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In The Coach's Corner with Darrin Barney Ep. 2 - Corey Lajoie
552 Plays1 year ago
In the second episode of In The Coach's Corner, Darrin Barney sits down with Corey Lajoie of CL Diesel Repair and his coach John Francis as they discuss the path that Corey has gone on to get to where his is today, and how coaching has helped him along the way.
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Transcript
Introduction to Elite Radio & Coaching
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to Elite Radio, the podcast for repair shop owners by repair shop owners. Welcome back to Elite Radio. And thanks for joining us for the next episode in our series of In the Coach's Corner, where we focus on the highlighting, the success and struggles of being a shop owner, as well as the relationships built through coaching.
Guest Introductions & Backgrounds
00:00:18
Speaker
I'm your host, Darren Barney, and I'm here with Corela Joy and John Francis. And I'm really excited to be here with both of these guys. We, uh, uh,
00:00:28
Speaker
God, John's been a coach with us for years and Corey has also been a client with us for years. So John, would you mind doing a little bit of an introduction and tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure. I've been in this business for, I guess I'm proud to say over 50 years. So I started in a new car dealership, making two bucks an hour and opened my own business up in 1979 and recently sold it to my son.
00:00:57
Speaker
had, I was a coach, excuse me, I was being coached by our Godfather, Jim Ferrano for eight years. And then Bob asked me to become a coach and I says, yeah, I said, I'd love to do that. So, and what 11 years later, so I've been in this coaching thing for about 20 years. Love every minute of it. Most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life other than having kids. So.
00:01:22
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome, John. Really appreciate you being here with us. John's actually been a coach with Elite for a little over nine years now, isn't that right, John? Yeah. Yeah. You got some cool dogs and you're there with your wife, Michelle, and yeah, you've made a pretty good life for yourself, my friend. That's for sure. That's for sure. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for John for being here with us. And Corey, you're up next. All right. Well, a little bit about me. I guess I've been doing this now for my entire career, but
00:01:51
Speaker
I used to work for a company for a long time for like almost 10 years before I went on my own. And the only reason I really got started was because the side work got to be too much and decided to take the plunge. And, uh, it was, it was interesting getting going, but honestly, if I hadn't found John and elite, there's no way I would, uh, be here. That's for sure. Yeah. So it's been a, it's been a great, uh, great time.
00:02:19
Speaker
Amazing how that, uh, coaching helps out, isn't it? Yeah. I didn't even know it was a thing to be honest with you. Well, we'll talk more about that in just a minute, but I got to say first off, congratulations on making it 12 years. You know, it's a big accomplishment for, I assume you were a technician before, right?
00:02:35
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. I started off as a fuel injection specialist. That's what I did. I did only diesel fuel injection and it got kind of boring to be honest with you. So I started wrenching on trucks and yeah, here I am. That's awesome. Well, and that's, I mean, you'd be surprised, maybe you wouldn't be, but we see that all the time with people that come to us and they're like, yeah, you know, I was a technician and I decided I wanted to own my own shop and it's really common to hear that, you know, and there's such a difference between being a technician and being a business owner and that's,
00:03:03
Speaker
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely is. Yeah. And also good. We got to hear about this Oh five dodgy years too. Um, we were talking earlier and he was telling me as this Oh five Dodge is pushing over a thousand horse and I've got, I had no two for years. And so I want to hear a little bit more about that too, Corey. So yeah, but anyway, so thank you guys both for being here. Um, when it came up to interview.
00:03:25
Speaker
you know, John and Corey, and I was like, man, this is awesome. You know, cause it's something that people love to hear stories of guys, just like yourself, Corey, that have grown something and done it once again for 12 years. I mean, most small businesses don't last that long and for you to do it, I mean, that's congratulations on that. Yeah, thank you. But, uh, anyway, so thank you guys again. And, uh, I just kind of wanted to ask you guys, you know, I mean, first off, I guess Corey, you know, ask you what, what made you want to reach out for a coach in the first place?
Corey's Business Growth Challenges
00:03:54
Speaker
be honest with you, I had no idea coaching was the thing. I didn't know it existed. I never heard of it. My business at the time was growing faster than I knew how to handle it. And actually Jasper, my rep from Jasper, he turned me on to a presentation that Bob, and I think it was
00:04:17
Speaker
the Laura's putting on locally doors. Yeah. So I, uh, I signed up for it and I went and I had my hesitations and almost seemed too good to be true. And, and I talked to a couple of people I know that are different industries, but I asked them about this coaching thing. If it was actually worked. And according to them, they're big companies. They work for, they use them too. So, right.
00:04:44
Speaker
I figured what the hell. I felt I was at my last straw. I didn't know what else to do. I'd reached my point of I had no idea what I was doing. When you say that, what does that mean when you say that you didn't know what else to do? I knew how to turn wrenches. I knew how to fix trucks. I knew all that, but I had no idea
00:05:08
Speaker
how to run a business and make it profitable. I didn't understand the P and L's. I didn't understand, you know, how to figure out how to charge the right amount or, you know, just different ways of going about, you know, your, your troubleshooting charges or, you know, not, um, keeping track of the guy's time or just all of that, you know, what's fair pay, what, uh, good benefits, stuff like that. I, I was just didn't know.
00:05:36
Speaker
Like we always say, you don't know what you don't know, right? Yeah, I definitely didn't know. Yeah. That's awesome to know that you had that inspiration enough to, uh, to reach out and get that extra help. You know, especially all those years ago, can you imagine how different your life would be if you hadn't had that extra guidance? Yeah, I honestly would probably be back to working for somebody else just because I always, it was just too much. Didn't know how to handle it. So yeah. And that's great. Thank you for sharing that. What, what do you think that, uh, how did John help you with all of that stuff?
00:06:05
Speaker
Well, I mean, first thing first, you know, he kind of explained to me, you know, how to how the business runs, how to delegate, how to, you know, numbers, how to figure out, you know, your, your cost of doing business. That was the biggest thing. That was a huge eye opener.
00:06:26
Speaker
is, you know, how much it costs us to open the doors and walk in in the morning and turn the lights on. I didn't know. I didn't think about that stuff. I just thought about fixing that truck in there and getting it done. Right. You know, that's, yeah, that's true. And John, what do you remember first about, I mean, I know it was all those years ago, but you know, what do you remember about helping Corey? What was some of your early memories of that stuff?
00:06:46
Speaker
I remember the first call, Corey. I remember the first call. I remember because Doris and Bob were doing the Jasper classes and I remember that
00:06:59
Speaker
I had a lead and I just like big trucks. I learned things from Cory every day. I learned something new today about how diesel can overrev. And I always thought that they couldn't because they had a governor on them, but I'm always learning. And the two of us are really, you know, have things turned around. What a future he's got. But I remember the first call like, okay, how am I gonna, there's so many things in big truck business. And I have two other people that do trucks, but nobody liked Cory.
00:07:29
Speaker
in heavy duty, we had to adjust from cars to trucks, but thinking on their feet and those kinds of things. And we got our arms around the business and that takes a little bit of time. And one of the great, great things about Corey is very coachable. You know, we, we, we talk about things, we discuss them and then we decide to do them and then we do them and execute and follow through. But I remember the first call saying, okay,
00:07:58
Speaker
We'll turn this around. We got to fix this. We can fix this.
Benefits of Coaching for Corey
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah. And we still say that today, right? Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, and that's, it's funny because I've had people tell me before that, you know, they're like, how can somebody stay with a coach for as many years as a lot of our clients do? And it's like, because they're always working on something, you know, there's always something to grow and improve upon. You've always got somebody in your corner that's helping to push you along and project and make sure that you're going in the right direction.
00:08:24
Speaker
Well, they also hold you accountable. And I like that because I had nobody, you know, my wife would tell me things about, well, you know, what the hell does she know? So it's like, you know, I got, I got John and that's big for me because I need someone to hold me accountable. Well, it's, it's important that accountability is huge.
00:08:40
Speaker
You know, I can remember when I had my coach and it would be literally the hour before and I would be like just doing everything I could and sending out emails and doing all this stuff that I had to do because I knew my call was coming up. And Kevin, he used to be my coach and he was just like,
00:08:58
Speaker
Yep. I can always tell when you're doing stuff, because all of a sudden I start getting CC'd on all these emails and he's like, you know, but I'm just glad you get it done. But once you try to get it done earlier in the week, he goes, you'll be much more productive. And it took me forever to catch that. But that accountability of that weekly call of knowing that, gosh darn it, someone's going to hold me to the fire, you know? Yeah. But yeah, that's cool. Well, I mean, so tell us a little bit more Corey about, you know, how your life has changed.
00:09:23
Speaker
Oh man, it's changed in a lot of ways. I mean, you know, and like I said, when we started, I was struggling, uh, struggling. Couldn't hardly pay myself because there was just so much out there, so much, Oh, didn't know how to, how to manage it. Now, you know, I've housed two kids, built my wife, a giant barn, looking at building a shop here in the next couple of years in the process of.
00:09:48
Speaker
find some property. I went from three bays to seven bays and went from me and a tech to me and four other techs and a secretary. So it's just like, I didn't ever think it'd be possible. But when you look back, it's like, oh, I can't believe that we did it. It just seems so easy now, but it really wasn't. But it was well worth it. Yeah.
00:10:17
Speaker
But I mean, you think back to those days and, you know, struggling and trying to figure out how to do everything and not having the answers and not knowing. And then all of a sudden you got somebody there. That's kind of like a Superman guy. I mean, that's always think of John as a Superman. It's true. If I have a, I've had some issues in the past where I'll text John and be like, I don't know how to deal with this particular customer. Cause I don't have patients with people. I'm not a people person. I guess you could call it. Right. And I would, you know, I, before I would say or do anything, I talked to John and you,
00:10:45
Speaker
calm me down and give me some ideas. And, you know, I could execute it a much more professional manner or before I couldn't do that. So that's a big thing. I got to ask, I mean, so what's some of the things he would tell you and you were fired up and you're, you know, whatever. He would try to make me see both sides of it. That's always the biggest thing, you know, put yourself in the customer's shoes too. And that, that was always a tough thing for me because, you know, I'd get defensive right off the bat, whether I knew I was right or wrong.
00:11:13
Speaker
John would always, he always still to this day, well, you got to, you know, can you see how this guy feels? And, and then all at the same time, I might feel bad for somebody and be like, Oh no, don't feel bad. You didn't, you know, you didn't charge him for that. Or you didn't, you didn't offer that service and, or he declined it. And, you know, it makes you see a little bit more of it. And, uh, it just, it just helps me to see it better. He just knows how, how I operate. Sometimes I get tunnel vision and he kinda expands my vision.
00:11:44
Speaker
Right. And that's a good thing of a coach, right? Yes. Especially when it's somebody like John, once again, John, to sing your praises, but he's been down the road many times before. Yeah. I feel like we have a lot of similarities. Yeah, we do. We do.
00:11:59
Speaker
That's a good coach. It's somebody that can help you to see the other side of the coin and help you to think outside the box and calm you down when you're worked up. I never forget Kevin telling me that same thing. I was upset with one of my employees. He'd been with me for a while.
00:12:14
Speaker
It was something really silly, but I was really worked up. And I texted Kevin, and Kevin said, call me. So I called him, and he's like, calm down. He's one of your best techs. You've got to take care of him. He's like, calm down. And it's like,
Corey's Achievements & Specialization
00:12:26
Speaker
OK, all right. But it's amazing, because I was fired up. And I hate to think what would have happened without that little bit of encouragement. The guy's still with me all these years later, and he's still with me. He's a great tech. He's a good friend of mine. And sometimes you just got to calm down and have somebody say, hey, take a deep breath. It's OK. Yeah, absolutely.
00:12:42
Speaker
And I remember it was something that was silly, but, uh, you know, it was just a miscommunication on, and I thought he wasn't following procedure. And this guy was like, he just didn't know that we had changed the procedure and there was just some mixups, but it was something that was completely not something that he chose to do. And to this day, I still feel kind of bad that I had got so worked up with this guy, but you know, amazing how those coaches can do that and help you see things through the, as they say, you can't see the forest or the trees sometimes. So, but yeah, what about you, John, do you have anything you want to add to that?
00:13:12
Speaker
Well, not necessarily. I mean, very coachable. And Darren, you know how that works. Yeah. The old saying is, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And that's how I look at it. A lot of times when I get hooked up with a client, it's like we're supposed to be. Yeah.
00:13:32
Speaker
with Corey, we, we, we, you know, have a special relationship after so many years, but everybody's different. So you have to adjust, but, but Corey just, uh, I mean, I just proud beyond words. I mean, the new shop coming and, I mean, it's four acres across the street that, that hopefully by October or November we'll have under contract, uh, to do. And that comes out of a, uh, uh, plan that Joe and I created for him.
00:13:59
Speaker
Yeah. Along with a couple other things we're doing too in personal life, but just great. And yeah, the other thing as far as, you'll probably bring this up, but one of the things is Corey's shop is an EVT shop, Emergency Vehicle Technician.
00:14:15
Speaker
So he's one of, I tried to find the number last night and I couldn't, because I couldn't get into it. But when I did find it, it was somewhere around 7,500 in the country. So his shop does fire trucks or grow in that part of the business too. Fire trucks, did you say?
00:14:33
Speaker
Yes, EVT stands for Emergency Vehicle Technician and Corey is certified, which means that for every ASC test that has to be current, there's a comparable EVT test to that. So he went as far as Maine to go through these.
00:14:48
Speaker
Didn't you have to go to Maine for a couple of classes? I never ended up going. I went just out to Boston for a couple and Worcester, but I was able to get a level one. Uh, there's three levels total. The first two have to do with vehicle repair and maintenance. And then the third one is fire apparatus, which we don't get involved with, but I've got my level one certification takes a long time to get them. They don't tell, they only hold testing twice a year. Wow.
00:15:15
Speaker
That's a cool thing to know about, though. Well, it is. I mean, we're creating a package right now that go after fire companies. And he's got a road service truck that we can do on-site DVI's at the firehouse and then get the parts and then keep the downtime on the fire trucks, which is real important.
00:15:33
Speaker
Because you just don't drop a fire truck off for service. They have to unload all the hoses, all the fittings, all these kind of things. So it's a real niche that we're going to go after. And I think with Mark's help as service manager, it's another market that we're going to capture. That's really cool. Huh. What a cool market, huh? Yeah, there's not many shops that specialize in it. Yeah. Well, I mean, why not? Especially, I mean, if you've got the aptitude to learn that and do that, why not? I mean, you specialize in the heavy line stuff. So I mean, that kind of goes hand in hand.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Wow. I mean, the best part is you have any contraction in the economy at all, and you've got kind of some guaranteed work with the government there too. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's important. That's cool. Good for you. What made you want to do that? I mean, how'd you find out about this EBT thing?
00:16:20
Speaker
Well, John is the one that, he's the one that looked it up and found out. I didn't even know there was a thing about it. I had been doing work for the town that I'm in. They're very busy fire company and I've been doing a lot of work for them over the years.
00:16:39
Speaker
John had mentioned, I don't even know how you found out about it, but he was the one that found out about it. I'm almost sure of it. And I looked into it and I asked the guy, the fire chief and the maintenance guy that I deal with at the firehouse, this one specific one, and he's like, oh yeah, they have a testing and it's coming up. There's one. So he gave me the whole booklet and I studied it and took the test and I passed. So I signed up for the next one. Oh, that's cool. Good for you.
00:17:06
Speaker
So it's, it's not like a requirement, but it looks much better. It's almost like a lot of fire. So there was a big, uh, incident years back in, in my state, on the other end of the state with a fire truck and on a brake failure. Right. Now they, a lot of places outsource it, or they require you to be certified in breaks and truck repair to do it. Right. And that's like a one more certification that you have.
00:17:34
Speaker
to cover yourself and just, you know, everybody feels better about it.
00:17:40
Speaker
Well, I mean, there's something about certification, but there's also just about the knowledge that comes from just learning, going to class and just gaining your knowledge base. Yeah, absolutely. And didn't we create a six month break check DVI? Yeah, so I do it for three of the firehouses. I go every six months and do a DVI just on breaks and break components. So it's mainly air break stuff.
00:18:04
Speaker
But one of the firehouses, they run, uh, the local one, we do all their, most of their ambulance work too. So that's a whole separate EVT certification, but that's a, we do those break inspections more frequent because the amount that they get used. Um, that's it's helped. I mean, it, it's kept their downtime, uh, to a minimum, you know, breakdowns. And then, uh, you know, it's helped with work to bring in more work.
00:18:35
Speaker
Well, yeah. It just, once again, it's that guaranteed work. Do you charge these guys for the DVIs or is it something to do? No, I go there and do it. And I charge. It's like, you know, depending on the truck, it's, you know, it's usually like a half hour a truck and I spend a few hours here, do them all. And then I'll send them to reports that afternoon. And I usually get an email or a phone call the next day, make an appointment to get start getting stuff fixed. Wow. That's really cool. Yeah.
00:19:01
Speaker
So it's definitely worked out. It's, it's grown. It's been, it was slow in the beginning, but it's definitely getting up, you know, words getting out and, and, uh, seems to be going good. Yeah. Well, that's really cool. Yeah. Great job, John, on finding that. So
00:19:15
Speaker
We're creating a flyer now that we're going to go out and like cold call, but hand write letters to fire chiefs in the area of the small fire companies and talk about the features and benefits of bringing fire trucks to CL Diesel.
00:19:31
Speaker
Can I pause this and let my dogs in real quick? Yeah, of course you can. Of course. You guys, we were talking about the relationship earlier and talking about how you push each other. So tell us about a time, Corey, where John pushed you a little bit stronger than maybe he should have or that you felt he should have and then he ended up being good. Or do you have any of those type of stories? Not that I recall. I mean, I feel like
00:19:53
Speaker
If, if John, if he comes up with like, he's not always got great ideas, but if there's an idea that maybe I don't particularly care for that much, what's your head really hasn't been too many. I can't even that I can think of, you know, I just, I don't know. I usually don't know. I don't want to know if I want to try that right now or, or we might try something different or take a different approach to it, but yeah, he's never, I will say that he's never, ever, ever been pushy about anything.
00:20:22
Speaker
That's cool. That's a good thing. Yeah.
00:20:25
Speaker
No, and Johnny probably just brings it back up to you a few times. He does. I do know some that I've noticed that he'll bring it up weekly. Yeah. And I'll, it might take me, I can be dense sometimes, but you know, I'll figure it out soon enough. Right. What are you laughing about, John? Well, I'm just laughing because it's, you know, it's, it's true. I mean, you just, you pick your battles. That's all, you know, and you, there's times where, you know, like you said, the charge for DVI, you know, of course we charge for DVI, you know,
00:20:59
Speaker
Corey and Mark, Mark is his service manager. They went to the Eagles the second time this last October, I think it was. And out of that, you know, they both like got supercharged and they're still supercharged from the last Eagles class. It's almost a year, but, um, we do charge now. We offer two levels of DVIs and, and Corey was mentioning to me that Mark, you know, sold a big maintenance job on the truck and Mark couldn't believe it. And he was tickled. Thank great Corey.
00:21:21
Speaker
you know, and it's something new that, and this comes out of,
00:21:29
Speaker
Oh yeah, the guy went for the whole thing. And these aren't small jobs. Right, especially what you have with the big stuff you do. Yeah, and he paid for the DVI, which is important, and it gives it value. Of course, yeah. Well, and that's something that so many people, shops don't even do good vehicle inspections. It always amazes me. It's like, if you're not doing good vehicle inspections, you're doing a disservice to your customer. Absolutely.
00:21:57
Speaker
not to mention business for the shop too but you know there's nothing worse than having a customer you do an oil change and then they come back later and they're like yeah you know I had this other shop do this ball joint went ahead of the line and you're like we do alignments and we do balls in house you know but you don't do an inspection you don't know that you know it's just amazing to me but that's cool
00:22:18
Speaker
All right, so, yeah, I can't believe that there was no other time, though, where John pushed you too bad, Cory. That's definitely cool. No, I can't think of anything. He's always been great. Like I said, he definitely will circle back around until we come to a mutual agreement. But he's never pushed it. Not that I can remember, anyway. There's never been a time where I felt pushing and doing something. Yeah. Well. And we've come up with some.
00:22:47
Speaker
I want strange but non-car business methods because it's just different. I mean, if the truck rolls in a shop, it might be two, three weeks before it rolls out of the shop. So with car business, it's in and out the same day. So we had to get into a real extensive process.
00:23:07
Speaker
technician time management in order to compute these hours because the guys get paid each week. We've done some really cool things with this shop.
00:23:19
Speaker
Corey's been yes to it all, you know, and, and the benefits are, you know, what we have today. Yeah. Well, I mean, and that's, it's funny cause I got kind of sidetracked here, but you know, I was thinking about your four acres that you're doing in this big shop you're building. I mean, that's kind of a huge, uh, payoff of, of, of working hard all these years and being able to build your own shop. I mean, how cool is that?
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited. Something I didn't think I could ever do, to be honest with you. But I can see it now. And I'm already been designing and trying to figure out different ways to set it up. So looking forward to it. That's so cool. When we say Cory, got to earn that they're tired of paying rent. That's right. I am, yeah.
00:23:59
Speaker
Well, I mean, but you know, the thing is, is the best part is you go to sell the business years on the road or whatever. You've got something that's worth, you know, that's worth money too, besides the business itself. That's what owning real estate is so important because you're paying it anyway. Why not pay it to yourself? Yeah, exactly. That's so cool.
00:24:16
Speaker
We talked about that and Corey also with one of the key things, you know, with coaching, I believe it is having a good accountant.
Financial Planning & Legacy
00:24:25
Speaker
So he has a good accountant. I like Steve. We were talking about Steve today. So Steve and I are always on the same page. So that's helpful. Right.
00:24:35
Speaker
That's a good thing. And Corey mentioned P&Ls that we're looking at them. We're going over them. The Bible still is knock for forwards before. But we do look at P&Ls and stuff like that. It's not just important for the business owner, but it's also important to go for that loan. That banker is definitely going to look at that P&L. Oh, absolutely. And that's why this Steve is really good. And Corey's done some other things with
00:25:03
Speaker
for the future and his legacy that him and I have talked about. That's awesome. The building will be part of that legacy for generations in the family. What's cool though, Corey, is you think back about this. Once again, I'm a shop owner too.
00:25:20
Speaker
I had to hire a coach, my brother and I had a shop for all these years. It was one of those things that we were awesome at taking care of people and fixing vehicles, but I didn't know anything about business. Those struggles and those conversations in the very beginning were so different than the discussions that we have today. Now it's talking about entirely different things, just like you're talking about a legacy.
00:25:39
Speaker
You go back to all those years ago when you started working with John, would you ever thought you'd be thinking about how you're going to leave an impact upon your family when you're talking? No, definitely not. Definitely not. That's so cool. You're making a difference, you know? Yeah.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's something that I remember when I was a kid, my dad told me, he says, you know, son, you got to be careful with how you do things because, you know, you only have a short time here upon the earth and what you do to leave a difference upon the earth is up to you. And you're the only one that can do it. And you can either leave a good difference or a bad difference.
00:26:13
Speaker
He said, we're all given the same life. And I thought that was really interesting that to this day, I'm always constantly reminding myself. It's like, do I want to remember it as something who made a difference in the earth or somebody that, uh, you know, died and nobody even cared. Yeah. That's, that's good. And that's, that's real good. Was not to regress here, but I mean, but it was, it was something I went to my dad's funeral and I stood there and he had cancer and he, and he passed away and I stood in line for two hours after the funeral to meet all these people that had touched his life.
00:26:40
Speaker
or that he had touched their lives. And it was like, I mean, I was, I seriously, I still get emotional. I think about it because it was, it was so like, I want to be that someday, you know? And it's like, I mean, I'm just, I'm proud of you guys though for doing that. Cause you're making a difference, man. You know?
00:26:57
Speaker
So anyway, sorry, I think it's awesome. I really do. I love to hear that cause that that's what coaching is about. That's what, that's why we do what we do is cause make a difference, you know? So yeah. All right, cool. John, anything you want to add on that before I go on?
00:27:12
Speaker
Well, you can go on, I have some things to add, but no, we've all learned from people through our lives that we were short time on here and legacies is not what it's about, but you want people to remember you. And Corey and I have talked about the dirt that counts at this point.
00:27:31
Speaker
Well, it does, you know? And I just got to talk about building the shop, Corey. That is one of the, I've done it with a couple of my clients where they move into a new building or they're building one and it is so much fun to go through and plan out. I just love that part. Cause we literally, I did a, when I moved into my new building, it wasn't new, but it was new to us. And we went in and literally with Kevin and we like, we mapped everything out. We figured out where we're going to put the compressor. And it was so much fun to get even my techs involved and my brother and everybody was all looking at this,
00:27:59
Speaker
this, you know, drawing that we had. And it's like, well, we're going to put the oil thing where we're going to put this where the welder's going to go and give us so much fun to have everybody involved and have a say. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to it. I'll be honest with you. I mean,
00:28:13
Speaker
Yeah, we went through this thing called Six Sigma, and I'm sure that John will talk to you about that, but talking about the efficiency of the position. And so we found in our shop that we had to put 220, 110 air and water on a couple of the individual hoists. I mean, so like literally, we put it all there because we wanted everything to be as efficient as possible.
00:28:32
Speaker
And if you've got to drag a welder cord, I mean, we're always welding, we do off-road stuff. So each bay had to have, or each hoist had to have 220 because the welder was floating around. And at that time we only had the 220 welder. Now of course we got a 110 too, but it was one of those things that literally every hoist has air and everything there because we felt it was best. And that's what Six Sigma pointed us towards efficiency. So it's cool stuff, but I'm excited for you, man. That's, that's fun to do that, plan that out. So, but yeah, cool.
00:29:00
Speaker
Well, um, let's see here. Okay. So how about, how about your friendship? Tell me how that has developed the non-business side of things. I'm curious about that one too. Well, uh, it's funny you say that we were just talking today. Um, um, taking a trip to, uh, to Wyoming with my wife here in a few weeks. And, uh, John was giving me all kinds of,
00:29:22
Speaker
of places to visit and he blew up my email right before this call about all kinds of different places. So, you know, when it comes to, you know, the friendship, I feel like, you know, any question, anything I want to talk about John would
00:29:38
Speaker
Gladly be there. You know, he's always asked about my children and my wife and how things are going It's not just all business. So, you know, I feel like You know even though John's, you know six seven hours away, he's almost like, you know He's like a family member, you know, it's not not far. I could talk to him about just by anything. Yeah, that's really cool Sure We have a good relationship
00:30:06
Speaker
No, that's, it's awesome. You know, those closest and stuff of having somebody in your corner that not only just cares about the business, but also cares about you personally too. And says stuff like, I don't know if Johnson, I know he has, Hey, you got to make sure you take care of yourself. You know, make sure you're not talking too much about shop at home or whatever it is.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's, he definitely says stuff like that. Take time off. You got to have time for yourself. The one thing he's been pushing me now for a while, and I know he has, and he brings it up occasionally is taken off, start, you know, taking a half a day off weekly, and then try to progress it into a day off weekly and just try to take more family time.
00:30:45
Speaker
And I do try, but not as hard as I probably should. I'm going to start bugging you more about that because the first really bugging thing is we set a time and I'll start sending the text at that time. Is he there? Is he there? Yeah.
00:31:02
Speaker
Well, that's a huge thing though, is you got to have time to get out and recharge and see things from a fresh perspective, you know, and you're always there and you're always going. You don't see a lot of times, you know, the other things that you take a break and you come back and all of a sudden you're like, why are we doing things this way? But it's because it's muscle memory. We've been doing it all these years for this way and it works, but yet sometimes getting away and coming back, it's like fresh perspective. So yeah.
00:31:27
Speaker
That's cool. The trip he's going on is a favorite place in the world. My most favorite place in the world. Where's that? Jackson Hole. Oh, cool. Yeah. He's going to, well, Jackson's the right word for it. And that's my wife and I got married on a stream in Jackson 23 years ago. So that's cool. I've climbed to Tetons multiple times and in various mountains around there. So I was given Corey all the lowdowns of where to go and where to eat. And when you get off the plane, go get bagels here.
00:31:56
Speaker
stuff like that. But it's cool seeing that the family grew up mentioning about the horse barn. I mean, the horse barn was one of the top three things that he wanted to accomplish when he started with us eight years ago. And that barn's been up for a while. And it's a pretty big barn, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's been up for four years.
00:32:17
Speaker
Tell me about the horse barn. What is that? Yeah. What is it? My wife is big in the horses. She runs the barn. She has now is, you know, trains and boards, quarter horses. It's not my thing, but that's what she loves. That's her passion. And when we bought our house, we bought it because of the property, not because of the house.
00:32:35
Speaker
and out with the goal of building a barn. I always wanted to do that. At the time, I didn't think that it was going to be possible, but once I got on with John and with Elite,
00:32:53
Speaker
Yeah. We built this barn within a couple of years, I think two or three years. And it's a, it's a full, it's 70 wide by 120 long. She's got 12 stalls in it. She stores her hay in it, you know, and then on top of that, you know, she's got 22 horses on the property and all, you know, we have big paddock space, big turnouts. I built all the structures on the property. We raised.
00:33:20
Speaker
You know, pigs and chickens for meat and stuff. So that's like a little side hobby of mine. And, uh, you know, we just have a big farm, I guess, like a hobby farm. Isn't that cool.
00:33:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without John. Definitely. He's pushing. I guess you could say if anything, that'd be the one thing he pushed me was that it was get it done. Right. You know, and we did it. We got it. Yeah. And it sounds like numerous things too. Sorry, John, go ahead. He's shy about his daughter has won so many medals that could probably fin fill up my office. Oh yeah. And the son, we're not sure what he's going to do, but, uh, this young lady,
00:34:02
Speaker
was so used to driving four wheelers, and then she wanted to buy a dirt bike. She wanted her dad to get her dirt bike, but she couldn't drive a two wheel. I don't know, she's driving two wheel now, of course. She is riding a bike, but she's gotten off the dirt bike thing, because her mother got her a horse last year, so she's got her own horse, so she spends a lot of time riding horses. That's her thing. And you follow her around and deliver her home to the horse shows. Yeah, we do, yeah, absolutely.
00:34:31
Speaker
That's cool. So what does that mean? Does she compete or what, what does she compete in? Um, I don't know the American Quarter Horse Association. So they compete around like locally for us. They go to New York state a lot. So that's where they go. And then once a year we drive out to Columbus, Ohio for the big show and spend two weeks out there and yeah, she's got totes. I mean, she's eight. She'd been doing it now since she was five. And I mean, I can't.
00:34:57
Speaker
count the totes that we have in the basement full of ribbons and medals and trophies. And you know, she's good at it. She likes it. That's so cool. I mean, really good. And the family's in it. You're in laws are big into it. My wife's big into it. My wife doesn't ride though. She does. Uh, she's more of a trainer. That's what she does. Oh, but how cool is it that, uh, you know, she's able to do that and that you can go and be there
Work-Life Balance & Positive Environment
00:35:23
Speaker
with her. Yeah.
00:35:24
Speaker
You know, I take the time and I can take a couple of days off and go and it's, you know.
00:35:30
Speaker
It's, it's fun to watch here, right? And I'll just leave it at that. That's about the only thing fun about it. It's pretty funny because a couple of times over the years, he's been at off on vacation and I'll say, well, can we do a call at the campsite? He says, Oh yeah, please. You know, I'll get up. He's sitting on a picnic table and we'll do a zoom call so he can get away from talking about horses for. Yeah.
00:35:55
Speaker
Well, yeah, but I mean, that's cool enough there, this having, you know, those big wins in your life. I mean, first off for shop owners, I mean, we kind of take it for granted that, you know, we have freedom in our lives. We're not chained down. I mean, for you to go and take time off and go travel and go and watch your daughter compete is, it's awesome, man. It's a big win, you know? And it means a lot to her. And I don't, you know, I don't want to miss out on those times. So I definitely like the, the, the freedom that,
00:36:25
Speaker
I've created or we've created, you know, for me to have. Well, I mean, you don't, you don't want to own a business, you know? I mean, you own a business to enrich your life. It's not there to be a prisoner to it. I mean, you think about those days when you first opened and you had those years without coaching and it's like, you're a prisoner, you know? And that's all you do is, I mean, I remember getting there at 7am and going home at 11 o'clock at night and that was normal lives for us. And yes, I did not miss kids. My kids stuff, even when we were that busy, I would disappear and I would go to parent teacher conferences and I was always there for my kids, but
00:36:55
Speaker
It was painful. You know, you leave and you come back and you're like, what do you mean nothing happened? What did you guys do when I was gone? But you know, then you get a coach and all of a sudden it's like, whoa, wait a minute. There's a better way to do this. I love hearing the fact that you're able to go do that though. That's awesome.
00:37:09
Speaker
Yeah, I was able to see it early on though because I think I started with John. My daughter was very young. She's only maybe a year old. Wow. Something like that, I think. Yeah, we figured it out. She was newly born because when you went to the first Eagles class, it was the first time that you and your wife, Liddy, had gone away.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Since, since without her, yeah, without her. So it was, it was fast. So even when she was first born, I still work weekends, still work late at night and then, you know, getting on the coaching and then starting to kind of see like, Oh, I'm going to start missing out on a lot if I don't, uh, you know, change my way. So yeah, it definitely, uh, it helped. You know, it's something that, uh, I heard long ago and I don't remember where I heard it, but it's like, you'll, you'll never remember staying at work.
00:38:00
Speaker
but you will remember the things you do with your kids. You know, it's very true. And I remember my wife talking about that cause we were, we ran the business together with my brother and it's one of those things that I remember us talking about that. It's like, well, and she would throw it back at me. You know, she's like, I understand we're really busy, but remember that you're never going to remember your day at work, but you will remember going and watching those track and field day or whatever it was. And it's like, I'm so glad that she helped to push me there because I love looking back at that and knowing that, Hey, I was there at all of the kids activities. So although that could be, you know, so yeah.
00:38:29
Speaker
That's cool, man. Good for you. It's cool that she's doing well. She found something she likes too. Cause so many kids never find hobbies and things and it's cool. You guys. Yeah. Well for right now, this is what she likes. I don't see it going away. So I only see it getting bigger. I bet those little sad did not have her want to ride the dirt bike as much though, huh? No, we still ride, but she, yeah, she's not as much into it, you know, which is fine. Uh, that's what she likes to do. We still, we got a big piece of property with a lot of trails. So in the, like this time of year and the fall,
00:38:59
Speaker
Once a week, twice a week, we'll take the quads out and just go right around. This year, she's pushing. She really wants to go hunting with me. So she wants to go and try it out. So we're going to go. Good job, Dad. We'll see. We'll see if she can sit still long enough. Well, she probably won't, but it's OK. There's that bonding moment. Yeah. Colin's the three-year-old that he's a big boy. Yeah, he's a wild child.
00:39:27
Speaker
But there's that feeling though, being at three a.m. or four a.m., whatever, and you're out there and you're sitting there and you're freezing to death and you're waiting for something, you know, daylight to happen and you're sitting there with your kids and you look over at them and you just make that eye contact and it's just like, and they lean over and there's a creak of the ground and they look at you like, sorry, I mean, it's just that bonding moments. I wouldn't trade that for anything, you know? I'm looking forward to it this year. This is the first year she's really like expressed a lot of interest in it, so. That's cool. You got a good daughter, man. That's awesome. Good job, dad.
00:39:56
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see what happens. She's afraid though. She said, well, what happens if we shoot something? We're like, well, you take the next step. We're going to dress it up and bring it home. Yeah, no big deal at all. Yeah, it's not a big deal. We had that discussion and I told my kids, it's like, you know.
00:40:10
Speaker
God, I mean, everybody's so different nowadays, but it's, I told him, it's like, you know, God provided this here for us to eat. And if we shoot it and we just leave it, then we're not doing what we need to do. And so we got this here. Let's take care of it. Let's dress it. We're going to take care of the meat. I'm going to teach you guys all this stuff. And so then when it happened, they knew what was coming and they knew why we were doing it. And
00:40:28
Speaker
My daughter still is not crazy about hunting. She can beat people up. She's a kickboxer fighter, boxer lady, but it's funny that she, to this day, she still doesn't like hunting. She loves the experience of going and going and shooting and all that stuff. But when it comes to the cleaning it, I'll look and she's got her back turned and I'm like, no, you got to get over here. You got to be a part of this. You shot this. You got to do this. That's right. You can't just do one part.
00:40:50
Speaker
But right, exactly. I mean, that's the easy part. The shooting is easy. I can do the fishing all day long, but I just never could get used to the hunting, so I'm a fisherman. Right. Well, John, tell us, what other things do you feel that the people that are listening today need to hear about Corey? Well, one of the things, and this is the first, and we've shared this in the company, but Corey hired a trainer.
00:41:17
Speaker
And you don't hear it as too much in car shops, but in a truck shop, it's a little different. They have different engines that they deal with, but they cross-generate the engines in different vehicles. You know, the back car, like Corey can explain that. The one you manufacture makes motors. It goes in Peterbilt's and Max and stuff.
00:41:35
Speaker
And so they can, and basically with the pickups, you got, you know, Detroit diesel, not Detroit, but GM, the Duramax and the Ford Powerstroke and the Cummings. So Corey actually hired a guy, sent a guy for a week to a class in Las Vegas, a technician for a week of technical training, which is here again, unusual in our business. Everybody goes to vision, but this is a week, hands-on training on diesels. Then he brought the guy to the shop to train everybody else.
00:42:06
Speaker
Now that's spectacular. I mean, when it comes to, when's the last time you heard that happen? So Corey believes in training, Corey believes in having the right equipment. And the other thing we were talking about, you know, things that we've done over the years that he's done that I've been participated in and watched it happen. But he's got one of the most friendliest shops to work at. I mean, people love to work there. I mean, the culture in this shop,
00:42:34
Speaker
is there. And we know how hard that is. When it's missing, it's hard to build it. It is. But it's not impossible, but it's hard. Trust me, I just got through with it with one call. Yeah.
00:42:47
Speaker
Well, I mean, that's something I love. I saw a Facebook post and in fact, you know, John shared it with me first and then I went and I saw it too. And it was like talking about bringing the family to work day. Yeah. You know, that's such an awesome idea. They do two events a year. Last year they went to Lake Winnipesaukee, which doesn't mean anything to
00:43:06
Speaker
the people that aren't on the East Coast, but I know where it is. And they had a house a couple of blocks away from the beach and everybody was there with their families and kids. And they do that and they go to the casinos for Christmas time and they go bowling at the casinos and dinner. So they're big on community inside of their company too. And that in turn helps their culture, you know?
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah. Well, tell me a little bit about this. Bring your, your, your kids to work day. How does that work? I mean, we're not talking about like, you know, where you have to take them because somebody else is sick in the family and you've got to. So the reason it started, so I bring my kids to work like once a week. So, you know, I used to bring my daughter to work every Friday was, it was just known she'd be up. We'd go and then my son started wanting to come. So all my technicians, employees, except for one,
00:43:55
Speaker
they all have children and they're young, you know, it's a young group of guys. And, uh, you know, they would ask, well, you know, he, you know, my son wants to come to work with me for a little while. And then the next guy be like, Oh, you know, same thing. And it's just, I don't, I hate to seem like, I don't want to be that, that business owner. That's like, Oh, look at me. I can do this, but you can't. And I just feel like everybody should be equal. And
00:44:23
Speaker
But having kids running around isn't the safest thing either. And my insurance probably wouldn't like to hear about it. But I just came up with a day I just ran the idea. I think, I don't know if I ran the idea by John first. We talked about it. We talked about it. We did talk about it. And I brought it up to the guys. I was like, listen, everybody wants to bring their kid to work.
00:44:44
Speaker
I said, what if we just make a day out of it? So the kids aren't going to have the patience to sit, stay eight hours at the shop. There's no way. No way. You know, they're any, they range from three to eight years old. There's, it's just not possible. So we planned it a day to where they come in in the morning and we have breakfast and you know, they guys had a little bit of work. We just, you know, scheduled the day, right? They got to finish a job or do an oil change or whatever service. And then we just, I usually every year do,
00:45:14
Speaker
like a shop picnic or barbecue at the house. And I figured I would just incorporate it all in one day. So it worked out perfect. It was a blazing hot day and kids came to work. We left it like half a day around 11 o'clock, went to my house, had lunch, they swam in the pool, had a couple of beers and it was, you know, it's just a great day and it worked out. And you know, they want to do it again next year. I mean, but that culture thing is so huge.
00:45:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's one thing I will say I feel that I am probably the most proud of with the shop because I don't know of any shops locally to me anyway that have the same type of like relationship I've been
00:45:54
Speaker
So my service manager, Mark, I've been friends with him for 15 years, you know, and the guys that the other guys that work here and even the secretary, they're, you know, half ass related or they're just, you know, they're in the family or they've been a close friend and you know, we can all hang out after work, have a beer or, you know, meet up on a weekend and some guys go dirt biking together. Yeah.
00:46:21
Speaker
A couple of guys go fishing together. You know, they, everybody's close, you know, and there's no, there's no bickering. There's no fighting. If there's a problem, it's sorted out instantly. And then that's it. That's over. Yeah, that's awesome. Nobody holds a grudge.
00:46:35
Speaker
especially in this economy and this weird world we're living in where the great resignation where all these people are quitting, it's so important to have that strong bond. So kudos for you, man, for doing that. Seriously, I love seeing that because I saw that, bringing kids to work day and I'm like, that's genius because as an employee, you come into work and you do see the boss's kids there and it's like, and your kids, I mean,
00:46:57
Speaker
Most kids want to come see what dad does or what mom does. So why not give them a few hours to come in and hang out and see what happens and then spend the afternoon at the house swimming. Why not? That'd be, I mean, that's a great day. I always try to include, you know, everybody's families too with certain things, you know, like John mentioned last year, we did a big shop trip and, and this year it's not going to be as big of a thing. Like we did that barbecue and kids day probably do one small thing.
00:47:23
Speaker
But I try to include everybody's family, because it's not just us. They're wives, girlfriends, kids. Everybody's included, whether or not you deal with them on a daily basis. That's just the way I feel about it. No, I agree 100%. People come to work for people. They do. And when other things happen in life and you're thinking about going somewhere else, you remember the good friends that you have at the business.
00:47:49
Speaker
I mean, seriously, I mean, you're with these people all the time and it's like you get that closest in that relationship and when somebody approaches you and wants you to leave and go somewhere else, you think about that. Even if the pay's better, it's still, you're leaving that family. You're not just leaving to people that don't care about you and you don't care about them. It's easy to leave at that point, but that's what we got to do is we got to create that glue that bonds us all together. Plus it makes life better and you like the people you work with.
00:48:12
Speaker
Yeah. The latest full-time person that Corey put on, I guess maybe a year and a half ago when Chris 2, I call him, he has two people named Chris, I call Chris 1 and Chris 2.
00:48:25
Speaker
So when Chris too came in, and correct me, Cory, if I misspeak here, but I think he walked in and heard it's a nice place to work and you and him started talking and this young man had not worked on diesels. No, he came from the automotive side and he is referred to, he's a good friend of mine's, a son-in-law. Yeah. So,
00:48:51
Speaker
He was looking for work and, you know, I took him on a little bit. And, uh, I think what I think the story John was trying to get at was, so I had one guy that had been offered a job somewhere else and I didn't know about it at the time. And, and, uh, you know, he hadn't mentioned it to some of the other guys here. Well, I think I'm going to go talk to Corey about it. And, uh, the new guy, the new Chris, Chris too, he's like, I've worked at a lot of places. I ain't leaving here unless I get fired. And he goes, this, this is a great place to work.
00:49:21
Speaker
And you know, it's kind of wind of it. And, you know, it made me feel good. But you know, that's, that's what I've, if anything, that's what I've tried to do the best at is create a good work environment. And I've been in a situation that wasn't good. And I don't want that here. No way, not since you can control it. Exactly. Being the owner, you know, I mean, you control that, you control that feeling that's in your shop.
00:49:45
Speaker
Yeah. That's awesome. The situation that Chris is, or that Corey's talking about, I remember real well and I remember the Chris one that came and said he was going to leave and he was off injured with a dirt bike. Yeah, he got hurt over the summer and he had been offered a job that paid, I don't.
00:50:03
Speaker
couldn't even fathom how they could offer him this kind of money, but they did and whatever. It's not that he wasn't worth it. Just, it was just out of my realm, but you know, we sat down with them and John gave me some great pointers and different things to, to, you know, to kind of a showcase about the shop. And then I just, I was open. I have kind of like, I guess you call like an open book policy at the shop. Like I don't hide anything. The guys want to understand or know about,
00:50:32
Speaker
the numbers or the reason we charge what we charge or why they get paid when they get paid. And I, I will gladly sit down and talk to him and explain it to him. And that's what I did with him. And, uh, he stayed and he's like, yeah, he says, I know I didn't want to leave, but I needed this as reassurance. Of course. You know, he's still there today. He's still there. Yeah. He's still here. That's awesome. Yeah. Sometimes that's all they need is to know that they're important. You know, I mean, know that you're, that you're glad that they're there. Sometimes we forget to tell our employees that because they kind of take it for granted, you know,
00:51:02
Speaker
They know, they know they matter to Corey. And in this particular situation, I got involved in it after Corey had done a lot of work on his own. And he had a really good plan of how to present this to Chris. And I says, man, this is like, wow. Great. Yeah. That's cool. You're on the right track. And he sat him down and, you know, he's here today, you know, still here. It's amazing. But doing, just caring for people does though. Yeah. That's awesome.
00:51:29
Speaker
Well, guys, we are almost out
Reflections on Coaching & Community
00:51:31
Speaker
of time here. So John, Corey, do you guys have any closing remarks that you want to say before we end up today? That went fast. I know it did, didn't it? It did go fast, yeah. I just want to thank you for having me on, and I appreciate it. I'm going to lead through and through, but so is Corey. I guess I could say Corey, too. Yeah, absolutely. I'm honored to do this. I'm glad I got to do it.
00:51:59
Speaker
Oh, I appreciate you about being here. And Corey, I know it was a, you know, uh, a stretch of your comfort zone to come and be on here with us, but man, uh, people need to hear your story, man. There's tons of shop owners out there that don't know that there's a better way, you know, just like you, you know? Yeah, I would have never known this was an option ever in my wildest dreams. And I'm so glad that, uh, I found out to be honest with you. Thanks. Thanks, Darren.
00:52:26
Speaker
Thank you. You guys have a great rest of your day and thanks again for taking time out to be here with us and go pick up your dog, bud. I will. Thanks for having me. All right, guys, take care. Thank you. Take it easy. Thanks for listening to Elite Radio, the podcast for repair shop owners by repair shop owners. If you're looking for help in your automotive repair shop, then reach out to Elite and provide coaching and peer groups, training for your service advisors and managers, and countless complimentary resources and a whole lot more. Visit EliteWorldwide.com today. We'll see you next time.