Just ONE Thing
“The Most Dangerous Word in Your Shop: IF”
Episode 246
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Good morning. My name is Rick White from 180BIZ, and this is my Just ONE Thing.
So what are we gonna talk about today?
We’re gonna talk about the magic word “IF.”
If you like this video, I need you to share it because a lot of people need to hear this, okay? So what I want to talk about is the word “if.”
It’s a small word that is quietly running more auto repair shops than the leadership does, okay? I really want you to hear that.
So what I want you to understand is this word “if.”
…if we could just find good techs
…if the economy would just quiet down
…if customers would just approve the work
…if I just had more time
What I want you to understand—and I really want you to dig into this with me—is when you say the word “if,” it sounds thoughtful, but most of the time it’s an anchor. I really want you to get that right. “If” sounds thoughtful, but most of the time it’s an anchor.
But I gotta get you to understand not all ifs are bad. There’s a couple of ifs that are really, really powerful. I would start a sentence with, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” and everything that comes after that just gets an eye roll.
But I need you to understand, if you start a sentence with, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” you’re dreaming. You’re thinking about growing, becoming more. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a 10-bay shop?
Wouldn’t it be cool if the shop could run without me every day?
See, that kind of if that builds vision, this is awesome—unless you never act. And then we got what if, the good what if. I need you to understand that the good “what if” prepares.
It doesn’t panic.
What if we lose an A-tech?
What if car count drops 10%?
What if parts start getting—you know—I have to start having a problem with parts?
Again, this “what if” is good when it leads to the next question, which is, what am I going to do about it? See that? What if.
See, that’s caution, right? “What if” is caution.
That’s okay, as long as it leads to that next question, which is, what am I going to do about it? Because what if I lose an A-tech? Now I start recruiting before I have a problem.
What if car count drops? Okay, I need to start looking at my marketing.
The what ifs—when you start to get fearful or concerned about something—it’s an indicator. It doesn’t mean it’s failure. It means pay attention to this. It means give me a plan. There’s a 10-year-old version of yourself inside that’s afraid, and you wanna be able to go and say, no, no.
This is what we’re gonna do.
See, I need you to understand the good “what if” doesn’t panic.
It builds a plan before the problem shows up, right? It builds strength. That’s what’s so amazing about this.
But now we’re gonna shift into some not-so-good ifs. “If only.” I call this the ownership killer. If only I had better people.
If only customers understood our value. If only the economy was better.
See, you can call this whatever you want, but “if only”—they sound reflective, but it’s actually a version of helplessness. It removes ownership. It delays action because you’re waiting for something to happen, for something to get better, and it makes you the victim of your circumstances, your situations, your events, or other people in your life.
And here’s the thing. Victims don’t build great shops. Can we all just say that together? Victims don’t build great shops.
So “if only” is a bad if.
But what about the bad what if? This is bad—you know, like this is a problem. Like, what if this fails? What if customers leave when we raise our rates?
What if I can’t make payroll?
What if we grow too fast?
See, I need you to understand that it’s a prison. This bad “what if,” it doesn’t protect you. It’s actually training you to expect failure.
What if it all works out? See, that’s the cool what if. That’s amazing. You’re absolutely right, though—we can use this to our advantage. But I need you to understand that when you expect failure, when you’re saying, what if this happens or what if this happens, you hesitate. You start to discount. You avoid conversations. You don’t make decisions, and you shrink your standards.
That’s a problem. Then the shop’s underperforming and you call it being cautious. It’s not being cautious. It’s getting smaller, and then smaller, and then smaller, and then smaller, and you don’t have a business anymore—you have a problem.
Here’s the thing. I need you to understand the “if onlys” and the bad what ifs.
They create helplessness and fear, and when you stare at those, they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Someone that says, what if no one approves our estimates? You start writing smaller estimates. What if you say, hey, I can’t handle more cars—I don’t have enough help? You don’t get more help.
You start shrinking the car count, right?
This is where the bad ifs start silently running the business. You’re letting fear, instead of dreams and curiosity and caution—which are good ifs—we go to fear and helplessness.
But there’s a way we can turn this around. See, a lot of times if there’s a situation, it’s an if-then.
So it sounds like this: Life will be better if this happens. You know, if my guys all show up, I’m gonna make great numbers. What if we change the word “if” with the word “when”? My numbers are gonna be better when all my guys show up.
Do you hear the difference there? The if is waiting. The when is leading.
Instead of saying, if I build a stronger team, you say, when I build a stronger team. When we raise our effective labor rate. When I stop tolerating average.
When assumes action. When assumes responsibility. When assumes movement.
So what I want you to understand real quick is, I want you to dream and I want you to prepare. That is when if is really powerful. What am I gonna do about it?
It’s when we get to the if only—don’t live there, right? Don’t build a home in what if. See, bad what ifs—they’re prisons. You don’t want that. You don’t wanna live there. You wanna be in a situation where you are creating instead of allowing your doubt, your fear, your helplessness to creep in and take over because then you aren’t driving anymore.
So what I want you to do is I want you to dream. I want you to prepare. I want you to lead with when.
All right? Also, if this video kind of hit you and you’re kind of struggling with this situation, I would love the opportunity to talk with you.
Just reach out to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). I’d be happy to.
Until next week, though, I want you all to have an amazing week. I want y’all to go make some money. Take care, everybody. Have a great week. It was so awesome to have you in here.
Thank you so much. Take care. Bye-bye.
