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Jimmy Lea talks with Jackie Mills from Jess Lewis Transmission in Fort Wayne, Indiana, about carrying forward a legacy that began in 1954. Jackie shares how her family has grown the business into a 16-bay operation with nearly 20 technicians, balancing tradition with modern innovation. She opens up about her father’s lifelong dedication, the challenges of delegation, and her mission to strengthen structure and process. From mastering CVT rebuilds to transitioning to AutoLeap for better communication and customer transparency, the shop is evolving without losing its roots. Jackie also discusses hiring challenges, industry perceptions, and how she’s preparing to take the business into its next chapter while pursuing her master’s in accounting.
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
Guest(s):
Jackie Mills, owner Jess Lewis Transmission
Show Highlights:
[00:00:22] - Jackie shares the history of Jess Lewis Transmission, founded in 1954 with racing roots.
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
Links & Resources:
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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Hello, friend. Thank you for joining me. This is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence and this is the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is Jackie Mills. Jackie is with the Jess Lewis transmission, a shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Is that correct, Jackie?
Jackie Mills: Yep. Yeah, that's correct.
Jimmy Lea: The one flight I've taken as a red eye was to Fort Wayne, Indiana. How about that for a memory of Fort Wayne?
Jackie Mills: We have a pretty good airport. It's very small, but like nice and friendly, and you always get a cookie and you get off of a flight.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. Now I don't think I got myself a cookie.
Jackie Mills: Oh no.
Jimmy Lea: I attended and went immediately into a chapter meeting.
Jimmy Lea: I was so red. It was the one and only red eye have ever done. In the last 15 years, I've traveled quite a bit. I was a zombie for the next three days. I really couldn't even tell you where I went, what I did, who I saw. I was pretty much zombie. It was horrible. I don't ever recommend you do red eye flights.
Jimmy Lea: I just think that's cruel and unusual punishment.
Jackie Mills: I agree.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And here I thought, oh, I'm being so smart here. I'm gonna save the cost of a hotel room. No.
Jackie Mills: Not worth it.
Jimmy Lea: Not worth it. Not worth it at all. Not worth it at all. So Jackie, thank you for joining me today. Really appreciate it. And I'm excited to learn more about Jess Lewis transmission.
Jimmy Lea: In fact, that's where I wanna start. The question is, who is Jess Lewis? And what's the story here with your shop?
Jackie Mills: So Jess Lewis he founded the shop in 1954, so we've kind of got a longstanding history in Fort Wayne. I know you'll have to forgive me for not knowing the details of that I grew up like around cars and all of that.
Jackie Mills: I just don't know them as well as maybe I would like to someday, but. He like invented a specific type of transmission, like he was really into racing stuff. We've dug into a little bit about that and if anyone's curious, we have a little bit of background on our website. It's hard to find a lot because he did all of this stuff in the.
Jackie Mills: Like fifties, sixties, seventies, what have you. But it has been in my family since the nineties. I know that it went through a change of ownership between the eighties and nineties. So, Jess has not been involved for a little bit. We're technically the third owner. But he passed away in like the early two thousands, but I guess he was pretty big in the automotive world in our area.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Well, racing was very big in Indiana, that was that's a big pastime there in Indiana and may he rest in peace. That's phenomenal that he started the shop and got you involved or that your dad was able to buy it. So you guys are third time generation owners. Dad bought the business.
Jimmy Lea: Is dad still working in the shop?
Jackie Mills: Yes, very much so. He's still very active, very necessary. In the past several years we've been trying to get him to be a little less necessary because he's one of those traditional, like one man show does everything over, extends himself. Worked way too many hours for way too many years.
Jackie Mills: So we're working on the delegation thing and I mean, I've been here for like the past five years. So that's what we've been working on for five years and we still haven't gotten him to quite like, you know, step out of everything the way that we want to, but we're working on that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, there's been quite a few succession plans that we have helped implement here in the last two years that I'm aware of at the institute.
Jimmy Lea: So if you'd looking for any advice or information about how to start the conversation, how to structure the conversation and how to finish the conversation. We could probably assist with a little bit of that conversation between you and pops.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, definitely.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. Well, and congratulations to pops as well for having the insight and the foresight to be able to buy the shop and have it ready for you.
Jimmy Lea: So what's the succession plan? What are you looking to do with your dad?
Jackie Mills: So we don't really have like anything officially structured like nothing. Other than kind of like loose ideas, I imagine that he'll still be working for quite a while and in being involved in some capacity even after retirement.
Jackie Mills: He just likes to be busy. He's a very like, hard worker. Like that's just kind of what he does. That's how he, because I mean, he even grew the shop to be like. What it is today. And like it was a very small business with just a couple bays and now we have like 19 guys working for us. Well, 19 technicians I should say.
Jackie Mills: 'Cause we do have a Jackie
Jimmy Lea: 19 technicians. Oh my gosh. How many bays do you guys have? How many shops do you have?
Jackie Mills: So we do it a little bit differently. I think we have like 16 bays. Some of those guys are exclusively rebuild technicians, so they focus on the, like r the rebuilding of transmissions exclusively.
Jimmy Lea: RR,
Jackie Mills: yeah. So like the rest of them are your traditional like r and r automotive technicians. And then the other ones are just rebuilds. So they, like the r and r guys, take the transmissions out and put them in and do like the traditional automotive work, that type of thing. Whereas our rebuilds like actually do the rebuilding of the transmissions.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. And that is such a skill. I've St. George transmission in St. George, Utah, which is where I used to live. There they have the, he has nine master certified techs and these nine guys are the master certified that would take apart that jigsaw puzzle and put it back together. And they love it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And I love that they love it because that is not my jam.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. Yeah. And these, I'm some of them are a little newer, but we've got some really great like rebuild texts like. That's what my husband does right now. He does some of the management stuff, but he's focusing on rebuilding stuff and he works on a lot of the stuff that nobody else will touch, like cbts.
Jackie Mills: A lot of people, I don't know of many shops that will even touch the cbts, but we do a lot of those.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. There's such a pain in the butt. There's so many little teeth inside of there. I understand why nobody wants to do it, and kudos to your husband that he can do it.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. Yeah. He's only been doing it for five years and he's like worked out his own system.
Jackie Mills: He's pretty good at it.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Congrats. That's very cool.
Jackie Mills: Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, those CVTs are not to be taken lightly. That's interesting. Okay, so back to pop spot. The shop. He's working in the shop. You are working in the shop. You probably grew up at the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Sweeping floors and Exactly
Jackie Mills: that.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. I
Jimmy Lea: take out the trash.
Jackie Mills: I actually so me and my brother were homeschooled till like high school, so we actually did school at the shop for a while, like in the office. I remember growing up and doing school there 'cause my mom did office work and stuff like that. So like, I literally grew up there.
Jackie Mills: Spent a lot of time at the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Yep.
Jackie Mills: And then I started cleaning floors probably around the age of eight. Like child labor, what? I don't know. Oh
Jimmy Lea: yeah, no, you definitely were child labor. Did you run the Zamboni or was it a MPP and bucket?
Jackie Mills: It was MPP and bucket. I think eventually we got some type of machine, but I was probably too small to like physically handle that at whatever point.
Jackie Mills: So it was very mopping bucket.
Jimmy Lea: Oh that's awesome. That's hilarious. That's awesome. Very cool. I love that mopping bucket. Yeah. And that's true. That, and you then you have a greater appreciation for those Zamboni machines.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, definitely. Definitely have an appreciation for that. And the, just the work and effort that goes into cleaning it in general, like the people that take the time to clean it.
Jackie Mills: Now I have the appreciation for that.
Jimmy Lea: Bingo. Very cool. Very cool. Well, that's a great background you've got within the industry and a super solid foundation. How did you, how did you get I knew you grew up in the shop, but how did you develop this passion for, and continue to work for the shop as opposed to, oh, you know, I'm gonna go off to be a hairstylist.
Jimmy Lea: I want to go be an attorney. I want to go be a different business owner. I want to sell. Whatever. What drew you to the automotive industry?
Jackie Mills: So, I mean, I didn't spend all of my time in it. I did actually like work for the shop and like, I did like payroll and stuff like that in college. I. I have a degree in business management.
Jackie Mills: So I did that for a while. I did work like after graduating, I spent a few years doing other things because while I kind of always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to come back and like work in the family business, that type of thing, my dad felt like it was important to get experience outside of that.
Jackie Mills: I mean, I agree with him because I feel like I have a better appreciation for what it's like to work for a small business. And I worked at a couple large corporations Sweetwater in Indiana, which really great company, loved working for them. And then I worked at MedPro, which is medical malpractice insurance.
Jackie Mills: I was in underwriting, so I did. Customer service based roles in both of those things, which I also feel like has helped me a lot. Like, you know, a lot of people come to automotive repair very angry. So I feel like having the customer service background has like helped prepare me for that. But eventually.
Jackie Mills: My dad got to the point where he was like, I need someone to come help, like take stuff off my plate so if you're ready to come back, I'm ready to have you come back. And it like ended up being good timing because I was very weary of underwriting work and insurance and dealing with angry doctors.
Jackie Mills: So. I just came back to that and now we're kind of working on like building in you know, like more official structures and processes so that it's not like as much workload on one person or like tied into like all being reliant on my dad. So like we've built in management for like different sections of the shop and that type of thing, but really I just like.
Jackie Mills: I do love cars. I'm a fan of cars. I don't understand how they work so much as I just like them. But it's more of a passion for like the small business side of things. And I like working with the other small businesses that we work with and I like what I do and I have a lot of flexibility in what I do.
Jackie Mills: So.
Jimmy Lea: That's very cool. That's very cool. I'm glad you enjoy it. I'm glad you're able to work with mom and dad too. Oh, did, and speaking of, does mom work at the shop too, or no?
Jackie Mills: No she like does a little bit. She comes in and decorates, makes things nice, helps keep the office tidy like she's in and like involved, but she's no longer.
Jackie Mills: Working an official role or anything like that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, nice. So what's one of the bigger cha biggest challenges or bigger challenges for you as HR and operations for the shop? What's one of those challenges that gets you on a daily, monthly, weekly basis?
Jackie Mills: I suppose like one of our biggest challenges has been hiring.
Jackie Mills: I think that's a industry thing in general. We have a really great team. Like we really like love all of the people that work with us, like work for us, work with us, all that. We have a really great team right now.
Jackie Mills: We also have probably the space and need for more people. It's just hard to find the right people, I guess.
Jackie Mills: I think it's an industry challenge because you have a lot of the experienced people kind of aging out of doing it. And then a lot of the people in like my generation and the newer generations just aren't willing to do this type of work. So that's the struggle, just like finding people that even want to.
Jackie Mills: Do the job. So that's probably our biggest challenge, finding people.
Jimmy Lea: It is. And what's interesting that I hear in the industry is they'll say, well, I want a 20-year-old person who has you know, 15 years of experience and I want to pay a minimum wage. Yeah. It doesn't work like that. No, it worked like that.
Jimmy Lea: No, it definitely does not. You gotta really dig in and know your business and know the numbers and what does it take to run your business. And for every single shop it's different 'cause every shop has a different number of employees. There's different expenses, there's different operating expenses, there's different overhead that it has to be taken care of and accounted for.
Jimmy Lea: So what might work at your shop as a door rate? Might be way too high at my shop. So we have to know our businesses to know at what level can we operate.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, definitely.
Jimmy Lea: That's good. How often do you analyze the business on a whole To find out the the operating net Pro gross profit, net profit.
Jimmy Lea: For the business.
Jackie Mills: It's probably more of a annual thing at this point. Like kind of work with our accountant on that. I'm actually in the process of getting my master's in accounting so that I can do a little bit more of that. I wanna do a lot of the work that he does and be able to like, understand more of that and, you know, like stay more on top of what we need to stay on top of.
Jackie Mills: We do a lot of like analyzing our expenses and like what we need to make. And I do like pricing reviews more regularly than annually.
Jimmy Lea: Agreed. But
Jackie Mills: eventually I would like to be doing that, you know, like quarterly or something like that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, things changed so quickly. My uncle owned.
Jimmy Lea: 129 different rental properties. And so by the 10th of the month, he wanted to know what's our gross profit, what's our net profit? So by the 10th of the month, he wanted to know last month. So let's say September was last month, by October 10th, he wanted to know all the numbers so he would know on that monthly.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause if you're looking at it annually, it's probably, there's a lot that could have been changed along the way, to your point, quarterly, yeah. Is a really good spot to be in. And then I would say even suggest that the monthly, looking at it monthly is a beautiful way of knowing, am I on top of my numbers or not?
Jimmy Lea: Have you ever been involved in any coaching or training where you've got an accountability buddy?
Jackie Mills: No, we haven't done anything like that, and it's something that we've discussed. It's we have a lot of changes and all of that on our plate. That makes it a little difficult to like, introduce anything in, because I'd really like my dad to get in on that stuff.
Jackie Mills: Sure. But we have been part of like the institute's community for a while now. Like I'm. I'm a big podcast listener, so I have listened to your podcast and I've listened to some of the other podcasts that are like, kind of in the community. Yes. So like I'm in on all of that and like love the advice and all of that I'm seeing and we're working on kind of applying that 'cause it's been like a hit the ground running thing for my dad for a while.
Jackie Mills: We're just trying to like, catch everything else up to it.
Jimmy Lea: Right. I mean, even though he's been in the business since 1990 something, it, every day things are growing so fast and moving so quickly. There's so much to learn on a daily. Yes. It's like, oh my gosh, how, when am I gonna have time to run my business?
Jackie Mills: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We and it was something that we got kind of from, like the community that you guys have built and all that. But we just recently switched our system, which was a huge undertaking, and it's so much more than you think it's gonna be especially just with the older guys that don't want the technology.
Jackie Mills: So we like moved from. I don't know if you, I don't know. I don't wanna like disparage their system. Okay. We moved from, no,
Jimmy Lea: there's no disparaging here whatsoever. You went from a platform to a different platform. Yeah. The one you were on is whatever, but the one you went to. What are you on now? What are you operating?
Jimmy Lea: We're on
Jackie Mills: auto leave now.
Jimmy Lea: Excellent.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. Yes, we love it. The
Jimmy Lea: rules. The rules of changing your point of sale system. Rule number one is don't do it.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. That being said, rule number two is when you do decide that it is, that the old system just isn't giving you everything you want. Or need or desire. Every system that you look at, does it give you everything you're wanting. And so moving to OT Leap it's a great program. They've got great customer service, great support.
Jimmy Lea: They're doing a great job for you. What do you like about the Auto Lead program?
Jackie Mills: So one of the primary things that we like is that it's an all-in-one, and that's what we were really searching for when we dec because it was a big decision. We spent a lot of time researching everything and trying to decide if that was worth it, because it is a big change to go from one thing to another thing.
Jackie Mills: But we love that it's an all in one. And then the other big thing is that it has a lot more transparency capabilities, like sending the inspections to customers. So we are looking to like level up our customer service with communication, but also like, hey, here's where we are at in the process. We do general automotive repair, but a lot of our work is focused in transmissions and like transmission rebuilding, that type of thing, which is longer than standard automotive work.
Jackie Mills: Like you have a lot more time wrapped up in transmissions, which is a huge frustration for customers because. I understand it 'cause like not everybody understands what goes into it, but we were kind of looking to try and provide a way, like you can know where you're at in the process, like we're waiting on parts or like that type of thing.
Jackie Mills: So like we love that Auto Leap gives us the capability to communicate all of that stuff without adding like copious amounts of work.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. Congrats. I That's great. I'm glad you're on Ale. It's a good program. It's got a solid foundation. They're doing some great things in the industry too.
Jimmy Lea: So that's very cool. That's very cool. So what does the future look like for your transmission shop that is transforming and now doing automotive maintenance? What does it look like for you in the future?
Jackie Mills: I think we're like focusing on trying to make what we have the best that it can be.
Jackie Mills: And we do have, like we have an extra building with some more bays in it to like hopefully do some growth in you know, other areas like maybe offer more services or just hire more techs, that type of thing. Not 100% sure what that's gonna look like yet, but like we do have like growth plans in the future, but currently we're mostly focused on.
Jackie Mills: Trying to make everything work the best that it can be for us, our techs, our customers, that type of thing. So, growth, but mostly like improving our processes and kind of catching everything up to. We're at.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. You're reminding me of a really good friend, Tracy Holt. His shop is Performance Place up here in Utah, and he came to the institute and he says, Hey, look I'm a 7% net profit.
Jimmy Lea: I'm an 8% net profit shop. I just, I can't break through I what I need, process procedures. If you're not gonna help me with that, if you're gonna tell me I need to increase my average repair order or increase my car count, then, you know, thanks. But no thanks. We can part ways and still be friends.
Jimmy Lea: I was like, oh yeah, Chay, we got you. We're gonna meet you where you are and help you to improve from there. So he had 16 bays? Yes. 16 bays and. Operating and doing very well. In fact, the family is so involved in his business that the success or failure of the family is dependent on the success or failure of the shop.
Jackie Mills: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: A lot of his, I
Jackie Mills: don't really understand that.
Jimmy Lea: A lot of his children, his nephews, nieces, his sister is his business partner, so the two of them operate the business together. And it's only recently it took like 40 years for them to buy the shop from dad. 'cause dad kept. Dragging his feet. Oh, you do what you want.
Jimmy Lea: No dad, this is your business. We respect you. We love you. This has to be your choice, your decision. So finally, after 40 years, they finally got it done. Probably the longest story that I've heard of buying a shop, but he finally got it done and the institute worked with him on process, procedures, and just this last.
Jimmy Lea: November, December, he broke 23 point something percent net profit in the November. And in December broke 24 point something percent net profit.
Jackie Mills: Wow.
Jimmy Lea: 16 base. Yeah. So what's the net result? The shop is doing extremely well. They're very happy. The air is cleaner, the sky is bluer, the grass is greener.
Jimmy Lea: Everybody's happier, and it provides different quality of life for everybody at the shop. What's the net result on car count? What's the net result? On average pair order, they all went up.
Jackie Mills: That's amazing. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: All went up because they focused on process procedure, which allowed them to be more efficient, which allowed them more capacity.
Jimmy Lea: I think that is awesome. Yeah. Let's add to it, just like you were talking about, you have the ability to expand. He had the ability to expand. I went and visited his shop. He shows me the back. A lot. So you can see this is one of the oldest businesses in his town or wherever he is west Jordan, south Jordan, one of those two.
Jimmy Lea: You can see where dad had the original business and then he added onto it, and then he added onto it, and then he added onto it. So those 14, 16 bays were in the first three editions. There's a fourth edition, and dad had all of his old dead bodies in there. Old race cars, not human bodies. Dead bodies in there and six Bay, four bays of stuff, an rv, a travel trailer, just stuff and things.
Jimmy Lea: And I was like, bro, when's the last time pops came in here and looked at his stuff? It's been a couple years. Get some sea retainers, put 'em out in the parking lot there with. Whatever he's got out there, pops, here's your stuff. It's available for you anytime you wanna come down a rifle through it.
Jimmy Lea: Come on down. We'll set up lawn chairs and have a good old time. The RV moved out, the travel trailer moved out. All the dead bodies that are in these detainers now from their racing days and all that kind of stuff. And he opened up another four bays. At the shop. So he's now a 20 bay shop on, I think he's three point something acres.
Jimmy Lea: It's got some land to it. They're so excited. They're doing so well. I'm so very proud of Tracy Holt and the family and the team there at Performance Place.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. That's amazing.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. They're doing a great job. Similar story for what you guys have, you have an ability to expand. How many bays would that add for you?
Jackie Mills: I. Not 100%, but I think they're thinking it would add like four or five more bays.
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. You should do it. You should do it as quickly as you can. 'cause you've already got how many technicians? 16 technicians?
Jackie Mills: Yeah. I believe that it's 16 or 17, somewhere in there.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah, I'd be expanding pretty dang fast.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. That is so awesome. So what is the one thing, if you could change something in the industry, something at your shop, what's one thing, if I gave you a magic wand and you were able to wave the wand, you can't wish for more wishes, but you could wave the wand, what would you wish for in the industry?
Jackie Mills: I think I think it would definitely be, and it, I know it's one of the things that you guys are kind of like seeking to change is the perception of the industry. And I know by far and large that there has been, like, there has been some guilt in the industry, but you do get. I'm sure you've experienced this, a lot of customers that come in already expecting the worst of you.
Jackie Mills: Whereas, you know, like stuff does happen. We do make mistakes. We always try to like own up to anything that we do or cause or whatever. But when you're always trying to look for the bad thing, you're going to see the bad thing. And you know, we're here, like we've been in business for a really long time, always trying to do the right thing.
Jackie Mills: Trying to do right by our customers, trying to do right by our employees. But you know. There is a lot of, like, we have amazing customers. We have a lot of loyal customers, but there's also some people that, you know, just always wanna find something wrong with what you're doing. And maybe it's because they have been burned by someone before, but I think that I would like to change that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And you'll do that with those digital vehicle inspections that you provide to your customers and clients. Show 'em. Show 'em. What's worn, torn, frayed, broken leaking, seeping. Cracked. Put arrows, pointed it out to them so they can see it. They will make better decisions when they're educated, they make better decisions.
Jimmy Lea: So that DVI gives them insight into, they're not just trying to take me for all the money I've got. These are safety issues. These are the things that you have to take care of. This is very, this is Paramountly important. And there's a next level that says we can do this while the car's in here, or we can keep watching it maybe in three months or six months.
Jimmy Lea: These are the items that you're probably gonna need to take care of next. And then these are all the other things that are good. So there's your red, yellow, green. Red, let's get it taken care of today. It's in the shop. You absolutely, this is safety issues. Yellow says future, but we can do it today if you want.
Jimmy Lea: And a lot of people say, yeah, let's get it all done today. You've got the car. I don't wanna have to come back. Let's get it all done.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, exactly. And we have noticed that we have had a lot more like customer satisfaction since we've kind of implemented like a higher level of communication and on our end, like a higher level of due diligence, like having the pictures and the notes and all of that too.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. It's so cool. I love the digital vehicle inspections. It provides so much more clarity into what you're doing and the service you're providing for those customers and clients because it's, it is not just a laundry list of this, you need to do this.
Jimmy Lea: $2,500. It's a breakdown that says you need to replace your brakes and brake pads and rotors, and here's the reasons why, and this is what yours looks like. It's metal on metal. It's bad.
Jackie Mills: Dangerous.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It happens. It happens. Well, Jackie, thank you so much for joining me today and talking about your shop and your business.
Jimmy Lea: So excited for your future. You've got a very bright future there with Pops and with your husband, and congrats on going for your Master's in accounting. Super cool.
Jackie Mills: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I appreciate getting to talk with you.
Jimmy Lea: You're welcome. You're welcome. This has been very enlightening, and if Pops is open for the idea, we'd love to train you, your husband and your pops all together to train on the shop, on the business.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It's an opportunity for us. Let's do it. If there's not, we're all good. We'll still be friends.
Jackie Mills: Definitely. Thank you so much.
Jimmy Lea: You are welcome. You're welcome. Because we here at the Institute, we're all about building a better business. Your business, better business, better life. If your business is better, it helps your life to be better.
Jimmy Lea: You'll breathe better. Not just you, your employees, not just your employees, their families, their spouses, their significant others. It helps everybody to breathe better, and when we, as the institute or as the industry, we lock arms together, that's our third mission with the institute, is we're here to build a better industry.
Jimmy Lea: So we'd love to work with you on that to build up your business, your life, and your industry as well.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you very much, Jackie. Look forward to talking to you soon.
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Jimmy Lea talks with Jackie Mills from Jess Lewis Transmission in Fort Wayne, Indiana, about carrying forward a legacy that began in 1954. Jackie shares how her family has grown the business into a 16-bay operation with nearly 20 technicians, balancing tradition with modern innovation. She opens up about her father’s lifelong dedication, the challenges of delegation, and her mission to strengthen structure and process. From mastering CVT rebuilds to transitioning to AutoLeap for better communication and customer transparency, the shop is evolving without losing its roots. Jackie also discusses hiring challenges, industry perceptions, and how she’s preparing to take the business into its next chapter while pursuing her master’s in accounting.
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
Guest(s):
Jackie Mills, owner Jess Lewis Transmission
Show Highlights:
[00:00:22] - Jackie shares the history of Jess Lewis Transmission, founded in 1954 with racing roots.
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
Links & Resources:
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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
Episode Transcript:
Jimmy Lea: Hello, friend. Thank you for joining me. This is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence and this is the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is Jackie Mills. Jackie is with the Jess Lewis transmission, a shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Is that correct, Jackie?
Jackie Mills: Yep. Yeah, that's correct.
Jimmy Lea: The one flight I've taken as a red eye was to Fort Wayne, Indiana. How about that for a memory of Fort Wayne?
Jackie Mills: We have a pretty good airport. It's very small, but like nice and friendly, and you always get a cookie and you get off of a flight.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. Now I don't think I got myself a cookie.
Jackie Mills: Oh no.
Jimmy Lea: I attended and went immediately into a chapter meeting.
Jimmy Lea: I was so red. It was the one and only red eye have ever done. In the last 15 years, I've traveled quite a bit. I was a zombie for the next three days. I really couldn't even tell you where I went, what I did, who I saw. I was pretty much zombie. It was horrible. I don't ever recommend you do red eye flights.
Jimmy Lea: I just think that's cruel and unusual punishment.
Jackie Mills: I agree.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And here I thought, oh, I'm being so smart here. I'm gonna save the cost of a hotel room. No.
Jackie Mills: Not worth it.
Jimmy Lea: Not worth it. Not worth it at all. Not worth it at all. So Jackie, thank you for joining me today. Really appreciate it. And I'm excited to learn more about Jess Lewis transmission.
Jimmy Lea: In fact, that's where I wanna start. The question is, who is Jess Lewis? And what's the story here with your shop?
Jackie Mills: So Jess Lewis he founded the shop in 1954, so we've kind of got a longstanding history in Fort Wayne. I know you'll have to forgive me for not knowing the details of that I grew up like around cars and all of that.
Jackie Mills: I just don't know them as well as maybe I would like to someday, but. He like invented a specific type of transmission, like he was really into racing stuff. We've dug into a little bit about that and if anyone's curious, we have a little bit of background on our website. It's hard to find a lot because he did all of this stuff in the.
Jackie Mills: Like fifties, sixties, seventies, what have you. But it has been in my family since the nineties. I know that it went through a change of ownership between the eighties and nineties. So, Jess has not been involved for a little bit. We're technically the third owner. But he passed away in like the early two thousands, but I guess he was pretty big in the automotive world in our area.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Well, racing was very big in Indiana, that was that's a big pastime there in Indiana and may he rest in peace. That's phenomenal that he started the shop and got you involved or that your dad was able to buy it. So you guys are third time generation owners. Dad bought the business.
Jimmy Lea: Is dad still working in the shop?
Jackie Mills: Yes, very much so. He's still very active, very necessary. In the past several years we've been trying to get him to be a little less necessary because he's one of those traditional, like one man show does everything over, extends himself. Worked way too many hours for way too many years.
Jackie Mills: So we're working on the delegation thing and I mean, I've been here for like the past five years. So that's what we've been working on for five years and we still haven't gotten him to quite like, you know, step out of everything the way that we want to, but we're working on that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, there's been quite a few succession plans that we have helped implement here in the last two years that I'm aware of at the institute.
Jimmy Lea: So if you'd looking for any advice or information about how to start the conversation, how to structure the conversation and how to finish the conversation. We could probably assist with a little bit of that conversation between you and pops.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, definitely.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. Well, and congratulations to pops as well for having the insight and the foresight to be able to buy the shop and have it ready for you.
Jimmy Lea: So what's the succession plan? What are you looking to do with your dad?
Jackie Mills: So we don't really have like anything officially structured like nothing. Other than kind of like loose ideas, I imagine that he'll still be working for quite a while and in being involved in some capacity even after retirement.
Jackie Mills: He just likes to be busy. He's a very like, hard worker. Like that's just kind of what he does. That's how he, because I mean, he even grew the shop to be like. What it is today. And like it was a very small business with just a couple bays and now we have like 19 guys working for us. Well, 19 technicians I should say.
Jackie Mills: 'Cause we do have a Jackie
Jimmy Lea: 19 technicians. Oh my gosh. How many bays do you guys have? How many shops do you have?
Jackie Mills: So we do it a little bit differently. I think we have like 16 bays. Some of those guys are exclusively rebuild technicians, so they focus on the, like r the rebuilding of transmissions exclusively.
Jimmy Lea: RR,
Jackie Mills: yeah. So like the rest of them are your traditional like r and r automotive technicians. And then the other ones are just rebuilds. So they, like the r and r guys, take the transmissions out and put them in and do like the traditional automotive work, that type of thing. Whereas our rebuilds like actually do the rebuilding of the transmissions.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. And that is such a skill. I've St. George transmission in St. George, Utah, which is where I used to live. There they have the, he has nine master certified techs and these nine guys are the master certified that would take apart that jigsaw puzzle and put it back together. And they love it.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And I love that they love it because that is not my jam.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. Yeah. And these, I'm some of them are a little newer, but we've got some really great like rebuild texts like. That's what my husband does right now. He does some of the management stuff, but he's focusing on rebuilding stuff and he works on a lot of the stuff that nobody else will touch, like cbts.
Jackie Mills: A lot of people, I don't know of many shops that will even touch the cbts, but we do a lot of those.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. There's such a pain in the butt. There's so many little teeth inside of there. I understand why nobody wants to do it, and kudos to your husband that he can do it.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. Yeah. He's only been doing it for five years and he's like worked out his own system.
Jackie Mills: He's pretty good at it.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Congrats. That's very cool.
Jackie Mills: Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, those CVTs are not to be taken lightly. That's interesting. Okay, so back to pop spot. The shop. He's working in the shop. You are working in the shop. You probably grew up at the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Sweeping floors and Exactly
Jackie Mills: that.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. I
Jimmy Lea: take out the trash.
Jackie Mills: I actually so me and my brother were homeschooled till like high school, so we actually did school at the shop for a while, like in the office. I remember growing up and doing school there 'cause my mom did office work and stuff like that. So like, I literally grew up there.
Jackie Mills: Spent a lot of time at the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Yep.
Jackie Mills: And then I started cleaning floors probably around the age of eight. Like child labor, what? I don't know. Oh
Jimmy Lea: yeah, no, you definitely were child labor. Did you run the Zamboni or was it a MPP and bucket?
Jackie Mills: It was MPP and bucket. I think eventually we got some type of machine, but I was probably too small to like physically handle that at whatever point.
Jackie Mills: So it was very mopping bucket.
Jimmy Lea: Oh that's awesome. That's hilarious. That's awesome. Very cool. I love that mopping bucket. Yeah. And that's true. That, and you then you have a greater appreciation for those Zamboni machines.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, definitely. Definitely have an appreciation for that. And the, just the work and effort that goes into cleaning it in general, like the people that take the time to clean it.
Jackie Mills: Now I have the appreciation for that.
Jimmy Lea: Bingo. Very cool. Very cool. Well, that's a great background you've got within the industry and a super solid foundation. How did you, how did you get I knew you grew up in the shop, but how did you develop this passion for, and continue to work for the shop as opposed to, oh, you know, I'm gonna go off to be a hairstylist.
Jimmy Lea: I want to go be an attorney. I want to go be a different business owner. I want to sell. Whatever. What drew you to the automotive industry?
Jackie Mills: So, I mean, I didn't spend all of my time in it. I did actually like work for the shop and like, I did like payroll and stuff like that in college. I. I have a degree in business management.
Jackie Mills: So I did that for a while. I did work like after graduating, I spent a few years doing other things because while I kind of always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to come back and like work in the family business, that type of thing, my dad felt like it was important to get experience outside of that.
Jackie Mills: I mean, I agree with him because I feel like I have a better appreciation for what it's like to work for a small business. And I worked at a couple large corporations Sweetwater in Indiana, which really great company, loved working for them. And then I worked at MedPro, which is medical malpractice insurance.
Jackie Mills: I was in underwriting, so I did. Customer service based roles in both of those things, which I also feel like has helped me a lot. Like, you know, a lot of people come to automotive repair very angry. So I feel like having the customer service background has like helped prepare me for that. But eventually.
Jackie Mills: My dad got to the point where he was like, I need someone to come help, like take stuff off my plate so if you're ready to come back, I'm ready to have you come back. And it like ended up being good timing because I was very weary of underwriting work and insurance and dealing with angry doctors.
Jackie Mills: So. I just came back to that and now we're kind of working on like building in you know, like more official structures and processes so that it's not like as much workload on one person or like tied into like all being reliant on my dad. So like we've built in management for like different sections of the shop and that type of thing, but really I just like.
Jackie Mills: I do love cars. I'm a fan of cars. I don't understand how they work so much as I just like them. But it's more of a passion for like the small business side of things. And I like working with the other small businesses that we work with and I like what I do and I have a lot of flexibility in what I do.
Jackie Mills: So.
Jimmy Lea: That's very cool. That's very cool. I'm glad you enjoy it. I'm glad you're able to work with mom and dad too. Oh, did, and speaking of, does mom work at the shop too, or no?
Jackie Mills: No she like does a little bit. She comes in and decorates, makes things nice, helps keep the office tidy like she's in and like involved, but she's no longer.
Jackie Mills: Working an official role or anything like that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, nice. So what's one of the bigger cha biggest challenges or bigger challenges for you as HR and operations for the shop? What's one of those challenges that gets you on a daily, monthly, weekly basis?
Jackie Mills: I suppose like one of our biggest challenges has been hiring.
Jackie Mills: I think that's a industry thing in general. We have a really great team. Like we really like love all of the people that work with us, like work for us, work with us, all that. We have a really great team right now.
Jackie Mills: We also have probably the space and need for more people. It's just hard to find the right people, I guess.
Jackie Mills: I think it's an industry challenge because you have a lot of the experienced people kind of aging out of doing it. And then a lot of the people in like my generation and the newer generations just aren't willing to do this type of work. So that's the struggle, just like finding people that even want to.
Jackie Mills: Do the job. So that's probably our biggest challenge, finding people.
Jimmy Lea: It is. And what's interesting that I hear in the industry is they'll say, well, I want a 20-year-old person who has you know, 15 years of experience and I want to pay a minimum wage. Yeah. It doesn't work like that. No, it worked like that.
Jimmy Lea: No, it definitely does not. You gotta really dig in and know your business and know the numbers and what does it take to run your business. And for every single shop it's different 'cause every shop has a different number of employees. There's different expenses, there's different operating expenses, there's different overhead that it has to be taken care of and accounted for.
Jimmy Lea: So what might work at your shop as a door rate? Might be way too high at my shop. So we have to know our businesses to know at what level can we operate.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, definitely.
Jimmy Lea: That's good. How often do you analyze the business on a whole To find out the the operating net Pro gross profit, net profit.
Jimmy Lea: For the business.
Jackie Mills: It's probably more of a annual thing at this point. Like kind of work with our accountant on that. I'm actually in the process of getting my master's in accounting so that I can do a little bit more of that. I wanna do a lot of the work that he does and be able to like, understand more of that and, you know, like stay more on top of what we need to stay on top of.
Jackie Mills: We do a lot of like analyzing our expenses and like what we need to make. And I do like pricing reviews more regularly than annually.
Jimmy Lea: Agreed. But
Jackie Mills: eventually I would like to be doing that, you know, like quarterly or something like that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, things changed so quickly. My uncle owned.
Jimmy Lea: 129 different rental properties. And so by the 10th of the month, he wanted to know what's our gross profit, what's our net profit? So by the 10th of the month, he wanted to know last month. So let's say September was last month, by October 10th, he wanted to know all the numbers so he would know on that monthly.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause if you're looking at it annually, it's probably, there's a lot that could have been changed along the way, to your point, quarterly, yeah. Is a really good spot to be in. And then I would say even suggest that the monthly, looking at it monthly is a beautiful way of knowing, am I on top of my numbers or not?
Jimmy Lea: Have you ever been involved in any coaching or training where you've got an accountability buddy?
Jackie Mills: No, we haven't done anything like that, and it's something that we've discussed. It's we have a lot of changes and all of that on our plate. That makes it a little difficult to like, introduce anything in, because I'd really like my dad to get in on that stuff.
Jackie Mills: Sure. But we have been part of like the institute's community for a while now. Like I'm. I'm a big podcast listener, so I have listened to your podcast and I've listened to some of the other podcasts that are like, kind of in the community. Yes. So like I'm in on all of that and like love the advice and all of that I'm seeing and we're working on kind of applying that 'cause it's been like a hit the ground running thing for my dad for a while.
Jackie Mills: We're just trying to like, catch everything else up to it.
Jimmy Lea: Right. I mean, even though he's been in the business since 1990 something, it, every day things are growing so fast and moving so quickly. There's so much to learn on a daily. Yes. It's like, oh my gosh, how, when am I gonna have time to run my business?
Jackie Mills: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We and it was something that we got kind of from, like the community that you guys have built and all that. But we just recently switched our system, which was a huge undertaking, and it's so much more than you think it's gonna be especially just with the older guys that don't want the technology.
Jackie Mills: So we like moved from. I don't know if you, I don't know. I don't wanna like disparage their system. Okay. We moved from, no,
Jimmy Lea: there's no disparaging here whatsoever. You went from a platform to a different platform. Yeah. The one you were on is whatever, but the one you went to. What are you on now? What are you operating?
Jimmy Lea: We're on
Jackie Mills: auto leave now.
Jimmy Lea: Excellent.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. Yes, we love it. The
Jimmy Lea: rules. The rules of changing your point of sale system. Rule number one is don't do it.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. That being said, rule number two is when you do decide that it is, that the old system just isn't giving you everything you want. Or need or desire. Every system that you look at, does it give you everything you're wanting. And so moving to OT Leap it's a great program. They've got great customer service, great support.
Jimmy Lea: They're doing a great job for you. What do you like about the Auto Lead program?
Jackie Mills: So one of the primary things that we like is that it's an all-in-one, and that's what we were really searching for when we dec because it was a big decision. We spent a lot of time researching everything and trying to decide if that was worth it, because it is a big change to go from one thing to another thing.
Jackie Mills: But we love that it's an all in one. And then the other big thing is that it has a lot more transparency capabilities, like sending the inspections to customers. So we are looking to like level up our customer service with communication, but also like, hey, here's where we are at in the process. We do general automotive repair, but a lot of our work is focused in transmissions and like transmission rebuilding, that type of thing, which is longer than standard automotive work.
Jackie Mills: Like you have a lot more time wrapped up in transmissions, which is a huge frustration for customers because. I understand it 'cause like not everybody understands what goes into it, but we were kind of looking to try and provide a way, like you can know where you're at in the process, like we're waiting on parts or like that type of thing.
Jackie Mills: So like we love that Auto Leap gives us the capability to communicate all of that stuff without adding like copious amounts of work.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. Congrats. I That's great. I'm glad you're on Ale. It's a good program. It's got a solid foundation. They're doing some great things in the industry too.
Jimmy Lea: So that's very cool. That's very cool. So what does the future look like for your transmission shop that is transforming and now doing automotive maintenance? What does it look like for you in the future?
Jackie Mills: I think we're like focusing on trying to make what we have the best that it can be.
Jackie Mills: And we do have, like we have an extra building with some more bays in it to like hopefully do some growth in you know, other areas like maybe offer more services or just hire more techs, that type of thing. Not 100% sure what that's gonna look like yet, but like we do have like growth plans in the future, but currently we're mostly focused on.
Jackie Mills: Trying to make everything work the best that it can be for us, our techs, our customers, that type of thing. So, growth, but mostly like improving our processes and kind of catching everything up to. We're at.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. You're reminding me of a really good friend, Tracy Holt. His shop is Performance Place up here in Utah, and he came to the institute and he says, Hey, look I'm a 7% net profit.
Jimmy Lea: I'm an 8% net profit shop. I just, I can't break through I what I need, process procedures. If you're not gonna help me with that, if you're gonna tell me I need to increase my average repair order or increase my car count, then, you know, thanks. But no thanks. We can part ways and still be friends.
Jimmy Lea: I was like, oh yeah, Chay, we got you. We're gonna meet you where you are and help you to improve from there. So he had 16 bays? Yes. 16 bays and. Operating and doing very well. In fact, the family is so involved in his business that the success or failure of the family is dependent on the success or failure of the shop.
Jackie Mills: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: A lot of his, I
Jackie Mills: don't really understand that.
Jimmy Lea: A lot of his children, his nephews, nieces, his sister is his business partner, so the two of them operate the business together. And it's only recently it took like 40 years for them to buy the shop from dad. 'cause dad kept. Dragging his feet. Oh, you do what you want.
Jimmy Lea: No dad, this is your business. We respect you. We love you. This has to be your choice, your decision. So finally, after 40 years, they finally got it done. Probably the longest story that I've heard of buying a shop, but he finally got it done and the institute worked with him on process, procedures, and just this last.
Jimmy Lea: November, December, he broke 23 point something percent net profit in the November. And in December broke 24 point something percent net profit.
Jackie Mills: Wow.
Jimmy Lea: 16 base. Yeah. So what's the net result? The shop is doing extremely well. They're very happy. The air is cleaner, the sky is bluer, the grass is greener.
Jimmy Lea: Everybody's happier, and it provides different quality of life for everybody at the shop. What's the net result on car count? What's the net result? On average pair order, they all went up.
Jackie Mills: That's amazing. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: All went up because they focused on process procedure, which allowed them to be more efficient, which allowed them more capacity.
Jimmy Lea: I think that is awesome. Yeah. Let's add to it, just like you were talking about, you have the ability to expand. He had the ability to expand. I went and visited his shop. He shows me the back. A lot. So you can see this is one of the oldest businesses in his town or wherever he is west Jordan, south Jordan, one of those two.
Jimmy Lea: You can see where dad had the original business and then he added onto it, and then he added onto it, and then he added onto it. So those 14, 16 bays were in the first three editions. There's a fourth edition, and dad had all of his old dead bodies in there. Old race cars, not human bodies. Dead bodies in there and six Bay, four bays of stuff, an rv, a travel trailer, just stuff and things.
Jimmy Lea: And I was like, bro, when's the last time pops came in here and looked at his stuff? It's been a couple years. Get some sea retainers, put 'em out in the parking lot there with. Whatever he's got out there, pops, here's your stuff. It's available for you anytime you wanna come down a rifle through it.
Jimmy Lea: Come on down. We'll set up lawn chairs and have a good old time. The RV moved out, the travel trailer moved out. All the dead bodies that are in these detainers now from their racing days and all that kind of stuff. And he opened up another four bays. At the shop. So he's now a 20 bay shop on, I think he's three point something acres.
Jimmy Lea: It's got some land to it. They're so excited. They're doing so well. I'm so very proud of Tracy Holt and the family and the team there at Performance Place.
Jackie Mills: Yeah. That's amazing.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. They're doing a great job. Similar story for what you guys have, you have an ability to expand. How many bays would that add for you?
Jackie Mills: I. Not 100%, but I think they're thinking it would add like four or five more bays.
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. You should do it. You should do it as quickly as you can. 'cause you've already got how many technicians? 16 technicians?
Jackie Mills: Yeah. I believe that it's 16 or 17, somewhere in there.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah, I'd be expanding pretty dang fast.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. That is so awesome. So what is the one thing, if you could change something in the industry, something at your shop, what's one thing, if I gave you a magic wand and you were able to wave the wand, you can't wish for more wishes, but you could wave the wand, what would you wish for in the industry?
Jackie Mills: I think I think it would definitely be, and it, I know it's one of the things that you guys are kind of like seeking to change is the perception of the industry. And I know by far and large that there has been, like, there has been some guilt in the industry, but you do get. I'm sure you've experienced this, a lot of customers that come in already expecting the worst of you.
Jackie Mills: Whereas, you know, like stuff does happen. We do make mistakes. We always try to like own up to anything that we do or cause or whatever. But when you're always trying to look for the bad thing, you're going to see the bad thing. And you know, we're here, like we've been in business for a really long time, always trying to do the right thing.
Jackie Mills: Trying to do right by our customers, trying to do right by our employees. But you know. There is a lot of, like, we have amazing customers. We have a lot of loyal customers, but there's also some people that, you know, just always wanna find something wrong with what you're doing. And maybe it's because they have been burned by someone before, but I think that I would like to change that.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And you'll do that with those digital vehicle inspections that you provide to your customers and clients. Show 'em. Show 'em. What's worn, torn, frayed, broken leaking, seeping. Cracked. Put arrows, pointed it out to them so they can see it. They will make better decisions when they're educated, they make better decisions.
Jimmy Lea: So that DVI gives them insight into, they're not just trying to take me for all the money I've got. These are safety issues. These are the things that you have to take care of. This is very, this is Paramountly important. And there's a next level that says we can do this while the car's in here, or we can keep watching it maybe in three months or six months.
Jimmy Lea: These are the items that you're probably gonna need to take care of next. And then these are all the other things that are good. So there's your red, yellow, green. Red, let's get it taken care of today. It's in the shop. You absolutely, this is safety issues. Yellow says future, but we can do it today if you want.
Jimmy Lea: And a lot of people say, yeah, let's get it all done today. You've got the car. I don't wanna have to come back. Let's get it all done.
Jackie Mills: Yeah, exactly. And we have noticed that we have had a lot more like customer satisfaction since we've kind of implemented like a higher level of communication and on our end, like a higher level of due diligence, like having the pictures and the notes and all of that too.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. It's so cool. I love the digital vehicle inspections. It provides so much more clarity into what you're doing and the service you're providing for those customers and clients because it's, it is not just a laundry list of this, you need to do this.
Jimmy Lea: $2,500. It's a breakdown that says you need to replace your brakes and brake pads and rotors, and here's the reasons why, and this is what yours looks like. It's metal on metal. It's bad.
Jackie Mills: Dangerous.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It happens. It happens. Well, Jackie, thank you so much for joining me today and talking about your shop and your business.
Jimmy Lea: So excited for your future. You've got a very bright future there with Pops and with your husband, and congrats on going for your Master's in accounting. Super cool.
Jackie Mills: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I appreciate getting to talk with you.
Jimmy Lea: You're welcome. You're welcome. This has been very enlightening, and if Pops is open for the idea, we'd love to train you, your husband and your pops all together to train on the shop, on the business.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It's an opportunity for us. Let's do it. If there's not, we're all good. We'll still be friends.
Jackie Mills: Definitely. Thank you so much.
Jimmy Lea: You are welcome. You're welcome. Because we here at the Institute, we're all about building a better business. Your business, better business, better life. If your business is better, it helps your life to be better.
Jimmy Lea: You'll breathe better. Not just you, your employees, not just your employees, their families, their spouses, their significant others. It helps everybody to breathe better, and when we, as the institute or as the industry, we lock arms together, that's our third mission with the institute, is we're here to build a better industry.
Jimmy Lea: So we'd love to work with you on that to build up your business, your life, and your industry as well.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you very much, Jackie. Look forward to talking to you soon.
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