Auto Repair Shop Owner's Daily Dose 30: Blessings

Blessings by Rick White, President 180BIZ

 In the last episode, I asked you to think through what blessings and lessons learned. I truly believe that of every obstacle and everything we confront, there is a seed of opportunity if we're willing to look for it. So, I wrote, believe it or not, without even trying hard, I wrote down 12 things I thought of as blessings, opportunities that have come from this virus.  One thing that is a blessing to me is that everything that I can control is internal. I can’t control external things.  I can only influence them.  So, for me, the first thing that I learned clearly is what I can control.

The second thing hammered home the power of questions because the questions I asked myself are what create my focus.  They create the meaning I give things. So if I want to have a better day, if I want to have more control over my day, I've got to ask myself better questions. That's my first thing, which was being able to control, knowing what I can control and the power of questions.

I asked the participants to type in the comments one lesson that they’ve learned from this pandemic.

Nancy: I am thankful that my son can work from home and for the peace that it gives me.
Rick: I think that's important. I think we all need to feel that way. My stepson is a police officer in Boston.  That's a big deal and it's scary. So I agree. Nancy, thank you so much for sharing that.

Dan:  I learned how important customer relationships are.
Rick: There are some shops that are transactionally-based.  They’re all about car count. They're all about getting the customer in and say yes to everything.. And when you hit situations like this, it's not the transactions that are going to keep you alive. It is relationships. One of our core tenants here is never put revenue before the relationship. Always relationships come first, revenue will follow.

Dan:  Take action as soon as possible.
Rick: Absolutely. But remember what we talked about yesterday morning. Make sure it's the right action. And how do we know that? The number of options that we have.  It's going to tell us whether we're making a decision emotionally or if we're making it from our head, logically. So I think that's awesome. Thank you so much, Dan.

David: Be debt-free.
Rick: Being debt-free is a big deal. And a lot of us can't be debt-free. So what is the offset to debt-free? That’s cash flow. The most important lesson I think any business can learn right here, right now is the importance of cash flow. Cash is the oxygen to your business. You need to remember that. And that's why I am so against getting loans because when you get a loan, you're borrowing oxygen from tomorrow to breathe today and it doesn't work. So, debt-free is absolutely the key. Cashflow is the second thing we got to work with.

Candice: Working my business from my KPIs, key performance indicators, and financial reports, not based on bank balance or even worse gut feel.
Rick: That is an amazing insight. Thank you, Candice. That is awesome.

Jeff:  We need to be marketing all the time.
Rick:  And that's one of the things that I thought to myself, as well. We've got to up our game. I've got to be out in front a lot with you guys so that I can give you really great content to help you grow your business. So we are right now the three of us in the office here, we are working on a plan to continue some kind of concerted effort that's going to help you grow your business on a regular basis. So we are really stepping it up and we plan on keeping it that way. So, Jeff, excellent comment.

David: Keep growing.
Rick: Amen brother. That's what we got to do.

Heather: You got to control your input.
Rick:  We must guard our minds. What comes in our eyes and our ears tends to come out our mouth and our feet and our actions. So I think this is awesome, Heather. Thank you. Working on the business, focusing on the person is paying off more than I ever thought it could. I think that's amazing.

Al: Get a great coach like Rick.
Rick: I appreciate that Al. And I promise I didn't pay him to say that, I promise. But Al, thank you. I appreciate. That's right. Get a good mentor. Get somebody that can help you out. Get a good team that's around you so that if you are feeling low, you can call people that can pick you up, not with bull crap, but with real thoughts, a real perspective that can help you grow and get better.  Amen. Thank you so much.

Heather: You've must be flexible and creative to stay in the game.
Rick: That's right. And guess what? You can't be creative when you're afraid. It's not possible. Because physiologically, what happens when you get afraid is your brain, blood rushes from your brain into your muscles for that fight, flight, or freeze thing. And if you don't have the calm and the faith, you can't be creative.  So, you've got to step back and know what's going to be okay. Thank you.

Nancy: Ask your neighbors if they need anything when you're going shopping.
Rick: I think that's great.

Dan: Look for help. Don't try to do everything yourself.

Rick: Let me give you another one.  A lot of business owners right now are freaking out. Let me tell you something. There's a lot of employees right now that are unemployed or not working, furloughed, or load laid off, whatever it is because they weren't the captain of their ship. You are the captain of the ship. Grab the wheel and put it where you want it to go. Yes, it's going to take work. Yes, it's going to take effort. But I need you to understand this isn't happening to you. This is happening for you. It is helping you to become a better person, a better business owner, a better boss. Come on, grab on and go for the challenge and use it to get better, not bitter.

Tristan:  Keep my eye on the goal and don't let the noise distract me.
Rick: Thank you so much, Tristan. There is so much noise going on. Make sure you're telling yourself the truth and not the news. Because the news will overdo everything. Yes, there are 10 million people right now not working. That's about 8 to 9% unemployment. Come on. Why can't we talk about that number instead? Because that means 91 to 92% of the people out there are still working. They're still working. But see, it's so much more devastating to think about 10 million people out of work.  If you are listening to this and you're one of those people at my heart goes out to you.  Truly it does. But as business owners, we must make sure that we can help and serve those that need us and the people that work with us.

Megan:  You can't pour from an empty cup.
Rick: Fill your cup so you can do for those around you to help them. Megan, that’s amazing. If you're empty inside, you got nothing to give outside. Let your cup fill up and whatever runs over as the Bible says, that's for other people. Thank you. Perfect.

Jim: Put two ads in looking for good help. Now's the time to find it.
Rick: That was my number 11, Jim. Now's a great time to find help.

I want to give you something you may not have thought of. Now is a great time to grow your audience. You know, marketing is meant to deliver a promise, but we need to create an audience to deliver the marketing to. They need to know, like, and trust you. We've not been working very well at growing our audience. We're too busy doing it. We're not going into grow it mode. If you do this, if you expand your audience, it's going to be amazing for you moving forward.

There’s a lot of people at home on Facebook and Instagram.  Facebook content consumption is through the roof. Instagram's the same way. Pick a platform where your tribe is and get out there. Get your message heard; that you're there, that you care, that you want to help. It is a simple message. You can do this.

More of my lessons and blessings. I appreciate the people I work with and for so much more now. I also have really great clarity on who I need to be. I have greater clarity on what I have, the blessings I have in my life. I also have greater clarity on why I am here. I believe that I am here to help you get through this. I believe that with every fiber of my being, that's why I'm here every day with this kind of energy.

What else? I appreciate the travel that I was doing. You know, after a while, hotels, and airplanes, they all look the same. But now it's stopped and I'm not moving like I was, and trust me, I was moving a lot. I worked hard to get there. I worked hard to get that kind of travel going. I really appreciate what that represents now, the ability to make an impact with somebody, and the relationships I've developed with people like Bob, and Sherry, and Amanda. I love these association directors and the work that they're doing for our industry. We must give those people a shout out because they are working their butts off.

 You must be able to communicate with your team. Make sure they know you care. Reassure them all the time. It's going to be okay that you're keeping them safe and you're going to keep it so that they can provide for their families. Anything you can possibly do is going to help. If you've furloughed some of your people, stay in touch with them three times a week, at least. I would be calling them every day to see how they’re doing. How they’re feeling. If you can swap people out. Maybe have one tech work, one week, and the next Tech work another week, something like that. But don't focus on survival, focus on growing, focus on getting that audience, it's going to make a difference. It really does.

This situation has also given me an opportunity to help others. To step up and make a difference. I'm more comfortable being in front of a camera. It is pretty daunting in the beginning to get in front of a camera, stare at this little black hole and talk to people, and to know that you guys are over there and doing it. It's absolutely amazing.  It's allowed me to clean my message up.

Dean: I've been able to build a stronger, tighter bond with my team.
Rick:  This is an opportunity to come together and support one another. I truly believe life's a tough thing to go through. We must stand up next to each other and pick each other up when we fall and I'm going to tell you right now, brothers and sisters, I hope that when I fall, and I do sometimes, you're going to be there to help me up.  Because I promise you I'm human and I go through the same stuff. I have the same ups and downs. I've just been training myself for years for this. I didn't understand the path I was going down. The books I was reading and the courses I was taking, I do now get it. I'm here for you. I want to help you grow.

What else has this helped me do? It has helped me focus on possibility thinking instead of problem staring. Possibility thinking, what are the possibilities? Where are the opportunities? What are my options? Versus staring at a big dark hole and going thinking you don’t want to fall in. It's no way to live. So, possibility thinking, being the captain of my own ship with a team like my wife, Brenda, who is so amazing.

Start thinking about the three questions. What am I grateful for? Who do I want to be? Who can I help? Those are my 12 things and I want to thank you all for you being a part of this today. I want you to see the opportunities that are here, because even in this sorrow, even in the misery, there are opportunities to experience joy, growth, contribution, and it's up to us to grab those, to seize them and take advantage of them. So please understand there is joy all around. There are people that need your help right in front of you. Please open your eyes, put your antennas up, and see them so that you can help. Thank you everybody for all your help with this today.

Have a great day. God bless.