Latest / Downshift With Tonnika / Chris Enright and the "It Must Be Nice" Crowd" - Ep 49
Transcript
- [Chris Enright] (0:00 - 0:03) You know, I get the comments, oh, it must be nice or you're so lucky. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:03 - 0:07) That man, listen, it must be nice, pisses me off. [Chris Enright] (0:07 - 0:19) There's- It is. Yeah, there's very few things that send me from zero to a hundred and I'm like- You didn't say nothing when I got to work at 5 a.m. and when I left at 11 p.m. Where were you four years ago when I started making social media content? [Tonnika Haynes] (0:19 - 0:30) You didn't say nothing when I was driving that 2002 Camry named Smokiesha, that my kids named Smokiesha. You didn't say nothing when Santana and Jordan were in there doing cracks and crevices. That's why my shop is clean as hell. [Intro] (0:31 - 0:31) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:31 - 0:40) You didn't say anything when I had to choose whether to pay the lights at the shop versus the lights at home and hope that I get another 24 hours of new power. [Intro] (0:40 - 0:40) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:41 - 0:43) You didn't say nothing. So it is nice. [Intro] (0:43 - 0:57) Welcome to Downshift with my sis, Tanika Haynes. We all know as shop owners, sometimes you gotta slow down in order to speed up. That's what this podcast is all about. It's time to downshift. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:03 - 1:10) It's just me, I'm excited to talk to you. You said, well, you won't invite me, you won't invite me. I'm just thinking, I don't know what to talk to you about. [Chris Enright] (1:10 - 1:22) What do you mean? We can talk about anything. Anything. We can talk about shop owner stuff. We can talk about technician stuff. We can talk about social media stuff. We can talk about family stuff, life stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:22 - 1:25) All the stuff. Let's start from like, literally anything. [Chris Enright] (1:25 - 1:25) All the stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:25 - 1:31) We gotta wait for Rexon to do his thing. What are you doing with him? Oh, we're recording? Oh my God, we're recording. [Chris Enright] (1:32 - 1:34) That's amazing. See, he don't mess around. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:34 - 1:39) Rexon is a, he's a- Oh, okay, I gotta get all- Gotta have it ready to go. I guess you might miss if you don't record. That's exactly right. [Chris Enright] (1:39 - 1:44) You never know, especially when you don't think the cameras are rolling. That's when the good stuff goes. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:44 - 1:51) That's usually when the good stuff happens. When I tell, you know, I'm doing it online and I'll say, okay, we're not recording anymore. And they'll be like, oh, and another thing. I'm like, dude. [Chris Enright] (1:51 - 1:51) Yup. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:52 - 1:57) Like how many times do we like repush that? But like, okay, Rexon, please edit this in some kind of way. Like, are you serious right now? [Chris Enright] (1:57 - 1:58) Always be recording. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:58 - 1:58) Yup. [Chris Enright] (1:58 - 1:59) Always be recording. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:59 - 2:03) There we go. I'll have the microphone. I cannot wait for the wireless. [Chris Enright] (2:03 - 2:04) I always want to talk away. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:05 - 2:09) Oh my gosh, I know. Yeah, that- It was crazy yesterday. It was a long day yesterday. [Chris Enright] (2:10 - 2:16) ASTA 2026. 2026. This is crazy. Yeah, I think this is my fifth or sixth year. I can't remember. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:16 - 2:22) I need to like figure out which year I started so I'll know. Cause every time I think about them, like, it just seems like it was yesterday. [Chris Enright] (2:22 - 2:22) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:22 - 2:29) Yup. Same thing with the, what was it? Fueling Connections is the first time I met you. And I feel like that was three years ago. [Chris Enright] (2:30 - 2:33) Yeah. Oh yeah. At least three years ago for sure. It's been a while since I've been doing it. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:33 - 2:42) Cause you were talking about getting ready to do the social media stuff and all the things. So, all right. You're a superstar now. [Chris Enright] (2:42 - 2:42) No. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:42 - 2:43) How's it been? [Chris Enright] (2:43 - 2:47) No. No superstar. You are a superstar. Just me. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:47 - 2:54) It's like, dude. It's too funny. Like last year when Jordan saw you and he's like, how do you know him? I'm like, Chris? [Chris Enright] (2:55 - 2:56) Exactly. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:56 - 3:04) Chris? I was like, Chris? And he's like, yeah, ma. That's the Milwaukee guy. He's got all the Milwaukee. And I was like, that's pretty cool. [Chris Enright] (3:04 - 3:05) I got to talk to him yesterday. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:05 - 3:06) I saw him. [Chris Enright] (3:06 - 3:10) Yeah. So we chatted for a little bit. So he said he's enjoying Mercedes and really liking it and stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:10 - 3:10) Yeah. [Chris Enright] (3:11 - 3:13) It's only been like a couple months, right? [Tonnika Haynes] (3:13 - 3:15) No, I don't even think two full months yet. [Chris Enright] (3:15 - 3:16) Oh, not even two full months. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:16 - 3:18) He's loving it. You know, the ups and downs. [Chris Enright] (3:19 - 3:19) Oh yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:19 - 3:22) He's making his mistakes. And I was like, better do it while you're out. [Chris Enright] (3:22 - 3:23) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:24 - 3:32) But I'm so glad that he was in the shop for me, with me for a little while. So he knows how to react to the mistakes because he's the type of person that would get mad at itself. [Chris Enright] (3:32 - 3:32) Oh yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:32 - 3:39) And it'll show up as anger. And he'd get mad, fighting mad at itself. And then it's like, that's when you're going to make more mistakes. But anyway. [Chris Enright] (3:39 - 3:56) I always told my advisors and service managers when I was at the dealership, because they come out and beat you up when you made a mistake. And I'm like, you don't need to beat me up. No one will beat me up more than me. I promise you that. I hate making mistakes worse than you're mad that I made a mistake. So don't, just leave me alone. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:56 - 3:57) Just leave me alone for a minute. [Chris Enright] (3:57 - 4:00) Walk away for a minute. I'll make it work. I'll fix it. Just. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:00 - 4:01) And I'll never do it again. [Chris Enright] (4:01 - 4:02) I'll learn from it. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:02 - 4:11) I was like, as long as you learn from it. Because if my tech's making mistakes, it's like, what did you learn? Like, yeah. And with Jordan, his last mistake, he was like, yeah, I should have took my time. I was like, what are you rushing for? You're hourly. [Chris Enright] (4:12 - 4:12) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:12 - 4:13) Like calm down. [Chris Enright] (4:13 - 4:17) You'll be perfect one day. Maybe he's trying to prove something to himself or other people. Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:17 - 4:21) But he's doing good. He loves it. He loves it. Social media superstar. [Chris Enright] (4:22 - 4:22) Who? [Tonnika Haynes] (4:23 - 4:27) You. Milwaukee guy. No. You slowed down for a little bit. [Chris Enright] (4:29 - 6:22) Sort of. Yeah, I mean, I go through phases. I mean, I go up and down. Just like the shop. You know, you get burned out. You get content block. You, I don't know. You just get tired of it. Whatever. It's like anything else. I think you do something, anything long enough, you eventually just like need a mental break and stuff. So, but yeah, kind of went through phases and then I don't know. Just started hitting the ground. I think it was last year. Yeah, I guess it would have been last year around October or November. My personal trainer has been like bugging me forever to do social media. And so I was like, fine, let's do a social media reels challenge. And she was like, okay. And I'm like one a day. You post one a day. And I said, I'll post two a day. And so for an entire month, I post two reels a day and she actually failed the challenge at one a day. And so that like doing two reels a day ended up like helping like kind of get me over that hump and Ignite the fire again. Yeah, and then I think that was when my like Facebook page started blowing up. Cause I haven't like paid attention to Facebook. Like I had a, I got demonetized on Facebook They did that again recently. It's still the same kind of deal, but they demonetized me. And so I was like, whatever, I didn't pay attention. Well, my Facebook and Instagram are connected together. So Facebook was getting posted from all my reels on Instagram, but I never, I had notifications turned off. I turned messages off. Like I was just like, whatever. So I ignored it. I think at that time I was at like 30,000 or something like that. Followers on Facebook. And then randomly one time, like a year later, I was like, man, I haven't looked at my Facebook page in a while. And I pulled it up and I was like almost a hundred thousand. I'm like, oh man, this account kind of blew up. [Tonnika Haynes] (6:22 - 6:23) One day. [Chris Enright] (6:25 - 6:37) And that's crazy. Yeah, now I'm at like, I just hit 283,000 on Facebook and I'm still fighting the whole payout thing and all that, but it's still all related to the demonetization. [Tonnika Haynes] (6:37 - 6:46) What's your number one reel, like funny reel? Because I think I know what it is because I have a favorite, but what is your most viral reel? [Chris Enright] (6:46 - 6:59) Oh, my most viral reel? Like the one that's got the most views? Yeah. Well, it's like a tool video and it has 127 million on Instagram. Okay. And it's like me using a digital tread depth gauge from launch tools. [Tonnika Haynes] (7:00 - 7:03) Oh, well, I guess I didn't like, I liked the comments in that one. [Chris Enright] (7:03 - 7:04) Oh. [Tonnika Haynes] (7:04 - 7:07) People were like, it was the stupidest tool in the whole world. And I was like, what? [Chris Enright] (7:07 - 7:12) Just go to bed. Yep. No, but those, I tell you that those, we need those comments. [Tonnika Haynes] (7:12 - 7:13) Oh, my God. [Chris Enright] (7:13 - 7:15) I know it drives you nuts. [Tonnika Haynes] (7:15 - 7:18) I gotta get used to it. I gotta, do you react to any of them? [Chris Enright] (7:18 - 7:21) Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love reacting to the comments. [Tonnika Haynes] (7:21 - 7:26) I just take it so personal. I gotta get over that. I think if I didn't, I just wanna fight. Yes. [Chris Enright] (7:26 - 7:38) In the beginning, and I still like go back and forth with people in the comments often. And it depends on what they say. Like it solely depends on like what the comment is. And also, I mean, of course it has to do with like my mood or whatever, but. [Tonnika Haynes] (7:39 - 7:40) I got time today. [Chris Enright] (7:40 - 8:06) Yeah, I got time and I'm feeling a little frisky. Let's go. So I, but like I, now I look at it as like, they're only helping my account. So, and the videos that I want people to see, like, or the, yeah, the videos I want people to see, or the people I want to see the content, won't see it unless it gets that engagement. So I want those people in the comments. I want the haters in there. I mean, I could care less. [Tonnika Haynes] (8:06 - 8:10) So that'll be my challenge. I will start reacting to the comments. [Chris Enright] (8:10 - 8:11) Yeah, like it's okay. [Tonnika Haynes] (8:11 - 8:14) Like maybe I'll pay Santana to do it. Santana, go handle that. [Chris Enright] (8:14 - 8:49) I, so I was telling, I can't remember who it was, but there was this guy on whatever platform. I think maybe it was TikTok or something. And his video, maybe he was working on cars. I don't really have, I don't remember all the context. I just remember his response was he commented one thing and one thing only, and it was like his thing. And so the video, there was like a bunch of wrong stuff in there and everybody would comment, like, you know, whatever, you're not doing that wrong or you're right, whatever. And his response was, God bless you. And then, so every single person in the comments. [Tonnika Haynes] (8:49 - 8:50) Just copy paste, copy paste. [Chris Enright] (8:51 - 8:57) You got blessed. But then people would be like, oh, commenting to see if I'll get blessed, if it'll bless me. [Tonnika Haynes] (8:57 - 9:01) I need to do something like this, like snarky, because like, thank you for supporting, like helping the algorithm. Yeah. [Chris Enright] (9:02 - 9:16) Thank you. I was telling them yesterday, as soon as I get my Facebook payout thing figured out and I get my check from Facebook, like the really like toxic people, like my only response is going to be a screenshot of my Facebook payout. That's going to be my comment reply. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:17 - 9:21) I'll be so mad at the hate from him. He's like, oh, I can't believe that. [Chris Enright] (9:23 - 9:39) You got to have fun with it. I mean, you know, if you watch like videos and interviews with like some really dumb people, like it really opened my eyes because I watched this whole entire interview with this girl and it was, she was. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:39 - 9:39) She was terrible. [Chris Enright] (9:39 - 9:48) Real, real slow. And one of the comments said, these are the people you're arguing with online. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's so true. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:48 - 9:52) I'll get a comment. I'm like, dude, that's a whole, how long did it take you to type that? [Chris Enright] (9:52 - 9:55) That's crazy. Like people have way too much time. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:55 - 10:06) That should be my, like how long did it take you to type that? Next. Seriously, bro? Like just keep it simple like that and keep engaging. Well, my favorite one was the toolbox when you were mimicking the girl with the butt. [Chris Enright] (10:06 - 10:57) Oh yeah, yeah. I would love to, there's another one that I really want to do and that's part of my issue is like, because obviously I have the shop, the shop still makes way more money than social media does. And so I like anytime the shop gets really busy, social media always takes a backseat. Right. And there was a viral reel going around that I wanted to do so bad. And it was similar to that, but it was like all of these women race car drivers and they would wear these like tight skimpy dresses and then they would be walking like they had a leash and then it would like- Pull in a race car? Yeah, it was the race car. And I wanted to do that with my toolbox. You should do it with an Odyssey. Yeah, with like something like, oh yeah, with Odyssey, that would be funny too. So I wanted to do something like that and I never got around to it. There's a couple. I have several saved in my phone that I never got around to on those viral reels. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:58 - 11:04) So- Do you think it ever hurt your business? Like some of the stuff? No, your clients don't pay attention to that stuff. [Chris Enright] (11:04 - 11:50) I'm still pulling customers from social media, which still boggles my mind because I don't, like 99.9% of all my content is not focused on customers. I mean, I do Honda content, but I don't like focus on that a lot. Like it's tools and the automotive industry and technicians and owners. I mean, that's why I started doing tools and then people started asking me about- What do you think about this tool? The shop and everything. So like, hey, I want to start my own shop. How did you get your shop started? And then I'd see comments of people like, getting mistreated or this industry sucks or all that stuff. So then I started talking more about that stuff. And so that's kind of how all of the other content started coming into it. And then whatever year ago it was. [Tonnika Haynes] (11:51 - 11:57) But doesn't it make you feel so good when the people, they want your help. [Chris Enright] (11:58 - 13:37) Like I love like giving Jordan the tools like that. I've done that a few times. I just don't ever record it. And after posting that video, it reminded me why. I don't want the recognition first of all. It's not why I do it, but then also like another 15 people messaged me and asked me for tools. And I'm like. It's not how it works. Yeah. I did it because I felt led to do it. Another friend of mine who I used to play volleyball with, she messaged me and she was like, hey, my same kind of situation. She was like, my son follows you on social media. And I'm like, well, why don't you just come by the shop? Like, I didn't even know he was a tech. And because we hadn't, I hadn't played volleyball with her in like a huge gap of time. And so she stopped by the shop and I was talking to him. He was a new tech, like had been in the industry for maybe two years. And I was like, dude, I was like, here. And just started giving him a bunch of tools. Cause you know, I'm blessed to do what I do. I'm blessed that companies will send me stuff and also pay me for videos as well. And so I have extras of stuff. And I like, I think about it. It's something that I like talk to my wife about this often is like it, I have to constantly keep myself grounded to understand this is not reality. And most people have to grow. I mean, I've grinded obviously. But like to have all the extra tools that I have is not normal. And so like, I think to myself like, man, like what a blessing. It's, I don't know, I have to keep myself grounded. Cause if not, I'm like, man, this is, I don't know. It's hard to explain. [Tonnika Haynes] (13:38 - 13:53) I think I'm starting to get it. I'm no Chris Enright, but just like being here and people talking to me and then the direct messages. Well, nobody's wanting anything from me. It's like, what do you think I should do? Hey, can you help me with this? Not anything like monetary, but like help me think through this problem. [Chris Enright] (13:53 - 15:07) And I was like, that feels really good. It does. Yeah, it's really nice. Like in to be able to help people. And I think that's part of it too. I think the easiest way to like, suppress like those type of thoughts and stuff is to be generous. Like, I think that's where a lot of people, when they start to get money, like get a lot of money, they mess up as they try to keep more of it for themselves instead of give away more of it because you can get greedy, you can get a big head. You know, I'm already very arrogant. I would say I'm confident with a little bit of arrogance in there. And so I have to try to like suppress the arrogant side and be like, okay, you don't know everything. And I think about that a lot. I'm very, I will say I'm very self-aware. So I do like pay attention to like where I'm at in life. Like what is going on in my life? Where am I falling short? Where am I falling short in the shop? And it also helps that I see other people like grow faster than me in their shops. So I see that a lot and I'm like, man, you know, why haven't I moved from where I'm at? [Tonnika Haynes] (15:07 - 15:13) But what's for you is for you, is that, do you want to? And that's one thing that you're ready? [Chris Enright] (15:13 - 17:05) I've been ready. So part of it, at least I think so. I'm a firm believer that God has a bigger plan for me than I do. And so I've learned the lesson way too many times the hard way that if I don't feel peace about it, then I'm not doing it because every time I do it and I don't feel peace about it, it's a disaster. So that's kind of where we're at now. Not kind of, that's where we're at, but also like we were in a season of our lives. My wife and I and our family is like, we don't really know exactly where we're going next. Like for a while I'm like, yes, I'm getting a bigger shop. Yes, I'm gonna grow it. And then Intel microchip plant and a bunch of data centers, like we're number four in the United States of data centers in Ohio. So we're the fourth largest location for data centers. And that's, well, a lot of that is four miles from my current property. So commercial property went from like a couple hundred thousand, five, 600,000 to everything's over a million, well over a million, at least in my direct area. I could go 45 minutes South. I could go 30 minutes West or East, I'm sorry. I can go further away, but of course that takes me away from my clientele base. And I don't, I mean, I could, if I went East, I could probably go that and not lose as many customers. I just don't want to. I wanna be in the area that I'm in. I love the area that I'm in. I love the cities that are surrounding me. And because of all of these data centers and everything coming into the air, the population's gonna get huge. Like it's a prime time place for growth if that's what I'm supposed to do. But again, trying to find a shop. Like there's been multiple shops in the area that I've went and talked to that have said, you know how owners get all angry and they're like, I quit this job. [Tonnika Haynes] (17:05 - 17:08) I'm closing this sucker down. Yeah, they'll do that. [Chris Enright] (17:08 - 17:25) Yeah, and then you go in and talk to them. They're like, well, you know, I'm probably gonna be another couple of years. So I've done that multiple times. There's a guy down the road from me, perfect shop, three bay, right off of main road. Like it's, he's old. He's like 80 something, still doing tires, running the place by himself. [Tonnika Haynes] (17:25 - 17:27) If he stopped, he'd probably die. [Chris Enright] (17:27 - 17:36) That's, I think like it's what he has. It's all what he has left. And super kind of nice guy. Like he's nice when he's not angry. [Tonnika Haynes] (17:37 - 17:40) He's so nice when he's not mad, such a nice guy. [Chris Enright] (17:40 - 18:28) But I've talked to him multiple times, but he's already, he's like, I've got, I forget how many other offers. He told me two or three other offers on top of what I was interested in offering him. So there are other shops. There's another shop that they left, they moved. So they had an automotive shop and a body shop in the same town, like right down the road from each other. The body shop moved out and went to a larger location, like 15, 20 minutes away. The automotive shop moved from the auto shop to the body shop, cause it's a bigger location. Now the auto shop's open. They had it for lease for a while. I tried to lease it and they don't want another automotive shop in there. So then a restaurant, I guess, tried to go in there and it's like, how's the restaurant? It failed the whatever, the environmental or whatever. So they couldn't go in there, of course, like who's going to want to eat a restaurant? [Tonnika Haynes] (18:28 - 18:30) All the oil sucked in, it's delicious. [Chris Enright] (18:30 - 18:33) So now it's just sitting empty. It's been sitting empty for months, like probably six. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:33 - 18:34) And so they're losing cause, I mean. [Chris Enright] (18:35 - 18:54) The guy don't want, and I'm like, and that's what my rep from one of my parts suppliers, he had been talking to me. He's like, well, if he ends up in Johnstown anyways, it's going to be competition. Technically it's 10, that's less than 10 minutes from where I'm at. So I'm already competition. Why don't you make money off the guy? Like, what's it matter? I'm like. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:54 - 18:54) Ego. [Chris Enright] (18:55 - 19:02) He's third. And that's what I ultimately realized is I'm like, do I really want a lease from someone like that? Probably not. [Tonnika Haynes] (19:02 - 19:05) Ego and he's scared and he's like, oh, that guy might be better than me. [Chris Enright] (19:05 - 19:23) Yeah, so that's kind of like what I've ran into in the situations where I have found shops and buildings that I thought were available because two of them both have said multiple times, oh yeah, we're going to close. This will be my last month. I'm closing down. I'm selling the shop, whatever. And I'm like, oh, great. [Tonnika Haynes] (19:23 - 19:26) Oh, well, I thought about it and I'm really broken. I can't do it. [Chris Enright] (19:26 - 20:14) And that's been years of that. So like multiple years where like, they'll go through the bad months and oh, so yeah. But I'm at the point now where we do well. My wife and I, we live comfortable. We make money, we save money. Social media keeps growing. So I'm like, I'm not desperate to move. I'm still growing my savings account to do whatever it is, whether it's a bigger shop, whether it's, I don't know. Social media, I've thought about like going in and helping other shops with their social media because it's such a big like demand and a lot of people don't understand social media. It's kind of why I started like, it was the secondary purpose of the RC page. So the first purpose was start an RC page with my son to grow it, to get free RC cars. Cause I'm like, these things are expensive and they're addicting. [Tonnika Haynes] (20:14 - 20:20) I don't even like, I'm sitting there looking at it. Like, wow, that's so cool. Especially the little rope one. [Chris Enright] (20:21 - 20:23) Yeah. How did he keep that on there? It's so fun. [Tonnika Haynes] (20:23 - 20:29) I was like, maybe I should be working with him. Maybe I should just watch this for another 15 minutes. And the soundtrack, I was like, yeah, perfect soundtrack. [Chris Enright] (20:30 - 20:48) Oh yeah. Let's watch cars. So that's the thing, like the secondary part, like you say in the soundtrack, like, I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's because I've done it for so long. Now, I kind of feel like some of it has always been there, but I can like look at a video and then find an audio that I'm like, yeah, that works. [Tonnika Haynes] (20:48 - 20:48) That's the one. [Chris Enright] (20:48 - 21:07) Like, I don't know why. I don't know if it's just because again, I've done it for long. I don't know if it's into. It's the artist in you. So then I'm like, the secondary part is, can I grow this? And I'm doing it faceless to start because I'm like, I don't want to be the brand staying only RC cars. So it's never me like showing my face. [Tonnika Haynes] (21:07 - 21:09) It's nothing about Enright, it's the cars. [Chris Enright] (21:09 - 21:30) It's just RC. I didn't even, yeah. So, and I wasn't even like trying to promote it on my personal page. And I was just talking about the RC cars and people were like, hey, I'm into RCs too. I guess I didn't realize so many automotive people are into RCs, but it makes sense because it's like a mini version of a car and they're a lot easier to work on and they're fun. And it's a fun hobby. [Tonnika Haynes] (21:30 - 21:33) I'm used to being in this book bag to work every day and during lunch in the back. [Chris Enright] (21:33 - 22:02) They're so fun. Yeah. So that's like, I'm like, okay, well, if I can grow a secondary page, then it'll kind of confirm to me like, yeah, you do actually know what you're doing. Cause I, you know, I've not, I didn't start it out to turn it into a business. I didn't start out social media to make money from it. I started out because I love tools. I loved watching tool review videos. And I, this is legitimately what I thought. I'm like, if Scotty Kilmer can have 4 million subscribers and people will watch his garbage, then people will watch me. [Tonnika Haynes] (22:02 - 22:03) He's so nice. [Chris Enright] (22:03 - 22:38) Yeah, I know. Rev up your engines. Such a sweet guy. So yeah, like, and people watch that. Like people, I get why they watch it, but I'm like, if people will watch that, yeah, then no, they'll probably watch me. At least that's what I thought and told myself. So that's why I started the page. Never dreamed I was going to like make any money from it. Never dreamed I was going to be like, I'm going to SEMA for the second time solely for content creation. And I'm getting paid to go. And I got paid last year to go. So it's like be able to do stuff like that is, you know, I used to watch people do that and be like, man, that would be awesome. And then now I'm doing it. [Tonnika Haynes] (22:38 - 22:45) It's like me sitting in this podcast booth. I'm like, oh, look it, I'm in a fish tank. You want to talk to me? Okay. [Chris Enright] (22:45 - 22:47) Everybody wants to talk to Tanika. [Tonnika Haynes] (22:47 - 22:47) It's so weird. [Chris Enright] (22:47 - 22:54) I had to ask you, I'm salty, everybody who watches this. I'm salty. I had to ask Tanika, just throwing that out there. [Tonnika Haynes] (22:54 - 22:55) He was too famous for me. [Chris Enright] (22:55 - 22:56) No. [Tonnika Haynes] (22:58 - 23:02) And when you said it, I was like, dude, I just, you're so famous. [Chris Enright] (23:03 - 23:38) It's fun. I love doing these podcasts and I love talking about anything and everything. I love listening to podcasts. I might have listened to podcasts forever. That's what got me to ASTA. The first time people have heard that story a bazillion times, but that's what ended up getting me here was the ASOG podcast. So I heard it on there. I was following Cody Gaddy on YouTube, which he doesn't even do YouTube content anymore. And then he was on the podcast and I was like, and I told Marissa, my wife, I was like, I think I need to go to this. Never had been to any sort of expo in my life or anything. And I was like, I think I need to go. I'm like, I'm listening to these people talk about these numbers. [Tonnika Haynes] (23:39 - 23:44) Yeah, because that's what I was like, what do you mean? Y'all making money? Y'all did what? [Chris Enright] (23:44 - 23:55) Yeah. Okay. It's crazy to think, like I think back like early like stages of the business of like what I thought was enough money to make money. [Tonnika Haynes] (23:56 - 23:57) And then you found out you were just recycling it. [Chris Enright] (23:57 - 24:25) Yes. Like I was not making any money, but I also too like, I don't know what it is like early stages of, and I'm assuming this is not just automotive entrepreneurs, but like, it's just entrepreneurs in general. Cause I know a lot of people struggle with this. I don't know what it is with like the thought of like, how much money you deserve. Yeah. Like deserve or need or whatever it is. And like, I wasn't even paying myself. [Tonnika Haynes] (24:25 - 24:30) You get meek and humble cause you don't want to seem like greedy person. Especially if you've been working. [Chris Enright] (24:30 - 24:31) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (24:31 - 25:08) But this wasn't my situation, but I can imagine kind of was, cause when dad retired and then I started to run a shop by myself, I really would say, if I just did this much a month, I will be fine. Cause that's your mindset going in. Yeah. You know, there are other shop owners that are just business people and they go in with knowing numbers, but you go in with the heart of, let me help the community. And then what you end up doing is hurting yourself. Yes. And you don't know it. So the shop owners, the technicians that are out there screaming and hollering, oh, you're making millions of dollars. Yeah. You're not. And it hurts you financially a lot of times before you realize it. [Chris Enright] (25:09 - 25:23) And I don't know, I don't know where that comes from. And I feel like the automotive industry, and it's probably just because we're in it, but I feel like genuinely we undervalue ourselves so much. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:23 - 25:35) I think it's because it is allowed and the people that need our services think on the terms of all you have to do is because they saw their uncle brother next door neighbor under the tree. [Chris Enright] (25:35 - 25:36) That's true. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:36 - 25:49) And he said, the old man that cannot move and cannot get under the car anymore. It's saying, oh, that's too much money. They're charging you too much. And the question when I get that, that's too much. And I'll say, based on what? [Chris Enright] (25:49 - 25:50) Yeah, that's so true. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:51 - 25:59) Based on what? Your feelings? Yeah. Because I was telling, I don't know who I was talking to yesterday. I was like, we don't do that with anything else. [Chris Enright] (25:59 - 25:59) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:59 - 26:05) What other industry? Maybe I'm wrong. Prove me wrong in the comments. What other industry do people do that in? [Chris Enright] (26:06 - 26:16) So one thing that does help me a lot is I feel like a lot of mechanics are very handy. So just in general. So they do a lot of their own electrical, a lot of their own funding. [Tonnika Haynes] (26:16 - 26:18) So they don't know the real cost of it. [Chris Enright] (26:18 - 26:39) So they don't have to come to the house. Versus me, I'm not. I could, I'm just not. I don't. I'm such a- Stay in my lane. Yeah, I'm such an advocate for paying a professional to do it right versus try to save. I would, people tripping over dollars to save pennies all the time. Like, and that's, I refuse to do that. I've learned my lesson so many times. [Tonnika Haynes] (26:39 - 26:42) Yeah, I'm 100% closer when it comes to stuff. Like, just do it. [Chris Enright] (26:42 - 27:02) Yeah, like just- HVAC, just do it. Yeah, I'd rather pay somebody else. So like anytime I get quotes for that stuff, I'm like, holy crap, like this stuff. But it gives me perspective of like what a consumer is thinking when they bring their car in, which they don't. Like, I always, I use that line constantly with my customers. I'm like, I know you're not happy to see me. I just, just let's get the elephant. [Tonnika Haynes] (27:03 - 27:03) I don't like to fix my own car. [Chris Enright] (27:04 - 27:05) Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. [Tonnika Haynes] (27:05 - 27:08) Like, I- I need tires too. I don't even want, and I work here. [Chris Enright] (27:08 - 27:27) Yeah, well, I had a customer say that he was like, well, because I told him, I'm like, oh, well, you know, my car has so many miles, whatever. And he was like, yeah, but you're a mechanic. I'm like, no, I'm like, you don't understand. I don't want to work on my own car. That has nothing to do with it. I'm like, I promise you, the last thing I want to do in the evenings or the weekends or ever- For my own car. is touch my own stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (27:27 - 27:35) Dude, I got a car sitting in the back and you just have a coolant leak. And I was like, it's a coolant leak. We'll just go get in the next car. I'm not doing this today. Kids don't have time. [Chris Enright] (27:35 - 27:43) Yeah, like I have a loaner that I bought that I thought I was going to use and it broke two days after I bought it. It's been torn down for two years. [Tonnika Haynes] (27:44 - 27:47) Two years. Was it the cobbler's daughter never has shoes? [Chris Enright] (27:47 - 27:47) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (27:47 - 28:22) I do. I have a 2018 E400. And guess what year the front tires are? 2018. I can walk up to Perlene and I can see the cracks in the tires. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, do you ever feel pressured by the public? Because I know I can see your comments sometimes and people say, oh, all this guy does is talk about tools. He doesn't have a real shop, anything like that. Do you think any of the pressure of those comments make you want to get another shop? Or are you confident enough to not be pressured? [Chris Enright] (28:23 - 28:24) No, no, no, I don't care. [Tonnika Haynes] (28:24 - 28:25) Do you do want the bigger shop? [Chris Enright] (28:25 - 30:03) I do. I mean, we started looking three years ago before Intel announced that they were coming in. It was like months, like a couple of months before Intel announced that they were coming in. We were out looking at shops. I actually almost purchased one. And had they had all of their ducks in a row for the property, it was there like, it was 11 or I don't know, it was over 11 to 15 acres. But their proper personal property was like way off to the edge on the corner of the property. And they were splitting it off and selling the shop side of it and all of the land. It was like nine acres you were getting. So way more acreage than I ever needed, but I'm a hunter, like you had a pond on it. It would have been really cool to like do events there, like community events and stuff like that. So that's where my mind was going. And, but they had no, they had none of the surveys done. They had a natural gas on the property that also wasn't like in the contract. Like they had to get all of that stuff in a row and it took them forever. The property did finally sell, but it was like years later. So I was ready to like put an offer and my mom, who's my real estate agent was like, she was like helping them. I'm like, this, it's not your property, mom. Why isn't their real estate agent? Why isn't theirs? So I would have bought something back then because it was within our budget. We had the revenue, like everything was ready to go. We could have bought it and it was a good price too. And we did it. And so then Intel announced that they were coming in, like, I think it was like four months later or something like that. And as soon as Intel was like, yep, we're building here. I mean. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:03 - 30:04) The prices went crazy. [Chris Enright] (30:05 - 31:23) There's a piece of property right down the street for me, a couple of miles, like maybe, no, not even a couple of miles, like a mile. And it's three something, 3.3 acres or 3.4 acres, and they're splitting it up into two different pieces. Each piece is $1.6 million. That's what property is selling for around me. So, well, that's what everybody's asking. I don't know what it ends up selling for because Intel and all of these data centers like Amazon, Google, Facebook, they're all in there. They're using a company local called New Albany Company who's buying all the commercial property and then reselling it to them. So they're paying like outrageous amounts, but I don't know how much everybody's getting. But more than what I am comfortable, I don't wanna spend a million dollars. I'm also, that's the difference between me and a lot of people is I'm very risk adverse. So like it took me forever to start my shop. And the only reason I quit was because I was so frustrated with the dealership that I was like, okay, this is it. Like my wife and I had, we had a whole plan laid out. I was like, okay, this is when I'm gonna quit. This is when we're gonna start the shop. And like, that's, we're both extreme planners, which is good and bad because when things don't go to plan, then you get all weird and stuff. So one day, like I just came home and I told her, I was like, I'm done. I said, I can't take it anymore. [Tonnika Haynes] (31:23 - 31:24) I can't do the plan. [Chris Enright] (31:24 - 31:29) I went in the next day and quit. That day, didn't give a notice. I was like, I went and talked to my service manager. I'm like, I'm done. [Tonnika Haynes] (31:29 - 31:33) That might've been the best thing because maybe you were stuck in your analysis paralysis over planning. [Chris Enright] (31:34 - 32:08) For sure I was. I truly believe that I wouldn't, and I have said for years, had they just like given me more freedom, giving me a little bit more money, giving me like, giving me more things instead of having, I mean, sadly, the reality is every shop and dealership that I worked at before I started my own, and I'm still a little toxic myself. But everywhere that I worked before then was just super horrible work cultures, mistreated, always every time they came back and made changes, it was always, we're gonna raise the price of this menu priced item and we're lowering flat rate labor times. [Tonnika Haynes] (32:08 - 32:25) So it was never- So now it is, you're getting, yeah, they're gonna charge 200 and you were getting an hour, but now you're getting 0.8. Yeah, that's exactly like, yeah, hey, with this brake flush we normally charge and we usually- But it really doesn't take you that long. So we're gonna take a little bit more money. Did you raise the price? I did. [Chris Enright] (32:25 - 32:39) Every time, every single time. And so that just got really old and free wiper blades, free light bulbs, free air filters. We only got paid for a cabin filter. We didn't get paid for an engine air filter, like all sorts of free stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (32:39 - 32:41) They got paid for it. Oh yeah, they got paid for it. [Chris Enright] (32:41 - 32:42) Yeah, but we didn't. [Tonnika Haynes] (32:42 - 32:43) It was a Toyota guy. [Chris Enright] (32:43 - 32:44) Yeah, I know. [Tonnika Haynes] (32:44 - 32:45) Oh, that was crazy. [Chris Enright] (32:45 - 32:45) It was. [Tonnika Haynes] (32:46 - 32:47) I liked his exit. [Chris Enright] (32:47 - 33:13) It's so good and I love the fact that it's getting so much traction and I'm hoping that what it does is give other technicians in dealerships the courage to do the same thing because I know, like I talked about it yesterday with Mike and Brian, it's like, people use the excuse often of like, it's not that easy to quit and leave somewhere. And that's true. It's not that easy. [Tonnika Haynes] (33:13 - 33:14) It's easier to stay. [Chris Enright] (33:14 - 33:15) It's easier to stay. [Tonnika Haynes] (33:15 - 33:16) And you stay and you get mad. [Chris Enright] (33:16 - 33:17) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (33:17 - 33:24) And you think it's everybody. And while you're staying, they think it's okay because you stayed and they will continue to do it. [Chris Enright] (33:24 - 33:26) And I say it's a lame excuse. [Tonnika Haynes] (33:26 - 33:27) Yeah, we teach people how to treat us. [Chris Enright] (33:28 - 33:43) Yeah, like don't, don't, people, it's like, I'm trying, like I did stories on this recently as I'm like, life is short. Too many people don't understand that and use that as a motivating factor. [Tonnika Haynes] (33:43 - 33:43) It's like I got time. [Chris Enright] (33:44 - 34:13) Yeah, like life is short. You only get one life here on earth. You don't waste it being miserable, working for a horrible place that's mistreating you and underpaying you. Like everywhere that I left or quit and made changes in my career was not easy. Like when I quit my, when I went from the first independent shop to my second, when I went to my second job, I didn't have that job lined up. I quit and didn't have a job. But you had to go look. I was like, I'm not, and they were like, oh, well, they're like, where are you going? [Tonnika Haynes] (34:13 - 34:14) I don't know, but I'm not staying here. [Chris Enright] (34:14 - 35:25) I'm not staying here. I mean, that guy, I learned a ton from him. He was genuinely a nice guy, but not a good one. He was like, screamed and yelled all the time, mad about everything. And so I was like, I just can't take the screaming and yelling anymore. Like it was just two and a half years. They took bets. I worked at Napa delivering parts and they took bets on how long I would last because they knew this guy. I've been working with them for years and they're like, oh, nobody thought I'd last longer than six months. So two and a half years, I was pretty proud of lasting that long. So, but yeah, like it wasn't easy. I didn't have a job lined up, but you know what? Like I said, I know God has a plan for me. And the day I left, my last day of my two weeks notice, my friend who worked at Honda was a service advisor. I had been trying to get in there for two and a half years. He called me that day and said, hey, a guy just put in his two weeks notice, come in and do an interview today. And I got the job that day. My hands will be dirty, but I'll be there. Yep. So I went straight from there. They let me go at noon. He was my old boss at the independent shop was like, you can go ahead and leave at noon. So I left at noon, went straight from there to Honda, did the interview, went and took the drug test and started working there like a week or two later. [Tonnika Haynes] (35:25 - 35:26) So- You got a little vacation out of it. [Chris Enright] (35:28 - 36:12) And then, you know, I worked there for a long time. I quit at the dealership and I was making, when I left the dealership, I was making 70 grand a year. And I went and worked for my brothers at $27,000 a year. Just took a massive pay cut. For peace. For peace and to be close to family. And then my wife got pregnant and I was like- I gotta be responsible now. $27,000 a year, I ain't gonna cut it. You said the price of purpose. So then I was like, so I went back to the dealership and then was there for like the same dealership and went back and worked there for like a year. Doing it all for my baby. And I was like, nope, I'm done. [Tonnika Haynes] (36:13 - 36:13) Oh my God. [Chris Enright] (36:13 - 37:33) So I quit there and went to, what did I go up to? Oh, I went to another independent shop, worked there for three months. And then it was horrible, hated it. And so I told my wife, I'm like, okay, this time I'm just gonna take my time. Like I rushed because I was, again, I was just frustrated at the first dealership because I went back and I thought things were gonna change. Nothing changed. It actually got worse. And so I'm like, I'm gonna, after the independent shop went sideways and I hated it, I was like, okay, I'm gonna take my time. So I took like five months off and I was like, I'm gonna make sure that where I go next, I can at least stay for a long-term. So I took five months off and interviewed at like, it was at least nine. I know for sure nine places, all nine places offered me a job. So I went from Honda, not having any openings for two and a half years, which is insane to me to think now, back then, 17 years ago, that nobody quit in two and a half years at a dealership to now like everyone's desperate for technicians. And then nine places offered me a job. So then I went back to, or I went to a different Honda dealership, like 30 minutes away. And I worked there for like almost two years. And then that's when I quit and started my own shop. Which also was hard because I started February of 2020. [Tonnika Haynes] (37:33 - 37:34) Very cold? [Chris Enright] (37:34 - 37:35) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (37:35 - 37:35) COVID. [Chris Enright] (37:35 - 37:38) COVID. Yep, February of 2020. [Tonnika Haynes] (37:39 - 37:46) But did you work that as to your advantage? Like, okay, you're bringing your car to my house. And like, it's a one-on-one experience. [Chris Enright] (37:46 - 37:48) I didn't know what I was, I didn't use it to my advantage. [Tonnika Haynes] (37:48 - 37:55) I didn't know what the heck I was doing. Man, listen, during COVID, I grew so much. Yeah. Cause I was on it. I was like, yeah, we're sanitizing the crap out of this car. [Chris Enright] (37:55 - 37:57) I didn't do none of that stuff, nothing. [Tonnika Haynes] (37:57 - 38:32) Yeah, well, cause I'm in the Wrinkle Ranch. So the community around us is a bunch of retirement communities. My Facebook marketing at that time were cans of Lysol and Clorox and racks and gloves. Like, listen, you will drop your car off. If it's not raining, you will leave your windows down. I had a bucket of sanitizer, which was just Clorox and water. We'd wipe down the steering wheel, do all that stuff. And we'd show them, and your car's done. You have sprayed everything. And it's going to sit here for a while, windows are down, if it's not raining. We had a whole process because we lived it. They call it the Wrinkle Ranch. It's a lot of retirees and whatever. [Chris Enright] (38:32 - 38:33) Gotcha. [Tonnika Haynes] (38:33 - 38:46) And the pickup and delivery. And it was just a customer service that they expected. And I never said whether I believed in COVID or not. I don't believe in Santa Claus. I buy gifts. So I just took advantage of it. Not advantage, I just used it to my advantage. [Chris Enright] (38:46 - 38:49) Well, I mean, obviously people, I mean, so my area is like complete opposite. [Tonnika Haynes] (38:50 - 38:52) Yeah, but you couldn't do that where I was at. [Chris Enright] (38:52 - 38:53) Gotcha, yeah. That makes sense. [Tonnika Haynes] (38:53 - 38:57) Like the gun photos that are on my social media, I know not to put that on. [Chris Enright] (38:57 - 39:11) Yeah. Well, and I obviously had no clue what I was doing anyways. Everything was like same as most guys, is be cheap. I was anti parts markup, using that as my marketing. [Tonnika Haynes] (39:12 - 39:13) You were saving the community. [Chris Enright] (39:13 - 39:40) Oh yeah, helping everybody else. And that's the story that I heard on the ASOG podcast about that. But well, it's not ASOG anymore. But, and that's what like changed my mindset. And like, I realized that I was putting, the sad reality is you put the customer before your family when you're doing that. And then, you know, that story of like, well, what if you get hurt and you can't? And I was like, I never even. [Tonnika Haynes] (39:40 - 39:40) I'll never get hurt. [Chris Enright] (39:41 - 39:42) Never dawned on me, never thought. [Tonnika Haynes] (39:43 - 39:43) I can't get sick. [Chris Enright] (39:43 - 39:53) Yeah, you're like, you think you're invincible. Yeah, like, oh, whatever. And so I was like, oh, crap. Like, I have no clue what in the world I'm doing. [Tonnika Haynes] (39:53 - 39:55) And you probably started thinking bigger because of the baby, like, oh. [Chris Enright] (39:56 - 40:07) Oh yeah, well, that's when my wife got pregnant a year after we started the shop. So then we had a newborn and I was like, I think I probably should better figure some stuff out, you know, cause I thought. [Tonnika Haynes] (40:07 - 40:09) Well, people pay for what the heck they wanna pay for. [Chris Enright] (40:09 - 40:37) Yeah, well, and that's like, Jeff and I have this conversation all the time cause we're both very much, we don't have very much empathy for customers. And I don't, it's not. That's fair enough. It's not that I don't have empathy for anyone or everyone. My issue is, is they come in with a sob story to us all the time. And then two weeks later, they're on vacation on the beach. So that's why I don't have very much empathy for most people. I understand there are people. [Tonnika Haynes] (40:37 - 40:41) People choose their heart. They know what they are going to pay for. [Chris Enright] (40:41 - 40:41) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (40:41 - 40:50) You come in there with the, your Starbucks. Yes. And shaking it. Yes. And a $40 Yeti. Yep. And this is crazy. It is. [Chris Enright] (40:50 - 40:54) And that's, if you pay attention, which I think a lot of people don't. [Tonnika Haynes] (40:54 - 41:33) A lot of people don't pay attention. I pay attention to things like that. And I let people talk. Yeah. I'm so good at letting you talk yourself into a hole. I think my favorite one, cause I stay off the counter cause my face is no longer allowed at the front. Cause I'll say, I remember this lady, she was an oil change, Honda, oil change only lady. That's all she wanted. Honda's telling you A, B, one through seven. Yeah. Ma'am, your car is telling you this. I didn't make it up. So she comes in, lights on there. Cause we're not, I'm not, I'm not clearing the light if we didn't do it. Yeah. And she went the last time she needed tires. We're like, you need tires. She never rotated tires. Didn't believe in it. She went to Costco or wherever and got her tires. [Chris Enright] (41:33 - 41:35) Well, Scotty told her not to. So. [Tonnika Haynes] (41:35 - 43:05) Bull crap. They rotate every time you drive. Okay, ma'am. So she's sitting in there, her oil change only appointment. And she's on her laptop, doing laptop things. And I see her car in the air and the wires are showing on her new tires. I'm so happy. Cause this is an opportunity for me to show you better than I can tell you. Cause I'm really snarky like that. Cause I'm like, let me show you. So I said, she's in their laptop. And I was like, hey, let me show you your car. Oh, hey, how are you doing? I was like, okay, let's come out here. And I said, you decline everything that we tell you that your car needs. And I said, woman to woman, sister to sister, you're going to have to find a shop that you know and you trust. And I said, cause apparently we're not that person. I said, but your lack of trust or lack of allowing people to service your car has cost you a set of tires. I just got these. I said, you got them from Costco. They don't have an alignment rack. You never get your car service. And I went through all of her declined services. And this is what she said. Here we go. And I can say this, I'm a single mom. So I said, you just bought your daughter a brand new Jeep Wrangler. And she looked at me like, you did it. You just bought your child, a teenager, a brand new Jeep Wrangler. And I said, again, I am not fussing at you. And I said, but if you don't trust us, that's fine. But you need to find a shop that you trust. And she got everything done, everything on the backlog. And I said, ma'am, you've got to take care of your car cause you are costing yourself money thinking you're being cheap. [Chris Enright] (43:06 - 43:07) That's exactly what it is. [Tonnika Haynes] (43:07 - 44:01) Because you do everything, you do everything you want. I don't know how it is in the white community. You're going to the barbershop in the black community. The hookup man is coming in there, okay? If the hookup man comes in there and he's like, look, I got this big flat screen. I don't even know how, these TVs are big, 75 inch TV. And you're sitting there and he's like, I'll get you that 75 inch TV for $250. You know what you're going to do? You're going to find $250 come hell or high water. Lights will be turned off before you lose this TV. So people pay for what the heck they want to pay for. And so when you say I have no sympathy, I will try my best to educate you first because I will tell you as a consumer, I know how you feel. I can imagine how you feel. The industry, I don't know why, but I understand the lack of trust. But we're under your car. If you don't trust me, please find somebody. You're throwing away money. Yeah, that, yeah. [Chris Enright] (44:01 - 44:08) And I, I, so Marissa, my wife, I've said that probably five times now. She explains it well. [Tonnika Haynes] (44:08 - 44:09) He has a wife named Marissa. [Chris Enright] (44:10 - 44:40) Yeah, she is like really good because she's not in the industry. She has a good perspective of like what a consumer would think. Like she doesn't understand, like she tells her friends all the time, like she doesn't know what it's like to not worry about her car. Like she never worries about car repairs. Obviously because I take care of everything. She never worried about breaking down. She never worries about any of that stuff, but she does look at it from the outside perspective of like what it looks like to spend money on their car. So she does always help me. [Tonnika Haynes] (44:40 - 44:42) Because you can't see it. You can't see an oil change. [Chris Enright] (44:42 - 45:07) Yeah, like you don't know. And you've been driving the same car for five years. You still have the car payment on it. Nothing's different. You change some fluids. And I, I say this all the time. This is like my number one mantra besides maintenance matters, is that, oh shoot, what was I gonna say? I just lost my train of thought because I distracted myself from the maintenance matters. [Tonnika Haynes] (45:07 - 45:12) Yeah, so she can relate to the people that don't know what they're spending their money on. [Chris Enright] (45:12 - 45:38) Yeah, I always tell my customers, I'm like you are costing yourself, it's more cost of ownership to not maintain your car. You're spending more money on your car by not fixing it or maintaining it. And people just throw money away at whatever they want and they don't wanna spend it on their car. And they've had this whatever car for however long and they're getting the same car back. You know, you get a kitchen redone and it's a new kitchen. [Tonnika Haynes] (45:38 - 45:39) You can see it. [Chris Enright] (45:39 - 45:44) You get the new kitchen. Drive the same car for five years and. It feels fun. And it's. [Tonnika Haynes] (45:45 - 45:46) You feel brakes, you feel tires. [Chris Enright] (45:46 - 45:59) Yeah, like there are certain things, suspension that people really like or whatever. But they just, I don't know, they just can't seem to. We have done a terrible job at communicating that. [Tonnika Haynes] (45:59 - 46:01) Communication and education of the consumer. [Chris Enright] (46:01 - 46:02) Yeah, like. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:02 - 46:08) Like when they'll say, oh, you need a transmission service. Why? It's fine. Well, kind of like your oil change, you just don't do that often. [Chris Enright] (46:09 - 46:09) Nothing lasts forever. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:09 - 46:18) I can tell somebody that salad dressing that you bought that's sitting in the pantry that you keep forgetting that's in there. You see how separating? You didn't use it. [Chris Enright] (46:18 - 46:19) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:19 - 46:21) It's the same ingredients. You see what happened to it? [Chris Enright] (46:21 - 46:23) Yeah. It's so true. That's actually a great analogy. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:23 - 46:28) And I think I'm good. And that's why I can talk to customers. I don't talk cars. I don't do what you do. [Chris Enright] (46:29 - 46:29) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:29 - 46:33) But I can talk to a customer. I'll say, let me talk to you for a minute. Let's see how we can relate. [Chris Enright] (46:34 - 46:45) Which I think that's why that's like such a huge, like a lot of people can't communicate. And especially now as technology continues to advance and we're all on our phones texting back and forth and whatever else. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:45 - 46:46) Can't make eye contact. [Chris Enright] (46:46 - 46:56) Communication goes down further and further and further every single time. And people just can't seem to get the communication down. Like I'm very blunt and honest. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:56 - 48:32) Yeah, I'm blunt and I'm honest, but I always try to look at it on the consumer level. I had a customer called. He was price shopping. I think he had a P0171. And I'm not sure what they told him, but I know the intake had to come off to do what the shop said they wanted to do. So they gave him two options. They gave him a bandage. Oh, okay. And then they gave him the real repair. And he called wanting to quote over the phone. I was like, well, if I, I'm not going to give you a quote on the phone. This is why, because I'd be lying to you because I haven't seen it. They saw it and that's why you paid them for a diagnosis. And I said, have you had a conversation with the service advisor for what you're concerned about? And he's like, no. And I was like, so you're, I am just going to be a better communicator, but you're going to have to pay me to communicate with you. Cause we're probably going to find the same thing. And I told him, I said, so what I need you to do is call the service advisor and tell him you do not understand. And I said, but it sounds like he's offering you a cheaper offer option in order to make you happy. And that's like putting a Band-Aid on something that needs stitches. And he said, what's your name? And I said, well, I'm Tanika. He's like, you said that perfectly. He's, I said, I'm don't mean to sound snarky. I said, it sounds like you're being cheap, but it also sounds like you don't understand. I said, cause that cheaper repair is going to feel good just for a little bit and you're going to be back. Then you're going to be mad at them instead of yourself. And I said, you can't do that here. Cause I'll get you. And I made him laugh. And he said, you just talked me into another job at another shop. And I was like, I don't mind. I was like, cause I don't want you to come pay diet again. Cause I'm going to charge you. And now he gets in. I was like, you're just not having a good conversation over there cause they don't know how to explain it to you. [Chris Enright] (48:33 - 48:47) That's exactly. And it's, you know, people will like always, I feel like if you give them an option, most of the time they're going to choose the cheaper option because they don't understand their. [Tonnika Haynes] (48:47 - 48:49) So why can't I just do the cheaper one? Yeah. [Chris Enright] (48:49 - 49:00) Like, because like we talked about, they don't want, they're not in there because they're like, Oh, I love spending money with you. It's time to spend, I need $1,200. Let's go to Brown. Hey Chris, I want to spend some money here. I want to spend a couple thousand dollars. [Tonnika Haynes] (49:00 - 49:01) People don't love that. [Chris Enright] (49:01 - 49:13) Like I just turned down an engine job on a great client of mine because the both the engines that I got were having a similar issue. And I just told him like, dude, I'm like six grand, $6,000. I'm like, you can take that $6,000. [Tonnika Haynes] (49:13 - 49:15) Let's go get a 2002 Camry, you'll be fine. [Chris Enright] (49:15 - 49:30) I'm like, you can just add that to what they're going to get. They actually gave him way more for the van than I thought they were going to. So it worked out in his favor anyways. But I'm like, you know, I said, I would love to have this engine job. Like I don't like doing engine jobs anymore, but I would love to have the money in my shop. [Tonnika Haynes] (49:30 - 49:31) Got two bills I need to pay. [Chris Enright] (49:31 - 49:54) Yeah. Like I always tell people, I'm like, I don't run this shop off of hopes and dreams. I run it off of people paying to fix their cars. And, but I'm like, but this is better for you. I'm like, I would, I want to do this. And I'm like, I'm fine. Like trying to find you an engine and I will. And he was like, well, no, he's like, you're probably right. [Tonnika Haynes] (49:54 - 50:01) Yeah. It's time to let this one go, buddy. Yeah. But were you going to have a conversation like that? Cause think about how many people would have just tried to find an engine and put it in there. [Chris Enright] (50:01 - 51:41) Oh, they would have just put the first one in. I already know most of the places in my area would have just put the first engine in, but I tore it down, bore scope the cylinders, like checked everything out. And I'm just like, there ain't no way. It would have never left. Yeah. Well, and it would have, yeah. He would have had the same exact problem. He would have been back in the shop. Then he would have lost a customer and a friendship. It would have been. So all money ain't good money. I would have been married to that sucker forever. And it's just not, it's not worth it for him. And it's not worth it for me. So like, but communicating that throughout the entire, I mean, I've been talking to him for months because we've been chasing down this issue because I, I mean, I've specialized in Hondas for basically my entire career. Piston rings are a notorious issue in the three, five, well, actually in the two, four engines. And this one was fouling out a spark plug every thousand miles or less. And I like, for some reason, my brain was like, there's no way it's fouling out a spark plug that fast. And it, well, I had to end up reaching out to a couple of friends and I'm like, okay, either I'm just an idiot, which is possible, or it's legitimately, have you guys ever seen this? Both had seen one and both were on cylinder one. And I'm like, okay, well, that makes me feel a little bit better. I'm not as crazy as I thought. It also didn't help that like he had been taking, like they had taken road trips. And so they went to another shop and they put Duralast coils on it. And then he had a family member put crappy spark plugs in it. So that didn't help anything, but I just, in my brain, I was like, there's no way this thing is fouling out spark plugs that fast. Cause I've seen it and I see them fouling out spark plugs cause they normally, it's like 20, 30, 40,000 miles. And most of my customers are like, I'll just do oil changes and change the spark plug. [Tonnika Haynes] (51:42 - 51:43) I'll put that bandage on it instead of the stitches. [Chris Enright] (51:43 - 51:50) It's not worth the four grand to put this rings or whatever it costs. And so, and I'm like, yeah, I understand. Like I'm totally fine with that. [Tonnika Haynes] (51:50 - 51:50) I don't care. [Chris Enright] (51:50 - 52:18) It's not my money. Like I'll do it. And they still do all their other maintenance and everything else. They just put a new spark plug in it every, however often we decide. And so, yeah, like it just, it was such a, but having the conversations throughout the entire time, from the very beginning to the very end, like, and he got frustrated, but you know, he was never frustrated with me. It's a situation. It was the situation and the car. And like, we talked about that multiple times. And he's like, you know, I'm just really frustrated. And he's like, I get it. And you'd have to tell them, I get it. I'm like, yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (52:18 - 52:21) I'm like, I don't even like telling you this right now. It's terrible. [Chris Enright] (52:21 - 52:24) Like, I don't, I don't love giving people bad news all the time. [Tonnika Haynes] (52:24 - 52:39) I tell people my job is all bad news. I almost never had to call a customer and say, Hey, guess what? Like when you call someone and you're like, you scheduled an oil change, but you're only at 50%. Come get this car. And they're like, what? Honesty. But when I was like, you know what? If I'm calling you, it's not good news. [Chris Enright] (52:40 - 52:55) Well, and I mean, I think that's why the communication part matters so much is like being able to communicate that as well. Like you always see the comments from technicians. They're like, we don't need advisors. I could do their job. And I'm like, no, you can't. No, you can't. [Tonnika Haynes] (52:55 - 53:23) I have seen what most of you do. And here's the thing, we've got so much, so many apps, so much technology and the texting people all the time. If you don't pick up the phone and tell me about my car, like I get the DVI sending that over, but you know, okay, so we're in a wrinkle ranch, retirement, but we're also down the street from the hospital. So if I know that you're a doctor, physician or whatever, my text to you is call me when you get a chance. It's not sending you estimates, sending you all incentives because exactly you're like. [Chris Enright] (53:24 - 53:24) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (53:25 - 53:27) And you lose the communication. [Chris Enright] (53:27 - 54:10) Yes. And that's specifically with some people, like they don't want, like I will. So I text the inspection. So I let them know, like when I, the intake or whatever they call that, I let them know, I'm like, I'm gonna do an inspection. I'm gonna take pictures and video, whatever I need to do for the inspection. If there's anything that needs to be video, I'll video record it. If not, I'll just, you're gonna get pictures and a description of everything that needs to be done and what I found. Send them the inspection. And then I text them, I'm like, hey, send over the inspection when you have time, give me a call or I'll call you and we'll walk through the estimate. Then I'll send you the estimate and you can go through it. So I go through the estimate with them. Then I send it to them. They can go through it on their own time and then they can improve and decline on their own. And that's what's worked best for me. But I do have some clients, they don't wanna talk to me on the phone. [Tonnika Haynes] (54:11 - 54:38) See, I know, but you know who those people are. It's not, well, I don't say they, my clients is like, I don't think they can. They just don't have the time, but I know who those people are and we'll just establish what's the best way to communicate with you. And if I need to talk to you because I'm getting ready to send you an estimate for $8,000, I don't need you to say, crap, get a new car. Like I like to have a conversation with new customers. We do a DBI and how long are you planning to keep the car? And everybody's selling it next month, right? Getting ready to get rid of it. Okay, I was like, yeah, everybody's selling it next month. [Chris Enright] (54:38 - 54:39) And I'll make the joke. [Tonnika Haynes] (54:39 - 54:55) Everybody says that, sir. How long are you keeping this car? Okay, let's go over this. It's not a bad car. We've got a bad owner and I can make them smile because I can say stuff like that and get away with it. You got a bad owner or you've been going to a shop and they have not told you anything about your car. [Chris Enright] (54:55 - 55:33) Yeah, which does happen a lot as well. It happens a lot, doesn't, yeah. A ton, especially if they're going to, but I think a lot of people too also think that quick lube places do inspections and they don't do it. Like they're just looking for low hanging fruit, filters, flushes, stuff like that. And so the average, I wouldn't say the average, but a lot of car owners don't know. That you don't know what you don't know. So if you have no clue that an oil change place doesn't do inspections and you should get an inspection because once again, they don't want to spend money on their car so that the less they hear when they take it in, the better. But oh, I've been taken into this oil change place and they never told me none of that stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (55:34 - 55:53) Like even I have customers that, oh, I just had to take it for a quick oil change. But I know it hasn't been looked at because I've trained them to say, hey, we get to see your car from a different angle than you do. A lot of those guys don't even lift it. Okay, I've had customers come in. I was like, I just got an oil change up. They don't lift your car. They didn't see any of this. They're just draining. Got one guy, I didn't know it was a three guy. [Chris Enright] (55:54 - 55:58) Efficiency, like it's in and out. That's how they're making their money. [Tonnika Haynes] (55:58 - 56:07) That's why I want a waiting oil change. Okay, you're going to wait for at least two hours. That's crazy. It's not, it's not. That's how I feel in the emergency room. This is crazy. This is an emergency. [Chris Enright] (56:08 - 56:24) I mean, that's why, because I don't do waiters, people, I mean, I lose a good amount of customers for that, but I'm just like, one, having one day, like I don't got time to be sitting around waiting for people waiting for me. That's why I have my loaners anyways. That's the primary reason why I got a courtesy loan. [Tonnika Haynes] (56:24 - 56:27) Oh, they saved me so much time and earned me so much money. [Chris Enright] (56:27 - 56:39) Yes, like that, they, and it goes through phases for me where like most of the time, like the majority of the time, they're worth it for me. And then there's times where I'm like, oh, I just want to get rid of these freaking loaners. [Tonnika Haynes] (56:39 - 56:42) I haven't had those times yet. Not yet. We got five, just five. [Chris Enright] (56:43 - 56:57) I think it's because it's a small shop, like just me and I'm managing two loaners plus all the other stuff. And my biggest struggle is my, I don't have a really good process in place to go check every vehicle before it leaves and when it checks back in. [Tonnika Haynes] (56:57 - 56:58) You better put it in place. [Chris Enright] (56:58 - 57:14) Because people, but they drop off after hours. I don't want to go, I'm not going outside. You know how many people come to my house and knock on my door after hours? And I am not, it doesn't matter. You could put a giant billboard up and people would walk. [Tonnika Haynes] (57:14 - 57:16) Because Chris loves me, I can knock on his door. [Chris Enright] (57:16 - 57:33) I, and I am not like, I'm really good in the shop. Like when I'm upset or like, if somebody questions me on pricing, like I had a guy, I had a whole conversation of a guy who said, oh, well, I would think that you should be cheaper than the dealership. And I'm like, why would you think that? And so we had a, like, I used to be really bad at that. [Tonnika Haynes] (57:33 - 57:37) I love that question. If people need to use it more often, what makes you think that? [Chris Enright] (57:37 - 57:37) Yeah, that's. [Tonnika Haynes] (57:38 - 57:38) Because then they're like. [Chris Enright] (57:39 - 58:01) That's exactly what he was like. Like there's no fact behind it. Yeah, he was like, well, he had nothing to say to that. But like, I'm really good at like keeping, I don't take that stuff personally anymore. I don't care. But you come to my door, my house, which is the downside of having your shop on the same property. I'm terrible. I'm not nice. I'm not the same, Chris. It's bad. [Tonnika Haynes] (58:01 - 58:03) And I'm like, I'm working on it. [Chris Enright] (58:03 - 58:10) I'm working on like getting a little bit better to at least be a little bit more friendly, but I'm not. And I'm like, man, Chris, you've got to lock this in. [Tonnika Haynes] (58:10 - 58:10) Do you? [Chris Enright] (58:11 - 58:20) Well, maybe not because I do want people to know, like don't, but I could just say, like I could be nice and be like, I really would appreciate you not coming to my house. [Tonnika Haynes] (58:20 - 58:21) We're not gonna do that again. [Chris Enright] (58:21 - 58:55) Like I, that's what I was telling somebody yesterday. I'm like, the thing you run into is like, I think it's just the way people think. Like some people, they just assume, like people will call me and like, hey, I need to get my car towed. Tow it. Tow it. You don't need to call me and tell me that. But people, almost all people that tow cars to my shop, call me to ask. And I'm like, you don't need to call me. Like if you were at any other shop that had like a big parking lot, you would just tow it. Just tow it. You don't need to tell me. I don't care. As long as they don't tow it to my house, which does happen sometimes, I'm fine. But yeah, it's, that's the joys of having the property. [Tonnika Haynes] (58:55 - 58:56) You gotta have personal space. [Chris Enright] (58:56 - 59:08) Yeah, that's, and I have done a really good job for myself. I was not good. Thank God for my wife. She's helped me like create really clear boundaries and things like that. Like at five o'clock or four o'clock or whatever, like be done. [Tonnika Haynes] (59:09 - 59:10) You don't need to worry about it. [Chris Enright] (59:10 - 59:45) Weekends off, take vacation time. I was terrible at that. But I've not done a great job at like creating clear boundaries for like the shop and the house. Like it's, they're just so close to each other. It's hard to, I don't know. It's hard to shut it off when it's right there. It's hard to separate yourself like from it completely, a hundred percent. But I've done a clear, a good clear job of like five o'clock. I don't take the shop phone with me. Good, good for you. Stays in the shop. On the weekends, I don't hardly ever pick it up. [Tonnika Haynes] (59:46 - 59:47) If I do. Did you always do that? [Chris Enright] (59:47 - 1:00:50) No, no. Like the first two years, I specifically said, I'm gonna make myself available for everybody all the time. And then you start to realize real quickly when you get busy, it's not physically possible. Like you cannot, it's the same. It's identical to people will message me all the time and like, hey man, I started a social media page. I'd love it if you'd follow me. And my response is always the same. Awesome, congratulate, like that's amazing. Make good content and I'll follow you. Like I've never once asked for a follow. I don't ask people to come follow my page. I make content that I hope people wanna follow. I can't follow everybody. I physically can't follow everybody who follows me. There's no possible way. And you don't want me to follow you. And if I don't like the content, it hurts your algorithm because I'm gonna swipe right past it. So it hurts you anyways. So if you make good content, I'm gonna watch you. That's as simple as that. There's no other like good answer. And I'm like, man, I wish that I could be available for customers 24 seven, but the reality is I can't because it's just me. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:00:50 - 1:00:52) Well, there's coaching companies that said you should. [Chris Enright] (1:00:53 - 1:01:01) Well, I know that and that's fine. They can do that. They can do that. Whatever, I don't care. Like my four day work week. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:01:01 - 1:01:06) Oh, what about Friday? There's not a true, how many emergencies do you have? [Chris Enright] (1:01:06 - 1:01:51) But here's the thing, that whole load of crap that says that you should be available and this is for your customer is a line and load of crap. Don't, that's a lie. If you truly cared about your customer and you wanted to be available and help them, you would be open 24 seven. That's the truth. So don't lie to me and say that you should be, we're open seven days a week or we're open six days a week or we're open late for our customers. If you really care, you'd be open 24 seven. So don't, I'm there for my customers to give them free courtesy loaner vehicles, but I'm not, I don't need to be there 24 seven for them. They understand that. They know that most of them, of course. So I, that whole thing has nothing to do with that. It has to do with money and that's okay. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:01:51 - 1:02:07) And it's great. The scarier thing is, which is good. It's a good thing. I'm thinking about it for the shop. We've got AI companies. All of them are here saying, okay, what happens when you miss that phone call at eight o'clock at night? Why are you calling a damn shop at eight o'clock at night? Who are you? Are you off work? I'm off work too. [Chris Enright] (1:02:07 - 1:02:20) I am the prime example of what everyone says you shouldn't do. I never answer the phone, almost never. The phone goes to voicemail almost all the time. I am a prime example of what you're not, what they say you shouldn't do. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:02:20 - 1:02:21) You gotta get on the second ring, Chris. [Chris Enright] (1:02:21 - 1:02:29) That's second, first, third, whatever. They all say you should answer it when they all have different times and what may work for somebody else, I guess. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:02:29 - 1:02:30) You know how much it costs to get that phone to ring, man? [Chris Enright] (1:02:31 - 1:02:31) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:02:32 - 1:02:32) Let's calculate it. [Chris Enright] (1:02:33 - 1:02:46) Well, it doesn't matter because I still get new customers every year. My customer, my new clientele's up like 20 or 25%. So it still works for me. I don't have time to stop in the middle of every single job. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:02:46 - 1:02:47) You'd never get anything done. [Chris Enright] (1:02:48 - 1:03:24) Yeah, and that's what I kept finding out is I would be in the middle of a job and then phone would ring, I'd stop the job, go answer the phone, forget where I'm at, take me how many ever minutes to get back into the job and then make mistakes. And so, you know, you end up messing up because you're off on, off on, just like in the dealership getting, like Becky Witt talks about all the time, like don't distract. All the steps. That's what it would do. And so finally, I'm like, I just can't, and I would get frustrated, then I would get mad, and then I'd have a bad day because I'm mad, which is dumb because it's something simple. So I was just like, I'm just gonna answer the phone. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:03:24 - 1:03:29) Well, people do that to their technicians now. Yeah. It's not about them answering the phone. It's the real quicks. [Chris Enright] (1:03:29 - 1:03:29) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:03:29 - 1:03:32) The real quicks. I need you to stop what you're doing real quick and fix this flat tire. [Chris Enright] (1:03:32 - 1:03:32) Yeah, can you take care of it? [Tonnika Haynes] (1:03:32 - 1:03:39) I need you to stop, do real quick, and do an oil change for Ms. Peggy Sue. Yep. Ms. Peggy Sue ain't got no damn job. What did she do all morning? And it's 345. [Intro] (1:03:40 - 1:03:43) She has to have her car right back now. She has to have it right back. Today, real quick, real quick. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:03:43 - 1:03:53) And you do it to technicians, they get off task. Mindset's different, they're ticked off. Now they have to go back to the job and maybe they forgot something because you just ruined their whole day. [Chris Enright] (1:03:53 - 1:03:53) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:03:54 - 1:03:55) Have you ever had coaching? [Chris Enright] (1:03:56 - 1:04:47) Just for a little bit. I don't, it was nothing like personal or anything. I think they did an okay job. Like a lot of the stuff that was going on in like the groups or whatever was stuff that I had been through in the ASOG Mastermind group for free. And I was like, I literally just did all this for free and now I'm paying this per month. And I'm like, it just doesn't make sense to me. I could use this for marketing or whatever else. I think coaching is great. I think everyone should have some sort of coach in their life, whether it's a business coach, whether it's like a financial coach, a lifestyle coach, whatever they call those or whatever. I also think that not everybody needs a coach in every spot in their life. Like in my mind right now where I'm at. You're good. What are they gonna help me do? [Tonnika Haynes] (1:04:47 - 1:04:50) My numbers are where they- I don't know, I will find something. [Chris Enright] (1:04:50 - 1:05:57) They can help. I will find something. They can help me do something. I'm sure they can help me fine tune my processes or improve things, but my numbers are exactly where they need to be. I'm 62 to 65% overall gross profit margins every single month. My parts and labor margins are where they need to be. My ARO is a 685 for a specialized Honda shop. So it's good for me. My customers are happy. I'm making money, I'm saving money. To me, that money, I can just take the money that I would pay the coach and put it in a savings account and save it up to hopefully maybe get a shop or whatever I end up deciding to do. So that's where I ultimately landed. Do I think I could use coaching? Yes. I'm sure there's, I know there's areas even in my personal life that they could probably help me with to help me improve, but I always default back to that. And I think coaching's great for shops that don't have their margins and they're scared to have parts markup. And they're like, we heard that in the ASOG mastermind group all the time. That won't work in my area. That won't work in my area. And I'm like, that's why I had to leave the ASOG mastermind group, because I'm sick and tired of hearing it every single week. I'm like. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:05:58 - 1:06:12) Had left my coaching company. I was like, look, I'm mean in the group settings. I'm very mean in the group settings. I felt like I was getting mean. Well, I was asking you that because you were just proving points and I just wanted to hear somebody else say it. And a lot of times you're talking about your shop and you said, what works for me? [Chris Enright] (1:06:12 - 1:06:12) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:12 - 1:06:13) What works for me? [Chris Enright] (1:06:13 - 1:06:14) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:14 - 1:06:16) So I believe coaching is very important. [Chris Enright] (1:06:16 - 1:06:16) Very. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:16 - 1:06:50) But I know I'm confident enough in my business that I can go to a coaching event and they can have 10 things that they want me to implement. And I can look at them and say, I'm going to do four of them. Cause that other stuff, it's not going to work for me. Oh no, you should do it. I don't want to. I know what I want for myself. So it's important for shop owners to know what they're building and why they're building and what works for them. Like there's no, not for right now. I don't want 15 bays, 10 technicians, six office staff over. I don't like people that much. That's too much like a job. [Chris Enright] (1:06:50 - 1:06:50) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:50 - 1:06:56) So what works for me is what I have right now. My four little days, my 20% at the bottom. [Chris Enright] (1:06:56 - 1:06:57) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:57 - 1:07:05) And that works for me. So I just like when you kept saying for me, because I really believe that shop owners need to pay attention to what they want. [Chris Enright] (1:07:05 - 1:07:05) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:07:06 - 1:07:09) And you can have a coaching company that will help you through that process. [Chris Enright] (1:07:09 - 1:07:10) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:07:10 - 1:07:15) But do not be bullied into what they're telling you you need to do in your business. [Chris Enright] (1:07:15 - 1:07:15) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:07:16 - 1:07:46) You have to understand this is what I'm building and this is why I'm building it. And this is what I want my shop to look like. Help me with this blueprint. But you also, you're building your house, right? You just don't tell an architect, I want a house. And they're like, oh, I think you should have this. You should have a six bedroom ranch style house. But it's just three of us. Nope, you should have this. But you're the architect. So I'm going to listen to you. You know the hell I need a two bedroom cottage with a lot of wood so I can go shoot stuff. [Chris Enright] (1:07:46 - 1:08:17) Yeah. Well, it's true. And I think the only caveat I would add to that is a lot of times people will use the, this has worked for me as an excuse to not do the things they do need to change. Like there's a lot of base stuff. Right. Again, like in the ASAW group, I can't mark up my parts because that one. You just skirt. They've been doing that. Okay, if you don't want to mark up your parts then raise your labor, but they won't do either. But then they're in there every single, and I'm not you. No, and they're broke. They're in the group complaining because they can't pay their bills. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:08:17 - 1:08:18) That's why I had to come out of coaching. [Chris Enright] (1:08:18 - 1:08:18) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:08:19 - 1:08:21) Because I was like, you have the same complaint every time we sit here. [Chris Enright] (1:08:21 - 1:08:49) Yes, that's like, don't make, don't come in here. You're wasting my time. Like I came in there the very first week and I was like, they were like, oh, why are your margins this low or whatever? And I was like, oh, I did a lot of timing belts. And they're like, okay, and? And I'm like, why bought all the parts from the dealership? And they're like, okay, and? And I'm like, well, I don't know. I mean, I guess they have coupons. And they're like, and? And I was like, okay, you know what? You're right. You're right. So I went back, priced it, the very first one, the person approved it. And I was like, well, shoot. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:08:49 - 1:08:50) Okay, now what else you got? [Chris Enright] (1:08:50 - 1:09:07) I'm an idiot. Yeah, and so then I just started making changes. You have to drink the Kool-Aid, right? Yeah, like you have to be able to willing to make the changes. But yeah, like Dan and I have talked about this, Dan Tekin, because he's like 25 minutes from me. My parents used to go to his shop before I started my shop. I still send them to his shop sometimes for stuff I don't want to do. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:09:08 - 1:09:08) Yeah, go see Dan. [Chris Enright] (1:09:09 - 1:09:24) I'm like, go to Dan because they live really close to him. And like certain like coaching or certain strategies and things people do or recommend won't ever work in our towns because we're in small. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:09:24 - 1:09:25) He said it was really small. [Chris Enright] (1:09:26 - 1:09:47) Very small rural communities. My town is 400 people. His town is not much more than that. You ain't turning and burning nobody. It's all relational. You are building long-term trust relationships with people. You start doing transactional turn and burn kind of stuff. You're going to turn and burn through all your clients and it's going to start telling everybody and you're going to burn real fast. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:09:48 - 1:09:49) And they're not even going to let you at church on Sunday. [Chris Enright] (1:09:50 - 1:09:54) Yeah, like that's the thing. You see everybody in the community. Like that is this, that is true. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:09:54 - 1:09:58) So like if you're in a- You can't even look at anybody. Marissa can not go to grocery store anymore. [Chris Enright] (1:09:58 - 1:10:16) Yeah, well, I mean like prime example, like a ton of my customers, like I would say probably 30 or 40% of my clients all used to go to the church that I used to go to. Some crazy stuff happened at the church. A bunch of people left. Guess who left coming to me? Because they don't see me every week anymore. They don't see me at church anymore. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:10:16 - 1:10:17) Relationship, community, communication. [Chris Enright] (1:10:18 - 1:10:35) All that stuff makes a huge difference. And like people just don't, they can't. Because if you've only ever lived in a city, you've only ever been in like a high metro, like high population metro area, you have no clue what it's like to be out in a country in a small town. It's a whole other world. And that's all I've ever known. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:10:35 - 1:10:40) Yeah, you try to take your shop to Texas, they would run over you. And you're like, where? [Chris Enright] (1:10:40 - 1:10:41) Yeah, that's exactly right. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:10:41 - 1:10:42) Same thing for me. [Chris Enright] (1:10:43 - 1:11:00) Yeah, and so that is the one thing that I just think that people should be careful of, like don't use the for me excuse to get yourself out of where your numbers need to be. And you don't like, if you don't wanna mark up parts, okay, I don't care. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:11:00 - 1:11:01) Just say that and let's not talk about it no more. [Chris Enright] (1:11:01 - 1:11:15) Yeah, like raise your labor rate then. You gotta make the money somehow. If you're not making the money to stay in business, you're not helping people. So stop giving me the crap that you wanna help people because that's a load of crap. Like we just make false justifications for ourselves. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:11:15 - 1:11:16) Because it makes us feel good. [Chris Enright] (1:11:16 - 1:11:17) Because they make us feel good. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:11:17 - 1:11:20) For being, for not wanting to take the next step. [Chris Enright] (1:11:20 - 1:11:22) Yeah, because like you said, they're scared. We're scared. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:11:23 - 1:11:36) Absolutely. It's uncomfortable. When you're giving somebody the estimate, you're just like. Yeah, because we know, like we're like, oh crap. But maybe, I still do it at the front. That's why I'm not allowed at the front. Because I'm like, well, you know, we probably could do it for, let me get, I'm going to the back. [Chris Enright] (1:11:37 - 1:11:53) Well, that's what, you know, they say, get the owner off the counter as fast as possible. That's why it works for me. Like I said earlier, me and Jeff, like we're very similar because we don't have empathy. It helps me because I'm like, here you go. Here's your bill. Like, yeah, I can feel for people sometimes. But also, I'm like. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:11:53 - 1:11:54) We've got financing. [Chris Enright] (1:11:54 - 1:12:08) Yeah, I got to pay my bills. I know that I have a wife and kids in my house right now that need, you know, my daughter's needs medical stuff. My wife needs, you know, stuff for the kids she homeschools. Like, I got bills to pay, so I don't run the business off of hopes and dreams. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:08 - 1:12:10) Because like you said, there'll be a Disney World next week. [Chris Enright] (1:12:10 - 1:12:15) Yeah, I've had that before, and I've had the sob story. And the next thing you know, on Facebook. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:15 - 1:12:19) We just got back from Disney. Small community. So I'm like, what did you just? [Chris Enright] (1:12:19 - 1:12:22) Yep, yep. That's the benefit of a small community. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:22 - 1:12:23) That's been planned. [Chris Enright] (1:12:23 - 1:12:34) Yep. But that's the benefit of a small community is you know, like, you get to see. Because people aren't always the smartest when they're like, oh, you know, we just don't have the money, whatever. And I'm like, I'm sorry. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:34 - 1:12:35) I need a GoFundMe. [Chris Enright] (1:12:35 - 1:12:39) I saw you in the Starbucks line this morning. Don't tell me you don't have no money. I keep on. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:39 - 1:12:40) Oh, that's different. [Chris Enright] (1:12:40 - 1:12:41) Yeah, that's different. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:41 - 1:12:53) Because it makes me mad when people say, in financial, on Facebook stuff, oh, you're trying to tell me I can't. I'm not trying to tell you you can't have Starbucks. I'm trying to tell you, you can't have Starbucks and tell me you broke at the same time. [Chris Enright] (1:12:53 - 1:12:58) Yeah, that, exactly. I'd rather have both. I'd rather fix my car and have my Starbucks. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:12:58 - 1:13:04) Yeah, I was like, you're not gonna tell me how broke you are. But then every time I see you in the morning in a drive-thru line at the Dunkin'. [Chris Enright] (1:13:04 - 1:13:04) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:13:05 - 1:13:10) Oh, I deserve that because I work hard. You deserve to fix your car. And I deserve to get paid because I work hard too. [Chris Enright] (1:13:10 - 1:13:28) Yeah, like you're providing a great service. And like nowadays, the new generation coming up is gonna be in, they're in for a rude awakening because they want everything and they want it cheap and they don't want to do a lot of work for it. And it's crazy to me. And like, you know, I get the comments, oh, it must be nicer. You're so lucky. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:13:28 - 1:13:32) That man, listen, it must be nice, pisses me off. [Chris Enright] (1:13:32 - 1:13:33) There's, there's. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:13:33 - 1:13:33) It is. [Chris Enright] (1:13:33 - 1:13:36) Yeah, there's very few things that send me from zero to 100 and I'm like. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:13:36 - 1:14:08) You didn't say nothing when I got to work at 5 a.m. And when I left at 11 p.m. Where were you four years ago when I started making social media content? You didn't say nothing when I was driving that 2002 Camry named Smokiesha. That my kids named Smokiesha. You didn't say nothing when Santana and Jordan were in there doing cracks and crevices. That's why my shop is clean as hell. You didn't say anything when I had to choose whether to pay the lights at the shop versus the lights at home and hope that I get another 24 hours from Duke Power. You didn't say nothing. So it is nice. [Chris Enright] (1:14:08 - 1:14:09) Yeah, it's nice. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:14:09 - 1:14:31) It is nice. It's very nice. And I can do Starbucks, but I don't spend money on that. See, that's the thing. That's what difference when you start to pay attention to what you do with your money. Like I'm not going to spend money on Starbucks. It's dumb. I had a whole crash out right before church a couple of weeks ago. I was like, I can't believe I'm this mean before church about some Starbuckles. But you know what I will go buy? I will go buy myself a $200,000 truck. [Chris Enright] (1:14:31 - 1:14:32) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:14:32 - 1:14:46) Your mama. Because I work. Yeah. I work, but you know what I also will do? I have a George Foreman in my office and I will make myself a grilled cheese sandwich every morning. And it is the best grilled cheese sandwich in the world. But on the other hand, you're spending $12 a morning for breakfast. [Chris Enright] (1:14:47 - 1:14:47) Right. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:14:47 - 1:14:49) So you just choose your heart, baby. [Chris Enright] (1:14:49 - 1:15:00) I choose my heart. It's the same thing with technicians and tools and people are like, oh, you got that big toolbox. And I'm like, it's paid off. And you got a lot of beef jerky. I snap on $0. You got a lot of beef jerky. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:00 - 1:15:01) You got a lot of socks. [Chris Enright] (1:15:01 - 1:15:11) Yeah. And I got all the free hoodies and I got the free whatever. And I drive a 2010 CRV that I paid $1,000 for. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:11 - 1:15:18) You pick your heart. Whatever makes you happy. But don't tell other people it must be nice. It must be nice to be able to sleep as much as you do. [Chris Enright] (1:15:19 - 1:15:22) And be on the internet and hate as much as you do. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:22 - 1:15:25) It must be nice for you to be on the internet seven hours a day. Like, what are you doing? [Chris Enright] (1:15:26 - 1:15:28) Hating instead of making money. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:28 - 1:15:32) Why you're, you're over here mad at me. I'm just over there buying a new tube of lipstick. [Chris Enright] (1:15:32 - 1:15:41) That's always the one like I see in other people. They're like, oh yeah, it's easy to do that if you're rich and you got money. I'm like, yeah, maybe you should get off TikTok and go make some money instead of sitting here crying and complaining. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:41 - 1:15:42) Well, you know nobody's hiring. [Chris Enright] (1:15:43 - 1:15:43) Oh gosh. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:44 - 1:15:47) But yeah, you pick your heart, baby. You pick your heart. What time is it? [Chris Enright] (1:15:47 - 1:15:48) I don't know. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:48 - 1:15:50) Oh my God. We're gonna do this 18 more times. [Chris Enright] (1:15:51 - 1:15:52) Oh, look at that. Just over an hour. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:53 - 1:15:55) No. Okay, we got 35 more minutes. [Chris Enright] (1:15:55 - 1:15:56) So, yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:57 - 1:15:58) I'm so proud for you. [Chris Enright] (1:15:58 - 1:15:59) Thank you. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:15:59 - 1:16:00) It must be nice. [Chris Enright] (1:16:00 - 1:16:12) It is nice. It's been, actually guys were asking me last night, like, you know, like, what do you do? Like, how do you, they're like, what's the balance? And I'm like, there's no balance. I'm like, that's, there is no balance. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:12 - 1:16:18) No matter, I believe that no matter where you will be put in the world or universe, that you will, you're humble enough to know better. [Chris Enright] (1:16:18 - 1:16:18) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:19 - 1:16:22) That's your balance. It starts, you don't have balance. [Chris Enright] (1:16:22 - 1:16:24) Yeah, like, it doesn't exist. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:24 - 1:16:25) It's like people, like addiction type things. [Chris Enright] (1:16:25 - 1:16:25) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:26 - 1:16:26) Addict or not. [Chris Enright] (1:16:27 - 1:16:27) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:27 - 1:16:29) You know what you're doing. You know what you want. [Chris Enright] (1:16:29 - 1:16:30) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:30 - 1:16:33) You don't have to depend on anybody else to balance you out. [Chris Enright] (1:16:33 - 1:16:40) Right, and that's why I was like, well, you, I'm like, at the end of the day, I'm like, I said, there's no, I'm like, I just work. I'm like, I work a lot. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:40 - 1:16:41) You work, you stay humble, you pray. [Chris Enright] (1:16:42 - 1:16:50) Like, you can't, yeah, God said he'll bless the work of your hands, not your butt on the couch. Like, you know, you're not, you're not doing. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:16:50 - 1:16:56) I prayed about it, but what you do? Because he'll look tired of you. You keep praying, but you still on the couch watching Dateline. [Chris Enright] (1:16:56 - 1:17:02) Yeah, put your, like, get off the couch and go out and work and put your hands to something and try it. Like, the amount of people. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:02 - 1:17:03) And if that doesn't work, try it again. [Chris Enright] (1:17:03 - 1:17:14) Well, like, what are the statistics for podcasts? Like, how many, I think it's less than 10, right? Like, 10 episodes? Less than, the average podcast starts and ends in less than 10 episodes. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:14 - 1:17:16) I think, where are we at, Braxton? [Chris Enright] (1:17:19 - 1:17:26) You're already past the normal statistic. Like, you're already way past it because you did the, the one first thing is consistency. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:26 - 1:17:28) Woo, honey, that was crazy. [Chris Enright] (1:17:28 - 1:17:29) So many people don't do. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:29 - 1:17:30) Yeah. [Chris Enright] (1:17:30 - 1:17:33) Like, social media, people ask me all the time and I'm like, consistency. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:33 - 1:17:41) And you know, I'm really bad at the social media thing. So what I've started to do is I've used the Metro Cool tool to do it for my shop. [Chris Enright] (1:17:41 - 1:17:41) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:41 - 1:17:42) Because I know I'm bad at it. [Chris Enright] (1:17:42 - 1:17:42) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:43 - 1:17:49) I'm bad at it, it's okay. I know it has to be consistent. So this is, this is, this is how I'm going to fix that. Yeah. [Chris Enright] (1:17:49 - 1:17:57) I mean, like the amount of people that don't utilize, at least if they want to grow, like if you don't want to grow, then I'm like, oh, then don't do it. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:17:57 - 1:18:01) Well, don't do it. If you don't want to grow your shop, don't do it. [Chris Enright] (1:18:01 - 1:19:35) Just, just stay where, like that's okay. But please, don't sit there and complain. Yes. That's, so that's the thing, like that's, people will be like, oh, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you're not doing anything to make it better. Same with social media. Like if you want to grow and you're not using social media to your advantage, like, like I said, in the beginning of this, I get customers from social media, not a lot, but the fact that I get any, when I do tool videos, 99% of the time, should tell you enough to say, hmm, maybe I should start doing some social media. And like that coupled with, you know, I don't know if I can say shop marketing pros. I don't know how that all works with like. It's all good. Kim's my girl. Yeah, they, so they do my social media or my marketing for my website, my SEO, my keyword and stuff. And then they'll take like some of my videos and turn them into a blog. And then, so then the blogs will drive traffic to my website. And then my videos that do really well, drive traffic for my overall SEO. So if you search anything for Honda or spool valve or Honda slide doors or anything, even tools, like people have sent me screenshots like, hey, I was searching up this and look at the first video that popped up. And it's my video. But that's why all of that stuff works in, like, I don't know. Like, it's like, you know, like the circle of life basically for social media. But people want, they feel like they need the data. They're like, well, what specific percentage? And I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, I can't tell you. I can just tell you. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:19:35 - 1:19:44) I know, I needed the data. I know I will ask Braxton all the time. Well, where am I? Where am I compared? Where am I? You do want the data, but like you say, just do it, just do it. [Chris Enright] (1:19:44 - 1:19:50) Get it out there, have fun. And don't worry about the haters and all of that stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:19:50 - 1:19:55) I'm just going to have to start. I'm going to go to the comments and I'm going to think of a one or two liner thing to say. [Chris Enright] (1:19:55 - 1:19:59) And that's the only response you ever give them or just give them a peace sign or something. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:20:00 - 1:20:00) Okay, love you, bye. [Chris Enright] (1:20:02 - 1:20:03) Like just, it does. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:20:04 - 1:20:05) Just a random quote from Einstein or something. [Chris Enright] (1:20:05 - 1:20:39) It doesn't matter. Like if you look at like some of the like most fun, genuinely nice content creators who never post controversy ever, they're just doing a ton of good and they love life. If you go through the comments, the amount of haters those people have, it does not matter. You could do a job perfectly from start to finish and do everything perfect. Like the right way, the way service information says to do it, all of it. And the amount of people telling you you're doing it wrong in the comments is going to be astounding. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:20:39 - 1:20:41) And they're probably sitting on the couch scratching themselves. [Chris Enright] (1:20:42 - 1:21:17) Yes. With a poodle on their lap. They're in mom's basement on the armchair. I call them armchair mechanics. Sitting there telling you you're doing your, like I was doing a tire rotation in a video talking about torque, torque, wheel torque quality control. Like what is people's processes. Mine's a little anal retentive because I don't want to leave a wheel loose and it's just me. So I don't have anybody to go through and double check. And in that specific video, I didn't cross rotate the tires. And that's the number one comment people flipped out about was that- One of my response, I can't say your mama. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:21:17 - 1:21:19) Is that, it's 2026. Can you say your mama? [Chris Enright] (1:21:19 - 1:21:22) I mean, that's where I come from. Your mama. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:21:23 - 1:21:25) I'm like- Your mama's a station wagon. [Chris Enright] (1:21:25 - 1:22:55) I was like, hey, guess what? Like somebody else gave me this and they're like, then why is the car at my shop? Why ain't it at your shop? I was like, that's a great response. But like this customer, one of my absolute best customers I have, he literally drops the keys off and says, do whatever it takes, whatever it needs, do it. And I always still send him pricing because I'm weird. I'm just super weird about that. But I always send him pricing. And every time I send him pricing, he's like, oh, what a great deal. That's cheap. That's like always, he's just one of those amazing people. And this is the vehicle I'm working on in the video. This is his, like, he's got 200 and something thousand miles on the pilot, like has hardly had any issues, maintained everything. And people are worried about me not cross-rotating the tires. I'm like, you guys understand that just doing a rotation in general is better than not doing one at all. And your mama- You can't cross-rotate directional tires. I've not cross-rotated tires for so long. Like, is it bad or does it make it better? Maybe, I don't know. We've never had an issue on his car with tires at all. I'm the only person who's ever serviced it from brand new. He's not burned through tires. Like, he gets alignments done. Like, I know the car. I know the context. People will like light you up in the comments. I'm like, you know what? I don't care. He's my customer and he loves the shop. We have a great relationship. I do a good job. I care about him. And if the tires jacked up because I didn't cross-rotate them, guess what I would do? Put a new set of freaking tires on him for free because it's my shop and I can do that. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:22:55 - 1:22:56) And I got money to do it. [Chris Enright] (1:22:56 - 1:22:59) Yeah, like I- And your mama. I've done that stuff before. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:22:59 - 1:23:01) Braxton, write that down. Your mama. [Chris Enright] (1:23:02 - 1:23:21) That's the response now. Your mama. So yeah, like, you know, whatever. Like, no matter what you do, somebody can say something. Like, somebody's always going to say something. You're not doing it right. You're not doing it their way, whatever. Like, again, service information could tell you. Your mama. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:23:21 - 1:23:21) Your mama. [Chris Enright] (1:23:22 - 1:23:23) That's all I can say. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:23:23 - 1:23:23) And we're going to end on that. [Chris Enright] (1:23:24 - 1:23:24) Yep. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:23:24 - 1:23:59) Your mama. Downshift with Tanika is where we slow down long enough to have real conversations hosted by myself, second generation shop owner, Tanika Haynes. This goes beyond your car count, your KPIs. We want to talk about leadership, legacy, mindset, and the messy, beautiful journey of building something that lasts. You will hear stories from shop owners, technicians, and other industry leaders who are figuring it all out by themselves in real time. This is a space for growth, tough love, laughter, and leveling up.