The Jaded Mechanic Podcast

Josh Parnell [00:00:00]:
We might be in a particular seat right now, meaning, like you might be a technician at a particular shop that you weren't, you weren't envisioning being there. And maybe you're not enjoying it right now, maybe it's not. This is not the seat you're going to be staying in. But, but I want to remind everyone who's listening that the seat that you're in, you're in this seat for a reason. This is your current assignment, and it may not be your final assignment, but it's your current assignment. And you cannot let the size of your current assignment dictate the significance of your impact.

Jeff Compton [00:00:39]:
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of the Jada Mechanic podcast. It is a Wednesday night. I'm sitting here with a good friend of mine, Mr. Josh Parnell from the Limited Leader, Limited Limitless Leadership podcast. It's a tongue twister brotherhood, which he, he, he's, he gets me because he puts the consonants all, you know, signing together, and it's like my tongue gets all twisted. But. Josh, brother, how are you tonight, buddy?

Josh Parnell [00:01:05]:
Jeff, man, I'm so good, man. Thanks for having me. Hey, and just so you know, you're not the only one. I, I myself get limitless leadership tied up quite a bit, even on the podcast where I'm trying to say limitless leadership. I don't know why I called it that, because I, I, I stutter quite a bit when I try to say that. My own company's name.

Jeff Compton [00:01:20]:
Yeah, no, but it's, it's, Yeah. I mean, Jade Mechanic is pretty easy. It's not a J and a J.

Josh Parnell [00:01:26]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [00:01:27]:
You're a board. Might have been harder to say.

Josh Parnell [00:01:30]:
Yeah. Yeah, man. Well, dude, hey, again, thanks for having me, man. I'm excited to talk with you. And yeah, epic beard, as always.

Jeff Compton [00:01:38]:
Yeah, thank you. It's, it's my mother, you know, so I had a friend, My mom has a friend that actually, so my mom, God bless hers, like in her 70s, and you wouldn't know it, very healthy lady, all that kind of stuff. Well, she had a woman from her wedding party, so going back, like, almost 50 years, I haven't seen this lady in 16 years. And of course, so she, she says she's seen pictures of the beard, but she's like, I didn't know it was so long in person. I'm like, yeah. She goes, and I didn't realize it was so gray. And my mom's like, oh, man. Very gray.

Jeff Compton [00:02:12]:
Like, what are you going to do about that? And I'm like, do about it. Like, I'm not going to do a damn thing. Yeah, I, I oil it and I use the beard balm from, you know, beard brotherhood. And it is what it is. But yeah, it was kind of funny for my mom to point out that, you know, your beard is gray. Thank you, mom.

Josh Parnell [00:02:28]:
It's one thing for it to be called long, it' thing for it to be called gray because all it's doing is, is calling you out on your age. But hey, thank you for being an advocate and a supporter and a buyer of the bearded brotherhood, which we really appreciate your support, man.

Jeff Compton [00:02:41]:
It's great product. So we kind of, we kind of touched on some culture things and, and I mentioned to you just before we got on how, you know, you're, you're an expert on that kind of thing, shop culture and, you know, leading leadership. And somebody had challenged me where I had said a lot of technicians that quit a job or leave a shop, it's pay isn't even the top reason that they do. And of course everybody's like, oh, they're always, they're all, you know, everybody's tired of the what they quote unquote, call low pay. So I don't even know what low pay is anymore because when I think about what I started 30 years ago, I know what low pay was. Low Pay was sub 10 bucks. You know, like, I mean, it was that low. And now it's, you know, there's lots of technicians making close to 50 an hour.

Jeff Compton [00:03:33]:
Right. So, but you know that for the people you talk to, it's not the number one reason they're quitting, is it?

Josh Parnell [00:03:41]:
It's not. In fact, pay is, is it barely cracks the top three. And depending on which report you're looking at, it's not even in the top three. You know, I think we've, a lot of us have heard the phrase that people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad leaders. And that's absolutely true. You know, what I've learned over the years is that connection is what creates engagement and engagement is what increases performance. And so as shop owners and technicians and employees in the industry, we want to increase our performance. We want to be high performing team members who can drive business through our business.

Josh Parnell [00:04:14]:
But the reality is in order to increase performance, we've got to have engaged employees and 70% of employees are disengaged at work.

Jeff Compton [00:04:22]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [00:04:23]:
Now here's the even potentially more alarming stat to your point, Jeff, they're not, they're not disengaged. Because of pay. Now some of them are, you know, of course that it's, it's not, it's, it's not everyone but, but most people are actually disengaged because they don't feel seen, they don't feel heard, they don't feel understood. And that's why I believe that recognition is truly the biggest ROI in leadership.

Jeff Compton [00:04:48]:
100. 100. I know I have felt like that as a technician where it was like I only ever gotten praise or somebody to come speak to me and, and give me any kind of input, negative or positive.

Josh Parnell [00:05:02]:
Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:05:02]:
When, when I, for instance, when I produced a bunch of hours, everybody thinks to me and my, my hate on the, the word production in that whole facet is that all it's, it always comes back to pay. It doesn't. Because I think it's like that whole production mindset where I think there's a lot of technicians, Josh, that just go effort. I might as well just produce a bunch because that's the only thing that they recognize.

Josh Parnell [00:05:27]:
You're right.

Jeff Compton [00:05:27]:
Well in 20 minutes early. They don't recognize that my bay is the cleanest. They don't recognize that like, you know, I, I am the first guy to loan a tool, first guy to help somebody. They don't recognize that. They just look at the numbers.

Josh Parnell [00:05:42]:
It's, it's unfortunate. And you know what's interesting is you mentioned how if you got praise it's because you were a high performing. Maybe you had to pumped out a lot of hours that week. The, the sad reality. And you know this man, there's a lot of technicians who are churning out incredible hours each week and they don't even get the praise. They, they don't get any recognition. But what we, but what we often all get is reprimanded. It's, it's.

Josh Parnell [00:06:03]:
So there's a difference between reprimand and recognize and, and, and we, we are as shop owners or technicians or managers. Whatever role you are in your shop, you're, you're often either giving or receiving a reprimand style of feedback versus a recognition style of feedback. And that has to change. That's why I, I implement the one to three ratio. For every one piece of corrective action you're going to provide, give three pieces of recognition like find that ratio.

Jeff Compton [00:06:30]:
Because I was going to just. Can you break down for us what's the difference between reprimand and, and the other one that you were speaking of?

Josh Parnell [00:06:37]:
So to me, when I think about reprimanding first? Reprimanding is definitely a disciplinary style of, of leadership where it's. I'm going to find out, I'm going to find all the things that you're doing wrong, and I'm going to call you out on the things that you're doing wrong. So I'm going to. I'm going to point out the things that you're not doing. Right.

Jeff Compton [00:06:52]:
Right.

Josh Parnell [00:06:52]:
And many of us as leaders, regardless of our role as leaders, we're good at identifying the problems and identifying what someone's not doing. What if we just said, you know what? Today I'm going to just focus on what people are doing. I'm going to highlight and honor my team by recognizing versus reprimanding. And so I think being able to understand the importance of when you recognize which, again, is the biggest ROI in leadership, that's going to create that engagement. I'll say it again. 70% of employees are disengaged at work. But conversely speaking, 80% of people will tell you that they are fully engaged when they receive meaningful feedback at least once per week.

Jeff Compton [00:07:32]:
Yep.

Josh Parnell [00:07:34]:
So to me, that is, that's in the form of going up to you, Jeff, and saying, hey, man, how are you doing? Like, how are you doing up here? And I'm pointing to my head if you're listening. I'm pointing to my heart now. How you doing up here? And how you doing in here? I'm pointing to my heart now because I want to know, like, how are you do. How are you personally doing? I don't know how. Jeff Compton, the person, not the technician. I want to know how the person is doing.

Jeff Compton [00:07:54]:
I. I got a story today. My boss. I walked past my boss's office, and I walk past his office probably 10 times a day, right? It's kind of through the little dealership you gotta walk past. And he goes, come in here and sit down for a minute. I'm like, oh. And my immediate reaction, Josh, it's like, am I in trouble?

Josh Parnell [00:08:13]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:08:14]:
What's. What's. Oh, no, just, just sit here for a minute. Like, you know, you've been working hard. And. And he starts asking me. So I'm like, I immediately like, well, I fixed a car this morning. It was kind of a neat diag.

Jeff Compton [00:08:24]:
Do you want to hear about it? Right. And then we get. It ended up being just a 20 minute relaxed conversation. But the whole time I'm sitting there going, what's going on? What's he thinking about? Like, why am I in here? Like, this is so. Because it's been so long, Josh. Since, since somebody actually just wanted to have a conversation with me and talk with me. That wasn't like the last employer. Like, he didn't ever want to talk to me unless it was like, your production sucks.

Jeff Compton [00:08:53]:
Like, you are not what we thought we were going to hire when we hired you. Like, that was the, the, the, the gist of it. Every time I knew what to expect, I checked out very early on in that employment because I knew there was no feedback unless it was negative.

Josh Parnell [00:09:09]:
Yeah, yeah, it's tough, man. You know, it's, it's, it's sad, but it's typical what you're describing, where we often have one on ones when something goes wrong.

Jeff Compton [00:09:19]:
Right.

Josh Parnell [00:09:19]:
And this is a good reminder to everyone that one on ones have got to be a part of your business. So again, as a. If you're a formal leader, whether you're the shop foreman, lead technician, whether you're an owner, manager, whatever, if you're formally leading people. One of the first things that I encourage all of my clients to do as a leadership coach is I talk about the importance of one on ones, the impact of one on ones, and the impact of daily huddles and how these meetings don't actually have to be a waste of time. Because I'm the first to say, Jeff, meetings are definitely a waste of time if, if the discussion that you have doesn't turn into action beyond that.

Jeff Compton [00:09:56]:
Right.

Josh Parnell [00:09:57]:
And so when we meet with our team members from a one on one perspective, the intent from me as a leader is not to sit there and tell you all the things that I think you need to hear. My intent is for you to feel heard. It's to know your voice is heard, your opinions matter, and your ideas are considered.

Jeff Compton [00:10:12]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [00:10:13]:
So ultimately, I want you to feel a certain kind of way. And a favorite quote of mine that I share often in trainings and coaching that I do, it comes from Maya Angelou. She says, I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Jeff Compton [00:10:28]:
Right.

Josh Parnell [00:10:28]:
And when we can truly sit down, take a load off, take a breath and just say, jeff, brother, how are you doing, man? Like, how are things going? And you know, it's coming from a good place, then it's going to make you feel a certain kind of feeling that you're not going to forget. And it's also going to increase engagement, which will subsequently increase performance. That's the byproduct. You're not doing it for the performance increase. It's just the byproduct. You're doing it because you generally care.

Jeff Compton [00:10:52]:
About somebody, you know, and you've seen the jokes and everything, right. That goes everywhere from like this meeting could have been an email to like, yes. You know, when you talk about the morning meetings and people roll their eyes, especially technicians and it's like, you know how it goes, Josh. Like they're expected to be here 15 minutes before 8 o' clock because we have our board of meeting. They're not paid for that. And you know, the, the collective groans and the eyes roll and stuff like that. Because what I, and I worked at a shop that had that and what we would do is it would be kind of like, okay, it started out very casual. This is the, the, the plan.

Jeff Compton [00:11:26]:
Cars that are coming come in today. This is what they're coming in for. This is probably who I'm going to dispatch them to. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it became, you know, an open forum. At the end of it, they were 20 minute, you know, meetings. Any input on this? This is where we want to improve on our DVIs. Blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff.

Jeff Compton [00:11:43]:
And then it became a situation where eventually we just all checked out. You know what I mean? Like we were there in the meetings present, but we weren't because like you said, they're not in acting on what is discussed in the meeting. Right. It's like we say, okay, like so service advisors need to ask where the wheelock key is so that with the technician because that speeds up the process. And then you go out and the next day there's a technique through the car looking through the wheel key because the advisor just forgot.

Josh Parnell [00:12:11]:
Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:12:11]:
And eventually it's like all these forgets, Josh, just kill the whole vibe of what the, the meeting could be. Right. And that's what I feel is like leadership is important. Leadership is, you know, open forms of communication. But man, we have to enact on what we actually talk about or it holds no value at all.

Josh Parnell [00:12:30]:
That's why the greatest piece of action that you can take is to actually, it's called a call to action. So you implement a call to action. If we talk about something in a meeting, if we're going to talk to talk, we're going to walk the walk. In order to walk the walk, I'm going to give you a cta. A call to action. So a rule of thumb for me is you cannot have a meeting without a call to action. So if there's going to be a daily huddle and if there's going to be discussions about what we're going to do because we're all good about saying what we're going to do, but we often don't do it because it requires time, effort, energy. We may not feel confident, we may not feel motivated, we may not feel ready, we may not feel like it's the right time to do something.

Josh Parnell [00:13:11]:
But I'm here to say the right time is right now. Like, now is the time to take action, and motivation and confidence actually tend to follow. But if you have a meeting, you've got to have a call to action. And here's where I say this is going to sound a little controversial, I believe, because I'm not a fan of micromanagement, Jeff. But I will say this. If you're trying to create a culture of accountability in your shop by providing calls to action that we're expecting each other to do, when you have a meeting, you give a call to action, you give a cta, let a couple days go by and then go to that person who you provided a call to action to and say, hey, Jeff, just a reminder, a couple days ago, your call to action was to do X, Y or Z. What can I do to help you with your call to action? Notice I'm not saying, hey, Jeff, do you need any help with that? Because what's the answer going to be? It's always going to be like, no, I'm good, I got it, I got it. But if I say, what, what can I do to help you? I'm forcing you to actually give me some kind of dialogue.

Josh Parnell [00:14:06]:
If I can help you, I'm going to help you. But I'm saying, what can I do to help you? Now I call this follow up on the follow through, which means I'm going to give you a call to action and I'm going to let a couple days go by and then I will go follow up on the follow through and say, jeff, you're a reminder. Here's what your CTA was. So I always, I always present this in training and I say, is this a form of micromanage? And then I wait for everyone to be like, yeah, actually it is. And I say, you're right, it is. And I say, I don't condone it, I don't advocate it, I don't believe in micromanagement. However, if you're creating a culture of accountability, you're going to have to do something like this for the first few one on ones that you have. Once everyone recognizes if Josh gives a CTA the expectation is he's gonna.

Josh Parnell [00:14:51]:
That we're gonna do it. And so beyond those three, the next three one on ones or whatever it is, everyone knows if a CTA happens, and this goes for me too, if I'm providing CTA doesn't mean that I'm. It doesn't mean that I'm. That I don't have CTAs as well. Like the way that I encourage us to coach each other, it's. It's definitely coming back to me too. Being able to receive feedback. Excuse me, Being able to receive coaching as feedback, not as criticism, condemnation, and judgment, but follow up on the follow through and I promise you, your culture is going to change for the better.

Jeff Compton [00:15:21]:
And what I just noticed, again, my little simple brain, is when we keep calling it a call to action, it goes over for me much more. And I'm sure this is probably. You've seen it happen. If you just come to somebody and say, I have more tasks or have more jobs, those two words immediately, like, oh, man, here we go again, right? Like, I ain't paid for this. All this lumping on me. I ain't get paid more. A call to action just in my own brain tricks me into thinking, okay, this is just like a little thing that I have to focus on. Not necessarily like more weight, more effort, more responsibility, just a focus thing.

Josh Parnell [00:15:59]:
Jeff, I love the way you worded that, man. Like, I agree with you if I hear the word tasks or jobs. What you're implying to me is that you're giving me pieces from your checklist to check off for you.

Jeff Compton [00:16:11]:
Yes. Or I'm already not doing it well and you're hammering on me that I'm not doing it well. So I immediately, my brain goes to a negative connotation and says, I'm not doing well. Which is not that you haven't been doing good, but I want to go in a different direction is what you're trying to say. And yet my brain, because it's like, you know, a lot of technicians, when it comes as a job or a task, is I'm not. I'm not up to expectation. You know what I mean? Whereas when there's a call to call to action.

Josh Parnell [00:16:41]:
Yeah, focus, dude, you just opened up Pandora's box because what you just shared is. Is V. Very common, not just in this industry, but every industry. Because ultimately, the mantra. I live by the mantra that limitless leadership, really the heart behind the company is this concept of people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So that means we get to create two things so that we can provide two things. We get to create safety and trust so that we can provide clarity and direction. Now, if you think about any job that you've either left or lost, it is very likely that you did not have both clarity and direction.

Josh Parnell [00:17:20]:
And you may have not had either one.

Jeff Compton [00:17:21]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [00:17:22]:
So if we can provide clarity and direction, that's a massive win that everyone needs and quite frankly deserves. But you can't provide that without safety and trust. And here's why I said you open up Pandora's box. Because you, you even referenced the fact that your mind already, it naturally gravitates towards the negative because, because you're, you're, you're already thanking the inaccurate thoughts, which, by the way, is one of the greatest mistakes any of us can make, which is assuming all of our thoughts are actually true. But you know, Jeff, that if you are being led by, or you're leading from a place of safety and trust, then you're going to always assume positive intent. You don't have to wonder where my boss's head is at. Wonder like, well, am I going to get fired? Or like, am I doing a good job? Or if he's giving me this quote unquote task that means clearly I'm not doing something right or it's not being done right. No, if it's from a place of safety and trust, we're going to be able to communicate.

Josh Parnell [00:18:18]:
And that's why, like, the whole reason I said you opened Pandora's box is because that right there is why one on ones are so beneficial. And I want to share one stat. And then I'll shut up. I know I'm rambling, so thank you for this time. But this is why it's important. Poor communication is costing shop owners 18% of total salaries being paid out on an annual basis. So just to put that into perspective, if, if a shop owner is paying a million dollars in salary across their entire team over the year, poor communication could actually be creating sunk cost in the amount of $180,000. Okay, I'm done.

Jeff Compton [00:18:55]:
Almost. Almost 1/5 it. And see, going back to it, our industry is so much based on going back to this production thing. Right? And I, I know it always comes back to. And Jeff's like, Jeff's hammering on this production thing again. But when we're only ever acknowled, talked about it, or recognized for it, or we're just a number on a spreadsheet, like the running joke is, I'm Just a tech number. I'm 7309, right. And it has an hour sheet and I get it every day and it shows what 7309 produced yesterday when, when it's always from that.

Jeff Compton [00:19:28]:
And the conversation for years, Josh, that we talk to technicians and we grade them as production is that they're just, that they're always going to come from a negative place because they're always going to be seen as. Josh, I need more, more production from you, right? I need more work done for less money to you, right? This is why we come with this, this, this, this is why I come jaded. This is why I come negative all the time, right? Because it's, it's been 30 years of doing it to me. Thank God I've, I've been able to network and meet people like yourself and like Lucas and David and everybody else. That is, it's a metric, but it's not the, the main metric. You know, my people are my wealth, right? My, my staff is my wealth, not what my staff generated for me.

Josh Parnell [00:20:15]:
Dude, I love that. I mean, you just, you just reminded everyone that your people, our people are our greatest assets. And man, it's, it's such a good reminder. You know, you talked about what, what your leader wants you to do. I want you to increase hours, I want you to increase production, I want you to do, you know, do this, repair that, repair, whatever. Right? It's all performance based. Yeah, it's all an increase, it's all a discussion around performance and increasing your performance. Yeah, we, we all want that, but that actually becomes a byproduct of, of the connection that you're creating and subsequently increasing engagement.

Josh Parnell [00:20:50]:
And here's the analogy I share with clients too, because you think about this. You're serving guests all day, right? You're serving guests all day. And many of us, we get in this, this, this, this daily routine where we're doing the same thing feels like doing the same thing over and over again. We're, we're serving people and we, we start to lose focus on the fact that this individual, I have not seen this guest in four or five months. And in some cases this might be a first time customer, longtime listener, first time customer. They walk in and we get an opportunity. We get, we don't have to, we get to serve them, roll out the red carpet, put on our white glove, create the, the, an incredible guest experience. And, and here's, here's where we, where we can really shift our mentality and shift our perspective with perspective.

Josh Parnell [00:21:37]:
The Way that we view things drives the way that we do things. If we can start viewing the guest experience from a place rooted in a relationship, the transaction is actually a natural byproduct of exceptional standard setting service. Yeah, but many of us, when the, when, when, when the phone rings or when a guest walks through the door, we're automatically thinking, cha Ching. We're thinking about the transaction and the relationship is, is, is kind of an afterthought in some cases.

Jeff Compton [00:22:02]:
And it goes back to the, the little things. Like I'll give you the example, right? If you talk to a lot of shop owners are like, oh, it's fingerprints on the door. You know, technician didn't wipe off the steering wheel. Technician didn't wipe off the door panel. Like little things that, like customers notice and customers complain about or, or leaving a survey that's like, oh, the car was fixed, you know, the check engine light didn't come back on, but there was greasy fingerprints on the steering wheel. Now we put quality checks, quality control checks in to try and minimize that. But it's crazy how we seem to always want to fill another job and another role to do something. Because in our industry, Josh, for so long, we operate with a lot of staff that is really dis.

Jeff Compton [00:22:45]:
Disconnected from that service side.

Josh Parnell [00:22:47]:
Like, right.

Jeff Compton [00:22:48]:
I know my job is to fix the car, but I not for a minute think that my job is to serve the customer. You know what I mean? From a white glove, waiter, waitress kind of scenario I am, where as soon as we all are not looked at as like, you've got 72 minutes to do this job. She's showed up 18 minutes late. So we're now down to 60 minutes. You're rushing, rushing, rushing. I still need to get it done. When, when it's not, and I don't want to say relaxed, but when we're like, I've got you, that kind of thing comes through like, I've got you, we're gonna get through this together. Then I instinctively grab that wipe and wipe that steering wheel down.

Josh Parnell [00:23:26]:
Yes.

Jeff Compton [00:23:27]:
Like when I'm just like, man, you know, they've already been chapping me about this and burning me about that. I gotta get that out. That's when we take that two seconds that we should be spending, Josh, and we go put it on the next thing. And at the end of the day, we just became substandard all day long. Standard. All day long.

Josh Parnell [00:23:46]:
Yeah. I mean, you're talking about settling for mediocrity, you know, if, if you hang around me long enough and if you come to any of my trainings, you're going to know that I'm a quote guy. And what you just shared reminds me of another fun quote that I love to share from Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. And he says, beware the lollipop of mediocrity. Lick it once and you'll suck forever. Because the reality is, like, when you start tolerating and settling for the subpar, for the below average, for the mediocrity, and nothing happens, it's like, you know what? Okay, I'm just gonna, I mean, this is where I just get comfortable. I get complacent. And when we do that, that's when balls start getting dropped.

Josh Parnell [00:24:24]:
That's when mistakes start getting made. That's when our attitude starts shifting. And this is an opportunity for us to remember that the way we do anything is the way we do everything. And the analogy I like to give, you know, I try to, I try to paint pictures outside of the industry for the sake of understanding and relatability. And I've personally never worked in a restaurant, but I mean, I've, you know, I enjoy a good meal every now and then. So I, I go to restaurants and I kind of equate like the, the wait staff to the, the service advisor, service manager, and then the cooks and the, the folks who are, you know, preparing the plates as the, the technicians, or as our friend Carm would call the mechanical specialist. And here's what I know. When the cooks are.

Jeff Compton [00:25:04]:
One second here, my dog. Here we go. So you were talking about the almost like the white glove level of service that you were talking about, and you've never worked in a restaurant. Yeah, I, I, and you were saying, I equate the exact same thing. Like, I want to think about like, the waitress or the waiter, maitre, d, whatever you want to call it. It's just like the service advisor and then the technician in the back is like the Gordon Ramsay or the Wolfgang Puck.

Josh Parnell [00:25:35]:
You know, that's right.

Jeff Compton [00:25:37]:
But, like, that's always an analogy I've had a hard time grasping because, like, we can replace the waitress or the waiter. Maitre d. People are there for Wolfgang or Gardens food, right. As an example. They're not there for that. But yet you can't, you can't put them in a hot dog cart and have any kind of value. You need that kind of waiter and waitress to get the person involved in the experience. You know, I, I don't know that.

Josh Parnell [00:26:11]:
I fully disagree, Jeff, or that I fully agree. And here's why Your people is what creates the culture. I, I love the fact that when you thought about the, the chef in the back, you didn't just think about just some chef, just some cook, just some guy, like you were talking about the cream of the crop. Because you also can't replace a Jeff Compton. Like, if you start viewing yourself as a technician, like the Gordon Ramsay and like the other famous chefs that I don't know the names of. But when you start, when you start doing that, it's like there's a. There's a level of pride that you carry in the work that you produce as well. And so when I say the way that you do anything is the way you do everything, this is where it doesn't matter if it's, quote, unquote, just an oil change.

Josh Parnell [00:26:57]:
It doesn't matter if, like, regardless of the job. And, and look, I know that there's gonna be a lot of folks who listen and, and, and if you know me, I'm. I'll just go ahead and say, I've also never been a technician. I, I've worked in the industry for over a decade, but I've never been a technician. So the moment I say, well, it, you know, even treat it like, or treat. Treat this level of hospitality the way you would with an oil change, just like if you're doing a cooling system repair. Right?

Jeff Compton [00:27:22]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [00:27:23]:
And, and some. Because of my lack of knowledge and content context, some people may say, no, Josh, you don't get it. And you're right, I don't get it to some. To some degree. But here's what I do get. I do get the fact that with anything you do, if you give it your best, like the two things that we can control in our life each and every day, no matter who you are, the two things that we can control is our attitude and our effort. And notice that. I'm not saying, like, I'm not saying give 100%.

Josh Parnell [00:27:50]:
I'm saying provide maximum effort, which means that on the days that you may be sick, on the days that you may be injured, on the days that you simply can't give your 100, give what you can. If you can give 80, then give 80. That's your 100. And ultimately, if you can, if you can show up and choose to have a positive attitude, attitude and choose to show up and show out for your team and your guest and choose to provide maximum effort each and every day, you are contagious. You can either infect or you can affect. And if you're contagious, and if you are, if that's the way you're operating within your shop. And I'm not saying it's easy. I know, man.

Josh Parnell [00:28:27]:
The name of your show is the Jaded Mechanic for a reason. I know this. But. But we. Jeff, we get to. I keep saying get to versus have to. We get to change the industry. But it starts with us.

Josh Parnell [00:28:37]:
It starts with knowing that we can control our attitude and our effort each and every day.

Jeff Compton [00:28:41]:
Oh, 100. And, you know, it's. It's why, like, I. I keep trying to highlight, you know, because for all the negative that everybody thinks that I'm forever putting out there or whatever, and it's not all I want to highlight the people. Like, before we got on the air, we got talking about Sherwood and the guys at Royalty that raised like $150,000 for essentially a stranger. Love that inside of three days that they're now able to take her. And at first it was just like, listen, this car that she got sold like, six months ago is. It's got a lot of issues.

Jeff Compton [00:29:09]:
It probably never should have been sold to her. They're going to be able to change that. That woman's life in terms of, like, housing and her daughter going to school, all because of a video on YouTube about a repair that a car needed. Like, when we talk about how this industry is just, you know, blue collar, there's so much more to it than just saying it's a blue collar industry. Now what I have had to do is peel back a lot of layers and go, yeah, it's a tough industry to be in. It really is, you know, and a lot of. Lot of negative that comes in, but, man, the ability that we have to change people's lives through keeping them even. And I'm not talking necessarily the money, but even the skill set that we have that he has in his shop, to be able to then put it out in front of people and change a person's life like that, dude, there's nothing more powerful than that.

Josh Parnell [00:30:08]:
It's a reminder that we. We do fix cars, we do serve guests, but ultimately we're just using the vessel of automotive repair as a. A greater purpose. A greater purpose to make an impact, to truly change lives. You talked about how this individual, her life is changed forever because of the service that a group of individuals was able to. To. To take the time out of their day, donate and. And make some things happen.

Josh Parnell [00:30:35]:
And. And ultimately, to me, what I think about, when I think about something like that, I think about how we might be in A particular seat right now, meaning like you might be a technician at a particular shop that you weren't, you weren't envisioning being there. And maybe you're not enjoying it right now. Maybe it's not, you know, it's not your end. Like your end result. Like, you know that this is not the seat you're going to be staying in. But, but I want to remind everyone who's listening that the seat, that, the seat that you're in, you're in this seat for a reason. This is your current assignment, and it may not be your final assignment, but it's your current assignment.

Josh Parnell [00:31:09]:
And you cannot let the size of your current assignment dictate the significance of your impact.

Jeff Compton [00:31:14]:
Yeah. When I think back all the times I think about, like the different places I've been and I've worked a lot of jobs, more jobs than a lot of people should. I was there and everyone for a reason. And it wasn't just to collect the paycheck. Like I, I know what the reason was now. I didn't know it then.

Josh Parnell [00:31:34]:
I was gonna ask you, so did you work at a place where you, you knew in the moment or was it always hindsight?

Jeff Compton [00:31:41]:
So early on when I started to, like at the dealership thing, where I started to get to know the product really well and develop my process and stuff, I knew then that I was there for a reason. And it wasn't just to make money. Now priority was always still to make money. But I knew that I was here because right now it was, it was a high stress meat grinder type environment. But I knew that I was there because I was polishing my skills.

Josh Parnell [00:32:06]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:32:07]:
I was defining what I was going to be as a technician. It was setting me up for the way that I do my job now, no matter where I go, I take how I learned to do things there everywhere with me. That was the only time I really knew. The rest of the time when I haven't been there, it's just been a job. And then I get back and I look at it and go, the Lord put me there because I had to work with that person and understand the challenges of working with that type of person. And then the Lord put me there because I had to, you know.

Josh Parnell [00:32:34]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:32:35]:
Learn. That's why. So I'm a big believer. Especially like when you look back at your career as you get a few years in, like I have, you're always where you're supposed to be for a certain reason. I believe that there's something. And I didn't believe it at first, but I believe that there's definitely something in our careers. Yes, we dictate our own trajectory for sure, but there's some kind of. We stay where we are for a certain reason, I guess is what I'm gonna say.

Josh Parnell [00:33:04]:
I, I believe that. I'll tell you, man, I was, I was in the Air Force. I'm gonna date myself. But this was back in. I started. I went to the air force in O2. So I did a four year enlistment from 02 to 06 and I planned on joining the Air Force to go. I think you've heard my story before.

Josh Parnell [00:33:18]:
I plan on going to be a filmmaker in Italy. Like I wouldn't. I was really passionate about, really interested in filmmaking and. And I was like, I'm gonna go be a filmmaker in Italy. And instead the Air Force had way different plans and I became a cop in North Dakota. And so one of the last career fields I would have chosen. Now I'm very thankful, I'm thankful and eternally blessed for the opportunity because of what things, of how things went down. So very grateful for that opportunity.

Josh Parnell [00:33:46]:
But also being stationed in Minot, North Dakota, Jeff, I can assure you, man, for four years because I was, I was in Minot the whole time. Now I had a brief deployment in Ecuador, which is another story, which was great. But. But my enlistment was in North Dakota. And while I was there in very frigid temperatures in Canada, like temperatures where you're accustomed to this. But I wasn't. I'm from Texas. And so being North Dakota, I was cold.

Josh Parnell [00:34:08]:
I was like, this is not, this is not my cup of tea. Right. And so. But here's the thing. I met specific people who. I will never forget who they became like family to me. I met specific people who, who helped me completely reshape and reshift my paradigm on life and just things in general. In fact, it was, it was then and there 20 years ago where I learned about the two things that we can control every day, which our attitude and our effort.

Josh Parnell [00:34:35]:
And there are certain things that I had to learn and people that I had to meet that I'm convinced God put me there for a reason that has helped shape the trajectory of my now in the moment. Did I realize that? Absolutely not. I mean, you know, Hindsight is always 2020, but. But back then in the moment, it was very challenging for me to identify like what it. Like why am I actually here? And we off. We often go through life and there's experiences where we want to say like, God, why me? Like, why. Why is this happening to me? And what I've started to do, Jeff, is I start now, I ask questions like, God, what are you teaching me? Because I find out typically way after the fact, but I want to try to find out sooner. So now I'm like, God, okay, I see you.

Josh Parnell [00:35:17]:
Like, I. I see some. I see things happening that's not outside of my control. That's outside of my plan. And I don't always get clarity and direction like I'd like, but I often get answers. And I'll say, timing is perfect.

Jeff Compton [00:35:27]:
I always knew at the time that I always was looking ahead, further down the road. It was going to get better somewhere, right? Not knowing that, like, when. And again, as people, we. We equate it back to too many times wages or pay or salary or whatever you want to call it, production. I was building relationships with people that, like, at that job, sometimes that was the only good part of that whole job was the relationship. For example, the guy, the dealership guy, one of our. My friends from 20 years ago, we're all in the group chatty messages today, and we don't talk every day, but the group chat's always there, like group chats are. And he's just sending pictures of his daughter that was just born.

Jeff Compton [00:36:13]:
Like, this is a guy that I have known since he was like 21 years old, young, green, started out washing cars and is now like a fantastic, you know, Mazda tech at this dealer. He's been the same dealer his whole career. And he's, you know, he's older to be having his first child, but he's sharing this with us. And it's like, that is so cool, because then somebody goes, oh, that's the same name as my grandchild. And I'm like, holy frig rolled. Yeah. Like, I can remember when your daughter was in diapers and now you have a grandchild.

Josh Parnell [00:36:50]:
Yeah. Wild, right?

Jeff Compton [00:36:52]:
Sometimes the. The only part that I can look back on and realize that why I stayed was for the people, man.

Josh Parnell [00:37:01]:
That's why we say people plus process is what equals profit. And it's people or the process. People before the profit is the connection before the content. Yeah, this. And Jeff, man, I'm so glad we're talking about this. I. I feel like I sound like a broken record, because this is something I talk about often with clients within trainings I do, or just on jumping on podcast and even on my own podcast. But I will say this to him, blue in the face, man.

Josh Parnell [00:37:26]:
Connection creates engagement and Engagement is what increases performance. And when we can start really grasping and applying that equation, I promise you that you're going to see an increase in KPIs. Like you're going to see increase in numbers, increase in hours. You're going to see an increase in performance if you focus on the connection first.

Jeff Compton [00:37:47]:
So I'll tell you what scares a lot of technicians that I talk to, and it comes up when I'm talking to them quite a bit is this idea the absentee owner and then the absentee owner. Because, like, we understand now we're starting to see that more of us want engagement. We want a connection with the people that sign our check. I don't want it to be just a name on the bottom. I want to actually know that person. Yeah, but Josh, it's, it's getting scary when you think about a lot of the people that want to step away now. And I'm not saying like, I have to talk to the owner. Right.

Jeff Compton [00:38:20]:
But I, I want to talk to the manager then. But a lot of managers, I've found, have not been engaged in our industry the way the owner is engaged. Do you understand what I mean?

Josh Parnell [00:38:32]:
Like, I do. And Jeff, that's, that's why I have a job. And what I mean by that is the majority of my clients are actually service managers or shop foremen. They're lead technicians. They're people who are formerly leading people, I'll say, in the trenches. Right. So we, I do work with some shop owners, but, but most of my clients are actually not shop owners. What happens is shop owners see the need for leadership skills in their team, which is what you're alluding to.

Josh Parnell [00:38:57]:
And so they invest in their team members and they hire me to work with that individual. And you mentioned how, especially in our industry, we see this a lot, man. We see high performing team members who do really well at their jobs. They've mastered these processes, so they get promoted to a formal leadership role, but they've never had any leadership coaching or training. And it's like going from a player to a coach. And the problem is when these now coaches are in the coach's seat, they see their players doing these processes that they've quote, unquote mastered and they see them doing them incorrectly. So they, they, they jump out of the coach's seat to go save the day.

Jeff Compton [00:39:35]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [00:39:36]:
And all they're doing is stunting their growth and development in, in along the way. And so what, what I do, what my role is to do is to help people who are formerly Leading people to stay in the coach's seat. It's the old adage of give a man to fish and he'll eat for a day or teach a man efficiently for a lifetime. I know you as a fisherman, Jeff. I know you're going to love that analogy. So what I get to do is I get to teach my clients how to fish, how to lead, how to coach, how to train, and how to manage. And ultimately, I want you. I want to keep people in the coach's seat.

Jeff Compton [00:40:04]:
And you. You touched on something really cool that I think I've seen happen a lot in shops from a. From a technician standpoint. And I see it a lot in the family shops, especially the smaller stuff, is that we say we have a son or daughter who's working now in the shop with us, and. And we've tasked them with, okay, you're going to be a technician. You're going to like. Like, you know, we can go back to royalty. Sherwood.

Jeff Compton [00:40:27]:
And Sherwood's is junior. Well, sometimes as father, when we see the child struggling or mother, we want to just. Here, I'll go do it right by. By a great mom who just does it. Here, I'll do it right.

Josh Parnell [00:40:44]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:40:45]:
She just loves to do things for people. And what that happens is that it cripples. I think your employee especially.

Josh Parnell [00:40:52]:
Oh, yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:40:53]:
Your standpoint of a foreman standpoint, don't go and do the job for them. Not necessarily let them suffer, but, like, they have to find their own way on how to complete that task. It may be inefficient, it may suck, but the lesson of it was inefficient will be learned by them if they do it. If somebody just does it for them. I tune right out. I'm. I'm looking at my phone. I'm like.

Jeff Compton [00:41:18]:
I'm thinking about the next thing I'm gonna do on the car as soon as somebody gets me over this hurdle, right? If I'm not over the hurdle trying to climb over it, I'm not engaged.

Josh Parnell [00:41:30]:
You're right. And the reason for the challenge is because it requires an investment of the thing that none of us have time. That means. So. So I. If I'm trying to delegate a responsibility or authority to somebody, which, by the way, I. I like to say that we delegate authority and not tasks because ultimately, I want to delegate authority to Jeff so that Jeff is in charge as a leader, which might sound a little crazy, but I should not be in charge of anything because I'm delegating responsibility and authority to everyone. I'M not in charge of anything, but I'm responsible for everything.

Josh Parnell [00:42:03]:
I'm responsible for the results, I'm just responsible for the outcome. And so if I'm delegating authority, it's going to require a time commitment on my end to, to delegate, but also to meet from, from a one on one perspective. But I've got to know that this person is not going to do things the way that I do. And they might make mistakes, but guess what, they might, they also might crush it. Like they might do way better than me. We assume the worst. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:42:34]:
Yeah. From a technician standpoint, we do that all the time because it's like I'm a very, like an intuition kind of. A lot of the way I fix cars is just through intuition, through experience. And, and you do it so long. Like I joked with a guy today, like I did a pretty, I was pretty impressed with the diag how quickly I got through it. And it was, it wasn't all that complicated. But I didn't kind of follow any kind of process or any kind of. I just use what I fall back on again, which is my ears, my eyes, my nose and my instincts.

Jeff Compton [00:43:04]:
Right. And the cars don't really talk to you, but if you have an understanding of how they work and then you kind of use your experience guided by what your senses are telling you, you can normally get there. Now it's not something that somebody else would have, like somebody else would have found it and fixed it for sure. But I guarantee they wouldn't have found it in like 36 minutes because it was just some of its luck. But a lot of it is just like, I don't over complicate it. Now when we, when we task other people like I want you to do.

Josh Parnell [00:43:36]:
Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:43:36]:
This task, they either look at us and go, how would you do it? Which I don't want them to do it the way I do it. Right. Just as I want them to find their own method. But at the same time it's like my method might not even be the best method to be teaching them.

Josh Parnell [00:43:51]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:43:51]:
And it might be, I might be short handing them by saying, here's my method, do it the way I want, I do it. That's so wrong, Josh, because some of the best technicians I know, like they, they weren't taught how to do what they do, they just developed it. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, back to like sports, like what makes a guy throw a really good punch or you know, a really good three free throw. Some of it's just instinct. It's muscle memory. It's, it's. They've done that move a million times, right? If you all of a sudden go, okay, I want you to swing the bat like this guy. Why? You know? Yeah, like Tiger woods had a swing coach for sure.

Jeff Compton [00:44:35]:
But it wasn't like Tiger had to be like completely scrap it and start over. That was the wrong. They're just like, I need you to tweak it just a little bit here.

Josh Parnell [00:44:44]:
That's it. It's tweaks. And that's really what coaching is too. Cause, I mean, because, because what you're, what you're identifying, Jeff, is the fact that like I believe everyone should have a coach. I, as a coach, I have, I myself have a coach. I work with a coach once a month. I work with a counselor once a month. I'm also married to a licensed counselor, so I get free counseling even when I don't want it, which is all the time.

Josh Parnell [00:45:01]:
The good news is she great at it. And, and I need it. So. But here's the thing. A lot of us just need tweaks. We need a, we don't need a 180 degree shift because we don't have it all figured out. We need a two degree shift. We need someone to help shift a slight shift in perspective for us.

Josh Parnell [00:45:16]:
Because I'll say it again with perspective. The way that we view things drives the way that we do things. But I like what you just shared, what you just referenced is why one of my keys to effective delegation is to prioritize communication. Because you just mentioned that someone might actually do it better than me. Or maybe my way isn't actually the best way. But here's what I do believe. If you partner with that person who you delegated an authority to and you regularly prioritize communication, which means you can. You have consistent one on ones which I believe should be.

Josh Parnell [00:45:51]:
Now, it's a little different for technicians. I think once a month is, is, is fair and reasonable with advisors, with managers. I think once every two weeks. Now, it also depends on the shop. I mean, it's subjective, but these are just kind of general numbers that I share. But when you prioritize communication, what we remember now is that multiple minds are better than one. Which means if you are a master of a particular process, or maybe you're the diag king, right? So all of a sudden you're now delegating all the diags to someone else. That's.

Josh Parnell [00:46:24]:
That's your bread and butter. And you're thinking man, like, this guy's not going to do this as well as I do. He's not going to diagnose this in 36 minutes. But. But, you know, you're trying to grow and develop your team member because the whole purpose of delegation is for growth and development. So this is the way that you're leading and training and managing this individual. So when you delegate that authority to him or her in regards to diags, then you prioritize communication. Now, you're still a part of it as a secondary slash support role.

Josh Parnell [00:46:54]:
But multiple minds are better than one. So this means if you're really delegating effectively, it's very likely that the end result will be even better than if it were just you, because you still play a role in the end result.

Jeff Compton [00:47:07]:
I find this industry is full of people that have a really hard time delegating those kind of responsibilities and tasks, though. You know what I mean? And it's like. And it's not even. Everybody thinks, oh, the old head is talking down to me, because they would have done it so much faster. It's not. But sometimes the old head has. Has never. Has never had a chance to even look back.

Jeff Compton [00:47:32]:
And how their process came to be, it just became their process. And I know now I still could use a lot more tweaking and a lot more people going, okay, so you do this really well. Like you. But think about doing this. And then if I could just get myself to dial back just a little bit and slow down, I'd be even so much more powerful. But it's hard as we age to learn new things and revamp what we've already done, because it becomes. It's. It's second nature at this point, Josh.

Jeff Compton [00:48:05]:
Like, it's the way we go. But I. I see shortcomings of, like, it goes back to that dad scenario. Oh, I'm just gonna do it for them, because I don't know how to teach the process to that person. If you can have the greatest process in the world, when you walk out of the building when you're done and you didn't leave anything behind you, you left no legacy. Your legacy was nothing but a bunch of spreadsheets that showed how many hours bruised. If you can't mentor that next person so they can go, I learned how to do that from Jeff or I learned how to do that from Brian or learned how to do that from Josh, then you've left something. Yeah, like, I have apprentices that I talk to that are now excellent technicians.

Jeff Compton [00:48:44]:
And we joke about, like, These light bulb moments that, like, Jeff helped me understand to do myself. We laugh and joke about that now, so I know I'm good. It doesn't matter if I ever get published in a magazine or like, if the podcast goes away tomorrow. I know I've already set myself up where some kind of legacy I've left for them.

Josh Parnell [00:49:03]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:49:04]:
But now my challenge to all the other technicians out there that, like, work with people is think about it from that standpoint. Not your hours that you're making, but what can you actually pass on to your co workers. Then we all collectively become a whole lot better.

Josh Parnell [00:49:19]:
I love this. Yeah, I love this conversation. You know, it's funny, literally yesterday I was attempting. Attempting is the keyword. I was attempting to help my seventh grade son with his math homework because he had a test today. And when I say attempting, you know, math. Math these days is done way different than math back in our day. And so there was like, I was looking at some of the, the problems and I was trying my best to, to coach him through it and to, you know, I don't want to give him the answer, but I want to, I want to try to explain and ask questions.

Josh Parnell [00:49:57]:
I'm trying to ask a lot of questions to help him start, you know, discovering it from within. And there was a couple questions, Jeff, where I'm looking at it and like, I straight up said, I'm like, look, I don't know, I don't know how to explain. Yeah, that. That this is the answer, but I can, I know what the answer is. And, but here's what I want you to do. I want you to try to explain it because I want to see if, if we're thinking of the same answer, but I want to see how you get there. And, and as we, as we started finding our new kind of model or new way of determining this, these math equations. The beauty in this, Jeff, is the same thing I experienced as a coach is I'm not the only one who's teaching here.

Josh Parnell [00:50:37]:
My seventh grade, my, you know, my 13 year old, my. No, excuse me, my 12 year old. I have two boys. One 13, one's 12. This is the 12 year old. My 12 year old is teaching me. And, and this is where, this is why I love leadership so much. Because you're not just telling people what to do every day.

Josh Parnell [00:50:55]:
It's not that, that's kind of this boss mentality or this positional leadership. Servant leadership is where you're showing up and you're serving, you're investing, you're supporting you are asking questions like, what can I do, Jeff, to lead you better today? What can I do to serve you better? I focus on serving my team before I even serve my guests because I know that the, that the guest experience, that the, that the, the customer service experience will bleed into the guest experience if I'm serving people right. So when I focus on as a coach asking questions, man, it's so rewarding. Like, I get, I get coached on my coaching calls or I get, I get schooled by my seventh grade son yesterday and we're both learning together. And the cool thing is it makes it fun too, man. I mean, like, when you can delegate and communicate like that, it's not just one person who's teaching, it's you're both learning. And when you're committed to being a lifelong learner, you are going to think like a rookie and you're going to recognize that you got a long way to go, but you got a long way to grow. And it's, it's a cool experience to be a part of.

Jeff Compton [00:51:56]:
It's tough though, right? Because like, I know so many people from the sports side of things that were like, they, they knew they were really good, but they didn't know how much better they got until they started to actually teach other people how to do it. Right?

Josh Parnell [00:52:09]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:52:10]:
My brother fought professionally as an mma. He had nine fights, so he did quite well. At one point he was ranked really high in Canada. But like what he and all these other countless people that he's taken lessons from is like a lot of the guys that are the best coaches weren't the best athlete, they weren't the best fighter, they didn't have the best record, but for some reason they're able to break it down into a of lot level where they're really able to, to teach people the finite details and, and they make them better is what I'm trying to say, right? And they said, I never really understood a lot of the techniques that I did until I had to go and explain them to somebody else. That's where we as technicians are the same way. Like, it's like we fix complicated stuff all day long. But if you actually like said, okay, go be like Paul Danner now and teach a classroom of 30, you know, 17 year olds, 18 year olds, 19 year olds how an engine works. We'd be like, like air goes in and air goes out, like, yeah, you know, and so it made us all like Paul has said numerous times, his diagnostic ability, as good as always was, became Even much better when he started having to teach classes of kids and, and how to do it.

Jeff Compton [00:53:24]:
Yeah, like, that's the part that I really get off on. And I always find myself when I have to go back and teach somebody young. This is how an evap system works. I start to remember details that I completely omit from my day to day when I'm fixing it. But it's an important critical detail, and it comes back into my mind when I have to share it with somebody else. That's the kind of stuff that when we're not sharing, that's the one that bites us, Josh, is we forget that one, you know, rudimentary basic element that never changes about it. But because we're not thinking about it all the time, because we're not sharing with somebody else, it's the one that bites us.

Josh Parnell [00:53:58]:
Which I think is another reminder as to why it's important that we're asking questions. You know, as a coach and as a trainer, I ask a lot of questions. Like, I believe, like, I think. I think there's probably a different perception or different definition for a lot of folks in regards to coaching. As a coach, I do not jump on a call to tell you all the things I think you need to hear, Jeff. Trust me, you don't want to. You don't want to take advice from me. And as a coach, my opinions are irrelevant like they are.

Josh Parnell [00:54:22]:
But what I am going to do, and I do often is I jump on a call and I ask a lot of questions and I attempt to shift perspective if necessary, if I believe that might be in your best interest. But ultimately, I'm asking a lot of questions. And the cool thing is that I get to watch people discover the answers to these important, challenging questions that, that, that are just burning a hole in their brain. I, I witnessed them have these light bulb epiphany, groundbreaking type of moments on the calls through a zoom, you know, through a zoom camera. Because I'm asking questions and they're, they're, they're empowered to think outside the box and they're critically thinking and, and, and what I, what I, what I believe the reason being is because as employees in this industry, we're often receiving directive after directive after directive, but we're not often being provided clarity and direct shunt, and we can get direct shun through questions. So one of the things I encourage every leader to do again, regardless of your role in the shop, regardless of your role, even in your family, you are a leader because you have perspective that no one else has, which makes you influential, or in other words, contagious. Like we talked about earlier, you can influence someone positively or negatively, so you can infect or affect, but it also makes you a change agent. Because if you're influential, you can make changes, you can affect change.

Josh Parnell [00:55:39]:
And so my reminder is you've got to ask questions. Like, like, we've got to learn how to ask questions. And, and if we're going to ask questions, we've got to learn how to listen. And, and that doesn't mean listen to respond. It means listen to understand.

Jeff Compton [00:55:53]:
It's tough, eh? Because like, sometimes when we ask questions, we're asking like, it's that old analogy, like, you know, we, the young people, it's like, you already know the answer. Why are you asking that question? And wait, that's how. That's the answer we give them back. Why are you asking me that? You already know the answer. There's obviously a reason that they're going to put their neck on the line and ask, because they want to know. They're, they're. And, you know, I don't think it's like they're looking for. Everybody says, well, they're looking, they're, they're, they're lacking confidence.

Jeff Compton [00:56:23]:
They're looking for affirmation. I don't think so. I think a lot of it is they're looking for perspective. I know I'm not effective at asking the question, but I want to know when I say, why do you do that? That way, Instead of just saying, how did you do it? Why do you do it that way? You know, that's the why. I'm a big why person. I always want to know the why, the how. I'm gonna figure it out on my own. Like, you tell me why you did it that way, right? And then I'm either gonna steal your idea or I'm gonna completely, like, you know, there's no way I would do it that way at all.

Jeff Compton [00:56:57]:
That's what a lot of this industry is about, is the why. What. What made you, you decide to approach that job that way?

Josh Parnell [00:57:04]:
I think it's important because the why is one of the most important answers any of us can have. If, if we understand the why, then the how is clear. Like when it's easy. When the why is clear, the how is easy. Here's the problem. As we get older, as adults, when we are asked why, we often receive that in a defensive, like a negative manner. Like, we get defensive. Well, you questioning me? Like, why are you questioning me? So someone asks hey, Josh, why'd you do it like that? Well, hold up.

Josh Parnell [00:57:38]:
Like, why are you questioning me? I'm not, I'm not. Like. And then the person who's asking why is thinking, whoa, whoa, chill out, man. I'm like, I'm not trying to challenge you. I'm trying to understand. And so, you know, one of the things that, that I encourage is while the why is very important, the way to get the answer to the why is actually through the. Through a what. So you're asking questions like, for example, instead of asking like, you know, why do you feel that way? Try asking what's contributing to that feeling? Or, you know, hey, why don't you understand this? Ask, you know, what questions do you have about this? It's.

Josh Parnell [00:58:18]:
If we can rephrase the question so that we're getting the answer to the why, that, that's going to help improve communication. It's going to reduce those sunk costs that we talked about earlier.

Jeff Compton [00:58:29]:
Yeah. Language is so, so important. I find too, that just the way that, like, people have talked to me in the past has completely turned me off to being able to be an open vessel to get anything from them. You know what I mean? And I work with a guy that is very, he would seem very grouchy. He's got a good sense of humor. Like, he, he, you can joke with him. Like, he, he has, he seems like he's up and down, but really, it's just the way he is. Right.

Jeff Compton [00:59:01]:
So it's like I have to, I have to learn, like, how to approach. There's, there's certain key things, like certain jokes or stories that we've shared about, you know, previous co workers and all that kind of stuff that always gets them laughing. Well, I know that if I want to approach something with like, hey, why did you do that that way? Or how would you go about doing this? I know that I have to kind of segue with something. Do you know what I mean? Like, oh, yeah, like, you know, how would he do it? And then we would joke about, oh my God, like, that guy was a train wreck. Right?

Josh Parnell [00:59:33]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:59:34]:
And that's been very effective. Is, is just paying attention to the little things that make somebody open up for a minute, you know what I mean? Or relax. Like, I think that's so vital, is why they tell employers to get to know like your, your employees, like get to know their wives, kids, names, that kind of stuff.

Josh Parnell [00:59:56]:
Yes. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:59:57]:
Because it breaks down that, to where we feel like we're more on an evil level, you know what I mean, like, and we're involved. I'm invested in. In your. In your family. Not just because I signed your paycheck, because I actually know that your kid's going to soccer. And like, that's where some of your paycheck is going is to put them in swimming lessons, skating lessons, the hockey, like, minor league hockey, all that kind of stuff. When we know that, I think that from a long standpoint of an employee, I'm less. I'm more willing to give, is what I'm trying to say.

Jeff Compton [01:00:31]:
If you show investment to me, that you actually know where my money's going. Right?

Josh Parnell [01:00:35]:
Preach. The sweetest sound to anyone in any language is the sound of a person's name, including their family. Family members name. So, Jeff, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna ask you about your dog, but I'll ask you about Lucy, because I know now. I know your Lucy's name now. Here's the first time I've ever done. This is your number 7309?

Jeff Compton [01:00:55]:
Yeah, that's my tech number.

Josh Parnell [01:00:56]:
That's my old. Yeah, 7309. Okay, so. So here's the thing. And, and the reason why I'm bringing this up is because anytime we can make it personal, not just for our guests, but even for our team members, if you tell me Your number is 7309, even. Even if it's like saying, you know, joke, like, even as a joke, I'll be like, all right, 7309. I got your part, or I got this, or I got, you know, like, I'm going to make it. I'm going to be intentional because, you know, it's coming from a good place.

Josh Parnell [01:01:20]:
Again, I'm pointing to my heart. Like, when you genuinely care about people, you're not just gonna treat them like they're, quote, unquote, just a tech or just an advisor or just to this, just to that. I'm talking to Jeff. I'm talking about my friend Jeff. Friend first and then coworker second. Now, you know, some people may disagree with that, that sentiment, but what I believe is that we are with our team members more than our own family in most cases. And so I want to make sure that I am serving you and caring for you and leading you and training you and managing you, and I'm receiving it as well. Like, my hope is that as much as you're.

Josh Parnell [01:01:56]:
You're allowing me to coach you, you're coaching me as well. Like, I'm not. I'm. I'm never Gonna be perfect. I'm never gonna master anything, but ultimately, we can make it personal.

Jeff Compton [01:02:05]:
It's. It's. So. That's why I'm so blessed that I have Lucas in my life, because Lucas is the person that I know does that better than anybody I've ever seen. You know what I mean? Like, he is a. We. We talk, Josh. Of people, are people people, but, like, he's people people at a whole other level.

Jeff Compton [01:02:25]:
Yeah. Like, it's. He's. So. How do I say it? He's so invested in his people's lives, their. Their families and all that kind of stuff. Like, the. The dude feels at a very deep level.

Jeff Compton [01:02:39]:
You know what I mean? Like, he feels very deep, but at the same time, it's like he's had to do some tough things, and I know how much it tears him up when he's had to do it. And him. And I have a lot of conversations behind the scenes where it's like, he'll share with me what's going on in the shop, and he's really struggling, and I'm like, oh, man, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, because, like, not because I. I know what the right thing to do is, but I know how much is tearing at him that he has to do it.

Josh Parnell [01:03:06]:
So here's what I believe. I believe that when you are someone who is on a mission, someone who is. Has a. There's a purpose, there's a calling, there is a greater purpose. And. And when I see Lucas, I see someone who. He's on a mission. He's on a.

Josh Parnell [01:03:20]:
He's a man on a mission, and his mission is to change the industry.

Jeff Compton [01:03:23]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [01:03:24]:
And he's going to do what it takes. He's going to fall below the line sometimes and get discouraged, and he's going to get beat up, but he's gonna get right back up. It's a Japanese proverb. Fall down seven times, get back up eight.

Jeff Compton [01:03:32]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [01:03:33]:
And. And at the tools conference, I put him aside and said, hey, man, I'm coming at you from a place of transparency and vulnerability. But I also want you to know, like, I see you and the way that you show up for each and every person around you. I see the way that you're serving each and every person around you. I hope that you don't feel like you're on an island. If there's ever anything I can do for you, everything, anything I can chat with you about, don't feel like you've got to just always be showing up because at some point, you're gonna find yourself pouring from an empty cup. Because we all do. If we.

Josh Parnell [01:04:05]:
If we're not careful, if we're not setting. If we're not setting, and more importantly, keeping boundaries, if we're not compartmentalizing, if we're not time blocking, we're gonna find ourselves pouring from an empty cup. And. And that's my. That's my. That was my concern for him. I hope. I hope he is.

Josh Parnell [01:04:19]:
I hope he. He takes that. That offer and that advice with. Not just with me, but with others and. And allows to allow us to receive, not just give.

Jeff Compton [01:04:28]:
I've been very lucky. Sometimes. He's. He's unloaded on me, and I just kind of, like, in a good way. Not like he's unloaded on me. Like he's giving me the blast. I've gotten blasted too. Right.

Jeff Compton [01:04:38]:
But he's been able to share some things with me that it's like. I know he's not sharing this with everyone. Everybody.

Josh Parnell [01:04:42]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:04:43]:
And that makes me feel very important and very valued when he'll unload on me like that. Because we go back a long time, him and I. But what I wanted to ask you was, like, going back to this. How do you become in how much? How do you get to be where you're invested in your people, but you're not invested to where. When it comes to having to do the hard things, does it get in the way of having to be able to do the hard things?

Josh Parnell [01:05:11]:
There's a fine line between love and accountability. And accountability is actually a form of love. And so I believe that you get to create this groundwork. You're laying the groundwork. You're creating a firm foundation. You're setting very clear expectations. Remember, we're trying to provide clarity and direction. But in order to provide clarity and direction, you've got to create safety and trust.

Josh Parnell [01:05:32]:
So I believe that it starts on the hiring process. And even if you haven't done what I'm about to share and you have an existing team, it's not too late to have these foundational conversations, to lay the groundwork to create a firm foundation, to truly not just have your core values printed on your wall, but to truly live your core values. And the decisions that you make are rooted from your core values. Which means if there is a decision that needs to be made that doesn't align with one of your core values, guess what, Jeff? The decision is made. We don't do it because it doesn't align with the core values. But I believe that it starts with creating that firm foundation. And when you can do that, that allows you to create the safety and trust that we've talked about so that there's clarity and direction. Which means that difficult conversations don't actually have to be difficult.

Josh Parnell [01:06:16]:
So when I have a dis. When I have a conversation with you, Jeff, about something that maybe I'm seeing you struggle in or an opportunity area in or whatever, I'm not just gonna reprimand you. I'm not just gonna call you out. I'm gonna talk about the things you're doing well. I'm gonna talk about the things that you are improving on, the strengths. The, the, the way that. The way you show up to the shop and show out at the shop. But I'm also going to be sharing these opportunity areas.

Josh Parnell [01:06:42]:
And you know, it's coming from a place of good intent, you know that it's feedback. It's not criticism, condemnation and judgment. And too many of us shy away from the quote, unquote difficult conversation because we're. We don't know what to say. We're afraid they're going to take it the wrong way. We. Maybe they're going to quit. And we can't afford for them to quit all the while.

Josh Parnell [01:07:00]:
We haven't built any kind of safety or trust to provide clarity and direction. So I can understand why this difficult conversation is going to be difficult, but it doesn't have to be right.

Jeff Compton [01:07:10]:
And it comes back to what we talked about at the beginning. Like, if we had the low standard, and the low standard becomes. Or the low expectation becomes the standard, or the low performance becomes the standard.

Josh Parnell [01:07:21]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:07:21]:
And all of a sudden we go through a revamp and we decide, that wasn't good enough anymore. I want to be up here. Well, you can't immediately, like, take those people that yesterday at the low performance were suitable and suddenly snatch them by the neck and say, you've got to be here right now, today. It doesn't work like that.

Josh Parnell [01:07:41]:
Doesn't.

Jeff Compton [01:07:42]:
Right. And you're going to get a lot of whys and a lot of house questions. Why do we have to be up there? What's in it for me when I go up there? Right. That's two things that technicians are always thinking, like, wait a minute, you want me to do more? It's like, we'll go. Go to the technician argument all the time. Dvis, you want me to do dvis, you don't want me to pay for them, or you don't want to pay us for them? Okay, what's in it for me?

Josh Parnell [01:08:05]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:08:07]:
Is it really upsells? Like, because if, you know, like, it's, it's a dangling carrot again. So when I go to a new process or a new level of expectations, people are listening that are in a leadership role as the technician standpoint. We're not going to go there tomorrow with you. We'll follow you there. But we're not going to be there tomorrow. Right. We're going to be there next week, next month. We're going to gradually get there, but you cannot all of a sudden snatch us from where we are used to and, and, and yank us by our shirt tails up to that level.

Jeff Compton [01:08:41]:
It's not because we don't want to go up the mountain with you, but we're a little like, how do we get up the mountain? You know what I mean? And then what's at the mountain for me? Like, we know what the mountain is for you. What's really the mountain for me, it's.

Josh Parnell [01:08:55]:
A requirement of time, effort, and energy. And, you know, you're, you're talking about raising the standard. And, and a lot of us try to raise the standard after all these things have occurred where it's like, no, you can't just do this overnight. To your point, you can't do it overnight. And what happens is we, we as leaders will say, I am not going to accept that anymore. I'm not going to tolerate that anymore. Man. Jeff keeps on showing up late.

Josh Parnell [01:09:18]:
He can't get here early. He's not. He keeps showing up late. All right, Jeff, this is the last time. Like, you got one more chance. If you show up late, you're out of here. And guess what happens? You show up late. Well, I can't mean, you know, I can't really afford to lose.

Josh Parnell [01:09:31]:
To lose Jeff. And so, so Jeff stays. And what happens is we start accepting that mediocrity.

Jeff Compton [01:09:37]:
That's right.

Josh Parnell [01:09:37]:
And, and when we start settling for that, your team begins to lose respect for leadership because all you're doing is enabling the standard to actually be lowered. And then when December rolls around and we're setting new goals, we're like, all right, guys, standards back up here in 20, 26, we're going to be setting the world on fire, doing X, Y and Z. And it's like, whoa, hold on. You've been lowering the standard unintentionally for.

Jeff Compton [01:09:58]:
The last eight months, since January of last year, right? When we all.

Josh Parnell [01:10:02]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Jeff Compton [01:10:03]:
We're going to lose £20. We're all £25 in 2020. You know, that's how it goes. And it's, it's, it's so hard because it's not like we don't want to go from being the shop that we are to the shop like you talk about where we're actually serving customers. That service mindset, it's not that we don't want to get there, but like too many times we don't necessarily have the people that are service minded based. Like we have fixers and we have, you know, producers, but we don't have the service minded people. Right. That's a different type of technician.

Jeff Compton [01:10:45]:
Okay. And I think honestly it's a different type of shop sometimes too. I think that the, how do I say this without being offensive? I think that sometimes the really high end shops have got that figured out because they don't like tackle the nightmares. They stay right in their lane and do it. They're really good by offering that service, you know what I mean? Whereas then the other people are like, the car was not hard to fix. I fixed it, but I left greasy fingerprints on it. Like, you know, I had her battery out. When I put her battery back in, the radio presets were gone.

Jeff Compton [01:11:19]:
Like all this kind of stuff that, that aggravates people as customers we don't even think about because we fix the damn car. Yeah, we're service side of people. Like I would have never even got involved in that repair. But that customer loves me because every time I come in her seats right back where she gets out of it, you know, like her presets on a radio, like all that kind of stuff is not lost. I'm just giving examples here. There's, there's a mindset that has to come with both. And I think a lot of us in this industry have to decide what do we really want to be. Do you want to be that white glove service or do you want to be that absolute dynamo killer of a problem solver? Because I don't believe the two of them go together.

Jeff Compton [01:11:59]:
I believe that the, the one that makes one person really good at problem solver, me, I'm good at problem solving. I'm not good at remembering to wipe the fingerprints off. So if we have a bunch of guys that are really good at problem solving, maybe delegate that. Wiping the fingerprints off to somebody else. Don't beat them over the head when they keep forgetting to do it. Because they're not forgetting. It's not in their DNA to do it. It's not forgetting, it's.

Jeff Compton [01:12:22]:
They're Never going to do it because they're, they're on to the next complicated problem. That's where their brain's going.

Josh Parnell [01:12:30]:
You're just reminding all of us, Jeff, that leadership is a full time job because what you're, what you're describing is the fact that we lead different people with different personality types, which is called situational leadership, which means that we're adapting to the needs of a situation and we're adapting to the needs and the abilities of those that we're leading. So this is a whole other topic of conversation, like this is a, a huge can of worms that we're not going to get into tonight. But situational leadership is a, is a, is a style of leadership that is necessary, even operating under the umbrella of servant leadership, which is the one that I believe that we, we could be and should be operating out of. But everything you're describing, this is why leadership is truly a full time job.

Jeff Compton [01:13:15]:
Well, I think when we go to ASTA in, in just like three weeks from now, pretty much like less than a month now, we sit down and we talk about that again because like, I think there's, like I said, there's still a whole lot of elements that I, I need to, to, to going because going forward where I want to go in my career, I need to have a better understanding of that because like I'm not going to be the problem solver forever in terms of, in the back and at some point I want to get into a leadership role where I can pass on more of what I know.

Josh Parnell [01:13:43]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:13:44]:
Get a better understanding and that's, that's where I need to go. So when you're at ASTA this year, are you teaching?

Josh Parnell [01:13:53]:
I am, I'm doing a four hour training session on Thursday.

Jeff Compton [01:13:59]:
Sweet.

Josh Parnell [01:14:00]:
Yeah, excellent. Called what it is called, I think it's actually called limitless leadership. So. Okay. Yeah, very original. But yeah, I'll be, I'll be talking about the three pillars of leadership which is heavy on effective onboarding, proper training, consistent coaching, really, really learning how to lead, how to lead people.

Jeff Compton [01:14:20]:
The onboarding thing is something I think we need to really work on in this industry. Yeah, working interviews and onboarding I think is the two things where we drop the ball. When you're there, what else are you going to, are you going to sit in on anything else or.

Josh Parnell [01:14:33]:
I don't know, man. Honestly Jeff, this can be a busy conference for me, which I'm excited about. So I'll, I'll be doing the four hour training session on Thursday. I'm the opening keynote on Friday morning.

Jeff Compton [01:14:44]:
Right.

Josh Parnell [01:14:44]:
And then I'll be on podcast row as well. So my, my plan is to be, you know, doing a number of podcast episodes as well for the Limitless Leadership podcast. And dude, I'm just pumped to be there. I mean, it's a, it's a great event. Great people are always there. I learned so much. Even not going to the classes themselves, just being in the lobby and just, you know, chatting with the folks there, like, I learned so much. There's a wealth of knowledge that we all get to gain when we go to something like this.

Jeff Compton [01:15:11]:
I'm going to introduce you to a pile of people.

Josh Parnell [01:15:13]:
Come on.

Jeff Compton [01:15:14]:
That might be new to you, but are kind of old friends to me at this point on the social media side of things. And it will amaze you, Josh, when you see some of the people that have decided to come to ASTA this year from the social media side of the auto repair industry. Oh, like it's, you're going to be amazed. Some of the top names are showing up and like, it's so cool because, and I'm not, I'm not bragging, but it's like last year we had a couple and this year we're going to have like over a dozen well known names of people that are going to be there. And it's, it's such a big deal because like, what has sold that this event to them hasn't been the fact that it's like, oh, it's got the most classes. It doesn't, you know, it's, it's not the biggest in attendance. It's not, it's the, it's the, the networking ability, the home feel. Kind of got asked to so many people excited to come from ASTA to asta.

Jeff Compton [01:16:12]:
That's what's going to be cool about this. And that's, that says a lot. I don't know if it's because it's in Lucas's backyard and his just infectious nature is what makes this. I think that's what a lot of it is. It's gonna be cool. I'm gonna, you're gonna meet a lot of people that I think are, are and I'll have to like, you know, okay, this is person has, you know, got this many followers on Tick Tock and it's, you know, you're gonna be amazed. It's gonna be so cool. And the people that are listening like, and you're on the fence about it if you can make it, make it if you can't make it.

Jeff Compton [01:16:46]:
Trust me, in 2026, you have no excuse to not be there. It is going to be the event of the year by 2026. Like, it is going to surpass all the other ones, I feel, in terms of engagement and what people really get out of an event, you know, it's.

Josh Parnell [01:17:04]:
Certainly on the way, man. It's certainly on the way. For sure.

Jeff Compton [01:17:06]:
Yeah. In this few short times that I've, like, short years that I've been going, it gets bigger every year and it's like, it's crazy now how many people stop me and talk about, do you know this person's here? Do you know that person's here? And I'm like, yeah, like it's cool. Any closing thoughts?

Josh Parnell [01:17:31]:
Yeah. Well, first, I want to thank you again for the opportunity. Jeff, if you're listening and if you do go to the ASTA Expo this year, please say hi. I genuinely love people. I love meeting people. Jeff knows this about me. I mean, I like, believe it or not, I'm an introvert. But when I go to these events, I truly want to not just provide value, that's my goal, but I also, I love meeting people and getting value and receiving these opportunities to learn.

Josh Parnell [01:17:56]:
And what I know is that I'm going to get a lot of knowledge from folks at the ASTA Expo, but knowledge without action is just information. And so my final closing thought is, when you get knowledge, when you go somewhere and you learn something, remember that 70% of what you're getting that day was going to be forgotten by tomorrow and then 90 is forgotten in just a week. So knowledge without action. Take action. Knowledge without action is just information. Don't leave that conference with just information.

Jeff Compton [01:18:22]:
Yeah, don't just jot down a bunch of notes. Build a plan. Yeah, flying home or driving home or whatever, don't just, don't just look over your notes. Build a plan. And look, it's like, how are we going to implement that on Monday? Yeah, and it's going to take baby steps and don't overwhelm your people. But by God, come out of there with a plan. Not just like some work manuals and some notes. Come out of there with a plan.

Jeff Compton [01:18:46]:
That's the whole power of that thing. And you're going to get it because you're going to network with people that are going to be like, yeah, I tried that and it didn't work. You know, and it might work for you, but it did work for me. So when you come home and if you try your plan and it doesn't work. It's okay. Yeah, but try another plan and another plan and keep building. That's how we all improve.

Josh Parnell [01:19:08]:
That's it.

Jeff Compton [01:19:08]:
That's. That's how you do it as a technician. That's how we do it as people. You get back up, back on the horse. You go again, take action again and again until you've got it. You know, how do you eat an elephant? One little bite at a time, man.

Josh Parnell [01:19:21]:
That's it. That's it.

Jeff Compton [01:19:23]:
Josh, buddy, I always love talking to you, man.

Josh Parnell [01:19:26]:
Likewise, brother. I appreciate you, man.

Jeff Compton [01:19:28]:
I look forward to seeing you very soon. Everyone else is listening. As always. I love you. Those that I'm going to see at ASA can't wait. Well, hopefully this one will get released before then. And when you're walking around Asta, you got some free time. Drop in, say hello to Josh.

Jeff Compton [01:19:44]:
Say hello to myself. If you really got a ton to say, sit down and say it. We'll record it.

Josh Parnell [01:19:49]:
You don't mind? Yeah. Yes.

Jeff Compton [01:19:50]:
All right, everybody. Love you. Talk to you soon. Thank you. 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.

Jeff Compton [01:20:15]:
My partners in the ASA 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.