Changing The Industry Podcast

David Roman [00:00:00]:

I got the allergies. They're kicking my butt. It's September every since I moved to Kansas, every September hits and, man, it's just miserable.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:10]:

David, I'm probably going to need you to wear a mask, budy. Okay.

David Roman [00:00:15]:

Where? That's not happening. I'm just telling you right now. You know what I'm going to make? I'm going to make little cards that have the latest Cochrane study that just came out. That was a metaanalysis of all masking studies. And I'm just going to hand it. Anytime anybody walks up to me and says mask, I'm just going to hand them the card and I'm not going to say anything. I'm like, here's the card. There you go. Thank you. And then I'm just going to walk away. And that's it. That's it. Conversation.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:40]:

My one hope for mask coming back would be to see you walking around venues with a mask hanging from your ear, a drink cup that's been empty for four days, a straw stuck out the top of it, and you're sticking your tongue out in the security guard.

David Roman [00:01:02]:

I would have preferred that the drink be full, but for whatever reason in Vegas, it's not a thing. They don't have, like, 711s on every corner or QTS.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:14]:

I'm just going to make it very clear to both of you that I feel like I missed out as a content creator and an entrepreneur. Because seeing how far you could stick your tongue out looking for that straw would have been viral material. I'm telling you right now. I think everybody around was scarred. But I digress.

David Roman [00:01:41]:

TikTok superstar chris and.

Chris Enright [00:01:43]:

Wright Far from it.

David Roman [00:01:46]:

What are you up to now? 80,000 followers? 90,000. What are you up to now?

Chris Enright [00:01:50]:

No, on TikTok, I'm only at like, 30 something thousand.

David Roman [00:01:55]:

Yeah. That's not a lot. We have three.

Chris Enright [00:01:59]:

I mean, compared to the other ones, it's three. Sure.

David Roman [00:02:01]:

What are you talking about? We have three. Yeah, look it up. TikTok. We have three. What?

Lucas Underwood [00:02:09]:

TikTok, bro.

David Roman [00:02:10]:

We do have a TikTok. Oh.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:12]:

Do you really talk? Yeah, I was talking to rich.

David Roman [00:02:15]:

You know what they are? All of them are they're Chris endwrite's videos? And then a cutaway to me just shaking my head, going, this is not what we do. And then that's it. That's the entire TikTok. And for whatever reason, they're not taking off. I don't know why.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:31]:

I don't know why.

Chris Enright [00:02:33]:

I don't know why those don't take off, but mine do. What's wrong?

David Roman [00:02:36]:

What's going on? It must be the ending. They don't like it. I enjoy this content. This guy at the end telling me that I shouldn't makes me feel bad.

Chris Enright [00:02:47]:

Oh, my gosh. Goofy.

David Roman [00:02:52]:

Anyway, Chris enright. How you doing, buddy?

Chris Enright [00:02:55]:

I'm good. How are you guys?

David Roman [00:02:56]:

I'm excited that you're giving away some tickets to ASTE. What possessed you to do that to some rando, too?

Chris Enright [00:03:05]:

Yeah, it's a great question. Before anybody thinks I'm someone special, I'm not. And I will confirm that with before I actually made that video to give away those tickets to that guy. His name's Matt, by the way. I had texted in our group, the one with Jeff and Brian and Brian and Scott and all them, and I said some not so nice things and shared that video. And then I just thought about it for days and days and just kept eating at me. Kept eating at me. And I'm like, man, I'm like, what can I do to help this guy? And I'm like, Making another video isn't going to do anything. Most people, when you respond that way, take it offensively. And to be quite honest, I thought when I made the video recommending that he take training, I thought he might get offended as well. And I rerecorded it multiple times to try to get the wording just right because I didn't want him to get offended. And on TikTok, if you're not like, if someone doesn't follow you and you don't follow them, your message doesn't go directly through to them. They have to click on the message, or you only get so many limited times. So video was the best way for me to actually get the word out to him. And so he took it great, as you saw, from his response video, because as soon as I saw that he liked the video and started following me, I messaged him right away, and I was like, hey, man, I just want you to know I don't mean this in any sort of negative way. I've been there. I know where you're at. I've been in those types of situations before, and I handled it in a very similar way, and there's a much better way to handle that type of situation. And so he was like I said, super cool about it. He is coming to the training. And I just figured, like, I told my wife, I'm like, hey, I offered to pay for some guy's training. I'm like, Worst case scenario, we buy the tickets and he doesn't show up, and we're out $500 or whatever the cost is. I'm like, big deal. We're out $500. At least we tried.

David Roman [00:05:12]:

For those of us that don't like Chinese spyware on our phones, what was the video about?

Chris Enright [00:05:20]:

So he's a mobile mechanic, and he was at a guy's house, and the customer was saying, hey, you just installed those fans for, I think, $70. And that alternator is way easier to install. It should be less than that. And the way he responded was he was like, yeah, you're right. Okay, I'll take care of you. You have to watch the whole video because there's a lot more context than that, and I don't want to take away from the video. And he even said when he responded, he's like, I wasn't even there for those other repairs. He was there for one reason, and the guy kept adding stuff, which, again, the training will help with for sure. That way you have a process in place. So they don't just continually add stuff, especially as mobile mechanics, because I feel like they deal with some different things than we do. Like, I don't have a customer staring at me while I work on their car.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:15]:

I wouldn't do it. Shoe buddy. I will never forget I worked on an RV in the parking lot one time, right? Because we're a shop that's got a good sized parking lot here. And these people came in and they said, hey, we need to make an appointment to get our vehicle fixed. I said, you know what? I can get you in tomorrow. And it looked like it was a serpentine belt on their RV. And I typically don't work on RVs, but I said, you know what? I'll take care of you. You guys are on vacation.

David Roman [00:06:39]:

Blah, blah.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:40]:

Being the dummy that I am, I didn't think about the fact that if they're on vacation, where are they? They're in the RV now. She made some delicious cheeseburgers as I was working on their vehicle, and I did sit in the floor of their RV and eat cheeseburgers. It wasn't that bad of a deal. I got paid. But you don't know how uncomfortable it is thinking like they don't even know what you're doing, but you're over here thinking, oh, man, do they think I'm an idiot? Because I just whatever it is, insert whatever. I could not imagine that that would be miserable.

David Roman [00:07:13]:

Go ahead.

Chris Enright [00:07:14]:

I was just going to say I don't never do it. When I was at the dealership, they had those big windows that people could watch through. And you always had those clients that would stare at you. And we would always do goofy stuff on purpose just because we knew they were watching. It's like watching something boiling in a pot. The more you watch it, the worse it is. So we do not like that at all. So, yeah, we always had some shenanigans going on at the dealership when people.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:40]:

Turns out this is why he's good at TikTok and instagram is because he's been putting on a show for years. Look at the monkey in the jeez.

Chris Enright [00:07:49]:

Hey, I like to have fun. What can I say?

Lucas Underwood [00:07:51]:

Yeah, absolutely. I'm pretty confident that I either wouldn't have clients or I would end up getting sued if I did that in my shop. I'm just going to be real with you. It's going to be bad.

David Roman [00:08:00]:

We don't want anybody looking at anything we're doing in the back. Not because we're doing anything wrong. It's just I don't know. They don't know what we're doing. So why are you watching us? Do you know how to do this? No. Then go away. So I don't understand that at all. And we just had somebody come in. They had brake noise. I don't know. Something got screwed up. Anyway, we redid a rear brake job for the whole time. She's watching? What do you think is going on here at my expense? Am I redoing this brake job? I'm not charging you a dime. So you think we sabotaged the last one just to, I don't know, try to get more money? I don't even know what goes through people's heads. I just got a call this morning. We did a belt, an oil change and something else to this vehicle. And she calls me and she's like, hey, this fuel cap light is on. It wasn't on until I came in for service. Like, okay, did you check the fuel cap? What is it that you think is happening here? Do you think we jacked with your fuel cap to make you come back in? Of course, it's been a week. The car has been gone for a week. But the narrative, she's filled up twice. Yeah, she's filled up twice. Trust me. This vehicle sucks some fuel. And I'm sure she's filled up twice and it's slightly loose. But she calls me and she was like, just a few days ago, I had the car in for service. You mean a week ago. So you've driven the car 1000 miles in the last week and now there's a problem? But I'm sure it was just happened. Get out of here. They tell themselves these stories and they believe it when it comes out of their mouths, but they know, I think deep down, they know I'm going to say something that seems more plausible, and therefore I will get free stuff. Like, what do you think I'm going to do? You've been in a thousand times.

Lucas Underwood [00:09:56]:

I'm not going to screw anybody right there. They'll get free stuff.

David Roman [00:10:01]:

Yeah, but it'd be different if there was a fight last time you came in. There was a problem. We fought the whole time.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:09]:

Where I that's just it. I felt the one star review. The one star review, right? We went back and we looked at the person who left us that One Star Review. And the long story short is we looked at this vehicle. She said it was making a noise in the morning. So we looked at the vehicle, we reviewed it. We did not hear that noise. We did our peace of mind process. She could not see the pictures and she could not see the videos and she could not see the notes because she didn't have enough service for that. So she never reviewed our documentation that showed the play in the shock bushings and all of the other things. The spare tire with a big crack in it. Well, she goes to the previous shop. Now, the logic alone of me telling you all of this work in the front end was just done. And because it's just done, I suspect it's under a warranty. So I would take it back to the other shop and have them do that. I'm going to write you an estimate just so I can document that it needs to be done, but take it back to the other shop, and I'm a rip off, because none of those things needed to be done now, right? You go and you look at her review history.

David Roman [00:11:14]:

That makes perfect sense. I just want to point this out. If your reply is longer than the review, there's a problem.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:25]:

Maybe so. Maybe so. But here's the thing. You go look at her other reviews, and what has she done? She's literally asked people, I will change my review if you'll give me 20% off. I will change my review if you'll give me a refund, right? I just had a situation here a few days ago where there is some folks in the shop, and they had been in for an AC repair. The AC hose has blown off, right? Like, it's blown out of the crimp. It's not connected to anything. And so we explained to them, hey, we have to replace this hose. We'll leak test it when we get done. If we see anything else, we'll let you know. That's just how we roll, right? Nitrogen tested. It holds nitrogen, everything's good. We send it down the road. Two months later, it comes back, and it's not cooling well, and it's low and refrigerant. So we nitrogen test it again. We go around the vehicle, you know, the cup with the paper towel and underneath the evaporator, all this stuff go through the whole mix. Well, the rear evaporator has dye in it, right? It's dripping. So we take the panel off, we look at it, and we look at the rear evaporator, and it's completely saturated in dye. You need a rear evaporator. Well, it wasn't doing that before. I'd say it probably was, but we didn't work back there. We worked up here. Well, if the manufacturer had done that repair, they would cover it. They wouldn't cover it long. They'd be out of business.

David Roman [00:12:52]:

You know what I'm saying?

Chris Enright [00:12:53]:

They'll goodwill it in a lot of cases, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:12:55]:

And so that's a big part of the problem, is that they're just giving, giving. They're losing the profitability of the business by doing so and so. I thought it was so funny. They took it to the manufacturer, and they were super nice. They weren't disrespectful or anything. They were super nice. They took it to the manufacturer, and they said, hey, can you tell us where the AC leak is? And I told them. I said, I want you to go to them, and I want you to not say a word about what I've told you. I want you to go to them and just ask them. They'll find the leak. And they came back, and they said, oh, my gosh. They said that the main evaporator is leaking. It's like $9,000 to replace it. And I'm like, well, how did they come to that conclusion? Oh, we watched them do it. They held this little machine around, and they went around all the vents, and when they got to that one vent, it went off. And I'm like, did you ask them about the rear Evaporator? Oh, yeah, after the fact, we showed them the pictures and they said, well, you guys are wrong. Those never fail. It's always the front one. They need to do that first. And I'm like, God, what kind of vehicle was this? It's a Volvo. And you can see it like, I've got a picture of just clear dye running out of the rear Evaporator, man. And they're like, no, we need to replace the front one.

David Roman [00:14:00]:

What is with these dealerships? I had that BMW, the guy shot a video and they told her it was an Evaporator. And we ran the test and we're like, this Evaporator is not failing. And she's like, Well, I got a video. I'm like, Send me the video. And the guy's going, look, it's going off.

Chris Enright [00:14:19]:

It's like no training.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:21]:

Exactly. Well, we sort of training like that.

David Roman [00:14:25]:

That's not just training on the equipment. That's not just training on the equipment. Because I can understand, I don't know how to use this particular leak detector. That's not understanding 1234 YF in a BMW dealership.

Chris Enright [00:14:38]:

But that's BMW dealership. This isn't like no training. Look, they're taking modules online.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:46]:

I have seen one of the modules.

David Roman [00:14:49]:

Would have been like, hey, these are teeny tiny molecules. It's really hard to find leaks. And so the leak detector is 18,000 times more sensitive. And if you just sniff at it, it's going to go off.

Chris Enright [00:15:02]:

You're taking into the consideration that they're actually reading the modules. There were so many people at our dealership that had somebody else take their test for them.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:10]:

That's what I was getting ready to say.

Chris Enright [00:15:11]:

Just so they could have them done. Because the dealership wants you at 80% complete.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:16]:

That is exactly what I was getting ready to say, is that I have seen so many unqualified, and I'm not talking about the great dealership technicians. Please don't misunderstand. I think there's tons of great dealership technicians, but I am talking about the guys who have worked the system year after year after year after year just to get paid. It was one here locally, 60 some year old man that they hired. That's a master level such and such technician. I'm not going to call the name of the brand because everybody will know who I'm talking about. Chris Henry just disappeared.

David Roman [00:15:48]:

David no, it's still uploading.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:51]:

Okay, long story short, here he is, he's working for this dealership, comes to work for him as this master technician. Turns out he wasn't a master technician at all. Somebody else had taken all of his tests and they hired him as the only master in the dealership. It's like the place is on fire.

David Roman [00:16:13]:

These are the same technicians that are demanding higher pay and better benefits and blah, blah, blah. Why? I don't get it. Hey, we're terrible at our jobs. How is it going to how is it both ways? What are you talking about?

Chris Enright [00:16:28]:

Because there are crappy owners and crappy techs. It doesn't matter which way you cut, slice it or dice it. There are sucky owners. I've seen story after story, people messaging me. I've got one on my phone where the guy was the owner was not giving him any vacation time. When the owner took a vacation, he forced the tech to take time off unpaid. He was basically stringing him along as hopes of possibly part owning the shop, not the dealership. And basically it was paying him crap money anytime. It was slow. He didn't get paid. He didn't have any sort of guarantee. And he's like, do you think I should leave? I'm like, what do you mean do I think you should leave? Yes, leave. There's 1000 other shops out there. I would have never stayed there that long. I'm like, Listen dude. I'm like, go around. And I said, I guarantee you, you'll find a place that'll pay you more, give you vacation time, give you benefits. And that's exactly what he did and that's exactly what he found. And he was like, well how much should I ask? I'm like, I don't know. How good are you? I'm like, you got to be the one to judge how good you are. I said, just keep in mind every tech thinks well, not every, but most techs think they're better than what they truly are and they're not. I thought I was better than what I was until I opened a shop. Then I realized how bad I sucked.

David Roman [00:17:43]:

Dude, here's the problem. Here's the problem. There are far more technicians than there are shop owners. There are far more technicians than there are shop owners. And I'm saying that overwhelmingly the shop owners are always crying about their pay. And then look just through our comments on our teeny tiny YouTube channel, nothing compared to yours, but you look through our comments, you wouldn't jelly or something, would you? I'm not at all peanut butter and jelly. Not at all. If I were, I'd be doing the dancing too. I'd be like anyway, if you look through our comments, you always get the salty guy that's on there talking about how the disrespect the technicians are and how underpaid and how they've been abused for so long and they're finally leaving the industry and go into better industries and they're getting paid so much more money and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, those are the exact same technicians that were just kidding. Click, click. Take the test or have somebody else take the test for me because I'm not going to be bothered to learn how 1234 YF works because I'm never going to have to work on this ever again in my entire life. What is wrong with people? I understand if it's HR, it's like, hey, you need to take this HR course on not hitting people in the nipple with your towels or, hey, don't play grab ass.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:06]:

Let that go, man.

David Roman [00:19:09]:

My nipple is purple for a month anyway. Don't play grab ass in the service lane. I can understand just clicking through those because you're like, okay, great. I'm not going to play grab ass in the service lane, or I'm not going to walk up to the female service advisor. Hey, toots, how you doing? That's a nice top you're wearing today. Like, don't do that if you're working in a professional environment, right? That's common sense. If I'm forced to do that every year, then, yeah, I'm just clicking through, and I'm going to put but, hey, there's this new technology you need to learn about. I'm going to sit down, and I'm going to pay attention. I don't get it.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:54]:

Why that's what's happening?

Chris Enright [00:19:56]:

Because they pay you a certain way, which makes you they treat you as if they want you to be a machine in the shop, and the way you get paid is flat rate. I know it's a touchy subject, but we were trained one way and paid one way, and so they got upset when we didn't get paid to take training or take classes. And so it's like, well, you're not paying us when the shop is slow. You only want to pay us when the shop is busy, and we can turn you hours over hours over hours. But when things get tough, then we get left hung out to dry. And I can't tell you how many times when I was at the dealership, the prices would go up for customers, and our labor times would go down. And we always complain. We're like, why is our labor time go down and the price for the customer goes up? Because they were trying to get their ELRS where they needed to be. And that's fine. Get your ELR where you need to get it, but stop sacrificing the people that are doing the work to make you the money. And that was always our frustration as the tech side of things.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:59]:

I saw an insane estimate the other day, and I want to say, well, I don't want to call the brand out, but there was an estimate written, and it was very clear that the labor rate had gone way up. It had the right labor time on the ticket, but the labor rate was unbelievably high. And you could tell it was like, hey, I'm trying to hit my numbers right, because they were open about how long it should take. And, I mean, we're not talking about a little bit more than what I would charge, right? And I just said, look, I'm sure it's a mistake. Call them back. They're honest people. They're good people. Give them a call. I'm sure they'll make this right. But, dude, I mean, we're talking about it was over $1,500 more labor than I would have charged on a job. And for it to be that big of a difference on a two hour job, you know what I'm saying? And not have a miscommunication to put an alternator on a vehicle. Come on now, something's got to be wrong.

David Roman [00:21:58]:

Maybe it was that oil cooled or oil coolant cooled. Oh no, it wasn't.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:04]:

It was a 1.1 on standard book with no matrix on it was 1.1.

David Roman [00:22:09]:

Really?

Chris Enright [00:22:09]:

I always wonder about those. You do see those from time to time. Not often, but you do see those random, insanely high estimates.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:17]:

That's why I said I thought it was a mistake.

David Roman [00:22:19]:

But it seems probably want the customer, like, here's an extra.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:22]:

It seems to be happening at the end of the month consistently with multiple different customers.

David Roman [00:22:27]:

I don't necessarily blame the dealership for trying to pad the invoices because those big cushy leather chairs and those 18 televisions running DirecTV and they have different channels and you got the kids corner and you got the coffee machine, you got the snack bar. All that costs. All of it costs. How else are you going to pay for that? You're not doing it selling cars because that's got to pay for all the other junk on the front end, right? So while the customer is sitting there in the lap of luxury and they're allowed to wait for this seven and a half hour job, they're going to do, it's like, I'll just sit here and wait. It's a really nice area. It's like, okay, great, you're going to pay for all of that. Every moment that you're in there is costing you additional dollars because you're choosing to pay because the dealership has to pay for all that overhead. And you factor in the goodwill stuff, right. What do you end up with? Really high labor rates and really high labor times. They're not going to give the technician any more money. They can't. Where's it coming from, they don't have anymore. So the moral of the story, Kitties, is don't work at the dealership, leave the dealership.

Chris Enright [00:23:46]:

I made a lot of money at the dealership. The politics were horrible, but I made a lot of money there. So I can't say anything. If you're good at flat rate, you can make a lot of money. I could not take the politics anymore. That's what drove me out. But yeah, I don't know, it all comes back to training and experience and I don't know, as the tech side of things anyways. If you want more money, if you feel like you deserve more money and you want to get better, then go take your own training. If the shop's not paying for it, pay for it yourself. Move yourself up the ladder. That's what I did. I just worked myself up. They weren't paying for nothing except for Honda training, of course. Anything outside of that, it wasn't happening.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:35]:

You own that knowledge, right?

David Roman [00:24:37]:

Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:37]:

And so one of the things that I look at is there's a lot who say the owner should pay for training. I completely agree with that. You guys know, I train my people. I pay for massive amounts of training for my people. And it doesn't hurt my feelings a bit.

David Roman [00:24:47]:

I love it.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:48]:

I love going and going to the training with them. I enjoy it. But I'm going to tell you right now, if you're a technician and you're sitting here telling me that because my owner of this shop is not going to pay for my training, I'm not going to go, how silly is that, right? Because if you're looking at this like a career, you're looking at this as I'm going to turn wrenches until I'm 50 or 60 years old, I need to be as proficient as possible so I can be fast and earn a lot of money. It's silly to say, Well, I'm not going because they're not paying. And look, we've had this conversation before, and I want to touch this very carefully. I have found that a lot of technicians are very bad with managing their money. Okay? That's what I was I'm not going to say that there's not some that don't earn what they should. But many of the ones who have come to me since we started the channel and started getting all these messages and emails and stuff like that. When we slow down and we start talking about it and we're really dig into the numbers, it's like, bro, you earned a lot of money. Well, I don't have any money, okay? If you spend more than you make, you never will, and you can earn more. And if you spend more than you make, then you will never have money. Let's talk about what you're spending money on. Well, I wanted this thing, and I wanted a new computer and I wanted a new scan tool, and I wanted this and I wanted that. Great, then save for it and get it and put some money back. But if you spend every dime you make, you're not going to have money. And so they say, Well, I'm not paid and I don't have the money to go do it. You need to be saving to go to these trainings. It's going to create opportunity for you. It's going to create growth for you. If you want to be seen as an elite technician and paid as an elite technician, then you have to earn the status of elite technician. The way you do that is through training. It's as simple as that.

Chris Enright [00:26:33]:

And it's not just techs with bad money management. I mean, you see it with clients all the time. They say they don't have the money for a car repair. Then a week later, they're going out on vacation or whatever else. And that's what I was just talking to my wife about this the other night. I'm like, when we didn't have money, guess what we were not doing going. On vacation twice a year, even once a year. There were multiple years. We never went on vacation because guess what? We did not have the money. And we were young. We got married young. And did we make all the right decisions? Not even close. I had lots of credit card debt. I had car debt. I had student loan debt from going to a tech school. But once I got out of debt, I stopped having more debt, and I paid everything off. And now I just pay for everything in cash. It sucks. It takes longer. I don't enjoy it all the time, but I'm an adult. And just like Dave Ramsey says, kids do what? Feel good. Adults devise a plan and stick to it.

Lucas Underwood [00:27:28]:

Amen.

Chris Enright [00:27:28]:

You can't always do what feels good.

Lucas Underwood [00:27:32]:

I don't know. Listen.

David Roman [00:27:37]:

What are you talking about? He hasn't talked to enough adults. Look, I just had a girl sitting in my lobby. They needed rear brakes. She's like, oh, I think it's a belt squeal. I'm like, okay. And the noise, that only happens when you move. But the engine's running. That's not a belt squeal, dear. You need to come in. She comes in, back brakes are gone. Front brakes are almost there, leaking out of the radiator. It's a dodge, Durango. That's what happens, right? And she's sitting there, like, looking at my prices. The conversation when she made the appointment was, hey, if I have to leave it, I'll figure something out, but I just want to get the car fixed. Then she saw the cost, and all of a sudden, she's like, I don't know if I really need to do this. I might just try to wing it or try to make it down to my dad's and this, that, and the other. She was moving out of state, and meanwhile, she's telling this to my service advisor sitting in her $300. Jordans.

Lucas Underwood [00:28:34]:

Yeah.

David Roman [00:28:35]:

What are you doing? The $300 Jordans. But you don't have brakes. I don't understand.

Lucas Underwood [00:28:41]:

I had a conversation paying $500 to do brakes.

David Roman [00:28:44]:

The people that aren't wearing Jordans, they bought reasonable shoes.

Chris Enright [00:28:49]:

Listen, I have one recently, that same story. He drove all the way from another state to come back to visit family. Brakes were gone. Caliper piston blew out. Tires were gone. Give him the full inspection. He's like, hey, his dad's going to drive from the other state with a trailer and tow it back. And I said, by the time he drives here, spends all the money in.

Lucas Underwood [00:29:14]:

Gas blows, two trailer tires.

Chris Enright [00:29:17]:

It ended up being a diesel. Drove all the way here with a diesel with a trailer, picked up the car, drove it all the way back to do the brakes to save little minimal money. I'm like, It doesn't make sense. And then two weeks later, I find out the kid totals the car because he hydroplanes. Because guess what? They didn't look at the inspection, and they didn't put tires on it. And it's like, okay, you just spent all that money that you thought you were saving and instead of doing the proper thing and fixing it correctly and having the professional fix it, you think that you're saving money. You're not saving money. It drives me nuts when people say that you're not saving money.

Lucas Underwood [00:29:52]:

Exactly. And those people, what I've found about it is they're always because they're always so short, what are they doing? They're always looking back to us to say, hey, what are you going to do about this? It's not that they actually think it's your fault. It's that they don't have any money and they're grasping at whatever straw they can, trying to get whatever they can get from wherever they can get it because they don't have any other options. And look, this whole deal, it's making me think George came back to work for me. Chris, I don't know if you know George. David knows George.

Chris Enright [00:30:22]:

I think so.

Lucas Underwood [00:30:23]:

And so George came back to work for me. He's been through some really rough stuff, family wise and everything else. And when he comes back to work and he said, I had an epiphany a while back, I said, George, what was know? He said two years ago, he said, I was saying, Lord, thank you for giving me the money that I needed to take my family on vacation and to come down here and sit on the beach and really enjoy life. And he said the epiphany was that I didn't have the money to do that. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, if my car had broken, I wouldn't have been able to get back. He said, if I had lost $20 out of my wallet, I wouldn't have been able to feed my family to get them home. I barely had enough gas to get us back. And I recognized now that it wasn't smart financially to do that. I thought that I had the money because I had those dollars right now sitting in my wallet, but I didn't realize I'd already spent. And I thought, wow, how pivotal is that of a realization. And George is a grown man, and he's never had to be the person who was managing his money. His wife was the money manager. And so now he's moved into a role where he's handling all of his own finances personally. And it's neat to see that click finally. But it's so interesting to see that and see the spot that people get themselves into. I've talked to my technicians about that bro. We had this conversation a while back. Well, it's going to save me money. How is buying a $4,000 tool saving you money? I've never heard of that. Right? Like, explain this. It doesn't make sense.

Chris Enright [00:32:03]:

People say that all the time because I share all my tools and stuff and the tool reviews and they're like, hey, should I upgrade? I'm like, Is your old tool broken? No. Then no. You shouldn't upgrade. Don't upgrade just to upgrade because it's nice and shiny.

David Roman [00:32:17]:

What is wrong with you? You are selling the tool for the people. Yes. You tell them, share. Yeah. If you can afford it, buy the tool. Buy three of them.

Chris Enright [00:32:28]:

They ain't paying me.

David Roman [00:32:29]:

Give them away.

Chris Enright [00:32:29]:

Advertise that tool.

David Roman [00:32:31]:

So I'm not oh, no, forget it. Yeah, no, exactly.

Chris Enright [00:32:35]:

That's a major problem with this industry. Not just the shops and the owners and all the techs and everything else. Even all the tool companies are cheap as all get out, too.

David Roman [00:32:44]:

Even if you're not going to use shopware, you should just buy shopware and have it in the background. Great. Buy shopware and just don't use it. Just let it go in the background. It'll be fine.

Chris Enright [00:32:55]:

I'll do one more person comes into.

Lucas Underwood [00:32:57]:

The group if one more person comes into the group and says, parts, tech sucks because it never works with techmetric. Well, we told you not to use Tech metric. I don't understand why you're mad.

David Roman [00:33:10]:

Group are you in? What do you think? No. Well, maybe a little.

Chris Enright [00:33:17]:

I was in that group and I was in that group and I left it because all it was, was a bunch of whiny crybabies crying about how it doesn't work. And I said, if you all had all day to manage like I had it, then you wouldn't be crying. You'd be thankful for what you have.

Lucas Underwood [00:33:30]:

You'd be making something work, baby. Whatever you got to do. Oh, my tech Metric wasn't working this.

David Roman [00:33:35]:

Morning for five minutes.

Chris Enright [00:33:36]:

You guys need to get this figured out. I'm like, it's. Five minutes. Shut up. Like, wait for a second. They act like the world's coming to an end. Drives me nuts.

Lucas Underwood [00:33:43]:

Man, automotive is full of divas. They really are. I don't know how we ended up so many divas in automotive. I don't know. I mean, maybe it was David's Barbie video.

David Roman [00:33:55]:

I guess that was why that's why you were like, I would never want to do software. Those guys, I don't know.

Chris Enright [00:34:03]:

Oh, gosh, yeah. No way.

David Roman [00:34:04]:

Yeah. That is awful. Because the minute something hey, you don't know how to use this, watch this video. I'm not going to watch the video. Why doesn't it work? You don't know how to use it? Did you watch the video?

Chris Enright [00:34:18]:

I'm not there was a post in that group specifically about somebody complaining that they just didn't know how to use it. I'm like my comment, as it always is, was very snarky. And I said, I remember my first time using techmetric, like, you've got to be kidding me. Like, how do you have it and you don't know how to use it? Then you're going to come in here and complain because you don't know how to use it? And you're going to have to edit that out because I was slamming the table.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:44]:

No, it's okay. It's the same thing with Shopware. It's the same thing with all of them. It's always but far fewer complaints.

David Roman [00:34:53]:

Shopware, because it's so great, we get far fewer complaints.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:58]:

Absolutely.

Chris Enright [00:34:58]:

Shopware is happily able to reach out to me, and I will happily advertise them on my page for a small.

Lucas Underwood [00:35:05]:

Fee here's the thing, is that the people who complained about Shopware went to Techmetric, and they were really upset about Shopware. They go to Techmetric, and now they're complaining about they're going somewhere else.

Chris Enright [00:35:20]:

I watched a video. I can't remember who it was, but the guy was talking about price, some sort of rich, successful entrepreneur. And he was saying, like, the business owner was saying, yeah, people complain at this price. And he was like, well, then you need to raise your prices. And they're like, what? And he's like, if they're complaining at $199, they're going to complain at 299. If they complain at 299, they're going to complain at 499. If they complain at 499, they're going to complain at 1000. He's like, they're not just complaining about your price. When they go to the grocery store, they're complaining about the cost of groceries. When they go to the gas station, they're complaining about the cost of gas. Some people just complain about everything. And I don't know, there's just like that. Woe is me. I hate life. Complain, complain, complain, whatever. I don't know. Life is short. I don't have time for that kind of garbage. Just not my thing. Just not my thing. So, yeah, that's why I go to training.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:12]:

That's how you learn, right? You don't have to complain. If you had a little bit of common sense and a little bit of knowledge, you can go a long just David, no.

David Roman [00:36:22]:

We're all destined to struggle and then die. I'm just convinced we're going to struggle. You know why you go to that's.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:30]:

Your cross to bear, bro.

David Roman [00:36:32]:

It's a fun time. You get to go see everybody. You get to get mean mugged by me if you come to ASTE. And that's a lot of fun to get to mean mug everybody in person. You know, the look on the faces of people that Lucas walks up and handshakes with, it is hilarious. I am much shorter than Lucas. Lucas is like, what are you, six foot two or six foot three?

Lucas Underwood [00:36:56]:

Six foot one somewhere in there.

David Roman [00:36:58]:

Okay, let's say six foot three, because it makes me feel better. So he's much taller than I am, right? And so I'm the short, pudgy guy standing next to the large guy, and he walks up. So he has no problem walking up to absolutely anybody. Much larger men. To me, like, that's a big guy. Not to Lucas. He's just the guy. So he walks up and he'll shake the hand of everybody. And people that does talk massive amounts of shit about him. He walks up with a big old.

Lucas Underwood [00:37:29]:

Hey, how you doing?

David Roman [00:37:31]:

And he's in there shakes his hand, and the look on their face is gold. Gold. It is hilarious because they're like, I'm super tiny.

Chris Enright [00:37:41]:

I can't do that. I feel like I'm so small.

David Roman [00:37:45]:

He doesn't bat an eye. He's like, oh, yeah, that guy was talking all sorts of shit. We walk in, I'm like, hey, you saw what that guy said about you, your family, your family's family, your in laws, your dog. He's like, oh, yeah, I saw. That's why I stopped and said hello. Okay, so you miss all of that. So if you want to catch that, just follow Lucas around.

Lucas Underwood [00:38:11]:

I'll be honest with just it occurred to me what you're saying here. I always thought they were kind of sniffing the air, trying to figure out what that smell was. They didn't realize it was burning denim from you jogging.

David Roman [00:38:22]:

My thighs just yeah, they get hot. Just rubbing back and forth. Trying to keep up with Lucas as he strides his three steps. You know what the most enriching thing I've ever purchased was? A pedometer. That pedometer inflates my whatever. Like, you'd walk 2 miles, and for you, Lucas, your normal strides, you'd probably be at, I don't know, 3000 steps. I'm at 6500, walking the same 2 miles because my legs are just flying, just trying to walk the same distance. And I'm like, look at my steps today. I'm so proud of myself. I'm so healthy. Look at my steps. Yeah.

Chris Enright [00:39:05]:

That's how I am. I take really small steps, but I'm super short, too, so I take twice as many as most.

Lucas Underwood [00:39:11]:

Hey, don't worry. The new ASTE venue has children's urinals for folks brandon Steckler and Tanner Brandt. We made sure we asked.

David Roman [00:39:21]:

No, we're not small. We're average sized. What are you talking about? Those average height in America is five foot seven. Five foot seven. I got to remind that to all the giants that work at my stupid shop, too. Those freaking Behemoths, those sasquatch looking mother effers in my shop who walk up to me going, it must be terrible for short person who can't reach this thing. And I'm like, I'm not short, dude. I'm average height. You're just really tall. No, I'm not that tall. What are you talking about? You're six foot three. What are you talking about? You hit your head in places you shouldn't.

Chris Enright [00:39:57]:

I don't know if I agree with that, because when I go shopping for clothes, they never have my size. I'm five foot six, and everything is huge. Huge. I'm like, do they not believe that there are small people left in the world or what?

Lucas Underwood [00:40:10]:

David's been looking for a big and short men's store for a long time.

Chris Enright [00:40:15]:

Oh, my God. Big and short.

David Roman [00:40:22]:

Yeah. Don't go into the big and tall. That's depressing. You ever been in a big? You haven't. You're not a big guy, but you get to a certain size, you're like, I want to eat that cheesecake. But now the jeans don't fit. So you go to the Big and Tall store and you're like, hey, you got any fat, short clothes? And they're like, no. Everything is like 46. 48? What is that even a size? Yeah, here it is. Like, okay, I'm going back to Walmart, man.

Lucas Underwood [00:40:50]:

The worst investment I've ever made. My wife is still mad about it. Half my employees are still mad about it. My cousin worked for me, okay? And he comes in and we've got pictures of this, his new nickname. He's not here anymore, but his new nickname is Fodifo because he comes in and he tells the uniform guy that he wears 40. Uniform guy says, you do what? And he said, yeah, I wear 40. 44s. I'm like, Dude, there's no way you don't wear 40. Promise. He's like, Are you telling me I don't know my own clothes size? And I said, yes, I am. And he said, well, I'm telling you, I wear 40. Told the uniform guy, I was like, I tell you what. I was like, Order them. He's like, Dude, that's going to be $700 650 something. And I said, Dude, order them. I have to at this point, I have to prove to the kid I spent $650. These things come in, he holds them up to his chin. Man, these pants are up to his chin, and they're still not even to the floor. I've got pictures. I'll post it in the group.

Chris Enright [00:41:52]:

Oh, my gosh.

Lucas Underwood [00:41:54]:

Probably was a bad investment.

David Roman [00:41:56]:

Speaking of fat guys, Chris Hendrite decided he's like, hey, I want to be miserable for the next month and a half. Two months. Two and a half months. You signed up for the hard 75?

Chris Enright [00:42:08]:

Yeah, 75 hard chugging my water.

David Roman [00:42:12]:

Yeah. So I looked the list and I'm like, I could probably get this all done. The gallon of water. Gallon of water. Does it count if it's soda?

Chris Enright [00:42:22]:

No, it has to be water.

David Roman [00:42:25]:

There's water in soda doesn't count. I can't do the water. I can do probably half a gallon.

Chris Enright [00:42:33]:

A gallon.

David Roman [00:42:34]:

At some point, you're like, Can I do the Squeezy's? You know what I'm talking about? The little squeezy things, right?

Chris Enright [00:42:40]:

Yes.

David Roman [00:42:40]:

The crystal lights and the meos.

Chris Enright [00:42:43]:

You can add that stuff to that.

David Roman [00:42:44]:

I think I can do the gallon.

Chris Enright [00:42:47]:

Then. When you're working out twice a day, I feel like it's not as hard. The second day, it was weird. Like, the first five days, I struggle with something different every day. But the second day, I had a really hard time with the water, and I was up till 1130 at night trying to just finish my water. I'm like, I am not failing this stupid thing on the second day.

David Roman [00:43:05]:

But it's the second day.

Chris Enright [00:43:08]:

I know, but you have to be.

David Roman [00:43:09]:

Different if you're 31 days in. Yeah, but you're just on the second day, 31 days in, you're like, I'm.

Chris Enright [00:43:15]:

Still I was supposed to start on this previous Monday. But when I worked out the math, it's past Thanksgiving and I cut out bread and sweets for my diet. And so I was like, I'm not doing that. There ain't no way I'm giving up my stuffing and my rolls and all the junkie stuff on Thanksgiving. So I started the next day because I was like, screw it, I'm not doing it. So I'll finish the day before Thanksgiving or two days before or something like that. So I was like, well, that's not what I planned, but it is what it is.

David Roman [00:43:48]:

But see, they don't dictate the diet.

Chris Enright [00:43:51]:

No, you can do whatever diet you want. It just has to be some sort of diet. Yeah, that was just personal. I wanted to do the bread and sweets just for me, and then I wanted to do the ten pages of reading a day. Those were, like, my main focuses. And so I was like, audiobook. One of those types of people. No has to be reading, no audiobooks. Yeah, I listened to a ton of audiobooks and I was like, oh, I'll just listen to audiobook. Well, then I will listen to the podcast where he lays everything out and he was like, no, no audiobooks. It has to be physical reading. And it has to be a nonfiction book, too.

David Roman [00:44:23]:

Yeah, that's the problem.

Chris Enright [00:44:26]:

Yeah, I mean, it's honestly not been bad. The workouts are getting better and the water is getting a lot easier, like last night.

David Roman [00:44:35]:

But walking is considered right?

Chris Enright [00:44:37]:

Like, you can go 45 minutes walk.

David Roman [00:44:40]:

In the evening outside, and then your morning exercise, 45 minutes indoor lifting weights or whatever, right? The workouts aren't that bad. The problem all of it is doable it's the 75 straight days, because 75.

Chris Enright [00:44:55]:

Days and you don't have that all in.

David Roman [00:44:59]:

Most days are routines. You have to get to that routine. You get up at a certain time, like that first week that you're getting up extra early so you can work out. So you can squeeze in a 45 minutes workout that gets hard. But a week later, two weeks then rolls into three weeks, and then it just becomes a routine. And you're just like, hey, it's just Monday. Monday I get up at 430 and then I do X, Y, and Z, and then I leave for work and see what I'm saying. So it's just a matter of getting into a routine. The problem, though, is the days that you can't routine, the days where you're like, it's the weekend and all of the family wants to go out for morning breakfast. And it's like, that's what's got me right?

Lucas Underwood [00:45:40]:

That's what got me out of my entire my exercise. And everything that I was doing is like, after I ended up getting kidney stones. So that broke one routine and then my back has been a problem. So that breaks another routine. And then to get back to it, once you drop it, dude. It's unreal how hard it is. I mean, it's tough to get back.

Chris Enright [00:46:00]:

Very hard to get back. I thought about that. When we go to ASTE, I'm still going to be doing it during ASTE, so I'm have to wait.

David Roman [00:46:07]:

I think it's easier when you're out of town.

Chris Enright [00:46:09]:

And it might be like, I don't have your family. Well, my wife will be with me.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:14]:

But I won't have the know not to change subjects. I'm going to change subjects. There have been a lot of giveaways for AST this year between scholarships and giveaway. Yeah, there's been a lot of people talking about it.

Chris Enright [00:46:27]:

How many people are registered going to.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:29]:

Be substantially like we've already surpassed last year.

Chris Enright [00:46:34]:

Nice.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:35]:

And so that means we've surpassed every other year. And what's interesting about that is we were talking about it yesterday. So they just got another diamond sponsor yesterday.

David Roman [00:46:45]:

Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:45]:

That's never happened before. Like, people are still calling, trying to sponsor the show. And yesterday there were like 25 or 30 more registrations. And it's like, holy cow. Because registrations previously had been done by now, and we could all go do our own thing. And we didn't even have to talk if we didn't want to. There was no need to have conversations about challenges, this, that, or the other. And now this year, it's like registrations are still rolling. Like when we opened, the day we opened registration. And so that's why they went and got the extra hotel room blocks and everything else. Isn't Dill's doing a giveaway or something like that?

David Roman [00:47:21]:

Yeah, we're supposed to I don't know.

Chris Enright [00:47:22]:

I didn't see well, that's because we.

David Roman [00:47:26]:

Better get on that. We're giving something away. Yeah.

Chris Enright [00:47:29]:

It's just like I told you, though. Until you have people talking about it that are going to reach a market that you're never going to reach, and let's be honest, the marketing for it in the past has not been good. I mean, I never even knew it existed for the first 13 years in the industry. None of them. I mean, Vision, ASTE STX didn't even know they existed. So the marketing is not good. And Jeff and I have talked about this a lot with this podcast. Until you get into some of these people that have large followings, which I know, obviously, this is my world now, so it's a little bit different perspective. But people that are creating content have different followers than the Asaw group will ever reach or shop owners are ever going to reach. There's technicians out there following them that were like me, that have no idea. I mean, again, I'll say this, that's how I found out about the podcast was through Cody Gaddy from his YouTube channel. Had I not been following him and watching his video and then saw him on the podcast, I would have never known. Still probably be doing my thing.

David Roman [00:48:32]:

Still one of our best performing podcasts. Yep. Cody gaddy.

Chris Enright [00:48:35]:

Hey there, you. That that alone shows you the power of content creators and what they can do. I just wish more of these places would realize that and start working with them. Like rich coming. That's huge. Like him finding out about it, because Mike, I think, is the one that he did a stitch to one of Rich's videos. And I don't know Mike, I've seen his name, but he did a if. I think that might be who it is. I think so that's him. So, yeah, that's him. He did a stitch and then told him about because Rich was complaining about a customer situation, and Rich was, man, you know, there's so many better ways you can handle this. I highly recommend you go to training. And then I commented on that video, I was like, Dude, absolutely. This training changed my life. And he was like, Where are you going? I said, ASTE I said. And that's kind of what got that whole thing going. And so when people like that with those types of followings start talking about.

Lucas Underwood [00:49:31]:

It, that's how we change the, you know, for like, I care about the one by one basis, right? So I was talking to Rich yesterday, and we were talking about the deal with the Audi.

David Roman [00:49:42]:

Who the hell's Rich? And what are we talking about here? Who's Rich Ford boss?

Chris Enright [00:49:45]:

Me.

Lucas Underwood [00:49:45]:

And so we're talking about the Audi and we're talking about what he's going through with that. And I'm like, Bro, if you knew how many times I did exactly what you've done right here, exactly in the situation you're in, and I promise you, like, you can go get a coach, and they'll tell you not to do this, and it will take you ten times of them telling you not to do this. I promise you from someone who's done it, here's what you have to do to get out of it. And then don't ever do it again because it's terrible, it's miserable, right? And so those situations, think about how it improves the life of someone who has never heard those things, never had those opportunities to learn about that. And here he is, he's running a shop. He's doing a really good job. He's putting his whole heart into it. And then there's these little problems, man. Think about how defeated we used to get when that happened and how many notches it would take you down. And now to have somebody in your network, right? Whether it's one of us, whether it's somebody in the group, whether it's another shop owner, and the ability to go to a show like AST and network, and you can reach out to that person and say, hey, man, this happened, dude, I remember the first time I did that, right?

Chris Enright [00:50:53]:

Yep.

Lucas Underwood [00:50:53]:

And it shows you that there's something after that, that life goes on, and it's great and it doesn't matter, but don't ever do that again. And here's how to fix it. That's the most valuable thing as a business owner you'll ever find.

Chris Enright [00:51:05]:

That's exactly why I paid for that guy's, for Matt's training was because, like I said, I've been there, I've done that. And I'm like until he actually goes and takes training and actually learns this stuff and he has to physically be there. I could tell him all day long, message him video, do video stitches back and forth until he sits in the class and puts himself there, he's not going to know. And I thought about like, should I pay for everything? Should I just pay for his training? I'm like, I want him invested himself too. So if he says yes, at least he has some money into it. I'll pay know, obviously the ticket and the ASOG dinner. And then he has to pay for whatever else. Which another owner reached out to me, shout out to David Hall and said that he would help pay for some of his expenses as well. So that was great. And that's why I told him, I'm like, hey, you're still going to have some expenses, but I have another owner that's going to pay for some of your travel expenses. I'm going to pay for your tickets, whatever you want to do. Here's the classes that I would recommend. Here's a couple of options. Like, I told him, I'm like, I don't want to because he asked me what classes should I take? And I said, I'll give you options. I don't want to be your sole provider of information. I want you to take what you feel like you want to take. And that's what he did. I gave him multiple options and he picked classes and we registered him and all that jazz. He seems like he's super stoked about it. He's messaged me, like we texted back and forth several times. He talked to his wife and his family and they were all for it.

Lucas Underwood [00:52:37]:

We catch flack sometimes because we put so much on the group and so much on the podcast about attending events, right? And I always make fun of or pick back and saying, well, anybody who doesn't get to go, of course you'd be mad about, know, it's just a sad reminder that you're not going. But that being like the reason that we do that, because that's where my business changed, right? And it was just luck of the draw, man. It was absolute luck of the draw. And we had a meeting yesterday about ASTE. I was telling the board members how important it is that they engage with the people that are there and shake their hands and talk to them and be there to support them and tell them that we care, right? Because we have a very active board of directors and they are all interested in helping other shop owners and helping technicians and helping improve our industry. What changed my life was when I walked through. That door, and that man was standing at that door and walked out and shook my hand and said, hey, I see that you're a shop owner, but you're taking technical classes.

Chris Enright [00:53:35]:

Why?

Lucas Underwood [00:53:35]:

And if he had not done that, if he had not said, I want you to take some management classes, dude, I would not be here right now. I'd be turning a wrench somewhere bitter and peed off about something, right?

David Roman [00:53:47]:

I'd still be doing the podcast.

Chris Enright [00:53:51]:

Everything would be the.

David Roman [00:53:57]:

Took.

Chris Enright [00:53:58]:

I don't remember if I when I went to AST, I took some technical classes, but I took a couple management classes. But when I won the scholarship, obviously I had to take all management classes, which was so much better. I wish I had done that the first trip around. And that's what I tell anybody. That's a shop owner. I'm like, you need to take advisor classes and management classes. You need to get better on the counter. Because most of them are in my spot that I talk to where they're like a one person, two, three person shop owners, and so they're still on the front counter, and most of us have no idea how bad we are on the front counter. I had no idea until I started taking those training classes. I suck. I am terrible.

Lucas Underwood [00:54:39]:

Well.

David Roman [00:54:43]:

Anybody complaining about all of the announcements needs to get off social media. They're engaging with the same four people, and that's why you keep post over and over and over again. It's like, okay, but if you knew how Facebook works, it doesn't push this content out to everybody. So we have to spam the group to get one more person to see the announcement.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:08]:

Sorry. We were both in a thread the other day where they said that they had raised their prices and all of these things happened. You remember that thread?

Chris Enright [00:55:18]:

Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:18]:

And they're like, oh, everything's unraveling and everybody's upset. And I'm like, dude, I so remember that. I so remember before I had some sales and some management training. I remember like, the first time, and dude, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this sometimes there was this guy, and everybody said, hey, charge what you got in as far as hours, and you got to charge a higher diagrade. And so I went through this car, and I got my timer on, and I had to stop and do this and had to stop and do that, and I didn't reset my timer. And I'm working on this guy's car, and he's a really great client, and whatever it was, I come back to it, and I charged him, like, $400. When I finally found that there was a fuse bad and retested the circuit to make sure it wasn't a load problem, it's like, $400 to change a fuse. And I'm like, that is like, ironed into my mind. I hear his voice all the time, and I'm like, oh dude. And so if it hadn't been for those training classes to teach me how to present that information and to communicate first and make sure I'm getting the approvals and setting expectations, dude, that's the most valuable thing you'll ever get right there, hands down.

Chris Enright [00:56:27]:

Even like what we were talking about, the networking. And I'll chime in and say that people complaining about hearing about the training events are goofy as well because until you've actually gone you can't say anything like you have no idea. So because I've been there, I know the change. Nobody's paying me to say anything. I've never gotten one single dime from any of the videos that I've made. I know what it did for me and my business and my family. Not just me and my business, but the change it's made for my wife and kids. I constantly tell these owners I don't want to get sidetracked, I better go back into this. The networking is like Brian Pollock, we were in the chat group and he was saying, he's like, hey, I just got X amount of dollars to just start on this vehicle. And I had a car in the shop, they had given me a eight by twelve with a long list of things they had already tried and done and replaced. And I was like, dang, this is going to suck. And so I was like, you know what, I just texted her and I was like, hey, with all this stuff I already done, I went through the whole thing, I won't go through all that. But because I have had that training, I've gotten so much better on the phone and on the counter. And I did this through text. I didn't even talk to her on the phone actually. No, I did do it through text and I said I'm going to need $500 to start on this car. I may not use it all but I'm just letting you know I need $500 to start. She said how do I pay? That was her response. How do I pay? I've never ever done that. And the history of starting my shop, I was terrified to ask for anything more than an hour upfront unless it was like something and I'm like, hey, I probably should get authorization for 2 hours most likely. It's pretty rare that I need more than that. I'm working on Honda so it's not know I get too heavy into that.

Lucas Underwood [00:58:12]:

You're saying Hondas don't break? Is that what you're trying to get at here?

Chris Enright [00:58:15]:

Oh boy, you're going to make people angry.

David Roman [00:58:17]:

They don't have break. Yeah, it's the same three things that.

Chris Enright [00:58:20]:

Fail, they don't break.

Lucas Underwood [00:58:23]:

Like dodges my thought on that thread.

David Roman [00:58:29]:

Now I'm getting upset here. Hold on. Now it's always the rocker arm radiator is always leaking.

Lucas Underwood [00:58:36]:

The thing about that thread was the one thing that it made me remember the most was the confidence to present that. Just yesterday we had a gentleman in the shop, and he owned a dealership in Orlando. And he came up here, and the staff man, he fought them every step of the way, right? And he knew what he wanted, and he was very exact, and he was really assertive with that. He wasn't disrespectful anything like that. It wasn't rude. It's just that with that experience and that training that I've been through, I walked up to the front counter and said, hey, here's the price and here's what we're looking at, and here's what's wrong. And if you need thing, let us know. Hand it to him. He said, order the parts. And my staff's like, oh, no, don't do that. We've been fighting with this for hours. The thing is, sometimes that confidence to put it out there, and you know you're doing what's right. If you go to a client, Mrs client, gosh, I really hate to tell you this, and I'm really sorry, but gosh, I think I'm probably going to have to charge you to do this. What do you think is going to happen?

Chris Enright [00:59:43]:

Because you're spending from your own wallet and you're terrified that they're going to say no or something like that? I've been there, done that. I had the same exact situations of people that work on their own cars. I was always terrified to hit them with the price. I just flat out tell people up front. Now I can't tell you how many people I get every week, call me with their own parts. And I'm just like, hey, I make money on the parts. It's how I pay my bills. If you want me to charge you $300 an hour labor, every shop can do that. I'm like, but we make money on the parts, so I don't charge you as much on labor. Either way, I'm making my money. I got bills to pay. It's expensive to run a shop. And they're always like, oh, I had no idea. Thanks for letting me know, or, oh, yeah, I knew that. I was just trying to save little bit of money. I understand you're trying to save some money, but let's say I put that on and it fails, baby. Yeah, well, if it fails a week later and you got to pay me to do it again, guess what? You save no money. You're literally not saving hardly any money.

David Roman [01:00:37]:

You remember that?

Chris Enright [01:00:38]:

People don't usually yeah, they don't take that time, though. That's the biggest thing you find out, which you learn, is how to better explain that stuff, and you get faster. Like, I used to spend 2030 minutes on the phone with people. Now I don't spend very rarely over ten minutes on the phone with them.

Lucas Underwood [01:00:53]:

Yes.

Chris Enright [01:00:54]:

Actually explaining this stuff. Because I'm better at it. I don't repeat myself. I'm more confident because I've had more practice at it.

David Roman [01:01:01]:

Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [01:01:01]:

100%. 100%.

David Roman [01:01:04]:

Very nice.