120 - Defining Expectations: Rewriting Industry Identity with Discipline, Humility, and Purpose

120 - Defining Expectations: Rewriting Industry Identity with Discipline, Humility, and Purpose

May 7th, 2025 - 00:55:37

 

Show Summary:

In this engaging episode, Jimmy Lea hosts Mark Seawell and Brandon Ballou to discuss the critical role of service advisors in the automotive repair industry. Brandon shares his journey from martial arts to the service counter, emphasizing the importance of discipline, customer advocacy, and process-driven approaches to succeed as a service advisor. Mark dives deep into the strategies behind effective communication, understanding customer needs, and the impact of proper training. Together, they unpack the parallels between combat training and handling high-pressure situations in the shop, while also addressing industry misconceptions and the value of continuous learning. The conversation underscores the transformative power of strong coaching and structured processes in building trust and delivering top-tier service.

 

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

 

Guest(s):

Brandon Ballou, Service Manager for Trustworthy Auto

 

Mark Seawell, Head Facilitator/Instructor

 

Episode Highlights:

[00:03:05] - Brandon's journey from martial arts to becoming a service advisor in his father's shop.

[00:05:57] - The critical importance of having a routine and training for service advisors.

[00:07:28] - How martial arts training equipped Brandon to handle stress in the service advisor role.

[00:11:31] - The significance of core values and being an advocate for the vehicle, not just the customer's wallet.

[00:22:11] - A powerful lesson Brandon learned about integrity and always doing what’s right for the customer.

[00:29:56] - Mark on the growth journey of service advisors and how training elevates performance.

[00:42:47] - How The Institute's training transformed Brandon's communication and leadership skills.

[00:54:10] - Brandon's wish to change the negative perceptions of the automotive repair industry.

[00:55:20] - Jimmy Lea shares how The Institute's service advisor training builds better communication, understanding of KPIs, and effective customer service practices.

 

In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.

 

👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XV6-iV9RGI

Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!

 

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.

 

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or goodnight depending on when and where you're joining us from today. If you are in the live event, it's either good morning or good afternoon, unless of course you're on the other side of the world of us, and then it might actually be Good evening.

Jimmy Lea: Glad we are here together today. We are gonna have a phenomenal discussion. Love to have this interactive discussion as we're talking to our friends and our family. And I'm glad to be here with you, my family, my automotive aftermarket family. Put into the comments. This is to be an interactive webinar.

Jimmy Lea: Put into the comments your shop name and where you're joining us from today. Love to give you a shout out to all those who are here for the live event. As we continue to build and grow this network that we've got with great information and great knowledge and great interaction that we've got as we lock arms to really elevate this industry and make it the best that we can possibly make it.

Jimmy Lea: So we'll give a big shout out to Andrew Knutson joining us from Long Island. Good morning. Good morning for me. Good afternoon for you, Andrew. Glad you are here. Can't wait for that little baby girl to show up. That's gonna be awesome. And Stu, joining us from Salt Lake City, Utah. Glad to have you here, Stu, the ever present, Mr. Keith Brown Tire World in Salt Lake City, Utah. Keith, glad to have you here, brother. Good to see you man. Cody Morlock. Cody Advanced Automotive, Reding, California. I know Reding, California. I almost went to Red University. Reding, California. Glad to have you here with us Cody. Welcome. Welcome to our webinar at 42 Days and counting Andrew Knutson with The Little Baby Girl.

Jimmy Lea: You know, she'll have you right here and you'll love it. Having a little girl is awesome. Excited for our discussion today. We are speaking with service advisors today and as our main highlight, our main focus we have with us today are service advisor, trainer, facilitator, head coach. It is Mr. Ever present, ever.

Jimmy Lea: Wonderful, Mr. Mark Seewell. Mr. Mark, glad to have you with us as we discuss the advisor program. This is going to be awesome. Thank you for being here. 

Mark Seawell: Glad to be here, Jimmy. Thanks. 

Jimmy Lea: Nice. And oh, Brandon's on too. So today I'm excited to dive into this incredible journey with Brandon Blue. He is a powerhouse in the automotive aftermarket as a service advisor and as a former Kickboxer, MMA fighter, we're gonna explore how these two worlds have shaped the mindset, the discipline, the ability to lead a high pressure environment.

Jimmy Lea: Brandon, thank you for being here, brother. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank 

Brandon Ballou: you for having me. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Glad you are here. What, you know, I'm gonna kick it right off and ask you right outta the gates here. How in the world did you get into the automotive aftermarket? I know that there's some family business here as well.

Jimmy Lea: For those who don't know, explain how it is you got into the role of a service advisor. 

Brandon Ballou: So I got into the automotive aftermarket 'cause my father started a shop. My dad was always a technician. I was always around cars, helping him fix stuff on the weekends. And then he opened his own shop. And so I started there as a technician and then I left and did a short tour as a technician at a couple dealerships and then came back and was a tech.

Brandon Ballou: And then man, we fixed a lot of cars, but my dad with three techs, him being the advisor and the head diagnostician, he just couldn't balance at all. So he. Said, Hey, we're gonna try with you as the advisor. And with no training, no nothing. I got thrown on the front counter and that, that's how I got my start as an advisor.

Jimmy Lea: Dude, welcome to the deep end. It's swim or Survive. You either gonna swim or sink. Wow, that's amazing. He just threw you in and said, okay, have at it. 

Brandon Ballou: Yep. Seriously. 

Jimmy Lea: And how long ago was that, Brandon? 

Brandon Ballou: That was a little over, it was about four or five years ago. Five years ago. 

Jimmy Lea: Four or five years. So four or five years you were treading water, trying to keep your head above water, trying not to drown.

Jimmy Lea: Dude, that had to be tough. 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah, it was a big change. Everybody, when you're in the back shop, every technician who's never done it thinks, ah, you know, you're just someone who answers the phone, books, appointments, and tells people what the price is. Until you start dealing with the public and realize people are way harder to fix than cars, 

Jimmy Lea: right?

Jimmy Lea: I mean, that's all you do. You just answer the phone. 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah, 

Jimmy Lea: no, there's more to it than that. There's more to it than that. And what advice would you give to a technician who's never been an advisor? 

Brandon Ballou: So, advice to give to a technician who's never been an advisor. Find a routine and find training.

Brandon Ballou: Find something that gets you in the same head space every day so you can, you know, have the same performance. Every day and get training because as much as you think you know about cars, you don't know anywhere near as much about people. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh that's true. That's good. I wonder in our audience, how many of you in our audience have gone from being a technician to being the shop owner or from being a technician to being the advisor?

Jimmy Lea: I wonder if that's in our audience. How many have done that? I know Andrew, at least I believe Andrew didn't you wrench before and now you're the advisor. Manager and owner. So, yeah, put that in there for those of you joining us. And we are streaming live. We are streaming live both on YouTube and Facebook and on Streamy Yard.

Jimmy Lea: So where you're joining from would be amazing. Keith Brown came up. Keith Brown came up front about 34 years ago. So, Keith, were you wrenching before as a technician? Andrew was 15 years. 15 years as a tech. Andrew Cody shop partner, tech advisor, and then owner. Oh, shop? Porter. Porter. Wow. Wow.

Jimmy Lea: That, that's quite the road there, Cody. 28 years. Oh, he started when he was 12. I was gonna say, I've seen pictures of Cody and he looks 28. Oh, that, that is awesome you guys. So, question for you about your background in martial arts and kickboxing MMA. How did that journey help you in your role as an advisor?

Brandon Ballou: Being able to deal with stress and high pressure situations coming through any sort of martial arts or combat training you're gonna be under stress. So most people, when they get put in the advisor role, that's usually when everybody decides, is to either take it as a career and learn or change careers.

Brandon Ballou: 'Cause it's a much more higher stress environment than anybody who's never been in customer service can imagine. And so you either learned to roll with it or you change jobs. 

Jimmy Lea: You know, I had in my mind you were talking about your role as a kickboxer, not as a customer service advisor.

Jimmy Lea: When it's high stress. Is that high stress? 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah. Yeah, both are high stress because I mean, whether you're on the phone talking to someone who's upset about a problem and you're trying to offer 'em a solution. When our industry, everybody thinks we're just trying to cause more problems or charge them more, so we have that unfortunate.

Brandon Ballou: Label on our industry, but then going into the combat kickbox inside you have someone who's trying to kick and punch you and you're trying to kick and punch them without being hit. And I don't care how long you've been doing, nobody wants to get hit. So both are pretty high high stress situations.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's so true. So which is more stressful? Martial arts or service advisor? 

Brandon Ballou: Oh, the front counter advising's. Way more s 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, 

Brandon Ballou: because here's the thing, no matter what fight you're doing, whether it's boxing and it's, you know, 12 two minute rounds or three minute rounds, or three five minute rounds, or three, two minute rounds you'll have one round with a customer for an hour and a half on the front counter.

Brandon Ballou: So advising's way. More high stress. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Mark. They don't ring a bell and tell everybody, go to their corners. 

Mark Seawell: You try. It just doesn't work. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. How, mark, what do you what's the training or what's the advice that you give to your service advisors in your training program that helps 'em to deal with this high stress situation as a service advisor?

Mark Seawell: So, a couple things. Really preparation, if you're prepared, the better prepared that you are the more that you're gonna be able to manage. And mitigate some of that stress that occurs. After you're prepared, of course, you know, there's, there, there are different techniques to make sure that you're calming people down, using the correct body language, using the correct vocal tones, things like that, as well as having a good solution and putting yourself in the position ahead of time to have proper expectations so you don't end up in a stressful situation.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh man, that's so true. You know, with the Boy Scouts, that's their motto is be prepared. So the better prepared you are, the better the conversation will go because you're, you have the answers. And if you don't have the answers what advice do you give Mark when advisors don't have the answers?

Jimmy Lea: How do they get the answers? 

Mark Seawell: Well, you first, you start with the truth. Tell the customer you don't know. And, that, that the truth goes further than anybody ever knows. And and then promise to go get the answers and get the answers from wherever you need. If it's if it's from the technician, from another advisor, or maybe your manager or a coach, go get the answer there.

Mark Seawell: Sometimes, you know, there, there's other avenues. You can even consult the internet and find a, at least a path and get that, get down the path, but. Ultimately the worst stress that you can potentially have is making up an answer and it not being right. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah, no, that's the worst thing of all making up answers.

Jimmy Lea: No, please don't do that. Ever common 

Mark Seawell: mistake with a new advisor. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, so true. So true. You know, Brandon be prepared as the Boy Scouts motto. What principle from your martial arts do you live by on a daily in both your personal life and in your professional life? 

Brandon Ballou: Having a set of values and no matter what, you're not deviating from those.

Brandon Ballou: That's something at the base of every martial arts school or most martial arts schools, any good school whether they're a school training for competition or a school training just to teach kids proper skills and. You know, good habits. You need a core foundation of values. Always be respectful.

Brandon Ballou: Always tell the truth items like that so that cross reference over directly and on the front counter being trustworthy, no pun intended, I is the most important thing if you can, I. Talk to a customer no matter how bad the situation is. If you are sticking to your values and you truly believe you're doing what's right for that customer and you're sticking to what you know is right, it doesn't matter what happens, you are doing what's right.

Brandon Ballou: Yeah. No matter what happens, at the end of the day, you did your best. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. And 

Brandon Ballou: that's something you, I learned directly from the martial arts coming up as a kid. 

Jimmy Lea: So, do you fight for the customer or do you fight for the vehicle that's in the shop? 

Brandon Ballou: So my job is I'm the advocate for the vehicle.

Brandon Ballou: And I'm not, and I work with the customer, but I'm the advocate for the vehicle. They speak two different languages. What the advisor really is almost a translator. So the car comes in and the technicians figure out exactly what's going on, and they give all that information to the advisor. The advisor then prioritize everything to make sure that vehicles in its absolute best shape.

Brandon Ballou: And here is everything your car needs because your car's not gonna tell you what it needs. That's our job. We tell you everything it needs now. I present it all and I talk to you, but based on your situation as a customer, I'll help and prioritize things and make a plan to get that stuff done, whether it's all today, whether it's over three months, what, whatever it is.

Brandon Ballou: But as the advisor, you're the advocate for the car, but you're there to help the customer. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh I love that. I love that. What and in your role as a service advisor, when you were very first starting out, what were some of those? Challenges that you had as an advisor? 'cause I'm guessing that when you first started being an advocate for the car wasn't second nature for you, you were speaking more in the terms of the customers.

Jimmy Lea: What were some of the challenges you faced when you very first started out? 

Brandon Ballou: The challenges in the beginning is we, I was almost an advocate for the customer's wallet or the customer's financial situation, which that, you know, that doesn't fix their problem. You know, finances are important.

Brandon Ballou: People need money to fix their cars, but if their car's unsafe, if their car's unreliable, I shouldn't be making decisions based on their. Financial standpoint, we need to make decisions on how can we keep their car safe and how can we keep their car reliable, and then offer as many solutions as we can to help them get there, given whatever their financial state is.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Because you didn't buy it, break it or drive it. You're just advocating for the car and it's customer that's gotta figure out how to make it work. 

Brandon Ballou: Because if we're making decisions just off the financial aspect of the car, that car's just gonna get worse and it's become gonna become a bigger and bigger problem.

Brandon Ballou: Financially. It's keep the money in my bank account, why am I gonna put it in a car that's just gonna continue to depreciate in value. 

Mark Seawell: Yeah, that's 

Brandon Ballou: just the financial aspect of it. But when you look at the reality of it, the car needs to be reliable. So you can, when you get in it and need to go somewhere, whether it's your daughter's soccer practice or somewhere urgent, it's gonna start up and take you there safely.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, so true. So true. You gotta be an advocate for the car. Now, mark, question for you when we talk about an advisor selling from their own pocketbook. I understand that. What how do you break that idea? How do you break that habit, that, that mindset, what do you, as a coach, facilitator, what do you train your advisors on?

Mark Seawell: So typically that comes from two different places. First not understanding the concept of being the advocate as Brandon so eloquently defined. The you know, being the advocate for the car and while helping the customer. Because really what happens is the customer comes in. And hires you to be the advocate for the car.

Mark Seawell: That's really what they're doing. And once the advisor understands that concept, then we build up their confidence to be able to have the hard conversations. And understanding that they're being right. They're right with whatever they are, they're righteous, as well as having the correct conversation about the right things.

Mark Seawell: And as Brandon said earlier, living by the code. You know, we we understand what the level of, what we expect a car should look like and be like, you know, our job is to keep the vehicle safe, keep the vehicle reliable, help. The customer to, to save money over time and time over time and ultimately not be aggravated.

Mark Seawell: If we can come to those types of conclusions and we can teach an advisor to do that, they don't, they, they don't have that fear anymore and and sell with their own wallet any longer. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So what advice do you give to that advisor that the customer has said, Hey, you know what, all I want is an oil service.

Jimmy Lea: I, I drove it in, I'm driving it out. I don't wanna buy anything else. This is all I need. This is all the car needs. I just need an oil service. 

Mark Seawell: I, I don't understand, 'cause you just said that was our customer, but it's not because my customers don't come into my shop that way. My customers, when they come into my shop, they, we have vetted who that customer is because the type of people that want to do business at my facility.

Mark Seawell: They are people who want their car to be safe and reliable. They're people who want their car to make sure that it's up on its maintenance. They don't have to be able to do everything all at the same time. I, you know, we're not, you know, we're not sticking to just that.

Mark Seawell: But I, I want people that want the same things. I mean, it's the same, you know, if I'm looking for a better meal somewhere, I'm not going to McDonald's and demanding that they're gonna have ribeye, ribeye steak, you know, it's and by the same token, I wouldn't walk into the steakhouse and go demand a big Mac and 

Mark Seawell: fries, 

Mark Seawell: you know, like I, there's, there, there's that whole, there's that whole thing.

Mark Seawell: And so at my shop, it's just not that. And it's. It's okay. There are shops that are out there that, that are, they are structured to cater to that type of client that that wants to come in and says, Nope, I just want an oil change. Yeah. And you know what they're quick lube boil places.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's what they do. 

Mark Seawell: If you roll through one of those, your oil changes $130 because they have to make their profit somewhere. Yeah. And your oil service is probably not $130 should be. Maybe it should be, but and who knows, maybe it is. But but typically what happens is, you know, those places, the quick lube places they're set up to do that they're set up to make profit on volume.

Mark Seawell: And that's what they do. They do it in 10 minutes. They have their profit model that works and that's it. Ours just strictly isn't like that. You know, we have a way where we're going to make sure that our customer. Is taken care of and the vehicle is taken care of. You know, I love these cars.

Mark Seawell: I wanna see 'em on the road forever and ever. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And selfishly, if we will I wanna keep you safe on the road because it actually keeps my family safe on the road as well. Sure. 

Mark Seawell: For sure. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 

Mark Seawell: Andrew's a hundred percent right. It is our job on the phone to vet that customer and make sure that we teach them that.

Mark Seawell: What type of customer can be our customer. Everybody has the opportunity, but but not everybody wants to be. 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah. It's our job to educate those customers that, you know, some people they come and I just want an oil change, and then we have to figure out why that's all they want. Is it 'cause they had a bad experience somewhere else and you know, someone took 'em for a ride?

Brandon Ballou: Is it 'cause that's all they think they need and they need to be educated on. Okay. Maybe there are other things. Like what? Like what's. What's their why and figure that out. You can make someone, your customer, 

Mark Seawell: and ultimately too, sometimes people just aren't educated about it. Someone somewhere has given them some bad information about, oh yeah, every time you go there, they're going to try to sell you something.

Mark Seawell: And so when they do that, you just tell 'em no. And ultimately, I mean, anybody that, that's maintained any type of anything, not just a car, but any, anything. Yeah. I mean, people wash their driveway every year, don't they? And I mean that, that's maintenance for your driveway. People wash their house, wash their car.

Mark Seawell: That's even just maintenance, right? Yep. What if people never did that? What would happen? I. 

Jimmy Lea: Lot of dirty cars rolling, 

Mark Seawell: right? 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Okay. Question for both of you and mark. This will give you a few seconds to think of your favorite. Brandon, your first, what's a customer interaction that you'll never forget?

Jimmy Lea: What's a customer interaction that you'll never forget, and why? Why was that such a. Significant customer interaction. Brandon, what you got, brother?

Brandon Ballou: It was a striking moment when I seen that. So my dad started trustworthy and it's a moment that really showed me that our values are in line with what we need to be.

Brandon Ballou: We had a customer come in and, you know, the description and there was some loss in conversation with what was actually going on, and we ended up replacing headlight bulbs when the actual lenses were clouded over. And so no matter how bright the bulbs were, this customer wasn't gonna be able to see.

Brandon Ballou: It was a really good customer of ours still to this day, and he came in and he was like, look, I'm a little disappointed with the last visit. I thought we were gonna fix this. I thought we were doing this, and instead we did this. And, but before I could even respond or the customer could say anything else, my dad said, I just ordered two headlight assemblies for you.

Brandon Ballou: They'll be in on Tuesday. We're gonna take care of it. We're sorry for the miscommunication. A hundred percent fault on our end. We're gonna take care of you. And that moment really struck. And I was like, that's why we're here. We're here to help people and we're gonna do what's right. We have integrity, whether it's, whether it hurts or not, we're always gonna do what's right.

Brandon Ballou: And that was a situation that really proved that to me. 

Jimmy Lea: Wow. That's a strong lesson to learn too, especially from Pops, huh? 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: Wow. That's awesome. And has that client continued with trustworthy auto? 

Brandon Ballou: Absolutely. He was here last week. He's a, but he does for a living. He is a Uber, he's an Uber driver.

Brandon Ballou: And so we see him like a professional Uber driver. Oh yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: You see him like every two to three weeks probably. 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah. And he has his own private charter company to and from airports on top of that. So he does really awesome for himself. We see him all the time. We have a close enough relationship. He doesn't.

Brandon Ballou: Call the shopper or anything. He's texted me personally. Anytime I need a ride to the airport, he's who we're reaching out to. And we've developed, and that's part of that to where with your customers and stuff, it can't just be a transactional relationship. You can build a real relationship, know the family, know the kids, know what their actual purpose for the cars are, and you can make a little bit better decisions for 'em depending on their life, not just what some book says.

Jimmy Lea: Oh man, I love that. That is awesome. That is awesome. It's good to have a good friend in the automotive industry from a customer point of view, and then also from a industry point of view, it's great to have an Uber driver that you can rely on. Yeah, that's super cool. Alright, mark, what is your most interesting customer interaction that you'll never forget?

Jimmy Lea: Now, for those of you who don't know, mark was it 14 shops that you used to take care of and manage? 

Mark Seawell: Yes. Do 

Jimmy Lea: all the coaching and training. Yeah. 14 shops. Yeah. Okay. So you've seen a lot. 

Mark Seawell: I've seen a few. I've seen a few let me see. Gosh, I. The only reason that this one's even coming to mind is because I was just telling the story to somebody the other day where we had a client that that was a guest at our shop.

Mark Seawell: We'd quoted out racking pin. It was a Honda Accord. I don't remember which year or whatever, but excuse me. It was it was a Honda Accord. It needed a rack, pinion, and it was a whole bunch of labor for whatever it was that, that particular service was a lot. And we always, we vetted the products that we installed because we wanted to make sure that we had the best possible components because we attached a warranty to it that was that was quality and our.

Mark Seawell: Our labor rate was also probably higher than most of the competition around town because we deserve to be you know, we provided a considerably better quality service, just like many of our clients do. And the job had been quoted out to the customer, and the customer decided that they were going to search elsewhere.

Mark Seawell: For whatever reason, the service advisor couldn't, couldn't go over the val the value that that was attached to it. And and so, it ultimately that particular customer got that job done somewhere else and and had the rec opinion done and all that. But then later, as you can expect.

Mark Seawell: With a subpar component and probably subpar labor. The the part failed and it was only months later and I happened to be in that location at the time. And the the customer came in and he was angry with us because we. Must have misdiagnosed it because the problem was still there. There was a noise that was coming from the rack and pinion something, I don't remember what it was.

Mark Seawell: And and so when we went and we saw a brand new, you know, we saw the noise coming from the rack and pinion on our roadside. We were like, oh my gosh, well, let's go wreck back and reinspect it. We we brought the vehicle in, figured out what the problem was, and it was also coming back from that wrecking pinion we're like, wow, that's, yeah we told 'em they needed it.

Mark Seawell: That's, yeah, that's what we said it was. And then we figured out that he said, oh no, we had this wreck and pinion replaced already. The noise is still there. It has to be coming from someplace else. Our original diagnosis must have been incorrect. Well, the best thing about that was that we were able to prove to that client that our diagnosis was right, and at the same time.

Mark Seawell: Went over that customer because whatever they were able to to find later, they had to go through all bunch of hassle. They didn't have any warranty on the service. Ended up that car came back to our shop and and we took care of the wreck and pinion and corrected the problem, and that customer had to pay for it twice.

Mark Seawell: They became our client forever. Yeah. After that they never went anywhere else. And this customer he happened to actually live. Very close to my sister. And so like one, one day I was at I was at my sister's house for a party in the backyard. Right. You know, barbecue burgers and hot dogs and stuff.

Mark Seawell: And he happened to be there and he walks in, he is like, oh, mark, IM glad to see you. Let me just tell you everything about it. And he's a friend. And and so that was it. It was a good, it was one of those stories where it's like, oh, this is, you know, if people just listen to us in the first place.

Mark Seawell: The you know, how many times you know, can we get that? I want that shirt too that Jennifer was talking about yesterday. If you just listen to Jennifer. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. If I'd have just done what Jennifer said the first time, everything would be okay. 

Mark Seawell: Right? I need one of those. 

Jimmy Lea: So Mark, I thought for sure you were gonna say the customer was upset because you hadn't convinced them to buy it from you the first time, which it sounds like it did come back around all the way where they were upset that you'd hadn't sold them the first time because they still had to pay for it twice.

Mark Seawell: Right. Well, that was the thing is he became our client forever. And I, you know, we got, we, we had a good relationship after that. You know, several times he was in after that a lot. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that, that's so good. That's so good. It's great to have a loyal customer, a key tosser, somebody that'll just toss you the keys and say, all right, call me when it's done.

Mark Seawell: Well, ultimately that's it. Right? So, you know, we talk a lot about trust and how you make trust and it's character and it's competency. Yeah. And then, I mean, you end up, you multiplying the, that character and competency with either consistency of a visit and seeing it all the time the same way or your ability to talk to people, your communication.

Mark Seawell: And so when that's all together in the beginning. If you don't have that and that that communication is the only thing that's sitting there. That's the, that's the strength. And you know, like advisors, like, like Brandon has gone through our program and, you know, I'm so proud of just how well he communicates to customers versus I before he was all thumbs and and he'll admit it himself.

Mark Seawell: Right. You know, he didn't know what to say, how to say it. And and that's, you know, that, that's, I'm so proud of just seeing. You know, Brandon's growth and other people's growth. I got to see it over this weekend. Just a bunch of people that were just were just doing it right. And I was just so excited.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's super cool. Speaking of Brandon's growth, where was he when he started with us? And where is he now? I mean, do we judge that by average repair order, car counts, increase in closings? How do you judge success in a coaching and training environment? 

Mark Seawell: Gosh, it's all of it. You know, we use several metrics to figure out where people are.

Mark Seawell: I like to use gross profit per hour because it seems to be the culmination of everything. It's like, it's your top end number. Yeah. And you know, I mean, Brandon raised his gosh. About $65 or so. 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah, it's almost probably tripled, maybe now quadrupled. Yeah. Because that's when, you know, we were the shop that we fixed a boatload of cars, but there, there was, we fixed the boatload of cars and moved a lot of money, but none of it made it to the bank account or the bottom line.

Brandon Ballou: And then, you know, we made some adjustments. The front counter probably being the biggest held our margins where we needed to be, at least at the minimum of the industry standard instead of, you know. Pricing with our own wallet. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 

Brandon Ballou: That made some huge differences in our shop and even customer satisfaction 'cause we were able to offer our clients so much more.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And just as much, oh sorry. Go ahead, mark 

Mark Seawell: that. So that's one of the things, and you know, we don't often talk about this, but you can't offer customer satisfaction to folks if you don't make some profit. Because ultimately, if, you know, like, like the story that Brandon was just talking about getting new headlight assemblies for this car and all that stuff, because they didn't, whatever, there was some kind of miscommunication that happened ahead of time.

Mark Seawell: Yeah. And 

Mark Seawell: you know, the right ca the right call was to solve the problem. They wanted to solve the customer, they did something wrong, they wanted to solve the problem and their easiest solution was to get new headlight assemblies. Well. They couldn't have ever done that if they didn't make some profit, because if you don't make some profit, you don't have any money in the bank.

Mark Seawell: You can't buy stuff. So, you know, that's one of those things where the more profit that you make it helps your ability to ultimately solve problems for people, especially if you cause them and you can move on and go to the next one and just your day becomes a lot less stressful. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: That, that's true. That's true. That's solid. That's solid. Well, I forgot where I was going with my next question. Perfect.

Jimmy Lea: Let's go into the the crossover between fighting martial arts, kickboxing, MMA, and advising. How has your combat training influenced the way you handle conflict with clients or teammates even inside the shop? 

Brandon Ballou: It's I've always, I've been pretty trained and well dur in being able to deal with stress.

Brandon Ballou: So that, that part's never really got to me. There could be 10 people in the office. I could have an unset employee, customer and manager all at the same time. And you know, it is just deal with each problem, one step at a time. It really comes down to, and, you know, I might be a broken record, but if you have your beliefs and you have a process that's in line with your beliefs you'll always get the right result.

Brandon Ballou: It might not be the best, it might not be the funest. It might hurt a little if you know. It's something where you gotta pay for a set of headlight assemblies 'cause it's what you believe is right. But long as you have a process and you have your values it, it doesn't matter if it's fighting, service, advising any other career field, any other sport you'll always get to the right answer.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. I love that. So you've never had to headlock a technician or punch him in the face or kick him in the head. That's one thing we're 

Brandon Ballou: super proud of in our shop is the culture. And we've built we've always taken care of our guys. That's something that's been passed on right from my dad.

Brandon Ballou: He always believed we gotta take care of the team and we go above and beyond more than what any numbers on a spreadsheet should ever tell us we should allocate to our technicians. We just do what we know is right and we take care of our team. And, you know, for instance, one of 'em, he loves to go race at the local, like Speedway track, just so we can race, you know, in the clunker car events. And we've bought him the car and every year and when he crashes it, we get him another one. And that's something we've just always done for him. 'cause he's been with us coming on nine years. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. And 

Brandon Ballou: whether that's one of those things that it's not in any spreadsheet, it's not something we care about.

Brandon Ballou: We just, we have that relationship with him and what we're gonna do that to take care of them. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And thank you for mentioning spreadsheets 'cause it sparked the idea. And I remember what I was going to remember. Mark, gross profit, love, gross profit. Love that you were able to increase gross profit.

Jimmy Lea: And I also assume that this translated into your net profit as well. You were able to keep more because empty shelves don't feed mouths, but full shelves do. 

Brandon Ballou: Yes. So definitely did compared to where we were. Yeah, that's probably where we struggle the most because we're that shop that, you know, we always give back.

Brandon Ballou: My dad's always reinvested, we're always adding another loaner car to the fleet so we can make sure our customer has a loaner car, always buying the new, newest and latest tools to make sure the technicians can get the job done faster so we can get the car back to the customer. We're always putting it back into the business.

Brandon Ballou: Or if there's something left over, then my dad's, probably the most humble give back to everybody person I know like our technicians pay will increase if there's anywhere else we can do. We just, we've always reinvested it back into the shop. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. That's awesome. So 

Brandon Ballou: on the actual spreadsheet, you know, the net at the bottom might not look where it's supposed to, but the gross is taking care of it.

Brandon Ballou: 'cause all the stuff we're adding to grow the business, take care of the team, or take care of the customer, just keeps getting better. 

Jimmy Lea: Well, that, that's really good. That's really good. I Congratulations for doing that. Okay. Question for you about crossover here. Between the combat training and service advising, is there a specific mindset or preparation ritual that you developed in, I.

Jimmy Lea: The ring that helps you on your daily service advisor routine? 

Brandon Ballou: Yes. Mark's already chuckling 'cause he knows where I'm going with this and I didn't put it into a process until training our latest advisor. But same thing going into a fight. You gotta psych yourself into what you're going into and you have to believe you're gonna win.

Brandon Ballou: If you don't believe you're gonna win you're gonna lose. Whether you believe you're gonna win or not, you're right. Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right. And so having that headspace, having that belief, so training our newest advisor you know, you might have a bad night, a bad weekend, something might happen in your personal life to where if you bring that into work, you're not gonna perform.

Brandon Ballou: If you bring that into the ring, you're not gonna perform. So we put it, and it's in the process, like written physically. When you check in, what you do, when you get into the shop and it says, put on your super suit. You know Batman can't bring Bruce Wayne's problems when he goes to Safe Gotham City. He is gotta be Batman.

Brandon Ballou: So you put on your super suit, you get in your headspace. I'm going to be the best advisor I can be today. And then you can deal with, you know, your personal problems after, at the end of the day. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's, that's true. That's true. I brushed up on a little bit of boxing trivia. Rocky three, remember Rocky three when he was fighting and he lost 

Brandon Ballou: Yes.

Jimmy Lea: Because he was afraid his mindset was not right. 

Brandon Ballou: Yep. 

Jimmy Lea: And that scene where he and Creed are on the beach. Adrian's there. He finally admits that he was afraid. So, you know, he was gonna lose. Yep. Don't lose. It's in your mindset. Yep. So, you talk about your mindset and that's good advice for a service advisor.

Jimmy Lea: What other advice would you give to a service advisor that just starting out in the industry so that you can help them to not feel overwhelmed? There's so much that happens. How can we help them? 

Brandon Ballou: It really boils down to process, have a process or a routine for everything. 'cause if I answered the phone differently every time, and presented the information to the customers differently every time and checked in the parts differently every time I.

Brandon Ballou: I have no routine and every time it feels like this new unorganized experience versus I, I hate scripts, so I'm not saying a script by any means, but have a process for how you're gonna answer the phone. Have a process for this is the direction I'm going to go through the call with the customer. This is how this process is done.

Brandon Ballou: And it makes it so much easier to learn and understand where everything's going and coming from. And. It just makes things easier. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And Mark, what would you add to that for a new service advisor in the industry? How can we help them to not get overwhelmed with all of the. Tasks that a service advisor has to do on the daily, how can we help that service advisor?

Mark Seawell: So I really can't add anything new to that because I think Brandon said it perfectly have a process when you have a plan to go through things. I mean, the science behind it is that your brain needs less. Blood, no less oxygen in the blood to to actually fire the neurons to do the thing.

Mark Seawell: It's you actually have to use less brain power when you already have a process that you do. It's like, it's like when you drive home from work and you already know the way to go home and you show up and you're like, I'm here already. Or or when you are going through and. Just going through your morning, half awake, half asleep, and you've already made coffee and you've gotten your bagel.

Mark Seawell: I mean, it happens that it's just this is what you do every morning. This is how it works. And you're like, wow, I'm done with this already. You get into that muscle memory and really what it is that, that you have this process that happens, and when you do that, everything like you, you need less bandwidth to do it.

Mark Seawell: You, you need less brain power to do it. And even better than that, it just becomes who you are and what you do. It's so, it makes life so easy. Yeah. And so the thing that I'll say is just. You get yourself into a routine. You get yourself into a process and do it the same way.

Mark Seawell: And you don't have to do it this, like, you don't have to use the same words to say it, but you have to have the same meaning when you say it. 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah. Yep. Processes they prevent so many problems. And then if you do a process over and over again, it becomes a habit. And then eventually you're preventing all these problems without even thinking about it.

Brandon Ballou: It's just muscle memory like Mark said to where. Hey, how many more problems you probably would've had to deal with that day if you didn't have that process down to where now it's just muscle memory 

Mark Seawell: processes, prevent problems. 

Jimmy Lea: Amen. Amen. 

Mark Seawell: Processes, prevent problems. Yeah. While eating pickles. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, boy. Now we're getting there, Peter.

Jimmy Lea: So, Brandon and to, to what you're talking about, what you have now as a habit. Started out as a process, started out as a script, and you learn that script and then eventually you're able to throw that script away because you don't need it anymore. It's now habitual for you. So to duplicate, you write it down in a process so that the next guy, the next gal, can step into your position and do exactly the same things you do the exact same way that you do it.

Brandon Ballou: And it's the same for anything. You wanna transition even over into the combat side of the world. You know, if you develop a poor habit, a bad process of always leaving your hands down and your head open, well, you're gonna get punched in the face a lot. But if you force yourself to develop a habit where your hands are always up, you're always ready, you're throwing punches with the proper technique from practicing the process of punching.

Brandon Ballou: There we go. Then then you'll have. The right technique in form. It'll be a habit when it comes to the real fight. 'cause you can know how to do things, but if it's not a habit, when the real show starts, it goes out the window. Right. 

Jimmy Lea: Proper punching prevents poor performance. 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Thank you Mark. You started it.

Jimmy Lea: I know. I love it. I love what you guys are doing. I love what you're talking about. And Brandon how did working with the institute impact your approach? To your position as an advisor to your position as a leader at the shop, how has working with the institute helped you? 

Brandon Ballou: The institute?

Brandon Ballou: Yeah, just talking about I. My career in the shop is just the tip of the iceberg. So I was a technician and without the institute I don't know if my dad would've ever even made the transmission transition to put me up front. That was something the institute recommended. Try it, see what happens.

Brandon Ballou: And then going through all the training with Mark, learning how to not just be an advisor, how to speak, how to understand people, understanding different personality types, how to work with people. Learning from Cecil how being. Fair to everybody. Everybody needs to win in a business environment. So they didn't just impact my career, they impacted my life.

Brandon Ballou: Mark and Cecil, I mentioned at the summit there, there's probably a group of five people outside my immediate family that make me who I am. And Mark and Cecil are two of those five, like you removed that this guy right here probably doesn't exist. Just the level of communication I have now. Being able to communicate in and out my personal life and professional life.

Brandon Ballou: Understanding people trying to solve problems with solutions, not just opinions. And it's it's come full circle. The institute has done much more than just elevate my family's business. 

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Mark, did you ever think you'd have that kind of an impact? Hold 

Mark Seawell: on. I'm still tearing up. That's it, you know what I when I started this, I don't even know how many years ago when I started doing this type of thing working with people, I really didn't have a clue what it would do.

Mark Seawell: Like, I really didn't like I was just like, oh, well that's just the next logical step for me is I'm good at. Sales, communication, leadership, operations. Well, the next best thing is to go in and teach people how to do sales, leadership, opera and all that. And I never really thought about it at the time about how much impact I could have on people.

Mark Seawell: And I come to find out that I crave it more than. Air, I mean more than oxygen. I see people just achieving a better version of themselves. And that's what, like, I, that's where I go, okay, I have, I built that. That's awesome. And I feel pride and you know it. And so. At the first to answer your question, Jimmy.

Mark Seawell: No, I didn't think at all. I just thought it was the next logical step. I was like, cool, I'm gonna have to work less and probably make more money. And I made less money and I worked more, but but what I get out of it is so much better. There's so much more out of that. And you know, it I'm truly thankful.

Mark Seawell: That that what I get to do is share what I know with people to help them grow as individuals and make my impact not just on our industry, but on the people in it. 

Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. That's super awesome. I'm, thank you for sharing, mark. I really appreciate that. If you had a magic wand mark, and you could change anything about the industry, what would you change in the automotive aftermarket?

Mark Seawell: Gosh. Does it have to be just one thing? If you can narrow 

Jimmy Lea: it down to one thing. Yeah. What's the one thing? 

Mark Seawell: Okay, so if it was one thing. I wish that everyone would take the path that Brandon here has gone through, where he took a step back, understood that things weren't going right, and he wasn't doing it exactly as he should, and that he needed help.

Mark Seawell: You know, it's like a 12 step program. Realize that you need help and and then ask for it and get it, and then pour everything into it. And I wish if there was one thing I could wish for the industry, it was that people had a different mindset about getting help.

Mark Seawell: Yeah. Oh, Jimmy froze. No, Jimmy froze.

Brandon Ballou: Oh no, he is good now. Oh, I felt 

Jimmy Lea: that. I felt that freeze for a second. 

Brandon Ballou: Oh 

Jimmy Lea: my god. Ooh, that one's scary.

Jimmy Lea: Anytime you unplug Jimmy, that's what happens. He just stops 

Mark Seawell: moving. You gotta plug them back. Kick the cord. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, right. Yeah. Make sure those batteries are in nice and tight. So, yeah, I agree with you, mark. I wish more would step up and accept the coaching and training and the feedback and the accountability.

Jimmy Lea: And I think that's where most people really kick back is that accountability, that level of here's the training, here's the understanding, and we're gonna hold you accountable to it. Right. So thank you. Thank you for what you're doing in the industry and with shops and shop owners. It makes, it's a world of difference.

Jimmy Lea: And in fact, we've got a service advisor training class coming up here pretty soon, don't we? 

Mark Seawell: Well, I've a three day, I've got a three day one coming up. Yeah. It's in it's in sunny Utah, next to the mountains. It's the best time to be in Utah. In the summer, the, if you don't like skiing, I guess.

Mark Seawell: But it's it's coming up in August. It's second week of August, second weekend of August. If you go to the institute we are the institute.com. Under the events page, you can find that. You know, all, everything to sign up for on that. It's a three day workshop. And what it does is we take the advisor through an intensive, it's bootcamp.

Mark Seawell: I mean, let's call it what it is. It's bootcamp. Yeah. We take advisors and we and we break 'em down and then build them up. And and what we do is we go through communication skills. We go through working through problems with customers and things like that. We go through a sales process.

Mark Seawell: We go through understanding KPIs and understanding what to do with them. I mean, it is a it is a bootcamp where we we do we break every, everything down. We break all the bad habits and we put good habits in. And in my opinion, I'm biased. It's it's one of the most high impact things that we do.

Mark Seawell: We you know, we go fast and hard and it's a lot of information all at once. And typically whoever goes to those workshops, they come back tired. And and it's not because we have 'em doing jumping jacks, it's because their brain is hurting. 

Jimmy Lea: We melt their brain and then put it back in.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So, is this for advisors that are only the brand news or are the somewhat experienced, or the highly developed or highly skilled? Is this an a, a class for all or just brand news? 

Mark Seawell: So this is for everybody. The certainly brand new people will get one thing out of it. And we have, the way that we design our training is that someone could take the training that has years of experience or zero experience or anything in between.

Mark Seawell: And we have different parts engineered. To impact those specific people. And and we were able to take the people that that have the experience and do these things well and have them help demonstrate examples. Which is also part of education. You know, being able to teach other people.

Mark Seawell: Actually, I think you learn more from Ask Brandon. He's been doing that. Absolutely. He's been doing that all the last part of the last year and all of this part of this year. I bet he's learned more about it than than the entire time that he got beat up by me all the time. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's pretty good.

Jimmy Lea: That's pretty good. Well, I think everybody should attend this three day service advisor class. Especially if you're a new service advisor or an experienced service advisor, you will come away with more knowledge, information and better mindset. Right. To help you. Yeah. Brandon que final questions for you.

Jimmy Lea: What would you say to any other fighters or athletes for that matter that are considering transitioning into the automotive aftermarket? 

Brandon Ballou: Ooh. So any fighters or any athlete in general take the discipline you've learned from being able to train every day and get what you need to done to be the best athlete, fighter, competitor you can, and take that discipline and put it into training.

Brandon Ballou: 'cause you're only gonna get good as. Hard as you train and that's in anything like you're, like, you could have all the talent in the world if you don't learn from the right people and train you. Yeah. You cap yourself at a ceiling. So if you're already an athlete and you got that discipline to put the work in every day, put that work into training and then you'll be on top of wherever you land.

Brandon Ballou: Whether that's a sport, an industry, a job, a hobby, you'll be the best at it if you train hard enough. 

Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. And of course you're gonna recommend the Institute for that Service Advisor training, right? 

Brandon Ballou: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they made me who I am. How could, and I and I only got to attend the two day trainings and my brain was always swelling and pulsing.

Brandon Ballou: So I can't imagine the poor people that gotta go through the three day bootcamp 'cause they're gonna learn everything there is about it in three days and then come home and. Hopefully retain 10% of it, and they'll still be 10 times better of an advisor than they were before they went. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, they will.

Jimmy Lea: They will. Whether you're new or experienced to come to the service advisor, training's worth every single penny. For sure. For sure. Brandon, if you had a magic wand question, what would you change in the industry? 

Brandon Ballou: I'd remove the label. That's been placed on our industry, far as the career, far as what people think when they bring their car into a shop.

Brandon Ballou: People don't think it's a lucrative career, whether you're a technician, advisor, manager, whatever. They'd rather you go be, you know, work from home, fill out a spreadsheet, do something along those lines, get a degree, whatever. Then same with when you bring your car to a shop. Everybody's like, oh, you know, they're gonna try and sell me something.

Brandon Ballou: They're gonna try and rip me off. They're crooks. They're, when that's not the case. That's such a small percentage and what the top 10 percenters, or especially one percenters in our industries make. If that actually got out there and people understood. How good of a career the automotive industry offers.

Brandon Ballou: I think we'd see a whole bunch of young people jumping for joy trying to get in. So yeah, if I had a magic wand, I'd remove the negative label that's been placed on our industry so people can actually see how amazing it is. 

Jimmy Lea: So true. It is an amazing industry, has treated us very well for many years and many years to come.

Jimmy Lea: There will always be transportation, which means there's always going to be a need for. Technicians one form or another, and service advisors and owners and parts people and all the above. It's all there. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, mark. Appreciate your insights, your input. You definitely know what the heck's going on with service advisors and service advisor training.

Jimmy Lea: Brandon, thank you very much. Really appreciate you being here and sharing your story, whether it's from Fight Camp to the front desk. Your story is proof that discipline, resilience, and service can win the day on any stage in any ring. Yes, sir. So thank you. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you sharing your story with us.

Jimmy Lea: Problem. Thanks for having me, Jimmy. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll talk to you guys soon. There's a QR code here at the very end. Those of you interested in an analysis of your business, looking at what makes it work, what makes it tick, what advice can we give to you that will make all the difference in the world.

Jimmy Lea: There's gonna be a QR code here. It's up for about 30 seconds, so grab out your smartphone, scan this QR code, and let's see what we can do for you at the institute. My name is Jimmy Lee. Talk to you again soon.