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The Automotive Free Clinic: Reflections after 1 Year · Mechonomist Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Coming in February, it will be a year since I resigned from the automotive free clinic.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to talk a little bit about my reflections on the job and the work
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: we did over the course of four,
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: four and a half years.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really glad I did it.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: It really helped me spiritually and psychologically deal with some things that I've
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: been going through with
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: my family and with my dad's suicide with my own mental health and having serving
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: the community as something to focus on really helped me to heal and being meeting
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: so many different people and having so many people line up to support us was just
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: it's just really huge and it really it healed me um
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's like three things that I want to talk about that,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: are my big reflections from the work we did.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: The first customers are terrible.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that the people that I was dealing with and that we were dealing with
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: are in some of the worst situations that you can imagine.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they told us, you know, that people would come in and tell us, you know, we got this vehicle.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: My son OD'd and died and we got his vehicle and we got his kids and we're
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: grandparents and we just don't know what to do.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you sort of turn into a counselor at times doing this type of work.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes customers would just come in and abuse the hell out of us.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I understand you're poor,
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: you're relying on,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: help to get the job done and to get your car running.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you're mad because it's still going to cost a couple of hundred bucks.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But my God,
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: man,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: y'all got to fucking recognize when somebody is trying to help you and recognize
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: the difference between somebody trying to help you and somebody trying to screw you.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because there were people that we had to turn away because of their attitude.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I just, it's baffling to me.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: What are the reasons?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody should be poor.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody should be destitute.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody should be relying on a vehicle to get to work and to survive and to get the doctor's appointment.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a ridiculous way to set up.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not going to change for the foreseeable future.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of these folks, you know, they they miss appointments.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's an appointment by appointment business.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're a small shop.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's my appointment business.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: People miss appointments and get mad because you can't get them in.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And other people have appointments.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: They get mad because it costs too much.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: They get mad because they think you're screwing them.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just ridiculous.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And people would come in and try to tell me what's wrong with their car.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, if you know what's wrong with your car, just fix it yourself.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I guarantee you that I know more about cars than you do.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Guarantee it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just baffling to see the lack of gratitude on the part of many,
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: many customers for what the AFC was doing for them.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: They acted entitled.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: They acted like they were owed it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they acted like if we couldn't do it on their schedule and when they wanted to
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: do it and at the cost that they wanted to do it at,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: that we were screwing them.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a lot of customers like that, a lot of them.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of the reasons why I got so burnt out and had to leave is because I,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I felt bad for them and I wanted to help them as much as possible.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I had to learn to set up my own boundaries so as to keep my mental health healthy.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, my advice to poor people and, you know, the fact of the matter is,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: the way shit's going,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: you're probably going to stay poor and there's probably going to be more of us
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: joining you in the ranks of the poor because shit's going fucking bad and people
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: are going to need more help and you need to be able to recognize the difference
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: between somebody trying to help you and somebody trying to screw you because there
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: are people who are trying to help you and you're fucking abusing them.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, that's the truth.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the other thing I learned, fixing cars is fun
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: you get a lot of gratification out of fixing cars when you have a puzzle that you
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: have to solve and you solve it and the car runs better or runs perfectly now that
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: you've solved the puzzle.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's really fun.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's also a very physical job and I was in much better shape when I was working on cars than I am now.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've put on 40 pounds since I stopped working at a shop on a daily basis.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm getting kind of chunky, a little bit chunky, but I really enjoy working on cars.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: I really do.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm probably going to start a little for-profit shop,
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: mobile shop here going forward called HSH Automotive Diagnostics,
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: where I'm going to contract with local shops that don't have a diagnostic
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: technician to do their engine management,
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: transmission,
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: and ABS diagnostic work.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, yeah, it's fun.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I like working on cars.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the last thing is, man, there were so many people that came out to help us.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is just amazing.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking hundreds of people donated,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: came out and worked in the shop,
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: just told us they supported us.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just hundreds of people that lined up to support me and support our vision for the
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Automotive Free Clinic.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that just really makes me see the very opposite of the way customers act,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: which is that people are generally pretty good people and they want to help and
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: they want to do the things that they can do.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: to be able to help out people who are in need.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: in conclusion,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: poor people recognize when somebody is trying to help you because it's about to get worse.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: B, two, whatever.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Working on cars is fun.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And C,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really thankful for everybody who came out and helped the Automotive Free
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Clinic realize this vision.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see y'all next time.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, y'all.