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Ep 25 - Ed Trevino | What Else Could Go Wrong?
254 Plays1 month ago
So, the more podcasts I do, the more people I meet who love Tekmetric as much as I do. I still meet shop owners who don't use it, though. Are you one of those people who are not using Tekmetric because you're stubborn? Don't let pride get in the way of improving your business. Try them today - CLICK HERE
Turnkey Marketing is making my life easier and my business better. Good thing they don't just help me. See for yourself how the can do the same at your shop HERE
Detect Auto helps you catch the stuff you miss at the shop. If you don't think you're missing stuff, check again. It shocked me to know how much money I was missing when I got Detect Auto - find out for yourself today HERE
Ed Trevino owns Kanuga Tire & Auto in Hendersonville, NC. Ever since opening his shop, stuff seems to keep going wrong. From COVID-19, Hurricane Helene, and WNC wildfires, he's pushed through it all. So what would he do differently if he could do it over? Ed's response might surprise you.
00:00 Too much alcohol?
05:31 "Tekmetric: Quick Learning, Strong Growth"
12:10 Shoe Allotment Deduction Contemplation
16:52 Pandemic-Era Valet Hysteria
26:29 Seeking Advice: Joining a Mastermind
28:24 Subconscious Self-Worth Limitations
36:34 "Quality Services vs. Low Rates"
39:12 Shop Errors and Repair Costs
43:24 Navigating Storm Aftermath Challenges
51:57 Agent's Reluctance to Visit Clients
58:23 Rarely Carry Cash
01:00:16 "Tree Damage Unbothered"
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Eduardo Trevino's Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
That was a really fun experience. Thank you for making me relive it.
00:00:06
Speaker
Serious amount of trauma about to get unloaded. Have you ever felt like the seven plagues of destruction are falling down upon your business? Well, today's guest has had at least three of them. He's had pestilence and disease and fire and floods.
00:00:20
Speaker
I think he's going to have locusts next is what we predicted. Today we've got Eduardo Trevino of Canuga Tire and Auto in New I think was in Hendersonville, North Carolina, affected by the floods last year during the hurricane and fires this year and opened up right during the beginning of COVID. So he's kind of had a little bit of it all.
00:00:39
Speaker
I really think you're going to enjoy this episode.
00:00:45
Speaker
The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we, or our guests may say, do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have.
00:00:59
Speaker
There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner with your host, Mike Gallen.
00:01:19
Speaker
I'd drink almost every day that I very rarely drink more than one or two drinks. And I felt like shit sandwich. These guys aren't seasoned. Yeah. I got an iron liver.
00:01:31
Speaker
know it was ah It was a rough morning for sure.
00:01:36
Speaker
have like a whiskey every night. It's like part of my unwinding process. But... We started off with a couple of vodkas and a couple of double whiskeys and then whiskeys back at the hotel. It was wasn't it? It was tequila.
00:01:47
Speaker
No, there was tequila being consumed, but I was drinking it because Tanika went and bought a gallon of Tito's. Freaking gallon. So we're in the lobby of the Spring Hill Suites with a gallon of Tito's. She's like, it is travel size. It's got a handle.
00:02:04
Speaker
Fair point. stand corrected. Touche. Touche.
00:02:09
Speaker
No, so i'm I'm not used to that. That's probably a contributing factor to the headache that I have right now. yeahp Yeah, muff got I've got one of those. It sort of comes and goes throughout the day. Yeah, I mean, there was a time in my life when, you know, even if you had a hangover, you got over it by lunch, right?
00:02:24
Speaker
And now if I have a hangover, I get over it by the following day. Yeah. So so how many drinks are you going to have tonight? Um, enough to get me to where I'm going, I guess. So having had determined the destination ah all the way to the scene of the face plant. So is there a process that you can write for that?
00:02:48
Speaker
How many drinks are appropriate? I mean per day at an automotive training. That'd be a good one. Ounces of alcohol per hour of training.
00:02:57
Speaker
mean, like you can have an ounce of whiskey per hour of class.
00:03:03
Speaker
So it'd be effectively in an eight ounce evening now. It should probably be another hangover tomorrow. Yeah, that'd be pretty debilitating for a normal size person. Yeah, for a normal size. It's like light consumption for me.
00:03:18
Speaker
That's part of your unwinding process. I've seen stories about Andre the Giant and his drinking habits. He would drink a fifth of vodka at night just to wind down. Some big guys can really drink. I can't. I'm not like that. I don't drink that much.
00:03:31
Speaker
That's that outrageous. They interviewed his anesthesiologist when he had to have surgery, and they're like, there's no standard for how much. We couldn't put him out. Yeah. How much do you give him? Because he can't wake up in the middle surgery. But he regularly drinks a fifth of vodka. So just give him enough to kill a horse or an elephant. Anyway, we should probably start this. I think we've been recording for a couple minutes now. I think it's been started.
00:03:56
Speaker
All right. Look, here's the deal. i I like to think that I'm pretty good at running an auto repair shop. It's what I've done for 20 plus years, but I'm not good at managing a marketing budget and all the different facets of ah of a truly well-rounded marketing plan.
00:04:13
Speaker
ah There's mail, there's local advertising, there's website, there's Google, AdWords, there's you know all the different things that go into that. And it's just not what I'm good at. So what I've chosen to do is to buy myself the time to focus on what I am good at while having someone else execute on all of those things at a way higher level than anything I could ever do.
Marketing and Management Insights
00:04:38
Speaker
That's what turnkey auto marketing does for me. So if you feel like you could use some of that same magic, I'm going to recommend that you go to turnkeyautomarketing.com, get a free consultation. Tell them that I sent you.
00:04:52
Speaker
ah Tell them that Confessions of a Shop Owner sent you. You won't be disappointed. Hey there, I'm going to tell you about something that has completely transformed how I run my shop, TechMetric.
00:05:03
Speaker
As a 20 year shop owner, outdated systems used to slow us down. Everything was clunky from check in to estimate building to customer updates. It all felt just super inefficient.
00:05:14
Speaker
Switching to TechMetric has changed everything. With TechMetric, you get a powerful shop management system that includes DVI, quick and easy estimate building, inventory management, real-time reporting, amazing customer communication, and it's really easy for your employees to learn how to use the software.
00:05:31
Speaker
I'm talking like a one-day learning curve. On top of that, TechMetric has tons of other tools to make you an even better operator. Stuff like integrated payments with buy now, pay later options is a huge asset. Ask me how I know.
00:05:46
Speaker
And recently, they've added a CRM ah component with their partnership with Shopgenie, which I'm a happy Shopgenie customer already, so I'm super excited about that. Now, obviously there are a lot of factors at play here, but I want to give you some facts about my business since I made the change to TechMetric.
00:06:03
Speaker
In September of 2020, when I switched to TechMetric, my ARO was $293.
00:06:09
Speaker
In September of 2024, we were $916. we were nine hundred and sixteen dollars That's over 300% growth. Now, I'm not saying that TechMetric created all of that change, but I'm 100% saying that I couldn't have come this far without TechMetric.
00:06:22
Speaker
It's a key factor in our growth and success. If you're ready to level up your shop, TechMetric has everything you need. Productivity, revenue, customer experience. Measure up by every measure with TechMetric.
00:06:35
Speaker
Tap the link in the show notes to learn more. So another recording here at Fuel and Connections 2025. We're still at NASCAR Tech in Morrisville. um After this, we'll pack up and when Lola finishes her class. and We've dinner tonight at the North Carolina Motorsports Hall of Fame, which is going to be pretty cool. I think they've got a couple of Richard Petty's old cars right there where we're eating. pretty sick.
00:06:58
Speaker
um I wonder if they have the Firebird with the big tail. What was that one? That was so cool. um But so far, I think it's been a really good event.
00:07:10
Speaker
ah Josh's course this morning was really well received and Lola always slays. So happy about that. Looking forward to the panels tomorrow, which should be fun. It's going to be you and Dutch and... Yeah. yeah I was actually in charge of the AARP email list between those two.
00:07:33
Speaker
Yeah. Dutch, Carm, and you're the young guy. I'm the young guy. Yeah. Yeah. There's going to be a lot of just out grumping each other on that panel, I think.
00:07:44
Speaker
I think it'll be okay. We'll see. Who's facilitating? Is Josh? Josh is doing one and Lola is doing the other one. Okay. so I don't know who is. hope it's Lola.
00:07:55
Speaker
Josh is going to attack. No, no. Josh josh came to me and he asked me about ah about questions. Okay. And I said, you know, Josh, I'm going be honest. I said, I've been on a couple panels. The best one I was ever on was at ETI because – and you were on that panel too.
00:08:13
Speaker
And Scott Brown gave us a list of questions and then did not stick to the script. At all. You could wipe your ass with the questions that he gave us because he didn't ask any of those. Yeah. I think it's better – and I don't want prepared statements. yeah Don't tell me what the questions are beforehand. Yeah, so I told him. I said, you know what, quite honestly, I don't really care to know what the questions are in advance.
00:08:35
Speaker
So it doesn't matter. I said, when I'm kind of surprised, I say more outrageous things, and everybody will like that better anyways. Nobody will want to hear it, but that's okay.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm really excited about that tomorrow. that'll be That'll be a lot of fun to watch all you guys up there. and It's an interesting group of people. We're 20 minutes in and our guest was just allowed to say the first thing. yeah He said the whole time. You should probably shut up.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah, i'm sorry about
Challenges and Resilience during COVID-19
00:09:01
Speaker
that. man All right, ah introduce yourself, your shop, where you're located, give me a little background. Yeah, so Eduardo Trevino, I own Canuga Tire and Auto in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
00:09:12
Speaker
We opened up in 2019, so shortly after we opened up, COVID hit. That was just in time for COVID. Yeah, it was perfect timing, you know, so a little scared stuff going on there, but turned out to be very good in the long run, so ah And we recently just went through the hurricane. So had another scare and just had some fires close by.
00:09:36
Speaker
so there was another scare. Next is going to be like locusts. Ravens. I came to work and there were ravens everywhere.
00:09:48
Speaker
I think it's a sign. You think? So what is Canuga? Canuga? So Canuga is the actual road that we're on. Okay. And the reason I chose it was because everyone in town knows the name of that road.
00:10:04
Speaker
Okay. So it's it's very easy. they know how to find you. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. I mean, does Canuga mean something? Is it like a Native American word? Or is it Hawaii? It sounds Hawaiian. You'd have to ask the person to name the road, I guess. Yeah.
00:10:16
Speaker
don't know. he's from the area, maybe he knows. don't know. Well, so I've really only been in Hendersonville for a few years. So I'm not like a local by their standards, right? Where are you from?
00:10:29
Speaker
I'm originally from Dallas, Texas. Okay. what Well, Grand Prairie, Texas. so How do you end up going from Grand Prairie to Hendersonville? and So... My brother was a wrestler in high school.
00:10:45
Speaker
The wrestling coach there knew a wrestling coach up here at Belmont Abbey by Charlotte. um So he came up, I visited a few times, Met some ladies, had some drinks.
00:10:58
Speaker
was like, oh, college is a blast. I'm going to go here with my brother. so I moved up here. I mean, that is a totally reasonable reason do it.
00:11:08
Speaker
Right, 100%. Especially that age. I don't think any of that has anything to do with the actual completion of your college education, right? you know It depends on what you're studying.
00:11:19
Speaker
I don't think they had degrees in that. Life sciences. Yeah. What the hell kind of bullshit degree is that? It's just like 18th century you know French literature. They have degrees in that shit. so Maybe. I don't know. I'm making it up as I go here. That sounds – I mean, the problem isn't sounding – it was kind of like a Friday. Oh, today's Friday. We got to make Hangout posts.
00:11:43
Speaker
That reminds me. Are we going to do a live Hangout tonight? Live Hangout shitpost? No, like are we going to do Friday Night Shenanigans like live? We could. On site.
00:11:54
Speaker
I mean, i I had to make up my fake post for the auto shop. Oh, yes, yes. It's Friday. And I actually have it. I knew i was going to get busy this week, so I kind of outlined it in my notes on Monday what it was going to be.
00:12:06
Speaker
Can you share with us? Yeah, yeah. Because it's that you will have already posted it by the time this is published. Yeah. I was going to say that, you know, as a shop owner, we provide x amount of dollars. i was thinking like, you know, like 400 bucks a year for work shoe allotment.
00:12:19
Speaker
And I noticed my guy showed up on Monday and he had sawdust on his boots. And those shoes that I supply that money for are for work and that's it. Yeah, naturally. So I'm going to, i'm thinking about deducting that $400 from his pay next week.
00:12:34
Speaker
Yeah, because he can't be using work boots for personal tasks. No, that's bullshit. yeah I said be using company policy. Yes. So, yeah, fuck that guy. I think that's a really good troll post. so Because it's just ridiculous enough to sound like something someone would actually put there.
00:12:50
Speaker
You guys are familiar with the Friday night bullshit post, I'm sure. yeah serious I put a lot of time and effort into these things. Those and the cap cuts. Yeah. Those in the cap cuts.
00:13:01
Speaker
Coombs does a good job on the troll post too. He does a great job on the troll post. I'm pretty proud of him. Mike's having a little tearjerker moment over there. He's um my boy. My boy. And sometimes I have to look at him and see who posted him to see if it is a legit question or not. Well, I mean, sometimes on like a Tuesday or Wednesday, you see a post and you're like, ah it must be Friday. It's not Friday. This motherfucker is serious. He's not lying. Oh my God. This is real. Sound the alarms. This terrible.
00:13:32
Speaker
All right. So but back to Canooga. Yep. On Canooga Road. On Canooga Road. In Hendersonville. Yep. um The plagues that you have fought so far, the first one was the plague literally. The literal plague, yeah. So if you started in 2019, that means you weren't able to take advantage of PPP because you didn't have payroll from 2018 to show, right? Yeah.
00:13:55
Speaker
and So funny enough, I was able to, I did qualify. Um, and I don't remember what the stipulation was. I think if you had been open for a certain time, then you, then you could qualify. So I did, I did get some help there.
00:14:11
Speaker
Um, so that was, that was good. Um, but you know, such a weird, such a weird thing because i had worked at another shop for a larger company,
00:14:22
Speaker
probably 30 minutes away from from where my shop is now. So couldn't bring a lot of customers over. i mean, we had some customers come over. Sure, but because the distance 30 minutes was a lot for some people maybe. Or even people that live on the other side of that shop, it's more than 30. They're already driving 20 or something or whatever, right? Right, and so then ah didn't really have a customer base.
00:14:44
Speaker
And then you shut down the country for, you know. two weeks a month you know and and you're just like oh this is fantastic you have enough time to get the floor dirty to at least have to do a lot of cleaning or not really yeah i mean not really oh man not really if you're like me you know there's always hidden revenue and missed maintenance sales or overlooked customer concerns detect auto helps auto shops unlock that revenue by analyzing vehicle service histories pinpointing maintenance recommendations, and equipping advisors to confidently address customer questions.
00:15:17
Speaker
It's easy. It integrates with your existing software and your team will love it. ah Check out detectauto.com and see how your shop can stop guessing and start selling better service recommendations today.
00:15:30
Speaker
So the, the built now the building had, it's a, it's an older building needed a lot of work. Sure. Sure. Like we were fixing up the building still, but, um, but I needed cashflow. was just like, we need to get some cars in here. Yeah. know And the funny thing was it during that whole time, most of our customers were like older people that had been advised to stay home. Right. Yeah. Cause they're,
00:15:57
Speaker
They all came to make appointments in person. It was magical. Were you valuing the cars back and forth to their house or they just came in? So we would do that. um And we had, we had shop monkey at the time. ah But we were able to do the payments over the phone so that through the app so that they didn't actually have to come in the building.
00:16:17
Speaker
You know we were able to work some things through there and pretty adaptable. It was a really good time to be alive actually. So in the downtown Raleigh store, at the time we had two stores, I just opened store number two right when the pandemic hit.
00:16:34
Speaker
good time Good timing. December 1 of 19 is when we opened that store. so i guess it got real serious in january february give or take right yeah everything was shut down by like the second week of march right um sound about right maybe i don't know anyways but it's probably right people were like it was a true hysteria there for a little while and i remember we were doing ballet and we had to uh We had disinfectant spray and wipes and we would go to people's house and they would have laid the key on the front step of the house.
00:17:12
Speaker
We'd get that and then we'd spray the door handle and then and the door pillar and we'd open it up and then we'd spray inside the car Then we put steering wheel cover on and seat cover on. And then you wear a glove for the shift. I mean, it was fucking crazy, man.
00:17:29
Speaker
And if we didn't do all that, people would get mad because they were watching through the window. yeah And you get back and you got to reverse that whole process. and We were buying the cases of the spray, the green spray. Not simple green, but there was a disinfectant type thing.
00:17:44
Speaker
non-odor cleaner. we We were buying cases of that stuff. We didn't know. but You know, it's funny because like you you talk to shops from around the country and like depending on where you're at, like some cities, you know, yeah, if you didn't follow all those steps,
00:18:01
Speaker
You'd get review bombed. Yeah. you have Review bombed or shut, or the go or the local government would come shut you down in some cases. yeah they Except for like Montana or North Dakota. One of the Dakotas kind of like didn't do a thing.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah. They just kept going on with life as normal. They still had toilet paper. it was fine. yeah depend like ah Yeah, if you're in a more rural area, some of those areas didn't really care as much. Well, then, yeah. So my original store is in Johnson County, North Carolina, which is just... It's only like 15 miles from downtown Raleigh, but it's a different world.
00:18:36
Speaker
And there, if you were hypervigilant about six feet and PPE and all that stuff, you'd get review bombed for being... For being a loser. Yeah, for being crazy, right? loser. So...
00:18:50
Speaker
I have an immune system for a reason. yeah Okay. Whatever. David. it's a
00:19:00
Speaker
oh it was ah It was a great time to be alive. i just ah I had a Bluetooth speaker in the shop, and I found a 12-hour loop of the purge alarm.
00:19:11
Speaker
And I would play it all day long. They're like, no non-essential workers are allowed to go to work. And like the news would come across, people get the messages from the New York State Emergency Alert, and the perch siren is just going hours at a time. I'm a little bit into psychological warfare.
00:19:31
Speaker
was it was it was a great time to be alive. We didn't have anything like that with like the the ah the emergency alert text message. No, we didn't have that. Yeah, New York State, they were like, warning, tomorrow only these industries or these industries are no longer, you know or whatever. yeah It was a long thing. I couldn't repeat it verbatim, but anyways. I think it is ironic that the people who make the least money in our economy are the ones that were deemed to be essential and got to keep going to work.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah.
Retail and Staffing Post-Pandemic
00:20:01
Speaker
It was, uh, you know, I mean, did we really need to have McDonald's open? Yes. Oh, we needed a grocery store open. and but They couldn't take it all from us at once because before COVID, we had 24-hour Walmarts and 99-cent cheeseburgers.
00:20:17
Speaker
So they had to kind of like phase that out. They couldn't shut McDonald's down and then reopen at $2.99 a cheeseburger. A lot of the 24-hour stores never went back to 24 hours. yeah That's my point.
00:20:29
Speaker
just Just don't fuck with my Waffle House and I'll be okay. So I need Waffle House, hurricane, fires, pandemics. Just keep my Waffle House. Keep my Waffle House. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
00:20:44
Speaker
So you survived the pandemic. Tell me about your shop. How big is it? and So we've got... We've really got like nine bays. We really only use seven of them.
00:20:54
Speaker
Okay. What do you do with the other two? Storage. Okay. There's not a whole lot of other storage spots in there. so Okay. So like some of your shop equipment goes there. yeah Okay. got I got some tires because we do tires as well, which tires are so expensive to stock. To store. Yeah.
00:21:12
Speaker
um But yeah. So just a couple bays for stuff like that. Isn't there an ATV warehouse in Hendersonville? ah it's It's South Asheville, but yeah, it's right down the road from us. But I ah hope they don't sponsor you because I and hate them.
00:21:26
Speaker
They do not. i I struggle. with My experience with them over 20 plus years has been it's entirely dependent upon your rep and upon the distribution center manager.
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah. Because if you've got a good rep and a good a DC manager, everything's fine. But if either one of those falls off, it's a disaster. It's that for everything, right? Yeah. Like your local parts store that you buy from will be great for five years, and then their manager moves on, and they get somebody who doesn't care how much money you spend a month. They're not doing, which and I'm like, hmm.
00:21:59
Speaker
Like, this is how this works, okay? Like, you bring me parts because I buy more parts from you than anybody else does. Yeah. So when I put the order through, you bring the parts. So how many guys do you have in these seven days? oh So we create a lot of bad habits because I only have two technicians in the shop.
00:22:17
Speaker
Oh, my God. They have an enormous amount of space. Yes. So we create a lot of bad habits. Were you a tech originally? Was I a tech? No. No. I came up on the counter. Okay.
00:22:27
Speaker
No. Whenever I entered the industry, no car experience whatsoever. I'm not the mechanical person. Um, but you know, I got brought in as a quote unquote manager trainee, which means I did everything. was If I needed to fire stone, Mikey, what was it?
00:22:49
Speaker
it it well It used to be Clark tire. Um, now it's Mr. Tire. Um, but yeah, but you know, as a manager trainee, I was doing oil changes. I was, you know, like but, but I thought it was a great experience because I didn't call it the SB position. Yeah. Very much. So they, they could, I could work all the hours I wanted to. and Oh yeah. You could. So it was great for them. It was great for one party in that. It was great for the people cashing the checks. Yeah.
00:23:25
Speaker
but how long did you do that before you broke out to your own kid I was so I went through the acquisition I'm trying to think of how many years I was there.
00:23:36
Speaker
I think I was there for 14 years total. But then we got bought out by Mr. Tire. Like we went from family owned, like 28 locations, still pretty large operation. Sure. But to Mr. Tire Monroe.
00:23:53
Speaker
Across the country. Huge. Yeah. um And. completely different world, right? Like a very numbers only type of company. They don't care about people. They don't care about customers. And that was really difficult to ah deal with.
00:24:11
Speaker
Um, you know, like with any acquisition, they don't want to get rid of everybody cause they need you there. So it took about a year and then they don't want you, but they need you. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah. So they don't actually want you after like the first year was good. Like my bonus structure was great.
00:24:31
Speaker
I got way overpaid to do my job for ah while and I was cool and I, and they left me alone cause my store was fine. Um, But after that year, then they started implementing all of their stuff.
00:24:45
Speaker
And that's whenever it became a problem. Um, it's really hard to go from the reason I i enjoy my job is because I get to help people. So whenever I'm working for a company that doesn't care, then that becomes, that becomes a problem. So that, that's why I opened up the shop. Sure.
00:25:04
Speaker
I was like, I can do this so much better than what they're doing. so you're happy now in your own shop overall yes are there stresses and frustrations and you know i mean yeah 100 and you know even even being a store manager for as long as i was think i never thought about what shop ownership would be compared to that.
00:25:35
Speaker
Right. Like, like, yeah, from a, from a technician to a shop owner is a big jump. Right. Yeah. But even, you know, a store manager to a shop owner is like a huge jump.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yep. Um, so I, I very much underestimated that aspect and, you know, some of the numbers I didn't have as good of a great grasp of as I should have. Sure. Right. So whenever I opened is we're going to do work cheap to get cars in the door and we got busy, right? Like you had a lot of cars. You think you're doing good, but your numbers not showing you the same
Learning and Networking in Business
00:26:18
Speaker
story. You the thing shifted into reverse. Yeah. Yeah. You're not doing that great. So how far in after 2019 did you realize, Hey, I need to go find some more information and where did you get it? So I'm trying to remember when it was, it was probably 21, beginning of 21.
00:26:35
Speaker
ah I reached out to Lucas. Like I had seen he had been in some groups and stuff and he was giving some people advice and I was like, hey, like just question, how do I hire a good technician? Because I need one, but I don't have the money to hire them.
00:26:53
Speaker
And he was like, oh, we got a bigger problem, right? And so then he got me into a mastermind group um through ASOG. And that's whenever I really started to understand what I didn't know. Right.
00:27:07
Speaker
And so who was your original facilitator in that group? Mark. So Mark Perkins, ah Tom was in there, Tom Shearer and Eric Bach.
00:27:23
Speaker
And now it's Adam Rath. Adam Rath was in there. It was a good group of people. It was a great group. I mean great, great shop owners. Look up to to all of them. They're, they're very good at what they do.
00:27:35
Speaker
Well, Lucas has got a lot of failings, but hooking people up with that group has been maybe one of the better things he's done. Oh, yeah. Redeeming quality for most of the... You have totally redeemed yourself.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, you know, you think about the amount of shops that have been helped through that program, you know, and it's it's it's just a really interesting thing because you hear the same things, right? I can't charge that in my area.
00:28:03
Speaker
You know, I ah can't do this and I can't do this. You hear the the same things from everybody. Yeah. And it's like, oh, this is really interesting how prevalent that this limiting thought is in our industry. Fear is the limiting thought. Yeah.
00:28:20
Speaker
Self-sabotage. Yeah. For sure. Fear is the limiting thought. we're very good at doing that. I think we also have a subconscious self-worth level and we we keep ourselves from getting above that level.
00:28:34
Speaker
Like, ah I'm not good enough to make $100,000 a year. I'm not good enough to make $500,000 year, whatever that number might be. And it seems like you bump bump up against that ceiling um intentionally or not. um and I think it's subconscious. but And there dudes out there who have just astronomical
00:28:57
Speaker
desires and dreams and goals, and they go get it. And you see, well, he's been in business for... eight years and he's got 13 stores and a marketing company and a collision shop and been running for 20 and I... Freaking boat, his little boat that comes out the ass of it. Yeah, his boats have boats. Boats have boats on board.
00:29:17
Speaker
Baby boats. Baby boats. you know I even think about like if I wanted to go get a new vehicle, like literally thoughts in my head of, like well, if I got too nice of a vehicle, i like i don't want i don't want my team to be like, oh wow, you know look at what he got.
00:29:32
Speaker
Screw that, have Raptor. Yeah. I have a ah friend in Chicago and he's he's sold his shop and retired at this point, but he was in my 20 group for years.
00:29:42
Speaker
And he bought some fancy Audi at the time. It cost him $100,000 or close to it. And sort of hearing that from his guy, i was like, oh,
00:29:55
Speaker
Yes, we need to get paid more. Boss is making too much. sure Customers, I guess i' i guess i'm you guys are too expensive at looking in that car, right? yeah And he went and he got rid of it and he got a top-of-the-line Denali XL with all the features.
00:30:09
Speaker
That was the same money. Same price. Never heard a single thing from customers or team members. So I guess it's just perception. So tech technicians tend to be not that great with money sometimes? No. Are you sure?
00:30:24
Speaker
ah you sure If you ever – I had a guy talking about my truck that I had when I got it. I i drive a pretty nice truck. Platy. It's not a platy.
00:30:36
Speaker
Anyways. Not a platy. F-450 Platinum. You've never seen a sad man. It's not 450. Yeah, nobody cries in – Money Can't Buy Happiness. Nobody cries in an F-450 Platy.
00:30:47
Speaker
sure But anyways. And i like i like I'm like, Paul, I'm like, I've watched you go to the store and get four drinks today and like two other things from the store. I go, dude, ah go you can quit the Mountain Dew and quit the Monster Energy and quit those candy bars.
00:31:04
Speaker
You can go ahead and get yourself an $800 a month truck payment right now. You're $800 a month into snacks. like Sugar is very addictive. I drink water. Yeah. yeah Sugar is super addictive, man. All that. I mean, what about tool trucks and, you know, the stuff they buy on there? now like right How many $28 bags of beef jerky have you gotten off the snap-on truck? Not me, none. But i' I've watched guys that work for us. I've watched guys that work for us put a pair of Oakleys on their credit account. I've watched them pay interest on a pair sunglasses.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. but interest on a parason but i'd be sick We do a $50 a week tool truck allowance for anybody who's passed a one through a eight. And there is a st a rule on that, that it cannot be, it has to be for actual tools. It can't be for tool storage. It can't be for knickknacks.
00:31:56
Speaker
Do you pay that directly to the truck? or Yeah, a truck has a card on file. yeah yeah ah So I do something similar. So like my lead tech, it's $50. The techs can't write it off anymore. So you might as well. Yeah. yeah And so lead tech gets 50 a week. And then techs can't write off their tools anymore.
00:32:14
Speaker
no they took that away a couple years ago that's bullshit man yeah that's why that's as as soon as they did that when they did that and mind you while i was a tech i bought all my old tools i've rolled into shops with more tools as a technician than that shop had right bought all my own tools and i was like techs need to supplies their own tools as part of the damn job dang it they took that away i was like shops you need to buy all the damn tools If they can't write it off, anymore I mean, that's kind of bullshit. They got to pay income tax to freaking buy it. Like, that's messed up.
00:32:46
Speaker
So well and that's when I was like, shops need to buy the tools. And I think there are some funky rules, like in California, about wage law. If the technician supplies any of their own tools. Prevailing state-matched wage, contractor wage.
00:33:00
Speaker
So yeah, if the technician has to provide the tools, you basically got to pay them $77 an hour. Oh, wow. Which, you know, $77 an hour just charged $2.21 an hour and quit bitching about it. But anyways, I digress. I can't charge that in my area.
00:33:17
Speaker
Right. That's what they all say until you do it. What's that? I can't charge that in my area. Yeah. Like, look, that real talk. There is a ceiling to what different markets can stand. Yeah, I agree 100%. And so there are coaches that say,
00:33:34
Speaker
I've heard it all over the country and that's bullshit and you just do it this way. And I get that because there are a lot of dudes who are like $90 an hour saying that they can't charge $100. you know But in in your market, you can charge $150. I don't know what your rate is. I could charge more that.
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah. I could. um But that doesn't mean that you can charge $300. No. So well there's a ceiling. you know the hot You know the hot take that nobody wants to talk about is sometimes they can't charge that in their area because maybe they don't provide a high level of service. yeah Yeah, that's the truth. Right? Because there are shops that have...
00:34:17
Speaker
an effective labor rate. Like once they, once don't you figure out their labor multiplier and this, that, and the other thing, they' their shop's getting two 80 an hour. Sure. And they're providing a level of service that allows them to get that two 80 per hour.
00:34:30
Speaker
And there's, they're in markets where there's a shop on every corner, right? Like the Houston market. Yeah. There's guys that charge a lot in the Houston market. There's also guys working on cars out of storage units for 75 bucks an hour.
00:34:47
Speaker
Right. In that heat. So Adams, uh, and I recorded with Joe Adams of Adams automotive. Uh, it was one of the first episodes and he, I asked him what happened at your shop. That was a mistake that, you know, you had to pull back from. And he said that they were pushing hard to find the limit of their market and they found found it.
00:35:13
Speaker
And I think. How'd that wall feel? they they They broke up well over 300 an hour. They said, like, our most loyal customers were saying no and going away.
00:35:24
Speaker
And they realized that they'd hit the ceiling, right? But then they drew it back down. Put her down to 270 and let her eat. Yeah, yeah. You know what? But most people weren't brave enough to even try that, right? But they found out where the limit is. There's no way. I mean, I don't have a nice coffee station or anything either, you I have a nice coffee. I don't know what people do. What's the conversation with your customer, though, right? Like, you're loyal customers, and what does that look like as far as trying to get them back in the door?
00:35:50
Speaker
Hey, you're doing a four-cylinder tune-up, and it's $1,100? Yeah. why are my Why are my pads and rotors for the front of my Chevy pickup $1,800? Yeah. see. yeah
00:36:03
Speaker
um But so there is a limit and there is a way to say my market won't support that. But I think on the whole, we don't charge enough as an industry yeah in almost every market. And if you're providing the level of service, what have I, I think I've said it three times here.
00:36:20
Speaker
Sometimes, you know, when you're the least stinkiest piece of cheese, you can get away with people pay extra for stinky cheese, man. They do. Oh gosh. Yeah. ah gosh
00:36:32
Speaker
But I get your point. Yeah, like when you're the stink, like you can't compare yourself to the stinkiest piece of cheese. Like the $80 an hour guy, like not not even like the work he does. Like the freaking place probably ain't that great.
00:36:45
Speaker
You probably wouldn't send your spouse there by herself to go drop the vehicle off, right? like And then the places that have a night higher labor rate tend to have – nicer facilities and more vetted people and so on and forth, right? the shit that nobody to talk about. shit goes sideways, they just it. have the money to buy the engine of yours that they screwed up. Yeah. Right?
00:37:10
Speaker
They got the money. yeah Like, hey, man, we screwed your engine up. We're going to have to put a new one in it. Hey, we ground up the spark plug by turning the motor over. That guy didn't have the money.
00:37:22
Speaker
That was probably an $80 an hour shop or whatever it was, right? that was a That was a real question. That was real. That was one of the part of the genesis of the troll post on Fridays. That was a big-time motivation.
00:37:35
Speaker
But, you know, like even going back to where I was struggling to hire a tech at a you know to be able to pay a good tech to come in, that was another thing that I learned whenever i joined the mastermind group is – How am I going to afford it if we screw something major up?
00:37:50
Speaker
Right? Like if I can't afford to pay it's a a great technician to come in work, I'm not going to be able to, you know, pay for this car. you start working on stuff, you're going to be breaking stuff. Yep. It happens.
00:38:01
Speaker
So, yeah, now that that ah made some major changes to the shop after that. Have you, are you still involved in the ASOG Mastermind or have you moved on to another coaching company? No. So i will be honest with you. I've sort of stepped away from a lot of it because I felt like there was information overload.
00:38:20
Speaker
um So after the mastermind, i did, I did some coaching. ah and did that for about a year and then i was just, I need to like step away.
00:38:31
Speaker
um i mean, there's an enormous amount of guidance and, and, and, Feedback you can get in the groups online. Oh, yeah. There's a ton of knowledgeable people. Yeah. yeah like You just got to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff on who's a moron and Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:38:46
Speaker
And you got to have some thick skin, you know? like I did appreciate that in the mastermind group. Like they would berate you if you did something dumb, right? That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Leadership 101. Bust their balls when they screw up. Yeah. But you know, it's like we all screw up. We all make mistakes. Sure. Someone needs to call it out and you need to fix it. And if you're not going to fix it, then what are you doing?
00:39:12
Speaker
Yeah. So. Yeah. A friend and I were just talking about all the shops that say they never make any mistakes. And I, He's like, yeah. He's like, I'm going in this weekend to put some valves in an Ecotec cylinder head because we didn't quite get the cam bolts, the cam gear bolts tight on that motor.
00:39:30
Speaker
And like, yeah, I've been there. I had to rebuild a transmission on a Saturday because I didn't quite get that transmission line pushed in all the way on that transmission line job. And nobody talks about all the shit you broke and how much money it costs. Who knows what the number is I couldn't imagine what our liability dollars have been over 15 years. I can imagine.
00:39:47
Speaker
couple hundred grand probably. or Probably less than some of the other shops in your town. Maybe. maybe Or maybe not. Well, it's not a liability expense if they don't make it right. oh that That's true. That's true. Yeah.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah.
Weathering the Storm: Personal and Business Impacts
00:40:00
Speaker
So, ah i want, if you're willing to hear about, uh, last year's ASTA expo and, uh, it's becoming a bit of a ah tradition at the expo that there's a hurricane.
00:40:16
Speaker
so two out of the last three years, we've had a hurricane with major damages, that have affected people attending the expo. But, uh, tell me about the adventure of, that and getting back home into the shop and and all that. Yeah, that was ah was a really fun experience.
00:40:33
Speaker
Thank you for making me relive it.
00:40:38
Speaker
Serious amount of trauma is about to get unloaded. No, I mean, it was... So, like, by nature, I don't really worry about a whole lot of things, right? Sure.
00:40:50
Speaker
Because what can you do? Whatever, right? Like, i I'm not a prepper. i don't... I don't really think through any of these things. So then we get to the expo and then my phone starts blowing up. So so my parents, you know, obviously my kids, my ex-wife who has the kids, you know, like. They all live right there in that area.
00:41:13
Speaker
And my phone is going off. And, you know, I'm trying to be in class and I can't do anything about it, right? Like I'm in um in Raleigh. what What am I going to do at this point? I can't just go drive over there.
00:41:29
Speaker
and So we're trying to wait it out. And, uh, but you think about the anxiety, like that was building up inside you. There's nothing you can do. You're like not even being able to be next to your kids.
00:41:42
Speaker
Right. During an event like that. Yeah. That was hard. But, uh, so next morning, right. Like we, we talked cause I took the whole shop to the expo.
00:41:55
Speaker
And we we had a ah meeting together. It was just like, Hey, like, what do y'all want to do? Like, what is the best course of action? Yeah. And so I think everyone was on board with leaving that next morning.
00:42:07
Speaker
So we all went to grocery store, loaded up our vehicles with water, food, anything we could think of and headed, headed back. And, uh, You don't really know what to expect. I grew up in in Dallas, so um we had some tornadoes, but it's a very like limited area. Very limited path of destruction yeah as compared to miles upon miles upon miles upon miles, right? Yeah.
00:42:34
Speaker
I'm just driving, you know, and and like trying to think of where I'm going to stop to get gas. And that turned out to be ah an adventure of its own and a pain in the ass to do.
00:42:45
Speaker
um And I mean, it just felt apocalyptic. Like. When it's dark, it's dark. When it's, you know, like right like there's there's nothing going on. it's It's so eerie and so creepy. And you see like all the destruction, all the trees are down.
00:43:06
Speaker
Literally you're like weaving in and out of debris in the road. um There was one one spot, this company had propane tanks, like probably about 30 of these things.
00:43:20
Speaker
And they're just literally scattered throughout the road. Like, I'm just like going through all of that. You know, you whenever you get to the little roads, you're driving, oh, there's a tree there.
00:43:34
Speaker
And we turn around and go another way. Oh my gosh. and so there was a lot of that. But it was like, first thing was first, you know, I had go make sure my kids were good. And and i I had contact with with the kids. I knew that they were okay, but still, like, I wanted to be there.
00:43:54
Speaker
my parents I had lost contact with. So like I, I drove, saw the kids, you know, tree fell on the house, damaged the roof, total two cars.
00:44:09
Speaker
They were just Subaru. So not a big deal.
00:44:14
Speaker
A total loss of $4 and 38 cents. terrible. But, um, but you know like yeah the damage sucked and and the roofs we're still waiting to get the roof fixed but comparatively like it was okay no one was injured all that was good so once i once i felt good there i left food was like i need to try to get my way to my parents and that was a little bit of an adventure but um i get there and
00:44:48
Speaker
They got a generator going. No damage. ah just There was just no cell reception. I just couldn't. So i was like, it's like relief, you know. Right, right. But they're just living their best life.
00:45:00
Speaker
Because they think about these things in advance and they're prepared for it. They got the generator going and they're drinking driveway beers. Right? Just waiting for it to get dark again because there ain't nothing else to do. my My dad is the type of guy that will worry and and be ready for stuff.
00:45:15
Speaker
So it drives him nuts that I'm not. hes been He had been training for this moment all his life. yeah Well, I'm like, if the shit hits the fan and and Central North Carolina, it's just...
00:45:29
Speaker
I never let the gas get below a half tank, so I've always got gas, right? We're going to throw all of our shit in the truck, and we're going to go to mom and dad's house because same thing. yeah and generator and yeah They got they got wood-fired stove they can cook on. Oh, yeah. and Got to have wood stove. So, yeah.
00:45:48
Speaker
Just go hang out with them and have cornbread. Yeah. Cornbread on wood stove. got generator bolted to the back of their house. Uh, they have that and then they have a couple of portable ones. Yeah, that's what i got. I got one. As long as I have natural gas, I have power. And then if I don't have natural gas, I have a backup for my backup.
00:46:07
Speaker
It's good to have backups. Well, you know, when it's in the middle of winter, you lose power. Losing power and losing power when it's 60 degrees out is bad. Losing power when it's 12 degrees out is very, it's deadly.
00:46:22
Speaker
Just the act of losing power, not anything that goes along with it. ye So you survived the pestilence and disease. yep You survived the hurricane and floods.
00:46:33
Speaker
Yeah, so with the shop, so shop was the third stop.
00:46:38
Speaker
My shop's pretty long. Like the road frontage is very small, but it's a really long shop. And then we've got a big field in the back. And the field in the back is in a pretty large floodplain area.
00:46:49
Speaker
And like I had seen pictures of cars being underneath water in in this floodplain. So I'm just sitting here because, you know, cameras aren't working. Like I can't see. um i But I get there and like if the water got to the building, like that's all it did.
00:47:05
Speaker
It didn't come in the building. Right, right. There was no damage at the shop whatsoever. well mean, we had no power, but like cars were fine. no damage to the shop. I was very fortunate.
00:47:18
Speaker
and Very fortunate. Did you have a bunch of debris back in the field or anything? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely a lot of debris from where water had come up, but, um, you know very minor stuff.
00:47:31
Speaker
You know, you heard all the news stories and, and you saw all the pictures and videos and the drone shots and everything in the week, weeks afterwards. But there's a difference between seeing it on TV. And I mean, just two months ago we went up and we did the social event in Nashville.
00:47:45
Speaker
driving up 40. I mean, and there's still homes in the Creek alongside of 40 where they, where they stopped washing just that somebody's house and it's in the river.
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, and downtown Nashville still just by the riverfront is just ruined. It's just torn. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll be years before it comes back.
00:48:06
Speaker
And I don't know, you probably wouldn't know, but are you familiar with chimney rock? I know where it is. So like that's not too far away from us. It's actually fairly close to but where my parents live.
00:48:18
Speaker
That's the town that just got washed away. oh Like it's gone. Yeah. Yeah. Completely gone. um And one of my customers had a gift shop there. So like every time I'd see like drone footage, like i was literally like just scanning to see where his is where his shop was.
00:48:37
Speaker
You think the community will build back or did everybody just move out? No, they're, they're, they are working on building back. So chimney rock has a state park as well, and they are planning to put up temporary bridges by Memorial day.
00:48:51
Speaker
So be able to get people into the state park. Um, There's a couple restaurants that are still there that are rebuilding. So they, they post online. Is that the one where the Creek like sawed a hole in the main road? Oh yeah.
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was chimney rock, right? yeah that's chimman That's the one that was on the news around the world. Yeah. Like most videos you saw were probably chimney rocks want to know, uh, you know downtown Asheville parts of it. Yeah. But it was one of the ones that got a lot of coverage.
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah. It was, was hard. Air hurts my face. We had, you know, several shops in the area did get flooded. I mean, you know, six feet, seven feet of water in a shop. You know, imagine what that does.
00:49:39
Speaker
Fuck, it's probably not good for things. that Suboptimal. Yeah. You know, it's not the water, it's the silt that it brings. That wrecks everything. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:49
Speaker
I think if it was purified spring water, it still would kind of fuck some stuff up. Might. Maybe. Yeah. Survived that. Back at it. Now this year you've got fires.
00:50:01
Speaker
Yeah. Luckily, you know, it's funny because we didn't want to see rain after the hurricane. And then you get these fires going on and, you know, the town is full of smoke. Yeah.
00:50:12
Speaker
you're just like, oh, just please rain. You better wash your mouth. So what's it going to take for you to be like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm moving to a different town.
00:50:24
Speaker
i mean, because it's that's a question that I would be asking at this point, I think. No, you know, we made it through all the hard
Community Rebuilding and Insurance Challenges
00:50:32
Speaker
stuff, right? Like, there can't be much more coming, right? A rough Junebug season and where they're acting like they could be locusts.
00:50:39
Speaker
Be freaking out, man. Do not be speaking that into existence. What else could possibly happen? No. There's no way it'll get worse. There's no way locusts could swarm my buildings.
00:50:51
Speaker
The first major earthquake in the East coast of United States in thousands of years. Since dinosaurs roamed the earth. one One thing I did learn that I wish I would have known beforehand.
00:51:05
Speaker
So I've got, I thought a really good insurance coverage for for the business. um And we have business interruption. And I called my my agent and i was just like, Hey, so I have no damage.
00:51:22
Speaker
but I've got no power. Act of God. So does that does that cover through my business interruption? And he's like, nope.
00:51:33
Speaker
He said, if there would have been damage to the building, He probably could have gotten it. I'll call you back in two hours. I'd have been out there with a ball peeing hammer. Just kicking the shit out of it. How are all these lines cut so smoothly off? Just running the forklift through the door.
00:51:55
Speaker
There you go. but Interrupted. so I talked to my agent the the next day because they were at the expo. And they had clients up and down Western North Carolina. I said, you guys loading up in the truck and heading up there? And he was like, no.
00:52:11
Speaker
Why not? It's because we're just going to get run out of everywhere with a gun because nobody nobody has the appropriate coverage for the damage that's happening right now. oh And all we're going to do is tell people no.
00:52:22
Speaker
and if going tell them no, there's no point in being in the middle of their misery misery while we're telling them no, we'll just stay over here and so they don't shoot at us. I think was kind of their thought process. I mean, it's the truth. you know is the So the one shop was talking about, he had a gift shop in Chimney Rock.
00:52:39
Speaker
So I ended up seeing his building, and it it didn't get washed away. It was hanging off the side. Like right half of it was about to fall in. foundation and stuff got away. everything got washed out. Sure.
00:52:56
Speaker
I was talking with him to see what his insurance was going to do. And he has flood insurance. He has to carry it because they're right by the river. Sure. um So he he did have that.
00:53:07
Speaker
But only the bottom floor of the building got flooded. Not the whole building, but the whole building is condemned. The whole building ended up falling down. Like it felt like later on down, down into the Creek.
00:53:23
Speaker
and So last I heard he was arguing with his insurance because they didn't want to cover any of it. Like they, they would give them the percentage for like the bottom floor being flooded.
00:53:36
Speaker
But that was it. That's so infuriating. Oh yeah. I can't, I can't even imagine. It's like an extended warranty company. I mean, you have to have insurance for the catastrophic things like this.
00:53:48
Speaker
And then something catastrophic happens and they're like, we're not going to cover your catastrophic thing. yeah But thanks for, thanks for your money over the last 15 years. getting a much money I have the insurance for the catastrophic thing that nobody has insurance for. I have flood insurance.
00:54:04
Speaker
Flood insurance doesn't actually cover you for being flooded. Well, know, it's a 15-foot building and the floodwaters only came up 11 feet, so we're only going to give you 68%. Pro-rate your coverage.
00:54:18
Speaker
So, yeah, I found myself in a really interesting spot, you know, as far as, you know, now you've got all my customers that have damage to their house and, you know, they're dealing with all these other priorities other than getting their car worked on, right? So...
00:54:31
Speaker
So it's been it's been an interesting roller coaster since since the hurricane as far as that goes. do Do you work the counter at your store still? Are you the service advisor manager?
00:54:43
Speaker
Some. um'm I'm not full-time on the counter, but I do go up there whenever we need it. So then you have an advisor? I do have an advisor, yeah. So two techs and advisor and you.
00:54:55
Speaker
Yep. Seven Pays. Man, they do have it good, don't they? it's i told Is it like air conditioned and clinker tile? No, no, no. It's not air conditioned. Clinker tile.
00:55:07
Speaker
It's not that fancy. oh But, you know, I was talking with with another shop owner. It's like, we don't really have to worry about putting cars back together and moving them out.
00:55:20
Speaker
right look Occasionally, we'll do that. But We create very bad habits, and I've told them, like as we add more people understand, there's going to be some frustrations. yeah My dream in life would be to like have five bays and a brake lathe on wheels.
00:55:39
Speaker
um Interviewed Darren Barney at Vision, and he's the CEO of Elite, which is the coaching company I use, but he his family has a shop that he grew up in, Barney Brothers Off-Road, I think is the name of it, in Colorado.
00:55:53
Speaker
Six bays, seven techs. and's like well That's like Wilco Auto Care. Yeah, it's like there ain't no leaving anything in the bay. yeah You figure out a way to get it outside. We have more people at our Sanborn shop. We have more people than we have base.
00:56:08
Speaker
How you pay technician? Well, you got a GS that's like busting tires or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's a tech that's evaluating the vehicle, doing the work, and it needs tires or it needs this or it needs that. You have an expediter that can do basic work.
00:56:25
Speaker
Yep, yep. Right? So that's how that works. um you also pay them poorly, right? As poorly as possible. i don't I don't mean the amount that you pay them. I mean the way that you pay them.
00:56:39
Speaker
Pay them poorly? Yeah, horribly inefficient. Oh, hourly? ah Yeah, hourly. Do you have ah like a hybrid component to that or is it just straight hourly? Yeah, the hybrid component is as we take the – Hours and we multiply that by the dollars and we give that to them.
00:56:58
Speaker
Yeah, the hours they worked, yeah. That's the it's as hybrid as it gets, man. It's not very hybrid. It seems like the opposite of hybrid. It seems like it's... Well, it's taking one thing and converting it to another. It's like coal fire.
00:57:11
Speaker
<unk>s like It's like a steam engine of of pay plans. All right, but back to Disaster Central. um I think we got to rename...
00:57:23
Speaker
Canuga, I mean, everybody knows where it is now. I think it's got to be like the seven plagues automotive or something but or something. know these logga but yeah know if you knew these things were going to happen again, what would you do in preparation for a natural disaster or in preparation for an extended shutdown?
00:57:45
Speaker
So and we had this brief conversation before we started this of ah people are going to be like, man, this guy just doesn't like to be prepared. um So even now, it's just like, would I consider carrying more cash? I love this. I love this. Maybe. Maybe.
00:58:06
Speaker
That's so mean. You and I get along just fine. Yeah, I mean, if the water came up an extra 20 feet, and there's no there's no amount of prep that's going to keep the shop What if the house falls over? Am I supposed to hold the thing up? Like, what do you want me to do, man?
00:58:19
Speaker
I just got here. I'm one person. I can't do anything about this. You know, so one of the things that I would, I just don't think this way, but I never carry cash.
00:58:31
Speaker
Like, hardly ever will you see me carrying cash. And it just so happened we had gone out with with a group um that night before we came, before we went back to the house.
00:58:44
Speaker
And I paid on my card and everyone paid me back in cash. So like I had cash. Right. Whenever I got back, I was able to, you know, yeah. Like, yeah. So that any store you could get things at could only take cash. Cause they couldn't process payment. Right. Yep.
00:59:00
Speaker
So that was a, I was, that's probably one of the lessons that I will, if they If I see a storm's coming, I might just pull out some cash to have it.
00:59:11
Speaker
How long was it before credit card transactions were back up and running at the gas station? Oh.
00:59:19
Speaker
Yeah, I'm out three or four weeks. And depending on where you were at, too. So were there like many barter economies popping up? Or was it all just drive until you can find an ATM? No, man. The pigs and chickens washed away, aren't you They weren't there no more, man. They were in the creek.
00:59:36
Speaker
go You bring the pigs and chickens in the house with you during the hurricane. He didn't do that because he doesn't prep. I don't prep. Period. period So what you're saying is you should have just stayed at the expo for the whole time.
00:59:49
Speaker
I mean, well, yeah if my kids and my parents weren't there, then I would have been like, whatever. Right. Because at the end of the day, it is what it is. Like whether I come back tomorrow or I come back in a week It's not going to change anything. You're not going to fist fight Mother Nature. There are a lot of people that went back and were like, well, shit. And then they left town for a month. Yeah.
01:00:11
Speaker
Yeah. Because what's the point of being there with no power and no infrastructure? Like the one thing was where the tree fell on the house, I was able to get it cut back and like patched through. Stabilized and stuff like this so that. So that was good. But other than that, I mean, little if it wasn't for kids and parents,
01:00:33
Speaker
I would, it wouldn't have bothered me one bit. So what you're saying is to prepare for possible disaster, don't do shit. Yeah. hundred percent. Roll with the punches. You know, just life is going to happen.
01:00:46
Speaker
Right. Well, that shit happens. Yeah. I mean, right. think it's, it's actually some pretty valuable advice. You know what I'm going to do this morning? I'm going to get up and deal with whatever shit gets thrown in my way and,
01:01:01
Speaker
And I'm going to have a whiskey and go to bed. Certainly not going to stress out about things before they happen. and That's one of the most wasteful things that so many people do is gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands over what it might happen.
01:01:17
Speaker
What if? What What if the dog hadn't stopped his shit in the woods? he caught the rabbit. The fuck did you just say? I don't know. Something out of me and shit I heard somewhere.
01:01:29
Speaker
people You know that saying, but you don't know. Was it bright-eyed and butchie-tailed? Like, what the hell, man? I didn't have to explain that to me this morning. And I spent a lot of time in a tree stand. I never really put two and two together. i'd heard the saying. i didn't know what i meant.
01:01:42
Speaker
What did you think it meant? Didn't know. Didn't ask. Didn't have any effect on my daily life. You just smiled and nodded. Yeah, three smile away, boys. Smile away. It's like talking to Dutch. Every time I talk to Dutch, I got to get, okay, got to get Google out. Okay, what's that word? Oh, my God. What's so Dutch likes to, you know, grab men's behinds.
01:02:06
Speaker
He is a little bit of ass grabber. can we Can he do that you? Does he have a reach for around for you? I don't think he's ever done that to me, but I don't have much of an ass either. He tried to kiss me on the mouth today.
01:02:17
Speaker
Because we were like this for a picture that Jesse was taking. And he was like, it was maybe the most frightening thing I've ever experienced in my life. Because what were you going to do?
01:02:29
Speaker
I was going become Jewish, I guess. so That's not right. That's a weird way to convert me, but whatever, bro. $20 is $20. $20 is $20.
01:02:44
Speaker
I think on that note, we can probably wrap up this highly productive conversation. Thank you for coming on and talking about the natural disaster that is Canuga Automotive. Yep. Anytime you want to hear a horror story, you come grab me. Thanks. i appreciate it. Yeah, thank you.