#75 No One Cares
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[00:00:00] What's up, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the All Access podcast from Dent Repair Now. Guys, number 75. We are three-quarters of the way to our 100th episode, so I think, I think we'll hit it this year, right? Middle of June 6, '24. We're gonna be close, right? That 100th episode is gonna be right around the end of the year, give or take.
But anyways, we are here This episode is gonna be a little twofold, I think. Uh, okay, on the right camera. A little twofold. [00:01:00] Uh, first, I wanna update you on taking a little bit of, little bit of a break, right? Vacation. Uh, but we had Kip hop on last week, so the order of episodes, uh, got a little bit screwed up.
However, it gave me some different perspective, uh, because we came back into a busy week. It is easy to work hard. It's easy to put your head down and just shift into work mode. Uh, in fact, that seems... That almost seems to have been the theme of the week. I talked to quite a few, uh, coaching clients.
Coaching, did some coaching calls this week and, uh, right? The default answer was like, "Man, it sure is just easy to get busy. It's easy to be busy." That being said, you've gotta take a break. And if Melissa watches this, she will be like, "Hmm, see? Now it's your idea." But she's been telling me [00:02:00] forever, "You gotta slow down.
You gotta take a break." In fact, right, came back this week to a crazy busy week, at least for the first four days of the week. Like, it was a little ridiculous. And, uh, she's like, "Listen, Gene, if you don't knock your BS off, I'm gonna make you take a week off." And I was like, "Well, I just took 10 days off," but then it was right back at it.
So, some perspective of being able to take that time off, and a 10-day vacation is a little longer than we normally do. We're normally, like, a seven-day vacation. The, the extra three days was kinda nice, especially after grinding so hard really all year, and then the eight days straight before vacation I was in go mode.
Like, go, go, go. You're just like, well, you get up, you go to work, you grind it out, you go to sleep, you get up, you go to work, you grind it out. It takes a little bit of time to [00:03:00] unwind from that. So really, those first couple of days of vacation, like were really, really about not just relaxing, but like unwinding from the wound-up pressure of go, go, go, get it all done, get it all done
I don't remember which day it was, but I had time. Time, right? It's nice to have time, uh, to like sit back and think and not Not just do, right? Not be stuck in the loop of doing, but to have some time to like sit down and pause and reflect and think about what directions are we headed in? Uh, what are we working on?
What's, what, what is important in work? What changes do we need to make so that I don't have to work eight days in a row to go on a vacation and then come back and work like a maniac for four days in a [00:04:00] row to get caught up from being on vacation, right? It, it allows you to stop and think. Uh, in fact, the one day I came up to Melissa and I'm like, "You know, I really like my brain when I have time to sit down and think and process and work through things I wanna work through, or projects that I wanna work on, or anything like that."
I won't say that I had any breakthroughs. Eh, maybe a minor breakthrough, but that's a story for another day. Um, I, I wouldn't say that I had any real breakthroughs from being on vacation, but it did allow me time to think, right? Uh, and even with that, you know, somewhere in the last two weeks would've been kind of pondering this episode and pondering what we're gonna talk about I saw a clip right on social talking about how, or maybe I read it in a book Was reading a [00:05:00] book?
I might've been reading a book. Or it was a clip. It doesn't matter. Either way The time that we used to be bored is the time we used to think. Well, what does everybody do now when they have a couple seconds of downtime? I mean, literally like everybody. Huh, that's... You know, and you're engaged, and you're locked in, and you're doing something.
I have started to try to make it a practice in my mornings when I wake up. Generally, I'm up before everybody else, which if you've known me for a long time is kind of ridiculous for me to say because I'm like the furthest thing from a morning person in the world. Um, but like this time of year we have the bedroom window open, so I like to wake up in bed, and I lay there and just listen to the birds for a little bit, and then get up and take the dogs out and feed the cat, and then I sit on the couch, [00:06:00] and sometimes I'll do some breathwork, or other times I will just like sit there and embrace the quiet, right?
Just to like calm my head down, calm the... like slow the thoughts in your head down, right? Just I'm really trying to deliberately, not unplug, right? Because we're pretty, pretty plugged in every day, but taking some deliberate time throughout the day to unplug and enjoy being bored or enjoy thinking, right?
Like just something to ponder. But anyways, vacation was great, right? So we did Cocoa Beach for a couple of days, uh, and then we hopped on a cruise, uh, for six days. I think it was technically a six-day cruise, um, because Friday when we got back, we just got off the boat like it wasn't a day. In fact, second part of the [00:07:00] show, we're gonna talk about that
Cruising, love it or hate it, the one thing I love about it is, well, one, the internet totally sucks. Um, you can't get phone calls, which totally doesn't suck. Uh, but it sort of forces
you to unplug, right? It forces you to relax. Now you could go clubbing, I guess, and do all this and that, and that's really not my scene. Like, but the one afternoon, I think we sat for two or three hours just on one of the lower decks out on a lounger on the shady side. Ginger guy, can't be in the sun. Not that much at least, and not that Bahamian sun.
Um, but like just sat there and listened to the waves roll down the boat and just watched the sky very, very relaxing. [00:08:00] Like even my, my forever knots, right? And I'm sure a lot of you dent guys, dent techs, have those forever knots in your shoulders. Uh, just not only from not pushing... Excuse me. Not only from not pushing, but just from relaxing and unplugging and knowing that, right, like Shannon, I'm sitting at Shannon's desk, knowing that Shannon can hold the fort down here and answer phone calls and schedule cars, and I don't have to worry about any of that.
And when I come back from vacation, we- there'll be work on the table and everything will be fine Your whole body relaxes, like your nervous system relaxes. I know that there are a lot of us, right, and it was me for years, that are one-man shows that feel like you can't go on vacation or that feel like when you're on vacation, you have to answer calls because I was that guy too, right?
Taking [00:09:00] the kids and we're going to Disney and I'm like, oh, hold on guys. I gotta, hey, this is Gene with NetRepaire Now, right? What can I do?
Find the time, make the time, make it a priority to take breaks and go work on yourself and think and just be a person. Or even this weekend... Oh, by the way, Happy Father's Day. Post Happy Belated Father's Day. It is Father's Day, but I'm here talking to you guys. So Happy Father's Day to all the fathers, all the dads listening to the show.
But anyways, I cut out of work early Friday, right? Because we were caught up. Louie and Mac stepped up again. In fact, Mac is over here finishing a truck that, uh, that they got through most of last week. Uh, but we would, would've been tripping over each other. So I got to cut out early on Friday. I took Saturday off, and other than the podcast, I took Sunday off For me, that doesn't feel normal, [00:10:00] but it's what we should do, right?
We don't need to work ourselves to death. Um, and as I get older and older, right, working so much doesn't seem like so much fun. Melissa's like, "Oh, it's nice for you to have, like, a normal weekend. You scored an extra couple hours on Friday. You were off all day Saturday. You were off all day Sunday. That's nice."
Let the young bucks, right? Max 19. Let the young bucks get in there and work and, and grind it out, and, and we get to enjoy it a little bit
I guess, right, it, it's, it's a little bit of reflection. A little bit of this podcast is me coaching myself along. Um, and then I want you to be aware, too, right? I know I've got a lot of listeners that aren't as old as me, that haven't been doing this as long as me. Uh, slow down, take some time. Travel more.
Be more like Kevin Byrd and [00:11:00] work hard enough to be able to take your family on a nice vacation once a month, right? I love Kevin. I love that. Hopefully that'll show up in a clip and, and you'll text me and be like, "Thanks for the shout-out, bro." Anyways, take the time, reflect, stop and have fun. Uh, life guys, life goes by pretty fast, uh, and it's easy to work it away.
So don't work it all away. Take a little bit of time. Chill out a little bit. Now, second half of the show. Second part of the show, not second half. Second part of the show. Last weekend, right, we came back, we got back late Friday night and Saturday we had a lamb roast. Um, my father-in-law has been talking about a lamb roast forever, right?
"Oh, get a whole lamb, put it on the spit, it'll be great." And in fact, me and Melissa have been together for almost 30 years. I don't remember ever doing... We've had some, like, leg of lamb on the spit and we've done some [00:12:00] chickens, but I don't ever remember, like, the whole animal, like a full-on legit spit roast, uh, lamb.
Well, her cousin called me after Good Friday. The whole big side of that, that side of the family hadn't gotten together forever. Anyways, we get together, we're going to do that, and we're picking the lamb up Saturday morning. We're supposed to get in Friday evening. Friday evening's flights, that's a whole different story.
I think it was 1:30 in the morning when I finally got home Friday night, Saturday morning, and almost 2:00 before Melissa and the kids made it. All part of the story to come. The, the 10,000-foot view story. I won't bore you with the details Anyways, I start talking to Jason, right? Home at 2:00, in bed at 2:30, and think it was back up at 7:00 to, to meet him to go run to the butcher shop to pick our, our lamb up.
He's like, "Ah, brother, sounds like you had a long day," everything, and I start telling him about the day. So quick [00:13:00] synopsis, right? We got off the flight or we got off the boat, shoot to the airport early. Thank goodness, that's kinda nice. Check-in, gate agent Terra- or the check-in lady did not wanna be at work.
Didn't, didn't wanna do it. Southwest Airlines, like, used to be my favorite airline, and they are not so good anymore, or at least it feels that way. Anyways, she could barely be bothered to even be there, right? And I have, uh, my priority boarding and pr- or priority status, whatever, supposed to be good customer service.
That kinda sucked. Then we get a lunch, get a text, "Hey, bad weather in the Northeast. Uh, if you're traveling through one of these cities, you can rearrange your flights so you aren't affected." I pull it up and I'm like, oh, Baltimore is on that list, right? They're gonna get storms this afternoon. Start l- looking through the app and I'm like, oh man, there's a direct flight.
Side note, the original flight we booked that they [00:14:00] bounced us off of And it leaves in like two hours from right then, like when we're, when we're looking at it. So I'm like, "Oh, let's finish lunch. We'll go, we'll go back up to the, um, check-in area," right? We hadn't gone through security yet. "And, uh, we'll see if we can get switched.
There's like 12 open seats on that earl-earlier flight. Shouldn't be a problem." The lady looks it up and she's like, "Well, there's no delays in Baltimore." I'm like, "I know there's no delays in Baltimore now, but your company texted me, and there's a notification in my app that if we're going through there..."
And I show her, and she's like, "I can't do anything." She's like, "If you wanna buy six seats for the plane, you, you can buy six seats." And I'm like, "You're-- it literally says right here, I can change flights same day or another day, no cost." She didn't wanna hear it. She couldn't be bothered. Cool. We will deal with a gate agent, right?
We'll go to the gate. Well, [00:15:00] typically all of Southwest in Orlando is one, um, terminal, right? A terminal. But it doesn't matter. Anyways, hop on the thing, the tram, we shoot over, and we're like, "Where's gate 83?" And they're like, "Oh, that's over here," right? Different terminal. It's the only gate that's Southwest in that terminal, and there's nobody working it because the flight's far away, and there's no other Southwest people around, and it was like a whole, like go outside, walk down a ramp, get on a bus to get to where we're at.
Like we're not running back over. By the time a gate agent shows up, the flight we could have got on is done. I'm like, "Well, I guess we're gonna see what happens." Then we're to go up. They changed our seats again, like huge pain in the butt. Couldn't even get that lady to understand the problem. She's like, "You have seats."
I'm like, "It's not what my... Like these two sets of boarding passes are different Irritating. Then the whole boarding [00:16:00] process, horrible. On our way to Baltimore, after it took forever to get out of Orlando, right before we're touching down, I get a text, "Hey, you've been moved to the 10:00 PM flight," the 10 whatever flight.
And I'm like, "What the..." Like, I don't wanna go home at 10 I wanna go home now, right when we're supposed to. We get off our plane. The plane we came in on is literally next to the gate of our flight we're supposed to go out on. We go over there, "Hey, we're on that flight." "Nope, you got moved to a different flight."
I'm like, "It's right there." And they're like, "Well, your bags won't make it. We can't send you on that flight if your bags aren't gonna make it." I'm like, "Send the bags later, dude. I live close to the airport. I'll go pick 'em up." "Nope, can't do it." Gate manager comes over. "Nope, can't go. We're at our 10-minute window."
Shoom, shuts the door. "See you, folks. You gotta wait." Son of a bitch. Now we got four-plus hours to kill in Baltimore. We get on the plane to leave, finally, from [00:17:00] Baltimore, and dude, we sit there forever. They're holding the plane at the gate, door open, for 20, 25 minutes before we get to taxi away. They're like, "Oh, we're waiting for a couple other passengers You couldn't wait for me four hour-- You couldn't wait for my family four hours ago but whoever this dude is, you're gonna wait for?
Like that's a little messed up Anyways, we finally get on. Melissa is stewing by this point. We land in Pittsburgh however many hours late from our original flight, let alone well over an hour late from this flight, and they blame it all on weather, so it's nobody's problem because it's weather We're standing at the luggage return, or right luggage pickup, and I'm like, "Man, the way today is going, I better check our luggage," right?
Pull up the app, look at it. Oh, your luggage came. [00:18:00] Are you ready? Are you ready for this? Your luggage came on the 6:00 flight that you were supposed to be on
So if you guys rewind, at this point about five or six hours into my story, they wouldn't let us on the plane because our bags wouldn't make it. Our bags were the only thing that made the freaking flight, 'cause you made us stay in Baltimore. We go over to the baggage lady, and I'm like, "Ma'am, m- I, I am not in the least bit upset with you.
I'm not even mad, and quite frankly, the way today's going, it just is what it is." I said, "These bags came..." And she goes, "Let me guess. On the earlier flight that they said you couldn't make because your bags wouldn't make it?" And I'm like, "Hmm. Yes, exactly." She's like, "Yep. Happens all the time. Write a letter and complain."
So I've got a draft that I've been working on for that, uh, [00:19:00] that is gonna be sent to them, but son of a bitch. Anyways, this, this podcast is not about that, but I wanna give you that backstory. And then also if re- if we rewind to the insurance debacle from two or three episodes ago. So Saturday morning, right, we're driving to get the lamb, and I'm sort of venting, a little bit more, uh, animated and a whole lot more tired and cranky and a bit more vulgar, right?
Like, yeah, I was kinda hot, to Jason, Melissa's cousin. And he goes, "You know-"
I got worked up too, right? And he's got a temper. We all got tempers. He goes, "But when you realize that they just don't care, it's a little easier to accept." And I was like, "I know." I, and I think I even said it a couple times throughout the story, at least while I was, you know, [00:20:00] iter- iterating to him like, "None of these employees care.
Nobody gives a shit because there's no repercussions. They know their job is safe, and whatever, you're gonna leave, and what are you gonna do? Go to another airline? What are you gonna do, buy six tickets on another flight? These people don't care I can't stand, right? Just like the, the insurance adjuster that wouldn't come out.
I-- listen, that was not my problem. I'm not doing it. I ain't coming out. Whatever. Kiss my ass. I- I'm really getting sick of so many people in the world switching to this I-don't-give-a-shit attitude. And I think it really bothers me because we do care, right? Here at Dent Repair Now, me and Melissa and Louie and Shannon and [00:21:00] Mac and Liv, this team cares.
When we had everybody here, when we were the biggest that we were, right, everybody cared about every interaction with every customer, about every repair, about every estimate. Like when somebody calls or emails or walks through that door right over there, we care about them, and we wanna do right by them, and we wanna make sure they're happy.
What is it that makes so many people in so many positions just not care anymore? Like, man, I'm, I'm gonna have to turn this into like the crotchety old guy podcast, I think is what, I think is what's gonna happen
I just wanna make it right, right? We have a rule here. One, we have our great service guarantee, and I don't have one of the cards in front of me, but it, it boils down to if [00:22:00] you aren't 100% satisfied with your entire experience at Dent Repair NOW, from the repair to how you were treated to everything, you don't pay a dime, right?
I, I expect everybody here to, to deliver great service, and that's repairs, that's customer interaction. That's like, "Can I get you a glass of water? Can we get you a coffee? Do you need to use the restroom? Would you like to hop on the Wi-Fi? Let me explain to you why it costs this. Let me give you all your options.
Let me make sure this repair is great." I want all of those to work all the time. And if it's not right, I don't want you to pay
I just don't understand how so many places, so many employees just don't care. What's the answer to make people care more, right? We have a-- It's not a customer's always right thing here, but it is whatever it takes to make the [00:23:00] customer happy. You know, even, like, we get into some pretty gnarly repairs, and that great service guarantee is always in play, and if the customer's not happy, they just don't pay, right?
If that means that we ended up working all day and didn't make any money on a car, it kind of sucks, but it's what makes it right, right? I need to have those happy customers leaving. I need to let... I n- I need them to know that we do care, uh, and that we do want to take care of them, right? What things do you guys have in play in your companies to make sure that your customers are taken care of?
I need to revisit this one, right? Here's one for you. I heard it somewhere and implemented it. If you can solve a problem and make a customer happy, no matter what it takes, as long as it costs us less than two hundred dollars, you don't need approval. Just make it happen, right? Just make the problem go away.
Make the customer [00:24:00] happy. That is what it is all about. All right, end of rant. Getting all worked up. It's almost time to go home and have dinner. Mac is cooking a, uh, nice tomahawk steak. We got some lobster tails. Uh, I think I might have to partake in a nice old-fashioned this evening with the steak. We're gonna do a little reverse sear on the pellet grill and then smoke that bad boy up.
Not sure how they're doing the lobster tails. That's not my forte, but, uh, I know how to do a steak. So, all right. We are adding a new section to the podcast, and I'm gonna try to do this every single week. We're gonna do a tool of the week brought to you by whoever the tool is from. And this one, we're gonna do a little twofer.
So, this tool of the week is brought to you from Dent Reaper and Anson PDR. I've got some new tools and a newer handle from Anson that we're gonna talk [00:25:00] about, and, uh, let's dive right in. So first, and I think I'm-- I have to have mentioned them on here, certainly when I did the, like, two-hour, uh, end of the year must-have tools section.
I know I talked about them These. We've talked about the Kratos door tools, right? And that, that tip that they have that just pushes so clean. While I was talking to John maybe a month ago or so, and asking... Actually, I was messaging him about a repair, and he was like, "Hey, well, you know, did you try the football tip?"
And I'm like, "What's the football tip? I don't know what that is." And, you know, got on dentreaper.com and pulled it up, and, uh, not the tool of the week, so we're not gonna go too far. But I was like, man, I don't wanna buy just a tip and pay all the shipping and everything. I'm like, let me shop around. Well, this Kratos door tool- Kratos door tools are some of my favorites.
And in [00:26:00] poking around, I found that John has a three-piece mini Kratos set, right, with the, here's the second part, right, micro hubs from Anson for the micro hub handle. And I can't recommend this handle highly enough. And make sure you order the extension as well, right? That extra leverage will save your shoulders.
You don't wanna end up with old dent guy shoulders like I have. So the micro hub from Anson, I believe it's a tequila tool. This thing is great. They keep coming out with new tools for it. Uh, in fact, I saw they just came out with some, uh, new Door Lord interchangeables and some new brace tools. Uh, maybe you'll get to see some on here.
Maybe. Wink, wink. Anyways, uh, the [00:27:00] micro hub is amazing. These tools are fantastic. So what it is, or what makes them special, if I can show it, is this weird shape on the tip, right? It is not just a, it is not just a shaved blade. It is... Come on. Right here. Focus. Not on me, on this. It is not... There we go. It is not just a shaved blade.
It is like, it's almost l- like a shaved ball-tip tool. These things push so hard, but so clean, even on sharp stuff, right? So I've had the Kratos door tools since they came out. In fact, I think I won 'em two winters ago, [00:28:00] two Christmases ago. I won them at, uh, Andy Patrick, Andy and Am- Andy and Amanda Patrick's, um- Toy Drive, uh, and came back and instantly fell in love with them.
Well, when I saw these on the website, the micro set or the mini set for the micro hub, uh, I was like, "Well, I need to have these." Well, I was a little worried that they weren't gonna perform quite as nice because the tip is so much smaller than, uh, the door tool is. But just this week, I had a Silverado in, pretty sharp shot way forward on the bed, pulled the cap off, and I'm like, "Man, that crease is super tight This, money.
Like the way these things push sharp hits up is just absolutely crazy. Kind of mind-blowing, uh, how well they [00:29:00] work. Uh, tons of drive, plenty of power, right? We just clicked it in, and I actually pulled, right, just like this, so I was down in the bed and kind of like this. Great drive. No bend. I, I would assume these have to be stainless.
Um, anyways, the three-piece set on Dent Reaper, which hopefully this doesn't mess me up, is... Well, the handle's $199 on Anson. And let's go back to... Where's my Dent Reaper? There it is. $259 for the mini Kratos set. Uh, so keep an eye out on Anson. They keep putting this handle in with a bunch of different kits, uh, combo kits.
Check that out. Get this thing. Buy the extension. Um, and this whole new mini line of tools is awesome. Like, these doors keep [00:30:00] getting tighter and tighter. We do a good number of European cars here, and you can really sneak in, get a great push, get a clean push with these. So tool of the week, tools of the week, I suppose, for week one, for the first episode, are the Micro Hub from Anson and Tequila Tools with extension, and the three-piece mini Kratos kit from Dent Reaper.
Highly recommend. Um, and right, two great companies, great people, great tools to make your job a little bit easier. So guys, don't forget, coming up, we have, uh, the PDR Expo, September 25th and 26th at the Rio in Las Vegas. That is going to be an awesome event. We've got a couple of classes that I've mentioned a bunch of times.
Kicking around making that soft skills, uh, challenge happen in probably [00:31:00] October right here in Pittsburgh. Keep an eye out for that. That is in the works. We've got the new beginner podcast, the PDR Lifestyle Podcast, I think we're calling it. Uh, coming up real soon, those episodes will begin to drop, not in here, but a separate episode.
If you are thinking of getting into PDR, you are not gonna wanna miss that series. And I've been doing some coaching for some 20 Group members, for some people outside of the 20 Group. If you need some coaching right in your PDR career, uh, we do that, right? I kinda don't advertise it often enough, uh, but it is out there.
It is an option for you. It can be about the repair side, the business side, the marketing side. growth, staying small and keeping it all. Anything you wanna talk about, we can get there. So guys, as always, thank you so much for listening. Number 75 in the books, three-quarters of the way to episode 100, and I will see [00:32:00] you on the next episode.
