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Mike DelaCruz

Publisher
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Everything posted by Mike DelaCruz

  1. Perfect way to end AAPEX listening to Jaron Kleber. He is definitely one of the great ones.. helped so many of my clients.
  2. This is a really great reminder, and nothing short of the absolute truth! Having a balance is key. In the earlier days of my career, I was averaging 60 flights every year. You might think that's a lot (Ok you're right, it is a lot), but the reason behind that was so that I did my best to never miss a moment with my girls, so I had a lot of back-and-forth trips, East Coast back to the West Coast. I was tired, but it was worth it when I got home! I had a 3-day rule: I would never be on the road more than 3-days at a time, and I've been blessed that every company I worked for always respected that. Sure, there were times I had to break that rule on a very rare occasion, but I didn't allow myself to fall into a habit of doing it. This was always important to me, and it started when I was young. My dad (now retired) spent 40 years at GM in senior management. His work brought him to Kansas City, Detroit and Texas. Until I was in my late-teens, I saw him once, maybe twice per year. And back then there was no Facetime, so I was thrilled when I got a call from Pops on the landline! What did this experience do for me as an adult? It taught me the importance of keeping a work/life balance, understanding that "time" is the only thing you can never get back, and lastly making sure to be the best example for your family. My dad and I have a great relationship now, and he learned a hard lesson from this experience as well. C'est la vie! As I close on this comment, I will leave you with this story: It was my daughters 3rd birthday and we had it at a park. In order to get a good spot at the park, you had to be there as early as possible, so I was there at 6am. Shortly after I arrived, a man and three young kids came into the park and reserved the spot next to us. They immediately started playing on the playground, going down the slide, his kids were jumping on his back, laughing and having so much fun. This is all before 7am! I hadn't even had my cup of coffee yet. I had to compliment this guy on how active he was with his kids and I told him that I really admired the relationship he has with them (on the surface of course, I didn't know him personally). He looks to me and says, "A wise man once told me, ' do you know how kids spell LOVE?" Feeling that there was a catch to this, I paused. He says, "Kids spell LOVE, T-I-M-E". That will always stick with me.
  3. @Transmission Repair thank you for adding so much detail. I greatly value and appreciate your experience. You've listed some great takeaways for me and a lot to really think about. I'm confident with your insight, I will be able to execute on something that will help me do my part.
  4. A topic that I’ve become more and more interested in is the future of our industry, specifically when it comes to Technicians. I returned from the Spring Leadership Days in Orlando by Auto Care Association with an entirely new outlook, continuously reminding myself: What can I do to help strengthen our future? As I scroll through my Facebook feed, reading through various forums and private group comments, I constantly hear about the Technician shortage and have been over the past few years. Does that raise any concern that we’re still talking about this after several years? As I read through the comments in hopes to find solutions, regrettably the majority of the comments are not solutions to the problem. So, my hope is to find a solution and identify what action I can personally take to help strengthen our future and do my part. I don’t want to spend anymore time talking about what we already know (tech shortage), and watch our industry reduce to rubble in the years ahead. Not on my watch… and I know a lot of you are with me! Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and months turn into years. Let’s not wait! As I visit shops around the country, which is my favorite thing to do, I notice a common pattern in the workflow. Nearly 70% of the shops that I have visited in the past year have empty bays. For example, a shop in the Bay Area I visited recently had 8 bays, but 4 were empty. They had 2 Technicians, who both told me they’re extremely busy and this has become the “norm” until they hire more Technicians. Of course, the owners have “tried everything”, but what does that mean? Have they really tried “everything”, or are they looking for a band-aid to fix the short-term problem and not thinking about a long-term solution and preparing for the future? Shops are busy right now and business is booming for most. So even though they have the Tech shortage issue on their minds, it’s less of a priority right now because they’re busy! It reminds me of what one of my favorite industry coaches (and friend) told me one time about “Panic Marketing”. Business slows down, then we expect our marketing company to step up some SEO or Ads and get cars in today, when in reality you have to plan out your marketing 6-months or a year in advance. So what do we do when we have empty bays and a Tech shortage? Many will simply place an Ad on Indeed, cross their fingers and hope for immediate applicants! That quick-fix strategy will never work. But what will? There are shops out there with effective strategies that actually work well. Look at what they’re doing and get some ideas. Joe Marconi has some awesome tips on hiring great people. Having worked directly with Joe, I’ve seen the success firsthand. But for me personally, I’m more interested in the long-term and getting the “younger generation” interested in our trade. I think this will help shape our future. But how do we do this? Someone once told me, if every shop ran an Apprenticeship program, this would help solve the problem. Is that the silver bullet? If not, what is?









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