SPEAKER_01 0:00

I kind of like to ask them questions about what they're doing and and get them sort of talking about themselves more than it is about me.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Connections That Matter, where we have great conversations with Northern Colorado's best networkers and find some tips about what makes them successful. Today I got a special treat. We got dent repair Dan in the house. Welcome. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you. So uh Dan, you recently repaired a whoops of my own. Uh had a little I had a little mishap. Uh dented up the wife's car. Um and every time I got in that, I would see it.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

That that happens especially on the driver's side for sure, where yours was. So anytime you're seeing something, you know, every grocery store entry and exit, it'll eat away at you for sure. Does every dent have a unique story? Uh most of them do. Yeah. Uh sometimes people are upset about them and sometimes it's funny, but there's always a solution. So there's a shopping cart with a agenda, right? Right. A wind storm with Yes. Exactly. Or somebody's kid on a bike, you know, there's always something going on.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

And uh it's always you get you get the new car that's yours. It's that first dent that or that first scratch that uh that really kills you. But you make it go away. You make uh maybe not go away, but you make it uh not look like right after the whoops.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Sure, yeah. I mean the goal is to absolutely make it go away. Now, whether that's happening 100% or we're able to hide, you know, any sort of remaining imperfections so that the eye doesn't pick them up. Um, but yeah, you know, that's pretty much the name of the game. So and from what I understand, they don't just pop out, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Or maybe uh as a misnomer think what you do is just get a little suction cup and yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Uh once in a blue moon, there is something that fits that bill, but for the most part, you know, the the metal, it has memory, so it wants to go back to where it originally how it was formed at the factory, but it does take some coaxing to get it there, less so than just grabbing your plunger and you know, giving it a yank. So um there's a little bit more finesse to it and and things of that nature.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

So well, when I was watching you work, you truly are a craftsman the way that you're working the dents. Um but what what does go into it and how uh how did you find your way into dent repair?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Well, so what goes into the repairs is we're we're interpreting what we see, right? And no two dent guys are gonna kind of attack the uh the same dent the same way. We have our you know various tools that we like or that you feel like you really have good control over, more so than others. Um, so what we're doing is reading the panel, and we're utilizing the lights that we um have to see the kind of the high and low spots, and that's sort of our map, and then the tools that we're using are kind of our compass, and based on how the dent is behaving, our tools are telling us sort of which way to go, right? So that's more or less kind of how it works in the sort of quick elevator pitch of it. Um, but the way I got into it was I was actually working in menswear. Uh, I was selling suits, and uh I was, well, I wasn't selling, I was our operations person in kind of the back of the house. And our general manager, she could kind of see the writing on the wall as far as like, hey, uh, you know, I know you're not gonna be here forever. Um, and she said, Hey, my boyfriend just started doing sales for a um a hail repair, uh a paintless scent repair business. Maybe take a week off and follow him around and see sort of what it's like. And if you like it, you know, move on and go do it. And so I did. So she was she was super cool to do that. And actually, that shop wasn't too far away from where we're sitting right now down here in North Denver. Uh, and so I spent about kind of two and a half, three years uh learning from the guy that that owned that place and sort of the whole business from kind of soup to nuts as far as you know, interacting with the customers, dealing with the insurance side of things. If it's a a hail damage job, most of those are going through insurance, so kind of learning that whole song and dance. And then as the cars move through the shop, uh, you know, from coming in to being repaired to then going back home. Uh, so I did about I did that for about three years, and uh then I had moved up to Fort Collins in that time frame and did the long commute from northern Colorado down to Denver for about a year of that three-year time period. And after about 13 months of that, I was like, I don't think I've got much gas left in the tank on this commute. So found the shop that I'm currently in, and it's been just over seven years uh since starting that.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Well, I love I love the apprenticeship model of like learning the craft for sure. Where you train under somebody, uh but also that act of like passing it down, getting a protege. Yes. Do you hope to have a protege one day?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Uh yeah, I would love I would absolutely love to. Um I've made an attempt once and uh it just wasn't the right fit for the young man that had come on board. He did kick major butt at uh doing a lot of social media stuff and website and things. So it wasn't all bad. We parted ways as friends, and um, you know, he uh chose to pursue a different career path. But yes, I would absolutely love to bring up uh uh, you know, another kid who's willing to learn and and likes this kind of thing. Because I was sort of the lost puppy at one point, kind of wandering around looking at at what I wanted to do, and the gentleman that taught me everything sort of gave me that guidance, and I would absolutely love to kind of pay that forward.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Well, how is it different than the body shop? Because the body shop, they come in, they're gonna, I don't know, bondo it and sand it over, repaint. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes that is necessary. I don't want to belittle the importance of body shops because they can do a whole lot more than than we can't, but where we differ is um in you know, maintaining that original factory finish uh and the original factory panel, which is the best thing for your car if it's the best thing for your car. Uh so being able to get into the car, you know, remove the damage from either the outside or the inside or a mix of both, whether we're pushing or pulling, um, and we can maintain that factory finish and um and that factory panel, you know, that's what's best for the car. The whole car was painted together at once. So, you know, where we're at now with cars is crazy complex colors, um, tri-stage paints, lots of metallic flakes in there. It's it can be tough to get these things repainted properly. Not that it's not possible, but um, you know, the other good or positive side of paintless dent repair is just the speed at which we can do these repairs. If you've got, you know, let's say uh, I don't know, maybe a football size dent on a fender or quarter panel or something like that. Uh, you know, a good paintless dent repair technician ought to be able to do that in roughly a day, maybe a little bit less, maybe a little bit more. Whereas on the body shop side of things, um, you know, that's anywhere from the quickest would be like a week to maybe even up to three weeks, depending on parts availability and uh, you know, other sort of outside factors. So being able to turn repairs around very quickly while maintaining that factory finish and paint and panel is is a tremendous value add. It's you know, kind of what's your time worth as as opposed to you know other factors in there. So that's one of the major benefits of paintless dent repair is is kind of being able to sort of erase a mistake in a very quick amount of time to a very high level.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Let me talk to that the ebbs and flows of your business. Uh I would imagine if a hail storm hits, there's a lot of people with dents, uh, maybe even with insurance checks in hand, ready to get it fixed. Um and then other time, maybe you don't have that big rush of a of a storm. Um how do you manage the the ebbs, the highs and lows of the demand? Well, so yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

There's a very cyclical nature to the specifically the hail side of this industry, right? Where we see hail events, maybe there's one big one, or maybe there's several small ones throughout kind of the spring-summer time frame. Um and you'll see a lot of activity in that time frame, whether that's from the customer's point of view, getting their vehicles fixed, or you know, people coming in from out of town who also repair damage to you know, call a shop like mine home for a few months and help me out, or you know, maybe even just kind of set up shop somewhere for a couple months and try and get in on the action. Um so the way that we try to manage things is, you know, being a slightly smaller operation, um, I I schedule things out a little bit further than perhaps other folks that are trying to just get everything in at once. I like to give the cars that we're working on the individual attention that they need so that you know there's not overlap and we're not forgetting things or you know, improperly QCing cars at the end of things. So we try to space things out to where you know we're gonna be able to kind of maintain our place at the table for as long as we can. And a lot of times, too, being in a popular hail area like we are here in Colorado, or you know, perhaps if you live in Texas or something like that, places where it hails quite a bit, the customer a lot of the times knows to wait because they know if they go in right away, there's an enormous backlog and a bottleneck of you know the insurance companies being overwhelmed. So instead of turning over a claim in 24 to 48 hours, they're turning over claims in a week, a week and a half. So if you're trying to you know make something happen days after, there might be a two-week lag period where nothing happens at all because there's such a backlog of paperwork or things of that nature. So a lot of the times the customer or the hail damage victim customer, um, they know, oh, if I wait three months, I'll be able to get in a lot sooner and all my repairs will happen a lot more quickly. Uh so the the customers and the just the nature of where we live and and how people kind of know that, that helps space things out too and and keep that busy season from being, you know, three to four months to being, you know, six to eight months or so. Um so you know, we do have a slow or uh an ebb in our um uh in our kind of work cycle throughout the year, which is kind of the beginning of winter, um, or I'm sorry, the late winter into the early spring. Um, but you know, we try and plan for that and and then we'll say yes to a lot of things in that time period that we may not say yes to when we're trying to make hay while the sun's shining, if that makes sense. So um, you know, for example, I we had a customer who had a slightly older car that was most likely, you know, potentially gonna be a total loss. They were not interested in having their car total. So we said, okay, well, let's see, you know, how much we can do before it enters that total loss phase, but we're gonna do that in December, not right now in in late July when you know we've got a lot of irons in the fire. So that we're able to spread work out in in that type of a way as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Well, uh the people watching this, uh, you know, when I'm talking to a mechanic, they're gonna want to know like which is the cars to buy. Uh which uh which cars that you could buy today have the best structural integrity or the best uh best metal quality or or stuff on them?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Well, that's that's a good question. We're moving into a uh an interesting environment with the panels that cars are being made out of now. Um, for example, the Ford trucks are entirely aluminum. Um so that just they just behave a little bit differently than uh steel does. You know, aluminum doesn't quite have that same memory that steel does. So when we're forcing, you know, the metal to go back to how it was originally stamped, it takes a little bit more elbow grease on on aluminum vehicles versus a steel panel. But even the steel panels are are getting a little strange with uh the blends of metals that are going into them being made. So, you know, I'll work on something that a magnet is sticking to, which is telling me that it's steel, or at least that it's a ferrous metal, or I'm sorry, a non-ferrous metal, or whatever it is. I'm not a chemist. Um uh, but I'm I'm I I've got a magnet stuck to it, and I'm thinking, okay, this is a steel panel, but this isn't quite behaving like steel is, which is kind of telling me that there's maybe a blend of something else in there. So as far as like what to look for moving forward, um, I I hate to tell you I don't know. I just I don't know because you know, I it's kind of constantly changing. Um, and I think that there's a few different factors for that. I think uh there's a little bit of weight reduction going on, and there's probably, you know, I mean, these manufacturers are worried about their bottom line, so there's an economic factor in there as well. But, you know, for the most part, cars are generally speaking, like kind of only getting safer. Um, so now whether or not that's gonna be good in the long run as far as when that tech eventually does break, that is making these cars so safe, like the lane departure warnings or the brake assists when you know the car in front of you suddenly hits the brakes and your car is reacting to that perhaps quicker than you could. I don't know what those repair bills are gonna look like for that kind of technology. But you know, cars are are incredibly well made today, um, as far as like from a safety perspective, which is occasionally annoying on our end when we're like, why can't I get in here to get this? And but you know, that's that's good for the person sitting behind that door when you know if if they were to get hit, that you you want them to be as protected as they possibly can. So, you know, I personally would avoid you know the aluminum stuff, but I yeah, that's for my own personal reasons, not necessarily because you you need to or you should. So I wish I had a better answer for you.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

They all dent though, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

That's right. Well, yeah, except for apparently the cyber truck, but we'll see how long those uh you know maintain their road viability overall.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

So you've got a dented cyber truck, bring it in. That's yeah, we'll see what's going on. Yeah, I'd like to just take a look at it, you know. So um, but yeah. Well let's talk about networking because as a as a dent guy, yeah, um, I'm sure you're either the only one in a networking room when you're there, or maybe uh maybe not. Uh but tell me who who are you looking to build connections with, or what is your approach to networking um as a dent guy?

SPEAKER_01 15:14

So I I would like to be building as many connections with uh or as I can. Um you know, if there was, I guess, maybe a hierarchy to it. Uh, you know, I'm I'm looking to do a lot of business-to-business stuff. So um fleets out there, you know, it doesn't matter really what your business is, but if you've got a fleet of vehicles that you would like to maintain, um, I would like to know you and and you know, add as much value as I can to your business. Um and then, you know, uh anybody that is sort of automotive cosmetic adjacent, whether that that's you know, detail guys or clear bra and graphics installers. Um, and then, you know, anybody, I mean, if you sell cars, one of my best customers, um, he just kind of does car flips as sort of a side hustle. He's a a former mechanic um that, you know, he can buy these sort of mechanic special cars, do the mechanic side of things, and then he brings it to me and we make the outside look good, and then he puts it back on Facebook Marketplace and hopefully turns a profit. So, you know, anybody that's that is uh sort of in that wheelhouse, I would, I would certainly love to be networking with. Um, but just in general, I mean, anybody that cares about the actual cash value of their car, sure, um, you know, at the end of the day, you if you're a homeowner, your car is most likely your your second biggest asset. And uh, you know, if you're in if you're uh just a renter, then potentially your car is your biggest asset. So keeping that in the highest level you can just to protect it is is sort of the business that I'm in.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

So let's do a deep dive into one of those referral relationships, either the um the detailer or the um the person who does the wraps. Yeah. How did how do you set up those relationships and then how have you transformed it or maintained it long term?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Um, well, there's kind of two ways I go about things. Um one is just kind of the cold call or the the cold walk-in. Um you know, I I would like to think that I have a a decent personality and I'm kind of fun to be around. Maybe I'm wrong, but uh so I like to go in and kind of make friends with people and let them know that I'm just around. And I usually don't try and go for kind of a hard sell um right at first. It's more like, hey, I just want to introduce myself. Here's how you can get a hold of me. Should you ever need me, just let me know. And then I kind of like to ask them questions about what they're doing and and get them sort of talking about themselves more than it is about me and letting them know, hey, I actually like what you do. I care about what you do. This is a cool shop. You guys have a cool thing going on. I love your local, you know, whatever it is to make them feel good about their business. Um, and uh, and then kind of whatever happens next happens. Uh, the most recent relationship that I've opened up is with a graphics installer, and I came to them with a job and said, Hey, I need you to do this for me. And then, you know, it sort of came back on me. Uh literally a week later, they call, hey, there's a customer here. We need to get this wrap done today. He's got these two, it was actually dents on a pontoon boat. Um so uh, and I said, Hey, I'll be right there. And that was sort of the um uh jump start of that relationship. And then since then I've referred a few people over to him who have done business with him. So, you know, I like to uh especially at the beginning, you know, giving more than you take is is super important uh as far as I'm concerned. Because it's like, why would they care about me if they don't know who I am? But if I'm giving them stuff, then they go, oh wait, what you said your name was what again? Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, we'll give you a call. So sure uh that's sort of the way I approach most things, really, um, is you know, what can I do for you guys to make life easier for you? And then knowing that it might be a week or it might be a year before that that you know relationship comes full circle, but it it generally does. So uh I'm kind of out to play the long game on that side of things. So if something doesn't happen right away, I'm not too worried about it.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Well, and then your shop is uh adjacent to quite a few like automotive stuff uh there. So um do you do a lot of passing a business through the office park? Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

We um we do a everybody there is um we're more or less on relative, at least I let me rephrase that, because I've heard about a little bit of drama that I'm not involved in, but I I'm friendly with everybody there. And um gosh, I there's not too many businesses there that I haven't done stuff for at this point in the seven years that we've been there. So no, absolutely. It's very um uh it's uh it's a it's a nice ecosystem, you know, there's a lot of symbiotic relationships there. Um and we kind of have a rough idea of one another's sort of pricings on things. So, you know, if I have a customer in that, you know, maybe they just got a car, they got that first order ding, and they're going, oh, well, we're thinking about doing a ceramic coat or clear bra. So, oh well, the guy right there, and I've I know what he's gonna say already. So I can say, yeah, if I mean if you're wanting this, I think he's in this ballpark for pricing on this, and I'll let him know if you want to go over right now while I'm fixing it or whatever, and we put people um together that way. Um, it's it's definitely a great ecosystem to be a part of over there. Um and even the stuff that isn't necessarily cross-pollinating, like mechanics to um aesthetics, we still refer work to one another um on a very frequent basis to the point of where I'm hesitant to go anywhere else. You know, uh occasionally I'll get the itch to look for a different style of shop or a different location. But you just go, man, what what would I be leaving behind? You know, and that the relationships that I've built with my sort of shop neighbors um is is so valuable that you know it it would be hard to get me to to leave there. Um, you know, the deal would have to be really good on the new building that we're moving that we would be moving into. So I don't want to go anywhere anytime soon.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

So well, I think you know, keeping your neighbors close, uh that's that's a big thing. Leveling up the people that you that do right by you, you do right by them. And also the way that the client, because they could just walk over to the yes next to and uh, like you said, get that holistic care part of their vehicle.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Well, and we'll and I'll even make the intro. So if you know, if you're my customer and I say, Hey, right on the other side of the building, unit whatever, um you know, his name. Is such and such, I'll meet you over there and then I'll do kind of the handoff. And there's there's a a very I think comfortable feeling that the customer has when that type of an interaction takes place of like, oh, this guy cared about me enough to you know literally hold my hand to the next stop, you know, and and they do the same for me. So um, you know, like I said, it just the symbiosis of of those relationships is like crazy clutch. Right. I got super lucky to end up there for sure.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Awesome. Uh Joe Poochie over uh um for choice moving over there. Um he was the first person that told me about you. He's like, Hey, you got this neighbor who's really good, but that sense of of connection of those business owners um really, really special. So it is.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

And I've referred Joe to other people. My my dad has an office in Fort Collins, and Joe moved his office. So, you know, we I try to I try to pass the love wherever I can, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yeah, right on. Well, if you got a dent in your vehicle and maybe you've been looking at it, maybe you're like, oh, I forget when I did that, or and it's a whoops, and you don't want it to be a whoops anymore. Right. Um, you just like, hey, what's the best way for them to get a hold of you to book an appointment or get a consultation? We try to make it as easy as possible.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Um, everything from just going to our website, hitting the book now button, um, you can text photos of your damage to our phone number, um, and we'll get back to you that way as well. Or, you know, if you're happen to be in our neck of the woods, most often I'm usually there. Sometimes we're out for lunch or getting parts elsewhere or whatever, but most of the time we're there during business hours, and you can just swing by and it takes us, you know, if it's an individual den, it takes us anywhere from kind of five to seven minutes to sort of walk you through what we're looking at. And if it's hail damage, it's maybe more 15 to 20 minutes of us walking around the whole thing and kind of getting an idea of the scope of the damage. But we try to make it as easy as possible. So it it any sort of way that you can contact me, I will respond to. Right on.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

And why don't you uh share your phone number or the best way?

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Totally. Websites www.pdrfocco.com, like paintless dentrepair Fort Collins, and then our phone number is 970-657-3375.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Right on, Dan. Well, thanks for coming on the show. Uh sharing tips of networking and business and uh I love the the craftsman work of what you do. Well, we appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

I've got one can I yeah, can I add one more thing in here? I don't know if anybody's ever. Let's see here. I don't know if you've ever gotten a gift on the show before, but I I brought you a little dent repair dance sticker there.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Look at that. Let's zoom in on that one, Brian.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

DRD.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Dent repair dance.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Throw that on a you know, your water bottle or your garage fridge or slap it on a street sign somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Mustaches, uh authentic. Yep. Little we fix dance. That's right. I love it. That's right. All right.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Cool. I appreciate you having me. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Hey all, thanks for watching. I love networking and building relationships with other Northern Colorado business leaders. So if you want to come meet some of these podcast guests, meet me or meet some other amazing entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado. I would love to have you attend one of our next events. Uh go in the podcast description. There's a way so that you can see our upcoming schedule. And maybe you could be a future podcast guest as well. Thanks.