To succeed in this paintless dent repair business, you only need to learn one thing: how to keep learning. That means each of us is going to find ourselves as a newbie, at some times and at some things. In a market that is ever changing and in which these changes seem to be happening ever faster, we are all going to wear the newbie hat — often.
I see too often a lot of veteran paintless dent removal / hail repair techs put down the pdr newbies. Unfortunately these so called “know it all’s”, forget that they were once newbies as well and still are. I also see pdr techs who have been in the business for just a short time, performing more complex dent repairs than a 10 year veteran pdr tech. Why? Simple: because high-level professionals who are paying attention never stop learning. And that means it don’t matter how long you have been doing pdr. What you put into learning paintless dent removal is what you will get back 10 times fold. During my career, I have seen a lot of the first generation pdr companies fold and the only reason for this is because they stopped learning.
As a newbie I once was, but still learning, I am going to give some advice. Don’t be afraid to network. Networking enhances your power to learn. You heard the old saying, “power is in numbers.” Sure there will be some pdr guys who will want nothing to do with you because of pure insecurity, fear or feel threatened. Also find new techniques, learn new techniques, be fresh and challenge yourself. NEVER walk away from a dent without trying. That is how you learn. Do you know how many times I have failed when it came to removing dents? Too many to count to be honest. But that was way back when I had no help, no networking, no forums, no internet, no tutorials and definitely no Youtube! Don’t get me wrong, I still can’t fix every dent I attempt. Heck if I said I can fix everything and anything, I wasn’t learning. You learn and succeed from failure. If you never fail, you never learned to be fully successful.
My name is Myke Toledo and I am still learning the art of paintless dent removal. The day I think I know it all, is the day I stop learning it all. Because newbies are being hatched every day — from among the industry’s most experienced, most highly qualified paintless dent repair leaders. No matter how much they know about some things, they also need to know about something new. Something more. Now.
I hope this pdr article helped enlightened some of you.