Ensuring Customers’ Cars are Safe, Reliable, and Efficient With Craig O’Neill, Vice President of Training at Autoflow

Craig O’Neill is Vice President of Training at Autoflow, formerly Autotext.me. Starting at a young age, Craig gained priceless experience at his family’s transmission shop, serving in various roles including Service Manager, Technician, and Business Manager. Craig’s greatest interest is in technology, and since 2018, when he joined Autoflow, he has developed training processes to support shops launching digital systems.

In this episode…

How can a tire and auto repair shop ensure the safety of a customer’s vehicle while potentially increasing the number of services a customer desires? Is it better to complete a full inspection or service the part of the vehicle that the customer says is causing problems? If these questions resonate with you, check out this episode of Gain Traction!

Craig O’Neill, from Autoflow, says he was always against completing full inspections of customer vehicles. He thought it was just an underhanded way for shops to upsell additional services until one day at a tech expo a speaker said the job of every technician is to make sure the vehicle is safe, reliable, and efficient — and the only way to do that is to complete a full inspection. That speaker soon became Craig’s mentor and helped him implement an invaluable digital inspection program, including sending pictures of vehicle issues to the customer.

On this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge welcomes Craig to discuss the importance of a digital inspection process at tire and auto repair shops — even shops with one primary specialty like transmissions, brakes, or tires. Craig talks about what Autoflow does, how its software enhances customer service, and how it greatly benefits tire and auto repair shops. He discusses the amazing value of sharing photos with customers that highlight issues involving their vehicles. Don’t miss it!

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• Craig O’Neill explains why he moved from a technical role to management at his family transmission shop
• How Craig found his job at Autoflow
• Why digital inspections are becoming a necessity for tire and auto repair shops
• How sending pictures from an inspection prompted a customer to increase the number of services she desired
• A major success story Craig has experienced with Autoflow
• Why Craig considers it a blessing to have Christian Brothers Automotive as a client
• The funniest story from Craig’s career

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Craig O’Neill on LinkedIn
• Autoflow 
• Christian Brothers Automotive
• Traction Summit 
• Smithers
• Mike Edge on LinkedIn
• Tread Partners
• Retread

Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast, where we feature top automotive entrepreneurs and experts and share their inspiring stories. Now let’s get started with the show.

Mike Edge:

Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast. I am Mike Edge, your host today. The Gain Traction podcast is where I talk with top automotive business leaders about their personal experiences in the tire and auto repair industry, and I have some fun getting to know them as well. I’d like to give a shout-out today for the Traction Summit hosted by Smithers. This year’s summits in May 23rd of the 25th in San Antonio, Texas, where attendees will have the opportunity to understand and discuss the future of the tire industry, while also networking with fellow colleagues and professionals. This year’s theme is sustainability in tires, with topics of discussion including new materials for tires, reduction in tire wear particles, carbon block material selection and impact on tire performance, end of life options for tires and more. Smithers has been in the tire testing market since the 1920s and has a very strong brand for independent expert opinion on tire performance.Along with presenting leading industry information at the Traction Summit, with over 90 years of expertise in rubber testing, Smithers provides custom tire analysis and standard testing to meet your requirements. To learn more, go to tractionsummit.com. That’s tractionsummit.com.

This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners and the Retread program. What the heck is a retread program? Tread Partners has designed a marketing product called retread. It is a full scale customer re-engagement program to win back a shop’s best lost customers. It is a one-time, 90 day program that generates a guaranteed 10 to one return on investment. Say what? That’s correct. A 10 to one guaranteed ROI, no tricks or gimmicks. These are customers that are in your POS system right now. If you invest, for example, $4,000 today, you will receive a return on investment of $40,000 within 120 days. The program’s 90 days, we measure it for 120 days. What are you waiting for? Just email us at [email protected] or you can learn more at treadpartners.com and watch my video on it.

Today’s guest is Craig O’Neill, vice President of training at AutoFlow. From a young age, the Family Transmission Shop provided Craig O’Neill with priceless experience in a variety of rows. With his greatest interest being in technology. Craig was always looking for ways to make a difference in his family’s business. By leveraging simple solutions such as DVI and texting, he quickly recognized the positive influence digital systems played in enhancing both sales and client satisfaction. In 2018, he joined the AutoFlow team and has developed training processes to support shops of all sizes as they launch digital systems. Craig and his team share a vision to promote the auto repair industry’s professional image through technology. Craig, welcome to Gain Traction.

Craig O’Neill:

Aw, thank you so much, Mike. I’m so happy to be here with you.

Mike Edge:

We’re glad to have you. Let’s just start with the basics. Where are you from? Where was this shop that you grew up in?

Craig O’Neill:

You might not be able to see this, but I’m holding up my hand and I’m pointing to Grand Rapids, Michigan on the map of Michigan. That is my right hand and Grand Rapids, Michigan’s been my hometown born and raised, and our transmission shop was right in a little part of Grand Rapids called Cascade Township, and that is where I have been hanging out since I was probably, well, six, eight years old. That’s where dad was. That’s where we wanted to be.

Mike Edge:

That’s awesome. The smells bring back fond memories, don’t they?

Craig O’Neill:

They do. In fact, I was just at a conference just this week on Tuesday night and some of the guys that were there to hear our class, we were teaching a class on digital inspections. Go figure. And they had just come from work and I could tell one of the guys, he still had his uniform on, I could smell the mineral spirits right there and it just brings you right back.

Mike Edge:

That’s awesome. Well, I’ve got to tell you this because my granddad, he was an old farmer, right? And they always carried a gas tank in the back of their truck. If we had to ride in the back, I always had fond memories with my granddad, so the smell of gas, I just can’t help it.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, sure. My grandpa was in the industry.

Mike Edge:

It’s a fond memory.

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah, it does. Even the smell of burnt transmission fluid now, it’s like, “Oh man, that smells like a good week.”

Mike Edge:

Is the transmission shop still in existence?

Craig O’Neill:

It is still in existence. Dad is running it. Here’s the thing, Mike, I left the family business five years ago. Hardest decision I ever made. Really difficult choice, but I knew that my career trajectory with what I wanted to do within this industry, my goals changed and the family business did not have a good succession plan. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t in the picture there. The left, I did, my brother left a little before I did, and the writing was on the wall for me not long after that, and my brother himself was just a crack diagnostician, wonderful transmission builder too. He’s running mobile diagnostic company here in Michigan as well. That was recently bought by Gerber.

Mike Edge:

Oh.

Craig O’Neill:

But they do ADOS calibrations and everything else there. My brother was focused on the technology side. Technician side, I should say I’ve spent most of my career as a technician too, but my brother took it to a whole nother level, literally a subject matter expert for the ASE test level.

Mike Edge:

That’s awesome.

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah. I liked the customer side of things a lot better after a while. I kind of graduated away from my technical role solely towards the management role and really focused on the behind the counter experience for our clients and I’m so happy I did, because that brought me to a part of the industry now that’s just immensely fulfilling. I get to teach. That’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.

Mike Edge:

Well, and you had mentioned to me that you had a passion for teaching somewhere early in your life anyway.

Craig O’Neill:

I actually didn’t get into the automotive industry really by choice. I was born into it, right? I wanted to be a history teacher growing up. If anyone had asked me, it was either that or I wanted to be a missionary pilot out in the bush somewhere. One of those two things. Very, very different. I know.

Mike Edge:

Okay, so you made the leap 2018 that, but you were at the company, you were at the family business in 2017 up to 2018.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh yeah. Just to the end of 2017, and that’s when I left. But yeah, okay. 25 years in this industry and I will be 40 years this year in age, so 25 years in the industry. It’s a lifetime, and I’ve been conservative on that estimate, Mike. I am not counting from the age of six.

Mike Edge:

That is awesome.

Craig O’Neill:

I know we were rebuilding transmissions by the age 13, rebuilding them, literally able to sell that stuff to the customer. Rebuilding turbo 350s and the sorts, right. Look how

Mike Edge:

Look how well it served you.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh goodness. Every single experience. Mike, we had tough days in that family business. Grandpa ran it before my dad ran it. Grandpa was a different breed entirely. All just bottled up anger and all kinds of things that make an interesting boss, let me tell you.

Mike Edge:

Supposed to read his mind, right?

Craig O’Neill:

What was that?

Mike Edge:

You’re supposed to read his mind, right?

Craig O’Neill:

 Oh man. You didn’t have to. He wore it right out there and you knew what he wanted. He’s the kind of guy, he came into the shop on those moments, just brief. You can be working your butt sweating and everything hardest production you can do. Customer brought you those donuts because they love you so much and you’re taking a bite of the donut, that’s when he rolls into the shop.

Mike Edge:

Right when it looks like you’re taking a break.

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah. Say “Put that donut down.” I was like, “Oh man. Okay.”

Mike Edge:

But it’s a jelly donut, so…

Craig O’Neill:

That’s how I stayed thin my whole life. Mike.

Mike Edge:

Oh, there you go. Guys, he is joking, he’s really 350 here. No, I’m just kidding. What about, so how did you make the leap? Did you find AutoFlow? Did they find you?

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, I love this story, Mike, so I’ll try to give you the brief version of it. There was a day when I made that leap first from doing technical training and as a technician in the shop just starting to focus on management training. The first time was at actually here in Grand Rapids, the Auto Wears group, the Auto Value Network. They put on the tech expo, and this will be coming up again in February of 2024. February, great time to come to Grand Rapids, Michigan folks. Perfect. 3000 technicians in that show. It’s actually regionally one of the best shows we have, but I’m taking a management class and there was this man named Bob Greenwood. Bob Greenwood unfortunately passed away just a couple years ago. Actually, many people in the tire business, especially in Canada, probably have heard of Bob. He became my coach and dear friend.

The thing is the first time I saw him, I was a technician on a Saturday morning.cold day in Michigan, Putty sweatshirt sitting towards the back of the row, arms crossed across my chest, wondering why I’m here on this morning, and just not really motivated at that point in my career. It was very stressful in the family business in those days for a lot of reasons, and Bob is in there. He’s wearing a suit and tie. He’s dressed to the nines and of course technician attitude, when we see guys like that, what do we think first? “Who does this guy think he is” right, and he knew that there’s people in this audience that were like that, and he drew attention to it immediately. He says, “So I’m up here today and yeah, I’m dressed nice and why I’m dressed nice…” I’m listening. “So I don’t dress nice for me. I dress nice out of the respect for the people that I’m talking to because they’re worth it. You’re worth it.”

 It’s like, “Huh, all right.” He had my attention right out of the gate on that, and then he had my attention again when he asked a question kind of rhetorical, he said, “What’s your job?” And he is looking out in the room, kind of looking towards me, so I gave him the smart answer that a technician might give. “I fix cars, right? That’s what I do.” He said, “No, your job, your professional responsibility is to make sure the vehicle is safe, reliable, and efficient. That’s the job, and how can you do that unless you are inspecting every single car that comes in your shop with that in mind?”, it’s like, “Well, okay.” See, I was a guy that was very much against inspections, Mike.

I thought they were gimmicky. I thought that’s something that the chains are going to use to try to upsell customers things they don’t need. We’re the good guys. We don’t do that stuff, so we don’t do inspections either. They were stupid.

Mike Edge:

Just fix what you tell us to.

Craig O’Neill:

 Man. This is where I was at. It’s where I was at, and so what ended up transpiring is he just gave a rousing class. He was amazing, and so I hired him as my coach not long after that class, and he became a dear mentor, but we got an inspection program going to our shop, and I started doing digital inspections. I loved it. Day one, first time I started selling work with digital inspections and pictures, and this is a big move for me in the transmission business. We had something going on that tire stores are doing now, and that is who we don’t want to just be known for transmissions and the same way a lot of tire stores don’t want to just be known for tires, right?

We’re moving into that general service and how do you develop that identity for that? It was one of the questions I had, worst question I would hear, Mike, from my customers was, “Do you do things other than transmission work?” It’s like, “We have some advertising out that says we do.” The message was not clear and our identity was when Neil’s transmission service was the name of the shop, and that’s all they knew us for, and I, all right, we need to start doing these inspections with and show them that we’re identifying these things and then approaching in a whole different way and wow. Wow. The impact that it had. I could go all day on some of the stories I have from the early inspections, but my favorite one, I remember the customer’s name. Her name was June Sern. She had a 2007 Honda Accord and it had 137,000 miles on it, and we were the second opinion from the dealer who had already condemned that transmission.

We always hoped for good news. We were that kind of transmission shop. We would look for that great news and try to make their day with a simple solenoid or sensor fix, or something out there. We hoped for them on that. We made money doing the electrical repairs too. We didn’t need to do the overhaul to make money, but sure enough, it was that transmission was toasted. That generation of Hondas was great for the transmission business, but she had the question everyone has, and you’ll get it with tires too. Tire stores know, and you’re selling a set of four on some vehicles sometimes, maybe not today with car prices, but back then people asked the question, “Is it worth fixing?” Is it worth fixing? And I had a biased opinion, man, I’m trying to sell transmission work here. I knew that. The customer knew that too, and I would just tackle that head on.

I said “June, of course, I have a biased opinion on this matter. we’re very good at what we do with transmission overhauls. This car is definitely worth fixing in my opinion. If you didn’t think so, I would be tempted to buy it from you and keep it and fix it myself. I do own two Hondas that I acquired that way, so.”

Mike Edge:

 It’s awesome.

Craig O’Neill:

 I told her, “Look, June, we’ve got a new digital inspection platform. I’m going to have my guys go forward and backwards on this thing for you. We’re going to identify everything that this car needs and we’re going to send you the results with pictures and videos to show you what we found” and we did, and I sent that to her about five o’clock that night, little before. We went home at 5:30, and I wish, Mike, I had saved the voicemail that this lady had on our voicemail machine the following morning because it went exactly like this.

“Hi Craig, it’s June. Just wanted to tell you, go ahead with the transmission, the battery, the belt, the brakes and the tires, but we’re going to hold off in the shocks and stretch for about six months.” And my jaw just dropped, Mike. It was just like, “What?” I didn’t even estimate the battery, the belt brakes and the tires and the shocks. I only had the transmission estimate, so of course, what do I do first? I set the phone down. I say, “Hey guys, go ahead and pull the transmission out of that Honda.” Get them going on that. Call her up, left her a message back, say, “Hey, June, we got the guys going on the transmission removal right now. We’re going to get you the estimate on these other items and we’ll let you know exactly where we land on those things.” We went through around a $3,700 ticket back then now to a, I think it was around $5,600, and that was the most productive bay I had for a removed transmission ever. I was hooked, and I’ve of course telling myself I’m never going back to selling automotive service without pictures ever again. The confidence she had in that message. Telling me what she was interested in buying, trusting us even already at that point that it would be a fair price without even asking about price, was convinced.

Mike Edge:

Man, that is so big, because like you said, that picture, she knew that it wasn’t like a mystery that you were hiding something like, “Hey, you need this.” No, here’s the picture.

Craig O’Neill:

Yep. And of good things too. Good things about the car.

Mike Edge:

Even though she may not have understood it, you showed her to where it was transparent enough to build that confidence, that trust to say, “Yeah, you know what, I’m just going to get this done.”

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah, yeah. And with plenty of pictures of good stuff on the car that prove it is worth investing in. We’re in good shape and all the things that were wore out were just normal wear and tear items. There wasn’t anything weird. And in Michigan that matters. Some of you that know this region understand what happens to our cars. You see them too. Maybe you don’t have the torch skills we have up here, but yeah, rotten vehicles with lots of rust. You show a good picture. Hondas were great for this. They don’t rot out some of the domestic vehicles. I’m sorry to say.

Mike Edge:

Truth is truth. The truth hurts. Yeah, man, that’s a great story though.

Craig O’Neill:

I love it. I tell it a lot too. People, believe it or not, Mike, we have a lot of people in the industry that have still yet to adopt one, an inspection process in their facilities.

Mike Edge:

I know.

Craig O’Neill:

Short of a piece of paper they do sometimes, and two, doing it digitally and it is becoming a must have in this business right now. It’s still a delighter. We talk about this a lot in our business. Delighters, must-haves, performance items. This is becoming a must-have. Just the same way wifi was is now a must have in a coffee shop. It’s going to be a must-have for your clients to be able to see pictures of their car.

Mike Edge:

People know you guys, I mean at AutoFlow, but they know you guys by AutoText, right?

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah. We decided to confuse the snot out of our clients by going and changing the name. Actually, it’s the second time I was hired by AutoFlow, but there was a little issue. The boss owned it. He thought he had all the I’s dotted and the Ts crossed on the name change, but there was someone out there with the AutoFlow rights and he sent a cease and desist, so we had to go back to AutoText Me, and now that guy has sold us the rights and it is ours. AutoFlow is us.

Mike Edge:

Well, congratulations.

Craig O’Neill:

Thank you. Yeah. We’re excited about having to change our emails over again. Yeah. Great.

Mike Edge:

Everybody thinks we have a personality disorder now, right?

Craig O’Neill:

Yes. Yeah, we answer to anything.

Mike Edge:

Well, we’ve done some similar things, but Neil, our boss and he has sworn the name will never change again. We are locked in. We’re settled. But that branding thing, yeah, it’s always a challenge. You think it’s going to be a challenge for the people on the outside, but it’s a challenge for the people on the inside, really.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. No, for the guys on the inside is where the greatest sympathies are. The clients, you’ll get used to it quick enough.

Mike Edge:

 Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Craig O’Neill:

 No, AutoFlow is a better understanding for us. We realized that early on. People hear AutoText Me and it’s like, “Oh yeah, texting’s cool. That’s all you…” No, it’s not all.

Mike Edge:

 No, it’s that you’re getting stuck in the hole you guys did. It’s your family business. Transmissions is all you did.

Craig O’Neill:

Dude. Yeah, it’s like story of my life. Get shoe horned in with your name.

Mike Edge:

It’s fascinating. Give the audience here that’s listening, what’s one of your major success stories you feel like with AutoFlow since you’ve been there?What stands out in your mind and seeing something that you’ve done with training because that’s your bailiwick that you implemented and saw the success at a shop or something like that.

Craig O’Neill:

Sure. Well, I really like to brag on one of our key clients, which is Christian Brothers Automotive, nationally well recognized, and I got to say from a guy coming up in the independent sector when I first started seeing those shops pop up in my town it was like, I hated these guys. Now, they’re one of my best clients and some of the dearest people I know in this industry that are truly out to see the stigmas of this industry no longer the case, top down, bottom up, best organization. The people are driven and committed to truly excellent customer service using our software in each shop. I love seeing the process, even having the influence, even as minor as it may be, because there’s brilliant minds at Christian Brothers that were looking at it. They saw the potential of our platform. Great. They took it to a usage level that is really unrivaled across the nation and three times in a row, three times in a row, the JD Power Associates top number one spot in our industry for customer satisfaction. I’m very proud of them and the fact that we get to work with them to support that.

Mike Edge:

Well, and it sounds like you have that kind of relationship where if you want to experiment with something, they’re the type to say, “Yeah, all right, we get the benefit. We might try to.”

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, yeah. They’re such good people and one of the thing that struck me the most when I started working with them, you’ve worked with companies before where it’s negotiating. Some people would try to just, they don’t feel like they’re getting a good deal unless they get you down. Now, Christian brothers are not that way. They want to see you successful, and that’s clear in how they treat you and everybody in their organization. It’s refreshing and frankly, it’s just a blessing to be able to work with them.

Mike Edge:

Yeah. Well, I mean, I’ll tell you a funny story that happened to me. This is years ago when I was with another company that we did internet marketing and we were primarily focused on manufacturers. We had a manufacturer that was a furniture manufacturer and they had this annual golf tournament strictly for vendors, and they would invite you in to their town, feed you all day, and you played golf all day. Then they had prizes at the end of it. Then the president of the company would get up up and talk to the vendors and say, “Look, we want you to know that we appreciate you. You’re part of our team and we know that if you know that we appreciate you, you’re going to look out for our best interests and that’s what we want.

And you know what, you would break your neck for a customer like that. And when they ask for a discount or they need help here or there, “Yeah, I’ll do whatever” because I mean, it may sound small, but I want to be back at the golf tournament, so much fun. You know what I mean? It was one of those relationship things and then literally you would come back and people you met for the first time in the previous year, you might be high fiving them because you had such a good time with the last year and go, “Hey, let’s have another good time.”

Craig O’Neill:

Beautiful.

Mike Edge:

They had the best and then they had a customer appreciation tournament, but the vendor one was so cool because it was the only company I ever saw do that.

Craig O’Neill:

That’s great.

Mike Edge:

 And I knew that vendors wanted to treat them well. It’s not like, I’m not going to mention some Fortune 500 companies that I’ve done some business with, but they have the 120 days before they pay you. Then if you got one dot wrong or one T not crossed, another 30 to 60 days before you get your check. Then if you screw up again, then they want to string you along and not use and use your money or whatever. And I was like, “Why? Why be like this? Because I don’t even want to service you anymore.”

Craig O’Neill:

It’s like there’s a difference between wanting someone to feel lucky to get to work with you versus feeling blessed to work with you.

Mike Edge:

Amen. Nails it, that nails it. But anyway, that’s a great story about you and Christian Brothers and that relationship.

Craig O’Neill:

It’s such a great group, so yeah, watch out guys. That brand is doing a fantastic job all over the nation and they’re not in every region yet and they don’t sell tires yet. Not heavily, right? We didn’t either.

Mike Edge:

Yeah. Well, you’ve got to eventually get to tires.

Craig O’Neill:

This is what I’ve been saying. We had that Hunter road force balancer was a key tool in our shop, in a transmission shop. How many tire shops I see that don’t even have those things?

Mike Edge:

Crazy.

Craig O’Neill:

It is because what that machine does is absolutely phenomenal. We had people that just got new tires, they’re in for transmission work and they’ve got a vibration, right? And of course you do the transmission, you kind of own that car and everything that’s wrong with it hence forth, therefore in hither two.

Mike Edge:

Yes, yes, yes, we are.

Craig O’Neill:

So we don’t like noise, vibration, harshness type complaints in our shop. We realized very quickly, it’s not driveline. It’s not driveline. It’s tires. It’s tires, it’s tires, it’s the tires, it’s the tires. We could say it till we’re blue in the face. This machine proved it every time we needed it to. And then do force matching, put it in a different spot in the car. That vibration that has always been there for them is gone now. And who’s the big hero? Yeah, yeah, we are. And hey, if we sold tires, they’d be back just because of how great it was.

Mike Edge:

You’re right. Absolutely right. You left money on the table and not yours.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, man. And that’s the thing I ran into, Mike, is that people, the tire stores that I talk to that don’t have that or aren’t using that machine say, “Yeah, the guys don’t liking it. It takes too long to do the balance.”

Mike Edge:

Oh god,

Craig O’Neill:

Dude, charge for it.

Mike Edge:

Right?

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah. We learned painfully, guys, I say that like, you should be doing this. I learned the hard way too. We were terrible at getting paid the way we needed to get paid for using that machine at first. We were just so happy with the results we were getting. That was enough motivation to use it for a while. But yeah, initially we were losing our butts because we didn’t bill for it properly. But once we understood that value, once everybody in the shop understood what it was doing, and we had that feedback from the customers, could our sales guys sell it? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, they could.

Mike Edge:

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, that’s awesome. I’ve started a little segment on the show, it’s called Make Us Laugh. Now I’m putting the pressure on you that you’ve got to tell us something funny that’s happened in your career that other shop owners, listeners, executives, thought leaders in the industry would get a kick out of or maybe even have a similar experience. And it could be if you want to be self-deprecating, it could be something embarrassing.

Craig O’Neill:

I have to be so careful with these stories because there’s so many. I was raised in a transmission shop.

Mike Edge:

Keep it clean, man.

Craig O’Neill:

I was raised in a transmission shop. This is a place where as a teenager in high school…

Mike Edge:

Am I going to…

Craig O’Neill:

I’d be treated like a…

Mike Edge:

Am I going to need the bleep button?

Craig O’Neill:

No, no. But my grandpa, you need to understand, is large life, he passed away just last year and sad in some ways, but he really was kind of a jerk. And most people who know him, the name Pat O’Neill around our area of West Michigan still probably makes some people like, “Oh man”, look over their shoulder. “Look out. Here he comes.” And so here’s the funny thing is back in the day, we had a young man start working for us and funny, I won’t will give his name, but I’ll tell you right now, he is a wonderful, upstanding, fine individual, beautiful family and is captain in the US Navy. The man turned out just fine. But back then this man was borrowing our alignment rack for his own vehicle over the weekend and decided to have his buddy who was helping him sit inside of the car and do what’s evidently called clam baking, I think is the term, smoking weed before it was legalized in Michigan in that vehicle on shop premises. Who goes in every Saturday to check on the shop, even though we’re closed on that day? My grandpa. This man became the first man to get a proverbial Pat O’Neill ass chewing whilst high.

Mike Edge:

Oh my.

Craig O’Neill:

And they’re not talking a little high, I mean baked. So, this guy….

Mike Edge:

Does he even remember getting chewed out?

Craig O’Neill:

He does. Which was so, so funny to hear him describe this and to try to keep a straight face. And that was the other pastime, anytime. The Pat O’Neil butt chews were a bit of a thing in the shop and you would count on the other crew members. Anytime somebody’s getting that lecture of whatever it is, they’d be standing behind my grandpa trying to make the other guy laugh.

Mike Edge:

Oh my gosh.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, we were mean.

Mike Edge:

That’s brutal. That’s brutal.

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah. It was my grandpa’s pool.

Mike Edge:

That’s just like, that’s like brothers. You sit in my family when and dad, but you out, you’d be back behind him. Yeah, but then you’d run get out of the way.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, yeah.

Mike Edge:

All right, go ahead though. But you did tell me something else funny that I thought you were going to touch on. What was the cold water thing? I thought that was fun.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh man. We had this team building exercise, Mike, and this is brilliant because Michigan gets hot in the summer and people think it’s like snow here 24/7. No, no, no, no. We get the hot, the cold, the cold just hangs out too long. 99 in our shop, as high as the thermostat ever told us the temperature was. But the humidity and the lack of…

Mike Edge:

Listen, those southern guys have no sympathy for you. Okay.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, yeah, I bet. I bet. Hey, maybe you want to adopt this team building exercise in your shop because here’s how it goes. You bump your head, you bump your hand, you get frustrated on something, your team members notice that, and of course they’re looking out for your best interest. They take a cup of ice, cold water and without warning, splash it in your face on the spot. And now you might think that’s terrible and it’s mean, but no, the proper response was you calm down immediately and you say, “Thank you” to the person who just do that water on your face. And I’ll be darn if that didn’t turn out to be a pretty funny thing. The only time I think I really kind of abused it was one of our good technicians. He had took a job when Tesla was new as a technician, and he was all into the electric stuff before electric stuff was even making news. And we were really proud of him for going, but I was so bummed to lose that brilliant mind in our shop. And after, right as he told me, I was actually holding a cup of water, he finished telling us about taking that job, I splashed it right on his face.

Mike Edge:

Oh, that’s awesome.

Craig O’Neill:

He of course laughed. But yes.

Mike Edge:

That was the customary thing to do in your shop then, huh?

Craig O’Neill:

Absolutely. Yeah. It wasn’t out of place. Right.

Mike Edge:

It was to cool somebody off. That’s what you did.

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah.

Mike Edge:

The other person just had to take it.

Craig O’Neill:

Yeah. Well, of course the mean thing we did to him on his last day too was we put zip ties on every rotating shaft on his all-wheel drive Honda CR-V to make the most hellacious rattling noise as he pulled out. That was not nice. That was a lot of zip ties.

Mike Edge:

That’s mean. All right, so last question. What is your favorite book of all time?

Craig O’Neill:

Oh man. Favorite book has to be coupled with the favorite author because Thomas Cahill is my favorite author. Historian does his hinges of history series now, last name O’Neill, when a history buff guy writes a book called How the Irish Saved Civilization.

Mike Edge:

He said, “That’s me. I’m doing it right now.” Right?

Craig O’Neill:

This is for me, man. This is for me. And I just absolutely love the author. His writing style is so great. Anyone who’s a history buff, and I don’t know if you ever used to watch The History Channel back in the day when the History Channel had history shows instead of alien shows, I can’t stand TV.

Mike Edge:

It changed. Yeah, you’re right.

Craig O’Neill:

 It changed bad. Yeah. But I grew up watching History Channel before the History Channel went weird. This to me, that book is really fills in that void. And Thomas Cahills is just an, he’s not going to go so deep into those things that are boring, that you’re going to get tired of it. It’s told like a story and he’s got a good sense of humor and he’s got excellent little margins for some of the finer details if you want to read those too. Just wonderful, wonderful book. But it goes all the way from how the Irish save civilization and the gifts of the Jews to the desire of the Everlasting Hills, which is a book about the life of Christ and then the Greeks and why they matter and all on the way through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance artists. And it just becomes this whole tapestry of what influenced Western civilization that made our society now, which is a good and strong society, what it is, and all those influences combined. It’s just such great picture, especially for anyone interested in American history because it’s a story that leads us to where we are now and helps us understand where we’re going.

Mike Edge:

Can you get that on audio?

Craig O’Neill:

You can get it on audio. And actually if you get How the Irish Saved Civilization, you can get that on audio narrated Read by Liam Neeson, which is super badass.

Mike Edge:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s got to be a tough guy book, man. Yeah. Well listen, we’re up against our stop here. Craig, thank you enough for being on the Gain Traction podcast. It’s been a pleasure.

Craig O’Neill:

Oh, thanks Mike. Anytime.

Mike Edge:

Yeah, and to all our listeners out there, thank you for being part of the podcast. If you would like to recommend a guest to us, please email me at [email protected]. And listen, I take all considerations and recommendations and we try to bring out the best guests and I love your recommendations. Till next time, be safe and have a great day.

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