The late Paul Harvey would be proud.
Harvey, best-known for his syndicated “The Rest of the Story” radio segments, was the inspiration for a new YouTube video that lifts up the men and women of collision repair. The video is a twist on Harvey’s famous speech, “So God Made a Farmer,” which Harvey delivered at a 1978 Future Farmers of America convention.
“And on the ninth day, God looked down on his amazing creation and said, ‘I need an advocate.’ So God made a body shop owner.”
Those are the first words of the voiceover to “So God Made a Body Shop Owner,” the creation of Rob Grieve, co-owner of Nylund’s Collision Center in Englewood, Colo. Grieve, a Harvey fan, said the genesis for the video was his recognition of “the pain” that many collision repairers are enduring in their battles with insurance companies.
“There are a lot of people who are doing everything they can to take care of their guests and fix the car right, and I just wanted to put an industry piece together to celebrate them,” Grieve told BodyShop Business.
Grieve had a lot of help. His friend Eric Reamer, co-host of the “Experience Pros” radio show, wrote the script and edited the video, which Grieve narrated. To find photos for the video, Grieve combed the Facebook pages of fellow body shop owners, who were extremely accommodating.
“I sent messages to them asking if it’s OK to use [your picture] in an industry piece that I’m working on,” Grieve said. “I could not believe that everybody said, ‘Absolutely. Feel free.’ Not one person asked me, ‘What are you doing?’”
As Grieve looked through the Facebook pages of other body shop owners, he noticed that many pictures showed them spending time with their families and volunteering in their communities.
“It was really heartwarming,” Grieve said. “It was such a wonderful feeling to be part of a business sector that gives so much back to their communities.”
‘Going Viral’
Grieve said he’s been overwhelmed by the response to the YouTube video. He posted “So God Made a Body Shop Owner” on the night of Feb. 25, a Saturday. By Sunday morning, it had received nearly 500 views. As of the date of this article (March 6), the video was up to 2,725 views.
“You put something out there, and you don’t ever expect it’s going to do that,” Grieve said. “That’s like going viral for me.”
Grieve and his wife, Carol, have owned Nylund’s Collision Center for 11 years. In January, they moved the shop into a new 17,000-square-foot facility on Santa Fe Drive in Englewood, with double the work space of their previous site.
“We’re so blessed here,” Grieve said. “We can put cars on the showroom floor for delivery, as long as we can fit them through the doors. So it makes for a really special experience for the guests.”
And it’s all about the “guests.” The shop’s motto is, “If it’s not perfect, it’s not leaving.” Nylund’s is a five-time winner of Best Body Shop in the Denver A-List, and the vast majority of the shop’s Facebook reviewers are raving fans, giving Nylund’s a 4.9-star overall rating.
Although Grieve actively promotes Nylund’s through blogs, videos and social media, he emphasized that “So God Made a Body Shop Owner” isn’t about any specific shop.
“It’s about the people that are doing great things for their guests,” he said. “For the ones that are doing it great, I celebrate you, and for the ones that want to, here’s some inspiration to get there.”
