I’m at the shop,  sitting here at my desk in the “back office” at 7:10 A.M. and I’ve already been here for forty minutes. I’ve been here just about every morning at the same time since I returned from a SuperConference in Florida this weekend.

The Conference was, perhaps, the best such event I’ve ever attended and I’m still trying to process everything I was exposed to. It isn’t easy… There were seven of the best presenters I’ve ever had the privilege to experience, each one with a unique take on how to run this business more effectively in order to serve you better.

I wish it was more complicated than that, but it isn’t. The whole purpose of the conference was improved shop operations focused on delivering world class service to our clients – that’s you – through more intelligent resource management – a polite way of saying: by running the shop better.

I feel like I’ve been on a treadmill since I returned trying to get a handle on everything I learned and the discussions that followed with two hundred of the best shop owners in the country: big shops, small shops, tire shops, specialty shops, multi-store operations – you name it and they were there.

With the exception of a much smaller group of shop owners that I am involved with that meets twice a year, this was the most dynamic, unselfish, honest and open group of service professionals I’ve ever encountered – and, this is the fourth SuperConference I’ve attended. There was no subject that wasn’t addressed: no questions left unanswered and no information withheld.

I’m bringing a suitcase filled with ideas back to the shop, all focused on improving and enhancing your experience here. We’re going to be integrating these programs and enhancements over the next few weeks and months, so look for the changes.

While it is true that we define service by what we are able and willing to do for you: hours of operations, services offered, etc… It is equally as true that it is you who will ultimately define satisfaction.

So I will be asking you to let us know how we’re doing – whether or not what we are doing works for you. Because, in the end, everything we do is pretty much all for you…

If I were a kid in school today there is no telling just how medicated I’d be. So medicated, the very thought scares me!

I’m sure they would try their best to muffle the chaos in my head: chaos I just couldn’t wait to share with everyone in the classroom either by accident or on purpose. If I had to paint a picture of what’s going in there it would have to look a little like those television editing booths they sometimes show on screen. You know, the ones with two dozen screens showing two dozen different shots of just about everything going on around you.

Well, that’s pretty much the way it looks and feels to me… With a producer shouting, “Give me Two on my count: three – two – one – Now!”

I’ve got an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of white paper taped to the filing cabinet across from my desk with the words “STAY FOCUSED” printed in 60-point, bold type; but, it might as well say, “Pink Bunny.” Or, better yet, “Squirrel!”

Between the incoming phone calls, the work I have to catch up on by close of business tomorrow, the work coming in, payroll, the constant barrage of problems, challenges, opportunities and solutions… Well, I don’t stand a chance. In fact, it’s a wonder I get to accomplish anything at all and I’m sure I wouldn’t if it wasn’t just a matter of sheer force of will.

The most terrifying part of all? I’ve been doing it so long that crazy seems normal: so long, I actually crave it!

In all fairness, it’s a little worse because I was gone for five days and the five days I was gone were spent attending an industry conference that has me so pumped up it must look like I’m vibrating around the shop. It could have something with the “To Do” list I brought with me or the commitment I’ve made to continuing education and improvement. Either way, I know the people closest to me are going, “Buckle your seat belts: Here we go again!” And, they’re right!

As a result of the conference, I’ve made the commitment to bring a number of the possibilities I was exposed to back to our shop, changes that are almost guaranteed to enhance our ability to serve our clients. In fact, I’ve already started implementing some of those changes.

The goals are relatively simple: expand, improve and serve.

Now, all we have to do is do it!

As the weeks and months go by I’ll be bringing some of those changes here and then opening them up for discussion. If there really is anybody out there, you’re more than welcome to join in.

Even if you don’t join in, it should still be one hell of a wild ride: one worthy of your consideration, especially if we are successful.

I know that even though I don’t know how it will end or what it has to offer, I still can’t wait to get started.

Things you learn whilst conferring with the other Wizards…

First, switch everything on in fifteen minute increments based upon electrical demand. That means moderate the way you “wake” the shop up. Why? Because there really is such a thing as a “Demand Penalty.” At least, there is in Ohio which means it would be prudent to check and see if there is one here. If there is, you are penalized when your usage spikes over a certain point in the demand curve: penalized as in a dollar-based penalty!

Who knew!

I’m going to check and if there is such a thing here in the Land of Fruits & Nuts, and if there is you can bet the computers will come on first. Then, the lights fifteen minutes after, and then the compressors fifteen minutes after that. One of the other Wizards, one with three stores, managed to save $10 per day per store! That’s almost a thousand dollars… Not bad for exercising a little self-restraint, especially when you are there forty-five minutes before the first employee shows up anyway!

There were lots of other tricks and tips: ways to save money and ways to make it work for you – and, I mean you as a motorist – more effectively.

I’ll be looking at most of them over the next few weeks, so don’t be surprised if you find them here. I’d like your opinion if you’d be willing to share because most of the changes we are going to make are designed to make your experience here more tolerable if not more pleasant.

On another note, Oz was wonderful, albeit too damned cold and the balloon ride back to Simi was relatively smooth, although too long. But, more about that another time.

I’m sitting at my desk trying to get a handle on my feelings about an impending business trip that will begin this coming Tuesday, March 16.

The problem stems from my participation in the group sponsoring the meeting itself. You see it’s almost impossible to articulate or explain what the group is all about: at least, it is for me. You see it’s more than the sum of its parts. That really shouldn’t be a problem at this point as I’ve already been to a number of these conferences. Nevertheless, it still is.

I could say it’s a consulting company. After all, they do consulting. I could say it’s a ‘coaching’ company. I have a coach. I could say a lot of things about the company, but in reality it is perhaps the most important business resource I have ever found or employed.

More than that, it works! But, that hasn’t helped me to describe it to someone else or to get my arms around it on a personal level. The funniest part of it all is what is currently swirling around in my head: so strange, I’m not even sure I get it myself. What I see if I close my eyes is one of the final scenes of “The Wizard of OZ,” the Hollywood film classic.

Now, you’ve got to understand that as a kid growing up in the 50’s, “The Wizard of Oz” was magical: everything about it. Each element was indelibly etched in my memory: the subtlety of going from Black & White to Technicolor, the characters, the Wicked Witch, the Palace Guards, the Wizard himself, Dorothy, the special effects – which really seemed pretty special at the time, all of it.

So, in a way, my being fixated on a specific scene as I sit here and agonize over leaving shouldn’t really be all that much of a surprise with that in mind, even it if is troublesome to me. Which scene… Well, the last scene in Oz, of course: the scene in which the Wizard announces he is leaving.

This is what it looks and feels like:

LAP DISSOLVE TO:

Ext. Public Square, Emerald City — LS — The Wizard and Dorothy in the

basket of balloon — Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion standing on platform with

them — people of Oz grouped about them — the Wizard speaks to them as

the CAMERA MOVES forward — the people cheer –

WIZARD

Good people of Oz, this is positively the

finest exhibition ever to be shown –

(stammers)

– yes — well — be that as it may — I,

your Wizard par ardua ad alta, am about to

embark upon a hazardous and technically

unexplainable journey into the outer

stratosphere.

MCS — Wizard and Dorothy in the basket — the Wizard speaks to the crowd

o.s. — CAMERA PANS to left to enter the Tin Man and Scarecrow, then PANS

right as the Wizard points to the Lion –

WIZARD

To confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob

with my brother wizards…

Well, I guess if I really had to explain where I was going and what I will be doing to anyone interested enough to ask, that is precisely what I’d have to say: I’m going to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards…

Why? Well, because that’s what Wizards do!

All kidding aside, that’s pretty much it! I’m going to spend the next few days with a fairly large group of very forward thinking, extremely committed, very involved, automotive service professionals absolutely focused on just about one thing and one thing only: improving their businesses so they can deliver the best quality products and services they are capable of in ways almost guaranteed to delight their/our clients.

The agenda is packed with classes, programs, speakers and discussions all designed to make me… make us… even better at what we do, and that is serve you.

Despite the density and richness of the program and the fact that it goes from early in the morning until late at night, I think I’m going to at least try to drop you a line from the meeting. But, for now, I’m going to have to click my heels together three times and say, “There’s no place like Oz! There’s no place like Oz!”

There’s only one thing I can think of that’s worse than being in your car and on your way to the airport at three-thirty in the morning for a six a.m. flight and that is finding yourself in a hotel shuttle van on your way back to the airport at four o’clock in the morning for a six o’clock flight home  some forty-nine hours later.

The six o’clock flight home isn’t the bad part… It’s the traveling in general, the airports and the traffic (Yes! There IS traffic on the 405… even at three-thirty in the morning!). It’s the rush hour traffic you fly into regardless of where you go, especially if where you go is due East and the two or three hours you add to your trip almost certainly ensures you’ll be stopping more than going in the stop-and-go traffic you are certain to encounter. It’s eating alone and being ‘up’ and ready for an eight-thirty keynote followed by a three-hour seminar four hours later. Did I mention the eating alone? And, it’s changing planes or worse yet terminals in Chicago or Dallas.

And… and… and…

The only thing that can make any of it worthwhile: the leaving your home and your life and your business, are the people you meet and the natural beauty that you find yourself immersed in regardless of where you go so long as you allow that beauty to wash over you. That, and the intrinsic beauty of the people you meet every time you venture out into the world and the impact each of them can have on you… if you let them touch your life… And, especially if they allow you to touch theirs.

I left the shop for an association meeting and trade show in Pittsburgh this past Friday. Truth be told, I didn’t want to.

I know… I know… Then, why did you go?

Well, it wasn’t the meeting or the city or even the fact that it’s still winter there. Or, the fact they’ve had more snow than anyone should ever have to deal with. There was just too much going on here: too much going on at the shop, and I was having too much fun doing it to want to go anywhere. But, they asked and I accepted.

So, I got up at three o’clock Friday morning and was on the road by three-thirty.

I went over my notes for Saturday’s keynote in the air. I went over the slides for the seminar I was presenting later on that afternoon. I thought about the internal struggle I am currently confronting as I try to figure out how to break up my marketing budget: how much for acquisition, how much for retention and how much for loyalty and reward. And, then I started to think about how fortunate I am: how privileged.

I was asked… I was asked to share my experience, my knowledge, my life, with some of the most incredible people in the world: the folks who do what I do… automotive service professionals, like me.

They wanted to hear what I had to say. They were gracious and generous and attentive: grateful that I’d come so far to be with them. But, the real truth  is I’m the one who was really grateful. You see, I’ve yet to go anywhere and speak to any group where I didn’t come home enriched by the experience. So, if it sounds like I was whining about the opportunity to get up that early, I’m not. Not, really… I love what I do and I love the people I do it for. In fact, it’s pretty much what I’ve got written down on the little piece of paper I keep in my wallet:

To enrich the lives of those I serve, moving them toward the success that is so elusive in our industry, by sharing my personal knowledge and experience.

In the end, Pittsburgh was wonderful because the people were wonderful (The food wasn’t half-bad either! Especially, that Iron City cheese steak with the coleslaw and French fries built in washed down with some Iron City beer!). So, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll be reading about my getting up long before dawn to share what I’ve learned and where I’ve been with another group of shop owners long before I’ve had the chance to process how much I’ve learned and how much my life has been enriched by the last group of shop owners I just left.

The last few weeks have been tough…

The shop has been busy. We had my wife’s aunt staying with us. I finally managed to overcome my own personal nemesis and Achilles Tendon since childhood, Bronchitis – again. And, I haven’t been able to work out – in the pool or otherwise, since the last time I wrote about it here.

All in all, this is not the optimum scenario for me or anyone else, for that matter.

I think that’s why no one seemed to understand why I would wake up early… really, early… this past Sunday morning to drive the seventy-plus miles to Santa Barbara for a shop management seminar when that’s the same kind of thing I’ve been presenting for more than twenty-five years.

I don’t blame them! At first, I couldn’t understand it myself. Nevertheless, I was driven – figuratively speaking, of course – to do exactly that!

So, after a quick stop at Java Johnny’s – purveyor of the world’s most exquisite (and, powerful) coffee –  for a “special” and a large coffee with a double-shot… Hey! It’s a long drive and the Corvette isn’t the only thing that requires “High Octane” fuel! – Bob Seger, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews and John Mayer found ourselves on the “Old Road” to Highway 126, and then the 101 Freeway to the Fess Parker Inn to listen to my friend, Ken Brookings, hold forth.

It would be hard to describe just how beautiful it was taking the “Old Road” to Ventura and then heading North on the 101. So, I’m not going to try…

I’ll show you instead. The picture quality isn’t what I’d hoped it might be. But, then again, trying to achieve great picture quality while rocketing along at seventy-four or seventy-six mile per hour may not be a realistic goal. Especially, when you’re the only one in the vehicle! And, I wasn’t able to catch the waves crashing over the rocks on to the southbound lanes like I wanted to… So, you’ll just have to take my word for it. But, it was magnificent, nevertheless!

Regardless, I made it to the seminar venue with just enough time to watch the para-gliders do their thing (Sorry, too busy watching and enjoying to think about more pictures…) and park myself for more than four hours of great information, stimulating conversation and a spectacular lunch.

It’s interesting to see how others react to a morning spent like this: Why did you go? Didn’t you have anything else to do? What in the world could possibly be worth that kind of a drive? Or, my personal favorite: I thought you already knew all that stuff!

The fact of the matter is: Information is power! There isn’t anything I wanted to do more than I wanted to go and sit and learn that morning! Hanging out with smart people and listening to what they have to say was well worth the drive! And, yes: I do know all that stuff already! But, as you learn and grow, everything you read or hear or experience impacts you in new and different ways and on formerly unexplored levels based on all the new information you processed. Consequently, the morning was glorious!

Almost as glorious as the ride home listening to the car’s tunes and thinking about all the great stuff I just learned for the first time all over again!

No, not bicycling… It isn’t the wheels that are spinning. It’s my head!

I’m in the middle of what feels like an endless cycle of effort: like being on a treadmill and having absolutely no control of the speed or the pitch and all you are doing is fighting like hell to keep up. And, it isn’t any one thing…

I could lay it all off on the magazine writing I do, but I’m caught up. Actually, if you want the truth, I’m slightly ahead of the deadlines on both magazines: a great feeling if I do say so myself. And, if that was all I was doing I could take a deep breath and maybe even relax a little. But, and you may have already guessed this by now, it isn’t… And, I can’t.

I just finished writing ‘my’ article for our newsletter, AutoInsights… And, a response to a number of the comments on the Counterman.com website – one of the two columns I write each month. There have been forty-one comments on this one particular article – a significant number of comments for a trade magazine, especially one in our industry. And, that deserves (demands) my attention.

Before that, I felt compelled to comment on a blog post penned by the president of one of the trade associations I belong to. Most of the time I’m able to persevere and have the discipline to ignore posts like these regardless of who the author might be. But, this time the subject was one I have written about extensively myself and just couldn’t stay away. I wrote a blog post for my other blog at: CaptainCarFix.blogspot.com. And, a guest editorial. So, it isn’t as if I haven’t been writing.

Quite the opposite, really. I think I’ve been writing too much – just, nothing for here which is why I’m writing this now when I should be getting ready for bed. Guilt is perhaps the most powerful of all motivators and I’m feeling pretty guilty about focusing all my efforts elsewhere.

So, here I am, apology and explanation in hand… With a promise to be more diligent, even if it is unclear who – if anyone – is out there. Regardless, I’m here and as long as I have the keyboard I guess that’s all that matters.

When I return, I’d like to share some of the ideas that have been bouncing around in my head: ideas from the latest of Seth Godin’s two newest books, Tribes and Linchpin. There are some important ideas buried in the pages of both and I think they are worthy of sharing. Until then, it’s time for me to quite…

Know how I know? Lesley, my wife, just told me so!

I went to an association meeting in Santa Barbara last… Well, that’s not exactly true. Actually, I didn’t just go to an association meeting in Santa Barbara last night… I was the guest speaker.

Someone is probably thinking, “Santa Barbara? That’s more than seventy miles away! Why would you leave work early on a week night and fight the traffic up the Coast just to go to a meeting… even if you were on the agenda?” And, realistically, that’s a fair question. It is far, and it is a long drive: especially, after working all day.

The answer is elegantly simple. I did it because I was asked. That may sound like an over-simplification of sorts, but it isn’t really. I write for an industry trade publication and that means putting yourself ‘out there’ and one of the ways you do this is by making yourself available if and when you can.

There is another reason you do it and that reason is just as elegant, if not quite so simple. In fact, it’s a bit complicated. You do it because you have something to say… Or, at least, you believe you do. And, say it you must.

It’s an integral part of who you are, the most basic element of your being here: a big part of your purpose.

I guess, there is a third, less compelling reason as well; and, that is the ride up. If there isn’t any traffic – and, last night there wasn’t any to speak of  - I don’t think there is more beautiful stretch of “windshield time” scenery than the Coast Highway or the 101 Freeway between Ventura and the Northern tip of Santa Barbara.

If you aren’t familiar with the term “windshield time,” I’ll explain. It’s those long, sometimes isolated, sometimes difficult, miles between stops when you find yourself on the road. It is the countless miles with nothing to do but think about ’stuff.’

Last night’s ride to Santa Barbara was one of the best opportunities for “windshield time” I’ve ever experienced in a while: a beautiful sunset after a perfect day accompanied by good company and great – albeit, sometimes esoteric – conversation.

As good as the ride there may have been, the ride home was better… Why? Because, there was more to talk about and one of those many things was this idea of purpose.

I’ve thought about his a lot. And, in the end, I’ve come to believe that purpose is the single most critical element driving any kind of substantive change even if we don’t recognize its presence or understand its role entirely.

It is a sense of purpose that allows us to move out of our respective comfort zones and drives us into uncharted territories and great accomplishment… If we let it.

It is a sense of purpose that motivates us and allows us to stand alone against overwhelming resistance or great adversity: even danger… If we let it.

And, it is almost certainly an absence of purpose that dooms most organizations, projects and initiatives to fail.

Purpose is contagious…  Or, at least, it should be. When it is, it manifests itself as the passion of a movement. When it isn’t, it is almost instantly suspect and you’ve got to wonder about its imperative. A sense of purpose is the gift leaders offer those who follow: and, the purpose of purpose is to guide us and keep us moving forward, ignoring the displacement, frustration and exhaustion that can accompany great effort and/or great change.

On the ride home, it occurred to me that to a large degree this sense of purpose is the great divider separating success from failure; achievement and accomplishment from disappointment and despair. This is important because it forces us to confront our purpose: the what and why of who we are and what we’re doing, and whether or not that is enough to sustain us.

That was a lot to think about on the seventy-three mile ride home; more than enough to keep my mind occupied. For my next trip, I think I’ll consider this concept of purpose and how it relates to Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives.

Would you like to join me?

If you read our newsletter, and I hope you do… You know that this is our 30th Anniversary year at this location and that I’ve asked those of you who have been with us for awhile to share your “Schneider’s Automotive” stories with us.

Thirty years is a long time and as a family, we – and, particularly, my father – were (and, probably still are…) nothing if not “colorful.” My thought was, there is a good chance there are some really “tasty” stories out there and that some of our ‘newer’ clients might enjoy if some of our ‘older’ clients were willing to share them.

You never know how a request like that is going to work out. Lots of people have both the memories and the stories to share, but find themselves reluctant. Nevertheless, I thought I would ask.

I’m at the shop and in my office. I just looked up at the clock… It’s approximately seven:fifty and I’ve been here since a few minutes after six.

If you want to know what I was doing here, pop over to captaincarfix.blogspot.com. It’s all there.

I was just finishing up the entry for that blog – which has a slightly different focus, and consequently, a slightly different flavor – when Suzie Lanergan appeared at the counter. Suzie was in for ‘normal’ service, but couldn’t leave until she shared her “Schneider’s Automotive” story with me: and now, I’d like to share it with you.

Suzie has been coming in since she was in college – she would probably, or will probably, kill me for sharing this because that was a few weeks ago – but, it goes to the heart of what I was asking for. And right now, at this particular moment, there is no way to express just how it made me feel.

Her earliest memories of this place go back to a time when my mother’s office was actually the waiting area and people were supposed to enter through the door that hasn’t opened in decades: the original design – which, of course, didn’t work. Regardless, Suzie remembers coming in, waiting in the office for her car to be done: doing schoolwork, talking to me, Mom or Dad, and then heading off.

When we talk about ‘old’ clients, you have to understand that Suzie’s family is among our ‘original‘ clients: the clients who started with us when we first opened – when I first opened, the76 station on Tapo Street and Cochran – and, that was the year before we opened here.

So, Suzie’s memories go back thirty-one years!

What she was able to express that warmed my heart perhaps more than anything else, was how she felt and still feels coming in after all these years: welcome, respected, recognized and appreciated. I’d say, “like part of the family,” but we all know that we can take family for granted at times.

You can’t do that with clients. At least, not for long.

It isn’t hard treating Suzie like she’s special… She is. In fact, Suzie is wonderful! (And, was trying to save the whales long before saving the whales was as popular as it is today – Just look at her license plate and you’ll see!).

That was Suzie’s memory… She shared it with me and now I’ve shared it with you.

If you have a Schneider’s story, please let me know. I’d love to hear it and if I’d love to hear it, I’m almost willing to bet someone else would love to hear it as well!

I’m sitting here staring at the screen wondering what, if anything, I should write about.

It isn’t that there isn’t anything to write about. There is… Too much, in fact. Especially, today. And, therein lies the problem. It’s the what, not the if!

It’s not a matter of sharing what happened at the shop or within the automotive service industry as it is a matter of how far I am willing to let you in. How much is it reasonable to share? After all, are we sure you are really interested in what’s going on behind the curtain on the other side of the service counter, or is it just a matter of making polite conversation?

For instance, today was President’s Day and we started the day with a full schedule. This is a ‘good‘ thing, something we work hard to ensure. Holidays like President’s Day allow our educators and government workers and anyone else who has the day off to get their vehicles in while they are off and we are working. In essence, a perfect plan if the work involved matches the time allotted.

But, too often, God laughs when man plans, and if today was any indication: God was hysterical!

The phones were ringing and people were coming in even as we were unlocking the doors. There were messages on the answering machine requesting call-backs for additional appointments and people waiting in the waiting room. Everything was as it should be… Or, was it?

I had already received a call from one of our technicians who was stuck out of town – Yes, car trouble!

Seems somehow poetic, doesn’t it? A professional technician stuck on the road with a broken car!

Now, our three-technician shop is a two-technician shop, at least until one o’clock in the afternoon when Javier is due to return.

In the meantime, we’re writing service, documenting client concerns, ordering parts and trying to figure out how we are going to complete twenty-four hours worth of work (3 technicians X 8 working hours = 24 tech hours) with sixteen-hours worth of technicians (2 technicians X 8 working hours = 16 tech hours).

That was before I looked up, realized it was 8:30 in the morning and Bob hadn’t come in yet. I should preface the fact that I had this revelation recognizing that just about everyone here was surviving various levels of the latest flu that was going around. Well, Bob didn’t escape it either.

Twenty-four hours worth of work: one technician: eight hours… Well, maybe, ten… Or, twelve… Or…

That’s when, as a leader, you reach for the Bosun’s Whistle and call: All Hands on Deck!

The great joy, the incredible confidence that comes from surrounding yourself with great people cannot be over emphasized. We: Bob, Frank, Javier, Steve (And, me…) have been together forever… The ‘New Guy’ has been here for over six years. That means that we know each other and know each other well. Even the porters are extremely well-trained. That kind of experience and discipline is the backbone of our shop and when trouble comes; even when it comes in buckets, we don’t panic! At least, not a lot!

We take a deep breathe, figure out what we can reasonably expect to accomplish and then get to business of getting it done. Everyone pitches in. Everyone helps out. Everyone does whatever they can do to get it done.

Sure, there is stress – It’s always stressful when you have to call a client with disappointing news: “I’m sorry. No one came in today and as a result, your car or truck won’t be ready when promised. We hope it won’t be too inconvenient. And, if it is, is there anything we can do to mitigate that inconvenience.”

The amazing thing is that between all of us pitching in we got a good chunk of those twenty-four hours done… and, done right, I might add!

But, I’m not sure I’m ready to share just exactly how we managed to do that! It’s one of those: To write… Or, not to write! issues: a Trade Secret of sorts.

Or, at the very least: a Schneider’s Automotive secret!