ļ»æJust ONE Thing
Is Fear Driving Your Auto Repair Shop Decisions?
Episode 280
with Rick White, 180BIZ
So let's get started. Good morning. My name is Rick White from 180BIZ, and this is my Just One Thing. We got our fancy dancy little timer here. So let's get this sucker, past 50, put it to 10. There we go, and you should be able to see that. That's 10 minutes. Let's rock and roll. What I wanna talk about today is I wanna just talk about what's really driving your decisions.
I wanna talk about who's behind the wheel, because every single day you're making decisions about your business. You're thinking about who you gotta hire, who are you gonna fire, what are you gonna charge, where are you... What equipment are you gonna buy? What do you wanna change? What are you willing to tolerate?
All of these are decisions that you're making all day long, every day, but how often do you stop and ask yourself what's really driving those decisions? Just because you're making the decisions doesn't mean you're in control, because there's something driving them.
That's what I wanna talk about. You might be thinking you're making the decisions based on what you want, but are you really? Every action has a driver. There's a reason behind every decision you make. Sometimes that reason is super, super clear. Other times, you haven't given it much thought at all.
Consider two shop owners, right? They're gonna decide to raise their labor rates. One raises their labor rate because they're focused on building a stronger, more profitable business. The other raises rates because they're afraid they won't make payroll. Same action, different drivers. One shop owner, they refuse to raise their rates. One shop owner believes that their current rates are exactly where they need to be based on their cost and goals. The other shop owner is terrified of losing customers. Again, same action, different drivers.
That's what I want you to understand, and I need you to hear this. The action doesn't always reveal the driver. You've gotta look deeper. So I want you to start thinking about this. What's driving you? Think about the decisions you've made recently. Are they being driven by what you want to achieve? Do you have a clear destination? Do you want to improve? Are you committed to the goals that you've set for you and your team? Do you have a willingness to learn and grow? Or what are you trying to avoid? Are you afraid of losing money? Are you afraid of making a mistake? Are you afraid of having an uncomfortable conversation?
Are you afraid of being judged? Are you afraid of losing control? Are you afraid of facing uncertainty? See, here's the interesting part about this. You can be incredibly focused, incredibly determined and persistent, and still be driven by fear. You might be working harder than anyone else you know because you're afraid of failing.
You might refuse to delegate because you're afraid that someone's gonna make a mistake. You might be keeping somebody on your team that you really shouldn't because you're afraid you can't find a replacement. See, being busy, working hard and making decisions doesn't necessarily mean you're moving towards what you want.
I need you to hear this. Sometimes you're just working really, really hard to avoid what you fear. Just let that soak in. Sometimes you're working incredibly hard to avoid what you fear. That's scary, isn't it? And I don't care whether it's your business or not, there's gonna be in some area in your life, whether it's a relationship with your spouse or a loved one, or a son or daughter, whatever that case is, I guarantee you, some place you are completely operating from a place of fear.
Now, what I wanna talk about, is I wanna talk about the conflict in your shop right now that's creating your frustration. This is super, super important. And again, if this is hitting you, pretty hard, like if you're sitting there going, "Hey Rick, where are the cameras?" I'm gonna ask you to please share this video.
So let's think about that conflict, right? Think about what you say you want from your business. You want more freedom, but you won't give up control. Think about that, how about you want better employees, but you're not willing to hold someone accountable, have that difficult conversation?
You want more profit, but you're afraid to charge what you need to charge. You wanna grow, but you're unwilling to take a risk, right? You're trying to reach a destination, but you're allowing something else to drive your decisions.
Think that through for a sec. You're trying to reach your destination, something that excites you, gets you to be where you wanna go, have the freedom that you want, be able to provide for you, your family, your team but you're allowing something else to drive your decisions, and that's where your frustration's coming from.
See, you don't have to wonder why you're frustrated anymore. This is why. What if your frustration isn't always coming from your circumstances? What if some of it is coming from the conflict between what you say you want and what you're really willing to do? You can't consistently move toward what you want while making decisions designed to protect you from what you fear.
You can't consistently move forward, right? Move toward what you want while making decisions designed to protect you from fear. It's not gonna work, right? It doesn't mean you shouldn't recognize risk. Of course you do, right? It means you need to recognize the difference between managing risk and avoiding risk. What am I getting at?
What I'm trying to tell you is fear doesn't have to be in charge. Okay? Now, some of y'all are thinking, "Rick, you're telling me not to be afraid." Dude, I'm afraid most of the time. I'm telling you, I do stuff all the time scares the crap out of me. I need you to understand that fear is natural. You're going to experience it whenever there's something important at stake, and that's not a bad thing.
Fear is going to alert you to danger. It's going to show you where you need to prepare. It's going to make you consider consequences. There's a difference between listening to fear and allowing fear to make your decisions, right? That's what I need you to understand. There's a huge difference between listening and allowing.
See, when fear takes control, you tend to protect what you already have. You avoid difficult decisions. You resist change. You focus on what could go wrong, and you choose what's familiar over what's possible, and growth requires the opposite. You have to be willing to expand, exert effort, and accept reasonable, calculated risks.
You don't have to stop being afraid to grow. You have to stop allowing fear to determine what you're willing to do. This is the difference. So what I'm gonna ask you to do here, right? Think about one decision you've been putting off. Might be hiring someone or letting someone go.
It might be raising your rates. I just had a conversation with a shop owner about raising his rates by $40. He was off that much from his current market. Maybe it's stepping away from something you've always done yourself, right? Start to delegate these things. And, I just want you to go through this before we go any further.
Second thing I'm gonna ask you is if you're struggling with this and you'd like to get some help and you wanna talk, listen, reach out and grab my calendar.
Shannon's gonna put a link right in the comments here, and you'll be able to click on that calendar, grab a link. Now, I'm gonna be traveling a little bit over the next two weeks, four weeks, so there'll be some time. So here's what I want you to do. Reach out. Let's set up a time and sit down and talk. No pressure. Let's see what's going on. Okay? Now, how do you fix this? How do you identify your driver? Three questions. One, what do I really want, right? Forget what you're afraid of for a minute. What outcome do you really want to achieve?
Imagine I'm giving you this little card right here. I'm gonna give you this little card, and it's gonna allow you to achieve any dream that you want, guaranteed, whatever that dream is.
What outcome do you really want? Let fear away from it for a sec. Second question, what's really driving my current decision? Are you moving towards something you want, or are you trying to avoid something you fear? Just be real about it. It doesn't mean you're a bad person. It doesn't mean you're a failure.
Tony Robbins once said that life is one big dance, and you're either dancing with your biggest fears or your biggest dreams. So ask yourself, "Who, what is really driving my current decision?"
And then the third thing, what would I do differently if fear wasn't making this decision? Not if there wasn't any risks, not if success was guaranteed, but if fear wasn't in charge, would you make the same decision? That's all this is about. So I need you to understand, every decision you have to make, it has a driver, and that driver's going to influence where your business is going.
The question isn't whether you're going to experience fear or doubt or uncertainty or inadequacy. You will. That's a given. The question is whether you allow these things to do the driving. Are they a gauge on the dash, or are you allowing them to drive the car? You can't always control what you feel.
That's a fact. But you can choose what drives your decisions, and that choice is gonna determine whether you continue protecting what you have or start building what you want. Thank you so much for being here. God bless. Have a great week, and, go make some money. I'll see y'all next week.
Take care. Bye-bye.
