Just One Thing

I want to ask a question. When did life stop being an adventure? When was life all about playing it safe? I listen to shop owners talk all the time about wanting to grow their business, and then they continually play it safe. Playing it safe is one of the most dangerous things you can do in your business. I truly believe that each and every one of us, me included, are here to do amazing things. I figured out there are three things that are preventing you and I, at different times, from recognizing and creating and becoming the person that we're supposed to become. Press play and hear me out on those three things and maybe that will help you be ready for your next adventure!

Today I want to talk about winners and the two mindsets that winners have that nobody else does. Do you have any idea what two mindsets I'm going to discuss? Listen along to see if they are what you think they are!

One of the biggest issues I see in communication is what I call a translation issue. You know what I'm talking about? Have you ever been with someone who is speaking only French, and you only speak English? That's a translation issue. They're talking perfect. You're listening perfect. But you don't understand each other because there's no common ground. That's what happens a lot of times when you're working with someone and showing them something new. I want you to visualize a curtain and this curtain separates people who have never done what you're talking about and people who have. Ok, do you have that in your mind? Yes? Ok, keep listening to see where I'm going with this.

The reality is we all have challenges. The problem is too many of us try to avoid them. And that's a mistake. I want you to stop avoiding the challenges. That's where growth comes from. Your challenges are what caused you to grow. Yes, they can hurt. Yes, they're uncomfortable. But you will end up being so much better on the other side. Where do your challenges come from? Keep listening along to hear some tips I want you to think about when you get a challenge.

Today I’ll talk about SMD. I will explain that in just a moment. I want you to realize two things today and I want you to bring this not only into this coming week. I want you to bring this to your team as well, because a lot of us are really having problems with this. You are probably asking yourself what is SMD?? This is a good one for sure to listen to because we all find ourselves in this situation from time to time. So go ahead and press play!

What I want to talk about today is I want to talk about haters. The reality is if you want your business to be outstanding, you have to stand out. You have to stand for something. When you do, you will alienate some people. That is totally okay. You be you. And you do you. If you are a people pleaser you're in trouble because your self-worth, your self-esteem is based on the acceptance of other people. Why do we do that? Well, there are a couple of different reasons. Be sure to press play to hear some examples from my experience and how I handled it!

What I want to talk to you about today is the news. What is the news there to do? The news is there to sell advertising. That's all it's there to do. This is important to understand because the more eyeballs they have, the more they can charge for their advertising. And there's an old saying in the news that says, “If it bleeds, it leads.” Why? Because it triggers the survival part of our brains. We have a threat center in our brain and we're constantly looking for any threats. Do you find yourself watching the news and letting it feed your threat center? Do you think it takes your eyes off the prize? Keep listening along!

What I want to talk about today is something that I've probably mentioned before. The word is mistakes. I, literally, want to kill the word mistakes. Here's why. Mistakes come repercussions. When you use the word mistakes, it's negative. It's not growing. It's not getting better. It's not true. We're not making mistakes. I want you to stop thinking about mistakes. Why? When there's a mistake made, the first thing we typically do is look for someone or something to blame. We direct that negative energy towards someone or something. But it doesn't do anything to make it better. Blame is not the issue here. I don't care whose fault it is. Press play here to hear tips on changing your mindset on mistakes being negative.

What I’ll talk about today is this great resignation that's going on. It's kind of laughable in our industry, isn't it? We've had such a shortage of help for a while now, and it's getting worse. We've gone from a talent pool to a very small puddle. What I will talk to you about today is attracting. So basically, to attract someone you need to stand out. You must have an outstanding business. And in order to do that, you have to stand out. What do I mean by that? Keep listening along to get tips to help stop people in their tracks.

Today’s topic is stages, not to be confused with seasons. So, what do I mean by stages? You work really hard and all of a sudden you think you got it. You think you finally arrived. And that's awesome. It's an awesome feeling to have. It lights you up. You think, “Wow, I just can't believe how good this feels. All this hard work has been worth it. And it is, it really is worth it.” When you can finally step back and realize a dream that you've had for a very long time, it's amazing. But I want to talk to you about stages and there are four of them... Follow along with me!

So, something's not going right at the shop. You step back and figure out that you need to learn some things. So, you take some courses. But so many people get stuck in learning mode. And I am going to talk to you about that. Yes, there will be issues in your shop. In fact, your goal shouldn’t be to get rid of the problems, it should be to replace the problems you have with bigger, better ones. If you have the same problems today that you did last year, you're stuck in a rut, my friend. So what I want you to do is understand both the power and the danger of learning. Are you wondering how learning can be seen as good and bad? Keep listening along to find out why.

I could talk all day about stories as human beings. There are not many things that are actually complete in our lives. In other words, we don't have complete information or a complete understanding of things. There are holes and gaps. We create stories to fill those gaps. But we also use stories to define how we see ourselves in the world and how we see ourselves interacting with the world. When you're telling a story, there are four characters in the story. They are the villain, the victim, the hero, and the guide. You are playing one of those roles in the story that you're telling about your life. I want you to ask yourself a really simple question. Which character are you this morning?

It seems like the word PASSION is the one word that is conspicuously absent from our industry. It just seems like we are just not passionate anymore. I was flying back from Florida yesterday, and I know I have this Just One Thing to do. I thought to myself, “Where's the passion in our industry? What's going on?” So, how do you find the passion that you might be missing? You press play to follow along..

I want you to think about the word BARRIERS. Barriers is an important word because a barrier, if you think about it the image it gives you, is something that will stop you from getting to where you want to go. And here's the really cool thing about barriers. Barriers are an internal issue. And I want you to really listen to this for a minute. Barriers are an internal issue. Challenges are external. Challenges come up all the time. Challenges are simply opportunities disguised as hard work. That's all it is. Are you creating a lot of barriers for yourself in your business or in your life? Listen along so I can give you some tips to knock them down.

I hear people all the time talking about how they're so stressed out and so overwhelmed and so drained. Well, I want to talk to you about a fix for that. It’s when you wake up tired and you finally ask for a fresh start. When you’re waking up stressed, overwhelmed, and wishing for that fresh start means that you'll never get a fresh start. When you're dragging yesterday into today, you'll never get a fresh start. When you're dragging yesterday into today, you are reliving yesterday over and over again. And that doesn't help you. This is what we mean when I use the term baggage. I have this vision of people dragging all the pain and what they think is failure and setbacks from yesterday into today. All I can think of is Marley from Scrooge with all the chains he’s carrying around forever. But I'm telling you that you can have a fresh start. I’ll give you a few thoughts. Do you feel like you can relate to Marley? Listen along for some great tips on how to break loose from those chains!

Today I’ll talk to you about boundaries. Boundaries have a very negative connotation. When you set up a boundary and it may appear to be constricting and confining. But that’s not really true. Boundaries are not meant to constrict. And we are opposed to putting boundaries in place. And then we're frustrated. Why? It's because there's a psychological term called the illusion of transparency. What the illusion of transparency means is you feel like everyone should see what you need. And it just isn't so. It happens all the time at work, and it happens all the time at home. You may think, “Hey, they should know I need this.” If you ever feel yourself saying that you need to step back and realize there's a breakdown in communication. The illusion of transparency is causing a lot of your misery today. Do you find yourself saying "they should know I need this"? Or do you think you have ALL the boundaries in place? Keep listening along to find out some tips to help!

In this episode, I’ll talk about temperature. It's really important to step back and look at this, especially at the beginning of the year. I want you to decide for the year 2022, do you want to be a thermometer or a thermostat? This is a very important question to ask. What would your answer be? Keep listening along to find out the difference between them.. believe me, I never thought about it this way!

In this season of giving, I think it's important to step back and think this concept through. As business owners, we're so focused on what we are getting right now.  We think about getting the money. We focus on getting the car done. We must be able to pay our bills. We are so focused on the receiving part, the getting part that we get lost in it. The idea of giving sometimes can be foreign to us because we're so focused on what we need. But as long as we chase what we want and need, we're never, ever going to get it. I’m here to help you understand the concept of giving and receiving. Giving and receiving is not a straight line. It's a circle. If you want to get better at getting, you need to get better at giving. Keep listening as I will give you three ideas that will help you. 

My question is, are you a Grinch? And all of us want to say, “No, of course, I'm not.” But there's a big difference between how you think you're showing up and how people are perceiving you. And I am the king of this. We lie to ourselves all the time. We try to hide and pretend things are okay when they're not. And people can see it a mile away. If things are eating at you, if you're coming in a little grumpier than you'd like to be, I want to give you some tools that will help you grow your heart three times too big. Listen along to hear tools on making sure you don't fall into Grinch mode.

What I want to talk to you about is the word “No.” We avoid no at all costs. I'm going to tell you that “No” could and should be your friend. “No” does so many great things for you. It allows you to reflect. That's the first thing you should do with a “No.” Not avoid it. Not pretend it didn't happen or don't blame somebody or something for it. That's not what the “No” is there for. Press play to hear how to see "NO!" as a gift and what you should do the next time you get a "Yes!".

What I want to talk to you about is the secret of accountability. Why do I think this is a big deal? Well, telling yourself all the amazing things that you're going to do, whether it's professional or personally is really awesome. And at the same time, it's completely useless. Why? It's because you lie to yourself all the time. It's because you judge others by their actions, and you judge yourself by your intentions. So even if you didn't get something done that you want to do that day, it's okay because you planned it that way. You wanted to do it. You just couldn't. The fact that it was on your plate was a good thing and you’ll do it tomorrow. That doesn't work. Keep listening because I want to give you one, two, three, four ideas that are going to help improve accountability.

What are we talking about today? We're talking about getting knocked down. What does that mean? You all know what it means. It means getting knocked on our butts. For me, it's been very real lately. Just about the end of the summer, I started having problems with my back and it got to a point where I couldn't walk without a walker and was on some pretty heavy medication. Through the love of other people, they helped us get through it. But getting knocked down is not an option. One of the problems that are keeping you from growing is that you're trying to avoid getting knocked down. The fact is you are going to get knocked down. Don't avoid it. Embrace it. I'm going to give you four things to think through. Listen along to hear my words of wisdom on how you get back up!

I want to talk to you about an equation, a very simple equation that changed my life. Listen, I know some of the last two talks I've heard some of you. I get it. I understand this works for me. And some of you say, “That'll never work for me, Lucas. That's too simple.” Well, that's the whole point. People change their lives with simple, small decisions.  We don't make giant decisions that change the world. They are all very small decisions. And we improve our lives with these small decisions. Today I want to talk to you about a very simple equation. It's E + R = O.  Maybe you've heard it before or maybe you haven't so you should keep listening to find out!

I want to talk to you about something that I tell my staff about. I tell my family about it. I tell everybody about it. There are three circles on a page, and then there's everything else. There's a small circle. The circle of control, a medium circle, the circle of influence. And then that big sheet of paper has everything else on it. Years ago, I was talking to Rick, and I was talking about all these problems I had in the shop. One of the things that I really wanted to solve with hiring a coach is I wanted all these problems to go away. And Rick came to me, and he said, “Listen, when all your problems go away, you're dead. We just need better problems.” Now that hit me like a ton of bricks because I never thought about it that way. Have you ever thought about it that way? Listen along to find out the differences between the three circles.

It sure is a beautiful day here in Western North Carolina. This is Lucas Underwood and I'm going to be standing in for Rick today. What I want to talk to you about today is extreme ownership. Now, this is something that's made a tremendous difference in my business. And it's something that I learned from watching a Ted Talk on Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. Jocko was commander for the Navy Seals. He tells this horrible story of fratricide. It was basically friendly forces against friendly forces. I'm going to tell you something. It was a horrendous story. And out of that, he learned something about ownership. Now I'm not talking about the ownership that you find on a piece of paper. Keep Listening along to find out what ownership Lucas is talking about and to see if you yourself are taking ownership!

I want you to just think about two words. What if. There has been a lot of stuff going on here personally lately. For those of you that don't know since August, I've been having back issues.  I've got disc degeneration and I have four vertebrae that have no disks. I also have two nerves that are pinched in my back. I'm not telling you this because I'm looking for sympathy. I'm not, I got this. I'm telling you this is because, (and I'm going to say this the wrong way) sh*t’s going to go sideways. Last week I ended up in the ER because the pain was so bad. The neurosurgeon is not available, and we have a business to run. We have people to serve, and that's probably the biggest part of it for us. I want to make sure that every one of my clients is still taken care of. So, my question for you is, What if?  What if you hurt yourself? What if you lose electricity? What if your computer goes down? What if the internet goes down and you lose access to your shop management system? Have you thought of the "What Ifs"? Listen along to make sure! 

Today’s word is Erosion. What's the one thing that comes to mind when I say the word erosion? Based on that one thing, do you believe that erosion is a good thing or a bad thing? I want to tell you what I think of when I think of erosion. I think a Grand Canyon. Anybody that's ever been to the Grand Canyon knows how absolutely beautiful it is. And it's breathtaking. I've been there twice. I've been there once by myself and once with my wife. And I must tell you, when I was there by myself, it was a big deal because I was alone, and it really made me feel lonely for the first time in my whole life. But then I went back with my beautiful wife, Brenda. She and I went up there and spent a couple of days at the Grand Canyon and it was magical. It was absolutely magical. So, for me, the Grand Canyon is a special place. But beyond that, it is absolutely breathtaking. That’s erosion for me. That is the by-product of erosion. So why am I talking about erosion? How does erosion apply to business? Keep listening to find out.

Today's topic is four words. I grew up in this industry in what I call the age of compliance. This is where you didn't ask questions. You were told to do something, and you did it. But today this is the age of commitment. This is where you're not going to force people to do things. You must help people understand why they want to do it with you. That's really the whole thing today. So, I want to talk about two sets of forwards that are going to help you do that. Listen along to see if you are in the compliance age or commitment.

Recently, I was watching a Netflix special on “The Secret.” You know what I'm talking about? This is the law of attraction. If you listen to it in its truest sense, a lot of people walk away from it thinking that all they need to do is think about something and it will manifest itself in their lives. I believe in the law of attraction. I don't believe in the theory that if you think about it, it will manifest itself. That doesn't happen. I'm going to ask you for a favor. I'm going to say something and I want you just to tell me what you're thinking about when I say it. I want to ask you to clear your head for just one minute. I promise this is going to make a difference and it's going to be pretty powerful. Are you ready? Get ready? Keep listening along to hear where I'm going with this. You won't want to miss it!

There's so much going on all the time. People seem to think that they are losing their memory. There are some really simple hacks that can help you with your memory. So, my goal here is to give you five simple hacks that will help you with your memory. There were studies conducted that showed when you go to classes like I put on at ASTE you’ll remember less than 10%  after 30 days.  I'll share with you five hacks that can help you with your memory. And then I'm going to give you one extra for when you're going to any kind of seminar or training that will help you get better. Even if you aren't attending any seminars or training you don't want to miss these. Keep listening along get a little memory pick me up!

There's a really cool sentence I'd like to start with, and I would like you to finish it. And it starts off with “Life is…” You finish that sentence. Write the first thing that comes to your mind. Now go on writing the first thing or at least get it on your mind.  To see where I'm going with this please keep listening along!

I found out on Saturday that a very dear friend of mine, Bob Greenwood, passed away suddenly on Thursday. He's been a coach for many years, and I'm telling you right now, the industry is a little sadder place today because of his passing. I want you to step back and recognize a couple of different things. Number one, when somebody close to you passes, I think it's an opportunity to celebrate their life and recognize who you are today because of the nudges they gave you. Bob and I have had some really amazing conversations over the years at the different events. We'd sit at least one time and either grab a meal or a beer and a wine, he never drank beer. He always drank wine. This podcast will not be about our beverage choices but hopefully, help you ask yourself these questions about your life & your business!  Keep listening along.

We've been talking about the brain lately. In the last episode, I talked about how it seeks to conserve energy and it wants to keep you alive to survive.  I talked about the comfort zone and how that really hurts you. The comfort zone is not a bad thing. It can be a good thing. It's a good place to rest and recharge. But don't live there. Don't get fooled into the false sense of security in the comfort zone. I'm telling you that while you're in your comfort zone, life is passing you by. So, remember my rule. If you go into the comfort zone, always have a check-out date.  Now the second thing I'm going to talk to you about surviving is fear and doubt.  Keep listening to hear how having fear and doubt can impact you and your business! 

In the last two episodes, I talked about your brain and how it actually works against you. I talked about how it conserves energy and what to watch out for which is good enough and I’ll do it later. What I’ll talk about now is the survival aspect of your brain. The things that your brain inherently wants to do to keep you alive. The first thing is the comfort zone. Listen to this episode to hear, contrary to what others will tell you, the comfort zone is actually a good place to start!

In the last episode, I talked about good enough and how dangerous that term is for your business and your life.  Good enough is the steppingstone to mediocrity and not one of us is ever going to create the businesses that we want by being mediocre. Step up and go for that Plus One mentality that I talked about.  I want to tell you something very simple in this episode.  Later is not your friend. Please listen to this. Saying, “I'll do it later” is a dangerous mindset. You are creating stress and tension in your life because you're procrastinating. Be sure to follow along to hear a hack to use when you find yourself saying "I'll do it later"! 

The biggest threat to your business is your brain. It's your brain, my brain. It's the biggest threat to each of our businesses. Let me explain why.  Your brain is designed to do two and only two things. The first is to keep you alive. The second is to conserve energy. That's it. It’s a survival tool. What I want to talk to you about is an area where your brain is not your friend. I want you to think about the last time you heard yourself saying, “That's good enough.” Keep listening along to find out how having a Plus One Mentality can help you not only in your business but in life also!

I want to talk to you about the word example. It's really important because every one of us is an EXAMPLE. We are either a teacher or we're a warning. It's not that you're all in or not in or anything like that. That's not it at all. We are both good examples and we're warnings. We all have both within us. This is why I am so against hero worship. Hero worship is dangerous because you put people on pedestals. You're putting fallible human beings on pedestals, and at some point, they will disappoint you. And when they disappoint you, when you feel let down by that person, you end up throwing away all the examples and you label them as bad. If that has you interested and you are wanting to lead by example for your team or just in life.. then keep listening along!

What I want to do is help you with three really simple success hacks that will completely change your business. The first hack that you want to be aware of is how you position things in your brain. If you're looking at something you're going to do and you think, I've got to do this. I don't want to. It's a pain in the butt, blah, blah, blah. What kind of energy do you think you're going to bring to that activity with that kind of mindset? What kind of energy are you going to bring? It won’t be great. It will be lousy, and you’ll most likely complain about it the whole time you do it. It will make your life miserable and everyone around you. Do I have your attention now? Do you want to know what the other two really simple success hacks are?? Well then, keep listening along to get collect all three!

If you got our messages, emails, or texts, you're going to notice that the word of the week is “Crap.” That is actually not the word I wanted to use. I wanted to use the word “$hit.” Brenda and Shannon both nixed the word. So, they said I can use the word “crap” or” poop.” And I said, fine! I’ll use “crap.” The reason I said “$hit,” is to get your attention. What I want to talk to you about is Own Your $hit. And as a coach, that's one of the things that I do is help business owners own their $hit. Do you struggle with owning your crap?  Listen along for tips that can help. 

I really want to talk about the final aspect of invoicing. And I want you to realize it's a contract. Your invoice is a contract. Yes. You're going to get paid. Yes. You're going to have parts and labor on there, but you want to make sure it's complete. You want to make sure it's telling a story. In other words, what was the customer's concern? What was the cause? What was the correction? Was it confirmed? What are any consequences for any declined work documented?  Are we making them aware of those consequences? Follow along to make sure all your i's are dotted and t's are crossed!

I will continue talking about invoicing, but I know, it’s hard to get excited about that. Most people think profit lives on the P & L, but it doesn’t. Profit is reported on the P & L, it lives on the invoice. So far I’ve talked about connecting with your clients and not trying to impress them. And then to be CURIOUS, to make their agenda, your agenda, and to ask questions, to really understand what's going on and to understand what's driving them. And then I talked about CONTROL. How to keep them in control the whole process so that their comfort level goes up.  That makes all the difference in the world. We talked about documenting the CONCERN properly, and then documenting the CAUSE while building the value in what you do. I’ll continue that value building today in two more areas! I know you want to know what those two areas are.. so keep listening to find out!

I’ve been talking about invoicing and how important it is to your business. First, I focused on being curious and then about documenting control. Your invoice is so much more important than we give it credit. So today, what I want to talk about is how to document properly. I’ll talk about two key areas in this episode and more in the next one or two episodes. Be sure to keep listening and see if you are asking the right questions!

This is the second episode where I’m talking about invoicing, the second most neglected area in an auto repair shop. In the previous episode I talked about curiosity. Today I will talk to you about Control. Most of us do not communicate properly with our clients or with our potential clients. It's not that we mean to hide stuff, but we do. Either through a lack of communication, omission, or just hoping and praying they don't realize what we're doing because we're afraid of being called out on our pricing. Most of the time we neglect communicating properly with our clients until it is too late. Be sure to keep listening to make sure it's not too late.

Today I’m going to talk to you about the second most overlooked area in a typical auto repair shop. The first area is your finances, not knowing where you're headed. That is a really dangerous place to be. The second most ignored area is invoicing, your documentation. Neglecting this part of your business is costing you money and exposing you to potential legal action. Over the next four broadcasts or so, I’ll talk to you about your current documentation and how you can improve it to be more successful. So listen along to find out more!

Over the last three weeks, we've talked about effective communication. We talked about a framework that allows you to engage and attract the people that are in your life. The first step is to understand and appreciate. The second step is to identify. Last week we talked about the third step (I massaged this a bit), brainstorming. This week is the fourth and last step - bringing it all together. Spoiler alert! . A great leader doesn't have all the answers. A great leader has a destination. Intrigued? Finish the series by listening to this episode.

We've been talking about having effective conversations with our team, with our family, whoever it might be. Now it's time to ask a very simple question. What do you think we can do about it? You know, what are our options? When you do this together, it's collaborative. This saves you from going out to them and dictating what needs to be done. Instead, what you're going to do is come together either as a pair or as a group or as a team. For my advice implementing this approach, listen to this week's episode.

We started this conversation last week about being able to communicate more effectively. And there's a few things I want to talk about today. The reason why your communication is not as effective as it could be is because you're coming to the situation from your perspective, which makes sense. It's normal. But for you to be effective, you must be able to see the other side as well. That's what we talked about last week. So, the first part of effective communication is understanding their world and appreciating it from their perspective. The second part of effective communication is to identify causes of a particular situation. If you want to learn how to sharpen your skills so you can improve your business, keep listening. There's more gems of wisdom dropping in this episode!

What I want to talk about today is the frustration of communication. Do get frustrated when you're communicating? You know where it seems like you're talking to a wall or it seems like things don't change. And it's just so frustrating where people aren't listening, or they are not doing what you want? Do you think that you could talk to a wall and get a better result? What I will do is break down communication over the next few Just One Thing episodes. I want you to understand some communication basics. Listen on and let's get started.

We've talked about daily and weekly numbers. Now let's talk about monthly numbers and then annual numbers. You have to know where you are going - but also when you've stalled. So let's dig in - keep listening!

Let's talk about weekly numbers. These are numbers that we're going to step back a little bit. And instead of being on the ground in the forest, we're going to climb the trees and we're going to see it a little bit further. The first weekly number to keep an eye on is your gross profit number. Now I'm using that term weekly based on payroll frequency. If your payroll is weekly, then you can look at your gross profit every week. If you do it bi-weekly or bi-monthly, then that's going to be the triggering event to be able to look at gross profit. There's no number more important than your business besides billed hours, then gross profit. Gross profit is what pays the expenses and creates your net profit. So you've got to make sure that gross profit is on task every single time. Don't wait until the end of the month. Don't wait till the end of the year or the quarter to look and see how you're doing. That’s too late. If you're looking at it weekly, you can effect change within that month, and it can make a difference. Keep listen along - and learn!