Latest / Downshift With Tonnika / Are Shop Owners Creating the Technician Shortage? | Brandon Sloan - Ep 44

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Are Shop Owners Creating the Technician Shortage? | Brandon Sloan - Ep 44 · Downshift With Tonnika

• [Tonnika Haynes] (0:00 - 0:11) At 50 years old, if I walked in my grandmother's house in the morning or in the evening and I didn't say good morning or good evening to everybody in that room, she'd say, you wipe your happy ass back out the house and try it again. [Brandon Sloan] (0:11 - 0:18) I like that because a big pet peeve of mine is do not walk into the shop with a negative attitude and start talking about all this, that, and the third. [Zeb Beard] (0:19 - 0:33) Welcome to Downshift with Tanika Haynes, the automotive auntie. The thing about Tanika, she gets to know you. She'll laugh and cut up with you. But then she'll hit you with some knowledge that you may not want, but that you need. Let's Downshift. [Tonnika Haynes] (0:40 - 1:02) Sloane! Alright, so we talked for a good while last night. That was fun. Number one, you saved me. And first of all, guys, this is the 17th recording I've done at ASTA. So if I sound like a man, trust me, I'm not a baby. But I've got some tacos. Did you try that taco place across the street from the hotel? [Brandon Sloan] (1:02 - 1:04) No, I haven't tried the taco place yet. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:04 - 1:26) That's one of those teenage bras. That place deserves a bra. Five-star bra. And it was really good, and my son was making me a drink, and I was winding down from the night. I'm standing in the corner, and did you see the tire guy come over and start talking to me? It's like a salesperson was approaching, and I was like, God, no, I'm in the corner. [Brandon Sloan] (1:27 - 1:30) Oh, when we were up in the hospitality suite or was this outside? [Tonnika Haynes] (1:31 - 1:37) No, in the hospitality suite, when you first spoke to me, you saved me. I just want to let you know. [Brandon Sloan] (1:37 - 1:38) Okay, good. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:38 - 1:53) You saved me. Because you said my name, and I was like, he knows my name. And he said it correctly, and I was just like, he said my name correctly. Like, oh, my God. I'm like, why? And then he's like, well, come out and let's talk. And I was like, yes, I've been saved by Brandon. [Brandon Sloan] (1:54 - 2:01) So those of you who are watching, this is Beyond the Bench podcast, and with me today, we have Tanika from Downshift with Tanika. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:01 - 2:18) Yeah, that's me. So we're like recording at the same time. I'm recording my podcast. You're doing your thing. And I'm so excited to see how this turns out. Like, my 20-year-old son is like, oh, well, for real? I was like, yeah. I was like, yeah. So this is exciting. You've been watching some of my stuff like that. [Brandon Sloan] (2:18 - 2:58) And I've seen you in everybody's comment section just going after it. And that's where I'm like, oh, this girl, I like this. She is down into it, just how I am with things on social media when we're getting down to the real nitty-gritty and uncovering myths and showing the truth behind everything where there's a lot of misconceptions in the industry, and we're trying to break that. More education to the industry helps that in a sense to where on the consumer end, we're advocating for them, we're advocating for our technicians, for us as well, and for others in the automotive industry. [Tonnika Haynes] (2:59 - 3:00) Silence all of the hate. [Brandon Sloan] (3:00 - 3:01) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:01 - 3:02) Silence the rumors. [Brandon Sloan] (3:03 - 3:08) Because there was one conversation I'll tell you that I had with Sherwood from Royalty Auto Service. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:08 - 3:09) Yeah. [Brandon Sloan] (3:10 - 3:21) Is basically what their prerogative is with all of the negativity in the industry, all the negativity that's on social media is trying to bring the light back. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:21 - 3:22) Yes, please. [Brandon Sloan] (3:22 - 3:42) Bring it back out of the darkness. So that's a good thing where I see, and it took a turn in my direction as well. So I listened to Sherwood's on, this was on the phone, this was nothing in anything that was on the social media, was that, you know, that's where the direction is, that there's so much hate and so much negativity. [Tonnika Haynes] (3:42 - 3:53) Because it does get the attention on social media. And I don't, no one can go, well, not no one. Few people go and listen to the whole podcast. [Brandon Sloan] (3:53 - 4:17) Yes, they only see the clips, and then nobody knows what to do, but in that aspect, there's a way like when we have, we're making videos, we're making content and there's something off in the background, it's product placement without saying that this is what I'm saying to use, but I'm just saying that this is what I use. I'm not telling you what to do. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:17 - 4:37) I'm not telling you what to do, but I'm just saying. Yeah. Like you just, no stupid people. I'm not saying that stupid people cannot be here, but no stupid people. I saw that, that was funny. So, but yeah, I do enjoy what I'm doing. I've only been doing like six months. [Brandon Sloan] (4:37 - 4:42) Yeah, so tell the viewers about yourself that they haven't listened to or they haven't heard about. [Tonnika Haynes] (4:42 - 5:21) Well, because, you know, a lot of people, this girl's just talking. She's talking. It's the negative comments. I wish you would shut up. I'm not shutting up. I'm not going to do it. So, I am Tanika Haynes. I own and operate Brown's Automotive in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I am a second generation shop owner. My father, William Brown, started our business when I was three and we started off as a collision center. So, I'm a body shop girl by trade. I know my P-pages. I know how to deal with insurance companies and I can talk a customer off a cliff because, you know, an accident is different from the service side. No one, you can't plan an accident. It's an accident. It happens just like that. It turns your world upside down. And if you're lucky, no one gets hurt. [Brandon Sloan] (5:22 - 5:22) Exactly. [Tonnika Haynes] (5:22 - 6:23) It takes much longer for a collision to be fixed. So, I'm really good at customer service and navigating through those processes. And when my dad retired, and 10 years ago, he left me the service department. Now, the service department wasn't anything that I knew. We only built that building because we had to play the game with the insurance company. So, in 2001, my dad left his, I want to say the original shop was maybe 2,000 square feet and I may be wrong. So, Daddy, I'm sorry. I can't remember. And we moved in a center that was combined 25,000 square feet. And we built our service department to make sure that we got as much money as we could from the insurance companies because at the time, and it probably still is, insurance labor rates for collision claims are like $40 an hour. $42, $44. That's not. It's not $50, $60. It's not $200 like us, right? But it's still an important work. [Brandon Sloan] (6:23 - 6:27) Yeah, so in North Carolina, is it still by state statute on how much you? [Tonnika Haynes] (6:28 - 6:30) And you know what, Brandon, I don't even care because I think it's terrible. [Brandon Sloan] (6:31 - 6:31) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (6:31 - 8:56) Yeah, the insurance companies rule it. But what we found is we could sublet the work to a local shop and we would get the full, well, they would pay the full amount. So, at that time, maybe it was 120 an hour. So, I could send it to the shop down the street, sublet that suspension work, and only mark it up to 10%. And I was making a little bit more because if we did it in-house as we can, you can do a knuckle and whatever in-house. They would only give us, at the time, I was like $38 to $40 an hour. So, my dad built the service department just so we could sublet the work to ourselves. So, we built it, got a different tax ID number for that building, and so on and so forth. And that's how we started the service department. But when he retired, that's what he left me. And we never marketed that. And it wasn't a thing. It wasn't a business for the public. And so, I pretty much had to start from scratch. Yeah. So, that's how I started. And then again, I didn't know anything about service because we did radiator, condenser, the fans. That's what gets hit in the front. And then you got your suspension and frame because you can get hit inside. So, I can tell you tires. I can tell you control arms and knuckles and, you know, got to put on the frame machine. I got that all day. But as far as maintaining the vehicle, I knew oil change, I knew tires, and I knew alignment. I didn't know anything about, you know, regular maintenance, 30, 60, 90, or whatever the numbers are now. Check engine light. I had no knowledge of this industry whatsoever. All I didn't know is I knew that I'm really good at customer service, and I'm a people person when the people are good. And I had a duty. I had a duty to my dad to take what he left me, and build upon it. And so, here we are now, 10 years later, and I did the duty. And I'm doing the damn thing. That shop, you can ask me square footage. I took it from maybe 2,500 square feet to 4,000 because I did an addition, and I have four techs, two service advisors, and myself, and I really don't work that much anymore. I got a four-day work week. I'm really comfortable. I get my 20 percent net. I'm really good with my numbers. I am not waiter. I am very specific about who I want my customer to be. And I only work four days a week because that's what I choose to do. And I'm enjoying myself. [Brandon Sloan] (8:56 - 9:40) Sometimes we do that with four days. It's not every single week. It depends on what's going on on Friday, if there's anything laid over. Is it any point for anybody to physically be there? Because we're renovating another shop as well. So we've got a 5,000 square foot shop that we're renovating at the same time. So if we don't have any work that's going on physically in the shop that we're in, and we'll take a Friday and go over and work on the renovations on the shop. So I've also got my wife and an employee that's working on the renovations in the shop. So a good thing about one technician that I do have has a background in construction, electrical, and HVAC. [Tonnika Haynes] (9:40 - 9:42) Okay, do it all in those. [Brandon Sloan] (9:42 - 10:13) So he is the one doing all of the work, mostly in the shop tearing down anything that had to do with the office side. So renovating the office side, the bathrooms, everything for the employees, everything for the consumer side, consumer lounge, he's doing all of that. And that's a plus. Like we have technicians in the industry that they do everything front to rear in the vehicle. They know all of the areas in the automotive sector. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:13 - 10:13) Right. [Brandon Sloan] (10:14 - 10:22) And a lot of them are leaving to go do stuff like construction, electrical, HVAC, but they have that knowledge. But what if we keep them in house? [Tonnika Haynes] (10:22 - 10:27) What if we decided to water the plants that we already have? [Brandon Sloan] (10:27 - 10:27) Exactly. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:28 - 10:39) What if we decide to get up all the red clay inside of our shop and get some good soil and do the right thing? Let's do the work. [Brandon Sloan] (10:39 - 10:41) Water this side of the fence. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:41 - 10:46) Water this side of the fence. Go ahead and get some manure and put it on this side of the fence because you can replant grass. [Brandon Sloan] (10:46 - 10:47) Yes. [Tonnika Haynes] (10:48 - 11:29) You can save your yard. It might take a little work, but as it should, as it should, we were talking last night and I'm really passionate about this industry in a different way. Like you were talking to somebody about transmission. You guys were talking about L and numbers and that sounds like I have no idea what you're talking about. But you know what we can talk about? I can talk about my babies, my 20-year-old sons and how they're going to fit in this industry and how I do not want them to hear another podcast talking about how bad it is and how many people we need. We've got them. We've got the flipping people. We just have to stop running them away. [Brandon Sloan] (11:29 - 11:49) Yeah, because we have a generational problem as well. So on the transmission side of the industry, we talk about the generational problems. They look at it in a couple of different aspects where the older generation is phasing out and retiring and there's not enough new young... I don't know. [Tonnika Haynes] (11:49 - 12:03) Okay, so the ASTA Expo is shutting down right now. We are not being attacked just to let you guys know. It's like, what is happening in the background? It's the last couple hours of the Expo and we decided to sit down. This wasn't scheduled, so I'm sorry it's not any quieter. [Brandon Sloan] (12:03 - 12:03) No, it's totally fine. [Tonnika Haynes] (12:03 - 12:11) But I think it's fun because I think that shows how important this conversation is and how this relationship has blossomed in the last 24 hours. So let's keep going. [Brandon Sloan] (12:12 - 13:19) So the generational problem that we have in the industry is where the older generation is phasing out, retiring, and there's not enough new generation that's coming in to fill those spots. Uh-huh. However, when we look at the statistics, I've got 1% out of those going to technical college that are actually graduating and going into a dealership setting that they're going to do something else because once they get in, they understand and see the political side. Uh-huh. They see what's going on, how they're treated, there's no leadership, and the bad management that happens to it so then they leave and go find something else that's easier where they don't have to buy tools. They can get paid hourly instead of flat rate and they've got tons of benefits on top of it in order to do that. So that's more... That's more attractive. It's more attractive to them than it is with the automotive. Right. So what we're trying to work on with that is trying to engage with them and show them that it is fun, it is an experience, and how to purchase tools at a better rate... [Tonnika Haynes] (13:19 - 13:19) At a slower pace. [Brandon Sloan] (13:19 - 13:24) At a slower pace and don't get on the tool truck immediately and buy everything straight up there. [Tonnika Haynes] (13:25 - 14:20) I know you won't be a walkie everything. We're going to have to use this, baby. You're going to have to go to Facebook Marketplace. You're going to get there, but if they have mentors such as yourself... And you can teach them these things, like, son, I know you want a big toolbox like mine, but my toolbox took me 30 years to get. Yeah, exactly. Don't put yourself in debt. Don't put yourself... Now, you got to go buy some tools now, but we don't want you to go in debt. It is our responsibility, well, in my opinion, it's our responsibility to not only make sure they have a fair wage, because the old shop owner mentality is you just do the work and you go home. Shut up. Do the work and go home. But there is... We have responsibilities as far as good leadership, good stewardship, teaching these young guys, okay, you're making good money. You just don't think you're making good money because you spent it all on a tool truck on beef jerky. Like, let's learn some financial control. [Zeb Beard] (14:20 - 14:20) Exactly. [Tonnika Haynes] (14:21 - 15:22) Let's learn some self-control. You messed up a car. Did you learn from it, or did you just get pissed off and throw something? Like, did you see the opportunity in that? Because unfortunately, and it's the parents, and I'm one of those... I'm not one of those parents, but it's some of my generation. I've got great kids, and I was very strict, and I made sure they knew the lessons, but they just were not taught that. So you're going to get a tech that is hungry, and it's probably going to be a wonderful tech, but needs life and social skills along with that. And as leader and a boss or manager, you're not willing to invest some time or lead that child or that young man into the proper book or the proper podcast so he can work on his financials and his leadership and his attitude and his aptitude. If you can't build that whole person, don't hire them just to mess them up. Make them hate the industry just because you were not a good leader. So we have them, but not you guys, but they're being ran away. [Brandon Sloan] (15:23 - 15:38) Yeah, because most people don't understand that they need leadership skills or even understand what that is because everybody comes in and goes to work, this is your job, this is what you need to do every day. Here, here's a bunch of tickets. Go ahead and start on this, and this is your work for the day. [Tonnika Haynes] (15:38 - 16:23) Instead of saying, good morning. Yeah. Instead of, I've got one person that works for me, for now, that cannot say good morning. Like in the, walks into work, and I don't care if you got snot in your eye, just morning, something, walks in, doesn't say anything to anyone. But that was allowed by parents and grandparents and aunts. If that happened in my household, around my family, whoever that adult was would make your ass walk back out that door and try it again, honestly. At 50 years old, if I walked into my grandmother's house in the morning or in the evening, and I didn't say good morning or good evening to everybody in that room, she'd say, you wipe your happy ass back out the house and try it again. It's little things like that. [Brandon Sloan] (16:23 - 16:31) I like that because a big peep of mine is, do not walk into the shop with a negative attitude and start talking about all this, that, and the third. [Tonnika Haynes] (16:33 - 17:27) And I've... And I'm gonna challenge you on that one. Let me challenge you on that one. I agree, but I was just having a conversation with someone else. Even I have days that I just cannot... I can't, I can't. You know, the heart is heavy, the brain is heavy, and your soul is heavy. But when I do walk in with that, as the leader, as the boss of that shop, I still tell my people, good morning. Mr. Neagre's not having a bad day. And I'm gonna let you know that ahead of time. I'm either gonna stay in my back office or if I appear or sound like I'm mad at you, I'm apologizing ahead of time. It has nothing to do with you. I tried to sing it out this morning on the way to work, but I just can't let it go. Now, if you walk in the shop and you look at it, I say, good morning. You say, good morning. And I can feel you're having a bad day. I'm not gonna be mad at you because you kind of just ask me for permission to like, I'm feeling, I'm in the funk because we're all still healing. [Brandon Sloan] (17:27 - 17:28) So what's going on? [Tonnika Haynes] (17:28 - 18:07) What's going on? And if it's two hours in a day or two hours in a day and you haven't come from your box in your little cubby, hey, Brandon, are you good? Yeah, I'm just not feeling it today. All right. I can respect that. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna leave you alone. I'm not gonna say, oh, we need to talk about it. I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna leave you alone because you just say, yeah, I'm not having a good day. And that was you asking permission to, hey, just let me have this bad day. Now, if it happens every day, you got to go with that shit. I don't want to hear that. But we all have them. So that's why I said I want to challenge you a little bit. And I learned that with leadership. I did learn that with leadership because you think, oh, you leave that stuff at the door. You can't leave. Sometimes you just can't leave. [Brandon Sloan] (18:07 - 18:22) You can't always leave it at the door. So if there are some things that kind of overflow into it, and I had that happen sometime last week. Where I'm like, all right, let's sit down and let's just stop everything we're doing. Let's just sit down and talk. And just figure out what's going on. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:22 - 18:23) What's going on? [Brandon Sloan] (18:23 - 18:26) Just let it out. Let's get it out before the day starts. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:26 - 18:32) And there's nothing like a good what's going on. That means I'm asking you what's going on. That's because this is not your norm. [Brandon Sloan] (18:33 - 18:33) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:33 - 18:35) And I love you enough. [Brandon Sloan] (18:35 - 18:37) You're genuinely interested on what's wrong. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:37 - 18:53) What's going on with you, and how can I help? Now, if you tell me I don't want to talk about it, I'm not going to force it. I'm going to say, okay, if you do, let me know. I'll sit on my hands. I won't judge you. Now, if I say, what's going on? And the attitude comes to me. That's a different problem. [Brandon Sloan] (18:53 - 18:55) Yeah, that's a different situation there. [Tonnika Haynes] (18:55 - 20:18) So those are the kind of things that I've learned with leadership. Slowing down with the shop and looking at things from just more than a financial perspective. I had somebody in here the other day. I think I told you this last night. And she says that when people ask how many employees you have, on the payroll, I have nine. Really, I have like 36. Between family and animals, wives, husbands, babies, or brothers and sisters that they have to take care of. So we're responsible for everybody under the roof of that shop. So that's a lot of responsibility. No matter if you want it or not, whether you want it or not, because you at the end of the day are responsible for them eating where they sleep and all of those things. So if you're a true leader, in my opinion, if you're a true leader, you take that to heart and you lead that way like, I've got to make sure these people eat. That means I've got to get my marketing together. I've got to get my front office phone adequate together. We've got to do this because we've got to eat this week. I've got a responsibility to all of them because I said, hey, I'm going to pay you this much money. That means I've got to have the money to pay them. I made a promise to them, and they made a promise to me. I'm going to keep my promise first because I asked them to come here. [Brandon Sloan] (20:20 - 20:28) So let's jump into that whole situation right there on Austin. So how Austin was treated was nothing like that. [Tonnika Haynes] (20:29 - 20:33) Nothing like that. And that's why I left him that loan message because I'm so proud that he did that. [Brandon Sloan] (20:34 - 20:38) So anybody that's listening, we're talking about Austin Yarbrough, the Toyota tech. [Tonnika Haynes] (20:38 - 20:38) Yeah. [Brandon Sloan] (20:39 - 21:23) That just quit his job over a video because he had to fight an extended warranty that was only one to pay clean time. It was 0.8. And he's the one that had to get on the phone, not the advisor. He had to get on the phone with extended warranty and not the advisor to explain to them, like, look, that's clean time. That's not the actual fuel pump replacement time. And why is he even having to do any of that? And then after the fact, they come to him like, well, if you take the video down, we'll put you on a guarantee. We'll do this. How much money did you make off the videos? We'll reimburse you for that. Thinking in my head, I'm like, why are they getting involved into this stuff? They cared about him in the first place. [Tonnika Haynes] (21:23 - 22:20) Because he bought something to the light. Exactly. He bought something to the light. Because here's the thing. If that young man was a little bit weaker, less wise, he would have took that situation and did the job and slowly begin to get pissed off and become, I'll do respect Jeff. Love you, Jeff Compton. I love that bearded man more and more jaded. Yes. And that's what we do. We'll internalize it. And then next thing you know, there's a tool flying across the shop and I quit this bitch. When all he had to do is stand up, he stood up with that .8 shit for every technician that does not know how to stand up for themselves. Not saying that they're weak, but they're scared to lose their job because they've got the babies, the cousin, the wives, the moms, the grandma. They're taking care of their village. And, man, I can't afford to lose my job because then what am I going to do? [Brandon Sloan] (22:20 - 22:46) I've got it in my comment section, the same thing. And some dealer technicians that watched the video, waited a couple of days and then came back to it and really thought about the whole situation on, you know, if it was them, what they would have done. And they see the aspect of, you know, I'm losing the time but I've got a family to feed and I've got to keep going. But when you add up all the time that you're legally due... [Tonnika Haynes] (22:46 - 23:45) Not even all of them. What if you have ten techs in the building, right? And you keep doing that. You keep chopping the rail a little bit at the time. That's how I felt about insurance companies. Because those jokers told me they would come in and audit an RO. And this is why I don't do warranty work. Audit an RO, sit there and spend an hour with me, wasting my time talking to this dungaloon that do not know a bumper from a fucking roof. You're on the other end of the call. You're pissing me off and you're saying, well, we could have done this whole job for $2 less if you don't get your butt out my face with a $2. But they literally would say, well, we have millions of claims a year and if we save $2 per claim, you finish the sentence. And that's what they were doing to him and that's what they do to all the techs. Not even... Not independents that do this warranty stuff and the owners eat it because they're not hurting the guys. I applaud you. But that is not fair and the consumers probably do not know the extent of it. [Brandon Sloan] (23:45 - 23:52) Yeah, the consumer doesn't know either. They don't know. But the reason what Austin was told to take the video down had nothing to do with it. [Tonnika Haynes] (23:52 - 23:53) Because they were gonna find out. [Brandon Sloan] (23:53 - 24:57) Nothing to do with the video. He was told it had to do with the comment section because the consumers were lighting him up and like, well, then I should be only paying .8. I shouldn't be paying that 2.3. But then the consumer didn't know the difference but in everybody else's defense that kind of went after him and told him it was clean time, he didn't divulge that part of the information in the video. But he did after the fact, he did correct it and it was even brought up to me because I didn't see it, I didn't catch it, I didn't understand it. I heard Austin's side of the story on the back end before he walked in and quit his job. I was on the phone with Austin up to the point till he walked in and talked to his manager and said, I'm just gonna part ways, I'm gonna grab my things and move on. That was the point where when I published my end of the video, I'm like, all right, Austin, if you do it, you tell me what's done, I'll air this side and I'll put it as an automotive news reel because this is gonna be the catalyst for everybody to understand. [Tonnika Haynes] (24:57 - 24:58) But it happens. [Brandon Sloan] (24:59 - 25:11) Yeah, it does and I've even done it in some of my videos where I've left out a piece of information, not doing it on purpose, but then having to watch the reel 10 times before I release everything nowadays. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:13 - 25:16) But it's still, okay, but it's still true. [Brandon Sloan] (25:17 - 25:29) I mean, it's still true, but then the consumers, he was told by Toyota North America to take the video down because they didn't like how the consumers were reacting. So this has nothing to do with the technician side. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:29 - 25:30) That's not even pro technician. [Brandon Sloan] (25:31 - 25:33) Yeah, it's not even anything to do with the technician side. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:33 - 25:34) I don't like this cause I don't like that. [Brandon Sloan] (25:34 - 25:45) See, because it put Panama City, Toyota in bad light because of the consumers. They're worried about their CSI scores. You don't know about that on the dealership level. [Tonnika Haynes] (25:45 - 26:06) Yeah, well, we don't do that, but I've heard nightmares. I've heard that the CSR scores are killed because the coffee was cold and that affects everybody's paycheck. What? That's what we're talking about. So they were more concerned in the comments and I don't look at comments. I think my comment, I did my comment early on so I didn't go down that whole rabbit hole. [Brandon Sloan] (26:06 - 26:07) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (26:08 - 26:21) So the client's thinking, they're thinking that .8 he got paid is true time based on what he had up there and they've been paying 2.4. So they're thinking the dealership is marking it up that much more. [Brandon Sloan] (26:21 - 26:23) They think that they're ripping it off. [Tonnika Haynes] (26:24 - 26:26) We just can't win with the consumer. [Brandon Sloan] (26:28 - 29:00) How do we win with the consumer? Well, that's where we let the engagement go in the comment section. Just let it go. The comment section doesn't really matter too much, but we pay attention to the comment section on, okay, so if most of the comment section is gearing with consumers, then we need to take that focal point and we create new content on it based on the comment section to re-educate the consumer. Okay, we took this and then I'll take a few clips out of what he said and I've re-educated in the same sense. So then I did that three videos later. Going after everything and put another dealership technician in it, which is a good friend of mine, that made a comment on the Facebook side of the platform, not on the TikTok side, because Facebook's one that got me half a million views. On TikTok, it only got maybe 45,000 views. It didn't really launch on that side, but Austin's views launched everywhere. So in that sense, then I'm going to listen to the one that matters the most. So I have the consumers on one platform, then I have the technicians on another platform, then I got shop owners over here, and then I got warranty people, the actual extended warranty companies, messaging me. And I've had good conversations with them before, but I'll tell you exactly who it was and how this works at the dealer sense. It's Fidelity, J-M-N-A. So what happens when the dealership gets with Fidelity and say, we're going to create a withholding account. So when we sell that extended warranty, that money goes into a withholding account. The extended warranty has to try to nickel and dime the dealer and the technician, and on that end, they're not having to pay out as much. However, if the advisor does not educate the consumer firsthand when they show up to explain to them that you may, Mr. or Mrs., you may have an extended warranty, but we want to let you know upfront, whatever the extended warranty does not cover, you will be fully responsible in the end. Most of them do not do that because they worry about their CSI scores and their Google reviews. They don't want the pushback. They don't want the pushback. So then the tech eats it, and then the advisor eats it, and the service department eats it. And then the withholdings account grows and grows and grows, and guess what happens every quarter? Everybody up top gets dividends. [Tonnika Haynes] (29:03 - 29:07) Who made you the judge, Judy, of the automotive world? So you're sitting there negotiating with all the terrorists. [Brandon Sloan] (29:08 - 29:42) I've had more time to sit back and create the content and study everything. That way, just like I do root cause analysis with the transmissions, I do it with people. I do it with my customers. I do it with the employees that I have in the shop. It's not just how I can dissect an item and look and see where the actual root caused. Was it something internal, something going on with the software? Is it something electrically happening with the vehicle itself that caused a component of the powertrain to fail? Finding discovery. It's just like when an airplane fails. [Tonnika Haynes] (29:43 - 29:45) Let's go find a black box and figure it out. [Brandon Sloan] (29:45 - 30:38) So then they send a whole team out there to dissect it piece by piece because they have to. So it doesn't happen again. So that's how I look at life in reality. And this is where I find that I give everything back to the community as much as possible. And I help my consumers at the same time. And this is where price doesn't matter. The value's so high that the price does not matter. And that's what we're trying to give back to the community. And it was something that I was talking to Jeff and Jeff asked me, he said, what can you give back on this whole ordeal? What can you give back to the technicians? What can you say to them? Build your arsenal and put it in your pocket and you have the power because if you have the value, you can set your number. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:38 - 30:38) You write your show. [Brandon Sloan] (30:38 - 30:44) And you show it, if you can show it to me that you're actually an ATEC when you come in the shop. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:44 - 30:44) Yeah. [Brandon Sloan] (30:44 - 30:45) I will pay you. [Tonnika Haynes] (30:45 - 33:27) Now, I've been trying to say that and I know you guys and Enright keeps telling me, look, don't worry about the comments because they're just talking. But the same way you guys say, my toolbox has wheels, you also have a mental toolbox that no one can take from you. And if you are at a crossroads or at a shop and you don't feel valued, first of all, let's not use feel. You're not valued, that's your feeling and everybody's not my friend and all this. Like truly, you're not being valued. You're not being educated. You don't have the right tooling, like the large tools, like they should have. You don't have this, you don't have that. And you feel stuck. I would encourage anybody to do any and everything they can to increase their worth mentally. Your knowledge. You've got your scanner dinner. You've got your brand in Sloan. You've got all these educational outlets out there and no shop can tell you that you cannot train on your own. If you're at a place and they won't send you there, they won't send you the ASTA, they won't send you the tools, they won't send you the Apex. You go on a vacation, you go on a Myrtle Beach dirty Myrtle, ew. Take that same vacation time and say, hey, I'm going to take a Friday and Saturday and you go ahead and put it on the books and you go your dad-going self. And no one can take that from you and then you write your own check. You write your own check. Invest in yourself. In the first couple years of any business or anything, you're going to have to work hard but you all have to work smart while you're listening to, like, I love murder mysteries. I love Dateline and I like to listen to podcasts about just murder. I don't want to kill nobody. I really don't. It's just interesting to me. I like the process of it. If I wanted to increase my leadership skills, which I have been, my podcast choices changed. I am going to consistently listen to boss moves. I'm going to listen to Josh Purnell. I'm going to listen to Simon Sinek. Those are the things I need to feed myself to become a better leader. Spotify costs almost nothing. Instead of listening to your favorite Metallica, me is Dave Matthews. Whatever you're listening to, just change your soundtrack for a little bit and make that soundtrack a destination for where you want to be. Oh, I need a vacation. I need a time. I need a trip. I need to go to Bahamas. Do you? Or do you want to get to the next level? So I want you to choose your heart. And it's like, oh, well, you must be nice as you've already done. Oh, honey, the G Wagon didn't come for free. No, it did not. [Brandon Sloan] (33:27 - 33:29) Everything that we built did not come for free. [Tonnika Haynes] (33:29 - 34:47) It did not come for free. Blood, sweat and tears. Now you see me now and what I'm pushing, but that Toyota Camo Smokisha is what my kids called her. I was whipping and running. I was cleaning my own toilets, mopping my own floors, stripping my own floors, wiping down. I was, I was the janitor, marketing, HR, accounts payable, accounts receivable, estimator, service advisor. I mean, same thing. I'm thinking about collision. Yeah, I have my state inspection license. I can change a couple of motor mounts. I will break her fingernail. I just don't have to do that anymore because I built my team. And when I say team, I mean team. Okay. So what I'm saying is be broke and be hungry for a little bit because you're going to eat like a big dog later. Tell your friends you can't go to the club on Friday. I'll go Saturday. I can't go Friday and Saturday because I got some work to do. Don't look at SpongeBob Square plans. Look at Scanner dinner. Don't look at, I know my guys. I'm not picking at my guys. They look, looking at fishing videos and shooting videos on YouTube while they're working. Change the station to where you need to get stronger. And Paul Danner will be my best friend by the time the end of that year came. [Brandon Sloan] (34:47 - 34:58) I hear it from a lot of the technicians that talked to me in the last couple of days that we were here that if it wasn't for Scanner, Danner, that's where they learned so much, more than they did at the dealership. [Tonnika Haynes] (34:58 - 35:21) And you know what they learned? Because he tells them the mistake is $12 a month. They like that he shows them mistakes. Like, yeah, please don't do that. I just messed that up. You remember that last video? Don't do it. All wrong. All wrong. And he's a real guy. Paul is just a real guy. He's got a story. You know what he did? He invested in his own toolbox. This is something that your employer cannot take from you. [Brandon Sloan] (35:21 - 36:01) It's the same thing that I did because I was a dealership technician. So I worked for General Motors for 11 years, and probably halfway through is where I started to dissect things, see things, and then all of a sudden I'm on YouTube watching Richard from Precision Transmissions out of Amarillo, Texas, which everybody knows most of. And it's a hot topic with the transmission industry. Don't really want to get into that. But that's all I would listen to and I would watch every single morning. They'd drop us a new video on what they're doing, what's kind of going on. So I kind of got more invested. I'm like, there's a world beyond the dealer. [Tonnika Haynes] (36:02 - 36:29) And yeah, because if you don't, they will keep you trapped in any job, running any job. If you are not with the right mindset, if that company doesn't have a good leadership, if they don't have good leadership, what they're worried about is what we talked about, the bottom line. And we all are worried about the bottom line. I like my bottom line. But the way I get to my bottom line is to make sure my people are okay. [Brandon Sloan] (36:29 - 36:30) Exactly. [Tonnika Haynes] (36:30 - 37:21) So when coach is out, because coach can't go to work Monday, because I'm not going to be able to talk, and I need to go to sleep. But you know what they're going to say when I say, hey, y'all, I ain't coming in today. They're going to be like, all right, boss, we got it. They're not going to say, oh, damn, she out again. They're going to say, oh, boss, I got it. Because they know when it's time to go on the court, they're going to perform. And I've given them a playbook, and I've given them everything that I can to make sure that their lives are easy. Yes, they still got to go to work, but I'm not slave-driving. I don't do that. And so it's easier that way. But if you would have stayed there and not took care of yourself and not woke up and saw the light, what you could have did is just got mad about it. Like, oh, man, they won't even train me on nothing. Oh, man, I can't even get a raise. You can get one. They just might not be there. [Brandon Sloan] (37:22 - 37:42) Yeah, because I was telling Jeff, looking like neither him or I knew what we knew then. So if we knew then what we knew now, oh, it'd be a different ballgame. But it only took a few years for everybody, for me to basically wake up and see the reality of where I'm going in the future. [Tonnika Haynes] (37:42 - 37:42) Yeah. [Brandon Sloan] (37:43 - 38:04) Like, where I'm wanting to make a difference, I'm wanting to make a change. And writing half of the bulletins that are coming in, finding all the hard-to-figure-out problems that take tens of 20 out, 20, tens... Yeah, tens of... I don't know how to say that. So where everybody's thinking... [Tonnika Haynes] (38:04 - 38:04) A whole lot of hours. [Brandon Sloan] (38:04 - 38:15) A whole lot of hours, where like most of the dealer technicians can get potentially paid 2.5 hours for a wire break, but you're spending days to find it. [Tonnika Haynes] (38:15 - 40:39) And you know what they were doing? Oh, we love that Brandon Sloan. That young man is going to make us a lot of money. But you know what? When he asks for the raise, we'll give him 50 cents. And we do not want to give him too much information, because he might learn how to make the Kool-Aid. These kids have you, Jeff, Steckler, Danner. They've got all you guys that have already went through this crap. But what scares me in the comments, and I try to stay out of them, is that you rather be ignorant and right and loud. You think you're right. You're very wrong and loud, instead of listening to the people that's already done this shit and say, all right, maybe it is me. Maybe I can do better. Maybe I can work harder, and I can get myself out of this shit. Because they did it already. Like, these are all, man, there ain't no good jobs out there. There's no good jobs for you. There's no good jobs for you and your mindset. There's no good jobs for you, because you refuse to train, because you know everything already. You're the problem. Me and my leadership, me and owning my shop, the way, if there's something going on in my shop, like something's just sketchy, attitudes are wrong, I look at myself first, and I'll say, damn, what did I do? Did I piss them off? Am I not making myself clear? Am I working them too hard? Am I not reading the room? I check myself. What was that, Ice Cube? I check yourself for you, wreck yourself, fool. So I would ask all of these young techs, and everybody's young. I know I'm not the oldest thing in the world, but when I'm thinking 30, 25, all these, you kids, shut up and listen. And if you do not believe everything I say, there's one thing in there that you can take and run with it. If they look at you and Jeff, like, oh, man, they don't know what they're talking about. They're just podcasts. They're making all that money on Facebook and TikTok. They're just making all that money. All what money? Yeah, they just be talking. That's not what people think. Oh, he's just talking. You don't need all those tools. Shut up. You look for the most hateful thing to say instead of looking inward at yourself and worrying about your damn self. And I get mad about that because I think it's a lot of wasted opportunities. And not even the automotive industry is just arrogance. You can't get out of your own way to work on you and to make yourself better, to make yourself more valuable to the marketplace. [Brandon Sloan] (40:40 - 40:42) I'm going to make sure my youngest son listens to this. [Tonnika Haynes] (40:42 - 40:44) Yeah, you don't get paid for what you feel like it. [Brandon Sloan] (40:44 - 40:46) Because I try to teach him the same thing. [Tonnika Haynes] (40:46 - 40:49) I feel like I should make a million fucking dollars per day. [Brandon Sloan] (40:49 - 41:08) Sometimes people need to hear it from somebody else other than somebody that they're close to or they can relate to things to. So if they hear it from some of the outside, so that's a good thing while we have the different podcasts, like you have your podcast. Jeff has his. I have mine. And if they hear it from a different perspective, they're like, oh, man, she might be right. [Tonnika Haynes] (41:08 - 41:25) I might be wrong. But listen, listen further than your nose. Get out of your own way. Because I've been here 50 years. You've been here 22. Sit down and shut up. And it's so funny. Oh, they old. Yeah, I'm old. I'm still here. And I'm not broke. [Brandon Sloan] (41:26 - 41:35) I think it's funny. I hear some of the younger generation talk that they wish they had people to talk to them like that. And then they have some that. [Tonnika Haynes] (41:36 - 41:37) Well, because the ones that don't. [Brandon Sloan] (41:37 - 41:39) Like shut down. [Tonnika Haynes] (41:39 - 43:31) They can't handle it. They shut down because of their feelings. And I have one. Well, he knows I love it. And I'll say that I do have one that will work for me, that does work for me. And sometimes I talk to him like a mom. But sometimes I cuss his ass out. And he knows if I'm cussing them out, that means I care. Because I see too much in you for you to act like this. What the fuck is wrong with you? Get out of your own way. Because if you can't take the opportunities that I'm putting in front of you, let me give him somebody that deserve it. Choice is yours. Boxer kick rocks. Literally, choice is yours. Are you boxing or are you kicking rocks? Are you going to keep staying in the comments, talking about, oh, whoa, it's me, all the economy. Woo, woo, woo. Are you going to go make some moves? You're sitting there looking at all the people that you adore, all of the, I don't know, the artists and the celebrities and whatever. And you're watching their lives. You're sitting there like, oh, look at this. And you're trying to be like them. And you're trying to dress like them. And you're buying stuff that you have no damn business buying. And you think you're living. And then you turn around and get mad, because I'm broke. You broke because you have a broke mindset. Your mindset is broke. Invest in yourself. If you take, I think if anyone would take a full, let's just say six months. We're going to take six months and I'm going to assume that I am the asshole. I'm going to look at everything from a perspective like I'm an asshole and, oh my God, shirt. And maybe I should reconsider my thought process. So just go six months, you're the ass, and everything you know is wrong. And you're going to look at things from a different light. I bet your life would change significantly. [Brandon Sloan] (43:32 - 43:49) Yeah, because sometimes we let our ego get too far in our head space and we don't take that second to look back. So there's a lot of time that I do that myself. A lot recently I haven't had the time to physically do that. And every time that I do try to make time, it's more than just maybe a couple of minutes here and there. [Tonnika Haynes] (43:49 - 43:53) But that's a different investment for you. Like, okay, make sure. Is my hand too big? [Brandon Sloan] (43:53 - 44:10) Yeah, because technicians don't really realize that like when you want to go and say, I'm going to quit and I'm going to go open up my own shop. You ain't ready. If you haven't got the training, the business side of the training done, you don't have any of the leadership skills put in place. [Tonnika Haynes] (44:10 - 45:12) I'm just going to fix the card. And I can put all the money in my pocket. No, you can't because IRS is coming. And you know what? You're never going to get home. And that homeboy that said he was going to pay you for that break job, he ain't going to pay you. And that car let you let go out of your shop because you thought you were doing good will. And the guy said he was going to pay you next week. He ain't coming back. And that part, that mistake you made on that car, now it's an insurance claim. You don't have the proper insurance. That kid that you let coming in work at night to help you after high school, he got hurt. You're going to lose your ass. So when we're charging $150, $200 an hour, it's to cover the asses. All the asses under the roof, pay the tax, sales tax, unemployment tax, tax on the tax, tax on the tax, that was tax. We got to pay for shit that might happen. We got health insurance, life insurance. You guys want all of this stuff, but you don't know the real cost of running a business. [Brandon Sloan] (45:13 - 45:13) Exactly. [Tonnika Haynes] (45:14 - 45:41) And then when the shit hits the van, you don't get to move your toolbox. Like right now, the shit hits the van. You mess up a car, you can roll your toolbox to another shop. And we can't tell nobody nothing because we're buying by law that we cannot throw your name under the bus. Employment laws. We can't call every shop in town and say, this dude just cost me all this money. He don't know what the hell he's doing. You could sue us. We are the most, our business owner is so unprotected. [Brandon Sloan] (45:42 - 45:48) I know, and I've got another shop owner that has a technician that has cost him literally over $20,000 in the last... [Tonnika Haynes] (45:48 - 45:51) $20,000 on an Audi for me. It was $20,000. [Brandon Sloan] (45:51 - 46:26) And he can't find any other good help at all whatsoever. So he's kind of between a rock and a hard place, but I'm almost like, I would just let the guy go, unplug the phone and get caught up in what you got doing in there. Because that's scary. Because he's gonna continue to cost you more and more money. It got me so heated because like, look, I've built two transmissions, and the same kid busted both of them, trying to put them in. That baby need to be a chick-fil-a. And I'm like, he needs to pay half this time. He got it. I said, otherwise, as long as he is in your shop, do not call me. As long as he is in your shop, do not call me. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:26 - 46:26) That's what I'm talking about. [Brandon Sloan] (46:26 - 46:29) Because I'm about to come down there and fire him myself. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:29 - 46:30) I don't care if you're in there. And I'm whoop your ass while I'm there. [Brandon Sloan] (46:30 - 46:36) Yeah, I will pull you out back for letting it happen and continue on. I mean, we're good friends, and it's all just joking. [Tonnika Haynes] (46:36 - 47:10) But sometimes you do need to hear that. And then I want everybody to succeed. I want us all to be sitting on Chrome, sitting there, drinking martinis, boom, at the expo. But the reality is, business ownership, life is hard, period. Life is hard, period. Choose your heart. If you want to become a tech that eventually, as a business, make sure you know that it's not beautiful. Real leaders eat last. Because you think we get the rest of that money out of your paycheck? No, honey, there's a shitload of taxes. [Brandon Sloan] (47:11 - 47:12) Then we got to pay rent. [Tonnika Haynes] (47:12 - 47:31) Exactly. Gas bill, light bill, lift broke down. What? What? Scan tool. You left the dongle in the customer's car. They won't bring it back. You cracked the screen. This has happened. Water main broke. I need a hot water heater. Ah, damn, roof is leaking. Where do you think it comes from? We don't get the clock out. There's no clocking out. [Brandon Sloan] (47:32 - 47:32) There's no clocking out. [Tonnika Haynes] (47:33 - 47:48) We cannot. I wish I could take my shop and roll it to another city. You don't get to roll a whole shop to another city, just like you get to do your toolbox. Customers are batshit crazy. Can you do this real quick? And you think you're helping the whole world? Oh, yes, yeah. We can do it real quick, real quick, real quick, real quick, real quick, real quick. And you never get shit done. [Brandon Sloan] (47:48 - 48:14) I got one customer that's kind of done that, and we're in the transition of things that were not really wide open, and I'm doing some work for him already. It's like, hey, look, I'm trying to buy this Honda for my daughter. This is the only day that I got off. Is it possible I can bring it to you this afternoon? And I told him, like, no, I am wide open moving through what I need to get completed to by the end of the day. If you want to bring it in the morning, you can do that. He said, well, I don't have tomorrow off. [Tonnika Haynes] (48:16 - 48:17) See, I'm strong enough. [Brandon Sloan] (48:17 - 48:24) He made the time the next day to do that early in the morning and goes and gets the car and then brings it to me because he said... [Tonnika Haynes] (48:24 - 48:25) How many people would've stopped working with you? [Brandon Sloan] (48:25 - 48:54) It had an all week and the customer that was purchasing it from another consumer sent it to another repair facility and they supposedly fixed it and then the net was handling it that day. And then brought it back the next morning and shows up early. I'm like, I'll take a quick look over everything in the next morning because then I have time today. I do not have the time. So I'm not getting in the middle of it right now. [Tonnika Haynes] (48:54 - 48:58) That's a wonderful, that's the best word. Like, no. No for now, sir. [Brandon Sloan] (48:58 - 48:58) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (48:58 - 48:59) No. [Brandon Sloan] (48:59 - 49:00) Yeah, no for now. [Tonnika Haynes] (49:00 - 49:26) Think about how many people don't know how to say that. Oh, man, you can't look at it real quick. You sure? Because all you got to do is, and in the meantime, you told him no and guess what? He showed up. How many people would have stopped what they were doing, got off track, not as sharp as you, went back to that car that they were working on, the actual money maker car, the car that's going to have a profit to stop to do a favor for a bruh. [Brandon Sloan] (49:27 - 49:48) That's why I'm really in love with the fact that I'm going into a larger shop that has an office in the front side of it. That way nobody's ever going to see me. My build room is in the back. My technicians are going to be in the shop. I'm going to have everybody up front to block everything off, and nobody can come in, and right up above it, of the build room, is going to be my office where I'm going to film everything and take everything there. [Tonnika Haynes] (49:49 - 49:50) I like being in my dungeon. [Brandon Sloan] (49:50 - 50:09) Yeah, I'm going to be in my dungeon to where I can take care of and handle everything, and if there's anything I need to email back and forth, it's going to be directly between me and manufacturers and vendors and everything that the consumer deals with is everybody up front. Hey, can I talk to Brandon? No, he's not here. That's going to be cut off in the next 48 hours. [Tonnika Haynes] (50:09 - 50:13) It feels so good. In the next 48 hours, it is done and over. I can't get you on the phone. I know. [Brandon Sloan] (50:13 - 50:14) Because I can't. [Tonnika Haynes] (50:14 - 50:16) I know. I don't want to talk to you. [Brandon Sloan] (50:16 - 50:35) The ones that are my customers right now, they already know and understand that, and it's been a hard break for them to go away from texting because I'm like, look, the line that's on my business phone right now is going directly to a hard line. There is not going to be any text messages, and then it's going to be, if you need anything, shoot an email. [Tonnika Haynes] (50:36 - 50:37) You've got to create those boundaries. [Brandon Sloan] (50:37 - 50:37) Shoot it in an email. [Tonnika Haynes] (50:38 - 50:41) Because you'll go crazy trying to be everything to everybody. [Brandon Sloan] (50:42 - 51:34) Exactly. And I can't do everything and can't handle all that at the same time. Right now, I've got one customer on my mind every second that I've been here. One customer. Because I don't have the right laptop in front of me to look at the information that I need to to feed it off to, and I don't have the ability to hand it off to somebody else that I know has the capability to give me that response I need to, but I'm not going to mess with anybody on the weekend. If it was yesterday, yes. Yesterday was Friday, so that was a different ordeal, and I had plenty of time where I could have done that. But I didn't have the right laptop in front of me, and nobody had the right software to look at the information that they needed to to send it back and forth, so I'm like, I can't control it right now. [Tonnika Haynes] (51:34 - 51:35) You cannot control it. [Brandon Sloan] (51:36 - 51:50) I can control it when I get back. That's a Monday problem. That's a Monday problem. I'll have to handle it then. But even though it's still on my mind because it's the first thing that I need to take care of first thing Monday morning, it is the highest priority with this customer. [Tonnika Haynes] (51:50 - 51:50) And you'll do it. [Brandon Sloan] (51:51 - 51:51) And I'll do it. [Tonnika Haynes] (51:51 - 52:00) And they do it. And they will tell you right now, they heard you say that, really, Brandon, it's a Monday problem. But that just shows your heart and how good you are at what you do. [Brandon Sloan] (52:00 - 52:00) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (52:01 - 52:02) That's it? [Brandon Sloan] (52:02 - 52:03) Because they know. [Tonnika Haynes] (52:03 - 52:09) They know. You got them. They're like, yeah, he got me. Brandon, I still wish I had to go down. It's OK. [Brandon Sloan] (52:10 - 52:18) Now, now, now, this is a problem for other shop owners that I've seen that they keep their heart on their sleeve. They'll drop every second of the day. [Tonnika Haynes] (52:18 - 53:30) Because they really think that that's customer service and serving. But what they're doing is hurting themselves. Somehow we can we convince ourselves. I did it. I did it in my first two years by myself. We convince ourselves that dropping everything and jumping for everybody and saying yes to everything and just being that go to person. We convinced ourselves that that was customer service. Well, what we've done and what the industry has done and what new shop owners do is we're training these people how to treat us. And when we wake up and realize that we cannot maintain this level of craziness and saying yes to everything and everybody at the same time, when we put that boundary up, they get pissed off at us. Oh, you've changed. Oh, you're acting funny now. Oh, you're charging more money. Yeah, I like to pay my rent. That's why it's best to listen to the old heads that's already done it and save yourself the headache because you think you're saving that community but you're just taking food out of your child's mouth. You're taking money out of the college tuition. You're taking your vacation away from you. So when I'm telling you, I've been there, done it. I watched my dad do it. And I was at my father's shop every day. [Brandon Sloan] (53:30 - 53:44) I've watched my dad do it and I was a product of it and there's some things that I held against my dad when I was younger. Now that I'm older, you can see why. I see why. [Tonnika Haynes] (53:44 - 53:54) And now I understand it. I wish daddy spent more time with me. I was with him every day but I wasn't with him every day. What I know, what he built and I knew that took sacrifice. [Brandon Sloan] (53:54 - 53:55) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (53:55 - 54:04) And that sacrifice is well received and well respected and I'm going to take that and I'm like, oh, dad, look what I did with what you gave me. Just like you do for your heavenly father. Look what I did with what you gave me. [Brandon Sloan] (54:05 - 54:37) I was like, well, I'll tell you something. Right out of high school, I wanted to, so my dad has a semi shop that used to be his father's. He drove a semi, was over the road all the time doing a line haul or long haul. So it'd be from here to California and back. Wow. So the shop was at, on the family property and it's probably, I think he said it was a 30 by 60. So where I'm in right now is a 25 by 60. [Tonnika Haynes] (54:37 - 54:39) That's a pretty big deal for that time. [Brandon Sloan] (54:40 - 55:53) It's a big shade. And, you know, when I was growing up, I asked him, I said, can we turn this into an actual repair facility? Well, I was turning it into a shop and he's like, well, I got to have insurance. You got to have this. You got to have all that. So it was him trying to tell me, don't get into it. Don't get into the automotive industry. You're good with computers. So naturally growing up, being around computers and electronics, I was supposed to, I was trying to go into like Microsoft certification, go to college for that. Initially, that's what I started doing. But the more I progressed, I didn't want to get stuck in front of a computer all the time. Now I'm working with computers in the car all the time. I'm having to look at the data. Look at the freeze frame. I'm having to run a scope on everything, see things before I take it apart. And now I have that capability to use what I learned in the beginning, what I loved growing up. And my passion became more into the automotive side. Because how I was taught, if it broke, I'll buy the parts. Here's the repair manual. If you have any questions, come get me. It was all up to me. [Tonnika Haynes] (55:54 - 55:58) Like what? Okay, daddy. Okay. And you didn't say, okay. [Brandon Sloan] (55:58 - 56:00) You know how many engines I went through a lot. [Tonnika Haynes] (56:02 - 56:15) But that's the best way to learn. When they throw us in, like you push them in the lake, you might need to go ahead and start swimming now, kid. That's how daddy did me. Sixteen, couple months he just left me like, yeah, I'm going on vacation. Whoa, whoa. You've got this. [Brandon Sloan] (56:15 - 56:17) Yeah, so it's investing in yourself. [Tonnika Haynes] (56:17 - 56:21) Invested in yourself. And I had to figure it out. Had to figure it out. [Brandon Sloan] (56:22 - 56:28) You've got to figure it out for yourself. And there's people out there now in the industry to help us. The internet is a surplus of information. [Tonnika Haynes] (56:29 - 57:43) You don't know how much it fills my spirit for someone to send me a direct message and say, hey, what do you think about that? Oh, my God. I'm willing to give you all of the information, whether you want all of it or not. I got it all for you. And you'd be like, okay, that's enough. I am an open book because I want you to succeed. I want to see young people succeed. I want to see you in the hallway. You're like, yeah, and I want to see you at the expo for the first time this year and the next year. You're telling me how far you've come. Yeah, this is my third year being here. It makes me so flipping happy because I've been there and I've done that. There's no I don't need anything. There's not a KPI that describes how good that makes me feel because that's the kind of heart that I have. So you have the internet. You've got people spending their time. You've got you. How much time does it take to do all of this editing? How much time does it take Paul and his son to do what he does? Like, that's an investment. They're not just setting up a camera and talking. It takes hours to cut and edit that stuff. I don't know. I can't do it. But I'm telling you, they don't have to. And the fact that he's only selling that for 11 or $12 a month. You spend that at Chick-fil-A. Why would you not invest in that? [Brandon Sloan] (57:43 - 58:12) It was like we had the conversation last night when I told you kind of like what I'll do as far as any I've had companies and vendors ask me what can we do for a collaboration? And I finally got to the point where I'm like it's $20,000 a week and I'll come out and we'll film everything. We'll do a bunch of stuff. I do all the editing. Shoot the shorts. I tag. It's not tagging. It's actually collaborating. So on Facebook you have the ability to collaborate. [Zeb Beard] (58:13 - 58:13) I've seen that, yeah. [Brandon Sloan] (58:14 - 58:22) TikTok has it as well. But on TikTok, when I collaborate with you, it goes on your page. So my video goes to your viewers. [Tonnika Haynes] (58:22 - 58:23) Is we gonna collaborate? [Brandon Sloan] (58:24 - 58:33) And your viewers are on my page. I like that word, collaborate. So it brings what you're bringing to the table to the light. [Tonnika Haynes] (58:35 - 58:47) It's so much stuff to bring out and so much information for technicians, service advisors, business owners, and so much free information that I wish people took more advantage of. [Brandon Sloan] (58:48 - 59:04) Yeah, and the added benefit that I like and because I love to teach, is I'm gonna make sure that I teach it to you or somebody within your group that knows how to do it and can do it and save you the time and money instead of paying some marketing company to do it. [Tonnika Haynes] (59:05 - 59:28) And you can do that. Like we were talking last night and I already told my executive director, I was like, I really think we need to figure out how you can teach a class for a shop owner. And even if, me, I ain't doing it, but Santana, I was like Santana, I want you to go take that class and learn how to do this and let's keep it in the family. Instead of paying somebody else to do it. And I'm sorry for the companies that do that. Congratulations. But sometimes you gotta keep stuff in house and it is what it is. [Brandon Sloan] (59:29 - 59:31) Yeah, yeah, small businesses. [Tonnika Haynes] (59:31 - 59:32) What do we say, teach a man to fish? [Brandon Sloan] (59:32 - 59:33) Yeah. [Tonnika Haynes] (59:33 - 59:37) You out there buying all these fish and you just go to the pond, catch your own dang on fish. Much cheaper. [Brandon Sloan] (59:38 - 59:49) Yeah, because I'm doing it with Austin right now. He texted me earlier. He said, man, that Blackmagic app was phenomenal as he created his first video using everything that I told him how to do and how to do it. And it took off. [Tonnika Haynes] (59:50 - 59:54) And you know what? Did you ever think that you would be doing this? [Brandon Sloan] (59:55 - 1:00:30) No. Never thought in the world I'd be doing this. When I became the shop owner and opened everything up to the business, I was so busy that I don't have time to make videos and everybody's asking me, like, you making content anymore? I'm like, when I have the time, so now I'm working, I'm almost at a breathing level a little bit here and there to where I can have the time to kind of do it here and there but not like full-time. So I'm not a full-time content creator. But if I can make a couple of videos a week and try to educate it, when I run into something like, oh, they need to see this. I'm going to do this. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:00:30 - 1:00:31) This is a good one. [Brandon Sloan] (1:00:31 - 1:00:31) This is a good one. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:00:31 - 1:00:33) Let me educate. Yeah. [Brandon Sloan] (1:00:33 - 1:00:45) So that's where I find the time to do it. But everybody that thinks that, you know, all of these other creators are making content while they're on the job and they're editing and they're doing all this stuff. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:00:45 - 1:00:47) No, that's a whole nother job. [Brandon Sloan] (1:00:47 - 1:00:49) No, they can sit and film. But it's something. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:00:49 - 1:00:50) They edited a whole nother job. [Brandon Sloan] (1:00:50 - 1:01:38) That's all off the clock. So Austin does all of his filming while he's working and he's just talking as he does it. He doesn't make any mistakes and if he does make a mistake, he shows it and backs it up like he broke. He accidentally was installing a transmission and accidentally didn't have the converter seated all the way into the transmission when he bolted it up to the motor. It went pop and he instantly stopped, backed it off, knew what he did, went and ordered parts and he showed that he broke it and that he paid for it and that he fixed it and that we all make mistakes but it's how you handle the situation and showing that failure and showing how we handled that to the public. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:01:38 - 1:02:49) Brandon, my son just did that. He is at Mercedes and I came home and he was on the couch and I was like, it's not the same. I was like, what's wrong? What happened at work today? He said, Ma, I broke a $1,700 starter. I was like, ooh, and he felt so bad about it and I said, but how did you react to it? Because normally when he was working with me before he finished school, he would just get mad and he'd be mad at his self but all you see was anger. I knew that he was mad at his self and his disappointment. I said, if you act like that in front of a bunch of grown men, they're going to judge you. What did you do? He said, I was mad and he said, but I went and told my guy what happened and he told me, all right. And I said, it's how you handle it and as long as you feel bad about it, that means you have respect for the industry and the car. You're a good guy. Did you learn from it? Yeah, I should have moved that air box instead of trying to just do it the easy way. Okay, won't do that shit again. How do you feel about it? I feel that was a good lesson that I learned. It's like, you're hourly, dude, you're not flat, right? You've only been there a couple of months. You ain't got to prove nothing to nobody. Do it right. Take your time. Because when you do stuff out of sequence, sometimes it's your ass, Mr. Postman. And he's like, I got it. So again, it's how you act. It's how you act. [Brandon Sloan] (1:02:49 - 1:02:53) Hold up to it, take accountability and make it right. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:02:53 - 1:02:55) Make it right. What do I do to make this right, boss? [Brandon Sloan] (1:02:55 - 1:03:00) Don't lie and sweep it under the table and then they'll come back and get you. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:03:00 - 1:04:27) It was an old Subaru tail light and it was an old tail light and he was changing the bulb and he cracked the tail light on installation. Now, currently, my policy is every car is backed into the parking space. But this kid, we weren't doing it at the time, he backed the car into the parking space. And so, other tech comes and he lets me know. Mr. Nick, I watched him break that tail light, put it back in, and he's trying to hide it. He backed it up. I said, okay. Because my team, they're like, uh-uh, you're not messing it up for us. They'll rat you out, okay? And so, I tell the kid, I say, let me tell you, this is the only time that I'll do this. I said, you break that tail light? Yes, ma'am. I said, don't ever lie to me again. I said, you not telling me is a lie. And because you lied to me, you will pay for that tail light. If you brought that tail light and told me, I would pay for the tail light. Do you understand the difference? And he looked at me like, yes, ma'am. And the problem was, he was punished at the other shops. So, he thought the easy way out was to lie. And so, I said, he's like, yeah, I didn't want to get fired. And I was like, well, you're going to get fired for lying, okay? I said, we, it's a two-way street. You're going to respect me? I'm going to respect you. That was a mistake. I know you didn't break it on purpose. It was old. It was brittle. It could have happened. It was a mistake. But you lying to me, it's a whole different ball game. Because if you lie to me about that, what else are you going to lie to me about? [Brandon Sloan] (1:04:28 - 1:04:30) Exactly. So, it's better to tell me now. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:04:30 - 1:04:31) Tell me now. [Brandon Sloan] (1:04:32 - 1:04:35) So, let's fix it. Mm-hmm. Let's, we'll talk about it later. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:04:36 - 1:05:05) Instead of customers seeing it when she gets home. And everything's okay. She's ticked off with me. I lose a customer. I get a bad review. I still got to pay for a tail light. And you lose your job. Come on now. That's too much for a tail light. And we found a little, he was winning a junk yard for $50. And he paid for it. And he's never lied to me again. So, don't you love your job? Don't you love this industry? They're going to kick us out. We can do this all night long. [Brandon Sloan] (1:05:06 - 1:05:08) Yeah, we're about an hour in. We're probably going to set it down. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:05:08 - 1:05:46) I am so thankful that you took the time to speak to me. And I feel like this is like a little blessing in disguise. I'm so stoked. I'm really stoked about everything that I've accomplished. Because truth be told, I never wanted to do this. So Braxton, my producer, is the one that bullied me into this. And I'm really glad that he did. I'm really glad that he did. And so, I don't care how annoying my voice is to somebody. And it's probably extra annoying today since it's going away. But I am going to keep using it for the good of the industry and the good of God. And I hope you continue to as well. [Brandon Sloan] (1:05:46 - 1:05:50) Yeah, that's what we can, whatever we can give back, whatever we can educate. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:05:51 - 1:05:57) Yep. Yep, yep, yep. So, how do you sign up? I don't have an official sign off yet. Do you have an official sign off? [Brandon Sloan] (1:05:58 - 1:06:04) Not exactly when I'm naturally recording. I can do all that later. So, you can do an intro and an outro just by yourself. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:04 - 1:06:15) So, we do an outro. Well, Zep does my, Zep and Benji do the intro. But I don't have an outro yet. Maybe I'll tell Braxton, we need an official outro. I'll work on that. [Brandon Sloan] (1:06:15 - 1:06:19) So, Austin's outro is, let's get at it. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:20 - 1:06:27) Mine, let's get at it. I like that. Mine's probably like, there's a radio show. [Brandon Sloan] (1:06:27 - 1:06:29) We're having a good day and let's get it. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:06:29 - 1:06:45) Let's get at it. Oh, that's cool. I got to think of when I tell my kids, mom needs an outro. Come on, let's come up with something. And I'll have Braxton put it at the end. Because I love my intros. I love that Zep and Benji did it for them. Those are my internet brothers. They're so funny. But this was good. And I appreciate you. [Brandon Sloan] (1:06:45 - 1:07:07) It was totally good. I'm glad to have been here. I'm glad to have been a part of this. And any help that I can give back to help another shop owner or that we can sit down and have these conversations to help the industry, to help any of those that are in Austin's situation. Because everybody's kind of like, well, he got fired. No, he didn't get fired. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:07:07 - 1:07:09) He quit. He stood up for himself. [Brandon Sloan] (1:07:09 - 1:07:14) And he worried maybe he would have gotten fired even if he took the video down. I'm like, I don't think that he would have gotten fired. [Tonnika Haynes] (1:07:14 - 1:08:36) Just take, you have to be in control of your own destiny. Do not be afraid. Maybe the conversation did not, I mean, there's some stuff. There's some sketchiness there a little bit. So says the internet. But he still stood up for himself. Do not be held hostage by your paycheck. Write your own paycheck. Can't nobody take this from you unless the aliens come get you. And then that's a whole different story. I got to do a different podcast about the aliens because I don't know much about aliens. So I thank you guys for watching this. And I know it was a long one, but I'm so excited. And I'm sorry I sound like a man. But again, like I said, I'm sexy. I'm not a man. And remember to like, share, and follow. And I will see you in the phone and paper. Love you. Bye. That's it. Downshift with Tanika is where we slow down long enough to have real conversations hosted by myself, second generation shop owner, Tanika Haines. 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 freeing it all out by themselves in real time. This is a space for growth, tough love, laughter, and leveling up.