International Truck Update 21

Welcome, everybody, to Service Drive Revolution, our international truck edition. I am Chris Collins. We have an exciting show today. We're going to talk about why Colleen and I are getting married, the short supply of parts, books that we're reading, and all kinds of other fun, exciting stuff. Please say hello to everybody here. Christian.

Hello, everyone.

Jeremy, Adam. And the beautiful, my future wife, Colleen. What kind of wedding do you want to have, Colleen?

Oh, huge one. Lots of money.

Oh, like Princess Diana. Like, straight through the middle of town.

Princess Diana.

She's blonde, too. It'll work out perfectly.

I know, right?

Very large ring.

What would that be like, Colleen, being married to you? Like, are you up at 4 in the morning? Like, how.

What's the morning situation? I'm worried about the morning and the coffee in the morning. How does that work?

Oh, I probably get up around 7, take my dog for a walk. I come back, depending on if I have meetings or not, I might have a coffee then. Or I might get ready for work and then have a coffee afterwards. Pretty relaxed that way.

Yeah. I'm gonna drive you crazy already. We should hire a marriage counselor right off the.

I'm up at 4.

You're gonna hear the coffee grinder going, then. I'm working out. Yeah, well, we'll talk about all that in our prenup. So.

I'm not signing a prenup, just to be clear.

Oh, you will eventually. We'll figure that out. Don't worry.

Their first fight.

This is so cute.

But the reason. Tell everybody the reason why we're getting married, Colleen. What's the reason?

Oh, because I can't just move to the U.S. right? Otherwise, I'd be an illegal alien. I think that's what they call it. So I kind of. I need a sponsor. Whether you need to hire me. Yes. Or marry me or hide me.

So she's not opposed to being an illegal alien. She just doesn't want to get caught. Yeah. That's so interesting.

You have to support me, too, because obviously I won't be able to work. Right?

Yeah. Maybe hire. Yeah, maybe the hiring is better.

It could be easier than the marriage. Yeah.

Cool. What's going on, Jeremy? What's on the top of your head? What are you thinking about?

Oh, I thought you were making fun of my hair. I was saying not a lot. You know, just working our way through 2021, doing lots of trainings, lots of workshops, lots of traveling to dealerships.

Yeah, that's pretty much what's going on over here. I can see that. My office gets more and more Bare and less interesting as the day goes by. So I'm sorry, I don't have any more clothes or cat trees or.

Hanging plants in weird places.

It's just a lull. It's okay. It'll come around. Do you feel like you have the best job at International because you actually get to see improvement? Like, you get to see people change, systems get better, and maybe at the end of it, the dealers are saying thank you or acknowledging the improvement, where some people that work at International don't get to experience that. Do you ever think about that?

I think that we're in the best. My group is in the best position because we kind of interface between corporate and the dealer world, and we spend a lot of time in both. And it's kind of. It's interesting to see the dichotomy between the two. We're really good bridge between the two. And yeah, it is a really good thing to work with a dealer individually that, you know, they've had a couple teams through. They might even have had another consulting group come through. And we're just able to walk them through their process and tell them that, show them there can be a better way. We'll work with you on creating some new systems, some new processes. But the big thing that would come out of this is we provide them with.

Documented roles and documented processes, and we also present them with five things that if you do these five things, you're going to be on the road to improvement. And I think breaking it down that way, it's a lot less overwhelming for the dealers than the typical, hey, well, we're better than you. We know more than you, so do these 500 things up here or else you're never going to get better.

So, yeah, the other thing I've experienced when. When I've been in dealerships with you is you buy lunch.

Yes, yes.

And the menu. Menu choices are questionable.

Because. Because I'm trying really hard to stick to a low carb diet. And I feel like you have a thing where you're pro carb. Carbohydrates. Carb is short for carbohydrates.

I'm gonna form a political party that's extremely pro carb. And that's gonna be our only platform.

In the winter that will do really well in Illinois because people are putting on the carbs.

I vote nay.

That's funny.

You know what? I'll let. Hold on for a sec. If I can just interrupt.

What do you have a parts joke?

Well, not really a parts joke, but it reminded me because we're talking about carbs and everything. And I was just curious if you knew. Why did the turkey join the band?

Why did the turkey join the band? I have no idea.

So we could use his drumsticks.

It's a drummer joke. I like it.

I was on a strategy session yesterday. This happens all the time. And they had the parts manager there. And then I'm like, say it. They're like, parts hold.

It's a mantra now.

Yeah.

You created a mantra. We really should make those T shirts.

There's no doubt.

There's no parts manager that's offended by that. They think it's fun, funny.

Yep.

We pulled those off the website because we thought it would hurt somebody's feelings. But I think, I think it's funny. So what do you. Let's start with Adam. Adam, what do you. What are you currently reading? What sort of knowledge can you share with us about what you've been learning, reading, what books?

I think I'm mostly like listening, learning and experiencing all at the same time. Chris. It's. I'm still on the 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. I'm probably listening to it as a snail's pace, you know, engaging some other like podcasts that kind of. Podcasts that spawned off from just kind of thinking. And you've got me on some other stuff like in and of it in itself, you know, kind of that, that I just, I don't know, just other intriguing things. But anyways, the. The rule that I really is is kind of really set side with me, especially having my, my little one year old Peyton. And I feel like she's kind of grown with this on this show too, a little bit from when she was first born. So it's kind of exciting. But you know, one thing, don't let your children do anything that makes you dislike them. And Jordan kind of goes in this whole spiel and I think we might have touched base a little bit on this. But one thing that I try to do, and he has an example in babysitting someone else's kid, that really just kind of resonates with me. And he's trying to get the little bugger to sleep. I can't really recall how old they are, but I guess they would take turns on couples would be able to go out to eat from time to time. And it was his turn to watch, you know, the other couple's kids. And one I think he starts off with, well, the father tells, you know, Jordan here, you might have to do this, this and this and this and this to help, you know, his son go to bed. And in his mind, he's like, oh. He's like, yeah, okay, but I'm not doing any of that. He just kind of throws it out there, but agrees that he's going to do it. So with kind of following his. His mindset, he goes in there and reassures the kid. Well, you know, after, you know, going to bed, but then later on, kid will like, jumping up in the crib or whatever, trying to get out, and he goes. Puts him, you know, subtly in there, and he just kind of read and confirms it, and it just, like, worked. And I can't make this up. So Peyton's just a little over a year old, right? And she's starting to be able to stand up, kind of jumping out of her crib. So I might have just finished this segment, you know, listening to it, walking the dog, and pain's getting to this time where, you know, try to put her to bed around, like, 7:30. She might sleep for 45 minutes, and all of a sudden she's like, jumping up, you know, trying to get out of bed, but she can't really crawl over the crib, thank God. But, you know, so she just like, all right, I'm gonna try to put, you know, Jordan Peterson's, you know, thing to test. So I kind of put her, you know, slept, and they're laying down and rubbed her back. And I go, just. Just stay there. Just real quick. And I didn't go back. And I didn't go back at all. And she did continue to cry a little bit, but I just left her out of like, 40, 40 minutes. And you can. I'm probably going to get child services called on me now, but it worked. And I think part of that, though, too, is I'm thinking as I'm, you know, a father, a new father is really, you know, every type of interaction that I have with her, I want to make sure I'm. I'm. I'm kind of creating or help influencing the next generation and putting those, you know, ideologies into her and any sort of interaction with people, not expecting everything to be just given to them, because I see that a lot.

And especially, you know, more now than ever. I just feel like there's a lot of expectations that, you know, the world isn't going to give you everything. You're really going to have to work hard for that. I know a lot of times you try to, like, put that back into what it means for our industry, but I think you Know, I really just keep thinking about that, and I think I do not. I definitely do not want to influence my daughter, any of my children, future children, in the sense where, you know, if you don't like them, I feel like it's kind of your fault. And I think that's what I got from the chapter is, like, if Peyton grows up to be one of those, you know, you know, persons out there that people just, like, don't like to work with. Very challenging to work with. I. I take that ownership that's probably on my. On. On my shoulders, right. And I kind of makes me reflect on. On my parents and how they kind of raised me. They didn't coddle me, but they definitely wanted to make sure that there was challenges as well, that things were not going to be just given to you because life is. Is just not fair sometimes. So, yeah, that's mine. And it's kind of funny that. That certain antics or things that he. Like, bro, I put the test. She probably should have been a little bit older, but I was just kind of curious. But it just. It's an interesting mindset. I really appreciated the chapter.

No, I always find that, like, parents that have kids that turn out terrible are very akin to me, to, you know, a manager of a department that isn't performing very well. And they say, like, oh, well, I can't control who my kids are, or I can't control the market, or I can't control the economy. And it's an external locus of control. And it's like, you can. You just don't want to. And it's easy. It's way easier to blame it on the kids. Meanwhile, you controlled everything that that kid did for many years. You were programming them, you know, So I think that that chapter in that book is the one that stuck with me the most too, is because it's about locus of control. And, you know, are you going to have an external locus of control and blame the market, blame, you know, blame your. Your.

The manufacturer, whatever it is, you can find something to. To blame.

The.

The other thing that I think Jordan leaves out of that, that I think is really important in your parenting, Adam, is self esteem. She needs to have self esteem. And so when you're raising her, do not raise her to be a Bears fan. You're gonna want. You're gonna want to steer her towards, like, the Seahawks, the page, like somebody that wins all the time, because going to Soldier Field in the winter, in the cold, losing over and over and over, it's gonna affect your Self esteem it is.

No, man. It's called perseverance. She's gonna keep trying. It's always next year. I got her as a Socks fan.

Here's a Bears fan for you. Listen to this.

Goodness gracious. And Adam's a double whammy because he likes the socks and the Bears. Like, it's. He's just glutton for punishment for sure. You know what I really thought you were going to say was missing from the Jordan Peterson chapter about parenting was the use of chloroform.

That is not.

No, I guess that wasn't what you're missing. Okay.

Goodness, no. Not really. Thanks, Christian.

Yep.

That's really good, though. Adam. How about you, Colleen? What have you been reading? Podcast. What has it been inspiring you or making you think lately?

So just listening to Adam confirms why I never had children. I mean, I have a hard time conducting. Having to influence a little person and making sure that things turned out okay.

Listening to Adam is a lot like birth control.

Too much pressure, you know, it's birth control for me. Colleen is to go to Disneyland.

Yes. Well, I. Pretty much anywhere there are small children. Like, even if they're just walking down the street crying. That's pretty much.

We should honeymoon at Disneyland.

We could honeymoon at Disneyland.

Yeah. No, no, thank you.

She's not participating in that at all.

What I'm reading, as you know, since we always have this theme about me having commitment issues, that really hasn't changed. I am still reading. Never split the difference. And I thought I was a little farther along in that book, but I'm actually only at 9%. That's really sad. And I started reading Atomic habits. I'm at 27% on that one. It's pretty good. And then I'm also reading Data Driven marketing, only at 5% on that one, but I like to have a variety of things and just a lot of things that I can mess my mind up with, I think I was also reading a dog training book. So a lot of stuff on the go, but like I said before, in the summer, for me, it really comes down to being active outside. And every day that it doesn't rain, which has been in this month, about one day out of 20 so far. Oh, wait, we're only on the 14th. Okay. One out of 14 days where it hasn't rained in July, it's been very weird weather.

Well, the good news is that the dog training book is a lot like husband training, so.

It crosses over there.

So if you don't walk beside me, I should Yank your leash and.

Yeah, for sure.

Maybe.

No, I have a dog. I have a puppy. He's a Boston terrier, so he's a.

Puller, so I'm trying low Boston terriers.

Yeah, he's a red Boston, though, so he's brown.

So they have a lot of energy, right?

Yes, a lot.

A lot of personality, too.

Yes. Yeah, he's very funny. He's got a lot of people. Tell me he has personal facial expressions, so he has a lot of different facial expressions. He has his own Instagram account. Probably a shocker.

Oh, send me that. I want to see. Okay. Jeremy, what are you reading or listening to that's inspiring you?

Well, nothing that's really inspiring me. I'm reading H.P. lovecraft right now. I love horror stories, especially short horror stories, because I have no attention span. But, yeah, there's not a whole lot of learnings you want to take from H.P. lovecraft. He wrote the Call of Cthulhu, if you've ever heard of that. Reference.

Legendary horror writer. He wrote for Amazing Stories and Weird Tales in the early 20s.

But, yeah, I mean, it's a very problematic personality. But, you know, it's just. I'm just reading something for fun. I'm still reading all the Devils Are Here.

So there's. I've got a couple things cooking, but nothing really that's changed my life. Although I will say in and of itself, I watched that last night, by your recommendation, and that was movie.

Very good. Yeah. I don't know if. I don't know if anybody listening to this is gonna. Is gonna be interested in it, but I've watched it, I think, like, 23 times now. And the. The. I've gone down. For the last week, I've gone down this duchamp rabbit hole, which was a big inspiration for him. And, like, I just wish, like, to Adam's point, like, I wish my parents would have exposed me to that stuff. Like, I'm almost. I was thinking about this this morning. I'm going to be 50, and I'm just learning about Duchamp. It's crazy.

You know, because I'm running out of time.

I wish I would have known this stuff when I was 20.

But, yeah, it's good. So when we're. When we're thinking about the marketplace right now, we're kind of in a weird, uncharted territory that we're experiencing things that we've never experienced in the combination that we're experiencing them. And before we came on, Adam was kind of talking about. He'd been Doing some travel lately. So tell us a little bit about that, Adam, and then we'll kind of talk about how it applies to the industry.

Yeah. So recently, just getting back from Louisville, Kentucky, last week, I've got. I don't know if you can even tell. I got a little extra shade of red. I don't really tan at all. I just get red. But we stopped on our way home from Sunday at a Waffle House, and one of my buddies, he's actually both. Yeah. Two of my friends never been to Waffle House. I'm like, oh, you got to experience Waffle House. You know, we kind of hit those at least in the. In the south side or south, you know, southeastern territory or at least the country. When traveling, you at least got. You least have to. Right? And good food, good service. Never really had a bad experience at all. But it was just kind of interesting because as soon as we get in there, I'm noticing they have a digital. I forget what. It's like the barcode. You can scan for. For a menu, which I found very interesting for a Waffle House. I've seen it some other restaurants as well. But then the waitress, she does kind of come over. You can tell. I mean, they're just hustling and hustling and hustling. There's a lot of people. And then the first time. First thing we get in there, I'm like. I'm telling my buddies. I'm like, well, there's an open, you know, seat over there. We can sit over there. It's the four of us. I'm like, but I feel like we're probably gonna have to wait. But as we sit down, they're running back and forth. She puts down, she goes, oh, no, we have. We have new menus now. You don't have to worry about, you know, the whole barcode thing. So we're like, great. So we get the menus out, and the first thing on the top on the letter heading on the top just says, you know, please bear with us. You know, due to now, like, reopening, we have a new, updated menu. It is a more selective menu. And also we appreciate your patience because there is a shortage of, you know, waiters and waitresses and employees. Network wide, basically. So I told my buddies, because I was like, that's one thing that I've noticed when I've been to a Waffle House before is, I mean, there's like a million different things that they have on the menu. Both sides. You can get it, you know, whatever. With the onions, you know, I just call it like soft on there, whatever. But you know, that's what I think. It's chunked. But there's just so many different varieties. They still had a good portion of that, but I could totally understand that they needed to keep it kind of more focused because there's such a shortage of employees and servers out there in this, you know, service realm. You know, I went to Nashville a few weeks ago and the same thing, you know, going into restaurants, we were hearing that, you know, even people with reservations that they had, they still had to wait an hour until they were actually seated. You know, not, not to, you know, put too much on them. But Uber and Lyft, good luck if you can even get one to come in and actually, you know, kind of pick you up. That was one thing. We were wait, we waited two hours for an Uber on a Saturday night in downtown. You know, it was around midnight time. In two hours. I think one guy actually had to wait four hours for an Uber. So just kind of some of those things from the service side, I mean, everybody's kind of just struggling. But I will say this back to Wallfoss. I looked at my buddies and I go, this is awesome. They go, what do you mean? I mean service was good. You know, I, one thing I've recognized in this kind of industry is, you know, relaxing. People are trying to do their best. These folks were the most well oiled machine as far as in operations. They were doing call outs of the menu and what the orders were like. I heard my order, I'm like, oh, okay. So it's going to be, you know, they're making it right now, you know, but with all of the challenges that they had against them, they were using it to their advantage to run as successfully as they possibly can't could. But they also put the expectation up in front of the customers that were kind of coming in. So at least you knew you were going to probably have to wait. It's busy, but hats off to them, man, it was, it was awesome just to see how such a really good running team and effort that was there. But there's a shortage of servers out there, man. And it's, it's, it's going to probably continue to get a little bit more challenging too. But that was my little story.

Yeah, I think too, like the thing I think that is lost with everybody is nobody's also in this struggle to get parts and the struggle to get employees across the board. It isn't just our industry. Prices are going up, they're not going down. So customers are paying more for less. You know, we're giving them less in it, in a sense, and I think there's a lesson in that, that.