Changing The Industry Podcast

David [00:00:00]:
Hello. I'll keep chewing.

Monique [00:00:04]:
Oh, my God. I will mute you, I swear to God. Why did it. Why did offend. Why did it offend you so bad? Oops. Why did you get so offended when I muted you? You've, like, never forgotten that. It was like five years ago.

David [00:00:21]:
It wasn't five years ago. And you didn't unmute me. Seen me, like, I'm like, That's the best part. I had no idea why uwe wasn't responding to anything I was saying. That's why I got upset.

Monique [00:00:44]:
Oh, my.

Lucas [00:00:45]:
If I could mute you, I'd be like, yeah, I'm just kidding. Where am I?

David [00:00:53]:
That hurts my feelings.

Monique [00:00:56]:
Mighty Mo, what's up?

Lucas [00:00:58]:
Not a whole heck of a lot.

Monique [00:01:00]:
We're here at the Institute Summit, watching David eat his meat.

Lucas [00:01:08]:
Is that the black bean burger?

Monique [00:01:11]:
Oh, no.

Lucas [00:01:15]:
Looks like the black bean burger.

David [00:01:17]:
I'm not eating that abomination.

Monique [00:01:20]:
Turns out it was the black bean burger.

Lucas [00:01:22]:
Looks like the black bean burger.

Monique [00:01:24]:
Somebody picked it up, licked it, said, oh, that's black beans. Put it back.

Lucas [00:01:29]:
And he's enjoying it, it looks like.

David [00:01:30]:
Yeah.

Monique [00:01:34]:
He'S searching black bean burger to see what it looks like.

David [00:01:37]:
No, I'd be able to tell. I'm just telling you.

Monique [00:01:42]:
All right, so the Mighty Moe from Shopware.

Lucas [00:01:46]:
Mighty Mo.

Monique [00:01:47]:
Mighty Mo. Talk about shopware and talk about the most underutilized or improperly utilized feature in shopware. What do you think?

Lucas [00:02:00]:
Yeah, I mean, I'd say it's what we term dvx, so it's also our competitive differentiator. So it's, you know, of course, the thing that all of us, you know, are very proud of. Yeah, of course. And when utilized correctly, it is, you know, so impactful for shops on many different levels. Not only from profitability, but obviously revenue. And then you think about just the customer perspective. And of course that's going to, you know, have them out there talking about their experience. So it's kind of touching a lot of different areas, even though we're really mainly calling it dbx, which is the dvi, of course.

Lucas [00:02:47]:
But it's really connected to so many different pieces. And so that's why it's critical to get it correct.

Monique [00:02:53]:
Well, and it, it like it's a big deal because it is the client facing interface in a lot of ways. Right. It's what they see. Now I use mine very differently. I'm going to get in trouble. I use mine.

David [00:03:05]:
Don't bring that up. Don't. You're just going to mess the whole thing up. I'M not even saying anything. You say, hey, did you know that Joe Schindler was just in here and he uses loom to go through the DVX and then he sends the video.

Monique [00:03:20]:
When he sends the estimate so that.

David [00:03:22]:
Can watch the video. When he can watch the video as he's explaining all of the DVX components on a loom which has your face and everything on there. Isn't that a great idea?

Lucas [00:03:31]:
No, it's wonderful. We actually have a shop that I think you had on the podcast before that sends and has. They have on their website they have a, A video that explains the whole process of that interaction, which I.

Monique [00:03:47]:
That's something I want to do. That is definitely something I want to do.

Lucas [00:03:50]:
Yeah. I mean it's good for brand new customers. And if you're really busy up at the front, you know, as an advisor, you. If you have three people waiting to drop their car off, you don't want to have to take the time to explain that. So just giving them a video to help them in that process helps obviously alleviate some of that burden off of someone who's really busy at the moment. So I think that's phenomenal.

Monique [00:04:13]:
Especially your older clients. Right. Because some of them do struggle a little bit and it's not just like it's any technology.

Lucas [00:04:23]:
Yeah. I mean, while they're hopefully a lot of older clients are starting to not only see this in the shop, but I mean you go shopping at any retail store and they give you options. Right. It's not the same options, of course, because you're going to review a lot more at an auto repair shop. But I mean, in general, all we're really trying to do is allow folks to be communicated with however they want to be communicated with. So if you do have an older client who says, I want no part in that.

Monique [00:04:56]:
Right.

Lucas [00:04:57]:
You can call them and talk them through the process just as you would. But.

Monique [00:05:00]:
And the, the. So the. I don't know, I don't know if you know this, but like I take my authorizations very seriously. I want to like make sure it's documented and very clear. Well, so if you turn on the. What's it called? The California.

Lucas [00:05:14]:
Oh, yes. We built it for the bar association.

Monique [00:05:18]:
Right.

Lucas [00:05:19]:
But I mean it is so great for any state.

David [00:05:23]:
There's a function.

Monique [00:05:24]:
Yeah. You turn it on and it gives you a list of the authorizations. It makes you authorize it over the telephone and it like anything you do when you approve it. Yeah. You didn't know about this.

Lucas [00:05:35]:
So in the Past, you know, you had the recommendations up at the top. And if. Let's say someone was in person, you're obviously maybe not going to send it to them to give authorization. So you would.

David [00:05:49]:
We do sometimes at the counter because we want to get them to do it themselves.

Lucas [00:05:53]:
And this is going to be phenomenal for you. So if you turn it on and you say the person is approving in person, before it would just say approved.

Monique [00:06:03]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:06:04]:
And. But now it gives you a box to collect that signature. So you could just flip around your screen or hand them the tablet. And it allows you to.

Monique [00:06:12]:
It's a transparency in it.

Lucas [00:06:15]:
I think it might be in your main shop or account settings. I should know this. I think on ro info on shop settings is where you scroll down a little bit and you'll see it says, like, there's two toggles.

Monique [00:06:29]:
Whoa. I've got a whole lot more features than you do, Dave.

David [00:06:33]:
I hate you so much. He always gets like these cool things, and I'm like, what is that?

Monique [00:06:39]:
Yeah.

David [00:06:39]:
Oh, I just turned it on.

Monique [00:06:42]:
It's so cool.

Lucas [00:06:43]:
So now what happens is not only the person, but if you say they approve by email or by text, it's gonna allow you to choose which person from the profile. So if you have additional contacts, it'll say maybe the wife, maybe the husband. Approved.

David [00:06:59]:
That's so cool.

Lucas [00:06:59]:
And then you choose the phone number. Yeah. All of this is required by the bar. But again, who is not gonna benefit from this?

Monique [00:07:07]:
Well, and then as you get down towards the bottom, then it gives you a summary of everybody that approved.

Lucas [00:07:12]:
Yes. On the printed repair order. So if originally they approved, you know, the inspection or an oil change, great. But then now you're gonna have itemized down on the printout.

Monique [00:07:23]:
Yeah. Pick one.

Lucas [00:07:24]:
In addition, look at the PDF view. Mm.

Monique [00:07:27]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:07:29]:
So great. We worked with the bar to make this happen.

Monique [00:07:32]:
I love is next level cool. And like, you were talking to me about, like, hey, should we do a podcast on this? And I'm like, I'm already using this. And like, you didn't even expect me because you thought it was like, you're not in California.

Lucas [00:07:45]:
Come on now, Laura. Well, let's be fair. A lot of people, which I'm glad we're talking about this. You know, if they signed on, you may have seven years ago. Yeah, they're using shopware like, it was designed seven years ago, and they're not really using a lot of the new functionality. So for sure.

Monique [00:08:04]:
And you don't. Like, people don't go check.

Lucas [00:08:06]:
No.

Monique [00:08:07]:
Right. They don't ever look at it.

Lucas [00:08:08]:
And even if they do, because we give, you know, the pop ups now, they dismiss it and they continue their day because again, you're checking someone in and you're like, I don't have time for that right now. So, yes, it's very, very good to see the new functionality, implement the new functionality so you could take advantage of the cool stuff we're building.

Monique [00:08:29]:
When you talk about the fact that DVX is being underutilized or not properly utilized.

Lucas [00:08:35]:
Yeah. So we had done, we pulled the backend data a while ago. Carolyn wanted to do a class because we, we had envisioned that our DVX was generating a higher close ratio. And so we wanted to prove that theory. Right. And when we looked at the data, it was a lot of very interesting things that we found. But specifically when we looked at the comparison of folks who shared the repair order and folks who didn't share the repair order, there was a significant difference in terms of the money, obviously that they're not.

Monique [00:09:20]:
People don't share the repair order.

Lucas [00:09:22]:
Yes. There was like 15% of our users, our total users that never, ever share the repair order. Yeah, right. Mind boggling. It's like, why are you even using shopware then? Because this is literally its purpose, our differentiator.

Monique [00:09:42]:
Would they like, did you ask?

Lucas [00:09:44]:
No. No. I mean, yeah, no.

Monique [00:09:47]:
Can I get their telephone numbers? I want to ask.

Lucas [00:09:49]:
Right. It's, it's. I would be very interested to hear their, their feedback of why. But no, I didn't.

David [00:09:57]:
It's just like Craig O'Neal and like, he's, he challenges shops to have a really high share percentage of the DVI.

Monique [00:10:07]:
There's shops that don't share their DVI.

David [00:10:09]:
And I'm like, I'm like 98% and I took the number and I shared it on the, in the Facebook group. And he's like, wow, that's really high. How is it not what everybody. What's the point of doing the DVI if you're not going to share it? What's the point?

Monique [00:10:23]:
Only ones that don't get shared in my shop are the ones on my cars.

David [00:10:27]:
Yeah, I don't want, I don't want to lower my percentage. I share them, I send them, they come to me. I'm not even at the shop half the time. So, like, it pops up on my phone and I opened the DVI to see how clapped out my loaners are.

Monique [00:10:44]:
Is it bad?

David [00:10:46]:
Somebody just hit one of my loaners, scuffed the whole side of the car left yellow paint all over.

Lucas [00:10:52]:
But is there any damage internally or is it just.

David [00:10:55]:
No. Yeah, it's going back on the road and I don't care.

Monique [00:10:58]:
Yeah, we, we had one. We had one get popped. And it was after his car had just a whole list of things that went completely sideways. Like if it could go wrong. It did go wrong. And it was like this car that we've suggested, like, yo, are you sure? Are you like really sure? Positive. And they just kept saying, yes, it worked.

David [00:11:34]:
But parts deposit.

Monique [00:11:36]:
Oh, yeah. And paid. And paid for the repairs to the.

David [00:11:40]:
Oh, I like that guy.

Monique [00:11:42]:
To me. So a. They're not 15% are not sending at all ever. Okay. So let's just be like, I don't. I think this is a no brainer. Send the repair order.

Lucas [00:11:59]:
Yeah. And it doesn't matter what system you're in.

Monique [00:12:01]:
Yeah, send the repair order.

Lucas [00:12:02]:
Who should be sharing? If you're going to put in all of the effort to do the inspection to review obviously things on the vehicle, then why in the world wouldn't you share it?

Monique [00:12:14]:
This makes no sense.

Lucas [00:12:15]:
It doesn't.

Monique [00:12:16]:
Okay. All right, so share it. Next one.

Lucas [00:12:19]:
Yeah. So the second piece we found, which was also very intriguing, was everybody, it doesn't matter what types of vehicles you're working on. It doesn't matter. Anything at all. Everyone who is not. So obviously you're not sharing everything. Right. As we pointed out, he is.

Lucas [00:12:42]:
Maybe you aren't, but when you're not sharing it, you are not only presenting less money, so. So less recommendations, less money. But then you're making obviously less money because the customers aren't approving as much.

Monique [00:12:58]:
Right.

Lucas [00:12:58]:
So if you're keeping it without sharing it, maybe because they're your internal vehicles, you're obviously selling less. So the overall what we took away from that is when you sell or when you're sharing it with your customer, you're not only presenting more work, but then you're selling more money. So the close ratio stays pretty consistent across the board. However, the amount of money that you're able to get sold goes up significantly.

Monique [00:13:30]:
Okay.

Lucas [00:13:31]:
So it's very important to put that thing in front of your customer.

Monique [00:13:35]:
Right.

Lucas [00:13:35]:
Which is going to obviously equate to more money.

Monique [00:13:38]:
I've seen some shops that don't even do an eval on the car and then they just, they like take shopware and they just build a ticket and they make a recommendation for whatever it needs. The one that really gets me is they make the recommendation in the like regular area in the middle and then they send it.

Lucas [00:13:56]:
Yes. And I'm like, how are they gonna approve?

Monique [00:13:58]:
Right. Well, this is how much it is. Like, dude, you're not even. Like, you're not using it.

Lucas [00:14:04]:
Yeah. So we find that also. So we find some folks are sharing it, but they're not getting any services approved. And that's because they're putting it on the body of the ticket. So the customer's looking at it, but what are they going to be able to actually do? They're not going to interact with it in any way.

Monique [00:14:20]:
Right.

Lucas [00:14:21]:
So that doesn't make any sense. But then you have a large number of folks who are using shopware the way it was originally designed, which is fine. There's no problem, obviously, doing that. However, we've taken a lot of time and a lot of interviews with.

David [00:14:37]:
That's you, Lucas.

Lucas [00:14:38]:
Customers with not only your. We call them the car owner, your customers, but we've also done a lot of interviews with staff, both service advisors and technicians to ensure that the new format of presentation to your customer is really solid. And again, the main reason why we stand out is because we put a lot of time and effort into how the car owner interacts with. Sees it, but interacts with it and understands the information that's being presented.

Monique [00:15:08]:
Okay, so when you say the old way, give me a rundown.

Lucas [00:15:11]:
Yeah. So before I would say, what is it? May 2023, we were uniquely, obviously positioned to be able to add pictures and videos and recommendations that kind of all live together. So same same type of format as today. But the difference is it lived in a note section. It didn't live on the inspection and on the repair order. And so today. Well, before I go there, that was great because it allowed you to build the value, but it wasn't directly associated with the things on the repair order. So a lot of customers said, hey, I would love for the story to just happen sequentially.

Lucas [00:15:59]:
Right. Like, the customer can see it as it happens versus now. They're kind of taken off into this other section of the repair order. Right. Which obviously requires the car owner to be a little bit more thoughtful of what they're reviewing and when they're reviewing and how it pertains to the services on the actual vehicle. So. So now takes really no thought. Everything happens in a way that makes a lot of sense.

Lucas [00:16:25]:
Even. Even if you don't understand the words that the.

Monique [00:16:28]:
Yeah, you just go down the line. Exactly. And it's like, hey, this is on one of the red lines. I guess I need to take care of this. So I just click the button and I'm good.

Lucas [00:16:36]:
Exactly, exactly.

Monique [00:16:37]:
And so what you're saying is, is they're still writing everything in the notes section.

Lucas [00:16:42]:
That's correct.

Monique [00:16:43]:
And look, I'm not gonna lie. I still do that, but I do everything. I do it a little bit differently because my DVI is outside.

Lucas [00:16:52]:
Okay.

Monique [00:16:53]:
So what I do is I. Because it's the way it pushes. Now, if I could click a button and it pushed my DVI over into.

Lucas [00:17:01]:
I thought you were using the inspections in shopware.

Monique [00:17:04]:
I go back and forth.

Lucas [00:17:05]:
Okay. So you just.

David [00:17:05]:
We use them for, like, diagnostic notes.

Lucas [00:17:08]:
Okay.

David [00:17:09]:
So if we. If we sell testing on the test plans in it. Yeah. They'll be like. Like, hey, fault, correct, whatever. You put that in the inspection. So then the technician can then put the notes and the pictures in there. And then we slap a price attached to that to do the repair.

David [00:17:29]:
So we do utilize it in some fashion.

Lucas [00:17:31]:
Are you seeing the notes on the. Right. You're still using. Is that what you're saying?

Monique [00:17:34]:
No, he's saying the inspection line.

David [00:17:35]:
The inspection line.

Monique [00:17:36]:
Right. Because we both use autoflow. Now, here's the only thing that I use autoflow for now, right. Is my cursory evaluations and my light service evaluations are all in shopware. Right. And so those evaluations, when we do those, they just pre. Populate right there. And we just wreck off of those like you're supposed to, and we just go down the list and make them, and then they tie together and we're good.

Lucas [00:18:00]:
Right.

Monique [00:18:01]:
The difference is, for me, because my DVI is so thorough, I mean, it's like 180 points.

Lucas [00:18:07]:
Okay.

Monique [00:18:08]:
And so the problem was, is that it just resulted in so much information. Right? And they've got. It's required to have pictures on, like, 50% of it.

Lucas [00:18:17]:
Okay.

Monique [00:18:17]:
And so it had so much information on it. Like it.

Lucas [00:18:20]:
Information overload.

Monique [00:18:21]:
Yeah, exactly. And so what we do is with the very thorough ones, the first time we see the car, those wrecks are still built like the original wrecks in the note section over on the side. And then we use test plans for each individual thing. And for me, I think that's the biggest thing I see underutilized in shopware is that instead of writing test plans, people are just writing up what they're doing to the car. I think they need to be writing a test plan for each car and say, do this test, this test, this test, and this test. Because there's a couple things about that, right. The first is if you have A shop foreman. You have a really strong diagnostician.

Monique [00:18:57]:
What are we always talking about? We're always talking about there's a skilled trade shortage for number one. My guys that I do have aren't very good at diagnosis, and I'm not getting the consistency that I want, and I'm not providing enough information to my client. So if we build a test plan in shopware, because it works beautifully for this.

Lucas [00:19:16]:
What are you referring to when you say test plan?

David [00:19:20]:
So instead of, like, inspection lines where you would say, you know, front brakes, rear brakes, struts. Right. You're gonna have circuit has adequate voltage supply. Circuit is grounded. Whatever the feedback from.

Monique [00:19:41]:
This is the measurement.

David [00:19:42]:
Yeah, this is the measurement. So each individual test then has. Hey, you're gonna. This is step one of the testing protocol and step two of the testing protocol. And as proof that you conducted the test, you take pictures and notes in the inspection so that they can see that, hey, this is the picture of me measuring voltage. Here's the picture of me checking for ground. Here's the layout from the lab scope. So they can see that.

David [00:20:09]:
Here's a little arrow showing what's wrong. The squiggle is wrong. Right. And here's the recommendation based on that. That makes the whole testing protocol. That's $250, seem valuable. Does that make sense? Rather than just a whole mess of notes sitting in the notes section?

Monique [00:20:24]:
And it standardizes the process.

David [00:20:27]:
That standardizes the process.

Lucas [00:20:28]:
Carolyn uses the program as well, right?

Monique [00:20:31]:
Yeah, exactly. And. Well, that's where I learned it from. Yes, right. And so then you make a wreck at the bottom of that. And when. When they mark that red recommended repair marked red. And now it just pops up and the advisor builds it.

Monique [00:20:44]:
Now you just go down that list, and you're like, oh, but they did this test and this test and this test, and I see this. Right. Okay, but see, the. The information overloaded is the only reason that I don't use for my primary dbi. Now, look, the new manager is saying, like, hey, I think the DVI is too in depth. I think you're going over too much information. And same thing with the brachy valve. Like, my breakey valves are too in depth.

Monique [00:21:07]:
And it's not a shopware problem. It's a me problem. Because I want all this data, and I want to know that you measured it, and I want to know what this result was. And so to take that out, I feel like I'm leaving things off the table that I want the information for. And I'm depending on Them I'm depending on the technician to know what to check. And I have, in my experience, found that some miss some things that are really important. So I have built unhealthy systems by, like, all these mistakes. I've put this little thing in for each one that they missed.

David [00:21:44]:
And so now it's for me, it's the text message updates. That's it. The only reason why not that we don't love Chris and Craig. Wonderful. And now Brandon, we love them all. It's that. Don't need it. I've got it in shopware.

David [00:22:03]:
I just. I want to send that. Hey, we're looking at the car now. Hey. We're preparing an estimate.

Lucas [00:22:08]:
The automated updates.

Monique [00:22:09]:
Yeah, yeah.

David [00:22:10]:
Well, just. Even if I had canned messages in there that they just kept getting little alerts saying, hey, there's an update to your car. Go look. There's an update to your car. Go look.

Monique [00:22:22]:
I do not envy Andrew for one second. Okay, so we're out there. I've got pictures. I'll show you. We're out there, and Andrew pulls us all aside, all the shopware users into this room, and he's like, okay, so all of the things that everybody says need to be fixed. I have every recommendation out there on sticky notes. And if y'all give us just a few minutes, we're gonna put those sticky notes up in individual sections. And then what I want you to do is I want you to put these little dots on the ones that you think are urgent and the things that you think are really important.

Monique [00:22:57]:
Let's get everything marked. The things you don't think are important, put on that. And he said, now it's probably gonna take me about 30 minutes to put all these sticky notes up. And I mean, it's just a wall of sticky notes. And you're like, holy cow. And like, everybody in the room wanted something else different than everybody.

Lucas [00:23:14]:
Yes.

Monique [00:23:15]:
Golly, dude, yes. So, like, everything you.

David [00:23:18]:
That.

Monique [00:23:18]:
That's in there, right? And it's like every recommendation they've ever had is up on this wall. And it's like, oh, that's overwhelming. I can feel my heart beating faster now. I don't know.

David [00:23:29]:
You could just ignore all of it and go. Program's fine.

Lucas [00:23:32]:
The best. The best part is when you push out something new and exciting and you're so pumped about it. You're like, yeah, everybody's going to be so thrilled. They've all been asking for this. You push it out, and instead of like, thank you, it's like, what about x Y Z. Oh, go ahead. Thank you. I was so excited to tell you I was Santa and I was delivering these presents and they are all unhappy with it.

Monique [00:23:58]:
Well, what's so wild is like you talked to one person, dude from Sun Auto was there, right. And we're having these conversations and that was a really cool experience because he's smart. I mean, he is a smart.

Lucas [00:24:08]:
And they have who knows how many locations. Yeah, he ungodly.

Monique [00:24:12]:
And so like getting to spend some time with him and him talking about, oh, yeah, we've ran into this. So what we do is this idea. I thought of that and so like, I didn't say that I don't want to look that bad. But you know, we're sitting in the room and we're talking through some of this and. And it's even happened between me and you because we're talking about the customer financing stuff and those packages and it's like some people are mad about the idea of doing that. And I'm over here like, God, I can't wait for that to happen. And I don't see how you can take and make. I mean, I get not making everybody happy.

Monique [00:24:46]:
Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying after seeing that list, I'm like, oh, shit, this is intense.

Lucas [00:24:53]:
Yes, it is not for the weak. Go create a shop management system that you want to push out into the market for the masses. If you're just creating something for yourself and a couple people say, great, we want to utilize it, then that's not as difficult. But then you don't get to all of the cool stuff because it's very expensive. Developers aren't cheap. Design folks aren't cheap. You have to have a support team and an onboarding team and a sales team.

Monique [00:25:23]:
Well, in talking to Andrew and Alex and everybody else, it was exceptionally clear that, like, hey, we want to make the right decisions.

Lucas [00:25:33]:
That's right.

Monique [00:25:34]:
And what. So, okay, what goes into making the right decision and the amount of data that it takes to make the right decision and then like to get the right decision to do what it's supposed to do is the research that you.

Lucas [00:25:47]:
Put in beforehand because you're like, great, this is the right idea. And then you go pitch that idea to folks and. And then you hear feedback that either you didn't think of or then, you know, the idea that you thought we should implement is just not what other folks want. So, yes, it's definitely labor intensive for sure. Just to even get to the first step.

Monique [00:26:11]:
One of the conversations we had While we were there was AI and like, how can AI play into a shop management software? Like, how can it be automated into it? What can you do? And so, like, we were talking about an automated function where it can clean up technician notes in the notes section. So the primary customer facing side. You can click a button and it cleans it up or it makes it like, hey, dumb this down.

Lucas [00:26:33]:
Yeah.

Monique [00:26:34]:
And so the dude that.

Lucas [00:26:34]:
Or don't dumb it down, do the.

Monique [00:26:36]:
Opposite, take it the other direction. And so we were talking about, Talking about in that.

David [00:26:42]:
Did Grammarly do that?

Monique [00:26:44]:
Not to the same degree as what we're talking about. I was talking to the dude who did that and he said, the problem is you have like a large number of shops who are terrified of AI. And he's like, if I put that in there, they're like, you're still in my data. You know, it's a valid point. Like, how do you please everybody?

David [00:27:01]:
So you don't.

Monique [00:27:02]:
David's not going to be happy about anything anyway, so I like the way.

David [00:27:05]:
It is and quit messing with it.

Lucas [00:27:08]:
And he also is not trying to please everyone, so he wouldn't care.

Monique [00:27:13]:
He's not. Even if I have a customer. So glad I did.

David [00:27:19]:
If I have a customer that doesn't want me to text them and email and all that, they. Yeah, we don't deal with them.

Lucas [00:27:26]:
So what do you. I mean, how does that work? Do you just fire them right away?

David [00:27:30]:
Yeah, I mean, we just tell them like, hey, this is gonna be a little difficult to do because we text and email everything. We don't have a printer here. I can't print anything for you. We'll call you on this one. But this is just the way that we do things. And they kind of get the picture. Like, they go away. Ah, themselves.

David [00:27:48]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:27:49]:
How many? Like, if you had to assign a.

David [00:27:52]:
Percentage, one or two a year.

Lucas [00:27:54]:
Oh, that's not bad. Yeah, it's not bad at all.

David [00:27:57]:
And we have some that still come back and we just know because they have the little yellow box on the text thing.

Monique [00:28:03]:
Yeah.

David [00:28:04]:
That they give me a landline. That's all they have. And you know, they're just really old. They don't know how to work their cell phone. That's what they tell me. I don't know how to use this thing. I have it for emergencies. Like.

Lucas [00:28:17]:
Okay, so what do they do when they go to the doctor's office? Yeah, I mean, because the doctor's not handing you a piece of paper after they took out an organ and.

David [00:28:26]:
No, they Never check. They don't check anything. Yeah. So they have a child that goes with them. I just ran into this with my father in law. He would go to the oncologist, the oncologist would tell him all these things and all he would hear is, you can keep drinking your coffee. That's it. That's all he would hear.

David [00:28:47]:
And it got to the point where my, my wife's like, I gotta go with him every single time because otherwise I don't know what the doctor told him.

Lucas [00:28:55]:
Yeah, yeah.

David [00:28:55]:
I don't know what new medicine they're putting them on. I don't know what the side effects are going to be. I don't know what to look for. Like, and he does, he's like not listening at all. He's just off in la la land and he hears what he wants to hear. And so they are not opening up the app to check the doctor's notes and the recommendations and the prescription. They don't, they just, they get the little white pill and they take the white pill. That's what they do.

David [00:29:17]:
It's messed up. Yes. But I don't know.

Lucas [00:29:21]:
Yeah, I mean, I like to make informed decisions. I don't, I don't want to just.

Monique [00:29:26]:
Say sure, but I mean like 20 years from now. Okay.

Lucas [00:29:30]:
Yeah.

Monique [00:29:31]:
She'll only be 40 in 20 years.

Lucas [00:29:34]:
Quit it.

Monique [00:29:35]:
40 years from now. Right. Like you're going to be seeing things completely differently and there's going to be a new technology.

Lucas [00:29:41]:
Yeah.

Monique [00:29:42]:
And like neuralink. Yeah.

David [00:29:44]:
They're going to zap it right into your brain.

Monique [00:29:46]:
Yeah, exactly.

David [00:29:47]:
And I don't think you lose that. I think it's just not going to.

Monique [00:29:50]:
Want any of that.

David [00:29:51]:
I've got, I've got customers that 70s and 80s and they know, they play with their phones and they, they know, they know how to work for technology.

Monique [00:30:00]:
Dude. I have some that come in and they sharp as tags, 80 years old, going on about life like nothing's wrong. And some that just like, they, they're in a different planet. Right. They have.

Lucas [00:30:13]:
That's scary because, I mean, whether you want technology or not, if you don't catch up, there's going to be so many things you're going to miss out on. And you know, I think that when you use tools that are put in place to make your job easier, to make your staff's job easier, but more importantly, to make it easier on the customer. Because ultimately without customers, you don't have a business, you don't have money, you're not providing for your families. And so you just really need to meet them, you know, where they want to be met. And that's what Shopware does. And we're continuously improving that because we know those customers are your livelihood.

Monique [00:30:55]:
Right, for sure. And like the majority of the consumers, that's what they're looking for right now. And so what I see is, I see the shop who is absolutely unwilling to provide that. Like, nope, we do this this way. This is the way we've always done. And they're unwilling to move, they're unwilling to shift. They're not trying to see it from the customer's perspective, but they're.

Lucas [00:31:16]:
Or what's worse, and I didn't mean to interrupt you, I'm so sorry, but when they say, okay, great, I want to go from whatever antiquated system they have in the past that you put something on top of it, they want to go to the new and modern system that works exactly like that, but that has a dvi and it's like, why, why are you even making a switch? You should be looking for something that is going to be substantially different, to automate some of these processes to make your life easier, to make things more efficient. Not just writer into a DVI tool now, not doing anything well, and they.

Monique [00:31:57]:
Come in and they expect shopware to work like Mitchell. They expect shopware to work like something else. No, dude, it's a different product. Like, it's not going to.

Lucas [00:32:05]:
And there are systems that are out there that will work like our writer, but have a DBI tool in them. And I mean, if that's your choice, then great. But shopware is going to not only give you the new functionality, it's gonna do it differently. So that way you have a different result, a better result. A result that's gonna produce not only a dvi, but some things you didn't actually anticipate getting as well.

Monique [00:32:34]:
You know what I want? I want the Tire Guru features brought into shopware.

Lucas [00:32:39]:
Tire Guru's pretty awesome, dude.

Monique [00:32:41]:
I'm telling you. Like, the, the stuff they just added. And like, I had somebody message me the other day and they're like, oh, it's very antiquated. And it's this and it's that. And then I'm like, bro, like, are you sure we're talking about the same product? Because I just saw what they're adding to this. That's pretty cool.

Lucas [00:32:57]:
Oh, so slick. So I now represent Velo SMS from a partner perspective. So I'm not. Even though you know me as Shopware, I'm not Just Shopware. I'm representing Protractor and Shop Boss and Tire Guru and Maxtrax and you know the rest of them. Right.

David [00:33:15]:
And so you guys own Maxtrax too?

Lucas [00:33:17]:
We do, yeah. Omnique. Do you guys know that?

Monique [00:33:20]:
Hey, listen, we tried our very best to get the Monique from Omnique thing going, but it just didn't work.

Lucas [00:33:27]:
So that made it a full circle back. But.

Monique [00:33:33]:
And like, everybody, like, we. That was a topic of conversation at that meeting.

Lucas [00:33:40]:
Monique from Omnique.

Monique [00:33:41]:
Why do we not have Monique from Omnique? This is crazy. This is absolutely insane. This is, like, the best thing we could do.

Lucas [00:33:47]:
Yeah. It was so good. As a matter of fact, the first, like, year of me working for Shopware, I would say, hi, this is Monique from Shopware. It was so hard to change that. But anyhow, I say that I'm now Velo sms. And so I had to, of course, learn all of these other systems that I've not really been super privy to before, like Shop Boss and Tire Guru. And after Josh gave me the Tire Guru demo, I'm like, here, let me grab my card. Hold on one second.

Monique [00:34:16]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right.

Lucas [00:34:18]:
Like, really cool. If I was running a tire shop, I would Absolutely. Absolutely. And 100% be on tire Guru, because I think it is awesome.

Monique [00:34:27]:
Well. And, like, so they were showing the things that just got integrated with the parts.

Lucas [00:34:33]:
Optimizer.

Monique [00:34:33]:
Yeah, the tire optimizer. Yes.

Lucas [00:34:35]:
The tire optimizer. Yes. Thank you.

David [00:34:37]:
Dude.

Monique [00:34:37]:
Holy cow. That is super cool. Because, like, the tire space is really competitive. And I'm not saying you have to compete with those people.

Lucas [00:34:45]:
Yes.

Monique [00:34:45]:
But the data that it gives you for that, like, just.

Lucas [00:34:49]:
That is worth it.

Monique [00:34:51]:
Yeah, for sure.

Lucas [00:34:52]:
And then there's a bunch of other things that make it so awesome, but just that, because to your point, not only is it competitive, but a lot of times you don't know what you don't know. And so having it all kind of just funnel up to you and tell you, hey, you're doing yourself a disservice by underpricing here because everybody else is clearly making more money than you now you can at least go and again, make informed decisions as a shop owner. Do I need to up my pricing? Am I way too.

David [00:35:26]:
You know who had that lane car? Yeah, exactly.

Lucas [00:35:31]:
I'm not even.

David [00:35:32]:
Exactly. So laying car and SMS out of. Out of Canada.

Monique [00:35:37]:
Oh, that's why. Sorry, Jeff.

David [00:35:41]:
It was.

Monique [00:35:42]:
Hey, we didn't have poutine last night.

David [00:35:45]:
Yeah, we had poutine last night. It was bastardized. Poutine but it was still poutine. It was good.

Lucas [00:35:51]:
Yeah.

Monique [00:35:52]:
Monique got a little nervous when the subject started.

Lucas [00:35:54]:
I'm all, I don't know what it is. I can't poutine.

David [00:35:58]:
It's cheese curds, gravy on top of fries.

Monique [00:36:03]:
Yeah, it's really good.

David [00:36:05]:
And this was chicken gravy.

Monique [00:36:07]:
And that.

David [00:36:08]:
The chicken gravy was good. Yeah, Chicken gravy. And this had, like, fried.

Monique [00:36:13]:
Yeah.

David [00:36:13]:
Cheese curds.

Monique [00:36:15]:
The best waiter I think I've ever.

Lucas [00:36:17]:
Had is that, like, the waiter was.

David [00:36:18]:
A 10 out of 10.

Lucas [00:36:19]:
That, like a French word. Poutine.

David [00:36:21]:
Poutine. I have no idea.

Lucas [00:36:23]:
Yeah, I thought I. I did a bunch of study abroad in France, and I tried to talk to some folks from Quebec, and I realized very quickly, very different. We are not speaking the same French.

Monique [00:36:35]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Lucas [00:36:36]:
Just kidding. I don't know your French.

David [00:36:38]:
Yeah, it's a different thing, too.

Monique [00:36:40]:
Yeah.

David [00:36:40]:
Turn like a Puerto Rican from New York. Talk to you. I have no idea what you're saying, dude. Like, I have no idea what you're saying. Also, Mexicans, like, if they're from the northern part of the country, they come in and they're like, dude, you need to slow down. But you get them from the southern part. They talk at my pace.

Monique [00:37:07]:
Yeah.

David [00:37:07]:
I don't know what you're saying.

Lucas [00:37:08]:
I think, to your point, Spanish from someone in Puerto Rico. The Dominican and Argentina are very fast, very different, very hard to understand. Or even just Spain, because they use.

David [00:37:22]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:37:22]:
They lisp different words. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

David [00:37:26]:
It's lispy. It's weird.

Lucas [00:37:28]:
This gal I was sitting next to on the plane kept calling my sister, who we say mercedes. She kept saying mercedes. Oh, my gosh, please stop.

Monique [00:37:38]:
That is not her name.

David [00:37:40]:
You know what's a great movie? Pan's Labyrinth. You ever seen it?

Monique [00:37:43]:
No.

David [00:37:44]:
Okay. It's a fantastic story.

Monique [00:37:45]:
I'm not very cultured. You know this.

David [00:37:47]:
It's. It. It's not a. What? No, it's like. It's like saying, I haven't seen.

Monique [00:37:54]:
I don't know.

Lucas [00:37:54]:
That was a delayed reaction if I've seen one before. Took a second.

David [00:37:58]:
Like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Like, I haven't seen that cultured saying. It's not. It's not that kind of movie. It isn't. It's in.

Monique [00:38:06]:
Could have done with an open plunger. Huh?

David [00:38:09]:
It's. It's. It is set in Spain, and it's like Spanish actors, but then you, you know, you get the subtitles or whatever. If you don't watch It. If you don't understand Spanish, you can't read and watch a movie the same time.

Monique [00:38:24]:
I just.

David [00:38:25]:
I can't what? I can't watch a movie without the subtitles.

Lucas [00:38:27]:
I was going to say, as a.

David [00:38:28]:
Matter of fact, I got to have the subtitles.

Lucas [00:38:30]:
I. Even when in English, I have to have the subtitles. Oh, yeah, I'm.

David [00:38:34]:
All the time. Yeah, I got to have them on so I can't hear without my words on the screen.

Lucas [00:38:40]:
It's like when you turn the music down when you're driving and looking for something. It's like, I cannot function without subtitles.

Monique [00:38:46]:
Hey, y'all should do the. The. That leadership class, because he talks about that. It's like a whole.

Lucas [00:38:52]:
Turning down the music.

Monique [00:38:53]:
Well, it's like a whole section of, like, why you do that and what your mind's going through when that happens. And, like, why do you need subtitles versus not. It's really interesting.

David [00:39:03]:
You're broken. You can say it. It's fine.

Monique [00:39:05]:
It's the science of. It's the science of how we learn.

Lucas [00:39:09]:
You know, after being here at the summit for now a few days, I have heard nothing but great things about Michael Smith.

Monique [00:39:18]:
He is a smart cookie, buddy.

Lucas [00:39:20]:
That is literally what every single person who interacts with him says. And so I am. Yes, I'm having a major case of FOMO and feeling like I need to learn more from him, talk more to him, so I can.

David [00:39:34]:
He's doing several of those classes throughout this year.

Lucas [00:39:36]:
The leadership class.

Monique [00:39:37]:
I think he's gonna come to the shop. We need to sit down and talk with Kent and them.

David [00:39:40]:
And they were expecting you to have that all worked out, like, towards the end of February.

Monique [00:39:44]:
Well, so I talked to Kent, and Kent said, hey, I'll have the girl about the hotel reach out. And I said, well, no problem. I can, like, set up whatever I need. He said, well, let me have her reach out. And then I think we got our wires crossed somewhere.

David [00:39:56]:
Well, they were asking me, and I'm like, what did he tell you that you guys were gonna do some kind of meeting, like, a week before Vision? I'm like, I think you guys can just dismiss that. Let's. Let's put that. Let's put a pin on that later.

Monique [00:40:11]:
Well, that's what I emailed him and said, now, Dory, that works for them is a clinical psychologist or something like that.

Lucas [00:40:18]:
I didn't know that.

Monique [00:40:19]:
Yeah, she's really. And so, like, she. They teach in parts, and I don't know that she teaches with him in each one of those. But holy cow. And so it was them going back and forth, talking about how we learn, talking about why we do the things we do. And what was so interesting is breaking down decision making from the aspect of, I'm a shop owner and I'm pissed off that you did this. I'm pissed off that you did this. Like this.

Monique [00:40:51]:
Why did you do this like this? And we talked about perspective earlier, right? And so they're talking about why do human beings make the choices they do? Why do they interpret data differently? And so they break it all the way down to the psychology of how we learn and why do we do the things we do. Right. And so it gives you this new appreciation for how you speak to people and how you encourage them to do the thing that they need to do. And why might they say no to that? Why might they push back to that? And what are they telling themselves?

Lucas [00:41:22]:
Right?

Monique [00:41:22]:
Because what you tell yourself is what you end up with.

Lucas [00:41:24]:
Yeah.

Monique [00:41:25]:
And so it's really cool, like how they go in. I mean, by the last day, I'm sitting there and I'm going, okay, you are not smart enough to interpret all of this in one of these. This is going to take like four or five times to be able to interpret everything that they just put on the table. And so on the last day, he's like, okay, now listen, this is going to be like drinking from a fire hose. I'm like, oh, shit. It was already. Already like drinking from a virus. It's gonna be worse.

Lucas [00:41:51]:
You know, you're like, oh, God.

Monique [00:41:52]:
Right? And it, it's just, dude, I'm telling you, it is so crazy. It is like, well, I would be.

Lucas [00:41:58]:
Very interested in that because I've been on this like self improvement journey and I've been very, like, immersed into improving myself. Right? But more importantly, like, the habits that I've created over a couple years in my life.

Monique [00:42:15]:
Yeah, for sure.

Lucas [00:42:16]:
But getting rid of the bad habits and instead like replacing them with better habits. Right. For example, you know, if I scroll on social media for hours when I wake up, like replacing that with working out or doing something else, that's more valuable. And you know, a lot of times we don't even realize what we're doing, much less that it's something.

David [00:42:42]:
Those damn reels.

Lucas [00:42:43]:
Yes, yes.

David [00:42:44]:
Damn. Real.

Monique [00:42:45]:
Hey, are you.

David [00:42:46]:
They're so funny. No.

Monique [00:42:47]:
Oh, no, I can't.

Lucas [00:42:48]:
Why are you watching your reels?

David [00:42:49]:
That's Facebook. So they pop up and I'm like, ah, funny. Please send it to Lucas. Ha. Funny. Please send to my wife. Funny. Send it to Lucas.

David [00:42:59]:
What I do all day.

Lucas [00:43:00]:
Yeah, right. So that's a bad habit.

David [00:43:02]:
That's a bad habit.

Monique [00:43:03]:
Hey, so.

Lucas [00:43:04]:
And it's not easy to break. It's not easy. It's not those habits.

Monique [00:43:08]:
And, hey, I was on an airplane. I don't know what the person was, but they were like, evidently some of my kind of mental health expert or something. I was listening to them. They were sitting behind me, and they were like, hey, just look around the plane. They're talking to the person next to them. They're like, just look around the plane and pay attention to people on their phones. And they're like, they're doing this thing called the death scroll. And like, people on the plane, if you watched them, they would just start, like, looking at their phone and they would bounce back and forth from thing to thing to thing, waiting on this dopamine hit from this one thing to happen, this one notification.

Monique [00:43:38]:
And, like, everyone on the plane was doing it except for some of the older generation who are reading a book or sitting back and relaxing and. Right.

Lucas [00:43:45]:
But, like, why I don't have a Kindle. A lot of people get the tablet, and there's nothing wrong with it, but I need to. I need to get away from electronics. So I have to have the book that I can flip the pages. And if I find myself, like, on the plane, I do not allow myself to get on any electronics. So I'm not working. I'm not scrolling again. These are things that I had to shift because they were habits that I was watching movie.

David [00:44:13]:
I don't watch a movie otherwise. I never watch movies.

Lucas [00:44:15]:
But that's what I'm electronics. You go from scrolling to. Now I'm watching a movie, which is. My eyes are still focused on this thing. And that's what I want to get me personally, anyhow, saying other people have to. But it's what I want to get away from is just constantly being tied. Because I'm telling my son, who's always gaming, right? I'm like, you need to stop. You need to not be on YouTube or games or TikTok or whatever.

Lucas [00:44:40]:
But how do I tell him he can't if I'm not getting off of it?

Monique [00:44:45]:
It influences our behavior in ways that you would never imagine.

David [00:44:48]:
Unless he's really good at gaming and then to lean into.

Lucas [00:44:52]:
I know. I'm like, can we just be millionaires, son? Yeah, I'm just gonna live off of you.

David [00:45:00]:
Yes. Game plan for my son. Like, hey, you want to Learn how to mod Minecraft. He's like, yeah. I'm like, bet. Let's do it.

Lucas [00:45:10]:
Oh my gosh, my son would be so thrilled with you. He's always like, mom, come play Minecraft with me.

David [00:45:15]:
And I'm like, Minecraft is so boring. It is. It's all dumbest game I've ever heard, I've ever tried. I don't get it. But my kids love it. My son loves it. But I do if he wants to start learning how to code and make modifications and then I can slap that on YouTube.

Monique [00:45:34]:
Hey, dude, my. My daughter like her thing is gonna be video editing. Like she is a bomb diggity video editor now. At the point we're at right now, it's not like, it's not like things I would watch. Right? I mean, I do watch her things. I don't mean it like that. It's just that, like it's not the type of content I would typically consume. But dude, she is really good at it.

Lucas [00:45:57]:
That's awesome. That's really good.

Monique [00:45:58]:
Yeah, it's unbelievable.

Lucas [00:46:00]:
How much time would you say your children spend with technology a day?

Monique [00:46:05]:
Dude, my wife is like, she rules with an iron fist and so like they only have certain times they can use technology. My daughter does not have technology except for on the weekends.

Lucas [00:46:16]:
But does. Is this her telling them they can't and taking the device or what? What is like, how does she stop them? I guess is my question.

Monique [00:46:24]:
She love and logics the shit out of them.

Lucas [00:46:26]:
That's cute.

Monique [00:46:28]:
They are.

Lucas [00:46:29]:
But. But she takes the device or she just.

Monique [00:46:31]:
She doesn't have to. She doesn't have to. She's got them programmed. She knows how they're going to respond and she know they know what the rules are and they assist them around it.

David [00:46:41]:
Yeah, my son, we. We were letting him game at night after his homework, but you know, he was getting distracted at school and sat and you know, it's like, okay, you can't have that constant stimulation all day every day.

Lucas [00:46:54]:
Yes.

David [00:46:54]:
And so yeah, during the week, no, no, no videos. He can watch TV with the family if we sit down to watch something or whatever, but he normally doesn't want to.

Lucas [00:47:04]:
And how old is your oldest child?

David [00:47:07]:
Mine's nine.

Monique [00:47:08]:
Mine's 13.

Lucas [00:47:09]:
Okay, so yours is closer to mine. My son, it was real bad. It was real bad.

David [00:47:15]:
How old is he?

Lucas [00:47:16]:
14? Oh, no, no, no. Like if I am not monitoring, this kid will.

David [00:47:22]:
12, 14 hours. Yeah.

Lucas [00:47:24]:
Yes. We'll go from 3:30 the moment he walks in to 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning.

David [00:47:29]:
Well, yeah, he's got to go to bed, but.

Lucas [00:47:31]:
Exactly.

David [00:47:31]:
But if he, if he goes. If his grades aren't that bad, like, don't get upset by decencies as long as he passes. But he gets home and he plays.

Monique [00:47:43]:
Talking about himself here.

David [00:47:44]:
I'm just saying, you end up fine. Nine to ten o'clock at night. But he goes to bed at a normal hour and he's not unhealthy. That was the other thing. It's like my, my son, like, hey, you got to go get up and move. Like go outside, ride a bike. Like, you can't sit the entire day. It's not healthy for you.

David [00:48:05]:
So. So yeah, it's a little bit of shifting their. Their habits so they get good habits for the rest of their lives. But at 14, he wants to get. If he's good at it now, if he's. If. If he's just bad.

Lucas [00:48:21]:
I tried several things to like, stop this. I finally had to get one of those apps on my phone that I.

Monique [00:48:27]:
Can turn it on and off.

Lucas [00:48:28]:
Yeah. I can control what devices.

Monique [00:48:31]:
Well, you're on the road a lot.

Lucas [00:48:33]:
Yes.

Monique [00:48:34]:
And so that's.

Lucas [00:48:35]:
And so I. Now I see when he logs on.

David [00:48:38]:
Yeah, yeah.

Lucas [00:48:39]:
If I wanted to turn it off, I could. But yes, I same. He can only have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and it's certain times. But I've noticed a huge behavior difference in him. Huge. He was grumpy and mean and.

Monique [00:48:54]:
Yep.

David [00:48:55]:
Probably lack of sleep more than anything.

Lucas [00:48:57]:
Right. And you know, the crazy thing is, so when I got the app, he. For the first couple of weeks, he hated me, of course. And then the other day, one of our family friends came over. So crazy. I wasn't there, so I didn't hear this. He wasn't trying to like, you know, earn brownie points, but she was complaining how her sons were on video games too much. And he's like, well, you know, my mom got this app where she controls when I can be on.

Lucas [00:49:22]:
She's like. He's like, it's been great for me. You should get it for them.

David [00:49:26]:
Wow.

Lucas [00:49:27]:
And I didn't believe this, right. Like. Cause it came from the family friend. But my brother was there and he verified and he was like. I was so shocked, shocked that he said this. And that's crazy. I said, okay, I'm happy. If he's happy, I'm happy.

Lucas [00:49:43]:
And he's gaming less. So it's so good. You have to control that. Again, they don't understand. We don't understand the Habits that we build. Right to your point. And you have to kind of monitor that for them. And so that was a toxic habit that he had, and he doesn't know how to change that.

David [00:49:58]:
I want to set rules for my son.

Lucas [00:50:00]:
Yeah.

David [00:50:01]:
If he can bench press his own weight and he's dry scooping creatine. Game all you want, son.

Monique [00:50:08]:
You know?

Lucas [00:50:08]:
So cute.

Monique [00:50:09]:
Here's the thing, though, is I look back at my life and I think, wow, I was a terrible kid, and I did all of these things y'all are talking about. But, like, the technology thing led me in a different course than I would have gone without it. Right. Like when they gave me the homeschool stuff on the computer and I figured out the file system and understood the coding within the file system and how to change the password without actually accessing the device. Like, that led me to a different place in life than I would have been otherwise. Right. Like those times. I'm not saying the unhealthy thing's okay.

Monique [00:50:40]:
I'm just saying that.

Lucas [00:50:42]:
Well, I'm sure you weren't doing this 12 hours a day like my son. Right? Like, there's. There's.

Monique [00:50:46]:
Again, try 16, 17 hours a day. I mean, like, I was. I was a terrible, terrible teenager.

Lucas [00:50:51]:
Maybe your parents didn't know how to get the app to cut you off.

Monique [00:50:55]:
We didn't even have apps at that time. App was Snake on your Nokia.

Lucas [00:51:02]:
It's so funny. So when I first cut him off, my daughter. They were. Him and my daughter were FaceTiming, and she sent me this picture, and she's all, please turn on this boy's Internet. Because he's playing, you know, the game, like, the dinosaur jumping game on the computer when you don't have any wi fi. Do you know what I'm talking about? He was, like, playing that because he didn't have any Internet. It was so hilarious. I'm like, no, he'll be okay.

Lucas [00:51:26]:
He'll be all right.

Monique [00:51:28]:
Toughen up, buttercup.

Lucas [00:51:30]:
Anyhow, we are way off of topic. And what we were talking about.

Monique [00:51:34]:
No, I mean, I think we. I think we covered some cool stuff. The. The one thing, okay, she's messed us all up. We've been calling it the Optimizer for years, and now she's telling us it's not an optimizer.

David [00:51:46]:
I thought they changed the name back.

Lucas [00:51:47]:
She said, well, so here's the real reason that I don't call it a parts optimizer anymore. It was just a clever name to say that our parts matrix was optimizing. Obviously what they were doing previously. And so a lot of folks are just confused. As a matter of fact, here at the summit, one of our customers came up and said, hey, do you all have a parts matrix?

Monique [00:52:12]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:52:12]:
And I'm like, we always have. Yes.

Monique [00:52:16]:
Right?

Lucas [00:52:17]:
Yes. We call it the parts Optimizer. So it's a little.

Monique [00:52:20]:
I knew that we, but I knew that we were headed in that direction because it put the, it put the little chart on there so you could see what it would look like.

Lucas [00:52:28]:
Yes. Because people were, again, they didn't see what they're used to, so they didn't think. So in their mind it was non existent. But the real main reason that folks just don't understand is because again, they're, they're, they're coaching buddies, right? Or whomever they're getting the template from of like a penny to a dollar is this and yeah, a dollar one.

Monique [00:52:55]:
They think they have to set it there.

Lucas [00:52:57]:
Yes.

Monique [00:52:58]:
And they, you know, I think back to when I first started working with a coach, like I would not be able to take much of that advice now, right. Because like, I've developed as a shop owner and there's a lot of things I know and I understand. But you know what's really cool? And Cecil and Rick are both very similar in this way. They don't give you so much information, you can't process it. Right. And so instead of teaching you how the sausage is made, they're like, hey, you need this sausage with this side. And here's how we're gonna do that, right?

Lucas [00:53:35]:
Yeah.

Monique [00:53:35]:
And so then it's about getting you there first and then you can learn how the sausage is made after the fact. But let's get you to where you're willing to eat sausage, right? And so it's, that was one big thing for me is, is that like when Rick started working with me, if I had, if he had tried to say like, hey, I'm really just trying to target your parts GP to this, I would have been like, nah, dude, that's too much. But where he sat down and said like, hey, let's make this this and let's make this this and then we're gonna adjust it. Didn't think about what the end number was. I just thought, okay, we're making these adjustments, right? So I think that's part of that comfort factor that they teach into it. Whereas I'm kind of to the point that I think that we should turn off all of those features for shop owners and let their coach just Control their pricing. Right. And you just give the coach a login and they hit the button and then adjust it and they like deal with it.

Lucas [00:54:30]:
So that's funny. But so think of it this way, right? Let's say we all have the same coach. Let's say I'm not. But let's say I'm a shop owner. You're a shop owner. David's a shop owner. Let's say David works on diesel trucks. You do all things.

Lucas [00:54:47]:
Actually, I should have just swapped that. He's in Kansas. He works on lawnmowers and all the things. You're obviously.

Monique [00:54:53]:
He is a lawnmower. Yeah.

Lucas [00:54:55]:
You're diesel. Only working on diesel. And let's say I'm Euro.

Monique [00:54:57]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:54:58]:
Right. So obviously we're buying parts from different places.

Monique [00:55:02]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:55:03]:
My negotiated rate and discounts and costs that I pay for those parts are different than what you guys are. And obviously the parts that I'm buying are also different. So I may be buying.

Monique [00:55:13]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:55:14]:
Not that I'm only buying 10, but let's say I'm buying 10 parts in a given month and one is a dollar, one is $5, one is $20, et cetera, et cetera. Right. Just different price points. Each one of us are different. So for our coach to go and hand us the same template of the.

Monique [00:55:32]:
0, it just doesn't work.

Lucas [00:55:33]:
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't work. Right.

Monique [00:55:34]:
It's workload for them because they have to come back and constantly adjust well.

Lucas [00:55:37]:
And that's what's happening today. Right. Someone is saying, here, go use this template to set up your parts matrix. And then you're going to hit 60%. Well, today I might hit 60%, tomorrow I might hit 45, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. So it's never. It's always going to be kind of that roller coaster up and down.

Lucas [00:55:59]:
Whereas what our parts matrix does is it's not taking that template and saying you all have to use the same thing. What it's doing is it's looking at those parts that I'm buying, the cost, tailoring it to you, and it's tailoring it to me. So that way if I want to hit 60% with the parts that I'm buying, and if you want to hit 62% with the parts you're buying and he wants to hit 55% with the parts he's buying, guess what? If I, if I'm not emotionally discounting, I'm going to hit that target every single month because the system is creating those Rows for me, very tailored, very custom for me and for you and for him.

Monique [00:56:40]:
And then it watches what's in the database. And as things are moving back and forth, it corrects and adjusts.

Lucas [00:56:45]:
Well, so, yes and no. So it's not, let's say that you give your customer a $5 discount.

Monique [00:56:51]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:56:52]:
It's not going. And, you know, charging the next person 5.

Monique [00:56:57]:
Correct. Correct.

Lucas [00:56:58]:
If you are emotionally discount or discounting in any way, shape or form, overriding the price point, you're just not going to hit it because the, the matrix never looks at your sell price to that customer. It doesn't care what you're selling it for.

Monique [00:57:12]:
Right.

Lucas [00:57:12]:
Because that's not the way it's creating the equation, the algorithm. Right. It's looking at what are the parts that you're buying and selling. Selling.

Monique [00:57:21]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:57:22]:
So the cost of those parts. Because if you're buying them but you're not selling them, they're not that important.

Monique [00:57:27]:
Right.

Lucas [00:57:27]:
So you have to buy them and sell them to the customer. But it's looking at the cost and it's saying, okay, if you have a $5 part and a $10 part and a $20 part, you want to hit a 60% GP, I need to mark up the parts to this for you to hit that 60% GP with those parts. But guess what, that doesn't mean you're buying a $5 part and a $10 part and a $20 part. You may be buying a $4 part and a $17 part and $100 part.

Monique [00:57:54]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:57:55]:
So again, that's why it's different and why it's really, really important and helpful to our shops to not use the same template every single time. Because we're all different. Right.

Monique [00:58:07]:
So let's talk about breaking it, because it does get broken sometimes, and I break mine all the time. And I think I know why I'm breaking it well.

Lucas [00:58:16]:
So there's only one way to break it well, too. So when I think we've changed this since then, but initially when we built the optimizer, a lot of people were hesitant. They didn't know if it was going to work. So we gave them the ability to have options when they turned it on.

Monique [00:58:38]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:58:39]:
And people who have been using for a long time, if they chose the wrong option.

Monique [00:58:44]:
Yeah.

Lucas [00:58:45]:
They think it's on because the light switches or the breaker is on.

Monique [00:58:49]:
Right.

Lucas [00:58:49]:
But the light in the room is not actually on.

Monique [00:58:52]:
Correct.

Lucas [00:58:52]:
So they're like, it's on, but I'm not hitting my target. Well, that's because none of your parts are actually automatically pricing, Right?

Monique [00:58:59]:
Yeah. You have to turn Optimizer on those.

Lucas [00:59:02]:
Yes, that's correct. So, again, some of the folks in the past using might have the wrong option selected. So if you're not hitting your GP that you have set as the target, you should definitely contact someone at Shopware.

Monique [00:59:16]:
And just make sure that everything.

Lucas [00:59:17]:
Yes. I've done probably 60 Zoom calls where I've went through and looked at people's settings and the output of what's going on. And then I'm able to tell them, oh, well, either A, you turned on the wrong option, B, your people are overriding pricing, because a lot of times you're like, oh, it's the matrix. Well, it's not the matrix, it's the people who are making changes to the prices. Or C, maybe you just don't. Maybe you turn it kind of halfway on. And so maybe they're turning the parts off, like, because again, I said you can. It's like turning the breaker on, which is turning the optimizer on.

Lucas [00:59:57]:
But sometimes people will turn off the individual parts. Parts.

Monique [01:00:02]:
Yeah.

Lucas [01:00:03]:
And so it's. Again, it might say it's on, but, like, 50% or more of your parts aren't even actually being matrixed, which is key. So if there's one of those issues, then we can point that out and we can let the shop know, hey, here's the recommended solution for that.

Monique [01:00:20]:
Right.

Lucas [01:00:20]:
And a lot of times, probably 60% of the time, I just have to say your people are discounting. That's the main problem.

Monique [01:00:28]:
Well, and there's things that I adjust and so what we're talking about doing. And for the most part, I have categories for everything. And I'm just sitting here thinking, you know, I should probably call Alex and tell him, I would really love if we could, like, category reports.

Lucas [01:00:43]:
Oh, yeah, have him jump on my calendar and we'll go through all the things.

Monique [01:00:47]:
Yeah.

Lucas [01:00:47]:
And then I'll help him.

Monique [01:00:49]:
You know, What I'm saying, though, is, like, if you have a category report that shows your GP for those individual parts categories, and then just have them contact me. Yeah.

Lucas [01:01:00]:
I say that because, yes, you probably already have those reports set up, but again, sometimes if your people aren't doing things correctly, they may leave an employee purchase, for example, in breaks. And now it looks like your break category is extremely low, but that's because you zeroed out parts or you.

Monique [01:01:21]:
Right. Well, I mean, I'm just saying if. As opposed to, like, changing the whole job category. In other words, when you select the part category. If we can go back and look at part category and say in other words, like all of my parts for brakes are 55% GP, all of my parts for batteries are 30% GP.

Lucas [01:01:41]:
Okay.

Monique [01:01:42]:
Right. And if I can go back and look at those parts and say, hey, those are accurate. Right. Then I know that I'm like, I'm where I'm supposed to be now. Does it still affect it the same way? Like in other words, because your parts GP includes what's optimized and what's not. I mean, maybe it should be that there's optimized GP and non optimized gp.

Lucas [01:02:04]:
Yeah. So there are exceptions, right? They're called group exceptions. And so you could set up batteries, tires.

Monique [01:02:11]:
Yeah, that's what I use.

Lucas [01:02:12]:
And you can choose a different percentage. Now obviously we have. If you were there with Andrew, we're doing a bunch of work with part types in the system and those exception categories. Excuse me, those part exceptions. And so that will make things.

Monique [01:02:33]:
Dude, I was so excited about that.

Lucas [01:02:35]:
I'm like, can't you have that all done in two weeks?

Monique [01:02:38]:
Yes, he can. He can. He's lying to me.

Lucas [01:02:41]:
Well, so luckily I worked on the product team for a year and a half and now my expectations are far more realistic.

Monique [01:02:50]:
Yeah. A little more level headed.

Lucas [01:02:51]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because now I know everything that goes into it. But before, yeah, I'd be like, what, it's been two days, you haven't built that yet.

Monique [01:02:59]:
Yeah, I know, right?

Lucas [01:03:00]:
Which is craziness to think I was that naive. But yeah.

Monique [01:03:04]:
So like the whole concept of pulling parts in from parts tech and the category already being on the part and not having to select the category for the part and then if there's exceptions to the GP that it automatically adds the exception to the GP without me having to click button.

Lucas [01:03:18]:
It's pretty 100%. I'm with you.

Monique [01:03:22]:
Yeah.

Lucas [01:03:22]:
I don't like that you're being very unusually quiet. It's not like you.

Monique [01:03:31]:
Yeah, we're getting ready to catch the mother load of a rant here in a minute, I guarantee.

Lucas [01:03:36]:
No.

David [01:03:36]:
I was fixing some stuff on my shop where I saw. That's what I was doing.

Lucas [01:03:42]:
He saw a squirrel.

Monique [01:03:43]:
Yeah. Yeah. Do you think we'll ever get the tire optimizer?

Lucas [01:03:50]:
Oh God, I'm hoping and praying yes. I mean, I don't think it's priority.

Monique [01:03:55]:
No, obviously, but.

Lucas [01:03:56]:
But I mean there's.

Monique [01:03:58]:
Because I would hate to have to get tire tire guru too. Like that would suck.

Lucas [01:04:01]:
Yeah, right.

David [01:04:02]:
What's it do.

Lucas [01:04:03]:
Oh, my gosh. So it goes.

Monique [01:04:05]:
So cool.

Lucas [01:04:06]:
Yes. It goes out and it looks at essentially, your competition in the area, and it tells you based on all of your tire prices to your customers. It tells you how close you are to your competition in terms of what you're pricing. So if you're pricing under what the 10 tire shops in your area are underpricing you, it'll ask you, do you want to raise your prices to be more competitive with your competition? You click a button, it reprices all of your parts for you.

Monique [01:04:42]:
Yeah.

Lucas [01:04:42]:
It's so incredibly.

Monique [01:04:44]:
I just wish David would quit kicking the camera. That would be so cool. Monique's, like, bouncing across the screen up there.

Lucas [01:04:56]:
I don't know what's going on because it's behind me, but I'm gonna rely on you guys to tell me.

Monique [01:05:02]:
David had, like, his ADHD really kicks in, like, hardcore. The later in the day it gets, the worse it gets. And so he starts, like, putting his foot over against stuff and kicking stuff and moving stuff.

David [01:05:12]:
Good. What are you talking about?

Monique [01:05:15]:
No, I mean, I just think that it's got such cool features and it does such cool things. That. And you know what? Like.

Lucas [01:05:24]:
Well, that's the benefit of now being under Filo, right, Is that we can share. So, you know, when. When a private equity company comes in, if they're not in this, any. Any leaders, whether it's, you know, the company or just leadership in general, if they don't understand the automotive space and they're making decisions based on, you know, the. The medical industry that they were in before, it's. It's a different dynamic. You know, it's very, very. Not that the.

Lucas [01:05:55]:
The general principles or concepts aren't, like, overall the same, but you have to kind of know the folks in the industry and how they operate. And Velo does that. They know, because we're not the only automotive company that they've bought. Like, they have a ton of different shop management systems. They have marketing payments. Not only are they in the aftermarket.

Monique [01:06:22]:
But they're in the market. They're in the dealer world.

Lucas [01:06:25]:
They know.

Monique [01:06:26]:
Well, and what's so crazy is, like, sitting there and, you know, like, watching Rob's interaction with everything and, like, how things happen, it feels like. And at first I thought it was fake. Okay. I mean, obviously we know it's not fake with you, and we know it's not fake with Andrew and the people that we work with every day. Right. Like, we know that's not fake, but when everybody else was doing the same thing. It was like, well, are they telling you to talk to the people that are here on the cab and say, oh, we really care about our customers. Right.

Monique [01:07:01]:
No, it was genuine.

Lucas [01:07:02]:
Yes.

Monique [01:07:03]:
I'm really surprised by the number of Velo employees that listen to the podcast and can't say anything bad anymore. David.

Lucas [01:07:12]:
Oh, yeah, they love them some. Lucas and David, for sure.

Monique [01:07:18]:
I posted a video of one of my technicians doing something foul and grotesque. Okay. In the Changing the industry group. And we go to this bowling party, and every single person at that party comes up and says, that was hilarious.

David [01:07:37]:
And I'm like, that's messed up.

Monique [01:07:38]:
Oh, shit.

David [01:07:40]:
Poor Eric.

Lucas [01:07:41]:
Yeah.

David [01:07:42]:
Or Eric.

Lucas [01:07:43]:
Yeah. All eyes on David and Lucas for sure.

Monique [01:07:47]:
But no, I think it's so interesting because it genuinely feels like the people that are working with the clients are driving the direction of the organization. In other words, like, Rob's sitting there going, yeah, sure. Okay. You guys do what you need to do. I'm just making sure we don't run off the rails here. Right. But the feel is very much like, hey, we want to serve the clients, and here's how we're. Hey, like, we have this idea about doing this to make this better for this person.

Lucas [01:08:15]:
Yeah.

Monique [01:08:16]:
And, like, one of the girls from 360, she's. She's one of the customer support people we work with, like, all the time. And she's like, hey, I was thinking about this thing that you guys ran into, and I just want you to know, like, we did this. That's really cool. Right. Like, they thought about the thing that happened.

Lucas [01:08:33]:
Yeah.

Monique [01:08:34]:
And so the problem with a lot of these other organizations is, like, leadership comes solely from the top. Right. And I think leadership, like, I've never seen a culture that was driven from the bottom before.

Lucas [01:08:46]:
Yes.

Monique [01:08:46]:
To this degree.

Lucas [01:08:48]:
Yes.

Monique [01:08:48]:
And that's just. That's why I was so. That's why I made that post and said something about it, because I was so amazed, like, how much it drove that organization.

Lucas [01:08:56]:
Yeah. In a lot of the places I've been before, leadership definitely drives. Right. Because they come up with a strategy and they want to obviously make sure that it's.

Monique [01:09:06]:
Yeah.

Lucas [01:09:07]:
Put in place the way they envisioned it. And, you know, if. If for some reason they talk about what they want to do and they find out from, you know, the folks who are driving some of what they're putting in place. If they find out it's not working, then they just want us to let them know what will work, and they're happy to change that direction.

Monique [01:09:27]:
For sure.

Lucas [01:09:28]:
And if we tell them, you know, the customers are the ones who are. Are driving the change that we want to make, it's not even a question. It's like, okay, how do we make them happy? How do we push this forward in a way that's going to make sense for them?

Monique [01:09:41]:
It feels like what we talk about all the time, which is leadership, puts guardrails in place and empowers the people within the organization to do what they need to do to make it successful. That's what it feels like. And I've just never seen an organization of that size with that many people in it that can make that happen.

Lucas [01:09:57]:
Oh, yeah, There's a lot of very smart and talented people who are sitting in the right seats. For sure.

Monique [01:10:04]:
Yeah, for sure. I disagree. Are you gonna say anything?

Lucas [01:10:08]:
I think he's done. I think at some point in this conversation, he just, like, turns off.

Monique [01:10:15]:
He didn't even hear anything we said for the last two hours.

Lucas [01:10:18]:
No, he's off in. I don't know what land. I was gonna say la la land, but I don't even think he's there.

David [01:10:23]:
No.