The 11-Step System to Hiring the BEST!

We got an exciting show for you today. Now, often we get asked about our hiring practices. Sometimes it comes in a compliment of how do you hire such great coaches? But other times it's how do I hire a service manager, how do I hire techs, how do I hire advisors? So we're going to talk about and break down for you our top five things that we look for in a coach. And, and it's going to be relevant to whoever you're hiring because a lot of these philosophies carry over. So it's a hiring fair today on the show. Also, we're going to talk about some trouble that Christian got into using Chase Hughes tools and something we're going to do at our Top Dog event where you can win $250. I'm Chris Collins, this is Christian Lafferty and all that and more coming up today on Service Drive Revolution.

So before we get to what got you in so much trouble with the Chase Hughes stuff, we have been running a special for Top Dog Parts. Hold on. And it's, it's funny. We got a couple of people hit us up saying that the coupon code didn't work, but they, when the office set it up, they set it up as all caps.

Right. Like you were yelling parts hold.

So we did put it in there lowercase and uppercase now. But the, the discount code is still there. If you want to bring your parts manager, we're going to check. So we're going to be looking to make sure that it's your parts manager that you're, you know, you're not bringing some, some friend. But I want to have a contest because I think they were a mystery in the industry. Would you agree with that?

For sure.

But a lot of consultants have been buying tickets to Top Dog and Top Dog is a no vendors allowed event. It's not nada. Or some of these events you go to that are basically just vendor on vendor crime where people are just trying to sell you network and get business. This is not what Top Dog is about. Top Dog is about us talking about how can we get better, how can our businesses get better? And working, working on ourselves and networking with other managers and leaders out there that are doing what you're doing. So it's more of a networking, peer to peer event. It is not a vendor event. There will be no vendors. Nobody is sponsoring the Jeep giveaway. No, we're not going to go to lunch and we're not going to say this lunch is sponsored by Cox Automotive or whatever. Right. Sponsored by Dealer socket. That is not going to happen. This is, you know, this is 100% about you when, when you attend. So we have been reaching out to the consultants that have bought tickets and just, you know, refunded them nicely and said, you know, thank you for your interest, but there's no vendors allowed. But I'm wondering if it isn't possible that a consultant or a vendor could sneak in.

They could possibly fly under the radar. I remember a few months ago, we got a question from a consultant that said they worked at a Honda store. Do you remember that?

Yeah.

And then we kind of. We talked to them and we uncovered that they were a consultant. I believe that there may be some crafty consultants out there.

So we're going to offer a reward of $250 to anybody who uncovers a consultant, anybody that's there that tries to sell you something, and it ends up that they're a consultant. And you discover that $250 and we're kicking that person out immediately.

Yes. My idea of throwing tomatoes at them was thrown out. But I still.

If you're, if you're a vendor, a consultant, and you come to Top Dog, we're going to kick you out. We're going to embarrass you, but you're, you're not allowed. This event is about the people on the front lines actually doing the work. That's, that's who we're here to serve. We're not trying to sell anybody anything. It's not that kind of an event.

So it's literally for the people.

Yeah. So you could possibly win $250. The, the parts hold discount code is still there. So you get two for one. And time is sort of running out, but you have a little time. So if you're planning on coming to Top Dog and you haven't got your tickets yet, go right now. Chris collinsinc.com and click on Top Dog, put in the discount code and we'll, we'll reach out. But it's going to be a lot of fun. Then let's just really quickly talk about who's there. So we have John Taffertown from Bar Rescue. We are trying to figure out how we can get John to yell at Christian.

I've got an idea. I proposed it the other day. I don't know if it's going to.

Work, but we would love to get that on video. It'd be a fun clip, you know, if he would say, you know, this is the worst I've ever seen. You know, that Whole going into commercial drama would be really cool. I don't know if he's game for that.

Yeah, the only way to figure it out is to surprise him with it. Not give him any idea that.

Don't even ask him. Just, no, do it. Then we have the great Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Persuasion. It's a good get. You don't see him speaking at too many events. I was, I was in a mastermind with him and, you know, became friends a little bit. So we're really excited to see him speak. I've seen him speak before and every time I'm blown away. Then we have Matt Biamonte, who's a trainer to the stars. So, like he, you know, trained Matt Damon. Tons of people like LeBron James, NFL, like, the list is huge of who he, who he has trained. But he's going to be talking about personal performance and stories that he has. He also worked in the gym that Muhammad Ali trained in and tons of boxers came out of, but he was mentored by Angelo Dundee, the, you know, hall of Fame trainer. And a lot of it, a lot of training athletes at that level is psychology. So it's going to be a lot of what he talks about is psychology of performance. Then we have the guest that I'm the most excited about, but nobody really knows. And it's funny, in our elite group, we were on an elite call not that long ago and some of the managers like, hey, I bought the Chase Hughes audio book and I don't know what.

Yeah, it's a lot to listen to for sure. You need some sort of a reference. You need to be able to make notes. I was joking with that group that like, I'm listening and reading it like at the same time. So I'll, I'll do both, but it's pretty intense stuff. But just audio alone, there's a lot, there's a lot of information to digest.

Yeah. And you know, there's people out there that say, say that they speed read and there's speed reading courses. I hesitate to say that it, that it's BS because I don't really know that. Just because I have never had a desire to speed read. Yeah, I love a book that I read two pages and have to sit and think about it and put it into context. There is nothing more fun than like really having a book make you think and make you work to figure it out.

And so speed reading, to me, I mean, I know some people that claim that they speed read and they never actually read the Book. There's this one guy that said he reads a book a day or whatever. He said that for a long time. And talking to him, he reads the first chapter and the last chapter. He never even actually reads the book.

I did that in school a lot.

Yeah. So, I mean, I, you know, I have a ton of books. If you've ever been to our office. I have thousands of books and I'm a, I would say I'm well on my way to having a library. And I love books. Like, I love everything about books. My books are smarter than me. They're always there and they're just waiting for me.

They never changed our story.

And so I think the Ellipsis manual, Chase Hughes's book is like that in the sense that you got to kind of take two or three pages. You got to read it, you got to think about it. You got to read it again. You got to think about it. I think Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson is that way. And so I enjoy that struggle. But the, the guys in the elite group were like, what in the world? I don't get it. I don't understand. It's too much. I, I think that some people will write a book that makes you answer a question, but then the solution is hiring them. So that's a, that's a tactic that a lot of consultants or gurus will do is they'll agitate the pain of whatever the problem is, leadership or, you know, something in business or personal development. But to really get the solution, you have to hire them or you have to go to their two day event or whatever. I think Chase is exactly the opposite. He puts it all in the book. He's not you. You don't have to hire him in a sense, but we hired him for you. He's, he's coming to Top Dog. He's, he's going to, he's going to speak and his stuff works. I'm just, I'm really excited to, to share it with everybody. He's actually doing a private day before Top Dog with our coaches, so we're, we're hiring him to do a private day before and then, then he's going to speak at Top Dog. But I'm really excited about that. But you, you were kind of mentioning that it's gotten you in a little bit of trouble.

Yeah. So I would say that in general, I probably have a look about me that's approachable and.

Sorry. One thing we should say is most of Chase's stuff is on how to.

Influence people in a way you want them influenced.

Yes.

So it's very much about persuasion and influence, but he comes from a military background and spy craft where it's life or death. So there's an edge to it, but it's deathly effective.

Yes. And I think that the big thing that I've gotten out of researching Chase's information is that if you're paying really close attention, it rewires you without you even knowing it. That's the crazy thing. To me, it becomes subconscious. Yeah. So it's subconscious. And I think that that's probably what's happening to me right now, as evidenced by my most recent trip on an airplane.

See, now I can't tell if this is a segue to a joke or if this is really the story.

Yeah, I like that.

Anyone want to take guests vote now 1833 3, ask SDR? No, but. So I'm on an airplane. I'm flying back. And.

And where are you flying back from?

From Jacksonville, Florida, to la.

Oh, you're there to see your kid.

Yes, so I am. Really.

Christian's son lives in Florida. Florida Georgia line.

It's pretty close to Florida Georgia line. That's right.

Raising him a redneck.

That's right. So I fly out on Friday, fly back on Sunday, and thankfully, I'm so grateful that there's actually a flight that goes direct from LA to Jackson back. So it used to be that I have to connect, and I was taking red eyes in the middle of the night and everything. So I'm really pumped about the direct flights. But I'm coming in on a landing, and this was a flight that, you know, it's four and a half hours, so it's a pretty long flight. And there is a. There's a lady sitting next to me. So I pop open my window as I'm getting close to the landing, because I like to see. Oh, okay, so we're going over Riverside or whatever it is.

I pop open your window. You mean you put the shade up?

Yes, I.

You're not opening the window on a. On a flight.

But I've always wondered, you can't, like, what would happen. Right.

So you're pushing up the shade?

Yes, I push up the shade. And the lady next to me says, oh, is that smoke? And I'm like, no, that's not smoke. That's just the air quality of Los Angeles. That's smog. So I go into, like, a little bit of a dissertation about smog. And then I just start.

She not understand what smog was.

Not Until I explained it to her. And then she's like, oh, okay, that makes sense. And then I started to kind of go through and just asked her a couple of questions, and it was like, innocent curiosity. So. And at some point, somehow, it must have gotten really deep, because this sweet woman literally, like, latched onto me. So I'm getting out of the. Out of the. Off the plane, and I look back, and she's behind me, which I didn't think anything of it, right? So she's in the same aisle with me. It was no big deal. But she keeps asking me questions and keeps talking to me.

So now you're. You're de. Planing walking through the airport, through the jet bridge right there.

So then, like, the moment of weirdness comes, right? So I have. I don't know about you. Usually when I get off an airplane, it's time to pee. So I go to the bathroom, and I'm like, kind of having that bye moment. And I go in, and I go to the bathroom, and then I come out. Guess who's standing there? Yeah. She waited for me, and it was.

Just like, what's her name?

I don't know.

You don't know?

No. And I'm glad that she waited for.

You when you were in the bathroom.

Yeah.

So when you come out of the bathroom, what are you thinking?

This isn't good. And then I'm like, okay. So I've got approximately 125 yards before I get out the door. And then my wonderfully Latina girlfriend sees me standing next to another woman who's following me, and I'm like, well, that's going to be an interesting conversation to have.

So I had to literally part ways, be like, hey, you go your way. I'm gonna go this way, and I hope you enjoy your visit here in California. But, like, she would have talked to me for another 45 minutes, and I think it's just because I don't know. Something about the wiring. With Chase, it's like, you just ask these questions that make people want to be around you, is what I would say. So I've had that happen twice now, and I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not trying to do anything on purpose. Like, I'm not a pickup artist on airplanes anymore. I used to be back in the sixt.

But if you didn't have a Latin jealous girlfriend, what are the chances that the Indian lady would have been a candidate? Dateable?

4%.

So zero.

There's always a chance, right? One in a million? No. So I wouldn't say that she was my type. I wasn't in that mindset, but it was really, really interesting.

It works.

Yeah. Her level of attention to me, it was super interesting. And I wasn't trying to do anything in any way, shape, or form other than be nice, but I did. I think I probably asked a couple of questions. They're like, oh, my gosh, this. This person's paying attention to me.

Yeah. In a sense, with the Chase thing, I feel like I'm weaponized in a lot of ways, and. And I think.

The most useful part of it is I don't get fooled by people.

Yeah, you ask the right questions. And the thing that I think that I noticed right away about you, that I've also adopted and completely stolen from you, is I couldn't believe how many times you would ask somebody a question and they would tell you something but not answer the question. Like, that's something that, since you've started working with Chase, that you don't let people skirt around that. Like, if you're asking a question, they have to answer it.

And.

And I've really started to do that, like, with our coworkers, with clients, everything like that. Like, if I'm asking a question, I'm not asking for a story, I'm asking for an answer. In a lot of cases, super simple yes or no answers, and they'll go off for 10 minutes, diverting you from it.

Yeah. And so let's just unpack that for the audience really quick. Is like.

What you can tell when somebody can't answer a direct question is you can tell that they don't have clarity in what they're doing, or they don't have clarity in their strategy.

But they really don't know how to do what it is you're asking them about. So, like, say, for example, I'm talking.

To.

Service manager, and I say something to the effect, well, how can we increase our profitability? What's the plan to increase our profitability? And then the service manager says something like, you know, with the parts issues.

Right now, and then they go into this whole thing about their house in the country and they bought a horse, and you're like, no, my question was, how are we going to make more money? How are we going to increase the profit? And then they just look at you. They don't know. Yeah.

I think it's absolutely fascinating.

It always fascinates me when it happens, and it happens all too often. And the. The.

Thing is that I'm very direct in My question is. I'm asking a question about the end results.

Yeah.

Like, if. If I'm sitting there with a head coach of a football team and I'm like, how are we going to score more points and get the other team out on third down? Yep. Well, you know, the team just sold to a new. And you're like, that's exactly how it is. Not my question. That was not my question.

So we're going to get into this a little bit later. Another thing I think is a huge advantage of this whole asking questions with intentions one thing, but how much better of interviewers are we because of the chase stuff?

Oh, it's not even fair.

It's not even fair.

Yeah, it's not fair.

So.

And I don't. I don't. You haven't been through his interrogation.

Yeah, I should do that.

Yeah. I would. I would almost buy it for you. It's expensive, though. Yeah, it's interesting.

Yeah.

Okay, let's. So this is related, but super fun. And it's super. It's really fun to have somebody to talk to about the chase thing because for the longest time I was alone in it. Right. Yeah. So it's. It's fun that we're kind of bringing him into the fold and he's gonna work with the coaches also because they'll. They'll understand now what we're talking about.

So top five things we look for in a coach. And spoiler alert, there's more than five. We started with five, and I'm at 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

I have a whole nother card I didn't bring.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Okay.

But it's a lot for sure.

Okay. So top five things we look for in a coach. And we're very disciplined about this. I. I think sometimes I drive Christian crazy because.

I will interview people. And, you know, it's a good thing that Christian wants to hire. And he's putting in a lot of work to interview a lot of people. But then when some. When he likes something and gets served up to me, and I'm like, no.

That'S happening less and less, though.

Yeah. But everything is. We stopped looking at it, as in, why don't you like them? And it's. What were we missing? So Patricia is involved in this too. So it's a. Yeah. So we have a three person interview process.

I would say, like six months ago to a year ago. Well, even two years ago. A lot of times somebody would be served up to me. And there's a lesson in this. In what Christian is saying, for everybody hiring any. Any position is. They would get to me, and then they would do some sort of thing where they would tell me, oh, well, I was arrested for murder, or I got fired from my last job or, you know, some sort of thing like that. And I'd be like, well, I'm not, you know, I'm sorry, Christian. I'm not really that excited about them. They. They got fired, or. The other thing I would do is I would call references. Right. And their references would say, what?

Oh, they'll tell you everything.

Yeah.

It's so crazy how much they'll share.

I've seen that both good and bad, too. It's almost polarizing. Like, when the references are really crazy about someone, an applicant. Like, they'll go on for days about how awesome they were. And, man, let me know if you're not going to hire him, because I'd like to talk to that person. Like, a resounding reference means a lot.

But now we're at the point, I don't think anybody's been served up to me, where I uncovered that they were murderers or. And that's an exaggeration, but I haven't. Nothing has happened that you were blindsided by.

Yeah, that's fair.

And do you think it's my intimidation that brings that out on them, or what do you think it is that I previously could get somebody to.

Say.

Something or I could figure out something that nobody else that had interviewed him to that point had figured out.

Your line of questioning is really, really psychologically deeper, whereas I'm on the surface. I'm just trying to find out, like, some of the things we're going to talk about in the top five, like, those things I was really trying to uncover. But the thing that I would say is when you're interviewing somebody, you're peeling their lungs open and looking into their soul. In that part, I think we were not doing as good a job of, but now we're getting into it a little bit more.

Number one of the top five things we look for in a coach is internal locus of control.

Deal breaker.

Easy to tell, easy to figure out. That's the number one thing. Number two.

Past performance.

Indicator of future results is what I would say.

Yeah, so it's. It's happened. It happened, I don't know, maybe a year ago now. There's a guy who's running a pretty. Pretty big dealership, right.

But they're losing money.

And he's blaming the ownership. He's saying, well, the owner, blah, blah, blah, Blah, blah. And what was our debate on that? Do you remember this?

Keep going, Canada. Nope.

Wow.

I feel like I'm, I'm failing and.

I can't say much more without.

Yeah, given it. Given. So there was a, there was someone that we interviewed.

There was someone that you, you served up to me and you said, I really like this guy. And then I interviewed, I came back and said yes. And you were like, no, but I think he's really good. And I'm like, he's not, he's losing money. And then he was blaming his boss for losing money. And I'm like, listen, his effective. Like yes.

He was in a market and a brand that should be printing money.

Printing money. And which in a sense also was external. Looks of control.

Right? Extremely. Yes. So I wish I had that one to do over again.

So past performance. If they can't go into a situation and make that situation better just because they're there, they're not going to be a candidate for what we do. There's no way. Because we go into some pretty impossible situations.

That's right. Speaking of performance, what do you call a VW bus at the top of a hill?

What a miracle.

So true.

So past performance.

That one is number two for a reason. But it's almost as important as number one. Number three is they have to have natural authority.

Yes.

Charisma and authority.

Yeah, I lumped charisma into this. I think that they're. You could make a strong debate that they're two different things. But like are, are the candidates captivating? I think is probably part of it. And like do, do I do I believe what they're saying and I think that. Do they have charisma? Are they, are they kind of commanding the room, commanding the conversation? Those are all things that I'm looking for.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that people coming in from the outside will observe that. Our team seems like we're pretty tight.

We have, we've never had an in person interview where they didn't say that.

I would attribute that to the fact that I wouldn't hire anybody that I didn't like.

Yeah.

And so if they don't have some sort of likability, charisma or you know, natural authority where it's somebody you want to talk to, it's somebody that is just interesting. Yeah, they're interesting for some reason. It isn't always the same thing, but they have a point of view. They're, they, they're interesting and they're fun. To talk to. But if I don't like talking to.

Them, the clients aren't going to like it.

Nobody's going to.

There's no way.

And I don't want them around.

Yeah, that's fair.

You know what I mean?

Yep.

I don't want to see anybody on our team where I want to avoid them. Yeah, I mean, it's our little world here to create. We're going to create the world we want.

Number four, they think and talk in systems.

Another. Another deal breaker if they don't have the system for how they do it. And again, that kind of. It works in with past performance. And number two, because the system is usually what gets them the results in a lot of cases. So.

Yeah, so I'll give you guys an example is, let's say I say, oh, you went into this Ford dealership and you did this and this, and, you know, you doubled the sales and quadruple dupled the net or whatever, and their CSI was low, and now they're best in the market. How did you. How did you. How did you manufacture that outcome? Now if they say something to the effect of, well, you know, it's just finding the right people, you're never going to hire your way into fixing anything. What, what they. The right person will talk about. And this is true when you're interviewing advisors. Like, I'll ask a service advisor when I'm interviewing them. So when you're walking up to a car, the customer's there in the car, you're walking up to the car, what are you thinking? And I want to hear something like, well, I'm going to make friends. I'm, you know, I want them to talk about the system and the process of what's going to happen. What are the steps? Well, the first step is I got to get them to like me and I'm going to make friends. The next thing is then I'm going to, you know, go walk around the car. Then I'm going to get them back to my. Like, they're talking in a system or steps. But that's really important with technicians. When you interview a technician and you're saying, like, hey, what. What is your system? Like, let's say I hand you an RO and it's got, you know, line one is a runability diagnostic issue, and line two is a, you know, some sort of maintenance thing. What is your system? And I want them to talk about how they're going to pull it in. They're going to look at it, they're going to Fill out the inspection sheet. Then this is their system for diagnostic. They're going to drive it. Like, I want them to think in systems because people that think in systems are easier to manage because you can just help them with their system. People that think in theory or emotions are really hard to bring that back down to earth and move the steps around in their process.

Yep, that's right.

Because you're, you're fighting to. To get them to think in process, let alone move things around in the process. Somebody who's already thinks about it as a process or a process is really easy to say, hey, well, let's just move this thing before we do that. Let's compliment the customer before we do that. Let's do the inspection. And so you can tell when you're talking to somebody how they think by asking them to explain an outcome. How did you do this? How did you, you know, explain to me how you deal with a difficult customer?

They have to have a system. They have to have a way that they do it every single time because they get better at it.

Yeah. Now that's different than asking somebody, tell me about a time you had a crazy customer or a crazy customer, you know, failure, and you turned it around. Because the way that question is framed, they're going to think of a specific customer and then they're. They're not going to really explain the process because they're going to be focused on that customer. So the way I ask the question is more vague in the process. Right?

That's right. Oh, can I give, like a little bit of a tip for advisor interviews that you just said that made me think of. So one of the questions I ask every time I'm doing an advisor interview is give me the name of your two favorite customers and tell me why they're your favorite. It'll let you know if they pet the dog or not.

Two almost seems.

Well, you could do more.

10.

10? Is 10 strong?

Good. Yeah, I like that.

So that's just a little thing for advisors.

So so far we have. Number one is they have an internal locus of control. Number two is that they have a track record of performance. Number three is that they have charisma and authority. It's somebody that's likable that, you know, people are just going to like. They don't have to be extroverts. In fact, I would say everybody on our team is an introvert. I can't think of anybody. Well, we have one coach that's an.

Extrovert, and I'm probably Closer to being an extrovert than an introvert, I would say.

Yeah, but other than that, we're or mostly introverts. But I don't think introvert extrovert has anything to do with charisma. It's just, are they likable? And most people that are likable are likable because they make you feel special.

That's right.

They ask questions. Right. Number four is they think in systems. They think in the process, not in the emotions or the theory or the conspiracy of it. Number five, this is a. This is a big one.

Because this is what really makes.

A coach good, but also what makes them not fit in to a general job.

Okay. I like it.

They're addicted to fixing things. Once something's fixed, they're bored.

Yeah.

And it's interesting. I've seen a correlation between people that are really good at fixing businesses or fixing systems, or there's people that can come in and organize a process or organize an event. People that are good at that usually are. Are way more effective than people that are just trying to.

Create a system where they don't have to do anything. They're just trying to maintain. They just want consistency. People that are seeking just straight consistency for comfort's sake usually aren't very good leaders or managers. It's the ones that want something that's broken and then they. Once they fix it. And it's funny too, because I don't think a lot of times they realize this about themselves. They complain the whole time. It's the worst ever. It's the worst client ever. It's the worst situation ever. I can't believe how stupid these people are. Whatever. But then when they fix it, they're bored and they. They want to move on to something else. Yep. So they don't. We. We have a lot of managers that have been in our coaching group like this that have jumped around, or companies like Lithia or whatever use these managers to go into their broken stores. Those. Those managers would be really good on our team. They go and fix stuff. I agree.

Yeah. And I think that there's also. Along with the fixing stuff, everyone on our team has two things. One is, I would say that every. Per. Every one of our coaches, they're not afraid to take the ball and make the last shot of the game. So they. They don't mind that pressure part where they'll go and they'll be like, okay, I get it. That everything rides on this and I'm willing to take on that burden. The heavier burden, the Most. And then the other thing that I would say that we're really, we're pretty fortunate to have every single one of our coaches has a superpower. And now we've diversified the superpower. So we've got, we've got like advisor whispers, we got tech whispers, we got parts whispers. Like everybody has a superpower on our team.

Like now, like you can whisper parts.

Just all day long. Yeah.

Remember you're coming to top Dog. Coupon code, plug all caps parts hold parts. Hold your parts manager with you. We'd love to meet him.

That's a good list.

Okay, now the extra credit.

Yeah, let's, let's hear what you got.

So some other things that I thought about is they don't have 30 years of experience working against them.

Yeah.

They're guys say this all the time on strategy sessions or calls with general managers or dealers where give me a shop foreman or your top performing advisor. Oftentimes it's easy to turn them into a really effective leader over the guy with 30 years experience. And you can just tell the way they ask questions. Right. They're asking like the what do you do when this doesn't work? You know, can we have more references? They're, they're just looking for a million reasons to negate the fact that they're underperforming and they need to change. They just don't want to change. And so we're effective at getting them to change. But I would say if you gave me a choice, I'd probably take the younger person with no experience because the actual ramp up is way faster. They don't know that they can't hire techs. They don't know what they don't know.

And so it's also a position of authority too. Right. Coming in, they're a little bit humbled because they know that they don't have all the answers. So they're going to do what we.

Tell them to do.

Yep. Authority is a lot better.

They're better soldiers.

Yep. I think another one, we can go back and forth on this one.

One funny thing with that too is what's interesting with that manager that has 30 years experience working against them is they know that their results are terrible. They know that the market's changed, they know that they're stuck. But then they want to do everything they can to not change. When common sense tells you that if you're doing one thing and the outcome of that one thing is less than desirable or negative. Right. So if every day I get up and I'm first thing I'm doing is going to Starbucks and ordering, like, that milkshake thing. It's like 1200 calories. Like, I'm getting the Venti Frappuccino, and then I'm going to lunch and I'm having a hamburger and fries with another milkshake. And then, like.

If you want your health to change and you're, you know, your cholesterol is high and you're having a heart attack or you have a stroke or whatever, you have to change what you're putting in or what your habits are in order to get a different result. And it's the same thing with. With the service department is if you're having a hard time hiring techs, then you need to do something completely different than what you're doing. If your numbers aren't what they should be, then you need to do something completely different than what you're doing. But somehow we live in a society where people think, oh, I'm just gonna get lucky, or there's a magic pill that you can take. No, you gotta change your actions to change the outcome. And that's the thing that always surprises me is a lot of the older managers that are having a hard time will tell you they hate the result, and then everything they do is to sabotage change.

Yeah.

It's always an. A fascinating study in human psychology and behavior that it's clear as day what you're doing isn't working, but you don't want to change. Like, I. I've created this system for myself where if I'm not getting the habit I throw out, I change everything. You've seen me do it.

Yes, you burn it.

I will burn it down. And a lot of times people around are going like, no, don't burn it. I'm like, no, you're not going to hold me hostage. Like, I'm. You're just not. I don't care. I'm just not going to do it. I want a different outcome.

Yeah.

And so to have a different outcome, I gotta change, as painful as it is. But there's always. There's always. There's always sunshine at the end of that.

And almost always. Maybe I should have done that earlier.

Always very similar to when you fire somebody. You're like, I should have done that a year ago.

Exact phenomenon.

I should have changed a year ago. I've just been carrying this bag of potatoes around. Yeah. Okay. What were you gonna say?

I was gonna sneak one in. Saying that with the way that we build our team and the importance that we Have. As we go into the weather with a client and everything like that. Our coaches don't want to be Tony Robbins. They don't want to be the center of attention. They want to really, like. They're absolutely in it for the client.

Yeah.

They actually would say that they get more joy out of the success of their clients than their personal success. That's a common denominator that we've found has worked over the last few years.

Yeah. And I would explain that a little more in saying, when I worked for a consulting company, their strategy was to diminish the value of everybody else and elevate your value, which is exactly the opposite of what we do.

Yeah. Because it reminds me, we were talking to somebody over the last couple of weeks, and they were explaining their experience with a different coach that they had and.

The way that they felt about their coach. They loved the coach. They thought the coach was great, and they wanted to hang out with him and be cool. And then. Then you'd ask that person, you're like, well, what were your results?

Oh, yeah. So they were talking about a different company, so not our company. And they were saying that they'd had this other company come in and they'd spent a bunch of money with them, and they really liked their. Their consultant.

Like, to this day, they still would go have dinner with them.

Great guy. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, what happened with your numbers? Well, well, actually, they went down. I think they said, yep, we made less money. Like, yeah, well.

That'S just not how we think.

Yeah. Hearing when. When he said that, I was like, man, I'm so grateful for our team because no one's trying to make them just like them.

Yeah, no, that's. That's really good.

The next one I have is the wife or spouse.

This is a game changer in the interview process for us.

We will not hire anybody at that level of management or coach, which a coach is, you know, really equal to a manager. It's a leadership position in our company without.

Meeting and spending time with the spouse, especially because they travel so much.

Yeah. So there's a support system that has to be in place for it to work out. Right. And I think that one of the things that you said this the other day, too, that I really, really liked was that if. If a relationship's in trouble, traveling three out of four weeks a month does not make that better.

No, not at all. And also like it. It helps if the spouse understands us and we have chemistry and they like us as a company because they are a very important part of the success of our company. Just their influence, you know, and. And their. Their view of things. And so we try not to hide the downside of the travel and how hard it is and how thankless it is sometimes. And I think that they appreciate that because we're, you know, we're laying it on the table. We're not trying to pretend it's something.

That it isn't and making them a part of it. In the. Our last three coaches, the spouses have been so likable. Like, I if enjoyed every one of them, if you remember back.

Well, yeah, but I'm trying to think if there's anybody's spouse that isn't likable. I don't think Vicki's husband's a hoot.

Have you ever seen him? Hilarious. Yeah.

I don't nobody. Everybody. They're pretty. But I think the reason why they've done as well as they have is that. That support also, like, there haven't been.

You know, big issues with relationships and that sort of thing.

No, but we would never be it. We'd never shy away from it. Like, that's a big thing is we. We don't sweep anything under the rug because it always comes back out.

No, but you. You do know that a lot of times if somebody goes through a divorce, they're off the market for a while, six months.

Yeah.

And so we haven't. We haven't experienced that.

With the exception of one person.

Are you pointing at me?

No, not at all.

Sociopathically, I didn't miss a beat.

The next. The next one is that they're. They're students and they're not absolute about anything.

Every one of these could be in the top five.

Yeah, we shouldn't. We should have done 10.

Yeah.

But I just kept thinking, like, even last night I was thinking about this.

But you can tell when you're talking to somebody if they're absolute. Like, let's just. Let's just take, for example, and I'm gonna. I'm gonna pick a. A topic that is nuclear. The vaccines.

Right. Like, I don't care what side of the vaccine conversation you fall on.

There's an element of this that none of us know. We do not know that five years from now, our ears don't fall off or our immune system isn't affected. It's a new thing that isn't tested for 20 years. There's a lot of times that, you know, 10 years after.

Some sort of medicine or vaccine or whatever, there's Side effects. We can't be absolute about anything.

It's a way.

When you're going in to fix a.

Business.

You cannot be absolute about who the best people are, what is causing the problems. You have to ask questions, and you have to measure twice and cut once. And if you're judgmental and absolute in your opinions about vaccinations or politics, like, I love talking politics with people.

In. My favorite is people that pretend like they're in the CIA and they know, like, they know everything about everything. Like, they can tell you, like, without, with all the conviction in the world, like, something about Biden or something about Trump and that, you know, this was that. And, and it's like, wow, I can't believe you were getting briefed by the CIA daily. Like.

If you don't understand that an element of running a country and the leadership at that level is propaganda and you want the population and the morale of the population to be one way, you're not. I mean, there's a great documentary on Obama, and it's. I think it's called the Last Year. And they literally in there are talking about how they control the story to the American people and what was happening behind the scenes with Russia meddling with, with the elections and what they were telling everybody were different. And they're saying it into the camera that we didn't want the American people to, you know, be bothered or however they. They said it. It's like, you can't be absolute. You can ask a lot of questions, you can have common sense, but you, you don't want somebody that's going in to fix things that is judgmental or absolute in any way because it doesn't serve you. You just got to. And try to connect dots. But connecting dots is, Is way more effective than judging.

That's great.

Another one, Patricia threw this one in that. That we ask is, like, what books and podcasts they read. That's pretty easy.

How are they downloading content?

I ask that at any level. I mean, you'd be surprised. You get kids that come in as porters and they're like, oh, I'm reading Rich dad, Poor Dad. I'm. Yeah, you know, I read this book, and so any, Anybody like that is. Is going to be somebody that you're going to at least be able to share ideas with because they're committed to the idea of getting better.

The. The other one I have here is financial acumen. So it surprises me to this day, and I, I think that this is a failure of our industry in a Big way. But you. We will try to test out their financial acumen and do they understand net to gross effective labor rate, those sort of things. But.

The most common one that happens, and it's happened for a long time and it keeps happening, is people confuse effective labor with gross profit. So, you know, you'll ask a question to something like, you know, if an alignment.

Is paying the tech an hour and a half and we're charging 99.95, what's your effective labor rate? And they'll say something like, oh, my cost is 27. And it's not. It's not the question. Yeah, but that happens all the time. Like, it's not their fault. Nobody's taught them. But you can't come in and be a coach for us and not understand that stuff because you. The other thing with that is to teach that stuff, you're going to get it wrong. A couple times. I know that it took me like five times, seven times to understand some of this stuff. And I'm the kind of person, I'm just not afraid to ask. I would ask everybody, I would ask dealers, I would ask mentors. Like, I wasn't afraid to ask until I understood, but it can be confusing.

Yeah, there's definitely been exercises that we teach that I've probably gone. I've. I probably went through 50 times on a couple of exercises before I did it in front of a client. And it seems like now that we look back on it, it's not necessarily the most complex stuff. It's just that we never had exposure to it. And then teaching it to people that have also never had exposure to it is a very different ballgame too. So I think the coaches are. They understand that as well. So I think that that's why that's such an important aspect is what is their financial acumen. And I think that that would also go along with results because they have to know, did they. Have they won? Are they. What do they consider themselves in the past performance? Like, were they profitable, tied to systems?

To agree, you got to understand the details. Totally. The. I only have two more than. The next one is references. And I think references applies to anybody you're hiring, but it applies also to anybody you're going to do business with. Like, if somebody comes to me and they, you know, they, they have some software or they, they can do some marketing thing online or they know social media. I always say, like, give me two or three clients that'll rave about you. And if they can't produce two or three people that will rave about them. I'm not. I'm not your guinea pig. Like, and it always served me, the people that are really good have hundreds of people that will rave about them. Yeah. And the people that aren't, they're, you know, they're. They're not going to be able to serve anybody up. But it's the same thing. Like, I know there's laws that keep people from saying stuff, but if you call a place and they say, well, they're not eligible for rehire, that in and of itself gives you a lot of information.

But my favorite thing was, was with Cliff, Coach Cliff. He gave me. I asked him for three references. He gave me four within 15 minutes. I'm like, do you need to reach out to these people and let them know that they're going to be calling me? He's like, nope, just call him. I'm like, God, I loved him right away.

That's how it should be.

And then his references wouldn't shut up. They wouldn't stop talking. Like, literally, I was the one ending the conversation.

Yeah.

So fun.

When we had one the other day and somebody where they. They were like, oh, they're looking. I want to hire them back.

Yeah, that's fine. Right? Oops.

Then the last one. And this is kind of a funny one, and we're not as strict as we should be with this, but I think we've had an internal meeting and decided that as of this week, this is going to be the new law.

Yeah.

They have to have an iPhone.

We are a blue company.

It's so funny to me.

Yeah.

So it's just funny. We have a daily text that goes out, and the people that should see that text with the results aren't even on it because they don't have an iPhone. And it's so funny because I replied to the text thread the other day. So you remember this because you're in that thread. I'm like. I'm like, oh, great job. Great. You know, can't wait until tomorrow. And then I notice that they're not.

Even in the person that did a great job.

Yeah, they're not even in the thread. Oh, so such a waste of time because they don't have an iPhone and you can't. And so then. Then the answer is, oh, well, they're in Slack. And I'm like, well, I'm not on Slack. I don't. I don't want to be in 45 different places. There's Slack, there's infusionsoft, there's Trello. Trello. No, I'm texting. That's it. And another hard and fast rule here is no emojis.

That's your emoji. That's.

Yeah, to me. If you text me emojis, you're. See ya.

Now, internally, when we text each other.

You guys are probably like a bunch of junior high girls with, you know.

What's Patricia's favorite emoji?

I don't know.

Really? What would you. You don't have a guess of what her emoji would be?

No.

Eye roll.

That's an. That's an actual emoji.

Yeah, it was based on her actual face.

I turned emojis off.

I understand that.

I think it's a weird. It's a weird thing.

You think it's built by people that are incapable of forming words? Is that what it means?

I don't know. I don't know what I think about it. It's just the whole emoji thing is weird to me. And also, like, the Pooh one. No, that's gross.

See, now, I thought that that was supposed to be the top of a chocolate ice cream cone. Yeah.

See how wrong you were?

Yeah.

No, I'm not into any of that. I think it's juvenile.

You know, that there's the defiance in me that wants to give you emojis sometimes, and I hold myself back. Right.

Here's the thing I would like to close with. I am really appreciative, and I can't say this enough to the people that have reached out and asked me if I'm okay and if I'm gonna make a decision.

Top Dog, it's pretty awesome.

Quite a few people. I have no idea if I'm gonna make it to Top Dog. I don't. But I have lost seven pounds, and my blood pressure is way down to doing two things. Some herb I'm taking.

Yeah. But the other thing is the meditation. Well, there's three things that you're doing.

What's the other thing?

The third thing is that you've. Instead of going heavy lifting, you're walking every day and really getting that blood pumping.

I'm lifting again.

Yeah. But I. I believe that the walking that you're doing is facilitating the.

On Saturday, I walked seven miles. Did you? I walked all the way to rodeo.

I like that you're doing that. That's good stuff.

So I'm taking nsk. NATO, Kinasi.

That in meditation. Definitely. I'm back down, so the chances are getting better. But, you know, with or without me, Top Dog's gonna be a huge event.

Yeah, it's gonna be fun.

I'm basically. What would you call that? Arm candy at the event?

I never thought about it like that. Sure.

I'm just gonna be hanging out, talking to people.

Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of fun going on.

I need to get some. I need to get a box of cigars because people are gonna want to smoke cigars at the dinner on Friday.

I would assume so. Plus there's probably another 50 that I've given away and you don't even know about it.

That's funny.

Well, good stuff. That was a fun list to do. Like, I. I was thinking about it a lot and I think that's a roadmap for you to think about your hiring. And.

I think the, the culture we have here and the team that we have here is pretty good. I mean, we're not perfect, but we definitely have the right intention and we have a unique group of talent. But it's not by accident. It's curated and it's constantly looked at and thought about. Right, Agree. It's not an accident.

Anything else in closing? No. I think I feel like you. Did you tell one joke?

Yeah. Just one.

I apologize to the audience that it's a one joke show. Yeah.

I don't know. It's a. There's a lot of good content today, so I don't know if it was in a joking manner, but thanks, you guys.

We'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.

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