Heat, reviews, and real talk from Stillwater set the stage as Tyler Nichols of X-tra Mile Auto Care breaks down culture, process, and growth. He shares how handwritten notes, follow-up calls, and thoughtful review responses power 4.7 stars on 371 Google reviews. Tyler traces his path from rainy-day helper to tech, advisor, and now GM under Aaron Woods. The episode dives into slow-and-steady expansion plans, including a new Stillwater facility and measured hiring. Inside the shop, a century-old former jail houses a five-bay operation with clear roles and Monday huddles. Training is a throughline: Leadership Intensive, local tech-school apprenticeships, and a rigorous “implement what you learned” habit. Tyler’s wish for the industry centers on ending apples-to-oranges price comparisons by leading with DVIs, goals-first conversations, and clear presentation.

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):

Tyler Nichols, General Manager of X-tra Mile Auto Care

Show Highlights:

[00:01:31] - Handwritten thank-you notes, treats in cars, and real connections with customers drive authentic five-star reviews.

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Hello, friend. Welcome. My name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is Tyler Nichols, and he is from X-tra Mile Autocare out of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Tyler, how the heck are you, brother?

Tyler Nichols: I am hot for October, but I'm doing good.

Jimmy Lea: Hot for October.

Jimmy Lea: I'm in Utah. We are seeing 40 degrees in the morning. What do you mean?

Tyler Nichols: It's 86 degrees here.

Jimmy Lea: No way.

Tyler Nichols: Yes, it's next week, it's gonna cool off, but

Jimmy Lea: it's, oh yeah, we're, it's coming. We're 63. That's our high today.

Tyler Nichols: But other than that, I'm doing great.

Jimmy Lea: Oh good. Good to hear. Good to hear. Oh, I'm glad that you're here with me.

Jimmy Lea: A couple of questions for you. I see 371. Business reviews, Google reviews. You are a 4.7 star shop. Doing very well, loving what you're doing. Great responses. How did you get so many reviews? Our

Tyler Nichols: advisors I can't take any credit for that, or at least not in the time I've been away from the fund desk, but now they're so good at building relationships and really making connections with their people.

Tyler Nichols: It's more than just fixing the car and getting 'em on the road. They really take their time to get to know them. Yeah, handwritten thank you notes and, you know, treats in the car after, I mean the they go so above and beyond that. It's it just makes it easy.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude, that's awesome.

Jimmy Lea: That's so rad. I'm glad that your your advisors put that personalized touch with the handwritten notes that goes so far, man, that's super cool. Absolutely. That's super cool. So, are you, do you go in and do the responses to all of the Google reviews? Yes. Yes. Have you seen the most recent ones you've gotten, like in the last 21 hours?

Tyler Nichols: I still gotta get those. Okay. Five. Yes.

Jimmy Lea: So you got another five star, but then you got a one star. Did you see the one star?

Tyler Nichols: Yes, sir. Oh my gosh. Spoke, spoke with him on the phone today.

Jimmy Lea: Oh really? Oh good. So it's actually, it is a client.

Tyler Nichols: It is. And e every the one star happen. They're few and far between for us, thankfully, but they do happen.

Tyler Nichols: Whether it's our fault or not immediately, there's always something we can learn from it. So, oh, I had a great talk with him on the phone earlier. I don't ever ask him to remove a review, and we have a great talk. I, it's just, it's not why I'm calling. We just don't want anyone leaving our shop feeling that way.

Tyler Nichols: And it's really just expressing that and, you know, tell 'em we'd love to love the, a chance to earn their trust in the future. So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah, there you go. That's what you can do. And that's the exact same thing that you want to reply to on that. Review, right? So the next customer sees, oh, well these guys are human.

Jimmy Lea: They really took the time to call me up on the phone. They took the time to talk to me. They took the time on a onestar to reach out and, right, they're gonna take ownership. So that's super awesome. I applaud you. I do notice on your Yelp that it's really low, so Yelp must not be a thing there in Oklahoma.

Tyler Nichols: It's not. It's not. Go, Google's the main engine around here.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. It so is it. So is, that's really cool. So, first question is, how in the world did you get into the automotive industry?

Tyler Nichols: So, my, the owner of our shop, Aaron Woods everybody listening knows Aaron Woods.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Aaron Woods is awesome.

Jimmy Lea: Those who don't know, he is a coach with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. He is the facilitator of a few different of the gear groups. As well. The facilitator and head coach for the manager performance group. So, and yeah, he is deeply seated in his own business.

Jimmy Lea: Recently expanded by a second location.

Tyler Nichols: We're working on

Jimmy Lea: it, opening a second location. Yeah we're working on it. Working on it. Super. Awesome. Glad to hear that. That's super cool. Congratulations. That's Oh, thank you. But Aaron Woods, what? He came to you and

Tyler Nichols: said,

Jimmy Lea: Hey

Tyler Nichols: man, we. So I was not in this industry.

Tyler Nichols: I was working for a landscape company and Aaron and I had known each other through different avenues before all of this. And landscaping in Oklahoma, we get a lot of rain and a lot of days you don't get to work. And Aaron, I can't remember how it, it started with Aaron and I, but it just. You know, would you come pull a motor out of something for me?

Tyler Nichols: Well, you know, on the weekend or on a rainy day. And kind of started like that. And then he was having me help him deliver a vehicle up to northeast Oklahoma and kind of asked me, you ever thought about getting in this industry? And I was like, no. I hadn't really, I mean, I've worked on my own vehicles in the past, but never really thought about it and said, well, you know, I can offer you some work on the rainy days.

Tyler Nichols: And it, it was enough work he was offering me on rainy days that I ended up coming on full time. So I started as a technician. Then just really trial by fire, getting to really get thrown into it and learn. And worked as a technician for a few years and moved to an advisor role here.

Tyler Nichols: Worked as an advisor for two and a half years, and then luckily last I guess March of 24, I was able to move to the full-time general manager role that I'm currently doing today.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, congratulations. That's awesome. When you go to a landscaper and say, Hey, we got a roof over our head, and you can have air conditioning, right, and it becomes very attractive.

Tyler Nichols: And, you know, taking that job had no clue of the path that it could turn into. I just kind of thought, yeah, I could work on cars the rest of my life. It's, yeah, that'd be fun. And Aaron has provided a path that I could have never dreamed of making for myself. So I've been very blessed to, to have him and the team we have to be able to move to this position where I really just get to kind of help on the big picture stuff.

Tyler Nichols: So it's great.

Jimmy Lea: Oh man. That's awesome. Congratulations. So what does the path look like you, for you going forward? What does that look like?

Tyler Nichols: We're expanding we, we are taking it very slow. We're good. Very cal, very calculated. He's, yeah. We're both working in the m and A group with Mike Smith and the HPG group, the High Performance Group.

Tyler Nichols: Really making sure that the next step we make is the right step. It's calculated. So we are working on building a new location here in Stillwater to really work out any of the inefficiencies we have with our current location here. Building a great new facility. We've got a great lot, great location last year.

Tyler Nichols: So we're just working on working with the engineers and everything to get that finalized. But expansion is the move, whether that's here in Stillwater, Tulsa, Oklahoma City. We're expanding and you know, eventually working to where I'm kinda overseeing a few different locations.

Tyler Nichols: And able to, you kind of help Aaron in that way, so. Oh, I

Jimmy Lea: love it. I love it. How far is Tulsa? How far is Oklahoma City? Logistically?

Tyler Nichols: It's about 60 miles either way. So we're kind of right in the middle, so depending on which area of the city you need to go to, could be further. But to get to city limits, it's about 60, 70 miles.

Tyler Nichols: Either, either city.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's not that far. That's great. Yeah. That's phenomenal. Very cool. So what does the current layout look like of the current shop? Because I know when Aaron started, he was like two bays at the back of the back of the back of a lot.

Tyler Nichols: I got sick working in that building.

Tyler Nichols: What I, yeah, it was a lot of standing water. Lot of black mold. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I got sick working in that shop. And that's thinking back to, I, he worked in that shop a lot more than I did. That was very early. But, you know, thinking back to those days and then where it is now is, it's not to change the subject, but it's something I love to think about and it's really great to see.

Jimmy Lea: So have you been with Aaron through all this progression, through all the different shops that he's gone through?

Tyler Nichols: Yes. Oh, I've worked at every location.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats dude. Alright, so give us the layout of the current location. What does that look like for you?

Tyler Nichols: So we're right here in in downtown Stillwater.

Tyler Nichols: It's a really cool building, a hundred and something years old, Stillwater's original jail. So if I could move my computer, I'd show you. But our bathroom is actually the first jail cell in Stillwater, which is really cool. Oh, that's awesome. But it's for obvious reasons. It's not open to the public. But it's really cool.

Tyler Nichols: Nonetheless, it's the old school kind of dealership style open concept. We framed in an office that you can see here. Yeah. And we have five, two posts and a four post with alignment rack. It's the setup. We have three mainline technicians and a general service technician that, handles a lot of our oil changes tires, things like that. And then we have our other kind of, you know, general service technician that really helps with anything the guys need to help stay efficient. So

Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it.

Tyler Nichols: Keeping everything clean, organized, keep them moving.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. And have you been able to sit down with your advisors, with your not advisors, I apologize with your GS tech.

Jimmy Lea: And even your technicians that say, all right, this is the path. This is what we want to do. This is the training we're gonna send you to. We want you to learn and to grow and to become a better technician, better human being, da.

Tyler Nichols: We have a technician that went to leadership intensive this year.

Tyler Nichols: And was great for him. We have, and he our local tech school offers a really great evening apprenticeship program where people who are full-time working can attend that and in two years earn basically their technology school degree. So a lot of people such as I, I mean, came into the industry, not through the tech school route.

Tyler Nichols: Right. Came in. So it really gives those guys a chance. Maybe that's something they always, man, I wish I would've gone that route. But he was able to do that and graduated earlier this year. And we have one of our other technicians and one of our GS techs that are also doing that program. Like, so.

Tyler Nichols: But outside of that, everyone has, we have a lot of different development discussions and making sure everyone has goals, things they're working towards, just really. Helping them as much as we can in their personal lives as well. That's very important,

Jimmy Lea: dude. I love that. So are you having I call 'em monthly meetings?

Jimmy Lea: Or monthly meetings?

Tyler Nichols: Meetings, try to weekly meetings, but monthly meetings? No. We have quick Monday morning, you know, immediate day to day. Let's go over a policy real quick. Let's audit and inspection. Let's get all, get on the same page. Love that with really me and the technicians. Then once a month we have everyone.

Tyler Nichols: Aaron comes down and hosts this meeting, and we really talk about our mission, vision. Really coming back to the context statements pulling up examples. We do our Beast of the Month. If anyone has seen our Facebook, we have a beast of the month that's pure nominated award every month.

Tyler Nichols: It's really great. It's fun. Everyone enjoys it, but. Well,

Jimmy Lea: Is that the teacher that you're nominating or is that No,

Tyler Nichols: That's a different thing. But the Beast of the Month is a peer nominated thing. We have a little trophy, really Hulk, ugly Hulk looking trophy. But just we have to give specific examples of how someone went the X-tra Mile that month.

Tyler Nichols: So, that's,

Jimmy Lea: so that's the Hulk where he's ripping his shirt and, yeah. Yep. Yeah, I gave that to my mother after she finished her chemotherapy.

Tyler Nichols: Oh, that's great.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Again, with that. And then there was a donkey that would kick and it was like a bobblehead. So you could kick the feet and the feet would, yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Super awesome. So she's cancer free. Thank heaven's, knock on wood. So are all the rest of us. I think she's like. Five and a half, five years now, five and a half years that she's been clean. So, man, it's love to hear that. Well, congrats on the beast of the month. That's really cool. Tell me about the teacher of the month.

Jimmy Lea: So I know I went onto Facebook, I saw your Facebook post, so you got a teacher of the month. Is that a normal rotating thing or is it always a teacher? What are you doing?

Tyler Nichols: We do it's monthly nominations by, from just the community. For any teachers, they think just go above and beyond really deserve that recognition.

Tyler Nichols: More than the school. Our schools around here do a great job with it anyway, but it's just an extra thing that we can offer them. So it is the community commenting on Facebook posts to nominate these teachers. And

Jimmy Lea: I love it.

Tyler Nichols: It's great. They get a free oil change with us. Just, you know, something we can offer 'em, we give 'em a coffee gift card.

Tyler Nichols: We have a really great coffee shop next door. So kind of, and then just the shout out on Facebook just to let people know who they are, what they do, and help 'em in that way.

Jimmy Lea: And if you don't know it, you need to go check out X-tra Mile Auto Care and extra, but just an X-X-T-R-A X-tra Mile auto care on Facebook.

Jimmy Lea: These guys are awesome. I love what you're doing for the teachers. And then tell me what's going on with Nate. He graduated onto a different career.

Tyler Nichols: He's leaving the industry. He, his last day was on Friday. We're happy for him. We've talked since then. I mean, it's he was with us three and a half years almost.

Tyler Nichols: I can't imagine what this company would be without his time here. Right. He was really a blessing to everything that we've done and been able to develop and the dedication he gave us. So it's really great. It super, everyone keeps asking, you know, customers keep asking. It's completely fine.

Tyler Nichols: We're happy for him. Happy for his family. Yeah. Everything's in good standing. So,

Jimmy Lea: Is he the one that went into law enforcement?

Tyler Nichols: No. No. That was

Jimmy Lea: different.

Tyler Nichols: Different advisor as well. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It was still with you guys though, right? You had no, we had

Tyler Nichols: one go to law enforcement. It's been a couple years.

Tyler Nichols: Been

Jimmy Lea: a couple years, yeah.

Tyler Nichols: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, congrats. Congrats to Nate too. That's awesome. I love hearing a success story and a graduation and transition. Moving on to the next chapter, the next phase, right. And speaking of chapters and phases, tell me about the class of 34, your leadership, steelwater, class of 34 that you participated in.

Jimmy Lea: What did I do?

Tyler Nichols: So it's it's through the chamber here in Stillwater. It's a little organization through that leadership Stillwater. And it's a chance we have 26 people I believe, in our class, and it's a chance for us to get to know the city, get to know the chamber and things that they do get to know a lot of community members.

Tyler Nichols: And then we do a big fundraiser for a nonprofit in town. So. It's really great. There's a lot of amazing people in my group that I've had a chance to meet and and learning about the nonprofit world that I, you know, was not really exposed to before. And so through this I get to be on the board of a nonprofit in town.

Tyler Nichols: And then we're doing the fundraiser for the the other one. It's a live center here in Stillwater. If anyone local is listening. It's adult Day Services. It's a great place they have there. Adult day services. So any kind of, you know, disability or just, you know, retirees that, that need a, need, a place to, to be for the day and, you know, let their family members continue to work or anything like that.

Tyler Nichols: They do some great stuff. We fix their vans, so they do some outings get to go walk around at the lake and stuff like that. So that's, oh dude, it's a really great place.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Congrats. That's really cool. It's really cool to participate in a leadership program, but then also a leadership program that continues that education with being on the board of a nonprofit.

Jimmy Lea: Now all of your chamber, all of the things that you're doing publicity wise and PR wise can include the adult daycare. Right. And you can help them out. I mean, that, that is, so that's just awesome, man. Congrats. That's really cool.

Tyler Nichols: It's been fun. November 1st. We're doing a big harvest festival.

Tyler Nichols: If anyone's seen parks and recreation it's based off of that, but it's gonna be fun.

Jimmy Lea: That's rad. That's awesome. That's awesome. So, to the big question, what do you think are three elements, principles, practices, that are keeping a shop back from a $1 million a year business?

Tyler Nichols: I think number one for me would be people.

Tyler Nichols: Okay. A lesson we learned, it took us a long time to learn. I think having the right people it seemed so obvious, but it's one of those things we didn't know until we had the right people and then we could kind of look back and it was kind of the hindsight at that point. But having the right people that are bought in that, that really care about what we're doing, that care about more than just.

Tyler Nichols: Showing up to get a paycheck. They're here for a reason fulfilled in, in multiple different ways. That, that's been really great for us. And just making sure that it's the trust thing of everyone has my back. You know, we really have that camaraderie, the culture, you know, all that all those buzzwords in the, in with that.

Tyler Nichols: But that's been one of the biggest things that, that we've done.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. People. Number one. Number one, and it's true, you know, people are your biggest asset, and a lot of businesses don't think that way. They think of people as a number a, as just a cog in a machine. Which it's true they are a cog in the machine, but they are a person and we need to treat 'em like people.

Jimmy Lea: So, congrats for that. Props to you. All right. What's next? What's number two

Tyler Nichols: processes? It's and, you know, processes and procedures, but how we conduct the biggest thing being technician, time management. Institute has an amazing course video course that you can watch for technician time management for anyone listening.

Tyler Nichols: But it's treating labor almost like a part, like it's all bulk oil. Jennifer Holbert uses that, that analogy all the time. Would you just open your oil container and let it all spill on the ground? And none of us would, but we let that happen with labor and a lot of times it's not the employee's fault it's.

Tyler Nichols: The system's fault. It's, they're not given the tools to be as efficient and as productive as they can be. So, that's been our commitment this year. We've tried really hard at building a really good workflow process and it's paying off. We're set to have the best year we've ever had.

Tyler Nichols: So it's, oh, congrats. It's working. So

Jimmy Lea: yeah, it was, what is it they say about the tech labor? It's a perishable, it's something that's on the shelf if you don't use it. Right. Every day, whatever's not used is thrown away. It's gone. It's gone. You cannot, and it's, you can't forward it. You can't carry it over and you lose more than you think.

Jimmy Lea: Really. How much do you think most shops are losing on a daily, oh my goodness. Two hours

Tyler Nichols: Probably. If in an eight hour workday. I mean, it's I guarantee a quarter of the day, whether it's tool trucks. Bathroom breaks, just how long it takes in between vehicles to figure out what am I working on next?

Tyler Nichols: Where are the keys? Where is it parked? It all, I spent like two full days in the shop watching and just told everyone what I was doing. I said, do everything the way you normally do it. And just sat there and it's, you see it. You start to see now having someone that can dedicate two days to just watching a shop is a little unrealistic.

Tyler Nichols: But we're unique in, in our circumstance that I was able to and it, you know, you fix the things and it ends up paying for itself. But

Jimmy Lea: it does. But

Tyler Nichols: It was very powerful.

Jimmy Lea: That is powerful. And I'm glad you took those two days. In fact, it reminded me, I was just in a conversation with.

Jimmy Lea: Seth Thorson at Bimmers, we went to dinner and he was talking about how if you want to create your vision, you need to check out, you need to go off grid. You need to find your zen place where you are relaxed, where inspiration and creativity will flow freely. From there, you'll be able to create your vision and your mission and your ideas for what you want to build your business to be.

Jimmy Lea: And to that same tune, you took the two days, you took the time to sharpen the tool so that you were much more effective as a team, as a shop, as an individual. I love that you did that, man. That's super cool.

Tyler Nichols: Yeah. Lot, a lot of good came from that. We were able to fix a lot of issues that weren't, you know, it's easy to look at the build hours and think it's the tech's fault, but my biggest takeaways from that time were it's us.

Tyler Nichols: It's, you know, shop inefficiencies. It's, you know, things we struggle with our location, with our layout, but a lot of processes that we were able to improve that just fixed a lot of those issues. So.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Now Tyler, I'm gonna put you on the spot here a little bit. As you think about those process and procedures, so you think about those two days that you were observing the flow of the shop, what is one of the biggest aha moments or one of the.

Jimmy Lea: Smallest little movements of the dial movements of the process procedure that had a big return. Not a huge, not a monumental, but it had a good, solid return. For you as a shop, what's one of those things that you observed?

Tyler Nichols: I have one, one practical answer to that, and then one that's a little bit kind of bigger thinking and maybe deeper, but, just overall layout. If, when we talk about, you know, the book Atomic Habits and you talk about habit stacking, having everything together to where it's, I do this, and then I do this versus I, I do this and then I have to walk across the shop, and then I do that, and then I walk back across the shop.

Tyler Nichols: We have a very long shotgun building here, so walking to the other end. You get grabbed, you get, you know, someone, Hey, you help me with this, or you get distracted. So really just asking what are the things we use and you know, we'll go start to finish on our process with the vehicle. What are the things we use?

Tyler Nichols: Where can we place them that it's gonna be the most efficient? And let's just put 'em there. Seat covers, formats. The key box. Let's make sure everything is where we want it to be as a team. Let them decide that. Then and that's just an easy tweak. Doesn't cost any money, it's just moving stuff around.

Tyler Nichols: So that's very easy. But the bigger picture one communication, I think probably of just if it had been communicated, man, I have to walk a lot to, to do all stuff like that. But then even just miscommunications between the advisors and the technicians, we all have it. But it creates a lot of inefficiencies that.

Tyler Nichols: Just one conversation, a text, an email however you communicate, but really could have solved a lot of our time issues without really having to do a whole lot of effort. So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Have you ever put a tachometer on some of these advisors or technicians to discover, dude, you're walking five to eight miles a day.

Jimmy Lea: Right. Let's cut that down to one, right? And then let's work on cutting it lower than one, because you shouldn't have to be walking a mile a day, right? Yep. Oh, that's good. That's really good. So the process, procedures moving the dial I love that. Probably one of the biggest that I saw at a shop was the placement of the oil filters right here.

Jimmy Lea: They had the the quick lube in bay number one, and the oil filters were over here beyond Bay four. So it was all the bulk oil. So that tech was just trekking all the way back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Became very quick and very easy to say, okay, the quick lube is now Bay four, and the tech saves so much time by not having to walk all the over this, right?

Jimmy Lea: So the, and you don't see that until you see that,

Tyler Nichols: right? You gotta take the time, you dedicate the time and you know, it's, there's been times I know it's not ideal, but. We have a technician that's gonna take a week vacation and, you know, if I'll step out in the shop and help out and just to keep workflow flowing and just being out there and working.

Tyler Nichols: You you see that, you know, different mindset than when I was a technician out there. So I'm seeing things from a different angle. I work out in the shop and. I pick up on those things and kind of ask the guys like, is this, does this seem like it's taken too long? Oh, yeah, it does. You know, so it's really opening up for that communication.

Tyler Nichols: I love it to where they start to find that stuff and let me know about it.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. All right. Third

Tyler Nichols: item. Third thing related to training, I think. I think we're all guilty of it, but it's really implementing training. I think a lot, especially people listening to this podcast we're all on the onboard for training.

Tyler Nichols: We're all, you know, we all, anyone involved at the institute knows how amazing the training is. I think after the training. The implementation the reviewing your notes, the, whether it's technician training, advisor training or owner training. I think it's it's really reviewing everything after the fact to get an action plan in place into, so it's not the next time you go to a similar training and it's like, oh yeah, I learned that last time.

Tyler Nichols: I should, you know, should have done that. It's done. It's in place and that's the biggest thing. Even from my technician background, you go to division, which is, you know, anyone in the, around the central US knows about vision, but it's a lot of information crammed into three days and without coming back and reviewing, you're not gonna retain any of it.

Tyler Nichols: So,

Jimmy Lea: oh, that's so true. And what you're talking about there, Tyler, the vision, high Tech training and Expo is in Overland Park usually the first weekend in March. It's amazing. It's amazing. So that's a short trip for you guys, isn't it?

Tyler Nichols: Yeah, it's not far.

Jimmy Lea: No. How far of a drive? Three hours. Oh, that's really close.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So you guys have no excuses. Everybody has to go. Does the whole shop, do you shut down? Do you bring the whole shop? We have,

Tyler Nichols: yeah, we have it. It depends on the year, but we've had, and get an Airbnb it's sometimes more of a just team bonding thing more than it is. Anything. And there's amazing classes, amazing instructors.

Tyler Nichols: I've learned, you know, with coming back and reviewing and at least maybe that's how I learned it may not be everybody may, everyone may be able to retain better than I can. But it's a lot of information and whatever the training making sure that it's implemented. You have a plan to use that training.

Tyler Nichols: Otherwise, it, it's gone.

Jimmy Lea: And they say that and I believe this is true, that the teacher learns more than the student. So I love that you're talking about here, we've gone and done this training, now we're gonna implement the training. Now I'm going to train you on what I was trained, on, what I heard, so that it becomes more of my language and what I'm doing, and then you guys are also going to teach us what you learned.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. How many times have you had a tech go to a technical training and come back and say, oh my gosh, you know, if I had known this, I could have fixed that car and that car,

Tyler Nichols: right? Yep. Yeah, A lot of times, and usually it's, we need to buy this. If we need to buy this, then we need to buy this.

Tyler Nichols: But you, if you don't learn about those tools and how to use them, that's, you know, oscilloscopes for one for the technicians out there. But that's once, once you figure it out, it's. It's worth the time you spent learning it, you know, and it saves you so much time in the future. So it's one of the things of we're lucky here.

Tyler Nichols: We have L one diagnostics over in, around Tulsa, so very close to us. And they're a very good technical. Keith. Yes. Keith Perkins. Oh yeah.

Jimmy Lea: He's a rad dude, 80 miles down the road. Oh, speaking of one star reviews, he just barely got himself a one star review too. Oh no. He was so salty about it.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. It's kind of funny.

Tyler Nichols: That's, you know, back to the review thing, PE people don't know that how much we take that home with us. It's the advisor too. With the add that one star it. He takes it home and thinks about it and it's. It's not, you know, it's not a light thing for us.

Jimmy Lea: No, that's right.

Jimmy Lea: I mean, you try not to take it personally. It's all business. Right. Gosh, we pour so much of our heart and soul into everything that we do, that it's hard to not take it personally.

Jimmy Lea: And it seems that in the automotive industry, it's either a one star or a five star. Five star, because you did a great job.

Jimmy Lea: It's the whisper. Wow. But it's also, yeah. Yeah. These guys are great. Always great. Always number five, you know, five star and then one star. Why? Because they moved my cup holder because they Right. Took away my air freshener because there was a smudge on the hood. Okay. You know what? You're right. We should be better at our QC and making sure there's no smudges on the hood.

Jimmy Lea: Thank you very much. We'll change our policy procedure. We appreciate your feedback because now we're gonna be a better shop because of what you said. Here's our number. Bring it in. We wanna make it right.

Jimmy Lea: And everything you can do to make it right, that goes so far.

Tyler Nichols: Absolutely.

Jimmy Lea: It's really good.

Jimmy Lea: All right, so your three items for taking a shop from Zero to Hero, from mediocre to magnificent is people, process, procedures, and training. Not just training, but implementing the training. And I, that's a key differentiator there that I want to point out that you said you pro, I don't, you probably did know that you said it, implementing training and

Tyler Nichols: with the thought that.

Tyler Nichols: The listeners of this podcast, they're invested in training. They're bought into training. They know the value. So if I was talking to a buddy, it would be, you need to train your people. But we're professionals here. You know, the listeners it's, we're all doing the training.

Tyler Nichols: It's really just after the training. That is really important.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I love, love, love that you guys come back and train each other on what you learned from vision. Are there other trade shows that you guys are going to.

Tyler Nichols: Not so much a lot of institute stuff. I mean, like leadership intensive.

Tyler Nichols: We, we've had, yeah. Four employees now go to, so almost half of our staff is intended leadership intensive. So it was life changing for me if anyone's on the fence of going this's listening to this, but it's it's totally worth it. Oh, it's I love it. I, yeah, I was immediately, I'd love to do one with my wife.

Tyler Nichols: I'd love to do one with, you know, I did it with Aaron. So we got to kind of debrief and everything afterwards. And again, a lot of the talks afterwards. Having kind of an accountability partner coming out of it that, that you did with is great too.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. What do you guys, what kind of vehicles are you mostly working on in your shop?

Tyler Nichols: Everything.

Jimmy Lea: What makes all models? Do you do heavy duty?

Tyler Nichols: Some, we have the local FedEx fleet contract here. So a lot of suzu, NPRs box trucks, things like that.

Jimmy Lea: In January, there's a show in Dallas, Texas called HDAW, heavy Duty, a heavy duty all the heavy duty stuff. Okay. So it's like the vision of heavy duty.

Jimmy Lea: It's big, it's a big conference. You might wanna check it out in January, Dallas, Texas. Next year in September is Bimmers. I don't know if you do much Euro European work, some. Some boomers they have the top like Keith Perkins was there, and Gary Smith was there. And a bunch of these dudes that are just super, super amazing when it comes to that Euro vehicle.

Jimmy Lea: The BM bmw, Mercedes, Audis, Porsches, Lamborghinis they know how the, they're the whisperer and they can teach your technicians how to work on these vehicles and make sure that they're in top form and top. Top notch.

Tyler Nichols: Yeah, that's

Jimmy Lea: right. So check out Bimmers for next year as well. Bimmers, euro train for you in your area.

Jimmy Lea: That's, that would be awesome. Let's see what, I'm trying to think if there's anybody else in the summer. How far is Arizona from you guys? Probably a about

Tyler Nichols: a days drive. 24 hours. It's ways.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. Well don't go to Arizona in June, then you'll probably melt. It's in Phoenix in June. Oh we consistently see 115 at this conference, a trade show.

Jimmy Lea: The good news is we're all indoors, so it's That's good. It can be that hot. Well, cool, man. I'm excited for your coaching, your training and reaching out. I you talk about this year being a record breaking year. Every month after month is a record breaking month. What are you looking at? What's your projections for this year?

Tyler Nichols: I think we're gonna get close to 1.8. I think we can hit it. If we would've, we had, you know, our fair share of issues like everybody. So, we're gonna get close and I think next year we'll do too.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. 1.8 this year. 2 million next year. Congrats, dude. That's a significant lift.

Jimmy Lea: Very cool. Very cool. Well, we're,

Tyler Nichols: we have the best team we've ever had, so we're really blessed.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, that is good. That is good. Without

Tyler Nichols: Nate, now

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you're down to Nate. Now. You without Nate, but are you, how quickly are you gonna be able to replace him?

Tyler Nichols: We working on it. We're working on it, but very slow.

Tyler Nichols: Just like the expansion we're finding the right person. Going back to the people thing we talked about the first time we talk is not even about sales or if it's a tech. We don't talk about working on cars. It's really what do you do outside of work? What do you do for self-improvement?

Tyler Nichols: What motivates you, you know, things like that. So we're we've talked to a lot of amazing people. We're just waiting to make sure we make the right call.

Jimmy Lea: That's cool. That's really good. That's exciting. Yeah. You don't wanna put a tech on the team just 'cause he fogs a mirror. You gotta make sure he fits the company culture.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Right. Do you guys do a working day interview?

Tyler Nichols: We have we have with both positions. That really depends on the situation. Some, you know, kind of what they have to offer before that. But some, it's a great opportunity if they're not currently working. It works out great.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I love it. I love that working interview. 'cause you're gonna pay 'em cash by the end of the day. I'm gonna pay you, I'm gonna pay you cash. Right. So this is a working interview, but I'm gonna pay you, right?

Tyler Nichols: Yeah. If you're here helping the team. You're taken care of.

Jimmy Lea: So does the team vote or do you vote?

Tyler Nichols: It's, we definitely get their opinion. But you know, it's funny you mentioned that, but we've had people in the shop where, and Michael Smith has talked about this a lot in HPG and things, but you get to a point in the culture where when someone is not a culture fit, the team kind of lets you know about it.

Tyler Nichols: And they're not coming to me saying, this guy has to go. But you can see it, you can feel it. Yeah, the team just kind of pushes the person out and it becomes very obvious. So it's, wow. It's really great without even having a conversation or a vote it's really understood that this is not fitting with the culture.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. So are you standing in a circle and you give it the gladiator? Thumbs up, thumbs down situation if anybody's thumbs down. Oh, sorry, dude, didn't make the cut.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. All right. Well, Kyle just Kyle Tyler, thank you for talking to me today. Is there anything else you wanted to cover before we wrap things up? Anything we didn't discuss?

Tyler Nichols: I'll mention one more thing on the people thing is another kind of phrase that's thrown around is the right person in the right seat.

Tyler Nichols: Love it. Our other advisor, Colton, we have up here, he interviewed as a technician and I, he kind of walked outta here and I called Aaron and I was like, I don't think he's a technician. Can we hire an advisor right now? Because he just, he is, and he's an amazing advisor. He caught onto it so quick.

Tyler Nichols: He's so good with his customers. So it's, that, that's another thing is just because if you're having issues or something's not working with a certain position, but you like the person, maybe there's something else. That can move into that, would, that would help everybody.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, Tyler you are one heck of a dude that, that's a great leader to be able to see the potential in somebody.

Jimmy Lea: And it just speaks to your volume of training and leadership to come back to the people. It's about the people. Props to you, bro. That's awesome. All right. Magic wand question. If you had a magic wand and you were able to wave this magic wand and you could. Grant any wish whatsoever, what would you change in the industry?

Jimmy Lea: And of course, you can't wish for more wishes.

Tyler Nichols: I think, you know, I can't think of another industry. Aaron and I were talking about this yesterday, where if your price is different than anyone else's. If you're ripping 'em off and it's no, you know, it's, there's that stigma that, I don't know what it is about the automotive industry.

Tyler Nichols: I don't think plumbers get it. You know, I don't think that concrete guys get it. It's really a thing in this industry and the pricing is its own conversation. But but I think it's probably a lot a source of, a lot of our one stars is comparison and it may not be apples to apples.

Tyler Nichols: So we, we don't know that we're comparing the same things. Everybody has their different thought of how something should be fixed. This is what we believe in, this is how we believe in doing it. So, oh yeah, that's, it's a stigma and an issue that I think all of us fight. But it'd be really helpful if we could have that resolved and that communication, you know, properly portrayed.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, for sure. Yeah. It rarely is apples to apples because if you're twice the price. Or twice the, yeah, the price of what's being quoted. Chances are you've done a much more thorough diagnostic look at the vehicle to see all the belts and hoses and brackets that are broken, worn, torn, frayed, rusting.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You, it's not apples to apples. You know, we're gonna keep you safe on the road. They're just gonna replace a part,

Tyler Nichols: right? We can fix a problem or we can. Repair the vehicle to align with the goal that they have for their vehicle, with their family. And that's the biggest thing. If they're holding on this vehicle, they're keeping it, they drive soccer practice where wherever they're going, it's, we wanna make sure it's gonna continue to work.

Tyler Nichols: So, oh, a hundred percent. That's tough to explain and it's tough to show. I think it, you know, comes with time and good communication, but.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and you guys are doing digital vehicle inspections?

Tyler Nichols: We do.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, so,

Tyler Nichols: and we get the goals for the vehicle up front to just know really where's your head at?

Tyler Nichols: What's your plans for the vehicle? Vehicles are not getting any cheaper, so, you know, new vehicles anyway, so, so it's very important. We know. We know what the plan is going into it before we even look at any problems.

Jimmy Lea: So That's right. That's right. So then you address what the customer brought it in for, but then you also address, here are the other items that are safety issues.

Jimmy Lea: Boom boom. Right? Policy, procedure, pictures on everything. Right. Everything you're making a recommendation for, because clients can see, they know worn, torn freight or broken, and if you show it to 'em, they make a better decision because they're more educated. Rather than a laundry list of you gotta fix this and this, and they're just thinking, dude, Tyler I drove it in.

Jimmy Lea: I'm gonna drive it out. Right? Just do the oil service. But then you show 'em, here's your shocks. They are totally blown. That's why you're bouncing down the road. And then further into the explanation, your traction is not very good either. You're gonna take a corner and it's not gonna be a good thing.

Tyler Nichols: Right. Oh, that's good. That's very important. That's back to the processes and procedures of good, a good presentation process on the 300% rule. And back to all that. But that's so important and the presentation alone of that is, can make or break, can give you a one star or a five star just on presentation.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So true. So true. With that. Tyler, thank you so much, brother. I appreciate you taking some time out and yeah, talking to me. Thanks for having me. Talking to the industry, talking to your shop, talking to your people. You're a great leader and they're lucky to have you there. I wish.

Jimmy Lea: All the best for you in your future, brother. Thank you.

Tyler Nichols: Thank you so much for talking with me.