Auto Care ON AIR
"Auto Care ON AIR" is a candid podcast dedicated to exploring the most relevant topics within the auto care industry. Each episode features insightful discussions with leading experts and prominent industry figures. Our content is thoughtfully divided into four distinct shows to cover four different categories of topics, ensuring collective professional growth and a comprehensive understanding of the auto care industry.
The Driver's Seat: Navigating Business and the Journey of Leadership
To understand organizations, you need to understand their operators. Join Behzad Rassuli, as he sits down for in-depth, one-on-one conversations with leaders that are shaping the future. This show is a "must listen" for how top executives navigate growth, success, and setbacks that come with the terrain of business.
Carpool Conversations: Collaborative Reflections on the Road to Success
Hosted by Jacki Lutz, this series invites a vibrant and strategic mix of guests to debate and discuss the power skills that define success today. Each episode is an entertaining, multi-voice view of a professional development topic and a platform for our members to learn about our industry's most promising professionals.
Indicators: Discussing Data that Drives Business
This show explores data relevant to the automotive aftermarket. Join Mike Chung as he engages with thought leaders in identifying data that will help you monitor and forecast industry performance. Whether global economic data, industry indicators, or new data sources, listen in as we push the envelope in identifying and shaping the metrics that matter.
Traction Control: Reacting with Precision to the Road Ahead
Every single day, events happen, technologies are introduced, and the base assumptions to our best laid plans can change. Join Stacey Miller for a show focused on recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean for auto care industry businesses. Get hot takes on current events, stay in the know with timely discussions and hear from guests on the frontlines of these developments.
Auto Care ON AIR
Bridging the Gap in Workforce Development
Discover how to effectively bridge the skills gap in the auto care industry with insights from Dwayne Myers, co-owner and CEO of Dynamic Automotive. Host, Stacey Miller, explores the evolving landscape of workforce development following President Trump’s election win, considering the potential shifts in policy that could impact the auto care sector. Dwayne's remarkable journey from an Army tank mechanic to a leading figure in auto care underscores the power of mentorship and skill development in fostering young talent. Through his initiatives with local high schools, particularly Maryland's Frederick County Career and Technology Center, he demonstrates the critical role educational support plays in shaping a future-ready workforce.
Learn the ins and outs of youth apprenticeship programs and their transformative impact on career paths. These programs offer young individuals a chance to earn while they learn, guided by structured mentorship and clear educational outcomes. Maryland's ambitious goal to boost student engagement in apprenticeships from 22% to 45% highlights the potential of strategic outreach and educational collaboration. We discuss the need for customized programs at county and state levels, ensuring credit-bearing courses that can propel participants toward advanced degrees and greater career opportunities.
Explore the motivations driving millennials and Gen Z within the automotive industry. We dive into the evolving needs of these generations, emphasizing personalized leadership to attract and retain young talent. Through community engagement and storytelling, we advocate for reshaping the perception of automotive careers, ensuring they are valued by future generations. As we navigate the challenges of the skills gap, we focus on collaboration, mentorship, and an innovative approach to workforce development that promises a brighter future for the industry.
To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org.
To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast
Welcome to Auto Care On Air, a candid podcast for a curious industry. I'm Stacey Miller, vice President of Communications at the Auto Care Association, and this is Traction Control, where we chat about recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean to the industry, featuring guests on the front lines. Let's roll. I'm here with Dwayne Myers, co-owner and CEO of Dynamic Automotive, my absolute favorite repair shop up in Frederick, maryland. Dwayne, how many locations do you have?
Speaker 2:Hi, stacey. Hi, it's nice seeing you. We're up to six with the intention to continue to grow at our pace. We're not in a hurry, but it allows opportunity for our team to grow with us.
Speaker 1:Amazing and for those who are familiar with Auto Care Association and the auto care industry, I'm sure you've seen Dwayne and his team all over the map. They are basically famous when it comes to how to run a shop, how to operate a shop, how to hire technicians, which is what we're going to talk about today, and I'm so excited. Obviously, we are at Apex 2024, an absolutely buzzing show floor, and it's a unique year because we just had an election and President Trump just won. So you know we had to dive right into. What does that mean for one of our most important initiatives, and that is workforce development? That is the skills gap, that is making sure that we have more students in vocational schools and filling those empty roles, because we know that we have a really large gap that we need to fill.
Speaker 1:So in Trump's previous presidency, the White House did create a pledge to grow non-college training programs for American workers.
Speaker 1:Trump also issued an executive order directing the government to reduce the use of minimum education requirements for filling federal job opportunities and also convened a policy advisory board that is developing new ways to record worker competencies.
Speaker 1:So there is definitely support from the administration on workforce development, what that's going to look like in 2024 and beyond is yet to be seen, but we're really looking forward to working with that administration on those policies to make sure that we can include the automotive industry in that. There are resources. So, duane, I wanted to talk to you today because you're really prominent when it comes to technician training, hiring technicians, providing the right tools. You run apprenticeship programs. You work with the county I can't even name all the things that you do to create a really strong pipeline for the industry. So, when it comes to workforce development, there's lots of things that happen at the local level. We're going to examine what's happening at the federal level, but with you in particular, I want to talk about where it all started and when did you realize that you needed to start this development and how you got started.
Speaker 2:We got started a long time ago. It's just grown, developed into what it is today, but really it was. We invested in our local high school. They did not have an automotive program in their career and technology center. They had a diesel program that was closing. So we helped support from day one an automotive program, and helped was on their advisory council, helped them with what equipment they needed, helped them get ASC credentials, all those things, so the program could start, which then would be a feeder for us where young talent could come out and not just grow talent Now actually have being a little refined and something we could work with to help produce our future technicians. Wow, and where was that program? Again, it was at our Frederick County Career and Technology Center.
Speaker 1:How far was that from your shop? 15 minutes. So you just walked. You just walked right in there and said hey, what was that conversation?
Speaker 2:like Actually, lee and Jose are the ones that did that initially. They went in and checked and a lot of that they had learned when they had worked with the dealerships. They learned about their apprenticeship programs and they were trying to continue that. So they came into the school and actually met with them Like how can we help you know, how can we help you do this?
Speaker 1:And so what other type of programs was that school offering at the time? So were they also. Were they already offering automotive, or were they offering programs and other trades?
Speaker 2:They had all different trades, anything from construction masonry. Now today they do IT, they do homeland security. Wow, oh yeah they. They are very impressive. They still have like a cosmetology part, uh, very, uh, very uh diverse areas. They have, I think, 23 programs, but the school, uh, the school is past max capacity, to the point they turn away almost as many students as they can take. Wow I think they turned away almost 490 last year.
Speaker 3:Oh no.
Speaker 2:It was a big number, yeah, and which is a shame because we finally got the pendulum moving. Parents are liking trades, students are liking trades. They go, they apply Nothing there, they get turned away. So what do they do? Right back to college.
Speaker 1:Oh man. So what do they do Right back?
Speaker 3:to college oh man.
Speaker 2:So so we got momentum and now we're hitting a door, at least in our County, um, but we are trying really hard to get them a new school, and that's the point is to get them a new school.
Speaker 1:Did you do an apprenticeship program coming up in the industry? Or tell me a little bit about, about your start.
Speaker 2:Uh, my start was in the army.
Speaker 2:Uh, I got, I learned my Army. I learned my beginning technical stuff being a tank mechanic. So I learned there and I had some good mentors in the military that taught me a lot, taught me a lot about how to be a technician. Taught me a lot how to be a leader. Some taught me how not to be a leader. So I learned a lot. But then when I got out, I went to work in heavy duty in a trucking company and I had people there that invested in me. It was learned a lot.
Speaker 2:But then when I I got out, I went to work in heavy duty and trucking company and, uh, I, I had people there that that uh, invested in me. Literally, I was only there a couple of weeks and they had me tearing engines apart you know expensive stuff and I didn't know what I was doing and they just, they just showed me, showed me the way um, nothing was formal, it was just more here's how you do it. And then they gave me the opportunity to make mistakes and I learned that and I continue to use that to today. But when I went back to school, I used my GI Bill and I was going at night. I wanted to be an automotive technician.
Speaker 2:My electronics teacher was Jose's boss at Capital Cadillac and he connected us. So it's part fate, you know, and and uh, uh, you, just, you never know what a decision, how it will change your life. And it totally changed mine because I could have easily stayed there and just kept working and and I was happy. But, man, what a journey I've had since then, getting with me and Jose and uh, and they mentored me and showed me how to be a technician and then we grew together as a company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, someone, someone once told me opportunity is a gift. Um, and the more people I talk to, the more I realized that, dwayne, I think honestly you're one of the greats. Uh, you're just a legend in the industry and as I look at people that you know, I think of our, our, of your caliber there's a similarity and it's that they had really great mentors coming up in the industry or outside of the industry, it doesn't matter, but they were open to being mentored and then they themselves take that and they give that back and they put that out into the universe and I see, you know, like foundationally, that's kind of what apprenticeship is and why it's so important is giving someone the opportunity who may not have otherwise been given that opportunity.
Speaker 2:That structure that apprenticeship brings is what I believe attracts a lot of people. I tell people why do parents send their child to college? And some are going to college for whatever their career is going to be. Some go because they don't know what to do with them. And I tell them that's not a deal on the parents. Their child doesn't know what they want to do. They don't know what to do with them. College gives them four years of structured programming. What I found is our apprenticeship programs give you three years, two years of structured programming, right, so we can take that young individual and I can tell you for the next three years, if you're in a registered program, what you're going to be doing when you're going to do it, how much you're going to make, what the minimum you're going to make when you're going to get raises, who your mentor is and what you're going to learn. And I'll do everything for you except learn. You've got to go do that yourself.
Speaker 1:There's so much, oh my God. The certainty is huge, because I feel like when you're a kid growing up, you know one day you want to be an astronaut or you want to be a marine biologist. I, like all the kids say the same things nowadays. And then you get older and then you're like wow, I really don't know what I want to do. Especially today, I talked to a lot of younger kids in my family and you know I've got a niece, that's, you know, 17.
Speaker 1:And you know we asked her you know you're graduating, may what's your plan? And she hadn't really come up with it yet. You know she didn't really know what she wanted to do. She found it really confusing. She's going to do some community college to see, but she wants to do something. She didn't feel like she needed to go to college and we didn't really force it on her because we said, all right, well, what? What do you want to do? She wants to be an entrepreneur, she wants to have her own business. So you know she's taking some business classes at night. She's going to go to community college and kind of use those skills to figure it out, and I think that's maybe also kind of part of this workforce development thing is like it's okay if you don't have it figured out, but let's try some things and let's put you in some programs so you can test and trial and and see what it is that really lights your fire, so you can actually love what you do every single day.
Speaker 2:That's one of the great gifts of youth apprenticeship, which is which is our high school program. Uh, state of Maryland created it, where they earn while they learn. We pay them at least minimum wage or more and they come in. They know what. We have a goal list. This is what you're going to learn. This is your mentor. We run five, six, seven individuals a year through there because one of our stores doesn't have a quick lube, so we have a lot of entry level help.
Speaker 2:By the time they run that cycle, you know, and it could be a year, 18 months, no longer than two. So junior, junior, senior. At the end of that time, usually, uh, their senior year a couple will go to college and I'm a huge supporter of education. Yeah, some go to the military, huge supporter there. Some decide this this isn't for me, fair, very fair, yeah it, this.
Speaker 2:It was a good experience for both of us, uh, and it's a great time to learn that before you've used a lot of resources I don't want to say wasted, because I think we learn from every decision we make, but I you don't always use them to the best of the ability. But then there's a couple, uh, a couple special people that, uh, showed up on time. Great team players have some aptitude their their hands work with their brains. Those are the ones we take and we put in our registered program. So we're taking something, a known good. Now you know it's not just someone that came into the door, that that you don't know, that they have these qualities, and then we put them in the program. That that known good goes into a great outcome and that's why it works so well for us.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you have programs at the county level you said Frederick County and then there's programs at the mayor. How long have those programs been around? Were you a part of building some of those programs? Because I feel like you had some influence.
Speaker 2:We started in 2016. We've had influence in making modifications, but the youth is now you're dealing with minors very structured. The school system and the state really dictate how it's done to protect the student. It also protects us so definitely. But we can tell them what we're going to teach them. That's the whole goal. Is we create that? They don't give it to us the gift of the registered program.
Speaker 2:I had between one to four years. I picked three because of the education behind it. I went to the college and sat down with them and we came up with a curriculum of what was going to be in our program. And when we looked at the classes because in our program you ended up with 52 credit hours and you go well why you know I had people telling me well, it's cheaper if you just do continuing ed I said no. One day they may decide they want to own a business, they want to be an entrepreneur, they want to go back and get a business degree in associates. I know because that's what I did. I took my associates in automotive. Ten years later got an associates in business. A couple of years after that got a bachelor's in business and I would have never went back to school if those classes I first took weren't for credit. I want my team to have that opportunity because I want them to have the same success and more success than I had.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's pretty incredible. You mentioned that you went to request modifications to the program. What was that process like? So you identified that there was something missing in the program or something that needed to be added to increase the quality of the students, and what do you do? You go and you have a conversation, do you create a proposal, right, like if another shop owner is experiencing this and they want to do this and they want to go to their county or their government. You know how did you go about it and how you saw success.
Speaker 2:In the state of Maryland. They're strong supporters of apprenticeship and every state gets funding. We owe the funding. It's for incumbent worker development. And you go to the Department of Labor and thankfully Maryland has apprenticeship navigators. They have a whole department just for apprenticeship. It's a major goal of theirs to move the needle in Maryland. They have the blueprint. They want 45% of graduating seniors in the next couple of years to be work-based learning or an apprenticeship. We're at like 22. We've got a long way to go. So these navigators, you go to them, they'll come to you, they will help you.
Speaker 2:Now, when I first did my program, they didn't exist, so we had to create it all on our own. I did a lot of research and figured it out. Now, of course, we share our program not with just automotive shops, anybody. You know, if you, if you, if I can help you, I will be happy to help you. Um, and and we pass it along and we've done it uh, people in other States done in the state of Maryland a lot, a lot of presentations, a lot of talks about it, just to raise awareness. Uh, but yeah, they, basically you, just you reach out to a navigator.
Speaker 2:If you don't know that, you just go to the Department of Labor and they'll find one for you and they'll submit the change and you'll go, like in Maryland, they have a council, they are rigorous, to make sure that your program is beneficial to the apprentice. You've got to make sure they're taken care of and you say, well, why? Well, not everybody does it right. You want to make sure it's not lopsided in the employer's favor. It's got to be good for both. But yeah, I've made some. I had to add an affirmative action piece to mine because I exceeded Maryland. If you have five apprentices or more you have to have an affirmative action piece. So went back and added that a few years ago. We currently have six registered apprentices which are in the college, some at three years, some at three years, some at two year, some at one year. So it's a nice, nice pipeline of talent that's just brewing and waiting to come out. And you see some of those three-year apprentices wow really what they're doing is amazing.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, you've met a few oh, I certainly have.
Speaker 1:There's one in particular that's my favorite and you know I think he was at the front counter when I came in to get some service on my car.
Speaker 2:And now sometimes we encourage them because I see so much more than they think is possible and I'm like, oh no, you can do so much more in such a positive way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, when you started this journey, how was the success rate of your apprenticeships? Was it rough at first or do you feel like the program itself, the way it was built, really helped them endure through the process and retain them, and you know they were really viable hires once they were done?
Speaker 2:It was actually a broad time span on that answer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we'll go back to like 2010 before our programs. That's when we saw a major decline in young talent wanting to come into the industry. We would put out ads, we would go into the school, we would talk to the students, we would do demonstrations, we would be there for career night. Parents would come up to us and they're like no, I don't want my child in automotive. We're like why? Well, it's like a dirty industry. You're, you're, you know. And we're like well, no, we're changing, we've gotten better, we're getting better. Uh, in in the technology and all that, you know it's. It's not an afterthought anymore, it's a forethought of of what this industry does. But it's slowly declined more and more. We weren't getting entry level help and we tried and tried and tried and finally we're like all right, we got to do something different because this isn't working. Now we tried working on some of our own apprenticeship programs and it just wasn't working. It's because we didn't understand the structure you needed behind it. That's what was the missing piece the structure.
Speaker 2:Once a good friend of mine she was the secretary of labor at the time for the state of Maryland, kelly Schultz came into a workforce development board meeting First one I was ever at, and there's where volunteering comes full circle. If I wasn't there, we wouldn't have started when we did. She presented this brand new plan of a youth apprenticeship and we connected. She got me started in this, so we started the process. The youth process took me a couple of months of paperwork and all Again at the very beginning. Register took about five months to get together, but in the process we had a field trip. All 72 automotive students came to our shop. We broke them into groups, came to the Urbana store with a quick lube repair shop, car wash and took them around and explained what it was like to be a technician. But then we also explained what our industry was like. We then got into business a little bit and explained this is why we charge what we do. This is why we buy these parts. This is why the different steps of them.
Speaker 2:A recurring thing we had that we heard was what's this about apprenticeship? Like, well, we're working on something. Well, the work had gotten out because we were doing our research. All 72 students knew we were doing something and no one else at the time was doing anything. It was in its infancy, even though apprenticeship has been around hundreds of years, but it's like we forgot about it. And, uh, that day we had six applications. That's more than we had in the previous year wow, six.
Speaker 2:So did it make a difference? Humongous difference to this day. And and we're respectful for it because we still go in to every open house, every uh mock interview, every interlake duane you're not hiring you here. Well, I look at it as branding. Okay, we're talking to these young minds and we might not be hiring today, but one is they now know who we are. In two years they may come back and we are hiring.
Speaker 2:We're also supporting the program that supports us. You don't go there when you need someone, you go there to help them so that when you do need someone, they're there for you. When you need someone, you go there to help them so that when you do need someone, they're there for you. But what a difference To this day. Where I was getting at is we don't need for entry-level help. Whenever they come to us, there's a waiting line. We literally get weekly requests. Hey, I really want to hear about your apprenticeship program. I really want to get a part of it. We're at six stars With 52 team members. We can't have that many, but currently we have quite a few getting ready to do event in a couple of weeks to celebrate national apprenticeship week, and we have currently 11 apprentices that either have graduated or in our program that are in our company right now and we want to celebrate an apprenticeship, celebrate them and help other businesses do this, because we feel that if we you know, rising tide lifts all ships, it's what we want.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. What an amazing story. I mean there are other repair shops out there that would kill to have people calling asking about apprenticeships, asking about opportunities. I mean this is the way we want it to go for technicians across America, for repair shops across America. We know there's thousands of roles that we need to fill.
Speaker 3:Are you looking to connect, learn and grow in the auto care industry? I'm Michael Barrett, senior Vice President of Events and Engagement at the Auto Care Association. Did you know? The Auto Care Association offers incredible events throughout the year that bring the whole industry together. Kick off the new year by attending Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week in January. Hdaw is the largest heavy duty trade show in the United States. If you're in the heavy duty sector, don't miss this opportunity to see the latest product innovations, conduct meetings and network. Don't miss out on this and other AutoCare must-attend events. Learn more at autocareorg forward slash events.
Speaker 1:Did you, when you were working on these programs, look at other programs or other industries for inspiration, or did you really just like draw upon your own knowledge in terms of what you needed to know when you were coming up in the shop and when you were coming up in the business as the manager, as the entrepreneur, to help build those programs?
Speaker 2:Definitely did. Research, looked at you know, reached out like ASC. You know they now have an apprenticeship program because we actually worked with them to help them create it Us and other shops and other stakeholders in that. But there wasn't a lot out there. Most of them had died away in the 70s and 80s and they just weren't around. I know when we graduated our fifth and sixth registered apprentice, chris McLarian, who's the director in the state of Maryland for apprenticeship, told me, said Dwayne, this is a great stat and a horrible stat. What is it he says? You have now graduated more technicians than anyone else in the state in the last 20 years.
Speaker 1:Wow and.
Speaker 2:I'm like it's awful. You know it shouldn't be, but there wasn't a lot of help. So the way I did it was basically went to the schools to find out what do we need. So, you know, ask the technicians. And then, when I was doing it, I'm like, why do we have to have so much in here, so much direction, so much content? Why do? Why do they need to know when they're going to get a race? Yeah, like why. And then I got to thinking about it. You know, when I was 22, I might have liked to know that myself where I was heading, I know, you know. So I get to thinking about, like this actually is pretty cool because they have this pathway where, you know, and it's like a race All right.
Speaker 2:Many times when I was young, you know, I'd get brave enough to say, you know, I wanted a raise and this is why, you know, not because I bought something, because I could do something. I've learned a skill, I've done something better, I've improved myself, I graduated somewhere, um, and and my boss would say you know, great job, uh, let me see what I can do and I'll get back to you a year and a half later. Wow, I'd ask again. And it's not because my boss didn't want me to have a race, it's because we're human and we're going to get to it. We will, I promise, in a year and a half. Yeah, you forget, it gets put on the back burner, but once it becomes part of the program, well, now what? No, it just happens. You know, and and again, it's the minimums. Like, none of our apprentices are paid minimums because we also put little bonus things in there.
Speaker 2:And our youth apprenticeship program this was an add is we added. All right, you start. You know, maryland minimum wage is $15 an hour. Well, I can tell you from day one how you can get two more dollars an hour. Come proficient not an expert, proficient at do your safety training. There's a quarter. Know how to do normal change. There's another quarter. Understand how to create a ticket and appoint a sale. Be able to do a digital inspection.
Speaker 2:We have eight categories there. They instantly know. And how much more valuable is that young individual to me if they can do those things? Yeah, more than $2 an hour, but they know right away. All right, if I learn these things, I can make more money. It's not learn these things, I can make more money. It's not. Hey, I want more money. Well, right, you already know how to get it. The ones that get that are the ones that go up the ladder, the ones that we know they got the gusto. They want to learn. That is a great way.
Speaker 2:And then it's the same thing in our registered program. We have minimums, but if you pass an ASC, instantly get a raise. Literally every ASC that we have we have them all listed. You get a raise. Literally every asc that we have, we have them all listed. You get a raise right away for it. You get a state and special license, get a race, you know, put all that in there. So it's not just when we're going to reward you for merit or time you do these actions, you it's next paycheck. There it is yeah, and they enjoy that and it's thankfully we've gotten to that point. I do believe that, uh, current generations and newer generations want to see that they want more clarity where?
Speaker 2:I lived in a time where you just put your nose down and worked exactly. I think this is better with clarity, because now they can go further. You can do more. You go further.
Speaker 1:Anytime you have a goal, you're gonna get closer to it than if you had no goal of course it's like we like we use that thermometer kind of analogy at work all the time, right, like if you know that your progress is 10% and your colleague's progress is maybe 60%, it's going to make you also work a little bit harder to get there. But also, seeing that thermometer not full, that progress bar not full, it incentivizes you to do more because it gives you that boost, those endorphins when you see that thermometer or that progress bar kind of get filled up and then you're being rewarded for it. You're being incentivized for it. So I really love that approach because I think a lot about you know there's a lot of conversation about generation gap and working with different generations and how it's. They're different, right, like your generation is different than my generation and Gen Z is different than me. Do you just call me old?
Speaker 1:No, I just know you're not a millennial but I'm an elder millennial at least that's what they, that's what I got called at the last conference, so I'm still kind of coming to grips with that.
Speaker 2:When we started these programs, millennials were the main talent pool that we were pulling from and when I would do presentations, that was a constant you can say complaint comment. You know a millennial didn't want to do this, doesn't want to do that.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:I'm like, well, no, you're looking at it wrong. I looked at like there's different segments in there and there's some that, no, they're just not for us. And I'm like, well, no, you're looking at it wrong. I looked at like there's different segments in there and there's some that know that they're just not for us. And that's cool, Don't do you? Then there's some that were very capable and then there's some in the middle that just didn't know. So those two I thought were good for us Until recently. Actually, I think we don't have any Gen. I don't think we have any Gen X technicians, because they've all been promoted to leaders. Wow, yeah, they're either millennial or Z. I tell you what I'm loving Zs. Yeah, I am loving them. Tell me, I feel like they're more like Xs. They're diving in heavy. They want to work on vehicles. They want to be a part of that. I think millennials wanted to save the world. They want to be a part of that. I think millennials wanted to save the world.
Speaker 2:It needs saved. No doubt I think Z's want to fix it. They want to get in there and do it, and I see that. I feel like, and there's not bad either way. You just have to understand them. That way you can motivate them. If you don't understand their goals and where they want to be at, then how can you attract them?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, we did a podcast with Kath and how can you attract them? Absolutely. We did a podcast with Kath Gosh. I'm blanking on her name, but I did a podcast. We did a podcast with Shari Pheasant.
Speaker 2:Oh, the 2024 Shop Owner of the Year at Apex.
Speaker 1:Fantastic award, recipient of that award, absolutely phenomenal leader, and she gave me the tiniest glimpse into her leadership style. And a really big part of it is learning about people and what motivates them, and I learned from her in 10 minutes more than I've learned in my entire career. I have to spend more time with her, but you couldn't be more correct, right? If you learn more about them and learn what motivates them, it's less about lumping them into a generation and assuming, hey, they all work like this and this is how they react.
Speaker 1:There's different segments of those generations and learning about what motivates them makes it a lot easier to work with them and collaborate with them. And you know, I had my assumptions as well. Right, because I think Gen Z is instant gratification, right, like it's. We're in this really weird era that was sparked by COVID, where, you know, everyone's a content creator, everybody can make money on social media, everybody can go viral and be a sensation overnight, but it's an instant gratification if you get it. But it's also a short term thing, right.
Speaker 1:And when we're talking about careers in the auto care industry, particularly those that repair, especially if you want to be a business owner, an entrepreneur, right, this is the long term. This is like building a financial future. This is securing a legacy for you and your family. And so I wonder myself, is that something that this generation is interested in? But laying the path to show them why careers like this are so important and can be so fulfilling, like, I just love that we're doing that, because not only is it, it's long term, but it's something that contributes to the you know, the world and industry that relies on us so much, and some of those studies that we read about millennials, gen Z, they really want to one. They buy from brands that mean something to them, that contribute to society, but they really want to one. They buy from brands that mean something to them, that contribute to society, but then they also want to be contributors to those and enact change and help change the world.
Speaker 1:And I think that we don't think about automotive in that way and that we're changing the world, but when you think about it in that we're making sure that your mom can get you to soccer practice, we're making sure that you have groceries on the table or that you can get to the hospital if you need help or that the police can get to your house. But you know, there's really different ways to illustrate it that I think could help resonate with these generations in a campaign and, like, I really look forward to figuring out what those campaigns are and working with this new administration to get more of this out there. Because it becomes inspiring when I walk into your shop and I see a young lady working on the floor on a car and she's so excited when I come in with my car and we get to chit-chatting and you know it's just honestly, it's awe-inspiring and I never knew how good it could feel and I want other people to feel that too.
Speaker 2:That young lady wants to own a shop one day. She's gonna. She worked at Best Buy and a friend of mine connected us cause they, you got to talking to her and she said I want to own a shop, I want to connect you with a friend of mine who will help you do that and she's on a journey and she is a Gen Z and she is on a journey to do that, but she is putting all her effort in 100%. And you know, you touched on something about we recently, about a year and a half ago, rolled out a new mission, vision, value statement. We needed to update it and our mission is to keep lives moving forward, because we do so much more than fix cars. So we rolled it out.
Speaker 2:I did a pep talk. I wanted our team to understand what they're doing for people. Is it being proud of who you are and what you do? You're not just fixing their car. You're giving them safety, security, the ability to have a better job, provide for their family, the ability to take their kids to a soccer game. You're helping people have good lives and be proud of that. And you're like, because they're looking like, I just fixed cars. No, you don't. You do so much more and I constantly tell them that Be proud of yourself and what you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's such an important story, I think, to be told here right.
Speaker 1:So we're talking about workforce development and the skills gap, and a lot of it has to do with developing programs, supporting programs, working with apprenticeship programs, finding grants, like a lot of stuff on the local and federal level.
Speaker 1:But there's also education and a storytelling aspect to it, and I think one of the things that we forget, especially if you work in the industry, is that we're all ambassadors of this great place and part of this is education to our local lawmakers and education to those agencies that can help and provide those grants, so they understand how essential we are, what we provide, the success stories, what we contribute, how many of us there are, and what we contribute to and what it means to the good American people to have some freedom to hop in their vehicle or any type of vehicle and go where they want to go and do what they want to do, especially in a time where there was a time where we thought we wouldn't be able to go anywhere for the foreseeable future. You know, there was a time where we thought we wouldn't be able to go anywhere for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2:Covid gave us a gift as many bad things as there was. I believe that america fell back in love with the car. Yeah, they, they, they were. You were having generations not get their driver's license. They didn't want them, and once we took that freedom away because we couldn't go places, they, they realized what they were losing and they grabbed it and held back onto it. So there was so much bad out of COVID, but there is some sun like to see, and one of those is the fact that I think the American public realizes that love affair is still there.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is brighter than ever. So for a shop service center that is struggling to get technicians into the pipeline, you know they hear the word workforce development. They say you know we need more of it, but they don't know how to get started. What is some advice that you would give them to get more involved at the local level?
Speaker 2:Well, I would start with your high school. You know I would contact them. You can't just walk into school. You got to contact them and see if they do have a program, would contact them. You can't just walk in the school. You got to contact them and see if they do have a program. If they don't, or they don't give you the help you need, most counties have workforce development centers or American job centers. They know all the resources, they know all the grants. They know they have the talent pool that could also give you some information. They can connect all the dots and all the stakeholders out there. They have that information that can help you. That way you don't have to do all the homework yourself.
Speaker 1:And then one of the kind of like marketing branding things that you do that I'd really admire is that you're out in the community a lot, right Like I see you at events. You're giving back, you're speaking at local things. Your logo is on thing Like talk about that from a local perspective, why that's important for a shop to be so present in the community.
Speaker 2:I believe the best way for a small business to be successful is to to have a successful community around it. Uh, you give without expectations, but you, you give in the community and not. I mean it's great to write checks, they need money, but when you give your own time, it means something it really does and they, they remember that it. Also, you know every, every board I'm on, every event I go to, you know it's. It's not about work, you know, and people say I'm sorry, I don't use you. I have a guy, I have a gal, wonderful. As long as you have somebody, that's all I care about. As long as you have somebody that's all I care about At some point, you know, maybe they're not going to come to me, but they're going to champion us and they're going to tell someone else about us and they will send someone to us. So strong communities create strong businesses. So it's important. And also, I want Dynamic Automotive to be the name when someone says all right, we have this project to help the community, who's going to help support us? I want to be in the top five of names that they come out with the businesses that are be there. I want them to think of that. Eventually that trickles down into work, and I believe that's one of the reasons why we're as successful as we are and why we have the team we are we have and why our team is so proud of what they do.
Speaker 2:And you know, one of the my most favorite things I get to do is when we graduate our apprentices. I, uh, I make a big deal about it, I, I try, uh and it embarrasses them, but proud parent moment, yeah, oh, my God, there, there you. There's nothing better than to see parent. I mean I've seen, I've had big, bulky grown men crying and I mean they were like you look at them and they're like, wow, and that's, that's, that's what it means. It's very special. So yeah, it is, and I love that. I love talking about it.
Speaker 1:Oh man, it it. I think, through my career, some of the most powerful moments and it was always having a mentor or a manager in my corner advocating for me. And there's something that's so important about the leadership in this role that you've taken to bring these young folks in to create these programs, have them be a part of this and then highlight their successes so they feel like they're the big boss, you know, like they're making an impact, and I love that, and it's just you know learning're making an impact and I love that and it's just you know learning about how to manage that, how to highlight people, how to recognize people.
Speaker 2:Some recognition is a really big part of that, I think you know, you see me pick my phone up while we're talking yeah and I got a text this morning from one of our apprentices, his first year.
Speaker 2:He he'd been in the, he'd worked for us for about a year and he's seen what the program's done and he's like I want to join the program. And I said all right, but we put him in there and he just took an electrical class and he told me. He said you know, I did not have a cell phone and he texted me and he said I've been meaning to tell you that I took the 131, which is electrical, as my first class this fall and it paid off. I passed the A6. I passed the A6 as soon as I was done.
Speaker 2:I wanted to let you know that this is a young man. I mean after that to be that successful. But he found someone that had my number, made sure he got it to me and he's like, and what he said. After that, as I congratulated him, I said yeah, I heard from the teacher. He called me and told me how great he did and I just hadn't seen him face to face yet to tell him. And he's like he goes. I promise you, within the next two years I'll be able to pay you back for what you've done for me, and not money but by skill and work. And I said no, you already have. You know he's already paid it back. You know he's already paid him back. Doesn't owe me anything. He's put his effort into this and to see that win. But literally just this morning text that to me.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And just when you were saying it, I'm like this is a great time. I think I'll share that.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. That's absolutely incredible what we're putting out and seeing it versus this. I need to go mentor someone now, Dwayne, because I'm feeling a little inadequate.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what I tell everyone, including Jackie we all should be a mentor and a mentee. I have mentors, I have people that I look to that guide me and help me be better, and then I also pass that on too. And I have mentees, like with Yang. I've been, you know, from the beginning with that when they've done the mentorship, I really enjoy it. I love the group of people I have right now. I consider them friends, you know. But it's such a bright future with these individuals. They're going to move the mark, save the world, make this industry even better. But everyone should have both be a mentor and a mentee.
Speaker 1:I love that takeaway. I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. I'm going to get right on that as soon as we're done this podcast.
Speaker 2:Jackie's going to sign up too. Yeah, we're both in. We're both in.
Speaker 1:It's too important not to do so. So what do you think is maybe one of the biggest opportunities for the auto care industry when it comes to workforce development? Right, like, we're doing a lot of things. It's hard to say that we're moving the needle. I think we are, which is why we're going to, you know, work federally to try to get some solutions. We're looking at all the states that have really good apprenticeship programs and workforce programs to try to emulate that in some of the other states.
Speaker 1:But you know we have scholarship programs. We've got automotivescholarshipscom, we've got Women in Auto Care, we've got TechForce, like ASC, really, really amazing organizations who are working to move the needle. We've got career campaigns, where we go to colleges and go to career fairs, and very grassroots but obviously very hard to manage across the country and make that scalable. You've got Northwood University, you've got UNOH, right Like, you can rattle off a list of things, and I think we're taking a pretty decent stab at it. But from your perspective you've been in this for some time what else are we missing? What could or should we be doing?
Speaker 2:I'm going to go with awareness. There's a lot of programs out there when I do apprenticeship class. I just don't talk about mine. I actually talk about I've talked about NAPA's program. You know, mine's time-based, there's competency-based. There's a lot of different things. I use a community college. They have internal training. So if you don't have a community college, that program is probably better. Maybe consolidate information on the programs and how people can access that information to see, like, all right, you know, check these boxes. Do you have an automotive program in your area? You know if, and if it's a no, all right. Well then go this way, have a flow chart or something where they can pick the parts they need.
Speaker 2:We as an industry need to learn how to help ourselves and we always say the two reasons people say they can't do an apprenticeship program is they say it costs too much and I don't have time. Well, there's enough grants and I proved it. I mathed it out at a class and showed them where you can get it almost paid for. Wow, if you really want to go after all that grant money, you can do it. And then the states, like state of Maryland, will hand walk you through the process. We'll help you fill it out, we'll do everything. They're apprenticeship navigators. There goes you don't have the time, so why aren't you doing it? Excuses, indicators there goes, you don't have the time, so why aren't you doing it? Excuses, it is excuses, and I call them out for it. You know you got to help yourself. Uh, it is an investment and, of course, one of the first things they say is what if they leave? You've made the industry better, but what am I? My answer normally to them is well, that's part of the problem, because if you're worrying about them, leaving is the first problem sounds like there's a culture problem. Yeah, to begin with. Uh, out of all the apprentices we've had, I think we've lost maybe three.
Speaker 2:Um, some of those have come back. Wow, yeah, uh, one thing about a 16 year old. You get them that young. When they get in their early 20s, they start looking out the windows because they have never been anywhere, right, and you know I, I look at it like all right, go see. Um, you know I don't want you to leave, but I also know that today you're sad If I stop you, tomorrow you'll be mad. So we allow them that freedom to go, go, do that.
Speaker 2:But then some come back and I, you know, in the, in the couple that haven't uh, wish them success and one day I think our paths will cross again. But it's just as an association. I think you could collect some of that information. That's something I think CCPN can help with. I think it's on. One of our new initiatives is put together some resources for apprenticeships so you don't have to do what I did and recreate the wheel. Quite honestly, if you want, I will sit there and talk to you and canhold you through the process, if that's what it takes, but I think it makes that much of a difference.
Speaker 1:Tell our listeners what CCPN is for those who don't know and what you guys are doing in terms of the workforce.
Speaker 2:CCPN is the Car Care Professional Network. I think we're going to work on some branding there and some naming, but we are the sounding board for our industry. Some naming, but we are the sounding board for our industry. That way, when someone's working on something they feel that would make a difference for us, they can come to us and we can give them advice and say if this is something we want or maybe we need to do something different. One of our initiatives is working on a resource hub. We want CCPN to grow and we want to have something that's tangible for shops to help them working on a hub that has information to help them be better, and one of those things is apprenticeship. We're still at the beginning part of that but we will fill that resource out hopefully within this next year, where someone could go and get the information they need so that they could get a program up and running much quicker and not miss out on something that's out there that could help Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Do you have any hopes? For you know like, obviously, auto Care Association is a bipartisan organization. We don't take sides. We work with whatever administration comes into play. Do you have any hopes like what the new administration might bring to the table when it comes to filling the skills gap?
Speaker 2:I think the skills gap is just a problem for everybody. So I do believe I tell people when I have an empty bay, we're losing between $300,000 to $500,000 a year in revenue. I've told our Congress people, I've told our senators. I said that's tax money that you could do other things with. Give me the resources, because I've talked to one of our senators, I've talked to all of them, I've talked to every senator. Fine, you don't see too many.
Speaker 2:But when I get the opportunity, I actually talk about the skills gap and I talk about apprenticeship. But then I talk about our local school system and they go well, that's a state and a county problem. I said no, it's, it's a. It's a nation, national problem. If we don't have skilled people to do the work, we will slow down as a country and an economy. And they don't disagree with me. But they, I said, you know, invest in skilled trades, invest in career and technology centers across the country. It will pay for itself just in the increased revenue that we get, because then it goes down through taxes. You know everybody gets their fair share. But I tell me, doing those things will help yourself. It's a multiplier, big term.
Speaker 1:Couldn't agree more. Well, fantastic, dwayne. I really enjoyed this conversation. It's clear that there's a lot of work that needs to be done. We've made really significant strides as an industry, but we're so lucky to have someone like you championing this effort and dragging people along with you, because this is where we need to go an interesting stat to go with your numbers.
Speaker 2:Uh, the average age of a technician is 56. At dynamic it's 28. What very skilled 28. Now our, our senior technicians, have been promoted in their leading stores. We still have that knowledge and experience in the store. But Young Energy doing really well and it's across multiple stores and it's working but 28. So we don't have an aging workforce, we have a very young workforce with a very long runway. So we're very proud of that and we're going to that will continue as our program I mean literally we have both programs have waiting lines for people to get it and if we were a bigger company we will be having them go through. So there is hope it's got to help herself.
Speaker 1:There is hope. We just have to help ourselves. I appreciate that so much. Thank you, duane, so much for being a part of this conversation. I've had a really good time and I look forward to chatting more about this right. There's going to be much more developments over the months to come, as we learn more about the priorities of the new administration. We're going to give updates on the state level, what we're doing and what we're finding, what CCPN is doing and then, of course, how anyone listening can support these.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Thanks for having me on and definitely here to help, because I do believe if we work together, we'll definitely make a difference.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Dwayne.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care On Air. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode, and don't forget to leave us a rating and review that helps others discover our content. Autocare OnAir is a production of the AutoCare Association, dedicated to advancing the auto care industry and supporting professionals like you. To learn more about the association and its initiatives, visit autocareorg.
