Automotive Repair News Today

Braxton Critcher [00:00:05]:
All right, welcome in. It's automotive repair news today, and I think I found someone just like me in the automotive repair industry. I've been doing this podcast for just about a year, and I've been on the search, on the hunt, and I think I found them. It's Josh Parnell. What's up, Josh.

Josh Parnell [00:00:23]:
Thanks for having me, man. I think that might be an understatement. I agree. You and I, I think, are cut from the same cloth, and I'm happy to be here. And thanks for having me on.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:30]:
I. I guess the, the one caveat to that is I can set up this microphone in my sleep.

Josh Parnell [00:00:39]:
Yes.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:39]:
And you might need a little bit of help with that. But, hey, we all have things we're working on.

Josh Parnell [00:00:45]:
We do have things we're working on. You know, we're going to go through things, we're going to grow through things. I think I need a lot of help with this. And the irony is that I have my own podcast yet. I am one of the most, least. I'm one of the least tech savvy people you will, you'll. You will ever meet. But thankfully, we got it figured out for today's episode.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:02]:
And the funny thing is, if you look at your camera, if you're watching this podcast on YouTube, you know you've got a good mic placement looks good, you know, the wiring runs well, and then you have a nice setup behind you. I'm sitting in a recliner with a side table, and I mean everything else you've got going for you.

Josh Parnell [00:01:21]:
So it helps to know people who know things that you don't know. So when I reach out to my guys and they're like, hey, get this microphone, get this set up. I just, I just, I just do what they say. And so I'm set up for success now.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:35]:
Hey, you're following instructions. That's. That's like step number one in good leadership, which is one of the reasons why I've got Josh on the episode today. And by the way, reason I say that Josh and I are similar is we're both from outside the industry and we've been in for a little while learning things, growing, enjoying our time and meeting new people and all this stuff, but still, in the grand scheme of things, don't know a whole lot about the industry. And so excited to have a fellow learned industry person on the podcast today.

Josh Parnell [00:02:10]:
Correct. Yeah. And I will say I have. It's more so a lack of knowledge on the automotive side, meaning I have industry experience. I'm familiar with the industry, but I'm not really a what you'd call a car guy. And I might be shooting myself in the foot by saying that, but the majority of my clients that I work with as a leadership coach are in the automotive repair industry, which I do have a background in. But every single person that I work with knows way more about cars than I do. And that's why my focus is on people and less about the components and the systems of a vehicle.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:47]:
I mean, I think it's great because so many repair shop owners, owners are former technicians. I mean, I don't know the statistics, you probably do, but there's, it's a large majority. And so many of them say after so many months of running my repair shop, I realized I'm not good at xyz. Usually it's financials, managing people, and usually it's customer service.

Josh Parnell [00:03:13]:
Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:03:13]:
And those things don't have to do with turning wrenches. So I mean, turning wrenches and running a repair shop is helpful, but I know a lot of owners too, that didn't come from that, but are excellent at the customer service aspect or managing people, hiring stuff like that. I mean, so I think it's, it's actually kind of works well because so many of the shop owners that are struggling are the technicians that don't know how to do the things that you're good at in leadership, you know.

Josh Parnell [00:03:40]:
Yeah, there's a lot of folks especially, you know, to, to piggyback on what you're saying, Braxton. A lot of folks who are now shop owners, who are former technicians, and what happens is they are a high performing technician, a high performing team member at their location, wherever they were before shop ownership, who've mastered these processes, who've gotten to be a phenomenal technician, and then they either get promoted into a leadership role or they say, you know what? I'm going to step out and do this on my own. I can do this on my own. So they're going to become an owner. And it's like going from a player to a coach. And that's a massive shift that a lot of people are not used to, used to undertaking. And people, people struggle to stay in the coach's seat because now they see these team members or their players doing these processes that they've mastered. They see them doing them, quote, unquote, incorrectly or in other words, differently.

Josh Parnell [00:04:27]:
So they jump out of the coach's seat to go save the day. And so what happens is that technician is now wearing a different hat than they've been their entire career. They're wearing the ownership hat where they're now leading people and their people should be leading the processes. But then they see these people not leading the processes the way that they used to, so they put on another hat. Now the hats they're wearing is player, coach, counselor, friend, teacher, student and they find themselves massively overwhelmed. And what I do is I give back time and money to shop owners by saying, hey, give me the opportunity to work with your service managers, to work with your lead technicians, even to work with you on how to lead people and help them maximize their leadership potential.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:09]:
Is that the thing that you typically find that the shop owner needs the most? Because see, obviously I can't talk from experience either. I've never been a technician, never worked in a shop. I mean I've been in plenty in my last five years, but at the same time I don't have that experience. So I mean, is that like the thing that you recommend to most is or see the most is just don't understand how to step away from being a technician or learn how to lead?

Josh Parnell [00:05:38]:
Yeah, I see that the most in shop owners, but I even see that the most in service managers. You know, I'd say 80% of my clients are service managers who are, who were former service advisors who got a promotion into a leadership role and they themselves also struggle to stay in that coach's seat. But when I share with shop owners that it cost you six to nine months of a team member salary to replace them, or if I let you know that poor communication is costing your shop 18% of total salaries being paid out on an annual basis, which means if you're a shop owner paying out a million dollars in salary every single year, poor communication across your shop could be creating sunk cost in the amount of 180,000 ish dollars every single year. So what I do with, with the knowledge and background that I have in the industry, I know enough to be dangerous. I can come into your shop and trust me, you don't want me to come into your shop and try to do your job. I'm going to mess everything up. But what I can do is I can speak to the guest experience and how we treat this as a relationship. And if we serve our guests, take care of our guest love on our guest.

Josh Parnell [00:06:40]:
The transaction is a natural byproduct of exceptional standard setting service. I can talk about sales and the sales processes that work by providing an educational type of sales process to help your guests make an informed buying decision. But what I really Focus on is how to effectively communicate, how to properly delegate. I work on effective onboarding, proper training, and consistent coaching so that when the leader gets better, everyone gets better.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:07]:
So I was going to bring that up because I was scrolling through your Facebook page yesterday and saw that stat. Poor communication is costing shop owners 18% of total salaries being paid out on annual basis. I mean, that's a pretty big chunk of change. So, I mean, like, when you say poor communication, though, break that down because I think everybody, whether they like it or not, struggles with communication at some level. But when you say poor, what is poor and what kind of leads to that?

Josh Parnell [00:07:39]:
That's a great question. We know that when there's a breakdown in communication, voids tend to get created and oftentimes negativity fills those voids. And we also know that when we're trying to communicate, oftentimes there are actual multiple conversations happening for the one that's really happening, which is the conversation that I'm having, the conversation that you're having in the conversation I think that we're having in the conversation that you think that we're having. That's why the greatest misconception about communication is the fact that it's actually happening. Because when we have a meeting, we in our minds believe, okay, I was very clear. I was very direct. It's very, it's, it's understood what we're going to be doing moving forward. But after the meeting, there's very little action that often takes place.

Josh Parnell [00:08:24]:
And that's why I, I mean, controversial statement, but I often say meetings are a waste of time unless we walk the talk. There's a lot of talk that happens in the meetings. Provide calls to action for your team members. This is one easy way to improve communication. Provide every one of your team members a call to action beyond a team meeting or a one on one. Speaking of one on ones, one on ones often don't happen. And what we know is, as shop owners, I want to try to increase my performance, which ultimately increases my revenue. And my focus tends to be on the revenue.

Josh Parnell [00:08:56]:
I'm increasing numbers. I'm trying to be mindful of KPIs, but I encourage my clients to shift their focus, shift their focus from the end in mind of revenue to the fact that connection creates engagement and engagement increases performance. There's often an engagement gap that needs to be fixed. And we know this because here's another stat for you. 70% of employees are disengaged at work, and they're disengaged because they don't feel seen, they don't feel heard, they don't feel valued. Yeah, and here's, here's, here's what I mean by this, Braxton. What. What I try to do for my clients is I try to model for them what it looks like to create two things so that we can provide two things.

Josh Parnell [00:09:35]:
I want to create safety and trust so that I can provide clarity and direction. And they should be doing this with their team as well. If you think about any job that you've either left or lost, it's very likely that you didn't have both clarity and direction and one on ones. Team meetings. Daily huddles. I'm emphasizing the word daily for a reason. It's not just sporadic. They're daily huddles.

Josh Parnell [00:09:57]:
Yeah, These all create engagement, which ultimately increases performance.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:01]:
And I think the key thing is, and I mean, I've felt this in previous jobs myself, and so I can speak from experience in that way, but I think it's important as a manager. And I've never been a manager, so I can't put myself in that shoes. But I've been someone who has been managed by a lot of people. And I think it's important to know how to manage different types of people because obviously you can't manage one tech the same way as you do the service advisor and so on and so forth. Because, I mean, I've had a manager that is. Is really standoffish who, not that they're a bad person, but they like to have just the one meeting every now and again to check in. And then the rest of the week you don't really interact much. And to me, I like to have the pretty constant communication.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:59]:
I'm definitely a verbal. I need somebody to pat me on the back. I need that affirmation kind of stuff. And so I think that's important too, to know as a manager or shop owner that, you know, you've got to sort of custom fit some things to certain people and sort of learn what works. And I think most of all, just be honest and know, hey, you just got to have that conversation with everybody in your shop and say, hey, I want to know the best thing that works for you. And because I want you to be comfortable. And so how do you want this to work? Do you want this to be an everyday deal? Do you want me to check in with you, you know, every couple of hours, even just whatever, you know?

Josh Parnell [00:11:39]:
That's so good, man. I mean, you're describing situational leadership, and that's a form of Management and what I work on is leadership coaching, training and management for all my clients. And all four are necessary, but all four are different. And I have methods for all four. But situational leadership is when you're adapting to the needs of a situation and you're adapting to the needs and the abilities of those that you're leading. So, you know, you have your own unique leadership style. But the individuals that you're leading are all different. They all have different personalities.

Josh Parnell [00:12:11]:
They all have different receptive or reception to communication. They all may learn differently than one another. So I like the fact that you're, you're already thinking, hey, I need to ask the question. I need to find out what works best for you. How can I best serve you? How do you like to be led? How do you like to receive feedback? Yeah, and, or point blank. And I try to avoid asking a yes or no question, a leading question. So you don't want to ask, do you like to receive feedback? Some people don't really understand what feedback is. Some people receive feedback as criticism, condemnation and judgment.

Josh Parnell [00:12:44]:
But other people who recognize you're doing them a disservice by not sharing feedback with them, they recognize, you know what, I'm being coached. And coaching is feedback. Coaching is not criticizing someone, condemning them, judging them. And oftentimes that's what someone feels like if they don't know where you're coming from to begin with. And this is where you get to create the safety and trust to provide the clarity and direction.

Braxton Critcher [00:13:07]:
So, I mean, obviously this is an automotive repair news podcast. I cover, like the news that's happening in the industry. And, and I don't often talk about stuff like this because there are a number of shop owners that know that what's happening is important, like the news, but don't like keeping up or don't really care. While it is important to know so you can stay up to date on things happening in your repair shop, but knowing all that stuff, in the grand scheme of things, even the type of business you run, the type of shop management system, all this, and that really isn't that important when it comes down to this type of stuff. When you're running the repair shop, the leadership qualities that you exceed on and things you need to work on, those are really key. And I don't really talk about them a whole lot. So for that shop owner that doesn't always follow the news all that well, but it's listening to this episode because it's talking about shop coaching and leadership. What, what are some of Those key things that you see in your mind that outside of the news of the day is really important that maybe should be newsworthy As a shop owner, I.

Josh Parnell [00:14:30]:
Think I shared a couple of them. I mean to me the stats I shared should be eye opening to a, to a shop owner when, when you know that it cost you six to nine months of a team member salary to replace somebody. This is where effective onboarding, proper training and consistent coaching come into play. I, I'd ask myself if I'm a shop owner listening, what does my onboarding process look like? How many team members did I have to replace in 20, 24 or, or any year for that matter? What does my retention numbers look like and figure out why am I losing good quality team members whether I'm letting them go or whether they're going on their own accord? Why am I, why am I losing team members to begin with? And this is why I encourage exit interviews if and when it does happen. They're not fun, but they're necessary. It gives you insight into things that you might be blinded to. And to me, if I'm listening, I'm thinking this all sounds great. I get it.

Josh Parnell [00:15:31]:
Communication is important. Delegation is important. I got players and coaches across my shop. Time management is, is certainly an opportunity area for everyone because none of us, quote unquote have that time. I'd often encourage you to ask yourself, am I making that time? Am I making the time for my team members who are, who are giving me 50, 60 plus hours per week every single week? Can I make the time to, to have a meaningful conversation with them? I shared earlier that 70% of employees are disengaged at work. But conversely speaking 80% of people will tell you that they are fully engaged if they receive meaningful feedback at least one time per week. And meaningful feedback could be in the, in a form of a five minute conversation from their employer. You, you said it yourself, you're a words of affirmation guy.

Josh Parnell [00:16:15]:
You like the communication. You want to make sure that you are regularly communicating with your not only your employer, but I would likely just, I would adventure to guess your employees as well. You like being on the same page and this is something that we have to remember. Even though I have my own unique leadership style, everyone else around around me is different in their own regards as well. How am I going to grow and develop that person? The leader. The leader is focused on influencing to grow and develop people around them. And that's where we need to shift our focus. From connection before content, from people before process.

Josh Parnell [00:16:53]:
People before profit.

Braxton Critcher [00:16:56]:
So you know, limitless leadership is your deal. Leadership is important. We've been talking about it. So how long have you been doing this in the repair industry?

Josh Parnell [00:17:07]:
I've been in the industry for about a decade. So I began my career in the industry in summer of 2015 when I was hired on as a trainer at Christian Brothers Automotive. And so a couple years later had the opportunity to lead that department and eventually led an entire training department, grew the department from one program and one other person to six programs and seven other people and including a leadership development program. And so I've coached and trained thousands of service managers, service advisors and at the time franchisees within that organization across 31 states and over 300 locations nationwide. And then I jumped into this terrifying world of entrepreneurship about almost two years ago and now have coached roughly 150 people in the last few years in the automotive industry space.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:58]:
So in two years. I guess the reason I asked that was, you know, you've been around the block a little bit to know that leadership is important. Yeah, you know that. But where is this industry at in leadership? Do we have a leadership issue? Because you know, depending on who you talk to, this industry sucks or this industry is awesome, it's recession proof. We'll see if it's Trump tariff proof. But do we have a leadership issue? Is that one of the things that this industry needs to improve on?

Josh Parnell [00:18:35]:
Yes, we do. But I will say this, this industry isn't an anomaly. Every industry has leadership issue because the stats, because there are some shops that do it.

Braxton Critcher [00:18:44]:
Well, like I'm not saying that nobody does it. Right. But I mean as a, as a majority. Is that a problem?

Josh Parnell [00:18:51]:
Yeah, it is. And the shops that do well, the first thing I'd ask you to look at is their culture. Describe what their culture looks like. It's very likely that they are moving and operating like a well oiled machine. They have standard operating procedures, they have an effective onboarding process. The training works. And it's not a one time a year, once a year thing. Oftentimes we hear someone say, well I sent my training, my team to training two years ago.

Josh Parnell [00:19:14]:
Training should be treated like an athlete treats practice.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:16]:
Yeah.

Josh Parnell [00:19:17]:
And so coaching, you know, what does coaching look like? And, and I'm not even necessarily saying go out and hire, hire a coach. Are you coaching your team members? And vice versa. So yes, to answer your question, there is a leadership issue. And, and I believe a lot of it has to do with time. Time is, time is one of the biggest challenges we all have, especially in this industry, because it's a grind. I mean it is a grind working at an automotive repair shop. Long hours, a lot going on. There's, there's a, when I say moving like a well oiled machine, that's necessary for growth and development, including in addition to the success you're going to achieve as a result of it.

Josh Parnell [00:19:56]:
So when I say make the time, I, that's, that's a massive understatement. You've got to make the time for your people. Your people are your greatest assets. And so change that. 70% of disengaged employees, change that number around to a hundred percent of your employees are fully engaged because they feel seen, because they feel heard, because they feel valued is because of the way you're showing up for people. And one of my favorite quotes, Braxton, Braxton, is from Maya Angelou. She says, I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And at the end of the day, the way you're making your team members feel, whether you're an owner, a manager, a technician across the board, you have influence at your shop.

Josh Parnell [00:20:40]:
But you have the ability to make someone feel a certain kind of way that's going to prompt engagement and subsequently increase that performance.

Braxton Critcher [00:20:47]:
Yeah, I mean I love this and you know, we'll end here, but I found this stat and I like that we're using stats because I think it's. Obviously they can be skewed and you can make them say about whatever you want, but some of these are really important. 84% of shops with an annual revenue above 1 million reported working with a business coach. And this is not an ad for limitless leadership, but I think it is an ad for seeking out a coach. Because if you want to be successful, most successful shops have some sort of person who helps give them the direction.

Josh Parnell [00:21:28]:
Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:21:29]:
And this stuff is really good. It helps keep you grounded so well.

Josh Parnell [00:21:32]:
And Braxton, I'll say this too. I'm glad you shared that stat. And you're right, this is not a plug for any for limitless leadership. And I'm a big believer in coaching in general. If you're looking for a coach, I would find out who's coaching your coach. You know, I work with a counselor once a month. I work with my own coach twice a month. I'm even married to a licensed professional counselor.

Josh Parnell [00:21:51]:
So I get free counseling even when.

Braxton Critcher [00:21:52]:
I don't want it all the time. That's true. Whether or not person is licensed.

Josh Parnell [00:21:58]:
Yeah, exactly. But. But we all need it. And, and we all need to receive it because we all have blind spots. And if you're listening and you're saying, hey, Josh, that's great, but I don't have blind spots. That's a blind spot.

Braxton Critcher [00:22:08]:
Yeah, right.

Josh Parnell [00:22:09]:
So, so who, so who is coaching your coach? I'd find out from that. And I'm a big believer in collaboration, not competition. Interview different people. Limitless leadership may not be the coaching service for you, but there, there's someone out there who's going to help you grow and develop your business. And that's really the ultimate goal to begin with. So find someone who you're willing to allow to speak truth into your life.

Braxton Critcher [00:22:31]:
And among those surveyed, 84% of shops inside that 84, 54% exceed two and a half million in annual revenue.

Josh Parnell [00:22:43]:
So that's incredible.

Braxton Critcher [00:22:44]:
Want to be successful? Find someone. Help you get there.

Josh Parnell [00:22:47]:
There you go.

Braxton Critcher [00:22:48]:
That's newsworthy. This is Automotive Repair News Today. Josh Parnell. Thanks, man.

Josh Parnell [00:22:52]:
Thank you, sir.

Braxton Critcher [00:22:57]:
Hey, if you're still here, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Automotive Repair News today. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment like share. Subscribe to the podcast. It'll help us out a big deal and help grow the show. And you know what, while you're at it, slap on a review too. If you feel like this content is helpful for the industry, don't forget to follow us on all your favorite social media platforms. We're on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. Stay connected and be the first to know about new episodes, behind the scene content, and more.

Braxton Critcher [00:23:28]:
And until next time, let's make the industry better together.