Ep 157: Great Culture Doesn't Happen by Accident with Sam Freeman and Amber Wright
With Sam Freeman, Amber Wright
Now playing — The Limitless Leadership Podcast
About this episode
Amber Wright is the VP of Business Development at Tekmetric, and Sam Freeman is the Partnership Manager at Promotive. Today, Josh and Bret talk with…
Key takeaways
- —Great leadership requires adapting to new challenges and evolving strategies.
- —Hiring should be an ongoing process; shops should always be recruiting.
- —Utilizing technology, such as AI, can streamline the hiring process and improve efficiency.
- —Building a strong company culture is essential for attracting and retaining talent.
- —Partnerships with vendors can enhance shop operations and drive success.
Frequently asked
- What should shop owners focus on to improve their hiring process?
- Shop owners should always be recruiting and building relationships with potential candidates, even when they are not actively hiring.
- How can technology assist in the hiring process?
- Technology, such as AI screening tools, can help streamline candidate evaluations and improve response times, allowing shops to engage with applicants more effectively.
- What role does company culture play in attracting talent?
- A strong company culture can make a shop more appealing to potential employees, as it reflects a supportive environment that values growth and respect.
▸Full transcript
Think about a business owner. What got you somewhere for 10 years is not going to get you where you need to go in the next 2 years. Preach. Right? It is a mindset shift. 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.
Are 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. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Limitless Leadership Podcast. Before we get started, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, do all the things you need to on social media to help this podcast impact people and build leaders, just like the leaders we have sitting in front of us today at Tectonic 2026, presented by Techmetric.
Techmetric, of course, is one of the podcast sponsors. Promotive is also a podcast sponsor, and we are blessed to be joined by a team member from each organization today. We're joined by the partner manager, Sam Freeman, of Promotive. Did I get that right, Sam? That is correct. Okay. And the— and the VP of Business Development of Techmetric Amber Wright. Thank you for, for being here.
Thanks for having us. Thanks for being here. Of course, and thank you for having us. And, uh, and for those listening, uh, you of course can watch this episode, uh, on YouTube at The Bearded Leader. Uh, I also have an incredible leader co-hosting with me. I think I'm actually the co-host. Brett, you're the host today. Brett Beitler is also joining me. Um, I'm gonna pass the mic to Brett, and as I do that, if the two of you would each share who you are, what you do, and how you do it.
Promotive is tackling one of the toughest challenges in the automotive industry: finding and hiring great technicians. Their team is built from people who know the aftermarket, understand technician roles, and recognize what actually makes someone a strong long-term fit. Promotive builds recruiting pipelines for the shops they support. They uncover talent you won't find on job boards, run intentional and structured screenings, and guide candidates through interview prep and communication so shops can make confident decisions.
Shops choose Promotive because their process creates consistency, momentum instead of waiting, clarity instead of guesswork, and a partnership instead of a transaction. If your shop is hiring or preparing for growth, head to gopromotive.com. You can schedule a discovery call, submit your openings, and see how Promotive supports shops nationwide. All 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's 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, and 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.
This is the kind of standard-setting partnership that's going to elevate your shop. So if you're ready to become a pro in your shop, visit shopmarketingpros.com and partner with the best. Amber, you go first. Oh, so fun. Okay. So, uh, Amber Wright, I am the VP of, uh, business development at TechMetric. So, uh, I lead now a team of 16, uh, the last time we talked.
It was much smaller, but we are continuously growing and evolving. But we, we do work primarily— my team works primarily with our partners. So we talk about vendors, but we talk about how we go to market together to drive mutually beneficial opportunities for companies, ultimately with the goal of getting TechMetric into shops to help them be as successful as possible, but focusing on the results that each individual shop is trying to achieve.
And then how do we get them to the next one? So Uh, my team, I work primarily to drive the strategy, also looking at like what's the next evolution of business development, right? The relationships, how can we get involved in the industry? And so there's more to come on that. So that's, that's what I do, and I have a pleasure to work with an incredible team.
I understand you guys got across the threshold of 15,000 shops served now. Yeah, almost fell off my chair when I heard that. He announced it this morning. I was like, oh, come on, it's pretty incredible. It, it's, uh, humbling. It's humbling. I think we, you know, couldn't do it without the customers that we have, but it's also the team and the product.
So, yeah. So over 15,000 rooftops and over 350 team members within Techmetric now. Yep. Wild. Such a fast-growing organization. And you guys are incredible at what you do. Passing the mic to you now, Sam, who you are, what you do. That's a tough act to follow, right? Man, you use so many words just now. No. So I am Sam Freeman. I am the partnership manager with Promotive.
We are a full staffing agency. We help find and place automotive professionals from entry level all the way through to second in command, really on the front side and also on the back side of the shop. What I do here, I manage the partnerships, but I also have grown through the team. So I came in primarily as an account manager. And understanding that process and how we were managing our clients and how we are delivering to them.
And now I am going over to the partnership side where it's actually my background. Um, so being able to work with our partners like Techmetric or— and also the podcasts that we sponsor, um, and also figure out how we can really supply a demand that is a high need that everybody has. Sure. Hiring is one of the biggest things that Everybody struggles with, and we're stepping up to the plate and saying, let's figure it out.
One of the things that, uh, Amber, go ahead. I was just gonna say, it's such a need. Leading a shop can be isolating, especially when you're trying to grow and still take care of your people. The good news is you don't have to piece it together alone. Techmetric is the all-in-one platform built for shops and growing operators who want less chaos and more clarity.
Shop management, integrated payments, and built-in marketing all working together in one place. No bouncing between tools, no syncing issues, no missed opportunities, just a cleaner operation, a stronger customer experience, and a business that's built to grow. See how it works at techmetric.com or use the link in the show notes. It's no secret in our industry that speed of service sells. As our world moves faster, instant gratification isn't a want, it's an expectation.
It's proven that the faster you communicate with your guest after they hand over their keys, the higher your close ratio and ARO is. This critical window is called your golden hour. And let's be real, it's hard to achieve when you're buried in essential tasks. That's where Golden Hour Garage comes in. By partnering with their team of industry professionals across the US, you can truly own your golden hour.
Golden Hour provides a virtual estimate building, extended warranty, fleet claim processing, loaner advisors, and hands-on partner support so your team can focus on the guest experience and profit growth. Book a discovery call today. Limitless Leadership listeners receive 10% off their first 3 months. It is. And it's an incredible thing that you guys have done in such a short period of time. It's hard.
I mean, it's, I say all the time, this is the hardest job I've ever had. And I've like run companies, I've run development teams, I've run things, and I'm like, I can't control these two pieces. Like, we can't control shop owners. All we can do is coach them and guide them and pray to Jesus that they listen and that they, you know, are responsive and do the things that we recommend.
And also on the technician and the advisor side, we can't control them. All we can do is guide them through. And again, it's like matchmaking. You don't know if it's going to be a marriage, but we're going to try. So for listening audience, um, they're resonating with what you're sharing because there's a lot of things that are outside of our control that we're trying to get a handle on.
It feels like everything's a fire and we're part-time firefighter because this is a fire, that's a fire, everything's a priority. But if everything's a priority, nothing's really a priority. So for listening audience who is feeling this way, Um, I know how important it is to focus on what we can control or can impact and try our best not to worry about what we can't control.
What advice would you give to someone who is going through this and feels like they have to have control over everything and they just are keeping their head above water? And when it comes to the hiring piece of it, we don't take over the control piece. We actually work with— I tell everybody all the time, I don't work for you, I partner with you.
And that's very important because we are— it takes both of us to be successful. The shop has to be responsive and they have to do their part. They have to do the interview. They have to take accountability. We are doing the front, front-load pieces, that bottleneck. We are getting in front of the candidates, we are screening the candidates, and we're submitting them over.
So, it's like a, what is it, a triathlon? What is— oh my gosh. Triathlon? That one. I can't say that word. Close enough. Yeah, but we're passing the baton at that time. Our goal really is to help them be more efficient. We are utilizing all the tools we can. So we utilize AI with our AI screener that we launched recently, which is magical, by the way.
She just hit 500 screens in one week. That's incredible. Wow. 500 screens. Like, that is— that's crazy. She being the AI person, correct? Yeah, I caught that. I was going to ask that, but what's her name? Her name is Paige, and it's an ongoing joke that she's hot. Um, it's— that's my wife's name. Is she blonde? I'm so proud. I would be so proud of this.
Please tell me if she's blonde. She's a redhead. Thank you. I love redheads. I know, it was hilarious though, because we were at an offsite meeting and, um, we were coming up with the concept and we, um, Lisa's wife actually named her and it's Paige because P-A-I-G-E. You get it? Um, but they're like, so what does she look like? And I randomly was like, well, she's blonde and she's hot.
And it just became a slogan that we use internally, and it's now becoming outside. But she does the screening pieces, and we take that and submit that over on that side of things. But we're also utilizing automation to speed up the process because time kills everything. So, so I want to go back to something you just mentioned. You said it's hard, like going out there and recruiting is hard, but it starts internally.
Your team has got a magical recipe of creating a type of culture that I believe people are obsessed with, right? Which compels them to want to do business with you. So can you talk about your culture and how you guys start internally driving that so you can go serve others? Well, I mean, it's, it's actually pretty funny, um, and some of the things we want everybody to be all hands on deck, and we have a bigger picture here.
We want everybody to understand that We are actually impacting people's lives. Like, it's not— yes, it's hard, but it also is so fulfilling when we have that success because we're talking about shop owners that have bays that they rely on those bays to turn numbers so they can provide for their families, their communities. We're talking about technicians and advisors that they need to find someplace that is going to respect them, that is going to support them and grow them.
So, we are not playing with little domino pieces. We're actually playing with real people, and it takes that core understanding And it also takes that grit in that you get hung up on, it's like cold calling every day. And even with people that know who you are, we are in an industry right now where conflict, technicians don't want it, so they avoid it.
They ghost. They don't want to tell you, "Hey, I accepted another offer." They just ignore you. And it's not just us, it's the shop owners deal with this all the time. And then we flip it around and say, "Well, you're ghosting them as well." because when the candidate doesn't meet your expectations, you're not calling them and letting them know. You're not telling them what they need to do to get better.
You're just not reaching out to them and they're like, okay, well, I'm going to write you off. So, we're burning bridges on both sides. And I think that's the big part where Promotive is coming in is jumping in and saying, okay, we're going to communicate and we're going to help this. And I mean, the team, Lisa says it all the time, if you're not committed, she'll pay you to leave..
And I mean, it's harsh, but it's also where we are. We want people that— it's not a 9-to-5 job. I tell her probably weekly, this is the hardest thing to do. Because when candidates are applying, you have to be responsive. When they're available, you have to be available. So it is not a 9-to-5. I'm pretty confident that our team, they work weekends and not the whole day.
We want, we do respect time and family time. We do. That's a thing. But we also wanna make sure that we're striking while the iron's hot. I think Cody Sanchez also said exactly what you are saying right now on main stage. She, she was talking about hiring and you can go on LinkedIn, you can go on Facebook, you can go on Google Ads, like all of those things, but you always have to be doing more.
Mm-hmm. One of the things we talk about, uh, so much is that you should always be interviewing. Like there should never be a time that you are not interviewing somebody. It should always be happening and it should never come off. And the cool thing that you guys are doing though is yes, maybe that talent isn't going to be right for one shop, but now you've created this pipeline to be able to help support.
And it is like you, you said it so well, Sam, you are supporting not only the shop owner, but the, the new people, the next generation that are coming into this industry. And so you have the opportunity to set the tone of what this industry is and the culture that we are creating here. So it's pretty cool. Thank you. My goodness, you're so good at talking.
I know. You know, some people say I have corporate jargon. So she, Cody Sanchez also said that. I'm like, I've gotta stop with the corporate. No, it just flows. Well, and Cody is Lisa's like favorite human. She's so mad she couldn't be here. And, um, I, she said a lot of things, but the big thing for our industry is not running away from AI.
Like that was, I stood up, I was like, I can't sit down anymore. I need to stand up. Um, because she— I felt like half of that presentation was needed to be sponsored by Promotive. It was talking about the automation, it was talking about hiring, it was talking about continuing to do that, utilizing all the tools and being fast. I can't tell you enough how many times every call I have with everybody, I remind them, speed.
Yeah, you have to be fast. Yes, these technicians, they're applying to on average 11 to 15 jobs at a time, and they're only responsive to roughly 3 to 5 of those those shops that engage with them. And when they're done with those 3 to 5, if they don't get an offer, if they don't like them, they don't go to the remaining ones that they already applied to.
They go back and they apply to 11 to 15 more. Yeah. And they start it all over again. So having that speed component and being in front of them quickly is what made us actually start with the automation. So we text them immediately when they apply, no matter where they apply from. If it's through our page platform or our, our team, we're automatically texting them.
If it's 9 o'clock at night, they're getting a text. Well, for a lot of folks who are listening, they're gonna say, well, I, I, I can't reply or respond that quickly because I don't have time, right? Time is our biggest enemy. And I'll throw that in air quotes, but that's what Promotive does for shop owners is we, you give them the gift of time.
We have two offerings for that reason. Not everybody needs our full service piece. So they don't need us holding their hands. They don't need us outbounding and turning over the rocks for them. They don't need us scheduling the interviews for them. I mean, some do, like there's a good market for that still. Sure. But there are some that just want us to do a screening.
They just want us to be able to write the job ad, um, respond to the candidates, get them screened and send over the information and they run with it. You can give them the resources. It's up to them to be resourceful. Yes. And that's, that's the biggest opportunity a lot of folks are not capturing is they, they want everything done for them because we don't have time and It's just like, there's just so many things happening, right?
All those fires that I talked about, but we've got to be resourceful with the information that we get. Otherwise, like, knowledge without action is just information. And we can't just sit on information. Something that you just shared, Sam, a few minutes ago is how challenging this role has been for you. But I'm not hearing you say like you're not afraid of it.
Like you're not turning your back to it. Um, when you say— I'm one of 7. No, I don't run away. Well, you know what's interesting? So, Amber, in the interview that you and I had back at the ASTA Expo last year, you talked about how TechMetric is the most challenging but also equally most rewarding job you've ever had. I'm hearing you say the same thing, Sam.
Can either one of you speak to that? So I want to go back to 2 things that I've heard. You asked about control. We control things because of fear. Because we don't want to do something, right? Uh, or it's the unknown. And so I— there is a means to where I'm going with this, but I— Techmetric has— what got me here, what got me to Techmetric, the success that— and I don't want to make it about myself, but like, I just think as leaders— this is your show, Amber.
But like, as leaders, right? Uh, think about a business owner. What got you somewhere for 10 years is not going to get you where you need to go in the next 2 years. Preach, right? It is a mindset shift. And it's a— I— so Techmetric has given me this journey, uh, to be challenged, to go into the uncomfortable. I always say, like, Olaf is my favorite little character because I watched Frozen way too many times, but he says, uh, I think it's a song, but change mocks us with its beauty.
Right? Like, uh, at Techmetric, because we are continuously evolving and growing, but as leaders, it starts from the top, right? Sunil, Andrea, the entire leadership team is always pushing to learn, to grow more. And so as you do that, there is so much, uh, pain through that, but growth comes. And so it's just— that is why I said that it has been the most rewarding and challenging thing that I have ever done, and I would do it all over again.
And there are days where I sit— like Cody was saying, I don't mean to keep beating the dead horse, but like there are days I wake up and I'm just like, I gotta do this again. But I gotta do this again because I'm sitting in fear of— I don't know how to move the needle. But the only person that's in my way is myself.
Yeah, that's good. And so it has been every day I've been able to challenge myself, but not challenge myself and make it about me. It's now about how do I get people around me to be on the same mission with the vision that we set forth and have success. And so like now it's not like I, I said what got me here is not what's going to move the needle in the future because it's not about me, it's about our people, it's about our customers at the end of the day, and ultimately it's about our customers' customers.
And so it's, it is totally reshaping, uh, the way that I think about business. But again, like Michael said earlier today on stage, it's the why. And so, so quickly you can get into the outcomes, and that's where fear and control comes into play, and you forget about the things that you have to do every single day and the reason why you're doing it.
So, uh, I still stand by those words, Josh. I think it was, uh, yeah, ASTA was pretty quickly, uh, one of the first events that I went to as a Techmetric employee. Um, so it's It's been the most amazing year so far. By the time of this recording, the AST Expo would have been about, let's see, 7 months ago. Yeah. Think about the growth that you've experienced in the last 7 months.
Yeah. Personally and professionally, a lot, right? Yeah. And it's because you have done some advice that General Robert Neller shared in a keynote this morning, which is embrace the suck. Oh yeah. You know, it's hard every day. It's not— it's not pretty. No, it's never gonna be perfect. Yeah, perfection is reserved for God, but you embrace the suck. We don't have to do this, we get to do this.
We get to do this to make a difference, to make an impact. We're doing it through the Vestal Automotive Repair. I think when you, you go through struggles, right, uh, right, trusting somebody who doesn't have a limp, there's so many things like nuggets. Um, it's that faith that you have that you've gotten through it before and you will get through it again.
Whatever it is in the future, that thing, you know that you can get through it. Right? But you just have to believe, and you just have to put one foot in front of the other. Like, that is truly, uh, I feel like when you freeze and you don't move, that is when you fail, and you have to keep going forward. So anyone listening to this podcast knows that Brett and I are believers.
It's a faith-based company, Limitless Leadership. And biblically, in the Bible, I mean, we, we hear about, um, God's word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And it's about that one step. It's not the, like, I don't even call it a leap anymore, a leap of faith. It's a step. It's a step of faith. Like, if, if you were to walk into this huge warehouse in one door and across this massive warehouse, you can see the door at the under, uh, at the other end, but it's pitch black, but you have enough light to take one step.
And what you don't see is all the challenges, all the obstacles, all of the suck that you're gonna need to embrace. And instead what you're doing is, because if you turn the light on and you could see everything, you'd be like, nope, I'm gonna go out this door that I came in. I turn around, right? But, but I'm gonna, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna turn the light off.
Yeah, I'm gonna light my lamp enough to take one step, and I'm gonna take another step, another step. And we know that when, uh, where there's faith, there's also fear, otherwise there wouldn't be a cause for faith. And so I love the fact that you're talking about, um, embracing your faith amidst the amidst the suck. Yeah. Um, it's, it's critical. It's critical because too many of us, we quit in the dip.
And the dip is that J-curve that I've talked about before where we quit in the dip. It's just too hard, it's challenging, it's not working. The easy thing to do is to quit. Yeah. But you fall down 7 times, you get back up 8. Yeah. My husband tells me— I love him, we— I, I will say it on this podcast every single time, but there's times where I walk to him, like, I, I think we all do this to our spouses, right?
We go back and we just like talk, we want to vent. Um, he either tells me when I'm making something hard, it's because I'm making it about myself and not about the person. Please elaborate. I love this. Uh, so when I have meetings with people, like, we all have hard meetings with people that we— I mean, humans are messy, right? Just like, I'm a messy person.
I'm not perfect, although I think I am. Uh, uh, we're just messy. And so if I go into a meeting already stressing about a meeting or having a hard conversation, it's because I'm making it about me and I'm not serving that person. And so, uh, you have to remove that. It's also the one-minute manager, right? You have to remove the emotion out of it.
So there's two things that are going on in those moments. And I will say that the people aspect of leadership is always going to be the most difficult and challenging thing because there's ego involved. There is the reflection of yourself, uh, the things that you're walking through. We're all human beings. We walk through those things. Um, but ultimately Uh, yeah, Tyler tells me that all the time.
Yeah. How do you get through that? Like, like, people are gonna people. Yeah. So how you, how you gonna manage people? How you gonna lead people? What's your first step? Um, my first step, uh, when we're in business, okay, so like there's, there's people and there's, there's business. So there's kind of like a, it's a black and white thing to me sometimes, right?
Uh, I have to get the business objective and ensure that we're always moving forward and marching in that way. We're all on the same ship. But at the end of the day, I have to understand the people that I'm leading, and they're all different. Um, and so I think just like, as long as you are being a good human being and you're trying to support them, um, that's ultimately how I go about it.
Goes to my basis. Yeah, I'm a big believer in treating people the way you want to be treated. Like that's my number one thing. And so what my kids, they can't stand it, but I'm a big believer in treating people the way you wanna be and be treated and also being a good human. Uh, my husband actually, which I also love him by the way, I went and shout out to both these husbands.
Husbands. Oh, he's amazing. Um, Lisa actually said, if anything ever happened to you, I will take him. I'm like, wrong team, buddy. But that's funny. Um, in reality, I get frustrated because I expect more from people and they let me down. High bar. And he reminds me all the time, why are you getting frustrated? They already showed you who they are. You need to understand who they are and don't be surprised every time.
So set the expectation to what their abilities are and not what your, your expectation of them is, and then grow them. Maya Angelou once said, when people show you who they are, believe them the first time. Oh, could you have told me that like multiple relationships ago? Same. Great. Hey, I learned this not too long ago. I do think there's an expectation, like, I also think that there's a setting a high bar with people, right?
Like, there's also this expectation and having people to be held accountable. Some people that you lead and are on your team aren't always going to be there with you, right? And so I think that there's also— those conversations are hard, and you want to do what's right, but not everybody's going to follow, and that's okay. So I agree, like, there's a, there's a point where we have to lead, we have to lean in, But it's also, until somebody's ready to change and do those actions, you can't make them, right?
And so that's something, it's just like, hey, I, I have really high expectations of the people that are on my team. I don't want to micromanage you. I don't, right? But if I have to, I will. And I, in a certain way, to lead. But it's also just like, hey, I have a high bar for people that we hire. It's a blessing to know without any kind of reservation, not everybody deserves to be on your bus.
Yeah, right. Because you two ladies and your companies have amazing cultures. Yeah. That people are drawn to, which allows you to thrive at the levels that you're thriving at right now that you've already shared with on this podcast today. So when you talk about protecting that culture, name a, a thing or two that you're most proud of when it comes to protecting that bus and not letting everybody on it.
We talk about hiring a lot, uh, as a leadership team. Actually, we just did an, uh, SLT offsite and hiring was the majority of the things that we talked about. And so, um, one, ultimately we wanna make sure that, um, the people that we bring on have a level of urgency as everybody else at the company, as Techmetric. Um, one of the things that I'm just gonna paraphrase is we don't wanna hire jerks.
Mhm. And so there's certain things that we look at and interview, um, whether somebody makes excuses, right? Uh, we don't, we don't want excuses. We want people that are going to push forward. Yeah. And, and take ownership into whatever comes their way. Um, we look at people who have high integrity. Integrity is a big portion of our interview process. I personally, and I know a lot of other leaders, we have— we're really focused on our values.
So we have 5 values, and so I incorporate that into my interview process, and I either ask them for a historical view of how those specific values have shown up into their professional and personal lives, or I ask them to look at, like, once you have this role, if you get this job, how do you see these being incorporated into the job as you know it thus far.
And so, there's just a lot of ways, but I think we want to make sure that anybody that we bring on has a really good work ethic and are good human beings, right? I think those two, you can't teach being a good human being. Yeah, absolutely. I think on our side, we actually are a small company and we're still growing, and we are actually pretty, as you would say, blessed or pretty fortunate that majority of our hires are referrals from people that already work there or that we know personally.
So we already have one of those lovers of what Cody said earlier, you know, are they known? So we already have one of those pieces checked already because it's typically a referral and we're looking for people that are going to proactively come and understand what the job is that they're interviewing for and be ready to provide some level of solutions for it.
If you're hiring for Or if you're applying for a marketing position within our company, I would love the fact that you researched our company and that you have already identified things that are issues. Yeah. Opportunity. And, or opportunities to come to the table. Like show that you wanna play. Like you, I mean, we do a lot of sports analogies, uh, our place and you're not that redshirt.
You wanna come, you wanna show up to practice. You wanna actually say, all right, I'm gonna shout at you. My daughter is in cheer and stunt and she's like, I want all 6 of these routines. So, I'm gonna learn them all. And that's before she even gets the opportunity to try out for those spots. That's awesome. Preparation goes a long way. Um, Sam, let's stay on the, on the culture piece for a moment because, um, if, if anyone is listening or watching this episode, again, I don't know, I think I shared this earlier, but if not, YouTube @TheBeardedLeader, you can watch the episode.
If anyone of you listening or watching has attended any automotive repair conference, you probably know Sam Freeman because she is, uh, a just a bundle of energy. Yeah, I mean, just like the, the life of the party. Always have a smile on her face, always giving people hugs. Selfie Sam, I like to call you Selfie Sam. It's actually my Instagram handle. Is it really?
So, wow. Um, Lisa's idea. So let's talk about the way that you show up at these conferences. Sam is incredible. Um, it's, it's important for everyone at this conf— at the conferences to recognize the value that we can bring as vendors, as partners, as like every role counts. Can you speak to the value of a vendor and how it plays into the trade shows side of, of the conferences?
Absolutely. And I'll tell you a really, really quick story on that whole Selfie Sam thing. Sure. So my first trade show I ever did, this was a million moons ago, it actually feels like. And I noticed that every shop owner that was walking through was doing the same thing. They were going to the booth, they were giving the same info at shop owner, company name, email.
They weren't either actually interested, they were just doing it to check the box to have the person stop talking to them. And I never want to be like somebody else on that. Like, I need to be unique for me. So I started taking selfies, and then I'm like, oh, let me send it to you. What's your cell phone number? I'll text it to you right now.
And then I would text it. So while everybody else is calling— sales 101— yeah, when everybody else is, is emailing— you did that with me. I did, actually. I mean, I do it still to this day. It's not the same reasons now, but, but I had the cell phone number. I had an item to trigger the memory on who I am all before they walked away from me.
So when I did follow up— and I also am very respectful of following up, I'm not calling you right away let you digest the world. Um, but when I did follow up, they knew who I was. And working these shows and understanding kind of the value of what we are bringing as vendors primarily is we're all here because we have something valuable for the attendees.
We have some piece of that puzzle that is going to get your shop to the next level, whether it's a duplication of something. So there's a lot of marketing opportunities here. You got, you know, what are the— Kukui, you got Oh my goodness, I'm drawing a blank on them all, but Limitless Leadership is one. That's, that's, that's a good one too. Nice slide.
Yeah, just, just one of the vendors available. But you have— there are some competitive pieces out there, and you also have ones that you've never tried. I mean, recruiting itself, when I first came into the industry, again, million moons ago— it's been over 20 years, by the way, just for the record— um, the first call I ever made, he's like, I don't need marketing.
I need somebody help me find technicians. Well, 20 years later we're doing it and now it's, it's like, oh no, I'm gonna run away. I ask everybody all the time, are you fully staffed or you need technicians? Oh no, we're good. Are you sure? Because I know underneath that, like, that's like not real. Well, what we can do is, I mean, you're identifying the problem and we are the problem solver, right?
So if you're, if you're a vendor at a trade show, the, the expectation is that you're you don't want to necessarily be looked at like a salesperson per se, but you're a problem solver, and we all have some kind of business problems, and this is where the problem solver comes into play. I think a big part as well is these shows. I mean, the shop owners that are coming, they have dedicated trade show time for a reason, because they would like you to go and talk to these vendors.
They would like you to explore other opportunities, be open-minded. I think Sunil actually mentioned that on his ecosystem, like, we all play a part here. Um, the other piece is when we're here, we're taking time out of our family time. Like I have 5 kids, I have a husband that I actually like, 3 dogs and 2 cats. It's like a farm there.
Yeah. But I don't just wanna come here. Throw some chickens into that one. Checkmate. You win. You win. But I'm coming here for a purpose because I wanna, I wanna help. I want to, if somebody has a problem, I either wanna be able to solve it or I can help direct you to where somebody can. I pretty much know all the vendors.
Um, but we are all a big team here, and when it comes to those puzzle pieces, I say we're the pillars of that success. You're the shop owners, you're the shop management system. You guys bring the podcast, the information, that leadership component of things. You also have a great beard. You scared the crap outta me, by the way, on your April Fools'.
Don't ever do that again. That was good. I actually, you had me for a minute. No, it did not have me. ChatGPT really did me dirty that day, and, and it was just a good reminder that if that's really what is hidden underneath the beard. I'm just gonna always keep the beard. Yeah, it has been— no, I was like, such a lie, such a lie.
Yeah, I think like, look, I— the one thing that I think is so important about coming to these events, you came for a reason and you obviously have something in your business that you're hoping to, uh, move forward or change. And just like, like, think about— at least for me, I think about— I'll come back to the vendors when I, I run.
And so I grew up in a really small town in Peachtree City where we have golf cart paths everywhere. And I made it a point to make sure, like, if you really watch people when they're walking, what are they doing? Like, when you pass people on the streets, looking down, they're looking down and they're on their phones, right? And then there's a whole world out there that you just don't even know what's going on.
You don't know the connections that you can make. You don't know what a single conversation with somebody is going to lead to. And so thinking about trade shows, you've come and yes, maybe vendors are out here to sell you. Totally. We're all running businesses, right? It's how you do it, um, I think is, is the big piece. But what I would encourage shop owners, service, service advisors, technicians that do go to these shows, you're there for a reason.
So do go visit the vendors because you don't know what they may be able to do to help your business. In the back of my head, I was just saying, you don't know what you don't know. You don't. And I've made some of the most amazing friendships with talking to people. Half the people I've never even sold. Yeah, I just, I, I genuinely enjoy talking to people and understanding what drives them.
And what's your problem? Let's go talk to this person, they can help you. Yeah, but you never know unless you step foot in there. I mean, people are constantly trying to avoid the trade show time. And I'm like, why would you do that? Well, I will say this. I know, Brett, you're— it looks like you're— but I will say, just putting on— I— my background actually was in corporate events, so I used to run it for a NASDAQ company.
I used to globally run events. And so makes sense. Um, that was, that was a thing. Uh, these events would not be possible without sponsors. Um, so it does take a lot of resources. It takes a lot of, uh, financial investment, uh, time. And so I would say that if anything, it's thanking the people that are here that have sponsored these events, every single event, not just Tectonic, but, uh, at the end of the day, they are part of the ecosystem that helps shops run their businesses.
And so that is what is important, uh, because there is a shop that they are helping in some facet. And so it's super important. So you ladies, going a little bit further and talk about the abundant mentality, right? Um, we're talking about building community. Josh and I are focused on this, like laser focused on building this type of community that does think in terms of abundance on top of it, right?
There's plenty to go around for all of us, and we need to help each other win, right? Yeah, because business gets passed between who do you know, like, and trust. Yeah, right. That's why we have something on it. I see a word coming out. Let's go. I mean, that kind of goes back to before I was here. I was doing DBI service, and I helped bring DBI to the market with, you know, other great DBI platforms.
I would start out all of my presentations in— can I cuss on here? Let's find out. No. Okay. Oh, Amber said no. Yes, you may. You can clean it up. Jesus. Okay, um, I would actually start every one of my presentations with, I don't give a shit what you're using for DBI, just use it. And I meant that wholeheartedly because the impact that utilizing something like that, that was doing for the industry and for the consumer's understanding of our industry was bigger than me.
And I say the same thing for this. I don't care what they're using as long as they're doing something to always be recruiting. And if you get to a point where it's a hurdle or you're not being able to do it, it's okay. You're not like lesser than a human because you need to outsource that piece of it. You still have the control.
You're still the one making that decision at the end of the day. But it is— you can't grow holding everything on your back. You cannot do that. And I'm actually learning that myself. Lisa's like, you gotta let go of some stuff. I'm like, uh, but I'm a control freak. At least need to proofread stuff. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard to let go.
It's hard to trust the people that you've put into place, but that's ultimately why you've put them in the positions that they are in. To give those things over to them. And they also have to experience failure or messing up and moving forward. That's how they grow. I mean, we as a company, and I haven't been promoted for a million years, but I've obviously been a part of it since the part of the infancy of the conversations, who we were 7 months ago, a year ago, that is not who we are today at all.
And we are constantly growing. We are constantly understanding What our clients are needing from us. I mean, I talk to people that are happy. I'm like, okay, but what doesn't make you happy? Like there's something that we do that we can fix. What is it? I need that feedback. I rely on it. Um, and I've always been, when I like ran development teams, I am that person that speaks to the, the end user and I'm like, all right, let's understand this and communicate it back so we can fix it.
We're, our whole page component of our platform was built based off of feedback that what the market needed was that bottleneck support. I love this conversation, but for sake of time, um, we do need to begin wrapping up. I'm going to ask for each one of you to just give a plug for each one of your companies. If, if I'm a shop owner who is for whatever reason not with Tekmetric right now— Amber, I mean, God bless you, but I mean, I don't know what, like, what are you doing with your life if you're not with Tekmetric?
What can I do? Where can I go to learn more about Tekmetric? Yeah. Yeah, well, obviously our website, you can go to our website and learn, learn more about TechMetric to get a demo. So we have account specialists that will walk you through a specialized demonstration of TechMetric. But what that call will do is really focus on your, your result. What is the result that you are trying to achieve as a business, whether that is, are you trying to make more money, bring in more cars, create a better customer experience?
And so we start with that. Conversation first to really understand how we can help support you, because we know that if we can't get you to your first result, then we aren't really helping you at all. And so that conversation is going to be specifically tailored to what you as a business owner are trying to achieve first, and then we will show you how the product can get you there.
So ultimately, go to our website at techmetric.com and we will be in touch with you, or feel free to reach out to me, Amber, or awright@techmetric.com, and I will make to support you and get you in the hands of somebody else who can. Excellent. Thank you, Amber. And Sam, same for you. If I'm looking for recruiting needs, how can I get in touch with Promotive?
First I would say is everybody should be looking for recruiting needs. Amen. You should always be hiring. You should always be doing that piece. And realistically, it's not something that is easy done on your own because it does take time. But you can go to gopromotive.com and we have a lead form on there that you can reach out to, fill it out, and we'll be in contact.
Our big thing on that is really just, if somebody has somebody that is, they have an HR department already, they have somebody in-house that is hiring, that doesn't mean that we're replacing them. We are helping them. We have something set up for everybody at this point now that we've been doing it for a good amount of time. It never hurts to talk and understand what the options are.
Yeah. These calls are complimentary. Demos are complimentary. Reach out to Techmetric, reach out to GoPro— sorry, reach out to Promotive at gopromotive.com.. And since I shared your website, I'll say it again, techmetric.com. Uh, thank you for— thank you both for being on the show. Um, this will not be your last time. So Amber, you— I know you're already a returning guest. Sam, you'll be back as well.
Uh, so thank you both for being here, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. As you know, we look to transform our leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results. So thanks again, everyone. Have a great day. Don't forget to smile today. Don't forget to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.
I'm Josh Parnell, and here's Brett Beitler. Okay. Reminding you to keep leading well.
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If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com. Episode Transcript: Kent Bullard: Hello everybody. I am so excited for the topic we're gonna cover today, the wealthy technician. Today we're gonna dive into building your skills, building your value as a technician in the marketplace, and really building a solid future for you. Today we've got Nick Pope and Jim Kokonis, both incredible instructors. And I couldn't be more proud to work alongside these gentlemen today. Gentlemen, welcome to the webinar. Good Jim Cokonis: morning, Kent. Everybody. Nick Pope: Good morning, Kent. Good morning everyone. Thanks for having us. Before we- I was... real quick, as Kent said w- we're gonna be covering the wealthy technician, and we wanted to just quick touch base on what defines wealthy. Jim, what are some thoughts that come to your mind right away? Jim Cokonis: I guess that depends on the person. But value, skill, job satisfaction, pay, all of it. Nick Pope: Yeah, I like that. And you said value and building on that. Value creates opportunity. So Kent, could you please take this away? I- Kent Bullard: yeah, I honestly, just coming back to this wealthy. Wealthy has several different definitions, and I know that we're gonna cover a few of those today. Let's jump into our, this next slide here and kick this thing off So before we get started, we know we've got a lot of you out there. I think we ended up having 40 to 45. Let us know that you guys are here in the chat, and I'd love for you guys to introduce yourselves. So what's your role? Where are you from? And think about this, name one thing that you've been able to do this year that made you a more valuable technician. As you guys are answering those questions in the chat I wanna cover some ground rules for this webinar. If you guys have any questions, please ask them in the chat. I'm gonna be your voice for this webinar. I'm gonna be p- paying attention to the comments and asking Nick and Jim your questions. Let's keep it as positive and constructive as we can. I know that sometimes these conversations can get very heated. We're very passionate. We care deeply, but let's try to put this in a positive forward perspective. And take notes, key takeaways, and most importantly, like all of us were having before we started this webinar, is to have fun. Nick, I'm gonna hand it back to you, sir. Nick Pope: Perfect. Thank you, Kent. So as we talk about what builds a, a valuable technician, Jim made some ex-excellent points and, the, the one thing that really stands out to me is every day we have the opportunity to build on where we were. And as we move on to our next slide here, we're gonna talk a little bit deeper about that. There's many areas that we can dive into, but before we do that, I want to start out with a little bit of a story. And, t-to take back myself in time, back when I was an early technician, a lot of what I knew then I do not know now, right? Over time, there are things that we're going to pick up along the way, but when we're at a certain point in our lives, we really don't have the capacity to look at things through a certain perspective. And what I mean by that is for most of us that were, or are right now young- ... early technicians, we're learning the ropes, right? We may be in a new role in a new business and understanding what the dynamic is there. Where do we fit in? We may have a family, and we're trying to figure out how to be, a good husband or a good wife and then, a good father or a good mother. Our focus is on a lot of other things, and a lot of the time, naturally, we're just trying to make a living to get by, and that's extremely understandable. Now, the one thing that I wish I would have known then that I know now is if I would've just opened my mind a little bit earlier, sooner in my career, I would've had the ability to learn a little bit more that would really add up over time. Just a little bit, versus just doing the same thing over and over again. Jim, can you think of a story back in your time when you can put yourself back into, in your early careers as a, or your early career as a technician when you were first starting out? What was your mindset like then? Jim Cokonis: My first job out of trade school was working in a fuel injection shop. And That that environment where one piece of dust can ruin a rebuild or destroy a piece of equipment gave me an extreme attention to detail and cleanliness. And it took me a long time to figure out that w- the way I need to do a fuel injection pump is different from what I need to do on an engine rebuild or a transmission repair. Because I would use the same really detail-oriented, super clean approach to everything I was doing, and there comes a point when you hit a spot where the customer's not willing to pay for that attention to detail on that job. So I had to learn that pretty early on in my career. Nick Pope: Yeah. Was it ever a thought in your mind to get yourself in a place to expand your mind and challenge yourself and find new things that you can use and apply in your career. Jim Cokonis: Wow. Okay, here's a quote we haven't talked about in the past, Nick, but, I heard a piece of advice from somebody a long time ago that says, "If you wanna keep growing, if you find you're the smartest person in the room, find another room." And I still find it very easy to be in a room where people are smarter than me. And I seek that out because, I like to be challenged and learning something every day. Even with all these experience highlights I still try to learn something every day. So yeah, I definitely would challenge myself, take on something new. Nick Pope: Yeah, I love that. Nick. And, yeah. Kent Bullard: Nick, we've got a question for you, by the way. Sure. From Michael on Facebook. Do you think you, younger Nick, would have listened? He says that, "I think this industry has to have some pivoting moments to even prepare their minds for that upgrade." Nick Pope: That's a great question. And I really think that if I was exposed to it in a way where it struck curiosity within me, yes. I was not, and, that's a big driving force why we're here right now, quite frankly to begin. But I only knew what I knew, and, I was surrounded by people who were very skilled. I had some great mentors that really elevated my game. As Jim stated, the, the people around you are going to shape you in one way, shape, or form. And ideally, it is a, a great honor to be around people that are extremely knowledgeable because you can pick up so much. You don't realize what you catch when you're around people of that stature and it's priceless. The moment you understand what's happening and you pick that up, and you're intentional about really paying attention to the details of how they carry themselves, how they think, how they respond upon certain situations and approach things, how they use the resources around them it's remarkable. Yeah, I th- I like to think if younger Nick had someone that planted that seed or maybe knocked me on the head and said, "Hey, we gotta look at it this way," I probably would've at least thought about it, right? So great question. Kent Bullard: At least in, in my perspective I didn't have to have an older Kent. I had other people that were there for younger Kent that really helped me on my own path, I take a bit of appreciation for that. So Nick, we've got a few of these Jim Cokonis: your environment will impact you good or bad. Choose your environment wisely. Kent Bullard: So Nick, you've got a couple of these things here listed for what builds a valuable technician. Nick Pope: Yep. There are just a few examples here. There are definitely going to be more, but these are a few areas that are going to work uniquely together. They're going to be combined. They're compounding quite a bit over, the course of a day into over a long period of time. So as we invest into ourselves and grow our knowledge we are hopefully gonna be in a position where we can take that and apply it into what we do. So the value of that is ultimately not only going to reflect, our role and our ability to be successful, but it's also hopefully going to impact our income, right? When we see wealthy, automatically we're going to think money. That's what I think when I hear it, but there's way more to it than that. And, circling back, the, the wealth really in our career is really what lies in between our ears. Our knowledge is going to take us places and as we continually grow that, we have the ability to stay on top of the trends within our industry and keep up it with, as things are evolving. And also just keep up with if we're working in independent shops, right? There's a large array of vehicles we're working on and that's a lot in its own. So ultimately it's endless and we can look at that two ways. We can look at it as, yeah, it's overwhelming, it's a lot or we can view it as this is great because there's always going to be something new to learn. We're ultimately challenged in the environment we're in, which is the ideal environment is to be challenged. Experience. Jim, how do you think experience factors into, building value within ourselves as technicians? Jim Cokonis: For me, I've always taken experience to grow wisdom. I've... Have you ever had your butt put in a bucket by a car and carried out of the shop? Nick Pope: Yeah, more times than I can count. Jim Cokonis: Yeah, that's experience. That's experience, and am I willing to take that and learn from it to not... To me, the craziest thing that you can do is continue to make the same mistake and get frustrated by it. If a method I tried didn't work we used to have this saying called "Fix the car backwards to learn forwards." So review what you did, what didn't go well today, what did go well today, and use that experience to practice in your mind to set your head up for the next time you see that. So that's what experience does for me. It helps my problem-solving. And there- Yeah ... there you go. There's a couple that tie together. Three, the three first, knowledge, experience, and problem-solving all feed off of each other. Nick Pope: Yeah, absolutely. And we could probably even tie consistency in there, 'cause that's happening over and over again, right? And I love how you said, what you said about experience because when we think about experience, what is it? It's in the h- it's in history, right? It's our past, which is ultimately our history, and what's done is done, but what's done is done as a reference for us to examine and articulate, what worked well, what didn't work. Kent Bullard: It's through those repetitions that you build that, that kind of, library of, "Hey, I've solved this problem in the past. This is what I did. I can use this in this new situation." I like what Joe said here, just relevant to building value. He said, "I was a tech at the beginning of my career. Now I oversee several Bosch auto service shops with apprentice technicians, and I wanna help them become certified master techs." So I think sometimes, especially we go back to that conversation of the technician coming out of out of the trade school. It's like, what does their field of view look like? Is it just finding a job so I can take care of myself, or is it this long-term, where's the road actually go? I see, a lot of technicians are in positions now in their careers that, that aren't working on cars. They might be, on a webinar teaching others, Nick Pope: yeah. Kent Bullard: Joe, thank you for the comment. Nick Pope: Yeah, Joe, that's- Just- ... amazing, and that sparked one thing on in my mind, Kent, when you said road, and with Joe's statement that we just saw, right now we have the opportunity to really, rise up. If we are senior level technicians, if we have a lot of experience if we're a foreman, a mentor, whatever the case may be. But there's an old saying "If you wanna know the road ahead, ask those coming back." And when I was young- ... I wish I would've had somebody that was already coming back that was intentional about trying to guide me, right? Nowadays, we have that opportunity and think about just the position that we're in where we can really build people up with knowing what we know, right? Experience, you cannot teach that from a book Kent Bullard: I love that quote Nick Pope: When we talk about measurable goals and results, those are gonna be tied together, and, these might be ind- individual goals where we're working on a certain area where we can improve upon. Maybe it's something new. When we talk about, results results are generally not gonna lie if we're measuring them accurately and we're being honest with ourselves as we monitor them. And it's good to measure, our progress because it's going to motivate us. It's gonna give us live, tangible data where we know where we are. And if we have to make any adjustments along the way, we can do that and that'll increase our ability to improve in all of these areas that you see here a-and then some. I'm gonna move on here. Go ahead, Kent Before we go to the next slide, I'm just curious 'cause as we're talking about going and experiencing new problems, solving new problems, does Joe... Joe, if you're still listening, do you find being a mentor is a new challenge that you're going through right now? Kent Bullard: And do you see that the experience you've had is helping you through that? I'd love to know in the comments Jim Cokonis: Give him a little while to type that out and keep rolling. Nick Pope: We... There we go. He Jim Cokonis: says yes. Straightforward answer. I love Nick Pope: it. I like it. Nice and direct. As we, forward think a little bit here, and we shift gears, what does our opportunity look like? And, as we talk about opportunity, we can really break it down. So for example, if we have 250 days out of the year that we're working over the span of 10 years, that's 2,500 opportunities that we have. 25 opportunities that we have while we're already at work, where we're making a living, doing what we do. But yes, we're going to get better by doing a lot of the same things day in and day out. However, what if, each day we spent a little bit of time being intentional about trying to learn something new and try something new while we're getting in the repetition, while we're making a living, while we're serving our customers Kent Bullard: When you put it like that it's almost a... Sorry to butt in, guys. No, you're good. It's almost a bit of a grace, right? Because maybe I'm not able to leverage every single day, but at the same time, there's hope because tomorrow's another day that I have a new opportunity to learn and grow, rather than saying I didn't learn today, so I'm just gonna stop trying." I, I remember somebody saying that you don't get fat eating one hamburger, and you don't get skinny eating one salad, right? So you've gotta... It's the multitude over a period of time. So if you end up having a cheeseburger on a Friday don't beat yourself up. Come back tomorrow better. Jim Cokonis: Find a better cheeseburger? Yeah. Sorry. Wagyu. You know- so I got a question for you, Nick. When you put something- Yeah ... like this up here- why can't I just learn from doing the job? Why-- W- I'm playing the game every day. Why can't I learn from playing the game? Nick Pope: I don't think that-- I think the real question is, how can I learn by playing the game? Because ultimately we're learning every day, right? We might not really realize it, but when we're in the daily grind we are going to face new things. There's gonna be a car that comes in with an electrical issue that we have not encountered before, right? So we are learning, but are we intentional about it? Meaning if I have an example that comes to mind it's an electrical issue I've had in the past, and we'll just say we have a We'll just make it simple. We have an electrical issue with a, a lighting system, right? We've been down this road before, and automatically we might already know, what the answer is. Do we really know? And when we shift our mind and when we try to create that with a little bit more of an open mindset, we are going to automatically put ourselves in position to learn with the understanding that we do not know, even though we have walked that path before. Does that make sense, Jim? Kent Bullard: It I see it Oh, I was gonna add on, or is that all right, Jim? Jim Cokonis: Go ahead. Kent Bullard: I feel like it's not okay. Jim Cokonis: No, Kent Bullard: it's... Go ahead. I've got my thought in my head. I feel like it has to be, it has to be intentional because when we get in the habits, when you get in the, the, I'm just doing the work, I'm just doing the work, you can turn off... And not to say that those of you aren't doing that out there, but you can turn off your brain, 'cause this is work I've done. This is work I'm used to. This is work. And you fall into those habits rather than having something that is a little more like you said, intentional. It's introspective. What are the things I'm doing specifically that I know that I can improve on, right? It's like going from, hey, I play basketball on the weekends, to somebody who's professionally playing. They're tracking how many assists they have, how many layups they have, how many, three three-pointers they shoot, those types of things Jim? Jim Cokonis: That you just, there, you segued right in. So there you are standing on two wheels going, "Neow." Professional athletes still work with coaches. They track their stats. And everything I've ever taught, I tell people, "Train your weak side. Train your places where you struggle so that you don't struggle and your performance comes up." And if a person's playing baseball and they struggle against left-handed pitchers, I'm gonna take practice from a left-handed pitcher until I can start to figure out how to see the ball come in the direction it's gonna come against that pitcher. If I go out in a game and I'm starting trying to throw a bunch of three-pointers and I can't hit it then all I'm doing is wasting time and offering a, a better opportunity for a turnover. I'm gonna practice my three-pointers when I'm not in the game. And so if you wanna learn a system, if you wanna learn a vehicle, to some extent we have to be able to do that on the fly at the car. I call it just-in-time training, JITT. You gotta know your JITT. And we have to have the ability to do that, but that gets easier if we already have the skills to look up service information, to comprehend it quickly, and to do all these things. A lot of us as techs, maybe we weren't that enamored in school and, we didn't like math, we didn't like science, and we didn't like to read. Okay, let's go be auto mechanics. And then the reality is we get out there, and what do we have to do? We've gotta read and comprehend technical information that may be at a upper high school or collegiate level. I've actually run Ford OBD information into an analyzer, and it came back that it was 12th grade or collegiate level. And if we struggle to read that, we gotta practice that, and we gotta get better with that because the faster we can digest that information and turn it into knowledge, then we can apply it. And that helps us get through the job faster. Kind of- So maybe my personal goal is to get better at reading I like some of the comments coming in. Andrew Condontzet said, "I wouldn't say that it's about learning every day," because you're right, not every day has those learning experiences, but what I tell our young techs is that every day you need to be 10% better every day. Kent Bullard: Sean, I love what Sean says because this goes back to it can't just be in the moment. You've gotta have some external feedback. I would rather learn from someone else's mistake than from my own. And then Joseph Joe said, "Great point on coaching. Doctors say they have a practice." I think that applies for our shops also, especially with the new products and technologies coming down the pipeline. We have so m- many more advancements, and they're getting faster and quicker and more every day Jim Cokonis: that, I like Joe's response because I used to tell people, they'd say, "What do you do for a living?" I'd say, "I'm a practicing technician." Kent Bullard: That's all it is. Nick Pope: There's a lot of truth to, to having that mindset. We never... let, let's circle back. We don't want to have our lid too low where we're not gonna be able to grow, right? So we wanna keep it- ... as high as we possibly can so we can continue to expand our capacity. Now, when we look at, just measuring, our workdays, right? We have 2,500 workdays, 2,500 opportunities and yes, every day we would love to get better. We would love to learn more every day. Whatever that case may be, whether we have training outside of work, whether we have a mentor that we're working with while we're in work the goal is to have some kind of system in place where we're just intentional about closing the gap on the areas that we need to improve upon. And Jim makes an extremely valid point. It may not directly mean, something to a system in the shop that we're struggling with. Most likely it will be, but what if, the biggest gap we can close right now is maybe improving how we comprehend things or how we read or understand information? Because as things continue to change, most of our resources are written documents and wiring schematics which change occasionally as well. So continuing to just understand that content throughout those resources is extremely massive. And not to go too deep into it, but I do wanna just plant this seed that everybody does learn differently. Everybody does hear things differently. And- ... it's good to keep that open mind as we begin to, coach a technician or if we're a technician that is being coached. If you don't understand something, ask questions. Make sure that we're receiving the information in a way that it is sinking in and we truly understand it, otherwise we're not going to be able to move forward and progress. Kent Bullard: That's right. You gotta have that feedback, which I think takes us to our next slide. Nick Pope: So when we talk about feedback and live data and, when we look at, data logger on vehicles, right? We're looking at live information and, let's just take that. We understand what that is, when we're looking at a car. But let's look under our hoods and think about, a few things and ask ourselves if we've been paying attention to this. Because again, as I alluded to earlier, we're all at different points in our lives, and wherever we are, we may not have had the exposure to this. And, we're-- we can look at, where is our knowledge level? How do we measure that? What does that look like? And confidence, confidence is gonna tie into so many things. And in our industry, we're most likely going to be presented with vehicles that have issues we may have not seen before. And- ... and that's okay, but how confident are we when we get a vehicle in our bay with a problem that we've never really ran into, right? And that's a testament to us, and it-it's not that we have to have all of the answers, but the real question is: Do we have the tools and the knowledge to find them? And then we can take a look at adaptability is another really important one, and that's really going to tie into, to our confidence, right? How adaptable are we to go from, being super efficient at general line work with steering and suspension and brakes and then jumping into, diagnosing we'll just say any networking issues, for example, right? There's a huge gap there. But, are we able to do that? Are we adaptable? Where are the low-hanging fruits that we can trim to get to the point where we need to be? And the most important thing is we just need to be honest with ourselves because nobody knows everything. And Jim, we've, we have talked about this before, but, when we have the mindset that we only know what we know, how does that help us as a technician? Jim Cokonis: We've had a lot of conversations, Nick. I'm trying to... I gotta know what I know, but I also have to know what I don't know. That's where wisdom comes from. So if I don't know what I don't know and I get a new vehicle in and I'm doing brakes on it I've been doing brakes for X number of years, maybe decades. And maybe I never learned that you gotta open the bleeder screws before you push a caliper back, and I shove the pistons back on a caliper, and I just trashed the ABS unit on a GM because I didn't read service information on that model to the point where GM had to put a bulletin out to inform their technicians that they were causing warranty issues on these cars 'cause they were doing it wrong. But knowing what I don't know when I get something new in front of me and having the ability to go to that service information real quick that's gonna keep me from having the mistake because I'm gonna go learn something. Did, did I answer your question? Nick Pope: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You're... I agree with you after we get off this webinar today, write this question down and, ask yourself if you're paying attention to the live data i- in your career. And write down some areas that are important to you, and here are some examples that are extremely universally related. However, we're all at different places, so whatever resonates with you, I encourage you to take some notes on that. Jim Cokonis: Love it. I like that you have mindset as determined, not stubborn. Nick Pope: Yeah. It is an option, but right now I think you were looking at this and using it, Jim. If I don't remember, ... forgive me, but I think you are determined. Jim Cokonis: Am I? Nick Pope: You are. So we're gonna talk a little bit ab- See Jim Cokonis: you're be- you're being a lot nicer here. One person in the comments said 10% every day, and you're only asking for one. Nick Pope: 1% of knowledge. He said 10% of i- I think just getting better every day. Okay. And but I- Yeah, there we go ... I caught that right away, and I'm like, "I love this guy. He's shooting high." Jim Cokonis: That's it. Nick Pope: Shoot high, baby. Jim Cokonis: I- Nick, the thing I said to you, and the thing I'll say to everybody here, right? We've all gotten those jobs. Maybe we had a job that didn't go real well, and we get one of those in the bay, and we spend the first 15 minutes going, "I really hate doing these," and Nick Pope: ra," Jim Cokonis: right? Because we're human, and we can get that stinking thinking which gives us a hardening of the attitudes. I love Zig Ziglar. He used to say stuff like that. But if we just go, "Let's get started." A journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step. So start taking things apart. Start looking at it. Get the service information. Look at the procedure. Maybe I did something that cost me time the last time. Just- I- ... just get going. Kent Bullard: Do something. I'm of the mind that rather, I'd rather make a mistake than not make a decision at all, because at least the, there's movement and there's feedback, right? So if I make a mistake, I can backtrack and go in the di- in a different direction. If I don't move, then I don't move. Just don't take the crank bolt out on that Ford. But anyway. I won't now, 'cause now I know. Nick Pope: Or take it out and have it towed into yours truly. We're here to help. There you go. When we talk about- Jim Cokonis: Does this take- im- Does this take four hours a day to do this? Do you have to have four hours a day dedicated to... some- somebody that's pretty, pretty well-known said that your skillset's really gonna get better in the second 40 hours. I won't call him out per- personally, but I hope this, this is one of the clips that gets made. He talked about the second 40 hours and got a lot of pushback. But is it really the second 40 hours? There's... Or are there any studies that say, if you wanna go from here to here So many minutes a day in your chosen field, focused and learning, within a number of years you'll be in the top percentage of knowledge in your field. Nick Pope: One study that I do know that has been done as of late they say one hour per day of dedicated time to learning whatever it is, new. If you want to learn how to play the guitar, for example, great, one hour a day for 365 days, Jim Cokonis: you're- It's gonna be intentional though ... Nick Pope: it's intentional learning, but you're going to be way up there as far as your skill set and knowledge in that. So you're-- I agree with you, Jim, you're right. And and the message here is not go and spend an hour a day at learning how to improve at, maybe using an oscilloscope, whatever the case may be. If you wanna do that, yeah, absolutely do that, but the key is you have to want it. You have to make that decision, and it has to be for the right reasons. And that's the most important thing, otherwise it's not going to be real or effective. Cameron, you make a really good point, and I love your mindset about staying positive when you're approaching something where you may have low confidence at the beginning. And I'm really glad you brought that up and shared your comment with us because the truth is where our mind goes is, a lot of times, is ultimately what's gonna dictate what the outcome is. So if we're gonna go into something, fearing failure, and failure is the only thing that's on our mind, we're most likely setting ourselves up to failer-- to fail. And if we're aware of our low confidence, that's fine. And how you're handling this is just remarkable. Keep doing what you're doing and share that with your team 'cause these are the little things that we're not gonna pick up in shop information. Last time I checked, there's no warnings on removing crank bolts from Ford to, tell you to be positive before you take this out without doing certain things. I'm gonna just jump forward and we're gonna talk a little bit about, how we can use information and understanding to create knowledge. One of the biggest common misconceptions that I believe when we're just talking about learning is when we think we have the information, a lot of times that doesn't mean that we ultimately have the knowledge, right? We might have read something or saw something or watched something on a video which is great. It's information. But how are we Getting ourselves to the point where we can really understand it, where we can apply it, right? If you've worked with somebody before maybe you've been on the receiving end and someone has just walked you through something new you have not done, and they ask to confirm that you understand, "Do you understand?" Or, "Do you have any questions?" And unconsciously, most of the time, we, we-- we'll answer, "No, I got it," because we just saw it. We think we have it. And, there's really no easy way to put this, but the truth is, do you really understand it, though? So when we talk about information, we're learning the what, right? So we're getting the facts, we're getting the data, we're getting the details. That's the what. But the real factor in this, what really ties it all together is the why. The why is gonna create that understanding and the why is for us to figure out. The why has to be intentionally driven and that's really gonna create that connection, and then we're gonna understand how to do it, and then we can go do it The only other area I wanted to just point out is don't take the information here to heart. This is just speculation with the multiplier here. Technically, when I did the math, if we have two hundred and fifty opportunities over the course of the year, it's about twenty-six times improvement if we spend fifteen minutes a day on intentional learning. But what I wanted to just point out is, how growth multiplies, right? And you can see over a series of time it really starts to trend in the right direction. It's a small amount, right? So just imagine if it's even more than this. It's gonna be quite substantial. So the goal is, whatever the opportunity may be, we're gonna be able to learn, we're gonna be able to apply what we learned a-a-and grow. And it's a cycle that is extremely repeatable Jim Cokonis: That next slide you have, I think that I teach the continual improvement cycle of, for problem-solving, and you basically have a learning cycle here that reinfor- you know, the different parts of it reinforces it. It's, it doesn't have a beginning and an end. It really doesn't. So go ahead and get into this, because this slide, And, the, the one-two after this I think we really need to cover before we wrap up. Nick Pope: Yeah. And a lot of this information we have covered, we're tying things together now to send her home. But, when we talk about repetition, right? The power of repetition is incredible. That's really where we go. We're going to get increases in our efficiency. We're gonna build our confidence. We are going to build our proficiency, our productivity. As long as we're doing, as long as we're hitting the mark, right? We're hitting the quality mark. We're not having comebacks. Yeah, there's things that are out of our control, and at the point, at that point, that's just what it is at the end of the day. There's never going to be perfection, but, we can aim high and wherever we land we adjust and we go back at it again. But, we have the ability to continually, use repetition to improve what we're already doing. But in addition to, we can tie in our intentional learning to that, which is really going to multiply our growth. It's gonna really give us, a little bit more wing under our wings to elevate our careers and have such a large impact across the board. So as we continue to climb and learn, in different areas that we're not completely competent in or continue in areas that we might think we are, but there's areas we maybe can learn a little bit better upon or catch up on something new that's just coming out. Whatever the case is, there's always going to be something and that's a beautiful thing. And the key here is together, we can continually grow over the period of time by creating this cycle. And like Jim said, it never ends, right? So there's going to be different levels as we go, but it's a constant cycle. This- It truly never ends. Kent Bullard: This goes back to something that you said earlier, Jim, where you're talking about, those, those additional hours and doing it an additional hour every day. There's a lot of studies that show-- This is why video games are being used heavily in education now, is because it's not about, hey, here's the insight, here's the stuff you need to learn, and here's all of this information. It has to go through a cycle of presen-presenting that information, gaining some competency and understanding, enough so that you can apply it. And once applied, you can see the feedback of that execution, which informs your next move, and it's the repetition of that cycle that builds competence Right? Is gaining that insight applying it, seeing the results, and then getting more information. You've got that there where you've got proficiency, efficiency, productivity, and confidence. What you're doing is you have to go through that cycle of application and insight to gain the competence, right? So you could sit in a class for four hours, but if I can't go and do something with that and apply it and see if it got the result I was hoping to get, I'm not gonna gain that, that confidence I was hoping to get from that insight. Nick Pope: Yeah, and, and I, can I s- can I share a hack for people who may struggle to be disciplined and learn? A lot of us techs have a We have a tick, we have a thing that we're normal. H- how many of you people, how many people in the audience have struggled to sit down and read a book or something like that? Jim Cokonis: But if you find something that interests you, you'll look up and four hours went by. Okay? So bring that last slide back up It's just an example, but if you are struggling to get started with learning to be disciplined in this, I encourage you, there's something about adults. Adults learn different than children, and we will be drawn to things that we're interested in. That's what the algorithms do on social media and everything. They find things you're interested in, they feed it to you so you get hooked. Do it with yourself. Pick it. Okay? So find something that you're interested in. Maybe you're not really good at electrical work, or you got bit by electrical work and now you're interested in figuring out why. That's when you're ready to learn electrical, not when you're sitting in class being taught that, volts and amps and ohms and resistance and all that stuff. You're "Oh my goodness just tell me how to fix the car." But when you get interested in something and you're like, "Why did I misdiagnose this blower motor?" And then you find something, you find that there's this relationship, and you go print out that formula and you stick it on the toolbox on that pull-out drawer where we can write up invoices, and every time you pull that drawer out, you see that formula, guess what? It's gonna stick in your head, right? And then you'll be able to do it from memory. So find something you're interested in to start with, and then once you do that, start looking for how things are related. Because I used to teach guys, "Look, electricity is fluid dynamics, and that applies to a fuel injection, it applies to hydraulics, and it applies to air flow in an engine." Okay? So if I have pressure through resistance, over time I get flow. And that's how a f- an old Ford DPFE sensor used to work. I used to draw it up as a series circuit and teach guys how it worked, and they went like, "Oh. Oh." So once you learn one thing really and you start seeing those common concepts, and you can start applying it to the brake job. Why do I step on the brakes and it dogs to the left, and then when I let up it dogs to the right? I've got an imbalance in application and release. What could cause that? I started asking myself better questions. Sorry. Yes. I'm on fire today, Nick. I apologize. It got my brain going. I figured I'd share it. No, let's go. Nick Pope: Glad you jumped in. Kent Bullard: No you made something- You had me going ... you made a really good point, Jim, in that not only do we have to learn this new stuff, but we have to find relevant examples where we can apply it in our own life. In talking about, "Yeah, I gotta get the work done, but why did I get the work done that way, and why do I need to pay attention to this?" Because it's gonna help me in the future. It's taking that insight and applying it to real world situations where you can execute and you gain that insight Nick Pope: Yeah. And in closing, one thing that sparked my interest here was there's more than one way to skin a cat. There's more than one way to cook a steak. There's always, other things that we can learn from other people around us. So keep your mind open because you might be able to take something away that could help you do what you're doing already just a little bit better. And, you know- That's right ... as we think about, how repetition makes us faster, right? It's gonna increase our efficiency. By combining that with intentional learning, it's going to make us better. This'll be just one quick slide, and the picture that we're painting here is we have one day, we have one decision, and we have one step forward. So over the course, we have, again, over the year, hypothetically, 250 opportunities. Each one is gonna count. You have the choice, right? You have the decision to make them count So Jim- Kent Bullard: Ooh. ... Nick Pope: Jim is really excited to talk about this slide. And, we've been... You probably noticed a little bit of a trend here. We've been talking about knowledge a little bit, right? And it's so important, right? It's extremely important in our careers, in our lives. This goes beyond the shop. It truly does. However, we wanna be in a position as professionals in whatever it is we do where we are valuable, right? In my opinion, nobody is replaceable, period, end of story. Now, we're gonna leave that at that because that's not what we're here to talk about but my point is we can invest in ourselves It doesn't have to be every day. It can be, designated to certain times, whatever the case may be. But the, the thing here is, what can we carry with us every day? I don't think I can carry my toolbox with me every day. I know we have toolboxes that have brakes and steering and suspension on them and that's awesome. Tow hitches. Yeah. It's extremely great, right? Toolboxes on wheels in our cars, wonderful. However, the tools help us get the job done. There's no question or doubt about that we need those tools. However, the most important part or asset to us is in our mind and we talk about interest. Jim, have you ever spent a lot of money on a tool truck? Have you ever financed anything, perhaps? Jim Cokonis: Oh, I have. I have. Yeah. But I always paid it quickly. Nick Pope: Yeah. Because Jim Cokonis: the, the- why did you pay it Nick Pope: quickly? Jim Cokonis: Because the, the amount of interest on the payments off of most of the tool trucks is almost like going for a payday loan. Nick Pope: Yeah. Jim Cokonis: But here's, here's the thing. Is it nice... And I'm specifically speaking to younger techs, and I'm not calling anybody out if you've made different decisions. I got a friend that has a toolbox so big he has a snowmobile mounted on top of it. But if we think about this, it's nice to have a nice toolbox. It's nice to have everything organized, and there will come a point in your career when organization of the toolbox, arrangement of tools, ability to do inventory quickly, will save you time over the course of the day, the week, the month, the year. And that's absolutely true. But you I worked for many years out of a repo'd Snap-on bottom box and a factory paint blem top box that I got for a graduation present, and it took me a long time before I bought a really nice, large, one of the largest roll cabinets they made at the time and paid it off quickly. But here's what I'll say about toolboxes. I love 'em. I love good tool storage. I like organization. I have not figured out how to plug that box up to a car and fix it yet. And so I had five scan tools before I bought a fancy s- fancy toolbox, okay? So the other thing that I learned in my career after a period of time, do I buy the whole rack of sockets? There was a time when I pre-delivered Kubota tractors, and there was one giant half-inch drive Allen wrench I needed to check the front differential for factory fill. I didn't buy the whole rack of half-inch Allen wrenches. I bought that one, and I still have it. I didn't buy all the large Allen drives. I bought the 17 millimeter for checking the diffs on certain vehicles, and that saved me a lot of money over the years. And that, that's what allowed me to buy some of the s- the tools and the scopes and the scan tools and things that I had, and I would get called to look at vehicles that other people couldn't get into because I had the equipment. Because getting the right kind of equipment drove my knowledge, and my knowledge drove my proficiency, and that actually made me wealthy in several ways. So if you're new to this, tools are fantastic. Buy judiciously and- ... put the money into yourself. Does that make sense? Kent Bullard: I'd love to, I'd love to add to this, Jim 'cause we do have a bunch of conver- comments coming in, but from my own part of this, it's like, look, y- you want to invest in the tools. Those are things that you can use your experience and your hands your body to go and fix the car. Like you said, I can't plug the, the toolbox into the car, and it's really our knowledge and experience that can make those tools valuable. What I've seen is that we can get transfixed on just building our tools and saying our tools is our value, and that's not necessarily true. You have to have both. You have to have the right tools to work on the vehicles, and you have right tools to do the job, but it's not gonna work unless you've got the experience, the knowledge, and the know-how. And you have to have both of those things. So don't lose sight of investing in your own skills and talents for investing in tools. James said something really great. He said, "In the beginning of this journey, the feedback was generally negative with our technicians, but it was a requirement that was implemented." I'm assuming training. Fast-forward to today, they have more interest in discussing topics and one has decided to pursue ASE certification. We lost Joe apparently on some of this, and I think that's par for the course. You've got a lot of technicians who've invested, thousand- hundreds of thousands of dollars in their tools. Andrew said it's for the free stickers." Cameron said "The day you stop learning is the day that you die." I truly believe that there. And then Joe said, "Very good information. Share this information with the shops." Joe, we'll connect with you after this. Yeah. Nick Pope: So the, it's clear, we're pushing that the greatest investment is in yourself. And the, the truth is, tools wear out. Knowledge is going to pay forever as long as we continue to nurture that and grow. So I wanna just talk a little bit about opportunity, right? We've talked a lot about opportunity and, if our shop is willing to invest in us and give us the opportunity outside of, the walls of our shop, or if we're looking into any type of training, within whatever the case may be, are we willing to embrace that and really take on that opportunity to the point where we see the value in it for us, for our career even going a little bit deeper- Jim Cokonis: is this... I'm sorry to cut you off, but is this like a 401? If the shop's gonna put money into the 401, is, if it's gonna match what we put in, are we willing to put in our level to get the extra? Is like that, actually. So this is kinda like the reverse of that. Kent Bullard: Oh Jim Cokonis: my gosh, that's Kent Bullard: such a brilliant analogy, Jim. Jim Cokonis: Don't tell Kent Bullard: anybody. I love that. No, I love that. Jim Cokonis: It just came into my head. I'm like, "Ah, this is like a 401." Nick Pope: Y- absolutely. Here's the thing. If, for one, if it's not costing us anything but our time and our energy, that's great. And whatever the cost may be, the value is something that we're gonna be able to carry with us, hopefully forever, right? And then multiply that around the people that work alongside us. But the point is, are you gonna multiply that investment? And, the caveat here is we talk about compound in- interest with tools- ... on a tool truck, right? Where is that money going, and is it adding value to us? If we're paying all that extra money and interest we're losing money. Jim Cokonis: Yeah. Nick Pope: And now let's flip it and go the other way. And Jim, your analogy's spot on. We can multiply the investment that's put into us for ourselves. So- Jim Cokonis: So can I kinda tie something together, Kent? And this'll kinda lead into what you wanna get to. Beautiful. You talked about how they're using video games and b- believe it or not, flight simulators were what really taught education and industry that gamification of training works. Okay? And everybody knows that most people know that I'm with Today's Class, and we have an app that delivers content. So many questions a day. It's designed to be, just a daily little hit of training that's related to your job role, and it really focuses on foundation and core content, and then throws some interesting things out from time to time And it gets the shop talking, and some shops run contests with the points because you get so many points for a correct answer, but you don't get as many points for an incorrect answer. But you have the opportunity to learn something right there. Because we'll explain it. We don't just go, "Eh, you failed." It's like, "Here's why." All right? So we gamify it, and it's still interesting because y- you'll ask a question about putting, dielectric grease on a connector for an ignition coil, and you'll get a lot of people that push back on that concept. "You can't put dielectric grease in the contacts." And I can't do this, but I will tell you all, I created a video that supported the practice with technical service bulletins and diagnostic charts from General Motors, part numbers from Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, for dielectric grease exactly for the purpose of preventing terminal fretting on connectors even though they're inside of a w- a weather pack fitting. And The question was designed to teach that piece of knowledge. But it is amazing how many people just go, "That's absolutely not true. You can't do that." And it's just you should really write this up and send it to all the engineers at these companies, because they're lost." But there's always opportunities to learn. Did you guys know that some Ford oil filters require no lubrication when you s- tighten them down? And it's like, what? And it's because some of them are on aluminum housings. Fords and Chryslers are on aluminum housings, and if you lube them up and you tighten them down too much, you warp the housing and you cause a leak. I didn't know that, not until we were doing research, and that's something I learned. I'm like, "Wow, I'm gonna share this in a question." That one gets a lot of angst too, but it's an opportunity to learn and it's a game. It's not a test, it's a game. Kent Bullard: I think this, this puts us near this end, end part here Jim. We started this series with an idea of just introducing some different concepts with the technical training that we move along. Investing in yourself, growing yourself. I know that the focus of today's class is building careers, and that's what we wanna do at the institute as well, is build lifelong meaningful careers. So I wanted to give a, a big thanks to today's class for helping us out with this webinar. And just to reinforce what Jim was saying today's class is Gear Group's daily training platform designed to help shops and technicians really build their knowledge and their capabilities through that consistent learning. Rather than relying solely on those occasional classes or events or webinars, like we're doing here, today's class delivers that training through personalized three to five-minute sessions each day that fit naturally into your guys' workflow just like the comment said there. The platform includes technical training for technicians, but we also have been working to and we have content now for service advisors, managers, and other team members as well, so the whole shop can get invested in this continuous growth and development every day. This experience is designed to keep everybody engaged through the daily participation, gamification, like you said, rewards, and personalized learning paths that you can customize with your shop. Today's class helps those technicians reinforce comprehension, build your confidence, and grow your performance and value as a technician one day at a time. You guys can schedule a, a free demo today, and I'm gonna put the link in the chat. If you guys are interested for a, a free demo, just to check out the training, it's incredible. Any questions, we'll hang out for a few minutes here. If we have any more questions for this. Nick, final thoughts? Nick Pope: Thanks for everyone for taking the time to, to be here today. And, in closing the the big takeaway I hope that you have is that the greatest investment that you will ever make is in yourself. So keep building every day. Jim Cokonis: Awesome. Thanks, Nick. Thanks, Kent. Kent Bullard: And thank you guys- Thank you, Jim and Kent everyone in the comments who attended here. Keep an eye out. Pay attention to the institute, to today's class, to GEAR Group. We're gonna be posting on social, and I guarantee you with the success of these webinars, we're gonna bring some new and incredible things to you guys very soon
How to Build a Business While Raising a Family | Kassiady Markham - Ep 31
You shouldn't have to play detective just to figure out what's happening in your own shop. 😂 If you're ready for all your shop's information in one place, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOIn this episode, Kassiady Markham joins Tonnika Haynes to share her journey of building Phase Two Automotive alongside her husband from the ground up. Kassiady opens up about the challenges of balancing motherhood, business ownership, and overcoming setbacks—including business failures and family health crises. She emphasizes the importance of coaching for growth, setting boundaries at work, and building generational wealth for their family.Timestamps:00:00 Kassiady introduction: therapy, humor, and owning half the company01:02 Shop origins: EMT careers and turning a car hobby into a side hustle04:08 From “side gig” to baby in the office—juggling kids and business05:16 Struggles: marriage stress, foreclosure, and raising autistic children07:00 When the first business collapsed and the comeback began10:09 Taking a leap (again): Starting over with Phase Two Automotive13:32 IRS threats and the decision to take full control14:29 Stepping into leadership: Doing the books, HR, and payroll16:36 Coaching with Elite: Solving problems, boundaries, and marriage tips18:45 Why running a family business was the only way20:01 Who’s in Kassiady corner when it gets hard? Support systems23:30 How the team runs the shop (including her brother!)25:38 The crucial role of coaching in unlocking new growth27:20 The vision: generational wealth, success goals, and involving the kids30:35 Lessons learned: “It’s not a bad life—just a bad day.”32:01 Setting work boundaries and prioritizing family34:19 Therapy as self-care; keeping the marriage strong39:05 Parenting philosophies and supporting kids to adulthood41:14 Leading as the only woman in the shop: standing firm43:19 Customer confrontations and not backing down44:50 Real advice for women running shops or helping husbands50:39 Discounting, boundaries, and protecting the shop’s future54:49 Giving back to the community—doing good when it matters56:29 Expansion goals: property headaches and future shop dreams60:08 Rapid fire: first car, dream car, entrepreneurship in one word61:49 Biggest lesson: Wishing they’d started coaching sooner62:13 Why she’ll never be without a business coach