The Jaded Mechanic Podcast

Dory Carlin [00:00:00]:
I believe that the only way we learn trials and tribulations to where you can go, man, this sucks. How am I going to get better? Oh, my God, I fixed it. Oh, my God, I fixed it. There's no feeling. Drugs, sex, rock and roll, they're all great. Fix a problem. Fix a problem that no one else can. It's right into the veins.

Dory Carlin [00:00:29]:
You're just like, dude, I got foreign.

Jeff Compton [00:00:37]:
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of the JD Mechanic Podcast. It is still hot as Hades up here in Canada. And, you know, it's. It's. Your guy is a little. What's the word? I got a little swamp ass going on every day, like a hundred consistently in the shop every afternoon. It's a small shop, no ac, you know, all the kind of stuff that everybody talks about. And yeah, it gets hot.

Jeff Compton [00:01:05]:
So if I get a little giddy, it's because I've ate like six freezies in the afternoon. I had an ice cream cone, a couple bottles, Gatorade. So, you know, hydration's important. But that being said, you know, life is good. And I'm sitting here with somebody that kind of reached out to me, and I reached out to them and I just said, hey, if you want to be on as always, like, everybody's welcome here. And a gentleman named Dory Carlin, which, I don't know, are you related to the Carlin?

Dory Carlin [00:01:38]:
Uncle George? In my family, we refer to him as Uncle George, but as far as I know, there's no relation. But, man, he's got some. Some fantastic points to ponder, right? He.

Jeff Compton [00:01:49]:
He was a guy that could make you could think, and I. Hopefully you'll be a guy to make us think, too. So, Dory, how are you tonight, brother?

Dory Carlin [00:01:57]:
Fantastic. The weather is just as bad and gross down here. Yeah, I'm in Western Pennsylvania in the good old United States here. And, you know, I was always under the impression you guys had colder weather, but it sounds like it's just as gross up there, too.

Jeff Compton [00:02:13]:
The. It made. It made the headlines up here, like, the local headlines. We're actually hotter in Kingston, Ontario, than Houston was the other day.

Dory Carlin [00:02:21]:
Oh, my goodness. I can't. I can't imagine. I can't imagine.

Jeff Compton [00:02:25]:
We get. We get the extremes because we're. We're like, literally right on the shore of Lake Ontario. And that size of water mass definitely has a. An effect like lake effect. Winter is really bad, and then the humidity up here sucks terribly. So. So it's.

Jeff Compton [00:02:44]:
Yeah, we see traditionally, like, you know, you'll See, like so people get mad at me when I do the Celsius thing. But you'll see lots of summer days you get up over 100 in the afternoon and then in the winter time, like it's nothing to, to go out and it'd be minus 30 when you go out. And I fire up my jeep to go to work in the morning. So I mean we do have some pretty extreme weather up here. And I mean you just get used to it. But like, I have never been a person that's been bothered by cold. You know, like the only thing my ears can be falling off if my, if I can move my fingers, I'm good. The heat, I can't do it.

Jeff Compton [00:03:19]:
I just like it. It has a weird effect on me. Like. And I feel, I feel really bad now because as I'm. It's bothering me more as I'm aging and it used to.

Dory Carlin [00:03:30]:
Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It will get you. I mean that was, that was one of the, the prerequisites. We have a little two bay shop and we have air conditioning. Like we're old and grumpy and dude, you get me in heat. Me and my business partner will fist fight. So keeping us cool and calm works great, you know.

Jeff Compton [00:03:51]:
So you're just, you're just a little operation then.

Dory Carlin [00:03:53]:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you guys. Do you have like Esso stations back in the 60s? Gas stations? Old school. There was Esso Sohio. They were all basically Exxons, you know, back in the days. And we got a hold of a 60s Esso gas station that was pretty much abandoned. And I worked with one of my childhood friends at a Lexus dealership. And it took us a couple years, but one day I called him, I was like, hey, we need to go look at this place.

Dory Carlin [00:04:24]:
And I have a, I have a dream, right? And that was it. So yeah, we're rolling and we're, we're a little too bay shop. We just have our first real employee. He's 21 and man, he's a good kid. He's got a good head on his shoulders and we're figuring out how to make that jump from. Yeah, you're working the cars, you're writing the orders, you're making the sales and then you're fixing them to hey, we now have an employee. I have a front desk. So we're like right in that little realm of I hear you talking about all the time for business owners.

Dory Carlin [00:04:55]:
Yeah. You know, of making that jump and.

Jeff Compton [00:04:58]:
It, and it's so funny, right? Because I'm not a business owner. It's just like I've, I spent the better part of 20 years. Like that's when I first got to know Lucas online. And then we always discussed the business and we discussed the business from my very limited, you know, understanding of it. But I'd worked in a lot of different types of automotive repair from. I started in, in a four bay old gas station in, in that, you know, has since been knocked down.

Dory Carlin [00:05:27]:
Pulled those, they all have, they've all disappeared. They don't exist anymore.

Jeff Compton [00:05:31]:
And you know, I worked in the truck shop. I've worked in a, you know, in a 10 bay bus garage. I've worked in, you know, road service for like lots of things. So we would always discuss the business side of things and, and you know, and just the industry in general. So I always, from my perspective as a technician, I never wanted to own my own business. It was something that I thought I got close to doing because I thought that was going to be my only option because I knew I was hard to employ. Because I, you know, I'm kind of arrogant and I'm kind of like, I'll ask the questions, obviously. Look at me, right? Like, I'll ask the question a lot of people don't or don't bother to ask or don't really want to know the answer to.

Jeff Compton [00:06:20]:
And I'm always going to ask it because like, if, if it's different than what I think, then I'm going to learn something. And if it's what I think, then you're going to reaffirm it for me is the way I've always thought. And so it makes me, you know, a challenge sometimes to employ because it's not that I can't fix the cars, but I always knew that we as an industry were undervaluing ourselves. I knew that from the first year in, you know, and it wasn't like my, you know, other people around me had told me, oh, it's always going to suck. Because I had, I had all the enthusiasm starting out and a year in, I'm like, man, we're letting these people go, you know, too light. And I mean that from the, the kind of work that we put in for the type of pay we were getting out. And it's just that's where my perspectives have always come from, from the business side. So it's funny now when the shop owners like all your insight on business.

Jeff Compton [00:07:14]:
Whoa.

Dory Carlin [00:07:17]:
Well, hey, I say, you know, I'm kind of the same ilk I was 20 years at dealerships. Yeah, I worked for Lexus, I've worked for Nissan. I've master certified Mercedes Benz mechanic. And I always like to say I've worked at places that taught me how to do it right and I worked at places that taught me how to do it wrong. And they're equally valuable. Just like everything that's happened in my life. Sometimes being taught the wrong way is incredibly more valuable because you can look back on and go well I don't have to waste my time doing it that way. I know that way doesn't work.

Dory Carlin [00:07:55]:
Yeah, I can try something else. You know and, and that's basically the root of it.

Jeff Compton [00:07:59]:
And that's such a superpower. Right. Because it's like the, it's like I say the more because I'm a technician with, blessed with really good intuition. Like it's. If you watch me try to go down a process, don't the car speak?

Dory Carlin [00:08:13]:
Like don't you, you can almost walk up to a car and kind of just you get a feel. Yeah, I believe in that 100. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:08:21]:
And smell like I keep talking about that smell Volkswagen that had that burning smell that was like, you know, 104 codes in it and this intermittent thing and I'm like what's that smell? Let's just go plug that. And it fixes the car. Like that's not something that you'd ever want to publish as a case study and teach it to somebody as a process. But man, if I look back at my career, how many cars I fixed that way?

Dory Carlin [00:08:44]:
Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:08:45]:
In the, it's in the dozens that have been that way just from instincts. Instincts and, and eyes, ears and nose. You know. So I, Yeah, I've learned, I've, I've watched people go down rabbit holes that I didn't have to go down.

Dory Carlin [00:09:00]:
Oh yeah, that's a, that's a rough one. Especially when you're flat rate and you're watching the guy next to you just go down in flames. Yeah. And you want to go hey, excuse me. Hey, hey. Excuse but you know it's not going to work because they're just as hard headed as you.

Jeff Compton [00:09:14]:
So.

Dory Carlin [00:09:15]:
So you know, you know my business partner and I talk about that all the time. Leave me alone. Let me go. My path. I might be wrong but it's going to be my path and you're not going to pull me from it. That's what's tough. That's very tough.

Jeff Compton [00:09:24]:
And, and we've all had those cars that like all you go took from them when they Were done. You didn't take profit. You just took a lesson.

Dory Carlin [00:09:32]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:09:32]:
And we've had days like that in our. I've had weeks like that.

Dory Carlin [00:09:38]:
When you're off. There are. There are there. It can go for a day. It can go for three days. Because I've turned to my guys and going, I see it. You're having a rough. I.

Dory Carlin [00:09:47]:
I see it. Don't worry about it. We'll work through it. Let's. I'll. We'll find you something simple to get back on track. But that one just ate you alive. I get it.

Dory Carlin [00:09:55]:
It happens. Let's figure it out. And a lot of guys don't have that kind of support. Dealerships let guys burn.

Jeff Compton [00:10:01]:
Yeah. Dory, what kicked the passion off for you then, like, as a. As a young person to decide that this is what you wanted to do?

Dory Carlin [00:10:07]:
You know what? I will be completely honest. I have come for. You know, I have had multiple careers.

Jeff Compton [00:10:14]:
Okay.

Dory Carlin [00:10:15]:
And I. My. My dad was a mechanic, so I saw kind of what he went through, so I almost looked down on it a little bit. When I took my first dealership job, I came from something I had to do. I was in a place where I was married. I just had my first kid. I was. I knew that no matter what I did, I had to make more money.

Jeff Compton [00:10:45]:
Okay.

Dory Carlin [00:10:46]:
I knew I was a fantastic troubleshooter. I came from dirt bikes, Motorcycle industry. I've done audio, video work. I've done content creation on the Internet. Back before content creation was before a buzzword. But I honestly. I remember having a very vivid conversation with one of my childhood friends that he's like, yeah, you kind of look down on becoming a mechanic. I was like, yeah, I felt like I gave up.

Dory Carlin [00:11:15]:
I felt like I was doing what my dad did. And that was a big. That was a big mistake. I was really pompous in that activity Because I thought I was naive enough to think that I could just come in and it's just rotating tires and changing oil. And there was no. There was no, like, concept of. Of what I was doing. I was 25 years old, and quite honestly, I was a dick.

Dory Carlin [00:11:43]:
You know, I was like, well, I can work here for 13 an hour, and they'll pay me to get my state inspection license and my emissions. And this is what I'll do. I'll settle down and I'll make money for the family. And, you know, fine. I give up. Little did I know, man, it was the greatest decision I ever made.

Jeff Compton [00:12:01]:
So did your dad make it look simple? Almost like how good he was.

Dory Carlin [00:12:06]:
I just saw the wear and tear on him. I saw a beaten and battered guy that came home with bloody hands and dirty fingernails and had to have a few drinks before you could talk to him. You know, that kind of situation, you know, it was frustrating and I could see that as a kid. And I immediately married that to, oh, that's just how every mechanic is, you know, and that's not true. You know, we come in a million different shapes and colors and flavors. And I mean the guys that I have met working at dealerships and independent shops, I wouldn't trade that for anybody for anything. They're great groups. I've seen amazing talent.

Dory Carlin [00:12:50]:
I've, I've, I've seen, you know, just guys doing the right things for the right reasons, you know, and it's been eye opening. Last 20 years have been incredibly eye opening.

Jeff Compton [00:13:02]:
What I, what I have seen especially I've started to really appreciate in the last seven years is the. I can look now at people that are adults in my industry that I meet and I correlate them to people that I met as children who were just a little bit different, you know what I mean? Like, they just, they were either a little bit shy or they, they, you know, they. You didn't see them in the same kind of classes that I went to, but you always knew where they were, you know, per se. And they, and what it is is just different places on the spectrum. Like they had these abilities that like. And I didn't, I didn't get to know them. I kind of hung around with like some of the jocks and I hung around with some of the gearheads in school. And I'm seeing that like the traditional gearheads that I hung around with, like one of them other than myself is, is still a mechanic.

Jeff Compton [00:13:53]:
And the rest just went to completely different areas. Right? Some skilled trades, but a different skill trade. And then these things, problem solving. And then these kids that like, I didn't really hang out with. I'm seeing all in these adults now that are just like them and they were just a little bit wired different where they could like really did some. They. You just knew that the wheels were always turning in their head. They were quiet and it's incredible.

Jeff Compton [00:14:19]:
Like they're, they're just. It's like you said, there's so many different flavors that make this up. I've met some people that were like, the job was. The job was a retreat. The job became. I know myself. I looked forward to going to the job to get away from the, The. The situation at home.

Jeff Compton [00:14:38]:
Right. The, the relationship I was in, I was not happy. And that I worked six days a week, like seven in the morning till seven at night, if they'd let me, because I didn't want to be there. And then other people that were like, you know, they're. They've been so much good at, like, this is just my job. This doesn't define me. This is how I earn my living. This is how I feed my family.

Jeff Compton [00:15:02]:
I have no love for this, but I come in and I fill a role and I. I go home at night and I'm. I'm not either one of them anymore. Right. Like, I'm somewhere in the middle and.

Dory Carlin [00:15:11]:
It'S somewhere in between. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:15:13]:
Weird place. So, you know.

Dory Carlin [00:15:16]:
Well, I mean, there's a value in knowing 9 to 5 or 8 to 4 or whatever your schedule is. You know, I would joke when I was working at, say, Lexus that, you know, the service manager tried to talk to me first thing in the morning before I'd come in, and he was kind of checking on, well, is this going to be done? Is that going to be done? And I had to stop. I'm like, listen, I don't remember what's on my list. Like, it's going to be as much a surprise to you as it is to me, because I leave it here.

Jeff Compton [00:15:49]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:15:49]:
I go in the locker room, I change into my uniform, I walk out, I go, oh, yeah, that's right, that GX needed an alternator. And I was figuring out why the power steering pump makes noise, you know, okay, cool. And I would jump in and you'd get honest work out of me. But I quit taking it home very, very early on in my career because I knew I couldn't do it. I'm one of those guys that if I come across a real problem or a real something, I can't figure solution out to, it will run right back here 247 in a loop and just keep grinding and grinding and grinding and then finally, oh, hey, you know. But it will drive me absolutely insane as a troubleshooter, as a problem solver. I knew that early on, even as a kid, that, like, it's. It's all hands.

Dory Carlin [00:16:36]:
I'm not a. I. I think they call them tactile learners now. Right. We had to do it. I got to do it to understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.

Jeff Compton [00:16:44]:
Yeah. What. So the, the dealer you spent all that, the times with, what did you love about that? Like, is what what was the appeal? Like, did your dad work in one and you were, or did your dad a shop like yours and you wanted to go?

Dory Carlin [00:17:01]:
Yeah, he was an independent guy, you know, back in, you know, the 70s. And you know, you'll talk to a lot of guys, the good old days. You know, we joke that he worked for a guy called Fast Eddie and he had a big, a big heavy equipment, two bay garage that's gone now, just like you said, bulldozed. And you know, we joked because my mom is a seamstress and she made nice Naga hide covers for the toolboxes that used to sit on the side of the toolbox. The wreckers. Right. So it was like a family thing. And yeah, he was an independent deal.

Dory Carlin [00:17:38]:
When I got into a dealership, my first dealership was Lexus. And I just, I liked, I guess, the machine of it all. Like how all the pieces interacted. Every place I've ever worked, I've gone in with my eyes open. It wasn't just learning my job or knowing what I can do. I would always ask questions. What's a service writer for? Yeah, you know, what, what, what's the service manager watching? What is he doing? You know, you know, how does the general manager work? Why does he get to work bank hours and we're back here slaving, you know, stuff like that, you know, so I've always gone in with my eyes open, learning lessons for everything. I've never had blinders on.

Dory Carlin [00:18:26]:
And the dealership just presented an environment where you could connect the dots. Okay. And understand like, oh, there's a method to this madness. You know, you'll see. Oh, the parts department's like this. And you know, the, the service writer works like that. And, and this is. Oh, okay.

Dory Carlin [00:18:45]:
And then once you defined kind of what the roles were, then you could quickly pick out and go, oh, that's not working. Yeah, like, oh, that's not working. Because this. And you know, you don't say anything because you're. I'm not one of those guys, but I would, I would note it and go, oh, okay, that makes sense. This would be easier this way or that would be that way, easier that way. Or, you know, so, yeah, that, that's what interested me. I, it was a large mechanism that had a multi.

Dory Carlin [00:19:11]:
Just everywhere you look there was craziness going on. You know, it was, you know, I.

Jeff Compton [00:19:16]:
Remember the transition for me from when I went from the little four bay gas station where it was just myself, two other mechanics and that the guy out front who did all the estimating, all the booking, all the scheduling, all the parts ordering, everything like that, right?

Dory Carlin [00:19:31]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:19:32]:
Till I go to the dealership where it's like all of a sudden, like you said, there's a whole sales department that is, you know, wanting to be your friend because they need favors done. And then there's whole sale, you know, service department, that which you're a part of, but within that facet, you've got like four advisors who some days they seem to get along with each other and some days they want to kill one another. And then, you know, you have your parts store. Like you said, that was like they seem to be the bane of everybody's existence. Right. Like they like parts because parts was always seeming to be getting stuff wr wrong. Now I understand that it's. It's a very hard job within the dealership.

Jeff Compton [00:20:08]:
Like it is constant chaos and parts and you know, we all know like, you click on it and it shows stock at the warehouse and you order and then you get a notification five minutes later saying, yeah, it's been updated and it's not at the warehouse.

Dory Carlin [00:20:22]:
And you know, galactic backorder, good luck. Right.

Jeff Compton [00:20:25]:
Promise your customer tomorrow morning is now three weeks. What do you do? Right.

Dory Carlin [00:20:30]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:20:31]:
It becomes a chain. So I can understand for you that, that sentiment that when I got to the dealer, it was like this big machine all of a sudden, and it was like, wow, where do I fit in here? And then I realized real quick, like, I fit in fine. Like the dealer. I'll say it again, the dealer saved me for this industry. I wouldn't have stayed. I wouldn't have lasted. If I'd have been at that, that little four bay gas station, I wouldn't have survived this industry because I could not. It didn't pay enough.

Dory Carlin [00:21:00]:
And it's not only it's. It's not just the pay. It. There is just something to an independent at that time or that size. It's chaos. Yeah, it's, you know, it depends on what the. It's 100% on what the owner is. How organized are they?

Jeff Compton [00:21:19]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:21:20]:
You know, the roles aren't defined. That's my biggest. That is my largest goal in dealing with our independent is I want to make sure everyone knows their. Their goals. What. What are you responsible for specifically? Because that's the one thing I hated at the dealership more than anything. Well, why didn't you do that? Well, because it's not my job. I can't force the service writer to sell.

Dory Carlin [00:21:46]:
It's not my job. I Gotta stop, I gotta fix the cars. That's what I do, you know, and that's tough. Independents turn off a lot of young kids. They do, you know, I, I have young kids that stop in the shop, hey, I want to be a mechanic. We have a program here called Vo Tech Vocational Technologies that a lot of 16, 17, 18 year olds get into and it's kind of to get their feet wet. So I get a lot of kids that stop in, hey, I want to be mechanic. I listen, go to the dealership, they'll train you.

Dory Carlin [00:22:14]:
You don't have to pay for schooling. They'll say, you want to be a Subaru technician. They'll send you the Subaru so you can get certified and then you learn real quick. Is that dealership promoting within? Are they going to send you to school? Because I've worked at dealerships that had one master certified technician out of 14 guys. And I've worked at dealerships that had 17 master certified techs out of 17 guys. Yeah. And that makes a huge difference, big time.

Jeff Compton [00:22:45]:
And you know, it's funny, the young people that I've seen that like they go to the independent store sometimes and I have to be very careful how I say this sometimes it's like the, and we talk again in, in these groups that we're in, we're talking to less than 5%. Right. We always have to remember that. So when I put my head up and go. I've seen them come from the, from the aftermarket side of things with some really bad habits. Everybody looks at me like I'm crazy. But I mean we call it like some of them are very good at cobbling things together because that's maybe how that was the culture of the shop.

Dory Carlin [00:23:23]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:23:24]:
It's had no money like fix it as cheap bubble gum, duct tape and weld or if need be, you know, mechanics where the first guy I ever worked for the 4 Baker gas station, the head guy like welded mechanics wire and two part epoxy was his like go to and it didn't matter. It could be a side view mirror, it could be a seatbelt. Like he was 2 parts temp sensor.

Dory Carlin [00:23:50]:
He just JB welded it in there. Good, good to go. Let's go.

Jeff Compton [00:23:53]:
And like you'd sit there and go, oh my God, Adrian like. But that was what literally his customers were hoping for, that level of repair. Which is why he couldn't afford to pay because he wasn't charging. Because again the customer base that he. We have to remember up the road within three miles of us was six dealerships. There was another independent store shop literally right across the side street, like across an alley. There was one across the street and one more one block down on the same side of the street. So we were surrounded by 12 other shops right.

Jeff Compton [00:24:31]:
In a not particularly big part of Ottawa. So like there was a lot of customers and a lot of options. So there was a customer for everybody. As they say. We were the shop for those customers that like didn't have a lot of money or didn't want to put a lot of money into it.

Dory Carlin [00:24:48]:
They got blown out of the dealership at $120 an hour or whatever it was at that time, right?

Jeff Compton [00:24:52]:
Oh well, yeah, because I can remember the dealer was like at that time we're talking early 2000s, like a hundred bucks and we were 64.

Dory Carlin [00:25:01]:
Yeah, yeah. I don't miss those days. Yes.

Jeff Compton [00:25:04]:
When you do the, the math on that and it's like, okay, a 10 hour job, you're saving 300 bucks. If you go to somebody that's, you know, $30 less two, $300 was a lot of money.

Dory Carlin [00:25:16]:
Sure.

Jeff Compton [00:25:16]:
You know, now it's groceries up here in Canada.

Dory Carlin [00:25:19]:
Right. Gas, you know, you name it. Yeah, exactly. I had an, I had an uncle that was like that. He had a independent shop for years and that's a little bit where I, I wouldn't say I grew up there, but I'd spend a lot of time with him. He was close to my dad at the, I kind of kicked around this independent shop and that's where he was. He was right across the street from a, like a, a government housing kind of facility where you had low income families, you and he. And honestly my uncle Glenn, he had a soft heart.

Dory Carlin [00:25:55]:
He, he would, he was the kind of guy that would give his shirt off his back to, to do that, you know, to do it. But the, the double edged sword on that is that you set the customer level that you want. And I don't think a lot of guys understand that because they're afraid to ask for, for better money and to stop using baling wire and JB weld and to literally go well at ours. In the early days, what we get did is we gave people the choice. You could go aftermarket and it's going to be this much and it's going to be, it's going to fix it, but it's not going to be a thousand percent dealership quality or here's the price for OEM parts done the right way with the right time. You choose, you know. And I let the customer set that tone. And what that allowed us to do was to first identify the customers right off the bat, hey, I want it done right.

Dory Carlin [00:26:57]:
Use OEM parts. Awesome. So we would then curtail to them. We wouldn't burn these other people out. But at least I know what the lay of the land was. Am I getting junk walking through the door or am I getting legitimate customers that want a good repair with OEM parts but they can't find another shop that'll do it?

Jeff Compton [00:27:15]:
That's right.

Dory Carlin [00:27:15]:
You know.

Jeff Compton [00:27:16]:
Yeah. And I, I've talked for forever. It seems like it drives me crazy when, when you see shop owners and they don't even look at a OE part as an alternative cheaper, they immediately go to the cheapest thing. Or it's not necessarily the cheapest thing, but it's like the one that I can get my matrix to where it's the same price as a dealer part. I can give a three year warranty on it like that. Just drive me up the wall. Because as you have been a dealer tech for a long time. I was a dealer tech for a long time.

Jeff Compton [00:27:46]:
I knew that when like, if I had to come back, it was 99% of the time it was mechanic error. It was never the part. Because you were putting on the best parts. Frustrates the hell out of me now how much diet I have to go in and redo because the parts are so bad.

Dory Carlin [00:28:03]:
We've, we've, we have selectively eliminated specific aftermarket manufacturer. Torman. I'm not, I'm not naming any names. Okay. I'm not. Listen this. We're not talking trash. I will not use them.

Dory Carlin [00:28:18]:
It's just that simple. It's just, it's frustrating for everybody because you look like an ass. It makes you look like somebody can't do the job. When I go, oh, you know that new part I put on? Yeah. It broke.

Jeff Compton [00:28:29]:
Sorry.

Dory Carlin [00:28:30]:
Come on. We. I just, I can't afford to do that.

Jeff Compton [00:28:32]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:28:33]:
You know. Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:28:34]:
Yeah. And it, and it sucks. I, I go back to the vent valve situation. Right. The evap part from, from the aftermarket. Like, I just will not use them. I. You could tell me the OE one's going to be three weeks away and I'll be like, does the car run? Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:28:49]:
Check engine. Lights on. Okay, well, we're gonna have to wait three weeks for the, for the dealer one to come in because just it doesn't seem to matter if it's been a standard or a blue streak or, you know, Wells is hard to get up here, but I'm trying to think, like, if I can't find, say, it's a Denso oxygen sensor, if I can't cross the OE number into the aftermarket catalog, I don't even bother to even look at the catalog. I just pull the dealer up and go, give me, give me the oxygen sensor.

Dory Carlin [00:29:16]:
And that's a hard lesson to learn, you know, when you're starting out either, you know, as an independent, it's a hard lesson to learn because you want to be Johnny on the spot. You want to be the guy. Oh, yeah, I can get that. Today. We're buzzing out. We'll. We'll knock it out. You're fine.

Dory Carlin [00:29:30]:
We'll get you going. It's hard to go. Whoa, whoa. Let's just wait for the right part. We were burned so many times in the early days because of that specific. And it's hard and it's all you. It's just because you have the right drive. I want to get the customer down the road.

Dory Carlin [00:29:47]:
I don't want to hold their car for a week. Nobody can go without their car, you know, but, you know, in an evap sensor, run it. You're not dying. It'll be fine. The lights gonna be on, you know, but, you know, if you have something that's more important, you know, you got an oil pressure sensor that, that leaks, you know, I, I can't put that car back out on the road because I don't guarantee that the customer is going to check his oil.

Jeff Compton [00:30:10]:
That's right.

Dory Carlin [00:30:10]:
You know, and it's those little pitfalls that you learn and go, nope. Okay, I'm sorry I have to be the bearer of bad news. My apologies, but this is the best course of action and I can't do anything about it. I'm sorry. And you build good customers that way they understand. They either understand or they leave. I, you know, that's what's tough.

Jeff Compton [00:30:30]:
So how did you go from Lexus to Mercedes?

Dory Carlin [00:30:33]:
Well, going through the big D, man. Going to the divorce, you know, the Lexus dealership was 20 minutes away and the Mercedes dealership was about 35 or 40 and, er, no, vice versa. One was further away. And I wanted to make the change of. I needed to be home more often and better hours and better pay and, you know, I would have been, you know, I liked, I like those two dealerships a lot. So there wasn't a big difference between those two. I was set up to be a lifer at Mercedes. I kind of found Man, I listen.

Dory Carlin [00:31:21]:
The Germans know how to do it. That's all I can say. It's. You talk about a machine and you talk about, I don't know, I. There was some psychological warfare there too. Like they had you, you were a team member, man. You were part of us, you know, And I, and I, I bought in. I was, I was 100%, like, I got it.

Dory Carlin [00:31:46]:
There was support. They were clear about their roles. They were totally clear as to, you know, what they expected of you, that sort of thing. What pushed me out of there was the warranty times. The warranty times were horrendous.

Jeff Compton [00:32:00]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:32:01]:
And it was right at that point where you're making me fight tooth and nail at a luxury dealership. Like you guys are almost. Oh man, at the time, I want to say there were 165 or 170 an hour or something like that, you know. And I'm going, you're making me fight for time. I. Where's this coming from? You know, and that's kind of what happened there. But I loved. That was a place that showed me what you could build when you get.

Dory Carlin [00:32:33]:
I had an old boss when I worked for motorcycle stuff. He always talked about running a company is like having 18 boat engines on the back of your boat. If you get six of them going the same direction, you're looking pretty good. Right. Well, that's what Mercedes was. Mercedes was, man, they had 17 texts. Sixteen and a half of them were going the right direction. You know, they didn't tolerate a whole bunch of, you know, and, but there was also that, hey, we're working together, it's a team.

Dory Carlin [00:33:03]:
Even though it was flat rate, old timers would cut the, the guys retired there. They were lifers. They would come over and show you easier, faster, better ways to do what you're doing.

Jeff Compton [00:33:14]:
Cool.

Dory Carlin [00:33:14]:
That sort of environment that doesn't exist in a flat rate environment. I've, I've seen fist fights in flat rate shops, you know. You know, I, Yeah, so that sort of environment, I, I dug, I got it. I was, I was in 100%.

Jeff Compton [00:33:28]:
You know, the, the luxury thing always like, and to me, to this day, like when they talk about like, and you see them post, they post the job ads and it's like, oh, they're paying $45 an hour. You know, flat rate. You're like, how are they selling cars that go for 150 to $200,000 at this dealership? And I listen, the people are gonna correct me again. Exchange in Canada, right? So Most of them are sitting there very close to 100k. And secondly, like I don't know, I don't research them. They're not my kind of car. So if you tell me that oh they don't sell any of them that go for 200, I'm gonna believe you. But I know that they sell a to anyway.

Jeff Compton [00:34:11]:
It always makes me laugh when you see these high luxury and brands and they still pay flat rate because I'm like, you would think that we're all about quality and we're all about snobby, you know, prestigious cars that they would just be like, you think you would walk in and it would be like this high end salon type thing. You know, pristine, clean. Guys are just paid to like have the service manual open and torquing every faster. You know, that's not what you get with flat rate. Right. Matter whether you're working on a Yugo, obviously you're getting guys that are slamming and banging as fast as possible to make that money. And it just. I could never wrap my head around the idea that like BMW and Mercedes locally here are still paying b.

Jeff Compton [00:34:59]:
Are flat rate and they still have comebacks and they still have, you know, shoddy work because I've seen it. And you're like, where does the money go? If they collecting that much for door rate and they're still paying tax, not that much more to work on that. Those cars and they're still flat rate, where's the money go?

Dory Carlin [00:35:18]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [00:35:18]:
Goes in the first pocket. And the overhead of running that type of presentation versus, you know, your mom and dad's Chevy dealership. Right, right.

Dory Carlin [00:35:30]:
Well that was a big part of why I left Lexus. So the, the run of that was when I worked at Lexus. That was my first dealership experience. And I got in because one of my childhood friends worked there and actually multiple childhood. So there was like four or five of us out of eight techs that all grew up together. So we were tight.

Jeff Compton [00:35:55]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:35:56]:
And it was an hourly shop and we, the Lexus dealership that I work for probably spent 10 to 15 years number one regionally in their service. They, we crushed it. I mean we just. Because we were as tight as we were, we were 180% efficient. Five guys at least 160 to 180% efficient every month. Did we screw off? Oh yeah. There was, there, there were stuff like, like I, I saw you brought up the, the television show tires, right. I mean, come on.

Dory Carlin [00:36:35]:
He. They nail it, right? Steve and Shane nail what? That experience is a Hundred percent. Right. And, you know, did we mess around? Yeah, absolutely. But at the end of the day, we were crushing it. Well, the service manager comes to us one day in a meeting and goes, hey, there's a, there's a, a, a payroll freeze right now. We're having a hard time with a couple things. I think this was, this would have been like, oh, let's see, my daughter was born.

Dory Carlin [00:37:12]:
Oh, five. So, yeah. Oh, seven zero eight, something like that. And we had a pretty hard dip in car sales and stuff, but nothing. Lexus was just fine. Trust me, they were fine. But, hey, where there's a freeze. And we put up with that for one year, and the next year came around, and my current business partner, who I own the shop with, went to our service manager said, hey, I understand there's a freeze, but I need a race.

Dory Carlin [00:37:39]:
I don't know what to tell you, but that's what I need. And he goes, no, there's, you know, there's no way to have it. It's just not going to happen. He goes, all right, well, thanks. And the next day he came in and he put his two weeks in. Well, you got to give me time. I can't. He was like, no, it's.

Dory Carlin [00:37:54]:
It's, it's already done.

Jeff Compton [00:37:55]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:37:56]:
Within three months, four of us quit.

Jeff Compton [00:37:59]:
Wow.

Dory Carlin [00:38:00]:
It was. We gutted the place. They went from number one regionally to last. Did the owner care? No, he didn't care. They were fine. His company jet was fine. Right. His multiple properties were fine.

Jeff Compton [00:38:15]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:38:15]:
He simply cared about. They spent the next six years digging themselves out of the last place for regional because they just wouldn't give us a dollar more working at a Lexus dealership. And that's. That was a, it was a hard lesson to learn, but it definitely taught me self worth instantly, because I got hired down the road for $2 more. And they were ecstatic to bring us in.

Jeff Compton [00:38:38]:
Yeah. And so, you know, there's. So that feels such a stereotype that I've seen and heard, you know, for the better part of 20 years and lived through some in my career and in, you know, when people talk about number one in the region and CSI scores and all this kind of stuff.

Dory Carlin [00:38:58]:
Oh, my God. Csi, my man.

Jeff Compton [00:39:00]:
If CSI really made a lick of difference, you would see them, you know, really, really, really, really make it about their culture would be the csi. And yet we know that. It's like, it's a dangling carrot. I've said to. It's like if you get a score at the end of the year. We'll write you a check. Oh shit. You had to be at 99.

Jeff Compton [00:39:22]:
You know, you hit 94F you guys, you get nothing. Good luck next year.

Dory Carlin [00:39:26]:
Like, how cool is that?

Jeff Compton [00:39:27]:
You know, every dealer eventually is going to watch that and happen and get close and then go, you know what? F this we're going to focus on making money. And it's not about then fixing all these warranty weird complaints and making the customer pat, you know, shaking you.

Dory Carlin [00:39:44]:
You build this. There's too many Karens. Yeah, I've seen dealerships bend over backwards to save a Karen. You know what we do at our independent shop.

Jeff Compton [00:39:55]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:39:56]:
Hey, you know what I've had, I've had this conversation word for word. It just looks like we're not a good fit for you. You know, I just don't think that this is going to work out. By all means that I got, you know, four or five other places that were more than happy to take you as a customer. I just don't think this is going to work. I appreciate your business, it's been great. Have a nice day. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that.

Jeff Compton [00:40:20]:
I saw way back in the day when I was at Chrysler, the first Chrysler store I worked at, arguably still one of the best technicians I ever saw in terms of being able to take any problem that the customer had, find the solution and fix it. And I'll give you this example, this little lady. So he comes to work at this dealership and he had left a straight time dealer where you just fix cars. That was it, the approach CSI like it was everything you were. This little old lady comes in with this neon and she says I have a squeak in the seat. And then it was like a boomerang. Nobody could seem to find it because like of course you get in and you move the seat around and then the seat doesn't squeak. And she was a little thing Colin was.

Jeff Compton [00:41:06]:
Colin spent all morning on this and he realized that the squeak that she was hearing was the seat cover on the seat foam. Little old lady, she wouldn't have weighed 100 pounds, right. Just squeak and hardly any miles in the car. Colin takes the seat apart, puts a plastic bag over the foam to stop the squeak, puts reassembles the seat. Now you know, two trains of thought on here. People are going to put their head up and go, I would hire Colin in a second because Colin fix the car and then you're gonna have the other train of thought that have been in my experience from the dealership and they're like, you can't get paid for that repair.

Dory Carlin [00:41:42]:
Correct.

Jeff Compton [00:41:43]:
The warranty won't pay for that. So what Colin did was cost them a lot of money that day. Now why did he do that? He was a straight time foreman. So his job was to try and solve these problems. What I took away from that was be somewhere in the middle. Don't be calling, but don't be like all the other guys that had boomerang that car, if you know what I mean. So CSI for me was like, she probably filled out a great CSI survey for us. What did it, what did it amount to? Squat.

Jeff Compton [00:42:18]:
How much did it cost us that day? A couple hundred bucks by the time we paid Colin and made a claim that you can't get paid. So what is that really worth? It's, and here's the, here's the unfortunate thing. That little old lady, Mrs. Smith, right. Her loyalty is worth something, but is it scalable? Is it tangible? I don't think it really is. And this is the, the, the CSI game for me is a dangling carrot. I don't, I don't tell anybody out there. Like, if I go in and I sit down at a job interview for a dealer and they tell me, start talking about CSI is their number one priority, I know I ain't making any money here because it's like the priority becomes we got to chase this imaginary check that they might write us at the end of the year versus we need to look over every car super well and present.

Jeff Compton [00:43:06]:
Like all the work that we can find on it and sell on it. That's how. So I worked at a dealer that was like, when I left that first dealer, went to the second one, they didn't give a spit about csi. They were all about like, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. We fixed the cars too. Like you had to diagnose fixed car. If you went out and said it needs a brake job. You had somebody selling brakes?

Dory Carlin [00:43:28]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:43:28]:
You didn't have anybody worried, like, oh, crap, it's only got 50,000k on it. Like, I wonder why it needs breaks. They're like breaks. Yep. Let me just, you know, complete faith in what the technicians were selling, which is sometimes a little sketchy.

Dory Carlin [00:43:43]:
Sure. Also through the service writer. That's what's tough too. How many service writers have you met where they do a hard sell rather than a soft sell? Meaning that, hey, if you don't do these breaks, you're gonna die. No, they're at 4, 30 seconds. They're not gonna die. Okay. I'm just saying in the next five to 10,000 miles, you're probably gonna need breaks, right? And, and that makes a huge difference.

Dory Carlin [00:44:10]:
I tell my service writers that's, that's the soft sell, soft sell everything. That way they'll learn, the customer learns that. The one time, you know, I heard you telling the stories about the caravan with the rotors into the, you know, the metal to metal, you know, the one time you go, listen, if you leave here, you're going to die, and they believe you. It's not a, it's not an opinion, it's a fact. And that's what we push really hard. Service writers make or break a place because they're your contact to the customer 100%.

Jeff Compton [00:44:43]:
It's, it's when I think of, like, you know, places that I've made a lot of money and places that I've made zip, it all comes back to who was at that front counter. Yeah, that's what it all boils down to. And again, like I've talked, there was always a mix there. Like, we had some guys that were, you know, really aggressive, and we had some guys that were like, a little more restrained, I guess you would say. They both were necessary, they both served a role, but it was like depending on where you were, you were hoping that a certain ticket was, you know, to this guy, another guy. Right. Like them best.

Dory Carlin [00:45:21]:
Right?

Jeff Compton [00:45:21]:
Exactly. I want him on my Saturday. I don't want him because I, you know, and, you know, so going back to the CSI thing, we have to remember, once you're at a warranty, it's not, it's not important at all. It's not important. And it's. And it's. And it sucks. And you know, the people that are not in the industry that listen to this, maybe this episode, I know we act like at the dealer, like, it's really important that you fill out that survey and whatnot.

Jeff Compton [00:45:50]:
But they really don't, like, it's not the be all or end all. What they're really is that, like, the car leaves, you're satisfied, and you keep bringing the car back. If you don't fill out the survey, it's not the end of the world, you know? Right, right.

Dory Carlin [00:46:03]:
Well, you know, it's the old adage, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Just, you'll be fine. Is your car good? Your car's good. Okay. You know, I'm sorry that the greeter didn't greet you with a smile on their face. The Pedicurus didn't paint your nails the right color. I'm sorry, but is your car fixed? Yes. Okay, great.

Dory Carlin [00:46:22]:
You know, that's tough. You start getting into that, start splitting hairs. And when you make csi, it didn't really affect Lexus had that. Mercedes had that. When you make it a larger part of someone's paycheck, that's where it can get ugly real quick. Just because you had a Karen that is complaining about wind noise, meanwhile, they have, like, marbles in their cargo area. You know, you're like, dude, I can't pick out what sound you're particular about. Can you put the tin cans away that are in your cargo area, please? I.

Dory Carlin [00:47:02]:
I know we're dealing with a squeak, but I'm deaf. Like, you know, and you can't say that. They don't let you with that.

Jeff Compton [00:47:09]:
You know, X have. Have gone for test drives for noises. And there's been a case of beer bottles in the back.

Dory Carlin [00:47:14]:
Right. Always 100.

Jeff Compton [00:47:16]:
It's happened to you or cans or bottles. Right. Like up here in Canada, we were. We were all about the bottle. For a long, long time. You never, ever drank beer out of a can. It was just not something. And now it's common, but, like, all the time, it would be either like, empty wine bottles in the back or not judging.

Jeff Compton [00:47:35]:
Like, ladies, if you want to cart them around for whatever reason. Like, I'm not judging. I'm not judging. It's really to hear, like, Dory saying, I got a wind noise at 70 miles an hour on the highway, and I'm driving out to the highway and all my clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink. Hear that?

Dory Carlin [00:47:54]:
Right, right. And it's literally happened. Like, most people that are in this industry would go, oh, they're being facetious. They're just great. No, legitimately, I'm not. You can't make this stuff up, you know?

Jeff Compton [00:48:10]:
Yeah. Like, between. How do you listen to the radio and. And hear the clinking and still hear the wind noise? Like, I don't. You know, it's strikes me well on.

Dory Carlin [00:48:23]:
The, you know, on the other. On the other side of the coin, too, I've had customers that, God love them. They come in and go, listen, I'm really sorry it's not making it today. And I go, listen, I understand our coffee isn't that good. You don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. Let's go for a ride and see what we can find. It's not.

Dory Carlin [00:48:43]:
You I understand. And once you put those people to comfort and rest, you know, they understand. At least someone's listening to them. Because I've never turned to a customer and go, make it, do it. Make it, do it right now. You know, I know cars suck. Yeah, Right? My business partner says all the time, I hate cars. Right? I still.

Dory Carlin [00:49:03]:
I collect. I still like cars. I still have that little bit of, you know, love for them. I've seen customers talk to Paul, and Paul go, you know, I hate cars, right? Like, I don't want to hear about your collection. I do this for a living. I'll fix it. Oh, good. But I don't.

Dory Carlin [00:49:22]:
I don't care. I hate cars. You know, but we were. We were probably the top two techs there because we would take the time with the customer. We know you're not crazy. We know you're not making this stuff up, and it doesn't happen all the time, and that's what's frustrating.

Jeff Compton [00:49:36]:
And to. To kind of stick to this kind of thing. I don't know if you watch Royalty auto service on YouTube. Sherwood, they just stuck a video yesterday that was a Toyota Tacoma squeak noise. And it ended up being what he found it. And again, like, this is the level that they go to if it necessitates. This is like, it ends up being. It's just.

Jeff Compton [00:49:58]:
It's a shock. The strut in the front of the Tacoma, the seal is all dirty where this piston rod's coming up down through. So it needs struts in the front of this Tacoma. But, like, he's literally there with arc oil and a stethoscope and getting two guys. The big guy, Chris, Right. Chris is a. Is a whole vibe himself, pushing on the front of this truck to make the noise. And there's Sherwood with the stethoscope.

Jeff Compton [00:50:19]:
There's the noise. Kate needs trust. They had a good. Easily had a good hour into finding that sold the customer. The diet time. The customer. And then Sherwood's like, yeah, well, with the. The mileage on the thing and the age of it.

Jeff Compton [00:50:32]:
Yeah, that should have struck us anyway, just based on.

Dory Carlin [00:50:35]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:50:37]:
Like, why in this industry, you know, do we. When we don't get the results we want, it's. Most of the time. I keep saying it's because we didn't want to pay for the results we wanted to get and that paying the time to diagnose the car. And I. I love that guy because, like, it. And again, some of it may be for tv, but there's a true leader right he's in the shop, guys are around him, watching how he approaches this problem. I think that's where.

Jeff Compton [00:51:07]:
And I don't know, I. I want to think that probably why the sounds of, like you were talking about your experience where everybody's so tight, that learning curve becomes like, so good because you. Everybody's involved, everybody's watching, everybody's, you know, it's. It's Dory's turn to, to teach a lesson on, you know, how I found this noise. And, you know, like, you're saying your, your Paul's got one and, and so on and so forth. That's when there's really no ceiling to what a business can do. You know, I, I want to think that it's like my friend Benji at Frog Pond, that that's very much how they approach it. Like, everybody, when they work as a team and when everybody is helping one another, everybody's seeing his method and that person's method in this.

Jeff Compton [00:51:53]:
Like, that's how we all get better, you know?

Dory Carlin [00:51:56]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [00:51:57]:
That's the part of this industry that I love. That's the part that I get really off on, is. Is seeing how somebody does something and then learning from it. I'm all about learning. Right. Like, it's. That's just the key thing for me. Like, I don't.

Jeff Compton [00:52:10]:
I'm not going to break production records anymore. I'm not. I'm old and slow and hurt and. But if I still learn tricks like that, yeah, I would, I would do this till, like, I don't wake up that one morning, right. Because I'm. It's like a drug for me, you know?

Dory Carlin [00:52:27]:
Sure. You know, and I don't know if that happens at Independence because I've never really worked at one. I've always been at dealerships. But, you know, that was the kind of stuff that you would see happen, you know, at Lexus or Mercedes. Guys would. Before it comes in the door, one of the old guys would be on you. Oh, yeah, check this, this and this. That's what I found last week.

Dory Carlin [00:52:52]:
You know, that is. That cuts out so much rigmarole and guessing and testing and diagnosing, you know. But, you know, I. I also know you're a big proponent of paying for diag time, you know, because that's so important. Diag time is not only just for the technician doing it, it's for anyone else in the shop that wants to pay attention to how you're going about solving a problem. And my line to any customer that questions diagnosis time, I would go either. 2 Responses. I would go with either.

Dory Carlin [00:53:33]:
You know, you're paying for my expertise. You know, I. I can guess that you don't know how to do struts on your car. I do. I can do them in an hour and a half rather than you can look up the YouTube video. That. That's the other thing. Power of YouTube.

Dory Carlin [00:53:49]:
Anytime I have a customer that wants to know why and how it's. I'm like, here, look. Here you go. I'll send you the link. This is what I'm going to be doing. Go nuts.

Jeff Compton [00:53:59]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:53:59]:
Check it out. And 99 times. Oh, I see. I understand. Thank you so much. Go ahead and do that. You know, that's a big part of it. And then the other side is the second line of defense.

Dory Carlin [00:54:12]:
I go to. I go, well, we're a good shop for a reason. You have to pay me for what I know because no one else is going to fix it.

Jeff Compton [00:54:21]:
That's right.

Dory Carlin [00:54:21]:
I'm sorry that you have to pay me to do it. But at least I also have zero problem. If you pay for diagnosis and you want to take it down the street, by all means. I don't have that problem. Because if you're. You're not going to be happy anyway. I could do that job to the best of my ability for the lowest amount of cost. It doesn't matter.

Dory Carlin [00:54:43]:
You already have it in your mind that you don't appreciate value and experience. Thank you so much. Pay your bill. Have a wonderful day. I. I don't try to keep people like that. And bringing your own parts. How many times have you run into people.

Dory Carlin [00:54:58]:
Well, could I bring. No, I can't. I can't warranty it because chances are it's wrong anyway. You didn't order the right part or it's the lowest quality part on the planet. And I'll see you in three weeks and then you're going to be unhappy.

Jeff Compton [00:55:12]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:55:13]:
And my job.

Jeff Compton [00:55:14]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [00:55:14]:
My business model isn't bring your own parts. I'm sorry. It's just what it is because they.

Jeff Compton [00:55:18]:
Still go online and say that, you know, Dory's shop didn't fix my car. They always. That that Google review that. That testament in the Facebook group, they leave out part where they say I showed up with the part I bought on teu.

Dory Carlin [00:55:33]:
Correct.

Jeff Compton [00:55:33]:
You know. Right. Or. Or like they always leave that part out. It's just, it's it because they. In their mind. And I get it. I get it.

Jeff Compton [00:55:42]:
Their mind. They're all the same. The part is exactly the same. It's. It's like buying. What's an example? It's like buying a loaf of bread at Kroger's or buying a loaf of bread at Walmart. It's still bread.

Dory Carlin [00:55:54]:
Still bread. Right. Like, one didn't need to hold oil or, you know, give you a good ride or stay together. It just needed to be toasted. That's it.

Jeff Compton [00:56:04]:
So the ignition coil for $10 or the ignition coil for $100 is the same. They're just really ripping me off on the hundred. $1. Never mind that there's completely different things inside. Right. The $10 coils got us done it probably.

Dory Carlin [00:56:18]:
Right. Right.

Jeff Compton [00:56:19]:
$100 coil is built like the one that was under the hood when it was born.

Dory Carlin [00:56:23]:
Right. And it was quality checked and it went through, you know, all of those things. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:56:30]:
So, you know, when people. That's why. And again, I work for a shop owner that, like when we sat down, we did the initial interview, he knew about me from the groups and I knew about, you know, I'd seen his name, and I'm thinking like, they're not. They don't do these kind of shenanigans. And then I would see a customer bring his own parts, and I'm like, wow, okay, we're doing that now. No, this guy, you know, he's a little more difficult. And I'm like, if he's a little more difficult, then we probably shouldn't be doing this because we're forming bad behavior.

Dory Carlin [00:57:01]:
Yeah, exactly. You're teaching him to be difficult. I have broken many customers of that because I just calmly explained it. I didn't take it personally. I didn't get all mad and frustrated. I simply showed him the details, showed him the reasons, showed him the hows and the whys of why I can't do that because it doesn't work for us. Do you like us being a business? Yes.

Jeff Compton [00:57:26]:
Okay.

Dory Carlin [00:57:26]:
If I do that, I'm going to go out of business, you know, so it's just tough. It's tough to hold the line. We say hold the line at the shop.

Jeff Compton [00:57:35]:
Yeah. Do you think I'm crazy when I think that a lot of people, the, the. The bring your own parts thing. I think there's somebody in every core time that the. It's the subject comes up. I got to take my car in. I swear to God, when these people are sitting around, somebody always says, well, it wasn't that expensive because I took my parts in, my mechanic put them on. Do you think that's happening really? A lot These kind of conversations are happening.

Dory Carlin [00:58:00]:
I, I think it goes back to the old adage of if, if you keep a customer happy, they might tell one person, right? And then if, if they're unhappy, they'll tell everybody. They'll tell people standing in the line at the grocery store, they'll tell people going to the doctors, they'll tell people because they don't. Mercedes taught pretty much everybody that there's three kinds of people. There's people that appreciate value, there's people that look for price, and then there's people that look for time, right? Luxury cars, nobody cares about how long it takes. These people have three or four other cars and they have a fleet of loaners. Nobody gives a shit. Right? But in the independent game, these are blue collar people. They got one car.

Dory Carlin [00:58:52]:
Like, I feel their pain. I'm sorry, I can't leave your car for that long. I can't leave my car that long. Well, your car is going to explode if you don't leave it. I'm sorry, but I can't. You gotta leave it. There's got to be a way around this. I, and I don't have loaners.

Dory Carlin [00:59:06]:
I'm not that big yet, you know, but it's the old adage of, you know, they're gonna cry to everybody or they're gonna tell one person, man, they did a great job, you know, and that's, what's, that it, that's a tough industry to be in because I think, I, I don't know, can you think of another industry that, that would follow that, like someone that did their nails wrong, you know, they might complain a little, but you know, like, they're still nice. Or, or, you know, I, I do it at a doctor's office. Bring your own part to the doctor's office. I dare you. Right.

Jeff Compton [00:59:40]:
I always go the same thing when people, they talk about the deadline thing and it's like if you've ever had a custom home built, right? And somebody just shared this recently on there, like you never see it get done by the promised time.

Dory Carlin [00:59:53]:
Right? I never thought of that. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:59:55]:
So it's like, and sometimes it's maybe a month, but like we know that some construction projects, we're talking a year behind schedule.

Dory Carlin [01:00:04]:
Oh yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:00:05]:
Because the variables that they're going to say, their control or whatever. So, and I'm not advocating saying that we all need to lower the bar to be like the other skilled trades. That's not what I'm trying to say. But it's not the end of the world. Like those people that are waiting for that custom home to be built, do they sometimes stay in the home longer? Yes. Do they sometimes wind up in a hotel waiting for the house? Yes. Do they sometimes wait in. At the in laws? Yes.

Dory Carlin [01:00:33]:
There are solutions, right?

Jeff Compton [01:00:35]:
They didn't die in the winter because the house wasn't built on time. That's my point. And, and we live in a world where, you know, and again, I forget sometimes there are rural people in rural places. But like in my little corner of the world, we have a public transit system. So it sucks, I get it. But if your car tomorrow is at the shop, it's at Doris shop because it's waiting on an alternator and you can't beg, borrow, reschedule whatever you had to do the next day. Like, we, we can take this magic thing in our pocket, call our phone, and we can look at the local transit schedule and we can figure out that I got to be at the closest bus stop by 8 o' clock in the morning and I have to catch two buses and I. That'll get me to where I got to go tomorrow.

Dory Carlin [01:01:25]:
My question is always, how many friends do you have on Facebook?

Jeff Compton [01:01:29]:
Yeah. Yep, yep.

Dory Carlin [01:01:32]:
Make a call, send a text, make a message.

Jeff Compton [01:01:35]:
My own brother has been without his own vehicle now for six months.

Dory Carlin [01:01:39]:
Oh my God.

Jeff Compton [01:01:40]:
He had an old Ford Ranger. We scrapped it because it was not entire brakes on, right? We talked about. Now his roommate that he lives with, they have like, she has this little, I don't know, it's probably a 14 or 13 accent Hyundai. Now Canadian accent is not at 14. You know, at 12 years old, there ain't much life left in that one yet either. I mean, it's already, it's 12 years old. It's, it's one of the good ones, right? So. And at first when he got rid of his truck, I was like, I was panicked.

Jeff Compton [01:02:14]:
I'm like, what is he gonna do? But they, they're making it work.

Dory Carlin [01:02:18]:
They adapt, right? You figure it out.

Jeff Compton [01:02:20]:
I'm like, when that Hyundai goes down, they need to be start planning. And I'm already like, they need to start planning now because when that thing all of a sudden doesn't start or the transmission, like, I've had the talk with them, don't call me and say I need a training for a 2012 accident, because I'm going know you need 500 from the local wrecker. And then you need to buy some bus passes and here's quality, right? Like it's, it's up to them to to figure out how they're going to make it work. And the reality is the grocery store that they would need to buy everything they would need is two blocks from their house. They could walk now he's waiting on a hip transplant.

Dory Carlin [01:02:58]:
Oh my goodness.

Jeff Compton [01:02:59]:
You know, he might be locker going up but he could get food. Is my, he's not going to starve. So we're in a very fortunate time where yes, there's rural places and people rely on those cars. But those rural places, I find that most of the time they don't ever really stop driving it until it stops them get another one. They're not the type that is like, I'm into the shop, you know, for this squeak and rattle kind of thing. If it's working and doing work, they're using it. That's what. So I can't always immediately go, well rural people don't have public transit.

Jeff Compton [01:03:37]:
Listen, rural people don't squawk about crazy things that we bring in for a car. You know, the lights are already, they.

Dory Carlin [01:03:43]:
Are already independent and self sufficient and you know, chances are they've already put two alternators on it already. You know that that's something to be said for that too. We're missing a lot of that in our society as as much as there's information on YouTube. I love meeting fellow independent problem solvers that aren't even in the industry. You know, these guys are IT guys or they're electricians or you know, they're steam fitters, you know, or they're union guys. But they know how to put an alternator on, they know how to check the voltage and go, well, is it 12 volts or is it 14.2 volts? Okay, the alternators bad. You know, we're missing a lot of that in our society today.

Jeff Compton [01:04:29]:
Well, we're not developing it. That's the problem, right Is where everybody is just like, I mean I would have never thought that I'd ever make 5 cents from content creation. 20 years ago, right? Here I am making some money every month from content creation. Now it's a like a viable employment opportunity, career for, for these young people. And we look at that and go, listen, here's the reality, right? But we don't even really know what the reality is because it could even get even bigger than the way it is.

Dory Carlin [01:04:59]:
It changes so f. Yeah, you know.

Jeff Compton [01:05:01]:
So like if you just said 10 years ago, like there's going to be kids that are going to be millionaires from playing Minecraft on YouTube, I'd have told you you were nuts.

Dory Carlin [01:05:10]:
1.7 million views. Watch me play video games and I can't even comprehend it.

Jeff Compton [01:05:15]:
And now they have energy drinks that they sell and like that, like, like I don't. So I gotta ask the question then. If your experience as a dealer was so positive, like, and you know, a team effort kind of thing, why'd you ever finally leave that?

Dory Carlin [01:05:34]:
So I went to go work for a, another flat rate shop that offered me more money, flat rate dealership. And, and this is, honestly, this is one of those stories that, that always makes the hair on my arm stand up because I really feel like I was guided. I don't, I don't mean to feel like overzealous or anything like that, but I went to go work for another shop. I, again, it was a move to be closer to my kids. I was even closer. I was like five minutes down the road so it was easier to take them to school, be a part of their life. Basically in my five miles from where I lived, it was a commute. I got tired of driving 45 minutes every morning to work and 45 minutes at home.

Dory Carlin [01:06:22]:
And, and honestly, the general manager at, at Mercedes was fantastic. He heard that I was contemplating about leaving. He called me up to his office. He's like, listen, you know, what can we do? And I said, well, the bottom line is I can't move closer to you and you can't move the dealership closer to me. And I'm sick of driving an hour and a half out of my day. I just can't do it. I think I can make this other dealership work. You know, they, they have frequent turnarounds.

Dory Carlin [01:06:52]:
Nobody's worked there longer than three years. That kind of burnout. But it was in my backyard. It was for the same, it might have been for a couple bucks more, honestly. And it was just that kind of move. And the general manager was like, listen, if anything doesn't work out, just show up with your toolbox. He's like, I will save a place for you. You know, and they were that kind of organization and I appreciated that.

Dory Carlin [01:07:17]:
So I went to go work for this other place. I worked there about three years and I was having a bad day. And it was the kind of place that turns you into something you're not. I'm a very happy, go lucky kind of, what do you need help with? You know, I'll go the extra mile. And working there three years, it was the kind of place that just drained you. They took everything and didn't give anything back. And I was having a particularly bad day. I was throwing tools, which I never do.

Dory Carlin [01:07:56]:
That's not my style. That is absolutely not my style. I was throwing tools. And I had to go, listen, I'm stepping out for a minute. I'm going to go take a walk out the back door. I'm going to go sit on the grass, watch cars go by, and settle myself down. And I was walking out the door and something popped up on my shoulder and said, hey, text. It was my.

Dory Carlin [01:08:23]:
My cousin Ronnie that owned a little abandoned two bay. SO gas station. It literally no glass, no doors, parking lot full of garbage. It was abandoned, no electric, no nothing. And something just popped in my head because I tried to. I tried to buy it off, and probably about five years earlier, and he wasn't ready to let go. He inherited it from his dad. It was special to him, that sort of thing.

Dory Carlin [01:08:47]:
And. And out of the blue, hey, text Ronnie. Just text him, say hi. And I texted him. And I'm walking. I remember walking up to the grass hill, texting him, you know, hey, Ronnie, how's it going? Two minutes later, he kicks back with a picture of a for sale sign in his hand. And I go, what's that for? And he goes, you'd never guess. I was like, is that for the shop? He goes, yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:09:13]:
I said, listen, just put it back in your truck. We'll figure it out. And at that point, I knew that it was. It was just time. I was frustrated. I knew I worked at a place that showed you how to do it wrong. It's as simple as that. I was frustrated.

Dory Carlin [01:09:27]:
I knew I could do it better. I knew that I learned enough lessons. I knew that no matter what I was doing here, I could do it better somewhere else. And that was really the thing that drove me that I could have control start to finish, from when the car comes in the door to how we treat the customers, to how we deliver it. I was all in at that point. And I started making phone calls. I called up two of my childhood friends and I said, hey, I got a crazy idea. Why don't you meet me at this address? We need to talk.

Dory Carlin [01:10:03]:
And I'd love to hear your input. And we walked the property, and we decided right then and there that. That we were going to try to do anything we can to do it, because we were all ready at that point.

Jeff Compton [01:10:15]:
Right?

Dory Carlin [01:10:16]:
You know, and ironically, the dealership that Paul worked for and the dealership that I worked for, the common thread in our existence is we're 180 degrees opposite I will give you this one piece of advice. If you ever look for a business partner, look for someone 180 degrees opposite of you. Because it's not when you're similar to someone else, it's not the big things that drive you crazy.

Jeff Compton [01:10:48]:
Right.

Dory Carlin [01:10:49]:
It's the little things. It's the little tiny things that get under your skin. So when you get two people that are 180 degrees opposite, you're getting someone who can see problems in a different view and a different light to go. And if you're, and if you're mature enough to go, oh, I never thought of that. Let me contemplate that. I didn't see that problem or I didn't see that solution. And, and we walked the property and we decided at that point that we, we were all in. We were done, we were done at dealerships.

Dory Carlin [01:11:24]:
His treated him like gold. When they found out he was going to leave. I got fired. I've never been fired in my life ever. Not once. I was up front, hey, I bought a shop. This is what's happening, this is what's going on. I'm just giving you the guys heads up.

Dory Carlin [01:11:40]:
I'm not going in two weeks. It's literally abandoned.

Jeff Compton [01:11:44]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:11:46]:
Bye.

Jeff Compton [01:11:47]:
Which, which is very telling of and obviously why the culture was so bad in the first place, right?

Dory Carlin [01:11:53]:
Absolutely 100%. And that's what told me I made a good move, you know.

Jeff Compton [01:11:58]:
Yeah. So what was the first week like at the brand new building?

Dory Carlin [01:12:04]:
So my, my ex girlfriend, which is my current wife, I, she hates it but I call her my ex girlfriend. Listen, you're my wife, you're my ex girlfriend. Right. She remembers vividly of me pulling up in my 90, my lifted 98 Dodge Dakota pickup truck with a trailer and a toolbox on the back, pulling up front of the house and I pop out with the biggest dumbest smile going guess what I did today honey. Right. And I immediately, I talked to her for five minutes, we grabbed something to eat and I flipped a U turn, took it to the new shop and I had just, I had just primered all the walls in the shop. We got it cleaned out, we pressure washed it, we just got electric and I think the two post lift was scheduled I think three weeks before they dropped it off. So I didn't have any way to lift anything but I basically had three weeks there to put together what invoicing program we were going to use.

Dory Carlin [01:13:15]:
I started the process to own the location for Google. You gotta remember this is a gas station from 1965. It didn't exist on maps. Yeah, it opened. It was built in 1961. It went out of business in 1969 and was abandoned since then. So it didn't exist on maps. It didn't have a street address.

Dory Carlin [01:13:36]:
It didn't have a telephone number. So I went through all of those processes to put us on MapQuest at Google and all those places. And honestly, it gave me three weeks to get my head together. And man, when we dropped that first lift, we put it up ourselves and it was like a switch. It was unreal. It was. It was a. It was an amazing experience that I would never want to trade in my life because it was literally the day we put it up, we started taking appointments.

Jeff Compton [01:14:08]:
Right.

Dory Carlin [01:14:08]:
And it was just a step by step process. You know, our first month was like $400, I think something like that, you know, but the next month was a thousand, you know, and the next month was 1500, you know.

Jeff Compton [01:14:22]:
And it's. What's so cool about this industry is like, of all the people that I've heard about their first week or their first day or their first month or their first year in. In their. In their first, you know, their own business, not once has somebody ever said to me, nobody ever came in the first day. You know, there's always been such a need, hey Dory, that it's like it doesn't matter. Like, people, I don't know whether they. The pre marketing works or there's that many broken cars just driving by all the time. I think that's what it is.

Dory Carlin [01:14:54]:
I think it is too.

Jeff Compton [01:14:55]:
A new sign. They see a new light on. They see a new place and they go, I'm gonna give that a shot. And because. And I don't know whether it's like they're trying to get one up on us where it's like, oh, I'm gonna go in there and they're gonna be brand new and like, they're gonna need me as a customer. Or is it just like they're that optimistic? But I mean, this is the beauty of it, because other businesses, you could start like a restaurant. There's lots of restaurants that open on the first day, and if they don't do like a ton of pre marketing, nobody walks in.

Dory Carlin [01:15:27]:
They don't walk in.

Jeff Compton [01:15:28]:
Right. I've never talked to a shop owner. It's like my first day, we had no customers.

Dory Carlin [01:15:32]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:15:33]:
Like. And I think that that's just very telling about the power of what our. What our industry still is and what. How viable and necessary we are. Like, it's. We gotta always remember that goes back to valuing ourselves.

Dory Carlin [01:15:49]:
We.

Jeff Compton [01:15:50]:
We're almost. Well, we've pretty much proven it. We're almost recession proof. Like, I can tell you that were proof from.

Dory Carlin [01:15:57]:
We're absolutely Covid. Proof. I. My business did not change at all. Not once through. Through any of the lockdowns or Covid or any. Any of that bs. We did the same amount of work from the beginning to the end.

Jeff Compton [01:16:13]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:16:13]:
You know, now we might have had like a. We might have put together some money to maybe deal with if someone walked in our door and told us that we were going to get shut down, that maybe, you know, we were going to have to figure out. To bail out the owner because we were kind of like waiting to knock somebody out if someone told us we were going to close. Like, we're not closing. I don't know what to tell you, but we're not closing.

Jeff Compton [01:16:40]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:16:41]:
You know, but that was. It's been. It's. It's been steady. It's been steady in growth the entire time from day one. The lessons that we learned. The first. I can tell you the exact job that I stood my ground on a price and said, no, I'm sorry, I can't do it for that.

Dory Carlin [01:17:01]:
You know, have a nice day. Hey, call us if. If anything changes. And the next day, hey, I'm gonna schedule that job. I. I appreciate it. I can't find it cheap, you know.

Jeff Compton [01:17:11]:
Was that Dory?

Dory Carlin [01:17:13]:
What's that.

Jeff Compton [01:17:13]:
What job was that?

Dory Carlin [01:17:14]:
Like, that was a. That was timing chains and a Nissan Murano.

Jeff Compton [01:17:19]:
Yep.

Dory Carlin [01:17:19]:
And it's a big job. You have to drop the engine out of the bottom of the. Out of the car. And we. I said, Listen, it's 14 hours. There's nothing I can do about it.

Jeff Compton [01:17:27]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:17:28]:
I can either put aftermarket timing chains in it, or I can put OEM ones. Guess which one I want you to do. It's a waste of time otherwise, you know, but we stood our ground. And to this day, we have that customer. 11 years. 11 years later, that customer. You don't have the Murano. It rusted out a long time ago.

Dory Carlin [01:17:47]:
But, you know, but he appreciates what we do and how we do it.

Jeff Compton [01:17:51]:
Yeah. Isn't that cool? Right? Because, I mean, it's the same. And how many times have we dropped the ball as an industry in that. Where we didn't stand our ground and we completely shift the dynamic of where it should be. Where. And I don't want to say, like, we're in charge and they're not. But that's pretty much what it is, right? Because otherwise it's like we're saying, here's the steering wheel. Like, I'm going to let you drive, but I'm going to correct you a little bit just to.

Jeff Compton [01:18:17]:
So we get to where we're both happy going. Whereas like with you or us, when the customer says. And it's like, no, listen, I've. I've got it in park. My foot's on the brake. This is as far as I go. If we go together, I still drive. You're along the ride.

Jeff Compton [01:18:34]:
Right. Like, you know, I'm providing you something. I know the analogy is a little off, but that is. Listen to what I'm trying to say here is that we're not. They don't dictate the process. That's what I keep saying.

Dory Carlin [01:18:44]:
Exactly.

Jeff Compton [01:18:45]:
They don't dictate it. I do. It's my business. I get to set the rules. When. When you stand up to the customer and say, I honestly want to believe that most customers will respect you for that. Now you have to be then professional, and you have to result that you promise them. Though we can't have the conversation the other day with Brian and it's.

Jeff Compton [01:19:07]:
The episode will drop there. The. The amount of diag that's being done on cars that we're all about charging for diet and it's not right. Like, it's. The diag is wrong. Like Brian talks about. She comes in, I need a cam sensor. Okay.

Jeff Compton [01:19:25]:
That's pretty straightforward. It's a Nissan. Needs cancer. Yeah, I already have one done.

Dory Carlin [01:19:30]:
Whoa.

Jeff Compton [01:19:30]:
Okay, shoot. Now you go through the. What kind of part was put in and all this.

Dory Carlin [01:19:34]:
Right, Right. Dory.

Jeff Compton [01:19:36]:
They put it in the wrong bank.

Dory Carlin [01:19:38]:
What a surprise.

Jeff Compton [01:19:39]:
It's a leader in a frontier. They put it in the wrong bank. Like they got. She got charged for a repair, Charged diag for the repair and still had to go to Brian's shop because when it didn't take, they told her it has to be programmed. We don't program here.

Dory Carlin [01:19:56]:
Oh, my God.

Jeff Compton [01:19:58]:
So.

Dory Carlin [01:19:59]:
Well, that's the escape goat. Oh, it needs program, right. I don't know what's going on. I'm not gonna look over what I did. Or maybe I messed up. Oh, it needs program.

Jeff Compton [01:20:08]:
It should have worked. You can remember it as I can. It always made me laugh. Oh, you got to go to the dealer for that then. Yeah, dealer for that. Got to go to the dealer for that. You must have to go to the dealer because my. My Scanner won't do it.

Dory Carlin [01:20:22]:
Or. Right, right.

Jeff Compton [01:20:24]:
And it's. Yes, there's some truth to that. But like, man, I fix a lot of cars with a code reader and a very basic set of data. Like, I still do. And it's. Why? Because, like, can I. I'm not gonna fix the one whole one DTC in a, In a Nissan with a code reader because it needs.

Dory Carlin [01:20:44]:
Sorry about that.

Jeff Compton [01:20:47]:
But you know what I mean? But it's like, I can, I can. I. I can't flash it with that. I can't put software in.

Dory Carlin [01:20:54]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [01:20:55]:
I can do a diag with that. Those pins.

Dory Carlin [01:20:59]:
Data stream.

Jeff Compton [01:21:00]:
Yeah, I can.

Dory Carlin [01:21:00]:
I can see that. That wave is a mess. I can see that. Oh, when it hits this temperature, it quits reading. You know, those are all valuable tools. Most people can't. Most people can't. I don't want to say most people.

Dory Carlin [01:21:16]:
Some texts. There's a difference between. I always like to say, some guys can tell you if an alternator is functioning. Some guys can go in and tell you how an alternator functions. Yeah, right. There's a difference between knowing if diodes are bad or the windings are bad or if the brushes are bad, you know, Is that necessary in that scenario? Not always. I just need to know whether it's functioning or not. But it's not.

Dory Carlin [01:21:47]:
But it's not important enough. But it's damn good information to know because sometimes you'll run into like a Nissan Murano, that the gauge cluster light isn't telling the alternator to charge. I've seen guys put two and three alternators in cars. And I'm going, did you check the gauge cluster? Because that's all part of that circuit. If you pull the schematic up and go through your lines, that gauge cluster is actually what controls the alternator. Is it doing its job? No. Well, bypass this and this. This wire.

Dory Carlin [01:22:26]:
Oh, look, it's charging. Surprise. It's not being told to turn on. And you just wouldn't think of that. You just, you know, as, as a, you know, if we're grading like an A grade, a B grade, a C grade, maybe even a B grade. Tech wouldn't know to go that deep into that scenario. Yeah, you know, so it's important to have those basics, to have those building blocks to understand, okay, what all is involved in this system. Because it's not 1970 anymore.

Dory Carlin [01:22:58]:
There are way two modules. When I started working at Lexus, there were six modules in their high line luxury vehicle. By the time I left, there was 32. Yeah, it was insane.

Jeff Compton [01:23:13]:
Yeah, I scanned a 20, 22 Volvo X40 or whatever. What is just for I'm doing a brake job and I gotta back up the count.

Dory Carlin [01:23:26]:
Oh yeah, good times.

Jeff Compton [01:23:27]:
Counting at 40. Some modules that the autel showed me. 41.

Dory Carlin [01:23:32]:
You're an autel guy too? Dude, I love my Autel.

Jeff Compton [01:23:34]:
I have an Autel.

Dory Carlin [01:23:35]:
That's not the best piece of equipment you've ever used.

Jeff Compton [01:23:39]:
So I own my own snap on Zeus. Not the Zeus minus as everybody calls it, my own Zeus. And then the shop has a little Autel and like I love snap on tools. It's. I've loved, I've had on scanners forever but man, like I tried to do the same process with the Zeus and it's like no, you have to buy a secondary cable and all this kind of stuff. The auto. And the auto says yep, you want to back up the calibers. Here you go.

Jeff Compton [01:24:03]:
Now I like that they're putting more of the braking stuff behind the secure gateways. I think that's a joke. Like it, that should be. That's, that's BS is what it is. That's all it is is locking them. Nobody wants to steal the brake information from the car. Like say that you have to be on to, you know, like right. You know, be logged in and accredited in order to back up the caliber.

Dory Carlin [01:24:27]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [01:24:27]:
Like you know, can I get around it? Yes. Do I want to every time? No. I don't want to jump ground to every rear caliper.

Dory Carlin [01:24:35]:
Are you guys fighting for the right to repair in Canada? Do you have any kind of laws that are coming into play for that?

Jeff Compton [01:24:42]:
It's, it's not even as bad here as it is for you guys in the States with NASDAQ kind of stuff.

Dory Carlin [01:24:48]:
We're getting shut down on a lot of things. I'm paying for that access, that extra layer of access. Like I can't even clear like if I go into a newer 2021 Jeep Wrangler, right. I can't even go in and clear codes now without that pre authorization and access. Nissan's doing it, Chrysler's doing it. Which means Mercedes Benz is also going to follow suit. There's a fight here for the right to repair. There's a lot of legislature that's coming up.

Dory Carlin [01:25:24]:
I, I don't know if it's going to go anywhere. But I, I see it, it's a problem, you know, it's definitely a problem.

Jeff Compton [01:25:31]:
And it frustrates me because it's like I, I can get their point of Saying, you know, like on a Dodge truck, let's put the wireless control module, like, or the, you know, let's put that behind some kind of security because that's what makes the car start and, you know, somebody could steal it. But the brake thing or the air conditioning, you know, climate control doesn't need to be there. Breaking doesn't need to be there. Like, we need to still make this stuff so that it's like, if somebody should go to the local chain store and need a brake job done and it's the only place it's open and all that kind of stuff, we should be able to provide them with the. And this is a slippery slope because, you know, I want competent, qualified people working on stuff, but they shouldn't be. Have to tell the customer, sorry, you know, it's only going to be a dealership with service credentials that is going to be able to get your brake job done. Because we haven't paid the money to service your, your calipers. I think that's right.

Jeff Compton [01:26:32]:
They're not there to get a key programmed. They're not there to get a security, you know, security handshake done with a new ecm. They just want a fucking brake job done. And to lock it behind that module then, to me is just, it's just playing dirty is what it is.

Dory Carlin [01:26:47]:
So, yeah, yeah, I mean, I get it. You're driving people to try to go to the dealership. That's really all that mechanism is for. It's to crush the independence, you know, it's. It's to make one more problem to try to access another system that you should have access to to begin with. We're dealing with this. I own it, but I don't own it.

Jeff Compton [01:27:13]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:27:13]:
And that's what gets me fired up. Yeah, it's anything that BMW subscription services for heated seats. Why are we not burning down dealerships?

Jeff Compton [01:27:27]:
But see, we can thank Tesla for that because he was the first one that I ever heard of that was like, oh, if you want certain features on the car to be there, all you got to do is subscribe and we turn it on. And now, like everybody, just like you said, is, is adopting that, where it's like, after, when the warranty's up, you know, or, or like, we'll shut those features off, we'll just turn them back on. It drives me absolutely asinine, ridiculous that somebody in a, in a little room with a bunch of switches and some keyboards can turn on functions in my car that I can't, because I decide I Want to pay money? I own. How it was conceived and built is how it should stay.

Dory Carlin [01:28:11]:
Right?

Jeff Compton [01:28:12]:
Minimum.

Dory Carlin [01:28:13]:
Well, that was, that was the first case you brought up, Tesla. That was kind of the, the first case of a Tesla was bought at an auction. It was then repaired.

Jeff Compton [01:28:26]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:28:26]:
It was put back online on Tesla and Tesla eliminated features and said, well, you didn't pay for those. Yeah, well, I bought the car at auction. What are you talking about? Those features are features that come with the car when I purchase it at auction. I haven't followed up on that case. I probably need to. I would be surprised if it's still in litigation, to tell you the truth. That's insane. Like, how do you not do.

Dory Carlin [01:28:50]:
And the only like silver lining in that whole cloud is that what it's going to do is drive the more computer literate people to go, oh, how do I crack that? How do I communicate with the Tesla and limit its communication to Tesla servers and just tell it, don't worry about it, turn everything on.

Jeff Compton [01:29:15]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:29:16]:
You know, and that's a shame because then there's going to be legislation for that. Oh, you're stealing. Well, I'm not. I'm actually doing everything my car is supposed to do. Like there's a whole argument there. I get that. You know, it's really frustrating to see, honestly. Because honestly, I think, you know, I'm 47 years old.

Dory Carlin [01:29:34]:
I think we're the last generation that understands. Hey, when I buy something, I have it.

Jeff Compton [01:29:38]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:29:38]:
I tried to explain to my 15 year old son the difference between local data being stored on his laptop and what is the cloud.

Jeff Compton [01:29:48]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:29:49]:
He didn't get it. No, he did not understand what that is. The difference between, you know, I haven't turned on vinyl, man. Right. So I have a bunch of Vine. I'm like, dude, you have all this music to listen to. All of it. No one can tell you, oh, I'm sorry, you have to download that first or oh, I'm sorry, that comes with ads.

Jeff Compton [01:30:11]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:30:11]:
You know, so it's tough, it's, it's tough to hold that line of I own it, I have it, I should be able to use it.

Jeff Compton [01:30:19]:
That was my biggest beef with the idea of having an ipod. I consumer my ex girlfriend years ago bought me an ipod and before that I was just rocking an MP3 player when somebody showed me that ipod is like, wait a minute. So I got to take all the music I already have and put it on your server before I can use it on your machine. Yet he own this music. I can Put it on my own laptop and put it on an MP3. Why the fuck do I need an ipod then? An ipod. And that was enough for me to say, I've never owned an iPhone. I never will.

Jeff Compton [01:30:49]:
Product, like, it's. It's. I'm just against that. Well, the idea that, like, I have to give it to them before I can use it. No, it's mine. I bought those CDs off of Columbia House.

Dory Carlin [01:31:03]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [01:31:06]:
For a penny. They're putting them on your server to put them onto your machine, like it's crazy.

Dory Carlin [01:31:13]:
And then to ask for authorization to play them. You know, it's just. It's insanity to me.

Jeff Compton [01:31:18]:
So you got a young person recently.

Dory Carlin [01:31:21]:
Oh, yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:31:22]:
How's that going?

Dory Carlin [01:31:24]:
Well, I tell you what, it's funny that you brought up kind of like the independent he worked at. He's kind of had the same experience in a shorter interval. You know, he's 21.

Jeff Compton [01:31:34]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:31:35]:
But he's worked at independent shops and he's worked at dealerships. And what I'm doing a lot is deprogramming because he's had shitty management. And that's the bottom line, you know, He's a good kid. He's got a good heart. He's very intelligent. He can definitely read and comprehend better than me, which is. Which is a very valuable tool to have. But he has been taught.

Dory Carlin [01:32:03]:
Like, I think his line is like, oh, I messed up. I'll pay for it. Well, it's not paying for it. It's the lesson I want you to learn on why you messed it up. Paying for it doesn't make everything okay. Right. It doesn't just go away. Like, I want you to learn and make the lesson of, oh, if I slowed down or if I looked up the proper diagnostic procedure for this, or if, hey, I paid attention on what I'm doing or how I'm doing it.

Dory Carlin [01:32:40]:
It's that slow it down and. And make everything more simple. I'm deprogramming a lot of stuff.

Jeff Compton [01:32:47]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:32:48]:
Because, you know, again, I'm a little older. I didn't believe in peanut allergies and. And all these other things. But, dude, I'll tell you, this kid might die. He runs into a pack of peanuts. I've seen him puff up so fast it's not even funny.

Jeff Compton [01:33:04]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:33:04]:
So then we have to watch what he brings in, what the customer, cars. I can't have him dig through glove boxes. You know, when you have a technician that carries an EpiPen in his toolbox. I get it. I understand. It. But he's worked for dealerships that have treated him like garbage because of that. You know, I.

Dory Carlin [01:33:26]:
I get it. I may have not subscribed to it until I saw it, but it's legit. He's not making this crap up. Like, I've watched him turn pink and get welts up his arm because he touched a rapper, right? So I get it. It's just a lot of deprogramming. He. I wouldn't keep him if he didn't have a good head on his shoulders. And.

Dory Carlin [01:33:49]:
And that's really what it's about.

Jeff Compton [01:33:51]:
And, you know, it frustrates me when I'm still engaging in the groups and whatnot, and I see people, you know, talk about the young people and especially, like, oh, if they come from a dealership, like, I don't even want them because they're going to have so many bad habits. And if they come from an independent, I don't want them because, like, they're not going to have the level of quality that I expect, you know, for. For. For my high end. And I'm like, man, when you don't realize, like, it's traumatic to leave a job that you've had, whether you were fired or whether you quit is traumatic. So you have that to deal with when they get in there. And then, like, I know the first month at any new job, I am not me, because I am, like, trying so hard not to. I'm trying to really hard to remember everybody's name.

Jeff Compton [01:34:40]:
I'm trying to remember, like, clock in, what's my number now? Like, I can remember my tech in 2004, but what am I now? I'm 1289.

Dory Carlin [01:34:49]:
Okay, that's 3510, right? All day long, right? Exactly.

Jeff Compton [01:34:53]:
To remember, right? And it's like trying not to screw up, right? Not to screw up. I'm trying to get the paperwork right. Last week, you know, last month I was using tech metric DVIs. Now I'm back to a pad and a paper again, like, right? All this stuff. So when. When we get these young people in here and they go, oh, my God, they're just not getting it. They're stupid or. No, but you literally have to take them and expect that you're gonna have to back them up, just like you said, deprogram them, refresh that hard drive or whatever.

Jeff Compton [01:35:27]:
And.

Dory Carlin [01:35:27]:
And.

Jeff Compton [01:35:27]:
And. And like, pat them on the shoulder and go, you're good. You're gonna get it. You're gonna. It's gonna. Okay, like, you. Here's. Here's what you're doing really well.

Jeff Compton [01:35:36]:
Here's what I love about what you're already doing. Like, you're taking to this. Like that.

Dory Carlin [01:35:40]:
Perfect.

Jeff Compton [01:35:41]:
Here's what I need you to do, though. I need you to be like that. Don't be like, did you. Does everybody make a mess like, where you were?

Dory Carlin [01:35:51]:
It's like, that.

Jeff Compton [01:35:51]:
That's not productive. That's not how you do that.

Dory Carlin [01:35:54]:
Right. He told me stories of being an independent, where the guy would throw stuff at him. Oh, yeah, right. And I'm just going, listen, first off, that doesn't happen here. We'll figure it out. And at the end of the day, we're gonna have a debrief anyway.

Jeff Compton [01:36:09]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:36:09]:
You know, we're gonna. Because they need that little bit of extra assistance because they've had a experience for the last two years at other places, you know, and, and, and the difference is you can tell immediately whether they have the right stuff or not. I really, I really do believe in that because, you know, I. I worked at the Nissan dealership and, you know, I went from having two bays. Right. To one kid showing up randomly and he's like, oh, yeah, I'm working in this bay. And I immediately went to certain. I'm like, what are you doing? Well, yeah, he's gonna work here.

Dory Carlin [01:36:50]:
And I'm watching him nod off, taking tests.

Jeff Compton [01:36:54]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:36:55]:
Online to get Nissan certified. I'm like, you're not gonna last here. And I'm gonna make sure you're not gonna last here because I'm already a dick, you know, so. You know. But you, you get a feel for people. And I trust. Are you. Are you a legitimate person here for the right reasons? I'm going to go out of my way to fix your training, to adapt your work style to how you troubleshoot to the knowledge that you need.

Dory Carlin [01:37:23]:
And more importantly, I'm going to show you how to find the answers. I'm not a tell you the answers guy.

Jeff Compton [01:37:29]:
Definitely.

Dory Carlin [01:37:30]:
I hate that. I'm going to show you how to find your answers and then progress down the tree of diagnosis and troubleshooting and estimates and all that fun stuff, because I want to build you. I'm not interested in just grinding you down to nothing. There's nothing to be gained from that.

Jeff Compton [01:37:48]:
And that lesson, that answer that they go find on their own, they will always hold it more valuable than all the answers we ever give them. I can still remember the one of the best kids I ever mentored. Oliver is his name. He's gone on to do incredible things, but It's. It's these lessons we have. We had a Saturn view that they changed the engine in, and when it was done, it didn't start. And Oliver comes over to me, and of course, this is at a rather toxic shithole of a shop that we both. And it had really bad culture.

Jeff Compton [01:38:23]:
And I had a real. I've talked about him this. The shop foreman was the only gentleman that, like, if I saw him walking on the side of the road to this day, it would be everything I could do to not jerk the wheel towards where he's walking. It's still that much. Twenty years later, it's that. That. But anyway, sure. Oliver's task was swapping this engine out.

Jeff Compton [01:38:40]:
And when it doesn't start, he hooks it up, and there's like, 20 codes in the thing. And he goes over, and he's like, he's got 20 codes in it. And the guy's shooting his mouth off. The super informant. Oh, probably needs an engine, computer. Probably drop the computer out. And I'm thinking, how does that happen from changing the engine? That doesn't make any sense at all. But, okay, whatever.

Jeff Compton [01:39:02]:
So Oliver, by now, he'd been there long enough to know that, like, that guy troubleshooting wasn't his strength.

Dory Carlin [01:39:08]:
Right in one ear hold out. Just shooting parts, right?

Jeff Compton [01:39:14]:
I go, so, what's it doing? And he goes, well, it's got a bunch of codes and it doesn't start. And I go, well, what's missing? He goes, I don't really know yet. I go, okay, just go over and see if you got spark. So he goes over, and he comes back, he says, I got no spark. I go, so, what do you have at your coils? And he comes back to me and he says, you know, like someone said. He's like, I've only got 5 volts of the coils. And I'm like, every coil? He's like, yeah, like so. And me, I don't know what's wrong with this car, but I go, so, Oliver, let's think for a minute.

Jeff Compton [01:39:46]:
Have you ever seen a coil in your life yet that operated on 5 volts? No. So I said, well, that's where I would start then, is try to figure out why all your coils only have 5 volts. And I said, don't get overwhelmed with the fact that it's got 15 codes in it. Just think about, like, pull your wiring.

Dory Carlin [01:40:00]:
Dark basics, right?

Jeff Compton [01:40:03]:
Ended up being dory that there's two connectors that will swap on that engine.

Dory Carlin [01:40:07]:
Oh, my goodness.

Jeff Compton [01:40:09]:
So it ended up like having an EGR swapped with a cam sensor or something like that. Right. So yeah, he fixed it, you know, like in an hour later the car's running. He to this day we talk about that and we joke about that and we, you know, remember when the said it needed thank we didn't listen to that guy. Right, right, right.

Dory Carlin [01:40:34]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:40:34]:
That's a good feeling that lesson. And I didn't teach him a lesson. I just like think about this this way. Oliver and all of a sudden now I know became part of his process on how he approaches a problem whereas the other guy could offer nothing but background noise that thank God there was somebody else there me to disregard that.

Dory Carlin [01:41:06]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:41:07]:
This remains to shut off all the other external don't go. Let's just think about this from basics. And I am proud to be able to say that like that guy now does troubleshooting remotely for one of the largest fleets in North America on their deaf and reductant and after treatment systems on these buses.

Dory Carlin [01:41:29]:
Wow.

Jeff Compton [01:41:30]:
So that's something that like and this is not me bragging but I mean the little things that we think mean nothing when we're in the shop can have such an effect on the people that are around us that shape their whole process. And the process, ladies and gentlemen, is what shapes your trajectory and your trajectory is what your life becomes.

Dory Carlin [01:41:52]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:41:52]:
You know, people hear me say all the time there is no ceiling for, for, for this person or that person. It's the truth. If you set them up, they, they, they will, they will run out of time before they run out of potential.

Dory Carlin [01:42:06]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [01:42:06]:
But you have to build that foundation with these people. So when we get these young people in here and oh, they're no good or man, they're good, they are good. They are better than we were. Well, it's just different. Right? Like it is just different.

Dory Carlin [01:42:21]:
And well, it's, it's different. And I always think back on, you know, when I get frustrated with a 21 year old because what do I have in common with a 21 year old? You know what I mean? Like, I have lots of answers. I could give him an answer to literally every problem in his life right now.

Jeff Compton [01:42:42]:
Yep.

Dory Carlin [01:42:43]:
Is he going to listen? No. So at the end of the day I go, okay, I'm frustrated. What can I show him tangibly that is going to give him a building block? I could tell you all the answers, but that's not the fun part. Humans only get better through trial and tribulation. I really believe that the only way we learn honestly Is trials and tribulations to where you can go, man, this sucks. How am I going to get better? Oh my God, I fixed it. Oh my God, I fixed it, right? There's no feeling. I don't care what, drugs, sex, rock and roll, they're all great.

Dory Carlin [01:43:35]:
Fix a problem. Fix a problem that no one else can. It's, it's right into the veins. You're just like, dude, I got this right.

Jeff Compton [01:43:46]:
It's a dangerous path, becomes like a drug because then it's like I I 100 and convince some of the people that we know in our circles that are like doing these nightmare cars that other shops couldn't get through. If you think that they're not addicted to that. Yeah, you're kidding yourself. They are certainly 100 getting off on the fact that it's like I did another one.

Dory Carlin [01:44:10]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:44:13]:
My friend, bro, it frustrates him when he gets a car from somewhere else and it seems simple to him. But I know, I've known Brian a long time now and I know that he would not be Brian if he wasn't at that level and constantly pushing himself, getting that, that, that, that, that kicks. Yeah, yeah, that fix, right? Like, like, you know, I'm ready for it. Like, yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:44:38]:
Bragging rights alone, I mean that's, you know, to be able to do something like that and go, yeah, duh, you know, we've had, we've had stuff like that and here's the double edged sword of that. A lot of times those jobs don't.

Jeff Compton [01:44:55]:
Hey, that's right.

Dory Carlin [01:44:56]:
That's the double edged sword. So you get to be the hero, you get the happy ending, you get your fix. How do you explain to a customer six hours of diagnosis? That's a tough, that's even for me, that's a tough sell.

Jeff Compton [01:45:16]:
Yeah. You know, yeah. But this is why we need to be charging the one hour diags on.

Dory Carlin [01:45:23]:
The cars on the downside and you get. Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Compton [01:45:27]:
Yeah, that's gonna, and, and you know, it's, it sounds of late like I'm always trying to say nobody should be doing freed eyes. Listen, whatever you want to do in your market, whatever it's, you like it, there's enough around, we can't fix all the cars. But like for me that's what it, it boils down to me is like, I know what the dealer is like. I had some that took me three hours and I got paid an hour. But I had ones that like, I looked at the work order, walked out, put the key in it, hit the switch Heard it, walked back inside. I had six minutes in it and I collected 36 minutes. That all evened out.

Dory Carlin [01:46:06]:
Right. And it's fair, like a lot of people don't understand that, that, listen, I come across problems that I've already had.

Jeff Compton [01:46:15]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:46:16]:
Right. And it takes me eight minutes to do it. But in the long run, there's about maybe four people that would know that in the 50 mile radius of our area. Just because I've experienced it.

Jeff Compton [01:46:34]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:46:34]:
Should I not get paid the full amount? No, I should get paid for what I know.

Jeff Compton [01:46:39]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:46:39]:
And I have the special tools in my toolbox. That makes the job easy. You know, a lot of people don't understand that my. You know what, our loved ones are probably the hardest on us. Right. I have that discussion with my wife regularly. You know. Well, flat rate.

Dory Carlin [01:46:55]:
I don't understand. Flat rate, I don't understand. Well, you didn't spend that time on it. How should, why should you get paid? Because I already lost my ass.

Jeff Compton [01:47:04]:
That's exactly it.

Dory Carlin [01:47:05]:
Four other cars ago. It's time for me to make my money now because now I know.

Jeff Compton [01:47:11]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:47:12]:
You know, it's difficult to explain, but at the same time, did the car get fixed? Absolutely. Does it run like a top? Does it do everything it's supposed to do? Absolutely. Was everybody happy? Absolutely. Then let's go with that, you know?

Jeff Compton [01:47:27]:
Yeah. And see, the thing is, like when I explained to people the, the two sides of the flat rate coin and they go, well, I paid for two hours and you had it done in 45 minutes. That's not fair. Then when I, the other side is when I say to them, it took me three hours and only got paid one, they say, you're crazy. So, like, this is the life we choose and this is the life we live in. And we've, we've made our, our. We're, we're at peace with it. Right? If you want to work, you're at peace with that.

Jeff Compton [01:47:56]:
It's not anymore. Not because I can't do it. I keep saying that again, but because it's too much as control has been taken away now to where I have to the kind of cars that they would give me. Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna diagnose them for 36 minutes anymore. Even if I could, I'm not going to, I'm going to slow down, gather even more evidence, you know, document even more things. It's just a slower process now because I'm not trying to hit a number. I'm trying to Solve the problem. I'm trying to fix the car and that means collecting evidence, collecting information.

Jeff Compton [01:48:32]:
I'm trying to create lessons that I can share case I can pass on. That all eats into the time. So, you know, it's, it's not because I can't get the work done in a timely manner. I can't diagnose the cars pretty fast. Some of them I still can, but it's, it's, I'm giving more value now when I can do the tests above and beyond what I already know to prove it out even more. That's value now and that's just how I choose to go. What's the future look like for you guys? Where it's, you got, what's your goals?

Dory Carlin [01:49:07]:
I'm trying very hard to grow our bays. We've talked about building the borough that we're in and the local government that we're in is going to be difficult. I would love to go to more bays because I think we have a lot to offer. I think we have a fantastic store. I think we have a fantastic storage of, of experience.

Jeff Compton [01:49:38]:
Right.

Dory Carlin [01:49:38]:
Both me and my business partner, we're getting older. You know, we have bad shoulders, we have bad hips, we have, you know, physically we can't do it. But man, I think I can really teach the right people to really be a kick ass team. We've also talked about shifting more into used cars. You have more control over used cars. It's not such a timeline. It's not, oh my God, they have to get this to work tomorrow. And if you put out good quality there again, you can crush local competition.

Dory Carlin [01:50:18]:
You know, how many times have you seen cars come from some other small independent car lot that has check engine lights and air suspension lights and, and, and brake lights on? And you're just going, what are you doing? Like, why are you selling cars like this? And again, if you just do what you say you're gonna do, people are happy to pay a premium because no one else is doing it. So, you know, we're looking at kind of a bunch of expansion models. All I know is in the future I'm going to work on cars less that that is. Like I can't, you know, I talk about it's the mileage, it's not the age. You know, run a slide hammer. I can't do a slide hammer. Yeah, my elbow and my shoulder out of commission for two days. I'm not touching it, you know.

Jeff Compton [01:51:12]:
Yeah, I, I pounded spindles on. I did a Volkswagen Jetta last week and the the struts where they go down into the spindle, Right. So I'm pounding up on the bottom of the spindle to get it to slide on with a three pound sledge, like short handle. What? I didn't fish this weekend because, like, this hurts. That's a rod with it. Like so. You know, in the old days, I could run an air hammer in the morning and I could run one in the afternoon. I could knock them ball joint, you know, take the rivets right off, put the, you know, the Dodge Dakota ball joint recall.

Jeff Compton [01:51:47]:
We do them in 12 minutes. Like people. Oh, you can't. Oh, yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:51:52]:
Crush it.

Jeff Compton [01:51:53]:
Did it. Now I'm the same. Slide hammer. No, like, I can't do tires anymore. If I do a bunch of tires in the morning, in the afternoon, I'm sitting down.

Dory Carlin [01:52:03]:
Yeah, I took a break from doing tires. So we didn't have tire machine at our shop for about six years.

Jeff Compton [01:52:11]:
Nice.

Dory Carlin [01:52:12]:
And then we had a dealership that was updating all their equipment. And I got like the primo, like, road force balancer, like the dealer machine. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember how to do this. And I bang out my first four and I spend the rest of the day limping.

Jeff Compton [01:52:27]:
Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:52:28]:
I'm like, oh, wow, I haven't done this in six years. There's a difference. And you know, it's. It's a very difficult lesson to learn because up here, I'm still the 25 year old. Oh, I can. Boom, boom, boom, boom. We'll bang that out. Okay, good.

Dory Carlin [01:52:43]:
What's next? And I'm used to doing that. And when, when the body lags, it's not, it's not fun, and it's very humbling. And so we're making that shift to consulting, teaching, passing on our experience. Because I tell you what, you know what's really fun is showing up a 21 year old and how to do a job.

Jeff Compton [01:53:06]:
Yeah, it is, right? It is. And it's like. But then I know that, like, I only have to show that 21 year old once. And then like, yes, he's got it.

Dory Carlin [01:53:16]:
Tomorrow he'll blow the doors off it and be like, oh, keep up, old man. You know, and. And part of me, I smile inside, man. I'm like, all right, good. You get it. Good. Thank you. One, I'm gonna make sure I take care of you.

Dory Carlin [01:53:29]:
That's a big part in this industry. And you, I hear you talk about all the time. I hear anybody in this industry talk about, you have to take care of Your employee. You have to. The days of the revolving door. I remember working at Nissan, guys would show up in the morning with a Craftsman top load toolbox with, like, six tools in it, and they would quit my lunch and go home. Yeah, those days are over.

Jeff Compton [01:53:56]:
Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't work. And I've seen them, too. They roll in with a cart and they got some tools in it, and, you know, by Friday, they're rolling out. Or the. The second Friday, you know, the first.

Dory Carlin [01:54:08]:
Page, that paycheck, Right?

Jeff Compton [01:54:10]:
Yeah. They got their first check in. The boss is like, yeah, I don't. You know, we kind of. We kind of needed somebody more experienced, and we thought maybe, you know, they're. What they're saying is, it's like you're taking too long or you don't have enough experience. And both of them, to me, I look at as like, we're failing them, you know, because, like, they just might not have it where they can't look at that and go, okay, in order to get that alternator out of here, I have to move these, this, and this and this and this and this. And I'm.

Jeff Compton [01:54:41]:
I'll tell everybody I'm not one of those techs that can look at that and see it. I remember the first Ford escape alternator I did. I took so long thinking that there's no possible flipping way remove the axle to take the alternator out of a car. Must fit.

Dory Carlin [01:55:00]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:55:01]:
You know, now I do them in, like, 45 minutes, but, like, I was, like, three hours, because I'm convinced there's got to be a way. There's got to be some mystical combination of tools and holding your tongue.

Dory Carlin [01:55:12]:
Right?

Jeff Compton [01:55:12]:
And it'll. It'll squeak through. Don't have to all, you know, axle. What was the big deal about taking the axle out? Like, I should have just, you know, done it. It's mental. It's all up here, right? Because I'm not that way. I'm looking over, and that guy's like, why don't you take the axle? And I'm like, why is that car still not starting? Like, even though that's how I was. Right.

Jeff Compton [01:55:34]:
This is my strength. This is not my strength. Yeah, that's strength. That's not your strength. And that's just.

Dory Carlin [01:55:40]:
We were.

Jeff Compton [01:55:40]:
And it takes all kinds Dory. I don't want to keep you any longer, man. This has been a long night for your boy.

Dory Carlin [01:55:47]:
Absolutely. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. I really appreciate Coming on, man.

Jeff Compton [01:55:51]:
Dude. Man, I. I. The. The kind words that you've been saying and all that kind of stuff. It really, you know, it's really nice to hear. And that's the thing. Like, we're starting to really feel like we're making some traction in terms of actually getting, you know, people to think about what really this is going to take to change this.

Jeff Compton [01:56:10]:
And, you know, I, like you said at the beginning, you're. You're having the conversations and asking the questions and giving the answers that nobody wants to do. I love the tough questions. I love the. The issues. I love, Like, I just, I think that I'm in such a comfortable place now about, like, this is where we want to head as an industry. And, like, it's just gonna take more of these conversations. They're not that bad, you know?

Dory Carlin [01:56:38]:
Yeah, they're not. And I, More than anything, I. I really wanted to give you an honest thank you to bringing attention to suicide rates. That was something that was really felt heartfelt on one of your other episodes, that this is an issue and it's. It's something that is very close to me for situations that. That I've dealt with. But thank you so much for bringing. Because the more we talk about it and the more we bring it to light that when you have good people being treated poorly, causing issues like that, we got to talk about it.

Dory Carlin [01:57:21]:
We. It shouldn't be that way. It's the bottom line. It shouldn't be that way. So thank you very much for. For bringing that to light. That was something that really touched my heart. So I appreciate it.

Dory Carlin [01:57:33]:
Thank you for the time, man. I really do.

Jeff Compton [01:57:35]:
I. In closing on that, like, you know, I. I've never had a baymate that's gone, you know, that way. I had a good friend take his own life two years ago, and he didn't work in the industry. And, you know, I had. I've got my brother who's struggled, you know, in the past with some PTSD from his job and all that kind of stuff, and it's been in some dark places a lot. And when I think about what he has had to go through to earn a living, and then I think about. Because he's a correctional officer, and I think about what we have to do, like, we're only dealing with cars.

Jeff Compton [01:58:15]:
It shouldn't be that bad dealing with cars that we feel that way. He's dealing with criminals, like, the worst of the worst. People that would, like, are trying to kill him or would kill him if they could get away with it. That is heavy on you. You see the Ugliness. All day long, we are just working on cars. If we are in this blue coll job and it is so bad from working on cars that we see no other way out. And the industry is broken.

Dory Carlin [01:58:43]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:58:44]:
It's okay to say that it's broken because that means that. That if we acknowledge that it's broken, we go about fixing it. And that's all. That's all there is to this. It's just that it's that simple. So. Yeah.

Dory Carlin [01:58:57]:
So I, you know, I. I kind of giggled a little bit with my background, what I have going on here. Right. My wife is a therapist. Oh, by. So I commandeered her office just to do the video conference. I thought this was good to do the podcast. So if anyone out there feels enlightened, maybe you had a good therapy session, you know, but she.

Dory Carlin [01:59:18]:
She deals with drug and alcohol addiction and she sees it every day. I have family members that went through it, and I. We're at a point where I. I believe everyone can find somewhere along the line, you deal with it. Find the help. Find the help. Get the therapy. Talk to somebody.

Dory Carlin [01:59:40]:
I don't care if it's a therapist. I don't care if it's a loved one. Talk to somebody. Get the help you need.

Jeff Compton [01:59:48]:
Anyone that's watching, listening, like, you can always reach out to me. You know, I will. Like, if you're in this industry and you're feeling that way, don't wait, get a hold of me. Right. And then. And conversation. We'll have the talk. You will feel better for sure.

Jeff Compton [02:00:05]:
Doris. Thank you, brother, for being here. I want to see how your young person's working out. I want to see the shop, which direction you take it. So. And as everybody, as always, I love you. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you again soon.

Jeff Compton [02:00:22]:
Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the AESAW group and to the Changing the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time.