Changing The Industry Podcast

Eduardo 0:00
How'd you guys get into podcasting?

Lucas Underwood 0:14
Yeah, I mean, that was that was for the most part. That's what it was like to our That being said, we talked a lot on the telephone, right? And we would theorize what was going on with our businesses,

Lucas Underwood 0:59
Okay, nevermind.

Eduardo 1:02
But when we just like talk more or less it, it's so what I've found anyways. So what's your name and where you're from? My name is Ed. I'm from Arizona. Okay. Well, part of Arizona, Maricopa, Arizona, Maricopa, Arizona. Is that Is that the one with the crazy sheriff? No, no, that's that's used to be Sheriff Joe. Yeah, it used to be he's no longer there. Right. What happened with that?

Eduardo 1:29
He got too old. I think she wanted to be on TV. He wanted to complain. Did it work? No. It didn't work out for him too. Well,

Lucas Underwood 40:27
easier to pay the bills easier to make things happen, right? Because you know, where were where the money was coming in? Why it was coming in? How it was coming in, where it was going? What you needed it for? Do you when when you look at this now, are you thinking about an actual shop building? Do you want to stay in the morning or, you know, go build a whole build? No, I want to I want to build fact, I was talking with my wife, we need to go start looking at property because it's only going up.

Eduardo 44:01
118 Yeah, it gets it gets it gets you know we spray the floors to the cooled place now sometimes. And three minutes. It's dry again. Wow. That's crazy. The mobile guys never stay mobile though. Now they always go to actual shop. It seems there's one guy around you're saying it's a it's it is a legit way to go and you know, make a name for yourself or go go out on your own. But nobody stays mobile. Nobody stays more like what you're describing sounds like the most miserable thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Hang on. Here's no I don't know, you're he's a hustler. He is there's zero doubt about that. I don't know that I'm a hustler is necessity right? Yeah. But you're a man. You're a hard worker. Right? And that's what we mean by hustlers like you're you're, you're whatever it takes. You do what you got to do. Yeah. And so like, you know, but that being said, I feel bad about myself. When I play video games.

David Roman 45:00
And radiators from six to nine. And I'm like, I'm gonna watch the Celtics game

David Roman 45:06
and eat cheesecake on my couch. He's not what I do a cheesecake.

David Roman 45:11
I eat cheesecake on the couch and watch the Celtics game. And so, you know, here's the thing, though, is that the construction trades typically work outside, right. And I was sitting here thinking about that, well, you know, it's hot in the summer, it's cold in the winter, there's no alternative. And so but yeah, they start at four o'clock in the morning when the sun's

Eduardo 45:30
out, but it worked to like to Well, I mean, there's no alternative, like, if you're going to, if you're going to do like outdoor framing, and that kind of thing. Otherwise, you have to move to I need to be an electrician, or a painter or a trim guy to move to the inside. But still, you're still there's no air conditioning in there. It's not doesn't get cool. In the winter, where I live, the concrete guys don't have much work, you know, half the year, right? It means we're gonna be slammed, we're gonna get up at 3am. And we're gonna work from 3am until midnight. Yeah, six months out of the year. And then the rest of six months, it's feast or famine, like, Hey, boys be saving your paycheck, you're not gonna get a paycheck these months. So what I'm saying though, is there's an alternative for a technician does want to work outside. Yeah, underneath in somebody's driveway with their kids touching their tools. At 730 in the evening, when you could be home, you know, like, the alternative is I'm gonna go work in a shop, or open my own shop. This is not the life for me. I don't know how you did I commend you and it's it's pay the bills work or be out on the cold you two girls and the wife? That's Do you are you are later working at the dealership, though? No, I was I was working at a body shop when I started with body shop. And the thing with the body shop is I was flat rate. And they'd give me a list of cars they wanted me to do, right? And they'll say, Okay, this suspension back in this one, go ahead and put the engine back in this other one and go. And when I go out, they're the ones who want to be put the engine hasn't had the core supports, you know, well, they've done the same thing with the suspension, still missing the quarter panel. Or it's in the paint booth getting painted. And so I'm standing around doing nothing. And then the boss is like, how can we didn't get anything done? Like, this one's over there. That one's over there. He's look, he's still not put that thing. What do you want me to do? Right? So I sat around, and that's when he doesn't care because he's not paying him. Right. So that's when I started doing the side hustle. Because, you know, at 1000 bucks a week wasn't cutting it. And my bills were adding up and I get home. And the only thing that kept me going was my little girls. Amen, I get home and they hug me and show me all that love. And so I gotta do something else. That's when I had the heart to heart when my wife said, I gotta do something else. Because when I was at the body shop, people were calling me from little jobs that I got lined up. I'm looking at the day after day, I'm like, I make more than a day that I'm making here. And

Lucas Underwood 48:03
yeah, well, I you know, that's the thing is, is that was the catalyst for me to was my little girl code in my life, you know, it was time to do something, it was time to take it and run with it. You know, it wasn't, it couldn't just be feast or famine anymore. It couldn't be that that dad came home stressed out a shell of a human being because work sucked.

Lucas Underwood 48:24
And at that time, I was already a shop owner. It was like I had to figure out how to own a shop. I had to learn how to own a shop all of a sudden. And so, you know, I mean, maybe the next logical question is is, you know, you said, Well, I can make more in that day than I make all week here.

Lucas Underwood 48:42
Did you realize the cost associated with being in business for yourself at that time, did you because you know, now that you've moved full blown business, right? You're not mobile anymore, you're in a shop, you recognize there's a cost associated with doing business. And so you recognize that I can earn X number of dollars a day. But that doesn't mean that I get to keep x number of dollars today. And the good example of that is when you when you

Eduardo 49:09
and this happened many times, it catches up where you get go and you do a job. And you've already purchased the parts and you charge in labor and they give you cash, right? Yeah, you got I got all this cash, right? I'm gonna go ahead, pay this pay that and you forget to pay your parts bill. And then Hey, knock not yours. Exactly. Like where the hell did he go? Rite Aid evaporated? Yeah.

Eduardo 49:36
And that hat went to one or two occasions but you know, you get a hold of it quick or you're done. Right, right. So what I did was, I got a credit because I had started

Eduardo 49:49
while I was working with the body shop, I went got my LLC tie. And then when I went mobile, it was like about a year later I went on

Eduardo 50:00
I'm independent. And I actually went sooner than that. But I had had my LLC for a year, I went to the bank, and the bank lit me up said, Well, you've been in business for years. So they gave me 10 Grand Line of Credit Plus a 10 grand credit card. With that, I started buying parts. And then because I'm using a credit card, my credit rating went through the roof. And that was what I use to this day, to buy parts and just slowly started building. Yeah, and then, and then when I did the course with Cecil, that helped, and I got an accountant.

Eduardo 50:35
And I'm trying to automate. So everybody does everything. And I can sit back, but so if let's say that, let's say that you go back to the day in the body shop, right? And you say, Okay, sounds got to get no change.

Lucas Underwood 50:53
Would you have taken a different path than you took to get where you are now? Would you have done anything differently?

Eduardo 51:01
That's a good question.

Eduardo 51:05
Knowing what I know now, yeah, I would have I would have never entered Body Shop, I'd have gone straight into business. Okay.

Lucas Underwood 51:15
Would you have started with mobile? Because that's where a lot of your clients come from now, I guess, would you still start with mobile? Or would you have gone right to find a facility that you could,

Eduardo 51:25
I would have started mobile. And reason for that is because you need to save some money. I remember, I didn't have, you know, $100,000 in the bank, where I can go buy a building or, you know, didn't buy all this equipment. Right, right. So you go mobile, and you do what you do best. Don't take on any craziness. Like do an engines all the time or, you know, to the quick, you know, radiator hit job, maybe brakes, right stuff that you can do in somebody's driveway as opposed to

Eduardo 51:55
dismantling the whole thing that that resonates with me because I see so many guys go out and try and bite off more than they can chew. Right take on jobs they shouldn't be doing. They do these bigger, feel attacked, feel tired.

David Roman 52:09
I feel what enough. I feel bad enough about this entire podcast. I'm going to scrap it. This isn't ridiculous here. This guy's over here killing it with his with his Lorenzo, and not even a building. He's got an overhang and it's sunny all the time. This is BS. So what you're saying is my time not worth anything right now? Yes, this was a waste of 53 minutes. 53 minutes for making me feel bad about myself.

David Roman 0:02
You wanted to complain on the internet. Yeah, that's about it

Eduardo 0:05
is to just complain. So that's all. That's the only desire. You need to

David Roman 0:09
put your headphones on.

Lucas Underwood 0:10
They're hanging on your mic.

Lucas Underwood 0:27
and talk back and forth and discuss the things that we were going through every day. And so we came back and we said, you know, what? We're, we're sharing things that other people need to hear, right? Besides, our wife said that, Hey, why are you guys talking so much? Like, are you making money doing this? Like is, is there a benefit to this?

Eduardo 0:49
Was she a little jealous? You're talking more than she is?

Lucas Underwood 0:51
Well, I think I think that she was just, you know, how could you be jealous of that? I mean,

Eduardo 1:39
well, now he ran the city with a with a big stick, so to speak. Right. And he cost the city lots of money in lawsuits and stuff like that. It kind of got a little tired of it.

Lucas Underwood 1:50
What was the what was the experience like from a citizen of the city?

Eduardo 1:55
I didn't mind it. I mean, a city it? I don't know. I was never in trouble with the loss. I didn't. It didn't matter. It didn't matter to me. I was, you know, you'd hear on the news, which I turned off the soapbox so to speak, because yeah, it's noise to me. Right. So well, no, I didn't I didn't as a as a person, you know, citizen. I was fine with it.

Lucas Underwood 2:20
Did you notice anything change as he stepped away? In other words, because like some some of those leadership positions, when you see that and that person steps away from that leadership position, you'll see a change in the in society in that city or you'll see a change and crime and things like that. Did y'all notice a change when he was no longer sheriff?

Eduardo 2:39
Yes, there was there was less complaining. There was more of a sense of relief that he was gone. Right. To some to others against the exact opposite. They're mad that you know, he was railroaded out. It's a matter of opinion about who you ask. I guess.

Lucas Underwood 2:56
Yeah. So at the end of the day, we're not gonna make everybody happy is what you're telling me?

Eduardo 3:00
Correct? As if you want to complain in your perfect industry, you've got material for the ever, ever.

Lucas Underwood 3:08
Tell a little bit about shop.

Eduardo 3:10
I have a shop in America, but it's a small shop. Okay. It's me and one of the tech service advisor who was leaving me. I'm devastated. She's so good. She's her husband was trying to get a job in Phoenix. He applied all over the place. And so he uploaded his resume and somebody in Tennessee's snagged him up, really, and they're paying him to move his family and everything out there.

Lucas Underwood 3:36
Really what kind of work is he in? He's in

Eduardo 3:39
equipment maintenance. Well, he's a maintenance supervisor now, I guess, for an assembly line. That's what he does. Oh, very cool. So and so he's working for a chocolate factory in Nashville, Tennessee, a candy or something like so hired him. But she's, he and her bought her house are in the process of buying a house in Clarksville, Tennessee. Yeah. So if any shops out there that need an advisor, she's already been Cecil's advisor course she's taken. About 12 of his online courses are that's pretty cool. And so she's she's trained. She's still in the green around the years here and there. But she's to say that she's detail oriented. I'd be lying to you. She's more OCD to getting things done. When she comes out and pushes me said, You know what, you're slowing me down. Right. So and so she's, she's very good at what she does.

Lucas Underwood 4:36
So you're, you're still turning wrenches in the business? Yes. So what happens now that she moves on are you going to be are you going to step into the role of advisor as well? Are you gonna hire somebody else? What's the plan?

Eduardo 4:50
I'm looking for a tech. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put a tech in there. And I'm looking for attitude, not aptitude. Yeah, because that could always grow. aptitude I'm not wanting to. And I've been bitten many times with, you know, oh, I know everything and they know nothing. Right, right.

Lucas Underwood 5:08
Well, so how, tell us a little bit about how you got started in this. I mean, if you always meditate, you work for somebody else, what was the natural program

Eduardo 5:16
a dealer tech, so to speak. I've started in the dealers. I've been there. I've been fortunate to work for some really good dealerships, the knappenberger organization, and then they were bought out by Penske. And they were both big on training, okay, sent me to all kinds of training of which I'm very grateful for, right. So I've got that behind me. But then I went to the independence, okay. And in start doing that, I want a better body shop. And I'm walking around doing nothing at a body shop. And you know, that time I had two little girls. Yeah. And I started doing side hustle. And so this was right at the cusp, when Facebook was just starting, okay. But I was posting post it notes on on the mailboxes need a mechanic, you know, and I was getting some business. And at the time, there was also a lot of scams going on, where in mobile guys will say, Yeah, let's I'll fix your car's gonna cost $3,000. And then boom, they're gone.

Lucas Underwood 6:21
Right, right. I think I remember some of that. And it was a lot worse in the bigger cities.

Eduardo 6:26
Yeah. And it was, it was kind of tough for me. But what I did to overcome that I'd go to the client says, I'll diagnose your car, tell you what you need to buy. You go buy it. So if something happens, I can't make it. You're not out any money. Right? And so that went on for about three, four months. They start saying No, you're good to go. You can get parts all that fun stuff, right. So I went saw Tom. He's my landlord. And he had a spot for rent. So I rented it. I just wanted to do engines and fuel tanks. Because when you do mobile, and you go to people's houses, yeah, their kids like to touch your stuff. Yeah, of course. Any like, can you get your kids out of here, please? Right. So I didn't like doing stuff on cars, when you know, it becomes a safety thing. Yeah. And that didn't happen all the time. But sometimes in so I decided, no, I'm gonna get some place. So I'd say for all of us, at same time, I didn't like doing gas tanks, dropped into gas tanks in people's houses, right on the driveway rather. And so I got I made the jump. And it was a tough, tough call, because I was leaving one job. That was I was barely, you know, we were scratching by Yeah. And to take that leap and say, Okay, we got to do something. And while I was at work, I was getting phone calls. And I'm like, I can do more in a day than I'm doing here a whole week. Right? So I sat down with the wife, and we had a long talk, because, again, she didn't work. I was the only I was the sole breadwinner. And so I went, rented that place for 500 bucks a month. Okay. And the rest is history. I had customers call me and I'd say, Well, I'm busy here. Well, I'll bring you the car. I'll drop it off. And so they kept bringing me cars. And that was it. I couldn't get away from that. So the mobile stopped in, right, I became a shop. And if you would call it a shop, I'm underneath an overhang, and I've got a Conex container to the house. All my tools. Right. And we've got two lifts now in alignment rack.

Lucas Underwood 8:36
Wow. Are you looking? Are you thinking about expanding bigger? Are you happy where you're at?

Eduardo 8:41
Oh, it's always I've grown every year. Okay. And I want to get I would like to have four walls one day?

Lucas Underwood 8:48
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So well, how did you how'd you hook up with Cecil? How'd you find?

Eduardo 8:56
Well, because I worked at the dealership and I had lots of training and I moved up the food chain so to speak, I was a technician moved up to a dispatcher to service advisor to lead tech our a team leader, okay, shop foreman, right. And so and then all the training that comes with it, they sent me to management courses, I've had interpersonal skills trainings, so I had a lot of the stuff that people are getting right now. Yeah, you know, that are missing. It's not everybody's I've noticed a lot not a lot of people's head training

Lucas Underwood 9:30
for sure. I mean, that's a dude, that's that's pretty impressive that you had all that training because a lot of a lot of guys don't get that much training at all in a dealership. It's like, Hey, we're barely going to teach you to fix cars. We're really more interested in you just you know, keeping your head down and doing what we tell you.

Eduardo 9:45
Right. And for the most part I did and I would always ask my service manager, I need to go to training I need to go train semis. I was flagging good hours and the dealership and I guess they take a liking to you and If you make that commitment to them, right, right, they'll send you to training. So with that, I knew a lot. I was scrolling online and somebody on Facebook had posted the institute. So I had logged on there. I wanted to see what it was about. And I see this course the numbers course. Yeah. And it was 400 bucks. And at the time, I couldn't afford 100 bucks. Yeah. And one day, I'm looking at it again. Should I make that jump? Because I don't have the money, you know? And Cecil dropped it to $50. I saw it for $50. I said, Screw it. I'll make it happen. Yeah. And then when I when I took the numbers course, it just blew my mind wide open. Yeah. On how the business works. Where how?

David Roman 10:45
We've heard of that. Yeah. How did we we heard the Cecil talking numbers and and blew my mind. Well, I

Lucas Underwood 10:50
mean, it did me too. Right. And I had been coaching was someone and heard Cecil talk numbers and was like, holy shit. I mean, it's, it's real life. I mean, the dude is a epic financial teacher,

Eduardo 11:04
is that he lasers that into your brain? Yeah. And I watched the course, like a five year old watches, frozen. You know? What, six, seven times? Right? Yeah. Just just to get it into your head. And that was a game changer for me. Yeah. And then I went ahead and changed my operating system. Would you change to detect metrics? I was actually when I first started, I was just doing the web pages. I go to this parts house webpage. And I hadn't six, seven web pages. And you know, to do one estimate, forever, right? And then I changed to Mitchell. Right? I did Mitchell, I did Mitchell for like a year and a half. But I want to DVI guys. Yeah, I had a separate DVI program that I was using, right? And then when tech metric when I went to a drive seminar that they had in California, yeah. And that's where I met Patel and I looked at it was either them or protractor. Right. They were both there. And I liked the setup with tech metric.

Lucas Underwood 12:11
Right. And I, you know, I had looked at I looked at protractor and Shopware proGenesis. That's the one. And Protractor was a little tough for me. I mean, it was like, so advanced, and there was so much stuff. And so I really, really, like locked on the shop where and the people that shop were the big thing for me was was you know, you talking about parts pages, right, it was like it used partstech. So I was able to pull up like all my parts at once and go. And so like when you're the service advisor, when you're the guy on the front counter manual, spend a ton of time doing that. And you're going from page to page to page to page, you'll consume an hour before you realize you've even done it 30 minutes, and then you got to go back and you're like, man, okay, here's this part of here. Here's this part, you're clicking tab to tab to tab. So you know, for me that deal with Park Sabian and Shopware was the was the big thing. And Sam was tech matric to us march 2.

Eduardo 13:09
And they've they've integrated repair link twos, because I use a lot of dealer parts, right? As you know, aftermarket parts you can't get them half the time. Yeah. And they come in broken or used. Right. So most of my parts I get but I do world pack advanced and parts authority for parts and local, you know.

David Roman 13:37
Check. O'Reilly Sorry. Yeah. It used to be checkers. Yeah. So it's an overhang what explain that to me. It's I cannot envision that

Lucas Underwood 13:48
what it doesn't get nearly as cold where he is does

David Roman 13:52
crazy hot.

Eduardo 13:54
Yes. And the beauty of where I'm at the overhang is laid out east to west so the sun goes directly above us from one side to the other. It doesn't shine into the stars. Which is nice. But still you sweat and you get a little breeze. It's cool. It's not as hard it is hot. I will I will tell you this it is hot. But you become accustomed to it. Know when you're busy. You don't worry about get a swamp cooler on you or fan you're good to go

David Roman 14:21
right into swamp coolers covers everything and do. Does everything gets wet.

Eduardo 14:30
Now now useless above 110

Lucas Underwood 14:35
David says I am useless above 100

David Roman 14:38
We can't get to 90 It's hot right now.

Eduardo 14:42
And not it gets pretty hot to where if you get out from underneath the overhang and it burns your skin. Yeah.

Lucas Underwood 14:49
I had a I had a buddy who we were down in front of his shop at one point he like laid down on the ground. It's just gravel right? And he lays down on the ground and he's like ouch He stands up when he stands up, he's got blisters on the back of his arm because the gravel was thought that, you know, when you lay down, it would merge up there and not where I'm at. He was down in the country, he was down in the flatland. So you know, 100 degrees is nothing. And and like in the middle of North Carolina, there's no airflow. You know what I'm saying? Like there's, you go to the coast, do you go to the mountains, you got a breeze, but it's kind of like that breeze goes a long ways and just misses this whole section. Just gets a hot sweat, we call it the armpit of North Carolina. You know, it's just like, no airflow whatsoever. I could not imagine working in that.

David Roman 15:36
So there's no doors.

Eduardo 15:38
Or to give you an idea to paint my shop. If I were to paint my shop, it'll cost me probably $45. How do you how do you secure the I've got a Conex container. Okay, I've got two of them, actually.

David Roman 15:52
So all your tools are inside of there. So you got a 110 degree weather walk into a Conex trailer that's hot as hell is hot as hell to get to tools that that are burning at this point. No, no, because what

Eduardo 16:05
we do is we roll out our toolboxes outside. So they're outside but we also have to be careful when the sun's shining on the bench. Not to leave your tools there. Yeah, when the sun because you you leave it there two minutes, you can use the rent still? 500 No, it's gone up because I'm now four bays. With the ability to add two more if I put a slab to own the land. No, no. Okay. We were going round and round with that just the other day. I mean, the landlord?

David Roman 16:39
Would it be really difficult to build on that land? Or is there just no building space available? And in the area?

Eduardo 16:48
And yeah, there's no commercial buildings in my little town and it's growing. wicked fast.

Lucas Underwood 16:55
Yeah. Well, I mean, down here, like you go around, Key West and anywhere in Florida. You're gonna see open air shops all over the place. Like it's really common.

David Roman 17:07
Ross out Ross everything. That's because of this. Robert had Robert Griffin had to two lifts out and open. Yeah. And I thought it was the weirdest thing. So I pull up and I go into this transmission shop and I'm talking to the owner. And we go, he's like, yeah, I gotta, I gotta lift here. I gotta lift here. We just keep walking. This building's enormous. And another lift and another lift. Well, it was more like lift than a giant rack of parts. And then another lift, and then another rack of junk in my belly. Yeah, I saw that. It looks awesome. And we get to the back and he's like, Yeah, I got these two lifts here. One of them was just rusted to death. And then he's got this kid out there working on the car. And then I was just riding, but like cats and dogs riding like, sky just opened up. And I'm like, is he just out there? I was like, Oh, he's not gonna get that way. He's got, I think he's gotten over. Yeah, he's underneath something. But still cool. So

Lucas Underwood 18:04
you started mobile? There's a lot of guys, right? Because let's talk. Let's talk about the the perception of the technician right now. Because a lot of guys who are doing full

David Roman 18:15
on Hola, what about what about buying out a business that's like going out of business or is trying to sell or

Eduardo 18:22
there's no businesses in the last year. We had corporations come to come in. We have like iconic Discount Tire brake masters AMCO. Brakes Plus, there was five that just within the last three and a half years. Okay, that showed up and build there on the main drag. Yeah, three and a half miles off the beaten path so to speak. Okay. And there is no commercial buildings anywhere. If you've got a you in a residential area. No, no, I'm in a, what you call a what used to be a salvage yard. Okay, he liquidated get rid of everything. And now it does open fuel. Okay. It's an industrial park. And what I'm where I'm at is where he used to dismantle cars or store transmissions. Okay, so you got rid of all of that stuff.

David Roman 19:13
How are you pulling customers in?

Eduardo 19:15
There's no street traffic, right? No, no, no street traffic.

David Roman 19:18
Is this all like word of mouth from from your mobile days? Yes. Really? Yes. That's pretty cool. What the hell am I doing wrong? Is it that I'm just I'm not likable. You're just seem like a likable guy. Well, I've had to go to duardo

Eduardo 19:33
I've had a lot of training, you know, advisor training, personal, interpersonal skills training. I've got more training than most I guess it was what helps me how to deal with customers. You know, the tough customer, you know? And the best thing I could tell you just just the truth, don't sugarcoat anything.

Lucas Underwood 19:56
So let me ask you

David Roman 19:58
to record everything. Oh, Lucas, you're a swell guy called the crop.

Eduardo 20:05
There's a point where you sugarcoat it to where we know you're lying.

Lucas Underwood 20:09
Exactly. So I guess my next question is how many cars with you being a tech and having another Tech with you? How many cars do you guys typically seen a day?

Eduardo 20:21
We're seeing about six, six cars a day. Holy cow.

Lucas Underwood 20:24
And so you you be in cars with

Eduardo 20:28
one tech, two Tech's, well, a tech and a half. Yeah. Because I do you know, the office and for a Florida car run and test drives and stuff,

Lucas Underwood 20:40
is what kind of average repair order do you see?

Eduardo 20:43
Right now with my advisor, she's up to 780. Wow.

Lucas Underwood 20:48
So a two guys and 780 and six cars.

David Roman 20:52
I'm doing this all wrong. We were talking to one guy who had nine employees. This dude's running the same numbers with two employees.

Lucas Underwood 21:05
He just smoked you.

Eduardo 21:07
Well, I still have a production I get six cards. I don't get them all out. I wish I could get them all out. Right now.

David Roman 21:15
You're getting six in a day though.

Eduardo 21:17
Yeah, I get I get she she books six in but you know, you get all changes. You get a rattle here and there.

David Roman 21:23
They are. Oh, 707.

Eduardo 21:26
I think seven at last I checked.

Lucas Underwood 21:29
I mean, that's about that's about where I'm at. I'm running less. I'm running less invoices a day. Right? Are

David Roman 21:39
you seeing six a week?

Eduardo 21:42
Six every three days? How's that? Let me see. I'm gonna because I look at the thing. And she's she tells me and I because I don't look at those numbers anymore. Because I let her do it. I let her run the whole ship, so to speak. I tell her she's the captain while I'm gone. I'm going to look it up right now. I'll tell you what.

Lucas Underwood 22:00
So is the tech there right now? Are they Yes, working in and moving? That's pretty cool.

Eduardo 22:06
But right now that they're not doing I still have to be there to make sure he does what we need them to do. Okay, and he doesn't speak any English. Oh really? She doesn't speak any Spanish so she's got a chance

Lucas Underwood 22:24
it's tough. I could not imagine that.

Eduardo 22:27
So what is

David Roman 22:29
the Mexican mechanic

Eduardo 22:33
yes

David Roman 22:35
that's not that's not what it is. I have two Mexicans we don't get those kind of numbers out. So I should we double and then there should be double his productivity.

Eduardo 22:45
Well, no, we're not I mean, I don't know what are you doing a month?

David Roman 22:50
Not what you're doing apparently. No, no. Well, no.

Eduardo 22:53
Let's look at

David Roman 22:57
But dude, we talked to yesterday. Yeah, nine employees. Nine. Yeah, I can't pay nine employees. This time. I am either overpaying my employees, which I don't think that's that's the case. Nine so

Eduardo 23:13
we've got frankly my hours are up my car is not at 76 for the month of January. That's really good. And one tech.

Lucas Underwood 23:26
Yeah, one tech in yourself. Yeah, that is really good.

Eduardo 23:31
Here's here's my numbers for last month. Let's turn it this way. So you can see the cars and then the Avatar was a little less than what we normally do when she

David Roman 23:49
does Yeah, no, that's really good. Yeah, that do that stellar. That was really good.

Eduardo 23:56
That That guy is humping no we're not we see so tells me I should be doing double what I'm doing and are we want to attack we can do more we need to get another tech yeah

David Roman 24:08
yeah good is count yourself as a tech but it's really hard to be a shop owner slash tech and be as productive as a full time tech.

Eduardo 24:16
Let's see this thing in my advisor tells me we need to get the cars that we need to get my productions always been my my my nemesis. I don't push back. Well yes, and he's a he's a BTEC to boot heat. And let me show you how I got him.

David Roman 24:34
Oh, hold on, hold on. Hold on. I gotta ask more questions here. I gotta wrap my mind around this or this is gonna bother me. Does he have a lot of comebacks? I have the wrong Mexicans. Well, it's nice to find me some authentics

Lucas Underwood 24:52
your is authentic. It's good.

Eduardo 24:55
What kind of training are you offering?

David Roman 24:56
not Mexican.

Eduardo 24:58
Minimum. What kind of training Are you off? Free.

David Roman 25:00
I offer all the training all of it. What what is it? What is where

Lucas Underwood 25:03
he takes him to ASCE he goes, he sends him to classes in Kansas City all the time he sends him to vision.

David Roman 25:10
Yeah, we're just doing a class. Yeah. You know what I don't think my my, here's the thing I was all I'm saying is I can replace most of my staff with his Mexican

Eduardo 25:24
I don't know. All of your staff. What's his name? He doesn't speak. Your name is Lorenzo Nava. And does he ever brother? You know what? I'm not sure. I know. He's got some cousins.

David Roman 25:40
I'll take some cousins.

Eduardo 25:41
You know how I got him. In this. I was a one man show. This is five years ago. And he came to me with an Alltel that someone had given him he wanted to learn how to use it. So you wanted a job so you can learn how to use it. And I'm like, Well, I don't have time to train. I'm a one man show. I'm taking the office. I can't do this. But at the time I was looking into electrode electrode is automotive training online isn't what you do modules. I don't know if you're familiar with it. Yeah. So your milk they gave me they gave me a trial run. Because I was looking for something I can I can give to the technician, but also monitor am I and say, I'll sign you electrical class. Yeah. And make sure it actually gets done right. And I can monitor that. So that what you're doing, I told me, I let him I'll sign him up for that. And he can take some training. And then we'll, you know, that's all I can do. And it's gonna expire. And he said, Okay, so I signed them up for it. And again, the good thing about electronic, it's got like, 28 different languages. Yeah. And it had Spanish, so I gave it to him. And that gave it to the other two shops that are are you really going to love this. I gave to the other two, two shops that were across from me, right? And between those two, they had like three minutes. A month later, a month goes by he comes back. And he's he's got a question on voltage drop. And I thought he was wanting a job. We're gonna say, I can't hire you. Sorry. Because no, no, I just got a question. So I go on, and I show it to him. And just for shits and giggles, I went ahead and looked at how much he's done. He did 35 modules holy get an hour each hole in a month. So he was he was dedicated to learn. Yeah, I'm like, Well, this guy is hungry to learn, right? And I'm like, Okay, I still couldn't hire. So he went on his way after I showed him what it was. I'm thinking in my head, damn, this guy's really committed. He's wanting to learn, and I can go, I can use that I can work with that. And so he came back a month later, it had expired. He says, I can't log on anymore. I'm like, it was a trial. So I'm sorry. You know, that's what it was. I can't. He goes, No, I don't, I'm not asking for a job. I already got a job. I'm doing landscaping. And then, at that time, he caught me at the right time, because I was inundated with work. And I'm trying to, you know, talk to him and tell him, you know, I can't that I said, You know what all I can offer us 11 bucks. He says I'll take it. Right. All right. So because he knows nothing about it, I said I can work with it. So one thing led to another, he's been with me five years going on six years. And I've got him elected. And then what I did started doing to was I got this other program, which was it's done by our what is our training? What's the name of that? It's an English based training online when you get an instructor and so I started facilitating that every Wednesday morning, and we did the AC, you know, theory of operation, all that fun stuff. And then we would go into the shop and apply it. AC is big in Arizona, and then we go ahead and do brakes. And then when do you know the maintenance stuff, and then show them the DVIR what we're looking for in suspension, what we're looking for, and he's killing it. That is crazy. And so and he knows that I want things done. And I told him I said you know what, if you break something, if you bend something, if something doesn't seem right, to me, especially if you break something, because if the car leaves with it broken and you didn't tell me I'm going to be upset but if you break it, you're gonna make mistakes. Yeah. Okay. So he's got the confidence in to do it and he's had some you know, mishaps but it is what it is. And I can't fault him for that and sustain movies fresh. Yeah. And he started because we did the electrical he can work the PICO scope. So go test that in Stockholm a BTech Wow.

David Roman 29:58
He's, he's he's like a sport. pay goes he's,

Eduardo 30:02
well, no, you know what, it's funny because when I get when I get back, I'm gonna I'm gonna change. No, he's he's right now he's, I got him on on a hybrid pay scale that I need to change because he's getting $15 an hour for 80 hours because I'm paid bi weekly. And then he gets $10 an hour for every flag as a bonus, but I'm gonna I'm gonna bump his base salary to thinking 25 Yeah, and then give him another $5 for the bonus our city does. And then for every ASC he gets another buck for longevity. He's going to click that off, because he's already been with me five years. So probably give him a little extra on that.

Lucas Underwood 30:40
And what's your labor rate right now?

Eduardo 30:42
It's 141. Wow,

David Roman 30:44
holy moly. With an overhang and a garden banging out 76 cars by himself a month. Now not by himself. It's him isn't I know, you want to keep saying It's him.

Eduardo 30:55
It's him. And I trust me. But now I'll throw another another twist. Because we're in a, an old facility. Right. And there's very little commercial property out there. The other two shops that are there, we all share the same office. That small room we're in now. That's insane.

Lucas Underwood 31:16
I couldn't resist

David Roman 31:19
that. I'm lazy. I think

Lucas Underwood 31:22
that is a lot of like most of them. I know what I was gonna say which one are we attributing this to? So, okay, a couple things.

Eduardo 31:38
You want to call my advisor right now and say, Hey, how's Edie treating you? What?

Lucas Underwood 31:44
So here's, here's the she stay

David Roman 31:45
in the office.

Eduardo 31:46
She's there. Yeah. And I told you know what I tell her. I said, You know what? I know what just thing in the office to eat lunch. Good. But she doesn't want to drive to her house. Like, go to the backseat, because people are going to walk through the door. And they're going to want you to answer questions, and they're going to interrupt you and I don't want that. I want you to enjoy your lunch the way it is. And then I tell her at five o'clock. I want you gone. I don't I don't get well. I gotta know, go on. I say tell the same thing that my tech. I don't want them there. I hate working extra

Lucas Underwood 32:16
fuss at mine all the time. Because they want to stay. And I'm like, Listen, this is my responsibility. Right? Like, if somebody's gonna give up something to me here and make this work. It's gonna be me. Right? You guys aren't giving up something? You? That's not the deal. All right. And so I appreciate him. Right? Like one stayed late for you the other night?

David Roman 32:35
I never stay late. You guys do what you want. I'm going oh,

Lucas Underwood 32:40
he's a really terrible

David Roman 32:42
night. And then there's that one went terrible

Eduardo 32:43
owner there? Yes. Then you wonder I know, I can't, I can't No Go away in my philosophy is treat your treat, treat your employees and train your employees so they can get a job anywhere else. But treat them so they never want to leave? Well,

Lucas Underwood 32:59
so here's, here's where this comes back through for me, right? Is because you were a technician. Yes. There's a lot of really disgruntled technicians right now. Yes, a lot of them are saying, Hey, I'm gonna go

David Roman 33:11
and he doesn't need any of them. Because he found out.

Lucas Underwood 33:15
He's gonna go start a mobile business. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go start a mobile business, I'm gonna start fixing cars, I'll keep all that profit for myself, I'll just put all that money back, I'm gonna make a fortune I make more than I make now doing that it's not gonna be stressful. It's not gonna be this, it's not gonna be there. I'll go start a shop. And I'm gonna start my own shop. I'm not gonna have to deal with all this. I'm not gonna have to deal with these problems. What do you say to them?

Eduardo 33:38
Take Cecil's course. It'll open your eyes. Because there's a lot that they don't know. And I see, you know, when I come to these seminars, and these these events, because of the training that I've had in the past, now, I'm a guy that knows everything but knows nothing. Okay. Yeah. You. To me, it seems like a refresher course of what I've already had, yes, years ago, and all the stuff that all the training that I had was back in the early 2000s. Okay, and they're teaching it today. Yeah. And so I'm like, okay, but we're the aftermarket kind of thing. So, and, you know, you guys were talking earlier about the corporates and how people are, you know, they're become the new nemesis. We don't want to go there. And they want to use the, the, and I've got this theory that the reason people are wanting to go to the mom and pop stores now is because Mom and Pop are doing what they can to survive. They're doing side jobs. They're, you know, and so they see that as less support mom and dad, you know, I mean, yeah, they're

Lucas Underwood 34:46
supporting the local economy, right? I've got I've got a good friend of mine name. I won't call him by name who works for Chrysler dealer and the principal or the service manager. Chrysler dealers good friend of mine, really honest, really ethical dude. Right? They do things the right way. Now a while back, my friend came to me and he said, Hey, he said, um, there's an employee that works at this dealership. And I said, Uh huh. And he said, he's applied for a job with you. And I said, Ah, he said, Don't. What do you mean? He's like, it's not a good scenario. It's not good. And so we began to talk more and more. And we've talked about his experience in the dealership world. We've talked about his experience in the automotive world as a whole, right? Not just the dealership. And, and, you know, he was a little offended, because we made jokes or popped off about something about dealership tax a while back. And I can't help but say, like, hey, it's very, very important that when when we look at dealership tags, especially from this guy's perspective, he doesn't have the same dealership experience a lot of guys get, right, because he's got somebody that cares about him. He's got somebody that wants the best for him. He's got somebody that's working for him, right? And this man, the service manager goes to work for these guys every single day, hey, I'm not gonna let you walk on my guys. We're gonna take care of my guys, we're gonna make sure they're paid. Well, we're gonna make sure we do the right things for him, right. And so I guess my thing is, there's, there's all different types of shops, there's all different types of environments all around the country. And so we can't pretend to imagine what each one of these people is going through. We can't classify them. And so you're a dealer tech, and you're great. And your or your bad, or your smashy. Bears, likes to call dealership techs. What's been your experience, since you've come from that corporate world? started your own shop done the mobile thing? What's been your perspective of the technician life?

Eduardo 36:48
As it relates to the work, or the work,

Lucas Underwood 36:51
the financials, the appreciation? What what, what is it as a whole that you see?

Eduardo 36:55
Well, I gained the new a new life, so to speak a new sense of pride. Because now you're doing it for yourself? Yeah. And so you try a little harder, and you try to apply everything you've learned? Yeah. It is a challenge sometimes. But as far as the change, I don't really see a change, because I've always, always tried to do the best that I could. Yeah. So regardless of you know, and I failed miserably many times. But to say that there was a big difference, I don't see it.

Lucas Underwood 37:37
Well, and I mean, I guess maybe that's what I'm trying to get at is that it's really about the person. It's really about the human being that's in there that's making those decisions, the human being is doing the work. Right. And you could be a great dealership tech, you could be a great independent tech, but you can also find bad dealership techs, independent techs, you can find people who don't care about the end result.

Eduardo 37:58
Well, you see that all the time. But I've not had that. Well, if we go back to the dealers. Yeah, I'd see that all the time. You know, I, I used to work at a dealer where they keep the text and this is common. Every dealer that I've been at, they keep tech and the tech wants to prove himself. He just out of school. They do loop tech. They leave one drain plug loose, boom, they're gone. Right? Or they keep their to two years because they're, they're doing it faster, getting customers out happy. And they lose everything they've learned in school. Yeah. And so I would, I would argue with my service manager about that. You got to get them out. At one dealership, I went so far, so okay, you pay me $3 More an hour, I'll train this guy. Right, right. And then as that six months, you take $1 from me, and you give it to him, right? And then you know, if he's ready in six months, you give him all of it. And so I did train a guy. And he started making more money than me. And that's because as the older you get, the slower you get, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. And now he's working up in Prescott doing off roading. And he's loving life. He's loving life.

Lucas Underwood 39:18
So what does the future look like for you? Bright?

Eduardo 39:21
I see it bright. I'm a positive person. I don't like to you know, dwell on the negative. Yeah, I kind of brush it to the side. Right. But no, that's as far as like, say I'm hooked up with Cecil now. And Cecil is filling my head with, you know, butterflies and balloons.

Lucas Underwood 39:40
What What changes have you seen since you started working with him?

Eduardo 39:45
I just started well, I should say that's like no, because I started with his course online. I took his numbers course. And at the same time, that's when I switched the tech metric. So worked with we were doing the DVI. So now we're doing inspections. So that helped with the, with the Aaro. And the growth. And that same year, we had exponential growth, like doubled our income pretty much. Wow. And so I'm so I'm still a small shop, but you know,

Lucas Underwood 40:21
did it get easier? It seemed less stressful than it had, yes, absolutely

Eduardo 40:56
If we get land, we can do that.

Lucas Underwood 40:59
Man that is so crazy. And and just the process of starting the shop and starting from mobile and and like moving on. And then I guess that was why I asked you about the the mobile situation. And so these guys that are wanting to go mobile, is it? Is it feasible that we truly have full blown mobile repair? Is that do you think it's feasible that these guys can go and start and keep a business going that is strictly mobile? And they're literally in every repair?

Eduardo 41:28
Absolutely. Every repair? Well, there's a limit, you know, and in my state, in the state i live in really? It gets hot sometimes. Yeah. So doing any type of repairs, you know, it becomes tough because you leave the tools out, you're working on a pick them up and you literally have to wear gloves all the time, right? As far as working conditions. It's just you can do it. Right. I started again, I posted on the mailbox, people were calling me I go diagnose the car, get my fee and let them go both parts. And then call me when you have the parts. Yeah, and I had three for those. They call me and say I got the parts. I got the parts and I put them in penciling, right, because I was doing it from six to nine after work. So I'd go to a radiator I go to some breaks and then I go ahead do some more breaks home I win. Right. And that turned into Okay, now I need a place to do you know fuel pumps? Yeah. And engines insulin heads for the overheats. Right. So I went in a rented a place for five it was just I'm going to email you the picture. So you see what where I started from

Lucas Underwood 42:39
Mongolia. That'd be awesome. Well, can we put it up on the web page with his episode? Sure. Yeah, we'll put it up on my web page.

Eduardo 42:46
Where I started just it's literally it's it's a shithole is to say this, and that's been nice. Yeah, but it's since I've since cleaned it up. My floors are spotless all the time. I've got concrete floors, I don't have oil stain on them all man, because I you know what I used to get in. This might be a tip for some shops who has really dirty dirty gasoline. That cleans it right up.

Lucas Underwood 43:17
Right actually pull it up. It pulls it right up. Who was it? It was one of our park delivery drivers years ago ended up getting burned. He tried to clean a whole floor with it now and he was young and ended up putting it on the floor and it went yeah,

Eduardo 43:36
yeah, but no, you've got to be very careful not do it against an open flame. We haven't. I'm outside.

Lucas Underwood 43:43
Exactly. Yeah, so

Eduardo 43:45
so people be careful. But at

David Roman 43:47
the same time it gets hot there you

Lucas Underwood 43:50
go. That's probably why it works is he pours the gas on it

David Roman 43:53
operates but then it becomes flammable vapors.

Eduardo 43:57
It evaporates really fast.

Lucas Underwood 52:36
Made me feel pretty good. How's that? Because I mean, you're lazy piece of crap, too. Apparently, I am a lazy piece of crap. Well, but at least we know it.

David Roman 52:45
Right. So is that was that what's gonna take? Knowing it? Yeah, I'm not gonna do anything about it. I still want my cheesecake.

Eduardo 52:53
So why does Why does mobile resonate with you?

David Roman 52:58
He hates mobile time are terrible.

Eduardo 53:02
It's biting off more than you can choose, I think was what was resonating with him.

Lucas Underwood 53:06
So biting off more than you can chew. Because I think that they get into these jobs that they don't have the capacity for. And and even if they say, now listen, I've got the capacity for that I've done these jobs before I've changed engines and dealers. I've put transmissions in and dealers great. Absolutely, that's fine. But the point is, is when you're by yourself, right, the amount of time you spend doing that versus the amount of time you spend doing the brake job and the profit that's in the brake job compared to the profit that's in doing the engine, right. Like when you know the the business by the numbers all of a sudden, it would seem super silly to be doing engine jobs, right, you know, and complex diagnostic work, right? Like, Nah, dude, that's silly. Now, there's people like Sunday who do a great job with mobile.

David Roman 53:52
That's all his but I mean, that's that's not the same thing. Right? Exactly. Do you stop dropping fuel tanks in somebody's driveway?

Eduardo 53:59
That's like, what would you say was named

Lucas Underwood 54:00
Scott Matthews.

Eduardo 54:02
Okay, Matt. So that's like giving Matt an engine job to do when His specialty is

Lucas Underwood 54:08
awesome. It's so funny. You bring that up because he was in a we were in a group chat of the day when we're talking about it. And he was talking about that. And he's like, chat, so you win. 124 He said something that's very specific. Did

David Roman 54:22
you didn't stop at 1011 12 I got a lot.

Lucas Underwood 54:27
I just I've been counting all the active ones as they go. Most of them are your fault. It's where people have ganged together to tell me how terrible it's always just like you've been added to a chat. Are you really going to just sit by as David says that? Yes.

David Roman 54:48
Yes, that's fantastic. But what ends up happening is like, for me, it was opening up a small shop. And rather than pacing myself and going, I'm going to buy this Would cash, I'm not going to take that job on because I don't have the equipment and all the knowledge, I don't have that special tool. And then, you know, maybe factoring the cost of that special tool into that job. I didn't do any of that. Yeah, bring it down here, get it halfway through, and I need a $700 tool. Guess what, at 700 all tool sitting in the back of my shop right now, that has been used one time, nine years ago, never again, I paid out cash for that thing, or what I normally did was borrow the money for it. Now I'm paying down the debt. You see what I'm saying? Right? So rather than then that biting off more than I could chew, and pacing myself, as I grew the business, it was no, I need to scale scale scale, and let me buy this, let me take this on, let me buy this advertising package, let me and then I'll just pay for it later, I'll pay for it later pay for it later. And the ideas the whole time in the back of your head going, I'm gonna grow revenue, I'm gonna grow revenue, I'm gonna grow revenue, the revenue if it doesn't come, or it comes for one month, and then it dries up, or whatever, right? You lose that employee and all of a sudden, what do you do now? Now you're like, well, crap, I needed three employees worth the revenue, not to now now I've got to do something here. Because I needed to stop pay the bills. And then you know, you get yourself into trouble pretty quickly.

Eduardo 56:23
Right? Right. And that's like said Cecil's numbers game. That courses, I had the my advisor, take that course. And all his financial ones, all his advisers, all the talking on the phone, Google reviews, that sort of thing. She's, she's soaked it all up. And getting to know how much you can spend or why you're spending it. And you know, it's good to have all the tools like you said, you buy it and sit in the back. But I look at a tool. Am I going to use that tool? Am I going to use it? Is that the kind of jobs that I want? Or is that the kind of jobs I'm going to need when I'm bigger right there. So you when you grow? You got to take on those jobs. You don't want to take today because it clogs up your your bills. Yeah. So you've got to think about that a little bit at what I think about anyways.

David Roman 57:24
I don't know, man, that's an awesome story.

Lucas Underwood 57:27
It really is an awesome story. It's pretty inspiring, because it wasn't smart. You know, I mean, I think I think we'd look at this, you know, you you've gone on record, probably no fewer than 15 times saying like, Hey, I would not have done it this way again. And to see you take it and like fight through it and make it a success. He was smart about it. He was He paced himself. But um, but I mean, he worked his ass off to make it happen.

Eduardo 57:54
He did work as hours off again, or did a lot of that was due to necessity. And you know, I've got a story here for you. One that really really irked me with with a supplier really pissed me off. And I don't do business with them, but my employees insist on doing it because they have what they need. And sometimes you got to eat crow. Yeah, yeah. But I went on a mobile break jaw. And I went the lady bought her own part. And I went to front brakes it was it was on a Lexus SUV. Took the front brakes apart, clean calipers got an already got to slap the pads on the wrong pads. It was like 830 at night. The store closes at nine. I said okay, you know what, take these back, get the other ones I'll finish cleaning your brake pads that way. You know we have them because I call they say that she went to the store. And the guy behind the counter told her that I didn't know what I was doing. told her that I needed to machine rotors that I needed to put new hardware which is why I sent her there for the brake pads of hardware. And he badmouth me up and down. And, and then he said that I was charging her too much. I was only charging her $60 labor to put pads on her car. That oh that pissed me off. So bad that the very next day. I stayed home I was I was furious in the reason I was furious because that the $30 that I was going to make on that job. Right? It was charging 260 But the $30 I was gonna use to buy my my daughter at the time she wanted these shoes that light up. Right. And I couldn't get those I promised up to her night. Oh that oh man really pissed me off. So fast forward when I'm at the shop now. I had the this aftermarket chain came. I had a service manager, the district manager and their little sales group come to the shop trying to sell me on an account with them. I said no, not gonna happen. This is and I'll tell you why. And I told him story. And as I was starting to tell the story that Haggai goes, That was you. I said, you heard home row. I said, now you know why I didn't get to finish the story with them. But they heard about me, because I was calling everybody that I could above anybody in that store. Yeah, I was so pissed. So how are you going to go ahead, you know, treat your vendors this way I send customers to you so they can go into your store, buy from you, and all this stuff, and then you get bad enough?

Lucas Underwood 1:00:41
Well, and so here's the thing is, you know, I sit here and I think about that. And I'm like, man, I've experienced that. I've experienced it with tow companies. I've experienced it with Park companies. I've experienced it with dealers. Right. And, and through the transformation of my business where we started raising prices. And we started pushing things a little bit further, more and more had something to say, right? Because when I started charging what I need to charge when everybody else would charge them 45 and 50 bucks an hour. All right, they started having something to say about that. And so and I don't mean to say like it happens all the time, right? It doesn't it's not that. It's just that I look back on it. And I recognize that, that a they have to hire people that just like this park situation we're in. Right. Many of these people don't even know anything about the parks are selling. They have no clue. No, they're, they're just in there. And so the and maybe in that sense, it's better. But in a lot of cases, if those guys know anything about it, right? And it's like the people who go to a shop after they've been in another shop and we're throwing them under the damn bus. Are you serious? Right? Like, and if they've done something wrong, and there's a safety concern, you alert them to the safety concern with the vehicle, but you don't do that they're shot under the bus. If if the other shops done something wrong, you just you inform them about the issue with the vehicle and you say here's the information, right. And I think as professionals, we shouldn't be throwing each other under the bus. But the reality is, it's it's gonna happen. Authority wonder the

David Roman 1:02:15
bustle at home?

Eduardo 1:02:17
I finish I'm in a building with two other shop owners. Right. We get along great. Yeah, we help each other out. There's no, there's no love loss there.

Lucas Underwood 1:02:24
Yeah, absolutely. And there shouldn't be No, right. There shouldn't be. But, you know, in the same respect, it's going to happen. So how do we make sure that that we've protected our business? How do we ensure that we don't lose sleep over that? Because we can't control that? I mean, obviously, we got to reflect upon it. We've got to say, Hey, did I do something wrong? Did I overcharged that person? But I mean, in your case, dude, I'm charging her 60 bucks, and you're telling me I'm overcharging your tongue was passed?

David Roman 1:02:52
The guy was wrong. He didn't. Yeah. I'm the only one concerned about your price. He's 141 Don't even have four walls. You quit worrying about your prices.

Lucas Underwood 1:03:03
I need to raise them. Apparently. You need to raise yours. Right there.

Eduardo 1:03:13
That way, I'm getting ready to raise mine again. According to Cecil

Lucas Underwood 1:03:19
David's gonna quit. David just

Eduardo 1:03:21
quit. No, it is it is scary. You know, in when I first started, I didn't have like said, I had to talk with my wife about getting Mitchell. Because, again, my first year in business, I did $79,000, which was kind of low, right. But it paid and put food on the table. We got our bills caught up. And it gave us breathing room. Yeah. And then I wanted to get a CRM program to help me with everything when I got Mitchell Oh, man, that that was a game changer. And it helped out until May, I had to start getting, you know, add ons to that and to get texting and to get all that now this one program is, you know, where my budget and so that's when tech metric came along. And for the same price I was paying for this, I'm getting DVIR and all that other stuff. And so I made the switch. And at the same time I took Cecil's course. And that just blew me out of water. I'm like, wow. And it was just small changes. Nothing, nothing big. You started doing more inspection, better inspections, started knowing where the money was going. And, you know, I was able to get an accountant to do payroll, all that fun stuff. And so yeah, little bit at a time little changes. It doesn't take much. No, you're just to make a huge difference.

David Roman 1:04:41
So you said that you said something about trying to buy that land.

Eduardo 1:04:44
Now there's other land around where I'm at, I don't think he'd sell No, he's got 83 acres he wants to get people in there to build on it. And then he gives him a super good deal on labor and not On a rent, okay kind of thing

David Roman 1:05:04
where you're looking at land in that area,

Eduardo 1:05:07
further down the street right now. We've got to the west of us. We've got apex, they're building a racetrack there. The racetrack phase one's already done. They're building phase two and three. Okay, back there. And then I think it's a third might be just phase two. But then they're going to put in the water park, east of us two miles. They've already got an apartment complex, almost finished. I think it's gonna be 364 units there. And then I heard they're slated to build like 12,000 homes in my small town. And it's gone from when I first started in 2009. It was like 45,000 population. Now it's almost double. Yeah. And it's growing crazy.

David Roman 1:05:55
That's cool. All right. So I

Eduardo 1:05:58
want to get some land before it's all gone. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Lucas Underwood 1:06:03
love to have you back on the show at some point. Talk about it some more. Okay. See where you're at in a few years.

Eduardo 1:06:07
The Diego