Connected Podcast Episode 172: Enhancing Business with Automotive Technology

[Music] hi I'm Greg Yulan with Reynolds and Reynolds and this is connected I'm

excited about this conversation today I get to sit down with Nathan Shaver Uh Nathan is a fifth generation dealer He's

a dealer at Shaver Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in beautiful Thousand Oaks California Uh Nathan thanks so much for

joining me today Greg it's incredible opportunity to sit down with you Thanks for making the time Of course Of course

No I've been looking forward to it Um if you if you don't mind I mentioned you're a fifth generation dealer That's a lot

of generations Um you know and we start thinking about where we're at in in kind of automotive retail history Um there's

not a lot of years that came before most likely your family having having car dealerships So um if you don't mind

share a little bit of of that heritage of that legacy um that's that's really led you to where you are today Sure So

the um I like to start off that story by saying we used to be horse farmers and

we transitioned to iron horses So we've been in the business just about as long as you know cars have been sold to the

American mass market Uh starting in the greater Chicago area Three generations

ago my grandfather relocated um uh out to California um in this Thousand Oaks

location and he had three sons which have you know spun off into the SoCal marketplace Um I got inspired by a very

young age about that family legacy versus just about cars Cars are cool cars are special but you know I really

admired kind of that the car business was the nucleus of my family You know

Sundays it was church and then going to the dealership with dad I started as a porter you know at a at a very young age

just of my 18th birthday at a DMV to get my sales license Um and the business has

always been a connection point uh for my family So you know as a as a young man

that really kind of was my north star And now 15 years in the business not looking back I really love it It's a

really unique dynamic industry uh that's a lot of fun and and quite rewarding to work in Yeah So you mentioned going to

the store with your dad Did did you have the opportunity and and there's a a reason I'm asking this so I'm curious what your response is Did you have an

opportunity or how often did you get to work kind of shouldertoshoulder with your dad Right And see him interact with

customers see him interact with employees Um how often did you have that opportunity

Um it's a two-sided answer right So okay it was really important to him that I

get exposed to the business outside of the family So a lot of my early experiences were were not with him um

exclusively I have a lot of fond memories waking up at you know 4 in the morning sitting next to him at his desk

while you know he's going through his emails and doing his morning meetings That was a ritual of ours while you know

I was um you know still living at home Um but you know as I've grown I really

watched him do his thing and he he was a fantastic mentor to me and you know really guided my success at at a young

age Yeah No that's great And and I have a little experience not in the dealership world So I grew up in a in an

auto parts store retail auto parts store and I got to work side by side with my dad and my grandpa And um just that

experience growing up you know as as a 12-year-old kid learning to sell parts it just uh learning how to communicate

with people learning how to problem solve learning how to to never be standing around doing nothing right

That's that's usually the biggest thing when you're in a family business is um you better be you better be working Uh

and you know learning some of those things and and being able to do it with your family and and you use the word mentor you know Yeah I mean you have a

dad but also somebody to show you how to work um how to communicate and what to do Um I don't know I I look back and

I've always found that look back upon it finally and always found it valuable Um so that's that's why I was kind of curious you know what's your experience

if it was if it was similar Yeah definitely similar Um you know I when

people ask you know what uh was the the biggest impact to my success in you know

my 20s and my early 30s was just listening to the smart experienced people around me Yeah No that's great

That's great Um so so Nathan when did you have the opportunity to uh to buy

the Stalantis store that you that you own today August of last year So it's still pretty so Yeah Yeah And and coming

in so you mentioned before we started recording maybe you can give a little bit of this background too This isn't obviously this isn't the first

dealership that you've you've worked in or even ran I mean you were a GM prior to uh uh you know doing doing this and

owning a store Um so you know with your experience coupled with coming into this

store that's that's been established like you said right Your family had established this this point quite a while ago Um you know you as a new owner

though you probably want to come in eyes wide open I I would assume So you know what did you notice when you took over

ownership of the store Was there anything was it uh was there anything you wanted to change right away Is there

is there anything that you've implemented that maybe um hadn't been implemented before you you owned the

store One of the things that I learned I spent seven years in management at

Huntington Beach Chryser Jeep Edge Ram and then three years at a difference uh Stalantis Point before coming here and

one of the things that I learned is that every store is a little different So you know Huntington Beach Jeep is a

nationally leading store and they get a lot of things right Uh but you know I learned the hard way in some

circumstances that you can't just transpose best practices from one store to another store in a different market

So when I came here Thousand Oaks is a really great community uh really special place to work and it's it's this

business has a lot of uh unique strengths So I came in um with the

experience of you know some prior wins in my past jobs but I wanted to come in with open eyes

um and seeing you know what was working and then also what uh what areas that I could improve Most of my career has been

spent in variable ops um and uh the variable ops at this store uh um was

pretty healthy all things considered uh in in the marketplace and uh you know

we've been really focused on fixed Yeah So where Go ahead My vision at this

store was defense on new offense on used and 100% fixed absorption

Okay That's that's an interesting I mean that's a um Well let me ask you this Did you share that with your team Because

that's a pretty concise articulate way to say "Look these are the three pillars of success for us right?" And you you

just listed it out and that's why I was writing it down defense on new offense unused and 100 100% absorption and fixed

Um those are three very clear goals Those are three you know easy to understand goals Um so you said you did

share that with your team What did that look like How did you come up with those How did you define those Write them down

go about sharing them because I think that that's a an important piece of somebody especially taking over a new

store or not a new store somebody taking over a store as a new owner Um is this

is what we're we're trying to accomplish right making sure that that all the players are um on the bus and and moving

in the same direction It was harder than anticipated right I uh I've been with

Stalantis for 14 years and despite some of the headwinds in the marketplace I'm

a really big believer in the brands um uh no matter what's changed over the

last three years whether it's electrification you know the EV tax credits um uh affordability tariffs um I

think all of these you know kind of uh macro uh points fit consistently with my

plan Um but the team's ambitious so it was difficult to not to try to grow and

really capture the enthusiasm and bringing in a new team and you know some some fresh powder to to try to grow

everything So you you know we had to kind of pull the reinss back in sales

while really focusing on on fixed ops and in a lot of ways the departments are

intertwined and so the the the sales management team had to you know we had

to look at the bigger picture sometimes and make some uh concessions to really get uh that that fixed ops growth we

were looking for and prioritizing Yeah So what what types of concessions did you have to make and have to convince

the team to get on board with at least out of the gate Um uh the way we approached reconditioning you know like

the effective labor rates uh in reconditioning for example was a big one Okay So um really charging more

internally on on recon um and being able to absorb that either when you're buying

the car when you're pricing the car or both I would assume Yeah Yeah Um uh

another one is you know capital investments to grow the company right so you you could allocate uh capital to

increase your used car inventory by 20 30 cars or we could you know add six bays and um you know that that's a

that's a real example and we're choosing to add the bays and um you know the the

sales department we we've cut flooring cut marketing and encouraged the team to

still push right to to do more with less and they've done a really incredible job doing that But some of the you know the

traditional levers to grow sales my message to the team has been wait we're

on our way It's just not the priority decision today Yeah Yeah So you

mentioned you know do more with less especially in the front end right now Um are you are you providing the team any

any tools uh new ideas ways to do that um or or maybe you're not providing them

Maybe they've come up with them I don't know But you know you have to fund I mean I think at least you you have to

operate differently in order to do more with less You can't just keep doing the same thing and expect more output So

what what has changed Whether it's something that you've done provided thought of or the team has has provided or thought of Um what what's different

Two big things come to mind The first is the way we manage our CRM and the second is how we think about use card inventory

management Okay So if you don't mind dig into both of those maybe just start with CRM and then we can get into used cars

Sure You know um this dealership was built on a blueprint that preceded digital marketing Um we have a very

strong loyal customer base There's a lot of I I've actually it's a superpower of the store I've never seen it at another

store before You have customers walking through the front doors um that maybe haven't called in before scheduling an

appointment and they bought six cars from the same manager right So uh right

when I came in here our uh the the way we used our CRM to schedule appointments

per day the way we tracked information in the CRM definitely low hanging fruit and something I attacked early Um it

wasn't a cornerstone of the way we did sales here Yeah Okay All right So so really leveraging that customer database

leveraging that CRM to to create opportunities versus being reactive to the opportunities walking in the door

Yeah and to go for both right So yeah a local customer base but you know if we

implemented best practices with you know daily followup and making you know how

quickly we respond to uh those customer touch points where they indicate that they're interested in buying maybe the

peripherals of our market we can bring people here versus some of our local competitors There's 10 million people

within 120 miles of this store Yeah Yeah That's a big that's a big potential audience right That's a big big

potential customer base And you start thinking about it and just breaking it down you know to the to the very small

numbers If you think about 1% of that right That's still that's still a pretty significant number of people Yeah You

know so uh maybe we don't stock more cars maybe we don't spend more on advertising but we that picking up the

phone's free Yeah Yeah No absolutely I love it Um okay so so talk to me then

too about you mentioned used cars right and and um handling that differently than what you were doing before Um what

are what are some of the things that uh you've changed there Used cars is my favorite part of the business I really

geek out about the analytics of used cars and you know I kind of uh view my

used car inventory like a like a stock portfolio right I really really get into the weeds on the data

Um this store has primarily been a new car uh dominant dealership So one of the

first areas that I looked into was look to book and then instead of you know

pounding our chest focusing on under allowance on trades you know I preached

well every car that we don't replace in our used card inventory from a tradein even if we have to spend a couple

hundred uh dollars more look at how much more we spend from auction plus the

transportation time plus the you know those ext that that window before we can

recon the car plus the auction fees So yeah even if you're paying a little bit more it's attached to a car sale and

it's still better than the car that we'd buy if you you don't pick up this car

And and then um uh under allowance you know making sure that we look at every

tradein getting out of the chair walking around the car with the customer customers know exactly what their car is

worth and rather than trying to haggle off of uh you know their perceived value

Um agreeing with the customers because most of the time they're right but then pointing out all of the investment that

goes into reconditioning I found it has been a really way to um maybe get that

extra trade in that we we might have missed otherwise Um this dealership also uh was not acquiring inventory off the

service drive or um off the street and uh you know really every car that we can

acquire that's not from auction is uh a level up on our on our PPR and our

velocity Yeah No that's a good point So at this point maybe share where was the

dealership before you made these changes Um and and I'm speaking specifically to kind of percentage of inventory acquired

uh through the service drive and then also you mentioned off the street So I assume you're advertising some you know sell us your car uh come in if you're

interested in in a uh in an appraisal Um so what where was where was it before and where is it today as far as

percentage of inventory purchased either off the service drive or or off the street Zero to now we're at 20 to 25%

Wow Okay All right And how does that break down service drive to just uh you know somebody coming in Right now it's

it's it's all uh street purchases So you know we're scraping offer up Craigslist

Facebook Marketplace you know uh Kelly Blue Book has a great program Carver has a great program and we just also layered

in the service drive Yeah So how does that conversation like what does that process look like for you

There's a lot of different ways to do it Um are you just having your used car manager pick up the phone call these

folks Are you reaching out via email A combination of both Like what what's working Um because that's a pretty

substantial growth obviously in in a pretty short amount of time So uh something's working and I'm kind of

curious like what what is your process or is there a specific process H how's it how's it going for you We're um

channel agnostic right So we we use email text and phone I think phone is

you know uh a more efficient tool than text uh or or email because you can have

two-way dialogue But really I I think what we get right is it's about getting the customer in the store And if a a

customer who's actively trying to sell their vehicle um it's all about the offer And you know in the same way in

the sales department that you know um a potential buyer might be talking to six

dealerships we view a seller the same way So we offer high and then we do

really thorough inspections Uh every um potential street purchase we do a

multi-point inspection and we lift on a rack to check for mechanical electrical issues not just cosmetic issues And then

in in the same you know the same vein as tradeins um we you know we justify any

necessary investments off of the the purchase price But if if we can get them in the door and uh you know we give them

an intelligent breakdown of the way we see their car in a respectful way um we

win more often than we don't Yeah So who's responsible You mentioned two pieces of the puzzle there So first

who's responsible for uh getting them in the door like what role in the store is responsible for making that happen and

then two um after that I'm also curious from a technician's perspective who's

responsible for uh doing the MPI and you know is that is that kind of their core

function how does all that work for you what's what's your advice for somebody looking to to be successful here the

best success I've ever had was at my previous job and we had a buying center you know here trying to do more with

less we started the program with the sales managers you know so if the sales

managers aren't selling five cars a day I think they should pick up the phone too The sales managers should be the the the most effective sales people in the

building And the sales managers were able to get a consistent 10 to 15

cadence of street acquisitions going per month Now that we're at that point I just hired a full-time used car buyer

who is mining uh listing platforms online leads and then also talking to

service customers in the morning Um on the service side it's the used car technicians

Okay So the folks that are are doing the recon they're doing the inspection first I mean is that pretty fair And then

that's that's really their that's their core responsibility Um that's kind of their their job role their function

They're dedicated to kind of recon slmpi ahead of purchase Exactly Okay All right

So do you have a designated area in your in your shop that is just for recon Like do you have your own you know I'll call

it a recon center um inside of your your shop We do We have an off-site storage

lot with um four bays and that's where we do use car reconditioning Okay All right And and so it's offsite I assume

it's close though nearby like physically Yeah A little bit a little bit too far to walk but it's I don't know more like

one or two miles Yeah Okay So what is what's your reconditioning um time look

like then So you know you end up well it's two pieces So you have you have an NPI that gets done it sounds like So the

car's got to go down there to that facility to get an NPI done Um then you purchase the vehicle Does the car just

stay there if you buy it Does it come back to the store Um and then once the car is purchased um kind of what's your

what's your inventory turn time in in recon uh specifically to to get that car back on the lot This is something uh we

take very seriously and I think it's something we're good at So you know happy to elaborate on it to in regards

to a street purchase or a potential tradein The MPI the repair order are used as selling tools Um we try to you

know communicate with the customers with these documents to uh um you know get a

little bit of a sharper purchase But um we right now we're doing a pretty good

job So do you uh it's not something we hold 12 months out of the year but right now our time to line's two days because

we've been kind of concerned buying um in the in the tariff atmosphere I didn't

want to overpay at auction but I try to keep it always at three and a half to to 5 days And and really it's about if a

car is purchased gets to the bullpen that same day our used car manager

reviews the ACV from uh sales management the day uh previous prints a booksheet

walks around the car takes takes notes of it We get the cars to the used car text by 9:00 a.m They inspect the

vehicles make recommendations by 12 and then the service manager the used car manager and myself we go through them

one by one So the the cars are dispatched within 24 hours And then if there's a weekend they're dispatched you

know the the following Monday Yeah Yeah How do you how do you hold everybody

accountable to those timelines So you were very specific right there in your response You said you know by 9:00 a.m by noon Um you know is there how do you

make sure that happens I guess Uh and and who's enforcing that U because because you were pretty firm in that I

assume you have a a pretty tight process I'm really fortunate to have really

talented long-term managers around me So the fixed operations director here and

the used car manager here have worked with me at previous dealerships We speak the same language Um that's definitely

not the cadence that was here when we got started Um but you know you boil the

frog slowly So you we looked at the existing process uh we looked at the

largest bottlenecks and then we just peeled the onion one layer at a time So for example the first thing I attacked

was subleting bring everything in house The second thing we attacked was parts

pulled you know uh we attack we made a rule where if we can't frontline a car

within 10 days then we're probably going to wholesale it unless there's some type of unique exception Um and then really

it's about the the caliber of the the technician and you know uh someone who has that go-getter attitude uh that

wants to perform that way too Yeah So I'm curious and we don't have to go here

if you don't want to just just tell me if so but um it sounds like you've you've done a good job of implementing

new processes uh implementing new ideas um with with pretty good success Um

what's your retent your employee retention been like I mean have you have you had to work through turnover I'm just thinking you know if I'm another

dealer and I'm I'm either looking to to improve or make a change or you know

maybe I'm buying a new point whatever Um how do I go about this without basically

chasing everybody off Um so what what's your retention been like And and um you know any advice That's a great question

and um you know it's something that I've been thinking through Uh my and I I definitely don't have all the answers Um

we we lost some personnel in management Um uh but overall uh we've given I've

tried to give everyone a fair shot and to seek to understand before being understood and to review existing

systems and to coach rather than um you know kind of forcing my way right I know

one way of doing business I've had some success with one way of doing business but it's not the only way of doing

business And this is a different marketplace So by coming in with the desire to to learn um and being flexible

right there's there's multiple paths to the same destination And um if uh a different

path than the one that I would take would still work then you know I I I I didn't really try to create any friction

But I definitely think this dealership has a lot of additional potential and that's something that I want Um and um

you know no hard feelings uh with some people we lost along the way Yeah Yeah

Okay No that's fair That's fair Um one other operational piece I I wanted to to dig into You mentioned that you're

building six new bays Um that's So did you is is it a physical addition to the

store Uh did you just create some more space in in the area that you had Did you take space away from from somewhere

else inside the store Uh what does it look like physically And then we can get into some of the other details Yeah So

we haven't started yet but we're getting close But it's it's kind of like that north star that everybody's chasing and

it's something the whole team collectively has kind of come together to chase So you know we've created gross

and you know net goals for fixed operations and then once we get there we

will initiate this which will take us to the promised land right So um it started

by maximizing the the the shop capacity that we had and we got there Um this

dealership definitely was built on a variable backbone So the um there wasn't

a lot of space and we had to get creative So um the first major kind of

site map change that we did was we partitioned one-third of the used car front line for additional service

parking Okay Um and uh we do have space to add the

six bays in the existing shop but it's going to eliminate some service some uh

extra service parking even with the used car front line So you know we had to

make some logistical changes like you know the cars that um are waiting you

know have an extended wait for uh some parts if they're going to be here more than 3 to 5 days Maybe that's a car that

we should put on our you know our satellite location and and save a parking space for those fast turning

repairs Sure Sure Okay No that's a that's a big um I'll call it an

investment You know you might think of it as a sacrifice but but that oneird of your your used car used car lot going to

service I mean that that's a big big investment Um but it speaks to your focus and where you're at right now and

what you're trying to accomplish So it makes a lot of sense Um so with with these these new six bays um is your goal

is your intent to hire more technicians Are you going to give your existing techs more bays where they have more to

work off of and and continue to to get work turning Um what's your what's your goal there What what's your plan We need

more texts Yeah Okay Who Who doesn't

No that's great that you're finding a way to do it though I mean we talk about it a lot You know you need more text more bays or both And usually it's both

Um because you get to a point where it sounds like you put the work in to to maximize what's available today and now

it's like okay we we have more demand We can continue to grow We just got to figure out how to do it Definitely Yep

Good Um okay So you know something else I was I was interested in talking with

you about I appreciate you kind of did we jumped right into the operational stuff which I I love and I dig into but

um doing a little research before we started talking I noticed a uh a company that you I I think started called No

Smoke um which just it really interested me So I'm a little curious if if you're open to talking about it Um give the

background I don't think you're still there but the companyy's still around Maybe you are So I don't know Fill me in It seemed like a really interesting idea

I'm kind of curious what the genesis of the idea was and then how it grew from there And and if you don't mind sharing that'd be something that I'd want to

talk about and and leading into also you know when you read kind of your your LinkedIn profile And I wrote it down

here just so I could I could remember it um talking about transforming legacy retail into a high impact engine for the

future by reimagining the dealership as an incubator for nextgen venture scale auto tech Um that stuck with me I

thought that was a really interesting way to to frame it up and share with the world kind of what you're about Um so maybe start with with No Smoke tell that

story a little and then we can get into uh uh to how you're you're helping the

store push forward Sure From a a young age I felt that my kids wouldn't be able

to sustain the car business the way that my ancestors knew it I didn't know what that meant but I just kind of had a gut

hunch you know early in my uh early in my career And um uh you know I think a

lot of your audience will resonate with an example from the last 10 years about that is digital marketing right So that

was a little bit before my time I was still on the line selling cars but it you know it kind of uh um helps

elaborate on my state of mind when I was coming up with the idea of no smoke So um my time at Huntington Beach Jeep

accumulated in running their used car departments We had a very large uh used car department and I realized smoked in

cars are harder to sell and worth less money You know every uh sales manager uh I'm sure has dealt with customers where

they've lost a deal because of a smoke odor And um you know I I I realize that

there's no objective way for the car business to measure that Right now we just use our nose but if you have five

people sit in a car they're going to uh smell different things and there wasn't

um uh uh an agreed upon uh consideration

of depreciation for smoke Um so that was the starting point Um uh I didn't have

the technical prowess to invent the product what I was looking for but I met um a really capable talented co-founder

Her name's uh BB Turfan and uh she was able to bring the idea to life So uh we

came up with um a test kit that can measure smoke residue in the upholstery

of car Uh you know if someone smokes when they're sitting in a car the smoke

rises and it seeps into the upholstery at a level that uh can be detectable So

it started from like a a used car merchandising uh perspective but over

time as we spent uh you know more time developing this business I realized it was kind of um a public health issue uh

that smoke residue in cars at certain levels um could increase the risk of

heart disease lung disease and cancer Uh to you know uh especially in California people spend one to two hours in their

cars every day you know imagine um you know a mom driving her kids to to school

and uh not knowing that her she's putting her kids at risk And um you know

we worked closely with a lot of large rental car companies around LAX airport

And we found out that about one in 10 cars on used car lots in California have toxic levels and three in 10 rental cars

in California have toxic levels Really Um that was the value proposition We

thought that used car dealers could kind of certify their cars as smokef free They could merchandise these vehicles

online that way to drive uh you know customers that might be looking at two identical vehicles priced the same way

towards them And then um in the laner fleets or in the rental car uh use case

we thought they could actually enforce non-smoking penalty fees and then wholesale their their older inventory

for more value if they guarantee that it wasn't smoked in Yeah No that's really interesting But the company is still

around Yeah it is Um when I had the opportunity to buy this dealership I shelfd the

patents You know uh we expanded outside of the you know retail automotive market

And um you know you can still buy a test kit on Home Depot uh Walmart or or

Target right now We still fulfill online orders Um but my my full-time position

right now is is is back in the trenches at a dealership Yeah You can only only focus on so many things Uh you know

definitely and and getting um you know getting a store to where you want it after after the acquisition I mean the

you've accomplished a lot in a pretty short amount of time so I can only imagine the um the the amount of time that you're spending there doesn't leave

a lot on the fringes for uh for dabbling in other things Thank you Yeah absolutely Um no that's really

interesting So uh is that is that something that uh you see yourself

continuing to look at is is different ways to help your your store but then

also other dealers um you know innovate and and find new opportunities Uh that

example I think is a really good one around certifying vehicles as non-smoking vehicles and you have a

product that can help people do that once once you get the store to a place where where you're comfortable which

heck maybe that maybe it'll never be to that place I assume it will though but uh you know it gets to a place where you feel stable at least Um is that

something that you're still interested in is kind of looking at new new ways new opportunities Definitely It's something I'm really passionate about I

think it's the future of our business So let's go back to digital marketing as an example Right In 2013 2014 2015 the

average you know advertising mix might have been 10% digital 25% digital but

look at it today you know 75% digital in a lot of cases or even even more And um

you know one of the things that Huntington Beach Jeep did that you know put it into a nationally leading um you

know uh sales position was they went all in on digital advertising early And as a

young dealer I think if I can find that digital advertising of today or you know

a couple uh different new emerging technologies that will be standard in five to seven years if I can identify

them early and double down on the right things it can be a competitive advantage uh for our stores Yeah No that makes a

lot of sense That makes a lot of sense All right So Nathan I I do want to uh uh ask a little bit too also on on your

LinkedIn profile talks about you're tra you're a trainer of birds of prey So I don't talk to a lot of falconers out

there Um but but tell me about that How did you get interested in that What does that look like How do you have time to

do that kind of stuff Um because it is really cool for anybody who hasn't seen a trained falcon Um it's it's pretty

impressive I mean they can fly quite literally right by your face and not touch you Um they're they're going to

get food usually but they they're pretty impressive with what they can do So I don't know Just fill us in on that I

know it's a little bit off topic when it comes to dealership operations but it's interesting to me So I'm curious

Um when I was in high school a buddy of mine climbed a palm tree Uh he was a

licensed falconer and he raised a baby bird and I just thought it was the coolest thing He would wear this uh sash

with the baby bird He brought it to school and I just thought it was so cool So I just kept in my back pocket for uh

for many years and then I got into it Um it's really challenging but also very

rewarding and I find it to be a great way to you know spend time in nature It

forces you to get to know a lot about the the species of birds that you work with but also about their habitats and

about their their their prey So it really immerses you in in nature And um

I'm I'm I'm paraphrasing so this is an estimate but the majority of birds of prey species uh around the world uh are

in population decline And you know as I got more into this I just thought it would be a cool way to do something

meaningful outside of my uh my job as I was finding a hobby

Yeah Why Why are they in population decline I mean they're they're at the upper end of the food chain right So is

there And and maybe there's a spec specific reason maybe there's not but I I'm just kind of curious It seems like a

an animal that's at the the higher end of the food chain shouldn't be uh at the you know in the decline phase

um definitely not an expert um and you know don't have all the answers there um

other than that uh especially eagles uh are in decline but I would imagine just

changes in their habitats with urbanization with poaching um you know

and with large ecosystem changes Sure Okay So do you as as a falconer do you

do you own birds Do you work with them through like a zoo I I'm pretty as you

can tell uh pretty naive to the that world Um so what is what does that look like It's um legally it's considered a

form of hunting So you get a hunting permits with fish and wildlife And

depending on your level of your falconry license um the state that you practice

in um and the bird you want to work with you can either you know uh breed or

import uh you a baby and you know teach it to fly and how to hunt or you can

trap uh you know a wild animal But um traditional falconry you um trap a

migrating one-year-old adult bird Um lots of you know falcons and hawks

don't make it past their second or third year So you trap them you give them worldclass nutrition and veterary care

You teach them uh you know to hunt kind of uh species of prey that would be a

little bit too challenging um in the wild and you make sure that they're in peak physical fitness After the hunting

season's over you release it back in the wild and better shape than um when you you connected with the bird Huh Okay So

um it's really like a a training season with a bird Uh it's not like it's it's

by no stretch it doesn't sound like a pet right It's more of um it really is much more of almost a sport and a

challenge to to work with a a wild animal and help it Definitely Uh you

mentioned earlier that you know it seems really timeconuming It is it takes a minimum an hour a day to you know track

the bird's weight meticulously uh to you feed it and train it properly Um and if

you don't take good care of the animals the um it can hurt itself in in a cage

So you know it's it's um you you you let them fly without a leash and based off

of your relationship with the bird they choose to come back to you So you know unfortunately the last couple years I

hadn't had time to practice because it's really focused on you know the selling cars repairing cars but just renewed my

license and you know hopefully get to take my son out and um start getting it going again Very cool And how old is

your son Three Three years old It'll be quite the uh quite the experience quite the learning experience But you know

like you said it's a it's a great excuse to get outdoors get into nature and uh if nothing else that's that's a good habit to create with uh with little ones

for sure Yeah we'll take the Jeep off-roading There you go There you go What uh so

what's your what's your Jeep that you're going to take off-roading I assume it's not a you know a wagon ears

And a Wrangler for sure Okay All right Um good deal Well Nathan Shaver uh I

really appreciate you taking time to talk It's been a fun conversation We kind of dove right in uh but we went in a lot of different directions I

appreciate you being so open and sharing kind of your experience what you've been going through Um and and definitely wish

you nothing but the best as you continue to uh to grow that store to uh to take it into into the future So uh definitely

appreciate the story appreciate everything you're doing and uh and really appreciate your time So Nathan thanks Thanks again and like I said

hopefully we can do round two again sometime soon Yeah anytime This was a lot of fun Thanks for the opportunity

All right Thanks Have a great day You too Well I will never take favorites but I

really enjoyed that conversation with Nathan Shaver I hope you did as well Uh lots of nuggets to pull out of there So

it might be worth going back and relisting to that one with a a pen and paper if you have an opportunity Before we hop off don't forget you can watch or

listen to all episodes of Connected on YouTube Apple and Spotify podcasts And make sure to hit subscribe so you're notified every other week when new

episodes are released Thanks so much and we'll see you in two weeks

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