Starting Your PDR Co From Scratch: A Roadmap

Links from the show:

We were reached out to by a listener in TX who is starting out on his own and was looking for advice. Join us here as we walk through the steps we would personally take if we were starting our own companies tomorrow.

We also take a look at a really great, but possibly overlooked whale tail from Dentcraft, the UWT-05 See HERE it’s an ultra thin short whale tail that is AMAZING for tightly braced hoods , roofs, and decklids! Get One TODAY

TabWeld glue will be launching soon as well! Have a look at the intro video here

TabWeld Glue

Want to own the World’s Best Blending Hammer? click HERE

We have been Glue pulling for fun and profit with Blackplague Smooth Series Tabs!

Get yours HERE

Transcript:

Keith Cosentino: Are you trying to stay on the cutting edge of paintless dent removal when it comes to your tools? Well if so, you need to make sure you have two things in your arsenal. One is a Shane Jacks’ Jackhammer blending hammer. Find it at BlendingHammerPDR.com. If you want to learn blending, we’ve got an awesome tutorial to go along with the hammer right there on the site. You’re gonna love it. You’re gonna learn something and you’re gonna get better and make money.

In addition to the hammer, if you are doing any glue pulling, you need to have the Black Plague Crease Tabs. It’s a six-piece crease pulling set. The two largest are absolute monsters, they’re gonna pull out collision damage like nothing else you got available. And the smaller sizes are gonna be for the normal everyday kinda door edges and minor, minor collision dents and a dog leg and a bottom of a door. I’m telling you guys, it is going to change the way you do your repairs when you have the cutting edge tools. And these are two of them. BlackplaguePDR.com, BlendingHammerPDR.com. Check out the sites, guys. Bring yourselves into the 21st century.

Do not forget about ReconPro. The software that we use to run our PDR companies. The stuff is phenomenal. You’re entering all the information on your device, which is an iPhone, you’re scanning the VIN with the camera of it. Everything’s populated in there for you. You buzz that little rascal off via magic off to a server somewhere. It’s all living on the server. You can dunk the phone in a bucket of water as soon as you’re done. You don’t lose any data. Everything’s paperless. The invoice is delivered electronically. You can send duplicates at a moment’s notice.

Guys, get off paper. Quit screwing around. AutoMobileTechnologies.com. ReconPro. Get your business into the 21st century.

Keith Cosentino: I’m Keith Cosentino. He’s Shane Jacks. And this is the PDR College podcast, where we are teaching you to level up your PDR career. That is paintless dent removal. We want you to get out there and learn how to make this stuff work for you. Make your business a success just by tweaking a few things here and there. And that’s what Shane and I are gonna do. Teach you how to tweak a few things so you can increase the number of dollars in your bank account. Shane, why the heck you need so many dollars?

Shane Jacks: Because, Keith, “mo money mo problems”. Right? You’ve heard that, correct?

Keith Cosentino: Oh yeah. I’m living it.

Shane Jacks: Well, I’ve got so many problems. I don’t think the money has caught up with it yet. I think I’m going backwards. So I’ve got to get my amount of money up to match the problems that I have.

Keith Cosentino: More problems, more money.

Shane Jacks: They’re like, “That guy’s got a lot of problems. He must have a lot of money.” No, not really.

Keith Cosentino: True dat.

Shane Jacks: Not really.

Keith Cosentino: Money does make your life more complicated.

Shane Jacks: Yes, it do.

Keith Cosentino: Or so I hear. You look back to the most carefree times in your life, you didn’t have a dime. You had nothing to worry about. Didn’t have to work.

Shane Jacks: Either you didn’t have a dime or you didn’t care about having a dime. You know what I mean?

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, or both. They’re usually hand in hand.

Shane Jacks: What happens is you, even if you have money in the bank – I have some money in the bank, Keith, so do you. So do many of our listeners. We’ve got money in the bank and then you take off and you leave and you forget about money and the need for it. You go to the mountains or whatever and it’s gone. The worries are gone. As soon as you come back home and you think about the mortgage and whatever else. There you go; there’s the problems back again.

Keith Cosentino: Back to work.

Shane Jacks: Back to work. I think I’m just lazy. Maybe I’m just lazy.

Keith Cosentino: Paintless dent removal. Get to it. Take your dents out. Stack up some cash. Well, if we do our job, you will be working less and making more. So that’s what we’re here to do: to try to help you.

Shane Jacks: That’s exactly what we’re here to do. And I believe we’ve helped, Keith. We’ve helped tremendously. We like hearing from you guys. We talk about that a lot. If we’ve helped you, leave us a review, talk to us, send us a message.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, it makes us extremely happy because it is a grind sometimes – doing this show. I will not lie: it’s a lot of work. We enjoy it at the end of the day. We’re always happy we did it. But sometimes we’ve talked about the crazy hours that we’re up doing this stuff and it doesn’t make a lot of sense when you’re rolling out of the rack. When it’s all done, it’s worth it. But it certainly adds a little cherry on top when somebody sends us a message and says, “Hey, thanks. This is cool.”

Shane Jacks: Yeah, I had a very, very high level tech send me a message yesterday, Keith. Talking about – he said, “I’ve been listening for a very short period of time and I have no idea, other than stupidity, why I haven’t listened before. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” That is awesome to hear from these guys that are absolutely crushing it on the repair side. Now they’re crushing it on the money side for the crazy repairs that they’re doing.

Keith Cosentino: It is cool. And you had that guy give you a hug the other day.

Shane Jacks: Yes, yes I did. And he’s not even a dent guy! Well, he is, kind of. He’s kind of a dent guy.

Keith Cosentino: He’s a dent guy.

Shane Jacks: He’s a bumper repair man. So we’ve got multiple – cross – what is the word that I’m trying to say? Cross –

Keith Cosentino: Specialty.

Shane Jacks: Cross-industry or whatever. Different specialties are listening to us now. He came up and gave me a hug. Really cool guy. Good bumper guy too. So if you need your bumpers done, drive to Greenville. I’ve got your guy.

Keith Cosentino: Pretty good hugger?

Shane Jacks: He’s a pretty good – he’s a pretty big boy. Most of those bumper guys are.

Keith Cosentino: My bumper guy hasn’t given me a hug yet. So, what up, Scott?

Shane Jacks: Is he listening?

Keith Cosentino: He’s probably not.

Shane Jacks: You’re not gonna get a hug. If you ask for a hug, you may get one. But if he’s not listening, it’s not gonna help. You need to ask him personally. Just say, “Give me a hug.”

Keith Cosentino: All you dent repair guys that are worried about competition, get into bumper repair. Because, Shane and I, both our areas are bumping for the car business and both of us have one bumper guy. There’s one dude for the last 15 or 20 years. One guy. Then he does as much or as little as he wants because he’s the guy. It’s a totally different repair method. You can be pounding on your fingers a lot with hammers and punches, but they’re taking dents out. And you’re under trucks busting those bumpers open with impacts and everything. It’s not for me.

Shane Jacks: No. Not for me at all.

Keith Cosentino: Oh man. So, Shane, what’s today about, man? What are we doing? What are we talking about?

Shane Jacks: We are going to help another fellow dent brother out today, Keith. He reached out to us and asked if we can help him. He’s had some situations in his personal life that have kind of handcuffed him, honestly. And that was one of the reasons – I know you wanted to do it anyway, Keith, but I kinda have a tender spot in my heart because of his family situation. He has one that was much similar to my grandmother’s side. It kinda touched me and he’s – now that his mother is away from his care and he wants to bump this thing up. So he’s had other priorities in his life, his family, and now he’s reached out to us to help him out and he needs some help, to say the least.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, sometimes when you’re in your own situation, you can’t step away from it enough to see what will seem like easy choices or decisions to make. But when you’re in the middle, you can’t always step above and look down and make the strategic decision. So it’s nice to reach out to somebody else that’s not invested in your situation and have them point you in the right direction. And that’s what we’re gonna do. So you wanna give a little background, like where he’s coming from and what we’re trying to do with him?

Shane Jacks: We’re gonna give all the specifics, correct?

Keith Cosentino: Sure.

Shane Jacks: Okay. His name is Jack Duffy. He’s out of Plano, Texas, Keith. He does paintless dent repair down there in Plano. Lot of hail down there and there’s a lot of people in the Dallas Ft. Worth, Plano. I guess I could name off about 4,000 sub – little divisions of Dallas there. His company is there in Plano. And reached out to us to up his game. What is the name of his company, Mr. Duffy’s?

Keith Cosentino: I believe it’s Plano Hail and Dent. I should have it up already. But it’s such a long domain name that I hate it and I don’t want to get to know it.

Shane Jacks: C’mon. Looking for it. Don’t have it up yet.

Keith Cosentino: So I know there’s a lot of dent guys in this area and we have a lot of listeners in Texas. So immediately there’s 17 of you guys who hate us now because we’re gonna try to help one of your competitors build up a site that’s better than yours and you’re saying, “Good luck.” He’s the one who asked for help and we’ll help him. Shane and I both would help somebody in our own personal markets. It’s not that much of a competition really. There’s tons of work for everybody.

Shane Jacks: Even a place as small as Greenville, Keith, there are three guys here that I help. That I try – that I do everything I can to help because there’s plenty of work. It’s out there.

Keith Cosentino: We’ll take your hate mail because I know it’s coming. But we would have helped you too, if you wanted it. Don’t be hating.

Shane Jacks: I am not pulling it up, Keith.

Keith Cosentino: Well, that’s part of it. His domain name was ridiculously long and you couldn’t find it. And that’s one of the reasons he reached out to us. He’s like, “I’m on page six and I don’t know what to do. Built the website myself.” So, of course, he knows how I feel, because he’s a listener of the show, about building your own website. And before I had the chance to jump all over his stuff, he said, “I know. I built my own website but that’s the resources I had and that’s what I did.”

So step number one – well, step number zero, make sure you can fix a dent if you go into the dent business. Jack says he can fix a dent just fine. I think he said he’s been in the business four years or something like that, after training. So we’re assuming the repairs are where they need to be and he said they are. So once you can do that and you have a phone number, you’ve got to build a website. And we’ve hammered on this so many times it’s probably broken record stuff for a lot of you guys that listen to every single episode.

But if you wanna see what we think a website should and shouldn’t like. Well, one you can look at our own personal websites. But you can go back and listen to the episodes we did for the website redo. Of course, I should know what episode numbers those are right now but maybe Shane can pull those up while I’m gibber-jabbering. But we just did the website redo I think in 57 or 58, somewhere right in there. That’s the redo. The first one was way earlier in the year when we busted up a guy’s website and then we came back and got with our developer and with the technician and built it back up into a new website.

It needs to be really basic and get across what you do in the first two seconds of landing there at that site. What is this company? What do they do for me and how do I get a hold of them? All those questions need to be answered on the home page without any scrolling or waiting. What are they, what do they do, how do I get a hold of them? I see a lot of websites that look real fancy and I have to scroll and scroll and scroll and find some little itty bitty phone number at the bottom, if I really want to find it. Retarded. Do not do that. Phone number is big. That’s what you want. You want them on the phone.

So finish the website. I think Jack is working with Nathan as of this recording, so he’s on the right track for that one. Nathan Pizzo is our developer that I use for my Black Plague stuff, for my service business, Bullseye Dent, and for PDR College. Shane already had his website made before we met, so Nathan does not do that one. But he does a lot of stuff for us and he does a lot of PDR sites for guys, listeners of the show, that have reached out to him. He knows what you need to have so he can help you with that. There’s that train.

Shane Jacks: The train.

Keith Cosentino: Soothing sounds of Anytown, USA.

Shane Jacks: I have a train running through my backyard – well, it’s a little farther away than yours.

Keith Cosentino: All I need – well, mine is far away but I live on 575 acres, completely flat so it echoes all the way to my studio.

Shane Jacks: The big deal with me is I live in a small town about 25 miles away from Greenville. Not a whole lot comes through there. It’s very rare you hear the train come through there. They could probably pull the track up and grow crops, honestly.

Keith Cosentino: The only thing they hear coming through that town is trains and slappy Gucci shoes.

Shane Jacks: Yellow. Yellow Gucci crocodile skin shoes.

Keith Cosentino: Wrong color of crocodile.

Shane Jacks: Wrong shade of crocodile.

Keith Cosentino: That’s right. So you’re getting your website professionally redone. You need to get a decent domain name. It’s amazing how many domain names are still open for the stuff that we do, you guys. Probably even still in our home towns. It’s because it’s almost infinite, the number of combinations you can come up with. Nobody can own all the domain names without trying to. But think about something really simple: your town and the word “dent”. It doesn’t get much easier than that. And if that’s taken, how about “dents” – multiple?

Trust me nobody’s going to land on the wrong site on accident. Very few people are going to do that. They’ll remember what you tell them. But his was really long and we’ve seen it in writing and neither of us could remember what it is. I literally think it’s like PlanoHail – PlanoProHailandDentRepair.com or something like that. It’s too many words and too many words that can be easily interchangeable. Back and forth, forth and back, and have the same meaning. So you’re gonna screw them all up.

So I suggest, if you can find it, a domain that would be equal to what someone’s gonna search for in your market. Whether it’s Dallas or whatever area you’re working in. DallasDentRepair.com. So they’re gonna search for “dent repair Dallas” or “Dallas dent repair”. You’re gonna come up just by the sake of your domain alone. Of course you’ve got to have content to back that up.

Shane Jacks: So yeah, Keith, the “your city dent repair”, “your city dent removal”, “your city dent”, “your city dents”. There are a ton of them out there that are not being used. Looked a lot of them up in some big cities. They’re just not there. They’re not being used. That’s a big deal. There are even a few in my market and your market, Keith. I’m going to scoop yours up and sell them to you.

Keith Cosentino: You might as well. I’m in a good position. I don’t need to buy any more domains. I’m jamming. But if you’re starting, you probably do want to snatch up a couple extra ones and decide which one you want to land on. Keep in mind, I’m not the SEO or the website expert. I’ve been very clear about that. I know how to get a hold of someone who’s very good and he does it for me. So take my advice with a grain of salt. Sand? Salt.

Shane Jacks: Don’t get sand in your nether regions.

Keith Cosentino: No. But what I was gonna talk about is you can have a lot of all these domains and point them back to your site. But you really have to hang your hat on the one. You can’t try to make ten different sites that are the same but with different names. Because Google hates them. They don’t want to send people to redundant sites. I know that from experience, because years ago, I tried to do that and they just end up invisible. They have to be different sites.

So you can get the other domains that redirect back, but they’re not going to come back in a search – all these ten different things. But what you will do is kinda pee all over your tree and keep other guys from snatching them up in your market. And make them have to resort to something silly like PlanoProHailAndDentRepairAtYourHouseMobile.com. It’s like the boot camp, Jack. We’ll beat you up but you’re coming out stronger out of the other end. A better domain is easy; anybody can do that.

Shane Jacks: You can have a few redirects. That’s not a problem.

Keith Cosentino: No, it’s not a problem. They’ll all work. You can redirect every single one of them, but those redirects are not going to come up in a search. Someone has to type that in and land on it. Chances of that happening are almost zero. So reserve them all, pick the one you like the best and start working on building that. That’s what on your business cards and everything else. Like I said, it doesn’t hurt to own them all. You can go all monopoly on those. When it’s 99 bucks a year, at the most expensive. You can reserve a domain for ten bucks a year, if you’re in the right place at the right time.

And even then, somebody can come behind you with a “.biz”, “.net”, “.info”, “.dent” or whatever. “.ninja” is one now; it’s a real extension. So you’re never going to get everything. But the “.com”s, at least in this point in time, are the most popular.

Shane Jacks: I had no idea there was a “.ninja” now.

Keith Cosentino: I know. Pretty sweet, huh?

Shane Jacks: Heck yeah.

Keith Cosentino: DentRepair.ninja. But nobody’s gonna – they’re gonna say, “‘.com’?” You’re like, “No, you just stop at ‘ninja’.” What about if it’s in the UK? Is it “.ninja.co.”– Just forget it.

Shane Jacks: Just “.ninja”.

Keith Cosentino: That’s just – “.ninja.” That’s it. Stupid.

Shane Jacks: Ninja.ninja.

Keith Cosentino: That’s got to be reserved by the guy that made it. So now you got a site, you’ve got a truck, you’ve got a phone number. We didn’t talk about the truck. Sticker the truck. But do not do little stickers, you’ve got to wrap it or do big vinyl. Now here’s why I know this – Shane’s truck: big vinyl. I didn’t design it. But he bounced the idea back off of me a few times when he was working on the different proofs. So I basically designed it and it works fantastic.

It’s big. It’s all over the truck from the front to the back. I like it because it’s a similar design that I wanted to do for my truck and I haven’t done it for my truck, but we’ll get to that in a second. But Shane’s truck and trailer get him a lot of phone calls. Correct, Shane?

Shane Jacks: Yes, they do. You sent me a drawing of what you wanted to do with your truck, Keith. I was like, “Hey, that’s pretty cool.” And I went off of that, added a few things, subtracted – just tweaked it a little bit. And then, again, we did bounce it off one another and you approved. So yes, you basically designed it. I guess the same as I basically repaired your hail cars this past year, since you called me for advice on them. But, no, Keith, you were instrumental in that design so I had to throw that jab in there.

Keith Cosentino: I can take it. I got the checks.

Shane Jacks: Yeah, you got the checks. I haven’t seen any of that money yet.

Keith Cosentino: Nor will you.

Shane Jacks: Don’t expect to.

Keith Cosentino: But Shane’s truck gets traffic. Okay, so, it’s the whole truck. It’s not wrapped, it’s vinyl but it might as well be wrapped because the vinyl is huge and it’s all over. But the difference is he has a black truck and he wanted the black background, so you don’t need to wrap it and it’s cheaper to do it that way. Wraps are pretty expensive these days. I thought the prices would come down by now, but they’re still pretty high.

Shane Jacks: Yeah, they’re pretty high. I got mine done for a really, really good price. I know the guy that did it and just kinda got lucky.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, you did. You scored on that deal. So I’ve been intending to make these giant decals for my truck for years. But I’m so dang busy all the time, I don’t need any more phone calls. I mean, that’s a silly thing to say. To anyone who owns a business, you would say, “Just get more people.”

But all of you guys listening know, it is not easy to find a high-level dent guy. You can’t just go hire one. You either have to train them or just get lucky that you got the perfect storm and you found a good technician who wanted to work with you and there was no baggage. He’s not a drug addict or any weird stuff. So I’ve been lucky. I’ve got three guys that are those guys, but I don’t have seven. I don’t have two more on tap that I could hire. If I did, yes absolutely, sticker the truck and get even more phone calls and grow the business.

But the bottleneck is in the talent and that’s why our markets are not as competitive as other markets. So it’s a good place to be for a business – to grow your small business. Hard place to scale. But that’s not what we’re dealing with today.

So we’re dealing with stickers on the truck and why didn’t I put them on mine? I can’t handle the phone calls. Okay, so fast forward to a dent repair I’m doing: a big smashed bedside. It’s like a really smashed one. One of the biggest ones I’ve done. I was at this guy’s house – I think I was at his house eight or nine hours. Stupid long repair – way longer than I wanted it to be. So I’m there into the evening. He’s working from home and then I saw him go from his work clothes to his hang out clothes. He kept coming out and checking on me and he started to have a couple beers as he relaxed in the evening.

Next thing I know, he comes out with graphics for my truck. He’s a graphics guy; I didn’t even ask him what he did. But he was done working, I was still working. He was really liking the way the dent was coming out. It was almost finished. And he comes out with my logos and phone numbers and everything in decals for my trucks. So what am I going to say, “No”? “Thanks, but no thanks”? It was really cool and they were well done. But they were relatively small; it’s just like the middle of my door. So we put them on the truck and they look just like my business card.

It looks nice and I kinda like it because people don’t try to sell me cars anymore at the dealerships I’ve been servicing for 15 years. But I don’t get any phone calls from them. A couple idiots have stopped me at gas stations and one guy did call me and I did not end up fixing his car. And it’s been on there for a while now. So I know that a little decal on the door is less powerful than a huge decal down the side or a wrap. And the back and everything. So there’s nothing on the back of my truck for people in traffic. It’s just the side doors. It’s not there because I thought it was a great idea. It was there because the guy came out and gave it to me for free.

I’ve actually considered taking it off because I worry more that my tools are gonna get stolen because of those than I am gonna get business from them. And I don’t care about more phone calls at this point. So if you want the phone calls: big stickers, big graphics. I’m a believer now.

Shane Jacks: I’ve got like three stories from the last month, Keith. All three have happened when I’ve been at the gym. I go to a really large gym, like a national chain gym, and it’s in a pretty high traffic area in a shopping center. And all three times – regrettably, all three times they call me – when are they gonna call you? When they see your vehicle, correct?

Keith Cosentino: At that moment. Yeah.

Shane Jacks: Because they’re putting the number in their phone and hitting dial. So all three times I’m in the gym: “Hey, I see your truck out here.” Out of three of those, two of them have – well, one of them has panned out. One of them scheduled and then he called me and said he wrecked his primary vehicle – this was a secondary vehicle. He wrecked his primary vehicle and it was going to be in the shop for a few weeks so I haven’t gotten that reschedule yet. So, one out of the three has worked. Now, the problem with – if you need more business – just like Keith was saying here, if you need more business, go for it.

But if you don’t, there is a problem with it. You’re going to get every Tom, Dick and Harry that’s just seeing it and it pops in his mind. Instead of them actively seeking out: “Well; I have a dent now. It just happened. I need to get this fixed.” You’ve got people – you’ve got customers that have had this dent in there for quite some time and it just pops in their mind because they see your wrap. They’re not as ready to buy, honestly.

Keith Cosentino: 100 percent true.

Shane Jacks: So you’re going to get people calling you, just feeling you out. I have a lot of that. I deal with those phone calls. If you’re stupid busy – I’ve honestly thought about taking the wrap off myself, Keith. It does bring business but I also get a lot of calls that I just don’t want. If you’re not busy, do it. It’s gonna be some money well spent.

Keith Cosentino: You know, it’s interesting you brought that up, because you and I haven’t talked about that before outside of the show. It’s very, very similar to the scenario I talk about when you’re just starting and you go to an office complex and the guy’s so jazzed that he called you and you came out. And he goes, “Man, I’m gonna go get Mike and Robert because they both have dents in their new trucks and I’m gonna get them out here and you can take their dents out too. They’re going to be so excited.” And guess what? Mike and Robert don’t give a flying flip about their dents or else they would have been the ones that called.

Shane Jacks: That called you to begin with. Yep.

Keith Cosentino: Right? They’re polite because they’re on the spot. Because the other guy’s so excited and they’re right there, you’re right there and they’re trying to be nice. And they’re like, “Oh yeah, well, you can give me a quote.” You know? And they’re like, “Oh man. That’s a lot. Okay, well, you know what. Give me your card and as soon as you turn away, I’ll throw it out but I’ll feel better about our transaction.”

Shane Jacks: I’ll feel better about wasting my time.

Keith Cosentino: Right. It’s the same thing. These guys are like, “Oh man, I’m just going to go down and get some more doughnuts because I’m all out.” Then like, “Oh. Dent repair. How much to fix this? Oh man. You know how many doughnuts that is? Forget it. But thanks though, man. I’ll keep your card.” “I’ll keep your card” means the opposite of it. “I’ll keep your card” means “I’m throwing this card away”.

Shane Jacks: Step in step, every single time. “Oh, I’ll keep you in mind,” or “I’ll keep your card”. Technically, they’re correct – they’re gonna keep it until you drive away and they’re going to keep you in mind until you drive away.

Keith Cosentino: Except I’ve had one Middle Eastern guy that, when I first started, was at a dealership and he told me “I’m tearing up your card.” And he tore it up and threw it in the garbage.

Shane Jacks: Are you serious?

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, it was awesome. So here’s a mini-lesson within this podcast. I am not a racist by any stretch of the imagination but there’s a lot of Middle Eastern dudes who are in the car business in my part of town. And I imagine in everybody’s town, because if there’s that many here then they’re all over the place. It’s something that they gravitate towards. The guys are really, really shrewd businessmen. They negotiate and they don’t pay a lot for anything. They’re really good at that. It’s a cultural thing, I think. The way they purchase – and the way they’re taught, the way they’re brought up.

But this one particular dealership, I was like a year or two years in – pretty new. And it was like a – you know, some guys called them rock lots or dirt lots; we call them pot lots here, but just independent used car dealership with 30 cars on it, 40 cars. This one had relatively nice cars. Lot of European stuff, but nothing over the top and it wasn’t a really nice facility. It was like just a lot with a little trailer in the middle of it, you know, or a little old house in the middle of it or something like that.

So he kept thinking my prices were too high, so we had this big discussion. He came out there and I said, “Listen. This is gonna be this much, this gonna be this much, and these are gonna be that much. I’m not gonna change those numbers when you go inside, that’s what it’s gonna be.” I said, “Would you like to proceed or not? Is this a transaction you want to make or not? This is the best price I can give you.” And it was low, even for those days. After we’d had an argument once or twice. So he said, “Yes, okay. That’s fine. Let’s do it.”

I said, “Great.” I’m like, “Man, that feels good.” We had this disagreement and now we came to an agreement that we’re both happy with. And now, that’s it. “Man, I’m glad we got through that.” So I do the work, I bring the bill in. He sees the bill and he starts all over again. I’m like, “What the heck is going on here?” It’s like a Twilight Zone. We just had this conversation two hours ago and we both agreed on it. He’s like, “This is too much! This is – I’m tearing up your card.” He gets it out and he tears it up. And I was like, “Please do. Give me all those little chunks because I don’t want you to put them all back together later and call me– I don’t know what is going on with you.”

I don’t understand that. Then the owner – that was when I was a technician for another company – the owner came out and like salvaged the account. He kept referring to that account as the one I lost. I was like, “Well, yeah, I guess I lost an account.” He’s like, “Yeah, remember when you lost that account?” “Yeah, I guess. I don’t know what else I could do besides, you know –.” I literally thought the guy was speaking another language to me but he was using English words. I still never figured it out until I did work for this guy who had this huge collection of Porsches. Just a stupid collection.

He was a really neat guy, retired of course, but not that old. And we were talking and he used to negotiate cell phone contracts. This was back in the 80s and early 90s. He used to negotiate cell phone contracts in third world countries – places that were all backwards and they didn’t have a system that you could work through the normal government to get the proper approval. You kind of had to backdoor all these deals. The U.S. cell phone companies didn’t know how to do business there. They’d go set up an office and they’d try to negotiate through the proper channels and they’d never get what they needed. But he knew how to go in, talk to the right guys.

Sometimes they were like suitcase cash deals, but he would get those papers signed and get the cell phone companies authorization, I guess you could say, to build their networks. So this is a big money place. A couple of them were literal like million and two million dollar in a suitcase cash deals. So he charged a fee on when he’d negotiate for those contracts and then he’d broker them back to the cell phone companies. So pretty amazing story and very unique but a lot of the work he’d do was in the Middle East.

I said, “Man, so you’re an expert in dealing with Middle Eastern people and making those deals.” I said, “Okay, you gotta answer this question for me. How come this happened to me? We made a deal. Everything was fine. We shook hands on it and then when I went to give him the bill, it started all over again.” I said, “I don’t understand what happened.”

He said, “This is very easy. This is exactly what happened, Keith. With their mindset – with that fellow’s mindset, if you agreed to that deal – if you made that deal, you made money. And if you made money, then he lost money. So if you made money, he left money on the table. So he wants to start the negotiation over because he could’ve paid less if you made a profit.”

So he’s like, “What you have to do is just plain, old, old-school car selling where you start really, really high and you come all the way back down. And you’ve got to make them think when you’re doing this deal, you’re doing it for almost no reason at all. You don’t even know why you’re doing it. You’re losing money. It’s a bad deal but you need to get rid of the merchandise, or you need to stay busy or you need to do something but it isn’t to make money.”

“You really have to go through the theatrics and make it seem like you’re basically at a loss. At that point, they’ll be happy with the deal and they’ll leave it alone. But if you’re happy about it, and you took it with a smile then they left money on the table and they’re gonna try to capture it back.”

Shane Jacks: I was also told that in the Middle Eastern cultures – it may not be all of the Middle East – honestly can’t remember. I had a gentlemen ask me four million questions about his dent. I asked a Middle Eastern friend of mine and he said, “It’s a culture–”. Again, same answer basically. “It’s just a cultural thing.” So they get you so deep involved into the discussion and your time involved in the discussion that when they counter with an offer, psychologically, you think I’ve got time invested in this. Too much time. I need to take the deal.

Keith Cosentino: It probably works.

Shane Jacks: Yep. And he said, “They’re trained to do that from the get go.” I said, “Man, that’s a pretty good tech – “, because this guy talked to me for 45 freaking minutes. Then he was like, “Well, will you do it for this much?” I said, “No.” But I did come down. I wouldn’t do it for his price, but I came down. I don’t really remember exactly, Keith, but probably came down more than I wanted to. Because I had time invested and I wanted to recoup some of that time.

Keith Cosentino: That culture: they’re masters at negotiating. They’re really good.

Shane Jacks: So the next time I’m in Walmart, gonna ask the cashier, “Is this hypoallergenic? Is it –?”

Keith Cosentino: “Is this a custom cotton blend? Is this organic cotton? Because I’ve got free trade issues.”

Keith Cosentino: The time has come. The Black Plague Smooth Series Tabs are a reality. They are available for you now on BlackPlaguePDR.com. If you’ve been living under a rock, it is time to come out. We are making money out here with glue pulling and we’re using the Smooth Series Tabs to do it. We’re getting pulls out of these tabs that you cannot get from any tabs, no matter the price. These things flat hook up strong snappy pulls every time. These tabs along with the green glue that we have also on the site are blowing people away.

If you want to be a part of the movement, get yourself over there and get some tabs into your box. BlackPlaguePDR.com or DeadRatTabs.com. Guys, the game has changed. Don’t get left behind. Stay on the cutting edge.

Keith Cosentino: All right. So off on a tangent again on negotiating, but that was a fun story. The next thing on my list here is: you gotta align yourself with other highly rated companies that are of similar trades but not the same. It wouldn’t hurt to align yourself with other high-level dent guys, by the way. Because if they’re good and they’re busy, it’s not a bad place to be friends with them. They’re going to have, sometimes, work that they can’t get to or don’t want that they’ll give to you or maybe they’re busy enough, they need help. Or if it hails and they need help. It’s better to be friends with your competition than just to be enemies, I can promise you that.

So get to know those guys that you’re going to be playing against. I know a handful of mine here. I don’t know all of them, but I know a handful of them. I like it better than not knowing them. So with the addition of dent guys, you gotta align yourself with body shops, dealers, and I hate to say it, but if you’re starting – some car washes. If you’re busy and you have a good body shop network and dealer network, you don’t need a car wash. They kinda suck. But if you’re starting and you’ve got nothing, you could try to find a nice car wash and align yourself with them. One of the reasons I don’t like car washes is probably some of the same reasons you don’t like car washes, Shane.

Shane Jacks: They’re always – the ones that we have around here anyway –they’re always trying to make – they’re always trying to double their profit on anything they do. Number two, they’re trying to sell something that the person doesn’t originally want. Kinda like what we stated earlier. They’re trying to upsell. The gentleman you were talking about, “Hey, I’ve got two buddies that have dents in their brand new trucks.” It’s the same people.

Again, they’re trying to double what your – it’s not a strict retail. Basically you’re at a wholesale level again. That’s the big deal. You’re back at a wholesale level because they are not going to call you unless they’re going to make a ton of money off of it. Period. That’s just the way it is.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, the ideal situation is you want signage there with your phone number. You don’t wanna really do work there. But if people, who are just sitting waiting for their clean car to come out, can see your name and phone number while they’re thinking about their clean car and they’re reminded that there is a dent in it. They might call you because these are people who care about their car enough to get it washed at least and wait for it. Not drive through the gas station thing. There’s a good chance they might be interested in your services. But you don’t want the broker deal where they’re gonna bid it for you and they’re gonna call you at the moment’s notice. Those are bad.

Shane Jacks: The only time I’ve had one – and he went out of business. He was a really high-level – I’m not saying he did high-level cars – he did a high-level buffing, compounding. This guy could detail the crap out of a car. When he would call, it was money.

Keith Cosentino: He went out of business.

Shane Jacks: Yeah, he did! He did. Actually, he started a gym. He’s like, “I’m just sick of this.” I’m like, “Man, you’re killing it!” “I’m just tired of doing it.” He’d been doing it for 15 years or so. He started a gym and he’s much happier now. There’s something to be said for that.

Keith Cosentino: Listen, detailing is ball busting work. I would never do it. I had a couple buddies who did it. It’s hard, man.

Shane Jacks: He was a two-man show. He was the guy that – the guy could really make a car look wet. You know? When he called, I knew there was money. But it was very rare that he called. You know what I mean?

Keith Cosentino: I could make a car look wet too.

Shane Jacks: Not by urinating on it. He would – he could buff a car. The guy was good. So there are rare instances –

Keith Cosentino: “Man, Keith, not only does it look wet, but… ”

Shane Jacks: It’ll get sticky later, sir.

Keith Cosentino: It’s a gift.

Shane Jacks: In some of these bigger cities, you will have really high-level – that are doing high-level cars – doing ridiculously – Bentleys, Ferraris and so forth. You know, being hooked up but it’s not –

Keith Cosentino: I would never call those guys a car wash. I would never call those a car wash. We’re talking about a detailer at that point.

Shane Jacks: Truth.

Keith Cosentino: And on that note –

Shane Jacks: I was lumping them all together. Down here in the South, if you’re washing a car, you’re detailing.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, no, it’s kinda same here. People don’t know what they’re asking for. Sometimes they ask for a detailer, they want a car wash. But I’m talking about a car wash where you drive there and you wait and the car comes out and guys who wash it call you to come get it.

But aligning yourself with high-level mobile detailers is a good idea. Again, you gotta find the right guys who just wanna pass on value to their customers. And who will do a little hand selling for you and say, “Listen you got a dent on this thing. After it’s clean, it looks terrible. Call this guy. He will hook you up. Tell him I sent you.” You can get a decent amount of those people to close because you’re going to come to him just like the mobile guy did and you’re gonna do a similar service. You can charge a lot more than the detailer though, because it’s a repair. It doesn’t matter how good your detail is –

Shane Jacks: It’s gonna be back. It’s gonna come back.

Keith Cosentino: Yep, but your dents are fixed forever, so it’s worth more. So find those guys. Look for reviews just like you’re going to buy that service. Find the best three guys and make an effort to get to know them. Don’t just call them and say, “Hey, I want you to refer my dents.” Say, “Hey, here’s what I’m doing. I’ve been in the business a long time but I’m just now starting my retail business. I would love to come out and maybe if you have a dent in your truck or van, I can repair it for you while I chat with you for a moment. I can come out to a job you’re working on and so you can get an idea what I can do. And hopefully I can see what you do and maybe we can refer business back and forth.”

Who would say no to that? Unless the guy already has a dent guy or has a perfect truck or you sound weird. You’re going to be able to make that connection, so try it. That will help you. These are all tips for guys who are new or slow. These are the guys you will start to weed out when you get really busy. But, new and slow, the more contacts you can make, the better. I’ve got a couple detailer friends who refer me and I probably do three jobs a year from them. But they’re not relationships that I spend a lot of time nurturing either, because I’m too busy. But if I was slow, I’d be going out to lunch with these guys and getting connected with their good customers and spending more time connecting with their people. So align yourself with those guys, align yourself with high-level body shops. That’s gonna be a harder nut to crack, Shane.

Shane Jacks: Yes, it is. Especially in a city with as many dent guys as there are in Plano.

Keith Cosentino: Every high-level body shop is going to have a guy.

Shane Jacks: Yep. You’ve got to prove that that guy is not their guy.

Keith Cosentino: Right. And they may not love him. They probably do, to be honest with you. But they may not. So –

Shane Jacks: And even if they do, Keith – I’m going to interrupt you here. Even if they do, sometimes they love that guy, because they don’t know what you are.

Keith Cosentino: That’s true. Less likely, but it’s possible.

Shane Jacks: You’ve got to get it from these guys. And well, when I say they’ll know what you are, that encompasses a lot of different things. One is your availability: “you call me and I’ll be here”. If you’re not that busy, you’re that guy. If you’re good at what you do: “Hey, when he can’t make it, give me a call”. Butt your way in there. If he says he can’t do this repair – he can’t do a repair that you think is possible, let me show you some stuff that I’ve done. Video, pictures, whatever. Give me a call and we’ll see how I can help you. Be their guy.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, you’ve gotta be – you know that really ugly guy that you used to know that gets all those girls?

Shane Jacks: That was me.

Keith Cosentino: You gotta be that guy. He got all the girls because he would talk to every single one of them, no matter what. And anybody could shoot him down and he’d move right on to the next good looking girl and walk right up to her and talk to her. That’s who you gotta be. You gotta be not afraid to get in front of these companies. Go in there knowing that there’s a good chance they don’t want to talk to you and be friendly and keep on talking. Talk your way into these places.

If you get a warm reception – it’s not cold and it’s not hot, but they don’t ask you to leave – as my friend, Glen, says, “They don’t invite you to leave.” Then go saunter out back and shake hands with the detail guy, shake hands with one of the body guys and just chat them up and be friendly with them. Give them some compliments. Don’t give them any tips. Tell them whatever they’re doing looks great. They’re amazing; they’re craftsmen. Pop in next week.

Shane Jacks: A lot of times – we’ve spoken about this before, Keith – those guys in the back know who to talk to up front and –

Keith Cosentino: A sherpa. Find yourself a sherpa. A detailer is usually the best sherpa. Because they’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Like a body guy’s busy, a painter’s busy, if you’re talking to them, they’re not working. But a detailer, his whole life is listening to the radio, gossiping, and spraying water on stuff.

Shane Jacks: I hope we have no detailer listeners.

Keith Cosentino: I mean, you know, dealer –

Shane Jacks: Body shop, I understand. Yeah.

Keith Cosentino: Not real detail guys. I’m not saying they can’t do a good job, there’s just– I’m just digging myself a hole here.

Shane Jacks: Some guys listening at a body shop right now going, “Hmmm.”

Keith Cosentino: “This is the last damn podcast –”

Shane Jacks: “I ain’t listening no more.”

Keith Cosentino: “I hate you, Keith.”

Shane Jacks: Why is everybody that’s not any good at something or has issues is country? Why is that, Keith?

Keith Cosentino: It just has to be. Anybody that is uneducated enough to be dissatisfied with anything I say has to be country.

Shane Jacks: That is funny. I don’t take offense to that. It’s true. I had a guy from up northeast coming through – he was coming through my area last night and he texted me. He was coming down I-85. I called him and he sent me a text later. He said, “Yep, I know I’m back in the country again.” He said, “Because I could’ve swore this guy asked me twice if I wanted to go around back, but I think he was just asking me if I’d like a bag.” He was at a QT station.

Keith Cosentino: Oh man. Yep. Country. All right, so you found a body shop, you found a car wash, you found a detailer, and they’re all highly rated. And you’ve made an effort – a continued effort to make a connection with these guys. This is a – what I’m talking about just in this couple minutes – this is a two or three-month deal of every day doing something. It’s not a go out and meet the guy once and give him your card and now you’re busy. It’s a full time job. If you wake – you wake up every day – and you go to work. Every day. Where are you going? You don’t even know. You just go and when you’re out there, you go and you make connections.

You go and stop by and you shake hand and you talk to guys, all day, like a salesman. Because that’s what you are – until you are a technician, you’re a salesman. And you’re going to stay a salesman when you’re a technician too. But right now, you’re not fixing anything; you’re just going around and talking to guys. You might get a couple dents in front of you doing that. Very good chance you will, as a matter of fact. But if you just sit home and wait for the phone to ring and somebody call you, forget it. You’re out of business.

Shane Jacks: If you’re waiting, you’re not fostering relationships.

Keith Cosentino: Correct. And this is the time – I’ve talked about this before, Shane. But this is the time in your career when you can build these super strong relationships that will you carry you for years and years and years. I couldn’t have a five-minute conversation at one of my accounts now if I wanted to. I’ve too much going on, but when I started I had 30 and 40 and 50 minute conversations. And I went to lunch and I enjoyed every minute of it. I just wasn’t that busy but I had time and all the time I spent with these people, I made real friendships.

Now I don’t have to go to lunch with those guys anymore. I have five-minute conversations with them because I know about them, I know their families. Yeah, we don’t hang out or any of that stuff but I can talk to them. I’m sincere when I ask them how they’re doing and they’re sincere when they ask me how I’m doing. They know I’m a good tech and they know when they refer somebody to me, it’s gonna be taken care of. So it’s a great relationship, but it’s because I spent those early years building it.

I didn’t just come in there, do a great repair, give them my card, and now we’re buddies. That’s not how it works. So you’ve got to take advantage of this time when you’re starting and make those connections and put effort into them. Otherwise, they’re nothing. I mean, think about the people you refer, if any. Anybody you refer is somebody – 90 percent chance you know them personally. It’s not just: “Oh yeah, these guys are good.” I mean, you might say, “I’ve heard these guys are good and you should go check them out.” And you don’t know them.

I do that for a couple places that I don’t know. “Listen, I don’t know these guys. But you want an interior repair like an upholstery company; this is the only one I know has a good reputation.” I don’t know those guys, but if I met another guy who did upholstery repair. And he was friendly and we made friends, that’d be the new guy I refer. Not this other company. So you’ve got to make those relationships. If you’re at home doing a work day, fail. You need to be out driving around, wasting gas. It will not be a waste.

Okay, so here’s my last idea which I think is actually kind of a genius plan. We talk a lot about Yelp reviews, do we not, Shane? Some parts of the country, Yelp is not so popular.

Shane Jacks: That’s here.

Keith Cosentino: In fact, in Shane’s town, it doesn’t work yet. Or ever, who knows. But right now, it doesn’t. Cool. In this part of Texas, it does. It’s popular. I looked. Okay, there’s lots of activity. So you need to create a Yelp profile and spend your time making it nice and having the right images on there and having your contact information. But then you need reviews, right? And Yelp is only going to show the reviews by seasoned Yelpers – people who have written several reviews and have a profile picture and things like that. Otherwise the reviews get thrown into a bucket and hidden back in a closet. So when you’re starting, the chances of you getting those Yelpers: slim.

There’s like a real hockey stick kind of curve that happens with the reviews where you start out with almost none, then you get two, then you get four. It takes a while until you get 25, and then they start growing quickly – like exponentially. So you’ve got to get to 20 really quick. Here’s an idea. I’m not saying this will work because I haven’t done it, but it’ll work better than not doing anything. Create your Yelp profile and create your photo and you write your bio and all that stuff that nobody wants to do that they have space to do. Fill it all out, okay?

Yelp allows you to have Yelp friends and send messages to other Yelpers. So look into the automotive field. Maybe not from other dent repair reviews but body shops, car washes, things where people take care of their cars. Look for all these high-powered reviewers – guys that have done ten reviews or more. Guys or gals – people.

Write them a message and tell them what you’re doing: “Hey, I’ve been in this business a long time but I’m just now opening my services to the public. I’m really excited about Yelp. I really want people to know what I can do. If you have a ding or dent in your car, I would love to fix it for free for the opportunity that you would get to see what I can do and maybe share your opinion with other people about it.” A lot of them are gonna say, “No” or think you’re trying to game the Yelp system. But if you message enough of them, you might get ten or twenty of them to agree to letting you do a free repair on their car in exchange for a review of the service.

You’re not saying exchange for a five-star review. Make sure you tell them, “I want an honest review. I don’t want you to give me a fake five-star review. I only want a five-star review if I earn it with you. But if my service is lacking in some way or my communication is lacking, I would expect you to reflect that in your review as well. I want honest reviews for people to know what kind of service I offer.” The reason I would worry like that is because they’re hypersensitive to someone trying to game the system or earn a free review or whatever. Buy a review. That’s not what you’re trying to do.

Essentially, you want to do a repair for free in exchange for a review. But you want to make sure they know you’re asking for an honest review, not a paid five-star. So this may even be against the rules of Yelp. I don’t know, but I think it’s your best chance of leap-frogging some of your competition and getting into a position where you have some established presence in that system. So I would send messages to as many of those people as I can. And when they say, “Yes”, be Johnny On-the-spot to go do the repair.

Get started that way. I think it’s a neat idea. Like I said, I cannot confirm or deny that it is or is not against the rules of Yelp. I don’t know and I’m not going to go looking. I just think it’s a cool idea and if I was at the bottom, starting again, I would do it.

Shane Jacks: It’s a good idea. If it works. It should work as long as it’s not against the rules and you can capture those people.

Keith Cosentino: I think it will. I mean, you might get a couple people that are upset about it. But I think if you word it right and bounce the message you send off of some of your friends or family members before you do that. Make sure it sounds not like you’re panhandling, then I think you could pull it off. It has a lot to do with that message. But that’s my plan. If I was starting from scratch in Plano, Texas, those are the things I would do and keep doing. That’s a big part of all this is you gotta stay consistent. You gotta keep doing these things. Not just for a week or a couple weeks or a couple days of the week, it’s gotta be your full time job.

The reason Shane and I are successful is because we decided to do this and we went all in from an early age. This is what we decided to do. End of story. It wasn’t a little bit of this or a little bit of that. Or maybe I’ll do this and just part time while I do that. We both went all in. Full hand; fold all the chips. And we make it work. We made it work early and we continue to make it work and make it successful. But I’ve seen a lot of guys who are half in and half out and they get nowhere. Shane, I’m sure you’ve seen the same thing.

Shane Jacks: Oh yeah. Tons of times. I have one thing to add to this, Keith. That is: what is the number two search engine?

Keith Cosentino: Bing, I guess.

Shane Jacks: No, it is YouTube.

Keith Cosentino: Oh yes, YouTube. You’re right.

Shane Jacks: YouTube is the number two search engine. Well, you know what, I’ve seen a few reports that say it – I’ve read some that say it may not be the number two search – okay, so if it’s not, it’s number three. All right, either way.

Keith Cosentino: It’s a big one.

Shane Jacks: It’s a big one. Whenever you’re in Google – and everybody uses Google – okay, I mean, it’s number one. Google is number one. YouTube is connected to Google. You type in “Plano dent repair” in Google and scan across the top and images, videos. Bam, there you are. Somebody’s gonna click on those videos. People wanna – paintless dent repair’s intriguing, to say the least. Correct? How can they fix my dent without painting it? Get a couple videos. Either edit them yourself – they don’t have to be absolutely spectacular.

The spectacular part is going to be them watching you take a quarter size, half-dollar sized smashed in fender or whatever it is and repairing that in front of their eyes, without having to paint the car. So get that thing – get you some videos, get them edited and one big thing is to make sure your keywords are in there when you put that video up. In my description, I have a call to my website and link to the website and I also put some keywords into the description. Keith let me know before the show that maybe I should put more in the actual description itself.

But I do put a lot of tags on those videos that I do. So the tags that I – I’m just gonna run through a few off the top of my head here, Keith. I put in “Greenville, South Carolina dent repair”, “Greenville dent removal”, “Greenville”, just “dent removal”. I will put the names of – I’m not going to say the names of the companies – some of the big companies. I put their names in there so if they search that and “Greenville” also, I’m gonna pop up. Now take those videos, you’re gonna need views to up your chances of people seeing your videos, correct? If you’ve got two views, nobody’s going to see them. Keyword wise, yes, they’re gonna see them but you may on third or fourth page or whatever.

One trick that I have done and most – or a lot of you – not most of you, but a lot of you listening will have seen this before. I will post those videos on some of the forums that we are all on and people click on them to watch: “I wonder what he did today. I wonder what kind of repair this is.” That ups my views immediately; it’ll give me three, four, five hundred views basically in a day or two. And that can only help you.

Whenever you type in “Greenville dent repair”, “dent repair Greenville” or whatever, “extreme dent repair Greenville”, “large dent repair Greenville”. And you hit videos, out of all of the videos on the front page – I believe there are ten – I own seven of those videos on that first page. And on page number two, I am four or five out of the ten that are on the second page. It does take a little bit of time to do this but again, this is something you’ve – especially if you’re not busy, you’ve got to foster it.

You’ve got to take this stuff a long way, as much as you can and spend as much time as you possibly can getting it going. So do some impressive repairs, keywords and tags, make sure you get those in there so that your reviews are getting jacked up.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, you know what, I’m glad you brought that up, Shane. Because it was on my list and I kinda blew right over it but it’s really important. Make more than a couple. Every time – if you’re slow, again when you’re starting – every repair you do, make a video. You can’t have too many. You cannot. And you’ll wanna link them on your website too. But getting them on YouTube with the proper keywords, like Shane is saying, and the proper description is really, really beneficial. Because you often times don’t even need to click the videos. If they’re that relevant, they’ll be in the organic search results of just a web search. So make sure you do that.

Disclaimer: Shane and I, neither of us are the experts on YouTube and the proper tagging and keyword and search engine optimization for YouTube. That’s a whole specific specialty. And one of our listeners, Steven Demala, he’s an expert at that stuff and he kinda reached out and slapped us upside the head last time we were talking a lot about YouTube. And said, “You guys got a lot of rubs, you got a lot wrong or half-truths. I have a lot of tips for you on YouTube.” We were talking about maybe having him on the show one day and breaking down what it takes to properly set up your YouTube channel and get everything specific.

So if you guys reach out to us or put in the comments that you’re interested in that, we’ll see if we can get Steven to share his knowledge on the show if he’s willing. But there’s a lot of guys like that who are experts on that stuff; we are not. We’ll get in touch with the right people and we’ll muddle through it ourselves sometimes and get close but any one of these things we’re talking about, there’s somebody who’s better at it because they’re specifically skilled in that thing and it’s not always us. You know, we’re not afraid to tell you when we know exactly what we’re doing and when we kinda know.

Shane Jacks: The whole YouTube thing – it was kinda by design – talking about the videos that I do, Keith. I put a couple up and then I noticed “dang, I’m –”. When you do an organic search for Greenville, South Carolina, on the first page, only one, two, three, four, five, six down is one of my videos. I’m the only video for six pages on there. And again, I’m number six on the first page for one of my videos.

Keith Cosentino: You have that up right now?

Shane Jacks: Yes, I do.

Keith Cosentino: How many views does it have?

Shane Jacks: I’m sorry, when I said I had it up, I’ve got the page up. Give me just one second– That has 1,500 views.

Keith Cosentino: So 1,500 people watched Shane’s video and undoubtedly a few of them called him.

Shane Jacks: Yes, I’ve had several people call and say, “Yes, I saw your videos on YouTube.” I also have a video – you don’t have this, Keith. I do have a video on the front page of my website, on the homepage. I also have a page specifically set aside just for videos. With the gallery – I also have a photo gallery. But I do have a page just for videos.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, my site – we didn’t do that when we set it up years ago and haven’t fooled with it.

Shane Jacks: You don’t need to.

Keith Cosentino: I know. I don’t need to. But the Fine Line PDR that we redid out of Pennsylvania, he has a video on the homepage. You have a video on the homepage. I think it’s a good thing to have. All right, Jack. I hope that gets you on the right track. And to you guys who are in a similar position, who are just starting your companies, I hope that helps you a little bit. If it does, let us know, drop us a line. Write an iTunes review if you enjoy the show. It makes us happy and it helps other people find the show when they’re looking. So go to iTunes and write the appropriate review which is five stars. Let us know how great we are. We love it and we appreciate it.

It would not be an episode of the PDR College podcast without a tool review and today is no different. Shane, what is our tool?

Shane Jacks: Our tool review for the day comes from Dentcraft. We do a lot of reviews on Dentcraft tools. It’s good stuff. Today –

Keith Cosentino: We haven’t done one for a while.

Shane Jacks: It’s been a while since we’ve done one. It sure has. But this tool I use in specific scenarios and it makes me a ton of money. I’m going to tell you what the tool is first and then the specific scenarios. This tool is the UWT5, okay?

Keith Cosentino: Zero five?

Shane Jacks: I’m sorry. UWT05. Zero five. And this the ultra-thin narrow whale tail. Five inches long. That’s what the 0-5 is for. What I use this thing for, Keith, myself: the roofs of Honda Civics, Honda Accords, Honda CRVs, all of these roofs that have a sunroof in them. Everyone that’s done hail damage or done a roof with a dent on the roof of these cars knows that they are a pain in the butt because of the bracing. The bracing is front to back. Basically – or on Accords and Civics, it is front to back. And on CRVs, it is virtually front to back and there are square and round holes all in this thing. And when you try to use a longer whale tail with a wider tip, a lot of time, you will snail trail.

If you’re trying to get into the brace and the shaft of your tool is hitting the edge of the brace, then you’re not getting the tool in there like you need to without forcing it, if that makes sense. Well, this thing is five inches long with a small head and you stick that bad boy in up there, cut that glue and it falls within those big square holes of those braces. The whole shaft is flat against the roof and you can get a lot done with these tiny narrow whale tails.

That is the primary – I mean, there are a hundred different cars you can use it on also and the front of the roofs and those braces, same thing, same situation. And you’re gonna get into those situations. Really, really useful on the roofs of these cars that have this crazy bracing like the Civics and the Accords and CRVs

Keith Cosentino: And the Declets too.

Shane Jacks: Declets. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Keith Cosentino: I use this one and one of the longest ones of this set because it’s a whale tail. The long one I use for a different purpose though. The head of it is only a half inch so it’ll go into a half inch hole so it’s probably just a hair under half inch even though it’s listed as a half. Or maybe my hole is a little bigger. But it goes in without forcing it, so the long one I’ll use when you’re drilling and you gotta get way far away down into, like, the wheel lip of something that little tiny whale tail will fit in there.

But when you’re jamming up in that really tight bracing, if you’ve got a big, two-inch-wide whale tail, that’s a lot to jam into an area of these tiny little thin Civics or Kias or whatever you’re working on. These compact cars that have extra bracing. It’s usually not the big cars that have all the bracing, it’s the smaller cars. And those smaller cars have a thinner skin, so when you’re jamming a giant whale tail or even a normal sized one in there, that’s a lot of steel to shove into that little opening. But this little guy is just a half inch wide at the end so you’re not jamming this big, giant spoon through the bracing.

You’re getting a nice, tiny little head into the pinpoint spot you wanna be doing your repair and moving on. So it’s one of those tools where you first look at it and say, “I don’t need that.” But then you start using it and using it and using it and you think, “Okay, this is definitely a tool I have to have now.” Because you didn’t realize you were just making it happen with your other tools but there is a better way, you know?

Shane Jacks: I’ll even use the thing when I’m in those braces of those cars and then you come outside of the brace. Typically, I will do everything outside of the brace with a rod and then go for the brace. I’m speaking mainly on hail damage here, of course. Then I’ll go for that that’s under the brace and sometimes you miss some that are in the open so I’ll just use that thing basically as a straight push hand tool. It’s short enough and strong enough to do that. You just push straight up on one you may have missed. I know that’s kind of a crude use for it, as a side note, but use it that way also.

Keith Cosentino: I have personally never missed a dent, so I can’t speak to that but I will take your word for it. That, in that scenario, that’s useful.

Shane Jacks: Yeah, you’ve worked on like four hail cars your whole life.

Keith Cosentino: You know we didn’t touch much about hail damage and that’s a big part of Texas. And we didn’t really talk about that as much but basically, you’re going to take the same exact steps and just substitute the subject matter for hail repair. Do five hail repair videos, talk to a body shop to buy your hail repair. It’s the same thing, you’re just going to be pushing a different product. Make no mistake, door dings and hail damage are different products. Totally different.

Shane Jacks: Really quick. Just a story on that. There is a gentleman in Oklahoma City. I got this story from another hail tech friend of mine. There’s a gentleman in Oklahoma City and all he does –

Keith Cosentino: Before you tell the story, we’ll have a link on PDRCollege.com to go directly to that Dentcraft whale tail UWT05 if you want to have a look at it.

Shane Jacks: There you go. And he lives in Oklahoma City. Now, there are probably as many people – as many dent guys in Oklahoma City as there are fast food service workers.

Keith Cosentino: Because there needs to be. It’s like a ying-yang thing.

Shane Jacks: There is a dent guy for every ten people there. So this guy makes his living basically fostering relationships at churches is what I was told. He is a really religious guy and he goes to these churches and when it hails, he has relationships with everybody at all of them and he gets a ton of work from them. That’s all he does. Basically. I know that’s a crazy – kind of out there way of doing it, but he does pretty doggone well just fostering relationships at churches. Now, don’t go out going to churches for door dings.

Keith Cosentino: What do we believe here?

Shane Jacks: We believe in Jesus and dent-free cars.

Keith Cosentino: Yeah, don’t join two different churches so you can go to church on Saturday and Sunday. But networking is the key, man. Hail damage is different than door dings, right? Because you get hail, you call your insurance, you make a claim. Door dings: totally different animal. Totally different.

Shane Jacks: And we could go on – hail damage – there are so many avenues that are not being taken right now with hail damage, honestly.

Keith Cosentino: We’ll do that on another show. Especially now that hail season’s starting to get underway and all you guys are getting busy. All you guys who are not in California.

Shane Jacks: Or Seattle.

Keith Cosentino: We’re just still out here enjoying our weather and working on our door dings.

Shane Jacks: And paying taxes!

Keith Cosentino: Lots of it. All right, fellows. We hope you found the information useful and I sincerely hope if you’re thinking, “Hey, that’s a couple – those are some good ideas.” I sincerely hope you put them into action. Go do something this week. It’s Monday, it’s the day the show comes out. You’ve got the rest of the week. Challenge yourself to do something different. Quit going in circles and doing the same thing. If you want to change your scenario, change your scenario. If you want to get different results, do different actions. Until next time.

Shane Jacks: Get better.

[End of Audio]

Duration: 75 minutes