Ep 145: Lead By Letting Go? | Connor Tracy

0:00So I reached out to some people smarter than me and I was like, dude, I don't get it. Every time I leave, these clowns fall apart. And they're like, no, dude, you're the clown. The problem was, is I was so hyperfocused, so micromanaging, so hand in everything. Ultimately, what was happening is I wasn't empowering my folks to actually have ownership in the business.

0:20Everything was mine. Yeah. So because that, they were just checked out. They had quiet quit. They were just kind of, hey, man, He's gonna deal with it. I don't gotta worry about it. And then you're just an autotaker and that's not engaging. Nobody wants to be just a number that can be plugged and played. You're listening to the Limitless Leadership Podcast, the podcast designed to help automotive repair shops learn how to lead, coach, train, and manage their team better by sharing proven techniques and thought-provoking interviews from industry leaders.

0:52Are you ready to transform your leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results? Let's get ready for liftoff. It's time to go from great to greater. Here's today's episode. All right everyone, welcome back. Another episode, another one from the 2025 Apex Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. I got a friend of mine on the show today. Our guest is the, uh, I'm gonna say he, he, he identified himself as the product evangelist for Kukui, which I love that title.

1:28He is also the director of, help me out, Connor. Partner development. Partner development. Geez. You know, I mean, we're 30 seconds into the show and already I'm flubbing here, but, uh, our guest today is my friend Connor Tracy. Connor, thanks for being here, man. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you having me. So Connor's with Kukui. Uh, Connor, if you would, man, share with the audience who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

1:47All right folks, as you know, great leadership isn't about doing everything the best. It's actually about having the right partners in your corner to build your shop success. It's about putting the right team in place. It's about choosing the right vendors to make you a pro, making pro moves. And when I think about the pros, I think about Shop Marketing Pros. The know, like, and trust factor, that's a real thing.

2:09And Shop Marketing Pros understands that. That's why I wanna recommend Shop Marketing Pros to become your marketing partner in your shop. They get to know, like, and trust you and your business to then help your audience get to know, like, and trust you too and bring your shop to the next level. So when I talk about making pro moves, this is the kind of move I'm talking about.

2:30This is the kind of standard-setting partnership that's gonna elevate your shop. So if you're ready to become a pro in your shop, visit shopmarketingpros.com and partner with the best. Yeah, absolutely. So I carry a couple different roles with the company. I'm our product evangelist, so my role is to help get us a little more visible, kind of find unique ways to help us be more public-facing and share what our mission is here at Kukui.

2:55And then I also am our director of partner development with a couple other members of our team. That role, we manage our partnerships like our really brilliant partners at NAPA Autocare, Bridgestone, and other partnerships throughout the organ— throughout the industry. Excellent. And so I'm going to ask you to share what kukui is for those who are listening who don't know. And if you are listening and you want to watch, because, because Connor is wearing— you might not be able to see his bright green pants.

3:20Go hike a leg up, Connor. He's got some bright green pants on. And, and, and the thing about Connor, man, I, I love how every time I see you, Connor, you're wearing these, uh, they're kukui beads, right? Kukui beads. Yeah. So these kukui beads around his neck. And man, it's just a— you got, you got, you got to like, you develop this uniform, this kakui uniform.

3:41Yeah. But before we learn about kakui though, let's learn more about you. So what got you into the industry and what got you into kakui? So I've been around this kind of my whole life. I started working for my godfather at 12 years old fixing air-cooled Volkswagens in a backyard shop. So I've been around this my whole life, even earlier than that, helping my dad Porsche motor swap our Volkswagen Bug at 5 years old.

4:04So it's kind of been what I've been around my whole life. Went away to college, came back from college, and I had two choices: either go work at a shop or work for my mom at Macy's. And that wasn't gonna— wasn't gonna work. No one wants to work for their mom. So started out then as a tech, quickly moved into management, leadership.

4:25And so I ran shops of all different shapes and sizes for almost 20 years. Teams small and large. Did that for a long time. And then I took a left turn a few years ago. One of my former master techs and I, we opened an indoor go-kart track. Oh, wow. Okay. Just— it was something we always wanted to do. I've got a motorsports background, so we kind of monetized some hooning and fun stuff.

4:49It actually all started from him dragging me behind his truck on a Barbie Jeep. Longer story we'll go into there, but there's pictures to prove it. Okay. But then we opened a bar on that go-kart track and I was like, man, I don't really wanna work bar hours. This isn't gonna work for me. So then I just started putting my feelers out and Kikuyu reached out and, you know, they wanted to have some recent kind of shop operating perspective to the company.

5:14So I'm really blessed because I get to have a hand in, you know, where we kind of move and guide our products and, you know, support and features. And I get to go to places and things like this to, you know, meet face to face with shop owners, understand what they need, and also impart, you know, some things about, you know, how and where we should be doing things within the industry.

5:36So I'm really blessed because the company gives me a great platform to do some really cool stuff for this industry. Well, I want to highlight and honor you for a second, Connor. Not only are they giving you the platform, you are certainly most deserving of that platform. I really admire and respect how you represent Kukui at all the conventions that you and I get to, get to see each other at.

5:58Uh, dude, you always got a warm, welcoming smile. I mean, you're always approachable. You're always saying hi to folks. You're, you're a great networker. And, um, I think you do a great job of the role that you're in. But speaking of the roles that you're in, something I wasn't planning on actually getting into in, in, in this interview, but, but as we're talking, I'm, I'm, I'm reminded of I heard you on, I wanna say it was on, I think you shared this story on the Changing the Industry podcast with Lucas and David.

6:25And, um, you know, this is a leadership podcast and leadership extends beyond the workplace. Leadership also extends in the family space. Absolutely. If you don't mind sharing, I think you know where I'm going with this. There's a story about a graduation for your daughter. Yeah. And, um, if you don't mind sharing really the wake up call about my son, my, my wake up call.

6:43Yeah. Yeah. It was for my son. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, growth is a lot easier when you're not trying to figure out alone. Tectonic 2026 presented by Techmetric is built for shop owners and their teams who want to lead better, coach better, and build a shop that runs strong without burning everyone out. You'll get a peek into real-world leadership and operations from shops that are actually doing it with role-based sessions for owners, advisors, and techs.

7:07So your whole team can level up together. Tectonic is happening April 9th through the 11th in Houston, Texas. Tickets are on sale now, and Limitless Leadership Podcast listeners can get $500 off standard pricing with code LIMITLESS500. Go to tekmetric.com/tectonic. That's T-E-K-T-O-N-I-C. Or use the link in the show notes. Uh, uh, our oldest son, my stepson Devin, he, uh, he just turned 24.

7:33He's getting married because now I'm feeling old. But, uh, yeah, so, um, the long and short of the story is, is that, you know, I grew up, you know, started out running shops in the early 2000s, and that was really still at the tail end of kind of that old school, my way or the highway. Yeah. Toolbox has wheels on it. Kind of same bullshit that everybody kind of grew up in, in these shops, right?

7:57So I grew up in that mindset that I had to be the master of everything. And I think that came from being a tech, right? You had to know all to be able to fix all, right? Which, by the way, folks, is a limiting belief. I'm just going to throw that out there. 100%. Okay. Right. So I grew up in that mindset.

8:14So I had to be the master of every process. I had to be involved in everything. I had to know everything. You know, I came up working for Bridgestone and in their shops and, you know, I had, you know, 900 layers of leadership above me. And my thought process was one completely like, no idea why I'm here in this leadership role. So I better have answers for everything.

8:35Otherwise people are going to think I'm a fraud, right? Yeah. Yeah. So but what that evolved into is that I just really grew into this person who was kind of hyper and micromanaging all processes, all everything. The problem there lied is I built and we grew a really fantastic business, opened it from brand new, over $4 million a year business, but I had a really big problem.

8:59I was working 80-hour weeks. I've got a whole herd of kids that live at my house and they're a great group of kids and I'm really, really proud of them. Anybody that follows me on social will know that like, You're going to know what the Tracy kids are up to these days. But I love that about you, by the way. I think I admire that.

9:14It's, you know, that's what we do this for, right? Yeah, that's right. And this was part of that process. So I was working all these hours and, you know, and then I started to like need some time away. And at one point I had worked, you know, like 2 and a half months straight. My wife came to me and said, hey, listen, you know, your son's junior year, it's homecoming pictures.

9:35You have to be there. I'm like, all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she's like, no more excuses. You gotta be there. Yeah. So the problem that I had was anytime I went away from the shop, the wheels fell off, like literally and figuratively. Yeah. Crap would go sideways. The other problem I had is I was hiring brilliant people, brilliant service writers, brilliant techs, and I couldn't keep them.

9:58And I didn't know what it was. I'm like, man, I'm just hiring all these wrong folks. It was everybody else and there was no reflective on me at that point. Yeah. So as we're driving up to my, my son, his girlfriend at the time, to their house to do pictures, the phone starts ringing and I just feel the warm gaze of my wife staring at the side of my head like, do not answer that phone.

10:19Yeah, but it rings like 3 or 4 times. So I know something kind of bad happened and literally the, the, the house was on fire like Wasn't just that we caught the F-150 on fire. It's like rather than pulling it, you just putting it out, we pulled it out of a bay and backed it into a Buick. Oh, jeez. So there is literally— there's a picture of— we call it the Back to the Future picture of wife, son, girlfriend.

10:44And then they left the blank spot where dad is supposed to be standing just to be like— so my wife, she's, she's so patient, so amazing, so kind and so brilliant. We've been together 20 years at this point. She kind of plopped that picture in front of me and she was like, hey, this is— this isn't acceptable anymore. He's got one more of these next year as a senior.

11:03And, you know, our little kids are getting into bigger kids because he was our oldest. She's like, we can't— we need you. So I reached out to some people smarter than me and I was like, dude, I don't get it. Every time I leave, these clowns fall apart and they're like, no, dude, you're the clown. The problem was, is I was so hyperfocused, so micromanaging, so hand in everything.

11:25Ultimately, what was happening is I wasn't empowering my folks to actually have ownership in the business. Everything was mine. Yeah. So because that, they were just checked out. They had quiet quit. They were just kind of, hey man, he's going to deal with it. I don't got to worry about it. And then you're just an order taker and that's not engaging. Nobody wants to be just a number that can be plugged and played.

11:47Right. So had to rethink that. And the brilliance is, is, you know, through couple of really easy steps. I have a whole class that I do on this kind of delegation to create engagement thing. Man, I didn't have to be there and it didn't take that long. So, if anyone out there is feeling that same thing and we grow up, it's that technician mindset, right?

12:09Like, I'm not okay saying, "I don't know why car's not broken," right? We don't like that. Vulnerability is a hard thing. Yeah, yeah. And that's through maturity and through getting older and just realizing, "Man, I'm too tired to give a shit." So, um, you know, it's— but that evolution then led to me retaining people at a deeper level. And it started with things just like huddles and all that.

12:31But at the end of the day, like, we started doing that, the, the homies at the shop were like, bro, get out. Yeah, go fish. Like, you don't need to be here. So that evolution changed. And it— I, I hate to say we have to have those like rock bottom moments, but everybody has to go through those. The big thing that I would encourage everybody to do is just make sure you're looking around yourself.

12:50Enough to understand that maybe it's happening. It's much of what I've figured out in this world is it's— if it feels like it's too hard, you're probably not doing it right. Connor, let me ask you this. I want to jump in real quick because there is somebody listening right now who is experiencing all of the things that you just shared. Oh, yeah.

13:10They feel like they are the end-all be-all. Every decision has to run through them. They have to know all the answers. Um, everything is a priority, but if everything's a priority, nothing's a priority. Yeah. Everything's on fire. So it feels like I'm a part-time firefighter. I'm wearing multiple hats. I don't know how to delegate. I'm constantly micromanaging and I don't know how to get outta this cycle.

13:31Sure. Practically, what are some things that someone can do to actually step back and be able to see what's really happening right before their eyes? The biggest thing is, is, is one, again, if it feels like it's too hard, it might be. Okay, if you're sitting in your car holding on to that steering wheel and you're not ready to pop out that door and walk in that door, something's not right.

13:51If you don't feel in love and passion with what you're doing every single day, if a small thing blows into a big thing in your mind, something's not right. Stop, pause. If we dealt with fixing a vehicle in that same way, you would do it. If you had a technician that every time a bolt got seized freaked out and is throwing wrenches across the shop, that's that person that's cancer in your shop.

14:17Yeah. Well, okay, how are we any different? We're not. I love that. I, I love the analogy too about how like a tech wouldn't work that way. So why are we operating that way? Why are we leading that way? Exactly. Let me ask you, because I— it's funny, you mentioned how you're like, I don't really want to say it, but sometimes we do have to hit rock bottom before we, you know, realize what, what, what we're missing out on.

14:37Yeah. But as you were sharing that, I thought the exact same thing. I'm like, man, how much of a blessing was this actually that you had to go through this? I mean, it's easy for me to say. I mean, it's the unfortunate reality is that you're not the only one who's going through it because as you shared, your family's going through it as well.

14:55And we can all relate to this to some level of degree. But how much of a blessing was it for you to actually go through this? Now you've been able to grow through this. Yeah. Grow in spite of it. Yeah. And now you're actually using your experience to teach people how to empower and how to delegate and how to gain trust and how to, you said the key word, how to create engagement.

15:19What we know is that connection creates engagement and engagement is what increases performance. This is important because 77% of employees are disengaged at work. So let me ask you, how do you create engagement in a place where it just always feels chaotic? So a lot of things that, like, for instance, in that class that I've got that's about delegation through engagement is one, talk to your folks and find out what turns them on, right?

15:44That guy that you think is checked out and on his phone, maybe he likes creating social posts. Well, great. Guess what? Now I have free, free social media posting for my shop. Yeah. And they like doing it. It's creative, right? Find out what turns them on and see if that's something we can delegate with them. It's good things like reviews, right? We shop owners clutch their reviews and, ah, you know, I, the only time they talk to their team is when they get a bad review, right?

16:10Well, one, guys, why aren't you getting, why aren't you talking to people to get more reviews? Well, bro, the only time we ever talk about them is if somebody gives me a 1-star and you're clubbing me over the head, figuring out why I pissed, you know, Miss and Mr. Smith off. Okay. Well, have them look at all the reviews because overwhelmingly, like our clients at Kukui, Oh, 98% of the reviews are 4 and 5 star.

16:29Yeah. Let's talk about them. Let's celebrate those too. Not only that, but what do you have to do when you get a bad review? I gotta go talk to you, find out what happened, then I gotta go write— does that seem— we've added 5 steps into something where, bro, it's your review. You talk to the customer. You have all the context. There you go.

16:48Yeah. Handle it. That's good. Yeah. But then we have that buy-in right now. Because I see the impact more positively through those review responses. Now I'm thinking about customer engagement. Now we're passing off that engagement. We're getting that ownership and customer experience. Now I'm bought into the process. Buy-in is huge. Taking ownership of the process is huge. Uh, you know, I, it, it's kind of this concept of intrapreneurship within a business.

17:14If you're an intrapreneur, you essentially assume ownership of your role, your responsibilities, your processes, your procedures, and you're staying in your lane, but you're mindful of the other lanes so that everyone is moving towards the same shared common goal. Yeah. I'll ask you for, for a shop owner specifically who's listening now, it, it, it could be for any role, but I'll ask you for a shop owner who's listening, who is struggling with buy-in and struggling with, with delegating or empowering ownership.

17:44What's the first thing they can do to start empowering those that they're leading? The first step is, is really to I'm a huge proponent of servant leadership. I wasn't for a long time. Okay. I was, I was the man, right? My way or the highway. Um, and that had to change. And that, that led to a lot of, you know, I was the guy who was gonna bark, jump down your throat, all that kind of stuff.

18:09So first off, stop and understand what servant leadership means. If I'm coming to work for you, rather than you work for me. Well, now that's a whole different dynamic that we have. Um, part of when I was going through that process is I went to my techs, you know, I had a head tire tech because I had like 6 tire techs at the time.

18:32I had a head tech there and I said, all right guys, now when we're going to make a change, service writer, head tech, head tire tech, we're going to make this decision as a group. Just because I think this is good doesn't mean I'm not gonna ram this down your throat. We're gonna agree that this is what we're gonna do. Yeah. Now the brilliance of that too is now because we've agreed, now how much do I have to make it happen?

18:54I don't. That, that's strong. Multiple minds are better than one. Like what you just described is strong. I, I love this idea of collaborating with your team. Right. And the beauty, the beautiful thing about, about leadership, Connor, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but to, to me, like my opinion is you don't have to know everything. I mean, it's really, it's, it's impossible to know everything, so it's okay.

19:14To hire people who are stronger in areas of, of opportunity for you. That's a nice way of saying, uh, a weakness, an area of opportunity, but hire people who, who know the things and are stronger in these areas. For a lot of us, we struggle with this because it feels like now we have to give up quote unquote control, and that's not the case.

19:34Could you elaborate on what I'm just introducing? Well, so really what our job should be as a leader is to provide the resources and the products or whatever we need to do to have each individual person maximize their level of success for what that means for them. Amen. I love that. Not necessarily what it means for me because success is different for everyone.

19:57Say, say it again for the folks in the back. Right. Success is what? Success is really what the success should be judged by what that person wants for themself. Just because I want you to be the best service writer in the world, Well, what if I now want to be a technician? Understand what success means to them. Maybe it's just that I get enough to buy that new fishing boat or whatever it's going to be.

20:19Everybody has a success metric. So if you can align yourself with their success metric, not mine. Now we align ourselves, meaning that, hey, this is where I want to go. This is where you want to go. Okay, let's, let's agree where we are going to go. Yeah. The word we is so underutilized in so much of what we do. Yeah. So is making sure we understand what their success metric is, making sure that we then are able to align that, but then give them the resources.

20:45Okay. Hey, this is our marketing company. All right, let me introduce you to our rep. There's so many shops that work with that. The rep only knows the owner. The owner doesn't know what's, you know, a good owner shouldn't have their fingers and everything on counter. But then we like, we have an appointment scheduler, we have text messaging platform. The people that are using that are the folks on the counter.

21:04Why haven't we talked to them? So I, I wanna, I wanna jump in for a second. I, I love, I don't wanna glaze over what you just shared, and that is the, the power of we. And I'll say we instead of you. Um, as leaders, a lot of us can say, um, hey, I need you guys to do this. I need you to do that.

21:21Uh, you know, uh, you're gonna do this and that, whatever. Uh, I, I'm struggling right now to think, but anyway. Yeah. I could say, hey, here's what we're going to do. Here's how we're going to do it. There's power. There's power in the difference. Can you talk about we versus you? Well, so one thing I had to focus on, I mean, big crazy shop, that last shop I had, right?

21:43So how easy it would be for me to go out and bark that we need this because there was always 30 things that need to be done. Yeah. One thing I had to change was stop and ask them. Yes. What they're doing first. I expected that level of respect for them. They couldn't just walk in and be like, uh, I'm like, bro, I'm doing 7 things, right?

22:01Yeah. Well, so are they. Yeah. So stop first and say, hey, what do you got going on? Do you have a minute? Yeah. It sounds so simple and it's in many instances, the simplest, easiest thing can have the most greatest level of impact. Love that. Now, what have we done to We're respecting them. We're respecting their time. We're respecting what they're doing.

22:24Hey, do you have a minute? Hey, you know what, boss man, I'm actually a little bit busy right now. Um, cool. I got something I need to work on with you. Not, I have something I need you to do. Yep. I have something I need to work on with you because my job is going to be to give you what you need to make this successful.

22:40I'm going to share with you the goal, but you are the one who's going to need to be this successful. We have accountability here., but my accountability is give you what you need to be successful. I, I like what you're sharing. You know, this is kind of a concept of seeking first to understand, then be understood. Like you're starting that, you're starting that.

22:56Oh, the stew meeting. The stew meeting called the stew meeting. Seek to understand. Seek to understand. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like that. I've never heard it before. Called it a stew meeting. Okay. Let's stew on it. Yeah. Right. Something's wrong. Stew on it. All right. I love that. That's good. I had a philosophy too. You had a complaint. You come to me with any complaint you want, but bring a solution.

23:15Don't bring it to my door without one. And it could be something silly, something dumb, but you had to have something because I wanted you to go through the thought exercise of how I could improve this. That's good. But then we'd have a STU meeting. All right, let's seek to understand how did we get there? Nothing happens within a shop by accident.

23:32Even accidents don't happen by accident. Oh, come on. I like this. So nothing happens by accident. So when we go to seek to understand, hey, Tex pissed, he's throwing wrenches. Okay, why? He's an asshole. No, he's not. There might be some people by nature that that's that way, but that's generally something that's triggering them to get there. Okay, well, what happened to get them there?

23:53Yeah. Is it something that we're in control with? Then great. If we can control it, then we can control it. If it's something that's not, what can I do to help you? Connor, there is so much power in what you're sharing right now, man. You're delivering some great nuggets. I, you know, this is this is, you just shared at least half a dozen aspects of leadership that can be critical to the success of someone's business.

24:17I'll ask you in your own words, if I were to ask, what does leadership mean to you? How would you respond to that? Leadership means giving the resources and empowerment to the people around you to reach every goal that they want to get to. So good. That's the ultimate testament of, of leadership, right? I come from a sports background and stuff like that.

24:37And at the end of the day, the Olympic champion, the coach isn't the one that gets the medal. It's the athlete. Yeah. Right. So within our organizations, we're the coach. That's what we should be. Yes. Thank you. So at the end of the day, are your athletes out there getting medals? I mean, we just met with the Technician of the Year from Silver Lake.

24:57And the folks at Silver Lake are a testament to that. You know, all those folks are— I know them very, very well, and they are all about putting those folks at the forefront, and that's not a mistake, right? Um, the biggest thing is, is being able to catch yourself. Things move at a million miles an hour in our business. Our business is gnarly by nature.

25:22We are literally giving people bad news and we're fighting things that weren't built right. The overall is this dark little cloud that we work within. And how do we get that to turn into a smile and sunshine? And it's being able to pause. So one of the things that I did, because I was a very— like, I grew up as a fighter and a wrestler and that kind of stuff.

25:42So for me, it was always like, instant was to jump and bow up, right? Yeah. So I had to learn to just stop, close your eyes, count to 10, take a deep breath, and then go. Okay, say it to yourself. Okay. When you say you're okay, then things will be okay. Then we can work on things. Yeah. Pause, right? If you feel, if you feel the, the veins in your neck going, you know, if things seem like they're getting chaotic, make sure we're the voice of calm.

26:07Make sure that we're seeking to understand them. As much as we can keep temperature low, then we can be effective. This job is going to elevate. You will fight it every minute of every single day. But the more that you can be low and calm when you talk to the best and the brightest shop owners, these dudes are— doesn't matter what you're right, it doesn't matter what shows up, you know.

26:30I mean, my dad has 6 kids, like, stuff shows up. And having to learn how to be like, all right, this sucks, stuff's all right, okay, close your eyes, take that deep breath. Tell, just literally just say the word okay to yourself. You'll find out it changes. Emotional regulation is one of the greatest skill sets anyone, especially leaders, can possess. And yeah, when you're talking about pausing, you're actually sharing one of my, uh, or it's, it's the first step to my 3 steps to emotional regulation, which is the 3 Ps, where we pause and we do exactly what you shared.

27:08You, you, you literally take a step back from the situation if you can, like you physically remove yourself if you can. From that situation and you pause, take a deep breath. And then the second step is to process. You start processing what you're thinking, what you're feeling, cuz we know that thoughts dictate feelings, feelings dictate actions, and actions dictate results. If we're not achieving the results we wanna achieve, let's go back to the thoughts that we're having.

27:31And when we're processing, we get a new perspective. And with perspective, the way that we view things drives the way that we do things, which by the way, perspective is not the third P. The third is to pivot. So we pause, We process. Now we can pivot because we're viewing things differently and subsequently doing things differently. So what I coach people in those, um, when we were working on those Stu conversations was 3 questions.

27:52Okay. In any of those situations, ask 3 questions. Write these down, folks. If you're listening or watching, write these questions down. Just ask 3 questions. You're gonna start with the one question. Okay, why did this happen? Okay, great. And then drill down. By the time you've asked 3 questions, you're generally gonna be down the road of finding your root cause. That's it.

28:09That's where that seek So 3 questions. Okay. Hey, what were the 3 questions that you asked? All right. Okay. Oh, well, look now. Yeah, we caught a car on fire. All right. Well, what happened that it caught on fire? Okay. Well, this— all right. What, what could we have done to prevent that? Well, you know, we didn't have a fire extinguisher there.

28:26Okay. Well, where can we get a fire extinguisher from? Yeah, that's good. Now we have the solution. Yeah, that's good. Hey, we lost another technician because, uh, you know, he was pissed off about this, right? Okay. Well, What did he say was wrong? Okay, well this is what it was. All right, what can we do to prevent that? Excellent. Okay, great. And then boom.

28:44Yeah. Love that. Connor, I, I typically ask, you know, there's, there's always two questions I ask every guest on every episode. I'm gonna ask you two more questions. One of those questions is, what is the best advice you've ever received from a coach or a mentor? However, before you answer that question, I'm gonna ask you to, to, to ask, to answer this question as well.

29:01Yep. What's the best advice that you can provide to our listening audience? Yeah. So let's do, let's do the latter first. It's probably the same answer to both. Okay. Uh, that's okay. That's acceptable. Do you care if I swear? Uh, I'll be, yeah. First one that I was told was to shut the fuck up. Okay. Here's the thing is that our job is all about talking.

29:21Okay. Sometimes the hardest thing we can do is listen. My grandpa, who I love more than anyone in this world, he was just the most amazing man in the world. Literally, I found this out about a year ago, would loosen bolts on the pedal car that he kept in his garage so that I had something to fix when I would come over and visit, right?

29:41Dude used to ride me around on the tank of his motorcycle, like got me into that mechanical bug when I was a baby, right? So I could credit a lot of this to him. Um, but it's that old saying, you have two ears and one mouth. Yeah. So the first step is Shut up and listen. Yeah, that's good. Because active listening is important.

30:01And that's something that I think that a lot of leaders struggle to do is because we're in a role where we have to report results to whoever we're responsible for, including all the people. But if at the end of the day, if we're not effectively listening first, then the answer that we spit out is going to be wrong. So the first is going to be shut the fuck up.

30:19And that applies to both, right? Because if I'm trying to tell you the solution I am not providing you the avenue to figure out the solution on your own. Yeah. That's so good. It is. It's, it's interesting because you know, the, the, the number one topic that is discussed in a lot of coaching calls that I have with, with, with clients now as a leadership coach, um, it's, it's a lot of the soft skills, right?

30:41And it's communication is really the number one topic. And we know that poor communication is actually costing shop owners 18% of total salaries paid out on an annual basis. And when you think about communication, like if I were to say, all right, Connor, what's the first thing you think about when it comes to communication? Most people would be thinking about the words coming out of our mouth rather than the words coming into our ears.

31:03But you just talked about how listening is one of, if not the most important part of communicating. And I think it's, uh, I appreciate you sharing what you did. I think this is an opportunity for everyone to recognize like communication is can be one of the most challenging things that we deal with, not just at work, but even at home. I mean, you've been married for 20, 20+ years, right?

31:26I, I mean, I've been married long enough to know that communication is, is, and will likely always be one of the biggest challenges at, at home as well as, as work, right? Oh, massively. Yeah. I mean, like my wife could not be the most opposite personality of me. She's an introvert. Yeah. Like she's, we go into public, she's not trying to talk to a damn person, you know what I mean?

31:45She's like, nah. Yeah. Like, so that dynamic is, is different. Same with my kids. Like, I have teenage daughters. Like, sometimes they're human adjacent. How old, out of curiosity? So, uh, our two oldest girls are 21, and then my youngest girl's 15. Got you. Okay. Because our oldest girl is 14, and man, yeah. I mean, every once in a while I do look at her mom and I'm like, I think her batteries are running low.

32:09We need to put her on the charger because like we're starting to get Like we need to clear codes and start again. Yeah. Cause we're getting some random lights. We're getting code faults that are not current. Like, I'll tell you what, man, teenagers, alternators might be going out on us. Yeah. Teenagers are, whew, God, God bless 'em. I mean, they, they, they, they can be challenging.

32:27They keep us on our toes. I'll say that. Yeah. They keep us on our toes. Made me realize that my parents weren't insane. There you go. Yeah. It was me. Yeah. You, you know what else? So I, I like that you shared that. Um, what, what I'm learning as I get older, I'm 43 and what I, what I, what I learn as I get older is you're 43 as well?

32:41Yeah. Okay. Awesome. So, I just thought that when my parents were 43, like, they just had it all figured out. And I'm like, surely by the time I get to be 43, I will know how to do all the things. And I still have so much to learn. And we got— 43-year-olds also used to be a lot older. That— preach. That's right.

32:59That's right. 43. Used to be 63. That looked like 50s. Yeah. You were like trying to get a timeshare somewhere at 43. There you go. I'm still skateboarding for goodness' sake. It's like, what? I don't know what part of— I, I, I very, I, I joke, but you know, I do hold a world record for being 25 for 18 years in a row.

33:18Hey, that's amazing. I've looked it up. Nobody else has done it. Congratulations. Yeah, that's awesome. Don't lose that, that child within, my friend. No. Um, well, hey, before we go, uh, share with the audience, uh, a little bit more about Kukui. This is kind of your sales pitch, uh, Connor. So yeah, what's Kukui and where can we find you? So Kukui, we are an all-in-one marketing platform.

33:36So the brilliance about Kukui, um, We've been around about 15 years. We only work in automotive repair. Okay. We bring the largest level of experience when it comes to auto repair shop marketing from anyone else out there. We did a survey back in March and within the about 135 employees we have at Kukui, we have almost 900 years experience working in this industry.

33:54Wow. It's actually 6 of us in the company that have actually worked as techs before. Okay. We live and breathe automotive repair because that's how most of us have come up. Yeah. So, um, The great part about Kukui is consolidating across marketing efforts, standardized measuring of success or insuccess of these programs that shops typically do. So we offer websites, CRM, live scheduling, review management.

34:16The brilliance about what we do is we back it up with really, really in-depth client care. Everything we do is integrated with your shop management system. We currently integrate with 65 shop management systems. So it's not just clicks and impressions that we look at, It's not just Google Analytics. We're actually looking, are we delivering a repair order in your bay? You are actually able to judge how your marketing's working by delivered revenue.

34:38Okay. Excellent. Product evangelist Connor Tracy of Kukui. Thank you for being here, my friend. Oh, go ahead and share the, uh, where, where can, where do we go? Kukui.com. Yeah. You can visit us at kukui.com. Okay. Um, that's K-U-K-U-I. K-U-I means enlightenment in Hawaii. Okay. That's this necklace here. Yeah. So, Just to share the Kukui story, if you— give me a moment with it.

35:00Come on, yeah. So these necklaces that you see us around wearing, it's intentional. So we were started in Hawaii. The kukui nut, which is what these are made of, has an oil. And so when you think about traditional Hawaiian homes, there's all these tiki torches and lamps and fire dancing and all that stuff. That's kukui oil. So the word kukui, because it created light, means enlightenment.

35:19So our name at its core means enlightenment. That's amazing. Love that. Thank you for sharing that. And thank you for being here, man. Thanks for being on the podcast. I appreciate you. Awesome. Likewise. Thanks, bro. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. Every episode, we look to transform our leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results.

35:37So thanks again. Have a great day, everyone. Don't forget to smile today. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. I'm Josh Parnell, reminding you to keep leading well.