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From Tires To Tow Trucks: DJ Harrington’s Journey · Towing News Now

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: You're on the train to success with April and Wes Wilburn.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_05: I'm DJ Harrington, the co-host, better known as the Toad Doctor.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_05: We're all on our way to the town of proper towing and recovery, along with our producer Chuck Camp in the studio.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_05: Don't go to the town of woulda, coulda, shoulda.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_04: You could have done this.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_04: You should have done that.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_05: Listen every week to thought-provoking wisdom from great guests.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_05: So if you have Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, Stitcher, iHeartMedia, or the number one podcast, or maybe Amazon, or wherever you get your podcast, turn in on Wednesday and be turned on all week long.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_05: If you are a state association and want your announcements or upcoming state association news, or maybe a post show that's coming up, let us know.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_05: Our podcast studio phone number is 706-409-5603.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: I'm proud to be part of a great team at the American Dome Recovery Institute.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_05: April, I cannot believe that you're going to ask me all these questions about my life growing up.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_05: I am I was one of 12 children, and I'd be happy to share any message that or any questions that you have for me.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_05: DJ Harrington, the car doctor.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: You are you are the cardiologist.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: You got it.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: That is the moniker that you are under right now.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_06: So we can ask you any question, what's this paperwork from some attorneys outfit about?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: Can't ask any questions about a reformatory and uh all kinds of Well, I have heard that litigation is still pending on some of that stuff, so I don't know if we can't ask those questions.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_06: Almost a full array, but not quite a full array, is what I've been told, but legal standards.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm gonna go over a couple of uh speaking of litigation, but not necessarily.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna go over a couple of things.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna delve into this right now, but I'm I'm gonna bring up a couple of things, okay?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: You can you can look at DJ.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: DJ's got an unassuming personality, he's very vibracious, he's very outgoing, he's very friendly, and you would you would not know that DJ is a specialist, not only in the being the cardiologist, but you have a distinct um certification that only three percent of professional speaking people get.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: And that is the certified speaking profession.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I want I don't want to talk about that right now because I want to talk about how you got to that.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_05: I will I'd be happy to tell you to become a certified speaking professional in the National Speakers Association, and you're right, it's less than 3%, and there's over 5,000 members of the association.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_05: And I want you to know that in the first tough couple of years, I made all the money that you're supposed to make.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_05: You're supposed to make over$250,000 a year speaking.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I did that, but I never had 50 clients because the PGA would hire me for 21 days.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_05: You know, for General Motors, they would hire me for 52 days.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_05: So all of a sudden, my days were sold between seven or eight different companies.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: So a gentleman from General Motors said, What if we paid you?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_05: You need to have 50 different customers.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_05: Why can't we say Chevrolet Division of Michigan was gonna pay DJ Harrington?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_05: So I got paid individually by states inside General Motors.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: So when I went to the PGA, I did the same thing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_05: So I landed up with 72 customers because I did Federal Express and Caterpillar and DuPont, and I still made the money they required, and it was a great life.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_05: And of course, as I got older, uh the last time I spoke, I spoke for a a real fine group that everyone knows.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_05: Amazon.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: And the Amazon I was gonna ask if it was the CIA because you were very, very secretive about it, but okay.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Amazon's close to the Amazon is close to the CIA.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, Amazon.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_04: And Wes, I have to tell you, the Amazon guy, I spoke for 45 minutes.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_04: And the Amazon guy comes over and he said, You were the best speaker we've ever had.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_05: This is phenomenal.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_05: And I said to him, Yeah, for 45 minutes, I'm really good.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: Because that was so nice of Jeff Bezos to walk up to you and say that to you.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: That was so nice.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't Jeff Bezos.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_06: It was a relative of his, wasn't it?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yes, it was no one of his leaders.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_05: But it was it I've been blessed because I've spoken in Australia, I spoke it in the UK.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_05: I did every BMW store throughout Europe.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_05: And so it was a real blessing.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_05: And you meet people like the Zig Zigglers.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_05: I spoke on the same platform as Zig Ziggler.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I spoke on that with Norman Vincent Peel.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_05: This I want to share with you, you know, the the guy from j uh from California, I just saw his picture.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_05: And I sat down and I thought, well, you know, Robert Schuler, which some people would know is the power of the power of power, and I spoke on the same platform with him, and Rocky Blyer, the famous football player.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: Well, doing speaking engagements, it was always there to say, okay, how can you help the person?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_05: And West does that.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's the same thing, April.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_05: When Wes does a class, we as speakers want to enhance the program.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_05: So this individual that has put his money on the table and said, share with me a little bit, we want them to grow so that they develop from within and they don't go without.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_05: And it's one of these philosophies that Wes believes in, I believe in, and you got to do it through processes and procedures.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: And if you teach them the right processes and procedures, people will be successful.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_05: And I think the upcoming retreats that are going to be done by you guys and the classes around the country being held with the Cardinal Legacy Going group, uh, look up the program and make sure you get involved in that kind of stuff.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_05: All righty.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: I would like to say that we are from the best.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: And speaking of the best, okay, I I want to say that I think that we're good because we're we surround ourselves with great people.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I will never say that we're great.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna aspire to that and we're gonna that's that's our goal is to be great when you say it.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_03: But one of the great people that we have been honored to be around um is is you.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: And we have found we have found great people, but you kind of found us, I think, didn't you?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we met each other in sewing associations and I I was always intrigued not only by Wes's hat that that is a thing.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: That is a thing, isn't it?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_05: That is his part of his branding.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_05: But Wes always wants the attendee to learn more and become safer on his job.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_05: So with me, my father was vice president of Bethlehem Steel.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_05: And he had a a a driver, you know, they called him back then they were chauffeurs, but he was a driver, and and I'm one of twelve children, and my father would write me notes on the back of stock reports and all.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_05: But his driver's name was Marshall, and Marshall would come home and one day he came home and told us twelve children that your dad's still on in the car on his phone talking to some people, but he'll be in in a minute.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_05: But today he laid off one thousand eight hundred people.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_05: And my father was torn up as he sat down on our table and here's twelve faces looking at him.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_05: It hit my father that today he laid off one thousand eight hundred families because now he's looking at his family.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_05: And Marshall said goodbye and got back in the car and and headed back towards New York.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_05: We lived in New Jersey.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_05: And I want to tell you that I have been going around the country trying to hire one thousand one hundred uh one thousand eight hundred people to become better people.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_05: So every time I get in front of an audience, whether it's seven people, two people, or like in Australia, I spoke to seven thousand people.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it doesn't matter.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_05: We want to help that person that day enhance their learning knowledge so that they can become better and they become better fathers, they become better dads to their children, they become knowledgeable and they really care.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_05: Just like I've watched Wesley grow up, and you guys did a great job with Wesley.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_05: So all of a sudden you sit back and you go, What can I do?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_05: It's you just get better.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_05: And my father was the one who stressed me about be reading.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_05: I love reading and Wes is always teasing me about what book I'm reading now.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_05: And it's because I enjoy it.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_05: And people don't realize I and my wife, you know, she really teases the hell out of me because I always have a book.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: And the book is my way of learning to become better.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: So Alright, we're gonna go to a quick break and then when I come back, uh we're gonna talk about your origin story, which sounds like it was that dinner that dinner table and the and the path that I've put you on to to be where you see DJ Harrington, the motivational speaker and the tow doctor.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: All right, everybody, join us uh we'll be back in one minute.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Together, we all make a difference.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: I and I toy network simplified solutions superior service.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: I am happy to be sitting here this evening or this afternoon with my husband Wes Wilburns and the greatest.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: What's up, DJ?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: What's up, Wes?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's how we talk to each other, not really now.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm also honored to be on the phone with uh DJ Harrington, of which we're gonna get into this a little bit too.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_06: What's up, DJ?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_05: Well, buddy, I'm I'm doing good.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_05: I have spent as you know, the last couple of weeks, I I spent as many times as much time home as I did in the hospital.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we yeah, absolutely.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: We we have um we've been praying for you and I've talked to Sheila a couple of times and she's kept me um updated to to some extent.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_06: And so that's what's uh what's been going on with that, DJ?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I landed up eight weeks ago, I landed up getting the ugly stepsister to Guillaume Beret, which I had in December of twenty three.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_05: So December 23, December 27th, I actually got diagnosed with Guillaume Beret syndrome, which is a nerve damage of your legs.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I I I get treatments, and today, uh, you know, this past week, Monday, I went in for my five and a half hour worth of treatments where they they put an IV in your arm, and you sit in a nice casual chair, you know, that the that's has everything, has the heater, and it gets they throw a blanket on you, and you just sit there with the IV, and it's done on an outpatient operation at the hospital.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_05: And in the room, there are 18 chairs.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I want to share with our listeners, most of the chairs are filled with people with cancer.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, there was this Monday, there was three people with Guillaume Baret or the ugly stepsister.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_05: What I have now is it's progressed.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_05: I have CIDP, which is a little bit further on.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_05: Uh it's little by little, there's no cure, but it's gonna slowly uh you know get my legs, and it's gonna slowly get my right hand is my worst hand.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_05: So the the last time I was with Wes, we were trying to open something, and he was kind enough to open it up for me, because my right hand, I can't open a mayonnaise jar or nothing like that.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_05: I'm holding my cell phone in my left hand because my left hand is a better hand than my right.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_05: And so little by little, uh, you know, maybe in a year or two, Wes, I'll have a remote wheelchair with controls on the left side, so I'll be able to maneuver myself around.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_05: Right now, I'm doing my best walking up with a rollator, and uh it's it's been tough.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's uh they had told me I had a heart problem and I I ended up I because I went to the emergency room two weeks ago on time, I did not have a stroke.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_05: There was a doctor there, a real famous doctor, who was helping in the emergency room for a man who had a heart attack and they had just settled him and he was going back to his office and he walks into my room and says, Um, give this guy this this IV, give him a shot, do this, do this and then he turned to me and said, You're a very lucky man, you would have had a stroke had you not been here and I went, What?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: He said, Oh yeah, you you're eventually gonna have a stroke and this stopped it.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_05: And they admitted me, and of course I stayed ten days, and the ten days took care of everything, but the worst that I got and and if you know, April, you were very kind to check with Sheila, my wife, I landed up with a very severe UTI, and the UTI is a urinary tract infection, and it was very severe.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_05: So when you're a man and you're over 70, it is life or death.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_05: So I go to the heart doctor this last week.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_05: The guy says to me, I can fix your heart, Mr.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_05: Harrington, but if you don't fix the UT uh UTI, there's n there's that's worse than having a heart attack.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_05: So you gotta deal with that.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_05: So that's what I'm dealing with now.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_05: But it's doing much better.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna in April, you're right.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_05: This is uh being f you know, we're actually doing this audio tape on the day before Thanksgiving.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_05: So all of our families are gonna celebrate a great Thanksgiving, and I know I will, and I hope all our listeners will celebrate a great Thanksgiving also.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: We are definitely looking forward to it, and one of the things that we're very thankful for is DJ Harrington, who has been blessed to have been with us, um, and has known Wes for a long time, and not me as long, but but I have known you for uh for quite a few years myself.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, Wes has known me when I had brown hair and had hair.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_05: You have known me when I started going gray.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_03: I barely I barely noticed it.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_05: There's a race between gray and bald.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't know who's winning.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Let me uh ask a question, going back to your origin story, and I know that your origin story kind of started at that dinner table with your dad walking in and using the impact that it took on him to lay up all those people and know that those people's lives had were were not for the better, at least for that day.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: That puts you on a path of I'm sure many different directions that it took you to finally become the motivational speaker.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I know one of the directions was a little bit of the being in the priesthood.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I know I've heard that story and that's a great, great story.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um like the girls a little bit too much for that one, so that didn't work out for you.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: Once that once that didn't work out for you, um, where did you go from there?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: Once once the being a priest was not your calling, where did you go from there?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_05: I landed up working.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_05: I came out of the seminary and uh I'm Roman Catholic and what I did is I started working in Bloomingdale on 59th in Lexington in New York.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_05: And I didn't like that.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_05: And so I landed up actually taking a job.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_05: I sat with a man that was going for an interview at Uniroyal Uniroil Paris, and so I went the next day with him.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_05: He went to uh apply for a job and I did the same.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_05: And the man said, There are no openings.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_05: And I said, Well, there's gotta be a good opening for a good person.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_05: And the man said to me, Well, if there's no openings, and I said, Well, can I ask you this?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_05: Do you know Kevin O'Brien?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_05: He said, Well, Kevin O'Brien's our vice president of advertising.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_05: Why?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_05: And I said, Well, Mr.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_05: O'Brien used to be my Sunday school teacher.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_05: Mr.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_05: O'Brien was your Sunday school teacher, and I said, Yes.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_05: He said, Stay right here.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_05: So he calls New York and talks to Mr.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_05: O'Brien.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_05: Mr.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_05: O'Brien says, Are you telling me and my real name is Dennis Joseph Harrington?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I I had a speech impediment when I was young.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_05: And when my speech changed, I changed my name to DJ Harrington.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_05: So people know me as Dennis Harrington, knew me as a guy that had a speech impediment.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_05: And when I fixed my speech impediment, which was my uh junior year in high school, I switched my name to DJ Harrington.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_05: So this guy says, Dennis Harrington.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_05: Bill Harrington's son and he said, Bill Harrington.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_05: He says, Yeah, his father is vice president Bethlehem Steel.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_05: And I had him as a Sunday school student.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_05: Put him on the phone.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_05: So he starts talking to me and he says, Hey, listen, would you uh would you mind being a regular just sales rep?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_05: Would I mind?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_05: I need a job.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_05: Right?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_05: So I said to the guy, would I mind?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_05: I would do anything.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_05: I'll wash tires if you need me to.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_05: And he said, Yeah.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_05: So he tells this guy, he said, Listen, he comes from good stock.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_05: Oh Lord, his father's a great leader, and man, I this guy's one day is gonna be grown up to be a good leader, too.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_05: So they hired me.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_05: And I have to tell everyone who's listening, the pay scale, they pay you so much for selling tires.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_05: But if you have new distribution, if you take a BF Goodreach person and trade him into a unaroil location, you got more money than you ever thought.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_05: So they have they have a contest every year with two or three new dealers, you get more money than you did selling tires.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I worked there eight months and I generated thirteen new dealers.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_05: Eight months.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_05: I had to wait one year for my bonus check because it was the largest bonus check Uniroyal ever made.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_05: And some guy said to me, Why did you do that?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_05: And I said, Well, first of all, I was single, I wasn't married, and on weekends I took my girlfriend, which is now my wife, Sheila, and we actually went around Wisconsin looking for BF Goodridge dealers, Goodyear dealers, anyone who sold tires that would make them a Uniroyal dealer.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_05: And that's what I did.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_05: So I enjoyed my weekends, Sheila enjoyed the weekends, and we had a lot of fun, and then I I built a business at Unoroil, and then I met one guy, and I went from there to American Bank, and American Bank, I made a ton of money, and then I thought, well, maybe I should become a speaker.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_05: And so I landed up doing seminars, and that's what happened.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_05: And then I went to the t towing industry, and that's where I met Wes.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: So that is where you met Wes, and how long ago was that?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: I know your hair was brown and you had hair, and Wes probably had a little bit less hair.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_06: Hey, we're talking dates.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_06: Well a couple things.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_06: What year are we talking about with UNEROL and how did the Tiger Paul Oh man, yeah.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_05: I won a Tiger Pork contest.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: Very impressive.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, I won a tiger pork contest.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_05: I I Tiger Pork well, in fact, now you gotta remember we're back in the 70s.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_06: Well, that's what I was the next question I was gonna ask.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_06: About 78 I worked at a uh place that had four locations around the DC Beltway.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, master auto.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_06: We couldn't we couldn't tell they they had a grand attire, their Cadillac of attire compete was like a Michelin or something.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_06: But then after that, the next thing to push was the Tiger Paul.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_06: We made good money on them.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_06: I had them on my first car, 72 Chevrolet Lowe was a good one.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_06: There you go.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_05: And then, you know, they had like for four years, they didn't produce them.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_05: And then some guy, young executive, decided that the tiger paws are back.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_05: So I made a shirt.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_05: I made a shirt where the tiger paws were in the back of your shirt, like the tiger was hugging you.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_05: So the paws were in the back of the shirt, and on the front it it said, tiger paws are back.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I got recognition for that, and then I became their tiger paw.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_05: So I dressed up in a tiger suit and went around.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_05: I I did children's hospital, I did Danny Thomas's hospital, you know, St.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_05: Jude's.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I was all over the place, and that gave me the exposure of of being able to talk.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_05: And I met the president of Unoroyle, and this is what happened.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_05: The man he hired to give a presentation got up and was doing a terrible job.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_05: And that lasted for about 30 minutes.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_05: And Mr.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_05: Schmals, who was the president of Uniroil, came over to my table and said, DJ, can I talk to you outside?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_05: So I said, Yes, sir.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_05: So I go outside with the president of Unaroy, and he said, Now uh everyone's gonna eat lunch, but you're not.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_05: You're gonna take this book and you're gonna go somewhere in one of these empty offices here, and you're gonna read the material.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_05: And when lunch is over, that idiot that was up before lunch, he's not doing it again.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_05: He's embarrassing to you, Norroyal.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_05: I want you to get up there and take over.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_05: So I did not eat lunch that day.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_05: I went and rehearsed the next hour of the material.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_05: And all I did, Wes, was I pre-read it.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_05: The idiot that was up there that was supposed to be on camera, he never even pre-read it.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_05: So I pre-read the material, and then he says, Well, you have a new person after lunch.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_05: I hope you all enjoyed your lunch, but DJ Harrington will take over from here.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_05: And so I went up and I did that part of the presentation.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_05: Schmalls came over and said, You were fantastic.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna send you around the country.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_05: So that's how I started speaking.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_05: I started doing uniroyal stuff and I went around the country speaking.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: So that that is also because when somebody asked you to do something that you never did before, you just said yes.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_06: Oh yes, oh yes.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_06: So hang hang on one second, that rebranding of the tiger paw, that was probably 80, 1980 or so, wasn't it?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: I want to say one thing.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not old enough to get that reference for the tiger paw, but go you guys, go ahead.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_04: The tiger paw tire was a great tire, and it and I want I all I listed is a note.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_05: The tiger paw had a blemish in maybe every hundred tires, there was a blemish in the tire.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_05: Mr.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_05: Schmalls found out about it and he left it.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_05: And I would thought it was terrible if you knew that every hundred tires there was going to be a blemish in the tire.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_05: He said, no, if you have a blemish in the tire, bring it back to any Unoroyal location and we'll adjust it.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that caused so many hundreds of people to come into Unoroyle stores to get their tire adjusted and why they were there.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_05: We sold them an alignment, we sold them an oil change, we sold them add-ons.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: So Mr.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: Smalls was a very, very smart businessman.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_05: And that's why he was president of Unilroy.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Sounds like it.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_05: I see I would have I would have fixed the the tire, but he was so brilliant.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_05: He said, No, that causes people to come in.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_05: It it's just like Wayne Heisinger when he was president of Chrysler.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_05: He knew he had the young people captured.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_05: And all of a sudden he said, if you bring your trade in your your you know, your Chrysler for another Chrysler, we're gonna give you a higher discount.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_05: And people got hooked on trading their car in at Chrysler.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_05: And of course General Motors and Ford tried to mimic it, but Wayne Heisinger was a brilliant marketing genius.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_06: I don't think it was Heisinger or Chrysler though.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I think um I'm trying to think of what his name was.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_06: Oh no, Ford.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_06: What did I say?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_06: Ford.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_06: Um Heisinger, a brilliant businessman, uh someone I advertised on my own.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_06: Um well he did all of the he did Ford Mustang.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, and then priced the minivan.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, exactly.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_05: And he re wanted to run for president.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_06: Lee Iacoka.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_05: Lee Ayakoka, there you go.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_05: Lee Ayakoka.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_06: Without even Google.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_06: It just takes takes me a second to run through the old.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you're right.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_05: When you're getting old, it's Lee Ayakoka.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_05: Lee Icoca is brilliant.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_05: Brilliant guy.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: Speaking of taking a second, let's do that now and let's go to a break, and we're gonna come back and we're gonna visit with our good friend DJ Heron's gonna talk about how this podcast, how DJ Herring's are moved us into doing this podcast for almost four years now.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_06: Well thanks for listening, everybody.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_06: So we appreciate all our listeners over twenty thousand subscribers.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_06: Make sure you share, tell your friends and hit that subscribe button for your old buddy Wes.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_06: We really appreciate it.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_06: DJ, April, the whole team appreciates it.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_06: We sure do.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_06: So so DJ, the April keeps asking me to ask about the when we met, and I remember seeing it shows and um talk maybe talking to you very surprised.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_06: You super respectful of me.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_06: And I I'm the same, but um I was very surprised.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_06: And then I remember it being at the museum and you haven't come down and tell me to vacate the property with my camper.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_06: Now I'm kidding about that.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_06: But I do remember being at the museum and really talking to you one-on-one when we went to dinner, I tried to tell you what I was thinking about the institute and you were definitely some good motivation that evening as we had dinner together after the end of a show there in Tennessee.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_06: Like I said, I was camped out at the museum.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_06: That's one of my first like times I remember sitting down and talking with you on probably something else.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_06: I know there were some toe shows, but I would say they came after that event.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_06: Maybe they were before that.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_06: I remember sitting and having dinner with you at a t a tow show or two outside.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_06: But like I said, I think that dinner that night at the museum at the end of the uh the weekend event there is one of the first times that I remember I just started the institute, just got the camper.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_06: I I would say about 2012, 13, somewhere in there maybe.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_05: And and Wes, I always appreciate you paying for the meal.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_05: So that was one of the blessings.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_05: I also remember the the last meal that actually you and I had, we've had many, many meals together, especially when I came to your retreats over in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you always treated me extra special and uh like everyone else.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: But we ate at the OK Cafe in Atlanta, and you were doing a Yeah, and it was and you were so good because you sat next to me, and that's really when I said to you, you know, down the road, podcast business is something that's growing.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_05: Well, after we started one for recyclers, I called you on the phone and said, Wes, let me just share with you what's happening in recycling business.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_05: And uh you kind of listened to me and then said, Well, let's try it.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_05: And we tried it, and it was a blessing for both of us.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_05: I grew with it, you grew with it, and so little by little, so here's the fourth year, and we've had over a hundred episodes of gone out, and the audience has grown exponentially.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_05: We have so many people in Europe that are on the podcast, we have people in China, we have people worldwide listening to the American Tone Recovery Institute podcast, and it's because some of the people that you've had on.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_05: Now, we've had one or two people that were so so.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_05: We've had some of the greatest leaders that you could ever think about, and that's what causes this thing to keep growing.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_05: You've had some, you know, in the archives, you've had some great, great people that did a podcast, and you sit there and you say, I hope people are taking notes.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_05: Just like Jeff Bauer in one of your recent ones.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, it was fantastic.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_05: And he's such a gifted leader, just like yourself.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I enjoy when you say to me, you know, we both we we we bow for the cross, we stand for the flag, and we really want to help people grow and make sure they become better leaders.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_05: And this podcast has done that.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_06: Well, thank you, DJ.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_06: Again, we wouldn't have been involved in this without you, so we definitely appreciate that.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_06: Um, that's for sure, but I'm happy to be involved with it.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_06: Happy to know that we reach a lot of people on a weekly basis.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, and I wanna I wanna thank you guys too for letting me the last year and a half or so um be a part of it as well.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it really means a lot to me that you guys let me come in on this and uh be a be a voice uh among amongst the great Welsh Wilburn, I'm not biased, he's my husband, and DJ Harrington, the tow doctor.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna tell you this, DJ, and I know you a little bit, but before we got to know each other during the toad shows, we would do our boost and we would have equipment there and I would be doing whatever I was doing.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the young ladies that would volunteer to help us one time said, Oh, I gotta go because that's DJ Harrington.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Oh yeah, I know DJ.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_03: She was like, Oh, I have to I have gotta go meet him.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: She was so excited to meet you, and it was like you were a celebrity, and you are a celebrity to a lot to a lot of people.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_05: So April, in our industry, I think that's the that's really what happens.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_05: You become a celebrity in the industry we're in, just like you in Chattanooga this year.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_05: You think about how many people came by and got on the podcast because you were doing it from Chattanooga.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_05: And the the one that I I still remember us doing the one in Chattanooga, and we had Bill Georges on, we had Brian Riker on, we had all these people that came by, and one after another wanted to get on, and some of your volunteers did such a great job of getting on the podcast, and that's really the enhancement of it.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I I think that that we get some of these people that that spoke.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_05: I I know for a fact that one time I I my daughter asked me and she said, Well, how was the podcast today?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_05: And I said, Wes had on a gentleman that actually goes out and and helps towers get better by helping them grow.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_05: And it was like going to school.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_05: It was going to college.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_05: I couldn't write faster than he was speaking.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_05: And Wes has some of those people on as guests.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm proud to be part of it.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_05: And as he grows, all it does is helps me.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_05: That's all it does.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_05: And it keeps me going.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_05: So I I'm right now, you know, with my illness, thank God my voice is still here.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_05: Even though my legs are a little slower, my voice is here, and I hope that I continue to be the voice along with Wes and Jeff Bauer and all the people from Cardinal Legacy Towing Group.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_06: CJ, we're proud to have to have you now after the program.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_05: Really do.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you you've been a good friend of mine, and we help each other grow.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_05: And you've definitely helped me.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_05: And when I get depressed or something, Wes, I'll call you.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_05: And you have gone through challenges in your health.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_05: And you you embrace them.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_05: You say, okay.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember the one time I I had called you, and this one doctor, neurologist, said, you know, Mr.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_05: Harrington, a year from now you're gonna have to be in a wheelchair and think about a remote control.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_05: I came home and I was so I was just beat up.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_05: I called you on the phone, and that was the most inspiration.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_05: You say, well, DJ, you take this and you take that.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_05: In one of our Parkinson classes, we're we put boxing gloves on and hit the other person because in life we get hit.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_05: And and we get hit by some of the the worst things.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_05: And me getting hit like that was, you know, it was like the day I found out I had Guillaume Baret.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_05: Now I have the ugly stepsister.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_05: I mean it's it's tough things that we get hit with.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: It is um the old the old cliche and cliches are around for a lot of years for a reason.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: When you get it's not if you get knocked down, it's if you don't get back up.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_06: But they don't physically let you hit each other with ice and glasses.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you didn't hit each other.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_06: They got crazy about these phase with the pictures like I was getting hit.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: No, there's a there's a um they they don't need to hit the bag.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: Thank goodness, because there's an eighty-year-old gentleman there that will probably knock Les out.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_03: So it's w we're blessed if they don't those those people that go to this class and are it they're in shape and they're they're with it.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I would hate to tell the story about Wes getting beat up by an eighty-year-old gentleman.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_06: But I don't expect it.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_05: You hit the bag.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_05: What's her name?
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_05: That was the day and I took it like, you know, we get hit in life.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_05: You get you get a you get a hand that God deals you, and you have to accept what God deals with you and then and accept it joyously.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, accept it and say, okay, now people are looking at me saying, Well, if he can handle it, if Wes can handle Parkinson's and DJ can handle the Guillaume Baret, then you sit back and say, Okay, that's what he's made of.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_05: And I think both of us are made of tough material.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_05: And April, you're a good caregiver to Wes, and Sheila's a good caregiver to me, and it makes a big difference.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, that this is a good way to end this podcast.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think I'm gonna just say this for Sheila too.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna speak on her behalf for one second since she's done here.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_03: We're I think we're good caregivers because you can accept something, but it doesn't mean that you have to take it lying down necessarily.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you need a little bit of a kick in the pants to say, okay, let's go.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_03: We we still have this day um that we're gonna live.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes we just have to know that and we just gotta push through a little bit and make ourselves a little uncomfortable sometimes.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and not accept it fully as far as this is the end for me.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_03: We we still have a lot of days to go.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's a good way to end the podcast.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: We still have a lot of good days to go.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, and we will.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: We will.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_03: Wes, you got any parting words on that one?
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_06: No, I'm just thankful that you drug me into this podcast.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: Kicking kicking and screaming.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_04: He tells everybody, hey April, please tell everybody, DJ Harrington drug me into this and kicking and screaming, and he still said we gotta do this, Wes.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_05: And now I'm so glad we did it.
• 44:59
  unknown: Yeah.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna say two things two things about the podcast.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think we started in February of twenty twenty-one.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_03: Twenty-one or twenty-two?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_03: No, we're in our fourth season.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: We're about to start our fifth season in January.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: So and we're you said we're a hundred we're a hundred episodes.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: If we're not two hundred, we're we're right there at two hundred.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_03: That's how much we've done together and that's how much we've grown.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: And we have actively listening to us over twenty thousand people.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yes.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um that's substantial for our little niche um uh thing that we do here too.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_03: And we which we don't take that lately.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_03: We take that responsibility and we we try to line up great guests every week.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_03: And if nothing else, we've got the great DJ Harrington.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_05: Well, thank you.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but we've had some great guests.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_05: I tell you that much.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_05: We've had some really good guests, and uh and I hope everybody goes through the archives.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_05: I hope everybody's gonna have a great Christmas.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, remember to take somebody home to your home if they're living by themselves.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_05: Make sure they enjoy a Christmas, and everybody should remember January 28th, 29th, and 30th in beautiful Florida, where they'll do the retreat.