Latest / Downshift With Tonnika / 30 Years as a Technician… And He’s Still Learning | Brandon Steckler & Lee Days - Ep 45
Transcript
- [Brandon Steckler] (0:00 - 0:21) You want to know the reason I left the dealer? It got so easy I was bored. That's the truth. But here was the problem. I left the dealer with the same Superman cape. So when I got to the independent shop and that Volvo showed up in my bay, I opened up the hood and that ignition coil that had three wires now only has two. I said, how the heck can it work with two wires? I was absolutely clueless. And it took the wind right out of my sails. [Intro] (0:22 - 0:35) Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Tanika Haynes. We all know as shop owners, sometimes you got to slow down in order to speed up. That's what this podcast is all about. It's time to downshift. [Lee Days] (0:42 - 0:45) The podcast world is real, ain't it? This podcast world is real. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:45 - 0:46) You thought I was playing with my podcast world? [Lee Days] (0:47 - 0:48) I know how you are, so I know you wasn't playing. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:49 - 1:11) I've only been doing it for six months. I haven't been doing it a long time. I'm not a pro or anything, but I do like it. I like the conversations and the connections that are being made. So I think it's fun because I get bored. I'm at work and y'all don't need me at work anymore. Yeah, we do. No, y'all don't need me. We do. You got to take that gum out while we're talking, though. Okay. Because you popping it. So good afternoon, Steckler. Thank you. [Brandon Steckler] (1:11 - 1:12) Are you tired? [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12 - 1:14) You taught all day yesterday. Did you teach today yet? [Brandon Steckler] (1:14 - 1:24) Not today. You teach in the morning. I do. And then you're out. I was all day yesterday and it was real exciting and I'm here tomorrow morning, but I got to run right to the airport afterwards. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:24 - 1:33) I heard there's a bad storm coming. What's my boy? Check Engine Chuck. I don't want to call him that. I call him Chuck. [Brandon Steckler] (1:33 - 1:33) His name's Richard. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:33 - 1:39) He had to leave early this morning. He was disappointing us. He was really enjoying it. And he shouted you out this morning. Did you hear it? [Brandon Steckler] (1:39 - 1:39) No, I didn't. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:39 - 1:46) He shouted you out. He was at ASTA Expo and he was having a bomb time and he took a class yesterday and he was so excited. [Intro] (1:46 - 1:46) Beautiful. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:46 - 1:55) And he was upset that he had to leave because he had to leave like four o'clock this morning to catch a plane to get back home because that Nor'easter that's coming through New York. And that's crazy. It got snow in September. [Brandon Steckler] (1:55 - 1:56) Why? Who does that? [Tonnika Haynes] (1:56 - 1:59) My brother's a lineman and he's been called. He's on standby. [Brandon Steckler] (2:00 - 2:00) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:00 - 2:10) That's crazy. We're going to have a bad winter. Yes. And with bad winter comes bad cars. And with bad cars, we need some technicians. Let's work on that. Let's work on that. [Intro] (2:11 - 2:11) All right. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:11 - 2:29) So I know Brandon Stoeckler. Y'all know who Stoeckler is. He does not need an introduction, but you don't know Lee. So Lee is actually my employee. He works with me at Browns Automotive. Lee, you've been with me since March? Okay. And so right now it's September 25th. So let's do math. Six months. [Lee Days] (2:29 - 2:29) Six months. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:29 - 2:37) Six months. And Lee worked in the dealership space for how many years? Right at 30. About 30 years. [Lee Days] (2:37 - 2:40) Yeah. Between working on cars and driving tow trucks. Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:40 - 2:48) So you're here at ASTA Expo for the first time. This is the first real training that you've had. How's that been going for you so far? [Lee Days] (2:48 - 2:50) So far so good. I learned a lot since I've been here. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:50 - 2:50) Yeah. [Lee Days] (2:50 - 2:57) The last class was kind of a little tough. Yep. It was more management stuff, but I still, yeah, it's going great. It's going great. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:57 - 3:21) So maybe two months ago, maybe two months ago. That sounds about right. We ran into a situation. I remember that. And I'm letting them do what they do. And you have probably just started pushing this out, Stoeckler. Yep. So everybody doesn't know what you're doing now because you do a little bit of everything. You you're the teacher, you're an instructor, and you decided to do what? [Brandon Steckler] (3:21 - 3:31) I launched a business that I call SWAT Training and Diagnostics. And people in the airport mistake me for being either military or police. It does look a little military-ish. I kind of play off that. I like it. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:31 - 3:32) I like it. [Brandon Steckler] (3:32 - 3:55) It was fun. But SWAT stands for Stoeckler's Worldwide Automotive Technical Training and Diagnostics. And that's a mouthful. So I made it SWAT. And basically I, from the outside looking in, people say it's a tech support service. And that's partially true. But it's more than that. It's more of an educational thing. So situation with Lee. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:55 - 3:56) Yep. The AC situation. [Brandon Steckler] (3:56 - 4:30) Lee was struggling with an air conditioning problem. And after reaching out, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. I had realized that Lee had a basic misunderstanding, a very small misunderstanding of how something was working. And he fell into the trap that many technicians do. They replace a part. And when something doesn't work, they assume they made a mistake. And it was, but it wasn't the mistake you thought it was. It wasn't a misdiagnosis. So when he called me, we had revisited how this car was laid out, because it's very important. And we had a conversation, right? Yes, sir. It was more like a training session. [Lee Days] (4:30 - 4:39) I got, like you said, I've done what most people do. They say, quick diag. Okay, that's what I need. You told me to start from the beginning, like the car just got here. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:39 - 4:40) Retrace your steps. [Lee Days] (4:40 - 5:05) Every step. And it's going step by step by step. He held my hand through the whole thing. And I finally got it. I said, oh man, thank you. I mean, it was just, it was a teaching moment for me. It let me know from now on, don't just try to, I can say a quick diag, but just don't assume what you found the first time. That's exactly what it is. Right. Because there's been a couple of parts that need to be replaced on this vehicle that, you know, we finally got to. [Tonnika Haynes] (5:06 - 5:09) So you didn't want to turn it into a parts cannon. That's exactly it. [Brandon Steckler] (5:10 - 5:31) And I think most technicians, where we call them, parts changers, it's not that they want to be. They don't even realize what they don't know. They think that's the way to do it. And unfortunately, most technicians, they get into this industry. They don't want to sit behind a desk and study and read and understand science. [Tonnika Haynes] (5:31 - 5:35) Because I can imagine that most technicians are hands-on people anyway. I just want to fix cars. I don't want to fix it. Yeah. [Brandon Steckler] (5:35 - 6:17) The thing is with me, what I, I'll use the word preach even, because I believe that that's harshly about it is if you focus on the science, you can't change science. Yep. So leverage it to your advantage, study that. And, and basically the way we approach that car is like I would approach any other car. It didn't matter. It was a, it was a Toyota van, wasn't it? No, it was a Honda. A Honda, it was a Honda. Whether it was a Honda or a Mazda or a Toyota, it's, they're all, maybe they do things differently. We can read about that. But I wanted, I wanted Lee to understand in that case, how a solenoid worked, how an AC compressor clutch worked and, and what it took in that system to make everything do what it needed to do. And that's, that's basically what we did. [Tonnika Haynes] (6:17 - 6:28) And you did that because, um, after that job, I, like I was saying earlier, I went to the shop to do something on a Saturday. I don't know if it was rage cleaning or whatnot. And Lee showed up to do some, yeah, they know about my rage cleaning. [Lee Days] (6:28 - 6:28) Yeah, she was rage cleaning. [Tonnika Haynes] (6:29 - 6:30) Um, it's clean though, ain't it? [Lee Days] (6:30 - 6:30) A clean shop. [Tonnika Haynes] (6:31 - 6:46) And Lee said, without me asking, without us, we didn't even talk about it. The first thing he said, he was like, I have learned more this week than I have in years. So that, that meant a lot. Like I said, he said that without me saying, how'd it go? [Lee Days] (6:47 - 6:47) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (6:47 - 8:05) I didn't ask him on a Saturday. I wouldn't, that means a lot to me. And he said that out of his mouth and you took the class yesterday with Steckler all day. And you said that was a lot. He's like, my brain is old, but the fundamentals is what you said. You have to start with, there are some kids just here. The kids that work with Burris, his two youngest, one is 18 and one is 22 or maybe 24. And what that kid said, the 24 year old that had gone to CPCC, had worked at the dealership, went to Burris and then realized I didn't know nothing. When they gave me that P30 truck, I realized I didn't know what in the world I was doing. And he was taking a class and they were talking about the fundamentals. And I'm not a technician. I'm not going to pretend that I am. So stay out of my inbox, your mama. But what I do know is this kid just sat there and told me, he's like, I didn't know the fundamentals because he would be watching Scanner Danner. You know, they're doing the lunch and learn. And he didn't know what in the world he was talking about. He knew what he was talking about, but he was like, oh yeah, this is basic. And he's like, it's not basic. I don't, I don't know that. And so I was like, oh, was there a disconnect in what you were learning at CPCC? Or was it that you were trying to get so far ahead and become this B, A, the super technician. And you missed out on the fundamentals cause you're trying to go too fast too soon. [Brandon Steckler] (8:05 - 8:22) Yep. If I can put it in a perspective for those who don't know, um, all these, all these kids that, that they watch martial artists on TV, they want to be the black belt doing all the flips and the crazy kicks and stuff like that. So they think I'm going to go learn whatever martial art of your choice. [Tonnika Haynes] (8:22 - 8:23) We're going to do that one. [Brandon Steckler] (8:23 - 9:08) I want to go study with the black belt because if I study with the black belt, I'll just learn everything. You know, all the advanced stuff. I won't need the basic stuff, but in our world, basic really means a base and a baseline. It's the same reason the military leverages bootcamp. They need to learn discipline and routine and following orders and basic instructions because all that other stuff, when it really counts, you need to react like that. And it's that basic training. You're always in a panic situation. You're always going to fall back to your, your lowest level of understanding. And when, when, when panic hits, you're going to fall back to your training, what you're trained on. And if you're not trained at the fundamentals, what you think, you know, you panic. You don't, what do I know? There's nothing beneath you and you just crash. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:09 - 9:38) And you just said, okay, I don't even know if you know what you just did. Yeah. Okay. You just said when someone wants to learn a martial art, they want to go to the black belt. And all I thought about just now was karate kid. Yep. He wanted to learn how to fight. Yep. And that man had him washing cars, waxing on, waxing off, painting the fence. And when he was tested and he didn't know it was a test when they were getting ready to whoop his tail, all those things, he fell back on that. Not even think about it. [Brandon Steckler] (9:38 - 9:48) Not even thinking about it. That's wild. Yep. That's going to go on my next class. That's good. In the next class, that's going to be the intro. I'm going to start class with that movie clip, that clip. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:49 - 9:49) Yep. [Brandon Steckler] (9:49 - 9:49) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:49 - 10:00) And then coat on coat off wax on wax off. And he thought it was a W wasting my time. No, I'm teaching you to fundamentals through just that's wild. [Brandon Steckler] (10:00 - 10:00) It is. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:00 - 10:25) That is just wild. You see, I came up with that. I'm good. That's good stuff. So in the class that you just did, you were there all day. Um, with any class at the expo, we tell technicians, we tell the service advisors, we tell the owners, get 1% better every day, take home one thing and master that. So you got your notebook and you got all your things. What is the one thing that you think you need to masterly? [Lee Days] (10:26 - 10:40) Um, one thing that he's really helping me with is electrical. The way he broke it down for me that day, it made it so much clearer. I'm really got the hang of it. I'm, you know, branching out, trying new stuff with electrical. Now, as before I even told you. You would, you would not mess with it. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:40 - 10:41) He would say, I'm not doing that. [Lee Days] (10:41 - 10:50) And we'd have to wait But yeah, we still, we still get in there with, um, matter of fact, they were showing the fuel trim stuff today. I mean, yesterday. Oh man. Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:50 - 10:51) Eye opener, isn't it? [Lee Days] (10:51 - 10:51) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:52 - 10:52) Yeah. [Lee Days] (10:52 - 10:53) Yes. It really is. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:53 - 11:10) So it's crazy to me, but you've been in industry much longer than I have. And you've been in different areas than your trainer, but you've been a student before. Oh yeah. How in the heck do you have a dealership that's supposed to be the nice shiny place and they do not train. [Brandon Steckler] (11:11 - 11:32) I can actually explain firsthand. I I've been a dealer tech probably half of my career, the first half. And you focus so heavily on the product. There's almost no, I gotta be careful how I say this. There's almost no need for the fundamentals. We spend very little bit of time on the fundamentals and focus more on the product. How does this car do that? [Lee Days] (11:32 - 11:33) Yes. [Brandon Steckler] (11:33 - 12:06) And this is why dealership technicians tend to fall into the trap of I've worked on this type of car with this problem a hundred times. I already know what's wrong. Right. And that's what makes them appear to be so good. Not all of them, but many of them, they get product familiarity and that happened to me. Yep. You ask anybody that knew me 15 years ago, I was a top notch Honda Honda technician. Right. And I don't just mean fixing it right the first time or knocking out 130 hours a week or making a hundred plus thousand dollars. [Tonnika Haynes] (12:06 - 12:08) You're doing the same thing over and over and over again. [Brandon Steckler] (12:08 - 12:56) It got the reason you want to know the reason I left the dealer. It got so easy. I was bored. Oh, that's the truth. But here was the problem. I left the dealer with the same Superman cape. So when I got to the independent shop and that Volvo showed up in my Bay, I opened up the hood and that ignition coil that had three wires now only has two. I said, how the heck can it work with two wires? I was absolutely clueless. Yeah. And it, it took the wind right out of my head. I went back to the dealer, my, my friend, Danny, thank God. Danny saw me walking in the shop. He goes, don't come back in here. Get out, get out, go learn, go get better. Frank says, I can come back. You get out. You're better than this. Don't don't get stuck here. And it's great working at a dealer. Please don't let me fool you. I'm not knocking it. [Tonnika Haynes] (12:56 - 12:59) Yeah. I mean, Jordan's a trader. He's at the dealership. He's at Mercedes. [Brandon Steckler] (12:59 - 13:18) Yeah. It's great. I wish technicians at the dealer knew what I'm explaining right now, because if I had to go back to the dealer, I'd be unstoppable because I'd be reaching for all the information that was now at my fingertips that us in the aftermarket can't easily grasp. Right. You know what I mean? Can I piggyback on what you're saying about the dealer? [Lee Days] (13:19 - 13:33) When I was at dealerships, because that's all I worked is big dealerships. I used to look down on independent. I can't store it to you. I would not go to an independent. You can't pay me to go to an independent. Right. Thank you for making a believe out of me. I appreciate that because I would not go back to a dealer. [Tonnika Haynes] (13:33 - 13:33) Yeah. [Lee Days] (13:34 - 13:38) Even if you said, Lee, I ain't dealing with you no more. I'll go find another independent. Yeah. I'm not going to a dealer no more. [Tonnika Haynes] (13:38 - 13:43) What did you think? Dealer versus independent. What did you think that was going to look like? [Lee Days] (13:44 - 14:06) Small mom, pops. We're not really getting to work in just I'm throwing parts at everything. Ain't really doing no dags. Yeah. Can't hardly get your parts that you need. There's a lot of stuff going through my head at the time and dealerships pretty much the same. They, they, they throw parts at everything. Don't really do no good. [Tonnika Haynes] (14:06 - 14:10) No, no great parts right there in the parts department. So they can throw apart and put it back in a box. [Brandon Steckler] (14:11 - 14:25) If you, if you work that program properly, you can gain so much at the dealership, but you will never see the experience required the thinking outside the box that the, that the independent technician faces. [Tonnika Haynes] (14:25 - 14:47) Cause that's what the kid was saying. He was at Honda for four years and he was just smart enough to know that that is, is killing me mentally and emotionally. He was making the money and he was just like, but he said, Benji gave him a P30 truck and he said, kicked his tail. He said, I see the trucks older than me. And I was like, but how did that make you feel out? He said it humbled me and it opened me up to more things to learn. [Lee Days] (14:47 - 14:48) That makes me happy. [Tonnika Haynes] (14:48 - 14:49) Yeah. [Lee Days] (14:49 - 14:58) And something else I know is also, you build a relationship with the customer. Dealers build a relationship with their wallets. They don't, they don't, they don't build a relationship with the customer. [Tonnika Haynes] (14:58 - 15:20) Yeah. And training is very important to me. And that's why I asked the question, like, how do they get away with not training? But they're training for that vehicle, that specific vehicle. And sometimes it's just a module. Like you have the same problem. You've got, you know, the Odyssey, that 2018 Odyssey, you know, that car has that problem with the seals. This is what that problem has. Oh, that's what it is. That's what it is. It gets repetitive. [Brandon Steckler] (15:20 - 15:28) You know what we call that? It's a nickname among technicians called a silver bullet. Yeah. That's a silver bullet. We see it all the time. That's, that's going to fix the car. [Tonnika Haynes] (15:29 - 15:30) It's going to get paid eight hours. [Brandon Steckler] (15:30 - 15:37) I'll do it in five. Yep. And, and, and most of the time they're, they're right. And because of repetitiveness. [Tonnika Haynes] (15:38 - 15:41) But then what if the unicorn car shows up and there's a different problem? [Brandon Steckler] (15:41 - 16:03) My experience after almost 20 years at a dealership in several franchises, Saturn and Honda and, and General Motors. I was a really, I was an excellent technician with a great attitude, but I was, I was not a good technician. Like I thought I was, I thought I was skilled. I wasn't, I was, I was complacent. [Tonnika Haynes] (16:03 - 16:05) Jim Morton is your Mr. Miyagi. [Brandon Steckler] (16:05 - 16:08) Yes, sir. Ma'am, excuse me. Yes, sir. [Tonnika Haynes] (16:08 - 16:29) My name is Tanika. I'm a man. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm a bad boss. I've never heard. I always wanted to talk to both of you at the same time. I understand Jim doesn't want to do stuff anymore. He's tired, but I think it's amazing how he took you under the wing. Was it a gentle training? Was it a gentle Jim? [Brandon Steckler] (16:30 - 16:50) I met Jim at an opportunity. It almost forced my hand. Somebody asked me to do them a favor and sit in on this class. And of course my attitude was, well, I don't need to know anything. I know it all. I'm at the dealership, but I went as a favor. I decided to show my face and what I learned from that, it wasn't even so much the content in the class. It was his level of confidence. [Tonnika Haynes] (16:51 - 16:51) Yeah. [Brandon Steckler] (16:51 - 17:08) I'm like, I want to be like, I get nervous when I walk up to cars. I start thinking about what if I lose my tail on it? And he was, he was so confident, no matter what the problem was, no matter what the car was, he could figure it out. And I wanted that level of confidence. So I approached him as he's wrapping up his extension court at the end of the night. He wouldn't even look me in the eyes. [Tonnika Haynes] (17:08 - 17:09) He ain't got time for you. Yeah. [Brandon Steckler] (17:09 - 17:20) He said, I said, I'd like private training. He goes, yeah, I bet a hundred dollars an hour. And I said, okay. And he goes, tell you what? And he wrote down his address and he said, you'd be here on Thursday and we'll see. And I showed him. [Tonnika Haynes] (17:21 - 17:21) Wow. [Brandon Steckler] (17:23 - 17:31) T I walked into his house, went to shake his wife's hand. I spun my bag around, knocked all her crystals off the glass everywhere. I'm like, Oh my God. [Tonnika Haynes] (17:31 - 17:32) Oh, Daniel. [Brandon Steckler] (17:32 - 18:00) Yeah. I'm like, I blew it. But no first impression. He took me under his, this is the best part. He took me down in his basement, which was his lab. And we, we talked till like almost midnight. Then he ended. I put your hand out like this. He puts his hand out like that. Go ahead. And I went and he goes, no, pay me, pay me. I owed him almost 700 bucks. I'm like, you were serious about that. And he looked at me like, are you're not? I'm like, and I wrote him a check and, and he took me under his wing. He never charged me another penny. Right. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:00 - 18:02) I think he wanted to see what your heart was. [Brandon Steckler] (18:02 - 18:24) Yep. Yeah. And he said, I'll never forget this in his Philly accent. He says, listen, I'll tell you what I was going to be. You stick with me and do what I say. And if you don't, I'm going to drop you like a hot potato. He said, if you lose the fire in your belly, I'm going to drop you like a hot potato. Do you understand? He said, I dealt with 20 of you guys over the last couple of decades. And you all say the same thing. You want training. And then when it gets hard, you don't want to do the training. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:24 - 18:24) Yeah. [Brandon Steckler] (18:25 - 18:38) Yeah. And I was just, I was driven and I just, I'm blind faith alone. I listened to everything he said. And, uh, it, it worked out. He, he lit the fire under me and it, it, it, it's self-perpetuating. Now he couldn't put out the fire if he wanted to. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:39 - 18:45) So the fire that he lit under you, are you taking that Kindle and your job is to nail other little fires? [Brandon Steckler] (18:45 - 19:23) That is my mission. It's I've, I've made it. My mission in here is, is to spread that, spread that, that word, spread that, uh, approach that these are going to be challenges, but it's worth your time and money to invest in training. His, his famous saying is training doesn't cost a pace. And that's the honest to God truth. Cause if it wasn't for the training, I wouldn't have the confidence, nevermind the skillset to do what I do, but the confidence to keep trying and to reach out and shake hands to people and try teaching at events where I met most of my friends now are people I met solely because of the opportunities he's put in front of me. [Tonnika Haynes] (19:24 - 19:30) That's crazy. So that networking that we get in events like this, none of this would have happened. You have come, like how long you've been doing this? [Brandon Steckler] (19:30 - 19:32) All in all about 30 years. [Tonnika Haynes] (19:32 - 19:33) Do you feel like it's full circle? [Brandon Steckler] (19:34 - 19:46) Yeah. I feel like it's 95. I still got a little bit to go, but this is the hardest part. It's the most fun part, but doing what I want to do all over the world, that's to me, I feel that's the best way I can pay him back. [Tonnika Haynes] (19:46 - 19:54) How scary was it for you to say, okay, I'm not going to finish, keep this nine to five. I'm not going back to the dealership. I can't depend on, because you're training with WTI. [Brandon Steckler] (19:55 - 20:53) Yep. I wear several hats. You got a lot of hats, but that's a lot to just say, okay, I'm getting ready to step out and do this. It was. And you know what, I'll be honest with you. My hand was forced. I spent a small stint last year working at a shop, doing what I do now. Right. Matter of fact, last time we spoke on the podcast, I was heading up a shop as a, as a tech training coach. And it just, it wasn't working. My goals was not aligning with the current pace of the shop, the culture in the shop. Yep. And it was nobody's fault. So you just had to pivot. Had to pivot. And I, uh, at the first time in my life, I was truly on it. Like I went home and told Amber, I said, I don't, I'm unemployed. And you got a baby. And I got a baby and two houses. And I'm like, Oh my God. And I'm like, you know what? And we needed a roof. Yep. You've been going through bro. And it is, you know, I said, look, this is a, this is a test. I have a great idea. I'm excited about it. I talked about it with some really close friends. A matter of fact, I'm going to mention Tommy Oliva, one of my best friends in the world. [Tonnika Haynes] (20:53 - 20:59) I had a good conversation with him last week. I met him at STX for the first time. That's the first time I ever met him. [Brandon Steckler] (20:59 - 21:00) So we did a podcast. [Tonnika Haynes] (21:00 - 21:02) I love that young man. [Brandon Steckler] (21:02 - 21:27) I tell Tommy, when I hang up the phone, I said, I love you, man. And he loves me too. I would walk through fire for that guy. And he would do the same for me. So Tommy's a very intelligent man and business savvy. And I reached out with him with this idea and he said, you got this. And I'm like, really? Like I, it's like I needed his stamp of approval. And I told Amber, I said, I'm going to give this one week because that's all we can afford. And so I'm going to make an announcement on Facebook and we'll see what happens. And I've been busy since day one. [Tonnika Haynes] (21:27 - 21:28) That's what's up. [Brandon Steckler] (21:28 - 21:29) So I love it. [Tonnika Haynes] (21:29 - 22:08) Stekla's busy. And so we are busy. And we're going to make you more busy. Good. I would love that plan. Thank God. I love everything that you're doing. Thank you. Especially when Lee made that comment. And so that meant the world to me. It was, it was unprovoked. He just came out and said it. Imagine how many people lives you're going to change just by changing their mindset and offering that training. And so hopefully through the podcast and some of the things that we have up and coming, we're going to just get you out there. We're going to get you into the world. We're going to make you tired. You're going to have to get some little Miyagi's to help you with this. We want to blow you up because you have a good product. [Brandon Steckler] (22:08 - 22:09) Thank you. [Tonnika Haynes] (22:09 - 22:45) And you know what you know how to teach? Like, I'm not a teacher. I don't know if you watch Schitt's Creek, but it's a, yeah. That's me. I won't. I will tell you when I hire you, I'm not a teacher. I just like, just do it. How do you do it? I'm the mom. That's like, if Johnny had six apples, I cannot help you with math. I couldn't help Santana doing homework because I am not, I don't have the patience for it, but it takes a really patient, strong person to do what you're doing. And you're not only doing it for the money, you're doing it for the industry and you're doing it for the people that are where you started. [Brandon Steckler] (22:45 - 23:23) Thank you. You know, a lot of it, you mentioned patience in this true, but a lot of it was, I remember sitting in classes as, as them, as the student and being in front of really intelligent instructors and, uh, the personality, they wanted to be the, the tough guy. Yeah. Yes. Chest up. And they were so unapproachable. I actually, I had a conversation with one. We're now friends, but at the time I said, I'd like to say something to you, sir. And I permission to speak, sir. Yeah. And he says, yeah. I said, I really admire what you do, but at the same time, a bit disappointed. And he went like that. I said, yeah, I, I don't want you were so unapproachable and you have so much to share. [Tonnika Haynes] (23:23 - 23:23) Yeah. [Brandon Steckler] (23:23 - 23:33) And it's like, you're teasing us. You want to let us know, you know, but you won't tell us. And I don't like that. I don't want anyone to think I was here. I rather start class talking about how many things I broke over the years. [Tonnika Haynes] (23:33 - 24:02) That's what makes me like, what did the kids say? And we're talking about Benji is a Burris as a, um, as a leader and the shop owner. He's like, man, that dude has forgot more than I'll ever learn. And I love it. And I love picking this brain. When I just thought about what you're saying, being approachable, being approachable, because I, I'm not a male, but I can imagine the male ego is something else. And you want to know something. You want to learn something, but you can't, you know why? Because you're scared to ask. And if you've got someone that's standing there like that, you're not doing your job. [Brandon Steckler] (24:02 - 24:09) I don't think I'll ever understand why it's a, it's a desirable feeling when you bash someone like that. [Tonnika Haynes] (24:09 - 24:30) And even in the, in the shop, I can't imagine any shop setting. You have the master tech, the a tech so on and so forth. And what they're doing is not wanting to help help anybody else. We don't do that in my shop. I'm not doing that now. Hey, Bert, can you help me with this? Let me finish this real quick. I'll be over there. But nobody's going to say that ain't my job and I'm not getting paid for that one. [Lee Days] (24:30 - 24:36) I'll slap you. We used to have a shop for him at the dealership. He, people struggled. He won't go help him. Yeah, he would not. [Tonnika Haynes] (24:36 - 24:52) I mean, we all rise by lifting each other. Like that's crazy. And that's the difference. Not saying that all dealerships are bad and not saying all trainers are bad, but if you have the knowledge, share it. Like, why would you want to hold on to that? [Intro] (24:52 - 24:53) Why? [Tonnika Haynes] (24:53 - 25:12) I ain't training nobody. I see it in the comments. We talk about training. We talk about apprenticeship. We talk about mentoring. I got time for that. And if somebody had time for you, Jim had time for you. He, he challenged you to make sure the time that he gave you was going to be worth it, but he had time and that's all we need to do with each other. And that, that is my personal opinion. And it helps the industry get better. [Lee Days] (25:12 - 25:32) And what you're saying about being a teacher and being patient. He had a lot of patience with me. He really did. I could tell, I want to say day one, he got a little heated with me because when I have a multimeter and you wanted numbers, all I kept saying, it tastes good. It's good. No, that's why I need numbers. I said, okay, I'm getting what you're saying now. So yeah, you're good. No. [Brandon Steckler] (25:32 - 25:49) And I just needed him to know I'm not there. Yeah. So I can't, when somebody says it's good. If I took your word on it and it was wrong and I told you, or Ms. Tanika, you need a computer and it wasn't who's at fault. Yeah. Because you didn't give me the information. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:49 - 25:49) Yeah. [Brandon Steckler] (25:49 - 25:55) It's like flying a plane and the altimeter is broken. You know what I mean? You don't know how tall it's dangerous. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:55 - 26:00) That sounds very scary. I don't know what that is, but let's not do that. I want my plane's altimeter to work. [Lee Days] (26:00 - 26:02) All right. Don't let the flies in. I love being in the air. [Tonnika Haynes] (26:02 - 26:29) So Stekler, next up is your training tomorrow. You actually have a class with Brandon tomorrow. And as soon as I get back from my vacation, we're going to start doing some training. We're going to, we're going to try to come up with a program for the shop. And actually I've been thinking about how we could do a training with ASTA and bring you back for regional type training. I think would be awesome. I know you and Benji talked about a little bit coming to Out the Frog Pond. I'll be a part of that. Some kind of way we're getting back to, we're getting to you. [Intro] (26:30 - 26:30) Perfect. [Tonnika Haynes] (26:30 - 26:45) Because that's, that's what we need. We need, you have to train all the time. It's not that we're training a brand new technologies and whatever, but we're going to make sure that your ego technician, your ego is not getting away of you not knowing that you don't know the fundamentals. [Brandon Steckler] (26:46 - 26:58) Yes. And hey, yeah, it's not about bashing anyone. I want to help them because that's going to, that's their roadblock and they don't even know it. That's what's stopping them from being the best they can be is that is what we would call an ego that they don't even realize they have. [Tonnika Haynes] (26:58 - 27:32) They have it because I've always done it this way. And I'll tell you about training, what makes me happy. What makes me really, really happy is I think we've been coming here as a team. This is year four, maybe five as a time. I bring the whole shop. I shut the shop down. But have you ever noticed on Burt's wall, all of his training manuals from each class from ASDA. I love to see his notes. I love it. I think my favorite note is C-Y-A, cover your ass. And that's what Brandon meant when he said, what are the numbers? Yeah. What is the real data? What is the real data? [Brandon Steckler] (27:32 - 27:33) I'm sorry if I came off like I was. [Lee Days] (27:33 - 27:39) No, no, no, no, no, no. You remembered it. Exactly. It was a lesson learned. Yeah, you didn't come off, no, it's A. [Tonnika Haynes] (27:40 - 28:00) Because you were so busy. You were so busy in the mindset of what you have been doing for the last 30 years. And we'd be like, well, you'll say, we'll say, I'm too old for this. Shut up. Shut up. Let's change the words on that. Yeah. And let's just do it. Let's just do it. And then I love, I love it. I love it. Because everybody was in his class Thursday. My whole crew. [Lee Days] (28:00 - 28:01) Yeah. Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (28:01 - 28:03) Yeah. The whole crew was in there. Fantastic. [Brandon Steckler] (28:03 - 28:04) I did not know that. [Lee Days] (28:04 - 28:14) I wish I knew ahead of time. No, no, no. Thursday, we didn't have them Thursday. I'm sorry. We had, um, what's the guy's name? What's the guy's name? Right at the tip of my tongue. [Tonnika Haynes] (28:14 - 28:16) But you all have them tomorrow. [Lee Days] (28:17 - 28:19) Tomorrow. Okay. I apologize. Okay. [Tonnika Haynes] (28:20 - 28:21) Okay. Okay. All good. [Brandon Steckler] (28:21 - 29:08) Well, I want you to tell the people how to get in contact with you. So it's great. So I, uh, I have a really good website guy. He put one together. It's SWAT diag.com, S-W-A-T-D-I-A-G.com. And that'll give a brief explanation, uh, in detail, actually of, of everything that I can do to help bring value to shops and technicians in those shops. Uh, but equally as important is I've launched a portal, S-W-A-T-P-O-R-T-A-L, SWATportal.com where you or you or anybody can get logged in and build yourself a profile. This way, when that difficult car comes, we don't have to spend a half hour on the phone, chit-chatting ahead of time. You can just put in a request, get back to work. I'll reach out to you and say, let me know when you're not busy. Cause I know what it's like to work in a shop. So SWATportal.com. [Tonnika Haynes] (29:09 - 29:14) And you do the one-on-one kind of like what you did with Lee, case-by-case basis. You're doing team training. [Brandon Steckler] (29:14 - 29:33) Yep. We can do that. We build customized virtual training and teach by the hour and organize onsite technical, what I call critical training, foundational training, tier one training, I call it, which could lead eventually to tier two training. And it's, it's, it's stepping stones. It's getting you to the next level. And I just want to level everybody up. [Tonnika Haynes] (29:34 - 29:40) Nevermind. But we got to figure out where you're at. So we've got to get the baseline in there first. And even the season tech, they should start at tier one. [Brandon Steckler] (29:40 - 29:57) And I'll tell you what, I want them to visit the website. I'm building different. I got some secrets coming up. I'm excited about, but I'm not ready yet to launch them. But if you visit the website and visit the portal, build yourself a profile. It doesn't cost a penny just so you're in there. And I got your information and we can talk and you can reach out anytime. I'm happy to help. [Tonnika Haynes] (29:58 - 29:58) I'm so proud of you. [Brandon Steckler] (29:58 - 29:59) Thank you so much. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:01 - 30:39) And it's crazy. So I'm going to tell you this. I don't think I've told you this before, but when I first met Amber, she was working with Rick and she's she's in the dating scene. And we were talking about dating her and Brenda and I, and I was like, girl, get, get a plan A, B, and C. You ain't got to commit anybody. I said, when did she start talking about you? And I was like, oh, and the ears, the guy with the ears, the guy with the ears. Oh my God. The next thing I know, boom, here comes a whole baby. And I was like, oh my God. You got the cutest baby that gives her daddy the middle finger. [Brandon Steckler] (30:39 - 30:39) She does. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:40 - 30:41) That is cute. Does she know what she's doing? [Brandon Steckler] (30:41 - 30:47) No, she was just, she was blowing bubbles and the spit came out and she went like, she just, sorry. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:48 - 30:50) And Amber got it at the right time. [Brandon Steckler] (30:50 - 30:51) Click. I'm like, beautiful. Beautiful. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:52 - 30:54) Make that her profile picture. Porky chops. [Brandon Steckler] (30:54 - 31:11) I call her porky chops. No, my first is 15. She lives with her mama. And, uh, um, Amber's got a 10 year old and I still consider her like my daughter and she is. And, uh, together we got, it's a baby too. Yeah. She'll be, she's 20. She'll be 22 months next week. [Tonnika Haynes] (31:11 - 31:11) Okay. [Brandon Steckler] (31:12 - 31:12) Two weeks. Sorry. [Tonnika Haynes] (31:12 - 31:14) Yeah. He started all over again. [Brandon Steckler] (31:14 - 31:16) I can't do it. 15 year old, two year old. [Tonnika Haynes] (31:17 - 31:25) Well, I am be 50 soon. And my sister will be, Santana's 22. She'll be 23 February. Your sister's 23 or 24. [Lee Days] (31:25 - 31:25) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (31:26 - 31:27) Yeah. My mom was raising. [Lee Days] (31:29 - 31:32) Well, that's another thing. She liked me at the shop. Cause now she sees she's not the oldest person. [Tonnika Haynes] (31:32 - 32:04) I'm not the oldest person at the shop anymore, but we can talk about old school stuff. We can talk about TV shows and I got somebody to relate to. Oh, I got somebody to relate to. Cause I can go in front. I was like, Oh gosh, you remember that episode of Cosby show? And they're like, who? Yeah. He was canceled. Oh my God. Missing it. Haley was like, you can't talk about a Cosby show. I'm like, are you serious right now? So, um, it, it, we can say something. I know exactly what song or exactly what movie. And they'll look at us like, what? I'm like, ah, you got it. You got to see it. We got to show it to you. So yeah, that's my road dog. Now me and Lee, the old cats in the shop oldest crap, but we cute though. [Lee Days] (32:04 - 32:05) And you know it. [Tonnika Haynes] (32:05 - 32:55) Yeah. I want to let you know, I'm so proud of you being on my team and whether you're there through retirement or whatever, I hope that everything that I'm trying to do as an owner, as a leader at Browns Automotive sticks with you through trials and tribulation. That's, that's one thing that I'm really trying to do a better job at as a leader. It's like, what can I provide to you? And I'm not worried about, Oh, you train them up. They'll leave you. I'm not worried about that. Cause I feel like if I do it right, then you'll stay. And even if I do it right and you leave, you'll still have respect for what you've gone through. And that's what I really would want to leave a lasting impression on everybody that I touch because God has already blessed me with, with the business and the customers and the good reputation. So now it's like, what can I do for the people that keep that going? So I'm so glad that you were part of that team. [Lee Days] (32:55 - 32:56) And I'm glad to be a part of it. [Tonnika Haynes] (32:57 - 33:02) I'm looking forward to trying to get them back. I just stole me another one from the dealership. He's been there two months. Yep. [Lee Days] (33:02 - 33:02) Beautiful. [Tonnika Haynes] (33:02 - 33:41) Yep. Yep. All right guys, let's go eat some food. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. 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.