Ep 89 - Sam "Awesome" Freeman & Ethan Whidden | Why You Don't "Need" an A-Tech

0:00But a lot of shops have an open bay and they just want a warm body. And then once they're able to get something better, they kick 'em out. And then they wonder why that kid that's been trying to grow his career has a job because he's found 4 shops in a row that treat him like shit. The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket.

0:21The stuff we or our guests may say do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have. There may be some spicy words crude 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 history of ever.

0:52Okay, so Vision KC 2026 in the books, it's done. They've been tearing down the trade show floor for the last, what, couple of hours now? They're almost completely cleaned out. They're pretty efficient at it. Well, that Techmetric booth is still up. Well, you know, you leave the best for last, really, is how that goes. No, so we were just talking about the show, and I always think that it's interesting talking to vendors and people who have booths at these shows about what makes a good show for you guys versus for me from the perspective as an owner or an attendee or somebody taking training.

1:34And now I'm seeing it from your side a little bit more effectively. Oh yeah, because you're an exhibitor now, huh? Technically I'm an exhibitor, I guess, kind of. But I don't get to go to class because you get double duty. It's a walk the floor. Yeah, well, it was, it was, it's nice though. It was cool. Uh, but you know, talking about some shows have visual cues on the lanyard so you know, because you, you don't want to be like trying to strike up a conversation with somebody who doesn't want to talk to you anyway, right?

2:04Well, yeah, I mean, we've had plenty of those conversations today. Well, that happens, right? Um, you also don't want to spend a whole lot of time in talking to the person that has zero ability to help engage in any aspect of what you're doing. So for us as a vendor, right, we want to talk to the owners, but we're recruiters. Yeah. So if we're seen talking to their technicians, it might be a negative thing.

2:29Yeah. Yeah, I could see how you could— somebody sends their whole crew here and half their techs are all gathered around chatting with you guys, trading, trading contact information. Might get a little sketchy. So to be clear, though, to be clear, the shops that are typically here are the ones that we actually want to support. Well, the shops that send their guys here, their guys are typically pretty happy and they're not looking to jump ship.

2:50Exactly. And the technicians, we like to engage and talk to them though, because they have friends that probably are techs too. So we draw a very clear line, but we're strategic with our line. That works. That's reasonable. Yeah. So one of the things we've been talking about— okay, well, We should back up. I'm terrible about this. Welcome to Confessions of a Shop Owner presented by Tekmetric.

3:18I'm your host, Mike Allen. Introduce yourselves, guys. My name is Ethan Widden. I'm the sales rep for Promotive. I don't know where to look. Am I looking here? Am I looking here? Me, whatever. I'm gonna look at you. You're better to look at. His eyes. Look in his eyes. He's better to look at. Deep into my eyes. Sultry. I'm the sales rep for Promotive, so I go to all these shows.

3:40A Singler sales rep? Yes. So I get sent everywhere, shipped around like a box. But a good box. How many shows a year? Uh, probably around 12. Oh, that's not so bad. It's not that bad. But coming out of college where I didn't do anything like this, it's like, takes some getting used to. Yeah. Especially with Lisa. 2 years in now? 1 year in?

4:07I'm 24. Yeah, but how long have you been— How many years into— Oh, into all this? Uh, about a year and a half. Yeah. Yeah, about there. Well, God bless you. Yeah. So this has been— this is a cool industry to be in. Like, you can have free conversations and people are genuinely pretty nice. So coming out, I was worried it was going to be like this super uptight corporate world.

4:33Where it's like, you know, you have to hold your tongue on everything. No, it's great. You can have a real conversation with somebody and it's genuine. That's what I like about it. I've actually like accidentally cussed in multiple presentations in front of a lot of people. You cuss everywhere. In front of a lot of people. Shh. You shut your fucking mouth when you're talking to me.

4:50Yes. I do. I do. Fucking pause, please. It's my turn to talk. But it is fun when the crowd actually laughs versus gets offended. Yeah, but it's my turn to introduce myself. Yeah, go, go. I'm Sam, Sam Freeman. I am the partnership manager with Promotive. What does a partnership manager mean? Jesus, why do you and Lucas ask me the same question? So I manage the partnership.

5:16It's in the fucking name, Mike. So you know how we have like a lot of vendors or exhibitors? They are all potential partners and/or partners. We also have all of the podcasts. So like the Jaded Mechanic, that is a partner of ours. So there's a lot of different opportunities. I've heard this vicious rumor. But tell me, vicious rumor that Confessions of a Shop Owner may become a partner with Promotive.

5:41Is there any truth to that vicious rumor? I plead the fifth. Write the fucking check. I think he's talking to you, Lisa. So Well, so one of the things, like, I've got a few different companies that partner with the podcast, but it's very important that I actually use that company and that I can honestly and truthfully promote them from a place of, like, genuine belief in the service.

6:11And so we actually started talking, was it, which, what event was in January? Was it Elite? Was it? No, Elite was in January, but you were already with us. We had already— We first met at ASCX. Okay. Anyway, I finally signed up because we've been talking for a while. Finally signed up. Was it after like Apex and SEMA, like around that time?

6:35I feel like we talked about— we talked about podcast partnerships. I was like, I don't partner with anybody that I don't actively use. Oh yeah. And that's how it happened. Yeah. I was like, no, no, I'm fucking awesome. I don't need help. That's my middle name. Yeah, what, need help or awesome? Awesome. Okay, um, it's in all my neighbors' phones. Sam Awesome Freeman.

6:57I'm not even kidding. I 100% believe you. Do you put it in their phone that way? Do you take their phone and change the contact? I do not, but I have. Do you share the contact with that in it already? No, I do not. I may threaten them in some aspect. 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 get the right people who need auto repair right now, then give us a call.

7:25We 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.

7:52And then we also get their physical address and we start sending banner ads and display ads to every single device in that house. It has been incredibly effective. It has made shops seem like they're everywhere to those people who need repairs right then. And I mean, I'm telling you guys, the return on investment has been huge. So if you want to increase car count, you want to get great people in the door, give us a call or reach out to us and ask us about DirectTrack marketing.

8:21Look, 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.

8:43SmartJobs, 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 Tekmetric, 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.

9:09If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change. Tap the link in the show notes and see how Tekmetric can help you move your shop forward. Or like, why would you not do that? But I want them to call, I want them to push Siri and be like, call Awesome. Like that is the goal of my like neighborhood community thing.

9:28It's stupid, but I love it. That's awesome. See, there you go. No, but I did finally sign up with you guys and I think I'm like, I'm on my second full month now. But I got boom, boom, 2 really quick hires, and then I put it on pause and just went to maintenance. Uh-huh. And then we turned it back on again 2 weeks ago.

9:50Okay. And I've had 5 interviews, and I've got another one tomorrow. Uh, not tomorrow, Monday. It's Saturday right now. So it's very important for you to know when your interviews are. I need you to show up. That can be an issue, I've heard. Um, but no, you know, I think it's like anything else, you know, you get the results you get are directly proportional to the effort and attention and focus that you put into it.

10:17And so, yeah, I was bemoaning some staffing issues to Matt Lofton, who is the director of coaching at Elite, who I do an episode with once a month. And he was like, well, what do you think, like, for you, the most important thing for you to be doing in your business Right now, I was like, I need to hire tech. He said, okay, well, you're working 50 hours a week, give or take.

10:41How many hours this week have you devoted to recruiting if that's the most important thing you need to be doing? I was like, oh, I see where you're going. He's like, no, I'm not fucking around. I'm serious. How many hours have you devoted to recruiting? I was like, maybe one. He's like, then you're doing a shitty job. So either get better at it.

10:55Matt said this? Yeah. He doesn't curse like that, right? I'm compressing. I have a meeting I need to schedule with him, so I'm going to use these words right back at him. Let's go. Well, his point was, you know, you need to either do it or you need to delegate to someone. And so that's when I finally called and signed up. I think we talked after— like, you're right, we talked after, after ASTA last year.

11:21And I balked. And then we talked at Apex and I balked and I finally pulled the trigger. And Stacy's been great. To work with. Okay, I gotta give her a different name than Awesome. She's Wonderful. She's— we'll work on that. Be thinking, be thinking. Um, Spectacular Stacy? No, it's too much of a mouthful. Too many syllables. Super? No, no, no, that's Super Stacy.

11:49I think Wonderful was great. I need alliteration. Um, but especially with technicians, right? So I want to talk about recruiting a little bit because not everybody is going to sign up with Promotive, but— Can I pivot really fast? Yeah. Why did you wait so long? Because I'm a control freak and I wanted to handle it myself, but I never got around to it.

12:12And it took Matt saying something to you to realize that you were really spending X amount of time on recruiting for you to open up your eyes? Yeah. Okay. Just wondering. All right. We can go back. No, no, no. There's some judgment there. Suss that out. No, no, I legitimately— the disdain in your voice was clear. So listen, everybody in this— I've been in the industry for over 20 years.

12:34Everybody in this industry that is a shop owner should be hiring or should be actively attempting to. If they don't have a current need, we have— what is it? The turnover rate is huge. It's outrageous. I honestly don't believe the numbers, but I know they're true. It's weird. It's like that, like, uh, um, the injury rate is stupid high as well. It— think about it, they're like bending over.

12:59It's like crab fishing in the Bering Sea. It's pretty much the next best thing, dude. I had a freaking nightmare that I wasn't— no, seriously, okay, sorry. You were a crab fisherman? No, I had a nightmare the other night. It was actually two nights ago. I told Lisa about this, and I was on a cruise in the middle of— I have no idea where— and we were way too close to the to the land for this, but that I got caught up in like some weird like circle and the cruise ship was like going around.

13:25It was crazy. It was like going like around the drain or whatever. Stupid, but— It's how dreams go. It was absolutely crazy. All right. Did you jump out? Well, ultimately, so there was like multiple ships going around. Maybe you were in the Bermuda Triangle. Maybe. That's what she said. Yeah. Huh. I'd make a whole different way for that. But like the other two ships that were in there, they sunk and then we were like slowly sinking.

13:53So we did get to jump out of it and like swim to the— why we were so fucking close to the land, no idea. But yeah, it was crazy. Sounds very exciting. I'm glad that we had that tangent to talk about your night. You're very welcome. I needed that. I needed to get that out. Actually, I've been holding it in all day.

14:12Okay. So every shop that signs up with you guys are like, I need an ATEC. I need an ATEC yesterday. Everybody needs them yesterday. Everybody wants an ATEC. Everybody actually wants a unicorn. And I'm still working on figuring out where we find them at. They don't exist. That's why they're called unicorns. Is that— that's what it is. I think I can like the truly unfair, unrealistic expectations that people set out when they describe a unicorn.

14:41I've known maybe 5 in my life, and that's— trying to recruit for that is stupid. The only way you get that person is by going to events like this and building relationships, and they decide to change where they live in the country. Realistically, the only way you get that person is if you build that person, for the most part, because somebody built that person.

15:03Well, those guys move around the country too. Like, they have families and they get tired of living in the Rust Belt or whatever else it might be, and they move and. So some of the best guys I've ever had were moving to North Carolina and, you know, found us online, found us on the forums or something like that, you know. So, um, but like, even like a high level— and being arbitrary, we got to say you got to have a way to categorize skill levels, right?

15:29So you can say general service technician, journeyman technician, master technician, diagnostic specialist, whatever. ABC. Yep. Like an ATEC, a standard ATEC, if we're going to say that is a competent diagnostician who can produce labor at an efficiency of 100% or better, I think that's a pretty low bar for an ATEC. It's a low bar as long as that person is also not assisting everybody else with diagnostics because that's different.

15:59Well, I mean, so the leveling of who and what So I get a lot of people that ask, they're like, I want an ATEC. Like, okay, well, what is that? What does that mean to you? And 50% of the time they're like, I want somebody that's able to diagnose and I want them to assist with other people. Like, all right, well, that's either a foreman or a diagnostic A-level tech where you're expecting them not to bill X amount of hours.

16:26You're expecting them to still be able to do the hours and be able to do that, but they're also going to be diverted to help everybody else to get their stuff done. Or I don't know, I said stuff, I meant to say shit. Yeah, you got to get that clear. Well, the next guy might think that an A-tech is a dude who can do 120 hours worth of ball joints every week, you know?

16:43Yeah. And they're both super valuable to a business. Yeah. The number one thing I typically will try to do— sorry, Ethan, I keep talking too much. That's okay. But every time I do an intake with a client, I clarify exactly what the levels mean to them. So that we write up the job ads to align with what they're looking for. Because I can ask 100 people what an ATEC means to them.

17:03I'm going to get 50 different answers depending on what, where they are, who they are, and what they've seen. So that is like the first line is ensuring. And it's also the first line that a lot of prospect shops ask us is, well, what's an A-level? At least from what I've seen. Yeah. Well, yeah, they don't want— they don't really know. But I think I get to see the front line of it because the first person they talk to from Promotive is me.

17:29And so I think the impulse need is an A-tech. It's, I need this guy now. And then they talk with an account manager like Stacy, Brian, or you, and they're like, well, maybe my focus should be more on a B-tech. Well, if you brought me a tech today, and because I've got tech ads out with you right now, that was like, I hang metal like a motherfucker.

17:52I'm going to generate 90 hours of parts replacement. As long as you don't give me diagnostics, I'm going to give you 90 hours of parts replacement with very low comeback rate every week. That's great. I'm not sure that I can feed him 90 hours right now. I can feed somebody 60 hours, but I'm not sure I can do 90 hours. So do I need an ATEC right now?

18:13And if you brought me one, I'm going to find a way to make it work, right? But not everybody needs an ATEC. Not Like a diagnostic ATEC, most shops don't need one because most shops don't take enough high-level diagnostic work on to keep them busy doing what they love. It's magical though, majority of our clients need them, or they say they think they need them.

18:33Exactly. It's because they're getting their ass kicked and they've got a backlog of cars that are kicking their ass. But if they had somebody who was competent, they'd work through it pretty quickly and they are having one or two truly difficult cars a week. And a, like a, like a super diag guy, he just wants to work on the interesting fun stuff that's a brain exercise and not a back exercise most of the time.

18:57And most shops don't have the volume to have that many challenging vehicles every week. Yeah, it's my take. So, um, we all think we need an A-level diag guy, and I don't think that's the case. Like, I could use one A-level Diag guy in my business and just bring the problem cars from all the stores to that individual. And I would be fine because I have between the stores, I have enough real problem cars each week to keep one guy busy, probably.

19:28Maybe. Yeah, I think our biggest, our biggest issue right now is aligning technicians' expectations of what they think they are and shops' expectations of what they think they need and kind of bridging that to identify, all right, you guys are trying to speak the same language, but you're in two different chapters of the book, but they're close, but they're not. Well, every technician is the best technician they've ever met, and every shop owner is the best shop owner in the country.

19:59We are all creatures of ego. I've been doing this for over 20 years. I honestly think I need therapy for the therapy that I give. Okay. I need you to give me a story of a ridiculously unrealistic shop owner. Ooh, I have one. Okay, sweet. All right. He's actually out of California. He's great, by the way. You know who you are. Yeah, you definitely know who you are.

20:20He's absolutely awesome. The issue was he wanted an A-level diagnostic tech and everybody that we were bringing to him, he would ask them a question. And they would not answer exactly how he wanted them to answer it. Mind you, I know there's multiple ways of answering a diagnostic question. Everybody's thinking process is a little bit different, but he wanted somebody that thought exactly like him, that would go through the exact steps that he would go through.

20:48So probably about 4 months into the process, I had to have a heart-to-heart with him and say, "Hey, I need you to look in the mirror." We're not going to find you. You're already found. We need you to realize what it is that you need. So I had him take a little bit of a step back and he's like, well, I need help with the DIAC.

21:10Okay, we're not going to help you with the DIAC. We're not going to be able to solve that problem because you have so many other things going on. He needed help with the scheduling component of it, like the dispatch. He was the one doing the DIAC. He was doing the dispatch. He was doing everything. 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.

21:35And that's Detect Auto. I've been talking about Detect Auto for almost a year at this point, and my team still loves it. And 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.

21:59And as a technician, if you've ever gotten a repair order that says check noise, you know how infuriating that can be. Well, 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.

22:20And 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, they'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.

22:53Okay, here's the deal. Uh, at Vision, I recorded an episode with Keith Perkins and Seth Thorsen, and I figured that we were going to talk about NAS stuff the whole time. But we ended up talking about AI the whole time. And they had just taught a class on building your own AI agents within your business. And it was an incredible conversation. And then after we recorded that, I went out into the show floor at VIZION and I talked to a ton of people who had been in the class and they were talking about how 3 hours in that class had changed their entire perspective on AI and they were building their own tools in just

23:223 hours of training. You know, it blew my mind. I've got to have that in my business. And so here's the deal. On Saturday, June 13th, I'm flying Seth to Raleigh, North Carolina, and we are going to have a full day, not 3 hours, but a full day class, breakfast, lunch, and dinner included. If you want to come down the night before on Friday the 12th, we're going to do Friday night shenanigans at my business at the, the Car Fix Bar and Lounge.

23:45It's going to be a great time. I think it's going to change the nature of how we do business. This class is for owners and GMs only. There are limited seats available for this class because it's very hands-on. You're going to need your laptop. You're going to need an active subscription to the AI of your choice. I recommend ChatGPT and Claude AI.

24:02Early sign-up discount, it's $899. If you sign up after May 17th, it's $1,299. Tap the link in the show notes or scan the QR code on your screen to learn more. It's going to be awesome. So he was doing nothing. I guess classic owner who's over-involved in the business, who the business falls apart without the owner. So I told him very nicely, you need to sit the fuck down.

24:27I legit had this conversation them. You need to sit the fuck down. You need to breathe. You need to— what is your number one pain right now? I know I'm not gonna find you a diag right now because I can't get you out of your own head. So what is the number one? You take that off the table. And it was he needed a shop manager.

24:48So he needed somebody that could help run the front. Chaos coordinator. That— my sister walks around that shirt all the time. Um, but yes, that he needed somebody that was able to understand and help run the front, help make sure the dispatching was going correctly so that he can continue to do the diag because that's what he wants to do, that's what he loves to do.

25:08And once he was able to get that piece done, then he's like, I actually want a B-level, somebody that can take the weight off my shoulders a little bit on this stuff, because again, he loves just the A-level piece of it or the Diag piece of it. So we still haven't found a Diag guy for him. It is absolutely fine. But we have a service manager and we have a B-level that they all click.

25:36And honestly, I haven't heard from him in like 3 months. So he's just put it into maintenance and— He put it into maintenance. So he didn't even fully understand what his needs were. Thought he knew what the magic bullet for him was. That's because everybody thinks they need an A-level diagnostic tech. Come on, you heard it here first. You don't really need an A-tech, you just need to be a better owner.

25:57Oh shit, I did not mean that exactly that way, but you just need to listen to Sam. Done. Auto Shop Therapy with Sam. Yes, that's a great podcast. That is a great podcast. And we can drink while we're doing it. I did have a recording yesterday after when happy hour was open. I was drinking some of that free Bud Light from Endeavor Media in here while we were recording.

26:27I thought it would have been awkward to stop and go out and get a refill mid-recording, so I only drank for the first half of the recording. Well, I had a little bit of break before this thing, so I sat and had a One of my favorite drinks that I just learned that I love. What's that? A dirty dirty martini. What is— so that's just extra olive oil?

26:48Yep, olive juice. Come on, not oil. I would die. It is the best thing. So I'm slightly liquid right now. Do you know what you need to try? A michelada. No. Well, you need to try a michelada. Have you had a michelada? Yeah, it's the beer upside down in the marg or something like that. It's a It's tomato. It's like Bloody Mary mix and beer.

27:11I stand by it. Oh no, that's his nickname. It's— I drink it every morning. It's the best. Like in the morning? It's just how you— Yeah, it's salt, little lime, tomato juice, seasonings. He's like starting a song right here. Mondello. Say that again with a little accent. What? What? Mondello? Did anyone beat you at Mario Kart? I took first place. Did he get the prize?

27:35No, he did not. Lame. He earned it. I agree. No, he did not. He set the bar too damn high. And you know what? There was people playing that. He's an ATEC trying to get an ATEC. There was people playing that thing over and over and over. I know there was one guy, he came back probably 5 times to try to beat it.

27:49How many times have you played the damn game? He grew up playing it. So yes, but I took a long time not playing it, but then I rejoined with Bureo Kart. Drinking game with beer and Mario Kart. You can't drink and drive. You have to finish the race. You're playing somebody, so it's typically 1v1. You have to drink your beer and finish it by the end of the race.

28:14Goal is to get first place. Okay, loser has to chug a beer. Never heard of this in my entire life. It is the funnest, quickest way to get drunk. Oh no, no. And you're doing it safely. Because you're not driving actually, and you're just, you know, it's a video. Well, we're gonna go drink beer and drive go-karts in like an hour and a half.

28:32You're going. You're going. You're not going. I thought I was and I'm not. There's a little bit of a mess out there. Miscommunicado. Miscommunication. I'm pretty damn good at those things. And there's a lot of prideful shop owners here. I would just love to just not ever get their business. So here's the deal, right? Uh, I, uh, think that I'm awesome at everything until proven otherwise.

29:01Yeah. And typical technician. Yeah, I'm definitely not awesome as a technician. Um, but, uh, I don't have the time, money, or skill to actually drive real cars fast, hence the Miata that I have. This is a lot of fun to drive a slow car fast. Um, And, but I love me some go-kart racing, man. And there's a, there's a track not far from the house.

29:25So my kids and I go way too often. And there was like a long period of time where I had a season pass for my kids and I because it was inexpensive and super fun. So like a little K2 thing, like the electric ones? No, no, it was— we have like an outdoor one. Gas card. Yes. Gas is more fun anyway. Oh man, I would fuck those kids up.

29:50Yeah, no mercy, man. Don't let your kids win at shit, man. My kids are taller than me. Fuck off. Yeah. No, I'm gonna kick your ass as much as I can. For sure. It's awesome. One of my favorite things to do, and actually my wife doesn't participate any longer, um, is a family board game night and, uh, just crushing their soul on Monopoly.

30:13Oh, Monopoly's such a long game. That'll split families. I love it, man. They always end up in a fight and I'm laughing maniacally. Like, I need a monocle to wear just while we're playing Monopoly. We do play family board night though. So we do date night, which is we do music bingo, and we also do a game just my husband and I.

30:33And then we also do board night, and we also have a friend board night game. We do a lot of this shit. You're very community involvement. I am. You're probably like master of ceremonies in your cul-de-sac. Is that what you are? Kind of? No, they did used to call me, uh, what the hell was it? Awesome. No, I actually was nabled— nabled?

30:55Oh, that's the martini. I was labeled as, um, the ambassador. It works. That was awesome. Of your cul-de-sac? Of my, my block. That's a thing? Well, yeah, it was. I think Master of Ceremonies is better. I mean, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, but no, listen, my community is fucking awesome. So every single Fourth of July we have a major 4-day party. It's my husband's birthday.

31:24Yes, pretty much. It's my husband's birthday on the 3rd and it goes the entire week. And we normally have— so we have a park right in front of us. So we have a big water slide, we have slip and slide, and we typically will do a— have you seen the kickball slip and slide? No, but it sounds like a great way to need a chiropractor.

31:46Well, so far nobody has gotten hurt. These are wood, and it's absolutely hilarious to watch. I would probably break my neck, but seeing, you know, these 40-year-old men run and slide and try to hold my beer while we do it. It's hilarious. So, and what it is, is you have your home where you kick the ball, whatever, and then every base is a small pool and you have to slide into it.

32:11It's hilarious. But we do water balloon fights, slip and slide. We do the slip and slide kickball. My brother's, uh, so my, uh, my brother and his neighborhood group of family, he lives on Lake Wateree in South Carolina. Exactly where that is. They're not— yeah, it's in the middle of nowhere, uh, but they're— so they're not all neighbors right on the same street, right?

32:33But they're all on the same lake, so they all come together with their boats or something. Uh, well, they'll— they pick each other's house, you know, each time. But they have the Olympics, the Beer Olympics, and so they have all sorts of different, uh, games that they play and events they have, and they have a podium and a trophy. And the trophies pass from family to family because it's your family versus my family versus their family versus— so it's FVF, I guess.

33:01Well, we have in my family, we do a chili cook-off every single year. I have not won and our chili is fucking awesome. They rate it every day. They rig it every time. But it's S&M Chili Cook-off, Sisters and Their Misters. But there's a legit trophy, an apron, and a hat. It's fucking awesome. Uh, do me a favor this year, just go get like 2 gallons of Wendy's chili.

33:29No, pour it into a crock pot. Against the rules. We have some level of class in our life. Jesus. Wendy's drive-through, I need all the chili. I'm sorry, sir, I need all the chili that you have. Wendy's chili is like an instant Code Red. This last chili? Instant Code Red. No, on the way. All right. All right, and break. Now it's back to you, sir.

33:58No, on the way over here. Come on, Sam. I'm working on it. You got this. On the way over here, I'm walking fast. I have short legs, but they fucking move. And he goes, "I'm in a code yellow situation." And I'm like, I have no idea what that means. I'm like, what does that mean? Is he gonna piss? No. No? Oh my God.

34:24What's code yellow? Code yellow? Well, let's just say code red. You better find a toilet. It's urgent. Oh, it's urgent. There's a countdown. And it's not just a zipper. Yeah, it's pants to the ankles. Yeah. Yeah. You have the sweat breaking out on the forehead. Oh, I was— I was skiing 2 weeks ago. I'm about to get to the— the trial. We figured out Sam's weak spot is poop jokes.

34:49Oh my God. We figured that out now. No! The whole situation was the best. Oh my God. My face is Okay, go. Sorry. Okay, keep it together. I'm trying. I'm trying to take the bus to the, to the ski lift at Copper Resort in Colorado, and on the drive over I'm like, man, something's, something's a little off here. Yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna let a couple, you know, and we're waiting for the bus out front and I'm like, fuck.

35:25This is Code Red situation. I need to find a bathroom now. And drop trowel on the snowbank. I almost— I was scouting places too. In front of 100 people waiting for the bus, I was thinking, if I get on this bus, I'm gonna shit in front of everybody. Okay, I need to bring this back in because I can't help it. Okay, long story short, I sprinted to a bathroom and we made it happen.

35:49Sprinting in snowboard boots. It's, it's not the best. Better than ski boots. I mean, yeah, better than ski boots. I'm glad I didn't eat shit because it would have been probably pretty bad. Yeah. You got makeup at this point? My face is bad. So your weak spot is poop humor? No, no, it's not though. It's just him and poop humor. That is— oh my goodness, it is the most hilarious thing.

36:18He's just so natural about it. And like, I'm used to like Lisa. It's part of what our body does. I understand. Everybody poops. I have 5 kids. I get that. So here's the thing. Outdated SMS, just, they don't just slow you down. They cost you money. And I learned it the hard way. Before Techmetric, I was wasting time on inefficient processes, manual updates, back and forth calls with customers.

36:39Now I handle everything in one place. DVI, customer communications, payments, real-time reporting. It's all in one page. Since making the switch, my average repair order has jumped from $293 to $916. And it's not just me. TechMetric powers almost 10,000 shops nationwide. By the time you're hearing this, it probably will be 10,000 shops, helping them grow and operate smarter. If you're tired of losing time and money to outdated systems, tap the link in the show notes and see what TechMetric can do for you.

37:10I don't know. That's how my family is though. No. My dad's husband like that. My family is Super. I've never ever ever ever heard of anything Code Yellow. The fuck? I just assumed that was I'm about to piss myself. That's what I initially thought, so I was like, oh, okay, so it's like DEF CON 2. Well, I told him, I said, I'm gonna run potty real quick, and he's like, oh, I got a Code Yellow.

37:35The fuck? So yeah, no, that was awesome. I'm glad that we brought that value to our listeners, that last 3 or 4 minutes is really high-level content. It was the best ever. Let's get this back. All right. We're going to reel it back. I want to talk about— let's talk about localized guerrilla recruiting because it's not the stuff that y'all do. Can I change the topic?

38:00Well, fuck, I guess so. Let's go. No, I actually would really, really like to talk about shop owner expectations. With vendors and how they forget that we are actually humans sometimes and have unrealistic expectations and sometimes treat us like shit. Oh, I think, uh, as much as our forums and groups and everything else are full of shop owners complaining about shitty customers and unrealistic expectations and bad behavior from customers, just as frequently it is shop owners being shitty to vendors and having unrealistic expectations unrealistic expectations of the vendors.

38:42And, you know, God, every week it's on there. It's like, ah, this person approved X, Y, and Z and said everything was golden, and then they come to pick it up and all the work's done, and then they want to argue about the price. Oh gosh. And I guarantee you that you guys deal with that shit, and I know that there are other vendors out there that I talked to on a regular basis that deal with that shit.

39:04As an owner, you need to be the customer to your vendors that you want your customers to be to your business. It's do unto others, right? It's just basic golden rule stuff, but people just don't fucking get it. I go by the whole treat people the way you want to be treated, and my son likes to twist it around and say treat people the way you treat— or treat people the way they treat you.

39:25I'm like, no, you're fucking ruining this. That's not how it goes. Well, it can't be treat people the way they treat you because then we'd have anarchy, but exactly. I heard someone say Treat people the way they want to be treated. No, treat people the way you want to be treated. Well, what if you want— what if I like poop jokes and so I always give poop jokes to other people and maybe they might find it inappropriate?

39:47I— so for the record, I did not find it inappropriate at all. I found it absolutely fucking hilarious and uncontrollably— again, it's coming back. So how do you, how do you combat unrealistic expectations from owners? I mean, I think a big part of that is— so what's the number one thing that I think yesterday Lucas actually mentioned it, or it was David that mentioned it in the same room, actually.

40:11But he was like, he was losing his shit over bad reviews because what he does. Yeah. No, his veins were fucking popping out of his brain. It's— yeah, but he's got issues. That kind of brought me back to shop owners. Typically will lose their mind and just, how dare they actually write a negative review about me? We didn't do this, it's not the full story.

40:35And then they turn right around and treat a vendor the same fucking way. So I think it all comes back to, if somebody, have like an open mind, like nobody is perfect. And also understand that if there's a problem, communicate it. If you're not happy, voice it. So much misunderstanding or unhappy outcomes could be addressed with clear communications, and unspoken expectations cause so much— I mean, I've been having that conversation all week this week with multiple different people in my life that I find myself being a mediator between multiple people who are frustrated with each other and they don't just go fucking talk to each other.

41:18They don't establish clear expectations. They just have assumptions. And they, for whatever reason, both come bitching to me. And I'm like, well, now I know your assumption and I know your assumption. And those two assumptions ain't the same thing. Why the fuck don't y'all have a conversation? Right? I think my favorite one is— let's talk about like placements real fast. Okay, this is great.

41:40So Promotive, we do our best at lifting, doing the heavy lifting up front. So we write the job postings, we do the screening, we are trying to eliminate the candidates that are absolutely not worth your time at all. And present candidates that we believe based off of the communication that we've had that meet your ICP and that we think are worth you— Insane Clown Posse?

42:08Shut up. Ideal candidate profile. Okay, copy. Thanks. Okay, got it. But that meet that line that are worth your time, and then clients will hire them after they interview them, and sometimes multiple crazy-ass interviews, and then the candidate doesn't work out. It's all of Helen's fault. Whoa. I mean, I feel like most of my conversations now are have some fucking accountability for the process here.

42:42We are doing the lifting up front to give you time and the ability for you to do the screening. You still have to fucking screen them. It is still your job to evaluate their ability and their skills, to ask them questions and fucking see if they can actually do the job. So one of the things that I heard the other day in a training class was— sorry, I got way No, I'm agreeing with you completely.

43:05As the leader in my company, it's my job to delegate appropriately, right? And so I should be responsible for almost nothing— I should be in charge of almost nothing but responsible for everything. Oh yeah. And so I have delegated the initial screening and candidate collection process to you guys. So I'm not in charge of that process. But I am responsible for who I fucking hire.

43:31Boom. Right? So, you know, it was funny. One of the placements that I had, because I placed two with you guys so far, and I think I'll probably end up hiring the dude that I'm talking to on Monday. Oh, he's going to hear this now. But one of them had applied with me three times already, but I was so inefficient and my, for whatever reason, my ads fucking work, man.

43:58I get a lot of resumes. I got a lot, a lot of, I think I have like 900 and something profiles on my Indeed account. And he was in there and he had applied 3 times and I had never gotten around to responding to him. I had green, I had green checked him 3 times and never had any conversation. And so, you know what?

44:14Y'all had a conversation with him. Y'all wrote up his profile. You sent me his. I was like, oh yeah, I think I recognize that name. No shit.. And so I text Stacy, I was like, haha, guess I should have called him back one of the first 3 times that he fucking applied. You know what's really funny is I just dealt with a situation where very similar.

44:31So the candidate applied to the shop, shop was slow or didn't get back in contact with the candidate. We did our full entire fucking job, scheduled, submitted the candidate, got them scheduled, they did the interview, and he's like, oh, I already interviewed this guy. I'm not gonna pay you. Like, are you fucking kidding me? So now the people that— that is being a shitty customer.

44:53That's being a shitty customer. Yeah. Yeah. And it happens more often than not. It's absolutely ridiculous. It doesn't happen more often than not. It happens more often than you might think. Most of your customers are great, actually. Yeah, I mean, we have a couple of cool ones. Oh yes. No, you're right. I thank you corrected me. That was also the martini. But no, it happens more often than you think.

45:16And it's crazy. It happens with people that I'm like, I thought I knew you. Like, I thought we were homies. Like, I've known you before this shit. Yeah. And I can't believe that's the way that people are. And it's the whole, well, you know, we could have found him on our own. No shit, you could have found him on your own. I could have found the dude that I hired on my own because he tried to help me find him 3 times, but I never fucking connected the dots because you have all this other shit that you need to do.

45:41So, well, and also, you know what, I signed an agreement. I appreciate you. I actually, listen, initially, like, starting off meeting you, I was like, I don't know, maybe, yeah, listen to your podcast, what the fuck. Yeah, but you saying that, I actually really do appreciate. This is not like, not even no bullshit, like, turn the camera. I legit, that means everything to us because we are legit trying to make a change here.

46:04We're trying to help in an area we know. The number one thing that when I first started off in marketing sales with CustomerLink back in the day was, I don't need marketing. My customers come back on their own. Help me find a tech. Now we're fucking doing it. And it's what? Like, come on. We appreciate that. So thank you. Well, tell me more about how awesome I am, because— Nope.

46:30That's it. It ends. All right, dude, so you've been working— you, you've been working the show circuit now for a year and a half. Yeah. Was, uh, was ASTA Expo your first show? No. Okay, my first— no, my first show was SEMA of 2024. Okay, I remember this. Yeah. What's your favorite show? Mm, my favorite show. That's a good question. It's not a loaded question, I'm just genuinely curious.

47:03I would say my favorite show experience, including all of the outside show activities, would probably be— no. What? Shop Hackers. Yeah, they put on a good, they put on a good show, man. One, the show is good. Yeah, dude, I walked away from that show wanting to buy a shop. I'm not even kidding. But also Nashville is awesome. Yeah, so I forgot about— I was actually kind of— that was a good time.

47:31We were hopping around in a little party bus, and whenever you're with Lisa, there's typically a party bus following shortly. That's true. When you're in Nashville, or if they have party buses in the town where you are, they're— they will be hired. Yes. Note to self. I just like going to any show though, in general, like It's fun traveling because I'm young and I want to go see new places, but I also get to see customers that I'm talking with strictly over the phone.

47:55So I had a guy come up today, Keith. He is out in Wyoming, but I've been going back and forth with him for like probably 6 months. And so he's opening up a new shop, he's building on top of it a couple of apartments for new technicians, and he's getting real creative with that fucking reload, right? Well, yeah, I mean, he's— he knows his area is super expensive.

48:18It's wealthy ski town, um, but it's also in the middle of nowhere. Is he the— nope. You guys know who Zeb Beard is? Yeah, I love that long-haired crazy guy. He is a crazy son of a bitch, but, uh, his 70,000 square foot shop includes like 6 bedrooms for relocating diesel techs from around the country to come. He failed to mention that to us.

48:42Well, they come, they can, they come and they can Well, the concept was that they could come and live there on his dime for 90 days, 6 months, to figure out if they wanted to, one, work for him, if he wanted them to work for him, and then move. And so it's like an extended working interview because if they're dumbass, then they haven't picked up their whole life and moved to the other side of the country or to the middle of the country.

49:07So I thought that was pretty creative. Solution for a problem of being a specific skill specialist in a market that doesn't draw a ton of human beings, you know. Where is he, Southern Arkansas? Yeah, something like that. Yes. Um, question. Diesel Jesus is his name. He has like this long, like, golden dirty blonde hair. Actually, why is he not here? Um, I don't know, he's coming to ASTA Expo.

49:39I think he's going to Tools. I hope we get either of those. That's his job. Question: when you travel to these events, do you do like anything like outside like crazy? Because people— for me, I'll set you up. I've done a lot of these shows over the years and everybody's like, oh my God, like you get to travel all over the world, like all over the US and Canada, Mexico, a lot.

50:03And you could see all these things. I am airport location, hotel, convention, airport, like party bus. That's typically only in Nashville and Vegas. And that's because if it's not for Lisa, my ass is staying there. Like, I don't go out and adventure, but he seems to do that type of stuff. Do you? He's— I know he's young. I was young when I started this shit.

50:28You'll look like this soon. But I can't do it every time. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I did. Absolutely. Yeah. But like, I don't know, it seemed last year, uh, we took a day. Vegas is different. Yeah, we took— we went out into the desert and rented side-by-sides and went tearing across the desert with a bunch of us. And that's how you do that.

50:46I want to go. Fantastic. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I think, uh, Jeff Compton thought he was gonna die because I was driving the one that we were in. And he looked like he was regretting his choices to get in the side-by-side with me. So I would love to do that. It was a lot of fun.

51:04Put that on the list. Yeah, I was about to say, I was thinking paintball. Oh, I would do that too. Team paintball. I am basically a dude but a chick when it comes to that stuff. Yeah, I mean, hey, you just identify however you want to identify, girl. It's 2026. No, no. Okay. Okay, so I had to take— I'm in California, don't hate me, I identify with the toaster, um, but— Stay away from the bathtub.

51:29No, but I had to take sexual harassment training. That's it. You have to do that every fucking year. It's like you forget. And this time it like walked me through like how people dress is how they identify, how they their pronouns is Elliot. I'm like, what the fuck? I'm confused. I walked away more confused because I dress like a dude 90% of the time.

51:54I'm like, what am I? I asked this. I'm like, what am I? You're just dude. What's up, dude? What's up, dude? Fist bump. Yeah, catch it. Elbow. Something with fist bump. I can create shit too. Oh my Jesus. You gonna want some editorial input on this one, or we're just gonna go raw dogging it? Just, just straight up put it out there?

52:16No, no, I want you to fix all that. Fix it all, please fix it all. All right, um, one of the things that— two of my main points of frustration with hiring, and the— I think it's turning— I think the pendulum is swinging back because the market's changed a little bit and technician supply is coming back closer to demand a little bit now.

52:40There are more guys on the market. Maybe that just always happens January, February because a lot of markets slow down. Fuck, it's a peak and valley on that one. Ghosting interviews or accepting the offer and ghosting the job and taking the offer letter as leverage to get a raise and stay where you're, where you're at. I've gotten so many dudes big-ass raises to stay where they are and in the interview process I'm like, well, why are you looking?

53:06Well, oh, they're unfair with their dispatch, or, you know, the owner is asking me to do unethical shit, or, you know, this guy's an asshole, or, you know, this guy doing drugs at work or whatever, you know. And suddenly they get $7 an hour more and that shit's not a problem anymore. They magically have— so is— was all this stuff a problem, or were they fucking lying and they just want more money?

53:30I think, yeah. Well, I feel like there's a combo there. I feel like a lot of times, um, when— at least with us, because one of our questions is, you know, why are they leaving? And we drill into it a little bit more, and, um, they forget that money isn't solving all— they forget about their problem on why they originally were wanting to leave because they dangled some more cash in front of them.

53:54So magically it made all that other shit go disappear. But come full circle, they might be back on the hunt again in a year because the same shit's happening and it's so frustrating. But then they're hesitant to apply with me again because they know they fucked me. Yeah, with a no-call, no-show, right? Well, and they— I pulled my ad down and checked with them and got their uniform sizes and, you know, arranged for the toolbox move, and then they fucking call me 24 4 hours before, or text me, or we should line all those guys up and hit them with paintballs.

54:25I think that that is an important solution. No, no, no, no. What? No, like long-term damage versus F-150s with paintballs. No, drive-by in an F-150. Yes, that's getting better. That's getting better. No, I, I think it's— and it's— we all have to fix this shit. It's not going to fix overnight. I mean, realistically, if I was to go talk to a competitive company, I don't even know who the fuck that would be, but I would go talk to a competitive company and put my fillers out there and they offer me— if money was the only thing I was looking for, I'd bring it back to my existing company and be like, hey, put myself on

55:09the market, this is where I'm at. I've gotten a raise like that before. Now I was I feel like Lisa would be like, deuces. No, I don't think so. Get the fuck out. I think Sam. She loves Sam too much. Yeah. And no, I think I bring a lot more value than that. Deuces. But I think you would also just go and ask if you felt like you needed.

55:29I would. Yeah, I would. But again, it's not the money that typically I think is pushing people away. It is all the things that lead up to it. It's feel— Feeling not valued. It's feeling not appreciated. It's feeling, you know, like being talked to like you're a dog at work. That happens so much, it's crazy. I mean, yeah. And being— somebody said something, I don't even know who the hell it was, but they're like, if you're not running, then you're not worth it.

55:55Like, like, if you're not running in their shop, then you're, you're done. Like, you're— what the fuck? I'm not on a treadmill all goddamn day. I'm good. Like, that's stupid. Two of the meetings that I've had with Lisa, she was actively on a treadmill while we were in here. No, she is on a treadmill all the fucking time, and then now she's a gimp, so she can't do that.

56:16Um, all right, so now I'm fired. I do want to— I do want to say devil's advocate, because if, if I give airtime to bitching about technicians, uh, being dishonest and accepting a job offer and then using it as leverage and not showing up for the for the job, right? I think there are probably equally as frequently shops that promise the world and are straight up full of shit about what they're actually offering for their technicians.

56:43That— oh, dude. Yes. But that is a big part of it as well. I mean, there's so much accountability that needs to go on both sides of all of these things, on everything. But I talk to shops all the time and I'm like, oh, I see You got a job ad up just randomly. It's for this. But you told us that it was for this.

57:05And yeah, I just post the job ad like that because it gets more like it's the pay structure. So they have a flat rate with us and they're offering hourly and it's like hourly with a guarantee just to get applicants in. What the fuck? Like, you don't have to lie. Yeah. Let you. Put that ad out and see what you get, right?

57:25Oh my goodness, they're going to pay you if you get them a pure flat rate unicorn. It is outrageous. But yeah, no, it's on both sides. And that's— I mean, I go to the job hoppiness, um, I have a lot of shops that are— they're like, oh well, you know, I don't want anybody that's job hoppy. Okay, well, that's wonderful. Um, 50% of the time it's the shop, 50% of the the time it's a candidate.

57:50And let's not forget that a lot of shops, a lot of shops are shitty. Well, no, not even that, but a lot of shops have an open bay and they just want a warm body, and then once they're able to get something better, they kick them out. And then they wonder why that kid that's been trying to grow his career has a job because he's found 4 shops in a row that treat him like shit.

58:11It absolutely is a thing. So I mean, I used to be, I used to be one who would see somebody that's worked at 4 places in 2 years and be like, my eyes, it's a red flag. Yeah, it's a yellow flag. You got to find out why. Have a conversation. There's a story there. Yeah, but if you know, a yellow flag or a yellow— yellow flag.

58:30Yeah, we just talked to the guy at the dinner table. He had 10 years of experience, 9 different places he was working with, but none of them were really his fault. Like, they were all seasonal He moved, he had a girlfriend. Like, it wasn't a bad tech. He was a great communicator. Always stories behind it. I will not allow one of my clients to reject a candidate for job hoppiness as your only fucking reason.

58:53You will talk to them, even if it's a phone interview, even if it's 10 minutes. I need you to talk to them. So the initial call screening process. So when I get— when y'all— when Stacy sends me a candidate and there's the write-up, profile and then there's the resume that you've created for them. Is that call screening done by a human or are they filling out a form or talking to an AI?

59:16For you, it is done by a human. Okay. Because I love my AI though. Who is for that screener, that initial screener? I mean, they talk to 20 people a day, I would imagine, to create those profiles, to submit them to different customers. Um, there's some dudes that just straight up fucking lie, and I know that they know that they're talking to a liar, but they can't be like, this bro's a liar.

59:44Well, sometimes they will dig deep and ask the questions, but there's that thin line of they need to take the information and kind of convey it because they don't know everything. Well, every single technician resume that I've gotten, not just from you but for me personally, says I keep a very clean and organized and neat workspace. There are technicians out there that keep a very clean and organized and neat workspace.

1:00:14It ain't all of them. I mean, maybe we should ask on the frequency that they clean their, their toolboxes and their, their tools. How often do you organize and put away your tools? Yeah, I think that's a better question than Do you keep it? Because yeah, the day that I start, it's fucking clean and organized. But hey, it's me, Mike's kid. Want to tell us your wild shop stories?

1:00:35Or maybe you just think my dad's totally wrong. Call 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. I mean, even for me, my desk, I have to clean it every so often because at the end of the week, shit's everywhere.

1:00:57Um, so I've got an advisor, uh, ad out and there was a candidate and Stacy was like, hey, what do you think of that? I was like, nah, pass. She said, we didn't even talk to him, why are you passing? I was like, well, I'm happy she said that, by the way. He, uh, yeah, she'll push back. Um, I said, well, if you do the math on the number of courses that he says he writes per day and what he says his average repair orders a day, that means that he's doing $300,000 of revenue a month and he wants to make $60,000 a year.

1:01:30He's a fucking liar. I mean, damn, he's undervaluing himself. Those are the numbers. No, he's a liar. I know. Yeah, he's probably not a liar. He's probably ignorant. Well, I feel like he doesn't— I mean, he hasn't thought through that. You should math the math a little bit here. Like, I mean, I enjoy when I see a technician that can bill 200,000 or 200 hours.

1:01:52And I'm like, so are you working? Is that one week or two weeks? I'm curious. And what type of work is that? Like, are you just seeing brake jobs constantly and that's all you're doing? You're just able to bust that shit out? Like, what is it? Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I think, uh, but we can't train for liars. Yeah, I probably still have— I think you need to do lithograph.

1:02:12Uh, is that a lie detector test? The lie detector? I mean, you need to fly out and do a lithograph. With every candidate. I also think we should do a blood test. I also think that we should, you know, see if they have platelets that are fine. You know, I love how they all say, yes, I'm cool with the drug test, and then they come in and it smells like a fucking dispensary.

1:02:30You know what's funny though is we're not in California, dog. This shit ain't legal here. I can't wait till it is, but it's not yet, right? So the way that we frame those questions, because we don't do the drug test We don't do the background checks. We don't. But we ask, you know, if you were to do a drug test, is there anything that they should be aware of?

1:02:53If you do a background check, is there anything we should be aware of? And we remind them that this is typically a second chance industry. And if you're forthcoming with stuff, typically it's going to be fine. If you are a fucking liar. Okay, we don't say that part, but if you are a liar, and they find out or it comes out later, the, oh, I didn't know is not going to fly.

1:03:13A lot of times that type of conversation gets the truth out. Like we've had some crazy stuff. I'm like, oh, I'm rejecting him because I don't agree with him at all. Yeah, but also we're not the shop owner. Yeah, right. Well, I mean, a lot of the shop owners have had arrest histories and have had— this is the biggest second chance industry.

1:03:31Yeah. I mean, are we typically draw the line on pedophiles and fucking— yeah, I think sex crimes is probably the number one, is the one that is a killer. So you might have to filter that one out too. No, but yes, I mean, you have the sex crimes and you also have like murder. If you have a restraining order out against you, or if you're a registered sex offender offender, I think that probably pretty much precludes you from employment.

1:04:03Yeah, I think you can't go 100 feet from a school. Yeah, yeah, it's a good reason. Red flag or yellow flag. Yeah, yeah. I'm never gonna get over that. With the flags, always with the codes and the flags. Codes and the flags. I literally am gonna have a hard time with this. All right, so, um, what is the easiest position for you guys to fill right now?

1:04:23Oh, probably service advisors, right? We're cranking through those. I think that's the easiest to get candidates for. Yeah, I would actually say a solid BTEC is pretty legit. Yeah, the hardest is a diagnostic A-level European tech. That is the hardest. I don't think there's actually that many out there. So unicorns are unicorns for a reason, but if our listeners are looking for, um, an experienced service advisor or a good journeyman BTEC, then y'all can probably help them out pretty quick depending upon I mean, if they're in the middle of nowhere and they're in a town of 500— yeah, I mean, if they have realistic expectations and they have decent pay, and we can work on

1:05:00it. But if they want somebody yesterday and they live in the boondocks and they pay shit, don't call us. So I'm in a mid-major market, Raleigh, North Carolina, right? Um, and pretty good quality of living, pretty good. Um, it's a desirable place to be. I'm in a really healthy, good market. What do you think a journeyman B-level technician in a market like that should be?

1:05:26What's the total compensation package I typically see on that? Would be about— what is it— probably about $30,000 to $40,000 on— and that's that range depending, there's all those extra qualifiers in between. Yeah, so either a $30,000 to $40,000 on a flat rate or $30,000 to $40,000 on a hybrid production. What's the highest that you've had a client offer for Unicorn Diag Tech?

1:05:49$65 an hour flat rate. There's places that are paying that easy. I've heard $75. Listen, we don't have everybody. I'm talking about my own client base. I mean, I can go do some numbers for you. I'm seeing $75 for like true savant type guys. Listen, making $200K is not unrealistic at that level. Yeah. Well, you said, I mean, you got to be— it's going to be easier for you to do your job if our listeners are building an environment that's a nice place to work with good benefits.

1:06:21Yeah. And they're responsive and they know how to communicate. It's clean and has good lights and good flooring so you can actually see shit you drop. That'd be a great one too. You would be surprised at how many shop owners don't know what to pay their guys. Oh yeah. I get it almost probably on 50% of my calls. That I take on all my demos.

1:06:39They're like, what do you typically, you know, what do you typically pay a B-tech or what does an A-tech go these days? I'd rather have somebody admit that they don't know what to pay and take the advice from people that have the data in front of them versus somebody that is just hard set on not wanting to pay the average market. I think there's somebody in Washington that pays their A-level tech less than $30 an hour.

1:07:04It's like, are you kidding me right now? Maybe it's like $32. Can I get that guy's name? Um, I don't know. I will not. I gave you a fucking state. That's close enough. Go figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. If you're an ATEC in Washington making $32, fucking call me. I'll move you, you know, um, to North Carolina where it's beautiful. I actually do think it is beautiful there.

1:07:29It is. It's a great place. First time I went to, um, to North Carolina, I was working in a different industry for all of 5 seconds. And which industry? Yeah, what? Oh, I was trying to fix the school industry. Oh. And so I was working with school districts and software, or— yeah, it was software. Yeah. And I was working with like superintendents and all the things.

1:07:52I'm like, this is the most corrupt industry You think fucking the automotive industry is bad? No. And the school system in North Carolina is terrible. Oh yeah, no. Terrible. Listen, I dealt with North Carolina. And the teachers don't get paid shit. I mean, it's— There was a reason I was trying to go and save the world, but I mean, that entire place— Once you saw how the sausage was made, you were like, this is beyond saving?

1:08:16I was— I did not feel safe traveling by myself as a grown-ass adult with a bunch of those superintendents in a hotel. That is dead honest truth. No shit. And I'm a scrapper. I'm one of 7 kids. I will take automotive shop owners and technicians any day over the superintendents. Power tripping. TSMOs. Slimeballs. Like, ugh. It literally, that makes my skin crawl.

1:08:44I'm not even kidding. Name, name, girls. Give me counties. I'm about it. Now you can't do that shit. Like, I was that close, but no, I feel like it's all of them. Like, it's not fun. It's bad. They do not. I think the biggest part is, is like what I value about our industry is we give a shit. Like, majority of shop owners decided to become a shop owner because they cared and they wanted to do something.

1:09:13Well, they wanted to do it right because they worked for places that they thought weren't doing it right. Correct. I don't feel that the educational system gives a shit like that. The educators, when they become teachers— I'm talking about the teachers they want to do it higher up— and the ones that matriculate upwards, like the ones with the truest heart, see how ugly it is, and they— like, the turnover rate is super high, right?

1:09:38Yes. And the ones who get to that level, they're politicians. Yeah. And also not a fan of that area. And politician is a super desirable field. 100%. Remember? Okay, I'm older than you guys, but when I was growing up, it was a thing to be like, when I grow up, I want to be president. Oh yeah. My kid said that shit, I'd smack him.

1:10:02I don't— I'm not advocating for beating your kid. But if there was a reason to beat your kids, it's if they wanted to be the fucking president. Oh my God, what a disaster. I might have to filter that one out too. Should we talk about religion also while we're at it? Let's just fucking cover them all. Okay, so what's next for you guys?

1:10:25Oh boy. Ah, ATE. Yeah, he's going to ATE. I'm going to ATE. PTI, but in between that I'm going to LA for a cheer comp for my daughter, a stunt comp for my daughter, so I'm really excited about that. Nice. Um, my brother's wife is the cheer coach at their school and his daughter is now in 9th grade on the varsity squad.

1:10:49Okay. And they've won states for the last 3 years with her as the coach, so she's very proud of her cheer team. So good job, Desiree. Wonderful job, Desiree. Yeah. Now I am going to boast about my daughter really fast. So 2 weeks ago we were in Vegas for nationals. So she came home with 2 national titles. So with her cheer comp team and they were also level champs and they also came home for with a national title for their stunt group, which my daughter is their main base on.

1:11:23Wow. They just did awards on Wednesday. I came here. So in the traveling world, you miss some core things that I'm not the biggest fan of, but I have a very amazing group of a community that I help run. No, I can see you being a cheer mom for sure. I'm 100% a cheer mom. I cheered and I coached. I also wrestled.

1:11:42So it's— but so she won. Center of the Year, and the coach also made it a point that she is the number one athlete. She's a sophomore on varsity. She's the number one athlete that is sought out by the D1 schools, and when they realize that she is a sophomore, they are absolutely like shocked because of her technique and her, her strength and just power.

1:12:08Does she know where she wants to go to school? Um, no, not right now. So she wants to be an attorney. But she also wants to work with psychopaths. So we're figuring— no, she wants to get in their brain. We're figuring it out. We are working on it. If you ask her, that is what she says. I remember in college, there's a lot of hot chicks in the psych classes.

1:12:30So I'm not saying your daughter's a hot chick. That's weird. That came out way too weird. I mean, she's absolutely beautiful, but that— whoa. I just remember also thinking that there were a lot of crazy people in psych classes. Oh, is that what it is? Because they're trying to understand themselves. Oh, that's kind of what I felt like. No, it was a freshman year only thing for me.

1:12:47I was like, I gotta get the fuck out of here. No, she, she does want to be an attorney. We actually— the neighbor for us is one of the top attorneys in our community for criminal defense. So, well, she can work with psychopaths that way. Yeah, dude, we hear some stories. Public defenders, man, but they got stories. So Cal Poly is actually interested interested unofficially because it's not appropriate for them to be interested in a sophomore.

1:13:11So we're clear, no rules are being broken. But she's— the cheer team get NIL money yet? Um, I don't know, but we actually did. So for our high school, they won the first division and the first state championship for the high school out of all sports. So we won the CIF state and division and section. And I mean, listen— You're not proud though, right?

1:13:37I'm fucking absolutely proud. I— when we were in Vegas, when our girls went on stage to perform, it was so loud. Not just because of the girls when they were cheering. The community— I shit you— our entire community. Somebody could have robbed our houses because everybody was there. I'm dead serious. Well, it's always in Vegas or Orlando for every— for all competitions.

1:14:02Okay, what's in Anaheim? Oh, there's a Disney in Anaheim too, isn't there? Yeah, there's a Disney in Anaheim, but we, we don't do that one anymore. Hey, in my junior program, the feeder program into the high school, they got grand champs. They do. We just spent 5 minutes talking about, uh, high school cheer. Um, I think that might be a first for Automotive Podcast and I started it.

1:14:23I started it by talking about my sister-in-law. So that was awesome. I got so excited about that too, though. So where is it? ATI Super Conference that you're going to? Yes. Where is it this time? Orlando. A couple of weeks after Cheer Comp. I thought they normally went to like, like Cabo or— It's West Coast, East Coast. So they've done it all over the place.

1:14:46This is— ATA is probably one of the oldest oldest partnerships I've been a part of. Um, but they've done it in Orlando, they've done it at Amelia Island, they've done it in Austin or San Antonio, they've done it Puerto Rico, Hawaii. Hawaii, they just said Hawaii. Yeah, I want to get behind that. You can do ASTA Expo in Hawaii. How can we make that happen?

1:15:10Yeah, I'll take that one. I've been to more ASTAs than you have. Yeah, you can sub me in. I'll teach you something. Pass the torch. No, no, no. All right, guys. Well, thanks for coming on. I really appreciate you taking the time, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Stacy. She's a rock star. It was great to— Oh, rock star.

1:15:31That's— we brought it all the way back. Rock star. Rock star Stacy. Rock star black. Let's go. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to make her a shirt. That is the most overused term to describe people in corporate America now though. Isn't there? There's a whole series of commercials spoofing that now with like actual rock stars and office settings. Super Bowl.

1:15:51Super Bowl. I was drunk by then. Copy. We'll have to brainstorm on that one still. Okay. Yeah. Well, in the meantime, now you know what Code Yellow and Code Red mean. Check, check. Thanks for listening to Confessions of Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out, the good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes.

1:16:14So 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 704-266-7026. 3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow.

1:16:39Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode. You know, I said just, uh, you know, I said just. 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.

1:17:28Tap the link in the show notes or scan the QR code on your screen to learn more. It's gonna be awesome.