Episode #192- Planting seeds to grow Technicians- w/Jay Goninen- WrenchWay

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Episode Notes: 

This week's MindWrench Podcast episode tackles the critical technician shortage in the automotive industry, suggesting that the solution lies not just in desperate recruitment, but in proactively supporting educational programs. Special guest Jay Goninen, president and co-founder of WrenchWay, and host of the Beyond the Wrench Podcast, shares insights on building lasting partnerships with schools and fostering positive workplace cultures as key strategies for attracting and retaining talented technicians, as well as building a sustainable talent pipeline.

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Focus on Education, Not Just Recruitment: The industry needs to shift its focus from simply recruiting individual technicians to investing in and strengthening the educational programs that train them. This creates a long-term, sustainable talent pool.
2. Build Partnerships Early: Shop owners should establish relationships with schools long before graduation season. Early engagement fosters stronger connections with potential technicians and allows for better collaboration on curriculum and training.
3. Culture is Key: Technicians aren't just looking for good pay; they want a positive work environment. Prioritizing well-being, professional development, and open communication is crucial for retaining talent.

 

Thought-Provoking Questions:

1. What steps can my shop take today to start building relationships with local automotive schools and technical programs?
2. Beyond pay, what specific improvements can I make to my shop's culture to attract and retain technicians in today's market?
3. How can I leverage resources like the Voice of the Technician survey to better understand the needs and concerns of my team and other technicians in the industry?

 

 Guest Info: Jay Goninen – Founder -Find-A-Wrench/ Co-Founder- WrenchWay

Email:  [e-mail]           Website: https://findawrench.com    https://wrenchway.com

LinkedIn                Beyond The Wrench Podcast 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The number one message I'd have out of that is
our industry often focuses onthat one person right, the one
technician or the one studentthat's going to come work for us
and we're hoping to developinto a quality technician at
some point.
What my challenge to theindustry is is focus on that one
program rather than that onestudent.

(00:20):
You need that program to behealthy.
You need that future pipelineof technicians to be very, very
strong.
You don't have that initialseed.
You're just going to chase yourtail forever.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the MindWrench Podcast with your
host, rick Sellover, where minoradjustments produce major
improvements in mindset,personal growth and success.
This is the place to be everyMonday, where we make small
improvements and take positiveactions in our business and
personal lives that will make amajor impact in our success,

(01:02):
next-level growth and quality oflife make a major impact in our
success, next-level growth andquality of life.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Hey, what's up everybody?
Welcome to the MindWrenchPodcast.
I'm your host, rick Silover.
Thanks so much for stopping in.
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(01:34):
can help them too.
I would really, really reallyappreciate your help sharing
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brand new listener, welcome.
I hope you find something ofvalue here that helps you in

(01:55):
your personal or professionallife as well.
Please make sure to click thesubscribe or follow button so
you never miss another episodespending some time with me today
.
So this week I have a veryspecial guest.
We've been friends for quite awhile.
I was on his show a few yearsback and now he's returning the
favor.
He's going to be on my show, sogood timing for that.
So Jay Gonadon is the presidentand co-founder of Wrenchware.

(02:18):
He's also the host of theBeyond the Wrench podcast, so
his main goal is fighting thattechnician shortage that
everybody's talking about andhas been talking about for years
.
But Jay's actually doing somethings that are making a
difference, so we're going tochat a little bit about that
today.
So, without any further ado,jay, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Thank you so much, rick.
I appreciate you having me onyour show.
It was a pleasure to see you Idon't know what a month ago.
Yeah for SEMA.
I had a lot of fun down therecatching up with you and a lot
of other people in the industry,so it's great, always great to
talk to you.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
I appreciate that you too.
You know it's funny.
Just a side note you know I'vebeen in this part of it the
podcast part of it for fouryears now.
I've met so many really coolpeople that just also happen to
be podcast hosts too.
So we'll do a little bit of abackground.
I know you started your career,much like I did, as a
technician in the industry, butyou were in the mechanical side,

(03:19):
I was in the body shop side.
What triggered you to start?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
what originally was find a wrench, which is now
wrenchway.
So I grew up, as you mentioned,in the industry.
I hesitate to call myself aformer technician because I feel
like I do that word adisservice.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
I was a terrible tech , but I was a shitty painter,
don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I grew up in my family's automotive repair shop
here in Wisconsin and you knowwe didn't have a lot of money
growing up, so I started in mydad's shop at the age of nine.
So when I wasn't at school Iwas at the shop answering phones
, making appointments, fillingout deposit slips, doing a lot
of stuff that a nine-year-oldprobably shouldn't be doing.

(04:03):
And so, you know, I helped asmuch as I could and I loved
being at the shop.
And so as we grew the shop, Ithink my role started to evolve
and so, you know, started offdoing oil changes and tire
changes, tire rotations, thatkind of thing, and got to the

(04:25):
point to where the shop hadgrown and I went off to tech
school because I wanted to comeback and be a technician.
So came back and was atechnician for a short period of
time and quickly found out thatI just didn't love it as much
as I thought I would, and I alsofound out it was harder than I
thought it was right, like Ithink, growing up in a shop you
see people working on stuff allday long and I thought I would,
and I also found out it washarder than I thought it was
Right, like I think, growing upin a shop you see people working

(04:47):
on stuff all day long andyou're like, oh, that seems easy
, like this, this person can doit, like no problem, I'll, I'll
go do the same thing.
And once you kind of get in andget that piece of humble pie and
really start to understand thatwhat you'd watched growing up
wasn't as easy as it looked, Ithink it really set me back and

(05:10):
I think when I, when I look backat it, it was probably the best
thing that ever happened to me,because one, I did get the
technical background needed todo a lot of the other things I
needed to do in my career.
But then too, it gave me anappreciation for technicians,
because I couldn't do it, Iwasn't good at it, and so over
the course of time I always saythe industry has a way of

(05:34):
putting you in its roles andactually went the diesel route
for quite a while and I wasfortunate enough to be able to
go work for a manufacturer, anOEM, that really provided a lot

(05:55):
of training and allowed me theopportunity to see a lot of
different operations, and theneventually went to one of the
dealers that I was a rep forwent to run their parts and
service departments for a sevenlocation dealership group.
All that time I remembered backto being a kid and remembering

(06:17):
my dad saying I can't find adamn wrench anywhere, and what
he meant was he was looking fortechs, right.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
So I started the first company in 2017, and it
was really a play on words frommy dad growing up that he
couldn't find technicians, andso I was struggling with the
same thing in my own operationsbeing able to find good quality
technicians and so as I got moreand more experience in the
industry, I started to reallyunderstand that it wasn't just

(06:44):
me that was having that issue.
It was kind of everybody havingthat issue.
So started Finder Wrench as aprimarily recruiting company
focused on technicians and, overtime, started to realize that
we weren't we weren't fixing thecore issue of the problem right
, we were kind of robbing Peterto pay Paul in some sense, and

(07:05):
that's that wasn't helping set asolid foundation for the
industry.
It also went back to anotherthing when I was a kid that my
dad used to talk about, whichwas you don't steal texts from
the neighboring shop, and Ithink our industry in general
had that kind of mindset for along time until we got to the

(07:25):
point of desperation and then itwas like we need people, so I
have to take somebody from myneighboring shop, and so I think
our hope when transitioning toWrenchway was that we could
really focus on the core issuesof the industry, which are
getting more people into theindustry and keeping the ones
that we already have in theindustry and keeping them happy,

(07:49):
and so I brought on a businesspartner in 2020.
We built Wrenchway as a way toreally kind of provide
transparency to that technicianthat's out there looking at
multiple opportunities and justfully knowing that, if they're
good, they probably have theirchoice of wherever they want to
go, and so allowing them to dotheir research on a shop in a

(08:13):
way that, like the way we builtit was like Zillow for housing,
right, so a technician can comeon and really do their due
diligence on a shop.
And so that part continued togrow.
And then, when we really wentback to our core mission, which
is to promote and improvetechnician careers, we wanted to
figure out a way to really goafter the schools in a way that

(08:36):
could help bring them support.
Help bring them maybe abackbone if they have to go up
against administration or asuperintendent or school board,
and really hopefully give themthe resources they need to run a
great program.
And that's really where we'reat in current days, that school

(08:58):
piece has become a huge part ofwhat we do.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
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Absolutely your note of you know, not stealing another guy's

(10:48):
technician, that's.
You know, don't fish in anotherman's pond.
That's a common saying withinthe collision industry too, and
we, you know, we've had to dothat on this side of the
business as well.
But it is a.
There has been a bigger push toyou know, start growing some
technicians, not just stealingeverybody else's.
So it's great that you've gonedown this path so far.

(11:10):
And what was the initialfeedback from the industry?
Were you getting a lot ofinterest and a lot of people?
Hey, this is great.
I can't believe someone's doingthis, or did it just go
unnoticed for a period of time?

Speaker 1 (11:26):
period of time.
Well, so on the finder wrenchside, when we first started it,
that was interesting becausethat grew crazy fast, uh, way
faster than I would have thought, and it was because there
really was nobody else out theredoing what we were doing.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Right.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
And so, um, that that word spread quickly in some
ways.
I like to say we grew too fast.
And you read about that inbusiness books and you're like
how could anybody grow too fast?
That seems like the greatestthing ever, and in reality it
puts a lot of stressors on abusiness right, Because you're
just not able to keep up withthe demand.

(12:00):
And of course now there'srecruiting companies all over
the place for our industry, butat the time we were kind of the
only game in town and so thatinitial feedback I think was
great, but then it was also.
It put pressures on us and Ithink it was really hard to
always deliver a consistentresult, right, and that's one of

(12:21):
the things that we reallyfocused on with Wrenchway is how
do you deliver that consistency?
Still very, very difficult, andI think one of the unique
challenges in the staffingindustry, especially in the blue
collar trades, are that therearen't enough people right,
there simply aren't enoughpeople, and if they're good,
they're probably being treatedvery, very well by their current

(12:42):
employer, and so it's hard todo like on that recruiting side.
It was so brutal because it waslike you could do everything in
your power and just care somuch and want to do a good job
and not get the result that youwant Right.
And so I think that was wherewe opened our eyes a little bit

(13:02):
to the fact that, like we got towork on that math problem right
, we've got to work on gettingmore in.
Otherwise, regardless of whatwe do over time, it's really
hard to assure that you're goingto have a happy customer.
So it's a tough.
The staffing side is reallyreally hard in general and again
, I think it just goes back tothe fact that it is a math
problem and there aren't enoughpeople in this industry.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, I think it just goes back to the fact that it
is a math problem and therearen't enough people in this
industry.
Yeah, I 100% agree, 100% agree.
You've had a really really good, interesting podcast for I
don't know.
Three, four years now.
You got about 240 episodes ofBeyond the Wrench, right, yeah,
how has that made a differencein your quest to do what you're

(13:47):
trying to do?

Speaker 1 (13:49):
I think with the podcast, similar to you, we're
able to do it in a reallyauthentic way, right, like I
don't think anything we do onthat podcast is scripted.
Honestly probably to a fault,it's unscripted.
For me, I think that's the onlyway I could do it, right Like I
think following a script goesagainst my being right Like I

(14:10):
can't I can't follow a script.
And so we're able to get really,really smart people on, and
I've been shocked over the yearswith some of the guests that
we've been able to have and Ilook at it from a personal
standpoint, almost selfishlythat there aren't many
opportunities to get an hourjust to sit down with a really

(14:31):
smart person and pick theirbrain, right, right.
And so for me, I always learnsomething from every single
guest that we have, and it'shelped me in my personal life be
able to implement some of thosestrategies or best practices
and hopefully, whether it's onthe business side or my personal
life, be able to reallyimplement them in a way that

(14:53):
makes me more effective as aperson.
So I think, from a selfishstandpoint, that's been really
great for me.
And then, on the other side, Ithink, the listeners it truly is
educational, right, we'retrying to make this industry a
better place and when peoplecome on our podcast, it's not a
sales pitch for anything.
It's really just to get on TalkShop and be able to get those

(15:17):
really really good ideas out tothe masses so that hopefully
everybody can get the samepersonal benefit that I do out
of it.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah, 100% agree on that too, jay.
I don't make a dime off doing apodcast, and that's not the
purpose.
I've gained a ton of knowledge,I've met some great people, and
you go back 10 years.
There was no such thing in ourindustry as a podcast, so you
had limited ways, if you're atechnician or an owner, of

(15:44):
gaining new knowledge indifferent aspects of this
business.
Right Now it's like pick achannel, pick a.
You know they're, they're allover the place and it's awesome.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
So hard to keep up with them, though.
Right, Like even my mostfavorite podcasts, I, I struggle
to keep up with all of them.
Uh, I, I.
For me, I like podcasts themost when I'm driving, and if
I'm driving a lot, then I canburn through a lot of podcasts.
If I'm not driving a lot, likeI, I struggle to listen to a

(16:15):
podcast while I'm working.
Uh, just because I think it'smy squirrel brain where I have
to stay focused on what it isthat's in front of me.
But you know, I try really hardto listen to a lot of podcasts,
just because there's so muchavailable in terms of free
resources for everybody to beable to.

(16:35):
Just if you take the time andlisten, you can always come out
with something.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Oh, absolutely, and it doesn't cost you nothing and
you can do it at yourconvenience because all these
things are recorded.
So if you miss one, you canalways go back six months later,
pick it back up and andre-listen.
So yeah, I get most of mine in.
I do some I work out in themorning and I'll listen to at
least one in the morning, butusually I'll try to do it
anytime I'm driving.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
So yeah and on the collision side.
I my my favorite podcast out ofevery single one other than
yours, Rick.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
I was going to say be careful here.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Other than yours is the Roadster Shops Oil and
Whiskey podcast.
That is like I listened to thatone religiously.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Oil and Whiskey I'll have to check that out.
And whiskey I'll have to checkthat out.
Well, listen, since we uh,since we first uh got together
back in 2021 when you had me onyour show, you know there had
been an.
There had started an intense uhfocus in this industry about
what we call the technicianshortage.
Right, a lot of shops complainman, I just can't seem to find a

(17:40):
guy.
And you know I can't hold on toguys and I don't know what's
going on.
Everybody's getting older,getting out of this thing.
You know I can't hold on toguys and I don't know what's
going on.
Everybody's getting older,getting out of this thing.
You know there's a massive gapthere and we're all looking at
it now, both mechanical andcollision side, but I I don't
know who's got the bigger gap.
What are the numbers reflect in?
Your primary target ismechanical and diesel.

(18:01):
I know that, but I know you'redabbling in helping collision
space and we're going to get tothat as well.
But what do the numbers reflectfor the mechanical side of this
, as far as the shortage goes?

Speaker 1 (18:14):
So there's numbers all over the place, right, in
terms of the actual shortage.
Nada's got some numbers that Ithink were short, like 80,000
years, something like that.
Okay, nada has got some numbersthat I think were short, like
80,000 a year, or something likethat.
And then there are otherorganizations that kind of
forecast the need.
What I'll say is, regardless ofwhat the number is, I think

(18:36):
everybody that's listening tothis is probably having some
type of pain about it, right?
So you know, it's easy to go toa trade publication and read
the broader number and at timesthat can get really scary, yeah,
but I think, for for mostpeople, if they look on their,
their micro, their local level,they felt the pain and they
realistically probably felt thepain for a long time now.

(18:59):
And so you know, I thinkwhatever that number is the true
number.
You know, I think whatever thatnumber is the true number, I
think we all feel it at a locallevel.
And that's the reallyheartbreaking thing, because
when we're struggling with thisand the numbers that I do look
at are more along the lines ofthe aging population in our

(19:19):
industry, a lot of baby boomersexiting and with that is a lot
of brain power, right there areso many
people with so many years ofexperience that are leaving the
industry because they're, youknow, they've put their time in,
they've, they've, they'veworked, uh, for a long time.
And so as that average agecreeps up in the 40s, you're,

(19:43):
you're starting to see that painbecome more and more evident.
And if we have less peoplecoming in the industry, if we
don't have strong schoolprograms to be able to put more
people into the industry, wehave this, this huge gap that's
just growing further and furtherand further.
And I think the more we avoidit, the more we avoid trying to

(20:08):
bring awareness to our industry,the more we avoid trying to put
the work into actually buildinga solid foundation of people,
the more painful it's going tobe in the future.
And I think so many of us,because we have our daily fires
that we have to put outoftentimes just ignore this

(20:28):
right and hope it goes away, andhope that we can just throw an
ad on Indeed and have a line oftechnicians lining up to come
work for us.
And in reality it's just notthe case anymore.
It's really, really hard tofind these people, and one of
the things I'll do, if I'mspeaking at like a conference or
something is talk about.
Try to gauge how much of a painpoint is this in your business,

(20:50):
and typically it's top two topissue.
At least it's a top three issuein most businesses and that
doesn't matter.
If it's collision dieselautomotive does not matter.
It is a huge issue, and thenI'll always follow that up by
saying, okay, so if this is yourone of your top issues, how

(21:11):
much time do you spend on it?
And I kind of get abegrudgingly like an hour if I
need to.
And so you know, I challenge alot of people in our industry to
take a different approach to it.
Really look at it through theeyes of like a true CEO type of

(21:32):
lens, which is, if you're aleader in your company, your top
priority is to get good peoplein the building, and when you
reframe your mind a little bitto think that way and not the oh
, I'm going to revert back to gowork on that panel in the shop,
right, like I, like you, youhave to have a different
mentality in order to to reallycombat this for the longterm.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Sure, you know, and there's a majority of of shop
owners, both on mechanical andcollision side, that were just
former techs that you know hadthe gumption and put together
their own place and you know itbecomes fairly successful.
But they still have thattechnician brain where they go.
I can't do all this right now.
I got to go back there andfinish that car and that's such

(22:16):
an easy out and I get that Right.
But you know, at the end of theday it's not going to go away
unless we progressively dosomething about it.
And to me I see two avenues andthat's growing, you know,
growing people into thisbusiness that weren't in this
business.
And then retaining, holding onto the guys that you have.

(22:37):
You can't keep a 62-year-old or63-year-old technician from
retiring.
I mean you could try, but atthat point they're going.
I've done it right.
But if you've got a 50-year-oldthat's thinking, well, god, I
should probably try doingsomething else.
I still got some good yearsleft.
I mean those are the guys youdon't want to lose.

(22:58):
Those little guys have got 30years of industry knowledge and
wisdom.
Can't let those guys go.
So retention, I think, is huge.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
I could not agree more go.
So retention, I think, is huge.
I could not agree more.
The one thing I'll add there is, if you go and you listen to
maybe an industry consultantspeak or somebody talk about the
fact that some of the issuecomes down to the fact that
maybe you have that technicianrunning the business and I think
that can be an issue.

(23:29):
But I also look at some of thecrazy, crazy talented owners in
our industry and they have thetechnical background, but they
the one thing that the reallysuccessful ones were able to do
was separate their technicalside from their business side.
And the really great leaders inour industry, when they have

(23:52):
that technical background, it'sa beautiful thing because they
they understand and they cankind of call BS in a shop if, if
, maybe somebody is trying topull something, but then when
they take that to the next leveland say, okay, I, I mastered
being a technician, now I'mgoing to master being a
businessman or a woman and beingable to, you know, listen to

(24:13):
those podcasts that maybe theydon't overly enjoy but can learn
something, or start starting toread books on business and
implementing those leadershippractices within their business,
you know, getting a coach orgetting a good personal
relationship with youraccountant and your attorney so
that you have reliable resourcesto be able to go to Um.

(24:37):
You know, I I my.
My biggest point there is beingthat just because you were a
great technician one doesn'tmean that you're going to be a
great leader.
But it also sets one heck of afoundation that if you decide
that you want to be a greatleader, uh, also sets one heck
of a foundation that if youdecide that you want to be a
great leader, you can be as goodor better than anybody else in
the industry.
So I don't think it's anegative at all to have that

(24:59):
technical background, as long asyou are able to kind of
disconnect and look at an attack, ownership or leadership as a
different mindset and adifferent way of going about
your day.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
You're right, you can't replace that technical
knowledge that an owner shouldhave.
Right, if you're going to run abusiness, if you're fixing
vending machines, you shouldprobably know how to fix a
vending machine before youdecide I'm going to own a
business that fixes vendingmachines, so that you know it
gets that part out of the way.
But you're right, there's somany opportunities to learn,

(25:33):
whether it's through reading,whether it's going through
industry events and attendingsome seminars, doing some stuff
online, hiring a coach, hiring amentor, regardless of your age.
Those are great resources and Isee, at least on the collision
side, I see a lot of shops thathave utilized that.
You know, the guy that was atechnician that's running a shop

(25:54):
was doing a million a year, butnow, because he's implemented,
offloading some things, that hetries to do everything and
improving his education andsurrounding himself with great
people that are going to helphis business, and they grow to
two or three million or fivemillion or they buy three more
shops, you know.
So there's no limit.
But yeah, it helps to have thattechnician background.

(26:17):
I would agree with that.
So, with respect to, like Imentioned, retention efforts,
because there's a lot of focuson retention, I've seen a lot of
classes on it, seminars, a lotof trainings on retention, and
to me that's a huge piece,because I used to be a
technician and I worked at a lotof shops that treated you like

(26:37):
shit.
Quite frankly, you were justhey, get out there, work harder,
work faster, I don't care whatyour problems are, just get out
there and work hard, right?
Well, in today's age thatdoesn't bode well with everybody
Some of us older guys.
That was just what you had.
Like it or love it, that's whatyou had to do.
It's a little different feel outthere now.

(26:58):
They're realizing that if youmake a better environment for
your workers, more options forthem as far as work hours or
their environment, or the tools,having the great tools and
equipment that is the latest andgreatest, and having a good
environment to work in, allthose things make a difference
in keeping people from lookingdown the street going oh now

(27:22):
that guy's going to pay me fivebucks more an hour, I'll just go
down there.
So are you seeing an impactBecause I am seeing a slight
impact on collision site Are youseeing an impact with retention
efforts in the mechanical anddiesel side?

Speaker 1 (27:50):
technician surveys that we did, but one of the
issues that we have is that ournet promoter score is going down
rather than up, meaning thatthe level of dissatisfaction
within our industry is not goingin the right direction, and so
I think the heartbreaking partabout that for me is that I am
seeing shops bend over backwardsto try and make their teams
happy and at some level they'rethey're not able to right and

(28:15):
some of it is, I just think, allof the negative chatter amongst
technicians like if you go to asocial media group, you can see
just the constant bickering inthe back and forth and it's
almost like that snowball effectwhere one will comment on
something and a lot of timesit's sarcastic in nature and
then somebody else builds onthat and it just kind of

(28:40):
it does, it becomes this noisethat you can't avoid.
And then that goes into theshop and a physical aspect,
right, if you're reading it allday, every day.
And then you go into your shopand you start looking at things
through a microscope, uh and andreally you know, turning that
bad day into a bad week, into abad month, into a bad year, and

(29:01):
all of a sudden you've just gotthis terrible attitude.
A lot of it comes down to thefact that I think that the
negative wins out a lot.
That negative message is very,very consistent in our industry,
and I've seen it in otherindustries too right.
Like I don't think it'sexclusive to us, but you know,

(29:21):
if all you're ever hearing isthat negativity, it's really
powerful in a in a bad way.
Now the opposite could be saidas well, where I'm sure you've
been in a lot of shops that justhave a like just insanely good
culture and people like beingthere and like being around each
other.
And you know it's it's hard toexplain it on a piece of paper,

(29:44):
but when you walk in to a shopwith a good culture versus a bad
culture, when you walk into ashop with a bad culture, you can
just, when you walk into a shopwith a bad culture, you can
just kind of cut the tensionwith the light when you go in
there oh it's not good.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
It's not good.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
But that good culture , I think, is just so different.
It comes down so much to theleadership and a person's
ability to lead, but then alsothe people in the shop.
If you, if that shop doesn'thave a lot of the negative
narrative in it and you knowthat they're generally happy, of

(30:19):
course we're all going to havebad days Like that's it doesn't
matter what industry you're in,but if they're generally happy
and happy around the peoplethey're working with, it's just,
it's so much easier to keeppeople right Because they're not
miserable.
And even that that part goesback to the hiring piece.

(30:40):
Right.
Because what happens when youdon't pay proper attention to
your recruiting efforts or yourdevelopment efforts is that you
end up in desperate hiringsituations, which means you've
got a bunch of customer in aband, you've got a lot of cars
to get out the door and allyou're thinking about is can

(31:01):
this person fix cars?
And then you hire that person,regardless of their personality,
regardless of their attitude,and you really settle there.
And when you settle, that canquickly you know, you hear it
all the time like hiring one badperson can absolutely destroy
your culture.
Yet here we sit back and sit onour hands and just wait until

(31:25):
we're desperate to hire somebody.
Put an ad out, hire the firstperson that can fog a mirror
right and wonder why we can'tget good culture.
Well, so much of it comes downto hiring in our ability to be
patient and wait for the rightperson.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
And then you know, they always say, um, be slow to
hire, fast to fire and yeah,holy yeah, holding onto the
wrong guy for three years uhcould put a huge wet blanket on
top of your shop.
So, absolutely, absolutely,yeah, I think uh, like you spoke
about earlier, uh, the mindsetand that's why I talk a lot

(32:02):
about mindset through to mypodcast is that triggers
everything.
So if you've got a negativemindset to begin with and
believe it or not, human brainis pre-wired to go negative.
It just is right Survival.
But if your leadership ispredominantly negative, they're
going to have a negative vibearound their shop.

(32:23):
The technicians are going tohave a negative feel and when
they hire people, yeah, you'reright, they're going to go
through people because it's like, yes, I got a warm body, let's
just hire him.
I don't care if the guy's anass to everybody else, he's a
good wrench, he's a goodmechanic, whatever.
But I see the shops that havegood mindset right at the
leadership level and theyencourage a better culture than

(32:46):
the average shop and yourtechnicians will fall into that
fairly easy.
Or if they don't, if they'reextremely negative, because
there's people that are they'llnever say a positive thing in
their life, they're 100 negative, they will not fit there.
But it is up to leadership toto start it there, to to have
that positive mindset and thatpositive culture and you can

(33:07):
attract a lot more with apositive uh vibe in your shop
and get with that negative shopthat you can attract a lot more
with a positive vibe in yourshop.
You can't let that negativeshop that you can feel as soon
as you walk in, right,absolutely.
So you.
You mentioned the voice of thetechnician survey and I was
going to ask you about that.
So I looked through that and Idon't know.
You did it the previous year.
You had what?
Maybe 800 people the first yearand like what?

(33:27):
Five over 5,000 this year.
Almost 5,000 this year almost5,000 almost 5,000 close, yeah
which is a big increase for ayear.
For and for those of youhaven't seen it, you know, uh,
go to the wrenchway uh websiteand look for the voice of
technician.
There's a report in there youcan download and look at.
But what it does is jay justgets out there and, uh, you know

(33:48):
, allows the technicians to havea voice.
And you know what do they likeabout their jobs, what do they
don't like, what would they liketo see in a new job?
So its intent is to capture.
You know, where are we as anindustry?
What do we need to do better asan industry?
Maybe?
What do we need to do less ofas an industry to attract
technicians, right?
So looking through that andI'll let you dive into it just a

(34:13):
little bit it's not assatisfying as you thought it
would be this year, right,there's a lot more negativity.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
But isn't that you know?
I thought about this after wetalked initially.
It's.
You know.
It's always the negative peoplethat will bitch and complain If
someone's doing really well intheir shop.
A lot of times they won't replyto a survey.
That's for people that arepissed off.
Life's good, I'm making goodmoney.
I like where I'm at.
I don't need to do a survey.

(34:44):
Does it seem like that's apossibility in results?

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Yeah, I think there's something there.
I think there's also a lot oftruth to what we saw, right?
I think some of the narrativeof the negativity coming through
is not.
We didn't put the survey outthere with that intention, right
?
We weren't hoping to get abunch of negative responses.
Tension, right?

(35:09):
Like we weren't hoping to get abunch of negative responses.
That's at some level.
It's discouraging for not onlyus but the industry when you see
and read that these technicianscome back and tell you that
they're not very happy right nowand you know this.
For this year's survey, weactually teamed up with ASE on a

(35:30):
formal partnership where we'reco-branding the survey together,
and that helped us be able toextend our reach.
Ase has been phenomenal to workwith and I think over 80% of
the respondents were ASEcertified, so it's experienced
technicians, I know.
When we first did the surveyand we have this technician pay

(35:50):
tool as well in both cases wethought we're going to put this
out there and it's just going tobe all entry-level people that
respond to it.
Like we were so worried thatthere weren't going to be
experienced techs that responded, but what we found was it was
the opposite.
We got a lot of experience andI think it correlates to what we
see in the industry in terms ofan aging demographic and aging

(36:12):
population of technicians.
That really gave us thefeedback that we're trying to
move in the right direction.
But we're not there yet and Ithink when I look at the data I
don't necessarily know that it'sall really, really bad.

(36:32):
I think what I hope this surveydoes is that I hope it generates
conversation at that individualshop level right.
I hope somebody takes thatreport and has a meeting with
their team or one-on-ones withtheir team to talk through some
of the stuff that we came upwith, to identify blind spots

(36:55):
that leadership might have right.
Maybe one of the top issues orone of the top wants with
technicians from their shops isthat they want properly running
equipment right.
Is that they want properlyrunning equipment Right and so
like.
When you look at that, thatseems like a pretty obvious

(37:15):
thing, like if you're a goodtechnician, you want the stuff,
you want the proper equipment tohelp you do your job, and if
you don't have that, it can bevery frustrating because you're
either trying to make a toolwork that's not meant for that
specific job or maybe you havethat special tool you need, but
guess what?
It's got some broken pieces init or software that's not
updated.

(37:37):
Whatever it is, it's afrustration.
And if you consistently havethose frustrations, if you're a
good technician, that'll driveyou nuts right, Because you're
constantly looking for whateverit is that you need.
And so if you're not out in theshop every single day and we
talked about those formertechnicians turned owners or

(37:58):
managers you can have blindspots and that's okay.
But that's where communicationis so key.
Like if we don't havecommunication with our shop and
the people that are boots on theground in the shop every single
day, you don't know what'sgoing on and a lot of times you
kind of have to pull it out oftechnicians and and being able

(38:18):
to ask the right questions andbeing able to to get in the
right setting, to where they'llthey'll actually tell you what's
wrong.
Now I think we all know thosetechnicians that'll tell you
everything that's wrong all thetime.
That can be a little hard to beable to understand what what is
actually wrong, but I think thefact that that was like the

(38:42):
number one thing thattechnicians look for in an
employer, other than money is,is somewhat alarming.
Right, because tools, you know,with technology moving at the
pace it is, and and, in a lot ofways, the amount of tools that
we have it can be really reallyhard to keep up with.
So, I think, being intentional,being able to listen to your

(39:03):
team and, again, using thatsurvey or whatever it is that
you want to use to be able tohave productive conversations
with your team and say, hey,listen, this is a common
complaint in our industry.
How do we look here?
How do we stack up versus thecompetition or the industry as a

(39:23):
whole?
And if you feel good aboutwhere you're at, that can be a
good recruiting tool as well.
Right To be able to say, hey,you know what?
This is a common area wheretechnicians aren't happy, but we
feel like we do a really goodjob here.
Or if you can be transparentwhen you're talking to a
technician that might want tocome work for you and say listen
, this is an area we struggle in, but bringing you on, we think

(39:46):
we can, we can get a little bitbetter here and being
transparent enough to be to bereal with them, because in a lot
of ways, I think techniciansfeel like there are a lot of
smoke and mirrors out there.
Right, A lot of shops that willtell a technician whatever they
want to hear, just to make surethat they come and work for them
.
So, you know that transparency,I think, can be a really,

(40:08):
really nice thing for yourcurrent staff and potential
staff.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
Right right now, when you did that survey and we
talked about this a little bit,it's that's I think it was
primarily almost maybe 90 orsomething or better, of
automotive or automotive andmechanical diesel shops, right,
for technicians that replied youhad a little bit of collision,
right?

Speaker 1 (40:33):
too small collision we need a collision okay.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
So that's what I was gonna ask you what you know from
the collision side.
I'll represent the whole sideof the collision.
You know what can we do to helpget some inputs on that survey.
If you know, if you want toshare that with me ahead of time
and I could, you know, post itout.
All the places that I poststuff I've.
Also there's a great industryresource, uh, mike anderson.

(40:56):
I'm sure you've heard ofCollision Advice Mike.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Anderson.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Yeah, and he does a lot of surveys.
The who pays for what thing hedoes every quarter and he
usually combines a lot of hisstuff.
He'll do an annual speech thathe does 250 times or 300 times
during the course of the year.
But I think he'd be a good guyto connect with for you
personally.
But I think he'd be a good guyto connect with for you
personally, just that maybe he'sgot a method where he could
connect that the mechanical andthe collision side as far as

(41:22):
those kind of survey results.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
So that's a great point.
The one thing I'll add there Ithink in a lot of ways the
reason why we haven't reallypushed for that collision side
yet like we're quickly gettinginto that side, I think one of
the reasons we hadn't in thepast was because that was the
one area I hadn't worked inpersonally, growing up Right

(41:46):
Like I've got a lot of friendson the collision side.
I love the collision side, butmy personal uh, my personal
experience had been on therepair and the diesel side or
the automotive and diesel sideof repair, and so we have some
things in place that I think inthe coming years will make that

(42:06):
collision side grow reallyrapidly.
And I think one thing that hasresonated with me is that there
is an appetite from thecollision side to get collision
more involved with what we dohere at wrenchway.
And you know, in the past Ithink we were a little hesitant
and a little shy, just because II was naive about the industry.

(42:28):
And as I'm learning more andmore and I've been to some
collision conferences, likestarting to know more people.
You know our mutual friend colestranberg.
He's helped introduce me to abunch of people.
You know, our mutual friend.
Cole Strandberg, he's helpedintroduce me to a bunch of
people Like you've.
You've shared your network withme as well and you know I I'm
really really excited for whatthe future of our company is

(42:48):
with the collision side and asI'm learning more and more, I'm
meeting all kinds of justincredibly good people.
I'm meeting all kinds of justincredibly good people, but a
lot of people that also aresearching for those answers and
searching for why can't we getthis thing figured out?
And you know, I think the moreand more we ingrain collision

(43:10):
into our identity as a company,the more results we'll have on
that side.
So I think we're just gettingstarted on that side, but I
truly feel like we're going togrow that side really rapidly.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yeah, there's actually.
I mean there's becoming more ofa merge too from collision into
mechanical, because such anincrease in mechanical
operations now included in youraverage collision repair not
even counting ADAS, those typesof things just the mechanical
stuff and the electronics side,that's, you know, the technology
of today's vehicles.
Then you add in calibrationsand scanning and all those and

(43:47):
there's a lot of mechanicalstuff involved.
So I'd see a naturalprogression of these two coming
together more so.
And quite honestly, jay, thisis I mean, it's a huge problem,
it is a global problem, it is a,you know, not just collision,
not just mechanical problem.
So I think the morecollaboration that we can, we
can do between the two sides, Ithink is definitely going to

(44:09):
help all the way around I do too, and I think I'd be interested
to get feedback from those ofyou in collision.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
When you read through that survey, I do think there
are a lot of parallels and Ithink what those technicians are
saying are some of the samethings that we are hearing on
the collision side.
Even though it was a smallpercentage of the survey results
, I think the feedback is stillhelpful for any collision shop
that's out there, right?

(44:36):
I think?
If you read through that andoff of this survey, I've been
talking about how, if you wereto take the top 10 things that
technicians look for in anemployer and then the others,
how they rate their current shopand just rate yourself on those
, do it however you'd like, butdo a one to 10 scale on each

(44:58):
category, which all shouldpretty much translate to the
collision side, and do aself-assessment and be honest
with yourself.
I think a lot of times, issueshappen when we take a little bit
too much pride in somethingthat might not be as good as we
think.
Right, and you know when, whenwe had our days on the
recruiting side, that was giveyou one classic example, I was

(45:21):
working with a dealership downin Louisiana and this guy, when
we first did our intro callagain, this is back a long time
ago when we were on therecruiting side he just thought
he was the greatest leader ofall time and you could hear like
in his voice there was a lot ofpride in everything that he
talked about.
But then when we'd reach out totechnicians to recruit for them

(45:42):
, they said the opposite.
The guy had a terriblereputation and in fact, one of
our recruiters at the time gotabsolutely chewed out by a
technician that was insulted bythe fact that we would even
consider reaching out on thisperson's behalf.

(46:03):
And so you know, I think we allhave blind spots maybe not that
drastic of blind spots, but youknow we.
There are things and I don'tcare how good of a business you
are there are things that youcan do to improve right.
There are things that you cando to treat your staff better,
to be a better employer and andreally work toward having that
technician wear that badge withpride, right, whatever your
shop's name is, and if it's onthe shirt like when they go out

(46:25):
to a restaurant or they go tohave lunch somewhere that
they're proud to represent yourcompany, and if they're not, you
got to work toward that.
Right, you got to work towardthat, otherwise you're you're
just never going to successfullybe able to recruit.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Oh, absolutely.
Hey, I just want to shift gearsa little bit, because actually
time is ticking away here and Iknew this was going to go
probably a lot longer than weplanned on.
So but I know you have thatjoint mentorship with ASC now
and you guys are really focusingmore on that school connection.
You have something SchoolAssist that you guys have put
together, so tell us a littlebit about that.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
Yeah, school Assist we built pretty early in
Rentschway, so we startedRentschway in 2020.
And I think it was 2021 that welaunched it.
And the crazy part about SchoolAssist was when we launched it,
we're like this is a reallycool tool, we're giving it away
free to schools and we justexpected for it to take off.

(47:23):
And we launched it, flipped theswitch on it and it was mostly
crickets.
And we're like that didn't golike we thought it did, like we
thought it would, and so as wewent, we were really focused on
the core wrenchway business,which was more of the job board
piece or those top shops pages,and we got more and more

(47:46):
customers that were telling uswe love that school side but
there's nothing going on outthere Like if there was, that
would be a really good tool forus.
So we we really refocused andreallocated resources in early
2023.
So, going on two years ago now,at the time we had about 150

(48:08):
schools on and really schoolassist is just a way for schools
to be able to ask for stuff,right, so they can ask for
somebody to come speak to theirclass.
They can ask for consumables.
A lot of times the consumables,such as shop towels or brake
cleaner or whatever it might beare coming out of the
instructor's pocket.

(48:28):
They can go out and ask thatand then our network of shops
are able to see that and reallygo provide assistance for those
schools.
So as we launched that and wereallocated resources, we
started to get more and morebuy-in from the schools.
We started to kind of see thatsnowball effect of positivity
with it and I think at first theschools were a little hesitant

(48:51):
of like what's the catch?
Why is this company doing thisand not charging us anything?
Once we got through that piece,that's when the growth really
happened right, when theystarted to trust us and see that
there was no catch.
It's just that industry wantsto help these schools out and
get their schools in a healthierposition.
That quickly grew.
So to the point to where we didthis partnership with ASE, got a

(49:15):
lot more reach with SchoolAssist.
To the point to where we didthis partnership with ASE got a
lot more reach with SchoolAssist and the amount of cool
stories that have come out ofthis and the amount of really I
give so much credit to the shopsthat are a part of our network
because they really have steppedup when teachers, when
instructors and when theseprograms need something and
we're putting it on a platter sothat that shop doesn't have to

(49:37):
fight through all theadministration and figure out
who the right person to talk toat the school is when we serve
it to them on a platter.
They're delivering, they'reseeing that and they're actually
going out and doing things.
And, for the health of ourindustry, I think this is the
right way to go.
Right.
I think, focusing on theeducation, education side,

(49:58):
making sure these programs don'tgo away, which unfortunately,
on the collision side especially, we're seeing programs go away
like crazy.
Yeah, we need to support thesepeople and our job at wrenchway
is to hopefully be able to putthat on a platter for all of our
shops right.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Is there a link on your website that shops can go
to to see what that school says.
It may be connected if theywant to.
They want to help, they canconnect there.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Yeah, they can go out to wrenchwaycom.
We've got a school tab outthere and you can see what the
program's all about.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Okay, great, that's fantastic Cause, yeah, I'd like
to see the collision side try todo what they can to help there
as well.
What could shops be doing rightnow?
Even if you're a small shop,you're a three-man shop, one
location, you're not an MSO,you're not a big dealership shop
but what can little shops bedoing to help towards this

(50:53):
technician shortage?
How can they do their littlepart to make things better?
Because I know a lot of theseshops that want a technician or
they're needing somebody.
If they've got a local tradeschool, they've got a local
post-secondary collision program, they usually show up there
sometime late April, early May,when they're just about ready to

(51:13):
graduate and find an instructorthey've never met before and go
hey, got any guys that arelooking for a place right, it's
the absolute worst way to try tofind a young technician out of
a trade school.
So what could you suggest thatis a better route for that?

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Boy, am I glad you said that, right.
That is.
One of the biggest pet peevesof instructors is when a shop
reaches out that has norelationship with them and asks
for their best graduate.
In a lot of cases right now,especially on the tech school
side, if they're going to thatprogram a lot of times they're
sponsored going to that program,meaning that the shop is paying
for their education to go therethey're already employed and so

(51:52):
when you call at graduationtime, you're too late, and
you're probably too late by twoyears, right.
And so I think, first andforemost, it is building a
relationship with your techschool, your local tech school,
your local high school, anddoing it in a way that's not
just asking for stuff, right.
And when I say that, a lot oftimes when that instructor, that

(52:17):
school instructor, sees thatshop call or walk in the doors
and it is that week ofgraduation, it's almost this
tension of like, what does thisperson want now?
Like they're coming to me, sothey obviously want something.
But if you go in and you viewthis truly as kind of a
networking type of ordeal, itdoesn't matter what size

(52:39):
business you are.
All it takes is growing arelationship with an instructor
and if you're in that techschool, that high school and
they say, hey, listen,especially high school programs,
right now they have no budgetGoing in.
And when that instructorconfides in you that they're
struggling to get interest inthe class, that they're

(53:00):
struggling to get people toactually want to come take that
class, maybe you can go overwith some equipment and do a
demo for them.
Maybe you can bring thosestudents on a field trip through
your shop and do some type ofdemo to provide that visibility.
I think a lot of young people,if they actually knew what we
did on the collision side, wouldbe fascinated by it.

(53:23):
And and when they see the careeropportunities that are in this
business, you know, I think thatmight speak more to the parents
, at least initially.
But painting can be pretty cool,bodywork can be pretty cool,
right, like if, if you actuallyexpose them to what it is.
The problem is a lot of themjust have no exposure to what it
is, that we do whatsoever, onlyprogram.
So you need to look into waysvia job shadow, apprenticeship

(53:45):
programs, whatever it is, to beable to get young people in your
doors.
But the more you can focus onthat, the more you can focus on

(54:06):
that school relationship as awhole and maybe getting them
some, some old parts that youwere going to throw in the
dumpster that they can then goand tear apart in the class.
And oh, by the way, you withyour technical aptitude, if you
can go in and help show them howto do something with that, you
can really have a positiveimpact on an instructor's life,

(54:27):
on a student's life andultimately, at the end of the
day, your life, because you'regoing to have more people
involved in the program and morepeople that want to come work
for you.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Excellent excellent ideas and I, I a hundred percent
agree on those.
I've got a shop I know of thata couple of times a year.
He just he's the owner of shopand he'll go to the local high
school and you know they'll.
They look for speakers to comein and you don't have to be a
speaker.
You should say I mean, theseare, you know, 15, 16, 17 year

(54:57):
old kids.
If you're a 35 or 40 year oldman, you're a speaker, right?
So you come in and talk alittle bit about the industry,
maybe a little bit whatcollision shop or mechanical
shop's like, and there's goingto be some kids that really
latch onto that.
Oh, that sounds really cool.
How do I do more, Right?
And I think, as you build thatrelationship, maybe you go there
a couple of times during theyear.

(55:18):
Maybe offer them a shop tour.
Hey, if you've got, you know,five or six kids that really
want to see what a collisionshop does, man, bring them down,
We'll have lunch, We'll have,you know, we'll make it fun for
them or whatever.
But it's those little thingsyou do along the path, I think,
will earn you that ability to goin close to graduation time, to
go oh, hey, it's so-and-so fromso-and-so shop and he goes hey,

(55:41):
any young guys have been to myshop?
If they're still interested,we'd love to bring our board on
an apprenticeship program or,you know, you know a part-time,
whatever it, it at least opensthat doorway.

(56:01):
Cause, as a job, you know, I hada-secondary school that I
actually taught at for a while.
I had a collision program.
We had a couple high schools inour area that had collision
programs and it never failed.
Late spring I'd always havecollision shop owners and
managers ask me hey, is so?
And so they got any good guysover there.
I'm like, when's the last timeyou were at a uh, at a board
meeting there, an advisory boardboard?
Well, what is that?
You know what I mean.
So it's, yeah, work ahead oftime and you might have some

(56:22):
luck at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
So I think that the number one message I'd have out
of that is our industry oftenfocuses on that one person,
right, the one technician, theone student that's going to come
work for us and we're hoping todevelop into a quality
technician at some point.
What my challenge to theindustry is is focus on that one
program, rather than that onestudent.

(56:44):
You need that program to behealthy.
You need that source and thatfuture pipeline of technicians
to be very, very strong, becauseif you, if you don't have that
initial seed, you're never goingto get anything out of what
you're you know you're, ifyou're just focused on that, one
student all the time, you'rejust going to chase your tail

(57:05):
forever.
If you can focus on that program, make that program a powerhouse
, however you can, you're goingto have more success.
I can guarantee it.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Sure yeah, you got to invest, you got to give.
To get right, you got to giveto get, so that's excellent.
Well, I know we're coming up onan hour here, jay and Alex, I
could do this for another halfhour, 45 minutes or two hours, I
don't care, but the listenersaren't going to stay on that
long.
So do you have any otheranything great, any new news?
That's before we go.

(57:36):
That's that's happening withRenshway.
I know we talked a little bitabout a couple of things you got
going, anything you want toshare with the audience.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Yeah, we've got some things that we're not ready to
announce yet, some that I thinkwill have a significant impact
on the collision side of ourbusiness and the collision
industry in general.
Hopefully, within the nextcouple of months, we'll have the
ability to announce publicly,but we've gotten so much
momentum with the school sideand I think one of the really

(58:06):
cool parts about that is that,rather than pitting one shop
against another which I think alot of times happens in general,
recruiting the school piece iswe need all hands on deck, right
Like we need everybody to beinvolved with these programs If
we want to make them thepowerhouses that we believe they
can become.

(58:27):
It's going to take everybody.
It's not one shop, it's not oneMSO, it's not one dealership
group, it's everybody.
We need everybody involved inschools, and, whether that's
through Wrenchway or not, youhave to get involved with your
schools, and so I think what wedo with our tool allows for a

(58:48):
streamlined way of doing that,and I think, as we grow and
evolve, we've got some justreally incredible things in the
works and we've signed somedeals with some of the OEMs and
their dealer networks that Ithink not think I know is
immediately going to have a hugeimpact on schools across the

(59:10):
country.
And I don't want just OEsinvolved, right, I want that
three-person shop to be involvedwith their school.
I want that 50 location MSO tobe involved.
I truly think that that's theway forward for our industry.
And so, you know, I think ourschool piece continues to expand

(59:31):
.
I think the reason it's expandedis because we've been able to
get a lot of interest around it,and I think, for the most part,
everybody wants to help theschools, everybody wants to help
get more people in thisindustry, because I think it
does fight the foundationalissue that our industry has had
now for several decades.

(59:51):
It's just now.
We need the execution side,right.
We can't just say that we wantto develop people.
We actually have to developpeople and we have to have
systems in place to do so.
And so, as Wrenchway evolves, Ithink we'll continue to come
out with different forms of datato be able to better educate
the industry on how we getbetter.

(01:00:13):
I think we'll be able to allowmore and more tools to get
people involved with schools andhopefully, at the end of the
day, I think we'll be able toallow more and more tools to get
people involved with schoolsand hopefully, at the end of the
day, I think our desire is justto have a really positive
impact on the industry, andthat's what we work toward every
day.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Well, that's awesome and it's really, really
appreciated.
Jay, I know personally all thestuff that you're doing to help
bridge the gap, to help you, tohelp pull all this together, and
I know it's a big job.
So, anything we can do to helpyou, we're here for you.
So it's going to take a lot ofcollaboration.
I think it's going to take alot of people pulling in the
same direction, but I thinkthere's no better time than

(01:00:49):
right now.
To whether you're a shop, likeyou said, a small shop, mso,
dealership, whatever, now is agreat time to get involved.
So, ask those questions, askwhere you can help, ask where
you can donate.
Reach out to Jay.
I'll leave the link for hiswebsite as well as his podcast,
If you want to reach out to Jay.
If you've got any additionalquestions, he's always available

(01:01:10):
, always happy to answerquestions and be part of the
solution.
So, jay, I can't thank youenough for being on today.
It's been a pleasure and Ithink we'll have to do this
again, probably relatively soon.
So there's a lot more stuff Iwant to get to, if we just have
time for it today.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I appreciate you having me on.
I always enjoy ourconversations, whether we're
recording or not.
I think the world of what youdo, and really your heart to get
the industry in a better place,I think is such a cool thing
and it's genuine too.
It's not just doing it forselfish business reasons.
I think when I talk with you,you can tell that your heart

(01:01:53):
wants to see this industry movein a better place and it's
because of people like you thatwe will get this industry in a
better place.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Well, I hope so At least before I'm gone.
I'm not getting any younger.
Let's go, people, come on,let's get moving.
Hey, thanks again, jay, and youknow people are going to hear
this.
It's going to be after theholidays, but tomorrow is
Christmas Eve, so I want to wishyou and your family a very
Merry.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Christmas.
It sounds good.
Merry Christmas to you andyours as well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Well, I hope you enjoyed whatJay shared with us this week and
maybe picked up on a fewhelpful tips on how you can
start making your shop a moredesirable place to work and
start planting those seeds withyour local high schools and
trade schools and start thegroundwork of growing your
future techs.
If you want more information onthe subject, be sure to connect

(01:02:49):
with Jay at Wrenchway.
I'll leave all the links in theshow notes.
Thanks again for tuning in.
I really appreciate yoursupport and I hope you have a
great week.
I can always be reached atwwwrixelovercom, where you can
find all my social media linkspodcast episodes, blog posts and
much more.
Bye.