The Gearbox Podcast

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
Welcome to the Gearbox podcast. I'm your host, Jimmy Purdy. On this podcast, we're not just exploring the latest trends and technologies in the automotive industry. We're also getting real about the journey. Yes, the bumpy road of mistakes and lessons learned hard along the way. This is the Gearbox podcast. Well, I pre appreciate you taking time. I know you're a busy guy.

Scott Pelava [00:00:38]:
Yeah. Nope. No different than anybody else.

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:43]:
Other than, you know, everything else. But that's okay.

Scott Pelava [00:00:46]:
Yeah, I'm just. I'm just a normal guy, you know, just doing normal shop owner stuff.

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:51]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:00:52]:
Yeah. So.

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:54]:
Well, I haven't had a chance to meet you before, but, I mean, I just know you're from the Facebook group.

Scott Pelava [00:00:59]:
Yep. Yeah. How long have you been in?

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:02]:
About a. About almost a year now.

Scott Pelava [00:01:05]:
Okay. All right, so we're coming up on ten years, I think, is when it started.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:12]:
It's gonna be crazy to look back on that.

Scott Pelava [00:01:13]:
Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, never in a million years that I ever think it would be what it. What it is now.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:19]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:01:20]:
You know, I was. I was a desperate shop owner looking for. Looking for answers to questions that I couldn't find anywhere else, so.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:27]:
And for those not in the know, the ASaw group, automotive shop owners group, on Facebook. You're the man. You're the man in charge.

Scott Pelava [00:01:35]:
Well, yeah, I got a really good team running it. I've kind of stepped back a little bit from the day to day operation of it. It got to get. Gets to be a lot. I could see that because, you know, in addition to the Facebook group, I mean, it's turned in, where we've developed into a 501 C three nonprofit, you know, educational foundation. So that, you know, that that is a little bit of a part time job there, too.

Jimmy Purdy [00:02:01]:
Yeah, yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:02:03]:
And I'm still trying to, you know, keep my shop going. And I'm a city councilman and on the chamber board and advisory board for high school tech, you know, auto info.

Jimmy Purdy [00:02:16]:
Stuff and industry partner, I think they call it, or what.

Scott Pelava [00:02:19]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then at the technical college level, also, so, yeah. Got a few things going on.

Jimmy Purdy [00:02:26]:
Sounds like the slippery slope that I'm making my way down, as well. You start, you get a little bit of spare time. You're like, I got time for this. And then everything else kind of. Kind of goes to shit for a minute. And you're like, why do I have all these irons in the fire right now?

Scott Pelava [00:02:43]:
I retired as a scout leader. I was a. I was a leader for the Boy Scouts, and then when they allowed girls in, too. You know, I did that. My daughter was one of the first female Eagle scouts, and so I had almost 15 years in as a. As a scout leader locally and at the district level, and I retired, and then they dragged me back in to help with training. So I'm part of a training course that's kicking off this spring, so I'm gonna be busy with that, so. Yeah, just never.

Scott Pelava [00:03:12]:
Never a dull moment.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:14]:
I don't think there can be, though, right? I mean, just like, you were just talking about working on your motorcycles, like, you just gotta, like, be busy, right? Like, I feel like that's the problem.

Scott Pelava [00:03:22]:
Yeah. Yeah. I very rarely will I be that guy that just shuts down and just sits down and reads or, you know, if I do, my wife is always like, are you sure you're okay? You know. You know, we went on a cruise, and I just, you know, sat next to the pool on the boat for, you know, days, and she's like, are you sure you're okay? I'm like, well, you know what? There's nothing else for me to do. I'm gonna take advantage of it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:49]:
I'm going stir crazy. I'm just gonna sit here, read a book, or if you're hurt, you hurt your leg, or. The last time I read a few books was, I got poison oak real bad, and I couldn't, you know, so, like, that's the only time I stop and I can actually sit down for a little bit.

Scott Pelava [00:04:03]:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You're forced to do it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:04:07]:
Well, I'm really curious about the Asaw group. I mean, that's. I mean, you're kind of a pioneer, and now it seems to be, you know, there's groups all over Facebook for pretty much everything from transmission specialty to whatever your. Whatever tickles your fancy, right? That you could find a group that, like, supports that, but seem. I mean, you're a pioneer when it came to that.

Scott Pelava [00:04:28]:
Well, you know, when I started, it was so I had actually been looking for something like that, and there was a group, and I don't remember what it was called, but I remember, you know, seeing that, you know, it was available, and I requested to join and never got a response. And it went on for a long time, and I noticed that there was no activity going on with the group. So I don't know what happened, you know, with it, if the. If the guy just abandoned it, if he died, I really don't know. But what got me was I was having an issue with a client one day, and she was giving me the run around on some stuff, and I didn't know exactly how to handle it. I was, you know, still, you know, I've been in business almost 20 years, so about half, you know, maybe ten years or eight years of business. I was getting frustrated with this issue with her, and so I actually called the coaching company that I used to work with and asked them if I could ask them a question. I wasn't a current client, and they said, will you sign back up? We'll answer all your questions.

Scott Pelava [00:05:23]:
I thought, well, that was kind of crappy, you know, that's a, you know, I gave you, you know, how many thousands of dollars, and you can't answer, you know, one question for me. So. So I posed the question in, I don't know, it was like, you know, professional auto technicians or one of the Facebook groups. I don't remember which one it was. And when I got the answer, when I got a whole bunch of answers, there was a bunch of them that I could tell were from shop owners, service advisors, stuff like that. And I could tell there was a bunch from technicians. And I realized that technicians didn't have an understanding of what the business side was really like because their answers were clearly, we'll just tell her to go pound sand and, you know, whatever. It's not that easy.

Scott Pelava [00:06:04]:
You got to maintain a little bit of diplomacy here, you know, and so, but there was a bunch of shop owners that put providing me some good information, so I thought, well, what the heck? So I just put on there, I said, hey, if anybody's interested in talking about shop ownership and management type stuff, come join my group. I mean, it was in the same thread that night, and I joined the group and, or I created the group, and by the end of the night I had half a dozen shops, and the next day I had 100 people want to join. And it kind of took off like wildfire after that. And, you know, it's grown into. It is currently the largest social media group for independent shop owners in the world.

Jimmy Purdy [00:06:54]:
It's quite a powerful tool.

Scott Pelava [00:06:56]:
Yeah, I know it's not perfect, and I don't mean it to be perfect. It's just a place for people to get together, network, commiserate and grow. Anybody that says, well, it's, um, there's too much whining and this and that, you know, that's really the way the world is.

Jimmy Purdy [00:07:16]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:07:16]:
Why do you want it to be all, you know, upbeat and roses, you know, if we have something to whine.

Jimmy Purdy [00:07:22]:
About, then there'd be no reason to have the group. Right. I mean, that's, we're looking for answers for things that are pain points, you know, and you, and you whine when you're in pain, so. Yeah, it goes hand.

Scott Pelava [00:07:31]:
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that's what happened. And, you know, I've got a, I got a really good team, you know, moderators that, that, you know, keep it civil and, you know, maintain, you know, civility and, and, you know, approve, you know, the members as they, they applied, you know, so we don't have people coming in with ulterior motives trying to, what's the word of, you know, trying to undermine.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:02]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:08:03]:
You know, they don't want to, you know, grab. We don't want people being preyed upon, you know, if somebody in the group says something, you know, hey, I'm having a problem with, you know, this and this and this. Well, we don't want, you know, I'll say a business coach to go, oh, look at that, I'll pm them on the backside and, and I'll get some business out of them.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:23]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:08:23]:
You know, we don't, we don't want this to just be a free for all to, you know, to prey on the week. This way they, you know, we can give them the help they need and then they can, you know, find that move on if they want to hire a coach or something. That's kind of what we do with our mastermind program, which is a peer to peer mentoring program that we do right now. I think we've got probably 20 shops that we're doing completely free mentoring for every Monday night.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:51]:
Yeah, that's so powerful. And I think that kind of brings up like, I don't know what you call it, the pain point for some of the coaching companies, right. So they say, oh, you're giving away all the information. And it's the same thing with all the influencers, video influencers on YouTube. YouTube, you know, Paul Danner and those guys that are putting this information out and the technicians like, hey, you're giving away all our secrets. And it's like the a saw group change the industry group. Like, all these groups are like giving away this free information in quotes. Right? And so then some of these coaching companies are like, oh, you're giving away all our secrets.

Jimmy Purdy [00:09:23]:
Like, I don't.

Scott Pelava [00:09:24]:
There's no secrets.

Jimmy Purdy [00:09:24]:
There's no secrets. Right. Like, and I think it's, I think it's missed and it's always missed on that because it's, that's not the point. So I probably bring in more business, right?

Scott Pelava [00:09:35]:
Yeah, I talked to a couple different coaches about that because, you know, we've got some pretty good support through coaching companies. I'll use Rick. Rick, right, with Rick White with 180 biz, Cecil Bullard with the institute. You know, just off the top of my head and I've had conversations with them that, you know, do you feel that we're hurting the coaching industry? And they've said, no, it's actually been better for them because you think, well, get the young, struggling shop owner in and you can get them dialed in relatively quickly. And that's not the case because there's a lot of pushback as a shop owner. When you start getting, going into coaching. You don't want to charge appropriately. You don't want to make changes.

Scott Pelava [00:10:23]:
You're too uncomfortable, you're too scared. And the coaches are constantly having to grind away at them to, to make the changes. Um, what we've been doing by, you know, through ASOG and through the mastermind program, we actually get them, uh, to the point where they've, they've gone, they've done all that uncomfortable soul searching and they're seeing the results. Then when they go to a coach, it's easier for the coach. Cause they're like, all right, now we're going to get you dialed in. Uh, so you're, you're doing things great. And the coaches actually like that because we've effectively done, uh, we've done all the kindergarten for them. They've all learned their, their KPI's and everything, you know, their colors, their numbers, their, their Alphabet and all that stuff in kindergarten.

Scott Pelava [00:11:03]:
And now they're in first grade and they're actually starting to apply all those.

Jimmy Purdy [00:11:07]:
Things they can get, right? Meat and potatoes, right?

Scott Pelava [00:11:09]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:11:10]:
Like, yeah. They don't have convinced the whole concept of, like, look, if you want to pay for this program, you need to charge more, right? Like, yeah, and I hate, I hate that. Like, oh, you just get a coach because all they're going to tell you is up your labor rate. Like, well, you're not wrong, but you're probably not charging enough also. Yes, more than likely, but not every time, right? I mean, no, no.

Scott Pelava [00:11:30]:
Um, you know, and they. One of the things, too, is you have to. I'm one of those guys, I don't want to make a change or I don't want to do something unless I understand why I'm doing it, not this. I have to do it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:11:41]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:11:42]:
Um, you know, for me, charging or pricing parts on a matrix, no one ever explained to me why it needed to be done. They just said, you need to have a matrix. And I didn't understand just that what I need to do it, why do I need to do it? Nobody ever gave me that answer, so I was reluctant to do it. When somebody finally sat me down and said, this is how it all works. And I looked at it, you know, looked at, I'm like, oh, well, that's remarkably simple. Turn that thing on. We're gonna do it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:12]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:12:13]:
But if I don't understand why I'm doing it, I'm not gonna do it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:16]:
Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot.

Scott Pelava [00:12:17]:
Of people that way.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:17]:
Yeah, we're all. We're all. Yeah, most technicians turn shop owners, or most. I mean, 90% of shop owners out there know how to work on cars. There are a few that don't. But that mindset I think we have is pretty hard headed. It's pretty. It's pretty hard to convince us to do anything other than what we know how to do.

Scott Pelava [00:12:34]:
Yeah, well, you know, we're analytical. We're think of it. You know, if you think of the business as a machine, we only know of certain aspects of it. There's all this. We don't know all the strategies going on inside the computer, running the business. And so that's what we need to do is learn. Learn the strategies.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:56]:
Yeah. Peel back a few layers, and I think that's the group does, you know, gets people. And they're on their phone. Everyone's on Facebook all the time. Yeah, it's that repeated. They keep seeing it. They keep seeing. All right, what exactly is it they're talking about here? Then you find that coach, and they're talking about the same thing, and then they say, this is actually, like you said, this is.

Jimmy Purdy [00:13:13]:
This is the real deep part. This is how you do that. This is what a labor or parts matrix will do. This is what a labor matrix will do to achieve that goal. And without the foundation, I mean, I'm with the institute, and if it wasn't for the free information that Cecil had put out, I probably wouldn't buy into that process either. But I'm struggling, and I'm trying to figure it out. I'm watching these. These YouTube videos.

Jimmy Purdy [00:13:34]:
I'm watching, listening to his podcast, and you hear it enough, and you're like, you know what? That sounds like? That's probably what I need to do. And then take a little bit of time to let it absorb instead of just saying you're going to do it tomorrow, like, no, I need to. I need to, like, think about this for a few days.

Scott Pelava [00:13:50]:
Yeah. And that. That's one of those things that we've done with our. With our mentoring program, too, is sometimes, you know, you're looking at the coach and you're going, well, what do you know? You know, you're not really in the industry anymore, but, you know, the mastermind program is, we're all shop owners currently in the trenches doing. Doing it. And when we bring people in like you, I can't do that. It won't work in my area. You don't know my customers.

Scott Pelava [00:14:13]:
You don't know my. My demographics. You don't know any of this stuff. You know what? You're right. I don't know your customers. I don't know your demographics. But we know what works. Just try this.

Scott Pelava [00:14:23]:
If it doesn't work, just give it a week. If it doesn't work, just take a step back. You know what? You can always lower your labor rate back to what it was. You can quit, you know, charging a parts matrix. You can, you know, you can change it however you want. You want to go back working seven days a week, you can just give it a week, see what it does, and they go, oh, wow, that wasn't so bad. You know, give it another week. You know? You know, make some minor tweaks until you realize, all right, we're not talking crap.

Scott Pelava [00:14:53]:
You know, this is all legitimate stuff, right? We don't have our secret sauce. This is, no matter where you go, all the coaches, all the training is going to tell you the same stuff. We're just providing it in little bite.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:03]:
Sized pieces, I think that secret sauce and that. Trying to find the. Instead of looking for gold nuggets, trying to find a silver bullet, I think that's what everyone's looking for. What? What is it? Do I. What do I do to fix this? What's the one thing that I do? And there isn't, and there isn't one thing. And it's like, I think learning that, I think, is more valuable than all the other, you know, nuggets that you can find, you know.

Scott Pelava [00:15:27]:
Yeah. There's a hundred things you need to do to get the one result right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:32]:
And there's ten different results that you need.

Scott Pelava [00:15:34]:
Yes. Yep, yep.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:36]:
And it just keeps going and going and going. You're like. And you're just waiting for the day. When do I get to the point where I know this stuff? And it's like, just don't. It's like, I've come to the point now where I just feel like I keep unfolding layers, and then the layers just open into more layers. Into more layers. And it's like marketing. It's like, I should probably start doing some of the marketing.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:53]:
And you really start diving in and holding your marketing, uh, company accountable, and you start realizing as you peel back, you know, the layers, you're like, you guys aren't. You guys are dropping the ball like, oh, man, how long has this been going on? Two years, three years? How much have I spent to get no results? And it's like, that's just one aspect. This has nothing to do with, you know, running the shop. And I think for me, going from working on the shop floor to becoming the owner, I just thought if I fix cars really, really well, I'd be successful.

Scott Pelava [00:16:24]:
Yeah. My business model would have fit on a cocktail napkin with a crayon. Fixed cars make money, right? You know, and that's obviously not the case, you know, and that's one of those things that I guess, you know, for your listeners, too, because, you know, we, at the training events, you know, we were just at vision, you know, ast, you know, we constantly meeting shop owners that are thinking about going out into ownership. And I'll be honest with you, it's not for everybody. If you think, hey, I'm a great tech, I'm gonna. I'm gonna have a successful shop that's come. Those are two completely different things.

Jimmy Purdy [00:16:59]:
Yep.

Scott Pelava [00:17:00]:
And when you become a, you know, you're. You're a great tech, and you can. You can practice your. Your field or practice, you know, practice your. Your art and you're great at it. Well, now suddenly you're having to do hr and payroll and insurance and deal with customers, and you're the it specialist and you're the toilet cleaner and everything else. I mean, I rarely work on cars. I only do it when there's an extreme necessity.

Scott Pelava [00:17:27]:
You know, somebody's out or they're just, you know, something that's gone sideways and they need some help. But, I mean, I got a great team, but for the most part, I don't work on cars anymore. And I've been out of it for so long, I'm really. I used to be a heck of a tech. I'll call myself a bee now at best, right? I had a 2000 excursion that needed a fuel pump, and I'm like, I'll do it. Because that's my era of stuff I worked on. I did a brake job yesterday on a 2009 Audi. By the end of the day, I hurt a four wheel brake job, kicked my butt.

Scott Pelava [00:18:08]:
My whole body hurts. He thought I was working in the woods, cutting down trees and stacking logs all day.

Jimmy Purdy [00:18:14]:
Those muscles don't work like these two.

Scott Pelava [00:18:16]:
No, they don't, they don't. But, but then again, I, you know, you know, I just, I guess I want to say, you know, if you're, you know, if you're a, your good tech, don't think that being a shop owner is the next step.

Jimmy Purdy [00:18:33]:
Yeah, find a good shop.

Scott Pelava [00:18:35]:
Find a good shop.

Jimmy Purdy [00:18:36]:
That's the main thing. If you're a good tech, you should be paid appropriately because, and it's good to humble yourself and, you know, obviously get out there and remember what it's like to be on the, on the ground floor a little bit, and then, and then that way you can compensate and be like, you know what? You guys are kicking ass out here, like, and take care of them. And I think, I think that's the problem, is a lot of technicians get kind of fed up and they think the only option out, I mean, I did it like, I thought my only option was open my own shop. I didn't even think twice about looking for another shop. I just thought they're all the same.

Scott Pelava [00:19:08]:
I looked at other shops, but I gave up my. I was working at a shop. It was 35 miles away. I'm just outside of Minneapolis. You know, I'm about 45 minutes from Minneapolis. Okay. I had a 35 miles drive to Bloomington. Which mall of America is there? Give you an idea of the, the population.

Scott Pelava [00:19:26]:
I worked in an import shop, but I was the domestic tech. I had handled all the domestics and then all the oddball stuff that the Toyota and Acura or the Toyota and Honda guys didn't handle or the euro guys didn't handle. So I did Nissans and Hyundai's and stuff and all the domestics and I mean, it was a pretty, pretty cushy job. It was, you know, Monday through Friday, I want to say eight to 430 or maybe it was 730 to four, I don't remember exactly. I had three lifts, air conditioned, everything else. The pay was decent, but the owner just wasn't respectful. He was just disrespectful to his staff. So I decided, I started looking around and I realized I was at the top of what was available in the area at the time.

Scott Pelava [00:20:17]:
And every place I looked, I was going to be making less money, working more hours, whatever, whatever. And I thought, I'll go out on my own because, you know, that seems to be the next, you know, next option. Well, guess what? I worked more hours, made less money, had more headaches. You know, looking back on it, I was, you know, I was too. I reacted too quickly. I could have found a better. A better place to.

Jimmy Purdy [00:20:40]:
Yeah, but you just, you just think that's the natural. The. The natural evolution, right?

Scott Pelava [00:20:44]:
Yeah. Service advisor or owner.

Jimmy Purdy [00:20:46]:
Yeah. The core, the corporate ladder, you know, like, well, I need to be on. I need to be the top. Right? This metaphorical top, which I think in this day and age is kind of like the wrong way to look at it as well.

Scott Pelava [00:20:57]:
Yeah. And that I was, what, 30, 33 years old. 32 years old when I opened my own place. I'm 52 now. 51. Just turned 51. God, don't, don't want to age myself faster. Just feels that way.

Scott Pelava [00:21:12]:
But I don't, you know, looking back, I think if I would have really looked hard, I might have found that. That shop that really want to take care of people, you know, so that's what I am now. I'm that shop that wants to take care of people. So, you know, I'm looking for it. I'm looking for a tech right now. And I've had, you know, some people inquire and they're like, they almost think it's too good to be true. You know, when I, when I tell them, you know, what we're paying and, you know, yeah, we're, we have air conditioning, you know, we're fully climate controlled, and, you know, that people just, they think it's not real. They're like, there's got to be something.

Jimmy Purdy [00:21:50]:
They're waiting for the.

Scott Pelava [00:21:51]:
But, yeah, I know I was, I was a tech that, that was abused. I don't want that to happen to anybody else. And I took the time to learn how to not abuse my staff.

Jimmy Purdy [00:22:02]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:22:03]:
You know, I didn't, I didn't always, I wasn't always this way. You know, AsOG and all the training at AST and vision and everything else and coaching, that's all helped me to become that. A good employer.

Jimmy Purdy [00:22:17]:
Yeah, you're, you're striking a chord with me. I mean, that very similar story, and I think similar story to a lot. It's really early thirties and you think you're going to take over the world and then you. Well, if you can do it, I can do it. He's not smarter than me. What makes them him or her? What makes them a smarter business person than me? I'll just figure it out.

Scott Pelava [00:22:38]:
I'll do it better and cheaper and.

Jimmy Purdy [00:22:40]:
All that stuff that thinks that makes you better, and then you slowly start realizing you don't know what you don't know. That's kind of where my process is. I mean, when you said you never were that. That nice employer, that was me, too. Is like, I just. I was always very hard on myself as a technician. So if I was hard on my technicians, they would get better, you know, like, oh, yeah, I was very hard on myself. It was like, well, that's how I pushed myself to get to this point, so that's what I need to do.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:09]:
And that just built a really, really negative culture. And I had a huge employee toner turnover. And it's like you just realized in the last year, two years, and with the help of the group and seeing what everybody else is doing is like, oh, times have changed. You can't.

Scott Pelava [00:23:24]:
Yeah, you can't.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:25]:
You can't yell at people anymore.

Scott Pelava [00:23:27]:
Oh, that was. Yeah. I thought yelling was a motivation. I used to call it fire for effect. Even if I wasn't that, even if I wasn't that mad, I would yell and scream just to get attention.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:41]:
I like that. Fire for effect.

Scott Pelava [00:23:42]:
Yeah, fire for effect. But it did. It did what? What did it do? It drove people away.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:49]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:23:50]:
I had a tech that was with me for six years. He and I used to butt heads all the time. We would fight. I mean, there'd be huge blow ups and everything. And he left, and I wasn't surprised. And it took me about three years of figure, you know, getting things dialed in and figuring out. And when I asked him if he'd come back, he's like, I'm not going to come back to what it was before. And I'm like, no, it's not.

Scott Pelava [00:24:17]:
And he's been back. He's been back with me since. He's been back three and a half years.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:22]:
Wow.

Scott Pelava [00:24:22]:
He says it's a completely different environment.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:25]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:24:27]:
It's.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:28]:
It's. I mean, it starts from the top down. And I hate to use that analogy, because it really shouldn't be like a top. Right. Or like anyone's above anybody else. But, I mean, realistically, at the end of the day, that's what it is. As you're trying to lead the rest of the team. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:42]:
If you're upset all the time and you're disappointed all the time.

Scott Pelava [00:24:47]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:48]:
That's the way I motivate people.

Scott Pelava [00:24:50]:
I remember walking in on some mornings and they'd be like, you know, hey, how's it going today? I'm here, you know, and I remember somebody one day telling me, I mean, that, that's a, you know, that's a really crappy attitude to, you know, hear from the boss.

Jimmy Purdy [00:25:02]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:25:03]:
You know, so then over as time's gone on, when I walk in and I hear somebody say that I got to stop and I'm going, so what's going on? And I got to talk to them about it and find out, you know, what's going on in their world. And by the, by the end of that conversation, I think we fixed, you know, 50 things in their world.

Jimmy Purdy [00:25:20]:
Yeah. How hard is it to get to that mindset, to be able to do that? Because a very awkward conversation. You already have to talk yourself into a positive situation, but now you have to. One more thing on your list to do. But also, it's just kind of awkward. Right. Technician walks in, he's not in a great mood, and it's like, do I want to? You know, you're walking on eggshells a little bit. And so how do you handle that? I mean, how does that change for you?

Scott Pelava [00:25:48]:
Honestly, it sounds silly, but when, when I started paying better and I started making more money, I suddenly went from having this always being, this panic, and I started to think myself more as a, as a business leader than just a person that had a job that, you know, that I came to every day.

Jimmy Purdy [00:26:12]:
Like, co workers realize working for you and you're not working.

Scott Pelava [00:26:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. Oftentimes they were making more than I was making. Once I started charging appropriately, it helped. It helped me to realize, okay, I'm in charge, and I need to lose lead by example. And, you know, for years, I always said, people said, you know, you're a leader, you know, whatever, because, you know, when I'm. I was a scout leader, I was, you know, city councilman, all this stuff. You're, you're your natural born leader.

Scott Pelava [00:26:42]:
I'm not a leader. I always viewed myself as more of a lieutenant than a general because I. I need. I always needed somebody to provide me some input as to what. What to do. I needed. I needed some guidance. Well, as the general, I don't have any guidance, so I really had to, you know, switch my mindset and realize that the buck stops here.

Scott Pelava [00:27:06]:
I have to. I have to be the boss. I don't like the term boss, but I'm in charge, so I have to start acting like it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:11]:
Yeah, you gotta put the oxygen mask on first before you put it on everybody else.

Scott Pelava [00:27:15]:
Yeah. And I have to keep, you know, I have to keep these people happy. And the only way they're gonna be happy is if I'm happy, because if I'm miserable, it's gonna, it's gonna trickle down to them.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:26]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:27:27]:
And they're not going to want to stay.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:28]:
That's another relatable thing to think of. You know, you get the imposter syndrome.

Scott Pelava [00:27:34]:
Oh, big time.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:34]:
Right. And it's like. And then you're supposed to have the answers. But as, as, say, like, as a technician, you have a problem, you look it up, you know, you go on these groups, you go on YouTube, you go on Google and you just find somebody else and you just use that kind of template and that example to fix your solution. And a lot of the time, I mean, obviously with the Asaw group, that changes everything. But, you know, even before that, or if you're trying to figure it out on your own, you're like, what do I do? You're supposed to have the answer. And I've, I really look at that internally and I say, I don't, I don't expect the technicians to have the answer to a vehicle that has a problem. So why do I expect myself to have these answers to these problems? So that that's helped me big time.

Jimmy Purdy [00:28:15]:
Just take a step back. Like, why am I expecting myself to know something that I've never done before?

Scott Pelava [00:28:21]:
Yeah, you know, I had the conversation with my wife. Remember, it was on a specific subject. I don't remember what it was. Maybe it's her motorcycle. She bought a brand new bike and it's had some issues. It's still under warranty, but, you know, and she would say it over and over, I should have known. I should have known. I'm like, why would you, how would you have, should you have known you bought a brand new motorcycle that had a warranty and it's having these problems.

Scott Pelava [00:28:47]:
How would you, how would you have known it's going to have these, these issues? You don't have a crystal ball. You didn't take training at the, you know, the indian motorcycle college of Repair. How would you have known this? Well, I should have. I'm like, you can't say I should have known. There's no way to know that, right? So to say, you know, I should know how to run a business. I had no formal training. I was a service, you know, I had to do service advising. At one shop I worked at part time, they forced me into it.

Scott Pelava [00:29:26]:
I hated it. I wanted to turn wrenches. I didn't want to be standing at.

Jimmy Purdy [00:29:30]:
The front counter talking to people.

Scott Pelava [00:29:32]:
Yeah, well, I didn't mind the talking to people thing. I just didn't want to do it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:29:36]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:29:38]:
You know, I'm, I'll use, you know, Lucas Underwood as an example. You know, he's a pretty outgoing guy, but he's very, you know, technically, you know, astute. I was one of those guys myself. I was. Prior to getting into auto repair, I used to build homes. I was on a framing and siding crew, you know, and I did trim and I could virtually build a whole house, but I specialized more in the framing side of it and I fell two stories in a construction accident and my leg exploded down when I hit the ground. And they said, you got to get a job that keeps you on the ground. So I got a job as an oil changer and a tow truck driver.

Scott Pelava [00:30:19]:
But before I found that job, I already, you know, I'd always was already working on my own vehicles and stuff. It wasn't a big deal, but I had to go to a rehabilitation consultant, and they were supposed to help me find a new career path. And I took a test and I came what the name of the test was. But it was a, it was a test about your mechanic, or they tested your mechanical abilities, your interpersonal skills, all these things to try to find the best job for you. My highest score was mechanical aptitude. My second highest score was interpersonal communication. Typically, when you have a high technical score, you don't have a high interpersonal communication score. The only job that came up with my two scores that crossed over was a bus driver.

Scott Pelava [00:31:08]:
And they said they'd never, they had never seen anybody have that, a score like that. Because traditionally high technical, you know, people are not personable. You know, it's, it's, and we see it in our industry. Look at how many technicians that, you know, they, they go into their bay, they put on their, put on their earbuds or whatever, and they work all day. They don't want to talk to me. They might talk to their coworkers, but do you want them at the front counter talking to clients? You know, I know a lot of them. I wouldn't want to because they, they don't have the, they don't understand social cues. They don't have a filter.

Jimmy Purdy [00:31:49]:
There's a lot, there's a lot internal going on, you know, and that's a happy place to be. I know exactly where that place is. I'm sure you can relate to it, too. When you get, when you're in bed deep and there's a thousand things you're thinking about and you're just, that's it, that's, that's the, you're in the zone. You know, when you're deep into a repair like that, it's, it's a nice place to be. Sometimes it, sometimes it's not. Sometimes you got some things going on. You get yourself a little twisted because you're up in your head a little bit too much, but it's very hard to have that and then also be an extrovert at the same time and be able to.

Scott Pelava [00:32:23]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:32:24]:
Communicate effectively.

Scott Pelava [00:32:25]:
Yes. So that, you know, that's why for me they, they thought I would be great. I was a, did a great job as a service advisor, but I didn't want to do that. I wanted to be turner wrenches. So I, I didn't pay a lot of attention to that aspect of the business when I was forced to do it. So then when I became a business owner, I had to do it. And boy, did I. I thought I was pretty good at it.

Scott Pelava [00:32:47]:
I was terrible.

Jimmy Purdy [00:32:48]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:32:50]:
Because I was operating from a place of fear. I don't want to lose the job. I don't want to scare them off. I don't want to price it too high, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to make promises I can't keep. You know, it was, it was terrible.

Jimmy Purdy [00:33:00]:
Well, and then, and then on the, I guess the plus side of it, which is still negative, you, you sell this job, then you have to go do the work.

Scott Pelava [00:33:08]:
Oh, yeah. You know, I would spend all day doing oil changes and break jobs, easy stuff during the day, and then go home, have dinner and come down and work and, you know, I do a, you know, intake on a 3400 gm, you know, after work, so I could be left alone.

Jimmy Purdy [00:33:24]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:33:24]:
You know, all the good work, you know. You know, I remember doing, you know, doing stuff like that. Get home at midnight, whatever, you know, after I cleaned up everything, got all ready for the next day and be back to work at seven in the morning.

Jimmy Purdy [00:33:38]:
Yep. Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:33:39]:
Work all day, bouncing around.

Jimmy Purdy [00:33:41]:
Yes. As a transmission rebuilder, that was my life for a while. It was. There's no way I could build a unit with everyone running around and phones ringing. So, yeah, you wait till the shop shut down and I'd build it at night and hopefully I had all my parts in the box, you know, and if not, it's like, great. Now I don't have any work for the guy in the morning to reinstall it, you know. Yeah, just terrible. And it's like, yeah, it's like it makes you think, what am I doing right now? This is not like, what is.

Jimmy Purdy [00:34:05]:
What is shop ownership, you know?

Scott Pelava [00:34:07]:
And that's not what I thought it was going to be.

Jimmy Purdy [00:34:10]:
I mean, but you're still happy with it because it's yours, you know? So without that, I mean, for me, without that motivation of knowing I'm building something for myself, I don't know if I would have signed up for that job, you know? And I think that's. That's a big thing that we hear a lot, too. Don't do it. You're not gonna want to do it. You're gonna hate it. But it's like, when it's yours and you're doing it, it's. It's exhilarating, you know, as hard as it is. But at least you're doing it for yourself, which help.

Scott Pelava [00:34:35]:
It's important that you do it, right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:34:36]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:34:37]:
Because you don't want to do it and, and fail and lose, you know, lose a. Lose your home life, you know, your, your miss your kids growing up and all that stuff, which I did. I, you know, I don't know if you ever heard that story about when I. Because I. When I opened the shop, my daughter was, want to say two. My son was five, four or five. And so I opened the shop, and I would work seven days a week, you know, might. Might be.

Scott Pelava [00:35:11]:
Might only be wrenching five, six days. But then the 7th day was cleanup or, you know, trying to get caught up on paperwork and books and advertising and all this, you know, stuff. Seven days a week non stop. And my wife would go out with the kids and they'd have fun and they go, do, you know, go to the zoo, go. And I wouldn't do any of that stuff. And what got me was the one day I. I got home from work and I walked into the entryway of the house. I took my boots off, and when I stood up, I looked up the stairs and the refrigerator was open.

Scott Pelava [00:35:46]:
And I could see there was a man's legs standing, you know, in there. I could just see his legs under the refrigerator door. And I was like, holy crap, my wife's got a boyfriend. I just walked in on him. And then the door closed, and it was my son. He was like, 1415 years old. And I'm just like, holy crap, he grew up. I missed it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:36:10]:
Wow.

Scott Pelava [00:36:11]:
I just totally missed his childhood. And that's when it really hit me that I needed to make a change. So, yeah, that would have probably been about ten years ago, about the time as started, too, because that was, you know, he's 24 now, so. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:36:31]:
Yeah. Can't, can't get it back. And I mean, that's got a no.

Scott Pelava [00:36:36]:
Yeah. So it was a, that one that really, you know, rattled me, you know, and, you know, I got good relationship with my kids. You know, he still lives at home because he's, he's actually works full time and he's trying to buy a house. So we said, you know, stay here and he, you know, save your money because, I mean, he's got, he's got a huge, huge chunk of money sitting in the bank waiting for just the right place. He'll be able to put, you know, put money down that I would only dream of being able to put down on a house.

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:08]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:37:09]:
So. And, you know, I, I always encourage him. Just wait. And my wife is like, he sounds like you don't want him to leave. I'm like, well, no, I want to have that relationship that I didn't have.

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:22]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:37:22]:
With them for years. You know, my daughter, she grew up and, you know, she's moved out and everything and, you know, she's happy. I don't get to see her as often and, but, you know, when we are together, we, it's quality time.

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:37]:
Yeah. And it's important to really, really put your priorities together with that stuff. Right. And realize, like, what did I miss that for? You know? And it just seems so important at the time.

Scott Pelava [00:37:53]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:53]:
And, I mean, it still does. It still does for, for me, I'm sure, for anyone else out there. This is, this is your life right now. I have, this has to, this has to succeed. This, this has to, I have to make it. I can't fail. But what, what else are you failing at while you're trying to make this business succeed? You know, I mean, that's important to think about. Like, what, what are you, what you're giving something up.

Jimmy Purdy [00:38:15]:
You have to be, you know, there's.

Scott Pelava [00:38:17]:
A lot of wasted waste. I don't say wasted time, but there's a lot of time that's used up for non not important things.

Jimmy Purdy [00:38:25]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:38:26]:
You think they're important at the time, but they're not.

Jimmy Purdy [00:38:27]:
Yeah. Trying to try to make that one client happy, trying to, trying to do these things, and that's been another one for me, too, is at the very beginning. I was just thinking about this the other day, too, is at the very beginning. You have these clients come in with unreasonable expectations and you just go out of your way to make them happy because you're so worried about losing them. And I look back, it's like if that guy came in today, he wouldn't even be allowed in the parking lot, right? Let alone like, I would be doing work for him, you know, thinking about this, it's like, that's crazy how much I bent over backwards for that one individual client or customer, right? And it's like I wouldn't even let him on the premises right now, like, with where we're at. And it's like, crazy how important it was to me then versus now. It's like, wow, why was I so worried about that?

Scott Pelava [00:39:13]:
I remember the very first time I ever fired a customer. And they wouldn't, they, they wouldn't not come back. I told them repeatedly, it's like, it's clear I can't make you happy. So as a result, you need to go somewhere that can make you happy. But this isn't the place. And they still insisted on coming back over and over and over. I was short of trespassing them. I didn't know what I could do.

Jimmy Purdy [00:39:40]:
That's crazy.

Scott Pelava [00:39:41]:
Now, thinking back on it. Well, they kept coming to me because I was cheap. That's why they wanted to come to me, because I was cheap. Well, yeah, I priced, priced them right out of the market.

Jimmy Purdy [00:39:52]:
And how's that? And how's that thought process, too. When you hear these guys, especially on these groups, I'm three weeks out, like everyone. Hey, how's everyone doing? Oh, man, I'm so busy right now. I'm a month out. Everybody likes me. I'm the, I'm the best in the area. That's why people are waiting a month to come see me.

Scott Pelava [00:40:08]:
Yeah, no, it's because you're either cheap or highly inefficient. You know, you've got. Your processes aren't good, or you just can't get things done fast enough. I remember one shop owner that, you know, talking about how busy he was all the time, and it ended up being. And, you know, it kept, he kept going through tax, you know, he didn't understand why when come to find out, he, he didn't even have the equipment that they needed to actually run a business. They were doing engines, but they didn't have an engine hoist, so they're dropping engines out the bottom on a pallet.

Jimmy Purdy [00:40:42]:
Wow.

Scott Pelava [00:40:44]:
You know, and, you know, stuff like that. It was like some of the stuff that, you know, that I was, I was hearing, I'm like, why are you doing it that way? Why don't. I can't afford to buy a, you know, engine, hoist $150. Yeah. You know, so, you know, how many, how many people have left there because they came in thinking, oh, they're so busy. Well, they're busy because they're not efficient. They don't, they don't invest in tools and equipment to make the, make the business success.

Jimmy Purdy [00:41:13]:
Yeah. Or the ones that have technicians that just can't seem to get them to be productive or efficient or show up. Right. And I mean, who you, like, what are you attracting?

Scott Pelava [00:41:26]:
You know, like, yeah, they're probably paying a lower wage. They say, you know, I can get this guy for $15 an hour instead of paying somebody $25 an hour. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna make more money.

Jimmy Purdy [00:41:38]:
Or you don't have standards, you don't have expectations so they can come and go as they please. Oh, you want to take an hour and a half lunch?

Scott Pelava [00:41:44]:
Sure.

Jimmy Purdy [00:41:45]:
That's cool. Oh, you guys want to start drinking beer at 03:00 on Friday? Dude, go grab a twelve pack. And then the next week they're wondering why they're not getting any work done, you know? Well, I got, I got a crew guys, I don't understand why they don't want to do anything. And it's, and it's, it goes back. It's not just the one thing. Right. It's not because you guys are cracking beers at 03:00 on Friday, you know, like, if that's what you want to do, that's what you want to do. But it's that compiled with everything else.

Jimmy Purdy [00:42:10]:
And I've seen, I mean, I came from a shop that was like that to start with. I mean, there's a shop I took over and it was like, there's just so many things that need to change and some of those technicians don't want to go on that ride. They don't want that to be in that shop. Some guys out there want to be in a shop where they can do what they want, come and go as they please, and they don't want to change that, which is crazy.

Scott Pelava [00:42:31]:
But, yeah, I know there's a lot, there's a lot of cultural aspects in this, in society that, that I'm not even going to try to understand.

Jimmy Purdy [00:42:42]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:42:43]:
Things are happening the way they are.

Jimmy Purdy [00:42:44]:
Right. Well, I mean, that the technician shortage, right. The famous, the famous words of the technician shortage is like, what exactly is happening with that? And, and who is it that is being shorted, right. And, and how is there so many shops and so many cars that are still on the road if we have a shortage of technicians. Like, is there, is there a huge graveyard of cars that are like that, that aren't being fixed right now?

Scott Pelava [00:43:09]:
Only these, these guys that are a month out.

Jimmy Purdy [00:43:11]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:43:12]:
You know, but, you know, that, that actually, you know, that goes back to what I was saying earlier about techs that decide that they want to, you know, be their own owner. I'll say, let's, let's say, you know, you're the bang up a tech. You know, every shop in the area wants you, but you decide you're going to go out on your own. Right? You, you've been able to produce, you know, for the companies you've been working for and everyone is great. You go on your own and now you're only producing maybe 50% of what you were doing before because the other half of the time you're having to do administrative stuff. Eventually you phase yourself out of the shop and you're running the front desk or whatever and you're disappointed because the guys you hired can't do the same amount of work that you were doing. That's a detriment to our industry. And that's what I was talking about.

Scott Pelava [00:44:13]:
You know, if you love being attacked, be a tech. Don't be an owner and think that you're.

Jimmy Purdy [00:44:18]:
Oh, you nailed it there. I mean, that's, that's exactly the evolution of, of what happens.

Scott Pelava [00:44:24]:
And then we end up, industry ends up short of the, the great qualified technicians because they are now sitting on the desk and it, and it, we're kind of destroying our, a portion of our, our good quality people.

Jimmy Purdy [00:44:41]:
Right, right. And, and I mean, and it, like circles all the way back around because then that shop is not being ran well because it's a technician that's, that's a business owner is not treating his technicians correctly. So then those technicians go and try to open their own shop and it just keeps route and around.

Scott Pelava [00:45:00]:
Yeah, yeah. They're doing side work because they're not making any money. Because he's not paying him enough. Because they're not. Because he's not. They're not making enough money for him.

Jimmy Purdy [00:45:09]:
Yep.

Scott Pelava [00:45:10]:
Because they don't have that. The, the training that he had. He just expects that they know what he knows.

Jimmy Purdy [00:45:16]:
Yep. And then all those technicians want to go out on their own and open the shop and repeat, rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat. And then they start going. And then unfortunately, some of them go out of business and. And then they get out of the industry altogether.

Scott Pelava [00:45:31]:
Yep. And circling the drain.

Jimmy Purdy [00:45:33]:
Yep. It's it's a sad state of affairs like that. And a lot of it comes down to training. I mean, going to vision, going ASD. Going, like, taking yourself and taking the week off and realizing that it's not all gonna crash and burn and going. Even just getting on a Facebook group, I got. I got guys that aren't even on fate. Like, you're not even on Facebook.

Jimmy Purdy [00:45:55]:
Like, I don't want to be part of that kind of stuff. It's like, it's not. It's not what? It's not. That's not what it is.

Scott Pelava [00:46:04]:
Yeah. As a business owner, you know, I have a hard time because I'm. I'm unfamiliar with some of the social media platforms. Facebook, I think I got it down pretty good. But, you know, some of the TikTok and Instagram and all stuff, I. I probably should be doing some of that for, to grow the business, but I'm reluctant because I'm unfamiliar with it. But the other stuff, we bring shop owners into our mastermind, and we're like, you have a website? No, I don't need a website. I get by with word of mouth.

Scott Pelava [00:46:38]:
What about a Facebook page? No, I don't necessarily like Facebook. I don't want to use it. Well, it's not about you. It's about the populace, your potential clients. That's what. That's what it's there for. You don't have to sit and play candy crush or whatever, you know, you don't have to spend all your time on.

Jimmy Purdy [00:47:02]:
On your phone arguing, arguing with people in senseless conversation.

Scott Pelava [00:47:06]:
No, you don't have to.

Jimmy Purdy [00:47:07]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [00:47:07]:
But it's. But, you know, but you do need to reach the masses. You think?

Jimmy Purdy [00:47:16]:
For free?

Scott Pelava [00:47:17]:
Yeah, for free. It's free word. Word of mouth only goes so far.

Jimmy Purdy [00:47:21]:
Yes.

Scott Pelava [00:47:23]:
And if, you know, like I said, I'm on the city council. Our, our city still does not have a social media presence. I have been pushing for it for years, but the remainder of the council and the administration, they don't have a social media or a very strong social media presence. The mayor has nothing. City administrator uses his own personal page. That's it. It hasn't been a priority for them. But I hear people all the time saying, I wish the city had a way to communicate with us better than our clunky website.

Scott Pelava [00:48:09]:
I finally get, you know, got the push to go through that. Our police department finally had a social media, a Facebook page so they can post stuff about lost dogs, you know, that they've recovered and stuff like that. And people like that, but it took, you know, it took ten years for that to happen. And the reason why the chief said, I don't like Facebook. It doesn't matter what you like. It's what the community that you are give them serving, give the people what they want.

Jimmy Purdy [00:48:39]:
Give the people what they want.

Scott Pelava [00:48:41]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:48:41]:
It's a slippery, slippery slope, though. I mean, you gotta, I mean, it's, it's.

Scott Pelava [00:48:47]:
But you don't have to have a conversation about everything. You, you can use social media as a tool. Like, you know, we, the, the police department has their page and they, they post stuff and there's no commenting or anything like that. They don't. It's not a, it's not always a rah rah thing. It's. It's business. Hey, you know, there's a winter parking, you know, no, no parking on the streets until the snow plows have gone through or whatever.

Scott Pelava [00:49:15]:
They can use it for that, right? It doesn't have to be.

Jimmy Purdy [00:49:18]:
And they don't have to spend money putting, you know, banners out. I mean, it's free. It's a free marketing thing. And once you get it rolling, you just post what you gotta post. Get your word out there, and that's it.

Scott Pelava [00:49:29]:
And people will share it organically.

Jimmy Purdy [00:49:31]:
Right. I mean, it's, it's the new. It is the new word of mouth. I mean, most, those people are pretty anti social.

Scott Pelava [00:49:37]:
Yeah. Especially in the middle of winter when they're, you know, we will go, we'll go months without seeing our neighbors. You know, I'm in Minnesota, so this year is totally different. I mean, it's. We've had one plowable snow, but normally we won't, we won't see our neighbors from about November to March.

Jimmy Purdy [00:49:58]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:49:59]:
You know, unless they're out snow blowing the driveway, you wave at them and that's it. Otherwise, we don't see anybody.

Jimmy Purdy [00:50:06]:
I mean, and on that of, like, marketing and, like, it also shows you the holes of what you're missing, you know, and, and a lot of the time, you try to market for something that you think everybody wants instead of just going with the flow of, like, what's coming into the shop, you know, and it's nice to see what everybody else is doing and kind of the state of the industry, in a sense. Are you gonna go buy an Adas machine? Are you gonna go get involved in ev, like, and it's just good to know what everyone else is talking about, you know, in the industry.

Scott Pelava [00:50:36]:
You're gonna.

Jimmy Purdy [00:50:37]:
Are you gonna sit there on the phone and call these other shop owners across the country and say, hey, hey, did you guys do ada yet? Is that. Is that a thing? Should I. Should I invest? It's like you can just be on Facebook for 20 minutes a day and get all those answers pretty quickly. So, no, it.

Scott Pelava [00:50:52]:
You know, there are, the one nice thing, too, is with, through the networking, if you do find something that you're looking at, I'll say, for example, we were looking at CRMs. We currently are using one. And we're kicking around, you know, switching just because we've been running into some issues. And so we, we demoed a couple of them, and we got a list of, or not a list, but we, you know, during the demos, they showed us, you know, examples of who they're. You. You know, who they're using. I'm like, oh, I know that guy, and I know that guy. So then what do I do? I call them up and I go, all right, I sat through the sales presentation.

Scott Pelava [00:51:31]:
Now give me the good and the bad and the dirty. I want to. I want to know.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:35]:
Tell me, enright, what do you think?

Scott Pelava [00:51:37]:
Enright, you know, so I'll use it. You know, whoever, whoever, you know, is that using that platform to, uh, to pick their brain on it?

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:47]:
Oh, yeah. And on that note, I mean, you can find some of the leaders of the industries that are on some of these groups. I mean, for, for rebuilding transmissions, you know, Jim Mobley from Sonix and Robert from Transgo, like, lead, these guys that are lead in the technical service department. You can send them a message, and it's. It's like, I remember eight years ago waiting on hold on these technical helpline for an hour to just ask them one question about the shift kit they sent me, or whatever it is that it's like these guys are just online on Facebook all day long, ready to answer your questions. Like, how cool is that?

Scott Pelava [00:52:21]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:52:22]:
It's an invaluable resource.

Scott Pelava [00:52:25]:
Yeah. You know, my. Like I said, I got a really good team, but every now and then, you know, I'd have a tech that would get hung up on something. I remember. Was it two years ago? I had a tech, he got hung up on something, and I was providing him some. Some ideas, and he just kept poo pooing them. Just didn't. Didn't really think what I was telling him was relevant or whatever.

Scott Pelava [00:52:47]:
I don't even remember what it was.

Jimmy Purdy [00:52:48]:
I was kind of impressed that you're lying to him. There's no way you give him the right answer, right?

Scott Pelava [00:52:52]:
I was impressed that I knew what I did because I've been kind of been out of it for a while. And finally I said, let me make a call. And I don't remember who it was. Might have been Brandon Dills. I don't remember. Maybe Tanner Markham. I can't remember which who was. I called, and I said, here's what's going on.

Scott Pelava [00:53:12]:
I've got this problem. And I ran down the. You know, the text, got this issue, ran down the list. Here's a test we did is what we found. Whatever. And they. They rattled off, like, you know, three possibilities and how to check them. Well, one of them was the one that I had given, and I'm like, all right, you know, appreciate it.

Scott Pelava [00:53:30]:
We'll let you know. So tech goes out, and he does the three different things that he's told to do, and it ends up being the one that I was right about. And he came up and he said, I'm glad you called, because it was this. And I looked at him. I didn't even say it. I'm like, all right, fine. You know what? Don't. Don't listen to me.

Scott Pelava [00:53:47]:
But, you know, I didn't want to say that's what I said, but I just went, I'm glad I was able to have the resource.

Jimmy Purdy [00:53:54]:
You know, it's like I've done this before. It's almost like I might know what I'm talking about.

Scott Pelava [00:54:01]:
I might, but I might. Usually not.

Jimmy Purdy [00:54:04]:
Usually not. But every once in a while.

Scott Pelava [00:54:07]:
Yeah. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, so. But, yeah, no, the networking is. Is absolutely astounding. My one tech, my c tech, she went to school to votec during COVID She started the class, you know, started that year at the school, and then they locked it down. It was all virtual after that, so very little hands on, um, which I felt, you know, is terrible. How do you. How do you teach this.

Scott Pelava [00:54:40]:
This industry completely from a computer screen. But I know. So she, um. She did that. And I got back from, uh, ast, I want to say, two years ago, and, uh, we were. We were talking. We were everywhere, as at lunch, we're talking about something. And I said that I had had, uh.

Scott Pelava [00:55:03]:
I'd had lunch with Paul Danner, and we were going over some stuff, um, and, uh, she said, paul Danner? Like scanner Danner? I'm like, yeah. She goes, when I was in school, they told us we got to watch all his videos and everything else, you know, because he's. He's awesome. And you know, I've watched all of his videos, and. And I can't believe, you know, how useful all that is. Like, yeah. She goes, so, you know Paul Danner? I'm like, yeah, I know, Paul. And she's like, you are a big deal.

Jimmy Purdy [00:55:34]:
That's all it took, huh?

Scott Pelava [00:55:36]:
Yeah, yeah, it's all it took. So she just, you know, oh, Paul.

Jimmy Purdy [00:55:40]:
You'Re a big deal, man. He's a celebrity.

Scott Pelava [00:55:42]:
I told him. I told him that. I told him that story, and he's just like, well, that's awesome. And now I'm getting a big head.

Jimmy Purdy [00:55:50]:
It reminds me of back in COVID when I was doing a jujitsu training, and we weren't, obviously, at that time, allowed to go, so they had jujitsu zoom classes. So we were continuing our training through Zoom, and people were getting. Because they get. You get a belt and you get stripes, right? So you get stripes and you get promoted. So people are getting belt promotions and stripe promotions through this zoom jujitsu training. And I'm like, okay, you lost me here. This is not. Yeah, I'm, like, grappling with myself in the living room.

Jimmy Purdy [00:56:25]:
I don't. This is. This is weird.

Scott Pelava [00:56:27]:
It. It just. That was almost participation trophy.

Jimmy Purdy [00:56:30]:
Yeah, it absolutely was. I mean, obviously, it was a revenue generator. Like, they were trying to find a way to continue, so I just continued my membership. I was like, but I'm not going to do the classes. I'm sorry, I just can't do.

Scott Pelava [00:56:42]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:56:43]:
Can't take a hands on, you know, martial art and try to teach it through a video screen. It's just. We lost that one. We're not gonna do that.

Scott Pelava [00:56:52]:
Yeah. I do not want the neurosurgeon working on my brain that has never touched a brain.

Jimmy Purdy [00:56:57]:
Yeah, no, no, definitely. Well, someone's got to be the first person, but it's not gonna be me. Sorry, I don't want to do that.

Scott Pelava [00:57:07]:
Yeah. So. But, yeah, um, you had actually, you know, you would originally, you'd asked about, you know, vision and. Yeah, you know, um. Yeah, I. We had a great time. We went out there. I've been attending vision for a number of years.

Scott Pelava [00:57:22]:
Haven't always brought the whole shop, but I brought the whole shop again this year.

Jimmy Purdy [00:57:29]:
And how many techs and service advisors?

Scott Pelava [00:57:32]:
Well, I brought what I. We're a small shop, so I brought my service manager, service advisor, and I. My two tacks. I'm short attack right now, so normally I have three tacks and myself, so there was just four of us this time around. Normally it would be five. So we, we're only a six hour drive away. So we pile in one of the loaner vans and head down, head down 35 to Kansas City and rent an airbnb. It's cheaper than renting a hotels for everybody.

Jimmy Purdy [00:58:07]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:58:08]:
And just a little more comfortable. As long as we have a car. You know, it's only a ten minute drive from the, from the house to the event center. And everybody said that the classes were awesome. There was, there was never a bad class. There was some that, you know, maybe didn't quite line up with how they were titled or, you know, a little more in depth on, on something a little more in depth. I took a class on accounting, and it was more of an accounting class, which was over my head.

Jimmy Purdy [00:58:51]:
So like a seat, like a CPA kind of accounting class.

Scott Pelava [00:58:54]:
It was, yeah, it was a little. Little more in depth than, than what I had expected.

Jimmy Purdy [00:58:59]:
So that's a good thing, though.

Scott Pelava [00:59:01]:
Yeah. Yeah. It's an eye opener to realize how much I, how little I know.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:05]:
Yeah. I mean, I have that, I have that problem with some of the training classes that I go to. I'm not good at picking them. And then obviously at first I want to do all the, all the technical or all the technician training classes. And I realized I, these are not the classes I need to be in, you know, but they're more interesting. They're way more interesting. And then a lot of the owner leadership classes I go to really turn into kind of a sales pitch for their, their brand or their coaching company. And it's like, oh, really? I just spent money in my time here.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:36]:
I have three days and 3 hours out of one day, I'm sitting here in a sales presentation. So those are the ones I get up and walk out of. Like, I can't stand those.

Scott Pelava [00:59:43]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:43]:
And so I hate when it's surface level stuff, and I love when you get to the ones where it's like, oh, finally. Stuff that I haven't heard a hundred times already.

Scott Pelava [00:59:52]:
Mm hmm. Well, sometimes it's. It's. I will admit it's good to hear something over and over.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:57]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Scott Pelava [00:59:58]:
To realize that you are actually how the importance of it. I know my, my advisor manager, she was, one of her issues was to sit in one class and they would talk about how you handle this situation and then go to the next training. And the presenter in that class is completely 180 degree difference on, uh, you know, they'll say, you know, a shop, for example, we don't give any prices over the phone, even for menu pricing, you know, we don't give anything at all. You know, you get it. You got to get them in the door. Just tell them, bring it on in. We'll take care of it. And then you get the next presenter.

Jimmy Purdy [01:00:38]:
We know who that one is.

Scott Pelava [01:00:41]:
The next one, we'll do a, you know, menu pricing is, you know, is this. And, you know, and the next one is, you know, they're very specific about when they're going to bring it in and that there's going to be a charge. You know, there's three different opinions on handling it. All the exact same phone call. Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's not. Yeah, but you, you know, as Kim Walker with shop marketing pro said, you know what, you. It's all a salad.

Scott Pelava [01:01:11]:
Just don't eat the broccoli. You, you choose what you like, what, what you want. Because if everybody did the exact same thing, we might as well just be one big corporate environment and it's all going to be done the same fit, you know, 50 states wide. And at every shop.

Jimmy Purdy [01:01:26]:
Yeah.

Scott Pelava [01:01:26]:
There's only one, one way to do it.

Jimmy Purdy [01:01:28]:
There's. There's an ass for every seat, right. I mean, that's why there are different colors of vehicles and they're not, you know, one color, but, yeah, some, there's, there's shops that want that cheap oil change menu price, knock out 40 cars a day. And then there's. I don't want that, you know, I want my hpro to be like, you know, I want twelve $1300 arro. I want. I want to spend as much time with each client as I can, you know, and that involves going through the vehicle and identifying what, as many things as it needs and then presenting that and saying, this is what we need to do. Your vehicle is going to be here for the next two days.

Jimmy Purdy [01:02:07]:
That's an ideal situation for me. That's nice. It slows everything down. It gives us the opportunity to really work through the vehicle and capture as much as we can. And then I don't have to see that vehicle for a year, hopefully, you know, to walmart for oil changes. See, now that's where I have a problem because a lot of people say I'm now missing opportunity because they're going to another shop for an oil change and maybe they're going to steal that client and I'm going to lose the opportunity. Like, okay, maybe you're right. So that's why it's important to see both sides of that story, because it's like, you know what? Maybe you are right.

Jimmy Purdy [01:02:38]:
Maybe I do need to work on putting a menu pricing together for oil changes and start thinking about doing that, because they are going somewhere else, and there is that possibility that they're being sold something else somewhere else, and I'm losing that client now. So it is. It's like, I can't just focus on one tactic, look at them all, and then start piecing together to make one, you know, one pie, one salad, you know?

Scott Pelava [01:03:03]:
Yeah. You know, when you said that, that's one of the things we. When COVID hit, we were having a hard time getting oil filters. The. We were using the carquest red ones. We were kind of the competing on price for oil changes with other shops, you know, doing synthetic blend, oil changes, whatever. It. It.

Scott Pelava [01:03:24]:
It was okay, but it wasn't great. But then one day, I had the epiphany. I don't know where it came from. I don't. I have great pride in this one. I said, they're. They can't ever get us the cheap oil filters, but they're substituting it with the, uh, with the premium ones. So why don't we, uh, start using a.

Scott Pelava [01:03:44]:
The premium oil filters. We'll charge a little bit more form, and then, um, we don't have a problem getting synthetic oil, because the synthetic blend was getting hard to come by. But the full synthetic, we were able to get that no problem. Said we could double the oil service interval, use, you know, fewer appointments, everything else. We figured it all out. It ends up being a cost savings for the client to go to full synthetic, double the interval, and. And we're making money on it. And so that's what we did.

Scott Pelava [01:04:17]:
At first. It was, oh, you know, God, we're going to be losing people. But we didn't. You know, we've all. I think we only. We had two clients that said, no, I don't want full synthetic. Okay, whatever, you know, and we've had two people that have said, you know, you know, called up and they didn't want full synthetic. Fine.

Scott Pelava [01:04:38]:
Other than that, we don't have any issues with it. And we've been doing it now for several years, and we're seeing. We see fewer cars, so we're not rushing them through, but we're making more money on. On them when they are in, and we. We have enough time to look them over and give them a, you know, fair. A fair evaluation.

Jimmy Purdy [01:04:59]:
And that's a better product. Yeah. Better product.

Scott Pelava [01:05:02]:
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jimmy Purdy [01:05:03]:
They don't have to spend the time coming in so frequently it's. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Pelava [01:05:07]:
We tell them you, it saves and saves them, you know, an hour appointment that they, you know, with dropping it off and all that running around, they come in half as often and they're getting. They got a better, better product, they got a better oil, better filter, all that stuff. And in modern cars with all the timing chain issues and cam phasers and all that stuff, why are we trying to put cheap, you know, cheap oil.

Jimmy Purdy [01:05:34]:
In just to say, just to save $10?

Scott Pelava [01:05:37]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not worth it.

Jimmy Purdy [01:05:40]:
And then those people that want to save the $10, you know what? Go to Walmart because they'll probably smoke your engine anyway. So you're gonna get a new engine in the next couple years.

Scott Pelava [01:05:49]:
Yeah. Call us when they blow it up because. Because their insurance will pay us.

Jimmy Purdy [01:05:53]:
Perfect. Everybody wins there.

Scott Pelava [01:05:55]:
I like that. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [01:05:56]:
So on final notes here, I always like to ask, you've been obviously a frequent of trade shows, so when it comes to vision, I've never been. And so what would be some of things to prepare for or what would be like a piece of advice you'd give for someone going to vision for the first time?

Scott Pelava [01:06:19]:
One of the most important things is we call it the hall, the hallway. Learning. Talking to people outside of class and talk to. Talk to the, the famous people, I guess, if you will. I don't want it. I don't want to say that. The influencers, whatever.

Jimmy Purdy [01:06:42]:
The infamous people.

Scott Pelava [01:06:44]:
The infamous, yes. You're going to find they're amazingly friendly. They're super knowledgeable, and through that networking, you're going to find so many other people that are all trying to do the same thing. And you're. Your, your toolbox of information is going to be way bigger than you ever thought it could be. There's times I go to these shows and I don't even attend a single class. I just, I go for the networking.

Jimmy Purdy [01:07:23]:
Absolutely. Yep.

Scott Pelava [01:07:24]:
And I pull more out of the networking side than I do out of the class in some, in many cases.

Jimmy Purdy [01:07:31]:
Most. Most. Right.

Scott Pelava [01:07:33]:
Yeah. Well, and, you know, part of that, too, is we would do our, the ASOG scholarship. I know. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but we would, we would take a struggling shop owner and we would fly them into the event and put them up in a hotel and all that stuff. And my job during that time is the, I call it the experience coordinator because I make sure that they, they get, you know, from the hotel to the, to the training, make sure they get everything they need. Meals. There's dinners and events that they have to get to. That's my job, to make sure that everybody gets where they need to go.

Scott Pelava [01:08:13]:
Yeah. As a result, it makes it difficult for me to attend class when I'm having to. When I'm having to keep. Keep the cub scouts going around.

Jimmy Purdy [01:08:21]:
Right, right.

Scott Pelava [01:08:22]:
So. So, you know, I I do still get. I do still get the. The networking that the trade shows are. Are huge because you get to see some of the really cool technology that's come out, even if you're not in the market to, you know, if you're a tech and you're not a shop owner, you know, you probably don't have a lot of say and, you know, alignment racks and this and that. But it's cool when you. When you find, you know, hey, here's a great idea. This.

Scott Pelava [01:08:57]:
This alignment rack company. They have led light strips that are mounted under the rack that are, you know, hardwired in. You know, you can retrofit this to fit our rack, and then you don't have to worry about lighting. It can be. You can have hardwired led lights, and it lights up underneath the alignment rack.

Jimmy Purdy [01:09:16]:
And it's not idea. $2,000.

Scott Pelava [01:09:19]:
Yeah, exactly. We, you know, you know, we can go on Amazon and. And buy the stuff we need to build it. But I I had never thought of that. And when I saw it, I'm like, that was slick. You know, there's lots of great ideas out there, but you got to be willing to. To, you know, just go out and be willing to absorb it.

Jimmy Purdy [01:09:43]:
Yeah. Get out there and see what's there and.

Scott Pelava [01:09:45]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [01:09:45]:
And not overdo it. I always overdo it on all these damn trade shows. I'll sit there for the month before and, like, look through all the classes and research the instructors, and I'm like, okay, so that one's 2 hours, and then 30 minutes after that one, 3 miles on the other side of the convention center. This class, I'm gonna do that one. My first year in sema was that I tried to do classes in. In. In sema and apex simultaneously. And I'm, like, trying to figure out how long is it gonna take me to walk from the convention center back to the.

Jimmy Purdy [01:10:12]:
The venetian. It's like I had it all mapped out. I'm like, oh, this will work great. And once you're there. Nope. That was the biggest mistake.

Scott Pelava [01:10:21]:
Yeah, absolutely. So, like, I'll use vision and ast, or now it's the Asta expo. As an example, they do a really good job with scheduling that, that they're in relatively close by location. So vision, you know, they got them the convention center, and then they use some area. They use other hotels in the area, so they make sure that you have enough time. Yeah, those are going to be, you know, if it's going to be off site, it might be a half a day or a whole day. So you're not having to scramble to get to where you need to go.

Jimmy Purdy [01:10:59]:
Yeah, but I think all your point. Try to network and just walk up to people, you know, I have one. You got to do at least one class a day for one. It helps to fund the project like nothing, if nothing else. Like you need to spend a little money there, like you're there. Sure, it was expensive, but if you want it there next year, you need to at least sign up for one class. At least one. One a day would be great.

Jimmy Purdy [01:11:22]:
Right. But I think overdoing it is a big problem that most people do, too, because then you're trying to rush to class, to class, to class. Before you know it, three days is over and you're going back and you haven't met anybody. And that's the most important, important part of it.

Scott Pelava [01:11:36]:
Yeah, yeah. All my staff said that, you know, they love the networking. My manager, she, you know, she was in a class having a conversation with somebody about dealing with price shoppers, and the woman sitting next to her said, oh, yeah, we are. We have pre printed scripts that we work off of for that. Give me your email. I'll email them to you.

Jimmy Purdy [01:12:00]:
Mind blown something.

Scott Pelava [01:12:03]:
We've been. We've been trying to develop a script or, you know, some policies on doing that. We have our. We have our plan, but we don't have it broken down, you know, to the points we need to make in that.

Jimmy Purdy [01:12:19]:
Right.

Scott Pelava [01:12:19]:
So, you know, and it didn't cost us, I mean, cost whatever the travel was, but that. That conversation didn't cost anything, but that could. That could drastically change the face of how we do things.

Jimmy Purdy [01:12:33]:
Oh, yeah. Or at least it points. Starts pointing the ship in the right direction of what you've been trying to do.

Scott Pelava [01:12:38]:
Exactly.

Jimmy Purdy [01:12:39]:
I mean, that's. Yeah. Well, speaking of. Speaking of seminars, you're going to Mars.

Scott Pelava [01:12:46]:
I am not. I've only got so much time right now. I got a lot of things going on right now, and I'm having to kind of prioritize stuff.

Jimmy Purdy [01:12:56]:
You can't go to all of them? No, I can catch them all, that's for damn sure.

Scott Pelava [01:13:01]:
I've got scheduling conflicts and it's amazing. I can get as much done as I do.

Jimmy Purdy [01:13:07]:
Well, I appreciate you, everything you. And thanks for coming on again.

Scott Pelava [01:13:10]:
Thank you. You bet. I appreciate it.