Latest / Downshift With Tonnika / The Hard Truth About Technician-Turned-Shop Owners | Tomi Oliva - Ep 43
Transcript
- [Tomi Oliva] (0:00 - 0:10) I do have a hero syndrome and I think that's the reason why I flourished in this business is because I always enjoyed being the hero. I've in essence have become the ceiling of the shop and that's not good. [Benjie Burris] (0:10 - 0:24) 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 and that's what this podcast is all about. It's time to Downshift. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:29 - 0:30) Are you working today? [Tomi Oliva] (0:31 - 0:54) Yeah, we had to come in which is kind of threw off my uh well two things right um when I saw the times I didn't realize they were eastern. Oh yeah. So that was one two and then yeah um I leave for another training event and we are like beyond slam so my guys actually decided to come in and um so I don't. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:55 - 0:57) What is it seven o'clock in the morning there? [Tomi Oliva] (0:57 - 1:00) No we're not behind I'm central time. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:00 - 1:01) Oh you're Chicago I'm thinking California. [Tomi Oliva] (1:02 - 1:02) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:02 - 1:05) I have no sense of time or direction for me. [Tomi Oliva] (1:05 - 1:20) Yeah I uh it's all a blur and right now it's uh you know scrambling because we I'm taking my lead technician to this training event next week uh and so like we're we're here trying to set up next week because. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:20 - 1:20) Where are you going? [Tomi Oliva] (1:21 - 1:25) You know uh outside of Nashville for the Tech Fix Live event. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:25 - 1:47) Okay this was it. Good morning everybody or whenever you listen to this um so I've been told that I need to tell people to like and follow and share because I mean I'm getting a lot of traction but people forget to like my social media pages and the the tube and the the book and the talk so tell them Tommy tell them to like and follow and shit. [Tomi Oliva] (1:47 - 1:49) Like follow and share baby let's go no excuse. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:50 - 1:57) Yeah all right let's get it rolling. You know I've been calling you Olivia forever. That's all good. I can't get it out of my head. [Tomi Oliva] (1:57 - 1:57) All right. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:57 - 1:59) I want to call you by the right name. [Tomi Oliva] (1:59 - 1:59) It's okay Tonika. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:59 - 2:02) But I think you're going to be Olivia. Yeah and I'll be Tonika. [Tomi Oliva] (2:03 - 2:06) It's all good. As long as you don't call me ugly we're good. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:09 - 2:12) I had so much fun talking to you at STX. I was excited to finally meet you. [Tomi Oliva] (2:13 - 2:19) It was an absolute pleasure to talk to you. I've met you before just never had an opportunity to sit down and speak. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:20 - 2:30) Yeah we talked for a good long time like when I'm having conversations like that I'm like I wish I could record this because it's so authentic and good and whatever. That's why I like to go into stuff unscripted because you know you never know. [Tomi Oliva] (2:31 - 2:58) I'm very much a fly by the seat of my pants type of guy. I always enjoy that part and you know I'll be honest with you. I am not a fan of the direction that training events are going in. I don't have a solution right so I don't technically I'll complain about certain things but the state of the training of industry I can't really complain because I don't have a solution. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:59 - 3:08) Okay well when you have solutions then I'll talk to you about it. Exactly. You know what that's that makes me so mad when I'm in a meeting or something and people complain about stuff but they don't have a solution. [Tomi Oliva] (3:09 - 3:19) My good friend Fisher told me this one time and I never forgot it. He said if you have a complaint come with a solution because if not you're whining and I don't have time for whiners. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:20 - 3:41) Yeah that makes sense in the shop too. In life period it's like if you got an employee or technician whatever and you just want to complain all the time. Okay dude what do you want me to do about it? Like do you have a solution or even an idea that'll help us grow but if you don't box or kick rocks like what are you talking about? If you just want to hear yourself talk then go talk to yourself in the mirror. You've got some good stuff. [Tomi Oliva] (3:42 - 4:24) Yeah I come from my old man was very much like that like there was no excuse especially the way he was brought up and how he came here to the states and the situation he came in and it's probably one of the things I inherited from him is just no nonsense no excuses. Even within the industry right like I've talked to people and a lot of people do not like my directness but I've never I'm not disrespectful unless I'm provoked and I will if you ask me for an opinion you're gonna get it and it may not be what you want to hear but it'll be what you need to hear. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:25 - 5:02) Same and sometimes people don't want to hear me and I might be wrong but I'll be very loud and wrong about it. I'll stand on my wrongness just prove me wrong if I'm wrong just say something productive just instead of just saying just shut up that's stupid. Why is it stupid? Like let's have a whole conversation. So that's how we got to talking talking about your dad and we were comparing dads and stories growing up second generation shop owners and finding our way in the industry and how we got there. So what your dad started your dad started shopping in 90 91 91 90 91 something like that. [Tomi Oliva] (5:03 - 5:10) I remember being 91 my mom says it was 90 so I just I've learned not to contradict little little Hispanic ladies. [Tonnika Haynes] (5:11 - 5:13) Don't do that yeah don't get a whooping. [Tomi Oliva] (5:13 - 7:04) No it's a yeah I know and so he actually started off as a as a he bought a used tire shop and that's how he started his journey into so my dad is not a mechanic or wasn't super mechanic like but that was a horrible mechanic he did he worked on his own cars because he didn't want to pay anybody because either he couldn't afford it or he was just you know survival mentality people will technically will will waste time to save money versus you know people with different aspects in life like me for example like um I am very much in tune with I'd rather spend money to save time yeah like I I pay a landscaper I've been called by a lot of my white friends a disgrace to the Hispanic community because I don't mow my own lawn and I'm like listen man my dad didn't cross no river so I can mow lawns all right like it's not happening you don't have time for it I don't have I don't have time my guy charges me 25 bucks I'm glad to spend my my my hundred dollars or whatever he charges me a month to help the economy like no I I absolutely refuse to go out there and and mow my lawn fight me I don't I don't care and so you know like growing up with him was was a lot of that like a lot of you know stepping over uh stepping over dollars to pick up pennies but I understand it now because he um you know when people grow up in poverty and survival you'll get two two different types of people you'll get the people who will spend every penny because they'll never know when they're going to get back to that when they don't have it and then you have the other people who will never spend a dollar because they're afraid to get back to where they were and that was my father he didn't spend a dollar without thinking about it four times yeah that makes sense it's [Tonnika Haynes] (7:04 - 7:10) actually smart even though it could be crippling at some points but your experience is your experience [Tomi Oliva] (7:11 - 8:46) and truth be told I always feel that if my father would have asked for help right he would have been a billionaire because my dad when he died he left us um well over a million dollars in assets that's just assets not even like what he accrued and what he spent over life I mean he he has property the building that he that I'm currently in he built it never had a mortgage on it never owed anything or never took a loan out of it uh the house that my mother is living in he paid that that that that house off maybe 20 years ago so he did a lot of stuff like that but he never excelled in anything because he didn't know how money really worked like my dad was very like fuck the government I only make x amount of money the rest is in cash and it's going back home or whatever like that was probably his biggest weakness he never learned how to lessen his tax liabilities he never learned how to ask for help in terms of how do you actually run a business now and you know I think that's what he wanted from me I think he always knew that I was going to be the one to actually have a business and I think that's why we always had friction in business because even he had a he did a lot of things right I just they don't click I have a technical mindset which is what made me really good at being a technician but it's very poor in terms of being able to understand people's point of views until they click to me [Tonnika Haynes] (8:47 - 10:04) well you know as we get older the lessons we learn from our elders parents mom dads aunts uncles grandma granddad blah blah blah um they started to make more sense because as a when we're young everything is stupid and we know everything sometimes some people and um you have to know that you I know your father's not with us anymore but he did to be first generation coming here foreign country what he did was flippin extraordinary you probably couldn't do that no absolutely not right so we got to get him to respect what is due because I remember just in college and I'm coming through I'm taking classes in college and they're all business classes and my dad's been in business for at that time what 19 20 years well I don't know I can't do math 15 years and I'm thinking I know it all and I want to go in there and make all of these changes but I have to understand I have to respect what he's already done so I'm pretty sure you were able to go in and trickle some stuff on there but as far as you going in there and telling your dad that oh you should have do this better you should do that better you're gonna get pushback just because nobody you don't want anybody to come in your shop and tell you how to run it whether it's your son daughter or anybody so yeah you gotta respect that that's that says a lot and then did you always want to work in the shop with your dad no no I absolutely [Tomi Oliva] (10:04 - 19:55) hated it so I had no intentions of sticking to this business if I'm being honest yeah a little backstory about me I worked the entire business so my father got sick when I was 12 years old so my mom used to shuttle me after school basically like I would she would come pick me up at school and I'd come straight to work stay there till we close go home do homework rinse and repeat for seven days a week well up until trade school like I literally was it was it was my obligation to help the family business because I've been running it for so long um I was so sick of it I actually was going to be a I was going to go to University of Illinois to become an engineer and um I went to one of the best high schools in this state uh and I high school was was fun for me because I'm a jackass but it was um it was extremely difficult man I used to have four or five hours of homework and I and I had and it were work full time so school let out at 2 30 I was at the shop by three we I'd be home 7 30 8 o'clock four hours of homework and then rinse and repeat every day um and so did that make you resent it no I just I I'm very goal-orientated so if I you know if I have to just do the work I'm I'll outwork anybody uh but it I it has to have purpose I can't work just to work there has to be a goal something something that's going to keep me motivated and I ended up I felt it when I was also like around 11 like 13 yeah about 13 years old my father um he had this idea right like I said he was not a mechanic so my dad had this idea of well you know we did tires right so what do you do when you take a tire off oh hey just let you know Mr. Customer your brakes are going bad oh hey Mr. Customer this tire is loose um get this get this thing checked out and my dad one thing that I can tell you about my dad was he's extremely honorable and honest like my dad never ripped anybody off he he he always was very much old school in terms of like my word is my I don't need a contract my words my word and so this gentleman um one time came up to my dad and was like hey man you need to stop recommending people to that shop you sent me to they totally ripped me off they did this so for a while my dad didn't even want to tell people that their cars were broken because he didn't he didn't have anywhere to tell them and then it just clicked to him one day he said wait I have a little bit of space here why don't I just hire a mechanic to help me with tires and then he can work on cars so when he hired when he found this mechanic he actually started teaching me and I started enjoying it okay so I would you know at 13 14 I was already doing you know typical maintenance work c-level work um my high school was actually a technical high school and I took auto automotive classes because I figured it was an easy period so remember I said I was a jackass yeah so my school had a zero policy zero tolerance policy for marijuana consumption or catching you with it because they had such an issue with it back when I was in high school 20-something years ago so I was uh I was uh I was outside of the of class because it was a two period class and during break we were out there and my buddy was smoking a joint and he passes it to me right so I was like ah whatever fine let me let me try this damn teacher walks out as I'm smoking it and I'm looking at it I'm like fine fucking and I'm like I'm not a snitch man so I'm like all right man you caught me he's like see me after class I'm like so me being who I am I'm like for what you're gonna boot me anyway what the hell do I need to stay here for and he just kicked me out yeah he's like I'm the type of person that if the ship is burning and I'm burning the whole bridge down with me like I don't care and so I'm like so I'm arguing with this man and he's just like he's like Tommy I was like yes he's like shut the fuck up and see me after class all right man whatever you do the whole day like I'm just like I'm wasting my time I'm wasting my time I'm gonna get it because that was the punishment was you get expelled get expelled yeah I go see him at the class I'm like what's up man what you made me wait here for the whole day for he's just like listen man he's like out of all of the um out of all of the students you have a lot of knack for this why I told him like oh I've been doing it since I was you know 11 12 years old my dad you know told the whole story he's like he's like I think you have what it takes to be a great technician and I'm like I don't want to do this shit and he's like well I'll cut you a deal we had a driver's ed course like we had an entire course in the cars and everything in my school that's how big it was and he's like help me work on the driver's ed classes after school and I won't and I won't narc on you I was like oh that sounds like an easy deal cool and then during the middle of it man we had to like rebuild drums and do all types of stuff to these old crappy ass cars from the 80s those were the cars they were using for driver's dodge omnis ford escorts man just expel me and then I'm that's exactly what I said I like dude you should have just kicked me the fuck out and he's I mean I'm in Chicago so it's they're all rusty they don't they don't really move more than go around and laps like glorified go-karts they're range cars so they were just hunks of junk and I'm just like dude this sucks but like after like a week or two I'm like you know this is fun like I really like this and fix that you accomplish something he said yeah so I it's funny because I ended up going to a couple tours uh towards some technical schools and then I fell in love with one of them and dude I did a complete 180 I'm like I'm not going to college I'm going to trade school I I can make the same amount of money as an engineer I can probably make more and then I'm like and then it clicked to me I'm like dude my dad does a lot of money doing this I'm just like what if I can do both I'll make more and and again work has never been an issue for me so what but the funny part is when I told my dad my my plan he I swear the old man was gonna cry why because uh happy cry sad cry sad a lot of a lot of Guatemalans are very big into education see um in Guatemala you can you can get uh college you can become a lawyer a doctor an accountant something like with a certain degree in Guatemala for free so basic basic college education in Guatemala is free so it's just like they came up with this mentality that if you're not college educated you're like this you know piece of shit loser yeah boom yeah and so I so and I I played I made my case and I'm just like listen man I'm like you make more than most of them I go I don't have to spend two hundred thousand dollars uh it's just I don't like sitting in an office staring at a computer all day this is what I like to do and this is what I'm gonna do it and he was just like finally he stopped trying to convince me he's like all right man this is it's it's your future dude as long as you do something then you'll be fine I'm like oh it'll be fine yeah because you went to UTI right I did yes I went to UTI yeah I went to UTI uh here in here in Illinois and it was uh it it it you know people talk a lot of of bad stuff would I go there now if I had to go to school today probably not the curriculum has kind of changed a bit too much for my taste but I was right there at the time where like I still got taught by a lot of awesome instructors I had some amazing instructors I wouldn't be where I'm at today without that that base of education that I got from UTI yeah and I came back from UTI um was trying to limbo so I kind of started my little side business here at the shop and it was I was the shop's mechanic at that point when I graduated UTI and then we fell out with my old man I decided to up my grab my stuff and I moved to Florida I spent a year in Florida but that was probably by far the best thing we could have done for our relationship because he was being uh misled by my stepbrother who ended up just being very very jealous of me because I grew up with my father and he didn't yeah so he was just putting all this stuff in my dad's ear and then um I'm not the type to like I don't complain I just put my head down and I just I just work but ultimately when it gets to a point I just say you know F this and so me and my dad started clashing and then I was just like man I'm out I just left I grabbed my tools loaded up my car 1500 bucks in my pocket and I just left and did you think that year apart made him respect you and hopefully you respect him a lot more I so I this is how stubborn I am I still feel like I was right right like I in that situation I still feel that I was 100% right but I could have gone better about communicating it because again I I was I'm a I'm a Hispanic male right like I I don't complain I don't cry about my feelings we weren't we weren't raised that way [Tonnika Haynes] (19:56 - 19:59) yeah have you seen that series be a man I'm gonna send you some of those videos those are hilarious [Tomi Oliva] (19:59 - 21:15) be a man yeah and so like you know it took me years to get rid of that programming um but it was it was it was definitely interesting that year that I was in Florida uh my dad ended up helping me move back because I it was it was rough I was homeless for a bit um I was I lost my car at a time that I was losing my apartment so I hadn't enough money to either get into another apartment or uh or get a car so I was like well let me get a car because at least I can sleep in the car and I don't have to walk everywhere how old were you then I was 21 yeah yeah it was it was young and dumb and it was fun but you know my dad my dad actually ended up bailing me out of that one I didn't ask but he he found out through my my godfather's family lived in in that area and they found out and they told him and he called me he's like what are you doing man I'm like I'm just making this work man like like your ass home and act like yeah exactly that's exactly what he said he's like you don't have to be eating shit man you're doing it because you want to I'm just like yeah honestly it's the truth so yeah I moved back home and it was great we got along a lot better yeah when I moved back but you probably grew up a [Tonnika Haynes] (21:15 - 21:25) lot more you want you keep saying I want to be right you wasn't right you grew up you smell you smell that shit stink and he's like okay I'm taking my ass back home no I still think I still [Tomi Oliva] (21:25 - 21:44) think I was right I really was I was right I was right for leaving but not again I should have had a conversation instead of just saying fuck this and then you and whatever and yeah I do apologize for the swearing I forget so I'm gonna I'm gonna try to it's an automotive podcast I try to control [Tonnika Haynes] (21:44 - 21:51) my words too I grew up in a shop just like you did cool yeah yeah so how do you morph into becoming [Tomi Oliva] (21:51 - 29:05) the boss man how does that work out funny enough I come back from Florida and I I just put my head down and I paid off my debts I racked up credit card debt I you know I needed a car I was I didn't even have a car for like two years I was so like focused on paying off I didn't even go out I didn't go do nothing during this time frame my dad said listen man I'm selling this shop I don't I don't want to do this anymore like your uncles are giving me really good money for it I want to take that money I want to open up a business in Guatemala blah blah blah I'm just like I'm moving back to Florida because that's what I wanted I was like I learned from my mistakes I'm going to move back to Florida and do whatever you want homie like I don't want this shop so then my there goes my dumbass brother getting in my ear like why don't we buy it from him from dad why don't we buy it from dad I don't fucking want this place man if anything it belongs I told him if anything it belongs to me because I've been I've you you've been back and forth I said I've had to put up with this through all my whole childhood man but I don't want it like I'm good man I'll figure it out and um I don't know what happened right but he just he just I guess he wouldn't shut the hell up and then I finally said all right let's try it for a year if we're if we're fruitful and we can open up another shop then I'll because that's that's how he got me he said dude we can rent another place and then you I can run the tire shop you can run the mechanic shop you're you're really good at diagnosis your brother talking this is my half brother talking this is this was before me and my dad kind of like started communicating and figuring out that he was the one that was causing all our problems and um so my um so I stayed I stayed for an extra year and and that time before we took before I took over the shop my my brother's like I don't want to live without my family I'm gonna go get him and come back I was like okay cool do what you gotta do man he's like when you'll be back he's like give me two months and then we'll start when I come back this bastard never came back I figured that was coming yeah he never came back so in the interim like I was just running the shop like I normally did and then like I said you know one day my dad was just like you know what used to piss me off about you is you used to do this and this and this I'm like I never did that he used to do this and that and then like you know yeah we're like wait a minute man this this is the reason so that's actually what really helped our relationship and then my dad was just like I had never knew how come you didn't tell me anything I'm like you told me not to complain about nothing go to work so that's what I did I went to work but the problem with me is so one of the things that my brother would say is like oh your son comes he shows up to the shop and never helps me and I'm like dude what happened what happened was I would go into the office because again there's times like midterms or end of semester I had major projects to do so I would go into the office work on him if a customer would come up I'd go work so I tell him hey man let me know when there's people I'll stop what I'm doing and I'm going to help well he never did that so I would kind of be I'd be that's one of my biggest issues I when I laser focus on something I'm on it so I'd be working on my papers and writing and doing this the next thing I know oh there's a bunch of customers oh crap put it down get up help him clear out the shop go back work so he wasn't lying but he wasn't telling the whole truth like I would tell him listen just come and just knock on the office dude I'll come up it's not a problem I'm I know I'm supposed to be working but I I can't spend six hours at this after work dude like I need to catch up I have too much too much homework and so then he'll be like I'll come in from school and he'll do to do things because like I don't know if you ever dealt with tires but when you do use tires you have to inspect them first or at least we did we wouldn't inspect them first check them for holes or whatever and then once we did that and fix them we would mark them put them on racks so that way when the customer came in looking for a tire we had it ready to go we'd slap it on balance and they take off well we were supposed to do that prior so then I would show up from the shop and there'd be like a stack of tires there and my brother would say hey mark them for me yeah please at least do that okay yeah so I put the numbers on them and then I go catalog them basically well when my dad be working in the morning he'll grab one of my tires because that's my writing on them and they'll have a hole in them or they'll be bad and so he'd tell him like oh see this is this is the type of stuff I have to deal with that's what my dad told me and I saw it live one time and I never and I never said anything and my dad said you should have defended yourself you should have said something I'm just like you know what you're right like I should have I really should have but you never gave me that safe place to do that so like I didn't have the tools to defend myself against this idiot to you because in my eyes he was the golden goose because he's the one that I mean we both worked seven days a week but but he was there all the time but you were also in school so that's not fair correct so once we once we got rid of all that nonsense our relationship got good for for a while you know because the reason why I left my house was my dad had me like under his rule right like he had rules for me when I was in high school I had a 9 p.m curfew when I was in when I was at trade school as you should have yeah I agree okay what happened was when I graduated all this and I started working full-time for him I still had a curfew yeah but you still live with your dad so I I agree as an adult now you get it so yes no I I I understand and I understood it then it's just yeah what he did so like one day like I told my old man I said so I went up to him I like listen man like I don't think this is fair this is your house your rules alibi by him but dude I'm 21 years old and you're giving me a 10 p.m curfew like I'm a fucking high schooler I'm like no this isn't fair dude like I have done everything you asked me to I graduated from school I graduated from trade school now I work for you you can't be my dad and my boss at same time he's gonna say so that's where I came from and so he basically said you come in late one more time I'm changing the locks so Tommy said don't challenge me to a good time and so I came in I came in at 2 a.m. the next time and he changed the damn locks that day he changed the damn locks so I had to sleep in my car that night and so the next so I I went to the shop I opened up I went home after the shop stank and then I go up to my dad I'm just like give me a key to the damn house what's wrong with you and so I dad that's where it all blew up he's like listen listen you little mfr I'm like at the end of the day this is my house these are my rules and if you don't like it there's the damn door I was just like get get get out yep and I was like all right [Tonnika Haynes] (29:05 - 29:32) cool bye so the difference that the boys I don't give them a curfew anymore but Jordan doesn't work for me anymore but they don't come in all kinds of like well shit I don't know when they get home but I know it's hard out here in the world but there are some rules I know like um his friend is living with me right now Walter's like oh miss Haynes Jordan said we can't have girls over I was like no I don't care how old you are no it's just my rule I'm not trying to be evil that's just the [Tomi Oliva] (29:32 - 30:48) house rule well and it was cool about about after that and everything and I and then eventually like my dad's like dude you're running the shop why don't you just keep it I'm just like because I and I told my dad I don't want to be here man I really don't I don't want to be in Chicago like I'm tired of the cold um I don't like the client base like it was just so much stuff and so like but it became kind of fun again so I decided to stay and um so after you moved out after yeah when I moved back in and and then everything happened and so then the cool thing was like my dad had like a Chicago bungalow with a big basement so we just remodeled it so I had my little apartment I paid my dad some rent he never asked me for it either but you know it was great honestly it was great at that point my dad just he just was like all right motherfucker you're you're old enough you know what you're doing um I remember one time I walked in like at 4 a.m and I caught him in the fridge he was supposed to be eating he looked at me and I looked at him he's just like he looked at me he's like him yep we'll just keep this between each other yep he just winked at me he's like go to sleep man you know you got work in two hours I was like all right man I'm not telling my mom you're eating over [Tonnika Haynes] (30:48 - 31:37) here but the funny thing just sounds like the typical father-son relationship he had to learn how to let you grow up and you know you it's hard to separate boss man and dad because I grew up with I mean that that was hard I think the last I've been on my own for 10 years but those last couple years before dad retired whoa so I have my own house and I have a house and kids and whatever but it got strained it's hard like all day this is your boss and he's just barking at you because he's your boss but he's also your dad so you really can't cuss him out um and then so it kind of put a strain on relationship where you know I wasn't going over his house that much anymore but now it's just like it's so much different it was it's like night and day now it I hate to say this but [Tomi Oliva] (31:37 - 35:03) the best years in the relationship of my father was when he realized he was dying oh because but he never realized so like my dad was sick but he my dad used to tell me something my dad used to tell me something where like he said people know when their time has come he's like when they when you when somebody just randomly pops up and says hi or something he's like take the time say hello because they're saying goodbye so um we went through a rocky era I went through a really rough patch health-wise I weighed I ballooned over 600 pounds um I could barely like do day-to-day tasks my dad took took back the shop I got help I lost a bunch of weight um I realized that um I needed to take a shop in a different direction my dad still loved the tire business I hated it uh I'm a technician damn it and so that was my mindset I'm like I don't want to do this we we can make so much more money doing something else so then when I lost the weight I put my head down I was working I came up to my dad and I actually gave him my two weeks I said listen pops man like like I want us to have a relationship but we can't do that with this shop in the middle of this man so we have two options either you rent it to me and leave me be let me fail or let me win I'm like or let me go let me go and I'll open up a shop somewhere else I have I have plenty of customers they're my customers um so you know I'll give you I'll give you like I told him I'll give you a month to figure out what you want to do if you want to sell the building or whatever but I'm I we I don't want to do this with you anymore and so he came back like a month later he's like all right here's a lease it's yours just run with it this is how much I want a month and so that's how that's how that progressed into me turning this into his business into my business back in 2016 and uh it was it's been a wild ride because he he didn't know anything about automotive he wasn't a mechanic he didn't understand mechanics but knowing what I learned through coaching my I know understand why my dad was successful because he did a lot of things right and one of the things that my dad did was putting the customer first right he didn't do a lot of cultural things right for example like I have this really weird habit that people absolutely hate and it's because of my dad I eat my food cold why because you don't have time to put in the microwave so my my dad was very people first right so what would happen the customers will walk in I'm heating up my food I'd have to stop and take care of them no ifs ands or buts about it yeah well by the time I got back to my food and heat it up again another by another customer we were in very high volume my dad never let one of us eat and he take no my dad used to eat and be like that's y'all from so that's why I say the culture problem because I don't do that like if I can if my guys can get up while we're eating to service one of my clients then I can do the same thing too right and that's why my guys do it because I do it if they get up once then I'll take the next turn and then somebody else and then vice versa but we all eat together and I [Tonnika Haynes] (35:03 - 35:08) probably thought it was the best form of customer service that he could offer and wasn't thinking [Tomi Oliva] (35:08 - 35:35) about the employees correct yeah I don't I don't I'm not I don't hate him for it and I understand it now but I think the way he went about it in terms of like there it's a yin and yang right you're you keep your your guys happy and your customers happy and they'll keep your customers happy too right and he didn't that part he didn't understand because he was just like well I'm paying you so you guys you do what I tell you to do right that's why I think I enjoyed talking to you [Tonnika Haynes] (35:35 - 35:47) so much because how parallel our story stories are like your dad didn't know the mechanic stuff but my dad didn't either so when you start make those changes how did he react you know what the [Tomi Oliva] (35:47 - 35:54) sad part is my dad never saw any of these changes here right now oh no because I already told you he [Tonnika Haynes] (35:54 - 36:00) does we uh yeah we already talked about that well I guess I I agree with you right but it just it's [Tomi Oliva] (36:00 - 36:34) from a I wish he was there for you to like to walk in the door and yeah I think he wouldn't really care about the aesthetics that I've done but I think he would be impressed with how I am now structuring this business because although he did a lot of things right my dad's biggest thing was like you need to be a slave to your business if you own a business you have to be there or it doesn't run right and that's absolutely wrong and I can prove that to him now matter of fact some days this shop's run better without me because I'm a I'm a mechanic what do mechanics [Tonnika Haynes] (36:34 - 36:41) look for we look for yeah I'm uh I will uh micromanage the shop to death I've got I've [Tomi Oliva] (36:41 - 38:17) gotten out of the habit of it I'm I'm working on it it's really hard for me it's really hard for me because I you ever you you ever hear the x phrase let the let the tv hit the kid uh no so it's basically the same as let the let the kid hit the tree if you ever teach a kid how to ride a bike and if you ever hit let him touch the hot stove yeah yeah it's the same parallel but the problem is I don't have the money to replace the tv right now so I can let him hit the I can let the tv hit him on the head over the time although who's gonna fix the tv who's gonna who's gonna replace it I that's that's my problem right now so it's it's hard for me to intrinsically let that go because I I'm it's it's fear right because I'm I'm not as you're financially responsible for the tv and I don't have like an extreme like um opex account or extreme savings account right now like we're doing better than we've ever have but I'm still in that growing phase of this business where like you know something like that can kind of hinder you know my my my ability to to pivot but um I've been learning how to let go I've been learning how to turn my technician mindset off into an ownership mindset into letting them make their mistakes and letting them learn from them letting them figure it out and um I do have a hero syndrome and I think that's the reason why I flourished in this business is because I always enjoyed being the hero but I can't it's it's I've I've in essence have become the ceiling [Tonnika Haynes] (38:17 - 38:49) of the shop and that's not good I love a thank you too I love saving the customer's day and whatever but then that'll that will wear you to hell out there's not like a good help thank you and oh my god you guys saved me I can get on the road right now but you'll learn well you're still young so we've both been doing it on our own for 10 years but I'm much older than you and my kids are much older than eventually it will burn you to hell out so you got to let other people be the hero so you can have more heroes more capes oh it was it was what'd you start off your leadership [Tomi Oliva] (38:49 - 48:07) your boss man your culture growth how'd you come about that I had to eat shit um I ended up uh I did not know what I was doing I hired a good friend of mine from high school to be my lead technician and that was by far one of the worst things that I could have done and it's not because I disagree or agree about hiring friends it's um I didn't have the tools to communicate properly with him and neither did he and he didn't want to be here and I didn't want him here he just didn't want to quit because we were friends and I did your fire because we were friends so he he taught me one of my my early best lessons which is growth so when COVID hit I used that as an excuse to quit because number one I was tired of dealing with employees I didn't have culture I didn't know what I was doing my mindset then was I'm the best technician in the area people should be dying to come here to me but that just wasn't that was not that's not correct um and um so I went mobile I did mobile diag mobile programming and then I just kind of started succeeding there so I started feeling better I didn't have a lot of overhead again this this business this building is ours so it was it was just a it was a fun time for me I did what I wanted I went when I wanted but slowly slowly the shop always kind of pulled me back I kept finding kind of excuses to like open it or keep it around and then to make this long winded story short I didn't when my my father passed away end of code like end of 20 beginning of 21 yeah he passed away January of 21 and I didn't step foot in this place for months uh and when I finally stepped back uh I was doing like I would work on good customers cars and then I would do mobile and then I just was like well you know what I can find an R&R guy tell him what to do and I can still do this and that and that sort of worked it took me going back home to Guatemala because I found out one of my cousins was a was a mechanic and I gave him some of my scan tools and and then I I talked him through some things and then he decided that he was getting taken advantage of by his brother-in-law's shop and then he decided to go out on his own so I helped him with that a bit and then I went to go visit him and kind of train him on some stuff and dude this guy is dropping transmission rebuilding engines and he has no air compressor he doesn't have lifts he's working on a gravel floor uh he dope oh yeah he's he was and I'm just like dude I got like I I always said I had such a dump of a shop and I'm like dude this like what am I doing here like I have I have everything I need it's just you know my biggest mistake was I didn't hire anybody for front of house I just kept trying to find somebody for the back and so this time I did something different I hired uh uh an associate this guy isn't wasn't really a friend they consider him now but I've known him for years we decided to open up the shop back and uh I almost closed it again I had no idea what I was doing uh I was making the same mistakes not holding people accountable um like I said again I just kept saying I am the best mechanic in this area why is it this why isn't this enough so wouldn't you know I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this part because people don't like the organization but I I don't care they've they've been they've been awesome to me but I started teaching for tech fix which is owned by shop fix um the manager his name is Lowell Green or the director I was a former shop fix coach well he calls me one day and I swear like I don't know how how faith if you're a faithful person or not absolutely and so I feel like God talks when when when he doesn't when you don't listen he screams and my daddy doesn't say so I'm sitting and I'm actually on the job interview I was going to take a foreman position at a shop it was probably by far the best job offer I would probably get and um I went there for a few days to check out what he wanted from me and it's honestly it was a dream job and I'm sitting in the parking lot phone rings and it's Mr. Mr. Mr. Green and I'm like hey what's going on and he's like oh no nothing you know just your class was last night I just wanted to thank you for that it was we got some good feedback and then he's like you know what man he's like I don't know anything about you talk to me man like what do you do like how did you get to where because I teach programming for them and he's like I told him like oh yeah no this and this and that and then I don't know why but I I let it slip I'm like yeah you know I owned a shop but probably not for much longer he's like what do you mean and I told him I'm like told him what's happening what I was doing exactly at that very moment and he's just like you know what man I'm really sorry that I can't help you today he's like but don't make any bad decisions and don't make any rash decisions right now take some time think about this but give me one hour of your time I'm gonna text you the time that I have available and if it works for you let me know I'm like you know I don't know I'm not making any I I have a lot of moving pieces I just can't just say sorry guys I'm closing down the shop no I my mom depends on the rent from the building I pay my mother rent until she passes then it's then it's mine that's how my dad set up her her retirement so I'm not gonna leave her hanging either I need to figure I need to figure that out for her too and um so yeah lo and behold next the following week we talked for like two hours and he's asking me these questions what's your aro what's this what's that I'm just like what are you talking about like how much money did you make enough and he he just he had exactly he had the same reaction you did right and so he's like you're looking for golden handcuffs golden handcuffs what the hell are you talking about he's like you are looking for the easy way out he's like I can help you and I'm willing to give you one hour a week of my time to help you but do not sell that shop he's like you have such high potential you can I don't know what you know about me but I was one of shop fixes first coaches you're like I can help you I'm like okay so we again I didn't really make an immediate decision but I kept I kept taking classes right and he's teaching me about aro marketing um one of my first homework assignments that he left me was we we need a website we need to find an seo an seo management company we need to build you up so you can pay for this so let's go I need you to talk to three companies and then see what they can do for you price wise what they offer for price and bring it back to me we'll make a decision okay cool I talked to leads near me and I talked to the gentleman there and I told him the truth because that's one thing about me I was like I try to be as honest as I possibly can I told him listen sir like I appreciate you calling me I appreciate your time but I also want to be very clear I may not do anything um this is my situation um my manager is helping me with this and I'm just here to ask you certain questions and parameters that he asked for he's like no no no problem and he's you know he's kind of you know telling you what's going on the one and one moment he's like wait who is this who's your coach who's coaching you I said oh mr. little green he's like his eyes just peeled he's like really I was like okay I'm like yeah he spent two and a half hours with me that day and so it turns out the power of connection yeah they knew each other from he this gentleman also worked at choppix at one point in his career they knew each other so he knew that he didn't coach anymore so he he knew that there was something and so like something special about you if he came to retirement correct so like I'm very appreciative um another a couple months after this um my business starts you know it wasn't easy because I'm stubborn as shit um but it starts growing it starts growing my marketing campaign starts hitting I start making numbers and numbers and they start trickling I start feeling better about myself I start having so Mr. Stokes had a few sayings that I they're here in my shop hard conversations easy life easy life easy conversations hard life that was one of my biggest problems I did not hold people accountable I did not like having the hard conversations [Tonnika Haynes] (48:07 - 48:11) like for the last 45 minutes that's been your the whole thing that you've been saying that [Tomi Oliva] (48:11 - 50:51) communication has always been a situation I had to learn that in order to be a leader I had to communicate that it's not about taking things personally but the lesson that my buddy left me was okay I'll give you an example he left my shop he was making pennies with me he left my shop he got a job at a at a garbage truck fleet company right got a disposal company that working on garbage trucks he was able to buy a home he's making over six figures and I'm over here worried about his family when I'm holding him back so in terms of people firing somebody you're you don't know what you're doing you may be holding them back just as much as they're holding you back because sometimes things just don't fit right and so like because of that I realized like dude I gotta make moves here I need I need if I'm gonna jump I don't I have the wrong person and I was talking to my my service writer slash manager on our way from a training event and God works in mysterious ways because in the middle of that road trip my technician calls me and quits on the spot I'm just like all right man it's time I found a better technique I worked a little bit found a better technician found another better technician and that and so like you know everything has progressed into this and like after that that after those those issues that I had and and I finally like was able to talk to some people when in the organization of tech fix and then we're in we're sitting in one of the conferences and I'm telling one of the one of the other instructors which is a very uh profitable shop owner and he's like he's listening to my story and I'm sharing him my numbers and what I've learned so far and he's like get up all right what the fuck you talking to man come on man let's go let's go so he walked me down to the main office and signed me up for shopping he paid for my first three months didn't didn't know me really from Adam just from our conversation just from the the um what I presented to him so it's just like so I joined and again there's there's a lot of misconceptions from any coaching company right oh this place sucks there are some companies that I I don't uh things just don't jive with you and it's okay it doesn't have to it's fine it's it's cool like I have a a member who's in transformers and in shop fix no two of them right and one of my really good friends from here you probably know him he's in transformers he was here the [Tonnika Haynes] (50:51 - 51:02) other day we were chit chatting it's not it's not a cult it's weird how people get so stuck on one company it's like no but it's as long as you're working towards something and they get so stuck [Tomi Oliva] (51:02 - 51:58) that like it has to be everything has to be a negative connotation like why I I because because why like I and I was in the same trap too I I got introduced to this organization back when it's in 2018 and I had this this mentality about it and I didn't like but to be fair um the gentleman that was trying to get me in the organization I didn't like the way he did business but I realized that it's it's still your business you just may need help like me for example I may be I still feel and I know in my heart that I have amazing culture amazing back of the house because that's what I focused on that's what I've developed but I can promise you there's probably a dozens of shops that do front of the house way better than I do right and vice versa there's there's you know there's people who have amazing front of the houses they make you feel like you're on cloud nine [Tonnika Haynes] (51:58 - 52:48) but they can't fix shit true so I mean like every the thing is saying last night on shenanigans everybody has everybody has shit okay I'm just gonna put it out there every shop every business has situations that they're going to if you just make yours look better on social media then good on you yeah like just because you can make it look good your shop look good your your numbers I mean well we're not going to talk about numbers but yeah you've got a brand new shop it's clean and shiny and whatever and the inside could be a crap show or the shop can look like a piece of junk sanford and son but you can have the best service and the best the best technicians like there's everybody's got problems out here everybody you can't just judge a shop by its cover or [Tomi Oliva] (52:49 - 53:20) what or their affiliations yeah right and you don't know their whole story like I have a I have a couple here who they on they underwent and again I'm not gonna name names because I'm not I'm not bashing anybody so I just yeah I'm not I refuse to but they were under a certain company and it did not go well for them and I've actually helped them with some stuff but they they don't like my organization for whatever reason and it's cool because the rumors that they've heard [Tonnika Haynes] (53:20 - 53:47) I know nothing never been to I had one shop fix class that I took and actually I mean it was last year at ASTA and I didn't take the whole class I just sat in it on it and I'm just sitting there like oh this is interesting this is interesting but I can't say that I didn't like shop fix or I don't like shop fix I know nothing of it but everything I heard of it was through gossip with people saying oh this is don't do that they do this they do that I'm just like no when people [Tomi Oliva] (53:47 - 57:52) need to figure it out for themselves when you go into something okay I'll give you an example something that I learned from some some coaches in shop fix we are I don't know how trans I think transformers works the same way but we're supposed to go there we have we don't have we don't have to go but it's in your best interest to go we for this there's four times a year we have four conferences three of them are just members and there's a big one that's for people to try to join that's our big it's a big event that was the last one I know that was the last one obviously so with that being said you know what did you what do you put into it right and then there's a there's a lot of the of it that I don't like but it I I need to learn how to be profitable how to read my numbers and I need to learn how to there's a lot of there's a lot of my faults that I can actually work on and get help but it doesn't mean that I I need to take everything and truth be told a lot of a lot of things get taken context because if you go into something not liking it you're gonna find a reason to hate it and that I'm sorry I got I I went left so a coach told me hey I can't make it to this conference I don't know if I should go I don't have I I kept making excuses but my the real problem was I didn't have the money and I didn't want to say that because usually if you say that in one of our our groups are called tribes if I say the tribe I'm not going because I can't afford it oh they'll they'll make sure you're there my my first one was like that I really didn't have any money I had just came from there from a training event the one I signed up for the one where I got signed up yeah so they put me up in a hotel they paid for my gas they um they um they paid for my meals so like they're very into like helping you because it's it's the pay it you pay it forward somebody help them so it's now their turn to to help you and you keep it going that's a really one of the best the best philosophies that I like and he said something that blew my mind if you keep finding excuses to hate something to not do something you're you're gonna find one so either do it or don't I'm like so it's to me it's the same thing if you go into to things with premeditated hate or premeditated dislike you're gonna find something you don't like yeah so then so my thing is like cool but what did I do because when I joined the organization I received a lot of like indirects and stuff like that and you I'm the wrong person to get in direct with I get on a fucking phone and I'll be like hey man like what's up man oh I'm not we I was just talking about the organization not you I'm just like okay cool why keep my name out your mouth well this and this and this I'm just like well I don't hear you talking about this organization that does that I don't hear you talking about you know mso's you I don't hear you talking about private equity that is are actually ruining our industry not not not this organization because you don't agree with their with their pay plans dude at the end of the day pay plans don't mean jack shit without culture how come nobody talks about that we don't talk about culture but we talk about the pay plan why how many dude there there has been people in corporate america making 200 300 dollars that are selling cookies on on on instagram now because they were miserable so what does that tell you culture not everything to everybody it's not so then what does it matter why are we having there are so many more prevalent issues in our industry right now than talking about pay plans [Tonnika Haynes] (57:53 - 58:23) you got to look at these coaching companies or any coaching company for any industry all right so you walk into let's say you know chinese buffet you're gonna walk into the buffet you might not like everything on a buffet so you're just not gonna go in there you'll find something you like you'll find something you like something that's going to help you instead of listening to the gossip on the loudest person talking on social media right now saying oh this place is terrible i wouldn't do this they do this and they do that go find out for yourself [Tomi Oliva] (58:25 - 58:49) go into go into things and i i tell like i tell people right now like like i have a buddy who's who's opening up a shop and i told him dude the best thing like looking back to it i should have i should have gone into coaching sooner but the thing is when i first started i had the it's money out of my account mentality and now it's like okay it's it's an investment i'm gonna [Tonnika Haynes] (58:49 - 59:02) get that money back somebody said in the comments um i think we were talking about asta somebody said in the comments oh i'm not taking a bunch of classes about cookie cutter stuff i'm like no it's just like almost every coaching company is representative figure out which cookie you [Tomi Oliva] (59:02 - 59:53) want to cut well it's at the end of the day it's it's what's our objective here to learn and grow well yes but like let's just have a frank conversation here okay our objective is to be profitable absolutely oh yeah that's not a bad word people know why why is it why is it profitable why you know what what another word is that's that's rough what's that people don't like accountability oh no people don't like being held accountable no more no you know and that's the problem with pay plans pay plans will expose accountability i don't know what your pay plans are in your shop but i'll tell you one thing flat rate will hold the owner just as much as the technician accountable [Tonnika Haynes] (59:54 - 1:00:18) because if you're not bringing in the work for the technicians to make the money on the flat charging accordingly or not presenting it you can't close the sale yes that's why people hate flat rate and then on the other end if you're the technician then what you get the job the job calls for 10 hours and it takes you 14 15 that's why did it take you 14 15 that's that's [Tomi Oliva] (1:00:18 - 1:02:39) another form of accountability yeah right and so then there's the other side of the coin right okay cool we'll pay you we'll pay you we'll pay you hourly we'll pay you straight time cool i don't have a problem with it but then guess what well there's still accountability here there's efficiency accountability here waiters still ain't going wait man like i don't i've never liked that term like there's there's scheduling there's accountability but also like you we forget that we're in service to our clients why do we forget that oh no i f that guy that's that's not my problem yes it is it cars broke who's gonna fix it somebody's gonna somebody's fixing it i want to fix it yeah do i need to take a few minutes to to kind of help you get out your way what's what's what's wrong with that that's what the service advisor is for service writers for it's not a salesman it it isn't it isn't right we don't we leave i'm in a high income area that's next to a not so high income area and most of the hot not so high income demographic come into my shop and um it's it's it's there's challenges to that right um and a lot of it is just like oh i just go buy another car oh we hear that sure oh what which which which model did you are you thinking about oh traverse oh great yeah the new traverse is beautiful oh no no it's gonna be a used one you already got a used car i said you're buying somebody else's problems why not why not buy a new one i can't afford a new one i'm like the new one comes with a warranty use one doesn't so like we have learned that we establish a connection with our clients we can help them make a decision whether they fix it or not but as long as we can give them all the information to make a decision then we did our job whether they fix it or not ultimately like i can't be responsible for your for your financial decisions or for shortcomings right i can give you options we can help you with good financing options um but ultimately man like my job is to fix your vehicle get you back on the road i i'm not a financial advisor unfortunately but i i will take some time and help you you have a problem my my my job is to help you think through it [Tonnika Haynes] (1:02:39 - 1:02:55) i'll just go buy another car yes you already have a used car and we this is the devil you know and you know let's look back over you've been coming here for two years this is the first major repair you've had so yeah you can just have a conversation and help them think through [Tomi Oliva] (1:02:56 - 1:05:43) decisions i i had a contractor out of all people right electrician with a with a vehicle um a work vehicle work van one of the nissans he's like it needs cats well i i quote dealer cats because i don't like comebacks i don't like problems it was like eight thousand dollars for the cats so i presented the ticket he's just like oh no no no that's a lot of money that's a lot of money i'm like hey man no i totally understand i'm like well you know i can let me research some options maybe i can find something aftermarket but there's caveats to it i researched an aftermarket brand that gave me a good warranty and i just was flat out and honest i'm like all right mr customer let's try these aftermarket ones but if they do fail the admission test i said i will cover the labor but you have to replace them with factory you know we can give it a shot if that helps you like that's that's the first step of finding a solution for his problem right so it was like half that cost and so then he calls me on monday he's like man i went car shopping this weekend man there's 60 70 thousand dollars for another work truck and he's like he's venting to me right he's not mad at me but he's just yeah annoying talking out loud yeah so then i'm like mr customer if you were working on one of your call your cut your construction jobs and you can fix a problem for three thousand dollars but if they don't fix it right now and it's going to cost them sixty thousand dollars later what would you do he's like oh i try to convince him to fix it i'm like you're trying to fix a $3,500 problem with $60,000 right now you know that he stopped he's like this is why i wanted to talk to you order the parts i'm gonna send i'm just gonna pay the bill right now before i go buy another car so it's not even about selling it's just it's just a conversation conversations what's wrong what's wrong with what we're in the business of see people forget we're yes we're in business of fixing vehicles but it's still a service-based business the service that we sell is fixing the vehicle and this is the argument that i have with a lot of people who focus a lot on the front of the house it's a it's it's it's neither here nor there it's a yin and yang front of house has to be in sync with the back of the house they they need to hold themselves accountable one one phrase that i i will not accept in my shop that's their problem no no back of the house this is our problem yeah front of the house your scheduling issues are now our problem not not their problem i refuse to have anybody in my business that does not have empathy for the other person's job just because they don't have to deal with it [Tonnika Haynes] (1:05:44 - 1:05:57) but the other thing i am so lucky that i have rarely dealt with that very rarely dealt with and so the more i talk to people the more i realize how much it happens it happens all the [Tomi Oliva] (1:05:57 - 1:06:07) time you know why because you can't empathize with people because you don't you don't do the job for example like when you have back of the house issues right they're like well that's like yeah i [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:07 - 1:06:15) misdiagnosed him and figure it out yeah but they're not the one up there talking to the customer trying to dig your way out of a power that we've already told them it's five o'clock [Tomi Oliva] (1:06:15 - 1:06:34) and the guy wants to do a break job we close at six without asking because there's there's cases to be made hey man hey john hey dude we got a customer you know their break started squeaking they need to go any way we can fit them in and it's at that point it's up to it's up to said [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:34 - 1:06:57) person to do so sure well yeah so you've got a service advisor you got a technician doing a wonderful job on doing a dvi doing this and doing that and then you get a service advisor that um is just having a hard time closing that job it's like you said it's both people's responsibility front and back and it's yeah to make sure down to communication again [Tomi Oliva] (1:06:57 - 1:07:24) another shopfix uh member we're having a powwow gave me a very inspirational quote and i'm going to ask you this question um if your organization your business was a beehive who's the queen bee meaning who's the boss yes who's the queen bee who's in charge who's in charge of your [Tonnika Haynes] (1:07:24 - 1:07:43) organization who's the queen bee naturally i want to say me but i know it's not because i can't do nothing up in the joint it's not i can promise you i need all of those guys i'm like we're all worker bees we've all got our different roles but who's the queen bee the customer you got it [Tomi Oliva] (1:07:43 - 1:08:22) the customer because they can shut that crap down and we and we forget that we forget we're in a service business and a lot of it is a lot of it's ego a lot of it's pride a lot of it is lack of lack of understanding that the moment you the moment you open that door the moment i i i started san jose automotive center incorporated that's the the parent business name i'm no longer a technician i am a business owner and that's why like the majority of technician turned shop [Tonnika Haynes] (1:08:22 - 1:08:32) owners are terrible shop owners oh i got in trouble for saying that and it's not that they're terrible people is they're terrible shop owners because they don't understand the business part [Tomi Oliva] (1:08:32 - 1:08:59) of it people just want to think emotionally but it's it's remove your emotions out of that statement and are you can't if your business were to leave if you were to leave your business alone for two weeks will it run without you and if you have and if it says no you are a terrible business owner you don't have a business you made a job a job glorified job you have a glorified job matter of fact you're losing money you'd make more money working for somebody else you have [Tonnika Haynes] (1:08:59 - 1:11:00) a glorified job you're just recycling money and mostly because you don't understand and i think when i say it and when people hear it it touches a nerve you don't tell me i know how to run my business i've got money in the bank do you do you what's your aro what's your net and you're like oh well i don't need no coaching company to tell me what i need to do you don't need them you definitely don't do what the hell you want to but if you want to retire and you want to have a business and have something to possibly leave to your kids and not work until you're 60 75 years old then maybe you should listen to somebody and you don't have to drink all the kool-aid there we go to kool-aid again you don't have to drink all that kool-aid but you need to learn what you don't know can hurt you yes and so that whatever 12 13 1500 a month coaching bill should make you so much more in return from the smallest things that you learn like if you go to a conference people say just take one thing back take one thing back and implement it and watch what difference it'll make in your business so i'm so glad i learned that early on because it took me i was probably not even a full two years by myself and like your dad my dad was in the collision industry so service he didn't know anything about it so i had to learn that from scratch and i thought you know i just a lot of car car car count car count car count tell everybody else tell everybody yes and we'll just do what they say you want to oil change i do your oil change and i'll make you smile you go out the door but there's so much more to run that business and then as a technician in my opinion and i might be wrong but it's my opinion if you're a technician like you were your technical mind you want to do a good job you want to fix this car and you want to do good in the community because you're a good person but you also are going to have to make enough money and price yourself correctly so you can pay your technicians and pay your taxes and pay all of those things that'll [Tomi Oliva] (1:11:00 - 1:12:11) come about you and ask if you don't know what it is you you like listening to hip-hop rap a little bit a little bit not so much yeah you don't you don't look like the type but i figured maybe what i know some you know i know you know jay-z yeah i said this a long time ago and i underwent this like journey into a business ownership i can't help you if i'm broke right next to you right i gotta think about that i can't help you if i'm broke right next to you and the second time that i heard that was at a conference from another shop owner who said and one thing i love about my organization or the organization is the transparency i can call somebody right now yo send me your pno send me send me your uh your end of month report man we share our end of month reports yeah we did in our jpg group so like you know like like like it's i think it's great right there's nothing to hide and there's also you can be called out on your bs and and you can also see with that that the shop that [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:11 - 1:12:18) you're envious of that shop that's making the three million what their bottom line really is there you [Tomi Oliva] (1:12:18 - 1:12:24) go i don't care how much i make i care about how much well how much i keep and so that's the thing [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:24 - 1:13:14) is what is your bottom line so that's that's another thing you have to learn learning your numbers and i'm going to tell you my coach if she's listening to this she can laugh because i it makes my eyes twitch when i have to go in there and do my financials but understanding that makes you aware of things that you can offer to your employees you're trying to tell me i can offer health insurance absolutely i can i can offer health insurance i can offer vacation i can do this i just i just got health insurance for one of my guys yeah i was able to do that so i pay 60 i didn't a couple years ago i wouldn't believe that i could pay 60 by just raising my labor rate seven dollars an hour like you think about it doesn't make any sense but once you have someone that can show you because that's not your area expertise i'm not the technician is not a smart person i'm just saying you need some help in this area i was [Tomi Oliva] (1:13:14 - 1:13:50) telling uh i got i got taught this lesson myself dude take the emotions out of it it's a math problem can you figure it out or you can't i was trying to help some somebody hire a technician and you know i i didn't really know how to explain that you can't afford it because this gentleman is like me very technical mindset in the onsets of his of his business and so i i asked for guidance and i'm like this is just a math problem you have a ceiling this is how much you can pay [Tonnika Haynes] (1:13:50 - 1:14:16) you can't pay more than this yet you can but if you want to get there this is what you need this is what it's gonna take yeah and that's all coaching is about it's not about drinking it's kool-aid it's not a cult it's just showing you where you are hey this is where you are tommy where do you want to go this is how you get there i'll be open and transparent when i reopen [Tomi Oliva] (1:14:16 - 1:14:47) the shop you know how much we made that month we did seven thousand dollars when i started learning a bit more and started doing a little bit of marketing we were we were at 15 16 for a month um we smashed every single record a year into my training we did 78 000 uh last month so watching [Tonnika Haynes] (1:14:47 - 1:15:46) yourself grow is amazing i wish i could remember my numbers i don't practice them or whatever but i know what my goals are and just i remember the first year i hit that one million dollar mark in sales it was crazy i was like what that's crazy but you know what my coach he humbled me real quick my coach at the time he's like well how much money did you keep of that and i had to look back he's like oh okay then i got some tightening up to do that means you go back to the drawing board and you start tightening up it's a different challenge it's a different challenge so my challenge now right for me is working on leading and letting my team do the job and leaving them alone so that's where i am in my journey of business ownership like okay you're gonna step back it's not being an absentee boss it's just building a culture building a team that runs the business that you want to run instead of having a glorified job so that's where i am so it's different steps in the whole training journey that i wish people just get on board just get on board you know and um [Tomi Oliva] (1:15:47 - 1:16:33) i'll i'll admit to some stuff man like i i i i have been regarded in the industry and i don't like it i don't like attention i just i genuinely like helping people but i had to learn that lesson that i just said i can't help you if i'm broke because i was spending way too much time helping people way too much time investing in others with no roi and i had to learn that lesson on my own there was just just again it just doesn't click to me if you tell me tommy you're doing this i'll do it just to prove you a point that's how just just how how stubborn i am but once it clicks it clicks i'm just like i can't help you if i'm broke right now [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:33 - 1:17:03) if you can't help yourself like i need to focus on my business first i need to focus on this like because you can you can get pulled in a lot of different directions and believe it or not i tell people and they're like no you're not i'm very introverted person stx wore me the hell out like i'm looking for chrissy like where's my friend and that's my safest place these are people people are talking to me i can talk to you i can i can talk to brandon like that little circle [Tomi Oliva] (1:17:03 - 1:23:56) like four or five people that's it do you know why why is that so yes we are indeed extroverted introverted right but like not really by default we are social creatures which is why we've gotten to where we've gotten because we're pack people right like like that's the reason why we have so much divisions we are pack people like we follow a pack we this is how we were how we evolved per se right that's how we are but there's three currencies in life that i've realized this my coach taught me this money time and your mental energy you can always get money you always make more money you can always lose money you can always get money back time you can't get back but time you can you can use it to your advantage or disadvantage you have a decision with time your mental energy is the true currency you can't reap you can't get back once you expel it right so like when you're at these events these people drain your mental energy because you're you're you're you're you are who you are it's i didn't realize it because people will come up to me and they're like oh man like thank you for helping my technician and thank you for your classes and you know what i need to do about training and then you know they are draining my mental energy without reciprocating and back so when you're talking to all these people they're takers they're takers of your energy they don't they don't put anything back into your coin into your into your bank into your into energy bank so once we start learning how to preserve our mental energy like me for example do i you ever do have you ever heard of the cultural survey index cultural survey index is um i forgot the name of the organization but it's i would highly recommend looking into something like that i'll text it i'll find a link and text um but it basically says the type of personality that you are and if you get it for your organization you can actually help it'll help you understand how your your employees think so they took they made me take one at one of the conferences and i am what's called a debater personality so i will argue with you until i'm blue in the face and i'll do it for fun and i won't get tired and um so like i'll get like i'll scroll some days like we're like i stay off of facebook man it's it's it's just i don't have time for the nonsense anymore and i'll just i'll encounter certain things all right you're back yeah i don't know what's happening i think it's the server is a server yeah i'll encounter certain things in certain scenarios and um i want to say something and then i type i'm like what is is this gonna deposit back into my mental energy bank account and it is type it all out you just delete it like whatever man i don't have time for this nonsense i i need i need more focus on my business because i'm not gonna hit it this year but i can guarantee you next year i'm gonna hit a million i i can promise you that uh we're gonna be close this year but you know but it's not we're not we're not close enough and um i don't even want to share you my net because it's all i'm expanding the shop i was able to to lease a building across the street so like every penny that i'm making is going towards uh equipment and dealing with the city renovations and stuff like that yeah so next year is going to be a lot of hardship a lot of work but it's it's you know seeing my guys grow and being able to i hired a bunch of inner city kids man we all grew up the same so like knowing that i'm going to be providing them with a good future opportunities for growth and even helping them become better men is my my why my purpose why i do it i don't care i don't i'm not money motivated i've never really like my dad my dad kind of skewed my relationship with money now i just understand its usefulness and you know this generation um they work more on fulfillment versus money but there's ways to to motivate them right like for example uh one of my lead technician he lives about an hour away and so the other day we were just sitting at we were eating lunch i buy them lunch every day and we're just sitting at the table eating and then we're talking about like yeah we're talking about that right i'm just like listen dude yes it's a sham yes you're going to work very hard and you know you're going to be fine not a lot of people your generation are going to be fine it is what it is dude sorry like it's just the truth but what you don't realize is that while you're not money motivated it fixes a lot of problems he's like what do you mean i'm like well do you like driving an hour he's like no honestly not really it it sucks most of the time well we're going to get you to the point where you'll be able to buy half a million dollar house down the street you can just walk to work he just looked at me like dude i never thought i never looked at it that way i'm like because you don't understand what money really is it's just a tool man we've turned it into a fascination because of programming and marketing but the reality is money is just a tool but it does fix a lot of problems if you yeah but it does create a lot if you're not good with it oh golly that's wild that's a wild way to look at it yeah working with these guys has taught me a lot about how their minds operate how they click what are the ages of most of your texts you said you gotta uh the oldest tech my r&r guy my true r&r guy he is 36 okay and then my lead technician my uh my diet guy he's 25 i have an apprentice who's 20 we just turned 21 and my nephew who's 25 he's like a csr gopher qc whatever he needs to do to to make his paycheck yeah just stay busy boy yep and stay the heck out my way because every time i tell him something reminds me of my relationship with my dad so he gets on my damn nerves you think you've turned into your dad 125 percent yeah i am i am a smaller kinder version of my dad i am yeah i've turned into [Tonnika Haynes] (1:23:56 - 1:24:00) my dad he laughs at it though because you remember you think i was so mean yeah i thought he was mean [Tomi Oliva] (1:24:01 - 1:24:12) but i've turned into my dad because because they were yeah i just i just phrase things differently but i i make i've learned that i don't have to [Tonnika Haynes] (1:24:12 - 1:26:05) be brash to make a point well because you were on the other side of it same thing with me now i can be i was a couple weeks ago um but i don't want to be i like to have good communication good culture that was yesterday yeah i was like don't get it twisted i'll cut you out but i i was on the other side of that i'm not saying it was terrible my dad is absolutely the best thing in the whole world that's my my goodest bestest daddy i got the best daddy in the world nobody can borrow him nobody can top him um but to be on the other side of his leadership what well what he knew to be leadership and the culture in the shop everybody that is all that has worked for my father and i've said this plenty of times before if a hundred people have come through the shop and worked under my dad when we lay him to rest in 30 years all of them are going to show up probably 95 to show up for him because even though he was a tough leader he was fun and he was real he was honest he did good he does good work in the community and he helped so many people in their careers remember you talked about the guy that's working for the garbage truck company you know he's fired people just because he knew he was holding him back like he's just a good flipping dude um but his leadership style versus my leadership style is different based on my experience being under his leadership um and when i started to make some changes in the shop the way i ran things and you know i'm on a four-day work week he's like oh you can't do that can't do that and i was like watch me and so now he's like oh you did it i was like yeah i did it so i was like no don't do that that's stupid he was just like i don't think you should do that i don't think you should do that but no i just did it anyway and he's like oh okay then i see what you're doing girl so [Tomi Oliva] (1:26:07 - 1:26:18) well i mean you can always go back right so that's that's one thing it's a lot of it in decision making is fear but if you remove the emotions about it what are you nothing like if [Tonnika Haynes] (1:26:18 - 1:26:22) you decide to change a policy and the policy doesn't work and it's like oh that didn't work [Tomi Oliva] (1:26:22 - 1:26:42) what's changing back move back well yeah let's what are the other lessons that i learned was indecision is a decision to let time make the decision for you oh yeah because i'm a huge debate and i debate with myself it takes me forever to make a decision bro almost to the point where [Tonnika Haynes] (1:26:42 - 1:26:49) my amazon shopping cart is always full because i just won't push the button yeah i have a i [Tomi Oliva] (1:26:49 - 1:29:02) struggle with decision making because of the analytical my analytical mind analysis paralysis so i've been i've been better um i ended up signing up with tech merchant i was on the fence for a while um my processor just they like i said we we kind of exploded in business so uh we rarely did big big repair work so we started taking like deposits we we sold like a lot of money in like engines and transmission rebuilds and stuff like that right and so you know obviously we take deposits and so one week we took like 20 000 in deposits and they held your they held my money and they and they didn't tell me no email no nothing i just my processor was paying me every day and then i just noticed that i was out of town i didn't notice it until i was like why did they take so long to pay me all right whatever no big deal and then they did it again they would hold another like 20 grand i'm like oh wait wait so i i called them i'm like hey man like did you guys change your like your your your um parameters did you guys change your payout schedule or something or like actually no your account's on hold i'm like okay under for what reason the uh suspicion of a suspicious activity i'm like dude i got invoices i got i got signed receipts from clients i'm like if you have suspicious activity why the hell did you call me and say hey what's and i told him i'm like listen do you i am a small business you are paralyzing me right now by holding my money for no reason yet they're sitting there using it in yeah why why didn't you guys tell me if my accounts hold you should have told me they're like well what what would that have done i'm like i would just use somebody else so i just i hung up the phone i called one of my tribe members i'm like hey man like i'm going through this and then i'm like i know you say it's used tech merchant what do you think he's like oh man it's great like uh there's financing options through it you can do this you can do that you can do this i still had the email from my tech merchant hey call me right now that guy called me i'm like dude sign me up yeah i overnighted another processor bam fixed done [Tonnika Haynes] (1:29:03 - 1:30:03) and then that if you would have did that a long time ago when you first thought about it it would have saved you a little headache but no i think i do analysis paralysis a lot too because you're just trying to think of everything that can go wrong but i had to get out of that i'm aware of it i think my first time yeah when i first started coaching with rick it was crazy he told me to do something i'll just sit there and try to figure out all the reasons why i shouldn't yeah like i'm thinking okay i gotta pay this dude every month why the hell are you not listening to him you signed up won't you do it okay i'll do it okay okay i'll do it so analysis paralysis is oh man so you are very community focused leadership focused growth focused did you think you'll be here like 10 years ago when you start this whole game [Tomi Oliva] (1:30:03 - 1:30:59) absolutely not i didn't want this shop i again i i was at like i was so happy doing mobile um i was so happy doing other things and and to a point that was one of my biggest problems at the beginning of shopping so i'm just like i don't want to give this up up because it's it's easy money it's good money but what i was doing is i was focusing on it and then feeding the shop with that with with the dividends of that business that's not a business glorified job just over broke yeah wow and then that was what i hated about being mobile this isn't a job that i can i can scale i can't hire another you can but like it's it's nor it's it's it's extremely difficult to do so so i got tired of fielding phone calls and doing work while i was on vacation and so i'm like dude this isn't life man i don't want to have to be doing this when i'm out of town [Tonnika Haynes] (1:30:59 - 1:31:04) man how often do you have to answer a phone call if you're on vacation or at a training now [Tomi Oliva] (1:31:04 - 1:31:17) not none yay look at you yeah i i call them because i'm like you guys alive like everything you know you don't need yeah leave it leave it alone like i'm busy okay well i'm gonna do a big [Tonnika Haynes] (1:31:17 - 1:31:44) one like i i'm i'm getting ready to turn 50 and i keep talking about it but i'm definitely gonna go ahead and make this a reservation today i am uh for my 50th birthday in january i think i'm gonna take that whole month off good yep i went to hawaii for my 40th i love jamaica i'm gonna go back go back home to jamaica i'm not from jamaica when i was saying this is my home i don't know [Tomi Oliva] (1:31:44 - 1:31:57) man i uh in florida i met a dude from jamaica and he he turned me off he's from yeah he's from kingston and he told me oh just oh no i've never been to kingston don't want to go there i want to [Tonnika Haynes] (1:31:57 - 1:32:02) go to the resorty part of jamaica yeah i don't know man like i uh i love it i've been going [Tomi Oliva] (1:32:02 - 1:32:37) forever yeah i heard it like uh um i heard it's beautiful i just i don't know what i i this is gonna sound pretty messed up but when i when i when i want to go somewhere like i just want to be lost in my thoughts alone i don't want people bugging me and then when i've gone to like third world countries it's the incessant begging all the time that just i went to i went to punta cana it was terrible i went to mexico i'm just sitting on the beach and the people are walking up to you selling you crap and it just annoys the shit out of me yeah the [Tonnika Haynes] (1:32:37 - 1:32:58) the beach people can eventually i in jamaica i think they're funny they're they're just freaking funny to me and i do i do not want any of your wet weed right now just kick rocks but um i also understand that that's how they make their living and i'm much worse than they are and i know how to say no like no leave me alone i told you no yesterday okay yeah i'll buy something and just [Tomi Oliva] (1:32:58 - 1:33:30) disappear i i i'm the same i i uh it's just because it progresses right like oh i want 100 for this and i'm just like dude no i'm walking there like 50 2 for 20 and then and then it's finally like can i have a dollar like you should have asked for that in the beginning yeah i'm like no no yes that's my thing and then then at least like like the part of hawaii that i like to visit is just it just it's just very peaceful like i i find that's what i heard about hawaii i heard [Tonnika Haynes] (1:33:30 - 1:33:40) that about hawaii about the homelessness and the beggars and we just talked about that with shop fix and rumors and things that you know other people influencing it's not untrue though it [Tomi Oliva] (1:33:40 - 1:35:58) just depends on what part of the which which island you go to same thing with jamaica yeah so go to the ghetto you're gonna get some ghetto shit yep you go to um you go to honolulu is well that's my problem that's where i like to go see i don't like i like kind of hanging out where the so i'll give you what the best food is man yeah so so when i i don't like touristy places right so like when you go to hawaii if you go to oahu which is where honolulu is it's just it felt like california to me yes there's homeless there's there's crime and it felt like just another democratic you know run city and so i'm like i don't want to spend money to do that so but we like going to maui totally different island and it's absolutely gorgeous different different scale of of life there yeah you get a couple beach bums here and there but they also have the city area where the not where the locals live that's pretty safe calm and that's where we go eat and it's it's great it's it's i i just i enjoy going there and i'm hoping that one day i get blessed with the opportunity to buy something there because that's how i feel about we truly truly enjoy it yeah yeah only stuff in third world countries sucks man like we we have property back home in guatemala and this is just a such a pain i told my mom dude i can't wait for you to sell all this crap man the governments are trashed and your family knows that you have money so it's everything's up one of my cousins stopped talking to me because she wanted to move into one of the houses that we have up for sale and i'm like i would be setting you up for failure the upkeep on this house is more than what you're paying in rent wait you wouldn't pay for it either they're not doing anything you're not i'm like they still need upkeep they still need maintenance they still need utilities what i gotta pay for that too yes like what the fuck no so like so just that's and i think that's why i'm so jaded because that's been my experience okay so i told my mom and sell all this crap already dude i'm tired f this country i if i never go back it's too soon [Tonnika Haynes] (1:36:02 - 1:36:20) oh my god we've been talking for like an hour and 45 minutes really yeah i just looked at the clock that's crazy i gotta go meet chrissy for lunch me and chrissy falcor getting ready to go to lunch oh i'm jealous i know she stays like 15 minutes from me oh cool i don't know [Tomi Oliva] (1:36:20 - 1:36:25) she's because she's in there in carry i think or something so she's like 15 minutes from me [Tonnika Haynes] (1:36:25 - 1:36:32) and now we found out where were we in a vision this year we got the same birthday she's my [Tomi Oliva] (1:36:32 - 1:36:37) rule dog yeah she's cool people man she's cool people yeah she's so we're getting ready to hit [Tonnika Haynes] (1:36:37 - 1:36:58) the lunch she always tries i know that we talked about we talked about your um us giving away our mental energy how we can't get that back but if there's somebody out there that really really really resonated with your story and they wanted to talk to you could they of course i'm an open [Tomi Oliva] (1:36:58 - 1:40:15) i've been that's one thing about me like if you ever listen to the podcast that i've been on with shawn and then all the other ones that i've been on i've always been an open book uh my health journey my my you know both mental health physical health um shop ownership um i think i'm starting to realize what my purpose in life is i just don't have uh it's honest my purpose is to help people get out of their way it sounds like just yeah i just didn't realize how much money that takes no and that's what that's what that's the point that i was the mental yeah with mental and financial because it takes it takes money like like like it takes money to sit on the phone helping somebody else because you still got bills to pay yeah so if your shop isn't making money you're losing money you're you're putting somebody else's family ahead of yours and the only way to truly help somebody is that is to be there on undivided unattentively um we had imagine this we had a uh there's a there was a group within not in our group but in the organization where he was he was a pushover owner struggling um and then like he started implementing accountability and stuff like that from that he was learning through coaching and then bam next thing you know uh the service writer decides to open up his own shop took the entire team with him left them high and dry well called his coach um and coach told the group and several members of the group went over there for a couple weeks helped him and helped him retool his business they helped him run it so it didn't close front of the house back of the house they helped him every step of the way until he was able to bring in more more more like actual employees but what does that take to do that you tell me hey tommy i need you to help me with my guide what does that entail for me yeah cool if the shop's running on its own i'll be there tomorrow i got you but it takes it takes money to do that it doesn't take will it takes money i love helping people but i can't help i can't slide my hand anymore i have to help myself first once this shop is right i can i can do stuff one of my coaches when we were talking about that he's like dude my manager just gave us seven thousand dollar transmission to this lady who lost her husband in iraq and she didn't even ask me she just did it and i was like cool that was good to me wow you know why because we made 3.5 million dollars last last year that was a drop in the i can now help you i can truly help you that's what people don't realize we can help each other all we want but if we're not holding ourselves accountable we're not we're not holding our team accountable then we can't help anybody look at tommy you're such an inspiration no i just i just like that smile you have a nice smile thank you don't be blushing on me now [Tonnika Haynes] (1:40:15 - 1:40:24) thank you i'm blushing oh all right love well enjoy the rest of your saturday you too say hello [Tomi Oliva] (1:40:24 - 1:41:48) to my dear friend chrissy i hope she's okay i will but no we gotta tell people how to get in contact with you oh uh i'm on facebook tommy oliva olivia uh-huh and um email is tommy my name my misspelled name at sj autosolutions.com i'll uh i'll uh i'll make contact give you my number or whatnot if you guys ever have any questions or just just say some advice some things that i've gone through i've i hate to say this but the other day somebody told me that i am probably one of the only people in this industry that has been through every phase of it selling used tires working out of a bus to shop uh leaving the being a diagnostic technician leaving the shop oh and doing mobile programming diagnostics module work remote support and then opening the shop again going through coaching like like there's really not a lot of people who have followed my my same trajectory so i i have a lot of uh i have a lot of uh insight into most of the facets in this industry it's pretty wild actually when he told me i'm just like damn he's right you never thought about it like that i've been around a little too much [Tonnika Haynes] (1:41:50 - 1:42:48) you're right where you're supposed to be you're right where you're supposed to be well i hear what you i enjoyed talking to you today me too and i gotta say it again because remember to like follow share support us sister like follow share and if you didn't i won't talk to you yeah tell me it's not gonna talk to you if you don't like following share all right down shift 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