A short informal YouTube episode (Service Drive Revolution Drive By) where Chris Collins and Jeremy O'Neill discuss how dressing better improves credibility and self-confidence for automotive service advisors and managers. Chris shares a personal anecdote about wearing suits while working as a top advisor (at Volkswagen/Audi/Subaru) and gives practical, low-cost tips—suits or cleaner attire, shoes, haircuts, grooming—to 'dress for the position you want' and thereby feel and perform better. The episode closes with audience engagement prompts and a preview of the next show.
Chapters
Foreign.
Everybody, and welcome to Service Drive Revolution. Drive by. I'm Chris Collins, this is Jeremy o'. Neill. We're here to give you a little love on Friday, a little inspiration and idea, some food for thought, something that's going to make you better. Today we want to talk about dress better, feel better. So years ago I had dinner when I was back up in Seattle for the a Seahawks game or something nice. With somebody you used to write service with. Who now is the service manager? Where his. His name is Johnny.
Okay.
It's his real name, his Christian name. Some people call him John, but you got to be really close to him to call him John, okay? Otherwise it's Johnny. You don't just walk up to him and say, hey, John.
Oh, wow.
Johnny.
Says at dinner, randomly, out of nowhere, because he's awkward like that, he says, you know, I used to think you were a douchebag, but now I get it.
Nothing like telling the truth, huh?
Yeah. I was like, what do you mean? He goes the way you used to wear suits to work as an advisor. But I remember walking around that dealership, no joke, and going, so what cost me like 7,8 million to buy this place? Like, I wore a suit. I was the top advisor. Right. People that had issues, if the manager wasn't there because our manager smoked weed, would show up at 10, leave it to you, do lines of blow. It was that time in the car business. Yeah. So manager wasn't there. Who do you. Who do customers go to? The guy in the suit. Right. When I'm helping a customer, do I have more credibility with them?
Yes.
But the thing that is the most important part of this that I found, and I've seen this happen over and over again with managers that are struggling, and I'll tell them, change the way you dress, like you feel like you're stuck. There's politics in the dealer group. You work in social media, start dressing up, start wearing a suit every day. But what happens is it's not so much that other people's perception change, which it does, right? People's perception of you change. But what really happens in the real magic, Jeremy, is that you change. You start to feel better about yourself, okay? You feel more engaged, more powerful, more influential because you're wearing something, you're dressed up, you're ready to go, you're putting some effort into the way that you look, which then will change the way you feel about yourself. So the message today in this drive by is dress better, feel better. How are you dressing every day? Are you waking up grabbing that same polo shirt you wore the day before or the polo shirt they gave you at the convention three years ago that's been washed 22 times too many. Are you dressing to impress? Are you dressing for where you want to go? I always say, like, dress for the position you want to have, not the one you have now. And literally, like, I was the only advisor wearing.
So what it's going to do is if you're an advisor, this is going to force you to stay in your niche and your craft, which is your highest paid activity is being an advisor and not crawling on the ground or working on cars. Because that's not what we're supposed to do, right?
Oh, yeah.
And that could be, you know, an excuse that somebody uses to say that I can't dress better, I want to keep the uniform on or whatever because sometimes I crawl on the ground and fix things. But it's going to force you to actually change. That's actually really good.
And I didn't make a lot of, like, I was making good money for an advisor, but I wasn't making money to go buy Armani suits. But I would go to the outlet malls. I would find sales at the outlet mall.
Nordstrom's Rack is a great place to go. Yep.
All the outlets, like, that's what I would do. So I had three or four suits over time and different dress shirts and ties. But, you know, I grew up poor. Like, I didn't. The first time I wore a tie, I had to go to Nordstrom's and have him tie it so I could slip it over my head. Just remember, I didn't have a dad. Like, I didn't have anybody to teach me. You should see the first time I shaved, it looked like a massacre. Like I was going the wrong way. Like my poor mom. But I had nobody to teach me, right? Yeah. But it was more important to me to show up with that, you know, that impression. That's who I wanted to be.
So you're not necessarily saying that to run out and buy a suit. What about shoes? Shoes are important as well. Right. So, like in success, the condition of your shoes. So you might just be clean, you know, dress betters. Could just be cleaning up your image a little bit.
Yeah.
Getting your shoes.
Haircut.
A haircut?
Yes.
Well, you know, trimming beard up a little bit.
Grow a beard. What about that girl?
A beard. Why would I ever do that?
Because you look like a baby's ass.
It's totally.
When you have a beard, nobody can ever mistake you for A female.
What are you saying? People mistake me for a female all the time.
Like, he. He.
Ms. Service Advisors. How can they dress better? So you wore a suit. What car line were you in when you wore a suit?
Volkswagen, Audi, Subaru. Most of the advisors were in khakis and polos.
Khakis and polos. Okay, so you just stepped your game up. You're like, you know what? Forget it. I'm doing it. Go for it.
I'm always kind of. I do my own thing. I don't. I'm not. I always figure, like, those people, like, if you follow the crowd, you're gonna be the crowd. Yeah, you. The more you follow the crowd, the more you're gonna be average. So I've never had a hard time doing my own thing, even to this day. Like, I dress different than everybody else, but I'm not trying to be everybody else. All right?
The next time we shoot, I'm wearing a suit. I'm getting rid of my polo shirt. I'm putting a suit on.
Okay? Okay.
You'll see it next time. Runner.
Happy Friday, you guys. Thanks for watching Service Drive Revolution or listening. The message today is dress better, feel better. Do it. Have a great weekend. Next week on Service Drive Revolution. Hey, service advisors, can you talk for a second? We're going to talk about the top five things that are killing service advisors. There's no way that automation is going to outperform me. They'd be at their therapist going, hey, my dad's throwing stuff, and it's making. Making me really uncomfortable. I emailed this to all my dogs.
I get instant feedback from my dog.
You know, God intended it. That's a big community college word. Anthropopotic. Yeah, anthropomotic. Oh, Starbucks is the McDonald's and coffee.
Maybe if you tip more than a nickel at Starbucks, it might remember your name.
Get out of here. I'm putting in a nickel. But it's more than they've made in the last half an hour.
They are going to take your credit card information and go shop later. They're going to steal your credit card, basically.
And I hate it when I'm with people and they do that. Oh, I only drink four times a day now instead of 20. Oh, so you have to have plastic surgery to be a trophy wife? You know how I always make fun of you? Oh, Jeremy, your green tea's ready.
There's nothing about you that stands out.
We love you. We thank you for all of your support. This has to be the number one show in automotive thanks for watching this episode of Service Drive Revolutions Drive By. I hope it gives you something to think about over the weekend and inspires some new ideas and hopefully some new results. If you have any questions for the big show, go ahead and post them below in the comments. We'll be looking out for them and we'll answer them on the show. Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon so you're notified when we post new episodes. I'm Chris Collins and you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Chris Bulldog Collins and I'll see you again on the next episode.
