Automotive Repair News Today

Braxton Critcher [00:00:11]:
Welcome to Good News in Auto Repair. Hi, my name is Braxton Critcher and first of all, I want to say thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this podcast. Second, the podcast is in the name. The idea is that we want to highlight stories that fly under the radar across the automotive repair industry, but also ones that you just need to hear, like today's episode with Frank Lutz. Before we get to the good news, though, help the podcast grow by hitting the like button. Share the episode with your friends. Most importantly, though, subscribe on YouTube or subscribe on your favorite podcast channel and give us a five star review if you wouldn't care. That'll help even more people hear the good news happening in the automotive industry.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:52]:
And one last thing, thanks to auto shop Autofix coaching for sponsorship of this episode. Help your shop by booking a free strategy session today. Hit the link in the show notes for more. Today's episode is with Frank Lutz. He is the founder of Desert Car care in Arizona, and he doesn't just do good once every now and again, it's once a quarter. At this point, he's partnering with a local organization and his area to help people in need every four months. It's crazy. And there's more stuff too that Frank can share.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:26]:
Don't want to steal his thunder, though. So on to today's episode and our conversation on good news and auto repair. Well, hey, Frank, I appreciate you being here.

Frank Leutz [00:01:34]:
Right on. Thank you for having me, Mister Braxton.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:38]:
Well, let's start here. Tell me first about your shop and the community that you live in.

Frank Leutz [00:01:44]:
So this is a new location for us. We've had five of these guys over the last 20 years. And the biggest difference with this one, I mean, we've always served the community throughout all of our garages, is that we own the actual commercial property, which is a big deal for our family. This store is in north Scottsdale area, Cave Creek carefree. So we have a lot of retired folks and so on. But what's really neat is, like every other community, there's the giving side, there's the relationship side of those that aren't doing as well. And one thing that we've always had is we've always synchronized up with events and campaigns to make a difference, which we'll talk about further.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:28]:
Sure, sure. So the good news of this podcast, Frank, is what you did recently to partner with the Foothills Food bank and Resource center. And you know, a lot of times, if you hear of an organization, a for profit business, doing something for their community. A lot of times, in my, my perception, sometimes it can be for recognition, other times it could be a good way to advertise, to get your name out there because you did something good. You'll get highlighted in a podcast like this. But you went way beyond that. You've partnered with the Foothills Food bank and Resource center once a quarter to provide free auto repair to a local family there in the Cave Creek, Arizona area. But you didn't just stop there.

Braxton Critcher [00:03:25]:
You kind of went a whole nother level into this where you're also a drop off center for the Foothills food Bank and Resource center. You're going to partner with fundraising events. You're going to do other things too with them. So what is it in you that drove you to do this?

Frank Leutz [00:03:46]:
You know, the thing is this, you know, you see all of this madness, especially like within social media, sort of hashtag fakery. You know, I did something because it looked good.

Braxton Critcher [00:03:58]:
Yeah.

Frank Leutz [00:03:59]:
My world since my first shop in mid nineties was always even making lots of mistakes. And today we, we still make mistakes. It's part of the growing phenomenon has always been tied into not just open doors for business, but open hearts. And it's not just me. Like this filters down to our squad and our tribe. You know, in Chandler, that store had been there for close to 20 years as a small business of the year, top ten ranking Arizona shop and best places to work. The idea was to have a marketing calendar and that marketing was really community. So we did during COVID 20,000 pounds of food, we did an oil service special.

Frank Leutz [00:04:43]:
I mean, Covid was crazy. Nobody knew what was going to go on. But there were a lot of people hurting. And as an industry, when we found out we could be open sort of front lines, it meant a lot to me. Cub Scouts, Boy scouts, Girl scouts, women's clinics, all of these things. There has to be a component of business that is micro to the communities. You know, we get caught up in all the macro stuff, maybe stuff we can't control. But I think the lifeline, the bloodline to the community is small business and what's really cool.

Frank Leutz [00:05:17]:
I have a story to share because these things are not easy, like logistically. And, you know, it's work. It's work. You got to treat it as a business as well if you want to do it successfully and effect and create change for as many people. So sometimes it can be frustrating because I give an example back. Several years ago, we did a wiper blade campaign with mothers against drunk driving. We got all the high schools together. And we basically had them sign a do not drive and do not text campaign.

Frank Leutz [00:05:55]:
I got a cardinal from one of my wrecking yard buddies that had blood on it was in an accident. Probably somebody died, who knows from what, but probably drinking and texting, and I'd bring that in. So it was a shock and all as a big media hit. But here's where it got frustrating. People were coming in with their brand new mercedes just to get the free wiper blades. I don't care who you are, that kind of hurts. But you still continue to drive forward in effecting change. And so what changed my mentality.

Frank Leutz [00:06:26]:
And I say this purposely because there are folks now that are listening that, you know, they dived into a little bit of charitable here and there, but it's never been a part of their business model consistently. When we did our 300 free old changes for school teachers on a Saturday, we're normally closed. 300. We had about 80 day of. And then we would campaign. Whoever couldn't make it, come on out and we'd take care of them. We gave vouchers, which. Which was a cool thing for the school teachers.

Frank Leutz [00:06:54]:
I had several of our clients. When we would inspect a vehicle that was extremely unsafe, for example, few leaks, one of my clients says, hey, I'll take care of that. That's what it's about. Like, for me, the face value of what we do. We'll always carve out some good vibes in the community. It's just hand in hand for what we do. And there are many others in the industry that are doing the same. But for the influence of someone else to come in and say, let's resource this together, like that propels you.

Frank Leutz [00:07:24]:
And so now at desert car care, Cave Creek, the store is less than a year old. Super grateful to be a part of that community. We're starting off with one car repair per quarter. Eventually, it'd be once a month. We got our vendors to join in. We create the rules. We can't rebuild the vehicle for Barrett Jackson kind of situation. We keep them safe.

Frank Leutz [00:07:46]:
And then as a drop off center, we want to emulate what we did at our other stores, you know, 20,000 pounds of food, which was, I think, nine months, ten months, we can reproduce that. So to me, it's real important I go back to that ideology of not just, hey, here's my business, open doors, but, you know, here's. Here's our place, and here's our open heart. And I think that, man, that makes a difference in our communities, especially now we get caught up in all the macro stuff that we. We can't control.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:17]:
Tell me about the first family that you helped in the first quarter of this year. You did a brake job for them.

Frank Leutz [00:08:23]:
Yeah. The car actually had quite a few other things, was not mentioned that we were able to take care of, but primarily, she came in with a major safety issue with her brakes. So we went ahead and took care of that, and she was happy and off her way, so it was pretty cool. Here's the other thing that I get jazzed up about. You know, your technicians have a skill set. How many can actually say that we're able to give this forward, this skill set? Because we all think, okay, giving back, that's money. Like, I opened my wallet. But as a skill set, whether you're a plumber, electrician, mechanic, technician, you can give that back.

Frank Leutz [00:09:01]:
So this is creating a whole culture within. Within my staff and what they can do and how they volunteer and make that a part of a lifestyle which is important.

Braxton Critcher [00:09:15]:
Sometimes you'll hear this, and this is not just the automotive industry, but life in general. People will say, oh, they'll hear a good story and say, I wish I could do something like that, or, I'd like to impact my community like Frank and Arizona did, but they'll say, I don't have time. We're all busy. So what do you say to that person who maybe uses time as an excuse?

Frank Leutz [00:09:41]:
It happens. Look, the reality is people are busy. A lot of folks are struggling. Here's how I would put it, and I'll just share a story. My brother, great guy, but seemed to hang out with a lot of dark clouds. I can never do this. I can never do that. I'm missing this.

Frank Leutz [00:09:59]:
I'm missing that. I don't have this. I don't have that. And I said, brother, switch your mindset. Just an hour a week. Go and help somebody. Go to a local community center. It'll shift the thought process.

Frank Leutz [00:10:13]:
So, look, I can't help people that aren't committed, but if I can influence the beginning stages of someone coming in and saying, hey, you know what? I can do that. We've seen other shop owners in our community make that a part of it. So instead of this whole marketing deal of, I got to get people inside my facility, it's like, okay, what am I doing on that calendar to affect change and positive vibes? I do a lot of work with youth in the community that come from very fractured homes, and I've seen other shops now get involved with that to be able to say, hey, you know what? There's a skill set and great demand. I've talked to legislators, the state of Arizona, local council, folk, mayor, and it's like, okay, I got a garage. Give me your ten roughest kids. Bring them in my garage. I'm not going to make them all mechanics, but let's give them a skill set. Let's give them some purpose outside of the negative influences on the street.

Frank Leutz [00:11:22]:
And so to the person that says, hey, I have time, you know, can I change that? At the end of the day, I can't. But if they can switch their thought process neighbor to neighbor and being more community driven, each one of us have something to donate regarding time. And hey, your wallet, even if it's a couple of dollars like that, we have to take control of our communities that way. Yeah, we're all waiting for something magical to happen. Or worse yet, we're water boy, water girl, sidelining, complaining when, you know, we can take action. And so why not small business? And that's what we've been doing for over 20 years, you know, so it's not as difficult as folks think, right? It's just change of behavior. And then we own our communities. We own our communities by knowing we can affect change and we can reduce the amount of people that, especially, like during COVID people were not eating.

Frank Leutz [00:12:19]:
I mean, it was crazy. So for us, that's, that's our mission, that's our goal. That's part of our vibe.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:28]:
What does it mean to you when the technician that you kind of mentioned earlier learned that he or she can impact somebody just by doing something? What does it mean to you when you see someone be inspired by what you're doing in the community?

Frank Leutz [00:12:44]:
It's huge because look, whatever skill set you have, you pretty much make a living. Whatever living you decide to go after, you pretty much design whatever lifestyle you're after. And that's it, right? It's, I create this and I receive this. But if in between that you can afford the skill set to someone else, and particularly with technicians, most technicians bring in their families, their kids see it, their cousin sees it, you know, and it's, it's a whole different community vibe that's real. It's not political, it's not shifted and some, some particular bias of whatnot. It's just genuinely helping people. And, and so for them to have that, it works well for my culture because it's a giving culture and we're not even talking about, I mean, there's occasions and I got to speak for a lot of shop owners out there. We're not you.

Frank Leutz [00:13:40]:
We're not blasting. I mean, how many times a week do we. Hey, we got you. We'll take care of it. I had a gal in my garage this morning. Money was so tight and she had a noise, a rattle. It was a simple fix. How much do I owe you? I know money's tight for her.

Frank Leutz [00:13:55]:
I said, you know what? Give me some donuts. The guys like donuts, you know, like, thankfully we can still operate that way. And on that topic, I think if you're a major corporation, you can operate that on scale. We shouldn't forget whether it's a large corporation or small business, but thankfully it's a part of our deal and I'm committed. My wife and I, my family and our tribe, we're committed to it and we have fun doing it. That's life. Who are we if we're not able to help anybody else? Where are we going? What are we chasing? So that's important to me. And to answer your question directly, our technicians get jazzed over it.

Braxton Critcher [00:14:35]:
What's next? What else is happening in the community that you think you can have your hands in?

Frank Leutz [00:14:39]:
So we're working on an art gallery. I'd like to promote local artists that may not have the affordability to highlight their artwork in major galleries. We have a huge art presence there in Cave Creek and in carefree and I'd like to do that. I want to put on a jazz festival. I'm a jazz musician, so I love music. And out of that jazz festival, we'll do some cross promotional with other businesses that will go straight to charity. So we'll probably end up charging for a little space fee, 1500 bucks. They come out with their booth and celebrate life.

Frank Leutz [00:15:14]:
Like, I think I'm a lucky guy, man. The business for me is a celebration and yeah, we logistically will have some issues. It's part of business, but at the end, you know, we're going to celebrate life. We're going to continue the campaign for the food drop and I think eventually we'll go once a month and continue our clinics and then working with the unified school district, which we're just getting to know, our old store there in Chandler, which was wonderful. We had unified school district, they look forward to it every year, but we want to continue doing our complimentary all services for school teachers. So there's a ton of stuff and I probably forgetting a ton of stuff.

Braxton Critcher [00:15:59]:
Well, you know, that's a good thing, Frank, when you have so many things you're doing in the community, forget about them. So, yeah, I mean, you're an inspiration. And one of the buzzwords they want to say nowadays is you're an influencer and you're influencing people to do good and share good. And that's what this podcast is all about. So, Frank, keep it up, and thank you for sharing.

Frank Leutz [00:16:24]:
Ronan. I'd like to give you kudos. Braxton. Keep doing great things here.

Braxton Critcher [00:16:28]:
Appreciate it. Thank you.