Search.

, gain traction podcast

Episode 197

Chris Cloutier

Autoflow

Listen Transcript Share this on:

Chris Cloutier is the owner of Golden Rule Auto Care in Dallas, Texas, and the founder of AutoFlow, a software solution built to improve auto repair customer communication. With a background in software engineering and firsthand experience as a shop owner, Chris recognized the communication gaps that left customers frustrated and shop teams overwhelmed. By combining his technical expertise with real-world shop operations, he developed AutoFlow to provide real-time text updates, digital inspections, and workflow tools that bring transparency and trust back to the repair process. Today, Chris helps shops across the country elevate their customer experience and efficiency by making communication as seamless as the Amazon experience.

In this episode…

Three out of four people say they’ve had a bad experience with an auto repair shop. Long waits, poor updates, and the feeling of being left in the dark have made auto repair customer communication one of the industry’s biggest frustrations. But what if repair shops could deliver updates and transparency the same way Amazon keeps customers informed about their orders?

That’s exactly the vision Chris Cloutier had when he built AutoFlow. After running his own shops, Chris knew that poor communication wasn’t about not caring, it was about being overwhelmed with tasks. Service advisors juggle scheduling, billing, and parts ordering, and communication often slips through the cracks. AutoFlow was designed to solve that by creating automated touchpoints that keep customers in the loop without adding more burden to the team.

In this episode, Chris explains how AutoFlow bridges the gap between anxious customers and busy shop teams. From digital inspections to instant text updates, he shows how technology can provide reassurance, reduce unnecessary phone calls, and ultimately build trust. Improving auto repair customer communication isn’t just about keeping customers happy, it’s also about improving workflow efficiency, reducing stress on employees, and creating long-term loyalty.

Whether you manage a single shop or a multi-location operation, this conversation will inspire you to rethink how you connect with your customers. By focusing on clarity, transparency, and consistency, Chris shows how better auto repair customer communication can transform the customer experience into something people now compare to the Amazon standard.

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

[00:58] Chris Cloutier’s background and introduction to the auto repair industry

[02:33] The mantra behind Golden Rule Auto Care and why affirmations matter

[06:14] From software engineer to shop owner: how the first repair shop started

[08:31] The communication struggles that led to creating AutoFlow

[10:27] Why touchpoints and customer emotions matter in repair shop communication

[13:04] What poor communication costs and why customers compare shops to Domino’s

[15:36] The story behind AutoTextMe and why it became AutoFlow

[18:20] How customers responded to AutoFlow’s transparency and updates

[22:25] Life outside the shop: family, soccer, and karaoke nights

[25:24] Unique hiring stories and unexpected employee encounters

[29:35] How key team members like Craig joined AutoFlow

[31:11] Trusting your gut and final reflections on entrepreneurship

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“Three out of four people have had a bad experience with an auto repair shop, the statistics are stacked against us.”
“No employee wakes up in the morning saying, ‘I’m going to suck today.’ Communication is the missing piece.”
“AutoFlow was built because I lived the pain firsthand as a shop owner, I understood the problem I was solving.”
“Transparency alone takes a huge burden off customers when they’re stressing over their car.”
“Anything online today competes against Amazon. Shops have to measure up to that standard of communication.”

Action Steps:

Audit your shop’s communication touchpoints: Identify where customers may be left in the dark.
Implement consistent updates: Even short texts like “We’re working on your car” can relieve stress.
Leverage digital inspections: Build transparency with photos and reports customers can see.
Train staff on emotional communication: Teach advisors how to manage customer expectations proactively.
Explore workflow automation tools like AutoFlow to free up staff time while keeping customers informed.

Transcript

00:00
I’m also a big believer in affirmations. Words can elevate you or they can kill you. No employee ever wakes up in the morning saying, I’m going to suck today. But that’s not the case. It’s our perception three out of four people have had a bad experience with the auto repair shop. The statistics are stacked against us.

00:18
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business. I am Mike Edge, your host and I have the privilege of interviewing the tire dealers, shop owners, counter sales reps, technicians, industry executives and other thought leaders of our industry. This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners. Tread Partners is the leading digital marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops. Tread Partners works with clients that have hundreds of locations, down to five locations. Get a professional, unbiased opinion and let Tread Partners review what you’re doing. It starts with a simple conversation. To contact tread partners, visit treadpartners.com so let’s get started. Hey, folks. Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business. Today’s guest is Chris Coulier, who owner of Golden Rule Auto Care with two shops in Dallas, Texas.

01:10
And he’s also the founder of AutoFlow, which we’re going to get into a little bit as well. Chris, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast.

01:16
Thanks for having me, Mike. This is exciting.

01:19
Yeah. Well, Chan spoke highly of you. I guess he’s been working with you for a little while and then Craig, obviously, but two great guys you got working for you.

01:28
They’re, they’re great guys and I’m surprised they spoke kindly about me. That, that makes me feel good when your employees behind your back say good things. Right?

01:36
Well, here’s the thing. I, I keep an email list of all my previous guests and once in a while I send out there, like, anybody got a good recommendation because they understand the podcast, they know the format and they know my personality. And Chan replied back like within seconds and said, yeah, I got a great one for you. He said, my boss, Chris Hoodier, and I said, all right, let’s get him on here. So that’s how this came to be.

02:02
That’s awesome. I, I, I will never shy away from giving somebody my opinion or my story. Those guys know that, right? Catch me in a karaoke bar too, Mike, and I’ll tear it up. Dude. You know, people say, why does your background look like. I said, my background looks like this because this is me. Right? There’s music, stuff Everywhere. People want to know what’s in my mind. I’m like, this is my mind. Like, this isn’t generated. This is. This is all Chris, if you want to know, there’s nothing clean about it. Yeah.

02:35
Well, you’ve done something right because you’re successful with two shops and then AutoFlow. And I think AutoFlow is a cool topic. But, you know, I always ask my guests, I say. I say always, but a lot of times I’ll ask them because I think it kind of gives a clue into who they are.

02:49
What.

02:49
What’s a mantra or something that you live by? And the title of your shops kind of says it all. Golden Rule. I mean, you just treat people where you want to be treated, right?

02:58
That’s it. I’m also a big believer in affirmations. I’m a big believer in and just speaking to yourself. Speaking to yourself in a positive way. Look, words can, you know, people say words don’t hurt. Oh, no. Words can elevate you or they can kill you. Right? So always pick a Bible, verse two every. Every year. And my latest one is Proverbs 3. Five, and that’s trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not in your own understanding, and he’ll make your path straight. Right? And as an entrepreneur, we need guidance, because, man, we can go down all kinds of paths that lead to destruction and death and bad ends. And I’m going to tell you this. When I listen to the Lord, usually it ends in a good way.

03:38
And when I don’t, and I go my own way sometimes, it’s the lesson I need to learn. And I gain a lot of wisdom from it. But it hurts, right? And we always ask the Lord, give us wisdom, Lord. And then when we get it, we’re like, not that kind of wisdom.

03:52
Not that one.

03:52
Yeah, not that one.

03:53
That’s for him.

03:55
Exactly.

03:57
That’s fantastic. Well, it is interesting because we can go down rabbit holes. I worked for a guy one time that made a really profound comment to me. We were dealing with some bad eggs. I mean, you know, kind of prospects, clients, things like that. I’m going by 20 years, but I’ll never forget, it’s got to be longer than that. I was in my 20s, so it’s 25, 30 years ago. He said to me, he said, don’t go negative on the guy. And I’m thinking, why not? He is negative himself, you know, and he goes, no, he goes. Because then we go down that hole, too, you know? And he goes, I don’t. I Don’t want to even. I don’t want to talk negative about the guy because we still got to meet with him, we still got to talk to him. And he goes.

04:36
And that gets conveyed if you start feeding yourself that garbage. And, and man, I thought, okay, you know, that was great advice. And I’ve tried to live by that. I mean, obviously it’s hard when you don’t like somebody or you think they’re, you know, let’s say they’re an unjust person. I mean, you’ve got a legitimate reason, but even then, you know, sometimes you can’t escape relationships. You’re stuck in relationships by default or whatever, and you got to do something and you got to hang in there. And so it’s kind of like, why be negative? Right?

05:06
Yeah. And, and I had a good advisor tell me this a long time ago too. He said, no employee ever wakes up in the morning saying, I’m gonna suck today. I’m gonna be the worst employee ever. Right? But you think about that from an owner’s perspective. A lot of times that’s the way, like, we grow. Oh, my God. So and so’s late again. But that’s not the case. It’s our perception. Right? The employee wakes up. Everybody pretty much wakes up. Most people wake up wanting to live their life and do good. Right. And enjoy their day, work hard in their day, be fulfilled in their day. But we get these, yeah, like you said, negative connotations. And, and it ends up affecting us in all kinds of negative ways. So, yeah, I’m a big proponent in words and positive. I’m not always of.

05:49
Let me be perfectly clear. Right. So they always say the guy who, you know, really strives to be positive is probably pretty negative. And, and I’m going to say, look, I’m not a half glass, half full guy or glass half empty guy. I’m the guy who I tell my employees all this, Tim, I, I doesn’t matter how much water you put in my glass. I’m staring at a desert right now, right? So I don’t care. Like, this little bit of water doesn’t matter. And I call that realist. I’m a realist, Right? Yeah.

06:15
I think, I don’t know where I read this. I thought it was funny as heck, but it was somebody that had put out there, like, look, I’m not the half full glass, the half empty glass guy, but while you guys are arguing over that, I’m gonna drink the cup of water.

06:29
Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. That said. Right.

06:32
I’m going after it. Forget it, you know?

06:34
Yeah, absolutely.

06:35
Whether I supposed to have more or less, I don’t know. But I’m drinking what I got. Let’s go.

06:39
Absolutely, absolutely.

06:41
Well, let’s talk about how you got into the two shops. I mean, I know your brother and your partners, but this wasn’t your career path originally.

06:49
No, I’m. I’m a software engineer. Graduated with a computer science engineering degree. Funny. I was going to go back to school. I was working for a big company, Southwest Airlines, as an engineer. And I was online going, man, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? Looking at MBAs. And sure enough, the story as true as it could be. I. I was on Craigslist and saw auto repair shop right around the corner from my brother for $75,000. And I’m like, man, we always talked about buying our brother an auto repair shop and how great it would because we get our cars fixed by somebody who’s actually going to fix them, because wherever our brother went, we would take our cars there, right? And I’m like, well, we.

07:31
Oh, there’s this idea in the family that we could start our own repair shop and have our brother work there. And sure enough, I’m like, hey, let’s go into business. And. And, you know, it’s funny, he tells the story, he’s praying to the Lord, like, lord, I don’t want to do this, but whatever Chris says, we’ll do. And then I’m like, lord, if this is what you want me to do, I’m just going to do it. And we come together and sit down the last meeting before we make the decision. And he’s sitting there going, oh, please, no, no. I’m like, all right, let’s do it. And he’s like, okay, let’s do it. And changed our lives. Right. For the better. So I, I now two auto repair shops and a software company. Software was built inside the auto repair shops. Right.

08:08
It was all need for transparency and communication with our customers. Because I just being on the other side of the corn for so many years and just hating the fact that when you drop off your car, it just became this black hole. You just had no idea. And then when you get on the other side and you own a repair shop, you’re like, oh, I know why it becomes a. Because you realize, like, cars just get lost. Yeah, it’s chaos sometimes, and it’s hard.

08:33
To communicate with People constantly throughout the day.

08:35
Yeah.

08:36
So you guys created autoflow to do that. At least create some touch points throughout the day that says, hey, here’s where we are with your car.

08:44
That’s it. It’s all based on 10, 12 and 2. And it was old training philosophy of, hey, make sure you’re contacting your customers these hours every day. And then they’ll feel satisfied with the fact they’re being communicated with. The problem is the day just flies by when you’re busy and things balls get dropped. Craig has this great slideshow and it’s like 35 tiles of what a service writer is supposed to do throughout a day. And it’s wonderful. You know, everything from scheduling to, you know, billing out nurse to making sure the parts here. And then he goes the next screen and it’s like five of the 35. And it’s like this is what the service advisor reverts to when you’re busy. And that’s the truth. Right. So how can we leverage technology to help fill in some of these gaps? And that was it.

09:31
Like early on, I’m like, hey, we can help leverage technology to fill in some of this communication gap because there’s, you know, not everybody wants a phone call. And I say this joke all the time. Like I could text my wife I love you every morning. And she was okay with that. And it saved me a five minute long conversation with her. Right. So why can’t I text my customer, hey, your car’s ready for pickup. Hey, we’re working on it right now. Right? They don’t need to know the details. They just need to know that we care.

09:59
Like, you know what, every guy out there understands what you just met right there, that is fantastic. Or every married man, let’s just say that because that’s all you’re doing. Your affirmation, you said you’re an affirmation guy. You know, you’re offering affirmation, but you just cut off four plus minutes. You know, you just, you picked up your phone, you said, I love you, just let her know that you care.

10:20
And there you go.

10:23
Efficient. Well, but you translate that to, yeah, translate that to auto flow and the way it communicate, the way you guys communicate. But seriously, I mean you legitimately, every guy that runs a shop or has been involved with the shop understands that. You know those phone calls that you get from customers all day, hey, how’s my car? Hey, what’s the boy? Those are time eaters, man. And then it’s not just one. And then You’re. And then every one of those calls, you know, and every guy experiences this. They’re sitting there thinking, I don’t know, I gotta go check, you know. And so then you got more time involved, you know, because you got so many coming in and out. You’re just like you said, they get lost. And your system, it just helps with communication and makes the process work, man.

11:10
And using technology, that’s it.

11:12
And, and I, I always tell shop owners, like, I’m. I’m a shop owner, right? I. The only reason I solved this problem is because I had the background in technology. I first looked for tools. I didn’t find anything that fit my needs. I built it long time back before I got an auto repair, I had a boss and I worked for Wyndham International, which was a hotel chain. And we built this whole point system and, you know, based. This is back before reward system became super popular, early day reward systems. You got so high on the thing, like, you could get a fluffy pillow, you could get a cup of coffee in your room waiting for you, things like that. And he said, chris, have you ever gone to the hotel and experienced like what the customer and what the front desk experiences?

11:51
Have you? And I’m like, no, I’m not going to sit on the front counter and like, watch the interactions. I have better things to do on my Friday and Saturday night this way in a rock band. So I’m like, I’m going to go play in the rock band. And he’s like, well, you’re never going to be a good engineer until you understand the problem you’re solving for. And I thought, okay, let me just tuck that way in the back of my mind. And then sure enough, when I got the auto repair shop, I’m like, holy crap. Like, I understand that now. I understand the problem I’m solving for. I understand the pain that shop owners feel because it’s not like we want to not keep our customers informed. It’s just we get buried and busy and so these other things fall by the wayside.

12:30
And then. So once again, how can we leverage technology as well as touch? I think that’s touch is super important, Mike. You know, you want to make the relationship with the customer. You want to know about their wife and kids, you want to know about how long they’re going to keep that car. But then like we just said, like the I love you. Text your wife that text of, hey, we’re looking at your car right now. Just saved your guy the phone call of, hey, have you. Have you started looking at my car right now? Do you gun anything? You know, because now you’re probably putting them on hold. You’re going out to find out if somebody started on it.

13:04
Well, and you probably know this too. There’s a management of emotions right there, right? So you got to. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. So all of a sudden, instead of just the text to let them know it’s okay, now you got to bring somebody up or down and based on their emotions, and then the next caller is different, you know, and then. And then as a counter sales guy, you’re just up and down emotionally because you’re dealing with so many, you know, personality. But, you know, yeah, you touched on something that I know about myself. And it’s interesting. I cannot stand poor communication.

13:37
And what I mean by poor communication is if I’m playing pitch and catch with you in communication, and I’ve done the ball to you, and I’m waiting for a response, and then it goes into that dark hole, man. My brain can go into all kinds of scenarios of bad stuff, right? And that’s just not the case most of the time. But the fact that they’re not doing their job of communicating back to me, whether it’s in the car sector of the world or anything else, it’s amazing how much a touch point of communication, like, you know, God, what’s the oil? Here’s another one. And Chan used this example, but just the way dominoes, when you order your pizza, if I got a house full of people, I don’t want to worry about when is this damn thing coming, you know?

14:23
And then all of a sudden, I get a. I get that touch point. Your pizza will be there in 15 minutes. Fine. Hey, everybody get ready. Pizza will be here in 15 minutes. You know what I’m saying? Get the kids or whatever, you know, and it’s just, man, it means so much, but especially when it’s usually, you know, your car is the second biggest investment in your, you know, in your. In your life. And so you’re sitting there, and for most people, they’re sitting there just worried about it. They got to have it, you know, And. And if you just sit in the dark and you’re just twiddle on your thumbs, you’re wondering, should I call them? What’s up with my car? I don’t know. I hadn’t heard from him in six hours. You know, am I picking it up today?

14:58
I don’t even know that. I got to get a Ride, you know, whatever.

15:01
Three out of four people have had a bad experience with the auto repair shop. That’s amazing. So the, the statistics are stacked against us, right. It’s a push environment, It’s a negative sales environment. Probably already been screwed by another shop or, you know, somebody’s been screwed by another shop, so. You’re absolutely right, Mike. Add that on top of the Man, I just dropped it off a couple hours ago and I know nothing. So then you’re like, oh, crap, are they doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing? Are they, oh my God, here’s another shop that’s going to screw me over. Like, all the negative starts creeping in.

15:36
Yeah. And then the defense mechanisms start coming up. They get bristled. Right. And then they’re ready for a fight, you know. Hey, you guys used to be called Auto Text, right?

15:46
Yes, correct.

15:47
Which says a lot about what you were trying to do. But what made you change the name?

15:52
Well, over the years, we’ve just added on a lot more to that initial workflow piece. We’ve added on digital inspection, digital work orders, digital quality control. We now do scheduling up front. We now do CRM in the back. So we kind of do before the visit, during the visit, and after the visit. And so Auto Text me. Everybody’s like, you guys text? And we’re like, yeah, we do a whole lot more. And so autoflow just became more encompassing of what we do. Right. This, this flow of the shop, this customer communication. And that’s. And, and the funny story of that, Mike, is I Auto text me a couple years ago is when we, you know, actually it’s been 12 years, but about five or six years ago, I tried to switch to Auto Flow.

16:30
Somebody else had owned the name in another space because everybody owns the name to everything in the space. And I thought it was far enough away. And my lawyer was like, chris, don’t switch the name until we get the trademark. And I’m like, don’t worry about it. And then, sure enough, I get a cease and desist letter and I’m like, crap, I gotta switch back to Auto Text me from autoflow. But I bought the domain and the domain was super expensive. I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars.

16:53
Oh, gosh.

16:53
And then I can tell the story now because I, I went and bought the trademark from the guy who owned it. A couple years later, I’m like, hey, I don’t see your product on the market. Would you sell me the trademark? And the guy’s like, you know what? I will. And he’s like, make me an offer. And I’m like, nope, you tell me how much you want to buy it for. And he’s like, a couple thousand bucks. And I’m like, sold. Done. Right. So I was able to go back to Autofocus, just a good encompassing name of once again, all the tools that we provide. Right, yeah.

17:22
It’s funny how you get stuck on a name and once you want it, you can just race. You can’t have anything else. It’s weird, but I know what you mean. And then you go out there to one of the sites to buy a domain name and. And then you, oh no, what’s that? What’s going to take to get that one? You know? And then I love how I think it’s godaddy over the years because I bought domain names just like everybody. I wish I would have bought them earlier. Like, oh yeah, sure, you know, we all do. Right? But it’s so funny when you find those premium names and they know them to be premium names, they’re no longer the 1299 names anymore. They, they price them, you know, for you.

17:58
Oh yeah, I’m sure AI is priced in it all in the background now too. Right. So you’re never ever going to get a cheap name, good URL ever again.

18:05
It doesn’t exactly. Yeah, I can’t. You can’t find one. I mean, you know, unless you’re going to take some obscure name and make it into a household name, which takes jillions of dollars and sheer luck. It just. Yeah, yeah. That’s crazy.

18:20
And I can tell you, in the early days, Mike, when we, when, you know, we first started this in the auto repair shop, one of the best raving reviews I got was this lady came to our shop, never been there before. And you know, she gets the text message updates, she gets the inspection, all this stuff. And she comes back and I just happen to be there. I don’t spend a lot of time at the shops. I spend once a week I try to go to both. And she’s at the counter and she’s like, my God, this is the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. She goes, no offense, you have this little hole in the wall shop in Rowlett, Texas, and that’s the best communication I’ve ever experienced in my life. She goes, I just sent a tablet into Samsung with a warranty.

18:55
And she goes, and it’s been there for weeks. And she goes, and I have no idea what’s happening with this tablet. She goes, there’s been zero communication. Like I can’t call anybody to find out, you know if it, are you replacing it? Is it a part, is anything? She goes, my God, the world has something to learn about this type of communication. And it’s funny since then if you look Mike, like if you go to Panera Bread now they have this digital work board on the, it’s one of my favorite places to go eat with my family. Panera bed. They have this workflow board on their wall and it shows you when your food’s in process and when it’s ready. And it’s simple because you don’t have to sit there like hey, what’s going on? You go to hospitals now.

19:34
You see the workflow and the board on the hospital Amazon they text you, hey, we, your package is going to be delivered between this time and they send a picture when your package is in front of the door. Now so think about how life has progressed now about this whole communication of push communication to us knowing that your life’s busy. So the more you can keep us updated and communicate it the better. But it doesn’t have to be once again the seven minute phone call or the five minute phone call.

20:00
No, no. And nobody necessarily needs it or wants it. You know it’s interesting you brought up Amazon. I’ll never forget my boss, Neil Meyer, who owns Tread Partners, founder of both our companies. He said one time to a guy in the auto repair space that wanted a new website, he goes, or I think it was a tire shop and they were talking about selling tires online and et cetera. But he goes, you realize, he said I forgot the total context but it was like you realize you’re competing against Amazon. And the guy goes, no, I’m not. You don’t, you don’t understand my business. He goes, yeah I do. He said, what? I’m telling you anything online today competes against Amazon because they’ve made it two clicks and you’ve purchased with full communication all the way to that picture when that comes to your door.

20:46
And they, they’ve done everything all the way. So guess what? When you go to another website, I don’t care what it is that you’re ordering or looking up, it all gets kind of graded against the Amazon experience because they’ve made it so easy.

21:01
Oh, I agree.

21:02
My son in law was laughing the other day. My daughter and my, both my daughters, they order off of Amazon all the time. Both of them are married and both their husbands say, yeah, I think we get a package every day. But they will order anything off of Amazon. Like, it could be a cooking utensil, it could be. It could be. It could be a food product. And I don’t even ask them anymore, where’d you get it? Amazon. I mean, everything. You know what I’m saying? But that’s that generation behind us that it’s fascinating. They know, and it’s so easy for them. Like, if they want it, click, it’ll be in my house, you know, in two days.

21:36
Yeah, I agree.

21:37
And so our mindset, to your point about autoflow, though, that’s where our mindset is. And what you’re bringing into the industry is this process of communication. And hopefully it elevates the, you know, the user experience.

21:50
And without question, like, you know, we’ve helped a lot of people now, a lot of organizations, a lot of shops, and Absolutely. Has elevated the. Absolutely. Without question. The transparency alone. Like, you know, we talked about that earlier. Just the point of knowing. And your car not being sucked in this black hole. It, man, it takes a huge, you know, burden off of, you know, customers when they’re sitting there stressing over the fact that this is their second biggest investment and they need to get their kid to school or to soccer practice later or they got to get to work the next day, Right?

22:25
Oh, yeah. No, it’s. It brings on a lot of stress and I can’t say enough about it. I had. I was going to ask you too. Your, Your. Your phone just went out there and it was a little music. But I was. Seriously, it’s. It’s going. But I was sitting there thinking, you’re. What do you do for fun? You still playing a band?

22:42
I spend time with my wife and kids. Is. Is. They both my daughters play soccer and they play travel soccer and my wife’s a soccer coach and I still play soccer. So, yeah, we’re a soccer family. Watching them play soccer and get to play every once in a while is. Is probably the majority of what I do. I work a lot, so I don’t spend a lot of time in leisure. Every once. I’ll pick up the guitar every once in a while. You know, like I said, I’ll rip up a karaoke bar, you know, still strum it in front of the TV every once in a while. But yeah.

23:13
What’s your go to karaoke song?

23:17
Probably Black Crows. The Black Crow song. Or I like, depending on the audience. You know, I could even go Britney Spears if I just Want to shock people and just writhe on the floor and look like a fool. I will do like genie in a bottle. And people would just like, dude, that guy’s an idiot. And I’m like, you know, the point about karaoke is not this. I tell people all the time when, you know, karaoke bars, like, you’re not going to remember me tomorrow. Oh, no, I will. Now the video you made might go on the Internet somewhere, but nobody’s gonna watch it. They’re not gonna care, Right?

23:48
Oh, that’s so funny. Well, I got a good friend about it. He. His go to song at karaoke. This is hilarious because he’s a big burly guy and he has a big beard. So picture this. And he sings lady in Red.

24:01
Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

24:04
It’s priceless when he sings and he’s got a really good voice and it is to watch the room, you know, and everybody’s doing. Everybody’s like, what? And then they see him singing it.

24:15
Oh, that’s awesome.

24:16
He exaggerates it too. I mean, he has a blast doing it. But he’s like you, he goes, who cares? I mean, yeah, yeah.

24:23
We go to, I go too many karaoke bars where people carry. I’m like, you know, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to win an audition here. Yeah.

24:30
This is not the place to take it serious. No. You’ll get a kick out of this. So we’ve got a VFW in our town, and it’s just a great place to go. And they have karaoke. But man, when you say, when you sing and there’s a lot of old great veterans in there and their wives and their family and everything. But man, when you go to some of the older patriotic songs and you sing them like some. What’s that song Merle Haggard sings? If you don’t love it, leave it. You know what I’m talking about? Yeah. And several of those. That, that generational stuff. Yeah, man, I, I can command the whole audience all of a sudden. Yeah, it’s. It’s a blast.

25:07
Yeah.

25:07
And it’s still like $2 beers at this place. It’s ridiculous.

25:10
Awesome.

25:10
Yeah, awesome. But. Well, let me ask you this. You got any great stories? I always like to ask people stories. It gives a little insight into the, I don’t know, the guest and maybe your experiences. Any funny stories that you’ve had.

25:23
Work related, man, I, I tell you, it’s. Yeah, all my nostalgia goes from like My employees and stories about how I meet my employees and some of the funniest stories I have. I’ll tell you one guy I hired who was a sport guy, he’s not with us anymore, but I met him in a hot tub in Colorado. My wife and kids were there. And it was in some qualifier. Yeah, it was in. It was in some hot springs. And this guy is during COVID and just during coven. Me and my wife and kids, we’re outdoors people. So we’re like. We just refuse to stay inside.

25:54
Yeah.

25:54
So we. We took a trip up to Colorado and we’re sitting in the hot springs and there’s this guy there with his wife, with this very young child. More like, hey, what do you do? Oh, you know, we’re traveling to California and our wife’s. My wife’s traveling nurse and she’s getting paid extra to go to, you know, to California travel nurse. Back then, you know, you could make a lot of money. And I said, well, what are you doing? He goes, well, I. I did it, you know, like sport for the hospital. She was working at last. And I go, really? I go, well, what are you going to do once you get there? And he goes, well, I really don’t have anything to do.

26:24
And I go, well, hit me up and when you get there and I might have a job for you. Sure enough, he hit me up. Hired him a support guy. Stay with me for a while. Another one of my employees who still works with me, and it’s kind of. He’s kind of one of our C level execs now. His name’s Scott. I don’t know if you met him too, but you love him too. Great guy. I met him on a park bench during COVID Right. And once again, wife and kids are there, we’re outside, and he’s there with his grandson. And hey, what do you do? And he’s like, you know. Yeah, it’s boring. And I’m like, no, seriously, because, well, I’m. I’m. I’m not really working right now. My wife and I just moved back here from, you know, another part of Texas.

27:05
And he goes, and I used to. And, And I worked in auto repair and software. And I go, all right, well, I’m going to tell you something even more weird. I actually own a company in auto repair and software. And he goes, no, you don’t. And I said, sure enough, I do. And I go, hey, hit me up and on LinkedIn and I might have a job for you. Sure enough, I hired him. And he still wants this day and, like, those kind of stories. To me, when I meet Chan, you know, I met him. I’m gonna tell you, Chan, our story real quick, because, Mike, I’m full of a lot of stories. But when I met Chan, it was one of the first conferences I went to. And this is auto text me.

27:38
And I’m this small guy in this booth, and Chan’s working for repair pal, which is a big company. And he comes by, he goes, what do you do? And I showed him the workflow and all this. He goes, this is amazing. And he runs off, and then he comes back, and he’s got two people in tow, and he’s like, check this out. This is so cool. Chris, tell him what you do. And I told him, and then he is. Then he runs off again, and he brings back more people. More people. And. And he goes, you know, Chris, this is great. And he goes, what else do you do? And I’m like, yeah, I’m auto repair shop owner. He’s like, oh, that’s awesome. He goes, well, hey, I work for repair. Probably you ought to think about my product.

28:09
Before I knew it, I’m signing up with this guy, right? I’m buying his service. But, Chin, it wasn’t like he was trying to convince me that he was a great person to buy a service. He genuinely, like, love what I was doing. And that’s Chan, right? If you get to know Chan’s like this guy who just. He’s interested in you, loves what you do, and. And, you know, and ever since then, I’m like, this guy’s the greatest sales guy I’ve ever met in my life. Plus, he’s just a nice guy. He’s a genuine guy.

28:36
He’s contagious.

28:38
He’s contagious, man. And now, you know. You know, he works with me, and he’s just, you know, I mean, he’s. He’s just a good dude.

28:43
And, yeah, those are. Those are some great stories. For this reason, you know, you started out this thing talking about just trying to, you know, wake up each day and. And then you do the yearly thing of just trying to live through a scripture verse, and. And then you. You live by it. And then, you know, the interesting thing is it’s the living word. So you. It never gets old, right? I mean, every day it can be a little different for you. Like, you get a different tweak or something, or God plants some other seed for you. But I also believe that in. In connections and relationships. Like, it’s not accidental that you run into these guys in the most awkward spots. I mean, like, hot tub. How’d you know you were going to run into your guy in a hot tub in Colorado?

29:23
You know, I mean, what, are you kidding me?

29:25
Yeah, that’s.

29:26
That, that, you know, because we got this formality in our head sometime, like, I gotta go find somebody and I’m gonna hire them through this process or whatever that God can make it real easy.

29:35
Yeah. And, you know, since you mentioned Craig. Craig I actually met at a conference. I met him at sema and I was doing a panel, but then he was on this panel and I just listened to his radio show with another podcaster and I’m like, hey, I need to get meet this guy. Because I like what he had to say. And of course he had long hair. He reminded me of Neil, our Getty Lee from Rush. And I’m like, dude, this guy’s Getty Lee. Like, he didn’t even know he’s getting Lee probably any. I don’t think Craig knew who Getty Lee was until I told him, like, dude, is this band called Rush? Right? Because maybe he did, but so we get to know each other and he’s working for one of my competitors at the time, and I’m like, I don’t care.

30:11
I just want to get to know this guy. So we meet and talk and then Mike, fast forward, you know, a couple weeks later, a month later, he’s like, hey man, like, you know, we start this late night conversation on LinkedIn and another conversation, and then, you know, it didn’t work out with the last company is like, hey man, you know, what do you think about me coming to work for you? And I’m like, hell yeah. Like, totally. So you’re right. Like, here’s one of my competitors who’s working directly, working for my competitor. But I didn’t care, right? And like you said, God just put in my path. I’m like, man, I need to know this guy, so let me get to know him. So, yeah, I totally agree with you, I think, right. Just from entrepreneurial wisdom. Yeah, numbers matter.

30:51
But man, I’ll tell you what, your gut, or the holy spirit, whatever you want to call it, or the dumb luck, it’s that gut. What is your gut telling you to do? And a lot of times when you trust that gut, it might go directly against the numbers, it might go directly against conventional wisdom, but man, it ends up playing out right in the long run.

31:11
And it’s usually the best, right? I mean, it just works. Well, I gotta tell you, it’s been a pleasure having you on here. I could probably talk to you all day.

31:20
Absolutely.

31:22
So come back, see us sometime. Yeah.

31:23
Mike, it’s been a pleasure.

31:25
All right. To all listeners out there, thanks for being part of the podcast. You know, we love you. We’ll see you next time. To all our listeners, thank you for being part of the Game Traction podcast. We are grateful for you. If you’d like to find more podcasts like this, please Visit Gain Traction podcast.com if you’d like to make a guest recommendation, please email [email protected] this episode has been powered by TREAD partners, the leader in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops. To Learn more about TREAD partners, visit treadpartners.com.

Contents hide

1 In this episode…

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

3 Resources mentioned in this episode:

4 Quotable Moments:

5 Action Steps: