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The Institutes Leading Edge PodcastAuthor: institutesleadingedgepodcast
The Institutes Leading Edge Podcast is where forward-thinking Automotive Service and Repair Shop Owners come to sharpen their skills, expand their knowledge, and gain an edge in todays competitive market. Hosted by The Institutes team of seasoned consultants and leaders with decades of real-world experience, youll get direct, actionable advice tailored to the unique challenges of running and growing an auto repair business. Each episode feels like a one-on-one coaching session. Whether its improving profitability, building stronger leadership skills, mastering marketing, developing your team, or planning for long-term success, youll find strategies you can implement right away. Have a question about your shop? Send it in, and well answer it on the show. Language: en Genres: Business Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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196 - Building Modern Collision By Putting Quality Before Cost
Episode 196
Wednesday, 1 April, 2026
196 - Building Modern Collision By Putting Quality Before Cost April 1, 2026 - 00:54:54 Show Summary: Micah Storm shares how he grew up in the family business and built the mechanical side alongside collision repair. He explains how he and his brother took over the shop and later expanded into the building next door. The conversation covers insurance challenges customer education and why quality must come before cost. Micah also talks about leadership team culture training and the value of a four day workweek. His approach is simple: take care of people do honest work and keep improving. Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development Guest(s): Micah Storm, Owner of Modern Collision Rebuild and Service Show Highlights: [00:00:36] – Micah explains how buying the shop next door doubled their mechanical space. [00:02:29] – Growing up in the business shaped his path but collision work never fit. [00:04:50] – He returned in 1999 to build the mechanical side of the shop. [00:07:10] – Micah says customer education is critical when insurance does not cover proper repairs. [00:09:00] – Pre scans and documentation help determine what damage is accident related. [00:12:20] – Digital inspections create trust and uncover mechanical work during collision visits. [00:15:20] – Micah and his brother gradually stepped into leadership before buying the business. [00:27:15] – A four day workweek improved morale retention and work life balance. [00:38:00] – Community involvement helped make the shop a trusted local name. [00:41:00] – Micah says associations training and strong culture are key to long term success. In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode. Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this! Links & Resources: Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com. Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Hello friends. Jimmy Lee here with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. You are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. My guest today is Micah Strom. He is on Bainbridge Island in Washington, the great state of Washington. I have been to your shop before Micah. Thank you for being here. How the heck are you, brother? Micah Storm: I'm great. I'm glad to be. Jimmy Lea: Exciting. And anybody listening, anytime you get out to Bainbridge Island, you need to go and visit Micah shop. And there's one specific thing you need to look for, and that is the old style gas pump you have out front that has been converted and has an electric charger cord in inside this old glass, the old glass gas pump. Man, that is so cool. Micah Storm: It's old meets new. Jimmy Lea: Old meets new, yeah. A blend of the two coming together. Do that, and that's awesome. I love it. I love it. And quite recently, not to spoil the surprise here, but to rather spoil the surprise, you expanded recently. You expanded your automotive repair side, correct. Micah Storm: We, we bought the business, the shop right next door. And we've actually been side by side for 50 years and he was retiring and said, you guys wanna buy it? And I'm like, sure let's do it. So we doubled our mechanical space and I said, Bing, it was right next door. It was a no brainer at that point. Jimmy Lea: Wow that's really cool. Did you buy the building, the property the land and the clients? Did you buy the business or did you just buy the property? Micah Storm: We bought the property of the building. He actually kept the name but he retired. And so basically all his mechanical clients were typically our collision clients anyway basically we just bought the land in the building and that was what was basically what we paid for. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, and it makes sense 'cause your clients were his clients already were your clients. You were just expanding the ability to take care of those clients Micah Storm: Correct place. Jimmy Lea: Before we get into that, let's jump back into history back in time. 'cause Micah, I know you have a very interesting story of how you got into the automotive industry and how you got into this location where you are. Modern collision, dude. Talk to me brother. How did you get started in the automotive aftermarket? Micah Storm: So I grew up in the, obviously I grew up in the business, in the automotive business. My, dad and my parents started the 1974. As a kid I'd be down there sweeping the floors or what have you, and getting outta high school. I was like I gotta do something. So I'm like I learned. At an early age, I don't like body work. I can't stand standing. That was, we'd go down there standing. It's, I'd spend all day standing box fans and my dad would paint 'em, and I'm like, I, whatever I do, it's not gonna be collision. So I decided to go into the mechanical side. Got a job at a local shop around backup. I went to school for six months or the year at UTI. And ended up coming back here, getting a job at a local shop. And that's where it started. Worked at several of the shops for a few years. My parents were getting ready, my dad was getting ready to retire and said, Hey, you want to come back? I'm like sure, but I'm not doing collision works. That's not what I'm gonna do. So he said let's start some mechanical work here. And that was about 90 19 99. And that's when we, our. Mechanical work started at that point. But like I said it's something, I don't know. I like cars. I like the technology, I like getting my hands dirty. And it's, again, growing up in it, it's it was a natural thing for me. And same with my brother. He's same thing. He is run, he does collision. He likes that side. And I like the mechanical. So honestly, both of us, we both own the business together and it really works well. Between the two of us. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. And so you've just pointed out something that is so ironic you don't like working on the collision side of things, sanding, and I totally agree sanding, forget about it. I'm done. And I know that you are the director or executive director or the board Micah Storm: C collision chair. Jimmy Lea: You're the collision chair for CTE Micah Storm: or yeah. CT CTEI was that's again, that was putting that together and that actually evolved, like we can get into that, but that kind of evolved from my start in the mechanical to where my parents retiring and where I am today. Yeah, but I'm also the collision chair for the Northwest Auto Care, Jimmy Lea: so Oh, that. Oh, the irony there. That's hilarious. Yes. Thank you, Micah, that this a whole nother level of friendship between us and the coalition. Oh, the irony. That's awesome. Okay, so back to mom and dad. Mom and dad have the shop and you come back and join it. Are you turning a wrench or are you stepping into the front office? What did you come back and start doing? Micah Storm: Came back. We started with, I was doing the service advising, turning wrenches the whole thing. At that point, because it was obviously really small, we just started but we would, offer a inspection when the car came in. We, a free mechanical inspection and upsell a brake job, or they needed an oil change when they came in for body work. So at the, at that time I was doing. Everything from the service advising, ordering parts, the work, and then closing it out. But it would go in addition to the collision work. Jimmy Lea: So did mom and dad do, is it based on a lot of insurance work or is this a lot of cash customers? Micah Storm: It's mainly insurance work. Okay. So they're on the collision side. Yes. It's. We are not a DRP for any insurance company, which is a direct repair. We work, again, we, we work for the customer, not the insurance company. But ultimately they, they pay your bill on the insurance, right? A check. But they owe to, they owe the shop to fix it and they owe the customer to pay for it. There are some customer out of pay that has actually changed a lot in the last year. The kinda that landscape of, like I said, if we want to get it, we can get into that, but it's become a lot more customer pay because rates are going up insurance rates and people are going, do I really want to turn this into as a claim and have my rates go up? So there's a lot more customer pay out of pocket jobs because of that, which is again that's a SO'S Jimmy Lea: and I witnessed it. I saw it happening 15 years ago when the insurance companies were coming in and buying up all the collision companies. And Yeah, you're not supposed to direct, but they were directing, they were telling people where to go, and they were telling 'em where to tow their vehicle and, oh yeah, you're gonna go to this company over here because that's who our collision company is. They didn't tell you that. Oh yeah. And by the way, we own it. Micah Storm: Yeah. They don't, they own the Jimmy Lea: steering. Steering, that's what it's called. Micah Storm: Steering. They, there's an M, it's an MSO, but they don't necessarily own the company, but they have a contract with them that says, we will send you work, but you have to do what we tell you, and this is all we're gonna pay for. And you gotta accept our rates. You gotta accept discounts, you gotta accept everything. And it's that's not how you run a business. Jimmy Lea: No. Yes. Thank you. But no. So what do you do in those situations where. I'm bringing in my car because I was in an accident and it wasn't my fault, it was somebody else's. I'm bringing in my car for the collision side of things and the insurance company says we'll cover $13,000 worth of damage. But it, your quote was $16,000. What do you do in those situations with clients? Micah Storm: It comes down to educating the customer. Okay, you know what the difference is what we, we'll start by breaking down what aren't they paying for? Is it rates? Is it particular procedures? Are they paying 50% of something they should be paying all, as far as a procedure, they're only paying half it. Break it down. What is not, or what is, what are they covering and what are they not covering? And then to go to the customer and explain to them. What the insurances paid for, what the portion they paid for and why we do what we do. The safety behind it, that we use only original equipment parts. We don't use aftermarket parts, and you start explaining that to a customer and they start going I don't want that stuff. The aftermarket stuff in my car. I want it back how it was. Before the accident. Yeah. And you talk, and not all shops are the same. And you have, it's, you have to educate the customer. 'cause if you don't educate the customer, the difference is the price. And they're gonna look at the, it's why here if it's $3,000 less and you don't tell 'em why your $3,000. More than the insurance ones do. They're going to obviously choose the lesser price. Yeah. But it comes down, like I said, it's the quality, it's doing it right. It's follow procedures and not having an insurance company dictate how you fix a car. Jimmy Lea: Okay. So I have a dangerous question. I have a dangerous question. Micah Storm: Okay. Jimmy Lea: The question is so I bring my car into you and you write up the estimate, $16,000, they're gonna pay for 13. Have insurance companies gotten to the point where they're asking collision shops to scan vehicles prior to doing any repairs that they're might be a preexisting condition that they're not gonna cover? Micah Storm: So e every car gets a pre. The manufacturers, the your OE manufacturer require a pre-scan. Sometimes it's an in end process scan and not a post scan. So the insurance companies will pay for it because it is required. It's in, in the position statements that has to happen. But they have contracts with providers that they will only pay a certain amount. They have a contracted price and that's all they're gonna pay. So even if it costs more to do it, they say that's, this is all we have a con company that will do it for this much, and that's all we're gonna pay. So it's. Again, it comes down to educating what we're doing. And if they're only gonna cap, if they're gonna say we're gonna pay a portion of it, it's this is what it costs. Here's an invoice for it, and we need to collect that from the customer. 'cause the insurance decides not to cover it. Jimmy Lea: Okay. What and what is, so if those situations are there where. There were, and it almost crosses over into like health insurance. That's a preexisting condition. I'm not gonna pay for that. The insurance company, that's what they say. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Is that a situation then when you go to the client and say, Hey, look, this $3,000 that the insurance company's not gonna cover, this is something you're gonna have to cover, or you're gonna have to decide if you want this work done or not. Do you do that? Or does it's, is that a thing? Micah Storm: If it's insurance, or I should say if it's accident related typically they will cover it with proper documentation. It's, they're not gonna cover something that wasn't there prior. And I. And honestly, they shouldn't pay for something that was already there. You know that's a customer's responsibility at that point. Yeah. But it, let 'em know is, hey, we've got the car in, pulled into the shop, we scanned it, had these codes. There's this issue. We, it's not cover, it's not part of the accident. It's not related, the accident. And it obviously that goes depending on what the code is. Know. 'cause sometimes you say, this is not part of the accident, but in reality it is because with Can Bus and all the other things that modules that talk to each other, you could have something. The back end takes out a blind spot and it creates a starting issue. We had a Mercedes that did that one time. Oh Jimmy Lea: gosh. Micah Storm: So it's, there's a line, but you still gotta be able, to say if it's not covered by insurance, that's, you're gonna be your portion out of pocket. Jimmy Lea: And most of these codes have a date timestamp that goes along with it like. I'm thinking like, oh, two sensors. That might've gone out in October and here it is January, and then we have the accident, or it needs a, body repair. That's an old code. Micah Storm: Correct. You can either, like the Mode six data will have all the, the mileage. Typically it was set at things like that okay. It's, you gotta use all the, all your tools that you're, at your hands to be able to come up with a timeline and a, where does this fall? Who's responsibility is this? Yeah. It's our job to tell the insurance, say, Hey, this is what we have, this is what we see. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Micah Storm: Whether they pay for it or not, that's. It's not my call I, but either, either the insurance has got it covered or it goes back to the customer. So Jimmy Lea: yeah, that's that. It's not my circus, not my monkey. It's not my problem to solve insurance company client. Here's, here it is, and you figure it out and lemme know. Micah Storm: Yeah. Provide all the documentation's needed for it so they can Yes. Make their decision. Jimmy Lea: So are you, do you do a lot of digital vehicle inspections with these on the collision site? And I know it's not your jam, it's your brother, but. Micah Storm: So yes. And as far as being my gym, I'm ex, I, my brother does more of the hands-on stuff behind. He likes working on cars. Okay. I deal with all the office stuff and all the business stuff, and I, that's what I love. That's what I love. So I don't have to touch the collision. Cars, but I like working. Yeah, you're Jimmy Lea: not sanding anymore, you just buy the sandpaper. Micah Storm: I'm sand. I'm not sanding. I, but I love working the business side of it. That's, that's really where it comes in. The d d vs. We do on all the mechanical jobs. But we also upsell a complimentary inspection on every body job. That comes to the door, so our mechanics will inspect it and that has a DVI attached it so we can get pictures and send them the report, give 'em estimates for everything. And upsell some repairs, some mechanical work while the vehicle's there for the collision work. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Who are you using for your DVI? Micah Storm: It's through shop wear. Jimmy Lea: Through shop wear. Phenomenal program. I love the integration of that. Oh man. Micah Storm: And Jimmy Lea: there's so much Micah Storm: to do. We was 2017. We were, we had a regular program and we were, I wanted the DVI with it. I'm like, I can either get an add-on to what we had or do I, find something that has it all together. And I'm like, I don't want, he said, she said, this works. That's, no, that's their problem. That's their problem. I'm like, I want something that's all in one. And at the time, that's, again, it was shoppers, there was towards the beginning of it, and we've been with them. For many years with, as Caroline had it and all the way to where it is now, so I know it's she sold a year or so back. Still a great program, so Jimmy Lea: Oh no. It is. Shop wear is a phenomenal program. I love the DVI, I love the integration of it. And for you, just like you said, it's a one phone call. You don't have to play matchmaker anymore to get two people to talk with each other. It's one phone call. Hey, look, this isn't working. Figure it out. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And call me when it's done. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good. You've 1999 pops calls, you come back to the shop, you start on the automotive maintenance side of things. When does your brother come back or has he always been there? What? What's the story with you and your brother? Micah Storm: So he's always been there. He started as right, outta high school in the paint department painting cars. Did that for quite a few years. I went off and did the mechanical stuff 'cause I, we didn't do it at the time and I wasn't gonna learn it there at the shop. I came back, started the mechanical side of the, what we have today, and as time goes on, physical things, I've had two back surgeries, so I stopped working on cars, just physically. I couldn't do it anymore. It wasn't the. The career was really hard on my body. And so I started getting in more the service advising. So I we hired a mechanic. I turned in just doing the service advising and at the time, my parents were still my, my mom really was the instrument of running a very lean and dialed in shop. My dad just kind. What do I need to do next? I'll write estimates, I'll go fix cars, whatever. But like I said I worked in the service advising. And then again, as my parents were, my dad retired, my mom was there probably another 10 years. And she is, as she's beginning to step out, she let my brother and I start running it. At that point, we made decisions we would, she'd sit there. I'm here in case something I don't agree with, I'll tell you, but. Do you guys start making decisions? Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. So she's really positioning you and taking you and pushing you into that leadership role where you are running the business. So where is that on the timeline that mom the dad retires. Mom sticks around for another 10 years and when is it that she retires, but still has control of the business? It's just you're in the leadership position. Micah Storm: I'd say, so my dad retired, probably about 2001 is when he moved back and then started doing, having an enjoying life at at home. And my mom probably, she stuck around for, she ran it for another five years or so. And then she let us started taking over those decision making and the running of the business. And in 2010 is when we officially bought it from 'em. So she was there till probably about 2008 and then just it's Hey, if you need me I'm at home. Call me. Jimmy Lea: Congrats. Micah Storm: We've let us. Yeah. So it's it's been see 15 years, 16 years now we've had it Jimmy Lea: oh yeah. No, that's a long road, bro. Congrats. Yeah, man. That is awesome. And mom and dad are they still with us? Micah Storm: Oh yes. My dad makes garden art. Welds rusty metal together. My mom just loves to travel and grandkids and yeah, so they're doing great. Jimmy Lea: Oh, man, that is so cool. Congrats to mom and dad. Congrats to you and your brother for stepping in and taking over too. That's very cool. So what does the shop look like today? How many on the collision side, how, what does that look like? And then on the mechanical side, what does that look like? Text space, cars, that kind of stuff. Micah Storm: So we have 21 employees right now. 21 team members, including my brother and I. Right now. We have, let's see, one. Five mechanical technicians. We could probably use another one, maybe two for mechanical techs. And then we have three body techs and that my brother really does. The body is one of the body techs. A painter's helper, a parts guy. Deals, just deals with strictly the parts. We have a detail. Two people in our detail department. 'cause we do clean all the cars that leave the collision side get washed, and cleaned depending on the severity of the repairs and stuff. Yeah. And then we do, we, so we have two people in the detail department and then we have two service advisors and. Two estimators, a front office receptionist or bookkeeper, office manager. And then she's getting ready to semi-retire. So we have hired somebody else to take over some of those responsibilities. And then, and then there's me. So that's kinda the layout of how everything you know, as far as the people are concerned. Everything flows really well. As far as the we share the same office for Yeah, the mechanical and the collision shares the same office, the back on the, our upper building the mechanical and then the collisions share the same building space. Obviously there's different sections in there that we do different things, but it's it's a pretty well oiled, I think, at least I feel it, is to be able to run both businesses in the same spot. Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude I love it. So anybody who's listening to this right now, if you know somebody who's a technician and they would love to live in one of the most gorgeous places on earth, Bainbridge Island is on the sound side of the peninsula. There in the very, very northwest tip of the state of Washington. If you're a tech and you'd love to live up in that area, Mike's got a job for you. Just tow your. Toolbox right on over you. You're ready. You're ready. Bring it on. Oh yeah. That is so cool. That is so cool. Congrats on the business, man. That is very good. Oh man, I have so many questions. I'm gonna, I have to slow down a little bit here. Breathe. Alright, so first question for you is when is it, at what point did you decide automotive is the thing for me? Yes. I understand you didn't want the collision side, but you definitely wanted the mechanical side and you did go to university UTI for a minute. When is it in that high school career that you said, that's my jam. Micah Storm: I, that's a good question. I'd have to say. I started doing it because that's what I knew what to do. I Oh, yeah. Messed with my hands. That's, and it's I was in the car business, so it's naturally I stay in the car business 'cause I grew up there. Yeah. I started working on cars. I, changing oil and at a mechanical shop, I, and I started going, okay, I this stuff. It is it's fun. And, again I guess I kept with it until my. I'd have to say that probably that turning point is when my parents, when they said, Hey, we're gonna sell you internet. We're we want you, we're gonna retire, eventually. Want you to buy it. Are you interested? And I thought what do I wanna do that, it, it was more of I had the job at the time the career side of things. That's when it started going, okay, maybe this is. It's a great opportunity and it's, this is something I could, continue doing at that point. I enjoy it. I know what I'm doing. I can, do a good job at it. And I guess that's where it kind of things clicked at that point for me. If I didn't, oh, go. What's that? Jimmy Lea: You blew me away there. I thought for sure it was gonna be like something in junior high or, yeah, I know you grew up at the shop and you're pushing brooms. It's in your blood. You bleed oil. I get it. I get it. But you're telling me that it wasn't until you have the opportunity to say, am I, is this for real? Can I do this for the rest of my life? Then you're like. Oh yeah. No, I love this. This is what I really enjoy. Yes. We can make a life out of this. You and your brother. Micah Storm: Yeah. Yeah. And that's, yeah, that was kinda the turning point of this. This is it, and here we are today. Jimmy Lea: Wow. And 2010, that come after the the real estate bubble popped. And at 2010, it was finally starting to. Inch its way back up into realms of, okay, we can now see an incline coming back and the world is returning to normal again. Micah Storm: Yeah. It was, it during that time though, every, the, we were busy 'cause everyone's hung out with their cars. They weren't gonna buy new cars. Business was busy for the automotive industry at that time. It was Jimmy Lea: good. Micah Storm: It's a recession proof business for the most part. It is, yeah. Jimmy Lea: It really is. And I'll tell you, at that point in my life, I was in mortgages. I was a mortgage broker. And I had to figure out what am I gonna do? What do I want to be when I grow up? It was a hard situation to be in. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: To come outta that. Man, Micah Storm: Here we are. Jimmy Lea: And here you are. And here you are thriving to a point where you expand your shop by buying out the the mechanics from below. Now you've just expanded your footprint. You can take care of customers. Yeah. I love that. So what's the, what is a misconception that the public has about a collision shop that if you could magic wand it and correct this misconception, what's a misconception that the public has about the collision side? Micah Storm: The, as far as the public, I think the misconception that they have is that the insurance company is there to take care of 'em and they have their back. That's they, again, if you don't take it financial advice from somebody that owes you money, and that's where it comes down to is they're looking to get it repaired as cheap as possible and for as little as possible. 'cause that's where they make their money. And, I guess that's my take on that. That's what Jimmy Lea: you blew my mind on that. That would, that's a good one, Micah. Thank you. Yeah. Don't take financial advice from somebody that owes you money. That also very wise. Very wise. So what's a misconception that the public has about the maintenance side of the business? Micah Storm: Probably they, they think it's easier 'cause they look on YouTube and it's done in 10 minutes and in reality it's something might take you, three hours to do, but it looks easy on YouTube. Jimmy Lea: Oh we oh my God. I just went through this man. I just went through this video after video, I we're watching these videos because we replaced the radio in my wife's car. And I will tell you that I gave up and we took it to a professional. However, it took me two days to finally throw in the towel. So here's the scenario. I'm watching all these videos and they're like da, and you just, you take out the radio. Pop, and then you disconnect the wires and you see them disconnect one, but there's seven more back there back. They don't even show that. And then they're like, okay, and then you take the new unit and you just plug it back in. And they plug it back in and, but you don't see 'em plugging them in. You see 'em pushing the radio back in place and it's like a second. This can't be right. You only plugged in four and I've got seven here. Where did these other three go? Oh, Micah Storm: and then you could then just pop apart. It takes some finesse and finagling a lot of times. Jimmy Lea: And I'll tell you what I learned from this most recent experience is that the modern vehicles, it's more about the transfer of data than it is transfer of voltage. So these vehicles today are much more complicated than the old days when it was a carburetor and spark plugs, and you could tune. Properly tune a vehicle. Modern computers are, is tuning that vehicle constantly, correct? Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And just to be able to pull out a radio and put in a new radio? No. Micah Storm: And certain cars, they, it's considered part of the anti theft and you have to actually take it to, they have to program it and be able to re, to be able. It's crazy some of the stuff they do now, Jimmy Lea: I hadn't even considered that. You know what, you're exactly right. This one wasn't that way. What it came down to, after two and a half days worth of research and discovery and phone calls and emails with a company out of it was either Japan or China. Not exactly which one. Sure which one, but they had pins on their harnesses that the pins from the card did not line up. So they're like just plug it in and it works. I have plugged it in. It does not work. Oh, shoot, man. That's cool. Okay, so same question on the mechanical side. Did I ask that question? What's the misconception on the mechanical? Oh the YouTube? Yeah, the Micah Storm: YouTube. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Micah Storm: That's it. It's a it, some cases YouTube actually has, its place at certain times, getting things apart that you can't see in a repair manual, but yet someone on, you can look on YouTube going, Hey, this is how you do it. But as far as the diagnosing and it's they. Yeah, that, that's, they've kinda lost it there, I think. But there we, YouTube does have its place in the auto repair. I'll say that. Jimmy Lea: Yes, it does. As does some AI information, but it's not always foolproof. I've been watching Correct. Sherwood down there in Georgia and Florida. Royalty Automotive. They have some videos there that where Sherwood is asking Ai, asking chat GPT to help diagnose the car. Totally off, totally wrong. One was a super success. One was a bad failure. It was. It was just horrible. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So it's interesting. Okay. Back to you. Enough about them. Let's talk about you, Micah. Okay. What's your current hours and why did you choose that schedule? Micah Storm: So we as of today, we do four tens Monday through Thursday 7:00 AM to five 30. And we close for, we just closed the shop down for lunch, locked the doors for a half hour from 12 to 1230. So everybody goes to lunch at once and everybody comes back at once. Very similar to a doctor's office, but we started that. Transition, I'll call it a transition. During CO when COVID started we get everything in Monday through Thursday. We really didn't have any appointments coming in. We'd just be finishing stuff up on Fridays. Yeah. And so we didn't really have any customers necessarily calling in, 'cause they all knew we were closed on a, or we were closed for taking a, we would take appointments. But as far as customers coming in, dropping cars off, nobody was coming in the door. It was all, a goal of trying to minimize the amount of contact between people. And we kept that and was it 2022? I think we're like, what about four tens? And to be honest with you, my brother did not want, he's it's not gonna work. It won't work. It's not gonna work. And after, doing a lot of research, it's let this is here's, people have done it. This, if you wanna try it, but it's not gonna work. Two a month or two months of, he is that's the best thing we ever did. I'm never gonna go back to working five days a week. So he, but he was the, it was, again, it's that I think we set ourself up during COVID to be able to switch to the four tens, because Fridays were really a. They were a day that really, there was this, there's a lot of work going on in the shop, but nothing, no customer activity, no customer other than maybe a scheduling of phone calls and scheduling, no one is coming in the office. So it, it really we set it up to where we were able to do that and actually have a pretty seamless transition to going from Monday through Friday to Monday through Thursday schedule. And, in the collision industry, it's not it has not been adopted very well. I don't think some shops are doing it, but not a lot of 'em are. The mechanical side though, you see a lot of shops switching to the four tenants. And yeah it's a great tool for it know, employee acquisition, retention. Everybody likes a three day weekend, so you can't keep that. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. Imagine having a three day weekend every weekend. So what about those days where there's a holiday Monday Micah Storm: We close Monday, we're open. They got a four day weekend. Jimmy Lea: Cool. I love that. Micah Storm: It's. They, they work hard. Our team works hard for our shop, for my brother and I, and again it's okay to give 'em an extra day off and, let them enjoy their, have time. And we just, for Christmas, we just, we close the week at Christmas for our, to our shop. Just, we close down. Everybody gets, spend time with their family. It's just I, it's. It's part of taking care of your people, and it's, Jimmy Lea: that's awesome. I'll bet they were shocked that you gave them that full entire week off. Micah Storm: Yeah. And being four tens also makes it a little bit easier because we usually close Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Micah Storm: So when Chris, when Christmas falls in the middle of a week and you're like going, okay, we're only gonna be open two days anyways, and then we're gone for four days or six, five days, and then we're back for two and then off again. It's like, why don't we just close and, give everybody a little more extra rest. Family time. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. That's awesome. Yeah. Family time. Yeah. When you're taking care of your people, then your people will take care of you, Micah Storm: correct? Most definitely. Jimmy Lea: Oh, Micah Storm: most definitely. We have our longest term employee there Tim, he's been there 31 years, I think. He's one of the body techs. Most, a lot of our employees have been there, been with us for at least 10 years. We've got some new addition as far as needing more. New, more people and more employees. But the ones that are there typically are, have been there for a long time. And again, it's just we respect that and appreciate the time they put in, invested in for us. And it's like I said you gotta give it back, Jimmy Lea: Oh, for sure. It sounds like you're still the new kid until you've been there for 10 years. Yeah. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. No, that's really cool. Hey on the collision side what are the top three to five numbers that you pay attention to the most so that you know that the shop's going in the right direction? Same question, but on the automotive side as well. But give us the collision side first. 'cause I haven't done much with collision, so this is all new information you're giving me, Micah Storm: so I'll be a hundred percent honest. I'm not a numbers guy. Oh I, the numbers are important. They give you a snapshot. But ag yes. I know, again, I know some shops, they're driven by the numbers and I, we're not, my brother and I, it's just, you can tell where we're sitting. You get a good feel for where you're shitting. But again, at the end of the year. What where the, where are the numbers sitting is the reality where it's at. So I don't really look at numbers day to day. Jimmy Lea: Okay. Micah Storm: What I look at, is, like I said, I look at capture rate of an estimate. How many estimates we writing, how many are we getting? If we're not getting the estimates, we're not gonna have the work. They coming in the door. So it, that's, that to me is an important, that's an important number to have. And if, that's, I do every once in a while, glance at the, where are we sitting as far as our, part, how much the, I guess your gross, where that's sitting. But I don't look at it every day. I probably look at it. Some of them maybe once a week and others once a quarter. It's like I say you run you collect and you get paid for what you do. And I, there's not necessarily a need to be constantly looking at the numbers and seeing where you're at. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You can run your business, you can have a pretty good feel of where things are. It sounds like you still have a couple of numbers that you're looking at on the daily that, that gives you a good indication of, Hey, we're in a good spot. But it's not something that you're constantly monitoring on the every five minutes. Micah Storm: No. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no, Micah Storm: I like again, it's just. I've actually worked at a shop that was a very numbers driven shop. Yeah. And I, it was, it's all about the bottom dollar. And I guess I don't want my team to feel that way. It's about, I want them to know they come to work. They're there because we trust them. They're good at what they do. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Micah Storm: They get the job done. They do a good job. Yeah. And that's, it's not all about numbers. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And Micah, I think if you were to be tracking the numbers on the daily and you were to pay attention to that was your focus of where you were paying attention to the numbers that way. I don't think. Your employees would feel like the most, the only important thing was the bottom dollar. I think your company, your culture your feel would say, here's the bottom dollar, but a number one, we gotta take care of our customers. We gotta take care of the business because that's what, take care of that bottom number. I, I think you would still have because you're aware of it. I think your team would be aware of it as well. And it wouldn't be just about the bottom dollar, it'd be about the client, the customer. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Okay. Speaking of clients and customers who is the final sign off on cars before they leave the shop? Who's your QC? Micah Storm: So it's actually our does QC is our parts guy. It goes Oh, really? Yes. He, it actually goes to several QCs. So we have our detailers, obviously they're working on it, they're putting their hands on every part of the car when they clean it up for on the collision side. We have our parts guy will actually go over line by line to make sure everything got done on it on the Es, on the repairer. And it's, it's, we give them, we give our employee or. In this case, the parts guy said, this is what we want. This is what the, this is the quality I want. This is what we want out of it. And give it, make sure he, he understands what we're looking for. That's and he does a good job of it. He's make sure it's done. I, again, I don't go micromanage and say, you're this and this. It's like I delegate it out. I would rather delegate it. I can only do so much. And I figured by the time it gets through our detail department and it gets through a second check after it's all done it's been looked over very well. And again, every everybody's aware of what we're looking for, the kind of work we wanna turn out. And if something's not right, they're gonna say something. Jimmy Lea: So true. So true. I love that you've got multiple people with hands-on looking at the vehicles. I bet you don't have very many com comebacks. Micah Storm: No, I, they, if their comment's not right, we're gonna take care of it before it, say, Hey we're not happy with it. Do I need to repaint something? Maybe the color doesn't match as close to, we were what we were thinking. It's I'm gonna, I gotta take care of this. Sorry, it's gonna take a little bit longer, but I wanna make sure it's right when it leaves. Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so important. Yeah, because when you're in mixing and paint, it oxidizes at different rates. So if you're painting that quarter panel it's oxidized differently, the hood compared to the rest of the vehicle. You gotta make sure it all looks good. Micah Storm: Especially like today's, you got Tri Trico, you got matte finishes, all these new paints that are coming out. And sometimes what used looks good inside on in the paint booth under some lights, you put it outside in the sun or something and it's okay, this does not look the same as it did in the shop. That ha that happens. That's just, that's life. That's, you gotta deal with it and take care of it. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Micah Storm: But that. It's, paints have changed over the years. Like I said, a lot of these new colors, they look, they're cool, they look good, but man, they can be a pain to, to make sure it turns out right. So Jimmy Lea: It's true. It's true. And as a colorblind person, there are things that are obvious to me that are bad color matches, but for a lot of it, I'd be like, yeah, it looks good. And you'd be like Micah Storm: No, Jimmy Lea: we're gonna fix that. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: I think we, they're one out of 12 people is colorblind. Really? Or lefthand might be left-handed. No, I don't remember. I, we went down a rabbit hole the other night, colorblind and left-handed people, and just having a good time. My dad's left-handed. I'm colorblind. Micah Storm: Because the best of both worlds. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, sure. That's it. Let's go with that. I know the people there in the Northwest Bainbridge and up in that area, they're very relationship driven. What is your approach? What do you do to build that trust and communication with your clients up in Bainbridge? Micah Storm: Be honest, be real. If you make a mistake, own it, take care of it. As, as far as we do a lot with our community we're, we have, I could rattle off all kinds of things that we do with our community. We have a, a. The rotary auction that's up in this area on Bainbridge, just one of the, it's last year we raised over a million dollars in, in, in one day sale of, with a sale. Oh, 1 million, over a million dollars in one, one day. And it's so we donate to that. We donate our time. If we have garbage pickup we do on the highway sponsor sports teams. We like I said, we do a awful lot. We do a car show four times a year. All the money we raise goes to project backpack. It helps kids get into school, buy supplies for school. That we, that was, I think we hit, we almost hit $10,000 last this last year. But again, it, being involved with the communities was, is so important. Especially with the the relationships, I, I always say that probably 80% of the businesses or people, actually 80% of the people on Bainbridge Island know who we are. We may not work in all their cars, but they know the name, they know who we are. They know what we do for our community. They know, that, they can bring their car. Us, we can fix it. And they know some of that's gonna go back into the community. Some of whether it's time or money's gonna go back into the community. So it's very important to, to be there for them. 'cause it's they're, they write the check, they pay the bills. They, that's you gotta get back to 'em. Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's it is true. It is true. The relationship, communication is so important. So important, yeah. What's the future of Modern Collision? Where are you headed to next? Bigger, better, simpler. What are you looking for? Micah Storm: I'm gonna say better. There's always room for improvement. I don't necessarily think bigger is an answer. Yeah. You don't need to be bigger. If you've streamlined things, it, it can improve flow of the process. And that can actually getting better at what you do is I think a better way to. Improve and getting bigger. It's, at least that's my input on it. I don't need any more volume to deal with. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no, that's true. There's a lot coming through there. Yeah. And I, there, props to you. You've got a phenomenal company, phenomenal business, great company, great culture. For those who don't know and none of them would know, but unless you're listening to this, Mike and I were set up to do this right before their Christmas lunch. And I said no. Micah, you do you take care of your people first. And he's no. I can do this. I can do this. Yeah. Okay. I'm calling it, you're not gonna do this. Let's do it in the new year. Let's circle back. So you're taking care of your people super I just props to you, brother. I love what you're doing, man. Keep it up. Micah Storm: Oh, thank you. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you're welcome. You're, you are welcome. So I, I wanna ask some questions now if I started my business today, questions. And if you were starting your business today, what, knowing what you know now What advice would you give yourself starting your business today? Micah Storm: I'd say. Join an association. An automotive association is important and not just joining it, but participate in it. We've. Yeah, I think it's so important. There's so many, they're networking. The ideas that are created at an association level with some of these events and things like that. That has probably been the number one thing that has helped me in the business. Business side of things and streamlining what we do is the events that I go to through, through the Northwest Autocare. I guess that would be my number one thing is like I said, is to join it and participate. The more you give to it, the more you're gonna get out of it. There's, that's the so important what is, what else? Is it higher personality? Not talent. You can teach somebody a job, but you can't teach somebody a personality. And, if you have the wrong person, sure, they may know everything in the world, but if you have the wrong person there, they're gonna, they're gonna tank everybody else. And that's, it I don't mind training people. I'm always willing to, whether they're young and outta high school or they're from a different industry and wanna move into the, into the collision or into the automotive field in general. I said I don't mind training 'em if they're the right person. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I totally agree with that. So second question here. What has been the most expensive mistake you've made in your career? And what would you do differently knowing what you know now? Same situation. What would you do differently? What's the most expensive mistake and what would you do differently? Micah Storm: Let's see. Mistake. Living life, you're always making mistakes. The most expensive one, I would say. That's a good question. I, what do you consider expensive too? What's the most expensive as far as relationship? Most expensive, dollar wise? Jimmy Lea: Your choice, Micah Storm: Mike, that, I guess most expensive, the mistake would be probably relationship wise in the industry as far as like with the cu between customers and stuff. It's being, again, being honest with your customer, own up to your mistakes. You end up starting to. Something doesn't go right, say, Hey, I messed up it, it's, I broke that. I'm sorry, I, I apologize, but I'm gonna take care of it. If you start making excuses and or don't own up to it, it, you'll lose a customer, you'll lose reputation, you'll lose I so much more. And then, bad news travels fast, especially on an island. It kinda hits Oh yeah, Jimmy Lea: for sure. Micah Storm: Hits the edge of the water and comes right back at you, and then hits, Jimmy Lea: Ricochets. It just bounces all around the island. So what is one of the best investments you ever made in your business? Whether it's training a higher Go ahead. Micah Storm: I say I'm gonna say the best investment is probably training. If you again, you train you're gonna learn how to either work on something new how to do something better. Again I think training is the best investment. Also s you know, personal training whether it's personalities and how to work with, I liked working with younger kids and helping them. Understand, especially outta high school, they're trying to figure life out. Not all of 'em had a great maybe not a great upbringing, but I can help them grow and become someone that they, it's become somebody that's. They appreciate where they're at. They like it they're en engaged in society. One of the kids, one success story we had is one, one of the kids that hired in high school, he washed cars and did stuff like that. But he runs a boat building business now that has, I think, over a hundred employees. They do. So they have government contracts that's like a. It's, he has 60,000 square foot facility he just built for be able to paint. Again, it's just to watch, teach them when they're young, out in high school and help them grow and understand and see, they may not stay in this industry, but it's rewarding to see where they end up. It's training, it's it's business training, it's personal training. It's, it's that's one of the biggest, I think the best investments. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Alright who should I interview next? Who is someone that you respect in the industry that's doing it the right way, that you think, oh, you know what, Jimmy, you need to do a podcast with this person. Micah Storm: Oh, Todd Innsworth. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I'd love to talk to Todd. Do you think he'd do it? Micah Storm: I'm sure he would. Oh, he's, oh yeah. Jimmy Lea: Okay. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: I'm gonna tell 'em you, you sent me over. Oh, Micah Storm: okay. Jimmy Lea: All right. Lightning round. Here we go quick. Okay. One word answers or one sentence answers. You ready? Micah Storm: Okay. Jimmy Lea: One word that describes your shop's culture. Micah Storm: Team. Jimmy Lea: Team. Oh, I love it. Your number one daily. KPI. You glance at first. We talked about that, but you don't have numbers that you're looking on the regular, Micah Storm: I guess capture rate of our estimates. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Hardest position to hire? Four. Micah Storm: I'd say a tech. Jimmy Lea: And by the, how many texts do you want right now? Two or three? Micah Storm: Two. Jimmy Lea: Two. Micah Storm: Use two. Jimmy Lea: Give Mike a call. Favorite vehicle to work on? Micah Storm: Don't laugh, a Volvo two forties. The wagons, the sedans. No way. Yes. Jimmy Lea: That's hilarious. Micah Storm: I know those are like back of my hand. Jimmy Lea: That is awesome. That's hilarious. What's the car you hate working on the most? Are you secretly dread working on Micah Storm: Land Rover? Jimmy Lea: Best tool you've ever bought? Micah Storm: I'd say software. D The dvs. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Micah Storm: They can pay for themselves. Jimmy Lea: Oh, totally. Amen brother. Amen. What's a habit that made you a better leader? Micah Storm: Practicing emotional intelligence. That's, yeah. Jimmy Lea: Love it. What's a book that shaped how you run your business? Micah Storm: It's actually probably I gives you two. One is the ideal team player. That's yeah, that's an awesome book for hiring people. I can't tell you enough about that one. The other one I think is, like I said, probably Emotional Intelligence 2.0. Those, the two books? Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That emotional intelligence one, that, that's a heavy read man. It. It's intense. It's got a lot of really good information in there. I'm in the middle of reading the emotional intelligence again. Yeah, because I've read it once and now I need to go back and read it again. Biggest time waster in most shops. Micah Storm: I'd say probably the biggest time waster. I'm gonna see him. I look employees not getting along. And I, you deal with drama. I think it wastes a lot of time in, in most shops. I think we're lucky at ours. We hire again for the personality, not the talent. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. What is a non-negotiable standard? You refuse to compromise on Micah Storm: quality. Jimmy Lea: Amen, brother. Finish this sentence. The future of the collision and service industry belongs to shops that Micah Storm: adapt. You have to adapt. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you do. You do. It's an ever changing world. Micah Storm: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Ever changing world, man. Awesome. Micah, thank you so much for joining me, brother. I I really appreciate it. Micah Storm: Thank you. Appreciate that.
