Milestones...

I just sat down to organize my thoughts and share the events of the past few days... here, as a matter of fact. I had a plan: an agenda, and then the phone rang.

I don't know about you, but I get distracted easily - there are times I don't mind. But, when time is at a premium and I have a laundry list of things to do - which is most of the time - and, Lesley is busy getting ready for the holidays with her own laundry list of things to do which often conflicts with mine (any man reading this who is married or in a committed relationship knows whose list will take precedence...), it can be a problem. Nevertheless, I answered the phone. It was our son, Ryan, who is his post-L.A. Marathon Iron Man training 'leave of absence,' at least until tomorrow. He was calling from the South Bay and you could here giggling in the background and the excitement in his voice. He had just asked his young lady to marry him...

Now, the fact that he asked couldn't have been a surprise to anyone who knows them... they've been through hell and back trying to define the nature of their relationship and having made it across the ribbon of hot coals they were forced to cross, it was a given they would be together. The surprise was the "when" and "how" of it.

Ryan is at heart a romantic of the first magnitude... In many ways, I guess I am as well. The difference is that Ryan has style. I'm not sure the same can be said for me. I've always been too busy trying to figure out how to get from here to there without destroying myself in the process: an ongoing theme throughout my life. So, where Ryan planned an incredibly clever and convoluted subterfuge in order to surprise our future daughter-in-law, I asked his mother to spend the rest of her life with me in what was, perhaps, the most lame and awkward manner on record.

After establishing a meaningful relationship over the most intense six weeks of my life, and then recognizing the thought of Lesley in school four hundred and fifty miles north of L.A. and possibly dating someone else was unbearable - I decided to act. For anyone else, that would have involved 'a plan.' Anyone who knows me... or, knew me at that time in my life, would tell you that I was absolutely incapable of formulating anything that even remotely looked like a plan, let alone disciplined enough to carry one out. Instead, I fumbled around trying to explain how I felt - something I'm still not especially good at anyway - until Lesley finally took matters into her own hands and asked me what the hell I was talking about!

I told her I didn't want her dating someone else while she was away - that I couldn't bear the thought of it. The unanswered question hanging in the air was what exactly did that mean. I fumbled around some more until it became obvious to anyone but me, that I was asking Lesley to become involved in what today would be considered a "committed relationship."

I'm not sure that I was sure what that meant as we discussed it, but I know Lesley did. I stuttered and stammered my way through asking Lesley if she wanted to "go steady," which would qualify as "World-Class Lame" by today's standards, and Lesley's only question was... "You mean for the rest of our lives?"

I didn't think about what she was asking... or, what that meant: not for a second. I answered with a "Yeah... I guess so." Or, something equally as awkward, knowing that the thought of being without her had become unthinkable. Her reply was classic, "You mean for the rest of our lives?" And, my response was equally as articulate, "Yeah... I guess so."

It wasn't especially romantic. But, in retrospect, it's pretty apparent that forty years later it was the right answer.

Now, my eldest son (only son, actually...) is engaged. He is as happy as I have ever seen him... less confused than I was when I realized that I had inadvertently asked his mother to marry me... but, happy nonetheless.

It is a milestone... both for Ryan and Stephanie, and for their respective families: and, like so many of life's milestones, it just appears as we stumble through life. There is no map. There is no accompanying set of instructions. There is no plan, at least none that anyone can depend on. Life isn't that simple. Nor, is it predictable. Most of the time, it just 'is.' All that is really important is that you mark these moments appropriately. They are a big part of who we are when they happen. But, perhaps, more important, these milestones are a bigger part of who we can become as life unfolds beyond them.

There was no one in the universe less prepared to become engaged at the end of the summer in 1968 than I was. I'm not sure there was anyone less prepared to get married a year-and-a-half later, either. But, I can also tell you without hesitation there was no one in the universe more determined to ensure that it would work once the commitment was made: that it would be 'good,' and that it would last, than I was.

And, maybe that's what milestones are all about... stopping to mark where you are when they occur, and then making a commitment to the journey that lies ahead: wherever that may take you and despite the obstacles life is likely to place in your way.

There is one other thing, I guess; something I'd like to share with both my kids and their 'significant others' as they get ready for their "next logical steps:" something I've discovered along my journey. Milestones are important for another reason. They are important because they are almost always associated with decisions: big decisions, important decisions, decisions that help define the legacy you leave for those who will follow as you move through life.

When you are young, just starting out and fighting your way through life, legacies are the last thing you are likely to think about. As you get older and receive phone calls like the one Lesley and I just received, legacies are just about all you think about...

A HEALTHY SERVING OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES...

As I've just mentioned, I just returned home from an incredible five days in Florida...

No, not on vacation, although vacation is an interesting concept. This was business: and, high-level business at that.

Have you ever tried to condense thirty hours of fast paced, very intense, high level learning in a single conversation? You know, the kind of conversation that follows one of those... "So, how was your meeting?" or, "So, what did you guys talk about?" questions. It's impossible so don't try.

Instead, I've broken it down into what I consider 'bite-size' pieces and started the process Monday morning as soon as parked my car at work. If the truth were to be told, I actually started the process during the meeting trying to determine exactly what I would be bringing home in the first place. Refined it somewhat at the airport and then a bit more Sunday evening after watching our son finish the L.A. Marathon and taking everyone: son, future daughter-in-law, daughter, future son-in-law, future daughter-in-law's best friend and one of Ryan's (son) co-workers and his wife, to lunch and then visiting my Mother on the way home...

Note to self: Celebrations are cool! Create more reasons to celebrate! We need them...

I managed to get through the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated during the week I was gone, signed the checks that needed to be signed and mailed the bills that needed to be mailed. I survived yesterday and managed to meet Frank - my Service Manager - for breakfast this morning to de-brief last week's challenges and events. In the process, we established a deeper understanding of where we are headed, what we believe it will take to get there, the role a new set of Goals & Objectives will play in creating the operating model we will need to embrace in order to "Get 'er done!" and how last week's meeting impacted all of the above.

It was a great meeting! I'm not saying that because I think Frank will stumble across this blog... I'm not even sure he's aware of it. I'm saying it because it was a great meeting.

What constitutes a great meeting? Well, the obvious answer would be great results... And, that's always the goal. But, in this case, I would define a 'great meeting' as a meeting in which ideas, information and a deeper level of communication occurred. If that definition is accurate or adequate; this was a great meeting!

It will be followed by another great meeting involving our whole team in which we - both Frank and I - will show them how all these new goals and objectives will impact all of us as a team and each of them as individuals. I'll let you know how that goes after we get everyone together.

The most interesting part of all of this is the incredible energy I brought home with me from Florida, but then again with high winds and fifty degree weather, energy is just about all I could bring home. After all, there was no sun and consequently no chance for a tan!

We've already started one exercise guaranteed to improve both our internal communications and a sense of consistency on the shop floor... I'll talk more about that later.

Right now, I'm too excited to get back to work to write anything else... I'm not sure, but I think it's a result of the healthy serving of goals and objectives Frank and I had for breakfast.

A.D.D....

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.

Home again... Home again... Jiggety, Jigg

"Honey, I'm home..."

Exhausted! But, home... And, let me tell you: There really is no place like home! And,those of you who know me realize just how long it's taken me to be able to say that and mean it.

After all, you don't just wake up one morning and decide your thirty-five year war with Southern California: Los Angeles, in particular; is over. It took two million miles of almost constant travel to finally realize that there is a reason people are still migrating here! Then, suddenly, on a Sunday afternoon flight home, I remember looking down at the L.A. skyline thinking to myself, "It's good to be home!"

Home! I'd never actually thought about Los Angeles as home before. Now, I'm thinking about coming home before I've left the house!

Even when you are having an incredible time, even when it's a conference that you've been looking forward to for a year, even when you're going to be with people you really enjoy, there is still something wonderful about your own shower, your own bed, and your own lumpy pillows that is absolutely magical!

Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to hang out with some of the very best shop owners in North America: just about all of whom are within the top 2% of the repair community both here in the United States and in Canada: the top 2%!

You know that old saying about how hard it is to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys: Well, it's just as hard to remain on the ground when you are surrounded by eagles. And, I was!

You can add to that the seven or eight speakers: one better than the other and all of them world class! You can talk about the breakout sessions, roundtables and stimulating conversations that followed. What you're left with is enough information to keep you in sensory overload until SuperConference 2011, and all of it was focused on success and serving our clients which are pretty much one in the same.

More than anything else, there is the undeniable sense of unlimited possibility you experience when you are in the presence of those who are where you strive to be!

Now, comes the hard part... picking and choosing those elements we/I want to integrate into our business: that, and finding a way to integrate it into a comprehensive, coherent  business model capable of exceeding everyone's expectations, including mine.

I'll let you know who that's working for us as we move into the Spring and through the Summer. Till then, I think I'll just sit here and think about how great the trip was, what I learned, and how good it is to be home!

To confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards...

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 Winkies, 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, 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!”

I'll Have a Pittsburgh Cheese Steak & an Iron City Beer...

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 IStraffic 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 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.

Car Tunes...

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!