Gearbox Podcast

00:00:00.00
jimmypurdy
stuff. I think you do a lot of um obviously shop coaching.

00:00:02.08
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Okay.

00:00:03.45
jimmypurdy
I mean, I think that's really important because a lot of it's missing, right? Like you you probably talked to a lot of shop owners and they're usually technician turned shop owners and it's like, what do I do?

00:00:13.77
jimmypurdy
You know, well, and everyone wants to go to like the top of the perimeter, you know, the the mountain, right? Like just give me the golden, just give me the silver bullet, right? They don't realize like it's like little crumbs that you got to pick up.

00:00:24.78
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

00:00:24.56
jimmypurdy
That's one thing I've learned. Like, right. So it's like really interesting to hear other Yeah. Now I don't know if I call them coaching like techniques, but you know what I mean? Like just the different stuff that you've been through.

00:00:35.74
jimmypurdy
And then obviously the power of like a BDG group, cause that's all new to me too.

00:00:40.15
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

00:00:40.04
jimmypurdy
And I recently just, I recently just joined a BNI, right? That has nothing to do with auto.

00:00:44.28
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Nothing to do with automotive. Yeah. Right.

00:00:45.59
jimmypurdy
Yeah. And then I get there and they're like, and if it's like, everyone's hounding me, right? They're like, Oh, you gotta, you gotta to be a member. You gotta be a member. I'm like, I don't really need any more work. you know, necessarily, but they're like, Oh, but you need to join because I, my kid's car and this car and this, and I was like, everyone's got this work. They want to send me. I'm like, Holy crap. Like you guys don't have like another auto, like, no, we don't have it. And once you're the auto guy, like you can't have another, you know, same, same industry. And it's like, that's pretty interesting. But, uh, it's just, it's just funny. Like how the auto industry is like always like the bottom rung, right? Like.

00:01:19.75
jimmypurdy
They're even showing like all the industries that they promote on like the slide. And it was like, where's the transportation or auto industry? Like you guys just don't even think about that. Didn't you all? And they're like, what's the number one thing or what business could you use to really network with them?

00:01:33.80
jimmypurdy
Like, did you drive here today?

00:01:37.23
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
how

00:01:37.24
jimmypurdy
What I'm like, every one of you that got here today, I can network with and get work out of like, that's not, I'm not looking for that. You know what I mean?

00:01:45.35
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, like literally, I mean, when you start to talk about, I mean, and again, we can, you know, you know, I know we're recording now. But, you know, we can talk about, you know, even some of that, I mean, you've got, you know, the automotive industry is projected to be over $500 billion dollars this year. It's the second largest producer ah for the United States economy is the automotive industry.

00:02:13.15
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right? And so, I mean, it's second behind hospitality. So people don't think about it like that. And I think shop owners, a lot of times when I give presentations, I always lead with kind of like industry statistics, you know, average age of the vehicle, things like that. But then we talk about how much dollars are generated. And the reason I do that is because it's like,

00:02:35.96
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Like you're a part of something very big and very important and too many times in our industry, right? People are just, Oh, well, I'm just a technician. You know, it's, you know, nobody respects what we do.

00:02:47.06
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And it's because of the, the perceptions there, because that's how you think of yourself. You know, you have to change how you think of yourself as the shop owner to, to change the perception.

00:02:55.94
jimmypurdy
Yeah, that's fair, right?

00:02:58.35
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
So yeah.

00:03:00.47
jimmypurdy
it's It's easy too, because everyone wants, you know, especially, I mean, the friends in the family are like, the are like the are the biggest offenders, right?

00:03:07.82
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah. Mm hmm.

00:03:08.64
jimmypurdy
Can you look at it for free? Can you check it out real quick? um And then I think, I don't know, everyone has a lot of empathy, but I feel like we have more empathy than maybe other industries, because most of the time,

00:03:23.29
jimmypurdy
I mean, there, there's the exceptions, but like you get out of school and you need, you need a car to drive and it breaks down and you have like, you know, just enough money for a half a tank of gas. And you're like, I can't take this to a shop. but So you're on the side of the road and you're like, all right, I got to figure out what's wrong with this thing. Right. And that, like, like that's how my journey started. And I feel like that, like is.

00:03:43.26
jimmypurdy
resonates with so many other people like, well, that's, I mean, yeah, that's what I did too. I couldn't afford to fix my own car. So I had to figure out how to fix it myself, you know? So, so then you have that empathy when someone comes in and they try to ha, you know, haggle you, or they're like really down on their luck and you can't help but feel like, all right, you know, like I'll help you out.

00:04:01.35
jimmypurdy
And then that breeds that stigma of like my time isn't worth anything and it's like right back to you said like then you just put down on yourself and you don't realize how powerful or how much knowledge that you have and that's worth money and the people that don't want to spend it.

00:04:13.72
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right.

00:04:14.45
jimmypurdy
You know I just had someone ah this last week come in and ah you know we do our basic inspection and we do an advanced assessment and he felt like the time that we quoted him out for the advanced assessment wasn't fair.

00:04:28.79
jimmypurdy
Wouldn't it have been an oil leak. So we had an oil leak, we had to, you know, our, our protocols would rack it up, clean it, go drive it, rack it up again and check for oil leaks. It takes time, you know? And so it was an hour of advanced assessment and he felt like, Oh, that's something that should have took no more than 20 minutes tops. I was like, what do you mean? He's like, well, all you gotta do is wipe it down. Then you go drive it, come back. I'm like, I mean,

00:04:53.62
jimmypurdy
It's it's 15 minutes to clean it 15 to 20 minutes to drive it another 15 minutes to rack it back up And then we got it and then he's got to let it back down and pull it out on the parking lot right up his nose It's another 15 minutes. Like how is this not justified? Oh you charge me for the test drive like what?

00:05:11.70
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, I mean, it's, it, yeah, it's, uh, yeah, yeah.

00:05:12.45
jimmypurdy
You know like we're out of nowhere like what how am I dealing with this guy right now? Oh

00:05:22.22
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
I mean, every time spent, I mean, every, every, every minute spent, you know, is, is, like you said, it's time. It's, it's your knowledge. It's, you know, it's no different than, you know, if you have an electrician come, you know, you do building a new house and, you know, you have an electrician, like,

00:05:39.37
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Do you think you're just paying for the time that he is physically, she is physically there wiring your house? Like, no, absolutely not. Like all the time put in into putting the specs together, right?

00:05:49.75
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Doing the research. I mean, you're getting billed for all of that, but yeah. So anyway, that's a, that's a discussion that we could have for, yeah.

00:05:58.71
jimmypurdy
You go, you go down the whole rabbit. I mean, you've probably seen the video about the plumber, right? When he breaks down his like labor costs for the, for his plumbing.

00:06:04.25
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Uh, yeah.

00:06:04.87
jimmypurdy
And it was like 500 or something, something dollars an hour that he's got a charge to put a water heater in. And it's like, if you've, I mean, if you ever put a water heater and it's, it's definitely nowhere near putting a transmission in a vehicle, right?

00:06:16.88
jimmypurdy
Like, and not to, not to downplay the technical ability to put a water heater in, but it's not the same thing. Right. And it's like, um, I mean, I'll, I'll definitely pay at a convenience, but it's like,

00:06:24.09
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right.

00:06:29.03
jimmypurdy
the last one I had put in, it was like $2,700 to put a water heater and it's like, um, I might do that myself next time. Cause I'm definitely more than capable of doing that.

00:06:39.25
jimmypurdy
Then you break down the labor is like, well, so it was basically $1,500 for around three hours of work.

00:06:39.58
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
right

00:06:45.03
jimmypurdy
So yeah, it was about $500 an hour. It was like, wow. Okay. That's about, that's what it I mean. And I get it though. Like I'm not like knocking the knocking it by any means. It's like, that's what he's got to charge that they show up at the shop. They load up their van with tools. They got to, you know, have all the same insurance and all that stuff and show up. And I mean, I get it. Like that's what you got to charge, but it's not.

00:07:09.90
jimmypurdy
It's not looked down upon as same as like in the auto industry, right? It's like we, we charge 170 and seventy then we want upper labor rate, say 180. And all of a sudden everyone loses their mind over $10 an hour, right? Like how many conversations have you had like that where you're trying to get an owner to up their labor rate five or $10 an hour and how big of a change that would make.

00:07:28.61
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

00:07:31.02
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah. Well, I had one today, actually. Yeah. Three hours ago, four hours ago, whatever it was. So yeah, yeah.

00:07:40.21
jimmypurdy
Daily occurrence, right? And how big, how big of an impact can that make for someone to just bump their labor?

00:07:42.61
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
do

00:07:45.65
jimmypurdy
And how do you, how do you get them to justify that in their mind?

00:07:49.61
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
So, you know a lot of times when we're talking you know when we're talking about labor rates, it's I mean, I had the conversation today with a prospect and then I had a conversation two days ago with an existing client and you know he was talking about his labor rate and he's like, yeah, you know I feel like I'm pretty close to where everybody is in town. So, I feel like we're fair and I'm like, well,

00:08:14.33
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
It doesn't really matter where everybody else is in town, right? Because your expenses, your you know your technician payroll, everything all rolled up could be completely different than the guy down the street. And you may have certain profit percentages that you want to hit and they may be comfortable, let's just say 65, 70% gross profit on your labor. Well, what does it take to get to that number?

00:08:38.85
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
right? So when when I'm talking with people, I'm trying to look at it from a like, let's take that surgical detailed approach. Let's not just say, well, I think our market bears 140 or $150 an hour, right? I mean, you may need to be effectively, right? You you might need to be at 165 so that you can hit 65% gross profit. So I mean, that's something that work backwards to try to figure out what exactly your labor rate needs to be. you know It's easy to to look at, you know first of all, what is what is our break even point? And then we can start from there. um As far as an impact goes, I mean, that's where just simple math comes in, right? If we can bump your labor rate $10 an hour and you're averaging two labor hours per ticket,

00:09:26.18
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Okay. Well, now we've just added $20 for every job that goes out of your shop. Well, how many jobs do you do? Well, I do a hundred, you know, a hundred, a hundred a week. Okay. Well do the math, right? There's $2,000. That's, you know, that's pretty decent money. Now, all of a sudden let's take it out, you know, times 52 weeks. Now we've just generated over a hundred thousand dollars more in revenue. And all you did was move your labor rate, $10.

00:09:53.91
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you know, and I'm sure you've seen it too, where when people tell me like, I'm so busy, Jared, I booked out three weeks, four weeks, whatever it is, I immediately go to a lot of times, you're probably too cheap, right?

00:10:09.26
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
um And in some cases, it's not not the case, but in most cases,

00:10:13.11
jimmypurdy
It's a pretty fair assumption.

00:10:14.74
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, you're you're undervaluing your services, you're too cheap. Well, if I raise my my rate, I'm probably going to scare off some customers. And my answer back to that is, yeah, you're probably going to scare off the customers, the clientele that you don't want anyway. But, you know, it goes back to the perception thing. If your customers are perceiving you as the lowest guy in town or the lowest girl in town, well, then that's the type of clientele you're going to attract.

00:10:43.65
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
So you know when when we're looking at working with prospective clients or when we have existing clients, you know specifically prospective clients, we're offering you know a free business evaluation to look at their numbers. And from there, it's pretty easy to show them. We can see what their labor sales are, part sales, effective labor rate.

00:11:07.76
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And then it's simply just doing the math for them with them to show them. In a lot of cases, right Jimmy? I mean, you're talking about a $10 increase maybe in your effective labor rate and let's say a seven to 10% increase in your parts gross profit. And when you start to look at what that does on a monthly basis and then you even get even more deep detail, then you look at this is all it's really gonna do per repair order.

00:11:33.64
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And the in the the the the changes per repair order may be 30 or $40. But again, when you're doing 2,500, 3,000, whatever it is, tickets a year, and then you show them that math, then all of a sudden it's like, oh, wow. So a $40 change in my average repair order can generate $200,000 in revenue. I mean, it it's kind of a no brainer, but People are always worried about that perception that they're going to be overcharging people and that they're going to lose customers.

00:12:09.43
jimmypurdy
But how how many people are really gonna squawk, I mean, how many are gonna lose over a $40 change and in your in your and your repair bill, right? I mean, when's the last time you went to the grocery store? Can you tell me how much a gallon of milk is?

00:12:22.19
jimmypurdy
Right. Like unless you went today to buy a gallon of milk, you have no idea how much a gallon of milk is. Cause it changes every freaking day almost. And it's like that with everything on the shelf, you know? So why do we have to have these set prices? Right. And the one thing I get, I hear a lot too is like the labor mate or the parts matrix. Right. And having, uh, an optimizer on the parts matrix where you change the the price on the parts, depending on where you're at through the month.

00:12:48.18
jimmypurdy
You know, I mean, ideally you get it pretty close, but sometimes you have a slow month. And so the jobs coming in, it's going to bump that margin up a little bit to make sure you keep your part GP where it should be. That's the right thing to do as a business owner. But then the other side of it is like, that's the wrong thing to do to the consumer. Like, but is it like.

00:13:05.18
jimmypurdy
I mean, do you, do you go to the grocery store and like pick something off the shelf? Like, Hey, last, last week when I bought this, it was $2 cheaper. What's going on here, guys? You guys are ripping me off. Like no one even thinks twice about it. Right. And I just, it blows my mind when you look at it that way. And then like but you said, it's a $40 extra on the repair bills. Like that pays for your employees' lives, their family's lives. And it's like, there's so many benefits that goes to, to have like, I don't know, to really like think that's going to change.

00:13:33.67
jimmypurdy
Anybody's perception. And I love that what you said, that's just going to weed out. Like the ones that you don't want to deal with anyway, the ones that constantly haggling, you constantly need a cheap deal, constantly want the discount. What if your book three weeks out, you can probably lose a few.

00:13:47.25
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Well, it's it's, yeah, and you know, it's the definition of, you know, I'm sure everybody's heard it, but it's, you know, working smarter, not harder, right? So one of our coaches at at Repair Shop tomorrow, her and I, Kathleen Callahan, um she's ah she's been a client of ours and a coach for our, she's been a coach I think since 2019 or 2020 before I started there, but her and I were looking at her shop management software last week, um you know they the the the system she uses, they added some enhancements to it, some reporting tools. and I was kind of showing her and we were looking through that. and For the year, she was down 10% in cart count and total revenue was up 14%. Average repair order was up, gross profit was up. That's a challenge, I think, when

00:14:43.12
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Especially when shop owners, maybe they're newer into the industry, what have you. And I feel like a lot of times, you know, you hear, not just from marketing companies, but you know, coaching companies and just people in general too, like, you know, car count, car count, car count. Well, yeah, car count, car count's important. We obviously need the cars to work on. um But a lot of cases, I think, you know, we're working on too many cars. We're not doing our inspection. We're not following the 300% rule and we're just burning out our technicians because all we're doing is just boom, boom, boom, right? Churning and burning. So, you know, the average repair order, I know it's kind of fluctuates based on where you're at, but

00:15:26.12
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
The last statistics I saw was around $500 for the average repair order. So in our example, let's say you are at that average at 500. Are you telling me that you don't have enough value and trust with the clientele that you serve, that they're gonna come in and in complain or leave you because now they're paying 540 instead of 500, right? Like if they do, it goes back to what we just said.

00:15:53.81
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
That's not those clients that that that you want to service.

00:15:56.52
jimmypurdy
Or maybe look in the mirror. Maybe you're not providing the service that you should be too, right?

00:16:03.16
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Well, that's true, too.

00:16:03.40
jimmypurdy
I mean, two parts of the of the puzzle there, you know?

00:16:06.50
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, yeah. And you know always like to you know I always like to reiterate When I do presentations or when I'm just speaking individually with with with clients, you know, price typically only becomes an issue, in my opinion, when there's an absence of value. So if you think about it right on ah on a scale, and if the value is here, price is typically like the last thing that people are concerned about. But when that scale flips and the value is here, now price all of a sudden becomes the most important thing.

00:16:43.39
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And I always use the always use the Ruth Chris analogy. If you've ever been to a Ruth Chris steakhouse, you're gonna pay, depending on how much you drink. I like to have a few glasses of wine with my with my steak, right?

00:16:55.25
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
So, um depending on how much you drink, you know, eat your bills three, $400 by the time you leave a Ruth Chris steakhouse.

00:17:03.78
jimmypurdy
Yeah.

00:17:04.13
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
But the service is great. The food's phenomenal. You know, the whole experience from when you walk in, where you sit down, you get the bill and you just pay it and you leave. But if you are spending that much money and the value's not there, they overcook your steak, right?

00:17:21.81
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
The wine's not very good. The first thing you do when you leave is you look at how much you paid and in your mind, you're like, I'm never going back there, right? Like the...

00:17:31.41
jimmypurdy
They, you don't spend that kind of money on a plate at Chili's or Applebee's, you know? But you know what you're getting when you go there, right? Like my bills should probably be less than a hundred bucks.

00:17:40.53
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right.

00:17:40.41
jimmypurdy
And I know what I'm going to get. It's not going to be the greatest, but I know what I'm getting. And so yeah, you were looking for the cheapest thing on the menu. You're looking for the two for 20 or whatever, right?

00:17:49.12
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the, the six piece of boneless wings with the, with the burger and the cheese or the fry combo, right? For, for 10 for 10 99.

00:17:56.46
jimmypurdy
Yeah. Yeah. You're just, they're just scouring for the budget deals at Applebee's, right? Like that's just, but you know what you're getting. Cause even if you get the $20 steak, it ain't gonna be that good. Right. And it's like, like the whole rest of the experience doesn't go with it either.

00:18:09.26
jimmypurdy
Like um but oh um I'm saving my money so I can go to the roost Chris later, right? or Or wherever it is you want to go to, but yeah, then you want to be like taken care of.

00:18:13.96
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

00:18:17.50
jimmypurdy
And yeah, your standards are higher as they should be.

00:18:21.18
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, but but it's, it's ah in my opinion, it's it's no it's no different than, you know, I mean, we go back to what we first kind of started talking about of the labor rate, um you know, the experience that you provide as a business, as a shop owner, that allows you to dictate a lot of what you can charge.

00:18:42.88
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you know You want to charge $170 an hour and I walk into your shop and it's dirty and the coffee pot that's been on for four days is still on and you know there's no amenities, there's no shuttle car service, there's no wifi if you have people there that you know want to wait. Now all of a sudden you're like, okay, I feel like I'm at ah an Applebee's. Why am I paying this premier service when you know The opposite, you know we've got clients that you know treat their treat their customers, their clients with that white glove service. They go and they pick their vehicles up. They bring the vehicles to the shop. They work them, they finish their job. They deliver the vehicle back home. you know That shop that I'm talking about that does that, it's in Missouri and they charge $211 an hour as their labor rate. And they have trained their clientele

00:19:39.65
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
that's the type of service they get, and that's the type of clientele that they cater to. um And they're not a shop that's booked out three or four weeks, right? They don't want it to be, but they're booked out at least a week, and they've trained their clientele that this is the type of service you get, but they also know that they're gonna have to pay a little bit more for that service.

00:20:00.54
jimmypurdy
Yeah, one thing that like kind of kind of blew my mind when i when I first started, because it wasn't the nicest you know when when I first started, right? But I started making changes and I wanted ah wanted that. like I wanted a nice place. I wanted a dealership. you know like You go to a dealership and you walk in, you're like, Damn, nice here, right? Everything's clean, and shiny floors, granite, color like, damn, I want my shop to be like that, right? So you start making changes like that, and then clients start coming in, or at the time, customers are coming in. I don't think I'm going to be able for it to come here anymore. And it's like, what? and Then you get kind of scared, like, am i doing the am I doing the wrong thing here?

00:20:38.69
jimmypurdy
But then all of a sudden the right people start coming in like, wow, I've been all over town and every shop I walk into is a dump. This is so nice. Here's my keys. Let me know how much. And it was like, Oh.

00:20:52.36
jimmypurdy
You know what I mean? Like it really makes that much of a difference to paint the office and like have a nice desk and like have someone in a uniform when they walk in that like answers a phone with a smile and it's like, wow, I had no idea.

00:20:53.71
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

00:21:05.55
jimmypurdy
Cause you don't even realize there's people out there that are looking for that service. You know, you just assume cause the stigma of the auto industry that's everyone's just looking for a shop. A shop's a shop. That's what it's supposed to be greasy.

00:21:16.85
jimmypurdy
It's supposed to be dirty. , people with high standards, then you should have like a clean shop that they can come to with like AC and you know, they don't have to worry about rats in the desk and like all that kind of stuff. You know what I mean? And then you get better people working for you and it just keeps going up from there. It's just one of those things that evolved that like, I don't think anybody ever told me or like taught me. I just like slowly started making changes and the light bulbs kept going off as every time I made a change for the better. It's like, Oh, that makes sense. You know what I mean?

00:21:59.60
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Well, and and you know going it's it's a lot of it's a lot of simple and little things too, right? Like like you said, like like you know that that you pick up along the way, whether you're using a business coach or you know whether you're you know kind of cutting your teeth and learning on your own.

00:22:05.75
jimmypurdy
Isn't it? Yeah

00:22:16.79
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
but you know, just just how how like how the clientele is is greeted, how how you're interacting with them when they come in. You know, just simple things like that where, you know, I'm sure you've been to places too, like you said, you you walk in and even if it's a nice facility, just because it's a nice facility doesn't mean the service you're gonna get matches what the facility looks like. And, you know, how many times have you been in a place where you walk in and you feel like,

00:22:48.15
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you're an inconvenience because you know you came in there to spend money. you know the the the Whoever it is, it's a hostess at a restaurant or a front desk. I travel all the time, so hotel front desk people, some of them, some of them yeah, some of them are great, you know some of them aren't.

00:23:00.62
jimmypurdy
Hotel, there it is. That's the one right there.

00:23:07.20
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
But you expect, you you know if if you walk into a JW Marriott, I'm a Marriott guy, And I don't stay at JW Marriott's when I'm working. I'll just clarify that, right? I stay at the the the courtyards to to keep the budget down.

00:23:21.66
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
But when I go on vacation, and ah if ah if if i if I want to stay at ah at a JW Marriott, I got my status with Marriott.

00:23:22.50
jimmypurdy
Sure. Sure, yeah, okay.

00:23:28.93
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you know I mean, I've been traveling my whole career you know for 15 years, whatever it is. You expect to be greeted. You expect to be like, hey, thank you for being a titanium elite member, Mr. Klaber.

00:23:40.43
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
We appreciate your stay. you know Here's your bottle of water, all those all those things that come with it. So ah same thing in your business, like you know your shop, not even you Obviously, your loyal customers, they know you, they come in, but like think about that first customer client that walks in and like you know does that experience that either your CSR or your service advisor who's ever at your counter, are are they living up to the expectations of what that building looks like? Because you can have granite countertops and spotless waiting area with Wi-Fi and coffee, but if the person standing behind the desk

00:24:17.26
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
is grumpy, doesn't greet you, and treats you poorly, then guess what? None of that stuff really matters, right?

00:24:24.06
jimmypurdy
that's but That's probably more important. um You could probably have a kind of rundown facility, but if you got someone bubbly and smiley behind the desk, I think a lot of that stuff kind of disappears, right? And it's like, Oh, it's kind of messy. It's kind of dirty, but man, um they always treat me really good. And so you can get away with a lot. If you have someone really nice in the front desk, I think.

00:24:43.76
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, i you know I do some... service advisor training and classes, um you know, at some of the industry events. And, and you know, I did a class at Vision and I spent probably the first, not the first, but probably 20, 25 minutes talking about that initial interaction and experience when someone walks in you know to your facility. Because to me, that's that's really critically important. um you know We're not in a once-based industry, right? We're in a needs-based industry. Majority of people that are gonna walk through your shop, they're not happy that they're there.

00:25:26.93
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You know, and, and they think the worst case scenario and I'm even guilty of it. And I've been in the automotive industry my whole life. My parents used to own Napa stores.

00:25:34.30
jimmypurdy
Yeah.

00:25:36.64
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
I started working in a Napa store when I was 12 years old, graduated college. I worked for Napa corporation for 13 years. And now I'm with, you know, I've been with repair shop tomorrow for, for, for two years.

00:25:48.79
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And, um, you know, the. the industry, I mean, even I sometimes, like if something happens to my car or my wife's car, like my mind goes to like worst case scenario. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's it's going to be $2,000. I know it. And I bring it to my my my Napa Auto Care Center here in town and he's like, oh, no, no, no, don't worry, man. It was just, you know, you know, no, it was just something simple, right? You know, it's a couple hundred bucks. And I'm like,

00:26:17.02
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You know, but but but I mean, and we live in this industry, right?

00:26:17.64
jimmypurdy
Yeah.

00:26:20.45
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
So think about think about the customer base that that comes into your shop, you know, they're they they think we're untrustworthy, they think, you know, worst case scenario.

00:26:31.52
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And now, you know, we're talking about groceries and things like that. You know, I read a statistic now where almost 40% of Americans couldn't afford an $1,000 unplanned expense and still pay all their bills and meet their financial obligations for the month.

00:26:54.34
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
That's wild.

00:26:55.49
jimmypurdy
yeah

00:26:56.32
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
and I don't care if you're in California like you or if you're in Georgia like myself, right?

00:27:04.33
jimmypurdy
Yeah.

00:27:04.80
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You know, it's it's ah it's a reality. So we got to make sure that that initial experience, I guess where I'm going rambling with this is it something that makes them feel comfortable because it is an uncomfortable situation for most people.

00:27:17.04
jimmypurdy
Yeah, tre transform. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Transforming that anxiety, you know, that's the biggest thing I think is is key and has missed a lot is is the amount of anxiety and I think like as people we like feed off each other's energy a little bit and I like the point you brought up about um Not feeling welcome. It's like you instantly feel that when someone walks through your door at your shop, right? Like when I was on the counter, it's like they come and they don't want to be there, right? Or they make the phone call and they don't want to make this phone call. And and it's like this, you just know, you just know that they're like this there's this attitude or like this, you know, and it's like, hey, look,

00:27:56.77
jimmypurdy
and for me is like, Hey, look, I'm here to help you. So what is it you need? And then it's like, well, I don't really want to be talking to you because my car just broke. And if for some reason they think us as the independent auto repair facility, like manufactured, built and like design and engineered this car, right? They're like, I just need to talk to the people that, you know, built this f freaking car is like, that's not us. Like, you know what I mean? We are an independent repair facility that you need. And then you just have that, you start breeding that arrogance, right?

00:28:25.94
jimmypurdy
and i think ah I think a lot of guys really just go down that hole for a long, long time. you know and They just feel like, I'm needed, you need me, I don't need you. It's just all bad. right and You lose the empathy. right and It's easy to do, I think. like You get beat up so much, you try to do the right thing. and um yeah It always goes sideways, you know And so and you try not to be the shop that that sells everything right or like or inspects everything And and you're only trying to fix what's broken But every time you do that it bites you in the ass right you do transmission repair comes in you do a solenoid It doesn't fix the problem and now they don't want to pay for that repair.

00:29:04.05
jimmypurdy
and now you gotta sell one transmission anyway and everybody's upset even though the the technician, the shop owner was trying to do the right thing trying to save him some money. Whether it's a solenoid or or transmission service like, oh man it's gonna be six grand to sell your transit. There's a possibility we can service this thing and it might fix it, you know, and now there's a there's this Oh, he told me for $400 my transmissions fixed and then it doesn't fix it and now now he's the crook, right? And it's like I'm not the crook I was trying to help you and it's like it's like don't even don't even go down that hole like don't even Go down that path is like just cut to the chase. What's what's it gonna cost to fix it, right? it's It's gonna be six grand. We need to replace your transmission It's got 200,000 miles on it. You haven't serviced it in over, you know, 10 years

00:29:48.92
jimmypurdy
It's slipping. Let's not even waste any money and sort and service it. Let's just replace it, right? Oh, I don't have that money. So then they go down the street and the next shop services it and fixes it. Now you're the bad guy again. It's like, I guess I just don't win. You know what I mean? Like it's just so hard to not take that and like become jaded. You know what I mean?

00:30:08.74
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Well, so yeah, so the point about you know the negativity, right? The negative energy. I got i got a really good buddy here. um and He's not in the automotive industry. um He's one of those fancy you know performance coaches. He coaches CEOs on the Inc. 5000 list. and And we had him at one of our conferences. and You know, he was talking about how to, you know, manage your energy levels, right? And you've got physical energy, you've got emotional energy, spiritual, mental. um And really, you know, from from the negative side of things, right? that's that's ah that's ah That's an emotional energy, right? And you ever been around somebody who's super negative all the time?

00:30:57.66
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
like All of a sudden, they like that negativity starts to like absorb into you. And then all of a sudden, you start becoming negative. And then you just like it just starts stacking on top of each other. And so to your point, right like if somebody comes in, you know they're frustrated.

00:31:13.91
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
but you've got to You got to turn that situation around because if you're if if if you're trying to like match what they're their energy level is, now all of a sudden like that ne negativity jaded, all of a sudden that starts to come back and and breed into you and your business. and so it's like how can like I always do this exercise with with people.

00:31:34.34
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
like you know think about Think about a good day that you had, right? and And describe it using adjectives. So, you know, I was motivated. I was well rested, right? Positive. All right. Great. Now think about a bad day. I was frustrated. I was tired, ah you know, unmotivated. Okay. Well,

00:31:57.85
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
What made you have that good day? What did you do? How did you act? How did you you know did you get up in the morning? Did you work out? Did you read a book? like Whatever it was and take that and repeat that process. So every day when you come into the shop, you're ready. You have that positive attitude. And when someone comes in,

00:32:17.59
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
guess what, you're not going to fall into that trap of of being negative or you know kind of meet there meet their energy level. So I know that's that's probably a little off weird topic for the automotive industry, but

00:32:28.54
jimmypurdy
That's a good No, I think it's I think it's I think it's totally Right on like the bullseye of like what needs to be Talked about more because it's so much bigger than that and especially talking about like leadership and it's one thing I really really struggle with um and and and you don't realize it until you get out of your funk and and then all of a sudden like everybody's like out of a funk and it's like was that because of me like was I being you know because you come in and you have a bad week or a bad couple days like you're you're just burned out like for me anyway I just get the point I'm burned out and I just I'm like I just don't want to deal with it right I just I got things I got my uh

00:33:13.81
jimmypurdy
my absolute necessity tasks that I need to take care of. So I need to get in the office and I need to just take care of these things. And I need to not be bothered because I can't take one more thing, right? I'm just like, they're like, that's it for me. And that goes on for a couple of days. And then ah you you pop yourself out of your funk, right? And you're like, okay, I'm feeling better now. I'm like,

00:33:34.20
jimmypurdy
but My cup's not running over. it's it's It's back at the max, right? So I can take on a little bit more. And but then you start realizing, man, all our numbers are down, productivity's down. There's been misdiagnostics going on. Like, Oh my God, what, like what is going on around here? Right. And then you get back into the groove of things. And then a week later, it's like, Oh, everything's running smooth again. And it's like, was that cause like me, like, cause, and I didn't even say nothing to nobody. Like it was just my own, like you said, that energy just feeds into the whole shop. And it's just like having a technician or an advisor or.

00:34:03.34
jimmypurdy
whoever just dragging the whole shop down. You got that one negative person. And how many times have you heard someone say that, man, I got to get this toxic guy out of my shop. I got to get, I got to do it.

00:34:11.94
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yep.

00:34:11.93
jimmypurdy
I got to do it. I got to do it. And then finally they do it. And it's like, why did I wait so long? Everything's so much better. And they can't like describe what it was like, why?

00:34:22.83
jimmypurdy
Like he never said anything. Like he wasn't yelling. He did great work. You know, there wasn't a whole lot of comebacks, but like he just drug everybody else down. And there was like this weird, energy, right?

00:34:34.68
jimmypurdy
Like there's just this weird thing in the shop that we can't describe, but as soon as he was gone, everything was better or she, whoever it is.

00:34:40.60
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right, right. Well, and I think, I think, you know, a lot of times and I'm in, you know, working with, ah but you know, working with a business coach and having somebody that is outside of those four walls to, you know, to kind of take that view for you. um You know, speaking of like a toxic employee, right?

00:35:02.62
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Cause that toxic employee may be the guy that is producing, like you said, the most billed hours out of the shop. um And you as a business owner, you're looking at the, you know, sometimes we get too narrow minded and we're stuck in our own four walls and we're just, you know, we're looking at the numbers. We're looking at the numbers.

00:35:20.85
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
but we're not really seeing what's going on. you know and And I think having a business coach, having that accountability partner, someone that's viewing the business from outside can help point out those point out those flaws maybe that you, like you said, when your cup's all the way to the max and it's overflowing, you're just doing everything you can to get by.

00:35:41.91
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And maybe that that that next coaching call that you have with your coach, you know, you're letting all that out and and they're the ones that are able to say, hey, look, here's what the problem is, right? For whatever reason, this is what we have to address. let's let's Let's remove this employee or let's coach this employee. Let's figure out what's going on with them. And a lot of times, like you said, employee moves out, morale goes up.

00:36:10.76
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
We can't explain really what's going on, why it happened. um But um do you see that in in your business? I know you obviously use a business coach. I mean, is that some of?

00:36:20.78
jimmypurdy
ah Yeah, I call it like the like the look dummy moment.

00:36:25.38
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
OK, I haven't heard that one, so I'm interested to hear.

00:36:49.90
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

00:38:13.44
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yep.

00:38:24.92
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
yeah Yeah, and the definition of success looks different you know for everybody. um you know I love the look dummy, because I've probably had my wife tell me that multiple times. you know um Look dummy, do do it this way, right?

00:38:41.37
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
um But, you know, it goes back to, I think a lot of times too, it's like, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And, you know, you mentioned majority of shop owners started as technicians, wanted to do their own thing, like you said, or, you know,

00:39:01.88
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
ah felt like their owner was undervaluing them, and they were making all this money. And then what's crazy to me, and I see it all the time, is you know they remove themselves from that situation. They open their own shop, and then what do they do? They undervalue their their their time. They undervalue their services. And now they can't pay their technicians. And so now they don't have any help.

00:39:26.71
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
and it just It just repeats itself. and you know i always i have this this One of my presentations, I have this you know slide where it's like you know it's a picture of a guy as a technician, right? It's the life cycle of a shop owner, guy as a technician. The next picture comes up and it's a guy, he owns his shop, he's got the nice shirt on now, but guess what? He's still working on the car. And at that point, you know we hit this fork in the road. we can Unfortunately, go this way. And you know I've got a picture of ah of a shop that's out of business, or we can go this way. And you know it's a beautiful shop you know that that everybody wants to strive to be for. So um I think, look, in my opinion, um I think everybody can benefit from a business coach. I truly ah truly believe that.

00:40:21.07
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
A lot of us in this industry are are are males. we We have a lot more females coming into the industry, shop owners, technicians, advisors, and and that's great. um Like I said, I mentioned Kathleen. She's one of our coaches at Repair Shop tomorrow. She's serving right now as the the vice chair in women in auto care, um so she's you know very active in that in that community. but You know, a lot of us have these egos, this pride, and and we don't want somebody to come in and tell us, you know, this is my business. I built this business. You're not going to come in here and and tell me. That's a great point. Yep.

00:41:27.57
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Mm hmm.

00:42:22.81
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
it You can almost they almost serve as like your counselor sometimes Yeah Yeah, well and and and and that's key right and so

00:42:47.99
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
yeah well and and and and that's key right and so you know obviously for you know people that are you know listening this or are watching this right like I said I would I would highly encourage no matter where you are in your career um you know exploring working with a business coach right and making sure that you know you do your homework and and you know the the the The coach that you end up you know lining up with or the company that you end up lining up with um fits your fits your business and meets your ethical standards, meets the goals that you have in your business. you know One of the things you say about you know the maybe the perception of, of you know I'm just going to raise your rate. They're just going to add a labor matrix in and they're going to change my my pricing matrix.

00:43:43.86
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
well Yeah, we're gonna help you become profitable. That's why you're paying a coaching company, right? like We're all in this to make money, you know the the parts stores, the repair shops, the coaching companies, because we all want to provide for our families and our children and and you know and and so forth and so on. But um you know I see a lot of times You know people will whether if you know if they're searching out coaching or they're going to seminars and things like this a lot of times I feel like it gets so like the the the money gets like brought out like in the forefront and it it gets so important and and money is a necessity obviously we we we need money to live but for me the way I look at it and the way that

00:44:36.71
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
We try to you know talk with prospective clients and and we live by this, right? is is Your time is the most valuable resource that you have, period. To me, money, well, not to me, it is. Money is a replenishable resource.

00:44:53.60
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
okay We can always teach you how to add more dollars to your bank account, but time is finite. I can't wake up tomorrow and say, oh, I want to be 26 years old again. right it just it just doesn't You just can't do that. and so you know One of the things that that you know we try to focus on is We want to help you take control of your shop and help you take back your life because I'm sure you've worked with many of shop owners, you friends or, you know, colleagues that they open their business and they're stuck working in at 70, 80 hours a week. Right. And they're, they're missing their kids, sporting events, you know, they can't go on vacation and you know, they feel like they're basically married to the business.

00:45:40.09
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And I understand that this can sound harsh, but I always tell people, if your business can't survive without you there, then you've basically bought yourself a job. You're not a business owner, right? um And that can be hard for people to,

00:45:58.79
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
to hear. But I mean, I want to ask, I guess a question to you is, is at what point in your journey as a shop owner, did you reach out for help with a business coach? Was it something that you knew right away you needed to get started on? Or was it something that evolved?

00:48:29.67
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:48:46.10
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

00:50:13.74
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, maybe these people maybe these people do know what they're talking about, right? Yeah, yeah.

00:50:59.62
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Well, it's in you know going back to, again, like you said, you got your financials you know in in intact. right um Going back to what I was saying about the time, you know you start to work on your business, not in your business. right You start to implement systems operations and procedures.

00:51:18.67
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you're training your employees, you know, the culture of the shop, all this stuff starts to improve. You don't feel like you have to be there every single day. Well, if we do all that, you do all that as a shop owner, guess what follows, right? The money comes in. And so, so like I said, money is important, obviously, we all need, we all need money, but going back to the whole, oh, raise my price prices, raise my rates, right?

00:51:48.04
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you you You can't really, I mean, you can to a certain degree, but you know you can't really just raise your prices and increase sales, right? It all comes back to productivity, workflow, efficiency. If I just raise my labor rate, $50, but I have zero workflow, I'm not following any processes. you know Jaren's doing it this way. Jimmy's doing it this way. We're not answering the phones the correct way. Well, guess what?

00:52:15.94
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Now I've just raised my my prices just to what, raise my prices? you know um And so I think that's sometimes a misconception too. It's like, well, you're too cheap, you need to you know and you need to raise your rates and you need to be at these margins. Okay, I understand that, but how are you gonna get me there? right and And I think that's a lot of times, I think a lot of times you see people, like you said,

00:52:44.32
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
There is so much information out there right now. I'm a part of those Facebook groups and and, you know, social media is a big part of our industry now. And you see a lot of these questions and, you know, people will say, well, you're too cheap, you know, raise your rates and and and that's all good. But to our point, right, like, what are you going to do to actually improve your business, right? So that, you know,

00:53:10.98
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You can raise your rates, but ultimately, you know people are going to come in, they're going to feel valued, the shop's going to be better productive, and then all of a sudden, you know the money's going to follow suit. so

00:54:36.84
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, that's perfect.

00:54:53.91
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
well and

00:55:00.63
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right, right. Well, and to like, if you think about it, you know, like you said, like, I mean, i've I've had, you know, I've had clients, you know, we've had clients, you know, talk about this and say, you know, I, you know,

00:55:14.64
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
I didn't want somebody literally to come in and just tell me to raise my prices or put a labor matrix in, you know, do this, right? I wanted to know how I could effectively and improve my business. And I love what you said where, you know, that wasn't the first topic of discussion that, that, you know, you and your coach went through because that's something that, that's something that, you know, I'm very passionate about. I i had a call today with a prospective client.

00:55:44.07
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And I said, hey, look, this isn't my meeting. This is your meeting. you know I want to hear from you. you know How long have you been in business? What is your staff? What are your biggest challenges that you face right now? right What are the goals that you want to achieve? Because I could sit here and just feature dump and tell you everything we can do for your business. But I want to find out what's important to you. And once I know what's important to you, now,

00:56:10.68
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
now we can get to work, right? and And what we found very quickly during our call is they have a massive productivity issue. and there's a certain person that is the main culprit, right? And so here we are not even working together as as client coach, but just evaluating their current situation. And I'm basically already telling them like, hey, this needs to change. Like this guy either needs to

00:56:48.10
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
start producing or you need to find a way to get them out of the shop. Now, I'm not saying go fire the guy, right? But have you had a conversation with him? Do you understand what motivates him? Is he money motivated? Is he you know motivated by competition, right? And in in this scenario, the guy's getting paid, it guaranteed 40 hours a week. And he's you know lucky to turn 15 to 20 is what they told me.

00:57:16.11
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You know, and, but you know, you got to look in the mirror a little bit because the shop he came from, he was producing 50. So what's the problem? Right. So, you know, and then as we dug a little deeper, well, he was incentivized at the other shop.

00:57:35.38
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
He was on a commission, ah you know, based structure when, you know, he was, when they hit certain, when he produced certain dollars for the week, right? He got a certain percentage. um And so I'm like, well, guys, I mean, I'm not telling you how to run your business yet, like you said.

00:57:51.84
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you're asking me for suggestions, i would i would highly I would highly consider maybe having that conversation with him because to me it sounds like he's pretty just happy getting his 40 hour paycheck and only working 50% of the time. So, um but to anybody that's looking for a business coach, make sure they're having these conversations, right? Like with you, like as a prospective client, um you know,

00:58:21.49
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
and And another thing I would say is the people that are coaching you, I think it's very critical, critically important that they are shop owners as well. um Nothing against, you know, yeah I'm not saying they still have to own a shop, right? But they are shop owners, they've been shop owners, they've lived that life because You know, there's there's a ton of consultants out there, right, Jimmy? I mean, you can find a consultant now for everything. um And, you know, it's great. You got this business degree and you've done all these wonderful things and you've scaled and grown these companies.

00:59:00.43
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
But we know our industry is a little bit different. And so if you're out there and you're listening and you're looking for a coach, again, do your research, do your homework. But to me, it's really important that whatever company you align with is is utilizing business coaches that are shop owners as well. Do do you think that's important or am I just off based?

00:59:41.11
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

01:00:31.83
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

01:00:39.25
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Very rare.

01:01:22.02
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that that that does nothing, right? I mean, let's. Right well.

01:01:49.64
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, no, we've all probably you know done it in in some sense of some sense of the way. But you know one of the things that I think um that I've seen, you know and and I'm sure you guys are doing something along these lines too, is you know, having, obviously having having a set of goals that, you know, you know weekly goals that the the team is you know aware of and and we share, you know, we're sharing those goals with them. And when I talk about, you know, you know sharing the goals, I'm not telling you to, you know, share your net profit percentages and and things like that, but, you know, all those KPIs that matter, our productivity, effective labor rate, average repair order, efficiencies, all those things.

01:02:46.66
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

01:02:59.79
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Well.

01:03:08.80
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, and and and again, to each their own, right? Some people are more comfortable sharing that. um you know A lot of our a lot of our ah lot of our clients, you know going back to having those conversations with your technicians, you know they are they're making them a part of those goals and they're saying, okay, Jimmy, how many how many hours are you gonna commit to this week?

01:03:30.49
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right? Well, I'm going to commit to 45 hours this week. Okay, great. You know, Jaren, how about you? Well, you know what? I hurt my back playing golf this weekend because I'm getting older, you know? So I don't know. I might be able to crank out 35 this week. Okay. and You know, you go down the line and then obviously you're tracking that progress and and I'm a fan of a quick you know daily huddle, five, 10 minutes in the morning to review all of our progresses. but I think what we've seen, what I've seen is is is if your team is involved in those goals and they're kind of setting their own goals, right? And again, if somebody says, oh, you know I think I can get 35 this week. Okay, well, that's what you've committed to, right? and And then at the end of the week when we were reviewing those goals and then planning for the next week, right? Well, if you did 41 out of those 35 hours, you know that's fantastic, right? If you fell short, let's have that conversation. What can I do as a business owner

01:04:24.08
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
to help you achieve those goals. And then at the end of the month, you know like you said, we're shooting you know for that 20, 25% net profit. If you as a business owner are are hitting those goals, which is fantastic, then you know to me,

01:04:40.58
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
you should be sharing in some of those profits with the team that helped you get there. And then that, and that's how, that's how you build that machine, right? Because now all of a sudden it's like, we're involved in setting the goals. We constantly know where we're at. If we miss our goals or working with our owner, they're helping us develop a plan to achieve the goals. And then guys, if we do this at the end of the month as a team, look what we get, right? Maybe it's a thousand dollar bonus. Maybe it's a $500. you can make those decisions and I think that's when

01:05:20.09
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
that's when you get the team to completely buy in. And I think that's, to me, you know, that's really important. I don't know how many shop owners who aren't using a business coach or haven't used a coach in the past understand the value and the importance of having goals, having your team be a part of them and then sharing them wi with them. So, yeah, yeah. So,

01:05:47.02
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
um and know I know you know we initially kind of connected. um you know you You had put out a message about starting a business development group um and we're looking for ideas on the business development group. so um I guess probably people, maybe they're listening, they probably don't know what that is. So you're a part of one, you're the president. So I think it'd be kind of cool to kind of, you know, give an idea and share with, you know, people, what you guys are doing. And then I can talk a little bit about, you know, some of the, some of the stuff that we do for the BDGs as well.

01:06:30.23
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You're the leader.

01:06:51.70
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Okay, that's cool.

01:07:27.30
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Very cool, yeah.

01:08:53.25
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
When you're getting, when when you're, when you're a white belt and you're getting submitted by the 135 year old girl, who's a black belt, right? Um, all of a sudden you, you get very humbled quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

01:09:19.05
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

01:09:49.10
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

01:10:59.76
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, that's a lot of people don't understand that.

01:11:11.28
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
well

01:11:15.35
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right, right. Well, so, you know, i have I have a lot of experience within the NAPA world, in the auto care program, ah working with BDGs. You know, I spent, like I said, I spent 13 years with NAPA. And, you know, for me, I actually just got back from Chicago, um where we did They're the only division that does this, but the Midwest division does a BDG presidents meeting. um And so I think there's 11 distribution centers now that you know service are in the Midwest division. And so there was close to 80 people there, um you know the BDG presidents, and and sometimes they bring their second in command and whatnot. And then there's the NAPA people there. and so

01:12:08.07
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
We were talking a lot about, obviously of the BDG stuff. And, you know, for me, you know, what I see successful business development groups, Napa business development groups focus on number one, um, and really not in any order, I should just say, but, but training, right? So training's a big thing when, when you, you know, you guys are new, um, but most groups, you know, we'll pay dues and and they'll, they'll build up.

01:12:34.31
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
a bank account, so to speak, right? and And so a lot of them will do do training. Now, most groups are are spending those training dollars on, you know, technical training, whether that's through, you know, Napa's auto tech or garage gurus or whoever, right? um So training is a big thing. Number two, community events like you hit on. That's a big thing. um Shop visits, doing in person shop visits is is another thing to to utilize in your BDGs.

01:13:03.59
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And then the last thing that some of them are doing is, you know, tool sharing, right? So you may have a specialty tool that shop B doesn't have. Well, if they have, let's say that specific car in there and, and you know,

01:13:18.46
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
they need to get it done, well, they can reach out to the other members in the BDG, hey, do we have this tool? Yeah, we got it. Okay, can I use it for you know this afternoon? Great, let's go ahead and do that. So really to me, those are kind of like the four pillars, training, community events, ah shop visits, um and and tool sharing to a certain degree. So um being where you are, I mean, I know California is a big state, um but one of the most successful ah NAPA BDGs, in in in my opinion, in the country, is the Reno, Nevada BDG group. um And they do a ton of ton of community events, but they have a essentially a replica of a NAPA Auto Care Center at the Children's Discovery Museum in Reno, Nevada.

01:14:13.60
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And so the kids can come in and they can take the tires off and they can change the fake air filters. um And it's an exhibit that's there the entire year. And then once a year, they like host an event there um where you know all the members are there. I think they have 12 members. they all they're They're all there and they and they make it a nap a day. Ron Caps typically shows up for it, the the funny car driver, right? I think you had Ron Caps on, didn't you?

01:14:44.01
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Ron's awesome. um and And so he shows up and and I mean, it's it's it's huge. And um when they do that NAPA day at the Discovery Museum, it's the consistently, it's the second largest like attendance day for that museum only behind Halloween when they're, you know, giving out candy.

01:15:08.08
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
So um yeah, so that's just really, really powerful. um But like you said, man, it is a challenge, right? It is a challenge to get other shop owners together. And my message to the BDG presidents this week, i first of all, I asked them, I said, hey, how many of y'all are using business coaching? And probably 75% of the hands went up in the room.

01:15:36.19
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Okay, so I'm like, okay, guys, look around. You guys are the BDG presidents, you're the leaders in your organization. You've also decided to be a leader for this group of other auto care centers. So just like your responsibility as an owner, you need to lead your people, you need to train them and build them up. um I had a mentor tell me one time, always hire people that are better than you, right? Like that's the goal, like hire people that are better than you. And

01:16:10.34
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right, right, you're supposed to be, you're supposed to be, but yeah, yeah, look, when I was when i was with Napa and I was running the sales team, you know, I love that people were, you know, I mean, I had salespeople on my team that were way better salespeople than me, right? But I knew how to lead effectively and lead the team. so So as a BDG leader, and I think what you're trying to do, which I think is awesome is how can you help other shop owners get to a level that that you're at, right? and And kind of raise the tide for all, right? The rising tide raises all boats. I use that phrase all the time. And so I think, again, I commend you for taking on that that leadership role. And like you said, having those conversations about numbers, because there may be other people in your group that that that don't understand those. and

01:17:06.80
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You know, what we created for Napa, um Napa's you know endorsed us as their business coaching company. And so they came to us and they said, hey, a lot of our BDGs are are kind of floundering. Like they have no purpose. They have no direction. And what we think is missing is owner training. man and you know leadership, owner, you know, ah s SOPs, profitability. So what we did was we created a program specifically for MAPA BDGs um to basically address those issues that, you know, shop owners face. And we kind of broke it down into kind of these six foundational training modules that groups can purchase. And they can, you know, they watch the training together, they go back to the shop,

01:17:55.51
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
They try to implement what they learned. They come back to the next meeting. They talk about what worked, what didn't work, and then they move on to the next training module. So that's what we're trying to do, right? We would obviously love to have people working with us one-on-one from a coaching perspective, but we realize sometimes you got to start here, right, before, you know, you're ready for that. um And, you know, I think Napa recognizes that. they'll They'll always say, you know, we believe all coaching is good coaching.

01:18:25.35
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
um We just are fortunate enough that you know we have the relationship with them and ah we're able to do some really cool things with the auto care team and and business development groups. so

01:19:45.27
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yep.

01:20:14.25
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
but Yeah, because like you said, you were working in the business, right? So yeah, I mean, when when you're working in the business, the most important thing is is getting that next car out, right selling that next job, whatever it is, what ah at you know wherever you're at in your in your shop. you know and and And then when you start to take that 30,000 foot view and you're like, oh, now I'm Working on the business wait, these are all the things that you know I need to accomplish like I can't be out there to your point because if I if I'm there then all these other things are gonna are gonna suffer we've actually had to create like It sounds funny, but you know we've actually had to create like a like a like a handbook manual you ever whatever you want to call it for like Like what do I do?

01:21:01.37
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
I won't say like as an absentee owner, right? But like we have a lot of clients that now have general managers, service advisors, service managers, right? And they feel like, what do I do now? Like my shop's running without me. And so like we literally had to like create a manual, like I said, to be like, like these are things you need to do now as a semi absentee owner to keep the business going, right? and And different things you need to focus on because you know, all of a sudden you're like, I've got all the people in place, right? Like, and when I come in, they look at me and they're like, what are you doing here today, right? So, um but that thought that all takes time. I mean, you know.

01:22:54.22
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

01:23:17.19
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
No, you're right. And, and you know, Again, when when you you know from from my perspective, when you're in that semi-absentee role, right you know your your managers are, again, they're managing those daily processes, your SOPs, the team, and things like that. In that semi-absentee role, right it's your duty to essentially be looking at those reports that they are putting together and and looking at those daily so that you can react. Because you know if you go screw off for three weeks, like you said, and maybe your manager feels overwhelmed and they're not doing what they're supposed to do, it all runs downhill, right? Now the technician's not doing what they need to do, and then three weeks go by.

01:24:02.66
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You pop back into the shop, you pull up your reports, your, you know, spreadsheets that you're using, whatever it is. And you're like, guys, what the hell happened here? Right? Like what what happened? and And then everyone's like, what do you mean, man? We've been really busy. We're killing it. And you're like,

01:24:18.21
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
No, you're not. Look, right. You know, I mean, you know, it's I've seen it happen. Right. Where where an owner's went on vacation and it's like they come back and they're like, hey, guys, how's how'd everything go? And they're busy. It's great. And he's like, yeah, well, car counts were down. ARO was down. Right. Productivity was down. What do you mean? Well, here it is right here. Right. So so yeah, as you grow and, and you know,

01:24:47.93
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You know, if you have multi-locations, obviously, that that presents other challenges. But, but yeah, they I think you're right, though. I mean, the challenges, I think, can compound themselves, like you said, because if you are a little disconnected and you're not looking and you don't, you know, have check-ins with your managers, what have you, then the potential loss of revenue can be can be huge, like you said, so.

01:25:28.40
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah.

01:25:55.69
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, yeah.

01:25:59.74
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
now No, no, no.

01:26:27.73
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, yeah, well.

01:26:31.83
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yep.

01:27:10.16
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Right. Well, and and so our situation is is is a little unique, a little a little different, right? I mentioned where Napa's Auto Care is endorsed coaching company. um We actually only work with Napa Auto Care owners. um So we're we're exclusive. you know so we I mean, we're our own company and everything else, but we only work specifically with Napa Auto Care Center.

01:27:54.91
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
The reason I bring that up to your point about, you know, working with a couple hundred shops and knowing these vendors and things like this. Um, I mean, we're a vendor of the auto care program. There's 72 other vendors that, you know, are a part of the auto care program.

01:28:09.38
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
And so when we're working with clients, part of, you know, part of our task or mission, I guess, um, from Napa is, you know, is to kind of help with that program adoption. So, you know, you know, through the auto care program, there's shop management software providers, there's digital inspection, there's CRM, there's website providers. And, you know, we have those relationships, right? With those people. Um, and so we can make those connections. Now, at the end of the day,

01:28:39.36
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
We don't force our clients, obviously, to use you know certain softwares and things like that, right? um But a lot of our coaches, because they're all shop owners, they're all auto care centers, a lot of them are using those softwares or ah providers that are in the auto care family. um I mean, you're a member of the program, you know that there's you know, certain softwares that give you lots of discounts for being a part of the program and things like that. So so a lot of our coaches are using those programs. And so not only can we talk with other shop owners, um you know, clients of ours, you know, to get their feedback, but a lot of our coaches are, you know, they're utilizing those same those same technology stacks. And again,

01:29:24.37
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
You don't have to, right? You can use whatever point of sale system, whatever DVI you want. Um, and our goal as a, as, as your, as your advisor, as your coach is to make sure that, you know, you make the right decision and fit for your business. Yeah. So, well, man, I think we've covered a lot here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What else? What else?

01:29:57.85
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
yeah Yeah, yeah. We'll do the introduction at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So, um I'm Jaren Klaber, the ah Director of Sales and Business Development for Repair Shop of Tomorrow. As I've mentioned a few times, where Napa Autocare has endorsed a business coaching company.

01:30:17.13
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
um

01:30:19.91
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
I'll say what I said earlier, right? I truly believe that you know everyone in our industry can benefit from a coach. If you're an Apple Auto Care Center and you feel like you need some help, obviously, we'd be more than more than more than happy to look at your current situation and see if we have a solution you know that that fits your business. so um you can

01:30:46.66
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Like I said, you know um if you're an existing BDG, and if you're wanting to start a BDG, um you know we can we can help provide a lot of tools to that. You know you can find me on all the all the social media channels, Facebook, LinkedIn. Maybe don't go to my Instagram though. that that's ah That's personal, that's not business. Well, the good news is, is I don't post, right? I just Instagram scroll. So ah yeah, so I don't think you'll find anything bad there, but you're not gonna find anything to help you as a shop owner. ah And then of course you can find us ah online, repairshoptomorrow.com. But yeah, man, I really appreciate this. I feel like you and I could sit here and talk for,

01:31:34.91
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
talk for hours, but you know hopefully ah hopefully everybody listening got some good information. um And like I said, if there's anything we can do to help you if you're an Apple Auto Care Center, um ah feel free to to find me online and reach out. I'm more than happy to chat.

01:31:58.61
Jaron Kleber _ RSOT
Yeah, man. Appreciate it. Thank you.