From Lube Tech To Now With Rob Rowse | SDR #201

Welcome, everybody, to this edition of Service Drive Revolution. I'm Chris Collins. This is Chris Joan. Hello, everyone. And our special guest today, Roberto or Rob.

What's up, everybody?

Today we're going to talk about Rob's story, how he went from.

Lube tech tire changing tires all the way to where he is now. It's a fascinating story. And also we're going to talk about some things going on here in the office. So that and much, much more coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revolution.

So let's start off. And I think you had something really funny to say the other day, talking about what a disaster.

The air conditioning system is in this new building.

That's great.

So I asked you, I was like, is it. Doesn't this suck? I was looking for a little confirmation to my pity party.

Yeah.

And you're like, no, this is great. I'm from Canada.

This is fantastic.

It's a tropical paradise.

Yeah. I'm in la.

He's never seen this much mercury.

Also, like, I usually like to have.

I usually like to have it so cold that you could hang meat. Like, we had that complaint in our last coaching meeting. And I. And they were like, do you want us to turn it down? I'm like, no. They. Some of the people in the room complained to the hotel directly. So the hotel came to me and they're like, hey, people are complaining that it's real cold in here. And I'm like, they go, they're going outside to cool down at the breaks.

That was so fun.

That's fun. But they'll fall asleep, you know, if you make it too warm, feed them lunch. And then all of a sudden they're taking a nap. Right. So there's a little strategy behind the, the cold. You know, you do more work if it's cold.

So the best thing is, is when, when someone's like, hey, Chris, everyone's complaining it's a little bit cold in here. And he goes like, it's a little loud.

That's what I sound like.

Sort of in that particular. He takes joy in it.

Yeah. So.

Couple weeks, hopefully they can fix the ac. It's not easy to get AC fixed right now, I guess. Yeah, I guess the, the heat wave in the Midwest is causing a short supply of air conditioners because people that never had air conditioning, now with whatever's happening with.

Global warming or whatever you want to say, they now they want ac. Like, even my mom in Washington wants ac.

Never, never in Washington would you consider ac.

I was gonna say it's A pretty cool area, right?

No. Yeah. Well, maybe not the last couple summers.

Maybe there's not ac people. I mean, I'm starting to kind of walk around the. The neighborhood a little bit, and I just saw. I was walking past a business and there was a help wanted sign in the window. So I walked in, I said, what do you need?

You like a Segways? That's a good segue. Yeah. Pretty smooth, right?

Smooth, yeah, super smooth.

You kind of know what's happening, but no. No. You're not quite sure.

Not sure where it's going to end. Right, Rob.

So, Rob, do you. Do you remember when we first talked?

I do. I do.

Me too. It was a fascinating conversation.

It was.

You're a fun guy to talk to.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. Well, I think initially.

I originally thought I was just going on a call with Christian. All of a sudden, Christian's like, oh, by the way, Chris is going to join us. Okay.

Is that what happened? Yeah, we were on it together.

Yeah.

I think that particular one was, why did we do that to him?

I don't remember, but it worked out.

You just wanted to punish him.

Well, I think the more I got to learn more about Christian, I feel like that's kind of his M.O.

Is to surprise you.

Surprise moment.

There was something to that particular one.

Is that like a management style of yours that you like to keep them on the. On their toes, like, so they don't get comfortable? Because I noticed you do that a lot.

Probably a little bit.

He's almost like a sniper.

Look at the grin on his face on the wall. For. For those sort of conversations, you're smart and you have a lot of experience and wisdom, and so I just kind of want to have that sort of conversation. So we kind of outlined a basic, you know.

Yeah.

Basic points. So we kind of came up with four. Four points. So kind of tell us your. Your story, like how. How you started in the industry, and then we'll. We'll kind of go from there.

It really started. I was like 7, 8 years old. My dad and grandfather had a four bay Texaco gas station back when gas was like 35 cents a liter. Right. So, you know, I had a job every day after school. My job was to get dropped off at the gas station, and my job was to clean the floors. Seven, eight years old. Pushing a broom that was probably heavier than I weighed. Right. But for me, it was like that excitement. I couldn't wait for school to be over because I got to hang out with my dad. So it's like my dad had this thing, he always had a rag sticking out of his back pocket. I would not start pushing that broom until I had the rag in my back of my pocket. Because I felt like, all right, I was one of the boys now.

Funny how when we're kids how really a lot of what we do is copy. So my grandfather was a fireman, so I'd wear his fire hat and put a badge on.

It's the.

It's an instant. I don't know the word I'm looking for, but it's instant mentorship. Right. And we don't even realize it. Oh, yeah. I think right at the point, it's seven, eight years old and my dad's got this, you know, impulse, this pressure on me already that I want to be just like him, you know, and it's. And I just, you know, a lot of people say, well, I've been in the car business. I grew up in the car business. Well, I literally grew up in the business. I'm 6, 7, 8 years old. I'm at the shop already, you know, maybe only pushing a broom, but I thought I was, you know, walking the talking. One of the boys of that age. Right. So that just kind of really, it just snowballed after that. I mean, it's.

So did you start working on cars after that?

No, it's. Well, my dad ended up getting a tire shop as well. So I was 15 years old working in this tire shop. And we did all sorts of tires, we did carry tires, we did truck tires.

Were you like riding them up and fixing them kind of everything?

No, this time I was just right, I was just fixing them. So I'm 15 years old doing, you know, transport truck tires. And then my dad got into this forklift tire. He added a forklift part of the business to it. And I'm 15 years old driving around Wallaceburg, Ontario in a five speed Ford F150, going to these factories in Wallaceburg, taking out forklift tires, bringing them back.

So you were a mobile tech?

Yeah, well, way before it was popular.

Way before. So, you know, we mobile, we go to the town, we take the forklift tires off, bring it.

What does your dad pay? What are the. I'm not, I'm not sure what the laws are in Canada about child labor, but. What was your. What was your dad. I'm sure there's a statute of limitations. You're not gonna get him in trouble. But was he paying you a fair wage or was it. You were part of the Family business. And you just went to work?

Well, the, the Texaco gas station. I got clean rags every day in my pocket.

You got what?

Clean rag every day from my pocket.

That was the pay.

That's. That was my pay. I was learning the ropes.

If you had to come back, you had to use a dirty rag.

But you got dinner, room and board.

That's right. Yeah.

Yeah.

So. But at the tire shop you own, and minimum wage back then was like seven bucks an hour. So I was. No, to me, seven bucks an hour at 14, 15 years old. That's a gold knife. A kid like that. Most of my buddies weren't even working.

Oh, yeah. Well, minimum wage when I started working was 4, 425.

425, too.

Yeah.

But Canada is a little different. So would you go to school and then work after school?

Yeah, so I, I, I did the usual. I just, I, I tried to venture a little bit on my own. I started cutting grass in the summertime. I had, like, 13 lawns. But being like, 14, 15 years old, like, that's way too hard to cut lawns. Besides that, I miss being in the shop with my dad, too. So that kind of fizzled out, and I went back to working with my dad. And then, you know, just the interest in the business started coming along, and then he started introducing. I started watching the way he interacted with the customers because he was starting to venture from being the technician into the management side of it. So for me, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to be a mechanic at the time. I just, I knew that I wanted to be in the business. I knew I loved it. The paychecks were always really good, you know, and that ventured off. I finished high school, and it's like.

I got accepted to fire college, and I thought to myself, you know, I'm just gonna take a year off.

What's fire college?

So in Canada, it's to be a firefighter, an actual college that literally trains you to be a firefighter. And I got accepted. That was what I wanted to be growing up. This kind of my. In the back of my brain, I wanted to be a firefighter. But still, the business was still at the forefront. I felt like, I'll take the year off, save some money up, and then I'll make my decision.

Now, like most kids in Canada, you're also huge into beach volleyball. Did you ever consider a career in that?

I have a body for a beach volleyball player. For sure.

You meant hockey.

So. So this, this kind of starts to bring Us to. To our story and to. The point is you, like most of us.

Decided to forego college for a minute to work a year. So you're like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna take a year and I'm gonna work. And then you never ended up going to college because you made more money than all your friends that graduated college.

This is the thing, like, take the year off. You're making butt loads of money at that age. 17, 18 years old. Lube Tech. You know, your buddies don't. They're all in school. Yeah, you're right. You don't have jobs, but you had the money on that Friday night to go out and party and do your extracurricular activities. Right. And my buddies didn't have that money. So. Yeah. Just the business, just it. I'm telling you, it just wraps you. And it's hard not to love the business. It really is. I just. For me, it's. I just. You can never get enough. And there's. The ceiling in this business is so high, you work your butt off that just. There's nothing you can't accomplish in this business. And the income could be astronomical.

Yeah. And so the first point that we have is the thing that you realized early on that we all did is you can create your own path in this business. That if you work harder, you're more committed, you end up, you know, just kind of moving up and being. Being successful by default.

Yeah. I think for me.

I had a pretty good path laid out for me by being able to.

Follow my dad's shadow growing up as a kid. Right. And it's. I think we all get, you know, we all follow that path and we get. We're. We're in that shadow for so long and, you know, and I think it really gives us guidance.

Yeah. For sure.

What we want to do. Right. And it's. That's kind of where I feel like today when I look back, man, it's been a really good run and I've learned a lot of lessons.

So interesting to have your dad on here with you. I'm dying to meet your dad, actually. All the conversations, all the things that you've said about your dad, I would love to meet him someday. So then you. So you go from working in the shop to being an advisor to then being a manager.

Yeah.

And so as you kind of become a manager, what was your first management lesson? For me, my first management lesson when I became a manager was.

That the.

You know, you had to make decisions in line with the business, not Your people. Because you, if you make the decisions in line with your people, you end up being ill equipped to serve the customers. And the customers are the most important thing. But what was your, what was your big lesson?

I had, I had a big one. This was like at the. Probably, you know, we all need that reality check in life. And I got one at a pretty young age. I got my first. I think I was a pretty decent service advisor. I mean, I didn't like to get beat. So I got the opportunity to be a Service Manager at 821.

Now is this at a dealer or an independent?

This is at a 4 dealer in a town called Tilbury, which is outside of Windsor. And I love Windsor. That's all right.

I was going with it.

So anyway, yeah, I mean, it's. And with that, you know, with that opportunity to be a search manager, it comes the money.

And instead of looking at it as an opportunity to take my career to the next level or gain experience, I looked at it as financially, huge increase to what I was making.

And how old are you?

21 at this time.

21. So you're making, how much money are you making now at 21?

So $80,000 a year. Oh, wow.

That's a lot of money for a.

21 year old in Windsor.

Yes.

At that age. So you're not. Are you married at this point?

Oh, God, no. You're just. I was freelancing everywhere.

You're sitting on the. Are you sitting on the ice at the hockey game?

Yeah. And it's. Yeah, it's. I felt like I was more mature as an advisor than I was as a service manager.

Because of the money and the power.

Yeah, because the money and the power. And you know, when I was an advisor, I still lived at home, but when I got that service manager gig, I'm like, I don't need home anymore. I can get my own place now.

Did you get your own place or did you have roommates?

No, I got my own place. Like an apartment. Right. So I guess, you know, with, with this more money came more friends, more things to do, more money to go do things, you know, like more opportunities.

To get in trouble.

100%. You know, it's the, you know, party. I mean, the party increased, the, the groups increased, you know, and I think it really took, you know, I got clouded really quick by the money and I took for granted the opportunity I was given by my dealer principal because he was a really good dude. Like, he just, he took a chance on me and I let him down. In some aspects, right, because I just. I got clouded in the opportunity to have all this money and party and. But I lost focus.

What was the moment that. That hit you square in the eye?

We had an audit, a warranty audit through Ford Motor Company. And.

You. That audit really revealed how crappy of a job I was really doing. You know, it just. It was. Ended up being a $30,000 charge back. And I realized then.

I wasn't a leader. I was a leader with a title. I wasn't leading my people. I didn't manage my people. I didn't manage my department. The technicians were all my buddies. But I still remember, ladies, yesterday, I sat across from my dealer principal, had to look him square in the eye and say, what? Sorry, he isn't gonna fix it. Sorry you gave me the opportunity to cost you $30,000 plus the 80,000 you're paying me a year to do this.

Yeah. And probably to some degree, when you're young and, like, you kind of referenced the immaturity. You're not intentionally. When you're young, thinking like, hey, I'm going to mess this up. You're just not. You. You're not paying attention, and the consequences come. But you're, you know, you're not really intentionally doing that, right?

No.

So what do you say to him?

I'll be honest with you. I think the only two words I did say was, I am sorry, and I. And that was it. And then I remember a Ford rep, he left, and then I went downstairs. Joe stayed in his office with his two daughters because they were in training to be dealer principals, too. And I knew right away this was the end. Like, the plug had been pulling out of the tub and the water was draining, and I was going down with it. So he come down to my office, he said, I don't think I really have to explain anything, do I? I said, no, I got you, Joe. That was my sobering moment of.

Now I have to make that phone call to my dad and say.

Was it.

Harder to tell your dad or to face Joe?

I was just going to ask that same question.

Definitely harder to face my dad, because then you got to have that father, son talk.

Was dad already telling you that you were getting too crazy?

100%.

Oh, so dad was. He was already like, hey, you're letting this go to your head.

He's not stupid. Like, he. I mean, I was driving race cars at the time, too, so, you know, he would see me on weekends and, you know.

That was parties. You know, it was just a big Party. It was a seven day week party.

So then what, what changes? What do you change at that point?

That is the, the moment you look in the mirror and I didn't like the person I saw in the mirror. That's what it was.

That was, wow. Really?

Yeah. And I've said this to Chris a couple times. I really had to step back. And at 21 years old, that's not something you do. Your ego is so big at that age. Sometimes it's just like, I don't need to do that, I'm good. But that for me, I felt like with everything I learned over the years and the path that was laid out, I felt like I let myself down first. Then I felt like I let my dad down, the family down, let Joe down. So for me it was a really sobering moment. That man, if I'm going to, if I'm like, I'm already into this five years, like, I got to really step back, reset and start liking the person I see in the mirror every day. I got to, I got to reset everything, recalibrate what I do to get back on top. Because when I started looking at it, it was like, okay, I was given a service manager opportunity, but I stepped back and look at it. I don't know if I really earned it. I thought it was, I think Joe just really thought, here's a young guy, he can grow and build together with my daughters because they're a little older than me, but not much. But so I think that moment was okay. Time to refocus, step back as an advisor for a couple more years, re energize myself and started really focusing on the next step that I wanted to take.

So at that point you were demoted?

No, I, I was fired. Obviously I got fired.

That wasn't actually clear to me. Sorry, you got fired?

Fired? Yeah. And then. And that's.

So do you work there? Do you go somewhere else?

I went to. So turned out, so my parents out.

Joe owns every dealership in town.

So what I did was I left Windsor. No, I did actually. So, yeah, basically what I did, I packed up my stuff and I moved back home, put my leg between my tail, between my legs.

Oh yeah.

And.

Oh, and so then you go work for dad?

Yeah, so.

So dad's a manager.

So my dad was a service manager at a GM store in Oxbridge.

So now you're switching from Ford to gm?

Yeah, to gm. So I'm think one, I got my tail between my legs, I'm embarrassed. And now my dad is service manager. GM store says I have an opportunity for a service advisor position.

He says, come there so I can keep an eye on you is basically what the words were. Oh, yeah, okay, no problem. So I moved from Windsor all the way to Oxbridge, which is about five and a half hours difference apart.

So go back there. I worked with my dad. I refine my tools. I get back to where I was mentally.

So you only party on Saturdays?

Saturdays and Sundays.

Well, some would say Friday night. Saturday and Saturday.

Well, okay, yeah, but that, you know, going back into, I guess you call his shadow and recalculating and refiguring everything back out was very key for me. That. That is the changing moment for me in the car business. You know, at age 20 or two years later, down the road, I bought my first house. I re. It just. Everything started clicking for me. Everything started making sense, and I was learning.

The way to be a proper manager and lead your people. And it turns out my dad, he left our store, went to another GM store in Markham.

And I got promoted. Not on my dad's recommendation. My dad actually recommended somebody else.

What?

Yeah, it just felt like I wasn't back to where I need.

So are you 26 at this time?

No, I'm 23 this time. It's two years later, so. Fired at 21, moved home.

Two years of service, 23. So dad just thought it wasn't. Not yet.

Not yet.

Well, he's probably thinking about what happened when he was just two years younger. I'm sure that was probably weighing on his head, but.

So the dealer's like, no, I think we're going to go with.

Yeah, that's fine. Like the dealer again. I've always been kind of surrounded by younger dealer principals and general managers. Growing up through this, through my career, and we kind of had the same wavelength. He liked talking. I loved hockey. He loved golf. I loved. We just had a lot of different things and same things in common. And he gave me a shot, and it just. That was the shot in the arm I needed, you know, and it worked.

So now this time, it's like a reset, Huge reset I'm going to do, you know, I'm going to be responsible, that sort of thing. Now, just. Just a question, nuance, but I'm curious. So I'm imagining when you're 21 and your dad gives you advice, you're not that receptive to it. When you're 23, you're calling your dad for advice.

Yes.

Is that. Is that a safe?

That's a safe. I'm One, I'm calling, can I move home? Right. Two, I'm saying help me please, Dad, I need, I need some, I need some focus. I need help to get myself back on track.

No, but I'm saying when you become a manager again for the second time.

Yeah.

Are you more asking for help from your dad?

Oh yeah.

So you don't mess it up this time. The stakes are higher.

100. Yeah, the stakes are, the stakes are through the ceiling at this point. And yeah, that.

What's the outcome of that? What do you do with the department?

He really taught me how to manage my people and how to be a proper leader, implement processes, utilize. Like we're one of the first dealers, I think at the time that really we didn't have a drive through, but we really started implementing the walk around process. You know, he was, we were one of the first in that town to start doing that.

So that really.

My responsibility list got big and you know, I started working longer hours. I, you know, they had the store in Windsor before I got fired. I was showing up at 9 and leaving at 4. Like I just took advantage of it. But here I was, you know, 7:00 o' clock in the morning till 6:30, 7:00 clock at night.

I was putting, you're putting in the work.

Putting the work, putting in the time, building my leadership skills with my people and my techs and getting this respect factor from my people. But I had to respect myself first in order to get to that point. Right. And I think that's, that two years really helped me build that. So.

Him moving on and me getting an opportunity, really, it just, I pulled fourth gear. We're, we're going then things are really starting to happen.

You know, one thing that.

That'S unique about you, maybe that you don't realize is you're very open.

Like you're curious, you're open, you're. When you, when, when we talk about things, you're, you're engaged in the conversation in a way that most aren't. Most kind of know it all. They have it figured out. It's their way. Or were you, where do you think, did you get that from your dad? Or is it some. Sometimes in the son, the son is a mirror of the dad. Sometimes those sort of characteristics are the opposite of the dad because you learned it and maybe saw a blind spot in dad. I don't know. But I'm curious, where did you get your openness?

I really think that firing at 21 changed my outlook and the way I.

Thought about things because I don't know it. All right.

I don't.

And I'm clearly oblivious to. I just got blind. I got hit by a truck and I never saw it coming.

Yeah. So I really. I took a different path of just being more open to everything in life.

Now you realize that a lot of people in that scenario do the opposite and they get more and more controlling, more and more insecure, and more and more opinionated.

Yeah. And I, to be honest with you, I was at that point, I was scared. I was at a point in my life where like, I'm 21 years old. I just got stonewalled because of my own doing. Like, I got handed a fate, you know?

Did you think that your career in the business was ruined because you got fired so early?

Yeah.

Like that you wouldn't get another chance, that kind of thing.

Yeah, it was. Yeah. It. That's why the phone call goes to the mom and dad, say, I gotta move home. I need this reset. And I really thought, like, I think in. I think if I would have stayed in Windsor, it might have turned around. But I feel like I needed that.

Geographically change to somewhere different, to live somewhere different. And I needed my. I needed guidance. That's what it was. I needed guidance to get my career back on track. And I think. And me and Christian talk about this sometimes I'm wide open to anything.

Oh, yeah.

Like I. There is nothing that I'm not close minded. I am open to learning. I am open to anything that comes. Comes at me. And I don't. I think that's something that I've just done myself. I wouldn't say it's from my dad or my mom or anybody else in my family. It's just that firing changed the way I looked at things.

Well, I think it's great that you got humility at that young an age. I think it happens so much later for most people. Like, to get it at 21 is a really cool lesson.

Or not at all.

Or not at all. That's a really good point too, that some people never get the humility that he has.

A lot of people don't accept it. Right. They fight it or they justify it or that sort of thing. I mean, you definitely have this internal locus of control and then you have this curiosity about other ways of doing things, which is refreshing and fun to collaborate. Right. With because we can have conversations about stuff. Okay. And so then kind of the last part of this kind of wrapping it up is so there's kind of two things going on. And I thought you were going to say this kind of at the beginning, but I get this sometimes is when I'm talking to people in Canada and this is, this is only in reference to people that work for us. I've never had a client say this. Well, maybe I have actually. That you're very, that you're very American.

Oh, clients have said that before.

They have, yeah.

That you're very American. And you know, and so I'm curious. There's kind of. There's two things going on here. And the question is one, with all of the experience that you have and the, you know, the example of your dad and all that coming into what we do now on the other side, which, you know, we tell you in the beginning, like it's different, right? Because you, you, you can't just walk in and change things. You got to convince people to change that it's, it's different. And then the America versus Canada, there is a different way of looking at things. We're. We're more similar than we are different. But there, there are nuances. What are the, what are the things that stick out to you the most? Coming over to this side of it, going in and fixing instead of being the one working in the, in the business.

And before you start that, we were talking a little bit ago about stakes and stakes. Yeah.

Do you mind? Like, you're like the state.

The stakes were really high.

Like a 16oz steak, like a wagu.

And that's what it got me to thinking is, is that I bought a cured ham the other day and I never figured out what it had.

Continue on.

So. Great.

How do you follow up with that?

Like, how long have you been sitting on that?

Yeah, about four or five minutes waiting.

Right when you said steaks, I'm like, could I pop in? I'm like, no, let me wait and then I'll pull it back.

Now you want me to answer a question?

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah. So my question is.

So we. I think there's always this thing, right, where we're like, hey, it's really, it's way harder on this side. And everybody's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right? Like, you probably did that. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah, I did that.

And then you come to this side and you're like, oh, this is hard. And we're like, well, we told you. And you're like, well, you didn't tell me it was that hard. And we're like, no, we told you it was that hard.

I was told by three People. I was told by Patricia it was really hard, Chris. And you said, it was really hard. I'm like, no problem.

Yeah, I got this. It's hard.

My first week here was like, this is really hard.

Yeah, the expectations are high.

Yeah.

But, yeah, man, this side of the business, you really look at yourself in the mirror and you say, what did I do for 20 years? Years. Like, really, what did I do? And you start. And the more you start learning this side of the business and what we do, you really start seeing how closed loop we are. Like, you really.

Oh, like in the dealer world.

Yeah, like, in the dealer world, we're.

It's Groundhog Day. Every day you're doing the same thing, and the outcome doesn't change. You got customers coming in, and we never. We never change how we approach it. We never test stuff. We're never like, hey, let's try this on 100 customers, and let's try that and see if we sell more alignments. Nothing. Right. It's just a closed loop. Don't change, protect, protected at all costs. And don't listen to any.

Like, we're like a hamster. We're just spinning on the wheel, man. And it's so. Yeah, this side, what we do is so dynamic. And I never would have thought you would never convince me that this business is all psychological. It really is.

That's a good lesson.

Right? And this business is psychological. From service judo to the maintenance man, everything that we do is so far outside the box. To every service manager in North America and, you know, going into stores now.

Seeing the response or the pushback is like, I was that guy. I did that. I did that pushback.

That was me. And you understand, like, you understand why.

Yeah, 100%. Listen, Coach Rob's coming to fix. Help fix my department. No, I don't. Yeah, I've done this for 25 years. I know what I'm doing.

Yeah.

Right. So this, what we do is so dynamic. It's. It's a lot of fun. Yes. It's hard, but fun at the same time. Like, we have a lot of fun and seeing the results. Like, I'll never let anybody tell me that this. That what we do doesn't work because it works. I've seen it. I've witnessed it. And it's just. It's really cool. It's a cool gig. It's a really cool job.

And, yeah, it gets addictive.

Yeah.

You get addicted to fixing stuff.

Yeah. And it's.

And I said, you're a little bit of a Cowboy.

Yeah, Yeah, I have cowboy boots too. I have some, don't you?

Me too.

Yeah, I got some nice ones. Anyway.

Why did you buy cowboy boots again? One day he just shows up in cowboy boots like Brett Michaels from 1984 all of a sudden.

Yeah.

For Dallas. For the meeting in Dallas.

Yeah.

The only time you've ever worn them.

Yeah.

Well, you can't walk around LA in cowboy boots. Makes no sense. Okay. And so just to. To go a little bit deeper on that, what did you tell your dad? Well, what did your dad say? Like, I'm so curious about that conversation.

We had some back and forth.

Did you. When you were thinking about coming to work for us, did you ask his advice?

Of course.

And what did he say?

Don't do it.

Why?

This is a closed loop. He's a closed loop service manager.

Oh, really? Does he think it's too risky or.

What did he think?

I think a lot of it. He just was looking out for my best interest.

Well, of course, he's your dad. But I'm wondering what the reasoning is.

I think a lot of it. When I explained everything to him, our group was more US based and we're starting to get more Canadian clientele now. I think his biggest worry was just me stepping off into the ocean and not having a platform to stand on. But.

I mean, I get that side of it. But I probably could have given a little more insight on everything that we do and what your future outlook looks like for the Canadian side of it. I said to him, I said, I want to be part of this. I want to be that guy that helps our group get to that next level on the Canadian side because they need us.

Yeah, Canada's a little further behind. Yeah, but the customers aren't further behind. No, the customers expectations are the same as in America.

So I think, you know.

His is. It was more or less just play safe, play safe. And I mean, because I had a good gig, I was making good.

But no, and you're in demand, the whole thing. So now that you. That once you kind of started to understand what we're doing and you were looking at things a little bit different then what do you do? You talk to him about the business side of it and systems and that sort of thing.

So we dabble. I told Christian this little. We dabble a little bit about Intuit and what we do, but at some point.

I got to step outside the box and just do it, do it on my own. You know, there's.

But isn't your dad curious about Other, like, is he curious about, like, how we're getting the numbers we're getting.

Or is he. Is he kind of set with what his results are? What they.

He's set with what they do. You know, he's set with his daily routines and what. Now we've talked about reracks and stuff like that. I talked about some stuff we do, some stuff.

Just. It's interesting but not exciting. Right.

So I think he still looks at. I think he's still looking at us as consumer consultants, but that's not what we are. We're coaches, man. Like, everybody needs a coach. Baseball has coaches. Hockey has coaches.

Beach volleyball.

Beach volleyball, which is my favorite, by the way.

Right.

Almost went pro.

Yeah. With this body, for sure.

I mean, now that I'm in the. You know, he really starting to understand it more and more now because I'm starting to open up more about what we do and how the pros and how we. What we do really does work and how we're changing things.

Do you share the results with him?

I haven't yet, no. Oh.

But I will bet you if you ever go in and start showing him some dashboards and just let him look at him, because, you know, he.

I think for me.

He'S gonna see them, because once, you know, once my results start coming, the board, which I know are gonna be fantastic, he'll see the bigger picture. Right. He still supports me. He still, you know. Yeah. So it's.

I would love to have him on if that's. If we. We could go up there maybe sometime and do it like, in Toronto. But if we could ever get him down here, I would love he's. Meet him.

He's a good man, but he's got.

He's got great stories.

Oh, he's got stories. Stories for days.

I love that.

So.

So basically, to wrap up and kind of conclude is Christian's a sniper.

Definite sniper.

He kills people that don't know it's coming. Is that 100% like this?

It's one thing I learned about Christian. Love the guy to death and full of wisdom.

He has cowboy boots that have been worn once.

Yeah. And he probably wears them with the sniper outfit.

Oh, that's a good idea.

Walk around the house in the cowboy boots.

For sure. I think. Cowboy boots.

I said, do you not. Would you? No, I have.

Before.

Yes. He was breaking them in to Dallas, weren't you?

I was.

I think. I think I went through a phase when I was a kid with cowboy boots. And, like, once you start wearing them you can't really wear anything else.

God, they look so good, but they.

But you got a little arch to it. And so it's a different. It changes your. What would you call that? Your gait. Yeah.

I got a really nice pair of square, square nose ones that Jason. I got them off of Jason Aldean's style of boot. Really nice. Super comfortable. Yeah, I don't really.

If you haven't worn cowboy boots and you start wearing them, you kind of look like you're gonna stick up your butt for a little while. Yeah.

You walk with a little bottle. Yeah.

A hitch in your giddy episode.

You kind of in or out.

Yeah.

That was my experience because there was a time back in my band days where, you know, the glam and all that, where we were wearing cowboy boots and also the ones we'd wear, like, kind of had a little height. Yeah. Okay, well, fun. I want to have. I want to have you on more. I would love to have your dad on. It's a great, great story and fun. So let's just kind of, kind of go through the, the list. The first one was you got to create your own path. And this industry lets you do that.

Yeah.

Still to this day, somebody could come in, be a lube tech, and end up being a general manager.

Ceilings high.

Yeah.

And then the, you know, you're. You kind of. You had that moment that we all have where you had to look in the mirror and grow up basically. Right. I like how you said you had to like yourself. You don't, you know, you didn't like who you saw and you had to change that.

That was huge.

And you're not blaming the, you're not blaming it on anybody else. You're saying, you know, I gotta fix it. Then three was be your own man. And then number four is really. It's a closed loop system. And every day we're doing the same thing, but we don't raise our expectations of the outcome or change anything in there to fine tune the closed loop system.

An example of an open loop system is the military, where you invade a city and you have no idea what's there.

He's a leader.

Yeah. And you got snipers like him. Our thing is very predictable every day. And so it's easy to change the outcome by tweaking the process and looking at it as a system. Most managers don't look at it as a system. They look at, okay, we're just going to do the best we can today and see what happens. Which is even worse. Right.

I think a lot of them live in fear, too. Yeah. Just today in my day.

Well, the turnover is crazy.

We get caught in that. Scary.

That's why I called the first book the Irreplaceable Service Manager, because I want them to think, like, how can I be irreplaceable and never get fired? Because it's like in with some of the manufacturers we work with, the turnover for service managers. 50%.

That's right.

Big number.

Nuts. Nuts. When we, you know, when we do service manager training in the classroom thing, we think, oh, well, there's, you know, there's a thousand dealerships. Well, when you, when you schedule those, you have to take into consideration the 50% turnover.

It's true.

So if you're going to do 1000 seats, you got to do 1500 because there's going to be so much.

So by the middle of the year, all the classes are sold out and the dealers are screaming because there isn't any capacity. And it's like, oh, we thought there was a thousand dealers. Well, yeah, but you didn't take into consideration we're going to fire half of them. Yes. And we're hoping in year two with our training that doesn't happen.

Of course.

Like, we want to reduce the turnover by giving the manager some tools. Right. That's.

I think that's the other part of our, of what we do is we want the managers to be the hero. You know, we want them to be the leader. We're just there to help coach them to be that, to be that leader, to be the hero. Be the guy that turn your department around and make it profitable.

Well, it's funny, right? People call me like, we just need advisor training.

I'm like, yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, that's it. That's your path.

Trust me, the last thing you'll be thinking about is advisor training when we're done. Right?

100%.

Yeah. It's funny. Okay, so one thing's going to happen to you out in the field is people are going to say.

Do you know Chris? Do you know Christian? What are they really like? That sort of thing. So just do me a favor and tell them we're total jerks. We're mean, intimidating. I'm going to say, you already kind of saying that about Christian. Just play it off on me, too. Just Chris throws stuff in the office.

Like kicks a couch, Got the sniper and we got the general. I mean, it's.

Yeah.

No heart, complete jerk overreacts.

Yeah, it's fun kicking garbage cans.

Cool.

I hope you guys enjoyed this. It's fun to have these kind of conversations and let you kind of be fly on the wall. And I love talking about our industry and stories and how people come up because, you know, we all have our stories and it's fun. So thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next time on Service Driver Revolution. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Drive Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.