Take a Break and Learn from the Best

By Jesse Jacobson, AASP-MN President

I know it has been hard to step away from our businesses lately. The repair backlog isn’t going away, employees are hard to find, insurance companies keep wanting you to do more while being underpaid and production issues always seem to pop up, leaving you feeling that you can’t leave. That is the exact signal that should tell you now is the best time to take a break and attend the AASP-MN Annual Meeting & Leadership Conference coming up in April.

No, I don’t mean run away from your employees and leave them hanging. I find stepping away from the shops and attending events like industry conferences, 20 group meetings and the AASP-MN conference always gives me new ideas to tackle current challenges and set new goals. The list of things that we’ve implemented from conferences and meetings is too long for this article, so come find me during the conference and we can talk about them. The ideas and goals just aren’t shop related, they are self-improvement skills and how to be a better all-around person. These ideas and goals come from the members and the outstanding speakers that our staff and other members recommend. I find it so important that I have all six of our shop managers attend as well, because it is important for them to get out of our bubble and hear how other shops do things and listen to inspiring speakers. The conference is also about relationship building and networking. Someone might have a piece of software, welder, hand tool or paint booth that you’re interested in and now you can ask those questions to someone who uses it. Vendors also have a great opportunity to showcase their continued on pg. 21