Just ONE Thing
The Warts Holding Your Auto Repair Shop Back (and How to Remove Them)
Episode 219
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Good morning. My name is Rick White from 180 Biz, and this is my Just One Thing. We're a coaching and training company for the independent auto and truck repair shops.
So, what are we going to talk about today? We're going to talk about WARTS.
What exactly? What do I mean by warts?
So here's the thing — warts are your mindset, your expectations, your focus, right there. They come in from your habits, because you’ve got to realize that habits are either going to be an ally or they're going to be your enemy, depending upon how they help you.
Then you've also got your actions — like you're short with people or something like that. You're snappy. If you don't see that, that's a wart.
Okay, how about broken systems? Things that just don't work in the shop that you're kind of not looking at or being aware of. You’ve got to understand that these things, man, they kill. They kill trust, they kill efficiency, and they kill culture. That's really the big part of this.
________________
Okay, now, what do you do with these warts?
Number one — you're usually blind to them. You don't see them. You're oblivious to them. That's the first stage of warts.
What's the second stage of a wart? You ignore it. You pretend it's not there, right? It's just a fluke. We make up stories about these warts.
And then finally, you deny them. You just push back.
Why do we push back? We push back because to admit we have a wart is to get a little bit humble on our identity as far as how we see ourselves showing up — whether it be a successful shop owner or whatever the case is.
Now, once you understand those: blind, ignore, and deny — think that through. That's kind of a cool way to think about it.
________________
What I want you to understand is, while you're blind to them and ignoring them and denying them — who sees them?
Everybody sees them.
Your team sees them, and they tiptoe around them. Your customers and clients see them and they go away. Your vendors see them, and they're not there for you when you need them. And your family sees them too.
So what I want you to understand is these are blind spots. These are things that you do that hurt you and your business.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is: You can't read the label when you are inside the jar.
How cool is that?
I really believe it's true. You have a certain perspective — of how you're showing up and the life that you live — but instead of being able to see all around you, we only have this one perspective.
And you want to know the truth? Sometimes that perspective hurts you.
What do I mean by that? It means that when you look out of your eyes, somebody else will look at you and think, Oh my gosh, look at all the cool stuff they do, and how they care, and all this stuff. They think you're amazing.
But you look out your eyes, and all you see is the brokenness and what's wrong with what's happening.
________________
So, what I want to do is talk to you about this. I want to give you three A’s — this is how you're going to deal with these warts.
The first A is Accept.
What does that mean? You have to accept that you have warts. We all have warts.
I need you to understand that everybody has warts. It doesn't mean you're better or worse than anybody else. Honestly, I truly believe that when someone can admit they have warts and understand that — they can accept the fact that they have warts — that's amazing, because awareness is the first part of this.
________________
So how do you find these warts? The best way is to ask.
The best way is to step back and either ask yourself, What is working? What isn’t working? — and be honest about it — or to ask your team, ask your family, What are you doing that you can’t see that’s hurting your relationships and everything else?
I hope this all makes sense to you.
So, the first thing you’ve got to do is accept the fact that you’ve got warts.
________________
The next thing you’ve got to do, once you accept that they’re there, is Acknowledge them.
What do I mean by that? You’ve got to own them. Don’t make excuses. Don’t blame other people.
Step back and understand that the wart may not be your fault, but it is 100% your responsibility to fix.
You can get upset about it. You can go through all the stages — that’s fine. But if you want to make the wart go away, you’ve got to be able to own it, acknowledge it, so that you can then take action.
________________
That’s the whole thing: accept, acknowledge, and then act.
Another way to say that? Address it.
You want to be able to go back and say, Okay, what am I going to do to make this better?
If it’s something internal, if it’s something in the shop, what you want to be able to do is fix it as a team.
Step back and say, Hey, what do you think is hurting us the most right now? What do you think is preventing us from becoming the best that we can become? Start that thought process with your team and then ask for their help. I need your help.
________________
What are some of the warts?
* Things aren’t going the way you’d like them to go.
* You’re short-handed, and here it is five months later and you are still short-handed.
* You’re still tolerating the same subpar performance from a team member that you should not be doing.
Why is that happening? It’s because it’s a wart. It’s because you want to deny it, you want to ignore it, or you’re telling yourself a story to make it okay.
Don’t do that.
________________
First of all, if this video is helping you out, what I would really like you to do is share this video, please. There are people out there that are struggling, and they don’t recognize that if they’re the cause, they can be the cure. I need your help to get the message out.
Second thing — we have our Shop Owners Round Table this Thursday night, 7 PM Eastern. Please, if you know somebody that is struggling or needs some guidance, or is going through some tough stuff and would like to get together and work this through — our Shop Owners Round Table is absolutely free. It’s one hour long, and we typically have about 50 shop owners in there. I would love to have you there.
Next thing — if you want to get more wisdom like this on an ongoing basis, you can sign up for our Pocket Business Genius webinar series. In fact, I’ve got a brand new one coming up this week, and I’m really excited about it. So if you’re already signed up, be there — it’s going to be awesome.
________________
Your Challenge This Week:
Accept that you do have warts.
Acknowledge and own them.
Address them — make them go away.
Your homework (or challenge) for this week:
1. Sit down with your team and identify one wart.
2. Sit down personally and identify one wart.
3. Do something about it.
________________
Okay everybody, that’s the timer.
I want to say thank you for being here. God bless. Have a great week and go make some money.
Everybody, thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.
