Just ONE Thing
Unplug, Reset, Reignite: The Leadership Move Your Auto Repair Shop Desperately Needs
Episode 214
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. My name is Rick White from 180BIZ, and this is my Just ONE Thing.
So what I want to talk about is UNPLUGGING. And let me explain what I mean like this. What I want you to understand—the basis of my conversation today—is to get you to understand that time off isn't a luxury, okay? It’s a leadership strategy. That’s what I want you to understand.
So why do you resist taking time off?
Well, there's the guilt.
So what do I mean by guilt? Well, you’ve worked really, really hard, and now you’re finally starting to step back—some of you—so you’re not in the day-to-day. And now when you go to take time off, you feel guilty because you don’t see the value that you’re bringing day to day in your shop. Okay, so that’s the first thing that stops you from taking time off.
Second thing is your fear of chaos.
What do I mean by that? Well, right? When—what is it?—when the zookeeper is away, the monkeys will play. And you’re just afraid of what you’re going to come back to when you get back from that time off. So that’s an issue.
Here’s the last reason why: control, right? You’re afraid of letting go. You’re afraid of giving your team the empowerment to get better and better, right?
The gift in taking time off is finding the holes in the shop. When you step away from the shop, you’re gonna see—when you get back—you’re gonna see the holes that you are plugging. That you’re walking behind people and making sure that everything gets done. Those are holes.
So what happens when you don’t take time off?
Well, there’s a lot of you out there that know exactly what happens.
Number one: burnout. There’s nothing left. Your cup is empty. That’s what burnout is all about. Your cup is empty, and you don’t remember why you’re doing it—causing you to make poor decisions, and it strains the relationships that you have.
Your energy drains, right? You drop in energy, and you don’t even notice it until you’re away. Like, you don’t realize—it’s almost like that truck, you know, the truck that comes in and you road test it like this, with the steering wheel going back and forth. And the owner goes, “I didn’t see anything wrong with it.” You tighten up the steering, get everything fixed, and then they’re going all over the place because they’re used to it. It’s so gradual.
But what I need you to understand is you got to go from doing to filling.
What do I mean by filling? I mean you got to fill your cup.
What do you get from doing this?
When you give yourself the gift of a break—and I’m going to talk to you about the different kinds of breaks you should be taking, okay?—and I gotta tell you something, it’s funny. This all came about talking to a client last week. Fairly new client. And for the first time, he took a day off. And the entire day he had off, he was on his phone watching what they were doing, watching the estimates, and seeing all the mistakes—and freaking out.
I apologize—that is not a day off. You’re just not in the shop.
But when you can really unplug:
Number one: The benefits of taking the time off is you start to think of things you never thought of. It’s almost like when you’re in the shower. Some of your best thoughts come to you when you’re in your shower or when you’re going for a walk or something like that. It’s because you have this mental clarity. You’re stepping away from it a little bit, right—the grind and the grit—and you’re able to see things from a different perspective.
It also gets you excited again. It rekindles that passion. When you give yourself that space, you get more creative. And guess what? Your leadership comes up.
Here’s the other thing that you allow to happen: when you step away, your team gets to step up. You step away—they step up. That’s what’s amazing. Okay?
So I want you to be aware of that.
So how do you make this happen?
When I start talking about unplugging, when I start talking about taking breaks, everybody thinks vacations—but it doesn’t have to be that big. We can start smaller.
What’s the first thing I want you to commit to?
I want you to take a break at lunch every day. I want you to stop working, and I want you to plug into something where you’re learning, or you’re reading something, or just refueling yourself. You got to fill your cup.
So what I want you to be able to do is start just with a daily lunch hour. Read a magazine, watch a couple videos—not cat videos—watch some YouTube videos on leadership or lessons or podcasts. Do something to feed you. Read a book. Read the Bible. I don’t care.
You want to start small. You got to start feeding you. Okay?
So daily: take lunch.
Here’s what I want you to do weekly.
Weekly, I want you to set aside—next thing you got to be able to do is exercise. Give your body—fill your body, refuel your body. When you exercise, you end up with more energy. That’s the amazing thing about this.
Okay, so when you do this, now all of a sudden you start to find yourself having more energy. And guess what? More thoughts will happen when you’re walking or going to the gym or doing whatever you’re going to do.
Then, one day a month, I want you to unplug.
One day a month, I want you to unplug and just step back, relax again, fill yourself up. I can’t begin to explain to you—although you’re aware of them unconsciously—the stressors that you’re under. You need the time to be able to recuperate and to just mentally and emotionally reconnect. Okay?
And then what I want you to do quarterly is start to plan.
Now you don’t have to start to do this immediately, but I want you to start thinking about taking one week a quarter off. This is going to give you a chance to unplug. You got young kids? Take them on a couple of vacations. You’re married or whatever? Take your spouse out.
It’s so important to reconnect.
Remember: you’re in business to create a life for you and your family. Create that life now. Don’t keep putting it off. Okay?
And then here’s the last thing I want you to do: annually.
Annually, I want you to be able to take one week off to plan for the next year. Brenda and I have been doing this for the last five, six, seven years. It’s been amazing.
End of August, every year—the last week in August—we go away and we plan for the week.
Now, do we do fun things? Absolutely, we do. But we work hard as well. And it’s amazing what happens with our business because of that.
Okay—don’t have high expectations, right? Just make sure the building’s still standing and nobody quit.
So what I want you to do is prep the team.
It’s about building processes and trust. And that’s what’s going to happen when you find the holes. Okay?
Turn off your notifications. Create boundaries so that when you’re away—you’re away.
Now—schedule it now.
Don’t wait for when it slows down. It’s not going to happen.
So here’s my end thought:
Just like an engine—if you’re always going, you’re going to seize.
Write that down: Just like an engine—if you’re always going, you’re going to seize.
I think that is a super, super clear analogy to what’s going on.
Okay, so if this message resonated, please share it.
There are people out there that need to hear this.
And you want to know something? Because Facebook is only keeping these videos for 30 days, we need your help to get the message across—because it’s not going to be there in 30 days.
Now second thing—if you’d like to be a part of our Shop Owners Round Table, I believe it’s going to be July 10, this Thursday, 7 PM Eastern. And it’s really, really awesome. Okay?
So please, if you know somebody that would like to get some thoughts and coaching—come join 60 or 65 of our best friends and let’s see what’s going on—other shop owners doing the same thing.
And then lastly, we have a webinar this Thursday, and it’s all about creating a work-life balance. It’s going to be really amazing. That’s our Pocket Business Genius webinar, 1 PM on Thursday.
So everybody, please share this video.
This is a really important message for people to hear.
We got to stop thinking we just have to work harder. It doesn’t work.
One of the key things I’ve learned in business is learning to be able to understand the fact that to do more, you got to slow down.
Does that make sense?
You got to sharpen the saw.
So everybody—thank you for being here. I want to say, have a great week. Let’s make the most of this. And I want you to go make some money this week.
Okay, take care, everybody.
I’ll see you all next week.
Bye-bye.
