From $14/hr to Homeowner: Cliff “Cliffhanger” Cantu’s Rise at Adams Automotive

Good morning, Glenn Piccolo here with Adams Automotive bringing you another episode of Master Tech to Millionaire presented by Autoshop Answers. This morning we have a new series, the Superstar Series. Man, I'm so excited about this. I'm going to be interviewing our team members and just letting you hear their stories. You get to meet a lot of these guys as you come through VIP Rack Attack Day and you see them on Moneyball, but man, just to be able to hear their stories. We are so excited about this. Let's get this thing started. Let's dive in. Good morning, man. It is going to be an awesome morning. I am so excited this morning. This morning we are starting just another series. We got the Superstar Series and we are going to be bringing on team members, to interview them on the pod, just to give you a peek inside and just meet these amazing people that we have on our team. Now, when you come through.

VIP Rack Attack Day, which is the Friday before Key to Key and Courtside weekend, you get to come into our shop and work a shift with me and my team. And it's just absolute fire. It is in the trenches with the wrenches with this amazing team. And this morning on the line, We have Cliff Cantu, a.k.a. Cliffhanger, a.k.a. Cliffhammer. And if you know him, you know exactly why he has those nicknames. And he is a huge part of our company. He's a huge part of our training, VIP Racket Tech Day. He is right there training all day long and does such an amazing job. He just knows this concept. He understands it, and I'm so excited to have him on the line this morning. So how you doing this morning, Cliff? Man, fired up, excellent. You know, always happy to be here. Got this place lit up right now. It's a different view before the sun comes up, seeing this place lit up. But I'm ready to have an amazing, amazing day. Yes, for those of you that follow Cliff or see him,

on LinkedIn, you know that he's at the shop with the doors open, lights on before most people wake up in the morning. And so I'm so thankful to have you, Cliff. You're just an absolute stud. And you've been, how long now since you've joined the team? So I started in, I'm going on three years this December. I'm right at two and a half years, but it feels longer than that. And then at the same time feels just like yesterday. Yeah, it flies. It definitely flies by three years ago. And we'll get to that recruiting story here in just a minute. But before we do, man, let's let's let's hear a little bit from you about kind of how you got into this industry and kind of everything that led up to the day that that you and I met. Yeah, you know, well, it all started, you know, I was 11 years old. My dad, you know, that's all he's done is in automotive. And, you know, I started, I learned how to do brakes, drum brakes at that,

at the age of 11, before I learned how to do an oil change. So brakes I fell in love with and just always had a passion for. And, you know, as life goes on, and I started out as a pitman for Mr. Express Lube. And, you know. I like doing that, and I was hands-on, so, you know, I'm always just trying to be the best at any position I'm in, and, you know, that's just how I was taught by my dad, and life goes on, and, you know, I found myself down on some luck one day, and, you know, I was at a gas station, I asked a guy for a couple dollars for a cup of coffee, and, you know, he was like, you know how to do an oil change, and I was like, yeah, so he took me to his shop. Uh right down the street on 290 and bingo it was called all tune and lube and um, you know so he i was working that day and uh i greeted a customer that was walking up and he was like man i like i like the way you you talk uh come inside so

he had me go inside so i was like okay, I'm just going with it. And I was doing an oil change, and I was like, hey, you know, this car needs an engine flush. So he was like, well, tell the lady, $69.99 will do it right now. I was like, okay. You know, and that $69.99 engine flush changed my life. You know, it gave me, that was when I got into customer service, and he gave me the opportunity to start selling services. And uh i ended up at a quick car and, that's when i really got into it uh just selling selling services you know turned a 30 000 month store into an 80 000 month store uh, within just a couple months and you know they were treating me like a king uh, and this is a little quick car uh lube and. You know ended up going by and i took a break went into a sprinkler industry i was doing uh installs on fire sprinklers for about seven years felt a passion for it and, um you know got laid off and went to uh sun auto um you know as a temporary

job just until they picked back up and you know but here i am four years later. Uh uh you know i felt i got back in the groove man I had an amazing kickoff, when I got back and, you know, I had a good time and, you know, I learned very quick, you know, just how rough it is out there. But still, you know, I'm going to I'm going to grind every day. I'm going to do the best I can every day, regardless of the situation. You know, the customer doesn't know and care what goes on in the back scenes. It's all about just taking care of the customer. So I always had that mindset and, I got a call. You know, I was about to go back to the sprinkler industry until I got a phone call one night from Todd Hayes and Glenn Piccolo and did my research. I knew y'all were the NFL. I knew y'all were the top dogs. And, you know, my wife told me, she's like, man, you've been sold a lot of dreams. Just don't jump ship. Just stay where you're at. And I was like,

man, you just don't understand. Like, who's calling me? And so I winged it and, you know, I had my shop tour and, you know, the sit down we had together and it was just it was just life changing overnight. I knew this was the call my family and I've been waiting for. And that's how I ended up here, you know, blessed with this opportunity. But it started with a $69.99. Engine flush and it led me to where I am now. you know things happen for a reason and it's just never giving up never surrendering you know just always feeling like you know just good things don't happen you know to people like me, uh growing up and it was just you know just i've been sold a lot of dreams, you know and i give it my all and been let down and, um it's you know but here is man uh words can't even explain just how how blessed Yes, I am. Yeah. So I'm curious. So you had said you left the industry, right? And before we get into a little bit more on the recruiting side of it,

I'm curious about that. Why did you leave the industry? Yeah. Well, it was, I was, this was when I was at Quick Car and, you know, I was a manager at $14 an hour, you know, and I'm slaving away, slaving away, you know, they just, they weren't investing in the business as long as they made a few bucks. I mean, they were doing $80,000 a month and they were happy, you know. But it was just, I was the long hours and just working. It felt like every day and, you know, it was just, it was just, I had to make a change. And I got offered to start to go in as a helper, which I was making more than I was made with less hours. You know, more labor work, but less hours, more money. And I learned a new craft, you know, and that goes a long ways, open conversations, you know, I see contractors and, you know, everybody that comes in here when they're in construction and related, I mean, it just, I kick it off with, you know, fire marshals.

I could talk to fire marshals all day because I know what they know. You know, but I learned the craft, you know, But yeah, it was just tough. It was tough and I had to get out. I had to make a change. Yeah. And for those of you that are listening, I can tell you this. I guarantee it wasn't about the hours. It was about making $14 an hour for those hours. I guarantee that because I see you every single day. It's never about the hour. You're so early in the morning. You stay late. You take care of the customer. We were texting last night late about, you know, just a customer that was having a situation after hours. And, you know, you, you, you know, took the initiative to say, hey, any of that, like when there's messages, I want those coming to my phone. You told me that because you're like, I want to take care of the customer. And so, you know, I get those messages, but you get them too. And you jump on them so fast. And so after hours, Cliff is texting with a customer

that's having a situation just outside of Dallas. And he's getting his customer coordinated with a dealership over there to make sure the customer is taken care of. And he's just always on top of that. So we have a lot of after hours text messages where you're handling situations. And I'm so thankful and appreciative of that. You just take that off my plate. And that's, you know, just incredible, just your work ethic and taking care of the customer. So I know it's not about the hours. Yeah, not about the long hour of work week. Yeah, I don't pay attention to the clock. I know what time it is, time to go. But, you know, to touch on that, you know, after hours, man, you know, we talk about this. We stress about this to our guests, you know, all of our customers, man, we have your back. we're here for you day in, day out. If you ever need anything, if you ever need us, we're here for you. We practice that, we talk about that, we preach that.

It's one thing to say we do it and then not do it. You know, I mean, if you tell a guest you have their back, you're there for no matter what, when you need someone the most, I'm here for you. You know, we have live text thread, you know, so if you text at 8 o'clock at night, somebody's going to get that message. But it takes that one person to, I mean, right when I get home, I take metrics though. I mean, it's just, you know, my wife, my wife sees it, you know, but I open it up. I'm always on TechMetric. I'm always, always, always on it. I can't get enough of it. And my wife can tell you straight up. When he's at home, he's at work because he's in that computer and he's looking at it. I mean, I'm doing notes. I'm, you know, just, just always on it. I know. You know, and I don't I don't try to like and sometimes I feel bad when I text and I say, hey, you know, what's this or hey, did we get these parts

in? They're probably already in, but I don't see them marked for C. I don't see the tab change. So I'm like, I'll do it. But like, where are we at with this? I know you texted the other day and you're like, hey, somebody closed out this, wrong payment type. And I'm like, and I'm at home. I know you're at home and he's all over it. But that's, you know, like, man, obsessed with it. And when you love what you do, then it's not work. And you obviously just absolutely love what you do. So going back to that, you know, that day, man. So and so those of you listening, like recruiting, It's always be recruiting, right? The top NFL teams are always recruiting. It doesn't matter if they're a dynasty team. They're still looking for A players, superstars. And, you know, that's our world, right? It doesn't matter how good our team is. We're always looking because we're growing and we're looking for any superstars to add to our team.

And sometimes it takes years to land somebody, right? Sometimes, I mean, I've recruited, I think, almost 15 years is like probably, you know, one of the longest times I really actively recruited somebody. 15 years and finally landed them. And then, you know, sometimes it's 24 hours, right? And that's what the deal was with Cliff. So basically what happens is I'm recruiting and I reach out to somebody and I'm like, who do you know? Man, tell me the best person you know at that company. And he tells me, he's like, Cliff, he's over here. I said, perfect. That's all I need. So I'm on top of it. Todd's on top of it. We get ahold of Cliff that day and say, Cliff, I need to meet you tomorrow. I want to meet you tomorrow. So me and Joe Adams go and we set up a meeting and we meet Cliff that day. Now, I pull up and... And I'll be honest with you. So you were like doing a one-man show where you were at, which, you know, our industry is so understaffed. It's like,

you know, like, went to lunch, be back in 30 minutes. You probably had the little sign on the door with the little clock. I don't know. Right? Be back again. I actually had a GS that day who knew how to check in. He was there for a little while, so he knew how to do check-in. So he assisted that day. There you go. You got a GS run in the front because somebody's going to have an interview. And we pull up. We actually met at a restaurant. And, you know, I remember you were sitting outside and we go inside. I remember you were smoking a cigarette when I pulled up, which is a great part of this whole story because you're out there smoking a cigarette. And we don't have anybody that smokes at the front of the house because you're in front of the customer. You're customer facing, right? You can't smell like cigarette smoke. And I'll tie that back in here in a second. But you're smoking a cigarette and, sitting down in the front waiting for us to pull up.

And, you know, we go inside and we had our pre-chat questions. But you answered this question as good as anybody could answer it. And you probably didn't think it was a good answer, but it was actually the best answer. And you told us the numbers at the store. And I think you doubled the revenue over at that store. I forget exactly what the numbers were, but I think it was pretty close to doubling the revenue. And we were like, so how'd you do it? And a lot of people have an answer there. Like, well, I came in and I did this. I started doing it. And they had all these preloaded answers. But your answer was perfect. It was, I don't know. I just came in and did what I do. Okay. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. I just grind. And we're like, boom, that's the perfect answer. That's the perfect answer. Now, you said something also that day. I don't know if you remember this, but you were like, I didn't think I could work at Adams.

Yeah. Do you remember saying that? Yep. You thought it was, you had to have, what, like a, know somebody or, you know. Certifications, like just high end, you know, you gotta, yeah, just never thought, I just, I never thought I would have wanted to work here. Yeah, well, you definitely have what it takes and so much more. And for those of you that are listening, look, we don't discriminate, man. Amherst, if you're a stud with integrity, that's it. Like, we will freaking put you in, teach you our playbook, and you will be, you know, forever changed. You know, and that's really what happened. But I remember I was like, hey, man, we don't smoke, you know, like at the shop, like no smoking. And you're like, I quit. and you quit. You're like... I had just opened that pack. You were like, I quit, dude. And you quit. You're like, that was it. No problem. You know, having bought a pack of slavery since. Yeah, it's like the Yankees. They can't have a beer. Sorry, you know,

like that's the deal. Like you're in the big leagues now and you've... Gosh, man, you are just... It's just such an amazing, amazing superstar. So yeah, so you come on board and now there's a whole new world. So tell us about coming on board, what's different, what you've learned, and kind of how that process went learning this concept. And I learned how to say yes on the phone. But the biggest part is just walking in the first shop tour I had when I came by and the immediate, I just seen all the teamwork. I just seen everything that was going on. It was just so much movement. I mean, this place was loaded at that time. You know, the boom room was full of energy. I mean, everybody was at every desk. I mean, it was cranking. And then y'all showed me the presentation station. and in my head, I'm just like, man, I'd, I thought I was good. I think I'm about to kill it. Because I was doing really good. I got a gift for this. And, you know, it's just... And, man,

it's been crazy. The teamwork, you know, strategizing, just the energy. You know, just, man, this is like no other. Yeah, I know you love shop tours. I mean... Shop tours. We all love the shop tours. but you give such an amazing shop tour. Everybody does. And one of the things that I love about you very, very much is. The accountability, not only that you hold for yourself, but that you hold for the rest of the team, including me, which is huge. Somebody said to me last week or something about just leadership, like for me, like, wow, you have great leadership. And I'm like, you know, when you have superstars on your team, it becomes very easy to become a better leader. Right? Because they hold themselves accountable and they actually hold you accountable. And so I use you as an example all the time about. About shop tours. Because look, at the end of the day, we can't miss any plays. We can't take any plays off.

And there's times where sometimes... And those of you listening know this, it happens when a customer walks through your door, you start to pre-qualify customers. Now, you can't do that. You have to run the play every time. You never know. And we all know that there's customers that are our premier customers, our superstar customers, and there's always customers that aren't. I mean, in any business, you're going to have both. And so how do you know the difference? Well, you don't and you can't by that, first face-to-face conversation, okay? And you still got to treat everybody the same, but the shop tour is such a great point because people come in, they come in with their guard up, They come in, like Todd says, you can check my car, but I'm not buying anything. You can check my car, but I'm not fixing anything. They literally say those words because they've been beat up by the industry. And so you have to do that strong shop tour. And you do such an amazing shop

tour. And part of your shop tour is talking about that after hours service and, all that. I'll let you kind of get into how you do your shop tour. But I love the accountability part of it. I love the fact that if I'm in there and a customer watches the door, and even if I think maybe this isn't our customer, that I know you're right there over my shoulder. And I know that you're watching me. And I love that because we need that. We all need that, right? We have to have accountability. And so when you do these shop tours, kind of walk everybody through a shop tour, and what that looks like for our team. Yeah, so pretty much, I mean, obviously, you know, you got to start with energy, right? You got to just, you know, you got to be full of energy. And I get told, too, that I'm kind of loud. But it's having that energy, letting them know I'm awake, I'm paying attention. When they were like, how are you going to remember all this?

Man, I'm like a server, a waiter at the restaurant. Trust me, I'll remember. You know, and they laugh about it. It's getting them to laugh, breaking down those barriers. But you introduce them to the company, you tell them who we are, but it's more than just going over the benefits, state-of-the-art equipment and the warranty. Yes, we always touch on that, but it's introducing them to the technicians as you're walking by and telling them what they specialize in. This is my European specialist. This is Dr. Lee Koa. This is Mr. Dr. Scott. You know, like I introduce them to the technicians as we're walking by, take them to that back lot, show them all the bays down on the outside. But when they get to when you introduce them to the technicians and, you know, and I mean, they don't they don't get to see that. They don't get to do that, experience that. And I know they when we know they don't, you know, and then when you get them

around, I introduce them to the human fish tank, you know, the fishbowl. This is where all the madness happens, you know, where the NASCAR pit stop, you know. And then how I really touch on it is, you know, the last thing I want is that unexpected phone call, you know, 30 minutes after you left my shop. Hey, I'm stuck on the side of the road, you know. So if I can prevent that and make sure that doesn't happen, I'm going to make sure you're aware. So that way you leave my facility peace of mind. You know, as soon as you leave a shop, and you say this all the time, you know, customers think anytime they leave a shop that their vehicle is saved. Is it really safe? You know, um, we have to inform them the condition of the vehicle. So, and they like that, you know, and they're like, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, I don't, I don't want to make that call. Me neither. You know, um, and then just tell them what we do, you know, and they're like,

oh, my vehicle is new, you know, I only got 13. That's fine. You know, you'd be surprised. We find a lot of manufacturer defects. So if I can be a hero, let you know, hey this part has failed it's under manufacturer warranty let's get it to the dealership so we can get that taken care of i want to make sure um and they love it. Uh they love it you know and then but it's it's when you get around and in every shop is different obviously it's not as as um you know much of a walk around as ours is but, Um, when you're, when you're there at the presentation station, you know, introduce them to the guy who's running the board. You know, I always say, you know, this is Chris. He's one of our leaders here. He runs our command station. You know, communication is key. You know, uh, the last thing, you know, communication is very important. So everything comes through this guy right here. He sees every vehicle that

comes in, um, you know, so if there's anything going on, he knows about it, you know? And they love it. You know, they, I mean, and your team has to interact when you're doing a shop tour and you can't get in your feeling like, hey, why are you talking to my guests? You know, I'm trying to, you know, you got to have that energy. You got to see all these smiley faces, just great attitudes. You know, and when the team gets involved, hey, what do you think about this place? You know, and then you're asking them the same kind of questions that we asked, that I asked already. And then they get to talking again, but they may say something they didn't say to the first person, you know, and then you get that data, you get that information. Or one of your teammates may have a question that you weren't even thinking of asking, you know, and then when they ask and then you're all engaged, you know, like, hey, you know, this is your one-stop shop.

This is your family. I say, hey, man, if you ever get tired of the wife and you need to just get away, you need to come vent, Hey, man, this is your home. Grab a cup of coffee and you can just come talk to me, you know. And man, they just, they love it. But that's breaking down those barriers, you know. If they like you, they trust you, they buy from you. That's right. But shop tour is very important. I was going to say, you know, part of that interaction and them getting to meet everybody and them... Like interacting with the rest of the team. Part of our concept is selling with passion, not pressure. And you never know who might actually be closing that deal because you may be doing the shop tour and you may be calling the customer to sell that job, but it could be somebody else that might have to actually close the deal later if it has to be a second swing situation. And so rather than applying pressure to the customer, which we don't do,

we'll bring in a second voice and we'll have somebody else talk to the customer. And somebody else that's talking to that customer could be somebody that they met on that shop tour. And that's also a very, very big part of it. Because now it's like, oh. Hey, I'm Donovan. I met you earlier. Or, hey, I'm Kobe or I'm Mike. I just met you earlier on the shop tour. And they might be able to call back something from that conversation, where they can make that connection with the customer and the customer feels comfortable, right? It's all about making that customer, you know, feel comfortable. So you do, yeah, such an amazing, amazing job of that. It's the sale, guys. For those of you that are listening, like the sale happens on the shop tour. It's not when you pick up the phone. Like so many things have to happen before you pick up the phone and call that customer. We talk about getting them in the red zone, right? You score way more from the red zone.

And so we have to say yes, be nice, meet them on the drive, give them a shop tour, show them the presentation station, show them the moto visuals, use AI, right, to be able to help get that message to the customer. And by the time you get that far, man, you're on the one yard line. And so now all I have to do is just run that ball right through the goal line. And so if you're just getting a car in and then saying, yes, Mr. Customer, we'll get it checked out and then dispatching it to a technician and then just calling the customer up and saying, hey, we checked the car out and it's going to be this much to fix it like our industry does. Hey, are you sitting down? Right. It's going to be expensive. I got bad news. And that's our industry where we have a good news. You know, presentation, you know, from start to finish. And so, yes, those shop tours are so important. You know, and I've been I've added something else to, you know,

on my shop tour at the end, because when I had one guest ask me why I offered her a cold water or room temp, because of room temp water. And she told me, she was like, you know, you want to bug me on. No one's ever asked me if I would like a cold or a room temp bottle of water. So now when I do offer a bottle of water, do you prefer a cold or room temp? And they're like, oh, room temp. I absolutely don't do that back. You know, once I was, you know, just I can't forget it. I can't unsee it. I can't unhear it. And now I just, I ask. I offer a room temp or cold water. But I mean, as you go on and you go through the experience, but one thing too, man, is you got to have the mindset that nothing is guaranteed, even if it's a TIAB customer. You know, if they spent $60,000 for you in the last three years, nothing is guaranteed. So you don't judge a book by its cover, but nothing's guaranteed because you can easily drop the ball on a TIAB customer.

But when I see a guest come in and they're part-timers and they've been coming here a couple years and they don't really spend money I say hey. Have you had a shop tour yet? And they're like, no, yeah, yeah, I've been before. No, no, no, no. You ain't had one by me. Come on. I need to talk to you. Y'all bring them outside, you know, and never spend any money, you know, $300. You got a 20% close ratio on there. Boom, $2,000 locked in, you know, but it's dealing with those, like, especially when you have a sense, like, hey, this is going to be a tough customer. Man, when you get to that presentation, and pull up an inspection report, an amazing inspection report that you have done in the past or you just had put together earlier that day and show them what to expect. You know, show them a work in progress video that you have, you know, during a major repair. And when they see that, I mean, it's just, I mean, it's just drop.

It's just breaking down barriers. You know, they go crazy about that stuff. They do. They've never seen anything like it before. And yesterday, I saw you do that with the cold water or room temp. And I was like, that's fire right there. And you asked that lady. And that was such a great deal. So this lady comes in yesterday. I meet her on the drive. And she's like, hey, I'm trying you guys out. You know, I want to see if I can set an appointment to get my car checked out. Right. And so she's like, can I drop my car off and set an appointment? And I'm like, well, how about we just get your vehicle checked right now? Like, we can inspect it for you right now. She's like, oh, my gosh. Wow, this is amazing. This is Eddie. Okay, she has an Edge, a Ford Edge. She's like, this is my Edge. I call him Eddie. Now, what does that mean? That means if you got a name for your car, right, you love your car. Okay? And so is Eddie. So it's all about Eddie now. So I meet on the drive.

I was helping another guest on the drive. So I said, look, come on inside. Cliff will get you taken care of, and we're gonna get this process started. I'm gonna get your car pulled around or whatever. And so now Cliff's gonna take her on a shop tour, Cliff's going, giving her this amazing shop tour. She had been to some other shops, right? She's having issues with her car. And so Cliff's on this shop tour with the customer. I'm getting the car ready and staged. By the time they come around the corner, I've got that car ready to go. And Cliff's introducing her to team members. And now I get to come back in. I've already met her. And Cliff's like, oh, this is Glenn. And I'm like, hey, we already met. We're already best friends, right? And she starts laughing. in and then so we're breaking down barriers now she's talking about eddie and she's talking about um you know like just some kind of her plans whatever and so she loves us okay she,

she's in love with us so we know it's going to take some time to diagnose this car she had some lean codes or whatever, and it's sunday and it's kind of creeping towards the end of the day and we want to have time with it we don't want to be under the gun she wanted to kind of wait on it or whatever and so Cliff's like boom we strategize like everything and he's like. Like, let's get her a car. So boom, we're going to put her in a loaner just right away. Look, I'll tell you what, instead of you waiting, let me spend some time with it. Why don't I go and put you in a loaner car? Now, there's no approval yet. We don't know what it's going to cost. We're going to diagnose it, and we're going to diagnose it for free. For those of you listening, anybody that's listening to this, you have to understand, you have to diagnose the car for free. And you probably think it's crazy, but you have to really understand our concept.

And I can't explain that here in the next 10 minutes, but we diagnose the car for free. Okay? Because I'm going to diagnose the car, and then once I have the answer, the number, what it's going to cause to fix the car, there's no friction of having a diagnostics charge getting in the way between me and fixing that car. So we're going to give her a loaner car with no approval. Doesn't matter. Look, take our loaner car. We're going to get this diagnosed. It'll go into tomorrow, but once I have an answer. Because remember, guys, if you're listening to this, this is Sunday. You don't have to have master, diagnostic texts on Sunday. We have some but you don't have to okay and here's why because i can just solve her transportation needs and now i get to diagnose that car on monday morning, okay and i don't have to worry about it and so for those of you we did phone shopping in in uh, take five yesterday and we called some shops that were open on sunday and every

single we called four shops okay and all four shops said i can't diagnose your car today if you can drop it off we can get to it one guy said tuesday one guy said tomorrow our diagnostic technician is not here today okay now think of that from a customer standpoint car breaks down and you're open and then they call and they say i've got a check engine light you say i'm sorry i can't i can't get you in today i don't have a diagnostic technician today. Versus absolutely is now a good time to bring in your vehicle. And then I say, look, we have these codes. It's going to take me some time. Let me go ahead and get you a vehicle. Because how much easier is it going to be for us to sell that job today? Being that she is moving around in a vehicle, loaner car, after this amazing experience that she just had, okay, with this shop tour and just meeting the team. She's like, I found my home. Eddie found his home.

Yeah. And we now have we sold that job yet? Yeah. Yeah. No. Yes. Yeah. We don't know how much it's done. We don't know how much it costs yet, but that job is sold. Every video is, is upon inspecting Mr. Eddie, you know, take a look at Mr. Eddie, Mr. Eddie. I'm going to say his name throughout every video. Cause there's going to be some additionals on there, but it's Eddie, You know, when they give you that name, you've got to do your videos. Hey, doing a bumper bumper on Mr. Eddie or hey, while I was inspecting Eddie, you know, I noticed this concern. His shoes are getting a little worn out, you know. Dude, I mean, you just you got to you got to finesse it, man. And and trust me, they're they're not going to get a video like that from anybody, you know. But I called her when I was doing the initial checking at the counter. She was stressing about not being able to drive the vehicle after it's been going to these shops. So, you know, having to come out of money for,

you know, rental vehicles. And she was, I may just have to stop by the dealer because I think they'll give me a loaner car. So I already had that, like, before everything was done. That was in the way beginning, but I caught that. So, and then that's what just really just made us just go into, I think we should just get it to her, you know, because she wants him fixed. Yes, Eddie needs some new shoes. Eddie's got bad knees. He got bad knees, man. Oh my gosh, that's so good. That's so good, man. So one last thing I wanted to touch on, right, is, you know, you had mentioned when you go home and you're on TechMetric and you're just constantly working. But we tell a story a lot and it's about... Just the life-changing experience that you've had after joining this team and what it's done for your career. And we have that picture of you, right, where you bought your house. And I'll never forget that picture with you and your wife and family with the

key to that house, the big key picture. And your wife talked to Todd, is that right? Uh she texted him uh one night uh yeah i was sleeping but she texted him, i found out the next morning when i uh opened up my my phone said you text him. What did she text him i think like uh like he's the happiest he's ever been i can't remember word for word, but it was just, you know, thanking them. And, you know, I mean, my entire family, you know, is just, just so proud of me right now, seeing where I'm at in my life. But yeah, man, to be able to purchase a home, you know, at the age I am right now, it's always been a goal of mine. When I hit 40, I want to own a buy a house, I want to become a homeowner. But I've just never seen that in my future of becoming a homeowner. No one's in my family in generations ever bought a brand new home built from the ground up. So it's just never something I imagined. The feeling was breathtaking,

just coming from nothing, man. I slept in laundromats down the street from 1010. It's been a long journey for me and I'm on cloud nine and I'm not even done yet I feel like this is just the beginning I still got a long ways to go, It is, it is the beginning, you know, and for everybody listening, you know, we talk a lot about numbers, we talk, you know, you know, running big revenue, and we do that. But what is it for? It's about changing lives, changing lives of our employees, changing lives, you know, of our customers. It's about, it's about, man, transforming people, right? Like, that is the biggest reward, you know, the pictures of somebody with their first house, or, you know, just, you know, the picture of the birthday party that you're doing. That nobody was able to have for their family. And all these different stories we have are so amazing. But you can't do those things without running an amazing concept,

executing at a high level and being able to produce the numbers to be able to afford to do the things for the people and pay people what they're worth. I mean, you were managing a store for $14 an hour. And it's like, man, it's gonna be pretty tough to get by on that, man. It's going to be pretty tough for you to buy your first house at $14 an hour. And so we have to have a pathway. And the concept that Todd created back in 1986, it's the same today with just some enhanced technology. But it's the same concept that transforms lives. It transforms lives back then, and it transforms lives today. And it is fire. So, man, I am so thankful for having you on this morning, Cliffhanger. Thank you for having me on it's exciting yeah we are we are going to start doing this I've got this superstar series in mind and it's to be able to just bring our team members on here. Um, because everybody that follows us and is on Moneyball sees the names.

They see the nickname. They've heard a clip. They see you when you come to VIP Racket Tech Day. Oh, you're a cliffhanger. Oh, this is Code Boom. This is Mercedes Mike. This is Jason Bourne, right? This is, you know, this is D-Blog, right? J-Bird. They, they, they know the names. They know the nicknames, you know? And, um, now I really want to give everybody a, uh, a peek in the window and be able to just meet you guys, right? Um, and I'm excited. I'm excited to hear everybody's story, man. You know, I mean, we got some major players in the industry. You know, we got Koboon, we got Mercedes, Mike, Donovan, D-Block, you know, JT Money, you know, Felix. I mean, the list goes on. Joshua, you know, I mean, we got some major players on our team. And, you know, I just got to thank everybody. You know, I wouldn't be able to do what I do without the entire team, the HBP partners just believing in me, investing and giving me opportunities.

But the amazing team I have behind me, knowing that if I'm down on my luck or I'm just not feeling good, you have that team that supports you and backs you up, man. But the entire A-team here on 1010 is just outstanding. And I'm blessed to be around these guys every day, man. We pick each other's brains and we just have so much fun, man. Yes, we do, man. Well, man, thank you so much for being on this morning. We are about to crush out another day here today at 1010. We're about to kick off a take five this morning. So thank you all for listening. Can't wait to see you next time. Let's go. Boom, let's go. For more information, reach out to Todd Westerland at 925-980-8012 or visit AutoshopAnswers.com. You can get more information about key-to-key-to-callbacks, courtside. We have a VIP rack attack day where you spend an entire day in the trenches with our team, learning this perfected business model. We offer leadership classes. We have an AI academy. And also get more information

about Autoshop callbacks. We have auto tech training. We are literally your one-stop shop. Once again, that number for Todd Westerland is 925-980-8012.