, in the first month, then don't join. Then don't be a part of it.

27:14And if you're not getting the value out of it, it's probably a you problem, not a Shotfix problem. Yep. But It was an easy choice. It, at that time, I think it was $9.99 a month. And if you're not getting the value, then we'll let you out. Like, I've done dumber things with $1,000. Why not? Well, real quick before we carry on, speaking of, uh, getting more from things, um, I want to quickly, uh, thank our sponsors over at Turnkey Auto Marketing because they've helped out a ton here.

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28:12They're a director of marketing service for auto repair shops, which is unique for them. Do some cool stuff. So Turnkey creates a custom strategy just for you, and then they just get it done, just like an in-house director of marketing. No more guessing, no more marketing headaches, and no more wasted dollars. Just real transparent results. So visit turnkeyautomarketing.com today. Thanks, guys. So now back to doing wasteful things with $1,000.

28:37So wasteful things with $1,000 for $200, Alex. No, um, so I'm thinking back to this and I'm going, okay, you're just slugging along. We end up on a call, we talk, you're like, okay, I'll try this. You had to be thinking, I'm in Alaska, can they really help me? Like, this is a pretty unique situation. You were thinking the same thing. No, I mean, I know the principles work, but I'm just curious, like, what was going through your head then?

29:09Uh, let's give it a shot. I mean, I'd been operating for probably 3 or 4 years at that point. I mean, I'd have to do some backwards math. Yeah. But sure, maybe not everything applies, but I can gain some nuggets out of this. And so anytime you can take at least one thing away, I try to find value behind that. And then believe it or not, It all actually applies in Alaska too.

29:37We just can't get our parts as quickly. Yeah. And for everybody, just kind of walk them through, where is North Pole exactly, just from a regional perspective? Yeah, so North Pole is about 10 miles east of Fairbanks, Alaska. So about, about the middle of the state. Okay, gotcha. And Fairbanks is directly north of Anchorage? About 350 miles north of Anchorage. So it's a haul.

30:01A little bit. I think you told me at one point, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I thought the road from Anchorage to Fairbanks was a little sketchy in the really rough winter months. Well, yeah, you're driving— I mean, when it snows in October, the snow's on the roads until March or April, and it's a 350-mile trek between the towns. You can have 100-mile-an-hour winds and -50-degree temperatures and Wow.

30:28You just, you have to be prepared. I, I don't think we get like walking out to your truck and it's -40, a diesel. Yeah. How big of a deal that is to try to get that truck to start and power steering lines not to break off. It's just, it's a lot, especially what I'm sure maintaining. Now, what kind of makes do you support?

30:48Is it mainly diesel? Like, what are you getting in your shop? Uh, believe it or not, I mean, a Yaris does great in Fairbanks, Alaska. Yeah, it's— you, you don't wear your flip-flops in the wintertime and you don't wear your winter boots to the beach. So we have our snow tires, we have our summer tires that really just help with traction. Yeah, Fairbanks, we get 3 to 5 feet of snow in 6 months, so we don't get a lot.

31:16You might get a 12-inch dump and you don't go anywhere for 2 days, um, but we have the big 3 dealers there. We have Ford, Chevy, and Dodge. Um, we have Honda, Toyota, Subaru. Hmm. And I think that's about it in town. How many people lived in that area? Uh, so I give it 60,000 in like a 40-mile radius. Not many then.

31:40Not many, but enough to support a couple auto repair shops. So this, this little town doesn't get a ton of snow, but it gets bitterly cold. Yep. And, uh, you really have to set things up to be able to handle that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, uh, so this— be prepared. This remote start, if I remember what, what you told me back in the day, people that had a remote start, it would time out before the car really warmed up.

32:05And so this was a kit you would install that would go beyond that timeout feature so it really warmed the car up, is that correct? Yeah, we could set these to so that the vehicle would run for 45 minutes. I mean, you got a little screen on your remote and it's counting down and you just restart the timer and it'll run for another 45 minutes.

32:24And it really took that long to get that thing warmed up? Yeah, I mean, we're, we're shoving cardboard in front of the radiator and zip tying tarps to your grill so that airflow is not coming through your radiator. Gosh, because I mean, I don't know what the wind chill is when it's -40 and you're driving 60 miles an hour down the road, but can it go lower?

32:47—100. Yeah, you'll end up with no heat in the car. Yeah. So you want to start blocking the radiator. Wow. All right, so enough about Alaska and all this craziness. Tell us what you did with that store. What did you take it to once you joined ShopFix in that region? Yeah, so that store, um, got it up to about $2.5 million in revenue.

33:10Uh, pretty crazy. Pretty crazy. I had a, a manager that was kicking butt at the time and I had some belief in her that she could manage the store. So about 2019, I'd staffed the store to where I wasn't necessarily needed as a technician or a trainer. And I wanted to see more ShotFix shops. I wanted to see what else I could learn.

33:36So I came down to America. And started, started touring some ShopFix shops, um, visiting people that I had built the relationships with, um, when we meet here in Nashville. Okay. And what was the conclusion of all that? Um, there were some things that I could go back and change, some processes that I could tweak. Um, and there were some shops that I could help from just a different point of view.

34:04Mm-hmm. And I really liked being that person that was able to help shops from a different point of view. That's awesome. So real quick. Yeah. That point, just to be able to go and visit other shops, walk through other locations, like a lot of shop owners who are out there who aren't a part of anything, there's a lot of intimidation between stores, competition, all that.

34:26But for others to allow you to just come in and learn from them and you also speak to them, like that's huge. That's a big deal. Being able to have access like that and talk through it. So that's pretty— ShopFix is a special community. It's not normal. It's an amazing community. Really, a shop in almost every city in America. Like, I could probably just get in an RV and drive and break down and go, there's somebody within 50 miles.

34:48I don't know who, but I'm about to find out. Well, you— I think you actually did that when my mother-in-law's car was— something was wrong with it. You're like, hang on, let me find a shop for you. Yeah. Somewhere in California. It's just— Yeah, it's true. But, um, So tell us what you ended up doing with that Alaska setup. So the Alaska setup, I mean, COVID happened while I was down in America wandering around, and I mean, we were all kind of scared for our lives, didn't know what was going to happen with COVID Um, so I went back to Alaska, and the manager up there, she's like, well, you need to go find something

35:25to do because you're in my way. Go find a project or something. All right, cool. So I started looking at property and just started a second store in Fairbanks. In— yeah, in Fairbanks, about 15 miles away from the other store, because I needed something to do. Um, cute little 5-bay store in 2,500 square feet. Existing operation? Nope. Um, never done an existing operation, always started my own, including the Arizona store.

35:54Wow, you're not supposed to give up that as the last part. Sorry, cut, start. Um, so the, the second Alaska store, I mean, I, I didn't anticipate that it would do that well. How well did you get it to? Oh brother, it right out of the gate, it just took off, which shocked me and it shocked everyone else too. I was expecting the first store to take like a 20% hit and then this little 5-bay, maybe we'll do 20 the first month and 40, it's third month, and 80, it's sixth month.

36:34Nope. The first 16 business days of that month, it did $60 grand. It's second month that did $90, it's third month that did $120. I'm like, oh my gosh, I guess I just moved into an underserved part of the community. And yeah, wow, it took off. So that's amazing. Yeah. What'd you get it to? Um, it kind of hovers around the $120,000 to $150,000 mark.

36:58Okay. Without a lot of poking the bear. Okay. And it's, it's profitable at that. And so I just leave them alone. I let them do their thing. Cool. Yeah. The, the manager, she goes, well, then you run your store different than I run my store. And I mean, we, we follow the same SOPs and procedures and take care of customers, but there's just a little different personality in each of the stores.

37:22Well, what do you want to do about it? She goes, well, I want that one too. Okay, let's see what you do. So I let her manage both of the stores. How'd they go in the long term or at the short term? Short term. Short term went great. Okay, and then what happened? I went back to America. Okay. Yeah, yeah, I, I knew that I loved Arizona and After 10 years in Alaska and dealing with -40, it wasn't for me.

37:55I love the outdoors and I like hiking and I like four-wheeling and stuff like that, but I don't want to go chop my firewood. I don't want to fill— we use heating oil to heat your house up there, which is diesel fuel. I don't like it when the boiler stops working when it's -40 and the house gets cold. Yeah. So it's, it's just a— it's a hard way of life.

38:21Yeah. And it wasn't for me. Yeah. Maybe if I lived in Anchorage or one of the coastal towns, I would have liked it more, but Fairbanks wasn't for me. I've heard Anchorage is not near as cold as people think it is. It's not. They get a lot more snow though. Okay. Okay. They don't see the negatives as often. Gotcha. So, um, you went back to Arizona and you started hanging out in Arizona.

38:46What'd you do next? Um, going to track days. Bought that Camaro we talked about and started going to track days. And another ShopFix member approached me and he goes, hey, I was going to start a second store in this location, um, but I don't think I'm going to do it. I said, well, why are you not going to do it? Are the demos not good enough?

39:06He goes, no, I just don't want a second. So, he introduced me to the leasing agent and they gave me an offer and I'm like, "Oh, I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze. I don't want the trouble. I'm not trying to move to Arizona full-time. It's kind of just a snowbird situation." And so, I pushed back to the leasing agent and he gave me another deal.

39:29I'm like, "Oh, that's pretty good. This is a fun game though." So, I pushed it back. Shove again. Yeah. I'm like, "Oh, let's see what else I can get." I'm just playing the game. I'm not taking it seriously at this point. Yeah. And, uh, he gives me another deal and he goes, this is the best I can do. Tons of free rent.

39:48Wait, this is— wait, another deal on the same property or different property? Same property. Oh, same property. He just— he keeps bringing back more free rent, more tenant improvement allowance, um, more referrals. Come on. Okay, more— go ahead. I'm sorry, more renewals, options. Lowering the renewal rates. And I'm like, wow, this is actually starting to look pretty good. Um, let's do it.

40:12It was a lease. Yeah, it was a lease. Um, let's do it. Let's start a, a third store, which is a lot like a first store, especially when it's like 9 million miles away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's an accurate number too. It's still another planet. Yeah. And so lots of people go, wow, you have 3 stores. No, I have two stores and I have one store.

40:36Yeah, they're totally different. And I didn't realize that when I was doing it. I thought that the marketing technique that I used in the rural Alaska environment would work in a metro environment because I have 40,000 potential customers in a 2-mile radius in Arizona. Wow. Arizona, all I have to do is put a Facebook post out and I get some oil changes and I get some cars.

41:00Arizona, no, that doesn't work. Yeah. And that's what you would do in the rural area. Yeah, it's what works great in the rural area because you have that brand recognition. Yep. You're competing with a million other shops in Arizona. Yep. You gotta, you gotta master all the more traditional advertising methods. You do. And so it's, it's been a lot of fun learning both sides.

41:25So that's where we're at right now. 3 stores, 2 store and 1 store, 2 store and 1 store. I feel like this, this 3rd store, the 1 store is a little bit like that Camaro. They kind of like getting the deal down. You just go, all right, I gotta buy it at this point. So tell us about that store. How's it doing?

41:43Uh, it's doing well. Um, it, it was a real challenge to get off the ground, um, to get enough cars in there and get that new customer base buying. And to trust you. Um, but it, it's finally gaining some traction after 5 years. It's been that long? It's been that long. What, did you keep the brand or did you start a whole new brand there?

42:07No, I started a different brand. Different brand. Okay. Um, I thought the name Autocorrect was cute, so I did that. Cute? Cute. Yeah. Oh, never think a Corvette race car driver would call anything cute. Interesting. Yeah. Well, so you live full-time in Arizona or Alaska? Um, pretty much full-time in Arizona now. And, uh, do you work in the store at all, or do you not go in at all?

42:32Uh, well, I collect the deposits. Okay, so you go in for a few minutes? Yeah, I go in. Um, I try to network with all the employees and let them know that Dad isn't there just to collect the deposits. Dad appreciates their hard work also. That's good. And so I spend an hour visiting with the employees, talking about their lives. Dale's kid is into go-kart racing.

42:56Timmy's got a motorcycle. That's cool. Yeah. And what's your biggest store? The biggest store is still the first one in Alaska. And what's second biggest then? Second biggest, it's tied. The little tiny shop in Arizona. I'm sorry, little tiny shop in Alaska. Is tied with the Seven Bay in Arizona. Got it, got it. And corporate office, where's that at? Um, corporate office is pretty much just me.

43:26Um, I use a lot of the Shotfix recommended vendors. So you outsource basically? Yeah, I outsource. Um, keep it simple. You don't have to have a lot of employees to manage. Correct. And initially I tried to build a corporate office. Yeah. But with 3 stores, I feel like there's not enough corporate income to have the— it's tough. Yeah, it's tough. It pays for 1 bookkeeper.

43:53Well, my 1 bookkeeper's out sick or on vacation for a week, and, and that 1 bookkeeper needs to be able to do benefits and everything else. Yeah, then John's trying to figure out how to run payroll, and yeah, that never goes well. Yeah. So you've used vendors, um, And, uh, I guess you just office out of your house if you have to do anything.

44:12You don't office out of that shop? No. So, uh, I rented a warehouse that's 2,500 square feet. Okay. Um, so we actually hold little local Arizona Shot Fix meetings there. Oh yeah. Every once in a while to keep the momentum going. I've heard about these meetings. We've actually got other members that do it in other parts of the country. It's actually kind of cool.

44:32Yeah. Seeing the local chapters. Yeah, just got to keep that momentum going between conferences. Yeah, that's true. Um, I mean, it's great. We share special tools between shops and that's cool. Just all help each other out. Do you have an office in that warehouse then? Yeah, so I have an office in the warehouse and then that's where all the race car stuff is.

44:51Yeah, so you do your webinar with like Corvette just positioned right. Yep, exactly. That's pretty neat. What a story. Who would have thought? Started in Alaska, ends in Arizona. 3 stores— I'm sorry, 2 plus 1 in the States. What a crazy deal. So someone else, they may be in New England and they want to move to Florida. Do you recommend putting a shop where you're wanting to vacation now, now that you've done it?

45:23Um, yeah, but you have to understand the hardships that are coming with it.. And you can't be that guy that grabs the fire extinguisher to, to put stuff out. It's, you have to empower your team and you have to be comfortable with whatever decision they're gonna make as being an acceptable decision. So I take it there is no district manager. You're kind of the district manager.

45:50Alaska, I have one guy that takes care of the two stores. Okay. And then Arizona, I have, um, a part-time manager taking care of that. Part-time, or are they like a service advisor slash assistant manager? Um, he owns his own store. Oh wow. Oh yeah, he wanted to learn his capacity. Yeah. And so he asked me— my store is on his way to work— um, he asked me if he could run my store.

46:22Wow, John. Yeah, I've not heard that one before. Yeah, hand me your store here, can I run your store? So you pay him a couple bucks just to run your store as well? He asked for the job. I, I didn't ask that much. I said, do you pay him a couple bucks to run your store as well? Yes, we came up with a pay plan that is commission-based so that he can— why do I end these podcasts with you with more questions than answers?

46:54Just a— we need a— somebody just had to hit rewind on the— Wait, did this just start? Oh, I still got tons of stories. Oh, I know you do. I still remember, I guess maybe 18 or 19, you drank too much and somebody got you to steal a bag of mulch from Lowe's and you walked all the way back to Shop Fix with a bag.

47:15I didn't steal it from Lowe's, it was on the side of the road. Oh, okay. Yeah, I, I totally forgot about the mulch. But no, it's so— Jeffrey Roy from Primary Care Auto Repair in Rhode Island He was just struggling with the idea of picking something up and running with it, with just trying something. And so I'm like, just, just do it.

47:35And he's like, that bag of mulch? And I'm like, because we're just walking down the sidewalk and there's a couple bags of mulch. I'm like, sure, a bag of mulch. So I just picked it up and I carried it back to Shotfix. Great physical metaphor. I totally forgot about that. You were famous. You were a legend around here for that. Did y'all know John carried a bag of mulch in the, obviously the story got embellished because then it was John stole it.

48:01He ran across the Lowe's parking lot. That's crazy. Oh wow. So, uh, giving somebody else advice on this, you know, obviously multi-location far apart's a big deal. How often are you going back to Alaska just to touch base, make sure things are legit? Um, so I attempt to go back to Alaska once a quarter. Okay. For about a week. Um, but I stay in communication with the manager and the employees almost on a daily basis.

48:31Now, do you have any type of golden handcuffs or paying him really well or anything like that to keep him secure? Because it is the other side of the world, basically. How do you sleep at night? How do you have that job set up for him? Um, I sleep great at night because worst case scenario, I'll just go fix the problem. Um, I had to do that.

48:50I had to go back to Alaska for 6 months when something broke. Okay. And I learned a ton during that. But so this manager up there, um, he has a base salary based off of how many stores he has, and then he's also given a net bonus. Um, this manager has been in the position for a year. He was getting a 10% net bonus.

49:12We had a conversation the beginning of this year, and I put him on a 12.5% net bonus of each store. All right, so he's doing okay. He's doing okay. Yeah, good paying job. That's great. So, uh, any last advice for anybody else out there learning that, just whether it's one store or two plus one? Have a vision of where you want to go, um, and don't be scared to just Try to start moving that direction.

49:46You may be headed north and you're walking northeast, but you're still headed north. At some point, your compass, your coaches, your guides, Shotfix will show you true north and you will get back on track. But as long as you just start moving and you start with something, you will end up where you want to be eventually. You know, the big thing I, it just kind of hit me as an epiphany is someone who wants to move from where they currently live but doesn't want to give up their businesses may not realize they can actually move really far away to somewhere they do want to live and keep their businesses.

50:23Like, yeah, a lot of people think, well, I can't move because of my company. You are proving it's possible. Cause it's not, we joke about how far it is, but let's be real. It is not convenient to get to Alaska from anywhere. And the fact that you are making it work, if some guy wants to move away from North Carolina or whatever, North Dakota, you're proving it can happen.

50:45I mean, you have a store that's an hour drive away from where you live. Yeah. Your manager calls you and says, "The store is on fire. What do I do?" Yeah. You can't be the guy to pick up the fire extinguisher. Yep. You're exactly right. And so, yes, I can be in Alaska this time tomorrow and I can go and solve problems, or I can pick somebody up— pick up the phone, sorry, get somebody excited, pump them up.

51:15They can go and solve the problem. And then when that problem happens again, they feel empowered to solve it without the need to call me when the problem's happening. They'll call me after the problem's been solved. To brag at what they have done. So as long as your people feel like you— they have your support, and that no matter the decision that they make, you will support them on it.

51:40May not be the right decision, but you can coach them on that later. Yep. And retrain them. Then I think it's 100% possible. The— I, I, I still— you talking about picking up a bag of mulch and just running like you're that North Star, like just start going, pick it up and just start running. You'll find that way. So that's pretty amazing.

52:01But you got some great stories. The fact that he went and he created his dream life. Yeah. And kept the shops. Nobody does that. I love it. Love it. Thank you. Awesome. Awesome. That's a great job. Yeah. That is amazing. There's so many people think they can't have a dream life and you're doing it. Good job. Thank you, sir. Thanks for being on the show, man.

52:21Thanks for being on the show. Appreciate you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's a wrap. All right.