Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Apex Performance
91 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, we sit down with Chris from Apex Performance Auto to dive into his journey in the automotive industry—where it all started, the challenges he faced, and how he built his brand into what it is today.
Chris breaks down what it really takes to run a successful shop, from the early struggles to the systems and mindset that helped him grow. We talk about the differences between working in a traditional shop vs. running your own operation, lessons learned the hard way, and what he would do differently if he had to start over.
If you're a technician thinking about going out on your own, already running a shop, or just looking to level up your business, this episode is packed with real-world insight you won’t hear anywhere else.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode.
https://linktr.ee/3tsmobile
Book A FREE Demo With Tekmetric:
https://auto.tekmetric.com/47aAFvQ
Spotify Podcast Link
👉 https://open.spotify.com/show/4uz43aO4DT1oJDbDz0ebxq
Apple Podcast Link
🍎 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3ts-mobile-mechanic-podcast/id1893477012
YouTube Music Podacst
https://music.youtube.com/@3TsMOBILEMECHANIC
🏫 Skool Community:
https://www.skool.com/3tsmobilemechanic-2581/about?ref=b563c393fecf4f3ebb37433ac31f810f
SHOP MY AMAZON STORE HERE!!
🛒 https://www.amazon.com/shop/3tsmobilemechanic
Recommended
Transcript
Chris's Early Passion for Mechanics
00:00:21
Speaker
All right, today I got a buddy of mine, Chris, from Apex Performance Automotive. Chris, what's going on, my friend? Hey, how's it going, Ben? Good to see you. Same old. It's another day, another dollar, being mobile.
00:00:34
Speaker
That's it. So, Chris, ah you know, why are you in the automotive world, man? where to Where'd you come from? what Why did you decide to be a mechanic? Well, I guess it starts... ah Since I was younger, I never really knew what it was like to be a mechanic. I didn't have an uncle or a dad or anything, but I loved to tinker with things and take things apart.
00:00:55
Speaker
Putting them about together was a little bit different of a story. But as I grew up, I realized I had a passion for wrenching and being around tools. And so I ah i figured that was the path I wanted to go on. All right.
From Military Mechanic to Automotive Industry
00:01:08
Speaker
what's um When you were in high school, did you just become a mechanic straight out of high school or did you do something else?
00:01:15
Speaker
So I went to, um like, in my area, they had, like, a two-year course in high school where you can go, like, a shop class type stuff um for automotive. So I did that for my junior and senior year.
00:01:28
Speaker
And then I came out of there and went the opposite direction. I was not a mechanic. i went the military for seven years. um And then i was in aviation. i got out of that, and that actually started my automotive career when I was, like, mid-20s.
00:01:43
Speaker
Working on... What did you work? You worked on that stuff in the military, you said, right? Yeah, I was a helicopter mechanic. I worked on Blackhawks. Damn. How is that compared to cars?
00:01:54
Speaker
Um, in some aspects, it's really the same, but in other aspects, it's, it's completely opposite. If you will, um, it's still wrenching. It's still parts. It's still nuts and bolts, but, uh, the quality control is completely different. Um, the, where we use like a service manual, uh, you have to use the service manual for taking a lug nut off. You have to have the service manual open, make sure because they have updates that change and it's a very, very precise and,
00:02:22
Speaker
overly critiqued industry and in in a good way. um So, yeah. um So you you wait how long did you say you were in the military? Seven years. Jeez, please.
00:02:33
Speaker
um What branch? Army. Army. and But that's what your job was. You were for seven years, you worked on Blackhawks. Correct. Yes, we went back and forth at door gunning and the mechanic. It's kind of come for the job. You do both. But yeah, primarily mechanic.
00:02:50
Speaker
Dang. That's ah a lot of um like the airplane mechanic, just even just you know jumbo jets. That's why I don't fly because I don't trust anybody else working on something. That's a lot, yeah man. I guess in in my job, it was nice because you worked on it and then you flew the same machine that you worked on. So you had to have a little bit of –
00:03:12
Speaker
Trust in yourself and trust in the guys around you because you're going to fly it as soon as you fix it. That's the reason why I don't fly because I'm not the one working on the plane. I'm not the one flying the plane. So if you trust yourself and the guys you're flying with, you're okay being up there. I've never been on a plane in my entire life, and I don't ever freaking plan on it.
00:03:31
Speaker
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Nope. I'm good. Right. Anyway. ah All right. So you were in the military
Transitioning from Military to Automotive Career
00:03:37
Speaker
for seven years. That's where you started, you know, wrenching and everything else. So what did you do when you got out of the military?
00:03:44
Speaker
So I wanted to start fresh in the automotive industry. um It's always been my passion. Just when I joined the military, that was a different direction in my life, but it was still coming back. um I actually wanted my own company before I got out of the military, but I figured not having any real world experience in the automotive industry just because I was a good mechanic.
00:04:04
Speaker
I thought maybe I should get in the industry for a couple of years and in I'm glad I did.
00:04:10
Speaker
What do you mean by years in the industry, like and for working with for somebody? Well, at that point in time, I had no professional time in the automotive industry. you know i had two years of trade school, and then I had aviation experience, but I had never worked in a shop at that point. um I didn't know the ins and outs of automotive you know shop or automotive repair facility or anything, so I wanted to make sure I had some actual professional experience as far as working in the industry before I went out and Opened my own business. Yeah. So where'd you go? You were at a dealer, right? So I went to Tires Plus. It was a lube tech. That's where I started. um
00:04:46
Speaker
It's very interesting going from a $23 million dollars helicopter to a a Honda Civic oil change. um But it's humbling. and And I wanted to start from the bottom. I wanted to learn everything from the bottom and work my way up.
00:04:59
Speaker
So I did that for a year. Realized that type of... that type of franchise was not the one I wanted to work for. so difficult. Yes. And then, different yes. And so my other goal since I was younger was to be a um master tech at at some manufacturer. I never really knew the time. So that was kind of my goal off in the distance. So after a year at Tires Plus, I left and went to a Chevy dealership and that's where I spent the next almost eight years.
00:05:29
Speaker
So that's when we met, that's where you were at. You were at the Chevy That's correct. Yep. yeah That's correct. How was that? Compare that to Tires Plus. Oh, it was... I thought I hit hit a gold mine going from Tires Plus to the dealer. Really? Yeah, for the first three or four years, I mean, it was...
00:05:48
Speaker
It was honestly everything I wanted it to be. ah and i'm I'm a type of person, i love the auto industry. I've always wanted to be a mechanic. So when I talk about like enjoying my job and liking my job, other mechanics scoff at me. But um no, it for the first three or four years, it was exactly what I wanted. I mean, it was hands-on.
00:06:04
Speaker
i mean, I went in and and, you know, with my experience and with my um in the aviation and I was very... um humble. I wasn't arrogant. So like the people, they trusted me and, and I just kind of jumped right in, started tearing engines apart and kind of diagnosing and um learning learning how to do that. And it was really, really fun. It was exactly what I wanted.
00:06:26
Speaker
So did they, the dealer you're at obviously flat rate when you were there. Correct. All that time. um They pay for your training and all that stuff. Did you do all the GM training and ASCs at that point or?
00:06:38
Speaker
Yeah, so when i I left Tires Plus, I had my brake ASC. um I got to Chevy, and within a i kind of delayed it a little bit. I just kind of and enjoyed and worked there, and then about two to three years in, I really started hammering out.
00:06:54
Speaker
um So i within i was there for seven and a half years. i ended up getting six ASCs. I was fully GM certified in seven categories. um I was working my way to the eighth one, which was um electric vehicles.
00:07:08
Speaker
And that's when I left. That's when you left. So how was the pay structure at Tires Plus? Was it still, I never actually worked for them, but I applied to them a lot back in my younger years. At the time, it was you got a certain dollar amount, and then you got like another dollar or $2 per ASE. You had up to four ASEs. And that was like Tire Kingdom, Tires Plus, all those types of places. Yeah.
00:07:34
Speaker
So I know I did get a a dollar raise for my ASC. At the time... we had We had two different pay structures. We had hourly, and this was everybody in the shop, hourly, and then um commission, I guess. And they had bogeys and double bogeys, I guess they called it. Yeah, so like a big hybrid, yeah hybrid style with incentive. More of a hybrid, yes. And I guess them even the the master techs, at the time, they were making you know very, very good money. um They were only making like $12 an hour, because but their commission was so high.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah. You know, so that's kind of what it was. Yeah, it was it was hybrid. Weekends and eight o'clock at night and everything else. I guess they would. Yeah, they would do their 40 hours because the bogey or double bogey, whatever it's called, would mess you up if you got overtime. So they would clock out at 40 and then they would keep working.
00:08:21
Speaker
to build their commission and, you know, the typical, the ways to manipulate the, yeah the, whatever the hell it's called, the pay pay system. Yeah. The way they have their structure set up there, they find their ways to manipulate, just like the dealer was, you'd find ways, like I said yeah before, you know, your pen was your friend. That's why you, that's you manipulate your warranty lines in order to try to get paid for certain things and everything else. So, so what, um obviously, so you're at the dealer for eight years and,
00:08:50
Speaker
and After those couple of years, when did it start to turn for you? You said you loved it for the first couple of years, but why did you, what happened?
Disillusionment and Business Aspirations
00:09:00
Speaker
Why'd you change that thought?
00:09:01
Speaker
So, um, again, I've always wanted my own company. As soon as I hit the automotive industry, that kind of went away because I was introduced to how the industry was. And at the time, like most mechanics, I'm like, I don't want to deal with customers, service advising, none of that. I didn't, I didn't realize what it was about till I, till I started. So the the idea of owning my own company kind of went away for a couple of years and I just focused on wrenching.
00:09:24
Speaker
um About – I would say about halfway through, I started you know getting experience and kind of getting gaining ground, working my way up. And I – the biggest thing was i guess maybe the politics of a dealer. um And I know it wasn't just my dealer. i didn't like the way a lot of things went when it came from the way the service advisors would try to sell – my estimates or whatever, or the way they would, the service advisor would just, would maybe manipulate a little bit, you know, to make a sale the way the managers were like manipulating some things and not, not, I'm not saying it was only my dealer, but it didn't seem like a straight and narrow, right? Customer didn't come to the dealer, drop their car off. I inspect it.
00:10:08
Speaker
I put a quote in, i send it to the advisor. The advisor calls, sells it, comes back. I fixed the car. That's to me how it's supposed to be. There was so much other... Things, right? That that goes along with that. That I that i really...
00:10:25
Speaker
started not enjoying. I gotcha. And that's usually the the story. of what you findd When you find a dealer that just does things that are not, it just makes it feel like a toxic place to be. And that's what sucks because there's some dealers that are so freaking great because they have great structure plan in the and the yeah all the way up from service managers and down, there's an order and people stick to it. When order starts getting crossed,
00:10:52
Speaker
and people start having relationships between ah service writer and technician that aren't great and don't, are they're not cohesive, yeah everything falls apart.
00:11:03
Speaker
Right. And that's where it comes to the training and management and everything else where things really, that's where at least my experience when I was at the dealers, that's what it was. It was, There was no direction and the management was constantly overturned. There was always a new, the dispatcher, the first dispatcher we had, he had no, he was never a mechanic. So he had no clue.
00:11:29
Speaker
how we worked, he was always just, and he was never a service writer. So he was always like stuck in between. It's like, what are you doing and in here? Like, there's no point of you being here. Right. um And then the next guy we had that was um our dispatcher, he was our front end guy. He was ah our alignment guy. And he had been there for like 20 years or 15 years or something like that.
00:11:52
Speaker
So he had his friends. He had people that he fed. we, as a young, i was an asshole. I was just you know thinking I'm this and that. And I'm sorely mistaken. i was nobody, had no skill whatsoever as far as like,
00:12:10
Speaker
real diagnosis guys, I thought I was king of the world and nothing, you know, you put a PO 171 in front of me back then. I'm like, yeah, no problem found, you know, like i'll go right and clear it and send it, you know? Yeah. Um, so I had no business being there. I had no business like, and i mean, that's the problem. I was in my own bubble,
00:12:29
Speaker
But nobody presented, this is what this is. This is the training. This is how the industry really is. And there was none of that. It was such a bad experience. And I came from Fleet before that. I worked for Bell South.
00:12:44
Speaker
where I had two bays, I had 150 vehicles under me, and nobody there to tell me what to do. um So I had my own office, my own parts room, and two two lifts, and the cars were brought to me every morning. So I just got in, I had a list of stuff to do, and I went to work. And when I left that place, I left there because I went through a divorce and kind of screwed it up. but Been there, yeah. Yeah.
00:13:09
Speaker
um it I thought the dealer was going to be the same. I had no clue what that world was. And I ruined it myself because I didn't, I wasn't, I was too much of a hotheaded dumb kid the time to understand what that world. Now, knowing what I seen back then and where it was, it still was a toxic place, but it was not.
00:13:29
Speaker
it still wasn't that great dealership mentality that some of these guys get to experience and it just sucks. But yeah. So, all right. So you you've been there, you did the flat rate game and everything else and, you know, years are going by yu and you're ready to go.
Launching a Mobile Mechanic Business
00:13:45
Speaker
I know from our past, you know, talks, we've been talking for well over a year now. Yep. what's ah How long did it take you when you said, okay, I'm done.
00:13:57
Speaker
I'm going to take back the thought where I was going to go out on my own. Why did you decide mobile versus like a business? a brick and mortar location. Okay. Um, that's a good question because I've, someone brought it up to me early on in my automotive career about going mobile, doing small jobs. And I said, I'll never lay on my back in a parking lot and work on a car, you know, and, and coming from the dealer, i mean the dealer, it was a lot of negativity, but it had a lot of great perks. I mean, my toolbox, you know, my, my, you know, $15,000 toolbox didn't move for eight years, you know, and it's like the car came right to me. The worst thing we had to do was push cars into the shop. And I said, I'll never not have a lift. Like I'll i'll lift, I lift cars up just to put the oil bucket for coolant or the coolant bucket underneath it just to clear the fascia. I'll rack the car. And that's why you have your other company. That's a mobile. Yeah, and mobile lift company. Exactly. oh Yeah. so
00:14:52
Speaker
Anyways, threw through ah through a ah divorce and all of that. My life, personal life plans changed. I ah sold my house. I'm we're still in the process of buying property, building a house. And with that, most mechanics want to shop. And I said, you know what? I'll build my shop on my property, hold different conversation. um And then when I do that,
00:15:13
Speaker
I'll have my own company and I'll i'll transition into that shop at home. Right. And then I was like, OK. And then I was thinking maybe I should get some clientele built up until my shop is built.
00:15:25
Speaker
That's where the mobile mentality came from. Of maybe I should kind of get my feet wet, get some things moving, very, very small scale um <unk> until my brick and mortar shop is set up. You know, i don't I don't want to buy one or lease one. I want it paid for on my own property, what that, you know. But that's when the the mentality of like doing small jobs um on the side kind of started picking up.
00:15:50
Speaker
and then and But you were still at the dealer at the time. Oh, absolutely. This is probably three three years before I left the dealer at this point. did This thought started coming up. Yeah, because you you took a long time to finally leave the dealer. After all the burnout, like you said, the the divorce, the the back and forth, you were still… I was still cranking it out.
00:16:14
Speaker
But so that's what I mean. So you were still at the dealer for at least, what, two years before you finally quit and you were putting the plan together to go mobile. Oh, for sure. so I'm I'm I left in October of twenty twenty five. Right. So about six months ago, yeah um I met you or we had our first like little video chat November of the prior year. Right.
00:16:36
Speaker
And then i had been starting the thought process about a year prior to that. And so I guess what kind of launched me that direction and how I found you and in my life has changed for the better ever since. Um, cause you don't give your you don't, you don't give yourself enough credit, man. Like you've, you've changed my life. I was like working out of the back of my suburban, you know, I got seven kids, so I have a suburban, my wife has a suburban and I was like, well, I got a big SUV, you know? Um, so I started working out of the back of that and I wanted a trailer.
00:17:10
Speaker
And I was like being very OCD and organized and had everything organized perfect at at the dealer. I'm like, well, I don't want to open my door and have just shit everywhere. Right. Yeah. So I started looking up trailer layouts because to me, starting a business, that was the most important.
00:17:25
Speaker
Right. Yeah. It's how my trailer is set up. right i like the way it looks yeah yeah you know but out ah out of everything it wasn't money it wasn't nothing it was how that how the trailer was set up so i just started googling like mobile mechanic trailer setups and within like five minutes your video popped up and it was actually you just going over like revenue right yeah and and think i remember that conversation yeah you were just like it was one of your videos that you post out and and And ah hopefully we go ah further into this conversation because at the dealer to dog eat dog world, zero help from anybody.
00:18:00
Speaker
Like if I know a trick and you don't, that means I get all this work. So the fact that you were so willing to like, just be like, oh yeah, this is what I do. This is how I make money. I'm like, who is this guy? You know, like this guy's not real. And then in your video, you mentioned Ocala, which is like about an hour North of me. yeah And then I, so I'm not going to lie. I saw your numbers.
00:18:21
Speaker
For the year, you're like, I'm a one-man show with a trailer. I made X amount, and I won't i won't say the number. I don't know what it was. um But I was like, it it honestly blew my mind that a one-man show in a trailer could be that successful. think that was lazar the first year when I started doing that. when i was I think I had done.
00:18:41
Speaker
I just hit 200 or I did 180 or no something like that. It was like 180, 190.
00:18:46
Speaker
gross, I think you're in one 80, whatever. Yeah. So that was, yeah, that was the older video. 2025, 2024. Yeah. It doesn't matter. But yeah, that was, I remember cause we, that's when I started getting on YouTube.
00:19:00
Speaker
I didn't know my place. I didn't know what the hell I wanted do. You primarily on YouTube and I don't use YouTube very often. And I, you know, I didn't start Tik TOK until right now, exactly a year ago. My son, uh,
00:19:12
Speaker
one year wedding anniversary is this weekend. And the week that we were planning his wedding, I got consistent on TikTok because of Chuck. ah Richard, check out and Chuck, said, dude, you need to get on. to the the And he's right. that The marketing or marketing, the networking on there is huge. And that's why I did it. right And everything has flowed since then. But yeah, the yeah we were talking about...
00:19:36
Speaker
That was the problem is like, so nobody was on. going to say nobody. There's obviously people on there that are doing it. I see people more and more every day trying to talk about the things that I talk about sure and helping people get in business.
00:19:50
Speaker
But the problem was, is like you, you're sitting out here trying to get in business. You're like, man, i don't know what the fuck to do. That's what my problem was. And I spent so many years. bashing my head against the wall, not understanding. Like I understood business. I had a business before, but I didn't understand this and how to like, how to take my experience being technician, service writer, general manager, and all the different shops and locations I worked for over my career and how to combine it into this and me do it as my own.
00:20:22
Speaker
Right. That was hard. That was very difficult transition. And a lot of people don't realize the amount of stuff we go through. Yeah. Running a company. So i was like, I'm going to just tell people because why not? There's nobody else doing it. I'm sure I can get a following and it worked like you guys were some of my first ever followers and stuff like that. And i mean, the conversations that we had were great. why do Why did you start like sharing your information that in depth? I mean, i kind of, you kind of answered it, but like to me, to me, From the outside, from the outside it's it's almost like insane. I see a lot of guys.
00:20:57
Speaker
I can tell you the exact answer to it. So I see so many guys, and I didn't really know this answer until recently. Okay. But there's a lot of guys that are on TikTok and YouTube and stuff like that, and I always felt that it was scripted and fake.
00:21:12
Speaker
And everything else. And I'm like, I don't like that. So like, I'm always watching or back then, ah how do I make my YouTube better? How do I do this? Oh, you got to script this. I'm not scripting ah ah my day. Like that's insane. So like now my YouTube, I used to just kind of just do stuff. Now it's just strictly a day in the life. It's what we, it's every car we work on. If she has a problem with a customer I try to film it when I can or just when I screw up, I talk about the screw up. I talk about the cars, the intermittent problems, you know, the the problem customers, the non-paying customers, the parts, the rain, the trailer.
00:21:50
Speaker
Nobody was being honest about it. So, and then nobody was really being honest about the numbers. They're like, follow me because I know what I'm doing. Why would I, why tell me, show me, you know what you're doing me just because you have a social media following does not mean you know what you're doing.
00:22:10
Speaker
I went on a lot of guys out there. Yeah, I went viral on TikTok with my other business. We did like half a million views in like two hours or like 24 hours. I almost quit my job. Yeah, but it meant meant nothing to nobody. It was a viral video. And I was just people watching it.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I almost quit. I didn't know what to do. You know, because you have so anything I mean, obviously, I have a decent following now. Sure. But that's a completely separate so world. It's.
00:22:35
Speaker
So anyway, I don't remember what were talking about, but why you started posting. Yeah. um But nobody was telling that. And okay. So what I'm like, okay, ah should I follow you? You might be telling me how to do some things, but I, but, but did you prove it?
00:22:50
Speaker
Right. So I'm like, okay, let me go out and do this and prove it. I worked my butt off and I proved the numbers and I proved the growth and showed my failures. I'm like, well, that's what I'll tell people because nobody else is saying it.
00:23:03
Speaker
Right. And that's what worked that. So the thing is, is that the internet left tomorrow, I have a company that works. I have a company that runs and I can still run my company because the phone rings organically and naturally every single day. So that's what I wanted to help people do because also when people tell me I can't do it, F you because I'm going to do it.
00:23:27
Speaker
And that was another big thing. And I'm a huge proponent of that. When people tell me you can't, build this or you can't do that or you won't be successful or I'm going to show you that I'm going to be successful and I'm going to do it tenfold and that's I had a lot of people in my life tell me I shouldn't do some of the things that I've done right and I've proved every single one of them wrong because they can kiss my butt but anyway um ah the ah But that's why. That's why I did it. um yeah So anyway, going back to you're you're going mobile.
00:24:01
Speaker
You left the dealer. yeah um How scary was it? It took a while to go mobile. You were talking to me constantly, but... ah I, I, I lasted eight months on the side.
00:24:14
Speaker
Right. Um, so I think you're frozen right now. Hang on. Oh, there you go. Okay. No, you're good. So, so I lasted eight months on the side. Right. So i went, I started my company like light, like legally March of 2025.
00:24:29
Speaker
Right. yeah And I was actually planning on saying at the dealer for at least two years doing this on the side. Yeah. That was my goal. Right. And. Yeah, I do got a lot of lot of kids. it how I don't know how it keeps happening. If anyone can comment it and tell me how it keeps happening. um So, no, but yeah, but I was really i really, really wanted to put a lot of...
00:24:51
Speaker
effort and investment in my company. I didn't want to just jump within a month. You know, I, I knew business that much. Yeah. You know, and I was like, I'm going to, I'm going hold this out as long as I can. And as, as you know, I mean, I worked an hour away from my house. So my deal, the dealer was about 45 minutes to an hour away. So I would take my trailer with me, drive to work, work all day. And I would literally work on the way home doing jobs. And for about eight months, it was 10, 11 o'clock at night, getting home. It was weekends.
00:25:23
Speaker
um And even my wife was like, how long you going to do this for? And I'm like, I don't know. i'm just, and it actually wasn't, believe it or not, it was not the stress of handling both that made me quit so early and go full time. It was the dynamics and politics of my dealer.
00:25:41
Speaker
We went through a big management change and that's a, you know, holding the story if we get to it. But yeah, it I came home and i I was sitting in the bathroom, like just sitting on the toilet, like not, you know, just on top of the toilet, not using it. Right. And I had my hand. i had my hand in my my like this. And I don't I don't show stress very well or very easily. I i handle stress very well.
00:26:02
Speaker
yeah Yeah. So my wife walked in and she was like, what's wrong? And I said, I'm I'm done. And she thought I meant I was done with my business because it was too stressful. Yeah. And she's like, what do you mean? And she knew every night I'd come home and I wasn't whining about my business. It was a dealer. And I said, ah can't keep going back there with with my mentality.
00:26:24
Speaker
And this was, oh man, this had to be September of last year. And so I told her, I said, I'm going to give it to the end of the year. Right. um i wanted to finish the year out. Christmas bonus. Not a big one, but whatever. Little things. The holidays with the kids. I didn't want to mess any that up. This was September.
00:26:42
Speaker
I go back to work and that mentality is dangerous. It changes things. Right. And I didn't sabotage. I was, I was a great employee. I didn't, you know, f this F that. Like I went to work, I worked my hardest. Um, I worked my last day until six o'clock at night.
00:26:55
Speaker
Um, my last day there and my buddy who had been there, he's been in the industry for 30 years. He goes, you're the only person who's ever worked the entire day on your last day. Yeah. Most people don't even show up. Exactly. And I worked my last day. So, but I went back and,
00:27:12
Speaker
Within like a week, I came home and I said, uh, yeah, I'm putting my two weeks in the tomorrow. So, i you know, I was like, I am so done. So, yeah yeah, I made it about eight months. And in October of last year, i ripped the Band-Aid off, put my two weeks in. um They didn't want to give me my two weeks because I thought I would sabotage. They don't like two-week notices. And I was like, well, I said, listen, guys, the two weeks isn't for me. I know where I'm going. Two weeks is for you guys if you don't want me here.
00:27:38
Speaker
um So I left and started my full time. And then went full time. Went full time. How scary was that? So back to handling stress, like I overanalyze everything. I knew it was coming. We all do.
00:27:55
Speaker
I was not stressed. And this is, this is, I had this conversation today, actually. i was stressed. But since I've been in my, in my own business for six months, I have not been stressed. that I have not been as stressed one day as I was at the dealer.
00:28:11
Speaker
Yeah. That's how much stress I was dealing with. I was the second highest certified, had a lot going on. So when you're, when you're up that high, you fix a lot of other problems, not just the cars you're working on. Right. And a lot of other politics. And so now my business has been stressful. i'm not saying it's easy.
00:28:27
Speaker
Um, it has its, but it's a totally different stress. It's so different being out here doing this on our own. There's been, there's been weeks that like this March has been the first month. I think that I would say I was profitable.
00:28:41
Speaker
Right. and And on paper. Right. Which is good. um So that's five months or six months of no profit. That's very stressful, but it's a different stress. I'm glad you said that, though, because like, you know, in our school group, there's twelve hundred people in there. How many people are coming in and people are probably sitting in the back? There's so many. i guarantee you there's probably three or four hundred of them that are sitting in the background just watching all of our comments and our stories and everything else.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah. But. I went the same thing. So August, it's not the same thing. It's vastly different. But August, my wife quit her job and came home.
00:29:20
Speaker
Last year, right? Yeah, last year in August. We had our best year last year. We did $242,000 last year in gross revenue. Insane. For real. like I never thought that would be anywhere near that as a mobile freaking mechanic. A quarter million dollars, basically.
00:29:37
Speaker
you know but i have Now, that let's not everyone that's listening get fucking twisted here. i have a lot of expenses. i spend i'm'm a I spend too much money. I buy absorbent things when it comes to my business, things I don't need.
00:29:51
Speaker
But I like having cool stuff. My truck is not. You don't need to buy a new truck. That's a stupid thing. But I needed a tax write off in 23. There you go Big time. Otherwise, I'm going to pay the IRS a bunch of money. I'd rather buy it. We don't want to do that.
00:30:06
Speaker
So anyway, that's and another story for another day. But um I was used to $25,000 a month. she comes home and not until this month did we have a month where I think maybe one or two months we broke 20 grand.
00:30:24
Speaker
Well, now I've got her payroll. for her working with us. Yep. The tax burden of payroll tax. And an employee. People don't understand. hu Yeah, as an employee. With an employee, yeah.
00:30:36
Speaker
So that's my company has to pay. yeah And she's, so now I'm paying that. Because you can waive that as a business owner, single member, right? In Florida, you can kind of waive a lot of that.
00:30:48
Speaker
know. you don't have any other employees. So I don't know. I don't know the tax stuff with that. But yeah, I'm talking just the loaded cost of, you know, FUTA, Medicare or Social Security, all that stuff.
00:31:02
Speaker
We have to pay the percentage. So she pays a percentage out of her paycheck. My company has to pay it. Same with my paycheck. I still yeah have to do that stuff. And that's a lot of things where people don't realize that the expense for owning a company is just as high if you run a mobile service right where you got all these people online. They're like, Oh, you got no overhead. This company costs me a lot of money. It costs me 12 grand a month to run.
00:31:25
Speaker
Well, think about it. That's with more insurance than most shops have because we're mobile. No, I don't know. I think it's more, but like it's still the million dollar coverage and everything else. why but But I mean, four different insurances. We have four. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, so like it's it's yeah, it's not apples to apples. Right. Dollar amounts can be there. Yeah. Like I get my truck, my trailer, my tools. We're exactly guys there. They're having it on a building. So maybe the cost amount would be maybe. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know the exact breakdown, but.
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, going in going back to like you know that stress level, these past few months have been, in since August to now, have been
Financial Management and Business Viability
00:32:07
Speaker
insanely difficult. Because I was supposed to go to ASTA last year.
00:32:11
Speaker
I couldn't go to ASTA. um My daughter is getting married. She's getting married in December. I'm paying for that. That's I got 20 grand to pay on that still. Right. I have to pay for that and I have to pay cash. I'm not putting anything on credit cards.
00:32:25
Speaker
So between that, her coming home and us losing that income. I was at my wits end for a long time and I'm like, man, this is sucky, but we got through it and it's been fine.
00:32:37
Speaker
I had some savings that I did have to tap into every other month or so, but then it kind of went back up and down up and down and it was fine. We got through Christmas. I spent too much on Christmas as always.
00:32:48
Speaker
It just, you know, we got through But yeah, that taking that leap is huge. So like i I get what you mean, like six months, no profit. That's how it was. There was no profit for a while for us until this month. We did good. We broke 26,000 this month. I mean, so yeah. And and what I remember looking at March.
00:33:07
Speaker
the second By the second week of March of this year, i had already made my – basically, of course, starting out for six months. Major expenses. I'm making more every month, right? Yeah. so Scale, growth. Which is good, which is good. yeah But so February, the end of February, what I made gross gross um the entire month of February, i hit that by the second week of March. And I was like – Oh, shit. honestly, like, I was like, yeah man. And so it was I was telling my wife about this. She was like, man, you're really stressed out. And in March, she was telling me this.
00:33:41
Speaker
And she's like, why? And I couldn't figure it out. And I realized that towards the end of March, I said, I've been for the past five months. I've had no money. Right. Per se. Yeah. but The businesses were floating. But that's it.
00:33:52
Speaker
Now I'm making money. And I'm like, Oh, I gotta, I gotta do something with this, you know? yeah And, and it was a whole different stress level. So it's yeah funny, like you think the business when you're just breaking even is stressful and it it very much is. But then when you have like, you look at it and you go,
00:34:11
Speaker
oh, we we just made a lot. We just made money. Like now what? You know, I hope next month I make money. Exactly. Because you're not like, oh you know, I got to that's so I had a guy comment the other night um when I had put my end of month video out talking about the revenue and profit margins and this and that.
00:34:28
Speaker
It was a good month in revenue, but it wasn't a great month in average per RO. Sure. The average per RO dollar was good, but the hours sold per ROs was not great. That was pretty low.
00:34:39
Speaker
There's a lot of work to be done there. There's still a lot of growth that we have to do as far as our way of running the company together now that she's here. So we do suffer in ways, but um i don't remember where I was going with that.
00:34:55
Speaker
But the the whole that whole process is just, what were we talking about? I think profit like during the month and have oh so i think i talking mentioned in something. He's like, Oh, you know, 26 grand, but you know, 15 net, you know, where does that go?
00:35:11
Speaker
It goes into the company. Like yeah the company has to run. So I told him, I said, it's not about, Oh no, he said, what's your overhead. I go overhead has done to do with it, man. Right.
00:35:21
Speaker
Overhead is included. We have, and this goes back to how Cecil Bullard does stuff. Um, the way he puts the percentages out. I've put videos out about that as well, talking about how he does it. you know So at the end of the month,
00:35:36
Speaker
We take a distribution. We have a net. We have a certain percentage that should be with our um fixed expenses, a certain percentage for our front end staff, my wife, you know a certain percentage of our sales, of our cogs, um and and our expenses on those you know cogs and everything else.
00:35:56
Speaker
All of those percentages should add up. So at the end of the month, it's a zero-based budget. So that way you say, okay, this is how much I want to net. So this is how much I need to make in revenue for the month.
00:36:09
Speaker
Right. That's how, you know, we come up with those numbers, but he was just like, so when people say that, like, oh, you know, you, you did this much, but like your overhead is too much or your overhead is nothing. Like, why are we even having that discussion? Like, it doesn't matter either way.
00:36:26
Speaker
So like you're – I'm sorry. So my point being of that is you were saying like, oh, I made a lot. So now what do I do? Freaking hold it. Yeah, absolutely. You hold it. Right. And you wait until the next month. And okay, this month's good. I'm a hold it. And then this month's good. I'm going to hold it.
00:36:40
Speaker
And then you're going to start making yourself – multiple different accounts. You're going to have a sinking fund, which is, you know, sinking fund is where you put, you store a couple of percentage of money for upgrades and things that you can do cash, new scanner, new tool, new trailer, new whatever, or, or repairs. However, you're going to decide on that sinking fund if it's where your repairs come from, but that's where,
00:37:07
Speaker
You know, all of those net profits for the company go into those funds. So that way you can scale and you can grow because you don't get to where we are by just spending it all.
00:37:20
Speaker
You know, I went so many years not one but with having to use credit cards and this and that and doing all those things. We're paying debt. I got a lot of debt to pay from all of the years when I had my lawn service and we made no money when the kids were young.
00:37:33
Speaker
i That's why I went to the lawn service. That's why I left the industry. I got tired of working six days a week, 10 hours a day, and for somebody else, and making pennies. I was only making like 52 grand a year.
00:37:45
Speaker
Right. That's horseshit. I'm not doing that anymore. So and cut grass for the same dollar amount just so I could see my kids and we could go to Disney World every weekend. Yeah. That's what we did for yeah years.
00:37:58
Speaker
And now it's my time to get rid of all that debt and do all those stuff. But anyway, so going back. So that was your your stress level when you started out. Is there anything you would change in that beginning timeframe or?
00:38:12
Speaker
As far as? Like this six months, anything you did in this six months you would change? Six months of being in in business? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:38:22
Speaker
It's kind of hard because I'm still very, very, you know, in the infancy stage. um I don't I don't think so. had a lot. I would only have one. Huh? I would only have one for the listeners.
00:38:34
Speaker
OK, yeah, we know please. There's the time frame on when you went on your own. It's the month that you went on your own. You went at the hardest month. yeah Hey, I asked you. You're the one that told me to go. Well, because you've been doing it for two fucking years, and I was tired of listening to you bitch about it. So will say, will say, back to that. So one of the big questions you asked me, because I have kids in family, you were like, being in October, you're like, do have a Christmas fund for obviously kids? Do you have a little bit of emergency fund? All of those things. So I will asked you all that?
00:39:05
Speaker
You did ask me how it actually. um I don't remember yesterday, bro. I don't remember five minutes ago. yeah talking about that because we talk to it We were talking about like family a little bit and stuff. And I, you know, and you mentioned Christmas fun for the kids and all that, you know? um So I remember. Yeah.
00:39:20
Speaker
i remember yeah Sorry, kids. um yeah Yeah. For Christmas, we're all going to work. oh Yeah. But ah yeah, so I will i will say, but my my idea was tax season. I wanted to get in the on my own and be moving for tax season. So I didn't want to wait till January and be behind the ball.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah. Another reason I was. OK, that's a really good point to make because that makes sense. Yeah. It's the hardest time of the year to start, but you built a name. You built a client list. You did the marketing that we helped you with and told you. Right, exactly. You deal with the bull crap on Facebook, but it worked.
00:39:56
Speaker
You've been in business six months. You're making a profit, and you're moving forward. That was the the gamble of do I quit in October and and run the holidays with – but I was also home for the holidays more, you know so I could make my own schedule. I did work Christmas Eve. My wife is very mad, but anyway. Yeah.
00:40:11
Speaker
So she's like, you got to be kidding me. um But I was able to get my foot in the door. You know, I had by by time tax season came, I had four or five months of Facebook posts. And ah we know how that works. You know, it repeats itself and stuff. Yeah.
00:40:25
Speaker
So I think it's a it's a very important gamble depending on each lifestyle. You know, again, my my my current lifestyle, I was OK. going a few months without having a consistent paycheck, you know?
00:40:37
Speaker
And so I was trying to get ahead the head of the ball for taxes. And that's good. That's, that's another thing that most of these guys aren't really understanding either is if you're, if you're in a tremendous amount of debt, you need to be careful on what you're doing.
00:40:52
Speaker
You need to, you need to be doing this. And you know, I was told this ah by an old boss of mine, man. He was awesome, dude. His name was Frank. He got, he passed away.
00:41:03
Speaker
That man smoked more cigarettes than I freaking smoked. um I used to smoke two packs a day, and that guy smoked more. Yeah, you quit though, you? Yeah, like almost 10 years ago. Nice.
00:41:14
Speaker
What a quitter. Some days I wish I did just so I wouldn't be crazy. now My brother's on day nine of no no ah dipping, so I'm dealing with that. oh I tell you, the first time I quit, I quit for a year.
00:41:28
Speaker
i had one drink. I started smoking the next day. The second time I quit, took me another six months to get off it. Now I can smell a cigarette from a mile away and I will be the biggest Nazi smoker in the world and yell at you. I can't stand the smell of it. Drives me up a wall.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah. um But anyway, what were we talking about? um Seriously, what were we talking about? Oh, well, I was talking about... um Six months in business. Oh, ah quitting your job and in...
00:41:55
Speaker
um having, don't know, your lifestyle when you quit a job and being in the right spot because, I don't know, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, so if guys are out there you know going to start, don't be in a ton of debt and be like, oh yeah, I'm going to go do this and just quit your job. Like you need to be, oh, so yeah, Frank, he he told me, he's like, listen, man, you you need to you need to prove it. You need to get out there and start doing some stuff on the side.
00:42:20
Speaker
You know, this was way before I went mobile. I think right before he died, he got to see what I built in a way, uh, wasn't as big as I am now, but he was able to see it.
00:42:33
Speaker
Um, but I don't think, i don't know how much he realized it cause he was, he was pretty sick. Uh, but, uh, yeah, he said, you know, get out there and, and prove the concept, prove your name.
00:42:45
Speaker
And then you can slowly move into Cause that's what he did. And he had a big shop down there in port St. Lucy. Um, it was called treasure coast auto repair. I mean, he owned so many buildings from over the years. he He would work at night after the dealership, and he knew these guys that I was telling you about before at the dealer because that's where he worked.
00:43:07
Speaker
And then over the years, he changed and you know built his shop. But, man, dude always had wads of cash on him, you know just having a big shop like that. you know But i don't I couldn't do the shop thing, man. I don't want the employee stress level. oh I don't know how shitty of an employee I was. I don't want have to do that.
00:43:24
Speaker
Yeah. But um so. How what do you deal with in um being new into the field? Like because you've come to me before and I get this question a lot.
00:43:40
Speaker
How do you deal with non paying customers? Have you run into people that when you're done with the job, they're like, I'm not paying you. Does that happen? OK, in six months. No, I haven't had it happen one time. Doesn't matter.
00:43:54
Speaker
I will say, what would was that? It doesn't fucking happen. No, it I don't see where people, now, I'm not a very, I'm a very nice person, but, um, I can be very intimidating at times, too, and I don't mean that in a rude way, but, like, I'm sorry, but I'm getting my money, right? Like,
00:44:11
Speaker
Um, and I don't mean that in an unprofessional manner, but yeah, but I'm not leaving it until I get paid. Yeah. This is my business, you know? And so, but I don't think i don't come across that way. So I think it's the general respect and the, the way I handle it. I'm very professional. I'm very respectful. yeah And the other thing is, is I honestly truly feel it's tech metric.
00:44:34
Speaker
I've had tech metric the entire time that I've been full time. I use square when I was part time. And I think that's very important because it was very low cost. but When you can send someone a professional estimate that requires their signature and all of that, like I tell i get people all the time, a guy today, he goes, he was looking at his phone as he paid me. He's like, oh man, this is awesome. This is so professional. I really think it makes a big difference versus, yeah, man, I take Cash App, I take Zelle, like which I do.
00:45:01
Speaker
But, yeah you know, i think sending them an actual legit estimate or invoice or whatever truly changes the mentality. Like, I'm not a fly-by-night. I'm not working out of the back of a Corolla. Like, whatever. Like, I'm a legit company. And no offense to the guy that is working out of a Corolla. No, We all start somewhere, but we're talking about professionalism here. And that's when you do only cash deals, and that's when you only – sorry, I don't take card. like That's when you do that.
00:45:28
Speaker
But when you're legit, like it it makes a difference. Like, oh, man, this man is standing in front of me with ah a put-together together trailer, and he sent me a legit invoice. and all of You're not going to get those customers that want to do that. They're going to see the paperwork you send to them, and they're going to be like, I'm moving on to somebody else that I can work over. Because even the ones that do try to work us over, we can tell on the phone, and we're like, nope, we're not doing that job. I was to say, yeah, turn your light on. Yeah, sorry, it's getting dark. umm you know Seven kids, I'm trying to find a quiet spot. That's why outside, if you guys are wondering. My wife didn't pick me out. I got seven kids. um ah so Yeah, that's the thing. is they just
00:46:03
Speaker
You're not going to get that cheap customer when you show professionalism. Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah. And another thing with that, you've taught this is your prices. So if you're only searching for the cheap customers, you're only going to get them. A lot of people and I deter people with my with my um labor rate and stuff. A lot of people are like, ah, that's too expensive. OK, have a good day. You know, thank you for your your business or thank you. appreciate you reaching out to me. But typically when once because of your so your labor rate and all of that, Once you get the customer, they they usually know they're they're paying for something. you know yeah I'm not showing up for for a $20 job, right? And so I think that helps a lot too. But I truly feel it's TechMetric. It's the professionalism of the invoice and the estimate.
00:46:47
Speaker
It is big time because it it shows. so again, like you just said, it it's all about what kind of clientele you chasing? What kind of clientele are you looking for?
00:46:58
Speaker
i'm not So the the people online that are constantly asking, how do you deal with customers that don't want to pay? don't see where they get those. They've either heard the horror story or and someone's saying it all the time. But six years in, I've i've never, I've never once had. I only have one customer that did a charge back.
00:47:17
Speaker
And that customer came back and paid me three months later what got charged back. It wasn't supposed to be. Yeah, he had theft on his card.
00:47:28
Speaker
So they canceled all six of the charges that he had, and I was one of those. Okay. okay um So I filed the things, and I got mad. And I was like, dude, what the shit? Like, it's all signed. I lost the case because of my own stupidity on how I did things in TechMetric at the time, right which I have since learned fixed. Yeah, you teach that now.
00:47:47
Speaker
And – He was like, I'm so sorry. I'll pay you. It took him three months to get his money back from the the bank and everything. But when he did, he he called me. He's like, here.
00:47:58
Speaker
And he took care of it. And it was no problem. So, right yeah, I don't know. um All right. So some other stuff that people ask all the time –
00:48:08
Speaker
How do you deal – like when it rains, we live in Florida. Summertime is coming. you know yeah You might not have had to deal with it yet, but like you know me, people ask all the time, how do you deal with it? I freaking work, or I wait it out for a couple of minutes. it just You know many times I got rained on because you know when you work at a shop, you still have to go out and get the vehicle, and – At a dealership, and it can be 10, 15 acres worth of parking lots. i don't know what square footage that is, you know, but I'm come in the country, so I say acres. um You know, and I'm sorry we don't have fancy umbrellas. So, like, you get wet, and I'm sorry it's a lifestyle. It's just like the other guys who work out in the snow. I would never do it. To me, he rain is rain. Now, we know Florida, when it starts rainy season, it it might rain for 10 minutes. It might rain for, um...
00:48:56
Speaker
you know Five hours, but it's part of it. We take it as it comes. There's nothing to change about it. have a big umbrella. I am actually working on trying to get some sort of rollout canopy. I don't want the ones with the pop-up.
00:49:10
Speaker
think we were talking about it. I don't want – yeah. i So there's one on there's one on Amazon yeah that – Similar to like an RV where it just rolls out the sides. yeah And I just actually, so I was talking to Jason about this um when we were doing our podcast. the ah just So anyway, this guy, he um the the guy with the 53 panel where I was heading to yesterday, um he's got a trailer that's like that. It rolls out.
00:49:36
Speaker
The legs either go down or they go to the trailer. Now, his is on the side because it's a camper style. Right. I don't want the side. I want the back. I want on the back. have found and one back on there.
00:49:47
Speaker
So when you open the doors, you can swing it out and then the arms come back to the trailer to hold it out just to cover it because I pull cars right up to my trailer. And I i't do the same thing.
00:49:58
Speaker
Like, yeah, because you got, you know, same style strip trailer, but... um Because the umbrella, when it's at the trailer, water drips in on my tools and on my AC machine. yeah So i have to have the umbrella over it. But either way, it's little things like that that we figure out to make the world work, and it you know works really well. I look at it like and there's – especially in Florida, how many industries – I mean lawn service is that one of the biggest industries in Florida.
00:50:24
Speaker
They don't go out of business. You know, you just either you work in the rain or you work around the rain. OK, there was one time I did have to reschedule because it was a torrential downpour. And I looked at the map and it was gonna be all day. And the customer, I mean, if you're going mad at me because I'm canceling from a thunderstorm, then I don't want you as a customer anyways. You know, yeah, I used to cut grass. mean, yeah it's it's what it is I cut grass as a profession and I worked through the rain. My dad owned a lawn service my entire life. Every summer, every day off from school, we worked. And if it was raining, we were working in it. and we still worked out Got in the truck soaking wet.
00:50:58
Speaker
Next job, got out and kept working. yeah So there's just a different mentality. People that want to work or don't want to work. But. And like again, I think it goes back to the snow. Like you wouldn't catch me alive working in snow. If I lived in the Rust Belt, I'd be an office worker. I would work in a building somewhere behind a cubicle and I would be a million pounds because I wouldn't stop eating. Exactly.
00:51:19
Speaker
um Any other like anything else with customers or like being mobile that like you've learned that kind of drives you nuts a little bit?
Overcoming Mobile Mechanic Stigma
00:51:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Being mobile. ah So until I started my company,
00:51:32
Speaker
you know, a year ago, cause I've been in technically a business a year, the stigma around mobile mechanics. I did not know. I was just talking about it. Yeah. Oh my God. So I take, and I'm maybe there's a lot of people out there, but I take a lot of pride in my ASCs, my GM training when I had it, like the experience, like the professionalism of automotive service. I take a lot of pride in that. I really do. And I'll crack jokes, but I really do. So I was like, man, I'm going to take all of this. Wow.
00:52:01
Speaker
The old GMT-800. I'm going to take all of this and I'm going to take it to the mobile world. And then when I got out here, I'm like, oh, man. Like.
00:52:12
Speaker
Like, they're like, oh, F you, you're just a mobile guy. Like one, one guy saw me at my same snap on truck. I go to, he just saw the sticker on my truck because i I use the same guy now that I let, even though I left. And I guess he started talking, talking crap to the snap on dealer. And I've known him for years and he's like, no, no, no, shut that down. Like we're not doing that. I just didn't know the stigma. So yeah, that's very frustrating when you're trying to be very professional and do things the right way.
00:52:36
Speaker
The stigma of autumn of the mobile side is a big pet peeve of mine. and yeah mine too. And I can say it's gotten worse. Cause like, yeah. In all of my training um or my coaching stuff, or no, it's not real coaching. It's just, you know, I help guys coaching. You're, you do know great. I appreciate it. Yeah. But I'm not charging nobody for that shit. And I don't want to, because that's what I don't want. There's so many people that are making money off the backs of us mobile mechanics with their platforms and things that yeah I don't, I don't think it's right, but that's story for another day.
00:53:08
Speaker
Um, The it's gotten worse. So like and that's so what I was getting at is in my school group, I teach people to utilize Facebook in a way that is for free, but and we mimic it off of how like direct mailers work.
00:53:25
Speaker
It's harder now. It is definitely harder. When I started doing that, there was nobody posting what I was posting in my area, at least. i And now when I do it, when someone says they need a mechanic, within an hour, there's 50 people asking a question. yep Yep. It's insane. like i don't Or not asking a question, saying themselves, call me, call me, or just posting their business name. Yep. Yep.
00:53:51
Speaker
Okay, when I used to do it, there was maybe two or three of us doing it. So that's, I would say I got lucky on the timeframe that I started, but it still is proving to work because I still stand out. So like even now, when I look at my Facebook stuff,
00:54:08
Speaker
If someone asks that, I still put mine with what I say, what you know the the whole thing, like my warranty, why we stand out above everybody else, a warranty when we're open, um and that we bring the shop right to you, and then I put a picture of the trailer open.
00:54:26
Speaker
My business page gets more clicks and views off of that than anything else, over all those 50 people that are doing it. So I get it when all the guys in the school and everything are like, oh man, there's just too many people.
00:54:41
Speaker
You're not being consistent enough and you're not standing out above the rest. There's a million restaurants down the road, but there's a new one popping up here and a new one popping up here. And there's all these other businesses. And then there's a new one popping up here. Do you think they're worried about that competition? No, stop worrying about everybody else and do yourself. Now, going back to what you were saying, I can't stand. And I was just talking about this on Jason's podcast.
00:55:06
Speaker
I can't stand that. they're mobile They keep classifying mobile mechanics as everybody else. and And it's not going to change. It's making me sound like one of these other freaking idiots that are in the world. But if most people would just look at the technician as a whole, they would understand the difference. Because, again, I'll say i'm probably say this on every freaking podcast I film.
00:55:31
Speaker
A mobile mechanic is no different than a mechanic in a building. That's correct. are the same person that works in the dealer or an independent shop. We just got tired of the atmosphere we were in and we built our own area of a place to be to help people as best as we possibly can and charge real dollar amounts for it.
00:55:54
Speaker
we're not making the money we're making by charging $50 to, and giving back diagnostic fees. There's no way I would make over 200 grand a year doing shit like that. That's not how it is.
00:56:05
Speaker
And, and just so everyone knows, 200 grand a year does not include anything on social media. I have not. I make barely 400 bucks or so a month on YouTube, and that's not even counted in any of that crap that I do or on my my business when I talk about those numbers. None of it is included in that.
00:56:26
Speaker
um But they they need to be looking at the person that's posting online online. And stop saying, oh, mobile mechanics are junk. Mobile mechanics are this. No, that mechanic is not good because that same mechanic that is not good here probably got fired from that shop over there.
00:56:43
Speaker
And now you're he's calling himself a mobile mechanic. Right. Stop classifying a real business with that stigma. It's never going to change. We're never going to change it.
00:56:54
Speaker
but I'm still going to fight it till I'm blue in the face. And I'm always going to say it because I will change people's minds. Some of them, the things that I'm doing will change some people. And if I can keep some people's minds changed and help the safety of others right by educating like Matt,
00:57:14
Speaker
that That kid was a freaking problem. You know, we tried to help him. He was not someone to help. He just doesn't care. So he's gone. It doesn't matter. But there's people like that that just they want to ride the coattails of everybody else. And then and then i mean, like I said, the other one, there's there's a there's a customer for everybody.
00:57:35
Speaker
You can keep those ones over there for that guy, but there's no regulation. There never will be regulation on this. You can't do it. Even the shops don't get regulated. They only get regulated by the county and the city that they're in on their zoning and all that other crap. That's the only regulations they have to deal with. They still don't. And now this is not for every state. and We're just talking Florida here.
00:57:55
Speaker
um You know, while there's no way to regulate the quality of the repair. And that's fine because I don't want the government stepping in. That's not what I'm saying here. I'm just saying in general, the guy that you hire off of Facebook that's like, yeah, I'll come and do it for you is not the guy you want working on your car. That took me like 10 minutes to say, but you guys understand that's who I am. I rant and I go on circles, but – So we've been on quite a bit here, so we're going get moving soon. So one last main question for you.
00:58:28
Speaker
You've only been doing it six months, but you've been thinking about this and planning this for a long time and and watching me and everything else. Yep. If two people were to come and get into the mobile world, one that is young, has never worked in a building before versus a guy like us that has been doing it 5, 10, 15 years before they went out.
00:58:50
Speaker
What, who should do it? Who should not? And what would be the first thing you tell them to do? So I would say, i would say the person who's new, don't go on your own yet.
00:59:02
Speaker
Yeah, never. Right? Never. and And I don't, and I don't mean that you have to be a master mechanic. That's not what I'm talking about. You can go get ah a year or two in the industry. um I think it's important to stay in your lane, right? So whether you, if you're, if you're at a dealer or a different shop and you've got three years in and you're really good at breaks and suspension and steering and oil changes, and you want to go do that mobily, I think that's great.
00:59:26
Speaker
It's a good idea, you know, stay in your lane. But if, and this is where the individual you mentioned has zero real world experience. If you do not know how the mainstream industry works, You can't create your own image of it.
00:59:44
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And there is. and even though the shops and the dealers, we know, you know, scams or the dealerships or whatever, but there still is SOP for automotive, right? Standard operation and procedure of how it's supposed to be for the most part. Yeah. If you don't know, you know, how the industry works, right?
01:00:04
Speaker
You you're not going to be successful in business or you're going to continue to stay at the bottom. So I would say you need some sort of experience. um I remember i wanted to go years ago. I wanted to go to UTI, which is a big automotive school here in Florida, whatever. Right. And i remember my goal. I told the counselor, whoever they were, that I wanted to go in an open my own shop after I graduated and he says, I recommend you go in the industry five years first. And I was offended. I was so mad. i was like, what do you mean? Five years. And I'm telling you my fifth year in the industry, I remember the conversation. I was like, I know less now than I, you know, like it. And you thought you did. Yeah. Yeah. Right. it Yeah. The five years it took me in the industry. So I would say,
01:00:50
Speaker
if With those two people, the guy who's got 10, 15 years in, as long as you're a decent mechanic and you and you're not full of yourself, absolutely go for it. You know the industry enough to where you can make your own company out of it. Yeah. The new the new guy gets some sort of experience. I don't care if it's a tires plus or a lube place. Just get – take five. i don't I don't like them. But some real-world experience of a nine-to-five in a shop, how it works, you know um or some yeah Training, yes. And will say that the dealership, I mean, I love that. i got so much training, real world experience training.
01:01:29
Speaker
it falls into, so like the next um the next person that I'm going to have on, our friend, Johnny. He's not... a right. He's never been in a building before.
01:01:43
Speaker
Right. Right. Okay. You know, easy I don't, yeah I don't think um if I remember his story, right. He's, he's a full fledged business now, but Johnny stays in his lane.
01:01:54
Speaker
Johnny will not take a job that he knows can do damage to the car, do damage to himself or hurt that customer. And I think so that's to be a good interview because you're going to get,
01:02:07
Speaker
It's a different perspective than and what that you should do it until you have experience. Johnny did it and he's doing it. How is he successful? But that's the thing. Johnny is going out and doing it, but he calls us and yeah he asks he yeah asks questions the questions and he does not.
01:02:26
Speaker
So that's the thing. Like we can say, i agree with what you said very much. Like, I don't think, and I tell people in the group all the time, uh, Oh, I'm, I'm 19 and I'm, I'm doing this. Nope.
01:02:38
Speaker
Nope. Like Johnny granted. He was, he was, he's like everybody else. He was, he called himself a shade tree. He was working for family, but he had been doing it for a lot of years and he does have a lot of knowledge.
01:02:49
Speaker
He's, very yeah smart when it comes to it. He knows how to diagnose. He knows how to fix cars. He knows ADOS. He knows those things. But Johnny is like, That's out of my realm.
01:03:00
Speaker
Ma'am, you're not getting charged for this. I suggest you take this here because that is outside my scope and I don't want there to be a problem. And that's a huge thing for people to do. So many people are too afraid to admit they can't do it. Exactly. admit they misdiagnose or something like that. I've got videos coming out in a week of me misdiagnosing something very stupidly, and it would be funny to watch. but So that's the thing is like –
01:03:26
Speaker
I think that in my world, I have changed people's minds on what they thought about mobile mechanics. And you know who I'm talking about. i'm not mentioning those names right now, but because we've spoken about it before, but it's the same thing. Look, Johnny is changing our mind on that as well, because I was the same. I am the same way. Not was I am. I, I still tell people that are going to get started. No, dude, you need to go get training something. And, but I can't change what they're to All I can do is help guide. So Johnny,
01:03:55
Speaker
is doing things legit. We got Johnny legit. We got Johnny into tech metric. We got him into service information. We helped him with these products. And we have been now, like, again, let's not get it to us. We are not the biggest diagnostic technicians in the world here, but we're not dumb. We know how to do this and we have helped him through all that. So he's getting that firsthand training and he's lucky enough in a way to have that because imagine what someone like that could eventually do to somebody or something that, and like I was talking about it with Jason, like, you ADOS people don't know, like
Self-Improvement and Industry Experience
01:04:32
Speaker
don't take bumpers off. Don't do this. Don't do that.
01:04:34
Speaker
Cause when Johnny calls and he's like, Oh yeah, like I got this. And I'm like, this is what you have to do. Right. I'm going to hold back on that. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stick to this and this is what I'm going to do. But Johnny, up He gets online, he watches Skinner Danner, he does all those things, and he's actively always trying to do himself better. So that's like, he again, he's like the unicorn of that world when we talk about that. And I guess it's just as much, as hard as it is in the industry, if you're going to choose to do that, you're going to have to be extremely diligent and really check every block. And like, because you're getting real world training on the spot with zero experience, you know, and and we know how that can be. And so... if you're If you're just dead set on doing that, you're going to have to be even more diligent. Because me like I come from – I did everything at the dealership, and I mean everything except for diesels and transmissions as far as diagnosing and tearing apart, right? Like pulling dashes, pulling engines. But as much – and I did it on the daily at the dealer.
01:05:38
Speaker
I probably only do 50% of Now, because depending on the vehicle or the location, it's not as comfortable or it's not as easy. I have to be able to say i know how to do that. But in this moment, in this um situation, it's not professional for me to do that. Yeah. you know And we're because we're just not at that.
01:05:58
Speaker
Right. Our, so our setup is not there. I'm i'm sorry, but not going to pull your engine with a crane on the back of my trailer in your driveway. Like I'm just, you know, i I did engines and trainees all day long. Like I got one out front and got put a transmission in it, but that's a, it's a warranty one though. And that's probably the last one I'll ever do just because I don't want to do that. I don't need to, but to the guys that are doing this mobily that do that, there's a guy on YouTube that literally does clutches constant all day in like really the United Kingdom or something that on his back.
01:06:28
Speaker
Listen, everybody could do it. I'm not saying no one can do it, but know your spot and everything else. It doesn't even matter. It's like it's like talking about anything. there's ah There's an argument for everything, and there's a counter argument, and everyone's going to have an opinion, and that everyone's opinion is always going to be right and wrong.
Conclusion and Reflection
01:06:45
Speaker
And that's why i asked, because I want people's opinions, because I want to change as many people's minds as possible, because... Like I said, i I think you should be educated yeah before you touch a car, but I can't change everyone's mind.
01:06:58
Speaker
But I hope that everyone does it kind of like Johnny does. He yeah does get the training and he does ask the questions and he doesn't do shit that he shouldn't do. And that's one of the biggest problems. Yes.
01:07:11
Speaker
In our entire mobile world as people are doing shit they shouldn't do. Yeah, taking anything and everything. Or they're giving away free work and that's dumb. um Yeah, it's retarded. Anyway, that's going to wrap it up for us here tonight. So Chris, man, thank you very much for being on. It was a pleasure.