Managing A Department At 21 Years Old

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 821.

Now is this at a dealer or an independent?

This is at a Ford dealer 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 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, 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?

All your 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 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 going to 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 reference the immaturity. You're not intentionally. When you're young thinking like, hey, I'm gonna mess this up. You're just not. 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 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 prints tools 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 gonna ask that same question.

Definitely harder to face my dad because then you gotta 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.

Yeah, 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 a 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?

And I, I've said this to Chris a couple times. I really had to stay, step back. And at 21 years old, that's, 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, you know, with everything I learned over the years and the path that was laid out, I felt like I let. Let myself down first. Then I felt like I let my dad down, my family down, let Joe down. So for me, it was a really sobering moment. That, man, if I'm gonna. If I'm. I'm already into this five years, like, I gotta really step back, reset, and start liking the person I see in the mirror every day. I gotta. I gotta 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 was fired. Obviously, I got fired.

That wasn't actually clear to me.

Sorry, you got fired? Fired, yeah. And that's.

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

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

Turns 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.

Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver 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 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.chris collinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.