Episode #207 -Immersion: A Faster Way to Learn

**🎙️ Podcast Show Notes:

Ever catch yourself saying, “I’ll get to that when I have more time”—whether it’s learning EV repair, ADAS calibrations, or blueprinting for your shop? The problem is, “someday” rarely shows up, and while you’re waiting, competitors are already leveling up. That’s where immersion comes in—a game-changing way to accelerate learning and close the gap fast.

In this weeks’ episode, we dive into the concept of immersion learning and why it’s the ultimate shortcut for mastering complex skills in a fraction of the time. Instead of dragging out education in bite-sized pieces that never seem to stick, immersion pulls you in fully—forcing focus, reducing distractions, and giving you repeated exposure until the knowledge isn’t just understood, but ingrained. Think of it like learning a language by living in the country instead of swiping through an app once a week.

We’ll explore how collision repair professionals can leverage immersion—through intensive trainings, manufacturer events, peer groups, and real-world practice—to stay ahead of technology shifts while everyone else is stuck in “someday mode.”

Key Takeaways:

1. Immersion compresses time—what might take years to learn casually can be mastered in months with focused, all-in effort.
2. Structured intensity beats scattered learning—a concentrated plan of training, collaboration, and application leads to faster, deeper results.
3. The cost of waiting is higher than the cost of diving in—every month you delay, competitors are building skills and taking market share.

If you’re serious about growing your business and not just surviving the next wave of industry change, this episode is your wake-up call. 

Subscribe to the podcast, share it with a fellow shop owner, and if you want help building your own immersion plan, connect with me directly for coaching and strategy tailored to collision repair businesses. 

Visit https://rickselover.com/contact/ for a free consultation to explore how coaching might help you take the next steps!

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Search for a Learning Shortcut
• 3:27 Understanding Immersion as a Mental Hack
• 7:22 Benefits of Coaching for Growth
• 9:18 Applying Immersion to Collision Repair Skills
• 12:05 Creating Your Immersion Learning Plan
• 14:48 Stop Procrastinating, Start Immersing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Perhaps you're in the collision repair business and you'd really love to learn about the latest technologies in today's business that are part of a successful future, like how to correctly address ADAS or safely tackle EV repairs, Maybe get your arms around blueprinting and damage analysis, or even how to change the culture in your shop, but those things will take some time to learn. You're busy enough every day already, right? Isn't there a quicker path? Isn't there some type of easy button I can hit? Well, although there's no easy button for any of us, the good news is there is a quicker path and we all have access to it anytime we want it. It's a very effective mental hack called immersion, and today I'll show you how to use this simple technique to help compress time and get faster results, for whatever you're looking to learn.

Speaker 2: 0:59

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: 1:24

Hey what's up everybody? Welcome to the MindWrench Podcast. I'm your host, rick Salo. 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.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Have you ever wanted to really learn something new? Something big, like maybe a new language or a healthier way of living, a new type of business or a side gig or maybe just a new sector of your existing business? But you keep talking yourself out of it. You just keep kicking it down the road a bit because you're convinced it'll just take you too long. But maybe someday, when you have extra time, then you'll learn it right. Extra time, huh? Hmm, perhaps you're in the collision repair business and you'd really love to learn about the latest technologies in today's business that are part of a successful future, like how to correctly address ADAS or safely tackle EV repairs, maybe get your arms around blueprinting and damage analysis, or even how to change the culture in your shop, but those things will take some time to learn. You're busy enough every day already, right? Isn't there a quicker path? Isn't there some type of easy button I can hit? Well, although there's no easy button for any of us, the good news is there is a quicker path and we all have access to it anytime we want it. It's a very effective mental hack called immersion, and today I'll show you how to use this simple technique to help compress time and get faster results.

Speaker 1: 3:27

For whatever you're looking to learn Now. I know the first mental images you have when you heard the word immersion is probably a person up to their neck in water or some other type of liquid. Right, because that's what we know for sure is having our whole body in water means we're immersed. Maybe a social media video came to mind of some celebrity like Joe Rogan immersed in an ice bath or cold plunge. Those really seem to be popular these days, but there is many more forms of immersion than that. But those examples do have a similar purpose. By definition, immersion refers to the state of being completely absorbed, engaged or surrounded by something. Now there's many ways to be immersed, and most of these involve engaging several of your senses, not just one or two. Like physical immersion, things like a cold pool or an ice bath or cold plunges and hyperbaric chambers are great examples of immersion and used when healing and injury recovery is needed ASAP. Professional athletes have been using these tools for healing during their playing seasons to quickly get back in the game after an injury for years, with incredible results.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Cultural or language immersion this involves living and interacting with people from a different culture to gain first-hand knowledge and understanding of their customs, the local language, traditions and daily life. It may include things like homestays or field trips or participation in local events. Now I once had a customer, a shop owner, a good friend of mine that wanted to learn how to cook authentic Italian food as well as learn the language. So instead of taking cooking lessons here in the US and reading some books on how to speak Italian, he decided to travel with his wife to a small town in Italy and stay with a host family for three weeks where he learned how to cook and speak Italian in their home, while immersed in the culture. He said it was one of the best learning experiences he's ever had.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Now you could buy several different books on how to learn how to speak Italian, even put an app on your phone, but you would probably spend more than a few months learning the language. You know a few pages, a few words at a time and never really hearing somebody in person speaking those words repeatedly day after day. Or you could spend a couple weeks overseas, immersed in the language and probably pick up on more in those few weeks and understand the words better, right? You can experience watching a new movie on a big screen at home or in the movie theater. Or you can get immersed in the experience and see it in an IMAX theater with a floor-to-ceiling screen and surround sound and those active seats that rumble and move and really feel like you're in the movie and enjoy it at a much higher level.

Speaker 1: 6:07

Many top motivational speakers will do live events for multiple days where you go to make major life improvements or learn to create and launch a business, like Tony Robbins does with his Unleash the Power Within event he does every year where you're immersed in learning for up to 10 hours a day, three to four days in a row, where they engage all the senses through lighting, sound, music, visuals, temperature.

Speaker 1: 6:32

But the concept has worked for many other leaders because the focus is 100% on this new growth and learning and undisturbed by our normal life distractors, thousands of people every year will go to destination spas or retreats to rehab their health, maybe eliminate an addiction or rejuvenate their spirit at some off-site location that provides an immersion in beautiful scenery, warm climates, natural surroundings where the complete focus is on your health and recovery. All these various uses of immersion have a common theme they condense the time it normally takes for healing, learning or massive change in your life or business by creating an environment where you're focusing almost 100% on your desired outcome or goal and by engaging multiple senses simultaneously or drastically reducing the distractions that prevent us from staying focused. I truly believe that our own lack of focus holds us back more often than we think. If you're looking for a competitive edge for your business or a more effective jumpstart to your personal development, I'll make your first step super simple.

Speaker 1: 7:37

It is a fact that an incredible number of the most successful business owners, nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies, top-earning professional athletes, entertainers and industry leaders like Microsoft's Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, oprah Winfrey, richard Branson, amazon's Jeff Bezos and Salesforce's Mark Benioff all have one thing in common they all have at least one coach and some have several that they work with on a consistent basis, someone that helps guide, mentor and support them, challenge them, help them set and achieve goals that move them forward and then hold them accountable to follow through, driving personal and professional growth. Working with a coach has many substantial benefits. Just for an example, 80% of coaching clients report improved self-esteem or self-confidence thanks to coaching. 99% of individuals and companies that hire a coach report being very satisfied and 96% would do it again. 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? 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 1: 9:10

So how do we apply this mental hack to help collision shop owners or really any other business owners quickly learn the new aspects of their ever-changing repair environment? Within a couple months, but not take a year or two to do this? Well, it's simple, but not easy. It'll require getting out of your comfort zone. Literally, you cannot accomplish everything you need to learn about ADAS, ev repairs or how to correctly blueprint a safe and proper repair from the comfort of your desk looking at your computer screen. No, you will need to immerse yourself in the subject, the desired outcome, the goal. This will involve leaving your comfy chair, your office and your shop, probably several times. You will have to spend some time, travel a bit, maybe several times, sit with some strangers, spend some money, dedicate a relatively short period of your business life to this desired goal, but you'll save yourself some of your most precious resource time.

Speaker 1: 10:06

The technologies in ADAS and EV are advancing rapidly and the old school method of picking and pecking at information over a long period of time will only lead to frustration and yield poor or little results. You need to get all in and absorb the information and training in the shortest, most compact period of time to be able to understand, adapt and apply the learnings before they change on you. Being in close proximity to others, learning in a classroom or live training environment, as well as those that are doing the instructing, the experts in the field, having that back and forth conversation, questioning what you're learning, getting multiple inputs from those around you just getting their feet wet in this technology, as well as from the ones that are mastering their skills and have had real world experience. They have lived and learned through the process. That's where the exponential learning happens. Now couple that with a mix of online classes provided by ICAR, the equipment and tool manufacturers and industry software providers and coaching groups, which is low-cost and easily accessible without any travel, and then mix in attending some industry conferences and events that include education sessions from industry leaders on those particular subjects. And, man, now you're cooking with gas. You're starting to experience that immersion effect I was talking about.

Speaker 1: 11:27

Now, I know this may sound like a lot of moving pieces because it is, but the key is in scheduling right. Fortunately, there is so much focus right now on these very subjects ADAS, ev, blueprinting that selecting the needed training modules, hands-on events, manufacturers' webinars and conferences to attend should be fairly easy. There are many options in all these categories. They can all be tied close together enough to gain immersion and that multiplying learning effect of immersion. Let's use a probably the least complicated example like blueprinting and damage analysis for your chosen endeavor. Now, if you looked at dates for online training with ICAR or OEM training programs and then you cross-check them with some available webinars and virtual training events, then you add in a regional or national conference or two or trade show where you can interact with the software, tool and equipment vendors and catch an in-person training, you could build a pretty tight schedule that's achievable, and then you could supplement the in-between times, if you have any, with connecting with peer-to-peer coaching groups let's say Mike Anderson's Collision Advice or Certified Collision Group or Dave Luer's Elite Body Shop Solutions and lastly, spend some time at some non-competing shops that are already utilizing a blueprinting process to see how it works in real time and ask the questions. It'll help you get a running start in your shop and then go back to your shop and start practicing some of those processes.

Speaker 1: 12:57

But please understand these new business sectors you're learning to integrate into your shop are not mastered over a weekend and put into place on a Monday. No, they take substantial amounts of learning, understanding, planning, preparation and time before you're able to start that first job. But using the power of immersion, you can condense that time needed to get to that point. Now you can apply the same strategy for any other piece of the business, like ADAS or EV repairs, or even start a completely different, unrelated business. Some will just involve more aspects and options to immerse in than others. Now I've already built a few templates on how to structure this immersion with the help of AI. That includes the types of activities to schedule and attend, as well as the suggested immersion timeline that are all laid out in a logical order. Now, if you'd like a copy of these templates for either ADAS, ev repairs or blueprinting and damage analysis, just reach out to me and I'll email them to you for free.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Look, let's be real here. This is not for everybody. It's not simple, it's not quick, it's not easy and it's not guaranteed anywhere that you'll be successful, but you won't know your outcome until you actually try it right. But if you never bother trying, you do know for sure that you won't achieve anything beyond what you have right now. I've talked with many owners over the past several years that have seen other shops become successful, growing their new ADAS business or gaining new business with electric vehicle repairs, or finally deciding to ditch that old, tired method of writing estimates in favor of a blueprinting and analysis system and make comments like, yeah, I'm thinking of checking into that, or yeah, it'd be great to add to my business, but or, as soon as things settle down a bit, I'm going to look into that.

Speaker 1: 14:43

This may be you too, right? Well, I'll tell you it's time to stop watching from the sidelines. It's time to stop procrastinating. It's time to get in the game. Even if you took 6 to 12 months to get rolling, the 6 to 12 months is going to pass anyways, right, and your competition that's, adding these services in their business will be taking your potential customers that need those services. So the time is now. Quit dipping your toes in the water. Time to take action. Time to immerse yourself, condense the learning curve and make your dreams a reality. Well, that's all I had for you today. Thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate your support and I hope you have a great week. I can always be reached at wwwrickselovercom, where you can find all my social media links podcast episodes, blog posts and much more.