Gearbox Podcast

00:00.68
Jimmy Purdy
dive on into it because we've got such a late start here.

00:04.12
Nate Winston
Right, yeah, yeah. So what time is it? It is. so it's about 5.53. and just got to – yeah, it is, yeah.

00:10.64
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, you're staying late.

00:14.10
Nate Winston
I just got to ah head out of here by about 6.30, so about 35 minutes or so.

00:19.76
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah.

00:19.84
Nate Winston
But kids up and all that jazz here tonight.

00:22.54
Jimmy Purdy
Get all the good stuff. go It's only three o'clock here.

00:25.50
Nate Winston
Okay, so you're about, yeah, three hours behind. Wow.

00:29.76
Jimmy Purdy
I mean, but it's 83 degrees right now and sunshine and everyone's just rolling right now. So,

00:34.99
Nate Winston
ah hit Nice. Nice. It's 35 here right now. So yeah.

00:40.02
Jimmy Purdy
Oh man, how was that hailstorm anyway?

00:42.63
Nate Winston
Yeah. ah It was terrible. I mean, there's hail everywhere. Cars get damaged. And then there's tornadoes around ah different parts of the region and ah no internet access. It was coming and going last week like crazy. So it was pretty bad.

00:57.50
Nate Winston
Hard to work with. ah But got through It was one-day glitch, really.

01:04.15
Jimmy Purdy
No, that's good. That's one thing we don't have to worry about over here, which is kind of nice.

01:06.63
Nate Winston
Yeah. Yep, absolutely. It just gets hot.

01:10.49
Jimmy Purdy
I guess we got to pay for it. Yeah, it gets a little hot. little bit.

01:15.17
Nate Winston
Yeah, yeah.

01:17.48
Jimmy Purdy
Well, it's nice to have you back.

01:19.20
Nate Winston
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.

01:20.60
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, it's been been ah been a minute since we... It's amazing how fast the time goes by, isn't it?

01:24.60
Nate Winston
Yes, yeah, it's been a little the year now.

01:25.70
Jimmy Purdy
Man, you've been in a... I mean, you're in a totally different place than when we talked last time.

01:31.04
Nate Winston
Yeah, just getting started last time.

01:31.94
Jimmy Purdy
That's wild. So I guess the catch up from last time, from what I remember, you were in what we call a disagreement and you were parting ways.

01:43.46
Nate Winston
Yeah.

01:45.01
Jimmy Purdy
And since then, how is that all kind of shaken out? Are you still kind of in the middle of that or are you've completely moved on?

01:52.45
Nate Winston
No, yeah, so I completely moved on. ah Started of my own business, started of my own thing, um as everybody knows. And um that whole mess that I was trying to leave behind, um I wanted to part ways, you know, on good terms, friendship, but that blew up into a big nightmare, lawsuits, and just it just was not good at all. So um I just pretty much cut ties with all communication.

02:22.60
Nate Winston
uh, from him, the other shop, everything. And I'm just, I'm just on cruise control right now and focus on my current business, you know?

02:32.19
Jimmy Purdy
That's good. and

02:32.99
Nate Winston
Yeah.

02:33.99
Jimmy Purdy
That's good. Looking back, what ah yeah do you have? a Have you had time to reflect and decompress over that and kind of like picked up any pointers that you could give to anybody within in that kind of situation?

02:44.88
Nate Winston
Um, yeah, there's a lot of different pointers. Um, but as far as like reflect, yeah, I, um You know, over the course of the year, there's a lot of, I want to say heartache.

02:57.14
Nate Winston
ah Try to reflect on it and that sort of thing or try to let it go. And it's the past, you know, it's hard to get over. um But I'm starting to get over it now, really. And it's taken a one year of um not not ah resentment, I would say, you know.

03:18.08
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, okay. I see.

03:18.98
Nate Winston
i But it's just hard because you're it's ah you know your friends with you think you're friends with somebody for 20 years and been a business for 16 years. For it to be come to a complete stop is pretty hard for ah millions of different reasons.

03:37.04
Jimmy Purdy
Right.

03:38.13
Nate Winston
but But yeah, I look past it now.

03:41.82
Jimmy Purdy
That's good. And then moving on and moving up, what's what some of the things that you've immediately kind of started doing for yourself in the business that's really helped it grow?

03:50.99
Nate Winston
Um, gosh, i pretty much do everything that I've wanted to do in the past with handling um parts, handling bills and try to keep track of everything. it totally different the way my ex-partner had been doing it, such as um like there's that book out there called Profit First. Right.

04:12.16
Nate Winston
And so I implemented that right away. And so many people said to read the book, listen to the to the pod to the audible. and follow It's like the Dave Ramsey where you have different envelopes.

04:20.08
Jimmy Purdy
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

04:24.34
Nate Winston
You get paid each week, put money for different allocations and and different envelopes so you don't get track don't get lost track of a different funding. you know So that's helping me a lot each week. That way I know where my bills are at, how to pay my rent, how to pay myself, how to pay parts, savings, and things like that. And it's just, I implemented that right away.

04:48.32
Nate Winston
So that's just that so one little thing.

04:51.44
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, that's important to manage your finances, right?

04:51.57
Nate Winston
Yeah.

04:55.98
Jimmy Purdy
i like the the the adage of like finding out exactly what your overhead is and then basically taking the bank account and taking it all out and putting it into a savings, right?

04:56.17
Nate Winston
Yeah.

05:04.94
Jimmy Purdy
So you have no money in the checking and then knowing at the end of each week where you should be so that by the end of the month, you can then, you know, make sure you can pull your profit out make sure you have enough to cover your overhead. That was a big one for me. I really liked that because instead of, you know, just putting everything in their bank account and like, okay, at the end, I'll take out what I need and this, that, and the other.

05:22.83
Jimmy Purdy
It's like, just no, build it every week. So that way, like week three, if you're like, if you're short, it's like, it's time to like start making shit happen. Right. Cause that's, that's how quick the losses come.

05:31.02
Nate Winston
Right.

05:33.08
Jimmy Purdy
Right. It's like in that last week, you can either make or break it.

05:33.90
Nate Winston
Right.

05:35.40
Jimmy Purdy
So was like, it's pretty interesting. Watch the bank account kind of climb and knowing like, okay, all right, we're on track, keep it going.

05:38.54
Nate Winston
Yep.

05:41.39
Jimmy Purdy
Or like, Hey, we're we're falling short. Like, what do we need to do like right now to make sure that the overhead's covered?

05:47.06
Nate Winston
Yeah, 100%. And people don't realize how much work it it takes to run a business and how much overhead that there is to to to sustain our business or any business, really.

05:59.31
Nate Winston
And you know I told that to my ex-partner several times over the years. We need to open up multiple bank accounts. We need to do it like this. And I showed him the book. I read it, tried to get him to read he said, it doesn't make sense. No.

06:14.63
Nate Winston
One bank account, that's it. No. um So, but it's, it's, I'm doing pretty well. You know, I'm, I'm happy. Let's say that I'm happy.

06:23.94
Jimmy Purdy
ah That's good. what's What's the, what's the plan or what's your vision like moving forward? Are are you planning on bringing in techs and advisors or what's your vision?

06:32.01
Nate Winston
um I don't know. I'm always casting out my vision because I i got to figure out the future. You know, um I'm still young. um But a lot of people tell me that I should hire people because of how much work I have, how busy I am.

06:48.84
Nate Winston
um But I have no I have no desire to hire anybody. um I've been down that road over the course of the last 15 years over at my other shop.

07:01.31
Nate Winston
we we calculated, we hired maybe close 80 to 85 different people in a 15 year span.

07:08.22
Jimmy Purdy
wow

07:10.47
Nate Winston
um So I know the ins and outs of how human nature works and how human employees work and all the excuses in the book. I've i've heard them all. And I just, that alone, managing people is one of my weaknesses.

07:25.86
Nate Winston
It's not a strong thing for me. um And it's a full-time job to hire somebody, manage them, make sure they do a correct job. And it's it's created a lot of ah trust issues for me to trust people of the employee world.

07:45.17
Nate Winston
you know

07:45.41
Jimmy Purdy
That's fair. Yeah.

07:47.39
Nate Winston
So I'm happy doing everything by myself right now. Yeah. That's

07:51.48
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, whatever works, works, you know. It's like everyone says there's a there's a ah mold you're supposed to like follow or I mean, if you're profitable, you're profitable.

07:53.44
Nate Winston
yeah yeah

08:01.70
Jimmy Purdy
I mean, that's the bottom line.

08:03.44
Nate Winston
Right. Right. It is.

08:04.60
Jimmy Purdy
But you're right. I mean, it is a full-time job. I think that's what everyone misses. you You know, like as ah as a technician, you want to run the shop and then, um oh yeah, hey, I got some extra work.

08:09.84
Nate Winston
right

08:14.89
Jimmy Purdy
I'll hire somebody else. And you just immediately think that their mindset going to be like yours. And it's not. And so now you can only do half the work you were doing before with someone's doing half the work that you were doing before. So it's like, well, why when I can just do all of that myself?

08:29.75
Jimmy Purdy
It's got to be something everyone thinks about all the time. You know what i mean? Unless that's the path, you know?

08:32.77
Nate Winston
it is It is. It is. Absolutely. you know I've been told, i was joking with my wife last night per se, you know, I just bought this really cool sandblaster, you know, um started using it this week and i love it.

08:45.37
Nate Winston
And I'm i'm going to town. I'm sandblasting everything. because We live in the Rust Belt. Everything is rusty. It's hard to take off nuts and bolts and it they're junk, right? So I'm sandblasting everything. I'm having a good old time here this week, right?

08:57.73
Nate Winston
And so I told my wife last night, hey, I'm thinking about hiring somebody just to sandblast everything and keep the shop clean. And she's like, well, won't that take take you away from your happiness?

09:09.82
Nate Winston
i can That's what you love to do the most. I'm like, yeah, you're right. but We'll just toss that idea in the trash can, you know?

09:16.38
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah.

09:18.95
Jimmy Purdy
Like sweeping them sweeping them up in the floors, you know?

09:19.22
Nate Winston
So, so.

09:21.23
Jimmy Purdy
I'd rather just do that.

09:21.71
Nate Winston
yes Yep. So I married a good woman who who's got my back, you know, so.

09:27.39
Jimmy Purdy
That's good. That's cool.

09:29.24
Nate Winston
But I can't stop smiling every day, you know. I should have done this a long time ago, but I didn't have all my ducks in a row, you know. So, shoot, dude, life is hard and busy.

09:45.00
Nate Winston
But let me tell you, dude, it's good. It's good doing this.

09:47.05
Jimmy Purdy
That's good.

09:48.24
Nate Winston
I'm happy doing this. Yep.

09:50.83
Jimmy Purdy
That's good to hear. it's

09:51.84
Nate Winston
Yeah.

09:52.51
Jimmy Purdy
It's one of those things I think a lot of everyone gets stuck in those ruts. What pulled you out of it, though? What was your final? What was the the straw that broke the the camel's back, as they say?

10:03.04
Nate Winston
For what what broke the camel's back for me?

10:06.02
Jimmy Purdy
Just to finally cut the ties and just move forward. Because like you said, you should have done it earlier, right?

10:10.72
Nate Winston
Yeah.

10:12.28
Jimmy Purdy
And you wanted, and now looking back, hindsight's 20-20. But what was holding you before that? What was something someone can use for motivation if they're stuck in a situation like this?

10:22.82
Nate Winston
The motivation was a lawsuit that we had between a ah former employee um and between me and my partner. um To where I asked him to clean up his bae, he got really upset with me, didn't want to clean it up because he thought he just works on cars and not to clean up. We got into a big ah fight argument. He quit.

10:43.93
Nate Winston
And then there's a lawsuit over that as well for different health insurance issues and stuff that my ex-partner created. Once I got that in the mail, um And he wasn't there that week. My partner, ah when he got back, I told him, if our employee wins this, I'm done. I'm totally done. I've been saying it for many years.

11:04.21
Nate Winston
You aren't listening to me. um I will quit. I will walk out. And that that whole lawsuit took ah about two years. Yeah, it took about two years. um My partner didn't do anything about it.

11:16.82
Nate Winston
ah The ex-employee and the courts pulled ah nearly $15,000 out of our bank account. And that was the last straw. um And my partner just breaks things off of cars, doesn't care to replace them, lug nuts, um let cars go out with ah four lugs instead of five on the Honda.

11:36.20
Nate Winston
And I blew up on them the night before Thanksgiving. I blew up and I threw the computer, broken things in the shop. I went ballistic. I've never gotten so mad in my life that night.

11:48.64
Nate Winston
It was the night before Thanksgiving 23 and my heart was racing and then I'm done. I quit and found this shop one mile down the street.

12:01.59
Nate Winston
put pulled all my strings together and got a loan and opened up shop ah two months. But yeah, about two months later. Yeah.

12:11.63
Jimmy Purdy
Wild.

12:13.71
Nate Winston
There's a lot more to it because I could, but that's the gist of it.

12:15.42
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, I'm sure.

12:18.11
Nate Winston
That's the gist of it.

12:18.07
Jimmy Purdy
Right, right, right.

12:19.74
Nate Winston
Yeah.

12:20.64
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, if remember, I think that was ah though where our last conversation left off was was about that time.

12:26.00
Nate Winston
Yep.

12:26.13
Jimmy Purdy
So, and you pull and you pulled just full steam ahead and made it happen.

12:26.41
Nate Winston
Correct. Yep. And here I am.

12:31.03
Jimmy Purdy
It's awesome.

12:32.03
Nate Winston
Full steam ahead, didn't look back, and but it was it was hard emotionally, physically, mentally. It was hard all all across the board.

12:43.17
Nate Winston
that

12:43.22
Jimmy Purdy
Now, now here's an odd question. Is there anything that you can say that was not for the better as far as needing help? Like, have you noticed nothing like everything kind of fell away or was there a few aspects that you're like, okay, there was a few things looking back that I was being helped with by having somebody else involved in, in it.

13:04.03
Nate Winston
as far as like a business partner.

13:05.77
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, exactly.

13:07.63
Nate Winston
um Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, it was great. I mean, I definitely do not ah take it for granted or I definitely do not. um Oh, what's word I'm looking for? Like not resent, but like I definitely don't regret. There we go. Regret.

13:22.90
Nate Winston
I don't regret having a partner for those 15 years. um i mean, it was hard every single day of the 15 years. um I don't regret it because there were definitely times where, you know, I joined, know,

13:35.20
Nate Winston
our local chamber and i would go to meetings and get togethers and stuff like that during the day where my partner would be there. um But that part was good because I can leave and he's there. Customers are picking up their cars or dropping off.

13:50.98
Nate Winston
But that would be hard too, because when I would get back, there would be keys up front, people dropped off their cars. And I'm like, well, where do these, where do these car keys go to?

14:02.61
Nate Winston
Oh, well, it goes to that Honda. I'm like, okay, well, who who dropped it off? Oh, did you take down their name? No, i thought maybe you did. Oh, no, I don't have their name or number. so And it was just frustrating all the time because I'd have to figure out who it belongs to, look in their glove box, look for the name and number. And it was constant, 15 years of bickering like that daily.

14:29.33
Nate Winston
So I'm glad I joined the chamber and did all those get-togethers because met a lot of great people and in our city. So don't I don't regret having a but business partner, but it was it wasn't proper.

14:43.24
Jimmy Purdy
but ah the Yeah. it doesn't sound like in the, in the day-to-day tasks and operations, like there was much help. So it sounds like, it sounds like if anything's made your life easier just to do it on your own.

14:51.88
Nate Winston
oh Oh, yeah, 1,000%. Absolutely. Absolutely.

14:54.01
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah. Yeah.

14:55.69
Nate Winston
so

14:56.41
Jimmy Purdy
think one of the things, it's one of the fear tactics that like in a, in a partnership, I think i've I've heard, and I've talked to a lot of people about, you know, like, Oh, well then i have to do like what they're doing and, but nobody knows what the other person is doing. Cause no one knows how to write a business plan and,

15:10.66
Jimmy Purdy
and procedures down and like, you're going to be, you know, so it's just, it's the, what if, you know, it's like the old adage of like back in high school, you didn't want to, your, your girlfriend wouldn't leave you because all her CDs are in your car.

15:15.33
Nate Winston
ready

15:21.41
Jimmy Purdy
It's like, well, you can re-burn all those CDs. Like, yeah, but you know they're already there. so I'll just stay with It's like, you know, that, that, uh, that abusive relationship, right?

15:31.17
Nate Winston
No, absolutely. That's what I was. I was the abusive wife in that relationship. A hundred percent. That's what other people were telling me, you know? Yeah.

15:39.71
Jimmy Purdy
hard to look i mean ah It's hard at the time probably to look at it that way, but I'm sure you can reflect back on it and that's what it seems like now.

15:43.36
Nate Winston
Well,

15:45.62
Nate Winston
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. I was like a prisoner at my own shop, really.

15:52.54
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, that's terrible.

15:54.37
Nate Winston
Yep.

15:54.57
Jimmy Purdy
Well, I mean, so moving forward now, I mean, it seems like you're getting pretty creative with your marketing tactics, too.

15:56.78
Nate Winston
Yeah.

16:00.72
Jimmy Purdy
Is there any any big ah swings that you've made or things that you've started doing? and I love the Chamber of Commerce events.

16:07.57
Nate Winston
Yeah.

16:07.53
Jimmy Purdy
I love the marketing. I mean, I've always said, like, go join a jujitsu gym you need new clients. Yeah. jim if you need you know new clients because They got enough money to pay you 150 bucks a month. So, you know, they got money. And then for two, you get pretty damn intimate with them when you're rolling around on a mat.

16:21.12
Jimmy Purdy
So and that's worked pretty good for me. But anything you've picked up in the last couple of years?

16:23.68
Nate Winston
and Yeah, no. um I know for a while there I was doing a lot of CrossFit, exercising, running.

16:31.70
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, that's the same, Jim. Yeah.

16:33.39
Nate Winston
Yep, same thing, different different concept.

16:33.37
Jimmy Purdy
Same kind of style.

16:35.67
Nate Winston
And that worked out great too. Still is. I'm still serving lot of their yeah friends, clients and stuff, you know. um But that's pretty much about it, really.

16:46.89
Nate Winston
Yeah.

16:48.47
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, i' just get out there networking. i mean, that's that's what's huge. That's the big one. And you're basically, you do a Toyota, Honda, you you stick with the Asian cars.

16:57.78
Nate Winston
I do, yeah, but I service a lot of American cars, a lot of Hyndais, Fords, Chevys, GMCs. um All my previous clients from my shop, 95% of them had followed me over to my new shop.

17:12.50
Nate Winston
So all of those cars, like your Hyndais and stuff, I'm not going to just tell them go somewhere else and that sort of thing. I'll keep servicing them because I know those cars very well. I know how to fix them, and it's what I love, you know?

17:27.52
Nate Winston
now

17:27.65
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, it's hard to say no to revenue.

17:30.16
Nate Winston
Yep, absolutely. Yeah, it it is. you know Unless it's an older generation, rusted out Ford F-150, those I completely say no to. So I have my limits of what I'll do.

17:39.66
Jimmy Purdy
so you You're definitely drawing the line in the sand when it comes to that stuff.

17:43.90
Nate Winston
Yeah, absolutely. And that's okay. I'm allowed to, right?

17:46.81
Jimmy Purdy
That's true. Yeah, you can do whatever you want now.

17:49.24
Nate Winston
Yeah, absolutely.

17:49.27
Jimmy Purdy
Do you ever have yeah ever have that epiphany during the day-to-day now? Like the last couple of years where you're like, we we think twice about it and you're like, wait a second. Because you're you're still kind of, you know, like back there and that like, oh, I better not step on anybody's toes. You still get that come up every once a while.

18:04.48
Nate Winston
I do. Yeah, sometimes. Absolutely. Yep.

18:06.82
Jimmy Purdy
I call it like PTSD. Yeah.

18:08.64
Nate Winston
Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. did it's It's weird how that works. You know, I even have PTSD sometimes from spending my own money that I earn because when I spend money over there buying a tool that's, you know, a hundred bucks, I'll get my butt chewed out.

18:24.32
Nate Winston
And now I get scared sometimes spending my own money on tools that I need.

18:29.41
Jimmy Purdy
i guess that's I guess it's not a bad habit to have, but at the same time, it's a little awkward. um

18:34.71
Nate Winston
It is. It is. He doesn't want to spend money. He never wanted to spend money on nothing. So.

18:41.94
Jimmy Purdy
Investment. It's not spending money. They're all investments.

18:44.37
Nate Winston
Oh.

18:44.42
Jimmy Purdy
It's just how it how you want to look at it. you know

18:46.60
Nate Winston
Well, absolutely. Yep.

18:48.58
Jimmy Purdy
so so running So running things on your own, you're you're doing the advising, you're doing the repairs, the bookkeeping.

18:51.18
Nate Winston
Yep.

18:55.01
Jimmy Purdy
Have you hired anything outsourced?

18:57.65
Nate Winston
Outsourcing bookkeeping, yes. I don't like to keep track of my, not so much spending, but I don't like to keep track of the categories of where all my spending is going towards.

18:59.29
Jimmy Purdy
Okay.

19:08.44
Nate Winston
Taxes, things like that.

19:11.14
Jimmy Purdy
That seems to be a going trend.

19:11.46
Nate Winston
i Yep. So I have a real good bookkeeper that I've known for x amount of years from the Chamber of Commerce, actually. um Been great friends with her and her team. And so I hired them right away from day one before I even opened my doors last year.

19:27.35
Nate Winston
This is my expectations. This is what I need you to do. This is what I need help with. Let's do it and keep things categorized. So, yes.

19:38.24
Jimmy Purdy
That's awesome. What's, so what's the business model? 300% rule. Are you doing, uh, the rack attack what's the roadblock just because you're on doing your everything yourself.

19:43.36
Nate Winston
um

19:46.43
Nate Winston
No, and i believe in the Rack Attack. I love the Rack Attack feature and what that is. 300% rule. I firmly believe in it.

19:56.94
Nate Winston
Am I doing it? No. Should I? Yes. It's hard to...

20:05.54
Nate Winston
I'm doing everything myself. I'm doing 20 cars a week. um You know, what I'm doing is I look at it. I look at the car. I'm not taking pictures of anything. Everybody already 100% trusts me in everything that I'm doing because I've built up that reputation in our city over the years.

20:23.51
Nate Winston
So everybody trusts me and stuff. um And it's just it just takes a lot of time to take pictures, send out a digital inspection and things like that.

20:34.83
Nate Winston
So if you see something, say something and people get their cars fixed up, you know?

20:41.69
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah, I guess ah that eliminates layers when you can just be the liaison just directly. ah just always be worried because my mind likes to forget things. So it'd be like middle of the night and you wake up and you're like, oh, I totally forgot about that coolant lake.

20:50.42
Nate Winston
Right.

20:54.86
Jimmy Purdy
was going to tell that lady with that Honda. Yeah.

20:56.86
Nate Winston
Right, right. Yeah. That's happened sometimes where I'll quickly go to my computer. i got well I got like five computers in the shop. So I have five access points. ah If I forget something, I can quickly just run over here and type something up real quick, you know, like a memo per se.

21:10.65
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah.

21:12.53
Nate Winston
Okay.

21:12.97
Jimmy Purdy
Right. But you're not terribly worried about retention too then. So, I mean, cause you've got enough coming in where you're not, you know, needing to get that. Cause obviously the biggest pull with the 300% rule is to get that work lined up for later.

21:27.06
Nate Winston
right

21:27.30
Jimmy Purdy
You rise so you can get the deferred service and can come back. And do you work on any of that stuff when it comes to CRM? You just kind of just or let organic stuff come in as it comes in.

21:37.32
Nate Winston
ah Just organic stuff. I mean, I got a great CRM with Autoflow, but I don't really send out people reminders or I don't really say, hey, 10% off if you get XYZ done from what we looked at you know six months ago.

21:53.23
Nate Winston
um i don't do any of that. um But it is, i make up my estimates and I get stuff done now. And then I let people know, hey, these are the other things that are coming up that need to be done in the next six months.

22:06.61
Nate Winston
When you're ready, give me a call. And everybody, mostly people do, you know. um And then we just schedule it in and get it done.

22:16.50
Jimmy Purdy
Man, that's just I envy that so much. You have no idea.

22:20.40
Nate Winston
Yeah. So, I mean, I guess.

22:21.44
Jimmy Purdy
It just Yeah, we were just working on spreadsheets today to put together you know sales goals and

22:21.88
Nate Winston
Yeah. yeah So it works for me, you know, um but I'm still here.

22:36.28
Jimmy Purdy
and goals for everyone in the shop and the advisors. And were just doing callbacks. and And so then we're going to focus on doing five callbacks a day. And it's just like ah more layers right to it. Cause there's so many bodies here now.

22:49.75
Jimmy Purdy
um And so I look at that situation like, man, i I, I just, I really envy that, you know, just, just like, Hey, this is what you need to do.

22:54.73
Nate Winston
Yeah.

22:56.86
Jimmy Purdy
Give me call when you're ready. It's like, Oh, that is so awesome.

22:59.50
Nate Winston
Yeah, absolutely.

22:59.73
Jimmy Purdy
It's just an awesome place to be. Nothing wrong with it though. You know, it's like, everyone's like, oh, if you're, if you're, if you don't hit this milestone or this milestone, like you were talking earlier, like then, then you're, then you're failing, right?

23:15.09
Jimmy Purdy
Like you you don't own anything unless you do these steps, but it's like, it's anybody's version of success is that they want it to be, you know?

23:15.94
Nate Winston
Right.

23:22.47
Nate Winston
Right. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, everybody's success is defined completely different from one another, you know?

23:29.18
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah. Yeah.

23:30.30
Nate Winston
So, ah yeah. um So I just wait for people to call me back or maybe they sold the car or got into an accident or maybe they might be price shopping. That's completely fine, you know?

23:41.38
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah.

23:42.04
Nate Winston
So...

23:43.19
Jimmy Purdy
What do you, on that subject, what do you do with price shoppers? Is that something you even spend any time and effort on? I'm sure you've seen the Facebook posts and everyone wants to know the different ways of, of handling that situation, right?

23:52.67
Nate Winston
it Yeah, I do get them from time to time. i even got one in today, this morning, a price shopper. um I stick to my guns on not giving out prices over the phone. You can't give a price over the phone. It's unprofessional. It's not the right thing to do.

24:10.93
Nate Winston
You never met the person. You've never even seen the car. And nowadays, these cars have so many different variables in them. You know? um No, I got to look at it.

24:21.47
Nate Winston
would like to meet you in person, see who you are. Hey, what's your name? That sort of thing. ah Get the VIN number, plate number. I want to diagnose it. I can't tell you the amount of time people tell me, hey, I need a wheel bearing.

24:33.08
Nate Winston
And it's just the front driver's side one. They bring it in, and it's the back two wheel bearings. Well, the back two wheel bearings are... installed completely different than your front ones. So if I give you a price estimate of around $625, really you need the back to and it's going to be $1,200. And it never fails in the past whenever I give out a price estimate like ah the price shoppers.

24:55.33
Nate Winston
Well, what's your ballpark? Well, ballpark could be anywhere between $500 and $2,200 for XYZ component. $2,200? way! And they hang up the phone every time.

25:07.86
Nate Winston
So no, we're not going to do this.

25:11.16
Jimmy Purdy
That's fair. and They always attach to the highest every single time.

25:13.87
Nate Winston
thank do

25:14.42
Jimmy Purdy
or Or they if they come in, they attach to the lowest.

25:18.41
Nate Winston
Right.

25:18.67
Jimmy Purdy
So if you get them in there like, but you said it was going to be 500 bucks.

25:22.56
Nate Winston
I didn't look at it yet.

25:25.08
Jimmy Purdy
I said 500 to 22 and you just gravitated to what's made been made sense in your mind.

25:29.94
Nate Winston
Right. Exactly. So no, let's look at it and do, we're not doing the the the industry any justice by just shooting out numbers over the phone without even looking at the car. You've got to look at it. I'm a visual person also.

25:42.52
Nate Winston
So,

25:44.20
Jimmy Purdy
You know, that brings up a good point too, is you have the you have the technical aptitude to to help over the phone. And I think that's a big problem when it comes to those situations.

25:53.56
Nate Winston
Yep.

25:55.70
Nate Winston
yep

25:55.70
Jimmy Purdy
I mean, how do you keep your eagle out of the way? Or like, how do you adjust that? Because they always say oh, you're the owner and you're the technician. So can't you just help me real quick? Or they walk in, hey, can you just come out in the parking lot and take a look at it for me real quick?

26:09.82
Jimmy Purdy
Do you have any ways of like negating that? Or do you just kind of like... go through with the process to make them happy.

26:15.92
Nate Winston
I go through the process, not so much to make them happy, but I go through the process because that's truly the right thing to do. um but With ego, um you got to educate the customer. in my That's what I like to do is i like to educate a customer and and tell them what and help them fix their vehicle. you know I mean, I'm educating a customer this morning on an 05, a guy called me up, 05 Honda Pilot.

26:40.88
Nate Winston
Hey, how much is it for a timing chain? Like, wait a minute, what motor do you have in it? Oh, I got the V635 in it. I'm like, oh, okay, well, that doesn't have a timing chain. It's got a timing belt.

26:51.83
Nate Winston
And so I'm walking him through the process. He's like, oh, really? Well, the saddle shop says it's got a timing chain of the fuel pumps back because it's not starting out. Like, well, the fuel pump isn't bad in there because I've never had a Honda fuel pump go bad ever. So I'm educating him on all of these variables and, and he's just, his tone got yeah lower and he had a better understanding as to what's going on with his car.

27:17.81
Nate Winston
And I'm trying to get him to bring it in so I can look at it and see what's going on to help him make the best possibility. Should you fix it? Should you get rid of it? And that sort of thing, you know? So that's what I do and set ego to the side, really, I believe.

27:33.07
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah. Yeah, I guess I guess the the the direction I was going was was helping or they call with a code.

27:36.22
Nate Winston
so

27:39.72
Jimmy Purdy
Right. and they're like, hey, what do you think it is? Or if they pull up in the parking lot and they want you to come out and go take a quick ride with them around the block to listen to a noise real quick.

27:47.80
Nate Winston
Okay.

27:48.07
Jimmy Purdy
And those and those types of scenarios, do you do do you appease them and go jump in the car with them?

27:50.36
Nate Winston
Okay.

27:53.47
Jimmy Purdy
Or do you like how do you redirect that?

27:54.83
Nate Winston
Yeah. um Yeah, most times if it's just a noise, yeah, I'll jump in the car, give them my thoughts. Hey, it could be this, it could be that. Let's set you up for an appointment so I can properly lift it up and take a look at it.

28:07.78
Nate Winston
Or if it's a check engine light, I can't look at it right now. um But let's set you up for an appointment and then that I go with the process. I'm sorry. Yeah, go with the process. Yeah.

28:17.35
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah. Okay.

28:18.47
Nate Winston
Yeah.

28:18.51
Jimmy Purdy
That makes sense. It's just one of the tough things. And it's one of the growing pains that I went through myself is trying to figure out how to navigate that, you know, and and sometimes when we're busy, I try to avoid even walking out in the parking lot because I know someone's going to try to grab me and, hey, take take a look at this real quick.

28:25.63
Nate Winston
Yeah.

28:33.12
Jimmy Purdy
Right. And it's like, and it's so hard to like. how do you manage that? Right. And it's, and I feel like it's easy to have those layers of like advisors that, oh, well, I need to talk to the boss about it, but it's tough when you're the one in the office and it's like, you don't have that scapegoat.

28:45.62
Jimmy Purdy
So you need to come up with a good way of like, like you said, educating the customer, but also holding your ground and and saying, no, I'm actually have other things I need to be doing right now.

28:55.87
Nate Winston
Great.

28:56.39
Jimmy Purdy
And I pay people here to like, take care of that stuff. So it's It's a very hard ah stepping stone. And yeah, I remember, and I still do to this day, you know, calling, looking for me.

29:09.02
Jimmy Purdy
They won't talk to anybody but me. um and so What do they call it? They say, you got to wean them off the nipple.

29:15.41
Nate Winston
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. so

29:19.55
Jimmy Purdy
ah It's a difficult process to go through. So it sounds like you got a good adjustment and a good way of of of handling it.

29:26.83
Nate Winston
Yep, I'm still trying to, even though it's just me, i'm so I'm currently still making up business processes for every role in the shop in case I were to hire somebody in the future, but it's just something good to be doing as well.

29:39.97
Jimmy Purdy
Right, right. Always documenting everything you're doing.

29:42.87
Nate Winston
Yep. And how to do it in what certain order, you know?

29:46.02
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah. Do you have a particular sales goal that you're looking to try to reach here in the next couple of years or what's your thoughts?

29:52.80
Nate Winston
ah Not quite yet. No, I mean, ah just between six and six 50 each year right now, just me solo is what I'm shooting for, what I need to just keep the doors open and keep the doors afloat, have a savings and that sort of thing.

30:09.52
Jimmy Purdy
Right. Makes sense.

30:10.84
Nate Winston
Yep. Yep.

30:12.42
Jimmy Purdy
Good to start to visioning that stuff out, you know?

30:14.85
Nate Winston
Absolutely. Yeah. Based off of what I did last year. Yeah.

30:19.95
Jimmy Purdy
Well, cool, man. All kinds of fun stuff going on.

30:20.86
Nate Winston
Yeah.

30:22.04
Jimmy Purdy
It's good to catch up with you and everything's doing good.

30:24.15
Nate Winston
Man, it's.

30:25.27
Jimmy Purdy
I know I see you on, on Facebook and all that, but it's always good to just have a conversation. Yeah.

30:30.46
Nate Winston
Yeah, it's much different, you know, versus just a pass by. um But yeah, I love having these chats and. Yeah.

30:36.83
Jimmy Purdy
You've been, well, you've been traveling around doing a lot of the technical training and so you're still involved in all that stuff too. Any big events that you're planning on going to this year?

30:45.69
Nate Winston
So two more tomorrow. I'm going to North Carolina for the fueling connections two day class.

30:53.62
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, cool.

30:54.34
Nate Winston
So I really wasn't planning on going to it because it was so close to vision. I don't want to spend too much time away from the shop as it's just me. But once I started seeing who's going, who's going to be talking like Dutch and Zeb and Lola, things like that. thinking, huh?

31:12.82
Nate Winston
I might want to go, and the price was only $150. The drive is only seven hours. I'm thinking, oh, I might go. It's only in a day and a half class. So ah when I plan on going to that, and then I'm going to talk to my wife about going to, in March, or no, ah in June, I plan on going to the Fly With Eagles course up in Michigan,

31:36.80
Nate Winston
That's a three-day class with Elite Worldwide. Love the coaching program, so going to go to that as well, and that's it.

31:43.56
Jimmy Purdy
Nice.

31:44.28
Nate Winston
Yeah, that's it for the year.

31:44.96
Jimmy Purdy
ah this da If you end up going to Seam or Apex, we could probably meet up there, but and might might might be out of the card zone.

31:49.26
Nate Winston
Okay.

31:53.32
Jimmy Purdy
No Las Vegas for you.

31:54.84
Nate Winston
No, no, no, no. ah Nope. I went one time for two days, and that's enough for me personally. That's too much.

32:04.11
Jimmy Purdy
ah lot A lifetime amount in two days.

32:06.47
Nate Winston
Yes, that's right.

32:09.86
Jimmy Purdy
feel like every every year I go, it takes me longer to recover. And I'm like, oh my, it's already in, I think, 20 days that tickets go on sale.

32:13.02
Nate Winston
Yeah.

32:17.25
Jimmy Purdy
like, how is it in 20 days that tickets go on sale? I just left.

32:22.59
Nate Winston
ah Yeah. I'll look at the pictures online and see everybody's crazy builds and all the fun times, but it's, it's not for me personally.

32:31.03
Jimmy Purdy
Fair enough.

32:31.81
Nate Winston
Yeah. Yeah. Too much.

32:35.38
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, we're right on. Well, I appreciate you coming on. I'll let you get out of here. We've got some prior engagements, so hope you have a good drive out there and appreciate you coming on checking in.

32:38.85
Nate Winston
Yeah. Cool. Yep. Thank you.

32:45.94
Nate Winston
I appreciate it. Thank you so much. And I guess I did tell you congratulations on your baby that you're going to be having.

32:54.35
Jimmy Purdy
Oh, thank you. Yeah.

32:55.59
Nate Winston
So.

32:55.74
Jimmy Purdy
She was due. She was due yesterday. So yeah.

32:58.21
Nate Winston
Oh, wow.

32:59.33
Jimmy Purdy
So she, she's, she's obviously takes after her dad. So she's a, you know, a day late and dollar a dollar short.

33:03.67
Nate Winston
That's Yeah. Is this your first one or

33:07.47
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah. Yeah. First daughter.

33:08.40
Nate Winston
Okay.

33:08.43
Jimmy Purdy
Yeah.

33:09.02
Nate Winston
First one. Wow. And she was, man, it seems like to just us yesterday you made the announcement that you're going to be having, having a child. That's, that's early. I'm proud of you. That's cool.

33:17.46
Jimmy Purdy
Isn't it, isn't it wild?

33:18.93
Nate Winston
It is. Wow.

33:20.30
Jimmy Purdy
I was like, yesterday came came and went, and i'm like, wow, that was the due date. that i remember I remember thinking about it, you know, like, that is so far away, and then all of a sudden it's like, um now now it's like, so how does this work?

33:24.25
Nate Winston
Yeah. Yeah.

33:31.64
Jimmy Purdy
I just like, wait, or and my and i just said am I and just a constant, I'm in just constant anxiety of waiting for the rest of my life now?

33:34.06
Nate Winston
That's it. It's a waiting game. Your wife calls.

33:42.11
Nate Winston
Yep. You got it. You got it. So awesome, man. Well, Hey, have a great night.

33:46.89
Jimmy Purdy
Well, I think so.

33:49.14
Nate Winston
Thank you so much for having me.