Ep 111 - Mike and Bryan | Technicians Want More Money… But Won’t Do the Work

0:00If the freaking customer had an absolute Neanderthal working on their car and you have the invoice and you have the pictures and you have the documentation to prove it, tell the customer that that guy was a freaking Neanderthal and they need to go get their money back. The 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.

0:30There 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, the best software ever invented for any purpose ever. 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.

1:00Everybody 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.

1:20Learn 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.

1:43So I believe that you need to be there. Uh, 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 second consecutive year. 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.

2:05The podcast is, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. astausa.org to learn more and to buy tickets. Be there or be square, dog. So I have reached, um, I'm reaching continually new levels of degeneracy. And I just got an email, um, going on a spring break cruise with my oldest, uh, and, uh, the whole cruise is going to be $66 total, which is port fees for him only, uh, because of my, uh, my really poor choices and proof that I'm bad at math in the casino.

2:44So Oh, nice. Yeah. Oh, anyway. Yeah, I digress. Oh, well, you know, sometimes it's gambling, sometimes it's a whole Corvette. What can I say? Yeah, we need to talk about the Corvette, by the way. We can't talk about it yet. Okay. One day we need to talk about the Corvette. It's almost handled. I wrote a gently but firmly but factually written letter to GM customer care on this 3-month-out-of-warranty Corvette.

3:15And I'm pretty sure, um, in the name of the, uh, owner, I did that. And I'm pretty sure I'm getting a motor put in this thing at the GM dealer for like $2,200. Perfect. Freaking— because how do you not like— dude, the optics are terrible. It's not— it's literally not our fault. It really isn't. But the optics— really bad timing. Freaking change the oil on the thing and 40 miles later the thing explodes.

3:44I'm so glad it wasn't your fault. So me too, because I, I am— it's a little bit more annoying because I still have to pay even though it's not my fault. If it was, I'd have been like, these fucking kids. Wow. Yeah, it cut— it would have been cool though if you'd just bought the car from the guy, because I mean, who doesn't want a '21 Stingray, you know?

4:06It's to a point now where we're joking about it a little bit. Like Jim was talking about going to Harbor Freight and doing a Predator engine swap on the Corvette. The biggest— get the biggest lawnmower engine they have at Harbor Freight, drop her in there. You get some really big speakers in the back to make it sound like a Corvette. Yeah, yeah, like the, the, uh, Charger E or E-Charger, right?

4:29E-Charger. Have you heard one of those E-Chargers? No, that has the speaker and the muffler. Dude, when you ready on that thing, you can hear it from like a block away. It's insane. We service— first thing, first thing, it's that loud. Second, somehow we service 2 of them. We have 2 of them that we service. We did brakes on one. It was like, it was like $4,100 for brakes.

4:56If you make it louder, people think it's faster and they enjoy driving it more. It's so loud. It's ridiculous. Like, you start it and it's like— I was at the end of the road. I was like, what the hell was that noise? Oh, somebody's pulling the e-Charger in for tires. How much, uh, do the interior speakers pipe car sound into the car for the driver to think it's louder than it is?

5:21Oh, I'm sure that's what they should do, is they should pipe sound in through the speaker system so that— well, you know, they've, you know, that's— they've piped sound into cars for a long time, right? Yeah. Did you know that? For like noise cancellation and then, um, noise cancellation. Yes. If you go way back to the Taurus SHO, not the Yamaha engine one, but the first generation that had turbocharged engine, it's got this black rubber tube that comes off the air intake after the air filter, and that goes to the HVAC box so you can hear the turbochargers through the vent of the car.

5:56To the vent, your resonance chamber. It's a resonance chamber to pipe sound in through the HVAC system so you can hear the turbos more. And you know what? People fucking loved their SHO back in the '90s, right? Love it. Yeah. Well, and this was— this would have been probably late '90s. No, because those were still Yamaha engined. Those were still V8 cars.

6:17This would have been like 2007, 2008. I remember Automobile Magazine did a huge thing. That '07 SHO was amazing. It was like beating all the Euro cars up the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. That's what they did. They took it to Pikes Peak with professional drivers and it was like eating the BMWs and the Jaguars and everything. Freaking shitty ass. Were they eating BMWs and Jaguars?

6:37Well, when I think of, you know, who's going to dominate Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Jaguar's not on the list. No. And the other thing that I always thought about it was, it was cool that it beat them up Pikes Peak, but none of the German cars are made to run up Pikes Peak. They're all made to run 135 miles an hour. Yeah, in a straight line for a very long time at 3,000 feet above sea level.

7:01Yeah. So, yeah, it was still cool anyways. Yeah. Looking at our list, we have rage bait in the hangout. I got a letter from the attorney general today. Oh, no. It's remarkably, remarkably stupid. We have we have a fixed price for coolant exchange service, right? And, um, it's fixed at— I don't, I don't even know what the price is. Let's call it, let's call it like $189.99 or whatever it is, right?

7:39Call it $100, whatever, right? And if you have a very expensive coolant and my cost is really high, it's still $100. And if you have a very cheap coolant and my cost is very reasonable, it's still $100 because it's $100. It's not $100. I don't know what the number is, but whatever the number is. Sure, I got you. Um, and one of my guys didn't document the repair order properly, and it was a vehicle with cheap coolant.

8:08Um, and it's a fixed price menu price item. Yeah. And Uh, the pricing was on there and it just said discount coolant plus $20.84. So to make it equal the fixed price, because our actual cost was lower than normal because he took, he took the placeholder coolant off and put the right coolant on. And you have some person that was in there for their freaking menu-priced coolant flush that's having a freaking canary because you discounted a plus number.

8:44Yeah, I said, what do you mean you added $20 to the price of the job? And should never be a problem if you just make the price what the price is and not— so I mean, I'm just going to give the dude $20.84 back, right? Give him $50 and tell him to delete his Facebook. Yeah, but it's just, it's like, bro, $20, less than $21, and you wanted to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office?

9:19Really? You know what, we should, uh, is that too soon to touch on? Probably too soon to touch on. Probably want to get that resolved before you talk about the Attorney General thing. Yeah, I got the letter today. I'm going to write a letter back tomorrow with a check, but I mean, this will be published in a month, so We can— I don't know, you want to talk about you?

9:38Because I have, um, I have a good rant for what government intervention will look like that lines right up with, um, that, that I'd love to fucking go on. I just got a text message from my bank that my personal check card has been used for $674 at Game Time California. That's not me. Maybe that's what the dog was there for. Real time.

10:04Yeah, real time phone alert. Uh, what's it like to be— what's it like to be Mike? If this is not you, reply no. Mike's over here fighting real battles. I'm just freaking bitching about Tex and flying around in the Goodyear blimp. You know, I spent a period of my life as a ground crew technician for, uh, the Goodyear blimp. You did not.

10:29Yeah. So listen, you were also the number one Tupperware salesperson in the Midwest. Number 2. Number 2. Sorry, number one is aiming too high. Also shopping cart wheel balancer. Yeah, shopping cart wheel balancers. Target gets the premium package. Yeah, nice try. The blimp folder. The professional blimp folder is the one that people fall for the most. Professional blimp folder. Uh, I've never heard that one.

11:02Oh no, it's, uh, I hadn't heard your Goodyear blimp thing before. I just assumed it was bullshit. No, so I've got this thing, uh, my brother and I do this when we're out in a random town at a bar and we're striking up conversations with strangers that we'll never talk to again. We make up ridiculous careers. I knew about that. I knew about that part.

11:21And, uh, so this one is You know, they ask me, I don't really want to talk about it. You'd laugh at me. And then you get them to pull it out of you. It's like, well, I mean, you've seen like at major sporting events or races or football games that have the Goodyear blimp or the MetLife blimp or whatever else. Well, I'm ground crew for the blimp.

11:40And, you know, you might see at the Daytona 500 on Sunday, and then it's in San Diego on Wednesday. For a football game or for on, you know, right, right. Um, nobody knows they have 3 of them. Well, you can't fly that thing across the country in 72 hours, right, against, against the prevailing trade winds. So what they do is actually land it and you, uh, disassemble the, the cab, right?

12:08And then you deflate it and you fold it up and you put it on a train. And it's like 5 train cars because there's sections that you, uh, separate. Um, and so I was ground crew. I specialized in the, uh, in the packaging and unpackaging. So, you know, the guys, my family picks on me. They call me a blimp folder. Um, and, you know, but it's really cool because you get to go on rides.

12:29You know, like you get to go up in it at least once a year, you know? And so you just add on to the, uh, does anybody ever not fall for it? Does everybody fall for it every time? Uh, everybody falls for it initially. The one time that crashed and burned the worst was, uh, fucking Lucas. Uh, we were at— we were in Vegas for SEMA and Apex, and we were at a bar.

12:55Uh, what's the hotel next to the Venetian? The Palazzo. Yeah. Uh, we were in the Palazzo at a bar next to the high roller section, and, uh, there were these like women from the Midwest that were there for some totally unrelated convention, and they were eating Mary Kay convention up. And, and it was just hilarious. And I turned around to order another round of drinks for the guys.

13:22When I turned back around, Lucas is telling them that we're actually here for an auto show and we're in the automotive industry. I'm like, you motherfucker. Oh, what a, what a, what a bitch thing to do. That makes me sad. Yeah, I know, right? Oh, gosh. I've had a couple of good alternative career stories with Lucas. I had one where I was I had a burgeoning, uh, skincare, uh, like a boutique skincare company, and I had, uh, an exfoliating skin rub that was actually a tub of dry rub that we'd gotten from the Golden Steer, uh, that night when we had dinner.

13:58Uh, and I'd convinced this woman that she could take it in a bath and, and, and, uh, and marinate herself. I would leave a— it would leave a, a comforting tingle, uh, as you apply it. Oh my gosh. 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.

14:23But one of the ones I wanna 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.

14:42It's gonna 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 gonna clean up the grammar, it's gonna 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.

15:01If 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 gonna identify that that's an oil pan that's leaking, and it's gonna give that language into, into the repair order for you. So that's yet again gonna 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.

15:22It'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 wanna find out more, check out the link to Detect Auto in our show notes. 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.

15:59That'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.

16:23If you want your shop to stand out, go to 47consultants.com/confessions. It's a 47consultants.com/confessions. Tell them Big Daddy Mike sent you. And sorry guys, they're not going to do any free diag for you. So we should probably edit that whole part out. Was that recording? Was it? Oh yeah, I've been recording for 13 minutes. That's awesome. Oh, all right. So are we going to do an episode today or are we just going to— Sure.

17:00I didn't even think we were recording. I'm like, man, we should probably record this. We've been going the whole time, man. This is great. All right, so I have an admission to make. Some people might find this hard to believe, but I made an anonymous post in one of the Facebook groups that I was actually just being a troll. I wasn't being totally transparent and honest.

17:26I was just being a troll. Oh no. Should I read the post? Do such a— oh, I wish you would. So I said, and this is anonymous, right? Um, I said, hey everybody, weird question. So about 6 months ago, I got tired of seeing every business in town charging 3 or 4% credit card fees while I wasn't. I decided to bite the bullet and offer a 3% cash discount.

17:51In the time since I did this, I've had a total of one person speak out against it. In retrospect, it was a no-brainer. This has got me thinking about other opportunities for extra fees. More and more, it feels like every small business in town has the full tip screen on the credit card processing. 15%, 20%, 25%, and even other for more. And I know you've all seen them, you know, at the coffee shop, they just flip the screen over and you're guilted into tipping, right?

18:20And so I said, so 2 questions. First, if I set a default tip request screen, but I set it super low, like 5 or 8 or 10%, do you think it would make many people upset? And second, how best to fairly split the tips up among the crew? I mean, I work in the shop some days, but I also take phone calls and write tickets as well.

18:43So I think it's fair for me to keep a portion. Uh, of the tips. What are your thoughts? It's so good. It's one of my better pieces of work. Was it even on Friday? Was it on a Friday or no? No, it was on a Thursday morning. It was on a Thursday morning. That's right. I think somebody did comment and say it's not Friday yet.

19:00Yeah. Yeah. One of my friends actually, uh, took a screenshot and texted it to me and said, you're too transparent. He like knew it was me. Oh my goodness. Uh, but, uh, it's still, it's still Thursday, so please wait till later to post this. Yeah, right. Uh, but I got a lot of, uh, it'll go over like a turd in the pool.

19:26Um, if you, if you're working in the shop plus answering phones and writing tips, those tip amounts are low. Gotta bump those numbers up to 15, 20, or 25%, just like a restaurant. It's not too, too late to delete this post before you embarrass yourself. Which was anonymous, so nobody's embarrassed. Well, you know that Kieran— I mean, he knows that it was me, and he's just sitting back watching the shit show laughing about it.

19:54Um, but I had some people that were like really angry. Um, some of them took the stinky bait and ran with it, and it was pretty amazing. Some people get really mad and some of these people are friends and I didn't tell them that it was me. I just— I just— that's okay. I just let them be annoyed. Just let them go.

20:13You're better off just letting them finish, Mike. Just— just relax and let them finish. It'll be over. Relax and let them finish. It'll be over in a minute. So that's my confession for this episode is that— oh, I'm sure that you guys find this hard to believe, but I'm a secret internet troll. Oh, dun dun dun. Oh, for shame. Oh no. So what else is new?

20:41Um, you know, just doing, uh, just doing things, uh, running around in the bay, not fixing cars. I don't do that. I don't work on cars. So there's definitely been work on a car in your life. Never, never worked on one. I did text with Tanika and Lucas today. About the fact that the 3 of us are teaching a class and we don't even have a rough outline yet of what we're, uh— well, can I, can I tell you something?

21:07If you know the subject, it's— it— don't get me wrong, you don't want to wait till the last minute to get something together, but I'm, I'm supremely confident that between the 3 of us we can put together some really strong content. So we actually— yeah, um, Tanika and I are getting together, uh, next week. We're actually going to go to the hotel and look at the space for the hospitality suite and get that all laid out where everything's gonna go.

21:34Jim and I are doing that. I'm, I'm going away this coming week, um, and then after that we'll start meeting probably once a week to make the changes we want to make, add case studies, take case studies away, so on and so forth. Um, but yeah, I mean, you still got 2 months. Well, not quite 2 months. You still have 6 weeks, right?

21:56Something like that. 6, 7 weeks. Yeah. So the rules for the class— I mean, the name of the class is There's More Than One Way to Skin That Cat, right? And what we're talking about is, uh, the divisiveness that exists within the independent aftermarket because, yeah, uh, every $300 oil changes, loss leader oil changes, all the things that people argue about. Yeah.

22:16And, and I don't care. We're gonna, we're just gonna touch on the most common talking points that we have and how there are justifications for both ends of the spectrum and everything between in each of those talking points, and how there are people operating excellent businesses, giving excellent service to their community, and treating their people well. Are you on— yeah, are you doing a class that says like That's kind of about coming up with your own solutions for your specific situation.

22:49You mean you don't just have to write a check to somebody every month and do exactly what they say no matter what? You mean that you could plan, do, check, and act? That sounds like it might be a methodology taught in another class. That sounds like something that's already been taught 3 times, but it'll be the ESO version because you'll be there.

23:14So it'll be fantastic. Yeah. What's the science? It's the scientific method rebranded. Yeah. All right. I'm going to— it'll be more. And you know what too? The, uh, where are you going? I don't know what to do with my hands. The, um, I think that you, Lucas, and Tanika would be— that'll be a, a diverse, uh, 3 shops that don't run the same.

23:45Yeah, we have 3 very different businesses. Uh, and yeah, because Tanika's— Tanika's right, her, her shop is in the suburbs, right? Uh, kinda. She's outside of town. Yeah, but she's outside of town. She's on the major artery feeding into the university town. Chapel Hill. And she runs, she runs not anywhere and not anywhere near like what you run like, right? Yeah. And Lucas, you could, you can make the argument that Lucas's shop runs closer to what Tanika's does, but he's in the middle of nowhere.

24:16Well, right. If you had to like kind of— he, he, so he was very similar to Tanika and then he built this big new building that has a big new building cost. Oh, now he got a new building. His business has had to evolve. To a significant degree. Um, and then Tanika is second generation, open 4 days a week, puts money to the bottom line, and don't give a fuck about discounts or coupons or anything else.

24:43You're gonna come to her, you're gonna do it her way, or you're not gonna come, you can get the fuck out. Um, and then, you know, I'm more of a multi-location, growth-minded, loss leader, uh, customer acquisition strategy. So Uh, we're, you know, I would say that Tanika's on one spectrum, I'm on the other, and Lucas is in the middle, maybe drifting slightly more towards her side just because of his uber woke owner, uh, personality.

25:10Oh my gosh, what? Uber woke owner? I love it. Yeah, he's, uh, I'll say that he's like the, uh, he's the Bill Clinton of auto repair, you know, uh Southern Democrat, smooth talker. Uh, oh man, I mean, I don't think he's a Democrat. I mean, I don't care if he is or not, but, uh, no, maybe he's like a, uh, he's like a good Southern Baptist preacher.

25:38I was just gonna say, I was just gonna say Baptist. Yeah, yeah, I can get behind that. I can see that. Yeah, it's good, it's good. He's probably in a better mood than people like you and me. He's probably not angry. He's probably not angry all the time. You know, I kind of— I could see Lucas being that guy who has a shirt on that says, on the outside I look calm, but in my head I've already killed you 3 times.

26:03Or is that David? Because no, David says it out loud. No, David doesn't look calm. Um, we text, so we were talking about we were talking about who we want to record with at ASTA Expo, and, uh, there's a long list of folks that we're hoping to sit down and chat with. But I was like, you know what, I want to record with David Roman.

26:24Oh yeah, this was excellent. And so, uh, Braxton texted David mid-meeting while we— like, while we were in the meeting. And David was like, not only no, but fuck no. Uh, absolutely not. It would be terrible. I hate that guy. I don't know if he said I hate that guy or not, but I think that's what he meant. I think he might have said I hate that guy.

26:48Yeah, we should do it. We should get like David and Cecil and everyone who loves to call me a moron as much as possible. And Dutch. David, Cecil, and Dutch. That'd be good. Is good what you use for that? Lucas and I are gonna go try to sit down and have a, uh, have a conversation with Dutch and get it on tape soon.

27:15So I think that'll be fun. He's the best. We're gonna set up in his shop. I went to visit him the other day and, uh, he's got a couple— he's got his old 7.3 diesel pickup. Oh yeah, I know, in there. And then he's got a couple of Porsches. Oh yeah, he's got a Cayenne and a Carrera or something. I was like, I didn't know he was a Porsche guy, but Oh, yeah.

27:36And he's got the Cayenne torn apart doing dash work. Like, dude, I'm not sure you need to be doing dash work. No, I'm not sure that he cared about your opinion on that subject. It's probably accurate. Did he give me a— he did tell me that your tool collection and toolbox is cute and that one day you might have a big boy toolbox.

27:57Oh, yeah, I might have a big boy toolbox. As Dutch is sending me toolboxes off Marketplace asking me, what do you think of this deal? He wants, he wants, he wants the giant toolbox. He does. Anyway, that's the giant toolbox. We did count. He had 5 different welders in his shop. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He's, and he's a collector. Yeah. Lathes and yeah.

28:27Oh yeah. He's a collector and he's got all the cool stuff too. Like he's like, not, you know, like he's got like all the You know, I like to collect too, you know what I mean? So I think he should do a series of video tours of his facility. It's pretty cool. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway. Yeah, I think he's got like 3 alignment machines or something like that because, you know, I had 2 in there while I was there.

28:50Okay, maybe he's only— one was a Hoffman, so it doesn't count. Oh, gross me out with a spoon. But now you know what? There were 8 Hunter heads on one of the shelving units, so he might have 2 packed away in there. There's a lot of stuff packed away and wrapped, so. Unless he's just gonna collect stuff. You know what happens is, um, people think they have a better way to do it and they go into business and they, uh, open up at like $82 an hour.

29:17And, and what happens is eventually you get to buy their stuff. Yeah. And then 18 months later, Dutch shows up with a checkbook and buys all your shit. Buys all your stuff. Yeah. I got a lot of stuff that used to belong to somebody else. I got a lot of that stuff. Yeah, got whole— got whole-ass buildings that used to belong to other people and organizations because they couldn't make it happen.

29:41So there's that. That's how it do be sometimes. That's how it be. So how has business been this summer? Uh, very busy. I'm finding, uh, that I'm very busy, and I'm finding myself Um, oftentimes more frustrated than I need to be. And, uh, it raises questions about realistic expectations of the modern workforce. And am I like just— oh man, I'm not gonna be 40 for like another 20 days.

30:17Am I just a cranky old bastard? Is that what's going on here? Well, I'm trying to figure it out. Wait a minute, are we going to celebrate your 40th birthday at the expo? No, no, no, no, no, no. I think that's just what we decided. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Friday night at the expo in the hospitality suite is Brian's 40th birthday party.

30:39There will be midget dancers. I'll teach you guys how to make a Jimmy Palmer. Little people Jimmy Palmers for everybody. But, um, Yeah, you feel like midget dancers for everybody. Can I get a picture of you holding up 2 midgets like this, like one sitting on each bicep? Or normal-sized people, whatever you want. I gotta stop saying midget. That's a derogatory statement.

31:02Um, is it really? People, I think, I think they find it offensive, and I don't want to cause offense unintentionally. If I'm going to offend someone, I want to do it on purpose. Never waste a chance to offend somebody, or however that— yeah, but never accidentally offend someone. Never accidentally offend people. Do it on purpose or not at all. Great service advisors are not born.

31:22They 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.

31:54Whether 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, 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.

32:21We 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.

32:48And 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 Direct Track Marketing.

33:17So I'm just starting to wonder if I'm just a cranky old bastard and I need to chill out. I think you're getting there. I think you're getting there. Yeah, like, it's just annoying. Like, can we just— can we just do our jobs right? Like, can we just do that? Yeah, that's tricky. And I'm sure it's the same everywhere. I'm sure it's the same everywhere.

33:38And but yeah, I find myself having to— having to get in there and do a fair amount of, uh, fair amount of rework. And so do you think, uh, and we talked about this a little bit online earlier, um, you feel like you've created a culture where so many of your technicians rely upon you to unfuck the hard situations? I've been feeding the animals hard, and so I've spent so much time, I've spent so much time cutting hay, baling it, and freaking spreading it out in the pens That now I'm too tired to teach the animals how to hunt.

34:14Like, it's, for lack of better terms, too tired or too angry or too of everything, right? So if you can't personally be the one who's teaching them, how do you help them? I don't know. So I don't have experience in this. So a lot of people came into automotive with a mentor, right? They worked under somebody, they shadowed under somebody. That's, uh, that was not my experience.

34:40Um, I never shadowed under somebody. Um, I never worked as an apprentice to somebody. Um, my, my great break in automotive was I was working for a Firestone and, um, all the other technicians quit and I was 17 years old and I had to figure out how to do control arms, alignments, oil. I had to do, I had to do everything. If everybody quit together as like a show of solidarity, why did they not include you in the meeting to plan for everything?

35:08I had just started. They just freaking— yeah, everybody quit. And they didn't— I say they quit together, they didn't quit together. They quit— they all quit like a couple weeks apart. But, uh, you know, so I went from, okay, this is a tire machine— well, not really, because I, you know, I could— I came into automotive knowing how to use a welder and stuff like that.

35:28We had to work on stuff around here or whatever. But not, not in retail automotive. Right. And so I went from, all right, this is a tire machine and you're going to be putting away tires and I sat there and I was putting away tires and I was mopping the showroom floor and I was cleaning the bathroom. And then like, hey, man, Carl and Kevin quit.

35:46And this is a GM and it's— this is called a 3100 and the intake's leak. We need you to change this intake manifold gasket. That's— well, I mean, you had thousands of those to practice on over the next several years, right? Gosh, I got good at them. Yeah, all of them. All of them. I did all the intake. I did all of them, you know, and controlling, you know.

36:07So I got to— I had the crash course in automotive. And then they hired some more people. And like I said, I was like 17 years old and they hired some guys in their 30s that really sucked at working on cars. And I'm like, holy crap, if I don't do something about learning how to actually do this, I'm going to suck like them soon.

36:27So that's pretty much how I came up through. Uh, it was very self-driven, you know what I mean? So I, I, I struggle when people aren't— when they're not just like, oh yeah, hey, I need to go learn this, or, oh, this is hard to do, but I'm gonna figure it out anyways. Everybody's like, nah, fuck it, Brian pile. Yeah, just call Brian.

36:47Yeah, literally. And then I answer, which is, you know, that's a problem too. But it's like the, it's like the never-ending, it's like the never-ending question. Do you, do you not answer? Like, how much does it cost to not answer? Right? Because I like money too. Money's good. Well, this is a parenting question, right? Because you're parenting them. Um, my daughter is at, uh, kart camp this week, uh, karting camp.

37:15So she's there from 7 to 5, uh, every day. Getting in laps and learning about picking the right line and braking points, all that kind of stuff. And in the interim, they have like, they watch a movie, they have snacks, whatever else, right? And so during snack time and movie time this afternoon, some kid just went full ballistic meltdown, like a 10-year-old, like ripping shit off the walls, throwing chairs at people, smashing computers.

37:46Like full level meltdown. Well, yeah, that's different because you can't spank the technicians, Mike. Well, well, somebody— so this kid clearly has never been spanked, right? If he thinks that it's okay to behave that way in public, he's never had consequences for his actions because this is not a special healthcare, special needs child, right? Because there are some children who don't have the ability to control their emotions in that capacity.

38:11Sure. But if this kid can be left at a week-long camp and can operate a cart at high speed, there's a level of cognitive aptitude that comes along with that, I would guess. But is he just copying his parents? It's got to be what it is, right? Or he's got new age hippie parents who believe that you never say no to a child or some bullshit.

38:34My daughter, my oldest daughter played rec soccer this year, and it was a little bit of a tough run. With some of the coaching. And then one of the kids on the team was always just mouthing off. I mean, this is rec soccer and this kid's getting warned— mouth, mouth, mouth, mouth, mouth. And go ahead, don't I put 2 and 2 together finally that that kid is the assistant coach's son?

38:55And I'm like, this all makes sense. You're just, just being an asshole like your dad. Like, you can't help it. Like, that's all you know. So it's just genetic, genetic. You can't help it. Well, it's taught. It's taught. So yeah, I think that, uh, it— I think one thing for sure is that when you start talking to shop owners across the country and even in your local area, you find out that it's actually same thing, different address.

39:23So at first I was like, what is going on here? Is it freaking— I'm like looking outside, is there a UFO up in the air? Is it freaking Bermuda Triangle? What's going on here? And then I start talking to people, I'm like, oh, This is, this is a thing that everybody seems to be dealing with right now where it's like daycare. And I'm like, all right, how do we transition out of this?

39:47Are we expecting too much? Is the, is the idea of a self-starter, self-motivated person that's in the blue-collar trades that's just going to hammer it out and learn what they got to do and do the best they can, has that ship sailed is— I don't know, your, your 40-hour, 40 hours average effort equals average pay rant that got all the commenters, uh, up in their feels.

40:12There's literally a dude arguing that he should be paid $100,000 a year, which is not a huge number in today's marketplace. No, it's not. But still, it is a big number for a lot of folks depending on what part of the country you're in, right? Sure. But he's arguing that he should be paid $100,000 a year before he has $100,000 a year value skill set.

40:29Oh yeah, so that he can learn. Like, like, how does that— like, who— what a fucking moron. Open your own shop and go pay yourself $100,000 before you can turn $100,000 in net. Go do that. Let us know. Let us know how you did. Yeah, so it's, you know, you don't know fuck all about the finances of business without telling me you don't know fuck all.

40:52So tell me you don't know anything. Without telling me. Well, no, not without. You just did. You told me you didn't know anything. It's all there. People are so stereotypical when you see those comments, right? You're like, you're like, oh yeah, yep, this guy here, freaking 23 years old, probably works at freaking Mr. Tire. You can tell by the comment. Anyways, um, so yeah, so then it has, but you know, it goes into this huge, you know, if things keep going in this direction What are we going to be dealing with down the road as far as competency?

41:26And because to, to stay at— obviously the efforts aren't matching, the efforts industry-wide aren't matching. The, the com— the effort will not get you to the competency level that we need to be to service modern automobiles, right? Because we look at what a lot of these people are working on, they're not even working on new shit. Freaking working on 8 and 10-year-old shit.

41:51Like, you can't get through a freaking— this problem on a 2018 and all the information's already out there and the parts are already out there and the Identifix tracks are already out there and the pattern failures are already out there and all the information's already been shared in the aftermarket. Like, dude, what are you going to do when a 2025 comes in?

42:082026, 2027. So I got a Scanner Danner shop package with— that's a fantastic idea. 10 licenses and 10 books. I ordered 10 of the books and I passed— fantastic book. And I had, uh, one of the guys that I got it for, like, I had to like beat on him to get him to set up his Standard Data. You have to set up a free Standard Data account, and then I send the user ID in to Paul and they switch it over to a premium account, right?

42:37Yeah. So I had to drag it out of him. And he— and, you know, in the interview, yeah, I want to be— I want to learn to be a master tech. I want to come to a shop that's not just doing you know, the easy stuff, because I'm not being challenged and I'm not learning. And I couldn't get him to sign up for ScannerDanner, which I was paying for.

42:52I gave him the book, and it's the easiest way to learn electrical and drivability diagnostics. It literally is. Every technician, every resume— not every— most technicians, most technicians, that's the easiest way to learn it. Most. And not all. In most technical resumes that you get, when you ask what are your strengths And what are your— what areas do you struggle? What's your area for growth?

43:16Right. Whatever. However you want to phrase it. What do you suck at? It's always electrical, electrical, electrical. Well, giving you a world-class resource for free and everything you need to know. If you don't like book, I've got premium online access with the videos. Freaking flip it on on Saturday morning and watch the television while you're doing home movies while you're cooking eggs.

43:40He's going to work for the city. He moved his toolbox out and gave me the, uh, gave me Paul's book back and it had never been opened. Like, they all want to learn. Yeah. The other, the other thing we did, I was just, I was just talking with another shop owner today. They always talk about how the training is too basic. This is too basic, too basic, too basic.

44:03They're seeing how long a basic testing problem comeback sits in their shop. Because you want to talk about it through it. And this is a guy that thinks training is too basic. This technician that's dealing with this vehicle, oh no, this class is too basic. That— well, they got— they have a too basic problem that the owner of that shop knows, likely knows what's wrong with it already.

44:32I know Not what's wrong with it because I haven't seen the vehicle, but I know the testing procedure off the top of my head, how the monitor is ran for that specific code. But this is a person that, oh, this class is too basic, that class is too basic, too basic, too basic, too basic. Well, here's a basic problem. We're not getting it done right.

44:51You know, it's everywhere. What I wish we could have access to where we can like see the data and name names is I wish I could see the backend analytics and reporting that, uh, today's class has. Because they know what you know and don't know. Uh-huh. And, and it, and it's— I can tell you, um, the ASE, if you ever go read— so like today's class, you can't see other people's comments on questions.

45:25Yeah. ASE has a feedback button on the app where you can see what other people comment And oh my gosh, are people so confidently wrong when they're like, this question's wrong, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, the question's not wrong. It's the question's absolutely right. You don't know what the hell you're talking about. And the worst part is, you know, just enough about this where you think you actually know something.

45:48So you're the most annoying type of person to deal with on the face of the planet because you don't actually know the subject, but you think you do. And it's super annoying. And then that, that another freaking conversation I had today when people are talking about, well, it's going to turn to government intervention. No, here's what government intervention is going to look like.

46:09Government intervention is going to look like this. There's going to be freaking 95% of shops out there ain't going to be able to find their own asshole with a machete, a tour guide, and a roadmap, right? And the freaking DMV or the, the National Highway Safety, whatever, they're They're not going to do anything about that. Is the tour guide cute? No, ugly tour guide.

46:30All right, copy. Okay. I'm sorry. The federal government's not going to do anything about that though. You know what they're going to do? They're going to have shops, shops that either the shop owner or the shop owner retains somebody that knows or whatever, the shops that can actually get to the bottom of the complicated problems. Are going to realize that as everybody's, oh, work-life balance, work-life balance, as everybody's skill sets across the industry continue to shrink, shrink, shrink, shrink, shrink, and they're going to have the guy or the girl or the guys or the team, right?

47:06Because maybe somebody's not a super duper tech here, but maybe they are here, right? The team that can figure out the problem, that shop's going to know what they have, not to sound like Facebook Marketplace, and they're going to be like, you know what? F all these clowns. You want your freaking light figured out that's been to 3 other shops? No problem.

47:24It's $400 an hour, right? And what's going to happen is government intervention isn't going to go to those other shops that charge the customer to put the wrong parts on. Government intervention looks like something the New York State DMV just started. They have a whole unit dedicated to price gouging. So we're not worried about shops that are putting fucking catalytic converters on over a freaking exhaust gasket leak or a bad O2 sensor.

47:52But fuck, if this guy decides that he's got to make $340 an hour to work on that piece of shit because he's not billing any parts during the diagnostic, somebody's gonna be up their ass about the price. Meanwhile, I go up to the new stadium, beer's gonna be $20 a can, but they want to talk to me about price gouging? That's what government intervention looks like.

48:07It's already started in New York State. Nobody gives a shit about the shops that didn't do the job right. Let's talk about this shop that we think charged too much for that job. In a capitalist society, if it's too much, go somewhere else. There's a shop on every corner. I live out in the boonies. I drive past, I drive past 6 shops a day.

48:27I live in the middle of nowhere. If you think it's too much, go somewhere else. Nope. We got a whole unit dedicated to price gouging and that's what government intervention looks like. And that's why everybody's so fucking pissed off about it. Because all of us that know what it looks like are already dealing with it. Hence me in New York State with a whole ass price gouging unit, but a nobody didn't fix the fucking car right unit have to deal with the bullshit.

48:51So do you know who government intervention price gouging unit is not going to fuck with? Who's that? Free Diet Guy. Oh, fuck you, asshole. Oh gosh, I'm telling you, it's, it's enraging. You freaking go over to the state, the Bills just got done with a new stadium, right? It's not the Bills, the freaking county, but they signed it over to the state, whatever, you know, politics, government.

49:19The team that's never won a championship got a new stadium. I'll fucking kill you. Um, anyways, um, anyhow, yes, the team that's, uh, never wanted, uh, yeah, that's okay. The Sabres have pulled through. Oh wait. Oh, shut the fuck up, Mike. See this pen? See this? See this pen? Look at this. Anyhow, um, so anyways, you're gonna go there in the fall and it's gonna be for a freaking Labatt Blue Light, it's gonna be $20 fucking dollars.

49:50And there's gonna be no government officials there to investigate any price gouging because they got you trapped in this little concrete prison watching a bunch of people throw a dead pig around, right? Right? Nobody's going to go investigate the price gouging. Auto shop charges. And then who determines, who determines? We just, this has been a conversation I've had already because somebody in our local shop owners group got a visit from the price gouging unit.

50:15Right. Okay. Well, he's got a really nice shop. He's got a really nice shop. Um, his technicians from, from what I gather, I don't know the details. You know how like sometimes you just look from the outside, you can tell? Yeah, he probably pays his guy well. Those guys have benefits. He has a whole training— yeah, all the right tooling. He's got a training room in there, all the resources, whatever they need, right?

50:41He's got a real nice shop. Well, news flash, it costs money to do all that. So then who decides what price gouging is? Because some shithole running out of a rented storage unit charges less, he's gouging now? Like, how's that work? That's like a legit question. That's, that's some bullshit. Who decides? Who decides? The dude's rent's high. He's in the high rent district.

51:02The voters of New York State who put that government in place over and over and over and over. No, the freaking 5 counties downstate have decided, not the voters of New York State. I get that. Well, there's 63 counties. The major metro areas decide policy for everywhere now, right? For everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Montreal, Canada is closer to my house But somebody further away than them is deciding.

51:27But Montreal is not close. But the 5 boroughs get to decide how your business operates. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's more than just the 5 boroughs. I think, I think it might be like, you know, on the map it might be like 50. There's like 63 counties and 55 of them are pretty aligned. And there's the other, however, the other 8 or the other 8 are also very aligned.

51:51Yeah, and they're deciding for the whole state. Yeah, well, but I mean, you know, that's the majority of the population. Yeah, right. So I get it. How do you, how do you balance that? Because, right, there's the Electoral College, right, uh, that was designed to try to strike a balance between density and, and, you know, giving representation to the people in the rural areas.

52:13But, um, we're not feeling very represented. Don't get me started about the people who move out of the city out here ever since COVID Oh, freaking drive me nuts. Oh, they're gonna come, they're gonna come fuck up your area. They fucked up there. Don't get me started. Don't get me started, Mike. Anyways, that's why Texas is slowly turning into California light. Yep.

52:34So move to Idaho. Idaho's still just the land of extremism and, uh, malicious I remember I got a buddy who has some shops in, uh, in Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene area. And, uh, during, uh, the, the riots during COVID they were very like racially fueled riots, you know, about police brutality towards Black people and that kind of thing. Um, he was like, we heard that they're gonna bus some rioters up from California to Coeur d'Alene, so we're all getting our guns and going downtown.

53:11That's like every small town across America did that. I was like, Are you fucking kidding me right now? You think that they care about Coeur d'Alene enough that they're gonna come and try to burn down your town a 5-hour drive away from the nearest liberal city? You know, you never know, man. Come on, buddy. Come on, man. What did they ask there?

53:32How did we end up here? Where did this start at? I don't know. I think we were talking about, uh, we were talking about government intervention. Government intervention. Yeah. So anyways, that's— if you ever see me irritated about what, um, um, government intervention looks like. That's why I'm mad about it, because not only, not only could they not fix the problem, even if they were to, they won't even address the right problem.

53:57They don't even have the capability of fixing the actual problems. They couldn't even do that. Even if they could identify them, they couldn't fix them. Well, let me ask you this, like, the big problems that are there, and by the nature of the independent aftermarket, it's so disparate and so divided and so fragmented Sure, we can't all agree on anything in the first place, much less solve any of the big problems because we all feel like there are different ways to solve it.

54:22I've commented before, nobody can even figure out what freaking coolant they need to put in a car, but we're going to solve the freaking problem. We are going to have a fixed price and get a letter from the Attorney General about the coolant. Um, so, but we spend all this time talking around the problems and talking around the problems and the different viewpoints.

54:42Fuck, Lucas and Tanika and I are going to do a class about that exact thing. We're never going to fix them. No, that's why, that's why I have such a problem with people who are like, well, you know, I don't really, you know, there's no need to really, uh, badmouth the other shop and this, that, and the other thing. No, if the freaking customer had an absolute Neanderthal working on their car and you have the invoice and you have the pictures and you have the documentation to prove it Tell the customer that that guy was a freaking Neanderthal and they need to go get their money back.

55:15Like, how does anything get fixed if you can't even advise the customer that they're probably entitled to their money back? How do you fix anything? How do— like, okay, you can't even tell the customer that. Okay, how do we fix anything? Right? I mean, that's what I do. And I don't— you know what? I've had situations with cars. Where it's a shop owner local and you make a phone call and the shop owner's like, holy crap, man.

55:39Yeah, dude, just freaking fix it up and run my card. You know, I've had that situation before. You know, I've definitely had situations where a customer's car has, you know, had a warrantable breakdown out of town and I just call, find an independent where they are and say, hey man, I need to check this out. If we fuck this up, tell me I fucked it up and I'm just going to pay for it to be fixed.

55:59Yep. And if it wasn't us, please tell me it wasn't us. This is a good customer. They'll pay for you to fix it, you know? Yeah. Um, but I don't know, man. I think, um, I mean, the conversations are fun. That's why we have these conversations and record them all the time. But are we going to solve any of the issues? No, no, we're just strapping in for what's coming.

56:22Correction, we are going to solve the issues at ASTA Expo in the hospitality suite. That's right. With 2 tiny people that are there to wish Brian a happy 40th birthday. We are not having midgets at the— well, I shouldn't say that. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe we will. They're really nice dudes. And I mean, they got great dance moves. You know, I'll tell you what.

56:46I was going to say there's no way there'll be midgets there, but there was like aliens and spacewalkers there last year. So I'm going to tell you, I'm going to If I arranged it, would you Jell-O wrestle multiple tiny people? Fuck yeah. Whoa, Jell-O wrestle? Uh, it's all slippery and shit. What about— I gotta be able to grab a hold. I gotta be able to grab them.

57:10No, I can't be doing that in any lube. Okay, uh, what about, uh, just, just dry wrestling? Dry wrestling? Oh yeah, that'd be great. All right, you imagine how far I could throw one of them things? What are those things? See ya, sucker. You throw them all the way to the Miata. I was on the phone with somebody the other day and they said, you know, people probably wouldn't mess with you so much if they seen how effortlessly— I can't talk.

57:43Effortlessly you threw Zeb. That I picked up Zeb off the ground with a bad back. He's like, the people probably wouldn't mess with you. I go, well, that's okay. They can. Did you see Zeb's invitation to the expo? Yes, it's amazing. I was— I think my name is— I think I was supposed to. He's so good. Maybe it'll be— it might be spliced into this episode, so I hope it is.

58:07But that'd be awesome. That guy's a genius. That's the perfect— actually, this— I think this podcast is the perfect spot to have that. Perfect spot. Where else would you put that one? What other podcast could you put that clip on? Remarkable Results? Probably not. No, no, I can send it. I'll send it to Tracy, see what she thinks, see if she wants to splice it in.

58:34Tell her I'll give her, uh, $5 and a bottle of Busch Light. Ooh, it's probably gonna be a no-go. Molson Ice Light. I don't know what you can't have. Molson Ice and Light. Do they make a? They don't make an Ice Light. I don't know. Do they make an Ice Light? As I go, you're listing every gas station beer you've ever seen.

58:58Has it done 200 miles an hour at Daytona? It's my kind of beer. Oh gosh! All right. So anyways, after I went off the rails, I forgot to hit record. Is that a problem? Should we start over? Fuck! I'm just kidding. Strap in. Even the dog— even the dog's mad. The dog's looking at me, she's like, you fucking kidding me right now?

59:21What else is new, Mike? Oh man, so, uh, my wife gave notice at her job over the weekend, uh, and, uh, today was her first day back since then. And, uh, her contract's at 90-day notice clause, and so she actually gave them notice to the end of the year. So she gave 4 months notice. Okay. And no one spoke of it all day.

59:49They're just pretending it's not happening. It's like it doesn't exist. Like it's not a thing. So whatever. You have 4 months to figure it out. So that happened. Hired 4 guys between last week and this week. All additions, no replacements, all additions. So that's exciting. Um, yeah, it's time. Good. Um, it was getting to the point where I was missing about 20 phone calls a day at one of the shops, uh, just because the guys are like— I'm like, that's 20 phone calls, that's probably 7 or 8 cars out of those 20 phone calls, right?

1:00:30You would think. So that's I would hope. Yeah. Yeah. 3 hours per repair order. That's another, call it 20 hours a day. Um, so yeah, we added an advisor and a tech there. Then I added an advisor at another store and a tech at another store. And we've shuffled a couple of guys around, kind of load leveling skill set so that we have high-level guys with guys that can learn from them, you know, that kind of thing.

1:00:57Um, Trying not to be like Wilco and have one grumpy old guy who can fix everything but nobody else can. So, ah, it's not like that. It's just, I don't know, it's annoying, annoying little things lately. Annoying little things that people could do better with. I, you know, and I'm always screwing up too, but at least, you know, I feel like I feel bad about it.

1:01:18I don't know. Do, uh, do your guys listen to the podcast? I don't think so. Do they know? Or they might. Or they might. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. One of my guys does. And I said, I don't know who Mr. Subaru is. He goes, you recorded— he's Canadian. So he goes, you recorded a podcast with Mr. Subaru? And I said, no, man, I didn't.

1:01:40He's like, bro, I saw you. I'm like, no, no, you didn't. He actually blew his— he actually hurt himself playing kickball the other day. That's one of the most embarrassing moments of my life was playing kickball. I, I don't know why I share these things. This is going to be great. I'm ready. I wound up for the big kick and this is kickball on the beach.

1:02:11Very wide beach at low tide. You know, we had suckered in like 8 or 9 people from other families, kids, adults, everything. Um, and, uh, this is gonna be so good. It's like slow pitch, like you pitch to your own team, uh, kickball. And I wind up for like a freaking home run. It's gonna be great. You're gonna kick it like into the stratosphere.

1:02:32I missed the ball. Oh, you were like Charlie Brown with a football. Yeah, 100%. And my— I swung so hard that I fell backwards and hit my butt and the back of my head on the hard-packed wet sand. And was injured. You were injured? Brought the kickball game— brought the kickball game to a grinding halt. Like, look, I never— you fell so hard playing a bullshit sport on a bullshit surface you were injured.

1:03:02I mean, look, there was significant alcohol involved, but that's no excuse. Um, I'm pretty sure my oldest is ashamed of me to this day. This is the greatest day of my life. And you know what? When I came out of the concussion, I was like, fuck, I need a Miata. That's what happens. I need, I need a Miata and a podcast. That all makes sense.

1:03:24Freaking guy hit his head. I got it now. It's all coming together. Oh my gosh. What have I— I've had some embarrassing things like that happen. I freaking fell down the stairs once. I think I had more embarrassment from that than I did from my balls out for the customer thing. How— what's your embarrassment level, um, after Jeff mopped the floor with you sumo wrestling?

1:03:47Uh, I want you to know that, uh, if we had been playing real rule sumo, I got his back foot out of the circle before he threw me both times. Through you? Through you? Yeah, yeah. So I don't really— that match, I feel like I wasn't paying attention. Yes, because you were prepping to murder Zeb. You're— I did not murder Zeb. We were gently sparring.

1:04:10Picked him up like this and threw him onto the couch. I did not pick him up over my head. That did not happen. Twirl. Not in that condition. Twirl. That's like a baton. I, you know, I'm kind of sad. I don't think there's going to be sumo wrestling this year. Doesn't seem like maybe. Well, I told him that if there was, I wasn't going to be a fucking part of it.

1:04:31I'll tell you that much. Oh, I really want to. I've been. I was hoping there would be because I would 100% call out David for sumo wrestling. Well, unless Jeff paid me more, because he paid me $5,000 last year to take the fall. Oh, shut up. If he paid me more— no way. You didn't pay anything. No, he understood that the Jaded Mechanic couldn't possibly lose to the ESO.

1:04:51It would be too bad for the optics. And you know, I got, I got no pride. I was willing to— I've got no pride. I'm not a sellout, but I'll do anything for money. $20 is $20. I kept my socks on. Oh my gosh. Anyway, people got to get to the expo. They got to go. It's scary. I'm excited about it. Flights booked, hotels booked, everything's booked.

1:05:15Uh, we are, uh, the, uh, ticket sales are outpacing last year, uh, already, so it'll be bigger than it's ever been. The expo floor is double the size that it was last year, and all the meals are going to be held in the middle of the expo floor. We're going to have like a dining area set up there, and there's going to be a restaurant attached to the back.

1:05:38Um, it's gonna be good. I'm, uh, I find it, I find it funny that I have to, uh, I'm in charge of 4 small humans, a dog, and a cat, but like Callie has to babysit me. She She's like, uh, hey, are you gonna register as a speaker or what? And I'm like, oh yeah, gotcha. And that's not what she said because you know how she doesn't talk like that.

1:06:01Yeah, because she's super polite and super kind always. Yeah, super kind. She said it in the most kindest way possible. And I'm like, oh yeah, I'll probably do that. And then there was something else. I don't know. I did send her a message the other day asking a question and she responded to me with an AI response. And I called her out on that shit.

1:06:18I was like, Nobody puts that many hyphenated words in their text messages. Did you just use ChatGPT to respond to me? And she was like, look, I've got a lot going on, okay? That's awesome. That's awesome. I told her, I said, you know, I'm kind of embarrassed that I'm in charge of 4 humans, a dog, and a cat, and that, uh, you have to babysit.

1:06:42I'm like, I've done this ASTA thing multiple times, and you have to But anyways, anyways, we're all squared away. So yeah, yeah, we still gotta, uh, I still haven't booked my flights for, uh, Apex and SEMA, but I promise I'll do that this week. I promised you that this week, so I'm going to do that. Fingers crossed we'll get there. Um, are you like me and you keep waiting for the prices to go down?

1:07:06You're like, the fuck, why is it so fucking expensive? Never go down. It's insane. I'm investigating that thing that we talked about in the place with the stuff. I think it's going to be awesome. More, more to come later once we figure out if we'll get arrested or put on a blacklist for it. Um, so we'll see. Oh, good times. Yeah, it's freaking great.

1:07:30Good conversation, sir. Glad you're doing well. Sorry about the Corvette. I'll let you know how the Attorney General goes. All right, sounds good. See ya. 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 remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes.

1:07:48So 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 Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership.

1:08:15I'll see you on the next episode. So here's the painful truth: a lot of shops are not losing money on some giant mystery; they're losing it in the boring stuff that they keep putting off—follow-up, declined work, customer communications. Making sure people actually come back. None of that is flashy, it's not fun, it's also the stuff that keeps a shop running effectively. TechMetric helps with that by bringing shop management, payments, and marketing together in one system.

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1:09:12Use the link in the show notes or scan the QR code on your screen now.