Gearbox Podcast

That was all good.

Let me go right there.

How's that?

Perfect.

There we go.

Yep, absolutely.

And we're live.

We're going.

Let me get this camera set

up a little better.

Which way I got to go here?

It's not moving like I want it to.

Oh, I got to move.

There we go.

Well, right on, man.

It's really, I mean, awesome to meet you.

I mean, everybody's talking.

So this is the, for everyone listening,

this is this famous JJ that

you've heard from the last

couple of guests that we've had here.

So you're out here in Houston.

uh with the auto shop

answers yes sir team call

them a team right

absolutely team crew family

there we go that's the word

for it yeah I mean what an

adams automotive I mean

I've seen pictures of it

right like we all seen it

on online you can but like

unless you go see it in

person it's it's pretty

wild right like it's like

that's quite a facility I

think a lot of the issue

With this coaching program

that I've heard through the

social medias and all that,

it's like that only works

because of their facility, right?

Because they have,

I don't know how many bays, like,

fifteen bays, right?

Like, yeah, of course,

look at all the space.

And then you're in Houston, right?

So you're one of the biggest

cities in the nation, right?

Of course, well,

you have a story that shows

that it works without

needing the big facility,

without needing the big city.

Yeah.

So what's that background?

Where is your shop located?

What's the size of it?

What what are you doing?

Let's get into it.

Yeah, sure.

So we're in Waldorf, Maryland,

which is southern Maryland,

about twenty miles south of Washington,

D.C.

Yeah, man.

So the size of our shop, we are.

you know, five, five bays, five lifts.

Um, you know,

so when I came down here to Texas,

I saw their facility and yeah,

they got fifty something,

fifty something lifts.

However,

it's not it's not really how many

lifts you have.

It's just it's really the

particular concept.

And when you run the concept,

it doesn't matter if you have two lifts,

three lifts, five lifts, fifty lifts.

You know,

that's what's going to make the

difference if you can just

run the concept and

actually believe in it, you know,

makes it makes an impact.

Yeah, absolutely.

What's what's the size of

your city there in Maryland?

Oh, man, that's a good question.

You know, the funny thing is,

Waldorf is a part of the town in

Charles County, Maryland.

Charles County is actually, fun fact,

Charles County,

Maryland is actually the wealthiest,

predominantly Black county in America.

Interesting.

Yeah, a little fun fact.

Yeah, that's a fun fact.

A lot of government workers,

but our demographic, we got, to be honest,

I don't know off the top of my head,

I can't remember, but

Our marketing guy,

he knows all of that stuff.

I don't want to say false information.

Sure, fair enough.

But it's a great market.

I love it.

Absolutely.

What's...

So you've gotten into this

program fairly recently.

How long has it been?

OK,

so I met Todd and the crew in September

twenty twenty three.

So that's roughly what about

a year and a half?

Oh, yeah.

Close to two years.

I met them in North Carolina

and we started running the

concept not too long after that.

So I met them in North

Carolina and came down to

Texas about a month or two

later and we hit the ground running.

So that's about a year and a half.

One of the biggest oppositions I've,

I've ran into with, you know,

speaking with others in the

industry about this particular concept,

like, like the way you put that, um,

coaching method and however

you want to go about it is

it only works if you have

like a staff of people, right?

Like I can't afford to have

four guys or five people, um,

on this rack attack process.

I don't have the, the,

the staff to have the front

end to make these calls.

Uh, what's your counter to that?

Like what,

what processes did you pick

from it to work for you?

Well, I always like to tell people,

Hey man, whatever,

like different people have

different goals, you know,

different owners,

different owners have different,

things they want to

accomplish with their

business or their particular lifestyle.

Yeah, whatever your measure of success is.

Exactly.

But for me, I want to grow.

I always feel like, and since I was a kid,

I always wanted to do more

and do better and grow and be bigger,

particularly...

if I believe that I have the

ability and the capacity to do that.

Right.

So, um,

now if somebody doesn't believe

that they have that,

then they're going to run

into all kinds of obstacles

and many reasons why, uh,

this won't work or that won't work,

you know,

which is fine because that's how they,

that's how they're set up

and they want to run their

business like that.

And all the best to them, no, no,

no issues there.

However, um, you know,

I don't know any other concept.

This is the thing.

So I've never had a coach, uh,

a trainer or a, um,

you know, any other,

I just didn't know anything

because I don't come from a

car background.

What is your background?

So I went to Georgetown,

graduated Georgetown.

I had a finance degree,

graduated from here in two thousand.

After that, I went directly to Wall Street,

worked in private finance.

We did private debt

placements in our group.

We had private equity and we

had private debt.

I was on the debt side.

After that, you know,

I kind of just gave my life

to God because I kind of felt empty.

I had

You know, money at twenty one years old.

And but it wasn't, you know,

wasn't I wasn't being fulfilled.

And I had a void in my life

that only only God could feel.

So kind of turn my life over to God.

And I was led to be a school teacher.

So I got laid off right

around the after the

September eleventh attacks.

um you know back in two

thousand one it was around

december so and uh I was

still trying to play sports

I played collegiate sports

and um but the love of that

kind of disappeared from my

heart so started pursuing

um other things and so um

I was a school teacher for

six years in prince

george's county at a school

called bladensburg high

school right outside of dc

and um you know and also

did ministry man almost did

ministry for almost twenty

years you know helping

people get off drugs and

alcohol and illicit

lifestyle so um just laid

my life down and right

around like two thousand

nineteen or so um

Yeah.

Two thousand eighteen.

I wanted to start, you know,

kind of getting back into

my entrepreneurial drive and, you know,

the passion that was inside of me.

So we were flipping cars.

A buddy of mine,

we're flipping cars and

kind of back ended into a into a repair,

you know,

because the county wanted me to

do all this and all that.

Sure.

And didn't have the money to

do it and kind of back into repair.

He said, if I fix the cars,

you can sell them.

You want to do that?

And I was like, yeah,

let's go ahead and do it.

And that's kind of how I got into it.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's wild.

Right.

But it was funny.

I had a that was my first job.

My first job was an old gas station.

It was a three bay, three lift shop.

And at the end of one year,

our top sales for the month

was like thirty nine thousand.

So people made money.

Everybody had a paycheck and I didn't.

I was the only one.

It was a race to the bottom.

I didn't know.

But I hustled, man.

And I grinded.

I worked really,

really hard every single day, seven days,

six days a week at that time.

And but.

I learned that I did not

like the auto repair business.

I did not like it.

I didn't like the mechanics.

I didn't like the text.

I was like, what?

Nobody keeps their word.

This is crazy.

I don't understand this.

And about six months later,

after I sold the business

literally for like twenty

five thousand dollars.

sold the business, went to Mexico,

enjoyed ourselves, you know, and then, uh,

about six, five, six months later, uh,

the gentleman that I leased

the property from before

called me back and he said, um, Hey,

I got another, another shop.

If you want it, uh,

you got first dibs on it.

So, uh, I talked to God about it.

And then finally, after a struggle, I said,

all right, I'll do it,

but I didn't really want to do it,

but I just felt led to do it.

And that was right in January,

It's been great ever since.

That's probably the best

time to have done it.

It was awesome, man.

Great experience.

That was the thick of it.

I don't know how we got so

busy during that time, but we did.

That's when we really shined, I think,

as an industry.

Realizing like,

the black sheep of the blue

collar industry, right.

Is like all of a sudden, wait a second,

we need these guys.

Like for a long time,

we were just kicked to the, you know,

like, oh yeah,

the mechanics will deal with it.

You know?

Absolutely.

It was a real good time.

I learned so much, um, you know, something,

you know, that we're essential.

And it's so, it's so key to know, like,

you know, like we're, we're future proof,

you know, because AI can't fix cars,

you know, it's gotta be us.

We gotta be customer focused,

customer centered, and, uh,

we gotta fix cars.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yep.

I mean, he,

I mean, and every year cars are advancing,

right?

Absolutely.

I always have the story of,

I know an old tech,

he's an old retired shop owner.

And when he was a technician,

the drum brakes were,

that's what he worked on.

And he remembers the first day,

a set of disc brakes rolled

into the shop and he closed

up his box and he was like, I quit.

And I'm like, what?

I'm not learning something new again.

And it was like, you know,

during the eighties is like, man,

there was a lot of, a lot of bullshit,

right?

Like we're from like

carburetors or carburetor

feedback to like the first style port.

And it was just like a lot

of technological advances

that weren't the greatest.

Right.

So,

but then come to find out disc brakes

are way easier than drum brakes.

So it was like,

And it goes into all the

technology that's coming out today.

It's like a lot of people

are afraid of it and

they're scared of it.

They're scared of AI.

They're scared of like these

new coaching programs or

like changing the game.

It's like, but we have to.

Right.

Because if we're not growing, we're dying.

And I and I,

I one hundred percent stand behind that.

Like,

I totally respect a shop owner that

wants his level of success to be.

I want to close Fridays.

I want to be off Thursday at

three so I can go fishing.

Right.

So I'm going to open Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday and half day Thursday.

And I'm going to call it a week.

Right.

And that's his success.

He works for somebody for

five days a week for twenty five years.

He's sick of it.

He opens his own shop.

And now his success is paying his bills,

being off Thursday,

half day and close on Friday.

That's fine.

I mean,

But I feel like if you're not growing,

you're dying.

So if you're not

progressively trying to get

yourself to the next level

to make more money,

like just just making more

money is just keeping up

with the rate of inflation.

Right.

A million dollars today.

Right.

What was that?

Ten years ago.

Right.

Right.

Is a totally different game.

And that was just ten years ago.

Yep.

And that's accelerating.

What was it?

Twenty years before that.

Right.

So it's like,

what's a million dollars in

ten years from today?

It's nothing.

So you're right.

So if you're not charging

more incrementally every year,

hence growing, then then you're dying.

Absolutely.

And I felt like like if

If I'm not growing,

I'm doing a disservice to my customers,

my employees, my family, my fiance,

my children, if I'm scared.

If I run my business by fear

instead of a confidence

that I actually bring value

to the marketplace.

In this market in America,

if you don't bring value,

you do not succeed in business.

So what brings value and

what business that succeed

is people that literally

take care of the customers,

people that go above and beyond.

And that's what made me fall

in love with the concept.

Because like I said,

I wasn't running a concept

other than working hard.

You know,

and so like working hard

resonates right there.

Yeah.

Like working hard is is great.

And I think a lot of people work hard.

But somebody had to lead me

into my next level.

And I didn't know how to do

it in and of myself.

It doesn't matter how smart

somebody thinks they are or

their background or whatever.

I did not know what I did not know.

So I was I was literally

seeking answers on how to do it.

And that's how, you know,

just God just connected me

with this family down here, man.

It's just it's just been beautiful.

Yeah, that's wild.

I was just going to ask like.

If you thought your

educational background had

something to do, because as human beings,

we're always looking for an

excuse to not change.

We're always looking at an

excuse of why it works for

them and not me, right?

Like we're always looking

for something to justify it, right?

It's not going to work in my area.

I don't have the same kinds of customers.

I don't have an MBA.

I don't have an educational background.

I'll never understand it.

And you answered the

question before I even got to ask it,

right?

It has nothing to do with that, right?

It does not.

And, and, and, but you even, and not,

not to,

not to diminish that with your education,

you still thought the right

thing to do was grind it out.

Right.

Absolutely.

Like you, you're smarter than I am.

Right.

You have more financial

education than I probably ever will.

Right.

I doubt it, but it's all good.

But I mean,

my, my point is,

is we both are on the same mindset.

Like we'll just outwork,

like whoever wins this

outworking fest is going to,

is going to be successful.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Like, like that's my, my mentality too.

Like, well,

granted I'll work till ten

o'clock at night.

I don't care.

I'll work till the car, the car's fixed.

And now I'm being,

I'm being right to the customer.

Right.

Right.

A hundred percent.

I see.

It's like,

Like if you see somebody

walking around and they're jacked, I mean,

triceps popping, chest bulging,

that didn't happen by accident.

Some of it may be a little bit of genetics,

but this person is

disciplined doing something right.

So it's like,

if you see a business that is thriving,

cars,

all around the block.

OK, like, OK, what's going on there?

Somebody knows something.

So for me,

I've always been on a quest for

the truth.

I love the truth.

OK, so absolutely.

So somebody can if somebody, you know,

tells me that, you know,

or if I hear some people

talking about something,

I can kind of discern in my spirit, like,

what's the truth here?

What are the facts?

There you go.

What are the facts?

Exactly.

So I love the truth.

So I'm very magnetized to the truth,

whether it's not to my

detriment or to my benefit.

Whatever it is, it's I need the truth,

okay?

So, like...

there's something happening.

Okay.

There's,

there's a reason why these guys

are talking these numbers.

These guys are talking their, their,

their family is,

is so tight knit and kids

are growing and understanding business.

Okay.

What, what's going on?

I need to know that.

Right.

So that's, for me, that's the truth.

Okay.

So how do they do it?

And then now I'm on a,

I'm on a quest to find that out.

So I found out that, you know,

when you really get with people that, um,

love you,

care about you and are willing to

like kind of open up to you

and show you exactly what's going on.

Like it just accelerates everything.

But a lot of times people

don't really know how to listen.

You know,

they don't know how to pay attention.

They can't they don't they

think they know everything, man.

I

I'm guilty of that.

Absolutely.

Yes.

One hundred percent.

Yeah, I got you.

Yeah.

It's like it's like I love

being like I don't like

being the smartest person around.

And I'm very rarely the smartest person.

Like, but I don't if that's the case,

then everybody in the room is in trouble.

Right.

So I got to be around people that.

already been there, done that,

and that I can glean from.

So my biggest job is to

listen and soak in and just

be a good student.

Nobody likes to teach

anybody that's not a good student.

If you're getting pushed

back and you're trying to

poke holes in something that you see,

It's working like you see that, you know,

cars are wrapped around.

Everybody's happy.

Everybody's getting, you know,

everybody's benefiting.

The customers are giving

wonderful reviews.

I mean, everybody's winning.

Something's going on.

And then we got to find out

exactly what's going on.

Yeah.

And that's like, yeah, that's, that's,

that's speaking right there.

It's true though.

You know,

and I think those listening that

might be in another

coaching group right now, um,

that's a going,

if you've been with someone for five, six,

seven, eight, nine years.

Right.

And you feel like your

numbers or your success

matches everybody in that room.

You got to take a look around.

You're right.

Like one thing I've noticed being here is,

um, it's definitely humbling, right?

Like,

I hit the one million dollar mark.

a couple years back,

and I felt like I made it.

That was my goal.

That was a really tough

realization for me because

I set the bar so low

because I just didn't know

what I didn't know.

I didn't know about any of this stuff.

I started this podcast three years ago,

something like that.

That's when my eyes started

opening the potential.

Yes, sir.

Like, what?

Shops don't do that.

Like,

I started with, you know,

five K in my bank account

for almost two years.

That's all I had.

Right.

Doing maybe I was happy if

we crushed forty K in a month.

Right.

Like I was like, we freaking did it.

Right.

Yeah.

So when I hit a million

dollars in the year,

I like I'm finally I'm I'm in the club.

Right.

And I feel like that was just the tip,

like just,

just coming through the iceberg.

Right.

Like, and now I'm like, now this,

like this whole ceiling has

been revealed to me.

Right.

And there's been a lot of

the other groups I've been in and seen.

And it's like, but you're right.

Like when the people that

you're around are going to

affect your own mental limitations.

A hundred percent.

And I think that's the biggest takeaway.

There's the processes and

all the things that you can put in place,

but the main thing is the

confidence and knowing that

it is achievable,

I think is such a bigger

takeaway than all the other

secret sauce that you can pick up.

Man, I look at it like this.

Because you hit it right on the head.

Faith comes by hearing.

Bottom line.

So what I believe comes by what I hear.

So if I'm surrounded by people that say,

yeah, you can't do that.

Oh, yeah.

Well,

they're only doing that because of

this and all that.

Well, I won't be around that.

If I'm around that,

that's what I'm and I and I

allow that to flow into me.

What it limits what I believe.

Right.

So I have to take the

problem with most people is

they don't know how to take

the limit off of what they

actually believe.

Oh, absolutely.

You see what I'm saying?

So there's always going to

be like this invisible ceiling,

this wall that you can't get over,

this mountain that's too

high and all that sort of thing.

So like I remember the first day I met Joe,

you know, Joe down here, Joe, Joe Adam.

And he said, what are you doing right now?

You know, he said,

what are you guys doing a month?

Right.

And I never even to be honest,

this is how.

Late I was, I was like,

I never even really thought

about how much I made a month.

Like I always thought about just in years,

right?

It's like, like how much we make a year.

So I was like, I was like, Oh,

I had to think.

I was like, yeah, we're about,

we're about one seventy,

one seventy a month.

He said,

you'd be doing four hundred before

you know it.

And I was like, I've received that.

I received that.

Now,

I had no clue how it was going to happen.

That was going to take a miracle.

It was going to be, you know, you know,

Moses and then would have

to come down and, you know, take us over,

you know,

take us over to the promised land.

You know,

something was going to have to happen.

Um, but I did not reject that.

You know, I did not reject that.

Um, I believed him, you know,

and so it's been amazing

just the journey.

And, and,

and now like in just a year and a half,

like we're saying we're doing four, fifty,

four, seventy seven was our, uh,

that's awesome.

Yeah.

Four, seventy seven was our, uh, our, um,

monthly, uh, our, our, our record,

you know,

so we want to be a five hundred

thousand dollars store.

We're knocking on the door, you know?

Um, but it's just been amazing.

I'm having, see,

see what happened was like,

like I said earlier, I said,

somebody's got to lead you into this,

this next level.

Somebody's got to lead you.

So like my fan, uh,

everything is just like,

it's just right in, in place.

I like, I am,

I fell in love with my business again.

Like I, I,

you got beat up.

You're not something you

just get beat up in this industry.

Like how was it?

And just get beat up.

And you're just like, Oh my God.

Like technical, just like, Oh,

what is this?

What am I doing?

Why am I?

You start looking at bakeries and stuff.

Like maybe I'll make cupcakes or something,

man.

There's gotta be a fucking easier way.

That's exactly right.

Ice cream on the fucking sidewalk, dude.

Like little girls are just love, you know,

it's like the smile on

their face and everyone's happy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

there's so many days and weeks and

months of that, that I,

that I went through, man.

And like, I really hated the industry,

you know?

And I was like, what am I doing?

You know?

And, but you know, like I said,

Todd and the concept just

awoke this thing inside of me because,

you know,

it's one thing like if I tell you to say,

hey, look, go outside,

see that big bus right there.

Flip that bus over by yourself,

with your hands,

take your hands and try to

push that bus over.

You're going to say, I can't do that.

Right.

But if I can say, hey, look,

love the customer.

Give them first class service.

Do them right.

One hundred percent integrity.

One hundred percent transparency.

Do this.

Do that.

Like, oh, yeah, I can do that.

I can do that.

So we started seeing incremental change,

you know,

and we implement certain things.

One of the first things that

we did was we just said yes on the phone.

And I did not know that we

were actually a retail business.

What does that even mean?

We're like Walmart?

In a sense, yes.

Staples?

Target.

Not Walmart.

Okay.

My wife likes, she likes Staples.

My fiance, I mean, not Staples.

She likes Target from time to time,

but I still go to Walmart.

All right.

Fair enough.

Fair enough.

It's all good.

You know, but, but yeah, I mean, so like,

I didn't,

I did not know that I was

teaching my customers that

and training them like that

we're not open and we can't

serve you right now.

I had no clue.

So when that opened up to me,

we always started saying, yes,

car count grew, everything grew.

And I was able to attract

much better talent,

much more committed talent, you know,

people that actually gave a

damn about what they're

doing and not afraid to

stamp their name on this car.

Like I've worked on this car,

you know what I mean?

Yeah.

So and then be able to provide.

benefits,

be able to provide all types of stuff.

I mean, my life has changed, man, you know,

a hundred percent.

And I just,

I just thank God for connecting

me to people that are not

afraid to go against the status quo.

Cause to be honest, like I said,

I love the truth.

I don't,

I don't really don't care what

nobody says, you know,

or what this group said,

what that one says, like my ears,

I'm not tuned to the streets like that,

you know, like I just know what works for,

for me and my house.

And we're going to continue to do that.

Yeah, filter the BS.

Absolutely.

There you go.

Yep, turn it off.

And what they say earlier today,

all the people that say

it's not going to work,

who's going to come pay

your rent when you decide not to...

Or to listen to them.

Sure.

To go against this advice.

Right.

And then you continue making half,

you know, you're one seventy.

That's not paying the bills.

Sure.

Are they going to come pay

the rent for you?

Right.

Not like that.

That was pretty huge.

Right.

Like, I mean, that's real, though.

Like all the all these naysayers,

I guess not going to work.

Don't do that.

Like,

are you are you going to come down

and like sweep my floors

when I don't have time to do it?

Right.

Because I'm not trying something new.

Right.

It's like it's like, look,

most people love listening

to people that never been

where they're trying to go.

Absolutely.

You know,

so how can how can I lead

somebody somewhere I've never been?

You know,

so you got to you got to kind of

know there to go there is

kind of what people say, man.

I got you got to actually

know where you're going.

So like.

Like when I listen to people

or I've heard people, yeah, well,

you got to do this and that and you get a,

you know,

you should have a one percent

growth or increase your prices by,

you know,

this percent and look for this

metric and this and all that.

Like I've learned none of

that stuff matters.

Now,

it does matter if you run your company

a certain way.

And this is what matters.

Well, do whatever you want.

Yeah, do whatever you want.

But I realize, man,

and for the way that I run

my business is that none of

that stuff matters at all.

Let's drive car count.

Let's let's make sure our

average ticket is good.

But the only way that is,

if we already combat what

the industry faces,

every shop faces every single day,

which is trust, you know,

do they trust you?

So we work hard from the

first time they answer the phone.

We answer the phone is to

attack any type of distrust

they may have.

OK,

so so it's not just about fixing a car

because we're going to fix a car.

I mean, we do.

That's the standard, though.

Right.

It's not nineteen seventy five anymore.

Right.

People are you're expected to fix the car.

That's the expectation.

That's not the great that's

not the grace of God.

Like, oh, my God, the best people ever.

They actually fix my car

like that goes without saying.

Exactly.

That's exactly right.

But a lot of a lot of the

industry thinks that that's

the main thing.

Oh, absolutely.

Like so they focus on the

thing that's like.

like it's that's going to

happen like that fixing the

car is going to happen okay

so it's just like us

there's nothing different

between us and uh any other

shop we're gonna do uh

brake pads with bg uh

break fluid, what a break flush,

we're gonna do everything

everybody else does,

but can they deliver on an

experience that will make

this customer say, hey, look,

I will never go anywhere else.

Now,

when we do that and we deliver that

level of service,

now we create a higher

level of expectation.

So now this becomes the new normal.

So we have to keep the

standard high and keep

pushing the envelope

because we so if our

standard was here before.

Right.

Or our standard.

We were delivering here and

now we deliver here.

We can't come back down here.

Yeah.

You know,

so we have to continue to deliver.

And there's something that

that I love with what they

talk about down here is about.

uh, decision fatigue and where, you know,

you don't have to keep making all these,

it's all the decisions already made.

So if you have a concept

that you run and you're not

kind of running the

business from a spreadsheet

or trying to pull this lever to, you know,

do this.

And I try to get my, this rate, this, that,

another man, all that stuff is, you know,

not shouldn't be the focus.

It should be just driving car count,

delivering excellent customer service.

The car is going to get fixed.

You know, car's going to get fixed.

Customer drives away.

They're happy.

Follow up, call them back the next day.

one thing I learned too man

is like hey look out of all

the money you've ever spent

over the last five years

you know everybody that uh

every every restaurant you

went to every concert that

you went to every anything

you've ever bought okay how

many of them of those

businesses ever called you

back the next day thanking

you for their business right none

Zero.

And we do it every single day.

We do it every single day

with every single customer.

It was a new customer,

a returning customer.

We do it every single day.

Now,

that's what this concept does for my

business.

And we run it.

Now, nobody...

gives me anything okay so

let me just make that sure

you know nobody's just

handing me anything other

than like the wisdom and

information knowledge on

how to how to do it now I

have to be uh the sponge I

have to be the one that's

uh that that can receive it

and then go bring that back

to my town which is half

the country away and it'll

work here it'll work there

it really doesn't matter

because once you get it

it's like if I'm a if I'm a if I'm a uh

a tree seed or something.

It doesn't matter where you plant it.

You're going to grow.

You just need some water.

You need this.

You need some sunshine.

You need this, that, whatever.

You're going to grow because

you are made to become something.

It doesn't matter wherever you are.

I hear a lot of things where

I'm in the rural.

I'm in here.

That's what you believe and

that's exactly what's going to happen.

Because you're planting the

seeds of doubt.

There you go.

Absolutely.

That happens.

Yeah.

That's your own objections

you got to overcome, right?

Yeah.

And then back to that ceiling, right?

We all have, for some reason,

something in our brain that

sets some sort of boundary for ourselves,

right?

We don't deserve that.

If we make so much X amount

of profit that we're

stealing or ripping someone off,

that's a hard thing to overcome, right?

Profit is not a bad word,

but it is in this industry, right?

Mm-hmm.

we're people helpers, right?

Like we're,

we're one step below the medical industry,

right?

Like,

like we're here to help people right

out of a difficult situation,

not the worst situation

they've ever been in their life.

When you talk about the medical industry,

right?

My opinion, we're, we're,

we're helping people out of

a pretty difficult situation, right?

Nurses and doctors, like,

they have a totally different billing,

right?

Like it's just,

it just seems like it's more detached.

Sure.

Where like as a shop owner,

technician turned shop owner,

I'm fixing the car that I'm

handing them the bill.

Right.

And I can write whatever

number I want down realistically.

Right.

Like when you go into first

going to business,

like no one tells you like

what the standard is.

You do a break job, do oil change.

Like you could charge them whatever.

Like you could charge them fifty bucks,

right?

A hundred dollars.

You start charging them two

hundred dollars for an oil

change and they squirm.

Oh, that's a lot.

Mm hmm.

Okay.

How about one fifty?

Yeah.

How about one twenty?

Okay.

Oh, so my price is one twenty.

Why?

Why did you?

Well, because it just feels right.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

Absolutely.

So he's like,

we set these standards and

these boundaries based on like nothing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

These are like what you're speaking about.

Like, I understand to be, you know,

people have these internal

things that they project on.

So that's why some some

sales advisors have a

difficult time selling a, you know,

a large ticket.

OK, five thousand, six, eight thousand,

twelve thousand dollar ticket.

And they're like, oh, you know, well,

you've already you're

projecting because you wouldn't pay it.

You're selling from your own pocket.

There you go.

Right.

So you wouldn't pay it.

So now you're projecting

that onto the customer.

So they're going to do

exactly what you're telling

them to do through your

uncertainty and lack of

confidence in that.

However, like on the flip side, yes,

I have the right as a

business here in America to

make a profit.

Okay.

Now I can think selfishly

and lower all my prices

like I did in my first shop,

which was a former gas station.

I can lower I can lower my

price as a race to the bottom.

And my life is miserable.

You know what I mean?

I mean, I

You know how it is.

But I'm so busy and everybody loves me.

And if I charge more than

everyone's going to leave

and then I'll have no business.

And you just put handcuffs on yourself.

So I had to kind of like kind of determine,

like, who am I like?

Who is my customer?

You know, who is my customer?

Because if I think selfishly,

I'm I'm thinking of race to the bottom.

I want to compete on price

if I'm thinking about myself.

OK.

For example, however,

I have a lot of employees

that have families and

we're trying to create

generational wealth with

all of my employees, not just me.

I don't want to be if I if

I'm the only one who gets rich, wealthy,

whatever you want to call it.

then I'm, I didn't do my job.

I didn't do my job.

So in order to provide that

type of lifestyle for, you know,

people that, you know,

left other businesses or, or,

or change industries to

come and work with me,

it is my responsibility to make sure that,

you know, we charge the correct price.

We are profitable.

I can handle four or one K. I remember,

I remember when Todd says

something to the fact, like you,

can you afford cancer?

It was like, it was like,

Damn, you know,

it was like so if you're

one of your employees, like, God forbid,

gets cancer and he doesn't

have insurance and you can't help him.

You don't have anything set

up or anything like that.

And like that's shame on me

as a business owner.

OK,

so I can't just think selfishly about

myself and, you know,

how I feel internally about myself.

not charging the customer this, that,

and other.

I got to think about everybody.

And at the same time, when I do that,

I provide a service that is

just widely needed and

accepted in our industry.

Why do people think that we

have to be like just the, you know,

just the grimy low, whatever,

and charge nothing and not make a profit?

How can I attract the top talent?

How can I attract...

make this business like a

beacon on the hill in our town.

How can I do that?

And I'm not charging correctly, you know?

So when I found out that

people don't even care about price,

if you can deliver exceptional service,

it's just, it's just that simple.

And that was a,

a blow to my mind.

I was like, wow, you know,

but it's actually for auto repair.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And, and see,

I remember this as a funny story, man.

When I was, uh, when I first started, um,

my, my second shop,

it was probably like the

second or third month right before COVID.

So the Jasper guy, uh, took us out,

took me and another shop

owner out and the guy had had a big shop.

We were at dinner one night

in my little town and and and I was like,

yeah, so how do you do this?

You know, I'm like a sponge.

I'm trying to always like to

be around people that know more than me.

You know what I mean?

So I'm asking them all kind of questions.

And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Slow down now,

because don't don't think

like I just want you to know, man,

like I know you're excited

and stuff because you got a new show,

but don't think you're going to get rich,

man.

Like just just know you're

not going to get rich in this business.

And I was like, oh,

and there's that boundary.

Yeah, I was like, oh, OK, OK.

But I did not receive that.

You know,

I did not receive that because I

can't put all of my life,

all of my energy, my heart, my soul,

my blood, my sweat and my tears.

And like, I don't see an abundant return.

on, on, on what I'm giving,

you know what I mean?

So I kind of just kind of

rebuked him internally in my, in my soul.

I was like, nah, that's not,

that's not my truth.

You know what I mean?

And so,

so we grind it all the way up until

meeting, you know,

special people like Todd

that opened up this new

world of business to us.

And man, uh, yeah,

I have no problem at all.

You know, I pay my taxes.

I don't have a problem with

sharing my numbers, but it's more so like,

I know that if I can do it,

I don't know anything about cars.

You know, I am a Maryland state inspector.

However, like I said,

you don't want me working

on your car at all.

You don't want me to change your battery.

I might cross the cables, you know.

But, you know, like I said,

we're doing we're doing in the force now.

Goal is to get the five

eventually to six hundred

with the one store.

Then we'll we'll.

We'll look to expand to the

second and third and fourth.

But we're netting one hundred and twenty,

one hundred and thirty

thousand every single month.

And so that it gives me the

opportunity to look for

more opportunities to hire

and recruit like that.

Like studs and stars, man.

And I'm just I'm just so

excited about the business

and the industry as a whole,

because there's so much with AI.

There's all kind of stuff

that people don't really

need to be afraid of.

They need to kind of embrace

it and just slowly start

implementing some things

and and automate some things.

And it just it just helps out so much,

you know.

Absolutely.

I think the change is what

everyone's afraid of.

They already have so much

going on and they're not

making any money.

I'm not putting one more

thing on my plate.

I'm guilty of that.

I've definitely been down that road.

It's just...

It's all very enlightening, right?

Yeah.

To like,

to hear the stories and see the

changes that are working for you.

And for me personally,

to be where you were, right?

Like just eclipsing the one

fifty one sixty a month mark.

Right.

With nothing but room to

grow and just looking for

that next thing.

Right.

And it's never a guarantee.

Right.

But.

If there's something,

I know we went over a lot,

but if there's something

that you took away that

really comes to your mind

as far as what changed in

your shop coming to this,

what do you think it was?

Well,

I think we finally had something to

rally around.

We had plays.

If you have a football team

and there's no plays...

Like you're going to get whooped, you know,

you're going to get beat.

So we were able to see like, hey,

if we work hard, we can do one seventy,

which is what, like two million or so.

Like we got up to two

million before I met Todd.

And like we were grinding

and that's considered to be

really good in the industry.

But I knew there was so much

more that that we were missing.

You know,

you're working really hard for not a lot.

exactly.

Yeah, exactly.

So what I found that one of

the most important things was like,

we actually now has

something to rally around

where we can all be on the same page.

We can all run the same play

every single day, unhindered, you know,

nobody, uh, getting in the way of that.

And then there was such a

cohesiveness that started,

that started being, uh,

built in a bond between

everybody because everybody

had clear defined roles.

Everybody worked together

because now everybody's incentivized,

everybody's motivated to

hit certain goals together,

going in the same direction.

It's so bad when you have an

organization and

everybody's going different directions.

Everybody's jockeying for position.

It's just like, what is going on here?

Too many chiefs, not enough Indians.

There you go.

You get them all going in

the same direction and they

actually believe.

Your technicians start

buying five-bedroom houses.

You're like, I found something.

Your technician that was just...

and financial problems not too long ago.

And now like the work, like the, the,

the jobs are just loaded up, you know,

now they don't have to do

pictures and videos and all

that sort of stuff that I kind of

you know, had them doing and stuff.

Now they don't have to.

All they got to do is just

go pick up the parts.

Twelve hour job.

Boom.

And they're buying five bedroom houses.

I was like, this is what it's all about.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

It's a blessing, man.

It's just so fun running this thing now.

That is so cool.

JJ, I really appreciate your time.

Likewise, man.

Thank you so much.

It's an honor, man.

I appreciate what you're doing.

Super, super cool.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

God bless, man.