Meet Eric Svedberg

Could see us on Chatter Social, see how funny I look. We're live. Okay, so first of all, thank you, Eric, for your patience because we are multi-streaming live and we are live on Chatter Social with a few people in the room. So I'm very excited. Bobby and Gilead, so thank you guys for being here. And Eric, have you ever done a podcast before where you had a live audience, not just the host?

I have not.

I'm your first.

Yeah. So that's exciting.

And you'll always remember your first.

That's right.

Okay, so welcome to Adrienne Barker Speaks. No prep needed. I don't know who he is. You guys think I do, but I really, truly don't. I just match us on PodMatch. So I know Eric is from PodMatch, which I love that program. If you haven't used it yet, let me know, right, Eric? It's a fabulous program.

It is. And that makes two of us because I don't know you either.

Yeah, we did. Yeah, he doesn't know me either. He doesn't know my 26 positive reviews. And hopefully I get like 27 5-star reviews. So it gets me one. Okay. Anyways, you guys, brave, right? Eric is brave, bold, brilliant, and really good looking, right? Like, just take a second. Oh, if you're on— if you're listening to this podcast, if you're— if you're listening, I apologize. Let me just describe him in one word. Anthem. Okay, so Eric, introduce yourself.

Making me blush.

Who is Eric? How do you say your last name?

Svedberg. Either a long E or short E, doesn't matter. So Svedberg or Svedberg, either way.

I'm going long.

Is that a cat?

Me, Eric.

Is that a cat behind you? Oh yeah, I saw something just You know, reaching out.

Look how cute she is. Okay, sorry. Thank you. Yes, it's Gabby. I want to know who you are. Who are you? Who's the guest I have?

Okay. Um, Eric Speedberg. I'm in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Uh, in my, um, I'm 50— in my 50s now. I've 30-plus years in the automotive repair business, um, and quite a few years coaching business owners. So I've been helping entrepreneurs, business owners, usually in the repair space, automotive repair space, but any service-based industry, and helping them, you know, make better profits, you know, hire better people, all that. I'm writing a book. I'm finishing that up now. Hopefully it'll be finished within a couple months. It's been a long journey with that. But yeah, it's a lot of fun. I enjoy doing it. I enjoy the business side. I enjoy the coaching side. I enjoy the writing side.

So, okay, Go Fuel Coaching, the idea of fuel and autos.

Yes.

Yep.

Or just fuel— or just fuel your tank for your business.

I like that. I love that. I love that you have a niche, you know your niche, you have experience in your niche, and that really makes a big difference. So, so funny, about 30 minutes ago my daughter had called me and she had a friend of hers in the car and her friend was telling me that she is going to automotive school. And I'm like, oh my God, you're gonna like, we need more women in that career. Am I right?

Oh yeah, 100%. We need a lot of people, men and women, but most definitely we need more females in the industry.

Go B, go B. That's so exciting. Her name is B. Absolutely love it when I heard that. So, okay, so you're, so what are some of the challenges that actually automobile repair collision shop would actually have?

Not collision. I do auto repair, so therefore mechanical, not collision. The biggest constraint that most automotive shops have right now is technicians. So it's kind of funny that your daughter's friend is going into that industry because I can't remember the exact number, but it's something like 80,000 automotive technicians, technicians short. In the country. So, um, the technicians we do have that are talented, that know what they're doing, uh, they can demand a very high wage.

Okay, this is so interesting to me. Is that because the tech schools have been— they're not— they're shutting down? There's not many tech schools that—

no, it's not that. It's, um, I'm a product of the '80s, so, you know, I graduated high school in '89. So my entire, you know, upper school, you know, middle school, high school, all we heard was, if you don't go to college, you're not going to have a good job. And that continued on for 20 more years. And so all these kids that maybe could have done very well going to a technical school and becoming a plumber or electrician or automotive technician and moved on to be, you know, be a business owner one day or a manager, you know, been able to support their family, make six figures. They went another direction. They were kind of led in a different direction.

That, that's really interesting. Growing up, I grew up in Meriden, Connecticut, and we did have a very big tech school right next to the high school. And, you know, just a lot of people going on with their careers in HVAC and all of that. So I love that. So that was my immediate thought. I would like to go back and ask you, why not collision? Is that something that's completely separate that you would have, you know, that that you wouldn't cover that part of it?

They're, they're definitely two different specialties. I grew up in the repair side, not the collision side. You usually don't mix the two in the same building because paintwork and bodywork doesn't like oil and grease and stuff like that. You would not have— you wouldn't have a great finish. And then the mechanical side doesn't like the dust or anything like that from the collision side. You don't want that getting into your engine. Internal parts. So usually you're always in separate buildings anyway. So, but I've always been in the repair side.

Okay, so I had no idea. So thank you for that. Just a little interesting tidbit that I want to know. So again, like the challenges that they are facing as far as a technician. So I love that. You're right. How is that? What is the answer to that? Is there a solution?

And Gilead and Bobby, if you have any questions, just like The solution is a long-term solution where we talk to kids at the high school level and tell them the opportunities. The solution is also trying to have apprenticeships or building your own tech from the ground up. Business owners, when they're doing that, it's a struggle because most small businesses need to make money off each employee so they're producing. And so when you're bringing someone in at that level and you're attaching that person to another person as an apprentice or something like that so they can learn, you're— you have the extra payroll, but you're not, you know, benefiting financially from that person. So many business owners are reluctant to do that, especially if they're a very small business and money is tight. Bigger businesses usually can, you know, absorb that a little bit better. I go and speak to technical schools, so they're doing everything they can. There's no simple solution because there's only certain people that want to go into a trade like automotive or HVAC or plumbing or something like that. You have to be mechanically minded. You have to have that type of mindset. They really have to have their eyes open to You know, it's not uncommon to make between $100,000 and $200,000 in that trade per year.

Okay, so that is really— this, this I find is so fascinating. What is the buzz regarding AI and the industry, the repair collision— I mean, the repair industry?

Well, are you talking from which aspect? The marketing, the sales, the production?

No, the marketing I could figure out because obviously there's There's plenty of ways. No, actually, like, is there talk about like robots coming in, putting your car— like, I, I'm thinking this, the whole system, right? That kind of, you know, making sure, double-checking. Yeah, I'd like to kind of get a feeling. And, and not just like, what is the buzz? What are they talking about? Are you having conversations around where AI can support the business and help, where AI could be a threat?

We're not having any conversations. I mean, there's some buzz at of AI being a threat, nowhere near that. I mean, we are so many years away from that. But AI to support the industry is today. So AI cannot replace a part on a car. You know, they—

it's—

there's no robots to do this. Um, you know, I'm not talking the manufacturing process, I'm talking about the repair process, the one I'm in. No robots are doing any of the work we do. Where AI fits is to assist in the repair process when it comes to the information, when it comes to language learning models, where you can go in and you can scrub databases and get the information quicker. So if a technician needs to know how to repair something or the technician needs to know certain specs, AI is definitely helpful in getting the information to us faster. Usually as time goes on, you have more cars, you have more years, you have more models, you have more engines, you have more everything, um, and you have to go and find the specific specification for what you're working on, where AI could take the VIN number and then go and grab it, and you could have it in a matter of seconds. So that's helpful. Also, it could give you exploded diagrams faster. So if you need a wiring diagram, if you need an exploded diagram for something you're trying to take apart and put back together, you know, whether it be timing chains or, or, you know, uh, high-pressure fuel pumps or something like that, AI can produce that for us.

That's interesting. So I'm thinking of your coaching in this industry, and you're looking like you're swatting it out. Like, so are you, are you coaching the— are you a coach doing I guess I would ask the question like a mindset coach, or are you literally a coach that's looking in and going, okay, we need to look at all your vendors and make sure that you are buying everything at the best price possible? Like, what, what does that look like for your coaching?

Not so much the vendor side, but, you know, it's almost all of the above. Mindset definitely has a lot to do with it because sometimes I need the, the person I'm working with to have the correct mindset. You know, a lot of times what we're starting off is creating, you know, a 1-year financial goal. Because why are you in business if you don't have a financial goal? There's a lot more to being in business than just money. But okay, let's be real, money's a huge part of it. So we set that goal and then we work with the theory of constraints. We find what the constraint is or the bottleneck. Some— most of the time the bottleneck might be the owner. Sometimes the bottleneck is marketing or sales or production, and then we solve the bottleneck and then move on. We also, or I also, teach a lot with regards to financials. So we're going over profit and loss statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, making sure that the owner understands that. You'd be shocked how many business owners have no idea how to look at financial statements and understand them. So that's a good core teaching that they need from the beginning. And we move from there.

What, what is your book about?

The book is about how if you turn a service-based industry more professional, you would have better customers, better employees, and better profits.

Okay. 100%. 100%. I love that. Okay. What do you have? Are you able to share the title?

Yeah. I, well, I have a book, book coach and, you know, I, I've had this title in my mind for quite a while. I presented it to him last week and he said he liked it, but he was going to, you know, sign off probably this coming week for sure. So I was going to call it The Professional Advantage and then I have a subtitle.

So I love that. I love, I love that you have a book coach. And I love— is your goal— what is your goal with the book?

Well, you know, when you write a book, um, some people call it the book is the hook. So, you know, I'm not a New York Times bestseller. This will be my first book. And I'm not sure if you've seen that the average writer sells less than 50 copies of a book because there's so many books out there. So you don't necessarily write the book to make money. Now, if this becomes a New York Times bestseller, yeah, I'll take it. But I don't see that happening. But, you know, I can dream. So the book is the hook. So it gives you more recognition. I can give it away, I can sell it, I can, uh, use it to, um, get on more podcasts, I can get on more stages, I can give it to clients, um, all of the above. But the book is the hook.

I love that. Sorry, I'm not, I'm not, not concentrating you. I've just— Nula just joined us. On the stage. Hi, Nula. It's nice to have you here. I just saw you and I jumped in because every time I see you, I'll jump in because you're the best. Thank you so much. All right, so Nula, the guy that— it's hard to see in the— let me make this bigger. I just want to double check. Eric, you're not going to be mad at me, right? That's you. Is that you in the picture?

That's not me. No way. That's not me.

Oh my God. I'm like thinking to myself, wait, the hair is gray.

No, no, that's not me. No, they, they wanted a smiling shop owner on that. And so I didn't choose myself. We chose, you know, another photo for that one.

Interesting. Do you mind if I show off your website?

Yeah, sure.

Sure. All right. I, I don't know. I like looking at websites. Very clear too. Very clean.

I love it. This one was done based on StoryBrand. So if you're familiar with StoryBrand, um, no, the StoryBrand is a type of marketing, uh, but StoryBrand is also famous in all movies. So the StoryBrand concept is you have a hero and then the hero has a guide and the hero has a problem and the guide helps, you know, the hero solve the problem. And at the very end, you know, the hero is successful. So a good example of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's the hero. And his guide might be Obi-Wan Kenobi. And at the end, they blew up the Death Star, whatever that looks like. So this is a StoryBrand website where you walk the hero through the journey. And the hero for this website is any business owner or future coaching client. Whereas the hero in my automotive shop would be the customer. And then my, my, my, you know, employees for the shop would be the guide.

So this is you, right?

Yeah, that's me.

Okay. I love that. I love the hero in the story, which, by the way, you brought up Star Wars.

Yes.

Darth Vader. Yeah. I actually interviewed— well, I interviewed the guy that played Darth Vader 11 times for George Lucas, C. Andrew Nelson. I never even watched the Star Wars. I didn't even— I had to ask him during the interview because no prep needed. If Darth Vader was a good guy or a bad guy.

Oh my gosh, that was a really fun interview. You might be the only person in the United States of America that has not seen Star Wars.

I just, I just, I know, I just, I don't like sci-fi. Now I do, because like everything that I, like watching Star Wars and any of the sci-fi, I was like, no way, that's like, it's so out of reach. But now all of a sudden I'm like, no, life can, life is imitating. I mean, like The Jetsons. You know, that was a fun cartoon, but my gosh, I don't think we're that far away from that either.

Yeah, that's true.

What are you saying here? What is— I'm gonna play it for a second.

Owning an automotive shop can feel lonely, and honestly, it can be really hard. Most shop owners I meet want the same thing.

I don't think you can hear that like you should be hearing it, so I'm not gonna play it because I, I— you may have heard it, but more through the computer. It's supposed to be coming through. So, all right, I get— I love, I love this So you're talking to the business owner. It can be lonely and hard, dirty, grimy.

Not necessarily dirty and grimy, but, um, shop owner, uh, business owners feel like they're on an island by themselves. Um, they're the end-all be-all. All questions go to them. Um, they sometimes have no support system unless they go home and vent to their family. And all the employees come to them for questions and they feel like, you know, they have no backup. So when you have a coach in your corner, at least you have someone there to say, hey, you are making a great decision, or hey, have you thought about it this way instead?

I love it. That is a fabulous photo of you. Oh, thanks. That really is great.

That one's AI-generated and my girlfriend hates it. She said, you need to get rid of that. And I'm like, I like that one.

Is she pretty?

Yes.

Yeah. So she doesn't need AI. Well, tell her, for those of us that are not that pretty, AI is like miraculous. Like, I need AI. I guess I'm never happy with anything. I don't even like— so, yeah, but I totally get it. Okay. I want you to share with us your— like, I know it's up here, but go into a little detail of this because I'd like to know, because even though they may not have automotive. You may be listening to this. This is really a good example of a great website. And I like the twist right here. I love your first thing that you do that's unique. So would you mind sharing that with us and adding a little bit more to it?

Yeah, sure. So a lot of people say, hey, why are you different than other coaching companies? And so I will read that in just a second. But the reason they're asking is, what makes you different? And a lot of the other coaching companies have a bunch of videos they throw at you, a thousand spreadsheets they throw at you and just, you know, a bunch of homework and where I just, you know, I'll read, I get straight to the point because your time is valuable and my time is valuable. So, that's what a lot of people like when it comes to working with me as a Coach because we get right down to the problem and we solve the problem quickly if it can be solved or we have to take steps to solve the problem and we meet weekly. That's for my one-on-one clients. So, I only take 5 or 6 one-on-ones because it, you know, it's, I do other things with the rest of my time. Where I'm growing in 2026 is the group coaching call, which where I teach some type of model or system or framework and then Q&A. And we have a bunch of rockstar managers or owners on that call and it's a lot of fun and it's less expensive than one-on-one coaching. So people like that, they still get benefits. The second part is I quickly identify what's holding the person back I show the most efficient path forward. And finally, I focus on what will move the needle the fastest for their unique business needs. So whenever I work with a new client, sometimes their business needs help with marketing. Others, they are, you know, 3 weeks backed up with work, so they're needing help with production. They can't get the cars out fast enough. Some people have, you know, all the, you know, 2, 3 weeks worth of work and they can get the work out, but their salespeople stink and can't sell anything. So we have to work on sales. So, and some people need help with leadership. They're terrible at dealing with employees. They have too much employee turnover. They don't know how to deal with, you know, issues when they come up with their employees. So we work on leadership skills. And, you know, the final aspect is delivery, which means how you wow a customer. The final product and how you want to wow them so they come back and spend more money with you. And we work on that finally, if that's an issue.

This is so interesting. So I want to— I want to thank you, Lisa, for being here. Hello. Hello. If you guys can— Mike, I just— I want to ask a question of Bobby, Nuala, Gilead, and Lisa. If you had a choice, same amount of money, money was not the issue. You could either do one-on-one or group coaching. What would you choose, Bobby? Yeah, um, to tell you the truth, um, you know, I'm at the level to where I, I would probably be better off with one-on-one because all through my schooling, you know, was group, you know, group sessions. And, uh, you know, I'm ready for the next level. So, you know, there's a difference between group and one-on-one. I love that, Bobbi. Thank you so much. Gillian, are you able to answer? I think I like doing big groups. I like doing groups. I do do one-on-one kind of things in my job, but I do like the group. Awesome. Awesome. Uh, Lisa, are you able to unmute and respond? Yeah. Um, I think that if you take the financial part out of it, because you'd have to charge the same for to one person as you did for a group to make that make sense when it comes to scaling. If you take that part out of it, I would absolutely prefer one-on-one because I think your one-on-one interactions with people change as soon as you involve another second person to which they're saying it in front of. I think that the narrative changes when there's more than just a one-on-one. Wow, thank you, thank you, Lisa. Nuala? Most definitely group. I'd say small groups of around 12, and the reason for that is because other people get engaged in whatever it is you're talking about, and they feed into you as well, and they give you feedback from whatever background they're from.

So small group with maybe with a hot seat where one person gets coached one-on-one in front of everyone else so they're all learning, and they can also feedback. So yeah, definitely small groups.

Interesting. I thought maybe you'd get a kick out of that, Eric. I'm gonna break the tie 'cause that was a 2-and-2 tie. So I'm gonna break it saying 100% group. And I got that with, with the Fast Track program when I was with SCORE and we were doing these cohorts. You could do one-on-ones, but doing the group, just like you said, Nuala, people were asking questions that other people are like, oh, I never even thought of the question, or that's the question I had. I'm so glad you asked, or I wasn't even comfortable thinking. And there was so much sharing of the ideas that I myself would pick group. So thank you for playing the game with me. What do you think, Eric, after you heard that?

Yeah, for sure. It was, it was great. That was You know, tied 2 to 2, now 3 to 2. Um, the, it's a very different vibe from a coaching point of view, uh, one-on-one versus the group. Uh, in the group, sometimes I'll ask a question, we go around and get different answers. So that's always fun. Um, sometimes like, uh, Nuala said, I believe that there's a hot seat. So therefore we might take a certain issue, that, um, top of mind question that that person has, and then we unpack that. The one-on-one, two of my clients, um, each call, it's a couple, so husband and wife, you know, own the business. And so they're on the call, so it is three people on the call on those. It's a little different since it's husband and wife, but the call is different than the one-on-ones where it's just one person and me, because sometimes the husband, husband and wife start to bicker about things more than you think. The husband's not happy with the wife or the wife's not happy with the husband with whatever happens in the business that previous week. And then we, you know, sometimes I think I'm a marriage counselor when I have those situations because I do help, you know, work through them, work through the issues. That's for sure.

Definitely a lot of divorces. I'm not necessarily thinking divorce, divorce, like between a husband and wife, but just actually sometimes, you know, I grew up in a family business, a large family business, and You know, after years and you— and someone has to leave, they go, you let them go, whatever that looks like. It feels like a divorce, right?

It's sad.

Sometimes there's anger to it. All right, you didn't mention advisor coaching. So I see the one-on-one here. By the way, this is a nice looking website. It's clean, it's clear. Um, I, you know, I really— it's, it's, it's got a nice look to it, just FYI. What is advisor coaching?

So advisor coaching is something we— I was going to explore this year. I put on there just see if there was any interest. Um, the advisor is the service advisor. So the advisor is the person you would talk to when you drop your car off, or who gives you the estimate, or who calls you when it's ready. That's the service advisor. So that would be sales coaching, and that one's a hard one to sell because there's a saying, if you don't pay, you don't pay attention. So for the advisor to have this type of coaching, usually the manager or the owner is the one paying the bill. So therefore they're not as vested as the one that actually pays the bill. If they're showing up, then they're— they want to learn something. They just paid X amount of dollars to be on a call. So I'm exploring this idea. When we were building the website last month, we were, we were revising the whole website. When I revised it last month, we added it, but I'm, you know, most likely going quickly take that away and just concentrate on one-on-one and the group because that's where my passion is.

I love that. I'm sure we're all like, oh, this is so interesting. And ChatterSocial. So you're live on ChatterSocial and we just, we're all, you know, business professionals doing amazing things. But it's been fun, like watching us all vibe code and doing all of this so we can understand, put it in, take it out. But that caught my eye. So that's a good thing. Oh, I love it. You got a free guide and video.

Yep. That link is broken right now. We're going to solve that in the next week. That's websites for you.

Was— no, okay, there was— I was just on a site and I was like, wait, it was broken. Um, no, that's— yeah, that, that makes sense. But let's see here. So, okay, but very interesting. I love that. I love— I, I just— I'm, I'm enjoying the fact that you have such a strong niche market. Um, is that when you're looking at other coaches that do similar things with you, do you feel sometimes like Phew, I'm glad I've got a strong niche market.

Sometimes, you know, a lot of people do mindset and leadership type coaching, and that would be universal. You don't even have to own your own business. You could just be in management or something like that. There are probably 3 or 4 strong contenders that are in the automotive coaching business. That's all they do is automotive. I kind of— yes, do I know automotive for sure? That is my niche, but I feel like I could help anyone in any service-based business. So one of my clients, they own a cleaning company in Canada. Um, that's a service business, or a plumbing company, or an electrical company, or something like that. HVAC.

Oh, I love that. So, um, one more question. Glenn Lundy.

Say that again.

Glenn Lundy.

Glen Lundy. I'm not sure who that is.

Oh, he's like, he's well known in the automotive, um, selling cars. So he's in the selling of the cars. That's different, right? Than the auto.

That is, that is very different. I'm definitely not a car salesman.

So what, but what if you just started selling cars and you can make $30,000 a car? Would you become a car salesman at that point?

No, I know what I love and I know my passion and it's not selling cars. That's for sure.

Oh my God. I love that you said that. I— so, so many people are like, oh, you should, you know, edit your own videos. All, you know, these clips and stuff, the short-term clips. I just was on a call with a woman. I'm like, girl, I don't like it. It's not what I wanna do. I have no, like, interest in doing it. I don't need to do it. I don't wanna do it. At the end of the day, it's like, well, so I love that you honor that. Nope. Alright. That is great. Anyone else have any questions? Bobby, Nuala, Gillian, do you guys have any thoughts, questions? So, Eric, thank you. I really appreciate your, your patience and waiting for me to connect. What was your goal in coming on the podcast? Just sharing about Go Fuel coaching, or did you want to shine a specific light on the industry?

Um, well, the industry is awesome. There's a lot of great shops out there, a lot of great owners. All the owners I talk to and in the forums I'm in on Facebook, there's lots of private you know, forums with 20-some thousand members, auto shop owners, stuff like that. Um, I will tell you, 99% of them are just great individuals. They want to do the right thing. They're honest. They do not take advantage of their customers. I think, you know, we get a bad rap sometimes in the automotive repair industry that, you know, your, your mechanic's always out to get you. And I don't find that to be true. Um, I find that auto repair is extremely expensive. And partly it's because of the technician issue we started talking about in the very beginning. The amount we have to pay these technicians to stay employed and work for us is quite, you know, hefty. So that's definitely part. Also, the price of parts and cars are getting more technical each year, so it's harder to fix them every single year. The reason I came on the podcast is I like getting on stages. I like getting practice. Um, I like, uh, being prepared for when the book comes out. So therefore it's not like I published a book and then I'm like going on the stage for the very first time to talk about the book. I want practice with podcasts. Um, also I love that I don't have to prepare. It's all off the cuff, you know, which is great. Um, anyone listening to this, if they go Go Fuel coaching ericbussis.com, then they can get— book a breakthrough call. It's free. You know, we can talk about what's, you know, holding them back, where they need help. I'll offer the best advice I can and see where it goes.

I'll have to join a couple groups on LinkedIn and post the, um, interview. You know what's funny, Eric? Growing up— and I'm a little older than you— but growing up, it was always like, you know, we— oh, we got a new dentist in the family! Oh, we got a new doctor in the family! But I remember growing up and my parents like, we'd love to have a mechanic in the family. We'd love to have a plumber in the family, right? Like, those are the things. What is the one expense that like, and, and that, you know, either someone like kind of knows or they give you advice, but you gotta get the right advice. You're driving a car. 'Cause my daughter was just like, I have a 2005 Honda Civic, 112,000 miles. So it's a decent car, but it's making a little funny noise. And no, I, I live in Daytona Beach. I don't want her driving. An hour and a half on I-4 to Orlando one way and coming back. And, and I know she's tired and like, no, I don't want that. But I kind of blamed it on the car, but not really. It's making some funny noise. I have to get it like looked at and it's costly. Like it really. So I can understand this. So I would like— I'll have to ask Alana. Maybe she'll marry a mechanic.

There you go.

Right.

I remember being at my— I remember being at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. They'd post both passed on from now. But I was sitting at a table and there was myself, who's a technician mechanic, and there was a lawyer, there was a doctor. And I went to him, I said, the three of us are the most asked for free advice of all the professions— a doctor, a lawyer, and a mechanic.

Oh my God, that is— that sound went into a bar. Um, yeah, don't— you guys, don't— no, don't do that. Don't, don't pick the brains, you know, off, like, you know, ask for— bring it to the shop, and that's how you pick the brain. You do it the right way. Yeah, my dad was always so bad. He— my dad passed, but he would be like, you're an eye doctor, my eye. You're an ear doctor, my ear. I'm like, Dad, stop, stop. It's crazy. Well, oh, Gilead, take the mic. Hey, um, I was thinking back to when you first started, and, and you said like those of us who graduated in the '80s, it was the track to just go to a 4-year college, get a degree, and the tech side wasn't really pushed in that way. We have a really good technical college where I live at, and one of the great things that happened in this last year is they opened up Pell Grants to people in technical colleges because you, you used to only get a Pell Grant for when you were degree-seeking and, and took a certain amount of credits, and that is now open. A lot of people, I don't think, know about that unless you're talking to the technical school. Um, so I wanted to get that.

I'm so glad. Yeah, I'm so glad you said that because I go and give talks to high school students, uh, that are in the Vo-Tech program, so they're not even at going get at college level yet, so I can share that information.

Yeah, yeah, you can find that on the student aid government website. Yeah, that was going to be my question actually, was, were you talking to high school students? Because that's kind of where you got to get them. Otherwise, they're, they're off and out somewhere else.

And I can tell you, you know, I do talk to high school students. I've done it. 2 different talks in the past, I guess, 3 months to 2 different high school districts. And podcasts are easier than these darn high school students. I mean, they look at you with these daggers like, why are you in front of me? There's usually, if there's a group of 25, only 2 are going to ever ask any questions until I try and get them to really open up. And I do my best, but it's been a challenge. They're, they're an interesting interesting crowd for sure, and I'm not going to stop doing it.

You have a great smile, Eric. Don't stop using that smile. When you smile, you brighten up the room. Bobby, I see you're— thank you, Gilead, by the way. Thank you. Those are good. It was just fantastic. Bobby, take the mic. Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, Eric, I was wondering, like, could you give us an example of what the students, you know, ask you questions about. And then my question is, uh, what do you tell the students, as in electric technician compared to mechanics, you know, gas-fueled vehicles, uh, you know, technician or mechanic? Because, you know, we're pretty much, uh, in a split world now, as in electric and gas. And I think there's even more technologies coming up very quickly.

Sure.

But thank you.

Yeah, the first part of your question is, what do they ask? Usually they ask if there's any type of apprenticeship program. They ask what kind of money they can expect to make. They can ask what's required for them to be hired. They start to ask, have you ever seen So they'll have some type of issue. Have you ever seen a car that does X, Y, or Z or something like that? They start to get technical. The second part of your question, I believe you're discussing or asking about regular gas combustion engines versus all-electric cars. And so sometimes those questions come up, and I believe you asked what I would tell the students about that. And I, well, I tell them, because it does come up, that not to shy away from the industry because of that. Because when you have an all-electric vehicle, you still have tires, brakes, suspension, air conditioning, electrical items. You have computers, you have batteries, you have generators, you have all sorts of ADAS systems, which is the safety systems that keep them out of wrecks, you know, the radar, the lidar, all that, you know, pedestrian warning systems, all that. So There's plenty of things to fix on a car, even if it's an all-electric car.

Okay, yeah, thank you very much. I think last question would be, do you suggest like schools that they could go to to learn the software of electrical cars across the board?

There are very few schools that teach that. The technical schools are quite limited when it comes to the really techie, techie, techie stuff like you're describing. Usually you're going to learn that the best hands-on. So if you go to the independent world, so my shop's independent, it's not a Ford dealer, it's not a Honda dealer or anything, it's independent and we do European cars. So we are going to teach you all those things. If you come work for us. If you go to a dealership, they will teach you those things. So they will send you to different schools. So the technical, technical school will teach you all the basics and it will get your foot in the door. And then what the person does from that point forward is up to them. They have to choose where they want to work. They have to choose whether they're going to be all in and keep going to school and keep learning. Because I'm reading a book right now called Mastery, and they figured out that the average person needs to spend 10,000 hours to become a master at any trade. And so, um, when I, I started testing that theory once I read that last week, and I started asking my friends, hey, how many years were you in this business, or how many years did you do this before you felt really confident? So You know, my girlfriend's a nurse anesthetist, so she's the one who puts you asleep. So she had said, you know, it was about 7 years in where I really felt like I could handle any situation and not be nervous. And one of my best friends who's a business owner who just retired, just sold it for, you know, millions of dollars, he said 8 years. And 10,000 hours is between 7 and 10 years. Oh.

Bobby, thank you. Those are great questions. That is interesting. You know, I'm thinking as I'm listening to you, I'm like, you know what, if I knew 2 hours ago I was going to be interviewing you, I probably would say to myself, crap, Adrian, this is going to be a little boring. Like, like, what do you care about the auto, right? Like, I'm like, oh, but this is probably a good thing that I don't know who I'm interviewing. But I find it fascinating because it, like, it allows us an opportunity to learn about a whole nother huge industry, um, and you dropped a lot of golden nuggets. So thank you so much. And I'm so really appreciative Bobby, Nula, Gilead, Lisa had come in the room. It's all huge to, to get other voices, um, so I really appreciate it. We are again all live on Chatter Social. You can download the app on your Android store or your iPhone store if you're cool, you have an iPhone. You're not cool, you have a Droid. It's not my fault. Um, so anyways, but I really appreciate this, Eric, and I really appreciate your time, your patience getting it set up. Thank you so much. Is that— I see something moving. Is that a dog to you? Do you have, like, a little dog?

Me?

Like a white dog? Yeah.

No, that's a, that's a background.

So the picture actually has, like, a little moving to it too, unless it's my eyes. It's kind of— yeah. Oh, I see what you're— oh, yeah, that's okay. Really nice. Okay. Thank you, Eric. You really have a lovely smile. If you were standing in front of me in a class or teaching or coaching, smiles, something. I mean, I have joined programs because someone's smile just makes my day. So your smile made my day. So I appreciate it.

Thanks, Adrienne.

You're welcome. Thank you for joining. What is my— who am I? Adrienne Barker. No, Adrienne Barker Speaks. No prep needed. I don't do any prep. You don't do any prep. Nobody does any prep. It's funny, Eric, because I was just saying this morning I was doing a room on getting booked on podcasts, which is what you're doing. And I was saying that A lot of the hosts, there's a lot of work, right? Like, you know, PodMatch does a great job of— I don't have to ask you for your headshot and those kind of things. But a lot of podcasts have forms to fill out, the host, right? They put you through loops. And I had a client 2 weeks ago, he's like, I had no idea that there was like— they make it difficult.

Yes.

So I'm glad that I knew myself never to make it difficult. Just pop on where I'm a fly on the wall. Everyone know. Gillian Newland and Bobby are flies on the wall. We just met, like, we were meeting in a coffee shop, and I'm getting to know you, and it was really wonderful. So I'm glad that I don't have any preconceived notions sometimes. Really enjoyed the conversation. You really know what you're doing, and I love that you have so much wisdom and experience. So one last question. So you— and you probably said it before, but you have your own shop too now?

Yes, I still have my own shop.

That is so brilliant. Wow. Congratulations on all your success. When you go to sell your business, you'll be saying— someone's going to be saying, yeah, my friend Eric Svidberg, he just made millions of dollars selling his.

One day, hopefully.

One day it'll happen. It'll be there. Thank you so much. I'm going to close out, guys. I'm going to close. I'm going to stop the stream. Thank you all for joining. Love it. And I'm going to end the stream. I use StreamYard, by the way, just in case anyone's curious.