A day in the life of….. ITS OUR LIFE!

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Where are they? They're probably upstairs. [00:00:08] Speaker B: They never answer the door. Oh wait, it's Monday night. [00:00:12] Speaker A: They're on the second floor. Hey guys, welcome back to second floor sessions. Thanks for joining us. I almost didn't make it here today. I forgot. Basically I called my wife and I was beelining for the baseball fields because I actually was. [00:00:41] Speaker B: I was loading a mower up. I don't know, it must have been in the air. I was loading the mower up, gonna go test the mower out here at the store. I was gonna test mower out in my house. Well, I'm glad I didn't. [00:00:52] Speaker A: You was going home? [00:00:52] Speaker B: I was out of here. [00:00:53] Speaker A: I was headed to go to a baseball practice, so. And I texted Megan, you know, I was like, same thing as last night, cuz I. She dropped my oldest boy off. I went to, to go sit with him and pick him up and then she went home and she was like, what? And she called me and I did. Couldn't answer. I was working and text me, I'm confused, you know. And I called her, I was like, hey. She goes, you're confusing me. So you're coming home? I'm like, I mean, I'll get home eventually. Oh, it's Thursday, we gotta go over and film podcast. I totally forgot all about it. So. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So Alex, it's every. She's like, she said you podcast. She'll miss asked me that last night. I was like, yeah, I'm podcasting sure as the world. All day long. I had the mower loaded up on my stub nose out there it was, I was ready to go mow a yard, test that mower out after I got it fixed. [00:01:49] Speaker A: So. So this almost didn't happen. Yeah, we almost forgot about it. [00:01:52] Speaker B: But. [00:01:54] Speaker A: So I've got a question. What about what if today, [00:02:03] Speaker B: walk [00:02:05] Speaker A: the listeners and the viewers and me through like a day in the life of Matt, like a working day through the week. Like what's that like? What's that like for you? Fill us in on what you kind of go through and I don't care if there's, if you've got a good story to put in there with it or if it's just a normal boring day, whatever. But what all are you doing? [00:02:29] Speaker B: Never. I wish sometimes, well, owning your own business. You don't want a boring day sometimes I would, I would love to have a boring day any day. I would pick. I could. I would love to have a boring day. I guess, I guess my biggest, you know, when I start out in the Morning. First thing is I gotta get up and get some coffee in me. [00:02:50] Speaker A: Well, what time you get up? [00:02:51] Speaker B: And I've got. That starts. Well, I get up about 5:30 and that's, that's, you know, of course your morning routine, whether it's, whatever you do, take a bath, shower, whatever, get ready to get going, but that coffee's got to get hit and I couldn't imagine [00:03:10] Speaker A: having time just to dip down in a nice bath. Well, shower. [00:03:14] Speaker B: I don't think anybody that my bad. Shower. [00:03:17] Speaker A: You taking bubble baths over here? [00:03:19] Speaker B: I do sometimes. I got up to get a soaker get in there and so it's probably helping old knees. [00:03:23] Speaker A: You got one? [00:03:24] Speaker B: No, just soaking a bath with some Epsom salt with that old knee. [00:03:27] Speaker A: Freaking knees kill me. I played five games of full court basketball Monday night. [00:03:31] Speaker B: Getting old. Way getting old. [00:03:34] Speaker A: My knees about to give up on me. But anyway, yeah, yeah, I might take [00:03:39] Speaker B: a soaker every now and again. But anyway, I get me a cup of coffee on the way to work and sometimes when I get to work, try to get here about 6:45, 7:00 clock every morning. Get in here, check all the inventory in. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Check inventory every day? Every day? [00:03:57] Speaker B: Every day except Saturday. Saturday is my off day. I don't have no inventory coming in. [00:04:01] Speaker A: Is that, is that so you can see to reorder stuff? [00:04:04] Speaker B: No, no, no. So inventory we order every day. So like today we put a stock order in. Anything that we need from yesterday or everything. Everything we needed for today, I order it tonight. If I sold it today, it'll be back in tomorrow if it's available to be, you know, had. But I check all that in in the mornings and. [00:04:26] Speaker A: Oh, oh, oh, I see. Okay. [00:04:27] Speaker B: And go through, go through the first few hours, you know, couple 12 hours back of emails that I didn't maybe see overnight because I get a bunch of emails overnight, different odd name stuff, you know, that they'll send just at random times. I think it's just a burst of emails that they send. Check that stuff out. Roll through there and check if we have any online sales. If we don't do any of that, get up, get our, get our inventory unboxed and pull all that out, set it up on the cart for somebody to put up and then you post all that stuff, post all that stuff into your store. So now it's back into your inventory. Do that every day except Saturday. Some days are bigger than others. Some days you don't have a whole lot. But see when you pull, we pull from, we have like 1010 different warehouses we pull from to stock the shelves, you know, and, you know, from then on after, after inventory, after it opens up, it's just kind of no hold bars. I mean, it's just, it's. It's wide open from. And especially this time, you know, winter times, it's. It's slower, it may take off. You may not see two or three people in an hour. You know, you'll see. You'll see two or three people in the first 10 minutes you're open, you know, immediately. People dropping off machines. So you always, in your mind, I've got this board down there that I ride on, that stuff that I would like to accomplish, try to get done. So if you ever have any downtime, I ain't got nothing to do. I'll run out here and do this real quick because I need to get it done. You know, whether it be clean the showroom or, you know, do something, service a vehicle. And big, big thing for me is I can't really like. I can schedule like my pickups and stuff for mowers and stuff, but I can't schedule it to the point to where, because I may be changing a battery, I may be changing the wipers, I may be doing. I've got a lot of different hats that I wear in the business, whether it's working on mowers, picking up mowers, putting batteries on, putting wipers on, reading, check engine lights, all that good stuff. But anyways, after I get done with doing that, I usually head to the back and get my dad, which is a mechanic with me. He works on all the mowers. 75 years old. [00:07:02] Speaker A: And you. [00:07:03] Speaker B: And me. Yeah, and me. But I mean, he's the. He's the dude for the service and he's the serviceman. He knocks out 80% of the service work. That's drain. That's, that's, that's pretty. Just service. Drain fills, blade, sharpens everything. You know, he knocks out, which don't sound like a lot, but I mean, knocks out five or six a day. And on a mower, that's, that's. I mean, you're talking. I gotta have to beg him to take lunch sometimes. He won't take lunch. He'll clock out, but he won't. He'll just sit there and work through his just. You know what I mean? That's just, that's just that generation, you know, you can't fight you. That. That generation's about gone. Yeah. You know, and get him going. And if there's something that, you know, I'm d. I diagnose. So that's kind of what, you know, I do a lot of all the diagnosing and stuff. So if there's anything like that to do or. But then I funnel dad. I'm funneling him work. I'm getting him all the stuff to the kits, to everything to fix that mower, everything to, you know, if it needs blades, if it needs pulleys, I'm ordering all the stuff for him, writing up tickets, calling the customers, letting them know what's wrong with it if he finds anything in between. You know how it goes. Same thing with the car. But I'm the one that's doing the writing the tickets, selling the product, getting the parts, you know, all that sort of stuff. And then he's the one that's usually doing the majority of the work. Anything computer related on a lawnmower, like EFI or electronic fuel injection or people who don't know what that means. Anything. If it's got a computer on it, I get, you know, I hook my scanner, I mean my computer up to it and we'll read it and try to figure out what's going on. So after we get all him going up, rocking and rolling, you know, it just depends on the day. But, you know, we. I just motor around. Most of the time I'm in the back trying to make things, you know, flow better. Sometimes we can get in there and knock out 10 mowers a day. You know, if it's nothing crazy holds us up 10, 10 to 12. 12's pushing it. But that's. That's if everything's right. Yeah. Smooth. And nothing needs attention. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, in something like that, it's. It's not that hard to work. But I mean, dad's 80, 75 years old and he's. He moves like me and you. So you can't hardly hold him down, hold him back. And then, you know, after we, we get rocking and everybody does their lunch thing, goes through or cycles through your lunch and, and whatnot, we, you know, I mean, throughout the day I'm always up front swapping batteries or, you know, what have you. And then, you know, when we get. That's basically the whole day, you know, through the whole day. You're. You're changing all that stuff out. You're just hitting stuff. If somebody needs parts, you run the parts, I run the parts down the road, that sort of thing. But, you know, the mass this year that happened is we were doing some remodeling downstairs and the influx of repairs that we got in like one month. Mower repairs. Yeah, it was unreal. I mean they've been sitting for three months. But they want them now, you know. Yeah. Want them fixed. But I had in here at one time it was almost 40 mowers. That's a lot on my, on, on in my area. In my. [00:10:39] Speaker A: That's for actual repairs or is that service work? [00:10:42] Speaker B: That's service repairs. Oil leaks. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Okay, so you may have just, just a normal oil change service on one, but the next one may need a motor. [00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Motors. [00:10:51] Speaker A: So it's not always, it's not just service. [00:10:53] Speaker B: It's not always service. I mean got, I got one down there right now. It's got a. Needs a motor on it. But there again it's just a constant throughout the day. It's just. It's in this line of work and part store that's busy and small engine and stuff like that. It's. It's very high paced. [00:11:17] Speaker A: I don't see how you keep up with what, what y' all are running for help. [00:11:20] Speaker B: Well, you just, you just do. [00:11:22] Speaker A: I mean I get the back. You just, you're just, you know, getting it done as you go. [00:11:26] Speaker B: But I don't understand how. I guess I do understand because when we do it at a different level than what other people do, we don't. You know, I don't know how people get like on small engine side how they say that, that they're. They're three, three, four weeks behind. I mean now I did get. This is the first time that year ever that I got about a week and a half behind. Usually I'm cranking them out a couple, two or three days. I do have a very, very large inventory of small engine parts, so that definitely helps. But yeah, I think that sometimes. But the problem is, you know, who you gonna find? I mean you can't hardly find to do. Well, what do I. I guess for me as a. As the owner, what do I want to do? You know, do I want to stick back there in the back with my dad and just crank out work? Probably is what I'd like to do, you know, because that's where good money is made. You know, when you're, you know, on, on the, on the small engine side or do you. Do I want to hire somebody and. And let them kind of be the top dog in the back, you know, let dad just continue doing his service work and then find somebody who can service or diagnose and service, you know, and Let them tear, let them tear it, you know, Let them work it. Yeah, but there again, it's just a, it's a dying trade. I mean, ain't many people that's doing it, you know. [00:12:50] Speaker A: No, and the ones that are, is, [00:12:52] Speaker B: well, you burn out, they're sitting for [00:12:54] Speaker A: seven months and somebody brings you. [00:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, but. And then the people that are doing it and they get burned out because you get people that's just push, push, push, push, push. Yeah, you know, but I understand, but anyways, after all, that's. After through the day there and get closed up, you know, of course, close the day out, you know, balance, balance your drawers and. And then I get to do the best part of the day. You go home and be a dad, so. And a husband, so. And when I go home and I mean when I shut it off, I shut it off. Like sometimes my wife don't know anything about up here, the day to day, what's happened. Because when I go, when I go through that threshold of the business, I'm, I'm. I'm turning it off. I'm done with it. I don't, I generally don't answer, especially because some good customers have my cell phone number. I don't answer it. I don't, you know, they can think of me what they want to think. But when I'm closed and I'm locked down, I'm done with it. I don't want, you know, you know, and that's, you know, now, now on Tuesdays it's different. Tuesdays are different for me. I'm, I'm rocking. I'm in that stub nose right now. This is how it's working for me, that stub nose. On Tuesdays, I'm, I'm beating the highways down at least five or six hours a day. Picking, picking up, picking up mowers. It's usually picking up on and dropping off, if I have any to drop off. You calculate, you know, you just make the route in your head. Okay, I've got, I've got two in Loudon and I've got three in Madisonville and I got, you know, four in Vaughn or so. I'll snag these four up in Von Ore and bring them back. And then I'll hit Madisonville or I'll hit Loudon, you know, because they're down off 72. And then you'll wrap around and then you'll hit swing back through the country and grab the ones in Madison. You just make this big loop, you know, and then you, you Know if there's any of them done in that mitt in the midst of all that, you'll. You'll have it on your truck. If you got enough room, you put it on your truck and drop it off on the way back through, you know? Yeah, I generally, I hate to, you know, lead my customers to where I'm not being ugly, but when you're as busy as I am, unfortunately, I don't have time to sit and talk to you, you know, at the house when [00:15:24] Speaker A: they're picking them up. Yeah, yeah, I can imagine that. [00:15:27] Speaker B: I mean, I don't. I don't. I'm not being, you know, I get it if you need to tell me something that it's doing this or doing that or it's got, you know, but that's where the work order comes in. You need to make sure that you get all that. I can't stand when I go out in the parking lot and I get a work order and that work order says oil change. And then I get out there and then I, you know, to unload it and I'm pushing it off the trailer. It don't need just an oil change. What. What if you can't drive this thing off, what's the problem, you know? Yeah, well, I just need IT service for this year. But it started doing this thing that. Servicing it. Servicing it and is not the same thing as diagnosing it. Figure out what it's doing. That's not. That don't fall in that line. That's two different things. [00:16:12] Speaker A: I change oil on it. [00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah. You're still not going to run. [00:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah, still not gonna run. [00:16:17] Speaker B: You're gonna have to push it back up on trailer. When you get to come back, we'll [00:16:20] Speaker A: send it out there and you can't use it. [00:16:21] Speaker B: Go out and they write all this stuff down. They write a whole paragraph down for you and. [00:16:27] Speaker A: And then it talks about going to the grocery store. [00:16:30] Speaker B: Yeah, you could. Yeah, yeah. The last time. Last time I went around the flower bed, it backfired. I don't know, you know, but. Okay. So the biggest thing is with stuff like that is like, you know, when I go out there and to go, you know, pull the mower around or something. They've wrote all this stuff down. And then I go out there and like, oh, yeah. Now make sure you remember to check that tire for leaks. Do this and do that. If you ain't got it on that paper, it may not get done because I ain't gonna touch this thing for three, two, couple, two or three days, I'm not going to remember that. Maybe I mean sometime pretty good about remembering, but sometimes it slips my mind. But anyways, besides all that getting off track but the taking that and you know, all that aside, 5:30 comes around like I said, going home and we do our life. I won't go through that door at the house. And I want to be a dad. I want to be a father. Want to be a husband and shut the, shut the store off. I just shut it down. So that's kind of in a nutshell. And then in the evenings, Matt's over there on the recliner about 8:30, 9:00 out. You know, she's like, just go to bed, go to bed, honey. Going to bed. [00:17:58] Speaker A: I'm wrong. [00:17:59] Speaker B: I'm good, I'm good, honey, I'm fine. [00:18:02] Speaker A: So would you consider yourself a morning or a night person? [00:18:05] Speaker B: Oh, I'm. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Sounds like morning, morning all day. [00:18:08] Speaker B: I can't stand being up late at night. Absolutely cannot stand being up late at night. Now you can. I can thrive at 4 o' clock in the morning. Sometimes I'll wake up and I'm like, well, I'm ready to go. You know, I don't need to go in this early, but I could go in and I could do this, this, this and this. You know, like Saturday now like Saturdays I shut the doors of the store right now I'll probably do it first of April, I'll go start going back to 2 o', clock, but I do 12 o' clock right now. It just works good for my schedule, our schedule here at the store because it's so pretty and stuff right now it's starting to pick up. Business is starting to traffic because you know, on Saturdays in December, you know, December 18th, we may have 10 customers that come in on a Saturday where last Saturday me and Dave cranked out 45 customers in four hours. You know, so, but, but after I close the doors, I take off Saturday and start doing all the deliveries that I picked up Tuesday generally. [00:19:14] Speaker A: Okay, so you, so you do that two days a week. That's your, that's your goal. I see what, I see what you're doing. [00:19:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Try to try to. It don't always work out but then if not I'll get them the following Tuesday. So it's technically here at the late, like if, if, if, if your bowers here over a week, it's because you either ain't come picked it up or we're waiting on parts and that generally waiting on parts thing. Now, now When Covid was going on you. They may sit here for two weeks, three weeks or four on parts, but. [00:19:42] Speaker A: Yeah, what. [00:19:43] Speaker B: But now it's out of your control. Yeah. You can't do anything about it. So it's pretty good. But now, as far as, you know, as far as, you know, Tuesdays and Tuesdays and Saturdays are kind of my Saturdays. I consider that kind of my off day because I don't. My normal routine. And six days a week for me, I mean that's six days a week. It's been six days a week since I opened this place, since 2017. So I mean, but I've always been used to six days a week. I mean when I worked at the shop, automotive shop, I was, I was six days a week, you know. [00:20:18] Speaker A: Well, you had a day off. [00:20:19] Speaker B: I had a day. Well, they wouldn't, you know, you could [00:20:24] Speaker A: choose to take it or not. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:20:26] Speaker A: In most cases. [00:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Well they, and they never bat an eye. If I, you know, a lot of people, they would, they wouldn't let them work their off days there for a while, you know. [00:20:35] Speaker A: But. Yeah, [00:20:38] Speaker B: but if you was turning the dollar, they didn't care if you stayed there. You know what I mean? [00:20:44] Speaker A: Well, and our, our professions are so closely sort of similar, you know, there's not a very big difference with them. So mine's not much different than your routine is. But I get up at my alarms, I set a bunch of alarms. I don't know how you are if you just one alarm and nothing done. [00:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what it is. [00:21:04] Speaker A: Not me. Not me. I like to be able to. If I wake up, I'm like, I ain't feeling it. I want to just, you know, I'll wait on the next one. Not. You can snooze them all you want and let make them go, but I just set a bunch of them. So. [00:21:16] Speaker B: Okay. [00:21:18] Speaker A: But I get up about five every morning and if I, if I'm. [00:21:23] Speaker B: What's the latest you can do it and get, get there like six. You pushing six? Yeah. [00:21:29] Speaker A: That's probably about as late as I need to go. I mean if I, if I had to, if I Woke up at 6:20. If I woke up at 6:20, it would be 911, you know, it would be 91 1. There wouldn't be teeth brushed. If I had hair, it'd be a freaking mess. But I could probably because it's about a 40 minute drive. So it's 30. If I speed, I can get there between 30 and 40. So I could get There technically without being late. But most mornings I'm there by 6. Sometimes 6:15, 6:30. It just kind of depends on when I decide to get motivated enough to get up or, or whatever. I was out of it this, this week. I, when was. It was this morning. This morning I woke up. I didn't get to work this morning until about 6:45 and we start at 7 and I've got a pretty long lengthy routine and of course I got two other people, three other people today that were there before me. And so they had the majority of everything knocked out that, that we got to do anyway. And pretty much we can all kind of do everything unless I'm doing like time sheets or something. And that's just me. But yeah, this, this morning I don't know what happened. I was just. I told you I played basketball Monday, so I was, I've been super tired since then, but ever since, it's like almost ever since this time change we had, I've not been able to adjust. [00:23:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:01] Speaker A: And, and I'll tell you what's funny about that is I remember I used to work when I worked somewhere else. I had a guy tell me one time, he said, he said, man, I don't like this time change. And we had, we had lost an hour. So we had, what is it? When. Well, I guess no, we had failed back. So it was in the fall, I guess we fell back and instead of going to sleep at 9 or 10 o', clock, you know, and I'm in, I'm in the shop at this time, but 9 or 10 o', clock, I'm going to bed at like 8 or 9 o', clock, you know, and he's complaining about the time and he was an older guy that mean he had kids and stuff. And I didn't. And I said, he, he said, man, this time change is killing me. And I was like, I freaking love it. He said, what do you mean you love it? I, I went to bed last three nights at 7:30, you know, and I'm waking up, you know, and I'm coming to work and I feel better and all that. He's like, 7:30, you, well, you ain't got no kids. You'll change that when you have kids. And I thought you're crazy. I'll be even more tired. I'll go to bed even sooner. Well, now I realize what he's saying, you know, Now I realize get them kids in bed and just have time [00:24:08] Speaker B: for yourself, so chill out. [00:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but I finally, I realized that now, but And I'm not one of those people who can sleep long. I mean, I'm. I'm eight hours and up. I mean, it don't matter what time I go to bed. If I get eight hours, I'm pretty much programmed to just kind of get up. [00:24:25] Speaker B: I'm about a six to seven. Six or seven. Boom. I'm up. I can go, I can run. I can function really well on six hours of sleep. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Yeah, you're feeling, you're feeling more manly than I am. Then you have more testosterone floating. I'm, I'm. I don't know what the deal is. Anyway, I've been having trouble getting up. So this morning I woke up late, of course, like I'm saying, and, and I'm gonna make it to work plenty of time, whatever. But I woke up late. I remember holding the phone and she's hitting me. She, she's doing this. She's rolled over this way and hitting me. And I remember holding the phone and it's going off. The alarm's going off. That's what she's. That's why she's hitting me. She just keeps hitting me. Because I'm not turning my alarm off while I'm holding the phone. For some reason, her hitting me like that. I thought she threw her phone over to me. Like it was her alarm going off and she couldn't get it to go off or something. She's like, bo, I'm like, your freaking phone. It won't, you know, I'm trying to. And then finally I, I woke up and came to enough to realize that's her face looking at me and this is my phone. You know, just so I turned it off. I was like, I gotta go. But, but that, that was just. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Are you, Are you a get up and go kind of guy or are you like. Like, sometimes I'll fix my breakfast. I'll, I'll, you know, I would my coffee. I'll fix my breakfast, take a shower. Or you like, are you rather, Are you the cap. That'll just be like, all right, boom. I'm getting up at. I'm getting up at 6. I'm out the door by 6, 10. I'm brushing my teeth and getting out the door. Like, are you a morning shower or evening shower? [00:25:59] Speaker A: So I'm, That's a good question, but it's a big answer. I'm more complicated than that. So it just depends. I mean, no, I, I, My shower is definitely taking it out before I lay down in my bed. I mean, I'm definitely Taking a shower. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Okay, well, I meant. So you don't take one in the morning though. No, so I take one, I take one in the morning. [00:26:25] Speaker A: No, I don't, I don't double up, but I take one at night, every night and then go to bed and then. I mean, even if I woke up an hour early, I'm not going to take a shower like I would be. You know, I would just get ready and leave earlier and whatever. Maybe I got time to stop and grab a biscuit or I got something at work I need to do or whatever. But I would now if I'm sick, you know, going to work all stopped up and throat turned and stuff. Yeah, I'm definitely, I'm setting early alarms and getting in the shower, you know, I want that steam. Yeah, so. So that's why I'm complicated about it. So, I mean, but as far as breakfast and stuff like that, I mean, I very rarely do that. My house is so tiny, so small. It's the reason I want to build a new house. [00:27:05] Speaker B: I don't know about any no smaller [00:27:07] Speaker A: than mine, it probably ain't, but. And I know how small your house is. I know my kitchen's bigger than yours. I can remember how small your kitchen is. But I don't want to, you know, I don't want to wake her and the kids up. So my goal is like wake up, get ready as quickly and as quietly as you can and get out of the house so I don't wake nobody up. So that's really my mindset when I wake up. Yeah. Now, you know, it's not to say I haven't ever made breakfast. I have, but. But I try generally. I try not to. I usually don't eat breakfast, so, I mean, I usually just go to work, [00:27:41] Speaker B: but I gotta have breakfast. That's usually the only meal I get though. So generally I don't eat lunch. You know, I just, I don't eat lunch. I don't eat until I get back home. Yeah. So I gotta get something to get me rocking. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Well, so anyway, I get up and go, go to work and I've like I said, I've got about a 30 to 40 minute drive in the mornings because there's no traffic. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Oh, that's another thing for me though. I went from my old job was what, 45 minutes for me. [00:28:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it ain't going to be much different what I do now. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah, 45 minutes and, and now I'm. I can make it here in about 11 minutes, but generally it's about 13 minutes to get here. Easing, easing here. 13 minutes. That's nice. [00:28:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure it is. I'll never know it, but how. Well, how sad you said. [00:28:32] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'm, I, that was a. Well, I mean, it's still not even, even when you worked at the, the other place there, it wasn't that far for you, was it? What, 20 minutes? Athens Co op? Yeah. [00:28:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it was the same. I mean, it doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. I mean, I guess it is. [00:28:57] Speaker B: It's. It's Athens. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. [00:29:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's still, I mean it's 30 minute drive down there. 30. Whatever. [00:29:04] Speaker B: But anyways, go ahead. [00:29:06] Speaker A: Well, yeah, So I go to work. Like things we got to do, we got, we keep rocking chairs inside. We don't leave them out because people suck. And they'll just take them or vandalize them for no reason or whatever. And I'm not a firm believer in that. That's just my boss's gig. Like he wants to pull them in tonight because it's easy enough to do, you know, but I've left them out, you know, like piss on them chairs and leaving them out there, you know, and then I get fussed at the next day. You left the chairs out and so what? Nobody got them. So. [00:29:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to prove a point here. [00:29:39] Speaker A: Yeah. But whatever. So anyway, we got to set those out in the morning when we get there, put a pot of coffee on because we offer coffee to the customers if it's, if it's winter time, you know, you got to get all the heaters on and I try to get there early enough to where the shop's halfway warm, you know, before all the doors start hitting open up, you know, and cars are pulling in. So you gotta turn the compressors on. Emails for appointments check off, drop off tickets, people dropping keys and work, you know, fill out envelopes and drop. Yeah, so you gotta, you gotta write all those up. You gotta go through all the appointments [00:30:17] Speaker B: for. [00:30:18] Speaker A: Or not appointments, but emails for appointments for different things, you know, Check all your emails. Nowadays though, we've got live time booking for like oil changes. [00:30:30] Speaker B: That's nice. [00:30:31] Speaker A: And what took away 75 of the emails? You know, I mean, people still have to. If they're just dying to do an email, which I can't, I don't get. Why does everybody want to email? [00:30:40] Speaker B: Like. [00:30:41] Speaker A: Yeah, emails just never. I don't know if that's like before our time or like if that's like somebody who reached maturity in the 90s or something, like they turned 18 and 99 and, and they're, you know, they're kind of getting in the early 2000s. Maybe that's their form of contact. But to me, it's just so stupid. Like, I would much rather just pick up a phone and call somebody. Yeah. And matter of fact, when we get emails, if it ain't just straightforward, that's the first thing I do, you know, and I call them and I'm like, you force this upon yourself by sending this email, you know, but. But yeah. Anyway, we got to go through all those and make sure, you know, everybody's scheduled the way it is. And, and even with all these new systems you're trying out or different programs, like, even if we get no reply stuff where it just says, hey, you had a customer book for this, like, we'll still go in there and look and make sure it's there. Just. Just in case. [00:31:32] Speaker B: Just make sure something didn't fail. Right. [00:31:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And we haven't had a ton of trouble with that or anything, but we, we have a few times where we've realized system ain't working or whatever. Got to kind of turn it off till it's fish or something. But anyway, that's helped tremendously. But you got to do that. I got to do time, you know, once a week, every week and verify and fix everybody's time and get it to our. Got rights to checks and all that kind of stuff. And then on Mondays is different for me. Like Tuesdays is different for you. Mondays is different for me because I don't have a service manager, so this is his day off. So I run. I run service, so I'm in the back instead of the front. You know, they want me up front. But I've. I can do both, Whatever. Right. But I've got to do the majority of it from the back, so mostly I'm in the back on Mondays. And so those days are a little bit different. But. Yeah. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Does that just consist of. Of doing service writer job, just like writing quotes, calling customers, that sort of thing? [00:32:39] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah, I consider that more. Yeah. Yeah, you would consider a service writer's job. Yeah. Which is service manager in our business. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Okay. [00:32:48] Speaker A: In our business. But yeah, that's every. [00:32:51] Speaker B: Does ever. Does every shop have that now a service? [00:32:56] Speaker A: Yeah, in a way, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. [00:33:00] Speaker B: So it's not like when we were doing it, you called your customer, you, you talked to your customer, made your [00:33:06] Speaker A: soldier or made your own estimates and took it back. To the guy that wrote the ticket at the front office. No, nobody does that no more. [00:33:11] Speaker B: Okay. [00:33:12] Speaker A: It's all. We were the only. We were the only generation that could do that. No. [00:33:17] Speaker B: Oh, that's gone. [00:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:18] Speaker B: That generation. Yeah. This generation ain't gonna. That ain't gonna happen. [00:33:21] Speaker A: They can't do that. But. But no, everybody. Everybody's got that. So on Mondays, I have to do that, which, you know, I'm. You know, they just. Now, if you. If you brought your F150 in and it has bad lower ball joints, you wrap bad lower ball joints on it. I verify that. You know, I see what you're seeing, and I agree with you. Or whatever. A good. A good service manager should do that if you know what you're looking at. Right. You know, and then I. And I talk to you about it, and, you know, and. And then I go in and make the estimate and call the customer, sell the job, whatever. So. And there's a bunch of phone calls throughout the day, you know, in that role. [00:33:58] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sure. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I'll tell them I'm like, mechanical calls. You know, I'll get. I'll get up front. We'll go over the schedule with. I'll go over the schedule of my front sales staff first. And I'm like, okay, here's the appointments for the day. I might take another break job or two or something like that. If it's anything else, let me talk to him. And I'll be like, hey, Amber, Rusty, if it's a bright job, schedule it starting this day or whatever. You know, if it's any other mechanical service that's more complicated or you're questioning yourself, just put them through to me. But. And then, you know, that's the way I kind of lay it out and simple handle it. [00:34:35] Speaker B: It's a little, let me have it. [00:34:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And I grab my mechanics on Mondays and I say, hey, guys, come in here, and we go in my. Or the service manager's office, and we go over the schedule together. I'm like, here's what you guys got to do today. You know, this. This car's this kind of car, and it's coming in for this problem, and this one's this problem at this time. [00:34:53] Speaker B: So does it go to. Does it. You delegate to who gets what kind of thing? Like, here's a drivability. Here's a. Here's a. You know, here's a. Here's an oil change and a brake service and whatever shocks or whatever. Do you just delegate that or do they just kind of pick, you know, because that's what we used to. We just kind of something mechanical. If you wanted it, you could go up and get it. If it was ball joints, if it was brakes, if it was whatever. [00:35:16] Speaker A: So I'm fortunate enough to run a company or a store that operates the way I want it to, because when I took over that store, it did not. And what I mean by that is we have columns on our scheduling that we use for our point of sales. And if it's mechanical, it goes in these three columns. Okay. And they're labeled for what they are. And then if it's oil, you know, down through there, if it's new tires or repairs, alignments are actually out here in the front. And then we have just a bunch of open columns where we can throw something in there so we know it's coming even though it's not really. Got an appointment, like working type stuff. But I'm fortunate enough to have two. More than two, the entire shop. But I'm talking specifically mechanics who are doing the mechanical side of the work. Two really good guys who I don't have to micromanage when it comes to that. They know their jobs. They know what they need to do. They know if it's hanging on the board, it's got to be done. They know if they're waiting on answer on another car to grab another one, and they got enough common sense to know, okay, there's three hanging on the board. Right. I got to go. I got to get that. I got to get that. I got to get it done. But in 15 minutes, there's an appointment coming in. I'm not going to go over there. As bad as I want to try to go over there and get that, I'm not going to. Or if it's something they also know, hey, if it's something I can look at that I could put behind this one. [00:36:49] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. [00:36:50] Speaker A: I'll pull it out, back behind it and do it. Anything's going to be up top on this one. You know, it's a coolant leak or something and it's. You know, I can do it on the ground. They'll put it behind one where a big job. So whatever, you know, they're smart enough [00:37:01] Speaker B: to know that they're. They don't have. You don't tell them ever move to make. [00:37:04] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Yeah. That's nice. [00:37:05] Speaker A: Exactly. So. [00:37:06] Speaker B: So they actually keep up with the schedule and stuff too? [00:37:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They can log in what was so [00:37:12] Speaker B: bad where we worked and There was no scheduling, there were nothing. [00:37:16] Speaker A: I kind of like that better. [00:37:17] Speaker B: Well, if. But you got to have the right people to do it though. You got to have the motivation, the motivated people to do it. I mean, they had me, you, Dustin. [00:37:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:27] Speaker B: You know, I mean those people, we [00:37:29] Speaker A: wanted to, you know, well, think about it like it is how I think about it. So. And we've kind of got into discussing about our job now instead of just our days. But I mean, I think of it like this. You know, back when it was first come, first serve, which is what you call that, to me, those days were so much simpler. Right. We blame it on Covid for being what changed it to appointments. Realistically, we wanted to go that way anyway, or the company did. Obviously what I want don't matter because I'm going the other way. [00:38:02] Speaker B: But [00:38:04] Speaker A: you know, you, you sit in that world of first come, first serve saying, man, I wish I knew what was coming in. And then when you get in that world of you know what's coming in now, all of a sudden you go from, yeah, we can get to it be after a while, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we'll take it. Okay. You know, and it's first come, first serve. You know, that is. That was glorious. Compared to. Okay, I've made a promise for these seven wheel alignments to get done by or this. Let's just go over the first part. I've made a promise at 7:30 we get this wheel alignment done by this time to get this one in. And then this brake job would get done by the time this guy's going to be here. And that ball joint job would get done by the time these tie rods are going to be here. And then you know, in this running issue, who you don't. And you don't know what in the world it is, but yet you've got another brake job schedule right below it two hours later, what you know, so now all of a sudden. And same goes with tires and oil and everything else. And you know as well as I do, you pull an oil plug out and the threads come out of the pan with it. Well, now all of a sudden you're behind and who knows for how long because you got to figure out a way to fix this. So now all of a sudden you went from nonchalant, go with the flow kind of schedule that you're which is first come, first serve to. Now I've made these everything promises, these six promises. [00:39:26] Speaker B: You have to keep up with that structure. [00:39:28] Speaker A: What's going to happen if something Messes up. And that's just 7:30 to 8, you know. [00:39:33] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:39:34] Speaker A: You still got it like this the rest of the day. So it's adds an area for issues to happen. You know, from a disappointing standpoint, you disappoint somebody. [00:39:46] Speaker B: Customer. I should have been out here at 8:30. [00:39:48] Speaker A: I had a lady today that. And she was, she was totally fine. She was totally fine. She didn't say nothing ugly. But I could see the frustration, you know, that she had. And I understand the frustration, you know, but at the same time, you've got to understand, you know, what's going on on our end too, which is we're trying to make as much money as we can, we're trying to help as many people as we can, and we're trying to treat everybody fair. Okay. And we all have families to feed and take care of and business to run and expectations to meet, same as she does. Well, she came in, it was like 11:45 and they had dropped their car off at 9:30. Right. And we told her it'd be, you know, she wanted us to look at the brakes, thought she needed brakes. Okay. And we had, we had estimated her probably a couple hours to get the brake work done. If you need brakes. [00:40:38] Speaker B: Right. [00:40:38] Speaker A: So that's test driving it, figuring out anything you see there, pulling it in, racking it, pulling the wheels off, inspecting it, going over whatever it may need. Don't know what really transpired between that time. I'm not running service manager today, but then getting the information to the service manager, relaying that. Then the service manager spends the time looking everything up, calling the customer, back and forth with them on cost or whatever of what it's going to be and at that point in time too. Time expectations. I do it on Mondays, but, you know, and, and then order the parts, let the parts get there and then perform the work. Right. Or perform as much work as you can until the parts get there. Okay. Now there's a lot of things that have to go exactly like you want them to go in order for that to work out. Right. [00:41:27] Speaker B: That's the way it works here. [00:41:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. And generally two hours is. One to two hours is kind of what we tell everybody because sometimes it's a cut job. Pads are in stock. We're gonna cut the rotors in 30 minutes and put a set of pads on in another 30 minutes and it's out an hour, whatever. In this particular case, there was some sort of a delay on getting the, in this case, pads and rotors. We needed to have for the rear axle of this car. But there was some sort of a delay. [00:41:55] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:55] Speaker A: I went back and I checked with Eric and it was like, like I said 11:45, she had stopped by and said, how much longer do you think I'm gonna have on my car? And at 11:45, the only thing we had done was everything I had mentioned, ordered the parts, and the parts had just gotten there. He had another vehicle he's working on right beside it, and he had taken, you know, the calipers off, pushed the pistons in, made sure they were good, and that's as far as he had gotten. And the parts had just came there. So I'm looking at that going, well, it's. And while they're in the middle of trying to find a, a snap ring for a ball joint, Bill's working on, you know, that would fit it, because if it didn't come with one or something. So there's, there's several things that were, that are taking up time here, you know. So I went back up front and I told her, I said, it's gonna be a little bit still. And she just looked at me, you know, I'm like, here we go. You know, and, and she's like, well, I was told two hours. I'm like, well, then the parts just got here, you know, and it's, it's lunchtime. [00:42:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:53] Speaker A: You know, are you gonna think we shouldn't have lunch? You know, kind of thing. But at the same time, we should try to honor what we're telling her, you know, so it's just, you know, and I told her, you know, they'll get back at one, it'd be about two o' clock when we get it wrapped up, you know, realistically. And it was 1:30, 40, something like [00:43:09] Speaker B: that in that window, though. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Oh yeah, we got it done. I mean, but it was still over the two hours from the 9:30 appointment she had had. And she dropped it off. [00:43:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:19] Speaker A: You know, and then she come back. [00:43:21] Speaker B: Okay. [00:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's, it's tough when it, when you've got this now all of a sudden you went from getting it done and just a verbal promise to a level of expectation. [00:43:31] Speaker B: And what she would probably what she done is she come back, she dropped it off probably as she was going to work or something, and then she's coming back to go to lunch. I don't know if this a case or not. [00:43:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it wasn't, it was, it was, it wasn't the case. Okay, but, but anyway. But no, that happens all the time. [00:43:48] Speaker B: You know, picking it up at her lunch. [00:43:50] Speaker A: And I will say too, in, you know, in, in whoever told her two hours, in their defense, that's nine out of ten times it's going to happen that way. Today was just. It didn't work out. It didn't work out. [00:44:03] Speaker B: But it's, that's the way it is, [00:44:04] Speaker A: you know, but, but people have got to understand on the other side, there's a lot of moving parts going right there. And one thing can set you back, you know, go back to. [00:44:16] Speaker B: So first come, first serve. When we used to work on cars, it was just every man, well, not really every man for himself. He had, he had front end work, I had service work, I had oil changes, I had brakes, I had this, I had that, you know, whatever. And they kind of opened it up to where we could do just pretty much. I mean, you could do, you could go do a timing belt if you wanted to. I mean, you wouldn't, but I'm just saying you would, you know, you could if you wanted to, if you were capable. Yeah. So. [00:44:44] Speaker A: Which is what I'm completely against, by the way. Yeah. When it comes to scheduling. [00:44:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, absolutely, absolutely. No, but, but now, as far as first come, first serve, the only reason I didn't like it, I like the scheduling part of it. [00:45:01] Speaker A: Because, because there was not one there. [00:45:04] Speaker B: Well, no, no, no. I like, I thought. I like the scheduling. Now I'm saying the scheduling side of it now because you know what's coming, you know what to expect. But when. And I felt this way, and I'm sure you, you, I don't know how you felt about it. I always felt like the, the people that was writing the tickets was almost just. They never paid attention to what's going on. Never paid attention. Just hang it up, hang it up, hang it up. They'll take in. It's like, it's like when you go to a restaurant and it's going to be 15 minutes and then five other people show up or five other, you know, families show up and you don't tell that, that, that you tell the same five families. It's going to be 15 more minutes. No, it's not. It does not how it works. It's not. We'll get you right in. We'll get you right in. Well, there's already eight hanging back here and you're double stacking tickets. It ain't going to be 15 minutes and we'll get them in. So we're getting them in in an hour. [00:46:04] Speaker A: Yeah, but you're Thinking. You're thinking of it from the shop side in a. In a setting that was. Ran very poorly. [00:46:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:46:11] Speaker A: Very poorly. Completely different than what I'm doing now. [00:46:14] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I get. But. But I would think it would be really nice to have a schedule where, you know, you've got 20 oil changes coming in today. [00:46:20] Speaker A: From. From the level you're at. Absolutely. From the level you're. From the level you're thinking at. Yeah, from the level that I'm in, which is, you know, you're in it here, but you wasn't ever in it there. Yeah, from. From that end of that building. It's better and it's bad in the same. At the same time, where it's really bad is like, you know, you say you have a full change schedule, like you're going to do. And I mean, we can book like, I don't know, 25 to 30 in a day, you know, and get them all done if I've got enough people there. But if you do that, you know, you still. I'm not, I'm not talking about. Let's say. Let's say you have this whole column filled up and you've got like four over here for another, you know, rando to do, random guy or one of the other guys you decide to point to it or whatever. Well, you're always going to have some kind of a flub up with. I called and I'm supposed to have an appointment. Okay, so you got those. You've got. I made an appointment online. Let me see your phone. That's at a different location. You know, let us see if we can help you. You know? You know, you have all that. You have all that stuff, and then you have the people who show up, like, just unconsciously. Can I get oil change right now? I want an oil change right now. You know, you have all those people, so. [00:47:45] Speaker B: Still have a lot of that. [00:47:47] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, yes, it's terrible. So, you know, and I'll tell. But maybe we get like three or four of those in a row and I'm. And they're like, my gosh, you know, and. And you just say, I can't do it today. You gotta schedule it out. Well, easy enough, right? But if they're pushy and then you gotta push them back or whatever, or say you decide to wiggle your schedule to make it work because you're wanting to help them or whatever, it's so much harder. You know, I said, you know, they're like. I'm like, oh, sure. Which we were still first come, first serve. And they're like, really? You know, the people that are working there now who didn't work back then. And then I'm like, yes. Don't you think it would be much easier if you said, well, there's three hanging in front of you. We'll get to you, you know, when we get those three done, you know, how long will that be? About an hour and a half or hour from now, or hour to an hour and a half. We'll get to you. That's so easy compared to. I've got to figure out if I can fit it in here and still get to this one. And by then this one's going to be here and then this one and this one and this one. I mean, it rolls every 30 minutes. It's just constant and hope nobody gets to, has some sort of problem, a setback. It'd be so much easier if it was like that still. So. But yeah, deal with customers, answering phones, hands on cars sometimes, I mean, what was it? Wednesday was a Thursday. Yeah, so Tuesday I think it was. I went out and put one tire on and did a rotation on my lunch break when I'm sitting in my office, you know, that was Monday. Monday, anyway. But so I'm, I mean, I still have to do stuff. I still help people. I still, you know, I'll try to figure some stuff out in the parking lot against my manager's will. He don't want me doing that kind of stuff or my owners will. But, you know, I'll still do that just to prevent from blocking up an important space on a schedule or wasting their time back there when they're trying to get something done. You know, I'll go out and fool around with something if I got enough help to do it. And you know, I may do some of that. And you know, if I'm not doing anything, maybe I go pick up a customer, it needs a ride, maybe I send somebody, whatever it is. And then throughout the day, and you can imagine if you're seeing 40 to 60 cars a day, how many times somebody comes up to the guy going, hey, can you look at this? [00:50:02] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:50:02] Speaker A: Hey, will you tell me what to do here? Hey, I can't find these, hey this, hey, that. You know, on top of that, phone's ringing constantly all day long. And then at 5 o', clock, I wish I could do what you do and shut it off, but I don't. I, I think about, you know, that lady looking at me like that. I can see her face now. Like, you know, crap, I've let her down, you know, we've let her down now what can I do? [00:50:28] Speaker B: You know, it's hard to get to that. I mean, I still get. I mean, I'm not going to say that I just absolutely flip the switch, but I mean, that switch is flipped, but there is a occasional slip in. But I mean, I still. Not that I don't care. [00:50:44] Speaker A: So I guess I probably do shut the door on it when I go home because I don't talk about. Megan would say I don't talk about it. Megan would say that. However, I do talk about something. If it's something really bad or something really frustrating to me, I do talk to her about it. But if it was, you know, if it's just my mind's constantly turning with it, I can't shut that off. But I don't take it and give it to him at the house, you know, or whatever. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. [00:51:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I guess my biggest thing is it doesn't have any sort of hold on you or control over you when you leave. Like, it doesn't, like, consume you. Now, certain things, if I know there's [00:51:25] Speaker A: a problem I'm dealing with, the next day it does. [00:51:27] Speaker B: I'll tell you what used to bother me the worst is when somebody would not buy, like, a lawnmower from me. [00:51:35] Speaker A: I could care less about that. [00:51:37] Speaker B: Well, you think that until somebody goes, you know, that. You think that. That you would. You would take to the bank with you, and then they just turn like me. Yeah, sure, sure. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Like if I said I wanted a lawnmower and I went and bought it. Joe down the street, that kind of thing. [00:51:53] Speaker B: Yeah. You know. [00:51:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that would, that would bother me. [00:51:56] Speaker B: That, that, that molecule. Why did you do that? I just want to know why. Why? I mean, if you have a good answer, that's fine. [00:52:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:01] Speaker B: And when I ask you about it and you just say, well, I liked him better, you know, you know, it's. Well, okay. [00:52:09] Speaker A: Have you ever been to sales training of any kind? [00:52:12] Speaker B: Well, I mean. I mean, I do a lot of online stuff. Sales stuff online. [00:52:16] Speaker A: Okay. So, you know, different tips and tricks or whatever or ways to act or things to do. So I'm. We've been told several times. I mean, we go to sales meetings, but it's mostly just about the business. Not really about any kind of training type stuff. I was always, you know, I was always made to go over and tell that customer what's wrong. So, you know, My boss knew that I could just talk to somebody like that, so he, he knew I wouldn't have a problem with something like that. However, I will get coached occasionally. You know, Bo, you should have said this or done it like this, or took that customer back there and showed them. Or, or don't ever tell a customer this. Don't ever kill the customer, that, or whatever. Maybe they hear me do something they don't like, you know, And I'm like, and you know what I think works the best when it comes to selling? Acting like you don't care at all. One time I, I did that to a guy and I, and I really don't. I mean, it ain't my business. That's the difference between me and you. You care because you want to sell it, because it's your business. You know, you've got all the wager out there. I just work for somebody who's put up all the wager, right. You know, for me. So I told a guy, he's like, look at my tires. And I'm like, okay, I'll go outside. And I look at him, he's like, now it's just old trash truck, you know, it's just old trash truck. I'm like, okay, yeah, well, these back here, you know, they're, they're wore out. Yeah, I know. I need two rear ones. What do you think about them front ones? And I'm like, and it's old. 1500. I'm like, I mean, they're old, they're 10 years old, they're dry rotted, you know, so. Yeah, I mean, technically, the industry standards, five years. So, yeah, you need a couple front tires too, you know. Oh, of course you're going to tell me that, you know, you're here to sell me tires. I said, I don't care if you buy the back ones from me. It don't make no difference to me. That's what I told him. He goes, ah, give me four. Give me four. Four missions. He sure did. But that was my. I mean, and I, I mean, I guess, I guess. [00:54:20] Speaker B: Okay, if you. [00:54:21] Speaker A: As long as I serve you the way I think is best serving you, which is doing anything I can to answer your questions and give you the information you need to know. I don't care if you do anything [00:54:30] Speaker B: else, so, so just think of it as just. You don't even have to say a name or anything about company or anybody. Your best customer and that, that your top customer, that you. That it doesn't matter what Beau Bradshaw says. That it is. They're going to do it. You take that customer and then you find out, you know, two, three months goes by and he's going down to the shop right beside you down there and he's doing, he's doing all of his business. That's what, that's what I guess I'm getting at. But with the mowers, with the parts, with the, the automotive side, all that, [00:55:08] Speaker A: and you're like, what did we do wrong? [00:55:10] Speaker B: What I want to know, like, what's the deal? You know, and I have customers like that all the time. That, that you'll be like, you know, you'll be driving home, you're like, you. And the thing is, is like, I know that's his vehicle. Yeah. You know, I guarantee you the guys inside that are working at that other store down the road, I guarantee you they can't tell what vehicle he drives. You know, I can tell you that's his vehicle. I know it is. You know, and I'm like, what is he doing down there? I've been, you know. [00:55:37] Speaker A: But you're not pulling in to find out. [00:55:39] Speaker B: No, no. But the next time he comes in, I may mention something. What were you doing down there? [00:55:43] Speaker A: I was gonna say what, what you may not know though is like, for example, okay, for example, I may go to advance O'Reilly's anywhere if I'm, if I'm home and I'm needing something for my vehicle, absolutely, I have a preference. But I may be anywhere. It just depends on what I'm driving by and really kind of what I think they might have that I need, you know, and I don't think nothing about it. I mean, of course I ain't got a buddy that works like over in my area, you know, or, you know, if you had a store over there, it's exactly where I'd go. Yeah, but then again, I wouldn't want you to ridicule me just cuz I stopped by one that was on the way to the house cuz I needed a quarter. [00:56:22] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. Here's the thing is, then, is then I guess the biggest thing is, is when they come back, you know, and then they have an issue or something. [00:56:33] Speaker A: Oh yeah, you didn't sell it to. [00:56:34] Speaker B: I didn't sell it to you. But he wants you to fix it or he wants you to not fix it, but he wants you to, you know. [00:56:41] Speaker A: Well, in our line of work though, you know how that is. Oh, you tell them to take it back where they had the work. [00:56:45] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:56:46] Speaker A: You know, because they should have some kind of. [00:56:48] Speaker B: But I just. I just don't get it. You know, I'm. I am a huge fan of. Of tried and true to the people that I know. [00:56:55] Speaker A: Loyalty. That's what you call that. [00:56:57] Speaker B: Yeah. The people that I know that's going to take care of me and my family. I am. I'm. I'll go back and I'll pay a little extra. I'm not the. I'm not that dude. That's nickel and diamond somebody to death. I mean, I'll pay you a little bit more money for the better service and that's what we offer here. But sometimes I just wonder, I'm like, why didn't you went and bought a. Went and bought this. You know this. When I sell the same exact equivalent, you buy it, you know, up. What. What. I don't know what gets in. People said they know I sell it. You know what I mean? What happens? You know, and then you come back and you try not to have hard feelings. But it did. When you own the business, you kind of wear this like little, you know, this. You have this little thing on you all the time. It's like with your customers. Of. Of. Why did you do that? Yeah. You know, I mean, if I didn't own the business, I don't care. Heck with it. Go down the road and buy them. I don't care. We don't have seating no more. You know, But I'm not like that. It's like, what did I do right? [00:57:56] Speaker A: It's different. [00:57:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it is different for you than it is for me. But I don't know. And you're never going to get. You're never going to get a straight answer when a customer, you know. [00:58:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:08] Speaker B: Does something like that. I really. I truly. In a business stance, I care a lot. I really do. But I have. That's where I'm saying I had to learn to shut that stuff off and. And not pick it up and just drop it because it will absolutely overcome me. [00:58:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it will. [00:58:29] Speaker B: That's just the way it was. And owning your own business, it does that sort of thing to you. Because I. Because like you said, just like you said, I don't care if you buy from here or not. Go buy if you want, you know, go get you two tires down the road, you know, or, you know. But to me, I'm like, I want you to buy everything from me, from your cord oil to your. To your blonde mower, you know? You know, but I know that's not. That's not A. That's not real. That's not a real world thing. It's not. It's not. I mean, everybody got. I mean, I go down to these other stores and snoop and prowl and, you know, I may buy. I might buy something because I go in there three times a week. You know, if I do. If I'm. If I'm in there searching for something, I may buy a roll of duct tape or electrical tape or something, you know, so don't look extremely suspicious when you come in there three times a week when you're trying to snoop around and, you know, for business. And I think it's a great idea, like you guys do, going from. From shop to shop to shop to part store to part store to. To figure out where you're at, how you're treating. [00:59:34] Speaker A: Making sure you're in the range of [00:59:36] Speaker B: everybody treated and how, you know, that's a big. That's a big thing. But I. I just don't. I. I guess going back toward my customer thing there, I don't understand that at all. I just. I'm tried and true and loyal to. [00:59:48] Speaker A: Well, to who I. [00:59:49] Speaker B: To who I know. [00:59:50] Speaker A: And the difference, too, I tell you this, and you wouldn't notice it if it was the same way you. As it is for us, you wouldn't notice it because when you get off work and you went home, everybody between here and there's closed. Oh, yeah. You wouldn't see it. I wouldn't know it. And I don't drive by nowhere anyway, for me. [01:00:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:06] Speaker A: But. [01:00:07] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, and I get that. You know, I get that. [01:00:09] Speaker A: But I do have customers that come in and say, hey, I was over some, like, just. Just today, you know, I looked at a lady's tires for. And I'm. I'm gonna try to. I'm gonna call and I'm gonna go to that for tomorrow with Michelin and try to get a set of bfgs warrantied for and see what I can do. [01:00:26] Speaker B: But [01:00:28] Speaker A: some dealer told her that they were. They were cupped and that's why they were so noisy today. She's at the dealer, but she told me when she came in there and she had had. I mean, she only had 35,000 miles on these tires, which is, I mean, pretty good bunch of miles. But, I mean, it supposed to go another 30 or 25, whatever. But, you know, she told me, she's like, well, I wouldn't have been over if I wouldn't have called the other day. And y' all didn't do transmission flushes that's the only thing I went for. They sold me 1500 worth stuff I didn't want. And I'm like, yeah, well, there you go. Sorry. You know, we're not getting in the transmission world. Not now. We did, we got out of it. We don't want to get back. Really. [01:01:09] Speaker B: Okay. [01:01:10] Speaker A: No way. I mean, I'll change manual transmission fluid for you or something. Or if it's. Yeah, whatever. No, the answer is no. We just. [01:01:19] Speaker B: Half the time we won't even eat those things up. [01:01:22] Speaker A: That was. That was a long time ago. [01:01:23] Speaker B: I know. [01:01:23] Speaker A: That was very different again. [01:01:26] Speaker B: Everything's different fluid now. [01:01:27] Speaker A: Like a Ford F150 that's got a little dipstick on the side of the transmission. [01:01:31] Speaker B: Ultra. The ultra lv. [01:01:33] Speaker A: There's three levels on there. And you don't know. You have to have a scan tool. You have to have data on, have it right temperature. [01:01:40] Speaker B: I own one of those transmissions. [01:01:42] Speaker A: Yeah, see, but we won't touch it. Yeah, like I'll pull you. He's like, you know, because people don't know that. They, they know. They watch the YouTube video and it said you can pull it out right there and check it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I can do that for you. I can't tell you if I'm right or wrong. I'll tell you what stick it's on, [01:01:55] Speaker B: but I don't know anything on Pro Man. It will tell you if. Which stick you have. It's got. You got three different sticks, like you said. [01:02:01] Speaker A: Oh. Like Pro man would say, the top one's this temperature. That temperature. [01:02:04] Speaker B: Well, it would say, you know, you got three sticks, you got three different dipsticks. That way the hash marks are designed. You got numbers, letters and dots or hash marks or whatever on those. [01:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:15] Speaker B: Whichever transmission you have, when it gets to X amount of range, then you. And you've got this dipstick. You need to be right here and right here. [01:02:22] Speaker A: But you got to know temperature still, right? [01:02:24] Speaker B: Yeah, but I mean, generally, you know, the temp. [01:02:26] Speaker A: Well, you mean operating temperature. [01:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Operating. [01:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Technically it's supposed to be temperature of the fluid. [01:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. But operating temperature. But anyway. [01:02:33] Speaker A: But yeah, I just try. We try to stay clear. Go back. [01:02:36] Speaker B: Let's go back real quick to, to. To the customer thing. So what? I guess another thing that gets me really sour with. With all that with the. With when I see. Okay, say, say on. It's my Tuesday and I'm out delivering. [01:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:50] Speaker B: And I'm open. I'm wide open. I've been open for six hours and I've got another five hours to go or four hours to go, whatever. And I drive down by a part store and I see my family member down there that is three miles away from my store that had to pass me, pass me to get to this place. That's what I have a problem with. [01:03:16] Speaker A: What? [01:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah, big problem. Well, that, that, that really now that that goes home with me, unfortunately I have to. And I work through that stuff on the day to day when somebody does something like that to me. My God. [01:03:28] Speaker A: So for me, for me, if I was you in that situation, I would not want to know from like I don't. You're not obligated to use me just because you're. You're related to not. Yeah, that's not the problem. [01:03:39] Speaker B: Don't act like me and your buddies or if you know that I work on cars on the side when I shut. When I shut my store down and I work on cars and I do tires and I do this all at my house and you call me up and try to get a set of tires from me. I promise you I'm not going to sell you a set of tires or I'm going to make a. [01:03:58] Speaker A: This is the same person. [01:03:59] Speaker B: You'll make a tank or I'm gonna make a tankload of money off of you. I'm a price. It's a high. You're going to go tell everybody that you know everybody in our family that I'm trying to rip you off and I hope that's what you do. That's why, that's why. That's how. That's my mentality of what I think when something like that happens, you know, I mean, yeah, I'll price you a set of tires. Sure. [01:04:22] Speaker A: You know, I would want to know why those people are there from the standpoint of why did you go So I can fix whatever it or see if I can fix whatever it is that caused you to go there instead of coming to me. That's the only reason I would want to know. [01:04:37] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I don't. I don't even almost just. This is no lie. I just turn them off. I don't care anything. I don't answer their phone calls. You know, they'll need it. They want to know. Hey, can you bring your big fancy scan tool down here and check my car out? [01:04:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:53] Speaker B: No, it's not going to happen. It's never going to happen. Never will happen. You know what I mean? [01:05:00] Speaker A: Don't double cross Matt. [01:05:01] Speaker B: No, don't, don't do it. I'm telling you, I just. I. I get. I'm just. It's just I have. I had a family member that literally. [01:05:10] Speaker A: Where's the closest Toro dealer to you? [01:05:12] Speaker B: Toro dealer? [01:05:13] Speaker A: Don't say. Like a big corporation. [01:05:14] Speaker B: No, I'm not. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. [01:05:16] Speaker A: Because that would. Oh, I don't know. [01:05:18] Speaker B: No. Well, no, I mean, we're talking. [01:05:19] Speaker A: We're talking [01:05:23] Speaker B: 15 miles up the road. I. Oh, is that. So we're talking 20. Yeah, we're talking 20 minutes away. [01:05:31] Speaker A: Okay. I know here. I know what you're talking about. [01:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:34] Speaker A: I'm gonna go get my mower there. [01:05:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you do that. You do that. You'll be taking it back up there and getting it serviced and worked on. [01:05:40] Speaker A: Oh, I will. That's the only people I trust. [01:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So. But I had. I had. I did have. And. And they still do it to this day that those family members, they buy those parts from those stores and then [01:05:53] Speaker A: try to get you to do. [01:05:54] Speaker B: Call me and expect me. No, that's it. I'm not kidding. You're talking about spitting in your face now. [01:05:59] Speaker A: No way. [01:06:00] Speaker B: I promise, with everything that's in me right now that they have done that. Well, where did you get. Where did you get the brakes and rotors from? Oh, I got them from the parts store down. You know, I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? [01:06:13] Speaker A: They're not just so dumb. They don't realize it, right? [01:06:15] Speaker B: No, they don't. Because if. If they're. If they can might get it. And this is no lie. My parts are on. On. On a. 80% of my product is just in the same price as the next part store. Yeah. So if you can't spend another $25 or 30, $40 on a brake service to. To do this with me, then. Then I don't want you to. I don't want to know association with you. You. If you can't spend an extra 30, 40 bucks with me. That's. That's the way I feel about it. [01:06:53] Speaker A: Well, yeah. Don't ask me to put them on for you. [01:06:55] Speaker B: Don't. Don't ask me. Absolutely not. You take that. You take that thing to a shop and pay some ridiculously high labor. [01:07:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:07:04] Speaker A: Well, if you can even find anybody to do it. See, when me and you work together, we did that. [01:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah, people. [01:07:09] Speaker A: We did that. Yeah. They let us. They let us install people's parts. We don't do that no more. We don't even do oil. Yeah, we won't do oil. Filter nothing no more. Yeah, and the only thing we'll do is carry in tires. That's it. [01:07:20] Speaker B: Right. [01:07:21] Speaker A: But matter of fact I talked to. So talking about the ridiculously high, I talked to a guy today on the phone. Yesterday on the phone he said he copied and asked me if we would replace his keyless entry on his F150. Nah. Okay, what's the other thing you got? He's like well, my back glass leaks. Where? My sliding glass door. [01:07:42] Speaker B: No. [01:07:42] Speaker A: Okay, well that's also not us. So I said man, I hate to say this, I said, but you're probably gonna have to go to the dealer, you know. I said it's. I'd say that pro. That's probably a program thing with a keypad, you know. And I said net back glasses. I mean that's body shop type stuff. And they have body shop. I mean it just. You probably just should take it to a dealer. Well, I got appointment at the dealer in a couple weeks, but problem is they want to, I have to agree to drop the vehicle off for 24 to 48 hours and they want to, I have to sign off on a 250 fee for each item I want looked at. I said, my gosh, good luck, see you. That's ridiculous. Yeah, that's crazy, ain't it? [01:08:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh yeah, you ain't kidding. [01:08:28] Speaker A: You gotta leave your vehicle here for a minute. [01:08:32] Speaker B: You know, I, I had, I'd done it one time. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I mean I've got a close to about a close to two thousand dollar scanner that I paid for. Somewhere in that ballpark used. And I went over to somebody's house, family member again, went over their house and they had bought, you know. You know how you go to the big box store, auto parts store and they print you out a piece of paper and they give you the most common fix. Well that's, that's a bunch of bull crap. I mean if you've got 15 codes in your car and it's a, it's evap, It's a, it's a intake. I mean it could be lean on both banks, evap, yada yada yada yada. You've got a whole list of crap it is. And the, the most, of course, you know, they pop up one, one, one thing and, and then they'll go back again. Well, I didn't fix it. And then they'll go. They went back like three times this family member did to this part store and got this stupid little print out every time. [01:09:40] Speaker A: How is that okay with people? But you can't. You can't be wrong in my line of work. [01:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, I know. [01:09:45] Speaker A: That's insane. That is insanity. [01:09:49] Speaker B: I know, I know. And they just keep throwing money at it. You know what I mean? Yeah, they just keep throwing money at it. [01:09:54] Speaker A: No cap. [01:09:55] Speaker B: So I went over there and. And scanned it, and I'm like, well, you know, it's throwing lean on both banks, this and that, and then everything. And I was like. And the. My first thought was, it's probably a purge valve. You know, throwing lean. It's running lean. It's pulling too much air. It's running lean on both banks. Duh. Well, they had. They had replaced, like, the. The fuel pump module. They'd done. I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuel pump module. They'd put a fuel pump in it. Fuel pump module. It's running. I said, the car was running. And you're trying to get rid of this lean code. You know, a lean code. [01:10:29] Speaker A: In an evap, you put a fuel pump in it. [01:10:31] Speaker B: Put a fuel pump and a. And it was on a Ford. [01:10:34] Speaker A: Oh, it had a driver module. Yeah, that's what you're saying. Driver. [01:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah, fuel pump driver. [01:10:38] Speaker A: So. [01:10:38] Speaker B: So anyways, I took all that and I popped the hood, and they're telling me all this, and my, My, My, my. My head's fixing to explode. I'm like, dude, I just come over. They didn't say nothing about this on the phone. A family member didn't. Just can't, you know. Can you come over here and see if you can diagnose it? You know, I'll pay you. Okay. So I go over and it's. It's sure as the world. I mean it. I pull the evap off of it. It's sucking air straight through the intake. Lean on. I mean, it's got. Only thing it's got. It's. That's what it is. It ain't. They didn't replace that. It's got a code in there for incorrect flow. Okay, that's pretty telltale there. So I told him. I said. He said, well, I'll come by your store tomorrow and. And get one. Oh, okay. He didn't do it. He didn't do it. He comes back too, like, three or four days later. So, hey, I believe that fixed my car. He said, how much did you want to charge me? And I said, well, did you get the part? No, no, I bought it. I bought it down there at the parts store down there. I was like, Why'd you not get. Come up here and get it? Sculliggins was already closed. That's actually a really good excuse. So he said. He said, well, how much you. How much it fixed it, you know, and this was probably a week's. It may have been a week duration there, you know, enough to know that the engine light's not coming back on. And he's like, how much you gonna charge me? I said, $150. He's like, $150? Well, you wasn't over there. You wasn't over there an hour. You didn't buy the part from me. I said, how much money have you put on in it? I put. I've already put $700 in it. I said, my 150 ain't gonna hurt nothing then. Dude paid me 150 bucks. He never called me back again. I told. Told my. I told Alex. I said that right there from here on out. So I'm gonna handle stuff like that. I charged him $150. Sure did. Never called me again. [01:12:41] Speaker A: Wow. [01:12:42] Speaker B: They never called me again. [01:12:44] Speaker A: You'll probably go buy him a scan tool now. [01:12:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Good luck. [01:12:47] Speaker A: It don't matter. You can have a scan. So you can't figure it out unless you. [01:12:49] Speaker B: You don't. [01:12:49] Speaker A: Unless you know anything about it. Oh, idiots. [01:12:53] Speaker B: Idiots. But that's my family. I have a ton of family that does that stuff. They'll go somewhere else and get stuff that. That's a really irritating. But it is what it is. [01:13:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it would be. I mean, I've got plenty of people, you know, friends and family and everybody else, that they'll say, you know, bo, I want to come up there and get tires with you. You know, I'm like, okay, you know, you can. That's totally fine. Or you can go to a different store that's closer to the house. Don't. Don't come up there just because of me. I'm okay. Don't worry about it. Yeah, you know, so I don't care, but. [01:13:24] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. [01:13:25] Speaker A: You know, but anyway, send us out. [01:13:30] Speaker B: That's it. All right, guys. Thanks for riding with us. Check back in with us next Monday. Be doing it again up here on the second floor. See you guys. [01:13:43] Speaker A: Thanks. [01:13:45] Speaker B: Better go get some Bengay on that knee. [01:13:48] Speaker A: Get some heat on it tonight. Fire some heat up on that thing.