Crash Champions: The Collision Repair Revolution with Matt Ebert

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1:34Hello, I'm Anthony Scaramucci, and this is Open Book, where I talk with some of the brightest minds out there about everything surrounding the written word, from authors and historians to figures in entertainment, neuroscientists, political activists, and of course, Wall Street. Sorry, I can't resist. Before we get into today's episode, if you haven't already, please hit follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review. We all love a review, even the bad ones. I want to hear the parts you're enjoying or how we can do better. You know, I can roll with the punches, so let me know.

2:09Anyways, let's get to it.

2:17As much as we love to talk about books here on Open Book, we also have an interesting story, and that's what we have today in this special bonus episode. Joining us is Matt Ebert. He's a founder and CEO of Crash Champions, a company that's not only grown into one of the largest collision repair networks in the country, but it's also synonymous with quality and service and innovation. Starting with a single shop in Chicago back in 1999, Matt's entrepreneurial spirit and leadership has propelled crash champions into a nationwide success story. In today's episode, we'll hear about Matt's journey from the early days of rolling up his sleeves in the garage to leading a company that's setting new standards for the collision repair industry.

3:01We'll talk about the challenges he's faced, the culture he's built, and what it takes to scale a business in such a competitive landscape. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a leader, or someone who just loves a great success story, this episode is packed with valuable insight and inspiration. So let's get into it.

3:29So joining us now on Open Book is Matt Ebert. He's the founder and CEO of Crash Champions. So before we get into the founding of Crash Champions, and I want you to, of course, tell us about that. I need your background first, Matt. Where are you from? How'd you get to be Matt Eberp? Yeah, the beginnings are much more modest. I think similar to a lot of people's stories, even yours, you start out more modest with the big ambitions. And then you finally get to where I am today as the, you know, the CEO and founder of this big national company. But grew up in a small town in central Illinois. So small, I think there were 40 people in my graduating class.

4:11And that put us put me in a spot to where, you know, my my parents didn't have much money. So some of the things that shape you in childhood and looking back, you always wonder, you know, what drives you today? But pretty strict upbringing and not much money to spend. And so the answer was always a lot of times, no, like can't do that, can't do this. And so a little bit of how I ended up loving cars so much was the freedom that it gave me when I could finally move around. A little bit of the drive to want to make a little money was so that I could afford to go do the couple of things that I was told as a kid I couldn't.

4:49So that's a little bit of the driving force, you know, and I grew up where college wasn't going to really be an option for me. So, you know, kind of starting where you are, dealing with working with the hand you're dealt. Just by pure coincidence, I wrecked my car when I was 16. And so now my freedom just went away. I don't know if you've ever had a car accident or how it makes you feel. I wrecked my parents' car. The worst story imaginable, they went away on a weekend trip. I was underage driving the car and wrecked the car. So you have to imagine the punishment was quite severe. Oh, wow. Injustified.

5:31Yeah, mine was only going to, it hurt me, it didn't hurt them. So that's a way worse situation. But for me, I scared to death of making an insurance claim, didn't know what to do. The great thing about being in a small town is you know everybody, right? So I knew a technician in town that worked on cars in his garage at night. And so I went over there and asked him if he could help me or show me how to fix my car. So I learned how to fix my car from him and then started going there after school, working on other cars with him and got a job with him right after high school. So that was really the start of becoming in the industry.

6:09You know, I loved making things better. Like it's a great feeling watching a wrecked car like come back to life, get returned to its, you know, the condition it was before it got wrecked. And so I love doing it. And, you know, I always wanted to own my own business. So I tried some other things first. You know, even as a kid, I'd run around the neighborhood with a lawnmower mowing lawns for, I think, maybe five bucks. I don't know what that and a paper route. So always was trying to do something on my own and ended up. You're a hustler. I mean, I mean, but, you know, listen, you're in a hard business.

6:48So let's talk about Crash Champions. Number one, why did you name it Crash Champions? You know, that's interesting because it wasn't always Crash Champions. I started with a partner. The guy I was working for had an idea, why don't we open a shop together? So I was the minor partner with him for a long time. And once he was finally ready to sell to me, this is back in 2014, I wanted to rebrand the company because we just named it New Lenox Auto Body in New Lenox, Illinois. So that name wasn't really going to travel, right? So wanting to expand, I hired like two or three small advertising firms to come up with a bunch of names.

7:24And they were all horrible. I'm the type like when I'm shopping for something or see it and it's what I want, I know it right away. And so the names, none of them were resonating with me. One of the firms finally, when I said, look, like we got to do something different, they came in and interviewed me a couple people and got to learn what we were all about. And so the concept of being a hero for our customers came up and Crash Champions. And, you know, our logo has a little cape in it. So truly helping people in a time of need is the storyline that came up from what we really were about. And hence the name Crash Champions.

7:59And I thought, look, like people don't have accidents every day. So it's not typical. They remember the names of body shops. But I thought at least it's a little unique and different where they hear it. It might resonate. So that's the background. I love the name. And, you know, obviously you're in the auto repair business. You're fixing these cars. You don't know this priority about my history. But I grew up in a motorcycle family. My uncle had a motorcycle shop. One of my cousins is an auto glass installer. I have two other cousins that are in a body shop. You know, I'm basically from a blue-collar neighborhood.

8:35But you did something extraordinary here. how many crash champion centers are there now? Just over 640 today. Just think about that. Okay. So you were able to take what was a local model. It's very hard to do. And you are the safe light effectively, right? Because my cousins have a small proprietary, you know, they're small sole proprietor of a glass installation shop on Long Island. And I, When I sit down and I say, well, what's your big competition? It's, oh, SafeLite. Everyone knows SafeLite. They do the advertising and so forth. So take us through the Matt Ebert formula for success. How do you go from one collision expert, one collision shop, to 640?

9:25Yeah, great question. And I might make this thing run over if I talk about all of it. No, no, no, please. Please do. Please do. I think it's important. You know, one thing is this, like I learned a simple principle that every, you know, that people know. And that is the way to be successful is find out what people want or need and bring it to them. Right. And so you mentioned like in the past, collision repair was a lot of mom and pop small shops across the country. And it still is. It's very, you know, the industry name is fragmented for it. It's very fragmented market, but the vehicles are so complex today.

10:04And I saw that developing, you know, a few years ago with the development of ADAS technology and this, you know, this mission to have self-driving cars. It's very, very hard when you're small to be able to keep up with the amount of technology, the amount of equipment that you need, the training that you need to be able to fix the cars properly today. So it's a little bit of survival instinct of like it's going to be a world where you have to be big in order to keep up. And then, you know, very much insurance pay in our industry. You know, that's what people have car insurance for is to pay for the accidents.

10:47And so there was a big movement that started maybe 10, 15 years ago where the administration of the claim was shifted from the carriers to the body shop because it's so much easier. They get claims cost efficiency from that. And so there was a shift for carriers recommending bigger companies, and COVID really accelerated that because it's a single point of contact for the insurer. We're able to deliver a consistent quality product across the country, and we manage ourselves as far as from a performance and quality standpoint. So that whole industry movement is what drove me to think, look, if I'm going to survive, I'm going to have to make this big.

11:37I mean, there is a part of me that wants to do big things, too. But honestly, it didn't start that way. I was just trying to make a living. Tuesday on NBC, Jimmy Fallon and Bozema St. John host a highly anticipated new competition show. I hired 10 creatives from all walks of life. They will be battling it out to see who can impress the world's biggest brands. This is a huge opportunity. This is the battle for the next big idea. This is not play play. We're spending millions of dollars. I'm so excited to embark on this adventure with all of you. Make the best idea win! On brand with Jimmy Fallon.

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12:18When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. Right? No, no, no, no, I get it. But there's a cultural thing that you're doing where you can create uniformity of service, uniformity of quality repair. There's skills involved, skills training.

12:59You know, I walk into a McDonald's from your hometown. I'm going to get the same taste profile as if you walked into the McDonald's in my hometown, right? And so you're trying to give your customers this outstanding quality. You know that there's someone in a neighborhood of one of your 640 locations that called their friend and said, hey, I used Crash Champions. You guys should use them too. And so what is it? What is it? What is that secret ingredient that you have where, you know, some people can start a shop, maybe get two shops going, but you created 640? It's all about culture. It's all about people and your team.

13:43A couple of stories, if I can, you know, not even related to the body shop. You know, my first partner taught me something when I was young, and I think it was because he didn't think that my buddies that I was running around drinking beer with were the best friends to have. So he would tell me, you know, surround yourself with better people. Your life will be better. But in business, it's truly that what I believe is the differentiator for us as our team. It's a it's a it's about the people. And another story, so early, you know, mid-20s fixing a car for a customer. And it was a, remember those conversion vans where they had all the plush interiors where there's a couch and all kinds of, I've even seen some with little cabinets and sinks in the back of them.

14:31So this big old conversion van went through a hailstorm and he brought it in to repair the roof. And originally, the estimate with the insurance company was to repair the roof. And we got into it and the roof was just too bad to repair it. We were going to need to replace it. And so ordered a new roof. We're putting a new roof on it. The customer comes in to check on his car. And he was so angry at me. He lost his mind. You know why? Because I never called him. I never told him about us cutting the roof off of his car. And in my mind, I was doing a better repair than we originally thought, right?

15:07I was upgrading him. He didn't do it as an upgrade. And so, you know, by pure mistake and that many, many, many mistakes, I've learned transparency, over-communicate. We operate under that principle of the difference is trust because, look, nobody wants to have a car accident. But the reality is is someday somebody you know, somebody you love is going to need a collision repair company, and you're going to want to deal with somebody you can trust. And so we operate from the standpoint of every interaction. If you tell somebody you're going to call them tomorrow, call them tomorrow. If you, you know, every, everything we do is a chance to build on that trust or negatively tear it down if we do it wrong.

15:52And so we operate, we treat each other with that always in mind and our customers always in mind. It's been a huge part of the culture. There's some things I can talk about that we do to build that culture. But how we've done it is. Let me let me hear a few of them, Matt. What are a couple of things that you do to build a culture? Sure. So, you know, again, stumbled into this when we did an acquisition up in Montana and the guys were so excited about this training that they do with their smaller company. And the training is done by an ex Blue Angel pilot, top gun instructor, an ex Navy SEAL. And then we call him Doc.

16:31He's a he's a psychologist. And so these guys were doing some culture build training. And my COO is an ex Navy SEAL. So he really got into it when he saw what they were doing. We went up there as an executive teams with our wives and we took some of the things that they're training and we implemented it into our company. And so starting with simple things, getting people to understand our why and what we're about, you know, they had assigned me to read General Mattis' book called Sign Chaos. You know, so from that book, in that book, there's a section where he shares that commander's intent that he sent to his troops as he sent them into Iraq.

17:10Now, I understand that's a way bigger mission, a way bigger everything than my little company. But they said, OK, Matt, now go home tonight and write a mission statement for your company. And it's funny because we went out and had a little bit of fun that night. I woke up in the next morning and I sleep on things, come up with, you know, and think about them all night, come up with something. I put it together. And my team was like, did you really write this? I'm like, well, we're in the middle of Montana in the middle of nowhere. Like, I don't know who else would have wrote it, but it was based on those things about our name.

17:44Our very name has the word champion in it. So what does it mean to be a champion? Surpass all rivals. We believe the difference is trust. This is how we're going to operate. And so I love the story. Gives people a clear direction. It's been awesome. So we built this training, get them up there. um we they put them on a gun range which you know people have so much emotions around guns and it's so cool to watch people who maybe have hated guns nervous like we're just shooting at a target in the middle of nowhere but get people out of their comfort zone and experience something new and growth comes from that so it's pretty cool stuff you you have this great story and i can tell you got this great spirit of getting along with people, managing conflicts, growing a business.

18:35You've got 640 stores. How many stores are we going to have in five years? Five years. Hopefully 2 ,000. 2 ,000? Sure. All right. You have any on Long Island? Not yet. The biggest company in the industry has got 1 ,800 today. So they're going to grow and I want to catch them one day. I think the industry will continue to be just like a lot of industries where there's a couple known national players. And I would love for us to be one of the last two standing. I want to hang out with you, Matt. I never want to use you though. I don't want to be in a car crash. Come back and relive some of them childhood shop memories.

19:14Yes. I want to hang out with you. So the question I have, and I want you to really think about this. So take a moment. You're starting out and you're meeting the young Matt Ebert. So it's the 21-year-old version of you. Number one, I want you to think about, did you think you would be where you are today? That's my question to you. And then I want you, what would the advice be that you would have given based on your life experience? So for me, for the Anthony Scaramucci of 21, I would say, take more risk, be less afraid. You know, I was so self-conscious and so scared as a kid, not anymore, but I probably wasted some time doing that.

19:58What is your advice to yourself? You're, uh, that, that's awesome. So, uh, I didn't have the risk thing I've, I've done. I, when you, the thing about having nothing is then you don't have much to lose. So risk wasn't my issue. I, I cashed in advance a hundred grand on credit cards to get started. So that tells you how willing I was to take a risk. Now it's funny because I think it's because of the wife and kids. Now I'm a little more reserved back then. But I didn't answer your question. Your question was, did I think I would be that big? The answer is, hell no. I had to learn to think that big.

20:34I had to learn to raise my thermostat over time. My advice that I would give is, I spent a lot of years just not wanting to struggle, like just wanting things to be easier and my advice would be they don't the struggle the problems is where the opportunity is it's going to be always a roller coaster and it's like in that up and down roller coaster right the great thing about being in the low point in the roller coaster is if you know you're in the low point there's nowhere to go but up so i get nervous when things are going really really well because i wonder when the bottom's going to fall out.

21:13But I appreciate that. I admire that. I mean, has that been your experience, too? I'm sure. From what I know. I mean, I mean, listen, there's no entrepreneur. You me, you pick the entrepreneur, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell. They don't they don't go straight up. You know, they get hit. And it's how you respond if you've been hit, you know, which is why I wanted to ask you that question, you know, right? You, you're in the world of crashes, but we've, we've all had some crashes, right? All of us, you know what I mean? We can't, we can't help it. So, so we're now at the point in the podcast where, uh, I have, uh, five words.

21:55I always read out to my guests. I'm going to say the word, and then you got to think about in your mind, one or two sentences that you think about when you hear the word. Okay. You ready? Sure. The first word is trust, Matt. um important i can only answer with one word so important all right second second word is team you can give me a sentence or two you don't have to yeah um it's all about the team it's all about you can preeminent super important the number one priority right yeah yeah you you can accomplish so much more with a team. People long to be part of something bigger than themselves.

22:37So do I. Like I, on an island by yourself is no fun. It's all about the team and the team can do so much bigger things than I could ever dream of doing. Mission. Mission is a, to me, it's a calling. Like it's something in me. There's a calling that's bigger than me. it gets it gets redefined right because you have to adapt it's it's ever-changing and it's and it's grow and it grows okay ready yep matt ebert a work in progress all right that's good about the two words crash champions friggin awesome i mean i'm gonna leave it right there because i think it's all for me especially even your body language related to it, right?

23:30You put this thing together, Matt, you deserve all the credit and success in the world. Congratulations to you and your family. Joining us today is Matt Ebert. Do I get one question before you make me go away? Yeah, you can get one. Go ahead. All right. So we're doing this little, we're calling it pod crash. So I think we got another cool name. As somebody who's never hosted one, wants to do one, what would be your advice? Well, the first thing I would do is I would go to YouTube and I would go to host techniques and how do hosts interview people. And I would listen to people like Charlie Rose and I would listen to people like Joe Rogan talk about their interview styles.

24:18And I would take some time to learn that because I think one of the problems I had in the beginning, I had no media training. I was talking over people or I thought I needed to say more than I actually do. When you're hosting the show, it's very, very important to make Matt Ebert, who's the guest, express himself and to get his voice and his narrative out. And so sometimes hosts have a tendency to make the conversation even. But a really good host, if you listen to Rogan, he makes the other person do most of the talking. Howard Stern, who was probably more of a sensationalist 20 years ago, is now a phenomenal interviewer.

24:58He actually comes very well prepared and he's sitting there listening, you know. And so that's my advice. If you're going to host Podcrash, you'll be great at it. But just study some of the great ones and you'll be you'll be even better. Appreciate it. All right. My pleasure. Matt Eber, the founder and CEO of Crash Champions. Thank you so much for coming on Open Book today. Thank you so much for having me.