All Access With The Automotive Appearance Institute KECO story Episode
[00:00:00] Hey, what's up guys. It is Gene Fetty back with the Automotive Appearance Institute, all access podcast. So today it's going to be a little bit of a story time. I want to tell you guys my story of how my KECO came to be for me, how, how I got there what that looked like ultimately, I guess how it ended and how I was born out of KECO, out of my time at KECO.
So sit back, I've got my drink of water here. I'm sure I'm going to need it. It's gonna be a long story. So sit back, relax, enjoy, or put your head down, go to work and start to or let's take a little deep dive into, into how how we got here today via KECO. And to be clear, it is [00:01:00] KECO, not Keko, not KECO.
Oh, KECO, just that simple. So I guess to, to get here we need to rewind a little bit. And, and how did I end up even thinking about glue pole for collision or anything like that?
Going back to my PDR marketing minute days, right? The, the marketing minute was. Made to help other technicians, other business owners. But ultimately at the end of the day, it also was a business, right? I wanted to maybe supplement income or create, create additional streams of income next to my painless dent repair business.
And that right. The PDR marketing minute was, was my first step towards that. And right. If it wasn't for the PDR marketing minute, I probably wouldn't be sitting here today, podcasting on the all access show. [00:02:00] Well, what I learned trying to help other PDR business owners is the PDR business, the PDR industry on that side of things it's really small.
Right. PDR sort of a niche business anyways. But when you really dive into the business side of a niche business, you're getting super niche. And it was, it was almost too small. Like the opportunity. I don't know that the massive opportunity was there
looking for ways to create additional income streams. is what led us here today. Well, seeing just how small the, the business side of PDR was I sort of put my radar out to look for other potential avenues for, for revenue. And I don't know, probably 2017, [00:03:00] 18, somewhere around there. You'd have to go back and see.
I was actually at a party. Louie, my right hand technician's house and his wife worked at a body shop. Some of the people from the body shop were at this party also. And we're talking and we're friends acquaintances over the years. And the one estimator estimator manager was like, Hey man, can you, can you tell me a little bit about this glue pulling stuff?
We're starting to see it coming on in, in the collision space. And we sort of want to get ahead of it. A good modern shop. You're right. Trying to keep up with the latest and greatest. And I'm like, man, yep. You know what? I know this guy, Jonathan he's doing work with this company KECO and Jonathan had just put out a video.
I think I showed this to like most of my body shops, but he had put out a video where I believe it was a horse like hip check this van quarter panel and shoved it over [00:04:00] a pretty heavy. And with what likely. Would be some centipede tabs. Jonathan was able to go in and, and like essentially in one giant move, pull the whole quarter panel, the whole corner of this van back into place.
Now, I don't know if it was a PDR repair or getting it ready for a body shop, but it was, it was like the, one of the first real collision. Glue pull demonstrations videos that I had ever seen and it was just mind blowing, right? Because back in the day, glue pulling was for small dents, not for huge dents.
And, and KECO and Jonathan were, were beginning to blaze the way and start to do that. So anyways, I showed it to him. And he was like, Oh, cool. Thanks. And went back and I'm sure talked to the boss and they ended up buying some, some KECO equipment. Well, some months later I happened to run into him again.
And he's like, Hey thanks for the recommendation for [00:05:00] the KECO stuff. We're actually going to send a couple of technicians out for some glue pool training and some push training, and they've got this thing called a hot box. And. Like I said earlier, I'd put my radar up to, to keep an eye out for opportunity.
And, and I was like, wait a minute, body shops will send technicians out for training. I didn't know that was a thing. So I went back to him and I'm like, Hey dude, do you have a, Do you have a syllabus for what you guys are going to learn? Like you're obviously investing some level of money, right? Two technicians to Philadelphia.
I think it was other side of our state and, and a three or four day training, right? So just travel and expenses alone. They're willing to make an investment. So he handed over the syllabus and sure enough, they're talking some rudimentary glue, pull rudimentary push techniques and hot [00:06:00] boxing.
Right. I think it was B tag, the creator or distributor of the hot box that was actually putting this auto body training together, right? So it was all logical, but I really, I looked at the syllabus and I'm like, Man, I could, I could teach this. Like, I think I could, I think I could teach this. I don't see why not.
So now thinking back, that would have been in 2018. So I start reaching out to some friends in the business. I reached out to Keith Cosentino with Black plague glue pulling. I reached out to Carl Stuckey with lighting. I reached out to Craig Dyer and Christina Sechinger about some glue pulling stuff.
And I even funny enough, right. I obviously was a fan of KECO sent an email into KECO. Sort of saying, Hey, I'd like to maybe look at becoming a distributor to be able to sell these [00:07:00] tools. And, and the thought process was like, Hey, I can, I can teach all of these things. I can teach, I don't need to teach PDR.
I'm not trying to teach PDR to body texts, but I can teach these rudimentary skills to auto body texts. And man, maybe there's a market here. And my mind is still a little bit blown. That body shops are investing in their student or not in their students, investing in their technicians. Right. I just, in hindsight, it's kind of dumb that I never thought of it, but at the time I was like, man, so I reached out and Carl was like, yeah, we can do, we could do some wholesale for you.
For you and Keith is like, Hey, whatever you need, we can make it work. And Craig and Christina were like, of course, like just, in fact, Craig sent me a bunch of glue and he's like, here, try these out and see what you think. And then I got an email back from KECO and I believe this was from. Kenny Austin, who is now, I would consider a good friend, but at the [00:08:00] time didn't know me from Adam.
And, and basically the email is Hey, you know, we're not really interested. We only deal with bigger distributors. Sorry. Bye. And I was like, well, man, that kind of sucks. Like Kika is the stuff I want to sell. So I went back and talked to Craig and I'm like, Hey, can you know, is there a way that I can buy Kika through you?
And I hadn't even really heard of cam auto yet. And he was like, well, if we come to that, we'll work something out and so on and so forth. Well, as we progressed through. 2018, that was my first year owning a shop and trying to get that off the ground. It just didn't progress quite as quickly as I had hoped it would.
Well, fast forward to Mobile Tech Expo 2019 I went to the KECO booth and ended up talking to [00:09:00] Jonathan a little bit. I think Jonathan was there that year. Anyways, talk to Jonathan a little bit a little bit about the collision stuff that we saw coming on. And then I believe the gentleman's name was Tim.
He left right when I was coming into KECO. If it's not Tim, I'll make a note in the show notes of his actual name. Anyways, Tim was part of the team at KECO helping on the growth side of things. And I knew it. I got an email that said no, but I'm like, I'm going to go talk in person. And maybe if they see a person they can, they can set, set something up.
So I talked to Tim and sort of tell him what I want to do. And He's at least receptive, right? He's, he's not a no. So we start, start an email conversation back and forth. Well, come, I want to say it was March of 19. Ryan Hampton, a friend of mine has a Hale Expo [00:10:00] in St. Louis. And he asked me to talk and it's several other speakers.
And I think there was, Two days of speakers at the at the expo or seminar or whatever, whatever you call it. It was good. It was honored to, to get the chance to come up on stage, go to St. Louis and we're talking, maybe I think we finished our talk. And ran into my buddy, Dave Shalott, big name, Dave. If you don't know him, look him up pretty cool, dude.
If you ever get a chance to have a meal with him, just say yes. That dude is the food guru for sure. Man, can that guy eat? Anyways through a mutual friend, Dave had heard Sort of what I was working on or what I was trying to do with glue pulling. And Dave was in with KECO right along the same lines and they were beginning to [00:11:00] teach and do what what I wanted to do.
Right. So anyways, Dave. It was like, Hey man, listen, I heard kind of what you're up to. Chris White the owner of KECO is speaking this afternoon. You really need to make sure you're here to listen to that. Thanks. Big net Dave, right? Like huge pivotal moment in my life was, was being at that seminar and you saying to, to listen to Chris talk.
So I made time to, to get back for Chris's talk. And now mind you, I'd never formally met. Chris yet, right. Sort of knew who he was, had never been fully introduced. Chris gets up on stage and he's a passionate guy. He's still about like, just, I love the passion that Chris speaks with that when, when he comes out and talks.
So he is introducing. [00:12:00] Program called the KECO core, right? C O R P S the core, like the army core of engineers. He's, he's trying to create the KECO core. And the premise of this is for local PDR techs. That are already KECO customers to sort of talk to their local body shops, right? Almost like a, almost like a pseudo guerrilla marketing attack, pretty smart stuff.
And it just clicked. So Chris goes through his whole program. Maybe it was a 45 minute talk and how he wants it to play and here's percentages and how it's going to work out. And Man, I literally was like glued to my seat, listening to this because I'm like, man, that's what I want to do. That's what I want to do.
Oh, this makes sense. Oh, I would change that. So on and so forth. So we get through that we get through his talk [00:13:00] and I'm like, man, I liked what that dude had to say. I'd like to talk to him about it. I think I, I think I would make some changes and you know, why not later that night? So it's at a casino in St.
Louis is where it was hosted. Me and Melissa and I think Jack Bucknell, just a good crew of people are hanging out in the back end or the deep end of this bar, just at a table BS and, and I get up to go to use the restroom. And as I'm walking out Chris White and Dave Shalott. I have a little table right at the very front of the bar, right at, right at the edge where you almost walk back out onto the casino floor.
And again, having not met Chris before, I walk up to Dave and I'm like, Hey Dave, thanks for telling me to hang out for Chris's talk. How about an introduction? I've seen him around, never got to meet him.
Dave makes that introduction and we start [00:14:00] talking and mind you it's late at night. We've all been drinking a little bit and, and the conversation starts to flow. And I'm like, Hey I've actually been emailing back and forth with Tim. I've got a meeting set up with him in a couple of weeks.
He's coming to Pittsburgh for an event. We're supposed to go to dinner and talk some. I really like, What you're putting out here here's what I think is good. Here's what I think is bad. And Chris being the, the gentleman that he is sort of stood there and for what it was worth, took my, my two cents at some point, Melissa thought I got lost and came out to find me.
And I really think that we sat talking at that bar till two o'clock in the morning. It was late. And, and the conversation was really, really good. But again, we were drinking, right? So go to sleep, get up and the next day, second day of the seminar there is a [00:15:00] tool room, right? Where some of the vendors like KECO were able to set up and do just some small tables and I think the ants and vans were in the parking garage, excuse me.
But really Somewhere for, for people to come in and talk to the tool vendors. Well, Chris was there and I wanted to come over and I said, Hey, Chris, you know, great to meet you last night. Really enjoyed our conversation. I know there was a lot of good banter back and forth. I just wanted to come by and let you know that, that, like, that wasn't just drunk talking.
Like very serious about this. And again, you know, I have a meeting set up with Tim in a few weeks. I'd really like to talk to you about this. And, and really, I really think I like KECO core could be like it really, like the light bulbs are going off in my head. So we exchanged numbers and Chris is like, Hey, you know, give me a call next week.
Let's Let's [00:16:00] talk outside of the venue. Let's, let's let our brains process a little bit more. And, and yeah, I'd really like to talk to you. So again, exchange numbers and I go home and talking to Melissa and really thinking about it and, and I, again, that radar I put up for opportunity. I'm like, wait a minute, these guys own the tools.
They own the company, right? And come to find out they're the manufacturer like they're in the manufacturing and everything. Maybe, maybe there's some big opportunity here. And, and again, opportunity is what I was looking for. Like a piece of something, not necessarily a piece of ownership, but like a piece of some action
immediately. With the, the thought of potential scale with KECO [00:17:00] core instantly jumped to, like, I think I could head this thing up. I think I could help make the KECO core happen and create almost like a. Like a general sales manager, a general core manager position where like sort of my vision was to be able to oversee the program.
And then like if you think about just a couple, two or three representatives in a state, so a hundred or 150 people under me even if it, if there's a small commission that's possible under there, right? Like you guys can kind of see how that scale could scale up. But that is again, looking for opportunity.
That's immediately where my, where my thoughts went, where my brain went. I couldn't wait to get back and get Chris on the phone. So I think it was right. I think the expo was like Friday, Saturday or Saturday, Sunday flew home. [00:18:00] And I can still picture the parking lot. I was in Mason town, PA. There's a little shop and save right on route 21.
And I pulled over in that parking lot that afternoon. I think maybe we had texted back and forth and set up a time and hopped on the phone and, and I don't remember the whole conversation back and forth. But at some point, Chris. At some point I made it known that, Hey, I know we just met you'll probably think it's crazy, but I think, I think I can come run the KECO core for you.
Like I, I can see the potential there. I'm excited about it. I'm fired up and given sort of what I've been working on and trying to put together, why try to reinvent the wheel when you're driving the wheels? Like maybe it makes sense. Well, Chris throws out there that they are having a 10th anniversary [00:19:00] for KECO tabs right inside of KECO is KECO tabs.
And that's the first product they ever made
in Oklahoma city, like in April. And, and I was just like, I'm in, I'll be there. Tell me the dates. He said, listen, we're doing a two day training. If you can get there, you can come as my guest. And I'm like, well, I'm in. Jump in and swim, right? Let's just say yes and figure out the rest from there. So I hung up with Chris like giddy, literally giddy with the, the thought of the potential that could be here.
And I called Melissa and I said, Hey, I got to book a flight. I'm going to Oklahoma city on whatever these dates KECO's having a two day training. He invited me as his guest. It's their 10th anniversary. I can't miss it. And sure enough, got my ticket and again, messaging [00:20:00] back and forth with Chris, he's like, Hey, I'll, you know, I'll listen, I'll come down to the airport, pick you up, we'll go to dinner.
I mean like really throughout the red carpet. But at the end of the day, that's just the kind of guy Chris is, like just, just a good dude who wants to do things right. So he picks me up at the airport, we go have dinner the hotel's right next door to the, to the venue. And a great conversation, got to meet Brock and Kenny with KECO.
I think Jonathan was in for dinner, Dave Shalott. I think Dave showed up. Yeah. Dave was definitely there. Anyways, we go to dinner, we'll get up. We go to now, this was the first ever in person training at the lodge of the KECO Lodge. They're there, the home of KECO tabs. And we go in and we sit down in the room and they're going through the slide deck.
And I just sort of feel inclined to jump in and help. I don't know if that was right or right in hindsight, probably not my place to just jump in, right? I wasn't really invited as a trainer. I was invited as an attendee but I just jumped right in and started offering my two cents up on, on, in the presentation as we moved through.
Right then maybe late day one, day two, we start moving out into the shop and, and I hadn't done tons of big heavy pulls but pretty proficient at small pulls for sure. And the groups broke up and, and I just sort of jumped in and started teaching. The small dent repair side of things understanding that was really the first time I was introduced to the process of glue pulling, right?
The six C's again, just dove right in and jumped into it. Finished out the class. It was a blast. Got to hang out with Dave, got to hang out with Jonathan and Chris make new friends. As we were wrapping up the class and getting ready for the 10th anniversary party sort of pulled Dave shallot aside because he had been out and done some onsite trainings for KECO.
Then I was like, Hey Dave, thanks for making this connection. I really love. What I'm seeing, I just want to make sure I'm not going to stop on your toes. You know, I don't know what you're trying to do. And he's like, listen, you're good, man. Go for it. He's like, I'm here to help Chris. Cause I really liked Chris.
And I enjoy teaching. He's like, but my, my PDR business is my focus. And I'm like, well, I'm all in, like, I really, really, really liked what I saw. Well, later that night at the, at the, the anniversary party I got to see Chris get up on stage and talk to his people and. I saw a guy with conviction, a guy with some heavy emotion.
I'm a pretty emotional guy. I will wear my heart on my sleeve. And I'm just a, sometimes I'm just a, an emotional sappy mess. And I watched Chris, right? The leader of this company, get up and give his talk and, and get a little teary eyed. And. I could just feel the, the passion and the love in his voice. And it just helped cement that, that I was on the right path.
Later that night after the, after the speech, right. Sort of got Chris on the side or me and Chris ended up talking a little bit. And he goes, man, you know, a lot of people have talked about doing stuff with us and making moves and, and trying to make things happen. And he's like, Only one of them showed up here today, and that's you.
And that just sort of, right, that felt right. Again, it was just the way things were supposed to happen. It was just more reiteration of, of things happening the the right way. So the party's over hung out with a lot of good PDR people. The whole Anson crew came up, Kev made his way over from the UK when it was still TDN good times, good times.
So we went I came back home and I think Chris sort of sat down and thought about what we had talked about. And I believe Jonathan was looking to be at home more. Spend less time Stateside, more time at home in Belgium. And again, this, the, the stars aligning the universe, doing what the universe does and God putting you where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there.
So he said, okay, let's, let's talk about, about what we can do together. What, what does this look like? And, and Kenny sort of entered the conversation and they were like, all right, let's let's talk about this KECO core. Let's, let's see what it looks like. And we had some conversations and they had me go build essentially a pitch deck on how on my vision for the KECO core.
What, what did that look like? Right? Like a, a pitch deck. It was actually pretty cool to build. I would love to go back and find in my archive somewhere my original pitch for that KECO core. Anyways, created the pitch, we hopped on a zoom and man, I, I pitched it as hard as I could. I threw everything, everything I had at that presentation at my pitch.
And I think nobody's ever said this. My gut is, as I quickly scaled that up or what, what that scale looked like, I think it got Almost a little scary for everybody involved and really, and it's sort of a low level, right? Not even leaving the United States and you know, they thanked me for my time and came back and at another meeting and they were like, Hey, we're not so sure that the KECO core is the right play, right?
Might be, it might be a little bit more than we can commit to a little bit more than we can handle at the moment. But we really like what we see in you. Like, what can we, what can we do? What can we put together? To make things happen. I'm like, well, I don't know. I guess, what do you want that? So we went back and forth and they wanted some on the road training, some trainings that Keiko, some trade show appointments or, or events and some content, right.
We put that all together, came to some terms and jumped full on into creating content and going out and teaching redeveloping the slide decks. Most good times, like really, really good times building that all up. We get to our next in person event at KECO. So first in person, I'm, I'm an attendee and decide to jump in and help because that's just what I do.
I guess that's just how I'm wired. To the second one they're doing another event at the lodge. We are doing another event at the lodge and it's me. And Dave shallot are, are jumping in to, to go teach this. And we get there and I, again, just sort of jumped right in. I can't remember if this is the event where Dave wasn't feeling well.
Or just the first event I was there. But Dave, if you listen to this buddy hats off to letting me just jump in and take the reins and run with it. And I sort of jumped right in and started just leading the class. And Dave sort of hung out for support. It really was. Again, pretty cool for the first time to get out and stretch my legs.
Now, my one story that, that really sticks with me there is we were working on a, it was a red RAV4 lift gate, and this was like our first big moves out in the shop, right? We sort of start classroom and then we come out and we start big moves. We're early into big moves. And the dent is through the body line.
If I remember right, it's like softball cantaloupe size but right through the body line. And I had always just stuck a smaller tab, thinner, more narrow tab, right on the body line and pull, right? That's, that's how I've done it. And it never really bit me in the ass. Still hasn't technically. But anyways, we're there and.
Again, this is early in the KECO curriculum, right? There wasn't really a, a train, the trainer, there was just like, Hey, we're going to train this and go to town. So I'll never forget it. I'm up on stage on the floor with a student or two, and we're working through the six C's and we decide like, okay, who is strongest, the weakest, deepest, the shallowest.
We're going to go after the body lines, the strongest thing to go after. And you know, I'm telling the student, I'm like, all right, Bob, we're going to go after this body line. Which tab are you going to go with? And Chris goes, where are you going to put it from the back? And I'm like, we're going to pull the body line first.
And he goes, which side? I'm like, neither side. We're going right at the body line. And he's like, are you sure you don't want a side? And I'm like, yep, pretty sure we're good. I'm just going to pull a line. And had I known Chris a little better, I could have read his face or had I been thinking a little bit, right?
Clearly there's a problem with quote unquote, just pulling on the line. And we make the pull. It's all good. We go through the rest of the day and we're at dinner that night. Right. Successful class. I mean, it really was a good class. And man, Chris is a little heated. And it was a good class, but it wasn't quite.
Perfect. And one of the things that wasn't perfect was we don't pull on the body line, we pull next to the body line and I'm like, well, nobody ever told me that dude. And we actually got a little bit heated at dinner and and Dave shallot got my back and I sort of barked back a little bit and it went away.
But I was a little, a little heated over that as, as Chris was turns out side note. Don't pull on the body line, pull next to the body line. It actually does work better, right? I came back home, tested that theory out and I'm like, huh, maybe this Chris guy does know a little bit about glue pulling, or he studied a little bit about glue pulling.
Let's, let's try that. So anyways, we get done with that argument and, and you could like feel the tension at the table. And Jennifer, Chris's wife is at the table and, and she looks over and she goes, listen, don't worry. She goes all day long. I, all I heard about was this gene, gene, gene, gene, gene. She's like, he's not that mad.
You're doing great. Don't sweat it. And you could kind of see the wind come out of Chris's sail. Like, I mean, don't tell him that, that we're good. It was just, it's just funny. And it's one of the only times that Chris and I ever didn't get along. And it's, it's It's trivial, it's menial, it's nothing. It's just one of those stories that that sticks with me.
It was, it was, it was a good time. So that that worked well. And we went through, I can't remember if we did a six month or eight month. It was, I want to say it was maybe six months this, this initial trial period. And the, the goal was. To like, okay, KECO core, isn't going to be the answer, but we can work together.
We can start building a relationship and let's renegotiate or, or figure more stuff out six months or eight months or whatever, whatever the term was down the road and we got to the end of that. I wasn't happy with. My performance on a couple of things and wanted to make it right with Chris. Actually flew out to Oklahoma city to sit down and meet with him and talk and we hashed and work things out and decided to continue on forward.
Right now we're moving or approaching MTE 2020. And that was cool. Getting to get up on stage and talk one of my biggest crowds ever, right? Really heading down that path. I think we went to. SEMA prior to that. Yeah, I did get to go to SEMA in 2019. I got again, pretty cool times to get to, to travel to SEMA, to see SEMA, to work the show, to see how big the crowds are.
Pretty, pretty cool. Incredible opportunities, the food right. Speaking of SEMA in Vegas, I will say one of the coolest things was some of the incredible restaurants, the incredible food and food experiences that, that we had at KECO. When, when we were out as a crew we did it right, really some incredible restaurants all over the country, incredible meals, incredible good times with friends Man, those are reminiscing a little bit there.
Sorry. Good, good times. Anyways, we come up to through SEMA freaking, we killed it there. Again, forever grateful for, for the things that. That KECO introduced me to as part of myself, man, do I love, love getting to, to be on stage, right. To, to do demos at shows like that with incredibly.
Incredible, great products backed by great people in front of people that want to learn and hear about it. It's not like we're trying to do a sham. Wow. Right. It's, it's bringing new, better tools and techniques to the world. Oh man. It's fun to be on stage like that up to MTE 2020. Speaking there the boot work in the booth, it was crazy.
I, prior to that, it only worked like the PDR nation booth back in the day. Just a little bit of helping this was like full on crazy chaos. And again, getting to bring new cool products to market, to teach people how to use them especially to get, to teach PDR texts, right? That's, that's where I'm born and bred.
What an incredible, incredible time then, right? Not long after MTE 2020 COVID. Stops the world, right? I need a, I need a skidding tires, crash sound button on my soundboard here. Anyways, brings the world to a, to a screeching halt. And we had, we had renegotiated a bit. And I was able to, would have been able to do some traveling on my own and maybe go chase down some trade organizations sort of like get in front of bigger organizations with the ability to sell and make some commissions.
So we had. Started to make some steps towards quote unquote, a piece of something. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't mean a piece of ownership in KECO. I mean, something bigger than just trading dollars for days, right? Instead of just a day trade a trade of my time for, for KECO's money, something where I could scale it up where I could do more starting to set these places up out on the road.
And then again, COVID hits the fricking brakes. We drive the whole. world into a wall and it stops and we're stuck. And now I'm looking at laying off my PDR technicians, all of our travel for KECO stopped. Like the world stopped traveling. Or like, what are we going to do? Like everybody was in sort of a scramble mode.
On the PDR side of things, knock on wood. Hopefully that wasn't too loud. Knock on wood, we had a big hail storm. We ended up I went like laid people off on Wednesday or Thursday that hailed on Saturday. And you know, a week and a half later I'm bringing subcontractors in cause we can't keep up and we're going to have a record year.
Well, inside of that room, still very vested in Chico and, and the opportunity that's there. We begin to try to do some online presentations, online classes, online demos. One of the things we did was every Friday, I believe it was every Friday at noon or one Eastern. I was hopping on and doing live demonstrations, live Q and a's man, did we struggle.
Like, like the rest of the world struggled, I guess. Some of the stuff like the ATEM mini that we have now where we can do multi cam and stream, or even the audio setup we have here to be able to do this podcast, all of that stuff disappeared in COVID because everybody was trying to do it. So we ended up streaming like from my iPhone and an iPad.
We had dead time, like where the screens would go black, things would glitch out. It, it was a little ugly. But we stayed relevant and got it done. And that also is where. I started seeing a need, right? This is, this is call this like the inception of it wasn't a AI at the time, right? But the inception of AI, the Institute seeing the need for better.
Online content, better online training, better production quality more interaction, so on and so forth. Right. Like that was, I think that those, those live. Events are what started to plant the seed for this. So the world starts to open back up just a little bit. Travel opens up just a little bit and, and we start back on the road.
And me and Chris are out somewhere. I couldn't tell you what trip we were on, but we were on a trip and talking about training and I, and I start talking about. Online because maybe COVID was a good thing because we were getting to the point with travel and the need to be on the road, that it was showing just how difficult it is to scale in person training events.
Like when you're doing one off, like one trainer at one shop, like that's just super hard to scale. So we start talking and I'm talking a bit about more online content, more online training. And I don't want to say Chris was opposed. But he sort of even further fertilized the seed that was planted in my head.
And, and again, we're trying to figure out how to work together, how to make things work better, what makes this sustainable for me to continue being part of KECO and he says maybe, maybe you should start some sort of training, right? And we can sort of like branch out that way, as it was even talking about what now with Kika looks like GPR plus where they're starting to do some rudimentary pushing.
I'm like, man, maybe we need to start doing some more advanced glue pulling. Maybe we need to start playing with some rudimentary pushing for these texts. And he didn't want to. Dilute the, the GPR for collision. I mean, brand is the wrong word, but the, the look, right. He wasn't ready to, to dilute that, but through working next to each other.
Right. We could, we could grow that that way. And again, running a PDR business, working my tail off for KECO. Right. That the seed was planted and we started moving that direction. And I never brought this up to Chris at the time. I think we've spoke about it since, or, you know, back in the day, but come to find out that Chris, that KECO is acquiring TDN.
Their tools and their training division, right? Kev Kevin Andrews over there, the TDN tool line in the UK and Kev was Kev is a PDR instructor. TDN did PDR training. I believe they still do PDR training as KECO UK over there. And in my mind, Right. Be it head trash or, or I should have talked to Chris or whatever with KECO acquiring TDN, I was like, well, I guess Chris has shifted his, his thoughts on training.
Right. And now he's buying a company that trains PDR. I guess I'm going to put training my training sort of on pause. And he, they acquire TDN becomes KECO UK Kev and the team over there really make some great. Changes to how we're training GPR with KECO, right? It cleaned up the cleaned up the presentation, cleaned up the process, dialed it in even further.
And that's sort of like, again, I sort of sat back on my heels and just went along for the ride. As the world opened up more, I was able to do some of my own gigs make some sales, make some, some, okay. Dollars for, for, for what we were doing. But still couldn't come to like good terms on again, quote unquote, a piece of something, right?
We just couldn't, we just couldn't figure out what that looked like. And this sort of turns it. Excuse me. This sort of turns into and on the ongoing conversations back and forth. What can we do? I don't know. What can we do? Made some changes to how I would bill cut back on some of my training.
Did some more virtual trainings, a little less time on the road. Reworked some of them, like commissionable sales which was cool, but it still wasn't quite enough. Right. And we were just the world was getting back to normal. So we're probably into call it like mid 22 we had gone on the road worked a deal to get.
To become a glue pull supplier for caliber. We'd gone to some caliber events. Danny Hacker had come on to KECO full time by this point. Like things were growing, things were changing, shaking it up. And as we, as we got into 22 we had, I had a ton of training. I was doing a lot of training. Like I think I ended up on the road.
I was probably on the road three out of the four weeks of the month. Not for the full week, but I mean, I was hitting it hard and flights had changed. You just couldn't fly around like you used to. And it started turning into some pretty long days, lots of flight cancellations, lots of late late nights, early mornings.
It was starting to become a a pretty serious grind. As we, as we came into, to 22, then June of 22, I was actually coming back from like a three or four day run. I want to say maybe in new England, coming back from KECO. And as I land in Pittsburgh and my phone starts blowing up that, that one of the towns we service got smoked with a hailstorm, I mean, smoked, smoked ends up being our best year ever.
But it was full on chaos and I was scheduled to go. I know one of the events was a big I CAR event at their new facility. And it broke my heart a little bit but I had to call Chris and say, Hey, listen, dude, we're so busy already. And this was like day two of the storm. I was like, I'm not going to be able to make it by the end of the month, this I CAR event.
And I'm sure that hurt Chris a bit. In fact, I know he was upset because we didn't really talk for a while. And then when we finally talked again over a beer it was like, Things calmed down and, and he, ultimately he understood that, right? Like if I have to pick a business, mine or his, I'm going to pick mine.
And that's, that's what happened. Anyways, we get through the, the, the chaos, the craziness, craziness of the storm, and I don't know, probably August or September, we're sort of back. On the road, I'm starting to do trainings again and they're getting crazy. Again, multiple days on the road being away from home, still dealing with the hail storm and some personal issues with our son.
Right. Teenage, this teenage years can be a bit tricky. And me being away so much and having Melissa struggle to deal with him and for him to not have a red, like dad there enough to, to make things right. It was, it was time. In fact, me and Melissa went off to dinner and we're talking and she's like, Hey, I think it's time to talk to Chris and maybe put the brakes on with And I was like, Hey.
You're a thousand percent right. And like my last flight home, I spent a lot of time thinking about, man, this is just too much. And over the three years or four years at that point, I guess three years over the three and a half years that I was with KECO KECO had changed a lot. Our local business had changed a lot.
And. Family is always first in my world, like family before all else, like if family's not well, I'm not well, and we've got to fix that. So, get sort of a last minute call that Danny is sick. He had been traveling a lot. I think he got the shingles cause you know, Danny, if you're listening, you were overdoing it a little bit, dude.
And there was a big caliber. No, not caliber. Yeah. Caliber. Yeah. Big Caliper event. At like one of their big national events in Texas. And Chris is like, Hey dude, can you come and cover this? Danny's not well. And, and I really need you. And I'm like, yep, all in dude. And I sort of had made the decision that, all right, I'm going to talk to Chris and we've got to wind this down.
Because Right? Like it's affecting me. It's affecting my relationship with my wife. It's affecting our relationship with our son and I can't focus on my PDR business. And we hadn't come to any terms again, quote unquote, for a piece of something. And again, that's not a, like, when I say that, I don't want that to be any kind of dig at anybody.
We just never, We're able to put terms together that made sense for, for all parties involved. Like, it's just, it just is we we're at that event and went through the morning, I had a break. It may have even been the end of the day. And I was like, Hey dude, can we like, just me and you sit down and have a talk?
And Chris had been traveling a a ton that year also. Again, it was, it was crazy. I mean, it was like, it was a fricking grind to be out on the road and traveling like that. I'm like, listen, dude, you're tired. I'm tired. We still haven't come to terms sort of talk to him about what was going on with Mac.
That's our son and, and the stuff that he's struggling with there and the stress that it's put on my relationship with Melissa and like, I think I was like, I'm going to come to SEMA because SEMA is always a huge event. I promised to be there. And then I think I'm not going to take on any more trainings after that for a while, right?
Unless there's something. Super close, something super specific that, that, that is just me. Like I need to take a serious break from KECO and he was bombed. I was bombed, right? Like sort of really felt like the end of an era at end of an era, not error, end of an era and I think. In fact, I know they made some calls and brought on somebody else to come out to SEMA.
We went out and had a great show with great meals. Like it really was a good send off. And then sort of parted ways friendly, like still get invited to go to dinners at MTE. If we're out, we'll still go catch. a drink. But that was sort of like the
the end of full time KECO gene. Like it was just time to, it was just time to move on. I did a couple more trainings. I think they were busy. Certainly the post SEMA he had asked if I would do any trainings that were close to home. And, and again, we're like, we're on good terms. And I said, you know, absolutely. Absolutely. And we're talking stuff that I can like get up and drive to and teach and then drive back home to, right.
Like short days, no flights. And I did a handful of those. We started now we're sorting like end of KECO beginning of AAI. I originally thought, okay, I'm going to take one more swing with KECO and I'm going to create a great online version of. GPR training, right? Like what would we train perfectly?
And then, you know, the idea was like, we can license this to KECO and we can make this happen. And my accountant was sort of like, Hey, you started this LLC. I, and like, it's got to start turning some revenue or do something. Right. So we ended up losing a little bit more money, but anyways hired a videographer, set up the studio and first attempt at creating a KECO online version went way South.
The damage I created went totally sideways, all very not. Good at all reset rehire the videographer team and we get together and we shoot. And I really wanted to create a, as close to being there as possible version of Online training, right? So lots of essentially over the shoulder talking to the camera, like it was a student.
We shoot with the videographer, spend the money. They do all the edit and the videographer had a new camera they were working with and the footage was
garbage. Like I don't get motion sickness and watching how poorly the execution or watching how poor the execution was on some of this closeup work, the over the shoulder POV work was unusable, like just throw it away, forget about it. We're done. Well, come into March of 23 we hired Dylan who is not here today, not podcasting with me today, but if you catch the last episode you will hear me banter back and forth with her a bit side note, we will be adding a second microphone in for those types of.
Episodes where Dylan will be able to chime in. It should make things a bit more entertaining. Anyways, that's cool. So we bring Dylan on in March of 23. And one of my big goals was at first I was done with that old videographer, right? Like he had done a lot of work for us. And then I totally got hosed on the, that deal and by Felicia, you're out.
But anyways, we hired Dylan and. Again, as I'm sort of growing away from my time with KECO, right. And into AAI and in fact, me and John Zahn did our first advanced in person training. I think it was February of 23 is right before Dylan got hired. Anyways, that was like real deal kickoff with AAI on, on an event that was a success.
One of the things we wanted to do was. Create the best online glute pull training available anywhere in the world was my goal. I think we accomplished it. Still super proud of it. Shameless plug. GPRmasterclass. com will get you to that ultimate best worlds. World's best glue pull training anywhere ever created ever.
As, as I, again, as I sort of got to move away from KECO and got to spend some more time thinking about things it just started to make more sense. Even going back and following some of my old students and watching how they'd progressed to creating training that was, you know, More real world with KECO, right?
When you taught the KECO system, you taught the KECO system because that was your job. And I still to this day believe the KECO system like the L2E to be the most comprehensive start to finish system available anywhere. period. Now I did see, there's going to be an L2E premium dropping on Halloween.
I've seen a couple of teaser videos come out from KECO and Danny. So keep your eyes out for that. We will report on that also. But what I saw is my students that went with KECO naturally were opening up and expanding and trying different glues and trying different tabs, trying different tools.
I wanted to be able to teach my students. Across the board. I wanted to be able to teach the way I wanted to teach. So, right. I already had all my KECO stuff. I reached out to Christina and Anson Charlie with cam auto Carl with Stucky lighting or Stucky tools. Mark with perfect pull Keith Cosentino with black plague.
John Videne with Dent Reaper and we brought all of my favorite glue pole tools, equipment and supplies. We brought all of my favorites in to create again, in my mind, the ultimate glue pole repair training. Course anywhere. And the idea was to be like brand agnostic, right? Instead of bleeding blue, like I did for so many years and touting only KECO, I really got to open up and talk about everything, the good, bad, and the ugly and why this might be better than that.
And I think that, that moving to that brand agnostic position and more standing behind. Call it the principles of glue pole repair, the principles of GPR which by the way, was born at KECO, right? That was the acronym that was put together to help combat like all GPRs, PDR, and it's not the same or it's different.
I believe that touting the benefits of all glue pole repair with the best products and tools out there is the best. Way to go and it's also the real world with what our students Actually do in the real world, right? If they buy cam auto, then they get some KECO, then they grab some ants and it's a black plague and some dent reaper, or they get KECO and then they order some different glue from Anson and so on and so forth.
And I think that that is ultimately. I
don't want to say put a knife in it cause it's not, we're not dead. But, but took away any chance of Jean just going straight back to KECO. Even though I feel as though I would be a good brand ambassador Chris was just not cool with me representing other brands and I can understand that, right?
He has to protect his brand and it needs to be the way that needs to be for KECO. And again, at the end of the day, Chris, if you listen to this, I love your brother and I will forever be grateful for my time at KECO the opportunities that KECO gave me the fire and the passion that was locked up inside of me for training that I just didn't know was there that, that KECO brought.
To my forefront, man, forever grateful for everything, all of the memories, all the good times the hard times, the, the tough parts of life that we went through, I forever will be grateful for KECO and Chris White, and that really the whole team over there and everybody involved, man, what a fricking ride.
Well, this is my new. Longest podcast to date. I knew this was going to be a chatty one. I think I about drank my whole water. Hopefully that wasn't too loud for you guys. We get some great feedback on our last episode where I did a little bit of interactive talking about repairs. If you have a repair that you would like us to go through and critique go over what and how we would do differently.
Send it to admin at auto appearance institute. com or DM us on any of our social channels. If there's crazy repairs that maybe you didn't do or just some wild social media stuff I think we're going to do some episodes on that. In fact, I sent one to Dylan the other day that still has me scratching my head a little bit.
Gorilla glue, hot glue, suction cups, and duct tape and ratchet straps. It was something to see that video is definitely coming to the AI all access podcast show again. Like I said earlier with my shameless plug, if you would like the best, most thorough, most captivating, most interesting, bestest ever podcast.
ever, ever online training available anywhere for gluepole repair. All you need to do is go to gprmasterclass. com and you can sign up right there and have access to the entire class on loophole repair training. Follow us. At auto appearance Institute across the board on all social media channels that we post on, I guess maybe not all social media.
Like there's a lot out there and there's already more than I do. You get the picture. And of course our website is auto appearance institute. com. You can find anything there. You can sign up for any of our classes. We've got tons of free options as well as paid options. So go check that out. I will see you.
Nope. Maybe. It might be a video episode next time, but I won't see you, you would see me. So you'll see me or hear me. You'll definitely hear me at least on the next episode, guys. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you so much. And I hope this was a little cool peek into how I got started with KECO and how that led us to right here, the all access podcast from the auto appearance Institute.
See you guys.
