186 - What Intentional Growth Looks Like in a Real Shop: The Story of LaFlamme’s Auto & Truck Services

186 - What Intentional Growth Looks Like in a Real Shop: The Story of LaFlamme’s Auto & Truck Services January 14, 2026 - 01:03:10   Show Summary: JR and Sarah LaFlamme share how running a four bay shop with too few hands pushed them to seek coaching and build structure instead of burnout. They walk through the turning points that changed everything including adopting digital vehicle inspections building a real parts and pricing strategy and hiring the right roles in the right order. The conversation highlights how community driven hiring and culture shaped their team and how letting go of emotional pricing protected their value. Parker Branch adds perspective from his own shop journey and explains why coaching accelerates clarity and confidence. The episode ends with practical encouragement for owners who feel too busy or unsure to invest in help.   Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development Parker Branch, Industry Coach  Guest(s): Sarah & JR LaFlamme, Owners of LaFlamme's Auto & Truck Services Show Highlights: [00:08:45] – Their breaking point came when the team dropped to just the two of them [00:10:10] – A parts pricing webinar exposed a major blind spot and sparked change [00:12:30] – JR explains what it was like running four bays as the only main tech [00:16:10] – Best hiring results came from community word of mouth not job ads [00:18:40] – Hearing a tech is happier than ever confirmed their culture is working [00:21:10] – Digital vehicle inspections became the biggest game changer for trust and sales [00:23:20] – The 300 percent rule set expectations and created consistency shop wide [00:27:00] – Their ARO jumped from about 300 to over 600 after DVIs and better quoting [00:28:40] – They stopped emotional pricing and protected the value of their work [00:38:10] – JR begins shifting from bottleneck tech to owner leader and trainer   In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at [email protected], and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.   👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/onJEq3WCoTA Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at [email protected].   Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good night, depending on when and where you're watching this from. It is a beautiful day outside, no matter where you are. Go outside, breathe some air, stand in some grass. Get grounded. We, and that is what we're gonna do here today. I am so excited for this conversation we're gonna have here today with our guests. Jimmy Lea: It's going to be amazing. And this is to be an interactive webinar. So those of you who are joining us, we are live on Streamy Yard, we're live on YouTube, we're live on Facebook. Go down into that comment section and comment where it is that you're joining us from today. Love to give a shout out to your shop, to you. Jimmy Lea: Put in your shop names, city, state, wherever it is that you are joining us from. Would love to give you that shout out because you are here. You're here for the live event, which means you can see all the mistakes, all the mishaps, all of the. Live stuff that happens in a live production. We are here for the live and it, this is so much fun. Jimmy Lea: I love being here with you, my friend. Love having this conversation. Love having this opportunity to document who and what we are, what makes us awesome and amazing. What helps us to build a better business, a better life, and a better industry. Love that we're all here together. Alright, let's give some shout outs. Jimmy Lea: Uh, first off to Brad Edwards joining from Plainview, Texas. Brad, thank you for being here. What's the name of your shop? Brad Edwards. Uh, we got Jay McCall. Good morning Forest went good morning. Yes, good morning to all of you. Angie. Deep Creek Auto in ell, Idaho. Did I say that right? Angie? Deep Creek Auto. Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. ELL, Idaho. My parents have a house in, uh, Idaho Falls. Are you close? Is Buell close? Matt's Import Haven, Whidby Island, Washington. Welcome, Matt. Glad you're here. Jay, with j and v, automobile, Alabama. Jay, how the heck are you, brother? Gotta get down to get some good food from Alabama. Again. My parents also own a home in Pensacola, Florida. Jimmy Lea: So when we go to visit mom and dad, Jay, I'm gonna have to swing by and say hello. Brad Edwards. Uh, TE Texas. Texas Edwards Auto Service, Rish. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. R oh Rish, you're new with the institute. W what's your shop? Put in your shop here so we can say Hello. Rish. Glad you're here. Dante. Jimmy Lea: Merv in Walnut Creek, California. Dante. Welcome. Glad you're here, Angie. Yes, I did say it right. Oh, cool. Thank you. Uh, Clint Jones, Concord New New Hampshire met you before events. Long time Kui customer. Clint. Glad you're here, Clint. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you being here. Angie, McCabe, about three hours away. Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, that's, that's a little far. Okay. When I go visit mom and dad, we'll have to make a special trip. Kent Bullard. Hey, Jimmy. Hey Kent. How are you? Thanks for tuning in. Kent's in our headquarters in Ogden, Utah, the international headquarters for the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. Ogden, Utah. Jimmy Lea: Rish is with Meno. Autoworks in Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Oh, Rish. I think I've been through there. Uh, I drove up there one time. I went into, uh, Toronto and drove all the way up to Blue Chip. Casino. That was awesome. That was so much fun. Uh, Clint accomplished auto also new with the institute. Jimmy Lea: Welcome, Clint. Glad you guys are here. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody that's here for this live event. And, and to that comes our guest, our guest here to with us today. Thank you. Uh oh. And Cecil Buller joining from the Institute International Headquarters in Ogden, Utah. Thank you Cecil for being here, brother. Jimmy Lea: Uh, that's awesome. To our guests joining us today, a facilitator, a coach, a one-on-one phenomenon, a member of the single club, the $1 million Net Club. Parker Branch. Parker, with Parker Auto, Parker Branch, branch Automotive, and Truck. Parker, how are you, brother? Parker Branch: Doing good. Joining you from Branch Automotive and also representing the institute. Parker Branch: Thanks for the intro, Jimmy. Jimmy Lea: Uh, you're welcome. Throw up his, uh, branch Parker Branch, branch Automotive in Highland Ranch, Colorado. I've had the distinct opportunity of spending some time with Parker and his wife at his home. There was one summer that we went up there for a National Speakers Association conference, and Parker was very kind. Jimmy Lea: Thank you Parker, for extending the, uh, invitation to come and stay with you and your, uh, your family there. That what a beautiful home you have. Thank you. Parker Branch: Thank you. It was fun having you and Rhonda down at the place. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. How's the shop doing now that we're into 2026? Parker Branch: We're, we're doing well, we're, we're starting off the year pretty good. Parker Branch: Um, excited about January. Taking some direction finally. I know we've all in the industry have noticed last year was a little flatter than a lot of people wanted, but um, still moving in the right direction. Had some positive growth and a good start to the year. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. And congrats on your accomplishments with what you've done there with your shop and, and being the recipient, the one and only single recipient of the $1 million Net Club. Jimmy Lea: Congrats brother. Parker Branch: Thank you. That's awesome. Thank you. We're gonna try to do it again and again. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, absolutely. Please do. Keep doing it and, and, and spread that, spread that mindset, spread that desire to others. Uh, we, we just, just honored to have you as a coach and one of your proteges as, uh, Josh was saying the other day. Jimmy Lea: He's gonna tune in to hear about your Prodigy with Sarah and JR La Flame with the Flame Auto out of, uh. You guys are in Massachusetts? Parker Branch: Yep. They're LA Lambs. They're, they're rock stars. They've, they've been great. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, they, wow. And Parker Branch: Hi everyone. Jimmy Lea: Hey. How are you? There you are. Sarah and jr. Oh, Jr LaFlamme: thanks for having us. Sarah LaFlamme: We are in Massachusetts. We are in Westfield, Massachusetts, which is on the other side of the state from Boston. So most people just assume Boston, but we're not near there. Jimmy Lea: You're not from Boston, so we can't expect the Boston accent then at all. Sarah LaFlamme: I mean, we can fake it. We could Jr LaFlamme: try that. Jimmy Lea: We all have to fake it. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no, forget about it. Well, that, that's cool. You guys had some pretty good weather here just recently. Sarah LaFlamme: Yes. We got into the forties. Yeah. Which is like a heat's steady, that's a heat wave in January and New England. So it's been, it's been nice. Went out with just a sweatshirt and a t-shirt yesterday. Jimmy Lea: I, I had a very humbling experience, so I've just recently moved from the desert to the cold weather. Jimmy Lea: Uh, I'm a desert rat. I admit it. I fully admit it. I get cold easily. I don't like being cold. I was walking into Costco in my stocking cap and jacket and walking out of Costco was a gentleman in a tank top and shorts. Sarah LaFlamme: Was it 35 degrees that day? Jimmy Lea: It was. Sarah LaFlamme: We would do that too. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. We have people out here that shovel snow in shorts. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. Uh, Wayne, Wayne Marshall talks about all the time he's out in his flip flops, shoveling snow in shorts and a tank top. And it just gets the job done, you know? Jr LaFlamme: Yep. Yeah. You gotta do what you gotta do. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. Well, the LA Flames, thank you so much. We appreciate you joining us. I've got so many questions for you. Did a deep dive into your notes. Thank you, Parker, for taking copious notes as your coaching with JR. And Sarah, this is awesome. Uh, I, I want to kick this off by asking a question about coaching and training. Jimmy Lea: What is it, well, when you first started with coaching with Parker, what was the pain that finally pushed you to say, yes, we need help? And, and that's probably before Parker, that's probably going back to when, uh, uh, one of my guys reached out to you from the institute. What was that pain point that said, Ooh, yeah, you know what, we need some help. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. So the, the pain for us, I think, started well in advance of us reaching out to the institute. Um. We were in, I think our second full year. And, um, we had, um, an employee who had to take a leave. So when we went from three of us to just us, that was it. So he became the main technician. I was, became the main service advisor and doing everything else that you need to do to run a business. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, and so, and we were, it was okay for a little bit and we were trekking through and we were like, we can do this. Yeah. And then, um, we started getting a little bit busier and we started seeing the cracks. There were, you know, we were, you know, not hitting deadlines with cars. I, I was missing deadlines on administrative things. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, and I was like, we just can't keep running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. I mean, I was working 70, 80 hours a week, like nonstop and it was pretty much burning me out. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Jr LaFlamme: Being the only tech and so on and so forth. So. Sarah LaFlamme: We were taking our work home with us. We are married. Um, so we were working 24 hours a day essentially, because we would leave here, go home, we'd be with our kids, but we'd be talking about work because there's just not enough. Sarah LaFlamme: There wasn't enough time in the day 'cause we were trying to wear every hat. Um, so when we realized that the kids were, you know, and our home life was suffering, we said enough, we can't do this anymore. Um, and we actually ran into the institute's name by, um, joining a webinar kind of like this. Um, but it was about parts matrix and parts markup. Sarah LaFlamme: And Cecil actually had done that. He partnered with Parts Tech and it was an such an eye-opening webinar. We learned so much. 'cause before that we just had no idea how to properly price our parts. We were just from the seat of flying from the seat of our pants. So, um. That was such an eyeopening thing and I gained so much confidence based on what he said, that that's why I decided to reach out to the institute when we finally said, okay, this is enough. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. And then I believe it's Kent. Um, I saw a webinar that he did about pretty much giving yourself some freedom and, and getting to a certain point. And that's when we had a conversation saying, Hey, you know, maybe it's time to look into this option, you know? Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And Cecil is listening. Jimmy Lea: So big shout out to Cecil. Thank you so much. And the parts markup matrix webinar, that, that is a webinar that just keeps on giving and giving and giving. It's, we partnered with tech, parts Tech, wonderful partnership. Just to let you know on numbers, there were like 1200 people that registered. 900 showed up the day of the event. Jimmy Lea: It's the most we've ever had in a webinar with the institute. The questions were coming through so fast and furious that it was quite literally overwhelming to be on the production side of trying to answer all these questions. Cecil did a phenomenal job, consummate professional. Thank you, Cecil. Jimmy Lea: Appreciate that. Shout out to you. Jr LaFlamme: Absolutely. Jimmy Lea: So into those problems, here you are, you've discovered it. You have, 'cause you guys have four bays, right? You've got the building with three and then the, the outbuilding with the fourth. Jr LaFlamme: Yes, that's correct. Jimmy Lea: Are you saying Jr that you were the tech, you were, you were covering all four bays. Jr LaFlamme: That's correct. That's what was going on. I had, he's the Sarah LaFlamme: master. Jr LaFlamme: I was running three bays here and I set up some, a whole stool set up on the other side. Yeah. And nonstop. Sarah was doing service advising and invoicing and estimates why I'm full throttle out here and it just, I'm helping her in between, like with quoting and stuff. Jr LaFlamme: And that's, and that's pretty much why we're here. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: So I, you know, I, I, I hear it. And, and you know, we, we, in the automotive industry, we know how to work, we know how to work hard. And you've proven this, you can do the 70, 80 hours. Do you want to? No. But can you Yes. Parker, you are coaching them. I, it had to be like, one of the first things you said was, Hey, we need to hire some techs. Parker Branch: Yeah. When, when, uh, when I got together with them, they had, um, they had rehired, I think Chris, and, and they had, uh, Tyler. Helping out in the shop as well. And he was able to help get some of the repairs and stuff done. JR was still staying out in front with diagnosis and, and keeping the operation running. Parker Branch: Sarah was still running the front and it, it was fun to work with him and 'cause so many of us technicians or you know, technician and wife turn business owner decide we're gonna go out and do this on our own. Um, you know, I came through the same channels they did, I had the great idea that I'm gonna go start a shop and it's gonna be me and I'll have the phone in my pocket and the wrench in my hand and I'm gonna do it all. Jr LaFlamme: Yep. Parker Branch: And you know, trial and error help. You know, Cecil had a big impact on helping me understand structure and you know, when to add what position, which can be terrifying. Um, but I know, you know, Sarah and JR are go-getters and so. We would talk about some of these changes. Adding, you know, adding a service advisor. Parker Branch: I, I would love to hear what fears and feelings they had about that. And I just to share with everybody I've heard it. Um, but it's a scary thing. And the difference and the change and the business by adding that position was un you know, was awesome. And then later on we were able to actually add a technician to take some of the pressure off of JR. Parker Branch: And change some of their roles. So I, I'd love to hear some of, you know, how they felt about that and, and turn it over to you Jimmy, to, to, you know, elicit some of, or, you know, pull some of that out. 'cause it's, it's great help for everybody to hear that, you know, we all come through the same channels. Jimmy Lea: We we do. Jimmy Lea: And it's interesting. So similar, the two stories of technicians turned, shop owners, you guys both have the same story I, at which I love. I absolutely love that. And, and interviewing. Is my nemesis, that's my kryptonite, JR. Sarah, you've gotta interview, you've gotta bring in another tech. What do you do? How do you find the right butt to put in the right seat on the bus? Sarah LaFlamme: So for technicians, you know, we, we tried the traditional ways we, you know, put up an ad online. Um, I even went as far as to put an ad in our local newspaper. Come to find out, nobody reads it anymore. Um, Jr LaFlamme: whoa. Shucker. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. It was worth a shot. I was, I was, I was drawn at straws. So, um, so we tried the traditional, um, methods first and then, um. Sarah LaFlamme: We, we got lucky with, um, Tyler. We actually got him through one of our tool skies that came through. He actually recommended him to us, so we got lucky with him. And then, um, and then we've had, we've put other ads out In the meantime, we actually have used, um, a hiring company that Parker recommended to us, which is amazing. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, and, um, and we, that's worked out well. Um, but we've actually seen a lot of ex, a lot of. The best, um, progress with getting technicians, word of mouth through people. So we're very, we're kind of in a small community. We're very community driven. We live in the town that our business is in. Yeah. So everything we do, um, how we market everything, how we live, how the culture of our business is run is based on community. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, so that's kind of how we got our last tech, Steve, which is our, he's a master tech. So, um, we actually just being known in the community, happened to be walking in to drop my daughter off at daycare. And one of the employees is like, my husband needs to come work for you. And so, yeah. Amazing. So, oh, Jimmy Lea: that's awesome. Sarah LaFlamme: You just never, you would kind of never know where they're gonna come from. I remember, uh, Parker kind of saying one time that it's really, it feels really hard right now, but you're gonna build your shop up to a point where people are going to be willing to come Jimmy Lea: to Sarah LaFlamme: you, to come to you. And so that moment when that, that woman said, oh my husband's, he can fix anything, he is a great technician. Sarah LaFlamme: He, he want him to come work for you, you're in town. Yep. And I was like, this is it. Parker said this would happen. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. She said, I, I saw your ad. I think it was on our website or something at Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Jr LaFlamme: At the time. And she's like, Hey, my husband's been doing this for years. What are you looking for? And we pretty much said, Hey, we're looking for a master tech to alleviate JR a little bit. Jr LaFlamme: And Sarah LaFlamme: yeah, Jr LaFlamme: he came on board and he is been with us since. So Sarah LaFlamme: yeah. So that was, yeah. Parker Branch: Yeah. You guys are doing the right things and, and you know, treating people right. Internal customers, external customers doing good work. And that creates attraction to your business. And that's. That's kind of, you know, we talk about that at the institute by, you know, raising everything up and doing such a good job. Parker Branch: Eventually people, they start realizing that good things are happening at La Flas and we want to be there. And that's part of that attraction that, you know, that's a real compliment to, to what you all have done. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Thank you. Jr LaFlamme: Thank you. Yeah. And I will say, like, his wife stopped us recently and she did make comments to me and Sarah saying. Jr LaFlamme: I'm so glad my husband made the move to go to you guys. He's very happy. I haven't seen him this happy in years. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah, Jr LaFlamme: so that's a good compliment all the way around. Sarah LaFlamme: So I make sure to let, Jr LaFlamme: thank you. Sarah LaFlamme: I make sure to let him know when I see his wife. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that is awesome. Sarah LaFlamme: Your wife said you're so happy here. Jimmy Lea: Yes, yes, yes. Let me remind you, Steve. Yeah. And Steve is ZZ top right? He's, Sarah LaFlamme: yeah. No long hair. Jimmy Lea: He is ZZ top. Tyler. Looks like he just stepped off the high school graduation school. Sarah LaFlamme: He Jimmy Lea: kind, but he's not. Jr LaFlamme: Nope. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. How did you find Tyler? Sarah LaFlamme: That Tyler was through, um, our Snap-on dealer. Jimmy Lea: The Snap-on dealer. Okay. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And then you, you said you also hired somebody through, was it through Sarah Fraser? Sarah LaFlamme: Yes, we did hire technician through Sarah. And that experience was great through um, AIM and um, that technician in the end didn't work out. We had them on for about five minute, five months. Unfortunately, it didn't work out, which was really disappointing for us 'cause they fit our culture so well. Sarah LaFlamme: And that's so important to us because Absolutely. We're in very tight quarters and we're here so much that it's like. Almost like being at home. So we wanna make sure everyone jives. Uh, so unfortunately that one didn't work out, but, um, we've got, you know, Sarah always on speed dial for all of our needs now. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good. I'm glad you clarified that. It was longer than five minutes. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah, sorry. Parker Branch: I think that was, um, I think that was really a good experience too, because, you know, one of the things that we learned, you know, as I was coaching JR and Sarah, we talked a little bit about EOS. No, we didn't wanna make the whole business into an EOS system, but we talked about, you know, finding the right people and having them fit the culture. Parker Branch: And so it was a good try with that individual. And in the end we just, we realized it was okay, but it really wasn't great. And when they let go of, okay, that made room for great to show up. Um, so it was a good lesson. Yeah, Jimmy Lea: absolutely. Jr LaFlamme: Oh, absolutely. Jimmy Lea: Hallelujah. Yeah, we learned that in the leadership intensive classes with the institute, that when you're looking for a unicorn, you've got to look where the unicorns are. Jimmy Lea: You don't go to the middle of the valley, you go where the unicorns are. And, uh, if you've got a shop full of mule deer, that's not unicorns. What, uh, speaking to culture, speaking to, uh, your shop, I have an implementation question. What is, I'm gonna call it the single best. Um, and, and it could be more than one, but what's the single best thing you've implemented from coaching and training with Parker that created that immediate traction in your shop? Sarah LaFlamme: So I would say it was the dvs doing the digital vehicle inspections. That was, um, such a big game changer. We were really hesitant about doing it. Prior to that. We thought, ah, it's gonna take extra time. It's, that's not really billable time. Um, are people gonna think we're just shady salespeople because we're telling 'em what's wrong with their car? Sarah LaFlamme: Um, and then Parker just really, you know, gave us the whole story. Like, you know, it's not just about selling, it's about people seeing what's going on with their, their vehicle. The whole health Yeah. Of their health report or their vehicle. And when he put it like that, I thought, yeah, like if I go to the doctor, I want them to give me the whole health report. Sarah LaFlamme: I don't want them to just give me this one fix. I want everything. You know? Right. So that way people can make informed decisions, which is literally what, like my mantra is now is always we give this so you can make an informed decision. We want everyone to. Make that informed decision. We don't want somebody to pay to replace their transmission when, when their engine's already, we already know their engine's not good. Jr LaFlamme: Or if their frame's about to fall out and say, Hey, well I just did a brake job, but your frame's about to fall out. Hey, here you go. Anyways, Sarah LaFlamme: yeah, we're in the rust belt. So we're, you know, um, frames rusting out is very common. So that was probably the biggest thing was doing, was actually implementing it and, and putting it on every single job and making sure that we, um, are very thorough. Sarah LaFlamme: And that was a lot of training with our technicians to make sure that they were going through and thoroughly and doing this inspection. Um, 'cause you can, you can have 'em just look at it, but if they don't, if they're missing things, you're not giving the customer the full picture for them to make the right decisions. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. So, yeah. And, and working with Parker, we, uh. Came up with like kind of a little game I would say for DVI to make sure all technicians and stuff are doing the DS properly and Sarah LaFlamme: DVI rodeo. Yep. Jr LaFlamme: DVI rodeo, Parker Branch: 300% percent Sarah LaFlamme: and the hundred percent rule. So that was gonna say, yeah, so with that, with that D vs came the 300% rule, which was, you know, 100% of cars get a DVI 100% of cars. Sarah LaFlamme: Um. Parker Branch: Findings, a hundred percent of your findings. Sarah LaFlamme: Findings, right. We're presented, we're quoting 'em all and we're presenting them all. Um, and that kind of, um, at first was really scary for us too because when we first started with Parker, we didn't have a service advisor. It was me. Yep. And I was still wearing all of these hats. Sarah LaFlamme: I was taking my hat on and off all day long. Calls, customers, payroll bills, everything. And so the idea that I would have to try to find time to carve out, carve out time to do all of the quoting for all of these items, I was like, there's just no way. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: And of course Parker, 'cause he is full of good, good information and good ideas that you need a service advisor. Jr LaFlamme: I mean, even getting to the, even to some of the point where Sarah's like, Hey, I can't quote this out. I need help 'cause I got this, these quotes to do. So I had to stop wrenching to get involved with that aspect too. Sarah LaFlamme: Right. Jr LaFlamme: And it was just. Sarah LaFlamme: We were realize, right. We were realizing that we were just, we were spread too thin in both departments, and there was just no way. Sarah LaFlamme: So, I mean, there were times where we weren't able to actually even get estimates together for customers, and we lost out on those jobs because we were that busy. Yeah. So, yeah. So service advisor was the next step after we implemented, you know, dbis with, with the 300% rule, and then having somebody who could actually bring that over the finish line. Sarah LaFlamme: Right. Um, because I unfortunately just couldn't, so, because I just had too many other things that I, I had to get done, so. Jimmy Lea: Oh, Parker Branch: yeah. Yeah. So adding that service advisor was a game changer. Absolutely. Uh, to change your guys' roles and it, and it puts you into another gear. Um Yep. And your, and your revenue and, um, giving you time to work on the business For sure. Jr LaFlamme: Correct. Absolutely. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. DVI is a drum that's very near and dear to my heart. I, I pounded that drum for four years trying to get shops to implement, take pictures, take pictures, take pictures. It just really educates your customer and educated customer makes better decisions. Sarah LaFlamme: Absolutely. We get that as feedback often from customers, whether it be through a review or just telling us verbally how much they love getting the videos and the photos that we send them. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Of their, of their cars. Jr LaFlamme: A lot of people are visual. You can explain it to you're blue in the face, but a lot of people, if they see it and you explain it to 'em, they're more visual and they're like, okay, I got what you're talking about now and yeah, let's proceed with this, or so on and so forth. Or I'll put it on the back burner for now. Jr LaFlamme: You know? So. Parker Branch: Yeah. And that had a huge impact on driving their average written estimate up. And therefore their average repair order came up substantially from that as well. So we saw some, some great changes there. Jimmy Lea: All right. I have a lot of questions for you about the DVI then, uh, what are you using? Is it integrated with your point of sale? Jimmy Lea: What did you average repair order go from and to? Sarah LaFlamme: Oh. Okay, so tech metric is what we're using. Jimmy Lea: Love Sarah LaFlamme: it. Um, and fully Jimmy Lea: integrated, simple Sarah LaFlamme: using fully integrated Jimmy Lea: pushes right into it. Sarah LaFlamme: Yep. Yep. And we text every single, um, DVI right out to the customer. And, um, so it's seamless. They have the link they can go back to and they can keep they, and they can forward it to other people and review it too, which is nice because sometimes, you know, maybe they wanna send it to dad to review, you know? Sarah LaFlamme: Oh yeah. Maybe they feel uncomfortable making that decision on their own. Um, and our a RO, Ooh, I know I should have that number. And Cecil's somewhere on here. Probably, probably going, she should have these numbers. And Jennifer probably too. Um, um, that's one of the things that I'm working on is, uh, Jimmy Lea: let's, it's not a, it's, we're not gonna hold your feet to the fire. Jimmy Lea: This is a, a scientific wild guesstimate on we were somewhere in the. S range and we went to somewhere in this range. Sarah LaFlamme: Okay. So I would say our, before we were doing the DVI, we were probably in the 300 range. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: And then we've gone to well over 600 for our aros right now. Jimmy Lea: Congratulations. Yeah. That's, that's phenomenal. Jimmy Lea: And, and the result of that is better cars on the road. Yes. Your average repair order went up. Wonderful. Yes. As a business we're able to make it. Okay. And we're profitable. Okay, cool. But the more important thing, our clients, our customers are making better decisions about their vehicles. They're safer on the road, which also means your safer on the road, your family is safer on the road. Jimmy Lea: And my family is safer on the road because our clients, our customers are making better decisions. I love that. I, that is wonderful. I'll never stop counting that drum. Alright. And the DVI may be the crown jewel in this. But if you can think of something else, we'll talk about something else. If another shop owner could copy just one thing that you've done this last year, what should it be? Sarah LaFlamme: Uh, so it's funny 'cause we talked about this recently and when it was just JR and I, um, and when you first start your business, um, you relying on friends and family kind of to start you. And so we did a lot of emotional pricing and Cecil talked about it in that webinar we went to. And then I looked at JR. Sarah LaFlamme: And I was like, are we emo doing emotional pricing? And then like the next time one of our family members, it was like not even a family, it was like a friend of a friend of a friend, uh, you know, and I went, you've distant Jimmy Lea: too far. Too far. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. And I'm in there because I'm a bleeding heart and I'm like, I don't know. Sarah LaFlamme: She, I know she doesn't, not a lot of money and, and again, I'm making decisions for her. And, and I said, you know. I think we're making too much emotion, like we're making these emotional pricing. Yeah. You know, pricing and Parker, and we talked to Parker about it when we started with him and he said, yeah, absolutely. Sarah LaFlamme: You need to get this set and this is what it is. And um, and that actually is kind of like, it all kind of went hand in hand with having that service advisor position in, because now I'm a step back from that. I'm not doing the everyday, um, oper like that part of it. So my service advisor's doing that, so I can't get emotionally involved. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, because, and he, and he doesn't care because it's not his family or of a friend. Of a friend. Of a friend, right. He's not gonna be emotionally involved in that. So, um, that has really helped us. So I would say, no, don't do emotional pricing. All you're doing is just discounting and Jr LaFlamme: your, your value. Sarah LaFlamme: Your value. Sarah LaFlamme: And I love helping. I love helping people and we'd like to help people as much as we can. But if you're not in a position where you can help people, and we weren't when we were in that. Position. We weren't in that position to help people. We were barely skimming by and, but we were cutting ourselves short because we just wanna help everybody. Sarah LaFlamme: So, yeah. Um, but so important thing to I think, people to, to learn. Jr LaFlamme: Yep. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That is so true. Parker, what about you? What's one of those things that, uh, uh, another shop owner, if they were to copy one of the things that you have done in your shop over the last year, what would you suggest? Parker Branch: Um, you know, the first thing that comes to mind was when you presented that question, even to JR and Sarah as that I was thinking about, you know, when I started Branch Automotive and, you know, the end of 2009 actually started functioning in 2010. Parker Branch: Um, I was a couple years into it, running some fairly decent volume of sales through the shop at $80 an hour. Ooh. And I don't know what my parts margin was because I didn't have a coach, therefore I didn't know. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. Parker Branch: So for me, when I first started to try to get some coaching and was introduced to the institute and actually understanding what the best shops in the industry and, and putting these pieces together, that was a game changer for me. Parker Branch: And I think, um, Sarah is very sharp with numbers and paying attention to that. And she was frustrated because she wasn't where she wanted to be, but she also didn't know where she should be. And I think that was part of when we first talked, they, they were like, you know, there's a little bit of are we doing the right things? Parker Branch: Where should we be? What do we need to to change? So, you know, uh, I, I don't want to take a whole bunch of credit 'cause I, I give the credit to Cecil and the institute and the pe, Jennifer Holbert, the people that have coached me. Um, and then I'm sharing my journey with them. Through those experiences. Um, having the coach is, it's the biggest game changer there is. Parker Branch: You don't know what you don't know. Jr LaFlamme: Absolutely. Sarah LaFlamme: I would agree. And if I could just jump on that, one of the first things that when we met with Parker at our first meeting was he kind of said like, what is your goal? Like, what do you wanna, where do you wanna be? So that, you know, 'cause from that he started building us kind of our outline, right? Sarah LaFlamme: Like, think of writing an essay in high school. You kind of start with your outline. And so he kind of start, started helping us build that outline. How can we achieve what we wanted? And for us, all we wanted was work-life balance. Balance. Yep. We don't wanna be wealthy and rich. I mean, it'd be cool if we were, but we wanted to be happy. Sarah LaFlamme: We wanted to be present for our time with our kids, um, and, and be able to leave work behind, but, and still have it, you know, be successful. Um, and we, you know, and be able to travel. We didn't take a vacation for years. Years, Jr LaFlamme: yep. Um. Sarah LaFlamme: You know, and it's, it's hard because it's not just us, it's also our kids. Sarah LaFlamme: So to tell them, oh yeah, we can't take another vacation again, and they're like, well, everyone else is taking a vacation. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. Or not, you know, or also not being able kids wake up in the morning not being able to see 'em before school. Sarah LaFlamme: Right. Yeah. Or Jr LaFlamme: seeing them right before they go to bed. Sarah LaFlamme: Right. You Jr LaFlamme: know, I mean, coachings helped out with that tremendously. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. So Parker was able to give us so much data of like where we should be, but in little tiny bites. So it wasn't overwhelming of like, let's start here. Okay, we need to start with let's hire another technician. If maybe we can't get that, maybe we just go to the right service advisor. Maybe that can help. Sarah LaFlamme: And that actually ended up being the, the better. Um. Process for us was to go service advisor, and then we added more tech after tech. Yep. But, um, yeah, to not know, to know I had these numbers, but is that the right number? Should my parts margin be this, should it be that? Should my labor margin be this? I don't know. Sarah LaFlamme: I don't know. You know? So for him to give me, am I spending even down to like the, um, the expenses? Am I spending too much on my accountant? Am I spending too little on advertising? Um, these are Jr LaFlamme: software too much. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. These are things that, I mean, we're still working on these things. Um, and, but it's nice that the institute has gone and done all that work and provided that the, the Parker Branch: benchmarks Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Those references for everyone to, to have. So yeah, it was great. Parker Branch: Yeah. I think you're, you're gonna be super excited as you continue. Um, you know, there, uh. Sarah and JR are moving into a gear performance group. They're in transition now, and they'll have Jennifer Holbert as their coach. And it's, you know, Sarah had some, some fears and worries about how's this gonna be with the reporting and that, and I, and she is a powerhouse with her numbers, and I was like, you and Jennifer are gonna get along. Parker Branch: Like, you're gonna be worried at first, but when you get in there and feel what, you know, what we've done with coaching one-on-one, getting some structure and some ideas and having someone to talk to that's been through the same pain points that you are, have tried this, tried that. Um, when you get in there and have 15 to 20 shop owners surrounding you that also have been on that journey and with Jennifer's expertise and, and, and she's just brilliant. Parker Branch: So you're, you're gonna love that. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. We're really looking forward. Look forward to it. Yeah, we're looking forward to it. Our first in-person meeting is at the end of this month, so in a couple weeks. Um, we're gonna get to meet a whole bunch of other shop owners who are like-minded, and we're really excited about it. Sarah LaFlamme: Yep. You know, we're happy that we at least had Parker for at least over a year though, because before that you kind of just feel like you're out in the middle of the desert by yourself. You know, we felt like we were drowning. And then when we had Parker, we at least had somebody to bounce ideas off of. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, and talk about the, the, the losses and the wins, you know what I mean? There was one month we had our best month ever and the very first thing Parker said when he got on the call was, congratulations on your best month ever. And we were like, we go. Oh, was it? We were so, we were, we were so busy, like trying to, we Jr LaFlamme: didn't even know. Sarah LaFlamme: We didn't know we had, so we're trying, we're, you know, we were just trying to implement so many things, right? Get our SOPs in place. Another thing that Parker told us to get rolling on, you know, so everyone knows what we're expecting of them. Um, you know, we were trying to get all these things that we weren't even paying attention to that, to the full, to how we were, you know, how I was doing on that. Sarah LaFlamme: So, um, yeah. But with the service advisor, now I can actually, I'm having so much more time to look at all those numbers and, and, and, and make sure that we're actually on the same path that we wanted to be on. Parker Branch: Yeah. And Jimmy, they were. They were open-minded because, you know, we, it's not always, we knew, hey, it would be ideal if we could get a technician to replace JR in the shop to free him up. Parker Branch: And because the business is young and we still don't have an advisor or, you know, we're trying to add to the team to get our structure to free. You know, the owners up a little bit. Um, you know, we went after technician first. We had a, some, some trials and tribulations there. And we, we had talked about it like, hey, you know, there were times I had to go back in the shop and stay there and be the guy in the shop. Parker Branch: So we switched gears a little bit and we said, Hey, let's see if we can, you know, find that service advisor position. And they did. And, and that made another positive change, um, helped create that vacuum to then attract this technician with a big, fancy beard. And here we go. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. ZZ top, Steve. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah, he's the best. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Parker, I think you're hitting it right on the head. And, and, okay. Now that it's in the room, the nail is up. I've gotta hit it with a hammer. Jr we kept talking about you being this bottleneck by doing the, the, you were the hands-on the heavy duty work. Jr LaFlamme: Yep. Jimmy Lea: Um. What did it feel like for you to hear that? Jimmy Lea: Okay. We need JR to transition from being a technician to being an owner. Jr LaFlamme: So part of it is when I'm doing the job, you know, it's done your way, so on and so forth. But the Institute and Parker, they've implement the SOPs, getting all that into place, which has helped out a lot. So putting those into place with technicians and guiding the technicians the right way, um, has also helped alleviate that off of me where I could go training these guys and also bringing on Steve and so and so forth, they, it's good to see now I don't have to get so much involved with the technician side. Jr LaFlamme: Now I have guys out here that I have trust in, um, that can keep the wheels turning and I. Don't have to be in every step. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. It feels like he can almost nurture the technicians a little bit more into, right into like how we do it, the la flam way. Right. How we, how we, what we expect, which is probably pretty similar to most shops, but, um, but yeah, so that's been, um, a big thing. Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. And, and there's a big controversy in, in the social media world right now that says if your coaching company only tells you that you have to work on your business, not in it, they are not a good coaching company and that's not the story. Eventually we want to work you to that position where you can work on it. Jr LaFlamme: Correct. Jimmy Lea: And, and here's my question to you, Jr. How long did it take? How long was that transition period? Because you can't do it day one. Jr LaFlamme: No. Jimmy Lea: I mean, how long did it take you to make that? And you're probably still not fully transitioned. Jr LaFlamme: That's correct. And we're still working on it to get me to that point because I need to spend more time on the business instead of. Jr LaFlamme: In the business, so, um, we'll say ever for a while. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Yeah. So we've been open, yeah. Just over four years we've been open and I would say, uh, just up until the last, like couple of months. Jr LaFlamme: Months Yep. Sarah LaFlamme: Is when he's finally like his numbers. So I, when I run my report, I'm, you know, I'm starting to really see that his numbers for billables is really dwindling. Sarah LaFlamme: And at first I kind of razed him and I was like, Hey, your billable aren't very good. Um, but they're not supposed to be because we're supposed Yeah. The technicians are supposed to be doing this stuff. So yeah, now he has more time to train them and work with them on Jr LaFlamme: that, and also do business stuff that I need to do, um, instead of doing it say after hours or in between things here and there. Jr LaFlamme: So that has helped out tremendously. Parker Branch: Oh, JR was feeling pretty overwhelmed at times. Jr LaFlamme: Yep. Parker Branch: That he was, you know, really carrying the load in the shop. So, yeah. Jr LaFlamme: And it's very tough when, you know, you have all this work that has to get out of your. Because it's promised to customers and you see 'em out there and you're like, all right, hey, I got a timing belt to do. Jr LaFlamme: Hey, I got an r and r transmission out there still to do. In between fitting and oil changes and breaks. Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: He, there was many times where he said to me, I feel so much stress because everyone's, everyone's paychecks and everyone's livelihood is, is relying on me and my shoulders because, you know what I mean? Sarah LaFlamme: So it was, and that's a, you know, a feeling that he doesn't say that anymore because we've got these technicians that are Steve who's got, he's excellent, knows what he's doing. We've got Tyler who's working his way up, he's learning a lot. He is absorbing like a sponge. Sponge. Yeah. Which is excellent. Um, and, but JR now has the time to put into Tyler and then, and then eventually into our next technician too. Sarah LaFlamme: So, Parker Branch: yeah. And you have, you have Chris carrying his role and his position. That also is, you know, kind of in the background, but pretty important, keeping the state inspection program running and helping cover some of the odds and ends. So definitely some supplemental, you know, employee. Helping carry the load and yeah, they've done a great job of, of knowing that. Parker Branch: And, and when the business is young, you may still be in and out of the shop some, but you're, you've seen now the difference that can happen with adding the key areas of staff. You've seen what it's like to have that position maybe come and go and what the impact on the business was. Now understand the importance a little differently than you did before. Jr LaFlamme: Correct. And like you were just saying, having Chris here also, also, um, alleviates me a little bit. 'cause if I'm tied up doing something, everybody. Under like technician, stuff like that. Notice, see Chris if Jr. Right. Or Sarah's busy. Sarah LaFlamme: I will. Yeah. So that's advice I would give other shop owners too. Sarah LaFlamme: Eventually when you get to a point where you're wearing too many hats, you, you need to think about getting a, a jack of all trades kind of guy. The guy who can be in the background, which is our, our guy Chris. He has trained in every department and done everything in the shop except for my stuff, right? Sarah LaFlamme: Like accounting, he's done, he's cross-trained in all of it so he can back us up. And that's what we worked really hard for the last year was to try to get him into that position, um, get him trained up and everything too, so that way we can leave and go meet other shop owners in our gear performance group. Sarah LaFlamme: Otherwise we wouldn't be able to do that. Jr LaFlamme: Correct. And they each, like, having somebody there that knows, um, the business, the way, the direction, how things are operational, having people go to somebody else when you're not around is a bonus. Because you don't have the doubt in your mind saying, Hey, is this getting done? Jr LaFlamme: Well, I know they're gonna go see this individual. Um, they know how we do things. They're the go-to if we're not here. So Jimmy Lea: that is awesome. That is awesome. It, it sounds like not only have you been able to free up Jr's time to work on the business, but bringing in Chris also allowed you, Sarah to work on the business as well. Sarah LaFlamme: For sure. Um, you know, the service advisor role and having Chris as our shop, like I said, Jack of all trades, um, has really helped because I have been able to start delegating, which is a big thing. Um, we had to, you know, that's one of the hard things is being a business owner when you start the business is you feel like you don't wanna let go of anything. Sarah LaFlamme: And that's something that we've been working really hard to actually pry that responsibility off of us and delegate it to someone. And maybe they don't do it exactly how you would do it, but you work with them to try to get them up to that level, you know what I mean? And so it's been, it's been hard, but yeah, it's. Sarah LaFlamme: Chris has def definitely done that. And then even JR being, um, being less of a bottleneck, right. And being alleviated in the shop has made it so I can actually hand him back some of these duties that I've been doing in addition to all my very, like administrative and operational things like Jr LaFlamme: marketing, Sarah LaFlamme: you know what I mean? Sarah LaFlamme: Like, because I'm doing all the marketing and stuff too. And then, but you know, so now I can hand back some of the, um, management, hr, like a little bit some of these things back to JR as he has more time now, um, which makes it so I can spend more time moving the forward, the business forward, which has been great. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that, that is really good. That is really good. All right. Now, now we're to a point, uh, this is the section of the interview we're gonna call. The worst or the most, the worst or most embarrassing implementations that you've done in the shop where you thought, well, that didn't quite land the way I imagined. Jimmy Lea: I thought that might've gone a little bit different. What has been the most embarrassing rollout you attempted that didn't quite land right? I'm not Jr LaFlamme: really sure. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, geez, that's hard. I would say the DVI is actually, um, so we were lucky with Steve when he came on more recently that he worked for a place that already did that. Sarah LaFlamme: But before that, that the text we had did not. And so, um, rolling out the DVI was, you know, a yeah, a they, they gave me, they gave us some pushback, right? Yeah. Like, you know, it's gonna take time and, and you know, and then, um, and then seeing the quality of them coming back in, that was where we were like, oh, that did not land. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. Or the consistency, like 1D VI would have all these photos, the next one would be missing half of them. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Two photos, right? Yeah. So, I mean, and that's something we continue to work on and, you know, each technician almost brings their own. Um, style, don't style to it. Right. Which is great because then we can use that as an example. Sarah LaFlamme: We see something on A DVI that we really like that Steve did or Tyler did, and we're like, wow, we want everyone to do it this way 'cause this is great for the customer to see and this is easier for them to understand. So, um, but yeah, for sure D vs. Were they were a hard rollout. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. We just do a dbi. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, that's, it's, a lot of people think it goes that way, but it does and it takes a lot of handholding to implement a, a successful digital vehicle inspection program. It certainly does. Alright, so, uh, most and worst have, tell me about a time that you solved a problem and in doing so, created a new problem. Sarah LaFlamme: I've got one example. When we hired our service advisor, our very first service advisor, um. Yeah, that was to solve a problem. But it created a big problem, a bigger problem for me because then I had to actually take the time to like be patient and train them. And Parker was all the time, like, Sarah, you gotta sit next to them. Sarah LaFlamme: You gotta sit next to 'em. Yep. You gotta go like baby, step them through. Um, and so that ended up becoming like a bigger problem. I didn't At at, right? Yeah. At the time I didn't think it was gonna be, I was like, this is a great solution. Here you go. Just put 'em in the seat. And then Parker's like, no, you can't just do that. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. And one thing, one thing I add to that is for a service advisor, one thing I would definitely suggest to people is make sure you put your time into 'em and make sure they have your procedures and they know your procedures and processes. So this way here, they're not on the front lines going, I don't know, I'm not really sure what to do. Jr LaFlamme: Right. Jr LaFlamme: You know, so make sure you put your time into it with that. And Parker was. Great with that, helping us in that aspect as well. So Parker Branch: yeah, that, that was a great learning experience. You know, that was, you don't know what you don't know until you get there. And, and the individual that, you know, we got hired and, uh, I, I remember getting on a call and Sarah was like, yeah, you know, they've been here two days and I turned them loose and it's terrible. Parker Branch: Wait a minute. Sarah LaFlamme: In my defense, we just have such tight quarters, um, you know, oh, Parker Branch: it was a space, Sarah LaFlamme: there wasn't even room for me next to stand next to them. So it was very, it was hard. So, yeah, so Parker Branch: we reeled it in, we talked about it, about how to, you know, I, I told them in, in my shop, even some of the higher level. People that we've brought in as a, in a mature, you know, business, 10 plus years, we still have, our manager was one of our best advisors and he is joined at the hip with that individual for, if it's a very well experienced advisor, probably still a couple weeks, and if it's not probably a month, and, uh, they reeled it in and, and when they made their changes to the current advisor, um, they did a great job of really setting those expectations. Parker Branch: And it's just like, you know, we were talking about, you were sharing about the DVI and some of the difficulties there, and I, and I'm thinking there's a couple SOPs, um, setting the expectations with the tax of, hey, this is how many pictures we want and why and, and the good and the bad. So, but they've done a great job of that. Jr LaFlamme: Thank you. Sarah LaFlamme: Thank you. Jimmy Lea: So as you're looking for advisors and you are looking for that advisor. Fit Is there a difference between a, um, a transactional service advisor versus a relationship service advisor? Jr LaFlamme: Absolutely. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah, definitely. And um, like I kind of touched upon before, for us, one of our core values is community. Sarah LaFlamme: Like that feeling of community and that everyone feels really welcome and that, um, because that's how I wanna feel when I go places and I wanna feel treated like, I want them to say, Hey, Sarah, and know my name, and remember my car, and, and things like that. I can't expect, I know every service advisor to remember every single person's exact, you know, thing. Sarah LaFlamme: But, um, in the years that I was in the, at the front, that was, that was me. I was doing that. I was very relationship. We were building relationships and those people were our biggest supporters sending in new customers to us. Like all like tenfold. Like one person, one happy customer is sending like 10 people, like their whole family. Sarah LaFlamme: Um, and so, you know, that was really important to us is to make sure that people feel that there's that relationship and that we're not just so a one-off, oh, we fix your car, take our, take your money, and we never talk to you again. You know? I mean, like I said, we are in this community. We live in this community. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. So the chances that we're going to see them outside of this building is very good. I mean, I can't go to the local grocery store on the weekend without running into my customers. Yeah. So, um, and ask, and then I ask 'em, how's your car running? And things like that. So, um, whereas transactional. That, Hey, just, you know, like JR called it, like being at the, like being at the deli next. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: Next, take a number next. And, and we're just not like that. So, um, we've worked really hard with our current, um, service advisor to make sure that he's not like that. Uh, he came from a shop that was a little bit more transactional where he was working and that maybe works for them, but it's not how it works for us in our small town, Jr LaFlamme: so. Jr LaFlamme: Correct. And one thing I'll say is a lot of our customers, they really enjoy that. Where they, we see 'em walking in the door, we're like, Hey Joe, how you doing? And they're like, Hey, JR. Sarah, hey, I'm back with for my oil change or something. And they love the fact of the interaction like that. They, it's, it goes a long way. Jr LaFlamme: And I mean the, the feedback even we hear from that. A lot of customers like that feel, they don't, they don't wanna just feel like they're. Punching a ticket or getting a, a deli ticket or something. Right. You know? Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. Jr LaFlamme: They like the personal, Sarah LaFlamme: they want it to be fixed properly. Jr LaFlamme: Correct. Sarah LaFlamme: For a good price and they want a good relationship. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. We're gonna serve it all up together. Jimmy Lea: That is, that is so true. It has to all go together. The relationship, the quality. Uh, what did you learn about your own leadership style as you are Hmm. Um, training these service advisors? Finding the misalignments, saying thank you. No, thank you. What did you learn about your own leadership style? Jr LaFlamme: Well, I mean, for myself, I still, we're still working on it day to day. Um, as far as that goes, it's like everybody can't be you. You can't expect everybody to do it your way or say things exactly how you do it. So, as far as leadership role goes and is pretty much setting expectations of saying. You don't need to necessarily bring it forward this way, but this is the way kind of, um, we would like you to have it go or direction. Jr LaFlamme: We would like you to have it. And letting go of that aspect. Sarah LaFlamme: I have sung the song from Frozen to my husband many times. Let It Go. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I, he has come into my office many times, like very frustrated about something and I'm like, let it go. Let it go. There's some things that are just not worth, and, you know, I think Parker can attest to this, that you gotta pick and choose your battles. Sarah LaFlamme: You know, for me as the person training on the service advisor side, um, I, my managerial style has changed from being very, I used to be a little bit more uptight. Um, and I've just become a little bit more mellow because I'm realizing like. I need this person. They need the job, but I also need them. And I, it needs to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Sarah LaFlamme: And, um, they, they're not, I'm not gonna get that from them. If I am, if I'm harping on them about stuff and da da, Jr LaFlamme: they're coming off like Sarah LaFlamme: a fair Jr LaFlamme: or something. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. I, you know, and I'm a very demo, I personally am a very democratic person, right. We have team meetings all the time, and I'm like, Hey, we're thinking about doing this. Sarah LaFlamme: What does everyone think? Like I ask everybody's opinion, you know, and I take it under advisement, you know, because I wanna see, you know, what do they, what do they, I want them to feel like they're included in this because we really are like a big team. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. And the biggest thing, communication. Parker Branch: You guys have done a good job of letting go of the vine a little bit where you needed to. Parker Branch: And we definitely work through some of the pers you know, there's gonna be different people in that you're gonna, you know, maybe bring into the business and you might outgrow them. Things will change. You do what you need to, to survive and get by and try to, you know, create ex excellence in those positions. Parker Branch: Um, I, I know that when you guys were talking about that, I'm thinking leadership intensive will be so good for you guys. I already, Sarah LaFlamme: I know Parker Branch: I already, Sarah LaFlamme: I've already got that. Is it coming up already? Parker Branch: There's one coming up in March in Ogden. Jimmy Lea: Oh, geez. Yep, yep. And in fact, there's a holiday bundle right now you can take advantage of, will get you three intensivess, which is normally like 6,000, uh, $6,700 for $5,000. Jimmy Lea: You get a three day service advisor training, a leadership intensive and a financial intensive or, um, um, the marketing intensive. So all of that bundled together $5,000. Sarah LaFlamme: Wow, that's a great, that is a great deal right Jr LaFlamme: there. Absolutely. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It really is, really is. Now, as we kinda land this plane here, I've got a few questions I wanna ask. Jimmy Lea: Uh, all of you and, uh, Parker, you get to answer the last one. These are jr. This is to you and Sarah, this is to you. If coaching ended tomorrow, what are some of those non-negotiables that you would keep forever, always implemented Jr. You first, Jr LaFlamme: I would say the three Cs. Um, that would be one to stick with. Jr LaFlamme: Um, Sarah LaFlamme: yeah, Jimmy Lea: Sarah, Sarah LaFlamme: that was, that was definitely a big thing, is making sure that people know, you know, what's causing the problem, what's the act, you know, what are we gonna do to fix it and all that. So that's definitely something. Um, I think the 300% rule for me is something that. You know, we will never let go of, um, there's, there's no reason to at this point. Sarah LaFlamme: We've already implemented it. Why would we go backwards? Correct. You know, um, everyone knows what we expect of them. We've had many meetings about it and said, that's a reminder. 300% rule reminder, 300% rule. And then we're, and then we, you know, like we're school made them, you know, each of them answer what the 300% break, what it breaks down to. Sarah LaFlamme: So Jimmy Lea: I love it. I Sarah LaFlamme: love it. They're on the same page. Jr LaFlamme: ABIs Sarah LaFlamme: be Jimmy Lea: another, they're Sarah. What is something you wish someone had told you in year three of your business that coaching forced you to learn to do? Sarah LaFlamme: Oh, geez. Um, when we were in, I would say when we were in year three, we thought that the, you, you. To be a business owner, you have to be working in your business, right? Sarah LaFlamme: Like in it, on the front lines and all that. And that's been something that is not the case. You know? Um, I wish we kind of, and even if somebody told us in year three would we have, would we have, um, drank the Kool-Aid on that? I don't know right away, you know, sometimes it takes a little bit of time for you to get used to it, but we really, you can't be, you can't be working in your business a hundred percent of the time and also working on your business. Sarah LaFlamme: And that is something that has become so apparent to us in the last year that you, you just can't do it all. And so you have to get the right people into those positions so you can do those things. So you can work on the business. And sometimes we still work in the business JR was just wrenching on a car this morning. Parker Branch: Yep. Sarah LaFlamme: You know, I'm answering phone calls sometimes too. Take making appointments and things like that. Backing up our service advisor. 'cause that's what we, that's what you do. You don't leave it behind. And I love that. I actually love working with the customers. So anytime that our service advisor is out, I don't mind running in there taking, I've taken over but. Jimmy Lea: I totally agree. And you, you step in, you do what you gotta do. The business still has to run, we still have to keep the lights on, the doors open. And so you do what you gotta do to, to make that happen. So Jr Yeah, if you have to pick up a wrench, Sarah, if you've gotta pick up the phone, Parker, if you gotta pick up the phone, you do what you gotta do to keep the business rolling. Jr LaFlamme: Exactly. Jimmy Lea: All right. To to JR. And, and Sarah and then, uh, Parker, you can answer this after as well. What would you say to a shop owner who's on the fence because, oh, we're just too busy or, uh, we can't afford coaching or we can't implement it right now. What advice would you give to somebody, uh, a shop owner who said, who's sitting on the fence? Sarah LaFlamme: We literally said every single one of those things to ourselves, we had this conversation and we're really lucky that there's two of us. We get to bounce off these ideas with each other. Um, but we literally thought the same thing. I'm, we're too busy. How am I gonna find time to, to, you know, meet with my coach in a month? Sarah LaFlamme: I'm too busy. Yeah. Jr LaFlamme: How are you gonna afford it? Sarah LaFlamme: How are we gonna afford it? And all that. And you know what? You just do it. You figure it out. You figure out a way to make it happen. I started looking at the numbers thinking, well, if we just do one more, you know, four wheel brake job, we can, we can pay for this for the month. Sarah LaFlamme: You know what I mean? Like, if that means the jar has to get out there and do one extra one even on a, on a Saturday, then we're gonna do it. You know? And um, so I, I think it was one of the best decisions. I think it was, um, it was a hard sell, uh, for JR. At first. I was really like an early, yes, let's do this. Sarah LaFlamme: And he was kind of a little bit more hesitant and Jr LaFlamme: yeah. And, Sarah LaFlamme: and a couple months ago, Jr LaFlamme: and I'll be the first one to sit here, admit it, and reached shop out there. That is in doubt. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah, Jr LaFlamme: I would a hundred percent do it all over Sarah LaFlamme: couple months ago he Jr LaFlamme: said and do it again. Sarah LaFlamme: Yeah. A couple months ago he came to me and said, oh, I'm, maybe I should. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. This is a good idea. This was a great idea. I'm glad we did it. Um, yeah. It it puts you, yeah. It, it we're over time and it, it helps you out. Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: We're just so much happier now. Jr LaFlamme: Yeah. Sarah LaFlamme: We feel so much more calm and happier than we were when Parker first met us. We were frazzled. Jr LaFlamme: I don't have bags down to here anymore. Jimmy Lea: Well, and Dylan, Dylan agrees with you. He says you can't afford not to have coaching, Jr LaFlamme: right? That's correct. Jimmy Lea: It's something you just have to have Parker to you. What do you say to the shop owner, the coach or the shop owner that's sitting on the fence? Parker Branch: Um, I mean, it changed my life. Like, you know, I, I was in a two bay shop doing 800,000, two years in a row. Parker Branch: Charging 80 bucks an hour. I probably should have done almost 2 million those two years. Um, but you know, the, the path, the people I've met through the industry, through the institute and going to the summits and different trade events is it's broadened my network. It's, I've learned so much from the institute and the people they brought me together with that has literally transformed my business and my earning. Parker Branch: And I mean, if, if you're on the fence, I get it. I, I was there too. I was terrified to spend the money, just like JR and Sarah were saying. One of the things about the institute give it a try. What do you have to lose a month or two? That's one of the things that like, I, I am so proud of Cecil and Kent and Wayne and the institute over that whole strategy of we're not asking you to come here and sign away. Parker Branch: Give us your mortgage off your house and you're stuck here for five years. Come in and give it a try. If it's not working for you, you know, here we go. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, if it's not working, you can bounce. Ours is a month to month agreement. Uh, jr. Sarah, thank you so very much for joining us, having the conversation. Jimmy Lea: Thank you for your success. Thank you for keeping going and keeping at the grindstone Parker, thank you for being their coach and not letting them have excuses that were acceptable. There's no excuses here. It's get the job done. So to both of you, to all of you, thank you very much for joining me today. Jimmy Lea: Thank you very much. Jr LaFlamme: Thank you. Thank you very much for having, Parker Branch: yeah, thanks everybody. Jimmy Lea: Hey, and if you're listening to this, and this is some information that has resonated with you and with your shop, you figure, oh, I'm in the same position. I've got the same thing happening at my shop. We would love to have a conversation with you. Jimmy Lea: And that's what it starts with is a conversation. So right as we finish, you're gonna see a QR code pop up. We're here to help you build a better business, which the result is a better life for you. And the net result for us is the institute is a better industry. So let's lock arms together. Let's lock arms together and help improve your shop, your business, and your life. Jimmy Lea: My name is Jimmy Lee with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and this is the Leading Edge podcast. Talk to you soon. Thank you.  Jr LaFlamme: Thank you.