Hard Shop Life

We created this Podcast for the Men and Women of the Automotive Industry.  We've been in your shoes.  Parts, Service, Bodyshop, Advisor, Technician.  Our focus is share the best techniques of fixed ops departments and other departments that help promote fixed operations. Each week we will share our stories,  the story of others, and YOUR […]

People do things on purpose. Either you control the narrative, or someone else is controlling the narrative to you.

The most important thing when it comes to executing change at any level of your dealership, or any business, is YOU. It is impossible to expect change or improvement of the business, or the team you are leading, without first changing what you are doing. As a leader you give life to the purpose, create

If you don't have a scoreboard consider this... Would you set off on a long road trip without a map? Could athletes compete without knowing the score of the game, and would anyone even watch? There are many essential aspects to building and running a successful service department, but the Scoreboard sits #1 on the

What is the price of success? Is it money? Is it your time? Does it cost your energy? Maybe it's at the cost of swallowing some pride. It could mean all of these things to one person and something completely different to the next person. The factor that will never change, is winning and success

It's 2023 and Hard Shop Life is back! As the New Year comes in, so do new challenges to overcome and new goals to hit and grow the business. The market is changing, new car inventory is no longer scarce, used car prices are coming off inflated highs, and by all definitions we are in

We are back! And in this episode of Hard Shop Life we are discussing how you can maximize your employees effectiveness by accentuating their different personalities, and strengths. Not everyone who works for you will be like you, and thats a great thing. A dealership is a symphony that has to seamlessly work together, but

A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers

In this episode, Coach J and The GMan answer the questions they get asked the most by the listeners, and the people they meet while traveling the country. They cover everything from technology, technicians, and the industry as a whole to their biggest mistakes while working with dealerships. If you ever had any burning questions

What does it mean to inspect what you expect? As a manager not only do you have to be the example, but you also have to set the standards by which your advisors operate. Now our hosts have used this saying in many different ways, but the desired result is always the same, to control

By its definition a “tool” should help you perform a job. Hammers drive nails, wrenches turn nuts and bolts, and computers can increase productivity (sometimes). It seems that lately the tools that are sold as “the next best thing” to improve service advisors sales or technician productivity, have become “tools of torture”! No one is

In this episode, Coach J and The GMan interview another Superstar Advisor, Yordano. He has been in the business for around 8 years, and within six months of moving dealerships has quickly risen to the top. Everyday he strives to learn more, is the first one in and last one to leave, and comes in

Gas prices are through the roof, EV's are booming, and around half of all full-time workers work from home. Now, what does all this mean for an industry reliant on people driving, buying, and repairing their cars. In the field, Coach J and The GMan are hearing a mostly “Doom and Gloom” perspective from almost

Whether you are Parts or Service, how are you supposed to maximally run your department when the other manager won't play along? Coach J and The GMan along with their return guest, Luis Romano, discuss and share their first hand experience on both sides of the playing field. The collaboration of the fixed operation departments

In this age of information technology, all of us have computers in our pockets capable of calling, texting, email, and many more forms of communication.  Let's also include all the money your dealerships spend on software to do the same. Yet, the biggest complaint we hear from customers in our industry is a lack of

On this episode of Hard Shop Life, Coach J and the GMan talk with long time friend, and client, Luis Romano for an update on the reinvention of his San Francisco service department. In this update we bring you up to speed on our current progress, discuss some issues that are "new" in this post-COVID

Today we brought you something very unique for the first Advisor interview of the Season! In this episode, Coach J and The GMan interview Superstar Advisor Bree. Bree is not only a brand new advisor (starting mid 2021) with no existing clientele, and no prior training; but she is new to the dealership life entirely!

“The territory is not the map”. What you can see is not all that is there. So many of us in the industry don't have someone to show us what we don't know, and it's very difficult to visualize what you can't see. But when your back is up against the wall, your GM is

Why is ELR (Effective Labor Rate) such an important topic everyday in Service Departments across the country? Well, ELR is how we make sure that we are holding gross and charging the correct value for our services, but more importantly that we aren't just giving away our factory trained technicians time for cheap. Think of

In this episode, Gman and Coach J have on Fixed Ops Director Luis Romano to update and discuss their on-going "David vs Goliath" project. In part 1 they talked about how you go about launching this huge undertaking. Now Luis and our hosts discuss how the project is going almost 60 days in, and how

In this episode, GMan and Coach J interview Superstar Advisor Ron Connor. Ron gives us insight on what it's like to not only be a top tier advisor, but also a leader in the drive. He believes confidence is one of the most important attributes for an advisor to have because without it, the customer

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." - Ronald Reagan Leaders in Service Departments across the nation can struggle to lead their teams to success. Not because they don't know how to do their jobs or

Recently Coach J had an experience with Tesla (specifically the service department) that wasn't exactly what he expected, nor would you expect of an ultra-modern company like Tesla. In this episode, Coach J and the GMan talk about this experience, and about how service departments can make or break a car brand. They also talk

In this episode, we have yet another Superstar Advisor, Tony Vincent! He will go to any extent to help and provide his customers with the best service he possibly can. However, when he found himself fixing cars in the drive, he realized he may have gone too far with his stellar service, and didn't have

Many of us know what it's like to be handed "the keys" to the store, and then sent off to run the show. It can be an incredibly daunting task. How does one man take on a project infinitely bigger than just himself? Well, this episode GMan and Coach J have on our return guest

Whether you've been in this business 20 years or are just starting out, this episode contains a couple golden nuggets you'll want to use. Veteran and superstar advisor Jeremy sits down with GMan and Coach J to talk about what makes him one of the best advisors in the country. He strives every day to

This week we sat down with a few of our favorite people who are also the best parts managers in the country. The conversation was around all the mistakes made in parts departments every day. We ended up narrowing it down to the 7 Deadly Sins! Let's see if you agree.    

Everyday the average person is loaded with over 34GB of data, which is enough to fill a laptop within the week. Our brains take in so much information, hours and hours of content, and thousands of messages a day. In short, our brains are overloaded with data and even more so when you are juggling

In this episode, GMan and Coach J talk about intuition vs. intention, but there is no argument or debate, no battle between what's right and what's wrong. These traits don't (or shouldn't) compete. Intuition and Intention are two sides of the same coin, and without one you may be missing a large chunk of the

Our second of many Superstar Advisors, but he is not number two by any means. Cesar made the move from Southern California all the way to Iowa for his family. Like many of us, 2020 was not his year, and he was never able to get his numbers up, despite the dealer as a whole

What does it look like to have complete synergy between Service and Parts? A Fixed Operations Director as an unbiased mediator for conversations between Service and Parts Managers? Well no, but there really isn't just one solution to this problem. However, one thing is for certain: PARTS AND SERVICE NEED EACH OTHER TO SURVIVE! And

In this episode, GMan and Coach J are tackling the BIG issue. The one keeping many dealers from profitability, slowing down your shops, and racking up thousands of dollars every month in lost opportunity. There is no easy fix, and in today's environment we have to think outside the box to solve it. We are

In this episode, GMan and Coach J are tackling the BIG issue. The one keeping many dealers from profitability, slowing down your shops, and racking up thousands of dollars every month in lost opportunity. There is no easy fix, and in today's environment we have to think outside the box to solve it. We are

 In this episode we are kicking off our five-part Superstar Advisor Interview series with the best of the best, Chuck Suter. Our hosts stole his preparation method and used it in the first step of JDI's Advisor Mastery Training. He doesn't believe in selling and still crushes it every single month. Learn how he has

GMan and Coach J are addressing one of the most asked about topics they hear at every dealer they visit, Special Order Parts. Advisors are frustrated with parts, and parts departments are frustrated with advisors all over the country. But it doesn't have to be that way! Fixed Ops is only as strong as it's

"A body in motion stays in motion; a body at rest stays at rest". We are in a unique time, our hosts GMan and Coach J are seeing this around the nation at every dealer they help. Companies everywhere are struggling to hire anyone, whether its porters, advisors, managers or technicians it doesn't matter, and

In this episode of the podcast, G-Man and Coach J talk to NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, and extremely successful entrepreneur, Fran Tarkenton. Playing in the NFL for 18 seasons, Fran set multiple career records and was widely regarded as one of the best to ever play the game. Shortly after his retirement he was

In this episode Coach J and GMan wrap up their interview with one of the G.O.A.T.'s of the fixed operations world, David Paterson. You don't want to miss this rare chance to get an insight into one of the most successful people in the fixed operations industry. 

In our new weekly segment we are going to talk about the books we are currently reading, and the books we think are the most important. At JDI we are constantly sending out books to people in our coaching group and consulting program because we believe you can never stop learning.  Our goal is for

In this episode Coach J and GMan interview one of the G.O.A.T.'s of the fixed operations world, David Paterson. He started in the industry at just 15 years old as a mechanic, and worked his way to running and building the most profitable Honda service center in the world, which is still #1 to this

By its definition a “tool” should help you perform a job. Hammers drive nails, wrenches turn nuts and bolts, and computers can increase productivity (sometimes). It seems that lately the tools that are sold as “the next best thing” to improve service advisors sales or technician productivity, have become “tools of torture”! Do not take

Let's talk about how you are getting work to your technicians. In the automotive industry this can make or break your service department's bottom line! Keeping technicians producing is the one of the most important requirements of a service department. But are you using a dispatching system that is holding you back? Constantly we tell

Mark Twain once said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Aside from improving your job satisfaction, can this approach actually improve your dealership KPIs? In Part 2 G-Man and Coach J talk more to our special guest, Benjamin Dykstra, about prioritizing your customer

Mark Twain once said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Aside from improving your job satisfaction, can this approach actually improve your dealership KPIs? In this episode of the podcast, G-Man and Coach J talk to our special guest, Benjamin Dykstra, about prioritizing

In this episode, G-Man and Coach J go deep with our return guest Doug (aka. Mr. Relentless), and discuss Your Foundation, Talent and Purpose. In order to master the drive, you must know yourself. What are your key principles? What are you naturally good at? What gets you up in the morning, and keeps you

What is the Columbo Method? To learn about tho origin you are going to have to turn to Google for that. In summary Columbo, a TV detective from the 1970's, repeats the same, seemingly trivial, questions at erratic intervals often while pretending to be dumb or forgetful, luring the murderer into making a mistake or

This comes up more than you would think! Problems that come up every day in our service and parts departments and make tensions between the customer and the employee very high. When this happens someone will “blow their top”. Typically the customer will pop first and start to use expletives and insults as a tool

In this episode,  Coach J and the GMan have a roundtable discussion with some special guests around the concept of Do The Work.  GMan shares how Coach J and his Do The Work speech inspired him and others during a meeting of automotive professionals.  GMan tells the group how each experience in his life was

In  this episode,  Coach J and the GMan speak to Charley.  Charley is a Parts Manager.  Actually, he's a Fixed Ops Director who comforts in the title of Parts manager because, he doesn't know if he can take the pain of more responsibility with a bigger title again.  Like many managers in the automotive industry, 

In this special episode Coach J and the GMan interview one of the top Honda service managers in the country. On a normal day he's responsible for 150 customers, 100 employees, 250 used cars and more than a million dollars in sales. All this and he still finds time to help the owners open a

In this episode Coach J and the GMan discuss the merits of having a Business Development Center (BDC) in your dealership. There are some obvious benefits, better phone presence, improved follow up, increased appointments, etc... But there is a benefit that most dealers and managers miss... And this one thing can transform your business!