Ep 110 - Ryan Ragan and Tony Mercury | Why Every Shop Owner Needs to Go to ASTA

0:00The fastest obstacle course time will get the immunity piston trophy. That's it. We will have hidden immunity idols hidden all over the expo too, so when you find them, you bring them up and redeem them, you get a tool or something. I think we need a zip line across the top of the trade show. They have a height requirement, I've already looked into a lot of that.

0:21The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we or our guests may say do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have. There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, here's your host, Mike Allen, with Confessions of a Shop Owner presented by TechMetric.

0:50Let'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. Everybody 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.

1:18It keeps your team aligned and gives your customers a better experience from drop-off to checkout. Learn more at techmetric.com, tap the link in the show notes, or scan the QR code below. ASTA Expo 2026 coming at you September 24th, 25th, and 26th, just around the corner. If you've been hiding under a rock and you don't know what that is, it is only the very best networking, training, and trade show event in the country, or at least east of the Mississippi.

1:46So I believe that you need to be there. It's bigger every year, it's better every year. And to top it all off, Confessions of a Shop Owner is hosting the hospitality suite for the 2nd consecutive year. If you hadn't heard, it was the best freaking hospitality suite in the history of the automotive industry, hands down, no doubt. And if you also haven't heard, we are giving tickets away to the expo this year.

2:07The podcast is, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, astausa.org to learn more and to buy tickets. Be there or be square, dog. Muscle man. Yeah. Oh yeah. We've got like the dude with the good hair and the tats, and then we've got the loser. I don't— I'm not sure how I feel about these cameras. It's like, I feel like Kennedy riding in the limo or something.

2:31Well, you know, I'm just saying, what you can't see off camera is that there's a very nice— and by very nice I mean really sketchy— black leather couch just behind us. And I was going to have the two of you on the black leather couch for this interview. That would be a little awkward. Yeah, it'd be more awkward for one of you than the other.

2:50We're not on Playboy or something. Yeah, just, just If you avoid direct eye contact, it doesn't get weird. So, um, production tips from Hugh Hefner over here. I don't know what we're doing. All right, so we're, uh, we're at the shop, uh, so there might be some background noise, uh, from the guys working, but it is, uh, Friday. We've had a very busy, uh, action-packed week, and so I think they're kind of already, uh, kind of coasting to the finish line a little bit, so we'll see how that goes.

3:20If you hear a Tesla fall off of a lift, uh, don't worry about it. Yeah, we'll be fine. It's a lease. I'll give it back to Elon. Yeah, there you go. He can afford— How long have you had a Tesla? Uh, when did I get it? It'll be 2 years this December. Okay, what model do you have? Uh, Model 3 dual motor.

3:37Okay, do you love it or is it— I do. I get it. I get the hype. I'm a huge car guy. I've always been a gas, gas guy. I've always had Volkswagens, Audis, always, you know Stage 2 software, downpipes, you name it, right? So I was very apprehensive, right? Because I knew I was gonna get— my car friends were gonna talk shit, right?

3:56Like, oh, you got an EV, you sold out. But I get the hype now. Like, you charge it at the house, your phone's your key. Like, it takes so much thinking about driving away that you don't realize that is there until you have— my son drives one, makes it easy. And we were just talking about gas because a friend sent a screenshot or a photo.

4:13He spent like $70 fill up. I've spent in the last 12 months $475 charging this vehicle. Yeah, I'm just not— I'm not an electric guy. I just, I can't trust anything that can be shut down by somebody else. I think gas cars are headed that way too though. Yeah, I mean, modern fuel, I mean, they're also connected and remotely controlled. I mean, yeah, so, uh, if you want to experience like the true peak of automotive excellence and performance, no lower, you really need to invest in a Miata.

4:42Oh yeah. Yeah, I remember this. I'm sorry that I didn't have the Miata here, uh, for you guys, uh, this morning, but it normally lives here when it's not being actively driven. Your teenage daughter needed it? Uh, she's not a teenager yet, but she does love it. Yes, you know, when I see them on the road, she's a girl. Yeah, I don't know, I, I secretly want one.

5:02They are the butt of tons of jokes. Absolutely. They are also incredibly fun to drive. That's what everyone I know who who has one or has had one loves that car. Really? Yeah, I just can't imagine something about them. Well, they're, they're perfectly balanced, right? The weight per wheel is the same around the car, um, and you can just throw them around like on rails.

5:27They get no power, they're slow. Yeah, right. But they turn on a dime, stop on a dime if you put a little money into the brakes, and, uh, it's a It's the cliché to say it's much more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car, uh, because most high-powered, high-performance vehicles vastly outpace the skill of the driver.

5:48Uh, and so if you develop your skill set driving Miata or any other of the entry-level spec cars, you know, the BMW with the E30— was that car cheap? Uh, yeah, I think I got it for $500. Oh, really? Yeah, well, now you have money to hire a bodyguard to keep you getting beat up at the prom or showing up in that.

6:07Well, to be perfectly clear, there's way more than $500 in it now, but it had— it was a customer and a friend and had been in his carport and it hadn't been started or moved in over a decade. Okay. And he sold his house and had to get it out. Like, it was the last thing. Hurry up and come get it. Yeah.

6:24So it's like, you can have $500, you gotta come get it. So I had to put a top on it Replace everything in the fuel system. The fuel was turned to jelly. Oh yeah, all the rubber, you know, upgrade the cooling system, new brakes. I mean, it's the car like when you pull out and like your neighbors are out doing yard work and you pull out a Miata, they like turn their back, like don't wave at you.

6:44Mike's in the Miata again. Is that what it is? No, I think everybody needs a fun car. So to, I guess, redeem myself, I did earlier this year buy a 2010 Volkswagen GTI. So it's 6-speed manual, the seats are manual. So it's— I love the duality of getting into you know, a 2025 EV with like super heavy tech and then getting into the Volkswagen.

7:04Like, I gotta put the key in the ignition and start it. So like, yeah, it's a throwback car. It's that, you know what, uh, they're very different experiences and they're both satisfying in their own way. Yes. Yeah. So like, the car drove me here today. Yeah, it's what my son always does. I did it. Yeah. Yeah. So they— when I got it, it was on version 12.

7:20It's on version 14 now. And I've done multiple like 3-hour car trips in it, like Carolina Beach, Virginia Beach, Charlotte, and it will literally go from my driveway to a parking spot. Yeah, they were just— my, my son and his wife were just arguing about this last night because he was talking about, I'm the one that's always driving. She's like, the car's driving, you're not doing anything.

7:39When you don't realize the mental fatigue, like when we went to Carolina Beach, you know how like you get off 40, you got that long drag all the way down, and it's always stop and go. It just— the car does all that for you. And when I got there, very much like flying, you know how at the end of a very busy travel day you're like mentally tired?

7:54For whatever reason, like, that's almost completely removed with full self-driving. I'm going to tell you, you're right. When I was in Italy, when we were over in Italy, I was over on business, but we also had a few days to do nothing, you know, here and there. And Marco was our cab guy. You know, my buddy had set it up. Marco had this huge Mercedes, you know, van, black leather, air kicking.

8:15I never had to drive the entire time I was in Italy. And I got to tell you, it was very refreshing. Yeah, it was like, wow, there's no stress. You know, it was kind of like, this is great. So what do you do on a 3-hour drive where you're not driving? Do you watch a movie? Do you read book. So you can't watch a movie, you can't read a book.

8:28This is G-rated too. So yeah, they, they have updated it where you— it's— I, I think the threshold's like 30 seconds and you just got to kind of look at the road. There is an interior camera that watches you to make sure you're watching the road, but that's funny, you kind of really don't have to pay attention. And once you get more acclimated and comfortable with the technology, like when I'm making right-hand turns, like I'm not even paying attention anymore.

8:47So it's like, it's— I have that much trust in the software at this point. Wow. Well, Seth Thorson's always calling me and he's in his car being driven home or driving between stores or whatever else. And I think he just does it as like a flex. Yeah, well, I'll send videos of the car driving itself. It's weird the first time because it like moves the steering wheel, like it just moves by itself.

9:08Like you can see the brake pedal depressed and all that. I don't know if I could trust that. That's freaking out. Yeah, that would freak me out. It's not for everybody. It takes about a week or two to get comfortable. Wow. I mean, in our lifetime there will be cars where there are no pedals and no wheel. Yeah, there is no ability for— and that's like our kids.

9:25No, I don't, I don't think it's going to be our kids. I think it's our kids' kids for sure. Yeah, my grandkids would probably— yeah, your grandkids probably. Yeah, I think, uh, also in our lifetime we'll see where you are not allowed to get on the interstate or major highways unless your vehicle does the driving for you. Well, it's going to get to that point.

9:47Because they'll be able to stack them so much more tightly and merge so perfectly and everything else. Well, I mean, if there's one thing that's got— I mean, the amount of traffic fatalities is just insane. And something eventually is going to come to a head where there's going to have to be more control established or something. Well, the data is going to prove without a doubt that most traffic fatalities are the result of human error.

10:08Oh yeah. They can remove human error and save thousands of lives a year, then they'll require it, especially on major highways. Oh yeah. I mean, Tesla does come out with those data points of how many human-driven miles versus full self-driven miles and the amount of accidents and fatalities. And it's like a fraction of what human drivers are already. The problem with human drivers, we're idiots.

10:31I mean, I see a guy in a $200,000 car holding his cell phone up talking. I'm sure it has Bluetooth. It's a $200,000 car. I mean, we bought it. I don't know why they don't hook it up. Seen someone with 2 phones. Yeah. Driving with their legs. Yeah. Leaning over the wheel. Yeah. I don't understand it. I'm like, CarPlay, you have all these things in these expensive cars and they don't use any of it.

10:55I just don't understand. Yeah, we were talking about that, that at some point they'll have to pass legislation that like the car has to drive itself because you put one human driver on the phone. Yeah, because you just think how tight, like even like left-hand turns, right? Because most people aren't gonna stop and let you go, but the cars are all gonna talk to each other and it's like, I'm going to create the perfect gap for this car.

11:15People think if they turn a blinker on, it gives them right away. I can just merge in. Doesn't matter. I got a blinker on. That's not how it's going to go. I can see major highways. Yeah. That's how I do curves. And I can see like certain downtown districts in super high population areas like London, Manhattan. Oh yeah. You're not allowed to drive yourself.

11:34DC. That was crazy. I mean, yeah. Well, I like kind of like brainstorming and and think about what the future— like, there, there could be a world where it's a subscription-based vehicle cost. Yeah, $300 a month, whatever it ends up being. But nobody owns a car, you just have an app and the cars are just constantly moving. Yeah. So you just like request a vehicle and it picks you up and brings you where you need to go.

11:52I mean, the average car now is on the road, what, 2, 3 hours a day max? Yeah. And if you can increase that to 20 hours a day, then you need fewer cars. Yep. Right. If they're being— yeah, I mean, managed appropriately by the AI overlord. Yeah, very similar in this country than the other. I mean, you know, Europe, the cities are built around people.

12:10Here they're built around the car. Yep. And it's just very different. Like, you know what drives me crazy is scrolling my social feed, and obviously I follow a ton of shops like a lot of you do, and you see the exact same image, generic photo, generic holiday post, or whatever it might be across 40 or 50 shops around the country because none of them have unique to their business material.

12:34That's not building a brand. Nobody's ever won a customer with a generic Labor Day social media post, right? Look, I've personally been watching 47 and what they've been doing for Greg Buckley at Buckley's Auto Care in Delaware, and I'm super impressed. That's exactly why I've made the choice to sign up with them myself in my business, because I want to dominate the community here in Raleigh, just like the other clients of theirs are doing, like Greg is doing in Delaware.

12:58If you want your shop to stand out, go to 47consultants.com/confessions. It's 47consultants.com/confessions. Tell them Big Daddy Mike sent you. And sorry guys, they're not going to do any free diag for you. Okay, so guys, today I'm actually here recording and I've got part of Team Detect Auto off camera and we were just laughing about some of the tool names that they have.

13:23But one of the ones I want to talk to you about today, they call it the Inspection Finding Writer, which is a terrible name, bro, do better. But it is an awesome tool to go along with that. You know, when I was trying to find a way to describe it, If you've ever used Grammarly as an add-on onto your web browser, it's like Grammarly but for tech speak.

13:42It's going to take the findings that have been written up by your techs and by your team on the repair order, and it's going to shift that into more easily understood language. It's going to clean up the grammar, it's going to clean up the spelling. But the other thing that's super cool about it is it's also got the ability to analyze images that are added to the repair order.

14:00If I check a red item on my DVI for fluid leaks and take a picture of an oil pan that's obviously leaking, It's going to identify that that's an oil pan that's leaking and it's going to give that language into, into the repair order for you. So that's yet again going to save you time typing and writing it out. Now you can also add a little bit more context, add some simple, very short context, and it will expand upon that for effect.

14:22It's just another great tool that the team at Detect Auto are putting out there to help streamline your business, make things run more smoothly. Now they just need to work on naming their tools. If you want to find out more, check out the link to Detect Auto in our show notes. So, you know this, you're, you're a proud American citizen. The United States is the only country that matters.

14:45Everything else is just orbiting around the United States. Well, you know, there's nothing that competes to our rail system and our highway systems. I mean, when you talk about transporting goods across, you know, the semis and all that, I mean, it is crazy when you think about it. It is, man. But, you know, being in Europe, like I said, it's the difficulty in that when you're sitting in Venice watching them bring a boat in full of, you know, and unload it.

15:06I'm thinking, that's a crap job. I would not want to do that every day. And they can only carry so much because it's just the way it is. And so it takes forever to get stuff there. Well, you know, the drone can drop off our Amazon order in under 60 minutes now if you're in the right neighborhood. Yeah, that's crazy too. The march of technology, that's a big thing that we're talking about.

15:27We got together today to talk about ASTA and ASTA Expo, and we started talking about Teslas, and we're 10 minutes in now. We haven't even said what we're here for. Uh, but the moderator failed. Yep, yeah, that's my life. It's one long failure series. I just stumble from one mistake to another over and over. Um, but the technology is evolving so rapidly And being an early adopter of the technology, and that's the automotive technology and the technology that we use to service it.

15:56And, you know, being an early adopter for a lot of the new AI-driven tools that are available, or building your own AI-driven tools to use in your business, those conversations really need to be happening, and you have an opportunity to take advantage of all this new tech. And be on the leading edge of the wave, right, versus being reactionary. And the way that you learn about these things, you can learn about them online to a degree, right?

16:26But coming to major events like ASTA Expo and being in the room with the thought leaders and being part of the conversations and the networking events that are happening there and the sharing of ideas that's happening there Uh, is unlike what you get. Like, I'm good friends with the shop right here and the shop right here. There's only so much that we share because we're, you know, the same cars are driving by the front door, right?

16:52But if I'm talking to, uh, men and women from all over the world who will be gathering in Raleigh next month— uh, 2 months, 2 months. Well, that's when we air it, right? Yeah, yeah. Um, and there's none of that concern, right? It's just totally open sharing. Uh, and so I, I'm looking forward to it. This is gonna be like my 15th one or something crazy.

17:17Um, and the growth that we've seen in that time is incredible. But I say all of that to get 12 minutes in to say, hey, who are you? Hey, uh, good to see everybody. Uh, familiar face, I'm sure, to a lot of people watching. Tony Mercury. I'm with Auto Shop Solutions. I've been there since actually 2015. And ASTA was one of my first trade shows.

17:35I'm sorry. Wow. Well, I enjoy it because it's in our backyard too. Yeah, right. Yeah. You can be home. So you started off as just an account manager at Autodesk? Yeah, I started out 2015 as a sales rep and then just kind of— so my full backstory is I was with T-Mobile for over a decade. Yeah, huge organization. And eventually I just got grounded out and burned out.

18:00My goal was to really find a small business where like my hard work and effort would translate to a smaller group of people, right? I didn't want to be like— I still remember what my personnel number was at T-Mobile, right? That's all, right? Because we were like 40,000 employees. So literally just a number. Yeah, I was just a number. I was, you know, graded on my output and performance.

18:20That's it. So I really wanted to find a small business. I love cars. I had small business sales background. And I found AutoShop Solutions on a whim. So super lucky, and it just like married all of my personal interests together. Uh, yeah, so started out in sales, managed the sales team, director of sales and biz dev for a while, and then in '21 I was promoted to vice president overseeing revenue.

18:42So specifically the life cycle of our clients, so sales, production, and our client success team. And then 2 and a half years ago I took over as vice president of operations. So I oversee— really it's like a general management role, so I oversee all facets of our business now. And then earlier this year our CEO Margaret, which everyone's familiar with, uh, retired.

19:01So I, I run every aspect of her business now. So makes you feel like a failure, doesn't it? I mean, I already did. Yeah, just to rub it in. So I am curious, you mentioned, uh, managing the life cycle of a client. I had an interesting conversation yesterday with, uh, some guests I was recording with, um, about the life cycle of a client in a 20 Group.

19:25And how they come in, and especially if it's their first ever 20 group, they don't really know what's going on. They're a little bit nervous to share because they feel like there's all these big dogs in the room. And, you know, a lot of people take a year to really warm up to the group if you're, if you're meeting on the phone once a month and in person a couple times a year, right?

19:46And then you have a couple years where you're really growing by leaps and bounds. And then a few years where you're one of the established members of the group. And then after that, you kind of start to stagnate and plateau a little bit, I think. And the reality is, I think in my 20 group, I've started to stagnate and plateau a little bit because I've been in it forever.

20:09And I worry that I am not bringing the value to the other members of the group because I don't come with the same level of energy that I did 10 years ago, right? Um, and so we were having a conversation about the life cycle, the effective life cycle of a member of a 20 Group. What's like the effective life cycle of a client for Auto Shop Solutions?

20:29Do you expect 10 years? Do you expect forever? Yeah, that's interesting. So I was texting with a client who's been with us for over 20 years, right? Because Danny started this business kind of as a side thing while he was doing business coaching, and he's still with us. I would say the average time a client stays with really any digital marketing agency is probably going to be— I would call it 3 to 5 years, right?

20:48Because it's— they want to see if the grass is greener sometimes. A lot of times they end up coming back because they're like, no, you guys actually did everything. And sometimes we're the first agency they've ever signed up with, so they don't know what they don't know. And then they go somewhere else and they're like, ah, gotcha, okay, I'm coming back. It's not what I thought it was, or it's a similar level service, you know, maybe we outperform the other competitor, vice versa.

21:09In a similar manner? Well, I— and that happened to us in 2016. I stepped away from Elite's 20 Group process. Uh, it was at the same time that, uh, my father was transitioning out of his business, and I was buying Car Fix from my father, um, and just kind of lost focus a little bit. And I missed it and ended up going back.

21:30And I, I dabble— I put my toe in some of the other big coaching organization pools, and, you know, there are benefits to all of them. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. But, you know, now for the last year and a half, I've been doing Elite's one-on-one coaching for the show. You know, I've started it out as a thing for the show, but I'm really getting a lot from that and really enjoying that.

21:54Yeah, one of my favorite things we implemented for specifically the lifecycle, looking at, you know, sales, production, client success— you guys could probably use something similar here is once a month we have a call. And it really started from that TikTok meme. And I always get it wrong. It's like, we're going to say and we're not going to judge. Do you remember that?

22:12And they would just say the wildest stuff. And it was really like started as a joke on TikTok, but we kind of took that like initial concept and brought it in-house. So I have my sales manager, my production manager, my CS manager. Sales gets to go and say, here's what's— here's what I'm hearing from production clients. Here's what I'm hearing from CS clients.

22:28What's working, what's not working. And it's— there's— we have to check our personalities and our egos at the door because we're thinking about the perspective of the client's experience while we're doing this. And then production gets to go, and then CS gets to go, and a lot of things get uncovered. And we've been doing this for about 2 years, and it's just missing pieces of information that sometimes they don't get moved over from one team to another, or an expectation wasn't defined correctly.

22:52So it's like we can fix problems while we do that. And again, It's my big thing at the end of the call is this call only works if we take this information back to our teams and implement it. Yeah, and we've been doing that. So I could see any shop really doing something, you know, talking to the GM, the, the front of house, your service advisor teams, the technicians, like where's our breakdown in communication, where's our blind spots, how are we serving our customers, and how do we make this process better for anyone who walks inside this Car Fix location.

23:17So in order for that to work, and I have, I have an enormous ego Uh, and I probably would have to check the ego at the door a little bit. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, it's super defensive. I mean, you can't get your feelings hurt. I mean, that's the biggest thing. That's the thing. I mean, you got to kind of view it— I always talk about things like that, like playing golf.

23:33I mean, you're not playing another golfer, you're playing the course. Um, so there's no reason to be mad at this guy if he's doing good or this and that. And you just kind of have to view it as the field. That's what you're trying to accomplish. And some days you have good days, some days you have bad days. It's really hard the further you go in leadership and running a business of not to take things personally because it's really easy, right?

23:53Like when I see like if somebody's leaving or something and I'm like, oh man, like I, I take it on me personally and I'm like, there's sometimes there's external factors, right? For sure. Yeah, I, uh, we're, uh, just onboarded a new service advisor, uh, and he's been in the industry for a while, uh, and he came in And I was talking to him and he was like, man, I really thought I knew and I'm realizing how much there is I don't know.

24:18I'm like, dude, I mean, you don't need to compare yourself to this guy. He's been, he's been with this organization for several years and he's, he's kind of a big dog. Don't— that's not the standard to which you're being compared. You just need to strive to be a little bit better than you from yesterday each day, right? I think experience works against you though too a lot of times, you know.

24:37In my, in my past life in another organization, I had a, you know, president was telling me that, you know, I know everything there is to know about this business. I've been doing this 44 years. And my response was, then you need to retire. Because the day you think you know it all, you're not really any use to anybody here. And, you know, I think that works just as much against you a lot of times.

24:54It's just a code word to say I refuse to learn new things. That's it. Yeah. So my favorite quote for what you just talked about is comparison is the thief of joy. Yeah. I guess it's a Bible verse, isn't it? I don't know. Um, maybe. I don't know. My wife would know. No, so would mine. Yeah. Um, hey, so now we're, uh, 20 minutes in.

25:15Who are you? You've got a hell of a system. It's almost like we should— I'm not even sure if these are on. Is he just making this up? Um, no, I'm Ryan Reagan, Executive Director of ASTA, um, you know, the Automotive Service Tire Alliance, and the guy that kind of all the weight falls on to pull off the ASD Expo. Myself and now Callie is helping.

25:37So let's be honest, it's mostly Callie. It is. I always say that. I mean, you know, people— I don't— I'm one of those people that don't really need the recognition, so I don't really want it because then you're setting expectations. We don't want to do that. So yeah, I don't have to live up to high standards. No, but it's good. You know, this would be going into, you know, this is year 2 for me of putting on the show.

25:57You know, so it's changed an awful lot. I remember you visited 3 years ago, and that's when we were in the interview process. I think you had accepted the offer, but you hadn't started yet. Yeah. And then last year was the first year downtown at the convention center, and that was also your first year, right? Yeah. And now we're year 2 coming in now.

26:20So if you haven't been to the ASTA Expo, Expo. It's in, it's in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's gonna be September 24th through 26th this year. Get into town on the 23rd. The podcast is going to be having some type of social event or party or race or something. I don't know what, we haven't decided yet, but it's going to be fun. And plan on staying through the evening of the 26th because there's events all day each day, and then there's networking and social events each night.

26:46Um, but it's at the convention center downtown. It's walkable to lots of good restaurants and social venues, shopping if that is of interest as well. So you don't need to come in and have a car. If you can fly in, you can Uber from the airport. It's a 15-minute ride. I recommend it. Yeah, yeah, parking's a bit of a bitch and not cheap.

27:08So, you know, if you want to fly in and Uber in, that would be my recommendation as well. But it is you know, and I've been to them all, right? Uh, you know, I've been to the STXs and the Visions and the Apex and SEMA, and, you know, all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. All of them, um, excel in different areas.

27:28But where a STA Expo is the best, I believe, is in the networking opportunities and the relationship building. Because like nothing compares to Apex and SEMA for just sheer scope. Yeah, but it's so big you can't really make relationships because everybody's there with the people they already know, to a degree. Whereas we still have that small-town southern charm kind of vibe going on.

27:57I remember when I first got involved with the board, it was, hey, here's a list of people that are here for the first time, track them them down and make sure that they feel welcome. That's the mentality that, that we're focusing on. And so if you come, don't worry about coming by yourself. If you're going to come by yourself, somebody is going to drag you into a conversation and you're going to make friends and you're going to make connections that become valuable.

28:25And I can't tell you how many group chats that run year-round now that are a result of the networking events that have happened. Uh, at the expo. So yes, come for the learning, come for the training events, come for, uh, the trade show and the vendor relationships that you can help develop. But if nothing else, come for the, for the networking. And the hospitality suite's going to be amazing.

28:48So yeah, yeah. My favorite thing about trade shows, because, you know, I've been doing this since 2015 and I can't even tell you how many trade shows I've been to at this point, but you'll see a new shop owner that's never gone outside of their own 4 walls and it's their first event and they don't realize how much support there is in our industry, how friendly everybody is, and how— just like you said, half my friends are automotive at this point.

29:08They're— granted, they're all over the country, but like all my group chats are with industry friends, right? So then you see them at that first trade show and they're like, wow, there's a solution for this and I've been doing it the hard way, or I need coaching, or, you know, I just met some local shop owners that are also Euro shops, right?

29:23So, and then you see them at the next one and you ask them how business is doing, they're like, oh, like, I, you know, implemented this from this course I took. And it's just each time you see them, they're like significantly better. So it's just the growth trajectory a shop owner can put themselves on by attending this event is huge. It's, it's what it is.

29:40And I mean, this year it's kind of designed that way to even enhance it more. I mean, you know, like last year we did the theme with the A-lens and stuff, and it was kind of based on our training being out of this world. And look, we have I'll put our training against anybody in the country. I mean, it's just that simple.

29:53We have over 80 training classes. Some are very technical, very technical. Some are leadership, some are marketing, some AI stuff's out there. So we have a lot of things. But this year's theme, we kind of went off Survivor, the TV show. And so you might show up with 5 of your friends, you all bought tickets together, you're going to have a neck gaiter like they wear on the show Survivor in your bag.

30:15And they're all not going to be the same color. So you're going to belong to this tribe. And there's places to get photo ops with people in your tribe. So I want you to get out and meet new people. I want you to start talking, start networking, because what you were talking about, I hear that probably more than anything. It's just how it changed my life, how I met all these people and they had already went down the same road I was going down.

30:36And they can tell me, oh no, let me tell you. Great service advisors are not born. They 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.

31:04You'll learn proven strategies used by top-performing advisors across the industry while gaining practical tools you can immediately apply in your shop. Whether 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.

31:28Hey 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 want to get the right people who need auto repair right now. Then 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.

31:53We 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. And then we also get their physical address and we start sending banner ads and display ads to every single device in that house.

32:15It 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.

32:36Entrepreneurship can feel lonely. Yes, very. When the first time you discover that you're not alone and there are other people living the same struggles, it's incredible. So like you said, first-time attendees at these trade shows, it blows their hair back. It's just like if you've never had a business coach, it doesn't matter which business coach you get. Yeah, because they all focus on the same low-hanging fruit initially.

32:59The differences come out later when you get more fine-tuning and adjustments. Any business coach is going to change your business drastically. Yeah, for the better. Any trade show is going to be amazing, and training event is going to be amazing. But I'm here to tell you that the Expo is unlike all of them. They're, you know, they're all unique. So yeah, it's, it's, you know, we really do, like you said, we, we really do strive for that hospitality, that cliché, that Southern hospitality.

33:26I mean, we want you to be welcome. I tell every vendor And every person I talk to on the phone every day, you know, I talk to vendors about, you know, they're important to me, the members, the attendees are important to me because the better you all do, the better I do. It's just that simple. You know, if you come to this show and you take one thing away that impacts you in any positive way going back, then it's worth it to me.

33:47And I mean, you know, we do things a little different than others. You know, we have the Friday night, the owners-only kind of trade show on the floor. So if you are a vendor, you know, You're going to get to have serious conversations with decision makers in a kind of casual setting and build relationships. I think it's easier too for people to approach people that they wouldn't think about approaching because it's not a mob of people.

34:09Now Saturday, hey, it's open to everybody, man. Lunch is on the floor and I'm going to tell you, there'll be a lot going on. This year, like I said, we changed it up. We have a courtyard in the middle of the trade shows where people can eat their lunch, do all that stuff. And it went from about 56,000 square foot floor to about 112,000 square foot floor.

34:28Yeah, I was gonna say, last— if you were there last year, you know, it's double in size. Yeah. And so, you know, the layout, there's going to be a restaurant on a concession stand and restaurant on the floor. Yeah. That you can get access to, and then lunches will be down there, right? We have lunch down there on Saturday. So the really important question that I haven't asked, because I was plugged in pretty well in the years past, but I've been conspicuously absent in almost everything association-related this year.

34:58I think it's because you made it very clear that you didn't like me to be. No, no, no. The very important question is where the podcast booth is going to be. So this year they're on the walls, on each wall. So we'll have 3 over on this wall and 3 over on this wall. So can you make sure that I'm opposite from Lucas?

35:14I can, I can, I can. His body odor issue has gotten really out of control. I'll put you by Carm, you know. So, you know, that's a man that I can respect. Well, if only that were mutual, that would be better. Hey Carm, I'd like you to come on the show. I think we should talk. Oh, the OG. Uh, yeah, but no, it— look, it's, it's going to be great.

35:34There's a lot of fun things. The pre-party is— yeah, I was, I was taking calls on the way here about pre-party things, because I can tell anybody's going to attend this, when you show up, bring some gym shoes, stretch a little bit. Um, I am not sumo wrestling again this year. We got a lot more than that. We got, we got a lot more than that.

35:52So, you know, that, you know, like I said, it's kind of Survivor theme, so we got to have some challenging things. So in the middle of the pre-party is a 100-foot-long obstacle course. Um, now it's a blow-up one, so when you fall off, it won't hurt too bad. Waiver of liability before they go out there. Everybody that registers has to click on that waiver.

36:12Yeah, believe me. And then we have axe throwing, we've got the giant boxing glove boxing ring, we've got jousting, we've got a ninja wall to climb. I mean, soccer darts, cornhole, you know, all the crazy stuff. So it's going to be bringing the pre-party into the convention center was a great idea last year because historically we've done it remotely. Yeah, to bust out and everything.

36:32That was a great idea. So it's a lot of fun. The fastest obstacle course time will get the immunity piston trophy. But that's it. We will have hidden immunity idols hidden all over the expo too. So when you find them, you bring them up and redeem them, you get a tool or something. And we got some neat stuff that we'll do to kind of have fun.

36:50The lobby is going to be ridiculous. The staircase will be ridiculous again. So it gets— even I sometimes I find myself like competing against myself. What can I do to make it different? So I think we need a zip line across the top of the trade show. They have a, they have a height requirement. I've already looked into a lot of that.

37:09I was going to put like a 60-foot rock climbing wall and they're like, we can't put that in there. I don't know, bungee jump? So yeah, I pushed all the limits on all that. So, um, if somebody wants to go ahead and buy the Bulletin Register, um, ASTA, you usa.org and then click on the expo and there's a registration link right there.

37:30There is, and the clock is ticking. August 1st, uh, that's the last day. We're going right up— the 31st is the last day to get the early bird special ticket prices. Um, and it drives you crazy, right? Yeah, it drives you crazy because you missed it. Uh, I was looking at all the data and last year and like half the people, a little more than half, bought tickets within the last 30 days.

37:53Thinking all the money they could have saved and all those things, you know, buy the tickets. And but then as I'm saying that, I just want everybody to know, like, as I'm reading that data, everybody I'm reading it to in the room is like, yeah, we haven't got ours yet either. I texted you and Cal yesterday. I was like, yeah, I need to get 8 more tickets real quick.

38:11I was like, I need to go. That's gonna save me $800 if I go ahead and do that today. Yeah, I'm like, come on now. Um, so, uh, if you're a podcaster listener and you don't know, if you are a shop owner and you've never been to the expo, Confessions of a Shop Owner, thanks to our sponsors, is giving away 10 tickets to first-time attendees because we want to get first-time attendees to these trade shows so you can experience kind of the life-changing event that it is.

38:36There'll be a link in the show notes to a form to, to register yourself or another shop owner that you know for that drawing. We've already given away 7 of those seats, so we've got 3 more seats to give away. We'll be drawing for that later in August, and you'll be notified if you were a winner on that. So link in the show notes to apply for a free ticket to ASTA Expo.

39:00You need to come either way, so you need to be there. It's gonna be great. Yeah, I promise you. I mean, beyond everything else, look, the food's great, the parties will be great, that'll all be fun. I promise you, you'll love the the training. We have some solid training. So 80 classes spread across entry-level technical, journeyman technical, high-level expert technical. We've got service advising, we've got management, we've got marketing, we've got, uh, office, like bookkeeping-focused, uh, stuff.

39:28We got some AI-focused classes as well on utilizing the tools that are out there and also how to build your own tools. Oh yeah. Um, and is Seth coming to teach that class? I believe so. So it's a truncated version of the class that he taught up here in this lounge a couple months ago, and everybody who came to that class and filled out the feedback form said that it was amazing.

39:54I had multiple people call me while they were traveling home in the airport telling me that they had already replaced tools in their business or built new tools. In the time that it took them to get to the airport instead of waiting for their flight. So you need to attend that class for sure. We have some new AI vendors this year that are quite unique, really neat stuff.

40:15But just had a— just booked them up this week, but they had reached out and was talking, walked me through a demo of their products, and I'm like, well, this is kind of cool. Everybody— I mean, that's the buzzword, right? Everybody and their sister says we're using AI to do this, but it's a race right now by all these different companies to be first to market with a fully functional, you know, estimating tool or DVI tool or, you know, marketing management tool or whatever it might be.

40:41So what are you guys teaching? You've got a couple of— Yeah, we have a bunch actually. Uh, Kevin Robinson and myself are doing, uh, How a Marketing Agency Markets. So like our best practices and principles of how we run a large organization. What you can implement in your shop. So it's really identifying your gap, what kind of, not car count, call count, your cars, your conversion rates, and just really looking at it.

41:06'Cause a lot of shops just throw money at marketing, they don't really use it as like a profit center or understand like how do I successfully track these results. So we're huge deep dive into that. Jessica Watkins is speaking, she's doing customer success leadership for the front counter. Um, and we have Darren Williams speaking, and I can't remember his topic. I don't know off top of my head, but yeah, he's definitely— yeah, definitely there.

41:28So we got a lot. You guys have quite a few classes. Yeah, feel a representation there. Yeah, no, that's good though. You know, I'm going to be involved in leading my first class ever at ASTA Expo this year, so that's going to be— I'll have extra security in the building. It's gonna be Lucas and I, but thankfully we have an adult in the room.

41:48Tanika Haynes also going to be part of it. So the 3 of us are going to be leading a 3-hour-long multi-topic conversation that is specifically for shop owners. Classroom is not going to allow anybody but shop owners— no vendors, no suppliers, no employees, shop owners only— so that we can really kind of take the filter off and talk about the reality of what it's like and the struggles that we have as shop owners.

42:16That's the beauty about the expo. I think that happens more at our show than anywhere else where people are just, you know, they drop the guard, they realize it's not about competition, this and that. And like, they're from all over. I've got people, we have an entire group coming from the Caribbean now that we booked. We got guys from Canada, a guy from Australia, and they'll just sit around and just let it fly.

42:36Like, this is what I'm seeing, this is what's kicking my ass, you know. And that's it. That's the beauty of it. I always equate those conversations— I always think back when my kids were real little and you feel like you're failing as a parent, and you talk to another parent and you're like, oh, your kid does that too? Oh, your kid does that too?

42:51It's not me, it's my kid, right? It's— so when you have that conversation with the shop owner, you're like, oh, you're experiencing that too. So it's— it, it feels like these problems are very unique to yourself, but they're— there's no problems to solve. So not adding anything to the conversation, but just for giggles, Um, whenever I feel like my kids are a problem or I'm being— I'm performing poorly as a parent, I just go out in public and look at other kids and other parents.

43:15I'm like, oh man, I'm fucking awesome because those kids are shit. I feel good about myself. So, uh, my parents are now like, like almost 80 and they realize that they did fail as parents. It's over. I mean, I'm not changing anymore. If you were what they had to work with, it was probably a pretty— it was a lumpy, lumpy mold to start with.

43:36So, uh, not what I'm saying is that if you think your shop is bad, come to the expo and see all the other shops and how bad they really are. Maybe. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I'm not here to judge. It will be honest conversations, I can tell you that. You can come visit. You can come visit my shop and it's a disaster.

43:52Yeah, so gotta get that floor fixed. That's what— oh my God, everything. Yeah, yeah. I don't even go over the garage. I gotta leak here now. I found that last week. I saw the puddle. Yeah, why didn't you fall? Yeah, I know. Well, there's some time. Yeah, that's actually, uh, that leak is from the AC unit for the front of the building.

44:11Yeah, it's— yeah, we had a lot of rain. A lot, a lot of— yeah, we were in like a major drought and it just came. Yeah, yeah, my pool was overflowing, which was great because I was spending a fortune filling it up because we didn't get rain for 2 months and it was just like, man, this happened last year too where we were like, we need rain, and then it starts and it doesn't stop and you're like, okay, that's enough rain.

44:32Is it our monsoon season? Is that what this is? We're coming up, right? Yeah, I think so. Well, we had the huge monsoon hurricane 2 years ago at— yeah, yeah. Oh, we, we had hurricanes 2 years in a row. Oh yeah, the one was just far better. The one that flooded out west, uh, was terrible. People lost their homes and their businesses and everything else.

44:51You go downtown Asheville and it's still, it's still crazy. Yeah, so I mean, I'll be driving over in that area and you're looking like in the middle of a creek, there's a mobile home. I'm like, maybe we can move that now. Like 2 years. Yeah, drop down 40, you see it. Yeah. I mean, it was like, we can't get that out of here.

45:08I need help brainstorming something. If you guys can help me, this is totally off the record. 100% not being recorded. I, uh, I have a dream of, uh, some type of social gathering slash network event, not a training event, uh, sometime in 2027 or early 2028 hosted by the podcast. And, uh, I wanted to do a cruise, but that would make me a copycat because Carm does a cruise and I can't be Bogart in Carm's Action because he's the OG, right?

45:44Um, so you think like the Keys or— everything, everything starts and ends at Irish Kevin's there. So I mean, that's where you start and where you end usually. Irish Kevin. I think somewhere warm and awesome in the middle of winter. Yeah, that's a lot of sense, right? Yeah, Keys would be good. I mean, what is it, a Green Pelican? Green Parrot? Yeah, solid.

46:03A lot of dive bars there. Yeah, we could do it. We could do a bar crawl. We start at the south end And by the time we get to the middle section, the guys who've never been to the Keys don't know that it's all drag bars on the outside. We're just stumbling some drag bars. We're gonna have to make great stories. It'll be hilarious.

46:19Well, I mean, all right, you heard it here first. We're going to the Keys as a podcast. Um, does that mean we're automatically looped in to go? I mean, I think so. Yeah, well, I mean, now we've come up with the idea. I mean, you can't— so, um, details to follow. I'll send you my flight request. Requirements. Yeah, well, we can charter a plane.

46:36Yeah, so once you fly private, you never go back. Oh yeah, my buddy just moved to France and, uh, they took their dogs with them and they actually flew on a private plane jet with all other dog owners. And he's like, there's like 17 dogs and like 10 people on this plane. And he said, imagine how bad it smelled. He said it was actually phenomenal.

46:55I mean, they're eating, you know, caviar and champagne. And he said, if I could fly like that every time, I would, but I don't tell you what I spent. He said it was not cheap. All right guys, well, have we left anything off? Not just, you know, hit the website astausa.org, you know, sign up, get some expo tickets. I promise you, you're not gonna regret it.

47:16It's one of the best shows in the country. It's the best show in the country if you care about relationship building. I can't say that because I'm biased, you know. People was like, yeah, what's that idiot supposed to say? Um, link in the show notes to sign up if you've never been, if you want to try to win a ticket. But don't let waiting to find out if you won or not prevent you from buying a ticket.

47:36If you've already bought a ticket and you win, I'll just reimburse you for your ticket. Go ahead and sign up now. I like it. Very good. Boom. I bet Braxton hates everything you 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. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes.

47:56So 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. The number is 704-CONFESS. That's 704-266-3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow.

48:21Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode. If 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.

48:51Tekmetric 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. Your 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.

49:12See how it works at tekmetric.com. That's T-E-K-M-E-T-R-I-C dot com. Or tap the link in the show notes.