How can I improve retention of technicians in my shop?

Providing clear career pathways and investing in your team's development can significantly enhance retention rates.

What role does emotional intelligence play in leadership?

Emotional intelligence helps leaders manage their emotions and respond effectively to challenges, which sets a positive example for their teams.

How can I create a culture that allows for failure?

By encouraging team members to take risks and learn from their mistakes, you create an environment where growth and innovation can thrive.

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The Limitless Leadership PodcastJuly 23, 2026 · 37 min

Ep 166: Why Great Leaders Give People Permission to Fail with Ron Helmer

Leadership & Culture Hiring & Training Customer Experience

With Ron Helmer

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About this episode

In this episode, Josh welcomes Ron Helmer, CEO of Mentor Mentee, to discuss tackling the automotive technician shortage through structured career development and mentorship. Drawing…

Key takeaways

—Effective leadership requires clarity and direction to retain talent.
—Creating a clear career path for technicians enhances their engagement and performance.
—Emotional intelligence is crucial for leaders to manage their responses and support their teams.
—Encouraging a culture where team members can learn from failures fosters growth.
—Leaders should differentiate between excuses and explanations to promote accountability.

Frequently asked

How can I improve retention of technicians in my shop?: Providing clear career pathways and investing in your team's development can significantly enhance retention rates.
What role does emotional intelligence play in leadership?: Emotional intelligence helps leaders manage their emotions and respond effectively to challenges, which sets a positive example for their teams.
How can I create a culture that allows for failure?: By encouraging team members to take risks and learn from their mistakes, you create an environment where growth and innovation can thrive.

▸Full transcript

You either give people a reason to trust you and believe you, or you don't. Own up to it, 'cause bad news does not get better with time. As always, failure is always an option, and true failure only comes when you refuse to get back up. 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. I'm your host, Josh Parnell, and before we get started, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, do all the things you need to on social media to help this podcast impact people and build leaders just like the leader I am able to interview today.

Uh, our guest is the owner and CEO of MentorMentee, a proud sponsor of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. So I will thank you for that. But, uh, Ron Helmer, if you would, man, go ahead and introduce yourself. Share with the audience who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Sure thing. First of all, I wanna start off by saying thanks, Josh, for inviting me on.

Um, I'll be completely honest and transparent. This is my first podcast, so I'm sure my daughters will get a kick out of this. So again, thank you for that. So no, my name's Ron Helmer, as you had indicated, CEO of Mentor Mentee. We are specifically in the automotive industry as we speak, providing accelerated career pathways for service technicians to solve a problem that everybody's well aware of, which is There's just, there's a significant shortage in the industry as far as service technicians are concerned.

And we're just trying to help organizations both in the automotive and diesel identify how they can leverage the untapped talent that they have and accelerate their competencies to a level that they then can service their customers in a way that increases that customer experience and product or service that they're offering. 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 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. Ron, one of the things that, uh, you know, I, I really value and Uh, and quite frankly admire in leaders is their ability to provide clarity and direction.

And, um, what I know that MentorMentee can, can, can provide is just that. They, they pro— you guys provide clarity and direction. The fact that you're offering the career path, um, and, and, and what a, uh, uh, um, automotive prepare— automotive repair professional can, can expect, that's, that's key. That's crucial. And, you know, most people are not leaving bad jobs. They leave bad leaders because those leaders don't provide the career path.

They don't provide clarity and direction. And another great sponsor of ours is Promotive, and Promotive, uh, does a great job of talent acquisition. So Promotive is a recruiting company that helps get team members on board, and MentorMentee is able to provide the career path for those team members and retain that talent. Uh, if you would share with our audience, um, a little bit about MentorMentee, how you got into this organization, and some of your personal background, uh, as well.

Yeah. So, great intro. So, the purpose of MentorMentee is to address kind of exactly what you talked about, right? So, you know, if you think back to, you know, early days in your career, you may have been hired in an organization, brought in, and there was some kind of onboarding and et cetera, et cetera, but no real clear definitive pathway for how you're going to get from step 1 to step 2 to step 20, right?

Mentor-mentee, aside from trying to address the issues around the number of available technicians and et cetera, et cetera, was really about creating visibility, clarity, right, for these technicians, regardless of their entry level, right, coming out of some kind of trade school or somebody coming off the street and getting into an organization through express lane services or a C-level technician elevating to B, to A, to master.

Really kind of providing that clear pathway for them as well as individuals in these business organizations to say, hey, here's the differentiating separator between us and, you know, a similar dealership down the street. You know, we invest in our people and this is how we do it. So ideally, it has a specific purpose, but the overriding arch of the purpose behind it, if I could double use that word, is really just show the individual how they can get from where they're at to the next step and beyond.

And doing that, right, it creates a little bit of incentive, it creates motivation, it creates a little sense of pride in what they're doing, and et cetera, et cetera. That's incredible. And then personally, so I'm curious if you could share with the audience how you came about MentorMinty, how you got into MentorMinty. Yeah, my background's a little colorful in the sense that I started off in the service.

I spent 22 years in the Navy, about 11 of it was active and the rest of it was reserves. Thank you for your service, by the way. No, you're worth it 100%, right? So in that scenario, got to do a multitude of different things. I was in engineering, I worked in the sub fleet, worked for Global Transportation Command, specifically military sealift. In the Korean Theater of Operations, worked for DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, at, uh, you know, Strategic Air Force, um, or STRATCOM at, um, Offutt Air Force Base.

And, uh, I got out of that and worked in the tech sector and doing recruiting, actually. And, um, I did a little stint in, you know, recruiting in the Navy. Um, from there, I got involved in an organization that was specifically geared around IT hardware asset management for enterprise folks and data security. Actually ended up buying that business from the founder and was in that organization about 20 years.

But I got connected to MentorMentee for a couple of reasons. One, I'm a gearhead by nature, right? That's my generation. And then the individual that actually came up with the concept around MentorMentee, extensive automotive background, specifically in collision. He actually had, uh, 300 Car Star franchises before, uh, he sold out in the mid-'90s, I believe. Okay. Got into, uh, U-Inc., which provided, um, educational online training in the automotive sector, developed a program called, uh, Safety and Pollution that was hugely successful and understood and recognized the current challenges in the automotive sector around technician and tech development.

And so that's, that's how it got birthed. And our relationship started in an entrepreneurial mentoring program here in Kansas City that developed that relationship. And through that, we had some conversations, and I have since sold my other business, about 80% of it, and I was bored. And, uh, we had a conversation and I got excited about it and it just kind of fell into my lap and it was right up my alley relative to my interest in automotive, to mentoring, to leadership, the whole nine yards.

That's incredible. Um, again, Ron, thank you for sharing. Thank you for being here. You know, I mentioned earlier that the 2 things that we get to provide as leaders is clarity and direction. I believe that we cannot provide that without the establishment of safety and trust. Could you speak to the listening audience about what it means to you to be able to provide safety and trust for your team members in, in order to provide the clarity and direction that they all deserve?

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.

The good news is you don't have to piece it together alone. TechMetric is the all-in-one platform built for shops and growing operators who want less chaos and more clarity. Shop management, integrated payments, and built-in marketing all working together in one place. No bouncing between tools, no syncing issues, No missed opportunities, just a cleaner operation, a stronger customer experience, and a business that's built to grow.

See how it works at techmetric.com or use the link in the show notes. Yeah, it's the old adage, people don't care what you say, they only care what you do. Right. And, and yeah, so leadership, you know, is, you know, permeated with buzzwords and phrases. Right. And what it boils down to is if you want You either give people a reason to trust you and believe you, or you don't, right?

So from that, there has to be some consistency, right? And that comes from personal conviction and your belief in what it is to be a good leader. And it's not a title that's given, it's a title that's earned. So if you want your organization to follow you and lead you and, and trust your leadership and believe in your vision, you really have to connect.

And you have to connect in a way that is real. You have to connect in a way that's genuine. And because most people, regardless of where they're at, right, they can smoke out and sense, you know, who's fake, who's being non-genuine, right? So I think the key for people to really align themselves with you, they have to, like you said, trust and believe in what you're doing and how you're doing it and why you're doing it.

I believe that we connect through authenticity, humility, and vulnerability. And, and I'm a big believer in, if, if, if anyone has listened to this podcast or watched this podcast, by the way, you can watch this podcast, uh, on YouTube at The Bearded Leader. But if, if you've heard or watched this podcast before, you've likely heard me say the phrase, connection creates engagement and engagement increases performance.

And many of us as business owners, regardless of the industry that you're in, As business owners, you wanna increase performance. And a lot of us are so focused on the processes and, and, and of course the profit. But what if we focused on the people? What if we focused on the people first? If we prioritize our greatest assets, which are our people, we can, we can connect in a way that creates engagement and engagement increases, uh, performance.

You, you kind of, you kind of touched on my, my, you know, one question that I, that I ask every guest on this podcast, which is, what does leadership mean to you? If you would go, uh, continue to take, take that question. And, and if I were to ask you, Ron, what does leadership mean to you, how would you answer that? So, great question, right?

Um, first let me say, no leader's perfect, right? And, and I think the sign of a good leader is, is when they get something wrong, they're the first to step up and say, hey, I made a mistake. Forgive forgive me, that was a bonehead move, whatever the case may be. People are inclined to give grace, right, in those situations. Um, so avoidance of your own mistakes and human failures and that is, is, is essentially, um, very important.

But for me, um, good leadership comes first, I think, from great emotional intelligence, right? Can you regulate your emotions? Regardless of what's going on, chaos, not chaos, I mean, can you remain, uh, steadfast in your resolve and your steadiness? Because when stuff does hit the fan, as my dad always used to say, it doesn't get evenly distributed. So if you get the brunt of it, you got to brush it off and keep moving.

Yeah. Uh, your, your, your team is going to look to you how you react and respond to that. And, and if you panic or if you flip out that's what they're going to do. I mean, it's the same thing when I used to coach all 3 of my girls in competitive fastpitch softball. I could always tell if I can get a coach rattled, I got the team, right?

And so, female athletics specifically in the younger years can get a little wavy, right? But, if you can maintain resolve and you can work through that, then you got a shot. But, I think those are 2 critical elements. I think I already mentioned connection, right? They got to know and understand that you're a real person, and you can do that through many different ways.

Management by walking around, connecting with folks on topics and interests that they have that's not necessarily connected to work. Also, celebrate wins, regardless if they're big or small. But also, at the same time, I think a good leader will create an opportunity for individuals to fail. And I think that's essential to success because you have to be able to learn from your mistakes.

Obviously, as leaders, we want to minimize how critical those mistakes are, but you got to give them permission to be able to try and step out and fail, right? That's another key part. I think another one is, and this is where the rubber hits the road relative to them really seeing and understanding what you do versus what you say. And that is, you kind of alluded to it, right?

Our best resource, our best assets are our people. And it's just standing in the gap for them or with them in specific times or periods in their life. That's where that real, that connection really grabs root, where you can show that, hey, listen, I see you as a whole person and not just a function within our organization. And that's huge, right? Uh, and then I think the last thing, which I think is critical because it can create unintended results, and that is fairness through, uh, being firm, right?

As a leader, you have to be okay with having uncomfortable conversations, right? And most individuals have a natural, uh, affliction to, uh, conflict, right? They're emotionally uncomfortable with it, so they avoid it at all costs. So if you've got it, if you've got an individual that is not meeting standards, or performance issues are a problem, or attendance You have to have that conversation with them.

And if you don't, your team's going to see that and they're going to say, well, why should I be held to this standard and yada, yada, yada if this individual over here is not, right? So everybody wants a fair playing field, right? So I think a leader that can do that is good. The other thing is that as leaders, we need to know the difference Um, between excuses and explanations, right?

Excuses are nothing more than a way for us to explain away our behavior, right? Um, explanations come with information, they come with accountability and ownership, and they come with potential solutions to solve the problem. Ron, if you got a mic, man, drop it because you just brought some fire. Like everything you shared is why I believe that Limitless Leadership and MentorMentee are so closely aligned.

Um, I mean, I— there's a lot to unpack here. Um, I think one thing that, that, uh, is, is very helpful is for the audience to understand the, the opportunity that we're providing to a team member when we give them permission to fail, we give them permission to be wrong. I mean, we're, we're not going to encourage that they go out and fail willingly, but we're going to encourage that they try something, they put forth effort.

And if they fail, they get to learn something and they get to pivot. So, being able to create that safety, that safe place, space, and platform, if you will, knowing that if I try something that my leader has delegated to me, and if I fail, it's going to be okay. We're going to learn and we're going to grow through it. Could I ask you to unpack that specific concept a little more?

Um, yeah, if I'm, if I'm listening or if I'm watching and I'm trying to think, I'm thinking like, hey, that sounds great, but Man, I really struggle when I see someone on my team do something wrong or make a mistake or fail, including myself. So how do we actually get through that process? So I think the first thing that comes to mind is, is that as I kind of identified some of the traits of a good leader, right, is emotional intelligence and the ability to control one's emotions, right?

So as leaders, you know, we obviously fly at a specific altitude and there's a lot of things that we are responsible for relative to the core processes that have been given to us under our, our guise. And we have pressures as leaders, right, to perform. And we all have people that we report to or, uh, et cetera, et cetera. So I think recognizing where you're at relative to that emotional state is key because if that's not in check and somebody does make a mistake, you can unfortunately let that emotion boil over and then you can create a counterargument to maybe a culture and environment you're trying to create.

So that's the first thing. The second thing is that ironically over the weekend, I watched a series on Netflix that caught my attention. And it was called The Journey to the Sandlot, and it was on, it was on Netflix, and it talked about youth sports and what makes a good coach. And, you know, parents in youth sports, how they can get overzealous and live through the— live vicariously through their kids.

And, you know, every parent thinks their kid's a D1 athlete, and it just creates this tension that these kids can't make a mistake. And it's the same thing in, in business where if the leader is so tight, right, and so subject to what's going on in their own purview, that one little thing over here just sets everything off, that doesn't help your cause.

So, to go back to your point, you want your team to be in a position where they can work with a level of understanding that what they're doing has a specific purpose. There's intentionality behind it. There is enough wherewithal for them to learn and grow and develop. And if they do take the initiative to step outside of their comfort zone and try something and not be successful at it, that they're going to have the permission to do that.

Now, obviously, like I said, your job as a leader is to minimize how critical that is, right? But at the end of the day, if you truly want your team to grow, you gotta give them the space to grow, right? Yeah. That's good. That's powerful. Um, you know, I, I truly believe that emotional maturity is having feelings, but not letting our feelings have us.

And we know that when emotions are high, logic tends to be low. And so I, I love that you're touching on emotional intelligence. Um, ultimately, as a leader, we get the opportunity to be influential. Because we have a, a perspective that, uh, a lot of folks may not have. And, and this goes for anybody regardless of if you're, you could be green to an industry, you could be day 1 or day 1,000.

You have a perspective that is not shared by anyone else in, in the world, let alone your, your company. And so that means you have value to add. Your, your, your voice should be heard. Your opinions should matter. Your ideas should be considered. So if you have perspective, that makes you influential. In other words, You're contagious. You can either infect or you can affect.

And if you can affect change, that makes you a leader. So my thought is everyone is a leader. I love that you touched on, uh, you shared something that I hadn't heard before— excuses or explanations. Uh, something I often share in my own coaching is, uh, there's excuses and there's reasons. They're, they're the same thing. It just depends on the perspective. Because when something occurs and someone is trying to justify or explain why this occurred or why that occurred.

To them, that's their reason. Well, look, this is the reason why I showed up late today. This is the reason why I made this mistake. And the person receiving it, in their mind, they might just say, hey, look, like, you're just making excuses. I mean, if you showed up late, could we have woken up early? Could we have, you know, taken a different route?

So could I ask you to elaborate on that concept as well in terms of excuses and explanations. Um, you, you touched on accountability and, and taking ownership, and I think this is probably the direction you're gonna be going in, but elaborate on that concept for, for us if you could. Yeah. So as a leader, you know, you want to have an ear kind of tuned to that.

Okay. And you can tell right away if somebody's making an excuse, right? Because like I said, it lacks the accountability and the ownership piece. It's always pointing the finger elsewhere. And that's a learning moment. That's an opportunity right now. You know, I always said, you know, if you're gonna pour into somebody, the first thing you have to decipher is, is that if you use the example of a glass and you want to pour water into it, there's a specific way that that glass has to be positioned to receive what you're going to pour into it.

If that glass is upside down and it you try to pour into it, it's just going to go all over the table. You'll be able to ascertain quickly if somebody that you're dealing with is willing to receive what you're trying to pour into them. So in that, you can help them understand, listen, because you don't know the background, you don't know the experiences, you don't know upbringing, whatever the case may be.

And really, as our— as a responsibility, unspoken responsibility of leaders, is to help people grow and mature in life. So regardless if they stay with your organization or not, whatever influence or impact you have on them is something that can last and stay with them as they move forward. And I've had these examples play out before, and I've had people call me like 2 years down the road and say, listen, you know, I thought the day that you let me go was the worst day of my life, but I realize now that it was the best thing that could have happened to me because everything that you tried to teach me, everything that you told

me, everything you showed me, I decided to make a choice to apply some of that to my new job and I've had great success, right? Not everybody's going to do that, obviously, but the excuse explanation thing, and I've had great training because I live with 4 women. And so that's really evolved my level of patience and understanding. But, you know, you need to know what angle they're coming at and you, you can help them get to, all right, is there an explanation behind why you did this or why this happened?

And if they take ownership and accountability, that's growth. And, and you certainly want to encourage them and praise them for that. Ron, man, this is really powerful stuff. And, and I can't thank you enough for sharing all of this, all these words of wisdom and, and the nuggets that you're sharing. I know a lot of us can take a lot of this information away and really take action and do some incredible things with it.

I love the analogy, the glass analogy, I think is spot on. And I'm likely going to steal that from you if you don't mind. I mean, as a coach, that's something that, you know, I often run into quite often is it may not be the right time. It may not be the right season for this person to receive coaching and the opportunity to hold themselves accountable, which is not calling you out.

It's calling you up. It's very evident to me that you have, you are, you, you yourself are a fantastic mentor for a lot of folks in your life. I think that I know you can offer a lot of, a lot of words of wisdom from a mentor perspective. I'll ask you as a mentee, what is the best advice that you have ever received from a coach or mentor?

You know, I had this, I had this chief when I was in the Navy and I've always been kind of a doer, right? Um, and I remember when I first got to the ship and I had respect for the guy, um, just because of the way he carried himself and the way he presented himself. I could tell that, you know, he meant business and et cetera, et cetera.

And, um, We had this piece of equipment and, um, which is something that we use quite frequently in the things that we did. And, uh, I remember him sitting me down, I think it was like day 1, and he said, listen, he goes, uh, I'll bend over backwards to help you any way I can, but if you screw up majorly, I'll bend over backwards to get you.

And, um, that got my attention right now. I'm, I'm an older generation. I'm, I'm, you know, obviously Gen X. And so, um, as, as a young sailor, um, that really set the tone for my stuff better be tight. I better know what I'm doing right. And I better, I better do it right the first time. And sure enough, a couple months later, were working on a project and I overloaded a piece of equipment because I was in a hurry and I broke it.

And so he came in the shop and I'm kind of like just red and embarrassed. And he looked at me, he goes, what's going on? And I said, well, I said, I screwed up. I broke the machine. How'd you break it? And I told him and he goes, you better fix it. And he left and I was up till 3 o'clock in the morning and I fixed it and I got it back online.

And I can tell you, I never jacked it up again. So that always stuck with me in the sense that, you know, knowing and understanding where my leaders were at really kind of gave me an understanding of where I could play and what I could do and what the boundaries were, as well as if I did make a mistake, the best policy is to own up to it because bad news does not get better with time.

That is right. That's a line right there. Bad news does not get better with time. Right. And I, and I would add this. I, I think there are 3 primary, uh, positions in which, uh, leaders, um, lead from. And that is, you know, and again, I'll use a, a Navy analogy and I've done this with Uh, you know, guys that are like seriously courting my daughters, that sometimes as a leader, you know, you want to lead side by side, right?

And side by side is supporting, encouraging, you know, um, or I mean, um, basically you're training, um, guiding, developing. You know, supporting them through connection, through whatever they're doing. Um, sometimes you, you lead from the back of the boat where they're out front, right? And that is, you know, the encouragement portion of it, like letting them kind of step out further and further.

And then the last position is where you're leading from the front of the boat, right? Maybe there's something going on, there's some chaos, or etc., etc., and it's like, everybody just get behind me, follow me, we're going to go do this. And then afterwards you can do a debrief. I think through that process, they see those different leadership traits in those different areas, and that just builds that trust, that connection.

So that's strong. Um, well, Ron, let's talk about MentorMentee in automotive repair. And if I'm an automotive repair shop owner, if I work at a shop, um, how can I get in touch with MentorMentee and, and what would it look like for me to get involved with MentorMentee? Like what, what does it look like in, from a shop perspective? Yeah, so essentially we are serving 2 customers, right?

The first is obviously the technician, right? Helping them see and have visibility to their career path regardless of where they're at in the process. The second customer we serve is the business unit, right? So obviously we're helping them drive revenues and profitability, but also there are certain KPIs that they're looking at that are extremely valuable, valuable, like their effective labor rate, right?

Um, total number of ROs per technician, um, total billable hours, right? Um, and in those situations, what we want to do is we want to be able to show them, hey, listen, there's a way to affect retention, keep the people you have, and then through that process, you'll identify who your performers are and those who are not. And then if you bring in new people, then you have a system and a process that you can put them in that's going to get engagement and then help accelerate their competency, which thereby is going to improve your effective labor rate.

You're going to be able to do more repair orders per technician per day. You're going to be able to claw back billable labor hours through labor overruns because we all know that they have kind of this time to repair matrix, right, to do certain things. And so if you've got technicians that are, you know, taking, you know, 0.8 hours to do a job that should take them 0.5, and you can bring that back close to that standard, then you're effectively bringing in, you're clawing back those labor overruns and labor hours.

And it gives you an opportunity to do more ROs, which thereby means you can set more appointments. The service advisors now know, you know, they can write these appointments or set these appointments and write these ROs. But also at the same time, it gives visibility to leadership within the shops to know who's good at what, because not just the technician know what their career path is, but leadership knows what's their progression, what's their competency.

So, when they do the work distribution, they now have a better chance to be able to equal that out across the board. So they're not overtasking some of their more senior technicians to do BC-level work. You're kind of balancing that out. So at the end of the day, it's just a real straightforward, simple process that can have significant impact, lasting impact, and it can create a differentiator for these business units to be different than their competition down the street, and that'll help with recruiting.

Absolutely. I love, I love what you shared, Ron. I think this is a fantastic resource that everyone in our industry should be checking out. Go to mentormentee.com to learn more. You can watch a demo, book a discovery call. Um, folks, this is a fantastic team, and it, it should be very evident to everyone listening or watching this episode. Ron is an incredible leader.

Uh, he's a CEO of an incredible organization. And I would encourage everyone to go check out mentormentee.com. Before we go, Ron, I do want to ask you to share one more thing. You know, offline we talked, we had a great conversation and got a chance to connect more, but you talked about a chance or a choice. Can you talk about what I'm alluding to?

Because I think this was a fantastic— it's fantastic what you shared. So I'd love for the audience to hear it. Yeah. So I'm a firm believer and, and I've tried to instill this in my kids as well as anybody that, uh, has been in my charge, um, as an employee or a, a junior sailor or an athlete. And that is the only thing that we're ever really afforded in life is opportunities.

And those opportunities are directly related and tied to attitude and effort. So if you got a great attitude and you got good effort, then the value, the volume, and the frequency of those opportunities are going to be pretty substantial, right? So then what do you do? Well, when you get up in the morning, there's 2 things you're faced with. One is you've got a chance to do something great, and then secondly, and equally as important, you have a choice to make.

Do I do it or do I not do it? Right? And so at the end of the day, you know, scripture says, you know, man makes his plans, God guides his footsteps. And that's great because through that process, one of my favorite words in the English dictionary, which is serendipity, comes into play. You find experiences and relationships through that process that pour into you, that elevate you, that prepare you for greater things to come in the future.

So regardless of whatever your opportunities are today, you have chance and choice, and that's preparing you for what opportunities you're going to have in the future, which may have greater level of responsibility, greater level of consequence, greater level of reward, and it just sets you up for success. And as always, failure is always an option, and true failure only comes when you refuse to get back up.

Ron, this was such a good episode. I mean, one of the most impactful episodes we've had in a long time. Uh, thank you again for being here. Uh, this will likely not be your last time on the show. So I wanna say first and foremost also, uh, congratulations. I could not tell that you were a rookie with podcasting cuz you did great, man.

This was awesome. Yeah. Well, fake it till you make it. Yeah. Well, hey, fake it till you make it, face it till you make it, whatever it is. Yep. You did a fantastic job. Uh, I'd say you made it incredible on this, uh, on this podcast. This was a, Serendipitous episode for me. Uh, thank you for being here and thank you again for tuning into another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast.

As you know, we look to transform our leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results. So thanks again, everyone. Have a great day. Don't forget to smile today. I see you got one more thing to say, Ron. What you got? Come on. I was just gonna close with this, right? So I really appreciate Limitless Leadership. All right. You guys develop the leaders.

We at MentorMentee, we try to help develop the technicians, and I think together it connects leadership development with operational performance, and that's a sure win for success. Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing that. And as a reminder, go visit mentormentee.com. You can also check the show notes. There's a link there in the show notes for you to book a discovery call with Jen Grimes, fantastic team member of MentorMentee.

Uh, so Ron, thanks again for being here. Thank you for tuning in. And, uh, hey, we'll catch you on the next episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast.

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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.

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Downshift with TonnikaAugust 25 · 59 min

Are You Running Your Shop… Or Is It Running You? | Darin Johnson - Ep 37

You shouldn't have to play detective just to figure out what's happening in your own shop. 😂 If you're ready for all your shop's information in one place, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMORunning an auto repair shop is one thing—but what happens when the shop starts running you? In this episode, Tonnika Haynes sits down with Darin Johnson, a one-man shop owner from Great Bend, Kansas, who admits he's working seven days a week, struggles to tell customers no, and hasn't taken a real vacation since 2018. They get into the difficult transition from technician to business owner, why coaching and industry connections have changed Darin's approach, and how raising his labor rate didn't create the customer revolt he feared. Tonnika also gets fired up about boundaries, last-minute customers, “free” tire pressure checks, and why serving your community doesn't mean allowing customers to control your schedule. Darin is heading to ASTA with a mission: build his network, learn how to step away from the shop, find help, and finally create a business that gives him a life outside the bays.Timestamps:00:00 Cold open: “It’s gonna be on one more day”00:19 Downshift intro00:38 Darin still has a FLIP PHONE?!02:10 Meet Darin: Running a one-man repair shop in Kansas02:44 How he accidentally became a shop owner04:27 From hot rods to 25 years in automotive05:39 Does Darin really want to stay a one-man operation?07:06 Heading to ASTA for the first time07:40 Why Darin LEFT his first training event early08:39 Coaching struggles: Knowing what to do vs. actually doing it09:55 The real reason Darin is coming to ASTA10:16 Shop ownership can feel like you’re on an island13:08 Working seven days a week & being married to the shop14:20 The people-pleasing problem15:03 Customers asking about cars at dinner and the grocery store16:27 What happens when the shop becomes your only hobby?20:26 Feeling guilty for taking time away20:57 “Schedule your hats”—including downtime22:59 Darin’s five-year plan: Train someone to replace him23:38 His last REAL vacation was in 201824:34 Open-heart surgery changed how Darin viewed the business25:21 Becoming an owner instead of just a technician28:06 Why 15–20 cars are constantly sitting at the shop28:34 The work Darin has finally started saying NO to30:49 Bringing an accountability partner to training32:42 Why a few unhappy customers can ruin your mindset33:58 Should you just FIRE the worst 5% of your customers?38:02 Tonnika gives Darin his official ASTA assignment40:40 Finding your automotive family42:39 Why Tonnika recommends coaching43:57 Coaching’s impact on Darin’s mindset and mental health45:01 “I wish I would’ve done this 10 years ago”46:04 Why shops that don’t train get left behind46:58 Darin now has the highest labor rate in town47:34 Tonnika’s $12 lawnmower tire era 😂49:00 Learning how to say NO without losing customers49:12 Scheduling your different “hats” as an owner51:10 Customers don’t control your schedule51:44 “It’s been on for two weeks? It can wait another day.”53:05 Your six-month-old check engine light isn’t suddenly my emergency53:50 How “real quick” jobs steal HOURS from your day54:52 Why Tonnika refuses to just throw air in a tire55:32 “My air isn’t free!”56:23 The right way to say no: Give customers another option57:45 Darin’s ASTA challenge & what’s coming in Part 2

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About this episode

Key takeaways

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More from The Limitless Leadership Podcast

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