EP 19: Can The Industry's Past Be It's Future? With Todd Hayes Of AutoShopAnswers

0:00Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Shop Soup. I'm Greg, and today I get to talk to a real good friend of mine, uh, someone who's really dynamic in our industry. It's Mr. Todd Hayes from Auto Shop Answers. And, uh, Todd and I go back on our roots within the industry, and that means that we were going to talk about the service station model on customer service and how we cut our teeth into the industry via that model and how much fun we had, what it— why it meant so much to us, and why that there might be so much of a misunderstanding on how it's trying to come around today.

0:37So Todd's doing his best to replicate that, uh, model back into the real world and today. And I'll tell you, it's interesting. So stay tuned, please listen, it's a long one, and we'll start the show Right here. Shop suit. Thanks. All right, well, we're here. Hey, welcome everybody. Uh, Greg here, of course, and I'm with the one and only Todd Hayes of Auto Shop Answers.

1:06Um, to— you know, it— this is funny because we go back a ways in certain kind of like avenues. I mean, here we are now, right? And, um, our lives were similar in certain things with, um, the way we came into the industry, uh, and I had to give Todd a call, as I do. We, we talk a lot, don't we? Yeah, yeah, you're a wonderful guy.

1:37I catch you on the beach walking, you catch me on the beach walking, we, you know, we, we'll call each other, hey, what's going on, um, So in some aspects, we're kind of like, you know, we're very, very similar in a sense, you know, but you, you are other than you're much older. I know. I do believe we celebrated your 65th birthday.

2:01You did. You did. Hey, you know, and that's, it's one of the things I'll always remember. I mean, you guys had set me up and, uh, all of a sudden we're in the middle of the, in a break or at the end of the class. And there you are with the birthday cake of the, uh, Birthday dinner. We had birthday, had a birthday reception for you.

2:23Happy birthday. And then we took you out to a fancy birthday dinner. It's your, it's your style, man. It's your style. It's hospitality times a million, you know. So you can't get away from that. And it's— yeah, you and your lovely wife. Well, we've had some, we've had a few nice dinners. Yeah, yeah, she all, she enjoyed it, guys. It was, it blew her away.

2:45Blew me away too. I mean, but it was fun sitting down. It was great sitting down with you Jerry, Patty, his wife, his name's Patty as well, you know. But, uh, yeah, we got our whole crew there, didn't we? Had the whole crew. You really did. Evening. Yeah, yeah, sure was. How, how is your health, man? How, how is everything going? Um, you know, I'm struggling a little bit, you know.

3:06I mean, hey, I'm in remission, cancer's in remission, but I'm on very, very heavy pills, medication, you know. I get a, um, a hormone therapy shot every 6 months. Um, people tell you You know, it's pretty brutal. Um, you know, I deal with nausea a lot. I'm on, um, you know, some what they call chemo pills. And so I'll show off— I have no hair.

3:30I look like I am a swimmer. So I was in Daytona recently and my mom goes, my God, son, I mean, you're, you're losing a lot of weight. You look really good. Yeah, legs look like really good. And I am paying attention to it. And I have this little scar right here from skin cancer. I don't know if you guys can see that or not, but it's up here by my watch.

3:53And it started glowing. I'm going, why is that thing glowing? And all of a sudden I went, oh my, where's all my hair at? See, I had hair that used to cover it. And I went, oh my God, I got no hair. Now looked at my legs and I went, I got no hair. And then went like this. Oh boy, it all went away.

4:15So then I'm talking to the doctor, you know, going, hey man, what's the deal, man? Am I gonna lose all my hair? All three of my hairs, right? You know, um, yeah, the pills that I'm on, you will lose all your hair, but I'm not— not on my head. It's not as bad. That's interesting. But, um, you know, I take a handful of pills every morning.

4:36Um, I have to eat Um, you know, I, I do wear out now in the afternoon, right? And so I'm up very early. As you know, I've dropped about 100— over 100 pounds. I know you have. You look great, man. You really do. Are you hitting on me, Greg Bugley? Maybe a little bit. No, I'm just kidding. I say it all the time right here in a minute, right?

4:59No, the, um, you know, but I did, you know, I went on this really, you know, my doctor's doctor's orders. And, you know, I'm a very disciplined guy, and so that goes back to my motocross days when I was younger. And when you learn how to win and be disciplined, well, you have to use that same, um, discipline in business. I'm very disciplined, right?

5:23In fact, I'm extremely disciplined. And so now I'm back on to the way I used to train when I was an athlete. Yeah, you know, I'm racing dirt bikes and then got into car racing. I do the same thing now. I'm on a very strict carnivore diet. Um, I walk a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. I'm at about 13,000 steps. I'm already at 10,000 this morning.

5:47I saw you. Yeah, I wake up at, um, you know, very early. I wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning, um, and then I have my coffee. I'm on the road by 4. I clip out about 8,000 steps in the morning, and then I walk to work. Now, by the time I brought back home, I'm well, well, well, well over 10,000 steps, right?

6:07So, um, and then no alcohol, zero alcohol. And you know, the thing about radiation, here's the positive stuff about radiation, you know. One is, I, yeah, I hope people know that we are a very faith-based business. And so I was able to, um, lay in that, in that bed getting radiation for, you know, 2 and a half months And by the way, I did not miss one day of work.

6:31I was very sick, um, but I got to spend that time with my Creator, the Lord, the I AM of I AMs, which was just so spectacular. And, um, and so I would get up, you know, after my radiation, I, uh, I would come to our Take Five. I made sure I did my radiation at 6 o'clock in the morning. And, um, and, you know, all of a sudden, you know, man, I'm 66 years old I have cancer in remission.

6:59All of a sudden, time, you know, you got to start looking at time a little different. And so, and then with the radiation though, I used to have martini time and one martini. But boy, I tell you, you know, you put a martini on, you know, it's like, oh man, it changed your taste buds. I'm like, well, that's good, I guess. So there's no martinis.

7:23There's no— I've had no alcohol. I've been strict carnivore. And when I say strict, Greg, you know, I have not missed a 10,000-step day. I have not violated my carnivore diet, my meds, my— what the doctor has me on in, um, in well over 8 months. I've dropped over 100 pounds. So I started out pretty, pretty heavy guy. That's— and, um, and I can see it.

7:49It doesn't be on video, I can certainly see it in my face. It took me a while to see the results. If I went from a 48 waist to a 38-inch waist, right? But that same discipline takes place in business, you know. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And so I can make up every excuse there is on how did I get to that weight.

8:09Yeah. And, um, I can tell you, you know, almost died a couple times. I can tell you all this stuff, um, in-home health care, blah blah blah, and, um, really it was making poor choices And that's really the same thing with success in business, making right choices or wrong choices, in my opinion. And then being very disciplined about the execution and no distractions, period.

8:34None. I don't allow distractions. Well, I think it's interesting because going back and how long I have known of you, and then I now know you, and like I said, we share some conversations. I've kind of looked back on your journey and, and your timelines, and it's like 1986, you're 26 years old, right? 26. You've got 3 franchises, right? You're rocking and rolling.

8:59Well, I actually, I actually launched my first company September of 1986. I was 26 years old. Um, you know, I'd written a business plan for 2 years. Um, my father-in-law, Dad Davis, I love him to death, and without him, I don't know where I'd be. Um, but he not only taught me generational wealth, he taught me how to scale businesses. He, um, taught me discipline, taught me so much, right?

9:24So I launched my first store in 1986, my second store in 1990, and then grew my first chain and sold it November of 1997. It's kind of the timeline of Mobile Car Care. Yeah. Well, what I find interesting is at 26— now that was the same year, my same age as my dad started his service station, you know, Atlantic Ridgefield. And that was after 5 or 6 years of being a tire wholesale manager for Firestone up in the Delco, PA area where we had moved because that's where my mom was from.

10:02And he kind of, you know, came around the same way, 26, 3 kids under 6 years and younger. How to hustle, how to get out there. And, you know, today— congratulations to your dad, you know, look what he did. He pushed it on. Yeah, as a legacy to his son. And now you have your son in the business. Yeah, I do. And, um, and, you know, you can grow a— my first business, um, you know, I certainly made a tremendous amount of money on that, but, um, you know, it was really begin with the end in mind, and it was a transaction.

10:38Right, versus building a legacy business. I think we're doing more of a legacy business now, although we are working on a pretty substantial private equity deal, but where we still run the business. Yeah, but, um, but you know, yeah, your dad grew up and, and you know, you and I talk about it all the time. Yeah, yeah, you know, gas stations. When, when, when I worked at, um, Interstate Shell, right, you know, people don't know that about me, you know.

11:03I, I started out working at a pumping gas at a gas station When I was, um, 15 years old, you could ride a motorcycle in Daytona Beach. And so I was part of DECA, Distributive Education. I was already being groomed in sales. And, um, and, you know, then it was a full-service gas station right off the freeway, um, I-95 and US-1. And man, that bell, you know, I— again, you and I've laughed about Hunter puts that bell on there, ding ding machine, and And all of us used to, at a certain age, run, run to the front door real quick.

11:39What was that? What was that? It was, well, I think that was, you know, you can go running out and you'd wash the windshield and we would check the tire pressure, check the tire tread and look up, make sure tires are good. Look at shocks, lift up the hood, actually check the oil. Yep. You know, check the air filter, PCV valves, make sure there's no leaks on these cars coming in, valve cover gaskets and such.

12:02And, um, you know, fill up the gas, top it off, and off they would go. I mean, and that is what we would do on every single car that came on that drive. That was it. And that was where— and I, and, and I want to say this clearly, that, uh, Todd and I are talking about our experiences growing up into the industry and through the industry and what we have been, um, privy to, you know, uh be part of.

12:30And it was, you know, we both can go back and say that the end of that era was, was horrible. I— when, when we went to self-serve, and I know you, you say that when self-service came around because oil companies— well, oil companies were truly into TBA, tires, batteries, accessories. I mean, when you had your storefront, it was tires up front, batteries as shelves and they were positioned right.

12:57And, you know, the retailing, the marketing, uh, you had a Shell station. We finished off with Shell. And I always go back to this, is that they demand it as part of the image that you had marigolds at the front ends or the end caps of the islands. We had two big tubs of King. They had to be King marigolds, not any marigold.

13:18They had to be King, a certain yellow, a certain thing. Curbs white. Uniforms. So the present— we were— the gas station I worked at also was Shell Interstate. Yeah, yeah. And, um, and, you know, yeah, you had to— man, you had to fill those oil, oil carts up and they had to be perfect, right? I painted, I painted those curbs. I worked there, you know, I did here.

13:43And, you know, we— and you know what happened to us? We were— that was like every 6 months we had to paint the curbs white because of just road traffic. But wouldn't you know it, one lousy ass neighbor complained to the county and said you have to have them sandstone or natural, no paint. Then we had to go and cut and shave all that off.

14:04And we were— I mean, I was livid because it just set the tone where you couldn't have done it. I was so hot. This, this, this customer, she wasn't even— who would ever think that? You know, we were learning, um, customer service. Who would ever think that? That And we were learning being open 7 days a week. That's right. That station never shut down.

14:27It was on the freeway. Service never stopped. We were selling tires 7 days a week. We were, you know, there was someone there 7 days a week. It was 24 hours. Let me tell you, man, they were pumping gas on the freeway. We were on the freeway, I-95 and US-1. The Speedway is one exit down. So let me tell you. You know, that place was busy during Speed Week, during Bike Week, all these things that go on.

14:54I mean, it was a busy, busy location. Wasn't it fun? Didn't you— how much did we learn on it? We did. I mean, it— I go back and, and, and those days, I, I will tell her, and I've told people, the day that we stopped being a service station is the day I started losing interest in the business because I had— I started listening to you know, well, the back of the house, the technical side.

15:20And, you know, and I was— I went through every section of the business, you know, from pump jockey when I was 8 and starting off with that level, and then, you know, managing, and then technician, and then, well, lube tech, then tech, then, you know, manager, and then owner. And so all phases I've been through. So I can talk clearly that my sore point was when I'm in the service bay and I'm working on a car and Mrs.

15:44Smith comes up and says, hey, Greg, can you check my tires? And I go, 'Well, can you make an appointment for that?' Yeah, and that right there was a lost client. That was someone who I had a relationship with, and then instantly I, I wiped it out because the air tower sitting there, it was free, of course, in the old style. And I didn't— I didn't— I chose not to help.

16:06I chose her to push her into an appointment instead of saying, 'Oh sure, no problem.' And yeah, I would have to have dropped the the, the tech, the tech side or the tune-up or whatever I was working on to help her out. But you know, those lessons, you, it hits you because I was used to going like you, hey, you need the air.

16:26How much did we sell at the island? And I mean, it's the same now. It's the same thing. Our stores up in Boston recently, and, um, I mean, I'm, I'm, you know, obviously I'm in the trenches with the wrenches I mean, this was in the last 2, 3 months, and a good customer comes in and drives up just like on the drive.

16:49It was at Charlie's Old Two-Bay Store. And, um, he goes, hey, I'm— I have a low tire here. And one of my guys walked out there, and I saw him walk out with an air chuck, and I'm like, that's not gonna happen, dude. Whoa, pump your brakes. And so I said, get that car on this rack right now. Because I'm gonna one, get the car up on the rack, because if I just put air in it and it's low, why didn't really check it to see why is it low?

17:17There's a reason why a tire is low. And so I get it up on the rack and guess what? The valve stem was bad on it. And so if I just would've put air in it, that car would've left and he would've had a flat somewhere else. And I— and see, anytime a car hits my drive, I still offer that because I would never do that for my mom.

17:41I'm not gonna do that customer. You know what I see is it comes in and you can hear an exhaust leak when it was coming in. Well, exhaust leak, that's a silent killer. That's a silent killer. That's carbon monoxide was going right in the cabin of his vehicle. He said, man, I've heard that, didn't know what it was. Man, he was right there.

18:00I'd get him underneath the car. You know that, that flat repair left for $1,700? Yeah. Oh yeah, because it was my professional obligation to look at that car anytime a car comes in the shop. And see, it just blows me away. Where did, where did our service standards go? Yeah, in my world they did not leave, you know. And you can bet, um, we let it go.

18:26I mean, as an industry, we've put ourselves in a position where relationships are more transactional than they are anything else. And I think— how sad is that? See, it's not to us. And see, yeah, it's not transactional to us. It's not. And see, we charge, uh, we charge a very fair price for the quality of service that we deliver, and it's by far not transactional.

18:50You don't have to— all you have to do is pick up the phone and call me. You don't even have to come in my stores anywhere. We'll pick free pickup delivery You know, we, we inspect your entire vehicle, we fix with total integrity, videos, pictures, MotoVisuals. You've been, you've been through the, to the concept, deliver the car back, double-click, boom, paid, thank you very much.

19:12And they never walk in the door. I'll deliver a loaner car to them, you know, whatever it takes to keep any type of car repair stress away from my customer. That's what it's about. That's what it's about. Hey, I don't know. I don't know. You know, I will put a stamp on it. It is. And, you know, just yesterday I had a client call me up down here.

19:42In fact, I just finished recording another show and she called me up. Very good customer. She said that has one of the few that have my actual phone number because she's been with me for over 30 years. She called me up and she goes, Greg, I have to tell you that your son-in-law, this Steve up in Wilmington, just took care of me in a way I, I'm blown away.

20:04And what he did was she needed, uh, she was, uh, not starting. So Steve preemptively, I guess, took a battery up because she said that's probably what it could be. He said the same thing, just to go up. He drove up to her house about, uh, maybe 7 miles away and looked at the car, put the battery in. Took the car back and got it fixed.

20:27And, and she was blown away by this. She told 3 customers in her apartment building about what happened. And because I had been emphasizing to the boys that, listen, we got to go back to where we were, how we started this business 60 years ago. 60 years we started with the idea that my dad said, you're going to support those that support you, and you're going to work with the community.

20:51And we would go out on road calls, flat tires. We had 2 road service trucks. And we built the business on service and relationships. And, and today, I don't care who you are, if you haven't experienced that— and I, and I, and a little bit of a soapbox here, but a lot of people that are in the back of the house don't really understand what that level of service took and the dedication that it took to get that business up and running and keep it going and keep it running for 60 years plus.

21:31You know what I mean? Years. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, one of the things I teach on at the very beginning is the customer pays for everything. Absolutely. The customer's paying for your microphone, this microphone. The customer pays for your vacation. Not, not Adam's Automotive. I happen to be sitting in Peter's office. Peter is an amazing technical trainer. Who pays for that?

21:54The customer. You know, who pays every salary? Who pays every lunch? Who pays every vacation? The customer. And yet, you know, I have an industry that's kind of frozen in time when, um, when the customer became secondary, not primary. That's— well, I'm, I'm opening for my convenience, not the customer's convenience. Well, the customer is still king in my world and always has been.

22:22And my father-in-law was very tough on me. And, you know, I didn't have— I did not have any option, you know, because, you know, my mom was a vice president of ISOD. A lot of people are aware of that now. And I mean, she ran a massive operation, open 7 days a week. She's a retailer. You know, my family, my in-laws were retailers to the point They figured out overnight copy service for litigation file management.

22:53I mean, it was an amazing— and, man, we have 24 hours in a day. You know, there's all kinds of 24-hour businesses now. You know, I used to have overnight car service, and if you dropped your car off at 5 o'clock, I could do service only and have it back ready for you. And that was pandering, really. Not pandering, but servicing national account business.

23:17And, and it was a great business. And again, we still do certain, you know, amazing stuff for our fleet businesses through our national account program with Goodyear. You know, people, I just now signed a deal with Goodyear where I guess I'll let people know now, you know, we're about to attack. We are going— all the Adam's stores will be Adam's Goodyears. Um, you know, Adams Automotive, world-class service.

23:44Goodyear, we have non-SIC numbers for them. You know, straight out of college, I went to work for Goodyear corporate, and I was an RSM. You know, this is not— you know, the thing that people forget is I started in the trenches in a gas station, and they don't think that I understand the business. I understand the business. I just don't know how to fix a car.

24:09I try, Greg. I tried to. You do not want Todd Hayes fixing your car. It's like, you know, scratching her head. Yeah, we're gonna put him in front of the house, you know. And so, well, you know, I, I follow the same thing. I, I consider myself a tech, but I'm not, I'm not the greatest. I, I— give me a carburetor, I can't stand carburetor.

24:30Anything else I'm good at. But this isn't gonna give me the minutia. But, you know, I go back in that, Greg, think about it. We're talking about carburetor, variable venturi carburetors, you know, those carburetors. I mean, all these car rebuild kits. And I'm thinking, wow, man, how did we make money back then? Yeah, we didn't have computers, you know. We— I mean, we're doing points, plugs, condensers, carburetor overhauls, yeah, setting points, you know, all this stuff.

25:01You know, I actually know what the hell I'm doing. I just can't do it. Right, man, think about how hard that was. You know, it's a hell of a lot easier today. I mean, we had to go— I remember my line, and Dad would, would tell me that, you know, he, he said, well, you don't go up and ask, can you fill a car up?

25:22You go up and ask if you can fill it up with premium, because you know you're going to make an extra 2 or 3 cents. What am I gonna do? Yeah, right. $5 worth. Oh, I always thought the door, uh, the, the squeezy dollar bill through the window when it was raining we didn't have a canopy. Um, you know, so all that stuff took place, and, and you really learned— you learned that, hey, look, I gotta check— I gotta be able to look under the hood.

25:44I looked under the hood. I look at the belts. I look at the windshield wipers. Uh, you know, pump the oil, check the— or pump the gas, check the oil. Or in some cases, it's, uh, fill the oil, check the gas, because there you had oil burners all over the place. So again, a magical time. And, and I always say, if, if I had— it still is.

26:04We are— our industry just parted from outrageous customer service. And you said it, you know, that we're— it's transactional. Yeah. And yeah, a lot of people out there, it's just transactional. Also, you know, we— you know, the, the thing about the oil companies back then, they were getting a lot of complaints. The, the, the stores were not being maintained to their image that they wanted.

26:34And this is the truth. You know, the bays were dirty, um, they had used tires laying around, and, and they really just got so frustrated with the complaints on the quality of work. And so they looked at those bays and they said, let's get rid of them and let's turn these things into convenience stores and pump gas and make money off of, um, off of, um, you know, so and all that.

27:03Let's go. Yeah. And so, so that is really how that happened. And then, um, you know, technicians, you know, and I tell you, you know, I, I love technicians. I love them. And I, I love master technicians who, um, who can transition into business owners. But let me tell you something, man. I didn't go to school to learn business. I didn't get mentored by an absolute genius in business.

27:37My father-in-law was amazing. And I also surrounded myself with amazing people, people that everybody knows that are major, major industry, not industry. I mean, these are guys like Stephen Covey and And, and guys like Tom Peters, how Tom Peters taught me how to speak in public. And you go, wow, these are players, man. I mean, this is just the world I was in back then because of my— because of, because of connections and family and stuff.

28:07And, um, I go back to 26 years old, and here you are setting yourself up. And today there are some 26, some 30-year-olds that are still living in their parents' house. Yeah. Oh boy. You know what I mean? I don't even get that, man. I don't, I do not get that by 26. 26. I mean, I'm not, I go back to my father-in-law.

28:29Let me tell you, you know, he was so tough. You had to be a millionaire before you can have a kid. People go, there was no way. I go, oh, heck, you tell me, you tell me. No, I'm telling you. Yeah. That was the biblical. It says build your business before your home. And, um, I guess I should really look that up.

28:47He always told me that. And so, um, that's a hell of a carrier, but, you know, Jesus, we launched in 1986. Um, you know, we were very successful. We netted about $5,000 and then we never had a loss because again, we were open, you know, Monday through Sunday. We had, you know, guys in red ties, you know, auto hospitality was born right then.

29:15And, um, man, you know, we, we were open till 9 o'clock at night doing callbacks. Thus the name Key, when the customer gives you the key and then you give them back the key and then you do your callback, satisfaction callbacks. That's where Key to Key to Callback started. That was in 1986. And people laughed, look at this guy, they're in ties and they're wearing gloves.

29:42You know, all the way down to why did we wear gloves? Well, this guy Rick Grenfeld, um, he worked for Cook International, which was a medical supply company, goes, "Tod, you need to really wear gloves. That way you don't have to wash your hands." And I went, "That's a great idea." And so I started buying these surgical gloves from Rick. You know, who would ever believe that?

30:04So because it saved me time, because we got so busy at this little 6-bay store because of advertising, saying yes on the phone. I had a RadioShack recorder recording the phone calls. I'm taking Polaroid pictures and I'm closing deals, a lot of deals. And man, you know, by the time I was— I'll never forget my first wife and I, we were 26, 27, about 28, 29 years old.

30:31We were millionaires. And, and we were sitting in this restaurant called Papa's. And Papa Seafood here in Houston. We were cracking up. Like, I mean, we, it was one of those deep belly laughs for like 20 minutes. Like, wow, we did it. Are you believing this? Like, are you believing this? Oh my God. So I mean, it was that innocence of, of wow, we did this.

30:58Yeah, we did it. And then, um, you know, it wasn't much longer before Christina You know, she was— I was 30 when Christina was born. And what— and, you know, the thing about my father-in-law was, you know, anybody can have a baby, but your babies are not average. And you need to know that they need generational wealth. It is our obligation to make absolutely sure we can provide for them in the best way possible.

31:30Amen. And see, people just don't understand. That is how it used to be. At least that was in my world. And, and, and I still hold that to those same standards. I mean, it's like, you know, I, you know, people think, ah, you know, you know, I hear people talk about I'm only about money. Well, no, I'm not about money. I'm about family beyond your wildest dream.

31:53But I want my family to have privilege I want my family to go to private schools. I want to tilt the odds in their favor. I want to make sure that they can go to Baylor University. I want to make sure that they have every single possible thing I can do for them through my hard work, through my work-life integration, to give them their every opportunity to have a spectacular life.

32:21That's— and, um, and God gives us all these talents. Yeah, God gives us these talents, and, and I don't use my talent 5 days a week. I use my talent 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. And then also, you know, we have a very injured, hurt industry. What if I told you you can have a ministry through this business? Do you know how many people Send me and call me and tell me, thank you, you changed my life.

32:54This business changed my life. I think of JJ Mott. You know, I met JJ out at ASTA and, um, oh man, just a man of God. And he comes into this program and, uh, um, that we were doing at ASTA and he goes, wow, man, you know, I don't know why I'm here. God just led me here. And we hugged and prayed.

33:15Cried. And people don't know, I do cry. I'll go pray, I cry. You've been around me long enough, you know, I'm a praying machine. I love the Lord. I work for God full-time. And, um, and, you know, I want to fast forward that last month. JJ calls me up and goes, Todd, I just can't— I can't believe what you've done for my family.

33:36And so he ended up last month, um, out of a single store doing $589,000. Started out at $130,000 to $135,000, um, and then quickly doubled and then just kept going. And JJ does not miss time, and now he's a partner in HBP, and, um, he made over $1 million net last year. And, and that's, that's life-changing. Now I want to tell you something else.

34:02You know, there's a lot of pain out there because a lot of people barely getting by because they're listening to industry narrative that, that really You know, boy, give us a chance, you know, yeah, I thought to fly in and find out what we're doing because we know one of our programs is, how can this be wrong? But let me finish this last thing.

34:21You know what he said? You know what? I want you to hear this. I was, he writes me a letter, Greg, and he goes, I was about to kill myself. See, now I want my industry out there to understand if you are If you're going to take on the responsibility to train people, you're going to take on the responsibility to teach people, you better lead them in the right direction.

34:48Now, this guy said, I, I, I had the gun in my hand, I was writing my family a note. Oh man. And God possessed me to go ahead and call you and see and set and come in. And I came into your program And you talk about changing lives. I want you— I want to tell you, you saved my life. And see, do you think our industry understood?

35:10Do they carry that responsibility like I do? And see, people don't understand that. I get these, these notes constantly. I mean, it changes lives, man. I think I agree 100%. I mean, when they— my experience coming down, when I'm gonna— when I'm down there with you You have such energy. And knowing what I know about how the industry was— and everybody can go, well, it's not the same way anymore.

35:40Well, it turned into the way it is today, and it went away from the way it should have been and remained. And when you're, when you're in the classes, there is high energy and there is excitement and there is an education because of what you grew up with. And of course, I relate to it incredibly well because it's how I grew up.

36:07And it always amazes me that the people that complain the most, you got to ask them, have you ever experienced a 5-star dinner or a 5-star hotel stay? I mean, are you limiting yourself in trying to learn what that experience is about? Taking it in. And then you're going to experience it one time, and then you're going to go back and you'll experience a one-star situation, and you'll go, well, I ain't going back there again because I, I— the experiences are totally different.

36:38So, uh, you know, even when you, when you say that, a five-star, um, hotel experience— but there's no five-star hotels open five days a week. No, it doesn't work that way. As a matter of fact, You know, I always talk about being a retailer and, you know, I, I don't mind, you know, I could care less how many days people are open as long as they're providing outrageous customer service, a clean facility.

37:06It doesn't matter. I have a lot of, you know, man, we, we, we train thousands of people and some of them go, man, Todd, I'm just not really prepared to do 7 days a week. Great. I said, man, you know, the key to get a constant key to get callbacks works great 5 days a week. You're going to be the best in your market.

37:26I mean, look like them, smell like them. Yeah. Um, and act like them. Well, you're them if you are clean. You know, I tell people, step back from your business. Does it look like the first day you opened it? You know, does it look like— I mean, really, when you drive, when you drive home today Look at every shop you pass by.

37:46What differentiates your shop? Mine are very different, man. And when that customer comes in and that phone rings and, you know, man, you are happy that phone call happens. You know, you are— is now a good time to bring your vehicle in? And that virtual shop tour goes out. My shops are spotless. So we're going to give you a physical shop tour.

38:09We're going to introduce you to the team. It's all about sales. I'm selling and I'm offering auto hospitality. I am touching that table, man. And you know, we set it up like a restaurant years ago. Front of the house, back of the house, table turns, bay turns, touch every table, touch every car. You know, hot food getting cold, cold food getting hot, speed of service.

38:33You know, man, that customer, you know, if that customer calls me up and says, You know, um, you know, my check engine light's on. And I go, oh great, yeah, can I set you up an appointment for, you know, 3 weeks from now? Or I'm booked for 2 weeks, or I might be able to get you in on Tuesday or Wednesday. He's gonna go, okay, thanks.

38:54You need to hang up. We just lost a lifetime customer versus, great, is now a good time to bring your vehicle in? And see, people always, um, you know, one of the industry things out there is that I don't— I've never charged for inspecting the vehicle. Why? I'm going to fix the car. See, the confidence is that I'm going to fix the car.

39:12Customer doesn't care what you— and the customer didn't say, well, you fix my car today. The customer— I want, I want you to hear this. The customer is saying, look, I have a problem. Can you fix my problem? Not only can you fix my car, can you fix my transportation problem? And if you can do that, I will pay you whatever it takes because I have a career.

39:31I have a job. I have to go to work.. And so I figured that out early on with convenient customer shuttles, and then that went into loaner cars. And so when a car comes into your shop, they are not expecting you to fix it right then. They're expecting, they're expecting you to tell them, you know, what is wrong with my car? All of a sudden this light came on.

39:53All of a sudden, you know, I hear, I hear a noise that wasn't there. Well, my God, they're scared to death. So that's where I wrote the Anytime Presentation. Well, is now a good time to bring your vehicle in at absolutely no charge? I'll have one of my technicians inspect your vehicle, exactly what it needs. Is now a good time? Well, yes it is.

40:13Well, great. Let me get her name and number. I'll close that in. Well, that car comes in my shop and I look at it right then and it needs brakes. I do a show sell live with them. And then guess what I do? I pull around a loaner car. I put them in a loaner car and they're gone. And so see, I took care of their problem.

40:33You alleviate a problem, right? Right. You eliminate— fix that car right then. But I'm not going to say no to a customer. And so how does that play out? Well, you know, you guys get on Google Earth. Here, here's a great exercise for everybody. You want to see what saying yes to your customer does and what our concept does, is you start looking at some of the stores that, um, that are participating in the program that I do, including mine, and see numbers don't lie.

40:57All you got to do is go Google Earth. Go Google Earth. And look at Adams Automotive, Google Earth, um, 6 years ago, and Adams Automotive today. Yeah, it's a million dollar a month operation. There's cars everywhere around here. And then you take all these other stores, um, Adams Automotive, um, of the Woodlands, you know, it's, its biggest revenue is $690,000. That's a just typical Goodyear store.

41:22I mean, yeah. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question in terms of, uh, of front of the house, back of the house, right? So you got your training and your, your front, your service counter, they're— they've got their— they've got the religion, right? Okay, so how do you, how do you teach, or what is your technique for putting or training the back of the house to understand the mantra of what you're, what you're doing in the front of the house?

41:50Like, you know, customer service, why is it important? How do you explain that to the technicians who have to understand that, look, we're all working in the same direction here, uh, you know, we've got customer service 100%, um, how do they get to that level of service? Peter Serendipitous. Okay, all right, there you go. Yeah, see, we have full training for our technicians both on our model and on our, on our complete concept.

42:20And see, the thing about it is, what, as a technician What do technicians like to do? They like to fix cars. That's what they want to do. And, um, and I'm an in-the-trenches guy, and so everything happens in my bays. So my technicians fix cars. Let me tell you, there's not a technician on the planet freaking Earth— this has destroyed technicians— is a DVI process.

42:49Do you understand that. It has destroyed them. They're sitting there going, I am now— I have to take— now, what you— I have to do these DVIs. This is good, this is good, this is good. And that distracts him from doing what? Fixing cars is what they do. And now you want them to be videographers. Okay. Oh my God, what else they want me to— they want me to— they want me to diagnose them, they want me to shoot videos.

43:15They want me to PMI them. All this, all this, all this. And then, and then the industry has a very low close ratio. And I said, well, that's crazy to do that. And so I train people just to do that, period. And my technicians love it. It's like, wow, I— everyone in my, every one of my stores is wired up with, with headsets.

43:40And so we will do an underhood, mid-rise, full-rise inspection on the vehicle. We'll diagnose it. You know, if it's heavy diagnostics, but these cars aren't too hard. I mean, life is pretty, pretty easy out there unless you get a cannibalized car, which I just don't work on. I choose not to work on those. And, um, and then I will wire— my guys are wired up as well.

44:01So, hey, um, Andy, could you come over and check out the speed rack real quick? I need you to confirm this. He's like a surgeon. He's like a surgeon running like an opera room. He walked in He looks at it. Yep. Signs off on it. And he's back working on a car. All the videos are taken by us from the house. The, the DVI is done by us from the house and is handled my way, period.

44:26I don't care about telling the customer that it's good on their car. They only want to know what's bad on it. And they want and they need to have it done a certain way. See, my industry, and this goes back to many, many years ago, on this whole kitchen sinking everything. Well, it doesn't work, guys. It just does not work. Do you understand that?

44:49So stop doing it. Talking about the customer comes in and they want you to check their brakes and you inspect their brakes and you show them what's wrong with their brakes. I don't care if it's with a freaking Polaroid camera. I don't care if you walk them out there and show it to them. You shoot a video, attach a MotoVisual, send it to them.

45:10They will buy. Now, if you say, yes, we checked your brakes and here's what you need on your brakes, but man, we found some other problems on your car, and then you write up a $4,000, $5,000 laundry list of stuff. I'm not going to— yeah. And you need to just say, look, I'm absolutely more than happy to inspect your brakes. Um, you know, your total investment— and when you give them that price, tell them your total investment on the brakes is $1,386.96.

45:40While your vehicle's in here, I'm going to go ahead and look it over to make sure the rest of your vehicle's in tip-top condition. I'll give you a call back in the next 30-45 minutes to update you on the progress of your brakes and also go over the preventative maintenance inspection. It's that simple, guys. I mean, That is— that has created an enormous fan base, maybe not of the industry but of customers.

46:07And they wrap— and again, look at every one of my stores. This is a great exercise for everyone. Just take a look at before Todd Hayes bought it and then after he buys it. And there are cars wrapped around. And see, that was another technician's dream that went down the tube. See, and that, that's always what bothers me, is like, wow, how can they not see it?

46:31You know, how can they not see it? You know, every single shop that I buy failed. They failed. And yet when I take it over and I clean it up and I paint it, it's wildly successful. My average store does over $6 million a year. I mean, and I provide a lot of for a lot of families. We employ about 250 people now.

46:57Um, I think Peter would agree we do a pretty good job. Hey, his son works for us also, you know, who is a rock star. Oh yeah. And, um, and we're just a great company to work for. And, and also our customers tell us we're a great company to do business with because, again, we do $6 million average per unit. And, um, Charlie Small store did over $5 million last year, 2 bays and 4 lifts.

47:25He's like a tremendous— no question, tremendous numbers. So getting into the business side of things, so hypothetically, if, if I had, uh, 10 stores, $20 million, all the numbers were right, how— where is HPB, which I say is Hayes, uh, Partnership. No, I have a lot of, I have a lot of brilliant people around me. You know, but if, if I was looking to exit, well, and even just take one store, you know, the thing about the industry is so pro-growth or growth, and I'm like, gosh, stop it, you know.

48:05Um, you can make— well, no, I'm asking if, if I wanted to hand things over to you, where, where do you feel that HBB, HBP is a better exit plan than, let's say, a Straightaway or Christian Brothers or anything like that? Where is the advantage? The thing about us is that I de-risk portfolios. Okay. I don't want you to sell your company.

48:29I want to de-risk your portfolio for you. So let's just take Greg Buckley. You're 66 years old. You have 2 units. Well, you still might want your kids to run the business. Oh yeah. So what I tell, what I tell my, um, when, you know, um, people who are interested in HBP is one, you have to commit to auto hospitality. That doesn't mean 7 days a week.

48:50It means, but you have to commit to, you know, recruiting great people. You have to commit to, you're going to be open 5 days a week. But, you know, my premier, um, Lynn out in, um, I don't know if he was in Tennessee. He's just a great guy. He is open 5 days a week, 2 units doing about $1.1 million, 5 days a week at both of his stores.

49:13He's a partner at HBP now. And so what happens is there has to be a way to de-risk your portfolio without giving up your legacy car repair place or car place. Again, I hate the term car repair because I'm an auto hospitality So you're 66 years old, Greg. All your money is tied up in your store. You understand that? So your job— and you have a fiduciary responsibility to your customer to give outrageous customer service and to make a lot of money because they'll pay you money to give them outrageous customer service.

49:51And then every dollar you make is worth, you know, anywhere in the industry. The industry narrative is anywhere from from 4x to 6x, maybe 8x. You know, I go deeper on that number if you're fully integrated with Auto Shop Answers. And then I do a de-risking of the portfolio of like a 75-25, even with our private equity partners. So, man, you still got a job, your kids still have a job.

50:19And, and then if you want to take on more stores, we'll buy the stores for you. And you get that growth strategy, you know. Now, here's the problem is private equity, they're sharks. Do not kid yourself. And see, I'm kind of the buffer zone. There's not a shark. I mean, I am a shark, but I'm good for my industry. By the way, if I could tell you countless stories of guys, you know what, where I want you to see something right here, you know, they'll shake, you know, $2, $3 million in front of a shop owner's face.

50:52That shop owner will jump on it, and yet he left $10 million, $12 million on the table. And also, um, you know, shops out there think that having multiple units is the way to go. No, man, you just give me one spectacular unit that's doing $6 million, printing a mil— printing $100,000 to the bottom line, which is $1.2 million a year, pushing that EBITDA number That store's worth some money.

51:20You know, you put it— you put just a 6x on that and it's worth a lot of money. Now here's what happens, um, when you look at most, uh, multi-store operators. They'll have 6 stores, 3 are good, 3 are bad. And so, you know, they still barely get by. Um, and a lot of these operators are operating at about $150K on average.

51:39That's pretty high even in our industry right now. There's not a lot of $200K average unit chains out there. There's just not— it's hard, man. It's those, you know, I run the— my G&A costs the same amount of money. And so I just found that once you start rolling into these bigger numbers, so much of that, that, that, that, um, that gross profit goes to your bottom line.

52:04We also have an industry that, that really, they have low self-esteem. I'm sorry, I just gotta say it, man. I love it. I love it with passion, with passion, but I charge for my services. I know how good we are. I care about my guys. I want to make sure my guys make big money. I have technicians making multiple six figures. All their benefits are paid, 401.

52:31I mean, it is a great life. And then also, you know, I'm open 7 days a week, which is their option. And see, the world doesn't stop Monday through Friday, and cars don't quit breaking Monday through Friday. And here's something that really— you gotta hear this. When you shut down on Friday, you're really kind of closing doors. You're saying no, usually at 2.

52:56And then, you know, people are cleaning up their tools, but they're not putting their tools in their toolbox or putting their tools in their car to go do side work because they're not making enough money. And see, that's an industry that's broken right there. See, and I tell people, wow, you got to figure out how to serve your customer and serve your technicians.

53:16See, what quality of life are you giving them? No, man, they're off on the weekends. No, they're not. I mean, they're working on their neighbor's cars or their brother's car to try to make ends meet, dude. I'm serious. It's really, really sad. And then all of a sudden, when you start experiencing what true success in my head is— and someone said, said to me, you know, not everybody wants to be a 1%er.

53:40Well, tell that to God. You know, I think he wanted us all to be very successful. I mean, he gives us all these talents, right? When you say money isn't what it is— money is important, and money is the thing. Yeah, man, I tell you, without it you can't do anything. You know, Perry Adams has a global missions. Global. I mean, he gives away a million dollars a year globally to missions.

54:09I mean, it's amazing what he does. You segued into something here. How did you and Perry meet up? I mean, how did that— Perry and I have known each other for, um, God, 40, almost 40 years since he was in business. You know, I scaled my first company here in Houston And it's so funny, Perry and Patty are watching me grow all these locations.

54:29How's he doing that? I'm watching Perry just bolt on these buildings and signs. I'm like, wow, look at that place. And then, you know, back then they had these AC Delco tech centers and where there was one in Houston. And so I met Perry at an AC Delco program how many years ago? And so my daughter was a Second Baptist girl and his kids all went to Second Baptist.

54:57He's faith. I'm faith-based. And so our paths just kept crossing. Well, you know, Perry obviously built this beautiful store, which was underperforming to any— to his standards. But yet in the industry, it was a unicorn store, which is, you know, I think his record month was about $300,000 and something, maybe $317,000 or something when I met him. I met him, but when I started putting this deal together on on, you know, really scaling a company and using this as our flagship store.

55:29And, um, you know, yeah, yeah, the typical, you know, Perry did not want to come to work. He hated coming here. Look at it. You've been to this store. It's gorgeous. Perry is such an amazing guy, and he, he built this beautiful facility, but it was mismanaged because, um, he had bought into the industry narrative. And so I walked into it, I go, hello, beautiful.

55:53He had called me to do some consulting work for him. And God had a whole nother plan for us. And, you know, I quickly scaled it up from, you know, to where we broke $500,000 in 2 or 3 months. And then from there, you know, we scaled it on up to $750,000. And then at $750,000, I knew I had to build the infrastructure to keep growing.

56:16And so one, we're hiring and replacing. Not many people made the team. Him, he had a lot of industry guys that couldn't see the vision that I was going to. And let me tell you something, Perry, it was a 5-day, um, we were open 5 days a week. And, um, and Perry was like, yeah, it doesn't work. And this is wild, this is probably the greatest story on, on really, um, weekends.

56:42They had a technician here and, um, I said, well, when Perry was open on Saturday Was he busy or did you make sure he wasn't busy? And he goes, well, we kind of made sure he wasn't busy, right in front of Perry, um, because they didn't want to be open. But you know what, he turned right around and says, well, I know you're going to open on weekends.

57:02And he goes, I'll make you a deal, I will work every weekend if I can be off on Monday and Tuesday. And I go, well, do tell me more. And he goes, yeah, I love to fish and hunt, and, and my— the lakes are all full around here on the weekends. And so if I can go hunting and fishing and do what I like to do Monday and Tuesday, man, I'd rather do that.

57:25I go, see, no one ever sits and asks the technicians what do they want, you know? And you go, oh man. And Perry goes, well, I'll be darned. And I'll tell you how the Sundays happen, you know, because I rolled the Saturdays And then, um, and then I'm ready to roll Sundays. And one of our best customers is at a Firestone down here in Memorial on a Sunday.

57:48And we were meeting for dinner, um, at Perry's right there in Memorial. And, um, Perry goes, you're not going to believe this, Mr. What's-his-name— I can't have his name out— his car is over that Firestone. Like, yeah, they're open on Saturday. And he goes, how quick? And I go, now we open. Like, I wasn't ready, man, because, you know, it's like, it's like, come on, guys, you know, I, I go to church all the time, you know, I can go to church on weekends, I got Wednesdays, you know, I go to Lakewood, I can go to SAGAN, I can get online church, I can go, I can get— I am so— I wake up every

58:27morning and get 10,000 steps in with Joel Osteen on my headphones, you know. I got plenty of nourishment. There's way, way, way too many ways to, to serve the Lord. And when you use your business as a ministry, and then people also talk about, you know, um, our, um, you know, you know, it's, you know, I like guys who can close deals.

58:49You know, they are guys who have to close deals. And do you know why that is? Is because I knew my industry out there. There's some, there's some undesirable people in the industry And so when a customer comes in here, I am going to show them one, why we're different. Two, I'm going to make absolutely sure they never have to experience that again.

59:08So I am going to get them to do business with me and then I'm going to follow up with next-day satisfaction callbacks. I'm going to pre-book all their oil changes, fluid exchanges, warranty. Man, I am going to take care of that customer. They never have to worry about their car. If you think about cars. It's a number one— it's one of the number one concerns of customers.

59:32Do you understand that? Of a family, it's car transportation needs. What if you were a service center offering world-class service and you took that worry away? I did that in 1986, and I'm still doing it right now, 40 years later. And they will pay you way more money for it. See, anyone out there is doing brake work, you understand? Anybody can do a brake job.

59:59But can you do a brake job with outrageous customer service? Take care of their car repair needs, give them no hassle car service. I mean, man, make sure they never have to worry about their car. Anything they need, I'm your go-to guy. I am your guy. Let me tell you something, man. We operate with that same passion. You've been to— I think you've been to a few of my stores.

1:00:21Sure, man, we're passionate about it. I mean, passionate about the customer. And if you can take that need off of their plate, how much will they pay you for it? They will pay you a handsome— a handsome amount of money. And see, and then you have the industry out there, they have these fights about the craziest stuff. Labor rate, are you kidding me?

1:00:43You know, Greg, they have been arguing the same crap for the last 40 years. Yeah, I, I agree. My labor rate is determined by how much money I have to make to offer outrageous customer service and still print a 20% net. And I have to have a call center in there, I have to have a training guy in there, Peter Serendidis. I have to have a recruiting company in there so I have ongoing recruiting all the time.

1:01:11So, you know, that's a $10,000 package right there. It's not on everyone else's P&L. But man, I got to have that to have the horsepower to absolutely do what I do. And then we have real estate. You got guys who do not understand the real estate business and they get their real estate stolen from them. Man, we are masterful at every single aspect of business.

1:01:35And since we're talking about business, you know, the accounting side, you know, I'm integrating NetSuite ERP. With AI right now. You know, I have a full AI division. Michael Floyd's an AI genius. He has his whole— he's full-time with me. All he does is develop AI. It's spectacular. It's a cheat code. I tell everybody, AI will not take your job, but I want you to hear this: someone who knows AI will.

1:02:06Period. That's simple. It's that simple. Now, now, my industry might not like hearing that, But it's a fact, you know, um, we have, um, inbound call center, outbound call centers, things that, that really and truly the industry is not even prepared. When they see it, they're like, oh my God, yes, yes, it's amazing. Hey, you're modifying, you're modifying what we have started our conversation with, the service station model.

1:02:33Yes, and, and I never stopped. You never stopped happening, Greg. Is I never throttle back. I always taught— my dad would walk in my store and he would go, so you're probably still not calling those customers and thanking them, are you? That's how he would say it. And I go, no, Dad, I am. And now I can take him to this massive call center and I go, Dad, how am I doing, man?

1:03:02I'm not only calling them I'm thanking them, I'm pre-booking them, man. They don't even have to think about their car. And also, my industry doesn't understand how important communication skills are. They are mission critical. Greg, you were at one of my programs where we just call competitors around your shops just to see how they did. How did they do? It's embarrassing. It's truly embarrassing.

1:03:29Now I want you to hear No, it's embarrassing. It is. I mean, I don't— admittedly, I know everything to do, but there are some things I just don't do because I'd be honest, I, I'm out of practice. And now that I'm, I'm getting back into like the mindset of wanting to do a business all over again, hey, you know, these stuff are coming out and you're— what you're telling me is things that I know that I don't do.

1:03:56Some I do great, some I do well, and some I just fail at completely. And I have to go back— in this conversation, I hope it's reaching others as well, because as much as I have been, you know, in the industry doing what I do, talking to you, watching you take what I loved and transforming it into a modern-day business model is thrilling because it is what I've been kind of waiting for.

1:04:27I just— I, I was trying to do it in a digital format back when you were doing the physical side of things. I'm looking at it like, okay, I hook up with one of your, your president, Mr. Todd Westerlund. He calls me up after, you know, so many times with Demand Force, and, you know, I had this business model of CRM And I look at CRM as customer remember me, not, not, you know, anything else.

1:04:53But, you know, we traveled that path and you're traveling the physical. And I always said to myself, I said, if someone can replicate the model that I grew up with and you grew up with, you're going to do great. And here you are. And then incorporate both of them, incorporate both of them together. This is what's— this is what's really so exciting for me.

1:05:13I look at— I look at technology as high technology, man. I am. I'm all in on it. Yeah, yes. But high technology yields me higher customer contact. See, there lies another issue with my industry. See, they're thinking high technology is going to eliminate customer contact. No, it's all about the customer, guys. Customer, right? I, uh, I, I asked somebody, and I asked my son because my son's actually developing some AI tools that we're using.

1:05:45And I'm trying to get my team to completely put a profile of that client into the note field of TechMetric. And a lot— now, TechMetric, we've looked, we've looked at the back end of TechMetric, and they don't allow the note field to be brought out into their APIs. And I said, the note field— I go to my account, I go, everything you can talk about that conversation with the client, I don't care if it's, you know, their pet had to go to the vet and, and the kids went to school, and I write, jot down these notes so that the time they come in, you have something to start the conversation with, something for a

1:06:20relationship builder. You go out to the car, do all these things, and we're, we're getting there. But I'm— I admittedly am mission critical. See, that's a cheat code. I want you to hear some. So when I talk to— when I talk to people about wearables, I have Rilla on my watch, I have, I have, um, AI on the back of my iPhone, I have pins that record record.

1:06:42I have signs all over my office that were— you are being recorded if you're here. And we record every single conversation, every phone conversation, every live conversation. That is then ran through an AI agent. And then that is— I don't know, you know, we— I know that we have the API keys for TechMetric. We do a lot of development with them. And so I know that that I have a customer profile that is detailed.

1:07:13And also I have a customer profile when that RO goes out to the customers, not, you know, CEO on check engine light on. Right. What is it, man? I have recorded that entire conversation. AI has, has, has transcribed it and then summarized it, and then it goes out to the customer, to my technician. Which is so efficient, right? Efficient. And then, you know, when I'm doing a shop tour, I do a shop tour and I have Rilla on my watch.

1:07:46So Rilla is recording everything that I say, everything they're saying. And how magic— there's magic there when the customer goes, oh, you know, man, I have been looking for someone to take care of my baby. You know, well, let me tell you something, right there is your key word. You know, when you're talking to that client, that, that customer, that guest, you want to make sure you let her know we're going to take care of your baby today and from now on.

1:08:16And it's sold. It's going to sell and it will keep selling. Do you understand? When you call that customer up and, and I pull it up in my call center for satisfaction callback, How's your baby running? Oh my God. See, that's how quick you can build a relationship. And AI allows you to get— we have another customer who sells honey on the side and it's great honey.

1:08:42And so when, when, when, when he calls in, it comes up, tells us all about him. I mean, the minute that phone rings, I know who's calling. And so here's Mr. Jones, let's call him. And Mr. Jones's profile comes up. Hi, Mr. Jones, how are you? Great. How can I serve you today? Whatever his problem is. Absolutely, Mr. Jones, would you like to bring your vehicle home?

1:09:04Would you like me to pick it up? And then, by the way, Mr. Jones, do you have any of your honey available? Because we sure would enjoy some for the shop. And man, you're done. You understand? Now, see, we do that right now. And I mean, it is fire. And see, people go, well, that doesn't matter. It's all that matters. Oh shit, that matters.

1:09:21All that matters. Can you imagine? We now have data that is unbelievable, from our Carfax reports to Zillow, where they live, demographics, homes. Man, I'm compiling every bit of that together where I have put together a customer profile in 7 seconds. 7 seconds. And see, now my industry thinks Oh, well, it's about fixing the car. Well, I fix a lot of cars.

1:09:52We're going to do close to $100 million a year in revenue. I fix a lot of cars. Let me tell you. And see, I just fix it very efficiently. And most people don't. You hit the nail on the head. You fix it efficiently because there have been examples of people bringing out raw, top of the line numbers, which isn't, which isn't what it's all about.

1:10:16You, you can, you can have a zillion dollars, but it's what— it's how efficient you are getting to those millions of dollars, right? Um, and then people put the comparison to McDonald's, Chick-fil-A. You, you've, you've done all that, you've heard all that, you know. And what they don't understand is that it's the efficiency of that model. I've also had Rich Carlisle in there.

1:10:39Our auto hospitality. I don't need to have 1,000 stores, you know. I have 15 stores pushing $100 million versus the industry has 100 stores pushing $100 million. Well, I'm gonna run my little 15 or 14. And so I hope you hear that. See, we are the Ritz-Carlton of this space. And I don't care if you have 2 bays, 4 lifts, you can operate like a, like a boutique Ritz-Carlton.

1:11:05Um, i.e., Charlie's Lacquers. Or you can have a 50-bay, i.e., Adam's Automotive, you know. But my average store is a very average store, and they were shops that we take over. We push auto hospitality with world-class service 7 days a week. And again, you know, the industry goes, wow, I can't believe you make your people work 7 days a week. Uh, they think that you just shake— you're like, I can't figure, you And then, you know, again, you know, I don't do many— I'm, I'm kind of stopping doing podcasts because of the medicine I'm on because I get angry.

1:11:41I'm privileged to have you on this show. It's just too hard to fix that level of ignorance. It really is. It's like, they don't work, they work 5-day work weeks, and there's a whole population of people out there who need to work on the weekend. You've got the mindset, people. I thought that you had the whip behind them and you're cracking them in the ass every It's the craziest thing in the world.

1:12:05And then, and then he takes cars in and he makes his technicians work for free. Well, the thing that I look at here, and this is really funny, Greg, in 1986, '87, you know, uh, one of my techs, you know, I mean, I, again, this is when we're developing the whole concept, and, you know, he goes, wow, you know, I gotta pressurize that cooling system, do a block test on it.

1:12:28And, um, I go, great, you know, um, you know, and he goes, well, I'm gonna need your combo. Get an hour diagnostic time on it. I go, okay. I said, well, how long is it going to take you to do it? That's all I need to know is how long is it going to take you to do it? And he goes, yeah, 10 minutes maybe.

1:12:45And I go, here's the deal then. How about I don't call the customer? How about I guarantee you that 1 hour and you tell me what it needs in 10 minutes and I'll just sell the job. And see, that's where it happened. That was magic sauce because I can move that needle so quick. You got shops out there right now who will sell an hour diagnostic, know what it is right away, and go, yeah, well, don't call them for an hour.

1:13:11Oh my God, are you out of your mind? Did you just hear that? Like, wow. And then, and then I want you to— I drove by this Firestone the other day and there was two cars on the bay, in the bay. In the bay for 3 days. 3 days, the same cars. I'm like, wow. So if I, if I have a $1,000 ticket average and I can, I can PMI a car in about 15 minutes— you've seen the speed rack, it's like a pit crew— and I go, I go, that bay is worth— they got here— that bay is worth $1,000 right now with this store.

1:13:51I'm running about $1,100 ticket average. That's another thing we can talk about is ticket average. The low ticket average is low integrity. And, um, and so I can do 15 cars an hour, 10-hour day, 4 cars an hour is $40,000. And people go, there's no way you can do that. Well, all my clients do it. Yes, there is a way to do it.

1:14:11Do it Todd's way. And so here, because they, you know, it's that simple. They were so trained. They are so trained in the industry narrative, you know. Well, I still think that I look around and, you know, you peruse the, the social streams and you see the shops. And, and just like the other day, I saw, uh, 3 people, 3 techs, I guess, and a service writer coming into the service, coming into the production area, and they're doing TikTok videos.

1:14:41And there's car— there's empty bays. I'm thinking, well, if you're not busy, well, you know, you got time to do a TikTok. Do you have time? You know what I mean? I, I, that's what I'm saying. I, I go We've kind of lost our way in a sense that I feel that, you know, we're not pulling together as, as one. Um, you know, and it's, it's pretty— it's sad in a sense because what I have learned growing up, and, and I'm not afraid to say, look, if, if I'm— if we're talking old-style crap and people aren't relating to it, um, that's not on us, that's on them because they haven't seen how the industry started,

1:15:25where it came from, where its roots were, and what I call the golden era of customer service was what we experienced growing up. You started at 15, I started— oh man, those guys with Texaco Star running. Yeah, in that commercial, you can trust your car with the man who wears a star. Right, right. And, and Shell, we had the Shell Answer Man, you know.

1:15:49Hey, answering, man, tell, you know, talking about your car. But people relate to that, and I, and I hope that, you know, during the time that we're talking, that people have come up and, and people have— can relate to it a little bit better. Um, you know, there's so many things that are out there that we can do as an industry, um, to, to number one, um, secure a great lifestyle right?

1:16:17Serve our community, fulfill what we want personally. I mean, check all the boxes off, whether you're an owner or a tech. I know I read a book. I don't know if you— what kind of books you read. There's a couple that really stand out to me. One's by Jack Mitchell, and really it's called Hug Your Customer. And Jack wrote this book way back.

1:16:38He had a clothing store, clothier, and he would fly over to Europe to deliver custom coats for clients who were— like, if there was an emergency meeting and an executive had to have a, a certain outfit, he would have all the measurements because he took a log. This is before computers. And he would fly that coat over personally, or that suit, or that shirt, and deliver it to the client.

1:17:06That's the extreme levels he went to.. And he only had 2 stores there in Greenwich Village. Is Greenwich Connecticut? I think, um, yeah, they were Connecticut. And, and I think he went to 3 and that was it, uh, before he, you know, retired or sold out. Uh, and the other one, which was really, really prominent, it's almost like reading War and Peace, but it's by, uh, Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

1:17:32It's called Thou Shall Prosper. And when you look at what they— what he wrote, he's saying that we all have our roles, right? If we want to be a tech, we're a tech. If you want to be an owner, you're an owner. You're not going to be both unless you really step— you step— but you step into each other's shoes. If the owner wants to be a tech, they go down and be a tech.

1:17:55But the respect has to be there from the owner respects the technician, the technician respects the owner. Why? Because you have to become one. The two must become one. Absolutely. And that's how a team grows. That's how a business survives. That's how you build a legacy. And I, I think that along the way, those things have been fractured to where now we have too much of a tail wagging the dog.

1:18:26Well, yeah, you have, you have techs against front of the house, front of the house against the back of That's, that's, I mean, that's, that's all over the industry. See, see, to be— the two have to become one. You can have— you can be the best technician with, with horrible sales advisors, and this is a fact, man, you're gonna get spoiled. You're, you're gonna get ruined and you're gonna leave that store because they can't sell the jobs.

1:18:53It's that simple. They're not trained. And then you can have untrained technicians. Someone asked me, well, what type of apprentice program do you have? And I said, I really don't. I said, I hire— I'm in the NFL, I just don't have one. You know, who is an incredible tech trainer. Um, but you know, I do have GSs. But to tell you, do I have an apprentice program?

1:19:17No, man. I hire the best money can buy, front of the house and back of the house. We're the NFL. And you have to hear that. And because, you know, when it comes to taking care of customers, you know, I have to have technicians that are bought in on outrageous customer service or go move down the road. I have to have front of the house understanding that, that if, if I hire great technicians and I hire great service advisors, I train them both on auto hospitality, not how to fix a car..

1:19:51But I have to train service advisors how to communicate my concept. Those two marry together, we are untouchable, and I've proven that. Yeah. Unfortunately, my industry just cannot get their arms around it. The other thing that the industry can't get, get their arms around is they get mad at me when I tell 'em, well, I don't, I don't fix cannibalized cars. That's not my job.

1:20:13I can't offer world-class service fixing cannibalized cars. You have to know, you have to choose. Are you Denny's or Ritz-Carlton? You just gotta choose which one you're gonna be. And see, I don't put used motors in, I don't do junkyard stuff. Now, if you need that and you come into my shop, I will recommend someone. I have people that I will send you to.

1:20:38It's just not my customer base. I, you know, and, and, you know, a car that's been cannibalized I mean, I got Peter Zerendina sitting next to me. I can probably pick, fix anything. I got time for him to fix those cars. I'm not about to go behind someone who has cannibalized a car. And normally it's a car that hasn't been well maintained just to throw their chest out and say, I fixed it.

1:21:04Well, good. I didn't make any money, but you fixed it. Way to go, bud. And so what I do is I have— I tell my customers, you know, You know, unfortunately, you know, this is just not the work that we do. So here's what I can do is I do have someone who can take care of this for you. And so I'm going to refer you to them.

1:21:24And I'm serious, just like I am a country club clientele. But also when you talk about, well, wow, Todd, not everybody's around country club clientele. Well, you know, you can farm out demographic that you want in any location that you need. And also you have to learn, you have to make money. And you know, and I will tell a customer, you know, without a doubt, man, when it— when it— when the car's not worth the investment, I'll tell them this car's not worth the investment.

1:21:57You know, you know, there's a lot of hacks out there. I mean, a lot. Greg, how many cars do you see and you go, I cannot believe that. They use like electrical— something you'd see an electrician using to, to, to, um, to wire up injectors. Like, wow. Oh my God, there's— there's no— and you see it and you go, wow, now I'm gonna go behind that job.

1:22:24Or, you know, or, or there's so much— you can just tell the car's been cannibalized. Not my— that's not my client. It's just not. And I'll tell them, man, this car's been cannibalized. I'm so sorry to give you that news, but it's just not— you know, man, you can get zero interest on cars. It's a great time to buy a car. I'd get rid of this car, I really would.

1:22:46I can't work on it because it's just not something I want to put my name on because I hate rechecks. I hate them. So why would I want to? Because it's not going to be my recheck. My guys are good. But my God, man, this car has been cannibalized. And so I mean, not doing it. Yeah, that all comes down to the efficiency of the model, right?

1:23:11I mean, you're not going to work on everything. And, and going back to all of the other successful type industries that are out there, the ones that are most efficient are the ones that win the game. You have your— there are guys out there that are strictly in the car, and they're great, they're magicians. I mean, I know a ton of them.

1:23:27And, and God bless them because, you know, I would refer things out to them as well. I mean, if I can't handle it, because I can't, I just, I won't. There's, it's just not my thing. I can send some of my referral business is bigger than most people do in a month out of regular stores. I can believe that. Because I just had to choose my customer.

1:23:51I mean, think about it. I'm looking at your brand. I love Bucky's. I didn't realize it, but you know, Texas brand there. Yeah. And think about it, they made a choice. They said, look, we're not going to have trucks coming through here, you know, it's not a truck stop. We're gonna have a ton of pumps. I'm gonna have a clean— what's their unique selling point?

1:24:14Cleanest bathrooms you'll ever— man, there's a Buc-ee's 20 miles, just hold it, you know. They tell you, the advertisers, hold it, hold it, because you're about to have a really clean bathroom. You go right, right through the front door, and man, to the right, to the left, is like a paradise of food and merchandise. Anything. They got the cleanest restroom, and it's impossible— now I want you to hear something— it's impossible to walk out of there.

1:24:43You do not go in there, use the bathroom, and leave. It just doesn't happen. I don't care if you walk out with a shirt A beef jerky, but you're buying something. And see, they made a decision. They made a decision and how that worked for them. Why I made that decision with Auto Hospitality in 1986, and it works. It's an amazing concept.

1:25:08And when you see it, you know, I talk about how can it be wrong to be nice on the phone? I mean, if any— every person listening to this phone call, call your competitors and ask how much are brakes, and let's just see how they do. And then mystery shop your store and see how you do. And then, you know, drive by these stores, walk in, get a cup of coffee, just talk to them and see how clean they are.

1:25:34See, you know, we talked about— you don't see batteries in my waiting room and wiper blades. Really? You think that's what's going to sell? Are you crazy, man? My waiting rooms look like hotels. And they do. I mean, you know, you got nothing in there but no TVs. You know, you just got— they're, they're amazing facilities. And, um, and I call them Perry-fied.

1:25:58They've been Perry-fied. You know, I mean, my Barker Cyber Store, um, boys, that door opens up, that portico chain, they're like, whoa. You know, that wall came down, we put glass— we put glass walls in. I call it the, the, um, the, um, live fish tank, you know. But there's people out there working, clean shop. And that's how transparent we are with our customer and why I need Auto Hospitality, you know, and why I get to choose that.

1:26:29I, just as a customer gets to choose to do business with me, I have to choose what customers do business with me. I hope you hear that. Yeah, I'm not for everybody, you know. If you're, you And when you're talking about a restaurant now and think about it, you have a high-end restaurant in your town, Greg. I mean, in any town in the USA, there's a high-end restaurant and they're all the same.

1:26:55You know, if you have, you know, most likely, but there's always these high-end boutique restaurants, even. That's who we are. And so if you go into your town and you go, you know, I'm not going to participate in this anymore, I'm going to offer auto hospitality. To the customer demographic in this town that I'm going to farm out. And I'm going to find these guys that want this type of service, whether it's— again, I don't care if we're open 5 days a week.

1:27:23Now, people who are open, we're talking about 4 days a week. Well, that's just— I, I just can't get on that page. There's some out there even talking they're open 3 days a week. That's like— that, that's just— that's not even a hobby. That's just someone so burned out from their childhood or something. I don't freaking know, but man, they're not in our business.

1:27:40They're not, they're not in business. I mean, can you imagine me talking to a Fortune 500 CEO? And, and who would work for that? Because there's no upside potential whatsoever. See, we can give our team a career path, a massive career path, you know, of, of multiple six-figure incomes. I mean, big money. And as we scale our next $100 million in revenue, it's even bigger.

1:28:06You know, it's amazing. And now, you know, we're taking on a whole different, um, direction through our private equity offering, which is spot— it's just, you know, God has been so good to us. But you ask about— let's just talk about the private equity one more time. And so a guy like Greg Buckley, 66 years old, well, I can de-risk his portfolio.

1:28:28You, you and your family get to keep running your But guess what? Greg Buckley's got millions of dollars in his account where he now can sleep at night. He now can set up trust. He now can set up all kinds of, of areas of money and management that allows him to set up his grandkids with his money and, and tax savings. And, and see, eventually you, you want to get your money out of your business somehow.

1:29:00Sure. I mean, and so, man, you know, you talk about a guy making a million dollars a year getting a 10x, well, you can get $10 million on that. Well, now all of a sudden you de-risk a portfolio. You take 7, um, 7, 7, uh, I'm gonna— you can do a deal for a 75, um, take 100%, 20, you're gonna roll 25% forward, and so you're gonna walk away about $7.5 million.

1:29:27You know, that's not too shabby. And you still get to run your business. You got 25% in the game and now you're using other people's money to help you grow that EBITDA. Man, private equity, the right private equities are great. And there are some good private equity companies out there. I think I'm the best because I have the best Fortune 500 infrastructure training program.

1:29:50Our training program is hands down the best in the industry. And that is what I was building, Fortune 500 infrastructure. You know, I have family members that are from Fortune 500. My family members who are— who have their own private equity firms. And, you know, so this is not guesswork for us. And also, I'm good for the industry because we are good.

1:30:13We are honest people. I had a friend who sold to a private equity company. It's a dirty private equity company. Because there's some dirty ones out there. And his, um, real estate alone, because he should have focused, you know, he, um, was worth $4.2 million. He sold his entire business for $3.5 million. Okay, now listen, $3.5 million, real estate loans worth $4.2 to $4.5 million, just a real estate, and if you would have just focused for a 12-month trailing, which he could have done easy because he was, he was making decent money.

1:30:54But you know, if you focus and you hit that, that $100,000 a month, which is very easy to do, well, now you're at $1.2 million, man. You, you've got a nice little asset sitting there. And he left that money on the table. And a lot of people, man, they're listening to industry narrative And I tell people, look, there are no rules other than total integrity.

1:31:17And that comes straight from my father-in-law. And people don't understand that. I just sit there and let the industry set the narrative. What if I told you I go in and I like my Woodland store, you know, well, I bought that for real estate only, you know, with that store now on my world because I'll get— I just turned down $19.5. You betta.

1:31:36We turned down a total package of $300 million. Um, a 70— but they wanted 7— I was gonna do, um, they wanted— they were going to pay me $275 million cash, $300 million earnout, you know, the other in or out, $75 million earnout. I don't do earnouts, you know, I don't do earnouts. Here's what I'll do, I will take $300 million, and these are real numbers, guys.

1:32:02I mean, these are, these are real numbers. We are a machine. And, uh, and people go, wow, you can make that kind of money? Yeah, heck yeah you can. And we'll end up growing it to a billion because I don't have a lot of competition at what I do. And so now you have to hear this. And so, um, and so we turn that down.

1:32:21But the same company that represented the company that, that offered us $300 million is now wanting to represent us to go through our Banker's Bake-Off. And so, you know, we have great strategic partners, you know, Adam Coffey, who has written Private Equity Playbook. Please, if you come— if you come to Tektronik, I would say he's from Tektronik, right? Yeah. Well, we'll see where I'm bringing him in for a show.

1:32:47Yeah, that's on us. So obviously I'm a primary sponsor for Tektronik. And then on Sunday I am offering— he will fly into town. He's out of Dallas. He sits on He is our strategic advisor. He's part of my team. And so I'm paying him and he's not free to fly in and put on my second program with him. And it's fire. I mean, you want to know about private equity, pick up his books.

1:33:18He's got 3 bestselling books. Read those books. That's Adam Coffey. Adam Coffey. Yeah. Private Equity Playbook, How to Exit Strategy. I can't remember them all. He's got 3 incredible books, and, um, and, and we've become great friends. Again, he is our, our strategic advisor, so he will be in town on the Sunday after Tektronix at the same hotel hosted by Auto Shop Answers.

1:33:45And, you know, there's so many— I could talk for days on the things that blow me away. Like, um, if we have a minute, you talk about, um just one. There's so much money right there that I just talked about, see, that the industry doesn't really understand because they don't want to get on a plane and come and learn real business. I'm talking real business, you know.

1:34:09I mean, these are real numbers and that, that's, that's real stuff, you know. And then you start talking about the recruiting shortage. Recruiting shortage. I mean, technician shortage. Yes, there is a technician shortage, Greg, but not for us and not for auto hospitality. For car repair ran by inferior shop owners, there is absolutely a technician shortage. Now I want you to hear this.

1:34:38If you step back from your shop and you have to ask yourself, would you work for me? You're going to have a technician shortage. Do you understand that? So You know, you know how many times those, those empty shops you were talking about that are shooting TikTok videos and you go, but I see why you're empty, dude. I mean, wow. You know, if you don't know how to run a business and your shop is filthy, filthy, I mean, who would want to work there?

1:35:04There, there are shops out there I go, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, how does an owner walk in and not go, I'm embarrassed? Buy this, you know. I mean, seriously, I don't want to work there. I wouldn't work there, you know, man. I, I work in the shop with my team, and so my stores are flawless, man. Those floors are clean.

1:35:29I mean, man, again, man, you can look at every one of my stores online again. But see, now when I'm comp— when you're competing against me with a technician, I'm going to win every time because I have a better offering than you do. If you have a dirty shop, you have no room for advancement. I mean, my— I mean, I offer so much.

1:35:53Well, that's, that's another key point that I, I try to bring a little bit of understanding to guys, and it is, it's kind of unnerving at first when you start to hear how the recruiting can be vicious and, you know, the tactics that can be made. But you're out hunting— and look, I shouldn't say hunting, it's not a bad word— you're out recruiting the best.

1:36:16And here's the analogy I make, right? But they're looking. I know, I know. But here's the thing: anybody that was able to be coached under, uh, Lou Saban or Paul Bryant at Alabama, or any top coach would say to you— well, let's put it this way, they will never say, I hated my time there, I can't stand winning 7 championships, right? And so they'll go, well, I want to go there.

1:36:48And now you have college teams with the NITs going from school to school because there's a better avenue to the pros. That's right. You know what I mean? To make the pros even, it's so small. And you know, they're scouting high schools. I know, I'm an Eagles fan. My little, um, nephew— my great nephew actually is now the quarterback for University of Chicago.

1:37:14There you go. You know, you know, he came straight out, straight out of, um, high school, man. You know, Hayden Hayes, you know, I mean, this great football name. Great quarterback, man. Those scouts were in that stand early on, man. And don't kid yourself, and then pro scouts, they know all about these kids. And see, what you have to do is you have to look at it like a pro football team.

1:37:37You do. There you go. We run it like a, a pro football team, guys. I gamified our business. It's very fun to work for me, um, but, you know, come with that is just playing. You know, if you're a guy who want— now, would you hear some— if you want to tolerate drinking after work, I can't work for me. If you want to go smoking joints or blunts or whatever that crap is, you can't, you can't work for me.

1:38:01I'm not, I'm not— you can't be around me, you know. But now, if you are a professional business athlete, both front of the house and back of the house, that's what I'm looking for. And I give them that, that same level of respect. So that means that You know, I do a take five at 15 minutes before we open every morning. And that goes over our business model.

1:38:23I'm staring at my business model right now. You know, show, sell, safety concerns, ISO. I mean, it's right. It's on every computer we have. And we train on that. You've seen my take fives, Greg. Yeah. And man, if you're late one time, great. You know, I'll give you one warning. Second time, you're fired. And people go, there's no way. And I go, yeah, there is a way, bud.

1:38:45Man, this is the NFL. I have zero time for you. If you, you know, I get— I'm 66 years old and I can get my ass up at 3:00 in the morning and do what I need to do to make sure I'm on time to work, buddy, you better. And then, you know, people talk about, you know, I commute so many miles, you know, I visit stores all the time.

1:39:04We have them all over the country. And, you know, someone will say, well, You know, he said it's an hour drive. God, man, what a lucky dog you are. You get to listen to Founders Podcast. You get to listen to all these great— be very careful to the podcast you listen to also out there, man. There's a lot of Pied Pipers out there.

1:39:24There's a lot of people in our industry that don't make money. They do not make money in their car repair business, so they train. And I tell people, my God, you know, we're transparent. You know, you need to vet these other trainers, but I run a very tight ship. One of the trainers said, I've never seen anyone so disciplined as your team.

1:39:44Yeah, because I'm disciplined, and you have to be disciplined because you, the customer, is counting on you. I don't want an owner that drinks, that, that glorifies drinking. I don't listen to podcasts where they glorify drinking just shenanigans. Like, what the frick, dude? Man, you're supposed to be pushing. You'll never hear that crap out of my mouth. You know, you'll hear out of my mouth how to serve the customer, how to make money, how to make generational wealth, how to be disciplined, how to take care of your team, how to— how to have— I have, I have team members' wives call me up going, thank you, you send a different man home today.

1:40:29Thank you, thank you. You know, well, that's, you know, you know, and again, there's a lot of people out there who, um, do not know me and, um, and they just don't like what I'm for. And that is, I am here to run a very solid operation. Um, man, I don't go to a lot of trade events. You know why? It's a big drinking boost.

1:40:52You know, I mean, seriously, It's like, it's like Hunter comes out with a new machine. Well, it's not new at this trade show, and then it's new at this trade show, and there's no— you know, it's just a drinking buddies club, and I just don't participate in that. Sorry, guys. It's like, man, you know, I wiped— I, I participated in a few over the last couple years, and, um, and I said, nope, I'm done.

1:41:17These people are just alcoholics flying around to to stay away from their business. I'm sorry, that's just what I saw. I don't want to expose my team to it. I don't want my people around them, and the narrative is absolutely wrong. And so, um, the only, um, program I'm participating in this year is Tektronik. It's right down the street. I knew Sunil very well.

1:41:41Um, Sunil is a very professional guy. And, um, for the rest of these shows, good luck with your drinking and drugging and whatever else you do. It's just not for me. You know, my mission is to run a professional— again, we are professional business athletes. We run a very professional business. And there's not a whole lot I'm going to get out of those events.

1:42:05I found that out. And I'm telling you, man, it's like it's all about the drinking. You know, I hosted a martini time with Todd at one of the programs. I felt so guilty about that. I was like, you know, I'm not going to pay that forward. I grew up with an alcoholic father. I don't want anything to do with alcohol, you know.

1:42:25And so it's like, what was I— what was I thinking? Yeah, I know that feeling. Yes. And you know what I did? I said, nope, that'll never happen again. And so this year we were planning out our calendar for trade shows, and I said, well, here's the ones we're gonna do. None. Yeah. And it's not because they can't afford Well, I'm going to pitch in real quick here, Todd, is that this is Auto Service Leaders and their event.

1:42:50They're going to be having one up in Dallas, correct? They are in Dallas. I'll be speaking on that at that event. Yeah. And Bryce Evans and the team. Well, Bryce could possibly call me. I'll have him. I'll have him give you a ring. Yeah. You know, I'm excited for Bryce because they're a great team. Quality organization, just a, just a really great group to be part of.

1:43:13And I want to give them a shout out for that real quick since we're talking about events, um, you know, and, and what takes place at these events. Go ahead. No, I don't have any sponsors. I don't. I— this is all out of my pocket. Oh, that's so good. Yeah, yeah, go ahead, because I do want to say something, um, when we're done.

1:43:32Go ahead. Yeah, but, um, yeah, Overall, you've got the best thing going. And I really brought this out today. I found this, if you can see it. And you ask yourself, how many colors do you see there? Oh yeah, 64. How many? 64. Okay, well, it says 64 crayons. There's actually like 100,000 colors. Oh yeah, you can mix them all up, right?

1:43:59And what are the 3 primaries? Red, green, blue. So when we think about what we need to do for business, this is my, this is my rationale. So it could be, it could be corny, but red, green, blue is our primaries. But if we look at it in business sense, it's people, processes, and profit. And that's our, that's our DNA, that's our common denominator.

1:44:19It's very simple, right? And I know, but there's, there's all kinds of ways of getting to those, that red, Green Blue. And what you've— what you've done, I, I am enthralled with it. I, I don't care if any of my colleagues— I'm, I'm a goofy or what, but it's because if you haven't lived it, you can't comment on it. You don't know what we experienced and how wonderful it was for our industry to have that as something to grow up in and to grow into.

1:44:58And we forget that it is customer service. It brings people back. And, and I don't want to say— you and I have been talking for almost, uh, an hour, 45 minutes, right? And it's been so enjoyable because we get— I have gotten to relive the, the wonderful times and experiences as you've been talking and what you're doing. Um, to me, there's always improvements everywhere.

1:45:28People are always going to have their opinions, but it, it really does piss me off that if you don't understand the business model and you have never— it never— come down. A lot of these people never met me. They never met me. They just hear the, the innuendo, the innuendo, there's the gossip to talk, the drama, and, and I go You can't do that because it's a successful situation.

1:45:55You may not like it, but like I said, tell me the guys that won 7 championships with Lou Saban and, and Bill Belichick and had to play with Tom Brady. Okay, give me the guys. I'm winning in NASCAR because winners win. Winners win. Like, look, Michael Jordan, right? Now, right now, all the controversy is, oh well, that court case, they, they put an extra 100 horsepower into his, uh, winners win.

1:46:26I grew up in Daytona. I know James. Yeah, you know, so we have to learn to, like I said, you know, I, I prefaced everything yesterday with it, accept what we see, um, understand it. And if you don't understand it, learn about it before you can put a comment. Live it before you can comment. And that's, that's what I really, I, I really want to see our industry do, is to go back, check yourselves, look at customer service, know that they are the reasons why you have a lifestyle.

1:46:59Yes. Yeah, it's why we exist. And, and it's about customers. So someone told me, well, the customer's not always right, and I go, yes he is. Yeah, they I mean, you might not want to agree with it, but in the end, you know, they, they are— we are— we're just trying to do business with someone. Yeah, we're customers ourselves. And, you know, when we go to experience another type of service or outlet or anything of that nature, um, you know, we want the top of the— we want the best of the best, don't we?

1:47:34I mean, ask yourself Do you know, would you, would you, would you eat in a dirty restaurant? I'll eat with Crocker. You walk into some of these stores and you're like, I'm not sending my wife in there. Yeah, I mean, it's like, are you kidding me? I mean, man, you just gotta hear that, man. There's a little— it's creepy out there. Oh boy, oh boy.

1:47:57Well, hey, I do want to shout out to, um, I'm heading to Nashville, um, on Sunday. On Monday for Aaron Stokes, who is just— every time I think about it, he's just so tragic. And so I don't, I don't want to go without saying how much I loved him. You know, Aaron was, um, someone I mentored for many years. And Bill Broussard— um, Aaron actually introduced Bill Broussard to me, right?

1:48:24Is it crazy? That was, that was a 2020 group, again, many years ago, back when I had A full set of Aaron Young. Aaron had one store, um, and he was part of our 20 group. And, um, you know, I, I look at guys that I've been so blessed to be able to mentor as my kids. And so I haven't stopped crying.

1:48:48I saw a video yesterday that just broke my heart. Oh, I know. I thought so. That plane off the mountain. Yeah. I was like, I, I was like, it just brought me to tears. You know, I love, I love Darren. You know, I Every time our paths crossed at some of these trade shows, we always were able to wedge out time together and spend an hour or so talking.

1:49:11And, and, um, people, you know, Aaron and I never competed. He was like one of my kids, you know. It's like Greg Sands was one of my kids, you know. I got to mentor these guys. Joe Adams is one of my kids, you know. Bill, Charlie— Charlie's one of my kids. Well, if Charlie— something happened to Charlie's Lakos, you know, that I've been able to mentor now for 15 years, you know, it would— it's devastating to me.

1:49:39So, um, Bill and I are going to be down in, um, in that, um, Franklin or Nashville, finally Nashville, on Monday. And I just lift his whole, whole family up in prayer. Yeah, I loved Aaron. He was very, a very, you know, whenever you're able to mentor a kid and then watch him go to where he went in the industry, you know, it's devastating to me.

1:50:06And people, I don't think a lot of people understand how, you know, I've been around a long time, you know, you've been around a long time, Greg, you know, how many covers have you had on Ration Rich? More cover number 5. How about Automotive Service Leaders? Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, zero. Did I mention to you? Zero. Yeah, but, um, but I, I, I do, I just, I just want to lift up Aaron and his family.

1:50:39I don't, I certainly don't want to end this on a sad note. It's actually a beautiful note because, um, Aaron was a devout Christian. He loved the Lord. It was a faith-based business. So I know where he's at. He's right there with the big guy in heaven. Same with his son. And man, just put a hedge of protection around those family members.

1:51:02Just such a tragedy. But anyway, enough about that. But we do love you, Aaron. Rest in peace, buddy. Yeah, go ahead. Thank you. Yeah, I just want to say thank you for spending some time with me. I call it beer time, Greg Buckley. Hey, guess what? Man, I love you. Greg and I, um, I, I, you know, whenever you meet, I've had so much fun.

1:51:25And, you know, I have to, I have to give, you know, talk about shoutouts. I want to say thank you to Pete, uh, for helping to produce. I love talking to him. Don't, don't do— and, and I really want to thank you, um, for I, uh, you talk about giving people, uh, chances. Um, I know he might not be there with you, but, uh, Todd— no, Todd, I'm talking about Todd Weston.

1:51:57Oh, he's a superstar. I have known Todd for quite some time. Uh, we, we kind of came in with the, the Manforce situation, but, um, over the decade— I can say decades with Todd Um, you know, the ups and downs, uh, the ins and outs that he's had. And, you know, I spoke with him when he was joining your team, uh, and he couldn't be more happier.

1:52:22And I see him now, vibrant, and he's full of life, and he's back to the old Todd. Because I clear— and he probably might say it to you, but I clearly remember that he brought me out to, um, to DemandForce out to San Francisco, and I was on the board, the advisory board with them and all that stuff. And that story is pretty crazy how I got to be involved with their CRM platform, right?

1:52:50Because I was developing, trying to develop out here on the East Coast. Anyway, that's not about me. But Todd, I left Todd and he dropped me off at the train station to go catch, go to the airport, the, the metro, whatever. And I just said, Todd, just be careful because there's a lot of people out there that will take advantage of you.

1:53:12And I said, just make sure that your personality, your will, you want to help, just be careful. And through his journeys, he's had the ups and downs. And now that he's with you, I see a completely different Todd Westrom. Yeah, we love Todd Westrom. He's great. He's great. The Two Todds. The Two Todds are together live down in Houston, Texas. The Two Todds.

1:53:35Answers monthly. I tell you, we have this new Courtside that Todd and the team put together. Oh my God, Greg, please come down to it. I am. I'm fired. No, it's beyond. I walked into the Courtside program at our Woodlands store. It was so good. I just said, hi guys, I'm not going to to disrupt. I was out of there. Yeah, Charlie Zalacos, who has become an industry rock star.

1:54:05I'm talking about an in-the-trenches guy that, that he is. He's so spectacular for our industry. If you have an opportunity to rub shoulders with him, rub shoulders with him. Yeah, Westerland has done such a spectacular job, and I call him Totty. Hey, Totty, what are you doing? You know, hot toddy, hot toddy. Hey, Totty, what are you doing? And, um, and I, I think, I think if anyone knows Todd Westerlund, he'll vouch for it.

1:54:36Yeah, yeah, we love every day we wake up and we love what we do. I love this industry with all my heart. Peter Sarandides has been around a long a long time, and he'll tell you my passion for the industry, my love for the industry. And, you know, I feel like I'm running out of time, you know, and, and I am. You know, when you, when you wake up and you're in cancer remission— I'll close it with this— um, in your 66, you know, I kind of told my team, you know, I'm in remission.

1:55:10I think really harsh drugs, um, it changes you. It does. Um, you know, and I think I have another 3 and a half years, you know, 70 years old. Um, I think I bring a tremendous amount to the industry. I love this industry more than probably most people would ever imagine. It has been so spectacular. And I tell people I would give anything if they could truly see through my eyes on what I want for the industry I want for them, because I do want them to have generational wealth.

1:55:49I want them to have a spectacular life, because this industry can deliver it in a, in the most amazing way. And, um, I've proven it time and time again. I've proven it with many, many, many, many people out there. And, um, so Phil, you know, again, reach out to Todd Westland, Auto topanswers.com. Call him up, sign up for a program. I'd love to have you guys out here.

1:56:14Yeah, well, I get to see you soon. Hey, guess what? I'm good for a meal. Yeah, I eat good. I'm gonna come back, pick you up on that one more time, baby. Yeah, well, I'll see you in April at Tectonic. Uh, I'll be down there, right? And make sure you stay over on that I can't. I gotta, uh, I have an event here.

1:56:41In fact, I have to fly back, uh, I have to arrive at 11 o'clock here back in Philly, and then I have a nonprofit, uh, the one I support down here in Delaware, we're having a kids conference, a kids concert that I, I support. I gotta be there, you know, so I can't stay, um, which kind of sucks, but you know, it is one of those things that I understand.

1:57:03Non- Profits, man. But, um, Adam Coffey, he is a rock star. No, our first program was completely sold out. I mean, and it was just amazing. I mean, it was like just amazing. And, um, you know, just to learn, you know, again, not everybody can teach private equity. I really want to learn that level of business, man. It's a— well, you have an inside track.

1:57:28Hi Greg, Todd Hey, you know a guy who knows a guy. I know a lot of guys that knows a guy. So I know, I know, I know. Privileged in that way. I feel, you know, it's just the way it is. But yeah, I tell you, it's so fun. It's been so fun. I, you know, I fell in love with you as our relationship has grown.

1:57:49And, um, you are one of the— you're just— sometimes I go, hey, Greg, man, can you maybe make some phone calls and chill out a little bit. Like, it's like, wow, man, I'm just open on the weekends. They kind of got it wrong. Yeah, Todd, I know. I'm sorry. I hear you. I hear you, bud. All right, buddy. All right, bro. I love you.

1:58:12Okay, thank you. Hey, well, praying on your face. Okay, you see it? Yeah, well, we're getting better. I, you know, I, uh, it's gotta, it's gotta come around. I gotta heal a little bit, you know, and I got about another week or so of treatment, and then it goes into scabbing and then healing and then moisturizing. And, you know, caricature, didn't you say that?

1:58:35Yeah, Freddy Krueger or something, you know, Freddy Krueger. Yeah, it's whatever. Hey, what are you gonna do? Y'all laugh. Well, anyway, Greg Buckley, thank you so much. Thank you. I love you. Todd Hayes of Auto Shop Answers and the crew down there. Check them out, go there, show notes. So have some links. But, uh, honestly, guys, uh, I've, I've said it before, I put it myself on tape, it's a place you need to go.

1:59:01You have to, you have to see it, you have to experience. And again, what Todd and I tried to show and talk about today was our experiences growing up in the industry. We are way older than a lot of you, and we're a lot of experience. We're young at heart, you know, and we like, and we like to succeed. We'd like to— we, we just love the experience of what we had when we were growing up.

1:59:27And again, it is where we came from, how we do our business, and why it's important to always think that the customer is first. Relationships count. Customer service is key because without good customer service you won't have anything to rely on. You won't have your legacy. You won't have your success. You won't have your profits. So remember that. I'm going to say, just end it with this.

1:59:52You know, when you have two people, and we're way older than most. Well, you know what? We are, right? We're both 66. And we're talking about customer service that we love. And it was an effort. I mean, I'm looking down going, it's been 2 hours. What? Oh my God. See, this is two buddies in the industry that love this industry. We love it.

2:00:15I love it. And we love customer service. And this was the most effortless 2 hours. Not someone trying to pick at this or pick at that. It's like, because we're in alignment, it's about the customer. So Greg Buckley, thank you. Thank you for growing up in my generation. There you go. There you go. In my generation. Oh my God, so much, bro.

2:00:37All right, Todd, buddy, see you. People try to put us to death, talking about my generation, just because we get around, talking about my generation. They say, dude, awful, talking about my generation. Hope I die before I get old.