Posts by Carm Capriotto, AAP

The Value of Music

Ever find yourself in a super positive place and want the feeling to continue? What about a not-so-good situation or day that needed some outside pressure to turn your positivity around?

I’m talking music as a source or an elixir to excite your good vibes. It works for me. I love all kinds of music. I grew up with some of the best artists who wrote great words and melodies. Isn’t it amazing how music can move us to places and how songs can lift us?

I bet you have a top 10 or 20 list of songs that can change your mood or excite you when you are facing a stressful citation. Your Favs! Music can have a profound impact on our emotions and mindset. Music has the ability to inspire us by tapping into our creative side and sparking new ideas. It can encourage us by providing a sense of motivation and empowerment, particularly when we listen to songs with uplifting messages or a strong beat that gets us moving.

I’m fascinated with how music can move us. It has the power to put us in a better mood by triggering the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward, which can help alleviate stress and anxiety. (I’m not a scientist, so I looked that up.)

Additionally, I feel that lyrics that resonate with us can help us feel understood and validated, which can also improve our mood.

Business is hard, work is hard, and life is hard if we let it. There are so many ways to get through and cope with our challenges, and listening to music can be a powerful tool for improving our emotional state and mindset, whether we need inspiration, encouragement, or a mood boost. It works for me.

Now go get out the tunes.

You’ve heard the story of the ‘carpenter’ hired to fix a floor squeak. He walks over the floor, hears the squeak, and puts down a nail, and the squeak is gone. It took just a few minutes to solve the problem.  He invoiced his client $101. The client went off the rails and asked why it was so much for five minutes of work. The carpenter replied, “It is $1 for the nail and $100 to know where to put it.” The client was still unhappy to pay the bill or pay for the carpenter’s training and experience.

It is a perfect story to help us understand the value of our experience and training and how we must earn a return on our training investment. When we repair a problem quickly because of our knowledge and expertise and because of our immense learning, we should not be afraid to charge. Doctor do.

Are we charging properly for our knowledge, or are we missing the hours and failures we invested in getting our breadth of expertise? We can recover the training costs from past failures that took so long to get, right? We learned from our failures and need to charge appropriately.

Experience, training, and intuition are crucial in identifying the underlying causes of floor squeaks. A seasoned professional understands that each situation may require unique solutions due to variations in flooring materials, subflooring conditions, or structural issues. A carpenter can rely on their expertise to make informed decisions vs. AI or the quick YouTube video fix. Do you see the parallel to our industry?

Recently, Matt Fanslow’s episode 96 titled, ‘Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Over-Reliance on Databases and AI,’ helped sum up this floor squeak story. LISTEN HERE. He also shared his concerns about relying too heavily on databases and artificial intelligence in automotive diagnostics and the potential long-term repercussions of this reliance on critical thinking skills and reasoning. (Read that last line again.)

Additionally, cost considerations come into play when deciding between assistance or relying on your experienced professional. While using an AI or quick-fix tool may seem more cost-effective initially, weighing the potential risks of incomplete repairs or further damage from relying on other sources is essential. 

I understand the two sides of this discussion. Still, I ask you to weigh these thoughts as technology and the training necessary to keep up can differentiate your shop of highly qualified diagnosticians who know how to ‘nail’ down the problems they get every day.

Ever say, “Where is the common sense today?” I’m saying that way to much. We must stop asking that question and become part of the solution to a ‘lack of common sense.’

In a recent episode with coach Murray Voth on ‘Onboarding,’ we hit on “common sense and common knowledge.”  LISTEN HERE.

We both agreed on the importance of not assuming that employees inherently understand specific “common” tasks. Drawing from his experience working with young people and teaching them basic skills, Murray highlighted how these foundational lessons contribute to their common sense.

The concept of common sense implies that everyone should inherently understand specific ideas or actions without the need for explicit instruction. It is seen as a form of practical wisdom that guides our decision-making and behavior in everyday situations. However, the reality is that what may seem like common sense to one person may be obscure to another.

So the next time we challenge the lack of common sense, ask if that ‘common task’ was ever shown or explained to the person lacking common sense. We can do a lot to add common sense to our peers by recognizing the lack of “common sense” and infusing it by showing, teaching, or demonstrating what is to us “common sense.”

We need to pay OUR common sense forward.