From 1 Shop to 650: Crash Champions’ Epic Growth Story | Matt Ebert DSH #1352

there's a good living to be made at the blue collar stuff and so we're really on a campaign

to talk about it because college isn't for everybody and i get the instant gratification but i i feel like take for example collision repair there's nothing better than a wrecked vehicle i mean there is real satisfaction in seeing the work that you've done. All right, guys.
Matt, founder of Crash Champions here in Las Vegas. It's about to be a fun week, man.
Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Absolutely. We've got WrestleMania.
Fun event, right? I've never been. I've never been live either.
So be excited to see it. Yeah, we'll see what happens out here.
Could you talk about Crash Champions? Explain for people that don't know what that is, your company. Sure, Collision Repair Company.
You know, I'm the founder, so been at it really my whole life. Started with one shop and then in the last five years grew it across the country.
So today we're 650 locations across 38 states. That's impressive, man.
A lot of collisions these days, right? Always, you know, everybody thinks that the cars are getting better and not going to wreck anymore, but they still do. Man, I've seen some crazy ones lately in Vegas.
Oh yeah? I think Vegas has, I just saw this article, the most expensive state to own a car. Oh wow.
Because of the insurance and everything. Yeah, there's definitely something to cities where you can a lot of a lot has to do with speed so like the number one the number one kind of metro as kind of accident per individual or driver is like portland because it's a metro but also can get up to pretty decent speed around there so um combination of a lot of cars congestion and speed usually equals lots of accidents.
That makes sense. What's the most repaired vehicle you see at Crash Champions? Toyota Camrys are the one we see the most.
And I think that's probably because it's the most sold in the U.S. It makes sense.
So the top three kind of go that way. Toyota Camry, Hondaonda cord f-150 those are the those are the most sold to every year so that makes sense from a sheer numbers point of view yeah what about electric vehicles you see a lot of those uh we do um thing about electric vehicles is they're might not know everybody might not know this but they're a lot heavier so kind of laws of physics when they get in a wreck, it's usually more damage because they're a lot heavier.
I didn't know that. Yeah.
The weight of the batteries, mostly. You don't have the engine and the drivetrain, but the batteries weigh so much.
So, you know, anything heavier hitting something causes a lot more damage. That makes sense.
Just being totally objective. We don't have to piss anyone off here, but who gets in more accidents, men or women,

just based off your statistics and data?

The stats say men.

Okay.

And it's probably because the other stat is men drive a lot more miles.

So the odds go way up because of men.

Yeah.

So it doesn't mean men are worse drivers.

Okay.

I like that you added that in there.

Yeah.

Now, if you ask my wife, I'm definitely a worse driver and she's probably right. Really? You're worse than your wife at driving? Well, I got in the collision industry because I can't drive very well.
So. Okay.
Well, and I can't see out of one eye. So depth perception is kind of bad.
That makes it hard to drive. A little bit of ADD.
So yeah, great driver what's the okay do the colors of the car matter this is kind of debated online i see like do red cars get more accidents i always thought it was red um i think red cars get stolen more um but dark cars dark colored cars get in more accidents especially at night it's like about 40 percent more likely to wreck yeah a dark car that's way higher yeah so stick with white then yeah and i don't understand at night because it's basically you see the lights anyway right but i wish i knew the science behind that because I think if you can't see the car,

except for the lights, what's the matter? What color the car is, but, um, dark cars are definitely 40% more likely. Yeah.
And the age of the driver matters too, right? Teenagers. I'm sure you see those a lot in the store.
Yeah. It's a, I mean, selfishly as a collision repair company, I'd like to start a national campaign and give 14-year-olds licenses.
And 14-year-olds with a license and a cell phone probably be good for business. That's a good combo.
Some states are like 15. I don't want to see anybody get hurt.
Don't get me wrong. But it would be good for business.
Some states are like 15, right? In the South. Are they now? 15, 16.
I didn't know that. Yeah.
I think in Jersey it 16 for permit and then 18 17 or 18 for license where i grew up so i grew up in illinois and um we got our permit at 15 and then license at 16 so i damn i kind of assumed every state was that way but it's not ever now ever thought about how much emf and radiation your body is exposed to every single day from smartphones smartphones to Wi-Fi, modern technology never stops emitting invisible stressors that could disrupt brain function, hormone balance, and cellular health. That's where Ares comes in, the only scientifically validated solution designed to help your body adapt to today's technology.
It's trusted by elite athletes used by the UFC, WWE, Canada basketball, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's backed by

science, 100 plus scientists, and 40 plus institutions confirm its effectiveness.

It's patented, peer-reviewed, clinically proven, and publicly traded Wi-Fi is the most tested,

researched, and validated EMF solution on the market. Upgrade your biology to keep up with

modern technology. Protect yourself with Aries today today click the link below to learn more yeah that's interesting 18 huh before you could drive depends on the state yeah wow i mean even 18 is young though our brains are still formed until 26.
that's true you You know, uh, what's the most expensive vehicle you've repaired? Um, so most expensive repair, uh, last year, I think was a Rolls Royce. That was over 90,000 to repair it.
Jeez. Yeah.
Now the value of vehicles, like, I mean, there's believe it or not, not, some million dollar, two million dollar cars out there, but they might not have, you know, they might only have a few thousand worth of damage. So it depends how you want to look at it.
Did you see what happened to Tate's car, his Kona Seg? I heard of our day. First day he drove it.
And that's like a $10 million ride, I think, right? First day. How bad was it? I didn't see the pictures.
I heard about it, but. probably six figures if i had a guess to fix it oh i imagine is it gonna is it fixable i hope so he just got it first day drove off the lot his fault or who knows you know i don't think anyone will ever know yeah it's that's a that's an.
Have you driven one of those? No, I haven't. You know, those cars are all really cool.
And coming up, I never really bought a bunch of cars. You know, being that that's what I do for a living, a lot of shop owners and stuff that I know collect a lot of cars.
I never did collect them because I was always funneling the money back into the business. If I was spending money on cars, I wouldn't be able to grow the business is how I always thought about it.
And now, I mean, I'm over 50 now. So I feel if I get in those, I'm afraid I'm going to look like the midlife crisis guy.
If I get in one of those like fast sports cars and drive it around. So I don't know if I'll ever do it, but they're really cool cars.

It's expensive hobby collecting cars.

Yeah.

And the thing is you got to drive them too or else they,

stuff goes bad when it just sits.

So, so busy with, with work and family and everything else.

Like I don't really know how often I would even get to drive them. And so that's part of it too.
So you're still super busy, huh? Yeah. Damn, you're not stopping at your age.
I feel like I'm 28 now. I'm still grinding really hard, but I don't know if I could do that in my 40s and 50s, if I'm being honest.
Really? We'll see. Some of it is, I don't't know if you're wired to do it as hard as

you're grinding now it it doesn't i i bet you if you took a month off and didn't do nothing you

start to get an itch maybe i think i'll always have the itch yeah but just the the energy because

i look when i grinded when i was 18 and i i worked like 16 18 hours a day i can't do that right now

you know i need my sleep now yeah can you get it get it though? Yeah. So, you know, my problem is I know I need to sleep.
Like I watch podcasts and see, I don't know for, I don't know medically myself, but, you know, I saw a podcast and I talked about anybody really is not wired to live on less than seven hours a night worth of sleep. And in fact, I think he said, if you, the number of people that really can do it and round it up and the number is still less than zero.
And I'm thinking in my head, man, I've been like decades of like an average of four to five hours of sleep a night. And I remember a really viral interview I saw when I was younger, because I used to be a huge fan of Shark Tank.
Yeah. Was with Damon John.
And the guy asked, like, how often do you, how many hours do you sleep? He's like four to five a night. So there's a lot of people in the same boat, but medically they say it's pretty bad for you.
Terrible. But that's the sacrifice we take, right? Yeah.
But it's not just the being to being busy i honestly even if i have a day off it this i struggle to stay i struggle to stay asleep that's just me personally you're just wired yeah wake up and then the mind starts going you've been like that huh yeah so shout out to kinsta today's sponsor you know when we first started building our brand, I had to teach myself everything from marketing to monetization. But one of the biggest pain points, hosting.
It felt like I needed a computer science degree just to keep our site running smoothly. That's why we switched to Kinsta.
And honestly, it's been a game changer. Kinsta managed WordPress hosting, takes all the stress off your plate.
You get blazing speeds, enterprise level security, and a dashboard that's actually fun to use. No outdated clutter, just clean, intuitive control.
And let me tell you, when

things go sideways, I don't want to deal with a chatbot or some copy pasted script. With Kinsta,

I get real knowledgeable humans available 24-7 who actually solve problems fast. We've had sudden

traffic spikes and zero downtime. Our SEO has improved with the speed boost and it's a huge

relief knowing our site's protected with the best security out there. If you're ready for hosting

Thank you. We've had sudden traffic spikes and zero downtime.
Our SEO has improved with the speed boost, and it's a huge relief knowing our site's protected with the best security out there. If you're ready for hosting that works, visit kinsta.com slash DSH to get your first month free.
And yes, they'll migrate your site for free too. That's K-I-N-S-T-A dot com slash DSH.
Anything that wakes me up and then the mind starts going, and then there's, you know, could maybe try to go back to sleep, but that might take like an hour. So then you're just like, let me get up and get going.
And for you, that's your comfort. And then other people see that as like, you're crazy, but like you're comfortable in that, in that setting, just working hard and working a lot.
Yeah. So I, I think, you know, a work ethic that gets you working those hours that you described is going to still be in you.
But we'll see. We'll catch up in a decade and see if you slow down or not.
I mean, physically, I know I've slowed down because I play basketball a lot. Okay.
When I get injured now, it takes a few days to recover. Wait till you're 50.
Wait till you're 50 and see how that goes. I mean, when I was 18, I would roll my ankle and play the next morning.
No issue. You know what happens is you like you're about to get married, right? Soon.
Yeah. A few months.
So if you guys have kids, then that's a whole new world too for sleep because, uh, Oh, not for that part, but yeah. Yeah.
My son was up every like hour and a half for the first couple years so you got a nanny though right no no um my wife uh my wife stopped working and gave up what she was working at to to make sure she was home with the kids because um who's gonna be better for them than their mom and i i agree with that and she's got she don't just trust anybody so like it's you'll see I imagine that's true for everybody too the moms are really I mean I'm protective of the kids too but according to her I'd leave them with anybody which I wouldn't but compared to her like she's really got to trust them before she lets somebody motherly instinct women are good with that people, man. Yeah.
I've had my fiance read some, not even just like potential business partners, potential friends and spot on every time. Yeah.
It's crazy. That instinct.
As, as to who, who would be good with the kids and who wouldn't. Yeah.
Yeah. Not even just kids, just like in business and life, personal business.
So you're talking about like a read on people. Yeah.
Yeah. And I, I agree.
Um, I always kind of, uh, would look to her a lot of times in a circle of new people and, and ask her to give me the, her read on them on the way home. Right.
Yeah. And she's spot on, right? Yeah.
And I'll be like, really? Six months later, you'll find out. I didn't see any of that.
Really? Like, no, they seem like really good people. And she would be this or that.
And then usually she proved to be right. Sometimes as men, we're just too logical, right? Yeah.
She's got that emotional instinct that, I mean, I've worked really hard at becoming emotionally intelligent because we've got 11,000 employees at Crash Champions. You have to have some sort of emotional intelligence to, to deal with the team.
But, uh, it, it's definitely for me work, right. To understand people and understand, uh, those kinds of things where it seems for her, it comes kind of natural.
Yeah. That's insane.
That's a lot of employees for someone that, uh, didn't go route, right? Yeah. I don't know.
There's really no way to do what we do without people. And so it's just a necessary thing.
And I think it's a great thing because, you know, if you think about a world where everybody is excited and nervous about AI and where the world's headed and what jobs it's going to replace or what jobs it's going to enhance or what we definitely see is in a service industry like ours or many others, like there's just not a world in the near future where AI or robots are going to take over those those jobs and so it it's kind of exciting in that um the our ability to do well is basically the quantity and quality of our people if we don't have enough people shout out to notion today's sponsor do you feel like you're spending more time managing your inbox than actually running your business?

Yeah, same here.

Email hasn't changed in decades and it's become busy, tedious, and even stressful.

But that's where Notion Mail comes in.

It's a brand new inbox that thinks like you, automated, personalized, and finally flexible enough to work the way you work.

With Notion AI, your inbox organizes itself. It learns what's important, sorts messages, labels them, even helps you draft replies, no manual work required.
Want to stay focused? Split your inbox into custom views by topic, urgency, or sender, so you only see what matters when it matters. Flying through repetitive emails? Just use snippets, one-click templates for intros, follow-ups, or thank yous.
Add attachments or scheduling links in a snap. And if you already use Notion, Notion Mail syncs with your docs for total integration.
It's all in one place. Get Notion Mail free today at notion.com slash dsh.
That's notion.com slash dsh, all lowercase. You're supporting this show when you use our link.
Again, that's notion.com slash dsh. We can't get enough cars fixed.
And if we don't have good enough people, we can't get enough cars fixed. So it's really the quantity and quality of the people.
And so even with one body shop or two body shops or three, it still was the quantity and quality of the people that mattered. And so that was a necessary thing to be able to have the team enjoy where they work, have the team want to work with me, for me, or else wouldn't have been able to get anywhere.
So I think, yeah, it's really out of necessity, but a blessing in disguise in that you really do realize how you need to get get along with people so it's a key part and I mean it really helps you in life I think I mean to not to not get along with people would be a pretty lonely world that'd be miserable yeah I mean right now you're seeing a resurgence in my opinion in the blue collar work I mean it's it's pretty impressive like my generation's not really wanting to get their hands dirty. It seems like.
And why do you think that is though? I don't, I don't think it's a laziness. I think they, they think they can make more money else better elsewhere.
Yeah. Or am I wrong? No, I think that's part of it.
I think the instant gratification, I think there's a lot of digital jobs now. People want to be influencers and stuff.
I don't know. We're just not as hands-on.on like a lot of people my age if you ask them to change a tire i think more than 50 percent would wouldn't be able to oh i bet more and i bet more my age too couldn't do it but but you know what like it is different today because when i was growing up you couldn't wait to get a first of all i couldn't wait to drive because for driving was freedom.
Like I can still remember getting behind the wheel of a car by myself for the first time without my mom and dad in the car or anybody, right? Like I could literally go anywhere I wanted to go. So a car to me was like freedom.
And I, I, I led a pretty strict childhood. So I got told no, I couldn't do this or that a lot of times.
so in a car and be able to go was a more than just driving the car to me but it was also like couldn't wait to like see how it worked to take the tire off to change the oil to to give it a tune up which back then the cars were simpler now you I get scared when I don't worry for anybody listening my team doesn't get scared of what the car's got going on but if i were to open a hood and look under there like it's so much electronics it's so complicated like as a as a young person you just don't get in there with a wrench and start to work on your own car because they're way too hard yeah hard to figure out nowadays yeah all the old movies that's how they showed them they would get under the hood good old wrench you're good to go it's not like that anymore no i mean because you're gonna see a bunch of wires and a bunch of microchips and i mean here like there's 3 000 microchips in in a in a car today maybe up to 100 computers and plus the engine and if it's a if it's a you know a gas-powered vehicle plus the engine and everything else wow i didn't know that but back to you know what you asked with um the younger generation i don't i also think there's an element of they just don't know that there's a good living to be made at the blue collar stuff. And so we're really on a campaign to talk about it because college isn't for everybody.
And I get the instant gratification, but I, I feel like take, for example, collision repair, there's nothing better than a wrecked vehicle. And then literally with your, with the work of the skill that you learned in a couple days later, you've taken that what was a disaster and turned it back into a car back to pre-accident condition again.
I mean, there is real satisfaction in seeing the work that you've done. You know, the social media stuff and the influencing stuff, it's not real.
It's not the same kind of satisfaction. It doesn't seem to me of actually being able to see good that you did with your hands.
You can see numbers and stuff. So what you do, you get to see how big a following you have and who likes what.
And so there is that

instant reaction that you get from the people. Definitely quicker, but it's not as, yeah,

it's not like, like, well, you're, you're changing someone's life when you fix their car.

Like, yeah. And the message that you deliver could too, right.
If, if it's something that

affects somebody that way. So I think there's value in it all is what I'm really trying to say.

And what I think has happened over the last couple of decades is just such a push for college

I'll see trying to say. And what I think has happened over the last couple decades is just such a push for college and white collar careers, which is great.
But it also made it kind of to where there's a stereotype around getting dirty or some of these blue collar jobs and people just don't know what a good career could be for, you know, our, our technicians, for example, today on our average technician technician makes a hundred grand or more and they don't have to go to college and they don't have to get into debt in order to do it. You know, we have an apprentice program, for example, that, um, you know, within a couple of years, they're standing on their own and you get better over another year or two.
But in a few years, you've got a skill that's going to pay you really well for your whole career. And you didn't have to go to college.
You didn't have to go into debt. And so I don't talk about it as into to hate on college.
I just want the world to know that there are other options because college isn't for everybody. Maybe you hate school.
Maybe your grades aren't good enough. Maybe economically, you're just not going to be able to pull it off.
And so I think it's important that people know there are there are other great careers out there. What were your grades like when you went to school? I was actually pretty good in high school, but I, I went to a high school where there were 40 people in my class.
So I think I was like second in the class because, and I hated to read at that time, which I love to read now, but at that time, so I think in English, like we had to do book reports and stuff, which I just refused to do. Some of those books were terrible.
Yeah. So I refused to do them.
So I think like a C in English made me not be the smartest one in the class, but I did good in school. But in my family, I mean, my stepdad was a rural male carrier.
And so I don't know, maybe he made like 30,000 a year. And my, my mom was a stay at home mom.
So there was no mindset in the house for like talking about a career or talking about, it just wasn't the way that they, they lived. It was almost like, it was almost like, um, like money wasn't, it was bad to aspire for money almost.
So I kind of like apple fell way off the tree in the, in the route that, that I went. But for me, it wasn't because I college just wasn't an option.
You know, you're dealt the hand you're, you're dealt and you make the best of it. So I, they talked to me about college and it was right in the beginning of what I would say computers because, and I was in a real small town so it's not like we were leading the way and getting computers first as far as schools and stuff.
So we didn't have computers in school, in my high school. So the things that the world is today wasn't back then.
So probably I feel, unless you were going to be a doctor or lawyer or somebody who really needed

college when I was coming through high school, it was a different kind of view. Yeah.
So you

picked trade school instead? Well, I picked, I had an accident when I was 16. I didn't want to

make an insurance claim. And I knew a body man in town because the town only had 1,400 people.
So you kind of knew of everybody. And he had a garage behind his house where he did work at night after his day job.
And so I went over and asked him if he would show me how to fix my car. And he did.
And then I started fixing other cars with him after school. Oh, wow.
And then got a job with him at the body shop he worked at right after high school and never left. Rest is history.
Yeah. What's that guy doing these days? Good question.
We didn't stay in touch. So I'm not sure.
But I mean, for the 10 years after I quit knowing him, he was still fixing cars. Wow.

Imagine if you knew what you ended up doing. That's crazy, right? Yeah, I'd have to figure out a way to get in touch with him.
Yeah. Maybe I'll do that for fun.
Yeah, that'd be an interesting side quest, right? Yeah. Yeah, one of those if you could see me now kind of things, right? Yeah.
Yeah. He wouldn't have saw this coming.
I was 16 and I was young and dumb and made all kinds of dumb mistakes. Did you pick it up pretty quickly though, the skill set? I actually wasn't that good.
I think that's how I ended up in the administrative part of the business because I wasn't that good at fixing the cars. I was a better painter than I was a technician because we divide the two, um, kind of for streamlining processes.
Um, the way the industry pretty much functions now is you don't take a car from start all the way to finish. Um, it's specialized.
So the guys that do the, what we would call the body work or the sheet metal part of it are separate from the guys that do the paint applications. So at that time, it was a little bit of a mix of both where some did it all the way through.

And then some were going to, what was the new way of doing business back then?

So I did learn to do both, but was better at the painting than the body tech side. And then really wasn't that great at either.
So I ended up in the office. Well, realizing your strengths, that's important.
Yeah. And I always had an entrepreneurial spirit.
So I always knew I wanted to own my own business as well. So it was a little bit of part of that is learn everything to do with it.
And one day, you know, owning a body shop I love it because I mean I was I go back to like 11 12 years old I was pushing a lawnmower around town trying to mow people's grass and get collect five or ten bucks or whatever so there was always that entrepreneurial want to want to run a business or do stuff for myself I did that too shovel. Shoveling driveways in the winter, 20 bucks, 30 bucks.
Do kids do that nowadays? I hope so. Cause that's, that's like a rite of passage.
If you're an entrepreneur, shoveling driveways on lawns, I feel like you got to go through that. Yeah.
Yeah. I, I think, uh, my hope is that the young, the young generation isn't so anti blue collar work.
I think they just don't know about it. So I mean, there's even social media accounts of popular people that are fixing cars, that are electricians, that are plumbers, that are kind of videoing what they're doing every day.
And people are tuning in to check it out. And I think it's a little bit of the same thing.
Everybody's just trying to let everybody know a day in the life of this career looks like this and maybe it interests you. Blue collar's back, man.
I look at what I'm paying some of my contractors for stuff around the house. You wouldn't believe some of these numbers.
Supply and demand works. The roofing blows my mind how much those guys make.
And, and here, think about this. Did they call you back right away? No.
Right? So I look at that stuff and I'm like, man, if I ran my business this way, I'd be out of business. You have to keep calling them, keep calling them, beg them to come out.
And then wait for how long did it take you to get a roof done? It was a while. Yeah.
There's a lot of inefficiencies with the blue collar work too in terms of advertising and getting their business out. Yeah.
Because a lot of them just do word of mouth, right? That and they're in such demand. It really is this.
They're not bad business people. They're in such demand.
They don't. They don't have time yet.
They're just nonstop working. My wife would want some work done on our house and I've literally left messages for two or three from referrals,

great contractors, and I'm still waiting for a call.

Wow, that's a good problem for them.

Yeah, so I think to your point, the great thing is if our efforts

to drum up interest in the industries or the blue-collar trades doesn't work,

those that aren't are going to get paid a whole lot of money to do it because if there's a bidding war for a painter to come paint your house i imagine the painter's going to go to the highest bidder i would imagine yeah ai's not painting houses yet yeah we'll see how these humanoid robots do but not anytime soon they're in amazon though have you seen those um there's some pretty amazing stuff that that technology is able to accomplish i haven't seen the amazon one yeah a lot of the staff got let go because they're just doing all the packaging now it's robots robots doing it crazy right there's just a few guys like overseeing them making sure they don't mess up but so they talk about like drones delivering to your house and stuff i wonder how i wonder how that's gonna work i don't know if i even need that first of all because i live i get packages in two to four hours from amazon it's crazy right from a vehicle right yeah i live like right by an amazon so they're just getting faster and faster i remember when i was growing up it took like three to five days yeah before prime even came out and then prime was a big deal and now prime's like four hours my wonder about it is like if it were picture a drone bringing it to your front porch but the drone's only so big it's not like it can carry the truck of goods behind it yeah so what is there like a mothership that is loaded over the neighborhood and star wars out here right and then all the i don't know how it how it ends up working the food delivery robots on the sidewalks in la

i have and i'm from chicago and you know what i say in chicago they'd be kicking that cooler over

and that cooler no way gets to the house i've seen uh they'd be kicking that cooler over and

taking the food out of it i think this is every time i see one i think the same thing some homeless

guy is just gonna take it or something right i saw one get stuck there you go yeah those don't

Thank you. that cooler over and taking the food out of it i think this is every time i see one i think the same thing some homeless guy is gonna take it or something right i saw one get stuck there you go yeah those don't seem the most efficient to me and so i asked about that and somebody told me that there's uh there's actually somebody remotely driving it really it's not like a programmed cooler going to the house there's actually somebody with a screen somewhere.
So I was told, because I wondered, there's no way you can just program the path and this thing finds its way to the house and doesn't hit a pothole, does it? What if there's a homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk? What's it going to do? So I was told it's literally somebody remote-controlled driving it. For now, yeah.
But I don't know. Well, have you seen those self-driving Ubers in San Francisco, I think? Yeah, those are bad for my industry, by the way.
Self-driving cars that don't make mistakes won't really have collisions. But I've seen them.
I've also seen videos of people getting stuck in them where it goes in circles for a couple hours and you can't get out.

So I kind of like watching that go wrong every now. I mean, I feel bad for the person stuck in the car, but as a collision repair guy, I hate to see the industry go away.
And it's not going to. If there's 280 million cars on the road in the U.s yeah and so only 16 million cars a year about new cars get sold so like the transformation of the cars in the u.s it would take i mean my i'll be retired you'll be chilling by then yeah like it it's very much like a evolution rather than a revolution as far as I know Elon Musk said like 50% of the miles driven in like five years would be automated.
Really? But that's optimistic, I think. Well, he's always optimistic.
People love their gas, their gas cars. I feel like, like I have both, I have gas and electric.
I don't trust the self-drive on my car. I've never used it.
Never? It just feels weird. You know what I mean? Yeah, I like to drive too.
But I have friends that love it and swear by it. Really? I think it's great.
I just feel like I like having that control. I do too.
That's why even flying, I get a little nervous sometimes. I just enjoy driving.
Even though I said I'm not the greatest driver, enjoy driving yeah and I and like you said I the rev of the motor the electric is like off the line way faster I mean you're quick up to speed quick but it's just the sound of the motor and stuff that you don't have an electric car and I mean from what we see the American consumer has kind of Like, it's not taking off as quick as they've tried to push it. And very much now.
They're struggling now. Yeah.
And what's most popular right now is more of a hybrid where it's not completely electric. Yeah.
I just drove one of those. It was interesting.
I don't think electric cars are going away. They're going to continue to be more and more and more and more, but it's, there's such a variety of, um, circumstances in the U S I mean, if you live in a, if you live in a high rise, uh, condo in a, in a city and park in a garage, do you have a place to charge your car? If you live in a city street with houses every hundred feet and you don't have a garage and you have to park on the street, you don't have a place to charge your car.
If you live in rural, rural America where it gets super cold and you need the big four-wheel drive to go through the snow, is an electric car your vehicle of choice today so it's such a small it's it's only a certain segment of the population where electric is a perfect fit and then if some of those prefer gas like so that's why it's not taking over as fast as everybody yeah i'll always be a little more niche than gas that's why i's why I stopped driving mine too. The charging just was so annoying.
Every time I looked for a station, it was packed. You had some range anxiety going.
So you had to wait to charge and then charging takes an hour. You got to wait like an hour and a half, two hours sometimes just to charge your vehicle.
From what I know, the first ones to grab the electric cars were people that were pretty okay to do money-wise. So it was typically the second car.
So they also had the other, you know, so it was- That makes sense. They could drive the electric car sometimes and they could drive the other car.
But I've also seen people that jumped in the electric car and then their next car is a gas car. Yeah, that happened to me.
Well, now the price point is so low on these things. I think they keep lowering these electric cars.
Yeah. They're trying to get as many people as possible.
Yep. And by the way, I do, like I said, think that EV is here to stay.
It's going to continue to grow. So this isn't an anti-EV conversation.

There's definitely going to be more and more evs on the road every year um i just from what i see every day it's

going to be a long long haul yeah i can see that but what's next for you what's next for crash

champions so you know the industry is still very very fragmented in in businesses that start to

Thank you. see that but what's next for you what's next for crash champions so you know the industry is still very very fragmented in in businesses that start to kind of consolidate once that train leaves the station it never stops until you know the industry's done and so in the in a world where every industry kind of gets you know two to three national companies and then a few regional ones and then still the independent businesses, mom and pop shops.
I want Crash Champions to be one of the last two kind of standing from a national perspective. So we got a lot of growth planned, a lot to do and a lot to do even in investing.
really there's so much of a need right now because of how quick the vehicles have changed. All of this advanced driver assist system stuff that's on the cars today, pre-COVID was not, it's way different today than just five years ago.
So the complexity of the vehicle has went overnight, super hard. And there's such a need for training and for equipment and everything else that's needed to keep up.
Like it's a major transformation of an industry. You know, we have plans of investing just in our existing locations today a half a billion dollars over the next seven or eight years in in training and equipping to to trans you know we're keeping up with the pace of the the cars on the road but as it all continues to evolve so much is needed so it's a it's an exciting time too because it's a challenge right it's it's not the same as it was yesterday and that's what makes business exciting and that's what gives you a chance to really succeed is when you see something changing and you got to meet kind of the customer of tomorrow where they are and that's what we're all full speed ahead on doing today and ai is going to bring about efficiencies in our industry from an admin perspective that we can't wait for because most of the stuff that AI can help us with is stuff that our teammates hate doing.
So they hate, you know, all the double entry of stuff from invoices to things like that, to even sending out text messages to update customers and things like that. And even scheduling and figuring out the best recommendation for the customer, where we can get them in and most efficiently fix their car at a time and place that's convenient for them.
AI is coming along and really helping us be so much better. And it's not a threat to our people.

It's doing all the things that our people hated doing anyway.

So it's an exciting time, really.

I love it, man.

Well, we'll link your socials below.

Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me.

Love to do another one one of these days.

Appreciate it, Sean.

Check them out, guys.

I'll see you guys next time.