Growing up in a tight knit Finnish farming community, Levi Hendrickson learned to fix equipment out of necessity long before he ever turned a wrench in a shop. He shares how that background, plus time in the North Dakota oil fields and a hydraulic shop, led him back home to start his own business and eventually co own ARVU Auto with his wife, Sally. Levi walks through buying the first Cokato location, building a new ground up facility, and expanding into Watertown and Long Lake with a goal of eight shops in eight years. He explains how culture, family values, and clear expectations shape his acquisition criteria and day to day leadership. From providing full shop tools for young techs to helping employees pay down tool truck debt, Levi is intentional about removing barriers to entry for new technicians. He talks about the importance of building depth so each location can function without him turning wrenches every day. Levi also reflects on the impact of coaching from The Institute and Wayne, especially around vision, clarity, and calm leadership. Looking back, the advice he would give his younger self is simple but powerful: trust your gut and keep moving forward.

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):

Levi Hendrickson, Owner of Arvu Auto

Show Highlights:

[00:00:00] – Levi shares the meaning behind the name ARVU Auto and how he and his wife Sally come from strong Finnish communities.

[00:03:33] – Growing up on a farm taught Levi to fix equipment early, including a memorable lesson about safety when wheels came off a neighbor’s semi.

[00:08:34] – His first job in the Twin Cities gave him a mentor who helped him apply his college training to real diagnostic work.

[00:10:17] – After working in the North Dakota oil fields, Levi returned home, built a client base, and eventually bought his first shop.

[00:12:05] – ARVU’s new Cokato building features a drive-through truck bay, multiple lifts, an alignment rack, and expanded office space.

[00:16:57] – Levi outlines the path to three locations and their long-term goal of eight shops in eight years.

[00:18:33] – Acquisition criteria have shifted toward shops with strong teams and healthy culture, not just good pricing.

[00:21:22] – With three stores, Levi is focused on filling capacity, improving efficiency, and strengthening processes before acquiring more.

[00:26:01] – ARVU provides full shop tools for new techs and builds clear career paths using tracked performance and guided training.

[00:28:33] – Levi supports techs by helping reduce tool debt and focusing on long-term employee stability and growth.

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Hello, my friend. Good to be with you again here, Jimmy Lea with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. You are listening to the Leading Edge podcast, and my guest today is Levi Hendricks, and he is co-owner of ARVU Auto, Levi and Sally Hendrickson. Levi, how are you brother?

Levi Hendrickson: Good. How about yourself, Jimmy?

Jimmy Lea: Oh, fabulous. Thank you very much. And Arvu what does Arvu mean?

Levi Hendrickson: Ar vu is value in finish. So translates to value.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. And so who's Finnish in your family?

Levi Hendrickson: Both me and my wife are.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, awesome. That's cool. Are you doing some family history that you're learning these family roots or what's, how do you know this?

Levi Hendrickson: The community we grew up in, both in very strong Finnish communities and, very large you know, with our faith and, you know, it's very much the same demographic. So.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. That's very cool. How did you meet your wife?

Levi Hendrickson: I met her through a friend that was dating a friend you know, his now wife was friends with Sally, and met through that way.

Levi Hendrickson: Ended up skiing the whole day together and on our kind of first date, so,

Jimmy Lea: wow. Skiing on a first date, was it a blind date? Set

Levi Hendrickson: up? Yeah, kind of, but not really. It was my buddy's now wife asked if anyone else wanted to go skiing with the three of us for the day, and she she said, sure I will.

Levi Hendrickson: And we hit it off from there, so.

Jimmy Lea: Well, good for you. Congrats. How long you been married? How long you been together?

Levi Hendrickson: Well it'll be 11 years January. So.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congratulations. That's awesome.

Levi Hendrickson: Thank you.

Jimmy Lea: And you guys have children?

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. We just in March. We just had our first baby boy.

Jimmy Lea: Hey, congratulations.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, thank you.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. My, my baby boy right now is in Brazil. He's 19. He is serving a mission there with the church. And just loving it.

Levi Hendrickson: Getting some world travel in

Jimmy Lea: world travel developing new language skills just studying a new language and working with the people of Brazil. It's an phenomenal experience. I. Just I, it's very cool. It's very cool what he's doing, so I appreciate him being there. Yeah,

Levi Hendrickson: yeah. Yeah. He'll learn a lot of valuable skills for, you know, working with people.

Levi Hendrickson: Right. And you know, it's a different dynamic when you have a language barrier and now he'll be able to take them skills back to 'em for the rest of his life. So,

Jimmy Lea: that's exactly correct. And you know, these boys, after they come, boys and girls, men and women go on these missions. Mm-hmm. When they come home after two years, 18 months, two years.

Jimmy Lea: They are different people. They have grown up, they are now adulting and they do a very good job of adulting. They've had to look after themselves and budget and money and travel and correspondence and oh yeah. It's just so much fun.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: So much fun. So, Levi, into your history, into your past, how did you get into the automotive industry?

Levi Hendrickson: Well I grew up on a farm. And my dad always fixed cars. So he would kind of do that as a side to the farming. He'd be fixing cars for people and tractors and farm equipment. So I grew up fixing stuff all the time. You know, I was given a little toolbox when I was a kid, so I'd quit stealing his.

Levi Hendrickson: That's so true. Yeah. So, so then yeah, spent a lot of time taking things apart. I don't know how many things I put back together as a kid, but I always took 'em apart. So, but yeah, then got through high school and you know, followed a buddy's path to going to college for automotive. Did that and, really kind of just took off with it and had a fairly entrepreneurial mind going up through high school and doing some other businesses then too.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Congratulations. So back to your toolbox. How old were you when you got your first toolbox?

Levi Hendrickson: Oh I don't recall.

Jimmy Lea: Like, I mean, is this like 5, 6, 7, 8 years old or is this like 11?

Jimmy Lea: That's what I

Levi Hendrickson: would say, probably around 10. So, some, for whatever reason I didn't trash it, I still have it, so it'll get passed down to to my son David, when, once he starts robbing my tools. So,

Jimmy Lea: congratulations, dude. That is super cool. That is super cool. So you got your first toolbox when you were 10 years old, so, and dad was saying this is to preserve my tools and your life.

Jimmy Lea: 'cause if you keep taking my tools, I'm gonna kill you.

Levi Hendrickson: Yep.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good man. So, working on a farm, I, those repairs are almost out of a necessity. The farm equipment's gotta work. It's time to harvest, it's time to seed, it's time to. It has to work. There is no downtime. So your dad working on equipment, was it all his equipment or was this everybody in the community as well?

Levi Hendrickson: So a lot of it was our own equipment that we were, you know, fixing, you know, either, whether we didn't do a lot of maintenance. We got good at learning how to fix on the fly. So, you know, we got got good at using a welder and using a torch and learning how to make things work and. Really testing the bene or, you know, testing how far something really could make it.

Levi Hendrickson: And

Levi Hendrickson: yeah. And then we did do some other maintenance and stuff for some other local people helped them out when they had breakdowns.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, for sure. What's one of your greatest success stories when it comes to a repair that you made as a young man working with your dad?

Levi Hendrickson: Oh boy. I guess I don't have anything jumping off the top of my mind as a success.

Levi Hendrickson: I had a lesson learned as a very young age.

Jimmy Lea: And we call that a success.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Alright. All right. Go ahead. So, I was we're helping a neighbor farmer and me and the neighbor were, we were putting the wheels back on his semi. And I don't remember if we were putting brakes in it or what exactly, but yeah, not too much longer than wheels departed with the semi from the semi going down the road.

Levi Hendrickson: So, learned I don't remember what I was, you know, I remember working hand in hand with him on it, but I don't remember the whole details of it. But, you know, just that safety aspect and being diligent with the work that you're doing and making sure that you're checking over everything and get it right the first time.

Jimmy Lea: For sure. People's lives are in the balance here, and you gotta make sure that you're taking care of their lives. For sure. Wow. Is that also when you were introduced to the torque wrench or the what's that, what's the wrench called? The big handle that you can set the different pressures on it. Yep.

Levi Hendrickson: Yep. That's a torque wrench.

Jimmy Lea: Torque wrench, yeah. So is that when you were introduced to the torque wrench?

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, it probably was after that, but, the Torque Ranch was brought out for everything. You start learning what things should be set to and learning the values. So,

Jimmy Lea: so true.

Jimmy Lea: There's a really good friend of mine, a really good shop, Sherwood down at he and his son their shop is royalty Auto down in St. Mary's, Florida. And they have a rule that when you torque a tire. Then you call for a second torque and somebody comes right behind you to make sure that you did it properly.

Jimmy Lea: That's their qc.

Levi Hendrickson: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So they call somebody. That's a very good very good procedure. So

Jimmy Lea: yeah, very good procedure. Very good to make sure that you are covering yourself. Yeah. So you decided to follow your buddy. You went off to college for automotive. Mm-hmm. And then what happens after you graduate?

Levi Hendrickson: So I I got a job working down in the Twin Cities right outta college, actually. I think they even let me go a little early so I could get started instead of doing open shop neighbor to my parents weren't, grew up worked at that shop. So he got me the job down there and actually had a phenomenal mentor that worked at that shop.

Levi Hendrickson: He helped me, you know, take all my training and my learning. From college and apply to real life. And, you know, it was it was phenomenal. And we actually ended up just doing an alignment for him today because to, to circle back, that was our third shop that we just bought last year. But we can get more into that later on.

Levi Hendrickson: But so yeah, I did worked the rest of the year for that shop and then. I ended up bouncing out to North Dakota, working in the oil fields as a fleet mechanic out there for one of the companies. So I was working on a lot of you know, pickups and semis and stuff of that nature.

Levi Hendrickson: And you know, so I was kind of rounding my skills and learning the industry and, you know, where, you know, it helped me decide where I wanted to be in this field of mechanics and, and then I also ended up taking a job at a hydraulic shop out there. So it's more of that farmhand knowledge and stuff of that nature that was applied.

Levi Hendrickson: And so then I moved back from there in 2013 and actually started my own company.

Jimmy Lea: How long were you in the oil fields there? Was it North Dakota or South Dakota?

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, North Dakota. Okay. For a year and a half.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah that's some life lessons you learned real quick. 'cause that's a cold winter.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Well, Minnesota's cold too, but they got some wind out there and That bites.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I was gonna say, North Dakota kind of cuts right through you and Minnesota. I've been there. Yeah. It's cold. But you can wear a nice jacket and you'll be okay.

Levi Hendrickson: Yep. Yeah. North Dakota

Jimmy Lea: cuts.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yeah. That it does.

Jimmy Lea: So you went straight from the oil fields to starting your own business.

Levi Hendrickson: Yep. So I started my own business. I was kind of doing that out of the shop at the Farm Uhhuh. And I was like, oh I'm gonna be a, an adult. I'm gonna go buy a house now that I'm on my own. Well, that don't quite work. So, the bankers don't like you when you don't have a real job in their eyes.

Levi Hendrickson: So, there was also then another local shop was looking for help. So I did end up going back to work. For a couple local shops for three years. And then after that I had built enough clientele with my own business and everything that I was able to completely go out on my own. And and then six months later we bought our first shop in town with an established clientele base.

Levi Hendrickson: And, you know, then we took off from there. So,

Jimmy Lea: congrats. So which of the three locations is your first.

Jimmy Lea: Cokato because you've got Cokato, long Lake and Watertown.

Levi Hendrickson: Correct.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats. So Cokato first, what's the footprint of that one look like?

Levi Hendrickson: So we just actually finished a new ground, ground up build this summer.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.

Levi Hendrickson: And so we got a 80 by 84 building that we have a drive through Truck Bay in, and then we currently have. Five Ho, or 4, 4 2 posts and alignment rack. And then we got some office space and stuff inside of that, so.

Jimmy Lea: Wow, that's big. That's a big building. Mm-hmm. So, and did you, do I understand that you built that on the first property and you demoed the old building?

Jimmy Lea: Or did you add on the old building?

Levi Hendrickson: So we moved we moved from where we were. We did we bought this lot a couple years ago. So it was a vacant lot on the highway frontage. So we moved about a, I don't know, quarter mile to a, yeah, quarter to a half mile down the road when we moved into this shop.

Levi Hendrickson: So,

Jimmy Lea: dude, congrats man. That's so awesome. And so you've got a big semi-truck pull through five two posts and alignment rack and office space. Correct. Oh my gosh, dude, that, that is awesome. And how long did you have this location in Cokato before you added the second location?

Levi Hendrickson: So it would've been about

Levi Hendrickson: five, four to five years. So in 20 in, let's see, what are we, 25 now? So it would've been 20. 23, I think it was that we started our, that we bought our second location. We'd actually prior to that we'd done a rebranding and kind of structured our business for growth to, you know, we had developed our brand and what we wanted to help us identify the direction of growth we wanted to go.

Levi Hendrickson: So then we found an opportunity to buy a shop, and, build it up and put, you know, build all of our processes and procedures and vet 'em and test 'em and it worked phenomenal. So it's been great.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, good for you, man. That's awesome. So is Long Lake, the second location?

Levi Hendrickson: Long Lake is the third location.

Levi Hendrickson: Watertown was the second

Jimmy Lea: Otter town. And what's the footprint of Watertown? What does that look like?

Levi Hendrickson: So Watertown is like. About 6,000 square feet, I think, on that shop.

Levi Hendrickson: Dude, that's huge.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. So technically we have way more, we have way more space to grow than we currently are utilizing.

Levi Hendrickson: Okay.

Levi Hendrickson: We were originally just in a very small three bay small office.

Levi Hendrickson: Part of the, there, there's two buildings on the premise. Okay. We were in that, the other tenant that was in the other building moved out. I took over that because I knew we wanted to grow it and it was gonna give us better opportunity. So we we don't currently utilize all of it a hundred percent yet, but we are working on growing into to filling it out.

Levi Hendrickson: So,

Jimmy Lea: dude, congrats man. That's awesome. So how many bays, how many lifts have you got there in Watertown second location?

Levi Hendrickson: Currently we have six hoists. Set up there. So we got a bunch of open space Nice. That we can do flat work on and stuff too, yet that, you know, we can add hoist more as we grow.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Hey, are you doing anything with the ados, ADOS systems? If you've got a lot of space you ever looked at that?

Levi Hendrickson: We've kind of looked at it. Both Cokato and Watertown are in a rural market and we don't, we're not seeing the car's volume come through to bring it in and then. We just had a body shop that went full off.

Levi Hendrickson: Full into ados in Cokato oh, good. You know, good partner, working partner there. So, we, you know, we'll be happy to use them and they'll be able to do the calibrations for us when we need.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats man. It's good to lock arms with people. 'cause that's how you really elevate and mm-hmm.

Jimmy Lea: You, you're not competition. You're, you are friends in the business and let's work together.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I love that. How long did you then have Watertown before you added Long Lake?

Levi Hendrickson: That would've been about a year and a half.

Jimmy Lea: That's what I was gonna say. It was pretty quick. After getting your second location, you decided for a third, so what prompted the third?

Jimmy Lea: 'cause if the other two were rural are is Long Lake more? Residential more urban.

Levi Hendrickson: Urban? Yeah. It is a direct high suburb of the Twin Cities. So in 22 before we bought another shop, we said we were gonna do eight shops in eight years. So that was our part of our big growth strategy that we wanted to go with our rebranding.

Levi Hendrickson: Love it. The. We had a connection to the Long Lake. We knew new ties, and when it was coming up for sale, we decided that we would just move on it. Maybe it was a little early. But it's it's learning, right? And it's learning what to do, what not to do as we continue to grow and remembering just to keep moving forward with it and you know, keep the positives going of it.

Levi Hendrickson: So.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it, dude. Congrats man. What is the footprint of Long Lake look like?

Levi Hendrickson: So Long Lake is is our smallest facility. I don't remember square footage wise, but it is five it's four bays, five ho and then one of them being alignment rack as well in a small office area with the waiting room and stuff.

Levi Hendrickson: So, still has great capability and ability for capacity. So it's just working on maximizing footprint and everything there. So.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats, man. So, in the future, as you're looking for more shops in the area, what are you looking for? What is that ideal client that gets your attention?

Levi Hendrickson: Well, so we've kind of shifted on that, and so right now our first what we went to was more of a price point that was affordable, didn't really have much for employees.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. Had

Levi Hendrickson: equipment, had some, you know, good reputation in the community, right? So. So that worked good, but it turns into a real long game and it takes a lot of my time and it takes a lot of manpower to get it staffed up and do that, so, got it.

Levi Hendrickson: We're gonna start shifting more into looking for probably more of the, an older owner that has good employees that we can, we could make more of a seamless transition into. You know, and I think culture is gonna be a big thing for our what we're looking for in the guys. We're not, you know, if it's, you know, if the culture in the shop that we're looking at buying is not good, we know that the employees that are there probably won't turn out to be very retentive to the way we're gonna run it.

Levi Hendrickson: And the, you know, the family style. Getting everyone together, get rid of the gossip, you know, just, you know, kind of, you know, make it a fun place to work and make it so it's enjoyable for everyone. So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Yeah, that's important. The company culture goes so far, it's so important. Do you think you could buy a company with a bad culture and repair it?

Jimmy Lea: Or is it best to just steer around it?

Levi Hendrickson: I mean, it's. Possible. It probably would take someone with a lot higher s psychology background than myself might take my wife, Sally, getting in there and digging deep and, you know, and ultimately I think it, it just it would depend because there could be one bad apple in the group that's turned everything sour and you could get rid of one bad apple and it could turn around.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. So very true. I think it would all depend on the, the group as a whole and what we could determine everyone's individual status would be.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It's true. So you would almost take it in a case by case scenario?

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yeah. I think we would have to you know, there might be a time we get down the road where it's, where we can figure out how to do bulk buys and deals and figure out how to deal with 'em, but not quite there yet.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome, man. Congrats. Congrats on the expansion. You're growing in some fast leaps and bounds even do you have any shops that are in your crosshairs, anybody that you're looking at that might be up next?

Levi Hendrickson: Nothing. Nothing's on the radar right now. You know, I think we're. We kind of talked that we were going to play a little reserved and build our shops, fill the capa the buildings we got, build our capacity, build our efficiency.

Levi Hendrickson: Because we know how to do a startup. We know how to do a one service writer, two technician shop like the back of our hands. You know, I need to learn how to, you know, turn these into 10, 10 bay shops and stuff. And there's a lot more that goes on. And involved, you know, marketing and employees and how your workload is in a much bigger facility.

Levi Hendrickson: And so that's what we wanna work on, building it. And then by doing that, we'll also solidify our branding side of things and how we're doing it, and what's working. So that way when we do go into another facility. We have that already packaged up and we can just plug and play and hit the ground running.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And I love that you are taking a minute. You almost call it a breather. You're taking a knee, you're working on process procedures. You're working on that live document with your employees to make it more productive, more efficient, more simple easy to understand so everybody can grab a hold of it and really adopt it as part of their company and culture.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yep. And it's yeah you have to have the buy-in of your employees. And I don't necessarily know that I like the word buy-in, but like, they have to fit it. Right. And they have to, it has to be second nature to them. And you know, 'cause when they do that, you know, it, all that starts in the back starts for me.

Levi Hendrickson: Leadership goes into them. That just trickles out the door into the community and our customers and, you know, just makes a much better experience.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Speaking of leadership, what does leadership mean to you?

Levi Hendrickson: So, showing and, you know, and showing the proper way of doing it and assisting the people.

Levi Hendrickson: You know, that are around me, not, you know, we're not from the back pushing and saying, you know, trying to slave driver, you know, leading, pulling from the front, giving them the assistance they need to be able to do what they want and, you know, feel included within the argu team.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I love that.

Jimmy Lea: I love it. Yeah. I'm hearing you say that you bring the team together, you're part of the team, you're in the mix, pulling together with the team. You're not out in front saying, come on, pull it this way. You're not back at the back cracking a whip saying, all right, we're going that way. You're in the fray.

Jimmy Lea: You're in the mix with everybody. That's pretty dang cool. So how often do you find yourself working in the business? Turning a wrench, pushing a broom. Too much, right? Daily? Yeah. Yeah.

Levi Hendrickson: Yes it is it has been too much In the last year we bit off way more than we could chew and struggled with some some employee shortages.

Levi Hendrickson: And that's part of the reason why we want to build depth within all of our locations so that way when someone's gone, it's not a fire that I have to be there or filling in for 'em. So just trying to build that depth. And yeah, so it's pretty much every day. And we got a lot of, obviously with a, with growth like that, you have a lot of young employees.

Levi Hendrickson: You have, you know, to you and the company. So you're constantly working with your values and your culture and training them to make sure everything's going, how it should be. So, yeah, a lot of day-to-day stuff still happening to keep the boat rudded in the right direction.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's exactly right. And you've gotta build a bench. You've gotta build people that you can fall back onto and say, okay, this person left you're first on the bench. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? And you find that right person that comes in and fits your company, fits your culture.

Jimmy Lea: What do you do for those new employees that come in and they're the, you're their first job straight outta school or you're their first job in town that they've come in working with you. What do you do for their career path?

Levi Hendrickson: So, you know, we try to get 'em some hands-on training, you know, as much training as we can.

Levi Hendrickson: To see where they need 'em. You know, we use A-A-D-B-I system that can track their time and how long it takes to do the jobs. And then I can use that to to assess where they're struggling with if I'm not in that shop all the time. So then I can go and work with them one-on-one in certain situations or, you know, we can say, okay, we're not gonna give you that job.

Levi Hendrickson: Until you can work with someone else in the job on it, you know, train and shadow a little bit more with it. The real young guys that you know, don't have any tools or anything. We have shop tools. We have a full set of tools in every shop. So every, you know, you can come in to our shop and you don't need any tools as a young guy, and we have everything for you.

Levi Hendrickson: To be able to do everything as a gs you know, and be able to proficiently do the job too. So, and if it's something you want to get into, you know, then we will, we'll go from there and develop a path for you.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. So do you have a tool allowance for your technicians or how does a brand new GS start to build their toolbox?

Levi Hendrickson: So, I guess we haven't really. You know, I just keep buying stuff and putting stuff in it. So it's kinda what you know, is what we've done. Right. You know, and you know, if they, if it's something that they want to keep going, we will probably just buy a whole nother cart and another set of tools and just say, here you go.

Levi Hendrickson: You know, these are shop tools. Just use them. If you find something that you think you have to have that's not, you know, sure, go ahead and buy it. But otherwise we're trying to buy all the tools at the shop. We're trying to change that part of the industry that, you know, there's no other, as my plumbers are down in the shop working, you know, cha putting some oil lines and some some plumbing lines in, you know, their guys don't have it.

Levi Hendrickson: They're not buying anything more than maybe $500 in pools or something that, a couple drills if even anything. Right. You know? So the company buys all of it. So why? You know? So we're trying to change that part of the industry for ourselves and what we can do and help these younger guys coming in. And just because there's.

Levi Hendrickson: It's not something we really agree with and how this industry went so

Jimmy Lea: well, and I love that you are buying the tools for your technicians and something that I used to do I had a business that I ran for a while, house cleaning, yard care and handyman business. And it was constantly, tools would go missing, tools would fall off the truck, tools would, whatever.

Jimmy Lea: They were just constantly being misplaced. And so I, I bought a drill, a DeWalt, and I said to my handyman, I said, Hey, look, this is your drill. This is company property, and if you stay with me for 12 months, then at the end of 12 months, this is your drill.

Levi Hendrickson: Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Lea: That was the best kept drill of all the equipment on that truck.

Jimmy Lea: And he was with me for 12 months and I said, congrats here. This is your drill now. Congrats. This is yours. Yeah. Take care of it. And so maybe that's an idea that in the automotive industry, we can adopt this idea that says, Hey look, I'm gonna invest 1000, 2000, $3,000 into this toolbox. So if you stay with me for two or three years.

Jimmy Lea: By the end of those two or three years, that is your toolbox. You own it and you write up some documents, some paperwork, they sign it, you sign it, and

Levi Hendrickson: there you go. That keeps, that,

Jimmy Lea: keeps 'em with you as part of the team mm-hmm. For two or three years because they want toolbox and by, and that toolbox will be very well taken care of.

Jimmy Lea: It won't become the junk drawer, it will be well taken care of. And at the end of two or three years now they own it. And thank you. Yeah. You, Levi, thank you to Arvo for helping that technician start to build up their toolbox.

Levi Hendrickson: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, it's a fabulous idea. And you know, we're still a little loose around some of them stuff, so we probably just.

Levi Hendrickson: Wing it and there wouldn't be any paper and we'd go, Merry Christmas that three years or something like that. You know, that's generally how we operate and, you know, try to get the technicians we've done a lot of Christmas bonuses to the truck tool trucks to help some of these guys pay off their tool debt and Oh, that's awesome.

Levi Hendrickson: Get out of that tool that to help free up their life.

Jimmy Lea: And they're tools that they need. There's tools that they need for the industry, tools for the trade. They definitely need 'em. And those tools that they're buying off the Snap-on truck, the Mako truck, they are lifetime warranty, lifetime guarantee tools.

Jimmy Lea: So anytime down the road, if they were to buy some chance, break it, it gets replaced. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. You gotta love that. That's very cool. So you talk about eight locations in eight years. It sounds like you're three or four years into this, you've got three locations. Are we still looking for eight and eight?

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. We're gonna still stay on that path. So,

Jimmy Lea: hello. Yeah.

Levi Hendrickson: So, and I think it's one of them things, once you learn the processes, you get 'em all built, you get the team under you it is gonna help it go much faster. You know, and we're probably gonna have a couple lull years where we don't do a whole lot, but we might pick up a two or three bay in one year, or a two or three shop package deal in one year, or, you know, and you know, that might be the direction we go, but I mean, who knows?

Levi Hendrickson: Maybe we'll get to, we'll get through three and get into five and pull our hair out and say, you know what? This is our sweet zone. This is where we feel comfortable, you know. Not, you know, the goal is to go to eight. We're gonna try push through that, but we'll see what you know, you gotta be able to feel and see the balance in there as you're going and realize that, you know, you gotta keep that balance for work and life and, you know, totally agree.

Levi Hendrickson: Keep everyone happy.

Jimmy Lea: Totally agree. You've gotta set that goal that says, this is where we're going, this is where we're shooting for. And if you get to five and you're like, Ooh, sweet. This is cool. We're good. Or you get to five and you go, oh my gosh, this is so easy. If the deal's right, we're gonna buy it.

Jimmy Lea: Buy it. Don't buy it. Yeah. And you've got it down. I wonder if it becomes that process where like, like with children, they say that your first child's like a handbag and your second child becomes luggage.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. So

Jimmy Lea: you and your wife, one for you, one for her. You can handle it. It's not that.

Jimmy Lea: Ominous, if you will. Yeah. By the third child. The third child becomes a trunk and it becomes huge. It becomes big. And this is like the location where you are right now. You have three locations, three children that you're helping along, and then once you get four and five and six, it's just another mouth to feed.

Jimmy Lea: It's not that big of a deal. You plug in your process, you plug in your procedures, and you just keep going and going and pretty soon you look up and you go, oh, hey, look at that. We got a basketball team, we got a football team, we got a baseball team. We've gone from five to nine to 12. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: No, we're good. Let's keep going.

Levi Hendrickson: Yep, yep. Well, and then too, as time goes on, they start supporting and helping. Helping each other out. Right. So yeah, the early stages, everyone's learning and developing on their own. And you know, as after everyone's done, you know, developing themselves and getting to where they need to be.

Levi Hendrickson: Well, now we can. We can help some of them other people get developed and bring them up and it's gonna bring everything up. So,

Jimmy Lea: oh, I love it. I love it, bro. That's awesome. And it, imagine this scenario here. You've got 10, 12, 20, 30, 40, 50 locations, the opportunities that's gonna provide for technicians to grow and come up in the business.

Jimmy Lea: Now you want to talk about a career path. You're gonna come on as a general service technician, and then we're gonna teach you and train you, and then you're gonna be a c technician. We're gonna help you. We're still assist. And you'll be a B technician and then an a technician. And now you're gonna become a shop foreman.

Jimmy Lea: And once you're past a shop foreman, now you're gonna be a regional director, regional manager. You'll have three or four locations that you're managing and growing. And then, so there's so much that can be done. So much opportunity for growth for a guy who comes out of high school, comes out of college and starts by turning a wrench and being that general service technician, you are able to really put out a path in front of them that they can see it, they can smell it, they can feel it, they can taste it, that says, oh my gosh, this is gonna be amazing.

Jimmy Lea: I am gonna stay here with RVU as much as I possibly can 'cause we are gonna build this business. It's gonna be the best there is in Minnesota.

Levi Hendrickson: Yep. Yeah. Well, and that's, you know, a lot of these young people do wanna see the route. You know, I hear all the time of young guys leaving their job and they're, and some of these people do exit interviews, and they're like, well, we just, you know, I didn't see where I was gonna go.

Levi Hendrickson: Or they're like, well, here's where you could've gone. And they're like, as an owner, you failed your employee because you didn't tell 'em that, you didn't lay it out for 'em. You didn't show 'em the. Show 'em the path of, to their success, you know, without them knowing that it's just day to them.

Levi Hendrickson: So,

Jimmy Lea: and they can't guess You've gotta tell 'em mm-hmm. That you're leaving it up to their imagination. They're gonna create the scenario that fits their imagination. And it's probably not anywhere near or anywhere close to what you actually have in mind because you do want them to succeed.

Jimmy Lea: You do wanna see them successful in life. Career wise and family wise and personally wise and spiritually, you want to see them develop and learn and grow.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, definitely.

Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. Man you've got such a great opportunity. You've got such a great foundation. I can see here where Wayne's your coach, right, with the institute.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Correct. You got anything good to say about Wayne?

Levi Hendrickson: I mean, Wayne's I mean, Wayne sees something in us, so, you know, he definitely wants us to succeed. And you know, he makes sure that he connects with us and you know, it's, yeah it's all great. And I don't know. I mean, he's sticking with us even through his move within the company and you know, so it'll be fun.

Jimmy Lea: I say that tongue in cheek because I think the world of Wayne, I think he does a phenomenal job. I think that the shops that he works with, like you, he sees that potential in you. He knows it's there and he's gonna help work with you to bring it to fruition. It's gonna, it will rise to the top. Keep working with Wayne 'cause he will definitely get you there.

Jimmy Lea: I think the world of Wayne, I think he's doing a phenomenal job for the institute as well. Mm-hmm. So it's almost like he's a coach for a coaching company as the CEO Wayne's doing a yeah, a Cracker Jack job, man. He's awesome. We're absolutely loving it. Loving it.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Ron that's part of his position, right?

Levi Hendrickson: To be a coach and to lead and so yeah, a phenomenal man for the job. So.

Jimmy Lea: He is. He is, and he is doing a great job coaching us. He's doing a great job. Cheerleading us. He's doing a great job. Painting the picture of the future, what it's gonna look like, how we're gonna get there, what the air's gonna be.

Jimmy Lea: Crisp. It's clean. Easy to breathe. Oh yeah, man it's so much. Yeah, so much fun. Love it.

Levi Hendrickson: Paint paints the whole picture.

Jimmy Lea: He does. You have to do that with clarity. And be precise in it and do it calmly. You can't let emotions take over. So I think does a great, that's,

Levi Hendrickson: yes, that's very challenging.

Levi Hendrickson: That takes a lot of patience and clarity just makes me think, you know, you just, you gotta speak some of that stuff to the mirror a few times, so that way, you know, it sounds clear in your head, but it don't always come out clear. So.

Levi Hendrickson: Rehearse. Rehearse.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. How many times have you said something and at the end of it you go, you know, that sounded better in my head, but now that I've said it out loud, let me come back.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yep. Yeah, definitely.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it happens. It happens. Well, Levi you have a phenomenal shop. You have phenomenal locations. I just think the world of what you're doing, I think Minnesota is such a beautiful, ripe area for you to grow your business and grow. Grow yourself personally, your family. Your business.

Jimmy Lea: It is just phenomenal. If you were to have, Levi, if you were to have a magic wand and you can't wish for more wishes, but you can make a wish, what would you change in the industry? What would you change in your life? What would you change in your business? What would you change? What's your one wish?

Levi Hendrickson: Oh boy. I see something, I feel like

Levi Hendrickson: magic wand, I don't, you know, that's hard because I feel like it's gotta be something with family because it all strives from the family. But, you know, we've been very happy. We've been very blessed and, you know, I say, you know, so I just, I guess. I hope the good fortune goes with us on our family side and, you know, and that'll, you know, trickle down through our business and going forward.

Levi Hendrickson: So,

Jimmy Lea: bless you. Bless you, and bless your family brother. That is awesome. I applaud you for thinking of your family with your one wish that Congratulations.

Levi Hendrickson: Thank you.

Jimmy Lea: I'm gonna follow that up with one more question here for you, Levi. If you were to be able to stand next to yourself today, and you are starting, you just moved back from North Dakota, back to Minneapolis.

Jimmy Lea: No, not Minneapolis. You're in Minnesota. You moved back to Minnesota. What advice would you give yourself starting today in the businesses that you're starting, as with now? What advice would you give yourself?

Levi Hendrickson: Well, I would say just, you know, trust your gut. Go, you know, don't you know, everything's meant to happen, right? So just don't trust your gut and keep going with it. Right. And then, you know, and that's how we still continue to live. And I think, you know, and then you don't, you're not fighting yourself on decisions or anything of that nature.

Levi Hendrickson: So

Jimmy Lea: trust your gut and your gut's gonna tell you the right thing to do.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. I like that. That's good. That's good advice. So that advice is applicable in, when it comes to starting your business, expanding your business, looking at other locations trust your gut with something feels like it's wrong, it's probably wrong.

Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yeah. Correct.

Jimmy Lea: That's sound advice, brother, that, that's really good sound advice, Levi, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Levi Hendrickson: Thank you.

Jimmy Lea: Well, and as you know, we here at the Institute, we're all about building a better business for you, results in a better life, and a net result, if we all have a better business and we all have a better life, then we're all going to experience a better industry.

Jimmy Lea: That's our desire here at the Institute. That's my desire in working with shops all across North America, is to build a better industry. And I'm glad to be partnered with you, Levi, as we lock arms together, make sure nobody's left behind.

Levi Hendrickson: Thank you, Jimmy. We're glad the institutes took us in and helped us helped us do that, so.

Jimmy Lea: Awesome. Thank you so much, Levi. I really appreciate the time, man. Thank you very much.

Levi Hendrickson: Sounds good. Yeah, thanks Jimmy.