Can't and Until are Disempowering words for Auto Repair Shop Owners

Can't and Until by Rick White, President 180BIZ

I want you to write down two words for me, and we're going to talk about both. The first word I want you to write down is CAN’T. The second word I want you to write down is UNTIL.  I really want to focus on those two words. Can't and until. Why?  Because number one can't is a disempowering word. It is a word that takes all your power to affect change away. When you say “I can't do something” that means or implies that either something or someone is preventing you from making it happen. And I'm going to tell you that 99.999999% of the time, that is completely and utterly untrue.

Instead, what I want you to do is start using the word WON’T because at least if you use the word won't, you're taking control, you're making the decision, and you're owning it. That is a much more powerful word to use. Instead of saying, I can't do this, say I won't do this. And then say, because.  I won't do this because, and then when you say it out loud, one or two things are going to happen. You're going to go. Yup. That makes complete sense. I'm done. Move on. Or the second thing that's going to happen is you're going to listen to yourself, say this, and you're going to go, um, grow up, come on, let's do this. So those are the two things with Can’t.

Here's what I saw last week. I think three different times that really kind of just jumped out at me talking to three different shop owners, talking about growing their business, growing their wealth, growing the audience.  I heard, "I can't do this until." I can't do this until this happens. That's that was the crux of the sentence. I can't do something until something happens. And the problem with I can't until is what you do is you create what's called a double bind. I can't do this until I do that. I was talking to one shop owner and he says, “I can't hire another technician until I have a person in front that can really handle the front counter. And I can't pay somebody to really handle that front counter what they're worth until I hire a tech. Now he said those two sentences, probably about two minutes apart. Understand how they have them going around in a circle, nothing ever happens in a double bind. I'm going to tell you that a lot of times what you're doing is you are putting some imaginary thing up as an obstacle in front of you. And it's stopping you from progressing. I was talking to a shop owner last week and I said, you know, you've got to grow your marketing. And they're like, we're too busy now. And I'm like, no, you don't understand. Marketing has a lag. It doesn't happen right away. It's not going to make you busier now.  But I'm too busy

If you don't do it while you're busy, you’re going to be slow. You're going to have these dips again. The whole idea of this is to do something every day. That's going to help you keep your business. TOMA is top of mind awareness. That is something that is so important. So my question to you is what are you putting off? Because you're putting up some kind of false obstacle or challenge. Then I got to do this before I got to do that. I can't do this until, and then I want you to step back and go, that's ludicrous. That's not true. Maybe I can't do all of it, but you know something, I can do some of it. I can start making steps. Now, instead of waiting until some future date, you know, it's funny how we tend to line things up sequentially.

You can stack things up and run them concurrently and it shortens the timeframe. I can't do our advertising until I find a tech or I'm not ready to hire a tech yet. I can't sell as you can't start advertising for one. I don't want to start advertising for a tech until I'm ready. That's ridiculous. You got to recognize there's a lag. There's a lag between putting the ad out and finding the ideal candidate. If you wait until you're ready, you've wasted all this time in the search. Now we're going to add some more searching. But if I say, okay, I need to get ready for the tech. And I've got to do this, this and this. And I'm going to start the ad here and do this, this and this. Now they're running concurrently. That's what I want you to get is this mindset where you can stack actions and get where you want to go faster. So, the next time you hear yourself or someone in your organization says, "I can't do this until...", make it stop.

Recognize they're setting up a bind, recognize they're lengthening things out, step back and say, "how can we run things concurrently? How can I stack and get them to work in that way?" It's going to make such a difference. So what can you do today that you have been putting off thinking that you can't do it until something happens? I believe in you

I got one more thing I want to talk to you about. It's really important. Whatever you believe is true about this virus thing, doesn't make a difference. There are some people that have not been impacted by it, and they think it's a hoax.   There are other people that thought that way and no longer do because it has affected them either with themselves or a loved one.

But here's the thing I want you to get ready for another shutdown. There's another shutdown coming. I think when we hit a hundred thousand cases a day, they're going to roll everything back again, as much as they don't want to. And we're going to end up going into self-containment mode. It doesn't mean it's the end. What I want you to do is start preparing for it. Now I want you to start thinking things through now so that you're prepared and you're ready to shoot. And get something happening. They're not going to shut the entire country down. They're going to do back what they did before in the spring. You're going to see everybody be essential workers again.

Be ready for it. So please step back. You heard it here. Step back, make plans. If you need help with that, reach out. I'm here to help. We’re the coach with a heart. That's right. So I don't care what anybody else says. We all got stuff we got to work on. For me, it's content. I'm constantly gotten putting content off and I'm turning that around. I'm turning that around because that's, my superpower is being able to put content out there that helps you grow your business, build your business, run your business with more profit, less stress, and more free time. That's what we're all about. So, I want you to please be prepared. It's going to happen. Don't go walking around pretending. There are no weeds. It's going to happen. Get ready.

God bless and go make some money!