Your Learning Curve Never Sounded So Good

THE PANEL:

Cecil Bullard is President of the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. He is a trainer and business coach in the automotive aftermarket working closely with service professionals. Previous episodes featuring or mentioning Cecil, click HERE.  Institute for Automotive Business Excellence HERE.

Rick White has been working in the automotive, software & coaching industries for greater than thirty years and is currently an AMI-approved training instructor.  He owned and managed several successful automotive repair shops.  Currently, Rick is President and Lead Coach for 180BIZ, an auto repair shop training and business coaching company proudly serving the independent auto and truck repair owner since 2006. Rick has been acknowledged as an industry expert and has been featured in many automotive trade publications. Rick has been training and speaking at industry events across the country including AAPEX, Vision and for AASP PA just to name a few. Find all of Ricks contributions to the podcast HERE.   180Biz Website HERE

Jude Larson is the Director of New Business Development for the ACT Group.  He is a frequent speaker and trainer at industry events. Jude has vast business experience including being a highly successful service advisor, the owner, and operator of a hybrid online and print marketing company, a top performer in the financial industry, and had a record-setting career in retail management.

Jude is also a shop owner, Valley Repair in Tenino, WA. Listen to Jude’s Episodes HERE. Jude uses his rich experience and business success as he consults, trains and coaches results-focused solutions with clients. ACT Group website HERE.

Murray Voth, owner of RPM Training learned how to service and repair cars, motorcycles, and airplanes in his youth and earned his commercial pilot’s license. After college, Murray was hired by a firm doing research and development in the service station industry. That led him to own and operate service stations for the next 20 years.

After receiving extensive training from a major oil company in Canada, Murray worked in service station dealer development. His experience in training and development led to an interest in how people function. He began to think about what holds them back from learning and implementing new practices in their businesses. What causes people to change?

Murray has done extensive research into human potential and has the ability to synthesize this material and make it practical to apply.  His favorite moment is when a client says, “I get it!” or “I did it!”  He is known as an implementation coach. For the last 10 years, he has been the senior trainer, coach, and facilitator for a major automotive training company in Canada, and worked part-time in the USA as his schedule allows.  Murray has worked with hundreds of shop owners helping them to be more profitable and reduce their stress levels. Listen to Murray’s episodes HERE.  RPM Training website HERE.

Key Talking Points:

• ‘Just One Thing’ can really help you be a better implementer.
  • Book ‘Just One Thing’ -Gary Keller. Find it on the Books Page HERE.
  • Remember Curly from ‘City Slicker’
  • What is the one thing you need to get done? Even the hardest.
  • Usually, the one thing we need to do isn’t our favorite thing to do.
• Knock off some easy things to set momentum.
  • Brains will reward us. Will set you up to keep going.
  • Make your bed first thing in the morning. Set your tone.
• Book. Eat that Frog.       Find it on the Books Page HERE.
• Strategies:
  • Do the small things first and build up trust.
  • Do the things you know you can accomplish
  • Create a habit. Set aside time.
  • Spend time planning.
    • Turn off your cell phone.
    • Turn off your email.
    • Close your door.
    • You will find you constantly reprioritizing your list
  • Start your day with intention.
    • What are the things you can do to create the outcome you are intending?
  • Reflect at the end of the day.
  • Schedule blocks of time each day for the many different hats you wear every day.
  • Must schedule time for what is important. If not the important things never get done.
  • Start a project don’t expect perf
• Murray Voth:
  • Created a coaching method called SOAR, Situation, Outcome, Action, Result
    • Together we identify clearly what is the situation we are dealing with.
    • Write down the outcome we want before we start
    • Write down the actions that would get us to the outcome, and then measure the results to see if we have reached the outcome.
  • Make appointments with yourself to get things done.
• Cecil Bullard, Rick White, and  Murray:
  • Tendencies.
    • When I don’t know what to do, you find things to distract you.
    • Don’t be afraid of failure. If you never start you don’t fail.
      • You need to suck before you get to great.
      • We need to learn from our results.
      • Failure is when you give up.
      • Learning to walk. You don’t remember that you most likely fell down 1,000 times before you learned.
      • Confidence doesn’t’ come first.
        • First is the choice then the commitment then the courage to do it then competency, then comes confidence.
      • Be kind to ourselves.
  • Murray
    • You cannot plan results you can only plan actions.
      • SOAR, Situation, Outcome, Action, Result
  • Too much goal setting without action steps. (always have a task and a deadline)
    • Set goals. What.
    • Talk to people that have to do it. Who.
    • Strategize: When, How.
    • Measure
    • Follow Up. Did it work? Any consequences.
• Having an accountability partner (business coach) will help in a big way.
• Book: Getting Things Done (GTD) -David Allen  On the books page HERE.
  • GTD: Your brain is for creating ideas not holding them.
  • GTD System: Capture – Process – Organize – Review – Engage
  • Jude says Wunderlist is an excellent list keeper and is a FREE app that syncs to all your devices.
• Shop owners are trying to do too much. Trying to be the answer man.
  • No time to problem solve or be creative.
• Talking about vision to a shop owner may be tough. What about dreaming. What is your dream? Where are you going?
  • Time is necessary to know themselves and why they want to do it.
• What is driving implementation?
  • Is it reactive?
  • Is it proactive?
• Why are you doing this? What is the outcome
  • Implementation can be fun.
  • Planning can be boring.
• What happens if I stay the same?
  • What motivates your change.
  • Nothing changes until it hurts enough.
• Stigma in our industry
  • If you are fixing cars today you are as smart as a doctor today.
    • They are geniuses. We are smart and valuable to the profession.
• Success is not a destination it is a journey.
  • Try things, fail and try again and try again.
  • Eventually, you will succeed.
• Focus on what you have control over not what you cannot control.

Resources:

• A special thanks to  Cecil Bullard, Rick White, Murray Voth and Jude Larson for their contribution to the aftermarket.
• Books Page HERE
• Leave me an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one of them.

RepairPal. Many of our industry’s high-quality shops have gone through an evaluation with an independent automotive team to ensure their techs are trained, they use the right tools, and their customers are happy. In fact, over 2,200 repair shops have met these requirements, have become RepairPal Certified and are getting new customers every month.

Why has the number of RepairPal Certified shops grown so much? These shops are proud to have passed the certification and value the new customers they’re getting, both from the 5 million monthly visitors to RepairPal.com and their partnerships with CarMax and USAA. Certified shops can cancel at any time, so RepairPal works hard to produce value for them. Learn more at repairpal.com/shops to learn more.

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