Mind Wrench Podcast
Welcome to The Mind-Wrench Podcast, your go-to resource for personal and professional development in the automotive repair industry. Discover effective strategies to elevate your life to the next level, applicable not just for auto professionals, but for anyone seeking personal growth. Join our knowledgeable host, industry veteran Rick Selover, as he imparts practical insights on mindset, self-improvement, and leadership, enabling you to run a thriving shop and lead a more fulfilling life. Tune in every Monday to expand your horizons. For additional information, connect with Rick on Instagram @rick_selover, become part of the vibrant CollisionMasterMind Facebook Group, or visit rickselover.com for additional information and resources.
Mind Wrench Podcast
Episode #200- Staying Hungry, Humble & Helpful! -w/Mike Anderson
Episode Notes:
Host Rick Selover celebrates his 200th episode of The Mind Wrench by welcoming back industry titan Mike Anderson! They dive deep into the evolving collision repair landscape and the powerful forces driving positive change.🎉 🎉
Mike unveils his 2025 mantra: "Stay Humble, Stay Hungry" – a crucial balance for navigating customer empathy and the relentless pursuit of improvement amidst shifting industry tides. Discover the power of sharpening your saw, even when the work piles up. 🪓➡️🧠
Unlock hidden revenue with insights into Mike's game-changing "Who Pays For What" surveys, revealing overlooked billable operations and empowering shops in insurer negotiations. 💰
Witness the evolution of the "Spartan 300" – from a COVID-era initiative to six thriving OEM-focused groups forging multi-store success through rigorous standards and shared knowledge. 💪
Finally, hit the road with Mike's new live podcast, broadcasting best practices nationwide! Learn how Collision Advice's expanding team of coaches is amplifying their impact. 🎙️🛣️
Don't miss this high-octane conversation with a true industry leader! 👑
📲GUEST CONTACT
Mike Anderson - mike@collisionadvice.com
CollisionAdvice – www.collisionadvice.com
🔌TOP OPPORTUNTIES TO PLUG-IN
SEMA- https://www.sema.org/
CIC (Collision Industry Conference) - https://ciclink.com
AASP/ NJ Northeast - https://www.aaspnjnortheast.com/
Southeast Collision Conference - https://carolinascollisionassociation.com/scc-home/
ABAT - https://www.abat.us/
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When I was coming up to my 100th episode. It was an easy decision to do an interview with Mike Anderson from Collision Advice. After all, he was the one that really inspired me to start down that path of giving back to this industry from my earlier experiences attending his events and presentations, where he always gave incredible value to everyone in the room and shared more wisdom and insight than anyone else in this industry was doing more wisdom and insight than anyone else in this industry was doing. A few months ago I was contemplating on what to do for my 200th and once again, mike felt like just the perfect choice to help me celebrate this milestone in my podcasting journey. Since our last interview, mike Anderson's impact on the collision industry has just intensified. His collision advice team has grown to over 20 people. The Spartan 300 group that started very early during COVID has now grown to six specific groups and he started an annual conference event for his Spartans that educates as well as celebrates their successes.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the MindWrench Podcast with your host, rick Sellover, where minor adjustments produce major improvements in mindset, personal growth and success. This is the place to be every Monday, where we make small improvements and take positive actions in our business and personal lives that will make a major impact in our success, next-level growth and quality of life.
Speaker 1:Hey, what's up everybody. Welcome to the MindWrench Podcast. I'm your host, rick Salora. Thanks so much for stopping in. If you're a returning listener and haven't done so already, please take a minute and click the follow or subscribe button and then rate and review the show. When you rate and review the show, the algorithms for Apple, spotify, google Podcasts, iheartradio, amazon Music and all the other platforms will see that it's valuable and show it to more people that have never seen it before, and hopefully it can help them too. I would really really really appreciate your help, sharing this word with your friends and family as well, and if you're a brand new listener, welcome. I hope you find something of value here that helps you in your personal or professional life as well. Please make sure to click the subscribe or follow button so you never miss another episode. Welcome, welcome, welcome to all my collision industry friends, body shop buds and personal development fans that have been part of my podcast journey, whether just for the past couple months or the last four years. I appreciate every one of you spending some of your precious time with me.
Speaker 1:It's crazy to think that when I started this in the early part of COVID, with zero experience, very little confidence that someone had actually listened to what I had to say and no idea how I could get past the first couple episodes. But here I am in my 200th episode, now, heard in over 95 countries and 2,100 cities across the world and well-received by the top leaders, movers and shakers in the collision industry. I am completely humbled, flattered, extremely grateful and nowhere near done with this journey. Now I know in the podcast world these numbers really aren't substantial. There are many shows that have episodes that number in the thousands, with hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of downloads, but that doesn't much matter to me. Would I like the same success with the Mind Wrench? Sure, absolutely, but that wasn't my focus for doing this. I also know that out of the now three or four million podcast shows out there, most don't make it past seven episodes. It's a hell of a lot of work and without the instant payoff expected, most just give up. My goal wasn't for big numbers. No, it was for impact. I felt if I made a positive impact in someone's life, helped one shop improve their business, made one day better for even just one person or solved one single problem, then all the work was worth it. That was success enough for me and let me tell you, friends, on that KPI alone, this show has been very successful.
Speaker 1:When I was coming up to my 100th episode, it was an easy decision to do an interview with Mike Anderson from Collision Advice. After all, he was the one that really inspired me to start down that path of giving back to this industry from my earlier experiences attending his events and presentations, where he always gave incredible value to everyone in the room and shared more wisdom and insight than anyone else in this industry was doing. A few months ago, I was contemplating on what to do for my 200th and once again, mike felt like just the perfect choice to help me celebrate this milestone in my podcasting journey. Since our last interview, mike Anderson's impact on the collision industry has just intensified. His collision advice team has grown to over 20 people. The Spartan 300 group that started very early during COVID has now grown to six specific groups, and he started an annual conference event for his Spartans that educates as well as celebrates their successes. We recorded this interview well before the 2025 Spartan Symposium that was held in Minneapolis this past April, where I was fortunate enough to host the vendor table for Garmat USA and attended this outstanding event. I'm telling you, the love, the respect, the support Mike showed to not only his members and his team, but even the vendors and suppliers that supported this conference was really just an awesome experience. It is simply simply incredible. I was so honored to be part of it.
Speaker 1:Anyways, let's get to that interview with Mike Anderson.
Speaker 1:Recently I had the opportunity to attend the AASP in Illinois Overdrive in 25 trade show and conference, and my special guest today not only shared the keynote opening speech but also followed up with moderating not one but two separate panels through the course of the day. My guest this week is, and now fellow podcaster, has been hitting the road really hard so far in 2025, impacting and sharing with the collision industry from coast to coast. We first met back, probably around 2010, mike, I believe, when he spoke at Washington Community College, and at the time I was a part-time refinish instructor there, and then later at several different training events that the company I worked for had hosted. We kind of struck up a friendship and I've seen him so many times over the years. We've become good friends and we both share a passion for doing what we can to help this collision industry. So please join me in welcoming the industry icon, the guy that everybody knows and loves, good friend of mine, mike Anderson, from Collision Advice back to the MindWrench podcast. Mike, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks, rick. Thanks for the kind words. But back at you, brother, it's an honor and a privilege to just speak with you and all of your listeners, so thank you so much.
Speaker 1:You got it. Glad to have you back on here. So I will take the opportunity to say that for those that have followed the podcast. Back when I did my 100th episode, I had it in my mind I wanted to have Mike Anderson on for my guest for my 100th, which we did. It was a great conversation and I'm coming up on my 200th, so naturally I thought I've got to have Mike back for number 200. Congratulations.
Speaker 3:That's a pretty incredible accomplishment, Rick.
Speaker 1:And it's all part-time, right. So I've been working my whole career, but it's something that I really love doing. I've got a passion for it and, yeah, glad to be hitting 200. And, god willing, I'll be here for 300, maybe even 400. We'll see, amen, amen, I'll be tapping you for those as well. So, anyways, mike was last back I think it was 2022 when I hit my 100th episode. So we're going to have a good conversation with Mike today. We're going to talk about lots of stuff.
Speaker 1:I know, mike, last year you had a really good keynote. I know, every year you seem to pick a theme for the year, right, correct. And last year you had success today, success tomorrow. I'd seen that at a couple different places. We cross our paths in a lot of industry events. By the way, great job at AASP, thank you. Not only the keynote, which is one I hadn't heard about. That was Parts Best Practices, which was really good, really informative, I thought. And then he had two panel discussions with Pipeline which is, I mean, that's everybody's talking about Pipeline for talent and consumer advocacy. So great subjects. Great job moderating those two groups. It was fantastic and you had everybody's attention, right, thank you. So let's talk about what's your 2025 keynote, what your theme is for 2025.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my theme for 2025, and again, rick, I just can't thank you enough, man. Mad love and respect for you, brother, you do a lot of stuff. I know this podcast you do is a volunteer effort, so you know, thanks for giving back to the industry, man. God bless you, brother. So, yeah, every year I pick a theme, and my theme this year is stay humble, stay hungry.
Speaker 3:You know, I think we have to stay humble, right? You know it's oftentimes I see and I've got to admit I was probably guilty of this in my younger years that you know people come into our shop and they're like, hey, I need to file an insurance claim and I got to get three estimates, wherever the case may be, and it's very easy for us as estimators to get calloused and not be sensitive to that consumer Like, you don't need three estimates, right? I think we have to stay humble and not get calloused, right. And we have to recognize that when people have a car accident or a vehicle accident, you know it's a very traumatic event. You know, one of the things I often do in my seminars is I ask people what emotions do you think that someone's having after an accident? And some of the answers I hear is that people are stressed, they're anxious, they're afraid, they're concerned, right, these are all negative emotions. So I think it's really important that we stay humble in our dealings with the consumer, right, don't blow them off. Be patient with their questions and just stay humble.
Speaker 3:I think also we have to stay humble when it comes to writing estimates and you can't just assume that because you fixed, you know, a Honda Accord yesterday or a Chevy Silverado or a Toyota Camry, that you don't need to research the procedures again today. Things change and we have to stay humble and continue to stay hungry and continue to want to delve into the OMR repair procedures, which is like the holy grail for how to perform safe and proper repairs and stay hungry in regards to our thirst for knowledge. So, stay humble, stay hungry. I think we're seeing claims count, decline, not as many accident claims. You've got to stay hungry. You've got to follow up on those unscheduled estimates. We have to stay hungry and start marketing our businesses more right, so we stay busy. Stay hungry in the fact that you know they say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'm saying if it's not broke, break it right, try something new. Stay hungry and continue to search to improve your processes.
Speaker 1:So stay humble, stay hungry yeah, no, great great topic and, uh, great points made. Like I, you know, I will echo those sentiments that you know. Know, I've been in this industry a long time, like you, I've seen a lot and, yeah, as you know, we can get comfortable right, we can get. I am doing really good. I don't really need to do this or I don't need to change that it's. Everything seems to be working great right now and that's the best time to really go. Okay, what can I improve on? How can I, how can I move the ball forward a couple more yards? Right, and you know we had a huge glut of work which everybody enjoyed post COVID. Right, there's, it's like it was like the wild, wild West man or just everybody had, you know, two, three month backlogs. Well, that's all gone away. Now we're back to reality and you know people are driving probably a little bit better than they did post-COVID and collision claims are down. So, yeah, we need to tighten up on what we're doing. We also need to adjust to everything has changed within the collision industry. Everything on a vehicle has changed In two years. It changes drastically, right, the technology, the processes on how to do things and along with that, this industry has been changing, but not at a rapid enough pace, I think, to keep up with technology. So that is a great keynote subject and I think it's going to be fantastic this year. I think everybody needs it this year. I'm looking forward to attending a couple of your speeches along the way. I'm sure there'll be enough events this year. I'm looking forward to attending a couple of your speeches along the way. I'm sure there will be enough events this year.
Speaker 1:Something else I wanted to talk about was something you've been doing. It's kind of in the background because I don't think everybody really realizes what you're doing and how much work it is. But your who pays for what surveys? You've been doing that for a long time and it's not like just one survey where you ask about all this stuff. You break it down into four separate surveys for scanning and calibration, for paint, for body, for frame. And tell me a little bit about number one. Why did you start that and how do you think that's impacted the industry so far?
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Speaker 1:If, deep down, you know it's time to make those improvements in your business, your personal life, that you've kicked down the road year after year. If you're tired of knowing there's a better version of you waiting to shine, but unsure of how to bring that version to light. If you're tired of wanting to enjoy a more successful business but not sure how to start. And if you don't want to go another 12 months without better results. But you don't want to go it alone, then take the first step. It's super simple. Sometimes talking to the right person can make all the difference. Go to wwwrixelovercom contact and I'll set you up with a free consultation. Call with me to see if one-on-one coaching is right for you.
Speaker 3:You up with a free consultation. Call with me to see if one-on-one coaching is right for you. Yes, so when I own my shops, charlie Baker owned a product called Collision Insight and it was a published. You know that was way, that's how old I am right and Charlie Baker would send this. You'd get this publication every month. It was three or four pages, called Collision Insights, and once or twice a year he would do a who pays for what and he would publish, like you know, 25 things and he would survey shops and you'd fax your answers back to him with a fax machine. Like how often did insurance companies or third party payers put on their estimate not included operations? And then you know, you know Charlie, you know quit publishing his publication. That survey quick getting done.
Speaker 3:So as I got into consulting I thought back on that. I was like you know, I really like to take that and do that again, like Charlie did it. So I want to credit him with the original idea, but do it a little bit more inclusive. And you know I travel on the road, you know, 300 days a year and so I was meeting all these people and gathering email addresses where people would send to me and I was like you know what, let me start building a database, do this electronically. But I found there were so many questions I wanted to answer that I was like I got to break this down into, like you know, four different surveys. So, like you said, we do a survey every quarter, every January, april, July and October and each survey is very intentional and very specific. Like every January, our survey is on refinished, not included, operations, right, and, like you said, we do one specific on mechanical body and then like miscellaneous operations, like sublet markup or scanning, calibrations etc. And you know we currently have about twenty nine thousand people in our database.
Speaker 3:I want to let you know, and to anybody listening, we do not share our database. So a lot of people might be concerned about taking our surveys, worried that you know our database gets shared. We never share our database and, quite candidly, I fund this survey myself. You know I probably pay about $25,000, $26,000 a year to partner with, you know, the Crash Network and you know other sources to help me to compile all the data and review it. But at the end of the day I don't accept any funding on this because you know people have a tendency that. You know, hey, if I sponsor, will you give me your database list? No, so I fund this 100% myself. No-transcript to get quite a bit more.
Speaker 3:So you know, again, some of the comments we get back from the surveys are people say, like it creates awareness, like people are. Like you know, I didn't even think I could charge for this. I didn't even know this wasn't included until I saw it on your survey. Some people use it as a training mechanism. So we've got over 200 questions we survey throughout the year. So some people will just take like one or two of those survey items and they'll use it as like a training tip every week in their shop. Some people use it as a resource that if an insurance carrier says you're the only one that charges me for that, they can use that to say hey, I'm not the only one.
Speaker 3:And one of the other things that we've done to upgrade the survey over the years is that after each question we also give you a link to a DEG inquiry through the Database Enhancement Gateway that is funded by SCRS and other wonderful vendors. And what we do is we give them a link to where they can see that it's not included to validate our survey responses. And then, the other thing we've upgraded this year and a shout out to SCRS is that we now, anytime SCRS you know how they do their weekly videos. If there's a video that has to do with that specific survey question, we also provide a link to the SCRS video. So we're trying to make it. So it's a resource, but I would just encourage more shops to take it. And we also have shops that say, hey, can you add this question? And we add that question. Right. We also have some shops that say, hey, this is why I don't do this, because, you know, maybe for a valid reason. So it gives us a lot of insights and I just want to say thank you to all the shops that do participate in the survey, but it's something that I fund myself.
Speaker 3:I appreciate John Yoswick at the Crash Network for helping me to compile it, him and Chuck, and we're going to continue to do it as long as shops see value in it. But we just wish. The other thing a lot of people aren't aware of is that if we can get over 100 survey responses from one state, we will publish the state results for that state. So we encourage all the trade associations to really help us to. You know, get more responses per state. You know other things. We also ask is not just not included operations, but we ask people, for example, like if you charge for Feather, prime and Block, you know what's your formula. We ask questions like do you mark up tow bills? If so, how much? We ask like, if, if you have an aluminum certification or European certification, what's your average labor rate on those things? So it's a real robust survey and I really enjoy doing it and I do it just to give back to the industry.
Speaker 1:And that's incredible, mike, and I for one appreciate all the work and the effort that goes into that. To me it's mind-blowing. To me it's mind-blowing there's a free resource like that, where you provide that information that any shop can go wow, I've been missing out. I didn't realize I could do that. It shows that there's 25 other people or three other states or five other areas that all get paid to do this thing that I'm doing for free right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we also publish the results by region and we also publish the results by DRP versus non-DRP shops. And even if you don't take our survey, let's say that you know somebody like yourself, rick, that works, you know, for a paint booth distributor, right? Or you work for a paint job or a frame equipment distributor. You know, like Carline or something. You can actually download the results for free from our website. There's no charge to download the results and they're available free to anyone in the industry. Anybody can go on our website and they can download them as well. So you know if you're a distributor or whatever, and we also. Anytime anybody reaches out to us and says, hey, can I repurpose this? Can I use this to include in my training? You know we absolutely make it available to anybody to use in whatever way that they need be necessary.
Speaker 1:So with that said, and you said you're getting about a thousand responses, so for a quarter, a thousand responses seems so lame for the amount of shops. It's just it's it's unbelievable. Well, I can't say it's unbelievable because I've been dealing in this industry for a long. You know, I was a distributor for a long time and and I was in a lot of shops and I understand, because they're just consumed with what they do every day, or how fast they can get a car done and get out of there and close shop up. But do you have any idea what's a better way to get more eyes on this? Because it is such a great resource and people don't understand that If they haven't heard about it, they don't understand what they're missing. How do we get that message to them?
Speaker 3:yeah, and I apologize for the cough, I'm fighting a bit, that's okay, you know. So, you know, we've wondered if the surveys were too long. They take about 15 to 20 minutes to take and we've asked people hey, is the survey too long, right, and if so, then we'll shorten it and minimize the amount of questions. Um, you know, uh, I really don't know. I mean, you know we every.
Speaker 1:Hey, mike, if they're not 15 minutes, you can sit on a toilet and scroll through social media for 15 minutes, amen, amen, and then think about it. Right, so it's not that it's too long. I know that can't be it. So.
Speaker 3:Right. So you know so, no, no, so hey, amen on that comment, brother, right? So at the end of the day we're just, you know, we just want to get traction and I'm open to any criticisms, any suggestions people have as to how we can improve it and get traction. You know we promoted pretty heavily throughout the trade, all the different trade publications, you know, you know, shout out to Autobody News, fender Bender, you know, you know, autobody Repair News, body Shop Business. I mean, they all support us and I'm grateful for all those publications. But I just think we, you know, again, maybe it's just educating shops like here's the value in it. And again, the more results we get, the more valid the survey results become.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say, if there's a way to and you've probably tried this before, but you know, usually the paint and material distributors and the parts distributors, the shops see those people the most right, correct and they have the greatest potential. And this is something that I tried to do as much as I could when I was a distributor. I saw myself as the vessel to help shops that are just head down, working every day to give them some type of information that might be helpful to them or some best practices. So I think, finding a way to maybe get some of the distributors, some of the parts distributors, some of the tool guys that are in there every single day in these shops, some way to get those people to hey, make sure you check out the who pays for what surveys. You can pay for your tool bill with me with, uh, with all the extra money you'll make, charging for the things you should be charging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we also another thing we do is we also show the trends, like was the amount of um? And again, I gotta always try to be politically correct because, like some people say, the insurance company doesn't pay the bill, the consumer does. But you know, if the insurance case put it as a line item on the estimate we also show, did that increase or decrease compared to the prior year? And then I also try to provide commentary and insights as to why I think things might be trending. Like one of the things we're seeing shops start to charge for now is the removal of static on any type of component, not just plastic but steel or aluminum, right and removal of static because we're seeing that that's something that people are doing much more. So again, I appreciate you giving me the platform on your podcast to even talk about it. So thank you.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, there will be at least five people that listen to this. So you know I'm kidding. There should be a whole lot more than that, brother. There should be a whole lot more than that. But no, and that's part of the reason why I wanted to have you on. It's just because I feel that one particular thing is such a great resource and if I was a shop owner regardless of where I was at performance-wise and you know in my business and all that I would be looking at that stuff. I'd be combing through all those articles and all those informational you know opportunities to go hey, this is one little way to do better in my shop. This is one way my shops are going to make more, or my technicians will make more money. The shop will be more productive. There's so many advantages to that and for me it's just it's a crime that there's shops that will know about this and not participate in the survey. I'm doing good enough. I'm too busy. Everybody's got 15 minutes, like I said.
Speaker 3:So I want to drive. I feel like I'm that Geico commercial in 15 minutes or less we can drive.
Speaker 1:Anyways, thanks for sharing that. I appreciate it. Like I said, I'll offer it to all the listeners. Listen, if you have a suggestion on how to get this out to more people, how to improve it, how to make it more accessible, whatever, feel free to reach out to me, either through the podcast or through my social media sites, through the Collision Mastermind Facebook group, whatever or directly to Mike at Collision Advice. Please let us know how to make this better, how to make it more accessible, because I think it's a jewel and I hate to see Mike get to that point and go listen. I'm only getting 100 people that are actually doing the survey. I'm not going to waste my time and money anymore. I don't want to see that ever happen. So please try to help out. It helps the whole industry.
Speaker 1:Thank you All right no-transcript.
Speaker 3:And even when I owned my shops at that time, dupont, which became Exalta, asked me if I would actually facilitate 20 groups for them and call business councils. And so I did 20 groups for DuPont, slash, exalta for well over 25 years, because I did that even when I had my shops before I started Collision Advice. And then, as I started working with more OEMs because we at Collision Advice now do training on behalf of several OEMs we recognized that we needed to kind of become paint neutral. And so, you know, we had a great run with Exalta and I thank them for the way they treated me and the opportunities they afforded me. But we decided we just needed to kind of come, come paint neutral. So we quit doing 20 groups for Exalta and we and I, I just I kind of like you know, have you ever seen the movie Jerry Maguire with Tom Cruise? And he kind of has this epiphany in the middle of the night and he writes this like document he goes in his office and grabs his goldfish.
Speaker 3:Well, I kind of had one of those nights in the middle of COVID and what I did is I said you know, there's a lot of shops, that number one, you know they're competing with MSOs. They're wondering should I sell? Do I have a chance? There's a lot of shops that I felt were OEM certified, that really weren't working with other OEM certified shops, and I just felt like those shops needed a place where they could network with other people in a productive manner. So I kind of had this thing in the middle of the night and I said you know, I'm going to start my own 20 groups and I want to start it for shops that are OEM certified and OEM focused. Right, and I'm not going to be. It's not like we're an MSO, we're not an MSO, we're just a coaching training company. But I just want a place that like-minded individuals could get together and exchange great ideas. And so I was watching this movie, the Spartans, and I was like, wow, those guys are pretty bad to the bone. And I didn't watch the whole movie, excuse me. So I said, man, I'm going to call this group the Spartan 300s. Well, my team then informed me that the Spartans lose the war in the end. I'm like, oh crap, I guess I should have watched the end of the movie. So I was like you know what? We'll just say we're Spartans and we're going to change the course of history. So actually in the middle of COVID I called about 30 shops that I knew and said hey, I know nobody's meeting during COVID, but would you like to have a meeting in Atlanta, georgia? We'll all wear masks. Because everybody was frustrated with COVID and some shops said let's do it. And that's when the Spartans were born.
Speaker 3:So now we're up to six Spartan groups. We have about 200 shops that we work with and so what it is is we have Spartan Alpha, which is shops that are mostly European shops. That means they mostly fix high-end European vehicles. We have Spartan BMW, which is shops that are BMW certified. We have Spartan Bravo, which is shops that are BMW certified. We have Spartan Bravo, which is shops that mostly do domestic and Asian vehicles. Spartan Charlotte does mostly domestic and Asian vehicles. Spartan Delta, which is people that want to grow and end up being like an MSO, and then Spartan Toyota Lexus, which are shops that you know have like Toyota Lexus certification.
Speaker 3:We're up to six groups and we meet on a quarterly basis. Once a year we have a big symposium, like a big event for all of our groups to come in together, because those groups meet individually and that meeting, our big symposium is actually every April, so it's coming up soon, and we have OEMs there as guest speakers and et cetera. And then we also do coaching calls once a week with the clients and they have an accountability partner. So let's say you and I both were Porsche certified, we'll do a joint call and we'll benchmark our metrics like on Porsche's. We do financial reviews twice a month. We also have a dashboard we built Shout out to Claims Corp with Brandon and CCI and his team and they built a really good dashboard for us where we can benchmark average severity, average body labor hours, paid labor hours by OEM type.
Speaker 3:And it's really just grown. And so you know, at the end of the day we don't do contracts, so it's month to month. There's no contracts like cause I know other companies do that and we just wanted a way. Really it was just something I had in the middle of my life, like my Jerry McGuire, tom Cruise movement, and it's grown from one into six shops and we've got some amazing men and women in there. We got, you know, k&m collision, michael Kyle Bradshaw, which I would tell you but like talk about the best shops I've ever seen in my entire career. They're on there. We got Tim Pap, another guy. That's just standup quality. We have a Dean and his son, dean Jr, and Dan at auto tech. I mean, again, I don't want to be remiss if I miss somebody's name because there's too many shots.
Speaker 3:And listen, we understand that not everybody in our 20 group is doing a perfect repair, but we want them to have the intent that they want to get better.
Speaker 3:So to be a Spartan, you have to have at least one OEM certification. If you don't have an OEM certification, we'll help you to get one. You must be I-CAR Gold Class, and number three is you must be iCar gold class, and number three is you must agree that you're only going to scan vehicles with OEM scan tools or approved devices. Like, I'll be candid with you, I found out there was a client that wasn't using an OEM scan tool in an aftermarket and what we did is we actually removed them from our group because we want people to stand for something. They must set up a perform destructive test weld. So we're really focused on quality and again, I know not everybody's perfect, but the goal is do they have the intent to get better? So I got to tell you it's been an amazing journey and I love it. And people say well, mike, how do you do that if it's just you? Well, the other thing, rick, a lot of people don't realize is Collision Advice is not just Mike Anderson. We actually have 20 people on our team now.
Speaker 1:We're growing 20 people. Wow, that's growing a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we've got Jeff Odenettle, danny Grettenberg also from the DG Stephen Kripes, and they're like our estimating gurus. And then we have Maria Quintero and Robin Reed, sheryl Driggers and Noah, who are like financial gurus. They know CCC and QuickBooks and BusinessWorks NXIVS Inside Out. Then we have Sheryl Dreggers, who's extraordinary on the customer experience and customer service training, you know. So we've got other coaches as well, sherelle and Rachel, and so our team has really grown. But we have actually specialized coaches and so when we're doing our coaching calls, you know, on a weekly basis, you know we coach to whatever their need is and where we see their improvement at. So I'm not very good at self-promoting, but I hope that gives some insights on Spartans and we're just trying to give place of people.
Speaker 3:And again, we're not an MSO, because a lot of people think we are. We're not. We're just a coaching training group giving people. And there's people that belong to our 20 group, that also still belong to a paint 20 group, right, so you know you can belong to another one. But, um, you know, the other thing is we run really hard. Our meetings are from seven in the morning till seven at night. Two days back to back we'll meet in person. So we're not, like you know, golfing and all that other stuff. We're there to put the work in and, uh, it's really big about accountability and just being dedicated to raise the bar of the industry and I get to work some amazing men and women oh, oh.
Speaker 1:that's incredible, yeah, and in fact I know you mentioned it's not an MSO, but you even have some of these smaller, mid-tier MSOs as they're also Spartan members as well. So these guys are at that level, but they also they're OEM centric and and they meet the criteria for being a Spartan. They see that advantage of being part of a, a bigger mind right part of that. So that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 3:So you kind of bring up a comment, um is that you know, I've had over 280 of my clients sold in the last four years. Over 280, right, that's a lot. And like, when they sold, it's not because we weren't doing a good job, it's probably because we helped them to be very successful. They grew from one store, four stores and they sold for, you know, 15, 15, 25 million, right. So I'm happy for them. But I got to tell you, when some of these clients sold it, actually I was actually hurt, like because you get emotionally invested in people, right. And then when they sold, I was a bit like, oh man, you know. But then I had to reframe my thinking, rick, and I said, you know, it's kind of like a sports coach, right, every year your seniors graduate and now I got to go find those new freshmen and help them to become the starting quarterback in the future NFL draft pick of the future. So now I've just embraced my people that sell, I'm happy for them, et cetera. And so now it's like, who has, you know, who's doing a million a year that wants to get to 3 million, who's doing 3 million and wants to get to $5 million? Or who has one store that wants to get to two, or who has two that wants to get to four. And we're just really looking to help people grow. You know we've got Doug Martin and his team out in Indiana. I mean so proud of Doug he's grown from one store to four stores.
Speaker 3:You know we've got the Belize Automotive Group up in Rhode Island They've grown. The Deal Automotive Group they've grown. We got K-Steps in Ohio and Perfection. Perfection's grown from one store to three stores, k-steps gone from one to two. And so, you know, helping them to also understand how to grow and what to do in order to grow. Like, you know, how do you do a pro forma, how do you run a UCC report? That if you're going to buy a business, you make sure there's no liens. What's the right equipment to get? Should I, you know, get a Garmat spray booth, right? So, at the end of the day, right? So we're just there trying to help people to grow right. And you know I don't think this is a doom and gloom industry. I think it's very exciting and right now my goal is to help people to grow.
Speaker 1:No and it's awesome the things that you're doing. You know, I look at it from a perspective of you know, there's a lot of shops out there that probably won't get to that point where they can join a. They're just there, isn't? You know? It takes a certain level of shop, a certain level of ownership, and it's they're not all like that, right, but the cool thing is is it's, you know, the uh tide raises all ships, right. So you're by these people getting that good at what they do and being that educated and growing it.
Speaker 1:I think it helps the whole industry, right, because now the bar has been set higher. You know the value of a repair, the type of repairs that you do, that keeps raising. And when other people can look up to their peers, you know, maybe it's the three guys that they're down this. You know they're buddies with three guys that they're down this. You know they're buddies with down the street that own a shop, but they're part of your group and they see them growing. That's going to inspire them to go. Hey, you know, maybe I could do things a little better. What? What is he doing down there? You know, and the more information we're sharing with each other, I think it doesn't. It's got nothing to do with competition. I think it helps all of us. So I love the fact of what you're doing and I hope that Spartan goes to 600 or 800 or a thousand, right.
Speaker 3:Amen, amen. And you know, and I gotta, I gotta be remiss if I didn't give a shout out and a credit to my team. I've got such an amazing team. You know my two business partners, tracy and Tiffany, you know I just couldn't do it without them. I mean, the only way I can travel and do the things I do is because I have a great team. That's, you know, back home, you know, just, you know keeping everything in order. And, man, I'm so man, my heart, just it just is so overflowing with gratitude, rick, for all the people in my life that have supported me, much like yourself. So, thank you for your friendship and support.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure, absolutely. Your friendship and support, sure, sure, absolutely. And yeah, I, cheryl and Tiffany's are just outstanding people. We deal with them a lot, uh, and I've dealt with them a lot over the years, and just, have you ever had have you ever had Cheryl on any of your podcasts?
Speaker 3:you know she got to co-write a book. She got to write co-write a book with Chris Voss, the Chris Voss, the FBI negotiator yeah, the uh never split the difference.
Speaker 3:never split the difference. Yep, she just co-wrote a book with him. You should have her on your podcast. And also there's a book called the Five Languages of Appreciation and the Five Love Languages, and Cheryl just got certified by Dr Paul White to actually teach that content and apply it to the collision repair industry. So she's like a famous book author and so excited for her as well.
Speaker 1:Tell her. I'll be calling her soon, mike, amen, amen, that's awesome. I believe I'll probably see you at the symposium as well. I think we're going to be there for that.
Speaker 3:Great, we can't wait for you to be there.
Speaker 1:Yep. So speaking of podcasts, you started something new this year. I'm like I've got to be kidding. Mike's going to do a podcast. How's he going to find time for that? So tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:That's what everybody else said. How's he going to find time for that?
Speaker 1:That's why it's on the road right.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So share with us what's going on.
Speaker 3:So you know, I've been very fortunate to be invited as a guest on people's podcasts such as yourself, and I'm very grateful for that. And a lot of people just kept telling me Mike, why don't you start a podcast, why don't you start a podcast? And I was like you, I travel all the time. So I was like man, I just don't know. So what I did is I decided you know what, I'm just going to try it Right and I said but I'm only going to do it and continue to do it If I get a lot of people that you know attend because it's done live.
Speaker 3:So my podcast is live. So I decided to call it On the Road, with Mike Anderson serving up some collision advice, and my goal is that as I travel around the country, I see some really cool things. Rick, I see I go into shops. I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I wish everybody could see this. I'm like, why don't I just start doing this live from the different shops and places I go, so people can see what's out there and expose them to it? Right? And so you know, as you know, I write for Auto Body News and they've been a great supporter of me, and so I went to them and they said, hey, we're all in, we'll help you to market it and help you to figure out all the technical stuff. And then my teammate, trace Dombrowski, who's just amazing, she said she'd help me with it.
Speaker 3:So we did our very first one, I guess two weeks ago. Three weeks ago was my very first one. I don't, it was done live. I think we had don't quote me on this I think we had almost 400 people watch it live and I think right now it's got about 2.9 thousand views on YouTube and it's you can watch it live through Facebook, youtube, all these different channels and I don't even know what they're called, and so our first one we did was showing what the average severity was by state and the average body frame paint mechanical labor hours by state, and Rhode Island had the highest severity in 2024, $6,900. So what we did is we had Randy Batella from Reliable Collision Rhode Island, who's the president of the Rhode Island Auto Body Association, and he was on our podcast to share about the legislation they passed, for example, all OEM parts for the first six years and it's just amazing law and it went out really, really well.
Speaker 3:So our next podcast is March 10th and I'm going to be doing it live from Wallace Collision, which is owned by John Baker and his family in Bristol, tennessee, and we're going to be doing it live from his shop talking about safety inspections like you know, the importance of measuring steering columns and inspecting seatbelts and steering gears, and we're going to do all of this. It's going to be live and he's got this amazing technician named Jason. We're actually going to measure, like a steering column and and inspect the steering rack live so everybody can see kind of how it's. We're going to talk about how they do it. So again, yeah, that's what it's doing and again, I'm only going to do it, assuming that it's worthwhile and people see value in it.
Speaker 3:Right, because I want to make sure that I give people value and there's no cost to these. They can be viewed after the fact and questions. So like if people send questions in, you know, in between the podcast you can go online and you can submit questions. I answer those questions during the podcast and then you can also ask live questions during the podcast and Cheryl Driggers is my co-host and then Cheryl Driggers and I will. We try to get to as many of the live questions as we can during the podcast. So we want it to be based. We want to bring the topics to people that people are asking for, also to discuss some of the burning issues that's going on in the industry, some of the friction points, and again, just give value to the industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's another great idea, Mike, and it's something nobody else has done in this industry to have it live like that and to have two-way conversations, and yeah, I think it's going to be great. I did watch the first one, at least a good portion of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we weren't as polished as you, rick. We had a lot of technical issues when kicking off. That's why, if you go to the video, you probably want to fast forward about the two-minute mark. We just want to polish you, rick, we probably should have had you helping us to do it.
Speaker 1:Dude, you know I've got a team of 50 behind me putting all this stuff. That's just me.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of work.
Speaker 1:It takes time. I've been at this since COVID, right, so it takes a while, but you guys will do fantastic with that. I believe You'll get to numbers that you won't believe probably.
Speaker 3:Again, we just wanted to be valuable to the industry. If it's not, we'll pull the plug on it. But again, we want to also continue to shout out and recognize and support people like yourself as well there, Rick.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that, mike. I really do Like you. I've got a great respect and desire to help this industry because I've you know, not everybody has had the experience I've had is seeing so many shops. I mean, I was in a lot of shops over my career and you know I could see where the pain points were, and that was part of the reason why I started this in the first place was maybe I can help address some of those pain points Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I know this is a podcast for Mike Anderson, but I know you took on a new job in the last year, right?
Speaker 1:And yeah, it's been just under a year.
Speaker 3:Can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing now?
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, I was, uh, I was with, uh, uh, with finish, master and LKQ up until about March of last year and I'd spent enough time in that part of the industry and I've done everything I could do and and uh, so we had a parting. And then, uh, I was looking for new opportunities. You know what else can I do? I'm the same age, you are, mike, and but I, you know, I'm a good 10-15 years away from being done as far as I'm concerned, right. So, uh, I looked at a lot of opportunities, uh, within coaching, within working with shops or MSOs, or or working with distributors, you know, in the equipment side, and I couldn't find the right fit. And then you know Cole Strandberg, right. So I've made friends with him since I met him a couple years ago as a podcaster, and he happened to know somebody at Garmin. He says, hey, I think they're looking for somebody over there, let me connect you. And one thing led to another, and I'm now the national account manager for Garment.
Speaker 1:Yeah thank you very much and it's wonderful. It's great people, great organization. It feels like a small company. It's got a great CEO that's running things and making great strides in their business and how they do things and, yeah, it's just. It's been a wonderful experience and great to be part of that organization. So congratulations.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I appreciate it. They're lucky to have you, my brother.
Speaker 1:Thanks, mike. So, listen, I know we're getting towards the time we need to start wrapping up here, but so you, your collision advice team has grown Cause I was going to ask you about that, but you've already answered that. So you're up to 20 people now and I've got a feeling that's going to continue to grow a little bit more as you add more people in Conferences and trade shows. You are the king of conferences and trade shows. You're at most all of them, but for those that don't normally attend, what are the key ones? And not to diss any of the ones that you don't mention, but what are probably the most key trade shows or conferences that someone should attend if they've never been to one in their market? And they go, man, I want to connect with some of these people from these companies and these guys like Mike Anderson and you know where do I go for that Right, what are the best opportunities for that?
Speaker 3:Wow, wow, wow. There's so many great ones. I know I know, yeah, you can't. I mean you have to start off with talking about SEMA, obviously, right. I mean the educational track that SCRS Aaron Schulenberg and his board put on is just second to none. I mean, they, just they. Every year I go there and there's just so many topics they talk about that. I'm like, wow, where did that?
Speaker 1:come from. Right so obviously SEMA.
Speaker 3:But I understand that everybody can take away from their work or afford to go to SEMA. So then you kind of go to the local um trade associations, right, you have, you know, a bat. Uh did Joel toggle on her team down in Texas. They put on one of the best trade shows in the country. You know, you have the Northeast Trade Show, again one of the best in the country, with Tom Greco and his team and Jerry and all the people at. You know the New Jersey Auto Body Association. You know Mariah Sampson out in Montana. They put on a great. They put on great meetings, right, not necessarily trade shows but quarterly meetings for their team. You know, as you said, you and I were both at AASPI. They had well over 100 people there. You got the Southeast Conference. Now, josh Kent, oh my God, the Southeast Trade Show. I almost forgot that. My God, jordan and Josh forgive me. Southeast Trade Show is just growing Every year. It just gets bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1:I've heard that one a couple times. Show is just growing. Every year it just gets bigger and bigger, and I did that a couple times actually.
Speaker 3:I'm speaking at this one coming up awesome, yeah, I mean the board they have. They are second to none, right. Kyle bradshaw and all the people on the board there, brian carol, brian davies I mean just an amazing. The southeast conference is just amazing. Um gosh. I mean you have the midwest trade show. I mean I don't care where you live out in the united states, there is a local trade show.
Speaker 3:But I would be remiss if I also didn't just say don't just think about just trade shows, think about like CIC. You know, like you just sit at your shop and you just complain about things. Complaining doesn't make things get better. Going on social media and complaining doesn't make things better. Showing up at events like CIC or showing up at your local auto body association board meetings right, that's how you really affect change. If you look at Rhode Island has the highest severity, has the best laws in the entire United States. It's all because of the strength of their association and the board they have. So getting plugged in.
Speaker 3:And again, I want to make sure that there's any trade associations or trade shows that I I didn't speak of. I apologize, but I mean I could. There's. There's so many right right that we can speak about. But and I didn't mean to push you in a spot, I just I just like my mind's going, I start thinking like I forgot about this one, I forgot about that one, right? I mean, yeah, you know um. You know you got the kansas auto body association. You know um. You know gina cotton. I mean they, they, I mean gina, um, kenna doccas, what they're doing out in kansas. Then you got Gina Cotton with the Midwest. I mean there's just so many wonderful events going on.
Speaker 3:And then you have local paint distributors that put on tracers. You know classes, like I think about Matthews. They're a BSF distributor in Pennsylvania. They got Benjamin Stevens. He's like an in-house estimator guru, right, amazing guy. There's just, there's listen.
Speaker 3:There's so many ways for shops to get plugged in today that didn't exist when I had my shops. Man, get plugged in, find something. Remember, stay humble, stay hungry. If you're hungry, you're going to go eat and the way you go eat is by attending events. And yes, there are a lot of events virtual. And there's Kristen Felder. She does a lot of virtual stuff. That's pretty amazing, right. So you know your podcast.
Speaker 3:There's ways to get information, but some, you know, it's like people used to tell me they say Mike, why do I need to go to church? Right, why do I need to go to church? I can watch church on TV, but you know what, that guy on TV that's preaching can't give you a hug. When you go to church in person, someone give you a hug. So there's a lot. You know, there's something you can get at an in-person event that you can't get virtually, and that's just that in-person fellowship, right. And I just think people need to get out more, and I know it's hard to get away from your business, but you know what's that old saying? Even the lumberjack stops during the day to sharpen his saw. And I think we have to do that, yeah that's a great analogy and I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1:And there is a lot of great trade shows out there and, like I said, I I didn't ask question to put you to spot, just no, no, you're good, you're good. I want to see what was top of mind for you, but I've been to love rick. I just want everybody to feel the love brother right exactly I know.
Speaker 1:But I'm glad you mentioned cic, because that's I was going to make sure I mentioned that because that is truly uh meetings of people that are trying to help this industry. It's not a trade show, there's no vendors that are trying to promote stuff, it's just really just a meeting of shops and it seems to be growing.
Speaker 3:And I got to tell you I had never been to an SCRS open board meeting until the one they just had recently, in January, yeah, and in Palm Springs, and I went to it and I got to tell you I won't miss another one. The SRS board meeting was phenomenal. I didn't realize what I was, you know, I always thought it was kind of closed, like you couldn't attend, and then I found out. You have an open part man. People need to attend that a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I'm going to put links to all these, all these events that I can, on the show notes and links to SCRS and CIC and CEMEN and all those. There's so many good things to attend. And I also want to say that I'm in an area where there isn't really any trade associations. I'm in a big state with a lot of collision shops and no association. I looked into starting something up myself, but it's like it's a task I can't take on right now, when do you live at?
Speaker 1:Rick, I'm in Michigan, okay, so a lot of there's east and west Michigan. At one point there was something on the west side, but I think that's kind of fizzled out. But the point is, if you live in a state that doesn't have an association and you're friends with some of the other shops, start talking about it Because you could put your own together and just start this process that could take you to you know where Rhode Island's at now, with having, you know, the power to change some legislation to get things better for the shop. So there's great power in numbers, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:I couldn't agree more, sir, well said.
Speaker 1:All right, mike, I've taken up enough of your time this morning. It's always great to talk to you. I'm thankful you're here for what will be my 200th episode, which is a big deal for me, huge deal, congratulations. Thank you very much. I'll be seeing you soon out there. So thanks again for being here and have a great week.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you. God bless you brother.
Speaker 1:Well, that's all I had for you today. Thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate your support and hope you have a great week. I can always be reached at wwwrixelovercom, where you can find all my social media links podcast episodes, blog posts and much more.
