The Gearbox Podcast

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:00]:
My name is Jimmy Purdy, shop owner, master tech, transmission builder and the host of the Gearbox Podcast. Here I talk with new and seasoned shop owners as well as industry professionals about day to day operations within their own shops and, and all the failures and successes that come along the way, from what grinds your gears to having to shift gears in the automotive industry. This is the Gearbox Podcast, the big story of Apex 2024. This year for the Gearbox podcast has been coaching, training. I mean, it just makes sense. It's what we're doing. Yeah, this is like the biggest training event and it seems like Apex SEMA is just like a big party because you're in Las Vegas, but if you can get through all that, there's like a lot of really good stuff that you can use to elevate your business.

Todd Westerlund [00:00:58]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:00]:
And you've been. I mean, you live here, right?

Todd Westerlund [00:01:02]:
I do, yeah. We're on.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:04]:
You're on.

Todd Westerlund [00:01:05]:
For one moment I was like, are we on? Yeah, I'm very fortunate. I get a little bit of that home field advantage there. I'm across town, I'm about 15 minutes away. And so all the different events that have happened, been able to just cruise, cruise in and then cruise home at night.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:24]:
That's pretty nice.

Todd Westerlund [00:01:25]:
Nice, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:26]:
Especially a big one like this.

Todd Westerlund [00:01:27]:
Yeah, yeah. And. And if you need a ride to the airport or something, you know, you're ever stuck in an emergency situation, just reach out. I can help out.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:38]:
Ultimate hookup in Vegas.

Todd Westerlund [00:01:39]:
You do. You do need a restaurant. You're looking for something your favorite, you know, let me know. I'll tell you where the off strip, really good stuff is.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:48]:
Oh, nice. Yeah, we'll definitely have to hook up on that stuff. I don't want everybody to know.

Todd Westerlund [00:01:51]:
No, that's true.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:52]:
That's true.

Todd Westerlund [00:01:54]:
Then they'll all go there.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:55]:
Do you still look forward to when Semen Apex roll through town? Or is it just another no carnival for you?

Todd Westerlund [00:02:01]:
No, no, absolutely. You know, it's, it's. I was a tech for 15 years and then I've spent. Geez, what is it? It's over 18 years now in the, you know, kind of tech space. Our, our tech space, coaching space, you know, was with a management system for a long time. And so as I've kind of been in those, those, those different areas, been on the road visiting, you know, the, the different events for 18 years. And if it's something that you don't love, then that's going to come through. And the thing is, I love the people I Love that.

Todd Westerlund [00:02:40]:
Love the folks. I love the interaction. I love that everybody's just. I always. Real salt of the earth people. So. No, not just another one coming through. I mean, you know, what's the group there? No.

Todd Westerlund [00:02:58]:
Can I say a brand on the. On here.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:00]:
Oh, sure. Yeah.

Todd Westerlund [00:03:00]:
Okay. I don't care. Is an example. Like, ATI for many years has partnered with them, with my old company, you know, Kukui, and we. I went to 15 super conferences, you know, Puerto Rico twice. Kind of bummed I get to miss Hawaii this year. It looks like a good time, you know, some really good folks, but. But just everybody in the industry is just really, really great people.

Todd Westerlund [00:03:24]:
And I would have fun and look forward to it, you know, every year, everything's a little. A little different. If we talk about vision coming up, I'm like, I guess we'll go to Jack Stacks, right? Isn't that what we all do?

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:35]:
Yeah, yeah. Things you get to look forward to, you know?

Todd Westerlund [00:03:38]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:39]:
Especially in Vegas. Right. Like, there's just something new every time you can come here. So, I mean, other than getting a little burnt out by the third or fourth day and you're like, I don't ever want to come back again next year. Rolls around, you just can't wait to get here again. Like, oh, man. But we're a glutton for punishment in this. In the automotive industry anyway, right?

Todd Westerlund [00:03:56]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:57]:
That's what we do.

Todd Westerlund [00:03:58]:
You know, it's all about the shoes, Right. That's the secret trick is trade your shoes out. If you can keep your feet going good, you can really keep going. How about. I mean, why don't we work on you and I making a really big California event? That's one thing that's always crazy to me. There's so many amazing shops in California and there's just. I. I mean, I've been to the vaa.

Todd Westerlund [00:04:21]:
Great. The, you know, the Virginia Automotive Association. I've been to. What aste. We just saw Mike Allen walking by there. I mean, all these ones have gone to all of them. And there is the ASCCA one. Love all the folks there in that group.

Todd Westerlund [00:04:38]:
But I just keep thinking, like, right down around your shop, we can have.

Jimmy Purdy [00:04:42]:
There's no. No events.

Todd Westerlund [00:04:43]:
Thousand great shops coming through there, and we get some great weather.

Jimmy Purdy [00:04:48]:
Yeah, can't beat the weather. And we got pretty good food, too.

Todd Westerlund [00:04:51]:
Yeah, true. Very true love.

Jimmy Purdy [00:04:54]:
Is Vegas good, but it's pretty good.

Todd Westerlund [00:04:55]:
It's pretty.

Jimmy Purdy [00:04:57]:
And we're deep in wine country, right, In Paso Robles, so.

Todd Westerlund [00:04:59]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:04:59]:
I mean, you think Napa's good. Most people go to pass, and they're like, oh, I didn't even know this place existed. Right.

Todd Westerlund [00:05:04]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:04]:
But you can go pretty much anywhere in the country and look on their wine list, and there's a Paso Robles wine on there.

Todd Westerlund [00:05:09]:
Always.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:09]:
Always. It's wild, isn't it? I'm like, how is Paso Robles? Like, it's crazy.

Todd Westerlund [00:05:13]:
We'll be in the middle of Houston. One of the things. We'll go out to dinner, and I'll look and. Yeah, it's right there. I knew right where you were. I was like, oh, we're kind of on the map.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:23]:
Well, then you got 805. You know, Firestone.

Todd Westerlund [00:05:25]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:25]:
The Firestone Brewery. I pass it every day on the way to the shop. Right. Like, it's right there. And I remember when they were. You could walk in and they would pour your beer out of, like, the big towers. Like, they were a micro. Like almost a microbrew.

Todd Westerlund [00:05:37]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:38]:
At one point, they were so small, boutique. You go in there, fill a growler.

Todd Westerlund [00:05:41]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:41]:
Right out. Oh, we just came out with this new red ale or ipa. We're like, what is that? Yeah, this is gross. Right? And now they bought the whole block.

Todd Westerlund [00:05:51]:
Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:51]:
And they got this massive warehouse facility, and it's like, that's wild. And then you go around, you see the 805, you know, brewery, beer, everyone, and it's, like, iconic. And you're like, wow, this is, like, wild.

Todd Westerlund [00:06:01]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:06:02]:
You know, between the wine and the beer is what put us on the map, you know?

Todd Westerlund [00:06:04]:
There you go.

Jimmy Purdy [00:06:05]:
Kind of unfortunate, because I don't like. I like other things to do then just go drinking all weekend.

Todd Westerlund [00:06:11]:
But everything's. I live here and gambling and things like that. And the funny thing is, is that if you live here, if those are issues that you might have, this is not a place for you to live.

Jimmy Purdy [00:06:22]:
Right.

Todd Westerlund [00:06:22]:
So now if you don't have issues with those things and you live here, it's good golden. Because kind of everybody comes to town, they all do all their gambling. And the byproduct of that is all that money filters out into just great roads, great cities, you know, great infrastructure. It's.

Jimmy Purdy [00:06:40]:
There's always a benefit. Yeah. Just for the locals. It's like, what are we supposed to do other than that, you know? But back to the training thing. I mean. Yeah, that's the big one. Right. And it's.

Jimmy Purdy [00:06:47]:
It's the importance of it. And we've. We've had training events in our. In our city, and we try to promote and I think lack of funding for the promotion may have something to do with it. But then the actual attendance. Right. Getting people to actually show up after work at 6 o'clock. I want to stay around till 10.

Jimmy Purdy [00:07:02]:
And I cannot blame not wanting to do that, especially a lot of technicians that probably are underpaid anyway in our area. Which is part of the problem as well. Right. I mean, if they're only getting paid so much, they're not getting paid to show up for training and it's after work and they got a 30 minute commute after. It's like, yeah, I got a lot of stuff going against you there. Right.

Todd Westerlund [00:07:19]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:07:19]:
And then you get there and you actually show up and the training is just miserable and you're like, why the hell am I here right now?

Todd Westerlund [00:07:25]:
Yeah, no, that, that's a tough, you know, being a technician for 15 years and my A6, my A8, my L1, I was licensed in the state of California to smog cars. And you know, I look back like some of those classes, like, I don't know, they just, they, they weren't fun there was. They're not necessarily in the best, you know, area as far as where you're going through the training and you have to get these things to kind of move up. I was fortunate. I got to spend two really good years with Doug Mueller of Tech help. That was two of my years of trade school. And I'm really grateful to him. He was the one that taught me about Ohm's law and kind of all.

Todd Westerlund [00:08:09]:
I was able to pass all those tests once I started understanding the formulas and then I could go back out to the car and we're talking about putting a load, you know, load test on the battery and looking at, well, you know, hey, this thing's dropping, you know, 2.1 volts, it's got a bad cell. And it, it was like my mind then suddenly looked at the car and went, whoa. I have a whole different, different way. But you. My, my first probably 10 years, I just couldn't sit still in those classes. You're just tough.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:43]:
Yeah.

Todd Westerlund [00:08:43]:
You know, so I think most of.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:45]:
Us have that problem if you're hands on. Right.

Todd Westerlund [00:08:47]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:48]:
And that's the thing. You're trying to. We all have some sort of add. I've always said we're all a little bit on the spectrum.

Todd Westerlund [00:08:53]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:54]:
To like want to just be in our heads all day fixing these cars. Right. So like to sit us and sit in a chair and like listen to this person talk for the next three hours. Uh, no.

Todd Westerlund [00:09:03]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:09:04]:
And like most of us probably barely made it out of high school because of that. Right. Like, I'm a, I'm a proponent of that. Like, I just could not. Yeah, I just want to go to work. Like I'd rather than just sit in a class and do that. Right. So I think we all have a little bit of that we can relate to, but it's foundational stuff, you know, And I think if you make training more hands on, more, more interactive, that helps a lot too.

Jimmy Purdy [00:09:23]:
And I know that that maybe sounds like kind of childish, right? Like you want, you can give me blocks to play with. It's like. You know what though? Like, like garage gurus, right? Like they have that big mobile station that rolls around. You got Avi, or is it Avi with the, the vehicle that's cut in half. They got that on display here and you can like see the circuitry and I think that's really mind blowing. And you brought up a good point because that's what happens once you find that click. Oh, I get it now.

Todd Westerlund [00:09:47]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:09:48]:
So instead of like trying to research what part I need is to fix the problem, you understand why there's a problem and then you can fix it accordingly. Right? Like, yeah, it's such a shift and it's so hard to like get someone to understand that like all the sensors are the same. Right? Like they all, like all the solenoids, they all operate on the same basic principle.

Todd Westerlund [00:10:06]:
Exactly. Yeah. And you know, now, you know, I haven't been wrenching for many years and you have that transition from being mechanic to technician and, and it's funny how much connects over because I can take a look at something and go, well, that's a potentiometer. That's all that is. I know exactly what that is. So pretty great crossover there. It crosses over a little bit into our auto shop answers. That's a great thing you're kind of saying There is that we've had our class and we can kind of dive into that like what we do.

Todd Westerlund [00:10:46]:
But in these recent last three months we've really kicked up having the hands on. So kind of think of it this way is that there is a lot of coaching programs out there. You have a lot of say, service writer training. You have, you know, your GM training there. There is a lot of things out there. We generally go to a class, there's a workbook, maybe we're doing some in class role playing with call scripts and things like that. We have 26 people this coming weekend, starting from Thursday all the way to Monday, they actually will work in the shop, picking up the phones, working in the management system, creating repair orders, seeing the way that we do it and all the different pieces of technology and seeing how we utilize the scripts and how it has to. We have to use the scripts.

Todd Westerlund [00:11:43]:
We actually use the shop genius call scoring. And we have a kind of our own little secret way that we've done it. We've set it up so that you can actually put your positive words in, your negative words in. And if. Just think about if you had a new service writer that we've all had this happen. You have a service writer that. That's come in and you find out. Takes a couple months to find out.

Todd Westerlund [00:12:08]:
It's not great. And you've spent a lot of time and money and maybe they're. They're turning people away. As an example, they're picking the phone up and not getting the people coming in. So having some technology like that, this is again, one piece of technology that lets us see. Exactly. Are they saying keywords that, you know, cause. Cause the consumer to not want to visit us?

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:34]:
Yeah, so, yeah, that's very true.

Todd Westerlund [00:12:35]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:36]:
I mean, that pivot. That pivots right into that and segues into that. Or we'll call. We'll shift gears into that. Right, Okay.

Todd Westerlund [00:12:42]:
I like it. Gearbox.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:44]:
That's right. So that's one of the things. So the auto shop answers is one of the things that you're involved with, or is your main stick.

Todd Westerlund [00:12:53]:
So.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:53]:
So you've gone from technician, you've transitioned to being a shop owner and you understand all that. So. And now at the point where you're coaching other shop owners now, there's a lot of. What do you call it, negativity online with. With the way. With the way y'all conduct a little bit, your coaching. And I look at it as, man, just. Just pick what you.

Jimmy Purdy [00:13:12]:
What you need out of it. You don't need to do all of it. Right. You can do some of it, you can do all of it, whatever. And I think it's important to really just clear the air and, like, get. Get down to the brass tacks.

Todd Westerlund [00:13:22]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:13:22]:
Really understand, like, is it a fit for you or is it not?

Todd Westerlund [00:13:25]:
Yeah, yeah, that's a. That's a great. I think it's a perfect timing for us to kind of meet up and have a great discussion and kind of dive into a couple of those really hot points there. We just had that whole barrage on Facebook there, and it was Just, I mean I looked back at 100 comments and I would say 90% of them were pretty negative. But it's okay. The first way, the first thing I said, if you read that one post that came from me, not from Todd, as I said, I don't have a college degree. It just was like, hey, I'm a mechanic. A Mechanic that worked 15, you know, 15 years in a shop and I have some, some things that connect up with me that really make me passionate about auto shop answers.

Todd Westerlund [00:14:13]:
If you have somebody who's kind of teaching you or saying hey, take a look at this and they have actually lived it, it kind of resonates a little bit better as far as, well, I'm a coach. I haven't, you know, owned a shop in 20 years. I haven't worked in a shop. If you look at our training, Todd, Glenn and Joe are literally over at the shop working. They walk across the street and then they start in with class and they'll be, they'll be there at you know, 6:00am in the morning, kind of get in the shop all started up and they're like hey class, you know, check in starts at 6:30, I gotta run across the street and teach class for three days. So, so, so you know, bringing that to the table I think is, that's.

Jimmy Purdy [00:14:55]:
A, that's a behind a kind of a behind the scenes look of what's really going on. Right?

Todd Westerlund [00:14:59]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:14:59]:
And I think a lot of the slack was obviously loss leader oil changes I think is a pretty hot button which you call the rack attack is another pretty hot button. Right. The key to key callbacks. Right. Which I am not. I mean out of those three I could definitely pick that up. I understand that. Right, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:18]:
So it just, just starts opening up. The onion, the flour, whatever you want to call it, like well hold on a second. What else here is working for them and why?

Todd Westerlund [00:15:29]:
Right, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:29]:
And then, and then where are you at with your own personal shop? So I got to look inward. Where am I at with my shop? Right. And how have I grown in the last two or three or five years? Right. And where would I see myself in three years? And any of these processes may be a possibility for me in the next three to five years because I think a lot of us get close minded and that will not work tomorrow. Well, that's fine. Right. Like if whatever you're, you're, you're, you're coaching, maybe that's not going to work for you tomorrow. But what does it look like in a year when you when you need, you know, work for 10 technicians, multiple locations.

Jimmy Purdy [00:16:01]:
I have no idea what it's like to be an mso, and I think the majority guys don't either. Right. And I think the majority of the comments you maybe get are from people that aren't MSOs. Maybe there are some in there.

Todd Westerlund [00:16:09]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:16:10]:
But it's a different mindset. Is that, like, the direction that you are trying to capture is MSOs or what is your ideal client?

Todd Westerlund [00:16:19]:
I would say 60% of the folks that come through are not MSOs, and a lot of times, too, and, you know, to everybody out there is listening, hey, we're working. We're just regular people. We're trying to do good on the old Facebook. It's not like social media. You know, we don't have, like, professional people who do our stuff. We do the best we can. And sometimes we say something that just really is a hot button. And I guess instead of turning into or turning away from it, I'm very much more comfortable.

Todd Westerlund [00:16:49]:
Let's just kind of turn into it and kind of kind of get into that. So 60% of the people coming through are going, hey, you know, I only have three bays and a couple technicians. You guys have this big shop with, you know, 30 bays, and you guys are doing $1.2 million a month. And is this for me? And so I'll give you a couple of the numbers, and then I think I'd like to start off with a real basic. That is, I feel, the biggest hot button. And once I kind of say it, I'm curious if you'll go, okay, I kind of got it, Todd. So. So we have eight locations.

Todd Westerlund [00:17:25]:
The other day I said 10. Maybe there's two more coming. Who knows? Might have had a little Floridian slip there kind of thing. But we have eight locations. The average unit last month, I ran the numbers, did 560,000 per month. Okay, this. This last month, that's the average. To actually get to that level and help that many people with hospitality, There is a lot of things that we have to do that certain shop owners just might be.

Todd Westerlund [00:17:54]:
That's not for me. And that's okay. It's totally. It's. It's okay. The shop owner is happy, their folks are happy. That's all I can really, really always hope for, is that I have a root to being a technician. I've been in the shop where there's no vehicles.

Todd Westerlund [00:18:12]:
I've had to clean my toolbox, clean the floor, pull out the project car, that Mustang we had in the Back we roll out and we all start working on it and then it gets busy again. We got to roll it back in. That thing was there for like two years. So I mean, we've all got one of those back there that we, we can fill the time with. Well, so let's kind of start with this one. It's more just a statement that kind of gives us the basis and then we can kind of jump into some of the other things. Is literally the seven day a week thing. So we have this seven day week and we have this four day week, four tens and you know, what does that look like? And you know, exactly how, you know, as far as that hot button goes.

Todd Westerlund [00:18:56]:
So here's the thing is, in nowhere has anybody ever said anything that any individual has to be at the shop seven days. Not saying that. Just saying that. Consider as far as hospitality goes, what is, what could be a benefit of being open all seven days? If you had the right staff, if you had the technicians that would do it, if you had all the procedures and processes, and let's just say, hypothetically you did and it worked really amazing. Okay. We mentioned you were saying Firestone. I was thinking of the actual Firestone.

Jimmy Purdy [00:19:37]:
Oh, the tire.

Todd Westerlund [00:19:38]:
Yeah. You know, and in town, right up around the corner for me, there's. There's a Firestone. I had to take my car there on a weekend because it was the only shop that was open. And you know, not saying anything bad about a Firestone or anything, there's a lot of guys in that forum that were blowing me up about, well, those shops that work on the weekends are not really great shops. And I'm like, let's take a step back and think of it like this. What if they were great? What if they gave great, amazing customer service? They were open seven days. What if the technicians that worked.

Todd Westerlund [00:20:16]:
You got a gentleman who loves to fish. So he's like, I love to work Saturday and Sunday, I get on the lake Tuesday and Wednesday when nobody's around. You know, I love it. Maybe somebody has something that they have to do that you know, their schedule is okay to be different. And some people like myself, there was a point in my life that I was coaching my son soccer, and I had to be Monday through Friday I had practice. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we had games Saturdays and Sundays, There is no way I could work more than, say, the 40 hours. So hypothetically, if you had that right crew and they had amazing customer service and the culture was great, the impact that would have to the community and the Shop would be a lot of these big numbers that we put out there and that we see and that we do. Now if we go to the kind of four days a week.

Todd Westerlund [00:21:14]:
The worry that I'm just trying to say is I'm worried for my friends that are kind of taking that four tens and saying, we're closed three days. I'm worried about that because if that seven day a week group we'll call it, if they figure it out, it's tough. Yeah, I mean, I, I've said this for. I, I pray that they don't. I probably. They don't figure it out, you know, and so, so that's kind of. If somebody couldn't work, Somebody loves to work four days. We have people that work four days.

Todd Westerlund [00:21:53]:
That's, that's. They work four, 10. So we subscribe to it. We love it. It's great. I have some people who work five days a week and I have a couple gentlemen. That one has like six kids, seven kids. And he works every day.

Todd Westerlund [00:22:07]:
He needs every hour he can get. You know, he is the main provider for the family. And if I was to say, well, for that gentleman, you will only have four days for you, he would either leave the industry or go find a job that could get him hours. So with all just full, you know, full. Peace and love, Jimmy. I'm just saying, just, just consider if, if they ever did get that right on the seven days, I, I just wouldn't want to hurt my, my folks out there on the 4:10s.

Jimmy Purdy [00:22:44]:
It makes, I mean, it makes sense. There's a lot of valid points and you could look at, you know, and I'll use this in twofold. So there's a popular convenience store that decided to take a model and, and decided to be open a little earlier and stay open a little later. Right. And we all know them as 7 11, right? Right.

Todd Westerlund [00:23:02]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:02]:
And they worked really well. Well, then what happens next? AM PM comes along and they're 24 hours. Right. So I'm gonna use that in twofold because that's a convenience store. And I think that is what is rubbing a lot of people the wrong way. Because we are not a convenience store.

Todd Westerlund [00:23:15]:
Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:15]:
We're highly skilled technicians and we should force our clients to bend to our schedules and do what we say when we say it, because that's the ego. Right. So it takes a little bit of swallowing, swallowing your pride a little bit and kind of focusing on what, what is it that the client needs, what is it that the community needs? And maybe it isn't 24 hour auto repair. You know. And I think that's also that slippery slope of, of what happens after the seven day model becomes prevalent. Then, then are we open 24 hours? Are we doing oil changes at 2 in the morning? Right. Like, so when do we draw the line? Right. And I think that's the fear a lot of us have.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:56]:
I feel like we started moving the right direction in like the technician's eyes. When we're talking about like, wow, we're gonna go to three 12s. That's what I'm talking about. Right. Four tens. That's fantastic. That's a stressful situation. As for me as a young shop owner, that's just barely starting to get my crap together.

Todd Westerlund [00:24:13]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:13]:
To like, well, let's go to four tens. Like so I got to do everything that I've been doing in five days and try to do that in four days. Right. Even though I have the extra hours. Well, I help all my appointments show up. Because how many times have you scheduled a day and half the people don't show up. Right. Could you imagine that happening on a 312 or.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:31]:
And I'm imagining it on a 410.

Todd Westerlund [00:24:33]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:34]:
So we're definitely gonna stay five weeks. But then who even built that? Right. So Henry Ford did it with the assembly line. So we're just kind of, it's old, outdated and twitted kind of, you know, system there. And I think also I look at it as not having that staff. Maybe that's where a lot of it come from too. Like there's no way I could be open seven days because then I have to be there for seven days.

Todd Westerlund [00:24:52]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:53]:
And it's really tough for me to even think about what you're talking about without me actually showing up for seven days a week.

Todd Westerlund [00:24:58]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:58]:
You know, my wife's the same way. Like four tens. Right. I don't want to be there for ten hours every day.

Todd Westerlund [00:25:04]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:25:04]:
Well, that's. And so we're just not there yet. We just don't have the systems, we don't have the processes, we don't have the staff. We don't have any of that stuff. Right. And I talk about, you know, because I see it all the time. And, and this is a great point and I wanted to bring this up because I have my technicians doing law side work. Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:25:19]:
Friday evening they're loading up their tools, the handbags, and they're taking off. And, and you know, I can hear them during the day. They're talking about this job, this Head gasket they're doing or this brake job. You know what? I know a lot of guys just lose their mind when they hear that, but I get it, right. I was there, I was a text like, you know what? If you can go make a couple hundred bucks, you know, on your time, dude, do it up right? And that client's probably not someone that's going to want to come to our shop anyway.

Todd Westerlund [00:25:45]:
If you, if you read in that, that thing. And this is, I think, where it was really hitting a nerve with some folks because I, I know what I'm talking about. I was like, ask them if they have a nice compressor. I had a nice compressor at my house because I worked at the shop. And, you know, then I went. Would go home and have to do side work to offset, you know, and sometimes we go do the side work, make a couple hundred bucks like you said, and that would be what. What me and my wife would go do something fun with. I mean, let me go get this job done.

Todd Westerlund [00:26:18]:
I could also. This is pretty powerful too, as you, as you understand, you can go work and do side work and let's say you want to go on a vacation. I can go make money on demand. And the fight of that is. Is not fun. Working in the garage.

Jimmy Purdy [00:26:36]:
Well, it's not sustainable.

Todd Westerlund [00:26:37]:
It's.

Jimmy Purdy [00:26:38]:
It's not a sustainable thing.

Todd Westerlund [00:26:39]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:26:40]:
And I have some young technicians and I try to explain to them, like, you need to spend time with your family. You don't need to be going home and, and working. Right. Like, and they don't. I mean, I'm sure they understand it 100%, but I don't think they fully grasp it.

Todd Westerlund [00:26:54]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:26:54]:
And once you put yourself, it's like, what do they say? Your cost of living always rises. So even though it starts aside work and fun money, all of a sudden that is starting to be calculated into your budget. So then, so then you need to do it over and over. And now you're working seven days a week.

Todd Westerlund [00:27:09]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:10]:
Right. And so. And I had brought up the comment to my wife about maybe we should be open on Saturdays. Maybe we'll do a half day on Saturday so the guys don't have to go. You know, what if they get ripped off? Right. How many times do they do side work? And it's like, I'm not paying you for that. Or they're putting themselves in legal liability, really. Which they really don't understand.

Todd Westerlund [00:27:28]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:28]:
Like, if you do something right, like, you could. Someone could get hurt, and then you have no protection. Right. So I was thinking, well, what if we can do Saturdays and help one of my guys out because he's in the middle of a move and he needs some extra cash, so let's not want to do that. And it's because she doesn't want to go down there on a Saturday, and neither do I.

Todd Westerlund [00:27:45]:
Totally understand.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:46]:
We're just not sad for it.

Todd Westerlund [00:27:47]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:48]:
But the immediate response is no, right?

Todd Westerlund [00:27:50]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:50]:
Well, then, no. Why? Well, because I don't want to be down there. Like, oh, I see. You know.

Todd Westerlund [00:27:54]:
Yeah, you. You. You have to. You have to work out that. That formula. Like, is there a way that you could be there not there on Tuesday, and then she could not be there on Wednesday? One of you. You know, let's. Let's take a look at this from another.

Todd Westerlund [00:28:10]:
A different way, too. And this is where a lot of folks have to come through class, and when they come through class, I always get the same thing. They go, man, reading about you guys on Facebook and reading this. And I had my own, like, prejudgments. And once I came through, I realized this is all about hospitality and it's all about culture. Nobody here is unhappy. They're not overworked. They're not upset of the work that's happening.

Todd Westerlund [00:28:37]:
They're happy. They are. You know when you say, like, all the hours they could use or they need, just in those examples I had, that would have been amazing, because certain points in my life, I need every hour I could get. It really is trying to buy a house. I had a newborn, you know, I was trying to build a savings. You know, there was times in my life where I was just a knucklehead, where it. Liz. I mean, 40 hours hit, I was out.

Todd Westerlund [00:29:03]:
I mean, I had things to go do on the weekend. We got football. I get it. I totally get it. So this industry is an amazing industry. We are so fortunate. Such great, great industry full of great people. When you look at some of the other industries and you go, I am not knocking other industries.

Todd Westerlund [00:29:23]:
I'm just saying, for me, personally, I don't want to be, like, doing roofing. This is not my thing. I don't want to be up there on a roof. I don't want to do that. Okay? Not knocking dentists, not saying that. My wife's a, you know, dental hygienist. I get it. But I don't want to be in somebody's mouth cleaning their teeth all day.

Todd Westerlund [00:29:41]:
It's not my gig.

Jimmy Purdy [00:29:42]:
Right.

Todd Westerlund [00:29:42]:
And so I love the problem that is put before me with the Vehicle and then putting together a game plan and then figuring it out and executing that, and then helping that family where they're like, I'm gonna drive this thing to Disneyland right now. And. And with confidence, I can say, you're fine. Yeah, I checked everything. You know, so kind of breaking down two things that I think might be a great takeaway for you in this, you know, for your personal shop and everything. So one of the things we really do in class is we'll take a city somewhere in the United States, we'll pick one in class, and we will start calling shops, and we will have a problem car that we set up, and we will call that shop, and we will ask them, you know, can we bring the car? And, you know, class, before last, we went through 19 phone calls. 19 shops said, no, I'm booked two weeks out. I can't get to it.

Todd Westerlund [00:30:49]:
You know, can you drop it off tomorrow? Let me try to book a time for you to come in. And it was. And we're kind of here. You have 65 shop owners is looking and listening. We're all silent. We're all listening. You can see they're kind of. It's starting to click in their head.

Todd Westerlund [00:31:07]:
Everybody's saying, no, no, no, no. And one of the things that we train is I need all of that negative script, all of that that the industry has taught and has been doing for years. Get rid of all that. I want you to think just ultimate hospitality, almost like medical, if you will. It's. Hey, I have this problem. I need to go into emergency. Absolutely.

Todd Westerlund [00:31:31]:
Come on in. You know, sorry, you. You lost a limb. We can do nothing for you. Come back in three weeks. Like, I'm booked for a week. Like it's not going to work. So I know that's a bit extreme there, but you'll hear in all of our shops, this phrase, which is absolutely.

Todd Westerlund [00:31:49]:
Is now a good time to bring it in? And we tell everybody to go, man, this is like drinking from a fire hose. We just had three days of every piece of technology you guys use, every single script, every single process, every single thing you guys do. To have These shops do 560,000, you know, on average every month across eight stores, every piece. So when you're looking at that and taking all those pieces, the one thing we tell them is you start with the take five different subject. We don't have time to get into that, but go back and just say yes. And so north of you is Sam Burridge, Santa Rosa transmission. He's in his third month with us. He's been working with other companies for many years.

Todd Westerlund [00:32:39]:
He came through and he called me and he's like, I'm having the busiest time I've ever had. And I said, what did you do different? He goes, we're just saying yes. He goes, my lot guy just ran in and he goes, stop, stop. He goes, we have no more parking spot. I don't know where the people keep pouring in. I don't know what to do. Like, and so there's so many things that happen with that. Is that.

Todd Westerlund [00:33:04]:
Imagine that at all of your guys shops out there. Suddenly this flow flood of cars come in. Talk about the shock to the system. The technicians suddenly have to start working a lot or we're going to need more technicians, we're going to need a lot to take on that level of work. So, you know, I consistently have that where people are like, I went to your class and had my best month ever. No, it's not easy. I hear that too. Hey, you got to warn people, this is work.

Todd Westerlund [00:33:33]:
This is really, really hard work. And I'm like, well, I mean, work is work, right?

Jimmy Purdy [00:33:42]:
Yeah, it's a tough concept to wrap your head around. I mean, and to your point, like, yes, like, what are we trying to do? Right? And when you're in the shop and you have like the 345,000 different things you need to do and then every, you know, five minutes you're being pulled way in a direction that does not benefit those 345,000 things you need to be doing. Right. It's very frustrating. And then when someone comes and then when you get a phone call and they want to bring and you already have a week of work, you're like, there's the last thing I need is more people. Right? You're just trying, you're just trying to get through the pile that you already have. And you don't really look at that long term, even though you do like, you know what I mean? You're so stressed and so anxiety ridden. You're like, in that moment, I just, I just need to get the hell out of here.

Jimmy Purdy [00:34:30]:
And so in order for me to leave today, I have enough shit I need to do.

Todd Westerlund [00:34:33]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:34:34]:
In fact, I have enough for the end of the week and that's it. That's all I want to think about. And really it's not like anybody's fault. I think it's your own brain just trying to like cope with the situation. Right. It's just a coping mechanism. I'm done. We're done.

Todd Westerlund [00:34:45]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:34:46]:
I don't want to do this anymore. Right. How many of us, like, gotten so frustrated? We're just like, anybody want to buy this freaking place? Right?

Todd Westerlund [00:34:52]:
Definitely.

Jimmy Purdy [00:34:53]:
Maybe this, like, works for somebody, right?

Todd Westerlund [00:34:56]:
That definitely happens. And you paint a great picture there, too. And I've lived it. I get it. Like, I lived for that. Friday, once I got off work, there was all the stress that went away. I went, oh, and Saturday was such a great day. Maybe sleep in a little bit, do some fun stuff.

Todd Westerlund [00:35:16]:
But Sunday would come along, there'd be a little bit of dread because I got to be up early. Monday is, like, already there. And. And there literally is a culture, and there is a way, and I can promise you it's there. Just come to Houston for a weekend. Just come once. Don't put you in the back of the classroom. Don't know stress.

Todd Westerlund [00:35:37]:
Just come. But you go through, and you're like, whoa. And you're going to hear these shop owners that go, gosh, I came to this. That's auto shop answers. I fell in love with my business again. I didn't realize. Yeah, I don't want to be doing roofing. I don't want to be doing dental.

Todd Westerlund [00:35:51]:
Like, this is a awesome business. And, you know, I have some people out there, too, that, you know, we'll talk kind of religious reasons. We'll just say that big word like that Sunday isn't a fit for them. That's all right. Totally. Again, our message is just looking at that hospitality as much as we can give. I'm not saying that somebody at 4 tens is not giving it. I'm more or less just saying, be careful.

Todd Westerlund [00:36:20]:
If this guy with seven days is able to be there and your great customers swing by and the experience is so great that you don't return. And that happens. If we start thinking about different things in our lives that are seven days. Airport, we can fly anywhere, you know, seven days a week. Hospitals open seven days a week. Well, nobody loves going to the hospital. Terrible example. But, you know, grocery store.

Todd Westerlund [00:36:52]:
The grocery store is. And maybe where I live, I don't know. Across the nation. Are they all open at least 7 days?

Jimmy Purdy [00:36:59]:
Usually more populated areas.

Todd Westerlund [00:37:01]:
Yeah, but start thinking of those things. If they. If they were only open five days and kind of feel that as an inconvenience, the next time you go somewhere and you're like. Like, post office. That's something. I work all week, you know, Work all week. Sometimes I get a day off on Saturday and I need to go drop something off the Post office and it's closed. I'm like, it's.

Todd Westerlund [00:37:24]:
Is it such an inconvenience? Like, please be open on the weekend so I can drop off my stuff. But, you know, kind of thinking of that, I guess. How about. I never thought about this. Are the parts stores like an Autozone or NAP? Are they open seven days?

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:40]:
O'Reilly's is open seven days.

Todd Westerlund [00:37:42]:
O'Reilly's is okay.

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:43]:
Napa's not.

Todd Westerlund [00:37:43]:
It's not okay.

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:45]:
They're recently corporate. Right. So they've changed, Made a lot of changes. But when they're privately owned. No, they're. I mean, they can pretty much be open when they want. In our town anyway. We have an O'Reilly's that's open seven days.

Todd Westerlund [00:37:54]:
Okay, you can go there.

Jimmy Purdy [00:37:55]:
Yeah. So, I mean, that's a good. That's a good segue into using that as a model. Right. And obviously, most are going to think you're just doing this for the money, right?

Todd Westerlund [00:38:05]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:38:06]:
It's obviously, you're open seven days because you're trying to squeeze every dollar out of every transaction that you can. So if you're that profitable, five days, we can be that much more profitable in seven.

Todd Westerlund [00:38:17]:
I'm going to let you in a little secret, Jimmy. And this is the one where it's hard when I say Jimmy, because I want to call you Jim. My dad's name was Jim. And I'm always like, so such a comfortable, favorite word for me, you know, so. And here's that secret. What if you actually. All of that hospitality that you're giving, all of that, you know, revenue that we say that's coming in, what if you put that back into the employees? What if they had college funds for all their kids? Mandatorily, that is set up and that money goes into 401k matching. What if you had amazing medical and dental? Really good stuff.

Todd Westerlund [00:39:05]:
Everybody is assuming that somebody is just hoarding the money. And when you walk through the shop or any of our shops, you go through, you're looking at all these smiling people, you're so happy. And that. That clicking starts happening. They're like, oh, my gosh, these guys are putting it back into the team. And it's causing the team culture to be so great that these guys love being at work on the weekend or all day. It's because they're able to have a better quality of life than maybe somebody who doesn't have those opportunities. And that goes back to what I was saying, even myself was.

Todd Westerlund [00:39:45]:
It was tough for me because I Saw friends and stuff, had these big college degrees and stuff. Go buy a house. And, you know, sometimes I got that feeling. They were like, you're just a mechanic. You know, you go. You work. Like, it's so much harder for me to buy a house. And I was.

Todd Westerlund [00:40:01]:
And I'm like, I just need the hours. I actually worked a side job. Actually. I. I'm not a side. I had to go get a second job and do side work. And I get. Now there was a gentleman who said, hey, that was a little while ago.

Todd Westerlund [00:40:15]:
There's some really great paying jobs out there for techs now. And that's awesome. I'm really. I'm really, really happy about that. You know, I kind of. I might have missed that mark. It sounds. Sounds like that was.

Todd Westerlund [00:40:29]:
That was awesome. I had a great stall that I was in. I love my toolbox was organized. Music was good. I got in my zone as a Toyota technician and a Chevy technician. I did unfortunately have to work on some Saabs, which can be those older Saabs. Brittle wiring was brutal. Volvos I had to work on.

Todd Westerlund [00:40:51]:
And then that's kind of the way we set it up. The gentleman next to me was Hondas, and the gentleman next to him was Fords. So kind of brought in specialties of each of us. And we had eight. Eight racks. At one point, we had eight techs, but I think we are most comfortable with six because we get an engine job, you know, tying up a rack or something.

Jimmy Purdy [00:41:14]:
So I get worked.

Todd Westerlund [00:41:16]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:41:17]:
And that brings up the next thing, too, that. That kind of gets a lot of flack, is the rack attack. Kind of go through that process a little bit and how you've seen that work.

Todd Westerlund [00:41:27]:
Yeah. So I'm going to kind of do. Tell you the way we do it and tell you kind of break down how the industry keeps seeing it. So Todd Hayes was at home, and he was looking at. Watching Daytona. He lives in Daytona. So he's watching the races one of those days. He was just watching the way that this team would go over the wall and rip those tires off and inspect that whole vehicle and get that race car right back on the road instantly.

Todd Westerlund [00:41:58]:
And, I mean, aren't we down to, like, seconds now? It's some. It's some insanity. It really is. So speed of service in any single industry, it really will elevate any business. So you think of it, if you ever been in a restaurant, you're just waiting and waiting and waiting, waiting. I'm sorry. Us, as Americans, we don't like to Wait, you go to other countries, it's all right here. I don't want to wait.

Todd Westerlund [00:42:25]:
So any industry, speed of service is critical. So he was looking at that and said, if I redid the inspection process and that's what became the rack attack, and have them go after the car with an intensity to it, have a complete process where we have low rise, mid rise, high rise. Exactly how we go front to back. And it's exactly the same process, same inspection every single time. And we use technology that helps us get that inspection done. The way that we do that, which is looking for only the reason that the consumer came in first. We don't want to overload them or what we call the industry does a lot of kitchen sinking, that 300 rule kind of thing. So the 300 rule thing, I will say this, all the listeners, very, very clear.

Todd Westerlund [00:43:19]:
It works, but it will only take you so far. Okay? You can slam them with every single thing that they need. You will write up 50% of the repair orders or create them, and 50% of them won't get done. If you just focus on what they first say. Yes. And then focus also on what it is they came in for. The consumer's really happy because they're like, oh, by the way, you're out of brakes, your tires, this. You need wiper blades, you need all this.

Todd Westerlund [00:43:48]:
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, my AC doesn't work. Let's just start there, you know, I mean, you're hitting me with everything. So that whole rack attack, you've seen the videos of it, and your people are going, man, I don't have four technicians that go and attack a car. There's no way I could do that. Doesn't make sense. These guys have a bunch of technicians. So if I was to open a shop right now, okay, I would do the rack attack would be happening. But here's the aha moment.

Todd Westerlund [00:44:18]:
I would be open on Saturday, probably open the doors at 7, get my coffee and wake up at 6 and just kind of, I need a little bit of time. Crack those doors open at 7 and I personally, I'd probably go to about 2pm is my first year as I'm just getting rolled out and getting the right staff. I would do all the rack attacks myself. And I don't need a technician there. I'm just doing intake. I'm just saying yes on the phone, absolutely, come down. Okay, I'm then going to take all of these vehicles. Okay.

Todd Westerlund [00:44:54]:
I'm going to help that consumer get in a rental car, get them into a loaner car, get them in an Uber home, take care of their transportation concerns. So if we think about the. The consumer is, again, we talk about speed of service, we talk about inconvenience. What they're really worried about is the inconvenience. What do they always ask? When is this going to be done? Okay, it's. It's. That is the first thing on their mind. Me personally, this happened to us, it was last year, and, you know, both cars happen to be down.

Todd Westerlund [00:45:34]:
And I told my wife, I said, man, we gonna go grocery shopping. I was like, oh. I said, oh, man, we get the girls to school. How are we gonna get the girls back and forth? And I remember it was such a. Aha moment. We were having a discussion about the inconvenience of the transportation. Not about what it needed, not about the pricing of it, not about any of that. Kind of knew what the vehicle is gonna need to get fixed and didn't really have an idea what the time was, but of that.

Todd Westerlund [00:46:03]:
That inconvenience. So if we think about that going back to what I just said, like, really. So you would just be. We didn't just get to a point where we had four people or two people, you know, attacking a rack attack kind of thing. When we started, there was one person on a regular rack going through, doing that inspection and then getting all of that work, we'll say approved. And for the technician, what do technicians like to do? They like to work on cars. I would have to do this inspection for like an hour. Get in, do the inspection, put it up on the rack, put the wheels back on it, take it out, write up the repair order, Go sell the work.

Todd Westerlund [00:46:48]:
Oh, this customer doesn't want it. Oh, they're coming back to pick it up. They'll bring it next week. No, they're not there. Take it somewhere else down the street. Go take a look at it. You can take a look at that identifix or whatever the one is online there and see if the work got done elsewhere. So if we.

Todd Westerlund [00:47:05]:
If we break that down, if you go into the. The 1010 location with Adams, there'll be four speed racks there. You'll have two people on each one of those, and they're just inspecting the vehicles. If you go to any of our other locations, there'll be one speed rack and there'll be two people inspecting the vehicles. Okay, now here's the. Here's the bump to kind of prep the audience for, because they will definitely go, what are some problems? We could run into that technician coming up going, this, I don't. This didn't need this. Why did you sell this kind of thing?

Jimmy Purdy [00:47:42]:
Right?

Todd Westerlund [00:47:43]:
You know? And so I want you all to just ask yourself honestly, okay? And. And I didn't do this out of, like, maliciousness or poor morals or something, but there was a time that was one of those sobs and the rear brakes were bad, and it was. They're a pain to do. You got to get the little screws that go in the back to get the pad pressure just right or you'll burn the brakes out. And I kind of looked at it and I said, oh, it's probably inside. I probably knew. I'm being honest with you, Jimmy probably knew it was close to 10%, but maybe I leaned that it was 15%. Okay? Maybe there were some of those Subarus I had up, up in the air.

Todd Westerlund [00:48:30]:
And I looked at those transverse engines in the valve core gaskets. I thought, leaking is all right. Okay. Take that out of the technician's hands. Okay? So we do the inspections, we find what's wrong and we give it to the technician and they just do the work. They're just knocking out the work all day long. And they love it. They're like, you know, once they kind of understood and trusted the person doing the inspection that nobody was ever overselling or doing anything morally wrong.

Todd Westerlund [00:49:04]:
Now we kind of start folding that onion back or opening the onion. Like you were saying right at the beginning of this, of, ah, okay, what if. What if it is all culture? What if it is all morally great? What if all this money is going back into the folks and they're having an amazing life? Maybe you guys aren't so bad. Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:49:29]:
You know, I mean, there's a lot of nuances to chew on. Right. To think about. And obviously nobody knows unless you see it and you've been through it. Right? So I don't think anybody can have a true opinion. Well, you can have an opinion, but I don't think you really know until you're involved in the process. Right. And I think, for one, we've been trained one way.

Jimmy Purdy [00:49:50]:
For another, those other trainings are very easy to latch onto. Right. Like the 300% rule. That just makes sense. Right? Yeah, I. I can agree that sometimes we focus on the wrong part of the conversation and we have an advisor before they even tell them that the 8 why the AC is not blowing cold, that you also need $4,000 worth of maintenance work. Right?

Todd Westerlund [00:50:13]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:50:14]:
And that's the bad part about it. Right. And that happens and that's just training. Let's just make sure the advisor training that makes sure that your processes are in place, that you're like, first. Okay. First things first. You need ac. And, you know, we found your low on charge.

Jimmy Purdy [00:50:25]:
We're going to recharge whatever it needs to fix the ac. Also, here's the other item. So that's it. That's an easy adjustment. We can fix that with the 300 rule. The other thing is having the technician who repairs the vehicle actually inspect the vehicle. Right. Because that can create a whole bunch of chaos as well.

Jimmy Purdy [00:50:40]:
Really hard to hold someone accountable if you have one person inspecting the vehicle and you have someone else doing those. Those recommendation on the inspection. Obviously there has to be processes in place to make sure there's accountability held somewhere.

Todd Westerlund [00:50:53]:
Yep.

Jimmy Purdy [00:50:53]:
Right. You don't. I mean, and we all know that the technician. That's a pre. Madonna. That's like, these gases aren't leaking.

Todd Westerlund [00:51:00]:
Yes.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:00]:
Or, hey, you didn't tell me this thing. It needs to remain sealed. You didn't see this, you idiot.

Todd Westerlund [00:51:04]:
Like, so.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:05]:
But that's a real thing. Like, that's a human thing. And we're never going to not have that. Right. Like, and not. It's a bad thing because the dude's probably a rock star, and he's probably absolutely right. He's just got a bad attitude, and that's fine. That's how he is.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:16]:
So.

Todd Westerlund [00:51:16]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:16]:
Or she. Right. Like, we're gonna. We're just like, beggars can't be choosers. Right. Like, if you got a technician that wants to show up and do work, he's gonna do work.

Todd Westerlund [00:51:23]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:24]:
And maybe the culture's a little off, but, you know, if everyone gets along with them and he falls along. But what I'm getting at is, like, there's always gonna be stuff that slips through the crack. And I think that's the things we. For me, I latch on to when you're talking about this rack attack. And when I think about. I'm like, man, I just see. I see so many problems. But also.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:42]:
And this is a great thing that I took away from this event, that's all we look for as technicians. Right. These problems. And most of us are technicians turned shop owners.

Todd Westerlund [00:51:50]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:51]:
How many times do we look at a vehicle and we're like, hey, this is some really nice tires you got here.

Todd Westerlund [00:51:55]:
It's a great point.

Jimmy Purdy [00:51:56]:
So if we're always looking for negativity and the negatives, when you bring up a new process that might kind of rub people the wrong way or changes that. Do you think maybe it's because we're all just constantly looking at what's broken and what might not work?

Todd Westerlund [00:52:10]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:52:10]:
Because that's how our brains have been wired for the last decade.

Todd Westerlund [00:52:14]:
I am. This. That is my major takeaway from this whole weekend is what you just said. They're just thinking on that is, wow. It just kind of, you know, know your audience. It's. It's not. It's not that they're just trying to bash on you.

Todd Westerlund [00:52:29]:
They're trying to break it down and fix it, and that's. That's how we're looking at it. I mean, we've all been on our back underneath the dashboard trying to get the, you know, trying to solder that wire correctly and, you know, not using a butt connector kind of thing. And. And it's. Your back is killing. It does not feel good. It's not a great.

Todd Westerlund [00:52:49]:
And so when you. Sometimes you look, you're thinking, oh, no. Like, I know what this. This is just, you know, your mind is just going to, you know, a negative place instead of, you know, I'm going to get up underneath there. I know where this is. You know, my diagram matches perfectly. It's the red wire. I can do a voltage drop on that.

Todd Westerlund [00:53:10]:
You know, just get it done. Get it done. Yeah. Yeah. So it's. It's a. That's a really, really great point.

Jimmy Purdy [00:53:15]:
I just feel like that's a lot of it. And. And we talked a lot this. This week on the show about. About the mindset and. And having that negativity and. And not understanding the whole picture. Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:53:29]:
And. And. And really having that as, like, your mindset. Right. And trying to pull that back a little bit and. And what you can, instead of being so. I guess I don't know what the word for it is. I can't find it right now.

Todd Westerlund [00:53:42]:
But, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:53:44]:
Quick to decide or have that, you know, just decide, nope, that's not gonna work for me, and I'm moving on.

Todd Westerlund [00:53:47]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:53:48]:
And. And there's a lot of things that you're using that's working. The bottom line here is, like, obviously what you're doing is working for you.

Todd Westerlund [00:53:55]:
Mm.

Jimmy Purdy [00:53:57]:
So is that a bad thing for you to, like, share with people? That. So that's. That's the one thing that rubs me wrong is when someone is sharing their success and there's a lot of negativity about it. I don't understand that.

Todd Westerlund [00:54:09]:
It's.

Jimmy Purdy [00:54:09]:
It is a. I don't understand it at all.

Todd Westerlund [00:54:11]:
I Haven't been able to figure that out either. And we talk about that a lot in our own dinners, you know, when we're together on the weekends, like, wow. We just, like. We're doing a terrible job at just talking to the industry. I mean, we're going to have Nicole Benioff, which is Subie, guys. She changed the business to Empowered Automotive. She was just on the COVID of, I don't know if I can say, the Ratchet Wrench magazine.

Jimmy Purdy [00:54:37]:
Oh, yeah, no talk. Chris is like, dude, that dude is like, a genius.

Todd Westerlund [00:54:41]:
Holy crap, man.

Jimmy Purdy [00:54:42]:
I've had him on the show.

Todd Westerlund [00:54:43]:
Yeah, dude.

Jimmy Purdy [00:54:44]:
You're like, that's right. I had him on too early in the morning because I couldn't keep up with that guy. I'm like, dude, you're on planet right now.

Todd Westerlund [00:54:53]:
He came out and went through the whole process, and he was blown away. He was like, whoa. He sat with Todd and broke down 12 different articles that he was gonna write, but he was just like, in. In the state, the statement is, once you see it, you can't unsee it. You go, wow. Now I get what they're doing. But anyways, Nicole just broke 300k for the first time ever in the history of the shop in a month. And it.

Todd Westerlund [00:55:19]:
It wasn't easy. She had to change a lot of things. They had to be on top of their game every single step of the way. And she called me and she goes, todd, she goes in. People are very proud. We've had 14 people break 300k for their first time. I think Harrison Russ broke 400k for both of his shops recently, and we have folks who broke 500k, but the 300k group in a month. She called, and we're just having kind of a conversation.

Todd Westerlund [00:55:52]:
And I go, I know. I don't want to say this, Nicole, but I'm just going to have to say it. I need you to open for two of those days on Saturday. Do it. Let's get it done. You're right there. She hit, like, 292 and then 294, and she comes to the back of the classroom with me, and she goes, okay, so I'm here next month. So I hit 294.

Todd Westerlund [00:56:12]:
I'm seeing the 300k award, and I was like, 300k is 300k. Like, I can't fudge it for you. We got. You got to do it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:56:20]:
That's where the bar is drawn.

Todd Westerlund [00:56:22]:
That's where the bar is. And Kevin Hughes out of. Out of Yonkers. Hughes Automotive he just broke 300k. You'll see it online because, you know, follow us and see the awards and the pictures. And he called and I mean, soon as he did. And all of us are cheering and so excited. It's not about.

Todd Westerlund [00:56:42]:
Again. It's going to be so hard to get through the industry on this. The 300k is, call it. If you really understand all the work that it would take to get there in a month. It has to be morally right. It has to be about hospitality. It has to be about staying 15 minutes extra to help that person kind of get the car in. It has to be about focusing on the consumer's concern of just their transportation needs, you know, helping them through that.

Todd Westerlund [00:57:16]:
We've had people, we've had it run down and get like their dry cleaning. They're like, man, if I turn my car off, how am I going to do this? I can't get my dry cleaning. I got to get on plane for this. We're like, let's work this through together. Where's your dry cleaning? Okay, let's get you there. We can get you to the airport. Like, it. It has to be that level to get to that level.

Todd Westerlund [00:57:35]:
You. There is no. We would be out of business if our moral compass wasn't on that. That perfect faith based. Yes. There's no way you would just. You can't look at the reviews and see that also, like, wow, they have a lot of great reviews. Imagine if you ever read that shop that's like not doing great.

Todd Westerlund [00:58:03]:
The reviews, you know, they're not great. You can read about it. So, you know, I'm just gonna keep trying. I'm gonna keep trying and just keep with open arms. A couple of the folks in those forums I had to talk to and say, you know, just. Just come out, just come out and. And we have a guarantee. The guarantee is that if you come out and if by the end of the first day you're like, I hate this, I'll.

Todd Westerlund [00:58:29]:
I'll refund you everything back. It's fine, it's fine. Okay. It's never happened. And everybody has got to the end of the first day and they're like, huh, this is different than what you think. And I think. I think from my seat, the message. I hear the message.

Todd Westerlund [00:58:51]:
I get it. But you made a great point. Is like the way they're kind of coming at the audience. The audience is like, we're gonna take it. We're problem fixers. Yeah, you're putting a problem front of us, not a solution. Right we're gonna pick that apart and try to mess with it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:08]:
Well, it's like, I can find all the problem. Because the best technicians in the world, that's what they do. They find what the problem is. So to, like, kind of puff up your chest, right?

Todd Westerlund [00:59:19]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:20]:
Like, show your. Show your ego and show, like, I can find the problems.

Todd Westerlund [00:59:23]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:24]:
This, this, and this is what's wrong. And there's nothing really wrong with that because like I said, that's what we're wired to do. Right. And without that, we'd be in a bad place. Like.

Todd Westerlund [00:59:32]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:33]:
You know, like the automotive industry, because that's the people that need to call out and that needs to happen. That process of elimination needs to occur. Right. When we get a new parts vendor, we get whatever new software is coming out. Like, we need. We need that to, like, shove in the. Like. Did you think about this? Did you think about that? Sometimes it comes across a little negative.

Jimmy Purdy [00:59:52]:
But that's the one thing I like about negative reviews that I've come to find in the last few years is like, that's really valuable information. Some of it is just garbage.

Todd Westerlund [00:59:59]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [01:00:00]:
But like, if you can put your blinders on and to put your ego away for two seconds and be like, wait a second, let me read through this here. Let me see what happened here. These people giving you free advice, like, and real raw, like, most people that get upset about something, they don't say nothing.

Todd Westerlund [01:00:13]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [01:00:13]:
So, like, for them to actually vocally, like, say, hey, this is what happened. This is how I feel. I mean, that's. They are paying your check. Right. Like, they're the ones that pay your rent. So, like, if they're not happy, maybe it is something you're doing. I don't know.

Jimmy Purdy [01:00:27]:
Yeah, I just like to look at a different. You know, the thing I wanted to ask you, too, was you had brought up Mike Allen.

Todd Westerlund [01:00:32]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [01:00:33]:
Was. Was the free diag thing.

Todd Westerlund [01:00:35]:
Oh. Oh.

Jimmy Purdy [01:00:36]:
And how much slack that's getting. And I just want to get, as we get down to the end of this thing, wrapping it up. I just want to get your honest opinion on how you feel. And if that's something that you're. You're teaching as well in your class.

Todd Westerlund [01:00:46]:
Yeah. So. And that's something, again, fundamentally, you have to think of over all these years. We have technology processes, we have ways that we have been trained. We have different coaching programs that have taught this the same way for 30 years as an example. And how could we ever give away the inspection? There's just no Way. There's no way. So think of it this way, that.

Todd Westerlund [01:01:15]:
What if the service writer or the person who's selling the job, if you will, what if 95% of the people they talk to that actually closed? Okay. They actually. I hate to use that word, closing. Sorry, erase that once you don't salesy. Bad word.

Jimmy Purdy [01:01:33]:
It's a close ratio. That's the only way you can monitor that KPI, right?

Todd Westerlund [01:01:37]:
Yeah. And so the reason that it's a rub is that if we're closing at 15, 50%, which is very normal in the industry, hey, if we're up like 54, 60%, you're a hot shop. Like, that's. That's pretty good. Yeah. Solid. And you know, you have to stop and think about it and go, well, 40% of the repairs you're writing, it's. It's not.

Todd Westerlund [01:01:58]:
You're losing. They are going somewhere else. There's something you're doing wrong. They're not just not getting fixed.

Jimmy Purdy [01:02:04]:
Right.

Todd Westerlund [01:02:05]:
There's something in that process that's making a massive amount of them go somewhere else. So if that person was closing at a high ratio, the. The hour we just give it to the tech. Doesn't. Doesn't matter. They're so confident. It's not a concern. I understand in the shops where that is not set up in the way that we do it, they couldn't do that.

Todd Westerlund [01:02:28]:
It is a concern and a valid concern. I get it. Mike has been through our class. I think this is his eighth time. He booked for. He booked for January. I think he was slammed for December. But he's come through and taking each of those pieces and having those best months, those best months.

Todd Westerlund [01:02:56]:
So that there's so many parts of that that are so long. And I'm trying to be careful of what I say because you need all of those to have that aha. Moment go, oh, I get it, I get it. It's. There is a level of hospitality that if we back up for a quick second, that also has to be there with the consumer. A really, really. If we think about when we first opened our doors, the first people that came through, we are so grateful and we remember them and they've been coming to us for 20 years. We absolutely love Mr.

Todd Westerlund [01:03:35]:
Johnson. I love him. He's great. Now I'm doing his daughter's car and I was there before she was even born and like all those things at all. But if we're closing it 50% and we kind of start getting a little bit of a negativity of like, this is people just coming in. I don't have that bond with them because 50% of them aren't going to buy. And that's tough to build that relationship. That's kind of in the back of your mind.

Todd Westerlund [01:04:05]:
We don't have that. We don't have that problem. Across these, our eight shops and the shops that we're teaching, they get. They're like, oh, we get it. We don't have. We're starting to not have that problem also. So they're. They're taking the time to build that really great relationship with that consumer because at some point they're going to have to say, you know, here's something that you need, and it's my professional obligation to.

Todd Westerlund [01:04:32]:
To not let you go drive out on the road, like, let's work together and, you know, get this fixed. And so. So that part also has to be there because then the free inspection isn't such a big concern because the consumer is. Has such a great rapport and they love the shop. They're like, wow, this is. I. Like, this is something too. That was very big.

Todd Westerlund [01:05:02]:
And the first time I saw it, I was like, man, that's legit. Like, that is. I was like, is the new customer tour of the shop. So as you come in, like, just imagine first, you're greeted with just such understanding that the person in front of you is in distress. They are. They're not there because they want. No, I don't go to the dentist because it sounds fun. You know, I'm in distress.

Todd Westerlund [01:05:26]:
I do not want to be there. And so the times I've had to take my car in and something's, you know, broke on it, and I'm like, oh, man, it's a mess. I gotta fly. Drop the car off. Can't fix it myself. So I'm in distress, and I don't need somebody who's grumpy or in my face or I can't do it, or I can't help you, or this or that's like, man, listen, I'm already. So if they're coming at me almost like, hey, I just saw you get out of the car. It looks like your arm is broken because it's pointing the other direction.

Todd Westerlund [01:05:55]:
How can I help you? Let me get the door for you. So imagine, have them coming in, walking through, going, you know, here's actually our service writer team, and they kind of wave and smile. Over here is our waiting room. Kind of want to take you through. I'm going to take you on a tour of the shop and just kind of show you, you know, how we run the shop, the different levels of technology that we have, the cleanliness of the shop. That's also very important, too. The professionalism of somebody giving you a tour and speaking to you in that very professional level. It gives that consumer so much trust in one if they go anywhere else.

Todd Westerlund [01:06:36]:
Okay. And the, you know, I have seen this. I mean, they hand you the repair order. There's grease all over it. Here's your keys, the floor mats there. How many of us, you know, take the floor mat, open the door, throw it on the ground to drive home, the car is pulled up, the door is open, we go in, we. We get the consumer, you know, our family member, because that's. We treat everybody like a family member.

Todd Westerlund [01:07:03]:
We, as. We've already gone through an invoice review with them, so they feel comfortable with it. Every single line item. They have to understand and feel comfortable. How many times do we take the repair order, we push it across keys? Okay, let's run the bill. It's $4,800.

Jimmy Purdy [01:07:21]:
Your totals at the bottom.

Todd Westerlund [01:07:22]:
Your totals at the bottom. We're nervous because it's, it's, you know, once you get bit, you your, your, Your guards up. And I, And I understand that was.

Jimmy Purdy [01:07:32]:
It once bitten, twice shy.

Todd Westerlund [01:07:34]:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You're like.

Jimmy Purdy [01:07:35]:
I think a lot of them don't, like, don't think they have that shop. Right. To do a tour. Most of them don't think they're worth that.

Todd Westerlund [01:07:43]:
That big return. They're great people.

Jimmy Purdy [01:07:46]:
Yes. All these shops, I mean, and you might be thinking the one that. Not you personally, but whoever's listening, I don't have a shop I can do a tour with. I'm sure it's a lot nicer than most, right?

Todd Westerlund [01:07:55]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [01:07:55]:
And even if it's not, if you're still willing to open the doors, like, this is the best I can do at this moment. Right. Maybe someone's willing to, you know, spend more money with you. So you invest in you. Right. Like, and you can tell them, hey, one day, I'm really hoping to redo my floors one day. And I think, I think that's missed, too. I think that's really missed.

Jimmy Purdy [01:08:12]:
And. And one of the other takeaways I had from this weekend was. Was calling when you're slow and just saying, hey, look, we're really slow, and I'd like to keep the guys busy. There was some deferred work. Would you be willing to bring your vehicle in and, And. And support Us, like, we could really use the help. And I think that's really hard for a lot of guys to do that. Yeah, right.

Jimmy Purdy [01:08:29]:
And girls, I mean, whoever you are as a shop owner, like, just to say, hey, we're not really meeting the, our goals. And instead of like just being honest about it, they try to find another way to manipulate the situation, to bring cars in or, you know, or to hide something. And even though they're being transparent, they're like, well, shovel that in the corner so when someone shows up, they don't see it. Right. Like, just do it.

Todd Westerlund [01:08:51]:
Like, I know hiding the cores behind something, it just doesn't. This doesn't look pleasing to the eye. You're like, you know, completely get it. That that is something too, is if the shop isn't perfect, that's all right. If I, if you came into my house, I mean, I got one bathroom that needs to be redone upstairs. It's not great. Whatever, you know, but if I'm just honest with you about. Just honest.

Todd Westerlund [01:09:15]:
Just, hey, listen, you know, this is our waiting room. Maybe we have a nice little flat screen TV in there that shows maybe it's a little coffee center and that, hey, I have this done. We are looking at doing the floor sometime. I don't know, I don't know when they are a little kind of dirty. So I apologize on that. But you know, just to let you know, that's something that's important to us and, and it's something we're continuing to work on. But I do want to show you, you know, here's where our scanners are. These scanners are the top technician, you know, technology that you need.

Todd Westerlund [01:09:48]:
You know, so whatever. Great point, great point.

Jimmy Purdy [01:09:51]:
It reminds me of like when the, when the wife, when you have a guest over and the wife's like cleaning around like under the toilet. Like, what are you doing right now? Like you think the guests are going to come over and like, I found the dirt, I found it sturdy. Oh my God. You keep your washing machine this dirty. Like, no one's even going in the laundry room. Why are you cleaning like this right now?

Todd Westerlund [01:10:11]:
It's, it's, it's great.

Jimmy Purdy [01:10:13]:
It's a human instinct, right? Like, I'm never letting anybody in my house unless it's perfect. Like nobody lives in a freaking perfect house.

Todd Westerlund [01:10:18]:
Yeah, yeah. And, and so one, one thing you brought up, I want to touch base on just again real quick. Was a great thing, was callbacks. So we, we got to a point and Todd Hayes teaches on this. We have A whole segment on it. Very, very important on callbacks, next day callbacks, satisfaction surveys and also pre books and decline service, kind of all of that. Okay, so I get it. Nobody in the United States has any time to have the service writer call through or busy or slammed.

Todd Westerlund [01:10:54]:
I totally understand. On top of that, if we do have that technology, we are trying to keep track of it as we're getting to those people. What happens is we then get busy and then we don't do it. So Glenn talks about this when he's teaching. He's like, listen, I'm starting to call through this list. We just had this process. We get slammed. I stuff the list underneath a pile of papers there and we get to a point it slows down.

Todd Westerlund [01:11:23]:
I look over at that list, I pulled that list back out, man, I'm going to call these people kind of thing. And he was like, you know, the thing is, what needs to happen is the calls need to happen when we're busy, not when we're slow. Okay. If the calls are happening when we're busy because somebody was just posting. I was reading about like the slow times and I'm like, I'm not, I don't mean this in any again, peace and love, not arrogance, no ego, nothing. And just don't have slow times. We'll have slower times, but we don't have slow times because we have a full call center. We have over 50 shops that work with us that are other independent shops.

Todd Westerlund [01:12:05]:
A lot of them are just single location that we do all their next day callback, satisfaction callback on top of that pre book, all of those things as far as getting their state inspection set up. So when you see that you, you come through and you actually go to the call center and watch a call center again, that whole aha goes like, whoa. So this last, the last month we did, and I'm giving the truthful one, which is last month, but the month before that we did it was a lot bigger, so a little bit quieter. Last month we Pre booked over $500,000 in services tracked that would not have come in. We literally have a very strict rule of how we, how we track that, how we, you know, just how we track it. So you can see. And that was something too where I looked at and I said, oh, that's like opening a shop with a shop. There's no brick and mortar to it, but there's $500,000 of, of, of pre books and inspections and all of those things booked through, doing those calls.

Todd Westerlund [01:13:21]:
So there is something Very important about it. I think I understand the industry where it's hard back love him or hate him, whatever. I. Yes. I used to be the CEO of Kukui for 7 years. Wanted things I built was a next day callbacks and it just took what was coming up in the future 90 days decline services and it pulled it up from your system and showed a list of who you could call. Okay. Nobody had time to do it.

Todd Westerlund [01:13:51]:
I mean the guys would try became punishment.

Jimmy Purdy [01:13:55]:
Yeah.

Todd Westerlund [01:13:56]:
It was like on Tuesday you're going to have to go call this do 20 calls a day.

Jimmy Purdy [01:14:02]:
So awful. I hate cold calls, man.

Todd Westerlund [01:14:05]:
And so. So now imagine you have or 14 now hiring two more will be at 20 here the next 90 days. Professional people who are making a hundred calls a day, they're comfortable with it. This is their wheelhouse. You know, me and you. It's not our wheelhouse. I want to go fix a problem in the car. Okay.

Todd Westerlund [01:14:28]:
I don't want, you know. Oh, well, I'm really glad you called. You know, I'm still hearing it clicking. Oh man, I'm really sorry about that. Let's get you back in. Let's. You know there. That's what they're trained to do.

Todd Westerlund [01:14:41]:
That's where they're really, really comfortable. We have so many calls that we, we play back too that are so good where the customer goes. Are you just calling to check in on me? Like, whoa. My whole life no automotive shop has ever called to check in on me after again to the industry. I understand we don't have time.

Jimmy Purdy [01:15:05]:
We're a little scared to hear about the clicking. That's still there too, right?

Todd Westerlund [01:15:08]:
Yeah, yeah, I mean I get it, I get it. I. If I have a hundred people, a hundred of my clients back at my shop that I can think of. I had those four front 30 that just set the keys and could care less whatever it is and run the card and I don't care. And they just sign off. And then I would have that group in the middle that the normal group and then I'd have a group that no matter how much I did and how many coupons I gave or a discount or over and above and I just tried my best. It could not make them happy. I just couldn't do it.

Todd Westerlund [01:15:42]:
And yeah, I'm afraid to call that person. I get it, I get it. They're gonna light me up and you know, if I've had a long day, you know, I just finished getting the heads on. Something's not right now I'm waiting for A part. And I gotta tell this, this customer that, you know, I get it. There's so much and I don't want to start calling people and hear that. I totally get it. So we have a team that does that.

Todd Westerlund [01:16:06]:
And once that started happening, all these shops start raising their hand going, oh, I want that. How much is that? You guys do that? Boom. I'm doing it now, interestingly enough. I don't want to give away the secret sauce, but I'm gonna give away a little bit. I really appreciate you for reaching out and having us out and doing that with hospitality and open arms when you just saw me lit up online on Facebook. So I really appreciate it. Nicole of Empowered Automotive show, she's been using our callbacks for a couple months. Kevin Hughes of Hughes Automotive, both of these folks who are ones who just broke the 300k in a month, also using our callbacks as I start going through them, David Newman, Harrison Rusk, all these people are hitting these benchmarks.

Todd Westerlund [01:17:00]:
They have somebody making those next day calls for them when they're slammed busy. They have experts doing it and they have them, you know, they're doing. They have somebody doing it for them. The stuff they don't want to do. You and I don't, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it.

Jimmy Purdy [01:17:17]:
So I can get behind something like that. I can appreciate that kind of. Yeah. Because that's what we need, right? We need to follow up. And just like I said, I appreciate the negative reviews, everyone. Negative review you get. There's probably maybe nine or eight other ones that just don't want to post something publicly. They just move on.

Jimmy Purdy [01:17:33]:
But if you were able to actually reach out to them and maybe catch something, right. I think they respect you for it.

Todd Westerlund [01:17:40]:
Some of them, I tried. Some of them, like, so negative and like, wow, man. Some serious hate thrown out in there. Like, sounds like you've made horrible life decisions. And I'm like, wow. And so it. I kind of got to pick and choose, choose my time.

Jimmy Purdy [01:17:57]:
Sure.

Todd Westerlund [01:17:57]:
So I'm like, oh, the ones at the front. He said, ah, Todd, give me a call, I'll listen. You know, I have somebody very well known who's here who reached out and said, hey, let's sit down and let's talk about this auto shop answers, you know, and so that's, that's where I'll be going after this. To sit down with one shop owner. I think it's four locations and just talk about it. You know, he's like, I Got questions for you. I'm not. I'm not jumping on any plane until we talk, you know, and that's fair.

Todd Westerlund [01:18:28]:
Can you listen to the gearbox? I'm gonna speed this along real fast.

Jimmy Purdy [01:18:34]:
Well, I appreciate your time coming on. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I appreciate you and come in and explain it, because that's the biggest thing. It's one thing to take all that rap and then not want to talk to anybody about it.

Todd Westerlund [01:18:45]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [01:18:45]:
It's something different when you get knocked down. You're like, hey, let me at least tell my side of the story. Right?

Todd Westerlund [01:18:49]:
Mm.

Jimmy Purdy [01:18:49]:
Right. That's the biggest thing. Right. If any. If there was one person out there that's listening right now that can take something away from what you've said. I've done my job, and that's all I'm trying to do. Right.

Todd Westerlund [01:18:58]:
I'm so appreciative. I thank you so much for that. And I think that just because I sit in that I'm the president of the company, and maybe folks see me in a certain way. You can see on this knuckle that. That. That darkness right there. So that's a good one. And so you learn that.

Todd Westerlund [01:19:14]:
Why do we have bones? That's so when you slip with your die grinder, it doesn't go through your finger. And the thing is so all across my hands are scars from slipping. And those of you out there who know if you had to break one of those crank bolts loose on one of those Hondas, and you're looking at it, and the only way to do it is you're going to smash your knuckles. That's for me. Whatever. Call me a lug head, whatever you want.

Jimmy Purdy [01:19:41]:
But they have weighted sockets. Now, I don't know if you know about that, but they have weighted sockets for that crank, that bolt. But that's all right.

Todd Westerlund [01:19:48]:
Okay.

Jimmy Purdy [01:19:48]:
I'll watch you break your knuckles.

Todd Westerlund [01:19:49]:
I'd wrap a rag around my knuckles. And the thing is old school. I love it. I just. I just get it done. We got it. It's broke. I want to get it done.

Todd Westerlund [01:19:58]:
You know, so. So really, at the end of the day, I just. I truly in my heart just want to help. And I want you to not look at the 300k if you're looking at it the wrong way. It's okay. Let's not talk. If you're looking at it the right day, I want you to give the folks in your life, your consumers and your technicians who are working in a concrete floor, they're banging their hands up. They're slipping with their die grinder.

Todd Westerlund [01:20:27]:
I want you to give them a great quality of life because this is the best industry. You know, you and I are not standing on a roof today. Not to worry about falling off. We are not in somebody's teeth drilling away, okay? We're in the great place.

Jimmy Purdy [01:20:43]:
We're in the transportation industry. We make the world go around. That's what we do.

Todd Westerlund [01:20:47]:
Love it. Love it. Thank you so much.

Jimmy Purdy [01:20:49]:
You're welcome.

Todd Westerlund [01:20:50]:
Have a great one.