International Truck Update 25

Welcome, everybody, to Service Drive Revolution, our exclusive international edition with Jeremy and Adam. Gentlemen, I've missed you guys.

We've missed you too, Chris, wherever you.

That was.

Semi sincere. We missed you semi sincere. I just. Earlier. Earlier today, I did an interview with Anthony Klotz. Do you guys know who that is?

I do not.

No.

Professor in organizational psychology. He coined the term the Great Resignation, which kind of went viral. He's going to be a speaker at our Top Dog event this year. He was a professor here in the US In Texas, but now he's over in London. But he's going to fly over for a Top Dog. Fascinating conversation. Like, I. I was asking him about how do you get technicians? Well, how do you get kids to want to be technicians?

It just a fascinating conversation. And I know what we were going to talk about today is in the spirit of. That is, you know, how do we build a shop of productive technicians with the right culture, production, all that. What are we seeing out there in the field that's working and isn't? And we're also going to go over some books that we're reading and much, much more. So you want to start, Jeremy, with the book that you're reading? Sure.

Hey, I'm 40 years old now, by the way, so that's kind of weird.

Turned 40 a couple days ago.

Do you feel different?

No, not really. I mean, my knees hurt a little bit more than they did, but that's probably not related to those few days. You know.

Adam's like. You're like 28, aren't you, Adam? I mean, you're.

I'm 34, but if I shave the beard, I think I can go for like 23.

You could be like in High School Musical single.

7.

If you shave your beard, you pass.

I think I have five gray hairs. Five.

You'll get more. Have another kid. Anyway, the book I have today is the river of Doubt by Candace Millard. It's a book on Roosevelt and a trip that he took after he lost the 1912 election for president, where he kind. He kind of. He basically passed the torch to one of his. To someone that, you know, he thought would carry on his reformist image.

In the Republican Party. And he eventually turned in that person, started his own party, the Progressive Party, and lost the election. And he was really depressed. So he was approached with this. This journey that he can take in South America, which was going to chart an area of the Amazon, or it wasn't the Amazon. It was charting a section of a river in the interior of South America that has never been charted before. Like, it was unbelievably dangerous. It wasn't on any maps. The only. The only reason they knew it existed at all is because they were laying telegraph lines in South America at the time. It was like a huge effort to do so. And they found this river that was like jet black. So. But they didn't have any time or resources to be able to chart it. So they gave. They said, basically, Roosevelt, would you like to come along on this journey to chart this uncharted river? And so Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, being Theodore Roosevelt, he naturally signed on to the project. And I'm only about halfway through it, but already it's pretty. It's pretty crazy because apparently they. Roosevelt, wasn't watching how they prepared for the journey at all.

They didn't have enough supplies, and all the logistics were completely messed up. So basically this voyage was set to fail before it even started because they didn't have anyone.

On the quartermaster role that actually ever even was ever in South America. The only guy, the guy Fiala, that had the responsibility, his only claim to fame was he took a trip up to the Arctic and almost died because he didn't plan properly. So basically, it's not going great for Roosevelt and his crew right now, so we'll see how it goes. But it's a very good book, and I'm a huge fan of Teddy Roosevelt. I think the dude's fascinating, so I'm really enjoying it.

That's awesome. I wrote that down. I'll have to check that out. It sounds fascinating.

Yeah. I instantly thought of the Alice in Chainsong, but it's river of Deceit, right? Not river of Doubt.

What about.

What fascinating book on psychology or business or sports are you reading, Adam?

We'll go on the business category. The Home Distillers Workbook.

By Jeff King.

So I'm learning how to make bathtub gin.

No. Well, you know, when you're on the road so much lately, you got to figure out some other hobby, you know, when you get back to your room. But I don't know. I think I have enough bourbon. You know, I've drank enough bourbon. I'm just kind of curious into getting to know something new. And I want to kind of do the homework a little bit. So I started picking up a couple different books. But I'm looking at this book, and it just kind of talks about. It's a beginner's guide to distilling. And I think most point of when people look at certain things face value, they think like maybe it can be easy. It's definitely a process. And within that process, you know, there's. You have to have some patience. So it's kind of funny in any sort of business, right? There's processes, there's systems, but there's also patience and trying to see it evolve into having that something that's delightful at the end of the success. So you like how I tied it in there? But this one point that really kind of is interesting to me is makes us. Distilling is not a means of creating alcohol. Fermenting the mash, or what traditionalists call beer, is the process where alcohol is created. So I kind of. I just. These little things were. This book is actually. It's a really good short read. It starts with the historical pieces of where like technically moonshine, you know, kind of came about in distilling up in the Appalachians area. And this guy spent a lot of time and just understanding the process of distilling. So it just kind of intrigues me because I like history, I like how things kind of work and the why to things. So. And how for sure. So I think I might try to dabble in that at some point, you know, as an additional hobby. Hopefully I don't blow up anything. Like I was telling Jeremy earlier, and he just started chuckling and had to, you know, calm down from laughing so much. But we'll see. Hopefully don't blow up the house. But it's just something maybe to kind of try to see how that process organically kind of like picks up.

But yeah, what could be a more noble reason to blow up the house than whiskey?

Probably one of the better reasons.

So in the book, can you. Can you make anything? You can make tequila, whiskey. Like it's about distilling, right? So yeah.

And then after you distill it, there's a certain process at the end. It's all. So what I've come to like, find out in the book is it's all about the mash, right? So it's about what you're actually, you know, fermenting in and then the whole boiling in the process. But there is. The terminology is something that I'm still trying to keep grasp of, but I do find it interesting is like on the back of the book goes warning, it is illegal to distill alcohol in the United States without first obtaining the proper licenses. So at the end of all this, I might just understand the process and not doing anything with it. But at least I have a new appreciation with all the distillers out there that are spending all this time in making such a great product.

Yeah. I always think it's funny when I'm in. In that part. Part of the country at a dealership, and they're, like, concerned for me that I don't have a jug of moonshine. Like, we gotta get you some moonshine. Like, that's the only way you survive the day. It's pretty funny. And then when they get you the moonshine, it just tastes like alcohol, like, straight up.

Fire. Yeah.

What's funny to me is. Or not funny, but what's interesting in this process, you know, a lot of people talk about, like, with moonshine, is that this. The first, like, bit of it is when people take. It's all poison. It's technically, they just call it poison. So, like, really don't worry about throwing out, like, the first, like, 8 or 9 ounces. Like, you'll have enough for later, you know? So, like, do a little. Throw away a little bit of extra just to make sure that you're getting the product that you want. So, like, I don't know, it's. It's kind of one of those things. It's definitely taking a hype. And I think people have also marketed it right. They've made it to where you can consume and sell and get the proper licenses. But it's just intriguing to me. It's a different kind of spin on something else. Another business that takes a process, some patience, you know, and some education.

So it's good. I have. I have a bunch of books going on right now. One. One, Jeremy, that you might be interested in because of your political aspirations is the new book by Jared Kushner, Breaking History, a White House Memoir. Like, I've been listening to it on audio. Literally yesterday, I didn't want to get out of my car when I got home. Like, it's so good, and.

It'S that good. And also, like, he kind of provides, like, an interesting perspective because he's family and all that, but he, you know, he's a business guy, and so he. He's very honest about the mistakes. And.

You know, thing. The thing I was thinking about this morning is, like, what. What would they have done if they wouldn't have had the Russian collusion investigation? Because that literally shut them down, right? Because they. They had to testify and turn over all this stuff. And it was, you know, they started at that point to play not to lose instead of playing to win, which I think was the strategy. Probably on the other side, Hillary or whoever instigated that, but you just wonder, like, what, what would have happened? And then hearing, hearing his critiques of Trump and of just D.C. and how.

Just how our government is polarized by special interests and money and all that. But very few politicians get into it to actually make change. They get into it to maintain power. And so not doing anything is safer than doing something. It's, it's fascinating because he's a business guy, right. The, the other thing too, that I didn't know is that Christie, the guy from New Jersey, put Kushner's dad in jail.

So that was, that's an interesting twist. Yeah, I didn't know that. I knew that Kushner's dad went to jail, but I didn't know the circumstances. He goes into the circumstances and basically his dad kind of took a plea deal instead of fighting it because it would have bankrupted his company at the time. And so he's like, I just kind of, if I just do the time, get out, I'll still have the company.

And, you know, whether he was guilty or not, I don't know. And, you know, it's, you got to take into consideration that it's one side of the story, but it's fascinating all, all the behind the scenes stuff that we didn't know. He's, he's very forthcoming with the good and the bad and their strategy. So it's, yeah, it, it's, it's great. You guys would love it. And it, it's one of those books where you, you don't want it to end like it's that good. But the book that I, that I was thinking of for this isn't that it's the expectation effect.

Which is I was studying the pygmillion effect, and this book kept coming up over and over again. And it really is about the pygmillion effect or just expectations. One thing that, that I found fascinating in this, that is kind of triggered every time I see a commercial for pharmaceutical stuff, is that they found that, you know how at the end of those commercials for like whatever the medicine is, Viagra, Seattle, whatever it is, the. They have that little disclaimer at the end that this may cause bleeding, diarrhea, like, whatever it is.

Yeah.

That those symptoms happen way more when somebody hears that than in the actual initial study. So the fact that they put that disclaimer in the commercial actually makes those things happen where they, they didn't happen in the original studies to the degree that they happen because, you know, people are expecting to, you know, have Those things happen. So then they happen. It's fascinating. I mean, isn't that interesting that that disclaimer that's meant to protect actually is causing the thing to happen?

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah. The placebo versus the nocebo effect. Right. If you think it will or you think it won't, it happens. And so there's, there's just fascinating studies in there and it's the sort of book where it's just studies and like real social proof. It's not somebody's opinion, which I always kind of enjoy those books more. So it's great. The expectation effect. You guys would like it.

How your mindset can change your world.

By David Robson. It's great. Okay, let's segue into you talking about technicians. So, Jeremy, you brought this subject. What are you seeing on the front lines? Because this is something we've talked about before, right? What are you seeing on the front lines as far as the, you know, current state of affairs?

Chris? It's one of those new. It's one of those old problems that we keep looking back to over and over again, but trying to examine a different facet of it. So what I'm seeing a lot of in the field, and I don't think anyone either watching this or on this call would disagree, is that it's difficult finding technicians these days. I mean, every dealership is struggling to find and retain technicians. But one thing that I think from what I've seen in the field, a lot of service managers and principals need to look to a little bit more, is what is your actual.

Dealer environment like? Like if you were to walk into your type, into your facility, into your service department as a new technician starting on day one, would you want to work there? Not knowing how great this crew is, not knowing how the culture is, would you want to work there? Yes or no? And I think a lot of service managers forget about that. It's that they don't. New people coming in don't see the facility like you do, or even that a five year technician does. They see the facility as, this is what it is. So that's an experience I try to bring back around to managers and principals when I talk to them. It's basically this shop here is an ecosystem. This whole dealer is an ecosystem in and of itself. So.

Every single thing on the floor, how the shop looks, how it functions, how your processes go, if your advisors are friendly or not.

It all plays into not only retention, but also if people are even going to give you a shot in the first place. Because Chances are if a technician agrees to come work with you, they're going to walk through the shop at least once and look and kind of see how it operates. And if they don't get a good impression, they're out the door and they're not coming back.

I think that's funny. I was going to say, Jeremy, I think that's funny the way you just said that. You know, when it's. If a technician is coming through the shop, you know, they're probably coming in. You know, they're coming in for an interview when actually maybe the roles are switched, right. Especially nowadays, like you're. They're actually interviewing you. That first glance at first interaction. And again, it's not just the shop, right. It's how everything else is. Even in the front of the house is as important as the back of the house. And everybody's treating one another because like we were kind of joking about this a little bit earlier, right. Is it just a sign? It's signs and facilities and how well you take care of just that first impression on the outside, you know, it kind of breeds success on the inside as well. How that consistent. Even our customers are thinking the same way, right. They've just breed success. So I agree with you on that, definitely.

And it's one of those things like anything is everything, like every little detail. It might not be a big deal to you, but it's going to be a big deal to somebody. So it's got to be. It's one of those things like if there's something in your shop that's a characteristic of it, or if there's a bin in the middle of the shop that everyone has to walk around, or if your shop's not as clean or organized as it can be, just make sure you're aware of that and that the effect it could have. And another thing I like to mention, service managers, everybody's got a referral bonds these days.

Everybody.

It's. The question is, is it actually being taken advantage of? Because as you always mentioned, Chris, and Chris Hoagland also mentions this too. Technicians know technicians. They're part of technician pages. They look at technician stuff when they're not being technicians. So if you're. If they're not recommending their friends to work for the dealer, there's a reason for that. There could be a number of reasons, but you got to make sure it's not your facility or your processes or you yourself that's contributing to that problem. So referral bonuses are not only good to bring people in, but they're also good as a measuring stick on whether or not people want to work at your location or not.

It's a great, great point. I think.

I saw a thing the other day where somebody was talking about the economy in reference to Facebook and a bunch of companies laying people off, even though, you know, it's harder and harder to find employees. And they were saying, like, if you pay attention to the two richest guys in America, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, they're both selling their stock, and both of them said they would never sell their stock, and they're dumping their stock, like something like $11 billion or something. And so, you know, these guys are in on conversations. They're, you know, they're moving numbers and information to a degree that we wouldn't even understand.

And I think about when you talk to service managers or dealers a lot of times, and they bring up the subject of, well, we need technicians, and then you follow that up with, oh, so what have you done?

Nothing.

Nothing. Like, the house is on fire. And, like, we're talking about what we're going to watch on tv, but the TV isn't going to be there in a minute. The place is burning down. And so, like.

We, We. We get conditioned in our industry.

That.

We just kind of are doing the same things over and over again, trying to avoid change as much as possible when the. The game is completely changing right in front of our eyes. And we're. We're so used to being reactive instead of proactive that it's just like we're walking a plank in an impending doom instead of getting ahead of it. So, like, if you just do an inventory of. Well, even if you have technicians right now, what is it you're doing to change the environment, the facility, the culture, the enthusiasm? You know, like Jeremy's point, like, are people raving? Are people saying, hey, this is a place you want to come work? It's fun. Like, this is, you know, there's a bunch of good people here and they're having fun. And if you're a performer, this is home for you. You're going to feel like home instead of hanging on to all these underperformers that, you know, really weren't suited for the industry to begin with, but that's all we have left. And so we're managing to the lowest denominator. And our, you know, our performance and our production kind of go hand in hand with that. So I think the thing is everybody needs to kind of look in the mirror and do an Inventory of. Well, you know, five years from now, this is going to be worse than it is now. What are, what are we doing to get ahead of it? And it shouldn't be one thing. It should be 10 things. And you can, you know, I can go into any dealership and walk in the back and I can tell you how you feel about text by just looking at the lunchroom.

It's easy.

The fridge.

You open the fridge and you want to throw up. Like, there's food in there from a year ago that nobody's cleaned out. Like, there's no, you know, it's just like, well, we have it. But, you know, that environment.

Tells a lot because it affects, you know, how people feel about it and how important they are. And so it. Once again, it's not one thing. It's 10 things. And so there's no magic pill. We got to do a bunch of stuff and we got to try stuff. We got to be experimenting. We. We have to. We have to throw, you know, be progressive in our approach to making mistakes. Like, I don't think we could make enough mistakes because we learn from. From those mistakes on how we can create better environments, get more talent.

So, yeah, I just, I feel like when this conversation comes up, Jeremy, sometimes it's just.

We're just. It's like we've accepted our fate instead of getting ahead of it, you know.

And the solutions are out there, and it's just a matter of, like you mentioned, it's. It's. Today was the easiest day. Tomorrow is not going to be easier than today was. And that's. That's the way it's going to get and playing it safe and being conservative with regards to how you recruit, how you retain technicians. This isn't going to work because somebody else is going to figure it out and they're going to take all the technicians. They're going to take the best ones, at least.

Yeah. Because one. You know, I don't think we've ever experienced an environment. Well, I know we haven't experienced an environment. We can't hire techs.

But it's just because we think. We think different.

I find it interesting because in some of the visits that I've had and discussions with parts service and owners, right. Going back and kind of talking a little bit about facilities.

They haven't taken a look at, like, at outside the business, you know, and I forgot one in particular. They said, you know what, Adam? I went back after our discussion and on a. On a weekend and just took a look at their Overall facilities like, you know what? I have a junkyard. And I'm like, well, look, I wasn't gonna tell you that. I'm not gonna tell you your baby's ugly. Because I mean, really, I respect, I respect him. I mean, he's built a business from the ground up, you know, and has really created.

A culture within itself, but there's no way to share it because there's no way to pull anything, you know, to represent not only the brand, but also his brand and his, his team's brand. Right. And that can breed additional success. And I think that's what is going to be part crucial in first retaining and then in recruiting and pulling that top talent in any regard. And I find it, I also find it interesting when we talk like, about technicians. It's, you know, just got out of, you know, one of a seminar and they were talking about with technicians and, and they all, like you were talking about earlier, they all talk, you know, I remember, you know, Jeremy, remember when we were going in the shops together and when you start interviewing the technicians, they're the first ones, like they're an open book. They'll tell you exactly all the skeletons in the closet, right?

Sure will.

And they'll also tell you like. Yeah, well, I mean, they appreciate, like being there. And at least this is before COVID Right. But I think we've always had a challenge with technician recruitment. It's just going to be enheightened. It's en. Heightened today. It will get worse, but, but we still have time to kind of structure that ecosystem that will continue to have those systems in place. And then when we can pull them, we can keep sharing the successes and celebrating with the ones that are coming in so that we can have that word of mouth that, you know, technicians are going to talk, they're on these forums, they go to competitions, they, they network themselves just like anyone else. Right. And I think it's crucial from, from any dealership's standpoint to continue to that success. I don't want to be remiss and say I've been, I've been working with a lot of, of owners and, and you know, service managers they are trying to recruit. Right. It's just, you know, there's all also different things that some things may work and in their spot where others may not. But back to the point, you have to experiment. Don't be afraid to fail. Fail fast.

Whatever you're doing, you need to be doing four more things.

How'd you come up with the four? I'm Just curious.

I figure they're doing one thing, do four more, then you got five things you're doing.

Okay. I like it.

Five. Five is good. Ten is better.

Yeah, that's true.

Is that a 10x reference, Chris?

Oh, here we go. Back to the 10x again.

No.

But I mean, you know, heaven forbid we think that way, right? Like there is, there's way more out there for us than we're getting, but it's only.

It'S only limited by our beliefs and our habits and our approach to it more than anything else.

Well, I think it's. It's easy with everything that's going on. Right. And the TV over here, I'm watching the chaos that's hit in Florida. So at some point, it's that internal and external locus of control and how do we focus in what we can truly like, focus on and taking that next step, not giving up.

You're talking about Tom Brady and Giselle breaking up.

Oh, no, they're breaking out.

Yeah. It's all because of Ian.

Tampa Bay think about. I think too, they have like a storm coming. So you got your quarterback brokenhearted and now like a storm of a hundred year storm coming, which is worse. I think. I think it is Tom Brady and Giselle.

Right.

I'm still, I'm still somewhat brokenhearted of this, this huge Packers Bears loss that happened two weeks ago. I didn't think of anything bad, but I think we're going to be that bad. Come on, man.

You know, I get it. I get excited about football season and then about right now. Like last week I wasn't going to watch the Seahawks game and I did just to kind of get my hopes up and then at the end be, you know, disappointed.

Yeah, well, you got a. If you don't have. If you don't have Geno, at least you got Drew Locke.

I would expect a call, Jeremy, from the Seahawks, asking you to walk on here pretty soon. Yeah. So it's great stuff. I just kind of to wrap all that up is like, if you find yourself complaining about something, ask yourself, what have you done to get ahead of it? Because once again, that always blows me away that when I'm in a conversation, it's like, we can't hire techs. You can't do this. And then I'm like, well, what have you done?

It's like, well, you know, the time to get to start playing offense was yesterday. So we can't, we can't just. We can't function playing defense and being reactive to everything we got to get ahead of it, we gotta, you know, we have a huge toolbox as far as, you know, what we pay the technicians, what their schedule is, the environment, the benefits, the culture, our personal interest in them, the career path. Like there's a huge list of things that we have as employers to, you know, create an environment where people want to be there. But I think we, we always think it's like one thing, it's the pay or it's this. And it's really most of the time when people quit, it's because of the boss more than anything else. And so, you know, I think kind of what you were getting to, Jeremy, is doing a self inventory of yourself in that way. That's great stuff. Anything else you guys want to cover?

One thing I've seen also, dealers have a lot of success with and I think this is where we need to go. They're not looking to colleges as much. The ones that are really recruiting, they're looking to high schools in their area. Like they're starting to get kids involved as early as ninth grade in like understanding this is how the trucks work. This is what it's like to work on them. Like, this is a societal thing we need to do better at. And it's, we can't start when they're already making the decision to go to college or not to go to college. That's too late. You want to start really early and start getting kids understanding that this is an option for you and it's kind of a cool thing to do. Look at these huge trucks that we work on. And the dealers that are starting to do that I think are having the best effects because then you're bringing the kids in, like when they, when they're able to work and they're, you know, pushing a broom, they're pushing a broom around, they're helping run parts, but they're understanding how the shop works. And that's a really good, also a really good retention tool. When you bring them down early because they're, they're part of your culture, they're part of the team, then it's a lot easier for them to come in.

I love that because they're getting, they're taking part in the community. That's a good, that's a really good, important piece there, Jeremy, because I think the dealerships that are, they're getting more involved in the community. What do they call it, like climb on a truck? I know they, they, they were, they're even, you know, stressing to, you know, like what, five, seven year olds, you know, even let two three year olds. I want. I want Peyton to start crawling up on trucks. Start her at two. That's perfect. Get comfortable. They're big machinery. Yes. You can work on that. You know, and getting involved in the community, that's. That's perfect. I agree with you. I'm starting to see a lot more of that, a lot of those discussions and then execution on that as well. Yeah.

That'S great. Awesome. Well, great stuff. You guys are going to do this again real soon.

Definitely. We missed you guys.

We'll see everybody. Next time on Service Drive Revolution.