Dent Repair Now All Access Podcast — Episode 94
Corrected transcript (machine transcription; names corrected)
[00:22] Welcome back. Do you wanna know what would absolutely suck? If it were Now. thirty at night. Thursday. November 5th. Any recording or podcast. and not break your streak for the year. For episode 94 of the All Access Podcast. Do you know what would absolutely suck? is if you were having audio problems. And you figured out your audio problems and you solved it. part of solving that. was having them mute. This mic? And you solved your problems, and you were so excited you solved your problems. that you went and started to record your podcast.
[01:12] And then sixteen or seventeen minutes into your show. You realized? And then Just to be sure you hit the end recording and you go look at the file. And the whole show is this. Just me? Talking, being animated. silently. Idiot. Idiot. How do you do that? So dumb. There should be a big red flag that comes up. Like this software should be smart enough to be like, hey. camera sees your mouth moving. Yet Zoom is smart enough for that. Zoom knows.
[01:59] If you're talking and you're muted, it puts a big thing up on the screen that says hey. You're muted. Nobody can hear you. Ugh. Anyways, welcome to the show, everybody. Oh man. Why is it Thursday and I'm just now recording this show to drop Friday morning? I'm recording tonight. Because I'm not breaking the streak. If I didn't have that streak, if I had I not made that promise to myself. to you back at the beginning of the year. I would have taken this week off. Uh so I think I've mentioned it on here. My mom uh broke her hip in February. But then Oh, maybe three weeks ago.
[02:47] Uh give or take. Uh the hardware in her leg. failed because the bone hadn't healed completely or healed correctly. Hardwarebroke. And in turn, When it gave way, rebroke. She had to go in for a surgery, they'd take all the old hardware out. Reinforce it, put bigger hardware in. Put her back together. Well, the last recovery was super difficult. This recovery is even super difficulter. I'm just being a smart ass. Much more difficult recovery, no weight bearing for. I think we'll be at six, maybe even flirting with seven weeks since the surgery before. Um She'll be able to put full weight on it, like she can touch her toes and maybe just a little bit to like help balance. She cannot take a step on that leg.
[03:38] The good news is, none of this is life-threatening. That's good. Like, there could be way worse news than this. The bad news is She's not handling this well, right? So if you can. Prayer, say some prayers for my mom. If you're not a prayer, send her some good thoughts and good vibes to help her along her recovery. uh and more importantly to help her along with the struggles she's fighting with. Uh to get through this. So. Mm-hmm. That's been taking a bit of a Bit of an emotional toll on me. I'm genuinely concerned. Her, I hope that she gets to go. Back to her house and gets to be independent. But if we don't see some big turns, I I've got serious concern about that. And if she happens to watch this, which she occasionally does, uh We've talked about this. Dress to work. You can do this. You just got to power through.
[04:34] But anyways, that's that's taken some uh It's taken a little bit of a toll on me the last couple of weeks and it hasn't been Good. So I have been trying to Right, get my work done, which we're busy, which is fantastic. First week in November, we're booked into December. It's amazing. I love that we're this busy. Ah, but it's a full schedule. Um Took the whole weekend off last weekend, which is why I didn't record. And honestly, I was in such a shitty mood on Sunday. It wouldn't have been a good show. I was in a shittier mood than I am upset about being a dumbass and not making sure my mic was unmuted. Um Anyways, uh Work here.
[05:19] It's good. Life is good. There are people in the world with way bigger problems than I have. Uh so uh check out the new background well not the new background the upgrades To the background, right? So we got the sign. that Mr. Cosentino uh sent over. I had to get a dimmer for it because it was blowing out the camera. That's why maybe on the last episode. It was just back there reflecting. Um we moved a shelf over here. 'Cause I get this backwards every time. Move the shelf over here. I added a spotlight. The shirt of the week. Speaking of this. We um Added some stickers, right? Decorated the arm instead of this big black arm. We brought the old Reaper. Down here, courtside. We brought the old Porsche cup here, courtside, and we added some. Cool red accent lighting over there.
[06:13] Um Anyways, it's looking cool. It's not done yet. I still wanna do some stuff with the desk. mix it up a little bit. But anyways, it's it's good. It's good. Happy with where we're going. Give any tips, right? James Ricci, maybe. Lighting guy. Some of this inspiration is from the Dent Slayer podcast. Maybe you have some tips for me. And I know you listen. So hi James. Uh anyways, today's episode this week's episode Last week last week's episode, the like when is enough enough? That that whole questioning my We're questioning mindsets on that and Working through, man, that connected with a lot of people. I even had. Several non-PDR people.
[07:03] Watched the episode and they were like, dude, that was really good. Like that relates to this. I'll relate it to me. I did that for a long time. Like, pretty cool stuff. I I like uh That was cool. I like reaching the world. Anyways, this week, some of my struggles in life and business. Some of my hot buttons. I think we got five or six. Yeah, I'm not really that. Okay, maybe I am. Yeah, five or six that we're going to touch on. Um And maybe I'll do a better job than the first take, or maybe I won't. You don't know. I don't know. I don't remember what I said. And the stupid mic, no. The stupid me didn't turn the stupid mic on to record. So let's talk about some of the stuff I struggle with and what's some of the stuff you guys struggle with. What's something that you once I go through my list? Maybe you struggle with some of this too.
[07:58] I want to hear from you. What are your struggles? What what can we make it a therapy session for you too? Alright, number one on my list. Shiny object syndrome. And I don't just mean shiny dent tools. However, I do like a good shiny dent tool. I mean like opportunity. Yeah. Because is it opportunity? Right, actually these first three, like one, two and three all relate to each other. Um Anyways, shiny objects. So for me. Man, my personality is like a quick start. Like, I want to go, I want to do this, I want to try this, I want to try that, I want to try this. And then I suck at follow-through the worst follow-through ever, real low on follow-through. Something I work hard on. But man, it's a struggle for me.
[08:46] Shiny object syndrome. Man, maybe we should start at Google Ads. Management company, a management service for PDR because I can't find a good one out there and so many people need it. Nope, no, no, no. Got enough on your plate. We do not need to add. Google AdWords management to the mix. Build the ultimate. CRM specifically for PDR. No, no, stay in your lane. Focus, Gene. Come on. Don't do it. Maybe. No. Maybe. You can fix cars and you can teach people. You can do your podcast. Maybe you should do that. And maybe that's too much. But I don't care'cause I like doing all this stuff and this is all fun.
[09:34] Maybe you should do that? Yeah. And maybe, maybe it all works together. Yeah. And maybe instead of two companies in this space you should combine them and make it one. Yeah. Let's do that. Right, so. It is so easy for me to get excited about things. Uh in fact so. Teaser, next episode is already done. Uh it's a dual episode with me and Keith from PDR College. So This show is dropping on both channels on Monday. It's already done. I don't have to sweat next week's episode, just this one. Um But anyways, in our pre-call right to get ready for the show. We were talking about a business move idea in the PDR space. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, this, this. And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were both kind of like, Okay, that's a lot of work. Maybe we shouldn't do it. But it would be cool. But maybe we shouldn't do it. Right, so those shiny objects are. They're, man, they're so.
[10:31] Easy to distract me. Which takes me to number two on my list. Focus. Focus can be tough. When you focus, man, magic happens. Things happen, things get done. Um John Lee Dumas. from Entrepreneurs on Fire. Podcast has an acronym. Focus. F.O.C.U.S. completion. I don't know. Check it out. I thought I had it right. Don't have it right. But, anyways, it's basically. Uh Follow One Course Until Success.
[11:23] F-O-C-U-S. Yeah. Focus. So Follow One Course Until Success, right? Big difference. Right, real world here. just like I was talking about in shiny objects. at the end of last year when we decided to shut down AAI and merge it. into Dent Repair Now because when I had those two things to focus on. couldn't focus on either one. and neither one got shit done. Mm. moving it to under one brand, albeit I'm busy in this brand. So much easier to focus on one brand. All of my content. Our followers, our email lists, everything has grown. So much better. by just focusing on one thing. I gotta get good at that, right? But the shiny object, oh, what's that over there?
[12:13] Maybe I'll focus on that. pull it over here and go here. Number three. Saying yes to everything. Man, I did I feel like I've gotten better. Uh significantly better. But man, you could get me to say yes to anything. You want to try this? Yes. You want to go here and do this? Yes. Do you want to do this? Yes. Yes. Well man, you can yes your day away real quick. You know, when you say yes to something. By default you're saying no to something else, right? We all have a finite number of hours in our day. If we say yes to something that's going to take an hour, there's nothing else in that hour that's going to get done. Because you said yes to the other thing. Now.
[13:01] You could relate this to just dent repair. Are we saying yes now to some of these difficult hard core repairs? because it's what's best for us? Or are we doing it because we've seen people like Brice, or Arlison Guedes, or Jay Ma, or you know one of these crazy smash guys. Do you want stuff like that? Are we saying yes? Because maybe it's possible? Are we saying yes because it's our best? decision and business. a question to ponder. I will say. That's saying yes. to some things. It's been pivotal. In my life, right? So a quick Story?
[13:47] Some of you old school techs will remember PDR Nation back in the day. Oh, I got a call from John Highley one night and uh I was like, man, that dude's calling me. I didn't even know he had my number. And uh he's like, hey. Gene, your names come up in a few meetings. We're working on this trade organization called PDR Nation, blah, blah, blah. We're looking to add some new advisors and we think you'd be a great fit. And I was like, yes, I'm all in. And then it jumped into that. And that was a great experience and I made some great friends. And then you know, part of the launch of that was Myke Toledo and John. uh were doing a marketing talk at MTE and they were like, Hey, Gene. Talk at MTE. Hmm.
[14:35] Yes. Secretly had not given a speech since like second grade. Or maybe once in high school. It was bad. I just not good at not a good public speaker. No, no bad. But I said yes. And then proceeded to give my 20-minute speech in five minutes. Guys remember that micro machines uh Commercial guy back in the 80s. Like the world's fastest talker. Yeah. I think I could have beat him that day. It was it was a really fast presentation. Uh but it didn't pass out. I almost passed out, but it didn't pass out. Had I not said yes to those things. We wouldn't be sitting here podcasting today. Right? Because I wouldn't have In my eyes, failed miserably and made an ass out of myself, and I wouldn't have gone to work. on figuring out how to do that, right? I would have never stepped up.
[15:27] Um To KECO, I wouldn't like my world would be a different place if I didn't say yes to that. So Don't say no to everything. Don't say yes to everything. But say yes to opportunities that make you uncomfortable. Maybe that's the daily wisdom. That's my wisdom for the day. I've got a friend that watches these videos who then sends me affirmations. talks about what I said. So there it is, right? Don't say yes to everything, but don't say no to everything and say yes. things that sound difficult. So I don't know if that's a problem. or that's a solution. No, no, no. But it made my list of things that I've struggled with. Next up.
[16:17] Letting go of the work. So gotten pretty good at at delegating and handing off work now and I'm pretty comfortable with it. Uh and I've really adopted the I think it was Jeff I think it was Jeff Bezos said. If you wait till it's perfect, it'll never get done. So Good enough and done is better than perfect and undone. Remember that. And then also. Like nobody's gonna come into our business and do everything everything as good as we can do it. But man, if you can get eighty eighty percent of the way there. Pretty amazing. Right, the freedom that that will grant you. Awesome. So I it was one of my first Full-time hires, like I finally trained somebody good enough to go out. This is maybe like 2010.
[17:10] As when I brought him on, I won't leave him nameless. Um Man, I micromanage the shit out of this kid. Like I was a terrible, I would have, I would have, I definitely would have quit on me if I micromanaged me the way I micromanaged him. It was terrible. You know, over it. I'm like, that's not good enough. Get out of my way. You're doing this wrong. Do it this way. Get out of my way. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. And I never let them grow, right? I never kicked them out of the nest. I was like that helicopter parent. PDR teacher guy, mentor. I was terrible. Cost me a lot of money. Probably cost him part of his career, right? Because I held him back so much because I had to. Couldn't let the work go had to have my hands in everything.
[18:00] However, we learned a ton by that, right? And in hindsight, like armchair quarterback, look back at yourself and see what you could do different. Man, I treated Louie a whole different way I would have brought him on. And it's worked out pretty amazing and pretty fantastic. And Louie's a hell of a technician, a hell of a guy, hell of a dad. Like he's he's really grown into uh Somebody I'm proud to Call family. Um You gotta let the work go. Same thing when I hired Jennifer, my first front office person. My first front desk. Man, nobody can sell this the way I can sell. I gotta do it. We're gonna lose jobs. It's gonna cost me money. Turns out The most to be the most freeing hire I ever made was somebody to answer the phones.
[18:52] Can't stand when people Aren't here to answer the phones. Shannon was out the other day. Oh, it wasn't even a busy day on the phones. And I'm like, Whoa, I just can't handle this, it's not They can do a better job. Because they're not trying to go back to number. Two, right? I'm trying we as business owners we're trying to focus on everything, which means we're focusing on nothing. If somebody's whole job is to answer the phone and interact with customers and make it amazing. They probably are going to do a better job than you. Right? Because they're not trying to get off the phone to get back to Fixing a dent. Right, or taking a car apart or doing a scan or working on your AdWords campaign or creating your next social media content or recording a podcast. Let go of the work.
[19:41] Do not be a control freak. Which is so hard in this space because Being a control freak is part of what we do, right? It's part of what makes us amazing technicians is our crazy OCD attention to detail. But if you're gonna grow. Me and he kind of let go some of the work. I'm glad that I'm past that. All right, number five. This one can be tough. Switching it off. Being able to not Be at work. And I'm I don't think I'm ever I probably most of us are ever Completely unplugged. And not at work because it's our livelihood, it's our business, it's everything. If you have employees and Like it's even more so. Your business.
[20:28] However, You've got to learn to turn this turn it off. I used to never to be able to turn it off, right? Even even like. When I had Louie, before we had somebody answer our phones, we've been on vacation. I can remember taking. calls at frickin' Disney World. with MeLissa and the kids. because I couldn't switch it off. Because what if I how are we gonna miss this? What are we gonna do? Side note: go back two episodes and listen to my mindset episode and especially the abundance portion of that. Let some shit go. There's plenty out there. We're going to be good. You're going to be fine. Turn the damn phone off. I struggled a long, long time. with that. And really mean you throw me into like a wicked hailstorm? where it is just go, go, go, grind, grind, grind, I will have a hard time turning it off.
[21:21] However, Other than that, I've gotten pretty good at turning it off. A trick. It's totally a psychological trick, but a trick I will do to myself. when I go home and I'm done for the day. is if I need to unplug, if I'm having a hard time getting out of work mode. I'll go in and take off. My Dent Repair Now shirt. Right, I would just change. Into a knot dent shirt. I'll even try to not put a Not put a damn it every wrong every time. Try to not put an Anson shirt on. Try to not put a dead dental shirt on. Try to not put a KECO shirt on. Right, just unplug. Make it go away. Vacations should be required. Turn it off, take a vacation.
[22:09] Everybody else in the world takes vacations. Your dealers take vacations. Your retail customers take vacations. The body shops all take vacations. Go switch it off. Go sit next to the ocean. and listen to the waves crash. Go to the mountains, listen to the birds chirping and singing, and watch the sun come up, right? You've got to switch it off. I've spent so many years. Completely plugged in. all the time. As I get a little bit older, a little bit grayer. wiser You gotta take time. To uh Some people might even suggest. A nice vacation. with your family.
[22:59] If you know, you know. Right. There it is. Ah, and this last one. Man, I am like, sometimes, yes. Parts of my life, yes. Parts of my life, no. Perfectionism. And I know. I know we most of us, if not all of us, struggle. With Perfectionism. Again, it's part of what makes us crazy enough. to do this crazy little job. Right? It's it's pretty wild. I will obsess. over Smallest little things. That's stupid. Just let it go, man. remember what I said like two or three minutes ago. Good enough and done.
[23:50] Better than perfect and undone. B wise with what you ask of yourself. So Those are a few things that I struggle with. Right like. Pretty hardcore with some of them. In fact, even th like that shiny object syndrome. I want to do shiny object shit all the time. dial it back. Dial it back. Alright. It's late. I still gotta work on a car. But I'm not overdoing it. We're good. Taking it easy. Chill. Just one of those days where you gotta get shit done. But Without further ado. It is now time for episode 14 of the PDR Marketing Minute. This is a little longer one. I think it's almost four minutes long. And we're out of sequential order, right? This is 14 and then 13 is going to go.
[24:39] on the PDR or on the Monday show. But it doesn't these two don't you don't need to listen to one before the other. But anyways, just Pure uh Clarity there. That's what's going on. So. Let's get into this. Now this is where I gotta mute my mic. and turn that on. Alright, here we go. And now, it's time for the PDR Marketing Minute, your weekly quick tip to help you build your PDR business. So what are we going to talk about this week? I want to talk to you about a little bit of video marketing. your videos on YouTube.
[25:29] Use them to educate your customers on the types of repairs you can do. Uh you can Also, build a little bit of a local celebrity brand. Literally get out of my car when I pull up to a customer and meeting them at work or. uh at their home and they go out and they go hey your gene i watched your videos on youtube Or even better, when they call, they say, Oh, you're Gene, I saw you on YouTube. I know you can fix my dent. I saw that. quarter panel you did on that BMW. If you can do that, you can definitely do this. So those you can take sort of a an educational and celebrity approach. I want you guys shooting videos. If you're not sure how or what to do. Uh you're in luck. this coming Thursday.
[26:16] Uh Shane and myself and I believe Keith is gonna be on there too. We're going to be in the uh PDR College. Community group, the forum, not the Facebook group, but this is the actual paid forum on pdrcollege.com you can get into. And uh we're gonna be doing a a live webinar. uh for the members there. Uh I think it's gonna go for about an hour and a half. And we're gonna dive into some of the Ninja stuff we do for YouTube and some of the basic things you need to do. So I want the uh videos to be top of mind for you. And uh if you're a member of the uh group, make sure you come in and show up Thursday night. Um the webinar will also be live or uh available for a replay. once we're done and and Nathan gets that all uploaded.
[27:09] It's going to be a great time. Tons of great information. You can also. If you're not a member yet, head on over to thepdrcollege.com and sign up there. Alright, we're gonna stop that one a little bit short because we are not. Going this Thursday because today's Thursday. We're not doing it next Thursday because it was an old show. Um however, right video right at the beginning of that episode. For sure is I would say Even more Crucial. Day. if you don't have a YouTube channel. You're like, I know, yeah, nope, you, yes. Go get a YouTube channel.
[27:57] Speaking of which YouTube channel. Um Where to get James? I need to call James. I need to get a hold of him and set up an episode. with James Ricci. Dent Slayer. uh to talk about it because his PDR Jax, J-A-X channels and socials are on fire. He's got a ton of subscribers, a ton of followers. Uh we need to get him on here and get a little bit of his secret sauce. But anyways, the power of video is unreal. Um being back into it, right?'Cause we had Dave for a bunch of years and We sort of slacked on video and Dave didn't do tons of videos. But now that I'm back and doing tons of videos, man, the people that come through the door That celebrity, they're like, man, I watched all your videos. I know you can do this. You're my guy. So powerful, right? Get your face out there, do it. And the only way to get decent at it is to just put in the reps, right? That is what.
[28:51] it is all about. So. It is time before. The tool of the week. Another new tool, I think. I don't think we did one. Last week, did we do it last week? Is that the palm nailer? Palm nailer and the A1 tips, I think. I'm so screwed up because it's almost two weeks, so it's like not fresh in my head. Anyways. Got some tools there right here. watching on the YouTubes. The new. Dent Reaper Upper Brace Angels. Upper door tools. to do some camera work here because now my camera is too far away. To show you.
[29:39] But anyways, uh John, the Dent Reaper himself. Um I think it might have been Alex Harken. Don't quote me on that, but I think Alex was part of this. He had taken. Uh Hails Angels. Put an extra kick on them because they're so good. getting into places, you could use them on the tops of doors, right, through some of those holes. And he was like, man, if there was just a tighter on these. Ah, there you go. That works. So A little extra kick. Right, to get down in and back up in the door. Out and over this way, right? Sometimes you come in. I've got two old A-1 tools that uh The one is the right size and the other one was a miss.
[30:30] I think we have a 316ths and a quarter inch. three sixteenths was an accidental tool. They they made this custom tool the wrong way. Um We ended up with that. Man, those are my upper door tools. And I was bending them around to maybe not quite this harsh, but like that kind of style. old tools. So glad that these came out, right? So you got a left and a right with two pink handles. are your left and right. Same beautiful Hails Angel curve. But with that extra kick and then We've got a brown handle. Right, brown and black. Were they straight? Shaft. And then That same double kick at the end. Man, this is even going to be nice coming in through the end of doors.
[31:19] Haven't used them much yet. But This new set from the Dent Reaper, the new upper door tools. Fantastic. And of course, right great Dent Reaper quality, the stainless, the hard drive, that. Beautiful. Beautiful. tip like that Hails Angels edge. The grind is just Man, it's just where it's at. It's a soft push. It's a sharp push. It's all in one. Go check him out. dentreaper.com We'll put a link to these in the show notes as well. Awesome. Awesome stuff. Two. Let's show. All right. Well, guys, thank you so much. I don't get a full episode in, even though I did it twice. It's nine o'clock, just after nine. I'm gonna get finished this last guy. One door left on a car.
[32:13] Um But it's just one door. Uh we'll make that happen. And ugh. MTE is coming up. It'll be here before we know it. Show 100 is in six weeks. So is that going to be before the end of the year? Think so. We're gonna do show 100 live. On the interwebs and recorded and published, also. But I would love to, for listeners, man, reach out. I know some of you. can get on here. Episode 100. Let's do some live chats, some live interviews. So I would love to have it. Reach out, DM me. Text me, email me. Don't fax me. Got rid of my fax machine years ago. Smoke signals though. Just let me know they're coming. I'll go out and read some smoke signals. It'll be good. Anyways guys, thanks so much for watching.
[33:03] I appreciate each and every one of you. I appreciate all of you that have reached out. Um Thanks for being Thanks for being part of the The fam. Man, I love it. Deuces.
