Full Transcript for Why Great Technicians Struggle as Shop Owners | Bradford Jenner - Ep 52

father's footsteps, even though I was told not to. Yeah, Daddy said no. Yeah. I say I remember reading that you was like, yeah, Daddy said no. Yes. As a kid, I tinkered a lot in the garage with him. And he was he was a technician, still is today. He's in his 70s. He doesn't work as hard today. He works for United Airlines and works on the ground equipment. But it's cool. He he was like, specifically, he's like, don't go into this field. It's a hard field. And I'm learning now that I have children. They don't do what you say, but they will repeat what you do. So, you know, I have a lot of good habits. I'm in the fitness world as well. I like to keep my fitness up. So watching my children follow my footsteps in that is a blessing. I'm grateful for that. But my father told me don't get into this. And I had a I had a wonderful uncle and he's still in he's still in this business as well. And when I was 13 years old, I got to spend the summers with him and work in his shop. And that's why I say I was working professionally because, yes, I started sweeping the floors. But he had a truck side, a heavy duty side to his shop when I was working there years ago. And I was pulling apart UPS trucks, FedEx trucks, getting it ready for the technicians to do their work. I was doing the prep work, draining the cooling systems, things of that nature. So 13 years old, I was heavily involved in getting into it. And I got to do that a couple summers. Then I tried a couple different things before I got my license. I worked with my my neighbor's father, I think, in a mail room. He owns some sort of mailing company. So we did that. I worked with my other uncle in a printing business. He still owns his printing business today. But cars seem to be where I fit in. It seemed to be what I liked. And throughout high school, I took the automotive program. And from there, I had a job in the middle of high school on and kept going with it and became a fantastic master technician. And then I got to a point in my life where I finally moved down here, became a part of Ford Automotive Repair, which I now own. And there came a time in my life when I looked, I need to either start my own thing, or can I figure out a way to take over where I'm at? Because I loved all the principles that the previous owner had. But he just needed to take the business to the next level. So that's what we kind of figured out. I was 20, 25 years old. And I was like, hey, you know, I was offered the I was offered the business. And I was like, okay, let's see how we can make this work. And it took us two years to come to an agreement and figure out the money situation, how this is going to work. And I was grateful to be able to put a big down payment down with the help of my father and do. I did owner financing for the rest of it, paid it off early. And you know, that's kind of how I got into it. I was given a I think I was given a fantastic opportunity, to say the least. And I think that sounds amazing. And I just want to push back because you said you were 25 when this man said, hey, kid, because you're basically a kid, you know, we're at the age of now 25 seems like a baby. And he was going to trust you with what he's built. So that says a whole lot about you like so much. And I believe I believe there's a lot of 20. There's a lot of 25 20 something year olds out there with a lot of ambition, and we just ignore it. So that that's a good testimony. That is amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. It was weird walking into that because as a young and for kids that are out there 25 years old younger, I mean, the younger you are, and I try really hard not to do this because I was in that position. I was really good at a young age. And it's not because I'm not tooting my own horn. Like I'm I was some great person like and I, I never did that. Like I held my own. I talked very, very quietly of myself if that's the right way to put it. When they hired me. They were like, you know, what kind of toolbox Do you have? And I was like, I got like a beginner's toolbox. And, you know, I got my own scan tool. So you know, can you what can you do? We went over all that. And I was like, I can hold my own. Like, I'm not gonna say I'm out there the best, but I can, I can diagnose I can do electrical, like I can do all that stuff. And I, you know, I'm not gonna give up. If you give me something, I'm gonna, I'm gonna figure it out. Now, I look at things differently owning the business now, but I had a lot of pride back then. So it didn't matter how long it took me, I was gonna figure out what was wrong. I showed up with my toolbox. And they were like, you've got the biggest toolbox that, you know, out of everybody here that we already have. And I'm like, well, where I came from, which was, you know, Chantilly, Virginia. That's where I worked mostly. Before I came down to Fredericksburg, I had the smallest box. So again, to me, I was like, I'm a beginner here. And I was proving myself very fast, very fast paced into this organization. And they were kind of blown away. And I, again, was I good? Yes. But I give it all to the people that I was able to work with. All the technicians that I was able to work with that built me up. I give them all the praise in the world. Because if I didn't have the fantastic technicians that I was able to work next to work beside and work under as a young kid, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. So I just I feel like I got to learn from the best. And because of that, it projected me to where I got. And that is such a big thing for me. You know that you listened to podcasts, like giving young people a chance and mentoring them. And that doesn't mean coddling anybody. It's not about coddling anybody. It's about being the uncles and the aunts that they need. It takes a whole village. And if that village is actually in that shop, then so be it. So I can't imagine how many people poured into you

different skills, whether it's mental skills, technical skills, life skills. There's so many things that we have to offer the young people. It's so important that we see that. And every time I say that, the meanest people get in the comments. And what I want to say to that is I don't read them anymore because they stress me out because I still care. That's important for you to give back. If you've been in this industry for 30 years and you just hate it, it was a point that you loved it because you stayed this long. Like, let's spread some of the goodness. There are still good kids that need the mentorship. And it's not just about you holding their hands and they're taking all your time and they're going to slow you down. Make them work, man. Make them work. Hit them in the head with a wrench every now and then. But make them work because you're going to build somebody that's going to come back to you. And even if they can't find you, you meant something to someone else and you helped them in their lives. So I've got to ask you that because my dad would ask me a lot when we were working in family business like you. I started when I was a kid. He started when I was three. Do you really want to do this? Do you really want to do this? Because he would want to make sure I wanted to do it. But your dad just told you, no, don't do that. Why did he say? Why do you think he was telling you don't do it? It's the same. It's the same thing, I guess, that we get from a lot of people today. Right. And you said it. You were, you know, we want to pour into these kids, but a lot of people don't want to. They want to steer them away from the industry, but they've been in it for 30 years. I find that really strange. I really do. Like through the Internet, through everything, the people that bash this industry the most are the people that are in it. And it blows my mind because this industry is how you look at it. Right. I look at how I'm keeping people safe on the road. I'm taking care of something. It means something to me. Right. I'm doing something for people. And it's not just fixing their car. So it's how you look at it. But my biggest thing is people are afraid to walk away from something they don't like. See, I loved cars. Now, the one thing, owning a business and things like that over the years, I don't have any. I have lots of vehicles. Don't get me wrong, but I don't have any fun toys anymore. Right. My toys have kind of grown. We can potentially get to that later. I now am in airplanes. I saw that. I'm jealous, dude. I'm jealous. But the car thing kind of faded a little bit. And again, I would love to have some time, but I'm trying to build a business as well. So, you know, you got to spend time doing what you feel like is the best use of your time. [Tonnika Haynes] (11:01 - 11:01) Right. [Bradford Jenner] (11:01 - 12:56) The people in this industry are trying to tear it down from the inside. And I don't understand it. If it's really

if it's that upsetting, move on. Go find something else to do. If I could tell any young person or anybody in general, do something that you love doing, do something you enjoy, because then it doesn't feel like work. And I know people have said it before and people have heard it before, but it's the truth. And there are times that I get frustrated with this industry. One hundred percent. There's times that I'm frustrated with my own business. I get it. But at the end of the day, right after everything settles, like I love doing what I'm doing and I love it on both sides. Now, I like the customer side of things and I like building my employees, my team. That is like the best thing for me. Customers and knowing customers and they're sitting in the lobby and you've known this person since for twenty, twenty five years and you know their kids and you know about the grandkids and you're really helping them. And then the new customers that have been burned and you can bring them into your shop, you can make them feel comfortable and really help them understand what's going on with their car. There is such a joy in that for me and in my team and building a team. Like I said, our lights were out today and just sitting there talking to these guys, just shooting the crap. It's just like, look at this, look at this. Yeah, the money is great. Everything is good. I love cars. I like fast cars. I like expensive cars, but that's not why I do it. I do it for my leadership. I do it now because I get to talk a lot and kind of help people in the industry and help them in the business. But just customer service in general and serving the community. I have a servant's heart, even though I fuss a lot. I do. I truly have a servant's heart. And that's how I choose to give back. And I absolutely love it. But like you said, if you hate the industry so much, please leave, please. And it's really just go. People say it's easier said than done. But yeah, I don't understand that you just have to do anything right to become. The hardest thing was for me to do was from going from a technician to an owner. [Tonnika Haynes] (12:56 - 12:56) Right. [Bradford Jenner] (12:57 - 14:43) And I briefly went to a service advisor and I went in a little later than I expected. And just because I was getting ready to switch roles from a technician to a service advisor and I lost a dear friend of mine. It was a freak accident. And I just wasn't in the right mindset to be sat behind a desk and talk to customers. So I took a year and was like, you know what, I'm not ready to move forward yet. So I'm going to keep being a technician. But being a technician, you get to talk to, you know, cars do talk back in their own way, but you get to get familiar with the vehicles that come in the door. Right. So when they're coming out and they're talking about this customer, it's like, what do they drive? That's how I remember the customer. Right. And so the transition, stepping across that, stepping across that line to become an owner. I learned really quickly that I didn't know what I was doing. I learned really quickly that it was easy for me to judge from the other side of that line. Right. Somebody said it. Say it again. Say it again. Say it again. I found myself that it was easy for me to judge other owners from the other side of that line until I crossed it. And I feel like that is a huge problem in our industry, because a lot of people, I want to start my own business. I can do it at the house cheaper. Right. All those things come up. Businesses are charging too much. I can do it better. And I don't disagree with anybody. If you think you can do better, do it because that's what I thought too. And I have taken this company from where I got it from to where we're at now. And I'm going to continue to keep growing it. But at the same time, I did not realize what I was stepping into until I did it. And as a technician thinking, you know, everything and thinking that's that that's all you needed to know was I can fix the car and that's all that people need. I was dead wrong. I didn't know how to take care of a customer. I didn't know. I really didn't know how to talk to a customer. [Tonnika Haynes] (14:44 - 14:44) Right. [Bradford Jenner] (14:44 - 22:57) Like I did not understand that that side of the business. And what's funny is the transition from that to now is that that's the main thing I focus on. Our customer service. There's a lot of business out there that can fix cars where my shop is. And and we have a 10 bay six thousand square foot building in the center of town. It went a 10 mile radius. There's one hundred and fifty plus shops that you can go to dealerships, other shops. So I'm highly saturated. Right. We're not just we're not just the best and we're here because we're the only ones here. We're really good and we're saturated in the market. But. I had to learn what is what is beyond the fixing the car, right? That's that's all things that people expect you to do as a business, right? Like everybody wants to say the same thing over and over again. We fix the car, right? You know, we do better than the guy down the street. Our warranty. Don't get me wrong. My warranty is great. We went to five years this year. So, I mean, I can provide better than others around me. But the car thing is is is is one thing. It's the people thing that I have learned that that's where I needed to spend more time and focus. The experience that people have with us is what I truly focus on that beyond that, beyond anything else. And I never saw that as a technician. And again, I'll say again, it was very easy for me to judge from that side of the line. And I think a lot of people can agree with me once they once they I know there's a lot of technicians that turn owners once they cross that line and became the owner. They learn really quickly that they they kind of put their foot in their mouth a couple of times because I

know that I have. That's that's so important because you got to get the person in the door. Like you said, you're saturated. You got to get him a door. You got to get him to come back. Like, why would I come back to you? What makes you different? I think Frank from Rich Nation had put something out on Facebook yesterday and I was just like, yes, Frank, be original. What makes your shop stand out, especially in a place like you? You're in the middle of a lot of shops. What makes you different? Why should somebody come there? Why do I need to cross the median, do a U-turn to get to your shop? What makes you different? Like, OK, at the end result, car's done, car's fixed, oil change is done, oil change is fixed. Customer can't see that anyway. They can't see an oil change. They can't feel an oil change. What makes them pay a little bit extra to come to you, wait another two days for an appointment to come to you? Those are the important things. We have to keep that door filled with customers that are really good clients to make sure those technicians stay happy. And it's a lot of communication. There's a lot of leadership. There's a lot of marketing. There's a lot associated with that. It's a lot of words associated with being at the front desk. Technicians, not saying you guys' jobs are hard. I mean, are easy. But it's a different kind of hard up front. You know, you're busting knuckles in the back. We're busting our brains up front. And then as the owner, you have the responsibility of making sure that check clears. Do I have good benefits? Is all the equipment safe? Are the lights going to be on? That's a lot of responsibility that people just don't understand. Yes, that shop is open from 7 to 530. Do you really think I get the clock in the clock out? Oh, yeah. So so you went from from kid in the shop, pulling parts for uncle, employee, little bit of service advising skirt went back to wrenching and then purchase a shop at 27. So 27 is when you really bought it. Start working at 25. Did your friends think you're a bat crap crazy? They did. I had quite a few friends that were like, What are you? What do you think you're doing? Like, I had a lot of not as much as I kind of get today with other things that I do. I had congratulations. I had great job. But there were people that were like, you don't like you don't know what you're going to get into that people told me that I was going to fail. There was a lot of disheartening things that happened and and that transition and as I've grown over the years focusing on working on myself, which again, I think that anybody if they're going to invest in anything, invest in yourself. That's the best. That's the best thing anybody can do. I've gotten the most return by solely doing that. And, and then bringing obviously my wife into that and having her work on herself and us work together. But but working on yourself is going to get you a lot farther in life than anything else. But there was

a lot of there was a lot of people that were against it. They were just like, you know, again, why do you want to do this? Right? And I think I think people do that because they don't see themselves doing something that big. Right? That's it. That was a big step. 27 years old. Over half a million dollars. And I'm just gonna buy this shop and I'm gonna run with it. Like, wow, what you know, what do you what are you gonna do? And I was like, No, but this this is gonna this is gonna succeed. I'm gonna I'm gonna show you like, this is gonna be great. And I lost a lot of friends over it. Because like that, right? That was my next question. How many did you lose? Like percentage wise? I remember asking to ask me that. It was Greg Buckley. He said, How many have you lost? And I think it teared me up and actually still does. You'll lose a lot. When you start sharing your big, big dreams with people. Your circle will shrink, you'll turn to a dot, won't even be a circle anymore. But it's hard, especially you have to work on yourself. It's hard to sit in that closet by yourself, have this big old dream on the wall, and just go get it. It's not for everybody. But I think everybody should know that if you're in that position, it happens to the best of us. Because you think you're going to open this shop, right? You're going to open your shop and all your friends and family are going to come and support you and say a man like yeah, you're doing a great job. Those are the same people that are saying you cannot do it. Those are the same people that rather go to your competition and spend that money with your competition and absolutely do not blink an eye at what Rick Hendricks said that was going to cost and come to you and say Bradford man, come on cousin, you can't do a better job for me than that. So that was really hard and it's disheartening. It makes you sad. He's an old big bad business owner, but this stuff does affect you emotionally. So I'm so glad that you said that you outside of the business you've been working on yourself and your wife and you guys have been working on that. And I wish that I knew that six, seven years ago. That okay, Tanika, you're going to work on yourself and you're going to have to have cement for a heart sometimes. And you're just going to have to keep plowing forward. Because if you let everything that everybody says or doesn't say or the phone calls that don't come through anymore, if you let that affect you, you're going to get stuck. And that's a hard place to be. Especially when you see your circle start to shrink. But here's the good side of that. My circle is so cool now. My circle is a bunch of weirdos, a bunch of weird people that don't look anything like me. And I love them more than I could ever imagine. And that's when the networking part comes into growing a business. Yeah, I would meet somebody like you, you know? Absolutely. Yeah, no, I would agree. It's, like you said, it's disheartening. And it was. And you say, you try to think of a percentage or a number. I probably lost 80% of my friends. Same. Right. And you almost, you get to a point where it's like, am I doing the wrong thing? Like, am I the one that is, am I really doing them wrong? Like they got all of them are agreeing. And I'm standing over here by myself, only a couple people cheering me on. And you got to keep pushing forward. Yeah, you really think that. That's a thought that you have in the shower. Those are the shower thoughts. Like, okay, so all of these people just left me. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Nobody's. So I'm the common denominator. So maybe I'm wrong. But that's just, I don't know if you're a religious person, but that's just the devil. That's just the devil messing with you. I've become, I was very religious when I was a young child. My parents did a good job with that. I got out of it. Right. Once I became an adult and the more I've worked on myself, the more in tune with God that I've become. [Tonnika Haynes] (22:57 - 22:57) Yeah. [Bradford Jenner] (22:57 - 25:57) So especially over the last, I'd say five years or so, but it is, it's the devil talking and you got it. And you got to just, you know, sometimes, sometimes people think, you know, the, the, the voice in your head is yourself. Right. And sometimes you just gotta be like, you know what? I know you're doubting me, but I got this. Just let me show you, but I can tell you boo. Absolutely. Absolutely. And they're like, when, when, when I say I'm religious people, I don't want to be like, Oh, here they go. Shut up. We're not going there. What we're saying is there is a voice in your head that is going to say, well, you know, that used to be your best friend. And y'all used to go to the club and the bar all the time. There are seasons for people and there's seasons that people have to go. There's a time to reap time to sow. Yep. It's time. You cannot take everybody to the next level with you. There's rap songs that'll tell you, I don't remember his name because he died tragically, but he said, everybody can't go. Everybody can't ride. And so when you're out there and you're being blessed and you're being blessed and things are happening in good favor and you're doing well. And somebody's back there like with their nose all turned up, it is jealousy and the devil will not mess with anybody. Don't that does not have crap to mess with. So if you're being tested and I don't mean to turn this into a sermon for you real quick, Brad, but I feel like I need to say this. If you are being tested in your friendships, your family, I mean, your immediate family, your blood relatives, your hide and seek cousins. If they are ignoring you or testing you or talking about you, that means you've got something to talk about, baby. That's right. And auntie will leave it at that. And I will smile on that one. Absolutely. No, that's the truth because you're doing something right. If you're not

doing it right, then the devil ain't gonna mess with you. That's why you will you'll see you'll see people that are doing things that are bad and like, oh, man, how do I get away with it? Ain't got nothing to mess with. That's right. It's it's funny when people have something to say versus when they don't. Right. And you know, I could I could shift gears a little bit and go into, you know, the fitness stuff. Right. We got all day. We got all day. Right. Working out that I can eat McDonald's every day long all day. No one says anything to me. I start working out and saying no to things. They're like, well, wait a minute. You're you think you are. Are you too good for that? You're too good for us now. You can't. And even with the business. Right. Like you said, we don't clock out. So at twenty seven years old, I went from spending time in the bars with my friends to I was here early before, you know, before the break of dawn. And then I was also here late at night. Right. All of a sudden the shop closes. Well, I was when I first started, I took over. I was turning a wrench. I was the service advisor. And then at night when everything I was the owner. So then I was doing the paperwork. I was doing the bills. I was doing right. Trying to work on the business. Did a poor job back then of that. But so all of a sudden it's like, oh, man, you don't have no time for us anymore. I'm like, you're right. Like, I don't like and I'm sorry to say that, but I'm busy. Like, I got I got things I got to do. I got people that count on me. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:57 - 25:57) Right. [Bradford Jenner] (25:57 - 27:10) And they don't understand that. And they want to pull you in. Like, oh, come on. You don't have you know, come on. You can just you can today. You can write what you can do it for a day. And people will pull you back and they will try to hold you back, pull you down, pull them, pull you back to their level. And it's it's extremely hard. But it's been it's been a wonderful thing. And I did learn early on that the road less traveled. Right. It was going to be hard, but that was the path that I should take. And my life speaks for itself. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but where I'm at today. So and I tell I tell my kids, I was telling my son the other day when they were in middle school, I think it was around middle school when they were starting to get the little pulls in different directions. I would always tell them, if you're not comfortable telling your friends that you can't do something because you don't want to get picked on, you don't get bullied. Tell me your mom is crazy and blame it on me. Just blame it on me. You know, I do my mama crazy, even though you don't want to do it. You don't want to say, man, I don't want to do that. That's not cool. Blame your mama. And so Jordan's 20. And he said the other day we were sitting out having dinner, eating wings and whatnot. And he's like, well, I still blame stuff on you, baby. I'll take it. I will take it because people will bully you into thinking that what you're doing in your path is wrong. [Tonnika Haynes] (27:11 - 27:11) Yes. [Bradford Jenner] (27:11 - 32:15) And it's so crazy. I don't know what happens. I don't want to say jealousy, because we don't talk about that. I think it's just lack of understanding and lack of passion, because if it was easy, if this whole role that you took was easy, any kind of leadership role, building your own business, going off to college, something that's out of the norm for your group of friends, if it was easy, then everybody would do it. So it's not going to be easy. And you are going to lose some people by the wayside. Yeah. And it's and people need to say and be OK with that. The thing that we all forget is it's our life and we have one of them. Right. We don't get a second chance at this. So we should be doing everything that we want to do. And that's that's whatever that is. Right. I'm not saying that everybody should go out and start a business. I'm not saying everybody should have one. If that's not for you, that's not for you. Know that. Own it and be good with it. Right. Go go. Be great. Whatever you do, whatever you decide to do, go be great at it. That's the only thing that I can say. Right. But don't don't don't crap on anybody else's dreams, though. Well, put that out. You go be good at what you're doing and you may go do it. But when I am talking about my dream, unless you think that I am going to be harmed, shut up. If you don't agree with it, let it be. But when it's just like, OK, right, you probably eat healthy food because you look like a big muscly. You're a healthy man, right? If you start eating your what what what healthy people eat that most people are just like you. Well, I mean, I don't know something. People don't like vegetables. Sometimes it's just the same thing over and over again. Right. Sometimes it's the fact. How do you do that, man? You eat the same meal every day and you're sitting there turning your nose up and then we want to say, won't you should try to do that yourself. Like don't frown at somebody else's accomplishments or their goals. Just if you don't have anything to say to shut up. Just shut up. I agree. And that's something I learned as a child, I guess. Right. You know, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. I think that's totally gone away. And the Internet did that. The Internet did that. People absolutely can say anything. That's right. Because there's no there's no repercussions when you're when you're typing. Right. And that's the worst. And you probably know way more than I do just because of that. Right. It's talking about comments and just people wanting to say nasty things and hurtful things, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. But again, that's one of the things that you got to do as as a person in general. Right. You can't take things personally. Right. Some

somebody saying something nasty is just the fact that they have that feeling inside them and they're projecting it on to you. Right. They're upset with themselves over something that they're not doing, but they want to tell you why you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. Right. Right. It has nothing. It has nothing to do with you at all. Right. That's the crazy thing. See, the thing is, I want to make sure that we say and you you've acknowledged it, but I want to say it over and over again. When you feel like that, when you're growing, it hurts. When you're growing muscle, it hurts. You tear you going to your workout. I used to work out. I need to go back in the gym. That's what I do. I'm coming, William. I'm coming back to the gym. You go in there and you're you're you're doing the muscle things. Right. You're doing bicep curls. And in order for that muscle to grow, it has to tear and you're sore and the crap hurts. But you've got growth. So those friends that you're losing, family that doesn't get it. Neighbors, the time that you're losing. Anything like that. I know that it's painful. We're not trying to say ignore it. We're just going to say I'm just going to say that it happens to everyone. Everybody just doesn't talk about it. But with that pain comes growth just every time, every single time, just like muscles every single time. And we have and most people, myself included, sometimes we avoid the pain. Right. We get in a comfortable position. We get in a comfortable spot, whatever that might be. Our life is comfortable, whatever that looks like for anybody. And they just they're good there. It's like, well, I don't want to do that because it's painful. And it might not be painful like it. It hurts physically, but it might hurt mentally. Right. And that that's we all get stuck there and you've got to push through the pain. And I constantly I have this conversation with my daughters. I have this conversation, my wife, everything that is that is painful or everything that is hard is worth doing. Right. But we avoid the hard sometimes. But it's going to be hard in one way or the other, which hard, you know, and I know you've heard this hard. Right. Which which hard do you want it to be? It's either going to be hard now or hard later. Right. But you talk about fitness and it's going to be hard now or I'm going to spend a lot of time paying all the doctors later. Right. When I got a whole bunch of problems or in business, I can focus hard and I can focus now and make the hard decisions, put myself in a hard position for growth, things of that nature. And then hopefully, right, hopefully I get to that point where it's going to be easier on the back end. Yes. You know, that's that's how I look at it. That's how I look at everything in life. But you got to do it now and doing it, doing it as soon as possible. Yes. As fast as possible. [Zeb Beard] (32:15 - 32:16) Get it over with. [Bradford Jenner] (32:16 - 35:01) Rip off the

bandage. Rip it. Yep. Just do it. Just dig in and do it. And this is an important conversation for shop owners, whether you came from a tech coming to a shop owner or you just fresh shop owner. Do not go on Beyonce's Internet and look at these other shops and read their messages in a song and look at all the people that are just popping up on your page. Do not go out there and become jealous of what you think that they have. I need you to put on every hat and understand that at six o'clock, you're going to have to be the janitor getting the shop ready at seven o'clock. You're going to have to be the secretary making sure all the arrows are ready at eight o'clock. You are the service advisor. You do not get to go to lunch. You do not get to pee for the first couple of years. You bring baloney sandwiches. And after lunch, lunchtime, you're still I know you're tired and the shop is closed and it's 530. You know what? You don't get to go home. You don't because now you got to pay accountant. You got to play accountant. You have to be this person. You got to be HR. You have to be all of that in the beginning. You're going to have to wear every single hat. So if you come into this whole business and you think that I'm just going to start and I'm going to be an immediate absentee shop owner. You don't lost your flipping mind. It don't happen like that. It does not happen like that at all. And I and I will tell you right now, even this is my 14th year owning this business. And I have I have been able to step away. I have been able to have my freedom. And then I've also had to had to step back in. And because each time that I try and I shouldn't say try each time that I've done that and got more and more freedom because I built and put the people in place and built the teams that I've built. I find out one other thing that's missing. Right. So I've stepped away before. For instance, last year. Wait, it's 2026 2025. So the end of 2024. I completely stepped away from my business as far as I didn't even have an office here anymore. I gave my manager my office. I stepped away. I was I was showing up a couple hours a week. Everything was going great. And I wasn't I wasn't inspecting what I should expect from everybody. I was doing it for part of the business, but I wasn't doing it for my manager and come to find out. Right. There were some bad things going on. Right. There was some theft. There was lying going on. There were some things that were happening that I wasn't inspecting because I had a lot of trust and faith in this person and I had to let him go. And it was one of the hardest things that I had to do. Right. I've let a lot of people go. I haven't had that much of a turnaround or turnover in 14 years. So, I mean, I still have people that have been with me for 13 years. [Tonnika Haynes] (35:02 - 35:02) Yeah. [Bradford Jenner] (35:02 - 37:47) But it was one of the hardest decisions I had to make. But it was one of the best because he was also a cancer to the culture, which at that point I was like, my culture is the best it's ever been. Isn't it crazy when you let that one person go and then everybody in the shop says, thank God you let that nut go. And you're like, what do you tell me? I can't believe how many times that has happened. Like, honestly, like it is, it's crazy. I'm so like, it kind of be like, gosh, darn it. Like I thought I was getting better at this and it happened again. We're people and people are people and sometimes people can put on a good mask. But it's funny how you'll have a staff of 10 and you let a one person go and everybody like, thank God you let him go. Like, dude, why you didn't say something? Well, we thought you saw it. But yeah, it is important to keep your pulse, your hand on the pulse of the business, make sure everything's going. And it's hard and we all do that. And so that's another thing. What you just described, you tried to walk away. Mistakes were made, but you learned from them. You learned from them. You took that because I've had that done that, had an employee that, like you should have let them go six months ago, shouldn't let it go eight months ago, but you just won't say, well, maybe it's not that bad. Those are hard decisions to fire somebody, especially if you like them. It's hard decisions. We all have hearts, right? We all have hearts and I have family, their family. I feel like you, I mean, do you ever get the, you ever get the feeling like I can, I can fix them. I can fix them. I can save everybody. Right. I can, I can change them. Like, I know their outlook is like this today, but I can change them. Right. They can grow. And that is true to an extent, right? I'm not going to get away from that. That, that is true. You can, you can, you can train people, you can teach people, they can grow, but if they get to a ceiling and then they can, and then they stop growing or they stop believing in the vision and they stop. If you can't change your people, change your people. And you have to understand that as a leader. You got to write that one down. If you can't change your people, change your people. I like that one. Put that in, put that in the show notes. That is good. That is really good. I was talking to someone, we were in a group. I love group meetings. I love just talking to other shop owners. I think everybody should find like an online group where we can just talk to each other. And she was talking about a technician that had became a service advisor. And then he decided to leave after two years. And she really, really tried. And I was like, Hey, you can't send ducks to Eagle school. Right. You just, if he's not ready, he's not ready. And if nobody wants to grow any further than they want to, you can't force it on them. And we do, we want to save everybody. Just like we want to save the community. Like we start off, we start off pricing kind of low because we're thinking we're doing a good job for

the community and everybody's going to come see us. And then you realize it's biting your ass in the butt. I'm going to stop touching it. [Tonnika Haynes] (37:47 - 37:47) I'm not. [Bradford Jenner] (37:48 - 42:19) But yeah, I was just telling her, she was like, Oh, I don't know what I did. I said, honey, let it go. I know it's hard to let it go, but you cannot send the ducks to Eagles. And there's nothing wrong with being a duck. Ducks are cute, but there's more ducks than Eagles. Yep. Yeah. And what you have to understand is just because they're not fitting well with you, they might be able to soar somewhere else, right? They might be able to do very good for somebody else in another organization as well. And that's okay. And we need to, we need to understand that as shop owners, right? Like we want to hold on. We want to, we want them to grow if they don't want to, that's okay. Or if they get to the ceiling where it's like, yeah, that's, I mean, that seems to be your ceiling. You can't go beyond this. You know, unfortunately this business has to keep moving forward. It has to keep growing. So I need to bring somebody else in, but you'll be great somewhere else. And what's funny is there's, I've over the years of getting, having to let people go or people leaving my, my company, a lot of them still come back and talk to me. I'm kind of blown away because as a young person coming into this industry, a lot of people like burn bridges all the time and people still do it. But people still come back to me. People still talk. People still, you know, put stuff out on the internet. Like you're still the best boss I ever had. Right. And it's like the best message, like calling an old technician. Like when I reach out to Sammy and Sammy, I don't know when Sam, um, we had to let him go and it's okay because he's still my buddy and he just had to go somewhere else to soar and get himself together. But I love that about my father. I say all the time, and I know probably say about every podcast, if he's had a hundred employees under his belt, 98 of them will show up for him right now, right now. It's amazing. And that is one of the feelings that we're talking about. That's a different feeling other than just the profits. Like we were talking about the customer service and whatever, but just helping somebody grow. Like if there's a technician in a shop and that shop is basically, you know, regular shop, just an oil change breaks and whatever. And that technician wants to become some crazy, amazing Mercedes specialist or some crazy, amazing Tesla specialist. And that's not what that shop does. Let that baby fly somewhere else. You've given him as much as you possibly can. I remember my dad fired somebody for that. And I said, I feel like I say the same things over and over again, but I don't care. It's my podcast. Um, I think, I think back on Curly, like we had a body shop before we came a service department and my dad fired him because he said

we were too small for him. And he had gotten as much as he could from us. And he needed to go other places and learn different things. And now he has a shop, literally a couple miles from my house, built it from the ground up, invited my father to the shop and gave my dad a key to his shop. And he, I think like 30 years ago is when he had started working for dad. And about 10 years ago, I believe Curly started building his own shop, which is great. Right? So those are the things that ownership can bring you that just does not show up on the bottom line of your P and L. It does not, it does not. And I preach that in my weekly meetings. Um, I might not preach it every week, but everybody here knows that I do not want them to just grow as an employee, right? I want them to grow as a human being, as a person, I want them to be a better mother, a better father, a better husband, a better friend, right? And whatever I can do to help, right? I've done a lot of work on myself. I've got to learn from some amazing people. I've done some fantastic things in my life to grow as a person. And I, so when I, when I talk about that, it's not just about the numbers. It's not just about the shop, right? It's how can I help you elevate yourself? And I hope that I can grow you as a person to be so big. And if you want to go start your own company, if you want to do something, that's great. But if I can take care of you well enough, that you'll stay right. And I think that came from Russell Branson. Um, that that's an amazing thing because what the, the one thing that I think, and again, I get, I get stuck in this. Sometimes I do when you have to let somebody go when you have to hire somebody else. Right. But there's a whole thing. And I, and I built a presentation on this. It's, it's loving the circle of the business, right? Like the whole circle of life thing. There's no end to it, right? Like, yes, you build a team and then you replace yourself and you replace yourself over here. And now you have people that do for you, right? You have a team that does it for you. And I know a lot of people get like, Oh yeah, well, you know, he's just the owner and blah, blah, blah. And he makes all the money and this, that, and the other. And I'm telling you, those are comments coming from somebody that's never done it before. [Tonnika Haynes] (42:19 - 42:19) Right. [Bradford Jenner] (42:20 - 50:31) You've never crossed that line. You have no idea what's going on. You want to sit there and say that they're not working. Um, I, I, I, my, my whole role here is to work for every single one of my team members, right? Like I, I work for them. They don't work for me. You got to keep them paid. I got to keep you insured. I got to keep you happy. I to keep you healthy. You're my job. Yeah, absolutely. And people don't look at it that way. And, but the, I guess what I was saying or what I was getting at was we need as owners, we need to fall in love with the whole circle of it, right? We need to fall in love with, okay, I gotta, I gotta let, I gotta get another person in here for whatever reason, right? Whether the, my shop is too small for them or they are, or they don't want to be at the pace of my shop, so I need to get rid of them. So what, how that is going to help them too, right? Like we're, we're, sometimes we're scared to talk to our employees, right? Have those conversations that we need to have, right? Cause they're a hard conversation to have holding them accountable, right? Is one of those things we're doing them an injustice. If we don't do that and if we don't do it properly and if we can let them go and they could flourish somewhere else, not only are we helping them, but the next person that is going to come into our business, how are they going to help us, right? How, how has that next employee, how's that next team member going to help us get to the next level, right? What are they going to do for us? I've had employees come, I've had them stay a long time. I've had, I've had team members come and they stayed a short time, but I tell you what, I've learned from them. I've made changes in my business because of them, right? So it's, it's, it's all on how you look at it. I try to look at everything was a positive outlook, no matter how bad it might seem, no matter how bad it might be, what can I learn from this, right? And how can I do it better next time? How can I change something up right to where it benefits my business? That's how I try to look at it now. And it makes things a lot easier and it makes it more joyful. Yeah. Cause it's what you choose. You can choose to sit there and be mad at something all day and sit there and talk about it and talk about it and talk about it. But then I would be, if I were your friend and you come to me like all the bad things about your shop, where are you going to box the kick rocks? Like, is it that bad? It's not. And I feel like with the technicians and even owners that are just mad at the industry, is it that bad? Or is that the easiest thing for you to talk about? Oh, it's easy. It's easy to talk about. Yes. And, and you, you should, you know, right. What you focus on expands. Yeah. So if you focus on all your problems, that's all you're going to see in your business. But if you focus on all the good things, I mean, you can, you can say that about your relationship. You can say about anything. If you focus on all the negatives, you're going to see more negative things. Even when negative things are happening, right? I'm sure you have negative things happen in your business. I have negative things happen in my business, but I focus on the positive things and continue to keep focusing on them. And then I'm happier about it, right? I'm not disgruntled. You're right. There's a lot of owners out here. Technicians are a problem. Can't find anybody. I beg to differ. I have a shop full of great technicians. Where are yours at? Yeah. Right. Are

you taking care of them? Are you doing it? It, it almost saddens me sometimes. Not necessarily. I'm not going to say listening to your podcast, listening to your podcast or other podcasts where people are talking about how they have all these issues and problems. And even when I hear technicians talk about the conditions that they have to work in, I totally, I totally agree with them. I could not, I could not fathom some of the stuff that I hear. Some of the, some of the disrespect that they're giving their own employees, the way that owners run their operations. I totally agree with some of these technicians get out. You can find, you can find good owners, get out of where you're at. You do not have to put up with it. It's extremely hard for them to do right. You have to get uncomfortable to do it. You have to get uncomfortable to do it. You're going to, as the technician and I'm going to preach this. I don't care what you say in the comments. Hey, make sure that your toolbox, meaning your brain, we always talk about your toolbox has wheels, educate yourself, find a way out. Do not sit there and just Mitch and complain about it. Find a way out there. Good shop owners out there. And then sometimes the crappy shop owners, I'm going to give them grace because I'm going to imagine that they don't know. They just don't know because they're focusing on the wrong thing. Like I literally will sit in my shop. I'll go sit in the office and look from a customer's perspective. What does my office look like? What does it smell like? My service advisors? One of the things that I will ask you in a one-on-one, what is it like for you for me to be your boss? What can I help with? Be available. Be available. Don't just focus on, I'm the boss. I run this place. This is what I say go. Don't be arrogant. If you want a good business, start with yourself. Figure out what you can do better as a boss. Actually get some coaching because you don't know everything. Nobody knows everything. Oh, these coaching companies are just cookie cutter and I don't need that. You're the problem. If you think you know everything, you are the problem. Like if it's always the technician's fault, your service advisors, all your employees are terrible. You're probably the problem because you know what? You hired them. And for the technicians that have that job that they're stuck in for years and you're so miserable, you know what? You stayed. Make yourself attractive and get rocks, work on yourself, build your skill and then go find somebody that appreciates you. And I'm a loyal person. I get it. I don't like changing companies. I don't even like changing vendors. Like even from the business standpoint, right? Um, I'm a very loyal person when it comes to that, but it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, you have to look at yourself, build yourself and then go somewhere that you're felt appreciative or find your team that is going to work. Well, don't just complain about

it. That's not going to fix anything, right? That's anything. Do something. And for the owners that think that coaching is a sham, it's the best thing I ever did. I tried doing it by myself. I had some coaches that came in here, some coaching companies. They put a sour taste in my mouth, right? Because of how they spoke to me, but they're not all the same. You got, that's the same thing with employees. The same thing with finding a business that fits you. You got to find a coaching group that fits you. But why do you want to go through the heartache? Right? People have already gone through the bad things and they can teach you around it, right? They can teach you how to be. If you're going to be the shop owner, that just like you said, this is my place. Do what I say. You know what I'm saying? And have that attitude. Expect to have crappy employees. Those are going to be your results. What you put in is what you're going to get out. It doesn't work. I mean, that is science. We're working with facts, not feelings, people. Yeah. The fact is you think all your employees are terrible. You hired them all. The fact is you don't make any money. You're in control of that. You're in control of pricing and your labor rate, whatever. The fact is you just don't know what to do. And you can be mad all day, but until you talk to someone that can tell you what to do, shut up. If you, it's the difference. If you've gone through the coaching and it didn't work and you had a crappy coaching experience, but you didn't even try to get help. Or try what they told you to do. That part, you hired someone, you're paying this person a thousand dollars a month or whatever you're paying them. And every time they give you suggestion, you push back. Like really? Seriously? Like, okay, you shouldn't do this in your business. Well, that's the way I've always done it. And how's that working out for you? Now, how does that work out for you? Like there's nothing that makes any matter to be sitting in a group meeting with other shop owners and you're getting advice from your peers, not even a coach, but from your peers. And you sit there and all your peers are saying, try X, Y, Z. I don't think that'll work. Nobody is paying you to think right now. We're just telling you to do it. Just do it. Now, if you do it and it doesn't work, then you can say, well, I tried, it didn't work. But if you don't even try it, shut up. That's right. Stay off the internet. Yep. I was crazy. It's the way I, this is the way I was taught. And how's that working out for you? And how's it working out for you? Exactly. Like you're not where you want to be, right? Do you want to try something different? No, that hurts. Yeah. That made me think. And that hurt my feelings. Here we go. [Zeb Beard] (50:31 - 50:32) Mess with my ego. [Bradford Jenner] (50:32 - 50:44) Cause why didn't I think of that myself? I shouldn't have to pay anybody for this knowledge. Books. Nobody wants to read books. I don't like books. Or listen to audible. I don't like audible. I don't. [Zeb Beard] (50:44 - 50:45) Help me. [Bradford Jenner] (50:45 - 51:35) Help me help you. You got an excuse for everything, right? You got an excuse for every single thing. So stay where you are then big dog. But just stay off the internet, telling everybody how bad the automotive industry is. Absolutely. I don't know. It just blows my mind. All the, all the negative talk from the industry blows my mind. It doesn't, it doesn't make sense. And like I said, I, from both aspects, technician owner, get, get help. There are people out there that are willing to help. There are, there are owners that are willing to help other owners, right? There are technicians willing to help other technicians get you in a better position. There are people out there willing to help, but nobody wants to help somebody that's continuously complaining all the time about the same thing. Like people will try, but eventually people will back off. Like, I don't have the time to do that. Right. [Tonnika Haynes] (51:35 - 51:36) I don't hear it. [Bradford Jenner] (51:37 - 54:03) I don't want to hear it. It's just like, even having a friend, you've got your best friend, guy friend, and he's dating this girl and he keeps complaining about the same girl as if that's the only girl left in the world. Like, man, she's always doing in a man and a female. It's like, Oh yeah, you know, he did this and he did that. And you're like, girl, I wouldn't take it if I were you. And then the next week and yes, he did this and he did girl. I wouldn't take anybody with you. The next week. And look, I don't want to hear it no more. That's right. That's what happens. When you're, when you can build a relationship with someone and if all you're doing is complaining, people don't get tired of that. But there's shop owners such as myself, such as Brad that are willing to say, Hey, let's try this. And if you try it and you don't like it and it doesn't work, then that's me. But if you don't try it, please stop talking a hole in our heads and stay on the internet. It's not, it's, and it's not like we it's, I'm sure there are people out there like this, right? But it's not, it's not that people are out there preaching and teaching stuff that isn't working. If I'm telling you to do something, it's because I did it and it worked. I wouldn't be telling you to do all the things that I did and it didn't work. All the things that I did and it failed all the things that I've done that didn't get me great results. Right. It's, it's all the things that, that I've done to, to, to, you know, the coolest thing to hear as a shop owner is when other technicians come in or other advisors come in to whether interview or you're talking and you run into these people in, in when your own neighborhood and they tell you, you know, I just, I just want you to know how much your shop has talked about in the, in our area. And I, I don't

think that I am that big in the area. Like I know I am, but I, like that is amazing to me for other people. Another thing that doesn't show up at the bottom of the PNL. It doesn't, but it's like when you have other people that you're talking to that are in the industry and they're like, you have other shops that have called my phone and they're like, Hey, you know, I wanted to see if we could set up a time. I'd love to hear how you guys do things because we see the things you're doing and we think it's great. And I want that. And I want that. And I want to know how to do that. Right. Awesome. That's great. Let's set up a time. Let's do it. Let's share. I really wish I had more of that in my community. As a matter of fact, I just got a text message from another shop owner that's right down the street and we can communicate and he's going to bounce stuff off of me and I can bounce stuff off of him. Sweetie, we're not as big. So there may be 10 shops in a five mile radius that I call shops. [Tonnika Haynes] (54:03 - 54:03) Yeah. [Bradford Jenner] (54:04 - 57:39) I would like to have a better relationship with those guys because there's no way on God's green earth that we have to be competition because I cannot fix all the cars on five or one. I don't want to fix all the cars on five or one. I don't have the bandwidth or the time. I just like what I have now. But communication say, hey, bro, what is how do you feel about this? What did you do in this situation? Or I can call another shop and say, OK, I'm in a pickle. This is what I'm thinking. Help me make sure I'm making good decisions, whether it's leadership positions, decisions or something like that, or technician to technician. Having a peer right around the corner of the other shop say, bro, we just ran into this over here in the shop. And this is what I'm thinking. Have you ever seen this before? Just communication and peer to peer and just having a respect of your community. I think that's amazing. That is amazing. That's like how many shops on 150 within a week? And now what you just said, you were like, well, you consider shops. So there might be some of those that obviously I wouldn't consider shops. It's not 150 that I would say that we're even competing with. Right. But even even competing right as competition, I don't believe any of us like the five shops that I believe that are like on our level or we're around the same. They're not competition. There's enough cars on the road for everybody. Right. And something that I don't know recommendation for you to do. We started this and I did not start it, but it was another shop owner at the time. He has since then sold his shop. But he got all of us together and he's like, hey, I want to meet up for breakfast. So all five of us shop owners from in the local area, we started meeting up for breakfast every every third Tuesday or I forget what it was. And we started having breakfast together and just talking about, again, the

same things that we do in networking groups. But it was really cool because it was local. Right. It's a shop right down the street. Right. It's a shop around the corner. It's shop ten miles away. And we got to talk to people and network in our own home, you know, home community. And again, we all deal with the same thing, but we're all trying to do the same thing. We're all trying to build a business at a certain level, provide for our teams and have something that's great. And if you don't have the will, don't do it. Just talk to each other. I think I tried. I had shenanigans at my shop a couple of weeks ago and one local shop owner, they all were invited. One local shop owner showed up. But I tell you what, the funny thing is he's known me since I was a baby. Like he and my dad shared a wall when my dad first opened his business. So again, Brian gets it. We're not competition. We're not. He's like, hey, you know, and he takes looking for a job. Hey, I do know a couple. Let me send you the number. Hey, what do you think about this, Brian? I think that's crazy. Brian I think that's a great idea. Hey, Brian, what do you think about this? Well, Tanika, I wouldn't do that for you. Just somebody to bounce ideas off of, which is amazing. Which is good. We all need that. It's just one more thing to get into the community about, right? I guess it's bringing other business leaders of the same entity, right? Or the same business in the community together. And how can we better serve the community, right? I feel like we're one of the heavier ones in the community as far as like outreach and things of that nature. Like last weekend or was it the week before? So we had over 70 plus kids here. We had automotive youth day and we had kids, we had them sign up. We had other sponsors and things of that nature to be able to put this on. But we brought them and we had stations set up in the shop for kids to be able to learn. We had kids ages of six to 15. We're doing one in a couple of weeks. My first one, I'm going to do it October the third. Awesome. Awesome. [Zeb Beard] (57:39 - 57:40) I'm excited. [Bradford Jenner] (57:40 - 58:41) I'm so excited. I'm a little nervous, but I'm excited. And I've been getting a lot of good feedback from Nextdoor, the app. And my favorite feedback I got was today. I had two clients. One, Ms. Penley, I've known her forever. And another new client, and she was talking about things that she didn't understand about her car as far as DVIs and things like that. And I was explaining that to her. And I'm thinking about, I'm going to do this for kids. I know some companies do it for women as well. I said, you know what, Ms. Durham, I'm going to do one for just for the ladies. I said, tell me what you want to know and we'll figure out how to come up with a clinic. And so that's the things that I want to do. I want to do more community involvement since I don't have to be hands-on with day-to-day. So once you get to that point that you don't have to be the day-to-day owner, you don't have to have your hands on everything. That is the next step you can take. How can I have more community outreach? Let's change it by marketing. What's going to make me look different to the other shops? Oh, we're going to go to Brown's because you remember that time she had those mamas and mimosas in minivans? Yes. She taught us a lot. [Zeb Beard] (58:41 - 58:42) I trust them. [Bradford Jenner] (58:42 - 1:05:52) So I don't know if I can serve mimosas in minivans and have them drive away. I'll find out. Maybe one mimosa. Mommy's in one mimosa. We're trying to figure that out for our next one. So we did women, wheels, and waffles. Oh, that's cool. I'm going to steal it. Stolen. So we had a waffle truck. We had a food truck come by, whatever, waffles and stuff like that. And we put something on at the shop. So we had a women's class. Our next women's class is going to be next March. So no, it's phenomenal. I'm trying to figure out, and I don't know if I'm going to do it for the next one or not, but we're trying to figure out how to do something where it's like women, wheels, and wine. Right. So again, trying to figure that out as far as legality and all that good stuff. But it's great to do that stuff. It was our first kid's day and I was blown away. I was blown away from the respect I got from the parents thanking us because they've never seen anything like this before. Nobody else does it. Right. And I'm like, you're right. Nobody else does these. We've done smaller groups before for new drivers and we're doing another one next May. And we also do blood drives here. But I was blown away. I have to thank my CSR the most part. I've been able to put some of these events on, but she really, she really wowed me in this aspect because she had signups. So I don't know exactly how everybody structures their stuff. I would definitely have people sign up because we had over a hundred people sign up their kids. We had to cut it off after four days. And then obviously you're going to have people that aren't going to be able to make it right by the time it comes down to it. So we kind of opened it back up to squeeze a little bit more people in there, but I was blown away by the parents. Like they, again, just thanking us for putting it on. Their kids enjoyed it. Their kids had so much fun. Their kids got to learn. They got to learn. I was, I really wasn't expecting everything that we got out of it. Like I was doing it because I love it. I love children. I think this industry is amazing and that's why I wanted to do it. But I was really taken back. I'm just like, wow, I got more than I expected out of it. And I'm so excited to continue on to do more of them. I'm looking forward to doing that. I really am. We're coming up with some great ideas. I feel like it's going to be the first one. It's probably going to have some hiccups, but I plan to have a calendar of when I'm going

to do all of these things next year on my marketing calendar. So we can just get ready. I'm so proud of my son, my oldest son, Santana. He did a lot of the footwork. Now he designed a little stickers, the tattoos he's given out. He got little t-shirts for him and everything. So I was like, it's so cool. I'm excited for the kids. I just want to see them run around. Like, Miss Tanika loves the kids. Speaking of kids, 13, you got interested in cars. Daddy said, no. He said, yes. How do you think we can get more other than like things, what we just talked about, get more kids interested in not only automotive, but other trades, what they call blue collar work. What do you think that starts? You think it's an elementary school thing, middle school thing, high school thing. How do we pique the interest? It's funny that you say that because one of my buddies and me were just talking the other day and he had like this awesome idea that he doesn't know how to go anywhere with it. Right. And it's like, I've always wanted to like maybe potentially start companies up for kids, you know, and like give the company to the kid. Right. And that was kind of as just thought process. And I'm like, how could we make that bigger? Right. So then we started thinking of brainstorming and I don't know where this is going to go, but I have, I have one, I have three daughters and two of them are in something, right? They're in sports. So one of them is in gymnastics currently, and this may be her last year in gymnastics, but she wants to move on to dance or something. I know much. I know how much money I spend as a parent to have my kids in these activities, right? What if there was something that was built around blue collar service industries for children outside of school? And the reason I'm focusing more on that is just because schools have gotten rid of it over the years. I know that after COVID blue collar looks up, well, we're essential. So more of it is kind of being staying in, people are pushing for it again, but I, we homeschool our children, right? So they're not even in the public school system. There are so many extracurricular activities that parents are willing to pay for their kids to do. Is there something that we can design, build and do something and then not even fund it from a parent level, but fund it from the industry level? How can we fund it from the vendors? How can we fund it from the companies that are looking for people? I will tell you in my industry, in automotive, in my shop, the best employees I have are the ones that I've built from the ground up. I know you can go find rock stars, but you've got to weed out bad habits, maybe things of that nature. Like it's not always unicorns and rainbows when you find somebody that's really good. The best ones are the ones that we've built. So how can we arrange something of that nature to be able to, again, that's an extracurricular activity for be able for kids to be able to go and do right. Learning at a young age and going through Duke, trying to do something better than actually, and actually placing jobs. Right. I feel like some colleges and things of that nature are failing at that. Even, even some of the tech schools that we have in the service industries, it's like they go, but then they come out and they don't have real world experience. They've got a really good head start, but then it just kind of drops off after that. And then people get frustrated and they get, and then they don't have, they don't find themselves a good shop. Right. I was disappointed years ago in the dealership, right? Dealership. I got to the dealership. I was what? 17 years old. So I was still in high school. They promised me they're going to do this training and they're going to do all this. Eight months later, nothing. And I was kind of like, well, you know, gosh, you told me you're going to do all this stuff. You like, you laid the groundwork for me, how I was going to grow as a person, but then you, you fell short for me. You stuck me in a loop, the loop lane, the quick one. Yeah. Yeah. So where, where am I supposed to go from here? And then I had, I had friends of mine that didn't get right out of high school. They went to a tech school and then came right back after tech school, stuck right back in the loop lane. And I'm like, how can we, how can we change this? Right. So, so that's an idea. I don't know that we've been pondering, but how can we put together something like that? And again, how can we fund it from the industry? How can we fund it from the, the, the people that make the parts? How can we fund it for the people that make the lights? How can we fund it for the people, um, that make the, whatever, that make the spools of wire for electricians? Um, how can we fund it from a different way to get kids involved? Because that's beginning. I love this industry. This industry has done wonders for me. Um, it irritates the heck out of me for people to talk negatively of it, the people, the people that are in it. Um, we're going to need to do something and it's, it's going to have to be, but it can be small. It can be all over, but it's gonna, it's gonna have to come from us. It's gonna have to come from people in the industry that are building these things, um, that are putting these things together, not just for employees, not just for the people that we have now, but for the future of employees and whether they're, they're working for me or working for you or working for anybody else. Um, something's going to have to be done. But I think that's, I think that's something that we could go somewhere with. [Zeb Beard] (1:05:52 - 1:05:53) Don't know. [Bradford Jenner] (1:05:53 - 1:10:32) I think that sounds great. That sounds absolutely great. Like if you came up with something and it's just in your area and your skill, I can imagine that you would be willing to say, Hey, okay, this is working. And if another shop owner

wanted to reach out and say, Hey, I see what you're doing over there. I want a little bit of that. I want a little bit of that. It's like, this is how we did it. This is the blueprint. So we have a whole lot of little bitty blueprints. It doesn't have to be a big, big, big thing. Just a little, just touching the couple. Like I'm excited for myself. Um, our local high school has a all girls racing team and the CTA instructor like, Hey, do you mind coming out and hanging with the girls for a day? Heck yeah. I'm ready to go hang with the girls for a day so they can see the potential in this industry. And so they don't lose the passion for a car. And even if they decide, I don't want to be under the hood, there's so many other aspects of the automotive world that you can get in, you know, whether you're a service advisor, CSR, working in parts, whatever you choose to do, if you want to keep it automotive, then let's do it. So we've got a lot of work to do. And that's what, that's the other things that we can do. Once you are a hands-off owner, you can reach the community and you can reach the youth and keep bringing in the good people that are out there. And when you found the good person, you found the young tech, whether it's the dealership, whether you're a manager of the dealership, manager of an independent, don't leave that baby in the quick lane because they will burn out and they will see squirrels and we will lose them. There's gotta be some sort of path, right? And then they have to meet those, right? Like it's gotta be set up in a way that they understand what they're doing. I mean, it's the same thing no matter what, right? Whether you want to become a manager, be an advisor, nobody wants to be stuck. And I feel like a lot of people do get stuck. And because of that, they're like, there's nowhere for me to go from here, right? They're like, I'm just going to go do that. Technicians, it's like, well, I'm gonna go be a technician. And then what? Then what? I don't know. Then what? Then what do you want to do? And I know some people are like, they just, that's it. That's gonna be life for me. For me, it wasn't that way. And it wasn't in the very beginning either. I wasn't like starting to be a technician. I'm like, one day I'm gonna be an that grew over the time of being in the industry and just me falling in love with the industry itself. Like, wow, we really do. We really do great things. It wasn't just replacing brakes for me, right? Like it was, I'm taking care of this customer's car and I'm making it safe. I'm doing it well, right? I'm doing it professionally. I find that's another thing that I run into a lot is, you know, especially when people are giving, I want to give information. I want to give it at a professional level, right? Anybody can say something, right? Like the technicians in this industry, they want to bash me as an owner, right? They're like, oh, you charge way too much. I can do it for way less. Um, what you're saying doesn't, you know, that's not really required for the vehicle, right? I've got people that it's like, oh, you've got this leak right here. You might want to take care of this leak, right? And cause problems down the road. All that thing could leak for years. Why worry about it? What are you doing? Like what, at what level are you at? Right? Like I hold myself at a very high professional level and I'm taking care of the people that don't know what they're talking about, right? That don't know vehicles you're willing. And I'll, and I'll use this word, an old technician that got out of the industry that came to us for service recently, had a conversation with me and he was talking about how, how we recommended things and right. We all have digital inspections now, or most of us. Um, so he was like showing me pictures that I was sending him and he's like, really, you know, like, look at these bushings. Do you really need to be replaced? I'm like, well, sir, let me, let me ask you. And I said, I know you're a technician, right? Or you used to be, I completely understand. They're not completely broken yet. 100% agree. However, how many miles do you have on your car now? 130,000 miles. I mean, you understand that everything has a life expectancy to them, right? And my whole goal is if I can recommend something and it can be taken care of on a car where the driver is not hearing a squeak, a squeal, a bump, a clunk, it's not breaking down on them. Then I did right by that customer. They didn't have to deal with any inconsistencies in their vehicles or any unexpected things. And I did right. That's how I look at it. Other people are like, well, no, we'll wait until it breaks. Okay. That's fine. That's how you look at it, but that's not how I look at it. And what is that going to cause for the customer? Right. Time, time, time. Um, they're not safety, safety. You can plan on this. You're not ready for it to happen. [Zeb Beard] (1:10:32 - 1:10:32) Right. [Bradford Jenner] (1:10:32 - 1:10:56) We have to deal with it. And then everybody gets frustrated because they don't just know how to deal with it. But why be that way? Don't talk down on me. Don't talk to me that I don't tell me that I'm doing it wrong or I'm doing it bad just because you're not thinking about it at a professional level that I am. My customers don't know anything about their vehicle. Right. Right. And I'm not saying all of them, but for the most part, right. I mean, they don't trust in you for that. That's what I got you for. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:10:56 - 1:10:57) Yeah. [Bradford Jenner] (1:10:57 - 1:11:45) I'm the professional. And from my professional opinion, this is what you should do. When I go to the doctor, I'm trusting them. You really need to check my blood pressure. You need more blood again, sir. We just did blood six months ago. Absolutely. You don't say that to your physician. You let them know the processes, right? They have a way to do

it. Hey, I'm trusting you because you went to school. You learn this. I don't know anything about it. I have to put my trust in you. And I'm not saying that again, the same thing. All doctors don't hold themselves at the same professional level. Right. But when I go there, I'm not. And I know people do it. I get it. Right. It's one of the worst things you probably do, especially when there's something wrong. Don't Google the symptom. I am. I will. You will just kill yourself. Oh, Lord, I got the cancers. Like, no, it's just a headache. That's it. [Zeb Beard] (1:11:46 - 1:11:47) No matter what. [Bradford Jenner] (1:11:47 - 1:16:25) You will go down the Google rabbit hole and end up with so many diseases. If you just put so many, you'll you'll be more stressed out by the end of it than when you started. And that's funny that you say that, because you have to think about the customers that look up a code and they do this and they do that. And they get so little. Hey, I said this and Google said that and Google said that. And you go and they were like, yeah, the last person that changed your engine air filter just didn't close it correctly. And you had yourself all worked up about everything. And that is crazy that that happens. And I and I I love those opportunities. Yeah. To teach, to teach, to teach. Right. It's I get it that you're you're that somebody else took care of it. I get it that it was, you know, especially when it comes to diagnostics. Right. I mean, that's one of the biggest hits in our industry. Right. Oh, it's a scam, sham, whatever. But it's like and not even talk about going across the street or going to, you know, that place that, you know, they can diagnose for you that parts house. But even your brother's uncle's sister, you know, down the street that can do it. We get them in here after they've done it. And I'm not saying everybody's like that, but you're putting your faith into somebody and then you want to negate the professional. I just want to ask everybody, like, just stop for a second and just really think about that. Yeah, because the word that I used the other day was gamble. And he did not like that. He's like, I don't really like that word. I was like, but is that not what you're doing? What you're doing? As a technician, I did that a lot. I gambled with my car all the time. I tested its limits all the time by not repairing it by not fixing it properly. I don't do that with my wife's car. Absolutely not. And I and I don't do that to my customers car. I do not I don't I do not decide to gamble for them. No, right. They need to have the information, the proper information, right from a professional level so they can make an informed decision. If they want to gamble at that point, it is up to them. I hopefully I've given them enough information to make a decision. But, you know, I was told the other day, I don't like that word. That's, you know, you're now you're trying to give me a sales pitch. I'm

like, no, I'm not. That's what you're doing. I'm giving you the information. The ball's in your court now, big dog. Like I was telling young lady and she didn't understand. She didn't understand the DVR process. And I told her, you know, that is what shops do now. She has a really nice older Civic. I wish I knew what year it was at five speed. Nice car, nice car. Everybody in the shop wanted this car. And she's like, well, they keep telling me I need this and tell me I need that. And I've got all my receipts. And I said, okay, so this is what we're going to do. Also, we're going to look at your vehicle because we get to see it at an angle that you don't get to see it. We get to see under it, under the hood and all of those things. And I'm going to tell you what we see. And I'm going to ask you about your previous services because you've never been here before and everything's not on Carfax. And she said, well, I don't understand why you guys are trying to, I'm not selling you anything, ma'am. I'm giving you information. Now, if I have information about your vehicle and all you want is a state inspection, and that's all I give you as a professional, when you walk out this door and you get in your car and you get on 501 and something happens to your vehicle, you know, who's responsible? Me, the professional. So I rather you be disgruntled now because I'm telling you these things because I'm going to give you the information. And if you say no to God, be the glory, you said no. But if I don't tell you how professional would I be? And she said, oh, I didn't think about it that way. I said, yes. I said, so this DVI not only covers your butt, it covers ours. Because I know you've been going to this shop down the street and you've been getting the quick oil changes because you've probably said these things to them and they didn't want any pushback. And I was like, all right, just get a lady to oil change. I'm not doing that. If you don't want the DVI, if you come to my shop and you say, I don't want that. You know what? I don't want you as a customer. And I know I might get something in the comments. I do not want you as a customer because I'm going to have to show you if I see something and I don't say anything, I'm professional. I'm wrong. It does not hold up in the court of law. If it's not documented, it is a lie. But Miss Brenda get out there on the road and something happens and she just passed inspection at Brown's Automotive and I'm the last professional that looks at it and her kids are smart enough. They will come back and take this damn shop. It will no longer be Brown's Automotive. It'd be Miss Brenda's Automotive because she will own it. And that's the importance of a DVI. Instead of you going around with customers and explaining to them why it's important. Like, yes, I would love for you to do all of this work with me. That's how I get paid. That's how I pay the bills. I know you probably won't, but honey, these things in the red, I want you to get those done with me. But if you don't, please get them done somewhere. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:26 - 1:16:26) Mm-hmm. [Bradford Jenner] (1:16:29 - 1:17:38) The legality part is a huge thing, but we're professionals. That's what we're supposed to do. That's what we're supposed to do. And there's too many people, I will say, there's too many people in the industry that are scared to do it. They don't want to hurt their feelings. They don't want to show them what the bill's going to be for the proper maintenance and repairs that are needed on the vehicle. They're scared. So they just want to take care of a couple of things and be like, oh yeah, the rest of it's great. Good to go. And they ship them down the road. Then they come to me and we show them videos, pictures, all the stuff. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I've been going to this place down the street. And I'm like, I hate to inform you, but they've been hiding things from you. Just because, not that they were bad, they were just scared. They were just scared. We've had plenty of older cars, early 2000s. And they just come in there and I'm like, um, so I got to show you some stuff. And I know this is a lot, but you don't have a bad car. You either have a bad owner because someone's told you about this and you've been ignoring it or where you've been going just didn't inform you. So I'm going to be the bad guy and I'm going to tell you everything. And just like that, you got an $8,000 RO. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:39 - 1:17:39) Yeah. [Bradford Jenner] (1:17:41 - 1:17:49) Because people don't want to buy anything new. No. Well, no, there's a whole, yeah. That's a whole different story. We probably don't have enough time to even get into that, but. [Zeb Beard] (1:17:49 - 1:17:49) Nobody wants a new car. [Bradford Jenner] (1:17:50 - 1:22:04) There's buttons on that new car. There's a lot of buttons and cameras and things that nobody wants. And who wants to make a car payment these days? No. Yeah. Nobody. I mean, especially on the cars. I mean, the average car rights $50,000 average car payment. What? In the six, seven hundreds now. I mean, it's, it's insane. And we have a sign. But I know I love my new car, but my other cars are paid for. And I was like, I want a new car, but I did get a new car, but that's, that's not what we're talking about today. But people don't make the decision for the customer. Don't make the decision for the customer. If you're scared of the DVI, you're scared to present. Get over yourself. It's not your car. Like you said, the technician saying, oh, I wouldn't even fix that if it was my car, but it ain't yours. Big dog. I'm glad you brought that up because see, that's another problem that we have in the industry, right? Whether it's a technician or the advisor making that choice before they're even telling them that there, I hear that. And I don't hear it from here, but I hear it when customers come tell us, well, like, oh

yeah, well, they told me about that, but they said it it's, it's an older vehicle. So that's just, that's normal. Yes, you're right. It's an older vehicle. It's a normal to have this problem, but it's also normal for you to take care of it. Not push it down the road or don't worry about it. Like it's not, that's not normal. And, but there's people in this industry that are doing that. I mean, dealerships or check engine lights. Oh yeah. That's, that's what happens at this age. You know, I wouldn't worry about it. Dealership. I leave my car at the dealership. I leave my car at the Mercedes dealership because I had a recall on a car, electrical recall, take it in. I'm going out of town for a conference. I don't know how long I was going, but I feel I was going like four or five days. I am a hundred percent closer. The reason I am, whether it's HVAC appointment, whatever's at my house, it's because I don't have time. I get the DVI from the Mercedes dealership on my very nice vehicle. And this isn't staggered tires. I had popped a tire on the way out of town to visit a friend. And so I only, I know that my goofy butt only put one tire and I know that I needed all four. I know this, but you know what? The cobbler's daughter never has shoes. I don't take care of my own crap. It's at the dealership. They told me on the DVI. I remember that the Guibo, and they didn't know what that was because the guy didn't know how to pronounce it. Even my son at the time was like, mom, they don't even know the name of this part. So the mount was cracked. I needed all four tires. You do not put one tire on a car. The guy was like, you need one tire. I was like, I don't. They're all equally old. He told me my rear brakes were at 4%, not knowing what I do as a living. Like I don't go into the dealership like, oh, I've got a shop. Don't tell me anything. I don't do that. I'm going in as a customer. I don't care. Your brakes are at four millimeters. And it was the worst digital video DVI I've ever seen. And this is the dealership. So I go pick up my car because I'm just like, nevermind. At this point, it's like, dude, didn't even call me. I didn't get an estimate for anything. And I promise you, worst experience ever. They are literally miles from me. When I need stuff, I go to the one in the next city over. And I go to pick up my car. And I liked the guy. I liked the young man. And I said, hey, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job. And I said, but you lost a good opportunity because I needed four tires, not one. And I said, I would have gotten that mount done because my technicians don't have time. They don't want to work on my car. And I said, brakes, you don't tell anybody, man or woman, your brakes are at four millimeters. Does that mean I have four more to go? What does that mean? And he's looking at me. And I was like, you had yourself a good $2,500, $3,000 RO right then and there. And when I tell you I don't have time to fix my own car,

I don't have time to fix my own car. I would have gladly just got that done, picked up the car, and gone about my life. Because thank God my business is good enough. I can do that. Didn't even present it. And this is the dealership. And they had plenty of time. My car was just there. Plenty of time. So it's all around. It's not just independents. It's not just dealerships. It's everybody that can be crappy service advisor and crappy technicians. It is. Yeah. There's no, again, Mercedes dealership, right? I mean, I had the same, very similar thing happen at a Toyota dealership when I took my Toyota truck there. And what's great is it's a great teaching experience. I get to bring that back to my team and let them know, hey, look how proud you should be of yourselves. [Zeb Beard] (1:22:04 - 1:22:04) Exactly. [Bradford Jenner] (1:22:04 - 1:36:21) Because what we do versus what the service that I just got at the dealership, right? And people do hold that at a high rate, right? Some people are like the dealers, the top, there are customers that go to the dealer. They're like, I can only bring my car here. I only go to the dealership. Top of the chain, right? They know better than everybody. And they're failing. Again, it happens across the board, but I feel like sometimes they're failing worse than independents are sometimes, but they, but they all are. There's so many opportunities. And then, but it's a great teaching moment for us, right? It's a great opportunity for people. That's another thing. People get in the habit of listening to the customer and say, oh, well, the customer's complaining about that shop that they went to last. So I'm not going to tell them anything because they'll be complaining about me next. I've heard that before. And I'm like, no, but this is an opportunity. This is an opportunity for you to win. It's an opportunity to show you, show them how you do things. This is why, this is why. And I told Ms. Dermot today, she was complaining about the DBI she got from the other shop and they said this and whatever. And I said, well, I can understand that, but let me tell you why we do it. Let me tell you why we present you with this information. And she never had anyone tell her why. I have had a customer, not a customer, but a lady from another shop down the road called me looking for information. She said, I think this shop is trying to get over on me because my water pump is leaking, but they want me to do the timing belt too, but there's nothing wrong with that. They had not explained to this young lady why she needed it. So she just was ready to pick her car up on the tow truck and bring it to me. So I had to talk her off the cliff and say, hey, I understand your frustration, but what happened here is they just they didn't explain it to you. They're going to have to take this stuff off and it's a lot of labor to get to it. So they may as well do this while they're in there and make sure they change all the gaskets. So you don't want to play with this job. And I sent her a video to show her and I saved that. I really saved that job for that shop. And she was like, thank you so much. Next time I'm coming to you. It's just because they didn't have the conversation. That's amazing. You save the job for somebody else. Because you know what? It will make me look better. Not only because it makes me look better to the customer, it's the right thing to do. If you, if I'm a mile from your shop and a customer comes in, they bring me something that you messed up. They can talk junk about you and your shop all day. I am not going to become an amen corner. I'm going to say, I'm sorry that happened. This is what we do here. And if we're close enough, even if we're not close enough, I'm going to call you. I'm going to say, hey, last for the VIN. This is what she's complaining about. What happened? I got your back brother. But a lot of shop owners don't do that. And I do that a lot. I just did it a couple weeks ago. My service advisor, he's been with me a good year, a year as Tuesday. And he was saying the customer's complaining about this and they get the car up and they, what they did, blah, blah, this and blah, blah, that. And they were ready to throw this shop under the bus and in front of the customer. And I said, no, we don't do that because the car was pretty dirty. They just did shocks and the customer's complaining and they did OEM. And so they were thinking, did they really even change the shocks? But they did, but they didn't change the bump stop. They didn't change a lot of stuff. They didn't do this and they didn't do that. So it looked like it wasn't done. I said, no, we don't do that. Same shop. I said, let's call them. Hey, big dog. This is what we've got. This customer's complaining. We're going to take a look at it. If I find anything weird, I'll let you know. Found out it was an axle had nothing to do with what they did. Right. Yeah. But it, it is good. It is for, it's not for the glory of saving the customer and being this person, but be an honest person. Don't throw that other shop under the bus. Even if they deserve it, give that other shop a chance to fix it. Because if we do find something wrong, Hey, so we did find this. I'm going to tell the customer that it's best to bring it back to you, even though they're upset. I will try to calm them down and I'll let you know what I found. And I will say, Hey, Mr. Such and such, we did find this. I did talk to this technician, talk to the shop and they are willing to look at it. Would you be willing to take it back? Because if you let us do it, it's going to cost you money. I know you're upset, but I really trust these guys. And I trust that they're going to fix it for you. That's the way things should be done. That's why we have to have community between shop and shop and shop owner shop owner. But can you imagine how many shops, and I know what happens to me, how many shops

will actually say, Oh, that's what they do down there. You shouldn't go over there. Think about all the negativity that can come out of that conversation. But what does that look like for the customer for you to sit there and throw another shop on the bus? What does that make you look like? Yes, temporary hero, but when they start to think about it and if they're a good person and a good potential client, if they start to really think about that transaction and how you relate it and how you dealt with it. No, it ends up being a negative outlook on you, on the industry, right? Like we do the same thing and it's, there's no, there's no reason for it. Right. I've made mistakes before my team has made mistakes. Right. Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's how we handle them and other people do the same thing. And it's again, like you said, it's not, it's not about how they did or what they did, but it's like, this is what we do here. Right. And nine times out of 10, honestly, we've done the same thing and tried to push customers back. Like, Hey, they, they just did it. It's under warranty. They'll take care of it. You know, again, not bad mouthing that all just going over the process or, Hey, I see what they did here and I see how they did it, but you know, we would have done this again. I don't think, I'm not sitting here trying to say one's better than the other. This is just how we do things here. And a lot of times there's like, you know what? I know I can go back there and get it done, but if you could just do it for me, like I'm already here. Right. That would just be great. Right. But then again, you did not throw the shop under the bus. No, you don't have to. No, you don't have to. Even if they do deserve it, you don't have to throw them a new bus. Wheels are, they hurt. You said it. Honesty. Just be honest. It's a core value in my life, in my business. And I, I wish everybody would just have a lot more of it. There there's no, there's no reason to make up stuff. There's no reason to, the problem is everybody assumes what happened, right? You can assume that this shop did it intentionally. You can assume the technician didn't know what he was doing. You can assume anything you want. The problem is we shouldn't be doing that anyway. We don't know this is the situation. How do we resolve it? And how do we take care of the customer the best way possible? Right. Let's go forward. Okay. This is the problem. Let's go this way. Oh, what? Well, they shouldn't know. Should've go to water. Right. Exactly. Let's go forward. Oh my goodness. We got a lot of work to do, but I believe that these conversations, hopefully that this conversation hits someone correctly. Hits that shop owner that is, well, that technician now will have a little bit more respect for the owner saying, well, maybe I don't know everything that's going on behind those doors or in that front office. Maybe I don't want that. Or that service advisor that's afraid to present the whole DBI. It ain't your car. Present it. Learn how to present it. They can't say anything but no. And if you did everything that you can do to make sure they had the information right, then that's, you know, then it's a good no. And you know what? If they say no and you like, okay, how do you put this? For example, if you got that person that is throwing the other shop under the bus, or you got a customer that's irate, you got a customer that you really can't, you can't deal with, just do your best job. And if that does not become your client, then it might be the best thing that ever happened to you. Yeah. So yeah, it's okay for them to say, like, oh, I don't want all of that stuff done. You're like, okay, then bye. Love you. Bye. Like, love you. Bye. This, you put that in front of somebody's desk. Okay, love you. Bye. And keep it moving. I like that. Yeah. Okay, sir. Yeah. Um, yeah. So here's the closing question, because we have been talking for an hour and a half, and I love it. This is a great conversation. We didn't have any technical difficulties or anything. Look at me growing. That's fantastic. All right. So let's see a good downshift closing question for Bradford. So you've been you've had the shop for yourself by yourself for 14 years, 15, 14 years. Yep. 14 years from now. What do you want to look back on this season in your ownership? What do you want to say about what you've built? Like when you're sitting in your rocking chair, you're talking to your grandchildren, you might know you're not gonna have grandchildren by then you're talking to people. It's like, yeah, four score. And how many years ago I opened the shop and this is what I did. What do you want that to look like? What do you want that story to be? Yeah, I thank you for asking that question that I think that's a really great question. I want to look back at this and be able to tell people how many people how many people I inspired. And it doesn't matter if it's customers, or if it's my team, or people in this industry. It's, it's how many people that I inspired. That's, that's what I want to look back on. Because I'm using the automotive industry, I'm using this to be able to do that. Right? That's kind of my movement in life. That's what I want to be remembered for is how many people that I was able to inspire to do things with their life, right and inspire people with and inspire people. Oh, no, and I lost her. And, and again, inspire customers with understanding, right of their vehicles. I want to I want to look back and just and just say that I inspired a lot of people. And that's, that's it. Like, I mean, that's, that's what I think that's what I live for right now, is just inspiring and growing people. And, and that doesn't, there's no end to that, right? Like I said, to customers, understanding automotive, understanding their vehicles, to technicians, understanding their role and what they can become service advisors, people that

are outside of this world, right? being healthier, you can do anything you set your mind to it. And there's a path for everyone. I want to be known for inspiring people. And, and for the technicians that that maybe that look at their shop owner that they might currently be with. And they're like, oh, they're not doing a good job taking care of that person, or they're not doing a good job taking care of you. Get it together and leave. I haven't always been as good as I am now. And I and I'm going to keep building myself to become better. But I have lost good people over the years because I was not the leader that I am today. But it helped me get there. Right. So sometimes by someone walking out of my door, I was like, man, I need to be better because I couldn't keep that great technician. That great advisor, right? It helped me become the leader that I am today. And I think everybody needs to look at it that way. Right? No matter what you're doing, whether you have to leave or let someone go or anything, it that that moment can still be inspiring for somebody. That was like a really good answer. And that's how you're going to get to your four million. It is coming. It is coming. It is coming. Well, Bradford, let me get ready to go make the donuts. I got to pack. I got to go to Texas tomorrow. And tomorrow, Friday, on the 19th, I will be given my second. I guess teaching. It's going to be more like a TED Talk. And like you said, I am on the journey to and my journey is to become the person that I needed to see 30 years ago. So good luck with you and your journey. You pray for me and my journey. And tell these people to follow me on Facebook and YouTube before we get too serious. I'm getting ready to cry on my YouTube. All right. Nice to have you. Oh, one last thing. Don't hang up, people. If somebody wants to get in contact with you, how do they do that? If somebody wants to get in contact with me, they can check out Affordable Automotive on Facebook. They can check me out, Bradford Jenner, on Facebook, on my social medias. You can also email me at bradfordjenner at gmail.com. You sure about that? Yeah. Had to think for a second. But yeah, no, reach out if I can help in any way, if I can inspire you in any way, if I can lead you in the right direction. Let me know. I am always willing to help somebody. And Tanika, I appreciate the opportunity. This has been one of my favorite podcasts that I've been on so far. And I continue and I want to continue to keep being on them. I want to continue to keep growing like you and inspiring people in this organization that we're in. It's phenomenal. And it's just been it's been a really fun journey. And you said something earlier, right? Once you become the owner, right, that you're working on your business and you got your team set up, you get to do stuff like this. And this I think I'm in every year I get to enjoy more and more of it. And it's really enjoyable. And if you want to get to this level, right, you can get there. You can get there for sure. It is a fun. It's a fun spot to be in. I'm very blessed. It is. It's more than a podcast for me. I am enjoying this. I never thought that I would be doing this as country as I am, as unpolished as I am making a difference. Starting it and running with it. I think it's phenomenal. It's awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much for that. You're doing amazing. Downshift with Tanika is where we slow down long enough to have real conversations hosted by myself, second generation shop owner, Tanika Haynes. This goes beyond your car count, your KPIs. We want to talk about leadership, legacy, mindset, and the messy, beautiful journey of building something that lasts. You will hear stories from shop owners, technicians, and other industry leaders who are figuring it all out by themselves in real time. This is a space for growth, tough love, laughter, and leveling up.