Grease The Wheels Podcast

Send us Fan MailOn this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy gets in depth with all of the things that tech schools DO NOT teach their students. There is a real disconnect between what techs know when they finish a program and when they enter the workforce. There really isn’t any type of instruction that can adequately prepare a student for the chaos of a modern auto shop. We also get inso some of the new guy metrics from WrenchWay, deeper into the technician shortage, and take a look at what AI is doing to people going into the trades.Also Uncle Jimmy brainstorms his merch line. This Episode of Grease the Wheels is brought to you in partnership with Surfwrench Digital! For more on Video MPI Training Visit https://www.surfwrench.com/video-mpi-training-landing/ to learn more. Video MPI Training built in the shop, by your Uncle Jimmy. Use code “GTW” for 50% off your training access!  

Send us Fan MailOn this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we use AI to be introspective and ask it what it thinks of the podcast. Overall, it mirrors many of the opinions of our listeners, which is kinda spooky. It also goes into some of our ongoing projects, which is even spookier! Moving to a multimedia format would be difficult with the way that the content is produced, but we do have some tricks up our sleeves when it comes to that. Also, the march and logo game is about to go off on one of the funniest tangents in the history of branding. Let us know your ideas for segments, all of your most unintelligible repair order lines, and much more over on our Facebook page! Also Uncle Jimmy talks about why the show doesn’t have guests — except for that one time! This Episode of Grease the Wheels is brought to you in partnership with Surfwrench Digital! For more on Video MPI Training Visit https://www.surfwrench.com/video-mpi-training-landing/ to learn more. Video MPI Training built in the shop, by your Uncle Jimmy. Use code “GTW” for 50% off your training access!  

Send us Fan MailOn this weeks episode of Grease The Wheels, we ask Gemini why customers are the way they are. There is a good portion of the customer base who knows that their cars are going to break, knows that they can’t fix them, and trusts you to make the right call when it comes to diagnosing and fixing the problems that they have to get back on the road. There is another segment of the customer base that might not trust you 100%, but is still captive to their own lack of knowledge and likely financial constraints. Then there is the third category of customers who don’t know anything, think they know everything, and are some of the most unreasonable people walking the earth today. We also get into the idea of firing customers, the old of video when it comes to informing that second cadre into making the right decisions, and the idea that the service advisors are often the unwilling hostages in these situations. Bottom line, customers need to make the right decisions, and we need to frame those right decisions properly from top to bottom. Also Uncle Jimmy forgets that the most important part of the ‘Psychology of Selling’ isn’t in the pitch - it’s in asking the right questions to make your pitch that much more impactful. This Episode of Grease the Wheels is brought to you in partnership with Surfwrench Digital! For more on Video MPI Training Visit https://www.surfwrench.com/video-mpi-training-landing/ to learn more. Video MPI Training built in the shop, by your Uncle Jimmy. Use code “GTW” for 50% off your training access!  

Send us Fan MailOn this weeks episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes into some of the deepest professional fantasies of ownership, management, and everything in between. Ownership wants a business that essentially runs itself, but to do that they have to empower their management to make the right decisions and give the dealership a level of autonomy. This is something that many owners have a hard time with. Management wants their job to be as easy as possible, hiring people who do a great job every single time and can make the shop the maximum amount of money. Techs want a great wage and plenty of work. Some of these things cannot exist in the same space, which is why it is so rare to have a shop that runs properly in the first place. Many owners treat their investments like they can run themselves, but force all management to run every single decision past them. Often times management is slow to make any decisions, and then will make the wrong ones. And this translates down to the techs as well, whop often provide significantly more friction than managementcan handle. It’s the old two translations of the word ‘utopia’: good place, and no place!  Also Uncle Jimmy holds his fire on service advisors. This Episode of Grease the Wheels is brought to you in partnership with Surfwrench Digital! For more on Video MPI Training Visit https://www.surfwrench.com/video-mpi-training-landing/ to learn more. Video MPI Training built in the shop, by your Uncle Jimmy. Use code “GTW” for 50% off your training access!  

Send us Fan MailOn this weeks episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes hard in the paint when it comes to finding a new place to work — or if you are a new guy, a first place to work. There are a lot of questions that need to be asked when doing this, some of which are simple and extremely specific to who you are as a person, and the rest are a bit more hands on when it comes to site visits. What brand do you want to work on? Do you really only want to work on one brand, or do you prefer an incredible variety of broken stuff rolling (or getting pushed) in the door. Have you looked at the google reviews for the place? What types of tools do they have, and are they proactive about policing and acquiring more when needed? One of the best things that you can do is talk to the technicians at that shop, because more often than not they will tell you the real story that the Service Manager either doesn’t want to tell you, or is too oblivious to notice. We also get into some of the more covert methods where you can test out the service advisors!  Bottom line, when the technician shortage is this bad, and likely rot get worse as the old guys begin to retire at an increasingly rapid rate, you get to call the shots! Also Uncle Jimmy tells a service manager to their face, “everyone I have talked to about working here says, ‘DON’T DO IT!’  This Episode of Grease the Wheels is brought to you in partnership with Surfwrench Digital! For more on Video MPI Training Visit https://www.surfwrench.com/video-mpi-training-landing/ to learn more. Video MPI Training built in the shop, by your Uncle Jimmy. Use code “GTW” for 50% off your training access!