Ep 81 - Mike Martin, Travis May & Matt Lofton | Why Getting a Coach Will Change Your Life

0:00I like fell in love with how awesome I was for a while, and I became, uh, very much an absentee owner, but I hadn't yet established the systems and processes. I just thought I had strong players in place that would just run my business for me if I paid them a lot of money, right? Right. And it worked for a little while until it didn't work.

0:192026 for me is going to be working in my business more than on my business. I failed to work in my business for a period of time that was long enough that we kind of drifted off course a little bit. 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.

0:46There 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 in the the history of ever. Okay, it's the last day of Elite Worldwide's Ignite 2026, and I am here with Matt and Travis.

1:20Matt, if my listeners know, have, you know, is director of coaching, head of coaching. What's the official title? Director of coaching at Elite Worldwide. Okay. And we talk once a month and publish conversations about what a train wreck my business is for everyone else's amusement. And Travis, you're, you're another of Matt's victims. Is that right? I am indeed. Okay. Introduce yourself real quick for those that don't know us.

1:44My name is Travis May, shop owner of G&M Automotive Center in Hesperia, California. Okay. Hesperia, California is Southern California, but we're in the— called the High Desert. So, okay, from LA, if you're down in LA, you want to go to Vegas, I'm halfway between there. Okay, so you're a good stop for the breakdowns and— right, right. You have to get to the top of the Cone Pass there, and everybody's car seems to not like that, uh, that grade.

2:11Oh, 120 miles an hour across the desert tears up some tires too, I would imagine. So, um, how long have you been there? So it's a legacy shop. My grandfather started the company in 1967. So I think we're on 59 years now. And so my grandfather started it. My dad took the business over in the early '90s and really grew it, made it much larger than where it started.

2:44And then within the last, I would say, 10, 12 years, I've been running the operation. And May of last year, I took the leap of faith and we put a deal together for me to buy him out. So that's awesome. That's where I'm at now. I might want to talk to you more about that because I have a story about buying my father out of our business as well.

3:08But before we get into that, I do also want to introduce Our other guest this morning, Mike, just tell us real quickly who you are, name your business, where you're from. It'd be great to hear. Sure. Mike Martin, owner of Kerner's Auto Service. We're in Utica, Michigan, about a half an hour north of Detroit. Okay. And how long have you been in business, Mike?

3:28I've been the owner of the shop since 2010. Okay. Were you an employee and you bought, or how did that work? I was not an Hearing the end of this story is a similar situation. So it was my father-in-law's business. He went through a couple attempts internally from employees to purchase it. My wife and my brother-in-law had no interest in the business itself.

3:51So it was my wife's idea to take this on, and she recommended that I do it. So that's how it came to fruition. Now, did you have any background in automotive prior to this? Automotive, as far as working on cars, it's something I did as a kid, never was a career. I came from labor relations. I was director of labor relations for an automotive quality control company.

4:16So that was where I was at at the moment when I left that and started the process with Koerner's. So that's a pretty hard transition. Did you get a coach right away, or did you flounder around like most of us for several years before you did that? I floundered around for several years, yeah. The plan initially was to work underneath my father-in-law and learn the operational side of things.

4:42And I don't know that, nothing against my father-in-law, but we didn't, it didn't happen the way we had planned. Hey guys, Kari 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 DirectTrack and it utilizes AI to find people in your area who are the great demographic that you wanna go after, have raised their hand and opted in saying, I need auto repair help right now.

5:13We 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.

5:35It 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.

5:56Look, when I first opened my shop, I thought my old systems would keep up, the software that I had would continue to evolve, but as we grew, the slow estimates, scattered workflow, increasing downtime, it really just, it was becoming a real problem. That's why I switched to TechMetric. It's not just software, it's a complete shop management system that makes my life easier.

6:18SmartJobs, instant estimates, integrated payments, integrated financing options. I mean, it allows me to focus on the work that actually makes me money and not get bogged down in the other details. My shop's repair orders have jumped over 300% since switching to TechMetric, and when I need help, their support team responds in real time. I actually was online with them asking questions just this week, and I got answers in minutes rather than having to wait for callbacks and emails days later.

6:43If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change. Tap the link in the show notes and see how TechMetric can help you move your shop forward. I worked on cars for 2 or 3 years with him. I learned a lot from my mother-in-law, who was a CPA, and she also was doing the books at the time. But it took probably a good 3 years of operations and before I started thinking about how I was going to do things because it just wasn't functioning the way I wanted it to.

7:12And I wasn't the person that I wanted to be. So getting into arguments with staff and things I'd never done before in my previous career. So yeah, copy that. Yeah. So how long have you guys been with Elite? So funny story there is I won't— yeah, I might as well. There was a time where my father and I weren't seeing eye to eye and I left for a couple of years.

7:37I felt that it was there. There was a need for me to leave. And I won't name any other shops, but I left the area for a couple of years and the shop I landed at was actually an Elite Worldwide shop at the time. And there is where they introduced me to Elite's Master Service Advisor course. I was approached and said, Travis, I'd like to send you to Elite Master Service Advising course.

8:05And of course, back then, I thought I was a pretty good service writer. I was top service sales. My ARO was good. I was always good with people. And I'm like, I don't really think I need this, do I? Well, long story short, I ended up going, and I'm going to tell you what, when you think that you are the big man on campus as far as service writing goes and you don't need it, they're going to open up your eyes to a whole new perspective.

8:33Humble you a little bit, right? They're going to humble you a little bit. And I'm going to tell you, it's probably one of the best decisions I ever made personally, because I didn't not only learn at the master's course I was taught tools that I didn't even know, you know. They opened up my mind to think of things, uh, speak differently. Just people stuff, right?

8:54People stuff. Yeah. The biggest thing was tonality. So I had, you know, I learned tonality, and once I learned the art of tonality, that was a game changer for me. So fast forward, you know, 10+ years later, um, as I started running my father's shop, being the glorified general manager at the time. I, you know, my dad was old school. He didn't need anybody to tell him how to run the business.

9:24We're not changing. I've done this. Always done it this way. Right. I've always done it this way. I'm not a college educated. I never went to school. So I'm always on the job training. That was my education. My college was showing up to work and If it worked, it works. If it didn't, scrap it, try something new. So I had always wanted to partner with, um, an Elite Worldwide because I wanted someone to help me look into my business and, and, and be my coach.

9:56Be like, you know what, yeah, you are doing good things. This is— you're doing the right things. Or, hey, have you thought about doing this? It sounds like the nature of your conversations with Matt are way different than the ones that I have. Oh, so mostly with Matt, it's like Mike, don't be a dumbass. Right. Mike, stop. He's actually got a better coach than you do.

10:13Okay, so he's got Joe. Oh yeah, well, okay, well, that's my father right here, huh? That explains it. So yeah, no, it, um, I, I, I've been partnered with Elite Worldwide for probably 3 or 4 years now as far as the coaching side, uh, of it goes. And I've sent multiple service riders through the training. Um, I got one of them getting ready to graduate here and I think a week or two.

10:37Right. From the February class. I would tell you that the master's program service advisor training is unlike anything else in the industry that I've found. And that there is the accountability level and the midterm and the finals. And you don't just, you don't just— Don't breeze through it. Yeah, you can't sleep your way through it. And the ongoing interaction with the owner as well.

10:59So they know how their student is doing. Through the process, right? Now it requires a commitment on the part of the owner to let them be away from the counter for some time every week. And obviously they're traveling to wherever the course is being hosted for a few days and everything else. So I think it is the most dynamic service advisor training in the industry right now.

11:21And it has been for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I haven't heard of anything different. No, no, no. All the programs that I've been aware of that are out there are your 3 to 5 day sessions and that's it. Here's your training, right? Go with it. Right. So, and this is the accountability is just what makes this so successful. Because if you can't change yourself in 6 months of the right and correct habits, then, you know, I don't know how else to say it.

11:50Like, this is the script to do, to follow. Like, this is how you have to do it in order to make sure that, yes, we can do it through a month of training, but 6 months of doing consistency and accountability. And it, from an owner's standpoint, it only benefits the owner as well, with them realizing the process and being, being a part of the process as well.

12:10So it only benefits the owner from that standpoint too. I agree. Well, and I think the other training that's out there, I mean, it all has some good content, right? And I think the 6-month part is the part that you were touching on, is part of what makes the difference, because you got to form new habits. And you come back fired up from a class, we've all done it, gone to a conference or something and come back fired up from a class and ready to change the world, right?

12:32And then real life at the shop slaps you in the face and you fall back to your previous base level of, of performance because that's the habit. I mean, I'm the world's worst at this. I know what I should do and how I should operate the business. I'm really good at talking about how things should work. I'm not super good at executing on how things actually work in my business.

12:55Right. It's up here though. Yeah, yeah. I might be a great teacher one day. Right. But Mike, what was your journey like finding Elite? So 3 or 4 years into running the shop, I came to know Elite through Mitchell at the time that I used. They had a partnership with them. So I've been with Elite for over 9 years now. Okay. And much of what I went through was self-discovery and realizing what I needed to change.

13:25And those first couple of years with my coach, Douglas, was amazing. And we still have regular conversations. It was the change on myself and not necessarily just changing numbers and paying attention to that, but is like one of the first things I, One of my first goals that I ever had was to become a better manager, and that's what we focused on.

13:48And that in and of itself allowed me to institute a lot of the changes going forward after that and involve the employees as a part of that. Okay. Well, guys, how was 2025? 2025 was really, really good for me. If I had to look back at 2025 and pick out the the, the positives. Obviously getting a deal done with my dad finally after probably a couple years of, couple years of back and forth, back and forth.

14:20That was a, a big win for me. Um, and as far as business goes, um, it was, it was good. It was, um, I think the first quarter for me, January, January, February, March, it, uh, didn't get off to a hot start. Last year. But then, you know, the second quarter, third quarter, we, we picked up quite a bit. Um, fourth quarter, uh, end of October, we, we did real well.

14:48And then for some reason, the faucet turned off in November big time. We hear that across the country, right? Yeah, it was, you know, I think I did— I ended up doing half of my goal, monthly target goal. So I don't know if it was a government shutdown that caught up or Combination of that and all, you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas. I'm not sure.

15:10October, we— I mean, December, we landed on our feet. So overall, overall, you know, um, fairly happy with it. Definitely looking forward to this year though. What are the big goals for this year? Uh, the big goals this year for me, um, is probably more owner discipline, more owner discipline. So, um, staying out of the, uh, profits, staying out of the— staying out of the problem.

15:45Make some damn money and keep it. Yeah, stay, you know, just have consistent months throughout the year, keep my fingers out of it, wait till the end of the year, see where we land. You know, it's easy as a shop owner, you know, You're making money, right? And you can kind of put your fingers in it here and there a little too many times throughout the year.

16:05You upgrade the boat. Right. Right. So it's— The shop needs a new roof on the house. Maybe a garage door. Maybe some landscaping out front. So that's my biggest goal is just to stay a little bit more disciplined as an owner and really get a true look at the end of the year. This will be your first full year as the man, right?

16:29Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. So that's probably my biggest thing this year. Well, I think accountability and keeping clean books and keeping the corporate welfare within reason, right? Right. Is something that you need accountability partners that you can share the books with openly and they can ask questions and you can answer honestly. So it's kind of hard to do that with your buddy down the street or your buddy from church or whatever it might be to a degree, but being in a peer group or having a one-on-one relationship with a coach, I think is the right way to go for that type of stuff.

17:02Yes, it is. And Joe is not afraid to call you out. Hey everybody, I'm going to take just a quick minute out of our show to talk to you about one of the favorite tools that we have in my company to help streamline and make our guys as efficient as possible. And that's Detect Auto. I've been talking about Detect Auto for almost a year at this point, and my team still loves it.

17:22And if you listen to the show, you know that I love the idea of bringing in skilled individuals from outside of the industry to add to our shortage within our trade. Right. But one of the problems that you run into sometimes with that is that these guys and gals might not have a full automotive knowledge just yet. And as a technician, if you've ever gotten a repair order that says check noise, you know how infuriating that can be.

17:46Well, this tool, the customer concern tool, is designed specifically for that. The advisor can put in 1 or 2 or 3 words about what the complaint is, and then it's going to prompt them all the questions that they need to ask that customer. And then it puts that into a paragraph form that's easy to understand for the technician. So that technician's not getting check noise, check vibration.

18:09They're getting all the information that they would like to have from the customer. It just makes things more efficient. It makes guys in the back happier and it just makes the business run more smoothly. If you want to find out more about this and the other tools available on Detect Auto, just reach out to us through the link in the show notes.

18:33I believe that he is, uh, he can dissect a P&L and call BS. Joe called me out last night, actually. He's been, he's been, he's been chasing after me like, hey man, why don't you let me on your podcast? Like, I will, I promise. I'm 26. And he called me out last night at the cocktail hour and I was like, tomorrow. Like, haven't you been told you're coming on tomorrow at 3 PM?

18:52He's like, I have no idea. So he didn't get his marching orders yet, but now he knows. Now he knows. Mike, how was 2025 for you? 2025 was excellent. I had bought the business and paid for the business a long time ago, but there was an issue hanging over our head with regards to the building. My father-in-law built a building with a partner, and it was a 5-year process to try to get the partner to finally let go.

19:17So last year, with some emphasis the prior year of getting the deal done, we were able to finally close it in January. So I was able to purchase the building, which is something I was striving to do for several years. So congratulations. Thank you very much. Yes, that was a great, great thing to be able to accomplish and a big goal from my standpoint because it was on my agenda every single year for 4 or 5 years in a row.

19:45With my coach, and we were always putting that out there. And how are we going to make this happen? And I think 2020, the push in '24 is what made it happen. So our year started off tremendously well. Like, we had the best January on record. February was lights out. We had a winter in Michigan for the first time in 4 or 5 years.

20:05So a lot of that impacted it and benefited us. So we rode the month or the year out and did tremendously well overall for the year. And we saw some great opportunities that came our way with regards to new accounts and so on that has helped us. But I did see a little bit of a lull in November and December, but nothing that really like ended up, we ended up maybe 2 or 3% up for those 2 months from the year before.

20:34But we ended up 17% up from the year before. So maybe not the same growth we saw like 3, 4 years in a row, from 2020, but there's still some— we still benefited overall and we saw some positive change for sure. Well, 2020 to '24, we had all that free government money getting pumped into the economy that was kind of on a sugar rush.

20:56And I feel like we're kind of crashing down from that. But it's a good analogy, Mike. I'm going to steal that from you. That is a good analogy. I feel like I got that from you at some point. I certainly didn't come up with it. I 100% stole it from someone. And I mean, Matt, I feel like I'm not including you in the conversation.

21:14Tell me about '25 and what's planned for '26. Yeah. So '25 was a— it's a great year for us as well. It was a challenging year just because we had big audacious goals for last year and we had a lot of change that had to happen structurally and internally for that to happen, more so on a process standpoint than people. But so I cracked the whip pretty hard last year on trying to get our customer experience where I really wanted it to be.

21:40Be consistent with our sales process and a few other things and really pushing some heavy car count goals. So we were, we did a 31% increase year over year from '24 to '25. So it was a good year. We left some meat on the bone. And I'm a, I struggle with this because I'm a, it's easy for me to see the areas of opportunity and the growth and I don't celebrate the wins quite as long as I probably should.

22:07So we had a nice little Thanksgiving lunch at the shop where we went over our yearly wins. And then I wake up the next day and I'm right back to being that guy that says, what the hell happened yesterday? Short, short mind. Yeah. Well, a long memory for the things that go sideways and a very short memory for the wins. He's like, well, good job on doing your job.

22:28We're supposed to win. Yeah. So I'm like the Bill Belichick of, you know, right. Auto shop owners, just like, do your job. That was yesterday. We're in today now. So, but no, we have, we have, we got some pretty cool goals on for this year and excited for it. We got to get past some of this weather and we need to, yeah, we need that snow to stay up there in Michigan where you are, Mike.

22:50And it doesn't, it doesn't help us like it helps you. Sure. Yeah. It's not cold enough to actually break cars. It's just cold enough to break businesses. Yeah. So, Matt, I know that you've got to bounce because you've got to go introduce the next speaker up front, but I'm going to let you sneak out. But can I keep you guys for a couple more minutes?

23:07Absolutely. Really quick before I go, I want to tell everybody, um, I've gotten a chance to know these two, uh, over the last 2 years. It's been a pleasure of mine to be able to get to know them. From a client standpoint, I get an opportunity to talk to almost all the Elite clients and talk to the coaches about their clients. And when you ask me about clients that you should have on, you know, I specifically mentioned these two.

23:25And the reason is because they, you know, they do the work, right? You know, when we always ask coaching, you know, I think there's lots of great coaching companies out there. I don't think it's the coaching company that makes the great client. I think it's the great client that makes the you know, the coaching process work because you have to be willing to take the advice and do it.

23:42So I want to congratulate both of you guys on, on the success that you've had and, you know, inside of Elite and, um, and, and taking the, taking the advice that you've been given and putting it into practice. And it's been really cool to, you know, talk to Joe over the last couple years and, and, right, learn how much of an impact you've had on him and how much your business has grown.

24:00And same thing with you and Douglas, Mike. And so looking forward to, uh, seeing what you guys can do in '26. I appreciate that very much. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. I will tell you that I don't want to get to his head. I will tell you that I have talked to coaches from all over the industry over the years, and I don't know that I could ever do it because I would get really frustrated with owners who come to me every month with the same problem, and we give them the solution, and they always have an excuse as to why that solution doesn't work for them or why they haven't

24:34implemented the change or anything else. The guys that come into a coaching organization and just take the advice and do it, man, they make a world of change, um, so quickly. And some of the big players that you'll get to know if you come to these elite events, and maybe one day you move into pro service potentially, or that kind of thing— there's some dudes out here that are just dynamic, and it's because they surround themselves with people who know more they get the advice and they take action right away.

25:04And if I were a coach and I had to have the same conversation about the same problem 6 months in a row, I'd turn into an asshole, right? And I do respect that about Elite because there are some organizations out there— back up— I have heard that there are organizations out there that as long as the check clears, they'll keep you on board and keep telling you to do the same thing over and over and over.

25:25I've never been with another coaching organization to speak of, so I can't really I can't say that from personal experience. I know that Elite will give you accountability and then kick your ass out if you're not actually doing the work, which I appreciate and I respect. So I couldn't agree with you anymore. I definitely don't have any experience with any other coaching programs, and I don't want to.

25:49I never will, because I already, I already have a taste of what these guys offer, what Elite offers. I'm a guy that I love to be challenged by somebody, and Elite challenges you, you know, um, and they hold you accountable. So that's the biggest thing, you know. Um, we're gonna put this blood, sweat, and tears and run into it, run in a shop, you know.

26:14We might as well, you know, invest in ourselves and do our part, you know. It starts, starts with us. So, you know, if they're not gonna— if someone's not gonna take the coaching seriously What's the analogy? There's probably an analogy for that. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. I had a conversation with another elite coach yesterday, and he made a comment to me that really drove home.

26:35And he says, if I'm going to take on a new client as an elite coach, I have 3 rules: 100% of the time, 100% of the time, 100% of the time. He says, if you cannot deliver 100% of the time, you cannot be my client. It's a perfect example of how this program works. And the biggest struggle early on is making yourself do that and achieve that 100% of the time, every time.

27:00And once you're able to do that and you know you can achieve these things and you set your goals to be realistic as far as personal growth, I think after that, you have more confidence in yourself and you're able to achieve them a lot better. I agree. I think if we could jump to results right away, like a new, a new client and a coach having results right away, and that new— that owner felt that bleed off into his team right away, you know, that's wishful thinking.

27:32But once a coach puts in the time and the effort, the blood, sweat, and tears, and making the adjustments, keeping an open mind, and start seeing a little bit of those results, they'd be surprised at how quickly that bleeds off into a team. You know, what do you think about that? Oh no, absolutely right. Yeah. And because once you're able to change yourself, the, you know, having that impact on the team is so much easier.

27:54Correct. Because you understand the process and you understand how to communicate to your staff what it is you're trying to achieve. Right. I agree. Shift gears a little bit. One of the questions I've been asking everyone, because, um I love coming to events like this, but one of the things that I've realized as the podcast has grown is that I don't actually get to attend a lot of the event content because I'm in here having conversations with folks, right?

28:19So did you have any awesome takeaways from yesterday? Any specific speakers or topics that were discussed that you were like, holy cow, that's awesome? You know, I love coming to these because every time I come to an event like this or anything that Elite puts on, you're in a different timeframe. Your priorities are different, your mindset's different. It's almost like starting the process over again every time you come to an event like this because you're reintroduced with things that maybe didn't make sense to you before, maybe weren't applicable to you at the time, or you thought you couldn't possibly implement these type of ideas.

28:55So I heard a lot of things yesterday and then this morning with Damon West as well, as far as his analogy with the coffee bean. And great analogy. Yeah, absolutely. And the impact of that— some of the reminders yesterday were things that I used to do that I broke away from, and with the motivational speaker that we had yesterday, and those were like setting, just setting 3 goals every day.

29:17And, you know, so that's one big takeaway from this event that I had. And I like the approach that with the vendors that are here, it wasn't a— we didn't spend time listening to a pitch. Yeah. It was, the intention there was to use their business as a means to explain how it benefits the shop owners, but not in a way that you were just listening to, you know, how good is my product and you should buy my product.

29:44Right. I think that was, I'm not privy to the internal conversations, but I believe that it was a very intentional instruction given to those vendors that were here. If they were given stage time, it was not to be a sales presentation, it was to be educational and informative. Hey, it's me, Mike's kid. Want to tell us your wild shop stories? Or maybe you just think my dad's totally wrong.

30:05Call us at 704-CONFESS and leave a message. You can tell us we're awesome, or you can tell us we're idiots. We're cool either way. That's 704-CONFESS. Just don't make it too weird. Here's what we see with this trend and this technology or whatever it might be, and here's how you can utilize that information to better your business. If you don't want to do that, come talk to me out in the hallway and we're going to have a service that can help you with that.

30:28But here's the information that you need, right? And I think that's a way better way to go about it. And how difficult is that for a sales guy? Yeah, yeah, no, I, I agree with you, but I, I like this, this format of the, the vendors, uh, going the more educating route. Yeah, um, because we, we already get a lot of that in our industry.

30:47We got sales reps coming in weekly, right? Now, you know, not to name no names, I guess. Am I allowed to name names? Napa's, O'Reilly's, Parts Houses, you know, credit card processing guy that's just promising that you're, you know, he can save you thousands of dollars a which I've never seen that yet. But I liked how they stuck on topic with the education.

31:07You know, they're planting that little seed. And if that sparks interest from a potential client, then they'll go visit them at the booth. Yeah. Definitely came into this with a different perspective of that. All right. There's a bunch of sales guys here. This is what we're going to listen to. Right. And our first breakout that we had yesterday, I thought that's what we were going to experience.

31:25And it was nothing like that. It was great. It's been a really good experience. I think that Elite's done a great job of putting— this is my first time at Ignite. Is it yours? First time at Ignite? Yes. To Ignite. I had done some previous ones with Bob Cooper. Okay. Yeah. My first time at Ignite. I've always gone to the Fly with the Eagles.

31:42Yeah. Which is another great program. So I've got Joe and Sabrina. I'm recording with them this afternoon. So we're going to talk about Eagles and Masters in depth. But both great programs. They are. Especially if you're trying to build up, like the Eagles program, if you're trying to build up a manager internally from within your business. Exactly what I'm doing right now.

32:04He went to Fly with the Eagles earlier this year, or last year, so when they were up in Grand Rapids. So, and I'm trying to mentor a manager at the moment and trying to get him to understand things that maybe I haven't been able to communicate up until now. So, and I enjoyed the Eagles for as many times as I've gone for the same reasons I've said it before, is that you're going to hear things things that you couldn't have used before.

32:27Now you're— and obviously it changes every time a little bit. And when you go to these Fly with the Eagles, but obviously the network is fantastic, you know, networking with different shop owners just like it is here. And that's the huge benefit to these is you're surrounded by a bunch of shop owners that are in the same place you are. Not, not all the shop owners that are in your area.

32:46Like, I can go to 5 different shops within 10 minutes of me, none of them are where we're at. No, me neither. Yeah. So it's— well, even if they are, they're not comfortable sharing because they view you as the competition, right? And look, there's more cars than I can fix. There's more cars than you can fix. We don't have to— it doesn't have to be that way.

33:04I'm very fortunate that in North Carolina there's a very strong trade association, uh, ASTA, Auto Service and Tire Alliance. And, uh, so one of my shops is literally, uh, Immediately next to it on this side is a shop that I'm good friends with, and immediately next to on this side is a shop that I'm friends with. I don't know him super well, but all three of us are members of the trade association.

33:27We all go to training events together and we all know each other. And like, when I moved into that building, I talked to them both first. I was like, hey, are you guys cool if I come in here? And they're like, yeah, of course, why wouldn't we? And next Friday night, there's a second floor in that building that's totally useless for automotive repair, so we built like a lounge and like a, almost like a bar up there.

33:47And so next Friday night, I've got like 30 shop owners from around the state coming to hang out at the shop, and we're just going to do pizza and beer and hang out, you know, play a little poker, play some video games. Um, that's super cool. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be like, oh, I can't talk to you, you know, you're the enemy, right?

34:03That's, uh, it's a good point because I, I got to that, you know, realization, um, not too long after starting with my coach and having that ability to reach out to these shops when you have a problem. And even just like, hey, this vendor is not working anymore for this particular service, who are you using? And it— when you walk into a shop for the first time and they see your shop name and they just want to know what you're doing there.

34:28But after you walk in for the second or third time, they know why you're there. And you're— they're not there— you don't think they're, you know, they don't think you're there trying to steal their employees or steal their business or trying to buy their business, right? You're there for information and that relationship. And just like in here, like, it's, you know, you're surrounded by those same type of shop owners.

34:49So we thrive the most off of this type of interaction. Our coaches are fantastic, but this is where we succeed. Yeah, I would tell you that if you're listening to this and you're not part of a peer group, you're not part of a trade association, you're not coming to events like this or Vision or APEX and SEMA is so big that it's— you're almost anonymous and there's not— unless you already have a peer group that you're part of.

35:13I wouldn't say that so much other than for the spectacle. ASTA Expo in North Carolina, Tools in Pennsylvania. Yeah, you don't have to live on an island. You don't have to be alone in this struggle that is small business ownership in the automotive space. Join a group, join a trade association, join a coaching organization, go to these training events. Build a network.

35:35I mean, they're all pretty inviting events. Hey, stay at the hotel where the event's being hosted. Yes. And hang out in the lobby bar. Even if you're not a drinker, have a soda water, you know, and hang out and make friends. And that was one of the things that was odd to me early on was I'd be talking to my 20 Group facilitator or to a coach about problem X and they say, well, call these 3 guys.

36:03They all have solved that issue. Like, I don't know these guys, though. Just— they're an elite. Just call them. Right. And you call them like, oh, hey, man. Yeah. Like, this is what I do. Yeah. Yeah. Like you've been friends for years. It's like, you know, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Right. That's true. Connections. So one more question, then I'll let you go.

36:24I really appreciate you guys' time. Just very quickly, what is the biggest thing you're struggling with in your business right now? Um, I'll jump in there first. Yeah, go ahead, you take it first. Yeah, this might be a generational thing, and I've come to realize this over the last several years as my staff continues to be younger and I continue to get older.

36:50Um, my generation has expectations that that may not be realistic or relatable to the next couple generations that are below us. And there's some personal growth that needs to happen there that my common sense is not the common sense of my staff. And it's not any fault of them. It's because they just have never been brought up the same way that we were brought up.

37:13And I see this because I'm trying to coach my shop manager right now, and he's been with me for 6 years. And he has exhibited so much of what I've done to the point where he's now getting the same pushback that I was getting before because of the expectations that I have that they're going to do the right thing. I know they're going to— they have no intention of doing the wrong thing.

37:38But the issue is, is that I just assume that they're going to do what's right. And it can— it's not just the repair itself. It's through the entire process itself or as mistakes happen. And it, like, having that realization is something that I is going to concentrate on for the entire year. And I'm going to do that by having more meetings with my staff.

38:01They may not like this, and they could be 10-minute meetings, but I want to have— and I'm going to involve my shop manager in those. So instead of having yearly reviews, we're going to still have a yearly review, but we're going to have quarterly sit-downs. So maybe we can— I can I can adjust my expectations based off of that, not necessarily what, you know, what the expectations are of the staff itself.

38:24Like, I can adjust mine to be more realistic with how they think. So I like that. So for me, you know, and those that are listening, is that I, you know, I've got several years of really, really keeping my nose to the grind— ground and working on my business. So for me, I don't want to say— they do say if your business can't run without you, you've only created a job, right?

38:59So for me, I'm going to start learning and trusting my team, trusting the process and procedures that I've had in place a little bit more. And it's hard. Absolutely. It is very, very hard because, you know, you just, you want to be into the, you know, look at all the details. But I do find myself in the trenches, you know, inputting myself into the trenches when I probably don't even need to.

39:26And it's true to sit back and just let, let what we've created play out and go from there. So for me, I'm going to, you know, that's what I need to work on this year. And really just trust in the team, trust in everything I've been doing and just trusting it. That's— I've been there. That's a big struggle. It is. Well, I— so I like fell in love with how awesome I was for a while.

39:52And I became very much an absentee owner for a while. But I hadn't yet established the systems and processes. I just thought I had strong players in place that would just run my business for me if I paid them a lot of money, right? Right. And it worked for a little while until it didn't work, right? And so, you know, 2026 for me is going to be working in my business more than on my business, which is the antithesis of what we all hear all the gurus and talking heads say.

40:22But I failed to work in my business for a period of time that was long enough that we kind of drifted off course a little bit. So sometimes you got to reengage and get back in there. I don't want to say in the trenches because I'm not going to be in the shop, you know, no busting knuckles for you. Yeah, no, no hanging metal.

40:42That's— that would be a disaster. Um, but being on site 40 hours a week, 50 hours a week again, which has not been the case for several years, is probably a lot of what 26 looks like for me. So Well, the good thing is you've got, uh, you've got good people around you. I do, I do. It's fortunate to have, yeah, have that peer group.

41:06Well, guys, any, uh, parting words of wisdom that you want to give to anyone? Don't eat yellow snow. Yeah, I don't have to worry about that in Southern California, so, you know, we'll all stay away from, uh, California comments. If, if you don't have a coach, get a coach. And I, and this is nothing personally against Elite, but just get a coach, right?

41:27And I've heard so many stories of people here that have had several different coaches before they got here, and it's— but it— that's the first step, right? Well, the coach that's right for you and your business right now might be great for right now but might not be the right coach in 5 years. The coach that gets you to $1.5 million might not be the same coach that gets you to $5 million, right?

41:46Or to $50 million, right? So, um, just like every other aspect of your business, you need to be, uh, evaluating regularly and adjusting as needed It's the same thing with your coaching relationship because there are plenty of people in all the coaching organizations. It happens here too, where the coaching group just becomes a social circle. It's almost like a fraternity, right? Right.

42:07And that's okay, right? If your business is running really well and it's profitable and you want to go hang out with your friends, super. Um, but interview multiple different coaches. Maybe Elite's not the right company for you. I believe that they've got something for everybody., but find somebody that does click with you. Correct. So I got, I do got one thing I'll leave them with.

42:28Yeah. Is for the shop owners that have years of experience or years invested in being a shop owner, maybe the, you know, the older shop owners that have been a friend. More mature. More mature. There you go. I encourage them if they are that struggling shop owner, maybe a little older in age, And I encourage them to reach out to Elite Worldwide.

42:53Keep an open mind. If they're tired of the struggle, they— Elite Worldwide and their coaching services will, will help you. And they will, they will help you. If you're 30 years into your business and you don't have an exit plan, you need a coach to plan the exit, right? So stop having only that. Yeah, absolutely. Stop having that mindset of, I don't, I don't need somebody telling me how to run my business.

43:15I don't need anybody in my books. I, I promise you, it sounds like you're coming from a place of a little bit of bitterness there, buddy. Yeah, my dad was like that. Yeah, I, I can't tell you how many of the social media posts I've seen like that. Like, this is my way, this is how I do it. Yeah, you have to have an open mind in this.

43:30And I want every shop around me to succeed. Yeah. And I want to help them however I can, even if it's just words of advice on, you know, what I would do in that situation. But I want them to succeed. And if you have that approach, especially from somebody who's been through this before You know, there's nothing wrong with offering your advice.

43:48And those, again, those networks that you talked about earlier, just having those networks, right, thrive upon that. So awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on, guys. It was great to meet you. Um, likewise, thanks for sharing your stories. Absolutely. And I'll see you out in the lobby. Sounds great. 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.

44:09I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes. So why not laugh a little bit, Learn a little bit and maybe have another drink. You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover? Or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mike@confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message.

44:26The number is 704-CONFESS. That's 704-266-3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode. All right guys, AI class. Learn how to use AI so that you can make it your bitch and you don't become its bitch. Saturday, June 13th, Seth Thorson's teaching a full-day class in Raleigh, North Carolina.

45:27Tap the link in the show notes or scan the QR code on your screen to learn more. It's going to be awesome.