Ep 105 - Zeb Beard | Your Shop Doesn't Need More Techs

0:00Well, you hear all these guys are always complaining about their production, man. I don't know what to do. My guys can't get 100%. If my guys only get 100%, I'm looking— I'm trying to figure out what the problem— I'm wanting them to get 150%. I'm not shooting for 100. I'm shooting for 150 or 200. That's where their problem— they're running around there bumping dicks.

0:20One bay per tech playing grab ass. Playing grab ass. Grab ass. Well, what it is, some bitches off at these conventions playing grab ass instead of running their shops. What's happening? The following is a special edition of the show. Don't worry, today's episode still features doofuses talking about the aftermarket. This one just doesn't include my dad, so it's probably better than normal.

0:43The stuff said on this show does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have. Chances are there may be some spicy language in this show, so if you're sensitive to that, you should probably move along. Without further ado, here's your special host. Bryan Pollock with Confessions of a Shop Owner, presented by Techmetric, the best thing to happen to the world of personal transportation since the advent of internal combustion engines.

1:17If you're still thinking about the shop at 10 PM, you're not alone. You're replaying the day, wondering what got missed, what still needs follow-up, how the numbers look, and whether anything is waiting for you first thing tomorrow morning. That part of being a shop owner gets old really quick. TechMetric is built to take some of that off your plate. It brings you shop management, payments, and marketing together in one place, so you're not piecing things together at the end of the day trying to figure out where everything stands.

1:43Your team has what they need to keep things moving, your customer communication doesn't stall out, and you have a clearer picture of how your shop is actually performing. See how it works at techmetric.com. That's T-E-K metric.com or tap the link in the show notes. Me and you both got on him. He was talking about, uh, just pulling the head off to inspect it or something.

2:08Yeah, I go, pull the head off? I go, that took him 3 and a half minutes. Yeah, we talking about pulling a cylinder head. Yeah, yeah, people are crazy, man. People, people went nuts. And everybody, like, nobody, nobody does any research whatsoever. Like, it's not hard Like my daughter, it's so funny. My daughter will search, my daughter will search names in Google.

2:30So my 11-year-old has figured out how that her dad co-hosts a podcast. So an 11-year-old. So like when these people are like, who is this guy? He doesn't work on cars. Uh, and then like, talk about, start talking about Performance Shop. It, uh, it does not take serious extreme diagnostic skills to figure out who I am. If you actually type the name into Google, it pops up like, you know, it'll pop up like a YouTube video or something like that, like on the Confessions YouTube.

3:00Like, it's not hard. Yeah, it's not hard to figure out, right? But I mean, you know all about that. You used to post an ad for a diag tech and not have your address, and people would ask you for the address, phone number, address. I do it on purpose. Like, if you're a diag tech, you can hunt Zeb down. You'll figure out how to get a hold of you.

3:16Yeah, yeah. I just— it's ridiculous. I do that on purpose. I'll put— when I post an ad for a job, I purposely leave information out So that they have to, they have to show you that they can at least use Google to find some information. Where are you located? Yeah, where are you located? You, you've, you failed automatically. You're out. I do that all the time though.

3:37I'll, I'll cut to like the easy thing. And I just did it the other day with Mike and Braxton because we were testing out something that wasn't working. Mike was like, can you, can you test this for me? I go, okay, yeah, where's the sign up at? And I'm like, well, that was a dumb question. I can probably figure this out in 2 seconds.

3:51I did. And by the time Braxton responded. I'm like, oh yeah, I already ran it through, it's all good. And I'm like, I'm like, it was a stupid question. I figured shit out for a living. I should have never even asked the question because it took me like a minute and a half to do the whole thing, you know what I mean?

4:06Like, but yeah, that's— isn't that funny? People are so used to getting handed the answer that they can't be bothered to. And like, whenever you're posting that help ad, it's usually not under your personal page, it's usually under Stroker's Diesel, right? But they can't even figure out how to get in touch with Stroker's Diesel and don't even know where it is. Where are you located?

4:28Like, how can they not just Google it? And usually my— usually I tag my location in everything I post. And like, probably if they click Stroker's Diesel, it probably takes them to your Facebook page, which probably has your location straight where it takes you. It probably has contact info, probably has all sorts of stuff. Can't make it happen. Can't work here, bud.

4:52Can't work here if you can't find me. If you have to ask me where I'm at, you're not allowed to work here. That's right. You don't have the problem-solving skills required to work here. Nope. Because so many parents have coddled their children, uh-huh, and now children don't know how to figure things out. I have, I have this conversation all the time with people, and I, I just had, I just had it with my, my really good friend Phil.

5:15'Cause Phil, Phil kind of, he's, I look up to him. He's, he's really done some stuff with his life at his age. Unbelievable things that I'll never accomplish. He's running this huge, he's running this huge AI construction project. It's a $5 billion construction project, um, for this big AI company that's like, actually, they kind of got their crap together. They're not like a, they're not like a little shadow in the wind or whatever.

5:41Like they're, they're a big deal. This TerraWolf. And, you know, like they're, they're publicly traded. They're not like some stupid little startup that's using other people's money, you know what I mean? They're publicly traded. They're, they're a legit company anyways. But him and I were having a conversation last Friday night on the phone. We talked for about an hour on the phone, just, just going— we hadn't talked to each other in a couple of months, just going through how life's going for everybody and stuff, you know.

6:03And him and I were talking and he goes, you know, we were talking about how people with their kids are— they coddle their kids a lot. And I said, Phil, I say, and you're absolutely right, Phil. I go, here's the deal. I said, this is going to be tough. And I got to tell you this. When you raise your kids to be independent at a young age, in this day and age, in our current culture and society, you raising them to be independent will be looked at as dangerous by other people.

6:31Oh yeah. They'll be kings because they've got to be independent. Well, just like you right now, they look at you as in you're putting your kids in some sort of danger by teaching them. Oh yeah, that too. Yeah. Like my kids get off the bus. An hour before I get home, right? My kids get off. People, people really frown upon that. Yeah, not all of them, and they don't always say it to your face, but people frown upon that.

6:55They're like, you mean you have 3 kids home alone? I'm like, yeah, yeah, the oldest one's 11. Um, she's had the New York State babysitter course, you know, like, they have— we have 3 kids home alone. The school, the school would not drop my youngest off at the house. I had to take phone calls from the school the first 2 weeks this year multiple times.

7:17Oh, we're at the house and there's nobody there. I'm like, my daughter's on the porch. We can't see her. The house is almost 400 foot off the road. First thing I'm like, I'm like, what's the solution here? I go, it's winter in Western New York. I go, I go, my daughter got to stand at the end of the driveway when it's 0 degrees out and 20 mile an hour winds all winter to make sure her brother— like, send the kid in the house.

7:36The house is unlocked. It's safe in the house. The dog's in the house. The cat's in the house. The kid will be fine in the house. The dog loves the kid. Nobody else coming in the house when the dog's there. You know what I mean? But yeah, I was telling my buddy Phil, man, society has turned in such a way. If you raise your kids to be independent, like, yeah, go ahead.

7:57You can cook that. I don't need to be there for you to cook that. I trust you to get that cooked. Oh, you want to go do this with your friends? Yeah, I don't have to babysit this whole thing. Go do this with your friends. Check in with me. I mean, they got more— they have more— they have more contact with us than I had.

8:13I mean, my daughter's got a cell phone and my oldest son's got a cell phone. Like, I can get a hold of them anytime. People like you and I, we were out freaking ramming the roads with no contact from our parents. Be in when it gets dark. Yeah, we had— we lived on a 1,600-acre cow ranch, right? And you were just out doing whatever all day in the morning.

8:30You went outside and you— yeah. And if you stayed inside, if you stayed inside, somebody beat your ass for being in the way, right? Yeah, you get out there and go play, go do But now it's just, it's so crazy. I just had that conversation. I said, Phil, I go, people will look at you and the way you raise your kids to be independent as dangerous.

8:51And that is, I just, it's bizarre. And I wonder, you know, it always makes you wonder like how much of that translates into our industry, you know? And I always think about like some of the content you create, like people are just like, oh, you can't do that. Everybody's, everybody's too used to using the can't word, but you just kind of keep on trucking along.

9:10That's my favorite thing. Can't is when somebody tells me I can't. That's what you're just gonna go do it. Yeah. Especially if I had the idea first and then they tell me I can't, I'm gonna go do it somehow. We should probably tell everybody. Everybody probably knows who you are, but we have— probably do. We have Zeb Beard on here. Round 2 at Tools in Pennsylvania.

9:31How was your flight into here? Was it good? It was pretty good. It was kind of, kind of got scared at first. Our plane at Little Rock. We left Little Rock and go to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Harrisburg. Our plane coming into Little Rock was late. So about the time it tells us it's late, then we get a notification that the plane in Atlanta is early.

9:53So we know how big the Atlanta airport is, you know, and all that stuff. And Atlanta. Yeah. So it was, it was touch and go, but we ended up, we made it okay. It worked out perfect. We walked when we Walked up to the gate, we walked right on the plane. Oh, really? That's cool. So we didn't miss it. I think it was ASTA 2 years ago.

10:13I missed my plane. I remember that I got hung in the airport. It wasn't my fault. It was the plane. My connecting flight was late, right? And I was mad and I was ready to go buy my own plane after that. I remember you. I remember you produced a picture like really fast. No, I had that picture. Oh, you already had that?

10:31That was the deal for years. Yeah. Of a plane with a stroker, like a Learjet or something with a stroker. I think it was a G6. He had it all picked out. Oh, I'm really big on this visualizing stuff. I know you are. So I'll take, I'll take something that I'm really like way outside of my realm that I— and that most people would say is illogical and you can't get.

10:54Yeah. And I'll put my logo on it and then a lot of times it turns out you got it like a '60 2,000 square foot shop, right? I remember even the— don't you tell the, the chicken, the, the chicken plant? Yeah, the chicken plant. You even had done that. You'd even taken pictures. Yeah, I drove by that thing and I had pictures on my phone.

11:11I had my logo on the side of it and I had it all mapped out how I wanted to put my business in there and everything. And then unreal. And then instead of getting that one, I got one better. I got a brand new one. Oh my gosh, it wasn't a chicken plant before. That's awesome. So I'm big on that visualize. First time, first, when you first hear stuff like that, you think, ah, that's bullshit.

11:32Ain't no way that's gonna happen. Right. You know, ain't no way that works. But it does. Put yourself in the place where you wanna be and you sometimes you get surprised you'll end up there. Hey guys, Carrie Lynn with Turnkey Marketing. If you are looking to increase cars and you're looking for the right demographic to go after, you wanna get the right people who need auto repair right now.

11:52Then give us a call. We have a service called Direct Track, and it utilizes AI to find people in your area who are the great demographic that you want to go after, have raised their hand and opted in saying, I need auto repair help right now. We send them an email. As soon as they open the email, we then get their physical address, follow it up with commercial ads on all their streaming services like Hulu and YouTube and ESPN, Fox News, all those different things.

12:20And then we also get their physical address and we start sending banner ads and display ads to every single device in that house. It has been incredibly effective. It has made shops seem like they're everywhere to those people who need repairs right then. And I mean, I'm telling you guys, the return on investment has been huge. So if you want to increase car count, you want to get great people in the door, give us a call or reach out to us and ask us about DirectTrack Marketing.

12:50That's awesome. How do you, uh, how do you think— you know, something I was thinking about the other day was a lot of the videos you've been doing with your Meta Glasses. That's really taken off. That's like a whole series. Yeah, people love it. Back at the shop, Jim, Jim text me a screenshot of you. You were following Susie through the shop and there was a, a man lift there, and he's like We're buying one of these.

13:17There's just a random male. He's like, we're buying this male. I mean, is that— do you think that affects— is that affecting any of them? You think you got any business off that doing your social media? Yes. Like, what do you think the exposure has been like for— like, well, it— the, the road reports started during the ice. We had the big ice storm.

13:35You remember when we had that? Oh, right. And you were doing it with the grader. Yes. That's where everybody who didn't own a grader told you you were running your grader. Yeah, I was doing it wrong. Yeah. So that started— the road report started because I was cutting ice off the public highways. The Arkansas Highway Department hires private graders sometimes to help out.

13:56And so they hired me. This isn't the first time I did it. I've done it a couple of years before that. About every 3 years, 2 or 3 years, we have a big storm and they'll do that. So I had got those glasses for Christmas and been playing with them, and I was on that grader. And of course, everybody was People that knew that I was out there had been texting me things.

14:18What are the roads like? What are this? What are that? So I said, man, I'm just going to start it. I'm just going to do a report on this road today because everybody's wanting to know about it. So I said, the glasses are perfect because when you run that thing, you have to have both hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had the glasses on and I hit the button and recorded and I said, well, I'll just use the hashtag road report.

14:35So that thing took off. Everybody shared it. Everybody loved it. So then I kind of started putting some comedy in them, you know, because, you know me, I'm always going to be— you're going to have some trolls and I love it. I love— I'll feed the trolls. I want the trolls to put something in there for the haters. Yeah. So, so that took off.

14:55So then the ice storm was over. It lasted 4 or 5 days, something like that. So I remember making the last one. I remember it just like it was yesterday. I made the last one. I said, this will probably be the last road report. And then I did the report, and after that, I was kind of sad, you know. And a lot of people were— a lot of the people commenting on it were sad too.

15:17So it went on a couple days after the ice storm, and I said, you know what, I'm just going to bring the road report back. Just keep doing it. Yeah. And you know me, I like to do things the opposite. So my page, I don't hardly ever post any automotive content. Yeah. So I did the opposite. I just started just doing regular everyday stuff.

15:35People like our cooking shows that we do, right? Because we got the big nice kitchen and all in the shop. And me and Susie enjoy cooking. I'm not that great of a cook, but I run a grill pretty good. She's always in there cooking and I'm always messing with her and right, making fun of her and stuff like that. So I started putting those in there and I'll be honest, for the first time in history, the shop had been kind of slow.

15:582025 was kind of slow and at the very end of it, it got Really slow as far as work coming in. Well, after I started doing those things, the shop got really busy again. Like, okay, we hadn't been that busy in years. So and then everybody that came in the shop wanted to talk about it. And if I go out in public, I was always popular around anyway.

16:19Sure. But it's even worse now. Everybody knows me. Everybody talks about the Road Report videos that I put out. My favorite miniseries is Will Kenzie Eat It? Will Kinsey. Yeah, I started a new one. I started a new one with Kinsey. I'm like, I can do that with my dog. I got a yellow lab. That thing will eat anything. Yeah. Yeah. So I got one with Kinsey eating.

16:39I started a new one last week. It's called Messing with Susie. So I love those too. So I pull pranks on Susie. That's becoming pretty popular. The snake, the air horn. I saw the air horn. Yeah, I did the air horn yesterday. She was asleep on the plane like this. I stuck my finger in her nose. It scared her. She's really jumpy.

16:56So Scaring her is pretty fun, you know. Yeah, that's awesome. People love the fishing, believe it or not. They love the fishing videos. So we don't, we don't put out much automotive content because, man, I mean, seriously, automotive content is tough because everybody in the comments— we, we see this whether, whether it's you do post a little bit of automotive content or Chris posts some content.

17:19I mean, this is a comment that— this is something that comes up in our group chat all the time. When you post automotive content, there's so many mouth breathers out there that don't know what they're doing. It just creates almost a headache. Like, if you— like, if you're like, if you're feeling down, you need a bunch of idiot trolls to comment on your stuff, well then yeah, post something automotive that where you're doing a test that they don't have the ability to understand, and it's perfect.

17:42We see that with Chris all the time where he posts— he posts some automotive content of, you know, I'm testing this, I'm doing, you know, whatever, just showing what they do and what separates them from John Q. Hobbyist Diesel Shop, right? Because we all know. Oh yeah, there's a ton of them guys out there who are just, you know, reading codes and praying.

18:01That's what they're doing. They're reading the code and they're praying to fix it. They bought a Sawzall and an EZ-Link box and they think they're Mr. Diesel. Yeah, I didn't come up with that quote. Somebody put— maybe Chris posted that a couple of weeks ago. When I saw that, that was the most true thing I've ever seen. They bought a Sawzall. They're going to— they got, they got the solution to all your aftertreatment problems.

18:20Yeah, every solution is $3,500 and it's a Sawzall and a delete. Yeah, they put it— they put an injector in a 6.0 one time and it fixed it and they think they're experts. 6.0 mechanic. That was, that was one of my favorite ones. As soon as somebody says, as a 6.0 mechanic, I go, oh my God, somebody killed me. 6.0 hasn't been relevant in— they ain't made them in 20 years.

18:41Well, they ain't been relevant 10 years. We figured them out in '05, '06. Yeah, it's, it's not new information now. Every once in a while we run into something new, like with the deal with Chris. Last week, the deal with the injector short, that was something I haven't seen before. Nope. And I've been working on them since '05. I've not seen it cause that problem.

19:01I've seen shorted injectors, but I've not seen it cause that problem. I haven't seen it cause that specific problem. If I had, I would have told my injector guy, shorted injector? I'll sit here and be straight honest with you. I've been working on them since '05. That problem would have run me through the wringer. Oh my gosh. I wouldn't have figured it out right away.

19:18No, I'd have been on that for a couple of days. Yeah. All day long. So yeah, but it's, it's 6.0s are a magnet for those type people. And a lot of auto, like you were saying, that's what you were getting to. Automotive content is a magnet. Terrible DIY guys. They just shade trees talking about like, just, they all know everything, right? And it's weird because it's like, what, like you, you'll just like every once in a while you click on somebody And he like, he like works maintenance at a freaking fruit packing factory.

19:51And it's like, what, what do you even know about that? Yeah. And it's no, it's, or it's no workplaces to show. At my shop we do this and we do that. Click on, well, what's your shop? Where's your shop then? No workplaces to show. Yeah, no workplaces to show. Yeah, because you want to talk about the storage. That's why I don't post much automotive content, because how is it going to grow my shop to get a bunch of DIYs?

20:11And no, now the only thing it does do, if I get in there and start beating up on them, then that— people love that. Is that one of your favorite pastimes? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, I love it. And they all say, well, you're, you know, you're an internet warrior and all this. No, I do that for fun. That's— that is fun for me.

20:32It's part of the game. Not that I get mad. It's part of the game. Yeah, it's part of the game. It's fun for me. I love watching. I take— I take so many screenshots of this stuff and send it to so many people because it's hilarious. Oh my God, my customers love it. Actually, they're— and a bunch of them say, oh, you're unprofessional.

20:51Maybe to the DIY guy that I'm never going to get. Yeah, they don't want anyway. Yeah, the people that you don't want, the people that will use me to work on their vehicle actually love that about me. Right. So that's awesome. I love it. I love watching it. I love— I just— it's just so funny to watch the whole thing unfold. And they're like, oh, he probably doesn't actually do anything in that shop because you never post automotive content.

21:13Yeah. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, like the day before, you're like, you know why these '68— it was like, like somebody, somebody said something like, that guy obviously doesn't actually do anything in that shop or whatever. Like the day before, you like sent us a video to the group chat of why the '68 RFEs burn up the reverse so easy, because you got one apart on the bench.

21:32You're like, it's only— you got these 2 clutches holding this whole thing together, right? Like it was— yep, it's, it's so funny, the dynamic of social media, right? Social media has made everybody an expert on anything and they hide behind the cloud. Because just like you said, when you want to know, okay, maybe this person— maybe I'm confused, what's this person do?

21:52No workplace. They ain't even proud enough to put where they're at. Well, you know, all the heavy hitters in our industry, if you go to their personal page, it's going to be— their shop's going to be posted somewhere if it's not at the very top, or at least going to be in their workplace, you know. Yeah. And but your average consumer, consumer that's going to use your shop, they don't really want to see you changing a set of brake pads.

22:17No, they're not interested in that. Even though honestly, that in itself has gotten a little crazy now. Just, just putting brakes on, like if you don't follow the procedure, it can get pretty crazy now, right? You can have all the warning light and the thing limited 43 miles an hour. I've taken the phone call a million times, you know. But yeah, they don't want to see none of that.

22:35They don't want to see you doing that. I mean, do they even really care? I mean, some of these guys have— they have social media pages where they're whipping transmissions together really fast and people think that's cool or whatever. And it's just like, well, it's— well, if you've seen it one time, I mean, it's all right every 2 or 3 months to put something like that.

22:49Sure, it might get a little attention, but people don't see that every day. No. Oh, today we're changing oil in this Honda Accord. Big deal. Big deal. They do that at Walmart 100 times an hour, you know, at Walmart. So, I mean, I'll post if it's something, something pretty cool that I haven't seen before. Yeah, I'll put it in. I'll put some automotive content out there.

23:16But right, pretty much my page from here on out is going to be fishing, road graders, dogs, messing with Susie. Will Kenzie eat it? Will Kenzie eat it? Building big buildings and stuff like that. That's awesome. I probably didn't take as much advantage of that as I needed to when that building was going up. As far as getting footage of what you were doing, maybe.

23:37Yeah, right. And I was overwhelmed at that time. It was— yeah, you were running. Yeah, it was tough. It's a big— that's a big deal. I didn't realize— I don't get stressed, but you were like— for me, that's— you were on the rev limiter. Yeah, you had it right on the rev limiter. Yeah, she was in the red. She was wound out.

23:56Yeah, that's all my redline at 4th gear. Yeah, once again. Yeah. Did they ever figure out that guy's name? I don't know. The, uh, Chevy Spark guy, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, we were, uh, actually, uh, it's funny, Jim had texted me a guy, a 7.3 motor with the tranny, the ECM, everything this morning. And I go, oh man, we got to find something to put that in.

24:14And he goes, I was— he goes, I was thinking of Chevy Spark, but they make all this power with this high-flow oil. He freaking texted that shit to me this morning. I'm like, oh my God, the power of social. So you, you kind of like slowed down and just the road report, you feel like kind of helped you start turning the corner.

24:31The social media helped you start turning the corner. It helped business quite a bit. Yeah. And, uh, I kept it up for a while. I made one every day for a while. I've kind of slacked off lately because it's just, if I'm not in the mood to do it, I just don't do it. Or sometimes you just, if business has picked up, you're busy.

24:47Right. Yeah. If I'm busy, if I just don't— if I, if I'm just not feeling it, I just ain't gonna make it. Because if it's not, I'm not just gonna do it just to do it. All these creators, they say, oh, you got to do 2 or 3 videos a day. I'm not going to do it just to do it. If I don't feel like— if I don't feel like it's a masterpiece, I'm not going to put it out.

25:06People got like times figured out when to post stuff. And I get it. Like if, if social media content is a big part of your business or like, I get it, I get it. But it's a lot. Like, people are, people are real into it, and I'm just, I'm not either. You know, like, I never post anything. I don't really post that much technical content either.

25:27Like, I'm just like, I, I don't, and I don't know what it is. I don't know if it just gets old after a while. Well, and you're probably like me. I'll, I'll, I'll make a video, a technical video, have all the stuff, and then I'll watch it before I post it, and I'm like I messed that up right there. That little bit of data, I missed that.

25:47Yeah. And somebody's going to see it, you know, and think— or when you talked about it, like maybe you didn't phrase something right. Yeah. Like you're like, that's not going to go good. Somebody's going to be like, this guy don't know what he's talking about. You know, I learned leave an error in there. It's hard for me to do because I'm a perfectionist when it comes to that kind of stuff.

26:04Yeah. But if you leave an error in there, it'll carry it so much further. Oh, the amount of views and stuff like that. Like I had one with a clutch that went nuts with a clutch on a big truck. And the guy that I learned about clutches from, he called it a— he called it a— now my mind's going blank what he called it.

26:27It's called a clutch brake, but he called it a stop clutch. That's what he called it. Oh, gotcha. A stop clutch. And it's a little bit of wrong terminology. Sure. But I use that in the video just because that's who taught me about it. And that's what you've always called it. And it— I had a bunch of people correcting me, so it carried that video every time.

26:45Yeah, it's the algorithm deal, right? Every time somebody comments or likes. But I can't— I can't purposely make an error to get— Yeah, I can't be fake. Like, I got to be real. Yeah, I hear you. Braxton does a really good job at editing. What Mike or I says on a podcast. Oh my gosh, some of the comments. I'm still— I gotta, I gotta, like you said, I gotta get my bag of potato chips because I don't, I don't fix anything.

27:11I sit there with my potato chips all day and I eat my potato chips. That's all I do all day is eat my potato. Let me look in the camera. I eat my potato chips all day and never fix a car. Never want to fix another one. It's no problem. I wish I could get the life some of these people— oh, you just sit at your desk.

27:25A freaking desk. Yeah, yeah. What desk? It's social media is so funny. It is. They just, but it's got the power to push stuff along, right? I mean, arguably, maybe without social media, maybe you'd be a little bit behind where you are now. Like, who knows? Absolutely. You know what I mean? Absolutely. I'm thankful for it. I love it. It's my realm.

27:47I'm, I'm a phone addict. I have my phone out way too much. Me too. But me too, I, I admit it, I'm a social media addict. Yeah. So I'm just about like everything else. If I'm— I'm gonna take one of my flaws and run with it and use it to my advantage. You're going to maximize it. Yeah, you're going to maximize. Great service advisors are not born.

28:10They are trained, coached, and developed. That's why Elite Worldwide created the Master Service Advisor Program, an intensive 3-day training happening September 10th through 12th in Dallas, Texas. This class is built for service advisors who want to elevate every part of their performance, from customer communication and relationship building to presenting recommendations with confidence and increasing overall sales right away. You'll learn proven strategies used by top-performing advisors across the industry while gaining practical tools you can immediately apply in your shop.

28:41Whether you're looking to improve your confidence, increase your effectiveness at the counter, or become a stronger leader for your team, this program delivers the training and support to help you succeed. Join us in Dallas this September to take the next step towards becoming a world-class service advisor. Hey guys, I'm here again to talk to you about another awesome feature from the guys over at Detect Auto.

29:02I've been talking to you about Detect Auto for over a year at this point. You know that I'm a huge fan, but they keep rolling out new features. They keep adding value. And the latest one that they've built is they built an internal chat system that goes along with the software, and it's Like if you've ever used Slack or another tool like Slack, it's very similar in format to that in that every time you open a repair order, it's gonna create a new channel within their internal chat system specific to that repair order that includes the people that need to be a part of that repair order's communications, be that technician, service advisor, shop foreman,

29:38dispatch, whatever. You know, you set the rules for that. The cool thing is that it also archives those chat histories and those comm histories. So in the future, you can come back and you can see all of the comms that have been had internally about Miss Jones's Subaru, even any, any of the chat about that customer specifically. So it's just a really neat tool to one, have clearly siloed internal comms and also to archive them and save them historically so that you can find them again in the future.

30:08I know that I've had issues in the past where we can't remember what was said about or what the comms were internally about vehicle X, and you go back into your— we use Slack— into your Slack thread and it's thousands of messages ago. This eliminates that problem. So it's just one more tool that the team at Detect Auto are putting in place to help streamline your business, make you more efficient, help you serve your customers faster and more effectively.

30:32If you want to learn more about Detect Auto and the other awesome features they have, just check the link in the show notes. Tell them I sent you. What's, uh, what's on the horizon for Stroker's Diesel next? I don't know. See, that's the problem now. I grew— you got this big shop. Yeah, that's my deal now. I'm trying to, I'm trying to grow into my skin there.

30:58Gotcha. Because before I moved— yeah, that makes perfect sense. I had done All you could do with what you had. You maximized what you had. Money was just stacking up and it was easy and you couldn't do anything wrong. And the economy was different then. Sure. You know, nobody was saying no. Engine jobs were super— anything was an easy sell. But and then we had a pretty good run in 2024.

31:23It was pretty easy. Yep. We moved into the new building, but we were still just on cruise control. It was it wasn't a problem. And then '25, people that know me is going to get tired of me talking about 2025, but it was a real meat grinder. Yeah, it was a suck fest. Yeah. And I'm hoping we come out of that. So that's what I'm doing now.

31:46I'm not— this is one of the few times I'm not in growth mode. I'm not trying to— I am in growth mode. I'm trying to grow into my skin that I have. It's kind of like Kind of like the hermit crab when he gets him a new shell, he has to grow into that new shell. And that's where I'm at now. Huge adjustments.

32:02Big shop, obviously going through what everybody else goes through, which is like finding talented people. Yep. You can't— you've been down that road. You can't— nobody wants to be out there. Apparently it's tough. Yeah, it's tough to get people to come to my area to work for me because, I mean, if you're used to a big metropolitan area or a place with a big city nearby, And you come down there to where I'm at, it's, it's a big adjustment.

32:28Pretty remote. Yeah. Yeah. And we have some cities, but they're not, not big cities. Not big cities at all. Like the city that I'm in, I think it's 8,000 people. Okay. And it's one of the biggest in South Arkansas. Really? So 8,000? 8,000 people. Yeah. I think maybe 10. It's 8 to 10 somewhere in there. I think the town I'm in, it's called— it's a town.

32:51It's 2,700. Yeah. 8,000 people. That's a city. That's a city. That's a city. I came from the other one I came from. It was like 4,500, 5,000, something like that. Really? And but the city I'm in now, it's a little better. We actually have a Walmart. So the other city I was in didn't have a Walmart and it was kind of in a big decline.

33:16It's been going down for years. But the city I moved to, which is not that far, it's 15 miles down the road, but it's the only one around in that area that's kind of growing a little bit. Right. We have a college. It's a very small college, but we do have a college. We have a Walmart and things like that. But we don't have— we don't have a Chick-fil-A.

33:38Neither do I. Neither do I. I say that we got one in the college, but it's like a Oh, it's like a Temu version of a Chick-fil-A. Yeah, it's like a, like a Chick-fil-A light or something. Chick-fil-A light. They like have 3 things on the menu, something like that. You have to drive into the college. Yeah, it's not a real Chick-fil-A. Yeah, it don't even really count.

33:57I have to drive all the way down to Buffalo for a Chick-fil-A, which is too far for me. I don't— everybody— I, I have— there's like a set of railroad tracks next to the shop, and that's like always been the joke with me. They're like, they're like, oh, you Do you ever go here? Do you ever go there? Like, people stop and ask for directions.

34:12Oh, it's so funny when people, random people stop at the shop and ask for direction, you know, which with our layout happens. With yours, probably doesn't happen as often, but people ask and they'll be headed south. And I think they think that I'm being like a smartass. I'm saying, I don't, I don't drive that way. I don't go south of the tracks.

34:30I think now it's like a joke. I'm like, no, you don't understand. You understand, I drive— I have to drive south of my house to here, and that's too far, you know what I mean? So I get it, I get it, the rural living. I kind of— that's kind of— I wouldn't trade it though. See, my, my lake house is in Hot Springs, which is, which is a pretty big city for Arkansas, you know.

34:53It's pretty popular, it's a tourist area, and yeah, you know, it's a great place. I love it there. It's got a lake right through the middle of the city, you know, and It's wonderful. And then one of the big— actually, the biggest lake in Arkansas is just north of there. It's connected to the lake that my house is on. Oh, really? They're connected?

35:11Yeah. And so we kind of had a— it didn't take long to make the decision, but we were at a crossroads when I wanted to build a new shop. I, you know, I considered putting it in Hot Springs, but really, I didn't. I don't like the clientele as much there. And there's not really much farmers or loggers up there. And if— yeah, and if you're in the— if you're in the diesel repair, if you don't have the farmers and the loggers, that's a huge— and I've had— what are you working on?

35:41Yeah, right. I had a few customers from there that came to my shop and I'm like, I remember those customers and not your speed. Yeah, I just didn't. For the most part, they were not your kind of people. I'm going to build my new shop. Here, down here where I'm used to, and stay there. And I'll just travel 2, 2 and a half hours to my lake house.

36:02You know, I think a lot of— I think, you know, I always try to compare like what we're doing to what everybody else is doing. So I think like, I think late 2025 and early '26 was soft for a lot of people. And I think I've come to the— not, not I think I've come to the conclusion. I've been told by people who know this better than I do that we Like where I'm at, it's a little bit of an anomaly.

36:25There's no, there's a couple decent shops in the area, but like there's a shop up the road from us that's in Lockport that's good. But like, if you haven't been a client of theirs, you're probably not going to get in there. They're almost like, they're so busy and they're so overwhelmed. And the 2 guys that are partners in that shop have been doing this so long and they do a good job, man.

36:51They do a great job and they're honest guys and they know how to fix the cars and they have a crew on board, but they're so overwhelmed with their volume. It's almost like going to a doctor that's not taking new patients, like, which people would go nuts if they seen that. But like, I always try to compare. And the other thing that I think that we've done for years is our, and I've talked to this, I talked to you about this, about our facility.

37:18Our facility is undersized for the amount of volume that we do, which naturally puts us understaffed because if you only got so many bays, you can only have so many techs, right? And so what happens to us is even if, even if it gets a little soft, even if the economy gets a little soft, you know, we're finishing the work at the end of the day as compared to it going over, guys working overtime, so on and so forth, you know, like, so like, like I always say, oh, we didn't really slow down.

37:50We didn't really slow down. Like, well, we slowed down, but we slowed down to a 45 or 47-hour work week from a 55-hour work week. You know what I mean? Yep. That's what it is for us. Like I always look at them like, oh, we didn't, we haven't slowed down. What are you talking about? Like, then you start looking, you're like, well, yeah, we did slow down.

38:09Guys are working 47 hours instead of working 55 hours. You know, we, we did slow down. Um, and I, I've even noticed that. And I mean, it's, it's a bizarre time right now. It's a bizarre time. And there's, you know, people blame it on all sorts of things. And it's, and it's the, you know, a lot of people blame it on the president or war, which doesn't matter.

38:29I've, I've done the research and I won't get political, but every president since 1981 has bombed the Middle East. So you can't, you can't like, it's just, it's a product of the situation we're in. It doesn't matter who's in charge. It's, it's the product of the situation. And finding solutions around that. Because like us, like sometimes our car count doesn't drop, but the approval rates drop, right?

38:51Like it's harder to get people to say yes. Right. And we're not, we're not real pressurey anyways. We're high. We probably like run like you, like, listen, this is what you need. This is how much it is to fix it. Or you can go tell me to F off. I'm not putting that money in the vehicle. Like I'm not, I don't pressure people.

39:06I'm not calling them back with a different price. We're not, we don't do that, dude. Like we just, this is what we got to get to do the job. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Roundabouts, yes or no. And man, a lot of people are taken to social media too. And I think for you, it happened naturally. You didn't set out, you're like, oh, my shop's slow.

39:27I'm going to try to solve this problem. You were just doing road reports. But it's interesting to see and for you to connect those dots that, oh yeah, it's made my shop busier. People want to come in and talk about it. People want to come and talk about it. They're bringing this stuff, they're watching the stuff. And I think a lot of people appreciate you keeping it real.

39:46Yeah, but you— that's something interesting you just said. It made me kind of realize it, that that's, that's really what happened. We— mine and your shops both, for years we've been exponentially better doing more than what we should be doing. And really, yeah, maximizing the amount of labor hours we had available. Yeah, we view it as it's slow when we just get back down close to what normal should be, right?

40:13When you're— when you're— when all of a sudden you're getting the jobs finished when they should be finished, all of a sudden you're slow, right? When you have to go around and look and say, what are we going to do next? Instead of when somebody— and I mean, I mean, I'm— I say we're slow and I use that term very very loosely because I'm gonna just— I have to hop on my phone here.

40:32I'm gonna pull up my Google Calendar because we're ancient. Like, this is, this is our Monday at the Sanborn shop, you know? I mean, we ain't— we— there's, there's 30-something cars on there. It's not, it's not— yeah, slow. Like, we're not, we're not like— nobody's like standing around staring at the wall. Yeah, yeah. My techs went from turning like 80 and 90 hours a week down to like our slowest week.

40:54Yeah, our slowest week they got like 40. You know, right, right. So it's like slow. It's just not— you get in a position in this business where you get so used to how everything's going, and when it changes, all of a sudden you're like, oh, but you're like, maybe it's not really as bad as I think it is, right? And it's, it's like on a 10-year cycle.

41:17You can— is that what you feel like? You've been in this a while. You've been in this, Kevin. My friend Kevin told me that years ago. He told me, he said, this stuff's like on a 10-year cycle. And I've been in— this is my 20— my 21st year. Yeah, it's my 21st year. I didn't make a big fanfare about my 20th year like I was going to do.

41:35Something happened and it came and went and I was like, well, hell, I didn't talk about our 20th year. But so, so it's kind of been a 10-year cycle. I started in '05. Okay. But I didn't notice a slowdown in 2015 because that's about the time I started figuring things out. Right. Okay. Gotcha. So now we're back to the 10. We're back to the next 10 years.

41:58And I hit it at the wrong time. We just moved into the new shop. So I saw the 10-year dip. So I think we're on our way back up. You think you're on your way back up? It don't take long to come back up. It comes. It comes back on once you start getting a little momentum. You feel like it just— Yeah, but I'm talking about the whole 10-year cycle of the auto repair industry.

42:19It goes up and down. And it seems to pick up quicker than it drops. It drops off kind of slow. Okay. And then it'll hit. Watch and see if it don't pan out like I'm talking about it. Yeah. I'm going to say this time next year we're going to be back to Katie Bar the Door. We're going to be back to be instead of— because I did.

42:42I got 21, 22. I got Too Mean. I mean, customers were coming in and I was like, I've had this conversation with multiple people. I was like really rude because I didn't care whether they left it or not. We had so much work, I did not care. And it's almost like you're burnt out on problem solving. Yeah. And that brings in a great conversation of should you, when you're in that mood, you need to be as far from the counter as possible.

43:09And I catch myself, I've caught myself at the shop, somebody will come in and they'll be saying, and It's not necessarily the customer's bad. They don't know what questions to ask. They're not the— they don't know. No, none of these people that I was mean to, none of them, most of them did not deserve it. Did not deserve it. And it's just, you're irritated because they're— you're like, well, how does this person not realize?

43:32Well, they don't do this. So they just don't know. They don't know what question to ask, right? It's always like they come in and they, they have their, their diagnostic printout or whatever. And it's like, well, they're, they're doing that because they don't know. They're— the car, the light came on on a Sunday. Nobody else is open. They went to AutoZone, got the thing printed out.

43:50Like, I don't know, like, I didn't know what else to do. What else were they going to do? My light came on, I was buying AutoZone, I had it scanned, right? And I've— it's funny, I just, I had a conversation with, with Jim at the shop the other day that I was, I was like, man, I was, I was up front of the counter.

44:05This one guy comes in and starts talking about this, this car that hadn't been fixed. So, you know, of course my ear's up because I know I'm going to deal with the car, right? It's been through, it's been through a couple shops, hadn't been fixed. I know. And he starts He starts saying things that in my opinion are like all the wrong— like, like telling, telling the guys like where we're going to start testing this, that, and the other thing.

44:22It's like, I, I always— and it seems arrogant, but it's just logic— I've always had the opinion I don't care what the person who couldn't fix it has to say about it. If they were, if they were that knowledgeable on the subject, they wouldn't be here. The car would be fixed, right? Right. And it sounds arrogant, but it's part of logic. It's part of like logical and like black and white things, which makes like, like if you're a very black and white person, it makes it very easy to fix cars because, you know, things either test bad or they test good, right?

44:54It makes your job— so that's how I am. And I've learned very— like this guy started saying this stuff and usually I just started chirping a little bit. Like I, I'd slipped one in there like, how's that working out for you? Yeah, right. And I've caught myself lately, like when I catch that in the office and I'm up there, I just like, and they're not engaged with me, which most of the time they're not because I got 2 guys at the counter there in Sanborn.

45:16I just like turn around and walk out of the office. I think it's the best thing I can do for them. I, I don't think I make the service writer's job easier being up there. I, I think it, I think it arguably puts me in a better mood not having to listen to all the bullshit that's going to come out of their mouth, which isn't their fault because they don't know I think it makes everybody's job easier.

45:34So I, I know, and I have this conversation a lot with other competent shop owners that are like you said, like you're like, you're borderline just getting mean to people sometimes. You're like, you're like, and you realize that like, okay, some people just like need to be straightened out. Other times you're like, they just don't know. Like I just got to get away from the, Front counter.

46:00And I don't end up up there a lot, so it's not a huge deal. But from time to time, you know, I'm up there and I'm just like, I start walking away now. And I've been doing that for a while and it's put me in a better mood. Yeah, Brian, I'm gonna tell you, it got real bad for me. I mean, it got to the point where if I looked out the window, if I was talking to them and I looked out the window and they had parked wrong, I was mean to them over that.

46:23And that's too, that's too much. Yeah, I know. It's really— I fixed it. I've got it all fixed now. That was in the old shop. So now I've got it all fixed. Susie runs the front. My area that I work in, in the shop most of the time is almost 300 feet from the front counter. So I have to walk. You can't even overhear a conversation.

46:45Oh no, that's not if I wanted to. Now I got my ring camera. And unless somebody starts yelling at Susie, which if that happens, you need to be up there anyway. If somebody's yelling at her, you need to be up there anyway. But she handles the front counter. Yeah, I can't even see the parking lot from where I'm at. I can't see what's going on.

47:01Solved all your problems. She handles all the phone calls. It's like putting the blinders on the Clydesdale. Just do your work, right? Yep. It's just do what you're doing. Nobody calls my cell phone anymore. They used to. Everybody called my cell phone. You got that habit broke? Well, if you see my old stickers, they had my cell phone number on them. Oh, that's right.

47:17I remember that now because I have some— I have some of your Original shirts. I got a bunch. I got a bunch of those stickers with me. I need to hand them out because I still got a bunch of them. But nobody calls my cell phone much anymore. There's a few that do. And, and then it's so far the front counter, I'm not up there much.

47:33And Susie handles that. And then we got William that does the inspections, the DVIs, right? Yeah. So we have fixed that problem. And the biggest thing that helped that problem was the year 2025 being soft. It humbled me. Humbled you a little bit and said, hey, you need to be nice to these people. You don't have to be nice to everybody, but if they're going to be your customer, you got to be nice to them, right?

47:54Don't be mean to them for no reason. Now, if they deserve it, yeah, right. But, uh, it's— 2025 was, was— it was bad for me and good for me at the same time. You got, you got an education. Yeah, that happens. It's just like, it's just like getting your ass beat by a car. Sometimes you get a little bit of education. Yep.

48:13And I love, I love that you brought up William because I totally forgot about— that's one of the things I want to dive into. Dedicated DVI. That's all he does. That's all he does all day. Now he fills in, like right now he's filling in the front counter. Okay. He's getting better at that. He's still not— he can get somebody written up and get it, get it going.

48:32Yeah. And, uh, he answers the phone, but his normal job every day when he comes in, it's nothing but DVIs. That is all he does. Every vehicle gets a DBI. And it's, it's not only for just selling the work. Yeah, we sell a lot of work because of it that we normally wouldn't sell because, you know, like me and you, our job is to get the vehicle fixed and get it back on the road.

48:57So we're not, we're not interested in— we just want to— blinders. It came in, it came in for this misfire. We got 10 others. Blinders. Let's get this misfire fixed and get this thing away from here. William's job is not for that. William's job is to find all the problems. I had the conversation with Jim the other day. I go, I get so hyperfocused on the problem.

49:14Like, so what we've done for a while now is because I'll get so hyperfocused on the problem with the car, like I won't check the car. It'll go somebody else, have somebody fresh inspect the vehicle, right? Because I'll get so hyperfocused. I told him one day, I go, dude, I go, that thing could be missing a windshield and 2 of the tires and I'd still be under the hood trying to figure out where the misfire is, not even realizing the windshield's gone.

49:37You know what I mean? Like sometimes you get like so dialed in. Well, and you look at a vehicle and you think, this customer didn't bring it for that. This vehicle's wore out. You make assumptions. He don't want to fix this. He just wants this misfire fixed. You start making decisions for the customer instead of doing what you should do, doing the whole deal and letting everybody else handle their part of the job in that process.

50:03That's exactly right. Yep. It's your job to figure out the stuff that's, that's difficult, or I'm not gonna say difficult, not the other person's specialty. That is your job. You've got your— you're working in your shop and your specialty, among, among other things, is you can figure out what's making the car broke. It's your job to figure out what's making the car broke.

50:25You figure out what the car— what's making the car broke. It's not your job to make the decision whether the customer Wants to do the ball joint, wants to take care of the curly-cued brake hose, whatever it is, right? Yeah, I, I'm terrible with the same thing. And I'll tell you something else I figured out. Like my techs, I'm the diagnostic tech.

50:42You know how my shop runs. I'm the diagnostic guy. I figure out what's wrong and then I have the both the nuts and bolts guys, I call them. They don't want to do DVIs either. I don't like doing DVIs. They don't. I figured out they don't like it either. They don't want to do it. They just want to be over doing their nuts and bolts.

50:58Yeah, they just want a wrench. So I figured this out. At first I was like, I'm going to, I'm going to do the DVIs. And then I did them for a couple of weeks and I was like, I don't do DVIs. I ain't got time for it, one, but I don't like it. You're like, and because you don't like it, it's you're not good at it because you don't like it because you're not willing to put the time in.

51:17I'll say I'm not doing a DVI on this one. This guy, because I know all the customers, he don't want no DVI. Let's just fix this misfire, this oil leak. Get on with. Right. But William don't know that. Yep. He knows that this truck is here. He goes and he does the same thorough inspection on every vehicle. And then we go back, me and Susie go back and we look at it.

51:38We look at it, we see what, you know, and we don't, we don't estimate every single thing, right? Yeah. Because we kind of know our customers. We kind of make some assumptions. You're realistic. But we'll send that, we'll send the DVI to the customer. And if they they say, hey, I want to know how much to fix this, or I don't care about that, then you'll get them a price on whatever.

51:59Sure. You know, I see it in the groups every time I post about my ARO. You know, my ARO is up there, $3,500, $4,000. Well, you're just diesel. That doesn't matter. We sell, like, for instance, we sold $7,600 worth of chassis, front end, that kind of stuff on an F-150. Here the other day, right? $7,000 worth on a gas burner F-150. So it's not— if you do that DVI right, it brings that ARO way up and the sale's easier because like if the people are like, if they, if they have any question whatsoever as to whether what's wrong, it's done deal.

52:41Yeah, like it's in the, it's in the video. Yeah, it's in the video. Yeah. How, how How complex is the template that he's using? It's pretty complex. I can run through it myself. I can do it in 30 minutes. Okay. It takes him, depending on— sometimes he can do it in an hour, sometimes 2 hours, sometimes 3 hours. But I don't care how long.

53:08I told him we, we got real busy. It was, it was back like pre-'23 days, a couple of months ago, we got like super busy. We had like 75 vehicles on the lot. And so he had like, I don't know, he probably had 20 DVIs piled up that he was trying to get done. And he kind of got— he got in a hurry and missed some stuff.

53:31And I had to sit him down and say, look, your job is not to get through. You treat each one like it's— yep. The fact that I put 75 cars in the lot is my problem. Yeah, I need you to be thorough with your job. Yeah. So he— because that was his first taste of what Strokers normally is, what it's like to be busy.

53:48Yeah. And so he's got it now. I said, look, I'm not— I'm never going to get on to you about being slow. I just want you to be thorough. Yeah. Because that's why you're here. If we were going to rush through it. Yeah, I can rush it. I can rush. I was already doing that. I don't need you here. Yeah. Yeah. So I've already mastered rushing.

54:05He's doing really good. And I'm so proud of William. I want to talk about about him on this show because he is— it's hard to find somebody that wants to be on the team. Okay. Like, he's, he's strokers through and through. Yeah. Like, when I pulled him in for the very first interview, I told him, I said, and I may have just did this in emails, I said, all right, I'm gonna bring you in for a test because you remember I put them through a test.

54:32Yeah, I remember that. I said, here's 2 things that you can do. To enhance your chances of getting this job, I said, you go study TechMetric. I said, there's a, there's a software program called TechMetric. You go study that. And at the time we had AutoVitals for a DBI. I said, you go study those 2 things. I said, it's on YouTube. You can study on this stuff.

54:56If you know some things about that when you come in for the interview, it's going to boost your success way up or your chance of success. So when he came in for the interview, he knew. He told me, he said, I studied up. He said, that's all I did. He said, I sat and watched videos and studied and learned. And so now he's the same way, man.

55:14He, he is a team player. So I'm really proud of William. And he's not— he's not an automotive guy at all. Okay. Like when he came his first day, I don't think he knew what a ball joint was. Like, really, he didn't know. Right. But he learned— he's using AI on his own to write, write his descriptions of what he finds. He figured out how to do that on his own.

55:37And I'm not really a good instructor. Like, I'm going to throw it down. I'm going to say, here you go, figure it out. Right. And he did it. He figured out a lot of it on his own. And I think you said he's been making his own modifications to the, to the DVI a little bit in some spots, do some stuff that makes some more sense or creating maybe a new category or whatever.

55:57Checkpoint for something he's seeing a lot or something. Yeah. Yeah. He's really good at that. If he sees a component on a vehicle he doesn't know about, he will come ask me sometimes, but he'll research on his own. He'll try to find out what that component is and what kind of fluids in it and why it looks like it's— You're not trying to do any more business without William.

56:16You got a guy like this. Yeah. You like— Yeah, he's good. I'd be lost without him. Yeah. So that's really cool. He's really good. And then we hired the cleanup guy. Okay. We got a cleanup guy. He's the same way. He applied for the DBI position. Okay. And it was super tough because I liked them both. I like William and David both.

56:34And David is the cleanup guy's name. And I hate to call him a cleanup guy because that sounds like a, a low position. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like a degrading term. Yeah. But there you go. But it's not. It's a very important position in the shop because if the shop's dirty, it's not good. We don't work. We don't work well when the shop's dirty.

56:53It's depressing. You can't, you can't find nothing. You're stepping in dirt and oil and grease and it's just bad. And he keeps all that done. And so I hate to call him a cleanup guy because that's what everybody thinks. Well, he's just a floor sweeper, but he's much more. He's a morale booster. Yeah. So by running a DVI guy and a cleanup guy, that's how we do as much work we do with only 2 techs.

57:23You know, I'm a tech too, but I'm mostly a diagnostic tech. Yeah. So that's another key to the puzzle. We only got 2 guys that actually replace parts. Yeah. You're like, you're like, whatever it takes to not have to put parts in. So if I didn't have the DVI guy and the cleanup guy, I would probably have to have 3 more techs to do the same amount of work because they'd be stuck doing DVIs.

57:42And now you got guys that are skilled. You got guys that are skilled in the nuts and bolts. What, what primarily you bill for? Right? Right. Do you bill for a little diagnostic work? Absolutely. You bill for diagnostic work, whatever. You know, some people don't. Some people— Mike doesn't charge for diag, but most normal people charge for diag. So you bill a little diag and stuff, but most of your money's made— your bread and butter's right there with this truck needs a fuel system, put it on, right?

58:09That's where, that's where your money— or whatever, whatever the job is, that's where your money's made. And they can gain so much on time Because now we estimate every job, right? So, so we get the money approved first. Well, then it's up to us to beat that time. Yeah. So when them, when them 2 nuts and bolts guys, they don't have to sweep the floor, they don't have to test drive, they don't have to do DVIs.

58:32All they do, the trucks or cars or whatever it is, is sitting in the bay. That's another thing. We got 10 bays, at least 10 bays per tech. Them vehicles are sitting there with the parts ready to go. All them guys got to do is go in there and put the parts on, put the parts on. And that's a discussion that's come up recently.

58:50I think Lucas had a video on it talking about one bay per tech. And I feel like that's one of those things where there's more than one way to skin a cat. It really is. But man, I've done it all kinds of ways. I don't see it. I mean, I did it when I was a shade tree working behind my house. I had one bay.

59:10You couldn't get nothing done. You get to a point on the car, well, I got to go to the parts store now. Yep, something, something unexpected comes up during disassembly or whatever. And even with 80 bays— my shop probably has 80 bays. I don't know how many cars it'll hold, probably 80, maybe more. We usually keep about 50 in there, and you can still drive around without a 10,000-pound telehandler in there and turn it around, right?

59:34But what I'm saying is If you pull that vehicle out, Lucas was talking about, well, it's when you got all them bays, they just sit there and you don't finish them because you got room to work on it. No, it's the opposite of that. If you pull that, you know as well as I do, if you, if you look at that vehicle and pull it outside, it's hard to get that thing back in.

59:55You're going to find some— well, let's run that one in here. Let's run that one in here and put this alternator on right quick before we put that one back in. All right, we got this alternator done, man. There's a set of brakes. Let's, let's do that set of brakes right quick and then we'll push this other one in. Then you get ready to push it in.

1:00:10Well, man, that guy, he's over there doing a transmission. He's tied up right now. The other guy's in the bathroom. Pull that other car in here and let's work on it till they get out of the bathroom or whatever. That car will sit out there for a week before you can get it back in. That's tricky. Sitting there with the parts, you'll get on it a lot quicker.

1:00:26And them guys, like, they get, they get ready to go home in the evening. They look and they say, man, I got 3 hours sitting right there that I'm already halfway through. I got it all took apart and I'm halfway back together. They're ready to go home. All of a sudden they see the 3 hours and they're like, at 3 hours, they look at their watch, they're like, I can make my 3 hours and only be an hour late.

1:00:45Car sitting outside and it's raining and snowing. Can't get it in. Nah, they ain't bringing it in. Yeah, I see both sides. I mean, it's— man, it is. Bay management is tricky for us. I mean, we're at it. We're at a point where we're, we're up, we're one guy per bay. Um, and I wish I had twice as many lifts. Yeah, that's, that's where, that's where I'm at.

1:01:08It's, it's, you know, the idea people say, oh, you just, you just bolt the wheels on and push it out. You just bolt the wheels on, push it out. When you find something unexpected on a car, when you have the subframe out of the car, you don't just bolt the wheels on and push it out. Well, and then push it where, right?

1:01:24Yeah, you have a telehandler. Not everybody has it. It's easy for me now, but how do you not be? How do you handle a car that's like this? Now you got to put skateboards under the car. You can only move it on your paved lot. So now I have so much volume, I have— we have like a concrete apron around the shop and then blacktop.

1:01:40Well, I'm reserving that area for customers dropping cars off and picking them up. I'm not— we have acres of parking behind us that have puddles and everything else. But when some schoolteacher gets off of work and she's got her nice shoes on and nice clothes, I don't want schoolteacher walking through the puddles. So now we're pushing these cars out. Now it's taking up prime.

1:02:01Like, I got one right now. I got one with a, with a wrecked engine I had to push out. It's in prime parking because it's too much of a pain in the neck to move. I wish I had more than one bay for a second. Well, he says he's done the math on it. I've done the math on it too. When I was working by my original shop was 4,000 feet, right?

1:02:20So I was working there by myself. I started figuring out the front part of the shop. Getting the management figured out, how to bill, how to do all this. I started making money, but I was moving vehicles in and out all the time. I had one lift, right? Back in them days, we was doing a lot of cab-offs. Pick the cab up, the other thing, pull the engine out, let the cab back down, pull the truck out.

1:02:42You get another one. You get— while I was building, I'd tear the engine down, order all the parts, sell the job. Then I had to work on another one while I was waiting on all that stuff. Right. So it come time, I was doing pretty good. I was, I was, you know, I was figuring it out. I was doing, you know, 50, 60 hours by myself and running the front of the shop.

1:03:03So that's pretty good for a one-man show every single week. So I got thinking, I said, man, I think I could build another shop and pay for it. So I kind of did some rough math on it because I was going to get a business plan together for the bank. Sure. So I kind of figured it up and I figured out how much I actually did it.

1:03:21I figured out how much time I monitored, I tracked it. I saw how much time I was spending moving vehicles in and out every week. So I wrote out the business plan for my bank and everything, and it was like it would make the payments on it. Really? Just on paper. So I turned it in. That bank's like, oh yeah, get started whenever, as quick as you can.

1:03:44So I built the addition. It actually did more than that. It really like— it did better than you had calculated it would. Oh, way better. More than doubled my production. I mean, I went up there, I went— I was up there doing hundreds of hours a week by myself. You know, I just recorded with Chris Gainey and he's 4 bays and he had 4 techs.

1:04:05And it's so wild, 2 of the techs end up not with the business anymore, and he didn't replace them, and their production's up. I tried to tell him that. He was talking about— he was like, man, this guy— I said, fire him, get rid of him, make it— if he quits, whatever he does, I'm telling you, those 2 guys, when they leave, you'll do more with them gone than they were there.

1:04:28I said, don't hire nobody else, just try it and see how it goes. Yeah. And he said, that's exactly because I've done it so many times, man. It's been a pleasure. Round 2. You got, you got me thinking a lot about base protect. My gears are turning, man. I'm telling you, that's that one bay protect thing. I, even with an oil change, I don't see how it works.

1:04:52Say you do nothing but oil change, the easiest, most menial job that it is. If you got 2 bays, 1 tech doing oil changes, what does he do? He pulls 2 cars in there, drains oil out of one, drains oil out of the other one, goes, puts a drain plug, puts a drain plug, puts oil filter, puts oil filter. You're waiting. Air conditioner work.

1:05:10Air conditioner work's the biggest one. What is the first thing you do on air? You got to evacuate it. Start evacuating this one, go over here to this one, start draining the cooling system. Work on 2 at a time. Yeah. 2 bays per tech is minimum in my opinion. I'm thinking all the times we've had a cab off of a diesel truck and then you find something that you didn't expect to see, right?

1:05:31Every time. When does it not happen? You pull the head and it's cracked. You're just going to send the head out and have it surfaced and put it back on? You pull the head, the head's cracked. Now what? Yeah, cab's off. You just shove it outside real quick? No, it's— I'm gonna be a month coming back in even if you get an approval tomorrow.

1:05:49I've done it. I've had it happen. You're absolutely right. And Really, base space is cheap for most places. Yeah, right. Yeah. If you're not— it's way cheaper than a tech. Yeah. If you're not in New York City or Los Angeles, base space probably is not super expensive. All these guys are always complaining about their production, man. I don't know what to do.

1:06:12My guys can't get 100%. If my guys only get 100%, I'm looking— I'm trying to figure out what the problem— I'm wanting them to get 150%. I'm not shooting for 100. I'm shooting for 150 or 200. That's where their problem— they're running around there bumping dicks. One bay per tech, playing grab ass, playing grab, playing grab ass. Well, what it is, some bitches off at these conventions playing grab ass instead of running their shops.

1:06:42What's happening? Pranks, did you like that one? That's the quote from this episode. Oh, on that bombshell, it's been a pleasure, man. I'm happy to have you on. I could do this every day. We do it every day, really. We do. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out— the good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up.

1:07:05I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes, so why not laugh a little bit Learn a little bit and maybe have another drink. You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover, or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mike@confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message.

1:07:23The number is 704-CONFESS. That's 704-266-3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode. Let's be honest, in this business, everything needs your attention all at once. A customer's waiting on an update, a vehicle's ready for pickup, there's a payment question at the counter, the phone's ringing, another estimate needs approval.

1:08:01Everybody needs something, and it all seems to hit at the same time. That's why having everything in one place matters. Techmetric brings your shop management, your payment processing, and your marketing all together in one platform, so you're not bouncing back and forth between systems and losing time chasing updates. It keeps your team aligned and gives your customers a better experience from drop-off to checkout.

1:08:21Learn more at techmetric.com, tap the link in the show notes, or scan the QR code below.