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

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

From 1 shop to an incredible 650 locations across 38 states, Matt Ebert's inspiring journey with Crash Champions is nothing short of extraordinary! 🚗✨ In this episode of the Digital Social Hour, Sean Kelly sits down with the founder of one of the fastest-growing collision repair networks to talk about the secrets behind his success, the future of EVs, AI’s impact on the industry, and why blue-collar careers are making a BIG comeback. 💪 Discover how Matt turned a small-town start into a nationwide success story, the challenges of modern car repairs (hello, 3,000 microchips per car! 🤯), and what it takes to lead a team of over 11,000 employees. From fixing wrecked vehicles to shaping the future of collision repair, this episode is packed with valuable insights and laughs. 💬 Join the conversation about the resurgence of blue-collar work, the rise of self-driving cars, and how AI is transforming industries. Don't miss out—this is a story you NEED to hear! 👉 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - Crash Champions Overview 04:59 - Aries Insights 10:00 - Kinsta Hosting Review 11:00 - Sleep Importance 14:58 - Notion Mail Features 16:56 - Blue Collar Industry 20:33 - Earnings Discussion 22:00 - School Grades Reflection 23:57 - Auto Body Business Journey 27:30 - Automation Impact 31:06 - Self-Driving Cars Future 35:40 - Future of Crash Champions 38:30 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Matt Ebert https://www.instagram.com/mattebertcc/ SPONSORS: AIRES TECH:  https://airestech.com/ INSTA:  https://kinsta.com/dsh NOTION: https://www.notion.com/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ The views and opinions expressed by guests on Digital Social Hour are solely those of the individuals appearing on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the host, Sean Kelly, or the Digital Social Hour team. While we encourage open and honest conversations, Sean Kelly is not legally responsible for any statements, claims, or opinions made by guests during the show. Listeners are encouraged to form their own opinions and consult professionals for advice where appropriate. Content on this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, financial, or professional advice. #skilledtrades #bluecollareducation #howtomakemoney #bluecollarcareer #tradejobs

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 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. There is real satisfaction in seeing the work that you've done. Right. All right, guys, Matt, founder of Crash Champions here in Las Vegas.

About to be a fun week, man. Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. We've got WrestleMania. Fun, fun event. All right. I've never been. I've never been alive 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 was, 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. 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 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 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 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 US, it makes sense. So, the top three kind of go that way. Toyota Camry, Hondary Honda 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?

we do thing about electric vehicles is there 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 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 battery is mostly. You don't have the engine in the drive train,

but the battery's way 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 into 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's kind of bad. That makes it hard to drive. Little bit of ADD, so yeah, I'm not a 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 in more accidents? I always thought it was red. I think red cars get stolen more. But dark cars, dark colored cars get in more accidents. Especially at night, it's like about 40% more likely to wreck a dark car.

That's way higher. Yeah. So stick with white gun. 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 better? What color the car is but?

Dark cars are definitely 40% more likely. Yeah, the age of the driver matters to right Teenagers, I'm sure you see those a lot in the store Yes, 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, so. Yeah.

I think in Jersey it was 16 for permit and then 1817 or 18 for license where I grew up. So I grew up in Illinois and 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 thought about how much EMF and radiation your body is exposed to every single day from smartphones to Wi Fi modern never stops emitting invisible stressors that could disrupt brain function, hormone balance, and cellular health. That's where ARIES comes in, the only scientifically validated solution designed to help your body

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Wow, I mean even 18 is young though. Our brains are still form until 26. That's true, you know What's the most expensive vehicle you've repaired? our brains are still formed until 26. That's true. What's the most expensive vehicle you've repaired? So most expensive repair last year, I think was a Rolls Royce that was over 90,000 to repair it. Jeez. Yeah, now the value of vehicles, 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 Sugg? I heard of our day. He drove it. That's like a ten million dollar ride I think right first day How bad was it? I didn't see the pictures. I heard about it, but I six figures if I had to guess to fix it Oh I imagine is again is it fixable. I hope so. You 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 awesome car though. Have you driven one of those no I haven't you anyone will ever know. Yeah, that's an awesome car though. Have you driven one of those? No, I haven't. You know, those cars are all really cool and I, 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 gonna look like the midlife crisis guy if I get in one of those 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 gotta drive them too,

or else stuff goes bad when it just sits. So busy with work and family and everything else, 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 doesn't 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 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 though? Yeah. See, you know, my problem is I know I need to sleep. Like, I watch podcasts and see, I don't know,

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 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. Yep.

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 to being busy. I honestly, even if I have a day off, I struggle to stay asleep. That's just me personally. You're just wired. Yeah, I wake up and then the mind starts going. You've been like that, huh? Yeah, so... Shout out to Kimsta, today's sponsor.

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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 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 setting,

just working hard and working a lot. Yeah, so I think, you know, a work ethic that gets you work in those hours that you described is gonna still be in you, but we'll see. We'll catch up in a decade and see if you slow down. I mean, physically, I know I've slowed down because I play basketball a lot.

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 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. 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 my wife my wife stopped working and gave up what she was working at to make sure she was home with the kids because who's gonna be better for them than their mom and I agree with that and she's got she don't just trust anybody.

So like it's, 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 instincts. Women are good with that.

Just reading people, man. Yeah. I've had my fiance read some, not even just like potential business partners, potential friends and spot on every time. Yep. It's crazy, that instinct. As to 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 agree. I always kind of would look to her a lot of times in a circle of new people and ask her to give me

her read on them on the way home, right? Yeah, 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 yeah 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 um I mean I 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 deal with the team. But it's definitely for me work, right? To understand people and understand those kinds of things where it seems to her it comes kind of natural. Yeah, that's insane.

That's a lot of employees for someone that didn't go the traditional education 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 jobs. And so it's kind of exciting in that our ability to do well is basically the

quantity and quality of our people. 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.

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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 were, 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 a, not a necessity, but a blessing in disguise in that you really

do realize how you need to 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 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 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 think it's a laziness. I think they think they can make more money

better elsewhere. Yeah, I think it's a- 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 wanna be influencers and stuff. I don't know. We're just not as hands-on.

Like a lot of people my age, if you asked them to change a tire, I think more than 50% wouldn't be able to. Oh, I bet more. And I bet more my age too couldn't do it. 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 me, 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 led a pretty strict childhood. So I got told, no, I couldn't do this or that a lot of times. So getting 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 I get scared when I open, don't worry for anybody listening,

my team doesn't get scared of what the cars 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 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, 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 a car today, maybe up to 100 computers. Plus the engine and if it's a gas-powered vehicle,

plus the engine and everything else. Wow, I didn't know that. But back to what you asked with the younger generation, 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 feel like, take for example, collision repair, there's nothing better than a wrecked vehicle and then literally with the work of the skill that you learned, and 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. So definitely quicker, but it's not as, yeah, it's not like, like, well, you're changing someone's life when you fix their car. Like, yeah. And the message that you deliver could too, right? 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 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 it could be. For, you know, our technicians, for example, today, our average technician makes 100 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, you know, within a couple 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 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 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. Those are the worst. Some of those books were terrible. Yeah, so I refused to do them, and stuff, which I just refused to do. Those are the worst. Oh, 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 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 lived. It was almost like, it was almost like,

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 route that I went. But for me, it wasn't because college just wasn't an option. You know, you're dealt the hand, you're dealt and you make the best of it. They just never 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 in 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 weren't, wasn't back then. So probably I feel, unless you're 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. And then got a job with him at the body shop he worked at right after high school and never left. Rest is history. 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 he knew 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. Man, that's cool. If you could see me now kind of things, right? Yeah. Yeah. He wouldn't have saw all 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 skillset? I actually wasn't that good. I think that's how I ended up in the administrative part of the business. Cause I wasn't that good at fixing the cars. I was a better painter than I was a technician, because we divide the two. Kind of for streamlining processes, the way the industry pretty much functions now is you don't take a car from start all the way to finish.

It's specialized. So the guys that do the, what we would call the bodywork or the sheet metal part of it are separate from the guys that do the what we would call the body work or the 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 ended up in the office.

Well realizing your strengths, that's important. Yeah, and I always had that 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 dream to own in 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 wanna wanna run a business or do stuff for myself. I did that too shoveling driveways in the winter Yeah, 20 bucks 30 bucks the kids do that nowadays I hope so cuz 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 think 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. 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 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. Yeah. And then wait for how long it'd 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. A lot of them just do word of mouth, right? That and they're in such,

it really is this, they're not bad business people, they're in such demand, they don't. They don't have time, yeah. Yeah, they don't have time. 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 back. That's a good problem for them. Yeah, so I think to your point, the great thing is is if our efforts to drum up interest in the industries or the blue collar trades doesn't work, those that aren't are gonna 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 gonna 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? There's some pretty amazing stuff that technology is able to accomplish.

I haven't seen the Amazon one personally. A lot of the staff got let go because they're just doing all the packaging now. Robots. Robots doing it. Crazy, right? There's just a few guys overseeing them, making sure they don't mess up. So they talk about drones delivering to your house and stuff.

I wonder how that's gonna work. I don't know if I even need that first of all because I get packages in two to four hours from Amazon. It's crazy. Right, from a vehicle, right? Yeah, I live right by an Amazon. So they're just getting faster and faster. I remember when I was growing up,

it took three to five days before Yeah. Before Prime even came out, and then Prime was a big deal. Now Prime's like four hours. My wonder about it is like, if it were a picture of 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 it, like a mothership that has to be slowed over the neighborhood? We got Star Wars out here. Right, and then all the, I don't know how it ends up working. Have you seen 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 taking the food, that cooler no way gets to the house. I've seen- They'd be kicking that cooler over and taking the food out of it. Every time I see one, I think the same thing. Some homeless guy's just gonna take it or something. I saw one get stuck.

There you go. Those don't seem the most efficient to me. So I asked about that and somebody told me that 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 like there's no way you can just program the path and this thing finds its way to

The house. Yeah, and doesn't hit a pothole doesn't like what if there's a homeless person sleeping in the sidewalk? What's it gonna do? So I was told it's literally somebody remote-controlled driving it for now Yeah, but I don't know. Well, there's, have you seen those self-driving Ubers in San, what is it, San Francisco, I think? Yeah, yeah, those are bad for my industry, by the way. Self-driving cars, self-driving cars that don't make mistakes won't really have collisions, but they're, 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 they can't get out. So I kind of like watching that go wrong every now and then. 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 US, and so only 16 million cars a year about, new cars get sold, so the transformation of the cars

in the US, it would take, I mean, I'll be retired before. You'll be chilling by then. Yeah, it's very much like a evolution rather than a revolution as far as, I Elon Musk said like 50% of the miles Driven in like five years to be Automated but really but that's optimistic. I think well, he's always optimistic Yeah, I love their gas their gas cars. I feel like like I have both I've got an 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. And I, but I have friends that love it and swear by it. Really? 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, I do enjoy driving. Yeah. And like'm not the greatest driver. I do enjoy driving Yeah, and I and like you said I the rev of the motor that Electric is like off the line way faster I mean you're quick up 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 spoken. 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 there's a, what's most popular right now is more of a hybrid where, where it's not completely electric. Yeah.

I just drove one of those. It was interesting. I don't think electric cars are going to wait. They're going to continue to be more and more and more and more, but it's. There's such a variety of circumstances in the U S I mean, if you live in a, if you live in a high rise condo in a city and park in a garage, do you have a place to charge your car? If you live 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 100 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 only a certain segment of the population where electric is a perfect fit. And then if some of those prefer gas,

so that's why it's not taken over as fast as everybody. Yeah, it'll always be a little more niche than gas. That's why I stopped driving mine too. The charging just was so annoying. Every time I looked for a station, it was packed. You get some range anxiety going. So you had to wait to charge, and then charging takes an hour.

You gotta 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, they could drive the electric car sometimes and they could drive the other car.

But I've also seen people that jumped into the electric car and then their next car is a gas car. Yep. That happened to me. Well, now the price point is so low on these things. I think they keep lowering these electric cars. 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 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 kind of consolidate once that train leaves the station, it never stops until, you know, the industry's done. And so in a, 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 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 training and equipping to trans. You know, we're keeping up with the pace of the cars on the road, but as it all continues to evolve, so much is needed. So it's an exciting time too, because it's a challenge, right? It's not the same as it was yesterday, and that's an exciting time too, because it's a challenge, right? 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 gonna 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 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 it's doing all the things that our people hated doing anyways. It's an exciting time. Really. I love them

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