Coronavirus Quarantine Update 2 (Service Drive Revolution Live)

Foreign.

Welcome everybody, to service. Drive revolution in the safe house. We're coming to you live from the safe house in Los Angeles. We got a fun show today. Danny Chavez is going to help us with, you know, best practices for cleaning, keeping our employees safe.

There's an interesting Peter Thiel question that Christian and I have been obsessing on that we're going to talk about after we're done with Danny. And this is an interview question that he asks is he says, what important truth do you. Do you very few people agree with you on? And he answers it. I've been reading his book lately. I've been reading a lot of books and going into some deep intellectual stuff while being locked down. And Christian had a couple really good answers and so we're going to talk about that. So what important truth do you. Very few people agree with you on? And his theory on this in a job interview is there. You know, it's. It's very complicated how he explains it and what he believes. So we're gonna, we're gonna talk about that. Also we're gonna do your. Some Q A if anybody has any questions. And you know, Christian.

Is recently single. Right, Christian?

Yeah. I picked a great time, didn't I? So right about the time you can't interact with other humans is when I have the status change on my Facebook profile.

How's that working out?

It's good. You know, the thing is, is that it's. It's our responsibility to adapt. Right. So. So the pickup lines I assumed would work from 1996, I had to alter them a little bit. Right. So the. Probably the one that seems to be working the best right now is, is when I walk up to within six feet of someone and say, hey, if.

If coronavirus doesn't take you out, can I.

How's that working?

So. So yeah, I feel like the response has been pretty good. I haven't gotten hit yet. But there's also the six foot rule. So that could be. That could be part of it. I've got a bet I've got a backup too, just in case. Just in case that one doesn't work. I feel like this one's really effective. It's almost playing hard to get right. So let me try this one on you. I saw you from across the room.

Stay there.

You might.

You might be single for a while, bro.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay with that. It's the me time.

Then what happens like on Tinder right now during all this?

I don't know. I don't Even know how to get onto Tinder. But I suppose that I'm going to have a. I can do that in the evenings if I can stay up past 8:30 at night.

That's, that's, that's funny. So thank you so much for coming on, Danny. Danny and I go way back. I was thinking this morning, Danny, remember when they used to call us the kids?

That was a long time ago. Yeah.

We're not the kids anymore.

We're not. We're certainly not.

So in, in Southern California especially, Danny has been, you know.

Detail kind of pioneer. But he's in tons of big, big name dealerships and used by many friends. How many employees do you have, Danny?

We have just over 500 W.2 employees that are full time.

Yeah. So big, big company and in a lot of stores. And you swing a big bat when it comes to this sort of thing. I know keeping your employees safe during all this is a huge priority. And also just the way that you take care of your clients and worry about them. I know we were talking the other day and you're like, the interesting thing about all this is that it's brought us all a lot closer. You feel like you've become closer with your clients in a way too, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Penske is one of our clients and he actually mentioned something similar a few years ago to me. He said that 9 to 5 is not impressive. Everybody does that. You can go and get a job at a bank. He said it's the extra things that you do, the above and beyond, that make you different from someone else. And he's been a great boss and mentor for me. And that's always meant a lot. So right now, during these times.

A lot of it's the extra that we can do, the no job is too small. What else can we do to help during this tough time that nobody really signed up for, but that we're all going through together? So it's absolutely true. It's the little extras that are really helping us connect with our dealers. And one of the other benefits right now of some of us having more idle time than normal is we're spending a lot of time on the phone with our bosses at the stores. And so we're taking relationships to the next level. We're adjusting things on a daily basis. We're not arguing, we're grateful to have our customers so them seeing that they can lean on us during these times, I think it's going to lead to us having better, deeper, longer relationships later. So that's just One of the things.

It's just one of the colors of lipstick we're trying to put on this pig right now.

I think I. Yeah, I think too, like, I don't know. I think in. In times like this, it builds character. But also we're going to look back on this in a, you know, in a fun way. I think. Like, I don't. I think that people are spending time with their kids more than they ever have, like family. It gives you a little perspective on what's important. So characters built in these sort of times. And we'll look back. You always look back on times when you grow and learn new things as, you know, positive. Even though in the moment you thought it was hard.

I agree. Adversity makes the best leaders. Nobody likes growing. It's uncomfortable, and it's not something that we often initiate on ourselves. But when it happens, we can turtle up and go away and cave in, or we can put our helmet on and fight through it and try and become better leaders and better employers, better motivators. There's a lot of people that really need to lean on leaders in times like this. And so if you can counsel them and make them feel good, even times when you might not necessarily feel good and take that momentum from your employees, a lot of times they'll help you. We've been really surprised across the board.

Not that I ever don't give my employees enough credit. I try and give them more credit sometimes than even necessary. But I've been so proud of our staff and our company and the way that they're all chipping in right now that I think it's brought us together, it made us closer, and I think we're going to be a better company when we come out the other side of this situation. So there are some things that I'm grateful for, 1, 100%.

And also, in a weird way, the fat's gonna get cut. You know, the clients that were never that good anyways are probably gonna go away. Some of the employees that weren't that good. Right. Like, it's gonna.

Well, I'm glad you said that, because humility is a big thing for me, but when it comes from the third person, it's great. You're right. There's a lot of people that are operating uncompliantly. I don't know how many of the folks on the call today are in California markets, But with this AB5 and these new compliance laws, a lot of the FAT's going to get cut, and a lot of people aren't going to make it through it. And when the people that we work for see the way that we've maintained compliance, that we've done the right things and that we're going to actually grow through this adversity, I think it's going to be a great catalyst for us to grow and increase the size of our business even outside of the state. So I'm looking forward to it. On the other side of pain is, you know, good news. You just got to get there first. So I agree though, it's going to make a nice organic thinning of the herd take place. That's going to lend to a few companies getting bigger.

Okay, so let's go through some of your tips here.

One thing that I and let me kind of frame this a little bit is I had my doctor on a few days ago and after I had him on, there were like tons of things I thought of like about, you know, putting steering wheel covers on and all that. But the one of the things you kind of said in your summary was that this lives, this virus lives for a long time on different surfaces, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And it changes every day. So we're always erring on the side of caution and we're educating our employees on a daily basis. We're having a lot of tailgate meetings. I'm sending a lot of videos out. The important thing for them to understand is we need to be over cleaning everything right now.

Dramatically overreact.

Just, just overdo it. Because part of it, you know, we're following something right now. We're calling it SSQE and it's safety, service, quality and education. That's what we're doing with our boys. One of the benefits of having, you know, 50 plus customers is we're getting a large sampling of what's happening with our dealer guests right now, what they're looking for and they're scared. And we're seeing much less congregation in the guest lobbies, seeing a lot of guests, especially our older guests, waiting outside on the sidewalk or in parking spaces. And they're watching us to make sure that we're respecting protocol. We're following social distancing and we're cleaning their cars the right way. And they're not doing it to be over critical. They're doing it because they're scared. And so if we're at the store and we're servicing a guest that already probably doesn't want to be here during this time, we need to go above and beyond right now and make them feel comfortable and make Them feel cared about. This can be an opportunity to increase loyalty too, if they know you're going above and beyond. So in the back, volume's down. That's no secret. But there's no job too small and there's never an idle moment. So if we're in a situation, we've got a little bit of a lapse between service washes or details or even parking some cars. We're up front, we're cleaning because part of service is perception, right? It's always what a customer thinks about their experience. So when we're wiping down door handles and railings and countertops and doing everything that we need to, that's guest facing in the front of the dealership, we're seeing shoulders go down, we're seeing smiles, we're hearing people say thank you for things because they know that we're taking that extra mile. And I try and explain to you our employees every single day, if you walked into a restaurant and the dining room was dirty, then you're naturally just going to assume that the kitchen's dirty too, and we don't want that. And if we're being disrespectful about our guest perception of their experience, whether at the dealership, then naturally they're just going to think we're not caring about their car in the shop too. So that's very important that we're visible right now to everybody that's scared. The seat covers, the steering wheel covers, those are very important. Doing the extra things right now inside of the guest cars, and especially the loaners, wiping down steering wheels, wiping down armrests, cup holders, door handles, making sure that we're letting the guests know that we're taking those extra steps. I'm not big on removing the floor mats, seat covers and steering wheel covers in front of the guests when it gets pulled up in valet. Right now we're doing that though, so they can see that we've taken those extra precautions. Loaner cars, everybody has to remember the guest is going to think three or four or five other people have been in that car before they've sat down in it. So if you look at that vehicle that they're going to get into and spend the next hour or so on the freeway, half an hour because there's no traffic. We need to make sure that they feel safe, that we really disinfected that car. So those little audible cues that just kind of remind that guest that we're happy that they're here with us, those are more important than ever right now. And, and in turn, following that protocol keeps our employees safe, the dealer employees safe, and ultimately our guests safe. So things like the time clocks, for example, every employee touches the time clocks. We're wiping those down religiously. If we could, if I could say one thing that we think helped the most is a cough. You know, I have a two year old and a four year old and in preschool they teach you to cough with your elbow now like that instead of with your hands. If you're coughing with your hands, that cough is atomizing. There's no way to capture all of it. It's atomizing, it's staying in that environment now anywhere from two to four hours is what a lot of people are saying, a lot of doctors. And then after that you've got the virus or just your germs on your hands. And then you go and you open door handles and you clock in and clock out for lunch. You're using vacuum hoses, air nozzles, the spray bottles that we're cleaning, tires with, windows, et cetera. So, so we're really just contaminating our whole area. We're turning our whole area into a red zone and we're hurting our team members and their families and their kids. So by coughing into the crook of your elbow, that's been a big help. And by overly disinfecting everything that you can, that's helping quite a bit. So we're in latex gloves all day long and we're spraying those latex gloves down a lot. Plastic and stainless steel are where the virus can live longer than anything else. So we're, when you're using gloves, you think you're doing the right thing. But if you're not disinfecting those gloves, those gloves can stay contaminated for days.

So you gotta wash the gloves just like you would your hands.

We're overly washing our gloves. So you'll see, you'll see our employees regularly. Sometimes after every car, they're spraying the gloves down, they're wiping the gloves down. You can't dry the gloves out, so it's different than your skin. And then we're getting back to work, we're changing towels out more regularly. That way things aren't being absorbed in there. If I had a contaminated vehicle of a guest and I had no idea they were asymptomatic, and then I went and used that towel in another guest car, I'd be doing an injustice to that next guest. We could be hurting someone. So towels and things like that, we're being over careful in that Regard. And we're having a lot of tailgate meetings too. We're not running a tattletale program, but we're watching to make sure that all of our team members are coming to work healthy. We kind of have a no coughing policy right now. It doesn't matter what it's for. It could be COVID 19, it could be the flu, a cold, could be because you came back from lunch and had too many hot Cheetos. It doesn't matter what the reason is. We just can't risk it right now with everybody. We need to be careful. We need to be observing social distancing even in the back a lot of the times. Chris, you've seen us in the back for years. We jump on cars three, four people at a time so we can get them done more expeditiously. We're not doing that right now. We're assigning one person per car. It takes a minute or two longer, but we're not getting people sick. That's the most important thing. We've got a large congregation of our employees and in one centralized location. And we can take the whole department down if we're not being responsible. Another thing that we're doing, some of our larger stores, it's really neat.

In most cases, and I don't want to stereotype and pretend to know the back of everybody's service department, but in most cases you've got a parts counter and you have all of the technicians coming to that parts counter multiple times a day. And they sit in there. That's kind of the water cooler area of the dealership. And we're asking how football went, who won what bet, and how Jimmy's doing in baseball. But we're sending all of our technicians, highly trained technicians, into that hot zone multiple times a day. So what we've been doing while valet's been slow or even service wash has been slow, is we've been assigning one or two of our employees to the parts department. And the technicians are not coming in the parts counter anymore. They're taking their orders. And we've got one gentleman or gentle lady that, that has gloves on and a N95 mask if they want one. And they're taking the parts to each of those technicians. That way we're obtaining that six foot spacing. We're not getting anybody sick. If a parts department ends up as a red zone, you can take out the whole back of a dealership. So we have one person taking extra precautionary care right now to get everybody else their Supplies and it's been keeping everybody safe. So that's been another neat trick that we've learned. Just one of the blessings of having 50 customers is we get to kind of run things off of a large sampling of people. So that's been a big help too.

Okay. So when we were talking to my doctor, a question came up about what sort of solvents to use that don't damage the interior. And so I was just wondering what is the best process when a car comes in? You do you cover the steering wheel or do you clean it first, then cover it? Like, what are you telling your guys to do?

So what we like doing right now is we like requesting that all the dealerships put the wheel cover on and the plastic in valet before the car is staged in the back for visual purposes so the guest knows that their vehicle's being taken care of. And then so we don't add to contaminating the car. If somebody is a carrier of the virus right now, but they're still asymptomatic, then when it comes in the car wash area, we remove those pieces and we are disinfecting, we're reapplying the plastic on top. Some stores are having us use the same steering wheel cover, for example. Others are having us put a completely new one on, same with floor mats and seat covers. But we are cleaning those areas, especially the loaners. We're disinfecting the loaners two or three times. In some cases, we're sending the vehicle back up, going from there. So we don't have a product that is proven and been tested to kill COVID 19 or coronavirus. Right now it's too new for testing. So we're using a lot of industrial disinfectants that are used for the flu and other viruses, hoping that those are still going to do the same thing. They know this works on H1N1, this works on the flu, this works on other things. So we're assuming that this chemical is going to be the same in regards to disinfecting. And what we're doing right now is we're using that on the inside of the cars also. And, and it's a little lower in alcohol based. So we're not experiencing any drying on the materials. We're not letting it sit on there for extended periods of time. We don't want to damage any guest cars at all. But right now in the stage we're in, we feel like disinfecting is the most important thing we can do. So those are, those are Accessible a lot of your janitorial suppliers.

What would you look for?

What is it called in any industrial strength? Disinfectant. So something that's used in gyms and medical facilities, in schools, healthcare clinics that have any sort of description on the back that says that it disinfects against viruses. That's the main word you want to look for is the virus portion of it. Because everything acts differently. So that's what we're doing. And one of the good things about our economy of scale is we work with a lot of blenders and chemists. We manufacture our own chemicals. So we, we were able to just use existing formulas and get those into our, our dealerships right away and our employees hands right away. Hand sanitizer is another huge one too. Hand sanitizer by the time clock, folks, is probably the most caring gesture you can make with your employees right now too. Other than you physically acknowledging them or letting them know something. It's just a little extra thing that is, that is the petri dish of the dealership. And a time clock is probably dirtier than, than the toilet flush handle right now during these times. So little hand sanitizer and just a little note by the time clock will go a long way. We've had some stores, some technicians in the back of stores get together in groups and say that they haven't felt safe and they haven't felt protected and that the dealership has not been doing enough to keep them from getting sick. So we want to avoid that at all costs, number one, because things get litigious at that point. But most importantly, we want to create an environment where everybody feels safe and cared about. Hand sanitizer goes a long, long way. It's not expensive. You're handing out a bottle to each of the technicians. If they have disinfectant, if they know what to do, they're going to feel safer at home. These are questions that their wives or husbands are asking them when they get back home at night too. They don't want them bringing this home to the wife and kids. So we need to be proactive in that regard. 100%.

What's the chemical makeup as far as what starts to damage the interiors? Is it too much alcohol, is it too much bleach? Because we were. Somebody was saying before, like I do a cap full of bleach in a gallon of water, whatever the mix was, but you know, bleach is gonna hurt an interior. So what is important to understand about the chemical makeup when you're trying to disinfect the inside.

So one of the best disinfectants is at least 70% pure isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Unfortunately, that's about the worst thing you can put in a car. So that works great for your door handles, your glass surfaces, your stainless steel, etc. That is an amazing disinfectant if you can't get your hands on anything. Right now, a lot of these industrial strength disinfectants are not overly alcohol based. The one that we use actually has a pleasant fragrance. We're not seeing any drying or rotting at all on any of the materials.

Is it like 30% alcohol?

Some of them are even a little bit less than that.

So then you really have to clean it off. Right. Because one thing Dr. Lau was saying is the disinfectant doesn't necessarily have to kill it, but by getting it wet, you're wiping it off and then throwing it away too. So is that kind of the thinking is on leather steering wheels and things like that? You're, you're wiping it off and then throwing it away?

Yeah. If not, you're essentially just pushing around the virus.

So.

So you want to make sure that you're removing the surface that you're cleaning off. That way it's not contaminated anymore. And the best way to think about that is if we were cleaning a windshield, for example, and it was a dirty windshield, and I cleaned the center of it, but I left all the dirt on the outside because I just pushed it over. You've still got dirt on that glass. We need to make sure that we're cleaning and that we're lifting and that we're removing everything on that steering wheel, armrest, cup holder, et cetera. And the way that we're doing that is we're using the, the chemical in a little bit larger amount than we normally would. Right. So if steering wheel, let's say, was like two sprays, we're going three sprays, four sprays. We're giving it a chance to emulsify so it can get inside of those pores. We're letting it flash for a moment and then we're wiping it off where I normally wouldn't be doing that in a normal service wash situation. But we need this chemical to act and do its job. This isn't an elbow grease virus removal. This needs to be a, a chemically enacted process. So we're, we're overspraying in, in almost every situation that we can, just to be safe.

Yeah. And then are you making your employees wear masks?

So we are. When they're available N95s are really tough to get right now. We are, we are. Whenever we can get them. They're starting to become a little bit easier to get.

As long as they're coughing. This is a. Gosh, this is not a moral thing, but if I'm putting a mask on somebody that is in a service department when they're following proper social distancing and protocol, I'm essentially taking a mask away from a healthcare worker right now. That could be saving somebody's grandparents. So I don't have a stockpile of masks right now. I'm trying to do the right thing. We're donating masks to Kaiser. We're trying to do everything that we could. But if you're in a hospital, you're exposing yourself to somebody that's already got COVID 19. And in the service department, I feel like we can do a pretty good job preventing it. So we're not over masking the employees right now.

Yeah.

Vicky says hi in the Q and A thing and she said she's got a good comment. If dealers are still using rental cars, we need to disinfect them for our customers. Don't. Don't assume that Enterprise or whoever is doing it the way we would do it. Right.

Vicki's sending you her love.

I love you too, Vicki. Hopefully I see you soon.

You're one of her fit. You know, she's in. Do you know where Vicki lives now?

In Louisiana.

Yeah. And that's one of the worst parts to be right right now. Hunger down. But yeah, love, Vicky.

Hopefully she stayed out of Mardi Gras. I doubt it, but hopefully she did.

No. And I always ask, like, I don't understand how she gets so many beads. Have you seen the pictures? So have you ever been to Mardi Gras?

Yeah, I don't want to know.

How do you get, like, why do they throw beads at people? I've never been. So you got to tell me.

I mean, I guess, you know, I keep hearing it's the brightest and happiest personality gets the most beads.

Yeah.

There's an exchange, right? There's an exchange of some sort of collateral in order to get the beads.

Yeah.

She swears she doesn't have the brightest personality, but she still somehow gets a bunch of beads. I don't know.

Mystery of the world, kind of along that question I've got. I wanted to throw this one out from the audience to both of you, too. Tim asks, is anyone still operating a courtesy shuttle, and if so, so what precautions are you taking to Maintain social distancing, employee protection and cleaning. When we're talking about, you know, client and the driver being in the same enclosed area together. So I wanted to throw that out there for you guys.

Yeah. Do you have thoughts on that, Danny? My thought would be that I would only do one at a time and I would disinfect after every customer. So it's not going to be that efficient.

Yeah. And that would be a situation where you would want to be very careful about how comfortable the employee was. It was driving the shuttle too. Right. Because we're asking them to break social distancing with almost every interaction. So in that situation, if they wanted mask, obviously that would be applicable. I would ask them what cleaning protocol they felt comfortable with inside the vehicle each time. A ton of disinfectant wipes, ton of industrial spray cleaner in the car. And I certainly would be doing one customer at a time whenever possible. And I know that's going to be tougher in your service departments and stuff too. We have some retail stores for clear bras and window tinting and things like that. We've been fortunate enough they're kind of higher line, boutique style. We've been fortunate enough to book one appointment at a time and we're, we're really disinfecting. This sounds crazy not to get into the litigious aspect of things, but we're, we're taking temperatures on the way in and out and we're doing that with a lot of our employees. They're voluntarily doing that. And we even have a lot of customers that like taking their temperatures too. And again, incubation period can be anywhere from two to 14 days. We're not certain right now. Seems like the average is five days. But think back on the interactions you've had with five days worth of people and there's going to be a lot of people getting this that aren't, that aren't sure. So I'm not a doctor by any means. We're being safer than we've ever been before. My wife has severe asthma and is very, very high risk. So I'm being over careful. I'm the funny looking guy in the hazmat suit that you see sprint into pavilions and sprint back out. Because.

I just don't want to take the chance. I just can't do it right now. She'd be in there on a, on a respirator. And we're gonna try and wait as long as we can until this curve gets smashed down and climb that hill then. So I would do the Same thing for the shuttle drivers. I would just ask them what would make them feel safe. I certainly would not force anybody to do anything if they didn't feel safe doing that. And I would give out as many loaners as you could right now.

Yeah. And maybe even use lift or.

Something else. Right?

Yeah. The only thing dirtier than a shuttle right now is probably an Uber or a Lyft, though. So, you know, I, I, we took that off the list at the Chaves House. We are Lyft and Uber free for the indefinite future. Just because I can't imagine, after every Uber ride, someone in the back, you know, disinfecting everything the way that, that I would want to for my family or for our guests. By, by, by all means.

That's a good point. A couple other quick notes here.

One of our viewers up in Canada says that they're using spray 9 heavy duty cleaner disinfectant, that it kills viruses, and that there's plenty of stock of that in the Canadian Tire stores up north. And then almost to play into it with no segue is on that note, foot traffic has slowed down in the dealership, so they are using oops or using their own guys to pick up and deliver the customer asset clean in and out. And he put down their. Good point. Then we had another viewer ask about picking up and dropping off. And I would say that we discussed that just a tinge the other day, that one of the things I think that we're hearing people do is put the key fob in a Ziploc bag and then disinfecting pre and post. So we're bringing it out using all the plastic protective materials and then disinfecting, disinfecting the car before the driver gets in and everything. But you actually can do a valet pickup drop off with no human interaction if you play it right. So I think that those are probably some of the best practices that are going on.

I agree. And it's cool that you brought up the key because we've always been very interactive people with our guests. We've always handed the key over to the owner. We've thanked them very much for their patronage, wished them off or whatnot. And what we're doing right now is we're letting our guests know how much we appreciate them. We're trying to observe social distancing while you're here visiting the dealership with us. So we left your key inside the cup holder, if that's okay, sir or ma'. Am. And they're normally very gracious and Thankful for that. So just again, a little extra audible gesture to let them know that we're being careful with everything has really helped us a lot. Everybody's just scared, you know, and we have all different makes and brands on the call today, I'm sure. But in a lot of the High Line dealerships, too, I don't want to stereotype, but a lot of times we get a lot of older guests in some of the High Line dealerships, you know, more expensive cars. Sometimes you got to work more years of your life. I don't want to get anybody in trouble, but they're just. They're scared right now. They're scared. And so doing everything that we can, you know, listen, go to the grocery store and just see how everybody's acting and see you've got a little bit older customer that's walking down an aisle and you're getting ready to intersect at the same point, and you just stop and you ask how they're doing, and you give them 10ft. You could just see them just breathe in relief that you're being respectful. I'll tell you this much. We're all quarantined. A lot of us are.

It's like Christmas every day when you're out and about walking, people are happy, they're saying hi, they're asking questions from across the street, etc. There's a lot of good with humanity that's coming out of this, too. And I really want to make it a point to recognize all that right now and make sure that I carry that forward even when we're through this, because these are the times when you find out what people need and they're giving off that feeling where we need that from each other right now. And so I would practice that protocol right now, and I would overdo things, and I would find out how you can be of service to people. And then when we get through all this, just try your darnedest to continue that forward. These are times you might not necessarily be able to help somebody with a transactional situation right now, but if you're over caring for your guests and you're going above and beyond for your customers, you don't know what type of brand you. You're building for. When this gets better, you don't know how many other people they're going to talk to. And these are the times where we win over customers, where we protect our market share. And like Chris mentioned earlier, these are where the strong survive and they grow. And if a dealer's not doing these things, not practicing these protocols, and we are people that are noticeably caring about our guests. Then your drive traffic is going to increase when things get better again and your retention is going to be better, your surveys are going to get better. And it's just part of being a better human being also, which I think is important. And one of the good things coming from this tumultuous time in the world right now. I'm really proud of a lot of people and the things that I've seen, including my employees and including my bosses at the dealerships. We've got some. Some really good things that we're going to springboard off of relationship wise. And we're all going to be closer because of this. So take this situation right now that we can't do anything about other than fight and find good in it. So this wasn't a waste. That's what we're trying to do out here and it's helping us get through some of this time.

That's great. Danny. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on, man. We don't spend enough time together. When this is over, we got to make a point to hang out.

Absolutely. And I know you hate when I talk about this for everybody else on the phone. Chris has been so instrumental to me for knowledge and for growing my business, for help getting the accounts. We mentioned Vicki a few times on the call. Chris is the one that made that introduction that got me hired up there with Vicki. Got to work for Vicki a few, few years and a lot of other people probably on this phone call too. So if you are a friend of Chris's, you're a friend of mine. And if I can ever help or be of service to you, even if it's with an email or a question about in house employees that you have, I'm here for anyone that has Chris in his or her life and I'm just grateful to be here. So anytime you need me for anything, Chris, I'm here. And I appreciate you more than you know.

Yeah, thanks, Danny. You know, it's crazy that I have Vicki working for me. It's crazy the talent we have, like having Christian and you know, Steve, him being a coach for us, like it's. I even think like in these down times, like there's going to be a couple talented people that'll pop up for us, you know?

Absolutely. What makes me feel so good too is I know what your standards are and I know that people that you recruit to be part of your team and the fact that I've been able to work for and interact with them for years. It makes me feel good about going the extra mile and just giving that extra 10% to my customers because it just. It makes me feel happy that I'm in the company of such high standards, you know, Vicki, Steve, yourself. So it makes me feel good and proud about the type of service that we're trying to give to everybody, too. So it's just a little reinforcement that I wouldn't be in your life or Vicki or Steve's life if I didn't care about everybody, wasn't trying to do my best. So that's a nice little bit of gratitude that I get to take in knowing that y' all keep me around.

That's awesome. Thanks, Danny. Have a great weekend, and let's connect real soon. Okay?

Perfect. Absolutely. And extend my email out to anybody that needs it. I'm available for questions at any time. I'm happy to help. Again, nothing ever needs to be transactional. I. I can just be of service and maybe save y' all a little bit of pain.

Yeah, tell them. Tell them your website and any social media that they can contact you on.

Yeah. So we're just dannys detail.com and my email address is dan danysdetail.com and just throw out an email and say, hey, I'm a friend of Chris's and I've got questions about the following. Y' all can lean on me for any of that stuff. You know, wherever you're at in the country, I'll help y' all with whatever I can. I'm happy to do it. And I haven't invented anything. I've replicated and duplicated from people that have cared enough to spend time with me to help make me better. So if I can be of service to any of you, please reach out, and I'm happy to do so.

Awesome. Thanks, Danny. We'll talk soon.

Wash your hands.

See you guys. Take care. Be safe. Thanks, Chris.

In closing from Danny. Wash your hands. That's good stuff.

So I wanted to throw this out there. And actually, amazing. Danny did a really good job of this. He half answered this next comment and question, which I thought was really, really good. Robert says, I'm a service advisor for Penske dealer. What would you recommend so I can stand out and grow as a professional? I have a huge passion for the automotive industry. Robert, we do, too. So I came up with three things, and I'll let you kind of wrap it up, but the one thing I would say, in these times, we need unparalleled empathy, compassion, and understanding, like, those are the things that will make someone stand out for sure. I didn't know what you wanted to add to that, but that's a nice looking stogie you got there.

Don't tell Dr. Lau.

Yeah, he kind of punted and said, you just do what you want in these times. I don't know.

He knows I'm gonna do what I want, but.

Good. Nice little Cuban Lancero. So I think empathy is a big one. But I think that.

You know, if you, if you haven't read my book, the Millionaire Service Advisor.

You know, re hit up Christian and we'll send you a copy of it. But I think the, the thing, empathy is a big one, but the other thing is just treating people like you, like they're people and you care about them and understanding that what separates us from everybody else is.

Talking about human things that matter. Like, I feel like the difference between me and other advisors was when I walked up to the car, I was genuinely curious about what they did, their lives, their kids, their hobbies in the car. To me, I wasn't a. Wasn't a mechanic, so I didn't care about cars. Like, people always ask me, like, what's your favorite car? And I always said, the one that's selling, like, I'm not a big car. I wasn't rebuilding cars when I was a kid or in high school. It just was, you know, that's not my thing. And so I was about people. And so when I would walk up to a customer, I was like, oh, where are you headed today? What do you do at Microsoft? Oh, you know, tell me about that. What? You know. And it just let down. The car was very, very transactional. Like, once we get back to my computer, okay, so what do we need to do? Like, the car conversation was 10% of what we would talk about. So if you really want to stick out, don't be like everybody else and say stuff like, did you have an appointment? And make it about the car. Because the car is a commodity. Anybody can service the car. There's nothing special about the car. I'm sorry, I know people don't. Don't believe me when I say that. But the cars aren't special. It's the people that's the relationship, and that's your leverage. And so if you connected with two or three people a day on a deeper level and you're a service advisor, think about in two or three, three years, how many key throwers you would have. Like, one of the biggest compliments I would ever get is because I used to be in bands, right? So I, because I was such a good advisor, I had leeway to go on tour. And so I would go on tour and when I would come back and my tour might be like a four day weekend, right? But I would come back on Monday and the advisors would be like, man, we just hate it when you're not here. And I'd be like, why? And they're like, your customers pull in, they find out you're not here and they just pull out. And I was like, yeah, like that's.

In the back of my head I'm thinking. And yeah, when you guys aren't here, your customers always come to me after that. And I sell them all the stuff you haven't sold them for three years to. Like you've never recommended anything. And so it's that connection, it's really making friends with them and treat, you know, treating them like they're human. And it's not about the car if our relationship is based on the car, we don't have a relationship if the car goes away. Right?

Yep, exactly right. I think that that's funny. That door didn't swing both ways, that's for sure.

No, like I used to think it was that it was hilarious. Like, because I don't know the Cadillac store I wrote service at. The other advisors were old and grumpy and so it was rare that I didn't steal their customers when they were gone.

We keep looking out for questions. If you have a question, we will address them. But let's talk about this Peter Thiel interview question. So his interview question is what important truth do very few people agree with you on? And it's in his book zero to one. And although the question sounds easy, it's actually a pretty, pretty hard question because it forces you to be intellectual in a lot of ways. So I've been going into forums and looking like one that somebody posted. So remember, the question is, what important truth do very few people agree with you on? And this guy said, public flogging and caning, bring it back. Why not? That little hooligan who spray painted graffiti in Singapore didn't do it again, I.

Bet because he didn't have arms afterwards.

Yeah, so I mean, that's a little extreme, but funny.

This one was, you know, it does force you to be intellectual. I've been going down some deep holes lately, but this guy wrote, most people intuitively understand that the future doesn't exist, but for some reason they really struggle in the fact that the past doesn't exist either. Like the future, there has never been a direct witnessing of the past. People don't witness the past. We witness memory in the present. Looking at a memory or even a photo is not perceiving the past any more than speculation is perceiving the future. I know that's deep, but I thought it was interesting, Peter Thiel's answer to his own question, which in the book he tells you he's going to tell you in the next chapter, and he doesn't, you got to wait a while. But he says, my answer to the contrarian question is that most people think the future of the world will be defined by globalization. But the truth is that technology matters more. Without technology, without technical, technological change, if China doubles its energy production over the next two decades, it will also double its air pollution. If everyone in India's hundreds of millions of households were to live the way Americans already do, using only today's tool, the result would be environmental catastrophe, spreading old ways to create wealth around the world to result in devastation, not riches. In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable, sustainable. That's interesting and very, you know, very deep.

And really true.

Right. Like, that's a. That's a different level of consciousness and understanding.

Another, another one I thought was interesting is this guy says Carl Marx's explanation of capitalism is definitely true, but he probably forgot to explain that capitalism lies in very human instincts. Capitalistic practice is therefore inevitable as long as humans exist. And it's true. Like, even in a communist society, people want to be the best at something. You know, especially men that want to, you know, they're part. They're part of a hierarchy of power.

And so, you know, that's an interesting point is although China can steal our technology and our ideas.

You can get somebody to move a rock from here to there. You can get them to do manual labor through force. Right. If I stand over somebody with a gun and I say move that from here to there, they will. But if I stand over somebody with a gun and I say have a good idea or create something new, they're not going to be able to do that. That isn't. So the society they've created is just one of the, you know, a different sort of thinking and an approach.

And, yeah, capitalism, even in a communist society, people want to be the best. They want to. They want to perform. And so it holds that back and it creates an environment where people just are indifferent.

Yeah.

And that's what you see a lot of Times is people are just indifferent. We're in a capitalistic society. You tend to care more about it. So what is your answer to that question, Christian? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?

So the first thing, my first answer that I would do is I would look Peter in the eyes and I would say, peter, the one truth that I know that no one else does is that whether or not I get hired for this job is my decision and not yours. So I would. Would have to go into a little bit of an explanation because otherwise you kind of sound like an arrogant jerk. Right. But. But the reason that I say that is that everything that led up to the moment of the interview is my responsibility. Like, how much did I prepare? How much did I research? How bad do I want the position? Like, that's all stuff that I can compare and decide whether or not I did everything I was supposed to do. Right. And that kind of leads me into my second answer, is that the universe is my responsibility to control. Right. So whatever happens to me is completely how the situation that I put myself in and that I believe that I can control outcomes based on what I put into it. And I'm going to kind of transition this over into you for a second, and then we're going to pull it back and do a real world example of how it affects everyone in the service department. So that we're talking about. Right. So. So, Chris, what are the chances of you getting coronavirus?

Very low.

Why?

Because I'm not. I'm not gonna let it happen.

I don't know.

I'm being really, really careful.

If it did happen, it would be an anomaly and it would still be my fault, but it would be whoever I have going to the grocery store or whatever wasn't careful, even though I have him, like, jumping right in the shower and following all of Dr. Lau's stuff. But it would be. I mean, I definitely feel like it would be a mistake on my part that I let somebody in because I haven't left.

And virtually you really haven't left either that much. Like, we're not interacting with people. So 100%, I believe it would be my fault.

Yep. And I think that it's that level of ownership that we're talking about with the way that we control our own destinies and futures. And I think that that's just in itself a different level of thinking is that, you know, I've never seen a situation where you play the victim. And in this case. Right. If all these precautions that you. That you took weren't enough and you still contract the virus. The truth is that you didn't do enough to protect yourself from the virus, right? So that kind of translates into a service department, right? Like, so if you're in charge of a service department and you have a bottleneck and you can't get work done, whose fault is it? Is it the technician's fault?

No, no, it's the leader's fault, right? Like, what are we doing for capacity? What are we doing for output? Are we, are we doing everything we possibly can? Are we making sure that we're inspecting cars good? Are we posting the hours in production? As Chris was saying before, like, we're in a capitalistic society. Like, there's a hierarchy of performance that, that people in our and our society want a hierarchy of performance. If we don't use that to maximize productivity, then that's 100% our fault, right? How much time do we put into recruiting when we need people? Are we using the rule of five? All those things are. It really comes back to the mirror. And I think the thing that I would tell you is that one thing that we're all recognizing as coaches is that this thing is really putting a huge separation between the winners and the losers.

Yeah, for sure. Like it's, it's a choice at the end of the day, right? And you might even say, like, well, you're quarantined and I'm still working in the service drive helping customers. But the fact of the matter is, until not that long ago, you and I were still flying around. And when I'd get on a plane, I sprayed everything down. I had, I was, I was over sanitizing. I was constantly, I was on this, on this speaking tour with.

For sct and we all got sick except for one guy, Tony, who works for Google. And he was spraying his hands constantly with this stuff. And I just started doing what he was doing, wiping everything down. And we were on a, we were on a private plane too when we all got sick. So you just can't be careful enough. And it's a choice. Like if you got sick, it's because you, you know, you touched your face, you did something. But yeah, it's a hundred. It's, it's funny in the, in the, in most situations how few people own the result. You know, it goes back to even that, that Dave Anderson saying, like, if your people suck, you suck. It's like you're, you know, we have a line in our motto that says every repair order, every customer interaction, it's it's all your responsibility. Right. And it's very rare that somebody will own it to that degree. And Jordan Peterson talks about owning the results so much that you believe society is your responsibility. I mean just think about that like you're a drop in an ocean and thinking that society is your responsibility beyond just owning the, the result. But the power of ownership is that once you own it, you start to see all the things you could do to fix it. And it gets a lot easier when you don't own it is harder because you're a victim. It's way harder to be the victim than it is in control of your own destiny. It's way more fun to be in control of your own destiny. And even those you could say, oh, I, I caught Corona, it wasn't my fault, it's my fault. If I caught it, I did something, something to let it in. Right. Even like to the end there when we, because I, we never canceled anything. We waited until clients canceled on us. But I had clients that, that had paid a lot of money for me to come speak and I wasn't going to cancel. I was still going to fly. And if I caught it, it still is my, I decided to do that. That right. I can't say, oh well, the client still wanted to have their meeting and wanted me to speak. I could have said no, but I went, you know, so my, my moral compass of not canceling on somebody is what caused that. I'm not a victim. Right.

Right.

It's complicated sometimes it's not easy. But I know when I get on that plane or I decide to go that I have a higher chance of catching it than I do if I'm quarantined here.

It's my choice still and it's our choice like if we hired somebody that doesn't work out. It's way easier to acknowledge that we made a bad hiring decision and try to figure out what we didn't see or what we didn't catch than to just, you know, throw our hands up and say, well, you know, there's no way I could have known. Well, you probably could have checked references. You couldn't. You know, you could have gotten number there's things you could have done that would have told you.

You just didn't.

You know, you hired them because they know adp.

Right?

Right. You validate the failure the of not of compromising on what you are are looking for by saying this is the easier plugin. Right?

Yeah. And like just say like advisors right now that are running out of work or shops that are running out of work? Like, don't you wish you connected deeper, on a deeper level with customers starting three years ago and really had relationships because they'd be calling you for advice on how to disinfect, they'd be calling you for advice on things and you'd still be busy, right?

That's exactly right. No victims.

Yeah. I love that question though. Would you ever ask that in an interview?

Yeah.

It's deep though. I don't know that a lot of people are ready for it.

Yeah, I think that you maybe just considering the position. Like if it was a, if it was a high level thought position, I wouldn't hesitate in a second.

James Kaufman says, Totally 100% stay in your bubble. Great answer.

Hart Nissan says is asking what, what cigar? So this is a Trini Trinidad Lancero. It's a Cuban.

Cigar. And I, this is a, a favorite of a lot of, a lot of people. And my favorite Lancero was ones that I got in Spain that were Monte Cristos. But this is better. But the Monte Cristos are good too. Not that, you know, we could go into a tequila pairing with cigars and all kinds of stuff, but I don't know that everybody watching this is interested in that. I know Christian isn't because he hasn't been drinking.

Nope. I'm clear. Isabel. James also said something pretty funny. He said we'll need a new anecdote from shaking hands and kissing babies too. And what I came up with was, was the Forrest Gump wave and blowing kisses instead.

What is. Okay. So Chin.

Breidenbach asked, during this time we have slowed down quite a bit on incoming customers as most have. We have been fortunate enough to have quite a few bigger jobs hold us over for the time being. But I have a few hard headed technicians that tend to be over on the overdramatic side of things and have the ability to create chaos in the shop with previous managers too. Do you have any insight on how to control the narrative with these technicians in this time where you don't have a lot of answers? How to increase traffic and keep everyone busy?

Yeah. So I, with, with me, I like to go right at stuff. Right. I'm guilty of that. Would you say Christian, I think that's fair. So I would call them in one by one and I just say, hey, like it's bad enough that we're going through this quarantine and now I got to deal with you creating chaos in the shop and your negativity and you did it for the managers before, and you're not going to do it for me. And I, it's, it's a hard line and you got, you know, I always say this murder has to be illegal. You have to have a line somewhere of what you're willing to, to accept, right? And so I would just call them in one by one and say, like, you're, you know, how you see things and what you say is really important to the dealership. You know, you're, you're a veteran here. People are listening to you. You have influence and your influence, influence needs to be positive, not negative. And you got to go right at it. And every time, like, your, your force has to get stronger and stronger. But I, I feel like those conversations are better one on one and, and then give them marching orders. Like, not only do I want that to stop, I want you to be a positive influence. So here's what I want you to say when you go out there and make them do it. Like, say, I want you to look at the positive side of things and maybe like sit there and make them do an exercise where they write down 10 positive things about what's going on right now. And, you know, but you gotta, you gotta get in their head and you can't allow it. You gotta go right at it, right through the front door there.

There's an internal, and an extra external alchemy that happens during that too, right? So when you see that you have that effect on an employee and actually you start to change them from being like 45 years of negativity to actually have them starting to consider the positive, like, that's power for you as a leader. And then when everyone else sees the transformation of that one person, like, they really start to look at you as a leader. And you can, that's how you start to move mountains, right? But it just takes that one murder line and telling someone that they're not going to cross it to kind of change.

I think maybe too, I've had that conversation a hundred times in my career, way too many times. I never remember. But I think it's funny when you have an old grumpy tech like that that nobody thinks they can fix, and I can easily fix them. One of the things that I'll say in that conversation is I'll ask them the question about what is your, what is your wife? And if they're not married anymore, like, I'll say, what, what are your kids? Somebody that's close to them, what do they say about your negativity? And they'll be like, no, my wife says that, blah, blah, blah. And it just separates it from work and just proves the point that they're miserable sons of bitches.

Right.

And so now, like, you can bring it back. But that question, like, so what does your husband or what does your wife say about your thoughts on things? Or have you ever been accused of being negative by anybody in your family? Like, that question works really, really well just to get it out in the open, you know, because if they're miserable at work, they're miserable. They're. The problem with people is they are who they are everywhere they go. That's the problem. Right. And so if you don't. If you don't love yourself, if you don't like yourself, if you're miserable, you're going to be miserable everywhere you go. If your basic outlook on life is that it's negative and things never go your way and everything sucks everywhere you go, that's who you are, unfortunately. And so kind of bringing that out in a subtle way helps a lot. Tim. I think.

Good stuff.

That's. I think that's it for our questions.

Right. I think that. Yeah, we had a couple of really good ones in there, and. Yeah, that's fun.

The Newfoundland wink and nod works well at this time.

I don't know what it is, but it sounds good.

Sounds dirty. What do you think it is? The Newfoundland wink. Like. Like, if you did that to a customer, especially if they were female, they'd think you're creepy.

Right.

Right. Right now it just looks like you've got something in your eye.

Yeah. That would.

Even.

That would be distracting. I don't know what it is, Danny. It's a newfie thing. He says we do it with a smile. Yeah. That Christian would make that even creepier. Nothing worse than that. Like a smile.

Right. I'm always looking for ways to be more creepy, so. Thank you, Danny.

You know what's amazing is that when you're walking my bulldogs, people still want to walk up and pet them. And you're like, we're. We're practicing the social distancing, and people are like. They just walk right up, like. Like, don't touch my dogs.

Yeah. Then you got to put them through the quarantine. Yeah.

It's like.

It's ridiculous.

People are crazy right now. If everybody just kind of followed the rules and were smart, we would, you know, it would be. It would be easier.

I. I don't know. It's. It's pretty easy to stay six feet away. From people, man.

I've been reading a lot of books lately. I'm having a lot of fun being quarantined. I.

It's kind of cool.

Yeah, for sure.

Good stuff, Christian.

I love that.

I love the answer. What important truth do very few people agree with you on? If you. If you guys have any or you think of any.

Let us know to post them. Somebody said, what are you reading?

Here's one that I'm reading. The Tao of Wu.

Danny sent me a text. He's so nice. I love Danny.

I miss him.

I don't know why I don't hang out with him more. Let me. I'm gonna go to my audible and tell you what books. So I'm doing the Peter Thiel one. I've got so many books going right now. My buddy Big Mike told me to read John Doerr's.

Measure what Matters.

Yep. I've got, like, 45 minutes left on.

That, so you're ahead of me. So this one. Let me see if you guys can see that measure. Oh, it's backwards. Measure what Matters by John D O E R R.

Then connected to that. I'm going back to a book from before because a lot of Measure what Matters comes from Bill Campbell. And so the book about Bill Campbell called Trillion Dollar Coach, which is really good. Then Peter Thiel's book, Zero to One. Peter Thiel, like, is so smart. He's like Jordan Peterson. I listened to a chapter. Think about it. Go back and listen to the chapter again. So it's kind of slow, but it really makes you think, because he really is a genius. If you don't know, Peter Thiel is. He was one of the. They called it the PayPal mafia, but him and Elon Musk started PayPal, and then he was one of the first investors in Facebook. And.

He talks about that, too. Like, that people try to make it out like he was some sort of genius for investing in Facebook. And they were like, was it Mark Zuckerberg that you thought was such a great leader or whatever? And he's like, no. He goes, they were just growing, so I gave him 100 grand. He goes, they were just growing so fast. They needed 100 grand for servers. You know, it's like, I know the owner of the building where we're at in downtown was one of the first investors in Google and Dropbox, and it was the same sort of thing, is they wanted the money just for servers and things like that. And ends up he's, you know, a billionaire now because he gave him a Couple hundred grand. It's fascinating. Another one. I'm trying to get into it kind of hard. Identity Leadership with Stedman Graham, Oprah's boyfriend. He's good, but. And then David Sedaris. I love David Sedaris. And he. He can't. He was doing a show at UCLA and it got canceled. I had. I got tickets to it for my birthday. Now I can. Now I can't go.

Killer storyteller.

Yeah, just. He's. Short stories.

I'm reading Rules for Radicals again. I mean I got a lot of stuff going, a lot of books. That's. That's not even all of it, honestly. Let me see, what else?

The Art of War by Machiavelli. So, you know, there's the Art of War.

That's the regular Art of War. That's the Chinese one. This one is the Italian one. So. The Art of War by Nico Machiavelli.

Yeah, that's a good list. I haven't finished the jocko one. Leadership Strategy and Tactics. I'm almost done. What are you. What else are you reading, Christian?

Let's see. I'm doing. I'm also doing the one with John Doyle. There was one that I just got last week actually, because the book was here. Brain Power. Really just kind of understanding how the mind works and stuff like that. Those are probably the two things. I'm also reading Trillion Dollar Coach. You're a lot further into that than I am. But there's a lot of similarities between what you're reading, what I'm reading and.

Gosh, there's.

Hmm.

One called the X Factor and I can't remember her name, Kim something or other. So I'm reading that one too. But yeah, I've probably got five or I've had. I got more audible books going right now than I've ever had in my entire life. Like I'm just trying to get stuff put in there.

Yeah, I'm literally just waking up and starting to listen. So it's good. I hope that helps. James, great question. Well, thanks you guys. I. Everybody stay safe during this. If there's anything we can do. If you need help, info at chris collins inc.com if you have any suggestions for topics or guests you would like to us to get on for you, that'll help you through this. Let us know. I thought Danny was a great guest and a good follow up to what I feel like we missed with Dr. Lau more than anything else.

It was definitely more application. Right. So that was really, really neat.

Yeah, it's good. Thanks. You guys have a great weekend, and we'll see you again real soon. Bye.