Presley Gray with Dawson’s Auto Care

Intro: [00:00:07] Coming to you live from the Business RadioX Studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:16] And welcome to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I am your host, Sharon Cline. And today in the studio we have the co-owner of a new mechanic shop in Dawsonville, Georgia. Um, a friend of mine actually, who has been working on cars since he’s been a teenager. Um, he just moved to Georgia five years ago and has now gone on a journey to open his own shop and one of the co-owners of the shop. And his name is Presley Gray. Welcome to the show.

Presley Gray: [00:00:48] Thank you, thank you.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:49] You’re welcome. Dawson’s Auto Care.

Presley Gray: [00:00:51] Yes.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:52] I’m so excited for you. Yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:00:54] It’s, uh. It’s been a journey. It has.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:56] Been. And I was just reading about you. I didn’t realize that you had, uh, started working on cars. Really? Being such a young person, getting into this industry. And you’ve continued on through different places that you’ve worked along the way. And one of one of the cool things about you is that you were working on a Tesla certified collision shop in Seattle, one of the few.

Presley Gray: [00:01:15] Yeah. So when I was working. So I did come from Washington, um, the West Coast, and there was two shops in the state of Washington that were Tesla certified. And this is when Tesla had first come out. Um, at the time, they only had the Tesla Roadster, which is the original one. I think it was based off the Lotus, actually, if I recall. Right. And then the model S, which looks, uh, strikingly like a maserati. Oh, wow. Yeah. I was actually told by the owner of the shop I worked at that Elon Musk had gotten the one of the designers from Maserati to design the model S, and that’s why it looks so similar. Yeah, but I got. Yeah. Right. And, uh, just random facts right there, but, um, yeah, I got that job and there was only two. The other one was Bel Red, which is, uh, shop between Bellevue and Redmond. So I was called Bel Red, and, uh, I think they were the only other. No, no, no, it wasn’t Bel red. It was, um, accurate because I actually wound up there too after that. That’s right. Because I wound up at that shop about a month afterwards. That was a different story.

Sharon Cline: [00:02:10] Listen, we all have our twists and turns in our journeys, which is what the show is all about. It’s one of the best things, I think, is being able to ask people the different things that they’ve learned along the way. And is there a lesson that you wish you sort of knew beforehand, or you would have told yourself before you got started? And so that’s what’s kind of fun is, is being able to say, what did you learn and what would you have done differently? And um, so I actually am interested in, in why, how how difficult was it for you to stay in the mechanic world when you got started? Because I know 18, you’re kind of still figuring yourself out. Did you want to do anything else or were you just like, I can do this, I can do this. Well, this is not where I’m skilled and talented. And that’s how you stayed in this industry.

Presley Gray: [00:02:52] What actually happened was, um, my whole family. Not my whole family, but there’s been a lot of people in my family that are just involved in the automotive industry. Um, I’ve worked on cars just because, you know, we kind of had to when we were younger, we didn’t really have money to go to shops and stuff like that. It’s kind of how I learned primarily. But then my grandfather owned a shop in Southern California in San Bernardino called The Body Shop, and my uncle had learned from him. My dad learned a little bit from my grandfather as well, and my uncle lived in Spanaway, Washington, where I grew up. And, um, he, he took me under his wing when I was about, I think I was 13 or 14. I first started working with him and it was, um, just, you know, collision and stuff like that. And I’ve always done mechanical on the side, you know, kind of just on my own stuff, done some side work. And then I got primarily into collision, um, because I, I became kind of fascinated with painting cars and customization and stuff like that. And, uh, where was I going with this? I forget we’re.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:50] Talking about how you got into the industry and you stayed in it.

Presley Gray: [00:03:53] Oh, yeah. Yeah. That’s right. Squirrel.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:57] Most people do that too. Just so you know, you’re not alone. That’s funny.

Presley Gray: [00:04:01] Um, um, what was I fixing to say? Oh, yeah, I just got into it. Um, my first job at an actual body shop, because my uncle kind of worked out of a garage at his house. He had a shop, but it was mostly just car lot stuff. I was 18 when I got a job at an actual body shop, and I kind of bounced back and forth from the paint department over to the body side, and it’s just something I, um, I mean, this modestly, I was just very good at it, consistently better than most people around me. And that’s how I kind of stayed in it. I made a living for myself and, um, it was just easy for me. So.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:33] But I think that’s cool because a lot of people get started in their industry, because it really does come out of the fact that, like, I had to figure this out. I didn’t have anybody to help me. I had to learn. And then that’s such a valuable skill, especially the pandemic, showing just how important it is to have a trade. And those were essential workers. Those were the people that were like, yes, we need you. Obviously, you know, and I think that just having that skill, um, is something that, you know, you’re always going to have because you’ve got cars everywhere, you know, time goes on, it’s always going to be useful. Um, but how cool is it that your family, you’re kind of continuing on what your family’s business has been?

Presley Gray: [00:05:08] Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And like I said, my family was mostly on the, um, collision side, and that’s where I was. Um, I’ve always done mechanical on. Side, though. But, you know, my my, um, primary career has been in collision, and, uh, what Tom and I had done was we opened up a mechanical shop. It was actually originally supposed to be, uh, body and mechanical collision. Mechanical. And what wound up happening was between the permitting process and space, you know, for a shop, because I needed a frame bench, paint booth, you know, measuring system on the frame bench and stuff. Um, it became too hectic. And I go, look, you know, here’s the situation here. I can do mechanical, um, we can do mechanical strictly now and then eventually one day, if we expand and grow, then we can open up a bigger shop and we can still do mechanical, obviously. And then I can step back into the collision world. So that’s kind of where we’re going right now. It’s just, you know, right now we’re in mechanical. Dawson’s auto.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:55] Care. Dawson’s auto care okay. So Tom Bagby is your co-owner.

Presley Gray: [00:05:59] My co-owner.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:00] Co co-owner.

Presley Gray: [00:06:01] My business partner.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:01] Business partner. Sorry, I don’t know what to say. Okay. Business partner. So how did you all meet?

Presley Gray: [00:06:07] So I moved to Georgia, here about five years. Sorry. My kids were in the room with us. My son’s making the funniest faces right now. Okay. Um, um, was I fixed and say. Oh, yeah. So I moved to Georgia, um, just over five years ago, and I didn’t have any plan over here because I kind of just, I if I say I’m going to do something, I just kind of do it, you know, wing it more or less. And I flew my kids down to Miami, um, with a mother of my children, and they kind of hung out with her dad down there. And I drove across country, and I lived with my stepsister for about a week or two, and I wound up getting a job at a place called Auto Fitness. And then I got a condo and everything, and I flew my family up here. But basically, we restarted life here in Georgia.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:49] All the way from Seattle. Yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:06:50] It was it was pretty wild. It was, uh, it was a really cool drive, though. Two and a half days.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:54] Just a really cool drive. Let’s just talk about the faith that you have to have that is beyond a lot of people’s comfort zone to just sort of up and move all the way across the country, drive all the way across the country to set up a new life. So what what was it that sort of do you think is unique about you that lets you have that sort of faith and bravery?

Presley Gray: [00:07:15] I mean, I don’t know if I would call it faith or bravery. Um, I mean, I really don’t know what you would call it. Kind of what happened was I said, you know, we’re just going to do this. And that was the end of it. And I, I have this thing. I don’t know if you’d call it a mantra. It’s just about not having a plan. I mean, because, you know, my whole thing is if you have a plan, you have everything laid out, you know, this is going to happen. That’s going to happen a, B, C, d, you know, all the way down the row. One thing gets messed up, the whole thing gets screwed up. And I’ve kind of built my life around not necessarily having a plan, you know. And it’s not. I don’t know. I don’t want to I don’t want to call it chaos or disorganization because, you know, I do have constants in my life, but I just that’s kind of how I did that. You know, I just said, hey, we’re going to do it. And I have a very, very loose idea of how we’re going to do this. And we just did it. So it’s more.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:57] Stressful to you to have a specific plan to try to stick to. I’m the same way. I think I just because, you know, life can just unfold. And sometimes when you are so strict with yourself and things don’t turn out the way you want them to, it can have this negative effect that can make you not want to do anything. So, um, well, I mean, it’s really fascinating the fact that you were able to get this all, you know, a new life set up in a new city.

Presley Gray: [00:08:21] Oh, yeah. Yeah, knock on wood, everything’s been going pretty smoothly.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:25] That’s awesome. So. All right, so I wanted to ask you some questions. Typically what it’s like to be a shop owner. I know that this is a new business that you’ve opened in Dawsonville, which is great, but what are who’s an ideal, your ideal customer for you?

Presley Gray: [00:08:40] An ideal customer is someone that we’ve worked with before simply because, um, unfortunately, and I, I don’t really know, I don’t know, there’s a nice way of saying this, but a lot of shops are just extremely shitty and extremely dishonest, right.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:55] They I get that. I mean, oftentimes they are. I would say, um, one of the things that I think about being a woman is that, you know, I always wonder if they just look at me as like a dollar sign or, you know, you’re not going to know anything. And sometimes I do fall victim to that. So, yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:09:08] And that’s actually a really unfortunate thing. I’ve worked in the office of shops before, and I’ve actually had to tell women flat out, you know, I’ve given my business card and they left. I mean, there was one, um, she was moving to New York and her car was wrecked. It was like a key or something. I remember it was rear ended and she didn’t have time to fix it before she moved to New York. And I go, any questions you have? And I told her flat, out I go, I don’t mean any offense by this. You’re a female. If you go into a shop that’s owned by men, they’re probably going to try and take advantage of you. So just if you have any questions, if you feel uncomfortable, give me a call. I can always spend some time on the phone with you and, you know, try and steer you in the right direction at least. And that’s why I’d say the easiest customer or the most ideal customer would definitely be someone we’ve worked with before, because not trust is already there. You don’t need to necessarily explain. You don’t need to sell yourself. You don’t need to convince them. True.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:51] And I do know that this is not just pervasive for women. It is for men as well, I’m sure, as customers. But just knowing that you have someone that you trust, that value in this space of mechanics is so incredibly important. Because how would I know to say, no, that’s not true. Unless you go to several different places, you know? And who has time for that? Like, you really just want to be able to have the faith that someone is truly diagnosing and fixing your problem.

Presley Gray: [00:10:16] Oh, absolutely. That and, uh, competent mechanics and just technicians anymore are actually very, very hard to come by. A lot of people, you call them parts changers, or they just throw parts at cars and stuff like that, and it’s going, no, you have to diagnose. I mean, it’s the same thing. I’ve made a joke of like, you know, I’m not a doctor, I’m a car doctor. I’m not a people doctor, you know? But if you go to a doctor’s office, you can’t just sit there and. Okay, here’s my symptoms. And they say, well, it sounds like this. Let’s just give this medication. No, you have to properly diagnose. You have to find out what it is and then treat it. It’s the same thing with cars. You can’t just. Oh well you can. It actually happens a lot. Um, but you shouldn’t do that. And we do not do that. We properly diagnose and actually find out what the issue is and then we address it, and that’s the way it should be. I did some.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:54] Minimal research just on basics of what are some of the main problems that car mechanic shops have, you know, so that we could have interesting things to talk about. So I can ask you some questions. Thanks. One of them is it’s fascinating to me because basically what it comes down to is you are a problem solver. You know, you solve people’s problems and help people and obviously everybody wins. They get their car fixed and you have your business. And and yet there are some pressures there that also come with opening your own shop and, and having this timeline you need, like you always need customers, you need to have volume. And so do you find that some of the standard problems that lots of other mechanic shops have, which are can you fix this faster or, you know, can you, can you fix this cheaper? You know, are you finding the same thing, being a brand new shop or do you are you having that same lesson of, I’m just going to let things unfold the way they unfold?

Presley Gray: [00:11:52] Well, hmm. Let’s see here the main thing. How would I answer that?

Sharon Cline: [00:12:00] A little bit of a convoluted way that I asked you that. But, you know, I don’t always have my questions for him, so. Great.

Presley Gray: [00:12:07] No, it’s still, I’m just trying to think of, like, I’m trying to, I don’t know.

Sharon Cline: [00:12:11] Because isn’t there pressure? There is pressure at this moment since it’s new shop, right? Yeah. And then you want to prove yourself and be a value to the community?

Presley Gray: [00:12:19] Absolutely. Yes. Um, to an extent. I mean, yeah, there are a lot of customers out there we have not touched base with yet. Um, that being said, though, there are a lot, a lot of clients who have already worked with and Tom as well. So people know who we are locally and, you know, kind of outside of Dawsonville as well, because he lives in Gainesville. Um, but yeah, we just, uh.

Sharon Cline: [00:12:41] I don’t know. I was thinking that the fact that you have this new shop and you’ve you’ve worked in different places and you have these skills that you’re bringing, obviously, to your to your new shop. Um, what what are some things that you sort of wish you could have told yourself in the very beginning of this journey that you, you know, there are people out there that are listening that have always had a dream of doing something like this. So what would you want to tell them about their own journey to go on? What would you have wanted someone to tell you?

Presley Gray: [00:13:09] Absolutely. Do not be afraid and don’t second guess yourself. That is the most important thing. And there’s so many things on cars, you know, so many people get intimidated by. They don’t understand. They’re afraid of opening a business. They’re afraid of money, time. You know, they’re afraid it’s going to consume their life, and it will if you let it. But you just have to step out. Well, you have to set boundaries with your business. You know, basically, you can treat your business as a person or an individual. If you do not, it will consume you. I know it might sound ridiculous to say that, but you have to do that because if you treat it as just like an object, it will overrun your life and it will just cause chaos and mayhem. And you do not want any of that.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:44] I found that to be true for many people in the studio that have come in and talked about their business, how difficult it is for them to put boundaries around their time, their energy, their phone has to be off at a certain point, otherwise they’ll never really feel balanced and get resentful, you know?

Presley Gray: [00:13:59] Well, you know, that’s a funny thing because we have a cell phone for the shops, we have a cell line and a landline. Right. And, uh, it was actually this week. Sorry. It was actually this week. Um, Tom had been remarked about, like, taking the, uh, the cell phone home, and I’m like, uh, you know, keep taking it home. And I’m like, no, dude, at 6:00, leave it here. Do not take it home with you. Leave your leave the job here. Leave, you know, work here and separate it from your house. Trust me. Like you know what I mean?

Sharon Cline: [00:14:24] It’s really smart because it feels like if you don’t answer the phone, then you could lose a customer. That awful feeling of missing out.

Presley Gray: [00:14:30] Of a voicemail. You get a call back in the morning, right?

Sharon Cline: [00:14:35] Everyone listening? Yeah. Um, so how was it finding your space to open your place? You know, um, I know you’ve had a dream to have your own shop for quite a while. So finding the right timing and the right space, how was that for you?

Presley Gray: [00:14:50] So that was extremely stressful. Oh, man. So, um, this actually started back. I actually touched base with the landlord. Probably. It was over two years ago. Um, and what happened was, I want to say it was back in May of last year. So 2023, uh, he had given me a call back because he basically said, I’ll keep your number. Um, you know, we touch base every, I don’t know, six months or so and nothing available. Okay. There might be something. No. Okay, cool. Thanks. Bye. And I was constantly looking. This was just for one business complex. I was constantly scouring the internet, talking to people as anything available. There was nothing because after Covid happened, property. Well, I think what happened, uh, I can’t prove this, but I think what happened was there was a lot of technicians at shops, you know, a lot of, um, people and businesses and stuff like that. Corporations, you know, kind of just stuck under the corporate umbrella, you know, if you will. And what happened when Covid happened, a lot of people got laid off, but a lot of people were getting checks from the government. I don’t know if you remember that whole thing. I do unemployment checks. Yes, I do, and I gave people a lot of freedom to do a lot of things. And I bet you a lot of people at that point said, you know what? I suddenly just found this confidence. Go out and do my own business. Now. Warehouse spaces disappeared. Wow. Oh, they just.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:56] I don’t even think about.

Presley Gray: [00:15:57] That. I didn’t even think about it until I went to look for 1 in 2021. And then property prices shot up. And when I saw it was in Forsyth County, it was zoned commercial. It was one acre undeveloped. There has no water, no power or anything around to it. It was almost $1 million.

Speaker3: [00:16:13] Oh my God. And I saw.

Presley Gray: [00:16:15] That. And I was like, I mean, I know it’s Forsyth County, but come on, I know.

Speaker3: [00:16:18] Right?

Presley Gray: [00:16:18] That’s a little ridiculous to me, but, um, where was I going with that? I don’t forgot.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:23] What it was like to get your building.

Presley Gray: [00:16:25] Yeah. So I was, um. Alan, he’s the, uh, landlord of the business complex that I’m in right now. He touched base with me back in May. I think it was. And he had said, you know, there’s we’re breaking ground. You know, it should be built. It should be done. You know, I think it said mid-summer. So I was like, okay, you know, constructions involve third party. It’s going to be late summer call Tom. We kind of stay in touch because Tom and I had, um, Tom and I had been discussing for years, you know, because we got, um, we had met at Auto Fitness when I got my job there, and that was the first time I had here in Georgia. And, uh, ever since I met him, we just kind of became friends, you know, we hit it off, and, um, we were always discussing about having a shop, so I called him and, you know, told him, like, here’s the situation, yada yada. He goes, okay, well, just keep me in the loop. And then what happened was, um, you know, midsummer happened, wasn’t done. Okay. It’ll be late summer. Okay. You know, then it just kept getting dragged on, dragged on. And then it was September, and, uh, we were promised to get in. It was early September. Then it turned to mid September because, I mean, just permitting and everything else, all the.

Speaker3: [00:17:23] Things, everything, all the things.

Presley Gray: [00:17:24] It was just one thing after another. And it was funny because I’ve been working out of my house for about, I think, two and a half years at this point, two years in my garage. And, uh, it was just a two car garage. So you can imagine what that was like. And that was not my plan at all. And, uh, what wound up happening was it was. It’s this building. I want to say it was 1800 or 1600 square feet. It was basically a rectangle, you know, big shop door, um, a little back door and stuff like that. And, um. That’s wound up getting drug through September. So Tom quit his job in I think it was August or September. I think.

Speaker3: [00:17:59] A lot of faith.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:00] To think about that.

Speaker3: [00:18:01] Oh, absolutely.

Presley Gray: [00:18:01] Yeah. No, we just pulled the trigger. I was like, we’re doing this or not. Okay, I guess we’re doing it.

Speaker3: [00:18:05] Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:18:06] So yeah, there’s a lot involved. And that’s why I said you just got to take that leap and just just do it. I mean get the confidence if you really want to move forward. And don’t be afraid that will help you the most. But, um, um, what happened was it got dragged through September, then October, November, and then it was either late November, early December or get a phone call from Alan. And, uh, this is an industrial complex, and there was multiple buildings, and the one that we were getting was new, construction permitting, turned into a whole thing. And I’m just like, dude, this is not happening right now. And we wound up, um, actually trading buildings with the building we’re in now that you’ve been to. And that actually worked out better for us because it was about double the square feet and we got a better deal, um, money wise on it for rent every month.

Speaker3: [00:18:47] So it was like.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:47] A happy, you know, even though it seemed frustrating at the time. It worked out better for you.

Presley Gray: [00:18:52] Yes, it did in the, in the, in the long run, in the end. So yeah, we got into that shop and finally well then it turned into a whole nother fiasco of, um, it was more permitting issues because we were going to install lifts in there, and then it just we had to actually what happened was we signed the lease. It was I think it was between Christmas and New Year’s. We signed the lease. And then or maybe it was right before Christmas. Then we found out from City Hall that we would need a fire suppression system with, you know, water and then potentially water lines ran from the city water that was under highway 53. We recorded $150,000.

Speaker3: [00:19:25] And I was like, that’s not happening. Yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:19:27] And, um, the fire marshal, I went to go talk to him. He was out sick with the flu. So, uh, what happened was Tom and his family were out in, uh, Missouri or. Yeah, Kansas City, Missouri. And, uh, for the holidays, they get back, uh, I think it was New Year’s Day or the day after New Year’s Day. I forget, I think it was New Year’s Day, actually. And, uh, January 2nd, we go to the fire station first thing in the morning, and, uh, the fire marshal’s name is Jeff Bailey. Super cool guy. But, uh, it was funny. I see him, he just got out with the flu first thing in the morning, and I’m with her. Good morning. How are you doing?

Speaker3: [00:19:57] We need to talk. You know.

Presley Gray: [00:19:59] I need answers right now, and, uh, we, you know, explained the situation. And I basically started off by saying, look, I’ve talked to multiple people in the government. He was like, well, unfortunately, you didn’t talk to me. And I was like, I did not know I had to. And, um, he said, look, I just woke up. I’m trying to finish my coffee doing this. I had the flu and I’m like, I understand, man, I just need some answers here, you know? And, uh, he wound up meeting at the shop, and he just cleared everything. So, I mean, it was like it turned into a huge situation, and he cleared everything up in about half an hour. We got our CEO the next day. Yeah. Then we were able to finally move forward getting the lifts, and we had to get the floor cut up and concrete poured and everything because it wasn’t deep enough, but it was just one thing after another. But we finally got in there.

Speaker3: [00:20:38] But think about.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:38] All that you had to navigate through, not just managing the understanding what it is that you need to do in order for the shop to open, but also managing your feelings around it. Like, did you not just want to give up at some point?

Presley Gray: [00:20:51] So there we actually had the conversation because we took loans out, loans on equipment. We took a huge money loan out to get the business started and everything else. We formed a new LLC and I actually closed down. I canceled my LLC. I had and I was working out of my house, and I opened up a new one under the same name, but it was a new one with Tom and I as joint partners on it, instead of a sole proprietor like I had before. So there was a lot of stuff we did, and it got to the point where we actually had the conversation. The week before, we had met with Jeff Bailey, the fire marshal, and, uh, we basically had the conversation of, so, are we backing out of this? What’s going on? Because I had also, um, back in October of last year when, you know, a few months ago, I had essentially I didn’t shut down business in my house, but I stopped, you.

Speaker3: [00:21:31] Know, making new clients more or.

Presley Gray: [00:21:32] Less exactly unless it was like really good job or something like that. I kind of was just shutting everything down. So it put me in a situation, you know, and the whole thing was just like it was coming to a head. And I was like, this is not good.

Speaker3: [00:21:43] But you know how many.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:44] People don’t follow through? You know, it’s like the safety, you know, that you could get a job anywhere because you’re skilled and you’re good with people and you have the experience to back it up. But. You persevered. There are so many people that go to the tried and true and don’t take that leap of faith. So it’s like impressive that you did that.

Presley Gray: [00:22:04] It’s impressive.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:05] It’s impressive.

Speaker3: [00:22:07] Jesus. All right.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:13] Did you just do a bad dad joke on Business RadioX?

Speaker3: [00:22:16] Nice. Oh.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:18] Listen, you’re not the first dad in the studio, so fine. But what I think is important, too, is what I often talk about with anyone who’s in the studio is how important it is to surround yourself with good people. So what is it about Tom and you that just seemed to work so well together? And you were willing to take that leap of faith?

Presley Gray: [00:22:33] So, um, when I go, I guess in just in life or whatnot, I meet a lot of people, talk to a lot of different people because I just talk to them a lot of people, and there’s very few people that I ever become friends with. Um, it auto fitness. There was a lot of people that worked there and other shops I went to. Tom was the only friend that I made at Auto Fitness, just like with, um, John over at Poston. Uh, I didn’t work in Poston, but I worked with them, and, um, I just, I meet certain people and I just mesh with them. Um, Tom was one of them, and we just stayed friends here in Georgia. And, you know, he’d one of the random conversations we had was he was wanting to have a shop, and I was like, well, I also used to have a shop in Washington.

Speaker3: [00:23:10] Yeah, you had the same dream.

Sharon Cline: [00:23:11] So you had had had a shop before and now, you know, like you want to do it again. Exactly.

Presley Gray: [00:23:15] Yeah. And it was just something we discussed. Of course, I was not really because I essentially started my entire life over when I moved here to Georgia. So I couldn’t just like, oh, I’m just going to, you know, do this. Um, I had to, you know, get somewhat of a foundation set first, but, um, no, Tom, he’s just a solid dude, you know, he’s reliable. He’s not. He never. He didn’t have any, you know, bad vices, I guess, you know? So he’s just a good guy, and he’s a good friend of mine now. So.

Speaker3: [00:23:39] So.

Sharon Cline: [00:23:40] Um, what would you say it is about your personality that makes it, like, so satisfying for you to be in this industry? Like what? What makes you the happiest?

Presley Gray: [00:23:51] Uh, helping people. I know that sounds corny, but that really is it.

Sharon Cline: [00:23:54] I mean, that’s it’s a service industry. Yeah. You’re helping. Serving?

Presley Gray: [00:23:58] Oh, absolutely. That informing people. I mean, I’m sure you’ve probably seen me do this once or twice, like someone asks a question and I’m like, let’s let’s just go back to the beginning here. I’m gonna explain this whole thing to you. So you are extremely informed. That’s actually probably one of my favorite things to do with customers, especially I come from the collision industry, and the amount of stuff that I would have to explain about insurance companies made me happy.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:18] Well, you’re giving people, um, knowledge, and knowledge is power in this way. You’re giving people, um, tools and skills of their own so that they can not get taken advantage of in the future.

Speaker3: [00:24:29] It, um.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:31] That must be very like, um, I don’t know, almost like a, uh, like a little bit not anarchy, but a little bit of rebellion against the people who benefit from ignorance.

Presley Gray: [00:24:43] Oh, yeah. There’s a there’s a lot to unpack there.

Speaker3: [00:24:48] Oh, yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:24:50] This can go off topic really quick.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:54] So. All right, so, um, I don’t know. Now I’m all distracted because I had a list of questions and now I don’t even remember what they were. Okay. Um, who are your mentors?

Presley Gray: [00:25:03] My mentors. Um. Honestly, I would just say friends I’ve met throughout life. I mean, one of my best friends, um, he actually has Parkinson’s, Dana Dieter. He lives in Georgia now. I met that guy when I was probably probably 20, 22, 23 years old. And, uh, funny story how I met him, but, uh, um, well, not funny story, I met him. Funny story. How I found out he had Parkinson’s.

Speaker3: [00:25:29] Oh, yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:25:30] But, uh, yeah, I did not know. I said some very insensitive stuff to him.

Speaker3: [00:25:34] Oh, my gosh. But you’re still friends. Yeah, I was in a barbershop.

Presley Gray: [00:25:37] So it’s okay.

Speaker3: [00:25:38] Though.

Presley Gray: [00:25:39] Oh, yeah. That was good times right there. But, you know, people like that. And then, you know, another friend I made, his name is Dan Darren back in Washington. Still, it’s just and I’ve always hung out with older people and they’ve taught me a lot. Um, my uncle, he passed away a couple of years ago. He was actually the one that got me into collision and cars in general. Um, he was a good guy. It’s. That sucked when he passed.

Speaker3: [00:25:59] Yeah, yeah, but.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:00] What’s wonderful is, um, just knowing that you’ve got, um, people in your life for that long to, you know, long terme friendships and people that are in the same industry as you. You feel like you can trust them because you’ve known them so long.

Presley Gray: [00:26:14] Absolutely.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:16] That’s awesome. Um, all right, so if you were talking to, um, I don’t know, me and I were to come. Oh, wait, we also need to talk about the fact that you work on motorcycles, which is a big deal.

Presley Gray: [00:26:26] Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Anything with wheels.

Speaker3: [00:26:28] Anything with wheels.

Presley Gray: [00:26:30] Anything with wheels and key.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:32] Yeah. So I’m excited because I have motorcycle friends that I think would be really happy to have a shop up in Dawsonville, that they know that they can trust this person.

Speaker3: [00:26:39] Heck yeah. You know, it’s far away.

Presley Gray: [00:26:40] It’s it’s a nice ride out there.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:42] And there’s a restaurant right next door so you can hang out there if you want.

Presley Gray: [00:26:45] We’ve actually already done that.

Speaker3: [00:26:47] Have you really. Yeah. That’s awesome. Yep.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:49] So yeah, I think what’s really cool is, is knowing that you’ve got this history behind you, that’s all part of your family, that’s all part of your legacy. And you’re continuing it on. And then you’ve also got a perseverance side of you that continues to keep going, even though you’ve had many opportunities for people to tell you it’s not going to work out, it’s going to be too difficult. You just kept going. And now one of your motivations is to be such a helpful person in your community, not just Dawsonville, but anyone, but almost be an advocate for your customers. And I don’t know, all those things being put together feels like it would be such a successful venture for you. I mean, clearly you know how to do, um, you work on anything but knowing that you have, like, such a heart for it and a want for helping people is it’s a well, I was going to say impressive, but I’m not gonna say. But it’s like it’s it’s important because if your heart’s not behind it, you can see that oftentimes you just don’t have the will to stick it through when you have adversity.

Presley Gray: [00:27:47] Oh, absolutely. And that’s something I’ve actually ran into in multiple shops, is there’s people that are obviously in it for money and that’s it. They do not care about the customer. They do not care about the car. I mean, they’re I, I can’t even tell you how many arguments I’ve had where I’ve watched people because like I said, my, uh, the majority of my career has been in the collision industry. And when you don’t repair a car, right, we just call it hacking the car out or butchering it or something. And I just I’ve said to multiple people, because I will call someone out in a heartbeat. It’s like, you know, someone has kids. There’s a car seat in there. What are you doing? What are you thinking? You know, and I have no issue saying that. That is.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:18] That’s ethics though.

Presley Gray: [00:28:19] Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because stuff like that will get under my skin bad.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:23] Do you only work on standard regular cars? Do you work on hybrid cars like Priuses, or do you also work on things like Teslas?

Speaker3: [00:28:31] Nice. That was a nice one.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:32] I had to add the Prius in there. My favorite, the greatest car of all time is what I call it.

Speaker3: [00:28:36] Okay.

Presley Gray: [00:28:38] It’s an all right car.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:40] Okay. You can leave the studio now.

Speaker3: [00:28:43] But no. Yeah, we.

Presley Gray: [00:28:44] Work on anything. Anything that has wheels and key. I mean.

Speaker3: [00:28:47] That was so. It doesn’t matter.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:47] If it’s like a Tesla. Where to come in. You’re fine.

Presley Gray: [00:28:50] Yeah. The only issue there would be. I don’t know what’s changed since I was at the Tesla shop in Seattle, but Tesla is kind of a stickler right to repair laws have affected this. I just don’t know how it’s top of my head right now. But there are a lot of parts, especially structural and stuff like that. They will not sell to you unless you’re Tesla certified. Um, the Tesla batteries back when I was working in Seattle. Granted, this was this was eight years ago, I think. Yeah, about eight years ago. Um, they had to go to a Tesla service center to get the battery serviced. I don’t know if that’s changed, but. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:19] Well, so what can I tell people or what would you want people to know, um, about your shop? Or is there a way that they can get in contact with you if they want to come, come visit.

Presley Gray: [00:29:28] So we are getting all of our because we’re brand new. We actually have a marketing agency that we hired and they’re building us a Facebook, um, I think Facebook X and then I.

Speaker3: [00:29:39] Think, is it Instagram?

Sharon Cline: [00:29:40] Do you have to be on Instagram for business?

Speaker3: [00:29:42] They didn’t mention.

Presley Gray: [00:29:42] Instagram that I remember, but I want to say it was um, Yelp as well. Oh, okay. So we’re gonna have those three right there. And then, um, I’m getting a website built for my friend Courtney right now. I don’t know when that’ll be done. Probably a week or two. Honestly, I need actually that ball’s in my lap right now. I need to go ahead and get that one going myself. But we got that stuff done. Um, I’m.

Speaker3: [00:30:03] Not pretty good to.

Sharon Cline: [00:30:03] Go though. Like, once those are all in place.

Speaker3: [00:30:06] Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Presley Gray: [00:30:07] So, yeah, the, uh, the social media should be done next week, and that will obviously be under Dawson’s Auto Care. Um, the website, I’m not sure because we have run into a lot of domains being taken. So we got to find a good domain name and then, you know, kind of go from there.

Sharon Cline: [00:30:21] That’s a whole other aspect to business ownership, which I find fascinating, because you can’t just have your business and put up a billboard somewhere in town and assume that people are going to know who you are. You have to be able to stand out and compete. And part of that whole other side of it is, is social media. So how do you feel about all that? Is it a stressful thing?

Presley Gray: [00:30:42] Well, the social media thing, um, I like to think of myself as having a pretty good sense of humor.

Speaker3: [00:30:48] So I think, you know, I do know. So I’ve.

Presley Gray: [00:30:53] Uh, I’m actually kind of looking forward to that because we had it was like a consultation kind of phone call we had with the social media or marketer or.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:00] Social media marketing.

Speaker3: [00:31:01] Company. Yes.

Presley Gray: [00:31:02] And it was lady we were speaking to and she had said, yeah, you know, a really good idea is to make videos. And I was just like.

Speaker3: [00:31:07] Yes.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:08] Awesome. Like make reels and things.

Speaker3: [00:31:10] Yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:31:10] Kind of, I mean, just, you know, something like, hey, we’re tearing down this car. If you have this issue, this is what’s wrong. Commonly misdiagnosed as this. But, you know, I can, you know, deliver it in a very good way. Hopefully.

Speaker3: [00:31:19] So. I don’t know.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:20] How I got on this side of TikTok. Well, it’s because I like cars, but I guess. But I’m on this part of TikTok where these shops will have someone in there saying, um, hey Presley, you know what car is going to make it to 100,000 miles or what car is not going to make it to 100,000. And they get so many views. And I think what’s awesome about that is it’s giving customers an inside view. It’s not just I have to be friends with a mechanic who I know is I can trust every time I see something like that. I’m learning about cars from the inside. And what what is the the reputation of cars and what to look out for. Like what are the main problems that jeeps have? And you know, there’s like a list of things that people will say. So, um, I can see that being something that would work as well too, in your not that I’m telling you what to do because I don’t know. I’m just saying it’s interesting.

Speaker3: [00:32:09] It’s a good idea though. Oh yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:32:10] It’s definitely going in the right direction. And you know, honestly I’ll say uh, as far as cars going 100,000 miles, just.

Speaker3: [00:32:16] Just change your oil.

Presley Gray: [00:32:17] That is the most important thing.

Speaker3: [00:32:19] Oh my God.

Presley Gray: [00:32:20] I cannot stress that enough actually PSA change your oil.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:24] So people don’t. Is that.

Speaker3: [00:32:25] The thing?

Presley Gray: [00:32:25] That’s actually we just did a repair in Ikea for over $2,000 because it jumped time, because they did not change the oil and it ran low. Wow. Yes.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:35] But you also do tires at your shop, right?

Speaker3: [00:32:37] Yep.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:37] You pretty much do.

Speaker3: [00:32:37] Everything more or.

Presley Gray: [00:32:38] Less. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:40] So okay, so do you feel like you’ve got almost all of your parts in place for you to be able to just take off? In other words, reference the Facebook page, like, do you have to have a website? Can’t you just reference Facebook?

Presley Gray: [00:32:52] Um, yeah, more or less. It’s just, um, a lot of people and it’s funny, I, I personally when I look up a business, I honestly don’t care about the website. Like I could not care less. It just it’s nothing.

Speaker3: [00:33:03] You just want the information, right? Yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:33:05] The phone number. Because, you know, I’ll call someone or I’ll just go there directly. But marketers, they are on it when it comes to websites. I mean, that has brought up more than anything. And I’m like, I don’t I mean, I’m missing something.

Speaker3: [00:33:14] Obviously, maybe.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:15] Has to do with some of the metrics and the analytics that they can have with traffic. So I had a social media marketer in this on the show about a year and a half ago, and she had talked about how she is Google certified in understanding how to market. So she said that she can even tell whether a tablet or a phone or a computer is how someone got traffic on their website. Um, what time of day is most effective? Um, she was talking about like a tow company, a tow company. Most likely someone’s going to be not on their laptop contacting the tow company. They’re going to be on their phone because they need it, because they’re on the side of the road or what times. And then also being able to leverage that information so that you can market yourself in the most advantageous time period.

Presley Gray: [00:34:07] That’s actually really smart.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:08] I know that’s the whole company. I’ll give you their information in case you. Yeah.

Speaker3: [00:34:12] No, definitely.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:13] But yeah, I mean, maybe that’s why websites are actually important in that way. I’m sure Facebook itself has its has its way to keep track of how many visitors you have on your page. I don’t actually know because I have my own Facebook page for my own voiceovers, and I don’t even know how many people go to my page. I don’t pay attention, and I should because I could leverage it. I know, but, um, yeah, I don’t know. It’s kind of a fascinating world to be a small business owner, because there are so many things we can do on our end as opposed to having to hire, you know, big media companies that will make logos for you and, um, and promote you. And I don’t know, advertising wise, you can kind of do so much on your own. Yeah.

Presley Gray: [00:34:52] Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker3: [00:34:53] That’s something to.

Presley Gray: [00:34:54] Think about for sure, actually.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:55] Oh, look at me helping you out on Fearless Formula. Do you think you have a fearless formula? I know there’s silence. You’re thinking.

Presley Gray: [00:35:07] Um, no, because I’m human.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:11] You feel the fear and do it anyway?

Speaker3: [00:35:13] Absolutely. That’s it. You didn’t feel it?

Presley Gray: [00:35:15] If you did not feel fear, I’m either going to call you a liar or there’s something broken.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:19] Yeah.

Speaker3: [00:35:19] Then you don’t want to do business with those people? Yeah. No red flags. Great. Wait, what? Uh.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:26] Well, I really want to thank you so much for coming to the studio. Presley Gray of Dawson’s Auto Care. And, um, I’m excited to see where you go.

Speaker3: [00:35:33] And Tom Bagby.

Presley Gray: [00:35:34] In spirit.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:34] And Tom Tom Bagby in spirit. And, um, I’m excited to see where you all go. Um, and hopefully. Yeah, I know. Right. And hopefully, and, I don’t know, maybe a year’s time come back and we’ll we’ll talk about how it’s been your journey of, of business ownership and the things that you’ve learned over the that year. You know, I can only see positive things because like I said, I think your heart being in it so, so deeply, um, means that you’re going to honor what’s right and do what’s right. And for me, that there’s such value there that I know other people will be able to feel that too.

Presley Gray: [00:36:08] Thank you.

Speaker3: [00:36:09] You’re welcome.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:09] I’ll put a link to to your website or whatever, not your website, your Facebook or whatever it is that you want. We’ll put a link to it on on the Business RadioX page.

Speaker3: [00:36:17] That’s awesome.

Presley Gray: [00:36:17] I really appreciate that.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:18] Sure. Thanks again everyone for listening to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX. And again, this is Sharon Klein reminding you with knowledge and understanding we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.