Just ONE Thing
Stop Saying 'I Am' — Start Saying 'I Do' to Inspire Growth and Profit in Your Auto Repair Shop
Episode 200
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. My name is Rick White from 180BIZ. We are a coaching and training company for the independent auto and truck repair shops.
What are we talking about today? We're talking about VERBS. And you're thinking, "Rick, what the heck does that have to do with owning a repair shop," right? And I get you, I get you, you know. But I was listening to something, and I thought this was very, very cool… and the concept was, you're not a noun, you're a verb. And that hit me like a sledgehammer.
Why do I say that? Because most of us, when we go to identify who we are or how we show up, we start with, “I am” or “I'm not.” When every time you follow that up with a noun. It's a descriptor of who you believe you are.
But that is wrong, because even if you're accurate, what you're doing is you're describing who you are right now or who you believe to be right now. And if you're anything like I've been in the past, you're just beating yourself up all the time.
“I am a failure,” “I am a piece of crap.” “I am this,” “I am that,” or “I'm not any good.”
We got these things, and they're just not true. So I want you to understand this real quick. You are not a noun. You're a verb. So I just want you to think this through for a sec. Okay? You don't I, it's not I am. I want you to talk about I do, right? Or I we do this. This is way, way better, because it's focused on action, okay? It's focused on action. Action oriented thinking drives innovation and it drives customer loyalty, right? Think about this a sec, because you're not talking, you're not identifying who you are. You're identifying what you do. You're identifying how you're going to show up. You're identifying who you want to become. You get that? I really hope you do, because it is so important to be able to step back and say, you know, instead of saying, I'm a shop owner, “My team and I solve vehicle problems,” “My team and I are here to help and serve my team, and I care”. Do you see what I'm getting at? Instead of saying, “I am,” “we are,” I want you to talk about what you do. I want you to talk about where you're going, right? I think that's amazing. You know, I own right, and so we own a shop.
There's so much here to unwrap. It's so cool. But what it does is it gets you to redefine how you're showing up every day, not as who you think you are, you know, one way or the other, good or bad, but based on what you're going to do, right, how you're going to show up, who you're going to serve. This is really, really cool.
So here's something I want you just to think through. How do we do this? Think this through for a second. You've got to be able to step back and think I serve, I care, I help, I love, right? I do, I improve. We do something, right? I need you to understand that the person you want to become, the person that you want to become, isn't going to be defined but by what you say you are. It's going to be defined by what you do, it's the verbs that make a difference.
It's the verbs that define how we show up. It's the verbs that define our intention. You can use this in your shop today. You're, you don't, you know, you don't even just fixing cars. Man, we can go so much higher than that. You can step back and you can say, you know something, “we're here to protect our clients,” ‘we're here to keep our clients safe,” right? “We solve their problems.” They're so cool when you start thinking this way.
So what I want you to do today is I want you to step back, and I want you to stop saying I am and I want you to start talking about what you're going to do. What are you going to do today to make a difference? Dollars, right? Because it's not our identities that do that now, there is something to be said for having an identity in the future.
In other words, let's say “I'm a shop owner that does,you know, our shop is currently doing $500,000 a year.” “I am a shop owner. I am the owner of a shop that does over a million dollars in sales per year.” That is something that's pretty cool, right? But not when we talk about identity. We don't future. We don't put our identity in the future.
What most of us do is we stamp ourselves down with our identity. “I'm a piece of crap,” “I'm a failure,” “I'm no good.” “I can't do this.” “I'm not smart enough.” “I'm not good enough.” We have all this stuff in us — this garbage — Stop it. It's useless.
So I just want you to step back and think this through a little bit. Okay? I want you to redefine who you are by what you do. I want you to redefine yourself by and define your day with action, not with you know, identifying your emotions or identifying your, you know, making your identity all about it.
You gotta make it. I'm going to do this every morning. Ask yourself, “What actions am I going to take to grow my business today?” “What actions am I going to take to become the person that I want to become?” We all have like, who you know, it's kind of funny. There's who you think you are, there's who you actually are, and then there's who you want to be. Right? A lot of times, you let who you think you are dictate to find and hold you down.
What I want you to start doing is talking about what you gotta do to get to be who you want to be, what you gotta do to create the business that you want? Stop reacting, stop restricting, and start growing. Okay.
If you like this message, if this message hit you this morning, please share it. I need your help.
So here's what I want you to do, please share this video. Also, I want you to remember our Shop Owners Round Table next Thursday night, 7pm Eastern
And then I want you to also remember we have our Pocket Business Genius Webinar Series — that is the second Thursday of every month.
So let's rock and roll. Okay, let's stop the crazy. Let's start to create what we want. Instead of reacting everybody.
I want to say, God bless. I want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for watching the recording, thank you for sharing this video, and thank you for giving me some of your time today. Now go make some money. I'm gonna take you all out, everybody. Have a great week and go make it something special. I'll talk to y'all later. Take care. Bye, bye.
