Ep 160: Hiring for Culture Changes Everything with Stacey Black and Ethan Whidden
With Ethan Whidden, Stacy Black
Now playing — The Limitless Leadership Podcast
About this episode
In this episode, Stacey Black and Ethan Whidden from Promotive join the podcast to share their thoughts on leadership and culture in the automotive industry.…
Key takeaways
- —Promotive focuses on matching technicians to shop cultures to improve retention.
- —Effective leadership involves adaptability and creating a safe environment for team members.
- —Team-building activities foster stronger connections and enhance collaboration.
- —Hiring processes should prioritize emotional intelligence and cultural fit over just technical skills.
- —Making a difference in people's lives is a core value that drives successful leadership.
Frequently asked
- What does Promotive do?
- Promotive is a recruiting engine that helps automotive shops hire better by finding technicians who fit their culture and needs.
- How can shop owners improve their hiring process?
- Shop owners should first utilize their own resources to find candidates, and if unsuccessful, consider partnering with a recruiting company like Promotive for expert assistance.
- What is the importance of culture in a shop?
- A strong culture ensures that employees feel aligned with the shop's values, which increases retention and overall job satisfaction.
▸Full transcript
And when you ask anybody from Promotive, what do we stand for? It's keeping people in this industry that fit the cultures of the shop and they stay. You want to do your job so well that they don't need you. Yes. Right? Yes, absolutely. That's the greatest gift we get. I know some people are like, okay, wait a minute, what about revenue? There's plenty of shops out there that need help.
We're going to just keep pushing forward, but we want to find people that feel good. And we get comments from technicians that are like, you've changed my life. 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 another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. As you know, before we get started, just be, be sure 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.
So we are live at the conference. This is the first annual conference that TechMetric has. As I shared, called Tectonic, and I'm excited to have two incredible guests, both from the company that, or one of the companies that is a sponsor of the podcast, Promotive. Uh, I'm joined by Ethan Whidden, a sales account executive with Promotive, and Stacy Black, an account manager, not just an account, the account manager, Stacy Black.
And of course my co-host, maybe I'm the co-host, but Brett Beutler is also here. Great to have you guys. Awesome to meet you. Thank you for being a podcast sponsor. Can't wait to hear your story today. Yeah. And speaking of stories, let's go ahead and get right into it. If you would share with the audience a little bit about who you are, what you do, how you do it, and what Promotive is, and then we're gonna get into today's episode.
All right, I guess I'll start it off. So, uh, my name, like you said, is Ethan Wood and I'm— Promotive is the recruiting engine dedicated to helping modern automotive shops hire better and grow stronger. With deep aftermarket experience, they know shop operations, the technician talent market, and how transformative the right hire can be. Promotive runs a full hands-on recruiting process. They find active and passive talent, screen candidates with intention, and guide everyone through a clean, professional hiring experience.
The result is a pipeline of candidates who are aligned, prepared, and ready to contribute. Shops work with Promotive because they deliver consistency, clarity, and real results. They take on the heavy lifting so shops can stay focused on customers, operations, and growth. If your shop needs to hire or wants to build a better recruiting pipeline, visit gopromotive.com. Start a search, schedule a conversation, and see why so many shops trust Promotive to find the right technicians.
Atlantic Automotive is an alliance of leading auto repair shops. They partner with, invest in, and grow exceptional auto repair shops throughout the US. For shop owners looking to take things to the next level, Atlantic Automotive can help you scale with access to technology, people, growth capital, and operational support. For shop owners looking to transition into something new, Atlantic Automotive provides a trusted home for your business and a responsible steward for your legacy.
Atlantic Automotive is not a franchise, a chain, or private equity group. It is a coalition of like-minded auto repair shops united by a shared vision and shared resources. Atlantic Automotive is a faith-based, family-owned company building the number one automotive partnership organization. If you're interested in partnering, go to atlanticautomotivegroup.com and fill out the Start a Conversation form. Sales rep for Promotive. I got brought on, what was it, about 1.5 years ago out of college.
So I graduated with an art degree, studio arts. That's like what my passion is. It's my hobbies. And this was all very new for me. And I was terrified of coming out and being in this like corporate space of, you know, you got to say this and that. You can't be— disrespectful or you get, you know, in trouble or anything like that.
It's way different, right? My first show was SEMA, so I got thrown— That's a party. Yeah, I got thrown into the fire and then dragged across the coals, which was like the best way to do it, honestly, because it was a good experience and I got to know everybody very well. But basically what I do is I talk to shops, I get to hear their stories and what they're doing for recruiting.
And if they need help finding someone, I give them the lowdown on, you know, what Promotive is, what we do, and and how we can help them. I, I'm so honored that you guys are a sponsor of the podcast. It just seems like a natural fit being a leadership podcast and what you guys do in the automotive space with recruiting, talent acquisition.
Uh, you know, and Brett and I, the way we talk about talent acquisition is hiring your CIAT members, people who are coachable, intelligent, who have the right attitude. And the I for intelligent is not necessarily book smarts, but it's emotional intelligence. We work with people. Granted, we work with cars too, but But we're hiring people who work with people, and we all know people are gonna people, and it can be challenging sometimes.
But Stacy, go ahead and share with the audience who you are and what you do and how you do it. So I'm Stacy Black. I am an account manager with Promotive. And once Ethan gets a shop to come on board, I step in and say, okay, tell me about your shop. What works for you? What sets you apart from the other shops in the area?
And my goal is, is to find technicians, service advisors, Ops guys, whoever they need in their facility that matches the culture of their shop. So I can find you an A-tech, I can find you a B-tech, a service advisor, but if they don't fit your culture, they're not going to stay. So that's the challenge I have from day to day. It's just working with them, figuring out, and they may say to me, oh, I want an A-tech that has 10 years experience, blah, blah, blah.
And they go through the process. We find someone. It's like, okay, wait a minute. Let's back up. I really think I need a B that can turn and burn hours. So, you know, we tweak and we turn and we pivot a little bit. We like to say the word pivot a lot at Promotive. But friends, anyone? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And we all scream out pivot, but we want to find somebody that's going to stay at the shop.
That's our ultimate goal. That when you ask anybody from Promotive, what do we stand for? Is keeping people in this industry that fit the cultures of the shop and they stay. You want to do your job so well that they don't need you. Yes. Right. Yes, absolutely. That's the greatest gift we get. I know some people are like, okay, wait a minute, what about revenue?
There's plenty of shops out there that need help. We're going to just keep pushing forward, but we want to find people that feel good. And we get comments from technicians that are like, you've changed my life. And we don't realize the impact that we have. It's powerful. It's so powerful and it's so rewarding. As leadership development coaches, Brett and I know the importance of asking questions to determine, uh, or really understand who we're working with, who we're serving as a coach.
And we ask questions in a way that will allow us to understand what their culture is like. You talked about culture, you said culture a number of times, Stacy. I'll ask you, speak to the listening audience, um, about what it means to create and cultivate a culture at a shop and how important that is? Well, I use two examples whenever I'm working with shops the first time.
The culture, they vary, and it varies on the personality of the shop owner. I had a shop owner that was former military. He was a Marine, very rigid in his processes, ran a phenomenal business, but he wanted somebody that was in there that was used to process. You pick things up, you put things back. Very clean, very, very formal. I had another shop that was very artsy.
They offered chess events on Wednesday nights and people would gather in their shop and they would feature new artists throughout their community and they were just very chilled and laid back. I wouldn't put somebody that's more rigid in the artsy shop, and both were extremely— are still very extremely successful. But it's about building something that fits what you have a vision. You want everyone going with that same vision of, okay, I want to know that it's going to be 4 generations of family that are coming in to get their cars worked on because they know that they can trust us.
And so you want to build around that. I hope that makes sense, but— Yeah, no, it does. I think, well, also Lisa says like, would you take your car there? Yes. Right? Like, would you work there? That's a big question that I have to ask myself when I'm talking to shops, because I'll do all the pre, you know, I'll research their company, I'll go through the website and location.
And as I'm talking through them, you, I guess I don't want to say this, but there's, there's definitely top-level shops and then there's not, right? And there's definitely factors that go into each, but culture, like you said, is how people stay around. And you could tell by just having a conversation with the shop owner how much they care about it. Whereas somebody picks up the phone, they're like, how much does it cost?
What is it going to make me? Way different conversation. So yeah, it's one of the most important parts of keeping people around. Let's keep this topic alive. So now we're going to go internal with Promotive and let's talk about culture, right? Because we know you guys have a culture, right? We do. So what continuously attracts you two to the culture of Promotive every day?
So for me, one, it's definitely the people that work here. I've grown extremely close with Stacy, with Lisa, with Sam, with Brian, with all the, you know, people that I hang out with. They're my friends now. I'm a 24, 23, I'm 24. Oh my gosh. I'm a 24-year-old guy and I'm hanging out with, you know, people that are definitely older than me.
So it was a little bit of a, of a change up, but I feel like I could hang out with them outside of work and definitely partying and having fun and blowing off steam is part of that process. But it starts at the top, like with Lisa, with Sam. They lead by example, point blank, period. Like they show how to do it.
They put in more work than probably 3 people combined. And so that's, that's what I look at. And I say, if I want to be here eventually, at one point in my life, I need to follow this example. And they've been, you know, great for that kind of thing. This episode is brought to you by Limitless Leadership because great teams don't happen by accident, they're led on purpose.
If you're tired of wearing all the hats, putting out fires, and wondering why your team won't step up, Limitless Leadership is for you. They help leaders transition from player to coach who develop people and multiply impact through in-person or online leadership training like the Limitless Leadership Blueprint, or their Roots to Results coaching method, their services are designed to help you tap into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results and help you create safety and trust in order to provide clarity and direction.
So if you're ready to stop managing chaos and start leading with purpose, head to limitlessleadership.co to book a complimentary discovery call today. Leading a shop can be isolating, especially when you're trying to grow and still take care of your people. Tectonic 2026 brings together shop teams who care about the same things you hear on this podcast: coaching, accountability, training, and building leaders at every level.
Expect hands-on workshops, role-based sessions, and honest conversations you can take back to the shop on Monday. Tectonic is happening April 9th through the 11th in Houston, Texas. Tickets are on sale now, and Limitless Leadership Podcast listeners can, can get $500 off standard pricing with code LIMITLESS500. Go to techmetric.com/tectonic. That's T-E-K-T-O-N-I-C, or use the link in the show notes. I think it's important for leaders to recognize how infectious they can be.
It's really in, like, they're contagious. Like, we, we, we can either infect, we can affect. And when I think about what you just shared, Ethan, especially with Lisa and Sam, you know, we see both of them at just about every industry event, always smiling. Just, I mean, Sam especially, she's like the life of the party. She is. Like, she's a magnet for people who, like, She's a great energy about her, and I know the same can be said inside of Promotive.
Something I really admire and respect is the fact that you guys had, um, earlier this year, and, uh, I'm sure you have them every year, your annual kickoff event. And this year it was in Florida, and you guys rented a big old house and had what, almost 30 people there? And, um, just had games and just like these events and this team building.
Um, speak to the listening audience who hasn't done a, like, a kickoff event or a big, like, team-building activity, almost like a weekend retreat, um, what does that do for you individually and for the team for the, for the duration of the year? So from my perspective, I know Stacy has her own stories to tell, but from my perspective, it's a time where we can get realigned.
We work our asses off like from basically sunup till sundown, we are heads down working and we're figuring out what the strategy is going to be like for the rest of the year. So there's that team bonding part of it. We also do trainings and stuff like that, breakout sessions, all that kind of stuff. But it's once those laptops close, that's, that's where the bonding starts.
Uh-oh. Yeah, it's, it gets pretty, it gets pretty insane. We like to have fun for sure. But, you know, you blow off steam, you get to know people outside of just their work roles., and it's probably one of the most fun environments I've ever been in. Yeah. For me, we are a remote company, so we're throughout the country. So when we say, okay, uh, Connecticut, let's think of Shannon and Alex.
They know that environment. They live in Connecticut. We have people in Florida. I'm in Texas. He's in Denver. You've got California. And so we're all over the country and we always see each other on screen. All day, you know, we're always communicating, but being together and having that experience and sharing stories and seeing the passion that we all have, it really drives home of, okay, the recruiters can see what the account managers are going through and they'll listen in on some of the calls with shops and the shops are like, "I really need a strong tech, please help me."
They get that visual and they see our reaction to it And I think it just makes us stronger as a team because they're able to understand, okay, when I'm rejecting somebody or I'm questioning them on a certain candidate, they've gotten that interaction. They've heard that from the shop 'cause they've seen how we've reacted of, please, let's help these guys. And it's so important to us.
You guys in some of the keynote sessions today are talking about AI. I mean, from Cedille Ford, right? I don't care how many years we go in the future with AI continuing to regenerate and regenerate, nothing will replace culture. And it starts with human-to-human engagement and interaction. You're, you're never gonna be able to replace that, right? So even if you guys are a remote company for the rest of your existence, there's always gonna be power in presence and engaging with your teammates who are your family.
That way you can engage with your customer base however you do it, online through AI or through in-person type meetings when you come to these conferences, right? It's just, it's going to be a pillar for the rest of our generations moving forward. And that's, I believe that's what God intended it, no matter what he's going to do with AI moving forward, right?
Well, I think one of the most moving experiences was when we were sharing our vision boards. Yes. Because, well, first off, I don't think I've ever seen that many people cry like in one sitting. But, you know, for the new people that got brought on to Promotive, it was their first time being part of a kickoff. Right. And so it's definitely overwhelming.
I get it. There's a big house, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of energy in the room. And so you have to stand up in front of everyone and share what your plans are like. What do you want to achieve for this year? And so for a lot of people that brought up, you know, struggles that they were going through, whether it was just personal life, health, fitness goals, whatever it may be, and they're talking about it to everybody and they're extremely vulnerable.
And so putting yourself out there and being completely open to these new faces that you have no clue who they are, right? I mean, it is a bonding experience. Everybody's on the same page. What you just shared, Ethan, really, it really is. It's a testament to the leadership from— I don't like saying top to bottom, but I'll just say from the very top, starting at the top with Lisa and Sam, as you shared earlier.
And what I mean by this is for that amount of people to exercise that level of vulnerability, especially for some who just met some new team members. Mm-hmm. That speaks to the level of safety and trust that Lisa and Sam and you guys are creating for incoming team members. That is critical to the success of not only yourself, but also for your team.
And it's our responsibility as leader to provide clarity and direction, but we can't provide clarity and direction if we don't create safety and trust. The fact that there is already a level of safety and trust is a testament to the leadership that you guys have amongst Promotive. Of course, this is Leadership Podcast. I'll ask you, what does leadership mean to you? How would you answer that question?
I like the word that you used with trust and faith. I think that both of those are extremely important. And watching Lisa, uh, I'm just gonna give you an example. While we were gone to this, and it's a week long, week-long event. And for us, we were used to traveling, so it— our families are used to it, that sort of thing. Some of these people have never left home.
Some of them just had babies within, you know, the last 3 or 4 months. We had one, her son celebrated a birthday, you know, so they're away from home. And what Kat and Lisa did, they sent out letters to the family members while we were gone saying thank you for letting them come. Yeah, to this. How huge is that? Who thinks of somebody, first off, writing a letter?
Because now we email, we text, you know, whatever. They hand wrote out a note saying thank you for letting them come and be a part of this group. Yeah, powerful. Very powerful. Um, Ethan, same question. What does leadership mean to you? How would you answer that question? I think That's a very hard question to answer, but for me, I like, I think a leader should be someone who is adaptable to the person that they're leading.
So for me, for example, I like someone who leads by example. I want someone to hold me accountable, but also, you know, show empathy with me, be there for me, have fun with me. Like that is my kind of leader. That's why I think I like Lisa so much is because she's all of those things. I, we call Ethan out on things just Let it— I cannot stand sugarcoating.
Can I please bring up April Fools? Oh geez. Well, now you have to. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm older. I know you guys are shocked, but I'm quite a bit older. Can't be, maybe a year or two. Yeah, yeah, just a little bit. But I, we developed a channel called Promotion Motion. It's things to motivate our team and, you know, put things out there.
Hey, I walked, 5 miles, or I achieved this on my vision board. And, you know, it's just we're always cheering each other on, or have you guys tried this, or whatever. So every holiday I try to post something fun. So on April Fools', I said, you know, at 58, Brad and I are just, you know, we're beside ourselves. The doctor came back and said that I was expecting.
We're going to go back to the 2 AM feedings and blah blah blah. You know, our friends are laughing and all this stuff, and everybody was cracking up. And I said, oh, at the end, April Fools'. He's like, Stacy, that's the best news I've ever heard. It made my day. It made all of us our day. It's like, Ethan, we love you.
I'm sorry, I saw it, I got excited about it. I love that. Didn't mean to call you out, but that was amazing. That's one of my favorite stories. Well, I obviously, we're very close and I like when I see these things come through, I get excited because it's, you know, it's a a very stressful work day. So I, I, I see the stuff come in and it's, it's, it's good.
It's a nice, nice break. But I guess I wasn't paying attention to the calendar. So yeah, people don't care. Edit that out. Yeah. No, no, it's, it's staying in. Look, I'll say this, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And it's very evident that the two of you care for each other. You care for your team members.
Promotive as a whole. Like we just see it. I mean, we being just the industry, whenever you're going to an event and you see Promotive folks, the, the way you guys just gel, uh, I mean, it, it looks like you guys, it's almost as if like, you know how to hire people. It's, it's just so strange. It's almost as if you understand what recruiting really looks like in an organization.
Yeah. Um, let's say I'm a shop owner and I'm experiencing, um, hiring retention challenges. Um, maybe I'm struggling with interview processes. Maybe I'm struggling with just finding a good team member. Um, What does it look like? I mean, what, what, what, what's, what step do I take if I want to get, uh, involved with Promotive? So I think the first step for anyone is use your own resources, right?
Like see what you can do on your own. Ask the tool guys, see who's in your area, ask your technicians first. And then if that all strikes out, then you should be looking at a recruiting company. I, I like to say there's really 3 reasons why people would use a recruiting company, Promotive in particular. The main one is timing. Like in order to be, there's a very big difference between recruiting and then actually being good at it.
And the biggest part of that is how quick can you get to the candidates, right? Do you have a system in place where you can manage all of these people and are you on top of it, right? So that's the main struggle for shop owners because they don't have time. They're working on everything in the shop. The other reason is, um, you don't know what you're doing.
It's a big, big struggle for a lot of people. There's, you know, a bunch of different platforms they can use. Indeed is obviously the most popular one, but people dump money into that thing. It's literally, I just said this earlier, it is like a casino. What are the machines? A slot machine. Pretty much. It's like, I just put in $200 more a day and I swear I'm gonna get more technicians.
Yeah. No, right? So there's that part of it. And then, you know, maybe you're in the middle of nowhere And you have literally no one to pull from. Well, you gotta look nationwide. You have to do a relocation. And so being the shop owner, you just don't have the resources. So that's why you would use a recruiting company. You should definitely try sales.
You're pretty good at it. Proud of you. Thank you. You know, and, and I'm saying that with kudos behind it because there's integrity in what you just said. Give them a chance to try on their own and then you guys step in and still act in integrity to make sure you're taking care of them. Because your culture cares so much internally, you care about them.
Every single shop owner, right? And you care about the lives you're placing inside that shop. Because, man, it's either going to be an uphill win or it's going to be a downhill battle when you place that one person. Because one person can absolutely make an amazing difference or a terroristic difference if they're placed in a culture that is set and thriving like yours, right?
Yeah, I mean, I had a shop at, uh, one of the training shows, Transformers. They lived in Broomfield, Colorado, which is about 30 minutes of Durango. It's where I went to high school at. And they're just using a different company, and they asked me like, why should I use you? And I asked, well, why would you? Like, are they doing well for you?
Are you finding people? And they said yeah. And I'm like, well, don't. It's a pretty easy decision. So I try to be as more of like a, like a consulting figure when I'm talking to people. Like, I want to understand their situation, what doing, how can we fit in? Because we have two different processes that we can go through with people. So it really depends on the shop's needs.
Ethan, earlier you talked about how a leader needs to be adaptable. And then the word that came to mind earlier was pivot. We got to pivot. Pivot, right? At Vision, not too long ago, Stacy, I heard you share a story, a personal story. And I— and for the audience listening, I asked, ahead of time if she would mind sharing what she's about to share.
But it was a— it's really a testimony about how you needed to pivot unexpectedly. The reason I'm asking you to share this is because I think every, every person has a story, and I think stories need to be shared in a way that will really touch folks who might be going through something and growing through something. And, and I shared this with you before we went live, like that, that story touched me.
And if you would share with the audience what I'm referring to and how you've changed your perspective on things. With perspective, the way that we view things drives the way that we do things. What did this event— I'll say, what did this event do for you and change the trajectory of your life? I— so when I started with Promotive. Prior to that, I, I worked in, um, a field where I was in automotive shops all day, every day, and I would hear them say, you know, get me more techs, I'd buy more parts, that sort of thing.
And I heard that all the time. And when I had heard that one of my former co-workers had gotten with Lisa and they formed this company and, uh, they reached out to me, I thought, this is this is a wonderful, wonderful thing that we desperately need in this field. And so I joined the company over 2 years ago in March, and at that point they had been open for 11 months.
So they weren't even a year-old company, and I knew that they were a startup. And I want to say we, at that point, we had 8 employees, myself included. So definitely very much a startup company. Took the job, super excited, ready to go. And, you know, the thing about Lisa, we, we do pivot a lot to how we can better serve our customers and that sort of thing and moving forward very quickly.
And about a month later, I started feeling bad and I was out of breath. And I'm very active. I'm always going, just always thinking forward, that sort of thing. And at the time we had a two-story house and I would go upstairs to my office and I was completely out of breath. I'm like, okay, what's going on? I'm getting older. Right. And, uh, something's going on.
And so, and living here in Houston, I, I, uh, went to my doctor and within 5 days I found out I was stage 2 colon cancer. And I had to take a step back and go, all right. What's next? Took a new job. I can do this. When am I going to tell Promotive? So after telling my family, that was hard. I had to make the call to Lisa and she stood by me.
She's like, what do we have to do? What do we got to do to get you through this? And so They changed my position. I was an account manager at that time, which is my passion to the very end. But my body with the chemo and going to all these rounds of getting injected with, with that poison, I could not do that job.
And so they rolled me into Ethan's position to help out. And I literally would sit in bed making phone calls to shops. But the thing that was so empowering was when I would go into the chemo room on Wednesdays, it was the same people. I would bring my headset in with my computer and I would call Shops. I would get on video calls with the team, the whole staff or whatever, had no hair.
And I was trying to be a little quiet in the beginning, but they would hear me laughing and they would hear me joking with Shops and they would hear, You know, at times some of my coworkers giving me a hard time about, you know, where am I or whatever, and my nurse would get in the camera and so forth. But after I got off the call, these wonderful, wonderful people would say, did you make a difference?
What'd you do today? How did you help that shop? It got us away from thinking about what was going through our body. And it was so powerful, so powerful. And even today when I go into the chemo room, they ask me, what, where, where are you going? Who you talking to? What do you, you know, are you making a difference? And that's what I want to leave out there with my customers, with my coworkers.
And I think it's so empowering. And what it changed for me is understanding it. Yes, you wanna hit numbers. Yes, you wanna hit quota. Yes, you want to do what's right, but making a difference in people's lives is the ultimate gift. It's the ultimate faith in humanity. Sorry, I was so boxed. No, no apology necessary. First, thank you for sharing. So powerful.
I know I'm not the only one who got goosebumps hearing that. Second thing is this, I normally ask the question of what is the best advice you've ever received from a coach or a mentor towards the end of the show. I'm going to ask that, but before I do, Stacy, what advice can you give to someone who is going through something very similar to what you experienced, where, um, it might feel like there's not a light at the end of the tunnel right now?
It might feel like there's not a lot of hope, and you don't know what you don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of just, um, What's next? I can only imagine the range of emotions that you were experiencing. What advice can you give to someone who might be struggling with something right now? Get help. Don't be afraid to go to that doctor.
Don't think it's going to go away. And then talk to your coworkers and, and rely on them to support. I would get texts and cards and just random things in the mail and people saying it's okay, you know, it— get— go to your doctor, please. For anyone listening who is leading people, leading a team, I'm just going to respectfully encourage you to take some time, make some time, make some time with them and ask them questions about how they're doing, how they're doing up here.
If you're listening, You can watch this episode on YouTube at The Bearded Leader. I'm pointing to my head for a reason up here and in here. I'm looking at my heart now. Find out how they're truly doing because a lot of us get so focused on the content before the connection. It's the work stuff, but we're all going through something and life happens.
And for some of us, life is really lifing right now. And it's just, it's hard. It's challenging. And we don't know it if we don't talk about it. We don't ask. And your team members may be afraid to share. You mentioned, Stacy, that it was— you had to think about before you called Lisa, like, oh, how's she going to react? How is this going to go?
I mean, how powerful is it that Lisa embraced every aspect of this? Some people could look at this as a burden, as an inconvenience, and she said, look, you are one of us. You are— we love you, and like, you're not going anywhere. Like, we're gonna make— we're gonna make it work. Um, I mean, that, that's, that's touching. That is really touching.
Um, and again, it speaks to the level of leadership from Lisa's standpoint. It speaks to the culture that Promotive has been able to continue to cultivate. And so I just want to— Lisa, shout out to you. Um, I know you'll watch or listen to this episode, so, um, Love that about you, among many things. Um, now I'm trying to figure out how to segue off.
That's Brett. Here, take the mic, Brett. You got something. We mentioned faith. This is what God wants out of business. This is what God wants out of us in life. Like, there's nothing more important than the story you just shared. Nothing, right? It, it inspired me to want to make sure that I'm always checking in on my team. And I mean him, I'm meaning all my companies, and, and ensuring that this is not just a, a paycheck that they have to feel obligated to pursue and do.
Right? And she, Lisa, showed that the best leaders are still alive, and it's our duty to replicate that. I mean, Ethan, you're 23, 24 years old. You got a gift by seeing what she went through, and you have a gift to now push forward into this world when it comes your turn, to either be able to go through that with grace or be able to help someone go through it with grace.
What a testimony, and thank you for being brave enough to share it. Thank you. I, I, it really— it prepared for any of that when it happened. Yeah, but whoever is Oh, it's a, a story that it's probably gonna be one of the most proud stories that Promotive will have for a long time. Yeah. The story of, of you and your team rallying and everybody supporting you behind the scenes, on the scenes, under the scenes.
I mean, whatever it took for you to be able to get to here today. And I, I'm grateful to know you. Thank you. Uh, inspired by you. I know he is. I know Josh is. Um, there's so much in that. I mean, like, leadership-wise. And I know Josh wants to ask his next question, but, uh, can't say thank you enough. Yeah. Yeah, I'm chomping at the bit over here.
Um, you can't have a testimony without a test and a message without a mess, and you certainly have a powerful testimony. And so again, Stacy, thank you for sharing. Um, I will ask the question now, uh, what is the best advice that you've ever received from a coach or mentor? And this is for either one of you or both of you. Oh, my biggest mentor to this day still is my dad.
It always has been. He's just been a great father. Um, his, his biggest piece of advice that stuck with me, and keep in mind he's, he's great guy, super sweet, he treats me very well, um, but don't half-ass things. That is number one. No matter what I was doing in life, whether it's sports, work, school, relationships, don't half-ass it. If you're going to do it, do it to the fullest, because you get what you put into this world.
Whole-ass it. Whole-ass it. Yeah. All— yeah, the, the two things we can control each and every day is our attitude and our effort. Yeah. And I, I just, I love the idea of providing maximum effort. It's not 100%, Maybe you can't give 100% some days. Maybe you're sick or you're injured or something's going on. You just— you can't give your 100%. I'm sure as you're going through your battle, you could not give your 100% each and every day.
But if you could have given 80, you gave 80, and that's your 100. Providing maximum effort, not half-assing it. Stacy, same question. Best advice you've ever received from a coach or mentor? Make a difference every day, no matter how small. Smiling to somebody in the checkout I do have a story about that. Is it okay to share? Of course, please do. So I'm going through a checkout and I have this, uh, wonderful lady checking me out, but she's pretty upset and I could tell something was going on with her.
And I had a Promotive shirt on and I said, are you okay today? And she said, no, my son is leaving tomorrow to go to diesel mechanic school. And I said, wow, that's 'Wonderful. Congratulations.' And she said, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'I want him to go to college. I want him— I want him to do something with his life.' And I said, 'He is.
He's getting into a wonderful industry.' And she just— she looked at me, and we got into this conversation, and people were backing up. And of course, I was asking their opinions behind me. And that woman came out from behind the checkout, gave me the biggest hug, and she said, You don't know the relief you gave me. Make a difference. It's pretty incredible.
You know, every conference that we come to, we get the opportunity to see all of the people. Like, sometimes it kind of feels like we're on an island, you know, we're trying to make a difference, we're trying to make an impact, but sometimes it feels like it's a lonely road and we're on an island. And then we come to a conference like Tectonic 2026 And we see all these incredible peers and mentors and people who, like leaders who are doing incredible things, making a difference all through the vessel of automotive repair.
And it's a good reminder that this is simply a vessel. We are working with people, we're serving people, leading people, coaching, training, managing people, recruiting people, but you're doing it through the vessel of automotive repair and you're making a difference one life at a time. If you're listening to the, to the show and you're thinking, you know what, I, I, I wanna get in touch with Ethan or Stacy or someone from Promotive, how can I do that?
Where, where do I go? Um, so you go to our website. Um, if you're a technician or a service advisor that's looking for work, there's a section of the, the website that's for that. And you could put in your information and, uh, one of our recruiters would reach out. Uh, for shops, there's also a shop section. You just fill it out and I pretty much call you like 10 minutes after.
Excellent. 10 minutes. Okay, no, that's not on record. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bet the under. I'm gonna bet the under on Ethan. So promotive.com is the website, correct? Go promotive.com. Oh, go promotive.com. I should know that. Go promotive.com. Go check out Promotive at go promotive.com. Thank you both for being on the show. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching if you're watching this episode, and thank you for tuning in to yet another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast.
As you know, every episode we look to transform our leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results. So thanks again, everyone. Have a great day today. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. Go make a difference. I'm Josh Parnell and Brett Beitler— I'm going to say it for you, Brett— keep leading well.
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99.08% Diagnostic Accuracy: Inside a Master Tech’s Playbook
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Shop Owners: Maybe YOU'RE the Problem | Tristin Sweeney - 38
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216 - Coach the Call: Using AI Insights to Develop Stronger Service Advisors
216 - Coach the Call: Using AI Insights to Develop Stronger Service Advisors August 26th, 2026 - 00:54:51 Show Summary: Strong phone skills can turn more incoming calls into appointments while building trust from the first interaction. Consistent call reviews give service advisors a clear path to improve without making coaching feel like punishment. AI call analysis reduces the time required to find useful coaching opportunities and helps owners identify patterns across their team. Positive reinforcement also matters because great calls give advisors examples they can repeat. Simple habits like smiling asking for the appointment and using the customer’s name can dramatically improve the experience. Better phone performance ultimately supports stronger customer relationships higher appointment conversion and long term shop growth. Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development Guest(s): David Boyd, Founder & CEO of Callinbound Tonnika Haynes, Owner of Browns Automotive, Downshift with Tonnika Haynes Show Highlights: [00:04:00] – Listening to real calls reveals missed opportunities that owners rarely see. [00:10:00] – AI identifies coachable calls without hours of manual review. [00:14:00] – Consistent coaching creates awareness before advisors answer each call. [00:17:00] – Replace a hard no with a plan focused on customer needs. [00:24:00] – Help advisors self coach instead of simply pointing out mistakes. [00:28:00] – Every missed appointment can represent significant lost customer value. [00:34:00] – Asking for the customer’s name immediately creates a stronger connection. [00:39:00] – Scheduled call reviews make coaching normal instead of threatening. [00:43:00] – Asking for appointments helped turn successful marketing into a fuller calendar. [00:49:00] – Call tracking connects marketing performance with actual appointment conversion. In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode. 👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fv9ewVBoSks Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this! Links & Resources: Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com. Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good night. Thank you for joining. So excited for us to have this conversation today with some really good friends. Everyone, this is to be an interactive webinar. So you're sitting there, you've got questions, you've got concerns, type them into the chat. We wanna be able to ask those questions of our panel today as we are talking about a very interesting topic. And with us today, first, is our good friend, Mr. David Boyd of Inbound Communication. David, how the heck are you, brother? David Boyes: I'm great. I, I, uh, I fully intended to have my jacket on, Jimmy. Jimmy Lea: Man. David Boyes: So excited to be here. We Jimmy Lea: coordinated on this and everything. David Boyes: I know. I, uh- Next time ... I, I was, I was lucky as, as busy as we've been at Call Inbound to, uh, uh, get up and, and organize and dress today. So I really, uh, it's always great to see you and of course, um, uh, we got to visit a little bit out at, uh, Worldpac STX and, uh, man, I tell you what, your wardrobe is always top notch. Jimmy Lea: Hey, thank you. Thank you. We're glad you are dressed today, just don't stand up. Thank you very much. David Boyes: Great. Jimmy Lea: And joining for us in our conversation today, David, is Tanika, Tanika Hayes with, uh, Haynes with Browns Automotive. Tanika, how the heck are you, sister? Tonnika Haynes: I'm doing good, guys. What's going on? Jimmy Lea: Staying alive. Good to see you. Great to see you. Also at STX, what did you think of the, the conference there with Worldpac? Tonnika Haynes: It, it was really, really good. I was not prepared for the size of it. There was a lot of people. People were peopling. So, um, once I got adjusted to all of the crowds and everything, I enjoyed it. I hadn't sat in a class in a really long time, like at an expo. Ooh. I'm usually just walking around and being nosy, but I picked up some good nuggets, so it was great. Jimmy Lea: Beautiful. That's awesome. Well, if, if the STX was a large conference to you, I would suggest that you really prepare yourself months in advance if ever you come out to SEMA and Apex in Las Vegas. Tonnika Haynes: I will be there this year. Oh, good. I keep hear- hearing that, so I don't know what meds I need to be on to take, To take it all in. But Jimmy Lea: we'll- You- Tonnika Haynes: I'm excited about it ... Jimmy Lea: we, we will talk about that because there is more than you can see within a week, and you really only have three days at Apex, four days at SEMA. You want to map out where you're gonna go, who you're gonna talk to, who you're gonna see- And for you, Taneka, schedule some time to sit down and chill Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. I'm gonna have to definitely do that. You're talking about, um, scheduling times. I'm gonna schedule time to go sit in the corner and recoup. Uh-huh. So where's Taneka? She's in the corner. Jimmy Lea: Yep, and, and I- It's David Boyes: scheduled time ... Jimmy Lea: I, I'm gonna work with you on that because I know the corners, I know the places where you can go and, and find some solitude. Tonnika Haynes: All right. Jimmy Lea: I am. Well, our conversation today is in preparation for making your shop better David, I'm gonna kick it over to you, brother. Let's start this conversation with Taneka. David Boyes: Yeah. Let's, uh, let- let's kinda move into this. You know, we're, uh, talking about communication, and there are so many facets that impact the customer experience. I think that it's important to know that, you know, there are tools and there are, uh, from an owner or, and manager's perspective and from a service provider's perspective, there are ways that we rally around making communication better. Um, you know, one of the things that is common at all shops is, uh, the customer phone call. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, yeah. David Boyes: So you winced a little bit. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Uh, how many times do we, you know, talk about our phone skills, uh, getting better on the phone, understanding the customer, understanding their needs, addressing their needs? And there's so much, you know, revolves around, uh, the phone calls and, and the way that our advisors and our front office team handles these. Maybe you have a CSR, maybe you have, you know, a service manager. Um, but people are, are answering calls all day long, and this becomes important that we understand who's answering the phone- Mm-hmm ... how they're communicating, what, what's the message that's being shared. Every time that phone rings, uh, that, you know, we like to say that's money calling. So Taneka, let me just ask you, you know, what, what are some of the challenges that you see or the, uh, the successes that you have with your team when it comes to managing and, and, uh, getting better on our phones? Tonnika Haynes: I wanna start by saying, um, I think I listened to my first phone call at my meeting with Jen- Jennifer, with the Institute. I'm currently coaching with the Institute, and that is life-changing- Yeah ... to listen to your team answer the phone. So if anybody's out there and they have not done that, they have not listened in on a phone call, figure out a way to do it. I don't know if it's gonna be a little paper cup and a string, but figure out how to do it. Um, and then I, listening to my own phone calls, and I- I'm the boss, right? I still cringe. And so you never know what's missing from those phone calls, what, what, what is standing out. You know, my team, we would not even ask for the appointment. Like, "Would you like to bring this in today?" You know- Oh ... you ask all the questions, they go through the scripts, but then we found that they were not saying, "Hey, would you like to get that done? Would you like to bring that in today or tomorrow? What works for you?" They were leaving it all to the client to say- Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm ... " Tonnika Haynes: What's next? What's next?" Hmm. So they were answering the phone, and they were s- being very polite, but they were not closing. They didn't have a lot of words with closing. And so with inbound, I've been able to coach- You know, when you listen to yourself and you're like, "Ooh, ooh." And you can say, "Do you see what you did there?" Or even, 'cause you know, the team can listen to their own phone calls. "Oh, I see what I did there. I see where I dropped the ball." So that was, opened up a whole bunch of eyeballs around here. Well- It's like, "Oh, it's Monday, it's time to listen to phone calls." Like, "Ah." But you just increasingly get better over time. Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. And, and the ability, Taneka, the ability to have calls from today- Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm ... Jimmy Lea: or from yesterday or, or even the day before. Uh, there was a time a decade ago when we would have to listen, as coaches, we would listen to calls. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. We're trying to find a coaching call, a call that is coachable, and this might be a call from two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Mm. The advisors are going, "Dude, oh man, that's forever ago. No, man, I, I don't do that anymore. I'm not like that." But David, I, I think you kind of solved a bit of that problem with your phone services. David Boyes: Yeah, thanks. It, you know, it's, it's important to, to recognize. I think every owner I've ever talked with has a similar issue. It's... And a lot of it rev- revolves around time, right? Are, are we aware of what's actually happening- Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... David Boyes: on the front line? Mm-hmm. And, uh, some of it is, uh, I wanna keep this a little bit at arm's length because I, I can tell you as an owner, I will have an emotional response when I listen to that phone call. And Taniki, you brought up a great point. For owners and managers here that are on the phone, please listen to your own calls. Yeah. Do it at least one time. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Well, twice. Have to Tonnika Haynes: bite the bullet. Just do it. David Boyes: Yeah. Just do it. And, Tonnika Haynes: and, and be ready. Just like- ... just like, "Oh, that is me." Yeah, that is you. David Boyes: Do it- Yeah do it twice because the first time that you listen to a call, uh, it's gonna just be weird, right? So listening to myself on recordings is always weird, but there's this heavy lift of time, right? Am, am I aware of what's actually happening on the front line, and how are we interacting with customers? And then do I have, do I have a mechanism to understand what's my expectation? As an owner, um, you know, it, it's important to establish that expectation. Maybe you're working with a call coach, maybe you've been in trainings yourself. It's, it's ideal to have a method by which you're going to measure your call handlers. And, um, you know, we wanna be professional. We want to build confidence and, and build rapport with these customers. It doesn't have to be fast, but typically- Mm-hmm ... you know, an incoming call from a customer is likely an appointment setting call or a status call. We're gonna set that status call, uh, bucket aside for a second 'cause we wanna be in front of, uh, status calls instead of having customers call us. But if you're listening to these and you have that rhythm around it, uh, we understand how these small habits can build on one another. Am I, am I smiling when I answer the phone? There's something physically that hap- When I, when I physically smile, there's something that is noticeable in the way that I'm communicating. And, uh, am I, am I clear? So what are the expectations? You know, uh, if you watch your advisors, I have, uh, my little cordless handset here. If they tuck their phone in like this, and, and you know, they're, they're trying to multitask Listen to those calls because likely it's very, very difficult to hear on the other side of this. So listening to calls, uh, helps us understand how, you know, how we conduct ourselves, how we conduct business, how am I representing the business that I, you know, that I'm working at as a professional. But also, what is the customer hearing and what is the customer's experience? So, um, these are, uh, important points, and it starts by listening. Jimmy, you brought up a, um, an important aspect here. Historically, we would listen to call after call after call after call to try to find something I can use to coach. So Taneka, you might do this. You've got a call recording system. It doesn't do much but just record those calls, and now I have to go through this, this process to identify a coachable opportunity. And this is now I think where we can move effectively into technology, right? We all hear so much about AI today, and what's really nice about, uh, having, you know, a, a phone system that records is now you have an asset, and you can use that asset to do something more with it. And we can use AI to help that heavy lift of time and, you know, take 90% of the time requirement off. So instead of having to spend 30 minutes, I might have to spend two or three minutes to take that call, sit down with my service advisor, go through this, and have a meaningful, constructive conversation about the things that work well. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I, I love, David, that your software makes it so easy to find these coachable calls so much faster. A- and Taneka, that's just gotta be a lifesaver for you as well, coaching your service advisors. Tonnika Haynes: It is. I remember, um, speaking with a friend, fellow shop owner, and he's like, "I need you to set aside a time." And so what I did is on my calendar, on Wednesday, that's the day that I sit down and we go over phone calls. And so, you know, you got the dashboard, and that dashboard will say, "This is a coachable call. This is a coachable call." And it is a habit for me as the owner/manager, um, to make sure that I'm staying on top of it all the time because we'll slip into old habits, right? So me listening to the calls and bringing the service advisor or, um, or bring Jay in and say, "Hey, let's listen to this. Let's see how we can get better." You know, you continuously improve on it, and you don't slide back into old habits. Because I'm not on the phone as much anymore. If I have to answer the phone, I know personally, and everything's at stake for me, I slide back into old habits. So we all are capable of it, and so having that dashboard in front of us and said, "Hey, this is a call you need to look at," the service advisor or the person answering the phone does not feel like they're being picked on, but they're being improved upon. So, "Look, I'm just lifting you up. This is what we can do. Do you see how we can make this better?" And it's a we, it's a us, it's coachable, it's there, it's real, and, um, I really enjoy th- that part of the dashboard. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. How often, Taneka, do you send, "This is a really good call"? This is a really good call. I Tonnika Haynes: like a really good call How often do you send that to the team? You know what? Yeah. I probably should do that more. But when I see a good call, I, I, I like to share it. And when I get a good review, like I l- literally just got a good review based off of a bad situation that we were able to turn around with proper communication, and the customer l- literally said, he's like, "The communication... The problem was still there," he said, "but the way they handled it and the communication was key." So he was not satisfied when he left, but the way that we dealt with it afterwards, and that recording of how we guided him through the process, and how we, you know, we apologized, we came up with a plan, apologized again, and kept it moving, and that was a great coachable call. It's like, this is how you handle a bad situation. Look how we won here. So yeah, those are just as important as the, as the losses, as the bad calls. "Hey, this is a good call. G- this is a good call." That balance is super important. Yeah, it balances it. Yeah. And then, you know, it's like, okay, I did that right. Even when that client is a client that does not belong to you, and you can hear them tell the customer, it's like, "Hey, you know what? Appreciate your call, but this isn't the place for you." And that's not the word for word, but, "Hey, you handled that good. Thank you for saving us from a nightmare." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Amen. Share it with your team. So you gotta share the wins and the, the misses. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And, and, uh, for a lot of people, I think they struggle in the creative. So if they can hear it, that it's already been done, they can duplicate. Sure. They can mimic. They can do the same thing over and over and over again. So the more we send these beautiful calls, "Oh my gosh, you guys did so well on this phone call. I, I love this part, this part, and this part," they're able to duplicate that, and they'll do it over and over and over again. And then, then you're- The mistakes that are being made become much less because you're showing, you're, uh, mirroring to them these are the really good calls that we wanna hear. Tonnika Haynes: And, and sharing that when you're going over a call, you got the good call here, we can work on this call, but this is another good call. You know, we talk about giving that sandwich. Yeah. And so that's another opportunity you can give that good sandwich. So when it's time to come in on Wednesdays and listen to your phone calls, you're like, "Ooh, I know I got one coming and I think I know which one it is." And then you're like, "Yeah, but you got this one too, so you won here, and, uh, we missed on this one, but next time it's not happening." Right? Right. So it's, you know, it's all in coaching. Jimmy Lea: Oh, David Boyes: it's so true. You just said something that's super important, and, uh, ooh, I think I know which one this is. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Um, there, there's a lot to unpack there. I, I, I love the, the good with the bad. We'll talk about that more too, but, um, creating the awareness. So consistency wins, and, um, I'll say it again, be consistent with the process because consistency wins. And when you have that rhythm where it's familiar and it's expected, we're gonna sit down and we're gonna listen to calls, we're gonna go through this, identify the opportunities, um, it's not good and bad calls, it's, you know, it, it, uh, we call them top calls or champion calls and coachable calls. So a coachable call isn't inherently bad. Maybe we even got an appointment. Tonnika Haynes: Mm. David Boyes: Right? But there's, there's opportunities. So, uh, when we have that rhythm and it's expected, what's really important about what you just said is the awareness. So when I go to pick up that phone, is this the call that Tanika's gonna be talking with me about tomorrow or, you know, Wednesday, whatever our rhythm is? It, it will begin to create that moment of pause that as an a- an advisor when I'm picking up that phone, I can take that breath. Yeah. I can, I can, uh, let that, uh, you know, that technician that just blew me up Tonnika Haynes: Let 'em David Boyes: go. I can let that slide off. I can shake that off. Yeah. And I can focus for a moment to make sure that that customer knows right at this moment they are absolutely the most important person to me right now. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: So that's an important message to convey over the phone, our, uh, the, you know, the way that we speak, the words that we use, my en- excitement and enthusiasm about being on that call all comes through. So as we get through this rhythm and we develop the consistency and it becomes normal, now I've got that awareness on my team that, hey, this next call I'm taking, I'm gonna have the moment of pause to focus because this might be the next one that, that we're reviewing. I want this to be a positive call that, that Tanika's coming to me and saying, "You did really well on this one. Let's continue to develop this," and, you know, replicate the things that are working well. Instead of, "Hey, there's some opportunity here. You know, you didn't ask for the appointment. You were, you know, pricing over the phone. You said 'no'." No comes out in a lot of ways, doesn't it, Tanika? Where- Tonnika Haynes: Oh, yeah ... we, David Boyes: we might be telling somebody, uh, "You know, I'm really busy right", or, or, or "W- we, we're really busy right now, I can't get you in until Friday." Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: That's, that's, we might as well just say, "No, I can't help you." Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. You, that's, that's all they heard was the no. Um, even if you give... And, uh, everybody knows that I'm, I'm big on nos. Like, I can give you a no where there's some healthy nos, but then there's some nos and you have the customer saying, "Hey, um, m- my brakes are making the noise and it just started." And he's like, "Oh, no, I can't see you till Friday." He's like, "Yeah, but I'm gonna die before Friday. I wanna see somebody now." Um, so you don't, you have to learn how to coach them and say, "Yes, so bring that in. Let's take a look at what you've got, and then we'll come up with a plan." You didn't promise that it was gonna be today or tomorrow, but you said, "Bring it in. I'm worried about your safety. Let's see what you've got." Yeah. "Let's see if you should really be concerned about that check engine light. It might be a EVAP code." They don't know that, "But go ahead and bring them in." So and then you, like you said, the cadence in it. This, I'm not gonna make you any promises over the phone, and I would literally say that. "Hey, I don't wanna disappoint you by making a promise that I can't keep. So don't- Yeah ... don't make me, don't put me in that hole. But I need you to go ahead and bring that in to me as soon as you can. Um, and let's scan it. Let's see what you've got, and let's see if you should really be worried, if you can make that trip or we need to bring you in right away. We will help you come up with a plan." So just that solid no. "No, I'll see you Friday." Jimmy Lea: He, " Tonnika Haynes: Meh. No you won't." Yeah. Like, so that's support. That's Jimmy Lea: my- David Boyes: It, it becomes very collaborative in what you just said. Hey, let, let's make this about you, let's make this about your safety and your confidence to drive that vehicle. Maybe you gotta get across town and your commute is 30 minutes. Let's make sure that your vehicle is safe, and then once you're here and we make sure you're safe, let's talk about, uh, when we're gonna have that on the schedule. We'll get that vehicle in Tonnika Haynes: and prepared. Yeah. What are the next steps? Yeah. So let's go ahead and get- let's get your nerves calm- Mm-hmm ... and then let's come up with the next step. Let's come up with a plan. Us, us, us, we, we, we. So Jimmy Lea: yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it. And, uh, you talk about s- building a solid foundation for this, the solid foundation for their skills so that the, the ongoing training you're doing really builds on that foundation. Uh, we've got a three-day service advisor with the institute. We're gonna give a shout-out to the institute here right now. So everybody grab out your smartphones, scan the QR code if your service advisor needs a solid foundation. Thank you, David. If you need a solid foundation- Registered now ... and you need to start with... Yeah, get registered. I know you've been to a couple of these, David, 'cause- I have you've talked about all the skills here just really, really well. If your service advisor needs that and you need to go from zero to hero very quickly, this is an intensive that you wanna send your service advisor to, and it will be at headquarters in Ogden, Utah. Fly right into Salt Lake, and, uh, and we got you set up there in Ogden. So, yes, David Boyes: scan that. It's a beautiful drive up from the airport. This class is, uh, it, it, it will help establish the, the fundamentals to build on. Yeah. So you come here, it's, you know, it's boot camp, right? We're, we're going to make sure that we're establishing the expectation and give you something to build on as the owner. Send your service advisors in here. Uh, they'll get those fundamentals, and then you'll have, you know, these, these mechanisms, uh, to improve them over time. I promise you it'll be a, a real game changer for your frontline. Tonnika Haynes: Well, you know what? Beautiful. I wanna piggyback on that. Um, and I wasn't coached to saying this. If they've already been, send them again. Jimmy Lea: There you go. Mm. Tonnika Haynes: Send them again, because here's the thing that I know, and I'm just gonna make it simple. I want you to think about your favorite movie. Like when, when I was in the 20s, for me it was Friday, the movie Friday. And then we watched that movie every Friday after work with the crew that I worked with, and it was just the most ignorant movie and the best movie for my generation. Each time I watched that movie, I would see a different thing. So I want you to think about your favorite movie and, or v- your favorite comedy. Each time you'd watch it, you would pick up something else. So it was like, "Oh, I didn't see that that last time." So even when it comes to training, "Hey, I did this three-day class and I did it a year ago. I grew." Jimmy Lea: Do it again. Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Do it again. Do it again. You, you're never too mu- uh, there's never too much coaching. So just do it again and you'll see it from a different angle. I just wanted to say that. Yeah, 'cause, um, there's been some classes that I, I take, and not just this one, but other classes, like, let me take that class again. Yeah. And you're like, "Aha. I didn't remember that from last time." Yeah. I didn't implement that from last time, 'cause we, you guys tell us, and coaches will tell you, "Just go and implement one thing. One thing." I mean, watch those changes, and then the next time you take the class, let's do one more thing, maybe two, and get, get a little bit better. Right. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So speaking of training, ASTA, A-S-T-A, is coming up here real soon, Taneka. Real Tonnika Haynes: soon. We're less than 30 Jimmy Lea: days out. Let's give them a shout-out. Tonnika Haynes: Shout out to ASTA. Those are the people, not the people that made me, but it's my just one, my just one thing that I took away from there each time has helped build me to where I am. And I am, I cannot say I would not be where I was without them. But I would not be where I was, where I am without them. From those, those people that I met, the village that I met, meeting you, meeting my first coach, just meeting my, my industry brothers and sisters that I can call on at any time when I'm about to flip out, or when I have a win. 'Cause you know as owners and when, when you're a little higher, you can't share your wins with everybody without some jealousy. True. Yeah. So when you have a win and you have that community to call on. Mm-hmm. So yeah, ASTA is the place to be, September 24th to 26th, right here in Raleigh, North Carolina. So I hope somebody shows up. And, uh, I wanna meet some... Well, I know Jim. I'll be there. Jimmy will be there. You will not miss him. David Boyes: He'll have the jacket. Tonnika Haynes: He will have plenty of jackets on. It is a fun atmosphere, lots of community, lots of learning and growing. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna have a jacket war, so anybody who wants to play. David, you're bringing your jacket, so David Boyes: who wore Jimmy Lea: it best? Yes. Yeah. David Boyes: Yeah. I, I wanted to make sure that we were gonna f- uh, be able to carve out some time to do the who wore it best. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, David Boyes: always. I think, so B- Benji will be involved. Brett will probably be involved, right? Mm-hmm. And, uh, you, you two- Mike Allen ... Mike, okay, Mike, yep. Tonnika Haynes: I, I, I feel like we should have a girls version of this, 'cause you know, if the women got involved- Jimmy Lea: We always lose Tonnika Haynes: I mean, we would just throw you guys under the bus. Jimmy Lea: It's true. We tried that, Tanika, and you swept it. Yeah. You swept it. There, there was no- Tonnika Haynes: I don't wanna do that to you guys ... competing with Jimmy Lea: Tanika. Tonnika Haynes: I don't wanna do... Yeah, I don't wanna do that to you, so we'll, we'll figure it out. Maybe I'll make a f- couple phone calls and text messages and see what's up. David Boyes: Yeah. Speaking of phone calls. Speaking of phone calls. Tonnika Haynes: Throw that back in. David Boyes: I have a question for you. Yeah. Yeah. That's, hey, I couldn't have asked for a better softball there, but that's great. Um- ... thinking, thinking about the coaching process, you know, I, I, I had mentioned before it can seem a little uncomfortable, even as an owner. You know, listen to two calls, because that first one, you're gonna be so- Mm-hmm ... consumed by how weird I sound on the phone, right? So, but when you, when you started this with your team, what, how was it received? What were some of the, the challenges, uh, do, you know, h- what feedback did you get about listening to calls and going through the analysis? Tonnika Haynes: So I wanna say that when I first did it in, in coaching, so in a group setting, and you're listening to your team, so they call in, they have to do a call and they'll record a call. And so it's like, "Oh, well this time she did this, and this is the excuse." You wanna come up with excuses. You wanna defend- Right yourself. I wanna defend my shop. And so that service advisor's gonna wanna defend him or herself. Like, "Oh, well, you know, that customer and this was that." I was like, "No." So you get past that, and it's like, okay, like I said, you give the sandwich. Okay, so this is a great call. You tell me what you could have done, could have done better in this call. Right. 'Cause I don't wanna be in... 'Cause if you go into attack mode and say, "Oh, you should do this better, and you didn't follow the script, and you, you, you, you, you," you're gonna get somebody that's gonna put up a guard and be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I did my best." So I'll say, "I know you did your best on this, this one call, and you did a great job on this call. What happened, brother?" Balls in your court. Tell me how you can improve on this. Mm. What do you need from me to help you improve here? Was there a distraction? What was, what was the problem? So I kinda feel like I can teach them to self-coach. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: I'm, I'ma give you a whole toolbox. You've got this toolbox. You know what a good call to- sounds like. Like, you also have a mirror. There's a mirror right there. Look at yourself. You've got reminders. I've got sticky note reminders on each, each person saying, "Don't forget to ask for the sale." What happened? "Oh, man, I was distracted, I sh- I should've..." Yep, you should've put the mouse down. You should've put the mouse down. So usually people will first get defensive, same. Mm-hmm. Um, then the defense mechanism starts to come down. Say, "All right, okay, so how do we fix this so next time I cannot find a bad phone call?" Jimmy Lea: Bingo. David Boyes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: I love it. It, yeah. I love that you have a mirror there and you have sticky notes there helping as well, Taneka. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's, that's so good. ' Tonnika Haynes: Cause we forget. And- And it's okay- Oh, we do ... 'cause we get busy. But the Jimmy Lea: more Tonnika Haynes: we work on it- And I, Jimmy Lea: I, you... I'm certain that you guys have heard this before, that a fake smile is better than a real frown. Tonnika Haynes: Yes. David Boyes: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: Yes. And I'm really good at that. And so I've learned that because I've been doing it a very long time, so people know that I can really make you... I could, like, really fuss you out, and I would sound so sweet 'cause I'm smiling at you the whole time. "Well, you know what, Jamie? I think that was the stupidest thing you've ever said." Jimmy Lea: And if you do it with a smile, you can Tonnika Haynes: get away with it. And you're doing it with a smile and, and when you're shaking your head. So that smile makes a difference. And when I'm- It does ... picking up the phone out of an emergency, if they are busy up front and I'll see that phone ringing, and I pick it up and I'm not ready personally, I'm not ready to answer that phone, and it's a client that knows me, and I'm not smiling, I will get a, "Hey, Taneka, what's wrong?" You Jimmy Lea: okay? 'Cause Tonnika Haynes: they, "You okay?" And I'll say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I was distracted." 'Cause that's usually what happens, you're distracted, or that service, that, um, technician just rubbed you the wrong way or something's happened at home. So but once you put that smile on- You just fake it till you make it. And now you, I usually don't like to say that, but sometimes you do have to fake it till you make it. Like, yeah, absolutely. And use those words of, those positive words. Absolutely. Let's look into that for you. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Sure. I love it. Love it. We talk about the phone call and how much it's worth. Uh, Bimmer PhD Motorsports is saying, "Can we dig into that a little bit?" How much does it cost to get that phone to ring? How much does it cost to acquire a new customer? You talk about the mindset and you talk about the service advisor- Mm-hmm ... and the smile that's needed to be there, fake or real. How much is that phone call worth, Tanika? Have you analyzed any of that in your shop? Tonnika Haynes: So that was actually a, um, something we did in the 20 group with my coach Jen. We went through that and we calculated how much it costs to sh- get that phone to ring. And I really wish I was prepared and I had that number for you. But once you realize that number, share it with your team. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: And then, uh, the institute probably has, um, a blueprint on how to figure that out. So you're looking at how much your website is, your Go- Google ads, any form of marketing that you have out there, down to the phone bill. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: How much does it cost to make that phone ring? And once you see it as the owner, you're gonna be like, "Whoa." And you share that with the team. Like, every time that phone rings, it costs me this. And then also think about your ARO. Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. Bingo. Tonnika Haynes: And every time- Yep, yep ... we do not get a y- yes, and we don't get that client through the door, we lost $850. Potential $850, potential $1,100. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: So once we start thinking about, you know, everything, everything's not about money. It is That Jimmy Lea: we keep score. Tonnika Haynes: It is how we keep score. Yeah. Like, you know, we, we talk about we've got the metrics on the dashboard. Numbers don't lie. People do. Your emotions will. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: It costs me $75 every time that phone rings. Mm-hmm. And when you ring it, and when you land that deal, that's a potential 850, or whatever your ARO is, or whatever- Yeah ... that's what it is. And that's, and how long does it take to get that one client to get through the door? Yeah. And also think about how long you can hold onto them as a client. How many years Jimmy Lea: are you gonna- Tonnika Haynes: What's the lifetime value of the client? What's the lifetime of that client? Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: So that smile when you answer the phone, yeah, that's worth a lot of money. Jimmy Lea: Tens of thousands of dollars. Tonnika Haynes: Tens of thousands. So go ahead and put your Vaseline on your teeth- Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm ... Tonnika Haynes: and, and start a- smiling. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's an old theater trick. Yes. Are you a, are you a musical theater person? Tonnika Haynes: No, but I just know about- Where are you pulling that from? ... Vaseline on your teeth and, 'cause you get tired of smiling. You, you know, at the conference, you have this whole muscle thing. You're like... Jimmy Lea: Uh, yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Keep s- keep, just keep smiling, smiling, smiling. Jimmy Lea: That's right, David Boyes: Dorothy. Those are important numbers, uh, to know how much does it cost to get that phone to ring. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: Uh, in some cases it can be, uh, you know, several hundred dollars depending on really all of those factors around generating those phone calls, and then what that ties into when the phone does ring, um, and we don't ask for the appointment. Has that $850 or $1,100 just walked over to my competitor across town? Yeah. But it also sets the stage when we're talking about coaching and development to bring it back to what's in it for me. As a service advisor, you know, most high performing shops are incentivizing their advisors on these, you know, these GP numbers and, you know, there might be other metrics on Google reviews, maybe have spiffs for these different things. It all requires us to generate the appointments and get those vehicles in so that we can have an inspection and we can, you know, generate the, the estimate and ultimately have a sale, and then make this an amazing experience for the customer so they're gonna come back next time. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: Uh, at the very front end of the phone call, you know, it, it takes X number of dollars to make the phone ring. When that phone rings, the customer, if they're a first time caller- Uh, they're likely y- we as, as a business are likely setting the stage within that first 15 to 20 seconds for the length of our relationship. So based on those initial interactions, we're going to begin setting the stage of how well this customer visit is going to go, uh, how much that we're developing trust with this customer. Do they trust me as an advisor? Do they trust this business, that we're experts and we're gonna help them, and we're gonna do so in a, in a fair and meaningful way? And then also, uh, we're going to set that basis for a repeat customer. Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: So that, that's where we get into the, the longevity of our relationship. Interestingly enough, so much of this happens at the very first moments of that very first phone call. And when we acknowledge that as a service advisor, I'm like, "Oh, that does tie back to the paycheck I get." As a business owner, "Wow, that ties back into the stickiness of my customers." I love, you know, repeat customers. I love repeat business. So we wanna drive these skills up front. Uh, Taneka, you talked about, you know, sitting down and going through, um, some of these calls and the, the service advisor reaction. Have you really developed and, you know, share your expectations on how you'd like the, the phone answered? I'm not asking about a script. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: But like that flow, right? We don't wanna create robots. Right. What have you done at, when you, you know, train and develop your team on here's what I would like to hear from you? Tonnika Haynes: So I haven't honed that in 100%, but I, I do know that we wanna thank them for calling. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: We wanna know how did you find out about us? Great. Is this your first time calling? How'd you hear about us? So, so we can track that, right? Yeah. Was it a repeat? Was it a neighbor? Was it a Google? How did you... Was it a postcard? How did you hear about me? Um, what can I help you with, and how soon can I get to it? Can you bring that in today or tomorrow? And, um, and smile. So I have these little things that I want them to say that's on the side- Yeah ... of their computer, and I don't want you to sit there and read and just say, "Oh, well, yes, sir, how can I help you today?" I want it to flow naturally because that's who we are as a shop. We- we're not a scripted shop. We're, we're a bunch of goofy people, actually. People. We just happen to fix cars. Um, and that's who we are. Yeah. And I want that to come through. I want you to be friendly. I want you to re- when they come in with the cat or the dog or whatever, please not a cat, but the dog. I want you to put in the notes, this is, this is that customer's name and this is what their dog's name. If they refer to their, their car, "My car's name is Pearline." If you called my car by his name, I'm not taking it nowhere else So I want you to build that relationship. And so I don't have a script and I don't have a formula yet, and maybe I should work on that. And, um, we do have like a SOP. Yeah. Probably should do a better job at that. But then what you just said made me raise my eyebrow, like, I should do better with that. But we do have some things that I'm, that are non-negotiables. David Boyes: You've got your flow there, which is great. Mm-hmm. And I think you're, you're doing better in that than, than- Yeah ... uh, some owners that, that we talk with. I encourage, I encourage everybody to have a flow, right? Yeah. We, we wanna kind of go through the conversation. I'll tell you the number one, um, deficit that I hear within the first probably 10 seconds of a phone call is asking for the customer name, right? So- Right ... "Thank you for calling ABC Automotive. How may I help you? Um, yeah, I can help you with that. My name's David. What's your name?" Jimmy Lea: Mm. David Boyes: It's so simple. Yeah. And, uh, I listen to call after call after call. I mean, these, they, they pop out because of our AI call analysis, but where we go through this whole process and we've had a 90-second call or a two-minute-long phone call, and at no point ask the customer name. Tonnika Haynes: Right. And then you assume that the name on a caller ID is their name. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Right. Tonnika Haynes: That, that's a problem, too. I know that we were doing... I was doing it as well. Yeah. I would do it as well. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: But, um, and, and with that, I had a little challenge saying, "Hey, I want to see you guys' name on the, the review." Yeah. And it really bothers me when a client calls to check on their car, and I have to, have to answer the phone, "Hey, who was your service advisor?" "Uh, I don't know." What? David Boyes: Mm. Tonnika Haynes: They need to know your name. David Boyes: Mm. Tonnika Haynes: So I had to make sure that everybody had their own business cards when the car was dropped off. "Hey, my name is Stuart. This is who you should call to check on your car. Everybody here can help you, but I'm the main person." So I think a lot of people just don't do that, and say, "Hey, well, my name's Tanika. Who am I speaking with?" Great. "Have you been here with us before?" David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: You know, if it doesn't pop up on the caller ID, "Have you been here with us before?" Yeah. But the caller ID pop up, that's a game changer. Am I skipping ahead? Should we not go that far yet? David Boyes: No, you're fine. Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Thank you, David. Yeah, just be ready. Yeah, be ready when, when David Voigts calls Brown's Automotive, and you call and say, "Brown's Automotive. This is Tanika. Hey, David, how can I help you today?" What is that? What are you doing? You knew I was calling. You know, like- Yeah ... yeah, caller ID exists. People forget about that. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: But- They do. They do. But it, it's just extra special. Yeah. And that's what the caller ID... I know one thing I do when the customer's walking in, and if I know I have a blue Toyota Coro- Corolla coming in at 9:00. "Who is this coming in?" Yeah. "Hey, Mrs. Such-and-such. Good morning. Oh, hey." Instead of saying, "Can I help you?" Yes, you can help me. That's why I walked through the door. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. " Tonnika Haynes: Hey, M- hey, Mary David Boyes: Jane." Or, "Hang on a second. I'll be with you in a second." Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. No. David Boyes: Don't do that. Tonnika Haynes: Don't do that. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: So, um, there's a lot to be said about customer service, and there's a lot to be said about s- calling people by their name. Jimmy Lea: Amen. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: It creates familiarity. Yes. And, uh, when, when we have familiarity, we have a relationship. Mm-hmm. It's in- it's potentially implied. But people love to do business with, with the, the folks that they have a relationship with. Mm-hmm. And they're inclined... You know, this is the fun thing about consumer behavior and human behavior, is when I have a great experience, I wanna rally my friends around that too. I want to include them in the joy that I get to experience when I come see Tanika and her team. Yeah. So I'm gonna- I, I'm gonna be much more likely to tell folks about it. If I have a meh- Meh ... average experience, it's probably not gonna come up in conversation. I'm not gonna stick my neck out there. But, um, how do we do that? Well, we address people by their name. We know when they're calling, right? I might even be pulling that up in my shop management system or my CRM. Just the s- the second the phone rings, it's gonna pop and present that information. "Yeah, I saw you were in three, three months ago, and we had looked at, you know, X, Y, Z on your vehicle. Should we add, add some additional time to take care of that this time?" Right? It, we have an awareness. They have confidence in us. We know them as a person. We know their vehicles. And now we're, we're joining together with our customers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, at, at a common goal, right? And it comes back to their safety. Well, Tonnika Haynes: so what'll happen is you'll get a client, and, um... Sorry about the background noise. That's all right. You'll get a client, and they're not thinking about their car. They, they, they've grown to love you. They've grown to know you. They know you by your name. And then you made the recommendations last time. They trust you enough that they are just gonna be like, "Okay, whatever. I'll talk to you about it next time. Tanika's gonna remember that for me." Say, "Hey, Miss Mary Jane, you remember we talked about..." "I don't remember we talking about." "Well, here's a copy. I'm gonna send that over to you. We're gonna look at it, these things again." Yeah. It's just like having a whole system, and then you become that person. It's like I don't have to remember what my car needs 'cause Tanika and her team have the history, and they know me by my name. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: Right. And they're gonna take care of me. David Boyes: The paradigm shift there is I, you know, as a service advisor, I'm the expert. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: As the service manager, I'm the expert, right? You've come to me because of our and my expertise, and I'm sharing the belief that you wanna be safe and you wanna care for your vehicle. So allow me to make these recommendations. Allow me to, to keep that, those notes about our previous interactions so that when we meet to, when we meet again, we can make sure that w- you know, we're, we're not starting from zero- Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm David Boyes: that we already have this information available, and we're going to improve that experience. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Um, on the, on the call coaching side of it, um, you know, I, I think at some level you've kinda normalized it in your shop, and I'd love to learn more about how, you know, how did you do that? It's, it's not typical, I would say, that people are just, like, rallying around, "Let's listen to calls," right? 'Cause part of it is, you know, the exposure or this kind of fear of judgment. But once you normalize that and make it consistent, um, I'd love to know how you've done that and, and keep the, uh, the Big Brother mentality out the door. Tonnika Haynes: Well, I don't, well, we've got cameras, and we've got these things recording the calls. And, and first of all, these calls are not being recorded to get you. These calls are recor- Yeah ... recorded to cover your butts from that crazy person that swear they didn't say it. Mm-hmm. These calls are recorded to make you better. Um, I remember Chad say, "Hey, just put it on the calendar. Just put it on the calendar." It's like ha- having that one-on-one for the first time. Nobody knows what to say or to do. I'm not trying to attack you. I'm just trying to make you better. So let's just... I listened to my call. Be vulnerable. Me. Hey, Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... Tonnika Haynes: you don't wanna listen to your call. I didn't wanna listen to my own call. But let's, let's do this. It's just on the calendar. And like I said, the defense will just break down a little bit at a time, and I found that with my one-on-ones again. Like, we do a first Monday one-on-one. If I was late or if I skipped the one-on-one, they're like, "Well, why did, I didn't get my one-on-one. Am I in trouble?" They look forward to it. Everybody wants positive reinforcement. Amen. So if you keep it positive, and then some- like, "Hey, I looked at 10 of your calls, and out of the 10, only 3 of them were coachable." Or, "Hey, you remember when we started out, how you would have, like, a 11 bad calls out of 20? Dude, you only got two this time." So make sure we measure it, okay? Schedule it, measure it, keep it going. Know you're uncomfortable, they're uncomfortable, and just say- I don't wanna do this. Nobody wants to do it. Nobody wants to lift that... Well, a lot of people don't wanna lift the heaviest weight for the muscle gain. Mm-hmm. It's gonna be painful, but it's gonna get easier. It's gonna be easier for me and you as the coach and the coachee, or is it a coachee? Whatever. So, I mean, it, it's... I don't know if there's an easy way to put it, but I just know that you just keep doing it, you be consistent, and you let them know if you're uncomfortable. Like I hear shop owners say, "How do you start this one-on-one stuff? How do you start this coaching stuff?" You just start it. And you're just like, "Ooh, hey, I don't know what I'm doing either. Let's do this together." Yeah. "Let's, let's get better together." Like, I'm listening to my calls too. We're all getting better together. So I would just say start it, put it on a schedule, make it, make it pop up, show up. Yeah. Wednesday, coaching calls. Jimmy, one of the- Schedule it. It's ready to go. David Boyes: Yeah. That, that's perfect. I, I, I love the perspective too. And Jimmy, one of the, you know, the things that I share with owners consistently is be consistent. Mm-hmm. So I think the, the technology drives that, right? We're delivering an email with, you know, here, here's a, a top call, here's a coachable call. Here's some additional information. So delivering that is important, and the technology really helps us drive that consistency in this case. So, um, when that, that email comes out, here's a call example, you don't have to do anything with that today, or you can. If you don't, there's another one tomorrow, right? Mm-hmm. And we wanna create that normalcy. And th- this is the part that drives change, is one, you know, we're, we're making this normal. Yep. And Tanika, you were just talking about that, right? We're gonna put this on the calendar. People begin to expect it, right? It becomes normal for them, and that's a super important milestone in the coaching, training, and development process, is that sense of normalcy in the shop. And then, um, u- understanding the expectations and, you know, where do we have the opportunities. Um, Tanika, you know, one, one thought that comes to mind here is, you know, you'd mentioned at the beginning, like ask for the appointment. As you began doing this, you know, what, what did you begin to understand and, and see happening across, you know, the phone calls and across your organization? What patterns began to emerge? And really, what's that aha moment you had where you're like, "This is bringing value to me while I'm bringing value to my team"? Tonnika Haynes: Ooh, that's a good question. So when we start asking for the appointment, you know what? The calendar filled up. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. So the marketing was working. And, um, but the big aha moment... Ooh, that's a good question, Dave. You got me on that one. Should have text me that before you asked me that one. I'd been ready. David Boyes: My Tonnika Haynes: apologies. Phone with you. Aha moments with phone calls. I don't know. I, I really, I can't answer that one for you, but what I do wanna say before I forget the chance, don't get the chance to say it, when they're sitting beside each other up front and they're lis- 'cause they're, everybody can hear everybody's phone calls. Mm-hmm. I can hear them say, "That was a good one. What was that one about?" Or like Stuart would tell Hailey, he's like, "She's, she's had a lot of good phone calls here lately. I can hear the change in the way she's handling the phone calls." So again, um, may have got a little bit off subject, but them helping each other and encouraging each other. Maybe they can only hear one end of the phone call, but there's some key words like, "Oh, you killed that one." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. " Tonnika Haynes: You killed that one." Or making that sale on the phone call. Yeah. "I heard how you delivered that BVI. I heard that delivery. You gave them the good sandwich," and they said yes. Like this morning, she was like, "She said yes to everything." It's like, "God, it's working." Imagine that. Love it. Imagine doing a training, following the instructions, and it actually working. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Gotta David Boyes: love that. It really is the aha moment too, right? Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: You're, you're going through, you're driving consistency. You have, you know, some form of flow and expectations, and you're learning from one another. I love the fact that- Mm-hmm ... they're listening at least to one side of each other's conversations- Right ... in real time. Tonnika Haynes: I David Boyes: think I'm lucky Tonnika Haynes: with that- And then getting to populate from that ... with my team. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: I think I'm lucky with my, 'cause they're, they're not in competition, and, um, it's like how do you keep them... I don't know. God blessed me with that, but I'm just lucky that way. But encouraging each other- So. Jimmy Lea: It's good. That's good, Tanika. You, you've set up a solid culture there, solid people. They've got great results. You're listening to the phone calls. Consistency, like David's talking about. You know, um, hearing one side of the conversation helps a little bit, but if you, if you, as an owner, if you're only listening to half the conversation and you are not booked up three, four, five, six, seven, eight days in advance, chances are you're missing the other half of the conversation, and you need to listen to it. So you do need a device, a program, a, a hardware. You need a, a phone system that allows you to listen to all sides- Mm-hmm ... of the conversation. You've g- just gotta be able to do that. You gotta be able to do that. Now I'm gonna give another shout-out here as we work in our marketing. So a lot of times I hear shops talking about their marketing. "Well, my marketing's not working. I'm not... It's not working. It's not working." A lot of times it comes back to the phone call. Mm-hmm. How well is the phone call being handled or treated from an advisor? But speaking to the marketing part, we've got a shout-out here for the institute is holding a marketing intensive this October 26, 27, 28. Tanika, I just got off the phone with Brett Faidley. He is signed up. He is coming out for Mars Conference, so if you wanna get signed up as well, sister, we'd love to have you out here. Tonnika Haynes: I gotta get a real flashy jacket for that one. Jimmy Lea: Uh-huh. Tonnika Haynes: Pull out my Jimmy Lea: rhinestones. Right behind that Mars Conference. So if you got your smartphone there in front of you, grab out your smartphone, turn on your camera. There's the QR code right there. Oh, man. Flash the QR code and get registered. The, the, uh, the Mars Conference is going to be awesome. It is a conference where when you are done with the workshops, it's a three-day conference. When you're done with that three-day conference, you have 2027 mapped out, ready to go, and you know what you're gonna be doing month to month throughout that whole next year. It's super awesome. I, I love the Mars Conference. David Boyes: I do too. So Jimmy Lea: come- David Boyes: I was at the last one. Excited to be there. I'm, let me just say I was there as a participant at the last Mars Conference. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: And, uh, one, getting to, you know, to interact with so many, uh, friends across the industry was great, but also, uh, you know, I, I, I don't own a shop. I own a, uh, communication business. I took so much away from that that I immediately applied. I can speak from my own experience. Uh, and I know, uh, you know, many of the participants there that took those components right back to their shop and made immediate changes. So it is, uh, it's not just a, um, it's not just a workshop where you're gonna come away with a flashy workbook and put that in a dusty cabinet somewhere and never do anything with it. I promise you, you attend the Mars Conference, and, uh, you will come away energized and ready to make a real difference in your shop Jimmy Lea: Yep, for sure. For sure. Tonnika Haynes: All right. Like I s- I'm never gonna be at work if I keep coming, following you around, Jimmy. David Boyes: Just imagine your wardrobe, though. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, I know. It'd be so good. Jimmy Lea: It'd be so good. Tonnika Haynes: But no, we'll see. I, I'm thinking about that. I thought about what we talked about the other day, but we're not gonna get off subject 'cause I do that a lot. David Boyes: It can happen. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. David, what else? What else can we talk about with phones, phone systems, programs? Um, can we track our marketing using your phone system? David Boyes: Yeah. Uh, just on that very note, you know, the, uh, uh, we'll talk about this a little bit this year at Mars as well, but, you know, market tracking is important, right? We, we spend a lot of money, and understanding the performance, uh, is important. So with our phone system, you know, we can provide, uh, market tracking numbers if you have different campaigns, mailers, text messaging, website, uh, related, uh, leads that you're generating. Um, we can certainly provide unique numbers. The customer experience is the same, and the, um, you know, the shop experience is the same, except you have all of this additional data about, you know, how many calls were generated. So that's important to know, and, uh, it's also important to, uh, use that as a, you know, a good baseline of information about your capacity to manage phone calls in your shop. So when we look at some of the, uh, the other performance metrics, how long does it take us to answer the phone? Are we answering the phone, right? Jimmy Lea: Mm. David Boyes: In order to ask somebody for the appointment, we have to first answer the phone. Uh, and if you're spending this money on marketing campaigns, there are a variety of reasons, and I'll just tell you one example that I hear often from owners is, you know, they put out a marketing number and they, you know, advisors, uh, might believe that it's, you know, it's generating bad leads, something like that, so they won't answer that phone. Um, but we wanna, we wanna understand, uh, the behavior of what's going on. Is it something that we can control? Um, are, are we effective in the marketing campaign? What information do I have around that? And then additionally, uh, running that into the call analysis, uh, so that we understand are we, are we converting these, right? If we're generating the leads, are we actually generating appointments? And then, uh, from that point, if you know you have the appointment, you can measure your performance, uh, go forward. So there's a lot of data that we can capture, um, other than just sending in all of these phone calls to the main number. Jimmy Lea: I love it. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love the, the phone is such a powerful tool. I love when we can multitask that tool and do multiple things with the, the same tool. Very cool. Very cool. But i- if there a- any questions, comments, concerns from our audience, we would love for you to type those in. If there's questions for David or questions for Tamika, go ahead and type those into the comments section. While they're doing that, I will say if you are trying to keep up with me, good luck. But you can find it on our website. The website page is, uh, wearetheinstitute.com/events. That's all of the events that are coming up here in the very near future where you will see the institute participating and locking arms with the industry to help elevate the industry. Our motto, our mantra is, better business, better life, better industry. We're gonna lock arms with you as a shop owner so that you have a better business. The net result of you having a better business is that you have a better life. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. Jimmy Lea: And not just you have a better life, your advisors have a better life, your technicians have a better life. Your, uh, your partners have a better life. Your spouse Your advisors' significant others, their spouses, uh, their, their technicians and their spouses, the, and their children. Everyone elevates, everyone breathes better, everyone sees a bluer sky and greener grass when we have a better business, a better life, and our commitment is that we will help this become a better industry. Looks like there's a couple of comments that did come through. Oh, no, that's Raleigh posting out the webpage for the events. Yeah. Uh, super awesome. Super awesome. Uh, last final thoughts, final ideas. David, we'll start with you. Tanika, then to you. Yeah. That we can help this industry grow. David Boyes: Tanika, thank you for joining today and, and sharing your experience. It's super valuable for, for me as a provider to our industry that, uh, we understand how we're driving impact. So thank you again for that. Thank you for your trust and support. For the, uh, the audience, uh, Call Inbound is our company, callinbound.com. Uh, we provide communication services, uh, call tracking information, uh, advisor call handling performance metrics, and AI call analysis. But above all, we're part of the industry, right? So, uh, I got my start with, uh, with the institute in a 20 group. Got, you know, very ingrained in the industry, uh, while I was building my company. And, um, you know, I'm proud to say that I'm part of the, uh, not just the automotive aftermarket, but the, the service repair industry. Thank you, Tonnika Haynes: gentlemen. I wanna make, make sure you know that I appreciate your company. Um, I don't know how many employees you have, but it seems like they're all just sitting in the same room waiting to help. I can send an email and I get a response so quickly, and it's always been consistent great service, so I do appreciate that. And, uh, anybody that's on the fence, whether you, you know, I'm like, "I don't wanna listen to phone calls, that's just another thing for me to need to..." Do it. Listen to the phone calls. Start with yourself. Start with yourself as the owner. I always say start, start with yourself. I always assume that I'm the problem, then I can work from there. Listen to your phone calls, and if you think you're good and then you listen to them, you realize how bad you are, think about how bad your team is if you're not coaching them. So get them in coaching call services or what- whatever. Listen to the phone calls. Get everything in order. And not only will you make better sales and better connections, more appointments, but I really truly believe that it could save you a lot of heartache. Yeah, they record bad calls, too. Bad calls from the other end that you're, you know, that you need, I hate to say for court, but anything. It's like, "Hey, sir, we've got that call recorded and that didn't go quite the way you're saying it's gonna go." So that's another part to it that could, that could be very important in your shop. We call that David Boyes: the replay booth. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. David Boyes: We'll take that to the replay booth. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: It, it, it's an important to CYA. Exactly. You gotta cover your own behind. Tonnika Haynes: There's a great... That's a great tool for that. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. Yep, for sure. Well, with that, thank you very much. David, thank you for being here. Taneka, thank you very much for being here. Tonnika Haynes: Any Jimmy Lea: time. Look forward to seeing both of you very soon at our next conference, and to give you a big hug and say hello. Uh, bring your best jackets, David. Say Tonnika Haynes: less. Gotcha. Say less. Back in the David Boyes: studio. Jimmy Lea: Yes, yes. Very much looking forward to working with all of you in the very near future. And for everyone that is listening, thank you so much for joining us today as we talk about building a better business, a better life, and a better industry. My name is Jimmie Lee. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and we're here to lock arms with you and make a difference. Click on it. Come find us. We're here to help. How can we help you? Let's make a difference. Talk to you soon.