When shop owners come together, powerful things happen. In this conversation, Jimmy Lea sits down with Jennifer Hulbert, coach and facilitator for The Institute’s Gear Performance Group, and Cindy Reason, owner of Frontline Automotive in Fairbanks, Alaska, to discuss the impact of coaching, collaboration, and group accountability on shop growth. Cindy shares her journey from mortgage lending to multi-location shop ownership, crediting the power of mentorship and peer learning for her success. Jennifer breaks down how the group process works, from financial composites to shop visits, and why accountability is the secret weapon of top-performing shops. Together, they explore how trust, training, and teamwork can reshape the reputation of the automotive industry and empower every shop to thrive.

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):

Jennifer Hulbert, Head Facilitator & Coach for The Institute // Shop Owner of Service Plus Automotive

Show Highlights:

[00:01:03] - Jennifer explains how “delegate and elevate” allows her to lead effectively while managing multiple roles.

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Good morning, my friend. It's good to see you. Good to be here with you at this fabulous Wednesday webinar Wednesday. And here we are with the Leading Edge podcast and webinar. This is the webinar portion of what we're doing. I'm so excited to be here with you. I'm so excited for our conversation today as we talk about.

Jimmy Lea: Reaching out, locking arms. Locking arms with our neighbors and our friends so that we can together elevate this industry and make it better. Jennifer is a coach and trainer here with the Institute. She's the one of the head facilitators for the Gear Performance Group and has been with the industry for a very long time.

Jimmy Lea: You have a shop in New York?

Jennifer Hulbert: I do.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. What's your shop in Newark? How, what's the footprint of that look like?

Jennifer Hulbert: Service plus automotive, we have four technicians. One current location we're discussing becoming an MSO, so an exciting time for us.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. And how do you find time to run the shop as well as all the coaching and training and travel and visits that happen with the GPG?

Jimmy Lea: How do you do all that?

Jennifer Hulbert: Well, I follow the GPG advice and I delegate and elevate. So I've got a fantastic staff here that handles the majority of the day-to-day activities and elevated them into positions that they can take on that responsibility. And we're just kicking butt.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome.

Jimmy Lea: Jennifer, there is a shop I'm aware of that's for sale that you might be interested in. We're gonna have to have a conversation. I'll send you over some details on that one.

Jennifer Hulbert: Okay, sounds good.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, very cool. And joining as well. Today is Cindy Riesen. Cindy is from Alaska, the great state of Alaska.

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely gorgeous. I was there in February, which, that's the cold time, Cindy. It's a cold time. It was my birthday. In fact, I was there in February. I got snowed out in Las Vegas. Had to drive to Los Angeles to catch a flight to get up into Anchorage, Alaska. I barely made it in time for that NAPA Auto Care conference next morning.

Jimmy Lea: That's right. You remember that? I was on. I do.

Cindy Reason: Yeah. Everybody was wonder Were gonna make it. We were watching the weather and everything.

Jimmy Lea: Well, to be snowed, I was snowed out in Las Vegas. The irony is I'm stuck Vegas because it's snowing. I'm trying to go to Alaska. Oh my gosh. That was hilarious. Yeah. Cindy Frontline Automotive are, you are in Fairbanks, right?

Cindy Reason: I'm in Fairbanks, which is the center of the state when we're considered the Golden, golden state. Golden city of the state. Yes. So the golden heart of Alaska.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. Well, here I was there in February and it was gorgeous. I was. So I've gotta get there in the summer when things are blooming because if it's gorgeous, when there's snow everywhere and the trees are there, it's gotta be just outstanding in the summer

Cindy Reason: and you need to get into the center of the state.

Cindy Reason: Anchorage is nothing compared to. The Fairbanks area. I just, I'm a little biased, but you know.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You know, you know, there was once upon a time that I was driving a sprinter van all over the world and we had plans. We had plans. I was coming to Alaska.

Cindy Reason: And you didn't make it.

Jimmy Lea: Didn't make it. Plans got thwarted.

Jimmy Lea: But that's, yeah. When things go, you know, we make our plans and then God says,

Cindy Reason: ha's cute. I got a joke for you. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Wait until you see what's next. No, that's very cool. That's very cool. Well, I'm glad you're here. And Cindy,

Jimmy Lea: What is the current look of your shop right now? What does that look like?

Jimmy Lea: Like Jennifer's got the Fourex. Are you at?

Cindy Reason: Yep. So we are a little bit different. We've got three different buildings and our main building is where our office is and in the back of our office is our shop or is our parts room. And then the other two buildings have four bays each. And we have four technicians.

Cindy Reason: So each technician gets two bays. We have two alignment racks. You know, everything is set up so that each one runs independently.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. Oh, that's great. So as a technician is working on one vehicle, they can have one on the rack. So while they're waiting on parts you're not, you're hopefully not pushing in and out all that.

Jimmy Lea: All right.

Cindy Reason: In Alaska, you know, we are at the end of the food chain basically, so it takes longer to get parts. So there's times where we're waiting three, four days to get a part. So it's nice to have that option of keeping a vehicle on the rack after it's torn down. Most of the time you always run into something when you tear it down, you think you have everything and then you tear it down and, oh, nope, I don't have this.

Cindy Reason: So,

Jimmy Lea: oh my gosh. Yeah.

Cindy Reason: It's really beneficial to have the two lifts per technician.

Jimmy Lea: That's really nice. And three to four days really in the grand scheme. It's not that long. I thought you were gonna be in like one week, two week, three week timelines.

Cindy Reason: Well, times where that happens. But we really try to, you know, source as close as possible and.

Cindy Reason: As quickly as possible.

Jimmy Lea: Well, and John I know I have a real good friend, John via automotive in San Luis Obispo, California. He has more parts in his shop than the local Napa Auto Parts store.

Cindy Reason: Oh, wow. If I only had space,

Jimmy Lea: well see. Okay. Yeah. Yep. That he has a massive building. Massive building.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I think he's 20 lifts or so, and he's open seven days a week. Oh, wow. You know, when you're open on the weekend, 'cause somebody broke down, you gotta be able to fix it. So he's got almost like one starter, one alternator of 900 million different things. That'll work. Yeah. So I wondered if your parts department, were you, are you pretty loaded or are you pretty light?

Jimmy Lea: How do you No

Cindy Reason: it's fairly light. We do a lot of chassis work here in Alaska because of our potholes. I went to Boston and Boston's worse. I never thought I'd find a place worse, but Boston was worse. Wow. Wow. But we're really known for our dirt roads, our potholes, you know, and all of that.

Cindy Reason: So we do a lot of chassis. So our chassis parts is what we hold onto here. Otherwise it's, we'll get it from our local stores.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. And is your part stores, do they keep fairly well stocked 'cause of the distance? Yeah, I would imagine they would.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's

Jimmy Lea: cool.

Jimmy Lea: Well, so I wanna go

Jimmy Lea: with

Jimmy Lea: you. I wanna go, Cindy.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, sorry,

Jimmy Lea: go ahead.

Jennifer Hulbert: Cindy's being a little humble. So they now have two locations. So this year they purchased the second location. So she

Jimmy Lea: Last month.

Jennifer Hulbert: Yes. The footprint we purchased. The second,

Jimmy Lea: is it close to.

Cindy Reason: It's four miles down the road and and it's all, it's basically the same size. Eight lifts.

Cindy Reason: I've got seven technicians over there. And it's a, primarily, we do the FedEx and. Amazon Trucks and trucks. The fleets. Yeah. We do more fleet over there. And that was my biggest reason for buying it was because it wasn't a direct competition to what we do over here at Frontline. So now I'm catering to both into different locations.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's phenomenal. So you got Frontline, a whirlwind That is a whirlwind frontline fleet and Frontline Automotive.

Cindy Reason: Yeah, well we kept, we, we kept the name of the other business, what's itseparate? Can you say? Where It's Gabe's Truck and Auto. So we're working on that one. Like I said, we just took it over September 2nd and yeah, it's been very hectic around here.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. And everybody's still friends. We're all still friends. Are everybody still happy?

Cindy Reason: Yeah. Yeah. We're still married, my husband and I.

Jimmy Lea: That's good news. That's good news. That's going in the right direction.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Well, congrats to that. We'll talk about that here in a second. I want to go back in some time here.

Jimmy Lea: 88 miles an hour. Flex Capacitor, DeLorean.

Cindy Reason: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: When did you get started in the industry and what does that look like?

Cindy Reason: We bought Frontline Automotive in 2019, no, 2017. And before that I was a mortgage loan officer and Oh, we could talk

Jimmy Lea: mortgages, Cindy.

Cindy Reason: We can no.

Jimmy Lea: I had a a season of life.

Jimmy Lea: I was a mortgage broker too. Okay. Carry on.

Cindy Reason: Yeah. And the reason I'm getting outta that is because everything changes daily. And then my husband, he was working heavy equipment at a gold mine and was gone for a month. Time. He'd gone for a month, home for two weeks, gone for a month, home for two weeks. So a friend of ours said, Hey, I know a business that's opening.

Cindy Reason: And we checked into it and got it for a seal and started off with just four bays, two technicians, one building, and grew from there.

Jimmy Lea: So you built

Cindy Reason: a second building? We were in like a strip mall type. Built four buildings all next to each other.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. And so we

Cindy Reason: just kept acquiring. So in 2020, when COVID hit the building next to us was a kids' romper room.

Cindy Reason: Okay. And they closed because they couldn't have kids in there. Yeah. And so we ended up moving over to that one. And then in 2022 the other building. The peak tenants left, and so we moved over to that one. So we ended up with three and then they demolished the one next to us. So, and then we ended up buying, so more

Jimmy Lea: parking, lot

Cindy Reason: more.

Cindy Reason: That was it. We were not willing to share our parking lot with any other tenants, so we didn't have the space for other tenant or for other tenants to have parking, so Wow. That was what us brought us around to this.

Jimmy Lea: Well, congrats. It feels like it was just a heartbeat to ago. 2017 was like two minutes ago, but it's, it

Cindy Reason: feels like it

Jimmy Lea: eight years ago.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Cindy Reason: Yeah. It's hard to believe that it's been that long.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. Time flies. That is fabulous. And congrats on the expansion. It feels like, or sounds like rapid expansion.

Cindy Reason: It was, yeah. Ever since 20, since COVID, we've been expanding every two years.

Jimmy Lea: Congrats. Yeah that, that's awesome. I think I'm

Cindy Reason: done for a while.

Jimmy Lea: Oh no, you've got 24 months and then we're gonna kick it back on. Wait a second. It's October. You have 23 months.

Cindy Reason: No pressure Jimmy.

Jimmy Lea: No, none. None whatsoever. But in about 11 months, we'll start looking.

Cindy Reason: Okay. You do that.

Jimmy Lea: I'll do that. Okay. Well, and congrats on the expansion. That is just absolutely phenomenal.

Jimmy Lea: I love the I love the expansion into the fleet industry. I mean, that's, so just, I mean, you're able to work on the same vehicles. You just turn 'em and burn 'em and love it and yeah. Keep on going. So, at what point along your journey here, you're coming from gold mining, heavy equipment, mortgage brokers, lot of paperwork pushing.

Jimmy Lea: You jump into automotive and discover very quickly. We're not in Kansas anymore. This is not familiar language. What did you do?

Cindy Reason: Especially for me, you know? 'cause my husband's got the. And he understands the business and all of that. So he first, he's the one who started it. He was working it, he was doing the office work.

Cindy Reason: He was teching, he was supervising, he was payroll, hr. He was doing all of it.

Jimmy Lea: Oh boy. And then

Cindy Reason: four months into it, he says, I'm gonna have to hire somebody. And I said, well, I'm not paying somebody to do something I can do.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Cindy Reason: So then I took. I quit my job and came over, and then I realized I've never done HR before.

Cindy Reason: I've never done payroll. I don't know what these numbers mean, you know? Yeah, I know how to read a p and l, but what does it really mean for the business? So we had gone to a NAPA convention in Vegas, did not get

Jimmy Lea: that in the one in 2020.

Jimmy Lea: The Expo

Cindy Reason: Napa Expo in 20, I think it 2020. Shortly after.

Jimmy Lea: Supposed to have it in 20, but they canceled that. And it was in 21, 22.

Cindy Reason: No, it was 2017. Okay. The year that we bought it.

Jimmy Lea: Okay.

Cindy Reason: And they just, they connected us. We were invited by our Napa Auto Care people. Okay. That are local here. Some of our local people here.

Cindy Reason: And got us into, we, R-L-R-L-O was presenting. Yep.

Jimmy Lea: We went to

Cindy Reason: a couple of their meetings and decided, you know, yeah, this is something that could help us. And because of the way that RLO was structured, we couldn't be in a group process because I had too many other people here locally close to me that were in the group.

Cindy Reason: Okay. But I did a one-on-one coaching with John Loeffler. He was a lifesaver. He is the reason we were able to do what we're doing every couple years because he taught us everything from our numbers to, to expand you know, to how to bring marketing. Yeah. How to, you know, bring in more customers. It was.

Cindy Reason: So one-on-one with John was extraordinary.

Jimmy Lea: Nice.

Cindy Reason: That was our lifesaver.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I can imagine. And Jennifer, you were worked with John Effler for quite a few years as well, didn't you?

Jennifer Hulbert: I did almost 20.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my, well, that's just a hard thing. We all

Jennifer Hulbert: miss him.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. John is we wish him well. He's doing great in the industry.

Jimmy Lea: He's still with straightaway Auto correct, I believe. Oh, good.

Jennifer Hulbert: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Doing. I don't know what he's doing with them. Jennifer, do you know

Jennifer Hulbert: he's coaching and training with them. Nice. Yep.

Jimmy Lea: Very cool. Very cool. So your advice Cindy, to anybody that's starting a shop would be get a coach as quickly as you can.

Cindy Reason: As quickly as you can. The sooner the better, because you're not gonna be wasting money if you're getting the education.

Jimmy Lea: Yes. Education. Education, so important. So at what point along the road here did you get into the group? Because I think you're in group. You're in a group right now, aren't you?

Cindy Reason: Yep. I'm in Group six with Jennifer.

Jimmy Lea: Group six. Okay. Yeah,

Cindy Reason: group six, rock there.

Jimmy Lea: Definitely. And are

Jimmy Lea: we recruiting? We're trying to get more into group six. We have a couple of spaces available, maybe we do.

Jimmy Lea: So at what point were you able to transition into the group? Because there are a few others that are there in Fairbanks that are also with the institute that were also with RLO.

Jimmy Lea: What, how did that look like

Cindy Reason: when they had the summit in 2023? I think it was the 2023 summit. We went to that in Florida. Yep. And I met Jennifer there. That was my first time of meeting her. She said, oh, we've gotta get you into a group. We've gotta get you into a group. And so she did her little magic because she's the queen of magic.

Cindy Reason: She can go back into the back and do her thing. And, you know, we're here. So we got the call and saying, you know, inviting us into to one of Jennifer's groups and we jumped on it, you know, and I have no regrets whatsoever. Love our group process. It's totally different than the one-on-one.

Cindy Reason: Okay, so one-on-one. You know you're meeting with John once or twice a month depending on what he your needs are. But with the group, you're doing group visits, which I volunteered right away. I said, I want you all to come and tell me what's wrong with my business. Love it. Come share. You know, and so you get the group visits, you get the feedback from the group of what they see as your business, where your books are, where your people are, what your fa, your facility looks like.

Cindy Reason: What are your hazards? What are your goods, your bads, your ugly the, that part of the process is my favorite is getting to go and do the visiting of. The shops and seeing how other shops run their business, how they look, how they're set up, and if you come back with ideas of what you can make, little changes to yours as well to improve your business.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. So

Cindy Reason: that, that is one of the biggest features that I love about the group. Then you also have a composite partner or two? I have two. We meet every week. We go over numbers, we go over homework, we hold each other accountable. You know, we say we're gonna do this, and if it's not done, you get a tongue lashing.

Jennifer Hulbert: It's one of my favorite words in the group process is accountability. Accountability.

Cindy Reason: And that's something, you know, with a, just a daily coat or just a straight coat, you don't learn that accountability.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. And

Cindy Reason: that's something I never really understood until Jennifer and the group process.

Cindy Reason: And now I'm learning how to hold my staff accountable, and that is making a huge difference in, but then teaching me how to hold me accountable. I'm now teaching them how to hold them accountable. So it's a domino effect.

Jennifer Hulbert: Well, and you have more people involved on a regular basis. So the group process typically has, you know, 16 to 20 members in it.

Jennifer Hulbert: So you're not only listening to one coach or one shop owner, you're getting the feedback of. Multiplied that by 16 times and the ideas and that the history and what they've learned going through different processes. So it's almost like having your own board of directors that you can access for any time, any problem, any question, and getting some good sound advice from multiple people.

Jennifer Hulbert: That's why the group process works so well.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah I've heard it. Where a group member will bring into the group and say, oh my gosh, there, there's this huge red tape. It's this giant mountain. It's it, I don't even know how I'm gonna get over it. This is such a big thing. Help me. I'm paralyzed. I don't know what to do.

Jimmy Lea: And the group comes together and says, okay, well, Joe had this problem two years ago, and Cindy had this problem last year, but Jennifer solved it just a couple months ago. So here's his experience. Here's this experience, here's this experience, and it brings that mountain down to a mole hill very quickly where the group can say, all right, Jimmy, we got this.

Jimmy Lea: Come on you. You've already got that solved. That was yesterday. Let's go more to do.

Cindy Reason: Let's go. Move on. Yeah, exactly.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good. So even when you go visit other shops, you come away with value that says, I need to look at this in my shop, this in my shop, this in my shop, to make sure that I'm optimized as well.

Jimmy Lea: Right. How many times did you go out and visit other shops before they actually came to Alaska to visit you? Cindy?

Cindy Reason: I think there was only two shops before. One shot before me. One or two?

Jimmy Lea: One or two visits

Cindy Reason: actually, yeah. One or two visits before me. Actually, I think it was just one. Joined last, it was Eptember.

Cindy Reason: They came here and I joined in May. I think of. 23.

Jennifer Hulbert: 23. Yeah. So there would've been three.

Cindy Reason: So, so there'd been Yeah. A couple of them. Yep. But yeah it was, you know, it was nice to do that a little bit before mine so that I kind of had an idea of what I was needing to get prepared for. Also, you know, you wanna prepare, but you also want 'em to see this is the life here.

Cindy Reason: Yeah. So you don't wanna hide things or, you know, you can't hide things because they really do dive deep. Yeah. And they talk, you know, they talk to your employees and your employees usually feel pretty good about opening up to other people versus you know, yourself. So it's a really nice process.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good.

Jimmy Lea: I love. The coaching process leading into the group process because it allows you the opportunity to get your data in order to have it, yeah, pump in the right information, the right order, the right way, so that when you do get into the group process and you're opening up your books to everybody. It's not as embarrassing.

Cindy Reason: Everybody under Well, and everybody understands them.

Jimmy Lea: Everybody understands because I think there's a few shops that I can think of that it had, they gone directly into the group environment. Their p and l was so bad that Oh, yeah. Holding 'em accountable to a level that they didn't understand yet.

Jimmy Lea: It would've been embarrassing and they probably would've left the group and never come back.

Cindy Reason: Yeah I could see where that would happen and thankfully I had John working with me ahead of time, so

Jimmy Lea: yeah. So you were ready? I was already

Cindy Reason: at standards.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You were there, you were ready, prepared to go into that group environment.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And it's just awesome that they were able to come and visit your shop too when they left. How many. Items items, how much stuff did they say, Hey, look at this. What, think about this. What did your action look like when they left?

Cindy Reason: We're still a year out and I'm still working on it,

Cindy Reason: but you know, a lot of it just minor little tweaks. Sure. And I had very old buildings and so there was a lot of things that I already knew about, you know, that I have to work on. You just gotta take a little piece at a time and dwindle it down. Yes, but never looking at that action. That's the key. You gotta continually look at it and take something off of it, you know, and work your way through it.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Here's a year later and you're still working on, that's phenomenal. Jennifer, talk about the G. Talk about the GPG program. Jennifer, what? What is this? Why is it so powerful? This group environment?

Jennifer Hulbert: Well, the structure of the program is exactly what Cindy had, said is we have three in-person meetings a year, so we actually go to one of the member shops.

Jennifer Hulbert: Part of that meeting, or part one of those days is evaluating the shop. So we're breaking into four different teams. Those four teams are facility, so looking at anything facility, brick and mortar. Office admin. So we're looking at office systems, SOPs, personnel files, parts handling, marketing anything that would be office related.

Jennifer Hulbert: We have an RO audit team who does a deep dive. They actually audit 50 repair orders. Looking for things like proper gross profit, percentages on parts and labor, proper documentation of the three Cs. The DVI process and following the 300% rule. And then we have a personnel team. So each member of the HO Shop team is interviewed and we're looking for things like regular communication.

Jennifer Hulbert: Do they have quarterly conversations and quarterly reviews? Do they have team meetings? Is there a path set up for success for each individual employee? Our goal shared th things of those nature just to, to help increase the overall communication with the entire shop. So. Typically when a member comes in, they're in the process for two to three years before they host a shop review.

Jennifer Hulbert: And that's done strategically to make sure that the host shop knows what they're getting into knows exactly what they're their, their expectations are, but also that we are looking and digging deep into that shop's review so we're not talking about the same items at every shop review, and that's the expectation.

Jennifer Hulbert: Is you're going through these, you know, two years, so maybe six or seven shop reviews where you're a participant and now they're coming to your shop. So you're knowing what they're looking for, and the expectation is that every time you come back from a group meeting, you're making those improvements in your shop.

Jennifer Hulbert: So we're not discussing those same things every time we go to a host shop. So that's the shop review process and the other. A day and a half of the meeting is training. So currently, Aaron Woods and I are the two group facilitators and we're providing training in every area marketing, DVI, scheduling and dispatching, employee relations, marketing financial forecasting.

Jennifer Hulbert: So we look at what our members are needing within the group process and then creating training around that need to make sure that we're elevating our members.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that.

Jennifer Hulbert: In addition to the shop review, we have a financial composite. So each member is entering their financial data into a portal, and that portal takes that information and breaks it down into many different ways.

Jennifer Hulbert: So we're measuring things like gross profit percentages, effective labor rate expense percentage to get to what our desired net profit is. And my groups know, and I say this every single time we do a composite review, the most important number to me is net profit. Yes, it matters how we get there, but if you're a 20, 25% net profit shop, then we have very small tweaks to do.

Jennifer Hulbert: If you come in and you're a 2% net profit shop, well, we've got a lot of work to do to get sales in line expenses in line and gross profit percentages in line. So we're looking at the financial data to preserve the overall financial health of the business, and then the members and the group facilitator are holding those members accountable to those standards.

Jennifer Hulbert: And like Cindy explained, you know, you have a composite partner that you're meeting with. It's required monthly. Most of our shops are meeting weekly and they're holding each other accountable. So it's not coming from the talking head at the front of the room. You know, the teacher in a classroom setting, it's coming from their peers.

Jennifer Hulbert: And their peers are doing the exact same type of work that each member is doing. So sometimes that peer-to-peer accountability can carry more weight than a facilitator or a coach because there's no excuses to give to a peer because they are doing the exact same business and the exact same work that, that the member is on a day-to-day basis.

Jennifer Hulbert: So anyone who's talked to me about the group process knows how passionate I am about it because I was a group member. I started in, I'm gonna date myself here, 2004, and with John Loeffler and RO training transitioned into the institute and had the opportunity to become a group facilitator. And I love the process because we see people coming into the process with limited knowledge on certain areas, and then watching their business grow and expand, just like Cindy's has this past year that wouldn't.

Jennifer Hulbert: Maybe it would've been possible, it probably wouldn't have been possible without the knowledge of training and coaching just quickly. Right. So the, just watching members grow and succeed and help each other is very rewarding. And one of the. The pieces that I just absolutely love the most.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. And hey, you know, and let's open this up to the audience. Anybody listening, if you've got questions for Jennifer or you got questions for Cindy, go ahead and type them in the comments and we'll address each one of your questions. Some of the questions I have you talked about some of these shops.

Jimmy Lea: Wait. Back up man. My mind's going 90 miles an hour. So I think the only correct answer is this, is, it depends, but I'm gonna pose this to both of you, Cindy and Jennifer. If a shop comes to and joins the gear performance group and they're at a two to 3% net profit area, or maybe they're at 7% net profit, how quickly do they transition from two to three to 23 or 22 or 20?

Jimmy Lea: How quickly does do they make that transition?

Jennifer Hulbert: So I'm gonna say it depends on how quickly the member is able to make the improvements they need to make. Yeah. So if you're listening to the advice, you are, you're taking the feedback and you are making the needed changes, you're gonna move pretty quickly.

Jennifer Hulbert: Again. Net profit comes from sales, gross profit and expense control. Yes. So if you are at a low level of sales and we don't have a, you know, a lot of sales being generated, we can have a very high gross profit percentage, but we're not out running our expenses 'cause we're at below a break even. So that would be an area that we would focus on marketing and the DVI process and the sales process.

Jennifer Hulbert: To make sure that we can increase our sales level. Shops coming in who have high expenses and low gross profit percentages, that's typically a pretty easy way or an easy thing to fix is, you know, we implement a parts matrix, we implement a labor matrix or a labor rate increase, and just have that increase of profitability pretty instantaneously.

Jennifer Hulbert: So it does depend on the situation, but there is an answer that the group and the facilitator can absolutely help with if the member's gonna take the feedback and they're going to enact on the information.

Jimmy Lea: And Jennifer, I think that's exactly the right answer. It does depend. It depends on the person.

Jimmy Lea: Will they implement or not.

Jimmy Lea: Are they

Jimmy Lea: just gonna gather the information, get the inspiration, and never do anything with it? Or will they do something with it? Alright. Well, and that

Jennifer Hulbert: typically doesn't last long in the group process because the members are saying, we've been there, we've done this, and what you think is going to happen, like labor rate increases.

Jimmy Lea: Right?

Jennifer Hulbert: You know? You know, there's no way I can raise my labor rate by $10. Well, I did it. I did it. I did it. Hands go up in the room and nothing happened from a customer standpoint. So yes, you can go back to your shop and do it, and now you're getting that peer-to-peer accountability and not just the a coach or a facilitator.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Cindy, do you have a story about raising your labor?

Cindy Reason: Not so much on me. But we do have a member that we have. Quite a long time, ever since I started.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. And

Cindy Reason: they finally did it. And he did it in a big jump too. It wasn't just the five or 10, I think he went up 20 bucks and he came back and said, you know, finally and said nobody said anything.

Cindy Reason: We said, see, we told to, so just do it. Yeah. So, and you know, that was the whole entire group. Coaching and giving him the power, you know, trying to give him the power to do that, it's not gonna hurt you.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Cindy Reason: So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. So I wanna lay a little foundation here because a lot of people will hear this and they'll say, oh, well, all I have to do is just raise my labor rate.

Jimmy Lea: Is that true, Jennifer?

Jennifer Hulbert: No. To become profitable? No. Is that all they have to do? 'cause what I also said was making sure that you're, you have good gross profit percentages and expense control. You. You can have great sales and great gp, but then spend it all out the back door and you're still left with very limited net.

Jennifer Hulbert: So part of our composite reporting is looking at, oh, I don't know how many. 40 points of expense categories. And making sure that not only is your total expense within. Range, but also each individual expense. 'cause we have benchmarks for that.

Jimmy Lea: Yep.

Jennifer Hulbert: So if we get a member, again, the power of the peer group is saying, well, there's no way that, that I can, you know, decrease my dues and subscriptions from this to this.

Jennifer Hulbert: Well now we have a group average of this is the amount of dollars that the majority of the group is paying, or this is the percentage of their sales that they're paying. So yes, you can, you just need to be diligent and follow. Within a certain guideline.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So you really can't pull the wool over anybody's eyes.

Jimmy Lea: Everybody is marching the same direction and they're not gonna let you do it. Correct. Oh, I love it. And I also love that with the institute we'll analyze your business to say what kind of business do you want? Depending on the kind of business that you want, da, and down the road, and how many vacations do you want?

Jimmy Lea: And what kind of pay do you want? And how do you wanna take care of your employees? And what kind of benefits do you want for your employees? Okay, well here's what you're charging today. And you know, if you just tweak it a little bit, you can do it. Or maybe you have to tweak it a lot and then you can do it.

Jimmy Lea: And maybe it's a huge jump that you have to take in phases. Because it takes a little bit of time to go from wherever you are today to where you need to be to operate the business that you want to have. So it's not always, yeah, it's not always about just, oh, raise your labor rate and everything's fine.

Jimmy Lea: No. There's so much more that goes into it, but nobody ever wants to talk about that. All these coaching companies are out there and say, so, raise your labor rate. Raise your rate. Rate, charge for shop supplies and LA raise your labor rate. Okay, but there's more to it than that.

Jennifer Hulbert: Well, again, some of the things that I've already mentioned are the DVI process.

Jennifer Hulbert: Are we identifying the work to be completed? Are we estimating it? Are we presenting it? And are we having success with turning that into a repair? Yes. Marketing are we attracting the right client into our shop? So it's more than just pricing, it's the overall shop management and running of the shop.

Jennifer Hulbert: You know, do you have a service advisor on the front counter who is. Is pleasant from a customer service standpoint and saying yes to customers or are they driving people away? So these are all things that we look at. We train on, we create an owner's job description for the owner to have their own self accountability with.

Jennifer Hulbert: I am going to listen to phone calls. I am gonna do DVI audits. I am going to do RO audits. I am gonna look at my profitability. So, and. And again, then you've got the peer-to-peer accountability on top of that. I'm becoming a broken record right now, but you can see how it all works all together.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, it does.

Jimmy Lea: And it's talking about the DVI Jennifer, you have a DVI that you work in your shops. What are you using?

Jennifer Hulbert: I have tech metric from I using the tech metric,

Jimmy Lea: DVI as well.

Jennifer Hulbert: I am using a tech metric,

Cindy Reason: DVI.

Jimmy Lea: All right. Cindy, what are you doing?

Cindy Reason: Oh my, yeah. Tech metric as well.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. I, but here's my advice because I pounded this drum for four years with when I was with auto vitals and doing digital vehicle inspections.

Jimmy Lea: But, and here's my conclusion from it all, every shop needs to do with DBI, whatever program that you work that works in your shop, that follows your process, your procedure that you are able to implement and that the technicians will use and use and document. Is what you should implement in your shop, whether it is tech metric or auto vitals, or any of the other Ds.

Jimmy Lea: If it's a program that your shop will utilize and use and implement and follow. That's the program that's best for you.

Jennifer Hulbert: And we get the question a lot of, you know, why are we doing the DVI? It's just to sell more services.

Jimmy Lea: It's

Jennifer Hulbert: absolutely not to sell more services. It is to create trust and transparency with our customers.

Jimmy Lea: Yes. 'cause

Jennifer Hulbert: as the auto industry, we don't have the best reputation, but the trust level and the general consumer is pretty low when it comes to auto repair. So. We are absolutely innovating the industry in within the group process to make sure that we are putting out the reason why and showing the customer, this is your vehicle.

Jennifer Hulbert: We're not making this up. Here's a picture of your actual vehicle with the actual part and explanation as to why it fails. So yes, everyone, if that's your takeaway today. Get a DVI process DV in place.

Jimmy Lea: I totally agree. I've got a quick story and then I want to hear one from each of you as well. I was auditing a shop and we were looking at their dvs, and this is way back in the day, and the technician had said to, in the DVI need to replace the battery.

Jimmy Lea: No other reasons. It may have been in the description that it said three 30 cranking amps, and it was supposed to be a 600 cranking amp cold crank amp battery. And there was no picture. They had already sent it to the customer. The customer denied it. And I said to the owner, I says, Hey, you know, talk to the techs.

Jimmy Lea: If you can get a picture of the little report, the readout that shows they're really close. They're one cold snap away from being stuck in that parking lot. And the technician took a picture of that. They sent it to the client. Client approved it right then and there. Have you ever had a situation where by documenting and showing the customer, this is your vehicle, this is your part, this is what's leaking, worn, torn F freight or broken.

Jimmy Lea: This is what you are seeing. Whether you have me fix it or not doesn't matter to me, but you need to be taking care of your vehicle. Have you had a situation where you were surprised how quickly it turned around that the client did approve all the work that needed to be done to be safe on the roads?

Jimmy Lea: Cindy, you first and then Jennifer, you,

Cindy Reason: we had a customer who had just come, had his vehicle at a brand X shop. Three, four months prior to bringing it to us. And he had all new ball joints, all new sway arms, all of that kind of stuff put in at the Brand X. But he was having issues with tire wear and what have you.

Cindy Reason: So he brought it into us and we did the DVI on it and his ball joints from that, that, and, you know, you can't tell me that they're bad. I just had 'em fixed. Well, no here, you know, and so my guys took a video. Of that movement and said, this is not how it's supposed to be. And that's, you know. Then he ended up going back to the other shop, but that's just fine.

Cindy Reason: It's under warranty. Yes. But he understood that we were not trying to sell him a line. We showed him that they are bad. You need to take it back to brand X and have the warranty in.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it.

Cindy Reason: But then we get all his business after that because we showed him the DVI. Oh, I love it. We built trust that DVI built the trust.

Jimmy Lea: Yes. So he

Cindy Reason: did get it taken care of there because it was under warranty and I don't blame him, but we've had him ever since.

Jimmy Lea: And that's the Paul Harvey. I wanted to know the rest of the story. The rest of the story. The rest of the story is that he came back to you and has been a faithful customer ever since.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. I love that.

Jimmy Lea: Jennifer, you have A-A-D-V-I story.

Jennifer Hulbert: I plenty of stories similar to Cindy. The one that I tell most often is when we went from the paper forms, so the ones that the technicians would actually click off to the DVI, we started to take pictures of fluids. And I had been talk, I was a service advisor at the time, and this was long time ago.

Jennifer Hulbert: And I'd been talking to this customer that you're gonna keep the vehicle, your goal is to have the vehicle reach 250,000 miles. So these fluid services are needed. Your fluids are dirty. I never had a picture to show him.

Jimmy Lea: Yes, first

Jennifer Hulbert: digital vehicle inspection we did. We provided a picture and he calls me up and he is like, I wanna do all my fluids.

Jennifer Hulbert: Like, you know that these are the same services that we've been talking about for a year. Correct? The same exact services. Yeah. In 10 years we've been talking

Jimmy Lea: about this,

Jennifer Hulbert: but because he had a picture and he could see clean versus compromised or dirty or the test strip, then he wanted to do all the services because his vehicle needed it and because we had a picture.

Jennifer Hulbert: It was more convincing. So yes, I, and plenty of more stories like Cindy had said, where you have a video or a picture of something, you're like, oh, you know that leak is really bad. I can see it now. And there is movement in that component, so, absolutely.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. I had I was taking my truck into the shop.

Jimmy Lea: They were always, they always did the DVI on it, and they always, you know, everything was approved on it. And so I really took really good care of my truck. And then finally one of this times Cody comes in. He's just so excited to show me that I need new shocks. Struts all the way around on the truck 'cause they're starting to seep.

Jimmy Lea: He was like, oh look. See I have a picture. I have a picture.

Jimmy Lea: I was

Jimmy Lea: like, oh crap. Alright. Guess it's approved, but I can't pay for it today. Gotta do that on the next trip.

Jimmy Lea: I was like, $1,200. I just didn't have that on me. Oh yeah. So we, I had to come back and we did it the next. Oil change and I was driving so much that it was only another two months and I was back in for my 5,000 mile service.

Jimmy Lea: So not a big deal. But the DDIs man, that What a great tool. Build

Cindy Reason: the trust. Yeah. Build the trust between you and your customers.

Jimmy Lea: It really does. It really does. Oh, and at the shops, a lot of shops that I talk to, Jennifer, when we talk about changing all the fluid fluids. We called that a royal flush.

Jennifer Hulbert: Yes.

Jimmy Lea: All the fluids.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's phenomenal. And to have a truck go 250,000. I was 2 25 and I sold it. I shouldn't have, I really wish I would've kept it, but nevermind. Water under the bridge. We'll get another truck later.

Cindy Reason: It's gone.

Jimmy Lea: Yep.

Jimmy Lea: Get it back. Probably not.

Cindy Reason: You don't need it back. You don't need it back, Jimmy.

Jimmy Lea: No, I don't. And I'm now living in an area where it's gonna snow and I'm gonna need four wheel drive and it was a two wheel drive truck.

Cindy Reason: So yeah, no tires, two wheel drive. Yeah I drove a two wheel drive for years. So it allows, it can be done.

Cindy Reason: Yes, it can be done.

Jimmy Lea: And I've done it. Ride

Cindy Reason: tires,

Jimmy Lea: I've done it. And I had I had I had Nat King tires on it that you could put the studs into it.

Jimmy Lea: Yep.

Jimmy Lea: But I never did. I, it was just, it just looked like meaty mud tires on a two wheel drive truck. Oh, so much fun. So much fun. Well, I love the group process.

Jimmy Lea: I love that you have been in there, Cindy, and it has just been such a boon to your business. And Jennifer, thank you for facilitating these these group processes and meeting with these shops and the shop owners. The exponential growth is so wonderful. It's just phenomenal. I love seeing that growth.

Jimmy Lea: And these shops they really do bond together. I've seen those that are in these groups. Bond tighter than family. They would rather go on vacations with their composite partners or their group members than they would to go with their brothers or sisters or family. I've seen it. I've witnessed,

Jennifer Hulbert: well, I'm part of that when I belong to group two, I still vacation with some of the group two members, or we'll go to meetings early and just to do some social fun things.

Jennifer Hulbert: So, Cindy and I were very fortunate to get to spend some time together in California last January. Yep. Had a lot of fun on the beach and so absolutely those bonds are built and they last They are,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. And only Alaska and New York could go to California in January on the beach. I think it was

Cindy Reason: hot Capri and shorts.

Jimmy Lea: I would've froze. I'm a desert. I'm a desert guy, so I like the heat and yeah, that would've just killed me, but you guys, oh gosh, that's fun. That's very

Cindy Reason: cool. We had our feet in the water, didn't we? We did pictures to prove it.

Jimmy Lea: That is awesome. That is so cool. So cool. Very cool. Well, Jennifer and Cindy, I wanna land this plane and talk about if you were able to change anything in the industry.

Jimmy Lea: Magic wand, you can't wish for more wishes. What would you wish for? That would be a change in the industry. Jennifer, you first, and then Cindy to you,

Jennifer Hulbert: that there is power in collaboration with other shop owners. We have even people who are new to our coaching program or the group process thinking, well, I'm coming in and I don't know anything and I'm gonna be such a sponge.

Jennifer Hulbert: But yet. They turn out to be the expert in an area. So everyone has experiences that other people are going to benefit from. So don't be intimidated by the group process. Don't be intimidated by coaching. You're gonna network, you're gonna create that bond and that. Accountability between you and some other owners.

Jennifer Hulbert: So that, that would be my magic wand is to sprinkle that fairy dust all over everyone and say, come into the process, because you really do improve your business exponentially very quickly.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So it's, it is eliminating the fear.

Jennifer Hulbert: Yes.

Jimmy Lea: Don't be afraid. Come joy, come check it out. Come enjoy. I think once somebody attends.

Jimmy Lea: A group event. You can't get 'em away.

Cindy Reason: There's no turning back. No, there's no turning back.

Cindy Reason: Go ahead,

Jennifer Hulbert: Jen. I actually had that experience last week. We had a coaching client who was just coming to check out the group meeting at Group five. And his words at the very end is, I'm in, I am not missing this opportunity ever again. Like, I want in, I want part of this process. Nothing's gonna hold me back now.

Jennifer Hulbert: And my fear is gone.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. That is phenomenal.

Jennifer Hulbert: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: That is very cool. Jennifer. Thank you. Okay.

Cindy Reason: To follow up with that, you know, on the 2023 with the expo that we went to the summit there were group members from other groups, and this is before I was in a group that actually, you know, came to over and pulled my husband and I into.

Cindy Reason: Their circle. You know, everybody is willing to help everybody whether you're in their group or not. And I've made some really close friends that are in other groups just from the summit and some of the other functions that we do, as

Jimmy Lea: I love it, a

Cindy Reason: whole collaboration. And these people are phenomenal that are in these group processes.

Cindy Reason: My biggest takeaway on it would be, I wish if I had my wish that the automotive industry did not have such a bad rap, that we didn't have to struggle and fight to prove ourselves, but. I also feel that makes us a stronger community and a stronger business because we are fighting our way through that stigmatism, you know, and proving to our community that we are here for you and we're here to take care of you in an honest, open fashion.

Cindy Reason: So I

Jimmy Lea: love that.

Cindy Reason: That's my biggest thing.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Is to spread that influence and elevate the industry as a whole. Another higher level. Oh, I love that. Thank you. Thank you. That's very powerful. Very powerful. Thank you very much, Cindy. Thank you very much, Jennifer. Really appreciate your insight and your input today as we talk about those things that are challenging us as an industry, challenging the automotive aftermarket, and those of you who are listening, whether you are here live or you're listening to the recording, if you've heard something that is fascinating and interesting and something that you would really like to grab a hold of and evaluate more.

Jimmy Lea: Come visit us at, we are the institute.com. That's the institute that's as a group. We have advisor, program managers, program coaching programs, gear programs group programs. And then also legacy, if you're looking for legacy like Cindy and Jennifer are at expanding the Kingdom and becoming a multiple shop operator.

Jimmy Lea: We've got programs to be able to help you out. People that have been down that path before, they can come back and guide you so that you don't make the same mistakes they do. Or if you do come across those speed bumps, they're not as traumatic as you think they are. So if you're seeing hearing something here that you like, you'd like to know more, visit us at.

Jimmy Lea: We are the institute.com. My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute and this is the Leading Edge podcast webinar and we'll see you guys again soon. Thank you very much. Get out your cell phones because right after this 30 seconds we're gonna show a QR code scan that QR code that'll set us up with a meeting.

Jimmy Lea: We can sit down and evaluate your business to see what the institute can do to help you elevate your business as well. We'll talk to you again soon. Jennifer, Cindy,

Jimmy Lea: thank you very much.