Positive Paths to Success in 2026- w/ Dave Luehr

**🎙️ Podcast Show Notes:

Does it feel like your shop’s part of a twisted magic trick... now you see it, now you don't? 🧙‍♂️🔮🌟

❓ Slower pipelines 

❓ Increased volume of total losses

❓ Growing insurance pressures … you’re not alone! 

In this week’s episode of The Mind Wrench Podcast, we sit down with industry educator and straight-shooter Dave Luehr from Elite Body Shop Solutions to talk about a better way forward for independent shops heading into 2026.

Instead of fighting the chaos, Dave explains how smart shop owners can become "anti-fragile"… meaning the business actually gets stronger when things get bumpy. We break down a real shift happening right now: more customer-pay repairs driven by higher premiums and deductibles. That work is there, but only for shops that have the right systems in place.

Dave walks us through practical, no-fluff moves you can put to work fast. Front-end triage to grab photos right away. Client-first solutions to keep customers engaged. Built-in financing options through CCC One with Sunbit or other financial tools like Synchrony, so money doesn’t kill the deal. We also dig into “claim avoidance” partnerships with local insurance agents that send work your way even when no claim is filed.

Beyond repairs, we explore smart expansions like glass, ADAS calibration, and in-house car rentals—services that boost margins and improve the customer experience without living on the DRP treadmill. Dave also shares why masterminds, coaching, and a simple daily focus system are helping shop owners grow with less stress and more control.

If you want a clear, positive path to success in 2026, this episode lays out the playbook.

Your 3 Key Takeaways

• Volatility isn’t the enemy—shops with the right systems can use it as an advantage
• Customer-pay work grows when you remove friction with speed, clarity, and financing
• Focused leadership, accountability, and simple daily priorities beat chaos every time

Guest Links: email Dave Luehr - david.luehr@elitebodyshopsolutions.com

🔗 Positivity Summit

🔗 Bodyshop Assessment 

🔗 Elite Body Shop Solutions

Customer Pay Financing Sites:

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back And Audience Ask
• 2:05 Dave’s Intro And Industry Setup
• 6:45 Post‑Pandemic Swings And Insurer Power
• 10:35 Totals, Short Pays, And Scarcity Mindset
• 14:40 Anti‑Fragile Leadership Explained
• 19:30 Opportunity Shift To Customer Pay
• 24:30 Financing Tactics With CCC And Sunbit
• 28:00 Marketing To Win Customer Pay Work
• 31:00 Claim Avoidance Program For Agents
• 36:40 Adjacent Revenue: Glass, ADAS, Rentals
• 40:20 Elite’s New Trainings And Pivots
• 44:20 Horizon Groups For Underserved Shops
• 49:10 Why Masterminds Transform Owners
• 55:30 Accountability, Growth, And Community
• 1:01:40 How To Engage: Body Shop Assessment
• 1:05:40 Positivity Summit Origins And Format
• 1:10:20 2026 Lineup And Registration
• 1:14:20 Music, Identity, And Creative Fuel

Transcript

Rick: 0:00

This week, I'm welcoming back to the Mind Wrench Podcast, one of my absolute favorite people, a true industry leader and educator, my brother from a Southern Mother, returning podcast guest, yes, the one and only Dave Lewer, founder of Elite Body Chop Solutions. This week, Dave and I will be discussing the state of the collision industry from Elite's viewpoint, how they're updating their offerings for maximum leverage. And we'll also be talking about the power of masterminds and Dave's signature annual event, the Positivity Summit, and much, much more. 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. 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. If you've been listening to the show for a while, or been on the receiving end of my daily quote of the day emails, or maybe just catch my posts on Facebook or LinkedIn, you know I'm all about the quotes, right? If you'd like to start receiving my quote of the day emails, there's a link in the show notes to sign up. It's free and you can unsubscribe at any time. Man, I'm so excited for my next guest. This week I'm welcoming back to the MindRanch Podcast, one of my absolute favorite people. A true industry leader and educator, my brother from a southern mother, fellow country music aficionado, returning podcast guest, yes, the one and only Dave Luer, founder of Elite Body Shop Solutions. This week, Dave and I will be discussing the state of the collision industry from Elite's viewpoint, how they're updating their offerings for maximum leverage. And we'll also be talking about the power of masterminds and Dave's signature annual event, the Positivity Summit, and much, much more. So stay tuned. You're not going to want to miss this one. Without any further ado, Dave, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55

It's so good to be back. And and Rick, thank you for the for the kind words. Uh, you know, to you people listening, Rick has been a dear friend of mine now for a few years, and I still don't know how to say his last name without screwing it up. Uh, it's been C Lover, it's been Sulliver, and but you when you say it, it sounds completely different, Rick. I know.

Rick: 3:17

As long as it's spelled right on a check, I do.

SPEAKER_00: 3:21

Thanks for having me back. It's been a couple years since I've been on your podcast, I think.

Rick: 3:25

It has been, you know. I I I'm actually I'm up into the uh uh 25s now. Uh I've been doing this for five years, and I looked back, it's like I had to go back a few years to find I think yours was number 71 and 72. So yeah, it was quite a quite a while ago.

SPEAKER_00: 3:44

So um well, congratulations. That's a that's a lot of episodes. That takes quite a commitment.

Rick: 3:50

It it is a lot. Uh I just got a something from uh podcasting um system I go through that everything gets launched through, and they give you a nice little report on how many episodes you've done and viewing time and all that other stuff. And and I'm in the top 50 percent. So there's over, I think probably three or four million podcast shows out there now. I'm in the top 50 percent.

SPEAKER_00: 4:11

So for me, that's that's huge. What whether it's podcasting or anything else in this world, consistency is is where it's at. You just keep doing it, and that's what you've been doing. So, congratulations! Uh, how many other podcasts have you seen out there that you haven't heard from in years?

Rick: 4:28

Uh there is a lot of them, and when I say there's three to four million, a lot of those, uh, the average is about seven episodes, and people give up. Wow, yeah, seven episodes, and um, yeah, I got to my eighth. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna make it right. I'm gonna make it, but it's it's tough, it's a grind, but I you know, I in all honesty, David, you know this, and my audience knows this. I do this from my heart. I I love giving back this industry. I don't make a dime off this thing. It takes time, it takes commitment, but I enjoy doing these and I enjoy getting to talk to folks like you, gaining some new insights in different parts of this business and uh sharing it with the the collision world out there. So I believe we can all help each other a little bit, and I'm doing my part every day.

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

So thank you. Yes, you are. Yes, you are.

Rick: 5:15

Appreciate it. All right, so let's let's get to this. Um, excited for this today. Uh, for everybody that does not know Dave, um, and I believe there's that's probably a very small crowd, but we're gonna go ahead and say this anyways. So, Dave, um, he was the founder of Body Shop Solutions back in 2014. Uh, so he has a coaching business where he helps shops become better shops in at many levels. Um, he's co-author of The Secrets of America's Greatest Body Shop. So that was a cool little book. You got one there? Just happen to have one. Yeah, I have one too. So, but he did that back in 2017. And it's a great little book, easy to read for us, you know, collision folks, right? We don't want anything too too difficult, not a lot of big fancy words.

SPEAKER_00: 6:01

I wrote it like I like to read them, right?

Rick: 6:03

Exactly. No, it's it's a it's a great book, so I suggest everybody uh contact Dave and get one. Um, he's also a co-founder of something really cool we're gonna talk about later, uh, the Positivity Summit. Something he started back in um COVID, right? To kind of lift the spirits and kind of turn the uh turn the tide on the negative news that we're hearing every day. And he did that with um Ryan Taylor, a good friend of ours. Um, and uh we we'll get into that a little bit later. But uh so Dave's got a great background, he's been in this business a long time, and um he's gonna share some wisdom with us today, and this this will be a great uh go-to episode for any uh independent shop owner so or leader. So let's get to it, Dave. What's uh the we talked about the state of the collision industry for 2026? So 2025, as we all know, was a challenging year on many um levels, right? What do you see for 2026? And can you talk about how this anti-fragile, and I did read that little article, uh how anti-fragile leadership can make a difference.

SPEAKER_00: 7:11

Yeah, let's let's do it. You know, so just a reminder, you know, I've been in this business uh since uh 1983 is when I started like you know as a as a a car painter, right? Before I can became a business owner. So all I'm saying is I've seen a lot of industry transformation over the years. And there's certain things that are very cyclical in in this business. And I think you've been in the business long enough to know that you know, business uh some years is really good and other years it's really bad, but it never stays exactly the same, does it? Correct.

Rick: 7:50

Everybody, always always cycles up and down, always cycles up and down.

SPEAKER_00: 7:55

Um, 20, you know, post-pandemic, and this is something that uh a lot of us predicted we were gonna get super busy, and we did. We felt this glut of work, right? We had two three-month backlogs, um, and we got a little complacent, right? Even though we were saying, look, this isn't gonna last forever, right? Yes. Um, and then that's exactly what happened. So so there was an interesting shift post-pandemic, and that shift was towards the body shops for the most part. It was the still a little bit of the Wild West when it came to ADAS and what we could charge. You know, we were charging whatever the heck we wanted to for EV repairs, and and it felt like the shops had won back a little bit of the momentum for a while, right? Then Frank Turlip came to one of our uh events a couple years ago and says, Yeah, well, that's gonna change.

Rick: 8:57

I remember that. I was at that event.

SPEAKER_00: 8:59

You were at that event, right? Absolutely. He's a wizard. And of course, you know, he uh Frank and his uh crystal ball was absolutely correct as usual. Um he's been in the business, you know, longer than I have, and he's he's very uh in tune with shifts and trends, especially as it relates to technology.

Rick: 9:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 9:20

Um of course none of us saw COVID coming, but uh but he you know he predicted that the pendulum was gonna swing back, and and that's kind of what happened. The work dried up post-COVID, right? Business slowed down, uh uh administrative change in the in the White House, uh uncertainty, all of these things, right, uh have created a kind of a can I say if any four-letter words on this podcast?

Rick: 9:53

Hell yes, you can.

SPEAKER_00: 9:54

Okay, well, it it created a real shit show for the industry and for a lot of other industries as well. We're not alone in this, right? But um, and uh uncertainty is uh the enemy of what the insurance industry lives for, right? They live for predictability, right? They're underwriting, all of that is depends on some predictability and a little bit of stability. Um, without that, premiums have gone up, haven't they?

Rick: 10:25

Oh, big time, big time, double digit, double digit increases, right?

SPEAKER_00: 10:30

Yeah, double digit increases. Um another thing that's happened, total losses. Some some of my uh mastermind members are reporting 30 to 40 percent of their vehicles are now total losses.

Rick: 10:43

If you're running a collision shop, whether second generation, third generation, or original owner, grinding every day, putting out fires, chasing KPIs, working in rather than on the business, and wondering why progress still feels slower than it should, let's take a little pause right here. As a longtime industry supplier, performance coach, and host of this podcast, I've worked inside this industry for over four decades, and I've learned a few things the hard way. Tools and tactics absolutely matter, but mindset drives everything. How you think shapes how you lead, how you hire, how you grow, and how you show up when things get messy. That's where one-on-one coaching makes a difference. You get focused conversations, real accountability, and guidance tailored to you and your shop, not generic cookie cutter advice. The collision repair business has changed dramatically in the last few years. Technology, the tools, the equipment need to repair today's new vehicles, customer expectations that vary by generation, OEM certifications and repair procedures, ADAS calibrations, electric vehicles, and the ever-growing national technician shortage, it's a lot, isn't it? It can be absolutely overwhelming and very challenging in where to focus first, right? If only I had someone who could help me find clarity in all the chaos. If only there was someone that could help guide me through the changes I need to make so I could create a successful business, increase my net revenue. If only I had a coach that could help me without getting in my way, or trying to run my business for me, or costing me a fortune. This is where I can help. The goal is simple. Help you make consistent improvements, build sustainable culture, gain better profitability, and shave years off the learning curve. If you're open to adjusting how you think and how you lead, book a free 15-minute discovery call with me right now. No sales pitch, no blue sky promises, just an honest conversation to see if it's a fit. You have absolutely nothing to lose but everything to gain. Secure a spot now. Well, the bar has been lowered on on what they consider a total loss, right? That it's like 50, 50, 55, which is just crazy, but yeah, yeah, that's what's going on.

SPEAKER_00: 12:52

Um, the um, you know, the the the insurance industry is feeling bold and brazen uh because they they can't they feel they have to be, right? They're they're facing uncertainty as well. Um, so that's kind of swung that pendulum back into their favor. And so uh the the conversations around things like short pays. Remember that we, you know, the the industry, well, if they won't pay for it, I'm just gonna build a customer for it and and then maybe they'll recoup it on the back end, the whole short pay conversation. Haven't heard much of that lately, right? I I still think it's a very viable way of doing business, but but when uh when everything becomes so uncertain and business levels drop down, it's easy for people to enter into a little bit of a scarcity mindset. So now they're like, well, maybe I'll just try to do it for what the insurance is willing to pay instead of you know charging them you know the extra thousand dollars. I really need to do the repair correctly. So even that has kind of changed a little bit. I'm sure you've you've seen that in the people that you've talked to and um some of the other communities that you involve yourself in. So yeah, I'm always interested to see things from your perspective. Does that sound kind of uh what you're seeing, Rick?

Rick: 14:09

So there is there is a mix of that. There's there's some folks out there, some very successful shops um that have stuck to their guns on the hey, I'm billing the customer, regardless. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we're gonna charge for everything that we do. And you know, I think there's some magic in the conversation you have up front before you know, before you sell the bill, right?

SPEAKER_00: 14:41

That's everything. These people that you're referring to, and I know some of these shops have mastered that communication, and a lot of them also have a a pretty kind of upper end clientele as well.

Rick: 14:56

Right. So where it falls, Dave, I from my perspective, is that that's a really small sector of the collision world, right? And there's a much bigger sector that does a great job, tries to do everything right, but they have that fear, man, I pushed too hard. This is gonna be bad for me, right? So they'll and they're slow, they're going, well, you know what, screw it. I'm just you know, I'll try to work with the insurance company as much as I can. And and they fall into that. I understand that, right?

SPEAKER_00: 15:26

That's human nature and now we're trying to save total losses and fix them, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we we see quite a bit of that, but it's um but this uncertainty and and uh and all this negative sounding stuff that we're referring to, yeah, it creates opportunities. It always does. It always does. And and uh you know, we were talking earlier about that that word anti-fragile. Because it really hasn't been a a word that I've heard ever really to describe that. And the here's how the conversation came up. I was we were uh talking to a friend the other uh not long ago. We're talking about making it through 2025 and now we're into 2026. And I and the conversation came up, well, it really takes a lot of resilience to get through this. True. And I sat with that for a minute. So resilience, you know, that's that's pretty noble, right? We're we're tough. Our industry is tough, right? We're getting through some some S H I T, you know, in 2025, and and we're still here, right? We're still here. But then I thought there's a whole nother level. Just getting through is one thing, and it's admirable. But some of the shops, and and and later we'll talk a little bit about the Positivity Summit, but some of these outliers actually benefited from the chaos. It's no different than when I wrote The Secrets of America's Greatest Body Shops. The chaos was consolidation then. Yes. And the book is literally about outliers, the people that aren't complaining about consolidation, but the ones that are benefiting from it.

Rick: 17:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 17:21

No different than what's going on today.

Rick: 17:23

So it wasn't resilience, it's it's how they changed their plans of attack, their moving forward.

SPEAKER_00: 17:30

Um, yeah, so right. So that so I I found this book, right? And it just kind of happened to have the right, it's called anti-fragile.

Rick: 17:41

It's not a book.

SPEAKER_00: 17:42

All right, that's smart. It you know, I've I've been reading this book by uh Nassim Nicholas Taleb. No idea if I even said that right. And every page of this book, uh every page of this book, I have to go to the dictionary and look up what some of the words mean. Okay. It's one of those books. Yeah, right. But I'm but I've I've committed to getting through it because you know what what I I feel like my job on the planet is is to take these complex ideas and and simplify them and share them to help our clients and our our industry. So anti fragile uh is kind of become my mantra for the year. So picture this. Um you go, I was just in San Diego, palm trees everywhere. We had we had wind and and rain most of the time in San Diego. I'm like, why the hell did I even leave Nashville? So we got this storm coming through, and I'm watching these palm trees, and they're like really resilient, right? They they bounce back. But they don't necessarily get any stronger unless you think of like the mighty oak, the mighty oak tree up on a hill, right? No, uh, you know, completely exposed to all of the elements, the wind, the rain, right? For years and years, and it gets stronger because of that, because of the exposure to the things that we may see as bad or negative, it's growing and becoming stronger because of that. That's what anti-fragile really means. So, what does that mean for like an auto-body repair shop, right? That's going through the shit in 2025. Right? There's some specific things or specific attitude, right, that causes people to get stronger when everybody else is getting weaker or just staying resilient. That's anti-fragile.

Rick: 19:56

Yeah, no, that that makes sense. I mean, I think there's shops already. That that are could be considered anti-fragile out there right now. That they don't just get through the shit. They don't just get through the shit storm, right? And go, hope to God, another one of those doesn't hit again, right? And they go back to what they did before the shit storm until the next one hits and they go through that same cycle, right? Yeah. The anti-fragile shop is going to go, okay, this is not going to happen to me again because I'm making these changes. This is what's going to happen to my shop. This is how we're going to set ourselves up for success. Different mindset, right?

SPEAKER_00: 20:33

Yeah. So you like that? Anti-fragile. I do, I do like that.

Rick: 20:37

I don't think I'll read the book because I I have a tough time with some of these books.

SPEAKER_00: 20:40

I'll get you the I'll get you the notes on it when I get through it. If they have one for dummies, send it to me. That's the one I probably need to.

Rick: 20:50

We'll put a link in the show notes for anybody that's interested in checking that book out. I think that's a good idea. So but you know, it's funny you said that earlier. So um what I was gonna say is as we as we have learned through our history, um if we choose to look through a positive lens sometimes at these challenges, challenges will bring us opportunities, right? So not every challenge is designed to just to test our strength and and to test to see if we can be resilient enough to get through it, but usually there's opportunities where there's where there's hard times, there's going to be opportunities. So what do you see ahead in the next 12 months for opportunities for shops that independent shops that had they don't want to just make it through the shitstorm? They don't want to just make it through the next round of of stuff that happens to them, you know. As Tony Robins says, things happen for us, not to us. So what's happening for independent shops out there that you've recognized?

SPEAKER_00: 21:54

So uh by virtue of the uh uh the uncertainty, right? Um it's gonna continue for a while, right? That's that's my thought. I don't have a crystal ball, but I don't I don't see things changing that much from last year in terms of um uncertainty. Um I don't see anything dramatic happening, uh hopefully not, but um what I do see are the opportunities that are arising out of this, and one of these is customer pay work.

SPEAKER_02: 22:34

Ah, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 22:35

Right? Um so again, you could view that as a bad thing or a good thing. It's just it's it's neither, it's just it is what it is, and you have to figure out how to take advantage of it. So customer pay and you know, surveying our own shops in many, many markets has gone from what used to be maybe 10% of the work to uh well over 30%, in some cases as high as 40% of the work is customer pay.

Rick: 23:04

Yeah, it's a big jump. That's a big jump, but I can understand why it is.

SPEAKER_00: 23:08

So, yeah, right. So premiums go up, yep. Deductibles go up as a result, right? So now um that that drives an increase in customer pay. And and and some of it is well, I'm just not gonna get it fixed, I can't afford it. Or um or it's the the work is less than my deductible. You know, we were talking to our shops last week. These guys are seeing deductibles as high as like$2,500.$5,000 was was one of the deductibles.

Rick: 23:45

That's crazy. That's just crazy. I bet it doesn't save you that much in your premium either.

SPEAKER_00: 23:50

So well, well, P it's got people afraid, even wealthy people afraid to use the insurance that they pay for because they don't want their premiums to go up even higher.

Rick: 24:00

Oh, yeah. And and everybody knows it's it's a guarantee. You make one claim, you could be perfect for 25 years.

SPEAKER_00: 24:07

Make one claim, and I guarantee you that next premium is going to be uh uh incrementally higher than what you so two of our mastermind members, uh Larry Piotr from uh Piotr's Auto Body and Spa in New Jersey, and then uh uh John uh Picciano from Flower Hill out in Long Island, these guys work on a lot of high-end cars, right? They're getting their their customer pay. I'll tell you what it looks like. We're talking about like$15,000,$20,000 repair jobs being paid out of pocket.

SPEAKER_02: 24:39

Jeez, that's crazy, just crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 24:42

Yeah. Right. And um, and so again, what are you know what are our listeners, our independent body shops, listeners? What are you doing to attract or to get this work that's out there? Because it's out there, it's just a lot of people don't know necessarily how to go get it.

Rick: 25:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 25:05

That in itself is the opportunity because I'll guarantee you one thing, your big consolidator competitors, they don't know how to go get it. They're they're they're so worried about just getting the DRP work that this is probably not even really on their radar.

Rick: 25:21

Probably not. They they got a different model, right, that works for them. Um, so they probably don't see that. Um or or they just maybe don't choose to have to respond to it, and just well, let that one go down the street to somebody else, and we'll wait for the next couple that come in. I don't know what their mindset is on that, but you bring up a good point. So if that is a uh opportunity, which I think it is, then you guys start thinking, okay, how do I how do I set myself up to be able to bring in these customer pay ones? Should I partner with some kind of financing, some low low-cost financing company or some kind of payment system I can set up with them? I mean, there's obviously there's flexibility, there's a million different directions to go on that, but it it is an opportunity that you can do something with, right? You can figure out a way to make it work for you.

SPEAKER_00: 26:10

I'm I'm guessing 85% of you body shops listening are probably uh probably more than that, or utilizing uh CCC one. Okay. Did you know you could go into the uh into the back end of your CCC one management system and at the flip of a switch you have financing available to your to your customers? Really? At the flip of a switch.

Rick: 26:35

Wow, but a lot of people don't know that.

SPEAKER_00: 26:38

Yeah, well, now you do. Now they do. So uh yeah, so CCC has partnered with a finance organization called Sunbit.

Rick: 26:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 26:49

S-U-N-B-I-T. Sunbit. So they're they're they're they're partnered, right? And uh when you flip on this switch, right, people can come to your your uh the CarWISE to the page, right, and see right on that CarWISE uh website that you have financing options available. Right within seconds, a uh a customer can be uh approved for a no-interest short-term loan. Wow, right? Pay for their entire repair or for their deductible, whatever they choose. Okay, I spoke to uh I spoke to uh uh John Picciano at Flower Hill. He's one of the first of our mastermind members to go out and and do this. Of course, he's taking it to a whole nother level, uh integrating it with Body Shop Booster and all this other cool stuff. Right. Um but already, if you were to go to CarWise and plug in his zip code, he's the only one on the whole page that has financing options available. Um, he's only done about a half a dozen of them, but they've all been approved, usually within seconds. And depending on the uh the credit rating and whatnot, uh will determine the length of payback. So uh minimally, from what I've heard, right? You get three months to up maybe up to a year, interest free to pay back this this loan. All right. The shop then gets uh has to pay a uh a service fee for that, of course.

Rick: 28:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 28:28

Yep. And uh what's what's being debated right now is really what to do with that service fee. Do we pass it on to the customer, or is that something we need to internalize? Right. It can be like four or five percent.

Rick: 28:40

But that's you know, that's a nice win for not just the shop, but for the consumer.

SPEAKER_00: 28:44

Yeah, yeah. And and and it comes back to educating the customer on how to use that, right? I'm not a you know, I got Dave Ramsey that lives a couple miles from me. I'm you know, so I'm real cautious about recommending people going out and getting into debt. Yeah, but if something that people can get you at your house. Yeah. Um so I'm you know, I'm cautious about people getting themselves into uh situations financially that they can't get out of. But if if it's something that is gonna help free up some cash, and if you've got the ability to pay it back on time, then why not? Man, right. No, that's that's great. Yeah, there's another, there's another one out there. Um, and so we've got a guy out on on our on our team uh named Mark Utsig. He's our kind of our financial guru. Maybe you've met him.

Rick: 29:39

I've met Mark, yep.

SPEAKER_00: 29:40

Yeah, uh super bright guy. He's he really likes this other financial company called Synchrony.

Rick: 29:46

Synchrony.

SPEAKER_00: 29:48

Synchrony.com, I think it is. And this is another option. Maybe you don't have CCC or you want to go to a company with with uh uh better rates, maybe I don't know. Uh but but that's another one that you can check out. Synchrony.

Rick: 30:02

Okay. No, that's good. That's good. Um, yeah, we'll uh we'll make sure we have those uh in the show notes. So I'll make sure I get with you later to get uh everything in.

SPEAKER_00: 30:12

Yeah, so that so this is an opportunity, and now we got to figure out how do we go out and get this work? Right? How are they gonna find out about you and why they should bring it to your shop as opposed to everybody else out there?

Rick: 30:28

Right. So that's that's gonna require some kind of advertising or some kind of marketing, right?

SPEAKER_00: 30:33

Some some kind of marketing, right? Not necessarily a lot of advertising that you don't have to spend a lot of money at this, in my opinion, but yeah, um you do have to do things a little bit differently. Um we did a uh Ryan Taylor from Booster, you know, he and I did a strategic growth workshop uh together, and we're talking about how to leverage all of the opportunities um that are happening in the marketplace right now, you know, whether it's uh uh attracting more customer pay or how do we get more dealer work, um, how do we uh uh market better to agents? These are all uh huge opportunities for independence right now.

Rick: 31:14

Right. I think there's a lot of other things out there too, Dave. That um, like I one of my clients, um, he's gone after glass business and actually bought a glass facility that was close to his shop, taking that over, and he's now he's growing his glass business. Nice, he didn't want to get into glass, but the opportunity was there. He took it.

SPEAKER_00: 31:35

Um, he also that's got a nice little ADAS component attached to it now, too.

Rick: 31:40

He's doing now he's doing a ton of ADAS on the glasswork, which prompted him to start his own ADAS company. And he also opened up a uh he he's got a rental uh a rental car company now. Um he talked with uh I think Laura had shoplaner and liked the program. And now he's got I think he went out and bought five or six cars right to begin with, you know, low cost brand new cars, and that thing is paying for itself and then some. He's ready to buy a couple more cars, and just the ability for those that have never even thought about doing this. And and I did a an interview with Laura not that long ago, and it's like it's a no-brainer, it really doesn't cost you much at all for the software, but now you've got the opportunity to grab a car that does come in. The guy's worried about, well, I don't have rental car coverage, and you know, I really don't want to go through enterprise or one of these other ones, and you know, because now the shop just says, you know what, I got you covered, don't even worry about the first couple days. It's on me. They have that opportunity where they can do things like that. So to me, there's there's another opportunity in opening those little um accessory type businesses to a collision shop.

SPEAKER_00: 32:47

Um it can be a really powerful USP, you know, it's a great unique selling proposition, uh, you know, that that'll help you get some work, you know. Absolutely, definitely a good one.

Rick: 32:59

So our point, um there's a lot of opportunities, like I said, during challenges, there's opportunities, and that's just a couple of them.

SPEAKER_00: 33:06

There's probably a lot more, but um I've got I've got a really good one for it. You want if you want me to share it? Sure, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, um, so this this works really well if you uh have like uh body shot booster, right? So um and and AI can actually play into this a little bit too. But imagine that you put a little marketing program together, right, directed towards insurance agents. And this is something Ryan and I came up with and called it a claim avoidance program. So imagine calling like Kenny, this the uh you know, the all-state agent down the street and going, Hey Kenny, I've got this new program. It's called a claim avoidance program. Would you like me to stop by and tell you more about it? He's like, Hell yeah, can you come by now?

Rick: 33:59

Yeah, you'd get attention on that pretty quick, I would believe.

SPEAKER_00: 34:02

Yeah. So so you go down there and you've got this package for Kenny, right? And this package includes the uh ability to send his customer, because here's what's happening these customers are calling, all right. They've got uh$2,000 deductibles, and they're calling their agent and like, I don't know what the hell to do, right? I've got a scrape now down the side of my car. I have no idea how much it's gonna cost. What do I do, Kenny?

Rick: 34:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 34:31

And normally, before you know Rick came and visited him, uh, he would say, Well, why don't you go out and get some estimates and then let me know how much it's gonna be? All right, that's the old school way to do it. Or now, because now he's equipped with Rick's right new claim avoidance program. All he does is say, Mr. Smith, you wait right there. I'm sending you a link. Opens the link, right? Uh it turns on the Body Shop Booster app, takes a couple pictures of the damage, and then 90 seconds later, they've got a rough estimate on what that car is gonna cost. Do I turn it in? Yes or no? Right. That this is called triage. Right. Triage is what I feel our independent collision repair has got to get really good at because, in my opinion, the first person with the photo wins.

unknown: 35:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 35:25

So that scenario that I just painted for you. Kenny didn't get the photos, the body shop did. Right. Right now, the body shop has the ability to reach out, build a relationship with that person, whether they're turning that in or not. And in this package that you're presenting to Kenny is this financing package that you've offered, right? I can take care of your customers, right? Uh, I can do all of that for you. All you got to do is send them this link.

Rick: 35:54

So the insurance company doesn't ever have to pay a claim on that because they're just gonna pay for it with their financing, right?

SPEAKER_00: 36:02

Or maybe, right? Or or maybe they do discover that it's uh a lot more money than they thought and they do turn it in. But either way, you've done a great service for Kenny that he can be proud of, that's gonna reflect great on him, right? And you've just uh created a new referral partner.

Rick: 36:20

Interesting. It's the first time I've ever heard something like that.

SPEAKER_00: 36:23

So yeah, that's right. And uh, and I guarantee you we've got people out there doing this already, right? That aren't even on that all-state DRP that are getting all-state work, right?

Rick: 36:38

Interesting, very interesting, right? See, there's there's always there's so many cool opportunities out there, man.

SPEAKER_00: 36:45

I could I could do this all day.

Rick: 36:47

Yeah, there is a lot of different ways to go. So I I can emphasize with with shops that feel like they're up against a wall and you know, a tough year last year, this year doesn't look any better. And man, what am I gonna do? Well, you gotta you gotta look at it from a different level. You really do. You gotta look at the opportunities that are available. So um, I want to switch gears and uh before we end up running out of time, because Dave, we could do this probably for two, three hours in a row. Ah, how is uh Elite Body Shop Solutions, how have they altered, changed, updated, brought on new um trainings to really address where we're at today and moving forward? So I've seen a lot of stuff coming from your from your company. I see a lot of the emails and a lot of the uh trainings that and I see names that I've haven't seen before and and types of trainings I haven't seen before.

SPEAKER_00: 37:43

So wow, yeah, thanks for asking that. Um we just just like the shops, um, Rick, we've we've had to pivot hard. You know, we had uh you know, uh when everybody had a lot of work, their their needs were very different. And and and so we we uh created this uh three-day workshop called the Advanced Production Management Workshop. We're still doing that. In fact, we've got one coming up at the end of February, 23rd, 24th, and 25th. Okay. Um that class used to sell out within a couple of days, right? Right. So then the world changed. The world changed, and and the importance of people getting work through the shop wasn't nearly as important as getting work to the shop. Correct. So we've pivoted, we've created new adaptations to the advanced production management workshop to show you how to use that as a unique selling proposition to go out there and get all this work, right? I started partnering with Ryan Taylor in a in a he and I have been buddies for years, but we've it's like, let's get serious about what this relation, this strategic relationship looks like and build some stuff together to help shops know how to go out and get that work. So I talked about the claim avoidance program. Sounds cool, it actually works really well, but uh but just to for you people listening, right? You're like some of you are thinking, well, how do I actually go out and do that? So we've created training called the Strategic Growth Workshop and some other things that you're gonna be hearing about this year, about how to specifically go out and build those type of marketing materials, how to go out and articulate your unique selling proposition to agents, to dealers, to mechanical shops, to anybody that has the ability to to refer work to you. So um so we we're we're still teaching people production, right? And that's what we're really good at. But now we've shifted towards how do we get more work to the shop in a lot of our curriculum and education. Right. One other brand new thing that we're doing this year is called Horizon Groups. This has actually been on my radar for a while now. You know, I I don't know the exact number, but I'm guessing there's probably 15 to 20,000 body shops in this country alone that are completely underserved. They're neither little mom and pops or MSOs or you know, big successful shops. Right. And and there's this big gap in the middle of shops that are I feel are underserved when it comes to educational content and just support in general. So we created this new thing called horizon groups, right? These are shops that um they need a little bit of help to get geared up to learn some of the the basics that could someday make them a mastermind member.

Rick: 40:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 40:57

So this is a brand new thing that we've done. These people are very excited. They finally got access to education and community, more importantly, community, right? They're not sitting out there alone in some small town wondering what's my next move gonna be. Right. Now they've got some people they can talk to and and and and bounce ideas off of and and and have a team of coaches that can jump in and help them whenever they need. So it's really empowering and it's uh something that I've wanted to do for a long time. And this year, because of the uncertainty, it was just time to launch that.

Rick: 41:33

Right. No, that's great because some of them smaller shops, you know, the little, you know, two, three, four-man shops that don't feel like they're big enough to be part of a program with a coaching company, right? This is like a stepping stone for them, right? This is like uh, you know, elite light, right? Or their starter point to get involved in a an education community that supports them, right?

SPEAKER_00: 41:57

Yeah, so you've you've met Chuck Acres.

Rick: 42:00

Yeah, yeah. Chuck's great. Love Chuck.

SPEAKER_00: 42:02

Yeah, when I first met Chuck, uh we were just launched, and this was right after the pandemic, right? There was a real need for virtual masterminds. And so when we launched this, Chuck Akers was actually, and uh, we joke about it today, but I call him number one because he was literally the first mastermind person that showed up. And I'm like, Chuck, this is this is not an inexpensive endeavor to be a part of this, right? You're only you're only doing 40 or 50,000 a month out of your shop. He says, I don't care, I want to be a part of it. Wow, that's awesome. Right, he has done everything that's been asked of him, right? He has stepped up and become the leader in his group, which is called the Blue Group.

Rick: 42:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 42:50

Right, and and uh he just built a uh building a brand new shop right now, you know. He's doing two to three million a year, right? And and and so coming back to the point, right? He was essentially a horizon member, and and all he needed was a little bit of guidance. Some he just needed a community to bounce ideas off of, and that's what can happen for any shop that's willing to put in the work and just do what we what we recommend. We've got a playbook, it's proven, it's proven itself hundreds of times, right, in dozens of shops all over the world, right? Just do this and this and this, and you will get this outcome, right? And that's what Chuck did, and that's what we're trying to do for our horizon members. I'm really excited about it.

Rick: 43:42

Now that that is exciting because a lot of these shops don't realize all you gotta do is start. Just as long as you start and make one little improvement, and then you make the next little improvement, it shows up in a PL. And maybe you don't even have a PL yet, but you know what?

SPEAKER_00: 43:58

A lot of them, quite frankly, if they do have a PL, it's simply used for uh a tax return. Yeah, their CPA has a PL. Nothing you can do to improve the business. So that's that's why we we parachute guys like Mark Utsig in, just to help them get their chart of accounts set up. And and if they do have a QuickBooks, not all of them do, even right. Well, or uh or if they don't have a CCC one management system, we we can help them sync that to their QuickBooks and and just sometimes the smallest little adjustments in a business or a little piece of knowledge can completely change the entire trajectory of the business.

Rick: 44:38

Absolutely. No, I've I've seen it happen with shops that you've worked with, I've seen it shops that Mike has worked with. Uh, my little gig, I've made differences with a couple shops. It's like, see, you listen to that one thing I told you. Now look at your results two months later, three months later. That leads to the next little thing. And I I love seeing it. I really do.

SPEAKER_00: 45:02

It's it's the most rewarding by by far, the most rewarding part of my job is just seeing uh seeing growth. And I know it's that way for you too, Rick. You love the industry, you love the people that you get to work with, and that's that's what gets me out of bed every day.

Rick: 45:19

Absolutely. Championing others and seeing what they can do is is always is always been a cool thing. So, you know, I want to talk a little bit about masterminds for a minute. So I was fortunate enough, and for those of you that don't know what a mastermind is, um, in a nutshell, it's it's a group of people, and and these go all the way back to you know, Henry Ford days and even before that. But you know, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, uh Tom Edison, and a couple other folks, they had those are the vagabonds, right?

SPEAKER_00: 45:50

Back in the around the turn of the century, you know, the early 19th century.

Rick: 45:54

Beginning of the century, right? Uh, they got together and they found that they shared the ideas together, they it became a mastermind. So more than two people sharing their ideas and thoughts and working together creates what they call a third or fourth uh mind, which is a mastermind. So the concept, it doesn't matter how big it gets or how small it is, but it's got to be at least three, you know, probably three to four people. But the the knowledge that everybody gains after after you know spending time with others and sharing ideas is just tremendous, right? So fast forward to Dave uh and Elite. Um, they started doing a mastermind and they invited me, I think, to the might have been the second one they had or third one they had. But so I went down and I was part of that, and and I was like as into our live live event in Nashville. Live event in Nashville was there for three days with at that time 30 to 40 people in this group, and um, it was just phenomenal the amount of knowledge they shared, how they worked with each other, worked off each other, and just what you walked away with when you left there was just it was incredible, you know. And I applauded Dave for for doing that because I knew what masterminds were. Um, I talked a lot about them, I understood them, but I was never part of one of them. Man, it was just it was life-changing, right? So Dave's been doing these now for five years with his groups. And um Dave, I gotta ask you, so after five years of doing this, what have you learned from doing these? What about what are the results like? And uh, why would this really be helpful for today's body shop owner uh facing what they're facing right now?

SPEAKER_00: 47:42

Yeah, so similar to you know, we were just speaking to about the horizon groups, that's very much the same kind of a mastermind event. That the primary difference between like Horizon and Mastermind is Horizon's a little more of a coaching group with some interaction and and and some community support, right? Mastermind is a little less instructional and more interaction, sharing of ideas and helping each other overcome difficulties in their business, right? Um it's it's truly transformational. And everything you said about, you know, this is this is the book I learned about mass. This is the actual book, right? When when I was a young entrepreneur myself, uh I started my first business with a$100 bill and a paint gun when I was 22. And uh a couple years later, I'm doing a million dollars a year, and I got 13 employees, and I had these big mega dreams, I mean huge dreams. And guess who didn't have big dreams? My practice wife, Linda, she did not have big dreams, or or her father, or anybody in my family, and I felt very, very alone. Right? And it it got to the point where they had me believing that I was actually crazy. I I went and saw a psychiatrist. I I kid you not. No, I believe you. I actually did, and and you know what she told me? I needed to be more realistic. Oh nice, yeah. A doctor of psychology tells me that I needed to be more realistic.

Rick: 49:33

I would have canceled that check on the way out the door.

SPEAKER_00: 49:35

So that was the last time I saw that woman, right? So I went home and and I sat in my big blue recliner chair at home. I didn't even go back to the office. Screw that, right? I'm done for the day. I just need to contemplate life for a while. I sat in my recliner and I looked up, and there was a bookshelf, right? Dusty bookshelf with this sitting on it, this very book. And I got up and I read this thing all night long until I got to this page right here, page 167. And that's when I got that was one of the biggest aha moments that I ever had in my life. And I really began to understand what the problem was.

SPEAKER_05: 50:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 50:20

And to your point, Andrew Carnegie, you know, uh Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, all these people credit their success to the people that they surround themselves with, people that lift them up instead of hold them down. Yeah, right. Every month during our virtual mastermind meetings that last uh two and a half hours, you see this in spades, people lifting each other up, holding each other accountable. It's not always like love and cuddles, right? Right, sometimes it's holding each other accountable to a higher standard. And that's really the difference between a mastermind and a 20 group, right? 20 groups we're we're we're looking at numbers, it has a value, sure, right? This is this is uh as much body shops speak as we do and and dialogue about body shops, an equal amount is dedicated to personal development. Because our fundamental belief at Elite is that a business can never go past that of its leader, right on, man. Develop development within that person. So for that reason, uh, mastermind is a very unique thing. You're not going to get it at a paint company 20 group.

Rick: 51:38

No, those 20 groups are they have a purpose and they serve their purpose, and it is a lot of numbers.

SPEAKER_00: 51:43

And but just I just don't want people to be confused. You know, what's the difference between a mastermind and a 20 group? It's it's it's uh it's a very different vibe, even though some of the same things happen.

Rick: 51:55

No, but you got you're in a group of people that you know you're compelled to tell the guy next to you that you know, hey, listen, dumbass. We talked about this last time. You were supposed to make this change with how you treat your employees or whatever it is, right? Hold people accountable within that group. And um it it makes a massive difference, it really does. But you gotta be you gotta be in it 100%, and and you gotta be able to take it and give it, and that's what makes the mastermind work, right?

SPEAKER_00: 52:24

That's right. That's exactly right. It's uh it's you know, like the same thing I learned about rotary club, right? If you only show up to expect something back in return, that's that defeats the purpose and it never works. It's you know, you you go with the intention of giving all of yourself to that room, right? And the ironic part is if you can go without expecting anything in return, you get stuff in return.

Rick: 52:55

Givers get, givers get, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00: 52:59

Yeah, that's exactly right. So I've I've told you the story of Chuck Acres already and so many other mastermind members that uh are truly some of the highest performing body shops anywhere in the country. And I'm I'm just I'm proud, I'm proud of them, right? I'm just I I was just the guy that facilitates the meetings and puts things together, and I got a great team behind me that helps do that, you know. Brent and Amy are our coordinator, and you've met a lot of our our team, Rick. But yeah, but it's really the mastermind members themselves that make mastermind special.

Rick: 53:33

Yeah, no, and those are special. And I appreciate you letting me sit in on a couple of those, and uh I'll definitely do that again. But I can see the difference that it makes, and uh, I'm a firm believer in that. And if so, if you're an independent shop out there and any of this resonates with you a little bit, man, reach out to Dave and just ask him, hey, what do I got to do to be part of this? Sounds cool, sounds like it'd be great, sounds like it'd be helpful. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Um, but reach out to Dave and get some particular we make that super easy for them to do.

SPEAKER_00: 54:03

There's really no judgment. Yeah, I mean, we're we're literally working with shops that are doing 30,000, 40,000 a month to ones that are doing, you know, uh millions a month, you know, millions and millions, and and we know how to get people from here to there. So there's there's there's no judgment. We just we want people to reach out if they feel like you know, I can use some help, reach out. And there's a really simple way to do that, right? Whether you're maybe maybe interested in horizon, maybe interested in mastermind, maybe interested in some one-on-one coaching or coming to one of our academy events. The the entry point into our world is what we call the the body shop assessment. Yeah, okay if I if I spoke to that for just a second. It's an easy, easy way for people to get to know us, right? There's no pressure. Um, we've created a simple uh online assessment, bodyshopassessment.com, and and our own mastermind members, everybody takes it. We make everybody take one. Yeah, right. And what we've done is we've just kind of we've we've said, okay, world-class body shops do these things. And there's five different categories. There's financial, there's cultural, there's process, there's risk, there's customer sustainability, right? These are the five areas that we measure against, and the world's greatest shops do these things, and they would score very high on those, right? Between one and five, right? Um and uh so you all all the body shop uh assessment taker has to do is go in and just honestly self-rate themselves on these different questions, and within six to ten minutes, they kind of know where some of their uh improvement areas lie. And then here's something really special that we started doing for them this year. Anybody that takes an assessment with us, we will give them a one-hour free strategy assessment. So you can ask us about Horizon, you can ask us about Mastermind or whatever floats your boat. Uh, but this is a uh a promise that we've made to the the independent repair community. If you take one of these assessments, we will put you on a call with one of our coaches and run you through this and help you lay out the next two or three steps to get you moving in the right direction. No, no uh strings attached.

Rick: 56:35

Right. No, that's excellent. That's that's a great way to do that.

SPEAKER_00: 56:38

Body shop assessment. Yeah, body shopassessment.com. It's just an easy way to meet us and see what we're all about. No pressure, just want to help. Body shopassessment.com. Excellent. It's got a good sound to it.

Rick: 56:52

So excellent. Um, hey, we need to talk about the positivity summit. So that's something you've been doing for this is your sixth year and it's coming up like really, really fast. Um and I know can't why you do this, but explain real quick. Um why how did this how did this hatch during the depths of COVID? And how's it gone since then?

SPEAKER_00: 57:20

Well, I've got I've got my coffee mug ready, right? Because it's a long day, seven hours. I love that. Yeah, Ryan Taylor and I will be on Zoom for seven hours talking to uh roughly 50 different speakers and presenters, uh, most of which are shop owners or managers that are doing some really cool things throughout all our turbulent times. And uh, we bring in a lot of other experts, guys like John Parker and and uh and so many others, but started right uh nine years ago. I created this Facebook uh community. It's called the Elite Body Shop community, it's for forward-thinking, positive thinking uh collision repair professionals that are tired of all the negativity out there. So even within our very positive Facebook community, there were still some very negative comments being made throughout COVID. Yeah, right, and it was a trying time, it was difficult. But there was one body shop owner named Greg Lobsiger.

Rick: 58:30

I know Greg.

SPEAKER_00: 58:31

And I know you know Greg. So Greg spoke up. He he did what he does, and he typed his thoughts about stop being so negative. There's a lot of positive things going on right now that we could focus on. That spurred the idea. I and I and I'm I'm not making this up. Within five minutes of seeing that post, I already came up with the concept of doing this webinar thing, right? And then inviting some positive people like Greg. So I got Greg on the phone. I said, Hey, if I did this thing called the Positivity Summit, would you want to join me? Right. And then we called a couple more people and a couple more people, and pretty soon this thing was like hours long. And I said, Oh crap, I gotta get uh I gotta get my buddy Ryan Taylor to help me. So I call Ryan up, says, dude, would you be my co-host? Right. And here we are six years later, and uh seven hours long, 50 speakers. We got we got one hell of a lineup this year, dude. Uh, not only are you gonna hear from all these amazing shop leaders and telling you about their their secrets of how they're they're dealing with all the uncertainty and and becoming anti fragile, but uh we've got Bo Eason.

SPEAKER_02: 59:49

Big guns, man. Big guns.

SPEAKER_00: 59:50

Yeah, big guns. We got Bo Eason, former NFL star, actor, speaking coach, extraordinaire, uh good friend of mine. He's good. Be doing it, Mike Jones. Discover leadership. Yep. Right. As if we didn't have enough horsepower with Bo. We're bringing Mike Jones in, baby.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:08

Smoking hot stuff there, baby.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:10

That's right. He's going to bring a tsunami of positivity to the summit. Right. And then we just found out yesterday, Mike Anderson's also going to be joining us for the first time this year.

Rick: 1:00:21

Is he really? Oh, that's freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:24

That's great.

Rick: 1:00:25

He probably just bought me out of my spot, didn't he? Son of a gun.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:28

He did. He did. Yeah. I apologize. I apologize for that.

Rick: 1:00:33

That's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah. And that's that's coming up like really, really, really quick, isn't it? February 6th. February 6th.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:42

February 6th. Yep. I think it's from like 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., something like that. In fact, if if you go to, and I'll look this up while I'm talking here, collisionsummit.com. Yep. Collisionsummit.com, that will give you all of the particulars. It'll give you uh the ability to register for absolutely free, right? And the cool part is, is even after it's over, if you didn't get a chance to watch the entire summit, because after all, it is seven hours long. Yeah. But it's surprising how many people come with the intention of only maybe listening to one or two speakers because each speaker only has like 12 minutes.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:26

Seven hours of that. People get sucked into it. And so I'm giving all of you listening to this podcast right now permission to take that Friday off. You've got you can tell your boss, Dave Lewis says, it's okay. It's okay. You got the day off. I'm gonna watch the Positivity Summit. That's right, February 6th.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:46

For their shop, it really would.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:48

Yeah. So many people tell me, man, I I I listen to this or watch it, and I'm just I'm inspired, I'm fired up, ready to take my business to the next level. That's what that's what this is designed to do.

Rick: 1:01:59

Yeah, and nice thing is like if you register and you attend, and let's say you can catch a half an hour of it and you gotta go take care of some other business, you can always come back to it. Even if you don't get back to it, you still will get access later at a later date to some replays of a lot of these key key speakers.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:18

So my my team literally goes in and splices the entire day's video into individual segments that people can go in and and watch for free. For free.

Rick: 1:02:38

Technology costs money, a little bit of money. So and and uh it's a lot of work to that goes into that. So I I totally understand. For you people out there listening, make it a point to check this out. I I think you will not be sorry, and uh you'll that that FOMO fear of missing out will be heavy duty if you don't check it out. So that's true. All right, as we're you know, way past the time I was planning on, but that's okay. I got something else I want to ask you about. So uh something for me is you know, music has always been really an important role in my life ever since I was a kid. I just I can't live without music. I I I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but I really uh I go deep into country music. So it's just one of those things that when I was a teenager, I was listening to you know, a lot of stuff, Ricky Skaggs and and uh you know Willie Nelson and just the whole gamut back then, you know, and that was quite a long time ago. So I've always loved country music and I have it on all the time. And I know when I met Dave, you know, he was big in into country music too, and he's got uh uh a musical background. In fact, he had his own band back before he decided to start elite body shops.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:56

Oh man, we're going, we're going there, huh?

Rick: 1:03:58

Okay, going back. So I just I just gotta say this. So and I was able, you know, I thought that was really cool. And like I said, Dave and I became friends, and I got to experience some of that talent. Um, you know, because I didn't know if this guy was a hack musician or he was in a really big band that you know was you know headlining. I didn't know, right? But I just said, well, probably he could probably sing and play guitar. Well, at uh two of his mastermind events, um, he had put together his old guitarist and Dave, and they did you know a couple sets of songs for his whole crowd there. And I tell you, it was fabulous. I'm like, I was really impressed, David, and how how good the country music sounded, how your singing sounded, you know, how the band was. And so, anyways, um, but I remember having a conversation years ago with Dave and asking him, uh, because I was a lover of music, that um, hey, do you think you'd ever re-engage in the music, right? Remember, Dave? And you're telling me no, I'm I'm past that part of my life, right? Do you remember this, right? I'm not making this shit up. Yeah, yeah, that's true. So the last time we were together at a conference, and I think it was the Tennessee Collision Repairs Association. Uh, Dave hinted towards, yeah, maybe his position might have changed on that. So, Dave, you got anything to tell us about that?

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:12

Um, you and and a lot of other people I I need to thank, uh, including Bo Eason and his team, um, for making me dig out of this part of my life that I thought was compartmentalized, which was the music, right? I I love music like yourself. I grew up in a family uh where music was always around me, and and country music was a big part of it growing up in a little logging community of Dallas, Oregon. And so we, you know, that's what caused me to move to Nashville was being in this band called Lonesome Road. And uh, but being exposed to the music business was a huge turn off. And and at the time, I just I was able to at the time I thought it was successfully compartmentalize. That that's a part of me. I'm no longer country music Dave, right? In fact, in fact, I don't want anybody in the collision industry to ever know that I was a country music singer. So thanks for that, Rick. You know, what I've discovered is you can't just compartmentalize things that are really a part of who you are for a long time, it just it doesn't work, it has a way of getting out. Yep, and and so I decided sure, I'll uh I'll dust off the guitar in the closet and maybe try a couple songs, right? And then next thing you know, I'm performing on the stage in front of my mastermind people, and um I have a different relationship with music because I just don't give a shit what people think anymore. There you go. So I am uh about three-quarters of the way through uh uh writing and recording my own original music. There'll be an album coming out in 2026, and uh and I'm still not making any big promises, but uh but I um I've already done a couple songwriter showcases here in the Nashville area, and we'll just see where it goes. I'm not gonna quit my day job.

Rick: 1:07:15

No, don't quit your day job. You're too valuable in your day job, you really are. Um, but to your point, like I said, I'm I'm I'm glad for you that you decided to re-engage a little bit on the meeting.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:26

I'm happier, I'm a happier person now.

Rick: 1:07:28

Should be that stuff gets in you, and like you said, it's gonna come out, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:31

You're I think no matter what your you know your career is, and no matter how much you love your career, like I I I I can't imagine doing anything else other than you know, run this coaching company for body shops. I absolutely in love with it. But um to keep me sane in that, sometimes I think that we need to embrace some of our other passions and hobbies.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:56

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:57

That just happens to be happens to be mine. Yeah, no, that's the album's gonna be pretty damn good. Oh yeah, the album's actually gonna be pretty good. Yeah, I got I've got some world-class Nashville musicians on this album. It's not not just me.

Rick: 1:08:13

All right, well, listen, Dave, that's uh I'm excited for you. I can't wait to s to to hear that and hear how it sounds. So uh but I do gotta wrap things up.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:21

That's right. And uh we'll do this again one of these days.

Rick: 1:08:24

Yes, we will do this again. But um just on final thoughts, uh, if you could leave just a couple nuggets of wisdom for collision shop leaders that maybe feel right now, if they've made it through this far, uh they feel overwhelmed, stuck, maybe even a little paralyzed just by what things are going on right now. What's a couple things they can kind of hold on to and and maybe get them through? Maybe get them past that being stuck where they are. So a couple little nudges.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:53

Yeah, I got a I got a good one for you, I think. It's um there was this uh this coach I uh I I know of named Brendan Bouchard, and and I told Brendan about how overwhelmed I am about so many things to do, right? And and he said something to me that um I'll never forget. And it was it was like he says, I don't mean to be flippant here, but you're not overwhelmed, you're unorganized. And I went, Oh, right. And when when a lot of you guys out there, guys and gals listening to this, right, when you look down and you've got a to-do list that looks like that, and it's pages and pages long, and then you're being constantly bombarded with this new AI solution and this fancy new shiny object that's coming at us, it's easy to get overwhelmed. And the the secret is uh getting back to the basics, right? Getting clear on which of these activities actually really matter in the big picture. Are they moving you towards your vision or not? Because if they're not moving you towards the things that you really want in life, maybe it's not worth having on your to-do list, right? Rick, you've seen my my my to-do list process.

SPEAKER_05: 1:10:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:22

I've only got a I've only got space for three priorities every day, and I focus on those, and uh, and everything else gets put on a on a to-do list tomorrow or the next day or the next day. And um, so just try to block out some of the noise and chaos in the world. Get back to the things that really matter in your business, right? Things like writing an accurate appraisal, uh, getting your your uh whip optimized, having the right number of vehicles on the property, focusing on on the uh experience that your customers are having, right? So get back to the basics a little bit. We're always gonna have all these fancy solutions for you later on, but that would be my advice, I think.

Rick: 1:11:07

Um that's and that is excellent advice, Dave. I and I fully agree with that too, because I've seen it and I've read it, and I've experienced that you know, dozens of times from a lot of different leaders that yeah, yeah, prioritize a couple three things, no more than that for a day. Get the very most important eat the frog first, right? Get the most important things done.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:30

But here's here's the thing I want to add to that, Rick, right? Most body shops are still to this day owned by former technicians. Same case for me, right? So you're you're you you you believe that the only time you're adding value to your company is when you're working on something with your hands. Producing, right? Producing, and you've got to shake that because truly the only time that you are building a business is when you're working on the business, not on a car or anything to do with that car. So to begin with, especially from some for some smaller shops, you've got to force yourself, you've got to make maybe 30 minutes today, maybe just 30 minutes, I'm gonna work on something on the business, something that's actually gonna move me towards my vision. Because if you just keep working on cars, you're gonna keep getting the same results year after year.

Rick: 1:12:24

Absolutely, 100%. Thank you, Dave. I appreciate that. And uh with that, we're going to wrap this up. And uh, it's been, dude, an excellent conversation today, as I expected it would be. Um, it's good to catch up with you and find out what's going on currently with you and your team. I'm sure I'll be on a Positivity Summit. Uh, so I will see you soon. I'm sure I'll see you at some upcoming uh conferences, uh we'll cross paths soon, my friend. But uh in the meantime, anybody that wants to get a hold of you, I will leave your contact information, uh, your website, all those great things in the show notes, along with links to the body shop assessment tool and the collisionsummit.com for the Positivity Summit. So until the until I see you again, my friend, uh, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure having you on. And uh thank you, Rick. Keep rocking, Hill Billy Dave.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:20

Yeah, thanks, buddy. And thank you, Mind Wrench Podcast listeners. I appreciate you too.

Rick: 1:13:26

Thank you guys so much for being here today, and uh until next time. All right. I hope you enjoyed my interview with my good friend Dave Lewer. And I really hope you found some value and maybe gained a fresh perspective for your business from the topics we discussed. Whether it was ideas to position yourself to win in 2026, the benefits of being part of a mastermind, or learning of Elite's new horizon program, running and growing a successful collision business is more challenging for independent repairs than ever before, but there is help available. Just reach out to the team at Elite Body Shop Solutions for more information or take the Body Shop Assessment as we talked about. I'll leave links for everything in the show notes. Hey, and don't forget to register for the free Positivity Summit coming up February 6th. I'll leave the link for that as well. 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 www.rixdelover.com, where you can find all my social media links, podcast episodes, blog posts, and much more.