Jimmy Lea sits down with Florida shop owner Bobby Lambert of Lake Sumter Transmissions and Auto Repair to trace his journey from VO-tech student turning wrenches to successful multi-shop owner. Bobby shares how a high school instructor opened the door to transmission work, a move to Florida “chasing a girl” led to a lifelong career, and decades in one shop eventually turned into an ownership opportunity. After buying the business in 2018, he quickly realized how much he did not know about the numbers and credits coaching and 20 groups with reshaping his skills as an owner. Bobby explains how adding general auto repair around the 2008 downturn set the stage for growth and later expansion to a second location with a rough reputation that he is steadily turning around. He breaks down his approach to pay plans for techs and advisors, why flexibility attracts top talent, and how he consistently hits 20 percent plus net profit by controlling expenses instead of chasing every dollar of revenue. The conversation closes with his succession and retirement plans, traveling the country in a motorhome, and his belief that neighboring shops should lock arms instead of competing out of fear.

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):

Bobby Lambert, Owner of Lake Sumter Transmissions & Auto Repair

Show Highlights:

[00:01:46] - Bobby shares how a high school VO-tech program and his teacher’s transmission shop launched his career in the aftermarket.

[00:02:58] - Moving to Florida “chasing a girl” leads Bobby to Lake Sumter Transmissions in 1982, where he works nearly every role in the business.

[00:07:57] - Bobby buys the shop in January 2018 and quickly realizes ownership requires a totally different skillset than managing daily operations.

[00:09:47] - After hearing Dan speak at a NAPA conference, Bobby signs up for coaching and classes that reshape how he thinks about his numbers and his market.

[00:11:59] - Inspired by multi-shop owners in his Gear Performance Group, Bobby takes a chance on a second, struggling shop and installs a coachable manager.

[00:15:02] - With retirement three to five years away, Bobby outlines a plan for each manager to buy their location, supported by succession guidance from Michael Smith.

[00:17:47] - Bobby explains how disciplined expense control helps him consistently achieve 20 percent or better net profit at his shops.

[00:20:52] - He breaks down flexible pay plans for technicians, using hourly, guarantees, and flat rate to match each tech’s stage and strengths.

[00:26:47] - Service advisors earn salary plus bonuses tied to shop and individual gross profit, encouraging true teamwork at the counter.

[00:37:13] - Bobby urges owners to get coaching early and see neighboring shops as partners to lock arms with, not competitors to fear.

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Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Hello, my friend. Good to be with you again, this bright and beautiful sunshiny day. My name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. My guest today is the one, the only, Bobby Lambert. Bobby, how the heck are you, brother?

Bobby Lambert: Doing great. It's a little chilly down here in Florida this morning, but it's a beautiful day. Like you said, it's sun shining. Birds are chirping. I guess I'm,

Jimmy Lea: It's not often that Florida is colder than Utah, but today it's colder than Utah.

Bobby Lambert: We'll get colder than utah.

Jimmy Lea: Well, of all the things, and in fact you're colder by 10 degrees.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Colder than what Utah is this morning. So are is Florida. Wondering, have the, has hell frozen over what's going on here?

Bobby Lambert: No. We we get these little cold bursts, but they're only every

Jimmy Lea: once in a while,

Bobby Lambert: one or two days, and then it is gone. So,

Jimmy Lea: so do you keep a jacket for those one or two days or do you

Bobby Lambert: just.

Jimmy Lea: Tough it out.

Bobby Lambert: No, we keep jackets. I was scurrying this morning getting propane for the shop heaters so the guys would, could function a little bit.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my word. That's hilarious. Because you, you're down in the 34 degrees this morning

Bobby Lambert: and we were

Jimmy Lea: Oh, my word. Yeah. And Utah, we were 44 degrees. And this podcast is being recorded on Veteran's Day, November 11th.

Bobby Lambert: Thank you to all the veterans.

Jimmy Lea: Thank you to all the veterans. Thank you for your service. Thank you for keeping us free and where Freedom Rings. Love it. Bobby, I want to get right into this in talking about your journey and your experience, how did you get into the automotive aftermarket?

Bobby Lambert: Pretty much like everyone else, I had this burning desire when I was a kid to wanna know how things worked and work on things and, you know.

Bobby Lambert: I went through the VO-tech program in our high school, and the instructor there had a transmission shop, and I worked for him in the afternoons, and then I moved to Florida and went to work here at Lake Sumter Transmissions in 1982. Pretty much had every job in this place up until 2017 when the previous owners decided they wanted to retire.

Bobby Lambert: And offered me the business and showed me how to make it pay for itself and with their help and help the institute here. I sit with the, you know, this shop on the verge of making its biggest year ever biggest profits, margins ever opened. My second shop this year it's just phenomenally rolling along and I couldn't be happier.

Jimmy Lea: Bobby, that is phenomenal. Congratulations. I'm so excited. I'm, there's so much to unpack in what you have just said. I wanna go back to the start here. You're at the vo-tech program at high school. Where did you go to high school?

Bobby Lambert: Camden High School in Camden, South Carolina.

Jimmy Lea: South Carolina.

Jimmy Lea: Beautiful. Thank you to the vo-tech program. Thank you for those teachers who would take you under their wing, bring you into the transmission shop, which is the

Bobby Lambert: absolutely

Jimmy Lea: puzzle of a thousand pieces with no pictures.

Jimmy Lea: When did you start working on transmissions? When did you start breaking them down and putting 'em back together?

Jimmy Lea: What did that look like for you?

Bobby Lambert: Pretty much when I was a senior in high school, he, you know, we'd. We were working on 'em in the vo-tech class. And then, like I said, I was working with him in the afternoon, so I'd pull the transmissions out and have 'em torn apart. He'd come in order the parts and you we'd work on putting 'em back together.

Bobby Lambert: And then I moved to Florida and started all over.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my word. That's amazing. So, what took you to Florida from South Carolina?

Bobby Lambert: We're chasing a girl.

Jimmy Lea: Ah, there it is. Did you catch the girl?

Bobby Lambert: For about a year, and then she moved on, so I

Jimmy Lea: stayed. Ah, there you go. So you were already at Link Sumner when when she moved on?

Jimmy Lea: Yes. And your career just continued on there. So as you are working at Link Sumner did they have a program laid out for you? Did you have training laid out for you? Did what? What did that future look like for you?

Bobby Lambert: It, it was back in 82, 83. So really wasn't a whole lot of programs out there for this kind of stuff.

Bobby Lambert: It was pretty much on the job training. I was an r and r Tech for about a year, and then they started bringing me along, building transmissions. Started with the Turbo three 50 and it was pretty easy transmission. Okay. We would stay at. In the evenings about two hours a night and work on individual pieces of that transmission, how they worked, putting 'em together, you know, and it was just my time and his time didn't get paid for it, but I learned a huge skill.

Jimmy Lea: Wow.

Bobby Lambert: So, so

Jimmy Lea: is this something that the owner did know?

Bobby Lambert: The owner. The owners did, yes. For you? Yep. The owners did.

Jimmy Lea: So this is a two hour course every night that you're learning and learning more about transmissions. Yes. How they work, why they work, what each of the elements are inside of them.

Jimmy Lea: So this is your free education that only costs you time.

Bobby Lambert: Yes.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, congratulations. That's awesome.

Bobby Lambert: It was

Jimmy Lea: awesome.

Jimmy Lea: Your technical skill was growing by the school of hard knocks. You were, yes. You were learning and growing all along the way. And learning all about these transmissions. So at what point did you transition from transmissions to full auto care?

Bobby Lambert: Probably around 2008 when the economy tank and cash for clunkers were here and they were crushing all the cars that we were gonna have to. Put transmissions in and we were slow and customer would come in, Hey, while you got it, can you put spark plugs in? Sure, we can do that. I mean, so, you know, and it just, it started snowballing from there and it's probably 45 or 50% of my business now.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. Wow. So, and what does the layout look like of the first Lake Sumpter? What's that layout look like with your transmission shop?

Bobby Lambert: This particular location has 10 bays. Nine of 'em are inside, one's an outside bay for motor homes and box trucks and that kind of stuff. Six technicians, three service advisors, customer service agent, and my manager, my wife, my side myself and my wife.

Bobby Lambert: So pretty big staff here?

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That is 10 bays. And how many technicians did you say?

Bobby Lambert: Six technicians. I left my transmission builder out, so he's, that's all he does is build transmission. So he is not really out there slinging wrenches on the cars or anything. He's out there, you know, making sure the transmissions are fixed.

Jimmy Lea: Right. Right, right, right. So, of your six you have six technicians doing auto care. Do they also do transmission as well, or

Bobby Lambert: They'll r and r the transmissions? Yes.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. Wow. Okay. And at what point after you, well, what leading up to you buying the shop, what year did you buy Lake Sumner?

Bobby Lambert: I bought it in January of 2018.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my word, congratulations. Exciting, scary as heck.

Bobby Lambert: Yes. Yes,

Jimmy Lea: yes. To all the above. And

Bobby Lambert: then

Jimmy Lea: some more. So what did that process look like for you with the previous owners and you buying it out?

Bobby Lambert: You know, they had brought me along every step of the way from the r and r tech building transmissions, and I was their diagnostic tech.

Bobby Lambert: Then I was a service advisor. And manager and the only thing I didn't do was sign the checks. But then, you know, they just taught me so much.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: But there was a lot that they didn't teach me, which I found out after I signed on the bottom line there. Hey, I knew nothing about these numbers in this office.

Bobby Lambert: And that's where. The institute, well, when it was RLO is when I signed up with them and of course when Cecil and everybody bought it, it was big change. But it's been a, it's been a huge help.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, for sure. So here you are growing up in the business, just like the Rockefeller, you did everything from sweeping the floors and buying the stir sticks to wiping the counters and working the front counter.

Jimmy Lea: You were the general manager, and you would've thought that doing everything in that day-to-day, you would've thought that you knew how to run the business, and then you discover

Bobby Lambert: no,

Jimmy Lea: being the owner is a different skillset,

Bobby Lambert: a whole different skillset set.

Jimmy Lea: So how long did you go from signing on the dotted line to saying, okay, I need coaching and training?

Bobby Lambert: We signed in January went to the NAPA conference in Biloxi in June and sat in Dan's class and says, damn, that guy's telling me everything I need to hear.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: So I immediately found him at the expo hall and said, sign me up.

Jimmy Lea: Sign me up. I'm in.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. I got, I had to do something because,

Jimmy Lea: oh, congratulations.

Jimmy Lea: That that's such a unique situation to know that you didn't know. And then once you heard it, you were saying, oh my gosh, yes. I need to know more about everything that this man is teaching and talking about whole different skill set.

Bobby Lambert: Then they put me through the Gorilla Shop management course with Vic.

Bobby Lambert: And went through that, signed me up with John LERs. A coach.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: And he kicked my ass for about a year and a half.

Jimmy Lea: Good, good. Sounds like you needed it.

Bobby Lambert: I did. I did so, and I was that I can't do that. My, my area won't support that. Yeah. It will.

Jimmy Lea: It will. Yeah, it does. Yes, it does. Right.

Bobby Lambert: And then we joined up in the BDG group or the, I'm sorry the

Jimmy Lea: BBL group.

Jimmy Lea: BPG.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Bbl. Yeah. Bottom line named Pat Group.

Bobby Lambert: Yep.

Jimmy Lea: And now you're in the Gear performance group

Bobby Lambert: with my, yep. Uhhuh.

Jimmy Lea: Which, which group are you in?

Bobby Lambert: Group two.

Jimmy Lea: Group two. Oh yeah. That's the technology, the best group technology. That is a very good group for sure. They are very forward thinking.

Jimmy Lea: Technology adopting group two is on the cutting edge. So yeah you are in a good group there, Bobby. That's awesome.

Bobby Lambert: And that brings us to where we're at today

Jimmy Lea: and where are you at today? Oh, that is awesome. So at what point do you decide you look around and say, Hey, you know what? I think it's time to open a second shop.

Jimmy Lea: Let's go find something to buy. Let's go find something to build. What did you do?

Bobby Lambert: You know, I'm sitting there in these these gear performance groups and listening to other multi shop owners. There's I think three or four of us in there, and I'm thinking. First we were in there with AJ and you know,

Jimmy Lea: AJ Neely, great

Bobby Lambert: guy,

Jimmy Lea: love him.

Bobby Lambert: And he scared me to death. I had no earthly idea how that guy just does what he does, but he does it. But and I'm like, man, that's some ambition. I don't know if I ever want two shots. And then one came available. So, and I had a friend of mine that wanted to manage a shop. I took a chance on him and it's it's doing well.

Jimmy Lea: Well, congratulations. What does this second shop look like? What's the footprint?

Bobby Lambert: The footprint of that one is four bays, again, one more bay outside. So five, five lifts in total two techs and my manager slash service advisor there. So just three people at that shop, but

Jimmy Lea: Wow.

Bobby Lambert: Wow. It didn't have the best reputation and we're slowly turning it around.

Bobby Lambert: I've gotten him in the the coaching program with Ryan in the apg With the advisor? Yeah, sorry. Advisor performance group. Yeah. And he's picking up something every time they talk and that's just so excited. So excited. I gotta reign him in. He gets going too fast and just gotta slow him down a little bit.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Don't outrun the horses. Come on now. Hold up.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. But that shop is it's turning around. Like I said it's growing every month. It's not putting up huge numbers or anything, but it's a steady climb and steady progression and we we're extremely fortunate.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. With these smaller shops, these three bays, four bays, two techs, one service advisor.

Jimmy Lea: It can be a lean, mean fighting machine. You know? Yeah. It doesn't put up the big numbers, but the net, the gross profit, the net profit, it can be very impressive.

Bobby Lambert: Yes. So,

Jimmy Lea: so if something came along again, Bobby and would there be an option for a third shop?

Bobby Lambert: I can say yes. 'cause my wife's not here in the office with me today.

Bobby Lambert: She's at home so. She would be shooting daggers if she saw that, but I would not be opposed to a third shop if one came along. Yeah. But the caveat to that is I've only got about four more years left in me before I'm ready to retire.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, nice. No, let's talk about retiring and if you're retiring then what?

Jimmy Lea: Well, not the, then what, hold on. Let's back up.

Jimmy Lea: Who's gonna buy your shops from you? What's the plan there? Do you have a plan in place?

Bobby Lambert: I have a semi plan. Yeah. We don't have anything hammered out in full details or anything, but yes, my my manager at this location is very much interested in this one and the manager, the other one, he's interested in that one.

Bobby Lambert: So I'll split 'em up and, have them buy them if they want. And if we can't, then I'm talking to my buddy Michael Smith and I'm in his classes as well. So you can't learn too much in this business.

Jimmy Lea: And even if they are not the ones that end up buying it. Even if, and let's go with that as the current plan, you still need to talk to Michael Smith.

Jimmy Lea: Yes. Michael Herzberg Smith about that succession plan. That's something that you do want to have in place and the way to start it is now

Bobby Lambert: yes.

Jimmy Lea: Anybody that wants to sell their business and they want to sell it today. We need a flex capacitor in 88 miles an hour. 'cause we gotta go back in time three to five years.

Jimmy Lea: So you are in the perfect spot is put in place so that your key employees are the ones that are able to buy it and there are ways for them to buy it where don't have to come in with cold hard cash and put 20% down.

Bobby Lambert: Right.

Jimmy Lea: Over the next three to five years, they're earning that 20% down. And then they are able to refinance it, get a small business loan.

Jimmy Lea: And and Bobby and wife are sitting on the beach drinking my ties.

Bobby Lambert: That's right. But yeah, the Michael Smith is he is a wealth of information and we've we've been talking and trying to hammer out a few details here and there, and

Jimmy Lea: good.

Bobby Lambert: But I'll go back to the previous owners that had this shop when I bought it there, there were two of them.

Bobby Lambert: And one of 'em told me, he says, the day you sign on the line, start your exit plan.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, so smart.

Bobby Lambert: So start right there, know where your goal is and keep it in sight.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah,

Bobby Lambert: the other one said, get yourself in a good 20 group.

Jimmy Lea: Bingo.

Bobby Lambert: Like I said, me, how do it,

Jimmy Lea: what's a 20 girl

Bobby Lambert: not go? Yep. Showed me how to do it and not go wrong.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good. That's good. Congratulations, man. That's awesome. So the future is three to five years. Bobby's ready to retire.

Jimmy Lea: Gonna sell the businesses. And then what?

Bobby Lambert: Well, we just bought a motor home, so we're gonna travel the country a little bit in the motor home and see what's out there. Love

Jimmy Lea: it.

Bobby Lambert: Keep popping in here and see how these guys are doing. And

Jimmy Lea: there you go. I love it. I love it.

Bobby Lambert: Tell 'em all about my adventures and. Love it. I'm going again.

Jimmy Lea: We'll get you one of these water bottles that has the national parks on it and you go visit every single one of the national parks.

Jimmy Lea: And when you get to Utah, let me know 'cause I'll show you right where all the good Utah parks are.

Bobby Lambert: I'll do it.

Jimmy Lea: Cool. But,

Bobby Lambert: Yeah the future looks good for us. I'm super happy with where the shop is. We are consistently. That 20 plus percent

Jimmy Lea: net profit.

Bobby Lambert: Yes. Month after month,

Jimmy Lea: 20 plus percent net profit,

Bobby Lambert: month after month, year after year.

Jimmy Lea: Congratulations. How do you do that?

Bobby Lambert: How?

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: You get a fantastic coach and facilitator like Jennifer. Jennifer Holbert.

Jimmy Lea: Jennifer Holbert is awesome. I agree.

Bobby Lambert: She. Helps me watch my numbers, but the key is control your expenses.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: If you're making money, save some money.

Jimmy Lea: Amen.

Bobby Lambert: You don't have to spend everything you make.

Jimmy Lea: That is so true. But I just did a podcast very recently with Clinton and he talked about how one year compared to the next, he cut. A ton of expenses. He did $16,000 less in total revenue, but netted an additional 8,000 for the entire year. If you can control your expenses, you can control what you take home, and that's where the awards come from, is you are awarded based on your ability to keep it.

Jimmy Lea: Keep it in the bank, keep it at home.

Bobby Lambert: Yes.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Good for you. Congratulations. Thank you. That is awesome, that you're able to work on the business and not necessarily in the business that you are expanding the business and growing the business.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. I don't make any appointments. I go say hi to customers, but I don't talk to customers about their vehicles.

Bobby Lambert: I don't. It's just, that's not my job.

Jimmy Lea: Right.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. It's I've got awesome people in place that do such a great job at doing that. Yeah. I don't need to, I just can go enjoy the customer, sit and have a conversation.

Jimmy Lea: Let your employees do what they were hired to do. Let them do their job.

Bobby Lambert: Yes.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome.

Jimmy Lea: Congrats. What now? We talk about empowering the employees and, you know, we all have bills to pay and we can't pay the bills on feel good. We do need money. How do you pay your employees? What's your pay plans for technicians and advisors? And managers? What do you do?

Bobby Lambert: Well, no one pay plan is right for every technician.

Jimmy Lea: True. Wow. Okay. So do you have different pay plans for each of your techs in-house right now? I do.

Bobby Lambert: I do.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my

Bobby Lambert: god. I have hourly techs. I have techs that are on a guarantee and you know, I have flat rate techs. Just whatever that tech has. You can't take a 25 year tech and say you've been flat rate all your life.

Bobby Lambert: You're going hourly.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. He wouldn't know how to compute

Bobby Lambert: that. Yeah he's, so I. They know what they need.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah,

Bobby Lambert: I know what I need. So you tell me what you need. I'll see how we can make it work and we make things work.

Jimmy Lea: So are there performance kickers in there as well?

Bobby Lambert: There are, yes.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. So let's talk about your hourly employees.

Jimmy Lea: Your hourly technicians.

Jimmy Lea: Who are they? What does it look like? Not specific names per se. Yeah. What's the demographic of it look like?

Bobby Lambert: Basically, I've got two hourly techs and they're pretty much part-time. They're approaching retirement age, so they're not producing the hours, so let's keep them on an hourly.

Bobby Lambert: They're, their bodies are not letting them do the jobs that they have done all their lives.

Bobby Lambert: So we're backing 'em down. Yeah. Just. I'm not firing you. I wanna keep you going. You've got a great mind. You know so much about these cars. Let's keep you here. Let's make things happen for you. But at the same time, we're gonna cut your hours back so your body can let you enjoy some life.

Bobby Lambert: Because if I keep pushing you 40 hours a week and your body keeps breaking down, you're giving me 20 hours a week in production. That's not good for either of us.

Jimmy Lea: Wow.

Bobby Lambert: So we, we back it down and you know, we pay 'em what they need to make a living. My guaranteed texts once they hit their minimum hours, they get a bump.

Bobby Lambert: So, usually, so, so what

Jimmy Lea: is that number? Is it, is it a 40?

Bobby Lambert: It's around 30, 32 hours is the minimum they have to turn.

Jimmy Lea: Per week. Okay.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. So once they hit that, they get a $5 an hour bump back to hour one.

Jimmy Lea: That's phenomenal. And so these gen, these ladies and gentlemen that are on a guarantee, how often do they exceed that?

Jimmy Lea: 32

Bobby Lambert: Most every week.

Jimmy Lea: That's beautiful.

Bobby Lambert: So

Jimmy Lea: does that mean that they're up in the forties?

Jimmy Lea: 40 twos fi. 40 fives,

Bobby Lambert: yes.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. That's extraordinary. That's awesome. Congrats. And then you say you also have technicians that are flat rate. What does that look like?

Bobby Lambert: My flat rate techs, there's two of them.

Bobby Lambert: One of them is an r and r Tech. All he is, that's all he is done all his life. R and r transmissions phenomenal at it.

Jimmy Lea: Okay.

Bobby Lambert: He's producing. 50 to 70 hours every week, just slinging transmissions.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my word.

Bobby Lambert: Just slinging transmissions.

Jimmy Lea: That's because he knows all the shortcuts. He knows the secrets, he knows the how tos and whatnots and have been, and probably could do it in his sleep blindfolded.

Bobby Lambert: And you know, you say that the secrets and the shortcuts, but it's so much more than that. It's a mindset.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

It

Bobby Lambert: doesn't look at the job as like, oh, I hate these things. It, this. He just looks at it and says, this is a job. It pays four hours. I can get it done in two.

Jimmy Lea: Ooh, bingo.

Bobby Lambert: And it is, just get on it, get it done.

Bobby Lambert: Gimme another one.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Yeah. Just line him up. Line him up and I'll knock him down.

Bobby Lambert: I have to slow him down sometimes because you, we have 10 lifts and he'll have. Six transmissions out. So you got six lifts tied up with transmission. So we have to drink. Reign him in just a little bit once in a while.

Bobby Lambert: But

Jimmy Lea: yeah, that's pretty, that was, that's pretty good. He's got six transmissions out to keep all those straight in your head and know exactly where you're on each single one of 'em. Oh my goodness sakes. What a mind That is phenomenal.

Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Bobby, that, that is amazing. You've got such a a diverse group, such a motley crew put together of hourlies and guarantees and flat rates. I mean, any discussion that comes around, you can participate. You're in there.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. Well, you have to, like I said, I mean, everybody doesn't work the same way.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: You when you want top talent, it's. Meeting them where they need to be.

Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. I love that you've got those performance kickers in there as well at a level that says, Hey, I know you can hit this every month. And this is, keep your job. Hit 32. Count 32, bonus. Let's go. Yeah. You want to rake it in for a really good Christmas?

Jimmy Lea: Let's go.

Bobby Lambert: Yep,

Jimmy Lea: we can do that. All right. Now what about your advisors? How are they, what's their pay plan look like?

Bobby Lambert: My advisors are all a weekly salary. Then at the end of the month they get bonuses off of their gross profit dollars. Usually it's one and a half percent of the shops gross profit dollars, 3% of their individual.

Bobby Lambert: So. They'll get a bonus usually in the neighborhood of about four grand a month.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow.

Bobby Lambert: So it, it keeps them motivated to help each other because they're getting one and a half percent of what the shop does. If it's just paying them what they do, I'm not helping him with that. That's his customer.

Bobby Lambert: He can, but no, I mean, you're all in this together. You're all getting paid but's.

Jimmy Lea: It's a team. It's a team effort.

Bobby Lambert: It is a team.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's extraordinary. And it's paid off of the gross profit. Did I hear you say that right?

Bobby Lambert: Gross profit dollars? Yes.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. That's phenomenal. And each, and how many service advisors do you have?

Bobby Lambert: Three. Three At this shop and one at the other?

Jimmy Lea: Three at this shop. And one at the other shop?

Bobby Lambert: Yes.

Jimmy Lea: But the, and the shops do operate separately, or is it

Bobby Lambert: They're completely separate businesses.

Jimmy Lea: Separate business. Separate business names.

Bobby Lambert: Well, they're, well this is Lake Sumter Transmissions and Auto Repair.

Bobby Lambert: The other one is Lake Sumter Auto Repair.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. Okay. And they operate separate. So each one, each advisor is concerned about making sure that their company, their business, their operation is functioning at the best they can possibly. Exactly. It's phenomenal. That is phenomenal. That's very cool. I you've got a great program set up there and how did you come about all of these different ideas or all these different ways of paying all your technicians?

Jimmy Lea: Where did that come from?

Bobby Lambert: You? Just a lot of listening in my 20 group. And if you got a question, you put it out there, somebody's got an answer for it. So, and that's the. Biggest bonus to these 20 groups is the amount of knowledge that's in that room when you're in there, in that three day meeting.

Bobby Lambert: But it extends to every day. I can shoot a text out and say, Hey, I'm thinking about this. What do you guys, what do, what's your thoughts on this? Excuse me. And I'll get five or six answers in 15 minutes. And it, they are awesome people. Awesome businessmen.

Jimmy Lea: That is very cool. See, I and I explain this to a lot of people and I try to explain it.

Jimmy Lea: If you can confirm or deny. Here. You come to the group and you've got this huge mountain of a problem that you think is a huge mountain of a problem because you have thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and you're thinking, oh my gosh, there's no way I'm gonna be able to get over this mountain.

Jimmy Lea: This is a huge problem. What am I gonna do? You put it out to the group and the group comes back and says, oh, Sally solved that here last week. And John was last month. And Joe did it the other day. So here's five different solutions. From five different areas, five different companies, what they did.

Jimmy Lea: So you listen to all this and go, oh, it's not a mountain anymore. This is a mole hill. I can easily step over that. And the group is saying, okay, come on, let's go.

Bobby Lambert: You the, you say that and it's, I think back to. When I bought the shop, what our hourly shop rate was and we were below a hundred dollars an hour.

Bobby Lambert: We were at like $96 an hour or something like that, right? And Waffler kept saying, raise your labor rate. You're way too low. You need to be 115, said John, I can't get 115. So it took him, I don't know, 3, 4, 5 months of just get over that a hundred dollars. Finally I went over a hundred dollars and it was like nobody noticed.

Jimmy Lea: No,

Bobby Lambert: it's 110. Nobody noticed it. It the only one that's noticing that labor rate is me.

Bobby Lambert: I, and I, and that's the same way with just about anything. I mean, you see a change that you need to make and you talk yourself and talk yourself, and it's. Not a huge deal.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: You make it a huge deal, but it's not a big deal.

Jimmy Lea: No, it's really not. And I talked I spoke with a friend of mine about this specifically raising your labor rate, and we were talking about $10, raise it by $10, raise it by $20, raise it by $30, and he's like, oh no.

Jimmy Lea: Okay I'm gonna raise it by $4 and 50 cents.

Bobby Lambert: You don't move the needle.

Jimmy Lea: Listen, shop owner I happen to know that your average ticket is two and a half hours. That's an additional 13 bucks.

Jimmy Lea: No. Is anybody gonna notice that? No. What if you do it by $10 and it's an additional 25 bucks? Is anybody get a notice?

Bobby Lambert: No.

Jimmy Lea: No? Okay. What if it's an additional 50 bucks? Anybody get a notice? Probably not, but maybe

Bobby Lambert: The ones that'll notice are the ones that you don't really want anyway, the customer that you don't,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Yeah. And it could be a, an easy way of chasing off the customers that you Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Really shouldn't be servicing anyways. They're the 80 20 rule. That's that 20% that takes up 80% of your time,

Bobby Lambert: you'll get that better quality vehicle to work on.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, bingo. Bingo. What does your shops work on? What do you guys like to work on?

Bobby Lambert: We don't care if it's broke, we'll fix it.

Jimmy Lea: It's got wheels in an engine.

Jimmy Lea: We'll work on it.

Bobby Lambert: We don't shy away from anything. And maybe that's our detriment. Now in our main shop here, like I said, we have 10 bays here. We have two extra bays that it's in a separate building that we do classic cars in.

Jimmy Lea: Oh.

Bobby Lambert: So, you know, we're down here at the edge of the villages and there's so much disposable income in there.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. And disposable money. And they got the cars that they have always wanted when they were in high school. These cars leak constantly. They lease when they were new.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: So we keep two in that building pretty much all the time. And there's a list, a waiting list to get in that building. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: That's amazing.

Bobby Lambert: Just work on just about anything. Right now I think we've got a 70 Plymouth Road runner in there and a 72 Chevy pickup truck.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. What great trucks I, in high school or college, I drove a 71 long bed.

Jimmy Lea: Had a granny, granny gear and three.

Bobby Lambert: Yep. This one's a long bed with Power Glide.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, gee I tell you, any, if I tried to go faster than 65 miles an hour, that old engine was just a screaming at me. It didn't have any more gears.

Bobby Lambert: Kept you from speeding.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah, it did. Yeah. No, couldn't do it. The only way I'd speed is going downhill with a tailwind.

Bobby Lambert: But,

Jimmy Lea: Oh, so fun. So fun. Well, Bobby, if you had a a magic wand and you could change anything in the industry, what's something you would change in the industry and you can't wish for more wishes?

Bobby Lambert: No. I could change anything in the industry.

Bobby Lambert: Oh, man. Yeah. You know, I There's a lot of things that you could change.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Bobby Lambert: In my little world.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah,

Bobby Lambert: I, I, my little wand here says, Hey buddy, you're perfect. Let's keep this thing going. Let's just, let's not rock the boat too bad. But the magic wand I'D wave would be at insurance companies and try to get some decent rates.

Bobby Lambert: God, it's so expensive. Health insurance and garage keepers. It is all just way overpriced.

Jimmy Lea: Amen, brother. Amen.

Bobby Lambert: But everybody's gotta make a living, so that's what they're doing. So

Jimmy Lea: there you go.

Bobby Lambert: But no that's probably the only thing I'd wanna change would be something like that. 'cause I love my life right now.

Bobby Lambert: It's doing great. I can sit here and look out the door and I can see all my guys walking back and forth roundabout and the cars in the parking lot. And life is good over here in, in Lee Burke, Florida.

Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. It's a, it's good to live a blessed life.

Bobby Lambert: Its,

Jimmy Lea: you're living that blessed life.

Jimmy Lea: Congratulations.

Bobby Lambert: And that's huge respect and props to the institute for showing me how to live this life that that is been bestowed upon me, I guess.

Jimmy Lea: Ah, that's beautiful here. You were growing up in the industry. You have the chops, you have the technical background for everything technical, and you knew there was things you thought you knew at all and then you discovered, oh my gosh, there's things I don't know.

Jimmy Lea: I don't know.

Jimmy Lea: I need training, I need coaching, I need guidance and props to you for seeking out that guidance. And Bobby, I think I was at that Biloxi, Mississippi 2018.

Bobby Lambert: You probably were,

Jimmy Lea: I was probably there. You were probably there at the same time. That's pretty cool.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah,

Jimmy Lea: that's pretty cool. So, one, one last final question for you.

Jimmy Lea: If you were starting fresh today, what advice would you give yourself?

Bobby Lambert: Oh, probably the same advice that that I got when I did get started is yeah. Find someone to help you over the rough spots and you're gonna have rough spots. But they they're pretty easy If you get a good support system to help carry you right across the top of 'em.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Go for the coaching and training.

Jimmy Lea: It's gonna make a world of difference.

Bobby Lambert: It does. I've actually got two shops in our area that I got coaching. With the institute and now they're 20 group members as well, so.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congratulations that Talk about locking arms with your neighbors. This is great.

Bobby Lambert: Yeah. That was something else that was taught to me.

Bobby Lambert: They're not competition, they're not competitors. They're other shop owners. There are other business owners. Everybody. There's enough out there for everybody

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. To

Bobby Lambert: help somebody along. Oh,

Jimmy Lea: amen.

Bobby Lambert: Don't kick 'em to the curb whenever they're down. Just, Hey, what do you need, buddy?

Bobby Lambert: Amen. Let's talk this thing through. Let's figure things out.

Jimmy Lea: For you. Congratulations. That's awesome. You've locked arms together with them and Yeah. I mean, think about it. If the three of you and the four shops that you represent, it, could you service every car that passed in front of your shop every single day?

Bobby Lambert: No.

Jimmy Lea: No. Not a chance. Let's lock arms, let's elevate the industry. And Bob, Bobby, props to you brother for elevating this industry.

Bobby Lambert: Sure. Thank you.

Jimmy Lea: That is super cool. Thank you very much, Bobby. I really appreciate it, brother.

Bobby Lambert: Jimmy, thanks for your time today. It was a absolute that had a lot of fun.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, that's what we're all about. We're here to have fun. If we're not having fun, we're not doing it right. If we're not doing it right, we better find something else to do. All right, Bobby, thank you very much.

Bobby Lambert: Thank you, Jimmy.